Chapter 1: The Planned Heist

Based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise by Sega
Story request submitted to me by request of Arandomperson2567

A very wise woman on Earth once said, "You have to believe in yourself when no one else does—that makes you a winner right there."*1

If I wanted, I could try to put some stock in what that meant exactly, but then again, I never have the patience to put wisdom before my radiant beauty. My reason for this was that unlike her, I was not a tennis player… no, far from it, people.

Ever since I was 13 years-old, I have always been an occasional spy for hire working for G.U.N. (the Guardians of United Nations) and the United Federation, as well as a natural born jewel thief. As such, I am the best at what I do, though what I do best isn't very nice.*2 Naturally because of my hijinx, I won't deny I've had my share of, shall we say "hiccups".

"What do I mean by that?" you all ask me.

Allow me to explain…

There are times when I have come close to being sent up the river, but luckily, I have always gotten off the hook, until recently: It was roughly 3 to 4 months ago when I came close to losing the trust and friendships everyone gave me all because of one big score having gone awry. I had been framed for partaking in the said incident, but I believe that I was guilty until I was proven innocent.

Who am I? Why, I'm just a bat girl who loves just anything jewel related to a T. Gems, diamonds, emeralds, pearls, and so on—Rouge Thelma Batsheva*3 is my name, but many of you would know me better by my condensed name to the general public, friends and enemies alike as Rouge the Bat.

So what kind of heist was it? Pull up a chair and allow me to tell you my story.

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It was in the month of June of 3208*4 when I was relaxing in my apartment after a very difficult mission from G.U.N. To relieve my stress, I decided to take a nice hot bubble and Epsom salt bath to take my worries away from work when an advertisement appeared on my television.

"Attention all nerds," boomed an unseen announcer. "This July, the Mobius Convention Center (or the MCC for short)*5 will be hosting a Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers*6 on the Nintendo Switch*7 gameplay tournament!"

"Boring," I yawned, clearly not interested in a commercial that was not jewelry related.

The commercial went on, "Players 13 years-old and up, plus all gaming nerds are welcome!"

"Snores-ville." I murmured, rolling my eyes.

I was about to shut my eyes and relax by bathing when a few moments later at last my interest was piqued as a golden and jewel encrusted trophy was shown off on the big screen.

"And if you manage to outplay the rest, as well as play fair and square for two days," continued the host, "we will award this golden jewel encrusted trophy to the best video gamer who can finish in 1st place, fair and square! Should a tie transpire, we will host an extra day! So get tickets now to the MCC and partake in this once in a lifetime event before they're sold out!"

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Once the commercial had ended, and feeling so damn fascinated by the trophy's golden and jeweled appearance, I knew then and there that I had to have that trophy, no matter what as a big grin spread to my face.

There was just one major problem: I was not a bigtime video game player. I knew that I would need help from a special device that could (albeit temporarily) transform her personality into that of a nerd and video gamer.

When chance came, that's when I recalled some good news and some bad news about the situation I found out myself upon looking up such a device online—the good news was that I quickly discovered that such a device thankfully existed out there—but the bad news was that in order for me to acquire said device, I will need to steal, or rather "borrow", it.

The machine, as I quickly discovered, had been recently worked on and created by none other than everyone's favorite tech-savvy genius and double-tailed young kitsune himself, Miles "Tails" Prower, aka Sonic the Hedgehog's best friend.

That night, after purchasing my ticket to the MCC, as well as making hotel reservations for the week that was to come, I climbed into bed and decided I would pay that cute little vulpine myself first thing tomorrow, even though I knew he didn't trust me as far as he could throw me. Then again, few people scarcely did anyway.

"Why's that?" you all will ask me.

Well, considering all the countless times I tried to steal the Chaos Emeralds or whenever I attempted to take the Master Emerald from Knuckie, my reputation preceded me… but hey, can you blame me? A girl bat's gotta eat.

So how did my visit with Tails go? Join me soon in the next chapter and I will explain all of the juicy details.

Author's Notes:

• So that was the first of 5 chapters, let me know what you all think so far, especially you Arandomperson2567, as you're the one who suggested this story idea to me.
- As with all my stories, I own nothing except for the words I write.
• My reasoning for writing the story in the third person (aka Rouge's perspective) is because I wanted to try something new with my writing.
• Rouge the Bat and all other things related to the Blue Blur are owned and © by Sega.
• The aforementioned Street Fighter franchise is owned and © by Capcom.
• For those of you who are wondering which Sonic universe this takes place in, let's just say I see it as a mix between, the video games and the comics, with hints of the live-action films.

EASTER EGGS:

1: This quote was said by one of my favorite tennis players (despite me not being a big sports fan), Venus Williams.
• And looking back on the quote, she makes a good point on having faith, as well as what it means to be a winner when no one else believes in you.
2: This quote has been said by the X-Men's very own James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine, so I thought I'd do a homage to him here.
3: Rouge's full name has never been established in any Sonic canon, be it the games or Archie comics, so I thought I'd come up with one, especially seeing as the latter franchise gave Sonic the full name of Olgilvie "Sonic" Maurice Hedgehog.
• Rouge remains unaltered, Thelma comes from one of the two titular characters of the 1991 classic movie Thelma & Louise (which I have not yet watched, but I want to) and Batsheva comes from Bathsheba, King David's wife who was originally married to Uriah the Hittite, who was an elite soldier in the former's army before his death.
4: It is never said what year or timeframe the Sonic franchise takes place in the games time line.
• So I would presume modern day or somewhere thereof in the future… But who can say?
5: I was inspired by many convention centers to think up this name, especially the famous San Diego Comic-Con.
6: Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers is a Nintendo Switch exclusive video game that serves as the last (unless that changes) upgrade the beloved Street Fighter II video game series that came out in 2017.
7: The Nintendo Switch is a video game system created by Nintendo, as such, I am to be the proud owner of a Switch myself.

Until the next chapter, my fellow readers and gamers:
I'm M. R. Parkerson signing off…