As Rouge finally finished moving into her apartment, she realized she would need a job. She was ready to leave her life of crime behind. So she submitted a job application at the local CVS. Within a week, she had passed the interview and was hired!
But she soon realized working at CVS was pretty boring. All she did was work the cash register. The fact that most people paid with debit or credit cards anymore made it that much more dull and unappealing, seeing as she loved handling cash. But at least when no one was in the store she would get the chance to work on her latest device: a chaos emerald tracker.
Basically, her idea was to use the energy signature of the one chaos emerald she had in her possession to seek out the others. See, the chaos emeralds gave off a certain wavelength that nothing else on Earth possessed. They're basically like brothers and sisters that want to be united. Or perhaps more like magnets that are attracted to each other in spite of the distance.
As she stood at the front counter on her first day of the job, she thought back on her years of working with Dr. Robotnik. They were not pleasant. Not in the least bit. He had been mean and abusive. And yet, she couldn't deny that they had also been some of the most exhilarating years of her life. Never before had she felt so alive. It felt good to be naughty.
She thought back to when she first started working for him. The first two weeks he had her rob a few local convenience stores so he could have money to build his robots. But after that… there was a lapse in her memory. She couldn't for the life of her remember what had happened during that time. The harder she tried to remember the less she could. It left her with a sense of unease.
Rouge was assigned the opening shift at CVS, from 9 to 5. When the clock struck 2:00, she met a new fellow co-worker. He was of average height and had red hair. He gave off a friendly vibe and seemed to be happy to be there. His red polo shirt, required of all CVS workers, was tucked in neatly into his khaki pants, both of which had been ironed to perfection.
"Hi, I'm Adam! Welcome to the team!" he said as he extended his hand for Rouge to shake.
Rouge was taken back. Normally, humans shunned her, or worse, refused to even acknowledge her presence. But this particular human was different. He seemed genuinely happy to work with her. Although Rouge had normally been attracted to "bad boys," she thought this young man had a certain irresistible charm to him.
"Happy to be here," she responded, shaking his hand and flashing a shy smile. Her petite fangs peaked out from beneath her upper lip and a slight blush shaded her tan cheeks pink. Somewhat embarrassed of having shown her fangs to someone she had just met, she quickly stopped smiling.
"I've never worked with a mutant before," said Adam, "Glad to have you!"
"Thanks…" said Rouge, "I'm glad you don't seem to have a problem with me working here, in what would normally be considered a human job."
"Bah!" shouted out Adam, "This job is so easy a caveman could do it!"
"Are we in a Geico commercial?" asked Rouge, looking around for hidden cameras.
"No," said Adam, slightly putting his hand on Rouge's shoulder, "Look, if you need help with anything, please ask, okay?"
"Okay," said Rouge shyly.
Rouge chose to work full time, that is, 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday. She had the weekends off. She decided she would work during the day and dedicate her weeknights to putting the chaos emerald tracker together and researching the whereabouts of the remaining emeralds. Then, on the weekends, she would go hunting for them. She was excited to start this new chapter of her life.