Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Security breach at Gate 3!

The red lights flashed, the sirens blared, the emergency broadcast called for maximum security, but the intruder kept making his way forward, his goal only a few armored doors away. As the emergency message clamored through the static-buzzing speakers, he shot a few rounds of homing missiles from his mech to clear his path from any pesky defense robots he encountered.

The man laughed as every missile hit their target with absolute precision. "That was all too easy," he boasted aloud, hardly caring if anyone heard or not. Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik had a flair for the dramatic and enjoyed putting on a show, even if he himself was the only spectator.

Prison Island was a top-notch holding facility, equipped with state of the art technology and the recipient of an extraordinary amount of government funding, with the single purpose to ensure that no one made it in or out… but they never counted on the brilliance of Dr. Eggman and his creations. It really had been too easy for the man to break in and bypass countless security measures with guns blazing, so easy that it might have been boring.

But, luckily, nothing could truly be boring when one was driving a mech and about to uncover one of their family's greatest secrets.

"Let's see what my grandfather was working on," Eggman continued as he drove his mech forward. "A top secret military weapon! The military shut down the research because they feared it!" The thought made his gut clench with excitement, and he leapt forth, deeper into the compound.

Eggman had a deep respect for his grandfather. Gerald Robotnik had made something so powerful, so sinister that the government had to interfere and shut it down, at a high cost in both money and in lives. It was all covered up, as even more money exchanged hands and even more lives were tossed aside, and now, almost no one knew a thing about what had happened fifty years ago. However, Eggman was a persistent man. He knew how to get information and when to get his hands dirty. His grandfather had made the ultimate weapon, and now Eggman would be the one to find it, restore it, and use it.

His fight through the prison was long and tedious; security drones were everywhere, there were multiple doors to slow him down, and the compound was like a labyrinth, with twists and turns, ups and downs, but Eggman was determined to claim his birthright. This was Robotnik family research. This was a Robotnik weapon. It belonged to him, and he would be just as renown as his grandfather in notoriety… or maybe he'd just take over the world entirely. Build his empire as he had always dreamed. His future hinged on his success here in this base, and so he made sure he got to where he needed to go.

As he found himself in front of the Level 7 door, he mentally congratulated himself on overstocking on missiles. It may have made his mech heavier, but at least he could count on blasting his way there and back with no problems.

The armored doors slid open, and Eggman made his way inside with a triumphant little cackle. He moved forward, the mech's large metal feet clanging against the floor, up to a digital console that housed all the answers he was looking for. "So this is the military's top secret weapon?" he mused, scratching at his head. "It's a lot smaller than I expected."

Then again, his grandfather was brilliant. He could probably have found a way to fit a doomsday device into thimble if he wanted to. Eggman observed the console again. What a pity that such genius had to waste away down here, gathering dust because even the military was too afraid to use it.

Eggman wasn't afraid, and that was what made him better than the rest. With that in mind, he booted the device up, and was met with a login screen.

"Enter user data… enter password…"

He knew it, of course. It was a short one, a name that had been drilled into his head since he was old enough to think and remember. A name that still, despite his best efforts, left a bad taste in his mouth and a sense of unease in his soul.

"The password is… M-A-R-I-A." His fingers hit the holo-projected keys as he spelled it aloud, and it was accepted instantly. Red lights shifted to green, and now he just needed to complete the final step. "All I have to do is place this Chaos Emerald into this console." He took out the treasure, spinning it slowly between his fingers, not quite eager to let go of such a powerful artifact but knowing that it was the only thing with enough power to unlock the weapon waiting for him. The cyan emerald glinted softly as the projected lights refracted off of it, and Eggman shuddered in anticipation as he placed it into the machine, waiting for it to start up and reveal its secrets.

For several agonizing seconds, nothing happened at all, and Eggman wondered if maybe fifty years had left the technology in such a sorry state that it no longer functioned, rendering his whole mission moot. The thought made his blood freeze with fear and then boil with rage.

But then, the lights dimmed, and a pillar rose slowly from the ground up, higher and higher until the doctor's neck ached from craning it so far back. He let out a chuckle of anticipation, fists clenching so hard that he felt his fingernails start to dig through the fabric of his gloves.

What was it? What was it what was it what was it going to be?

He heard the sound of something unlocking, and the hiss of gas as it exited its chamber. A shuffle. A few cracks. Then a figure walked to the edge of the pillar, looking down at him.

Short. Oddly shaped. Definitely not human. Eggman grew frustrated as he realized what this likely meant.

"Who are you? One of Sonic's friends, here to thwart my plans?"

Instead of replying, the figure jumped off of the pillar, much to his surprise, but large black wings stretched out, allowing them to safely glide downward before black boots touched the ground, and Eggman was staring into a pair of hard, crimson eyes.

Most definitely not one of Sonic's friends.

"Who are you?" he demanded, and the figure jumped up onto the barrel of his mech's cannon, crouching to get a better look at him. There was a glint of vague familiarity in those unsettling eyes, but it was quickly replaced by confusion, then anger, then absolutely nothing.

The mobian readjusted herself 一 likely a 'her', if those eyelashes were anything to go by 一 so that she was sitting more comfortably. She was a bat, with gleaming white fur that tumbled down to her shoulders, streaked with red, and a tan muzzle that sported a neutral frown. Her eyelids were similarly red, a shade or two darker than her eyes and stripes. She was clad in a simple gray jumpsuit, one that looked familiar, though Eggman was unable to place exactly where he had seen it before. There was an insignia on the left arm, but in that lighting, at that angle, it was impossible to see what it was. White gloves covered her forearms to her fingertips, and a pair of shiny golden rings clamped down over her wrists. Her wings folded back into a more relaxed position as she kicked her feet, swinging them back and forth as she tried to get herself comfortable.

"I am Rouge," she finally said, surprising him with the frankness of her answer. "Since you were the one to release me from my prison, I suppose that puts me in your service."

Eggman regarded her, intrigued. "A minion?" he asked, noting the way her ear twitched at the term.

"I would prefer the word 'aide' or 'assistant', if you don't mind."

The request was polite, but the tone was dangerous. That was fine; it was an easy enough request to follow.

"Well then, Rouge, what exactly can you assist me with?"

Her eyes blinked once, but aside from that, her face betrayed no emotion. "Do you need a demonstration of my power?"

As if on cue, a heavy armed combat walker made its way into the room they were in. Eggman's fingers flew to the controls on his mech, but a hand grabbed his wrist in a grip so painful, the doctor wondered if his bones would snap.

"Leave it to me," Rouge commanded. "Then you will understand the power I possess."

She leapt away, soaring through the air toward their attacker, and Eggman sat back, nursing his wrist in his other hand, anger bubbling below his skin at having been handled and bossed around like that.

But as he watched her fight, darting through the air faster than he could keep up with, perhaps as fast as Sonic himself, twisting and turning, dodging and weaving, all until a few high powered kicks left the attacking machine in a smoking heap, his anger faded and turned into amazement.

This… this had to be the weapon his grandfather had created. This bat, whose kicks could break through metal, whose agility was beyond compare, whose speed rivaled that of his greatest enemy…

It was her.

As she turned back to him, he was tempted to clap, if it wasn't for his aching wrist. Oh well. That one was her own fault.

"Taking down that guard robot was spectacular," he praised instead. "So you're the military's top secret weapon?"

Rouge didn't respond, but she didn't need to. Eggman had seen enough.

"Very well, I accept your assistance. What can you offer me?"

"Bring me more Chaos Emeralds," she replied, dashing over his head and plucking the one in the console out of the machine. Eggman moved to grab it from her, too used to pesky mobians running off with the emeralds, but she placed it in his hand without a second glance. "I'll be waiting for you in the central control room on the space colony ARK."

"ARK?" he echoed in amazement. There was no doubt about it anymore; Rouge truly was his grandfather's creation.

He watched her go, her wings extending, flapping once, twice, before she jumped up and fled the room. He glanced down at the Chaos Emerald in his grasp and grinned, chuckling lowly.

How very interesting, indeed...