“Hey, buddy, I’m going to step outside for a minute. Been hanging out indoors a bit too long I think.”
Not sure he even heard me, the little tech-head. Still, since I was confident he could probably last a bit longer before I’d eventually have to force him to take a rest, I moseyed out the front door, heading far enough away that it was doubtful he’d hear anything that was said, even had he been capable of tearing his attention away from his research long enough to listen. Unsurprisingly, and clearly confirming that I’d understood what she had intended, Rouge joined me on my little ‘walk’.
“You know what ‘stopping’ her is likely going to have to involve, don’t you, Sonic?”
“Eh, Rouge, we’ll see….”
I gave a little sidelong look at my friend, who, in divergence from how she usually played things, had become visibly upset.
“Sonic! The girl has nothing…and that’s because it was all taken from her!!”
Again, like with her earlier outburst, the level of passion Rouge was displaying was like nothing I could remember seeing from her before. It occurred to me that, despite having ‘known’ Rouge for a while now, I actually knew almost nothing about her. She was the most private, in her own way, of all my friends, and whenever a question would come up about her past, she’d deflect. But then, that was so much of her attitude in general that I hadn’t thought particularly much of it (and wasn’t the kind of guy who would want to pry anyways). Call it a gut feeling, but now I was beginning to suspect that she saw something of herself in our new and extremely troubled hedgehog acquaintance. But, apparently, my bat friend wasn’t done, though she had regained enough control of herself to no longer be shouting.
“Sonic, I know how much you probably don’t like the idea, but she’s clearly someone who's lost everything…and, if Tails is right and she is going after this ‘Eclipse Cannon’ and knows she can almost certainly make use of it at something like it’s full capacity, even if it kills her, more than just getting back at G.U.N., like we thought her goal might be…”
For a moment, Rouge paused, apparently having difficulty saying her next words.
“...she might be trying to ensure that everyone else loses everything too.”
And there it is, the reason Rouge and I were having this little walk. Because, really, what does an extremely angry hedgehog with, as Rouge was basically putting it, ‘nothing left to live for’ need with what was essentially a floating doomsday cannon, one that, if she couldn’t magically produce an impressive number of Chaos Emeralds, seemed like it might take her very life to power. It wasn’t like Shade hadn’t already proven she could trash G.U.N. bases whenever she felt like it, if that was all she really wanted. Honestly, if that was all it was, after reading and seeing everything I had tonight, I might have…waited a bit…before responding to the next base raid. Like, maybe I could fit it into my schedule next week, end of the month, tops.
Strangely, the one person I couldn’t really understand in all of this was the Eggman. It seemed like he could at least guess what Shade was probably really after, no matter what she might have told him her end goal was, or what she might have promised him he’d get out of helping her. I mean I had been sure he eventually planned to betray her, that’s just “Eggman 101,” but that he might be willing to play around with something like this was a bit much, even for him. The dude had a serious obsession with taking over the world that I’d never really gotten, but it hadn’t ever seemed like he’d be okay with just out and out…destroying it, if what Rouge and I suspected turned out to be Shade’s true goal.
In fact, I was just about to ask Rouge what she thought of that when I nearly tripped, but not because my foot had hit a rock or something. As much as I’d come to call and think of him as “Eggman” or “Dr. Eggman,” when I was feeling generous (and, man, am I ever thankful to my buddy Tails for coming up with such a funny, and annoying, nickname for the evil dude), I recalled that his actual name was “Dr. Ivo...Robotnik.” You know, the grandson of Dr. Gerald Robotnik and the cousin of Maria Robotnik…the ones who had been killed (or imprisoned and then killed) and otherwise basically hung out to dry by the current world government, most visibly represented by G.U.N.
Don’t get me wrong. He's an angry sleazeball bent on world domination…but…I might have…just had a bit of an insight into one of the reasons why he was an angry sleazeball bent on world domination. And, suddenly I was worried that, unlike all the other times, he might not just be biding his time (before, you know, inevitably stabbing his ‘ally’ in the back).
What if, instead, having finally met someone who, oddly enough, probably has more in common with him than anyone else on the planet, who, as bizarre as it was, may share something of the same pain he experiences (as hard as it was to imagine that someone like Eggman could ever really care about anyone else - but even I had trouble believing that he might not have felt anything about his grandfather and cousin and their fate), he decided Shade’s plan, if it was what we thought it might be, wasn’t such a bad idea?
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Sure, I doubted he would be willing to sacrifice his own life to accomplish something like that (he was “Eggman” after all), but it didn’t seem impossible to imagine that he might have decided he was just done with Earth. And, now that he had met someone who was possibly determined to throw her life away, if that’s what it took, to take down G.U.N. and the world that had so wronged the people she cared about (his relatives) along with her, he might just be willing to go along with it, and then head off to greener pastures.
It wasn’t like Earth was the only inhabited planet out there where he could get his world domination fix (I mean, hey, Mobian). If the reason he kept obsessively trying to take over Earth in particular, no matter how many times he failed, was mainly out of some kind of desire for revenge, then it seemed like this might ultimately be a good plan too.
After Shade and he used the Eclipse Cannon at full strength to have their revenge on Earth, he could then happily head off to a planet that didn’t have such inconveniently strong defenders, you know, not to brag, like, for example, strong defenders such as a certain blue hedgehog and his ‘annoying’ friends.…In fact, if Shade had what seems to be her way, there wouldn’t even any longer likely be a certain blue hedgehog and his ‘annoying’ friends for Eggman to worry about any longer….This was suddenly making too much sense.
Meanwhile, I could see that Rouge had been a bit surprised by my near faceplant.
“You alright there, Blue? While I certainly don’t expect your green peepers to be nearly as impressive as mine, I thought you could a handle a little bit of darkness when I dragged you away from fox boy for this little ‘walk’.”
“Eh, sorry, Rouge. I was distracted for a moment there….” Well, I might as well ask. Hopefully, she’d just tell me the idea was totally crazy. It had to be, right?
“...Say, do you think that Eggman knows what Shade might actually be trying to do? And, maybe is even trying to help her to actually do it, rather than, you know, kick her to the curb when he’s gotten what he wants from her. You know, his usual.”
Rouge looked at me incredulously, clearly about to tell me I was an idiot (you know, just what I wanted to hear - well, this one time - Still thinking of you, Dr. Eggman) before seeming to freeze.
“Damnnn…” Okay, not what I wanted to hear. “...I can actually see that now.”
It looked like Rouge was having her own version of my earlier epiphany, and whatever faults Rouge might have or at least want other people to believe about her…I knew she wasn’t an idiot.
“When I began to realize what dark and moody might be really up to, thanks to fox boy. Have to tease him a little bit less later for that extra bit of homework…” Yeah, Rouge. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled at that reward. We might as well end our conversation and head back now to tell him about the amazing prize he’d won. “...I’d been hoping we could at least count on Dr. Tubby betraying her before she got that far. Wouldn’t have expected it to mean much though, because, damn, broody’s definitely a badass, and I’d more than half expect she’s smart enough that she’d manage to betray him first somehow. But, now, with what you’ve pointed out to me, Blue, I believe it’s possible they might be working together, as in, actually working together, like you said, at least as much as Tubby can manage to do something like that. Damnnn…this could complicate things more than I had expected….”
It seemed I’d lost Rouge for a moment here, as I could almost see her mind working through the implications of Eggman actually cooperating with someone, and, moreover, someone who possessed Shade’s obvious power and special knowledge and clearly extreme determination to accomplish her goals. I think, now that we’d both admitted to ourselves that it was a possibility, we could tell that this was…not…good….
Suddenly, it seemed like Rouge had come to another conclusion because, after a decisive nod, she turned her attention back to me.
“Well, thanks for the company, Blue. This amazing (and amazingly attractive) lady suddenly has some things she needs to take care of. Though, be sure to let me know when fox boy figures out broody’s next target. Ciao.”
And with that unexpectedly swift goodbye, she quickly scaled a nearby tree and flew off into the night. Well, actually, by now it had managed to become early morning, if the glow on the horizon was any indication. Man, it was probably about time to head back and force my little buddy away from his research and into bed.
If I needed to, I’d threaten him with Amy to do it. It was clear she viewed my friend much like the little brother she never had, and was always concerned about his health or trying to dote on him whenever she got the chance (much to his annoyance). He’d know what her reaction would be if I told her he’d been staying up all night working on a project (again) and that she’d shortly be at our home personally dragging him off to bed…and then making sure he stayed there….For such an otherwise sweet girl….
Well, hopefully he’d be smart enough not to make me use the ‘Amy’ option. And, honestly, I could benefit from being a bit more rested myself…because, unfortunately, I think we were both going to need all of the advantages we could get.