The Hero and the Thief

(Caught but Forgiven)

Rouge was flying through the night sky over the bright lights of the city streets far below her. The jewel thief was on her way to the space center to steal the rare metal for Dr Eggman.

As she flew her communicator watch started to beep. She pushed a button and Eggman appeared on the small screen. "Hello Rouge, are you at the Space center yet?"

"I'm just about there" she answered him as the white bat saw the center down below ahead of her. "Good, good" said Eggman with a smile. "Be careful not to get caught now."

Rouge rolled her eyes as Eggman hung up She was wondering if doing a job for him was a good idea. The thought of her rare payment however silenced her better judgment. She flew down and landed on the roof of the building. The bat looked around and saw a ventilation duct. She walked over and quietly removed the grate and laid it on the ground.

Rouge then crawled into the vent and started to make her way inside the Space Center.

"This settle's it....I'm going on a diet. I'm getting too big for this." Rouge murmured to herself as her body felt a bit squished in the small vent which she usually didn't feel or notice.

As she kept crawling she saw a grate to the right and headed towards it. She looked through the small holes of the grate down to a large room which looked like a lab. "Bingo."

Rouge soon lowered herself down and landed on the lab floor with a light tap. She looked around at all the lap counters and equipment. "Hmmm, if I was a rare metal where would I be?"

Rouge kept looking around when she saw a medium sized safe near a corner. The bat walked over and knelt down on one knee in front of it and put her ear to the safe and started turning the safe combination lock. With a few turns and careful clicks the safe was soon unlocked.

"Ok let's see what we have in here." said Rouge as she looked in the safe. There were a few papers and documents but no rare metal. Rouge frowned a bit and closed the safe back up.

"Ok if it's not in a safe then where is it?" she said putting her hands on her hips. She looked around some more then saw a round metal object in a round glass container on one of the counters. Rouge raised an eyebrow as to why she didn't see that before.

The thief walked over and took the object out of the glass container. "I guess this is what he wants." Rouge put the light metal in a small pouch. "Hmmm I don't feel like going back the way I came..." Rouge walked out of the lab and peeked around a corner to see if there were any guards.

The coast was clear so she quickly but quietly made her way through the center and saw a window up above. "Perfect" she said with a smile. Just as she was about to fly up there the lights in the room came on.

Ngh..what the..!" Rouge said shielding her eyes and face with one of her wings from the sudden bright light. "Freeze thief!"

Once her eyes had adjusted she looked around and shocked to find 10 officers surrounding her. An officer took a step forward. "Rouge the Bat you are under arrest for breaking and entering"

Rouge stood her ground and narrowed her eyes at the cop. "Oh really...how did you know I was going to be here?" The cop chuckled a bit. "We got a tip from an unknown source that you would be paying a visit tonight."

Rouge narrowed her eyes a bit more and looked at the other cops slowly moving in to grab her. "Don't even think about it Rouge. We have you surrounded"

"Oh do you now?" she said with a sly smile. The bat then quickly pulled out a smoke bomb pellet and threw it down in front of her causing thick smoke to appear. "Quick grab her" said the lead cop. The offciers quickly sprang to the spot where Rouge had been standing. As they fought through the smoke Rouge was hovering over them.