Rouge the Bat (Sonic X)


 * For other uses of this character, see Rouge the Bat (disambiguation).

Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット) is a recurring character that appears in the anime series Sonic X and its comic series published by Archie Comics. She is a renowned jewel thief who worked as a government agent on Earth.

New World Saga
Rouge had been eavesdropping on Dr. Eggman when Sonic and his friends attacked his base to rescue Cream and Cheese and retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, but was caught up in the Chaos Control that resulted from damage done to the Doctor's device the Chaos Emeralds were in, sending her to Earth with everyone else. Rouge decided to focus her attention on her thievery skills, stealing valuable gems, and purposefully leaving her calling card behind after she escapes. Overhearing a plan by G.U.N. to lure Sonic into a trap via rumors of a Chaos Emerald to convince him to aid them against Dr. Eggman, Rouge went ahead and changed the sign, luring Sonic and his friends in the wrong direction while she fell into the trap and was caught by the waiting G.U.N. troopers, including a female agent named Topaz, who Rouge quickly got on the bad side of with her insults.

Meeting with the President, Rouge was granted immunity to her crimes and permission to keep all the gems she had taken if she agreed to aid G.U.N. on a stealth mission into Eggman's headquarters to map it out for a future attack on the base. Rouge agreed (if only to use the government to find the Chaos Emeralds), but since she was not fully trustworthy yet, she had a bomb attached to her wrist, so if there was the slightest hint of treachery from her, they would detonate it. However, Rouge proved herself by helping the commando team enter the base and explore it, but with dawn approaching, most of the commandos retreated, while Topaz remained with Rouge to continue the mission, running into E-70 Noizi, who alerted Eggman to intruders, and he sent E-12 Behemoth, E-13 Guardbot, and E-14 Sneezer to investigate. Rouge was unable to fight back thanks to Noizi's amplified siren reaching levels that even her sensitive bat ears could not handle, but when Rouge busted the bomb off her wrist and jammed it in Noizi's speaker, Topaz detonated the bomb, damaging Noizi long enough for Rouge to finish it off, before she grabbed Topaz and fled past Eggman before Noizi exploded completely.

Thanks to the intelligence that Rouge and Topaz collected during that mission, the President prepared the attack on Eggman's headquarters. While G.U.N. launched a frontal assault with naval and air forces, a commando team, including Topaz and Rouge, sneaked into the base to plant explosives in the Power Room. However, Eggman returned from going after a Chaos Emerald, and after chewing out Decoe and Bocoe for firing on him when they thought he was a G.U.N. aircraft, he sealed Topaz, Rouge, and the commando team in the Power Room with the explosives armed and ready to detonate in a few minutes. As Topaz gave up hope, Rouge attempted to bust the door down, soon aided by Knuckles. Luckily, Sonic, after defeating E-18 Guerra-Hard and getting its two Chaos Emeralds, broke the door down, allowing Knuckles, Rouge, Topaz, and the commando team to escape just in time before the explosives blew and wiped out Eggman's headquarters.

Chaos Saga
In Season 2, Rouge has become one of GUN's top agents.

Homebound Saga
At the end of the season in which Topaz and Rouge met, Rouge and the others were transported home. While Rouge said goodbye to Topaz, Topaz had a tear in her eye, remembering all the good times they had.

Metarex Saga
Rouge seemingly possess a locket belonging to Bokkun, Eggman's messenger robot. She usually pulls it out when Bokkun refuses to run errands for her, which convinces him to attend to her errands. (In the Japanese version, the inside of the locket shows a picture of Cream the Rabbit, which indicates that Bokkun has a crush on her.)

She battled against the Metarex in Season 3 with Doctor Eggman and released Shadow. She joins the good side and declared war on Eggman after Christopher Thorndyke was sent to Earth.

Personality
Rouge is an enigma whose voluptuous and daring attitude turns any man's head. Her policy though is that duty comes first, but she has a big interest in jewels. Her figure, speech and behavior masks her true identity. She is very secretive about everything and very little has actually ever been disclosed about her. She would often switch sides with either the good or bad to confuse them.

Powers and abilities
Rouge is one of the strongest female characters in the series. Swift and powerful, she has proved herself to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of physical abilities, having defeated several powerful foes on her own.

Rouge has significant amount of raw strength, especially the lower parts of body. Her kicking power has several times been able to match Knuckles' punches, though she at times struggles against some foes such like the Metarex. With her legs, Rouge can break up virtually anything, defeating a R-1/A Flying Dog with one strike, and destroy large parts of titanic robots. Her arms are fairly strong as well as she can carry the Master Emerald in both hands. By utilizing her wings, Rouge is as well capable of flight.

Rouge is a trained thief and a master of stealth. She has several times been able to follow Sonic without being noticed, snug unnoticed inside the Crimson Egg, and could lead a squadron of soldiers through Eggman's base without detection. Rouge is also very proficient in martial arts, enough to go up against Knuckles the Echidna hand-to-hand, and Amy Rose with her Piko Piko Hammer. She is also a renowned professional treasure hunter around the world.

Rouge has demonstrated proficient computer hacking skills as she was able to get access to the data on the Space Colony ARK. Rouge is also, like all the characters, able to survive the vacuum of space without oxygen.

Weakness
Being a bat, Rouge's hearing is much more sensitive than the average human. As such, she can be disabled with ultrasonic sound waves.

Shadow the Hedgehog
When Rouge first established the business transactions for helping Dr. Eggman and Shadow the Hedgehog find the Chaos Emeralds, she seemed oddly interested in Shadow and showed a fair amount of remorse in the final episode of the series, when staring at the empty capsule she'd found him in. Eggman actually notices this moment and says, "I can't believe it! You're worried about Shadow aren't you?". Rouge denies this, but after asking Eggman where he thinks Shadow might be, she suspects that he knows something that he's not telling her. Later in the series, Rouge accompanies Shadow, even after he decides to leave Eggman's team to go off on his own.

Knuckles the Echidna
The two are also rivals like in the games. However, their love interest in each other is more emphasized as the two have a few romantic conversations with each other which hinted their love in a few episodes. In episode 48, she actually calls him "handsome" as she was flying away to look for Chris, to which Knuckles smiles back. The 4Kids website mentions her crush on Knuckles, but Rouge refuses to admit it.

Amy Rose
They appear to hold some sort of rivalry and compete fiercely against each other in the Battle Tournament and she taunts Amy after defeating her.

Tails
She enjoys teasing him, and in the tournament arc of Sonic X she defeats him in battle by kissing him on the cheek.

Topaz
Topaz is Rouge's partner. Though at first the regimental Topaz disapproves of the scheming Rouge (who keeps calling her an old lady), the two become friends fast. Their main assignments involved striking at Eggman and locating the Chaos Emeralds as well as serving as envoys between Sonic and the government. Topaz said farewell to Rouge when she had to return to her planet, Rouge gave her a ring as a goodbye gift. This is quite unusual, as Rouge usually keeps any piece of jewelry she comes across. After Topaz sees Rouge step through the portal back to her home planet, Topaz has an out of character moment where she bursts into tears crying, as opposed to her usual tough and serious nature, suggesting there was a strong friendship between the two. In one episode, however, while Topaz was relaxing on the beach, she called Rouge who said to her that she'd prefer a cave as a vacation spot because she's a bat, and Topaz then understands why Rouge has such a dull social life.

Trivia

 * Rouge's theme song, "Mysterious and Sexy Thief Rouge" was first heard in Episode 11 which is basically a saxophone solo that usually plays when Rouge appears.
 * In some episodes, there are scenes where Rouge wears her GUN outfit. If one looks closely during these scenes, they will see that Rouge still has a cleavage line despite the fact that she is completely covered up.