Rouge the Bat/History and appearances

Early life
Not much is known of Rouge's origins or past, though at some point she gained an obsession with jewels and became a treasure hunter. She also joined the Guardian Units of Nations as an undercover agent, and was paid for her services with gems and other riches. She gained possession of the blue Chaos Emerald at some point.

Sonic Adventure 2
At some point, Rouge learned of the Master Emerald and went after it, hoping to steal it from Knuckles the Echidna. She was seen arguing with Knuckles over it as she tried to convince him to "just let it go". Their argument was interrupted when the notorious Dr. Eggman, whom Rouge had heard of but never seen, arrived to take the Emerald for himself—which didn't go as planned, as Knuckles jumped up and smashed it. This prompted both Knuckles and Rouge to find all of the shards before the other did. However, just prior to beginning her search, Rouge apparently placed a tracker on the Eggmobile, which enabled her to later locate his pyramid base.

After finding three Emerald shards in Dry Lagoon, Rouge headed for the Egg Quarters, where she sent a message to the President's secretary through some sort of device apparently concealed in her glove. Finding three keys to enter Eggman's computer room, she discovers his space transporter, which is set to the Space Colony ARK Rouge had heard about. Using the machine, she heads for the central control room of the ARK. When she arrives, she strikes a deal with the Doctor and Shadow the Hedgehog: if he gives her his Emerald detector to the Master Emerald shards, then she would give him the blue Chaos Emerald she had found and would help him obtain the others, three of which she knew their locations. Around this time, she begins to investigate the Ultimate Lifeform and Project Shadow.

On Prison Island, Rouge steals three of the Emeralds after breaking into Security Hall. However, a guard robot appears and the vault is sealed, leaving her trapped in the building as Eggman's bomb is about to go off. Fortunately, she manages to destroy the robot, and is saved just in time by Shadow, who used Chaos Control. Back on the ARK, they threaten the world with the Eclipse Cannon, giving the President twenty-four hours to surrender the United Federation to the Eggman Empire, or else they would destroy the country.

Rouge was later supposed to try and guard the ARK from the intruders (Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles) after Eggman failed to stop them (and ended up having to get out of the mess he got himself into) but instead started snooping around about the Ultimate Lifeform for the President. Later she discovered that Knuckles' stash of the Master Emerald Shards had accidentally been jettisoned into space, and used the opportunity to try to complete the Master Emerald. However, shortly after finding them, she encountered Knuckles at a Space Structure Planetoid and dueled with him for the Emerald Shards. However, her recklessness gets the better of her and she nearly falls into a pit of lava, where she is saved by Knuckles. They have an intimate moment before Rouge pulls her hand away from him and offers some bashful remarks. In the end, she gives him the Emerald Shards, claiming that "they stink like echidnas do", and takes off.

She continues to assist Shadow and Eggman, until she is revealed by Shadow to be a secret agent working for G.U.N., who also stops Rouge from taking the Emeralds from the Eclipse Cannon shortly after overhearing her plans. However, Eggman, while attempting to activate the Eclipse Cannon, unknowingly activates a crash sequence that was secretly programmed into the ARK's main computer. Rouge comes to Sonic and Knuckles to tell them the grave news after learning what was going to happen from the President (although Knuckles initially thought she was attempting to regain the Master Emerald when she arrived). She then read up on Gerald Robotnik's diary after Dr. Eggman supplied it to them, deducing this was the reason Eggman released Shadow from Prison Island. She also comes up with the idea to use the Master Emerald to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds in the Cannon Core, using knowledge she gained from Knuckles during their first encounter. When working together with the others (barring Shadow, who was content with letting the ARK collide with Earth) to access the Cannon Core, Rouge was tasked with draining the liquid into the core area, to allow Knuckles to access the final door to the core. Rouge cheers Sonic and Shadow on during the final battle to save the earth from the Biolizard, and is given Shadow's gold ring by Sonic after his supposed death. She is seen telling Knuckles that she is going to change her treasure-hunting ways; a promise she doesn't sustain.

Sonic Heroes
In Sonic Heroes, Rouge is the flight member (and presumptive captain) of Team Dark, as the player can have the ability to fly when they play as her. Sneaking into one of Eggman's bases in hopes of finding secret treasure, she is surprised to see an unconscious Shadow in a stasis pod. As she proceeded to unlock the stasis pod, she accidentally activated E-123 Omega and the robot attacked the entire base attempting to destroy all of Eggman's robots/androids, including Shadow, who Omega assumed is a robot android. Rouge stopped Shadow and E-123 Omega from fighting and suggested that they work together as a team to find Eggman (also learning that Shadow had developed amnesia). She wears a different outfit than in Sonic Adventure 2, sporting a more futuristic pink-and-purple design with the heart motif on her belt rather than her chest. As the trio arrived at a city, Rouge spotted Team Chaotix whom she accused of trying to take Eggman's treasure themselves before their battle against them. Her only objective in the game is to find Eggman's "treasure", which turned out to be a huge room with thousands of capsules containing Shadow's clones. Upon this discovery, she attempted to inform Omega that the Shadow accompanying them was likely to be an android made in the original's likeness, but decided against it, although Omega deduced enough about what she was about to say and informed her that the original Shadow had to exist if the Shadow Androids are present.

Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, Rouge is one of the most prominently-featured characters in the game, with her story being the third to be played through. She is the owner of Club Rouge, a casino in the Night Babylon' area of Story mode. During the story, when Sonic lent control of the Gizoid, Emerl to her, she trained him to be the ultimate jewel thief. Most of her fighting techniques appear to be derived from kickboxing. Her special attacks include sending a round bat that blows up towards her enemies, a powerful kick and sending what appears to be a ball of sonar energy into her opponents.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Rouge also appears in Shadow the Hedgehog, appearing as a hero partner to Shadow in three stages. The canonicity of these stages' events is very vaguely defined.

Digital Circuit
In Digital Circuit, Rouge is acting on GUN's behalf attempting to secure the Chaos Emerald located in its mainframe from the Black Arms.

Death Ruins
During the events of Death Ruins she appears alongside other GUN soldiers fighting the Black Arms as they escape the area. Regardless of whether Shadow chooses to assist Rouge, Black Doom, or neither, the Black Bull is summoned to attack Shadow after a brief conversation with Doom's Eye, on which Rouge eavesdrops. She assists Shadow in the fight.

GUN Fortress
In GUN Fortress, Rouge tries to secure the Emerald located deep in the base. Unlike Digital Circuit, she appears not to be working directly with GUN's orders as she remarks that despite her high authority, she has been denied clearance to the inner base. If Shadow sides with Black Doom, Rouge is not seen as the following boss and ending involve Sonic and Diablon. If assists Rouge, she aids him in fighting Black Doom but makes no appearance in the following ending.

The Last Way
In the Last Story, Rouge appears alongside many other characters on the Black Comet implied to be intending to confront Black Doom before she is subdued. Shadow fights through the Black Comet and duels with Devil Doom, during which he receives advice from Rouge. She latter appears in a city with her allies watching as Super Shadow destroys the Black Comet with the Eclipse Cannon.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
In Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge appears as an "Amigo" character, playable in stages White Acropolis, Kingdom Valley, Flame Core and Tropical Jungle. She first appears escaping Eggman's base with Shadow after stealing the Scepter of Darkness as part of a mission from GUN. After escaping, Rouge and Shadow go to Kingdom Valley to find the GUN rendezvous point, however they are ambushed by Eggman and the Scepter is broken after a struggle. Mephiles the Dark emerges from the broken scepter and is reborn in Shadow's shadow and sends the two into the future. Rouge then teams up with Sonic and his friends to find two Chaos Emeralds that enable them to return to their own time. Rouge returns to the present alone and realizes that Shadow has stayed in the future. Rouge then goes about finding E-123 Omega and sends him to help Shadow.

Rouge eventually finds that Omega and Shadow have found a way back from the future and so teams up with them once again to find Mephiles, Omega confesses that he betrays Shadow in the future and that one day the whole world will turn against him. Rouge assures her friend that "even if he believes everyone in the world will turn against him, she will always remain by his side". Rouge then helps Shadow, along with Omega, to try to defeat Mephiles and seal him in the new Scepter of Darkness. However this attempt does not work because Mephiles is using Shadow's form. Thanks to Shadow, the trio then defeat all of Mephiles' clones only to find out later than Mephiles actually escaped. She later helps the rest of the crew save Sonic.

Sonic Rivals
Rouge mainly appears in Shadow's story in Sonic Rivals. When she communicates with Shadow about what she discovered about Eggman, the transmission cuts off. Much later, when Eggman Nega (who is disguised as Eggman and took the picture of Rouge with his camera turning her into a card) threatens to take a picture (and trapping it) with his camera, the mad scientist is ultimately defeated and Rouge is freed from her card. Rouge appears in some of the 150 collectible cards.

Sonic Rivals 2
Rouge appears as a playable character in Sonic Rivals 2. During the storyline she worked with Knuckles the Echidna, her rival, to find the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds. To do so, she stole Eggman's emerald detector to find them. She and Knuckles found themselves having to battle with other rivals and Eggman Nega (unknown to the duo, he is disguised as Eggman) in order to find the Chaos Emeralds while Knuckles was unable to find the Master Emerald. Rouge found six emeralds which opened a portal to another dimension. Rouge was dragged into the portal by Knuckles, leading to her finding herself separated from Knuckles in another dimension. When she found Knuckles, she saw that his mind was being controlled by the Ifrit, a big fire monster that could destroy the world. Rouge managed to defeat the Ifrit and saved Knuckles, she then found the emerald detector destroyed and saw the Master Emerald inside it. The two returned to their own dimension. Knuckles took the Master Emerald but was then distracted when Rouge calls him dashing, giving her enough time to take the Emerald from his grasp and run from the scene.

Sonic Free Riders
In Sonic Free Riders, Rouge, along with Shadow, decided to enter the World Grand Prix in Extreme Gear as Team Dark. Rouge, however, was only interested in the large cash prize and treasure that was given to the winners of the tournament.

As the World Grand Prix had started, Rouge and Shadow were fifteen minutes late to the opening ceremony. When they arrive, Omochao complained about their tardiness, but Rouge told Omochao that she and Shadow were only here for the award. Discontent with the rule that three members are required in one team, but accepting of them, Rouge asked Omochao if he wanted to a part of her team, but he refused. Rouge then spotted a E-10000B robot and gets him to join her team.

In their first race, Team Dark was put up against Team Babylon and were victorious. In the next race, Team Dark went up against Team Heroes. During their races, E-10000B began to wear down from overheating and Rouge displayed some teasing doubt for her robotic teammate. As Tails began to worry about E-10000B's condition, Rouge insisted to continue the race. Eventually, Team Dark defeated Team Heroes which led to them finals against Team Rose.

As Team Dark was just one race away from winning against Team Rose, E-10000B began to reach critical levels. Team Rose berated Rouge for treating a teammate like that, but Rouge brushed off their comments, as she believed that E-10000B was just a machine, and insisted on continuing the race. After winning against Team Rose, Rouge and Shadow left the tracks and hurried over to the Grand Prix Headquarters and stole the cash purse and treasure from there, before taking their leave. When Omochao found them, Rouge told him that since they had earned the prize, she had gotten what she came for and saw better use of her time than wasting it on the award ceremony. Rouge was, however, surprised to hear from Omochao that what they had taken was just dummy drops for display and that the real prize was locked away in a safe, and they had to attend the award ceremony to receive it.

As the World Grand Prix proceeded, Team Dark received their own fair share of defeats. During these races, Rouge displayed her general confidence to the opposing team that she and her team would win the grand prize, while mocking their efforts, only to be defeated each time. Despite this, Rouge is impressed by their opponents' skills.

Near the end of the World Grand Prix, Team Dark and the other teams came down with an equal amount of victories, and Rouge, with the rest of her team, came to the award ceremony to collect their prize. Once there, however, Rouge and the others were told by Dr. Eggman (under his alias King Doc) that they had one more race against his Gear-jockey robots. As she was heading out to the track, Rouge was surprised to find E-10000B, whom she had thought was out of commission. After the race, Eggman then revealed himself and announced that that he had been collecting all the data on the racers in the Grand Prix with his E-10000 to make the ultimate Extreme Gear that he could use for his own agenda and challenged Rouge and the others to a race. After beating Eggman, Rouge noticed that E-10000B looked a little shaky, but then Metal Sonic revealed himself as the one controlling E-10000B and passing fake data to Eggman.

Rouge and the others watched as Metal Sonic challenged Sonic the Hedgehog to a race, in which Sonic soundly defeated his robot copy. Afterwards, it was revealed that Eggman never had any prize to give to the winners of the World Grand Prix, but Rouge remarked that she would be lying if she had said that she had not seen this coming.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Rouge appears as a playable character in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. She is the fourth person to join Sonic's group and is assigned by the GUN Commander as a "contact" of the organization. When the group reaches the Kron Colony it is revealed that Rouge was sent by GUN to gather some Nocturnus technology. The player can choose to help her by obtaining various amounts of Nocturnus Tech. Her overworld abilities allow her to fly (better so than Knuckles but worse than Tails and Cream) and the Stealth ability—one that she shares only with Shade. In battle, she has low attack power and low armor, but gets to attack twice per round. She can weaken, distract and even steal items from her foes.

Sonic Colors (DS)
Rouge appears in an extra mission in Starlight Carnival in the DS version of Sonic Colors. She tricked Knuckles into coming to Eggman's theme park, much to Knuckles' dismay but for unknown reasons.

Sonic Generations
In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, Rouge attended and helped prepare Sonic's surprise birthday. As the party started, however, the Time Eater suddenly appeared and Rouge was sucked into one of the Time Eater's Time Holes and ended up in the White Space, where she was turned into a statue due to the Time Eater's effects.

Eventually, Rouge was returned to normal by Sonic and Classic Sonic. When the Sonics confronted the Time Eater, which was revealed to be controlled by Dr. Eggman and Classic Eggman, Rouge arrived at the battle with the others and cheered on both Sonics, allowing them both to transform into Super Sonics. When the Sonics defeated the Time Eater, Rouge and the others were sent back to the present. Continuing with the celebration, Rouge later waved goodbye to Classic Sonic and Classic Tails when they returned to their own world.

Sonic Jump (2012)
In Sonic Jump (2012), Rouge and co. discovered that Eggman had begun kidnapping Animals again and taking them high into the sky, prompting the heroes to set out to stop Dr. Eggman's operations. Whenever they managed to corner Eggman in a Zone and defeat him however, the doctor would retreat to another Zone, although not before capturing more Animals. After Eggman's defeat in Mechanical Zone however, the doctor would crash down to Earth, ending his plans, thus allowing Rouge to reunite with all the Animals.

Sonic Forces
In Sonic Forces, Rouge and her team received a report regarding one of Dr. Eggman's bases which was too protected given its location in an area with no strategic value. This prompted the team to launch a reconnaissance mission. While E-123 Omega went ahead, Rouge prepared to bring in Shadow as backup, only to learn over the radio that Omega had begun an all-out attack on Eggman's base. A peeved Rouge tried to Omega to wait for Shadow after he had rushed into the base. However, Omega ignored her and pressed onwards, much to Rouge's annoyance. Contacting Shadow and bringing him up to speed, Rouge began guiding him towards Eggman's base, during which she and Shadow lost contact with Omega. Rouge eventually lost contact with Shadow as well, but managed to reconnect with him in time to warn Shadow that the facility he was in was about to explode, thus allowing Shadow to withdraw in time.

About a month later, Rouge informed Shadow of Eggman's massive assault on the City. Rouge initially thought that Sonic had it under control, but she changed her mind after Sonic was defeated (and seemingly killed) by Eggman's new henchman, Infinite. With Sonic gone, Eggman began taking over the world with his army. Eventually, Rouge became the spy for the Resistance, a rag-tag freedom fighting group formed by Sonic's friends to counter the Eggman Empire. However, the Resistance was unable to do much against the Eggman Empire, who eventually gained dominion over more than 99% percent of the planet.

After six months of warfare, Rouge discovered that Sonic was alive and being held captive onboard the newly-rebuilt Death Egg. Relaying this to the Resistance, Knuckles began planning a rescue. Rouge soon after brought some bad news to her team: Eggman, who had caught wind of their rescue, had dropped his plans about keeping Sonic alive to see his completed empire and was now getting ready to banish him into space. Fortunately, the Resistance rescued Sonic in time and get him home.

Rouge soon after detected two lifeforms in Mystic Jungle, prompting the Resistance to sent the Avatar to investigate them. The readings turned out to be Tails and Classic Sonic (the latter having been brought to Rouge's dimension by Eggman's new power). When these two joined the Resistance, they revealed Eggman had a plan for wiping them all out ready in three days. When Shadow later joined the Resistance, it was revealed that Rouge had been helping him gather intel on Infinite's power and his ability to create the replicas that made up Eggman's army. While later gathering intel for Shadow, Rogue discovered that Eggman's database was housed in Chemical Plant, prompting Tails and Classic Sonic to check it out in hopes of finding a clue on how to stop Eggman's Phantom Rubies, which had been foiling the Resistance at every turn. Thanks to Rouge's lead, the Resistance discovered that they could stop the Phantom Rubies by taking out their power source: the Death Egg. Rouge later watched the Death Egg's destruction from the Resistance HQ when they managed to blow it up it, and would subsequently confirm that the Rubies had become weakened as a result. However, while Rouge helped capture Metropolis, the Resistance discovered that Eggman had a backup reactor for his Phantom Rubies underneath the Eggman Empire Fortress.

With less than an hour before Eggman put his endgame into effect, Rouge and the Resistance launched one final attack on Eggman's tower in hopes of stopping the Phantom Rubies. As they fought their way through the army of replicas, Omega came to their rescue when Infinite got ready to finish them off. It was then, however, that Infinite launched Eggman's endgame: using his Phantom Ruby, he got ready to drop a sun on the Resistance and kill them all. Fortunately, the Avatar was able to neutralize Infinite's sun in the last second using a Phantom Ruby prototype. This allowed Rouge and the rest to resume the fight on the battlefield while Sonic and the Avatar destroyed Infinite and the Phantom Rubies' reactor. Eggman, however, had foreseen this and his used his original Phantom Ruby in conjunction with his Death Egg Robot to create thousands of replicas to overwhelm Rouge and the rest with. Fortunately, Sonic, the Avatar and Classic Sonic beat Eggman and destroyed his robot, which made the replica army vanish and left the Resistance as the victors.

After watching Classic Sonic return to his own dimension now that the Phantom Ruby was gone, Rouge set out with Sonic to rid the world of all traces of Eggman's reign. At a last meeting in the HQ, Knuckles disbanded the Resistance as the Avatar announced their departure. Rouge in particular praised the Avatar for their effort while teasing Omega about his late arrival. The friends then agreed with Tails that even though they were going back to their old lives, they would be friends forever and keep working together to restore the world.

Sonic Riders
In Sonic Riders, Rouge appears as a playable character that can be used in Free Races. She can be unlocked after clearing the Hero storyline. In this game, she is a Flight Type character, and the strongest flight-type character (after Wave), and her default Extreme Gear is the Temptation. She also has her own unique variety of attacks. Accordingly, she is participating in the World Grand Prix in order to win the Chaos Emeralds. The official website also states that Rouge has some kind of rivalry with Wave the Swallow.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Rouge appears as a playable character. She can be unlocked after clearing the Heroes storyline. Like in Sonic Riders, her default Extreme Gear in this game is the Temptation. She also has her own unique attack that she can execute when obtaining an Attack.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Rouge appears in the game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games as a boss in Festival Mode that the player may compete against, as well as Jet, Omega, and Eggman Nega. She is the boss of the figure skating event, and after beating her, the player can buy her costume, which gives Rouge stats to the selected Mii. Rouge also appears in the DS Adventure Tours working for Mario and Sonic to find stolen objects from the museum for White Stones. However, she will still challenge the group to a Figure Skating match since Bowser and Dr. Eggman bribed her with a huge amount of White Stones. Rouge will help recover the next Snow Spirit from Eggman and Bowser after her defeat and continue working for Mario and Sonic.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Rouge later returns in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games as a rival in London Party Mode. This time, the player competes against her in 110m Hurdles. The Rouge costume with her stats for the selected Mii also returns where it easily be purchased through Blank Exchange in Bonus Mode. In the Nintendo 3DS version she is fought by Peach in Hyde Park, strangely saying she was going to trap her and the others (Amy, Daisy and Blaze) in the fog. After she is defeated, she claims to have no memory of what she's been doing. She then leads them to the Fog Machine and Blaze destroys it. The last thing she remembers is being in the British Museum looking at the art and artifacts there when the room was filled with fog. She then remembers breathing some in (mind-controlling her) and after that nothing except someone, Eggman, telling her to trap them in the fog. She then stays with them and helps clear the fog coming from Big Ben.

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Rouge appears again in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, in the Legends Showdown mode, only this time, for an unknown reason, alongside Dr. Eggman Nega and Dry Bowser as a final boss (it's possible that she was brainwashed or coerced by the two). She challenges everyone to a game of Winter Sports Champion Race in exchange for the trophy; her and her teamates are ultimately defeated.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Rouge appears as a playable character in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In the 3DS version, she is only playable in the new event Golf, and in the Wii U version, she is seen playing Beach Volleyball with Blaze the Cat, who she has a special victory animation with.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Rouge appears as a collectible Sticker:

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Rouge appears as a trophy:

Sonic Dash
In Sonic Dash, Rouge makes an appearance as a playable character. In this game, she can be unlocked by paying up 75 Red Star Rings. During the fifth global challenge, it was also possible to unlock Rouge.

Sonic Jump Fever
In Sonic Jump Fever, Rouge was planned to become a playable character through an update, but was never made available for unknown reasons. However, she does appear on the game's preset leaderboards, placing ninth in each Zone. When playing a Zone, a destructible monitor containing Rouge's portrait will appear if her score has been passed.

Sonic Runners
In Sonic Runners, Rouge is a playable Fly Type character. In gameplay, she can float in midair and boost the Score Bonus by 75%. During the "Halloween" event, Rouge was re-released as a variant with an Halloween-themed costume.

During the "Birthday on Windy Will" event, Rouge came to participate in Sonic's birthday party, but got kidnapped by Dr. Eggman when he attacked with his Death Egg drones. While waiting for a rescue, Team Sonic finally arrived and freed her, where she got into an argument with Knuckles when she teased him with his lack of courtesy. Back at the party after Eggman was dealt with, Rogue gave Sonic Shadow's regards as she wished him a happy birthday.

During the "Halloween" event, Rouge and E-123 Omega, alongside a Boo, investigated some Animals which had been turned into slaves by Dr. Eggman with odd candy. Finding Team Sonic, Rouge had them investigate Eggman's castle with their Boo while she and Omega checked Eggman's candy factory. Discovering the candy wore off in strong light, Rouge and Omega helped Team Sonic free the Animals with Omega's searchlight. Though they ran into a problem when the brainwashed King Boom Boo destroyed Omega's searchlight, Rouge had ensured their Boo brought them a spare which they freed King Boom Boo with and ruined Eggman's plans.

Sonic Runners Adventure
In Sonic Runners Adventure, Rouge is a playable character that can be unlocked by spending 2000 Rings upon reaching Chapter 2 (Desert Ruins). She retains her fight ability and the Fly/Dark-type from the predecessor, with the "Dark" bonus here changing enemies into Golden enemies (which count as two normal enemies point-wise) for a limited time.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle
In Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, Rouge is a playable character with the following stats that are applied in gameplay:

Team Sonic Racing
In Team Sonic Racing, Rouge appears as a playable character with her own race kart.