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 with her Screw Kick, 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 Emerald Saga
With the destruction of Eggman's headquarters, Rouge had proven herself trustworthy of becoming one of the best agents for G.U.N. in their fight against Eggman. Sometime later, Rouge pursued Knuckles through Oriental City in the belief that he would lead her to one of the Chaos Emeralds still needing to be found. However, while tailing him into an old subway station, she was knocked out from behind by Eggman's E-91 Lady Ninja, disguised as a young woman who was Knuckles and his friend Hawk's rickshaw driver. Rouge recovered and intercepted Knuckles and Lady Ninja when Knuckles was exchanging the Chaos Emerald for Hawk's safety as the Lady Ninja took him hostage. Rouge nearly escaped with the Chaos Emerald, but the Lady Ninja sliced the bag open, and in the end, Knuckles gained the Emerald while the Lady Ninja was shorted out with water thrown on it by Hawk, allowing Knuckles to finish it off.

Some time later, Rouge and Topaz were on a leave of absence from their duties with G.U.N., when they saw Nelson Thorndyke enter a nearby jewelry store to get a ring as a wedding anniversary gift for Lindsay. Upon realizing that the jewel he picked out was a Chaos Emerald, Rouge and Topaz decided to pursue Nelson to Filmdom City to acquire it. Once there, it was not until Eggman literally crashed the set of Lindsay's next movie in the Egg Fort II that Rouge seized the opportunity and snatched the emerald box out of Nelson's hands, only to find herself and Topaz struggling to keep Eggman from getting it when he caught Rouge by surprise and tried to take the Emerald from her. Despite Rouge and Topaz's efforts, Eggman flung them into Mister Stewart, then sicced E-74 Weazo on Sonic and the others, before making his escape with the Chaos Emerald. While Sonic and the others still celebrated Nelson and Lindsay's wedding anniversary, Rouge contemplated on how with only one Chaos Emerald still out there, once all seven were found and united, Chaos Control and a miracle would occur.

Much later, Rouge and Topaz managed to locate the hidden area where the Egg Fort II was grounded, and noticed Christopher Thorndyke and Knuckles approach the ship to apparently broker a truce with Eggman. Later, they watched as Knuckles was ejected from the Egg Fort II when Eggman double-crossed him and Chris, and took off to meet up with E-77 Lucky, who found the final Chaos Emerald. Rouge and Topaz quickly radioed the situation back to G.U.N. While in pursuit in a helicopter, Topaz presented Rouge with some jewelry as a gift, which appeared to soften Rouge, though Topaz tried to avoid showing much emotion to what she did. However, when the Egg Fort II transformed into the E-99 Eggsterminator and destroyed the Beetles sent to confront it, Topaz asked her pilot if they could get closer, but he could not. Rouge, however, managed to slip into the Eggsterminator after Knuckles broke into the cockpit to save Chris and get revenge for being double-crossed, and flew out with both a badly-injured Chris and the other six Chaos Emeralds, as the seventh one Lucky found now sat at the bottom of the ocean with a beaten Sonic after the thrashing he has been given by the Eggsterminator earlier. As Rouge considered the jewelry she could make from the emeralds, Chris struggled enough to cause Rouge to drop him and the Emeralds, and she is only able to catch him while the Emeralds fell into the ocean. Rouge barely had time to contemplate losing her new jewelry before the Eggsterminator grabed her and Chris and tried to crush them. However, before it could, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic, tearing the Eggsterminator's fist into shrapnel in milliseconds, catching Rouge by surprise before she bore witness to Super Sonic tearing the rest of the Eggsterminator apart in seconds, and launching a Chaos Control that brought the Mystic Ruins and Angel Island to the shores of Station Square.

Chaos Saga
With it having been six months since the attack on Eggman's headquarters, and with no sign of him since, Rouge found herself with little action. However, things changed when she bore witness to Perfect Chaos and its attack on Station Square. As she watched in either shock or concern from the White House, the President ordered G.U.N. to try and take Perfect Chaos out, only to instead watch as Super Sonic took Perfect Chaos down alone.

Shadow Saga
Learning that Eggman has recently hacked into G.U.N. and downloaded the information on his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, and Project Shadow, the President assigned Rouge and Topaz to hunt Eggman down. Rouge figured the best way was to find a Chaos Emerald, so she and Topaz head for Angel Island to steal the Master Emerald, only to be pursued by Knuckles when he learned of the theft. Despite being forced to give up on taking the Master Emerald, Rouge was still able to get into Eggman's inner circle by bringing him a Chaos Emerald Topaz found, allowing her to team up with the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow the Hedgehog. From there, Rouge joined Eggman and Shadow in the attack on Prison Island, both to plant explosives, and to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds stored there. With the explosives ready to detonate, Shadow used Chaos Control to transport himself, Rouge, and Chris to Space Colony ARK. All the while, Rouge kept in contact with Topaz before Shadow discovered her actions and destroyed her communication device. However, Rouge managed to find another way to contact Topaz, and with the information Rouge collected, it allowed Topaz to take the police and apprehend a secret group within G.U.N. that covered up Project Shadow. Rouge then watched as Sonic and Shadow dealt with the Bio Lizard and prevented Gerald's doomsday plot from being completed, then returned to Earth with the others after mourning Shadow's apparent sacrifice during the battle.

Egg Moon Saga
Following the events with the ARK, Rouge and Knuckles were together to share thoughts regarding recent events before Rouge took her leave, but not without making another romantic comment towards Knuckles, causing him to yell back.

Later, Rouge talked to Topaz, who was away on vacation on a tropical island, hoping to catch the first sunrise of the New Year, while Rouge complained about not liking the sunlight. However, when the Egg Moon obstructed the Sun and caused a never-ending eclipse, Topaz voiced her frustration about her vacation being ruined to Rouge, who was enjoying the dark herself.

Later, Rogue and Topaz were summoned by the President to investigate Sonic's destruction of Eggman's Mirror Towers that provided power to his Sunshine Balls he had offered after saying that the Egg Moon was malfunctioning and that he needed time to repair it. During the flight there, Rouge lost altitude due to some sort of interference before recovering. Although Topaz was worried about Rouge, Rouge headed down to see what caused her faltering, discovering the transmitter to the Egg Moon in a small clearing. Rouge proved unable to penetrate the transmitter's dome, so they joined their fellow GUN agents when they confronted Sonic with Chris, Tails, and Amy. Once Sonic revealed that Eggman was purposefully controlling the Egg Moon for another shot at world conquest, Rouge returned to the Thorndyke Mansion to plan their next move with Sonic and the others. While Sonic, Tails, and Amy headed to the White House to rescue the President and Christina Cooper, whom Eggman had taken hostage, Rouge and Topaz joined Knuckles and Mister Tanaka in a space shuttle up to the Egg Moon, where Rouge located the Egg Moon's transmitter for Knuckles to destroy and end the eclipse.

Emerl Saga
After Bokkun managed to bust Eggman out of prison, Rouge and Topaz were assigned to hunt him down again. At one point, while investigating Eggman's lair underneath Station Square, Rouge got attacked by the Egg Spider. During the fight, Emerl managed to copy Rouge's Screw Kick and use it as well.

In a bid to lure out Eggman, Rouge participated in the Chaos Emerald Martial Arts Mash-Up held by the President with a Chaos Emerald as the prize. Rouge did pretty well in the tournament, even squaring off with Amy Rose, but got eliminated in the semi-finals. However, when Emerl went ballistic from the Chaos Emerald's energies, Rouge tried to stop him with Sonic and Knuckles, but thanks to Emerl having copied her Screw Kick, she was unable to defeat him and it ended up being Cream and Cheese who destroyed Emerl for good.

Homebound Saga
When Rouge learned that Topaz had gone missing while on board the G.U.N. destroyer Seahawk with the rest of the crew, she joined Sonic and the others in the search for her, discovering she had become the prisoner of Eggman on his Egg Giant-Makan. There, she confronted the doctor alongside fellow G.U.N. agents on GUN Fort. Though they managed to rescue Topaz and the rest of the Seahawk's crew, Eggman escaped when they destroyed the Egg Giant-Makan.

Rouge later joined Sonic and Knuckles in exploring the underground areas of Murasia, but the group was forced to retreat back to safety when Murasia began to sink. However, Rouge escaped with a gem that she salvaged from Murasia before it sunk, but it was taken for additional research by Doctor Atsumi. Due to Decoe and Bocoe having renounced Eggman and having apparently been destroyed, Rouge joined everyone in a moment of grief and sadness in thinking they were gone for good, before discovering they were still alive, allowing them to be rebuilt and side with Sonic and the others for the time being.

Grim news were soon after revealed: Due to so much of Sonic's world having brought to Earth, it had triggered the Time Suspension Phenomenon, which threatened to stop time for eternity unless Rogue and everything else from Sonic's world returned to their home planet as soon as possible. However, Card Passer, a G.U.N. general, believed this to be a trick and sent G.U.N.'s robots after Eggman, even taking the President hostage to accomplish this. Rouge, aided by Knuckles and Topaz, rescued the President, who had Passer and his men apprehended for their actions.

Eventually, a portal back to Sonic's world was constructed. Before returning home, Rouge and Topaz shared a final goodbye with each other, leaving Topaz heartbroken and crying while being comforted by Mr. Tanaka as Rouge departed for her home.

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 by extremely loud 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.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Rouge enjoys teasing Tails. She can also take advantage of him as shown in the Chaos Emerald Martial Arts Mash-Up where 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.