long hours, longer days

trip

"perhaps it's the twig stabbing my ass, but this mission is a total bust." Rouge quipped beside me. We had been sent out to investigate a mysterious military base that had appeared seemingly overnight on the west edge of angel island. At the moment, I was sitting behind a bush with a pair of binoculars like a perverted teenager, trying to get a glimpse of the blueprints that had been spread out on a blackboard through one of the windows.
"Hmm." I hummed, pulling the binoculars from my eyes and scanning the perimeters. "I agree, these soldiers are completely unethical. What kind of military base has windows?" I turned my back to the bush, sitting next to Rouge as I wrote down a few acronyms I saw written on the blackboard. I'd try to decipher them later, when we weren't 50 feet away from about 200 armed soldiers. "Did you memorize the military grounds? I want to get closer to the building without being seen."
Suddenly, Rouge groaned, which only told me that she had not in fact memorized the military grounds.
"I completely forgot!" She seemed really angry with herself. I kept quiet, only giving her a mildly annoyed look, but it would be unfair to hold her so accountable because I'm sure she had only just been assigned to this silly Sherlock Holmes case and didn't have enough time to fully wrap her head around it.
"It's fine, Rouge." I said before she started apologizing to spare her the guilt. I turned back to the base, searching it with my binoculars until I spotted two soldiers standing around rather close, apparently sharing their smoke break. One was a female and the other was male, and they were both alone, which to me was a lucky break. I handed the binoculars to rouge. "What do you think? Those two are alone, they have uniforms that are roughly our size, and I'd say the best way to get insider information..." I guided the binoculars to the two soldiers. "Is from the inside."
Rouge pulled the binoculars away and smiled, nudging me with her elbow. "Smart." She began. "If we could get to that tree over there we could climb up it, I can glide us behind the building. From then on we just pop skulls."
I stopped her before she started moving. "That's too noticeable." I said. "We'd be better off just shooting them from here."
Rouge looked at me like I was crazy.
"Can you even reach them from here? If you miss we'll start a panic." She replied, looking over the bush, I assume to calculate the distance between us and the two soldiers.
I scoffed at her, screwing the silencer on my gun. "I never miss." I saw rouge roll her eyes and fold her arms in the corner of my eye, which I ignored. I peered around the bush, slowly aiming my gun at the two unsuspecting soldiers. I was taking my time to calculate my distance and strategy, to which I heard rouge tapping her foot impatiently beside me. For a moment I thought sonic was next to me, the way she was growing so irritable so quickly. It kind of made me smile, the idea of sonic being on a mission with me for once, but perhaps I just miss him. I shook the thought from my mind, finding that he had distracted me and the soldiers had shifted.
"Would you just take the shot already?" Rouge hissed. I kind of understand why she's feeling impatient, but it's not going to make me shoot any faster.
"I'm waiting for them to get into a position where I can take them out with one shot." I responded. "And it's a lot easier to focus when you're not buzzing in my ear."
Rouge cut herself off before saying anything, which I expected. She doesn't like the way I do things, but I get things done, and vice versa for her. I don't appreciate it when she's reckless, and she doesn't appreciate it when I take my time, but at the end of the day we both get our jobs done.
I sat, observing the two soldiers while they had their little conversation, completely unaware that they're going to be casualties in a couple moments. When there was a split second where their heads aligned I immediately pulled the trigger. The resounding force from the gun made a sound only the two of us could hear, while the two soldiers had been annihilated yards away. I gestured for Rouge to follow me as I swiftly and stealthily made my way behind the tree she had been talking about earlier. "Now we can do your plan." I looked around for a moment as we came up behind the tree. Rouge wasted no time ascending into the tree with a forced flap of her wings and a leap. Once she stabilized herself against one of the branches, she extended her arm down to me to hoist me into the tree.
We had to move quickly, before anyone else noticed the two corpses on the ground. We scaled up the tree, her effortlessly leaping from branch to branch and me cramming my claws into the trunk and bringing myself up using my own body strength. Once we were high enough to go unnoticed by the few soldiers who were mingling around the base with their dramatically large guns, which, in my opinion is kind of overkill, Rouge grabbed my wrists. We both threw ourselves from the tree. The feeling of falling before gravity had been paused by Rouge's suspended wings was exhilarating... For the brief moment it happened. I gripped onto Rouge's wrists as she slowly glided us down to a spot that was free of soldiers. While suspended in the air I took the time to take a breath and reevaluate where I am, what I'm doing, and why. Sometimes I wish I could fly because this shit is relaxing.
Almost as quickly as we had Leaped, we landed. She released my wrists and I barrel rolled behind the building while she landed gracefully on her feet. She peered around the corner before rushing out to retrieve the two corpses and drag them behind the building by their collars. We had remained unnoticed, which I suspected. The soldiers in this base obviously have no sense of danger. Perhaps they haven't encountered it yet so their guards are down.
I stood over the male, unbuttoning his uniform quickly so that I didn't have to think about the fact that I'm undressing a corpse for too long.
"Damn!" Rouge suddenly said as she popped open the females top. "she has a way cuter bra than me." I rolled my eyes, a little annoyed because I thought that rouge had discovered something of use to us, just for her to complain about a corpse having better undergarments.
"Have a little respect." I said as I slipped the uniform top on. She seemed to have completely ignored me and the two of us were silent for a moment, which I was fine with.
When I finished dressing and turned to rouge I came to find that she had actually taken the corpses bra, leaving its bare chest out. I immediately looked away, 1 because I don't want to see that, and 2 it's just disrespectful. "That's disgusting." I said, my hand covering my eyes so I can't see the bat in my peripheral vision.
I heard the snap of the bra straps against Rouge's skin. "I'm not going to waste a perfectly good bra." She replied.
I roll my eyes, moving my hand down as the bat buttoned her shirt. I could live a million lives, experience the truths of humanity a thousand times, and still, I will never understand women.
"Let's just go. I'd like to make this as quick as possible." I gestured for the bat to follow me, scaling behind the building for a bit until I found an opening. There was an open window around the corner and I peered inside of it. Conveniently, no one was inside the room that the window led to. Wow, it's almost like I'm in a shitty fanfiction made by a depressed 17 year old.
I got a better look into the room before prying the window open enough for me to climb inside. Once inside I put my cap on, completing my outfit. Honestly, I don't exactly like this outfit but the hat definitely makes it more tolerable. I'm no fashion expert, though. Rouge crawled in, also putting her hat on as I looked around the room. It kind of looked like a storage room for a high school. There were desks and chairs piled up in a corner, one of those shitty box TV's, cabinets that were full of God knows what, and notebooks stacked up in multiple different places. Not only that but the room was dusty, as if no one had been in there for a while. I could spend hours going through all these notebooks, but good Lord do I have better things to do. Technically it's part of my job to search for anything I can find, but I really don't see a point here.
Rouge coughed a bit, also looking around before she creeped up to the door. She opened it slowly, peering into the hallway cautiously before throwing the door open completely and gesturing for me to follow.
Walking out into the hallway was a breath of fresh air from the stuffy storage room. Looking down the halls it only became more apparent that this base used to be a school, possibly abandoned or run out.
We casually make our way down the hallway, being sure not to draw any attention to ourselves.
We try to make our snooping inconspicuous, but it's hard to do with so many soldiers around. I'm completely on guard while Rouge searches around. She happens to be a bit stealthier than me, so it's easier for her to get around quickly and unsuspiciously.
It's kind of eerie, walking through a place that used to be meant for children. Now it's swarming with burly men with giant guns. I don't focus on it, soon walking up to a door that was only a creek open. When I pushed it further open with the butt of my gun, I realized it was a stairwell. I whistle to get Rouge's attention then point down the narrow cavern, gesturing for her to follow me as I descended into the basement.
Once in the basement I'm positively enraged.

"A drug ring?" I can't contain the almost insane laughter coming from me. "This 'war base' you got everyone so hyped up about was just A DRUG RING?!" I slam my fist on my boss's desk furiously. This is just yet another time I've been pulled away from my life for not only a lie, but a problem that is way past my jurisdiction. I personally don't give a flying shit if people are peddling heroin money.
The look on his face is so punchable. He connects all his fingertips staring at me condescendingly. "I understand your frustrations." He says that, but I know he doesn't mean it. He doesn't care. "But I swear to you and God himself that I had no idea it was a drug ring. Honest." He puts a hand on his heart all sincere and manipulatively. He can probably sense how badly I want to hurt him.
I lick my teeth from inside my mouth and take in a deep breath. The immediate dismissal of my frustrations is irritating. "If Sargent Vincent was here he would never waste so much of my time." I say, mostly to myself. Sargent Vincent was an excellent soldier, a man who honorably died in the field, and he would certainly never sit on his ass all day giving orders through soldiers that rank lower than me. "I'd like to see a more professional attitude from you, mourice." I hiss. He likes to go by his middle name, which is ironically also sonics middle name, however the only difference is sonic isn't particularly proud of that.
He winces at me, his expression getting more sour.
"You act like you have a position to talk to me that way." He muttered.
"You act like you have the position to waste my precious time with stupid detective work."
"And what do you have going on that's so damn important to you? Huh?"
The question almost catches me off guard. I'm too embarrassed to admit that I may mostly be upset that I could be at home sitting on the couch sipping rosé wine with my sweetheart wrapped around me rather than standing here full of anger and adrenaline because my boss is a FUCKING IDIOT.
"Regardless of what I've got going on it's a hell of a lot more important than whatever you want me to do." I bark.
His nose twitched a little then he crossed his arms. "If you care so little about this job why don't you just go?" He says calmly. "It would be a load off my back."
That's a good question, honestly. Why don't I just go? What's stopping me, really? Perhaps I've grown a bit attached to the place subconsciously. I wouldn't want to leave rouge by herself. Unfortunately she's locked into this job by contract, so she can't just leave like I can... Maybe I kind of crave the abuse a little bit.
"Because someday you guys are gonna need me again. You seem to forget what happened in Praugh." I replied, crossing my arms once again. "I only came because I thought maybe this would be something important, like Praugh."
He seems nervous. He probably didn't expect me to bring the battles of Praugh, 5 different countries all fighting over one small plot of land planted smack dab in the center of all of them. Our district was assigned to mediate the conflict. I don't want to brag but if I hadn't been there the amount of casualties would have been significantly higher.
He puts his hands together, bowing his head for a moment. He looks almost sympathetic, but I think he's far from capable of such complex emotions.
"What about a raise?"
With this our confrontation is basically over, I'm defeated. I sighed at this offer. "God damn it.." I mutter under my breath. This is how he gets me, what keeps me in his office, fuming with anger. And he gets what he wants; submission. "How much?"
"25% and a week's paid vacation?"
I think for a moment, debating whether I should swallow my pride to be able to give the people I care about the most that I possibly can in the future, or maintain my dignity. I choose the first option, leaving the office embarrassed with my tail between my fucking legs. This is ridiculous.