Rouge's Happy Birthday

**Rouge's Happy Birthday** is the third one-shot of Sonic X: Heroes Forever.

## Characters

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Knuckles the Echidna (does not speak)
* Amy Rose
* Cream the Rabbit
* Cheese the Chao
* Rouge the Bat
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Vector the Crocodile
* Espio the Chameleon
* Charmy Bee (Does not speak)
* Big the Cat
* Saffron Bee (Does not speak)
* Mighty the Armadillo (Does not speak)
* Ray the Flying Squirrel (Does not speak)
* Julie-Su (Does not speak)
* Liza the Chameleon (Does not speak)
* Maria Robotnik
* Manic the Hedgehog
* Sonia the Hedgehog
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Blaze the Cat
* Marine the Raccoon
* Sally Acorn
* Bunnie D'Coolette (Does not speak)
* Antoine D'Coolette
* Shard the Hedgehog (Does not speak)
* NICOLE (Does not speak)
* Rotor Walrus (Does not speak)
* Mina Mongoose
* Ruby the Bat
* Vanilla the Rabbit
* Chocola the Chao
* Queen Aleena Hedgehog/Bernadette Hedgehog (Does not speak)
* Jules Hedgehog (Does not speak)
* Sir Charles Hedgehog
* Venice the Mink (Mentioned)
* Omochao (Mentioned)
* E-02 Heavy the Robot (Does not speak)
* E-03 Bomb (Does not speak)
* Hope Kintobor
* Christopher Thorndyke
* Topaz McCarther (Mentioned)
* Mr. Tanaka (Mentioned)
* Chuck Thorndyke
* Rouge's Father (Mentioned)

## Plot

The episode begins with Shadow and Rouge visiting Maria at the Thorndyke Mansion, with Rouge commenting it was nice to see Maria settling in on Earth with a clean bill of health. Hope arrives and asks how Team Dark is coming, to which Rouge replies they haven’t found a pure Power-Type yet and she and Shadow weren’t considering Omochao as he wasn’t suitable for such a task. Hope asks where Topaz was and Rouge explains that she was out with Mr. Tanaka for the third date in a row. Hope comments she’ll be turning 15 in the next month and she hopes that Rouge will have a good birthday, too. Unfortunately, Rouge’s mood sours at this and she departs, accidentally dropping her wallet near Manic. He realizes that Rouge is a fan of laser tag and sees her birthday is in a few days. Amy gets an idea to throw her a surprise birthday party.

A few days later, Rouge’s birthday party is set up and Amy tells the others that Rouge will be here with her mother, Ruby, in five minutes. Unfortunately for the group, Ruby races around at an extremely fast speed to clear up everything and she explains that Rouge hates her birthday. A concerned Cream asks why and Ruby explains that she has a serious gambling problem. She made a bet she shouldn’t have and lost, which resulted in her pregnancy with Rouge and giving birth to her 9 months later. The adults, teenagers, and even Tails understood what this meant, but, the kids don’t and when Cream tries to ask about it further, Vanilla cuts in by saying she’ll explain when Cream’s older. Ruby went on to explain that she and Rouge’s dad never married and Rouge wanted to meet him, but, he never showed up once, not even to wish Rouge a happy birthday, and only Ruby could console her on that day. Ruby continues to insult Rouge’s dad in French, but, stops herself when she realizes children are present and Cream is getting scared. Silver then speaks up that there may be a way to make Rouge’s birthday better, but, Rouge must be distracted by laser tag. She asks if Earth has it, to which Chuck replies it does and it’s been invented initially as a military training exercise. Sir Charles is surprised as that was the same reason it was invented on Mobius and the Acorn Guard uses it a lot. Blaze then catches onto the fact that Silver is suggesting they get a Time Wish as Rouge’s birthday present, much to her and Marine’s shock. Silver explains to a curious Sonic that it’s a wish that can do absolutely anything. Sally asks why they don’t use it to fix their future, but, Blaze explains that it’s A), due to Venice warning them not to take shortcuts and B), more importantly, wars have started over them and people have died as a result. Shadow, on the other hand, welcomes the challenge and decides to check on Rouge before heading out to battle.

Shadow finds Rouge in a sorrowful state, crying into a heart pillow, and it’s revealed she was angry the previous night. Shadow also didn’t want to go to a flashy party, but, leaves that piece of information out and the two talk about Rouge’s birthday situation. The two Mobians go quiet as Shadow looks on with concerned eyes and Rouge sobs next to him.

Later on, Ruby, Hope, Maria, Chris, and Chuck surprise Rouge with a laser tag game, hardcore laser tag as a reenactment of the Vietnam War, to be exact. Rouge is even more surprised than the group were expecting as she thought Earth didn’t *have* laser tag. She realizes Earth is less primitive than she imagined.

Shadow meanwhile has rejoined Team Sonic, Team Balance, Team Music, Team Dimension, Team Acorn, Team Rose, and the Chaotix. Big wonders if this has anything to do with the Chaos Emeralds and Shadow explains the situation. Antoine also adds that Amy forgot a cake in the haste of making the birthday party, much to her embarrassment. Vector wonders why Silver is risking something so great for someone who isn’t family, but, the silvery hedgehog goes quiet at this, leading to Vector realizing something isn’t adding up. Silver then tells the others this will be difficult and warps the entire gang to the era the Time Wishes have formed.

The group ends up in an arena in space where they have to go to Fate Battle, named because the winner decides the fate of the loser. Mina points out they are on the same side, but, this results in a bunch of robot copies coming out of nowhere to fight the group, much to Sonia’s chagrin.

Everyone gets into a lot of battles, causing numerous injuries, some of which are very brutal. The last challenge is laser tag, much to Vector’s dismay, and to make matters worse, fog activates out of nowhere. Shadow tells the group to keep the robots occupied and he moves extremely quickly away from the lasers while Silver keeps his clone under control. Shadow then grabs the Time Wish, an orb with an hourglass symbol, from the podium, causing the clones, arena, and their gear vanish. His fate for the losers is that they live, but, cannot kill anyone in the next Fate Battle. The punishment is acceptable and when asked what his wish is, Shadow admits it’s not for him.

Back in the present, Rouge is having a grand time at laser tag, dominating the game. She then twirls her laser tag gun, which freezes in mid-air while she can still move about freely. The gang show up, battered and bruised, much to Rouge’s shock, and they tell her about the Time Wish. She asks why Team Dimension didn’t use it to fix their future and she explains she knew that because she’s been having tea with Sally. Silver then gives her the Time Wish and she touches it, causing everyone to be healed within the second. Vector is angry that she used the wish for that, much to Espio’s confusion, but, Vector pointed out Aleena could just turn into a Healer-Type to heal the group or they could ask Maria to do it. Rouge then cools Vector down by telling him to listen and she says that she realized that birthdays are to spend with someone you care about and who cares about you. Rouge’s dad didn’t even bother to see her once, but, her friends risked their lives just to get her this wish. For that, she disowns her dad and calls her friends her family. Vector starts crying, but, Silver is outraged that Rouge wasted her wish to heal the group. Rouge admits that’s not all she used the wish for: she tosses her wallet behind her to demonstrate that the wallet will instantly return to her if she lost it or if it was stolen, keeping it safe from pickpockets. Everyone agrees that was a good wish. She requests to Silver to unfreeze time so she can win her game and when he does, the laser tag gun accidentally hits Silver’s head. An abashed Rouge picks it up again as the episode ends

## Trivia

* This is the first one-shot that does not have a flashback. This is most likely for two reasons:
	+ Rouge's dad is an OC and is not permitted to be in the series
	+ Ruby's story mentions that she "lost a bet" and "nine months later, Rouge is born". This would be a bit too mature for the series.
* This also establishes that Rouge’s birthday takes place not long after Maria was brought back to the present and that Hope’s birthday is about a month later.
* This episode is heavily based on the Gravity Falls episode, "Blendin's Game."

* There were several deleted scenes from the original script:
	+ In Ruby's rant against Rouge's father, Mina comments that a mothers anger is very terrifying.
	+ Manic made an unfunny joke about stealing Rouge's wallet when she dropped it, much to Amy's annoyance.
	+ When Silver commented on the loser's fate, a Mobian is vaporized for losing. Mina then says "Well, F\*\*k That".
	+ Silver literally BEGGED the others to participate.
	+ Blaze was the one who lost her temper at Rouge's wish to heal them instead of Silver.