Tails decided to call Rouge as a prospective test subject. Why he decided on the bat instead of Marine for another, if scatterbrained, scientist to help in case things go wrong or Cream thanks to her generally trusting nature and faith in Tails' work wasn't at all related to her intelligence... Rather, she seemed to have become much more affectionate toward him as of late. And to everyone in general it seemed. Try as he might, he certainly can't remember her ever being one to hug people that often. Although, considering the extra few inches she'd gained over most Mobians putting them at about chest-high to her, that might just be due to her nature to tease everybody. Plus, the fact that he didn't really end up getting much taller over the last decade probably helped. Rubbing the back of one of his ears, Tails sighed and put out a message for her at a signal that the bat and only the bat would hear. As it turned out, she was flying not too far away from where he was right now too. So in little under eight minutes she was touching down outside of his lab. And, being a master thief, she let herself in. The door would've unlocked itself had she given it nine seconds to register her as a guest today but she didn't want to get rusty.
Rouge, wearing her usual skintight black tube-style body suit complete with a large fuchsia heart-shaped breast plate, long white gloves, and white thigh-high boots with pink hearts on the toes, blue eyeliner delicately placed on her visage and only enhancing her beauty, strolled over to the foxboy- no. Might be time to call him a foxman now- standing in front of the computer terminal, her shoes clacking on the paneled floor with every step.
"Oh hey Rouge I'm glad you got the message so quickly! So I've got a new machine I built that should a-allow um"
Rouge had just kept walking toward him, forcing him back against the terminal's keyboard as she loomed over him, hands on either side of his body trapping him. Not to mention her chestplate resting on his chest, showing off her two melons and the small valley of cleavage they formed. "Hello foxboy~" She breathed huskily.
"H-hi? Um, c-can I have some space again please?" Try as much as he did, no matter what he attempted, his eyes always came back to rest on Rouge's breasts.
Rouge regarded him, thoughtfully, a smirk on her lips as she did so. Finally, after what felt like an agonizingly long time, she did. Only to pull him with her and trap his against her chest. She was bigger than him and she seemed to delight in teasing him like this. Just by hugging.
"Oh absolutely~ But I hope you won't hold a grudge if I have a hug though."
Tails had learned from long repeated lessons that if he didn't hug her back she'd never let him go. So- once he'd sufficiently enjoyed being pressed against her - he returned the favor. She only squeezed him tighter in return, sighing happily. Afterwards, she released him only to peck him on the forehead. "Foxboy, how old are you now?" She was even so kind as to give him three steps away of personal space too.
A little embarrassed he cleared his throat before replying. "Twenty-two."
Rouge gasped. "Twenty-two?! Oh my goodness, why you're a young man now! Well, I certainly can't call you foxboy anymore now can I...Tails? [Hmm, looks like I was off by a few years. Oh well, that means this'll be even more fun~]"
Tails blinked. No more nicknames? Maybe he could finally get a little respect from her. "Er, well yes, that's fine Rouge. A-anyway can I tell you about the machine I wanted you to test now?"
Rouge parked herself down on a chair, crossing her legs and resting her hands on them. "Oh do go ahead."
Tails leaned against the computer terminal as he gave her a basic description. "Okay, so I'm not going to go into the technical aspect of it as that's not exactly what you're here for." 'Which is smart because I'm not Marine or Eggman and honestly don't care to be honest.' "Right, so basically it's a transmogrification machine. It can change physical or mental properties of anyone or, theoretically, anything."
Rouge's ears perked up. Physical and mental huh? "So what exactly do you want me to do? What's the test gonna be?"
"Well, since you're the subject, it's your choice. What should we start out with to make sure it's safe, for one?"
Rouge's mind raced. What would she want changed? But first thing's first. "Well, let's go with something small just to be safe." She rose from the chair, looking around the lab and heading towards the machine when Tails pointed it out. "I'll head in and we'll do small innocuous stuff first. Changing the color of my clothes, fur, eye color when we're sure that's safe yada yada yada. Then we'll work on the really big changes."
Tails nodded, glad to see that she's still keeping her head on her shoulders for all this. "Roger that, it shouldn't take too long to run through all this. Okay then. Let's get started!"
-Fast forward through-
Rouge stepped out of the machine, waving away clouds of fog. Aside from the hearts on her boots and chest plate being blue nothing seemed different. "Why is it that there's always fog when these things run?"
"Do you really want an answer or is that one rhetorical?"
"Can you condense it under a hundred letters?"
"I couldn't do that with a hundred words."
"I'll manage remaining ignorant."
Tails sighed, but it was a good one. All the tests have been successful, no complications or mutations to speak of. "Well, looks like things are running fine. I think we're really for something big. Any ideas yet?"
Rouge smirked. Time to fix things. "Oh absolutely Tails."