"Put jam in the sandwiches. No not blackberry, STRAWBERRY! Geez, Knuckles, you really can't cook can you?" Amy shouted at Knuckles as he 'made' sandwiches for the picnic.
"I'm trying, I'm trying! Stop shouting in my ear!" Knuckles glared back. Maria laughed
"You two sound like you're married."
"WE DO NOT!" They both shouted. Tails giggled as Maria fell into the picnic basket.
"I think the idea is to MAKE the sandwiches, not CRUSH them!" Laughed Sonic, "Now hurry up before the sun sets."
"But it's the morning."
"Exactly."
After about another hour of preparations, they were ready to go. Since Maria and Amy couldn't run as fast as the others, they went on the bus with the picnic basket, whilst Sonic, Knuckles and Tails ran, or flew. It took half an hour for them all to arrive at the spot they had chosen to go to, and before they began they took some time to do a little site seeing. The surrounding area was a plain of grass the sloped down to a huge glistening lake. A waterfall poured over the side of a mountain cliff into the lake, making a calm splashing noise as it joined with the water below. The terrain around the lake was much the same as the field they were on; it was a flattish grassy plain that bloomed with flowers of all kinds. Surrounding the whole area was a thick, but serene forest. The sun was shining brightly in the sky and it seemed like the perfect day.
"Ok, shall we begin?" Asked Sonic as he laid the rug they had brought on the grass. They all nodded and began unpacking the food.
"This place is nice." Said Sonic as he took a bite of his chilli dog. (A/N: What did you expect?)
"Yeah, it's real quiet." Agreed Tails.
"I like it too. I've never been here before, but I passed it once and figured it would be a nice place to have a picnic." Maria said picking up a jam sandwich, "What do you think of it Amy?"
" I like it, but I would like it better if Knuckles had made more STRAWBERRY jam sandwiches."
"Well if you had told me beforehand..." Knuckles began to argue back.
"Guys, guys, we're here to have fun and relax, not fight a war." Sonic pulled a football out of his bag, "Anyone for a game?" They all spread out, ready to play.
"Ok, Maria and Amy versus Knuckles and Tails, I'll help both teams." Sonic said as he began the game.
"Knuckles, go long." Sonic shouted. Knuckles ran back and caught the ball in his hand.
"Tails." He threw it high up in the air; Tails flew up and caught it.
"This isn't fair, Tails can fly." Amy complained as she and Maria began losing 30-1. They started a new game and this time swapped teams. Half way through, Sonic realised Tails was no longer playing, but sitting on a nearby tree root.
"Wait a sec, carry on playing." He told Maria as he walked off. "Hey buddy, what's up?"
"Nothing, just feeling a bit sick." Sonic placed his hand on Tails' forehead. He quickly recoiled it.
"You're burning up." He said as the others gathered round him, having finished their game.
"We should go home, you don't look so good." Knuckles stated.
"No, I'm fine, really. Finish the picnic, I don't want to ruin it for you guys." He said sadly.
"Tails, you're not well. We have to go home." He crouched down in front of his friend; "We'll come back and finish it when you're better, ok?"
"Ok." Sonic smiled slightly and stood up.
Amy looked up from the food she was currently packing up,
"How are we gonna get back, Tails can't run or fly there, and there's not a bus again for another two hours." Maria stood up and looked thoughtful for a second then clicked her fingers,
"I know, I can call my Grandpa on my cell phone, he'll come and pick us up." She pulled out her phone and dialled a number,
"Hey, Grandpa, can you come and pick us up, Tails feels sick and there isn't another bus for two hours. Ok, thanks. Bye." She put the phone back in her pocket, "He's on his way." She said to them as she continued packing up.
"Kay, buddy? He should be here soon." Sonic said.
"Thanks, Sonic." Tails whispered.
"Hey, what are best friends for?"
It was a matter of minutes before Maria' Grandpa arrived.
"Ok guys, hurry up, get in, I haven't got all day you know." They all bundled in the car and it sped off. The journey back seemed to last forever, the road was empty, and yet they had to stop at traffic lights repeatedly, and Tails wasn't getting any better. Tails had fallen asleep with his head rested on Sonic's lap. Sonic subconsciously stroked the kitsune's head as he stared off into space, occasionally looking at his now shivering friend. When they arrived they all got out of the car and went up to Maria's room, Sonic carrying Tails. Once up there, he laid Tails on Maria's bed and turned to the others.
"Maria, you know about this place better than me, any idea what he's got?" Maria shrugged,
"From all I can tell, it's a bad fever." Sonic nodded slightly.
"Fever huh? Poor kid." He stroked his friend's head gently. "I hope it-" He was cut off by a loud explosion coming from the field they were just in.
"I'll check it out. Look after Tails." Sonic sped off towards the explosion. When he arrived, he found a large amount of the area demolished, but no sign of anyone accountable for it.
"I bet this was Eggman's doing."
"Then you would win that bet hedgehog." Sonic looked up and found Eggman towering above him in yet another giant robot.
"What d'ya want this time, Egg Head?" Sonic glared up at him.
"Same as usual, world domination, to destroy you." He said, but made no move of attack. "So hedgehog, care to tell me where the chaos emeralds are?"
"No."
"Very well, I will just have to take them from you by FORCE!" He shouted as his robot launched several missiles at him, all of which missed. Sonic repeatedly tried to hit the robot, but after that attack, all Eggman was doing was dodging.
'He's up to something, I know it, but what?' He attempted again to hit the robot, but Eggman dodged,
"It's been fun Sonic, but I have business to attend to. Fare badly hedgehog." He shouted as he dropped a final set of missile towards Sonic. He quickly dodged them and ran back to Maria' house, ready to investigate what was going on.
He arrived quickly at Maria' house to find the door knocked down. He cautiously stepped inside and looked around, after finding no enemies, he crept up to Maria's room. Inside, everyone was lying on the floor unconscious, but otherwise unharmed. Sonic ran over to Maria.
"Maria, what happened, where's Tails?" Sonic asked.
"These guys came in, they released this knock out gas and took Tails, they-" She was cut off as Sonic grabbed the collar of her shirt and started shaking her,
"What? They took him? How could you let this happen? I asked you to look after him!" Knuckles grabbed Sonic's arm,
"Sonic, I know how you feel, but getting angry won't help. Calm down."
"I am calm!" He shouted letting go of Maria and turning to Knuckles.
"Sonic, we can't save him if we argue. Relax."
"Fine." Mumbled Sonic as he pushed past Knuckles and walked towards the door, only to be stopped by Amy.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"To find him."
"You have no idea where he went, you won't be helping him by running around aimlessly."
"I hate to admit it, but she's right. As much as I would like to go save him, we don't know where they took him, we have to think rationally." Knuckles said forcing Sonic to sit down.
"Fine. But if anything happens to him, I'm blaming you."
"Right." Knuckles nodded.
"Ok, to begin with, did anyone get a good look at them?" Sonic asked finally calming down.
"Yeah, they looked like scientists or something, they had lab coats on, and they had complicated gadgets and stuff." Amy said taking a seat on the floor.
"Right. And on the back of their coats, they had the letters NOMR."
"Well, I would say our first step is to find out what that stands for." Said Maria's Grandpa as he entered the room. Maria walked over to her computer and typed in NOMR. Everyone crowded round as he clicked the first search item.
"NOMR, the National Organization of Mammal Research, official site." Maria read out from the page.
"That's gotta be it, unless there's another NOMR." Sonic said standing back.
"Yep, the name is copyright, so I presume this is the only one."
"Great. Ok, now check where the HQ is." Sonic said and Maria clicked on a link marked, Locations.
"Oh boy. There are like 10 in this country, he could have been taken to any of them." Maria exclaimed.
"Well, which one is nearest?" Asked Knuckles.
"Um, there's one near the beach and one in the centre of the city." They nodded.
"Ok. How about I go check one, while Knuckles checks the other?"
"K." They all agreed.
"We'll set out tonight." Sonic said as they began preparations.