Knuckles the Echidna decided to climb back to the top of the island so he at least had some better light. Hopefully Tails, or at least Sonic would come along and figure out what the strange object was that he had found that morning.

As Knuckles got to the top of the island, he thought he could hear someone walking around on the grass.

"Hey!" He shouted, before noticing it was Rouge the Bat, of all people. "Uh...never mind..." he tried to escape back into the tunnel but Rouge pushed him over.

"Ow..."

"Hello, Knuckie! What are you up to today, sweetie?"

"Go away, creep..." Knuckles grumbled. "Or at least help me with this thing..."

"What thing? Do you mean like-" Rouge began.

"THIS THING!" Knuckles shouted, not allowing Rouge to finish her sentence. He threw the object at Rouge's face.

"That's not very nice!" Rouge whined.

"I don't care..."

"What is this, anyway..." Rouge stared at it for what felt like hours.

"...Uh, can you help me with it...?" Knuckles asked, not really wanting to rely on Rouge of all people for help.

"Yeah..." Rouge began, "but only on one condition..."

"Seriously..." Knuckles muttered. "Just give it back then!"

"Okay...but only on one condition..."

"GIVE IT BACK!" Knuckles shouted.

"You know the drill." Rouge said creepily.

Knuckles was about to run up to her and rip it out of her creepy hands when she jumped up and began flying away.

"You really shouldn't let your weaknesses get the better of you, Knuckie..." Rouge yelled as she disappeared.

"Hopefully it was nothing important..." Knuckles sighed.

Meanwhile, Tails was outside his workshop being harassed by Big the Cat and Cream the Rabbit who were trying to sell him chocolates for some kind of weird fundraiser.

"For the last time, I have no rings! I'm sorry!" Tails cried.

"But Mr. Tails, it's for a good cause..." Cream insisted.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted, getting frustrated. Why does he have to be on one of his runs right now?

"Froggy will be sad..." Big moaned.

"If I wasn't broke, then I would buy some of your chocolates! But I'm broke!" Tails shouted.

"There's no need to shout, Mr. Tails. Just buy a box of chocolates."

Seriously, are they deaf? "Hey look, it's Silver! He'll buy your chocolates! I've gotta go!" Tails yelled, and darted off.

Big and Cream walked over to Silver the Hedgehog who was mumbling stuff about the Iblis Trigger. Cream lifted up a box of chocolates.

"Care to buy a box for a good cause?" Cream asked.

Silver stared at her, then the box, then Big, then Cream.

"IT'S NO USE!" He screamed, knocking the box of chocolates out of Cream's hands, then running away.

"Oh..." Cream mumbled.

As Tails continued running, he looked behind himself to make sure Cream wasn't flying after him with her ears. This was not a very good idea however, because he ended up running straight into that creep known as Rouge. He fell over.

"Oh great..." Tails grumbled, noticing Rouge.

"Oh, hello cutie! Would you like some chocolates?" Rouge asked.

"You too?!" Tails cried, then noticed a strange object laying by Rouge's creepy heart high heel boots. Without hesitation, Tails quickly snatched the object.

"Me too what...hey! That's mine! Give it back!" Rouge cried.

"Do you think I believe you for a second?" Tails retorted.

"Okay, fine, I'll confess, but only for you, cutie. I stole it from Knuckles." Rouge gave in.

"Of course..." Tails muttered. He flew off without saying another word.

Tails landed on Angel Island and looked around. Knuckles was there, wandering around.

"Hey, Knuckles!" Tails shouted, running up to him. "What's this?"

"Did you get that back from Rouge?" Knuckles asked. "Thanks!"

"No problem..." Tails said. "...but what is it?"

"I don't know, I was wondering if you could figure it out..." Knuckles replied.

Tails carefully observed the object for what seemed like a very long time. Suddenly he dropped it on the ground.

"Smash it."

"Uh, why?"

"There might be something in it." Tails replied. Knuckles bent over and smashed the object. They both stood there and looked at the smashed plastic with some paper underneath. Tails grabbed the paper. The paper was pld-looking with a yellow tinge, and the writing was neatly-written in black ink. Tails began to read it out-loud.

"If anyone finds this letter, we are letting you know that we have all moved to an underground city named Echidnaopolis..." Tails paused. "Wait, what?" He continued reading as Knuckles just stared at him blankly. "We are the echidnas that once thrived on the island. If you are reading this, you are probably the offspring..." Tails paused. "Okay..." he said, then continued reading, "of the two echidnas that stayed behind. Find us immediately, as we are waiting to meet you, and so you can have offspring too and you can pass down the guardian genes. if you are just some other person then now you know there are echidnas living under the ground." Tails stared at the letter for a moment. "What did I just..." He looked at Knuckles, who appeared completely blank. "Um...Knuckles?"

"...Let me see that!" He shouted angrily, and grabbed the letter right out of Tails's hand.

"What does it say on the back?" Tails wondered. Knuckles slowly turned the paper over.

"It has...the..."

"What?" Tails whispered.

"...Directions..." Knuckles dropped the papers. He stared at Tails, looking terrified, then dashed away.

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted. He grabbed the paper and started running after him. "Wait!" As Tails ran off after Knuckles, he had not noticed Rouge watching them from behind a tree. She smiled creepily, then flew off.

Meanwhile, Amy Rose, the bright pink hedgehog had joined Cream, Big, Cheese the Chao and Froggy to sell their chocolates, forming "Team Rose". They had trapped Shadow the Hedgehog with their chocolate sales.

"Want to buy our chocolates, Mr. Shadow? We're trying to raise money for Amy Rose's new ice cream parlour!" Cream asked.

"How is a an ice cream parlour a 'good cause'?" Shadow asked.

"We'll make the whole world happy by selling soft-serve ice cream!" Amy screeched in Shadow's ear. "There'll be cherry, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, sherbet, green tea, grape, ant…"

Cream gave Amy an odd look at the last three flavours.

"Froggy…" Big mumbled. Froggy jumped on Shadow's face. Shadow ripped it off and threw it back at Big.

"I don't want any-" Shadow began.

"Guess what everyone?!" yelled Rouge suddenly. Everyone looked at her. "Knuckles has a girlfriend!"

At that remark, everyone's mouths dropped. Amy's ice cream fell right off the cone.

"Chao chao?" Cheese said, confused.

"Did I hear you correctly?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, you did! Now continue on with you ice cream sales or whatever." Rouge replied and flew off.

"She doesn't mean herself, does she?" Cream asked. "Because I thought Mr. Knuckles disliked Ms. Rouge."

"Maybe there really are other echidnas..." Shadow said.

"I thought all the echidnas were gone!" Amy exclaimed. She bent over and scooped the fallen ice cream back onto her cone. "That was weird." Amy said blankly.

"Knuckles is like the last person…" Shadow began, but then noticed Big motioning towards the boxes of chocolates he had set down earlier. "Uh bye!" Shadow said and ran off.

"But Mr. Shadow! You still need to buy the chocolates!" Cream yelled. She turned to Amy. "This is really hard, isn't it?" she sighed. "I guess we should find Knuckles and ask him what's going on. And maybe he'll buy some chocolates."

"Okay!" Big exclaimed.

Back at the island, Tails had finally caught up to Knuckles, who looked very stressed.

"What's wrong, Knuckles?" Tails cried. "What if it's not real? Maybe it's just someone playing a prank on you. I wouldn't be surprised..." Tails tried his best to comfort Knuckles.

"It probably is real…but I don't want to go...and there are even the directions and everything!" Knuckles muttered, pointing to the paper in Tails's hands.

Tails looked at the back. There is a river that leads to the elevator of Echidnaopolis. Follow it to get there. "Oh…"

"We can't go, and we can't stay… I don't know, Tails…it could be a trick, but if it isn't, what if they're in trouble or something? Why haven't they ever came back…but then again, there's…" Knuckles said.

"There's what?"

"Nothing…" Knuckles mumbled. "But I can't leave the island either…"

"I guess Sonic could watch it…or something." Tails suggested. "I mean, if you leave, I don't think Sonic would just ignore the emerald…I don't think he wants the world destroyed…" Tails thought for a moment. "Wow, I never really realised how important to the world you really are…"

"How am I important?" Knuckles asked.

"If you didn't guard the emerald, who would? You know how powerful that thing is. If anyone bad got ahold of it, I think that would be the end…" Tails explained.

"I guess…" Knuckles mumbled. "So that means, if I ever died, then…"

"I guess it's a good thing there are other echidnas then. Because then, kinda like what that weird note said, if you had a kid, they could guard it-"

Knuckles glared at Tails. "What?!" he shouted.

"Uh…" Tails stammered. "I was just saying that…"

"This is why…" Knuckles began. "Why I didn't…"

"Why you didn't what?" Tails asked quietly.

"Ugh…" Knuckles muttered. "I don't know…never mind…"

"Well, if you do decide to look for this place, I can go with you…but first we have to find Sonic. He must be back from his run by now. I'll go look for him!" Tails exclaimed.

"Okay…" Knuckles sighed as Tails flew off.