I don't know why I thought of this fanfic, but I did. I own none of the characters, they all belong to SEGA. I only own this fanfic. Also btw I don't fully understand how the single line breaks work on this site, so forgive me.

Knuckles had been digging underground with his shovel claws, looking for a rare gem Rouge had made him look for after quite a bit of arguing, since she was too tired from lack of sleep to fly. The reason for her lack of sleep wasn't given.

He had been looking for this gem for at least an hour now, and still no luck. Knuckles had found a piece of sapphire, but that wasn't what Rouge wanted. Still, he held onto it since it could have a purpose for who knows what.

Eventually he found a cave, and it was quite a nice view, even in the dark.

There was a swift flowing stream coming from multiple tall and narrow waterfalls, and they reached the ceiling of the cave. It seemed perfect for a photograph. The very dim light that came from a little crack in the ceiling was enough to make the rocks covered in water glisten.

"Maybe this is the place..?" Knuckles said to himself quietly.

He climbed down the ledge he was on, and went on to dig into a wall near one of the waterfalls. He dug for around 6 minutes, but still no gem. Well, not the one he was looking for anyway. He had come across quite a bit of sapphire, all of which he was going to hold onto just like the first one he found that day.

Knuckles growled, "All of this and still nothing... That bat should've gotten her sleep, then I wouldn't be the one dealing with this!"

He was frustrated, and tired… And he missed lunch too. He wouldn't give up though. Even though he wanted nothing more than to go back to the island, eat, rest, and watch the Master Emerald, he needed to find this gem. So he kept digging.

He dug, and dug, and still no gem.

At this point another 20 minutes of digging occurred.

'I'm never going to find this gem..' Knuckles thought to himself, getting pessimistic about this treasure hunt.

After another minute of digging, he found it. It had a pretty bright turquoise hue. It matched the picture Rouge had given him quite well.

"Finally! Now, time to get out of this cave..."

Knuckles then backtracked to the cave with the waterfalls. He was tired from the amount of digging he had done, but he ran anyway to save time, and in no time he was at the waterfall area.

He continued towards the ledge he had been on when he first found the cave. Knuckles climbed up the ledge and entered the the tunnel he had created from digging earlier and continued on his way back to the surface.

~Time skip the rest of the digging cuz that's a lot of digging~

Knuckles had managed to backtrack to where he first began digging for the gem... After a lot of getting lost for an hour since some of the tunnel collapsed while he was in the cave. He was about to climb out of the tunnel, but the light from the opening was suddenly cut off by dirt being poured in. Knuckles could hear a faint voice above him.

"Now you won't trip around here again Tails."

That's what Knuckles was sure he heard, and he was almost certain that was Sonic who said that.

Knuckles let out a loud, annoyed sigh, and started digging through the dirt that was poured in. After a minute of digging, he was finally out.

Once half of his body was out of the tunnel, he laid there, tired from digging for around 2-3 hours non stop. After a few minutes of lying there, he pulled the rest of himself out of the ground and got to his feet.

…

An obnoxious laugh filled the silent air. Bokkun's laugh to be exact.

Knuckles dusted himself off quickly and turned around to see Bokkun flying in front of him.

"What do you want?" Knuckles asked suspiciously.

"I've got a message for you from Dr. Eggman! So pay attention!"

"Greetings, Knuckles! I'd like to meet with you on Angel Island, and I'd like the meeting to be in less than an hour, so make getting here snappy! I'll be waiting."

The message ended… and this is where the TV explodes in his face… Which it didn't for some reason. That's odd.

"Huh? Why isn't it exploding?!" Bokkun shouted, equally, if not more, confused than Knuckles about this.

"Whatever! Just meet Dr. Eggman or else!" And with that, Bokkun flew away.

Knuckles was left to wonder why that didn't explode in his face. Was Eggman becoming good? No, it must be another trick… But what if it wasn't?

'Well, whatever the reason, I need to get this gem to Rouge first.'

And with that, Knuckles headed off towards Angel Island, which is where Rouge was at last.

~Time skipping past Knuckles travelling to Angel Island~

Once he arrived at Angel Island, he heard Rouge's voice,

"So, did you find the gem?"

"I'm pretty sure I did." Knuckles answered, and handed her the gem.

Her eyes widened a bit, and she grabbed it from his gloved hands.

"It's amazing..! Now, I'll be heading off. See ya!"

Knuckles crossed his arms as she flew away.

'Not even a "thank you".'

After a few seconds of standing there, he remembered that he needed to meet with Eggman, so he decided to head towards the shrine to see if he was there first. When Knuckles arrived where the shrine is, Eggman was indeed there.

"Ah! There you are Knuckles, I thought you'd never arrive."

"What do you want Eggman? I have other things I need to do besides stand here and talk with you, you know." Knuckles said crossly, and crossed his arms.

"Really? What could you possibly be busy with?" Eggman asked, completely ignoring Knuckles' question.

Knuckles thought about what he could be busy with. He needed something to eat, but he wouldn't say that.. The Master Emerald!

"I'm suppose to be busy watching the Master Emerald, not talking with you. Now, answer my question; What do you want?"

"Well, I thought you might be hungry of course! I brought some delicious food, and don't think about an excuse, I know you and your friends enough to know when you haven't had food for a while."

Knuckles didn't know whether to be impressed by how well Eggman knew him and his friends, or concerned over how well he knew them.

"You know this how? I am not hungry! And, how can trust your food?" Knuckles asked, eying Eggman distrustfully.

"You do realize I've been around you and your little friends for quite some time, right? I know you're hungry, and you can trust my food because it was made specially for you of course!"

Knuckles just made a grunting noise in his throat as a response.

"Well? Are you going to take any food or not? If you aren't then I'll gladly eat it for you!" Eggman said, and pulled out a basket that Knuckles assumed had food.

...And that was when his stomach betrayed him and growled.

Knuckles sighed quietly, "What food do you have?"

"Oh! I'm glad you asked. Quite a bit of fruit, and sandwiches!"

Knuckles uncrossed his arms and slowly approached Eggman, who had the basket of food.

"This better not poison me, Eggman." Knuckles said in a neutral voice with a threatening undertone.

"Trust me, it won't! Now I'll leave it here for you to eat. I must be off!"

And before Knuckles could say anything, Eggman was gone, and the basket was the only trace of him being there.

"This better not kill me…" Knuckles said to himself.

He opened the basket, half expecting it to blow up in his face, but it didn't. Instead there was quite a bit of fruit and sandwiches, just like Eggman had said.

Knuckles picked up one of the fruits and took a hesitant bite of it. It was delicious! It seemed as though it was picked when it was most ripe.

~Time skip to when Knuckles finishes most of the food cuz it feels weird trying to type food stuff ngl~

Knuckles was full now, and he enjoyed the food greatly. One thing that kept coming to mind was what if the food was poisoned? It was becoming more and more unlikely since he hadn't felt any sort of pain.

After some time of pondering over the whole encounter with Eggman and coming to no conclusion, he decided that rest was deserved.

He laid down in front of the Master Emerald, put his gloved hands behind his head, and relaxed until sleep came along.

I tried, a n d I'll try my best not to let this flop even though this fanfic is me acting on impulse.
Oh, and again, the characters belong to SEGA, not me. I only own this fanfic.