Here's the funny thing about adventures- they never start the way you'd expect. Take Kya's, for example. She was walking over to the bus stop to meet up with her friend Michelle, and had just spotted her, when her body was torn into millions of pieces and pulled into another dimension.

See? Bet you weren't expecting that.

Anyway, her body was torn into millions of pieces and she was pulled into another dimension. Of course, there was a large amount of yelling on her part, and it was quite painful. As soon as she got to the new dimension, she flopped down on her back, and groaned. "Dear God that HURT." She said aloud. Her head felt all fuzzy, and she wasn't able to see straight. She took off her glasses and cleaned them on her shirt.

"What the HELL do you think you're DOING?" Kya lifted her head slightly, and looked over to her left. There was a short red thing running towards her, with a blue thing and a weird tan-orange thing that looked kind of like a fox running along behind. They looked familiar, but not, at the same time…Kya knew what she was talking about.

"Oh God…" She groaned…"Today SUCKS." As she was getting up, the red thing reached her, reached down, and grabbed her hair and pulled her so she was sitting up. "Where's the Emerald? Give it back!" The red thing ordered. "Give back the Master Emerald!"

"OW! Let go of my hair, you asshole!" Kya reached up and grabbed the red thing's hand. She dug her nails in, which usually rewarded her with a yelp. Today, the red thing's grip just tightened. "OW! I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Knuckles, let her go!" The blue thing told the red thing. Kya decided she liked the blue thing. "We all saw it, there's no way she could have taken the Master Emerald."

"Yeah? Then where is it?" Knuckles pulled on Kya's hair, and Kya yelped. "She HAD to have taken it!"

"Sonic's right, she didn't take it on purpose. Now let her go, and we can talk to her." The tan-orange thing said.

Knuckles growled, but he relaxed his grip somewhat. "Now, where did the Emerald go?" He barked.

"No clue, man, no clue!" Kya grabbed hold of her hair just below Knuckles's grip, and pulled herself free. She pushed herself away from him, and massaged her head. "First things first-Where am I, and who are you guys?"

"You're on Angel Island, and I'm Tails." Tails told her. "Knuckles is the one who grabbed you, and the other one's Sonic."

"I'm Kya, pleased to meet you. Now that all the pleasantries are out of the way, WHERE THE HELL AM I?" Kya yelled. "WHY DOES THE RED THING HATE ME? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?"

Sonic cringed, and rubbed his ear. "Yelling's not helping, you realize."

"SO?" Kya waved her arms around. "THIS SITUATION REQUIRES YELLING!"

"It might not, actually-" Tails began, when their bodies were torn into millions of pieces and pulled into another dimension.

Bet you weren't expecting that either, were you?

Anyway, they had switched dimensions again. As soon as they touched ground, Knuckles jumped and grabbed Kya's hair again. "See? This proves it! She stole the Emerald, and tried to get away!"

"KYA?" Kya looked around Knuckles, and saw Michelle standing on the corner, mouth hanging wide open.

"Mic-OW! Cut that out!" She told Knuckles, who had just yanked on her hair again. "I told you, I don't know anything about you Emerald!"

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled. "Leave the poor girl alone, and calm down!"

Knuckles begrudgingly let go of Kya, and sat down on the road beside her, "I'm keeping an eye on you." He warned.

"…So?" Kya glared at him. "You're a red furry thing, I'm not afraid."

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles stood up to his full almost three foot height, and glared back at Kya.

"Yeah!" Kya straightened to her –much more impressive- almost six feet, and glared just as hard at Knuckles.

"You two are stopping that now!" Tails yelled. "Knuckles-" He pointed at Knuckles. "We are going to talk to this girl, and find out what happened. Kya-" He pointed at Kya. "Stop bickering with Knuckles. It isn't helping."

"But-" They both began at the same time. Tails cut them both off. "No buts. Kya, can we go to your home and do some tests?"

"Fine, whatever." Kya shrugged. She didn't really feel like arguing with a fox-who, on closer inspection, had two tails- so it was time to go with the flow.

"Good. Knuckles, you can keep guarding her if you like, but no more hair-pulling." Knuckles considered for a moment, and nodded.

"Kya, what the hell is going on?" Michelle had finally come to her senses, and had run over to Kya. "You were walking towards me, and then you disappeared!"

"And stole my Emerald!" Knuckles interrupted.

"Knuckles!" Sonic barked. "Leave her alone!" Knuckles growled, and crossed his arms, but he did as he was told. "Now, c'mon." Sonic said gruffly to Kya. "Do you want your friend to come along?"

"Yeah, but does Knuckles have to come?"

"Hey! YOU stole MY Emerald!" Knuckles protested. "You should be on your knees, begging me to forgive you!"

"Funny then, isn't it? I'm not going to." Kya flashed Knuckles an evil smile, and began walking down the road to her house. Michelle ran to catch up with her, and said in a low voice, "Kya, isn't he Knuckles?"

Kya looked over her shoulder, and then back at Michelle. "How do you know his name?"

"Kya, he's KNUCKLES." Seeing Kya's blank look, Michelle sighed. "The ECHIDNA."

Kya gasped, and turned around again. "He IS! And, and and, that's Sonic! And Tails!" She snapped her fingers. "They're talking about the Master Emerald! OH my God, how come I didn't recognize them, and you did?"

"I have a better question." Sonic and Tails had caught up and were walking along beside them, with Knuckles tailing behind. "How come you recognize us?" Sonic asked Michelle.

"You're Sonic." Kya interrupted.

"Yes…" Sonic said, clearly waiting for more. "And…?"

Kya rolled her eyes. "The HEDGEHOG."

"So?" Sonic crossed his arms.

Kya opened her mouth to say something, when suddenly pain shot up in her head so badly she almost fell over. "Ow…" She groaned, holding her head. A dagger of pain dug further into her head, and she did fall over.

"Kya!" She heard Michelle cry, just before she hit something soft. Looking down, she saw red arms holding her, and then she passed out.

Kya shot up in bed suddenly. "Lucas!" She yelled, before blinding pain in her head forced her to lie down again. She yelled again from the bed, "Lucas!"

"Shh, shh honey, he's at work." Michelle was sitting beside her bed with a damp washcloth. "Don't worry, I'm here."

"What happened?" Kya croaked as Michelle was her forehead with the cloth. "Why does my head hurt so much?"

"You passed out when we were walking home, and Knuckles caught you. He carried you here, and put you in your bed. You've been unconscious for the past two hours.

"Why…" Was all she managed to say, before the pain in her head made her stop.

"We don't know. Tails thinks it's a side effect from the dimension hopping, and it should go away soon. He wanted to do some tests to make sure, but I didn't let him."

"Where is everyone?" Kya asked, sitting up a bit. Her head stopped pounding, and it didn't hurt nearly as much as before.

"Sonic and Tails are downstairs, and Knuckles is-" She didn't manage to finish her sentence before Knuckles burst into the room.

"Is she awake?" He asked. Seeing that she was, he immediately asked, "What did you do with the Emerald?"

"I told you, I have no idea what happened to the Master Emerald!" Kya groaned, falling back on her bed.

"Kya?" Tails and Sonic poked their heads into her room, and seeing that she was fine, came in. "Kya, if we can get some blood testing equipment, we can find out what happened to you." Tails said. "And the Master Emerald." He said quickly, seeing Knuckles open his mouth.

"Um, my neighbour has diabetes, go ask him for his stuff, maybe." Kya said, putting her hands behind her head. "It might work; otherwise we'll have to go to a hospital."

"Great. Let's go." Tails turned to leave, and turned around again. "Where does your neighbour live?"

"I'll take you." Michelle interrupted before Kya could open her mouth. "Sonic, Knuckles, I want Kya to get some sleep, so you come along with us."

"No!" Knuckles protested. "She's trying to steal the Emerald! I need to watch her, to make sure she doesn't try and run away!"

"Ugh, I'm not trying to steal your damn Emerald!" Kya said, covering her eyes with her hands. "I'm going to try and take a nap!" She turned over and buried her head underneath her blankets. "Go. Now. Stop the pain." They could hear her muffled speech.

Michelle shrugged, and led Sonic and Tails out of the room. Knuckles sat down on the floor across from Kya's bed, and watched her. After a few minutes of this, Kya said, "I wanted to say thanks."

That, quite honestly, being the last thing Knuckles expected her to say, confused Knuckles quite a bit. He thought for a while, trying to come up with a deep and thought provoking response. He finally settled with, "You're welcome."

"Don't you want to know what I'm thanking you for?" Kya sat up in bed, a teasing smile on her face.

Knuckles blushed and shook his head, then changed his mind and nodded.

Kya laughed, and said, "For catching me when I fainted. That was really nice of you, considering that you thought I stole your Emerald."

"Again, you're welcome." They both fell silent.

After a few more moments, Knuckles broke the silence. "Jeez, how far away does your neighbour live, anyway?"

"Not that far, but they're probably trying to convince him to lend us his blood-testing equipment." Kya snuggled into her bed again. "I really wasn't trying to steal your Emerald, you know." She said. "I know how much it means to you."

"How?" Knuckles asked, clearly confused. Before Kya could answer, Sonic burst into the room.

"We got the stuff!" He said proudly. Tails and Michelle came into the room, laden down with equipment.

"Kya, we're going to take some blood, and do some tests on it. Tails says he knows what he's doing, so I'm letting him handle it." Michelle said, coming over and poking Kya in the arm with a needle.

"Ow…" Kya said, rubbing her arm after Michelle pulled the needle out. "That hurt. Anyway, I'm going to take a nap now, do the tests and tell me the results when I wake up." She closed her eyes, and heard everyone very loudly try to get out of her room quietly. Except Knuckles, of course. He made as much noise as possible, saying things like, "She's not asleep yet, we don't need to be quiet!" Eventually, Sonic and Tails got him out of the room, and Kya fell into a much deserved sleep.

When Kya woke up again, Knuckles was in her room, glaring at her. "Oh God, what did I do now?" She asked, whimpering a little. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"Because you stole the Emerald!" Knuckles barked, standing up quickly. "You did SOMETHING to the Emerald, and stole it!"

"You know what? I'm not taking this attitude from you." Kya struggled to sit up in bed, and failed. After a few tries, she managed to swing her legs over the side and get out of bed. Glaring at Knuckles the entire time, she stumbled out of the room and downstairs.

Her older brother Lucas was sitting at the table, head buried in his hands. "Hey Lu…" Kya said, dragging out the final syllable in his name. "How's it shaking?"

Lucas looked at Kya with blood-shot eyes. "You are aware the little red thing is following you again."

Kya whirled around, and saw Knuckles dart behind a corner. "Knuckles, stop it." She turned back to her brother. "So, I take it you know about the whole, 'traveling to another dimension' thing?"

"Kya, do you want to know who told me about you going to another dimension?" Lucas stood up and went over to the sink, where he started to wash dishes. "A fox. With two tails. His friend, the bright blue hedgehog, helped explain as well." He sighed, and wiped absentmindedly at his forehead. "That fact that they were characters in a video game I played as a child really helped convince me I wasn't on drugs."

"Yeah, um, sorry about that. Where are Sonic and Tails, anyway?" Kya rubbed the back of her neck and blushed, embarrassed that she had to ask that question.

"They're in the living room, playing that collection of Sonic games you have for the PS2." Lucas laughed and shook his head. "The fact that there's a video game series about them blew their minds. You haven't lived until you've seen a thoroughly confused blue anthropomorphic hedgehog."

Kya laughed, and went into the living room, Knuckles skulking behind. Sonic was waving around the game controller, when Tails began yelling, "No, no, it's the X button to jump, you moron!"

Sonic yelled back, "I know that, idiot!" He then stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth and proceeded to ignore the rest of them.

Tails turned to Kya with an indignant look on his face. "Why didn't you tell us there's a video game series based on us?" He demanded.

"Video game?" Knuckles topped hiding behind the door and spying on Kya, and came into the room, where he was immediately distracted by the television. "Oooh…" He said, walking towards the screen. "Hey, you're…you."

"Engh," said Sonic, who was completely and utterly absorbed in the game. "Die evil robot, die!"

Knuckles sat down on the floor, and began to yell advice at Sonic. Tails and Kya watched him for a moment, then started up their conversation again.

"Well, I had more pressing issues on my mind. Speaking of which, what exactly happened?" Kya frowned and crossed her arms.

Tails sighed, and beckoned her into a part of the living room further away from the television. "Knuckles, you should come too." Looking at Kya, he explained, "Knuckles wouldn't leave your door when you were asleep because he was guarding you. He's as in the dark as you are."

Kya sat on the floor and steepled her fingers. "I'm not sure if I'm touched or just creeped out." Knuckles, after watching Sonic fall into a pool of water and die, came and sat beside Kya.

"What happened to the Emerald?" were the first words out of his mouth. "If Kya didn't steal it, then where did it go? And, why wouldn't she steal it? Is there something wrong with it?"

"Knuckles, let me fin- no, let me START my story." Tails sat down in front of the pair, when Lucas entered the room.

"This sounds like something a legal guardian should hear about." He said in answer to everyone's questioning looks "Go on Tails, no one's stopping ya."

Tails glared at everyone for a second, and began. "Kya, when you were pulled into our world, you had a reaction with the Master Emerald."

"Hold on just a sec here." Lucas interrupted. "It's been a while since I've played the games- what does the Master Emerald DO exactly?"

"It does everything." Knuckles said before Tails could open his mouth. "It has the power to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds, and to control them as well. It has unlimited power, and it is my duty to guard that power and not let it fall into the wrong hands." Here he glared at Kya briefly before continuing. "No one knows exactly what it can do, that knowledge was lost."

"When the ancient Echidna Tribe died, they took their secrets with them." Kya interrupted. Knuckles gazed at her for a moment, until she stuck her tongue out at him. Then, the moment was lost.

"Yes, well, anyway, Kya was fused with the Master Emerald." Tails continued, annoyed that everyone was interrupting his story. "Thus following, she has the powers that the Master Emerald has."

Everyone mulled that over for a moment, and then it hit Kya and Knuckles at the same time. "It did WHAT now?" They both shot up and yelled.

"I'm a really big rock?" Kya yelled tearfully.

"SHE'S the Master Emerald?" Knuckles yelled angrily. As Tails nodded meekly, Knuckles flew into a bit of a blind rage. We won't tell you what he did, or what he broke, but let it suffice to say that Kya and Lucas needed a new light…on the ceiling.

Once they managed to calm Knuckles down (it involved a few knocks to the head, courtesy of Kya and Lucas) he was rational enough to answer the question, "How the hell do we get it outta her?"

"Yeah, how the hell DO we get it outta me?" Kya asked anxiously.

Tails looked down at his feet. "Well, now see, the thing here is," He told the floor, "We can't, not really. It's infused with every one of your cells."

"Okay…" Knuckles said, rubbing his chin. "Now, roughly, how many cells does she have? Ten? Fifteen?"

"Tens of thousands." Tails said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And the Master Emerald is inside each of them."

"BOOH YA!" Sonic yelled from the other side of the room. He had just beaten the Flying Battery Zone in Sonic and Knuckles, so he was very happy. He hadn't heard anything the group on the other side of the room had said, and he didn't really care. This doesn't have anything to do with the story, but Sonic hadn't said anything in a while, so that was his input on the whole situation.

"Okay…" Knuckles said again, completely ignoring Sonic, "So can we just take the fragments out of the cells and put them in a pile, or what?"

Everyone stared at Knuckles for a moment. After a while, Lucas said, "I don't remember you being so utterly retarded when I played the games as a kid."

"What? It was an honest question!" Knuckles threw his hands up in the air as everyone sighed and died a little bit inside. "Let's go already, huh? I wanna get my Emerald and go home!"

"Knuckles, there are three things wrong with your plan. One- It's physically impossible. Two- Even if it WERE possible (which it isn't), Kya would die. There is no way she wouldn't. Three- We have no idea how we got here. We also have no idea how to get home." Tails explained.

"Oh." Knuckles said, looking down at his feet. He looked so broken-hearted that Kya wanted to hug him, and almost went to, when she heard his voice. Inside her head.

Now I'll never get the Master Emerald, and I'll be stuck here forever…

She looked at him quizzically. "Do that again." She ordered.

"…Do what?" He asked, confused. "Look at my feet?"

"No, that thing where I could read your mind." Kya insisted. "Do that again."

"…Huh?"

"OH!" Tails said suddenly, so loudly Lucas jumped a bit. But before Lucas could yell at him for making him look stupid, Tails began chattering excitedly. "Knuckles, do you remember that time the Master Emerald broke, and Angel Island came crashing down, and you had to go find the Emerald? Course you do, you couldn't forget that. Anyway, you were able to find the Emerald then, with that weird Emerald sense! You were able to get INTO its mind, but since it's an emerald, you weren't able to read its nonexistent thoughts, so you never realized you had this ability, but now since Kya IS the Emerald, she's able to hear your thoughts, and, by all likelihood, you should be able to read hers!" Tails finished, completely out of breath and more than a little proud of himself.

"…Huh?" This time, it was Kya and Lucas.

"No, wait, I get it!" Knuckles (somehow ignoring the fact that he had gloves on) snapped his fingers. "Kya, think something at me!"

I really like the colour blue. The thought rang loud and clear in Knuckles's mind. He looked at her, frowning a bit. "That's seriously the best you could come up with?"

"At the moment, yes."

That moment, they were interrupted by Sonic. "Hey, uh, Kya?" Lucas? Your television just told me that there's a government warning. What does that mean?"

"What?" Lucas strode across the room, and sat down in a chair in front of the television. He watched the screen intently. Sonic had stopped playing the video game and had turned on the news.

"If you are just tuning into our broadcast, a giant ROBOT is attacking the nearby city. You are advised to stay inside, and DO NOT LEAVE for any reason. The police force is doing what it can to stop the robot, but so far, attempts prove futile."

Sonic glanced at Tails. "Eggman?"

"Gotta be. Knuckles, you stay here and guard Kya. She might be what Robotnik's looking for." Sonic and Tails ran out the front door, disappearing in about two and a half seconds.

"The robot has reached the mayor's office, and- Oh my God, what the hell is THAT thing?" They turned back to the television, and saw on the live video feed that Sonic and Tails had reached the robot, and were attacking it.

"Folks, this just in- what's attacking the robot is- and this is according to Timmy the tech-boy- Sonic the Hedgehog, with his friend Tails the Fox- wait, hold on." The reported was holding his ear piece and listening intently. "Timmy's wrong, the blue thing is a government weapon, and the flying orange thing is a supplies carrier."

They all watched, as Sonic and Tails fought Robotnik, and let out a cheer as they won. "I knew they could do it!" Knuckles exclaimed. "But, what's that stuff about Sonic being a weapon?"

"Think for a minute. People aren't going to believe that a character from a video game is fighting a robot in the city." Lucas crossed his arms and grinned. "Still, that would be kick-ass."

"Tails was right, by the way." Sonic said, skidding in the front door. "Eggman was after Kya."

Lucas frowned at what was being down to his floor, while Kya asked, "Because I'm the Emerald?"

"Yeah." Tails said ,flying in the door. "Also, the seven Chaos Emeralds made it through as well. Sonic, we have to find them before Robotnik does."

"Right." Sonic nodded as he spoke. "Knuckles, we need you to guard the Master Emerald- Er, I mean Kya."

"Right." Knuckles nodded.

"Wait a minute!" Kya yelled. "Don't I have any say in this? I don't need to be guarded!"

"Kya, you don't know what Robotnik would do to get a hold of you." Knuckles said seriously. "It's very likely that you're the most powerful thing on the planet right now. You have the power to create and destroy worlds, you can do anything."

"…Really?" Kya looked at her hands in amazement. "Wow…"

"Um, that's not exactly correct." Tails said, butting in. "It's seems that the Master Emerald is too diluted to really have any powers."

"So, what you're saying is that I don't get squat." Kya sat down on a chair and plopped her head in her hands. "Dang, I thought I was going to be something cool."

"To be fair, you can read Knuckles's mind." Lucas sat on the armrest and rubbed her back.

"Not much in there, but it's something." Sonic told her kindly.

"HEY!"

"Anyway, Sonic, we should start looking for the Chaos Emeralds." Tails interrupted before a fight could break out.

"Yeah." Sonic nodded. "Well, gotta go!" He dashed out the door without a glance back.

"Hey! Sonic! Wait up a sec!" Tails turned back to the group. "We'll be coming back every once in a while, to let you know how our progress is going. We'll find a way to fix this, don't worry!" He flew out the door, yelling, "Wait up Sonic!"

Lucas, Kya and Knuckles all stared at each other. After a few moments of this, Lucas said, "Well, this is awkward. Kya, go get some dinner. I don't feel like cooking." He took his wallet out of his pants and threw it at his sister. With that, he went into his room and closed the door.

This left only Kya and Knuckles staring at each other. "So, do you still think I'm going to steal the Master Emerald, considering that I AM the Master Emerald?" Kya asked.

Knuckles shrugged. "Since Tails said it wasn't your fault, and that there is no way you could have done it on purpose, I'm inclined to believe him. So, no, I'm sure the Master Emerald is fine within your capable hands." He gave a mocking bow.

"Well, good then." That left them again just standing in the living room. Kya hummed a bit. "Well, I'm going to go get dinner." Kya said, going to the door and putting on her jacket.

"Whoa!" Knuckles ran so he was in between her and the door. "Where do you think YOU'RE going?"

"…To get some dinner. Now move, I'm hungry."

"No! You're the most powerful person on the planet! I have to guard you!"

Kya glared at Knuckles. "What did we JUST talk about? You said you weren't going to be all creepy-possessive!"

"No, I said I wasn't going to worry about you stealing the Master Emerald." Knuckles corrected. "I didn't say anything about guarding the Emerald from people who want to steal it, such as Robotnik."

Kya sighed, and gently nudged Knuckles out of the way. "Whatever. Let's go."

After a brief incident at the fast food place, involving an old lady and her dog, Knuckles and Kya had gotten dinner for everyone. Kya rode her bike, dinner in the basket, while Knuckles glided behind her.

"Stop being so paranoid!" She called over her shoulder. "It's really creepy!"

"I'm not being paranoid, I'm being cautious!" He yelled back, surveying the area. "Watch out for that pothole!"

Kya smiled as she swerved to avoid said pothole. "Are you going to do this from now on?"

"Until we get the Master Emerald back on Angel Island, yes."

"Well, that su-!" Kya's voice cut off suddenly as she hit a huge dip in the road. As she zigzagged her bike, trying not to fall, she overshot and crashed into a tree. "OW!"

"Kya!" Knuckles swooped down and landed beside her gracefully. "Are you alright? Do you think the Emerald's okay?"

"Emerald's fine, ankle's not so hot." Kya winced as she pushed herself off the grass. "Bike could be better, and I don't want to even THINK about our food."

"Can you walk? Here." Without waiting for her to answer, Knuckles picked up Kya in one hand and her bike in the other. "If your ankle's hurt, you shouldn't be walking." He said over her protestations. "Don't worry; I'm as strong as Sonic is fast. I won't drop you."

Only a few dozen people stopped and stared as Kya was carried down the street by a bright red echidna carrying a bicycle, so she thanked God for small favours.