It was a calm, moonlit night that shined brightly over Angel Island. No flickies were chirping nor were Eggman's badniks causing chaos over the floating land's inhabitants.
Deep into the dense jungle, proudly atop its pedestal the Master Emerald, radiating with mystical energy, stood. And the large jewel's guardian could not be even more content.
Bobbing his head to a tune he hummed lowly, Knuckles the Echidna lie comfortably against one of the pedestal's pillars.
Today had been a day like no other. A day of purely standing out in the open and keeping watch over the jade stabilizer, or in other words, literally nothing. It had been his duty since he was first born to protect the wholesome gem from nutties like Eggman.
But it seemed the echidna could catch a break for once. Last he heard from Tails, Sonic went to pursue him after he went into unknown. Being the stubborn hedgehog he was, he refused to let this case go and now he was one in the same with the doctor; missing without a trace. Knuckles knew this worried Tails, but he knew his friend would return when the moment was right.
"Oh, Knuckie~" A sassy voice called out. Knuckles was immediately put on edge and let out an agonized groan. He knew his break couldn't last forever.
"I have no times for games, Rouge." He flatly replied, opening one eye and not bothering to bat one to his winged rival.
"You never have time for anything, you goof." Rouge sighed, landing on the Master Emerald's smooth surface.
"Of course I don't! I'm trying to keep this thing safe from the hands of people like you!" He shouted, throwing his fist into the ground in anger.
This made Rouge giggle, "It sounds like the poor echidna stayed up too late past his bedtime. I can watch over it for you while you get some shut-eye. Don't worry, I'll make sure no one else can have it."
"Oh, so I can wake up and find it stolen by the hands of you? I know your dirty work, batty, and I don't approve of it." Knuckles muttered to himself and glanced to the bat who had a framed expression.
"Well, I wouldn't say 'stolen', perhaps 'borrow' is a better pronoun. You've always known me to return your precious stone."
This made Knuckles grab his face in anguish, "Because I'm the one to take it back from you!"
"Hmph! You're no fun, sometimes you need to learn to take a joke."
"This isn't funny! The Master Emerald isn't another one of your stupid toys. You serve no right to even be on my island!"
"Fine! If that's how you want to be. I'll take my leave," Rouge responded with a carefree shrug, "and the emerald."
She whispered the last part, making Knuckles oblivious to her true motives. He shot a glare at her before returning to his original stance.
Rouge was a mysterious bat to him, but knew her well enough she didn't come just to tease him. Minutes passed and the more he pondered on the same subject, he grew suspicious. Knuckles took a look back only to come face with an empty pedestal.
"ROUUUGE!"
She was nearly a mile away from the island and snickered when she heard his booming voice. "No pain, no gain!" In her hands was the gleaming Master Emerald as she gracefully flew to a hideout Knuckles had been too on many occasions.
The next day at Mystic Ruins, in the midst of upgrading his Tornado, Tails got a knock on his door.
"I wonder who that could be." He questioned out loud as he grabbed a rag with his namesake and wiped the grease from his golden fur. "Coming!" He stated, reaching the door and then opening it.
Standing on his welcome mat was Knuckles who had an expression that was unreadable to the fox. "Oh, hi, Knuckles. What brings you here?"
"Just wanting to have a talk with a long-time pal. May I come in?" He greeted with a slight wave of his large gloves, a questionable smile on his face.
Tails was confused with the corny attitude, this was so unlike of him. He shook off the thought. "Of course, and sorry about the small mess here. I've been working on a few projects."
"Are you planning on surprising Sonic with them?" He asked, looking at the heaps of scraps bundled in different regions of the household.
"I guess you could put it that way. I was actually wanting to enlighten some of my gadgets before he got back," he directed to his Miles Electric taken apart on a wooden desk, "but you know things have to get worse before they're better."
"Yeah? About Sonic, well… how are you feeling about the whole ordeal?" Knuckles nervously asked, feeling unsure about asking this.
"To be honest with you, I would be more comfortable if I went with him, but duty calls. Vanilla is going out on a business trip and someone needs to watch Cream. I wanted to see if Blaze could, but the Sol Emeralds won't protect themselves."
Knuckles shifted awkwardly when he brought up the case of protecting which made Tails raise a brow in question.
"Knuckles, why are you here really?"
He let out a long sigh, rubbing his temples, "Rouge."
Tails rolled his eyes, "So you want me to help you retrieve the Master Emerald? Again?"
"I'd ask Sonic this time around but he isn't here. In addition, you have the technology I need to find it!"
"Can't you sense its energy like you've done before?" The fox shot back, recalling the fact he could locate the emerald shards.
"Yeah, but that takes too long and your gadgets are so much faster!" The mighty guardian complained, feeling slightly childish.
"Tell you what, I'll help you with this, but I get to tell Sonic this happened again."
"No way! He'll never let that go!"
"Suit yourself." Tails slyly grinned and turned away to set him off.
"Okay, fine! But we need to do something about Rouge. She's too deceptive and this happens way too much than it's supposed to."
"Clearly."
"Shut up! It's not my fault she's too controlling." He growled, raising one of his fists in the air and shaking it with a blind rage.
Ignoring his pitiful attitude, he placed a finger under his chin and thought a moment, "Controlling…? Hey, that gives me an idea!" He beamed, "Remember that one festival that took place in Apotos last year?"
"The one with that hypnotist?"
Tails nodded with a cheeky grin.
"No way! Hypnosis is too cheesy and doesn't work. It's an act and the people on stage were obviously pretending." He said, shaking his head and hands to neglect where he was going with this.
"That's what I thought at first until looking back on one of my past adventures with Sonic at Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park—"
"You refer to the entire name? You're so lame, Tails." He cut off.
"He said it too much and now it's inevitable that I say it! Now as I was saying: Eggman managed to create a mind-control beam with hyper-go-on power, nonetheless hitting me with it according to Sonic. And with all the amazing things our world has to offer, you actually believe hypnosis isn't real?"
"Yep."
"Ugh! Look, I'm saying the best way to go about your problem is hypnotizing Rouge and I have the stuff to do just that. You want me to prove it works?"
"It's worth a try." He mumbled.
"Good." Tails said, propelling his said tails downstairs before fetching an odd looking pocket watch with dozens of small chains and bringing it to Knuckles. The center of it seemed to be enclosed by a bronze lid. Overall, the echidna didn't seem impressed. Tails guided his crimson friend outside where they came across a small blue Chao, nearly identical to Cheese.
"Don't let this fool you, this may look like your normal everyday item to help tell the time, but I included a few enhancements to it."
"How so?" Knuckles crosses his arms in hopes of seeing something remarkable.
"Watch and we'll see." He smirked, looking down at the cute creature, as it looked up at them confused. The fox knelt down and dangled the pendulum inches away from the Chao's small head, opening the lid and showing an array of red spirals that slowly formed and neared into its mind.
Noticing the Chao was immediately captivated, he began to wave it back and forth like so, the same pattern forming in its irises as the eyelids began to lower over time. Seconds passed and the Chao was softly asleep on the ground.
Knuckles, awestruck by this, gazed at Tails with curiosity. "I take back what I said."
"Cool, huh?"
"Is it really that simple?" He gawked, clearly wanting to learn more.
"Ehhh… not so much. It depends on who you put under. Chao don't tend to have such of a high resistance factor. This one went out cold like a flick of a switch. Rouge will be difficult since she isn't flattered easily, but we all know she underestimates you and believes this won't work."
"Why don't you do this often?"
"Hypnosis is a captivating subject, Knuckles. But it's also really dangerous."
"What do you mean?"
"Geez, so many questions, man." Tails groaned before going on some more. "With all this power, you could get overwhelmed. The fact you can command your victim anything is scary and the thought makes my stomach turn. I trust you Knuckles because I would never know you to do the wrong thing. Unless told a lie, which… has happened before." A drop of sweat formed on his forehead, recalling his and Sonic's first time meeting the echidna.
"Please, just hypnotize Rouge to leave the Master Emerald alone. Nothing else!"
Knuckles sighed, "Understood."
Tails fondly smiled, "Thanks, Knuckles."
He shot a questioning glance to the two-tailed wonder, "Thank you? No, thank you! This is a lot of weight off my shoulders and I just can't thank you more, bud!" Knuckles chuckled, giving the fox a light noogie.
Tails giggled, lashing his hands at the echidna's as they were walking back to his workshop. "Let's keep this a secret between us, okay? I don't want this kind of stuff to spread, especially Eggman. People don't believe in this, like you did earlier."
"You have my word. I'll make sure to do what's stated; in and out." He reassured as Tails handed him the device, storing it inside his quills for now.
"Besides, what could happen?"