Summertime was in the air since a few days on Bygone Island, with hot days and warm nights. And according to the weatherman, this trend would continue in the next days. That gave an idea to Sonic the Hedgehog, who was thinking about a way to take advantage of these sunny days. "Camping time!" he said to himself, going to his trunk and digging through it until he found his old tent, that he used to sleep outside with Tails in this kind of days.
However the two-tailed fox couldn't do it this time, as he explained to Sonic when he came to propose him a camping night 'like in good old days': "I'd loved to, but I promised a rendezvous to Zooey tonight and she would be disappointed if I told her that I can't in the last minute..."
"No problem buddy", Sonic reassured him, "I'll find someone else. Have fun with your sweetie!" he said to his pal with a wink, before running to his second option.
"I'm sorry but it's not possible", Knuckles the Echidna answered.
"Really? Why?"
"I promised to Sonic the Hedgehog that I'd go camping with him tonight".
Sonic face-palmed himself. His friend's silliness could sometimes reach a point he barely could explain.
"Knuckles, I AM Sonic the Hedgehog! Wait, does that mean you're okay?"
The red echidna briefly consulted his diary. "Well, since I didn't plan any bodybuilding session tonight, I guess I'm in".
"Great!" Sonic rejoiced. "Meet me at the sunset in front of my shack. We'll set the tent in the grass. Wait, do you have bodybuilding sessions… at night?"
"Yeah, for the legs. But I always fall asleep…"
Around 6 pm, the two boys got the tent and pitched it on the grass expense in front of Sonic' shack. "Alright", said the hedgehog, "keep the pole straight while I knock the pegs in". He then started knocking them in with the mallet, but thought about a way to get faster with it. "I have a better idea, I hold the pole while you knock them in!".
"No problem", replied Knuckles who then took charge of the pegs, knocking them in with just his fists and in one punch. They got pretty efficient by building the tent, that was pitched quite fast.
Meanwhile, in the shack nearby Sonic's, Amy Rose was preparing the place for her movie night with her best friend Sticks. Seeing that something had drawn the badger's attention at the window, she came to her. "What's going on?" she asked.
With a smirk, Sticks pointed at the two boys pitching the tent and said on a mischievous tone: "Looks like these two boys want to renew their experience of a night in the nature…" Amy giggled thinking about this much talked-about challenge they did some weeks ago, before proposing: "Let's check out how they deal with".
They came to the boys, who had pitched the tent and started putting their stuff in the inside for the night. "Hey boys, watcha doing?" Amy asked as she came to them with Sticks.
"Isn't it obvious?" Knuckles answered, giving a shrug. "We're pitching the tent".
"I wanted to have a camping night since the weather allows it, but Tails was kind of unavailable tonight, so I took my second pal", Sonic explained. "I'd gladly have proposed you to join us, but this tent is kinda small, especially with Knuckles inside…"
"Nah, not tonight, we had planned a movie night anyway", Sticks replied. "But… are you sure you'd be able to spend the whole night in there?"
"Of course we'll do!" Knuckles exclaimed, crossing arms. "Just like true survivors!"
Both girls burst out laughing. "Seriously? You? True survivors? Do you want us to remind you how was the last time you tried to survive in the nature?"
"It's just for one night, and we have everything next to us in case of emergency".
"I still highly doubt about it…"
"What do you exactly want, girls?" Knuckles started to get impatient. "Are you trying to defy us?"
"We already did it, Knuckles", Sticks answered. "And we beat you hollow", she added with a triumphant grin.
"Talking about that, you could have washed better our laundry", pointed out Amy. "And I'm still waiting for my panties that you lost, Sonic."
"I didn't lose it!" protested the hedgehog, blushing and extremely embarrassed. "I just forgot it… somewhere. But I know where, and I'll get it soon!"
To get out of this uneasy situation, Sonic declared with a grin: "Well girls, since you seem so self-assured, how about a new bet?"
Amy sighed: "Well, I guess it's the only way to start this fanfic so… what is it about?"
"It's quite simple: if Knuckles and I we manage to spent the whole night under the tent, you'll have to wash our cars tomorrow afternoon, under 30 degrees!"
"And if you fail?" asked Sticks.
"Then we'll wash yours."
The girls thought about it before quickly accepting.
"Alright", said Amy.
"I'm in", added Sticks.
After some handshakes to seal the pact, the girls went back to Amy's to finish the setting for the night.
"Yeah! A boys-vs-girls competition! I love it!" said Knuckles in excitement once they were alone.
"Oh believe me, we'll get our revenge", declared Sonic on a low, but evil tone.
A few hours later, the sun had gone down on Bygone Island, and it was time for Sonic and Knuckles to go under the tent to sleep. From their window, Amy and Sticks, who had finished their movie, could see their silhouettes from outside the tent since they had turned on a flashlight. To have some fun, Amy shouted with a mild voice towards the tent: "Good night, brave boys! We'll have a sleep in our warm, comfortable bed!"
Sticks shouted then: "Yeah, good luck with the wind, the cold, the mosquitoes and the beasts!" But the boys laughed at it. As if you could scare us!
The girls then sat back on the couch that they had converted into bed, still keeping an eye on the tent where Sonic had turned off the lights, meaning that they were falling asleep.
"So, how many time do you accord them?" asked Sticks, enthusiastic.
Amy, grinning, looked at her watch before thinking: "Let's say… ten minutes?"
"Oh, you're generous… I'd rather say five."
"Seven and a half?"
"Let's go for it."
They looked back to the tent, waiting for the boys to break and get out… But ten minutes later there was still nothing, just a vague sound of chatting from the tent.
Sticks looked at her wrist. "Damn, they're tougher than we thought! They're already here since ten minutes!".
Amy saw that something was wrong by her friend: "Huh… Sticks, how do you know? You don't have any watch at your wrist…"
"Oh, I'll teach you later how to tell the time on the fur of your wrist."
Twenty-seven minutes later, the boys were still in their tent and didn't gave any sign of fear. Amy couldn't stand it anymore. "That's enough!" she shouted, getting off of the couch. "I won't let these two dummies defeat me!"
She went outside, followed by an intrigued Sticks, and walked some steps on the grass expense. Clearing her throat, she then tried to get a hoarse voice as possible and exclaimed: "Muhahahahaha! This grass area with a tent in the middle will be the perfect place for my night trials of heat-seeking missiles! I'm gonna fire one like… right now!"
But the two boys didn't believe a single second in her attempt to imitate Dr Eggman, and just laughed out loud.
"Hey look, Sonic! Eggman has shrunk, cut his mustache and grown pink hair!"
"Let it go, Amy Rose!" declared Sonic. "You won't fool us this time!"
Amy let out a groan of anger and frustration, and clenching her fists, went back to her doorstep, where Sticks watched her.
"Nice try", said the badger sarcastically.
"You think you'd have done better?" replied the furious pink hedgehog.
Sticks smirked, stood up and winked at her: "I'll show you da wae."
She stood up and started running on all fours on the grass, imitating a wild beast. She included everything: howling, sniffing, panting, snarling, roaring… before giving the 'assault' as she started scratching the canvas.
"Oh look, Sonic! A ferocious and hungry beast!" Knuckles chuckled, pretending to be scared.
"It's that or… a badger trying to frighten us!" said Sonic. He turned on the flashlight, revealing Sticks' silhouette. The badger was blinded and under the surprise, fell backwards. While she got on her feet, she heard Sonic mocking her: "Nice performance, Sticks! Now why wouldn't you go to bed? You'd need some rest for tomorrow…"
Sticks let out the same angry groan as her friend, and both came back indoors. They slammed the door and let themselves collapse on the couch, not even wanting to do anything. They felt like they were losing the bet, and that sickened them. "Why did we even accept to bet against those two kids? We knew they would be ready to anything just to win…" Amy asked herself.
Then they slipped between the blankets, and Amy grumbled: "Great, now we're in line for a car-washing afternoon…"
"There's only one hope left: self-sabotage.", Sticks commented.
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see… at least I hope so."
Sometimes later, Amy heard a low sound from the outside that made her startle. It didn't sound reassuring at all…
"Sticks? Do you hear that? It sounds like a growl… What if there was actually a beast? The boys are in danger!"
"You got it all wrong…" sighed Sticks. "They're just snoring." The two under the tent were in a deep sleep, indeed.
But Sticks didn't knew how right she was about self-sabotage.
Later, around 3 am, while everything was still, Knuckles suddenly woke up. Something had just tilted in his mind. And that wasn't good.
"S… Sonic? Are you sleeping?"
The blue blur was awaken by the panicked voice. He slowly woke up too, yawning and scratching his head, before mumbling: "Well, I was… What's wrong?"
"Do… do you think it's true, what Sticks said? Are there b… beasts in there?"
"Aw c'mon Knuckles, you know it's false! They invented it just to scare us… Now go back to sleep."
"B-but what if there's really a beast?"
"Knuckles, you're wearing me out! Let me sleep!"
It was the moment the wind chose to blow between two close trees, making a sound similar to a howl.
"AAAAH! Did… did you hear that?" The echidna's body was yet trembling in fear.
"It's just the wind! Dammit, won't you calm down?"
But it was too late, fear completely overcame Knuckles and his mind was a mess. Now he felt like things were climbing on him.
"Ah! Something stung me! There's something in my sleeping bag!" He was moving every which way.
"Stop it! You're gonna make it all coll-"
But before Sonic could finish, Knuckles rolled on a side, making the tent's poles fall and some pegs dig. The canvas fell on the two boys. Going out of his sleeping bag, Sonic lifted it and went up on his feet, while Knuckles was still struggling: "Help! Somebody's stifling me…"
Sonic shook his head in exasperation before helping him to get out. Once the echidna was on his feet, he told him off in a low voice not to be heard: "Great job, Knuckles! You completely took it down!"
"Oh I'm so sorry Sonic, I just panicked and…"
"Well now we'd better find a solution! I don't want to lose a second bet because of you!"
"How could we even re-pitch the tent? We don't have light anymore…"
"…Wait, I got it! Come on, take all the stuff and follow me!"
They did so. Luckily for them, the girls had fallen asleep since quite a bit and had therefore heard nothing from their commotion.
Next morning, Amy Rose slowly woke up with the sun shining through the window. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Oh no..." she groaned as she remembered, sitting in the couch-bed, the bet she made the day before and what the losers had to do. Sticks, who got up some seconds ago, walked past the window that faced towards the grass… and couldn't believe what she saw. She let out a delight cry and called her friend: "Amy! Amy! Come up and see!"
"What?" groaned the pink hedgehog. "The aliens have landed?"
"Much better! There!" Sticks replied as she took her by her arm and pointed at the place where the tent was last evening. There was nothing left except a rectangle of smoothed grass.
"Oh my! I can't believe it! They failed!" Amy exclaimed before laughing.
"We did it, we defeat the boys agaaiiin!" sang the two friends, then they did high-fives and a dorky little dance.
"You see? It was no use trying to make them break, they did it all by themselves!" said Sticks with an intense satisfaction.
"I must admit", replied Amy, "I'm pretty impressed by how they try to propose us a bet and yet are unable to win it". She then grinned: "Let's call on them, shall we?"
"I'll follow you", approved Sticks.
The girls went to the nearby shack. Since there was no door, Amy, who walked ahead, entered first and started to say: "Hellooo boys! Well, looks like you-"
She couldn't finish as both her and Sticks gasped in surprise. In front of them, right in the middle of the shack was… the tent, that Sonic and Knuckles had managed to re-pitch. Sonic' head popped from under the front canvas, and the hedgehog greeted them with a mischievous face:
"Helloooo girls! Well, as you see, we just took up the bet!"
Then Knuckles popped out of the tent, throwing up his hands in triumph: "Yeaaaah! Karma right in your face!"
Sticks was the first one to get out of her astonishment. "You cheaters!" she protested in anger. "You were supposed to sleep outdoors!"
"Oh c'mon Sticks, don't be stupid!" replied Knuckles. "We said under the tent, not outdoors!"
"He's right for once, girls", pointed out his blue friend with a blissful smile. "We never precised that the tent had to be outdoors for this bet!"
The two girls were furious. How could have they been this conned?
"Well now, if you don't mind", Sonic added, "our cars won't wash themselves…"
And so Amy and Sticks spent their afternoon under a burning sun, with rags, sponges, brushes and a bucket filled with soapy water, washing Sonic and Knuckles' cars. These were covered with mud and sand dust, due to the multiple car races they did as a hobby, and making the task all the more long and difficult.
Meanwhile, the boys were watching them, sipping a delicious and refreshing homemade cocktail and relaxing on their chaises longues. Tails was with them too, since he had just come back from his night with Zooey; the three were chatting, mostly about the way they won their bet.
"Man, you should have seen their faces as they saw the tent in the shack… It was just priceless!"
"Well, you manage to make them really mad anyway" pointed out Tails, who read the fury in the girl's eyes.
"Oh, don't worry…" Sonic reassured him. "They'll quickly stomach." He then turned to the girls and asked: "Excuse me ladies, would you mind to get faster?"
With rage, Amy threw the sponge she was holding in the soapy water and screamed: "You'll pay for it, Sonic the Hedgehog, I swear!"
"Yeah!" Sticks screamed, "you two are gonna suffer for a very long time!"
"Well then, let's take advantage of our last carefree hours!" replied Sonic, raising his glass and turning to the red echidna.
"To our brilliant and glorious victory, Knuckles!" The two boys clinked their glasses before drinking a gulp of their cocktail. Knuckles then looked back at his glass and seeing that he was still grabbing it, asked in confusion: "Huh… What were we clinking to?"
Sonic sighed but didn't want to interrupt this moment. "Nevermind. Anyway, today we'll have learned something!"
Tails tried to guess: "There's nothing better than getting revenge?"
"No", answered Sonic. "Camping is a bit more comfortable when you do it inside!"
And the three boys launched into a collective laughter, that just added to the girls' rage.
"Oh yeah, I just got what we were clinking to!" Knuckles exclaimed.