Ah summer, a time for warm breezes, blue skies, and relaxation. It was these things that made Sonic the Hedgehog enjoy this part of the year so much. Currently he was spending some of the season bunking at Tails' place. The two had enjoyed watching late night movies, going outside to fly kites, and taking leisurely spins out in the Tornado. Yes, their summer was certainly going good so far.

A knock on the door pulled the cobalt hedgehog out of his musings.

"Yo, Tails, dinner's here!" Sonic yelled, jumping up from the couch and hurrying to the front door.

"I'll be up in a moment!" came the muffled reply from the workshop.

Sonic simply shrugged. When it came to the young genius' affinity for tinkering with things, a 'moment' could last anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Not that Sonic could complain. He was notorious for losing track of time when he was out on a run.

Opening the door, Sonic looked up at the delivery man holding their steaming box of pizza in his hands. It was no chili dog, but it certainly smelled good!

"Y-you're Sonic the Hedgehog!" the man stuttered with widening eyes.

"And here I thought your line was supposed to be 'I have a delivery for a Mr. Miles Prower," Sonic joked, rubbing a finger under the bridge of his nose. He was use to the fanboying. No matter which corner of the world he traveled to, people knew of his adventures.

"O-of course! I'm sorry! It's just, this is my first night on the job and they told me that you were sometimes at this address, but I wasn't sure if it was some joke! But you're here!" he rambled on, "I'm a huge fan, sir! I follow you on the news and everything! W-would you sign my hat, please?"

"Sure thing, but no more of this sir stuff. Sonic's just fine." The speedster laughed, "But I don't have a pen on me."

The delivery man quickly shifted the box to one hand as he dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a writing instrument, "Here, use mine."

He handed him the pen and then his hat with a shaking hand. Sonic quickly scrawled his messy signature across the brim before giving it back.

With a star struck gaze, the delivery man placed the hat back on his head, "Thank you so much, sir -I mean, Sonic!"

"What's your name anyway?"

"Aaron," he said.

"Well then, Aaron, how much do I owe you?"

"Your total is twenty rings," he answered, still looking upon him with awe.

Sonic fished into his sock and pulled out the amount plus a tip, "Thanks for the pizza, Aaron, hope to be seeing you around more."

The man pocketed the rings and passed him the food, "Me too! Have a good night, Sonic."

The hedgehog gave one final wave to the grinning man before turning around and kicking the door shut. Looking down, Sonic, smiled at the box. In curvy, red writing the top read, "Woody's Pizzeria."

He and Tails were frequent customers of Woody's. Heck, they were frequent customers of practically every fast food joint in town! Neither of them were much of cooks nor had the patience to spend an hour or more in the kitchen, so the quick convenience of out to eat often presented itself as an irresistible temptation.

Sonic walked further into the living room and looked around. The area was a relatively small size, snuggly accommodating a red, stained up couch, a coffee table that had seen better day, and a custom made super TV Tails had whipped up himself.

Upon seeing no sign of the fox, Sonic called again, "Come on, bro, or I can't guarantee there will be anything left!"

The sound of a door opening and closing resounded followed shortly by Tails emerging from the hallway, "Yeesh, I'm here, already!"

"Yeah, now that I yelled twice, though I suppose it is a miracle that it only took that many reminders to pull you away from your research," he said, placing the pizza down on the table.

"I can't just drop what I'm doing; I have to reach a stopping point," Tails explained, taking a seat.

"Sure you do," Sonic said rolling his eyes, "Anyway, how is studying the emerald coming along?"

Tails flipped open the lid and pulled out a slice, "Well, the chaos emerald gave off an enormous wave of polar frequencies that completely destroyed the quantum electrodynamic processor of my energy matter scale."

Sonic blinked, "The what destroyed the what?"

One would have thought Tails would've learned by now that all that science jargon flew right over his head, but his buddy always got caught up in explanations and would go geeky on him.

"The emerald is so strong it broke my machine trying to measure how powerful it is," Tails said with a hint of smugness.

"Now I got it." He winked, grabbing a piece of pizza for himself. Taking a huge bite, he continued with a mouth full of food, "If your gizmo hadn't broken, then it probably would have read somewhere around power level infinite."

The yellow fox chuckled, "Yeah probably."

Sonic was just about to grab the remote to change the channel when there was a loud crash! The two looked at each other with equally confused faces as more clattering followed.

"My lab!" Tails yelled, dropping the pizza on his lap. Hissing, he brushed off the burning food and abruptly stood before taking off down the hall.

"Tails, hold up," Sonic called after him to no avail. "Oh boy," he muttered, throwing his own slice in the box before jogging after his friend.

At the end of the hall, the workshop's door was open and the speedster ran inside. The place was a mess! All of Tails' tools were strewn about and his machinery lay in pieces on the floor. Scanning the area, Sonic's eyes landed upon a very familiar form, "Knuckles? What the heck are you doing?"

The echidna didn't so much as turn around and instead wrenched the yellow chaos emerald out of a device, breaking the equipment in the process.

Tails rushed up behind the guardian and tugged on his arm, "Stop it!"

That got a reaction out of him. Knuckles spun around with great speed and wrapped a hand around the kit's forearm. Sonic did not have time to react before he brought the limb down against his leg in a single, powerful movement. A loud snap followed by Tails' scream filled the hero's ears and that was all it took to send him into action. Friend or not, he would not allow Knuckles to hurt Tails!

As his bro stumbled backwards cradling his broken arm, Sonic stepped protectively in front of him.

"Alright, Knucklehead, what gives?" he demanded, clenching his fists, "Why would you go and hurt Tails like that! Did Eggman trick you again?"

"Do not interrupt me from my task, mortal, or you will find yourself unable to stand." The voice definitely belonged to Knux, but the words not so much.

"Mortal?" Sonic repeated.

"I found what I have come for; now stay out of my way!"

"Not gonna happen!" he said, curling into a ball and charging forward in a spin dash! Knuckles ducked out of the way as Sonic flew past him. The speedster straightened out and skidded to a halt!

"Sonic, look out!" Tails yelled from the other side of the room.

He turned around just in time for a steel table to collide square into his chest! The force of it lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing into a shelf! As he hit the ground, all the shelf's contents teetered before tumbling on top of him, leaving Sonic buried above his head in junk.

"You cannot stop the inevitable," he heard the guardian sneer right before something shattered.

Grunting, Sonic pushed the tools off of him and quickly looked around the room. Knuckles was gone.

"Where'd he go?" he asked as he stood unsteadily.

"He left out the window." Tails said motioning with his head to the corner.

"We got to go after him." Sonic said and no sooner grabbed his head as a sharp pain stabbed it. When he withdrew his hand the white glove was stained with red.

"He's long gone," Tails panted, the agony his arm was giving him clearly shown on his face "-and we are in no shape to do anything even if we did catch him."

"Speak for yourself, I've got this!"

"Sonic, I don't think –argh!" Tails squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his arm closer to him.

The speedster looked at the broken window, then back at Tails. He knew what he had to do. Knuckles could wait, for now he'd have to get his buddy to the doctor. And…he honestly felt a little worse for wear himself.

"Don't you go too far, Knux. I'll get the bottom of what's the matter with you soon," he mumbled under his breath before speaking louder, "Do you have a splint lying around, bro?"

AN: About time I posted a fic for the fandom I have been in love with for over a decade. Anyway, please let me know what you think!