hey guys! thank you so much for the reviews and favs, i was totally not expecting them but they made my day! i hope you enjoy this next chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it.


It was hard for Amy to imagine anything more embarrassing than this.

Actually, she realized that when she thought about it long enough, it wasn't hard at all to imagine something more embarrassing than this. Much more embarrassing. Still, that didn't take away from the fact that this was a decidedly very embarrassing situation.

"Amy, when I said not to use the hammer on me, that kinda implicitly meant the whole team," Sonic said as he hoisted Knuckles' limp, unconscious body into the backseat of the Tornado. The red guardian looked almost peaceful as he slumped helplessly into the seat, despite the accidental beating he'd gotten not too long ago. Sitting next to him was Amy, who winced at the sound of Sonic's words. The resulting shame that struck her felt like the ripping of a band-aid off a barely healed wound. Did he have to bring it up again?

They'd been forced to cut the battle short, at Sonic's insistence, once it became clear that Knuckles wasn't getting up anytime soon. It took about 5 seconds to come up with a plan: Sonic and Tails immediately changed their tactics, aiming their coordinated attacks directly at the Egg Mobile, while Amy carried Knuckles to safety, out of the center field of the battle. Miraculously, this worked, damaging the Egg Mobile enough that the Doctor had no choice but to surrender. After Dr. Eggman had scurried away in defeat, he stopped summoning the robots, and the three of them were easily able to finish off the remaining ones and take Knuckles back to the Tornado, which was parked not too far away.

Amy had to admit she was impressed, and a little proud of the way they'd handled the situation so efficiently - leave it to Sonic to come up with a plan that fast. She doubted that Sonic and Tails felt the same way, though. Even after her profuse apologizing, there was still a noticeable tension in the air, and they hadn't really talked much on the way to the Tornado. Amy was getting the impression that they were annoyed with her, or worse, disappointed in her. She had been so excited to help fight today, and now she was worried that her friends might regret inviting her. She had to admit that stung, especially coming from Sonic…

Even though the two hedgehogs had known each other for years, deep down she still idolized him, the same way she did when she was a little girl who only knew of his existence via a newspaper article. She'd kept a perfectly cut out copy of the article in her drawer, and she must have spent hours gazing at the smiling boy in the black and white photo, the word "HERO" bolded in the headline. Amy didn't even know who Dr. Eggman was at the time –at her young age, she was mostly oblivious to all the injustice in the world – but ever since then, she had dreamed of becoming a hero herself. It seemed like the coolest thing in the world!

So much for that, Amy thought as her mind focused back on the present, where she wasn't safe at home in her room anymore, fantasizing about being a hero. Now she actually was a hero, sitting in the sweaty, cramped seat of a biplane, the exhaust fumes stinging her eyes, with a guy that she'd just knocked out cold leaning against her shoulder. Well, Knuckles wasn't just any guy – he was technically one of her closest friends, but he really tested Amy's patience sometimes. Or, if she was honest with herself, almost all the time. Out of all of their friends, Knuckles was definitely not going to win an award for "Best Teamwork Skills". He always wanted to do things his way, and his way was almost never the same as anyone else's way (or most importantly, Amy's way). He can be such a jerk sometimes! But even a jerk like him deserves an apology…

"Tails." Amy tapped the boy's shoulder to get his attention. He was sitting in front of her in the pilot's seat, fiddling with the plane controls before they took off. "Do you think he's going to be okay?" Tails turned around to face her, and she glanced over at Knuckles, the guilt noticeable on her face.

Tails nodded sympathetically. "He'll be fine, Amy. He's a little bruised and he hit his head pretty hard, but he'll feel better with some rest. Besides, it was an accident."

"Yeah Amy, don't feel too bad," Sonic said, now climbing onto the plane's wing, "He's a tough guy, he's handled worse than this. Sure, he might be a little pissed when he wakes up but…" He shrugged.

He tells me not to feel bad and then says something like that? "Sonic, if I remember correctly," Amy said innocently, "I told you I couldn't promise not to use the hammer on you…"

Tails closed his eyes and shook his head in mock disappointment. "Sonic, you should have made her promise."

"That's right," Amy said, feigning seriousness, "It's a requirement if you want to be safe from my hammer." She tried to keep a straight face at Sonic's very taken aback reaction.

Sonic crossed his arms. "We have hammer safety precautions now? Well, if you insist." He jumped off the plane's wing and dashed over to the side of the plane where Amy sat, holding out his finger. "Alright Amy, do you pinky promise not to use your hammer on any of our teammates?"

Amy placed her pointer finger on her chin and looked up at the clouds, pretending to think, while attempting to suppress her laughter. "Hmm. I suppose," Amy said. She held out her little finger and interlocked it with Sonic's, trying to ignore the sparks of electricity that shot through her body whenever she made physical contact with him… "I promise."

Sonic seemed satisfied with that answer. "Awesome," he said, and within a few seconds he was perched in his usual spot on the plane's wing. "Tails, we ready for takeoff?"

"Yep! Amy, do you want us to take you home?"

"Yeah," Amy replied, just before something occurred to her. "Hey, I feel really bad about what happened to Knuckles…I'll take him to my house and look after his injuries until he gets better. I know you guys are busy, and it's the least I can do." And I might as well take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of some of the burned cookies. "If you two want, you can stop by. I made cookies!"

Sonic and Tails were the farthest thing away from picky eaters, and they would pretty much eat anything Amy made, even if it was burned. For whatever reason, Tails seemed to like them that way. He called them "extra crispy."

Tails turned around briefly to look at her with wide eyes. "Cookies! Sonic, can we go?"

"Tails, we still have to look for the emerald," Sonic started, but when he saw the eager looks on his friends' faces, he changed his mind. "Well okay, we can go I guess. But just for a little bit."

"Yay!" Tails beamed as the plane finally took off. "Amy, what kind of cookies are they? Are they chocolate chunk?" he asked excitedly over the sputtering of the engine.

"Tails, you just had ice cream," Sonic interjected. "And you ate like, three scoops."

"Yeah, but it's not the same!" Tails protested. "And you probably ate five scoops."

Amy giggled to herself as the two brothers began to debate the superiority of cookies versus ice cream. The conversation faded into the background as she looked down at the ground below, watching the trees grow smaller and smaller, the people almost disappearing. The cool rush of wind as they flew through the air was a welcome relief from the sweltering humidity of the ground below. Amy suddenly wished she could ride in the plane more often. No wonder Tails likes flying so much!

She felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest – Sonic and Tails didn't seem to be that mad at her after all. And Knuckles... Amy looked over at the echidna resting on her shoulder. She was confident she was going to find a way to make it up to him. Everything was going to be fine.

"Hey, Ames, you good?" Sonic shouted from the wing. He turned around to flash her a big grin and a thumbs up. Amy felt the butterflies in her stomach starting to form again. He was just so dreamy… no Amy, stop, she berated herself. This isn't the time for this! Stop staring at him!

"Oh, um, I'm great," Amy said, returning the smile. "I'm just enjoying the view."


The world was spinning, but it wasn't supposed to be.

Am I dead?

Knuckles slowly blinked open his eyes and cringed as they adjusted to the light. Where was Eggman? The fight was over?

He sat up, realizing that he was in some sort of bedroom, laying on a bed with soft pastel pink sheets and fluffy pillows. The room was tainted with a faint smell of smoke. He recognized the slightly blurry figures, one blue, one yellow, sitting across from him on a white couch. They were both huddled over Tails' Miles Electric, snickering at something on the screen, while intermittently eating what appeared to be the charred remains of a being from the depths of hell.

"Tails, play the video again," Sonic was saying. Knuckles heard the faint screams of their arch-nemesis coming from the device, and Sonic and Tails burst into laughter again. "Man, who knew Eggman had pink pajamas!"

Knuckles came to the conclusion that he was not, in fact, dead. There was no way that the afterlife could be this disappointing. With a weak voice, he managed to croak out-

"All you guys do is eat?"

His two friends immediately looked up from the device and rushed over to the side of the bed to greet him.

Sonic smirked. "Glad to see you're up, dude."

"Knuckles, how are you feeling?" Tails said, placing a hand on the red echidna's arm. "We were all so worried-"

"Tails, don't lie to him."

Knuckles felt fine, if a bit disoriented. To be honest, he couldn't remember what had happened. What he did remember was the enormous responsibility that he'd carelessly abandoned earlier thanks to these two… "Where's the Master Emerald?"

"You certainly seem to have your priorities in order," Tails remarked. "It's probably exactly where you left it."

Knuckles was starting to worry now. "How long was I out?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer. He couldn't afford to leave the Emerald alone for so long, especially when something was clearly not right with it…

Sonic chuckled. "Like an hour. Amy got you pretty good."

Knuckles frowned- not like he wasn't frowning before, but now he was frowning even harder. It was all coming back to him now. Amy Rose, aka the most annoying hedgehog girl he'd ever had the misfortune to meet. Sure, they were friends … sort of, but she was probably the most useless member on the team. All she ever did was complain and call anyone who dared to disagree with her an idiot, which usually happened to be Knuckles. Not to mention that she barely knew how to fight until recently, and while she had improved, she obviously didn't know the first thing about battle strategy. What kind of airhead hits their own teammate instead of the enemy?

It was hard for Knuckles to imagine anything more embarrassing than this. He'd been knocked out for an hour by a little girl. All she does is get in the way! Why had she even been there? Did Sonic call her for backup? Admittedly, there were a lot of robots, more than usual, but the three of them could have handled it themselves! And now, he'd spent another hour separated from the Master Emerald because of her! Knuckles felt the stirrings of anger growing in the pit of his stomach.

Tails, apparently noticing Knuckles' hostile expression, offered him the plate of "food" that was sitting on the dresser. "Knuckles, do you want some cookies? Amy made them… I mean, they're a little burnt, but they taste fine. They're just crispy."

"Tails," Knuckles said in disbelief, "they are black."

Sonic shrugged as he picked up another cookie from the plate. "It's edible, and I'm not the kind of guy to turn down free food."

"Amy is such a good cook," Tails said admiringly. "She has cookies that aren't burnt, but she wouldn't let us eat them. I guess they're for someone else." He took another bite of his cookie, looking very pleased. "Hey, Sonic, are you gonna marry Amy?"

Sonic nearly choked. "Are you kidding?"

"Well, I was thinking," Tails said matter-of-factly, "If you and Amy got married, then she could live with us and bake cookies all the time."

Sonic patted the little fox's head, amused. "That's… not exactly how a marriage works, buddy."

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "Aren't we forgetting something important? The chaos emerald?" He tried to get up from the bed, but Sonic and Tails held him back. Knuckles grimaced as he felt a dull ache in his spine.

"Whoa, slow down soldier," Sonic said.

"You're still a little bruised from the accident," Tails explained. "We don't want you to overexert yourself, so you're going to stay here with Amy for a little bit while Sonic and I look for the emerald."

Knuckles bristled with irritation. "Overexert myself?! I'm FINE!" And there was no way he was going to be stuck in the house with this little pink brat! He had a responsibility to guard the Master Emerald, injuries or not. Were they just trying to get rid of him?

Just at that moment, the aforementioned pink brat walked into the room, accompanied by Cream, both of them covered in soot. "Cream," she was saying, "I thought I told you not to use the oven by yourself-" She gasped when she saw Knuckles. "Oh good, you're up!"

Knuckles couldn't stop himself before he blurted out, "No thanks to you!" Sonic and Tails looked at each other nervously, and Amy's expression immediately darkened. "Amy, what gives?"

"It was an accident," Amy said lowly, placing her hands on her hips. "And I already told you I was sorry."

"Yeah, well, 'sorry' isn't gonna cut it!" Knuckles snapped. "Do you realize that I needed to be back home ages ago? Something's wrong with the Master Emerald and who knows what could have happened to it!"

Amy looked rather ashamed. "I- I'm sorry, Knuckles, I didn't know. And I didn't mean to hit you, promise! Maybe I was just distracted by something-"

"Or someone," Knuckles retorted. Amy flushed a brighter pink than she usually was, and Knuckles realized that he had struck a nerve.

"I take that back! I was not distracted! Maybe if you hadn't been in my way-"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "How was I in your way? I didn't even know you were coming! You were in my way!"

"You didn't know I was coming? Sonic didn't tell you?" Amy said sharply, looking as though she was about to summon her hammer any second. "Whatever, I'm a part of the team, you idiot!"

"Yeah, Team Rose," Knuckles shot back.

Amy looked like she was about to say something else, but Cream grabbed her hand. "Amy, Mr. Knuckles, please don't fight…" she pleaded, looking between her two older friends. Cream looked like a little doll, even though her dress and apron were covered in grime. It was hard to say no to her, and Knuckles felt his anger subsiding. Amy's expression softened, but she still glared at Knuckles as though she was trying to shoot lasers out of her eyes.

"Come on guys," Sonic said, trying to ease the tension. "It was just a misunderstanding. Knuckles, I thought you knew I was gonna call Amy, but it doesn't matter. The two of you are going to work this out, okay?" He placed his hand on Knuckles' shoulder and spoke as though he was addressing the entire room. "But we still have a mission to complete. One of the chaos emeralds is missing in action, so Tails and I are going to find another emerald to run some tests."

"Oh…" Amy said. "But where exactly are you going to find another emerald?"

"According to my chaos emerald detector," Tails said, now staring intently at the Miles Electric, "There seems to be a chaos emerald somewhere in GUN headquarters…"

Knuckles interrupted him. "What about the Master Emerald?"

"Well, since Amy has generously agreed to let you stay at her house until you recover, I guess we can go check that out first," Tails replied. He looked to his older brother for confirmation and Sonic nodded.

Is he serious? "Generously"?! She's the reason I have to recover in the first place! Knuckles felt himself growing very annoyed again. They were just going to leave him here, so they could watch his emerald!

As if Sonic had read his mind, the blue hedgehog said in a sing-song voice, "It's okay, Knucklehead, we'll make sure your baby is safe!"

"We had better get going," Tails said, with a hint of concern in his voice. "It's going to be dark soon, and then it'll be harder to fly."

"Well, we're off then. See ya!" Sonic gave a two-finger salute and rushed out of the room.

"Bye! Thanks for the cookies, Amy!" Tails said, following after him.

Knuckles, Amy, and Cream stood in silence, listening to the front door open and slam shut, and the subsequent rumbling of the plane's engine. It must have been a good two minutes before Amy finally spoke.

"I need to shower," she muttered, and walked out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Cream stared at the now-closed door for a few seconds before she tentatively made her way over to the side of Knuckles' bed. "Mr. Knuckles, do you want some cookies?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few freshly made, definitely not burnt chocolate cookies, wrapped in paper and a satin ribbon. "They're supposed to be for the chao ceremony tonight, but Amy wanted you to have some of these," Cream continued. "She feels really bad about hurting you, so she wanted to give you something nice."

Knuckles took the little package from her and carefully untied the ribbon in awe. He took a bite of one of the cookies, savoring the taste of the rich chocolate. Wow. They were actually delicious. He couldn't help but look over at the now abandoned plate of burnt cookies. He felt… an indescribable emotion. Was it guilt? Shame? Forgiveness?

Knuckles turned to Cream, who was beaming at him, eagerly waiting his response. "Thanks Cream," Knuckles said, a small smile beginning to spread on his face. "Tell Amy I said… thanks."


be right back, i just gotta go watch sonic mania adventures for the 10th time. i need my daily dose of cuteness!