Tails landed by his workshop to see Sonic sitting by a tree.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, almost in a panic.

"What?" Sonic cried.

"I was wondering if you could watch over Angel Island for a bit." Tails replied. "Or I guess, specifically, the Master Emerald."

"What is Knuckles doing now?" Sonic sighed.

"We have to go…" Tails mumbled.

"Huh?" Sonic said. "What do you mean, 'we'? As in you and me, or you and Knuckles?"

"Knuckles and I have to go figure out what's going on with the echidnas in Echidnaopolis." Tails explained.

Sonic stared at Tails. "…Uh…what? Tails, are you sure you're okay?"

"We found this weird letter..." Tails handed the letter to Sonic, and he read it.

"What the…" Sonic mumbled. "Are you sure it's not just Egghead trying to trick Knucklehead for the fifty-millionth time?"

Tails shrugged. "I dunno. The thing is, if there really are echidnas in a creepy city, why haven't they ever came back? Either they're dead by now, or maybe they're trapped...and if they're trapped, we can't just leave them there to die. That's why we need you to stay at Angel Island for a bit in case this is a trick…and well, in case anyone tries to take the emerald in general."

Sonic sighed. "Fine…just don't take forever. By the way, what's with the offspring thing?"

"I don't know, but it's kinda random..." Tails agreed.

"Yeah..." Sonic said. "C'mon, let's go!" Sonic ran off, and Tails flew off after him towards the island.

Tails dropped Sonic onto the grass. "Really, why does an eight-year-old have to carry around teenagers all the time?" Tails complained, jokingly.

"Where is the knucklehead?" Sonic asked.

"Why do you always have to call him that?" Tails cried. "It's not very nice."

"You sound like Cream…" Sonic remarked. Tails walked around.

"He was here when I left…where'd he go?" he asked. "Knuckles?"

"Maybe he tricked us into the trick for his trick." Sonic suggested.

"What?" Tails asked. "He was acting a bit weird…I don't know…"

"Yeah, because he tricked us into the trick for his trick!" Sonic repeated.

"He did not trick us to a trick, trick whatever!" Tails shouted. "Knuckles, where'd you go?" Tails turned around, and Knuckles was standing right in his face. Tails nearly jumped out of his skin. "WHOA!"

"This is getting better by the freaking moment." Knuckles muttered.

"What do you mean? Did you find something else?" Tails asked.

"Cream came by, and apparently Rouge knows about this and is going around telling people I have a girlfriend..." Knuckles sighed.

"And she didn't try to sell you any of those freaking chocolates?" Sonic asked, walking over.

"No, I think she realised I wasn't in a good mood." Knuckles replied.

"Oh, that's surprising…it didn't matter how many times I told her I didn't have enough rings on me, she kept telling me to buy the dumb things!" Sonic complained.

"I know, right?" Tails agreed. He turned back to Knuckles. "Well, that's weird of Rouge to do that...she's so annoying!"

"Yeah...and creepy..." Knuckles muttered. "But this whole echidna thing...I don't...ugh..."

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked, a bit sarcastically.

"I'm fine…" Knuckles muttered, although clearly he was not.

"Well, I guess we should head out. See you later, Sonic!" Tails announced.

"Okay, bye…be careful…" Sonic sighed. "This is going to be fun…" Knuckles and Tails both ran off, leaving Sonic behind.

"This is really going to suck if Eggman decides to do something right now…" Sonic muttered to himself.

Tails and Knuckles landed themselves near the forest where Tails was sure there was a river nearby.

"I could have sworn there was a river somewhere in this forest." Tails exclaimed as he stored the papers into his fur.

"Okay…" Knuckles sighed. "Let's go then…" they both ran off into the forest, and sure enough they came across a river. They began walking along the bank in the same direction the river was flowing.

"I wonder how long this will take us. What if we miss it?" Tails remarked.

"What if…" Knuckles mumbled.

"Huh?"

"And what if we do miss it? At least we tried…" Knuckles sighed.

"Knuckles, I've never seen you this miserable before…" Tails remarked, worried. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine! Stop asking me that!" Knuckles yelled.

"Okay, sorry…" Tails mumbled, looking away. He looked at the river, and saw some small fish for a second. When was the last time Knuckles ever acted like this? I don't know if he ever has… Tails thought. Actually, I think he became a bit grumpier around when Rouge first showed-up…

"I'm kind of scared to meet the other echidnas...but at the same time..." Tails mumbled after a few minutes of silence.

"You're scared?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I guess you have more the reason to be scared..." Tails remarked. He looked at Knuckles creepily. "...Offspring..." he said in a creaky voice.

"Seriously?!" Knuckles yelled. "Don't!"

Tails thought for a moment. "I don't know..." he sighed.

"You don't know what?"

"I don't know, I just don't know…" Tails murmured.

"Okay…"

A while later, after a long silent walk, Tails and Knuckles finally decided to take a rest. They sat on a log by the river. It was just after noon now, and they were both hungry. Tails had been looking around the whole time, hoping to find some sort of food, but there didn't seem to be anything around.

"I'm starving." Knuckles complained.

"I was just thinking that…" Tails sighed. "This is taking a long time."

"Maybe we missed it. Maybe we should just go back." Knuckles suggested.

"Let's just go a bit farther…" Tails insisted. "After we take a rest, of course. I wonder how we're even supposed to get down there…I mean, aren't they trapped or something if they don't ever come up here?"

"Yeah, that's true, unless I dig underground…" Knuckles agreed.

"Yeah, but what if the city is really far down, and you hit an opening and fall down and die?" Tails asked.

"I think you're thinking too much about it…"

"Yeah, but still." Tails stood up. "I really just want to find it already."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it's annoying me…I mean I think it would be cool to actually meet some other echidnas…and I don't mean that I don't like you, I just want to know what the others are like too." Tails explained. "And to see that your species isn't dead which is a good thing."

"Are you sure it's a good thing…" Knuckles muttered. "I liked being the only one…"

"I guess being the only one is nice in a way…" Tails thought.

"And the only other echidnas I have ever met were my parents…I don't really want to get into that right now…"

"What even happened to them?" Tails wondered.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Knuckles cried. "They disappeared. I don't know. I haven't seen them since, and I don't want to see them again."

"Well, alright…" Tails sighed. "We should go now. Let's not waste our time sitting around here. Maybe we'll actually find some food. I have a feeling in that Echidnaopolis place there'll only be ants."

"Oh yeah, that's true…" Knuckles sighed. "We better find something else then."

As they continued walking again, Tails spotted some huckleberries, but they were a bit unripe and green-looking. "We could eat these, I guess…" Tails pointed.

"Better than ants…" Knuckles ate some of them. "Okay these are really sour…"

"Blech!" Tails spat. "Would you rather eat a raw fish?"

"What? I don't like fish that much…and raw just sounds gross." Knuckles replied.

"I know, but I can't think of anything else." Tails sighed. "Hopefully they grow potatoes or carrots down there."

"Hopefully…" Knuckles looked down the river, and noticed that it became more of a shallow pool down a ways. "Why won't we go down there and figure out what we're doing?"

"Sure, I guess…" Tails replied. They walked over to the shallow, calm area of the river and looked around. Nearby Knuckles saw some sort of cave formed by some large rocks. A bad feeling fell over him, and he hoped that Tails would not notice it and they would keep walking.

However, to Knuckles's luck, Tails noticed the cave-like area as well. "Hey, what's that?" he asked.

"I don't know…" Knuckles mumbled. "Let's keep going."

"But maybe it leads to 'Echidnaopolis'." Tails remarked. "Let's just check it out." Without letting Knuckles say anything else, Tails ran into the cave. Knuckles followed him inside.

Tails looked around. It was pretty dark. He nearly walked straight into a wall. Tails felt around, noticing that it was a wall of metal. "That's strange…" Tails mumbled to himself, suddenly pressing a button on the wall by accident. "Uh-oh…"

"What?!" Knuckles yelled.

"I think I might have set off a trap…" Tails said hesitantly.

"Great…well, at least we-"

Suddenly, the metal wall Tails was leaning against opened and he fell inside.

"TAILS!" Knuckles yelled. He jumped forward and looked inside. Luckily, Tails was sitting against another wall beyond the one that just opened. "What just happened? I thought you would have been dead…"

"No…" Tails said, getting up. "I think it's an elevator."

"An ele…oh…" Knuckles sighed. "You mean, to that Echidnaopolis thing…"

"I guess…" Tails replied.

"Are you sure this is safe? I don't know if I really want to go in there…" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know." Tails replied. "You can wait here I guess. I'll try to see if I can work it. If I don't-" Tails stopped the doors from closing. "-come back, then I guess it's not safe."

"Um, okay…" Knuckles stood there for a moment as Tails looked around for the buttons. "You know what, I'd rather risk my life…" Knuckles walked in. "You wait there."

"Let's just go down together…" Tails suggested.

"Okay, but then…" Knuckles began.

"Sonic will notice we won't ever come back…" Tails remarked. He finally pushed a button, which half-lit-up red, flickered, then died a bit. They heard some shifting noises, and the elevator dropped by a foot.

"This doesn't seem like it's working…let's get out of here…" Knuckles cried, slightly panicking.

"How? I think we're trapped…" Tails cried, sounding a bit scared as well. He started jamming the buttons.

"How's that going to fix it? I can get us out!" Knuckles shouted. He was about to punch the door when the elevator dropped by a couple yards, then stopped and started making very scary grinding noises.

"Looks like we're going to die in an elevator…" Knuckles sighed.

"Don't say that…" Tails declared. "Try to be positive!"

"How can I be positive when we're stuck in a million-year-old elevator that leads to something scary known as 'Echidnaopolis'?!"

"I don't know!" Tails exclaimed as the elevator started shaking for some weird reason.

"It's like it's trying to kill us!" Knuckles shouted as he fell over. He got up and kicked the side of the elevator, and surprisingly it stopped shaking. After a moment, the elevator began descending at a slow, but jerky pace. "There!"

"Thank goodness…" Tails sighed with relief. As they stood there, Knuckles began to get a worse and worse feeling.

"You know Tails, I feel as if we're going to…" Knuckles mumbled.

"Going to where?" Tails asked. Knuckles did not answer. "I just want to get out of this elevator…"

"Yeah, at this point, I don't care what happens next anymore…" Knuckles muttered. Tails just looked at him, worried. Something was not right with Knuckles.

"Are you sure-"

"I'm fine, Tails! Stop asking me that freaking question!" Knuckles shouted.

"Sorry…" Tails murmured.

"No…I'm sorry for yelling at you…" Knuckles sighed. "I don't know…"

"I know there's something wrong…you've never acted like this really before…maybe a bit when Rouge first came around…" Tails remarked.

"Ugh, Rouge…don't even talk about that creep…" Knuckles grumbled.

"Yeah…she even flirts with me…kinda disturbing if you think about it…" Tails remarked.

"She flirts with you?! Wait…she hasn't ever asked you to…" Knuckles asked.

"Asked me to what?" Tails wondered.

"Has she asked you anything creepy?" Knuckles asked.

"No, I don't think so…she just calls me 'cutie' a lot and always wants to treat me to something." Tails replied.

"Oh, okay good…" Knuckles said. "Because, she's like, eighteen…and you're eight…"

"I know, that's why she's disturbing. I mean, she seriously flirts with every living male in sight!" Tails complained.

"Yeah, you think that's bad…" Knuckles muttered. "It sucks to be the one she's mainly obsessed with…"

"Probably because you're a treasure hunter, and you're the guardian of the emeralds and stuff. So she probably is mainly interesting in the gems." Tails explained.

"Yeah, that and-"

There was a creepy dinging sound, and they both could feel the elevator finally hit the ground.

"Well, I guess we're there…" Tails sighed.

"This is going to be great…" Knuckles grumbled.