Bed, it was something that he never thought he would miss so much. Despite not knowing his parents, having to fight in wars since the age of eight and having to, pretty much, build everything he has ever owned with his own two hands from scraps, he always had a bed, warm-ish food as well as people who would defend and help him if he was not strong enough. And boy he wasn't when he was little. He hated to admit it but he had taken it for granted. Not anymore. Not after the last crazy adventure across dimensions.
Tails body had woken up a few times during the morning, but he would lift his head and then let it fall again, letting himself go to Morpheus realm. It had happened at least three times that day. A part of him wanted to wake up. If you are fast asleep, you simply cannot do anything else, but a bigger part of him got the better of him. He planned to keep like this, possibly until the night. But, his plan was interrupted by a very loud scream and what sounded like a car crashing against a wall.
Tails fell from his bed, in panic. *What was that? Eggman?! The Nocturnes?! Something else?!* His mind raced, as he ran to the closest computer. He lit it, checked his surveillance cameras and found a pink hedgehog and her destructive hammer, forcing her entrance into his house. Relief, with a speck of frustration, bathed the fox: Amy was, usually, inoffensive, but did she had to break in the hard way instead of just waiting for him to open? Then, he noticed her carrying the unconscious echidna and any thought of anger went away, replaced by concern again.
Amy finally entered and Tails met her in the main room. "What happened? Were you attack?" Tails asked.
"No, we were just running and then she fainted. Out of nowhere." Amy answered.
"Come." Tails said, taking the lead and directing them into the nursery. The young fox was obviously no doctor, but his machines should be able to determine whatever was wrong with the echidna and, possibly, treat it themselves.
Amy put Shade on the bed carefully, while Tails introduced some instructions into one of the nearby machines. When he was done, a green light started flowing on the echidna, analyzing her. However, it was unable to finish when the nocturne armour emerged out of nowhere, covered her.
"What…" Both awake anthros weren't even able to finish the sentence, as the machine that Tails had activated to analyze her made a *bzzt* sound, followed by a small explosion. Both of them gasped in surprise, but things were just getting started: the bulb lights followed, one by one, blow up too.
Amy and Tails took refuge under a table, clasping their ears as more and more machines kept blowing up at the surroundings. A good minute went on before the explosions seemingly stopped. Still not convinced, they waited for a second before leaving their heaven, stepping carefully as pieces of glass and trash covered the floor.
"What just happened?" Amy asked, observing Tails open and check one of his machines.
He tinkered a bit with it, but visible sparks coming from it made him protect his eyes, as well of step away from it. "Everything was fried. An EMP?" Tails wondered, a hand on his chin.
"That's fine and all, but what about Shade?!" Amy asked.
Sometime later
"Knuckles! Knuckles!" Both Amy and Tails shouted, but the echidna did not even move at all.
While Tails machines were obliterated, he didn't need too much time to patch up a plane and take them to Angel island. The idea was that, unable to take her to a hospital or getting her out of the suit, their best bet would be taking her to Knuckles, since he was also an echidna and could serve as a point of comparison. However, the plan was going down the gutter so far. The echidna's sleep was too deep for them to wake it up like this.
Tails started shaking him, but he simply couldn't be bothered enough. "This is getting us nowhere!" Amy shouted, pulling her hammer out. Tails immediately backtracked, wanting to avoid being at the hammers reach. Amy hit the echidna with a horizontal swing, sending him flying into the stairs of the master emerald "Wake up! You idiot!" She shouted.
Knuckles had been hit with such force that he bounced back from the stairs, getting again on Amys reach, only to be hit again by her, repeating the process. Knuckles woke up during the first hit, but it wasn't until the third one that he could recognize his surroundings and broke the cicle, gliding just enough to avoid the fourth hit. Once he landed, he wasted no time to throw himself at Amy, pinning her to the floor.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Knuckles snapped. Then, he quickly lifted himself from the hedgehog, standing up, almost as if his brain hadn't realize, until now, that she was a girl.
"We needed help." Tails interrupted.
"How does that justify getting hit like this?!" Knuckles shouted.
"Look, right now, Shade is knocked out and she needs your help. So go help her, now." Amy took the control of the situation, pointing Knuckles with her finger, as well of invading his space. Knuckles inclined his body away from Amy. A second later, only one word of what Amy said really mattered.
"Wait, what happened to Shade?!" Knuckles asked, the thought taking over him. They wasted no time on taking the echidna out of the airplane. "What happened? Was she attacked? By who?" He asked quickly, not letting them answer any question.
"Calm down. We were just running, and then she collapsed." Amy stated.
"People don't just collapse!" Knuckles shouted.
"Look, we tried to find out what was going on with her. Her nocturne armor fried my equipment. You are an echidna so we thought that it would be best for you to give us an opinion on what is going on." Tails explained.
"Tails, you are a genius, shouldn't you know what to do?" Knuckles asked.
"MECHANIC genius." He clarified. "Why does everyone believe I know the answer to every problem?" He whispered, slightly annoyed.
Knuckles then put a hand on his chin, trying to think what to do. But his head started to hurt with the struggle, forcing him to put both arms on it. *Good, I hate when I can't just punch my way out of a problem. And today of all days! What are they thinking?! Just thinking this is tiring me!* the thoughts crossed his mind. But then, it landed on him.
"Wait a minute, since when is she awake?" Knuckles asked. Both Tails and him looked at Amy, who looked nervous for a moment.
"I-I don't know. She was up before me. I woke around seven AM." Amy explained.
Knuckles observed at her, before moving away. He came back with a bowl and a gallon, both full of water. Then, he let go the bowl of water on the sleeping echina, without saying a word or explanation. Tails and Amy only looked at her with surprise, not understanding what was going on. A second later, Shade woke up, pissed.
"SCYLLAA!" Shade shouted pissed, before noticing that she was not back at the Twilight Cage. She was somewhat taken aback by the lush greens surrounding her, but when she noticed the somewhat familiar faces of her partners in the last adventure that she eased up. Meanwhile, the fox and the hedgehog were agape: They knew their best bet was another echidna but, honestly, they didn't expect he would get results this easily or fast.
Knuckles then offered the gallon of water and, suddenly, Shade felt extremely thirsty. Lowering her armour and taking it from his hands in that instant and drinking down the whole thing in a manner of seconds and without another breathe. Then, she sighed satisfied. "Thank you." Shade expressed. "But, what happened?"
"You just fell to the ground out cold." Amy answered.
"I don't just fall out cold." Shade replied, with a very serious expression.
"You were tired." Knuckles answered.
"I wasn't that tired." Shade negated.
"Yeah, we know that's, like your thing: You overexert yourself on a regular basis. But we just came back from the crazy future whatever thingy. All of us are still tired but you are exerting yourself like it was any other day. Add the new ambience of this world to add more pressure on your body and seeing you falling down shouldn't be too hard." Knuckles answered.
Now the other three guys looked at him with disbelief. Thinking that his explanation was too detailed for him. "What?" Knuckles asked, unaware of what was going on their minds.
"How do you know all this?" Tails asked.
"When I had to leave the island for the first time, and got on the lower world, I almost lost consciousness too, thanks to the gas the cars and other stuff spit. But even away from them, most of the air feels heavy and bad."
"Any gas shouldn't affect me that bad thanks to my…" Shade started, but stopped because she realized something. "…Oh right. I turned off my armor. It makes sense." She admitted, realizing that Knuckles was right all along.
"Wait, Knuckles is right?" Amy asked with disbelief.
"What do you mean by that?!" Knuckles shouted.
"It is just that you are the dumb one." She admitted.
"I am not dumb!"
"You get tricked by Eggman regularly."
"No, I don't!" He tried to convince.
"You really get tricked easily." Tails joined the conversation.
"Not now Tails!" Knuckles answered, increasingly angrier.
"It seems you are smarter than people give you credit for." Shade said.
"NOT YOU TOO SHADE!" Knuckles shouted at the echidna woman, without really processing what she said. Shade only answered by lifting an eyebrow, her looks still cold and in control. Five seconds went away before Knuckles realized what happened. "Wait a minute." Knuckles said in a much lower tone, realizing that he had just screwed it.
This made both Amy and Tails to laugh at him, which only flustered Knuckles further. "CUT IT OUT!" Knuckles shouted again, starting to look redder than normal.
At that moment, there was a small sound, low and short, something mostly undetectable. It was like letting air flow through your nose, three times. But Knuckles thought he heard it. He looked behind; the only person behind him was Shade, looking as serious as ever. "Did you just chuckle?" He asked.
"No, I didn't." Shade answered, convincingly.
"Are you sure?"
"How would I not be sure if I chuckled or not?"
"You may not know what a chuckle is."
"I am serious. Not stupid."
This exchange went on for a while, with Amy and Tails only looking, their eyes moving side to side to whoever was talking at the moment. And there was a thought growing on Amy the more she observed, a smile growing bigger and bigger by the second. "Give us a minute." Amy shouted, dragging Tails by the arm, both losing themselves into the distance. And both echidnas felt that was weird.
"Is Amy all right?" Shade asked Knuckles.
"You tell me." Was all that Knuckles answered.
Meanwhile, Tails whined while Amy dragged him. Until they came to a sudden stop. "Ow." Was all that the fox could say, petting his sore arm.
"Sorry Tails, but I need your help for something very important." Amy stated, searching for something in the tornado.
"And what is that?" Tails growled.
"Love!" She said, beaming happiness, while pulling out a mistletoe. Tails panicked, thinking that the girl might do something crazy to him. She seemed to notice his discomfort. "I mean we are going to help Knuckles and Shade fall in love with one another." She explained.
Now Tails was even more concerned. "Amy, I don't think any of them are interested." Tails tried to reason with her, with no avail.
"Nonsense, they are made for one another." She continued. "AND WITH CHAOS AS MY… WHATEVER YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SAY HERE, I SWEAR THAT THOSE TWO WILL BECOME A COUPLE! OR MY NAME ISN'T AMY ROSE!" She screamed to the sky, fire and determination coming from her eyes.
Tails sighed. He knew they were in the no return point. Might as well get done with it. But, there was one thing he had to ask. "Do you always bring mistletoe wherever you go?"
"Of course." Amy answered.
"But it is not even December yet." Tails replied, trying to help her understand how strange this was.
"So?" Amy answered, not getting it.
Tails just sighed. "Nevermind."