"This is the life! No worries, no responsibility. Just relaxation!" Knuckes sighed, sipping on a half empty glass of lemonade.
The echidna stretched out on his beach towel and closed his eyes, the warm ocean breeze blowing his dreadlocks gently. Sonic, lying in a hammock tied between two palm trees, shook his head in wonder at Tails and chuckled.
"You sure have changed since last fall, Knux! You used to be all about responsibility and duty! But you're right on. It's the perfect day for doing absolutely nothing!"
The red echidna laughed. "You said it bro! But you know, you've seemed to have changed a little too, now that I think about it."
"I think we all have," murmured the yellow fox thoughtfully. "I guess we aren't used to having so much free time with Eggman off the radar."
"Where's Eggman anyway? You guys seen him?" Knuckles asked casually, slurping through his straw.
"I hear he's taken up archeology," the blue hedgehog said, jumping out of the hammock and sitting next to him. "Can you believe it?"
The echidna spit his drink out and cracked up laughing.
"Him, a digger? I never thought that would be his go to hobby," he gaffawed. "Well he's of our hair anyway. Can't say I'm sorry to see the old man go."
"By the way," Tails looked at Knuckles and asked, "I know everyone, even you, needs a vacation once in awhile, but how long do you plan to leave the Master Emerald unguarded? Isn't that a little risky?"
Knuckles waved his hand, "Don't worry about it, kid. Eggman's busy with his new hobby, and-" he set down his drink and leaned forward in his chair, "I've got someone watching it for me."
"Who?" Tails and Sonic asked in unison.
"That wild badger girl," Knuckles stated.
"Sticks!" Sonics jaw dropped and he raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Isn't she a little uh-"
"Yeah," Knuckles finished, dunking the last of the lemonade down his throat and pouring another glass. "But she'll be okay. She thinks she's on some sorta secret mission to stop aliens from landing on earth."
Sonic and Tails looked at each other in amazement, and the three burst into laughter.
"Hi Mr. Sonic!"
Sonic turned to see Cream skipping toward him with her pet Chao, waving.
"Hi, Cream!" he grinned, waving back. "Is Amy any better? Oh, and Nailhead, how's he doing?" Sonic laughed at his own joke.
"Pretty lame nickname, Sonic," Knuckles said bluntly, then burped twice loudly, much to Sonic's annoyance.
"Who asked you Knuckles!" he groaned.
"My mother has a favor to ask of you," Cream said, covering her mouth to avoid giggling at Knuckles.
"Let's hear it," Sonic said, standing up from his chair.
"Mr. Nail- I mean- Mr. Spike needs a special type of medicine that can only be made from these ingredients," she said, handing him a list.
"The druggist doesn't carry any of these so Mother has to make it herself. Would you please collect them for us?" she asked, smiling sweetly.
Sonic patted her on the head.
"Anything for you kiddo! Leave it to me!"
"Thank you, you are too kind! Come on, Cheese!" Cream said, skipping away again.
The three boys watched her leave, then Knuckles smirked.
"So now you're a delivery boy huh? Always wondered what would happen when you had no Eggman to keep you busy!"
Sonic glared at Knuckles, then skimmed over the list.
"Oh great!" he moaned. "These ingredients are scattered all over the place. It'll take me forever to find them all!"
"I'll come with you," Tails offered, walking up next to Sonic.
"Count me in too, Sonic," Knuckles added, then snapped his fingers.
"Hey, I just thought of a new career for us! We could start a delivery service and call it Sonic's Speedy Delivery! Our slogan could be-"
Sonic groaned, pushing past the two and walking down the shore.
"I'm not taking either of you, you'll just slow me down! I wanna get this done within the next month!"
"Aw, c'mon Sonic, take us with you!" Tails cried after him. "I need a change from working on my inventions, I've been doing that all winter! Please?"
Sonic looked witheringly at Tails and Knuckles, then lifted his hands in defeat.
"Fine, if Knuckles behaves himself!"
"I give you my word," Knuckles bowed. "I won't!"
"This isn't the right drill site! Don't you imbeciles know where you're going!" a voice raged above the wind blown landscape of the ruins.
"Well you have to admit, you have quite a few of them, sir," Orbot reminded the doctor. "Without the map, our only option is to guess which one is the right one."
Eggman buried his face in his hands.
"We've been searching for 3 hours already, and I haven't even had my breakfast yet!"
"No wonder he's so hangry this morning," Cubot mumbled.
"Hello Dr Eggman!"
Eggman jumped in his seat and peered over the side of the Eggmobile to see Amy Rose almost directly below him with a picnic lunch laid out across the dusty ground.
"Amy! What are you doing here? Did your little boyfriend send you to spy on me?" the doctor snarled.
"No, I'm just having a picnic. Cream is joining me in a few minutes. Would you like to join us?" she asked offering up a piece of delicious looking lemon meringue pie.
Eggman licked his lips and reached for the pie, then snapped his hands back at the last second.
"No! I'm far too busy for tea parties with little girls," he jeered. "Besides, you've probably put something in it to make me sick, you little wench! You can't fool me!"
Amy tossed her head, appearing insulted.
"Hmph, well suit yourself!"
"I will!" Eggman stated, and started to fly off to continue his search.
"By the way," Amy called after him. "You didn't lose a map did you? I found one near your drill site just lying there on the ground".
Eggmobile screeched to a stop, nearly throwing him and his robots to the ground.
"A map?! Yes I did! Not anything important of course, I just was digging for artifacts there. There was nothing there of value, just a few trinkets I left. I've actually completely abandoned the site and started searching on the other side of the island. But, uh, where is it?"
"Oh, I don't have it anymore; I gave it away. Fortunate for you it doesn't matter though since it wasn't important! I would have felt so embarrassed if I had given away something valuable!"
Amy smiled sweetly, then went back to unpacking her picnic lunch.
Eggman stared at Amy working busily; teeth clenched and mustache twitching nervously, getting more desperate by the second.
A few seconds later...
"Well don't just sit there like an idiot, who has it?" Eggman pleaded, pulling at his mustache.
Amy smirked to herself, enjoying Eggman's predicament.
"Okay, okay! Sonic has it."
"That little rat!" Eggman spat. "Where is he?"
"How should I know? Find him yourself, grouchy!"
Eggman growled then took off in a fury.
The pink hedgehogs ears perked attentively until the Eggmobile could no longer be heard, then took a deep breath in and collapsed across the picnic blanket.
"It actually worked," she whispered, a grin of relief spreading across her face.
Meanwhile, deep in the forest, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were searching for a patch of wild berries for Mrs. Rabbit's brew. Or at least, Sonic was.
"Ok, Knuckles you win! I wish I'd never started this acorn fight," Tails gasped, holding his sides and choking on laughter between sentences.
The echinda smirked devilishly.
"What's the matter? It's NUT funny anymore!?" Knuckles doubled over in laughter at his own joke(if you can call it that).
Sonic rolled his eyes and pressed on through the dense shrubbery.
"This has got to be the worst day of my life," the hedgehog complained. "Not only am I still on an errand that should have been finished hours ago, I now have to break up wrestling matches between Tails and Knuckles every five minutes, listen to Knuckle's terrible jokes, and worst of all... walk! Slowly! This day couldn't turn out any worse."
"Uh oh! I think I just walked through some poison ivy!" Tails said.
"Spoke too soon," Sonic grimaced. "That's it! I'm outta here!"
The hedgehog broke away from his companions in a mad dash.
"So long, snails! Eat my dust!" he shouted gleefully over his shoulder.
"Wait Sonic! Don't leave us!" Knuckles called after him.
"Yeah!" Tails whined. "I'm having a serious medical emergency here!"
Sonic chuckled as his friends voices faded into the distance.
"Phew! Now I can finally get this thing done, and I still might have some time for a little relax-"
Seemingly out of nowhere, Sonic heard a high pitched screech, and an object whooshed inches in front of his face.
Sonic instinctivly dropped to the ground just before being showered with shrapnel and dirt.
The dazed hedgehog shook his head and winced in pain, feeling a small piece of metal stuck in his fur.
"What the-"
"Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho!"
Sonics eyebrows furrowed in realization as he heard a familiar laugh above him. He looked up to see his former arch nemesis red faced with laughter, sucking in air like a vacuum trying to catch his breath.
"Doctor Eggman, you'll started choking again," Orbot warned his master.
"Ho ho ho- hack!"
"See," Cubot scolded. "We told you!"
"That was low, Eggface," Sonic yelled angrily. "You almost fried me!"
Eggman recovered from his choking fit, took in a deep breath and glared at the hedgehog.
"You asked for it! Where do you come off stealing my map?"
"Map? What map?" Sonic asked.
"The map you stole from me, miserable pest!"
Sonic gave Eggman an annoyed glare, not remembering the map Amy had shown him earlier.
"I did not steal a map," he sighed. "C'mon, Eggman don't blame me for your forgetfulness. Man up and take some blame for once. You probably left it next to the toaster."
Eggman's face turned deep red with rage.
"All right," he bellowed, "if you want to play hard, we'll play hard!"
Eggman's finger inched slowly toward the Eggmobile's controls, readying to launch a weapon.
Sonic nonchalantly brushed the dust of himself, then crouched to the ground in a sprinting position.
"Bring it on!" he smirked.
Well I was even surprised I got a new chapter up here so soon! Special thanks to Pyromaniac Wolf for the review and a little added motivation! Hope you enjoy :)