Writer's Note - Welcome new Followers.
Rouge and Knuckles sat awkwardly side by side in the hallway, waiting their turn to see the doctor.
Rouge was still livid with her two teammates for discovering her pregnancy before she did while Knuckles was still in self-denial, hoping that it was just Shadow and Omega playing a stupid prank.
Of course, Shadow didn't normally do pranks...
"Echidnas typically have one offspring at a time, right?"
Knuckles was startled out of his thoughts by his wife's anxious question. "Yes, usually," he quickly replied, "What about bats?"
"Just the one."
"Odds are in our favour then," Knuckles nodded, shuffling on his white plastic seat and watching nurses rush around heavily pregnant women who were being escorted to mid-wives.
"Wait..." Rouge suddenly gasped, "you said that your species hatch from eggs, don't you?"
Knuckles nodded again. "Tails called it mono...mono-something."
"Monotremes," Rouge murmured, as though quoting a text book, "Egg-laying mammal like a platypus."
"Except echidnas don't have beaks," Knuckles felt the need to add, not liking to be paired up with a platypus, of all animals. He then felt the vice like grip of Rouge's hand on his arm, squeezing the iron muscles underneath his pelt.
"Knuckles," she hissed, her teal eyes wide, "tell me straight, am I going to be laying an egg?"
"What?" The very thought almost made Knuckles splutter and laugh but he kept a serious disposition for Rouge's benefit. "No, you're not an echidna."
"But you are."
"Only women echidnas produce eggs, Rouge."
"But I'm just saying," Rouge pressed, "does the fact that you're the father," she paused and pressed her hand to her tummy, "- which I assure you, you are - does it have any bearing on if I lay an egg in however many months time?"
Knuckles creased his brow and slowly shook his head. "Don't think so," he muttered.
The wrong thing to say.
"You don't think so?" Rouge demanded, squeezing his arm again and allowing her talon claws to sink a little deeper.
"Well, do lady bats make the right materials to grow and lay an egg?" Knuckles asked hurriedly.
"Of course not," Rouge scoffed, perfectly aware that bats were mammals - the only species of flying mammal, in fact, something she was immensely proud of.
"There you are," Knuckles assured her, "If Shade ever decided to have children, she'd lay them as eggs first, whatever their species."
Rouge cracked her first smile. "Even if her children are hedgehogs?" she tittered, thinking of Shadow ever becoming a father.
"Yeah. Hedgehogs hatching from eggs," Knuckles laughed, "Now there's something."
"Let's face it, what are the chances Shade and Shadow will start getting romantic with one another? Shadow doesn't do romance."
"I know Shade is taken with hedgehogs but I think she was more interested in Sonic..."
Rouge gave a knowing chuckle. "Oh, every girl has given Sonic a good look at some point, believe me," she sighed with a fond smile, "Why'd you think Amy's so protective and trigger-happy with her hammer? Lucky girl..." Knuckles' own smile slowly dropped off his face.
"Every girl?" he repeated uncertainly.
Rouge's eyes had gone dreamy. "Mmm-hmmm," she sighed, "Those beautiful blue legs... Anyway, so, no egg?"
"No egg," Knuckles murmured, hanging his head.
"Even if it IS an echidna baby?"
"Even if."
A long pause.
"...You know I prefer red to blue, Knuckie. Stop panicking."
/
With a click, Amy put down the phone reciever.
"Well?" Tails asked, hovering nearby with eager eyes. Amy beamed at them all.
"It's official," she announced, "Knuckles is going to be a dad. Rouge is having a baby."
Tails, Sonic and Zooey all cheered. Rosemary cheered too although she didn't know why.
"That's our boy!" Sonic crowed, throwing an arm around his 18 year old best friend's shoulders, "Saving his species like a pro."
"If Rouge has an echidna baby," Amy pointed out, coming into the front room with her drink and snuggling down beside her fiance.
"Do they not know?" Zooey asked, curled up on Tails' lap, throwing foam balls for Rosemary to chase after. Amy shook her head.
"The embryo is too small to tell just yet."
"We should celebrate," Tails decided, "We'll drop Rosemary off at daycare and go out on a double date!"
"You romantic, you," Zooey giggled, kissing the two tailed dog-fox on the side of his muzzle.
"Where did you have in mind?" asked Sonic, finishing his own drink.
Amy's eyes began to gleam. "How about...?"
"Ames," Sonic interrupted with a smile, "how many times have we been to Twinkle Park?"
"Can I just say," Zooey piped up while Amy pouted like a child, "I've never been to Twinkle Park?" Amy looked at her in delight.
"Cute couples get in free!" she cried, sitting up excitedly.
"Hey, we're cute!" Zooey smiled with her, also sitting up and leaning over to her, ignoring Tails' discomfort, "Two hedgehogs, two foxes! Matches made in heaven!"
"We could go get our pictures done at the photo booth!"
"They have a photo booth?"
"And a shopping outlet AND a discount at the Sweethearts Diner if you've been in the Tunnel of Love and recieved a 'Be Mine ticket'."
"How sweet!" Zooey clapped her paws, looking from Tails to Sonic, "Oh, please let me go!"
Sonic rolled his eyes. "Don't suppose Tails and I have any choice, do we?" he sighed.
"We could go by ourselves, if you like..."
"Fine," Tails relented, "we'll go."
/
Cream was smiling as Charmy crept around the trees as they walked along the lane towards the rabbits' hosue.
"...So guess who it is that finds the old boat?" the bee was saying, flashing a proud smirk in her direction.
Cream flicked her long ears over her shoulders. "You?" she guessed.
Charmy beamed. "Yep! Espio was going on about...something...but I found the boat."
"Looks like Mr Vector and Mr Espio will make a detective of you yet," Cream commented, moving her shopping basket further up her arm as she dug in her pockets to find a titbit to feed Cheese, tugging at her fingers hungrily.
"You can start calling me Charmy Holmes," Charmy announced gradly, walking back on to the lane with his chest out and his head high, "Or Charmy Poirot. Or Charmy Marple!"
"Marple was a woman."
"Whatever- the point is - I scored one for the Chaotix!"
"So," Cream continued to smile as they reached the front door, "why aren't you out there being a detective right now?" Charmy blinked at her then looked around, seeming to realise where he was for the first time.
"...Shoot! You distracted me!"
"I distracted you?" Cream laughed, "For the entire day?"
Charmy's forlorn face was almost worthy of being fussed over. "...Vector's going to kill me," he squeaked pathetically.
"I'm sure he won't," Cream assured him, patting his arms gently, "You may as well stick around for lunch. Mother's cooked something up and you can just say you were questioning us for clues."
Charmy's eyes lit up. "You're a good friend, you know that?"
The teenage rabbit rolled her chocolate eyes and opened the door, letting Cheese go flitting in before her. "Nonsense," she dismissed airly, "You know the only reason I keep you around is because you help my garden."
Charmy followed her in and plonked himself down in a beanbag, counting on his fingers, "Helping the oldies at the Agency...helping you with your hobbies..."
"Did you really just call Vector and Espio old?" Cream laughed, putting down her basket in the kitchen. She was just about to call up to her mother when she noticed her friend's face. "What's the matter?" she asked.
Charmy's spark of mischief had dwindled. His eyes, normally so round and full of energy, were half-lidded and downcast.
"Do you think we should be helping Sonic?" he asked quietly.
Cream looked at him closely. His striped antenae were drooping behind him and his strong lacey wings, which looked so beautifully fragile and delicate, were hugged to his back.
"...Well," the rabbit murmured, thinking of something to say, "aren't you already helping him? I thought Vector was suspecting that creepy brother of Eggman's as the boat thief."
"Doesn't help us," Charmy shrugged, "Not unless we catch him."
"You will catch him."
Charmy looked up in surprise. Cream stood there, full of conviction and determination.
"You'll catch him, Charmy. I know you will."
"But we don't know anything about him!"
"That's not stopped the Chaotix Detective Agency before, has it?" Cream smiled warmly, "And besides, it's for Sonic."
"Yeah," Charmy nodded, "It's for Sonic."
/
"Where in the world is Sonic?" Amy huffed, tapping her foot and checking her watch for the umpteenth time in the past fifteen minutes.
"He said he would meet us here," Tails murmured, hiding his worry.
"Yeah, after running that lost Chao to the Chao Gardens," Amy nodded, "How long does it take to do that?"
"Maybe he got distracted," Zooey suggested, wondering why she felt a sudden chill in the air, "Those Chao are adorable."
"Maybe," Amy sighed.
Right before heading out, the group had found a very frightened Chao wandering around aimlessly, squeaking and calling desperately. It looked too young to be by itself so Sonic had suggested he run the little one to the nearest Chao Garden and then meet them at Twinkle Park.
That had been half an hour ago.
The run to the Chao Garden, for Sonic, wouldn't have lasted three minutes.
"...I've got a bad feeling," Tails swallowed. He was hoping that Sonic was distracted with all the Chao that seemed to naturally adore the blue speedster and hadn't been held up with rabid fans or discovering an old piece of Eggman tech that needed shutting down. What with the recent events, Tails wasn't sure if Sonic should be left alone for any given lengths of time. He brought up his communicator and pressed a few buttons.
"Sonic?" he spoke into the mouthpiece, "You there, Sonic? We're waiting. Chickened out, or something? You too frightened to come?"
Only static answered him.
"Sonic?" Tails tried again.
More static.
"Sonic, come in. Look, we've been waiting ages. Where are you?"
Static.
"Sonic!"
Static...then complete silence.
Another cold breeze blew through Station Square.
"We don't want to jump to conclusions..." Zooey gulped, aware that, in her heart, she could sense some form of disaster just as clearly as Amy and Tails could, though their personal bond with the blue hedgehog likely surpassed any kind of relationship she had ever known.
"I'll search for his communicator signal," Tails muttered, pressing buttons again. After an ominous bleep, the fox looked up.
"The Chao Garden."
/
Usually, the Chao Gardens were places of peace and calm, little drops of paradise, some called them. Yet upon arriving at the Chao Garden, peace and calm seemed to have disintegrated into fear and worry.
"The Chao are spooked," Zooey noticed, watching as groups of Chao huddled together in trees, behind rocks, under bushes...anywhere they could find space to hide. They watched the three visitors with wide, anxious eyes, none of them making a sound.
"Sonic!" Amy called, her voice echoing around and eliciting no reply. At the call, the Chao each squeaked nervously and some cried. "You're right," the pink hedgehog whimpered, "the Chao are really freaking out." She caught sight of the young one that they had found, crawling towards them with tears streaking down its face. He latched on to Amy's shoe and gave a heartbroken cry. "Hey, little guy..." Amy crooned, reaching down and scooping the little bundle up in her arms, "At least he managed to get back." She gazed down at the Chao and held it close to her chest protectively as the little creature squeaked and whimpered. "Where's Sonic?" she asked in a whisper. The Chao only gave another cry.
Zooey, meanwhile, had noticed that Tails had immediately gone off after arriving, following a signal, but had now begun to make his way back towards them, his face unreadble. He clutched something in his paws.
"Tails," Zooey began, "what...?" Tails held out his palm.
"...His communicator," he sniffed, tears welling up in his big blue eyes, "Sonic's missing."