The Game Of Life

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in this story.

Smokestep: Yes, we're finally on winter break! Guess who ended her semester with straight A's, instead of six A's and one B! Aw, no guesses at all . . . ? Sorry, I'm just excited for no school for two weeks. Please ignore me.

Enjoy the last chapter of 'The Game Of Life', and have a happy early Christmas! Or Hanukkah or Kwanza; whichever you celebrate!

sonictailsbros: I agree that he's a good breakdancer, too. However, Tails doesn't. And no, Sonic's never been to Egypt, if they even have a counterpart of it in their world.


Identity Crisis

As they neared the end of the board – and this painful game, in Tails' opinion, though he's just a sore loser – Sonic begun to realize something he felt he should've a long time ago.

This game made him feel way too old, and definitely un-Sonic-like. It was almost insulting.

Seriously, a wife? Kids? An actual job? Since when did he need any of those? Though he was sure Amy and a million of other fan girls would be more than willing to provide for him the first two. He wasn't looking to starting a family just yet, thank you very much. Actually, he wasn't sure he'd ever be ready for that kind of commitment.

Not to mention love is just not his forte. Him and love are almost complete opposites, and don't mix. He understands that; he just wished everybody else would too, though knowing Amy, that wouldn't stop her or her advances to marry him.

As for the job-thing, doesn't a hero count? It doesn't get the best pay ever, considering his imaginary paycheck comes down to a big whopping zero. However, it did help the society and economy, since cities, without him, would fall apart on each other after Eggman's constant attacks for world domination.

Besides, who wants to live a normal life anyways? He'll have plenty time for that dull boringness later; for now, he'll just stick to being regular, old Sonic the Hedgehog. And being 'ordinary' wasn't anywhere in his dictionary.


Aren't You Supposed To Be Dead?

Out of all the people to come crashing through their front door, Sonic would never have expected Knuckles to be the first on that list, much less an almost-panicked and unnerved form of his hot-headed rival and friend. This side of Knuckles, a guardian who almost never got spooked, was certainly unfamiliar to him.

"Tails! I – Sonic?" Knuckles' freaked expression almost had Sonic believing the echidna had seen a ghost. He didn't know just how true the words were for his flustered friend. "What are you doing here?" Knuckles asked hesitantly, taking a few steps back from the duo.

Now thoroughly confused over Knuckles' weird behavior, Sonic and Tails shared an baffled glance. "I don't know," the questioned hedgehog uneasily answered, shrugging. "Playing a game, I suppose."

Knuckles shook his head. "That's not what I meant. What are you doing here?" he repeated, gesturing to the building surrounding them. Sonic thoughtfully scanned around the house, quite puzzled over the purpose of the question, though his bewilderment didn't show to the others around him.

"Well, this where I sleep. So why wouldn't I be here?" Knuckles gazed at the floor for a few drawn-out moments as if the floor was the most interesting thing in the world. It was then that Sonic noticed a small plastic packet in his hand. It seemed awfully familiar to him but he couldn't place why.

Before his thoughts could continue, his gaze suddenly met with an unreadable violet-colored one. "Sonic, aren't you supposed to be . . ." Knuckles paused uncomfortably, glancing away. ". . . dead?"

Tails' eyes widened slightly, but he didn't say anything, though his baffled expression told Sonic that he thought Knuckles had officially gone insane. While he didn't think it was that serious, the worldwide hero looked equally as puzzled as his little brother did.

"Knuckles," he said slowly, as if he was telling directions to a toddler. ""I am right here. So where did you get that assumption from?"

After one awkward explanation later, both sides fully understood where the muddled story had come from: almost a week ago, Sonic had gone to Eggman's latest base, intent on destroying it and making a grab for the Chaos Emeralds. Since it hadn't gone exactly according to plan, the base exploded with him still in it, and that led Eggman to believe he had died. The evil scientist then tried to steal the Master Emerald earlier this exact day, and spilled the news to a fuming echidna.

Who, might I say, hadn't taken it as well as he had hoped.

Therefore, after hours of nonstop and appalling thoughts, Knuckles had finally persuaded himself to leave Angel Island for a short bit so he could find Tails and ask if it was true. Being as gullible as he was, he had truly thought Eggman was telling the truth.

He was quite relieved when the all-too-real form of Sonic the hedgehog proved him wrong. As annoying and snarky may be, even Sonic didn't deserve to die and technically was a close acquaintance. He'd eat dirt before he called that conceited hedgehog a friend, however close they may be.

"Aw, Knuckles, I didn't know you cared so much about me," said hedgehog taunted in a sing-song voice, his mouth set in a smirk.

Knuckles growled. "Me care about you? Ha, in your dreams hedgehog!" Sonic rolled his eyes, his expression screaming 'Not buying it!' But before he could properly retaliate, Tails randomly broke in.

"Hey, Knuckles, what's that in your hand?" he curiously asked, drawing the echidna's critical gaze down to the miniscule object. He dismissively tossed it over to the fox, who barely had enough reaction time to catch it.

"It fell out of Eggman's hovercraft-thing, or whatever he calls it. It's pretty much worthless."

Tails apparently disagreed with that, if his quick head shake was anything to go by. "Maybe for you," he consented, sending a brief glance at the guardian before switching his gaze to Sonic. "But we could have used these earlier; this is a pack for 'Share the Wealth' cards for the Game of Life!" he exclaimed in frustration, showing the packet to Sonic.

Indeed, it was a pack of 'Share the Wealth' cards, but that didn't surprise Sonic much. As he was too busy being creeped out. "If these are ours, then how did Eggman get them?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

Really, one of the only possibilities he could think of was that Eggman thought stealing the cards would help him take over the world. It was either that, or he lost his cards and needed someone else's. Neither made much sense.

Tails shrugged, as if saying 'Who knows?', while Knuckles couldn't stop glancing at the blown-open door. "Well, since I found out if you're dead or not, I'm done here. So I'd better be leaving," he said quickly, not meeting either gaze of emerald green or sky blue.

Of course, Sonic wasn't going to make leaving easy for him. The hedgehog, who was supposedly healing from recent wounds, beat him to the door in less than three seconds, as if to block it. "Aw, c'mon Knux, you don't have to leave so early."

"I don't care what you think, hedgehog. Unlike you, I have a duty, and I must fulfill it. And for the last time, my name's not Knux!" he snapped, his response a dead-pan expression from the hedgehog.

"That hurt, Knuckles," he sighed, pointing to his heart. "Right in here." Then his expression brightened. "So, you should make it up to me by playing with us. Tails and I would love the competition; unless, of course, you're too scared to face us."

Knuckles could never say no to a challenge.


Smokestep: Now, this game took an insanely long amount of time to plan out, as I had to basically map out all the moves on the App I bought for my iPod(It's a dollar if you want to buy it. It's pretty fun).

As for the results, Sonic won with $3,265,000(Dang!), 18 Life Tiles, 6 Kids(I had to do it), and retired on his 29th turn. His career and house throughout the entire game was Athlete and the Mobile Home. Also, he sued Tails 3 times.

Tails ended the game with $2,735,000(That's quite a jump below Sonic's, but I swear I did my math right), 10 Life Tiles, 3 Kids, and retired on his 30th turn. His first career and house was Doctor and the Ranch Style House. What he finished the game with was Lawyer and the Penthouse Suite. He sued Sonic 3 times as well.

Nonetheless, I had to do all the math and calculations, which is why I used the plot device of them having no 'Share the Wealth' cards. It would've made everything even harder to calculate. So don't question the math above.

But basically, I had to keep track of EVERYTHING. It was hard work, so I really hope it was worth it.

That's pretty much it, and Knuckles will be in the rest of the games with Sonic and Tails, so that should be fun to write. As far as I know, none of the other games will be multi-chapter, besides Sorry Sliders(If I do it). But that wont be nearly as long as this was. So, hoped you enjoyed and see you later!