I stuffed as many references in here as I could. See how many you can get. XD

Some are older than others and may not be as relevant today. I left a list at the end of the chapter for y'all, just in case.

Peace out. :D

-Chapter 13: Meet the City-

Chopper and the others gave Sonic the location of a free campsite for travellers. Instead of staying at a hotel, they opted for free accommodations and one free meal a day. "This really saves on the budget, thanks," Sonic shook his hand.

Tails recalculated their spending. "Yeah. With this much, we can stay a lot longer than I originally thought."

"Great," Chopper said. "We'll meet back up with you guys tonight." The two groups waved and parted ways.

The crowded city had everything imaginable. Vendors and small shops lined the road they were on with no end in sight. The only thing with wheels available were a few rickshaws.

"This is way bigger than I expected," Knuckles said as he looked at a building comparable to Eggman's fortress; it was grossly out of place with all the little shops. "Is that an evil lair?"

Tails looked at the sign out front and said, "It's an office building for an insurance company; and a Mobibuckz Coffee is on the first floor."

Sticks rolled her eyes, "You couldda' just said 'yes'."

They walked down the main road and took in the various stores and kiosk's the bustling city had to offer. They passed by an open storefront with a sign that said, "Blob's Burgers," Amy read and found it on the map she picked up before disembarking. "The name doesn't sound very appetizing; but it's best not to judge a book by it's cover." They noticed the store was run by a blobfish and his family.

A bearded father figure stood at the front counter. "I need one more burger of the day," he yelled into the kitchen. The man took notice of Sonic and the others. "Lewis, Jane, Tony! Heads up, party of five."

"What?! Is Mr. Wolf with them?! I want an autograph," the only girl in the family said from the grill out back.

"Wrong party of five, Jane."

"Ooh, Blob, they look like out of towners," his wife said as she came out of the kitchen holding a tray of food.

"Of course, Kim. Who else needs a map of the main road?" he said with a chuckle. "Come on in, sit and stay a while. Try our burger of the day: 'I Can't Brie-lieve It'."

"I like em already," Sonic said as the five gave a nod to one another.

After a solid meal of brie topped burgers, they were off once again.

They passed what appeared to be a town crier, named Jason Duckman, handing out flyers for his free nightly seminar. "Don't let the stuffed suit, pompous, cigar chewing fat cats pull you into their life draining, blood-money soaked tactics! It's a sham! We know where the money's going! We can follow the paper trail! An-" his words were cut short by Sticks. She stood cross-armed and angry in front of him. "Uh...here you go?" he said and held out a flyer as his glasses slipped down his bill.

She ripped it from his hand and pointed a finger in his face, "...I like you," she said and walked off.

He swooshed back his red hair and straightened his glasses, "Anything for the ladies...WAKE UP PEOPLE!" He went right back to work.

Further down the street, away from the deranged duck, they found a musical performance of two young rodents. The current song was 'Gold Operated Boys'. When they finished with their set they addressed the crowd, "Thank you all for coming. Don't forget you can buy your 'Desman Dolls' merch after every show. Our first CD is on sale now."

"They're pretty good." Knuckles went up and bought their self titled album.

Once again, the group was off.

They passed by a flower shop. "We've got to stop here," Amy said as she breathed in a bunch of sweet smelling bouquets. "I wonder if they have seeds for sale." Amy walked up to the cashier. "Hi, I was looking for morning glory and mum seeds, and some lily bulbs."

The pure white cat nodded and pointed to a display off to the side, "We should have all of those in stock right there," she said as the phone rang. The young cat answered with a smile, "Hello-hello, Kitty speaking."

Amy made her purchase and left.

They continued their journey and ended up passing a park. A group of grey puppies, possibly siblings, played the board game of 'Evidence'. "I can't figure out these clues," one of them said. "I have all three and I'm still gonna lose."

"Don't be so blue about it," another said.

The five kept walking. The next stop was the library. The building was six stories high and was as wide as it was tall. "Just like I remember it," Tails said and turned to the others, expecting the same level of enthusiasm but was met with wide eyes of fear.

"This place is huge," Sonic said.

"It's gigantic!" Sticks said.

"We could get lost in this," Amy said.

"I'm SO glad I can't read," said Knuckles.

Tails laughed. "Don't worry. There's only a small section for each of us to go over. We don't have to skim the whole place. Follow me," he said and guided them into the main foyer. The ceiling was all the way to the roof and each floor was lined with a hardwood banister to look over.

A llama sat at the single desk in the middle of the large corridor. He stamped book after book before he placed them in a cart. "What do you want?" he asked abruptly.

Tails laid his hands on the desk and leaned over, "We need-"

"Don't touch the desk!" he said, stern but quiet. Tails removed his hands and watched the llama straighten the sign saying, 'Hands off the desk'. "This desk is made of mahogany. It's very expensive."

"Sorry," Tails said, "We need the reference section that has books of family trees in it."

"Mr. King," a sheep said from behind him, "Here's the ink pads you needed."

The llama took them in hand and shooed away the employee. "It's locked. The guy with the key won't be in until tonight. Not sure when."

It was then Amy's turn, "Where do I return books?" She still had the book Chopper gave her.

He looked at her with a bemused glance, "Do I really need to tell you?"

Amy had met nothing but kind folk up until that point and wanted to be patient with him. "Yes. If you don't tell me, I'll have to flip this desk and shove it down your throat." But that didn't matter, she didn't want any of his attitude.

The llama looked surprised and gave her a chuckle, "You can either give it to me here, or you can use the drop slot on the outside after hours. If that's not good enough for you, miss, I can stamp your book so you can rent it out again so you can shove it up your-"

"Okay!" Sonic pushed Amy along and said, "That's great, thanks." Sonic handed the book to him and they went on their merry way.

"The nerve," she said as they took up residence in a section Tails needed.

"Some people have no patience," Knuckles said and earned a glare from Amy. Knuckles looked afraid, "I meant that guy."

She diffused, "I don't know why that bothered me so much; abuse of power shouldn't sit well with anyone."

"I agree," Sticks said as she opened a trebuchet blueprint. "I'm working on it, right now."

"You can't attack the head librarian with medieval contraptions, Sticks," Amy chuckled.

"Attack? Nah. He'd be ammunition," she said and pointed to the ballistics's projectile. "We'll just sneak up on him in the 'Trojan Jackalope' I'm designing," she said and held up her own medieval device.

Tails brought out a stack of books and laid them down on the table. "Reading now. Desecration later."

Everyone groaned an 'okay'.

For those of you who aren't a billion years old, the references were...

...

Starbucks (coffee shop[the one in this town isn't fair trade])
Bob's burgers (western cartoon)
Party of Five (western TV drama)
Duckman (western cartoon)
Dresden Dolls (band)
Hello Kitty (anime)
Clue (board game)
Blue's Clues (western kids show)
King Yemma (character from DBZ, specifically from the abridged version)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (movie)

After the gloom of the past chapter, I needed some more lulz in here.