Home Sweet Home

It was there, right there, warm and familiar. Like a gentle autumn breeze it was brushing through his mind, his world. It was everywhere, palming over his nerves, over that sense that ran so much deeper than anything else he knew, making him tingle all over.

Home. It was Knuckles' first thought, he didn't know since when. He didn't know much at all. Just that there was this soft, warm energy, washing over him. He was floating in it. His mind was; he couldn't make any statements on his body. All he could say on that one was that it was still tingling, still warm, weightless and yet heavy. It didn't make sense and he didn't want it to. What could sense be good for? Sense was about thinking, and he didn't want to think. He wanted to feel.

In his mind, he could hear the Master again, finally. It was singing, a melody so beautiful it couldn't really be from this world, wasn't from this world perhaps. Nothing about the Emeralds really seemed from this world.

As it slowly faded into the familiar hum in the back of his mind, Knuckles just lay and breathed, slowly actually waking up now. He felt as if he'd slept better than anytime before in his life and the last blurs of a dream still hung hazily over his mind. He shifted a little, finding himself lying on something soft. His bed? Maybe, but something about it didn't fit.

The Emerald was still there, a pulsing echo in the very back of his mind. While he slowly drifted closer to full wakefulness, he started to feel it from yet another spot. It was as if his right arm was filled with its energy up to his elbow, radiation its warmth. Knuckles smiled.

Memory kicked in step by step and he came to the realization this really couldn't be his bed. Curiosity and irritation followed suit and the echidna opened his eyes. He was greeted by the sight of a wood-beamed ceiling he didn't remember seeing before and sat up quickly in confused alarm, a short burst of adrenaline chasing off the last reminders of sleep.

The soft thing was a brown, old-looking sofa. There were two equally brown and old-looking lawnchairs in the room as well, grouped around a low table. Knuckles tilted his head. He'd been wrong; he had seen this room before. The living room in the observatory. Tails had a weird friend here, the only person Knuckles knew who talked more cryptic stuff than Tails in a technobabble fit.

Talking of technobabble...

He turned his head to the door at the sound of voices and stood up to see what the others were doing. He had made just a few steps when his stomach chose to remind him he hadn't eaten in what probably were days. Hopefully his friends had managed to get hold of something edible, Knuckles mused.

When he stepped into the less than skilfully decorated corridor, his ears told him at least a direction to pick to find the others in the huge house. He could hear Sonic and Tails laughing and something about the sound was incredibly pleasing.

Light was falling through an open door into the corridor and Knuckles poked his head inside. Apparently, he'd found the professor's kitchen, or what served as an excuse for it. The room was rather small in comparison to the rest of the building, one wall completely covered with cupboards and the rest of the limited space the room offered was almost entirely filled with the small table and the chairs around it.

To the left of the door, a kind of counter was sitting under a window you couldn't actually look through due to the pile of dirty dishes on it. Plates, bowls, cups and glasses stapled almost higher than Knuckles was tall. There was something that looked like a newspaper on the floor, but nobody seemed to consider picking it up and Knuckles wouldn't be surprised if it lay there already long enough to grow roots on the tiling.

The three people inside the room didn't seem to mind the chaos though; Tails and the professor sat on the two chairs facing away from the door and Sonic had found a clear spot on the one edge of the counter that wasn't full of stuff. The blue hedgehog was dangling his legs, face hidden behind some big, colourful piece of paper he was looking at or reading.

Knuckles cleared his throat, causing the fox and raccoon to turn around and Sonic to lower the paper thing enough so he could look over it. The sight was pretty comical actually, the blue hedgehog between all the staples of dishes peering over that piece of paper. As if the paper had grown blue ears and quills and green eyes twinkling at Knuckles.

"Yo, Knux!" It was impossible to see his mouth, but by the way his black nose twitched and his eyes had grown a little wider than usually, Knuckles was sure the hedgehog was grinning.

"Hey." The echidna smiled, casting about for something remotely intelligent to say. He had not gotten far when Tails stood from his chair and was coming over to where Knuckles still stood in the doorframe.

"Don't stand there like that! Come on in!" Without caring to consult him about it, the two-tailed fox had grabbed Knuckles left hand by the tips of the echidna's fingers and pulled him over towards the table. Knuckles was shoved into one of the free chairs until he had no other chance but to sit down on it. "Are you feeling better?", Tails queried, brightly blue eyes innocent and cheerful at seeing him, and yet full of concern the fox didn't manage to hide.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, I'm really good, I guess…"

"Told ya," Sonic spoke up, finally dropping the huge paper into his lap.

"I was worried about you." Not showing much reaction to the hedgehog's input, Tails' eyes still rested on Knuckles' face. "What happened?"

"Uh, I… "The red echidna looked between the others. "I don't know if I really understand it, but –"

"The weird energy?", Tails suggested, leaning his elbow on the table and resting his chin in his hand. "I was worried that it hurt you, like radiation poisoning or something, because you're so sensitve to chaos energy, being the guardian and all. Or..." Tails paused for a moment, his fingers clawing at the fur on his chin in what Knuckles took as nervousness. "Or if we hurt you when we just sucked this other energy out of you," the young fox continued more quietly.

Knuckles shook his head. "No, I... don't think you hurt me, Tails. In fact, I think you fixed something. You know, I don't remember any time in my life when I couldn't feel the Master Emerald. I always feel it. I'm the guardian. It's like… breathing air for me. It's always there." He leaned into the chair, attempting to find the right words to properly explain it while still not giving away more than was probably necessary. "And then, after what happened in Eggman's lab, when we were lost in time – it wasn't there. For the first time ever. It was… horrible…"

"Sonic said chaos energy didn't work for either of you. I think it was some sort of interference." Tails nodded a little, still looking at him, and Knuckles wasn't sure if his little friend understood what it was like to lose something that was essentially a part of you.

"And then suddenly it was back and I –" The echidna shook his head. "I don't know, it was kinda… overwhelming, maybe?"

Sonic chuckled a little. "You were stoned, Knux. Totally stoned."

Knuckles shot him a glare. "So what?"

"Nothing." Sonic shrugged, grinning. "Enjoy your happy delirium. I'm not jealous."

"You suggested dumping a bucket of cold water over his head," Tails reminded the hedgehog, but even the little fox was starting to look more relaxed again.

Sonic shrugged again, but in a much more exaggerated gesture. "He wouldn't wake up."

"And you thought it was a good idea to shock me with cold water? I'll remember that for the next time you're not quite feeling too great. Or the next time you fall asleep somewhere. Whatever happens first." Knuckles grinned mischievously. "Or, you know, next time you had too much Chaos Cola."

"Uh-huh." For a moment Sonic looked unsure if he should be scared of the threat of getting something as dreadful as water poured over his head or if he should find the situation at least a tad bit amusing. He had not yet decided on one of them when Knuckles turned to Tails.

"I take it I owe it to you Sonic didn't get to shower me?"

Tails nodded. "Yes. We didn't know what was wrong with you, and I thought extra stress might be bad." He leaned closer to Knuckles. "Sonic was worried, too, he just doesn't admit it."

Proving he had pretty sharp ears, the hedgehog shook his head. "Nah, I knew he was fine."

"Sure you did." Knuckles smirked and winked at Tails. The fox smiled back, and suddenly it felt like they had a secret to share. For some reason, Knuckles thought he enjoyed that.

Either having missed the byplay or deciding to ignore it, Sonic was still grinning broadly at his friends from where he was sitting on the counter. "Anyway, now that even the last of us has recovered from his Master Emerald shock, we can finally get to the food."

Knuckles had been about to fire some comment back at the hedgehog, but the second part of his sentence contained a word that momentarily had the effect of a magic spell. "Food?"

"Yeah, food." Sonic laughed. "Glad you're agreeing we should get some." He waved the large paper at Knuckles. "Here, have a look if you like something of this."

The echidna clumsily caught the paper when Sonic tossed it at him. "You don't need it?"

"Nope, I probably know it by heart by now…" The hedgehog shrugged.

Tails laughed. "Aw, you haven't been looking at it that long."

"About three minutes, actually," the professor put in from where he was sitting on his chair in the corned, watching the trio with amused eyes, and Knuckles noticed it was the first time he'd said something. Apparently they were quite a show, and not one you interrupted. Or the raccoon only talked when it involved words like 'muon transmission'. Tails had said that once, and Knuckles still had no idea what it meant.

He didn't get to contemplate it however, as Archibald had turned fully to Sonic now and kept talking. "And really, I think we did a good job keeping you busy before that."

"Actually… yeah," Sonic admitted. "Maybe with a bit of practice I'll become quite the story teller."

"With a bit of more practice…" Tails giggled.

"Story teller? You?" Knuckles looked up from his attempt folding the paper along the perforations to trim it to a size you could handle properly.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. You know, the two of them can be quite persistent. It was either I tell them about our time travels, or they explain me how that weird machine thingy works." The blue hedgehog grimaced.

Knuckles grinned, trying to flip the paper over. "Ah. I see. And what do they say about your story telling qualities?"

"Marvellous. Very entertaining." Professor Archibald smiled.

Seeing Tails roll his eyes, Knuckles focussed his gaze on the fox. "Tails?"

"Well, it was a little… chaotic. And a little hurried. And confusing. But that's just Sonic." The fox grinned.

"Hey!" The hedgehog frowned, indicating the professor. "He said it was good!"

Knuckles was about to say something like 'he always talks random, confusing stuff', but decided against it. "So you're all up-to-date on what happened to us now?"

"I guess." Tails smiled. "If you want to add anything of course, we'll be glad to hear it."

"Maybe later." Beginning to get annoyed, Knuckles shook the piece of paper. Damn that thing…

"I can't look at this any longer…" Sonic swiftly hopped off the counter thing he'd been sitting on surprisingly still so far and snatched the paper out of Knuckles' hand. Slightly taken aback the echidna watched the big sheet quickly being folded a few times until it formed a proper brochure. With a small grin, Sonic turned it around and placed it back in Knuckles' still held up hand. "Here you go."

"Uh, thanks." The echidna stared down on the booklet, feeling stupid.

Seeming to notice the effect his unasked-for help had on his friend, Sonic smiled a little. "It's a lot easier if you have two hands, y'know. Not that you don't have two hands, but –"

Knuckles chuckled. "I get it."

"You know, you could have just said you needed help," Tails said, also smiling.

"I-"

"Until Knux decides to ask for help, I'll be starved," Sonic interrupted, flopping into the last free chair, causing it to tilt backwards until it balanced on two of its legs.

"Yeah, and if you don't starve you'll break your neck." Knuckles turned back to the brochure. Its pages were filled with long lists of all sorts of different foods with a few pictures of some meals in between. Most of the names didn't mean much to Knuckles. After a few times of flicking through the pages the echidna decided for backed potatoes, fish and a fruit salad.

He'd barely announced his choice when the brochure was ripped from his hand and Sonic's chair fell over with a loud noise when its occupant jumped off it. "I'll do the call!", the hedgehog shouted, already halfway through the door.

"Okay…" Tails blinked, staring after his adopted brother, then he shrugged. "He's hungry."

"I'm too," Knuckles admitted, relaxing back into his chair. "So, how are the plans after we all had some nice… what? Lunch? Dinner?"

"Early dinner." Tails smiled again. "I thought we'd take the Tornado and head over to my place."

"Wait… my hat's at your place!" Knuckles perked at the memory.

"Yes, I think so." The young fox giggled lightly. "If you want to, we'll fly you home tomorrow then."

The echidna nodded. Home… That sounded even more promising than the prospect of dinner to him.

The orange sunlight that fell through the wide open hangar doors caused shiny reflections on the chrome parts of the motorcycle. Its wheels were currently pointing upwards as it rested on the seat and handlebar. Tails sat on the floor next to it, several new and old parts spread around him. He was about to fit the engine back in.

Sonic sat on an old wooden chair, practically the wrong way around, his arms slung around the chair's back and his chin resting on them as he watched his little brother work. He'd asked if he could be of help, but the only thing Tails had wanted of him was a short helping hand in turning the bike over. The hedgehog had to admit he wasn't exactly what you called a technical genius, anyway.

At Tails' other side, Knuckles was sitting on a wooden box, his back leaning against the side of the parked Tornado. With his legs crossed at the knees, his arms leisurely folded over his chest and the kind of cowboy-style hat pulled half over his face, he looked more at ease than Sonic had seen in quite a while. The hedgehog smiled. Knuckles had insisted on wearing the hat, even though they were practically inside. The orange light of the sunset behind the cliffs outside let the echidna's fur appear even redder as it actually was and even the white sling and cast around his arm had gained an orange hue.

The effect was even stronger on Tails; his anyways orange-brown fur was looking almost like gold. Sonic looked himself down. Blue apparently wasn't that much of an effectful colour with sunsets. He grinned. He still thought it was the coolest colour in the world.

Sonic returned his attention to Tails and the motorcycle the fox was working on. It had been leaning against the hangar door when they arrived about an hour ago and had forced the little fox to finally explain how he'd gotten hold of the Chaos Emerald he'd needed to get the two of them back.

Sonic himself had found the notion Shadow had helped Tails out to get his broken bike fixed pretty amusing; Knuckles had not been so fond of Tails telling Rouge the Bat, the world's most notorious treasure huntress, that he was lost in time and space and thus the Master Emerald without its guardian. The way Tails had blushed at the echidna's complaint had told Sonic without words the little fox had not thought of that at all. Not that Sonic was surprised about it. Coming to his little brother's help, he'd shut Knuckles up by saying it was surely the better choice rescuing them and, if need be, then getting the Master Emerald back, instead of not rescuing them at all and the Emerald being unguarded forever. Apparently Sonic's logic had gotten through to the echidna; Knuckles was pleasantly silent ever since, just sitting and watching Tails work.

Face somewhat buried in the bike's motorblock, Tails reached out with his right hand, blindly feeling over the ground behind him. Sonic concluded quickly what he was searching for and extended his left foot, giving the screwdriver a small push with the tip of his shoe that let it slide across the floor into Tails' fingers. A chuckle sounded from Knuckles as Tails picked it up and continued his work.

Just a few minutes later, the fox turned around to his friends, patting the bike's side with a flat hand. "All done." He smiled and stood up. "I'm gonna call Shadow and tell him we're even."

Sonic grinned. "Shadow got a phone? I don't believe that."

"He doesn't." Tails shrugged. "Rouge does."

"Ah," Knuckles made, raising a brow. It was mostly visible in the way his hat slightly shifted position due to the small movement beneath it. "And Rouge knows where to find him?"

"I figured she would." Tails nodded. "Actually, he was at her place when I came there a couple days ago. Maybe he still is. If not, it's his problem, not mine. I did my job." He shrugged again and parted to get hold of a phone.

Sonic studied the still upside-down motorcycle. "Kinda weird to know Shadow values our lives the same as this thing, isn't it?"

Knuckles made an irritated sound. "I didn't know he values us at all," he noticed.

"If you're putting it that way…" Sonic chuckled. "Maybe he secretly likes us anyway."

"Of course, and Eggman will become our happy family's nice uncle." The deadpan was more than obvious in the echidna's tone. "Sure. Someone should check you for brain damage, Sonic. You show signs of utter lack of realism."

The blue hedgehog laughed. "And you're qualified to diagnose me?"

Knuckles' only reply was a lazy wave of his hand.

"Diagnose what?", Tails asked, reappearing around the parked biplane.

"Sonic's troubles in here." Knuckles tipped a finger against his head.

Sonic grinned. "I don't have any troubles in your head, Knux."

For a short moment the echidna actually looked confused at the comeback, then he grimaced. "Uh."

Still grinning amusedly, Sonic turned to Tails. "Don't mind us. Did you get Shadow?"

"Yup. He says he'll be here in a minute."

"A minute?" It was Sonic's turn to frown. "That'd be fast even for me."

"Aw, don't tell us it'd hurt your ego." Knuckles suddenly grinned again. Sonic shot him a glare.

Mostly ignoring the banter, the two-tailed fox walked up to the bike. "Can you help me again?"

"Sure." Sonic stood from his chair and together they put the motorcycle back on its wheels.

They were barely done when Knuckles pointed at the open door. "We're getting company."

Sonic turned around. A shape of bright light had appeared there, lasting for a couple of seconds, then it vanished and revealed a black hedgehog and a white bat. "That's cheating," Sonic remarked. Tails giggled and Knuckles softly shook his head to himself.

Watching the pair of newcomers approach, Sonic once again noticed how awkward Shadow's walking looked. Probably skating was the only way he could move elegantly. Rouge was a completely different matter; the bat's steps were smooth and fluid. And yet, there was something similar to the two of them. They both had this look of someone who finds they are superior, of someone who feels a little too awesome. Sonic too thought he was awesome, but not like that... right?

Shadow's red eyes shortly moved over Tails, then Knuckles and Sonic. "Look who's back," he said.

Sonic felt compelled to grin at him. "Hiya Shadow!" He waved exaggeratedly cheerily. "Hey, Rouge!"

"Hi, Big Blue." She smiled. "Hello Knuckie. How was your little trip?"

"Really exciting," Sonic cut in before Knuckles got a proper chance feeling provoked. "You should try something like it yourself."

The bat giggled. "Good to see you didn't lose your sense of humour."

"Well, other than Shadow, I have a sense of humour, and I don't easily lose it." Sonic grinned.

A frown lay on Shadow's face, like usually. "Well, other than you, I don't need to rely on others because I get myself lost in space."

"And who of us needs to rely on an eight-year-old to fix his toys?" Sonic folded his arms, mocking his black counterpart by keeping the grin firmly on his face.

"Guys! Cut it off, okay?" Tails looked between the hedgehogs. Knuckles however seemed mildly amused.

"Okay, fine." Sonic shrugged, tilting his head. "I guess it's fair saying thank you for helping Tails rescue us."

"We made a deal, that's all," Shadow corrected. "I didn't rescue you, faker."

"Good, then thanks for making nice deals with Tails." Sonic blinked an eye at the black hedgehog.

Shadow grimly looked back, but apparently didn't know what to say as a comeback.

His companion looked around in the hangar and between the people in it for a moment, then the silence apparently didn't appeal to her any longer. "Well, now that we exchanged all these friendly words, can we get to business, maybe?"

"Sure." Tails pointed. "It's standing right before you. All fixed and pimped up. I installed a new engine with a hyper-"

"Does it go faster?", Shadow interrupted, crimson eyes piercing.

"Not only that." Tails finally was in his element. "You can –"

"I'll find out," the black hedgehog cut him off yet again.

"Uh, okay." The little fox frowned. "Just be careful with –"

"I know how to drive, Tails." Shadow gripped the handlebar of the bike and rolled it out of the hangar. "Rouge? Are you coming?"

She smiled. "Does that mean I get my trip?"

For an odd moment there was a genuine smile on Shadow's face neither Sonic nor any of his two friends would have expected. "Maybe."

Rouge giggled, climbing onto the bike behind Shadow, but she turned to the so far rather still red echidna again. "Just so you know, Knuckie, I'm kinda glad you're back. Stealing someone's jewels is boring if they're not there." She winked, her turquoise eyes twinkling with mirth.

Knuckles jumped from his seat. "Hey, don't you dare and try –"

Rouge laughed. "I just love provoking you, Knucklehead." She slung her arms around Shadow's waist. "Alright, I'm ready."

Another unfamiliar smile crossed the black hedgehog's face and to Sonic's surprise he didn't seem uncomfortable with Rouge's tight hold on him. He still smiled as his red eyes cast a last time over Sonic and his friends. "Later, faker."

Sonic waved, smiling stupidly and knowing it would annoy the 'Ultimate Lifeform'. "Bye, Shadow!"

"Always a pleasure working with you. See ya, boys… AH!" Rouge's sultry goodbye was cut off when Shadow turned on his bike's new engine and the motorcycle shot forwards. Just a moment later the dark pair was gone.

Tails looked after them. "That was what I wanted to say. He should have held the brakes."

Sonic and Knuckles broke out laughing.

The Egg Scorcher was slowly lowered out of the aircraft. Robotnik watched it settle on the ground, a powerful device of doom worthy of the name he had finally found for it, and his eyes wandered over to the horizon. Out of the haze of a late evening, the skyline of Empire City was growing into the already darkish sky like a bunch of toy blocks.

The mad scientist grinned to himself. If the inhabitants didn't have common sense, in a few hours their proud skyline would look somewhat different… He wondered how it'd look after meeting his new laser. The glass of the windows would splinter under the heat within seconds for sure, but the concrete should stand a lot more than other materials.

Probably a few ruins would remain.

Robotnik laughed. It wasn't that destroying the city was his favourite option. After all, having a city like this one as a starting point for his very own empire was also alluring in a way…

He shrugged. He'd just see how things turned out. An advance party of flying robots was already on their way to Empire City, in the early morning hours they would announce his ultimatum over their loudspeakers for every citizen to hear.

His demands were simple. Surrender the city, or get toasted. No matter how things turned out, he was more than looking forward to it. Either he got a city, or he got to scorch stuff.

Win-win situation, wasn't it? And for now, not even a blue hedgehog in sight.

Robotnik smiled.