A/N: The big Five-Oh, then! Wow. A million thanks again to everyone who's been faving, following, and reviewing! I never thought this whole contraption would go this far. ^_^

And thank you very much to both guest reviewers!

LGYCE: Yup, it seems that Knuckles sleeps outdoors. There's a scene in Sonic X where he's guarding the Master Emerald in a huge storm; I figure if he had a house, he would definitely be indoors by that point. :P Thanks for the fifty-chapter shoutout! I still have an idea or two . . . :)

Yelhsa: You know, that would actually make a lot of sense! They had better go ask Knuckles if he knows anything about their tent. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.! And credit goes to a few different sources for providing some of the typos.


The camping trip was the last chance Tails got to relax for a while; then things got busy. Sonic came downstairs one morning to find Omega in the kitchen, and Tails with a wrench.

"Holy chili, Tails, what are you doing up this early?" asked Sonic. "Don't tell me you pulled an all-nighter!"

"I had to," mumbled Tails, waving the wrench abstractly. Sonic shook his head in dismay, then registered the second logical question.

"Say, what are you all doing in here?" he demanded, noticing that the rest of Team Dark was also in the kitchen.

"They came by early in the morning," explained Tails. "Omega got structural damage during a night mission, and they wanted to know if I could fix him up. It was a pretty specialized mechanism, but I'm almost done with it."

"Tails, are you kidding me?" sighed Sonic. "You didn't sleep at all last night because the deadline is today, and now you're taking time out for this? Dangit," he directed his attention at Team Dark now, "you could've waited till later, you know!"

"What's going on?" asked Shadow coolly.

"There's this big science convention that Tails really wants to go to," explained Sonic. "Not just go to, but present at. But to present, you have to send in a really complicated application with tons of research and an essay and I don't even know what, to prove that you're a good scientist. The deadline is noon today, and Tails has been working on finishing it like crazy, so what are you all wasting his time for, huh?"

"He could have said something if he wanted to," countered Shadow, unfazed.

Sonic glared. He knew Tails had a hard time saying "no" to anyone, but especially to Team Dark—who didn't?

"It's all right, Sonic," assured Tails wearily, rubbing his head. "I'm almost done, just need to type up the cover essay. I needed a break anyway. Now, I've gotta get back to work." He closed a panel on Omega's side. "That working, Omega?"

Omega flexed one arm gingerly, rotating the wrist in either direction.

"Fully functional," he replied. "You have my thanks, orange forest creature."

"You're welcome," yawned Tails. He looked to Sonic hopefully. "Can I have coffee?"

"Uh . . . " Sonic balked. He drank a fair amount of coffee himself, but he'd never let Tails have more than a taste—he didn't want to be inculcating caffeination into the kid when he was still so very young. But those pleading eyes were making him waver . . .

"Ah, give the kid a cup," advised Rouge cheerfully. "One time won't hurt him."

"Well . . . " Sonic looked at Tails' groggy expression and winced. "Okay. Just this once, buddy, and only because you need it to meet the deadline."

"Thanks!" piped Tails, brightening up already.

Tails started up the document for his cover sheet while Sonic brewed up some coffee. He was going to offer some to Team Dark as well, but found that Shadow had wandered off to the living room and passed out on the sofa.

"Yeah, good luck waking him," said Rouge, as Sonic gave her a disgruntled look.

Sighing, Sonic called Tails back to the kitchen and handed him a cup of coffee. Tails gulped it down, licking his lips at the strange gritty grounds at the bottom of the mug.

"C'n I have another?" he asked hopefully.

"Ah, I dunno," said Sonic. "I think your hands are shaking already."

"Nah, go the whole hog," advised Rouge. "In Team Dark we always say, you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine."

"What's so special about threading a—"

"While it's running."

Sonic smacked his forehead wearily, then turned to find Tails already guzzling down another mug of hot joe.

"Ohhhhh Tails," he groaned, as Tails charged off to start writing. The morning wasn't even an hour through, and already his younger brother was caffeinated, Shadow was still unconscious on the couch, Rouge was—oh, she'd just fallen asleep sitting up—and even Omega was in hibernate mode in the corner. Team Dark must have been pulling multiple consecutive all-nighters, to mess them up that badly. Even the fact that Omega had sustained damage in the first place suggested that they'd all been running on empty. Gosh darn it . . . Sonic didn't have the heart to kick them out at this rate. Throwing up his hands, he checked one last time on Tails (who was hitting the caffeine high just now, and typing at a rate that sent keyboard keys flying), and slipped out of the house for a run.

When he returned, Shadow was just sitting up on the sofa, scraping sleep from his eyes. His timing was good; had he stayed asleep any longer, he'd have woken up with marker scribbles on his muzzle for sure, and that would have ended badly for both of them.

"Going to be making this a habit, Shads?" asked Sonic ironically.

"No."

Which was really quite enough answer, in the tone Shadow was using. He evidently wasn't too happy about randomly passing out like that.

Rouge also woke up, just as Tails came bursting into the kitchen.

"Done!" he whooped, waving a sheet of paper. "It's all finished and emailed out!"

"Good going, little bro," smiled Sonic relievedly. "You going to get some sleep now?"

"Read it first, read it first," insisted Tails, still jittery from the caffeine. Shadow took the printout and glanced over it.

"Interesting," he remarked. He read some more. "I think your hands were shaking."

"Are there typos?" asked Tails anxiously. "I fixed everything that had a red line under it!"

"That didn't cover everything," said Shadow.

"There are typos?!" wailed Tails. "I'm doomed!"

"Hurry and recall the email," suggested Rouge.

Tails looked at her blankly for a moment, then shot off to his workshop. He reappeared a while later, stressed but smiling.

"Nabbed it!" he announced. "I fixed all the typos and re-sent it, still with a little time before the deadline! Phew." He scruffed up the fluff of hair on top of his head. "I'm going to bed now."

So saying, he staggered out of the kitchen.

"Never will understand any of them," muttered Shadow.

"So, what kind of typos were these, that they were so horrible?" asked Sonic. A few typos here and there had never really struck him as cause for concern.

Shadow shrugged, picked up the printout of the original email, and began to read.

"'Dear Sir or Madman—"

"What?!" interrupted Sonic.

"'Dear Sir or Madman,'" continued Shadow adamantly. "'I good at writing.'" He raised one eyebrow skeptically. "Not very convincing, that."

"You're joking," said Sonic.

"I do not joke." Shadow rolled his eyes and skimmed down the page. "Let's see, 'personal qualities' section. Apparently he feels that his personality would be well-suited for presenting scientific concepts to a public audience, because he has steady nerves, good memory, a friendly manner, and good memory. Also, he's a perfectionist who rarely if if ever misses details." Shadow glanced up. "If if."

"I heard you," groaned Sonic.

"Also," Shadow continued, "fielding questions from the audience wouldn't be a problem, because he's able to process and present information rabidly." He considered. "Rabies? You know, that would also explain a lot . . . And here's the achievements section, which says he won a robotics award and received a plague as a prize. Also that he came up with a computer program that can identify songbirds by the color of their heads, backs, and underpants." He scratched his ear dubiously. "What color would that be?"

"Underparts," suggested Rouge. "Like the stomach?"

"That's not what it says here," replied Shadow blandly. "And in other achievements, 'Was responsible for ruining the Station Square Elementary School's science fair.' I'm guessing—I'm hoping—he meant 'running.' Then we get a bit more typical cover-sheet fluff, then it ends very politely, 'Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty!'" Shadow held out one hand, estimating Tails' height. "He's not really in a position to call anyone 'Shorty.'"

"Good grief." Sonic was flopped in a chair by now, half-laughing, half-despairing. "That does it. Tails does not get coffee, ever again."