Props: Thanks this week go out to Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT and Hedgehogwriter07 for the OCs and opinions. Thank you so very much for keeping this alive!

Reason for lateness: YOU CAN ACTUALLY BLAME THIS ONE ON TECHNOLOGY! Wow, I never thought I'd say that… First, the tablet froze and had to be restarted about 1/3 into the chapter. Then, my Bluetooth keyboard quit working. It's HARD typing by touchscreen, dude!


Elektor met Rachel's entrance with a calm "Oh, hi! How are you tonight?"

And even with such a seemingly mundane situation… As compared to most other weeks, Rachel was a bit put off. She found herself silent for a few seconds.

"You okay?" Elektor asked with concern.

"…That's what you'd expect in most studios shortly before the filming of a TV show," Rachel explained, sitting down on a nearby couch. "But lately… I just expect to not even enter the parking lot before finding you beating Eggman up or something."

"Really?" asked Elektor, sitting down beside her.

"We had Shadow fight his clone here," Rachel began. "I was asked out on a date for the first time here. We were invited to a party of Amy's here. You got a sub off of me here. Just… hearing you so mundanely ask me how my day was is so… funny."

"I guess I know what you're talking about," Elektor chuckled a bit.

"I could be better," Rachel shrugged.

"Aww, really?" asked Elektor, leaning just an inch closer to her.

"How are you, though?" she asked him.

"…Well…" Elektor sighed. "…Viola tried to talk to me again."

"Oh, no," Rachel reacted, leaning just an inch closer to him. Couldn't this hell just leave him alone?!

"She got a new phone, and I blocked that number as well," said Elektor. "I might have to change my number."

It was almost like he'd just thought of that, because he seemed to calm down a bit.

"If it doesn't cost too much, I think that's a great idea," Rachel nodded, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Of course, Rachel fortunately didn't see this… but the touch made something electrifying and warm spiral throughout Elektor.

He looked at her and got a warm smile on his face.

"I don't need her," he said. "Since she turned against me, I never needed her."

At that, he enveloped Rachel in his arms in one fluid motion. Almost immediately, he knew she was really hugging back.

"As long as I've got who I've got," Elektor continued. "I can take anything on."

Rachel chuckled a bit, and it was sweet, sweet music to Elektor's ears.

Was it just him, though… or was she the one to hang on for a bit after he let go?

Regardless, the studio was alive just a few minutes later.

"Hello, television!" Rachel beamed to the audience. "So tonight, I was just taking a walk, and all of a sudden, life was just like 'Hey, you're going to be on television every week for the next year or two of your life!' And I was just like 'I'm not a camera face, but okay!' And now, I'm here. Now, this is happening."

The audience applauded joyfully.

As the noise died down, Rachel continued "Nah, I'm actually here because one of my best friends became a producer, we were talking about the idea, and he pitched it to two major channels without my knowledge… And now, we're here."

The audience applauded joyfully.

"And this week," Rachel continued. "We're talking about Genius and Knuckle-head. Better known by their aliases, Tails and Knuckles. We've got two guests with us tonight to either validate or shoot down my opinion that unless very specific circumstances took place… this isn't happening. Don't they both have their eyes on girls already? And… aside from the fact that they're great friends (I think of Sonic Boom), I don't think there's any hope for them. Anyway, let's welcome our guests out here and see what they think! Welcome back to the stage… Thorn and Sarah!"

The crowd applauded as the two guests smiled all the way to their chairs.

"Hi there!" Rachel beamed, finding her own seat. "How are you guys doing?"

"Alright," Thorn sighed.

"So, Thorn…" Rachel asked. "Do you ship Genius and Knuck-head?"

"Rad Red and Pixel Brain…" Thorn answered. "So Knuckles has a temper, which is why Tails is very level-headed in comparison. I can only see them as very close friends, or brothers… but not lovers. Sorry."

"That's quite alright," Rachel nodded. "Sarah. What do you think?"

"Hmm," Sarah replied. "Knuckles is a more uptight person. Tails is normally relaxed, especially when it comes to inventing. They do have some things in common, such as their tendencies to be in one place (Tails in his workshop and Knuckles on Angel Island). But I don't see these guys in a romantic relationship. It's more of a best friend or brother sort of thing."

"I think we've reached a unanimous decision here," Rachel sighed, standing up. "That's all we've got this time, folks. Join us next time when we discuss another pair of evils. Oh geez… I feel like if Scourge and Mephiles actually knew each other, this world would be done for. We discuss them next time."

The cameras shut off, and the audience got up to leave.

"AND THORN AND SARAH…." Rachel snapped, much more forcefully than intended. "I did something a little interesting after our games last week… if you'd like to listen in."

Both Thorn and Sarah walked up to her.

"I'm immediately curious," said Thorn. "What did you do?"

"I kept track of everything that happened to us, including Silver when he played," Rachel revealed. "And I've novelized it all."

"Huh," Thorn stated.

"Let's hear it!" Sarah beamed.

Just moments later, Thorn and Sarah were sitting side by side on a couch, and Rachel sat across from them with that same yellow memo pad in her hand.

"You ever wonder who you're actually marrying, or whether or not you even liked that trip to Africa?" Rachel said dramatically. "I got it all figured out. "Let's start with me."

"The life of Rachel the Fox reached its great first peak when she saw her name typed upon the Honor Roll list at her university. She didn't nearly expect it to happen at all! She was only here as an aspiring author, an aspiring composer, and an aspiring psychologist. Nothing more. She walked away with an air of confidence that lasted about three days.

Of course, she ACTUALLY walked out of there for the final time with a job as a veterinarian lined up for her. Somewhere along the line, she'd decided that the innards of animals fascinated her more than the electricity that ran through her own brain.

However, her life goal had always been to find true love. Her philosophy had always been that whatever happened along the way happened, just as long as she died with her soul mate holding her hand. Somewhere along the way, she found a glimmer of hope within the eyes of an old colleague of hers… Elektor the Hedgehog. They dated, he proposed… and sooner than later, they listened as tin cans rustled on the road behind them.

They ended up coexisting within a mobile home. Because the economy.

One of her patients down the line was a cat that belonged to a girl named Juliet. She had said her hellos, only being met with a sad look. Her father told Rachel that Juliet was deaf due to illness at a young age. They walked out with a healthy cat, but the entire incident inspired Rachel to do something seemingly improbable. She learned sign language.

Soon after marriage comes another thing, right? It took a little bit of thought on both of their parts, but soon enough, Elektor and Rachel were welcoming a baby boy named Larry into the world.

One day, Rachel and Larry walked into the house to find Elektor screwing the final screws into a home gym. From then on, none of them were ever called fat again.

On a summer's day, when Elektor was basking in the shade and Larry was running back and forth through a sprinkler, Rachel found a bronze coin just a bit into the ground. Elektor got excited as soon as he saw it, which prompted an emergency trip to the pawn shop, where they all found that they were soon to be the proud owners of two million dollars."

"And that was the last noteworthy thing to report before retirement," Rachel shrugged.

"…I'll address the elephant in the room…" Thorn began.

"I chose Elektor because I knew it would set you off," Rachel half-bluffed. "Alright?"

"Didn't you have a crush on Silver or something?" Sarah asked.

"That would conflict with his story," Rachel explained. "Anyway, on to Thorn's story!"

"It all began on the day when Thorn found two of her limbs nearly put through a tree. One miscalculated turn on a snowboard ended the day with a trip to the hospital. Sooner than expected, her arms were fully functional once again.

She thought she'd avoid it like the plague. She talked about it every week on a mediocre TV show, pitying the fools. She thought she was invincible… but she soon fell victim when she saw it in the eyes of Bean. Within years, they were lawfully wed.

They coexisted within a decent condo… and somewhere down the line, they welcomed a baby boy named Frank into the world.

One day, it became apparent that advertising had upped its game. With tactics I've been told to withhold, a TV commercial managed to transfer about a thousand dollars from Thorn to unfortunate orphans in Africa.

Throughout a series of Thursdays, some tuned their TVs to see Thorn do some pirouettes, and even a few clips, towards victory. Thorn ended up winning that season of The Choreography is Right.

Bean and Frank found Thorn shaking hands with a nice salesman one day. Bean inquired. Thorn replied "We're heading down to the marina now. I just bought us a sailboat." Summer vacations were never mundane again.

One night, a suited man named Phoenix greeted Bean at the door instead of Thorn. Thorn yelled from inside "Oh, that's our new butler, Phoenix. Tear him apart!"

They all visited the Great Wall of China that summer.

And it's good that they got that in. Unfortunately, Thorn was taken to the hospital one evening after falling and breaking her skull. She was put under for an operation, but she had just hemorrhaged too much. She passed away under the knife."

"Wait, I retired!" Thorn snapped.

"A 'life-saving operation' was the last noteworthy thing that happened," Rachel explained. "It was a plot twist that made sense. It also goes to show that not everyone will live to retirement."

Thorn shrugged.

"On to Sarah's story!" said Rachel.

"One of the first rewarding experiences Sarah had was from within a soup kitchen. There was just something about seeing all of those smiles emerging from a situation that NOBODY wants to be in… It made her life.

She did what any life-loving person would long to do one year when spring break was taking place. She went to Florida. And it was warm.

While she was there, she learned the meaning of looking past some major boundaries to see something very much worthwhile. Like looking past her true love's state of being a robot to be happy. She found herself staying in Florida for much longer than foreseen when she fell in love with Omega. Within two years, he finally found it in his circuits to propose to her, and they were lawfully wed.

And then, she lived the rest of her life as a computer designer. It suited her well."

"Omega?" asked Sarah.

"I dunno," Rachel responded. "Anyway, what was life like for our dear friend, Echo?"

"Echo walked out of that college for the final time, vowing to see the day that her index finger would fall off from overpointing. She realized her life dream of becoming a lawyer.

One day, she walked out of court and got into a conversation with a fanatic of hers. This fanatic always saw her as a role model, and had developed a small crush on her. They went on a few dates, and soon, Echo found herself falling for the two-tailed fanatic, too. In about four years, Echo and Tails were married.

Together, for the rest of their lives, they vowed to be adventurers. Their favorite trips… the two they remembered on their final rockers… were their trips to the Grand Canyon and the European Alps. This was especially because those trips were the only two they could remember where they found themselves falling in love all over again, under the stars."

"Huh," said Sarah. "So what's Silver's story?"

"Ha ha," Rachel responded. "Let's see, huh?"

"As it would turn out, Silver took a path similar to Echo's. He spent his days standing in a courtroom and seeing those wrongly accused be rescued.

As it was for everyone else, it was inevitable that Silver would fall in love. The difference is, though, that he had his mate by his side since his first year of college. They married soon after he graduated. That… lucky… young woman was Blaze the Cat.

Poor Silver became likely the most careful driver in all the universe… after the day he took one second's focus off the road and found himself launched into a tree by another car. Every drive was lives hanging in the balance. Over time, he flew more and more.

Down the line, they welcomed two twin girls, known as Cyndi and Mia, into the world. They were just the most angelic sights.

Silver eventually won $300,000 in a sweepstakes. He was pretty stoked.

Over time, caring for his twins became an addiction for him. He realized this when he found himself having actual separation anxiety on their first day of kindergarten. On a walk, he strolled past an empty house and came up with an immediate dream. That dream came to fruition when he opened his own daycare service.

The last happy memory he had was when he learned that Cyndi was going to have a baby boy."

"I can FEEL how irked you are," Thorn laughed. "Blaze, man…"

"…Y-Yeah…" Rachel nodded, clawing at the couch's arm a bit. "…Blaze…"

And just like that, she felt herself falling back into dangerous territory.