A/N: Thanksgiving special in the next chapter! Sorry, but this one here is going to be less funny and more anecdotal. Science convention!

And thanks to ABCSonicKirbyWarriors for finding Spagonia for me. :)

Yelhsa: Thanks for the review! Tails is a science buff, so he knows about the Sonic hedgehog gene. The "graded morphogen" part means it works differently depending on the concentration. If scientists mess with it in a chicken embryo, it can cause some pretty wild mutations in the baby chicken, too. Poor chickens. :/

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.!


The days rolled by, and finally the science convention was tomorrow. Tails and his contraption were going. So of course, Sonic wanted to go too, and if Sonic was going, Amy was interested. And Blaze liked science and wanted to see the convention, so Silver and Marine wanted to come, and Maria loved science, but of course Shadow wasn't going to let her go alone, and in the end it was just decided that they'd bring everyone and get a group rate. They loaded Tails' invention onto a flatbed truck and climbed on with it, much to the conductor's displeasure.

It was a long train ride, but at last they reached Spagonia University. Some workmen helped Tails set up his invention in the school's indoor gymnasium, the biggest enclosed empty space the college offered. Right now it was darkened for the night. Tails snuck nervous glances at the other inventions and displays, many of them covered by large white sheets.

"I wonder how tough the competition is going to be," he said, becoming visibly nervous. "After all, people will be presenting their research and inventions from all over the world, and I think I'm the youngest person here, and—"

"Chill, Tails," said Sonic, yawning. "They wouldn't have let you in if they didn't think you could do it. You're gonna do great."

Worn out from the long trip, they all stumbled off to a little hotel they had also gotten a group rate on, only to tumble back to the college campus next morning. Tails rushed to his station in the gym and began to prep his invention for display. As the convention opened and the first few visitors came trickling in, he began to pace back and forth, chewing his fingers and waiting for the first people to come over with questions.

"Are we making you nervous?" asked Sonic ironically. Tails glanced over at the other Mobians and nodded resignedly.

"Thanks for the moral support, you guys, but you're going to get bored hanging around here all day. Go ahead and look around! Then you can tell me what it was like," he suggested.

The others took the invitation. Sonic made Tails promise to call him if he needed backup, but went with the rest of the crew. They lingered among the other exhibits for a while, then wandered out into the bright sunlight of the campus.

Now, Spagonia University was an all-species institution, meaning it admitted both humans and Mobians. However, higher education was extremely rare among Mobians; they were either naturally smart, like Tails, or simply didn't bother with advanced learning. Thus, a pack of Mobians wandering around campus attracted some attention.

"Hey lookit!" somebody called. "Man, the freshmen just keep getting shorter every year!"

"We're not freshmen!" Charmy called back indignantly. "Never!"

Amy kept a sharp eye out, taking note of what the college girls were wearing. She was hoping to catch up on the latest fashions.

"You know, it doesn't look that fancy," she said, a little disappointed. "Cream, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna find some college girls who look like they have a good fashion sense, and I'm gonna pretend to be a high school student, checking out the college. Then I'll ask lots of questions about the fashion scene here. And you're going to pose as my little sister, all right?"

"But are you sure you can fool them into thinking you're older than you really are?" asked Cream dubiously.

"Just watch me," said Amy, and set off, Cream in tow, to find anyone not in jeans and a sweatshirt.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles found the college's football team practicing. They stood on the sidelines and watched for a while; eventually, of course, Sonic could keep his mouth closed no longer.

"Hey guys, mind if we join ya?" he called.

Obviously, there was opposition to the concept. Sonic and Knuckles didn't look like the type to stand up to any tackling. Eventually they argued their way into it though, and very quickly stunned the other players, in Knuckles' case literally. He had to learn to tone down his tackling a bit. Sonic, with his fast feet, didn't have to worry about tackling at all; he just zigzagged around everything and everyone coming at him.

Meanwhile, Blaze and Silver took Charmy and Marine to see the college library. They found a door saying "stacks," and decided to see what was on the other side.

"Whoa . . . " breathed Silver. The "stacks" were shelves and shelves of books, filling an enormous, dimly-lit room. Towering bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, punctuated by the occasional light switch.

"We should go," said Blaze nervously.

"Don't you want to look around? You love books!" said Silver.

"I know, but these are old and probably valuable and definitely not mine," murmured Blaze, backing away. "Just thinking about this much combustible material is making me nervous."

"But you have perfect control over your fire powers now, don't you?"

"Not good enough," said Blaze firmly, but smiled. "You go ahead and look around. I'll wait here, at a safe distance."

"Eh." Silver shrugged. "I don't know if there's that much I'm interested in—"

"But it does look great for hide-and-seek!" interrupted Charmy.

"Hey, no—" began Silver, but Charmy had already shot off into the rows of bookshelves, with Marine in hot pursuit.

"Guyyyys, get back here!" Silver called, but the only reply was a distant giggling and the clatter of running feet.

"I'll go get them," sighed Silver.

Meanwhile, a breathless and blissfully ragged Sonic and Knuckles came storming in to find Vector and Espio. The two detectives were a little bored, having been satisfied by a quick trot around the campus.

"Hey you guys!" called Sonic, waving. "Got a mystery for ya!"

"Oh?" Vector jumped to his feet. "Espio, we're hitting the big time! A real college-level case! Where's Charmy when you need him?"

"We'll manage for now," shrugged Espio. "What's the mystery?"

"Well, you know how sports teams have special jerseys, right?" said Sonic. "This year the team was really excited, because they got special jerseys that even had the college mascot on the socks! They really liked those socks."

"But now, every time they launder the socks, whole bunches of them disappear!" broke in Knuckles. "They used to wonder if a rival team was stealing them, but there haven't been any rivals in town for weeks, and the socks keep disappearing! It's demoralizing them like crazy."

"We're on it!" declared Vector. He and Espio charged off. Team Dark abruptly materialized from somewhere.

"Are we going home soon?" called Rouge. "The campus is nice and all, but Omega keeps flirting with the vending machines."

"What?" Sonic tried not to laugh.

"He is not," sighed Shadow. "The vending machines here are a lot fancier than even the ones in Central City. Omega tried communicating with just one, to see if it was sentient, and now Rouge just can't let go of it."

"Awww. Are you standing up for him?" Rouge smirked.

"So maybe I am," retorted Shadow, folding his arms. "I know what it feels like."

"What, to flirt with a vending machine?"

Meanwhile, Amy was deep in conversation with a group of students.

"Yeah, I really like this place," she said glibly, as Cream fidgeted by her side. "I'm totally thinking about coming here next year." (Which wasn't really a lie; she would've loved to go there every month, if she could.)

"Well, how's your GPA?" asked one of the students, mildly amused.

"Oh, it's pretty good," breezed Amy.

"Higher than a 3.5?"

"Oh, at least a 5.5!" she replied brightly.

"How about your SAT score? Taken any AP courses?"

"Essay Tea?" Amy fumbled for a moment. "Y-yeah, did pretty good on both of those. The tea was easy, the essay was the hard part, but it wasn't so bad. And I took a full semester on monkeys, does that count for an ape-y course?"

The students exchanged sardonic glances.

"You're about twelve years old, aren't you?" one of them asked gently.

"H-how did you know?"

"AP stands for Advanced Placement, SAT stands for Scholastic Assessment Test, and GPA's only go up to 4."

"Ohhhh," said Amy, her face falling.

"Don't worry Pinkie, you did pretty good at first," comforted the student she'd been speaking with.

Back in the "stacks," Silver was walking cautiously among the towering bookshelves, the musty scent of old paper filling his nose.

"Charmyyyy, Marine, come on out! I know you're around here somewhere . . . " he called into the silence.

Suddenly something grabbed at one of his quills.

"Wh-wha? Hey!" Deftly Silver used his psychokinesis to catch a book that was about to drop on his head. "Real funny, you two. Get out of those shelves, Marine!"

"Awww, you're no fun, mate!" protested Marine, clambering out of the shelf from which she'd been snatching at Silver's quills. Charmy buzzed down from the shelf-top as well.

"Come on, Blaze is waiting for us," sighed Silver. "Now . . . oh man. Which way is out of here?"

They wandered around for a while, getting more and more confused. Suddenly, from the next aisle of shelves came a muffled thud.

"Whatwuzzat?!" yelped Charmy.

"Probably just a book falling over," said Silver, smiling comfortingly. Suddenly there was another thump.

"Agh!" whooped both youngsters, latching onto Silver.

"Take it easy, guys," he soothed. "I'm sure it's just more books."

Then came a strange shuffling sound, like footsteps. Oddly, they sounded four-footed.

"I-i-is that a book, Silver mate?" quavered Marine.

"No, I don't know what . . . " Silver's voice trailed off as the shuffling came closer, about to reach the end of the shelf. "I mean, it might . . . "

The shuffling turned into a full-out scufflement, as if whatever it was couldn't wait to reach the end of the shelf and jump into view.

"Yaaaaaaagh!"

Silver and the kids wasted no time. Next thing they knew, they were tearing out of the stacks into the "main" library, dragging Blaze with them.

"What's happened? What's the matter?" she spluttered, unnerved at their wild eyes.

"There's something in there!" panted Silver.

They went to the front desk and started babbling. The lady behind it seemed entirely unruffled.

"Oh," she smiled. "You must have met the Creeper."

"C-Creeper?" gulped Marine, her eyes barely peeking over the top of the desk.

"Is he the ghost of some guy who wandered in there and never got out?" asked Charmy, remembering how lost they had managed to get.

"No, no," laughed the librarian. "We don't quite know what he is, but he's very friendly. He helps people who are lost find the way out—but only if he likes you."

"Really?" asked Silver, not inclined to believe it.

"Sure. It's one of our college legends," said the librarian proudly.

"No kidding?!" whooped Charmy. "You mean we got to—"

"Shhhh!" hissed Blaze, covering the little bee's mouth. "It's a library!"

Judging by the sparkling of Charmy's eyes—and Marine's—silence was not an option. Silver and Blaze just barely managed to hustle the youngsters out of the library building before they exploded.

"We saw 'im! We saw the Creeper, we saw the Creeper!" shouted Marine.

"And he liked us! The Creeper liked us!" sang Charmy.

"Really now, what did you see in there?" asked Blaze blankly.

Most of the crew came back to check on Tails just as the little fox was being herded out of the gym, along with all the other scientists.

"They're going to be judging the entries," Tails whispered loudly. "Top inventions and presentations get an award."

"How does the competition look?" asked Silver.

"Pretty tough," whispered Tails, shaking his head.

"Uh, Tails, why are you whispering?" asked Sonic.

"Been answering too many—" Tails cleared his throat and continued in a hoarse but normal tone—"questions."

"Ohhhh." Sonic chuckled. "You must be hungry, then."

"Starving!" agreed Tails.

They found the campus cafeteria, and trooped in. The front desk was too high for any of them, so Sonic swung Tails up onto his shoulders.

"Meal pass for fourteen, please!" rasped Tails. "And one electrical outlet for Omega."

"What?" the lady behind the counter looked in bewilderment at this disproportionately tall fox that had suddenly appeared. Then she leaned over the counter and saw a whole crowd of Mobians, waiting expectantly.

"Wow."

Luckily, the food counters were a good bit lower than the check-in counter. The older set had no problem reaching, if they stood on their toes, and they helped the younger ones.

Truth be told, the crew was a little nervous, seeing as most of them were way younger than college students. They found themselves a long table over towards the edge of the room and tried to act grown-up. There was a lot of swapping of stories; Vector and Espio were still chasing a lead in the case of the disappearing socks, and wanted Charmy to come help, Charmy and Marine were still babbling about the Creeper, and Amy was still disappointed at her age having been found out.

"But I met some girls from a sorority who were really nice!" she exalted. "They gave me some fashion tips, and a whole ton of really useful dating advice! I can't wait to use it."

"Hrrk!" Sonic choked on a mouthful of chili dog.

"Overwhelmed by delight," explained Knuckles drily, whacking the hedgehog on the back.

"Are you all right, Tails?" asked Cream gently, noticing that the little fox was barely eating.

"I'm okay," smiled Tails. "I'm just thinking of those judges going around, maybe looking at my entry right now . . . I think I forgot about a few design flaws . . . " He dropped his fork. "No, I'm sure I missed a few design flaws!"

"You'll do fine," soothed Amy. "You didn't join this convention just to win a prize, did you? You wanted to show people your invention, to help the scientific community!"

"Yeah, you're right." Tails grinned bravely. "I'll stop thinking about it."

After dinner, they all followed Tails over to the convention center. Tails approached his invention cautiously and gave a muffled yelp.

"Second place! I got second place!"

There followed a lot of commotion; it was a wonder that Tails emerged in one piece from all the hand-shaking and hair-scruffing and friendly punching. While he was still trying to catch his balance, Team Chaotix politely took their leave and tore off to continue pursuing their case. The others milled around campus for a while, still in high spirits, then the time came to pack up Tails' invention again and head home. Team Chaotix had to be hauled in by the elbows; they still hadn't solved the case of the missing socks.

"I'm going to miss the football team," sighed Knuckles. "Darn, we were doing good!"

"I still hadn't gotten all the dating advice I wanted," grumbled Amy. Sonic gulped.

"How about you, Omega?" grinned Rouge. "Sad to be leaving that cute little Pepsi machine back in the humanities building? Or was she still giving you the silent treatment?"

"Desist," muttered Omega. Rouge noticed he was holding one arm a little closer to his body than usual.

"Whatcha got there, big guy?" she asked. "Hey now, don't try to hide it from me!"

Prying Omega's arm back (no small feat, considering his strength), she blinked in surprise at the ten digits inked onto the metal with marker.

"Say, a phone number? Where'd you get this?"

"None of your beeswax," said Omega firmly (also no small feat, considering his robotic voice).

"No seriously, whose number is it?" asked Rouge. Omega maintained deep silence.

"Omega! Come on, where'd you get it?"

"She'll be busy for a while," remarked Knuckles, amused.

"And we won't be busy for ages," groaned Vector. "I can't believe we had to leave one of our biggest cases ever!"

"What, the socks?" scoffed Shadow.

"Hey, it was college-level!" protested Vector. "I just don't understand it. Where could all those socks disappear off to?"

"If you could figure out the answer to that, you'd probably know where all the mates for unpaired socks disappear off to as well," chuckled Silver.

"That's easy," said Shadow, shrugging. "You know that gray fluffy stuff you have to pull out of the dryer lint trap now and then?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've got some bad news for you."

Sonic chuckled drowsily, listening to the others squabbling.

"So Tails, are you going to do that again next year?" he asked.

"Nahhhh," said Tails sleepily. "That was way too much stress. Maybe I'll try again when I'm older."

Meanwhile, Rouge was still trying to figure out the phone number.

"No fudging," she ordered. "Don't tell me you got that number from a vending machine!"

"He did," said Shadow lazily. "Second floor of the science building."

"But. . . but . . . " Rouge threw her hands up and dropped the subject.

Shadow yawned and tucked his hands behind his head. He and Omega had copied down the "call-for-maintenance" number stuck to one of the vending machines, but there was no need to tell Rouge that just yet.