First time writing any Knouge stuff, so forgive me if i go off character.
Angel Island, the most peaceful place on earth, in recent memory at least, with its only inhabitants being an echidna and the wildlife. The echidna lied on its back basking in the sunlight, watching as the cloud passed by ever so slowly with a flock of flickies following after, his eyes slowly started to close and him drifting away into sleep until…
SPLAT
The echidna sat up and scanned left and right for what is was, until he saw something gruesome, the shine of the Master Emerald tainted by a white gooey stuff, sitting on top of it. Knuckles walked towards the Emerald, he got closer and checked the filthy, didn't seemed to bad, he held his right thumb up and licked it, and started to smudge the finger on the Emerald, the stain was still there, he smudged harder, still there , he grunted and smudged the hardest he could and for his surprised the stain stood strong. At this point the only thing that could send that stain away was his good ol polisher custom made for the Master Emerald courtesy of Tails, always gave it a nice shine and it smelled like lemon.
Knuckles walked away from the Emerald and to his shack, he built it on his early days on the island he used to sleep there, but since he started to sleep on the Master Emerald shrine it was mostly used for storage, frankly he barely remembers the last time he went there.
He stood in front of the shack, it was dirtier than usual, had a few holes but it did its job, the door swung open with a creak, the shack was pitch dark, save for a few holes that gave off some light, Knuckles entered it and looked for the polisher, he didn't remembered the place being that fuzzy and somewhat ticklish, he looked for something to light the place up, he started to touch a nearby wall and felt a flashlight nearby, he grabbed it and turned it on, the beacon of light illuminated the shack, revealing an enormous colony of termites all over the echidna, and without wasting a second they bit onto him, thousands of them bit at him all at the same time.
Knuckles ran out of there cursing like a sailor as he tried to wipe off the vermin from himself, without knowing he ended up on the shrine of the Master Emerald, after he shook them all off, he stopped to catch his breath until he heard an way too familiar laughter, he looked to his left and saw that bat.
"Beat it batgirl you're not welcome here" The bat garbled between laughter "I come all the way here to take my Emerald and the first thing i see is you running around like a fool, and cursing your mouth off, hilarious" She kept on laughing, Knuckles pouted a bit "First, It's not your emerald. Second, get out of here before i throw you off" He pointed backwards and Rouge walked to the emerald and smugly replying "Can't i drop by every once in a while to check on my favorite tres-" She stopped when she saw the filth on the Emerald "Hey why is this on my Emerald, i don't want to add it to my collection in this state" she pointed at the stain on the Emerald, Knuckles crossed his arms "I was dealing with that before you popped up"
"Then why did you stopped it ?" She asked and Knuckles beckoned her to follow him "See it for yourself" She followed him to his shack, once the wooden structure was in sight she raised her ears in surprise "You have a 'house here ?!" Knuckles stopped by the door and replied "It's more of a storage, than a house" Rouge placed her hands on her hips "Since when you had this shack ?" Knuckles turned to face her "It was my home in my earlier days on the island, i barely come here anymore"
Rouge glanced at the cabin made out of old oak, the wood seemed to be a little bit rotten, she asked Knuckles "Anyway why are we here ?" The echidna placed his hand on the doorknob and answered her question "I was going to grab some polisher but there are some termites in the way" She laughed a bit and in a smug tone replied "Aww little Knuckie is scared of a few bugs" Knuckles swung open the door revealing the huge colony of termites you could barely see anything in the shack, the smug look on her face quickly turned into one of disgust, Knuckles closed the door, crossed his arms and laughed lightly at her surprise "A few bugs eh ?" She looked at him in shock "How did this happened ? Why is every single termite in existence hanging out in that shed ?" Knuckles shrugged "Your guess is as good as mine, i don't come here often".
"Can't you just buy another polisher ?", Knuckles shook his head "This one is custom made by Tails specially for the Master Emerald, and the store is a three to two days travel from here" Rouge recovered her posture and made a sly remark "You're a echidna right, don't echidnas like eat termites or something like that ?"
"Echidnas only eat ants as an last resort and no way i'm eating termites" Rouge placed a hand on her chin and started to think "How about we smoke them out" Knuckles instantly shotback "And burn down my things, fat chance", Rouge crossed her arms "Got any better ideas, besides we are only using smoke not torching the place"
Knuckles scratched the back of his neck, trying to think of any better ideas, after a short time of silence he replied "Fine, but if my cabin burns down it's all your fault" Knuckles walked into the forest, after a few minute he returned with a few sticks, some vines and a large leaf, and started to grind them together to start a flame, Rouge tilted her head and asked "I have a lighter you know", Knuckles stopped grinding them together and held his hand out "Hand it over".
"The magic woords~" Rouge teased him as she fidgeted the lighter in her hands, he got visibly irritated "Will you please hand it over" Knuckles slurred out the words, Rouge carefully placed the lighter on his hands. Knuckles wrapped up the vines on the stick and set it alight, the improvised torch began to make some smoke.
Knuckles opened the door of the cabin setted the bundle on the ground, and with the large leaf began to fan the smoke to inside his cabin, slowly the cabin began filling up with smoke, Knuckles rushed over to the door and closed it, "And now we wait". They waited for the termites to calm down, time seemed to slow down to a crawl over the awkward silence between them.
"I think they are gone by now" Rouge asked, Knuckles got up and walked to the door and swung it open "Looks like it-" Knuckles slowly entered the cabin, but when he saw the colony of angry termites, gazing at im the door was slammed shut, "I think i made them angry", The bat got up "How did smoke made them angry, can these things even get angry ?", the echidna shrugged "I think we just found out" The echidna crouched on the floor and started to think of something.
Rouge walked up to the cabin and scanned the wood it was made of, it. Touching it she felt the wood was a bit moist, she gave it a light knock on it some chips of wood came off, allowing a few rays on sun to shine the inside of the shack, when the light struck the mass of termites, the insects fled from it, retreating back to the darkness, Rouge gasped at her discovery "Knucklehead checked this out" Knuckles walked over to her and watched as she once again struck the wood, knocking out another chip and letting the light enter the place "Yeah i know its old, you don't need to knock it down"
"No, look at this knucklehead" Rouge pointed to the new hole and Knuckles gazed through the hole and watched as the termites scurried away from the light, "Ooh i got it !" Knuckles jumped to the top of the cabin, and punched a hole in the roof, light quickly filled the room, The door in the cabin started to shake violently Rouge flew up just as the wave of termites smashed the door and rushed under her, once all of them were out of sight Knuckles shouted "You good ?" Rouge flew to the top of the cabin, glanced at Knuckles at struck him in the head with her fist "Ow what was that for ?" Rouge crossed her arms and shot back "Next time you feel like throwing a horde a termites at me, warn me first at least" Knuckles in his usual irritated tone replied "I thought you got the memo when i jumped on the roof, what did you expected i would do there", they both stared at each other "Will you quit staring at me ?" Rouge replied "Only after you apologise" Knuckles grumbled a bit a calmly replied "...Ok fine, i'm sorry for not warning you when i punched a hole in the roof", Rouge launched a warm smile at him he replied with a small smirk and jumped down the hole with Knuckles following after.
Rouge started to look around while Knuckles searched for the polisher, while looking at a shelf with a few dusty books, duffel bags, tools until she saw something that got her eye, hidden between more bags an old beat up cowboy hat, the design was a bit old and a bit flashy for her taste but it had its charm "Nice hat knuckie", Knuckles stopped his search and walked to her and smirked "Man it's been ages since i saw this hat, i used to wear this baby all the time when i was treasure hunting" Rouge smiled at the idea of the big red search treasures. Among a few cds of music, she found a few duffel bags filled with notebooks and journals with a few gems and baubles stashed but mostly papers, she picked up one of the gems and admired it, not the best thing she saw but it had its charm, "Why is this bag filled with journals ?" She asked picking up one of the many notepads, Knuckles replied with a small tone of excitement "You're looking at years of history i collected while i was treasure hunting, my favorite one is the story of ruins hidden deep inside Red Mountain", she laughed a bit "So you like the history more than the treasure ?" Knuckles nodded "Absolutely, treasure comes and goes but history is forever" Rouge opened one of the journals and took a quick glance at it Knuckle's handwriting wasn't the best but she managed to understand some bits.
"Found it" Knuckles lifted a bottle filled with a light blue liquid and grabbed a rag "Why don't you use other kinds of polishers ?" Knuckles scoffed "I couldn't find one worthy enough for the master emerald and so i asked Tails to make a really good one", Knuckles and Rouge walked out of the cabin "So what are you going to do about this cabin ?" Knuckles shrugged "I think it's about time i build a new one, preferably closer to the shrine", Rouge playfully hitted his shoulder "You better make it termite proof, i don't feel like saving you from a few bugs again", Knuckles scoffed "And you better not lay a finger on the Master Emerald when i clean it".
"Whatever you say hun~" She answered with cocky tone and a smirk, Knuckles flustered lightly, he looked away and crossed his arms "When i'm done cleaning up the Master Emerald, you will hit the road got it, if you so much lay a finger on her i'll...Hey get back here" Knuckles answered as he chased the white bat to the shrine.