(Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic Boom or any of the characters, all credit goes to the original creators at Cartoon Network. Please support the official release).
(Side Note: This takes place in the middle of the episode, when Sonic and Knuckles scheme to simply follow the girls and run ahead of them when the goal is in sight. Instead of sleeping, however, the boys spend the night running about and enjoying themselves. The next morning, Sonic wakes up and realizes that he and Knuckles overslept, which not only causes their plan to fail, but also leaves them stranded. From here, the episode changes).
~We Will Survive: A Sonic Boom "Into the Wilderness AU"~
The next morning in the woods, Sonic and Knuckles were both sleeping, with Sonic hanging from a tree via a parachute and Knuckles lying on top of a tree trunk. Suddenly, Sonic fell down, the impact waking him up; he looked around, befuddled for a moment before realization hit him.
Where were Amy and Sticks?
"Knuckles, get up! They didn't wake us up so we could follow them!", Sonic shouted. The red echidna woke up and slowly lifted himself off of the tree trunk, "That's cheating", he slurred as he tried to fully wake himself up. Sonic then decided to take charge of the situation, "It's okay. We just have to figure out which way they went. I'll zip back home and grab a compass", he said as he zipped away with his super speed.
But something was wrong: Sonic zipped off, only to return from the opposite direction. Confused, Sonic then tried running in the other direction, only to appear from the opposite direction again. Sonic looked around, just now realizing how big and all encompassing the forest actually was.
Knuckles grunted in frustration, "Here let me try!", he said as he ran off in a random direction. He had only traveled about two feet when he suddenly became scared and apprehensive, "Help...!", he squeaked. Sonic shook his head and walked over to Knuckles, placing a hand on his shoulder which brought relief to the red echidna. He wiped away imaginary sweat from his brow, "Phew, for a second there I thought we were lost", he said. "We are lost", Sonic said bluntly.
"HELP!"
As Knuckles was having a panic attack, the two didn't yet realize that from a short distance away, Amy and Sticks were watching them through some binoculars. "It's like watching lab rats in a maze", said Sticks. "Lab rats aren't that clueless. Should we help them?", said Amy as she watched Knuckles step on himself and then proceed to get angry with...well, himself for doing so. Sticks shook her head in disagreement, "No! In my experience, you need to learn how to do things yourself. If you help them, then they won't learn anything. Let's just keep going and just hope they figure it out", she said.
As much as Amy didn't just want to abandon Sonic and Knuckles in the woods to fend for themselves, she knew Sticks was right. Helping them won't do them any good, they needed to learn and figure it out for themselves. Plus, after everything that had been through his way, Amy was confident that Sonic would be able to figure this out and help Knuckles too. "Good luck, boys. Don't kill each other", Amy whispered with a smile before following Sticks.
Meanwhile, Sonic was trying to get Knuckles to calm down so they could figure a way out of the woods and beat the girls in the race. "Knux, its gonna be okay! All we have to do is find a path through the woods. People have been walking through here for years, so there's definitely gotta be a flat path somewhere, if we follow it we'll get out of here and beat the girls", he said.
Sonic and Knuckles then proceeded to walk through the forest in an effort to find a path that will lead them back to the village; they eventually came upon a crossroad that split off on either side of a tall, gnarled tree. "Which path do we take, Sonic?", asked Knuckles as he had finally calmed down and was now putting all his faith in Sonic to get them out of the forest. Sonic walked over to the split path, grabbed a nearby branch and threw it up into the air.
When it landed, the pointed end of the branch was pointing to the path on the left. "We go left, I saw that little trick in a movie once. Always works!", Sonic said confidently as he and Knuckles walked down the path. As they walked down the path, the sunlight grew dimmer as the foliage on the trees above them grew thicker; soon, the foliage was so dense that only a few beams of sunlight poked out through the leaves.
Sonic and Knuckles looked around to see just how dark the forest had gotten, with the latter suddenly becoming scared. "Sonic...its dark! I don't...I don't like it!", Knuckles said as he shivered in fear. Sonic tried to reassure as he continued to walk down the path, "Hey hey, it's okay buddy. Nothing to be scared of, I'm sure the sun's just being blocked by a big cloud. It'll move away soon and then we'll have plenty of light-"
Sonic was suddenly cut off when he tripped and fell forward, falling off a small cliff and rolling down a steep hill. Knuckles ran forward to see where he went, but he only succeeded in falling off the small cliff himself. The boys continued rolling down the steep hill until they landed on their backs into a source of water. Sonic slowly sat up first, rubbing his aching back as he looked around, that was when he noticed the landscape had changed.
The surrounding trees were all gnarled and knotted, and the trunks seemed to sprout up out of water; Sonic looked down to see that the water level was actually waist deep, but it trailed off into much deeper water, as evidence by a nearby non-sentient woodland otter diving deep under and coming back up with a fish in its mouth. The water was actually crystal clear, so Sonic was able to see all the algae, fish and frog spawn that swam around him.
The sound of giggling caught his attention as he then to his right side to see Knuckles lying on his back in the water, a couple of small orange fish were swimming near his armpits which is why he was giggling, they were tickling him. "Knuckles...Knuckles, get up! Something's not right here", said Sonic as he shook him by the shoulders. Knuckles quickly sat up and looked around, "Um Sonic...this doesn't look like the village to me", he said.
Thank you Captain Obvious, Sonic thought as he sat up and looked around. "I think we took the wrong path, fell off a cliff and landed in a swamp in some unknown part of the woods. Maybe if we climb back up to the top of the cliff, we can just backtrack and go down the other path", he said. Sonic climbed onto Knuckles' back as the red echidna used his namesakes to climb up the side of the cliff, but he hadn't even gotten halfway up when the moist dirt crumbled beneath his hands and they both went tumbling back down into the water.
Sonic sat up and shook the water off of his body, "Okay...no problem, I can still make this work. I'll just use my communicator to call Tails and fly us out of here", he said but he looked down and saw that upon landing in the waist deep water a second time, his communicator had been shorted out. Sonic groaned in annoyance before looking at Knuckles, "Please tell me your communicator didn't get shorted out by water too", he said. Knuckles sat up and looked at his communicator, which was sparking due to the water having shorted it out.
"Um...I could tell you that but...then I'd be lying", said Knuckles. Sonic groaned as he rubbed his temples and tried to assess the situation, "Okay...we went down the wrong path and ended up in a swamp, in some part of the woods that I've never even seen before when running through it. I doubt the girls will hear us if we try calling out for them, so all we can do for now is wait. Soon, they'll realize something happened and come look for us. For now, let's find some land that isn't submerged in water and dry off", he said.
A few minutes later, Sonic rode atop Knuckles' back as he waded through the water looking for dry land for them to sit on; eventually, they came across a land mass that was not only dry, but also large enough for them to walk around on. They pulled themselves onto the land mass and took a minute to dry off and relax, that was when they both heard a low rumbling noise.
Knuckles suddenly got freaked out and jumped into Sonic's arms, "S-Sonic! What was that?! I-It sounded like the howl of a werewolf from the belly of Hades!", he shouted in terror. Sonic then threw Knuckles off of him, "Get off me, Knuckles! That's your belly!", he said as he pointed to Knuckles' stomach. It suddenly let out another rumbling noise, this time much louder than before; Knuckles looked down at his stomach and smiled sheepishly as his cheeks turned red from embarrassment, "Heh heh, I guess I'm hungry", he said.
Suddenly, there was another grumbling noise only this time it came from Sonic's stomach. "Woof, me too. Let's see if we can rustle up some grub", he said. Sonic walked around until he found a long, flat and sharp rock; using a thin vine, he tied it to the end of a long stick, making a spear. "Alright, this'll come in handy", he said. Soon, Sonic and Knuckles were sneaking around the swampland until they spotted another little otter munching on a turnip it dug up from the ground.
"Hold this while I go and grab it, Sticks does this all the time which means that little guy is our lunch", Sonic whispered as he handed his makeshift spear over to Knuckles. Sonic then grabbed another nearby vine and waited for just the right moment before zipping off after the otter, it tried to run away but it wasn't prepared for escaping a creature that moved faster than the speed of sound and soon, Sonic caught it and tied its front and back paws together.
Sonic then triumphantly zoomed back to Knuckles and placed the bound otter onto the ground, "Ha ha! I did it! Who says we can't survive out here?", he said as he boasted. Knuckles smiled but then looked down at the otter, "So um...how are we supposed to eat it?", he asked. Sonic stopped stroking his ego when he heard what Knuckles said and came to a grim realization as he picked up the spear, "We...we have to...kill it first", he said.
Knuckles' face went pale as he looked at the blue hedgehog, "K-Kill it!? Sonic, we can't kill it!", he shouted. Sonic glared at him, "We have to! Or would you rather starve instead?! We need to eat, Knuckles!", he shouted. Knuckles flinched at his friends angry response and looked at the bound woodland critter, "But Sonic, look at it. It's too cute", he said. Sonic rolled his eyes and lifted the spear, but when he looked down at the otter, he could've sworn he saw tears in its large, almost puppy dog eyes.
Sonic felt a churning in his gut as he dropped the spear and fell to his knees, "I can't do it...I just can't...", he muttered as he untied the vine and let the otter go. He and Knuckles smiled as they watch the little critter happily scamper away towards the water's edge...until a hungry alligator suddenly rose up out of the water, snapped down on its head and dragged it under the depths.
Sonic and Knuckles felt the blood drain from their faces, with Knuckles having to resist the urge to vomit. "Let's just switch to fish", said Sonic. They then walked over to edge of the water and saw hundreds of fish swimming around, some were bigger than others. "Okay, now this'll be so much easier. There's nothing cute about fish", said Sonic as he picked up his makeshift spear and jabbed it into the water. But when he pulled it back out, there was nothing on it; Sonic jabbed the spear into the water again but still had no luck.
Growing frustrated by the second, Sonic kept repeatedly jabbing the spear into the water again and again, but still couldn't catch a single fish; next to him, Knuckles tried sticking his hand into the water to grab a fish, but they kept slipping out through his fingers. Just then, Knuckles let out a yelp as he felt something snap onto his index finger; he lifted his hand up to reveal that a piranha had chomped down on his finger, but despite the pain, he still smiled.
"Sonic, look! I caught a fish!", he said. Sonic looked over and smiled as he carefully pried the fish off of Knuckles' finger, Knuckles took a moment to suck on his finger to relieve the pain before looking at Sonic. "So how do we eat this? Do we just...eat it like it is?", he asked. Sonic shook his head as he held up the wriggling fish, "No. First we gotta kill it, then we have to skin it and then we gotta make a fire to cook it over-"
Sonic was once again cut off when a white heron swooped down and snatched the piranha away from his hand. "Hey! Gimme that back, you stupid bird!", he shouted as he picked up a rock and threw it at the heron. It struck the bird in the head, causing it to fall towards the water, where another alligator leapt up and caught it in its wide jaws. Sonic stomped his foot angrily on the ground, "Oh come on! Are you seriously kidding me right now!", he yelled.
"Why don't we try looking for some fruits and veggies to eat?", asked Knuckles. Sonic sighed as he grabbed his makeshift spear and walked into the nearby grove with Knuckles following him.
Meanwhile back in the village, Amy, Sticks and Tails were having lunch at Meh Burger; when the girls made it to the finish line and there was still no sign of Sonic or Knuckles, Tails asked where they were and if they should go look for them. Sticks reassured him that it was super early in the morning and that they should give the boys more time to figure things out.
Well, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon and there was still no sign of Sonic or Knuckles. Just then, Eggman walked into Meh Burger to grab some take out when he noticed the boys were missing. "Where's the blue rat and the red dingus?", he asked. Amy explained the whole competition they had to him as well as her and Sticks leaving the boys to find their own way back. "Aren't you concerned about why they haven't made it back yet? That was 7am, they've been gone for ten and a half hours, and you're not the least bit worried about them?", asked Eggman.
"For once, I have to agree with Eggman, Sticks. Don't you think we should go looking for them? What if they got even more lost? And they don't know much about surviving in the woods, what if they're starving? What if they're hurt? What if they get attacked by wild animals?", said Tails. Sticks sighed, "Look it's only been half a day, I say we give them until tomorrow afternoon! They would usually have lunch here at Meh Burger with us at this time, if they're not here tomorrow, then its serious and we'll go looking for them", she said.
Eggman laughed as he grabbed his food and walked back to his lair, "Its hilarious that on one of the few days I'm not itching to destroy you all that you actively try to do each other in. Better hope when you go looking for them, they're both still in one piece. All alone in the woods with no food, no basic outdoor survival skills, slowly going insane from hunger...I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that they've cannibalized each other out of desperation", he said as he walked home.
Back in the forest, Sonic and Knuckles were lying down on a bed of moss and giant leaves with their backs to each other; they were also partially covered in blue goop as well because an hour ago, Sonic had come across a cluster of bananas but when he tried to grab it, he was pulled into the mouth of a large carnivorous plant. Knuckles had grabbed the spear and stabbed the plant numerous times before it finally popped, exploding its blue colored blood all over him and Sonic.
The fluid was also a bit sticky and smelled almost like raw sewage, it wasn't pleasant to be coated in the stuff but at least any animal that wanted to eat them would be deterred by the awful smell. After a while, it began raining. The thick canopy of the trees kept the from soaking them but that didn't stop the strong winds from blowing some of the rain water onto them, chilling their skin.
"S-Sonic...I'm hungry and cold...", said Knuckles.
"I know, Knuckles. So am I", Sonic grumbled.
"And tired...and scared", said Knuckles as he shivered.
Sonic shivered as well as his stomach growled loudly. After so many mishaps, the two gave up trying to find food and decided to lie down and relax, maybe sleep would take their minds off of their empty stomachs. But so far, neither of them were able to fall asleep because of the gnawing pain of their empty stomachs, and Knuckles' constant talking and complaining was was beginning to irritate Sonic.
"Do you think Amy and Sticks made it to the finish line yet? I bet they're probably having lunch with Tails at Meh Burger right now...man, I could sure go for a double Meh Burger right about now...with a large fries and a soda. Right now, even those cheap-o burgers sound pretty good..."
"Knuckles will you please just shut up!"
Knuckles was taken aback by Sonic angrily screaming at him, he sat and sighed. "I'm sorry Sonic, I'm just really hungry..."
Sonic abruptly stood up and glared at him, "Yeah I get it! You're hungry but guess what? Whining about it over and over again isn't going to change the fact that we're stuck in the middle of nowhere with no food, no fire and no way of getting home!", he shouted. Knuckles flinched at the anger in Sonic's voice, but he tried to ease the tension, "I-it's okay, Sonic. It's not your fault", he said.
That was when Sonic let out a dry laugh, "You're right...its your fault! If I wasn't forced to babysit you I wouldn't be stuck out here in the first place! But I had to take that stupid bet, completely forgetting that trying to teach you anything is like trying to squeeze water from a rock! It just ain't gonna happen! You're as dumb as a little kid...oh who am I kidding? A child with ADHD is smarter than you, Heck, Lady Walrus' baby who I'm constantly having to save is smarter than you. He'd probably know how to survive out here better than you can!
"It makes me wonder how you've even lasted this long, someone as stupid as you would've bitten the dust ages ago, but I guess Darwinism is always on break whenever you're around, huh Knuckles? Sometimes I wish you never left Angel Island and decided to come stay here with us because my life would be so much easier if you weren't around!"
When Sonic finished his tirade, he stood there breathing heavily as he crossed his arms and looked off to the side. If he had looked up, he would've seen Knuckles' lip quivering as tears fell from his eyes, his feelings having been severely hurt by Sonic's harsh words. Knuckles let out a sob as he stood up and ran off into the grove, not stopping until he was a good ten feet away.
Sonic continued to to glare off to the side until a cold chill swept down his spine, and it wasn't cause by the wind; his angry expression slowly morphed into one of guilt and remorse as he slowly realized what he had just done. "Knuckles, wait!", he shouted but it was too late. Knuckles had already disappeared and Sonic just didn't have the courage or energy to chase after him.
He walked over to a tree and sat at the base of its trunk, bringing his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs and placing his head on top of them. For the first time in his life, Sonic felt himself want to cry; he mentally kicked himself for lashing out at Knuckles when he wasn't to blame for the situation they were in. It wasn't Knuckles' fault, he didn't challenge the girls to some stupid survivalist competition, he wasn't the one who let his ego get the better of him, and he wasn't the one who suggested taking a path based on the position of a thrown stick.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...", Sonic just started muttering apologies over and over again, hoping...no...praying that Knuckles could hear him and would forgive him. Sonic sat there muttering to himself until he eventually fell asleep at the base of the tree, his body occasionally shivering due to the cold evening air. Just then, he sighed in his sleep as he felt something soft and warm wrap itself around him; he then felt as if something or someone had pulled them close to him because all of a sudden, he could hear a soft heartbeat.
Sonic strained to open his tired eyes and saw that Knuckles was holding him in a warm and comforting embrace, his ear pressed against his chest where his heart was. "Kn...Knuckles...?", Sonic mumbled before slowly drifting back to sleep, his body curling up against Knuckles for warmth.
The rain had stopped the very next morning, leaving the swamp coated in a thin layer of mist. Knuckles was woken up by the sound of nearby birds chirping loudly, as he moved around, he felt something poke him in the nose; he looked down to see that Sonic had turned over in his sleep, with his quills turned towards Knuckles' face.
Knuckles slowly removed his arms from around Sonic's body and sat up, stretching his arms as he yawned; he heard a groan next to him as Sonic began to wake up as well, when he sat up, he looked at Knuckles for a split second before turning his head away in shame. "I heard you mumbling "I'm sorry" over and over last night, and...and I'm sorry too", said Knuckles. Sonic jet out another dry laugh, "Knuckles...you have nothing to be sorry about! This whole mess we're in is my fault, simply as that!", he said.
Knuckles looked down at the grassy floor before looking back up, "Sonic, all those mean things you said about me last night...were they true? Is that how you really feel about me?", he asked. Sonic turned around and looked at him, there was a long moment of silence as the two simply stared at one another; then, Sonic suddenly threw his arms around Knuckles' broad shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
"No, Knuckles! I don't feel that way about you! I'll admit you may not be the sharpest fool in the shed, but I would never mock your intelligence or tell that I'm better off without you. It actually makes me angry when I hear people say those things behind your back as if you don't have feelings, but I would never think of you that way! I was so focused on beating the girls, then we got lost and I was so hungry that my anger just kept building up until I could no longer hold it back!
"I ended up venting all my pent up aggression at you and I'm sorry, Knuckles! You're not a burden, you're not useless, and you may not be all that smart but I'd never call you stupid! You're more than just my friend...you're like a brother to me, and I'm sorry I ever made you feel so bad about yourself. Can...can you ever forgive me?", Sonic said as he was choked up due to having burst into tears when he hugged Knuckles.
Knuckles felt tears fall from his eyes as he smiled and hugged Sonic back, "I forgive you, Sonic. I've always thought of you as my brother too, mostly because I don't have a family of my own, and I've always looked up to you. To tell you the truth...that's kinda why I wanted to apply to be your sidekick that one time, I thought if I was your sidekick we'd hang out more and become friends. Maybe you'd even see me as like your brother...I guess my wish sorta came true", he said.
Sonic parted from Knuckles as he wiped his eyes and gave him a lighthearted slap on the shoulder, "You big dummy, if you wanted to hang, you could've just asked", he chuckled. Soon, Sonic and Knuckles were a sharing a good laugh before it was interrupted by a gurgling noise; they both looked down at their rumbling stomach and remembered that they hadn't eaten in two days.
Knuckles rubbed his stomach as he groaned, "I wish we had something to eat now. We're...we're gonna starve to death out here, aren't we?", he said miserably. With a look of determination on his face, Sonic stood up and grabbed his makeshift spear. "No, Knuckles! We're not going to die out here! Not after all we've been through! We are going to survive, you with me?", he said as he held his hand out to the red echidna. Knuckles looked at the outstretched hand before grabbing it, a determined smile on his face. "I'm with you, Sonic! Let's do this!", he said.
(Please play whichever montage music you like for this next part).
Sonic grabbed a small log and placed it on the ground, sticking a twig into a hole on the side of it; he then wrapped a vine around the twig and told Knuckles to hold a rock on top of it. "Not too hard that you'll break the twig but not too soft that it'll fall over, okay? I'm going to use another trick I learned from that movie to start a fire: if I pull either side of this vine back and forth fast enough, the friction will cause the log to heat up and start a fire", said Sonic.
Knuckles nodded and held the rock and twig firmly in placed as Sonic went to work, he pulled the vine back and forth as fast as he could, and considering how fast he moved normally, that was saying a lot. Soon, a small trail of smoke rose up from the log; Sonic had Knuckles discard the rock and twig as he sprinkled pieces of tree bark on the smoking part of the log and blew air onto it. Soon, a small flame formed before it erupted into a medium sized campfire.
Sonic and Knuckles gave a triumphant laugh, "Yes! It worked! Now Knuckles, go and gather as many dead branches and twigs you can find, the more wood we toss onto the fire the longer it'll stay alive! I'm going to get us some food!", Sonic said as he grabbed his spear and ran into the undergrowth. Knuckles went about grabbing every single fallen branch and twig he could find, feeding them into the fire which kept it at a decent size.
Meanwhile, Sonic was using vines to set up snare traps along the grove, he baited them with a few roots he dug up from the ground and waited quietly in the bushes for any woodland critters to take the bait. Within two minutes, he heard his snares snap and jumped out to see he had caught an otter, a small beaver and a rather fat looking rabbit. Sonic left them to hang for a bit while he went to the edge of the water.
He carefully and patiently jabbed his spear into the water, this time he was able to snag a fish; Sonic repeated this again and again until one of his makeshift satchels, made from a vine and two large leaves, was filled with still squirming fish. He then walked over to where he and Knuckles had tried to gather fruit and veggies before, another reason they came up empty handed was because they were clueless as to which plants were poisonous and which ones weren't.
Sonic watched as a family of raccoons gathered and munched on a few berries, apples, mushrooms and some weird looking root vegetable that kind of look like a radish. This was all the proof he needed to know that the nearby plant life was safe to eat, after the raccoons left, Sonic dashed out of the bushes and began filling up his second leaf satchel with as many fruits and veggies as he could carry; once the satchel was full, he walked back over to his snared critters.
Sonic cut the otter down first and held it down with his left hand while holding the spear with his right hand, he held the otter in a particular way, making sure it eyes were covered so it wouldn't see what he was about to do. "I'm sorry little guy", Sonic whispered as he swiftly brought the spear point down on the otters throat, killing it instantly. He then did the same to the beaver and rabbit, covering their eyes so they wouldn't see him kill them as he brought the spear down, giving them a quick and painless death.
Sonic looked at the dead animals and closed his eyes, saying a small prayer to himself asking them to forgive him for taking their lives so that he and Knuckles would have food to eat; he then made quick work skinning their bodies, tossing the skins into the water for the alligators and carrying the bodies over his shoulder by the vines still tied to their legs.
When Sonic came back to the camp site, he saw that Knuckles had done a good job keeping the fire big and strong by supplying it with plenty of firewood, he even went as far as to gather enough twigs and branches to make a pile so they'd have plenty of wood to take from. Sonic sat down and got to work preparing their meal, scaling and deboning the fish as well as the woodland critters and skewering them onto long branches along with the mushrooms and roots.
Knuckles still wasn't too happy about Sonic killing cute little animals but it made him feel a bit better knowing he didn't have to see it happen and that Sonic at least killed them quickly so they wouldn't have to suffer. Once all the meat had finished roasting over the fire, Sonic and Knuckles wasted no time in gorging themselves on all of it, washing it down by jabbing hollow reeds into the fruit and sucking out the sweet juice.
Within minutes, most of the meat, fruits and vegetables were gone and any that remained were kept inside of the leaf satchels. Sonic and Knuckles let out loud burps as they laid down on their moss bed to relax and digest their meal, "Oh man...I don't think I've ever eaten this much since that chili dog eating contest I participated in three years ago", said Sonic. Knuckles licked his lips, "Yeah...that was amazing! Oof, I ate like a pig!", he said as he patted his slightly distended stomach.
Knuckles looked over to see Sonic slowly dozing off, on a chilly day like this, a warm fire and a full belly was enough for him to relax and take a nice, long nap. "Hey Sonic...can I ask you something?", he asked. Sonic lazily opened one eye and gave him a tired smile, "You just did", he said as he yawned. Knuckles let out a small chuckle before adopting a serious expression, "If...if we end up being stuck out here for the rest of our lives, will you promise me that we'll always stick together?", he asked.
Sonic crawled over to Knuckles and wrapped his arms around one of his big and muscular arms, "Knuckles, I promise on everything I've ever known that I'll always be by your side, whether we get rescued and brought back home or if we have to make this swamp our new home. You're my friend, my brother and I'll never abandon you", said Sonic as he finally drifted off to sleep. Knuckles smiled lovingly at the hedgehog he was proud to call his brother before falling asleep as well.
Meanwhile in skies over head, Tails was flying in the Tornado with Sticks riding on one of the wings. "I can't believe they've been gone for a whole thrity six hours!", said Tails. Sticks shook her head, "What was I thinking? I never should've told Amy that we should let them figure out on their own! We should've helped them! We gotta find them soon before something bad happens", she said.
Tails flew the plane around looking for any sign of Sonic or Knuckles anywhere in the dense forest, that was when he spotted something. "Hey, what's that over there?", he called out. Sticks looked to see where he was pointing and saw a column of smoke rising from the trees, "I know that smoke anywhere! It's a campfire, down in the swamp! Hurry and land this thing, Tails! It could be the guys!", she shouted.
Tails carefully maneuvered the Tornado to safely land on the surface of the swamp water, he shut off the engine as he had Sticks hopped off the plane and onto the land. "Sonic? Knuckles? Where are you?", Tails shouted. Sticks looked around until she caught something, she began to slowly sniff the air. "I know those smells! It smells like barbecued fish and rabbit flesh, with roasted mushrooms and on top of that...I smell a hedgehog and an echidna covered in moldy seaweed! They're this way!", she said as she led Tails in the direction of the smells.
They soon came upon Sonic and Knuckles' makeshift camp, the fire still blazing as the two boys continued to sleep, blissfully unaware that their friends came to rescue them. Sticks looked at the pile of firewood as well as the piles of discarded fruit cores and bones, the makeshift spear still stained with blood and the makeshift satchels full of leftover food. "Those two...they could survive out here on their own all along. Amy and I never should've doubted them", she said.
Tails watched as Sticks walked over to the sleeping boys, she smiled affectionately at them as she gave them both a gentle pat on the shoulder, "I'm so proud of you both. Tails, let's get them into the Tornado and take them home, they both desperately need a bath", she said. Tails nodded as he carefully lifted up Sonic and loaded him onto the plane while Sticks carried Knuckles and set him gently into the backseat.
Neither of the boys woke up, though they did stir slightly, as Tails and Sticks hopped onto the plane and flew back to the village.
When Sonic finally woke up, he slowly sat up as he yawned and stretched; he rubbed the grit from his eyes and when he opened them, he saw that he was back in his shack on the beach, lying in his hammock. A yawn caught his attention as he turned to see Knuckles lying on his living room couch, slowly waking up as well. They both looked at each other in confusion.
"Sonic, what's going on? How'd we get back to your shack? And why do I smell like that soap Amy keeps in her bathroom?", asked Knuckles. Sonic sniffed his armpit to find that he also smelled like Amy's strawberry, passionfruit and mango body wash, and that he was also no longer coated in the sticky blood of a man eating plant. "I'm not sure...was all of that...a dream?", he asked while scratching his head.
Just then, Tails walked up to the doorway and gasped in shock when he saw them. "Amy! Sticks! They're both awake!", he shouted. Soon he and the two girls ran into the shack, pulling Sonic and Knuckles into a group hug. "Guys what's going on? How'd Knuckles and I get back here?", asked Sonic. "The girls saw you struggling in the woods, Amy was going to help you but Sticks convinced her to leave you guys to figure it out yourselves. But you were gone for thirty six hours, so Sticks and I went looking for you and we found you sleeping in a swamp.
"We brought you back home, but you guys were covered in this sticky and smelly blue stuff, so Sticks gave you both a bath in her burrow after borrowing Amy's body wash. Then we brought you back here and let you sleep, you've been asleep for about five hours", said Tails. Sonic sighed as he laid back in his hammock, "Well that was...an experience. Girls, let's agree to never do that again...ever! That was something I never want to experience again in my entire life!", said Sonic.
"I couldn't agree more. And don't worry, you and Knuckles won't have to do our laundry for a year. I think you boys have been through enough already", said Amy. There was a strong silence in the room, "So...what do we do now?", asked Sticks. "You guys wanna go see the Crash Bandicoot movie? I heard the directors changed Crash from that hideous design he had from the first trailer into something that looks more like the games", said Tails.
Everyone agreed as they went to head to the movie theater; as they walked there, Knuckles pulled Sonic aside. "Sonic, when you said you never wanted to experience that again in your life, did you mean...", Knuckles trailed off as he didn't have the courage to finish the sentence. Sonic smiled as he gave him a playful punch to the shoulder, "Relax Knux, I meant being lost in the woods and having to kill woodland critters for food. I don't take back any of what I said to you, I promise that we'll always stick together and I meant it", he said.
Knuckles smiled as his suspicions were proven wrong, Sonic was going to keep his promise no matter what. "Hey, race ya to the movie theater!", said Knuckles. "Oh it is on! Loser buys the winner popcorn and soda!", Sonic said with a smirk. The two began to run towards the theater, laughing happily all the while. Tails, Amy and Sticks looked at them in confusion for they were unaware of just how much closer Sonic and Knuckles had grown from being lost in the woods.
They had no idea that the bond between them had just been made stronger than ever. They were friends, they were brothers and they will always be there for each other.
Author's Note: That's the end of my second Sonic Boom one-shot. I got this idea after I saw a piece of fanart related to the Sonic Boom episode "Into the Wilderness", I sat there thinking to myself what if Amy and Sticks hadn't helped Sonic and Knuckles? What if they just left them there to fend for themselves? What would happen? And so, I came up with this story. BTW, this is NOT a shipfic! Sonic and Knuckles in this story have a completely platonic relationship, their relationship being closer to that of a pair of brothers. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story; until next time, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!