I altered how you enter/exit chao gardens and a bit of how Extreme Gear works because ... I can...

Tails gave a pause, a cool wind fluttering by him full of sakura blossoms from spring. The clouds broke and the sun beamed down nearly where he stood on the short, narrow strip of private airport. Some steps back, the Tornado stood still in a hanger, with a few other small planes resting about. This had been the perfect Saturday to come see Dylan, and show him a couple amazing new things! Sonic and Amy were off on some friend thing. Shadow was, well, who knew? Same for Rouge. Cream was still posting selfies, by the off-and-on rumbling of his phone.

With a broadening smile, Tails skipped a few steps, then remembered a thing called dignity and let off, but kept a hastened step to record his plane's hanger entry at the office and then make a rush out of the airport.

"Okay. It'll just take me a few minutes," he dropped his Extreme Gear and hopped atop it, strapping his shoes in. "That way, I think," mumbled he, reviewing the GPS instructions.

Behind, overhead, a massive shadow cast over him. Tails turned to peer up.

"Uh oh! I can't be late!"

With a burst, he took off through the air to outrun the creeping darkness. In a few minutes, as he'd calculated, he skidded to a stop before a small, immaculately-trimmed white house and hopped off his board at the front door. Tails nodded with inner smug approval at the almost sparkling cleanliness and exterior order of the place.

Then he knocked and stepped back, his two tails slowly moving up and down. The shadow hadn't arrived here yet, and, really, it would no doubt be hovering about the city for several hours before the wind would blow it away. There was no reason to worry.

No one answered. Was Dylan not home? Their car sat parked in the driveway, but that meant little when it came to those two. Isolena would leave someone standing outside for all she cared, and Dylan could have been speeding around Station Square.

Then, with a click of the bolt lock, the knob turned and the door at last opened!

"Hey!" Tails raised his hand in a gesture of friendship. "How've you been, Dylan? I came to show you something cool! Well, two really cool things. You got a few hours?"

The boy blinked, eyes lowering with a bit of obvious weariness. Several blobs and a couple of what looked like spit ups of food were dripping down his front, and one on his arms. Mashed, and one of the smashed, slimy goop on his fur was a rather bloody red.

Dylan pressed his lips tight and sighed. Berry sat on his head, in the active middle of slapping his soft knubs of hands on his owner's forehead. The little blob ran his stubs down the middle of Dylan's head, then, rolling forward, caught himself in time to smack his head against Dylan's face, who shut his eyes with a gasp. Berry giggled and hummed happily to himself.

"No—Berry—bad!" Dylan clasped the squishy beast and plucked the chao off his head, turning him upright. "I said eat your food; not throw it on me!"

Berry popped his eyes as big as he could make them up at Dylan, whimpering.

Dylan tilted his head and scowled a little at the falsely angelic brat that he did dearly love, but today, his child was on a rampage of pure immature rebellion. The majority of the time, Berry was well-behaved and obedient. But, days like this, for no reason he could fathom, the chao had just decided to be contrary to everything, all the time, beginning that morning by flying away from him through the house, laughing as Dylan chased and hopped after him, reaching, groaning. Some things had been toppled, but at least nothing had broke.

Tails swallowed, dropping his full smile into a half grin of confusion, "Uh, need some help?"

"This—" Dylan held Berry out before him, as his friend wiggled and tried to grab at him again. "Sorry. Uh, come in. I have to deal with Berry. It's nice to see you though, Tails."

He gestured with a wave, Tails hesitating a second, then shrugging and shutting the door after them both. Dylan stepped over to the kitchen and plopped Berry in the sink to scrub clean both of their slimy, food-ridden bodies. While the chao giggled at his expense, Dylan's face pinkened in anger.

Tails tried not to stare at the scene, though his eyes popped with curiosity and some humor. More splatters of food happily covered parts of cabinets, the floor, dishes, and, now that he saw Dylan from the back, some of his friends' spines.

"You want any help cleaning up?" Tails asked.

Dylan sighed, "It's okay. As soon as I get Berry dry, I can quickly clean all this mess up. Could you hold him for me, though? I think he won't be able to make trouble for you, if you keep him away from everything."

"Uh—sure!" Tails chuckled and scratched at the back of his head.

After another minute or so, Dylan dropped his friend on a dish towel, then commenced vigorously drying him with a second one. All the while, Berry giggled and clapped his hands, observing Dylan with barely a blink. Little pest. But Dylan twitched with a smile, regardless.

"Okay. Just hold him and don't let him get out of your lap," he whizzed over to Tails and unceremoniously dropped the warm squishy ball in his lap. Before Tails could make any remark, Dylan blurred back into the kitchen, hurrying about the cleanup.

Tails peered over the back of the sofa to see Dylan was nothing but a constant streak of pale green color. Very like Sonic. He smirked and dropped back, a bit awkwardly reaching for the chao's arms to hold him up on his little feet.

"Why are you giving Dylan trouble?" Tails clapped the chao's hands together. "He loves you. Behave, please?"

Berry had the gall to shake his head, then smirk.

Tails adjusted the chao to sitting in his lap, "What's going on? Are you in a bad mood? Wait—do you want to come to chao school and meet other chao?"

To that, Berry blinked up inquisitively at Tails.

The fox gasped, "That's it, isn't it? You want some friends! I mean, Dylan's your friend—I mean friends like you: chao! Are you bored?"

The chao baby stood up and pressed his hands against Tails' chest fur, as if acknowledging it to be so. Growing more excited about this—probably more than he should—Tails blinked several times and exclaimed, "We all have a chao! I even do! See, we put them in chao school a lot, and otherwise, they stay at chao gardens. Even Shadow has a chao! Why doesn't Dylan take you to the chao garden? Should I as—ow!"

Berry had grasped tufts of Tails' chest fur, was presently pulling on the white fluff.

Tails removed the offensive appendage with a low chuckle, "No. That's bad." Then, peering up at Dylan and finding that his friend was finishing up with some dishes, he called out, "Wanna drop Berry off at the chao garden? He can play with the other chao. Sonic, me, Amy, Rouge, Shadow—we all have chao there."

"Really?" Dylan snapped a dish towel out to dry. "Where's the chao garden?"

"You gotta have a special chao key to enter," Tails rose, Berry in his arms. He stepped into the kitchen and handed the chao back to Dylan. "One of these," he pulled a large, blue-colored key from a pack around his middle. "I can let you borrow a visitor's key, but if you decide you wanna permanently enroll Berry, I can give you a recommendation and you can apply for a proper key. Whadda ya say?"

The hedgehog hesitated, "What's the cost?"

"Not that much!" Tails was purposefully vague. "C'mon! I wanna go show you something and I don't think Berry should be coming along!"

"Well—okay!" Dylan did trust Tails, and now he was honestly curious about the chao garden the fox was joyously talking about. He'd not ever considered dropping his precious buddy off to one out of fear of something bad happening to him. Perhaps he was overprotective; but it was true that a garden full of his friends' chao had to be a fun place for Berry!

He took the visitor's key Tails was still offering, then was again confused as to what to do. "Where does it go?"

"Throw it like a power ring! As long as you have yours on your person, you can enter through mine." Tails chucked his own key into the living room. A circular portal of sparkling, pale blue, spinning light opened up. On the other side, a rich green lawn of perfect grass, popping flowers, and numerous fruits and trees enticed Dylan's eyes. He heard soft gurgling of water and then the happy sounds of chao playing.

Berry started wiggling and reaching for the portal.

Dylan snatched his baby, "Ah—okay! We're going!"

Tails took that second to observe Dylan's spines, smirking a little to see that his friend had cleaned off the food there, too. Then, he hopped through the portal, with Dylan hesitating, and then forcing himself through. The circle closed with a whoosh of wind. They were then standing on a nearly flat plain of deep, dark grass. A large pool with steps of flat-topped rocks rose to the right, lush shrubs growing around the idyllic setting. Trees of varying types had been planted and grown considerably tall, without any rhyme to placement. It worked, in a charming, haphazard way.

Clusters of sweet-smelling flowers popped up hither and thither. Buckets, shovels, large Lego blocks, balls, primitive go-karts, and other toys were strewn about wherever it was convenient.

Quite a few chao were playing with each other, or swimming, or napping in little soft groups. A few were eating. Two were off in a corner drawing on large pieces of white wood, smears of crayon and marker filling the palette more or less like abstract paint.

"Hey!" Came an exuberant, tenor voice Dylan knew very well. "What timing, guys!"

"Sonic!" Tails whirled happily.

The blue hedgehog was holding a recently-hatched chao, and a white one was sitting on his head.

"Dylan! I didn't know you had an account at this chao garden?"

"I don't," Dylan slid Berry from his arms and the little animal immediately headed for the water. Dylan followed closely, uncertainly. "Tails gave me a visitor key. I think I'll go ahead and enroll Berry here, though. My mom's not home that much. Well, I'm not either. I feel bad that Berry's been stuck there so much by himself. Like, it was better before, but he's been acting out more lately. I think I agree with Tails that he's bored."

Sonic placed the newborn on the earth at his feet, "Yeah. Sound solid. He'll go to school, then?"

"Just, what do chao learn in school?"

Berry hopped into the pool and boldly paddled over to a pale pink chao on the other side, who was luxuriating on its back, eyes closed. Dylan closely watched him, standing on the edge of the bank with Sonic dropping to let one of his other chao also into the water.

Tails pulled out a sweet strawberry and handed it to the white chao on his friends' head, "Oh, super useful stuff like watercolor painting, the alphabet, and—" he lowered his eyes with a smirk and a feisty, "racing!"

Dylan opened his mouth for another question, when a new portal opened and Shadow casually stepped in, holding a black chao with red stripes nearly the same as him. The little creature blinked, unimpressed with the entire garden, as his owner likewise scanned the vicinity for any threats. Then he saw Dylan and the other two and quietly began to approach.

That was nearly too much. Dylan forgot what he was going to ask, as the idea that Shadow cut out time to give attention to a rather, honestly, useless creature by utilitarian review surprised him. The elder hedgehog's two-toned pet glared up at him. Shadow released it, the chao instantly running at quite a high pace toward a solid, fuchsia-toned chao.

The three watched his chao go, curious. When it came to the pink one, it grabbed him.

Shadow actually raised his voice, "Don't hurt him, Dusk! I'll make you regret it, you little brat!"

Dusk cast her narrowed, testing eyes back at Shadow, but she released the frightened male chao, giving him a condescending pet on the head.

Still glaring at Dusk, Shadow asked, "Dylan, when did you arrive?"

"Just a few minutes ago. I didn't know you had a chao?"

Shadow scowled at Dusk, as she'd grabbed a shovel and was about to whack it over the pink one's head. "You only get one chance! You know I mean it!" He threatened. She stopped again.

Sonic tossed a blueberry into the pool, to which his solid blue chao sprung up from the water and swallowed it up, "Yeah. Hard to believe, isn't it? Shadow's actually really hard core about his creepy little chao. No chao's been able to beat her in a speed race, yet."

"She's a dark chao, right?" Dylan felt stupid to ask.

Shadow just nodded, rather philosophically folding his arms in the pretext of deep consideration, "Chao are tests of endurance. Once you master handling a chao, you've mastered the art of patience."

Tails sighed sarcastically, "Whatever you say, Espio. Here, Dylan, I'll just point out all the chao for you. The blue one there in the water is Sonic's chaos chao Juice. You met Shadow's already. She always picks on Amy's chao there, Snow. The lavender one with the building blocks is Rouge's chao Holly. And that shiny-looking red chao is Boo Boo Kins—" he snickered. "Knuckles' chao. Uh, okay I forgot Sally's. There! The chao sleeping on the rocks atop the waterfall. That's hers, Silky. And then mine, Nut, of course, shaking that tree like a—hey! Hey you ate just a while ago!"

Tails jogged away to scold his chao.

Sonic snickered and then asked, "What kind of chao do you want Berry to be?"

Dylan sighed, "An obedient one. Wait—what?"

Shadow stepped over to him, folding his arms, "You chao's still a neutral type. I'm surprised, honestly. You've had him for some time and he should have evolved prior to even now."

"Cut him some slack, Shadow," Sonic was leaning over the pool, gesturing impatiently for his chao to come back. "He's probably not bothered to socialize Berry or feed him chaos drives or anything. It takes time."

That just made Dylan feel like a terrible chao parent, to his outward consternation. Shadow slowly turned to the blue hedgehog, and with a calm, deliberate gesture, pressed his foot to Sonic's back and shoved him into the pool.

"What the heck!" Sonic spluttered, shaking himself in the water. Juice swam by, passing him a sassy wave. "You—"

As Sonic began to chase his pet around, Dylan turned a little away to hide a smile, with Shadow returning to his left. Across the garden, Tails was vainly trying to stop his chao from stuffing his face with coconuts and berries. Dusk had given off trying to bully Amy's chao, but her malicious little smirk gave no good vibes. The other chao were fluttering about in tranquility.

"Want to submit Berry for the races?" Shadow queried.

Dylan jerked his attention to Shadow, "What? He's never done any of that."

"It would be interesting. Perhaps you can let me help you with the initial stages of raising Berry? It doesn't seem that you're knowledgeable about it, unless I'm mistaken and you just prefer to keep Berry neutral?"

"No. Not really," Dylan looked about, espying his chao still basking in the cool water. "I just didn't think about it much. I wasn't in a place where there were other chao, and Berry seemed fine how he was."

"That's legitimate, although a chao should be allowed to reach their potential."

His soft, decided tone made Dylan peek back almost with a smile. Shadow's eyes were nearly closed, as if in concentrated, serious thought, one of his hands facing up and curled almost into a fist.

"I'd like your help, sure; just, I don't think I'd like Berry to look like Dusk. Nothing against how you raised her," Dylan meekly answered.

"Your chao could never end up like her," Shadow murmured with amusement. "You're too sincere and naively good for that."

Was that an attempt at a compliment? Dylan turned fully to Shadow, finding the courage to reach forth and slowly grip the elder hedgehog's hand with his. Shadow opened his eyes completely at Dylan, to receive a mere shrug from the boy.

But Dylan persisted to grasp his hand, "Thanks. I'd like your help. You're not too busy with the government stuff?"

"I wouldn't have offered if I was," he remarked blandly, but didn't shake Dylan's hand away.

In further response, Dylan pressed his other hand over Shadow's, stepping up closer with a happy, "Thanks, Shadow."

As that was now a bit too much for Shadow to allow with others around, he collectedly dropped his hands and stepped back, a little clearing of his throat, "Fine. I'll contact you about it. For now, I need to go. Dusk!"

Dusk snarled back at him.

Shadow clenched his fists, thrusting over to her to lay on some parental instruction. A drenched, overly-gasping Sonic dragged himself out of the pool then, on his hands and knees. Exhaling magnificently, he shook himself like a dog, poofing out everywhere. Dylan inwardly cringed and held in a laugh.

"Sh—Shadow, you jerk!" The blue puffy one yelled.

Shadow was half stepped into a portal. He flashed Sonic a rare, devious smirk, and then he was gone.

Tails scurried over to the scene, Nut squirming belligerently in his tight grip. The chao's belly was round and tight and he was obviously uncomfortable. Sighing, Tails dropped him into the water, hoping he'd swim off some of those calories.

"Sorry, Dylan," he shook his head. "This whole chao thing is such a time steal, but I'm not sorry about it. Just how you feel about Berry, I'm sure. So, let's go!"

"Where you guys going?" Sonic was running his hands down his fur to flatten it.

"Angel Island, on Extreme Gear," Tails flatly responded, anticipating the expected pause of surprise from his blue friend. "Gonna see the Master Emerald."

Sonic shook water off his shoes, "Oh! It's the time of the year when Angel Island floats over Station Square, isn't it?"

"Right," Tails grabbed Dylan's arm. "We can't miss it. C'mon!"

"Berry's still there—" Dylan began.

Tails laughed, "He'll be fine. Let's go!'

With a flash of his hand to Sonic, he pulled Dylan for a new portal out of the chao garden. Sonic huffed and waved back, excluded, but not like he'd have been able to go along, anyway. Sally needed him for something diplomatic and dull.

On the other side, back in Dylan's house, Tails and he hopped out in the living room. Isolena still wasn't present, though the boys glanced around apprehensively.

"My mom's not back from a school thing," Dylan commented, not expecting Tails to grab him anew and head for the door.

"Great! Get that board by the door. We still have time!"

"Time for—"

Tails snatched a sleek, yellow-toned board of some type and hurried out the door. A second one was propped up near the entry, white and pale green accented with a thin line of shimmering gold paint running around it. As it looked like some form of fancy skateboard, and Dylan had used one of those before, he claimed it and followed the fox.

"These are Extreme Gear. Fancy hoverboards used for racing," Tails explained. "We're gonna go fly up to Angel Island. See!" He pointed upward. Dylan craned his neck. A little way off, hovering in the sky, was a massive piece of rock. How'd he miss that?

He almost choked, "Angel Island? What is that?"

"Haven't heard of it, eh?" Tails dropped his board, which hovered a little bit off the ground. Casually, he stepped right up on top of it and clamped his shoes via two thin strips of metal. "That's where Knuckles, the guardian of the Master Emerald, lives most of the time. The Master Emerald is a massive green gem that can control the chaos emeralds. He has to stay there to make sure no one steals the emerald. If that happens, the island will fall."

Dylan had dropped his board like Tails had, but hadn't mounted it yet.

Tails nodded at it, "Get on! Strap in. I'll help you, since I know it's your first time."

"But I—I'm afraid of heights," he bit at his lip.

"You can do it for me!" Tails hovered near for assurance. "I made that board just for you."

That low and hopeful tone really sunk in for Dylan. Swallowing, he practiced faith and stepped up on the board. It wobbled a little, but Tails supported him from behind. He exhaled nervously and fastened the metal over his shoes.

"Okay. Extreme Gear don't have controls or any system for you to use to make the boards go faster. They run on the intake of oxygen from the front and the pushing out of it from the back. I built our two boards with that self-sufficient function, otherwise the boards can only hold so much in a tank before they'd have to stop at an air pit for a refill. So, this way, the boards never run out! So, part of accelerating is the thrust from the air, and the other part just you wanting to go. See?" Tails seemed to push forward with no method at all. Slowing, he slid the board about and waved for Dylan. "The more speed you pick up, the more momentum you'll have to glide before requiring another boost of air. The boards will do that for you automatically."

Dylan honestly didn't hear that entire explanation. He wobbled a bit more, then a lovely thrust of something sighed through the board and he subconsciously leaned a bit forward. The board lifted and started sliding forth and up.

Tails joined him, quietly observing Dylan, should the hedgehog need assistance. With a gentle pull, he changed their direction for the massive chunk of rock and greenery overhead. And, then clasping onto Dylan, Tails burst upward in a remarkable, sudden spur of speed. It would have been more terrifying than it already was, as Dylan glanced down at the dollhouse roads and structures, if not that he was used to speed now.

"I love this every time!" Tails whooped for joy, leaning forward more.

Invigorated, Dylan held tighter onto his hand and let himself enjoy the sensations of the wind and the warm sun. He gazed downward for some seconds again. Not much different than when he was sitting in a plane, watching everything change into little plastic pieces to be moved about across the face of the earth.

When Dylan turned to face front, he let out a gasp. Literally, a massive wall of dark brown soil and thousands of threads of roots poked out directly before him. Tails yanked him and they descended upward at a dizzyingly sharp angle.

From the darkness of the massive side, they rose straight into the face of the sun, Dylan wincing his eyes shut. He peaked out from between his slits, growing curious anew at ancient columns, some half lost to time. Ruins ran under them of old steppe pyramids. Thick jungle spread quite far. In the distance, he could make out a stretch of desert, but Tails turned them from that direction.

Birds and wildlife teemed below. The island was just a vast conglomeration of mess, from dead forests to lakes, to a forgotten city to what they were now approaching: a several-step pedestal of marble, at the top which sat a massive green emerald.

"Is that the Master Emerald?" Dylan gaped.

Tails laughed, "Yep! Oh—and there's Knuckles, as defensive as ever!"

A small red shape took form as they flew ever nearer. Then Dylan could make out that the figure had large, white fists up before them, and then he could see a deep frown on the man's face. He definitely looked displeased at the unscheduled visitors.

And, there was a sudden onslaught of extremely strong chaos energy that, for a second, overpowered Dylan with nausea. He felt weak, dropping, Tails catching him and helping him descend safely.

The heavy feeling of chaos energy kept persisting. Dylan sat down, reaching forward to unsnap his shoes from the board. It took some effort, but he managed, leaning back to rest.

"Who's this?" The red one which he knew was Knuckles had descended a few steps, but kept a position squarely in front of the massive gem. "There's some strange chaos energy coming off of him. Tails?"

Tails chuckled nervously, "Well—this is Dylan. I wanted him to meet you today, Knuckles."

"That's Dylan?" He half-barked, tone raised, almost accusingly.

Dylan tried not to cringe. He'd only heard about the echidna from a few of his friends, but hadn't expected the person that was Knuckles to sound so gruff and glare at him so suspiciously. Knuckles even stepped slowly back, his hand out behind him, and stopped once he'd rested his glove protectively on the emerald.

"Why'd you bring him here?" His voice was still critical.

Dylan slowly stood up, but upon taking one step forward, Knuckles raised his other hand in a warning. Dylan stopped.

Tails tried to explain, "Dylan's no threat to the Master Emerald, Knuckles. He does have chaos powder in his body, but it's for healing. It's not like Shadow. Dylan doesn't fight at all! I wanted him to finally meet you, because he hasn't yet; and I did think it would be interesting and maybe even helpful for him, since he does have chaos energy in him! Can't you understand? You also have more than normal mounts of energy in your body."

"That's different," Knuckles snapped. "Mine's because I'm connected to the Master Emerald. I can't just let every person who may have a bunch of chaos energy in them come waltzing up here. I don't know how the Master Emerald will react to them!"

"Can you give Dylan a chance?"

"Tails! This was reckless of you—"

"Hey, I'm not sure what's going on. I didn't even know I was going to come here today, but if you're that worried, why don't you come take my hand and see for yourself?" Dylan interjected, causing both mobians to pause and blink at him.

Knuckles crossed his arms, a glove to his chin, thinking. Tension hung in the air, and then he slowly nodded and sprang clear off the marble slab to the grass right in front of Dylan.

"Whoa—" Dylan jumped a little at his movement.

"Well? Give me your hand. I may be able to feel what kind of chaos energy you have."

As he was still testy in tone, and wouldn't look at Dylan, though his glove was extended, Dylan wondered if he should do it. But this was one of Tails friends—heck, even one of Sonic's friends—and so with that in mind, Dylan trusted Knuckles and dropped his hand into the larger one.

Knuckles closed his eyes, becoming still, concentrating. Warm chaos energy tingled through Dylan's arm, with golden powder rising from his fur and glove. This didn't affect knuckles, but Tails had come closer, mouth open in a little circle.

With the stillness of the moment, Dylan took the opportunity to examine the red mobian in front of him. He'd never seen an echidna before, but he'd been told Knuckles was probably the last of his kind. The shape wasn't overly peculiar, but the long red dreadlocks, the sideways crest of moon on his chest, and the strength of his hand impressed Dylan. He could also feel strong waves of chaos energy emanating from the guardian.

Some of his golden healing powder rose and saturated over Knuckles' hand. Dylan kept silent, darting a hesitant glance to Tails.

With a low hum, Knuckles slid his hand open and let Dylan's fingers free, "You seem okay, though I don't like the amount of chaos energy you have. But Sonic did explain to me what was going on. I guess it's not like it's your fault."

"Uh, thanks," Dylan sheepishly murmured. "I really don't mean any harm or anything."

"You couldn't hurt me if you tried," Knuckles gave him a sassy smile. "Alright. It's been interesting to finally meet you. Can you heal on demand?"

"No. Not exactly," he felt upset at that, uncertain why.

Knuckles dropped one brow and raised the other, "How's your ability work, then? Shadow can call chaos energy however he likes. Can't you do that for healing?"

"I—" He shifted his feet and dropped his eyes. "No. My blood has to be injected from a needle into someone to heal them, but once that's done, it can pretty much heal anything in hours."

"Seems inconvenient," Knuckles huffed. "Why can't you channel your chaos energy with your will? Wait—" he put a hand up. "Don't tell me your energy doesn't heal you, like it does others?"

To Tails' and Dylan's uncomfortable frowns, Knuckles shot both of them an incredulous, exasperated look and gestured with his hands.

"Seriously? What's your problem, kid?"

Dylan chuckled pathetically, "Implying that I have just one problem?"

A dawning crossed over Knuckles face. His eyes lit up and he again focused his gaze on the fox, who, weighted by the guardian's epiphany, shuffled dirt around with the ends of his shoes as if caught. And he was.

Knuckles took a step to Tails, halting himself, "This was your reason to bring him here, wasn't it? You're hoping I can give him some direction so he can use his abilities from his own will, aren't you? Did you—" He shot his eyes up at the precious emerald, and in a second jumped up and landed right before it. Hand on the gem again, he growled at them both, "No! He's not touching my emerald! You two get lost!"

"Please, Knuckles! This isn't going to be like with Scourge!"

"Don't bring that thug up! And you don't know. That fool violated my emerald!"

"The master emerald wasn't harmed by what Scourge did. Wait, why am I arguing that? It doesn't matter," Tails shook his head. "You sensed no bad chaos energy in Dylan. Please, Knuckles! Help him! It would be so cool if Dylan could heal himself and others whenever he wanted, without all the blood stuff."

Knuckles showed his fangs in a snarl, "Stop it, Tails. It's not cool you brought him here without getting my permission. You took advantage of Angel Island being over Station Square. Go home."

As Tails opened his mouth again, Dylan laid a hand on his shoulder to silence him, "Hey, it's okay. Really, I didn't know you were going to do this. I appreciate it, but I didn't ask for this kind of favor, anyway. I should respect Knuckles and the boundaries he has about the Master Emerald. Thanks, Tails, but let's go down."

The fox stood his ground a couple more seconds, but with Dylan pulling a bit on his arm, he acquiesced, albeit with a last upset glance back at Knuckles.

The duo were just reaching for their boards when Knuckles called out, "Wait! I changed my mind. But—but you do as I say!"

"Uh—I understand," Dylan stood there a bit stupidly.

Knuckles beckoned him up, frowning supremely. Lest the temperamental echidna change his mind, Dylan hurried up the steps and stopped next to knuckles, careful to keep his hands down. The master emerald rose above him to his direct right, pulsing with invisible energy that, again, swept over him with a harsh but fast passing wave of nausea. Yet, he couldn't withstand staring in awe at it.

To wit, Knuckles chuckled a slight, "I dunno just how your chaos energy works, but I may be able to help you in one aspect. Put your hand on the emerald." He did so as he spoke, waiting on the hedgehog.

A tad afraid, Dylan reached out, paused as chaos energy pushed his hand back, then, with no reaction from Knuckles, pressed his glove atop the cool, smooth surface.

"Think about the golden chaos emerald," Knuckles softly instructed. "The master emerald contains energy from all seven chaos emeralds. It is the master of them all. It can bring them under control. So, if you reach out for the one chaos emerald you have a special connection with, you might get the result you want. I can't do anything else for you that guide you like this."

He was already burning with energy, gold powder bursting from over his body. With a gasp, Dylan turned completely to the jewel, pressing his other hand and even his forehead to the surface. With his eyes tightly shut, he didn't see how his healing energy encompassed the mighty gem, or how Knuckles released his hand on his precious treasure to step back and observe the scene.

The gut of the master emerald transformed into a glow of gold, sucking Dylan's chaos powder out of him and then thrusting the powder back into his bones, almost like a transfusion. Dylan couldn't rip his hands off. He tried not to let panic swell in his heart that he was stuck. He just concentrated, mind filling only with the hope that he could come out of this more useful for himself—for his mother—for others.

He groaned and sucked air between his teeth, feeling a tremendous need to vomit, but as he could barely breathe, that was out of the question. Another seemingly endless number of seconds passed, and then his breathing started to even out as the burning inside of him cooled, and then all but quenched.

Then, with a yell, Knuckles punched Dylan in the stomach, slashing his pointed gloves down to cut through the fur and flesh. Dylan stumbled backwards, falling down the steps part of the way.

"What—" he groaned, hand over the leaking blood.

"Knuckles!" Tails rushed over to Dylan to support him, help him sit up. "Are you insane?"

Both boys gasped almost in unison, watching golden powder fill the open wound. The line of gash on Dylan's stomach slowly closed itself up. In shock, he wiped some of the blood away. The wound was completely gone. No scar. He pushed on it; there was no pain. And, he realized he felt completely better. No nausea.

Questioningly, Dylan raised his eyes to knuckles.

The echidna looked away, arms crossed, "I figured the direct approach was the best to see if your body could heal itself now."

"But what if he couldn't?" Tails was angry, starting to rise.

Dylan grabbed his wrist, "No. It's okay. Apparently, the Master Emerald did something to my chaos powder, so now I will heal automatically. Maybe the way he tested me wasn't the best, but at least it worked out."

Knuckles shrugged, "Most likely some kinks my emerald had to work out for you, since that body of yours is technically artificially-grown, and the energy infused into you originally was unstable. I got no idea about channeling it for others, but you're probably good to go for yourself now."

That was all they both could expect. Dylan felt bewildered. He'd had no idea what Tails had been scheming, and it had actually worked out! It was mind-boggling that it had been this—well—easy, if he thought about it.

He slowly rose to his feet, rubbing more remnants of blood off his stomach. Quickly, Tails pulled a cloth out of his pack and handed it to his friend, who smiled upon taking it. When he was finished, Dylan steeled himself and walked up the steps back to Knuckles.

The echidna dropped his arms, a bit confused.

"Thanks," Dylan put his hand out. "It was an honor to meet you."

"Oh," Knuckles awkwardly grasped the hand. His grip tightened in appreciation, "You seem alright. Come by again."

Only nodding, Dylan returned to Tails and they both mounted their boards and swooped around to take their leave. The island kept to its slow, somewhat random direction per the whim of the wind. Dylan couldn't resist one more look back, once more only able to peer up at the majesty of jagged rocks poking out of the bottom of the massive land mass. Little trickles of dirt fell from the bottom. There was no sight anymore of Knuckles or the Master Emerald, but he didn't feel like the echidna would ever be far away. He was just a tossed power ring afar.

The truth, the reality that his own body would automatically heal itself choked in Dylan's throat. An immense gratefulness filled his soul. It was a sudden, unexpected great comfort and he let out a happy sigh as he and Tails coasted downward for his house. Maybe Tails should have been truthful upfront with him, but he wasn't able to feel upset with the kid. He'd done it out of the good desires of his heart to help him, and Dylan knew they'd both grown closer that day.