Dude! I'm back! I know you all missed me . Uhm...I don't have any other excuse other than that I am a lazy bum and spend too much time doing other things on the computer Oo Anyways, I honestly forgot all that I was planning for this chappy, so don't blame me if it's all dull and humorless. I say we all blame Knuckles!
There wasn't much reviews to answer to for the last chappy, although thanks a lot for those who DID review, and those who don't hate me for the long update period. BTW, OOC means Out Of Character.
Disclaimer: Knuckles is red, Sonic is blue, I no own, you no sue.
After a long, perilous journey of retracing his steps, Knuckles wandered aimlessly into the Dark Garden, the last place on his list. He had made himself sick of worry and bad thoughts of what might had happened to Pumpkin during his carelessness. Not to mention what might happen to him once Rouge finds out.
"I'm a bad daddy, I'm a bad daddy, I'm a bad daddy..." he continuously muttered under his breath like he had been doing for the past hour or so. He inspected a rock by the entrance, decided it was clean and decent, and sat on it with a sigh. "Pumpkin! Where are you?" he yelled desperately without expecting any answer.
A sudden noise came out of nowhere, and his head popped up from his hands and looked from one direction to the next like a radar, searching for the source. His view came across a secluded corner, just beyond the pool of the red substance, and suddenly his knees felt weak with relief. There was Pumpkin, laying on her stomach by the ledge, playing innocently with a bug of some sorts, and making all kinds of exciting cooing noises. She turned to look at Knuckles and squealed in delight.
Knuckles wade through the pool, not caring what the liquid was, and climbed onto the small piece of land. As soon as he looked up from the ground Pumpkin was already attached to his face with her little arms and legs. He pried the little chao off with much difficulty and held her in both hands. "Pumpkin! I was so worried! I didn't know where you were and I was searching all over the place and I didn't even think of looking in here and-"
He stopped dead short when he realized he had been rambling off and Pumpkin was looking at him with her big curious eyes. Instead he gave her a quick hug. "Well, at least I've found you. You must have followed me in here when I came to get Demon and the others." He turned around and started making his way back to the exit with the chao sitting on his shoulders.
"You know I can't believe you've barely been in my life for a few hours and I'm already worried sick about you," he said absentmindedly.
Pumpkin cocked her head and gave him a happy smile. Knuckles couldn't help but smile himself. "I hope the chaos haven't wreaked havoc yet. Let's go see what's going on over there."
HERO GARDEN
Knuckles made his way into the Hero Garden with the little orange chao bobbing her head up down happily still on his shoulder. Surprisingly enough, everything was as he had left it. Demon and Roxy were fighting over a piece of fruit, Ecko and Chaz were putting on a musical show for Soul, and Cash was peacefully sleeping in front of a palm tree. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Knuckles knelt down and let Pumpkin jump off his shoulder and land softly on the grass. He patted her head and watched as she wriggled over to Chaz and Ecko's performance.
Well...Rouge wanted Pumpkin to have an ability, he thought to himself. I suppose I'll have to go out and find some drives. The chaos will be okay while I'm gone.
He spun on his heel and headed for the exit.
ABOUT AN HOUR LATER
Knuckles came stumbling into the garden, arms full of drives, head completely hidden by the massive cargo. He dropped them all on the ground in front of him and watched as they scattered. A small tiger peeked its head out of the pile, looked around, and began gallivanting about. Must've accidentally picked it up, Knuckles thought. Mental note: don't let any of the chaos near it.
He separated the yellow drives for Pumpkin and laid all the extras to the side for the others. As soon as he got up from his crouch on the ground, a sudden swarm of happy chaos surrounded him. One by one he watched as each of them grabbed a drive or two and giggled happily as it sparkled and shone all around in the air, then magically disappeared.
"It's like feeding time at the zoo," Knuckles grunted as he once again pushed himself off the ground. Pumpkin was sitting in front of him with her arms in between her legs, looking up at him with shining eyes.
Knuckles smiled a little and handed her the yellow drives, one by one, and watched as her curiosity eventually subsided from the sparkly things to a small bug crawling around in the ground. He sighed at her short attention span. "Now since you like the water so much, you can learn to swim, and stop yourself from drowning," he mumbled absently. "You're probably hungry by now."
The echidna walked over to a tree and picked up a small round fruit that looked fresh enough for Pumpkin to eat. He began turning around. "Here you-Pumpkin!! No! Put it down!"
The little orange chao had the tiger that was running around earlier in her arms, giggling and rocking as it jumped around in her lap, oblivious of what was going to happen next. Knuckles sprinted over to her side but fell back when a bright orange light surrounded Pumpkin. He shielded his eyes with his hand and squinted around it. After the light had subsided, Knuckles blinked a few times to get the black and green spots that clouded his vision to go away. When he finally succeeded, he gaped at what stood before him.
Pumpkin literally looked like a tiger. She was examining herself over and over again, as was Knuckles. She had furry orange arms covered with black tiger stripes; two little furry orange ears that popped out from her head; and to top it all off, a long stubby orange tail covered in stripes. After she was done examining herself, Pumpkin looked up and giggled delightfully, obviously pleased with the unexpected change. All in all, she was an adorable orange ball of fluff.
Knuckles tried to work his jaw while continuing to gape at the new form of Pumpkin. He bent down and lifted up each of her arms to inspect her more closely. "Holy Chaos," he muttered. "This is not going to turn out well with Rouge..."
Whee! There you go. End of Chapter 5. Again, I'm really sorry it took so long and that it's so short. There's only about 2 more chapters in this story, and I hope to finish by at least the end of the month. Comments and compliments greatly appreciated! .
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