Ahh, I am so late! Feel free to throw plastic fruits at me after you enjoy this wonderful chapter.

Wow, thanks a lot you guys for reviewing:P I'm glad I have some new supporters. This is the most reviews I've ever had. Hmm...pretty sad isn't it? Oh well, the story will continue after these few messages:

Knux Girl - Yes, I know skeleton dogs remove the animal features, but you'll just have to read and find out on your own what happens . You have to expect the unexpected. Oh boy, that was so cliché.

hieilover2004 - Wow...ten cousins? You poor soul. Luckily all my cousins are older than me and in Africa, so ha! P Enjoy the chappy!

C. P. - Don't worry about posting too many reviews, I honestly can't get enough of them. As for Julie-Su, don't worry about her. -wink nudge- I support Rouge and Knuckles all the way. In fact, I loathe Julie-Su. But, to make things a little more interesting, I'm going to add her into the sequel. I mean...if there IS going to be a sequel...AND, in real life, I chose for Pumpkin to be tiger, but I thought I'd spruce it up by it being an accident. Keep reviewing and enjoy the chappy!

Okay, guys, from now on I'm gonna answer ALL of the reviews, instead of those that just ask me questions.


Expect the Unexpected

Chappy 6
.

The late summer humid clung to the air like a new born child to its mother. Everything had a slow pace about it; vendors who were usually kind and helpful wore frowns upon their faces, and their customers sighed every once in a while, dreading the start of the morning. Mothers sat outside in chairs waving fans in front of their faces while watching their solemn children playing in the park. Neighbors nodded to each other in acknowledgement instead of the usual friendly greeting and short conversations. Tired lap dogs slept in the shade of towering trees, ears not even perking up at the sound of a pedestrian walking by or truck zooming past.

Knuckles walked by without noticing any of this. He was on his way to the Chao Garden for only the second day of the week, every second to him seeming like an eternity. He sighed, not at all pleased at the fact that it had only been so long, for he was beginning to feel desperate in his current situation.

Yesterday he had left Pumpkin and the others hesitantly, both afraid of what might happen while he was gone and wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible at the same time. In the end the latter won. After Pumpkin fiddled around with the tiger and had a very unfortunate transformation, he had given up all hope. Parenthood was so time-consuming.

He let out another heavy sigh. He was trying to decide whether or not to give Pumpkin a skeleton dog, or stick with her current features. Pumpkin sure seemed to like the new change, but Knuckles was worried about Rouge.

In his mind of absence, Knuckles accidentally stubbed his toe on the pavement, which made him realize that he has already arrived at his destination. He entered the building after nursing his toe a bit, then headed for the Hero Garden. Over night, he had decided to put Pumpkin into Kindergarten, since she needed something to do during the week, and he really didn't want to be on babysitting duty the whole time.

The echidna reached the Hero Garden doors, and hesitated before reaching for the handle. He finally took a deep breath, and entered.

To Knuckles' great approval, the garden was completely silent, not including the water fall crashing onto the rocks below. He let go of the breath he was holding and began wandering around. Every chao was accounted for, either sleeping under a tree, behind a rock, or way out in the open on the lush grass. He spotted Pumpkin by the pool and knelt in front of her. Her little body rose up and down with each breath, and she was cuddling up with her furry tiger tail, holding on to it tightly.

Knuckles put a hand on her back lightly and smiled to himself. Great, now he has some time to himself. He lifted his hand off of the chao's back and began retreating, when Pumpkin's eyes popped open so suddenly it made him stagger backwards. She squealed delightfully as she recognized Knuckles, and attached herself to his leg.

"Yah!" Knuckles yelled, startled. "Hey, get off," he whispered fiercely, for he didn't want to wake the others up.

He tried to dig his fingers underneath her and pry her off of his leg, but his efforts were futile. After a few more tries, he decided to try a different approach. He picked his leg up and shook it up and down. Pumpkin's head bobbled up and down and she giggled happily, but she still held steadfast.

"Puuumpkin, get off!" he yelled in a whiny voice, and immediately clasped his hand to his mouth. Oh no, he thought. They're always worse when they first wake up.

He slowly turned around, and braced himself when a swarm of chaos ran over and literally tackled him to the floor. Some of them attached themselves to his other leg and even found room on the one Pumpkin was on. They scrambled up his arms and held on to his fur. ((1)) They were even hanging off of his dreadlocks! Some were giggling as they continued having fun with this new "game", while others wailed in whiny voices, either complaining they were hungry or bored in chao language.

Knuckles struggled off of the ground and strained under the weight. He tried waddling and wiggling around to shake them off, but they were just as bad as Pumpkin.

"Ouch! Get away from there!" he yelled as Echo played around with his tail, plucking out the fur strand by strand. "Get off...you pigmies!" ((2))

Knuckles finally reached one of the palm trees bearing fruit, and collapsed onto its base. He shook the tree some more, ignoring the tiny pangs as the chaos continued ripping the fur from various spots on his body. The tree finally gave in, and tons of fruits fell to the ground with tiny plops. In a matter of seconds, every single chao was off of him and on the ground, eating away happily at the fruit, proud of their way of manipulation.

The echidna lay sprawled on the ground, twitching every once in a while. His fur stood up on ends in different places, and in some there wasn't any at all. How am I going to tell everyone how this happened? he thought. I got mauled by hungry chaos? "Only five more days..." he moaned.

((A BIT LATER))

Knuckles sat in the corner of the Hero Garden with a brush. He had managed to cover up some of the bald spots, and he had successfully brushed out all the knots in his fur. After he was satisfied, he set the brush down and picked himself off of the ground.

After the little monsters had had their fill of food, they all set about doing their own things. Pumpkin, however, had stayed with him, sitting on the ground and watching intently as he attempted to beautify himself. Knuckles picked her up and set her on his shoulder and began heading for the exit. "You know...you've caused me a lot of trouble so far," he mumbled up at her. "Maybe if you stay in Kindergarten for a few hours, you'll settle down."

He pulled the handles of the Kindergarten doors and stepped in, stopping as he examined the cheerful interior. The walls were painted all kinds of colors imaginable, and there were chaos...everywhere. Playing with blocks, drawing, playing instruments and singing to one another. Knuckles was suddenly thankfully for only having seven chaos to watch over.

He took another few steps before gasping in surprise at the sudden smiling face in front of him. He guessed that it was the teacher, for she was wearing a shirt decorated in rainbow swirls and wearing a skirt that looked like it came out of a bad horror movie. Her face was plastered with a huge smile and her eyes were shining brightly. It was kind of scary, actually. Knuckles contemplated in his mind for a moment whether or not he should leave right now and never come back.

"Can I help you?" Even her voice sounded cheesy. It sounded sort of tired an grainy, as if she had swallowed some rocks and they affected her voice box. Yet it was entirely jolly at the same time.

"Um..." Knuckles stammered out. "Yeah. I would like to sign Pumpkin up..." He motioned to Pumpkin sitting on his shoulder.

The teacher gasped and clasped her hands together. She pressed her face directly in front of Pumpkin, making Knuckles have to lean back a bit to stop the teacher's nose from poking the chao's eye out. "She is so adorable!" the teacher squeaked. She grabbed Pumpkin off of the echidna's shoulder and cradled her in her arms. "You're going to have so much fun here with Miss. Sunny, Pumpy wumpy."

Knuckles cringed at Pumpkin's new nickname. "Um, yeah. I'll pick her up...in a few hours."

Miss. Sunny reached over and patted the side of Knuckles' cheek. "Don't you worry, Daddy. Pumpy wumpy is completely safe here with me and the other kiddy widdies." She prodded at his side, ushering him closer to the door.

"Bye Pumpkin," Knuckles managed to say before the teacher pushed him outside and began closing the door. "Buh-bye now," she said with her cheesy grin, and the door slammed closed.


((1)) Is that even fur, or is it his skin? -pokes Knuckles- Well, if it wasn't fur before, it is now.

((2)) I don't even know if the Sonic characters even know what pigmies are. But that sentence was like branded into my brain, so I just had to add it.

The end of Chapter 6. I hope you guys had fun with that one. I know I did. I was actually rather hyper while writing this, so ignore all that is out of context for now. -gasp!- This is like the longest chapter in the story, and that's kind of sad. Anyway, I think the next one might be the last. I'm not sure yet, though. We'll just have to wait and see. Hope to see you next time!

Now click the review button. It loves you :3

V