Author's note: To to the boring repetitiveness involved, I am not going to lay out Knuckles's entire test. Only the part of it worth reading. If you want the full test, read someone else's test in the previous chapter, remove the dialogue, and replace that person's name with Knuckles's.

CHAPTER 36: Just Another Day

"It's boring around here," Sonic complained, sitting in the waiting room, drumming his fingers on his chair. By this time, this room had become the unofficial living room of the quarantine section. The chairs had been moved around for the sake of personal space. Amy was sitting right next to Sonic, which didn't bother either of them. Across from them was Rouge, and another chair for Knuckles was a few feet back. (Knuckles was currently in his room watching TV.)

"It could be worse," Amy said. "You could have been Knuckles." She, Rouge and Sonic all laughed heartily.

"Nah, I got the worse end of the deal!" Sonic said through his laughter, pointing to his black lefteye.

:::Earlier that day...:::

"Well, the good news is, your blood pressure is normal, and we should have the results of the blood and urine tests back tomorrow, or even later today," Dr. Lang had said. "The bad news is, I've still got a test to perform. It's rather unpleasant, too."

"What is it?" Knuckles had asked nervously, going slightly pale. Dr. Lang had picked up a large probe before he'd finished.

"I have reason to believe you may have worms living in your intestinal tract," he had said in a sad tone. "I'm going to have to do a little check. Would you please lie down on your stomach for me, so I can get this overwith?" Knuckles's eyes had gone very wide, his pupils just tiny dots.

"You stick that in me, I'll stab you in the heart with it," he'd said in a blank tone. Dr. Lang had burst out laughing at this point.

"Sorry!" he had said. "I had to, Sonic put me up to it!" Knuckles had gritted his teeth, walked out into the waiting room, and punched Sonic right in the eye. No one had made a move to stop him, as they could all hear the laughter and knew what had happened.

:::Back in the present... and away from this past participle bullshit...:::

"Man, that punch hurt, though," Sonic said, his laughter dying away.

"It looked like fun, though," Rouge said. "You should've seen the way you flew out of that chair!" She and Amy laughed some more, Sonic only grinning feebly.

"Should've taken a picture, it would've lasted longer," he said. "Least the chair survived the fall in decent shape."

"Ah, you're perfectly fine," Amy said. "No substance on this planet could crack your skull!"

"Ow, that hurt," Sonic said, faking emotional distress. "I might need a painkiller."

"Hey Sonic, did you ever consider a job in acting?" Rouge asked.

"No," Sonic said, scratching behind his left ear. "Why?"

"Well if you do, don't quit your day job," Rouge said, laughing again.

"Joke's on you Rouge, I don't have one!" Sonic exclaimed, laughing with her.

"Hey, keep it down out there!" Knuckles called out. "M.A.S.H. is coming on!"

"Shut your door Knuckles!" Amy called back. "You'd be amazed how well it works!" At this point, Tails pulled his door open and stuck his head out.

"I'm trying to sleep in here!" he yelled. "Keep it down!"

"Yeah, sure, Tails," Knuckles called out. "Just as soon as they all quiet down." Tails narrowed his eyes and walked into Knuckles's room.

"What's he fixing to do?" Rouge asked, standing up. A second later, they found out as banging noises rung out.

"HEY!" Knuckles shouted. "WHAT THE HELL- OW! YOU LITTLE- OW! DAMN IT!"

"Uh..." Amy began. Tails walked out of Knuckles's room just then, and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Um, Tails, what were those banging noises we heard?" Rouge asked. Tails flicked his tails rather irritably.

"I can support the weight of three people very easily with these," he said. "If you think I can't make them hurt, you're out of your mind." He stalked back to his room and slammed his door shut as well.

"Je-SUS," Sonic said. "What's got him in such a bad mood?"

"I don't know," Rouge said. Amy walked to Knuckles's door, opened it, and looked inside.

"Well, at least he turned the TV off," she said.

"Is Knuckles alive?" Sonic asked.

"Oh yeah, he's alive," Amy said. "He's breathing. But Tails did a number on him, for sure. He's out cold, on his knees, his face pressed against the wall. I think he's drooling."

"God," Rouge said. "Why did Tails lose his temper like that, and at one of his friends, to boot? He's always so docile, except toward anybody evil."

"I think he's flipped," Amy said, pulling Knuckles's door shut. "Call Dr. Lang, would you? I think Knuckles is gonna need an ice pack and a body cast."

"No need," Rouge said. "Dr. Martin should be just down the hall. He should be able to take care of Knuckles."

"I should be, yes," Dr. Martin said, coming around the corner. "What was all the noise?"

"Tails just kicked Knuckles's ass for some reason," Sonic said, pointing to the door Amy had just closed. "Have a look." Dr. Martin stepped up to the door and looked inside.

"Wow, " he said. "What a mess. What exactly did he do? Did he say?"

"It had something to do with his tails," Rouge said. "God knows how many ways he can cream someone with them."

"Probably a lot more than we can imagine," Dr. Martin said. He stepped into the room and picked Knuckles up from behind, lifting the echidna's limp form off the floor by his underarms. Dr. Martin added, "Evidently, he knows how to take a person down in less than three hits. There's only two red marks." He dragged Knuckles back onto his bed, then covered him up and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Can a virus cause someone to go nuts like that, or was Tails really THAT pissed off?" Sonic asked.

"This is a new strain we're dealing with, so we can't afford to overlook any possibility," Dr. Martin replied. "He must be at least partially in his right mind, unless the TV turned itself off, or unless he stepped on the remote."

"How'd you know the TV wasn't already off?" Rouge asked.

"I heard someone mention it as I was coming down the hall," Dr. Martin said.

"Oh," Rouge said.

"I take it you all have had your tests done already?" Dr. Martin asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "I got a souvenir from Knuckles after his test was done." He pointed to his eye.

"What'd you do, ask Dr. Lang to probe him?" Dr. Martin asked.

"How'd you know?" Sonic asked.

"Oldest trick in the book," Dr. Martin replied casually. "It's been around ever since someone first conceived the idea of anal probing." Everyone had a hearty laugh from that. Tails stuck his head out his door again as they finished.

"Don't make me come out there again," he threatened. "You saw what I did the first time." When he saw that everyone had shut up, he slammed his door again.

"Perhaps we should all return to our rooms and have a nap," Dr. Martin said, not turning his head away from Tails's door. "Maybe he'll be in a better mood later."

"Yeah," Sonic, Amy, and Rouge all said at the same time.

"It's boring enough around here, so I imagine passing out wouldn't be too hard," Amy said.

"I'd have to agree," Dr. Martin said, turning away from Tails's door. "Sometimes, when we have patients who aren't going to be leaving for a while, I ask their families to bring books with them the next time they come to visit." Sonic stretched and headed to his room, right next to Amy's, who was across from Tails.

"I'm going to watch TV for a while," Rouge said, heading to her room as well. Hers was next door to Knuckles, and nearest to the waiting room.

"I'm going to retire as well," Dr. Martin said. He turned and walked back around the corner, heading back to his room. Alone in the hall, Amy looked at Tails's door one last time, then headed to her room as well.

"Hey, Knuckles, wake up," Rouge said. Knuckles stirred, but he didn't open his eyes. "KNUCKLES!" He jerked awake.

"What'd you gotta shout at me for?" he asked groggily, rubbing the side of his head.

"Dr. Lang has some new information he wanted to share with us," Rouge said. "I think you should hear it more than any of us."

"What time is it?" Knuckles asked, sitting up.

"Getting close to 4:00," Rouge said. She turned and left the room, followed by Knuckles a few moments later. He walked out into the waiting room, where Sonic, Amy, Rouge, Dr. Martin, and Dr. Lang, holding a clipboard, were all waiting. The big surprise was, Dr. Lang wasn't wearing his "space suit".

"Ah, man, you got my chair," Knuckles said to Dr. Martin.

"Sorry," Dr. Martin said. "First come, first serve."

"I'm sure you've all noticed that I'm wearing a white lab coat, rather than that insanely uncomfortable biohazard suit," Dr. Lang said. "Lab tests so far have determined that the virus is not air communicable. We've had mice breathing Tails's air via convector ever since you all got here, and they're fine and frisky. As for other transfer methods, we're still figuring it out. So far, contact with infected fluids is the only method by which it can be contracted that we know of."

"This means that visitors will be allowed," Dr. Martin added. "Unfortunately, no one can be released yet, not until tests confirm that none of us is infected."

"Wonderful," Knuckles said. "Least I'll be able to sit around and watch TV for a while longer."

"Lucky you," Amy mumbled.

"Anyway, going on," Dr. Lang cut in. "We've already made some discoveries as to the effects of the virus. It's a highly unusual one. Most viruses attack body cells and replicate out of control, but this one is different. While it does attack body cells and replicate, it doesn't begin replication immediately. We monitored several infected mice, and took tissue samples from several parts of their bodies as quickly as possible. We've determined that the virus only attacks cells near the brain. As well as replication, the virus forces infected cells to create a special chemical used by the brain to control bodily functions. It's essentially an aggression hormone, so to speak. The victim will become extremely irritable, becoming violent with very little provocation. We obeserved this with the mice we were testing. We attempted to move one of the infected mice, but it tried to bite. Once it was caught, it was placed with three healthy mice. They approached it to have a look, and it killed them all."

"Jeez," Sonic said.

"Now we know what that was about," Rouge said.

"I'm sorry?" Dr. Lang said.

"Tails beat the living hell out of Knuckles earlier for what seemed like no reason at all," Sonic said. "Guess now we know why."

"Indeed," Dr. Lang said. "Unfortunately, this is about the extent of what we've found out. You've already seen the virus's other effects. Fainting, fever, vomiting, and the like. They appeared in the mice as well. From two key pieces of evidence, I've come to the conclusion that this is an artifically manufactured virus."

"What evidence?" Amy asked.

"The fact that the virus came from a gelatinous breeding environment, for one," Dr. Lang stated. "The other is, all known viruses that occur in nature simply replicate. They don't manufacture chemicals to confuse the body and cause emotional reactions."

"I have a question," Sonic said. "How long did it take the virus to start making copies in the mice?"

"Close to a minute," Dr. Lang replied. "Why?"

"Well, it got to Tails in half that time," Sonic said. "How can that happen when Tails is hundreds of times the size of a mouse?"

"I don't know," Dr. Lang said.

"I have a hypothesis," Dr. Martin spoke up. "Perhaps the virus entered his bloodstream through a vein, in which the blood is en route back to the heart. Perhaps on the way back, the virus diffused into another blood vessel bound for his head. From there, it simply found a cell and did its thing."

"It makes sense," Rouge said. "I'm not even a doctor, but it's a sound explanation to me."

"What's with the big meeting?" Tails asked, walking into the meeting room. Dr. Lang took a wary step back, and disguised it by looking at the clock: he didn't want to risk provoking Tails.

"Nothing," Dr. Martin said. "We were just socializing. We thought you might like to sleep, so we left you be." He glanced toward the others, who all nodded in agreement: nobody wanted to see how Tails took the thought of people talking about him behind his back.

"Oh," Tails said. He turned his head and looked right at Knuckles. "Sorry about earlier Knuckles. I don't know WHY I flipped out like that."

"I'll let you go this time," Knuckles said casually. "Next time, I'm gonna lay you flat."

"Fair enough," Tails said, turning his head back toward the center of the room. "What time is it?"

"Almost 4:00," Rouge said. "How are you feeling?"

"Hungry," Tails said. "Least it's not so hot in here anymore."

"That's good," Amy said.

"Would you like to sit down?" Dr. Martin asked.

"First come, first serve," Tails said, yawning. "If truth be told, what I'd like is a triple baconcheeseburger and an engine block to fix."

"Well, that's a little different," Dr. Lang said. "I've heard of people asking for triple cheeseburgers, but asking for an engine to fix is a new one on me."

"I can imagine," Tails said. He looked Dr. Lang over for a few seconds, blinking a lot, as he was still half-asleep. "No space suit?"

"No, not anymore," Dr. Lang said. "We've confirmed that it's safe to come in without it. Visitors should be allowed, too."

"Cool," Tails said. "Hey, what's on that clipboard?"

"Just some details about the virus that infected you," Dr. Lang said, not seeing any reason to conceal the truth, now that he'd seen that Tails wasn't going to break his neck.

"So you weren't just socializing, then," Tails said. "Why didn't you tell me you had that kind of information?"

"Well..." Dr. Martin began, his voice trailing off.

"That was my idea," Dr. Lang said. "I really did feel it would be best to let you sleep, in case you were still in an irritable mood."

"It wasn't just a moment of pent-up stress breaking loose, was it?" Tails asked.

"No, it wasn't," Dr. Martin said. "The virus isn't just making you sick physically. It's working on you mentally, as well."

"How?" Tails asked, shaking his head as though he'd just been hit in the face.

"Your friends will explain," Dr. Lang said. "I'll go ask a nurse to bring lunch. I know it's a little late, but I'm sure you're probably starving." He turned around and left the room through the antechamber leading to the open section of the hospital.

"Why do I get this feeling that I'm going to hate what I hear?" Tails asked.

YAI-YAI-YAI-YAI-YAI-YAI-ALRIGHTY THEN!...Sorry, had to throw in a Jim Carrey reference. Don'tknow why. Anyway,another chapter down. A LOT of dialogue, I know. I hope you liked. Let me know what you think. NOTE: I had more fun typing out Tails beating Knuckles's ass than you might think. Trust me.