A/N: A big thankyou to Samantha27 for the review; the more I get, the faster I write ;)
Guardian's Log no. 11453
I have got to stop becoming comfortable on my island. The minute I do, Sonic shows up and drags me on some crackpot journey or other. I think the Master Emerald will be safe enough for a few days though, and this Casino Night Zone should increase my hoard considerably. Should I have brought some of my own items to gamble, or should I try and pick some up on the way? Rings are plentiful enough; maybe I can gamble with those.
How exactly do you gamble, anyway?
--Knuckles the Echidna
My Memoirs by Me
Ha! Knew I could do it. Turn on the ol' Sonic charm and even Knucklehead caves in. And Tails thought he'd never agree to coming along.
Tails is really bugging me though; I wish he'd at least learn the difference between land and crash. He's okay, I guess; it just gets pretty old being dropped from a great height. This time it was a forest, last time it was a desert. No idea what he's going to dunk me into next – a live volcano, probably.
--Sonic the Hedgehog
Dear Diary
We're going and Knuckles is coming with us! I'm glad; I do sort of like him, even if he's a bit of a loner sometimes...he gives me the creeps as well. I think he and Sonic are friends really, just friends who spend their whole time arguing and competing with each other. It's good he's coming along though; I think you can have too much of a good thing, in his case, guarding the Emerald. Besides, he'll probably be able to guard it a lot better after a holiday, especially if he can get to see some of Robotnik's robots and learn how they attack so he can learn how to fight back.
--Tails
"So what do you do for fun on that island, anyway?" Sonic wanted to know.
Knuckles suppressed a sigh and, with considerably more difficulty and self-discipline, a strong urge to whack the hedgehog in the head. Sonic had been asking that same question over and over ever since they'd left, something which Knuckles was already regretting doing.
"How many times? I don't. Guarding the Master Emerald is a full time job; you can't just take five minutes to do whatever you two do twenty four seven."
Tails looked at the echidna curiously.
"Don't you ever get lonely all by yourself?"
Knuckles shrugged.
"I live with it, kid. That's all you can do. I've got a duty to perform. Whining about it won't make it go away."
"Yeah, but it still must be pretty quiet."
"I like quiet," Knuckles said, looking pointedly at Tails in the hopes he'd get the hint. He didn't.
"Yeah, but you must want to talk to people sometimes. Are there any other echidnas up there?"
"No." For the briefest instant something came into Knuckles' eyes, a flash of emptiness that was gone so quickly Tails thought he must have imagined it. "No, there aren't. I'm the last of my kind."
There was a silence. Even Sonic couldn't seem to find anything to say.
"Jeez, that's rough," he managed, after a long struggle. Knuckles shrugged.
"Like I said, I live with it. You can't change it, so why worry?" He stopped to fix Sonic with a look. "Are you planning on us walking to wherever it is we're going? Because not everyone's got supersonic speed!"
"Hell no!" Sonic grinned. "We're gonna hitch a ride on that."
'That' was a small vehicle which put Knuckles in mind of a disfigured go-kart. It was clearly designed to run with two or three people, although it didn't look all that sturdy.
The echidna looked at it, then at Sonic.
"You have got to be yanking my chain."
"Nope. C'mon, it's perfectly safe. We can't walk, anyway."
"Why not?"
Sonic shifted his weight.
"Well...I dunno how they got here, but Robotnik's brought some new robots in. Beatniks, mostly, but they're thick on the paths. We have to take the go-kart; it's the only way through them."
Knuckles shook his head, more in perplexity than denial.
"What the hell's a beatnik?"
"A beaver botnik," Tails explained. "They can gnaw down trees in four seconds flat. If we don't ride, they'll squash us."
"And if we do ride, we'll most likely squash ourselves!" Knuckles retorted.
Sonic rolled his eyes and slammed into the echidna from behind.
"Just shut up and get on, would you!" Shoving Knuckles onto the back, he leapt onto the front seat. "Tails, start us off!"
Knuckles closed his eyes, his apprehensions in no way lessened by the fact that he didn't seem to have anything to hold onto.
There was a sharp jolt from behind as Tails grabbed hold of the pole that was sticking up in the centre and pushed, tails whirring frantically. Up ahead, there was a hum of machinery followed by a creaking sound as a beatnik finished gnawing through its tree trunk.
"Lean!" Sonic yelled.
There was a ten second interlude, during which quite a lot happened.
"I meant to the right," Sonic said tersely at the end of it, picking himself up out of the bush and spitting leaves out of his mouth.
"You should have said," Knuckles retorted, from where he was currently spreadeagled upside-down in another, less thorny bush. He pushed himself to his feet and glanced at the pile of debris which was all that was left of the cart, then up at the beatnik. "Is that thing going to come after us?"
"Doubt it. But just in case—" Sonic broke into a sudden sprint, leapt into the air and smashed the beatnik, freeing the rabbit trapped inside. Knuckles returned his gaze to the cart's wreckage.
"Think it's worth salvaging?"
"Not unless you can fix it up from a handful of scrap metal," Sonic said somewhat sourly.
"I might be able to," Tails said hopefully. Sonic waved a hand.
"Later, kid. Once we stop Robotnik, you can tinker away to your heart's content."
Knuckles noted the brief hurt expression that flashed across Tails' face and stored it up for later reference; that could be worth remembering. Aloud he said, "How do we even know it's Robotnik?"
"You know another mad genius scientist who makes killer robots?" Sonic said rhetorically. He snorted. "C'mo-on. The doc's usually behind every crazy thing that goes on in this place."
That much was true, Knuckles had to admit. He shook his head.
"Okay, fine. I still don't get why you need me in all this, though. You got the Chaos Emeralds. Just blast your way in, do what you gotta do and blast your way out again."
There was a strangely embarrassed silence.
"You do still have the emeralds, don't you?" Knuckles said, in the leaden tones of one who thinks he already knows the answer and doesn't much like it.
"Uh." Sonic grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. See, I was gonna mention this to you as well, but...well...what with one thing and another..."
"Mention what?"
"I mean, it didn't seem worth bugging you for something as trivial as—"
"Mention what, Sonic?" Now Knuckles' tone was decidedly dangerous.
"Dr Robotnik got two of the emeralds away from Sonic," Tails said helpfully.
He regretted it half a second later, as Knuckles seized Sonic around the throat and ran him into the nearest tree.
"Tell me he's kidding," he all but growled. Sonic considered, then shook his head.
"Can't. Love to, but can't."
"After everything that's happened, you just lost two of the Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles considered, then released him. "Hell, I'm not surprised; every time you go after Robotnik you seem to wind up having to retrieve the same gems over and over again. I guess it's something of a miracle that you managed to hang onto five of them. Anyone ever suggest you're a little disorganised?"
"I did not just lose them; they were taken from me after a hell of a fight between the doc and me, following several gruelling minutes of intense physical combat and amazing agility from yours truly—"
"Dr Robotnik's robots snuck up while we were asleep and took them," Tails offered helpfully. "By the time Sonic woke up, most of them had gone. We managed to get five back, but the doc took the other two to his fortress."
Knuckles stared from one to the other incredulously.
"That's why you dragged me out here? To help you get back something you only lost through your own carelessness?" He shook his head. "Screw this! I'm going home!"
There was a blue blur as Sonic moved to block his path.
"No. There really is something weird going on here. If it was just going after the emeralds, I could do that on my own, no sweat. But this is something bigger. I dunno what, but something tells me I'm gonna need all the backup I can get."
Knuckles shook his head again.
"I said no. You want backup, you got the flying fuzzball up there. I am not going to risk life and limb just so you can get back what you were responsible for losing in the first place! I'm not going to be your echidna sacrifice."
"I told you—"
"Oh right, there's something weird going on here." Knuckles snorted. "Give me a break. Sonic, if you think for one minute that I'm going to tag along at your heels because of something you can't even explain, you can think again."
"And if you think—" Sonic began, then broke off suddenly, shading his eyes against the sun with one hand. "Oh. No," Knuckles heard him say matter-of-factly. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
"What's your problem?" the echidna demanded.
"Get out of here! Run!"
"What?" Startled out of his mood, Knuckles looked at him, then at Tails, who shrugged. "Why?"
"Just do it!" Sonic hit the brakes and skidded to a stop, a skid that lasted a full five hundred yards.
"Wow!" Tails zipped in closer to examine the tracks. "You're getting really good at that; your stopping distance used to be about three miles from top speed."
"Yeah, yeah, great, whatever." Sonic grabbed Knuckles' wrist in one hand, Tails' in the other and started running determinedly the other way. "Let's get out of here!"
"Hold up." Knuckles jammed his heels in so hard and so suddenly that Sonic was yanked back off his feet. "What are we running away from?"
"I'm not running away!"
"Good. In that case—" The echidna turned to go back, but Sonic grabbed his arm again.
"No! There's nothing there!"
"It's not like you to run away from nothing, Sonic."
"Knuckles, please! Let's just get out of—"
"So-nic!" The voice was perky, cheerful and eminently girlish. "Oh Son-ic. Where ar-re you?"
"He's here! He's here!"
Startled, Knuckles looked up to see a young rabbit who was hovering in mid-air by the simple method of vigorously flapping her ears. Next to him, Sonic slumped to the ground, his head in his hands.
"My life is over. Please, someone just kill me now."
Knuckles looked up at Tails.
"What's he babbling about?"
"Amy Rose," the fox said glumly, and Knuckles marvelled at how much terror and despondency could be crammed into a mere three syllables.
Sonic lifted his head and looked around wildly, in the manner of a trapped animal.
"She can't have seen me yet. Maybe there's still time!"
Turning, he dived headlong into the bushes, worming his way into the undergrowth. Knuckles had just opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on when there was a sudden pink blur and something blew past him, squealing excitedly.
"Hey, watch it!" he yelled.
"Are you Sonic's friend?" the hedgehog asked Knuckles eagerly.
"Sonic's friend?" Knuckles repeated. "Uh...of sorts, I guess. Why?"
"Do you know where he is?"
Knuckles had to force himself not to look round.
"It's weird, but he just took off suddenly. Something must've scared him."
Amy shook her head impatiently.
"Nothing scares Sonic. Don't you know who he is?"
"An annoying technicolour hedgehog that keeps showing up on my island just when I've got things back to normal again," Knuckles said succinctly. "Anything else is just rumour. And as to where..." He shrugged. "Sorry. He went so quick I didn't see him. He's definitely nowhere near here."
Amy didn't look convinced, possibly because Knuckles had been pointing rather emphatically at the bushes during this staunch denial.
"Is he in that tree?"
"Tree? What tree?" Knuckles said, with an innocent air that might have been a lot more believable had they not been standing on the outskirts of a forest.
"Any tree!"
A wicked gleam appeared in the echidna's eyes; Knuckles wasn't entirely without his own sense of fun and mischief.
"No, he's not," he said truthfully, stroking his jaw as he pretended to consider. "Of course...if I were looking for a bright blue hedgehog in a dull green forest, I'd start around about...here."
Turning, he abruptly yanked the bushes apart to reveal Sonic, who glowered at him.
"Just for the record, I'm not his friend anymore!"
Knuckles laughed.
"C'mon, Sonic. There's an old echidna saying which goes something like this: in order to lose your fear of an object, you must first confront it."
"And there's an equally old hedgehog saying," Sonic retorted, "which goes something like this: not a chance in hell, you vermilion traitor!"
Knuckles waved one hand in a yeah, yeah fashion, then quirked a ridge at the pink hedgehog, who seemed determined to seize Sonic in a hug, despite his best efforts to wriggle free.
"You know, I don't think we've really met. I'm Knuckles, and you are...?"
"Amy Rose," the other hedgehog answered perkily. "I'm Sonic's fiancee."
The echidna looked from one to the other, grinning broadly.
"His what? Jeez, Sonic, you didn't tell me you were engaged!"
"I'm not!"
Knuckles snickered quietly.
"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Listen, Knucklehead—!" Sonic broke off abruptly as Amy attempted to kiss him. Knuckles shook his head, eyes dancing.
"You're gonna be out of luck, kid; I don't think Sonic believes in free love."
Sonic glowered at the echidna.
"Oh, you're just loving this, aren't you?"
Knuckles' grin broadened.
"I've had worse times. Though I'm a little hurt you didn't ask me to be best echidna."
"Knuckles, I'm warning you!"
"Yeah?" Knuckles flexed his fists experimentally, moving with liquid grace. "Let's try that, Sonic. No speed, no fancy running; just you and me in a physical brawl."
Amy whipped around to glower at Knuckles.
"If you so much as touch him I'll...I'll...get Cream to fly up and drop Mr Big on your head!"
"Hey, whoah, okay!" His grin now so wide it threatened to take in his ears, Knuckles held up his hands – either one of which could have crushed Amy's skull like an eggshell – and stepped back. "I get the point. I'll be good."
"Good!" Amy turned back to Sonic, only to find that he'd taken advantage of her distraction, however brief, to bolt and take Tails with him. You could go a long way at supersonic speed in twelve seconds.
Knuckles rolled his eyes.
Who'da thought it? Sonic the hedgehog, hero of Mobius and Robotnik's nemesis, frightened of a little girl!
He glanced up at the rabbit, who had watched the proceedings with an expression best described as revulsion.
"And what's your angle in all this? You after Sonic too?"
Cream shook her head emphatically, creating an interesting turbulence effect.
"No! I think boys are icky!"
"Oh, you do, huh?" More amused than insulted, Knuckles snorted. "Does that mean you're gonna let the three of us go on without spying on us?"
"Maybe," Amy said, momentarily giving up on Sonic. "If you tell us where you're heading."
Knuckles considered. It looked like he'd have to help Sonic out on this one occasion, not because he particularly wanted the hedgehog's life to be made any easier, but because Amy would probably make a serious nuisance of herself if she knew where they were heading.
"Somewhere that I doubt you'll have heard of," he told her.
"Try me!" Amy said belligerently.
"Well...it doesn't have an official name, but most people who know about it know it as Ples Tudak-Oltaim." Knuckles' conscience pricked him slightly at this point (along with a crazy desire to grin or even laugh) but he waved it off. This was for the greater good; the sooner Sonic's train of thought got to its station, the sooner Knuckles could return to guard the Master Emerald.
Amy looked blank.
"Is that far away?"
"Probably not as far as you might think." Oh, this really was getting bad; he'd have to leave soon or risk cracking up in front of her. "It's hard to get to though...you'd do better waiting around here. He comes through this zone quite a lot, I understand. He'll be back before you know it."
Amy considered this for a few seconds.
"We-ell...if you're sure..."
"Trust me, kid; I'm an echidna. He'll be back." Knuckles turned and broke into a run, following Sonic's trail. It wasn't that hard; the hedgehog had run fast enough to leave scorch marks behind him, and Knuckles continued on until a familiar thwap-thwap-thwap drew his attention upwards to meet Tails' anxious gaze.
"Are they gone?"
"Yeah." Knuckles was still fighting the urge to laugh at the memory of Sonic's expression. "Tell Sonic that the tide of raging hormones has ebbed for the minute."
"Okay." Tails flew up to the branches of a nearby palm tree and lifted a broad leaf to peer underneath it. "Sonic, Knuckles says—"
"Yeah, I know, I heard him." Sonic glared at Knuckles from his sanctuary. "You wouldn't kid about that, would you?"
"I'm not a great one for kidding around, Sonic."
"You managed alright back there!" Sonic said accusingly as he slid down the tree to the ground.
"That wasn't kidding around...at least, not much. I probably should've mentioned this when you hid; I'm not a great one for lying either."
"What about romance?"
Knuckles shot Sonic a look that was half incredulous, half repulsed.
"Forget it, Sonic! I am not getting into a relationship with you just so you can get your wannabe wife outta your quills!"
"So not what I meant!" Sonic fixed Knuckles with his best glare. Tails' giggle at the echidna's comment hadn't done much for the hedgehog's self-esteem. "I was thinking that maybe we should set you up with one of them," Sonic went on. "At least then they might leave me alone."
Knuckles shook his head, smirking.
"Uh uh. Amy's besotted with you and Big is male."
"There's always Cream."
"Cream is still young enough to think all boys are icky—" Knuckles raised his voice on the last word, mimicking Cream's high-pitched tones— "and I'm old enough to think that a relationship with a seven year old is equally icky, especially when that seven year old isn't even the same species as me. The female crowd's all yours, hotshot. Guess that's what comes of being a teen idol."
"I am not a teen idol!"
"No, but give it time and who knows?"
Sonic glowered at him, but the echidna's expression was too innocent to argue against.
"Where are we going now, anyway?" Knuckles wanted to know.
A slight gleam crept into Sonic's eyes as he answered, "Bridge Zone."
"Bridge?" Knuckles raised his eyebrows. "Is it me, or are you taking us the scenic route?"
"Nothing wrong with scenic, Knux." His earlier good mood restored now that Amy was no longer around, Sonic grinned broadly at the echidna's expression. "Hell, you know you take life too seriously."
"I have one hell of a serious job to do, Sonic," Knuckles reminded him, his tone a little too even to be completely natural.
"So what's wrong with a vacation now and then? I mean, jeez, you never come and visit!"
"Point one, you don't have a home for me to visit," Knuckles said, a little more forthrightly than Sonic would have liked. "Point two, given how much time you two seem to be spending on my island lately, I don't think I need to!"
"All I'm saying—" Sonic automatically swerved aside to shatter a botnik before continuing— "is why can't you take five? Even on your own island, you should be able to stop and sniff the flowers."
The echidna shot him a look.
"With the kind of bees that live up there? You're kidding, right?"
"Yeah, but seriously, what do you do for fun on that island?"
Knuckles took a slow, deep breath. This was already shaping up to be a very, very long journey.