Awdures: Glad you liked it ;) Urgency...well, yes, there is, but neither Sonic nor Knuckles are the type to suffer from headless-chicken syndrome, and at the end of the day, neither of them really know what's going on either :P

FriedBrickWall: Heh...yeah, it did only happen once, but it also happened pretty recently :P And like Sonic says, you don't get over something like that like a cold ;) (Sonic: Yeah. Excuse me for not being able to forget it. Maybe someone could tear off your feet and torture you, see how well you deal with the aftermath.) Ignore him; he gets a little irritated whenever anyone reminds him of it ;)

BlueCheetah: (grins) I think you're right (Knuckles: Finally, someone understands me! I'd given up hope. Shouldn't it be Ms Goddess, though?) Knux! Stop criticising the nice reviewer! Sorry about him...he's been a little grumpy lately ;)

Saffra: Thanks...glad you enjoyed it :P (Knuckles: There is nothing wrong with seeing things in a giant shiny rock!) Don't worry about him. He's being a grouch 'cause he knows what's coming :P (Sonic: Beg to differ with this; I'm perfectly capable of thinking on my feet. I'm just not good with forward planning.)

Ryopon: A Tails chapter...hmm. I hadn't thought about it to be honest...maybe if people want it I'll put one up :)

Kj: Heh, I don't think Knuckles is THAT far gone yet :P

Matri90: Thanks :)

Treasurehunter: Okay, it's continued (glomps back) :P

Guardian's Log no. 11473

How do I get myself into these situations? Okay, so I really am worried about Tails, but that doesn't change the fact that I seem to have been drafted as Sonic's damn sidekick again! Wasn't once enough?

How the hell that guy can have a cookout at a time like this is beyond me! Then again, I suppose he's right; running at those kind of speeds must need a lot of energy. I never thought about that before.

So we're heading down to the Emerald Hill Zone. Query: is Robotnik responsible for whatever's happened to Tails? Answer: no, I don't think so. What Sonic said made sense; if I could build custom slaves whenever I wanted and to whatever specifications I wanted, I doubt I'd bother with living people either. Which means that somewhere there's a bunch of slaver jerks with a serious problem. Namely me, although they may not realise that yet.

We took one Chaos Emerald each. Or at least, I took one – the truth Emerald, since I think it might be useful in its own right – and Sonic still has the life force one (not that he knows how to use it). If the visions really are linked to whoever has them, I don't want to miss one; Tails might say something we can use.

--Knuckles the Echidna

My Memoirs by Me

Oh man. I didn't know Knuckles was getting the vision/dream as well. This just got a whole lot weirder. What the hell is going on?

Tails, wherever you are, hold on. We're coming to get you, just hold on.

--Sonic the Hedgehog

"This is Emerald Hill Zone?"

"Yep." Sonic glanced around. "Nice place, huh?"

"I prefer Mushroom Hill Zone, and this place looks so much like Green Hill Zone I don't know why the two Zones don't just merge."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, I get it. You're having your compulsory sulk attack. Well, get on with it quickly, Knux, 'cause we got a lot of work to do." He shook his head. "I thought you lost all that when you hugged Tails."

The echidna's head snapped around. "How do you know I—that is...I mean..." He coughed. "Well, are we gonna sit on our hands all day or are we actually going to start talking to people?"

Sonic grinned, delighted with the success of his little trap.

"We're gonna start talking to people. And stop scowling like that; you'll frighten 'em off."

Knuckles glared at Sonic, then made a conscious effort to relax. Sonic tipped his head on one side.

"Hm. Actually, put the scowl back on, Knux; I never realised what you looked like without it."

"You're a riot, hedgehog."

"I know. Hero in eighty percent of Zones, star comedian in the last twenty. C'mon." Sonic crossed over to an attractive looking cottage and knocked.

The door opened just enough to reveal a suspicious eye.

"Piss off!" the eye's owner barked and slammed the door in Sonic's face.

"Friendly folk, aren't they?" Knuckles commented. Sonic frowned slightly.

"Must be a mistake. Oh man, why couldn't Tails have gone to Green Hill Zone?"

"What's the difference?"

"More grass, more palm trees and a load more streams. Other than that, nothing really. But the people are friendlier." Sonic hammered on the door again. "Hey, open up!"

No answer.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "This is sad. Stand aside."

"Huh? What're you gonna—Knuckles, no!"

"Too late." The echidna swung his fist forward in a blow that not only opened the door but destroyed any chances of ever closing it again, then stepped over the remains. "We want a word with you. Or rather, Sonic wants a word with you and trust me, he's a lot less irritating when he gets his own way."

"I heard that, Knucklehead!" Sonic picked his way into the room, careful not to tread on what remained of the door, then put on his most winning expression. "But he's right, I want to ask you something."

"I'll talk to you but not to him!" The house's owner, a gruff looking wombat, turned away from Knuckles pointedly.

"Okay, fine. Knux, wait outside."

"What?" Knuckles stared hard at Sonic. "If you think—"

"Just do it! I'll tell you everything that's said, but if this guy knows anything, saving Tails is a lot more important than saving your pride!" Sonic grabbed hold of Knuckles, spun him around and physically pushed him out the door. Caught off balance, the echidna staggered and only managed to right himself at the last minute by grabbing the outside wall. Humiliated and furious with Sonic, he strode away, not stopping until he reached the outskirts of a forest where he leaned against a tree, arms folded and fingers tapping irritably, watching the house. After ten minutes had gone past, Sonic emerged, looked all around before catching sight of Knuckles and racing over to him.

"Jeez, what're you doing all the way out here?"

"What'd he say?" Knuckles demanded, ignoring the hedgehog's question.

Sonic frowned somewhat quizzically. "Knux, you wouldn't happen to know what Tails meant by a freight marn, would you?"

Knuckles blinked. "What? No. Should I?"

"Apparently he called that guy's kid one, and he called me one as well just before storming off. He was talking about you just before saying it; I wondered if you'd heard it before."

The echidna frowned slightly. "Say it again?"

"Freight marn. At least, that's what it sounded like."

"Pretman?" Knuckles suggested.

"That's it! What's it mean?"

The echidna hesitated before saying, "It's...not a compliment, Sonic."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "No kidding, Knucklehead. I kinda figured that out for myself when Tails threw that rock at my head just after saying it. But where's it come from? What's it mean?"

"Literally or figuratively?"

"Both, and quit dancing around the subject!"

Knuckles shrugged. "The nearest translation is coward. Literally it means 'frightened male'; the feminine version is pretmeri. It's an echidna word; where the hell did you learn it?"

"I told you; Tails used it."

"Then where did Tails learn it?"

"You tell me, Knux! You're the only one who speaks it." Sonic considered. "And you called me one back in Robotnik's fortress, along with several other words I hadn't heard before but don't really want to know about either. You haven't been teaching Tails the echidna language, have you?"

"In the first place, Sonic, if I had it'd be no business of yours and secondly, no, of course I haven't."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't go all stiff and sniffy on me again, Knucklehead. I thought you'd got over that. It was a reasonable enough question." He paused. "Though it would be pretty cool to talk to someone and have them not understand a word of what I was saying."

There was a very careful silence.

"Oh, go on then, say it!" Sonic said. "I mean, I wouldn't want you to burst a vessel or anything!"

Knuckles smirked. "Alright then, I will; you have that effect when you speak in Mobian, never mind Sagayan."

"Thankyou. Sar-what-ian?"

"Echidnese to you, I imagine. What did this guy say?"

"Said Tails did come here after leaving me. He met up with the guy's son, shouted at him, beat him up and called him a freight marn and then marched off."

Knuckles blinked. "That's not like him. Kid's not the type to pick on people. Even if you did upset him, I doubt he'd take it out on the first person he met."

Sonic shrugged. "Hey, I'm with you. I'm just passing on what he said. Tails stormed off into the forest and never came out."

"The storming off bit I can well believe," muttered Knuckles, who had had plenty of experience with Tails' temper.

"Yeah, but you're right; he's not the kind to pick a fight."

Something behind them changed. There was no obvious sound, no movement, and yet somehow the pair of them knew that they were being watched. Slowly, they turned, watching in silence as a group of about seven or eight people appeared from the forest.

"We hear you've been asking questions." The jackal who spoke could only be the leader, Sonic knew. He had the cold, easy arrogance of one who was used to being obeyed.

"I always ask questions," Sonic said, striving to keep his voice calm.

"Not around here. I hear you're after a certain two-tailed freak buddy of yours, is that right?" The jackal smirked. "We could probably help you out, for a price."

Knuckles growled in frustration. "The hell you say!" Shoving Sonic out of the way, he seized the leader and ran him up against a tree. "Tell us what happened to Tails or I swear by the Master Emerald that you will never see another sunrise!"

Sonic stared at the echidna, then at the jackal.

"Better do what he says, kid. Swearing by the Master Emerald isn't a promise he makes lightly, and not one he backs out of either."

The jackal spat on the ground by Knuckles' boot. "You expect me to be frightened of your pet, hedgehog? What he's suggesting would be murder and you know it. So does he, if he's got any sense."

"No, you're not listening to me," Knuckles told him softly. "I said you'd never see another sunrise. As in, losing the ability." To bring the point home, he raised his free hand to eye height and pushed it forward until the spikes were a few inches away from the jackal's eyes.

"We didn't know!" The plea came from off to the left and Knuckles glanced at another, younger jackal. "We didn't know what would happen, mister, swear blind we didn't! Now let him go, please! He's done nothing to you!"

"He betrayed my little brother," Sonic said. He knew it, knew it as well as he knew his own name. There was a dangerous note in the hedgehog's voice that Knuckles had never heard before, and one which made the pack squirm nervously. They were used to the idea of Sonic as the hero of Mobius, all-around good guy and freedom fighter. None of them quite knew how to handle the idea of Sonic as an enemy.

"Hedgehogs screw fox freaks now, do they?" the leader sneered.

"What did you say?" Sonic's voice was quiet, almost friendly, but Knuckles wasn't fooled and he didn't think these guys would be either.

"Nothing!" That was the kid again, who seemed to be doing his level best to defuse the situation. "He dint mean it!"

"Oh, I think he did." That was Knuckles, who increased the pressure on the leader's throat until the jackal's breath was rasping loudly in his throat. "And that's not the kinda thing you want to imply about anyone, least of all someone like Sonic. But if you tell us where those people took Tails, we'll let you go."

"They took him down that path there towards the Aquatic Ruin Zone!" the other jackal said stridently. Knuckles glanced at him.

"Well, seems like one of you at least has a brain." Releasing the leader, he stepped away. "Aquatic Ruin, huh? C'mon, Sonic. Let's leave these jerks to their sick little games."

Sonic flexed his fingers idly. "I dunno, Knux. Seems to me they know a lot more than they're telling us."

"Agreed, but we're not likely to find out right now and I want to get out of here. This place makes my skin crawl." Knuckles backhanded a gang member stupid enough to try and sneak up behind him, sending him flying and then stalked off down the path, Sonic following reluctantly.

"Not that I don't appreciate haste," the hedgehog said after they'd been going for about half an hour in silence, "but we could've stayed to question them a little more!"

"They wouldn't have answered. Besides, do you want to waste time arguing when we could be looking for Tails? I know I damn well don't."

"They might have lied."

"They looked too dumb to lie. And at least they gave us a destination."

"Which may be the wrong one!"

Knuckles at last stopped walking and turned to stare at Sonic. "Are you saying this because you believe it, or because you just don't want to go to the Aquatic Ruin Zone?"

"Neither!" Sonic said hotly, then, "Well...both, I guess. But I still think that they might've—what's up?"

Knuckles, who had abruptly turned to face back the way they'd come, glanced at him.

"You go on ahead. I want to check something."

"Huh?" Sonic came to stand next to the echidna. "What something?"

"We're being followed."

"Yeah?" Sonic lowered his voice. "Who by?"

"Not sure. We gotta find out somehow."

"Oh well, allow me." Sonic raised his voice again. "It's okay, whoever you are. If you wanna talk to us, go ahead."

There was a faint rustling from one of the bushes and Sonic glanced at it.

"Is that you? C'mon out, we won't hurt you."

"Speak for yourself," Knuckles muttered. "You don't know who they are, Sonic."

"Neither do you, which means you don't have any right to make threats against them."

Knuckles opened his mouth to say he'd threaten whoever he damn well pleased, but at that moment the bushes parted and the young jackal from back in the forest emerged.

"You again?" Knuckles said incredulously. "What do you want now? Some more of what you got back there?"

"No!" The jackal backed off, hands held up in front of him. "No, mister, I don't want any trouble! I was jus' lookin' for you guys 'cause I wanted to ask you somethin'!"

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged startled looks.

"Uh...well, you found us," Sonic said eventually, when it became obvious the jackal was waiting for them to break the silence. "What do you want to ask?"

The jackal's mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out. Noticing how he kept casting nervous glances over his shoulder, Sonic added, "You got your friends back there?"

"He better not have," Knuckles said flatly.

The kid shook his head violently. "No, I don't! I jus' wanna ask if I can go with you guys."

There was a stunned silence.

"You're not serious," Knuckles said at the end of it.

"Uh. Yeah." The jackal squirmed under the echidna's piercing stare. "I jus'...well...can I, mister? Please?"

Knuckles turned a look of stunned incredulity on Sonic, who said to the jackal, "What do they call you, kid?"

"Bait."

"Huh?" Now it was Sonic's turn to look stunned. "You serious?"

Bait nodded. "Yeah. It's something Raker came up with. It's what I do too." When the two of them looked perplexed, Bait dropped onto the ground and fixed them both with a huge eyed appealing look. "Please mister, I fell an' hurt my ankle an' can't get up, please can you give me a hand up, please?"

"Let me guess," said Knuckles, who had been caught out like this by Charmy once before. "When the person reaches down, the rest of the pack hit them, mug them and race off, you included."

Bait nodded. "That's pretty much it, mister, yeah."

"So why should we trust you?"

"Ah, c'mon Knux, he's just a kid." Sonic looked at Bait. "Don't mind him. He gets grouchy whenever he's awake."

"He may be just a kid, but he's just a kid who was with those guys who betrayed Tails!"

"Yeah," Bait put in, "so I can lead you to people who can tell you where to find him. C'mon mister, just gimme a chance, that's all I'm asking for."

Knuckles folded his arms and stared at the jackal coldly. "Did you give Tails a chance?"

Bait flattened his ears nervously. "Look, mister, I had nothing to do with what they did to your buddy. Honest I didn't. Raker said it'd be a good laugh, that we'd get enough money to set us up for—"

"You took money for this?" Sonic cut in, his look no longer friendly. "You sold him?"

Bait glanced from one to the other, saw identical expressions of cold anger on both faces and turned to bolt.

"No you don't." Knuckles seized him by the arm, tightly enough so that Bait couldn't pull away without dislocating his own shoulder. "You're not going anywhere, not until you tell us what we want to know."

"Let go, Knuckles," Sonic said quietly. "Let him go, you're hurting him."

"So what? How bad do you think Tails hurting right about now? Dammit, Sonic, you saw the kid just like I did! If this flea-ridden black-backed jerkal had anything to do with it—"

"I didn't!" Now Bait was tugging and twisting, fighting to get out of the echidna's hold. Knuckles didn't tighten it, but he didn't ease up either. "I dint know what they was gonna do! They jus' said they was gonna talk to him. I dint know Raker knew him from before. I jus' thought he was gonna try an' recruit him."

Reaching down, Knuckles pulled out the red Chaos Emerald. Bait's eyes grew huge as he saw it, and he didn't object as Knuckles pressed the fantastic gem against his neck.

"Tell me again that you didn't know what this Raker was planning to do with Tails."

"I didn't! I swear! I tole you I jus' thought the guys was gonna try an' recruit him into their gang, honest!"

Knuckles glanced at the Emerald. No telltale flare appeared inside, which meant that Bait had spoken the truth.

"If you'd known, would you have tried to stop him?"

Bait nodded, almost pathetically eager. "Yeah, mister, course I would!"

The Emerald ignited, blazing with red fire and Knuckles smiled grimly.

"Nice try, kid."

Bait's eyes swivelled slowly around to the Emerald.

"What's that thing? A fancy lie detector?"

Knuckles snorted. "I guess you could say that."

"Yeah?" Bait's face lit up. "How much d'you want for it, mister? Cause Raker'll pay good, in cash or whatever you want."

Sonic sucked in his breath, shooting an amused glance at Knuckles' suddenly motionless form and then chuckling softly. "Kid, you don't know how close you came to losing your head with that remark. Little piece of advice for you. Never, ever attempt to buy a Chaos Emerald off Knuckles. If you're very lucky, you may live to regret it."

Bait's eyes grew, if it was possible, even larger. "That's a Chaos Emerald?"

Knuckles glared at Sonic. "Nice going."

Bait shook his head. "Don't worry mister. Everyone knows they bring bad luck if you try an' steal one."

"They do?" This was news to Knuckles and one look at Sonic's face told him the hedgehog had never heard this particular rumour either.

"Makes sense, though," Sonic said lightly. "Robotnik's been trying to steal 'em from me for years and look how his luck's been." He considered. "Then again, you stole 'em from me and look how all that turned out."

"Yeah. Maybe there is something to the kid's story after all." Knuckles glanced back at Bait, namely because the jackal had stopped squirming. Looking at him, Knuckles saw the same kind of adulation that he'd seen in Tails' face whenever the fox looked at Sonic, and he groaned.

"You're that Sonic?" Bait said breathlessly.

"How many bright blue hedgehogs with red and white sneakers do you know, kid?" Knuckles said caustically.

"Screw that, how many Sonics do you know?" Sonic demanded. "Cause if you've met another one, they're gonna be getting a seriously pissed off call from my lawyer for copyright infringement!"

"You can't copyright a name, Sonic," Knuckles said wearily. "Even I know that much."

"You can copyright a dream or idea though, and that's what I am to a lot of people, Knux." Sonic grinned to show he wasn't serious. "A vivid, fantastic dream of a better world!"

"Yeah? Well, if you're only a dream, I'd like to wake up now, if that's all the same to you. Or throw up," the echidna added under his breath.

"OooOOOooh!" Sonic folded his arms, still grinning. "Ouch. What's your deal, Knux?"

"My deal, as you put it, is that we're no nearer to finding Tails and you're just standing there cracking jokes!"

"So I'm not allowed to have a sense of humour on this rescue mission, is that it? It's not like I'm joking about Tails or his situation, wherever that is."

"I just think you of all people would be a little more concerned and sympathetic towards Tails! Especially after what Robotnik did to you!"

The grin dropped off Sonic's face and he turned away.

"That was low, Knuckles, even for you," he said very quietly.

The echidna shifted his weight. "Maybe it was at that. But it doesn't change the situation, nor the fact that we still haven't decided what to do with this little spy!"

Sonic turned back. "Let him come, if he wants to. He might be useful."

Bait nodded vigorously, aiming the gesture somewhere between Sonic and Knuckles. "Yeah, 'sright mister! I can help you out, just watch me!"

Knuckles glanced at Sonic, who was finding it hard to stifle a grin at the jackal's enthusiasm.

"Okay, fine," Sonic said aloud. "You wanna tag along, you can. And call me Sonic, okay?"

"Okay, mister."

"Sonic!"

"Okay, Mister Sonic."

Knuckles hid a grin as he released Bait and said to Sonic, "I think that's the best you're gonna get."

"It's early days yet," Sonic said pointedly. "What about you?"

Knuckles blinked. "What about me?"

"Aren't you gonna apologise to Bait for holding his arm so tightly?"

"No I'm damn well not!"

Bait, who had looked astounded at Sonic's demand, shook his head. "It's okay, mister, honest. It doesn't matter, I been grabbed rougher than that lotsa times."

"That doesn't matter. It's the principle of the thing." Sonic folded his arms and stared at Knuckles. "I'm waiting, Knucklehead."

"I hope you enjoy it then, because you're gonna be waiting a long time." Knuckles shook his head. "Say what you like, Sonic. This kid had a hand in whatever happened to Tails. Why shouldn't he do the same thing to us?"

"Good question, particularly if you keep acting this way!" Sonic shook his head. "What's come over you, Knuckles? You've always been a jerk ever since I've known you, but I never had you down as a bully."

"I'm not," Knuckles said tightly. "I'm a realist. Unlike you, Sonic, I'm not gonna hold off on someone who cold-bloodedly sold one of my friends just because he's still wet behind the ears. You want this kid to come, fine, he can come, but he's your responsibility! You feed him, water him, occupy him and if he does the dirty on us and tries to do what he did to poor Tails, I swear by my own eyes that I'll kill him myself!"

Sonic glanced at Bait and quirked an eye ridge. "You better be genuine, kid. Knucklehead takes all his oaths extremely seriously, and I happen to know that he's very fond of his eyes."

Bait shifted his gaze down at his sneakers.

"Just gimme a chance, mister. I won't letcha down, promise."

Sonic looked at Knuckles. "What do you think, Knux?"

"I already told you what I think. He'd sell us out as soon as look at us. But that doesn't make any damn difference, does it, since you've already made up your mind."

Sonic smirked. "C'mon, how much harm could he do?"

"I don't know, Sonic," Knuckles said, his voice dangerously pleasant. "Why don't you ask Tails?"

Bait squirmed. "Look, mister, I'm real sorry 'bout what Raker did to your buddy. I tole you I dint know what he was plannin'. An' I really can help you find him."

"It's settled. He comes." Sonic stared hard at Knuckles. "If he can help us find Tails, I don't care how uncomfortable he makes you feel."

"One question." Knuckles pressed the Chaos Emerald against Bait's neck again. "Are you planning to double-cross or betray us in any way at all?"

Bait shook his head. "No mister, honest."

The gem remained dark and Knuckles withdrew it, but still wasn't overly convinced. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Jeez, Knux, you gotta bring out the cosmic lie detector every time we meet someone new?" He shook his head, grinning. "Anyone ever suggest your people skills could use a little work?"

Knuckles glared at him.

"Oh shut up, Mister Sonic!"

Okay, another chapter done :P If you read it, please leave a review!