FriedBrickWall: You go back to screaming Tails if you want :P I'll probably write a chapter on him sooner or later ;) As for Shadow...hmm, you really wanna see him in this? (shrugs) Okay. I'll do what I can :P (Knuckles: Look, I didn't MEAN to mention that to Sonic! He just irritates the crap out of me!) (rolls eyes) Sometimes I wonder why I bother with certain characters :P

Saffra: Glad you approve ;) (Knuckles: Why shouldn't I call Tails a friend?) Knux, give it up; you know you're usually too proud to claim friendship with anyone.

Samantha27: (grins) Thanks; I'm glad you liked it ;) Bait...well, he does have more purpose than just being a Tails replacement :P As to his intentions...you'll find out soon enough! The fight between Sonic and Tails wasn't written about; chronologically it happened after Tails left Angel Island, but before Knuckles healed Sonic, and don't forget that Tails hasn't seen Sonic since that fight, so he has no idea Sonic's back to normal (or at least, as close as he ever gets :P) Tails closer to Knuckles...yes, I think in a way he is now, more because Knuckles has never done anything (really) to upset him or stab him in the back; as Tails himself said about Knuckles, "He may be an antisocial jerk, but at least he's honest about it." As far as Knuckles feels about Tails, I think Sonic's 'death' put things into perspective; Sonic's not the only one who matured rapidly during that time. As to Sonic's feelings...well, you'll have to wait and see. He doesn't strike me as the jealous type though ;)

Ryopon: Okay. I'll throw in the odd Tails chapter to keep you happy :P Not this one, but perhaps the next.

Treasurehunter: LOL Okay, I'm continuing ;)

Kj: Heh, you'll have to wait and see ;) Seriously though, yes, finding Tails is going to be the main plot. At least, that's how it is now. Who knows what's gonna happen in future chapters :P

Matri90: Thanks. I'll try :)

Parslie: Yep, it's a sequel :P Glad you enjoy it ;)

Guardian's Log no. 11474

So now we've got him, this Bait character. We don't really know who he is, we don't know if we can trust him, but because he turned on the adoration, Sonic's besotted with him and wouldn't hear of leaving him behind. Me, I think if he sold Tails out (literally) then he'd sell us out too.

I'm keeping my eye on you, kid.

--Knuckles the Echidna

My Memoirs by Me

So Knucklehead's pissed off with me again! Man, why does this always happen to me? Just 'cause I let the kid tag along!

I like Bait. I know Knuckles doesn't trust him, but let's face it, Knuckles doesn't trust anybody. And if the kid does try and betray us and we get sent to the same place as Tails...well, at least we'll find him again.

--Sonic the Hedgehog

Bait's Jurnal

Gonna try to rite agen, not done it for ages, Raker says its a wayst of time and never lets me. Met to guys called Sonic and Nux. They were looking for there frend Tails. And thats not all, Nux has a Caos Emruld! I never thort Id see one up close like that! And yes the Sonic is the Mobius hero! I promised Id help them find Tails and then Ill go find a new home.

All this is giving me a hedake. Ill rite mor soon.

--Bait the Jakkel

"What are you doing?" Sonic said. Bait jumped, slamming the book shut and stuffing it into his bag.

"Nothin', mister!"

"It didn't look like nothing."

Bait squirmed, then reluctantly pulled out the journal.

"Well...'s jus' a li'l somethin'. Thought I'd try keepin' a journal again. You wanna read it, mister, you can. I ain't plottin' anythin' in it, honest."

Sonic glanced down at the offered book, then shook his head. He knew how he'd feel if someone read his own log, his innermost thoughts.

"Keep it. I'll damn well take it if I find you've double-crossed us though!"

Bait grinned, an expression of pure relief. "Fair enough, mister. Thanks."

The hedgehog turned to leave. "And don't call me mister," he added over his shoulder.

"Yeah, mister, right."

Sonic halted, whirled to glare at the jackal. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

Bait looked positively alarmed. "Funny, mister? No. Why? Should it have been?"

Sonic gave up and dropped onto the grass. Despite the early morning, it was already warm enough for sunbathing. Knuckles had spotted a termite mound and gone off to have breakfast – and Sonic made a mental note to find his own in a minute; insects weren't high on his list of desirable foodstuffs.

"Mister," Bait said suddenly, "what did your buddy mean? When he said 'bout swearing on his own eyes?"

"Just what he said." Sonic snorted. "I hope for your sake that you are genuine, kid. Like I said, Knuckles never backs down on any oath and he's very fond of his eyes."

"Yeah, but what did he mean? He swore by his own eyes that he'd kill me if I did the dirty on you."

"You want me to simplify it even more?"

Bait ducked his head. "Yeah, please mister. If you don't mind."

Sonic shrugged. "Course I don't. If you betray us, Knux is bound by his oath to kill you himself. If he backs out or fails, he has to gouge his own eyes out."

Bait gawked at him, mouth ajar. "Can he do that, mister?"

"Anyone can do that. If you're asking me if he will, I think he'll be more interested in killing you than harming himself. But if push came to shove...yeah. I've no doubt of it."

"Is he a bit weird, mister? Y'know..." Bait twirled a finger in circles at the side of his head.

"Sometimes I wonder," Sonic said lightly, then caught sight of Bait's expression. "No, he's not. Well, maybe he is crazy, but in a good way," he added, a gleam in his eyes.

"Who's crazy in a good way?" Knuckles said suspiciously, coming up behind just in time to hear this.

"Charmy," Sonic said, not missing a beat. "You know, from the CDA."

"Yeah, 'sright mister," Bait chipped in eagerly. "We was jus' talkin' about 'em, right? He was tellin' me how they helped him that time."

Knuckles folded his arms and stared hard at Bait. "Why don't I believe you?"

Hands now laced firmly behind his head, eyes closed, Sonic smirked.

"'Cause he's lying to protect me. Okay Knux, so we were talking about you. But favourably, of course."

"Oh, of course," the echidna said scathingly. He shook his head. "I'm glad I found you two though; there's something you gotta see."

"Okay Knux. If you can bring it here and hold it above my eyeballs, I'll be glad to give you an opinion."

"I just bet you would." Knuckles rolled his eyes, reached down and yanked Sonic upright, hauling him along behind him and ignoring the hedgehog's extremely vocal and colourful protests, not stopping until they reached the area in question. "There."

Sonic froze, staring. A vast lake, so huge that he had to squint to make out the far side, lay directly in front of them.

"Cool!" There was the sound of rapidly running footsteps followed by a rush of air and the next thing Sonic and Knuckles knew, Bait had cannonballed into the lake – soaking them both thoroughly – and was swimming happily.

"That is plain unnatural," Sonic stated, eyeing Bait's activities with clear distaste.

"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean you have to spoil everyone else's fun," Knuckles said flatly as he sluiced the water off his spines. "I swim as well, from time to time."

"Swimming as a life-saving skill...yeah, I can sorta understand where that would come in handy, though I never learned myself. But swimming for pleasure...oh jeez, Knux, that's like kissing a tarantula!"

The echidna winced. "You really do have a unique turn of phrase, Sonic."

"Thanks. I try." Reaching up, Sonic broke off a few branches. "Well, it's a nice enough place for breakfast, anyway. Wanna help me build a fire?"

"No."

"Figured." Sonic arranged the branches, added smaller twigs and grass for kindling, then crouched down and sparked it with the ease of long practice just as Bait pulled himself out of the lake with the same easy grace as an otter.

"If you're gonna shake yourself dry, do it away from the fire," Knuckles ordered. He'd learned that lesson when Tails had been travelling with him. "Sonic, if we're gonna cook breakfast, shouldn't you be getting some sharp sticks in?"

"Oh no, my vermilion vassal. No, we're gonna cook in—urk!" Sonic broke off as Knuckles gripped him around the throat.

"What did you call me?" he said pleasantly.

"Knuckles?" Sonic gurgled, after some incredibly fast thinking.

"Better." The echidna released him. "What were you saying?"

Sonic massaged his throat. "I was saying that we're gonna cook in style. See?" He pulled out a cast iron skillet, one of the favoured cooking implements of Mobian drifters and something that the hedgehog had never managed to get around to buying. "And we got plenty of stuff to eat as well." Sonic dug out a string of sausages, cut them in half and tossed them into the skillet, then added a few burgers to the mix, stuck a branch through a bap and started lightly toasting it.

"It's not polite to drool in public, kid," Knuckles informed Bait, who was staring at the food as though mesmerised.

"Yeah, well, I can't blame him Knux; I'm practically drooling myself," Sonic said lightly. He tilted the pan up, spilling four sausages and two burgers onto the jackal's plate. "Here, get that down you."

Bait complied, snapping up the four sausages in as many bites, the burgers in three and then looked around hopefully for more.

Knuckles raised an eye ridge.

"Wow. Finally we find someone with a bigger appetite than you."

Sonic, who was still looking somewhat stunned at Bait's voracity, noticed for the first time how scrawny the kid was. He hadn't noticed it before; the kid's fur had hidden it until being flattened by the water.

"Where did this come from, anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"I got it yesterday from that store we passed, mister." Bait sat down by the fire and started cleaning the mud off his sneakers with a handful of grass, looking very proud of himself.

"Yeah, he volunteered to get in some grub," Sonic said, casually flipping the contents of the frying pan with the ease of long practice. "He got some good stuff as well. Thanks Bait. How much do I owe you?"

Bait stopped scraping the mud and glanced at Sonic uneasily. "Owe?"

"Yeah. I don't expect you to feed me and Knucklehead here out of your own pocket. Tell me how much it cost and we'll split it three ways. Or at least," Sonic added, "two ways and Knuckles can pay me his share when he gets some cash from his hoard."

"Uh." Bait flattened his ears nervously. "Well. Um. It dunt matter, mister, honest. Uh. Call it a gift. Kinda like my way a sayin' thanks for lettin' me tag along."

Sonic grinned. "You're welcome, but I'm not letting you off the hook that easy. C'mon, don't be embarrassed about telling me; how much was it?"

There was a long, long silence.

"Bait?" No longer grinning, Sonic fixed a look on the jackal, who hunched his shoulders miserably.

There was an even longer silence.

"Bait?" Sonic said again, suspicious now and already dreading the answer. "Bait, you did pay for all this, didn't you?"

The jackal fixed a stare on Sonic that was half appealing, half accusatory.

"You never said nothin' 'bout payin' for it, mister!"

"Oh, terrific!" Knuckles growled. "Not only are we camping out miles from home on a scavenger hunt, we're doing it with a load of hooky food as well! Nice going, kid!"

Bait shifted the look onto Knuckles. "You never said nothin' about it neither!"

"I would if I'd known what you were planning."

"Zip it, Knux," Sonic said flatly, then surged to his feet. "Bait, if you think I'm gonna—"

The jackal spun and bolted into the forest. Knuckles was expecting it and stuck out a foot in time to trip Sonic as the hedgehog started after him.

"Wtd—" Sonic got to his feet and spat out a mouthful of earth, then rounded on the echidna furiously. "What'd you do that for, Knucklehead?"

"Bait," Knuckles said calmly. "You wanna go after him, don't do it like that. You can catch him going at a tenth of your speed, if you have to catch him at all. Me, I think we're better off without him."

Sonic shook his head. "You're wrong, Knux. I think he could be useful." He broke into a slow jog and headed into the woods to find Bait.

This wasn't as easy as it sounds; the jackal's fur blended in almost perfectly with the autumnal foliage, and if it hadn't been for the unusual marking on his right arm – a ragged band of pure white fur – Sonic might well have gone right past him. As it was, he was almost level with Bait before he heard the sound of sniffling and drew to an abrupt halt.

"Bait?" he said. The jackal whipped around so fast that Sonic took an involuntary step back, then cursed himself for doing so. "Bait, you have about five seconds to explain yourself," he said, a little more sharply than he'd intended.

Bait winced, dashing the tears away savagely with the back of his hand. "I'm sorry, mister! How was I to know you dint want me to steal it?"

"I'd have thought it went without saying," Sonic said flatly. Damn, he'd never had this problem with Tails; the fox was impulsive, hotheaded and had something of a blind and deaf spot when it came to logic or anything he didn't want to think about but he'd at least been honest. A little too honest at times – as a young cub he'd had an embarrassing tendency to repeat word for word the things that Sonic wished he'd never said – but by and large, Sonic could count the number of times he'd told the kid off on one hand.

"Well...we got the food though."

"That isn't the point!" Sonic took one or two deep breaths. To use one of Knuckles' pet phrases, yelling didn't achieve anything except a sore throat. "That stuff wasn't yours," he said in a slightly calmer tone.

"But it is now, so no harm done, right mister?"

"Wrong! There's a hell of a lot of harm done!"

More angry tears sparkled in Bait's eyes as he shouted, "Well, how was I s'posed to know? You, you jus' said, Bait, do me a favour an' go get some stuff from that shop! If you tole me to go buy some stuff Ida said I dint have no money an' you coulda gone an' bought it!"

Whirling, he plunged deeper into the undergrowth and Sonic let him go.

It was much later that night when Bait finally turned up again. Knuckles had been all for going on, but Sonic had persuaded him to wait until the next day. The echidna had volunteered for the last half of that night's watch and had been bored out of his skull until he'd noticed the jackal slinking through the trees. Even in the darkness, Knuckles could see that the kid wasn't planning to attack them; he just wanted to sneak back without being challenged.

A slight smirk appeared on the echidna's face. If Bait thought he could slip unseen past Knuckles, he was in for one hell of a shock.

He moved silently into the shade of a tree. Unless the jackal's night vision was exceptionally good – and given all the ouches coming from Bait's direction, somehow he didn't think it was – he'd be invisible.

The kid was good. He had to give him that much, Bait was good. Knuckles had only taken one step out when the jackal whirled to face him.

"Well, if it isn't the master thief," Knuckles greeted him. Bait shot him an unhappy look.

"You gonna start in on me an' all now, mister?"

"No," the echidna answered frankly. "I've just been wondering how the hell you managed to smuggle two pounds of sausages, six burgers, four steaks and a skillet out of that place without anyone noticing. I mean, it's not like you had a bag to stuff it in or anything."

Bait glanced at the snoring lump that was Sonic, then back at the echidna.

"Mister...is your buddy mad at me?"

"Mad?" Knuckles echoed pleasantly. "Well, let's see. You stole about fifty Mobiums' worth of food – including a certain skillet – you ran away and you yelled in his face. So yeah, I'd say he was a little mad at you and I wouldn't compound the problem by waking him up."

Bait looked confused. "Com-what?"

"Compound. Make it worse." Knuckles shook his head. "Wait until morning, kid. He'll be far more likely to listen to you when he's awake. Go get some rest; I'll keep watch."

The jackal padded over to the fire obediently and lay down, resting his head on one arm. Within seconds, he was asleep.

When he woke up, it was light and Sonic was sitting at the fire with his back to the jackal; whether by accident or design, Bait didn't know. All that could be seen of Knuckles was a tightly curled ball, from which a loud snoring sound was emanating at regular intervals.

Bait got to his feet, then hesitated, unsure of what to do next. Carefully, dragging his feet, he came to stand behind Sonic.

"Mister?" Before the hedgehog had a chance to answer, Bait rushed on. "Mister, I'm real sorry 'bout what happened yesterday, honest. I dint think. I'm jus'...back home it was always stealin'. I thought you was like them other guys. Y'know, if they wanted you to buy stuff they'd make a point of tellin' you, on'y they never wanted you to."

Sonic was silent, more through thought than anger. Most of that had dissipated by now; the hedgehog was never one for holding a grudge. It genuinely hadn't occurred to him that there were people who'd draw a definite line between getting and buying.

"Gimme another chance?" Bait pleaded. "I'll never do nothin' like that again, mister, not if you dunt want me to."

Sonic glanced up at him, then nodded once, slowly.

"Okay, kid. One more chance. But you're going back to that store to find out how much everything you stole cost, you're gonna explain to the storekeeper exactly what you did and you're gonna pay what you owe, understand?"

The jackal hesitated.

"I mean it, Bait," Sonic added, a definite edge to his tone that hadn't been there previously. "Or me and Knuckles'll leave you right here."

Bait fixed a nervous look on Sonic. "Mister...I tole you...I ain't got no money."

"No, but I do." Sonic glanced into his bag and did a quick eye count. Yes, there was more than enough in there to pay for what Bait had stolen. "And I'm coming with you."

Bait hunched over miserably. "I get it, mister. You think 'cause I stole that food I'm gonna steal your cash too. But I wouldn't, honest."

Sonic glanced at him. "No, I'm coming with you because I fancy something sweet and I won't know what until I actually get there."

Bait hesitated, staring at Sonic. Almost too fast to be seen, the hedgehog winked.

"C'mon."

By the time Knuckles – who was enjoying a rare lie-in – had woken up, Sonic and Bait had returned and were sitting around the fire eating up the last of the breakfast.

"Finally awake, are you?" Sonic said lightly.

"Yeah...sure." Knuckles rubbed his eyes and sat up, yawning. "See you two made it up," he added.

"Yeah. We had a little chat with the storekeeper about buying and stealing and Bait promised he wouldn't do it again all the time he was with us." Sonic quirked an eye ridge at Bait. "Right?"

It was clear from Bait's expression that he still didn't understand why you should voluntarily hand over money for something that – if you knew what you were doing – you could get for free, but he nodded readily. "Okay mister, sure!"

"He and I also found a slight problem," Sonic added grimly. "You feel up to taking a walk, Knux?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Why not?"

The three of them walked through the forest, not stopping until—

"You call this a slight problem?" Knuckles said incredulously.

"It wasn't like this when I was here before!"

"Last time you said that I almost got my head blown off," the echidna retorted.

They were standing on the very edge of a cliff, next to a truly spectacular waterfall. Even Knuckles, who had an abundance of waterfalls back on Angel Island, was impressed. At least a hundred feet across, and stretching some twenty feet both up and down, the three of them kept well back from the edge. Falling in would be a very short, sharp end to what was promising to be an interesting journey.

"There's a bridge," Knuckles said.

Sonic shook his head. "It's a defensive one."

The echidna shot him an incredulous look. "What d'you mean? It sulks when you try to cross it or something?"

"No, it doesn't sulk. It collapses. They're common enough in the Bridge Zone; only one person can cross before the whole thing drops into the river."

There was a silence.

"I could fix up a way over, mister," Bait said suddenly, producing a pair of ropes and eyeing the distance speculatively. Knuckles stared.

"Where'd those come from?"

"I got 'em from the campers we passed on our way to this Zone."

Sonic closed his eyes grimly. "Bait..."

The jackal shook his head. "It's not what you think, mister, honest! They said they was gonna cut their holiday short an' they'd bought the ropes an' it seemed a shame not to use 'em, so they let me have 'em. You can go back an' ask if you dunt believe me. I think I can go across an' fix up a bridge with 'em."

Sonic eyed him keenly. "You know about building things?"

"'Bout building bombs an' explosives, mister, sure. I can build a small bomb in ten minutes, wires an' everythin'."

"Right," Knuckles said tonelessly. "So if I go to sleep and wake up the next morning with bits of my anatomy raining down on the surrounding countryside, I'll know who to blame." He shook his head. "You really are a misguided little jackal cub, aren't you?"

Bait squirmed.

"I jus' know what I'm tole, mister. Wipin' out or scarin' people who dunt like your pack is somethin' ev'ryone does back in Em'rald Hill Zone."

Sonic frowned slightly. "Even Tails? He said he grew up there."

"Yeah, I remember him a bit. He said he jus' wanted to build stuff to help people." Bait snorted. "Bit dumb when you think about it, right mister?"

A sudden drop in temperature informed the jackal that this wasn't the best thing he could have said.

"There's millions a people in Mobius, mister," he added, in a desperate attempt to regain some of the sympathy of his audience. "You ain't gonna be able to help all of 'em, no matter how much you wanna. Least wipin' 'em out's possible."

There was a stiff silence.

"You know anything else about machinery?" Sonic said eventually. Bait's face dropped and he shook his head.

"Nah, not me, mister, I dunt know nothin' 'cept for how to wreck 'em. Raker on'y taught me 'bout explosives 'cause they needed summun to go in an' rig 'em."

"And they picked you?" Sonic said, exchanging a look with Knuckles. "What if one had gone off?"

Bait frowned, puzzled not so much by the question as the reasons behind it. "I'd be dead, mister, wunt I?"

"And...you never objected to this?" Sonic probed. Talking to Bait for any length of time was like leafing through a book on skin diseases; so disturbing that you felt compelled to continue.

The frown deepened. "You don't half ask some weird questions, mister. I guess I'd object when I died, but it's a bit late then, right?"

Sonic looked at Knuckles for help.

"What he means," added the echidna, who – like Sonic – was finding this too gruesomely fascinating to stop now, "is didn't you ever tell this Raker that if he wanted an explosive detonated, he could damn well do it himself?"

The frown cleared, to be replaced by a look of disbelief. "Tell him what?" Bait looked at Sonic. "Mister, you were right; he is crazy."

"Is that so?" Knuckles said, glaring at Sonic, who grinned somewhat sheepishly.

"Uh. Heh heh. Well...I may've said something along those lines to him...can't quite remember now..." Sonic cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm with Knux on this one; why didn't you just say no?"

Bait shook his head from side to side.

"Mister," he said slowly and loudly, as though Sonic was deaf, or at least mentally retarded, "you dunt say no to guys like Raker. He can get real mad an' you dunt wanna know what he's like when he's mad." He shook his head again. "Uh uh. I dunt say nothin', mister, 'cause I wanna keep my fur."

"Don't call me mister."

"Okay mister."

Sonic shot him a sharp look, but the jackal's expression was completely guileless. Next to him, Knuckles smirked.

"Like I was sayin', mister," Bait added, "it'll be easy. See?" He tied one rope to a tree trunk at ankle height, one at head height and then raced across the bridge, seemingly taking no notice of the fact that it was collapsing almost under his feet. Reaching the other side, he turned, pulling the ropes taut.

"You have got to be kidding," Sonic said disbelievingly. "He wants us to walk a damn tightrope?"

"Correction; he wants you to walk a damn tightrope." Knuckles eyed the drop, then clambered up a tree. "Me, I got my own methods of getting across." He leapt, gliding gracefully down to the opposite cliff and clambering up.

"Oh, thanks a bunch!" Sonic yelled across.

"It's okay, mister, honest." Bait wound the ropes around his hand and pulled them taut, digging his heels in. "See? You jus' walk across an' it'll be fine."

"That's easy for you to say! You're not the one who has to do it!"

"Sonic, just move it, will you?" Knuckles said testily. "Quit screwing around!"

"You're a fine one to talk, Knucklehead!" Sonic shouted over the roar of the water.

"The kid's got the ropes, Sonic! You trust him, right?"

Oh, emotional blackmail; very clever, Sonic thought irritably. Well...he did trust Bait, although he couldn't have said why. Closing his eyes – this would go a hell of a lot better if he couldn't actually see the water – Sonic walked onto the rope, hanging on tightly to the other one. He wanted to run, wanted so badly to break through the sound barrier and be on the other side in a matter of nanoseconds, but found he couldn't bring himself to do it. One step at a time, that was the way. One step at a time.

"Mister!" Bait's voice sounded tinnily in the hedgehog's ears, as though Sonic was listening to the mere echoes. "Mister, you gotta hurry! The ground here's real slippery; I dunno how much longer I can stop my grip from slippin'!"

Sonic's eyes snapped open, saw the water rushing and foaming underneath him and promptly shut down all communications between his brain and his legs.

"Sonic, move!" That was Knuckles. "You don't have much time!"

Move. Oh. Yes. Move. Right. Lift leg, move forward, repeat process with other leg until destination reached.

Except...except he couldn't, could he? There was no way to convince his traitorous body that moving wouldn't send him plunging into the rapids beneath.

"Damn!" Knuckles looked at Bait. "Hang onto those ropes! I'm going after him!"

"Mister, I can't hardly hold him! I can't hold you too! If my grip goes, you'll both fall into that river an' go over the rapids!"

"Do it!" Knuckles practically screamed at him, then raced onto the rope as fast as he dared. Bait winced as the ropes rasped against his hands and tightened his hold with grim determination, doing his best to ignore the growing pain as the rough fibre rubbed against his hands.

"Sonic." Knuckles grabbed Sonic's jaw and tilted it forcefully upwards until the hedgehog was staring into his face. "Sonic, look at me. You're on a rope. You're on a rope, and Bait is supporting that rope. That kid'll do anything for you, Sonic, and all the time you're here he's gonna hold onto those ropes like grim death."

Sonic shook his head violently and for a long time, as though in the grip of some palsy.

"Not gonna work, Knux. Not gonna work."

Knuckles muttered something under his breath to the effect that Sonic's father had done something extremely unlikely with a chicken, then took a long, deep breath.

"It'll work just fine, Sonic. C'mon, move."

Staring hard at Knuckles, Sonic somehow managed to drag one foot forward.

"Knuckles, what'll we do if we fall in?" he said hoarsely.

"We're not gonna fall in."

"What if Bait lets go of the ropes?" Sonic said almost inaudibly, and just at that moment, Bait did.

Okay, so that's that one done. For those of you who reviewed and asked about Knuckles' and Tails' conversation re the birds and the bees, check out the short story called The Facts of Life; it's just a harmless bit of fun :P In the meantime, if you read this, please leave a review :D