A/N The last chapter was short, so this one will be long. A lot of things are going to happen, but try not to get confused. I promise everything will come together later.

Yay! Reviews! Let's take a look!

Blue Mage Quartet: Wow! Thanks for being my first reviewer ever! In the history of the world! And I made your favorites? I'm touched. I shall now respond to your questions: 1. Tails, Sonic, Shadow, and Cosmo aren't the only ones who are still alive. As the story unfolds, we'll find out who lives and who dies, and who comes back to life. Stick around to find out! 2. Unforunatley, that was the first of many times Tails will get punched. 3. Dragons are on their way. Keep an eye out for them. 4. The story behind Tails' shady drug dealings are explored in this chapter. 5. Sorry if the ninja fight was too cliche for you, but there will be more ninja action coming. I'll make it more original next time.

Maverick 87: All right! Maverick 87, you have the honor of being Reviewer 2. I'll give you a cooler title later. Your welcome for the review on your story. And thanks for reviewing mine. I'm glad you like the story and I hope you continue to read.

Chapter 6 Sparking It Up

Tails let out a lengthy and pitiful groan. Even considering his situation, it was the most exaggerated groan that could ever be heard. He let it out in honor of the bloody nose he was given, for the sharp pain in his back, and for the fact that thirteen swords wielded by ninjas were pointed his way while he was lying on the ground.

"Ok, guys. You got me. Why don't you put those knives away and give me a hand up," he said in a surprisingly calm way. "I know you're not here to kill me."

"Impressive, inventor," said a voice from the darkness.

"Who…?"

Out from the shadows stepped in a gorilla who had a face that appeared to be forever stuck in pissed off mode. Behind him was an old echidna who had a much calmer, in control, expression. He was wearing a black suit with a red tie against his white shirt. He had flowing black cape complete with gold trimmings. Grasped in his right hand was a cane made entirely of gold. His eyes were among the narrowest Tails had ever seen. If the wrinkles on his face said nothing about his age, a white scraggly beard descended from his chin. Upon his presence, the ninjas all backed away, removing their sword a safe distance away from Tails.

"An echidna?" Tails asked as he squinted at the old echidna in front of him. "I thought Knuckles was the only that's still left."

The gorilla bent down and lifted Tails off the ground. "You will stand up straight when addressing the master," he said in an ultra low voice.

"But…, my back hurts," Tails said as he winced in pain. His back was hunched over.

The gorilla grunted and pulled Tails' head back in an attempt to straighten him out.

"Uhhnnn!" Tails cried. He heard a very unpleasant sounding crick in his back. "My… back," he moaned again and immediately returned to his hunched over position.

"Infidel!" the gorilla shouted.

"You must forgive Mr. Goliath's demeanor, inventor. He's not used to dealing those who do not know me," the old echidna said.

"Yeah and you are…?" Tails asked while holding an arm on his back.

"I am called Lance the Echidna. I am the leader of this echidna ninja clan" he said as he gave a slight bow. As he waved his hand, all the ninjas lifted off their masks. They were all echidnas. "As you can see, not all the echidnas disappeared. We are a league known as the Crimson Emeralds."

"Crimson Emeralds?"

"No questions now. We are an organization, centuries old, dedicated to eradicating demons and destroying dark powers. We keep ourselves shrouded in secret. Even the guardian Knuckles knows nothing of our existence. We see all, but we ourselves remain unseen. We have been watching you for a long time, inventor."

"How long?"

"He said no questions, infidel," the gorilla growled and he punched Tails in the stomach. Tails flew back with droplets of blood flying out his mouth. He fell over on the ground, clutching his stomach. The gorilla stepped forward and raised his arm, ready to deal another blow. Before he got his chance, a ninja, still masked, gently laid her hand on the gorilla's arm.

"Relax, let me handle him," she said. Tails recognized the voice as feminine and also familiar. She maneuvered around Tails, and then picked him up by the scruff of his neck.

"Ughhh! Lemme go!" Tails protested. He noticed there was a kunai in her other hand. The ninja took off her mask, revealing her face. Tails recognized it immediately.

"Don't be scared, Tails. I've gotcha now," the bat smiled and said as she pulled the kunai up to his neck.

"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Tails exclaimed. "Since when were you hanging out with these weirdos?"

"Oh, come on, Tails baby. If you were offered to work with the government or a secret clan of ninjas with unlimited resources, who would you choose?"

"She has a good point," Tails thought. "So you guys went through a lot of trouble to get me. Am I really that dangerous?"

"No," Lance said. "But you could be. The Kitsunes who created these scrolls brought devastation to Angel Island. We did our best to fight them back. Aside from Chaos, they were our greatest threat. Eventually, they left and we sealed away their techniques deep in Hrydrocity. Now, if you don't mind, we're taking them back." Lance bent down to the floor and picked up a donut that was still in the box and took a bite out of it. "You're very good," he said with his mouth full. "You should consider joining us and become a ninja. Your life shall be my gift to you. Unhand him, Rouge."

"You got it," Rouge opened up her hand and let Tails drop to the floor.

"We'll be seeing you, inventor," Lance said as he turned his back and started walking away.

"Not if I see you first," Tails muttered.

Lance stood still for a second. In one fluid motion, he pulled a thin sword out of his cane and thrust it out so it was just barely touched the fox's nose.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said with a smirk. There was a menacing gleam in his eyes.

Tails's eyes were wide eyed with horror. "This guy is really fast! He's the kind of guy I'd better not blink around." Of course, Tails did blink. When he did, Lance and all the ninjas had vanished. Tails glanced around the workshop. The kitsune scrolls were gone, too.

"Damn it! I can't let them just get away like that!" Tails ran out the door of his workshop into his backyard. He looked around to see if he could find any trace, but there was nothing. Still, he knew they could hear him. "You losers better run! When it comes time for round two, I'll be ready! In fact, I'm ready right now! Just try and throw something at me!"

Tails ears perked up when he heard something immediately. Something was coming behind him. Coming in fast. He spun around to see a kunai spinning straight for him. "Crap! I'm dead." There was not time for him to dodge. He just stood there, waiting for the inevitable. The knife struck him dead on. The blunt part. Tails staggered back a little. He just couldn't stand anymore. That was too many hits for him today. His body could take no more, so he collapsed backwards onto the earth. "They're laughing at me now." Then he closed his eyes and let the unconscious world take him.

Darkness. That's what Tails would dream about lately. Particularly when he had a bad day and today was making it up there on his list of bad days. After a long time, a thin ray of light broke the darkness. It was the light of the sun. Tails just slightly opened eyes.

"Uggghhhh, is it morning?" he groaned. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The sun beat down from high in the sky. "Mmmmmm. That feel's good," he said blissfully, and he let himself fall back to the ground. "I'll just lie here all day."

A beeping sound was ringing in his ear. Tails raised his hand up to look at his watch. The time was 1:00 PM. "Why did I set an alarm for 1:00?" he wondered. Suddenly, he remembered why and he jumped up excitedly. "Oh, my God! Sonic's gonna date Amy now!

Amy's House

Sonic walked up towards Amy's front door. He didn't change his appearance much, but he felt this was a special occasion, so he threw a red tie around his neck. He was also carrying a bouquet of pink roses in his hand. He let out a deep sigh and knocked on the door.

The hedgehog waited one second, then turned around. "I guess she's not home. She must have forgotten the whole thing. Oh, well."

Sonic was about to walk off, but then heard something behind the door. They were very frantic footsteps. The door burst off its hinges and a very hyper pink hedgehog lunged at Sonic. She wrapped her arms around Sonic and tackled him to the ground, creating a purple blur as the blue and pink hedgehogs collided. Sonic was pinned on the ground as Amy squealed in joy. "Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonnikkuuuuuuuu!"

"This is gonna be a long day," Sonic thought.

Meanwhile, Charmy was sitting on top of a telephone pole across the street and was spying on the hedgehog couple through a pair of binoculars. "Oh, yeah. Grab her ass," he said seductively.

"Charmy! What's going out there?" Vector shouted through a radio in the bee's ear.

"Amy's raping Sonic," he said with a chuckle.

Vector and Espio were holed in their spy van, which was parked down the street. They were setting up their surveillance equipment that they planned to use to spy on Amy. "So what're they doing now?" Espio asked.

"Let's just say this date is off to a good start."

"I still don't see why Tails asked us to do this," Espio complained. We're detectives, not cupids."

"Obviously, it's because we were so successful last time," Vector said proudly.

"So what's the plan, anyway?"

"We'll make it up as we go along. Let's just watch them for now and see how it goes."

Amy finally loosened her grip on Sonic a little, allowing him to get up and breathe. "That was very intense," he said, gasping for air.

"Oh, Sonic," Amy giggled. "This is going to be the most intense day of your life." She then grabbed his arm and led her into the house. "Don't worry about the door. We'll fix that later."

"They went inside the house," Charmy reported.

Inside Amy's house, Amy took the roses and put them in a vase. "Oh, Sonic. I love these roses. How did you know pink was my favorite color?"

"Guessed."

"Come on and take that silly tie off." Amy grabbed Sonic's tie, unraveled it, and threw it aside. We'll go buy you a new one today if you want. Come to think of it, I've never been to the men's stores. Oooohh! This'll be so much fun! Should we go shopping now or shall we do it later?"

"Uhhh, let's just go now," Sonic said very unenthusiastically. "Come on. I'll have us there in a sec."

"Wait, Sonic. I don't want to run there."

"Don't want to run...?" Sonic thought she was speaking some alien language

"No," Amy protested. "We're going to walk there. It's such a beautiful day and I want to enjoy it."

"How about we just walk really fast?" Sonic negotiated.

"No. We're going to take our time. Besides," Amy put her head on Sonic's shoulder. "We have soooo much to talk about."

"Robotnik, wherever you are, I hope you're ready to start your latest plan to destroy the world. Preferably today."

Charmy still sat on the telephone pole, waiting for something to happen. He got his wish when he saw Sonic and Amy walk out of the house. Sonic looked like a prisoner sentenced for life as he walked with Amy squeezing his arm. She was skipping along, merrily humming a tune. "This doesn't look good at all," Charmy said as he shook his head. "Guys, they left the house and their walking towards the mall. Very slowly."

"That's no good," Espio said. "Sonic and going slow don't mix. We'll have to do something to improve his mood. Any ideas, Vector?

"Hmmm. Maybe we should get him drunk," Vector said.

Espio sighed and shook his head. "That won't work. As soon as he sobers up, he'll be one grouchy hedgehog. If he remembers anything, he'll think it was a bad dream.

"Grrrrr. We've dealt with tougher cases than this," Vector growled. "If getting Sonic drunk isn't the answer, we'll have to use something else on him.But what?"

Mystic Ruins

Amy wasn't the only one who thought that it was a gorgeous day. Tails also thought that it was an awesome day. The sun shined brightly, but there was no excessive heat. There wasn't a single cloud that could be found in the sky. It was a sky that radiated a perfect, calm blue. Tails was taking a stroll in his backyard, tending his garden.

The garden was a new project of Tails. Something that inspired him after he met Cosmo, Tails had taken a new interest in plant life. Even he got tired of working with machinery, so he picked up gardening as a hobby.

"Feeding time," he declared. Tails opened a small box that released a couple of flies. The flies hovered over the nearest plant, unaware that it was a venus fly trap. Tails walked off to tend to the other plants, leaving the flies to their grisly fate.

Tails didn't have a normal garden. In fact, it was downright weird. Not a single flower bloomed there. There were no vegetables in the ground. Instead, the backyard of his workshop was populated with flesh eating plants, some exotic poisonous plants, and spiked plants, vines of all shapes, and sizes, and a patch of grass that Sonic really loved. The only edible things that could be found were the chili peppers he managed to grow, and some onion bulbs. Both were essential for making chili dogs.

Aside from the chili peppers, Sonic's favorite part of Tails' garden was the patch of cannabis that Tails somehow grew. He went over to water it and giggled as he remembered when the grass first started to sprout.

Flashback

"Tails! What the Hell is that?" Sonic asked pointing to a patch of grass

"Come on, Sonic. Don't make fun of my garden. I tried really hard and these weird things were the only things I could grow."

"No, Tails. This is awesome. You've just grown a helluva lot of cannabis."

"A can of bliss?"

"Yeah," Sonic laughed. "You could call it that."

"That's just a patch of grass over there. Who cares about that?"

"What? You seriously don't know what this is?"

Tails just shrugged

"This makes sense. I always made sure never to smoke up when the little guy was around. I guess he wouldn't know about this stuff."

"Weed," when Sonic heard Tails say the word, he snapped out of his thoughts instantly. "All I can grow is weeds. I'm a failure as a gardener."

"Whoa! Take it easy little bro. You're the coolest gardener I know. Everyone else grows the same stuff, but you're unique, buddy. You know what? These are some of the coolest plants in the world?

"R-really?" Tails asked, starting to feel much better.

"Yeah. Really," Sonic snickered. In the plant world, the Cannabaceae family reigns supreme in the Magnoliophyta division."

"Wow, Sonic! You really know a lot about plants!"

End flashback

Eventually, Sonic gave Tails some marijuana. He didn't care much for it, but he was happy that Sonic liked it a lot and was glad to be his main provider. It was the best way to deal with the hedgehog when he was moody. Tails didn't think much about Sonic's health, though. He knew narcotics would be the last thing to take down Sonic. Only if there was a threat did Tails put the weed off limits. He was well aware of how they could interfere with battle prowess.

After watering the weed to his satisfaction, Tails went to check up on the most important plant in the garden. Cosmo's seed. After two years. The little buds had sprouted into a nice stalk. The stalk grew up to the fox's own height and had sprouted leaves that had a rich, emerald hue. As soon as it started getting bigger, Tails removed the plant from the little clay pot it once inhabited and graduated it to the center of his garden. He wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen, but he kept it and took care of it all this time.

"Cosmo," Tails contemplated when he looked at his plant. He felt weird talking out loud to it, but he always had something to think about. "Things haven't been going so well, lately. I'm…, well, I'm just too weak. There were setbacks. But I promise I'll find a way to bring you back and we'll be happy together again. You'll see."

"Amy and Sonic are dating now. I thought that if I spark up their relationship, it would help make us closer. It's a Karma thing. My kitsune ancestors used it a lot. Someday, I'm gonna be the Chosen One. And I'm gonna bring harmony to the world, and…" he hardly noticed that tears were streaming down his face, "…and we're gonna live happily ever after. All of us will. I'll get rid of Robotnik. No. I'll end Death itself. And then, Cosmo, we'll be together forever. And I want everyone to share our happiness."

Station Square Shopping Mall

Sonic and Amy spent the better half of the day in the any clothing stores in the mall. To Amy, it was one magical moment in time. To Sonic, it was a bleak eternity.

"And I'm gonna try on this one, and this one, and this one, maybe this one," Amy said, almost singing, really. With every article of clothing she thought of adding to her wardrobe, she threw it on top of Sonic for him to carry. Sonic was now holding up a gigantic pile of a palette of colors made out of cotton, wool, flax, silk, hemp, leather, and synthetic fibers. Every color, texture, and price found its way into the hedgehog's arms.

Sonic wasn't at all surprised that the dominant colors were pink and red. "Amy, are you almost done?" the hedgehog asked gruffly.

Amy wasn't the least bit put off by Sonic's uncouthness. "Don't get impatient, Sonic. I still have to try all these on. And then, we're going to the men's store to get you something nice."

"I don't need any clothes. I'm fine," Sonic sneered.

"But Sonic, we have to dress up for our romantic candlelit dinner tonight. Remember that? You promised."

Upon hearing that, Sonic thought of only one thing. "Tails, I'm gonna kill you when this is over."

Neither of them knew that Charmy was watching them, hidden inside a pink dress.

"Charmy, what do you have to report?" Vector whispered into his radio.

"I look great in a dress."

"Not that!" Vector shouted, startling Charmy. "What's up with the happy couple?"

"I think Sonic's starting to bug out. Poor guy. He's miserable."

"Damn it! Hey, Espio!" Vector yelled at the chameleon who was relaxing in the van's corner. "What did we do to get Tails and Cosmo to like each other?"

"We threw a disco ball at them."

"Hmmm. What can we use this time? You see, Espio, this is when you have to start really thinking like a detective."

Just then, Vector's thoughts were interrupted by police signals. "All units! All units! The Fireworks Factory is being robbed. Bark and Bean are behind it. Proceed with caution. Suspects are considered heavily armed and extremely dangerous!"

Espio jumped out of the corner. "Finally, we can do some real detective work. Let's go after Bark and Bean!"

"That's just the sort of crime for Bark and Bean. All right, Let's nail the bastards! Charmy!

"What?"

"Quit your cross dressing and get to the van. We've got another case! Bark and Bean are robbing the fireworks factory."

"That's awesome, Boss! I'm on it!" Charmy zipped out of the clothing store in lightning speed. That was exactly the kind of reaction Vector expected from Charmy. He was itching for some action. All three of them were.

"Espio, take the wheel." Vector ordered. He then pulled out a French SPAS-12 and started polishing it. "Time to get serious," he said with a gleam in his eye.

Sixth Chapter complete! Please read and review. All comments and critiques are very welcome. This is my first story, so anything you have to say is greatly appreciated.

Next Chapter: Sonic and Amy's date takes an unexpected turn! And don't miss the exciting battle of Bark and Bean Vs. Tails and the Chaotix! It's gonna be intense! I'll update very soon!