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Lone Garurumon: Never enough game start jokes. :p The answer to the Tails question is of course, because he's cuter when he's miserable, I can't help it! XD

Shadow: It may take a while, but I do have a plan, I promise. :p

Chapter 6: Totally The Good Guys

This can't be happening.

Tails was staring disbelievingly at the forest flying past them, his saviour-slash-kidnapper, the white-golden-furred vixen leaping from boulders to branches with a speed and agility he had scarcely seen anyone display who hadn't been either Sonic or Espio. He himself could hardly move, the firm grip her jaw had on the scruff of his neck letting his limbs freeze in fetal position, an evolutionary remnant from his feral ancestry. Around them, the forest began to change slightly, turning lighter, airier and more leafy than the humid and vine-covered insect grove had been. Next, though, almost as soon as it had begun, the journey was already over and Tails was dumped unceremoniously into a clearing.

"Ninetales!" the vixen barked out, her call sounding like a laugh and then Tails' eyes widened as all at once, half a dozen more foxes were spilling out from a cave entrance, yipping and bounding toward them. They looked fairly different from the one that had saved him, only half as big as Tails himself and their coats a dark maroon instead of the creamy white of the nine-tailed vixen. But they, too, each sported six of their own, which probably meant that they had to be her offspring.

For a moment, the horrible thought entered Tails' head that perhaps he had just been rescued from the insects to be eaten by someone else, but that suspicion was fortunately quickly dispelled when the only thing that happened was some enthusiastic licking of his face, the other little fox creatures nuzzling at his belly and chest and sniffing in enthusiasm.

"Vulpix!" one of them called cheerfully, burying underneath his legs when he'd tried to stand up and tumbling him a little, Tails giving a surprised laugh.

„Ahahah! Hey, that tickles!" Tails protested, barely managing to push the enthusiastic kits out of his face as they were trying to nuzzle him again and was trying to sit up, when -

"Uh...oh, hey! No! Let go of my shoe!" Tails yelped as he could suddenly feel happy little teeth digging into the outer layer of his right sneaker and one of the kits was now busily tugging it off, playfully growling.

"Give that back!" Tails called out, scrambling onto his hands and knees, trying to snatch at the shoe, but the little six-tail only yipped more excitedly, and leapt backwards, holding the sneaker just out of Tails' reach.

"No, look, that's not fair-!" Tails began, trying to go after the little fox as its siblings only bounced around him giddily, and he briefly looked around to see where the adult vixen was, in the faint hope that she perhaps could get her kits in line, but the nine-tail actually only seemed to look on amusedly, before then abruptly taking off into the forest again.

Tails stared after her. Then he looked back again, and saw that the little shoe-thief had now managed to drag his sneaker into the cave entrance and seemed to be wagging its tails at him as if in cheeky challenge.

Tails heaved a very deep sigh.

"Oh, man..."

xxx

"Excuse me?" Sonic asked the question for what felt like the umpteenth time in a row, staring at the human slightly offended. "Do I sound like a girl? Am I wearing a skirt?"

"Uh, no, but..." The professor now seemed highly embarrassed, developing a sweat drop on the side of his face drawn into an apologetic grin, "It's...it's just something I find really hard to tell...?"

Sonic sighed. "I'm a guy, doc."

"Oh. Okay."

"Girls where I come from usually wear more clothing than shoes and gloves." Sonic shrugged. "Us dudes have it easier in that department. But what I meant to ask," the hedgehog gestured at the still unconscious kid on the bed (the small yellow pet mouse now having curled up on his chest and dozing, as it was apparently clear he wasn't in any danger any more). "When I came here, little Ghengis Khan there basically all but threw his radioactive rodent at me. What the hell, are these the manners in your world?"

"Ah," Oak piped up. "Well, Ash probably thought you were a Pokémon..."

"Alien here, doc." Sonic gave him a flat stare. "I still don't know what that word even means."

"...right," the human shook his head. "Well, the basic concept is simple, but..." he drew a screwdriver from his pocket. "How about a cup of tea while I try to build a portable translator and explain...?"

xxx

Two towns over and inside what had fortunately turned out to really be a bathroom, Amy was currently towelling her fur and quills dry (very carefully, since even if her shortened spikes were nowhere near as sharp as Sonic's, that didn't mean they wouldn't still shred a towel if she didn't watch out). Her wet clothes were lying on the tiled floor now, put there right next to her soaked boots, and it was only when Amy had finished drying off her short fur as best as she could, that she became aware that in fact, she now didn't have anything to put on.

Well.

It wasn't that Mobian females technically had to wear anything, either, it wasn't completely unusual for one to walk around in gloves and shoes like most males, but...Amy blushed. Females' fur was often more fine and slightly thinner than males' and the way it was now damp and still flatly sticking to her skin...no, Amy decided very with three strange humans outside, even if all of them were girls.

Also, Amy thought, jade eyes narrowing, I really don't think I trust that duck.

Xxx

On the clearing, Knuckles frowned.

"What did you just say?"

"What...what on Earth is that thing?" the human man, who had been sitting with his back to Knuckles, had just turned around and was now looking at the echidna with an expression of astonishment. Beside him, the woman and the cat Mobian were also blinking at the new arrival.

"Is it...a new Pokémon?" the impossibly-haired woman asked something, hesitantly. Both of the humans were dressed in some odd sort of white-and-red uniform (while the cat Mobian, even more strangely, didn't seem to be wearing *any* clothing). Also, they appeared to be speaking some sort of made-up language, which let Knuckles wonder...

"Are you LARPing?"

"Meowth, what does it want? Why is it staring at us like that?" the purple-haired man now appeared to become definitely uncomfortable underneath Knuckles' scrutiny, shifting backwards a little.

"I don't know," the cat said, curiously replying in New Mobian despite the strange language of his two friends, his voice also weirdly more like an adult male even if he appeared to be child-sized, "I fink it has a weird accent..."

"Excuse me?" Knuckles asked with a scowl. "I'm not an it. My name is Knuckles the Echidna. And I want to know where we are."

"Um...it says its name is Knuckles-"

"HEY! Will you quit calling me an IT?!"

The exclamation had been accompanied by a stomp and an aggressive step forwards, the echidna's fist clenched, which let the collective group of weirdos flinch and jump back.

"Gah! Meowth, you've made it angry!"

"Somebody get the pokeballs, I think it's gonna attack-!"

"Look, it's not my fault, it just didn't like being called an 'it'-"

"He! HE doesn't like being called an 'IT'-!" Knuckles was shouting at the group now (the man of which was trying to hide behind a tree stump, the woman was digging around in a duffle bag in a panic, and the cat appeared to be trying to defend himself against something the woman had yelled at him) – before the echidna abruptly stopped himself, becoming aware of the entire ridiculousness of the situation. He took a long breath and pinched the skin above his nose.

"Okay. Let's try this again. Let's all be civil, okay?" he said, his voice just loud enough that he let the two humans and the Mobian all pause. "My name is Knuckles. I'm trying to find my way back to the Mystic Ruins. Can any of you tell me what this place is and who you are?"

The three of them all gave him a slow stare. Then, the two humans apparently had reached an unanimous decision, because they at once shoved the cat abruptly forward.

"You. Talk to it."

"Yeah. Make it not kill us."

"Hey!" the cat protested, incongruously large head whipping around toward his...friends? Colleagues? Knuckles wondered. Then the Mobian faced him again, though, and cleared his throat.

"Ahem. My name is Meowth. Dey are my team pawdners Jessie and James. Dis here is Route 1, leading to de Viridian Fowest."

Knuckles' lips became an even tighter line. He hadn't heard of any region called like this ever, and because Angel Island travelled a lot of places, he had already studied a lot of maps. The 'viridian forest' hadn't been mentioned on any of them.

"Pahdon me fer sayin' so," Meowth then said, cautiously. "But ya look kinda lost."

"Yes, well, that's because I am," Knuckles replied with gritted teeth, not pleased to admit to any kind of weakness. "Which Zone are we even in?"

"Um. Dis is da Kanto region?" Meowth ventured, which, frustratingly, also didn't sound like any place he had ever heard of. Then the feline cocked his head. "But I'm not saprised ya look lost. I've nevah seen any pokemon like you around here."

"You wouldn't have," Knuckles replied in irritation, for a moment not even caring about the strange word the other had used, "I am the last of my kind."

"What?!" now Meowth was staring at him with wide eyes. "Da last one?! Den you'd be incredibly rare!"

"Well, that's one way to put it," Knuckles replied, now more than ever wondering into what kind of strange people he had run into here, in the middle of the night, especially now that the human man and the woman had also abruptly started staring at him at the cat's exclamation. He took a step back and turned around.

"Alright. Thanks for the chat. I'll find my own way from-"

"Wait!"

"What?" Knuckles looked over his shoulder, dreadlocks swaying. The cat had abruptly extended a hand to him.

"Don't leave! We, er, can help ya!"

"Meowth...?" The human man began saying something, but Meowth abruptly whirled around and hissed at him, causing him to flinch. Then he turned around to Knuckles again, though, and only had the friendliest smile.

"We are Team...er, Bucket. We specialize in gettin' lost pokemon back to deir homes! It's weally lucky ya found us here!"

"Uh, Meowth-" the purple-haired guy (James, wasn't it?) began again, but, curiously, this time it was actually the woman who suddenly elbowed him into the stomach, and then also hurried forward, practically bouncing with bubbly helpfulness.

"Why yes, of course!" She gave Knuckles a wide smile, bending down to eye level with him. "We do specialize in getting lost pokemon back to their owners – especially such rare specimen like you!"

"Uh..." now Knuckles was taking a step back, the attitude change of the woman having actually freaked him out a bit. He shot a glance at Meowth. "You realize I have no idea what your human colleagues are saying, right?"

"Ya don't?" Meowth appeared a bit taken aback. "Dat's weird, usually all Pokemon undastand human language..."

"Yeah, I don't understand what that's supposed to mean, either," Knuckles stated. "And how come they seem to understand what you're saying, with you speaking my language, but they can't understand me?"

"Oh," at that point Meowth's confused expression dissolved into a self-satisfied smile. "Dat's easy. I can undastand everyone and be undastood by everyone. It's my gift."

"Huh. Right," Knuckles blinked, but didn't actually think this bit too weird – he had seen stranger powers in his time.

"Meowth! Tell him he should come with us! If we can present a pokemon that's the last of its kind to the boss then that would be even better than that brat's pikachu!"

"Oooh, right, now I'm getting it! This is brilliant, Jessie! He'll never realize where we are going until we have him under lock and key!"

"Exactly! Ahahahah!"

"Ohohoho!"

Knuckles stared.

This had mostly to do with the two humans having started shouting, laughing and then launching into a little dance routine.

Also he had the strange feeling that some sort of exposition-for-idiots had just happened, but he was damned if he knew what it had been about.

"Er..." Meowth was staring at his human colleagues with a giant sweat drop on his forehead, and then turned around to Knuckles with the most awkward smile ever.

"Yeeeeeeah...sorry about dat. Ya know humans, dey are all weird."

"Yes," Knuckles said slowly. "I'd agree with that."

"Sooo...how about ya join us fer a meal at our camp site? And tomorrow we can go and take ya home. We have a hot air balloon," Meowth said, gesturing to their fire and to what Knuckles now recognized as a deflated balloon and a basket on the grass behind it. He turned back to Meowth, frowning.

"Do you know the way to Station Square and the Mystic Ruins, then?"

"Oh, sure, sure," the cat waved him off self-assuredly, at the same time tentatively taking Knuckles' hand and pulling the reluctant echidna toward the camp fire with a wide smile. "Come and sit down, we'll have ya back home tomorrow in a jiffy..."

To be continued...

Well, one fox-dinner averted, one echidnapping in progress...par for the course in Sonic-world, a world I'd gladly be inhabiting right now. Hope you liked and if you read, please review! :D