Author's note: A little something I came up with at random, bringing you some Sonic and Knuckles moments in a classic Team Sonic adventure - hope you enjoy :D

Warning: Injury


Advantages and disadvantages

The metallic walls made the echo bounce around, from wall to wall and was the only noise that was around them at the moment.

Normally an underground base like this would have sounds of machines humming, various robots walking around on every level of the base, as well as terminals and different control panels occupying almost every room, buzzing. But this time the walls were more reinforced, titanium making out the outer casing rather than the ordinary aluminum, and therefore kept those sounds at bay. Screens were offline, alarms sitting in the corners of the corridor, ready to activate at any given moment, as well as the overhead red lamps that could be flashing red.

They did everything they could to avoid this however, despite their usual method of destroying their enemy's bases was a one-step plan that involved one thing: Running. It was something that the fastest thing alive always retorted to, never thinking about what he could stumble upon or run into. He had been inside one too many of Eggbreath's bases and therefore already knew how they were built and what kind of defenses he had installed.

It was rare that he ever stumbled upon something new, given that the madman tended to build these bases randomly on the planet and therefore didn't give too much thought in regards of creativity. It was always the same things, the same lasers, egg pawns, spike traps and doors that closed behind him as he ran. The bottom layer held its power source while the upper layer had the main command center as well as various other rooms that contributed to the base's purpose.

Often it was a factory, producing robots one after another and send them out into Mobius, other times it was storage facilities, since the 'homey' part of them was reserved for the flying bases. He had never stumbled upon a bedroom in these bases.

However, this was why he was going around in a circle, his shoes making the metallic echo as he might as well be making a round indent in the floor by now. Going slow was not his style of breaking and entering Eggman's bases, let alone something that he wanted to do. Stealth wasn't his best quality, as the fastest thing alive tented to move so fast so whatever he was supposed to catch in secrecy he had already collected by the time he even had declined the thought of going slow. People only managed to blink, shrug their shoulders, and think that the blue blur was just their eyes.

This was killing him on the inside. But it was necessary either way, being well aware that they couldn't ignore the emerald that had been detected here and because his genius little brother had detected various trap mechanisms that would hide the gem and transport it to another location if they set the alarm off then he guessed there was no other option. Even if he blared through the entire base he would be slowed down by the twists and turns that the base consisted off, the egghead learning something after all on their many encounters.

Turning a corner might not seem like a big deal, but when there's multiple of them then he could be hindered by seconds, essential time that could decide the outcome of a mission. And they couldn't afford to lose this emerald since Eggman reportedly had five of them already, the trio having no idea as to what he was planning other than it was bad. By now, Tails had fused his ears to his skull to ignore the sound, sitting on his knees with the Miles Electric in his hands that was connected to the panel that should have opened the metallic door in front of them.

Normally it wasn't a big deal, but titanium was even tough to crack through with an echidna punch, something that Knuckles was still grumbling about. Not that it seemed like he ever stopped grumbling whenever they took him off that island of his.

"Do you mind?" Sonic let out an annoyed sigh, rubbing a hand against his forehead as he stopped and turned around towards the two-tailed fox, despite the echidna being the one who had asked.

"How long is this gonna take?"

"Don't talk to me," another sigh left the hero of Mobius, kicking at nothing on the metallic ground, crossing his arms over his chest as he began tapping his foot into the floor instead.

He knew what it meant when Tails talked to him like that. It was more out of frustration and concentration than actually being rude. He didn't blame him, since he wasn't in the best mood himself. He hated the fact that they were slow.

They had been following the robot that had taken the Chaos Emerald from a temple in the Mystic Ruins for around two days. But somehow, somehow, the robot had been faster than them. He had run away from the other two to try and catch up with it, but it had either somehow used the chaos energy to teleport or it could fly into the air or something to gain speed he didn't know!

All he knew was that he was the fastest thing alive meaning that nothing was faster than him. His sidekick had tried to suggest that maybe the robot had been able to repel him, like two opposite sides of a magnet that couldn't connect to each other but a part of him believed that the theory had been out of comfort more than an actual explanation. Or so he believed. Either way, the robot had escaped into here, where both teammates had agreed that they should be careful upon detecting the trap mechanisms. It had been two against one.

"That doesn't make it less annoying," an actual groan escaped the hedgehog, looking back at the echidna, albeit stopping his tapping with his foot.

"Jeez who stole the Master Emerald today?" he asked in mockery, throwing out his arms in exasperation, earning a raised brow from the echidna he was making fun off.

"Hopefully, no one or I'm blaming you," Knuckles asked without any alarm in his words, having his arms crossed over his chest, standing by the wall.

He had seemed uncharacteristically patient about the whole thing, despite having already complained about everything taking too long and that he hadn't been dragged off his island to chase a robot across the entire planet. Sonic's exasperated look hadn't disappeared yet, started tapping his foot again without his own knowledge.

"Oh, I'm sorry I'll tell Rouge hi next time I see her," he continued, his hands landing on his hips again, at the same time that he received a challenging glare.

"You wouldn't dare hedgehog,"

"Wouldn't I? Seems like a good opportunity for a bit of hide an' seek don't ya think Knucklehead?"

"Cut it out. Both of you," Knuckles had already opened his mouth to retort, though the fox's words made him stop, closing his mouth and let the air out with an exhale looking away. Sonic crossed his arms over his chest and continued the taptaptap against the metal floor, being well aware that getting into an argument wouldn't benefit them right now.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to get a bit mad. Normally he was chipper, hyperactive and was all grins and smirks but today just wasn't his day. It was hard to feel his old nonchalant and not-caring attitude when a robot had been faster than him. No robot had ever been faster than him, there was no way! He needed to find it and get a rematch or something, prove to it that it had cheated in some way, since Egghead had yet to build something that was faster than him. Not that it was possible either way. Shadow wasn't faster than him and he was a mobian – well an artificially made mobian from a spaceship – which meant that no machine should be able to beat him either.

He walked over to Tails and peered over his shoulder, frowning at the multitude of numbers that appeared on the tablet, his fingers working fast and eyes darting back and forth. His tails whipped in agitation in a silent request to leave him alone, making the hedgehog walk away starting to walk in circles again. He looked over at Knuckles who was uninterestingly looking at his right glove, twisting and turning his hand like he was looking for something.

They had squabbled, argued, and discussed quite a bit the last two days, the moments of peace and quiet being rare at this point. He knew it originated from the fact that he had told Knuckles that it wouldn't be a big deal and that he could be back on the island within the next two hours or so, which had transformed to more. And then Sonic had gotten annoyed with the robot, which mean that two annoyed individuals started to yell at each other to have an outlet. The atmosphere had been tense most of the time, the two of them arguing, one being generally mad while the other was mocking and teasing until the sidekick who was caught in the middle yelled at them to quit it.

A part of him felt a bit bad about the whole ordeal, not ignoring the fact that Tails had to endure their arguments. Not that it was a rare occurrence between them, the hedgehog and echidna often rubbed against each other in the wrong way. Though, it wasn't often that it was a constant matter, and therefore the youngest team member had been annoyed as well, because the other two was annoyed.

Sonic let out a sigh as he looked at the walls, a part of him wondering if maybe these were a bit thinner or something, having tried to spin dash both the door and the floor until he had gotten a headache. The only thing that hadn't made him feel annoyed about that was the fact that Knuckles hadn't been able to punch through either.

"Do you mind stopping!?" Sonic quirked a brow towards the echidna, stopping his circling but continued tapping his foot in mockery alone, a wide smirk on his lips

"Why? Is this annoying?" "I think we established that already," Knuckles' eyes narrowed dangerously towards him, the hedgehog practically seeing the vein in his forehead pumping wildly out of annoyance.

"You sure? I might not have heard you," the hedgehog's smirk grew wider as he tapped faster with his foot taptaptaptap against the metal flooring, could see the echidna quietly growl to himself.

"Quit it hedgehog!" Knuckles demanded more than anything, uncrossing his arms, his hands fisted at his sides, his expression more than ready to lunch himself at him. Sonic's smirk only grew wider, though the acceleration decreased slightly since his foot was cramping because of it.

"Whew Knux it sure doesn't take a lot to make ya annoyed. I wonder how you live with yourself up on the island," the echidna scoffed, his stance not changing.

"I can tolerate myself unlike other people,"

"I'm a chipper kinda guy I'm all but fun to be around!" Sonic more than explained, throwing his arms into the air as if it was the most obvious statement in the room. A 'hmpf' escaped his red rival's mouth, his arms crossing over his chest again.

"What you call fun is stupid to me," Sonic let out a scoff himself, crossing his arms over his chest and looked away.

"Not as stupid as keeping an eye out for an ol' rock," he mumbled, not quite under his breath like he had expected.

"What did you say?" He turned his head back, seeing the echidna uncrossing his arms yet again slowly, his expression more than mad at this point, every fiber of his being wanted to throw himself at the hedgehog, Sonic could tell. The smirk appeared on his lips again, shrugging his shoulders in a casual manner.

"Nothin' don't worry about it. I just said that I have more fun than you do – there's funnier games than twirling your thumbs you know?"

"That's not what you said, I heard you perfectly well hedgehog," Knuckles pointed a spiked fist at him. "You take it back."

He was well aware that he had made the echidna mad at this point, experience more than anything reinforcing that assumption. Though he wasn't deterred, instead quirked a brow and turned towards him.

"I'm sorry man the words have already left my mouth."

"I'm not kidding hedgehog."

"Dude neither am I – they're not laying on the floor or anything."

"Sonic!"

"What'd I do now Knux? I'm just telling you a fact, ya don't have a lot of entertainment up on that island now do you?"

"Guys quit it! The door's open!"

"Like you would know! You have no understanding of how much of an important duty it is to protect the Master Emerald!"

"Oh really? Pleeease Knucky it's a rock on a floatin' island it'll be fine."

"That's it!"

Sonic had fully expected it since it had been his attention. He sidestepped the fist that was hurled towards him, turning around towards a now fuming echidna, a growl escaping his lips. He ignored his sidekick's yells and instead avoided another punch, kicking out his leg, making the echidna stumble.

He whistled a mocking tune, making his red rival turn around again, the hedgehog not anticipating the speed and couldn't avoid the spiked fist in time, landing square in his stomach. Sonic staggered backwards, before ducking at the next fist, threw out his own punch which Knuckles didn't avoid in time, almost stumbling if he didn't have his footing. The hedgehog smirked and swiped his legs towards the echidna's trying to make him fall flat onto the ground, though Knuckles jumped and threw out another punch to hit him in the face.

The blur avoided it and was fully ready to kick out at him again, when a tail instead smacked into his chest, making him fall backwards and hit the metal wall from the force of the hit. He saw Knuckles getting a punch to the face from the same person, making him stagger backwards but didn't counterattack, instead stared wide at their unsolicited mediator.

"Would you guys stop already?" Sonic blinked, having seen Tails mad before, but this was on another level entirely. Both tails were whipping in agitation behind him, a practical death glare which he switched between the two, making it clear that he was on nobody's side.

"I don't understand how arguing and fighting is the same as being quiet and neither does any of you!" he emphasized, his brow furrowed even more. "The door's open. So, let it go, and save it for later because we need to. Keep. Going." He practically warned more than anything, his blue eyes piercing and his hands slightly shaking from being angry alone.

He took a look at both of them again before he turned around on his heel and started walking through the door, tails still whipping behind him. Sonic blinked after him, before he looked back at the knucklehead, gesturing a hand towards him.

"Happy now? You made my sidekick mad," Knuckles' head whipped towards him from the comment, pointing a stiff finger at himself.

"I made him mad? If it weren't for you and your com-" the echidna cut himself up at the sudden loud yelp that sounded on the other side of the door, more surprised than frightened.

Sonic's head whipped towards the door in automation alone, being well aware that it had been Tails. He sped out on the other side, eyes widening when he saw absolutely nothing. The corridor continued down the path and turned both right and left, though in front of him on the metal floor laid the Miles Electric.

"Tails!" He called down the corridor as loud as he dared, cupping his hands around his mouth as Knuckles made it beside him. No response, and no sight of him either, not even some fur or anything left behind. He sped down to the T-section looking both left and right though either path turned their own way, the hedgehog being aware that Tails couldn't move that fast.

He looked over his shoulder back at Knuckles who had picked up the tablet, looked at it but looked back up at Sonic, the anger seemingly completely gone and replaced with pure confusion.

"Where'd he go?" Sonic sped back towards the red echidna, shrugging his shoulders while he threw out his arms.

"Dude I don't know! He was right here!" The hedgehog answered, looking around himself and walked around in a circle, looking everywhere around him. There was nothing here! No sounds of robots that could have taken him, he would have heard if his tails were being used to flying and nothing had been shot that could have – disintegrated him or something, he didn't know!

"C'mon he can't be far," Knuckles had been looking at the tablet, seemingly scrutinizing the numbers that was on it, before looking back at him with a determined nod. Sonic received the tablet and stashed it away in his quills before he turned around and chose randomly the right wing, since it turned left afterwards.

He had been in enough Eggman bases to know that if you turned left or right three times in a row then you would run in a circle and was therefore aware of where he needed to go. Though it was nagging him, how the fluff his best buddy suddenly vanished just like that. A small part of him believed that it was a trick of some kind, the fox getting annoyed over the fact that they had fought and therefore he had just run off.

He didn't doubt the little guy's speed, he knew how fast he could run but he also knew that he wouldn't be taken off without making a sound, he couldn't do that himself. Where he had gone puzzled him more than anything, other than he knew that the yelp indicated that Tails hadn't expected whatever it was either. He could be in trouble. He bit his lip as he turned another corner, the echidna following behind him as he didn't want to think about it. The quicker they found him the better.

As he turned another corner, he only heard a metallic door behind them shutting at the same time that the floor in front of him disappeared, showcasing a row of spikes ready to make some kebab. He skidded to a stop right at the edge, flailing his arms in the air while emitting a loud 'wow' the acceleration making him lean forward towards it. Until Knuckles yanked him backwards with a grip on his shoulders, the hedgehog standing on his feet while blinking, looking at the spikes that was longer than 10 yards.

"I think we found your people Knux," he said, making the echidna take back his hand, scoffing at the joke before placing his hands on his hips looking at the trap in front of them.

"You're welcome," he said, as he eyed the walls and the ceiling, violet eyes calculating and at work. Sonic frowned while trying to do his own math in his head, having no idea how long it was, a part of him thinking that it was one fluff of an incident that Tails suddenly disappeared, otherwise he could have crossed this no problem.

"I can't jump across," he announced, drawing an invisible line from the door to the other sides of the spikes "I won't have enough momentum," he bit the inside of his cheek while clicking his tongue, trying to figure out how they were going to get across.

"I can climb on the walls," Knuckles threw out there, pointing at them. "And glide the way across," he nodded to the metal flooring on the other side of the trap. Luckily, Eggman wasn't known for being paranoid and therefore both of them knew that there was no trap directly after this one.

"And what about me?" Sonic smirked, the echidna shrugging his shoulders in an automatic response walking towards the wall on his left side.

"Aren't you Sonic the hedgehog?" Said hero of Mobius frowned, blocking the not-visible sun from his eyes as he looked over the spikes one more time, trying to calculate if he maybe could get on the other side.

He might be a dare devil and didn't think much in regards to safety, but he wasn't an idiot either. He knew he couldn't get across; he needed more space behind him before the thought of even trying would convince him.

"Hedgehog I may be. That doesn't mean I wanna become BBQ," Sonic winced, having cut himself on those spikes before and was pretty sure that the bald villain polished them every night or something, they were glinting with as much danger as he knew they withheld. A single poke could cut an arm off.

"C'mon," the hedgehog turned his head confused towards the echidna, who had clambered onto the wall with both fists, sitting on it like he was a fly, nodding towards his back. "Climb on. I'll get us across."

Sonic's eyes widened, suddenly realizing what the echidna was suggesting.

"Wait. Are you giving me a ride over?"

"If you want to become a skewed hedgehog then I'm not going to stop you," Knuckles said, sighing irritated. "C'mon."

Sonic knew that echidna well – if he waited long enough then he would just go and make the hedgehog figure out another way to get across. But no way was he gonna miss this opportunity!

He sped over to the echidna, planting his hands on his shoulders and his feet on his hips, standing more than laying on top of him. Knuckles drew out a knuckle and thrusted it into the wall beside them, climbing on the metal wall.

Sonic looked impressed at the imprint that was left behind, letting out a whistle at the two holes in the wall as well as the metal that had bended around it from the impact. He would have let out a comment, but his lips got glued together when they were above the spikes, Knuckles climbing higher up most likely to get distance to the spikes as he climbed sideways as well, the hedgehog tightening his grip around his friend's shoulders.

"Do you come with a seatbelt?" The echidna grunted in response, getting closer to the middle of the trap.

"I might if I knew how heavy you were."

"Hey!" Sonic protested, a fake offended frown appearing on his forehead. "My body is gorgeous thank you very much," Knuckles grunted again, though it was more in an effort to take in air than giving him a response, the hedgehog knowing that he tried to sound like he didn't need to pant.

He could feel his sneakers starting to slip on the echidna's hips, wincing himself since he knew he was dragging on skin. He looked down at the spikes below them and then across to the other side, realizing that they weren't far from the edge.

"Hang on."

"What?" Sonic's question had left his mouth the movement Knuckles suddenly let go of the wall and twisted his body towards the metal floor.

They feel a foot before the echidna had straightened himself, spines and quills flaring out and arms stretched as the updraft caught him. They wobbled heavily in the air as Sonic tried to get a good grip on the suddenly horizontal echidna than a vertical, letting out a series of 'wow', 'wow', in their glide. He didn't have the time to adjust when they suddenly hit the floor on the other side, both of them tumbling from the impact, grunts and pained sounds filling the corridor as they were still. Sonic blinked, being upside down against a wall, looking at the echidna who was on his back, taking in oxygen.

"Dude that was cool!" A violet eye looked back at the emerald green, at the same time that the hedgehog let himself fall, backwards somersaulting before sitting on the ground, turning back around towards his friend. Knuckles huffed, sitting on his behind while he rubbed his hip.

"Let's not do that again," he complained more than anything, while Sonic jumped to his feet looking at the spot where his feet had been planted on his friend. He scratched his quills on the back of his head, feeling slightly guilty as he walked over to him and reached a hand down to him.

"Sorry man. Ya didn't really have anywhere else I could step," Sonic apologized, while the echidna took his hand, the hedgehog almost getting thrown to the floor rather than helping the echidna up from the force, his red friend standing on his feet.

"Never mind. Let's get going," he said, brushing himself off as he looked down the corridor that continued, and started jogging. Being aware that, that was the most accurate 'it's okay I forgive you' that he was going to get from him, Sonic shrugged his shoulders and jogged after him, letting his red friend set the tempo for now.

Though he couldn't help but feel slightly impressed. Back when he had first met the guy, he thought that it had been a feature on his gloves and not his actual hand that had the spikes. He had gotten impressed when Knuckles one day had taken his glove off because they had fallen in a river and then seen the two red spikes that was protruding out from his knuckle. He had gotten offended or something of the sorts, claiming that of course he had spikes on his hands, and it wasn't a part of his gloves.

It had been difficult to get his head around it. Let alone getting to realize how strong Knuckles actually was – he looked not as strong than he most defiantly was. It was something he had underestimated from the beginning, despite forgetting the pure fact that he had been punched out of his super form when he had first met him. He was strong, but Sonic hadn't given the thought of how much force it would take to bend metal.

And he did it with two spikes on either hand, climbing a wall with a perfectly healthy hedgehog on his back. That was properly the first and the last time that they were eve going to do that.

He skidded to a stop once again as Knuckles threw his heels into the ground, effectively stopping on the metal floor. Sonic made it beside him easily enough, being very glad that he this time around had stopped in time, since he was looking down a 90 degree drop. He looked up to watch it go upwards as well, the tunnel wide enough for stuff to get thrown down at the top. Platforms were situated along the walls, long gaps in between but not long enough that he couldn't jump down or up. He let out a hum, crossing his arms over his chest as Knuckles looked at him.

"Which way?" He asked, in a tone that suggested that Sonic didn't know either. He was right on that front. The hedgehog blinked at him, looked down, then up, then down again as if it could give him some sort of answer. He let out a quick exhale, rubbing his left temple since he needed to use his brain for this.

"Okay, uhm, let's think," he started, analyzing the walls in front of him, scratching his head. "If we hypothetically say-"

"Hypothetically? Is that a word in your vocabulary?" Sonic shrugged to the banter, was too concentrated on thinking if his theory was right or not. Hanging around a genius fox all the time made him pick up a few words here and there.

"Again, hypothetically, if Tails just ran away from us then he would be headed for the, uhm, thing – that powers this factory. And they are usually at the bottom of these places," he concluded, nodding towards the 90 degree drop at their feet. "And if he isn't. Then we can easily climb back up," he ended, shrugging his shoulders and looked at the echidna for approval. Said echidna looked at him with a raised brow, having his own arms crossed as he looked at the platforms that went down.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed before he stepped out and jumped down. The metal didn't even give way or swayed from the weight, making the echidna easily jump again, going downwards.

Sonic followed easily enough, jumped down two platforms before he somersaulted to the next one, easily passing the echidna as he made his way down, sprinting from one platform to the next. It was easier jumping, flailing, and falling down than it was going up, since gravity had the biggest impact on him, meaning that it was funnier to go downwards as well. He let out a happy exclamation, laughing and jumping, backflipping and landed on a platform, looking up to watch the echidna being two platforms behind him.

"C'mon Knux, step it up!" He taunted with a wide grin, purposely fell down to the next platform, looking at the floor that was coming closer and closer to them.

"Look where you're going hedgehog!" The echidna warned more than anything, said hedgehog letting out a 'pft', as he was about to reach the bottom, jumping and curled into a spiked ball landing on the last platform.

He eagerly jumped at the same time that horror filled his eyes, his pupils shrinking down into the size of a pebble as the floor retracted into the wall, a floor of water appearing in front of him.

He only managed to open his mouth, but the scream didn't make it as he plunged into the tank, getting completely submerged.

Ears, eyes, and mouth got filled instantly, the cold clammy fingers of the water penetrating every strain of fur on his body. It was cold, it was horrible. He flailed around in panic, trying to get a hold of something that could pull him up, though he began sinking instead, like a rock. His lungs were getting filled, he could see the light above him dimming as he descended. His heart was pumping, beating out of his chest as his lungs were screaming for air, water all around him, no way to get air, he needed to get air!

Something penetrated the water above him, bubbles and everything appearing around the top layer as something latched onto his nonexistent bicep. He was forcefully dragged upwards, could feel the liquid flow into his mouth from the pull, his head suddenly appearing above the water. He coughed violently, while his red friend was dragging him, getting pulled up on the edge and out of the tank.

He began kicking as if he could get the water to get away with that method, getting dragged and pulled further away from the nightmare fuel. His coughing increased, a flat hand starting to slap him on his back, making a mouthful of water escape his mouth, sitting on his knees to try and get it out of him. He could feel his fingers shaking on the cold metal floor, his heart still beating and his breathing rapid and quick. He hated water.

"Breathe," Knuckles suddenly commanded, being on his own knees beside him, having stopped slapping his back, his hand remaining instead, his rock hard and unmoving hand being a sort of solace for him. He didn't know what 'breathe' meant at first, he was breathing even Chaos knew that by now, until he understood that he meant ndmeant that he needed to breathe properly.

He took in a long deep breath, feeling his airway free from water, his lungs completely emptied off water, the action alone making him feel calm almost instantly. Another deep breath, and he finally realized how cowardice he looked like, licking his lips, and sat back on his behind, making the hand disappear from his back. He took another deep breath, ignored the fact that his hands were still shaking as he looked at Knuckles with a grin.

"Thanks, Knux," he said, bit his lip, feeling awkward. "Guess I – kinda got ahead of myself there huh?" The echidna raised a brow in an obvious 'really'? but didn't comment on it otherwise. Sonic chuckled just to dispel the entire situation, his legs feeling like jelly as he slowly got to his feet

"Let's get going."

"You sure?" Knuckles had gotten to his own feet as well, looking at the hedgehog as if he were waiting for him to fall back to his knees. Sonic nodded, despite his hands still slightly shaking and his heart not yet calmed down. He just needed to move – the water travelling through his fur was unpleasant and a run usually made the feeling go away.

The echidna took an extra second to look at him, though turned around to look at the new corridor they had entered while Sonic shook his sneakers off water. In front of them was another metal door, looking exactly like the one they had met upstairs, locked and a panel to the right side.

A shiver of Déjà Vu spread across Sonic's spine when he had gotten the water out of his gloves, walking over to the door, and put his hands on his hips, ignoring the fact that his fingers were still shaking.

"And now we need the technical genius," he stated, looking over his shoulder at the echidna with a grin, doing his best to hide the shock of what had just happened. "Know where we can find one?" Knuckles looked at him with narrowed eyes, before he walked over to the panel to the right of the door, drawing back his arm to punch it.

"One the other side of this door," Sonic had been in the midst of warning him of an electrical shock, but the fist had already collided with the panel, making a blue spark emit from it, metal shrapnel falling to the floor with some wires and buttons. The hedgehog's mouth was left agape as the door suddenly opened, the metallic portal disappearing into the ceiling. He blinked perplexed.

"So. Why didn't we do that before?" The echidna looked at him, some kind of thought apparently penetrating his mind as he looked up at red light in the ceiling being off.

"Because of the alarms," Sonic looked up as well, puzzled about his statement. Knuckles probably had forgotten why they had been careful in the first place, his first thought being that they needed to get through the door some way. Though the alarm system remained dormant.

"This is getting weird," the hedgehog admitted, scratching the quills on the back of his head but shrugged to the statement. Eggman changed sometimes. "Now, let's go," he gestured towards the corridor that was now visible, another left and right wing they could choose from being in the end of it.

Sonic walked through, getting ready to jog when he suddenly fell.

His heart and lungs were swooped into his throat as a surprised yell accompanied his fall, falling through a sudden tunnel that had appeared in the floor. Knuckles' yell could be heard from above him, the hedgehog looking down to see the bottom of a white floor coming closer and closer. Until the sound of something penetrating the wall beside them, the shrill and shrieking sound of shredded metal making his ears pull into his skull and his head ringing. He reached out a hand towards the echidna, hanging on to his foot as he realized Knuckles had hurled a fist into the wall. Their fall slowed down tremendously, slower and slower before they stopped. Sonic's heart was pounding in his chest, taking deep breaths from another sudden surprise and shock, his legs dangling over the end of the tunnel. He frowned when he realized what he had been about to fall into.

"Knux, it's a trap."

"You think so?!" He had seen them before, an oval trap on the floor that had lasers around it. He knew that when the victim touched the floor of it, the lasers would overlap and imprison them, he had tried it before. He also knew they were pretty easy to escape from.

"It's one of those laser traps Egghead uses," he explained, while he could feel the echidna slipping on the wall.

The hedgehog started to swing his legs back and forth, gaining momentum until he let go of the shoe and jumped over the trap, landing on the floor beside it. He looked at the trap, confirming that it was indeed one of those laser things he had seen before as Knuckles landed beside him, turning his hand around in its joint.

"Maybe that's what happened to Tails?" Sonic turned his head towards the echidna, the red mobian nodding towards the trap. "It was the same kind of door upstairs and he just vanished like we did," the hedgehog turned back to the trap, as a wide grin appeared on his face, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I think you're right Knux! You're not so dumb after all," the echidna scoffed, giving the hedgehog a punch on the shoulder as he began walking down the corridor. "Dude c'mon it was a compliment!" Sonic complained, following the echidna in his steps.

Though the moment he took his first steps, a beeping started to suddenly appear, in his quills. Puzzled, the two rivals stopped immediately, the hedgehog reaching into the back of his head to fish out whatever was beeping. An understanding 'ah' escaped his lips as he grabbed the Miles Electric, seeing the screen lit up. He frowned at the numbers that was displayed there, though one of the small antennas that his little brother had installed was blinking, the sound of the 'beep' repeating with every blink.

"Did you break it?" Sonic looked up from Knuckles' inquiry, the echidna walking over to him and looked at the screen with a confused frown.

"Of course, I didn't break it," he defended ludicrously, though he bit his lip, thinking that he had been submerged in water minutes beforehand.

As far as he recalled the tablet should be waterproof, being well aware that Tails and him sometimes fell into various flooded abandoned cities and getting soaked to the bone, and he knew that the fox brought this with him everywhere they went. He had never seen it break from something as simple as water. He shivered from the mere thought of the experience, a part of him hoping that Knuckles hadn't noticed as he looked down at the thing, having no idea what the numbers meant on it. "I don't know why it's beeping," he lamely analyzed, shaking it just to do something with it.

"It doesn't usually do that."

"Then it is broken. C'mon," Knuckles decided, walking away again and down the corridor.

Sonic blinked after him, frowned at the tablet again before stashing it away in his quills, frowned as the beeping didn't stop either, a part of him wanting to pull his ears into his skull. The echidna randomly turned left, the hedgehog following in his heels until he noticed that the sound of the tablet decreased. Knuckles realized the same thing, stopping and turned back around at the same time that Sonic found the tablet again, looking at the screen. The numbers and the calculations were still the same, though he turned around on his heel and tried walking into the right corridor, the beeping suddenly increasing again.

"See I told you!" Sonic celebrated triumphantly, looking over his shoulder at his red friend. "I didn't break it," said red friend quirked a brow at his inquiry walking up beside him again.

"Then what's it detecting?" Sonic shrugged, while he began walking, the beeping not increasing but not decreasing either as they turned the right corner.

"Beats me," he said, while trying to go through a mental list of what Tails used this for. He did so many things with it that it was practically impossible to know, though he remembered using it to track signals from random radio transmissions as well as the Tornado. He frowned when he reached a possibility.

"Maybe a Chaos emerald? Weren't he detecting that one from the beginning?" Knuckles shrugged to the answer as the two of them began jogging, randomly turning another right.

The beeping suddenly increased, Sonic's ears peaking as he realized that it was detecting something and a part of him was pretty sure that it was going to lead them to Tails as well. "I don't know what it picked up, but it's better than going nowhere right?" Sonic asked while running backwards, looking at the echidna who raised another brow at him. The hedgehog winked at him before turning around right before he was about to smack his head into the wall, turning instead.

The beeping decreased making him turn on his heel and go the other way, going straighter than turning at this point. He was familiar with this kind of setting, being aware that the levels on the bottom of these bases had more straight corridors than a lot of turns, from the fact that there were pipes, heaters, electronic machines and much more hidden behind the walls, the bottom level being the motor of the entire thing.

It wasn't unusual for him to be running down here, felt as the sweat started to kick in from the generators they passed by, a small part of him wondering if maybe they should destroy them now that they were here. But he let the thought pass, instead agreed with himself that they would have their fun once they had found their missing teammate. He turned another corner, the echidna still right on his heels as the beeping started to get annoying in his ears, getting louder and more frequent. An irrational part of him wondered whether or not it was about to explode.

His thoughts got interrupted the moment they turned another corner, the corridor wider and pipes was going along the ceiling. His ears perked up, he felt the fur on his body puff up as well as his quills rose on the back of his head from the milk curdling sound. It was a scream. And he knew from who.

"Tails!" Sonic practically screamed back, having no regards to the echidna behind him as he sprinted through the corridor, turned a right since it was the only way for him to go only to stop in the middle of an open room.

It was large, in a dome shape, screens, wires and pipes running alongside the ceiling and the walls, various mechanisms and lamps hanging and fixated on the walls, giving it an artificial matrix-looking façade. He barely saw the terminal in the back of the room as his eyes were fixated on the robot in the middle of it instead, his eyes shrinking as his heart began beating.

It was it. It was that robot that he had been chasing. And right now, he could see it towering and threatening his sidekick and little brother, laying on the floor while clutching his shoulder, wide blue eyes staring at the menacing mechanical beast in front of him.

No thoughts penetrated the blue blur's mind as he stashed the tablet back in his quills, the sound for some reason stopping, and hurled himself at the robot, curled together in a blue spiked ball and could hear the metal crack as he hit it. Using his momentum to guide his round shape, he uncurled and landed in front of his two tailed friend, as the robot stumbled backwards from the sudden attack. It was another robot from the E-series that Eggman for some reason kept alive, the shape smaller to make it more aerodynamic and colored in turquoise, though its armor was still as tough as he remembered it being.

"You alright?" He cast a glance over his shoulder to look at his charge, the fox with difficult getting up to sit, still clutching his left shoulder despite no wound visible.

"No!" The word was said with a kind of honesty he rarely experienced, didn't have enough time to get a proper look at what was going on as the robot charged at him. He spin dashed it one more time in automation alone, the robot staggering backwards once again. His eyes fastened onto a spot on the robot's hinge where the thigh was connected to the main body, seeing sparks and electricity sparking out of it, thinking that Tails must have tried to hit it there.

He was about to jump at it again, as it was going to charge the hedgehog, when it violently staggered to its right, an echidna knuckle ramming into its left side. Knuckles ran over and joined Sonic's side, looking over his shoulder at the fox, a frown appearing on his forehead though he looked back at the robot.

"Stay there litl' bro. We'll finish it," Sonic reassured, as he turned his head around and gave the fox a wink, ignoring the pained look that was plastered across his face. The fox nodded, pointing towards the hinge where the sparks had appeared.

"I got it pretty good there. You can distract it while Kn-Knuckles hits it," he had to take an extra breath mid-sentence, sitting more upright against the metal wall, the hedgehog being able to see him fight back the tears that was sitting in his eyes.

"Sounds like a plan. Hang tight," Sonic nodded, gave him the most encouraging smirk he could give him in the moment as he turned back towards the robot, said E-series machine having caught its balance and lifted its arms menacingly. The hero had too many encounters with robots more than six times his size that it was anything but that. A wide smirk instead appeared on his lips, being well aware as to how he was going to distract it.

As it drew its arm back to punch them the speedy blur immediately sprinted around it, the robot's optics scanning for the tornado as it pulled back its arm, trying to get the target locked. Sonic's smirk grew wider as he kept running around it in a circle, his afterimage blurring together and left behind a ribbon of blue in his run.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up," he teased, smirking with his white set of teeth showing, stopping at the opposite side of the robot. It had been going around in a circle, slightly stumbling as it stopped and locked on to Sonic, the optics finally following with its programming. The hedgehog stood with his arms crossed, before speeding over to its other side, making the robot turn toward him, turning again as the blur moved. The hedgehog stood still on the ground as he drilled his thumps into his temples, blowing a raspberry at the robot. The robot let out a mechanical growl drawing back its arm again to punch him when its balance was completely put off.

An echidna knuckle had rammed its way into the thigh where the leg was now flying across the room and hit the other side of it. The same moment that the robot hit the floor with its back, one leg flailing and arms trying to get perch on the ground to get back up, Sonic had already jumped into the air and curled into a spiked ball, hurling himself at its chest. The impact was effective, his quills shredding the metal to pieces as he cut open multiple wires and circuitry, the inner workings of the living metal getting destroyed in the blink of an eye. Sparks and electricity hurled itself every which way, the robot flailing with its arms as its programming shut down, a hiss and a small explosion inside of it making the last of its mechanical life, the red optics dimming before turning off completely.

Sonic had jumped from its chest moments ago, standing beside the robot, smirking wide with his hands on his hips, like a kid on his birthday.

"Now who-" he kicked the dead robot. "-is the fastest thing alive?" He quirked a brow at the E-series robot, triumphantly standing like he had won the toughest fight in the world. Only Chaos knew if that already had happened.

"Sonic?" The hedgehog turned around towards Knuckles from the exasperated call of his name, was kneeling at his charge's side while looking at the hedgehog with an expression that screamed, he was being ridiculous.

Tails' expression immediately pulled him out of his winning stupor, speeding over and was at the fox's other side kneeling as well, a great surge of protectiveness settling in his stomach from the blue eyes that fought back the urge to cry.

"What happened?" He asked a bit calmer, finally taking his time to look at the shoulder that the fox was holding on to, the echidna seemingly analyzing it with his eyes.

Sonic frowned as he one more time didn't see any visible wounds or burn marks, though it looked a bit crooked. He turned back to look at Tails' face, his sidekick swallowing something in his throat, taking a deep breath.

"I fell through a tunnel or something when the door opened upstairs. I ended in one of those traps that Eggman uses, though I got out of there pretty quickly," he explained, winced, exhaled a second time. "I looked around and found the Chaos Emerald in a chamber by itself. I cut the alarm system, took it, and left to find you. That's wh-when I ran into that robot that's been chasing us. I got a good few hits on it but it picked me up and threw me a-across the room," he hissed and bit his lip, the hedgehog biting his own lip to mirror the pain, resisting the urge to pick up the fox's hand despite wanting to somehow take the pain away from him.

The spike of pain seemed to dim, as the fox let out a sigh, looking at his left shoulder with the same pained glaze over his eyes "I don't know what happened, but my shoulder hurts badly."

"It's dislocated," both hedgehog and fox eyes widened and stared at the echidna who had stayed silent the entire time, blinking before he turned his head towards them, nodding at the shoulder.

"The joint has popped out. It needs to get back in again as it blocks your blood flow," he explained simply, as if he was talking about the weather, scooting a bit closer. "I know how to."

"Whouw, whouw, Knux – not that I don't trust you or anything, but don't you think that it's better that we get a doc at Station Square to do that?" Sonic asked warily, noticed as his charge bit his lip again, a big brother alarm turning on in his head as he knew he was starting to get scared. He didn't blame him.

"Sonic it needs to get back in there again. It's blocking the flow to his arm and it can worsen during the travel," the experienced echidna rationalized, staring straight at him. The hedgehog opened his mouth again to protest, though he looked at the stern expression that his red friend gave him.

He did trust him. He knew that he would never do any unnecessary harm to Tails if it could be avoided. If he thought that it was for the best, then maybe that was the solution. He closed his mouth as he turned to the fox, his sidekick looking back at the hedgehog, his eyes darting around his face.

"What do you say?" It was his shoulder and arm after all.

Tails kept looking at him for a bit to give himself some time to think before swallowing something in his throat and looked back at Knuckles.

"You sure you know how?" The question was almost like a plea, asking simply if he was certain whether or not he knew the procedure but also that he better not be lying to him. But the echidna nodded his head, a thick determination glossed over his eyes. Tails looked at it for a bit, before letting out a huge sigh, wincing at the movement.

"Alright. What do we do?" A determination settled in to mask the fright that was thick in his eyes, eyes narrowed in concentration. Sonic gave in to the protective side of him, taking the fox's hand without the echidna noticing and squeezed it lightly. Tails squeezed back as if he wanted to break it.

"First you need to relax. The muscle is strained right now and the more you relax the less it's gonna hurt," the island dweller explained, looking back and forth on the fox and the shoulder, a frown settling in his forehead like he was trying to remember how to actually do this.

The fox nodded more to himself at that point, taking in a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing his eyes and disappeared into a headspace where the others couldn't reach them. Sonic let him take his time, analyzing the shoulder himself with his own eyes, a part of him wondering how it could just pop out of the joint like that, let alone being put back in without falling out again.

He wanted to ask, but at the same time didn't want to break the silence, a kind of relaxed tranquility that was masking the pain rather than solving it. He felt Tails loosen a little in his hand, the hedgehog running his thumb back and forth on the top of his glove, reminding him that they were here. He refrained from doing or saying anything despite feeling awful and guilty inside, hating the pure fact that his little brother was hurting because him and Knuckles had a stupid fight.

A part of him wanted to apologize and address it and was about to do it but the fox interrupted him as he opened his eyes and nodded to himself again.

"Okay. I'm ready," he announced, steeling himself by sitting completely against the wall, looking at his shoulder. He both seemed and felt more relaxed, the hedgehog reminding himself how resilient the eight-year-old was, nodding in confirmation.

"Lay back and Sonic put your hands there and there," Knuckles suddenly instructed, pointing at the fox's chest and shoulder.

He did so without question, carefully placing one hand diagonally on his chest and the other on his shoulder as Tails leaned back on the metal wall, the back of his head resting on it. The echidna took hold of the dislocated arm, with such gentle care that the hedgehog was starting to doubt if he was strong as an ox or not, seeing Tails wince but didn't say otherwise.

"As I pull you need to put light pressure on him," the echidna continued, then looked at the fox, concentration thick in his violet eyes. "Ready?" He took another deep breath before he nodded looking straight at nothing in front of him.

The hedgehog on the other hand didn't feel ready but didn't get to voice it out loud as Knuckles gently took the arm in a 90-degree ankle and pulled it down slowly. Something moved, the fox letting out a pained sound but remained somehow calm, taking deep breaths while Sonic lightly put pressure on his chest, could feel the movement in his charge's shoulder.

Knuckles frowned before he slowly moved it to the right, only the elbow moving while still pulling gently. As he pulled upwards, the hedgehog could see the joint move back into place, at the same time that Tails let out another pained exclamation before exhaling. The red rival left a hand on the shoulder, feeling with his thumb and index finger and ran down his arm before letting go.

"There. It's back into place," Sonic pulled away from him as well, partially amazed by what he had just witnessed, looking at his sidekick. He moved the arm to try out the join, winced at the pain that was still there and left it on his stomach, letting out another sigh.

"Thanks," he said, sitting against the wall again before looking back at the echidna. "You have never done that before have you?" The question was light and wasn't ill-littered, relief being the force of it. The echidna shrugged his own shoulders, sitting back on the balls of his heels.

"No. I – read it in the old books in Hidden Palace," he admitted, scratching the back of his head as if he was embarrassed by it, though Sonic felt nothing but relief.

"Dude of course you haven't done it before, how should you have done it?" He lightly asked, feeling just as much relief from the entire situation, chuckling lightly. Though the echidna merely raised a brow at him before getting to his feet, looking at the robot. Sonic knew that stance and that action, hanging his mouth open.

"Wait. Have you done it before? On yourself?!" The echidna shrugged again, looking back at the hedgehog though he was smirking this time around.

"Guess you'll never know," he said, and before the curious cat had time to ask again, he turned towards the fox and nodded at the shoulder. "You still need to get it looked at. The shoulder could pop out again," he simply explained, as if he was talking about the weather.

Sonic accepted the topic change from the pure comment that it could pop out again, standing up and turning around towards the still destroyed robot.

"Well, no reason to hang around here if you got the emerald," the hedgehog said, looking back at his sidekick who nodded and used his good hand to rummage around in a tail. He pulled out an undamaged red Chaos Emerald, sitting neatly in his hand before stashing it away again, getting ready to get to his feet.

"No. I got the alarm system so getting out of here should be a breeze," Tails commented, while Sonic had already sped over to him by the time, he even had thought about moving, a hand reaching down to help him get to his feet.

"Or-," Sonic trailed off, helping his sidekick to his feet, the fox wincing and placed his left elbow in his right hand, steadying the arm. "We can race our way out of here," he quirked a brow at his charge, looking at the echidna.

Said echidna scoffed at him, looking back to see the fox roll his eyes into the sky, the whole shock of a dislocated shoulder seemingly gone.

"Sure," the sidekick confirmed either way, spinning his tails around. "I'll just fly," he announced as he got into the air, the echidna looking at Sonic. He blinked at him but waved a hand in a 'whatever' motion and turned towards the corridor they had come from, walking towards it.

The adrenaline filled and dare devil hedgehog smirked to himself before he turned towards the terminal, cracking his fingers. A spin dash turned the metal to shrapnel, shredding it apart with his quills as the inner workings of the alarm system got busted. The moment Sonic stood up again, the alarms began, red lights blinking and an alarm blaring in their eyes, warning about intruders and the damage that has been done.

The hero cleaned his hands off invisible dust before turning around, looking at his two friends to make sure that they were ready before he began jogging. Knuckles followed easily enough, and Tails was already above him, the three of them running into the corridor and turned a corner, finding their way out. Sonic smirked from the prospect of it all, the alarms blaring and the light blinding them, but it was all worth it.

He felt bad nonetheless, that he had gotten in an argument with the knucklehead in the first place which had led them to this predicament. Though he felt like they had already apologized to each other, the two of them having a special kind of relationship. He trusted him and knew that he didn't mean what he said – and neither did Sonic.

He was just very happy that the echidna could climb, glide and swim. He was truly a great friend.

"So. Is this what it takes?" Sonic looked up at the flying fox, his little brother smirking and seemed alright for now about his arm, looking triumphant more than anything. The hedgehog smirked back.

"What?" Tails nodded at the echidna that was just in the hedgehog's heels.

"For me to get injured in order for the two of you to get along," Knuckles looked and blinked at the blue blur in front of him, before a grin spread across his muzzle.

The hedgehog copied it with ease, giving his sidekick a classic thumb's up, being more than happy about having the best team on the planet.

"Let's just say that it's a mix of pros and cons."


Fun fact: Putting back a dislocated shoulder like they did is called 'The External Rotation method' and can actually be accomplished by yourself. But don't - if you ever find yourself in a situation where your shoulder gets dislocated then please seek immediate help instead. Please.

But either way, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing! :)