Thus the overlapping begins! Oh the fun… I'm actually very excited so comments, then straight to the story.

StarlightSparks: No, you're fine. I just got confused because I have a friend who has an OC named Star and her username is something completely different and I was pretty sure she hadn't changed it. So I got very confused. Hi, Lio! Aw, you're both so nice.

ultimateCCC: That...was horrible. I LOVED IT. Puns are fun.

Juancastri11: That's where you were… As for the political situation, I know how you feel… Election day was a day I dreaded. I'm so sorry for your crazy life. Try and find a positive. That always helps me. Thanks! We had fun with the character development and twisting things up. Glad we brightened your day. Hope everything gets better.

Autumn: Glad you enjoyed the chapter. Hope you have a great weekend too!

SonicBoomFan4000: The story is sort of a combination of Archie, Underground, X, and the Games. It's an AU. Sort of an original thing. Tails is 11 because Halo and I wanted him to be older. He's almost 12.

MeowthKitty: Sonamy! Hope you enjoy this one!

Sofia's POV:

Today started a little strange. First, Knuckles called me and asked if I was available all day. Turned out, that the department store is closed for the day to be repainted so, naturally, I said yes.

So he turned up with his Extreme Gear Board and a blindfold.

You can probably see where this may be going.

After reassuring me he wouldn't drop me, Knuckles placed the blindfold over my eyes, and helped me up on the board. Then he put his arms around my waist and I felt us lift off the ground.

Usually, I'm fine with heights. But I definitely did not expect to be blindfolded for almost a whole half an hour and unable to see how high we were up. I was starting to understand why Knuckles hated heights.

I think Knuckles realized he hadn't planned the whole thing out correctly, and was apologizing profusely in my ear over the wind.

"But on the bright side, we're here."

"Where exactly is 'here'?"

"You'll see…"

I hate surprises. There is a reason. It has to do with the fact that I don't get surprised easily, because of my 'instincts'. If someone is going to throw a pie at me, I know it. If someone is about to jump out from behind a couch waiting to yell 'surprise', I yell it right along with them. But then there are things that are not the sort of thing I can sense, such as physical objects (so no, I don't know what I'm getting for my birthday or Christmas as I'm opening my presents).

And of course physical objects can qualify as locations, such as museums or mountains. Surprises can be pleasant, but most surprises I've had were not something I wished to dwell on.

But I calmed my thoughts and reminded myself that this was Knuckles. Surely his surprise would be nice and normal. Key word normal.

Knuckles took of the blindfold to reveal a very beautiful, but exotic, forest like jungle. There were plenty of greenery and fruit trees that I identified as star fruit. Overall, a pleasant view.

"Woah…" I smiled at the echidna, "You brought me to a jungle?"

"Uh… sort of. Turn around."

I did as he said. Really regret it now.

Remembered when I said I hoped the surprise would be nice and normal? Well… it was nice, but normal is not how I would describe a view of a large ocean literally five hundred feet below while standing on a chunk of land floating in the air.

My head swam and I stumbled back into Knuckles, who put his hands on my shoulders to steady me. Oh Chaos…

"You alright?"

"Am I alright…? Interesting question when we are standing IN THE AIR!" I whirled around and pointed my finger at him in a scolding manner. "WHERE AM I?"

Knuckles looked a little confused, "Did I do something wrong again?"

Okay, I loved this guy, but sometimes he really did not think through everything in great detail. So I attempted to calm my pounding heart and took a deep breath, "Knuckles… I-I'm not sure how to put this… a floating island is not normal, and you can't just shove it on a girl without warning."

"Oh…" he looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry… everyone else who knows about this place sort of found out on accident."

"Everyone else…? How many people know about a floating island?"

"It's called Angel Island, and I've kinda lost track at this point."

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Well, in order..." Knuckles' brow furrowed in concentration, "Sonic, Tails, Cream, Vanilla, Amy, Shadow, Rouge-"

"Who the heck is Rouge?"

His expression darkened. "Someone I'd rather not talk about."

Okay then… I changed the subject. "Let's start with the basics like… Oh, I don't know… HOW IN CHAOS ARE WE FLYING?"

Maybe I was a little mad, but hey, you try standing on a giant island that is flying for no apparent reason and tell me you feel fine.

Knuckles took a small step away from me, appearing a little nervous, "Um… let's just start by sitting down and not hitting the guy who doesn't think things through completely."

We sat down, leaning against two trees, facing each other. Knuckles then proceeded to tell me about a giant emerald that held the god Chaos and kept the island floating. He also tried to explain how the chaos energy works, but I asked him to stop because I was getting very confused.

"So, very long story short," I said, "Giant magical gem makes the island fly. Like my life couldn't get any weirder…"

"Sorry about that. But I thought we should get this conversation out of the way." Knuckles shrugged. "But I don't think I thought it all the way through."

I gave him a look that clearly said, 'No, you didn't.'

He apologized again. After a few seconds of silent, he cautiously asked, "Do you want a tour?"

My anger finally dissolved and I smiled, "Why not? It's not every day I'm on a floating island."

Knuckles offered me his hand and helped me to my feet. "Where do you want to start?"

I shrugged. "Where ever you want to start."

Now that I was over the whole, 'don't surprise me with a floating island', I was actually rather excited. All my life I had been interested in ancient artifacts and mythology. Angel Island was a dream come true… well, sort of. It's still a little strange and it would probably take a little while to get over the fact that my boyfriend...er, Knuckles, lived on a magical island, but hey, I have psychic abilities. Things could be stranger.

Then again, maybe not.

Knuckles began to the tour, snapping me out of my thoughts. "This little place we're standing in, overlooking the sea closest to any land around, I like to call Sunrise Outlook."

"Why do you call it that?"

"It faces the way the sun rises."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"The other side of the island I call Sunset Outlook."

"What about the other sides?"

"Um… they don't really have a name. Just the North and South sides of the island." Knuckles smiled, "I'm not very creative when it comes to names."

"That's fine," I replied. "Not every single place in the world needs a poetic name or a foreign language."

Knuckles motioned for me to hop back on his extreme gear. We flew pretty close to the ground, but moved pretty fast. While trees and bushes passed, Knuckles gave me the rundown.

"This is the forest."

"No name?"

"No name. It covers the whole island so it would be sort of pointless. In the forest, there live many different types of animals and vegetation." He pointed at one of the fruit trees, "That's a star fruit tree. They grow pretty much all over the island."

As we flew by another one of the said trees, Knuckles reached up and picked two ripe fruits and handed me one, "They're pretty good, or at least I think so."

I smiled, "It's not meat, so it will do." I didn't tell him I'd had this fruit before, but ate it quietly and quickly. Star fruit is actually one of my favorite fruits, so I really enjoyed the snack break.

Knuckles pointed out a few more types of trees and bushes and explained what he used them for. Vines and certain leaves were for building along with wood from trees, certain berries and other herbs for healing and medicine, sap from certain trees turned into a really good caramel, even the soil could be used for cooking, building, and medicine.

This guy made the Boy Scouts of Mobius look like Mina Mongoose.

The next stop was a cave. Knuckles helped me down from the board and spread out his arm in a showing manner. "Here's the cave."

"Does it have a name?" I teased gently.

"Uh… I was actually thinking about calling it 'Crystal Cave'."

"Why?"

"I'll show you." He took my hand and lead me inside. We only walked for about two minutes when we came to a large cavern filled with sparkling crystals of a rainbow of colors from a vibrant red to a dulled purple.

And it was breathtaking. I examined the walls and crystals with great care, running my fingers along each gem. "Is this Topaz? Oh Chaos, I love Sapphire. Rubies? Quartz, Amethyst, Morganite, Opal, and…? I paused on a green stone, trying to identify it, "Emerald?"

"Yep." Knuckles smiled. "Which one is your favorite?"

"Um…" I looked around for a moment, before my eyes rested on the bright blue Sapphire. "That one." I pointed at the gem. "How did all of these even get here? The idea alone-"

I was cut off by a sudden large crunching noise. Whirling around, I found Knuckles next to a wall, with a large chunk of stone in his hands. Behind him, was a large hole in the wall, that I was positive had not been there before. His back was too mee and I heard more crunching and crumbling noises and a few grunts.

I tried to peer over his shoulder, but Knuckles wouldn't let me see what he was up too. So I settled to waiting in silence while examining the rest of the cave.

It really was very pretty. And rather calming. Five minutes later, Knuckles found me sitting next to a hot springs staring up at the ceiling.

"What are you looking at?" He asked a bit confused.

I snapped out of my thoughts, "Nothing. I'm just thinking."

"Oh. Sorry to interrupt."

"You're fine."

There was an awkward silence the Knuckles cleared his throat looking a bit uncomfortable. "Uh… here. I got you this." He held out his hand to reveal the sapphire from the wall.

I stared at it in shock. "I- How-? Knuckles, you didn't have to do that."

"Eh, we've known each other for a while and I thought I should give you something."

With a small smile, I took the small gem. It wasn't very big, a little smaller than my palm, but I could tell that it would make an excellent stone for an amulet. I looked at my reflection in the deep blue color and couldn't help but feel a small ache in my heart.

Sapphires were one of those gems that made me happy, but sad at the same time. My mother's wedding ring was a sapphire, and I remember playing with it when I got really bored in church and I was sitting next to her. A pleasant, but painful memory.

Not to mention Maurice was blue. A lot like most sapphires. Once again, happy, yet painful memories. I must have sighed out loud because Knuckles asked if I was alright.

"Yeah. Sorry, I must have zoned out again."

"Nah, you're cool. You like it?"

I grinned. "It's beautiful. You're so sweet." I could've sworn I saw him blush.

He held out a hand, "Come on, there's still some spots I want to show you."

We exited the cave and continued onto Reflection Pool (which was probably the most creative name he had so far. But hey, he didn't seem much like the creative type, so I don't judge) which was followed by the Mountain Range (as I said, not very creative names). All were beautiful in their own way. Around noon, Knuckles finally informed me that we were approaching our last stop.

He led me into a thicket of trees by the hand until we reached some sort of shrine or temple. It was huge, the stone structure easily as tall as my four-story apartment building. Something bright and green glittered near the top, but I couldn't tell just what.

"What's up there?" I asked pointing at the structure.

"That," said Knuckles with a smile. "Is the main attraction." He grinned and grabbed hold of my hand, leading the way up the ancient stone staircase until we made it to the top, at which there was a circular plateau surrounded by crumbling stone columns. The glittering green something I had spotted stood before me, an enormous, shimmering emerald as tall as I was- and I'm pretty tall. I instinctively reached out a hand to stroke its surface, but Knuckles stopped me before my fingers could make contact.

"That's probably not a good idea," he said tentatively.

"Why not?"

"It's generally not a very wise decision to go around touching giant magic gems."

My jaw dropped. "You mean…"

"Yes."

"And this thing is…"

"Yes."

"And you…"

"That's right."

If you haven't figured it out by now, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place in my mind. Of course I knew about the Master Emerald. I mean, come on! It's one of the most speculated legends in the archeology (next to the City of Atlantis. I have my own theory about the ancient city that involves a princess mermaid with her lady in waiting and a swarm of plankton. But that's not important right now). And with the Master Emerald comes an echidna guardian, which was also extremely speculated about.

I was dating the Guardian of Chaos.

For no apparent reason, I began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" asked Knuckles, cracking a grin but beginning to sound concerned.

"It's- it's just-" I couldn't stop laughing. For some reason, I just found this so unbelievably funny and I couldn't explain why.

"What?"

"I- I just can't believe it!" I gasped, clutching my sides. Tears were running down my cheeks.

"Sofi, you're not making sense." Knuckles was staring at me as if I were a lunatic.

"I'm… dating the Guardian!" I forced out.

Knuckles just stared at me, "Is that a bad thing?"

"No!" I was leaned over, trying to catch my breath, "It's just- my life is crazy already. I didn't think it could get any more strange." Finally, I straightened up and wiped the tears away. "This is just- I can't explain it."

Knuckles still looked a little confused, but he smiled, "Well, I'm glad you don't think it's too weird."

"Weird? You don't know the meaning of weird."

"Try me."

I froze. Yes, he's the Guardian. But a psychic? How would he react to that?

"Sofi? You okay?"

I looked at him. Knuckles had always treated me like a normal person. He never had made fun of me for my interests, even if he didn't like them. And based on his occupation, I can't be that out of the ordinary… right? Besides, hiding secrets is what caused Manic to run away in the first place. Knuckles was going to find out eventually. Might as well tell him and avoid that awkward conversation.

"Well… um. Knuckles I-" I ran my fingers through my hair, "Oh, how do I start?"

Knuckles opened his mouth to speak, but was suddenly cut off my a loud beeping noise. He glanced down at a yellow watch that I hadn't noticed on his wrist before. He groaned slightly.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. Continue." He pushed a button and the beeping stopped.

I gathered my thoughts again. "Well-" and then I was cut off again by the same exact beeping noise. "Are you sure that's nothing important?"

"They're fine." He shut off the noise again.

"They?"

"My… friends."

"If they're your friends, then answer the phone."

Knuckles shifted uncomfortably, "No, they know I'm busy. Besides I-"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. CLICK.

I was starting to get annoyed. "Knuckles, just see what they want."

"I know what they want," He growled slightly. "And it's nothing that they can't handle. The job's not that-"

"Hold it. A job?" I raised an eyebrow.

Knuckles shrugged, "It's not officially my job, but sometimes they need my help."

"Do they pay you?"

"Uh… sort of?"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

My eyes narrowed slightly, "Knuckles, answer the phone."

"Sofi, it's really not-"

"Oh for Chaos sake, Knuckles, if they're paying you for a job, then you need to answer!"

I think my expression convinced him not to argue. He finally pressed the 'answer' button and asked, "Yes?"

"Yo! Knucklehead!" The voice was loud and chipper, with a slight hint of annoyance, "Why'd ya keep hanging up?"

"I'm busy, Sonic. Make it quick."

"Busy? Wait, are you with Sofia?"

Knuckles glanced over at me and answered a little hesitantly, "Maybe."

"Hi, Sofia!"

I couldn't help but smile, "Hello, Sonic."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow your boyfriend. Do you mind?"

Knuckles growled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, "I'm going to kill that hedgehog…"

Chuckling slightly, I played along, "Sure, just make sure he's back by five."

"Five? Why?"

I winked at Knuckles, "Because I was planning on dinner tonight."

The echidna turned bright red (which I didn't know was possible). "Uh… I'm going to take this over there. Hold on a second." His attention turned back to the wristwatch, teeth gritted. "Sonic, this had better be important." He walked down the steps to the foot of the ancient runes out of earshot.

I was turning back to the ancient ruins to study the carvings when a sudden, "SHUT UP SONIC!" made me glance back at the echidna for a brief moment. Chaos, what is going on? I decided that I'd find out eventually and went back to the ruins.

Mm… I traced the symbols gently with my fingertips, recalling as much as I could from my online ancient runes class. That's how Knuckles found me about five minutes later looking a little flustered.

"Um… Hi again."

I smiled, "What language is this? I can understand most of these, but some I've never seen before." I gestured to the runes on the pillars.

Knuckles eyes grew wide, "Wait- You can read ancient runes?"

"I took a class."

"Really? When did you- Oh wait. Um… Okay, how do I word this?" the echidna rubbed the back of his neck. I noticed he did that a lot when he was nervous.

"Knuckles, what is it?"

"Well… something's come up at…work and I'm needed for about an hour, maybe two." He shifted slightly, "Normally they wouldn't need me, but apparently they need my… skills."

I thought this sounded normal and encouraged Knuckles. But he still didn't sound convinced, "I can't take you with me, and I don't want to just leave you stranded here."

I hesitated then replied, "Knuckles, I'll be fine. It's only an hour, right?"

"Yes, but what if-"

"No one knows about this place, right?"

"Well, no. Some people know about it?"

"Anyone dangerous?"

"Yes."

"Any chance of them attacking while you're gone?"

"...Yes."

"Knuckles, I can take care of myself."

"You don't know this guy."

"But I know how to hide." I took Knuckles hands and made eye contact. "I'll be fine. I'll stay right here and draw. If there's trouble, I'll call you immediately. Okay?"

The echidna hesitated, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." I pushed him down the steps. "Now, go."

"But what if-"

I rolled my eyes and kissed him quickly, "Go!"

"Alright, alright!" he started down the steps and stopped half-way down, "Don't touch the Emerald!"

"I know! Now get going!"

The echidna sprinted off and disappeared out of sight.

With a small sigh, I pulled out my sketch pad and began to doodle. My mind was swarmed with new costume themes from Angel Island and I couldn't wait to get them down.

Well, this day wasn't going as planned, but it certainly was exciting. Things couldn't get any weirder… right?

Sonia and Knuckles… you have got to love them.

On a completely different side note, the other day I was pondering my life (like I do) and remembered that Halo makes the comment a lot that she's a lot like Manic. So I thought about it and decided that I'm a lot like Sonia. Then I thought of another friend (whom I will just refer to as Tintin) who is a lot like Sonic.

My friends and I are the Hedgehog Triplets.

Mind blown.

Now you know who Halo and I have been subconsciously using as Sonic, Sonia, and Manic.

Review, please!