Knuckles retreated deep into Silver Valley, still feeling angry and embarrassed about what happened with Sonic. He kept walking long after he left the lake clearing.

"I can't believe I let Eggman dupe me again," He said to himself. "How could I be so stupid?! Well, it's for the last time. No one's gonna make a sap out of me again. I'll find a way back home by my-"

All of a sudden, the ground beneath him lifted up, causing him to completely loose his balance. He was yanked upward, tangled up in a simple net trap. He was left suspended above the forest floor, hanging in a net too far from the branch to free himself.

"What the heck?!" he let out, trying to free himself. "What is this?!"

He tried swinging himself, but the branch was too sturdy and too long for him to get close enough to hit anything. As he struggled, he heard the sound of footprints approaching his net. He looked down and saw a head of red hair approaching from the brush.

"It better not be another freakin' raccoon, I swear to all things Holy."

Finally, the red hair cleared the brush, revealing to be none other than Kat. She looked up at the net with an annoyed expression, one that quickly melted into shock and awe when she laid eyes on Knuckles. Her jaw dropped and she just stared, frozen for a moment.

"Holy… it's one of them… one of the talking animals."

"Hey! Let me down from here!"

Kat blinked, then seemed to snap back to reality.

"You actually spoke… This is beyond awesome."

"Glad you're amused, not get me down from here!"

"No way. You'll just run off if I do. Then where will I be?"

"In possession of all your teeth?"

Kat snorted, holding a hand to her mouth to stifle some of her laughter.

"Yeah, good luck following through with that threat from in there. Seriously, do you not realize I hold all the cards here?"

"I don't play the odds… NOW GET ME DOWN FROM HERE OR SO HELP ME-!"

Kat just laughed again, watching as Knuckles kept trying to free himself from the net, to no avail. She eventually devolved into snickering before looking back up.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal. I need to go dismantle my other traps before I catch another raccoon. If you manage to free yourself by the time I get back, I'll call off my hunt. But, if you're still in the net when I get back, you have to do what I say. Sound fair?"

Knuckles grumbled under his breath, but didn't see many other options.

"Fine."

Kat grinned.

"Cool. I'll be back in about an hour. Good luck uh… you got a name?"

"... Knuckles," He grumbled.

"Knuckles… Cool name." Kat headed back into the brush. "Good luck, Knuckles!"

The second she was gone, Knuckles got to work trying to free himself from the trap. He clawed at the net itself, but he couldn't get any purchase. He tried swinging himself hard enough to break the branch, but he wasn't heavy enough to do enough damage. Finally, he took note of the main knot keeping the net aloft. With a grin, he started climbing up the net as best he could, reaching the knot. He finally managed to get a hold of it, undoing it and allowing the net to fall to the ground with him inside. After that, all he had to do was untangle himself and roll out, which took all of about five minutes.

"Heh, looks like I'm home free. Better luck next time, kid."

With that, Knuckles took off into the woods, hoping to gain some ground before the girl returned.

…

Knuckles had been walking for about ten minutes when he heard the sound of snapping twigs. Instincts kicking in, the echidna dove into the brush, peeking out carefully. After scanning the forest for a bit, he caught sight of his former captor. Kat was in the middle of dismantling a rope snare trap, grinning happily the entire time.

"I can't believe I actually managed to catch one of those talking animals," she gushed as she coiled the rope around her arm. "I hope the net didn't hurt him. That's the last thing I want. Then again, he seems tough, maybe even tough enough to deal with me."

Her face fell slightly, which made Knuckles pause.

"Then again, who would want to deal with me? I'm still not sure why Keith's hung around as long as he has without me scaring him off… Why should Knuckles be any different? Heck, I'm sure he's probably booking it away from me, not that I blame him. I mean, I did trap him in a net."

She sighed, tying off the rope coil and dropping it into her crate.

"Well, whatever. If he's there, he's there, and if he's gone, he's gone. Can't change that, no matter how hard I try… I've been alone all my life, why should it change now?"

As she grabbed the crate and moved on to the next trap, she didn't notice Knuckles in the brush. Once she was gone, he emerged from his hiding spot, contemplating what he had heard.

…

After a while, Kat returned to where she caught Knuckles, expecting to find him long gone. However, she found him sitting on the ground, arms crossed, entangled in the net. She looked at the sight before her in surprise, setting down her crate as she approached.

"You're still here..."

"Tight weave," he excused. "Hard to get out of."

"I… I see." She coughed, her earlier enthusiasm and excitement returning in full force. "So, I guess this means I win?"

"Guess so. Just don't go getting a big head. You got lucky and that's that."

Kat didn't seem to hear the last bit. She was silently celebrating, pumping her fist a couple of times before twirling and leaning against a tree.

"Alright, well, now what do I do?" she mused, tilting her head back as she thought. "Well, I'm not expected back home until tomorrow afternoon. Might as well set up camp for the night. It'll be dark soon."

"Guess we'd better get a fire going then," Knuckles proposed.

"Right," Kat agreed, heading over to him. "You're not gonna run off if I remove the net, are you?"

"No. got nowhere to go, anyway."

Kat looked surprised, then carefully removed the net from Knuckles.

"Really? What about the other talking animals? Aren't they your friends or something?"

"Not really. We just… happened to end up here together."

Kat looked at Knuckles with a sympathetic look as she folded up the net, tossing it into the crate. Knuckles busied himself with setting up a fire pit, lining up some fair sized rocks in a circle and getting some small twigs and grass for fuel. Kat grabbed the bag with her tent, working on getting it set up while occasionally glancing back at Knuckles. He got a small fire going with surprising efficiency, then he settled down in front of it.

"You're pretty good at that," Kat noted. "You like camping?"

"I'm just used to roughing it and living off the land. Done it my whole life."

"Really? Did your dad teach you how?"

"No, it's… just something I've always known. Instinct, you know?"

"I guess..." Kat paused, setting down the tent pieces before glancing back at the echidna. "Do you… have anyone? Friends? Family?"

"... no. it's just me. That's all I've ever needed…"

Kat looked stunned. She turned towards the fire, sitting down across from him.

"You've never had anyone? No mom? No dad?"

"... no…"

"Oh… I'm sorry… it must have been hard on you."

"To be honest… I didn't really mind it. Being on my own is all I've known for the longest time."

"If that's true, then how did you end up here? How do you know the other talking animals?

"We've… encountered each other before. As for how we got here, we were all consumed by an event called Chaos Control."

"Chaos Control?" Kat repeated. "Sounds wicked awesome."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Chaos Control is a warping of space and time that sent us all to this world."

"Then… you're an alien?! Awesome!"

"You're surprisingly accepting of all this. I'm guessing most other humans would be a little more hesitant to someone like me."

"Yeah well, I'm not most humans." Kat crossed her legs, leaning back and cradling her head in her hands. "I've always been drawn to the strange and unusual, which makes me strange and unusual. My mom always encouraged me to be myself and not let anyone try and change me. It's been… trying sometimes, especially when no one wants to be around the intense, weird girl."

"Heh, I've seen weird and intense, and you… you seem alright."

Kat looked over at Knuckles, giving him a small smile. Her stomach then growled loudly, which made her turn as red as Knuckles' fur.

"Oh, I guess I'm hungry." She got up, looking through her supplies before finding her beat-up backpack. "I've got some s'mores supplies, a couple things of trail mix, and some grapes. Want anything? You're probably hungry too."

Knuckles felt his own stomach rumbling, making him wonder when the last time he ate was.

"I could eat. Think I could have some of those grapes?"

Kat tossed him a fair sized tupperware container full of green grapes.

"Have at," she declared. "I'll take the trail mix.

"Sounds good,"

…

Knuckles polished off the last of the grapes, tossing the stems into the fire. Kat had finished off one of the bags of trail mix, fixing up the tent as she ate. As Knuckles tossed some more twigs onto the fire, he turned to Kat curiously.

"So, what do you plan to do with me now?"

"Huh?" Kat let out, caught off guard by the question. "Do with you? I… well..." she blushed. "I'll admit… I didn't think that far ahead. Honestly I… I just wanted to catch and… have proof I'm not the weirdest thing in this town."

"Well, I hope that doesn't mean parading me around town. I've seen how humans treat guys like me."

"Oh no. No, no, no, no." Kat waved her hands frantically. "No way am I doing that. The government would probably cart you off to be dissected or something. So, no. No parading, I promise you that."

Knuckles grimaced, his grip on the tupperware tightening.

"Promises… easy to make, easy to break."

Kat noted his bitter tone, leaning forward.

"You've been lied to before, haven't you?"

"... too many times."

"...is that why you were out here alone?"

"... pretty much."

Silence fell for a bit before Kat spoke up again.

"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what you've been through. Then I come along and trap you in a net, forcing you into an unfair deal." She let out a groan, burying her face in her hands. "I'm a terrible person..."

Knuckles looked at her, hating that he made her feel this way.

"You didn't know."

"Still, you're a… person… animal… thing… what are you anyway?"

"An Echidna."

Kat perked, looking surprised and confused.

"Really? Wow… you look nothing like an Earth echidna. Probably for the best though. Earth echidnas are ugly critters."

"Nice to know I have an edge then."

Kat chuckled a bit in response, causing Knuckles to smile a little. After a bit, Kat sighed in content.

"I needed that, thanks Knux."

"Don't mention it."

They sat around the fire for a moment, then Kat let out a yawn.

"I'm gonna go on and hit the sack," she declared, turning towards the tent before stopping. "If you're not here when I wake up, I'll understand. You're free to go wherever you want."

She then disappeared into the tent, zipping the flaps shut behind her. Knuckles sat alone in the dark, pondering his next move. He looked out at the forest, knowing that he could easily be out of Silver Valley by morning. He then glanced back at the fire, at Kat's tent, and the empty tupperware bin he still had in his lap.

…

The next morning, Kat woke up slowly. She stretched, popping her neck and doing her best to flatten her bed head down. Once that was done, she sighed, reluctantly climbing out of her sleeping bag. She was almost certain the camp would be empty, and she mentally prepared herself for that particular bout of disappointment as she unzipped the flaps of her tent. As she exited the tent, she was surprised to see Knuckles dumping some dirt onto the fire pit, stomping on the dirt to put out the last of the fire.

"Morning," He greeted.

"M-Morning..." she emerged from the tent, confused beyond belief. "You… you're still here."

"I am."

"I- I honestly expected you to leave… why did you stay?"

"Well I thought about it and realized… I don't really have anywhere to go."

Kat let that sink in, then a smile blossomed on her face.

"Well, if you want somewhere to go, you can come home with me. You won't have to rough it anymore, and I'll make sure you have plenty of grapes to eat. Maybe… I can even help you do… whatever it is you're trying to do."

Knuckles cracked a small smile too.

"I'd… like that. If you want I could even tell you more about where I came from. If you're still interested."

"Then it's a deal."

Kat held out her hand for Knuckles, which he took, both of them shaking.

"Now, let's get camp taken down and hit the road," Kat declared. "Maybe we can stop somewhere and grab take-out for breakfast. There's this diner just on the edge of the valley that makes the best chocolate chip pancakes… can you eat chocolate?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Sweet."

She began just idly chatting, discussing plans for the day, various things Knuckles had to try, and working out the best way for him to enjoy himself without being seen. The echidna listened to her, and for perhaps the first time in his life, he didn't feel so alone.