Author's Chapter Notes:

I still do not own anything related to Sonic the Hedgehog.

It had been six weeks since the incident with Eggman at Twinkle Park. Shade the Echidna knew that it was past time she dealt with Knuckles' new…obsession, before it got even more out of hand.

Shade sighed and walked up the steps leading to the chamber where Knuckles guarded the Master Emerald. When she arrived, she saw the cherished emerald in the middle of the room. Knuckles sat right in front of it, to guard it from any intruders.

The rest of the area was completely covered in cantaloupes.

Knuckles had one in his hand, using his clawed gloves to peel into it so he could eat the fruity part.

"Knuckles," Shade said, trying to break the news to him gently. "I don't think your new obsession with cantaloupes is very healthy, not to you and certainly not to your duties as the Master Emerald's guardian."

Knuckles looked up at her and sighed. "You're probably right, Shade," he admitted, taking a bite out of his cantaloupe. "I can't understand it. The past six weeks, all I've been able to think about is eating cantaloupe." He finished eating his cantaloupe and grabbed another one, starting to pry it open. "And you know what the strange thing is?" he continued, taking a big bite. "I don't even like cantaloupes!"

Sonic and Tails were having a day off in Green Hill Zone. Sonic was on his back, watching the clouds, and Tails was discussing several of his many reasons why he didn't want to move out of the Mystic Ruins.

"See, it's the only place where nobody complains about the noise when I work on my inventions," the kitsune was saying. "And the special energy field the Ruins give off takes care of all the energy needs I have. Without it, most of my inventions would use more electricity than the whole nation combined is capable of obtaining. And besides," Tails finished his argument by dabbling into childish logic. "If I move, Santa might not know where I am!"

Sonic started to laugh. "Aw, don't tell me you still believe in Santa Claus, lil' bro. Everybody knows he's a fake."

"What?" Tails asked, his eyes widening. "Then how do you explain presents on Christmas Morning?"

"Super Heroes bring them, of course," Sonic said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Tails gave Sonic a bewildered look, then shrugged. Sonic the Hedgehog was certainly a strange individual.

Amy Rose was helping Omochao with his Chao Kindergarten class again. Today, to Dark Chao had taken an unaligned Chao's crayons and were teasing him with it. When Amy tried to interfere, the Dark Chao started to scream.

"Stop it right now or I'll knock you all right off the face of the earth with my Piko Piko hammer!" Amy yelled. "It's not like anybody would miss you little brats anyway!"

Then she realized what she said and gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

To embarrass her even more, Omochao had heard her and decided to confront her about it. "Miss Rose! I hardly think such a manner is conductive to raising good little chao."

"I know, I'm sorry," Amy sobbed, her whole face bright red. "It—it just slipped out, I didn't…I wasn't…I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, Shadow, it couldn't have been that bad," Rouge teased as she finished helping Shadow put the last bits of his house back in order.

"It was worse," Shadow replied. "They were monsters. I'm still fixing my apartment. I wouldn't go through that again for anything."

"Well, you probably won't have to," Rouge said. "And yes, I destroyed those photos."

"You better have," Shadow warned. "Frankly, it would have been better for me if you had showed them to everybody. I couldn't wait to get rid of those little brats."

As Shadow stomped off, something hidden at the far side of his kitchen counter caught Rogue's eyes. Curious, she took a closer look, and noticed three small items. One was a purple Chaos Emerald, the one Baby Sonic had been so taken with at Twinkle Park. Next to that, there was a neatly folded bandage that smelled like a cantaloupe. Beside it was a small book. Rouge opened it and saw several violets neatly pressed between the pages.

Rouge smiled and looked to where Shadow had stomped off. "Somehow Shadow," she whispered, "I find that hard to believe."

There we go. Next time: Babysitting Blues!