Everyone agreed with their hero before Amy leapt up and offered to make a meal with Cosmo. The mood lightened immediately when the thought of Amy's roast dinner came into everyone's mind. Even Sonic was excited, as long as chilli was involved in the meal, which took negotiation. Cosmo couldn't help but take up a small plate to where Cream was sleeping and sit it on the bedside table. Maybe the powerful smell would wake her up? After a lovely meal, Cosmo decided she wanted to go up and sit with the small rabbit alone, she was awfully worried. This was the first time that she had ever been harmed, especially since it was a rarity she was even a target.
'Cosmo seems to be taking this pretty hard.' Knuckles said as he slouched on the lounge.
'You're not wrong, but she is still being very optimistic about it.' Tails agreed.
'It's not like Cosmo to give up, especially give up hope.' Amy added with a smile.
A minute of silence fell over the gang, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Amy had rung Vanilla who was away on some sort of business trip, when she found out she was in hysterics and insisted she come home right away. It took some convincing but Amy reassured her she was perfectly fine with her and the others. Vanilla demanded contact and status on her every day and to send her love to everyone, she was motherly like that.
Knuckles stood up and began to walk over the kitchen to put his cup away. He stopped in the middle of the room and just stood there for a few seconds before the glass cup in his hand dropped and shattered into tiny pieces on the floor. Everyone jumped before looking in his direction, he was just staring at nothing.
'Knuckles? Are you ok?' Sonic asked curiously.
'Knuckie? Sweetie? You there?' Rouge said, still flirty, as she waved her hand across his face.
-
'Cream needs help, Knuckles. Bring her too me!' A female voice rang in his head.
'Who are you?! What do you want?!' Knuckles shot back, in his imagination.
The image became clearer. He was on Angel Island, staring up at the Master Emerald before a girl appeared and began walking down the grand stairs. She was a red echidna, like him, only her hair was wrapped in bandages and she fashioned an older looking dress. Sort of, Egyptian?
'You know me, Knuckles. You've met me before.' She said to him.
'I have! You're right! But what is your name? And how can you help our friend?'
'Bring your friend to me and I can help her.' She said before bowing her head and fading away into nothing.
'Wait! Where are you going?! What's your name? Where do we go?! Hello? Hello? Hello?
-
'Hello? Hello? Knux?' Sonic repeated as he waved his hands frantically across Knuckles' face.
'Huh?' He replied hazily as the blue hedgehog helped him to his feet.
'What the hell happened to you? Oh, don't move because you're surrounded by broken glass.' Rouge said as she steadied him.
'I'm onto it.' Tails said as he started sweeping up the shattered glass with a dustpan and brush.
'Are you ok, Knuckles? Where did you go?' Amy asked sweetly.
'Yeah, uh, I'm fine. I just uh- SONIC! The girl was there!' Knuckles cut himself off and shouted.
'Huh?' Sonic said as he narrowed his eyebrows into a confused expression.
'The girl! You know the girl!' Knuckles exclaimed again.
The room went silent as everyone stared at the red echidna like a mental patient. He looked around at his friends waiting for one of them to understand what he was talking about, but of course, nothing. Sonic arched and eyebrow and gave him a small smile before cautiously placing a hand on his shoulder.
'How hard did you hit your head, Knucklehead?' Sonic smirked, causing the others to giggle.
'This isn't funny!' Knuckles shouted.
'Agreed… WHO'S THIS GIRL YOU'RE DREAMING ABOUT?' Rouge asked in a very angry tone, causing Knuckles to blush.
'Oh, Rouge!' Knuckles brushed her off before continuing, 'No, the girl. The red echidna that kept sending us visions, Sonic!'
'Oh! Now see, if you'd said that first it would have been so much easier.' Sonic chuckled and Knuckles simply rolled his eyes.
'Well, what did she say?' Cosmo asked.
'You'll all think I'm mad.' Knuckles admitted.
'We were looking at 'mad' in the rear view mirror when your only explanation was screaming 'Girl! Girl!'.' Shadow smirked.
'He's right, so what happened?' Tails asked.
'She told me we have to bring Cream to her, because she can help her?' Knuckles said confused.
'What's she going to do?' Amy asked.
'Well, I didn't really have a great chance to talk.' Knuckles replied sarcastically.
'We don't even know this girl's name, let alone her location or anything else? How does she expect us to bring Cream to her?' Tails asked.
'More importantly, why should we trust her?' Rouge questioned suspiciously.
'She's helped us before.' Sonic said to reassure her, yet her suspicions didn't subside.
'Still seems fishy to me.' Rouge shrugged.
'Well, it's all we've got for now. I think we all need a good night's rest!' Amy said with a smile.
'Couldn't agree more, Ames! I'm beat!' Sonic said with the same smile that made the pink hedgehog's heart melt. She was hiding it well tonight, although on the inside butterflies were exploding like fireworks.
'How about you girls stay up in Sonic's room with Cream, just in case.' Tails suggested.
'You don't mind do you, Sonic?' Cosmo asked politely.
'Nah, I never use that bed anyway! Go for it.'
'Great! Looks like the guys are bunking down here.' Tails said before letting out a small yawn.
'And Rouge, the nocturnal bat, will go for a night fly. I'll be back soon though, ciao babes.' Rouge winked before flying out the balcony door and into the sky.