Hello everybody. For those of you wondering why I'm alternating the characters every chapter, its because I want to. That and I want to make sure that the main characters get their chance to grow onto you and build up to what they're supposed to be. Don't worry, they'll all meet each other at some point; it's just that that point will be in a little while.

Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter. The chapter is exactly just as the title says. The characters in this chapter will meet someone that they never thought they'd see aboard the ship with them being that they all but rushed on board without so much as a second thought. Hope you end up liking how I make out the reunion with them.

And just as a little side note, I'm thinking of probably adding up another genre to this story. However, I'm not quite sure on it yet as I haven't even gotten all the main characters to meet each other for the first time. Isn't it amazing you you all know they're going to meet at some point and just waiting for that moment but keep being denied by all this back story stuff?

Don't forget to leave a review, preferably a constructive criticism if you can come up with one. They help me figure out what to write next. No flames or creative constructive criticisms that are really just flames in nature. If you're going to fave my story, please also leave a review. Your insights and comments are very much appreciated. Until the next update everybody!

Chapter 5: Familiar Faces in Unexpected Places

"Gee, I wonder where we have to go just to get some grub around here," Sonic wondered out loud with a small lick of his lips as he laid on his stomach on a bed inside the cabin he and Knuckles were sharing during their trip across the sea to Mobius. "My stomach's starting to really kill itself here because of its emptiness. I don't think I've had anything to eat today since breakfast, and that was only a small one inch piece of salt pork and a stale biscuit that we had left in our food stash."

Their living quarters was somewhat small due to the fact that they boarded as a couple of third class members, but it was big enough to serve the purpose of sleeping and privacy for the next month's voyage at sea. The ivory white room was fitted with a bunk bed bolted against the left wall with the top having barely even three feet of room before hitting the ceiling. The right side of the room held a large dresser with a television mounted on top of it right next to the only window viewing the outside. Apparently, the ship was lucky enough to have an antenna that allowed them to have some form of entertainment besides touring the ship itself. There was a brown wooden door next to the exit that concealed a small closet and a mirror on the backside of it, while another door led to a bathroom so small that it barely managed to house a sink, toilet, and shower. Thankfully, it was cleaner than what they had to face during their time back at Robotropolis, so they both were not really complaining about a little bit of cramped space. Overall, it was not exactly what they had expected, but they definitely have seen worse in their lifetime back home.

"Well, it wasn't like they gave us a map or anything like that when we got on this floating hunk of metal," Knuckles responded with a shrug of his shoulders as he was lying on his back on the bottom section of the bunk. "It definitely would've been very helpful if they did, though. I think they probably meant for us to find it ourselves if and when we wanted a bite to eat and not bother giving us one. Then again, we've been in here for a couple of hours and haven't really taken the time to explore this ship well enough. And just to clear things up, I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday. I gave you the last scraps of food that we had left this morning, so I'm worse off than you right now."

"And I appreciate the bold sacrifice you made for me there Knux," the cobalt hedgehog stated in a tone that showed he really was thankful at the kind gesture earlier that morning while sounding slightly sarcastic at the same time. "I always knew that living as a couple of poor orphaned kids out on the streets was going to be tough; I never thought that we'd be forced to live through the worst economic time in Robotropolis history and have a hard time getting some money the legit way. I give thanks every legendary entity that's out there that we managed to get out of there and not live though it very long," he added in an overdramatic fashion with his hands raised and touching the ceiling.

"Hey, we would've been alright with my gambling skills working for us," the red echidna said with a sort of smugness in his voice as he sat up and hung his legs over the side, letting his feet rest softly on the floor while rolling his eyes a bit at the childish display his buddy was showing off. "With more people around here losing money, more are starting to take up gambling as a way to make a quick buck. As terrible as it sounds, that's when we can at least try and find a way to earn just enough for food and stuff. Now that we boarded this ship with tickets, we won't have to worry about paying for our next meal for a good while. That's definitely going to be a godsend for us."

"Speaking of paying for our food, I don't think we ever counted how much money we gathered from Sleet and Dingo. I'm sure we won back all of our lost money and then some more on the last miracle hand I played there."

"I still can't believe that you managed to pull off something as amazing as that while being the worst player there. Anyway, I still have our bags on my bed here. Why don't you hop on down and we'll count them up together. The faster we do this, the faster we can go out and search for a place to get a free bite to eat."

"Now that sounds like a good plan," Sonic replied as he quickly hopped off the side of the top bunk, making sure not to bonk his head on the ceiling in the process. "I can't wait to see how much we got on our names now."

With the hedgehog now sitting on the floor, Knuckles quickly joined him as he took the bags and dumped the contents out. After sorting out the clothing and other random stuff from the money, they began to carefully count their winnings with smiles on their faces as they still could not believe they actually won all that.

Within a couple of minutes, they had several different piles of bills and coins, each of them under their own given value. It was not long after that did they finished counting the great pile of paper and metal in their possession. In addition to the money that they started out with, which was around thirty dollars, they had earned just shy over a hundred dollars. The amount was more than enough to let them eat for a good month or so while having some leftover to buy a few more necessities.

"Well, it may not be anywhere near to bringing us up to the second class level, but this is definitely more than what we're used to living on," the echidna said with a half-smile as he began piling the money back into his bag along with his set of clothing. "What a good way to ring in the start of a new life on Mobius, isn't it?"

"Who cares about that right now?" the hedgehog questioned as his stomach gave off a painfully noticeable growl while stuffing his clothes back into his own bag. "What I need now is some chow in my little tank here before I run out of energy and pass out."

"Fine, I get the message here Sonic. We'll go ahead and start looking for that dining hall around here now. Geez, whether or not we got money on us, it's always food that's on your mind, you know?"

With a playful lash of his tongue, Sonic helped put the money away into Knuckles's bag before picking up both of them and stuffing them into the closet. Once he closed the door, he saw the red echidna already at the exit with the door wide open and staring at the empty hallway in front of him. However, he did not move any farther than that because he had no idea which direction to move in once outside.

Without saying anything, the hedgehog moved right past the other and started down the left portion of the hallway. With a raised eyebrow at this, the echidna quickly closed the door behind them and made sure it was locked. He knew that the other was not sure where he was going, but he always liked to run on instinct when he was not sure of anything, so it was not like this random direction behavior was of any surprise to him.

Once they had turned a corner and reached the end of the hallway, they found themselves in front of a set of stairs that led only upward. Next to it was a sign that indicated it lead to the second class B Deck level of the ship. Towards the left was another hallway with a sign above it showing that it only led to more third class cabins.

"Do you have any idea where you're going Sonic?" Knuckles finally spoke up in a slightly annoyed tone after staying quiet and allowing Sonic to lead him to only god knew where. "I may not know just how this ship is supposed to look, but I don't think this is really the way to wherever it is that we can get some food. Why don't you just find somebody around here and ask them where it is."

"Shut up Knux!" Sonic spat out in a slightly frustrated tone as he scratched at the back of his ear, a habit that he had whenever he was frustrated or nervous. "I'm nowhere anywhere near lost here. I'm just...trying to make sure that I remember my surroundings in case we have to come back through here to get to our room. Things like that might come in handy one of these days, you know?"

"...Of course it would," the echidna responded with strong sarcasm marring his voice accompanied with both a roll of his eyes and an amused smirk. "Why didn't I think of doing that before? How very stupid of me."

Before the already frustrated hedgehog could say anything more to his sarcastic friend, they heard the sound of light footsteps coming towards them from the hallway they had just come from. Being that they were in the third class residential level of the Titanic, they both did not pay any mind to it and continued to stare at each other, no wanting to cause a scene with their impending argument. However, they both snapped out of their staring contest when they heard the approaching person calling them by their names.

"Sonic? Knuckles?" the voice that sounded to have belonged to a young boy inquired with strong shock reverberating through it as the sounds of footsteps stopped at the same time. "Is that really you guys?"

In a simultaneous fashion, both teens turned their attention back to the corner they had come by earlier and looked at who it was that had addressed them with a voice that they both found to be very familiar. Their eyes soon rested on a lone figure that looked no older than twelve staring back at them with eyes as blue as the clear sky wide with surprise. He was a small orange and white furred fox who probably stood just over Sonic's with sneakers of the same make and color as hedgehog's, red with white straps fastened with golden yellow buckles on the outsides of the feet. His hands that were covered with white gloves and held together at the wrists with black wristbands seemed a bit fidgety, and his pointed triangular ears twitched a bit in surprise. A few strands of fur stood on the top of his head and looked like an attempt at a Mohawk with as little fur as possible. The one thing truly stood out about him was that he had not just one, but two tails moving ever so slightly behind him, each of them adorned with white fur from the middle to their tips.

"Oh, my freaking god...!" Knuckles whispered under his breath in surprise as his violet eyes grew bigger with equal emotion. His breath had left his body as a result and he found it hard to swallow the lump of surprise stuck in his throat. This also caused him to temporarily lose his ability to speak.

"Is that you Tails?" Sonic spoke up, breaking the silence that had dominated the three a second time after the echidna was brought at a loss for words. "Please tell me that it's really you and not some ghost looking like you coming to tell us that you died sometime after we took off from Robotropolis Port?"

"Yep, you're Sonic alright," the young fox responded with a small amused shake of his head, his feet still planted right where he was at with eyes never wavering away from the two teens. "Only you could manage to come up with a comment like that that doesn't make any sense at all."

"Damn Tails, I never thought that we'd get the chance to see you again!" the echidna exclaimed happily after he finally managed to swallow that bothersome lump and regain his ability to speak. "I was literally thinking about how we had just left you behind without saying so much as goodbye when we were in our cabin. How the heck did you manage to get yourself on board the Titanic?"

"I could practically ask you both the same question," Tails redirected the question back towards the two in front of him as his feet finally saw fit to work and led him closer to the two. "I never thought that I'd be able to see you two again after I boarded this ship. You won't believe how surprised I was when I thought I heard you guy's arguing with each other out here in the hallway."

"I don't think surprised isn't really the word to describe what I'm feeling right now," Sonic replied with a smile as his stomach growled out in protest, something that happened coincidentally after he made that comment. He then added in a very defensive tone, "And that's not what I'm talking about!"

"Let me guess, you two are out here looking for a place to get something to eat, right?" the young fox questioned with a small snicker escaping from the back of his throat. "Oh, aren't I glad that some things never change? Come on you two, I was about to make my way to the third class dining area for a bite to eat myself. If I didn't know any better, you're both probably lost and have no idea where it's at."

"Eh, I guess you could say that," the hedgehog answered with a sheepish chuckle leaving his lips as he scratched the back of his ear nervously. "How about we use this time to catch up with each other over some nice dinner? We haven't really had a chance to talk with each other for a few months now."

"Go ahead and lead the way little guy," the echidna responded as he watched the fox lead them towards the dining area. The two quickly followed closely behind him, both still pleasantly surprised at being able to see a familiar face aboard the Titanic and looking at each other with a pleasantly amused smile.

Within a few minutes, the three managed to make it to the dining area that was partially crowded due to the fact that it was probably dinnertime. Another couple minutes later, they all had a tray of food in their hands and looking for a nice unoccupied table to sit at. Once they found a suitable table, they sat around it and began to eat while catching up and answering each other's' questions.

"So how exactly did you two managed to get yourselves the tickets to get aboard this ship?" Tails asked as he lifted his spoon out of a steaming bowl of hot chicken soup and blew at it before putting it into his mouth. He then added after chewing and swallowing a bit, "The last time I saw you two, you both weren't really in the best of situations in terms of money, and even the third class tickets cost an arm and a leg to get."

"Well, I suppose you could say that we both managed to get a real lucky break with that," Sonic answered as he picked up one of the few chili dogs that were topped with the works and sitting on his tray and began digging into it. With his mouth full and miraculously managing to not spray food anywhere, he added, "Would you believe it if I told you that I managed to win us the boarding tickets in a game of poker in a pub that was on the harbor?"

"You won two tickets by playing and winning a poker game?" the two-tailed fox exclaimed as he raised his eyebrows in both amusement and surprise. "I thought you didn't know how to play poker."

"That's because he didn't at the time," Knuckles clarified as he took a bite of the cheeseburger in his hands and chewed at it for a good while before swallowing. "A couple of guys at the bar called Sleet and Dingo came up and challenged us to a game of tag-team poker, and Sonic was the only one I trusted enough in the whole place to have as a partner. I had to speed-teach him everything about the game so that he wouldn't get himself killed in the poker war and lose all his money in the process."

"And that makes it even harder to believe that he managed to pull off a win, especially on a game that had tickets in the bet. I might just be a preteen fox, but even I know the basics of poker and could probably hold my own in one game. And just how did you manage to pull that one off on your first game anyway?"

"I guess you could just call it a stroke of luck," the hedgehog responded with a cocky smile on his lips as he finished his first chili dog and quickly went to work on the other. "I had a good hunch that the last hand was going to be good for me, and I just went along with my gut feeling."

"Yeah, and he almost gave me a heart attack with that stupid gut move of his," the echidna said with a small groan as he remembered the feeling of being sick during the game. "You won't believe what he had in his hand when he decided to go along with Sleet's bluff at the time. He had nothing but unreliable junk while the other had a pair of aces on him."

"And I'm guessing that this Sleet character felt cocky with his hand and kept trying to rob you both of your money. That still doesn't really explain to me how you both took the tickets away from him. I don't think that anybody would be that cocky as to put ship tickets up for bet."

"Well, he happened to have a dumb-dumb for a poker partner who somehow managed to actually play a good poker game. When Knux went all-in, he also decided to put in the gold watch he got from his father as a way to get more money. I'm guessing that was when he thought he got a good hand."

"Hey, getting a straight in the game is a pretty good hand to play with. I didn't think that Dingo would've been so simple-minded and thought it would be fair if he put something of value other than money into the pot, too. But boy, the look on Sleet's face when he did that was beyond priceless."

"And then it ended up that you had the lowest hand out of all of us on the table while I had the biggest. Oh, the look of utter shock and surprise from both of those bozos is definitely something that I won't be forgetting anytime soon when I showed off my straight flush that totally decimated his four aces."

"A straight flush, huh?" Tails responded with eyes raised minutely in surprise as he finished the last of his soup he had been eating while listening to his friends' poker adventures. He then picked up a ham and lettuce sandwich topped with tomatoes next to the bowl while saying, "I never thought that Sonic would be able to get such great beginner's luck on a game of chance and luck. Then again, when he has a gut feeling about something and goes along with it, the chances of him being right about it is pretty high. I honestly have no idea where he gets that kind of intuition and luck."

"Uh, you do know that I'm still sitting here, do you Tails?" Sonic asked as he swallowed down the rest of his second chili dog and went to work on his third. "Don't talk about me as if I weren't even here. It's really annoying. And why are you going around bashing at my great hunches and skills at luck? I can't help it if I'm probably one of the luckiest guys in the world who's very in tune with himself."

"Don't you actually mean that you're a guy who's full of yourself and who tries to look for excuses out of everything inside his dark little heart?" Knuckles rephrased teasingly as he finished off the last of his burger and chewed away at it while picking away at the golden French fries left on the plate. "For as long as I've known you, which has been since the time my father introduced me to your uncle, you've always had a way to worm your way out of trouble. And those gut feelings of yours are just a side effect of always getting yourself into trouble and just going with the first thing you think of in order to try and get out of it."

"Well, you can't deny that it's been working pretty well for us these past couple years of living out on the streets," the cobalt hedgehog responded in a muffled voice since his mouth was full of hot dog and condiments. When he swallowed the mass of food, he stated, "Name one other person that you know who happens to have the kind of luck and instinct that I have, regardless if they got into trouble every now and then. I bet that you wouldn't be able to do that if your life depended on it."

"I'm not going to engage in another bet with you for as long as I live," the red echidna responded as he stuffed some fries into his mouth while some of his fur stood on end a bit. "Having a near heart attack experience with you as my partner in just a poker game is more than enough for me. Honestly, you should've seen the stress this guy was putting me under during the entire game."

"Anyway, I think that's enough of just us two talking about ourselves here. How about we hear some things about you and the life you lived without us for a while, little buddy? We haven't really seen each other for a few months now, so how about you tell us a bit about what you've been up to lately?"

"Well, I've been working on a few of my inventions and hoped to get them recognized as things that would work for everyday living," the young kitsune explained after swallowing the bite of sandwich that was in his mouth and explaining about his life's passion. "Some of them ended up going to the scrap heap, but others held some potential in them. After tinkering around with those I thought would work, I managed to create a machine that could control almost every electronic in a house with a portable remote. It was the only thing I could make on such a small scale with what little materials that I had on me, but I managed to get the thing in so-so working condition."

"Wow, that sounds like a pretty sweet piece of technology you made there," Sonic said with a low whistle as he took a forth dog into his hands. "Then again, only you could manage to create something cool with only a few pieces of junk and some working tools. Did you manage to get your invention through with whoever it is that takes care of all this technical inventions and stuff?"

"I actually got a lucky break on that, you know? Before Robotropolis began its crazy downward spiral in economics, I went to this patent company and introduced my prototype to them. Long story short, they went head over heels on the idea and gave me a contract to sign. Apparently, they were so excited about the machine that they happily looked over the fact I was eleven at the time. I had to wait a couple weeks before I would be set for life, but I was clearly on the road to that."

"If you had it all made, then why are you now on this ship thanks to the help of a third class ticket?" Knuckles asked with raised eyebrows as he continued to stuff more fries into his mouth. "The last I checked, the economic downfall came around almost two months ago. You should be living the life of luxury right about now with us at your side and all that. I mean, you would have tried to find us and ask us to live with you, would you?"

"Of course I would. I would never leave two of my best friends out on the streets to fend for themselves, even though they already know how to do just that. It just wouldn't feel right to me if I did that."

"Then what exactly happened that didn't allow you to find us?" the azure hedgehog questioned as he finished half of the food in his hands in two humongous bites. He then added with his mouth completely full and barely audible voice, "The cohrac din't go hrugh o somin ligh that?"

"I can't believe that I managed to understand you, but that didn't exactly happen. You see, somebody saw it fit to go about spreading these stupid rumors that I managed to steal the blueprints for the prototype out of his lab. With that said, the authorities found it fit to believe his word over mines simply because he's a full grown adult and I'm just a little kid who should theoretically not know what I'm talking about. I tried to talk to the guys at the prototype company, but they just refused to listen to reason. They even tried to put me under arrest for theft right then and there. I still don't know how I managed to get myself out of that building and away from them all."

"Wait a minute, you were what?" Sonic shouted out, nearly choking on the lump of food that had just went down his throat and came back halfway up due to his sudden outburst. Now in a coughing fit, he took the cup of water he brought along with his dinner and downed the whole thing in just one go.

"What do you mean you were about to be arrested?" Knuckles continued on with the question, although he did so a bit calmer and quieter than the other teen tried to do. "Are you actually telling us that they didn't want to accept that the idea was yours just because of some punk wanting to ruin your life?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it. Because of that, I was forced to go into hiding. And before either of you say anything about me trying to find you and seek protection behind you, I was practically a wanted fox from the moment I left the patent office. I couldn't risk being seen wandering in the open, especially when there were a lot of people looking for me."

"Then how the heck did you manage to survive without getting yourself caught for the next two months?" the hedgehog asked after he got his throat unclogged and took a deep breath. "You had to have found some way to get your food and stuff to have survived that long."

"Well, it wasn't my number one choice, but I went to a group of people's house in hopes that they would believe what I told them and not rat me out. I'm telling you, I think I managed to inherit some of Sonic's luck for a moment there because I managed to score a temporary hideout from the public eye. The group I crashed with called themselves The Chaotix Detective Agency. Not only did they believe my story; they even went so far as to try and grab some information to try and clear my name. As a way to compensate them and to fully cement my story, they asked me to build them something that could help with their detective work.

"Needless to say, I managed to make them a fully working device that doubles up as both a record keeper and profile scanner," the kitsune continued on after taking a small break to finish up the rest of his sandwich. "With my new creation under their belts, they then considered my payment to them in full along with the acquisition of their trust. Unfortunately, the search for me was starting to get even more rigorous, and they couldn't afford to keep me around with them since the police now resorted to forced searches of houses."

"That still doesn't quite explain how you got yourself on this ship. However, I think I can take a guess as to who helped you get on."

"There's nobody around here who could've helped me out with this Sonic. Being that I showed them my trust with my creation along with fixing up a few things around their place, they wanted to help me out to buy some more time with the investigation. However, they were a detective agency that worked outside of the Robotropolis Police Force, so staying with them during forced house searches was out of the question. So they did the next best thing, they got me a disguise along with a third class ticket that they managed to buy at a discount so that I could hide out on Mobius before the problem here caught up with me. I would suspect then that you know the rest of the story from here."

"Well, talk about getting the luckiest break of your life there," Knuckles responded as he finished the last of the fries on his plate and drank a bit of his soda. "You meet a group of detectives that were inclined to believe you and your story, provided that you made something that would work for them, while they hid you at their place and helped to clear your name. And as if to go the extra mile to help make sure you weren't put in jail, they buy you a third class ticket so you could hide out on Mobius until the dust settles. I think you're right when you said some of Sonic's luck rubbed off on you."

"Are you sure these Chaotix guys can be trusted with not telling those stupid cops and patent guys about where you're at right now?" Sonic asked with doubt in his voice as he scarfed down the rest of his fourth hot dog and picked up a fifth and final one on his tray. With his mouth full once again, he said, "I wunin't truf unione ehept my besh friends to keep me sufe an all that."

"Please stop talking with your mouth full," Tails chastised the hedgehog with an annoyed shake of his head, wondering in the back of his mind how he always managed to figure out what the other said whenever he did this. "Not only is it disgusting, but it's hard to understand what you're saying. I've probably been hanging around with you too much if I can actually understand every word you said. And just how many of those chili dogs can you wolf down in one sitting? God, I think you're on your fifth one right now.

"Anyway, I have my complete trust in those three in that they will try their best to keep my location hidden for as long as possible from the patent company and the Robotropolis Police," the little fox continued as he moved the discussion away from Sonic's amazing and borderline atrocious eating habits and the bottomless pit he liked to call his stomach. "They also said that they were going to continue with the investigation and try to find those who tried to ruin my name. They found a couple of leads while I was there, but none of them seemed to make any kind of connection."

"Well, the important thing right now is that you're safe and with us now," the red echidna responded with a warm smile as he scooted over next to the young fox and placed a comforting arm over his shoulder. The little fox smiled at this friendly gesture. "As long as we're together on this ship, Sonic and I will take care of you and make sure that nothing bad happens. You can be sure that we'll keep our word on that. After all, you're practically like our little brother we never knew we had before."

"You said it Knux," the cobalt hedgehog agreed happily as he scarfed down the final bits of his final dog as if it were only his first one of the meal. "We know you better than anybody else on this planet, and we know that you're a genius with machinery who would never steal ideas from other people just to make them out as your own. The only thing I wish I could do is figure out who that damn guy was that actually had the balls to say you 'stole' an idea from his lab at some point."

"Well, there's nothing that you or anybody else on this ship can really do about this now even if you wanted to. We're all on our way to Mobius right now, and it's pretty much a one-way ticket with no way back unless you buy another expensive ticket for the trip back. However, I'm guessing you guys didn't bother to read that little detail on the tickets when you won them," he added as he saw the two older teens' shocked reactions at this revelation.

"You're saying that we can't go back to Robotropolis?" Knuckles asked, although his tone sounded more questioning than surprised as his face was showing. He then added in a nonchalant fashion that was not in his regularly sarcastic or tough-guy attitude, "Oh well, it wasn't as if I wanted to continue to live in that dump of a city anyway."

"Wow, I didn't think that you'd take this so well," the cobalt hedgehog responded with raised eyebrows, figuring that his red furred buddy would have acted more surprised than he was now being that he had lived there all his life as opposed to himself who was only raised there since he was young. "I thought you said a few years ago that you would never think about moving to another place outside of Robotropolis and call it home."

"Hey, that was before the economy took the biggest nosedive it's taken in history and forced every high official to want to arrest a poor defenseless twelve-year-old fox," the echidna said as he rubbed the fox's head in a brotherly way and causing said animal to squirm a bit at the movement. "The people there should be embracing the fact that they have a self-made genius amongst them, not making some stupid lies and condemning him from society with a brand as a liar and stealer of ideas. I don't care if I lived in a city known for its mechanical prowess; I'm not going to be calling that place home anymore because of that."

"Well, what do you know? Not only can you be stubborn to a point, but you also can be quite impassioned when it comes to us. I should've known long ago that you were really just a big old softie in on the inside."

"Don't press your luck with those comments hedgehog. This 'softie' can easily knock you out and throw you across the world and back again. You'd be way past over a hundred after you wake up from the coma I'll give you."

"And I love you, too, tough guy," Sonic answered with a smile and a friendly roll of his eyes while Tails simply laughed at the two teens' antics. He then added, "By the way, did those Chaotix guys ever say something about the things they managed to scrap together before you left?"

"Well, they did give me a note with the clues they managed to scavenge; but as I said earlier, it wasn't anywhere near enough to put together into a workable piece of information," the kitsune said with a shake of his head before getting up from his seat and stretching a bit. "To be perfectly honest with you, I don't really want to talk about it right now. I'm kind of a bit tired with all this catching up and explaining. Maybe I'll bring it up again sometime tomorrow when we meet up again?"

"Tomorrow?" the hedgehog asked in a sort of dumb fashion, watching as a waiter came by and picked up all of their empty and dirty dishes from the table and taking it with him to the kitchen for cleaning.

"Of course tomorrow. Please tell me that you and Knuckles will still be on board when I wake up tomorrow morning. It'd be pretty stupid to jump overboard or take a lifeboat for no good reason, especially since you're not really too keen on the thought of being so close to water. I still can't believe that you managed to get yourself to be on this ship with water virtually all around you."

"Trust me; I wasn't thinking of that when I was running to catch this ship. All I was thinking about was the chance to be able to go back to the place where I was born."

"Whatever you say. I'm going to go and be in my room for the rest of the night. I've got some things that I brought with me and want to finish working on. You guys are welcome to come visit me whenever you want, except in the middle of the night for no good reason. I know you guys sometimes like to stay up late at night and all that."

"Hey, we changed a bit since we last met," Knuckles called out to the now retreating form of the fox making his way back to his cabin. "We don't stay up that late anymore. Staying up late out in the streets isn't exactly the smartest thing to do when a city is on the verge of an economic meltdown."

"That's what you said the time before the last time we met," Tails countered before leaving the dining area and back to the third class cabin hallways. "Just don't go bothering me on odd hours of the night."

"I still can't believe that we managed to run into Tails on this ship, of all places," Sonic replied with a sigh as he walked slowly out of the same exit the kitsune went with Knuckles right beside him. "Who would've thought that we'd be this lucky to see him again?"

"Yeah, I only wish the little guy weren't in so much trouble that other people have caused for him," the echidna responded with a disapproving shake of his head as he recalled the story the fox had told them. "He deserves better than that, and it just bugs me that I wasn't there to help him when he really needed it."

"Hey, you can't change what's already happened Knux," the cobalt hedgehog said with a shrug of his shoulders as they began to make their way down the hallway that would lead them to their cabin. "How about we abandon all this thinking for tonight and call it a night like Tails is? All this catching up has made my brain tired."

"Only you would get tired just by thinking. Oh well, I guess I'm one to talk to since I'm tired myself. It's too dark to really do much of anything right now, so I guess I'll just follow your lead here."

With that said, the two teens finally made it to their cabin. Knuckles dug the key out of his gloves and opened the lock on the doorknob. Once they had both went inside, the hedgehog closed the door and they both decided to stay inside for the rest of the night. Taking note of the small mounted on the wall, they took note that it was only seven. Being that they did not want to go back outside, they passed the time by playing a friendly game of poker against each other with the money they won so they could decide who would get how much from the winnings. And this is what they kept doing for the rest of the night until they had to go to sleep for the first time on the grand passenger ship Titanic.

Well, here's the new chapter that happens to be one of the longest I've ever written in the longest of times. Hope you like this unexpected reunion Sonic and Knuckles had just experienced after going on board on a whim. And for those of you who don't know how to understand "talking with stuffed mouth" language, here's the translation.

"The contract didn't go through or something like that?"

"I wouldn't trust anyone except my best friends to keep me safe and all that."

They are all translated in the order they first appeared and all. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Until the next update everybody!