Next thing the stoned Echidna knew, he had washed up unto another shore and there was a "hOI! i'm tEMMIE!" flying at him from all directions.
The cold, turbulent waters that lead him there did little to mend his killer high, as he was met by a pack of strange cat things with dog ears and human hair and striped shirts that babbled amongst themselves incoherently at the sight of him.
Bob the Temmie did not share in the excitement of her brethren, deigning instead to continue sorting through her bowl of Temmie Flakes at the latest impromptu Temmie picnic event happening nearby.
"Hey there little guys," Knuckles said woozily, greeting the cutey chimeras with pats on the head. "I'm Knuckles. Know any dealers in town I can pay in favors?"
The Temmies tugged on his wet cornrows with their mouth and jumped up and down to nibble at different parts of his body with their little teeth. None of this seemed to bother him until one came too close to grazing one particular tattoo of a large-breasted bat woman hybrid who featured prominently in his past, on his left forearm, which earned the innocent Temmie a swift backhand to the face.
"Keep your paws off the princess, little man!"
Bob had witnessed the act, and whereas her somewhat less enlightened contemporaries were moreso confused by the random violent act, she made a stand against the stranger.
"What makes you think you can just swim over here, disturb our picnic, and then PUNCH a Temmie?"
The other Temmies, who had gone to see if their wounded friend was okay, rallied behind her. With their claws and fangs bared they hissed and growled menacingly; transforming from cute and cuddly to razor sharp balls of fur with a thirst for blood in milliseconds.
"You aRE a BAD muscle dog!"
Knuckles realized he had fucked up. Strong as he was, he did not feel confident going into a fight against their overwhelming numbers – especially whilst still high – so he looked around for another solution. Luckily, the left pocket of his torn denim jeans had held on to what were to him the two most important items he elected to bring with him on the rescue mission, out of all the invaluable survival tools that were left behind in his knapsack.
"Hey, I know we got off to a bad start, but I can show you guys something rad."
All the Temmies watched curiously as he revealed the crack pipe and lighter. As he poured the water that had collected in the pipe he scanned the sand underfoot for more of the same crystals from earlier, and sure enough there were plenty, so he gathered enough to constitute a fix for him and each one of his new acquaintances. Bob rolled her eyes as she looked on; somewhat ashamed to be a member of the same species as her peers who were so easily distracted by such a simple trick.
"Any of you Temmies ever smoked crack before?" Knuckles said as he struggled to produce a flame with the wet lighter. "This is sorta like that but there's a little more flavor to it. Not as good as a chaos emerald shard, but hell these things are everywhere so I gotta give them extra points for convenience."