Chapter 3: A Get-Together at the Beach:

I'm Knuckles the Echidna! But they

just call me Knuckles! Today's been as good as ANY day

in this house, but I don't mean that as an insult! You'd think that

since we're all super-fast characters, we'd be running around

outside in this beautiful weather, but quite frankly...I'm pooped

after that workout! So what else do you expect us Sonic characters

to be doing? Why, sitting around and playing our own

games, of course!

Back in Team Heroes' room, Sonic and Knuckles were sitting in front of the TV, playing the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed. Sonic was controlling the Werehog as he played through the Dragon Road night stage, before a wave of enemies came out of the ground, and Sonic was rapidly shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to punch them. (Sonic could do just about everything fast, not just running).

"D'aww, why can't my gameplay be like this?!" Knuckles said with a groan, "It always has to be goddamn treasure hunting!"

"Well, you were set to appear in this game, but you were cut from the final version." Sonic said, "And besides, you don't always get treasure hunting! What about the team-based platforming?"

"That doesn't count!"

A large enemy called a Big Mother came out of the ground, and spit out a bunch of foes. The Werehog entered unleashed mode, and took him down with rapid punching combos.

"OH COME ON!" Knuckles shouted, as he saw this happen, "IT'S SO UNFAIR! I DON'T GET TO DO THAT!? WHAT THE HELL!?"

Sonic gained access to the goal ring and got an S-rank.

"Ah, memories!" He grinned, "Probably the coolest gimmick those developers ever gave me."

Sonic then shut down the Wii and he and Knuckles left the room.

"C'mon. Let's see what Tails is doing." He suggested.

"Good. Enough of that bullshit for one day." Knuckles replied.

My name is Rouge the Bat! Better known as the

government agent Rouge! Ugh! I feel so awful! I woke up from

a horrible nightmare, ate a stale biscotti for breakfast, and

worst of all, I screwed up in front of Shadow yet again! Could

this day get any worse?! ...Phew! Okay, calm down, Rouge!

It never happened! Just, uh, do something to take your mind off of it!

Meanwhile, Rouge was in her room. She was watching the shopping channel to try and get her mind off the "incident" earlier that day. Someone knocked on her door. It was Amy and Blaze, both wearing two-piece bikinis. Amy's was white, and Blaze's was violet-purple.

"Hi. Wanna come to the beach with us?" Amy asked.

Rouge tried to come up with an excuse.

"Uh, I don't know. I have, uh, things to do, and uh…" She began.

"C'mon. We were just thinking of getting everyone together and going to the beach. We'll play volleyball, we'll drink cocktails, we'll go swimming. What's not to like about that?" Amy asked.

"Oh, well, is Shadow coming?" Rouge asked, blushing nervously.

"No, he's not. He's on a GUN mission. Now will you please come?" Blaze pleaded.

Relieved that she wouldn't have to worry about Shadow, Rouge agreed. She then proceeded to shut her door and get ready.

My name is Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails!

As for me, I'm really digging this new mansion! It has a

garage that can hold every plane I ever flew, while STILL

having space for me to fart around in! And the house has just

enough space for all of us to live here without fighting!

What more could I possibly want?! Anywho, this morning,

I felt the urge to buff up my machines again, so after a

surprise awakening and the best breakfast I ever made,

I made it my daily goal to do just that!

In the garage, Tails was busy fixing his Tornado and talking to Sonic and Knuckles.

"...So then he goes, 'Hey look, a giant talking egg!', and man was I a dumbass to not take a photo of the look on Eggman's face!" He jeered.

Only Knuckles cracked up.

"Eh, I don't recall Eggman adopting any facial expressions during the entirety of that adventure." Sonic replied, "Come to think of it, everyone was acting weird back then! They weren't speaking with emotion, and they were moving their faces and bodies as if they had a two-foot-long chili dog jammed up their asses!"

Then a familiar feminine voice came.

"Oh boys!"

The trio turned to see Amy and Blaze coming their way. Amy had a towel around her neck, a bag of various alcohols to make cocktails with, and a bag of suntan lotion and snacks. Blaze had a towel around her neck, a volleyball net, and a volleyball against her hip.

"Lemme guess. You want us to go to the beach with you guys?" Sonic asked knowingly.

"Well, I guess it did look kinda' obvious, but yes."

"Well, we'd be happy to go." Sonic said.

"Okay. Meet us at Emerald Coast." Amy replied.

"Oh, and be sure to spread the news to Silver." Blaze pointed out.

As the trio headed back to their bedroom to get ready, Knuckles asked:

"Why did you agree to it? She'll probably love on you the whole time! We all know it annoys you!"

"Well, she's finally over me now that we live in the same house, and she's much calmer around me too. That's an improvement! Besides, and don't tell anyone this: I'm beginning to like her back." Sonic replied.

Knuckles and Tails looked at each other, shrugged, and continued getting ready.

After all the guys had gotten ready, they all piled into Sonic's personal car from All-Stars Racing.

"Crush 40, anyone?" Sonic asked, holding up a CD.

"Yeah!" Knuckles and Silver said in unison.

"Aww, but I wanted to listen to 'Blue Hedgehog Group'." Tails whined.

"Hey! I thought we said we wouldn't ever speak of that!" Sonic snapped back.

Before Sonic could insert the disc however, the daily weather repot came on, startling him into fumbling with it, before finally catching it.

"Good afternoon, I'm Omochao, giving you today's daily weather report. In the Emerald Coast region, the high today is 96 degrees. We're expecting nothing but clear skies and sunshine today, with a 0% percent chance of rain. However, there's still a slight chance of aggressive killer whales, so if one attacks, bolt for the docks and run like hell! That will be all." Omochao said.

The road consisted of hair-pin turns, loop-de-loops, and corkscrews, and passed through a cave, before finally running along Emerald Coast. After unpacking the car, Sonic, Tails, Silver and Knuckles set up a spot along the beach next to where the girls were. Sonic was whistling the Emerald Hill Zone theme while he set up a small charcoal then applied sunscreen to his exposed chest and arms, got out a surfboard, and he and Knuckles headed off to the water. (Despite his fear of water, Sonic was not afraid to surf). Tails was about to go for a swim, until he was stopped by a voice.

"Hey. Where did you boys come from?"

Tails looked back. It was Rouge. She was sitting up on a beach-chair, wearing a hot pink two-piece bikini. The top had no straps, and had a white ring connecting the breast cups.

"Oh, Amy invited us to come too." Tails replied.

Rouge nodded, lied back down and donned a pair of white horn-rimmed sunglasses with lenses the color of red wine. As this was happening, Silver was passing the conversation, carrying the volleyball net to a suitable spot, with Blaze walking alongside him. Blaze eyed the conversation not far away from them, taking notice of Rouge.

"If I catch you looking anywhere below the neck, you're sleeping in the tub for a week!" She warned, speaking through gritted teeth and glaring at Silver, who gulped in response.

Sonic was surfing, wearing red swim trunks with white stripes and a gold buckle holding them on his waist. He grabbed the front end of his board and spun around as he jumped a wave, with Knuckles close behind, attempting to pass him. But Sonic won the race, and walked his board up the beach. He passed by the volleyball game, where Amy greeted him, asking if he wanted to join. Sonic, due to his developing attraction to her, agreed, and it was him and Amy against Blaze and Silver. Amy tossed the ball up, jumped after it, and whacked it full force at the opposing side with her hammer. Silver took Blaze in his arms and back-flipped out of the way, dodging the ball, which hit the ground really hard. Blaze's gold eyes were replaced with red hearts, as he safely put her down and went back to the court. Silver grew angry.

"Why the fuck did you serve like that!?"

"Uh, well…" Amy replied, embarrassed.

Silver interrupted: "It doesn't matter. Just don't do that again! And look! You hit it so hard, it popped!"

"...And of all days to forget the pump!" Amy sighed.

"Don't worry guys! We'll still have fun here! Besides, the dogs are ready!" Sonic comforted, running to the grill and turning it off.

Everyone gathered around, and took a hot dog.

"Uh, Sonic, are there any toppings for these?" Tails asked.

"Of course, the chili's right here!" Sonic replied, eagerly putting some on his and downing it in a single bite.

Tails and Knuckles rolled their eyes. Sonic's most favorite food was chili dogs, and he had brought the grill here just to make them. What they didn't like about it was that Sonic always ate a whole bunch of them, and they gave him horrible gas. Everyone shrugged, and reluctantly began to eat. Amy unfolded a table next to the grill and asked:

"Who wants a drink?"

"I'll have a dirty banana." Knuckles ordered.

"Uh, I'll just have some of the weakest you've got. Apparently, I'm the one driving." Tails said, as he heard Sonic order two martinis. Despite her liking for alcohol, Rouge decided not to have any now.

I'll have a drink later. I don't want to already be drunk during my plan tonight. She thought as she joined the party.

I'm Amy Rose! I'm cute and I'm full of energy!

I don't think we could've picked a better day to come here!

The high is 90 degrees, there are no clouds in sight, and

the fruits that make the best alcoholic drinks are all in

season! Shame that I'll probably end up letting loose a

strong fart later! I love Sonic even more than soft-serve

ice-cream, but even I dislike how obsessed he is with chili dogs!

It was 2:00 in the afternoon. Amy waded into the water until she was about knee deep. Then she stared out at the splendid view off of Emerald Coast. The water's surface was shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Sonic stepped into the water near her. He too began to stare out across the ocean. Then the silence was interrupted by Amy saying:

"Sure is a great view, isn't it?"

Sonic was startled, as it didn't look like she had seen him enter the water. He agreed. He shot a quick glance at her. His expression was between nervous and confident, as he inched a bit closer to her. After what felt like hours of silence, Amy said something Sonic never thought he'd hear her say:

"Y'know, about those many times before? I'm sorry I chased you and tried to force you to go out with me." Amy apologized.

Sonic answered with: "Well, I apologize for always running away when you weren't doing me any harm."

Then an unexpected move was made. Amy took Sonic's hands in hers, (which she had done many times before), but this time he let her. Sonic then made up his mind. He pulled her in closer, and said:

"You know, you were right, I am lucky to have you."

The two hedgehogs sank into a deep kiss in the water for about 60 seconds. Tails was swimming 100 yards away and caught a glimpse of them. In a quiet voice, he said:

"Way to go, Sonic."

Back on the beach, Knuckles was reading an issue of "Sonic the Comic" on a beach chair, occasionally putting his book down to stare at Rouge (who was sunbathing a few chairs down) through a pair of binoculars, before quickly putting it back up whenever she made any sort of movement.

"Alright, that's enough, Knux!" Amy scolded.

"Keep your voice down!" Knuckles whispered through gritted teeth.

"Well, it's time to go regardless!" Amy replied, "And besides, she's so obviously into Shadow! I've noticed that whenever he enters the room, she always sits with her body facing him and with her legs parted slightly."

"Oh." Knuckles replied, before glancing at Rouge, who appeared to not have been listening to the gossip.

"GUYS!" Amy shouted, prompting everyone to start hurrying, (as well as startling Silver into accidentally spitting some margarita onto Blaze as the two drank from the shared glass).

Everyone packed up and got into Sonic's and Amy's personal cars. In Sonic's car, Tails was driving, (since he'd had the least to drink), with Sonic next to him and Knuckles and Silver in the back. Amy and Blaze were in the front of her car, and Rouge was lying in the back, attempting to tan some more. When both cars pulled into the circular driveway, Rouge got up and removed her sunglasses, but was shocked to see that Shadow's personal motorcycle was back in its usual spot. She knew Shadow would probably see them come in, and he'd see her not looking quite decent. Rouge blushed, as she walked shyly into the house. Thankfully, Shadow was in his room taking a nap on top of his bed, so she was able to go to her room and change back into normal attire. Everyone else changed out of their swimwear after a fun lunch-party at the beach.