Pranks and Party of the Epilogue
Though Amy's quills weren't perfectly restyled and Tails still smelled obnoxiously of perfume, they and the other members of the Team got together for the birthday party that evening. Knuckles had placed a plank of sturdy driftwood over the pit in front of Amy's house for guests to walk over. So no one had any accidents placing gifts inside and getting confections in return.
After a bit of running Sonic arrived at Amy's house to see quite a crowd assembled outside. Several benches were placed around and it seemed their neighbors in the village had taken the opportunity to turn this into a potluck. In fact it looked as though Amy's birthday party had taken the usual dinner rush that the Meh Burger would be getting.
It also helped that Espio was sticking around, seemingly becoming a bit of an attraction. A line formed up to him for people to "take selfies with a Ninja." The catch being he'd blend into a different spot for each photo, making spotting him a challenging game.
"Having fun?" said Sonic, leaning up against Amy's deck near Espio.
"I'm doing promotional work for the Chaotix Agency," said Espio, pausing to vanish, and probably smile, for another photo. "Your friend's event is a good opportunity."
"Well, do you like your work? The whole Ninja thing that is," said Sonic.
A slight twinge of a smile appeared on Espio's face before he refocused his seriousness. "I can't imagine doing anything else."
As the last selfie taker, a local deer, uploaded the photo Sonic heard a ping on several nearby phones. Most notably Tails' with its custom tone as he walked along the deck behind Sonic carrying a box of contraptions.
"Oh hey!" said Sonic, "heard you before I smelled you this time!"
"Yeah I washed most of that air-freshener perfume-stuff out of my fur, but I still smell it everywhere I go," said Tails. "Hold this for a second?"
"What're all these contraptions?" asked Sonic as he took the box from Tails.
"Contraption singular, in separate pieces for transit," said Tails, before knocking on a closed window to Amy's house. It opened far enough to show Sticks, who now looked about as calm as she usually did. "Got a few more selfies for you!"
Tails presented his phone screen and Sticks leaned close, arms crossed while squinting at it. "There he is under the window. He's standing on one foot in this one. There he's mostly behind that table."
"Wow," said Tails, "You're so good at this! I gotta get some where's Waldog books for you."
Espio let out a disappointed sigh, of which Sonic noticed.
"Don't fret too much," said Sonic while leaning over to Espio, "Sticks is unnaturally good at the small details when she feels like her life is on the line, which I guess is almost always."
"If there are small details to find, I still need to get better," said Espio.
"If you Ninja's learn anything new I'll adapt," said Sticks from the window.
Espio and Sticks made eye contact for a moment, both squinting slightly. Seeing this, Tails put his phone away and went to take his box back from Sonic.
"Well I should get back to work setting this projector up and- hey!" Tails leaned down next to Sonic and picked up some doohickey with copper wire coiled on it, "you dropped a piece!"
"I feel like I was staying pretty still bud," said Sonic.
"It's not broken at least," said Tails while throwing the doohickey in the box and taking it from Sonic.
Before Sonic could argue about this, Knuckles and Amy came out the front door carrying trays of different snacks and treats. Several colourful cookies and muffins adorned some trays while others were like a charcuterie of meats and cheeses. This drew the attention of most of the guests outside who quickly crowded around them. Even Tails abandoned his project for a moment to fly over and snag a handful from each platter before they were put down.
"Good idea, saving some for us," said Sonic.
As Tails landed on the deck he frowned and glanced between the snacks in his hands and Sonic. "Us?"
Sonic chuckled and said "I'm just kidding, mostly," before reaching over and taking a piece of bologna off of Tails' hands.
"Guys!" said Amy as she forced her way out of the crowd, "Knuckles and I made extra just for us later."
"Better let Tails get his fill in now or the rest of us won't see those snacks," said Sonic.
"Speaking of," said Sticks, "the rest of you alright with that other Ninja taking some of yer confections?"
Everyone turned toward the crowd around the snacks table, noticing the Mantis Ninja casually walking away with a to-go bag. They glanced over and noticed the team staring. This didn't seem to worry them, as they finished eating a cracker.
"Hey! I thought I recognized you!" said Knuckles, leaning over the crowd and pointing.
"Oh great, you got another trick for us?" said Amy.
"No," said the Mantis, "my task has been dismissed, I am only here for professional courtesy."
"Good," said Sonic, who was now behind the Mantis with a breeze of wind, "Cause I wouldn't wanna make a scene here."
"Who said you could have those snacks anyway?" said Knuckles.
"The apparent social customs of this public party," said the Mantis.
"Oh yeah, social customs," said Knuckles.
"Actually hang on," said Amy before running into her house. She quickly returned with a larger and more dressed up cupcake. "You should take one of these too. I honestly appreciate your attitude."
"Thanks," said the Mantis, taking the cupcake.
Sonic stepped aside and let the Mantis leave the party as Amy waved them off.
"Was that actually a kind gesture, or…" said Sonic.
"Or," replied Amy with an evil smile.
The smell of burning wires filled Dr. Eggman's evil lair, even as most of the fires had been set out. All this done by someone simply prying metal panels loose and throwing pine sap onto the wiring. None of the damage to the exterior of the structure was actually critical, but he really dreaded just how close to catastrophic several spots of damage were. If the Badger had dug just a bit deeper into the holes she made, she could've irreparably damaged critical functions.
As it was though the Badger only shut down the ventilation and set enough fires to create a frightening image. Still, the thought that she knew exactly what to target in his lair greatly bothered Dr. Eggman. Though at the moment, not as much as potentially suffocating on bad air, of which his assistants took to reminding him.
"My sensors still say the air contains noxious levels of carbon monoxide," said Orbot.
"I haven't got the ventilation going yet!" said Dr. Eggman from under a control panel, "You don't need to tell me nothing's changed until something should be changing!"
With an audible click the lights in the room flickered, then the air started to move as the fans slowly wound up. Smoke drained from the ceiling at a steady rate. Dr. Eggman sighed in relief that he wouldn't have to choose between brain damage and sleeping outside.
"Oh hey, the extra spicy particles in the air are going away," said Cubot.
"My onboard carbon monoxide detector still says the air isn't perfect, but it should be clear soon," said Orbot.
"Alright, are there any other 'hazards to my health' I should worry about?" said Dr. Eggman, waving his hands in mock drama.
"...Nothing critical sir," said Orbot.
"But in non-critical news the Ninja you hired is back!" said Cubot.
Dr. Eggman turned and saw the Mantis Ninja standing a few feet away with a gift bag in their arms. Their antenna twitched and they side-eyed the smoke, but they didn't say anything about it.
"What? Keeping an Evil Lair operational without a few hazards is nigh impossible!" said Dr. Eggman.
"I will take your word for it. I do not have the credit to own a lair," said the Mantis.
"Whaddya got there?" asked Cubot.
"Confections from the hedgehog Amy Rose's party," said the Mantis, holding out the bag, "you may have them, if you want them."
"Hmm," Dr. Eggman grabbed the bag and laid out the contents on a nearby table. The pastries and lunch meats did look enticing and well prepared, but he doubted they tasted much better than his TV dinners. After scrutinizing a card shaped cookie from the assortment he gave it a bite. It turned out to be good enough for him to forget to pretend he wasn't enjoying it. "Well, maybe I should program my assistants' cooking modes off of the pink ones' recipes."
"May I try one boss?" said Cubot.
"For the last time, I'm not inventing a robotic mouth with flavor sensors just so you can waste food!"
"Well, it would help us to prepare you better food sir," said Orbot.
Since he was unsure if he could give a good rebuttal, Dr. Eggman turned to the Mantis instead. "I appreciate the gesture, but this won't get you that fifth star."
The Mantis nodded, then suddenly leaned past him and cut a small chunk out of the biggest and most colourfully decorated cupcake.
"Helping yourself eh?"
"Testing a suspicion," said the Mantis, before they ate the bit of cupcake and got an inquisitive look on their face, "The hedgehog Amy insisted I take this one specifically."
"Oh, testing to see if it laced I see!" said Dr. Eggman, patting the Mantis on the back of the head, "smart!"
Dr. Eggman then proceeded to take a bite of the cupcake. To his surprise, instead of a sweet flavor, he was met with an overwhelming burning sensation. It was as if all the sugar had been replaced with capsaicin. His face turned bright red and he screamed while running to the nearest sink.
"Why the hell didn't you notice any of that spice?!" yelled Dr. Eggman between bouts of gargling water from the sink.
"I did, and I am in incredible pain," said the Mantis. "By the time I had found the words for it you'd already taken a bite."
With the rude intrusion on the Team's playful pranks resolved, the remaining daylight soon turned to Mischief. Not before everyone remembered to independently let Sticks in on the timing of their respective pranks. She had requested as much.
Before enacting his primary plan, Sonic made sure to tap every guest to Amy's party on the shoulder and disappear before they looked. As planned, he caught a glimpse of Tails seeing this before secluding himself inside to finish some 'secret project.' Now was the time.
Slowing his pace to an uncomfortably slow walk, he slipped into Amy's house behind Tails. Just as expected, the genius fox had sat next to some candy bowls while fiddling with some sort of projector. As quietly as possible Sonic creeped closer and placed one extra bowl of candy shaped like mints.
Tails' ear twitched. Thinking fast, Sonic tapped him on the shoulder and ducked away.
"Ha hah Sonic," said Tails, reaching to feel for anything stuck to his back, "figured you'd be more creative."
"Dunno what you're talking about," said Sonic as he stood up from behind a table. "I'm just checking your reflexes."
"And what would you have done if I jumped and blinded you with my new invention?" Tails tapped the yellow painted projector, sending a wave of light over Sonic who covered his eyes.
"I'd just not look at it, duh," said Sonic.
For a moment, Sonic thought he heard a clicking sound. Then the projector shut off as Tails started fiddling with it, coils of copper wire in one of his hands.
"Aw heck, it's still a bit glitchy," said Tails, before he grabbed a couple special mints and shoved them into his mouth.
Sonic felt a subtle smirk on his face and turned away from Tails. "Well I'm sure you'll get… whatever that is working."
Little did Sonic know, Tails had a similar grin on his own snout as he faced away from him. "Oh I know I will."
"Hey guys," said Knuckles, stepping into the house holding what looked like a brown paper bag, "does this thing I found on the roof look like a hornet nest?"
Both Sonic and Tails turned to look, simultaneously realizing that yes, it did appear to be paper wasp or hornet nest of some kind. They realized the looks on their faces must've answered this question as Knuckles' eyes widened while looking at them.
"Knuckles, get that back outside," said Sonic.
Of course with their luck, a cloud of angry looking large wasps flew out of the nest. In an instant it entirely engulfed Knuckles.
"KNUCKLES!" yelled Tails.
The swarm cloud turned toward Sonic and Tails, prompting the former to grab the latter and make a run for it. They reached the back door in under a second, but were blocked by Amy walking in with a paper cup in her hand.
"What's with the screaming in here?" said Amy, putting a hand on her hip.
"Amy MOVE!" said Sonic.
"Ex-cuse me?" said Amy with a dramatic flair of offense.
"SONIC!" yelled Tails.
The cloud of wasps was already upon them, causing both Sonic and Tails to flinch. Both expected to start receiving several painful stings. Instead, the droning buzz of the swarming wasps moved past them. Both blinked, then turned to see most of the wasps landing on Amy. Several were taking tiny sips from the cup of soda in her hand. The unconcerned look on her face seemed to mock them.
"Amy… did-, did you domesticate a swarm of wasps?" said Tails.
"Well what else was I supposed to do when a nest appeared on my deck? Recklessly spray pesticide all over the place?" said Amy.
"Okay. But. How?" said Sonic.
"With this breed, you just gotta bribe them with sugary food!" said Amy with a bright smile, "Learned that from Sticks. Then double checked with an entomology book to be safe."
Knuckles walked over from the other side of the house, no sting wounds on him. "Wow you two totally panicked! Hah!"
"That was legitimately terrifying," said Tails as he finally jumped out of Sonic's grasp, "I thought you were a goner."
"Well I think you might be becoming half ghost Tails," said Knuckles, pointing at Tails' muzzle.
"What?" As Tails turned to face Sonic and Amy, it became clear that the food grade dye in those 'special' mints was more effective than Sonic hoped. His entire mouth was neon green and almost looked like it glowed. Of course seeing this Sonic couldn't help but snort and scrunch up his face, revealing his betrayal.
"Sonic what'd you do to him?" said Amy, the wasp swarm on her turning to glare at him.
"Just added some prank dye to a bowl of mints," said Sonic, "the package said it was safe to eat."
Tails found a mirror and looked at his maw, before gasping dramatically. "Sonic, I'm allergic to green three!" He proceeded to put a hand over his head and slowly fall backwards, getting caught by Knuckles.
"Oh No! Tails, hang in there!" yelled Knuckles.
"It's too late… I've been… filicide-ed…" said Tails.
"Dude I know they put the green part of that dye in half the things you eat," said Sonic.
"Oh come on Sonic, let him be theatrical," said Amy, putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder. An immediate small static shock caused them both to flinch.
That shock seemed completely random, until Sonic caught a glimpse of the pure evil look on Tails' face as Knuckles' shadow cast over him.
"What did you…" Sonic was cut off by the sound of every magnetic metal object in the room sliding across the floor, "...ah, I see."
Within a few seconds Sonic and Amy's quills frazzled and were covered with spare change, keys, lint, and a few of Tails' tools, The wasp swarm flew off of Amy in surprise while she made eye contact with Sonic. The two of them then glared at Tails.
"YES! It worked!" said Tails, before trailing into a full maniacal laugh, "I'm a genius! It only took me half an hour to throw that device together! And neither of you noticed me giving you separate charges!"
"I have no idea how that is supposed to make sense," said Amy.
"I think I understand it," said Knuckles, "good going Tails!"
Sonic walked over to Tails, who was still giving him a self-satisfied grin. He then poked him on the nose, zapping his whiskers with static electricity.
"OW!"
The change in charge caused everything to fall out of Sonic's quills and onto the ground. Tails responded by trying to tackle Sonic. This soon devolved into a full light-hearted battle between the two of them while Amy tried to break them up. That struggle continued until Sticks appeared in the doorway with a clay vase.
"Yins guys done deceiving each-other yet?" said Sticks.
"Yeah yeah," said Sonic, holding a flailing Tails in the air by the scruff of his neck, "come one in!"
Sticks hesitated for a moment, but stepped inside and held the clay vase out to Amy.
"Did you make this?" asked Amy.
"Yeah," Sticks looked away, "I know where to get good clay, the hard part was learnin' how ta use it."
Amy pulled Sticks into a hug, who tolerated it for a couple seconds before becoming fidgety. The other three cooed at this gesture. Sticks sighed and rolled her eyes, but Amy ignored them as she released the hug.
"Thanks for coming out of your burrow today, really."
"Course, I like ta think I trust you guys," said Sticks.
It didn't take Amy long to find a shelf to put Sticks' homemade clay pot on, nor to find a wildflower to put into it. She clasped her hands together and turned to her team with a smile. "Now, who wants to get dressed up!"
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks all looked at each other with expressions of skepticism.
"No no trust me this'll be fun!" said Amy, placing a box of fantasy costume pieces in front of everyone.
"...I guess that cape looks cool," said Sonic.
As the Sun started to set outside everyone helped gather up the garbage outside. Soon there was no litter left to bug the local environment. Inside, Tails had finished setting up the projector device on Amy's ceiling and given her a remote control and instructions. From there everyone picked out some bits of costumes which included faux armor, capes, cloaks, and a variety of large fun hats.
Amy had gotten the most dressed up, adorned with the garments of a witch. She then handed everyone sheets of paper with a couple powers and skills listed on them, insisting that she'd explain the rules as they played. It wasn't like any of them would have the focus to study beforehand anyway. The most eager other than her was Tails, though he was clearly reaching the end of his energy level as she caught him napping on his feet a couple times.
The Projector Tails had built clicked on, painting a scene on the walls, depicting a hilly gothic environment.
"You're all the chosen defenders of your home village," started Amy in a monologue, putting on a dramatic voice as she read from a notebook, "The Witch of Rose Thorns has summoned you here, telling of a terrible scourge on its way into this realm…"
While Amy had at least four more paragraphs of introductory context to give, a glance at her friends revealed that their collective attention was already waning. Sonic clearly wanted to try and entertain this role playing game, but his foot was anxiously tapping as he waited. Sticks had become distracted by searching the projected background on Amy's walls. Tails and Knuckles were trying to keep track of the important points of the monologue, but the prior could barely keep his eyes open and the latter seemed to be stressed out by the numbers on his character sheet.
"As… the Witch of Rose Thorns…" Amy flipped a few pages ahead of her notes, "she beckons you to join her on a dramatic and romantic quest, but is interrupted by-" Amy pressed a button on the remote, causing a burst of fog to blow from the projector. An image of a ghastly knight in a threatening pose then projected onto the fog between her and the others. "A Dark Knight of the Spiked Gate attacks!"
Tails' eyes widened and he immediately shook Sonic's shoulder. "Look! It works! Hah!"
"Woah, neat!" said Sonic.
"So is this guy real, or…?" asked Knuckles.
Amy smiled, and pressed another button on the remote. The image of the knight entered a sword swinging animation as she said "While you all hesitate and talk, it attacks Knuckles!"
"Oh no!" said Knuckles.
"Yeah, you take a cut to the arms," said Amy.
"Oh NO! I need those!" said Knuckles.
Running past Knuckles, Sticks thrust a foam spear into the projection of the knight. "I stab him! Or her! Them! Repeatedly!"
"Wait, can I kick the Knight's helmet off?" asked Sonic.
"You two attack!" said Amy, a smile growing on her face as she rolled dice nearby and glanced at the results, "and knock the Knight prone! Mortally wounding them with the spear!"
The image of the knight changed again to a still projection of it lying face down on the ground. Tails got more excited with each successful use of the projector as he hopped over. "I wanna question the knight! Who sent them?"
"Yeah! I also demand they tell us who sent them!" said Sticks.
"And do I need to worry about getting an infection?" asked Knuckles.
Amy shook one of her hands to keep her excitement at a reasonable level. It seemed like her friends were actually engaging. So she quickly flipped back to the opening monologue, finding the name and goal of the villain, declaring it from the dying knight. None other than King Arthur, seeking to tear down the land to build a new castle and city.
"Oh man, what else are we gonna fight?" asked Sonic.
"No spoilers," said Tails, "but this device should be able to project some pretty big beasts."
"Like a werewolf?" asked Knuckles.
"I take offense to that," said Tails.
The Team continued asking questions about the game, Amy more than willing to oblige the violent direction they seemed to want to go toward. The excitement was even noticed by those lurking outside of Amy's house, watching them from a distance.
"Sir, it appears they are indeed having fun," said Orbot.
Sitting in his backup grounded eggmobile and sucking on an ice cube as he watched through binoculars, Dr. Eggman let out a sigh. "What range exactly would you say?"
"Ninety-two percent fun efficiency," said Orbot.
"Oh! That's at the 'having a blast' level!" said Cubot.
"Darn, if I crash this party in revenge now, they'll be way too mad about it," said Dr. Eggman, "If they were only mildly enjoying that game I'd be willing to risk it. But not now… Robots! Abort Attack!"
Several badniks on the beach started moving and following Dr. Eggman back toward the sea and his evil lair. This to the disappointment of a cloaked Espio, who appeared from behind a rock. "Damn, now attacking him would just be assault."