Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are a copyright of SEGA Enterprises and Archie Comics Publication. Delphine is a copyright of me. (The author, duh!) Knux' Birthday --Delphine Knuckles tripped over a rock. he swore to himself. he pulled himself up, and looked at the rock. It was a large one. It was also glowing. "What?" he said outloud. "What?" the rock answered back. "Holy ----!" Knuckles yelled. "Holy ----!" The rock answered back. Suddenly Knuckles saw a purple cloud. "Very funny, Archy. Do ya mind cutting the crap?" Archimedes appeared in the cloud. "Did you like my joke, Knuckles?" Archimedes asked. "Oh, yeah, real amusing Archy." Knuckles spat out. "Do ya mind explaining the reason for that to me?" "So that we could find you!" replied a voice from the surrounding forest . Knuckles whirled around. He saw Sonic, Sally, Delphine, and the Chaotix walking out of the bushes. "What's this all about?" Knuckles asked, confused. "Your birthday!" Mighty yelled. "Wha-- how did you know about my birthday?" Knuckles asked, surprised. "I told them," Archimedes said. "Happy birthday, sweetheart," Delphine said, giving him a hug. She handed him a necklace. It had a red jewel at the end, and looked like a chaos emerald. "This came from Myth." Delphine explained. "Dimitria showed me where they came from. I have one two." she reached under her shirt and pulled out a necklace that looked almost exactly the same, but had a green gem at the end instead. "With these, we can use telepathy to talk to each other whenever we want." Delphine smiled up at him. "Cool!" he exclaimed. He hung it around his neck. Delphine stepped away, and Sally waked up to him, handing him a laptop. "Now you can communicate with all of us whenever you want, and program things as well." Sally looked at Delphine, who hadn't known about his. She took it with a calm face, but her eyes told Sally that she was jealous. She decided to talk with her later. "Great!" Knuckles exclaimed. He was still surprised that everyone had gone to all this trouble. As everyone else gave their gifts, Sonic crossed his arms and leaned against a tree. He had also brought a present, but was trying to decide if he should actually give it to Knuckles. after all, the two off them had fought each other multiple times in the past, and he didn't know if Knuckles actually deserved it. He watched as Vector gave him a rock CD, Espio a CD player, (it was planned), and Mighty a computer game. (That had been planned as well). Sonic sighed, then took the present out of his backpack as Charmy prepared to give his present to Knuckles. He brought it up to eye level. he thought to himself. Then he thought, he watched as Charmy gave him a chemistry set. "It's not exactly the best present," Charmy said, "but you can do some pretty heavy damage with it if you use it right." "Awesome, Charm. Definitely." Knuckles said. Charmy smiled and moved out of Archimedes way. Using his telepathic link to the emerald, he was holding a rather thick book. Knuckles picked it up. "Majik?" Archimedes nodded. "I figured if you're going to protect this island from majikal harm, you're going to know what they're doing," Archimedes said from his new perch on Knuckles shoulder. "Geeze! Do ya hafta ...." Knuckles shook his head. "Forget it. Thanks for the book, Archy." Archimedes nodded and teleported to where the rest where standing. Sonic realized he was the only one left, sighed, and took the gift out of his backpack. Knuckles looked at it in wonder. It was a machine, some contraption of sorts. Sonic walked up to him. Sonic abandoned the thought. He didn't care anymore. "It's a inter-dimensional portal opener," Sonic said, handing it to Knuckles. "You can travel to ANY dimension with it. I-- Rotor and I created it." Sonic stopped, waiting for a response. "Sonic, this is awesome," Knuckles said quietly. Knuckles looked up. "Actually, I was surprised that you came in the first place. I thought...." Knuckles didn't continue. He couldn't. "That doesn't matter. Look, Knux, all differences aside, we're still on the same side. Just because we don't always agree with each other...." Sonic didn't say anymore. Knuckles smiled. He was about to say something more when Vector said, "Hey, Knux, ya gonna sit there and chat or come over and get your absolutely, superduper, top secret surprise?" "Vec-tor!" Delphine said. "What? It's not like I told him what it was!" Vector retorted. "But now he knows about it. That's half the battle!" Delphine retorted back. The two where about to go into a full-fledged battle when Sonic and Knuckles stepped in. "Okay, I'm ready for this big 'surprise'," Knuckles said. Delphine looked towards Archimedes. "Well? We don't have all day!" Delphine said towards Archimedes. "Actually, we do, but....everyone join hands." Everyone did, and Archimedes teleported them to Angle Island. There were streamers, balloons, and even a chocolate cake. "Let me guess, Archimedes told you guys chocolate is my fave." Knuckles said. "Correct again, bud. Now that we're here, let's eat!" Mighty said. "HOLD IT!" Delphine said. Mighty looked at her in surprise. "Forgettin' somethin' Might?" she asked sweetly. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." Mighty apologized. "That's better. Now...." Everyone sang 'Happy Birthday'. Knuckles became even redder than he was in the first place. "Aw, you guys didn't have to...." he said when they were done. "Yes we did," Sonic interrupted. "It was a life or death order!" "Sonic!" Sally and Delphine yelled at him at the same time. "Hey!" Sonic said, putting up his hands. "I was just kidding!" Delphine smiled at Sally. "Mighty, you were saying?" Sally said. "Oh, yeah.... Let's eat!" Everyone ate the cake, and then they played party games. They had a race, which Sonic was excluded from. A tree climbing contest, to see who could go the highest, which Charmy was disqualified from for flying. Then they tried out Knuckles' new chemistry kit, and Delphine made a sweet perfume that made both Sonic and Knuckles want to faint, and i don't mean it smelled bad. Delphine named it 'Rosemary' and she and sally both decided to where it. then Sonic and Knuckles had a wrestling match, which didn't go over to well with Delphine, sally and Archimedes, but nobody got hurt and it ended in a draw. Then it started getting dark, and they started a campfire, which everyone sat around. "Let's tell scary stories," Espio said with a gleam in his eyes. "Sure, why not?" Sally said. She saw that Knuckles was thoroughly enjoying himself. she thought. her thoughts were interrupted when Sonic said, "Scary stories? I've looked at Robutnik! If that doesn't scare me, nothin' will!" "Are you sure Sonic? Or maybe you're just trying to get out of it so that you don't get scared." Delphine said innocently. Knuckles snickered. "What? How could a stupid story scare me? Go ahead Espio, tell it," Sonic said, trying to prove that he wasn't scared. So Espio began. "One day, Ali the rat was walking into her lab. When she went in, she heard someone calling her name, real slow and quietly. She said 'who's there?' but no one answered. She shook her head and worked on her experiment." At this point Delphine let out muffled giggles. She had heard this one before. "An hour later, she heard the same voice calling her name, slowly and quietly, but this time it was closer. She whirled around, but once again saw no one. 'who's there?' she asked again. But no one answered. So she returned to her work. Half an hour later, she heard it again, only this time it was right next to her. She screamed. The voice said to her, 'I am you from the future. If you do not give up on this experiment, you will die.' Ali creamed in terror, and the voice disappeared. That night she resigned. 'I can't go on working' she said to herself. 'I might go crazy.' So she went looking for a new job. "Two days later, she was at home watching the news. It said, 'The Spline Laboratories blew up today on account of the experiment.' Ali gasped. A voice right next to her whispered, 'I told you so.'" Knuckles shivered. "That's creepy," he said. Sonic agreed with him. Delphine just laughed. "It was scary the first time, but the second time you here it, it's actually funny." "You've heard it before?" Espio asked, looking her way. "Yup. Pretty good. Not too many people know it." She looked down at her watch. "Whoa! It's wicked late. I had no idea we had stayed up that long." She thought for a moment, then said, "Actually, it's wicked early." "What time is it?" Charmy asked, suddenly exhausted. "One thirty. No, wait, make that one thirty-one." Delphine told him. "Whoa! Some party!" Vector exclaimed. "You can say that again," Mighty said. "Whoa! Some party!" Vector repeated. "Very funny, Vec." Mighty said. Knuckles looked around at his friends. "Thanks, you guys. It's nice to know that you all care about me." "Aw, don't worry about it Knux." Vector said, the only one who could speak through Knuckles' speech. "But right now I think it's time to get some sleep." Everyone agreed. As everyone was dozing off, Sonic spoke to Knuckles. "Ya know, I could've beat you. I let you win the wrestling match." "Yeah, right. Why would you do that? Besides, I let you win." Knuckles said. "I let you win 'cause it's you birthday." "Neither of you won, it was a draw, remember?" Delphine said to them from the dark. "Oh, yeah," they said together. Sonic fell asleep, and the only Knuckles and Delphine where awake. "So, how did you like your birthday, oh boyfriend of mine?" Delphine asked smiling. "It was awesome. How did you guys pull it together so fast?" Knuckles asked. "It was majik," Delphine said mockingly. "Yeah, majik," Knuckles whispered, looking into her eyes. Delphine stretched out on his chest. Knuckles stroked her hair, then started to doze off. "Sleep tight, birthday boy." Delphine murmured before she fell asleep. "Don't worry, I will," Knuckles whispered, holding her close. He put an arm around her, and she fell asleep on his chest. he thought as he fell out of consciousness.