Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are a copyright of SEGA
Enterprises and Archie Comics Publication.
	Delphine is a copyright of Delphine.

	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 shit!" Knuckles yelled.
	"Holy shit!" 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 too." 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 then only Knuckles and Delphine were 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.

    Source: geocities.com/timessquare/dungeon/Dungeon/5221