Sonic made his way speedily through the green fields of, well…Green Hill. Soon he would be entering the metropolis of Station Square, and he would need to be cautious as to not run out in the way of cars and/or pedestrians. The blue hedgehog sighed. He yearned to be out in the wilderness, where he could just…roam free. No worries.

When the hedgehog arrived at his apartment building in the junction of Marble Street and Casino Way, he strode calmly into the building, where he met two of his best buddies, Tails and Amy. Sonic held his breath in preparation of Amy's oncoming strangle, but the two animals were instead sitting on a bench looking very sad. He blinked, confused.

"Tails? Amy?"

Tails looked up and took his comforting hand off Amy's back. Sonic walked over to the two as Tails wiped away a tear that was dripping down his muzzle.

"S-Sonic," he choked out. "Knuckles is dead."

Sonic's jaw fell open and his pupils dilated. "What?!"

Amy went into a tear fest again as Tails stood up and put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "I-It's true, I wouldn't lie," Tails spoke again, furrowing his brow with sadness. "It just came up all of a sudden…Amy and I had picked up some radiations from a chaos emerald, and we went to Angel Island to get him to help us search for it, and when we got there…"

"He was dead, lying on top of the Master Emerald's shrine." Amy spoke out for the first time since Sonic's arrival.

Sonic grabbed his eyebrow. He felt the tears forming at the corner of his eyes. "Th-this is awful…" he muttered. "Just the other day, he and I had a punching contest…he won of course…"

Tails wiped away a tear as he rubbed Sonic's shoulder. "We have no idea what could've caused this…the medics here are performing an autopsy, and…"

"A stupid autopsy won't bring Knuckles back!"

Sonic smacked away his friend's hand, much to the fox's surprise. "Entrusting Knuckles' body to some medics who know nothing about us is about the worst possible thing to do, bro'!" Tails' bottom lip quivered.

"I'm s-sorry, Sonic, it was m-my mistake…"

"Geez!" Without another word, Sonic zoomed out in a huff. Tails laid his ear back and brought both of his gloved hands to his eyes.

"W-what are we gonna do, Amy?!" The pink hedgehog glared off in the direction Sonic had left.

"Tails, don't listen to what he told you," she said sternly, standing up. "He's just being irrational now, it's OK."

"I know. I've known him long enough to expect that." The fox shifted his gaze to the tiled floor of the apartment building. "One of us has to check back with the medics, and the other has to go after Sonic."

Amy nodded. "I agree," she replied. "Tails, if you don't mind, I'd like to pursue Sonic. You'd be better that me at deciphering what the doctors have to say. If you can handle the professional stuff, I can handle my man."

Tails smiled slightly. "Alright, then. Try to comfort Sonic, and…don't let him run off and start accusing people."

"Don't worry."

Amy finally let her eyes dry one last time before speeding off after the blue hero. Tails followed her out and turned in the direction of the Station Square Hospital.

Inside the hospital, there were three floors; Tails inspected the directory at the front of the building and finally realized that the morgue was on the bottom floor. The fox nodded and ran to the elevator.

Meanwhile, Amy had finally caught sight of Sonic and chased him into a grassy green field. "Hey, Sonic!" she called out again, for what had seemed like the hundredth time. The blue hedgehog gradually began slowing down, and then he finally stopped altogether.

Amy jogged over to the spot where he sat and collapsed next to him. "You put up a…good race…" she stuttered in between gasps. Sonic didn't pay attention, though. The tears started back up in his eyes again.

"It's…just so hard to believe," he said finally. "I mean, Knuckles has…has been my best friend…my rival before Shad came along…he helped us out so much…" Amy nodded understandably.

"I know," she said soothingly. "And don't worry. We're going to find out whoever did this and take them down too. Knuckles may be dead, but his memory will still live on."

Sonic scrubbed away the tears that were now liberally falling down his face. "I know." The hedgehog then stood up and looked out in the general direction of Angel Island. "Amy…we have to head for Angel Island right now. We need evidence!"

Amy stood up next to him. "Don't you think we need Tails to come with us?"

"He'll be OK, who knows…the doctors might've found evidence in the autopsy. We need to go right now, before whoever did this gets away with it."

The two hedgehogs began speeding in the direction of Angel Island. Unbeknownst to them, though, was the fate of Tails.

Yeah, so, whatcha think? I'm gonna post another new Sonic fic to go with this one, I just need to time to actually write it. This is usually a little more morbid than anything I'd write (probably even more so than Spirited Away), but tell me what you think by clicking that review button! I won't bug you with responses, I promise!