A/N: Well, it's the end! In more ways than one. Following this, I have a date with the Time Eater, AKA schoolwork. It'll be a date to die for, to quote a phrase. XD Anyway, I had a bit of a summer fling and posted a boatload of fics, but now during the school year I don't plan to write anything. I probably won't be able to resist plunking away at the keyboard now and then, but the default writing mode will be zero. I don't want to set people's hopes high and then disappoint them.

So, it's been a really fun summer! I'm going to miss writing this crazy stuff. But I'm still probably going to be reading, reviewing, PMing, and generally darkening FanFiction's door, so don't breath a sigh of relief just yet. :P

And on a happier note, since people seem to like the Kid Brigade stories, I'm planning two more, for Marine and Tails! Maybe you can guess the general topic of Marine's story? And I have a few holiday specials in mind too, plus a whole list of other ideas I hope to get to sometime.

So, I think that's it. Peace out y'all, and hope you have a great school year!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.

And a little Knuxouge thrown in, for a special friend of mine! You know who you are. ;)

A week later, Sonic went out for his usual morning dash. Tails went with him, since he was going to make a few stops along the way. First they winged their way over to Angel Island.

"Hey Knucklehead, how's the gluin' doin'?" called Sonic, sliding to a halt in front of the Master Emerald.

"Slowly," grumbled Knuckles, attempting to detach himself from the glue tube. "But surely. I think I'm about half-done, and it can only get easier from here. As long as none of the earlier pieces were wrong."

"I can come over and help sometime if you want," offered Tails, crouching down to sift through the little pieces of stone. "I'm good at puzzles. Wouldn't this piece fit in over here?"

"You're right!" Knuckles finally pulled the glue tube off his hand and grabbed the stone shard, only to find that he was now stuck to that.

"Argh! Get off!" Losing patience, he waved his hand furiously. "This is gonna kill me!"

"Too bad it's not like the Master Emerald," remarked Tails. "You could just throw the pieces in the air and holler 'Pachacamac tablet, unite!' and it'd just—"

He broke off as the shards of stone suddenly began to glow. Leaping into the air, they neatly assembled themselves back into the tablet, and the cracks between them fused into nothing. The relic was now intact, except for Knuckles' hand still stuck to the top of it.

"You echidnas had some wild relics," said Sonic, blinking. "Do all of them do that?"

"I dunno. Wish you'd come and said that line sooner," grumbled Knuckles, finally tugging his hand loose, then extending it to Tails. "But thanks anyway."

"Uhh, maybe we shouldn't shake hands," ventured Tails awkwardly. He didn't relish the thought of spending the day stuck to Knuckles.

"Come on, Tails, we've gotta make the rounds before it's afternoon!" said Sonic, already turning to dash off.

"I'll come talk to you about the security system after lunch!" Tails called to Knuckles. Whirring his tails, he took off after Sonic. A few more minutes of dashing, and they would be at their next stop.

Just as soon as Sonic and Tails had left, Rouge dropped lightly from atop the Master Emerald.

"Morning Knuckie!"

Knuckles jumped.

"Where did you come from?!"

"Originally, you mean?"

"Don't make jokes," grumbled Knuckles. "What do you want?"

"I just noticed that your tablet was fixed," smiled Rouge. "Mind if I have a look at it?"

"No way. The deal's off, Rouge. You're not getting hold of this tablet again!"

"Oh come on, don't be stingy."

"I said, no."

"Hmph!" Rouge folded her arms and looked away, offended. Knuckles sighed.

"Here, you can have this."

Rouge glanced over with one eye and saw that Knuckles was holding out a piece of paper.

"It's blank," she said, unamused.

"For now," sighed Knuckles. He pushed the stone tablet closer to her. "Trace it. Then g'wan out of here and don't breathe a word of this to anyone."

"Awww," Rouge smiled. "Thanks, Knuckles."

"Sure, sure. Don't suppose you'd cut me into that treasure a bit? I could have just gone to find it myself, you know."

"I'll think about it," grinned Rouge, beginning to copy the map from the tablet to the paper.

"Think about it," grunted Knuckles. "If you do more than think about it, I'll be impressed."

He shook his head as the paper tore between the pencil and the tablet's uneven surface.

"No, do it this way."

He laid his hand on top of Rouge's, showing her how to angle the pencil and follow the lines. It wasn't until a few minutes later that they both realized what they were doing and pulled their hands apart hastily, reddening and avoiding each other's eyes.

Meanwhile at the Chaotix Detective Agency, a medium level of chaos was being sustained at all times. The phone rang as if its ringer had gotten stuck, faxes kept spewing out of the fax machine, and Espio was trying to figure out how to set up an email system on the Chaotix's primitive computer. Charmy was whizzing back and forth with armloads of paper to feed the fax machine, trying not to run over Vector.

"Yo, Chaotix Pizza Agency!" called Sonic, swinging in through the door.

"Aww, give us a break, Sonic," said Vector, looking up with a rueful grin. "Can we help it if Charmy put the wrong number on the poster design?"

"Hey!" squealed Charmy. "I just copied the number Espio gave me on a piece of paper!"

"And I copied down the right number," said Espio firmly. "It's not my fault that Vector's desk is such a mess that I wound up grabbing the wrong piece of paper to give to Charmy. They looked identical!"

"Whose desk are you calling messy?!"

"I don't know, maybe the desk of the one who should have noticed that the wrong number was on the posters?"

"Hey, why should I know our number? We don't phone ourselves, you know!"

"Woah, woah guys!" laughed Sonic, holding up his hands. "Take it easy! You're gonna have to give up arguing like this if you want to take care of all these mysteries."

"Who's arguing? I'm just saying, we're lucky that pizza place didn't charge us for all the phone calls they got—"

"Are you kidding? They should be paying us for the free advertising!"

"I don't think anyone calling for a detective is going to be interested in pizza!"

"Guys!" Charmy added to the din. "The fax machine's gotten jammed up again!"

CRASH!

"Uh, well, it's not jammed anymore!"

"CHAR-MY!"

Exchanging glances, Sonic and Tails carefully tiptoed out the door.

"Yeah," sighed Sonic, gingerly rubbing his ears. "I think Team Chaotix is officially back in business."