It Has Always Been You (Sonadow)

Chapter 33 - The Debrief [Knuckles/Shadow/Blaze POV]

[KNUCKLES]

I let out a huge sigh of relief as I walked over to the timer ad switched it off. Nighttime had arrived and the crickets were already singing into the cool night air. As the group gathered back around the fire I studied the expression on everyone's faces, only just visible, as the flames were the only light source now. Overall they seemed relaxed and happy. Shadow looked somewhat impatient but that's nothing new.

"Alrighty folks well done! That concludes the Truth Serum exercise!" I hailed.

There was a small round of applause and a few cheers. Sonic stepped forward and put one arm around my shoulders. "Gee buddy, now that was an interesting team building exercise!"

"Thanks Knuckles!" Tails piped up. The others joined in muttered some words of gratitude.

"You're very welcome guys," I said happily. "Are we all feeling good? Does anyone have any questions?"

"I have a question," Rouge smiled. "So now we've poured out hearts out to each other, what's next? You mentioned some kind of training?"

"That's right," I said. "Hopefully we've cleared away enough emotional baggage to function properly as a team. We must be prepared to relentlessly fight together and for each other." I was pleased to see everyone nod in agreement. I continued, "The next step is to begin the training program. This is not gonna be easy, as we're going to be learning abilities outside of our field. I don't know how much time we have but we must begin immediately."

"What, like now?" Tails cried. He appeared to be the most tired out of them all.

"No not tonight," I replied. "I say we take two days off to rest and gather anything we might need. We can meet back here when we are fresh and prepared."

"What will we need Knuckles?" Cream asked softly.

"I need you all to be equipped to be here for as long as it takes," I said. "This means you'll need to bring camping gear; a tent, sleeping bag, spare clothes is you wear them. Bring some food, we can cook on the fire."

Shadow's mouth dropped open and he began to grumble. "What do you mean camping gear? Are you saying we have to stay here?"

"Spot on my friend," I said firmly. "At any moment something could happen. It's best if we all camp out together to be on the safe side."

A few murmurs of consideration rippled around the group. Shadow looked pissed off. The majority of the group seemed impartial, Rouge on the other hand seemed ecstatic. "Well this is exciting!" she beamed. Shadow shot her a dirty look.

"Ok then shall we wrap this up?" Blaze said, eager to get home.

"Let's call it," I said. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and began to say their goodbyes.

[SHADOW]

I walked over to Sonic and put my hand around his waist. "Let's get going," I whispered into his ear. He turned to face me and nodded. I pulled out my chaos emerald and within a flash transported us to his house.

Finding ourselves in his lounge room we both collapsed on his couch.

"Phew I'm exhausted!" Sonic cried dramatically placing the back of his hand on his forehead. "What did you make of all that anyway?"

"That echidna sure has a few tricks up his sleeve, the sneaky bastard," I replied, half in respect to his mysterious methods. "The world would be an interesting place if his race were still here."