
The Meteor Herd theme has the lines "Took a shuttle to space and left from our home, At least we're with friends and I'm not all alone." Even though it's indirect, this is the first time Knuckles has acknowledged Sonic, Tails and Amy as his friends. Despite annoyance from Knuckles being volunteered, it's nice that Sonic has that much faith in him that it isn't a question who can complete the task. He calls him the world's greatest treasure hunter. While needing to find the keys to proceed past the Death Chamber, Sonic volunteers Knuckles for the task.
It's not too hard to imagine that despite it being accidental on Amy's part, it's the first instance of affectionate contact that Shadow has had with anyone for at least fifty years.
Despite being a little confused, he doesn't even seem to mind. Not a huge one, but when Amy first sees Shadow and hugs him thinking he's Sonic, despite his cold personality, he doesn't use any physical force to get her off.