Patience is a virtue and it just paid off. Here's chapter 2.
Chapter 2: First Encounter with the Knuckles Robos
Knuckles awoke and shook his head. He felt a sharp piercing in his head and roved it with his hand to find a large whelp.
"My head" he groaned "It feels like I was hit with a ton of bricks."
His head began to throb making the pain worse, but Knuckles was stronger than that and rose to his feet. He looked around to gather his surroundings. He was in a large empty room that resembled a mine.
There were several passages leading away from this room and Knuckles decided it would be best to select one and see where it leads. He chose one to his left and began his journey. His footsteps echoed as he walked down the passageway.
Suddenly, many more footsteps were heard and Knuckles stopped short. The footsteps began to pick up speed so Knuckles returned to mouth of the passageway where he would be able to see the perpetrators. Several red echidnas emerged into the light. Knuckles was surprised, had he found friends or foes?
"Who are you?" he asked in hopes of them being friendly.
"We were sent by our leader" the front man replied.
"Leader?" Knuckles thought.
"He ordered us to confront and..." they're eyes turned red "destroy the obsolete one."
"Humph" Knuckles boasted "Then come try me!"
The echidnas charged at Knuckles each with a frenzy of punches, but Knuckles dodged them easily.
"This can't be right" he thought as he maneuvered about the fists "Dodging their attacks is too easy. Something must be up."
After ducking below a rapid kick, Knuckles retaliated with an uppercut, knocking off the head of one of the echidnas!
"No wonder they are so weak" Knuckles gasped "They're all robots! Well then, I won't have to go easy on them!"
He began to punch each of the robos, who didn't even bother to block any of the blows. Within several seconds, Knuckles had destroyed all five of the metallic vermin. He looked down at all their lifeless parts.
"Well, I guess there was nothing suspicious about that being easy after all. They must have been poorly built."
With that being said, he turned and continued his journey down the passageway. The pathway emerged on a catwalk, high above what appeared to be a laboratory. There were several computers around, but the real attraction was the giant, orange, spherical machine in the middle of the room. There were many more of the echidna robots running around it, performing tests or something.
Then, the clanking of feet could be heard in the passageway once more. Knuckles turned and looked back as the five robots from earlier returned and were in perfect shape.
"How, how can you all still be alive?" he asked in shock.
The robots answered by simply all tackling Knuckles at once and knocking themselves off the catwalk and into the lab in a large cloud of dust. All the robots down below turned and looked in wonder as the dust cloud dispersed.
Knuckles knocked all the robots off him and noticed they were all staring at him. He had been spotted. With no other choice, Knuckles began attacking every robot in sight. He tore through several robos with one punch, but every one that fell got right back up!
"How can they do this?" thought Knuckles "I used more strength on them than I needed to and they still revive themselves. Something must be..." Knuckles stopped short.
He felt that piercing feeling in his head again and fell to the floor. Everything became blurry, but he knew if he passed out, he might wake up dead. He struggled to his feet and raised his fists, but then the piercing became much worse, and Knuckles fell again with no hope of getting up.
End of Chapter 2