Since the first person to make a nomination was ABCSonicKirbyWarriors (12 hours ago), Knuckles will be the first to be featured. Please don't be so disappointed, the other characters will have their turn soon enough. Also, each character's stage will be 3-chapter long.
Also, I would like to thank everyone for taking your precious time and following my story. Thank you. Without further ado, here is Knuckles' stage.
Ancient Graveyard – Act 1: Test of Worthiness
Knuckles was taken to a different location right after passing through his selected portal. When the echidna stepped out to the other side of said portal, he found himself at a very old graveyard of some sort.
The place looked abandoned and ancient, probably millennia old. There were tombstones everywhere, whose carvings and designs were nothing short of unusual. Knuckles tried to read the words inscribed on one of the various scattered tombstones, but they were written in a language that he couldn't understand.
"Well, this is Blaze's world after all," said Knuckles silently as he scanned his surroundings.
True to the atmosphere of a graveyard, the place was very chilly, misty and eerie, a perfect location and atmosphere for an ambush.
There were occasional sounds of insects crying somewhere far away that echoed in the darkness of the everlasting night. The air was damp due to the enveloping mist. The sight of such a dreadful landscape would give any visitor the creeps. However, Knuckles was not one bit frightened by the deathly still and silent resting place of the long deceased. If anything, he only shivered ever so slightly due to the chilly mist covering the entire area.
"Now where am I supposed to go from here?" said Knuckles to himself as he carefully treaded around, all the while darting his eyes from left to right for some sort of signs or hints as to where he should be headed.
…
All of the sudden, Knuckles heard a strange sound coming from behind him and turned back. That sound was not of a howling insect, which easily caught his attention. When he did, his eyes went wide when he saw a huge cloaked figure in yellow. Now that he was dangerously close to the god, Knuckles could see his real size, which was twice the size of the echidna.
Without warning, the yellow-clad deity lunged forward at an impressive speed, one that shouldn't be possible for someone so large, and threw an extraordinarily powerful punch at the lone guardian.
…
Despite the initial surprise, the echidna quickly responded to the newly arrived enigma's attack and threw a punch of his own.
The two thunderous fists collided with one another and created a strong shockwave that completely destroyed the stone statues around the two combatants. Knuckles' attack evenly matched with his opponent's.
The force of the impact also forced Knuckles and the cloaked deity away from each other.
"Who are you?" yelled Knuckles as he quickly got into his battle stance, ready for a possible brawl with the bulky enigma. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he was rather impressed that someone was able to match his strength, a feat that only few people were capable of.
"You came to my place without introducing yourself and now you're asking me to state my name," said the figure in a deep voice, "You are one rude fellah."
"Alright then, my name is…"
"Knuckles the echidna, the sole guardian of the Master Emerald in a parallel dimension, a hero that contributed to protecting your own world from destruction" said the figure fluently and quickly like he was stating the day's weather, much to Knuckles' shock.
"How do you…"
"Know so much about you? I'm a god, I know everything that I need to know."
"But how…"
"How do I know things that are not of this world? Simple. During the time I spent trapped inside my Sol Emerald, I can view the outside world every time the current guardian of the mystic gems uses their powers."
"But…" said Knuckles with a really annoyed tone. He was rather irritated that the deity kept interrupting him, much like what Sonic usually did.
"My oh my, you should really learn not to interrupt others while they are speaking, mortal. It is a very rude thing to do."
At this point, Knuckles had had it with the deity's game.
"And you're one to talk," yelled Knuckles angrily at the clearly hypocritical and sarcastic deity before him, "Since you know so much about me already, why bother asking?"
"Simple formality, that's all," replied the giant god with a playful shrug.
"Enough. Just answer my question. Who the heck are you?"
With a sigh to feign disappointment, the deity took off his cloak and revealed himself fully to the pissed off guardian. Once the cloak was no longer around his body, Knuckles could see the face of the being that he would have to deal with.
In front of him was a minotaur-like creature with similar features. His body was of a shade of brownish yellow. His chest was bulky and hard, and so were his limbs. His entire body was littered with battle scars, which clearly showed how many battles he had endured and survived through the ages.
Like the mythological Minotaur, he also had two sharp ivory horns coming out from the top of his head. The deity also wore black armor plates around his chest, a black loincloth around his waist tied in place by a golden belt with spikes, armor shins and matching spiked shoulder pads. He also wore a helmet on top of his head and a gold nose ring. His appearance made him look like a professional gladiator in the days of old that Knuckles had read about.
The deity looked at Knuckles with his amber glowing orbs and smirked maliciously.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Belphur of the Immovable Soils, master of earth and strength, and this is my domain, the Ancient Graveyard."
"So, all I need to do is beat the snot out of you and then you'll stop trying to destroy the worlds?"
"Technically, yes. But doing so would be extremely…hazardous for you, I must say. Nobody has ever been able to best me at close combat before."
"So, I'm about to become the first, huh?" said Knuckles confidently as he cracked his fingers and did some warm-up exercises.
"You're amusing, Knuckles" said Belphur as he laughed loudly at the echidna's remark, "I think I'll enjoy this game more than I first thought. Alright, come at me, o mighty guardian."
…
Without waiting for Belphur to repeat himself, Knuckles instantly charged at the deity at an impressive speed, not close to Sonic's, but still very impressive.
In an instant, the echidna appeared in front of the minotaur-like deity and delivered a mighty punch at his exposed stomach. The force of the attack made Belphur crouch forward a little bit, but he still stood his ground firmly.
After the first hit, Knuckles launched a series of equally powerful jabs at his opponent's mid section. The god, on the other hand simply stood still and endured as the rain of fists poured down on his hardened flesh.
All of the echidna's attacks connected and created powerful shockwaves upon impact, whose force was more than enough to blast the nearby gravestones away in an instant. After his approximately one hundredth punch, Knuckles jumped back and looked at Belphur to assess the amount of damage he had caused.
However, much to Knuckles' horror and shock, the deity didn't even so much as take half a step back after all those powerful blows to his stomach and chest. Instead, he looked at the stunned echidna and simply smirked arrogantly.
"Is that all, guardian?" said Belphur with a roll of his eyes, "When you managed to block my first attack, I thought you would be able to do better than this."
The giant creature then raised his gigantic hand and pulled it back with his fist tightly clenched.
"I'll show you how to throw a real punch, echidna."
With that, he pushed his giant hand forward at a speed so fast that Knuckles barely had any time to react. Fortunately for the echidna, he managed to guard himself by crossing his arms in front of him and somewhat softened the god's blow a little bit and reduced to damage. However, that didn't mean that the blow was completely ineffective.
The force of Belphur's punch was so immense that the energy it released practically laid waste to the entire area behind Knuckles. Right upon impact, Knuckles was sent flying across the entire length of the place and crashing into a huge statue far away, smashing it into tiny bits of pebbles.
Groaning in pain, Knuckles got out of the rubble and wobbly stood up. Knuckles had received worse damage than this. The guardian shook his head vigorously to clear his blurry vision and glared at the menacing creature before him.
'This guy is crazy strong' thought the echidna begrudgingly, 'I've never seen a punch like that before.'
"Well well, it seems you managed to survive my punch. Good job," said Belphur as he clapped his hands loudly, creating powerful bursts of wind at each time his palmed connected that made Knuckles struggle slightly to stand his ground. "Congratulations, Knuckles, you've passed my test. It seems that you are indeed worthy to face me after all."
"What do you mean by that?" growled the echidna as he once again prepared himself for a second punch.
"After going through countless battles, I'm tired of fighting weaklings. I need someone that can provide me with a decent challenge, not waste my time. So, I usually test my opponents before fighting them to evaluate their worth. If they manage to survive my test attack, they pass and will earn the right to face me in my own chamber...provided that they survive the challenges of my domain."
"That punch just now was just a test?" Knuckles almost yelled in disbelief. If a test were that crazy, then who knows what the real deal would be like.
"Of course. And you withstood it, bravo, guardian. I herby grant you permission to come see me at my own castle. Make your way through the Ancient Graveyard and head north until you see my lovely residence. We will do our battle there."
"Wait! Are you planning on running away?"
"How rude, guardian. I just want to enjoy our battle to my heart's content in the comfy of my own palace. That's all. Now then, I need to go and prepare my secret battle arena for our rumble, IF you manage to get there in one piece, of course."
Belphur then laughed maniacally before stomping the ground. The force generated when his foot made contact with the surface created an earthquake that sent pebbles, rocks, mud and sand flying everywhere, so Knuckles had to cover his eyes for a second. When everything calmed down, Knuckles opened his eyes again and saw that the giant immortal had disappeared, much to his charging.
"Just you wait, Belphur," said Knuckles as he looked at his hands briefly before clenching them tightly. "I'll defeat you and stop your madness."
Without another second's delay, the echidna headed north and began to navigate his way through the dreaded graveyard, trying to locate the god's castle.
Alright, that's the first of the seven immortals of catastrophe. Further info on the villains, the colors of their cloaks represent their elements, so maybe you can try to guess the elements of the others.
Anyway, please tell me what you think about this chapter. Hopefully it's up to your standard.
Like I said, each character's stage is 3-chapter long, so stay tuned. Goodbye for the time being and once again, thank you for following my story.
