Chapter 2 - Clashes

"Oh, come on, Amy! We've been by this shopping window ten times already! Can't we go find something else to do!" Sonic was getting quite restless. He needed to do something, fast. But he couldn't leave anywhere, because his day with Amy wasn't over yet. It had barely even started, and they were already browsing stores and parts of the shopping mall. Of course, since this kind of thing was quite boring to Sonic, he was itching for action. Unfortunately, the only action was to walk around and look at clothes, or make-up, and Sonic didn't LIKE walking around. He had to run somewhere, but because he was bound to Amy for loosing their bet, he couldn't ditch her.

Amy rolled her eyes, starting to get annoyed by Sonic's endless complaining. "Stop your whining, Sonic! You'll start to enjoy this after a while!" She eyed the items in the shopping window, which happened to be a part of a jewelry store. "Oh, my! That ring would look so CUTE on me!" She looked at Sonic. "Don't you agree?"

Sonic was looking in the opposite direction, watching people walk by and browse around the mall. "Uh, yeah, whatever, Amy..."

She frowned. "You're not even looking, Sonic!" Amy turned and looked back at the window, only to stare at a now empty display case. She frowned again. "Awww, someone bought EVERYTHING! All the jewelry's gone! Now I'll NEVER get a cute little wedding ring! Thanks a lot, Sonic!"

He couldn't take it anymore. "That's IT!" He grabbed her wrist, and quickly ran out of the mall, leading her down a sidewalk. "We are going to go do something that doesn't waste my time! I'm sick of shopping already!"

She tried to pull against him. "Let GO! I want to go back and shop some more! Ow! Stoppit, Sonic! You're hurting me! LET GO!"

Sonic rolled his eyes, as he tried to ignore her. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it or not.

"HEY, SONIC! LET GO OF HER RIGHT NOW!"

Sonic turned in the direction the voice came from. "What do you want, Knuck-- GAH!" The next thing he knew, he was just hit in the face by something that felt like it had the force of a tank. He ended up flying straight into the windshield of a parked car, which sounded its alarm as glass flew everywhere. "Oww..."

Knuckles stood defensively in front of Amy, glaring in Sonic's direction. "What's the matter with you! How can you threaten her life like that! Is this how you're going to treat your friends, now! Eggman was right! You WERE going to hurt her in order to get the Master Emerald AND the Chaos Emeralds!"

Amy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Knuckles, how dare you hurt my future husband like that! Are you out of your mind!"

"Now, now, Amy, I know you're in a state of shock, just calm down, and everything will be all right!" With that, he turned in Sonic's direction. The blue hedgehog was busy trying to climb out of the demolished vehicle, which still had its alarm on at full blast. "You'll pay for hurting her, Sonic! I am not going to let you off easy this time! The time has come to finish you off once and for all!" He dashed towards Sonic, and leaped at him, ready to nail him with another fistful of power.

"Knuckles, chill out, man!" Sonic quickly leapt out of harm's way, and landed near Amy. "Can't you see that Eggman tricked you AGAIN? Why would I want to hurt Amy! Think about it!"

The echidna pulled his fist out of the wreckage of the car, which was now in a state beyond repair. Turning to Sonic, he glared at him. "I didn't need to! What I saw and heard just minutes ago was all the proof I needed! I'm not deaf, Sonic! I heard Amy cry out in pain!"

Sonic wanted action, but he certainly didn't have this particular situation in mind. "That was only because I was draggin' her out of the stupid mall! She wouldn't stop browsing the shops, so I had to pull her outta there myself!"

Amy nodded. "Sonic's right! Speaking of which, when you two are done arguing, I want to go look for more wedding rings!"

Knuckles looked at Amy. "Look, I know you're afraid, but you don't have to go along with Sonic's story for fear of him hurting you! There's nothing to fear about him, because I'M here, and I'm going to rescue you from his clutches!"

Amy was about to say something else, when Sonic cut her off. "Look, Knucklehead, if you're going to be too stubborn and too stupid to listen to us, I'll have to beat some sense into you!"

"You won't get the chance, because I'm going to tear you apart!"

Knuckles and Sonic stared at each other for a minute or two, preparing themselves mentally for a fight. Already, a small crowd of people had started to gather nearby, including someone who stood there motionless, mouth agape, as he noticed his beautiful Chevrolet didn't look too beautiful anymore.

Knuckles made the first move, dashing towards him again, ready to land a punch on him. Sonic took this opportunity to sprint up the side of the building before Knuckles could hit him. That's when the echidna quickly started climbing up the building, leaving bowling ball-sized holes behind as his fists dug into the brick wall. When Sonic reached the top, he leaped from the edge, keeping close to the wall. This allowed him to kick down at Knuckles, who was still trying to climb upwards, sending him careening towards the ground. Punching a fist into the wall, he slowed down, and eventually stopped. Before Sonic could fall past him, he grabbed his neck, and slammed him into the building. Amy's screams could be heard when he did this. Sonic's body twitched, before it fell from the wall, heading straight towards the ground. Wanting to make sure he was finished, Knuckles dived down towards him, but he started to get a little too close. Sonic opened his eyes, and grabbed Knuckles, pulling himself on top of him. He pushed down on the echidna's back just as they hit the concrete. The surrounding citizens gasped as the two fighting friends went into the ground a few feet. Sonic jumped out of the hole, and looked down at the unconcious form at the bottom. Breathing heavily, he wiped the sweat and dust from his brow. "Sorry, pal... But you left me with no other choice... C'mon, Amy, let's get outta here, before he wakes up and decides he feels like another fight..." The badly bruised hedgehog picked Amy up, and sped from the scene, leaving a bewildered crowd to stare down the large hole at Knuckles.

Amy looked sadly at Sonic. "Will... Will he be alright?"

Sonic grinned at her. "Of course... I've seen him take much worse knocks than that... And I have a feeling he isn't through with me yet... Let's just hope he is. When Knuckles gets that mad, he can be dangerous... I wonder what that Egghead said to him to get him so riled up..." He stopped at Amy's apartment, and set her back on her feet. "Sorry, Amy, but I gotta cut our date short. If Eggman was able to send Knuckles after me like that, then he must be up to something, and I gotta go talk to Tails to figure out what he's planning."

She sniffed. "Can we spend an extra day with each other another time, Sonic? Today's plans were kinda ruined..."

He grinned, and winked at her. "Sure thing! But next time, please have something other than clothes on your agenda!" With that, he dashed towards Tails' house.

Amy sighed, and walked inside her apartment. Cream and Cheese were gone. This was understandable, of course. They usually left to go play during the daytime. Walking over to the couch, she kicked her boots off, and prepared to dive into a nap. Before she even so much as sat on the couch, she stopped in her tracks.

"Wait a minute..." A smile slowly appeared on her face. "He called it a date...!" That smile turned into a huge grin, which led to uncontrollable giggles. After she calmed down, and her giggles came to a stop, she lay down on the couch, and fell asleep, dreaming of her love.

"Ugh... Wh... where am I...? Where's Sonic?" Knuckles awoke to find himself lying on a stretcher, about to be carried into an ambulance. "What are you doing!"

One of the men carrying the stretcher looked at him. "We're taking you to th' hospital, pal. You took a beatin' back there."

"Hospital! I'm FINE!" He leapt from the stretcher, and landed nearby the large hole that they created during their fight. It was starting to fill up with water from a few broken pipes. "Hmph! There is no way I can go down that easy! Sonic's going to pay for doing that to me..." He jumped onto the side of a building, and started to climb upwards, leaving the ambulance driver and his pals behind. Reaching the top, he climbed over the edge, and stared into the distance. "I might actually need Eggman's help for this. But to get back to Angel Island, I'll need Tails' help. He can get me up there using the Tornado 2. I'd better get to his place, quick, before Sonic decides to kidnap him too! I hope he hasn't hurt Amy yet. Because if he has, there are no words to describe what I'll put him through!" He dived into the air, and glided in the direction of Tails' house, which was in the surrounding suburbs around the downtown area.

Tails left what he was doing to answer a rapid knock at his front door. It sounded rather impatient, so he assumed it was Sonic. Opening the front door, he could see that he was correct, but he nearly spilled the mug of coffee he was still drinking. "Sonic! What on earth happened to you! You look terrible!"

Sonic only shrugged, and grinned. "Aw, it's nothin', Tails! I'm alright!"

"Sonic, are you kidding me? You face looks like it was smashed against the side of a building or something!"

"Ehh, funny you should say that, because that's exactly what happened..."

Tails stood there, a blank expression on his face. "... Uh... And HOW did you manage to smash your face into a building?"

"Well, you see, Knuckles showed up, and he had this crazy idea that I was up to no good, and that I had kidnapped Amy. Since I was draggin' her out of a stupid store, it kinda looked bad on my part. So, Knux just started hackin' punches at me, and I had no other option but to fight back. During our scuffle, he grabbed my neck and slammed me into the wall. He ended up getting thrown into the sidewalk after he pulled that move on me... He also mentioned something about Eggman, so I know that he was tricked again. But that stupid echidna wouldn't listen to a word I said! As far as I know, he still thinks I'm busy being 'bad'. He's probably in the emergency room right now, getting stitches or something."

Tails paced while Sonic related his story to him. "Hmm... Well, if Eggman managed to dupe Knuckles AGAIN, then he has to be up to something... I'll look into it, in case anything comes up. If anything happens, I'll let you know."

"Heh! Sounds good to me!" At that moment, Sonic felt something smash into the back of him, and he went flying into a wall, littering dust and pieces of brick all over the room. "Ow... That hurt..."

Knuckles was standing in front of Tails. "I KNEW you would have done something to Amy when I was knocked out! Now you decided to come after Tails, huh! I shouldn't have held back when we were fighting earlier! You'll pay for what you've done, Sonic! I'll never forgive you!"

Groaning, Sonic stood up, holding his head. "Knuckles, knock it off already! Amy's back home at her apartment! I was never out to kidnap her, and I would never lay a finger on my little buddy! I mean, come on! Listen to yourself! Don't you realize how stupid you sound! Face it, Knuckles! Eggman tricked you again!"

"Stop trying to save yourself, Sonic! Your lies won't do you any good! I can see right through you!" He clenched his fists, and gritted his teeth. "And in a matter of seconds, I'll mean that literally, once I punch a hole right through your sorry carcass!"

Tails was freaking out. Not only had Knuckles used his best friend to demolish his living room wall, but he was going to try and finish him off! "Stop it, Knuckles! Sonic would never hurt me, OR Amy! Open your eyes! Snap out of it! You were obviously tricked by Eggman to get you away from--!"

"Tails!" He turned and looks at him, annoyed. "I know what I saw and heard earlier! Sonic is trying to get the Master Emerald AND the Chaos Emeralds, in order to become powerful and possibly destroy us all, and he was going to use you and Amy to get at those things!"

Taking his eye off of Sonic was a mistake. As soon as the echidna wasn't paying any attention to him, he ran up and landed a kick into his side, sending Knuckles stumbling out the front door. Sonic wasn't done, yet. Punching him left and right, he was making sure he wasn't giving Knuckles any chance to counterattack. He knew it was only a matter of time before Knuckles would weaken, and give up the fight. That's what he thought, anyway. Still stumbling backwards from the repeated hits, Knuckles glanced to his left, and noticed he was near a lamp post. Thinking fast, he pushed Sonic away, and sent his fist clear through the base of the post, grabbing the end of it, and swinging it at Sonic. The hedgehog barely had any time to get away, and the large object struck his middle, causing him to be sent through Tails' kitchen window. Tails ran outside just in time to see Sonic get flung back inside, the sound of breaking glass filling the air.

"Knuckles, stop it! You're going to kill him!"

Knuckles threw the lamp post aside, and ran up to the kitchen window, diving through it. "That's what I plan to do!"

Sonic, who had taken quite a beating, was starting to feel the effects of getting thrown into practically everything around him. But when he saw the echidna dive straight at him through the window, he ignored his sore muscles and aching limbs, and quickly stood up, grabbing Knuckles' wrists. He started to swing him around in a circle. Using his speed, he swung Knuckles faster and faster, until they were practically a blur. Then, he let go, and Knuckles was thrown into the living room, going straight through the wall, and landing in the backyard, skidding a few feet and sending grass and dirt everywhere. Hoping he didn't hurt him too bad, Sonic ran into the living room, and jumped through the large hole in the wall, landing outside to see if Knuckles was alright.

As soon as he landed on the ground, he could feel a large fist grabbing his neck. Knuckles slowly held him up above the ground. "This is it, Sonic! You're finished! Any last words before I finish you off?"

Sonic struggled, and looked around Knuckles. Grinning, he pointed at something behind him. "Yeah! Look out!"

Knuckles turned just in time to see Tails' wall, the same one that had a hole through it, was starting to crumble and collapse. Letting go of Sonic, he tried to make a run for it, but the wall fell on him, and buried him under a pile of rubble. Having just escaped getting smashed by something else, Sonic hurried back to where the wall fell, and starting digging through it, trying to reach his echidna friend. He then pulled a large slab of the brick wall off of the pile, revealing a very weak Knuckles, who was lying on his back, and looked like a complete mess.

"Ugh... I don't believe it... I gave you everything I had... yet, you still beat me... Go ahead, Sonic. Finish me off now. I failed as a friend... I couldn't save Amy, or Tails. Obviously, you have the upper hand... Take me down, if you must..." He saw Sonic extend his hand toward him, offering to help him up. "Wh.. what? Aren't you going to take care of me once and for all?"

"You Knucklehead! Why would I do that? C'mon, let me help you up."

He hesitated, but grabbed Sonic's hand, and stood up. He let go, and dusted himself off, groaning. Even though he was just crushed by a large section of Tails' house, he was still just as sturdy as ever. "So, now what? Are you going to use me in your hostage situation, too?"

"Knuckles, if you'll just listen to me two minutes, I'll tell you what--"

Tails ran outside that moment, inturrupting Sonic. "Hey, guys! Stop the fighting for one minute, would you! You both need to come inside and take a look at this! Eggman's on TV!"