"It's no use!" Knuckles countered Sonic's attack with a chunk of flesh rock torn from the wall to batter the spinning hedgehog away.

"I don't want to hear you say that." Sonic wagged his finger at the titanic echidna with a disgusted expression.

He landed, feet first against the side of the cave, accelerating against the vertical surface. Spidery fangs clamped down in his wake.

He wasn't losing at least, but Knuckles wasn't wrong. Sonic was hitting hard and not only was the big mobian simply absorbing the damage with unnatural resilience but what wounds he did manage to inflict were regenerating at an astounding rate, especially when he touched one of those eye-mounds around the place.

Touching the eye things didn't do Sonic any good, and he'd been careful so far to avoid hitting one for a repeat of what happened in the tunnel above. All he could do was hope there was some limit to how much Knuckles could shrug off.

Sonic leapt, slamming feet first into the fleshy boulder Knuckles just threw, slamming it back towards the echidna. He dropped to the floor, feet already spinning as he hit the ground. He smashed through a flying fang monster, smashing it into chunks without slowing down.

Knuckles slapped the bloody stone to the side where it melded back into the surface, turning to counter Sonic.

"You're too-" Sonic burst out of the other side of his rival's body without resistance.

His legs tangled as left became right and forward became backwards, a meaty hand snapped out behind Knuckles to grab him by the torso.
"Slow." Knuckles glared down at him, lined face grim and dark in the flickering blue light.

"Oh no." Sonic grimaced as he was hurled up in the air. Knuckles snatched his leg, slamming him into the stony floor over and over again. His one ring bounced away. Stone cracked beneath him.

"I have always respected you, Sonic." Knuckles slammed him into the ground for punctuation. "Your determination." Slam. "Your strength." Slam. "You will make a fine chosen if you simply accept your role." Knuckles clenched his fist, Sonic screamed as he felt the bone of his shin snap within it.

"Call out, my friend. You will be saved from the great horrors to come. You bear the mark already."

"The… greatest horror here is you old pal." Sonic muttered through gritted teeth. "Maybe try a diet?"

"How many battles have you fought while understanding nothing, Sonic?" Knuckles slammed him into the floor once more for good measure before tossing him off to the side.

Sonic splashed through a stream of meltwater, panting in pain and shock. He was no stranger to scrapes and tumbles, but even his life of endless fighting didn't make him completely immune to this level of debilitating injury. Knuckles had waited for his opportunity and taken him down with surgical precision.

"Call her, Sonic." Knuckles turned his back to Sonic, laying his hands against the grisly outcropping of eyes and flesh as though giving supplication on some demon altar. "Play your part as I play mine."

Sonic rolled onto his front, dragging his leg behind him as he crawled out of the water, away from the spider he knew was coming.

Was Knuckles talking about Tikal? She had said to call her.

"The last world is almost at an end. Whatever Tails' efforts they come too late." Knuckles shook his head. "His role is past. He will join the ranks of the lost or be undone."

A spider slammed into his back, fangs first, its body smashing apart against him into bloody chunk. Sonic wobbled on one leg, shivering in pain as his spin died down.

"If you or your ugly mom hurt one hair on my little bro's head I will break you." He snarled, teeth tinged pink with blood. "Come at me, big guy."

He wobbled into a boxing stance, hands trembling, vision blurry, heart pounding.

"It seems you still have need of guidance." Knuckles flexed the muscles of his back, forcing dislodged fangs free of his flesh. "I will help you discard your pride."

Knuckles burst forth. His massive bulk hadn't slowed his speed in the slightest, long legs covered ground faster than ever as he loped towards Sonic like a charging gorilla, launching fist first through the air towards him…

Sonic leapt aside. Knuckles' attack slammed into the surface behind him that just happened to be an eyeball altar.

"NYEAGH!" The red giant's mighty roar rumbled off the very walls of the cave as he fell to the floor, clutching his chest.

Sonic didn't hesitate, throwing himself onto Knuckles back, raining a flurry of blows lightning quick against his head and neck, not slowing even as the echidna pushed unsteadily to his feet, stumbling punch drunk as he tried to dislodge the hedgehog hanging onto the flexible spines of his head.

"Enough!" Knuckles swung his whole body forward, flipping Sonic over his head, still gripping a spine.

"Eh… heh. Hi." The blue blur waved, then sent a right hook straight into Knuckles' nose, letting go to drop to the floor.

A pair of hands slapped down on him halfway there.

"I have always found you deeply annoying as well." Knuckles scowled, blood dripping from his chin, blending with the crimson and black lines that crisscrossed his cheeks. He easily pinned the smaller hedgehog's arms against his sides with his giant palms. "Call."

Sonic shook his spinning head. Why did Knuckles want Tikal to help him? It didn't make sense.

But he hadn't made a career out of doing what bad guys told him to do. Sonic took a deep breath and spat. Knuckles glared at him, purple eyes unblinking as bloody spit trailed into the blood pouring down his face.

"You have made your choice, my friend. I will spare you from further pain-"

Bullets exploded across his back and shoulders. Sonic dropped to the floor with a pained gasp as a dark shape blasted from above, red eyes glowing faintly in the dark.

"Don't you two ever get tired of talking?"

Shadow skimmed under Knuckles' legs, snatching Sonic up and away as he skated across the cavern, jet skates sending flashes of light off the walls.

"Shadow! You're okay! How'd you know where to find me?"

"She told me." Shadow unceremoniously dumped Sonic to the floor, pulling out a pistol to shoot the spider next to him in the face. A red mote of light tumbled from its corpse, flowing into Sonic.

"Agh!" Sonic felt the bones in his leg fuse in moments, his heart slow to its normal rhythm. He wove to his feet, favouring the still damaged limb. "Thanks again for the assist."

"Just try not to embarrass me this time." Shadow pulled out an SMG, pumping it with a grim frown as Knuckles stood, arms spread before his "altar".

"Ia! Mgah'ehye nwngluii ot Shupnikkurat ahmgep mgahnnn!" Knuckles bent over, white growths bulging from the holes in his body before exploding outwards, disembodied eyes swirling around him in a mad orbit, flowing freely through walls as though they weren't even there. He straightened, dozens of violet eyes glaring down at the two hedgehogs from all directions.

The three of them burst forwards as one.