>>>This is Master Tananh. As the title suggests, Knuckles will have a go at Metal Shadow. Will he succeed where others have failed? And what about Tails? Will he survive the ten story drop to the ground? Read on.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.

Chapter 3: Knuckles vs. Metal Shadow

I stood watching the chaos on the next door neighbor's roof. Tails was doing a good job fighting off those robots. But where was Sonic? It wasn't like him to just let Tails take over. I looked over to the house and I saw the one I had came for.

Metal Shadow. I had figured Eggman would have sent him over here. Should I help Tails? No. I won't do anything. I couldn't even get up there if I wanted to. I would just have to watch.

The fight seemed to be tipped in Metal Shadow's favor. Everything Tails tried bounced off of that energy shield Metal Shadow had. It didn't look good for Tails. Then for a moment, Metal Shadow's guard dropped. His shield was down! Unfortunately it only lasted for a moment. Metal Shadow was now holding some kind of energy ball. In a flash of movement that I almost couldn't see, he launched it at Tails.

It hit Tails hard. He was unconscious! He was falling! No way he would survive that fall! I had to save him. I would have to time this perfectly. I leaped from the house I was standing on and glided. Got to hurry! "Gotcha!" I said as I caught Tails in mid-air. I dropped to the ground with Tails in my arms.

I felt his pulse. Alive. But his arm was vibrating with electricity. He would be fine. But now I had bigger problems to worry about. Metal Shadow had spotted me. He waved his hand and all of the robots flew away. This was a problem. I had come here to fight him, but now I felt that I would be fighting a battle I could not hope to win. But then I shook those thoughts away as Metal Shadow landed. If he wanted to fight Knuckles, the guardian of the Master Emerald, then he was going to get more than he bargained for.

Metal Shadow

I looked at this new threat. How many guardians were there? This must be a very important place. Maybe a temple of some sort. I hovered down to the ground. But I had seen this strange looking echidna before. He had lashed out at me like those last two.
But this time he seemed wiser. He didn't blindly attack me like last time, he just stood there waiting for me to attack. I fired multiple rockets, but like the others, he dodged them easily. So I ran at him top speed. But right before I could punch, he disappeared underground, making me swipe at midair.

He resurfaced and blocked my welcoming kick. He backflipped up onto a neighboring house and started climbing up! I waited to see what his was doing. When he reached the roof, he glided above me somehow. What was he…

He startled me. One moment he had been gliding above me, and the next he was flying towards me at high speeds. Now he is on top of my shield. He was cutting through my shield using the momentum he had gained from the fall! Before I could react, he cut through my shield and smashed into the top of my head.

This was definitely a formidable opponent. Running a quick systems check, I discovered I had received only minimal damage, and my shield was still online. I would have to use my ultimate attack on this one. I cupped my hands. I started converting all my power to my hands. Wait. He's charging at me! Cancel the attack! Cancel the attack! But it was too late. My power was off, and so was my shield.

Not again! Where am I now? Who is that? I have seen him before… Knuckles! That was his name! But what was he doing?

BAM!

I recoiled from both his attack and from the other side effect. I knew this echidna personally! Or did I? I rubbed my head. His sharp claws had gone right into my metal and even penetrated into my inner layer. I was bleeding a bit. In the confusion I had dropped the energy ball. I will never try that move on this "Knuckles" again.

It was time to try some different tactics.

Knuckles

Well this was turning out nice. I think I felt some skin down when I hit him. So he is still alive under there. Well, he'll have to use it again sometime. Wait, what is he doing now?

Oh. He was curling up in a ball again. I saw him do this in his fight with Tails. No big deal. He flew at me faster than I expected, but I managed to jump out of the way. I turned around, bracing myself to dodge his next pass, but I saw noone. "Where did he go?" I asked myself out loud.

POW!
Something hit me from below! I landed on my back. Not a good situation to be in. Shadow Ball suddenly bashed into my stomach! He slammed into me so hard we made a small little hole in the ground!

It came around for another pass. What had happened? I looked at where I had been standing and I understood. There was a hole where I had been standing. He had gone underground!

BAM!

"Ack!" I screamed. While I had been thinking Metal Shadow came back and nailed me in the face! "Ouch!" I screamed as he smashed into my back and knocked me down. He hit me three more times before I could get up. He sped at me again. I dodged, this time keeping my eye on the Shadow Ball.

It went underground again. I acted fast. I only had a short amount of time. I leaped as quickly as I could. Almost there… made it! I was hanging onto what was left of Sonic's wall waiting for Metal Shadow to emerge again. He emerged close to my position and tried to nail me on the wall, but I jumped off right before he could touch me. He uncurled. He seemed to realize that wasn't going to work any more.

He flew up into the sky way higher than I could reach. Now what? Then I saw what he was about to do. He was cupping his hands and shutting down. The coward! The only choice I had was to run. Running as fast as I could into a neighboring house, I looked behind me to see Metal Shadow cupping his hands and powering down temporarily.

There was apparently no one home or I would have heard a few screams. I mean let's face it. If I was a human and I saw a five foot tall red echidna running through my house, I would scream bloody murder.

Inside I looked out the window. He had lost me. He didn't seem to care much though. Apparently I wasn't his main concern right then. He threw the energy ball at the house! It caused a huge explosion that destroyed a big chunk of his wall. Before I could go outside and continue our little fight. He started unleashing loads of rockets on Sonic's house until there was nothing but a smoldering wreck.

After he leveled the house, he flew away. I walked out of the house and looked at the mess. What was that all about? Suddenly, Tails ran toward me. He looked very scared. "Tails! I'm glad your ok!" I said. "Knuckles! What has he done? What has he done? It wasn't supposed to end this way! Why did this have to happen?" Tails cried.

"Tails what's the matter?"

Tails looked at me sadly. "Didn't you know? Sonic was in there!"

>>>This is Master Tananh. I hope you enjoyed it. Looks like Sonic got roasted. This is not good. How will everyone continue on without the famous blue hedgehog? Is he even really dead? Find out next time. Please review and tell me how awesome it was.