A/N: I wanted to try something different, as well as work on writing Knuckles a bit better. So while I was reading through the Archie Sonic comics (I just passed Issue 50), I got struck by sudden inspiration. I thought of some ideas to rewrite the original Knuckles miniseries, "Rites of Passage", as well as the "A Sense of History" backup stories in Issues 34-36.

It may sound questionable, but I'm gonna do my best to make this work. And I know these comics had some really great ideas, but they were poorly executed. And some of Ken Penders' stories can be… pretty confusing.

I studied the notes that Hedgehogs Can't Swim and Thanks, Ken Penders made on this miniseries, so hopefully this (first) attempt at rewriting one of his stories will help to clear things up. So here is my rewrite of the first issue of the Knuckles Miniseries!

EDIT: This is the second time I'm uploading this because the first time, it wouldn't show up on the site for some reason.

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog and all its characters, including Knuckles the Echidna, are owned by SEGA. Archimedes and Enerjak, and all other echidna characters are owned by Ken Penders.

Without further ado, let us begin…

The Shadow of Mount Fate

"Knuckles… Can you hear me?"

The echidna opened his eyes at the sound of the voice in his head. Heart racing, he stood up from where he had been guarding the Master Emerald.

"Huh? Who's there?" he asked, looking around.

"You are the current guardian of Angel Island, am I right?" the voice asked.

"Y-Yeah, so?" Knuckles asked, starting to feel a little annoyed. "Also, who are you? Show yourself!"

"I would if I could, but I can't, so… I gotta make do," the voice said regretfully.

Knuckles sighed. "Fine, then explain how you're talking to me right now. And this better be worth it."

"Oh, it's worth it, trust me, Knuckles. It is worth it. And to answer your question, I'm using telepathy, but afraid I can't do it for long periods of time, so I'll just give you the basics for now." The voice took a breath. "The name's Archimedes, and Angel Island is in really big danger."

Knuckles was not sure if he should trust Archimedes, but his voice didn't sound anything like Eggman or anyone else he had met before, so he figured it would be best to trust him for now, especially if he claimed the island was in danger.

"Who? Eggman?" Knuckles asked.

"Worse, I'm afraid," Archimedes answered. "Catastrophic, can't even begin to describe it. Mostly because I don't have enough time right now, my telepathy limit's just about up. So here's the deal, meet me beneath the shadow of Mount Fate, and I'll tell you everything."

Knuckles hesitated again.

"Okay," Knuckles nodded, even though he knew Archimedes couldn't see him. He ran down the steps of the Master Emerald shrine and sprinted across the island.

Mount Fate… That rang a bell for him for some odd reason. It must have been from the old echidna records that he had read in his spare time, but he didn't have time to go back and get them. He had to see Archimedes.

Did he really need to see him though…? There was a chance that all this was fake, staged by Eggman to try and lure him into a trap. But something about it felt… genuine. No one had ever communicated with him inside his head before. As much as Knuckles didn't want to admit it, he knew deep down that it was real, that there really was a threat to Angel Island, and it wasn't Eggman.

Knuckles wished he had the Chaotix with him to help out in case things got bad, but he didn't know where they were. They were probably elsewhere on the island, chilling by themselves as they usually did. But Knuckles needed to act as if he was doing this alone. Though, if the island was in danger, then he knew it would help him if he did have his friends with him.

He hadn't been anywhere near Mount Fate in so many years, so he had forgotten what happened there, and why it sounded so familiar to him. But it had to be important somehow.

Knuckles picked up speed, running and gliding through the mountains, forests, lakes, lava tunnels, and mushroom fields that comprised much of the natural terrain of Angel Island. It was huge, at least thirty miles across at his estimate. In fact, there were still so many parts of the island that he hadn't explored yet.

Mount Fate was all the way on the other side of the island, so it took him nearly an hour to get there. He was already out of breath by the time he saw the giant, skull-shaped mountain in front of him. It looked foreboding and intimidating, so he could easily see how it got its name.

The whole time, he had been racking his brain trying to think of why Mount Fate was important, and what it had to do with his past. Perhaps Archimedes knew something he didn't. Knuckles was regretting not poring through the echidna archives more often than he did, because he could have had a head start about what he was eventually going up against.

Now that he had finally arrived, he suddenly remembered something. Back when his father Locke was taking care of him, he remembered him saying something about the shadow of Mount Fate being the tomb of an era long past.

Knuckles didn't have much memory of his father, except one day, he vanished and never returned. Locke had told him something about him fulfilling a "guardian's sacred duty." Knuckles didn't understand it. He still didn't to this day. It was like his father died right in front of him. As much as he wanted to find out what he really did, Knuckles wasn't too keen on dying himself.

He didn't realize he was lost in thought until he tripped over something. He almost fell, but he caught his balance and looked back. It looked like a stone, but it was shaped differently. It was almost like it was a lever.

What if it was a lever...?

Taking one glance up at Mount Fate, he looked back at the stone and pulled it, not expecting anything to happen. But something did happen.

There was a sudden grating sound from the bush-flanked clearing nearby, and the ground started to lower at an angle like a ramp into the unknown.

He was a bit nervous, but he knew he was at the right place. After taking a deep breath, he started walking down the ramp.

When he was halfway down the ramp, he was suddenly blinded by several lights that lined the ceiling at intervals, activated by a motion sensor. He looked around, taking note of various devices dotting the walls and ceiling as well, pointed at strategic locations.

Why did this remind him of Robotropolis...?

And then it dawned on him. This was not a tomb.

This was a vault.

Filled with technology.

Knuckles took a step back. Technology was the last thing he was expecting in a place like this, let alone anywhere on the whole island. In fact, in that moment, he was starting to question his whole life and upbringing, especially since this place was supposed to be the tomb of an era long past that his father knew about. He had been raised without technology, as had his father, and his father before him. Only the mainlanders far below him had easy access to technology. So why was it all here in the vault?

Knuckles started to walk forward, but his sixth sense warned him of danger, so he stopped. He had seen security measures like these back when he raided Robotropolis with Sonic. Obviously whoever set up the vault wanted to protect whatever was inside. There were all kinds of traps, like motion sensors, trap doors, pressure plates, infrared lasers, and what looked like guns of some sort.

Knuckles took a deep breath and let it out. Archimedes had to be somewhere on the other side of this maze. But there was no way he could have gotten there without setting off at least one of the traps, and now that Knuckles thought about it, neither could he. Which meant he had to just wing it and hope he could make it to the other side in one piece.

Taking a deep breath, he started running forward, breaking into a glide the first chance he got. Almost immediately, he was attacked on all sides by the traps. There were many more of them than he saw at first, and more varieties too. He was nearly scorched by flamethrowers, and giant steel blocks fell right where he had just been standing.

The main threat was the many turrets shooting just ahead of where he was running, throwing him off and forcing him to improvise his movements on the spot. Before he could process what he was doing, he kicked off the nearest wall, grabbed the turret directly above him, and swung his body around on it, getting it to point at the other turrets. It was satisfying watching it shoot the other turrets nearby.

That still left the ones on the other side of the room, though. He glided across the room to try and grab another turret, but his angle was slightly off. But then something happened that he didn't expect.

The four nearest turrets to him were arranged in a square pattern, all pointed at him, and the second Knuckles pulled out of his glide, they all fired, but not directly at him or in front of him. For once, the echidna was faster than them, and they ended up blasting each other.

Knuckles chuckled. He made the situation work, just like Sonic. They still had their rivalry, but Sonic always knew how to make fights work in his favor.

Now that the immediate danger was over, Knuckles located the door on the other side of the room from where he came in and walked in that direction. The passage curved to the right and led down a long hallway. Only when he heard a grinding noise behind him did he realize that he had accidentally stepped on a hidden pressure plate.

Glancing behind him, he saw a huge boulder rolling down an incline toward him. He broke into a run, and it was all he could do to stay just ahead of the boulder. It towered over him by about four times his height, and as cliché as this trap was, Knuckles had to admit it was effective at driving out intruders.

He spotted a door at the end of the passage and dove through it, and to his relief, the boulder smashed into the door and stopped. Knuckles panted from his close ordeal.

Since the traps appeared to be freshly set, Knuckles assumed he was the first one to set foot in the vault since it was set up. But that left an unanswered question. How did Archimedes get into the vault if it was sealed from the outside. The only other way he could have gotten in is if there was a second entrance somewhere.

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, he kept pressing forward. There were many steel doors lining the hall, and the echidna entered the first door, which slid upward as he approached, and he looked around in wonder at the ancient, but futuristic relics of the past. There were devices that he never knew existed on Angel Island until now. Even if they were just household devices like TVs and microwaves, they were still groundbreaking discoveries for the echidna who didn't grow up with any such things.

The next few rooms had more of the same things. Some rooms even had vehicles much like the ones Sally described Mobotropolis of old as having. Another room had weapons. Like most Mobians, Knuckles wasn't one to rely on weapons as their primary source of security, unlike their human counterparts, the Overlanders. But he figured it wouldn't hurt in a place like this, just in case.

He picked up a blaster rifle. Even if it didn't fire, at least it would serve as a good bluff. He took it with him out of the room, and glanced at the other doors as he passed them. As much as he wanted to check out what else the vault contained, he had to meet Archimedes and find out what could pose such a mighty threat to him and Angel Island.

There was a large steel door at the end of the hall, bigger than the others he had just passed by, but it didn't open for him when he got near it. He didn't want to resort to using his new-found gun, so he set it down, reared back his fist, and punched it with everything he had. But there wasn't even a dent. He rubbed his sore fist before bending down to pick up the gun.

Sure hope this thing is loaded, he thought before priming it and stepping back. He pulled the trigger, but as he expected, nothing happened. He let out a sigh. Whoever set up the vault did a good job at making sure the guns weren't loaded. They had thought of safety first.

So he went back to find the room he got the gun from. It took a few minutes for him to find the correct room, and he went in and dug around for any sign of ammunition. There were some explosive devices here and there, but he couldn't judge the range any of them had, and he didn't want to potentially damage any of the technology in the vault.

At last, he found what looked like laser cartridges, and he picked one up and fitted it in the blaster. Then he ran out and back toward the door. When he fired the blaster, the kickback knocked him to the ground, but the door was blasted apart with a satisfying explosion.

Taking the blaster with him, Knuckles stepped through the door and peered through the dimly-lit room.

"Hey Archimedes! Are you in here?" Knuckles called.

But there was no answer. Knuckles sighed.

He continued through the room, but there was no sign of Archimedes anywhere. He didn't even know what he looked like.

Just as soon as he stepped through the door into another room, he heard a sudden yelp as flames shot from the ground into his face, causing him to step back and shield his eyes.

"Wh-Whoa, you almost stepped on me there! Careful, big guy!" he heard a sudden voice saying.

Admittedly, Knuckles was more startled about the voice than the flames. But when he looked down, he saw a fire ant wearing a hat, khaki jacket, and a necklace with animal teeth.

"…You're Archimedes…?" Knuckles spoke in bewilderment.

"Bingo, kid, you got it!" the ant spoke.

"…You're an ant."

"Yup, and you're an echidna. You see, us fire ants and you echidnas, we go way back. We're talking back when Angel Island wasn't an island."

"Okay, now that's far back," Knuckles admitted. "Now can you tell me what's going on? What's the big threat to Angel Island?"

Before Knuckles realized it, Archimedes disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on Knuckles' shoulder. He let out a startled yelp.

"H-How'd you do that?"

"Teleporting, innate fire ant ability. Same with fire breathing. Hence the name fire ants. Makes total sense when you think about it."

"Then… then how come you didn't come and tell me yourself?"

"Ah, now that's the sad part about teleporting, it only works at short-range, otherwise I would have done that already. Also explains how I got down here through the sealed door. But I figured bringing you down here could also bring you up to speed on your history, so you can get to know your enemy a bit better."

"Uh, what does technology and my history have to do with this… threat to the island?" Knuckles asked, glancing around the room he was in.

"Everything, fits hand in glove. I'll tell you if I get more time. But enough sidetracking. Did your dad ever tell you anything about someone named Dimitri?"

Knuckles blinked. "No…? Not that I remember, at least."

"Oh, this guy is nasty stuff. He's your ancestor from a thousand years ago, a scientist. Long story short, he got greedy with power and corrupted himself with the Chaos Emeralds, and built himself a tower… and then got himself buried inside by us fire ants."

"How the mighty have fallen," Knuckles commented, before becoming more alert. "So are you telling me Dimitri survived?"

Archimedes nodded grimly.

"I'm afraid so, Knuckles… We detected seismic tremors underneath Mount Fate where he was buried, and-"

"That's not far from here. Like, we're right under Mount Fate. We gotta get out of here and-"

"Too late, guardian."

Knuckles' heart leaped in his chest at the sudden deep voice in the darkness. When he turned, he came face to face with a malevolent echidna wearing a mask. A sinister green glow enveloped him.

"E-Enerjak…" Archimedes spoke.

Knuckles was not normally frightened in the face of danger, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't scared before Enerjak. Even through his mask, he could tell the ancient evil was looking deep into his eyes, boring through his soul.

"For centuries I have been entombed beneath Mount Fate, and you foolishly thought I was long gone. But little did you know I was growing, learning… evolving. My anger, my fury, they kept me going, persevering through all those years of imprisonment. Now I, Enerjak, have been reborn! And it has come my time to exact my revenge upon the bloodline of my brother Edmund," Enerjak spoke. "And you, Archimedes… since your kind is responsible for my demise, you shall take part in the guardian's fate as well."

Knuckles gritted his teeth. "You talk too much, Dimitri," he said before lunging forward.

"The Dimitri of old is long gone," Enerjak said as he raised his staff, causing green Chaos energy surrounded Knuckles. "All that remains is unlimited power!"

Enerjak then pointed his staff at the wall, and Knuckles was thrown into it, leaving a gaping hole in the stone.

"I expected more from the Guardian of Angel Island," Enerjak said. "Perhaps I overestimated you."

"Knuckles, he still has the Chaos Emeralds inside of him!" Archimedes warned.

"Yes, Archimedes… The might of all seven Chaos Emeralds howl within me, bolstering my will to break yours!"

He reached his hand to Knuckles, shocking him with raw Chaos energy. Knuckles gritted his teeth as he struggled to get up, and Enerjak took a few steps closer to him. Archimedes immediately breathed fire straight up at Enerjak's face.

"What did you think that would do, puny ant?" Enerjak said in bewilderment.

"Heh… Knuckles, go!" Archimedes yelled. Knuckles immediately got up and ran from the room. However, Enerjak used his Chaos energy to pull the echidna back into the room.

"You disappoint me, Knuckles," Enerjak spoke as he also suspended Archimedes in the air with Chaos energy. "Echidnakind has deteriorated over the centuries. Your ways appear to be more primitive, and there seems to be no sign of Echidnaopolis which your ancestors were so proud of. Your entire past is buried right here beneath the shadow of Mount Fate, because your kind is ashamed of who they have become. And you're just the latest product of their failures."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Knuckles asked, struggling to break free.

"You left the Master Emerald unguarded, as well as your friends. And just now, your brilliant display of cowardice reveals to me exactly the kind of Guardian you are."

"Hey, don't call him a coward!" Archimedes countered, clenching his four hands into fists.

"He is left without excuses," Enerjak shrugged. "Though you are valiant, your power is nought compared to mine. Lesser beings would have perished… You, however, deserve a better fate."

He lifted both his hands in the air, and Knuckles and Archimedes felt reality twist and warp around them, and they ground left from beneath their feet as everything turned to indiscenible patterns of colors.

"CHAOS… IS… POWERRRRR!"

A/N: Even though this is not my first Archie Sonic rewrite (see Wrath of a Hero), this story feels very different to me. It only took me five days to write this chapter, and this story will most likely be three chapters long when it's done, since the original miniseries was also three issues long.

I honestly haven't seen any stories with Archimedes in them, so this may be one of the very few that exists. So I just checked to see if any exists on the site. Apparently this story is THE first story on all of to feature Archimedes!

I kinda headcanon Archimedes sounding like a cross between Robin Williams and Chris Rock, and Enerjak sounds kind of like the Black Guardian from Classic Doctor Who. I really loved writing them both!

Ken Penders loved having lots of exposition, or flashbacks, in his stories. In my opinion, it kind of got to the point where it crowded out the rest of the story taking place in the present. So instead, I will have one really long flashback in the next chapter, since that's the only place I can have it without it intruding on the rest of the story.

If you read the original Knuckles miniseries, whether in physical issues or online, you'll know what's coming next. But if you haven't, then you're in for a surprise!

Also, I had to include the Sonic Movie 2 reference at the end XD

Anyway, see you all in the next chapter!