Boo! I'm a job application.
A few hours ago, before Knuckles left the village...
"Please don't go, Mister Knuckles! We need you!" Charles cried as he clung to the redhead's legs.
Knuckles pried the boy off him with an annoyed look, "Get off me, you're embarrassing yourself!" He picked the child up by the collar, "Have some dignity."
His only response was more crying.
Rolling his eyes Knuckles set him down as the whole village was there to see him off.
Mia came up and tugged on his pants leg, "Do you really have to go?" She looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.
Knuckles knelt down and patted the girl's head, "Yeah, I gotta hurry up and find a way home. I have a responsibility." Who knew what might happen to Angel Island while he's away? If Eggman or someone else got hold of the Master Emerald it could spell for disaster.
The old man came up with a bag and a basket, "Well here goes your essentials along with a map." He first handed Knuckles the bag, "Also here." He then handed him the basket.
Knuckles looked at the basket confused, "What's this?"
The old man winked and pointed in the direction of the crowd, "Just a gift the village girls got together for you."
Knuckles looked in said direction to see a group of girls giggling and blushing as they looked at him.
He only looked back with a blank stare, 'The hell are they laughing about? Something on my face?' He swiped at his face to get anything that might be on it.
"We're glad to have your company Knuckles." The old man bowed as all the others followed the action, "Stay safe on your journey and you are welcomed back anytime."
Knuckles grinned showing his fangs, "Yeah, and thanks for the hospitality." He gave them a thumbs-up as he started to walk away.
"Ah." He stopped himself, "Don't forget, if you happen to see my friends-"
"No worries, we'll send them in the right direction." The old man reassured, "It shouldn't be hard to point them out." He gave out a hearty laugh.
Knuckles smiled, "Alright, thanks." He walked off as the village yelled their goodbyes and farewells.
Though he knew his priority was to get back home as soon as possible he knew it did excite him to finally stretch his legs and go out on an adventure.
He wasn't stuck in some pocket dimension either so it was definitely a win.
"Hm, I wonder." He opened the basket to see the contents inside. When he lifted the lid off it and as soon as he saw what it was his eyes widened.
Sitting the was an arrangement of flowers and-
"JACKPOT!"
-grapes.
He smiled as he grabbed a handful of the fruit and flicked one into his mouth.
Maybe this adventure won't be too troublesome.
Walking a bit longer Knuckles set down his things and decided to get a layout of the land. He jumped up, gliding above the treeline and gazing beyond the treeline.
Looking around he noticed a tree fall in the distance.
"Hm, won't waste my time going over there." Knuckles grunted as he let gravity overtake him landing back onto the ground.
Walking back to his bag he opened it and pulled out a cloak, "This should hide my tail since people probably won't be as accepting of it."
He placed the cloak on the ground and got up, "Before that, I gotta use it." he went to behind the bushes and left his stuff unguarded.
It's not like anything would take his stuff... right?
She lazily glided through the air surveying the area around her territory. It was usual business as nothing much happened today even none of those foolish humans have tried to come fight her.
She guessed since there was no one in the area foolish enough to challenge her.
Even those monsters taking refuge from the extremist faction knew to stay clear of her, despite their constant pestering to recruit her.
'How annoying.' She thought as she looked around. She was about to turn back and fly home before noticing something move into the forest, "Hoh? What's this?" Flapping her wings she went toward the direction of the mysterious thing.
She quickly spread her wings to slow down the momentum and swiftly landed by a tree. Looking down she saw several items laid out.
"What's this?" She knelt to the basket and opened it. To her surprise was a beautiful assortment of flowers and grapes, "How wonderful." Her eyes widened at the beauty of it. She checked around to see if anyone else was in the area. Seeing nobody around she smiled haughtily, "Well I guess whoever left this behind should be grateful I take on this offering." Wasting no time she picked up the basket and flew back to her cabe.
It has been a long time since she had anything sweet.
"Man that felt good." Knuckles walked out of the shrubbery a bit more relaxed, "I didn't even know I had that much in me." He looked down at his belongings, "Welp time to go-"
He cut himself off as he noticed something missing.
"Huh?" He looked around the area trying to find any signs of his beloved treats.
Then he looked up.
There in the distance, he saw a woman with draconic features soaring through the sky carrying a basket.
Familiar basket.
...a really familiar basket.
...That was his basket.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Now we move back to the present as Knuckles as he finally makes it near the peak of the mountain finding an entrance to a cave.
Gritting his teeth, Knuckles enters the cave and places his bag down stomping into the caverns. He looked around to see the entrance light was slowly started to dim as torches lined up on the wall lit up the hallway.
As he got deeper into the cave he noticed a slight glow coming from a new entrance. Walking a bit faster Knuckles entered a large cavern as a light blinded him slightly.
His eyes quickly adjusted to find one of the largest piles of treasure he had ever seen in his life. He was outwardly surprised by the amount of gold, jewels, and coins, along with the other objects piled up, 'The bat girl would have a field day.' He grunted crossing his arms as he scanned the surroundings. His eyes looked around until they set their sights on the top of the pile.
There, lying lavishly was a woman standing at 6'4" with red eyes, light brown skin, and long black wild hair. She had a lean muscular build wearing iron armor in the shape of a tank top, brown shorts, and no shoes. She also had black draconic features such as horns, scales on various parts of her body, large wings, a long tail, and scaled talons where her feet and hands would normally be.
To many, they would be enticed by her beauty as it was quite dazzling.
Knuckles didn't care though.
The only thing he cared about was the fact that this damn woman was eating his grapes.
BOOM!
The room shook as Knuckles slammed the side of his fist against a wall near the entrance ratling the many jewels, making some of the treasures fall down the pile and getting the attention of the Dragon.
"Hah?" The dragon sneered at the male, "Who are you?"
"Doesn't matter woman." He cracked his knuckles, "You got something I want."
The dragon stood on her treasure trove and scoffed, "So you must be another foolish human wishing to get a hold of my treasure."
Knuckles glared at her, "I don't give a damn about that!"
That statement made the dragon confused before she had a disgusted look on her face, "Don't tell me you're a suitor."
"A what?" Knuckles squinted his eyes before regaining his furious expression, "You stole my grapes!"
"...You climbed my mountain and entered my cave all for some grapes?" The dragon couldn't help but deadpan.
"So what those grapes were mine so give 'em back!" Knuckles snarled as he held his hand out.
The dragon took immense offense to this, "How arrogant of you! You should be grateful I even thought to take your grapes." She proceeded to fling her hair haughtily, "Think of it as an offering to me, so leave now and I'll forgive you." She thought that the foolish brute would leave her cave and let her be. He should know that dragons are among the strongest of monsters and even she was an example of that. He wouldn't be foolish to challenge her authority, right?
"What are you, a dumbass?"
Wrong.
"Huh?" She looked down at the man with a blank expression.
Knuckles continued, "You really think I would leave as you casually disrespect and steal from me yet you have the nerve to tell me off." He smashed his fists together, "Were you born that stupid or just recently decided to not use your brain."
She didn't say anything. Nothing needed to be said as the look on her face-
SWOOSH
-was that of pure rage.
She flew straight at Knuckles intending to take his head off with a powerful punch.
Knuckles readied himself and threw his own punch. Suddenly the two collided.
BOOM!
Both of their eyes widened at their opponent's strength. Knuckles were pushed back into a wall while the dragon slammed into her treasure pile making it fall.
They both grunted as they got up glaring at the other. One thought rang through their heads.
'They're strong.'
"Not bad human-" The dragon stopped when she noticed the tail, "...what are you?"
Knuckles stood up and cracked his neck, "I'm Knuckles of the Echidna."
"Hmph, Knuckles..." She stared at his fist seeing the spikes protruding from them, "Well then, I am Kuroshi of the night sky. Your strength is impressive, but-" She flapped her powerful wings flying to the top of the cave right above the peak of the treasure, "-it won't matter." She flew down into the golden hill making it fall apart as treasure flooded the floor.
Knuckles jumped right as the treasures hit the wall he was at. Looking down he saw that it was blocking the only exit of the cave. He landed on the now golden ground with a thud and glared at Kuroshi as she landed in front of him.
"No escaping if you thought of running now boy." She looked at him coldly, "You will face the consequences of showing me such disrespect." She spread her wings and held out her claws.
Knuckles held his fist up and got into his own fighting stance, "I wouldn't think of it."
The two stared at each other with such intensity it was a surprise that they didn't burst into flames.
.
.
.
"RAAAH!"
Knuckles was the first to make a move jumping forward with his fist reeled back. He let loose a powerful punch toward the dragon who swiftly dodged and countered with a kick to the Echidna hybrid's cheek. The attack didn't do much as Knuckles swung again making Kuroshi fly back dodging the attack.
'Resilient.' Kuroshi thought as she looked at her opponent, 'That kick had some power to it, usually any attack would defeat worms without a sweat.' She watched as he ran toward her once more, 'What are you?'
Knuckles jumped up and went for an overhead punch. Once again, Kuroshi dodged swiftly right as Knuckles' fist was about to come into contact with her. She looked bored as the attack missed once again-
BOOM!
Kuroshi's eyes widened as a crater appeared where she once occupied, 'What strength!" Her eyes narrowed sharply, 'I need to take this more seriously.' She finally decided to go on the offensive flying straight at him with her claw outstretched ready to shred him. He barely dodged right as her claw hit him. It barely grazed his shoulder leaving only a small scratch. Not letting up Kuroshi swung again this time with a punch landing it squarely on Knuckles' cheek.
Kuroshi grinned already landing a solid hit, 'Nice, I'll take this bastard out in no time-'
Her thoughts were cut off by an unfamiliar pain in her stomach.
Slowly she started to process the fist lodged into her abdomen as spit escaped her mouth exhaling all of her air. She was flung across the cave slamming into a wall. She winced at the pain as she stood up wiping the spit from her lip and glaring at Knuckles.
"Don't get cocky." Knuckles grunted as he walked forward rolling his shoulder, "You think it's over just cause you got a good hit in? Don't be stupid." He grinned wildly, "I'm not a weakling lizard girl."
Something happened within the dragon's mind. A spark lit up inside her one she never felt before. One that brought a distant memory from her childhood...
"When you meet the one you love it'll be like BOOM! then FWOOSH! It's the best feeling in the world!"
'...was this love?'
...HELL NO!
Stomping her feet the room shuddered as Kuroshi stood up with a wild smile and a fire in her eyes, 'It's those damn succubus emotions running amok! He's strong but unless he beats me I won't even consider him as a mate.' She spread her wings and leaned forward, "SHOW ME WHAT YOU HAVE ECHIDNA!" One flap of her wings she flew at Knuckles faster than before.
Knuckles smirked stepping forward and positioning his body for a powerful straight punch. Swinging his right fist he leaned his body forward, then-
THWACK!
Both hits connected!
The two fighters hit each other in the cheek and pushed them back from one another, however, the two recovered and swung another punch-
THWACK!
-and another-
THWACK!
-and another!
Soon their attacks turned into a flurry of punches making wind pick up around them blowing away anything light enough. Their attacks continued until Kuroshi used her tail to smack into Knuckles' side pushing him away.
Quickly Knuckles grabbed her tail and swung her into another wall before running right towards her and throwing another punch. Dodging at the last second she moved right in time to see the destruction the blow could have caused.
BOOOOM!
The wall she once occupied was not a hole big enough to fit a carriage making a new exit as the sunlight entered the cavern Knuckles looked at Kuroshi and scoffed, "I missed."
Kuroshi smiled once again as she felt that feeling her grow stronger, "What a monster." She growled and smoke started to seep from the sides of her mouth.
Knuckles smiled as he slammed his fist together with a grin, "Really now?"
"Whew, finally done."
Tails sat down wiping the sweat from his brow as he looked at the now-fixed Tornado. It took a bit longer than he expected but it should be up and ready to take off now.
"Glad that's finished." Almost immediately after saying that he got a notification from his tablet. Pulling it out he looked to see that his satellite had finished setting up, "Man two for two, must be my lucky day." He looked through his tablet, "Dang I'm not getting a signal from anyone else. At least I have a map of where I am." He pressed a few icons on the screen making two more drones fly from the biplane into the sky, "Hopefully everyone is in the area, I hope they're okay."
Looking up Tails let out a heavy sigh as he got up and walked to the Tornado.
Beep beep beep
"Huh?" The sudden sound made Tails stop and immediately look at his tablet.
There he was picking up a signal of something in what looked like a town near where he was. He looked confused as it wasn't from Sonic, Amy, or Knuckles. Matter of fact...
"An unknown signal? What the heck is that?"
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Shots of blue flames were targeting Knuckles who dodged each one before running to the origin of the attack.
Kuroshi jumped back gaining more distance from the brawler before spitting out two blasts of fire at Knuckles who dodged them and continued to run towards her. Backing up more she felt her back against a wall.
"Dammit!" Kuroshi cursed as Knuckles was now closing in.
Knuckles brought his fist back and swung a left hook. It was about to come into contact-
!
Kuroshi opened her mouth firing a blast point-blank-
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Capturing both of them in the blast.
Knuckles jumped back get wincing at how strong the attack was, 'Damn, I don't want to get caught in that again.' Almost immediately looking up he saw a torrent of flames come towards him, "Ah shit." He quickly brought his hands up to block the attack.
The blast pushed him into a wall singeing his arms making him wince at the sensation. He squinted before looking up to see Kuroshi flying straight at him using her body to slam him through the cave wall-
BOOM!
-and straight outside.
"You're crazy!" Knuckles yelled as he was temporarily blinded by the sunlight. Suddenly he felt gravity reclaim him as he started to descend. Looking up he saw Kuroshi smirk at him before turning and flying back to the hole she recently made.
Kuroshi gracefully landed back in the cave and looked at the treasure laid out across the floor. She sighed knowing that it would be a pain to clean all of this up-
THWACK
Without warning she felt as if she slammed with a boulder as she was flung across the golden floors and once again into a wall. This time she coughed up blood as she stood up and glared at where she once occupied.
Standing there was Knuckles, with red lighting dancing around his figure his eyes slightly glowed a soft purple. Glaring he bared his fangs at the dragon, "You really thought that would be it?"
Kuroshi snarled as the feeling now came back with a vengeance, "DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME!"
Opening her maw a blue glow started to rise from her throat. Finally, she let loose an attack, not blue flames like before, but similar to a plasma beam. It tore through the cave burning even the many treasures in its path, a powerful attack that would mean death to anybody else.
Unfortunately for Kuroshi that didn't apply to Knuckles.
Shifting his body Knuckles pulled his fist back as red lightning cracked as it concentrated on his fist. Finally-
"CHAAAAAAAA!"
He swung.
As soon as his fist came into contact with the attack it more or less had a reaction.
KRACKABOOM!
A violent one at that.
Red lighting and a blast of heat shook the cavern and the entire mountain, ripping up trees, causing landslides, and cave-ins.
Speaking of cave-ins the cave that the two were in was now falling apart.
"Curses." Kuroshi tried to stretch her wings only to wince and notice her right wing sprained. She looked wide-eyed before noticing a large chunk of rock falling towards her.
She cursed herself as her body decided to also give out on her at the moment. Her world started to fade to black as she began to pass out, the last thing she saw was red.
The sky was the first thing Kuroshi saw.
Sitting up fast in a slight panic, Kuroshi winced in pain. Looking down she saw her body wrapped in bandages, sloppily so she must add.
"You're awake." Kuroshi looked to to origin of the voice and saw Knuckles sitting in front of a fire grilling a fish, "Good I was worried I hit you too hard."
She said nothing as she got up and sat next to the South Islander. Knuckles only looked at her before looking back at the fish. They sat in silence for a little while before Kuroshi broke the silence.
"What happened?"
Knuckles grunted, "Your cave is kinda full of rocks now, and I saved you from being crushed."
Kuroshi looked down, "So I lost..." She realized that she took far more damage in her fight than she originally thought. Must have been arrogance, adrenaline, or maybe both.
Whatever the case was, she lost.
"Yeah, but you're stronger than those weirdos from before so... good for you." Knuckles stoically stated not looking at her.
Kuroshi only gave him a quiet 'hm' as her expression became unreadable with her hair shadowing her eyes.
The two sat in silence once again.
"...So what shall you do now?" Kuroshi asked.
Knuckles shrugged, "Well since you ate my grapes and I'm pretty sure that they're buried under tons of rubble, I'm just gonna keep going to my destination."
That made Kuroshi look at him bewildered, "Do you really only care for those grapes?"
"They're my favorite food so of course." He stated matter of factly.
Kuroshi stared at Knuckles a bit longer, and then-
"Hehehehahahahah!"
-she laughed.
Knuckles looked at her confused as she spoke once again, "You are a strange person..." She looked up at him with rosy cheeks, "...Darling."
Giving her a smirk, Knuckles stated, "Well I have been told I am rougher than the-" He stopped processing what she called him, "Huh?"
"Oh, do you not want me to call you that?" Kuroshi looked at Knuckles worriedly, "What about Honey or Sweetness?" Her dragon tail started to wag a bit.
"Huh?" That was the only thing Knuckles could say.
"If you would like to, you can make names for me too~" Kuroshi fluttered her eyes flirtatiously.
The shift in emotions and sudden flirting had confused Knuckles so much that he only knew one thing to say.
"...huh?"
.
.
.
"Ah, you're fish is burning."
"SHIT!"
Meanwhile, in the desert, a succubus, an Anubis, and a witch were trekking under the hot sun.
"Man, how do you do it~" The witch groaned as she wiped the sweat from her brow for what felt like the millionth time today.
The Anubis grunted, "It's not too bad once you get used to it."
"Easy for you to say-"
"Let's stay focused ladies." The Succubus quickly cut in, "Now are you sure this is the way to it?"
The Anubis nodded, "Yes just over this hill, we couldn't even believe it when we saw it."
"You would think something that big would be seen from here." The witch complained.
"Trust me, It's something that even surpasses the technical prowess of the Dwarves." The Anubis stated with full confidence making the other two monsters surprised.
Something that surpassed what even Dwarves can build? It should be impossible with their advanced technical prowess is unrivaled, especially with their work on the automaton.
Finally, they made it to the top of the dune. The witch sighed in relief, "Finally we made it. Let's hurry up and get this... over..." She started to trail off finally seeing the object in question.
There, sitting in a massive sinkhole, was a massive metallic red ship, with black and yellow lining. It didn't look like any ship they had ever seen as it had large fans and wings similar to the flying contraptions the Dwarves made yet more refined. Also, there on the side of the ship was a giant emblem of something smiling as if it was mocking them.
They looked on in awe before the succubus turned to the witch, "Contact Druella." The witch nodded before summoning an ethereal crow and sending it off. The succubus looked back at the ship still not believing what she was looking at. Asking only one question.
"Who could have built such a vessel?"
"Metal, go greet our guest. Hohohohoho~"
Imma be honest I'm not that good with fight scenes so if y'all don't like this it's fine with me.
Anyway, I'm gonna be adding a good amount of Sonic characters to the story so it's going to be A LOT of stuff on my plate.
I would also like to say that the fact that Sonic Heroes might get a remake makes me so happy.
I know, random comment.
Uh yeah, that's all though See yall later.
PEACE!