Knuckles' Spark – Chapter 2: Bleak Beginning

Knuckles coughed. Getting up with no problem at all, he surveyed his surroundings. A sign stood saying "Route 66". "Where am I? This is not Green Hill, or Angel Island…"

He was having trouble remembering who his friends were. He knew he had them; he just couldn't remember their names. Pictures of them came to mind, but no information of who they were, what they were like or where he'd first seen them came up. He glanced down and reminded himself of who he was,.

"I am Knuckles the Echidna, last of the Echidna Warriors. I can figure out a way back home myself." At least he knew how he got here.

"Dr Eggman, you are going to pay for messing with m–" He was cut off by a blur of red and yellow sweeping past him. Dust flew up to his eyes, which temporarily blinded him. He rubbed them vigorously. That speed… It reminded him of a friend… What was his name again? Speedy? Slop? It wasn't easy to recall.

The speedy figure was halfway down a street, which led to a small town. Knuckles decided to go there and get some information on where he was. From there, he'd figure out a way to contact someone, and get back home. If all went well, he'd remember everything he was forgetting and no problems would stop him. If not… Well, Knuckles just hoped things wouldn't get too ugly.

He got up, and stuck his fist up. The wind was blowing gently north, but it was strong enough. He jumped up, and started gliding. It was a skill all echidnas could do; bending the wind. The last time he'd told his friends, however, they'd mocked it, due to it sounding slightly similar to another word. He didn't want to focus on that, though. There were bigger things to worry about.

Like where he was, for instance. It seemed to be a desert, but why a desert? He was used to all sorts of landscapes, but this was exceptionally dusty. He didn't enjoy this massively.

He was gliding along now quite easily, at almost half the speed of the blur, but he was catching up to it. It was quite calming and although it gave Knuckles tons of time to think, he didn't bother doing that. Or at least, not until he saw the snake on the ground.

It was unnatural – that was the best way to describe it. From above, it looked normal, with it's green body, but it had black tires on its sides. He didn't stop in shock to check if it was true, though he was slightly confused about this, as he continued flying. He had no doubt whatsoever that they were tires. If it was trying to deter him from his journey, however, then it had failed, but it sparked some form of curiosity in him.

Eventually, he reached the little town. Shops for gas, tires, radiator caps and such surrounded him, but the place was abandoned, from the looks of it. A stack of tires in fact, was placed in such a way, it resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There was a small fountain, where in front, stood a statue of a car. He had a gold tooth and slightly wacky teeth in general. And the strangest thing was that it had eyes on its windshield. "Am I in a-a cartoon?"

He saw the red blur again, but it was slowing down, and Knuckles gasped as he caught sight of the thing. It was a car as well, decorated with the number 95 along it's sides with lightning bolts, and on its hood, a name was plastered. "Rusteze". It sounded hilarious to Knuckles, or at least It would have, if he could remember why. A bunch of mini-stickers were also on the sides, and on his right and left sides were small glass lightning bolts too. The car said, "Uh, hi there? What on earth are you?" Knuckles was astounded.

"I'm in a world with talking cars? You've got to be kidding me…"

"Excuse me? Can you explain what exactly you… are?" asked the car once more.

The echidna sighed, and said, "This is awful… My name is Knuckles the Echidna, last of the Echidna Warriors, guardian of the Master Emerald. And you?"

"Oh, uh, when you put it like that, heh… I suppose I'm not as important as you are… But my name's Lightning McQueen, three time Piston Cup winner! Also, what exactly is an echidna?"

Knuckles continued on, ignoring his comment. "I assume that's some sort of award?"

"Well, it's a trophy, but sure, why not? What brings you here to Radiator Springs?"

The echidna looked around. It was small, and as one of his friends may have put it, "cute". Yet, still, he couldn't remember who. Only a picture of a pink hedgehog came to mind. "I've been sent here by accident from another dimension. These regulators," he pointed to his fist, "they are the only thing keeping me from dying in your universe. I need to get back home."

Lightning seemed confused. "Um, either you're delusional or–"

"How dare you call me delusional!"

"Ok, you… definitely are not delusional. Well, I think I can try to help. I just hope this isn't a prank. Are you going to come with me?"

Knuckles looked around. He didn't have many options right now. Who knew, maybe the car had more to him than he was letting on. "Ok, then. I've nothing else to do."

"Great! So, I'm not an inventor myself…" started the car. His passenger seemed somewhat disheartened, but didn't show it. He stopped listening almost completely.

"It's ok. I'll find a way myself, but thanks for the offer!" He walked off, and started looking around for other sources of help. Lightning coughed, and he turned around.

"...I was saying though, that I do know a few people. Maybe they could help?"

"Are you sure they can help? This technology thing is complicated, they may not be able to make a way home for me. I know that, because um…" He groaned. Sadly, Knuckles still could not remember anything about his friends.

"You ok?" asked the car. He'd seen quite a few peculiar things, but this… this was by far the weirdest yet. He was desperate to help, but how could he? Nothing seemed to make sense except for the explanation the echidna gave him… if that thing even was an echidna. In fact, what WAS an echidna?

He decided to just roll with it, as Knuckles said, "Yeah. We should get going now. I'll explain what I can on the way." He leaped onto the roof of the car, and pointed towards the horizon.

He noticed his gloves were glowing. Lightning bolts were on them, yellow-orangey-red bolts which looked like the ones this car wore. "Hmm…" He decided to test these out later.

For now, he had one vital mission. Get back home.

"You ready? We're gonna go fast!"

"Onwards!" replied the echidna.

A/N: I had to add Cars here cos I wanted to bring in something that can be quite ignored at times. I hope I did it well.

On an unrelated note, I have a forum open to host a competition to get some Sonic Jam Legacy Skins for Sonic X Shadow Generations. Check it out if you have the time!