Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles the Echidna (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ Nakkuruzu za Ekiduna) is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic echidna and the current guardian of the Master Emerald, a powerful ancient gemstone which is kept on Angel Island. Guarding it is his solemn duty to protect from anyone seeking to abuse it, as well as the sole surviving descendant of the echidna race from the Knuckles Clan. Known for his powerful and wild nature, his dominant traits are his super strength and the two spike-like knuckles on each of his gloves, from which his name is derived from, and which he can dig and climb walls with. He can also trap the wind under his dreadlocks to glide through the air. Knuckles is also one of Sonic the Hedgehog's oldest friends and rivals.
A loner by nature, Knuckles is independent, headstrong, and serious, yet gullible and short-tempered to a fault. He is entirely devoted to his duty, spending most of his time on Angel Island protecting the Master Emerald, and rarely cares about anything that is of no importance. When his friends and others are in need of his help, however, Knuckles can always be relied on, being willing to leave his home very often.
Though usually depicted as the guardian of the Master Emerald, he was originally described as the guardian of Angel Island's seven Chaos Emeralds.
== Personality ==
Knuckles is independent, wild, hot-blooded, tough, and a loner by nature. If Sonic embodies the wind that keeps blowing forward, then the echidna personifies the immobility of a mountain. Due to having lived in seclusion for most of his life, Knuckles is a rather antisocial and reclusive individual. As such, he cares very little about what others think, which makes him bluntly honest, straightforward, and somewhat egotistical.
Knuckles is fiercely loyal to Angel Island and does whatever is in his power to protect it. He prefers to stay close to the Master Emerald's shrine to keep a watchful eye over everything at his home. Despite this devotion, the echidna is willing to leave his duty whenever his help is needed. Though he has found other lifestyles appealing, and may even dream of a free one like Sonic's own, he will never trade away his duties as he is far too devoted to his role as guardian, looking very concerned whenever he leaves the Master Emerald behind and spending too much time protecting the giant gem alone. When not performing his duties, Knuckles prefers spending his time practicing his fighting skills, going treasure hunting, or hanging out with his friends.
Knuckles is usually solemn, stoic, and collected, and usually likes to be by himself. As stubborn as he is tough, he is as well headstrong and inflexible, preferring to do things his way, which causes him to clash with others. Regardless, he is very strong-willed, seldom wavering in his determination, and will not give up on his goals once he has set them. While he is cool and determined in battle, the echidna has an extremely short and wild temper and is hard to reason with when he is angry, which has more than once gotten him into trouble.
Despite being a silent loner, Knuckles is a heroic, brave, kind-hearted, and selfless soul. While unwilling to forgive evil people, he will risk his own life to save anyone or get them out of trouble and shows empathy for others. He is likewise a loyal and caring friend, who is always willing to help his friends out in tight situations and will do anything to protect them. When not angered, the echidna is pretty laid-back and never cracks under pressure. He can also be very understanding of the sly and does not take kindly to people who disrespect or hurt his friends, or innocents, in any way.
Having been living much of his life in isolation, Knuckles grew up believing in honesty and holds a firm and steadfast belief that there is good in everyone, which always lets him give people second chances. Because of his lack of social ingenuity, however, it makes him very naive, incredibly gullible, fast about forgiving people, and easily misled, which has given him a history of being tricked by Dr. Eggman. This has made the echidna aggressive and suspicious towards anyone he deems questionable. Over time, however, Knuckles has gotten better about this and is more suspicious concerning the doctor's trickery. Once he finds out he has been tricked, he can get quite angered, but quickly regains enough of his composure to start working towards a resolution immediately.
Though not dull-witted, Knuckles is often prone to rash and ill-advised actions. While not above picking complex strategies, he often chooses force to be the solution, pushing himself through obstacles while focusing on his goal and ignoring other factors along the way. Similarly, he can also be quite reckless when panicking about the Master Emerald, such being especially evident during the Space Colony ARK incident, where he ended up fighting Sonic for the controls of the space shuttle and causing it to crash land as well as abandoning his allies out of a panic due to the Master Emerald shards being lost to space from a collision with a meteor forcing the cargo bay to open. When in his right element, however, Knuckles can be quite clever, sharp-witted, and sneaky, such as setting several successful traps for Sonic and Tails on Angel Island when they first arrived. He is also capable of learning from his mistakes. Knuckles has also proven himself to have a high degree of leadership skills, most noticeably during his time as the commander of the Resistance. He is noted to be very charismatic with inspirational speeches, and he has a flair of daring plans that provided the Resistance with a much-needed offensive during the War to Take Back the Planet. However, for all his skills as a leader, Knuckles is still easily distracted and prefers to be out on the battlefield rather than in the command center. While he would never admit it, Knuckles has become a bit envious of the lifestyle that Sonic has, being able to live carefree without anything holding him in one place. Even so, Knuckles would never trade away his duties to live Sonic's life, far too devoted to his role as guardian.
Knuckles is said to be shy around women. Also, due to his secluded lifestyle on Angel Island, Knuckles feels very uncomfortable in industrialized or crowded cities and places, especially if they do not have any vegetation or are littered with bright lights.
Knuckles seems to have lightened up on later adventures, such as the Time Eater incident and the War to Take Back the Planet. While he still sometimes displays a brooding, headstrong, and stubborn attitude, he is shown to be better at acknowledging his shortcomings and displays more personal restraint and better social interaction.
== Powers and abilities ==
Being the guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles is a very powerful, seasoned warrior. Said to be an unstoppable power in fights, he is capable of taking on even the most powerful of opponents without rest. He has even been able to fight figures like Sonic, Rouge, Shadow, Silver, and Metal Sonic to a standstill.
Knuckles' trademark ability is his indomitable strength. Possessing lots of power, he is strong enough to pulverize massive boulders, punch through solid steel, and lift objects several times his size and weight with ease. By comparison, Knuckles' strength is stated to equal Sonic's speed; considering the hedgehog's measured footspeed, which is known to surpass Mach 1, it would mean that Knuckles is capable of lifting over 100 metric tons. This makes the echidna one of the physically strongest characters in the series. His strength seems to lie in his upper body, particularly in his arms and fists, the former of which boasting enormous strength and latter being as hard as rocks. Another testament to Knuckles' strength is that by just punching the ground, he can create fissures, widespread tremors, and even powerful volcanic eruptions. Additionally, he can punch with his fists or throw objects through the air with such force that they ignite from friction. He can even launch punches with such force that they create explosions of enormous power. Despite his main strength lying in his upper body, however, Knuckles' legs are quite powerful too, as he can jump several stories into the air from a standstill position.
Knuckles is able to run at breakneck speeds that almost match Sonic's, who can reach supersonic running speeds. He is even able to run fast enough to create afterimages of himself and scale vertical surfaces and ceilings. Even so, he is not quite as fast as Sonic at his maximum speed, as Knuckles is noted to run fairly slow by comparison. Knuckles is also fast enough to execute rapid punches in quick succession within a split-second, although he has been noted to have slow movements in combat.
Knuckles possesses near-maximized physical durability. Testaments to this include him surviving a bomb exploding right in front of him through sheer toughness, and him going through atmospheric entry and then landing on the ground unharmed. In addition, despite the force of the impacts his fists receive when punching at high forces, Knuckles is never phased by the recoil, regardless of what he hits or how hard he is hitting. Knuckles is also shown to have sharp reflexes and acrobatic skills, enough to let him do special tricks and movements while in mid-air, pull off various Spin Attack maneuvers at high speed, and grind along rails just as fast as Sonic while doing tricks and evading obstacles.
Unlike Sonic, Knuckles is a good swimmer, being able to swim into incredible depths and with both great speed and skill. Thanks to the spikes on his fists, he is also a skilled burrower, being able to dig like a gopher into any wall or floor and tunnel through subterranean regions at great speed. These spikes also make him a skilled climber, as they allow him to plant his fists into any surface and scale them. In addition, the echidna is an expert at gliding, which he can easily do by using his dreadlocks.
Knuckles possesses the uncanny ability to sense energy, specifically the one produced by the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald or similar ones, such as those contained in the Sol Emeralds. and can track down their "signals" like an Emerald Detector. Like Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles can also harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to empower himself. As its guardian, Knuckles is also the only person alive who knows how to control the Master Emerald, which allows him to utilize the jewel's different powers or tap into its vast energies to empower himself. Other more mystical abilities Knuckles has exhibited include summoning lightning bolts, harnessing earth elementals to heal himself, and using the supernatural power of the earth to make rocks fall from the sky.
Knuckles is also able to perform the Spin Attack, a technique where he curls into a concussive ball or cutting disk and directs himself at his targets. With it, Knuckles can shred or burrow through just about any substance given enough speed. Adept in its usage, Knuckles can utilize several variants of the Spin Attack for both ground- and aerial maneuvers, including the Spin Dash, Spin Jump, and Homing Attack.
Even without his Spin Attack, Knuckles is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. A master in a number of martial arts focusing on hand-to-hand combat, Knuckles makes use of his powerful fists to take on his foes, with his specialty lying in punching moves where he uses his spiked fists for devastating blows. In terms of fighting style, Knuckles focuses on power, using straight, repetitive and forceful punches, such as power-packed jabs or piercing uppercuts to deal critical blows to his opponents. For stronger strikes, Knuckles tends to build up momentum with his fists by swinging them around, before hitting his opponent in full force. By taking advantage of his burrowing abilities, Knuckles can even hide underground before hitting opponents with an uppercut from below when his opponent least expects it. Despite being a powerhouse, however, most of Knuckles' fighting moves are slow and easy to read.
Knuckles is an expert treasure hunter and can be considered one of the best in the world, if not the best. Also, while not highly intelligent, Knuckles is well-versed in ancient cultures, ruins, and legends, such as when he was able to translate the ancient Babylonian texts at Gigan Rocks during the MeteorTech incident.
Knuckles is also a skilled Extreme Gear rider, having proven himself a worthy competitor against many of the world's best Extreme Gear riders. To best put his skills in perspective, Knuckles was able to beat Storm the Albatross in a race, who is regarded as a "wind master". When riding his Extreme Gear, Knuckles can bash his way through obstacles effortlessly and engage in close combat with his fellow racers without losing control. With his Extreme Gear, Knuckles can even enhance his physical abilities.
When it comes down to it, Knuckles is also shown to have very competent leadership skills. During the War to Take Back the Planet, he was able to lead the Resistance for several months against the Eggman Empire and even come up with war strategies of his own.
As seen during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Knuckles has excellent skills when it comes to driving and racing in racecars like the Land Breaker. Along those lines, Knuckles has also demonstrated some rudimentary piloting knowledge of more advanced crafts, having once piloted the Egg Saucer, and a Space Shuttle from Eggman's base to the Space Colony ARK (albeit in a more dangerous manner for half the journey due to panic over losing his Emerald Shards).
=== Equipment ===
Although he prefers to let his fists do the talking, Knuckles has wielded a number of tools during his adventures, albeit never permanently. During the Emerl incident for example, he made use of deployable landmines, and amidst the Gemerl incident, he would wield his own version of the Piko Piko Hammer.
=== Transformations ===
==== Super Knuckles ====
With the seven Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles is able to attain a Super State known as Super Knuckles. In this state, all of Knuckles' abilities far surpass his normal ones. In addition, he is able to fly and is virtually invulnerable. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy and requires Rings to be maintained.
==== Hyper Knuckles ====
In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles can transform into an extended version of Super Knuckles, called Hyper Knuckles, with the seven Super Emeralds. This form basically shares the same abilities and powers as Super Knuckles but on an even higher level.
==== Color Powers ====
By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Knuckles can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser, or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Knuckles has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill, and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.