Knuckles The Echidna (Mobius-2) Pre-CMD

## Sir Knuckles of the House of Edmund

* Knuckles
* Enerjak Reborn

Knuckles the Echidna (born day 251, 3220), or Sir Knuckles the Echidna as knighted by Sally Acorn, is the sole remaining Mobian echidna and the last in a line of Guardians of Angel Island. From the age of three, Knuckles was trained by his father Locke to assume the mantle of Guardian by the age of ten. Within the last few years, Knuckles has discovered that he is not the last of his kind, and that threats from all over Mobius are threatening his home. While originally operating alone, Knuckles has developed friends and teammates-formed into a group known as the Chaotix, which he leads-over time to assist him with his role of protecting the Floating Island. He has also taken it upon himself to assist those on the surface of Mobius in fighting the forces of Dr. Eggman, most prominently the Knothole Freedom Fighters under Sonic. Knuckles is the last Guardian protecting Angel Island, all other members of the Brotherhood of Guardians having perished or otherwise left incapable of carrying out their duties. He also considers himself responsible for all the echidna people on Mobius.

## History of Knuckles The Echidna (Mobius-2)

### Past

Prior to Knuckles' birth, his father Locke received a vision from the Ancient Walkers that warned him of a threat that would one day come upon Mobius and that his son would have to stand against. As a result, Locke performed experiments on himself and later on Knuckles' unhatched egg, all for the purpose of creating the ultimate Guardian. His work appeared rewarded when Knuckles began displaying intelligence beyond his years, as well as physical signs of mutation-such as his trademark fist spikes-and Locke was soon teaching Knuckles at a college level. Locke wanted to begin Knuckles' training as guardian at age three, but Lara-Le didn't want Knuckles to be raised this way. When she realized that she would have little or no say in Knuckles' life, the dispute ended their marriage. Locke won custody of Knuckles when he was five, taking him to Angel Island for training to become a Guardian.

Locke instructed Knuckles in various fields he would need to survive, and as such he would be, to an extent, secluded as a child, learning history, mathematics, geography, sciences, and other issues a guardian would need to know in order to perform his job effectively. During this time, Knuckles met Princess Sally Acorn, who became his first friend, though their time together was brief. Eventually, when Knuckles was ten, Locke journeyed to the Forbidden Zone with the confidence that Knuckles could be the next guardian, he performed one of the Brotherhood of Guardians' most grueling rights of passage, walking through the wall of fire that marked the entrance to Haven, leaving Knuckles to train on his own.

Distraught at first, years later, Knuckles became the Guardian his father hoped for. With Princess Sally no longer able to see Knuckles now that Robotnik took over her father's city, his only friend would be the Mobian Catweazle. Knuckles eventually overcame his loneliness with the help of friendships formed with Vector, Mighty, Espio, and Charmy, all of whom eventually became members of Knuckles' support group, the Chaotix.

### Guardian

Knuckles first met Sonic the Hedgehog when the Freedom Fighter and his sidekick Tails stumbled across Angel Island and flew up to investigate. Having met-and been fooled by-Dr. Ivo Robotnik, Knuckles thought that the pair were after the Chaos Emerald he and the other Guardians had protected for generations. He thus employed all his knowledge of the island and its booby-traps against the two, eventually taking them captive. Releasing them later, he followed them on the suspicion that they would go after the Emerald, only to have Robotnik take it instead. Acknowledging his mistake, Knuckles formed an alliance with Sonic to recapture the jewel before Angel Island fell into the ocean. They parted ways afterwards, not entirely sure what to think of each other.

Knuckles would return and clash with Sonic many times after their initial meeting, the first leading also to an encounter with Nack the Weasel. Not long after that, Knuckles had to save all the Freedom Fighters from the Happyland theme park built by Robotnik, engaging Metal Sonic in battle and defeating him with the use of Power Gems. This was also when he and the Chaotix first began working together as a team against the various villains of Mobius.

Not long after this, Knuckles found himself involved with a piece of history. Recently, he had been plagued by an unknown entity known only as Archimedes, whose latest act had been to spirit away the Chaotix to the Grand Conservatory of Angel Island. Infiltrating the ancient facility, Knuckles found his friends and discovered the identity of Archimedes: that of a Fire Ant. At the same time, the ancient evil known as Enerjak-Knuckles' distant uncle Dimitri, who had absorbed eleven Chaos Emeralds worth of power and thus been driven mad-escaped from his ancient prison. Before recreating his city of Nekronopolis, he banished Knuckles and Archie to the island's desert and enslaved the Chaotix. Knuckles eventually made his way back and confronted Enerjak, but was forced to retreat from the battle as his foe was launched into space-unbeknownst to Knuckles, the work of his long missing father Locke. From that point, Archimedes became another of Knuckles' friends and advisors.

Later, Knuckles went in search of a new Chaos Emerald as a backup for the one that remained under his care, which he feared might give out. Finding one in the Kingdom of Acorn's Lake of Rings, he grabbed it only to be challenged by Sonic, who claimed the Emerald as Kingdom property. The two rivals ended up battling in another Zone, where they transformed into Super Sonic and Hyper Knuckles and battled. This battle ended in a draw, with Knuckles leaving with the Emerald he'd sought and his relationship with Sonic tenser than ever

Knuckles would meet Sonic in battle yet again, this time when the Hedgehog fell victim to "Mecha Madness", having been Roboticized by Robotnik and sicced on his fellow Freedom Fighters. After Bunnie Rabbot's failed effort to stop this Mecha Sonic, Sally called on Knuckles to help the beleaguered heroes. Knuckles fought bravely but was defeated by Mecha Sonic's superior abilities, leading to a desperate act: the Roboticization of Knuckles himself. The new and improved Mecha Knuckles engaged Mecha Sonic in a battle that leveled half of Robotropolis, ending with Mecha Sonic badly damaged and barely clinging to life. Mecha Knuckles brought his former enemy back to Knothole, where both were de-Roboticized. Knuckles, irritated by Sonic, soon left again to return to Angel Island.

It was not long before Sonic and Knuckles crossed paths again, this time to deal with the menace of the Death Egg. Knuckles struggled to protect Angel Island from the giant battleship, and then helped Sonic to bring the fortress down. Despite this alliance, the pair were soon squabbling again as Sonic demanded that Knuckles return the Emerald he had taken from the Lake of Rings so it could be used to help the ailing King Maximillian Acorn. When Knuckles refused, the Freedom Fighters sought the Crown of Acorns instead, only to be betrayed by one of their intelligence agents. After helping them in the ensuing battle, Knuckles agreed to search for the one thing that could find the Crown: the Sword of Acorns. His quest led him first to a meeting with his great-grandfather Athair and the Ancient Walkers, who directed him to seek a number of magic users. This led him to an encounter with Tails' uncle Merlin Prower, though Knuckles did not know of the relationship at the time.

At this point, Knuckles was side-tracked when he had to help the Freedom Fighters in dealing with Evil Sonic, the Anti-Mobius version of Sonic. In the process, Knuckles met his own counterpart, the pacifistic Anti-Knuckles. Despite their differences, the two Echidnas were able to work together to save Anti Knuckles' Sunken Island, and in the process thwarted Evil Sonic's plans. Following this, Knuckles continued his search.

Resuming his quest, he encounters with the sorcerer Black Death, the Enchantress, and the wizard Mathias Poe, as well as a meeting with Sir Connery. His quest ended with success, as he was able to locate the missing sword and obtain it from Mathias Poe. Before he had the chance to turn it over to Princess Sally however, Mammoth Mogul used his magic to pit the Knothole Freedom Fighters against the Chaotix. When this failed, Mogul used the Fearsome Foursome to distract both teams while he secretly swapped the real Sword of Acorns for a fake. Not recognizing the switch, Sally then dubbed Knuckles a Knight of the Kingdom of Acorn.

Later, during Robotnik's Operation: Endgame, Sonic, having been framed by Robotnik for Sally's apparent death, escaped to the Floating Island with Dulcy the Dragon. Upon their arrival, Knuckles knocked Dulcy unconscious, resulting in a fight between the two until Geoffrey St. John, who had been tracking Sonic, arrived, stating that Sonic was his to take down. Geoffrey subsequently revealed to Knuckles that Sonic had killed Sally, causing a shocked Knuckles to attack him in a fit of rage; in the ensuing skirmish, Sonic was captured and restrained by Knuckles and Espio, who refused to hand Sonic over to St. John as he had no authority over them. At that moment, however, Dulcy regained consciousness and, with a dragon's ability to sense truth, revealed to everyone that Sonic was innocent and had been framed. Realizing Robotnik's scheme, Sonic and St. John joined forces to attack Robotnik, with Knuckles going along with them out of respect for Sally. Working together, the trio liberated Knothole, and everything turned out all right in the end: Robotnik was killed by his own weapon, Sally, having only been in a coma, recovered, and the real King Max was found.

### Return of the Echidnas

Knuckles' misconception that he was the last living Echidna was shattered when he clashed with the Dark Legion, an organization of cyborg Echidnas founded by Dimitri's son Menniker that split off from the rest of the Angel Island Echidnas and was later banished to the Twilight Zone by the Guardian Steppenwolf. In his time, Knuckles tangled with the Dark Legion Grandmaster Kragok. Aided by the Chaotix, he challenged Kragok and his followers and managed to drive them off, forcing them to abandon their then-headquarters.

Shortly thereafter, Knuckles would be attacked by a lone Legionnaire named Julie-Su, who blamed him for her separation from her people due to an unexplained attraction she felt for him, one that Archimedes quickly identified as the Soultouch, a sixth sense by which Echidnas recognize their mates. Possessed of similar personalities, the two young Echidnas clashed from the start, only to soon find themselves faced with the unexpected reappearance of Echidnaopolis, the capital city of the Angel Island Echidnas. Having been dispatched to another dimension by Guardian Hawking to protect it from nuclear fallout, it's return threatened Angel Island. Moreover, the city of the Echidnas' traditional enemies, the Dingoes, was returning as well in the same location. As General Helmut Von Stryker and his men struggled to establish their power base, Knuckles dealt with a number of problems: Constable Remington of the Echidna Security Team, a reunion with his all but forgotten mother Lara-Le, and a meeting with his ancestor Hawking. Joining forces with Julie-Su, Knuckles defeated the offending Dingoes, and Echidnaopolis was permanently and safely restored to Angel Island by Hawking, who then disappeared, leaving Knuckles his trademark hat.

Now uneasy friends, Knuckles and Julie-Su visited Mobotropolis in the wake of Robotnik Prime's defeat. There Knuckles introduced the Freedom Fighters to Julie-Su, and in turn met with Sonic's father Jules for the first time. After returning to Angel Island, the two were soon confronted with new problems. Mammoth Mogul, his scheme continuing, summoned Enerjak back from the depths of space to Angel Island, where the omnipotent Echidna took control of the Dark Legion after revealing his identity to Kragok. Bent on revenge, Enerjak immobilized the Brotherhood of Guardians' Fire Ant allies, as well as having his men capture the Chaotix. Knuckles was attacked by his old nemesis, who tried to break Knuckles with displays of his immense power. When Knuckles refused to give in, Enerjak tore him apart at the molecular level, seemingly killing him.

Knuckles survived the encounter however, as the Ancient Walkers and Athair intervened, restoring the Guardian to his original state. He returned to Echidnaopolis on the tail end of Enerjak's final assault, just in time to save Dimitri after the ancient Echidna was depowered by Mammoth Mogul wielding the Sword of Acorns. Contacted by Locke, the Freedom Fighters then arrived, only to have the now super-powered Master Mogul transport Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails away from Angel Island. Aided once again by the Ancient Walkers, Knuckles and the others returned with Power Rings in tow, and with the energy of Mogul's accumulated 12 Chaos Emeralds worth of power were able to transform into Hyper Knuckles, Super Sonic, and Turbo Tails. With the aid of the Brotherhood of Guardians' link with the Chaos Emeralds of Angel Island and Dimitri's own Chaos Syphon, the trio was able to defeat Mogul and seal him in the newly created Master Emerald.

### Going through changes

Worried by this new development, Knuckles decided to remain on Angel Island rather than accompany Sonic and Tails on their quest to bring down Robotnik's Sub-Bosses and Ixis Naugus. Despite this, he was pulled into their efforts when Athair recruited him to be the last Mitre of the Lost Tribe of Echidnas, who had for centuries been making their way back to the Echidna homeland of Albion. Athair had been their leader before, and passed the role on to Knuckles. Knuckles reluctantly accepted the role, doing his best to protect the people of the tribe even after Athair disappeared. Discovering new powers along the way, Knuckles eventually found a new ally in Rob O' the Hedge, a Hedgehog in the realm of Mercia who initially challenged him. When the Tribe was captured by the High Sheriff, a Roboticized version of Armand D'Coolette, Knuckles and Rob—aided by Sonic, Tails, and the Echidna Mari-An (who would go on to become Rob's wife)—defeated his forces and liberated them. Knuckles then brought the Tribe to Albion, but departed for home using the Guiding Star Gem given him by Athair's follower Yanar. As he left, Knuckles was unaware that Athair and the Walkers looked on proudly. (StH: #58, KtE: #10, #11, #12)

During his trek back to the Floating Island, Knuckles was attacked by a Bear Pack on motorcycles. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Knuckles managed to save himself by tapping into his latent chaos powers and creating a massive whirlwind that dispersed the Bear Pack. Not long afterwards he displayed an even greater extent of chaos powers by creating an energy tunnel which returned him to the Floating Island.