Clash! Sonic vs Knuckles/Cracking Knuckles

**Clash! Sonic vs Knuckles** (or, **Cracking Knuckles**), is the fifth episode that happens in the series, Sonic X: Heroes Forever.

## Characters:

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Amy Rose
* Rotor Walrus
* Antoine D'Coolette
* Bunnie D'Coolette
* Sally Acorn
* Mighty the Armadillo
* Ray the Flying Squirrel
* Hope Kintobor
* Christopher Thorndyke
* Chuck Thorndyke
* Cream the Rabbit (Mentioned only)
* Cheese the Chao (Mentioned only)
* Ella (First physical appearance)
* Mr. Tanaka
* Doctor Eggman
* Bokkun (First appearance)
* E-12 Behemoth (Flashback)
* E-30 Laser Tank (Flashback)
* E-47 Pumpty (Only appearance)

## Plot:

The episode begins at night at an unnamed street, where Knuckles the Echidna is sighing and feeling frustrated about being away from the Master Emerald after looking at a newspaper featuring Sonic. Suddenly, Doctor Eggman approaches him and almost immediately goes on his knees asking and begging for Knuckles' help. He tells Knuckles that Chaos Control can send them back if they have all the Chaos Emeralds. A flashback of Sonic breaking into Dr. Eggman's fortress is shown from episode 1 while Eggman persuaded that Sonic intended to use the Chaos Emeralds to travel through time and space.

Knuckles ponders to himself and decides to play along with Eggman to see if he could find out what he's really doing. Eggman remarks that he simply wants to live his life quietly and peacefully on his homeworld. He adds that Sonic won't let him and that the hedgehog doesn't wish to go back. Sonic also snatched the Chaos Emerald from the doctor so that he couldn't use them to reverse Chaos Control's effects. He claims that all Sonic is doing is playing around in the new world, considering it to be better than the world he, his friends and Eggman come from. Knuckles pretends to be angered even more. When Eggman thought that Knuckles is supposed to be buddies with Sonic, Knuckles quickly denies it, but he still fakes that he wants to battle him to the bitter end. Eggman takes off, satisfied with his work, but Knuckles can sense emeralds without a radar due to being around the Master Emerald for so long.

The next day, Chris, Tails, Rotor, and Hope are admiring the Chaos Emerald in Chuck's lab. However, Ella tells them that she's coming up which prompts Chris to tell Tails and Rotor to hide. Rotor hides under Chris' bed. Finding nowhere, Tails quickly slumps on a beanbag and pretends to be a stuffed animal toy. Ella sees it and says that it looks cute before Hope says it's her project, claiming it was a nod to the Japanese Fox Spirit. Tails' eyes move to greet Ella's at that moment. She gets surprised but Chris snatches Tails and asks Hope to go and play with him, with Chuck following close behind and leaving Ella most confused.

Sonic is napping on the balcony with Sally in a chair next to him. He is woken by the commotion, and complains about not being able to nap in peace. Chris, Hope and Chuck then bump into Mr. Tanaka who quickly asks him what he's doing. Chris awkwardly replies that they are playing around the stuffed animal toy, to which he and Hope race off together with Tails. Chuck turns to follow but Mr. Tanaka insists he sticks to adult games and that it was time for his nap. The two bicker with each other as they head back inside.

Chris, Hope and Tails watch right before Amy runs into all three of them unannounced. Tails falls off of Chris' back and Chris is startled. He turns and yells at Amy that she shouldn't be running outside. Amy however says that the TV has reported of another possible Chaos Emerald sighting. Hope is more skeptical than the other two but ends up seeing the news report anyway. Hope then suggests grabbing her disguise in the likely event that it's a trap, as well as getting Mighty and Ray in on the action. Sally decides that now would be a good time to pack a picnic lunch to go on a date with Sonic, to which he agrees.

No sooner did the couple leave, Antoine and Bunnie get delivered a message in a form of a television from Bokkun (Eggman's messenger robot) which recorded Knuckles' message: he tells Sonic that he is ready to settle things with him at Silver Valley. Antoine and Bunnie have a mixed reaction to this before the message explodes. When they’re covered in soot, Bunnie and Antoine decided to straighten Knuckles out when he made three mistakes: Siding with Eggman, challenging Sonic, and damaging Bunnie's complexion (according to Antoine). The last comment flatters Bunnie as they head out.

At Silver Valley, Hope gives Amy a lecture on knocking a girl across the train car which nearly led to her and Tails being exposed. Mighty and Ray join the group, revealing they had been in the bag holder, and everyone heads for the lake. Hope has her EMP ready, and Chris asks about Balance-Type. Before they get into that though, a large purple robot known as E-47 Pumpty, surfaces from the lake in front of them. It quickly scoops the six of them up and traps them inside of itself. Eggman flies down on his Egg Mobile and reveals himself to them, saying that the energy that was being emitted was from one of his robots and not a Chaos Emerald. Tails makes a remark about even how he was fooled, and Amy tries to break free with her Piko Piko Hammer but the glass remained intact. Eggman tells them that he needs them in case the doctor's plan of defeating Sonic fails. When Amy points out that Sonic won't be coming, he points to a cliff where Knuckles waits.

Knuckles was glad he put on a good performance, when Antoine and Bunnie show up. Knuckles reveals to them he wanted to hear Sonic's side of the story, and he can sense a hint of residual Chaos Energy on the married couple. Knuckles also revealed that Eggman tricked him once before (aka Sonic 3), and asks why Sonic wants to keep everyone there, but Antoine reveals that Sonic wants his friends back home and he also finds out that Cream and Cheese were kidnapped by Eggman when the Chaos Control happened. This gets Knuckles into a foul mood, and he tells Antoine and Bunnie that Eggman thinks Knuckles gave into his demands, but they had to make it look convincing. Antoine then gets to slicing down a few trees for extra effect, and Knuckles takes back that Antoine couldn't handle the robot. After planning to replant seeds later, the trio get into a mock-battle.

Eggman is happily rooting for Knuckles as he watches the "fight", while Tails and Hope get to work in unscrewing the screws to where the wires were. Amy attempts to get another hammer to break them out, but Hope and Mighty manage to stop her.

Back at the mock-battle, Antoine sees one of Eggman's robots, and the captives with it. Knuckles gets angry again, and they and Bunnie figure it's time to show Eggman the truth. Meanwhile, Tails tries to cut the robot's wires, except he cuts the wrong one, setting an explosion to happen. Antoine and Bunnie arrive, and the former slashes one of the robots legs. It stuns the group, but they are not harmed. As Bunnie lets the group out, Eggman is stunned, saying Sonic should have been there. The robot then starts moving around, and Antoine and Bunnie race off, only to crash into each other behind a rock as it's smashed to pebbles. Knuckles enters the fray, kicking the turrets and rendering them useless. Knuckles then tells Eggman he was fibbing to him from the very start, saying he only needed to be tricked once in order to not trust him again. He also reveals that Antoine and Bunnie helped him find the truth once and for all and that he sensed residual Chaos Energy on Eggman. Knuckles and Mighty do a little tag-team by pulling out two Power Rings and strikes the edges together until a chain of sparkles links them, then one of them is tossed to Knuckles. Knuckles uses Mighty to propel himself onto the robot and punch holes in it, and proceeds to knock the Egg Mobile far away, with Eggman in it. Knuckles and Mighty remember their time at Carnival Island, (aka, Knuckles' Chaotix), and Knuckles decides to go off on his own again. The group bids him farewell.

Knuckles then runs into Sonic and Sally having their lunch together, and Knuckles tells Sonic about Eggman's scheme that had gone completely wrong. Sonic then tells Knuckles he's smarter than Eggman gives him credit for, and the hedgehog wishes the echidna luck as he walks away. Sally then admits Knuckles also smarter than Sonic described and he asks Sally to not tell him what he actually said. Sally then asks Sonic how many children he wants, causing the blue hedgehog to blush as the episode ends.

## Differences between this and the original story:

* Sonic hasn't been to Silver Valley before the events of this story like in the original.
* Sonic and Sally head off on a picnic while Antoine and Bunnie get Eggman's message from Bokkun. In addition, Tails, Amy, Chris, Hope, Mighty and Ray don't have a picnic in this version.
* Knuckles is fooling Eggman the entire time, and despite the title, doesn't battle Sonic this time around.
* The trip on the train is omitted, but is still mentioned in passing.
* The explosion in the robot in the original version came from Amy’s impatience, but, here, it’s an accident on Tails’ part.