And now, the epic conclusion!
WARNING: The violence intensifies a bit in this chapter.

Chapter 5

Sonic has escaped Knuckles' trap in the Chaos Chamber, but the overzealous guardian is still looking to hunt him down. On top of that, Sonic sees some more trouble on the horizon. Robotnik and his baddies have shown up on the Floating Island!

“Uh oh. Robotnik's not gonna be too pleased about the way the mission turned out. I'm empty handed!” said Sonic.

“There you are Sonic!” yelled Robotnik. “Trying to sneak off without reporting back to me? It's time I finished you off once and for all!” he decided. “Attack!” he called out to his badniks.

A “blastoid” badnik targets Sonic in it's scope and fires. Sonic dodges just in time. The blast narrowly misses him, and blows a huge chunk off of an ancient ruin of the echidna civilization.

“Oh well. At least they were already ‘ruins’,” joked Sonic.

A technosqueak scurries in front of Sonic as a penguinator approaches him from behind.

“A technosqueak? You call this a badnik?!” Sonic taunted. “I can think of a better use for it.”

Sonic picks the technosqeak up by the tail and slams it over the penguinator's head; crushing both.

“Ha! It works better as a nunchuck,” laughed Sonic.

As Sonic continues his scuffle with the badniks, Knuckles takes notice of the commotion from a nearby mountaintop.

“Hey, somebody is trashing my island!” he growled. “And there's the guy I saw messing with the emeralds earlier! I want him!”

Inconceivably, Knuckles is able to use his dreadlocks to glide towards the battlefield—yes, that’s right; HIS HAIR. Meanwhile Sonic chops down a majestic tree with a triple spin, causing it to land on top of a caterkiller and crush it!

“How dare you desecrate my people's ancient ruins!” yells Knuckles. “And now you're destroying the Floating Island's flora as well?! You must die for your crimes!”

POW!

Knuckles strikes Sonic with a powerful gliding punch as he swoops down for a landing.

WHAM!
He hit Sonic again.

“Take that you filthy piece of blue scum!”

Next, Knuckles uses his special move (in my stories, Knuckles can morph his hands into different weapons). He clasps his hands together and morphs both fists into a giant ramming piston covered with spikes and rams it right into Sonic at full force! The force of the blow propels Sonic into the air; nearly knocking him out.

“Listen up everyone! I want all of you trespassers off of my island right now!” announced Knuckles. “Or else you'll wind up like this loser over here,” he added, pointing to Sonic.

While Sonic is lying on the ground, the wind blows a piece of paper from his possessions. It floats through the air and Robotnik flies over in his eggomatic to snatch it up.

“Hm? What's this, a map?” wondered Robotnik.

“I'll show you what happens to interlopers on this island,” said Knuckles. “Time to make an example out of the blue guy.”

“Sonic, you're hurt!” called a familiar voice.

“Huh? Who's that?” Knuckles wondered.

Knuckles looks up to see where the voice came from. Some kind of weird looking fox creature with two tails, floating in the sky!

“Tails! You're okay!” said Sonic.

“Rotor went and got me from under that rubble!” Tails explained. “I've been healing up for the past few days, and now I'm coming to the rescue!

While Tails was running his mouth, he didn't notice a “Blaster” badnik was taking aim at him... It fired!

BANG!

“Ow!” cried Tails.

Tails fell out of the sky in a dusty crash landing.

“Umph!” he grunted, as he hit the ground.

While Knuckles was still distracted by the commotion of Tails entering the scene, Sonic revved up a spin dash and quickly shot towards Knuckles!

“Wha-? Arrggh!” screamed Knuckles.

Sonic ripped a big cut across Knuckles' chest! Then while Knuckles was down, Sonic geared up to deliver the fatal strike...

“Now, to finish the job! Ha ha!” laughed Sonic.

“Noooo!” cried Tails.

Just before Sonic came in for the kill, Tails swooped Knuckles out of the way just in time!

“Whew! That was close,” sighed Tails.

Knuckles stirs back to his senses.

“What hit me?” he groaned.

Knuckles notices Tails standing next to him.

“Now I think I remember! I had another little intruder here,” said Knuckles. “Watch this!” he said to Tails.

“Huh??” wondered Tails.

Knuckles' fist morphs into a giant spike ball.

“What the-?!” started Tails.

“Mmwah ha haa! Knuckles gonna kill ya little guy!” laughed Knuckles. “You're goin' to the next planet kid! Ha ha haaaa!”

Knuckles rears back to thrust his ultra heavy fist into a powerful blow. But just as he comes in for the strike, Tails dodges and Knuckles hits an innocent passerby instead!

Ka-BOOM!

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” cried the passerby.

“Charmy Bee? Whoops! Guess he's dead now,” said Knuckles, a little too casually.

Charmy was knocked all the way into the clouds.

“Wait Knuckles!” pleaded Tails. “Sonic and I are here to help you take out these badniks! Robotnik is the bad guy! ...huh? Where'd Robotnik go anyway?”

“Nevermind that!” yelled Sonic. “I could use a hand over here!”

Sonic was battling against a bunch of badniks. He was surrounded by a Clamer, a Star Pointer, and a Skorp, while a Bloominator was shooting spike balls at him.

“Okay. If you guys help me get rid of these mechanical monsters, I'll think about letting you off the hook,” said Knuckles.

Fighting together as a team, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were more than a match for the badniks. They wiped the last of them out.

“Nice work guys!” said Sonic. “Now let's–”

KRRRRRRRR-SWOOSH
The whole island began to shake violently!

“Whoa! What's going on?!” yelled Sonic.

“The island is falling!” Knuckles exclaimed. “Someone must be messin' with the master emerald! Don't worry though. We'll simply splash safely into the water below. Let's go check the chaos chamber.”

“Um, guys... Where's the water?!” screamed Tails.

They looked below the island and there was nothing but a dry pit with a hole in the middle of it. It looked like someone pulled the plug out of the drain and let all the water out! (Don't ask how.

“AAAHHH!” screamed Knuckles.

“Relax Knuckles! Everything's gonna be O.K.” Sonic assured.

“No it's not!” Knuckles shot back. “We're gonna die! There's no water! Don't you get it?! Water is the way we survive but there is no water!”

Knuckles grabs hold of Sonic and points his head over the edge of the island.

“See that? NOWATER!” shrieked Knuckles. “We're all gonna splatter right down there!”

“Calm down man! How much time before we hit the bottom?” asked Sonic.

“It should take 13 more minutes. But the Chaos Chamber is way too far for us to get there in time!” said Knuckles.

A timer reading “13:00” minutes appears in the corner of the “screen”.

“Hmm... 13 minutes, eh? Not a lot of time,” said Sonic.

Sonic just stood there, trying to look pensive.

“You’re saying you can't do it?!” asked Knuckles.

“Nah, I'm just messin' with ya!” Sonic chuckled.

“We don't have times for games Sonic!” shouted Knuckles. “How're you going to get us there?!”

“Chill man. I got this,” said Sonic. “In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty fast!”

Sonic revs up faster than ever, grabs hold of Knuckles and Tails, and takes off in a blue blur!

WHOOSH!

They're back at the chaos chamber within seconds.

SCRRREECH!

Sonic came to a sudden stop. There's a big barrier of rocks blocking the pathway to the tunnel.

“Now that was fast!” said Knuckles. “Whoa, I'm dizzy! Why'd you stop anyway?”

“It's just a little ol' rock barrier,” said Sonic.

Sonic started to recline on the barrier nonchalantly.

“I could take this out no prob,” Sonic bragged.

“Well don't just stand there. Do it!” Knuckles demanded.

“Don't sweat it. Something like this is nothing to a world class superhero like me,” said Sonic.

“Well whatever you do, do it quickly you crazy buffoon!” shouted Knuckles.

“Take it easy island boy!” replied Sonic. “I'll show you how it's done. A Supersonic Spin should do the trick.”

“Alright, alright! Do your sonic spin thing,” said Knuckles.

“Correction. That's ‘SUPERSONIC SPIN’,” said Sonic. “The one and only. No other move can match it's speed, power, and beauty.”

“This is ridiculous!” Knuckles screamed. “We don't have time to listen to you brag about how great you are, you arrogant, obnoxious, little–!”

“Can you blame me for being a little vain?” asked Sonic. “If you had these looks and this speed...”

“SONIC! PLEASE!”

POW!

Knuckles gave Sonic a stiff sock across the face, just to knock some sense into him.

“Have you forgotten that we're plummeting hundreds of feet to our deaths?!” asked Kmuckles. “Why are you stalling?! Why??” he desperately pleaded.

“Stalling?” asked Sonic. “You gotta be kidding! I would never rob the world of my gracefull presence by letting myself die here.”

“Either do something about the barrier, or at least stand aside so I can give it a try!” Knuckles demanded. “We've got less than 8 minutes left!”

The timer now reads ‘7:54’.

“Okay, watch this,” said Sonic. “I'm gonna bust up that little pile of pebbles! It's UP! OVER! And– OUCH!”

Sonic was deflected by the wall of rocks; not even denting it.

“How can that be?!” asked Sonic.

“Why am I not that surprised?” asked Knuckles. “You're all talk! Looks like this wall could use the old Knuckles touch!”

CRACK!

Knuckles walked right through the barrier and it crumbled apart. He wasn't even going that fast, and it looked like his fists barely even touched the rocks (just like in the Sonic & Knuckles video game. Try running at a rock wall at low-speed in that game, and you'll see what I mean.

“There's Robotnik!” said Sonic. “C'mon Knuckles, we're the island's only ho–!”

ZZZZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

Robotnik's emerald powered eggomatic made short work of Sonic & Knuckles. They were rendered unconscious with a few blasts.

A few minutes later...

Sonic and Knuckles revive. They're laying on the ground just outside the entrance to the cave. Robotnik is nowhere in sight.

“Did... did we win?” muttered Sonic.

Sonic looks up and sees to his dismay that the numbers counting down to their demise are still in the corner of the “screen”. The timer reads 3:00 minutes.

“No... Those dreadful numbers! ...still there!” said Sonic. “Knuckles! Why didn't you do your job, you useless, red failure!?”

“Me?! Who was the one that wasted five of our precious minutes talking about how cool they are!” said Knuckles. “Now we're really doomed! You caused both of our deaths! We're going to crash and die with the island.”

Knuckles just looked at Sonic with contempt.

“No!” said Knuckles. “It won't end that way for both of us. You caused my death, but you're not going to die by your own hand. I will not allow suicide on your part! I'm murdering you with the time I have left! I'm MURDERING you Sonic!”

WHAM!

“Arrgh!” cried Sonic.

Sonic stedies himself from the blow and revs up a spin dash.

WWWHIRRRR! ZOOM!

He makes another tear in Knuckles' flesh on impact!

Rrrrrip!

Sonic immediately comes back in with a homing, bonk attack (Like the one from Sonic Adventure, but this was before that game

CHOP!
Once again, Sonic's quills tear into Knuckles' flesh like blades. Knuckles is bleeding from his head all the way down to his torso. He finally manages to toss Sonic off of him.

“Time to start hitting him with the hard stuff!” Knuckles thinks to himself.

Both of Knuckles' fists morph into big spinning buzz saws.

“You thought I was hitting you before, hogboy?! Ha! I was just tapping you!” taunted Knuckles. “Now get ready to feel the power of HYPER KNUCKLES!” (different from hyper Knuckles of the video game)

Knuckles leaps at Sonic and stabs him deep in the gut! The buzz saw starts grinding away.

GOUGE!

“Ogh!” gasped Sonic.

Sonic's eyes widen in amazement at how much pain he's in! He leaps back and musters all his strength into a triple spin.

WRRR!

“No mercy!” growled Sonic. “None at all!”

Sonic expends the last of his strength charging at Knuckles with all his might.

Sssslice!

“I'm not holding back! This time I'm going straight through!” yelled Sonic.

Sonic continues pressing up against Knuckles' back in triple spin mode; trying to burrow all the way through his body.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Get offa me! Ummph!” cried Knuckles.

Knuckles tosses Sonic off. Then he morphs his fist into a drill. ...But the countdown reaches zero!!

But at that very moment the island screeches to a halt and starts lifting back into the air!

“We're lifting back up into the sky!” Knuckles exclaimed. “We're saved!”

“Then get that drill out of my head!” demanded Sonic.

“Oh, sorry!” said Knuckles.

“So who finally did it?” asked Sonic. “Who saved us?!”

“I did!” Tails announced.

Suddenly there's a reporter on the scene, putting a microphone in front of Tails' face. There's a camera guy there too.

“How did you do it?” inquired the reporter (named Laura).

“Yeah! How??” asked Sonic & Knuckles, in unison.

“Rather simply.” Said Tails. “You see, I just sneaked into a compartment of Robotnik's machine, and deactivated it from there. Then I retrieved the emerald from it and returned it to it's place,” explained Tails.

“Hold it!” yelled Sonic & Knuckles.

Sonic & Knuckles push Tails out of the way and start to struggle with each other to shove their way in front of the camera.

“This is too much fame for such a youngster to handle all by himself!” claimed Sonic. “Let me take some of that credit off your hands Tails.”

“But I'm not really 4 ½ you know. I'm just a few years younger than you guys!”

“Hold up!” shouted Knuckles. “I'm the guardian of this island. I should take the credit!” he insisted. “Get your two tailed butt out of here you little freak! Before I kick it out!”

Sonic speaks into Laura's mic.

“Anyway babe, check out these injuries on me,” said Sonic, showing off. “I got these in the fierce struggle between me and the big, bad villain. The little guy isn't even scratched! Who do you think really saved the day?”

“What about the red guy's injuries?” asked Laura.

“Um, well, let's see...” stammered Sonic. “I got it! I mean, I remember now! Knuckles foolishly tried to jump in the struggle between me and Robotnik, and he got himself hurt.”

“He got hurt this badly just by jumping into the fight??” asked Laura, in shock.

“Heck no!” shouted Knuckles. “No (BLEEP) way! I'll tell you what really happened! I was doing my job as guardian of this island, bustin' up some baddies with no trouble at all. Then the blue guy sneaks up behind me and messes me up like this!” said Knuckles. “Naturally I thought he was another villain, so I (false sniffle) did that to him. The poor guy. I would never normally hurt another person,” said Knuckles, as he pretended to get choked up.

“Liar!” yelled Sonic.

“Backstabber!” Knuckles retorted.

POW! WHAMO! OOF! ARRGH!
Sonic and Knuckles enter into a cartoonish “fight-cloud” with each other.

“They could be at this for a while,” Tails sighed. “Allow me to direct your attention to this video footage I managed to record of what really happened between Sonic & Knuckles.”

Tails shows Laura the convenient film he shot of Sonic & Knuckles' bickering and fighting.

“So you see, I'm the one who really saved the island,” explained Tails. “And considering what Robotnik could have done with the emeralds’ power, I suppose I really saved the world!”

“According to this film, not only are Sonic & Knuckles liars, they're also attempted murderers!” Laura exclaimed.

Sonic & Knuckles finally stop fighting.

“Huh?!” they both said at the same time.

Suddenly a police officer named Eddie appears with two pairs of handcuffs.

“I guess this is the part where you get rewarded for saving all of our lives, and these two maniacs get put in prison,” said Eddie.

“Uh oh!” said Sonic & Knuckles.

“In that case, as my reward I want Sonic & Knuckles to not go to prison!” pleaded Tails.

Sonic & Knuckles both put on a big, toothy smile of false friendliness and started to nod their heads “yes”.

“But why would you want to spare these two??” asked Laura & Eddie.

“Sonic & Knuckles helped save the day too!” said Tails. “Knuckles helped by breaking down a rock wall that I couldn't have gotten through. Sonic is the one who used his speed to get us to the wall in the first place. And they both served as distractions to Robotnik. While Robotnik's attention was on them, he didn't notice me sneaking past his defenses!”

Laura turns towards the camera to speak to the home audience.

“There you have it folks! The real hero today is Sonic the Hedgehog, along with his little buddy Tails and his friendly nemesis Knuckles the Echidna!” said Laura.

“Hey, I never said I wanted to give up top-billing!” cried Tails.

“Sonic is once again the greatest champion of Mobius and a hero to us all!” continued Laura, ignoring Tails’ objection. “He valiantly pulled this ragtag party together to save us all from certain death!”

“But, but, but I-!...” stammered Tails.

“All the more remarkable is that Sonic somehow accomplished all this in spite of some initial misunderstandings with his rival-turned-ally Knuckles, and the bumblings of his foolhardy but well intentioned young sidekick, Tails.

“Guess things are back to the status quo,” Tails sighed.

“Yeah! And that's the way I wanna keep it!” said Sonic. “Now it's time for my date with that reporter cutie. How 'bout it Lisa?”

“It's Laura,” she replied.

“Like it matters?!” scoffed Sonic.

“Not really,” admitted Laura.

Sonic runs off into the sunset with Laura in his arms. He seems to have gotten over his life threatening injuries. The “end-of-the-episode” jingle from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog plays, and they all lived dysfunctionally ever after.

Author’s note: That’s it! Please review.
If you enjoyed this story then don’t miss the sequel, “Buddies 2”. It’s out now! And be sure to check out my Mega Man fanfic, “The Age of X”. It’s my best work.

Special Thanks to Kitsune Prower, Capital-C, Eric Neo Matrix, jockeygurl5, Angelus-alvus, knuckles13, Sara and MangaLover24. And thanks to CommanderCat… That’s basically what I meant by “amusing flame”. Keep it interesting and funny. Approach it with a sense of humor.

I'll update the list above, in case there are any new reviewers in the future. Thank you.