The New Hero of Mobius (Matttheman89/StarMech)

Knuckles blinked as the red scorpion girl - Pyra - seemed to be on the verge of recognizing him, only to suddenly ask her companion - Roxi - who he was, and frowned as the latter called up some information on him that must have been kept on file by Eggman. Valuing his privacy as much as he did, he didn't like that at all; not one bit, but there wasn't much that could be done about that right now, so he punched a fist into his other hand and nodded his head. "That's right, and if you know who I am, then you should know why it would be a bad idea to-" He blinked again, then stomped forward a step with his fist raised in the air. "-hey, what was that being a 'knuckehead'!?"

Echo had followed him out into the open by this point, seeing as they no longer had the element of surprise anyway, and after joining him in demanding her Princess's safe return, the two of them were given confirmation of that fact by Roxi's exasperation, prompting the Guardian to point at the pair once more. "So you do have the Princess, then! Do yourself a favor, and just hand her over! Otherwise this chill day of yours is gonna start getting painful!" he said threateningly.

Neither of the Eggman followers seemed too put off by his threats though, especially Roxi, who decided to simply...leave in order to get a mech to fight them with, and when Echo tried to stop her, she surprised them both with an acid cannon built into her robotic arm, attacking the former with it before darting off into the trees. "Echo, be care-"

Knuckles' warning was cut off though, as he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a surprisingly powerful punch to the chin, one with enough force to knock him back into a tree, and he slid down the trunk a few inches before he managed to recover, needing to blink some stars out of his eyes and rub his jawline a bit while he stood back up to see Pyra happily celebrating the chance to fight him. "O-Ok...that was...unexpected..." he said with a grimace, raising an eyebrow at the girl's behavior. He liked a good fight too...but...oh, whatever. It wasn't like they were going to give up the Princess willingly anyway.

"Alright. You want to rumble? Let's rumble!" Knuckles said, looking towards Echo before nodding his head. "Echo, you go after that other girl! I'll take care of things here!" he said, gesturing in the direction that Roxi had ran off in before returning his attention to his own problem.

Charging forward with his fist cocked back and a fiery look in his own eyes, Knuckles swung at Pyra in the hopes of giving her a taste of her own medicine. He couldn't say he liked the idea of fighting a girl...especially one who seemed so...chipper, but she was a fighter trying to get in his way, so he had to do something...though he probably wouldn't be able to convince himself to hit her as hard as he actually could. Even Rouge - conflicting and confusing headache that she was - couldn't get him to do that much.
 
Echo nodded and quickly rushed deeper into the jungle, leaving Knuckles to handle the energetic red scorpion girl on his own. He delivered a blow to her and managed to push her away, although not as strongly as she had done to hime beforehand.

She seemed...happy, that she got hit. "Yeah!! Now that's what I'm talking about!!" Pyra shouted, then rushed back at the red echidna, delivering jab after jab to try to break through any defense he tried to put up.

Still, she was not putting as much strength as before; Probably to really test our hero's mettle in this brawl. "This is gonna be fun!" She exclaimed after.
 
Concentrating on the task at hand once Echo had gone off into the jungle, Knuckles felt his strike connect with the scorpion girl...but any hopes that he might be able to end this as quickly as possible were dashed as Pyra immediately rebounded from his hit and quickly launched a counterattack, actually seeming to be more and more amused with each passing second. "You're enjoying this way too much!" the Echidna exclaimed as he was forced on the defensive as she threw jab after jab in his direction, wincing as the occasional fist broke through his guard, as even if she seemed to be holding back now compared to before, she still packed quite a punch.

Ducking under another jab and trying to move into Pyra's guard, Knuckles threw an uppercut as a way of potential payback, and frowned as they fought. "You seem a little too chipper to be working for someone like Eggman, don't you think?"
 
The jabs kept coming, but soon enough Knuckles managed to exploit an opening and brought up his fist in a strong uppercut that send the scorpion girl yelping into the air before landing roughly on the ground.

Pyra let a little groan, and started to get up a bit wobbly. Shaking her head, she regained focus, smiling again and bringing up her fist. "My clan's motto is to fight and get stronger. Grow as a person through battle. That funny old man seemed like the best way for me to find strong guys and I was right! I mean I am now fighting you!"

She rushed back towards the red echidna, ready to deliver another punch, but this time around she stopped halfway and surprised him with a tail whip on to his legs using her long scorpion tail.

She giggled and quickly brought up. "Don't worry. I'm not one of those poisonous kind of scorpions. My tail is still powerful tho!"
 
Once again, Knuckles managed to land a solid hit, and once again, was left flummoxed as Pyra more or less took his strike in stride, recovering relatively quickly despite being knocked clean off her feet. "...I don't really know how to argue with that..." the Echidna replied as the Scorpion explained her reasoning for working for Eggman...such as it was. He wasn't really given time to come up with an argument either, as the girl was soon on the attack once more, forcing Knuckles to raise his guard in response.

Rather than another punch being thrown as he had expected though, Pyra surprised the Guardian with a whip of her long tail, sweeping him off his feet and onto the ground. "Yeow!" he said with a grimace as he landed on his back, glaring in the girl's direction as she took the time to explain that - thankfully - she wasn't the type of scorpion with poison in their tails. "Good to know..."

Deciding to try something unexpected of his own though, Knuckles quickly rolled and tucked into a ball, spin-dashing around in a circle as a way to build up momentum before shooting himself in Pyra's direction. He couldn't use the technique as well as Sonic or Shadow - maybe not even as well as Tails - but he could still pull it off in a pinch, and he knew from experience that it could pack quite the punch.
 
Pyra appeared almost curious at the sudden tactic of the echidna. She watched him attentively as he spun and spun and spun around...until getting dizzy. "Woah..." She muttered as her head wobbled, lowering her guard just in time for Knuckles to charged at her in the spindash form, hitting her square in the jaw with all the pent up force. The young scorpion girl was send flying and crashed hard right on a series of palm trees, knocking them down by the sheer strength of the attack.

"Ugggh..." She was actually getting exhausted and hurt by the Echidna's attack. just like she wanted but not as she hoped the fight would go. However this only motivated her further. "alright, time to get serious!!" She shouted, bringing her two fists together, crashing on to eachother. When they impacted, her two fists were magically encased in flames, which took our hero by surprise.

"Hyaaa!!" Pyra exclaimed, living up to her name. She punched the air on Knuckles' direction, sending fire balls from her fist right toward him.
 
Coming out of his spin-dash into a crouch after he'd sent Pyra flying, Knuckles could see that this attack had had more of an effect than the others, and the scorpion girl seemed to be becoming more worn down, but she still wasn't ready to give up yet, leaving the Guardian more and more exasperated by the minute. "Don't you ever quit?" he asked rhetorically, only to blink in surprise as she alit her fists with flame, then shot several fire balls in his direction.

Too caught off-guard to try and get out of the way, Knuckles only had time to cross his arms in front of him and brace himself as best he could before the magical attacks struck him, eventually blasting him back and off his feet from the force of the explosions. "Ugh...I hope Echo is having an easier time than I am..." he groaned as he looked down at his forearms, painfully burnt and smoking somewhat in the aftermath of Pyra's attack. That was going to take some time to heal.

Grimacing and growling as he started pushing himself back up, Knuckles glared at Pyra and raised his mitt upwards. "Alright...I didn't want to do this, but you're not leaving me much choice!" he exclaimed, his fist glowing with green Chaos energy. It was hard to say if Knuckles had the technical skill of wielding the forces of Chaos as previous Guardians, or Shadow, but he knew from experience the strength of such abilities, so it was time to fight fire with fire. "Thunder Arrow!" he shouted, launching crackling, lightning-shaped bolts of Chaos Energy at his opponent.
 
Pyra gasped, actually in surprise as the echidna just took her fireballs and continued standing, just barely even singed while she expected wors. "W-woah! How did you--"

But she was unable to even finish herself when the red menace leaped into the air and charged a powerful attack. The scorpion girl tried her best to dodge, but the Thunder Arrow managed to his her right in the stinger, coursing the electricity through her and locking her in place as the electric shock hit her hard.

After the shock was gone, she remaining standing although incredibly daze. "Woaaah...so strong..." She was basically seeing stars, leaving her wide open for one last attack.
 
Knuckles' infrequently used yet powerful Chaos abilities seemed to do the trick; Pyra's resilience was impressive enough to leave her standing even after being struck by his Thunder Arrow, but she had clearly been knocked for a loop by the force behind his attack, and the Echidna had a feeling that she was finally about to give up the ghost. With that in mind, he charged towards her with his fist drawn back, ready to give her one hell of a haymaker that would likely leave her unconscious for some time and a doozy of a headache even after she eventually woke up...

...in the end though, Pyra would only receive a relatively light blow to the head; enough to knock her down and continue her daze without doing any serious damage, yet still establishing who had won this little contest of theirs.

Letting out a breath and lowering his fist, Knuckles gave the energetic scorpion girl a considering look for a few seconds, then tugged his gloves on a little more snuggly. "You're pretty tough. It's been awhile since I've fought someone like you." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "You should know though; you're on the wrong side. Smashing Eggman's robots is a pretty good way to put your strength to the test too, and it's for a good cause." he continued, wondering how much easier running the Resistance during the battles against Eggman and Infinite would have been if he'd had more fighters like Pyra with him at the time.

With that said, there was still work to be done, and a Princess to save, so Knuckles turned on his heel and ran off in the direction Echo had gone in pursuit of Roxi earlier, hoping that the dolphin girl had been able to catch up to her and stop her before she'd made her way back to her HQ for reinforcements. After that rumble with Pyra, Knuckles wasn't sure he had the energy for another brawl...
 
((Again, sorry for taking so long in posting.))

Pyra didn't give a response, just a dazed whimper as she remained knocked out, making Knuckles unsure if his words had gotten through her or not. Regardless, it appeared that his wish for that to be the end was not going to be possible, as the sudden scream from Echo caught on his ears.

Certainly rushing at this point, he'd find himself at another clearing after going through some thic foliage. Echo's trident now was stuck against the ground, far from her. The pink dolphin girl was currently on the ground, back against a big boulder, looking a bit roughed up from fighting. She panted softly, looking up in a mixture of defiance and a bit of fear. Standing before her was a huge mech, shaped similarly to a Shellcracker Badnik, being piloted by Roxi. The big spiked mechanical claw was lifted, all while the lizard mobian remained with that aloof expression on her face.

"Look, don't take this personally. I'd love to not have to do all this, but work is work. And I am not gonna get on the old man's bad side. Sooo, you gotta go now. Bye bye" Roxi said then pressed a button. The mech then brought down the claw upon her, ready to smash her.

Not if Knuckles could get her in time, however...
 
((That's ok! :) ))

Picking up the pace as he caught the sound of a scream coming from up ahead, Knuckles burst through the foliage out into another clearing, and his eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. Roxi must have been able to make it to wherever she'd had her mech stashed away before Echo could have stopped her, then turned the tables on the Dolphin, judging by the fact that she'd been disarmed and backed into a corner, at their opponent's mercy as a heavy, deadly mechanical claw was raised into the air, ready to bring it down upon Echo, who didn't look like she was in a position to dodge...

The expected blow never landed though, and if a surprised Echo were to open her eyes, she would open them to the sight of the Guardian of the Master Emerald standing before her, struggling to hold and push back the large claw with his hands. "Hrrrng!" Knuckles grunted with a grimace, forced back a few inches but holding his ground regardless, then glanced back at the downed girl over his shoulder. "I-If you're gonna move...now's the...time-!" he forced out before returning his attention to his battle of strength with Roxi's mech.

As strong as Knuckles was though, holding off a mechanical monster like this wasn't something he was going to be able to manage for very long after his brawl with Pyra, so he needed to finish this quickly while he still had the energy to fight. With that in mind, the Echidna pushed as much power as he could muster to the surface, and pushed Roxi and her mech back as far as he could - which was likely only several feet, enough to give Echo the breathing room she might need to retreat - and then rushed to push what little advantage that might have bought him.

Drawing his fist back with a ferocious battle cry, Knuckles began swinging in the hopes of striking the mech with a tremendous flurry of blows. If he could hammer the machine with enough force quickly, maybe he could bring it down before he was tapped out?
 
Echo Closer her eyes, expecting to receive the full blow of the claw, but lo and behold, when she opened back them up to see Knuckles intercepting the attack just in time. His great strength stopping it as he heaved it away. The dolphin girl stared in awe, a faint blush even forming on her cheeks when looking at the red echidna.

She managed to snap back to reality when he spoke to her. And such, she rushed out of the fire. The Crab Mech took a few steps back, a groan out of Roxi's mouth. "Uuugh, really? I kind expected Pyra to be, like, done with you and stuff. Sigh...Why do you guys always make it such a chore?"

She pressed a button upon her console as holed opened on the back of the mech. A series of small missiles were shot high, which then started to descend upon Knuckles...
 
Whether because the mech's armor was simply too powerful for Knuckles to punch his way through, or he lacked the strength to do so at the moment after being worn down from his fight against Pyra, it seemed that the Guardian's usual methods of punching something really, really hard wasn't going to work this time, and the Echidna was quickly put back on the defensive as Roxi unleashed a barrage of missiles in his direction from on high. He attempted to run out of the way, managing to just clear each impact by a step or so, but the series of concussive explosions ended up knocking him completely off his feet to land in a heap some distance away.

"Ugh...I could ask you the same thing..." Knuckles groaned as he laid on the ground, a pained expression on his face as he felt how singed his backside was. This was getting out of hand. He needed to try something else, and as his eyes fell upon Echo's energy-powered trident a short distance away, he came up with an idea that might help.

Tucking into a quick spindash, Knuckles shot himself forward, grabbing the trident as he rushed past before turning back into the direction of Roxi and her mech, and as the Guardian leapt forward, he used his momentum and great strength to stab the weapon forward with all his might, hoping to pierce the armor, where he would then shoot a blast of energy into the opening he'd created. Surely the mech wasn't as durable on the inside as it was on the outside?
 
Knuckles was swift. The heavier mech giving him the opportunity to outspeed its movements and grab on to Echo's trident. With one hard thrust once in a good spot, the weapon stabbed hard upon one of machine's joint, right upon a softer part of the armor. As such, the Crab Mech went into a halt, unable to move and giving Echo enough time to reach the red echidna and her weapon. Her hands held on to the trident and so she casted it's magic electricity, sending a powerful jolt right through the armor and into the mech's circuits; Frying them completely.

Roxi wasted no second to jump out of the machine the moment that happened, managing to avoid getting shock in the process. She simply sighed, looking at the wrecked machine with her hand on her hip. "Now I'm gonna have to repair it...how bothersome. Alright then you win."

Echo was dumbfounded. She was giving up like that!?

"Your princess is in a capsule up ahead. Go pick her up if you want. I gotta pick Pyra and go back to my base. I just wanna take a nap..."

Our heroes were not about to let an Eggman enforcer get away like this, but the lizard girl gave them no option, revealing a pair of black orbs between her fingers, which she flung to the ground and exploded into a veil of smoke. When the smoke parted, she was gone....

Echo simply sighed in relief. They had succeeded. Her cheeks brightened once more when she glanced at Knuckles, but she tried her best to keep composure. "Um, I really appreciate you helping me back there. Couldn't have done it without you..."
 
With a little help from Echo as she rejoined the fight, Knuckles' gambit proved successful in disabling the Crab Mech's circuitry and leaving it unable to continue, and though Roxi managed to leap clear of the machine in time to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, it still put the Guardian and the Dolphin Warrior that much closer to victory...though it turned out that they were even closer than he'd thought, as rather than continue to struggle against them, Roxi simply...gave up, leaving the Echidna gaping at her in surprise. "...you're really just gonna let us walk away, just like that?" he replied suspiciously.

She even informed them of the location of the Meropis Princess up ahead, which seemed even more sudden, but before Knuckles could question her further, the girl pulled a trick out of Espios's book by using a smoke bomb to cover her escape, likely having gone to collect Pyra in the process. "...wow, didn't see that coming. Those two girls aren't alike at all..." he thought aloud, remembering just how hard he'd had to try to keep the Scorpion Fighter down in comparison.

Either way, the battle was finally over, and Knuckles sighed in relief before patting his sore shoulder with one of his fists...imagining he was going to be feeling the effects of this fight for awhile. "No problem." the Echidna said, looking to Echo as she thanked him for his help, a bit of a grin on his face as he yanked her trident free of the Crab Mech before holding it out for her to take. "I should probably thank you too; without your help, I might not have been able to figure out that trick with your trident." he continued, realizing that, in the heat of the moment, he hadn't actually considered the fact that he didn't know how to use the weapon properly.

A few seconds past as the two looked to one another in the aftermath of the fight, but eventually Knuckles remembered they had done all of this for a reason, and cleared his throat. "Anyway, we better go get your Princess. I still need to ask her about the Gaia Pools." he said, beginning to head in the direction that Roxi had indicated earlier.
 
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