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- For other uses, see Chaos Knuckles (disambiguation).
Chaos Knuckles is a transformation that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. It was an evolution of Knuckles the Echidna that had been engineered by his father Locke's genetic self-experimentation and the infusion of Knuckles' egg with massive amounts of Chaos energy. Ultimately, Knuckles evolved beyond the scale of any other Echidna into a virtual living Chaos Emerald with limitless powers and abilities. Chaos Knuckles' control was imperfect though, and he ended up sacrificing his power to save the life of his ancestor Dimitri, leading to Knuckles' temporary demise.
History[]
Origins[]
Knuckles' eventual transformation into Chaos Knuckles was set in motion even before he was born. It began when the Ancient Walkers sent a dream to his father Locke, warning him of a future threat that Knuckles would have to face and would only survive if he were made into a superior Guardian to those who had come before. Resolving to do this, Locke performed experiments on himself to alter his DNA, hoping initially that he would be able to make himself into a stronger Guardian and thus spare Knuckles the coming battle. Failing, he was forced to expose Knuckles' egg to the radiation of Angel Island's Chaos Emerald. As a result, Knuckles became a mutant Echidna with abilities far beyond normal, even for a Guardian. However, it would not be until Knuckles' teenage years that Chaos Knuckles was manifested.[1]
Transformation[]
Following the Quantum Beam's teleportation of all of Angel Island's inhabitants except for Knuckles to a pocket Zone, Knuckles wound up on the surface in the company of Rob O' the Hedge, Amy Rose, Antoine D'Coolette, and Bunnie Rabbot in search of Antoine's Roboticized father, the High Sheriff of Mercia.[2][3] Finding him in Albion about to be disassembled, Knuckles intervened, inadvertently tapping into his direct connection to the Chaos Force to protect himself from harm. As a result, he began undergoing a transformation eerily similar to that made by his great-uncle Dimitri into the original Enerjak. This prompted Gala-Na, the head of Albion's executive council, to order his capture, but Chaos Knuckles teleported himself and his friends out of harm's way.[4][5] Seeking help, he turned to Charmy Bee, the only member of the Chaotix not to be on Angel Island when the Quantum Beam hit. Knuckles' reunion with the Bee Prince lasted only a short time, though, when Nack the Weasel and his sister Nic the Weasel, in the employ of Gala-Na, arrived and held the Bees at gunpoint to force Knuckles to accompany them to where Gala-Na and a team of Albion technicians and scientists waited.[6][7]
Restrained by the Albion Security Team and connected to the Chaos Siphon Suit developed by Dr. Finitevus, Chaos Knuckles began to have his powers painfully drained out of his body and released. Before the process got far, though, Charmy and his girlfriend Saffron intervened, disrupting the process. The resulting feedback reaction destroyed the Syphon Suit, increasing Chaos Knuckles' powers and turning Finitevus into a "photonegative" of the Guardian. Chaos Knuckles subsequently fled.[8][9] While Knuckles was maddened by the pain of his accelerated evolution as he escaped to Angel Island, he was met there by none other than Tails, who attempted to calm Knuckles down. Failing miserably, the Fox was beaten into unconsciousness and taken to his uncle, Merlin Prower, by Knuckles' great-grandfather Athair.[10] The two soon had Tails back on his feet, and sent him to battle Knuckles after infusing him with the power needed to become Turbo Tails. However, their teleportation was interrupted by Mammoth Mogul, who replaced Tails with a duplicate and took the original to his new lair to drain energy from him to sustain himself. Knuckles did battle with the clone and soon achieved victory. Before he could finish the fight, however, Chaos Knuckles heard Julie-Su's voice, and flew off to investigate.[11][12] He had an encounter with his deceased ancestor, Hawking, and a brief glimpse into the recent past of Angel Island.[13]
Alliance with the Dark Legion[]
Finding Julie-Su in the clutches of the Dark Legion, Chaos Knuckles confronted Dimitri over the disappearance of Angel Island's inhabitants. Reassuring his volatile relative, Dimitri explained that a plan was already in place to bring the people back. The suicide attack on the Legion Battle Cruiser by Guardian Tobor, which Knuckles sensed, halted this attempt, and Dimitri turned to Knuckles for help. Knuckles learned that his evolution granted him the power to travel through time, and that there were three events in Echidna history that, if altered, could undo the Quantum Beam's effects and indeed reunify the Echidna people as if they had never been separated. Despite Julie-Su's protests, Knuckles agreed, traveling back in time first to prevent Angel Island's creation, only for the island to be destroyed as a result. Trying again by lowering Angel Island back to the surface, Knuckles succeeded only in destroying it by bringing it crashing to the surface. His worst mistake was in preventing the death of Edmund, the first Guardian, which would have led to all the Echidnas being roboticized and enslaved by Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Fortunately, Knuckles' instincts returned him to his own time before the changes made to the timeline could become permanent.[14][15][16]
Despite their alliance, Dimitri and his great-great-granddaughter, Lien-Da, feared that Knuckles would turn against them and disrupt their plans. This fear was proven correct when Knuckles used his immense new powers to undo the Quantum Beam's effects by himself, restoring Angel Island's inhabitants. Knuckles, however, supported Dimitri's idea of reunifying the Echidna people, and thus vouched for him despite the opposition of such parties as the Echidna Security Team, Constable Remington, and even his own mother Lara-Le. Refuting such concerns, he attended a meeting between Dimitri and the Mitre of Echidnaopolis, and stepped in the way when a Dark Legion assassin hired by Lien-Da opened fire. Faking his own death, he tricked Dimitri into revealing his true dedication to the reunification. With this agreement seemingly cemented despite Dimitri's failing health, Knuckles felt comfortable in relaxing along with the returned Chaotix.[17][18][19][20]
Conflict with Mammoth Mogul[]
An old foe soon rose to bring an end to Chaos Knuckles' happiness: Mammoth Mogul, who was determined to obtain a new source of Chaos energy. Capturing Dimitri, Mogul threatened to kill him unless Knuckles surrendered himself to him.[21][22] For unknown reasons, during a transmission of Mogul's demands Knuckles found himself revisiting a forgotten part of his past, in which he and his father had confronted Robians sent by Robotnik to attack Angel Island.[23] Traveling in to meet Mogul alone, Chaos Knuckles confronted him briefly before Mogul sprung his trap, revealing that the room in which he was holding Dimitri-the very room he and Knuckles stood in-was a Chaos Syphon. Weakening rapidly, Knuckles called on his last resort, pushing his powers past the ability of his body to endure. Remington, Lien-Da, the Chaotix, and the Dark Legion arrived shortly afterwards, finding the building Mogul had been hiding in reduced to rubble. They found Mogul himself gone, Dimitri alive, and Knuckles dead.[24][25]
Afterlife and restored powers[]
In truth, Knuckles had ascended to yet another higher state of being, and was present in spirit at his own funeral together with several other deceased members of the Brotherhood of Guardians. After speaking briefly with them, he was led to the Virtual Zone by Chao messengers from Aurora.[26] She showed Knuckles details of his past, both remembered and forgotten, and told him of his duty to become one with the Chaos Force. Knuckles agreed, with the request that he be allowed to return to his normal red form. Achieving this, Knuckles joined the force.[27][28][29] However, he separated himself from it and demanded to return to Mobius after seeing his friends battling the Xorda. Reluctantly, Aurora agreed, and Knuckles departed, only to arrive back home with his powers gone.[30] Later, it would be revealed that they had been rendered dormant, and the power of the Master Emerald was enough to restore them.[31]
After being affected by Dr. Finitevus' hex, Knuckles briefly took on the form of Chaos Knuckles before transforming into Enerjak.[32]
Powers and abilities[]
With a direct connection to the Chaos Force stronger than that of any other known living being, Chaos Knuckles possesses abilities beyond those of any previous Guardian and virtually any other wielder of such power. In addition to the enhanced physical abilities, shooting lasers from his eyes or hands (latter seen in photo to right), unleashing energy blasts from his body (images shown here and here) and teleportation abilities exhibited by his fellow Guardians and other wielders of Chaos energy, Chaos Knuckles could also travel through time and alter it to his will, communicate with other Guardians living or dead across distances, warp reality to shape matter-as shown when he conjured a bouquet for Julie seemingly out of thin air, possibly wield the same powers as his base form (flight, healing, portal creation, telekinesis etc), possess others, and manipulate Chaos energy to a much greater level and degree than had ever been seen before. According to Athair, Chaos Knuckles’ power continued to rise with each passing moment, describing Chaos Knuckles as being in an "constantly evolving state". In a very short time, his power grew to the point that the echidnas and Dark Legion deemed Chaos Knuckles’ very existence a danger to all of reality.[7][8]
To further put Chaos Knuckles’ powers in perspective, he was able to easily defeat a clone of Turbo Tails who (according to Merlin Prower and Athair) was said to possess even greater strength than Super Sonic or Hyper Knuckles.[12] He was also able to withstand the chaos siphon suit, which was specifically made to drain his immense powers and kill him.[8] It is very likely that the powers at his disposal in this state were almost as powerful as the ones Knuckles had when he transformed into the fourth Enerjak, as the Chaos Knuckles and Enerjak states have been directly compared, and lastly, as stated by Aurora, the Chaos Force goddess herself, his power in that state already rivaled that of Ancient Walkers, the oldest and most powerful Chaos force users in the Universe, which by that logic also makes him superior to Aurora and the rest of Neo Walkers, as Ancient Walkers are superior to them.
After his "death", Knuckles remained in his Chaos Knuckles state and has been chosen by Aurora to ascend to Chaos Force, an all-encompassing energy of entire Universe. In this state, Knuckles ascended to a level even surpassing that of Ancient Walkers, going above time and space, receiving Cosmic Awareness and level of power rivaling that of Master Mogul's Second Tenure form, becoming larger than entire universes.
Trivia[]
- Chaos Knuckles might reference the fact that when Sega was developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3, they were originally going to make Knuckles green instead of red.[33]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ Knuckles the Echidna #25, "Childhood's End"
- ↑ Sonic Super Special #14, "Best of Times, Worst of Times"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #88, "Picking Up the Pieces"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #89, "A Matter of Self Interest"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #90, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #91, "Hired Guns"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sonic the Hedgehog #93, "Bagging the Big One"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Sonic the Hedgehog #94, "The Best Laid Plans..."
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #184, "Albion's Shameful Secret"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #95, "When Destiny Calls"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #96, "The Chosen One"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Sonic the Hedgehog #97, "To the Brink"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #99, "What Comes Around Goes Around"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #100, "Welcome to the Dark Side!"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #101, "Reboot"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #102, "Life's Realities"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #106, "Reunification Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #107, "Reunification Part II"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #108, "Reunification Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #109, "Reunification: The Conclusion"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #114, "Ultimate Power Part One"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #115, "Ultimate Power Part Two"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #116, "Ultimate Power Mid-logue: The Lesson"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #117, "Ultimate Power Part Three"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #118, "Ultimate Power Part Four"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #121, "Afterlife Part One"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #122, "Afterlife Part Two"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #123, "Afterlife Part Three"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #124, "Afterlife Part Four"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #125, "Sonic Adventure 2.5: Omega"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #141, "Return to Angel Island Part 4: Ultimate Hero"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #181, "Undone"
- ↑ Audureau, William; Petronille, Marc (1 January 2013). The History of Sonic the Hedgehog. UDON Entertainment. p. 233. ISBN 978-1926778563.
External links[]
- Chaos Knuckles at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.