Unlucky Knuckles

"Oh, yeah, who's gonna take it downtown? Knuckles, that's who! Gonna beat poor Sonic the Hurt-Tonic. And the pain is gonna be chronic!" Knuckles announced, his golf club in hand.

"Knuckles, just hit the golf ball already!" Penny said in annoyance.

"Ok, we get it." Sonic said. He flipped a coin in the air.

"Tails!" Knuckles said. He turned to Tails. "Tails, you flip it. Not sure I trust this guy!"

Sonic and Penny groaned a little in annoyance, and Sonic tossed the coin to Tails. "Heads!" Knuckles said as the coin flew up.

The coin landed on Tails's hand, showing tails.

Knuckles growled in annoyance. "Lucky." He snarled at Sonic, who smirked at him.

Sonic tossed the golf ball in the air, and whacked it with his golf club. The ball flew through the air and landed straight in the hole on the mountain, then a sound of a ball rolling through a tube came. It popped out of a hole in the ground, and Penny smacked her forehead when she realized that this was no ordinary golf game.

"Don't give me that look!" Knuckles growled.

He walked over to a nearby golf ball and whacked it with his own club. Knuckles watched as it flew in the air....

.....and a random leaf lightly touched it, causing the ball to move away from the hole.

"One nothing: Sonic!" Tails smiled.

"Oh, come on, you saw the wind blew that, right?" Knuckles pleaded.

Knuckles tried again, and accidentally hit a couple of flying birds.

"WHAT?!" Knuckles cried angrily.

"You gotta factor in bird migration." Sonic smirked.

"Seriously Sonic?" Penny smirked at her best friend. "Let's go for ball 101."

Knuckles growled and tried again. And again. And again.

He missed every time.

Furiously, Knuckles threw his club into the air....

....and it landed in the hole that he kept missing.

Furious, Knuckles let out an angry yell.

.................................................................................

Knuckles angrily stomped back and forth angrily on the grass as Amy and Sticks watched. "Knuckles, I can see that you're upset." Amy began.

"Don't try to get me to talk about my feelings." He snapped at her.

"I was actually trying to get you to stop killing my grass." Amy said, motioning with her hand to the footprints that Knuckles left behind.

The red echidna growled angrily. "Sonic the Luck Monkey beat me at Gopher Ball by getting totally lucky!"

"I thought you said you don't want to talk about your feelings." The pink hedgehog said.

"I don't! I just wanna yell!"

"We all get into a stunt now and then," Amy said, trying to calm Knuckles down.

"I'm not in a stunt," Knuckles growled.

"Really?" Amy asked. "How many times have you lost against Sonic this week?"

Knuckles began to count how many times he lost against Sonic, but growled angrily. "I told you I don't want to talk about it!!"

"Maybe... there's a disturbance in the luck balance of the universe!" Sticks said.

"That can happen?" Knuckles looked up at the sky and mumbled, "Stupid universe."

"What you need to do to burn the rest of this loosing stream by bringing yourself as much bad luck as you can, as quickly as you can, as fast as you can, to speed up the shift of the luck balance of the universe back to where it was before this all happened." Sticks explained.

The two mobians looked at her.

"Yeah, that's right. You heard me." Sticks said.

"Shift the luck balance of the universe?" Amy asked. "Really?"

"I am so there." Knuckles said.

.....................................................................................

"You want me to do what?!" Penny said, looking at Amy with her mouth open.

"You heard me. Sticks is trying to get Knuckles to bring himself bad luck so he can switch the luck balance of the universe." The pink hedgehog sighed in annoyance. "I couldn't talk him out of it! That's why I need you to make sure you can talk Knuckles out of hurting himself."

"As far as I'm concerned, no." Penny said.

"Please Penny? Before he hurts himself, or worse?" Tails asked, looking at her.

"I could try.....but this better not be heard if I come back with a banged-up red echidna." Penny sighed.

"Thank you!" Amy sighed in relief.

Penny started out looking for Knuckles, first aid kit in hand. It didn't take long for the human girl to find him, because she suddenly heard a familiar voice exclaiming, "I can't believe I never done this before!"

Then something crashed.

Penny ran up to the scene to find Knuckles groaning under a rock, and the girl slapped her head. This was gonna be difficult.....

"Knuckles, you've got to stop this!" Penny said.

"Not unless I shift the luck balance of the universe!" The echidna snapped at her, determination in his eyes as Penny patched him up. The girl watched as he walked over to the town's volcano. "When the luck balance of the universe shifts against you, just get it over with as quickly as possible to shift your back!" Knuckles was saying as Penny walked over to him. To her shock, he jumped off the edge and fell down.

"It's like one of those things where you're here and you're like, "Duh, it's so obvious!" Penny heard him say. Then, a huge shake shook the ground, and Penny winced, looking down to see Knuckles walking out of the hole. Penny had enough, and she decided to head over to Sonic's, but stopped short when the human girl heard a booming sound. Hearing yelling, she looked up to see Knuckles zooming out of the cave. No doubt he used a circus cannon. Sighing, Penny hurried after him.

Penny soon made it up to Tails and Amy, who were having a small picnic.

"Any luck?" Amy asked.

"Ugh. Unfortunately he'll be slamming against that tree trunk any moment now." Penny said sarcastically. And right on cue, Knuckles slammed into the tree.

"Fatal.... punishment...." The poor echidna moaned in pain.

He fell to the ground, and the cause of his fall against the tree also caused a bee's hive to land on him. It broke in half, and the bees began to sting him.

"AHH! I CAN ALMOST FEEL MY LUCK CHANGING ALREADY!!" Knuckles screamed.

Tails, Amy, and Penny sighed in annoyance.

"See? Impossible!" Penny told the female hedgehog.

Soon, Penny finally, FINALLY managed to drag a nearly-damaged, half crazed echidna over to Sonic's shack. Sonic looked up and tossed his magazine aside, frowning at Knuckles.

"Wow. Knuckles, are you ok?"

"Am I ok?" The red echidna snarled. "ARE YOU OK, YOU MEAN?!" He batted Sonic's nose away and continued to rant as Penny sat down next to Sonic, groaning in annoyance. "Or are you too nervous about the gopher ball beat down..." Sonic patted Penny's back and walked over to Knuckles as he grunted and wheezed in pain. "Give me a minute! It's hard to trash talk with a punctured lung."

"Seems to me like you're in no condition to play anything." Sonic frowned.

"Ha!" Knuckles laughed. "You only think I'm not in much condition to do...." He paused. "Whatever you said. In fact, I finally tipped the luck balance of the universe back in my favor! Your lucky stream is over, Sonic! Brace yourself, my friend, because there's nothing but sunny skies and a hint of....OOOF!" He grunted in pain as a random refrigerator landed on him.

"Here we go again..." Penny muttered.

Meanwhile, in Eggman's layer.....

"Even with a mind as powerful as mine, it's important to keep the reflexes home." Eggman instructed as he tossed laser guns to his robots. "That's why you robots will serve as my opponents in this training exercise. On your mark, get set, go!"

Lasers shot everywhere as Eggman fought against his own robots. Curious to see if he won, Eggman looked up....

....and ended having himself get tagged.

He grunted in annoyance. "Oh, oh! Is someone stepping on my mustache?" He asked angrily.

Orbot looked confused. "Wait... no one is stepping on your...." Before he finished his sentence, Eggman dodged past him, and the game continued. However, Eggman tripped, but when he did, it caused the blue laser to hit the target on all of his bots.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say there's a twist in the luck balance of the universe." Orbot told his friend.

Hmmm. That gave Eggman an idea.

...........

"OK, meteors!" Knuckles called as he walked on the ground of the volcano, and in the middle of a meteor raid. "Take your best shot!"

"We've got to do something!" Amy cried. "HE's gonna hurt himself!"

"You are not pulling me up that path again." Penny told Amy, crossing her arms and glaring at the hedgehog, who glared back at Penny.

"Any suggestions?" Sonic asked.

"We could lose to him on purpose," Tails said.

Penny and the others stared at him.

"Any better ideas?" Sonic asked. The rest of his friends shrugged.

"I'll talk some sense into him, leave it to me.." Sonic said, a hint of annoyance in his voice as he zoomed over to Knuckles.

"Hey, Knux, you're wasting your time on this luck stuff. Beating you lately is entirely due to skill."

"Luck!"

"Skill!"

"Luck!"

"Skill!" Sonic smirked. "And by the way, I just beaten you in this argument just now." He said, walking away.

"You didn't win yet because I'm still saying the word luck!" Knuckles took a deep breath and yelled, "LUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

Before a meteor landed face down on him.

Penny cringed. "I'll go get the first aid kit again..." She sighed, leaving Amy and Tails open mouthed.

"Let's do this somewhere else." Sonic said, putting his hand on the boulder.

..................................................................................

Amy and Tails ran as fast as they could to Stick's house.

"Sticks, you've got to do something. He's gonna hurt himself!" Amy said.

"Not until he shifts the luck balance of the universe on time!" Sticks said, walking over to them.

"And what if he doesn't?" Tails asked.

"I guess he'd probably be eaten by a carnivorous plant and slowly digested over a period of weeks and months." Sticks said.

"And that's a bad thing, right?" Amy asked.

"I could think of worse. But I have confidence in him." Sticks smiled, closing her eyes confidently.

"Confidence in a guy who believes your crazy theory?" Tails couldn't believe this.

"Did you just call my theory crazy?!" Sticks asked in disgust.

Back at the volcano, Sonic and Penny pulled up a battered Knuckles out of the asteroid.

"Knucks, I was kinda hopping that we could get you to stop this nonsense before an asteroid pulverizes you into baby food. Any ideas?"

"Admit that luck is the reason why you've been beating me this whole time."

"How about we have a rematch right now?" Sonic asked as Penny finished bandaging up Knuckles. "Skill verses skill?"

Knuckles smiled.

"Finally." Penny groaned in annoyance.

.............................................................................

"Go ahead, take your shot," Sonic encouraged Knuckles as the three were back once again at the golf course.

Knuckles raised his club and paused. "Do you feel the ground shaking?"

"Nice try, Lucky." Sonic smirked.

Knuckles whacked the ball with his club...

....and it landed on Eggman's mobile, causing the ball bounce off.

Penny smacked her head in annoyance.

"Ok, that was a little weird." Sonic remarked.

"A little?!" Knuckles roared. "Are you kidding me?!"

..........................................................................

Eggman was attacking. Again.

He shot a laser over at the ground, causing the villagers to yelp and jump around in shock. The laser then crashed on a nearby house, causing the top of the roof to fly up in the air.

Sonic sped right towards it, leaving Penny and Knuckles standing there.

"Magnificent!" Eggman laughed, watching the view from his mobile. Beside him, Orbot and Cubot laughed as well.

"The invasion is going swimmingly! And me without my floaties on!" Eggman burst into laughter.

Orbot and Cubot just stared at him.

"Note to self: Need hipper diabolical banter."

Soon, Sonic sped forwards, soon joined by Penny, Amy, Tails, and Sticks.

"So, Eggman, what makes you think that this stunt will go any better than the last dozen or so you've pulled?" Sonic asked.

"The luck balance of the universe!" Eggman laughed.

"No way! You believe that, too?" Tails asked.

"Sorry I'm late!" Knuckles said, running up. "What can I....."

Before he could finish, the house part that Eggman fired off fell straight towards us. Sonic pushed Penny out of the way just in time.

"I'm unscathed from a little spit-see, but no matter! It's also laundry day! Today is my lucky day!" He sang as he flew off.

"Are you guys ok? Wow, that was nuts! I can't believe that!" Knuckles asked, walking up towards his friends.

"We had him cornered! What are you doing here?" Sonic asked, clearly annoyed.

"Helping?" Knuckles asked.

"You're not helping! You're just bad luck!" Sonic paused for a second, and Penny could've sworn she heard him say, "I have an idea."

Sonic continued, "Since your bad luck almost destroyed our good luck, why not make it over to Eggman and make it official?"

"Sonic, what are you doing?!" Penny snapped.

"Fine! That's what you're gonna be about me? I'm gonna work with someone who appreciates me!"

Knuckles ran off, leaving them dumbfounded.

"Knuckles, come back!" Amy called after him.

"Are you insane, Sonic?!" Penny looked at her blue best friend.

"Hold up, let's let this play out." Sonic smirked, taking my hand.

"Hu?" Penny asked, curious and confused about Sonic's idea.

.....

"Attention, village, your panicked screaming and fear and hysteria has so charmed and delighted me these past few moments that I wish to extend my appreciation by debuting for you, my most extravagant ode to destruction." He said as the ground began to shake.

"Behold, the mega!" He said, as the huge robot appeared before the villagers.

"I call him that because he's 7% bigger then the other robots." Eggman said as Knuckles came up.

"Eggman! I'm through with Sonic. I'm joining your side."

"Ahh! A defector has come to join the wining team! More good luck!"

Knuckles walked over to the Mega. "Pretty cool robot! New?"

"Yeah, nice right? Safe to say my best ever." Eggman pressed a button on his wrist orb, but as soon as the robot began to reboot, his head exploded.

"So it's basically a prototype." Eggman stuttered.

The robot placed a bomb in its own head.

"Never got to toss it out in the field before, but the design is really sound."

The robot grabbed another bomb.

"So I figured out with this string and good luck I've been having..."

The robot put the bomb in its head, exploding, causing the robot to fly up and burst into a million pieces.

"Now, it's tested and I don't have to clean up the mess!" Eggman laughed nervously. He flew up to Knuckles. "Good luck with that, suckers!" He said as he flew off.

"Wow." Knuckles muttered. "Bad luck follows me wherever I go."

"Maybe... it's good luck!" Penny grinned, walking up to her echidna friend and putting a hand on his shoulder.

Knuckles gave the girl a confused look. "Penny, what do you mean?"

"After all, our side won!" Sonic smiled, joining her side.

"But I was on the other side." Knuckles looked confused.

"No you weren't. Sonic sent you on a secret mission." Penny explained.

"It was so secret, even I didn't know about it!" Knuckles said, clearly impressed.

"Yeah, you see, you switch sides, and your bad luck overpowered Eggman's good luck, but you're really on our side, only by losing, you won."

"Ohhh." Knuckles seemed to get it now. The group began walking home, and Knuckles spoke up, breaking the silence. "You know, I've been wondering."

"Where crazy theories come from?" Tails and Penny asked together.

"When the bad luck leaves me. Where does it go?"

Tails was about to answer, when a random object fell down on him, crushing him. "There's a perfectly good... explanation for this." He muttered, as another object landed on him