Having almost broken his back rowing across the Mobian Channel for two days, Knuckles was at his limit.  Dragging a heavy chest full of documents about the Floating Island across Mobius was tricky enough without having to bring physical labour into things too!  And the boat he’d been given by Captain Plunder (remember that dodgy old pirate?) was a heavy old piece of junk too.  Knuckles couldn’t imagine how things could be much worse…    

 

 

 

 

…of course, a giant robot attack usually does the trick.  Knuckles was no stranger to Badnik attacks, but one never quite adjusts to being attacked eight-on-one!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even scaling one of the nearby stone pillars didn’t help Knuckles any as the tentacles smashed them clean down with no effort whatsoever!  Knuckles really was in trouble and almost ended up drowning after a fall into the water below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gasping for breath, Knuckles had to have wondered if drowning would have been preferable to what he now saw!  The nefarious crab, Captain Claw, piloting a gigantic robotic octopus!  This was no Badnik after all- though Claw clearly had respect for Robotnik and intended to capture Knuckles for Robotnik’s reward (which he noted was less than the reward offered for Sonic but Knuckles, being polite, didn’t get cross about that).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claw actually wanted Knuckles to put up a fight to put his Octonaught to the test.  Knuckles happily obliged, attempting to punch a hole in the ship’s hull with his namesakes- alas, Claw employed an electric defence, zapping Knuckles (and posing a number of questions about the laws of physics, but that’s another tale for another time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again scaling the stone pillars, Knuckles found Claw wouldn’t give him even a moment’s rest as Knuckles was forced to leap from pillar to pillar to save himself the Octonaught’s assault as it smashed the rocks with brute force!  The talkative Claw found time to berate Knuckles all the while as well, the cheeky so-and-so.  Still, you remember what they say about pride coming before a fall…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or, more specifically, a rock fall!  Claw had battered every stone pillar to bits and while Knuckles had run out of places to go, Claw had run out of places to move- the last pillar fell and crushed his Octonaught!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rescuing the chest of documents, Knuckles decided to take Claw prisoner and force him to row them both across the Channel.  For someone so previously full of bravado, Claw was certainly crabby about the whole situation…

 

What did you think?