Cracking Knuckles

"Cracking Knuckles" is the fifth episode in the anime series, Sonic X. It first aired in Japan and the United States on 4 May 2003 and 4 October 2003 respectively.

Appearances
Characters:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Ella
 * Mr. Tanaka
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Bokkun
 * E-12 Behemoth
 * E-47 Pumpty

Japanese version

 * "SONIC DRIVE" - Opening theme
 * "Fu-tu-re"- Closing theme

English version

 * "Gotta Go Fast" - Opening theme (USA and CAN)
 * "Sonic X" - Opening theme (AUS, NZ and UK)
 * "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened) - Closing theme

Plot
The episode begins at night at an unnamed street, where Knuckles the Echidna is sighing and feeling saddened about being away from the Master Emerald after looking at a newspaper featuring Sonic. Suddenly, Doctor Eggman approaches him and almost immediately goes on his knees asking and begging for Knuckles' help. He tells Knuckles that Chaos Control can send them back if they have all the Chaos Emeralds. A flashback of Sonic breaking into Dr. Eggman's fortress is shown from episode 1 while Eggman persuaded that Sonic intended to use the Chaos Emeralds to travel through time and space.

Knuckles mumbles to himself that it was Sonic's doing. Eggman remarks that he simply wants to live his life quietly and peacefully on his homeworld. He adds that Sonic won't believe him and that the hedgehog doesn't wish to go back; Sonic also snatched the Chaos Emerald from the doctor so that he couldn't use them to reverse Chaos Control's effects. He claims that all Sonic is doing is playing around in the new world, considering it is better than the world he, his friends and Eggman come from. Knuckles gets angered by all of this even more. When Eggman thought that Knuckles is supposed to be buddies with Sonic, Knuckles quickly denies it and claims that he will settle this issue with Sonic once and for all to a battle to the bitter end as well as taking the Chaos Emerald. Eggman smirks in response.

The next day, Chris and Tails are admiring the Chaos Emerald in Chuck's lab. However, Ella tells them that she's coming up which prompts Chris to tell Tails to hide. Finding nowhere, Tails quickly slumps on a beanbag and pretends to be a stuffed-animal toy. Ella sees it and says that it looks cute before Tails' eyes move to greet hers. She gets surprised but Chris snatches Tails and runs off with him before she could do a thing about it. He, Tails and Chuck run out to the yard claiming that their situation back there was close. The commotion wakes Sonic up from the nap he's taking on the balcony. Chris then bumps into Mr. Tanaka who quickly asks him what he's doing. Chris awkwardly replies that they are playing around the stuffed animal toy. Chuck is about to follow when Tanaka snapped that since Chuck is taking a break from his studies that it'd be the right time to go to the swimming club. Chuck says he doesn't wish to but Tanaka pushes him off saying that Sundays should be regarded as holidays and that he needs a break.

Chris and Tails watch right before Amy runs into both of them unannounced. Tails falls off of Chris' back and Chris is startled. He turns and yells at Amy that she shouldn't be running outside. Amy however says she isn't going anywhere and that the TV has reported of another Chaos Emerald sighting. The three of them head inside and watch the report. It says that around Silver Valley, there has been confirmation of energy spikes similar to the ones that happened the day before. Tails assumes that these energy spikes are emitted by a Chaos Emerald while Chris notes that Silver Valley is not far away and then they all proceed to leave the house. Amy stops by Sonic and asks him if he would like to come to Silver Valley for a picnic. Sonic remarks he has already visited Silver Valley (without Amy), causing her to be mad. Chris says they can't go anywhere without being driven but Tails suggests his own idea. The next scene shows them all on a train with Tails and Amy acting as two stuffed-animal toys leaning on Chris' shoulders. The public stares at him looking confused but they're ultimately not found out. Even when Amy kicks a little girl into the side of the doorway for pulling on her ear, the distraction caused by the girl's crying swayed the public's attention away from the heroes. Meanwhile, Sonic is delivered a message in a form of a television from Bokkun (Eggman's messenger robot) which recorded Knuckles' message: he tells Sonic that he is ready to settle things with him at Silver Valley. Sonic has a mixed reaction to this before the message explodes on his foot. When he's covered in soot, Sonic gets angry and accepts Knuckles' challenge.

At Silver Valley, Chris, Amy and Tails have decided to go through with their picnic after all. Tails remarks that they don't have any clues as to where the Chaos Emerald could be and that they should look around. Right before they begin though, a large purple robot known as E-47 Pumpty, surfaces from the lake in front of them. It quickly scoops the three of them up and traps them inside of itself. Eggman flies down on his Egg Mobile and reveals himself to them, saying that the energy that was being emitted was from one of his robots and not a Chaos Emerald. Tails makes a remark about humans always jumping to conclusions and Amy tries to break free with her Piko Piko Hammer but the glass remained intact. Eggman tells them that he needs them in case the doctor's plan of defeating Sonic fails. When Amy points out that Sonic won't be coming, he points to a cliff where Knuckles waits. Just then, Sonic finally arrives in front of him.

Knuckles angrily tells him that he's late. Sonic responds, nonchalantly that his face is unwelcoming. He goes on a little talk about how nice the weather is and how good the flowers smell, which only gets Knuckles angrier. He tells Sonic that they're going to settle things. Sonic chuckles and says Knuckles doesn't want to fight him. Knuckles simply demands Sonic to give the Chaos Emerald back. Sonic looks a bit surprised for a second before quickly reverting back to his smug style and teases him. This sets Knuckles off and the two have a small stand out before Knuckles charges and hits at him with his fists. Sonic easily dodges back from them and looks annoyed.

Knuckles continues his assault with Sonic dodging and kicking back at him. More punches eventually lead them to the forest where Sonic proceeds to run up a cliff from there and onto a tree. He makes a comment about the great view right before Knuckles grabs the tree and tosses him away. Sonic lands and runs off to escape numerous other trees that are being punched down by Knuckles. All of them miss while Sonic taunts which prompts Knuckles to go on an even wilder assault. Sonic eventually flips back over to Knuckles and spins into a saw-like shape in order to attack him. He hits and they land in the water. Sonic freaks out when he realizes he is in water only to see Knuckles' annoyed face and realize that he is in a shallow puddle. The two continue their fight with Eggman happily rooting for Knuckles. Amy looks on and realizes easily that Knuckles is being deceived. Tails, after all this time, managed to break into the robot's mainframe in order to figure out how to disable the robot. However, Amy is unwilling to wait and raises her hammer up to the wiring. Despite Tails and Chris' protests, Amy slams her hammer into the machine. The small mechanism sparks and explodes with them all inside. Sonic overhears the explosion and finally looks over to see Eggman cheering for Knuckles.

Sonic runs over there with Knuckles yelling back at him that they weren't finished. Sonic ignores it and rams through E-47's legs causing it to fall backward. The glass breaks and Tails, Amy, and Chris are almost free. Eggman then proceeds to yell at Sonic about the destruction of his robot, as well. He tells E-47 to get up and take them out. It acknowledges and starts to fire on all of them. Sonic runs away from the blasts. Knuckles shows up and kicks the robot's cannons off. He then yells at Eggman, saying that he was the one who was going to take care of Sonic. Eggman gets angered and tells Knuckles that he was promised that he'd take care of it, but Sonic still hasn't been defeated. His robot, still carrying Tails, Amy, and Chris, flies off to the other side of the lake. Eggman says he'll return Sonic's friends if he hands over the Chaos Emerald. Knuckles looks a bit confused. Sonic smugly tells Knuckles that it seems Eggman's intentions weren't what he thought they were. Knuckles just then realizes he's been tricked and feels an anger boiling within him.

Eggman gets Sonic's attention and tells him that his weakness is water. He wonders if Sonic can cross the lake to reach them. Sonic smirks and says he wonders as well before going around the lake and easily destroying the robot's legs. Eggman looks at the scene, shocked by such an easily noticeable mistake and watches E-47 fall to the ground once again. This time, the glass breaks completely and Chris, Tails, and Amy are set free. Eggman grumbles and tells E-47 to finish them off. E-47 stands up and goes on a rampage. It fires numerous missiles into random directions and starts to destroy the area. Knuckles tells Sonic that he'll handle it, and Sonic says that would be great. Knuckles runs forward, easily dodging the missiles and bullets and jumps onto E-47. He punches through its body as he climbs up it and then reaches Eggman's Egg Mobile. He then punches the Egg Mobile along with Eggman far off into the sky as he disappears in a twinkle of light.

Knuckles then delivers one final decisive punch to E-47's head and the robot finally explodes. The debris is sent flying everywhere and sends Knuckles flying off with the wind. Sonic quickly grabs his arm, saving him from any collision that could've been made with the rocks. After the ordeal, Amy hugs Sonic, asking him if he's all right. Knuckles smiles and goes to walk off. Amy follows Knuckles for a bit and tells him that he must feel like an idiot for trusting Eggman. Knuckles tells her to shut up which she just smiles at. Knuckles smiles back at the rest of them one last time before walking off on his own path once again.

Regional differences
"...finally Sonic invaded Chaos Control" "...he finally achieved his goal; Sonic destroyed Chaos Control" It's obvious that during this part of the series, the writers at 4Kids still think that Chaos Control is the name of Eggman's base... (Due to their admission of knowing nothing about Sonic before dubbing the series.)
 * During the flashback to Episode 1, there was no dialogue in the Japanese version, whatsoever. In the dub, there were new quotes added: Dub Eggman: "...that's the reason he attacked Chaos Control"
 * In the English dub, Eggman is yelling "Get him, Knuckles!" in the direction of E-47 (an obvious error). In the original, he is saying "Don't break it! Hey you, stop it!", referring to the explosion inside E-47 caused by Amy's hammer.

Trivia

 * The Australian DVD gives the name of the episode as "Sonic Vs. Knuckles".
 * When sliding down a falling tree while fighting Knuckles, Sonic performs a Spin Attack, much like in the earlier episodes but it is not in 3D like the other Spin Attacks in this show.
 * In the English dub, after running up a tree, Sonic says "Not a bad view." In the Japanese version, Sonic says "Oh! What a great view!" in English.
 * When Amy, alongside Sonic, Tails and Chris, is hiding behind a sand hill, the three strands of hair on her forehead are gone until she's running up to Sonic.
 * This episode has Knuckles' infamous line in the series "SHUT UP!".