Knuckles was doing what he did best; standing guard over the Master Emerald, arms crossed, looking as serious as ever. It was a quiet day on Angel Island, the kind of peaceful afternoon where even the wind was light.
He let out a small sigh, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Guarding the Master Emerald was an important duty, but it could get really boring sometimes. No thieves, no threats - just him, the emerald, and the occasional breeze.
Then, without warning, the Master Emerald pulsed with a blinding light.
Knuckles barely had time to react before the glow intensified, surrounding him in a swirling vortex of energy. He staggered back, shielding his eyes, but the force was too strong. His body felt weightless, as if he were being lifted off the ground, his limbs tingling with an unfamiliar sensation.
The emerald’s energy crackled around him, shifting, changing; until suddenly, everything went dark.
When the light faded, the mighty guardian was gone.
In his place sat a tiny, red-furred infant echidna, blinking up at the world with big, confused eyes.
---------
Hours later, Sonic and Tails, who had planned a regular visit to their buddy, arrived.
They expected to see Knuckles stood in front of the altar as usual, maybe being up for a little banter, or maybe even a race around the island.
What they did not expect however, was to find Knuckles’ oversized gloves lying empty on the ground, and a baby echidna sitting in their place, sucking on his tiny fist.
Tails gasped. “Sonic… is that—?”
Sonic pointed dramatically. “Oh my Chaos, Knuckles got baby-fied!”
The baby echidna blinked up at them, then let out a tiny, indignant squeak.
Tails immediately went into panic mode, checking the Master Emerald behind him for any anomalies.
“What do we do?! How do we fix this?! What if he stays like this forever?!”
Sonic, on the other hand, was having the time of his life.
He scooped up baby Knuckles and cradled him in his arms like a newborn.
“Aww, wook at da wittle guy,” he cooed in the most exaggerated baby voice possible. “Who’s a wittle guardian? You are! Yes, you are!”
Knuckles’ tiny fists flailed in protest, his face scrunching up in frustration.
“Sonic, stop teasing him!” Tails scolded, snatching Knuckles away. “This is serious! We need to figure out how to reverse this!”
Sonic smirked. “Oh, come on, Tails. When’s the next time we’re gonna get to babysit Knuckles? We should enjoy this while it lasts.”
Tails sighed, but he had to admit; Knuckles was kind of adorable like this.
Or, at least, he WAS adorable... before he immediately began screaming bloody murder and thrashing his fists around in frustration.
Tails groaned and covered his ears as Sonic winced and held Knuckles away from his face, trying to lessen the noise that his ears were now being tortured by.
"Whoa! Easy there, buddy! I was only kidding..."
"Sonic, do something!"
Half panicking and half regretting his choice to tease Knuckles, the blue blur thought quickly before carefully holding Knuckles up to his shoulder and gently beginning to rub his back.
As Sonic rubbed the baby echidna's back, he immediately began to calm down before gripping onto Sonic's shoulder with his tiny hands.
"It's okay, buddy... we're here for you."
Tails smiled and sighed in relief as he uncovered his ears, finally free from the ear-piercing sound.
"Okay, now that's settled, we better search the island for anything that could help us with taking care of him."
Sonic nodded in agreement as he kept his grip on Knuckles and walked towards a nearby jungle.
After walking for a few minutes, Knuckles suddenly caught a glimpse of himself in a puddle and, due to his now baby-fied self, had no idea what was happening.
Sonic, whose arms needed a break, gently let Knuckles out of his arms and placed him onto the ground below, making sure to watch what he was doing.
The baby echidna quickly crawled over to the puddle and instinctively growled at his reflection, assuming it was another baby echidna challenging him.
Sonic, who had noticed Knuckles' strange behaviour, smirked as he looked to his two-tailed pal.
“Oh no, Tails. He’s found his arch-nemesis.”
Knuckles narrowed his tiny eyes, balled his fists, and punched the puddle. Water splashed everywhere, soaking Sonic and Tails.
Sonic yelped from the water before laughing. “He’s literally fighting himself!”
Tails sighed, wiping water off his face. “This is going to be a long day.”
