Everyone looked at Amy and Neera, who were covered in bruise and cuts. Even bite marks. Sonic and Lilac finally managed to pull them apart, as they were far away from each other, thanks to the seats that Theo and Lucy improved.

Theo used his magic to heal the two girls, no longer having bruises. Though they were thankful, they still were pissed off at each other.

After a moment of silence, Lucy spoke up first. "Um. . . Amy. Neera. Do you guys want to continues?"

"..."

"..."

"Okay."

"Fine."

And with that out of the way, Lucy stated the next.

The scene opened up in a grassy field with scattered rocks, trees, and bushes.

"Yeah! Who's gonna take it downtown?" Knuckles' cheery voice filled the air as he placed a golf ball on a green tee. The echidna straightened up and pointed to himself, grinning at Sonic who was beside him. "Knuckles, that's who! Gonna pour Sonic a hurt-tonic! And the pain is gonna be chronic!"

Sonic deadpanned as he palmed a coin. "Okay, we get it." He flipped it in the air.

Before the hedgehog caught it again, Knuckles shouted, "Tails!" He shifted his attention to the fox standing by his other side. "Tails, you flip it." The red anthro held up a hand to hide his mouth from Sonic, whispering, "Not sure if I trust this guy..."

Tails frowned up at that. "I guess my twin should feel flattered?"

Spade scoffed. "He shouldn't. They should ignore everything the echidna says."

Sonic groaned, exasperated, before tossing Tails the coin. The kit flipped it high, and Knuckles called out, "Heads!" Tails caught the coin and put it on his wrist, showing the others. Knuckles blinked before grumbling in anger, eying Sonic. "Lucky..."

"I always bet on tails!" Sonic chuckled before ruffling the kit's bangs, who was smiling too.

Sonic then threw the ball into the air before hitting it with his club. The ball flew over to a rock structure, sinking perfectly into the flagged hole. Apparently, there was a tunnel connecting the hole to the starting point, for it wasn't long before the ball popped up into the air and into Sonic's awaiting palm. His grin was smug as he glanced at the echidna.

"That was pretty impressive." Lilac commented.

"But isn't that cheating?" Mila asked.

Carol scoffed. "Do you really think that Knuckles is gonna call him out for it?"

"Hmm. Good point."

Knuckles frowned, clenching a fist. "Don't give me that look!" He then went over to the ball on the tee and swung at it, launching the sphere off the ground. The ball landed near the hole on the rock and was slowly rolling towards it, but a falling leaf blown by the wind veered it off course.

Almost everyone in the room felt the unfairness of that.

"I can already tell that he isn't going to take that well." Rouge predicted.

"Especially if he has the same temper of the echidna we all know." Sonic said, grinning.

"Sonic. Rouge. Please be quiet."

Tails held up a finger. "One, nothing, Sonic!"

"Oh, come on!" Knuckles was clearly frustrated. "You saw the wind blew that, right?" He placed another ball on the tee and went for a second swing. The ball soared right for the hole before hitting a group of birds. "What?!" he yelled.

Amy cringed. "Okay, this is probably the first time I've ever empathized with him..."

Sonic smirked. "See? Even the universe says that Sonic the hedgehog always reigns supreme."

"Or he's just having really bad luck?" Tails suggested.

"Nah."

"You gotta factor in bird migration," Sonic informed with a smirk. "That's Gopherball 101."

"He's not wrong."

"Sonic, I am warning you. Quiet."

Knuckles growled and swung at another ball. This time, it landed behind the hole. The echidna tried again and again, missing completely and breaking the flag pole at one point, until tiring himself out.

Sonic scoffed. "Okay, at that point, he's just proving that my double's better than him! Just like how-"

*BAM*

He warned him.

"That's totally unfair!" Knuckles panted out.

Sonic was now relaxing in a beach chair, enjoying some juice in a coconut. Tails was by him. The fox shrugged at the echidna's exclamation. "Maybe you need to work on your swing."

Knuckles was appalled. "You kidding me?! It has nothing to do with my swing! It has everything to do with luck! "

"More like luck influenced half of his swings." Vector stated..

Lilac cocked her head. "Did he forget already how he swung like a crazy person a minute ago?"

Rouge snorted. "Knuckles here always forgets facts to prove a point. It's nothing new."

When the echidna groaned in despair, Amy patted him on the back sympathetically.

Sonic and Tails simply stared at him, amused.

The echidna grumbled before taking another shot at the hole. The ball stopped midair when it got close, dropping to the grassy ground.

"That is not possible," Torque stated the obvious.

"Something weird is kinda going on..." Tails pondered aloud.

Sonic hummed, having been healed by Lucy from Knuckles' wrath. "This might sound a little crazy, but what if they had a thing too that was controlling them? 'Cause a ball freezing midair like that isn't normal."

Tails shook his head. "It can't be because they have free will."

"Oh yeah, you're right."

Knuckles threw a tantrum and hurled his club in a random direction. It landed cleanly in the hole. He screamed.

Deep down within Knuckles – and he meant deep like emotional poems deep – he might feel a bit bad for his twin, because that was-

"Aw." Rouge cooed. "He needs a hug."

And the feeling's gone.

Later, Knuckles was stomping around in a garden as Amy and Sticks watched on.

"Knuckles," Amy started. "I see you're upset, but-"

The echidna stopped in front of the pinkette, pointing at her. "Don't bother trying to get me to talk about my feelings."

"Actually, I was gonna try to get you to stop killing my grass," she said, glancing down at the trampled blades.

Knuckles ignored her, ranting, "Sonic the Luck Monkey beat me in Gopherball by getting totally lucky!"

Sonic blinked. "Luck Monkey? That's-"

"What I'm calling you from now on," Eggman interjected.

"But-"

"Shut it, monkey."

Amy tilted her head. "I thought you didn't want to talk about your feelings?"

"I don't!" Knuckles opposed loudly. "I just wanna yell!"

"Aww. Poor, Knuckie-poo~"

Knuckles ignored the bat.

The hedgehog softened her voice as she stepped closer to him. "We all get into a slump now and then..."

He frowned. "I'm not in a slump. "

A lopsided grin grew on her muzzle. "Oh really? How many times have you lost to Sonic this week?"

Knuckles began to count on his fingers before he realized what he was doing. He clenched his fists. "I told you, I don't want to talk about this!"

Sonic bust out laughing. "So, it's safe to say that this episode is just gonna be about him, and I'm loving it so far!"

"Do you want another punch to the face??"

Sonic stopped laughing.

"That's what I thought."

"Maybe..." Sticks decided to speak up, sitting down on a nearby bench. "There is a disturbance in the luck balance of the universe!"

"That can happen?" Knuckles asked before pouting, "Stupid universe..."

Spade groaned annoyingly. He didn't know what was more irritating. An stupid echidna? Or a weird freaky badger.

Sticks stood back up, explaining, "What you need to do is burn through the rest of this losing streak by bringing yourself as much bad luck as you can as fast as you can to speed up shifting the luck balance of the universe back the way it was before this all happened."

The single thought of What? was shared by all in the room.

Knuckles and Amy shared a silent look.

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

"Shift the luck balance of the universe?" Amy repeated dubiously. "Really?"

"I am so there," Knuckles uttered confidently.

Knuckles rubbed his temples. "Of course..." he mumbled under his breath.

"Where did she even get that from?" Milla couldn't wrap her head around that nonsense.

Tails was just as confused as Milla. "Believing in luck is one thing, but the luck balance of the universe?"

Shadow couldn't wait for this to be over.

The scene changed to the red anthro standing in a canyon. He was looking up a rock wall. "I can't believe I've never thought of this before!" Knuckles promptly punched the stone in front of him, causing a large rock above to fall and crush him.

Carol slowly blinked. "...What?"

Cory widened her eyes. "That's his answer to the situation?"

"Why can't he just step under a ladder?" Torque proposed.

"Or break a mirror?"

"Or paint Blaze black and tell her to walk in front of him?" Multiple pairs of confused eyes landed on Sonic. "What-AHHHHHHHH!!!"

Sonic was answered with a pair of flames coming at him. Everyone turned and saw an angry/annoyed Blaze forming fire around her.

Nervously, Silver went to touch her shoulder in a calming manner. "Um, Blaze? Maybe you should-"

*HHHHHIIIIIIISSSSSSSS*

Silver back off.

Next, Knuckles approached the edge of a deep crater. "When the luck balance of the universe shifts against you, just get it all over with as quickly as possible to shift it back!" He spread his arms out and threw himself in the gaping hole.

"But that's not bad luck...he's just hurting himself!" Charmy exclaimed, biting his lip worriedly.

"Well, not badly...somehow." Knuckles observed, seeing how his twin basically brushed that heavy rock off like it was no problem. "He should at least have a concussion."

"Where are his friends?" Torque questioned. "Don't they care about his well-being?"

"Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't." Knuckles lowly uttered. Knowing how stupid their counter-part could be.

"It's like one of those things when you hear it, you're like 'Duh! It's so obvious!'" He crashed into the ground, creating a shallow hole himself.

He clumsily climbed out of it and made his way to a convenient cannon. Knuckles climbed into it and aimed himself upwards. "Plus, it plays to my strengths of taking horrible-" He was shot out of the cannon, leaving a smoke trail in the sky. "-painful-" Knuckles slammed into a tree, startling Amy and Tails who were having a picnic. "-brutal punishment..."

If the rest of the episode was this, Shadow and Spade honestly wouldn't mind.

The echidna slid off the plant and plummeted to the ground. The impact loosened a beehive above his head. It fell and broke against him, releasing the angry bees. He tried to swat them away. "Ah! I can almost feel my luck changing already!"

"Does Sticks want to kill, Knuckles." Tails questioned bluntly, his eyes wide.

Amy gotten worried. "She wouldn't! . . . Would she?!"

Knuckles wishes he could see that.

Sonic barely stifled a chuckle. "Wouldn't put it past her!"

Silver shook his head. "I don't think his friends would allow that."

Now Sonic was shown reading a book in a chair near his shack. It wasn't long until he noticed Knuckles approaching. He threw the book away, sitting up. "Oh man, Knuckles. You okay?"

The echidna walked up with bruises and bandages littering his body.

Cream covered her mouth in shocked. "Oh my goodness!"

Carol widened her eyes. "Jeez."

Tails winced. "Man, those bees were mad."

Silver winced. "No kidding."

"Am I okay? Are you okay, you mean?" Knuckles flicked Sonic's nose. "Or are you too nervous about the Gopherball beatdown heading your-" Knuckles doubled over as he coughed, wincing at the pain. His wheezes were shallow until the attack ended. His voice was strained. "Give me a minute! It's hard to trash talk with a punctured lung..."

"Okay, jokes aside, someone needs to put him on house arrest, or somethin'." Sonic absently tapped his foot on the ground, thinking that it was a matter of time before he got seriously hurt.

Amy felt sorry for Knuckles. "Hopefully you will talk to him, Sonic."

"And say that Sticks is the last person you should get advice from." Tails added.

Sonic gave him a once-over, concerned. "Looks to me like you're not in much condition to play anything. "

"There's a reason that he and Tails are the best ones on the show," Knuckles commented.

Knuckles barked out a laugh. "Ha! You only think I'm not in much condition to..." He paused to think. "...whatever you said!" Knuckles crossed his arms. "But, in fact, I finally tipped the luck balance of the universe back in my favor!"

"But how does he know that?" Torque questioned. "He hasn't done anything that turned out good for him!"

"His mind is an enigma not even he understands."

"Is that a new vocabulary word, Knux? Good job!"

"Sonic, I tried hitting you, but now, I'm about to strangle you."

He began to stroll away. "Your lucky streak is over, Sonic! Brace yourself, my friend, 'cause there's nothing but sunny skies ahead for this-" He was interrupted by a refrigerator crushing him.

The door of the fridge opened to show a dazed echidna.

Both Tails, Amy, Lilac and Milla flinched like they had been hit.

The scene changed to show Eggman's lair.

Eggman was highly upset. He had the sliver of hope that he wouldn't show up, but it's stupid to do that at this point.

Inside the base, Eggman was walking with a glowing vest on. "Even with a mind as powerful as mine, it's important to keep the reflexes honed." He turned to the robots he was talking to, holding a pair of laser guns. Orbot was wearing a Sonic mask while Cubot was wearing a Tails one.

Sonic and Tails glanced at each other.

"Weird."

"Weird."

"That's why you robots will serve as my opponents in this training exercise." He tossed his helper bots the rays and shouted, "On your marks, get set..."

Eggman ran forward while shooting before saying, "Go!"

"Not seeing many differences," Rouge hummed.

"There are plenty of differences!" Eggman argued. "You just haven't encountered them yet!"

He and his machines fired at each other, and the doctor soon ended up trapped in a corner by a couch. He ducked behind it and shot randomly, not hitting anything. The robots stopped attacking, looking at each other in confusion.

"Can't even hit still targets!" Sonic sent a grin the human's way. "You gotta feel some kind of empathy, yeah?"

Eggman threw a pillow, and it missed the hedgehog's head by an inch.

Sonic palmed and tossed it up and down. "Glad you proved my point!" He glanced at the pillow. "Thanks for bringing up the memories, Eggy."

The doctor grumbled angrily to himself.

Eggman then stood back up, and all of the guns were instantly aimed at him.

He floundered in frustration before exclaiming, "Ow! Someone's stepping on my mustache!"

The bots searched for the culprit until Orbot spoke up. "Wait...No one's stepping on your-"

Using this distraction, Eggman ran past the robots, dodging their lasers.

"They are nothing but a waste of space."

Sonic snickered. "Careful Eggy, you might be a waste of space too."

Eggman agreed with the echidna. He wanted to strangle this hedgehog.

However, he didn't get far for he tripped over his own feet, crashing to the floor. Upon impact, his ray shot a laser in the machines' direction, hitting all of them.

Orbot pushed up his mask. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say there was a shift in the luck balance of the universe.

Sitting up, Eggman hummed to himself, grinning evilly.

Tails shook his head in exasperation. "Oh boy..."

Eggman desperately wanted to knock some sense into his twin.

Back with Knuckles, he was standing in the middle of a meteor shower at that same crater as before.

"It seems like the world itself wants to get rid of all the idiots." Spade pointed out.

"This is the second violent shower we've seen." Shadow added.

The echidna was walking along the bottom of the crater, hands held high. "Come on, meteors! Take your best shot!"

"Please do," Knuckles encouraged.

Amy nudged him. "I'd rather not see a dead body, thank you!"

"I wouldn't mind."

Lilac frowned at the panda. "Hush, Spade."

Tails, Sonic, and Amy were standing up by the edge. The pinkette pointed to Knuckles, addressing Sonic, "We've got to do something! He's going to hurt himself!"

"Go down there yourself and drag him outta there!" Amy yelled like her twin could hear her. She'd been through much scarier things than meteors!

"What do you suggest we do?" Sonic asked, coming up with blanks.

"Uhhh, talk to him??" Tails suggested.

"You could lose to him on purpose," Tails suggested.

Sonic scoffed. "Pfft. As if!"

There was a pregnant pause. "What else you got?"

Sonic was glad he and his double were on the same wavelength.

Sonic looked at the two for other options; they didn't have any. The speedster sighed. "I'll talk some sense into him. Leave it to me."

Sonic dropped down and jogged to Knuckles' side. "Knux, you're wasting your time with this luck stuff. I've been beating you lately entirely due to skill."

"As always!"

Knuckles could think of multiple occasions when that wasn't true, but he knew that bringing them up was a waste of breath. Sonic wasn't going to change.

"Luck!" Knuckles argued.

"Skill!"

"Luck!"

"Skill." Sonic walked away a bit. "Like the way I beat you in this argument just now."

Rouge's lips curled at that. "Ooo...I like the sass there."

"I know! Isn't it dreamy?"

"Not that far, Pinky."

Knuckles wasn't going to give up, glaring. "You didn't win yet because I'm still saying the word 'luck'!" He shouted. "Luuuuuccccckkkk!"

He then was slammed by a plummeting meteor.

Amy facepalmed.

Sonic leaned against the rock. "Can we discuss this somewhere else?"

"Are those things made out of Styrofoam or something? Like seriously?" Tails was pulling at his whiskers. Milla came over and patted him on the back, with a smile.

In the evil base, Eggman was sitting at his desk, talking to his helper robots. "Sonic and his friends always defeat me by the slimmest of margins-

Sonic chuckled. "They both love to exaggerate even though they both lose every fight. Weird how they do that, huh?"

"Very, Blue. It's a real mystery." Rouge peered at the doctor, who was glaring at the screen. "Want to explain why, doctor?"

Eggman growled. "Why don't you just focus on the echidna and leave me alone?!"

"Oh don't worry, I'll get back to him in a bit."

Knuckles inwardly groaned, facepalming.

-but with the luck balance of the universe shifted entirely in my favor, there's never been a better time to attack!"

Orbot and Cubot shared a confused look.

"So, let us attack this instant!" He emphasized, "With everything we got! Bring the Mega..."

Carol pursed her lips. "Was that supposed to be intimidating?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but we're so used to it meaning nothing that it doesn't faze us."

Eggman wondered if excessive anger had negative effects on someone's health. Because if so, he might need to see a doctor after this.

There was another scene switch. Amy and Tails were running into Stick's burrow.

When they entered, Amy commanded, "Sticks, you gotta help us make Knuckles stop right away! He's gonna get hurt!"

The badger put down her banjo. "Not if he shifts the luck balance of the universe in time."

Blaze facepalms. "She needs a doctor."

Silver leaned towards her. "I think both she and Knuckles do."

Tails threw his hands in the air. "She says it like she's talking about the weather!"

"In her insane mind, that kind of nonsense is as mundane as the weather," Shadow huffed.

Tails tilted his head. "And what if he doesn't?"

Sticks tapped her chin as she approached. "I guess he'll probably be eaten by a carnivorous plant and slowly digested over a period of weeks or months."

Amy looked at her strangely. "Annnd we agree that's not good, right?"

Sticks shrugged. "I could think of worse, but I have confidence in him."

"So...she's a sociopath." Neera concluded.

"Psycho more like it." Gong stated.

Tails frowned, a little angered. "Confidence in a guy who believes your crazy theory?"

The badger growled. "Did you just call my theory crazy?!"

"Yes, yes he did!" Tails exclaimed while clapping, proud of his double.

At the crater, the shower was still going on.

Sonic was pulling Knuckles free from the meteor that landed on him. "So Knux, I was kinda hoping we could get you to stop this nonsense before an asteroid pulverizes you into baby food. Any suggestions?"

Knuckles looked at him. "Admit that luck is the only reason you've been beating me all this time."

Sonic rolled his eyes. He didn't know if that echidna was ignorant or in denial.

Sonic grinned. "How about we have a rematch right now? Skill vs Skill."

Knuckles smiled and nodded.

The duo was back in the clearing with the rock structure. They both had clubs, and Sonic gestured at the echidna. "Go ahead. Take your shot!"

Knuckles was about to swing at the ball on the tee, but then he paused. His brow furrowed. "Don't you feel the ground rumbling?"

Sonic scoffed. "Nice try , Lucky."

"Is he setting up to blame something random in case he misses?"

Knuckles shook his head at Amy. "No, he's too dumb for that. It's probably the Mega or whatever Eggman said."

The echidna swung anyway and ended up hitting Eggman's hovercraft as the doctor was passing by.

Sonic blinked. "Okay, that there was a little weird. I'll give you that."

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

"That is strange..." Torque admitted quietly. Not strange enough to get him to believe the 'luck balance of the universe' theory, because that was just insane.

"It could be a coincidence...?" Vector asked unsurely.

At the village a distance away, Eggman began attacking, shooting destructive lasers. Sonic, seeing the smoke rising over the horizon, sprinted in that direction.

"Magnificent!" Eggman was laughing haughtily along with Orbot and Cubot. "The invasion is going swimmingly! And me, without my floaties on!" He laughed again, but realized that his robots weren't doing so as well. He muttered, "Note to self: need hipper-diabolical banter."

Eggman ran a hand down his face. "Why can't he just lay on his couch and do nothing for an episode?! Is that too much to ask?"

"Apparently, yeah," Sonic said cheekily.

Sonic then appeared, sliding to a stop in front of the doctor. Amy, Tails, and Sticks soon joined him. "So Eggman, what makes you think this stunt will go any better than the last dozen or so you've pulled?" Sonic asked.

Eggman wasn't bothered. "The luck balance of the universe, that's what!"

Tails couldn't believe this. "What? You believe in that stuff too?"

I feel your pain, other me, Tails sadly thought. He didn't notice Milla giving him a sad look.

Knuckles ran up behind the group of heroes. "Sorry I'm late! What can I do to-"

A random roof part fell from the sky and almost landed on the crew if they hadn't dived out of the way in time.

Spade knew that the luck universe thing was ridiculous, but that was just as ridiculous. "That was-"

"There's gotta be another explanation!" Tails cut the panda off before she could say it. "A scientific one!"

"I'm unscathed!" Eggman announced cheerfully before dusting off his shoulder. "I'm a little schmitzy, but no matter. It's also laundry day!" He floated away with his robots following him, singing, "Today is my lucky day!"

Eggman wished that he could say the same for himself. But no, his face was hurting, his pride was hurting even more.

Everything was hurting.

Knuckles groaned, holding his head. "You guys okay? Wow, that was nuts! I can't believe that!"

Sonic looked less than happy. "We had him cornered. What are you doing here?"

"Whoa..." Sonic furrowed his brow.

"Um. . ." Lilac was caught off guard. "Where did that come from?"

Knuckles was lost. "Helping?"

Sonic's gaze was a borderline glare. "You're not helping; you're just bad luck! I have an idea. Since you and your bad luck just hurt our side, why don't you just join Eggman and make it official."

"Mr. Sonic that's so rude of you!"

Amy agreed with Cream, not liking how hurt the echidna looked. "Sonic how could you?!"

"Sonic's a big jerk!" Charmy declared.

"Sort of like the one here, huh?" Neera snorted, sending the azure speedster a look. Sonic responded by sticking out his tongue.

"Do you want to go round 2? Cause I will-"

Lucy put her hands on her hip. "Amy Rose."

". . . Sorry."

A flash of hurt crossed Knuckles' face. "Fine! If that's how you're going to be about it, I'm gonna work with someone who appreciates me!" He ran off in anger.

Amy reached out to him. "Knuckles, come back!"

Sonic stepped up beside her, smirking. "Hold up. Let's let this play out."

Espio thought that the on-screen hedgehog's plan was smart. He had to admit that hearing the hedgehog mad like that to a friend, even in pretending, was kinda off-putting. "He did that a little too well."

Silver agreed with him, saying, "We do know that he's a tiny bit meaner than our Sonic..."

In the village, Eggman was hovering over smoldering rubble, smirking down at the frightened villagers.

"Listen, village," the doctor started. "Your panicked screaming and fear-addled hysteria have 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 yet. Behold..." The ground shook as he gestured to the side. "...the Mega!"

A huge and bulky mech with tank treads rolled up, its mechanical hands clenched into fists. Its single eye focused on the villagers.

"I call him that because he's seven percent bigger than my other robots," Eggman quickly explained.

Eggman rubbed his temples. "He didn't have to say that..."

Sonic smirked playfully. "Well, you love shouting your plans to the world, so I'm not surprised that he doesn't know when to shut up too."

"And they both like over-compensating, don't they?" Tails asked.

The duo laughed at the growling doctor.

"Eggman!" The doctor and his lackeys glanced over to see Knuckles walking up. "I'm through with Sonic! I'm joining your side."

"Ah!" Amused, Eggman flew a circle around the echidna. "A defector has come to join the winning team. More good luck!"

"So...he's going to accept it, just like that?" Tails thought that the other Eggman was a bit...slower, but this was just wow.

"I'm not complaining but, isn't Eggman worried about being double-crossed or anything?" Mila questioned.

"Does anything he does surprise you at this point?" Eggman mumbled, not caring if the cub heard him or not.

The red echidna attention was drawn to the robot. "Pretty cool robot." He got closer to it. "New?"

Eggman was quick to boast. "Yeah, nice right? Safe to say my best ever." He pushed a button on his wrist to send the bot into action, but instead, its head exploded. The observing villagers gasped.

"Pathetic." Spade scoffed "It didn't even do anything."

The doctor stared for a moment before saying, "Though, it's basically a prototype." The large mech then reached into gaping hole in its torso and pulled out a bomb. Eggman continued, "Never really tested it in the field before, but the designs looked really sound."

The mech accidently activated the bomb, causing it to beep. Eggman didn't look fazed. "So, I figured with this string of good luck I've been having..." The bot replaced the bomb within itself. It rocketed into the air and exploded, raining parts around the village. Eggman chuckled happily. "Hey, now it's tested, and I don't have to clean up the mess." He grinned at the observers. "Good luck with that, suckers!" He and his helper bots fly off.

Sonic, Tails, Amy, Lilac, Carol and Milla all laughed together. "He just accepts that his invention was terrible!" The fox observed breathily.

Torque chuckled until he looked at the doctor. "You know, your life would be much better, if you would just stop being evil, Eggman.."

Eggman didn't say anything.

Knuckles slumped, depressed. "Wow. My bad luck follows me wherever I go..."

The rest of the heroes approached. Sonic grinned at him. "Or, is it good luck? After all, our side won."

Knuckles frowned. "I was on the other side."

Sonic shook his head. "No you weren't. I sent you on a secret mission for us."

Sonic, getting his breathing under control, smiled. "My twin's playing him like a fiddle!"

"Well, he does have experience with dealing with that Knuckles!" Amy fought to control her giggles.

Shadow couldn't help but grin. That robot was hilariously pathetic.

The echidna was awed. "It was so secret...even I didn't know about it!"

"Yeah," Sticks affirmed with a smile. "You see, you switched sides and your bad luck overpowered Eggman's good luck, but you were really on our side. So by losing, you won."

Gong harshly exhaled. "Someone please get her off the screen."

It took a minute for that to sink in, but Knuckles eventually gaped. "Wow...yeah!"

The room collectively groaned.

The crew were leaving the village now in good spirits.

"You know what I've been wondering, though?" Knuckles asked them.

Tails, more in the back of the group, responded, "Where crazy luck theories come from?"

"When the bad luck leaves me, where does it go?"

Tails was suddenly struck by a falling robot part. Everyone turned around worriedly.

Tails winced. "Poor guy..."

Milla pouted. "How is he always the victim?! He didn't even do anything!"

The kit was struggling to free himself. "There's a perfectly good...explanation for this..."

"Woo, episode's over." Knuckles voice was flat as he clapped once.

"Thank god." Eggman sighed in relief.

Spade perked up. "Then that means. . ."

Catching on, Lucy smiled. "It's break time!"

"YES!" Knuckles was grateful. "No more torture!"

Sonic slumped in his seat. "Time to kick back and relax."

Theo and Lucy set up some food, snacks and drinks on some tables.

"If anybody's hungry, there's some food here. Enjoy."

"Tomorrow, we'll continue on with the show. But for now. . ."

"Enjoy yourselves."