As Knuckles glided over Kong Island for reasons unknown, he suddenly felt and heard the growling of his stomach. He was hungry and his immediate goal changed from whatever it was to finding something to eat. He flew down and landed conveniently near a giant pile of bananas just lying on the ground. He walked over, stopping and looking at the sign that read "Donkey's banana hoard". "'Donkey's banana hoard', huh? I'm sure he won't miss just one." He said, grabbing one and chowing down.

Suddenly, Donkey Kong looked out from behind the massive pile of bananas and turned red with rage that someone took one of his delicious golden treasures. Knuckles noticed him looking at him over the massive pile and paused as he prepared to finish the banana. The two stared at each other for a few second before Knuckles tossed the rest of the banana in his mouth and finished it off with a single chomp. DK looked on in shock, before that changed to rage, steam blowing from his ears as he bulldozed the rest of his hoard, sending bananas everywhere as he roared more like a big cat (lions, tigers, etc.), pounding on his chest and preparing to battle.

Fight! (Background music: "Welcome to the Jungle" By Guns N' Roses)

Donkey Kong slammed his palms down in an attempt to crush Knuckles, but the red echidna easily dodged the attacks. DK then dove at Knuckles, attacking vigorously in a large dust cloud... which Knuckles simply stepped out of, Donkey having dove over him and began attacking wildly at nothing. This dazed the massive gorilla, allowing Knuckles to throw some well-placed shots, before throwing a powerful haymaker that sent the powerful ape flying back into a palm tree, a coconut then falling on his head. This gave the ape an idea, however, as he then jumped into a tree and swung on a vine towards Knuckles, firing away at him with his shotgun.

Knuckles continued to laugh until one of the coconuts hit him in the face. "Oh, no!" He said upon taking the hit. The rest of the coconuts zeroed in on Knuckles, who, with his incredible reflexes, easily dodged the slow-moving projectiles, which fell to the ground after they missed their target. "Alright!" He said happily, raising his fists into the air. DK took this moment as Knuckle's guard was down to launch the echidna into the air with an uppercut. Knuckles managed to block at the last second, minimizing the damage and his ascension into the air, before coming back down and slamming his fist down on DK's head, stunning the massive monkey yet again. He performed another quick and powerful combo on the ruler of the island once again, before he regained his senses, attempting to smash Knuckles again, but the echidna once again jumped over him to dodge the attack. DK then kicked his small opponent, who took his first considerable amount of damage, skidding back a bit before taking off. He turned and ran backwards to ensure the massive simian wasn't following him, confirming this and spinning around to keep running, when suddenly, the bush that was in front of him rose up, revealing it to be DK in disguise.

The massive ape SOMEHOW passed Knuckles and set up this ambush, springing the trap expertly and headbutting Knuckles halfway into the ground. Steam blew from his ears yet again as he wheeled his arm around to finish the fight with one Giant Punch, slamming his fist down where Knuckles was, shattering the ground in its place. However, when he pulled his arm back, DK was surprised and confused to find there was no body, blood, or any traces of his foe around the hole. He peered in, scratching his head in confusion as he began to realize his opponent SOMEHOW managed to tunnel away.

As he looked up, deciding the fight was over, Knuckles erupted from the ground behind him, spinning in a curled up ball, before uncurling and diving down at DK, his fists now covered in razor-sharp gauntlets. His fist connected with DK's head, slicing off the hair on top of it as the force of the punch knocked him down to the ground. DK got up, rubbing his head and finding the hair on top of it was gone, rendering him helpless to the continued assault from Knuckles. The red echidna continued his underground surprise claw attack, cutting some deep wounds in the mighty ape before deciding to end the fight once and for all. He burst from the ground right in front of the massive ape and delivered an onslaught of powerful and lightning-fast attacks, each effortlessly cutting through the giant monkey. Donkey Kong dropped onto his knuckles and struggled to keep himself standing, before he finally succumbed to his injuries and fell to his side, the life fading from the ruler of the island. "Guess you're not as strong as you thought you were." Knuckles said, walking off.

K.O!

(the rest of the Kong's take DK's body and plan a burial ceremony as Knuckles stocks up on more bananas)

Well, that puts an end to the musical numbers. Anyway, Death Battle ATROCIOUSLY over-exaggerated the homing coconuts. Maikou informed me AND I watched a VERY LARGE number of playthroughs to find that, much like ANY OTHER homing attack, the coconuts fired from DK's shotgun DO NOT make a U-turn and come back for their target. They home in the first time and if the target manages to dodge, the coconuts miss, just like any other projectile.

I WILL admit, they had the details on the differences in strength and such correct, but Knuckles HAS been shown to think outside the box on occasion. Sonic Boom is COMPLETELY different from the mainstream Soniverse and is confirmed non-canon. Good thing, because it really makes a mockery of the characters. In the ACTUAL canon, Knuckles has moments of being quite clever, using decently large words and knowing what he's talking about, reading in MULTIPLE languages (some of which Sonic and the others CAN'T). So, while this DOES take away Knuckles' volcano feat, he still threw that giant-ass robot, which had to weigh from size alone and the fact it was metal, a couple hundred, possibly even THOUSAND, tons.

Anyway, Death Battle ALSO has a tendency to REPEATEDLY ignored HIGHLY CRUCIAL and important aspects of character, such as Shadow's Chaos Control and time-freezing abilities, Ryu's Fire Dragon Ninpo, the deadliness of Ivy's critical finish and of course Knuckles' Shovel Claw. Even if he DIDN'T cut off DK's hair and take away all of his strength, those claws can cut through METAL, I'm pretty sure it'll cause flesh and blood creatures like DK some devastating cuts. I guess Knuckles wasn't having any of DK's monkey business.

The RIGHT winner is Knuckles the Echidna.

...Oh, man, I'm cringing about how bad they're gonna mess up Wolverine or Raiden.