*gasp* I finally figured out why Knuckles has a heat stomp!
It's because echidnas have a weird relationship with fire IRL.
Echidnas are among the last mammals on Earth to lay eggs, but that's not what makes them so miraculous.
Now, this is obviously nothing at all like Heat Stomp; still, it makes the suggestion that Knuckles is potentially a fire elemental just that much more plausible.














