O_o
I said its possible with knuckles! and you know what happens when you enter with a power character. for my 2:12, the glitch didn't work in my favor and I had to jump out of it. Someone might be able to glitch into a cage as I was trying to on other cages (in which case be careful because of the triggering points on this battle).
anyway, for the last cage, I had knuckles at lvl 3 and kept doing his punching combo against the front of the cage and eventually I got in the cannon. maybe you can switch by then and go ahead if possible.
I repeat...I did not use the glitch in my 2:12 run :/
oh Hyper...I hope you're using team blasts when you get them at good spots. I just made sure I had knuckles at lvl 2 first and didn't worry about anyone else, then about halfway needed knuckles at lvl 3.