#though eggman is probably my least favorite out of all these. its not that i DONT like him i just dont like him as much as the others
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there is no secret 6th option i am specifically asking who is your favorite out of these guys
#another random sonic poll. sorry i like making these its fun to see peoples opinions#i was gonna do a general favorite sonic characters poll but wiht there only being 12 slots i couldnt really decide who to include#and who to just put in the vague category of Other#so. decided to just reduce it to the main guys#anyway mine is SONIC !!!!!!!!! the hedgehog!!!!!! i love him so much hes my special little guy#probably my favorite character from any media really not just the sonic franchise alone#but i do have a lot of love and appreciation for every character mentioned here not just him hes just the one i love the most#though eggman is probably my least favorite out of all these. its not that i DONT like him i just dont like him as much as the others
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not to act like silver on anon but. How do u think sonic would be. 15 years in the future? like one of those future aus—how do u imagine the sonic characters to be?
for my favorite character, amy, i see her being a teacher/mentor! she’s a great leader and leaves huge impacts on ppl (looking at u silver and shadow). that’s my reasoning at least ^^
hm. okay so i do have a future au (my chaos champion timeline) but. sonic is dead by 18 in that future. and that kind of fucks everyone up for a while.
if sonic was alive, i think he wouldn’t be too much different from now. i kind of imagine him still going solo, but he’d probably end up accidentally acquiring a side kick/mentorship. like next generation heroes would tag along and Sonic’s like oh. okay ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ also he would be so op by that point i sort of imagine him as like. one punch man and he'd accidentally get roped into mentoring his own genos
for the chaos champion timeline, the character's futures go like this...
sonic: dead. rip.
tails: REALLY fucked up by sonic's death for a bit. sort of closes himself off from his friends until eggman finally dies. goes on a multi-year long treasure hunting trip with knuckles and amy and eventually settles into his title as a prodigy, studying the mechanics and theories of time travel (and incidentally, becoming the inspiration for silver to time travel) and also developing new technologies. lives a SUPER long time.
amy: probably ends up opening a baking shop with vanilla for a bit before going treasure hunting with knuckles and rouge. the three of them explore the echidna culture left behind across the world and also just want to have some fun adventures.
knuckles: sonic chronicles occurs, and the master emerald (and all chaos emeralds/chaos energy) is destroyed by the end of the chaos champion timeline, so knuckles is free to explore and roam the world as much as he wants. after he sets up a successful echidna colony on angle island (which no longer floats, instead settled on top of the ocean) with shade, he cons rouge into searching for more information on his clan's history, since shade and her people forgot a large chunk due to ix's refusal to acknowledge their messier history. amy joins in after becoming restless with her bakery. they all basically become archeologists.
rouge: joins knuckles and amy on globetrotting adventures. she's learned to trust people a LOT more than where she is now, though she can still be a bit stingy. amy, knuckles, and her grow to be really close friends. rouge doesn't work with g.u.n. anymore and often steals from them just for fun.
the chaotix: not too much different. the agency sticks around for a LONG time. cream eventually joins in, and rounds out their operation with her charm and technical prowess. they get a bazillion offers every year for really big adventures (helping the president, helping soleanna, etc) but always decline. they just want to help the little guy ;)
cream: becomes inspired by tails and sonic and wants to be a real hero. spends some time being tails's apprentice until she grows a bit restless. she joins the chaotix by the time she's a preteen and helps them with hacking. as a cute little girl, she's also super fun to use for disguises. gemerl is often roped into their shenanigans, but spends most of his time with vanilla running a bakery.
omega: probably dead by the time fifteen years roll around. omega hates eggman with a passion, and wants to destroy all of his robots. over time, omega also becomes aware of the fact that there's an animal powering his battery. the flickie gave him the ability to turn away from eggman, so enthralled in hate and malice after being turned into a battery, that omega absorbed part of its rage. after eggman dies and all of his robots have been taken care of, omega eventually deactivates himself to free the flickie inside of him.
shadow: RETIRED. there's not too many world threatening events going on, so he spends most of his days wandering around the world, enjoying the world maria always wanted to visit, and finally coming to terms with the beauty humanity has to offer. occasionally helps out the chaotix, mostly because he can't say no to cream.
eggman: dies not very long after sonic. there's no point in trying to conquer the world when the person who's pushed him to do better, think bigger, go farther, isn't around anymore. it's boring without him. he stages one last grand world takeover which tails, amy, and knuckles defeat as a sort of last hurrah. eggman is taken into custody and executed by g.u.n. is he really gone for good? well, that's another story
metal sonic: was put into stasis before sonic and eggman died, and is accidentally released about three years too late. metal sonic attempts to conquer the world, trying to get sonic to show his face, but when sonic proves to be gone for good, metal sonic becomes so distraught he tries to destroy the world. tails, amy, and knuckles manage to take him down, and metal eventually sacrifices himself to save their lives, annoyed that he only won against sonic by default, and concluded that having a more spectacular end than sonic was the only way for him to win.
blaze: becomes queen of her dimension. tails and her eventually develop a way to stabilize inter-dimensional travel between them, and are working on ways to dive deeper into the multi-verse.
silver: turns out, saving the world and creating a stabilized future erased him from existence. time travel is a bit wonky, however, so silver lives! he enjoys the rest of his days in the future, catching up on all the history he's missed, and taking as many classes as he can. he becomes a physicist.
eggman nega: when it's revealed that sonic destroys the world, and not eggman, nega gives up on being evil and becomes a professor at the university of spagonia. he tries to befriend silver to varying degrees of success.
#really attached to the idea that rouge knuckles & amy become globetrotting besties#master emerald brothel
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Mr. L leered down at his captives, “Finally, I have my two least favorite people right where I want them. Question is, what to do with you?”
While Luigi was terrified as usual, Mario glared at his brother’s counterpart, placing himself between the two men in green as best he could while chained up. Mr. L ignored this, pacing around his laboratory.
“I’ll keep you both alive, obviously, Mister-Jumps-All-The-Time is unfortunately necessary for the continued existence of the universe, and it just makes sense to keep a fully compatible organ donor around. But, alive and well are two very different things.”
“Maybe I’ll use you to test my inventions. You know, target practice, safety checks, that sort of thing. Or perhaps I’ll study you, see what exactly makes the Avatar tick.”
He paused and grinned sadistically at them over his shoulder, “Or maybe I’ll cut out the fluff and go straight to tor-”
“Alert: Incoming hostiles.”
“What?” He rushed over to the largest console, “Brobot, onscreen.”
The AI dutifully accessed the feed of one of the outside cameras, revealing a truly terrifying sight. In the distance stood the Sonic Movie 2 version of the Death Egg Robot, Digi Blade perched on one shoulder, a tiny pink dot that was probably Desmond at full power hovering near the other, and a variety of badniks surrounding it. Mr. L’s eyes widened.
“That’s a huuuge bitch!”
“It appears we are being hailed.”
“Patch it through.”
The image changed, now showing Sage floating slightly above the robot’s control platform, Franky barely visible in the copilot seat, “Hello Mr. L. I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you.”
“Oh, I think I can argue that point. Besides, they aren’t yours either.”
“Perhaps not, but a few close friends of mine care a great deal for them. They have business with your associates however, so we came in their stead, unfortunately for you.”
“Hah! You don’t scare me. It’s gonna take more than raw firepower to deal with the Green Thunder, little missy.”
“I’m well aware. Enjoy your last remaining moments of confidence, you mediocre mad scientist.” She cut the transmission before he could answer, and the lab shook as she began her assault.
“Shields are holding. Deploying countermeasures.”
“Good, keep me updated.” He glared over at his prisoners, “This means nothing, you know. I won’t be defeated by a bunch of brats, no matter how strong they are.”
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Elsewhere in the facility, Floyd released the intangibility and invisibility she’d been hiding Jubjub, Cody, Bowser Jr. and herself with, “Man that takes a lot out of me.”
In response, BJ held out his magic paintbrush so she could absorb some of its color and regain her energy.
Cody pulled out a tablet with an Eggman emblem on the back, “Okay, if Sage’s info is right, this map should give us the safest path to Mario and Luigi.”
Jubjub looked sadly at a family photo he was holding, “Boopkins…”
“I know buddy, but we couldn’t risk whatever Rose would’ve done if we’d tagged along, this is the safest option.” Though he felt it would be safer if he was in the robot with Sage and Franky instead of in here slowing the rest of the infiltration down. Wasn’t like he had much other than tiny kitten claws to work with if they were spotted.
Once Floyd was back to her usual level of exhaustion, BJ took the lead, pulling his old blue Mario Mustache bandana over his muzzle and taking on a glossy translucent blue sheen, “Okay guys, let’s go save the Mario Brothers.”
(They probably end up in a fight against Mr. L and Brobot M-Type at some point after this, but I'm not great at fight scenes)
THIS IS SO YES,,, I LOVE IT,,,
Ough,, the kids working together to save the Mario Bros while Lily and Lil Coding deal with Lady Rose,, yess,,, ough this is peak!!
No words,, just,, blown away omg,,
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Out all the eggman boys he pilots for battle and what not like the egg dragoon or death egg robot, what are some of your favorites? And do you have any ideas you wish he would employ in the future?
It should be mentioned that, being the Eggman fanboy that I am, I love many of them, even the simplest or shittiest ones (ie: Egg Dealer), because the aesthetic of Eggman's style really appeals to me, and the way his machines can range from goofy to intimidating, or both simultaneously, can be seen as an extension of how versatile the doctor himself is.
Still, I do have my favourites. Most of them are the ones you'd expect, but here goes:
Well you gotta start with the classic, don't you? The first of Eggman's king-sized monuments to his own visage, and more than deserving of its iconic reputation.
This one's a fan favourite when it comes to his smaller scale Egg Mobile attachments, and it's easy to understand why. It's an undeniably brilliant design that doesn't have any obvious weaknesses for armchair intellectuals to point and go "Why does this video game boss have that? That's stupid, IQ of 300 my ass, I'm such a clever internet person, please give me all your praise".
The Death Egg Robot may be the one everyone knows, but the Great Eggman Robo is the one we all strive for. Both phases of the fight may be straightforward, but the scale of the behemoth cements the tense atmosphere, and it happens to be smack dab in the middle of arguably the greatest finale in a Sonic game, which is as wonderful as it is in part due to Eggman never, ever giving up.
A more unconventional choice here. There may not be much to these two fights in particular, but I just really like the general concept of Eggman taking ancient statues or other such structures, and weaponizing them. It's a nice spin on his usual motif of converting Mother Nature to his own preference, as well as defacing ancient histories and legacies for the sake of his own.
Both of Eggman's final mechs in SA1 are awesome. The Egg Viper is a really cool design and gave birth to a certain meme, and the Egg Walker marked the climax of one of Eggman's best moments and one of Tails' best moments.
Speaking of Egg Walkers, I like this one too. Yeah, it's no secret that I don't like how Eggman - the guy known for making all sorts of crazy crafts - is stuck in one tiny thing for a whole game's duration (even though I'm aware it's for gameplay's sake, but still), but on its own merits, the Walker itself is still cool in my book.
Putting them together because they're more or less the same mech. Nothing special here, I just think they're cool "modern" interpretations of the Death Egg Robot-style humanoid mech. And yes, I know Eggman technically didn't pilot the Egg Emperor in Heroes... but he did in Generations 3DS, so get it up yee.
Another one you knew was coming. Don't we all love the Egg Dragoon? So do Sonic Team, it seems. The Dragoon is one bad mothafucka, and the way Generations added to it by incoporating an Egg Viper tail and the Egg Wyvern's wings made it even more badass. Unleashed may not be one of my favourite games in the series, but I'm thankful that it gave me this winner right here.
These two don't really have much in common (aside from the colour blue), but I put them together because thanks for nothing, Tumblr image limits.
Anyway, I've always felt the Egg Wizard deserved more recognition. The design is interesting in itself and keeps to the nautical theming of Rush Adventure, but what REALLY makes it stand out is the way it uses the power of the Jeweled Scepter, and how we get to see some crazy magic that you don't often get from Eggman robots. Like giant dragon heads made of lava, for example. And the fight is plenty enjoyable too.
As for the Time Eater, it may not have gotten much if any story to its own nature, which is a shame, but at least we got a nice clockwork motif out of it, and the way it jitters gives the impression that it's trying desperately to fight back against Eggman's control, but can't. And speaking of, Eggman FINALLY controlling a monster successfully is worth celebrating... unless you forgot like Ian Flynn apparently did, since Worlds Collide claimed he lost control of it. Typical Flynnanigans, eh?
I'm absolutely in love with the idea of Eggman being crafty enough to store a second mech inside the first one in the event of the latter's defeat. It's the perfect way to cap off Eggman's consistent display of brilliance and foresight in Forces. The designs themselves are pretty sweet, with the first one taking cues from Alfred Molina Dr. Octopus, and the second one being an eerie mess of wires and tentacles, as if it were the "heart" of the first mech. And say what you want about the so-so execution of the fight itself, but the sound design that went into it is seriously overlooked.
Just a shame they're collectively known as just Death Egg Robot, seeing how they don't have anything in common with the actual Death Egg Robot. Neither of them are even fought aboard the Death Egg. They deserve a more unique name IMO, but ah well.
Other examples I really like but couldn't use images for because of Tumblr being Tumblr:
- The Final Zone/Egg Pistons from Sonic 1, cause even though it may be smaller scale than the Death Egg Robot, I like the unique scenario of the room itself being your opponent. The final bosses of Sonic 1 and 2 on Master System have a similar appeal.
- Brass Eggman from the 2013 Sonic 2, because weaponizing an organ of all things is perfect for a man of Eggman's pride and swagger.
- The Egg Totem from Advance 2. No special reason for this one, I just like the simple yet effective design.
- The Gachapandora from Mania, because it's a great way to pay tribute to some older Eggman contraptions, and it suits his manchild personality to a tee.
- The Phantom Egg from Mania (again), because even though it looks like a romper suit mixed with a Pokeball, I really dig the concept of Eggman using a suit of robo-armor to go mano a mano, which this boss comes close to doing, if not entirely.
- The Klepto Mobile from Mania (three time's the charm), because a literal rush job still being able to go toe-to-toe with Phantom King is both incredible and hilarious at the same time. Even Eggman's shittiest efforts are his best! Is there no limit to this man's brilliance???
- Metal Robotnik/Black Eggman/Brak Eggman/Bruh Eggman from the OVA and Sonic Robo Blast 2. I don't know what the doc was thinking when he decided to give a robot based on himself some dragon wings and a spiked mohawk, but I'm glad he went through with it. The final fight with Metal Sonic may be the one everyone talks about (understandably so, it's an awesome scene), but the battle with Bruh Eggman is great too.
- The Eggpod from the movie. As far as translating the doctor's style into live action goes, it's a worthy first attempt, and it's understandable that they didn't go for something bigger since they probably want to save that for the sequel, so as to organically raise the stakes (wink wink, nudge nudge). It also reminds me of the Egg Hornet from SA1. I don't know if that was intentional, but it's something I appreciate all the same.
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OKAY BITCHES ON TO PART 2!
Also don’t forget to check out Part 1 if you haven’t yet!
British
Okay so maybe it’s in poor taste to start the British section with dolls I’m not actually sure are British, but fuck it. The one on the left is a doll I’m reasonably sure I got from a British seller, and the one on the right seems to just be a scaled-up version of it, SO. That’s what I’m going with.
No joke, the left doll is my favorite Sonic plushie EVER. It’s so incredibly fluffy and the proportions are just right and it’s really well-made and AUUGHH I LOVE HIM. Interestingly the doll on the right is made of the same uber-fuzzy material, but it doesn’t have as much of a fluffy effect because of the larger scale. Also the shoe stripes are ribbons for some reason, which makes them stand out from all the other dolls.
So this is from a line of dolls that, as far as I’ve ever seen, are simply known as “Europe prize” plushies. I don’t know if they were actual prizes for some sort of game or claw machine or whatnot, but that’s how I tend to see them listed. These dolls are REALLY nicely made and incredibly cute, like way more than usual. I also have the Knuckles from this set, but he doesn’t live in this net so he’s not pictured here.
I know this line also included Sonic (obviously), Amy, and Shadow, but I’m not sure who else. I’d REALLY like to get the others someday, but I don’t have much hope for that, since they’re long since out of production and prices just keep going up as everyone cashes in on nerd collector culture.
This doll is fine enough on its own (if a bit fearful in the eyes), but what’s really odd about it is that it’s like literally twice as tall as the other dolls in its line, for some reason. I have the Sonic and Tails from this set, and their sizes both match each other, but for some reason Knuckles is a tall boi?? Oh well.
I believe this set also includes an Eggman doll, but I’ve never seen it before.
I wish I’d thought to showcase it better in this photo, but the tag on the bottom of Sonic’s right foot here is the real spotlight of this doll. I don’t know much about the background of this doll, but i know that tag on his foot is what distinguishes him from other Sonic dolls, and collectors go NUTS for this guy. I remember missing out on one years ago because the shipping was too costly (it’s always been rough importing from Britain, but it used to be a lot harder), and for a while I thought I’d never get one. Oddly this one that I did eventually nab is the only one I’ve ever seen with suction cups. I’d like to hope that one day I could get the one that doesn’t have them, but I’m not holding my breath.
Following the last doll, I’m sure a lot of you are immediately noticing that this Tails also has the tag on his foot, albeit a very faded one. This doll is also super odd, because EVERY other time I’ve ever seen this doll before, it has NOT had the foot tag! This one is the only one I’ve encountered with the tag, and I didn’t even know it had it until it arrived in the mail. This doll is also about 50% bigger than the Sonic doll with the foot tag, maybe he goes with the non-suction cup’d Sonic plushie? I don’t know off the top of my head how big that Sonic is supposed to be, so it’s possible! Or maybe these dolls have nothing to do with each other, and I bought some weird anomaly. Definitely one of the weirder Tails plushies in my collection.
Australian
EASILY the ugliest doll I will ever own, short of maybe obtaining the Tails that matches this set. (Trust me, the Tails is REALLY FUCKING UGLY.) I have such mixed feelings on this lil guy because, as many of you already know, this is one of the elusive Sega World Sydney dolls, which means it’s EXTREMELY rare and thus meant to be treasured... and yet holy shit guys how did you fail so hard on this doll. I mean FOR FUCK’S SAKE HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE SOCKS! OR FINGERS!! There were plenty of Sonic plushies in the world by the time this doll was created, and they all socks and fingers, let alone better designed faces. I dunno man, I don’t know how to reconcile how ugly this doll is.
And then there were two.
Those of you that’ve been following me for years have probably already seen these before, but fuck it, here they are again. The Sega World Sydney plushies are the ONLY official Sally plushies to exist, and like the Sonic one, it’s really difficult to reconcile how incredibly ugly they are. I mean I can at least cut them some slack with the faces I guess, because the one on the left isn’t terrible I suppose. I think the fact that she doesn’t have hands is really stupid, but I mean, if Sonic didn’t get fingers I guess I’m not surprised Sally didn’t either. No, the thing that really gets me about these Sally dolls is the hair. It’s hard to tell from this angle but it’s.... bad. Oh my god it’s so fucking bad. It looks like she had a bad incident with a weedwacker. WHO THE FUCK DID THEY HIRE TO DESIGN THESE PLUSHIES?!
Whatever, I don’t turn away official Sally merch. Vests exist for these dolls, but as you can see I don’t own them for either of these two. I do have a third, smaller Sally that DOES have her vest, but she doesn’t live in this net. Maybe another time!
More bad Sally hair, this time without legs because she’s a hand puppet. She probably has the worst hair of all of the Sally dolls I personally own, it’s very clumpy and matted. The others’ hair is at least still fluffy.
I’ll let the fact that she doesn’t have hands slide here, being a puppet at all, but even then it’s only because I’m feeling generous. There’s no reason she shouldn’t have had them.
SOOOO not technically a plushie, but it was in the net and I’m doing Sally items right now anyway, so fuck it. This is a mini-backpack, but the fabric is so furry that it’s pretty much impossible to get a clear picture. I left the strap there sticking out just to help give some idea of what shape you’re even looking at.
I can’t remember what I paid for this, and honestly I don’t care, because it’s so unique and I’ve never seen another one since.
Bootlegs
A friend of mine sent me this as a surprise a few years ago because he thought it was cute, and I definitely have to say it’s one of the more fascinating items in my collection. Most of the time bootleg merch is trying to imitate something official to confuse the buyer, but so far as I know this is completely original! I love it because it’s what I imagine Sonic would look like if he were an Animal Crossing character. The most bizarre detail of all, though, is that the tush tag has the logo for Detective Conan instead of Sonic the Hedgehog. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY.
This is a fake version of the Fang/Nack doll from Sonic the Fighters, but honestly, I don’t mind at all that it’s a bootleg because holy shit this doll is higher quality than some of my official ones! (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, SEGA WORLD.) According to the pictures I’ve seen, I think he’s actually even better quality than the original he’s copying!
It’s hard to describe just how nice this doll is, because the picture seriously does not do him justice. The stitching is perfectly clean, the proportions are absolutely perfect, the fabric is soft and high-quality, and oh my god the HAT!! The hat is AMAZING, it’s actually solid and holds its shape VERY well! The same goes for his tail too, on that note. Plushies with long tails tend to have trouble maintaining their shape, but this doll’s tail is really well done. He also has a much longer muzzle than most dolls of this time were willing to use, which again helps his proportion and overall accuracy. I don’t give one single shit that this doll isn’t official, I love him so fucking much! <3 <3 <3
Other Dolls
What can I say, I fucking LOVE Nick Wilde from Zootopia, and this is one of the best dolls of him I’ve ever seen. It’s actually really nicely made (they put a LOT of work into his shirt), and he’s very soft and huggable. Also, bless that smarmy expression, they got it just right.
Jumbo Tom Nook! This is the only jumbo plushie of him I’ve ever seen, so I’m glad I was able to nab it. The fabric is oddly shiny though, and I have no idea why?? I have several Tom Nook plushies from different doll lines, and I’ve never seen another one that’s shiny like this.
Decided to picture these guys together because why the fuck not. I apologize for the lack of clarity, but I’ve never been willing to open their bags. I want them pristine~
One thing I think is cool about the Undertale dolls is that there’s so much uniqueness put into each one. They all have differently shaped tags to reflect their individual personalities, and the plastic bags they come in have different patterns as well. The fabric patterns all completely unique to each one as well, so they’re not all clones of each other (especially with Papyrus).
You can actually still buy all of these guys right now on the Fangamer website! They’re pricey, but you get a quality that makes the price worth it, and you get a discount if you buy them together!
Vault Boy from Fallout, and for some reason I’m just now realizing that I don’t know what vault number is on his back. I feel like a terrible fan, FORGIVE ME. He has also never come out of his bag, so sorry for viewing difficulties here as well.
Companion cube ‘fuzzy dice’ for the car. This is one instance in which I have actually not used the car-related plushie in my car, as at the time I got this it was VERY difficult to get companion cube merch of any kind (these dice were actually a compromise with myself because I still couldn’t afford a regular cube), and after the work I put in to find these I definitely wasn’t going to risk them in my car! Just as well anyway, because they’re awfully big and would’ve been pretty cumbersome to look past.
...I did, however, put these in my car for a while. These are fuzzy D20 dice, because come on, if you’re going to hang dice in your car and have the option to use these, how can you not?? It definitely got a lot of compliments, even from people that simply saw them through the window. I didn’t even play tabletop games yet at the time, I just really liked them~
AAAAND THAT’S IT~ At least, that’s it for this net! Maybe I’ll do this again with the other nets sometime, if you guys would like to see more. I do have another one that also very much needs a dusting, so we’ll see!
Thanks for tuning in!!
#IT IS COMPLETE#I hope you guys like it!#please let me know what you think because this was a lot of work!
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So, about the movie...
At long last, a week after it came out, I was finally able to see the Sonic movie. The Daytona 500 being held across the street from my favorite theater and conflicting work schedules had been keeping me away, but now I’ve finally seen it. And it was...
Decent!
Which is way, way, way, way, way better than a movie with this awful premise has any right being. That’s for damn sure. I enjoyed my time at the theater. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it. If you like Sonic and haven’t already seen it, you will probably get a kick out of this film. If you don’t like Sonic (or Jim Carrey), there is very little in this movie for you
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to break that whole movie down. This will contain full spoilers for the Sonic movie
This movie kinda gave me deja vu because it’s set up so similarly to the Bumblebee movie. Both open with a slavishly faithful CGI sequence on another planet to ensure long time fans that the creative team gives a shit, but a conflict sends the title character to Earth. There, they form an emotional bond with the human lead as they’re pursued by the bad guys, who are working with the US government and tracking the energy signature of the title character. This setup worked extremely well for Bumblebee, because it’s so similar to the usual plot of Transformers. For Sonic, it was... a mixed bag. But it worked better than I expected
(This shot does not happen in the movie.)
That opening though, huh? Green Hill Zone looked great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they did, in fact, use the Hyper Potions track from Sonic Mania in the actual film. (The piano rendition of the Green Hill theme used later was also lovely.) Longclaw was also interesting. I’ve seen one person bring up all the bird-themed ruins in Sonic 1 and 2 as a possible source of inspiration for the character, and I think that’s a valid take. And man, the echidnas! I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL. I guess that was probably the Knuckles Clan or something? I would never, ever picture them being alive during Sonic’s lifetime, but like... I guess Knuckles had to come from somewhere, right? If they do another movie with Knuckles, will the rest of his kind have died out?
Sadly, though, this sequence felt like it was over in a heartbeat. We barely see Sonic’s life on his home planet, and we’re expected to feel emotional over Longclaw’s sacrifice when she only gets like three lines before Sonic is sent to Earth. This is a common theme with the film--it goes for these big emotional beats that it just does not earn with its rapid fire pacing
Anyway, then we fast forward and Sonic’s a teen. This is actually kind of an interesting one if you’re constantly neck deep in Sonic Character Analysis like me, because it’s a pretty different take on the character. It’s hard to give them credit for doing something somewhat fresh with the character, though, because like... how much of that was intentional, and how much was just Hollywood writers trying to squeeze a generic action-adventure movie out of Sonic? (Honestly, it’s probably mostly the latter.)
The closest other piece of Sonic media to the movie would probably be Sonic X, a story in which Sonic isn’t really the protagonist. The Sonic of the anime is fairly emotionally distant. He cares deeply about his friends, and does nice things for them, but he’s totally fine with running off on his own for extended lengths of time, and he doesn’t really talk about his feelings. He’s not the character the audience is meant to sympathize with, but is instead this cool older kid who Chris wants to impress. This is pretty much in line with how Sega likes to depict the character. He cares about his friends, but he’s also cool with being a loner. It feels like he only runs into them incidentally, usually when Eggman is causing trouble, and then when the crisis of the week is taken care of he’s back to going on his own adventures. There’s a reason why one of his catchphrases is “long time no see”
The Sonic of the movie is the polar opposite. His main conflict is that he’s lonely and desperately seeks friendship. He’s also an overly-eager, extremely earnest goober. He literally flosses twice. (Which I loved.) I’ve seen him compared to Silver, and honestly, that’s not a bad comparison. I did like it, though! I don’t mind Sonic being a more emotionally open character, like he was in a lot of older Western media. I mean, he cried in like the second or third episode of SatAM
It’s just that, like many things in the movie, it feels less like a deliberate creative choice and more like a logical string of decisions to make when writing a generic action-adventure film for general audiences. Sonic’s the only one of his kind on Earth, so of course he’d be lonely. He has to have some sort of arc for audiences to connect with him, and if he’s gotta be accompanied by James Marsden for the whole movie, well, his arc’s gotta be about them becoming friends
I’ve gotta say, though: Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic. As much as I like Roger Craig Smith, I wouldn’t complain if he became the new main voice of the character. And thanks to the redesign, he looked great. I can’t imagine how nightmarish this movie would’ve been if Sonic wasn’t cute
My main fear with this movie, though, was that Sonic wouldn’t really be the protagonist. As a fan of Transformers, I know all too well that the cost of doing a full CGI character usually means that said character can’t really be the star of the film. Optimus and Bumblebee aren’t the stars of the Transformers movies--they’re supporting characters who are primarily present for the sake of the action scenes. The humans are the real stars in those movies, and the robots are barely even characters. I was terrified that Sonic would be the same, with the actual character I paid to see taking a backseat to James Marsden The Cop
I’m not quite sure if they struck the right balance there, but they did better than I worried they would. Sonic is central enough to the film and gets enough screentime that you can easily say he’s the protagonist. BUT there is absolutely too much of Tom and his family. The human cast is fine, the performances are fine, and there were a few good jokes, but every time the movie tried to get me to care about Tom’s life I was bored out of my mind. It’s just so trite and passionless. The other characters barely felt fleshed out at all, including Tom’s girlfriend (wife?) and Agent Stone. The little girl who gives Sonic the shoes had some cute moments, though
I do, however, love the part in which James Marsden is walking around in a San Francisco t-shirt, to remind us that he’s planning on moving to San Francisco... which then becomes the excuse for Sonic to think about San Francisco and accidentally send his warp rings there, which becomes the excuse for the buddy road trip aspect of the film. And as much as that was a focus of the marketing, the actual road trip part is like... maybe 20 minutes of the movie? There’s like three scenes with Sonic and Tom on the road and then they’re in San Francisco for act 3. The movie tries to act like they’ve formed this deep bond and I just did not give a shit. I don’t care about the cop. All Cops Are Bastards, and that absolutely includes Tom, whose dream in life is to join the extremely corrupt San Francisco PD
The whole excuse for Sonic having to sit in the passenger seat of a car going the speed limit for a good chunk of the movie is also, just. Stupid. If he doesn’t know where San Francisco is and time is of the essence, just... give him a map?
And then there’s Jim Carrey. I was worried about this one. The previews tended to highlight his most Jim Carrey Being Wacky moments, and as fond as I am of movies like The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty, that’s just. That’s not Robotnik. I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie, though! I thought he was pretty good. I’m not sure what incarnation of Eggman I’d most compare him to, but like... it was close enough, and he was entertaining enough. I’d pay to go see another movie with him as Robotnik. Sure. (Especially with how he was looking at the end of the film.)
There were some other little interesting tidbits here with Eggman, although again, a lot of that is less “let’s do a new take on Eggman” and more “let’s do a marketable movie with Eggman in it, which requires us to explain some stuff.” Like him straight up just being a normal human from Earth, with none of the confusion present in the current “two worlds” canon of the games. Or him apparently being an orphan who was bullied in school, and who trusts machines more than other humans. It’s a safe way to depict the character in a Hollywood movie, but I thought it worked
The way they got to his nickname was kind of funny, though. Like, obviously they didn’t put Jim Carrey in a fat suit, and thank god for that. So instead of mocking his weight, the nickname is derived from the egg-shaped robots he uses. Which made sense, I guess. It at least felt logical for this incarnation of Sonic, who had annoyingly been calling Tom “Donut Lord” the whole movie, to make up the nickname “Eggman.” (Said robots, by the way, were a weak point of the movie to me. They just didn’t have that Eggman whimsy and felt very safe and very Hollywood. Honestly, though, if they had just made Robotnik’s ship grey and slapped some hazard stripes on it, it’d probably be fine.)
As a whole, I thought the humor of the movie was... okay. Sonic had a lot of good moments thanks to Schwartz’s great performance, as did Robotnik. There were just so many weird lines, like James Marsden telling Robotnik that he was breast fed, or the agonizingly long child trafficking joke with Sonic in the duffel bag. Stuff like that
The action was great, though. They definitely owe a lot to the Quicksilver scene in that one X-men movie (I forget the one), but they had a lot of fun with Sonic’s powers and it felt extremely true to the character. Seeing him do one of his Smash poses during the San Francisco fight was great. The action scenes were an absolute delight
And then the ending. Oh, that ending
So, I had already heard that Tails shows up in the stinger before I saw the film. And when I heard that, I expected it to be like, the classic Tails origin story. Maybe Sonic would return to his planet, and run into this precocious kid who decides to follow him around... but no! Not at all! Tails is already the Tails we know and love. He’s already an inventor, he’s already tracking down Sonic. I’m shocked that Sonic actually stayed with Tom instead of running off to have new adventures, but hopefully this is a sign that more characters will be brought into the fray if they make a sequel
And boy, they better make that damn sequel. This movie had a great opening weekend and a positive reception. They have no excuse not to. GIVE US SONIC AND TAILS GOING ON AN ADVENTURE
Other stray thoughts
Holy shit they put Sanic in the movie
The Sega logo animation meant that Kiryu from Yakuza was in this movie for a few seconds
The pixel art credits sequence, which featured both the Sonic 2 special stage and Get Blue Spheres as well as the Eggman logo screens from the Studiopolis Zone boss, was cute
The Saturn logo could be seen on the diagram of the other habitable planets
Robotnik had a label for “Badniks” on his circuit breaker. I wonder if the drones in the movie are intended to be Badniks, or if we’ll see actual ones if a sequel gets made
Also, was it implied that Robotnik committed war crimes for the US government
One of the government guys who I think only got one line was played by Garry Chalk and as such sounded exactly like Optimus Primal
I can’t tell if Sonic getting a red race car bed was an intentional shout out to the Archie comics or if it’s just a coincidence, but I loved it
A dude about my age wearing a Sonic Mania t-shirt literally stood up and clutched his head in shock when Tails showed up
After the movie a very excited kid got his mom to take his photo with the Sonic display in the lobby. Afterwards he was so excited that he flossed
I can’t believe they talked about Olive Garden so much
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Dear youngbounty,
Co-Mod: I didn’t see any clones, but thanks!
Dear BDC,
Co-Mod: That idea sounds interesting, but unfortunately, I don’t know enough about Dangronpa to be able to pull that off. I can see if the other mods do, but I can’t promise anything more than that.
I agree with you about the Proto Badger, though. I hate him more than Dr. Eggman hates “that hedgehog.” Sadly, it looks like we’re stuck with him for now. Why couldn’t you have taken him with you, the Mod?
Dear MB,
Co-Mod: I’m glad (and impressed) that you were able to free yourself in such a creative way, but it’s all good. I used to do the same sort of mockery with submitters’ letters before someone pointed out its potential rudeness, since some of them don’t speak English as their first language, so I've got no room to complain. In fact, I’m a big stickler about getting my spelling and grammar correct, so please feel free to point out any errors you find.
Dear Anonymous,
Co-Mod: Which ones, specifically? I know that some of the ones from the Court Record are glitchy (and I failed to inform the new moderator about that), but I haven’t noticed anything unusual in any of the letters. Show me an example, and I’ll see what can be done about it.
(Previous Letter)
(Link in Letter)
Dear Anonymous,
Mod Vera: That’s a good point! I must have missed that Easter egg. I was also originally going to make a joke about Ga’ran needing wigs for herself, but decided to keep it to something closer to canon.
For real, though, with Maya, Iris, Inga, Ga’ran and now Dhurke, it’s really convenient for spirit channeling disguises that so many people in this world have long black hair!
(Previous Post)
Dear AnthonyDeadman,
Co-Mod: I don’t know if I used this sprite before, but it captures how I feel perfectly, so I’m going with it:
Wait, not that one. This one:
Actually, they’re both pretty accurate.
This letter means a lot to me, not just because I love knowing that my work and dedication have paid off in some way, but because I’ve been going through some serious struggles lately (more on that in a later post). Being part of a blog that brings fun characters from an fun video game series to life has been awesome enough, and watching it grow into something bigger than it was has been even more awesome, but being able to provide some much-needed opportunities to laugh, smile, and escape from reality during a time of sorrow, fear, and uncertainty has been nothing short of a blessing for me. Not to mention it’s helped me to enjoy life in new ways, so thanks for that, Capcom.
What I really appreciate, though, is you and so many others wishing me the best for the future. It just so happens that the future has been one of my biggest fears for a long time, so hearing this kind of support, even from people I don’t know, is precisely what I need right now. Allow me to offer my heartfelt thanks for it, and to wish each and everyone one of you the same. The world needs people who can withstand any sort of circumstance right now, so don’t give any less than your best!
Stay gold yourself, pal.
(Previous Post)
Dear mungeondaster,
Mod Vera: Aw, thank you so much! I’m really happy to be here, and to have Co-Mod help me learn the ropes. I also love Vera! Her appearance is brief, but I do love the withdrawn artist trope, especially with a Pearl-level ignorance of the outside world.
Plus her design is just so dang good! Almost as if she drew herself.
(Previous Letter)
Dear ajanisapprentice,
Mod Vera: Ahahaha, twas I who thought of that! I count that as my first report card as the new Mod!
(Previous Letter)
Dear mungeondaster,
Mod Vera: Oh, you know Nick relied on Maya’s budding big sister energy while he was figuring out single fatherhood. As Maya would say, he’s hopeless without her.
Though my personal favorite new headcanon is Pearls helping Gumshoe win Maggey’s heart. (I still need that fanfiction to happen!)
(The Previous Posts)
Dear yuesworld,
Co-Mod: It’s great to hear from you again! Dang, it’s hard to believe your first letter was sent 2 years ago. (As if turning 30 didn’t make me feel old already...)
I both appreciate and admire your dedication toward translating the letters we’ve answered here. I hope you’re able to continue doing so in one way or another, but even if you aren’t, I’m still glad you’ve been so willing to share our character portrayals with a broader audience. In fact, we might even have you to thank for part of our increased follower count, so thanks just in case!
I’m glad you enjoyed the essays, too. I honestly hadn’t considered the possibility that I’d have to write some of those myself after the Mod left, but I’ve had some fun with them, and I hope they helped to make the characters they were about more enjoyable, or at least more interesting. I’m still planning to finish the remaining requests after my departure, by the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to post them a little more frequently than before.
I’m happy to report that I’ve been staying healthy and well (although I feel like I keep dodging bullets with people around me getting infected), and I hope the same can be said for you and for everyone else reading this. I won’t lie, things have been tougher than usual for practically every human being lately, even aside from the pandemic. Thankfully, we have someone who’s all too familiar with trials and tribulations to provide us with a helpful reminder:
That’s Phoenix speaking, by the way, in case you forgot.
In other words, this too shall pass, as the Persian adage goes. In the meantime, stay healthy yourself, and thanks for the reminder that we’re not alone in these challenges.
Dear AnthonyDeadman,
Mod Vera: Thank you so much! I’ve also been a fan of this blog for years, for almost as long as I’ve wanted to be a writer! It’s such a weird elated feeling, to go from being a fan of something to working on it. I almost feel like those people starting their first day at Pixar or something!
Mod Kristoph: Thanks for the kind response! I’ll be sure to get some letters in there when I get the chance!
Mod Paups: Thank you!
(Previous Letter)
(Video in Letter)
Dear BDC,
Co-Mod: Me too, except I’d add a few more “nope”s.
Mod Vera: Hahah, same. But I’ve have politeness so ingrained into my being, I’d probably throw in a few “no thanks” just to be safe.
-The Mods
#youngbounty#bluedragoncody#Anonymous#AnthonyDeadman#mungeondaster#ajanisapprentice#yuesworld#Mod Post#Co Mod#Mod Vera#Mod Kristoph#Mod Paups
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6 and 12 from the fandom ask meme :]
6. do you read fanfiction? If so, do you have any favorite authors or fics?
Oh! I stopped frequenting fanfics around the time I started writing, but in the years before creating this blog I used to check all sorts of Sonic fanfics. Nowadays I read some drabbles and prompts here and there, but not with the same dedication of staying up till very late reading entire chapters. Also, some of them are actually private reads shared by friends/mutuals, so there’s a lot I’ve seen behind the scenes and I couldn’t really talk about it :P
So, favorites? There are lots of cutegirlmayra’s prompts that made my imagination F L Y for entire weeks, but I’d say my favorite works from her were the ones prior to Sonic Forces, back when all of us were trying to piece together the world and story (which ended up biting me in the ass when the actual game came out.) I remember looking forward to the very first chapters of Dark Sonic Forces, but I never finished that fic (I guess I should return, now that I’ve heard it’s finished, right?)
(Also, if I can plug some of my own works, I’d say both Stay a little longer and Of knights and hammers are some of my favorites, I’m actually really happy I wrote them, regardless of how they turned up in the end.)
12. if you could change one ending to a book/show/game/etc, what would you change about it?
Since we’re on the topic already... I never liked how Sonic Forces dealt its climax. It’s strangely ambiguous regarding Infinite’s fate (the implications seem grim though), and the fact Eggman doesn’t even talk during the final boss made a lot of us suspect something else was up (before IDW Sonic came and elaborated on that, but I’m not considering it here.) But this is Sonic Team we’re talking about, so it’ll probably be nothing and those questions will be left unanswered... which is what I’d like to change.
It’s no secret that I dislike Forces’ plot and world building so much the first fic I wrote was an attempt to make the beginning more interesting. I actually had plans for continuing my efforts, and I did draft a second part rewriting stuff like Amy’s reaction to Sonic’s return, and the fact he put his life at risk again going on a couple of missions after just returning from space. I guess if I stuck with my guns I would’ve probably tackled the climax differently; at least make Infinite fight till the bitter end or something, his Phantom Ruby starts cracking (showing how much he’s pushing it), Eggman yelling really pissed at Infinite’s stubborness instead of falling back and regrouping at the Mega Death Egg Robot. Something more epic, y’know?
Anyways, I rambled enough. Thanks for asking! c:
#ask latin dr robotnik#ask meme#triviarose7#today on the news: latin dr robotnik starts complaining about forces' writing again lol#sonic forces#sonic the hedgehog
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269. Sonic Universe #2
The Shadow Saga (Part 2 of 4): Time & Again
Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley!
Colors: Jason Jensen
So, do you remember how way back when we got the single-issue incomplete "adaption" of Sonic Adventure 2, I mentioned that the events of the incident would be clarified by Ian Flynn in a later issue? Well, this is the one! Interspersed within the events of the modern story are flashbacks to what happened during Sonic Adventure 2, heavily modified to fit within the comic's world. However, I've elected to tackle the modern half of the story first, and explore Sonic Adventure 2 afterward, mostly because though Ian seems to be trying to draw parallels between the latter story and the former, they don't really… work all that well, nowhere near the level that they did in the first arc of KtE anyway.
The modern story opens with Shadow approaching the Freedom Fighters' camp not far from the Eggdome in the middle of the night, waking Sonic up to invite him along to a little bonus mission.
I mean, while I can understand wanting to invite Sonic on a mission against Eggman, 1. he's already on one, and 2. you'd think Shadow would realize he'd need some sleep before the final battle against his arch-nemesis. What, you can't handle this alone, Shadow? Well, as it turns out he's not actually alone, as Sonic reaches the rendezvous point first (zooming off ahead of Shadow, of course), and finds Rouge waiting for him. Apparently, Eggman's been working on a sneaky plan to turn a telescope in the city into a massive laser capable of wiping the Freedom Fighters' little camp off the map, shield or no… as well as half of the rest of the city. Sonic thinks this is overkill even for someone like Eggman, but as Shadow catches up he explains that GUN doesn't quite think so.
To be fair, Sonic, you haven't been seeing the behind-the-scenes insane ramblings of his that Snively's been subject to recently. They break into the laser control room, and Sonic and Shadow deal with the smaller security lasers while Rouge hacks into the control system, trying to disable the thing. The cannon is already moving into position to fire, and worse still, the console then fries itself, Rouge having accidentally triggered a self-destruct command. Sonic and Shadow try to destroy the cannon directly, but no amount of spindashing or Chaos Spear-ing will pierce its armor, so Rouge suggests going for the bolts holding it in place, hoping it might throw off the shot.
Brilliant job, guys! Shadow, seeing no other choice, removes his inhibitor rings and climbs onto the top of the cannon just as it begins to fire. He uses all of his power to force the shot to misfire outwards instead of straight ahead, wrecking the barrel but saving the Freedom Fighters. This is really the only place where the parallels Ian tries to draw make sense, as then we see a flashback of him using his power a year ago to force the ARK back into orbit, and subsequently falling back into the atmosphere.
Aww, look at 'em! As the sun begins to rise, the three walk back towards the camp, and Sonic asks if they want in on the invasion. Shadow refuses, saying that he believes this is Sonic's fight considering how long he's been fighting against Eggman. As Sonic leaves, Rouge smirks at Shadow, and remarks on how far their relationship has come from before. Shadow, of course, has to defend his ego and insists he merely respects Sonic, to which Rouge teases him even more about how of course he can't admit he's made a friend.
Now, time to take a look at what their relationship used to be like, in the very-condensed Adaption 2.0 of Sonic Adventure 2! Instead of following exactly how it's portrayed in this issue, I'm just going to explain how exactly everything went down starting from the beginning, relying on context clues from this issue and previous ones. In case you've forgotten, during the events of the incident, both Tails and Knuckles were otherwise occupied, Amy was chilling in Mercia with Rob, and basically no one was even aware of where Sonic was at the time, as he was apprehended while sneaking back into Knothole while he was still supposed to be confined there. StH#98 covered what happened leading up to his arrest and subsequent breakout, but naturally, after the GUN truck chase he was rearrested and taken to Prison Island. Meanwhile, of course, Shadow had been released from his pod by Eggman, stolen a Chaos Emerald from Station Square, and presumably explained how the ARK's Eclipse Cannon worked to Eggman. Like in the game, Rouge also showed up at this point to offer her support in procuring more Chaos Emeralds - though as you might remember, at this point in the comic's history the emeralds still hadn't been combined into their distinct seven forms yet, so the Eclipse Cannon only required seven random emeralds to fire. Conspicuously missing is the entire plot point about Rouge stealing the Master Emerald from Knuckles, and the both of them subsequently searching for its shattered remnants all over the world, but if we're being quite honest the entire story still makes perfect sense without Knuckles and the Master Emerald, which I suppose is lucky for Ian trying to make sense out of all of this.
The point at which this issue actually starts recapping prior events begins on Prison Island after Sonic had broken out of prison once again - without the help of Amy or anyone else, mind you, since once again, they were all elsewhere at time. Really, this version of events is so stripped-down precisely because half of the game cast is missing, which is why the events of the game were able to fit into a single day despite several days passing in the game itself. Sonic and Shadow had their famous "faker" exchange in the forest and began fighting each other, with Rouge's voice coming over Shadow's communicator and informing them she'd found the remaining six Chaos Emeralds they'd need. At that point, Eggman reminded Shadow the whole island was about to blow, and at the same time Rouge called for help as she'd found herself stuck inside the vault. When Sonic heard Eggman tell Shadow to leave her and that they'd come back later to "dig the emeralds out of the ashes," he was outraged and offered Shadow a truce so they could rescue Rouge together. Shadow accepted, and they raced back to the facility as the timer counted down, with Shadow Chaos Control-ing them off the island and into the desert just before the place exploded.
See, while I understand where Ian is going with this, I really don't like his rewrite of Shadow's motivations here. For those not familiar, in the game, Shadow makes the decision to go back for Rouge entirely on his own, because the thought of her dying alone in the facility made him flash back to Maria's death. Later on, when she tries to talk to him about how he saved her, he avoids her questions, giving a similar excuse to this one, but with it being pretty obvious that that's not the case, as he hasn't stopped thinking about Maria since the mission. Here, Ian makes it seem like Shadow actually didn't care and indeed was only after the Chaos Emeralds, and he only went to the trouble of rescuing her thanks to Sonic's suggestion. However, I understand why this was kind of necessary - with his main allies elsewhere, Sonic needed someone to ally with for the next part of the plot. He ended up teaming up with Rouge, who was quite offended at Shadow's attitude, to break into the pyramid containing Eggman's base, and she piloted the space shuttle within up to the ARK. As I've pointed out before, at no point in the comic is it even slightly hinted that Eggman broke the moon in half as he does in the game - the only indication we have of such an event would be in StH#197, when Sonic recognizes Mobius from orbit by its half-destroyed moon, but in all fairness, the issue doesn't actually state the reason why the moon is broken. Remember, it's canon that Mobius has one hundred moons - that wasn't even retconned! Ian just made up a story behind it and put it in the Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia afterwards, but with one hundred whole-ass moons, it's entirely probable that at least one got bodied at some point in the planet's history, and Sonic just happened to recognize that particular one as he was reentering the planet's atmosphere. But anyway, once Sonic and Rouge made it up to the ARK, Sonic and Shadow quickly got into a fight on the catwalks outside the station, presumably while Eggman slotted the emeralds into their positions in the cannon.
*sigh* One of the biggest problems I have with the preboot is its handling of Shadow's entire story. I don't think Shadow ever got an actual chance to shine from his initial appearance until StH#171, when he had his whole "This is who I am" moment after exploring Gerald's digital diary. Everything about him, his entire backstory, was horribly neglected compared to his actually very rich and deep character arc from the games. This, above, is exactly what I'm talking about. In the game, it's implied that Shadow actually wins his final fight against Sonic (though Sonic obviously doesn't die from it), and then once the Eclipse Cannon is up and running, he moves into one of the ARK's observation rooms to quietly reflect on the past and watch the station crash into the planet. He doesn't snap out of it until Amy enters the room and her subsequent words trigger a flashback of Maria's real final wish. Furthermore, he's the only person in the cast who doesn't actually see the video of Gerald's execution or read his final diary entry. In other words, in the game, he comes back to his right mind organically, by remembering what his purpose is, while in the comic he apparently just got to watch a video telling him outright why he's wrong without him actually having to do the thinking that brings him back to reality. Seeing as Shadow is my favorite character in the entire franchise, this brushing-aside of one of the most important moments in his character arc irks me a little. But then again, I will still acknowledge that Ian wasn't really left a lot to work with here, and if anything the fault lies more with Karl Bollers and Kenders carelessly brushing past Sonic Adventure 2 in favor of their ongoing story about Robotropolis getting nuked or whatever.
Anyway, in the end, Shadow and Sonic went to the ARK's internal chamber that housed the Biolizard, and when it fused with the ARK to bring it crashing down to earth anyway, he and Sonic went Super and defeated it out in space, just like in the game. The game actually doesn't give a very clear reason why Shadow fell from orbit while Sonic was fine, but in the comic, it's shown that the act of teleporting the ARK back into orbit exhausted all his energy, resulting in the loss of his Super form early. As one of the above images shows, Sonic actually reached for him but was unable to catch him in time, hence his remark of not wanting to go through that again (even though realistically a fall from a five-story cannon is hardly going to do the same damage to Shadow as a fall from orbit). And that's it! As I said, the comic's adaption is incredibly stripped-down from the events of the game, but with so much of the cast missing, it kind of had to be. While I don't agree with all of Ian's decisions on how to adapt the circumstances while still retaining the basic gist of the story, I understand his ultimate conclusions, and in the end, they do work pretty well given how different the history of the world is in the comics versus the game. And despite Shadow not having a clear history with Rouge in the comics as he does in the games, Ian's finally saw fit to bring them together as a team in this issue, and they remain as such for the rest of the comic, including through the reboot.
But - hey, speaking of which, remember another adaption that was missing a few key plot points? Say… the first Sonic Adventure? Remember how the conclusion of Gamma's entire character arc was totally forgotten about and ignored? That would seem to imply that he's still out there somewhere… I wonder what he's up to nowadays. And for that matter, with the entirety of Sonic Heroes missing from the comics' timeline, where the heck is Omega in all this? Does he even exist? Gee, I wonder if we'll ever get to see these two important robot characters in the comic - like, say, next issue?
#nala reads archie sonic preboot#archie sonic#archie sonic preboot#sonic the hedgehog#su 2#writer: ian flynn#pencils: tracy yardley#colors: jason jensen
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Sonic & Tails: Ideas for a new Sonic Plot and Partner System
So, first off, there is a game called Sonic & Knuckles. It is basically just the second half of the overly ambitious Sonic 3. It is not Sonic 4, but it is a standalone game. Anyways, there isn’t a game called Sonic & Tails yet, so let’s make that happen.
Regardless of that, I wanted to talk about my vague conceptualizations of a Sonic game plot. I WANTED to continue my thoughts on other Sonic characters, but my stupid brain can’t stop thinking about “what if Sonic and Tails fought?” Again, this is getting into some borderline fanfiction territory, but I write the blog AND the rules.
Piggybacking off my previous post detailing my thoughts on Tails, I had said that I liked the idea of Tails taking over Robotnik’s lab after he is defeated once and for all (or temporarily, I don’t expect Sonic Team to kill off the main villain, as much as I’d pseudo-ironically love Sonic Adventure 3 to open with Eggman’s funeral while Sound of Silence plays like the overly edgy funeral scene from Watchmen 2009).
Now, this is also getting into some serious Marvel Civil War or Batman v. Superman territory, but stick with me. I feel like one of the most underutilized aspects of Sonic as a series is the cast of characters. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like Sonic fans want to see their favorite obscure character return or see as many characters as possible. Even the most trivial characters have a cult following in the weird Sonic fandom. It was really cool to see the obscure Sonic the Fighters characters return for a boss fight in Sonic Mania, even if they were just an illusion. I am proposing a Sonic game where nearly every characters returns to make up the boss fights.
Now, the first issue with this idea is that typically the “rival” battles in Sonic are a bit hit or miss. Fights against playable characters in the Adventure IMO felt pretty flat and uninteresting. Now, 2D Sonic has some better boss battles against the likes of Metal Sonic and Knuckles and the same goes for Generations, so maybe those could be emulated. Regardless of gameplay, I’d like to see all the weirdies like the playable cast of Sonic Heroes, The Fighters, Emerl, Blaze, Gamma E-102, etc. return at least as boss fights, if not as playable characters, even if they are just piloting the mechs that would typically be piloted by Eggman. I get zero excitement from fighting Eggman anymore, but just put Rouge’s model in the cockpit and suddenly its way cooler with more potential for unique boss dialogue.
So far I have proposed a Civil War-style plot where Tails goes a little bit off the deep end and a Sonic game where the boss fights are all the beloved recurring characters. It should be obvious how these two parts fit together. Perhaps the dual story structure of Adventure 2 is overplayed by this point, but obviously it would fit in with these ideas.
To get into the nitty gritty and provide an example of what I am imagining, consider Metal Sonic. I can easily see a plot that starts with Tails reconfiguring Metal Sonic to be “good”. This bring back a classic character in a new way and allows for a lot of angles for the plot to go, of course borrowing from various Iron Man plots and the Buffy-bot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
One idea from Sonic Adventure that I would really like to see return is the ever-evolving nemesis concept. Even if Sega never really brings back Chaos, I’d love to see a rival that increases in power as the game goes along. This could totally tie in with my previous idea, with Metal Sonic becoming more powerful over the course of the game, possibly with the acquisition of the Chaos Emeralds like Chaos does. Metal Sonic already has been shown to take on a few different forms, such as at the end of Sonic Heroes.
Another story beat that I’d like to see replicated is the end of Adventure 2 where Sonic and Shadow have to team up. Now, in this hypothetical Sonic & Tails game, that would obviously be Sonic and Tails teaming up, but I’d also love to see them bust out Mecha Sonic as a kind of retconned prototype of Metal Sonic from Sonic 2/3 as a last resort too.
I also love the story beat of all the playable characters at the end of Sonic Adventure bringing the depleted Chaos Emeralds to Sonic for the final fight. I would love to see something like this but a little more weighty. I have a clear mental image of something like the Breath of the Wild loading screen that shows your level of progress though the game, but instead with Sonic endlessly walking towards the camera as the game loads, surrounded by more and more characters walking towards the screen as you rescue/recruit them.
Personally, it seems like Sonic games struggle to balance multiple playable characters, so I’d settle for something like Advance 3 where you pick a partner that enables new moves. I would prefer to find a way to include every possible character as playable, but I would settle for a 3D Sonic game where Sonic (and maybe characters that control near identically like Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, etc.) is the only playable character, with characters like Tails, Knuckle, Amy, Big, etc. are relegated to the partner role, but swappable.
Playable Characters:
Sonic: Everything normal
Metal Sonic: Just make him control like he does in Adventure 2: Battle, so faster than Sonic but with less moves. I don’t think Metal Sonic has ever been canonically playabe, only appearing as a boss fight or playable in racing games or bonus modes, so that would be my biggest request.
Shadow: Just Sonic but slipperier and please give him a teleport instead of a homing attack
Silver: Again, just Sonic but make his double jump more offensive to represent his telekinetic abilities
Blaze: Her name is BLAZE and she has FIRE POWERS in Rush and Rush Adventure, so please just make her control like Sonic but with a fiery homing attack or her fire hover from Rush
Espio: Just give him some kind of limited invisibility or maybe the tornado attack as a reference to Heroes
Mighty: He could probably be thrown in with his moves from Mania, but this is reaching
Jet: Probably asking too much, but he’s never been playable in non-racing game, so even seeing him with his board in a main game as a kind of joke would be cool
Assist Characters:
Tails, Cream, Charmy: Obviously, limited flight with slightly different characteristics. Cream could alternatively have the Chao attack from Advance
Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal: Either a limited glide or the digging
Amy: Piko Piko Hammer as an attack or as a big jump. She could also maybe be a Sonic-like characters, but I feel like she was shoehorned into the speed role in Heroes
Big: I just like seeing this dumb idiot return. It seems like asking a lot for the fishing rod to be used as a grappling hook, so maybe he could just have a big area attack
Fang/Knack, Bark, Bean: I mean, maybe just show up and fistfight some enemies?
Vector: Something music based, realistically
Chaos: Again, this is reaching, but maybe this ties into Tails taking over Eggman’s research
E-1XX Alpha, Gamma, Omega, etc: It is asking a lot to have all the robots return, but I’d love to see them all as slight variants of “shoot a bunch of missiles” or limited hovering
Omochao: Personally I’d love to see this little guy as an assist who just never shuts up, maybe with some hidden secret-unlocking potential
Vanilla: She doesn’t have a lot of game appearances, I’d take anything
G.U.N. Commander: Again, I just think this would be kinda funny. He could summon robots or just fire missiles
Eggman Nega: Not sure why he would help the main characters, but I’m always rooting for weird stuff like this
Wave, Storm: They could function like Tails/Knuckles or grant a temporary board for tricks or whatnot, maybe like the skateboard powerup from Sonic Generations
Tails Doll: This is dumb, but it would be fun to see as a little throwaway easter egg
So, that was a bunch of random nonsense directly from my brain, but you probably get the idea: find a way to include a lot of characters in the plot and the gameplay. Do I expect any of this to ever happen? No. And honestly, I’d prefer to see another game where I can actually play as characters like Rouge, the robots, Amy, and Cream.
ONE LAST THING: There should really be a Sonic rhythm game. They have so much music, both the classic songs as well as the Crush 40 songs, with tons of remixes of both already existing and even more possible. It would fit perfectly with the gameplay of Sonic, you could just have the notes appear as obstacles or powerup boxes. There are a million different ways to slice it, but it just makes too much sense to ignore. I don’t have enough ideas to make a separate post, though. Maybe I’ll make a playlist sometimes of songs I’d like to see included, but the issue is that it would be way too many songs. As with the main point of this post, I would love to see many different playable characters with very slight changes to their properties.
ONE LAST LAST THING: Since Sega hates localizing Puyo Puyo games, they should just make a new Mean Bean Machine with HD graphics and all the various Sonic characters represented somehow and then release it internationally either as Mean Bean Machine or just Sonic Puyo Puyo. Again, I didn’t have enough ideas for a whole post.
FINAL FINAL FINAL RAMBLES: I kinda wanna play Sonic 06 since I actually just recently found out that Rouge, Omega, and Blaze are playable, but the disc is 20 bucks at gamestop for 360. I also kinda wanna play Unleashed, but not enough to buy it. I really get more excited when more characters are playable, which makes me wish I enjoyed playing Sonic Battle more. I also have my eye on Chronicles if I can ever get the patience to actually sit down and play it. At this point, I should just make my own dang original game or story inspired by the things I like about Sonic.
#sonic#sonic the hedgehog#sonic mania#sonic adventure#metal sonic#tails#amy#big#borderline fanfiction#sonic 2006#sonic battle#sonic chronicles#sega#sonic team#puyo puyo#silver#shadow#knuckles#blaze#sonic adventure 2#sonic 3#sonic & knuckles
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Seeing Shadow in his Friends, Enemies, and Maria
So, I’m always one for my odd opinions and outlooks and the one that been on my mind of late is one about Shadow. Now I know Shadow is a very easy character to like and make fun of all at once, but one of the things that I like about Shadow is his nuances and his tendency for self-reflection and introspective moments. Like Sonic he is aloof, but unlike Sonic who knows himself, Shadow has difficulty even approaching himself and as a result tends to attract attention from those who reflect aspects of himself in different ways. How responds to these people says a lot about him and how he views himself which I find to be absolutely fascinating.
Friends
So I’ll start with one that is both easy to see Shadow in, but shows a lot of the interesting nuance mystery still about Shadow and how he views himself.
Omega
So, Omega being the Eggman hating machine that he is should be a pretty straightforward character to see Shadow in. Primarily in his need for vengeance no matter what. Shadow himself when he debuted no matter the reasoning behind it perceived himself as a weapon that needed to fulfill his vengeance. Omega is clearly no different and it is obvious that Shadow sees a lot of himself in the machine. They were both made by members of the Robotnik family and find themselves not living the lives they were created for. They are almost family in a way and considering at least through 06 how much trust and care Shadow showed for Omega (why would you take that away SEGA?) there is no doubt that he is extrememly important to him.
Where it gets interesting with Omega is not in the similarities he shares with Shadow and how much of himself that Shadow sees in him, but how Shadow generally treats him. Though Omega is almost entirely a cold weapon of a machine living for a singular vengeance much like he was until Amy reminded him of what Maria asked of him, Shadow did not distance himself from Omega once they were a team. He showed concern for him, considered his insights when appropriate, and trusts him to have his back. This is even after he lets go of his own need for vengeance, yet in a way he constantly has a reminder of it beside him in the form of Omega making Omega serve as much as a warning for what he can devolve into even while he is one of his closest friends. It is such a strange contrast and I believe it would be quite engaging to see what we can learn about Shadow through this relationship.
Rouge
Now Rouge might be a bit more difficult to see Shadow in, but I think a lot of that has to do with their personalities at a glance. Both of them are for the most typically self absorbed individuals, even if for different reasons, but will step up and do the right thing when they need to, no matter how dirty they get in the process. They also typically keep their true feelings on matters hidden unless really pushed, though they have opened up to each other on occasion which is always fun to see. This is especially interesting since the biggest similarity they share is keeping up a facade that makes them seem more unapproachable and callous then they really are which makes Rouge a very kindred soul to Shadow.
Shadows unspoken trust in Rouge says a lot about how he values those parts of himself but fully embraces the importance of keeping himself at arm’s length from everything around him. Shadow values this quite a bit and rarely lets anyone through his icy shell, including Rouge who he will actually grow visibly irritated with when she doesn’t respect his shell. This reaction is kind of interesting to me as to an extent it is an irritation that to me reads of fear. Considering how he lost everything when the Ark was raided though it should not be a particular surprise. He lost everything that made him who he was then and his exterior shell like Rouge’s is a part of him, and something that he values to keep himself whole.
Enemies
Shadow’s enemies are an interesting batch of characters who all reflect Shadow in different ways and clearly highlight how shadow feels about those parts of himself.
Black Doom
Another easy one like Omega, Black Doom is a clear representation of Shadow’s potential to be a complete monster. But as Shadow at the time was craving an identity for himself and a sense of purpose, being a monster was more tempting than it probably ever should have been. But sure enough Shadow listened regardless to what Black Doom had to say and did not finally truly take action until he had seen the full extent of Black Doom’s plans.
Now this puts us an interesting place as it shows that Shadow has a great deal of patience for dealing with the monstrous nature that he possesses. He humors it. Listens to it. Lets it stretch its legs and show itself completely. Yet when it comes time to deal with it, he doesn’t just chase it back into the shadows (sorry for the pun) but chooses to utterly eliminate. Shadow kills Black Doom, destroys the Black Comet, and turns his back on the Ark and everything it represented, even joining forces with G.U.N. in 06. Shadow didn’t just face his the monster inside of him, once he allowed himself to see all of it, he destroyed every trace of it that he could and distanced himself from everything else he couldn’t bring himself to destroy. Too me this makes him look like he is absolutely terrified of the type of monster that he could become and actually makes it easier for me to come to terms with how he acts in the IDW Comics to an extent. Knowing full well the type of monster he can and his unique relationship with Eggman it is little wonder the whole Metal Virus Saga left him in a very foul temper. The terror he possesses for what he can be drives him harder than probably any other motivational force in his life, especially having turned his back as much as he can on his memories of Maria.
Mephiles the Dark
The recolor of a recolor in the flesh, and yet still one of my favorites if only for his relationship with Shadow (06 had it’s problems but Shadow’s campaign was not one of them to me). Mephiles and his plan are one of the biggest messes in the Sonic franchise and that allows him to encapsulate Shadow perfectly. He’s a mess of an individual driven by vengeance and hung up on his power and need to see the plan he follows through to its end. He will let nothing stand in his way but will gladly accept the aid of any he can manipulate to his ends. Almost a perfect description of how SEGA wants Shadow branded right now, even to the extent of wanting to ignore everything that made Shadow who he is, only dwelling on the most trivial of aspects. He is pettiness and arrogance in Shadow’s form and acts as a constant temptation towards deification through his own power while trying to stir his fear of being nothing more but a tool that has outgrown his usefulness to his masters.
So how how does Shadow face this enemy and part of himself? He pretty much tells it to stuff it, and is backed up by Omega who is a kindred soul and has nothing against turning on his masters if the need be (you only did it to yourself Eggman). When presented with all of his fears, insecurities, and everything that his power can bring him, Shadow chooses to fight everything. Be it his master, himself, or anyone else. Shadow has a very firm grasp on what he is, and as much as he fears it, he has no intention of ever giving in, fighting on without end. But like Mephiles, it also shows that Shadow feels the need to keep himself under control, but has to fight against himself to keep himself under control. The consequences of not doing so could be catastrophic (the destruction of the Earth, mankind turned into food, the end of time itself, etc...). That Shadow stays so cool through it is a testament to his resolve, but without his friends as support he buckles under the weight of the responsibility and lashes out like in the IDW comics (so why are you seperating him from his friends SEGA?).
Infinite
Now there wasn’t nearly as much interaction between Shadow and Infinite as there should have been, but that doesn’t stop the daft jackal though from reflecting a part of Shadow. Above all else what Infinite represents is Shadow’s pride, arrogance, and hypocrisy, especially as Shadow has pretty much become him. The constant boasting about himself and his power. The need to dismiss the strength brought on by friendship, and sole the belief that no matter what he can resolve any situation. Infinite is nearly everything that SEGA is trying to make Shadow today, yet they simultaneously tell a story about how wrong it is to be like that through Infinite. It’s a mixed message on SEGA’s part, but not so for Shadow.
Where SEGA says that Infinite is in the wrong even as they try mold Shadow into him, Shadow’s response is so much more in character. Arrogance, pride, hypocrisy; they’re all parts of him that he readily accepts and as a result is completely indifferent to Infinite. It is a curious form of acceptance, yet when it comes to these aspects Shadow just is both physically and philosophically. it isn’t that he openly embraces or rejects these parts of himself, but rather pays them little heed, accepting them as a part of him that does not require his attention. As a result, Infinite proves no threat to Shadow as this is one part of Shadow that he just accepts without thought allowing him to judge the jackal on his actions, not even recognizing how well reflected he is by him or the effects that those aspects can have on others and the world around him. In this regard Shadow reads to me as neglectful of this aspect of personality even though it drives a lot of his actions and personal agency. Yet it reflects him so well as it highlights why it is so easy for him to be so reckless and actually makes it easier for me to see why he’d end up messing up so badly against the Zombots. Go figure.
Maria
Finally wrapping up and giving them their own entire category we get to girl who gave Shadow his heart. No matter how much he tries to walk away she is always right there with him when he is kind, and when he is curious. She is the innocence in him that allows him to occasionally step outside of his icy exterior and the force that drives him to protect. And even his 25th Anniversary comic shows that he still thinks about her and that he walks in the direction illuminated by her beliefs. Or in short, she is everything that Shadow wishes he could hold inside of himself and keep safe no matter how hard his exterior has to grow. Yet with her is soft, gentle, delicate, as likely to break as she. She is as said above, his heart, made even more intriguing as some scholars believe the name to be derived from a word for love. This makes Amy being the one to snap him of his end the world kick all the more symbolic than I ever realized as her name can be interpreted to mean beloved or love )depending on how bad you’re butchering the French origins), especially since other possible meanings include “sea of bitterness” which reflects his personality most of the game, and “rebellion” which in turn relates him to Sonic and his rebellious personality. Again, it makes Maria his heart. And how does Shadow respond to this?
He protects it with everything he has, and is utterly devastated when he loses it, clinging on desperately to the memories and keeping them deeply buried inside himself. At his heart Shadow is extreme frail and knows it, building layer after of protections to keep himself safe, Be it his cold exterior or the lies he tells himself abut himself and leaving her behind which again the 25th Anniversary comic proves is a lie he tells himself in my opinion. His reaction also kind of puts him in the role of the Beast from beauty and the Beast as it is this simple girl who gives him his heart and keeps him from being the monster he fears becoming more than anything else. In a way it’s kind of beautiful and makes me appreciate Shadow that much as a character.
As I stated at the start of this opinion piece, part of what makes Shadow one of my favorites is his nuance and self-reflective and introspective tendencies. Writing it out it opened him up to me in more ways than I really realized he could be opened up and actually brought me a lot of peace with how he is being handled in the IDW comics so far. I may not like, but it actually is more in character than I realized and that is a feat that heavily impresses me with Ian Flynn’s writing considering what SEGA is doing to him. Still though, these are just my opinions and I wonder what everyone else thinks of them and how they see Shadow in his friends, enemies, and Maria.
#sonic the hedgehog#shadow the hedgehog#character breakdown#rouge the bat#e-123 omega#black doom#mephiles the dark#infinite#maria robotnik#professor gerald#dr eggman#amy rose#my ramblings
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Ember Commission Receipt
@marydragneell commission for another continuation of Ember the Immortal Wolf series - The Fire’s Scourge.
Time: After hearing what was desired for the chapter, I began researching and plotting points together. Then I wrote about 44 pages for the overall story. It has been through one round of Author edits before the rough draft was presented to the customer.
Review: OMG I FUCKING LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. Ember is the right amount of badass and sassy, but at the same time just perfect with the jokes. Protective sibling shadow🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 And manic just awesome and want to be flirty and affectionate 💚💚💚💚but since the bro is there he just try to not show it XD. That part was so cute and hilarious at the same time XD I think it’s my favorite part of that chapter, shadow being like " wtf is going on with those two". Like always its perfect ^^ - @marydragneell
Note: I love you too, Mary! ^^ It’s always fun writing for you and Ember! You’re so sweet and I always work hard so I can see your happy comments. You’re adorable, my friend!
Paid amount: 50$ (This price was offered by the Customer, I’d like to thank her for her generous decision. ;//wn//;)
Product preview (ROUGH DRAFT ONLY, with permission fo the customer):
The Fire’s Scourge.
Commission for the lovely Marydragneell
By: Cutegirlmayra
Dear Manic,
Your song lyrics are so funny, not everything has to rhyme or sound like a poem. But I appreciate it, it’s great to read. I’d rather hear it though! Or at least sing it! When do you plan to visit me? It’s gets boring here sometimes… especially when Shadow bosses me around about being all ‘responsible’ and ‘acting my age’. I’m the same age as him! I was even created before him! I’m practically the oldest… anyway, I’m grumbling on paper, haha! Send me a mix-tape sometime and don’t be afraid to write back. I enjoy these letters.
I enjoy scrapping my claws against the thin paper as I write to you.
Sincerely, The most epic wolf you’ll ever know! Ember
P.S: Ember is easy to make songs out of, try and be more creative next time!
It was the last letter she had written Manic… before the letters stopped coming.
Ember lightly made sure her claws wouldn’t crease too much of the paper, deciding to write another letter in hopes he may respond this time. Like he used too…
The letter folded neatly into an envelop as Ember sealed it with a lick. She held it close to her face, letting it touch her nose as she excitedly withheld herself from getting her hopes too high.
Again…
She had been pen-paling Manic The Hedgehog, Sonic’s brother, for a little while now. Ever since Rouge gifted her a writing kit, trying to make peace with her since they sometimes had to work together, she’d been writing him back and forth like this.
She hopped down from the G.U.N HQ’s desk she was at and went to put it in the mail chute when Shadow stormed up to her.
“Where were you?”
His voice sounded annoyed, not like his normal, causal brooding…
“I was… um…” she hadn’t told Shadow about her little crush…
He looked at the letter in her hands, but she quickly stuck it in her tail and smiled nervously to him, “I’m just writing Santa!”
“Hmph.” He shot air out of his nose at her humor. “When are you going to start-“
“Acting my age?” Ember rolled her eyes, “Get to work? Be nice to Rouge? Hang out with people? I thought we were passed this already, I’m a grown woman! Let me live my life!” she folded her arms before exaggerating her independence, “I do jobs for G.U.N, don’t I?”
“Speaking of which, there’s been a portal breach near where you’re supposed to be patrolling.” He glared her down, seeing her trying to wiggle the letter out of her fluffy tail and get it in the mail chute.
When she saw him staring, she pretended she was just wagging her tail in excitement.
He pinched the middle bridge of his nose, “What am I to do with you?”
“Love me?” She moved back a bit, not sure if he’d find that funny.
His look certainly showed he didn’t.
“If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, I’ll go myself.” He grabbed what looked like a brown, dirtied cloak with rips all throughout it, but Ember immediately reached forward, grabbing a bit of it.
“No!”
“No?” he pivoted, “What do you mean, no? I thought you were ‘enjoying your life’?” he seemed to be spitting the same wording she had used in previous discussions right back at her.
Ember sweated a bit, seeing how angry he really was at her, but realized he was trying to cut her some slack. “You’re a good brother, Shadow. Whether you want to be or not.”
He raised an eyebrow, but she slowly began to tug the cloak off of him.
“And you do make a valid point… I need to prove I can handle this. You’re always worried about me-“
“-And for good reason.” He fully faced her, his tone full of distain.
She gulped, folding the cloak in her arms and continuing as she draped it over her arm. “B-but that’s why I’m going to show you I can do it! I’ve done big missions before, I can do some recon too.” She stood confidently, placing the cloak back on the hanger and tugging her own tighter onto her back, flexing it forward. “Trust me a little, I won’t let Eggman kidnap me again!”
Shadow’s eyes turned softer then, his shoulders going limp.
“Sonic said you passed out, turned insane again… how can I-?”
“I do reckless things, but most of the time, I’m only trying to make you proud.” She took his hand, shaking it lightly. “And do what’s right.”
“…Do you even comprehend what’s right?” He muttered the sentence out, but worried about her maturity level…
It was more tender a question than she had realized, and she quickly was caught off-guard.
Not wanting to continue the topic further, feeling a bit of hurt by those untrusting words, she let his hands go and tried to look chirpy.
“Well, brother. I promise to at least try and not get into trouble… of my own accord… if I can… deal?” her inputs made it all the more unbelievable.
He shook his head but conceded with a shake.
“I just don’t want you getting hurt…”
“I won’t!” She embraced him, knowing he wouldn’t embrace her back but still.
Shadow flinched at the touch, but relaxes after a moment, knowing this is just how Ember shows her affections.
She only gave hugs like this to him, anyway.
He was about to put a hand up to her head, attempting to reciprocate some family love before Rouge intervened, flying down with a sweet smile on her face.
She stretched her wings out a moment before retracting them back behind her. “Aww… look at the cute little siblings… finally getting along?” she teased.
Shadow quickly turned his head and hand away. “Ugh…”
Ember released him and glared at Rouge, sticking her tongue out. “You ruined our moment!”
“Oh? Did I?” Acting innocently, Rouge placed a finger up to her mouth. “Hadn’t noticed.” She winked, being playful. “Shadow, command wants to know about that portal…”
“Ember’s on it.” Shadow looked over his shoulder at her, and then back to Ember. “I hope.”
“Hope is enough!” she waved him off and dug through her tail, getting the letter she stashed out and dumping it in as quick as lightning.
“What was-?” Shadow peered down the mail chute but Ember was already booking it away.
“Bye, bro!”
“Wait! Ember!” He called after her, but she had already raced out.
“Wild one. How ever are you going to tame her to be a good little soldier like ourselves?” Rouge put her hands together and struck a very fake pose, she was clearly mocking the fact that Shadow was in charge of Ember’s training.
He sighed, still watching where she had run off too. “Sometimes… I worry I don’t know her full strength… as well as I pretend too.”
“You of all people should know her best. She doesn’t hide anything from you.” She walked up next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, showing more comradery than teasing now. “To her, you’re family.”
“…She is the only thing I have to an actual family.” He muttered out, as though admitting it aloud for the first time.
“Oh my! What a declaration.” Rouge took her hand off him and covered her mouth, but smiled at his tender comment. “Such a softy under all those quills…”
“Hmph.” He moved away from her, trying to signal he was done talking but she flew off after him anyway.
“Do you know who she’s writing with my little present?”
He froze, looking back at her.
“Someone who may be close… but differently, compared to you.” She fluttered her wings and took off, giving him just enough to drive him crazy with questions.
He openly showed his teeth, frowning deeply. “At least she has a friend… that’s what she meant… wasn’t it?”
However…
Below where the letters are delivered, a few shadowy figures lurked. One suddenly caught the falling mail and tapped it against his shoulder, opening it up and pretending to barf. He shredded the letter and snickered, writing his own back with a click of a pen.
“Hehehehe… Dear Manic… Get lost.”
The other shadowy figures snickered a moment.
The mailman came and the new letter was sent, as the old one’s remains drifted down in steady, shredded pieces…
“And now, boys… let’s go catch a spark of flame~” A devious voice spoke through the darkness, and the gang all raced out to follow Ember’s figure disappearing into the woods…
----
Ember couldn’t remember much, which she wasn’t used to with such a profound memory. She could only recollect something hard had struck from behind, knocking her out pretty hard and leaving her mostly unconscious. Now, as she woke up, she noticed the jerking of a brown, dirtied bag squishing and bobbing her between mysterious footfalls that carried her in the bag.
“She’ll probably have portal-lag. Might as well set her down here till she wakes up.” The voice wasn’t familiar to her. It wasn’t from Sonic or from his gang, so she figured she was just kidnapped.
‘Kidnapped!?’ she plugged her mouth immediately after thinking that awful thought. ‘No, no, no! I just told Shadow I wouldn’t be kidnapped! Ohhh! Now I’m mad!’ She squirmed a bit in the tight space, her tail taking up most of the free space. ‘I’ll thump’em! I’ll trounce them! I’ll- I’ll-!’
“Are you mad?” Suddenly, she did pick up on a voice. Her bag was gently lowered and she could feel the swinging weight of her body finally rest upon cold ground.
Was that… Sonic?
Was this a joke!?
“We have a powerful entity on our hands… I just want the fiery babe to feel comfortable enough to not burn the whole place down to smithereens!” His sudden tone change,… that sarcasm,… the joke about the portal-lag…
Was she in another dimension?
“Tsk. I don’t see why you’re so fixated on chaos power again.” Another voice spoke out a grumbly tone, feminine this time. But…
Could she maybe..?
She tried to wiggle her finger around the opening of the bag, seeing if her claw could get the band on the bag a few more inches loose.
“…You don’t get it?” Sonic’s voice turned dark again, and she flinched a minute as her ears tried to adjust to the strange rhythm it had. Sonic was always full of life, vigor, and general velocity in his actions and words to match his quick feet. This… couldn’t be Sonic.
She felt a shift and the bag toppled over. Ember had to keep silent but could feel a breathy ‘yelp!’ escape her lips just barely. She instinctively plugged her mouth again, and quickly.
“What do you think I’m running here, Fi? You worthless Destructixs are in this for me. Got it? We broke out of jail for the sole purpose of lighting this world on fire with my iron fist pounding it into submission! To light the world… we need a match.” Ember could hear a fist pound into something, probably the other hand, but felt the shift in atmosphere… as though eyes were on her.
‘Light the world on fire..?’ She thought a moment, ‘Destructixs? Where have I heard… Ah!’ Ember suddenly recognized this speech pattern wasn’t Sonic’s at all! She remembered perfectly the name, where she had heard it too. Immediately, she decided she couldn’t—No, wouldn’t stay quiet and hide forever!
She had faked her unconsciousness to get information, but now, she was getting impatient.
‘Gerald Robotnik created me for good! To defend! I know who these guys are now…’ She flexed her claws, getting ready...
It only took a moment of further silence before the bag was shredded in seconds, and Ember rose up with a quick swipe toward where Sonic’s voice had previously come from.
“Scourge!” she cried out, “You rascal!”
“Woah. The kitty’s awake.” He smirked, stepping back to dodge her assult before tugging on his black, flaming jacket. “Boys?” he gestured to the gang as Ember’s arms were thrown behind her.
“Pfft. Who thinks they can hold me down—Ohhhhh…” She struggled a moment before turning her head around to look up at a large, imposing figure. “A big boy.”
The extremely large and tall giant growled down at her, at least, that’s how she saw him.
“Simian, make sure our guest knows her place.” He began to walk toward what looked like a stone throne. Around Ember was a large, black and blue stoned castle, or the remains of what looked like one.
She was able to fight a bit back and get her arms almost away from her back, but Sgt. Simian’s strength was certainly a match for her.
“Okay… Not so easy to break out of.” She grumbled, disliking the change in the situation.
“Stone, babe.” Scourge tapped the stone beneath them, looking at her over his shoulder. “Want to have a go at making this place light up?” he teased, moving over to his throne and sitting rather reclined in it. “Welcome to my realm. Not much. But all mine.” He put a hand up to his chin to rest his head on, “Well… anymore.” He snickered as the rest of the team seemed to chuckle back.
He motioned for the rest of the gang to come forward. “You know how hard it is to track down a little firefly like you?”
Ember spat on the ground, “Call me a firefly one more time…” she tried to resist being dragged forward from behind, her feet scuffing at the stones below her, but there was no traction strong enough to withstand Sgt. Simian’s brute strength. He basically dragged her towards Scourge at his request like a vacuum cleaner across a rug.
“Tsk. Like I care!” Scourge responded, watching as she was pushed forward towards him.
In protest at being man-handled, her feet began to spark against the stone, but no fire was produced.
‘Shoot!’ she thought to herself, ‘I’m surrounded! And on top of that? I’m not even in my own realm! Guess back-up’s out of the question…’
“You think we have time for a new carpet? This place is fireproof, baby! Hahaha!” He leaned his head back and laughed and laughed.
“Whoo… I have to hand it to ya. You’re one hard dame to find…” he clapped a little with his hands, as though congratulating her and rubbing some ‘tears’ out of his eyes after his such a good laugh. “Had to send every mercenary I could intimidate on the hunt for you. Glad you remember me though.” He winked.
“So… I was kidnapped, I’m in a different world, and you’ve sent spies to figure out where I was. Am I missing anything?” Ember raised an eyebrow, being rather composed as she relaxed. She was hoping it would make Sgt. Simian’s grip on her arms loosen, at least let his guard down, but that didn’t seem to be the case…
A red fox walked up to Scourge, turning around to face Ember and folding her arms, clearly not liking the other girl’s presence. Ember assumed this was the girl he called ‘Fi’, simply because she was the only girl in the group. So? Deduction stands that she must be the feminine voice she had heard previously...
“Show some manners and don’t directly talk to the king.”
“Wow. You even got her playing pretend.” Ember snapped a quick line back as the girl tensed up, her tail flicking in rage but Scourge just raised a hand.
“Feisty, feisty, feisty… I like it. But you’d do well to remember what situation you’re in.” he took his raised hand and leaned forward, snapping. “Snap!”
Suddenly, there was a harsh spark of pain in her arms. Ember was lifted up in a painful hold as Sgt. Simian held her suspended in the air.
Her eyes flinched, but she kept any grunt or utterance of pain at a minimum.
“Aaaaannnddd… Hold for dramatic effect… Snap!” Scourge reclined again and snapped, having Sgt. Simian put her down again.
Her arms twitched under the uncomfortable position, and she swore a few jerks would have had her shoulders pop out of their sockets.
“Do I have your attention now, little spark?”
“It’s Ember.” Ember gritted her teeth. “And when Shadow finds out what you’ve done-!”
He suddenly rose to his feet, “I’ve defeated Shadow! And Sonic! At the exact same time!” he swiped his arms out, growing annoyed. “Don’t you dare think you can threaten me!!!”
“Tsk.” Ember emoted, not seeming to have known that before. She sweatdropped, nervous now if Shadow could even jump realms… ‘Maybe I should have laid low a little longer…’
“Scourge.” A hawk stepped forward, as though gently reminding his leader of his purpose.
“Hmph. I know!” Scourge dismissed the comment, swiping a hand at him, “In my own due time!”
He turned back to his throne, “As you recall, I was trying to lure out Sonic through a staged ‘setup’ if you will…”
----
It was a vivid memory—though Ember’s memory never failed her anyway. No matter… how hard she would try and forget.
Scourge had run into her vigilante G.U.N attire, not having fully recognized her as she continued to foil his criminal activities of trying to seize control over the world. Sonic and his friend would naturally call upon the Freedom Fighters to put a stop to his plans, but this time was different.
G.U.N had actually assigned her to stop a village fire,…
Little did she know it was a trap.
The citizen’s screamed in terror as wood and falling debris littered the skies, their homes and city collapsed around them in the flames.
Their city was deep within a crater formed in the earth, with sharp, jagged cliffs encircling them. There seemed to be a drainage system in place for floods, but for some reason, the drains had been clogged and the fire had no where to escape too. If they tried using water to put out the massive fires, which started up sporadically in different locations, then they would be trapped within the crater.
What made matters worse is that the fires had burnt the electrical powers, so even their way out was blocked besides long, carved stairwells which would be too dangerous for a mass of panicked people to scale in an efficient manner.
So what was Ember to do..?
“Help! Someone!” A woman cried from within a building as Ember quickly leaped up and scaled the tall skyscraper with her claws.
“Haaannnggg ooonnn!!!” she ripped through the flaming surroundings and grabbed the woman, rushing down and helping her to safety. “Does anyone know who started this?” Ember set her down lightly as the woman frantically turned around, wanting to aid as much as possible now that she was out of harm’s way.
“They called themselves ‘Destructix’. They said-“ as the woman began to cough and mutter, a voice suddenly rose from the flames atop a hill.
“Too bad! Looks like Blue didn’t have time to save any of you. Guess you’ll just burn straight to the underworld then!!!” A figure stood looming above on a cliff. He looked like a light green hedgehog with bright sunglasses, having the city’s flames dance in their shades, tugging on his jacket. He flicked his wrist as a few other figures came up: a monkey, red fox, frog, dog, hawk, and wolf. They stepped ahead of him and poured what looked to be gallons of gasoline down onto the streets below.
Like a skillet having oil poured on it, firing up everything for a split second of pure horror. The flash blinded the citizens as the heat swept their breaths up and burst the rest of their hope they had at survival.
People shrieked as he smirked, turning away before Ember’s rage couldn’t contain itself anymore.
Her fingers twitched, head pulsed with trauma as she saw children rushing away from the quickly moving flames…
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
She couldn’t control it. It was too much on her heart.
The cursed emerald pulsed, cloaking her in a bright white as her eyes covered in pitch black smoke that rippled along her eye sockets. In this hysterical super form, she covered herself in chaos energy and burst through the trailing gasoline.
It was like an arrow through water, she would thrust one hand out and burning gasoline would splash out of her way onto the buildings and away from the cowering citizens. One hand at a time, she propelled herself through the streets. Her power turned the flames into nothing more than burnt oil stains against the city’s skyscrapers, extinguishing them as fire swarmed her being. With enough force, she had spared the majority of the city while they continued to evacuate. Some had burns, but it looked as though no one had died, miraculously.
“B-Boss!” The shaking hand of the Wolf gestured behind him towards the powerful streak of Ember’s power charging like a swift beam of light towards them.
“…Hmm?” Scourge turned around, his glasses suddenly shining with the light she was emitting as he strode back up to the edge and peered down at her. He smirked, his eyes completely consumed in the image of her magnificent flaming display of power and skill.
She scaled the ledge, climbing in a ferocious tantrum towards them. Below, people cheered and huddled close to their loved ones, scaling the escape route out from their precious homes now destroyed to mere ash.
Some of Scourge’s men got ready to fight, but he rose a hand up to stop them. “Wait!” His sharp teeth glistened when his tongue licked over their dry frames. The chaos energy and the flames left a streak of dry wind, smoky to the smell, and excited Scourge for a moment.
“Well, well… I think I remember you.” He backed off, “We’ll meet again, little spark!” he then escaped in the nick of time, just before Ember ripped through the skyscraper in her way, leaping straight through it, and landing off into the mountain’s cliffside. She attempted to pursue him in her fury, but his buddies and him had portal capabilities, and were gone without a trace.
Ember huffed and puffed, standing away from the fires still licking at the lightly fuming city before she collapsed and gripped her head. “How could… How could people like that still exist..? I thought… G.U.N was the only organization capable of being so cruel… I’ll find them. I’ll stop them no matter what it takes!!!” Ember’s oath was never forgotten, but she hadn’t found a rumor about the mysterious Destructix’s since.
----
So while Scourge finished his recollection of the story, Ember was still locked inside her own perfect memory of the event. The smoke that rose from that black pit… the reports of missing individuals that some witnesses say they saw escaping up the stairs… the families being left with nothing but soot on their faces and half-burnt clothes on their backs…
Scourge didn’t seem to notice her shaking pupils, but did see how quiet she was, staring off at the ground as she began to realize what a mad man he really was.
He took off his sunglasses, his eyes widening in glee. “That power was something else, babe. Mind telling me why you’re not summoning it now?”
She flicked her nose up, ‘Is that what he’s after?!’ and looked away. ‘At first it was to find Sonic… but now he might do something horrible like that… to find me.’ She couldn’t bare to think about it, biting her jaw tightly shut as she tried to hold in her rage. ‘What… what awful things did he do while he searched for her instead of Sonic..? Was it her fault..? That more people were hurt by his crazy, terrorist attacks?’
“Playing coy?” He teased, jumping down from his throne and walking over to her, standing by her side and checking her out. “That power’s not asleep, is it? Hate to wake it up…”
His threats fell on deaf ears, which she twitched to show her ignorance of his roaming eyes…
Her tail maneuvered itself between Sgt. Simian’s legs… waiting for a good opportunity…
“I remember how you looked, sweetheart. Covered in the light of flames and spouting oil this way and that.” He gestured with his hands, flinging them out left and right to show a live demonstration of her feat. “You almost made me think you cared for all those people down there…”
She growled.
After seeing his eyes light up at her reaction to him, she forcing her mouth shut again, but she refused to let him taunt her.
He wanted a fight, but she wouldn’t give it to him.
He put his glasses back down over his eyes, his smirk fading slightly. “You’re not one to talk back or pick fights, are you? Caution is the most annoying trait, babe.”
Ember sighed, “You want my power. That’s annoying in and of itself too.” She lowered her head, playing into the ‘I give up’ motive and waiting for Simian to drop his guard.
She felt his hands loosen with her bending body and knew the moment wouldn’t be too far off now.
Just a little longer…
“Well, yeah. I find it hot.” He suddenly lurched forward, straight at her face. It startled her, but he reached directly at her chest and grabbed her emerald, sticking just slightly above her shirt as she felt the Master Emerald’s power suddenly rejecting it, inflicting Ember’s essence with its powerful, pure chaos energy.
“AHHHH!!!” she flung her head back as he poured some of his chaos energy into her, causing immense pain as the cursed emerald seemed to be repelled when it wanted to fight back and defend itself.
“Hahaha! So it is cursed!” Scourge kept his grip tight, laughing as the fox girl saw where his hands were and quickly grew defensive.
“That’s enough, Scourge!”
Her jealous burst made him stop laughing, turning to look at her with a frustrated expression as his hand released Ember.
She fell to her knees, taking a moment to recover from that torture before she felt Sgt. Simian’s hand let go of her, now holding her with one. He did so to avoid falling with her, since he was much larger than her anyway.
Now was the time, she just needed her strength first.
“Fiona, baby, I’m working here.” Scourge began to walk up to her, seeming calm but Fiona knew his act all too well.
She stepped away a moment, seeing him immediately grow hostile and grab her neck.
He screamed in her face, dipping her down and gripping her to him, hollering down her throat. “Don’t interfere!”
When he let her go, she fell and coughed, clutching her sore neck before pointing towards Ember, “She’s nothing! You’ve seen me take down stronger foes than her! Let me fight her! I’ll prove how useful I can be-!”
“Pfft. Save it, toots. You and I both know little spark’s far more devastating than some freaky kung fu moves.” He waved her off, making Fiona look down and slam her fist to the ground.
“She’s the freak with the moves… I can do it. I can beat her if you’ll let me just-“
“Quiet!” He swiped an arm out, silencing her again. “You’re getting on my nerves. Take a chill pill and walk, Fi!” Immediately, as though understanding the context of his words, some of his men came up behind Fiona. She looked behind her, getting upset as she struggled and glared to Ember.
Ember didn’t have anything against the girl, besides that she followed a lunatic, but the look she gave her made Ember feel even more irritated.
Fiona shook off the men’s arms and got up, silently walking away with the men, clearly having some resolves.
“Hmph. Women, am I right?” he folded his arms and then looked back to Ember with a joking, sinister smile.
Now!
Ember tripped up Sgt. Simian, wrapping her strong tail around a leg and pulling him back to fall down behind her. He was already bending over to keep one hand on her, it was his own fault for thinking she couldn’t recover fast enough.
She got her arms back and pounced towards Scourge, raising a clawed hand up. “HAAA!!!”
“Oh! Something interesting!” he chimed, jumping back and out of her way as her claws dug into the concrete of the old castle, near his throne.
The stone bricks flew out of place and crashed all around, tink, tink, tinking onto the ground as rubble and chalky dirt launched everywhere into the open air.
Scourge wiped his mouth of the grey dirt and readied himself, looking thrilled at some violence. “Finally… I was thinking you were just gonna lay down for me, sparkz.”
“Ember.” She growled.
“Right, right. Well, you either have two options. As far as I see? It’s join me-“ he flicked off some rubble that was sticking to his shoulder, “Or death.”
Ember also got into a fighting position, summoning all her strength she had regained from resting a moment to her hands and feet.
“And it’s not really a request…”
Ember felt her power soar through her being, the cursed emerald still pumping chaos through her in a means to recover after that last attack.
She flung her arm out again, but it was a feint. Soon as he tried to dodge, she gripped the ground and swung a foot into his stomach.
“Offph!” She watched him recline back from the pain, his lips pushing forward at the intensity of the hit.
“Heh.” She had the advantage and wouldn’t let it slip away! “Here’s a taste of my power you want so badly! Have itttttt!” she roundhouse kicked, knocking his head back but he lifted an arm up to grab her other leg as she circled for another blow and threw her down.
Quickly getting back up, she saw his hands come together and slam down on the concrete where she had just rolled away from.
‘This is gonna take more than strength…’ she recognized that his strength was equal to that of her powered cursed emerald. He must have been powered by the Master Emerald too… but how?!
She didn’t have time to dwell on that. She wanted to prove, not just to herself but to Shadow too, that she could complete a mission on her own!
She summoned some power to her chest and filled her claws with chaos energy, making them grow out like beams of light. “Try dodging this, don’t underestimate me!” She leaped up and feinted a swipe as though about to cast Shadow’s Chaos Spears.
It worked. Scourge recognized the familiar motion and went to dodge what he thought was the onslaught of chaos energy spears, but she pushed off the wall nearest to her, her eyes twitching, ‘There! An opening!’
She kicked off the wall and threw herself fully at him, “Haaaa!!!!” she slashed his already permanent scar with fresh new claw marks across his chest.
“Agh!” he was blasted back, the pulse from her Chaos Claws sending the cursed emerald’s power through his body and having it repel his own stolen Master Emerald power.
The two didn’t mix well, the power kept blasting the other back, but at least she knew she could push him back if she summoned her power faster than he could counter it.
He still had that advantage… but for that moment, he wasn’t using it at its full potential. Even Ember could see that…
She landed a bit away from him, watching him grip at his chest. He seemed surprised to see no blood. “The damage was more to your energy.” She slowly rose up, the power in her claws fading as she returned to her usual twitch of sharpening her nails. “But I still got’cha…”
Indeed, she saw the wounds reopen on his chest, only a little blood oozed out but just enough for Scourge to look down and see the delayed reaction.
His face shifted to lines of anger stretched up from the dip in his narrowed eyebrows.
As though refusing to let loose his full power just yet, his energy subsided and he just looked back up at Ember, fixated on her form.
“Interesting…” he licked his lips, getting up. “Very interesting…” he still held his chest, some blood on his glove now, but the bleeding would stop momentarily as the chaos energy began to reform again.
She disengaged and stepped away, feeling the power in her claws slowly dwindle. “Tsk.” She kept sharpening them as sparks flew around her. ‘His attack on me from before weakened the cursed emerald… I can’t do what I normally can now… is that why he so directly attached the Master Emerald’s power to it? By doing so, he probably knew it would cripple me somewhat… I’ll have to play a bit of a waiting game to get my lost power back.’
She smirked.
‘Perfect. I’ll keep him talking…’
“So? You really think you’re going to somehow get me to join your little uprising?” She decided to play along, swishing her tail and moving back as to lure him up and think she wasn’t going to strike anymore.
“Heh… do you really think me that stupid?” He growled. She could feel his own chaos power recharging, and knew he was probably adopting the same strategy.
“You’re lucky, you know… I haven’t even begun to fight!” he suddenly let loose a Chaos Blast, shattering the ground and exploding outward as Ember couldn’t react fast enough to block against it.
She was blown into the wall, crashing hard against it and getting a headache when she landed back to the ground with a hard thump!
She groaned, trying to sense her surroundings again when a foot was pressed on her back, keeping her down.
Then… she felt a hand move through the back of her hair, gripping some strangled strings as smoothly as moving through water. But then her head was ripped back, forcing her to turn toward him.
“Erk!” it hurt like none other, but she could hear him shifting his muzzle through her hair, pulling her head back to lean and press against it.
“My, my… Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” he mocked with an alluring pleasure to his voice. “I’m not.”
“Back off!” she threatened, flailing a moment but his touch never wavered.
“You’re so enticing, Ember… like a warm fire that burns anyone who dares to touch it.” His words hissed in a pleasure-seeking tone that made her uncomfortable. What was that? Some sort of intimidating praise or actual flirting?
From back in the front of the castle, the gang watched on, having all scattered back after that fight.
They knew when not to intervene with Scourge, but Fiona couldn’t contain herself.
She lurched forward, only to have a hand grip her shoulder and the frog shake his head. This time she gritted her teeth, seeing how they all weren’t keen on Ember, but wouldn’t dare disobey Scourge again.
She held silent reservations, but looked on and held herself back. “I hate her…” she mumbled.
The rest of the team sighed in tense pockets of air, letting them go gradually. They seemed to be silently agreeing with her.
Maybe this girl was more a problem than a useful pawn…
“You know what’s crazy good about you, Toots?” Scourge smelled her hair in a deep, creepy whiff. Ember reached her hands back to get him off her hair but he gripped her wrists and spun her around, pinning her on the ground.
“Ack!” she felt the cruel stone scrape against her back. Her clothes survived the Chaos Blast, but some of it had ripped somewhat.
“You know what..?” He moved close to her face, his fangs skimming her forehead as his tongue taunted her eye.
It was disgusting, she twitched her eye and finally turned away, giving into some fear deep inside herself.
“After I broke out of jail for the hundredth time… I decided, hey, wonder how my dear emotionally distraught castaway was doing.” He pulled back and winked. “Found you again… a dog to those goody-two-shoes, and it’s been sparkz ever since, Cinder~”
“Ember.” She growled, as though cursing loudly, she tried to push against his strength.
For a moment, it was working. She could feel her power returning to her, inching him off little by little and getting her hands to lock in his own and steadily push him away.
But he only smiled, watching her struggle must have looked like a game to him.
“Whatever. Still on fire.”
“Ugh, What is?”
“My heart and your body, babe.”
She rolled her eyes, “I’ll make a fire in you, alright… one that burns you to a crisp!” she started to summon her own Chaos Blast, struggling under him.
However… his head jerked down and his fangs gripped her emerald.
“Ack!” she blushed before another huge wave of the Master Emerald’s power shot through her and electrified her body. “AHHH!!!”
Again, Fiona could not remain still, so as she went to leap forward, about to call out his name when the rest of the Anti-gang grabbed her and pulled her back, covering her mouth.
“Tolerate it.” the Lynx threatened. “He’s only getting what he wants.”
Her eyes were green with jealousy, but her face was red with anger and revenge.
Scourge let go and Ember collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily as it felt her entire insides had been fried.
“Ever since you raged from that burning town,” He wiped the spit off his mouth, letting her go and looming over her. “I’ve always had the hots for ya.”
She coughed and breathed heavily, sliding herself out from under him and leaning against the stony wall. She gripped it for support, rubbing her imbedded cursed emerald before gathering enough strength to speak again. “Me? Or my power?” she turned back to him, playfully folding her arms, faking that she was fine.
“Boo, it’s all in the same body.” He lowered his sunglasses down to get a better look at her. “What’s the difference?”
He must have called her bluff, because he moved right back where he was, pinning her against the stone and letting his nose skim her muzzle. He whispered, “What to do… what to do…” As though taunting her feeble state. “What ever should I do to you first..?” he smirked, looking back at her.
Ember ignored the power-plays, quickly changing the subject and trying to restore her strength back, struggling to push him away again. “My power isn’t me. I-I mean… I’m more than my abilities!” Her head rolled a moment, feeling nauseated from the two chaos powers conflicting each other.
“Sure, sure. But my abilities could send you to a whole new world…” He gave her a suggestive eyebrow movement.
Ember couldn’t let him just toss her around like a ragdoll! No matter how much his chaos power repulsed and diffused her own… she would have to fight!
Ember chuckled, trying to still play cocky as best as she could, even if she was stuck against a wall and a madman. “I’m already in another dimension.”
“I know, right? Exciting, isn’t it?”
He suddenly let her go.
It was then that Ember felt her body fall back to the ground. Was she unable to keep going?
She tried to slide her feet under her, but they skid back to being weakly shaken upon the ground.
She began to panic. ‘No… No-no-no, get up! You can’t let him win!’ She was growing more and more anxious and worried, but he just watched her face as her internal struggle grew more and more dire.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Someone can’t admit when she’s beat.” He chuckled right back, turning his head a bit upside down to get a better look at her. She hid her face and he gripped it with his hand, forcing it back into view and up to look at him.
He stroked with his pinkie the side of her cheek, still humming a bit of gleeful victory before flicking his head, flirtatiously. “Join me and we can have a bonfire later tonight~”
He moved dangerously close to her lips, “You and me… no sounds but the constant cries of you wanting more…”
She gagged. “Do you honestly think girl’s fall for that?”
Fiona had been taken away, pushed against another wall by her comrades, her fierce rage rising with each sentence she heard from the other room. She gripped at her captors backs and threatened to scratch and peel their skin off, but for her sake, they didn’t let go. “Sorry, not into ‘green’ fads.” Ember spat out.
“Ouch.” Scourge’s smirk was replaced quickly with a frown. “Touchy, touchy.”
“You seem to be.” Ember tried to bite at his wandering hands, but he pulled them back, apparently turned on her by actions as his eyes widen with intrigue.
His head perked up, and he mimicked a cat’s ‘rawr’.
“Ohhh… look who’s talking back. I like you.”
“Clearly…”
“Only… my love’s a little conditional. Pricey as it seems, I’m a man of material desire.” As he slipped a hand around her waist, she punched him back, summoning everything into that blow that forced him away.
“Grrk!” he gripped his eye, where she had punched.
Ember rose up and began to deal more hits, taking him off-guard as she spun and whacked him with her foot, leaving him prone before diving onto him with her knee, continuing the onslaught.
As though summoned by the sudden shift, the Anti-gang pounced and let Fiona go.
“W-what!?” Ember was tackled down, fighting for her life again as the Anti-gang began to beat down on her, protecting their so-called, ‘king’.
When they moved away, Ember was left utterly beaten and weak. Bruises forming along her muzzle and arms now… The only visible ones, anyway.
“Y… You cheated.” Ember stated, gritting through the pain as she crawled to try and get back up again, but was failing miserably. “I overpowered you… overcame… I would have won if-!” she was kicked across the room by Fiona, leaving her rolling along the cobble floor. “You… played fair.” She finished her sentence, but at what cost? She gripped her stomach and got up to her knees, panting as Fiona’s face looked like seconds away from murder. The Anti-gang turned to Scourge, who was getting up with a wobble in his step, gripping a hand over his eye.
“I’m starting to lose patience with you…” he muttered under his breath. “You say you don’t like green… but I know a certain hippie drummer boy you tend to write through G.U.N’s mail delivery service..! Too bad most of those letters don’t always end up in his hands…”
Ember was confused at first, not understanding before her eyes widened. “Are you talking about..?”
He didn’t let her finish, “I’m not one to be jealous, honestly. Only possessive. Which brings me back to my earlier demand…”
Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds floated out from behind Scourge’s flowing jacket, revealing themselves as they gently swayed in a circle around his body. He approached his throne but stopped, turning his head back to her with another evil look of desire and pre-victory gloating.
“I want you… but all of you.” He turned back around and spread his arms out, the emeralds stopping their turning and remaining still… his presence was extremely intimidating, and Ember could feel she wasn’t at full power yet… The healing would need more time!
‘He knew about Manic? What else did he know!?’ She couldn’t continue on like this. Her panic was reaching its maximum capacity. She could feel the Cursed Emerald wanting to retaliate with the dark madness she knew all too well. ‘He knew how to reverse the Cursed Emerald’s power onto me… He knew about G.U.N, Shadow… what else is he hiding up his sleeve?!’ she felt the world caving in on her. ‘Shadow… Sonic… Manic…’ she closed her eyes, remembering her dear friends she had collected along the way. ‘What if they can’t save me..? He clearly gathered and stole all the Chaos Emeralds from our world… he’s… so powerful now. He can trump me at every turn!’
She looked to his team, slowly withdrawing with a sick sense of gloating in their boss’s power, staring at her and waiting for him to deal a finishing blow. ‘I… I can’t do this, can I? Shadow was right…’
Then… a letter returned to Ember’s memory.
Those words…
“Won’t happen.” She suddenly felt a courage spark in her.
“I won’t let you win.” She felt her fist tighten. The words her friend wrote her sang in her ears now, the last letter she had read from Manic…
Dear Ember,
What’s up? Sorry I haven’t written in a while! I hear it’s been pretty rough for you. Shadow sounds a bit like a downer, man. In all honesty, you gotta keep your head up. No matter what rain falls in the summer, it just turns to snow in the winter, and then a pleasant shower in the spring. I guess that’s super poetic, heh. But you like that kinda stuff, right? Anyway, what I mean is, don’t let things that seem hard keep you down. You have a really unique spirit, Ember. Kinda like your name, you’re a spark to the flame. Riding and gliding, you’ll always be the same, but evolve toward your name. Ember, Ember. Spark and shine. Embers and cinders, lighting the night! It’s hard not to write lyrics for ya, I know you laugh at me when I do, but it’s so easy for me to get inspired off of ya. You must be some kind of muse to me. Is that okay? Whatever, I’m not a very good letter writer, but I hope you know…
You aren’t just the embers, but the spark to the flame.
- Manic The Hedgehog
Her head reared up, his lyrics giving her strength as her heart pumped rapidly and her power swiftly returned to her.
“You want to see fire and brimstone?” She blasted her energy out, her super form taking effect again. It would cost her this time… but for once, she felt her mind just a little more clearer—it peeked through the haze of crazy power, and gave her the confidence to remain calm.
“We’ll see about that.” Scourge’s evil, scheming smirk reappeared. He lowered his eyes, attracted to her rebelliousness but also trying to not get frustrated again. “I’m not very patient.”
“I’m not very outspoken, and yet, here we are.” She smirked back, unwilling to be intimidated by his confidence. She proved she could beat him once. Time to do it again…
“This time, I’m going to push you around!” She took a few steps forward, her power sucking away at her now, like one last shot of adrenaline to end it all or be ended herself. “I’m speaking out against your bad fashion sense.” She egged him on.
“That’s it! I’ve put up enough with this! I’ll just take you here and now!” he blasted a deep purple, much like her Cursed Emerald’s power. His chaos had turned negatively charged and dangerously unstable.
At least she had some practice with being an uncontrollable mass of destruction.
“Bite me.” She threw her hand out, spiking out artificial chaos claws a few inches ahead, glowing purple in radiance once again. Her white form and black eye-sockets fanned like a raging fire, waiting for him to come at her.
“I’ll try!” his smile turned devilishly crazy, as though it was blood-hungry now.
The two clashed in what looked like an array of lights, flashing and blinding the other Anti-gang members as they held their arms out to shield themselves from the aftermath. The force tossed them back and around, skidding on their feet to avoid falling back.
“They’re gonna kill each other!” One of them shouted out, but it was hard to tell who with the constantly clashing lights that blinded their sights, and the rapid whipping of force pounding them in different directions as Ember and Scourge duked it out with everything they had.
“Dang it, Scourge! He’s going to take the whole fort down with him!” That one sounded as though it was Fiona, but before anyone could say anything more…
There was a large explosion, blasting the stone walls as Scourge shoved stones off of himself. He looked enraged, huffing and puffing a moment, wiping some blood off his chin.
“Heh… heh… Okay, doll. You’ve got my attention.” He breathed as though exhausted, bruised up and singed in different locations on his fur. “That power has a kick to it. Mind if I take a bit of it?” He shot up through the air, “Or how about all of it!?”
He rocketed down to Ember who had let her super form take over her actions. Though she was conscious and aware of herself, her reflex was stronger than her mind could keep up with. It was the ultimate instinct, a great offense to his aggressive—and unconcentrated—attack style.
She was battered and bruised though, but countered most of Scourge’s hits. This wasn’t looking good for either of them. They had different ways of utilizing chaos energy, both in dangerous ways, but with grave consequences on both of them. Especially mentally…
“Urk!” Under his sunglasses, which had fallen with the swing of his head down to his eyes, he suddenly winced in a bit of fear. “W…What-what gives you all this power!? Why won’t you just give in to me!?” It was almost pathetic, his sudden realization of how far Ember’s power could take her, but Ember liked to hear she was getting the advantage again.
She strained against his energy, him charging at her again, her pushing him back and holding her own as she tried to summon enough strength and sanity to speak again.
“It’s… because…”
Shadow… Sonic… Rouge.
“I have…”
Cream, Amy, Knuckles, Tails…
“P-people…”
Her memories, Maria… Dr. Gerald Robotnik.
All of her experiences.
All of her strife and happiness, pain and sorrows.
…Manic…
“I want… to protect!”
She sent a large energy wave out of her, rippling through the air as he remained stunned at the intensity of her Cursed Emerald’s power.
It was almost as though her very chest was shaking, the Cursed Emerald looking as though it was being rocked from her very core. Her soul taking full swing at him, him locked in her grip as she refused to let go.
“How’s that possible!?” he cried out, but it was too late now…
“I have all 7 Chaos Emeralds! You have only one!”
“Guess you didn’t do your research, but this little emerald was cursed for a reason!” She formed a beam at the tip of her protruding emerald, Scourge’s eyes glazed over with its wild radiance as he pulled his head back, whincing as he knew…This was gonna hurt. A lot.
“HAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
She spread a beam of dark purple energy out from her chest, propelling it into him as she held his fighting hands in place. A direct shot. A finishing blow. All she had left to give.
She left him with nowhere to dodge.
She had grappled him, causing his flimsy form to fly out in front of her, being forced to remain in the shock-blast of her immense power.
To keep from having the power push her back against the wall, she dug her feet into the ground of the cobble floor.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” the hit finally died down and caused Scourge to fall flat down on his face when she released him and backed away.
She gripped her arm, feeling the fatigue as her form disappeared and she fell down too. “You may be ticked… hah… hah… but no amount of fighting… hah… will keep me from forgetting… hah… hah… my friends.”
That was all. The last of everything. At least, she thought it was. Her vision so blurry and her body so numb.
The Cursed Emerald faded… as though Ember was left only to her mortal capabilities now.
“Grr…” he gripped the ground beneath him, “…Ow.” feeling the Chaos Emeralds shoot out from him, he forced his crisp self to get up, still steaming from the hit.
“YOU LITTLE-!” he reached out to her. “Whether you join or not, I’ll just kill you and dance on your corpse!”
While the two were distracted, they didn’t notice a portal open and his Anti-gang getting beaten in their attempt to block out their powerful and heated light energy.
“You can’t win! Ahh! Ow! Hot! You can’t burn me! I’m raw to the core, babe! I’m-… I’m not done,… I’m well done! Haha! Ouch… Get over here…” he began to crawl to her, and it was pretty impressive that he had even survived her attack.
‘How?’ Ember’s eyes were too exhausted to shake in fear, her body too tried to fully react to his advances toward her. ‘He’s totally beaten… He can barely move… the Chaos Emeralds… He must have used them to block some of the attack… but they’re drained too. How… How powerful is this guy?’
“I won.” She countered.
He fidgeted in his painful crawl towards her.
His face and belly were scraping against the floor, his knees skidded with fresh burns that only made the stone sting further against the cold, rough touch. The surface was like sandpaper on his blackened hide, but he kept moving, he kept crawling… his gloves ripped and his sunglasses blasted like a comic book page’s BAM. He kept coming. He wouldn’t back down.
“I’m not just gonna lie down and die! I’ll take you with me!” he raised a crazy eye and gripped her head.
She was powerless to stop him, she could barely move her body, let alone keep her eyes open.
“You… cheated.” She muttered again as he attempted to use her head to push him off the ground, but she didn’t have enough strain and just toppled with him.
“Dang it…” he finally let out what sounded like his own acceptance of his defeat. “You and I… we’re too alike.” He just managed a smirk. “You and I… we’re bad to the bone.”
“No…” Ember breathed out and managed to look him in the eye.
“I’m nothing like you.”
Then…
“Scourge!”
Scourge stopped in his pursuit, still gripping Ember’s head. She was so close to fainting that she couldn’t move out of his grasp.
He turned to the sound and noticed his gang tied up and on their knees, looking ticked at three figures who walked into the shadows of the room.
Scourge quickly removed his hand and grabbed Ember by her neck, forcing himself up while pulling her with him.
He wobbled to his feet, clearly annoyed and struggling to find a joke in the situation. “So much interference… Can’t a man feed his ambitions first?” he licks his lips. “What is this, the Calvary?”
The figures halted.
“Heh. Might as well make a lasting impression, hmm? Fire girl’s mine! You’re too late to save anyone!” He was fibbing. It was all a fake show to mask the fact that he knew he was beat. He couldn’t do anything and neither could Ember now. His strength to rise to his legs was nothing but a mortal attempt to look like a god. He was really just a rag-doll with his stitches coming undone, the fluff of powerlessness inches from snapping out of him and spreading like dandelion fuzz around the air.
For a last kick, a final punch, icing on the cake of trying to reclaim an authoritative stance, he leaned in to kiss her…
“I… won’t… lose…” his façade was failing him, he was about to collapse. He pushed his thumb up to get her chin to rise…
A moment away from some petty form of victory… not willing to admit defeat…
But a noble drumstick hit the side of his cranium.
His eyes blinked, dazed and confused.
One figure stuck a hand out into the light where Ember and Scourge had made the ceiling fall apart, but some of it dared to stay intact.
One pointer finger rose up and wagged itself in broad daylight. “No, no, no… that’s no way to treat a lady, dude.”
Scourge squinted his eyes as Ember slowly began to go limp in his hold.
She was too exhausted to try and look and see who it is, but ever ounce of her felt it knew that voice. Like a steady drum beat… like a rhythmic pound within the sound of the man’s voice.
“And you are?”
“When Ember’s letters started turning sour, I figured something wasn’t right.”
That voice… She knew that voice…
“Sonia said they were forged when we compared handwriting with previous other letters she had written me.”
It couldn’t be… but Ember’s eyes struggled to force themselves open just a little longer…
Hoping for a glance of him…
Of…
“I went to Sonic for some answers. Turns out Shadow was looking for her too and well,” he shrugged, but his voice was immediately recognizable to Ember.
“M-…Man...ic?”
“Well, now we’re saving my luscious lady from your filthy little hands!” Manic, Sonic, and Shadow both stepped out of the shadows, revealing their forms as Shadow narrowed his eyes, a deep glare upon his broad brow as he noticed the state Ember was in. Sonic was also acting a bit more serious than Ember had ever seen him look before, but that soon changed to a proud smile when he noticed Scourge was thoroughly beat-up by her before they had even gotten there.
“L…Luscious?” she could barely get any air to escape her throat and respond to him, but he seemed to be proceeding with caution, noticing her frail state. Still, it made her want to chuckle, bringing a corner of her lips up to a smile at hearing his ridiculously outdated talk start-up again. It wasn’t nearly as annoying as Scourge calling her ‘spark’ or ‘baby’. She’d rather hear Manic say it than him.
“It means you’re rocking!” Manic drummed the air, hearing her faintly whispered reply to his shenanigans. “But in a- ‘pretty and wonderful personality’ kinda way.”
“This is annoying.” Scourge lowered his eyelids, tilting and trying to regain his lost balance again. It was clear he wasn’t ready for a round 16… as he had previously already taken Ember on a good number of times.
“This is the bozo I have to rival with?” he looked comically to Ember, as if not understanding her taste. He pulled on her hair again to get her to look up at him, and through the pain, she laughed a moment.
“He’s the right… shade of green.”
Scourge showed his fangs on that comment, not liking it one bit.
“I can still take him.” Ember protested, but weakly pawed her claws at him. This only made the scene funnier and more desperate.
“Right. Don’t mean to steal your thunder, babe, but let me and my bros handle this.” Manic turned back to the Anti-Gang as Sonic and Shadow leaped forward.
Scourge’s eyes widened, not ready for this new encounter at all.
With that last comment, Shadow darted up and launched a Chaos Spear, which forced Scourge to jump back. He released Ember, leaving her to drop like dead-weight on the ground, flopping a bit and not even trying to stop the fall… even just a little bit.
She wouldn’t call out for help though, she just tried to keep breathing and keep her eyes from fully shutting. She wanted to see this. Shadow kick some butt, Sonic do his thing, and Manic… she just wanted to stare at him as long as she possibly could.
It was good to see him again. So, he didn’t hate her? All those sent letters never reached him? What awful things was Scourge writing to him, under her name?
Scourge was injured and woozy, so when Shadow’s feet hit the ground, he was still unsteady.
Shadow dealt a number of powerful blows, causing more noticeable blood to spit out from Scourge’s mouth, revealing the internal injuries were getting just as bad as his outer appearance…
The Chaos Emeralds were flung from his being— Pik, pik, pik!
They bounced against the ground, tumbling, and finally rolling through a half-demolished wall’s jagged holes where stones had been hit out of place.
Sonic watched the emeralds scatter and raced along the still remaining walls, letting his hand skim their grainy exterior before rolling into a ball and ducking into the holes of the same wall after them.
“I’ve got Scourge, you get Ember!”
Sonic’s voice rang out as he sped through the barely hanging walls of the destroyed castle, revealing his super from as he blasted the remaining structure away. With that wall gone, the whole place started to shake and loosened stones began to fall around them.
The Anti-Gang looked up, realizing the whole place was about to go down.
Scourge’s super form immediately faded with a knee to the face as Sonic easily began to pummel him down while Shadow turned his attention back to Ember.
Right before she fainted, she felt Shadow quickly scoop her up. A tight, firm grasp upon her sides made her flinch a bit in pain, but his words made her happy in their weird way. “Stupid girl, what did I tell you about making enemies!?”
“Only twice a day?” she joked, and then her eyes rolled and she fell unconscious.
She only vaguely remembered voices. Shouting from Scourge, mostly. She did hear Manic and figured he must have been the one who rushed over, skidded to his knees, and felt her face…
But she could have imagined it…
The next morning, she admitted what she had done was reckless, and should have tried to escape instead of fight.
Manic had tended to her wounds with Rouge and other G.U.N officers, but Sonia was the one who helped create the portal to get her out of that mess.
She personally thanked her before Sonia had to return and govern her own kingdom that Sonic and Manic willingly gave off to her. Neither wanted to rule, but Sonia was a natural leader who was born for the role, quite literally.
Laying on the gurney, she slowly blinked her eyes to adjust to the light, having taken a long rest since then. Shadow, Sonic, and Manic had stayed at different times to check on her as she dozed off repeatedly back to her deep, recovery slumber. However, this time, they all seemed to be in the room.
She immediately opened the conversation, weakly and groggy at first, with a gentle explanation of her behavior for why she didn’t try to run but fought instead.
“I just wanted to see how far our little ‘game’ would go.” She withdrew herself back from Shadow’s glare as she rose from the gurney. “Who defeated him in the end… might I ask?”
In her heart, she still believed she succeeded. “Cause honestly,” she began, unable to keep it to herself. “He cheated.”
The men had different reactions to that. Sonic chuckled while Manic rolled his eyes with a smile on his face, and Shadow just grumbled something under his breath… probably a curse she was glad she didn’t hear. Maybe he was holding back..? Due to her condition?
Shadow turned to Sonic, who looked back at him and then over to Manic. They seemed to be thinking the same response…
“We all kinda chipped in.” Sonic stated, before Shadow shook his head and sighed.
“Far to modest… I completely obliterated him.” Shadow immediately bit back at Sonic’s rather ‘humble’ comment.
“What!?” humbleness went out the door as Sonic suddenly spun to confront Shadow’s claim, “We all fought him! And besides, I beat him up waaaaaay before you or Manic stepped in!”
“I believe you have failed to recall how I dealt with him swiftly first. You’re the one who called me off to get your own share of the action.” Shadow folded his arms, turning at an angle away from Sonic’s childish behavior. “Honestly, you’re no better than her at claiming all the glory…”
“You’re the one making a fuss!” Sonic pointed an accusing finger before looking over to Manic, “Well? Am I right? Or am I right!”
“I’m a peacemaker, yo. A pacifist at heart.” Manic drummed the side of the gurney, refusing to be apart of the contention. “But for you, I couldn’t help but summon my old drum set. Sent beats of righteous justice his way.” He winked to Ember, admitting that he did join a little bit in the fight, even if it was indirectly and through the power of his sick, twisted beats.
“You were ranged, but still effective.” Shadow still didn’t know how to address the fact that his so-called ‘Sister’ was writing a complete stranger. To him, anyway, he didn’t know anything about this ‘Manic’ fellow but trusted him after all he’d done to find and save Ember. “However, you have yet to explain your side of the story…” Shadow turned to Ember again, “How exactly do you two know each other?“
“It’s been a while since you’ve fought, Manic.” Sonic smirked, turning his attention away from Shadow’s stubborn crossed-arms, not willing to admit it as a team effort, but also avoiding his brother and his possible girlfriend from having to admit anything.
“I did most of the work, though…” Sonic muttered through the side of his mouth, pulling up a hand to side-mouth the statement towards Ember, grinning widely as he winked to her.
This only made Ember smile, seeing them all try to lighten the mood for her.
“You merely distracted him as I got Ember to safety and defeated him only after I had stepped in.”
“I had to let you have a few blows, you were acting like the angry big brother all the way there! And what? Are you trying to look ‘cool’ in front of your sister now or something?” Sonic teased, calling Shadow out with a hint of casual backstabbing.
He leaned towards Shadow, lowering his eyelids with a wicked sense of pleasure on his face, waiting to see Shadow’s reaction to his words.
“Why?” Shadow closed both his eyes, refusing to give Sonic what he wanted. “I have no need for that. She already looks up to me far more than she should.”
“Yeesh, what a double-edged sword.” Sonic sweat dropped a bit, flinching back at how arrogant Shadow could be when provoked.
But… Ember noticed that he didn’t protest Sonic’s words too severely… It made her heart lighter than air… hearing him accept her being called his little sister without too much of a complaint.
“We searched a few realms before finding the right one. Sorry for being a tad late—not so fashionably—But it was far out and about, man.” Manic twirled his drumsticks into a holster and walked over to Ember, subtly reminding the other men in the room that it was about Ember, not them.
He leaned on her bedside, “Just glad you’re alright.”
His smile melted her worries away, and she tilted her head towards him, wishing to be closer to that positive aura his smile gave off. She tilted her chin down with a faint blush…
Then something crossed her mind, just as quick as her blush disappeared.
“T-those letters, though… the fake ones. W-wha-what did they say?” Worriedly, Ember’s face turned sorrowfully up to him with regret. “If I had known…”
“Don’t worry about it.” He flicked a finger under her chin, tapping it playfully but remaining at a distance. Especially with Shadow around… she took a quick glance at him before pulling a bit away from Manic, respecting that he was just as nervous with being affectionate around her with Shadow in the room as she was towards him. “I’m just glad we were able to nab that bad dude. He should be in prison now, right?”
“Him and his goonies.” Sonic nodded as Shadow took a few more turns looking back and forth between Manic and Ember.
‘Just what the heck are you two, anyway!?’ was the expression on his face, leaving Ember to awkwardly look away and wag her tail as Manic scratched behind his head and nervously laugh the constant double-glances Shadow gave him away.
----
Far away, and in a dusty jail cell, Scourge and his team were separated.
He was thrown into quarantine with a ripped-up jacket that freed his arms from their insanity hold around his waist, gripping the bars. “I vow to never rest till Ember’s blood is burning on my hands, or at least something of hers..! I will have my REVENGE!”
“Keep it down over there!”,
“Ahhh, shut up!”,
“Is that..? Ah, man. Why’s he back with us?”
The other inmates could hear his ranting cries clear across the courtyard, where Fiona and the gang pop some bubble gum. She stuck it to a nail file and threw it up over the wall. Quickly moving through the bars of his small, rectangular window, it flipped a few times before descending and clinging its gummy, pink, and spit covered substance against the wall.
It stuck to the inside of his cell, slowly being pulled down by the weight of the nail file and stretched towards him. Finally, with Scourge leaning up against the wall, grinding his teeth together in frustration, he heard it tink just above him.
He stopped scowling and looked up, seeing the metal gleam in his eyes, his sunglasses upon his head also reflecting their bright, silver exterior.
“First freedom.” he smiled with evil glee.
“And then, that day… will come soon.”
Laughter echoed the walls of the isolation unit.
End.
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Vidja Games
So I checked out Game Informer’s list of the top 300 greatest video games, and they are objectively wrong, lol (I can’t imagine the fights that went into making this list??)!
I’m no critic, and I’m not interested in attempting to objectively rate games, but here are my (subjective) faves in rough order-ish, if you’re interested! They are arranged by franchise for my sanity below the cut.
The Elder Scrolls (TES)
My all time favorite video game series is TES, although I wasn’t able to stomach playing I and II. In order, my favorites are: Morrowind, then Oblivion, then Skyrim.
Morrowind is unfriendly to casual gamers, and even experienced folks need to learn the lay of the enormous world, how to fast travel, and even how to level and plan characters to best effect. The learning curve is enormous, and if you decide to play a different type of character later on, you’re stuck! You might even have to start over, since you level your character by increasing the major and minor skills you chose upfront.
But I have never experienced such an open, imaginative world. The later installments felt both smaller and less varied. In Morrowind, you’ll find everything from sprawling floating cities to houses built into enormous mushrooms, with ashlands, swamps, and mountainous terrains in between, complete with hell-on-earth smack-dab in the middle of everything.
Oblivion is more user-friendly than Morrowind, and it has some of the most engaging quests in the series. What it loses in environmental diversity and sheer exploration potential, it almost- almost- compensates for in fun quests (there’s much less ‘fetch me some swamp muck’ involved), easier transportation, and the wonderful world of Shivering Isles, an expansion.
Skyrim is the most accessible of the three by far, and it’s forgiving in that it allows players to change their play style on the fly with little repercussions. It also has the best combat. Sadly, the repetitive environments make it far less compelling to explore than its predecessors, which is a huge part of TES’s charm for me. I also found the enemies repetitive. The more fanciful enemies are almost absent, and the few that exist are tied to specific daedric quest lines. Do you know how hard it is to recharge enchanted items when you only encounter a handful of daedra? Wolves and trolls just don’t fill them back up well.
Also, while the accessibility widens the target audience considerably, it cuts into the customization options previously available to more experienced gamers. That was a huge disappointment for me, personally.
To be clear, though, I still adore Skyrim.
Personal anecdote: My Morrowind strategy book was so worn that it fell apart, so I punched holes in the pages and kept it in a binder. I took out the fast travel map and the local map of whatever area I was combing to find a dungeon door tucked into a cave hidden behind ivy or whatever. I still have it; it’s a sentimental treasure.
The Sims
The more open-ended a game is, the more I like it, and The Sims is king of that arena! For me, 3 is by far the best installment. 2 introduced the idea of having types of Sims with personal goals to meet to create direction for the player, but ultimately, it felt like I was stuck with the same five Sims over and over again. The wishes and moodlet system of 3, along with the five slots for personality traits, gave me so much more power to create Sims that felt like actual characters.
I... don’t even want to know how much of my life I’ve put into The Sims...
My ranking: 3>1>2>4
It should be noted that I didn’t mind 1′s lack of direction, since my imagination alone is way more than enough to pull me forward in a sandbox game. In comparison, 2 felt restrictive by creating five character types, limiting me to that in a way I couldn’t ignore.
Personal anecdote: I received the original Sims for Christmas when I was in middle school. I accidentally played from bed time until 4 AM, which is the closest I’ve ever come to pulling an all-nighter.
Sonic the Hedgehog
WHERE DO I EVEN START WITH THE BLUE BLUR.
Sonic was an enormous part of my childhood, guys. I played all the games. I watched both cartoons (the one with Sally and the Freedom Fighters and the one where it’s just Sonic/Tails/Eggman/some robots), I learned to read with the comic books. I have a vivid memory of my brother taunting me by refusing to let me see his comics “because I couldn’t read”... So I spite-learned using the comics when he wasn’t paying attention.
I don’t think I can pick a favorite! As a kid, I played Sonic 3 the most; I was a huge Knuckles fan, so that might have played a role (also the original Sonic was too difficult for me at the time, although I certainly tried). But I also loooooved Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. And Sonic Generations was so much fun!
Mario Bros
Lord, I was playing Mario games before I could read, I don’t... Mario has always been around for me, okay? It’s a huge part of my story, and the franchise is so iconic that there’s little for me to say. There are way too many amazing games in this franchise for me to name, but personal faves include: Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World, and Yoshi’s Island.
The Legend of Zelda
This is another franchise where I don’t know what to say... It’s too iconic for me to offer much. Zelda games are known for their exploration and adventure, even from the beginning. Ocarina of Time was a big part of my childhood, but I also adore the newest installment, Breath of the Wild. And I know this may be silly, but I love Hyrule Warriors! I can’t wait to play it on the Switch with all the DLC.
And the music??? Guys????? THE MUSIC?!?!?!
Bioshock
Amazing atmosphere, fun game play, and one of the best stories in gaming history add up to an unforgettable experience. Also a fore-runner to the idea of playing dialogue and recordings while the player explores, a trend that caught on in a huuuge way.
Persona
It’s hard to describe Persona games... They basically combine Jungian psychology with various mythologies, sprinkle in some horror (or glob it on in the case of 3), throw in an RPG, and add a heaping serving of everyday high school life. The games tackle a wide range of ideas and game play, creating a unique experience that has drawn a devoted following.
I’ll make this quick:
3: Best story and atmosphere, worst/most needlessly frustrating game play, very prickly cast lol
4: Best characters and character development
5: Best game play (exquisitely polished game play, really), best overall style, worst story and character development
My ranking is 4>3>5. It should probably be noted that story and character are king for me, so while 5 was incredibly polished mechanics wise, the comparatively weak story and characters sunk it to the bottom of the list for me. It was one of those games where I understood where they were going hours ahead of time, and then they would explain “the twist” to the player for half an hour over and over and over. Frankly, it was... kind of insulting, and soured the experience for me.
Also, Mona, I swear to god, how am I supposed to pass school if you don’t let me study or do my homework because you think I need to sleep at 5 PM every day ahhhhh! XD
Harvest Moon
Oh god, here’s another franchise I don’t want to delve into in terms of hours I’ve spent playing O_O
I can’t even explain why I like these games... In HM, you are a farmer, and your job is usually to prove to the villagers that you’re a valuable member of society so that they won’t evict you from your own inherited property. (I’m curious about their deeds and legal policies, lol. How do you write that clause up?).
These games combine farming with socialization and light dating sim elements, and time management is the name of the game. They pull in players by tapping into the universal desire to create order and advancement.
My favorite installment is Friends of Mineral Town. I also adored Harvest Moon 64, but the controls are sadly too dated for me to replay it.
Pokemon
I’m sure I’ve missed at least one, but I’ve played almost every mainstream release of Pokemon since Red and Blue came out. It must be doing something right, lol!
I’m a huge sucker for games where you choose monsters to raise. It’s so fun to assemble a team based on your tastes and raise them just so!
My favorite release is the remake of Gold and Silver.
Monster Rancher 2
OH MY LORD I played this game to the point where I’m shocked the disc still works. In Monster Rancher 2, you find monsters by placing discs into your Play Station, which each encode a monster. In order to access the strongest monsters, you must raise your rank as a trainer by winning official tournaments.
I wish I could explain why I latched on to this particular game so hard, but... I think it had something to do with the massive variety of monsters, the difficulty of the tournaments (I never did hit S rank, and not for lack of trying!), and the myriad of odd ways to unlock special monsters.
Mario Kart
Seriously, who doesn’t like smiting friends and family on the race track? MK is a fun, family-friendly way to deliver a beat down... As long as you contain your desire to cuss like a sailor, anyway.
It’s so hard to pick a favorite here! It’s hard to top the original for the challenge... But Double Dash and Infinity are contenders, too.
Danganronpa
Danganronpa games are visual novels that mix survival, horror, and crime-solving into a dark, bizarre, unique experience. I’ve written a ton about this series lately, so I won’t delve into it here, but you can check out the danganronpa tag on my blog for more.
Kingdom Hearts
These games are so charming and fun to play! I’ve never completed one on my own- linear games are rough for me- but I’ve seen my husband play them all, even the (many) extra installments. KH2 is probably my favorite, although Birth by Sleep was amazing, too.
Final Fantasy
I’ll admit that I don’t really enjoy playing Japanese RPGs; linear gameplay doesn’t appeal to me much in general. But the FF franchise is famous for its sweeping narratives, imaginative environments, and breath-taking music, and I enjoy them for that. I’ve watched my husband play X-XV, and I briefly joined him in playing XI and XIV. My favorite is probably X... Although I have an enormous crush on Ignis from XV.
My favorite FF game to play is Theaterhythm: Curtain Call.
Mass Effect
How do I say this... I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that better simulated becoming an entire universe’s hero and moral center. In Mass Effect, you shape the world and the political climate in unprecedented ways. By the end of 3, every player is so deeply invested in their Shepard and the world s/he created. In that sense, it’s en epic experience without peer.
Destiny
I love playing Destiny with my husband and our friend! I’m a titan, Tony is a hunter, and our buddy is a warlock, and together, we are... three guardians, lol!
Okay, so the vanilla Destiny release needed some help, but it became a great game with the expansions. I’m still waiting for that breath of rejuvenation for 2, but I treasure the time we spend together kicking ass as a team.
Left 4 Dead
This game redefined what co-op meant to me. I always thought of it as Halo, basically competing on the same team against other players. And yeah, you do that in L4D... But the cooperation angle that this game brought to the table was more or less unprecedented.
In L4D, if your team of ragtag survivors doesn’t work together, it’s unlikely that anyone will survive. I spent a lot of free time in college playing this with my friends spread out over different schools. I had so, so much fun with it.
Although 2 had more varied game play, which was great, I enjoyed the original more, mostly because the online game play wasn’t as loaded in favor of the zombie team. Objectively speaking, though, the sequel was the more robust game.
Personal anecdote: L4D is where I learned about dealing with males online. With Halo, which I also played at the time, I only enjoyed it enough to play it with people I knew. I loved L4D so much that I would log in to play even when my friends weren’t available, which meant that I was teamed with random players.
I have a very feminine voice, which apparently means that I am meant to be treated like crap online. Even though it’s a co-op game, and communication is important, I spent most of my sessions with the headset turned off.
Borderlands
THIS GAME, I HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH IT! The crass humor, the expanse of wastelands, the gun-slinging insanity, the incredible couch co-op! What’s not to love?
Sadly, the sequel was a downgrade from the original, but the first game was an amazing ride. I’ve been considering replaying it with Tony with all of the DLC.
Metal Gear
I’ve never played these myself, but I watched my husband play the first three. They’re so cinematic and goofy and over-the-top and awesome! I love breaking out my Solid Snake gravel voice, too. My favorite is... probably 3? It’s hard to pick between 2 and 3, though...
Disgaea
Hmm... How to describe these games... They’re tactics games, I guess? And there’s a lot of story, too... Game play wise, the later installments perfect what the earlier ones started, but you can’t beat the story and characters of the original. Laharl is still one of my all-time favorite male video game characters. He’s... such a brat? I love him???
Honorable mentions in no order (ie, I’m tired of writing descriptions, sorry to the rest of these games):
Halo, Dragon Age, Fallout 3, Ratchet & Clank, Resident Evil, Portal, Soul Calibur, Tetris Attack, Uncharted, Ms. Pacman, the Batman Arkham games
EDIT: I forgot Nier: Automata and Super Smash Bros! FOR SHAME!
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My Likes and Dislikes for Sonic Forces
Likes:
The story, with its dark tone and mostly cohesive narrative, for me ranks up there as one of the best in the series. It’s tied with Unleashed currently as my 5th favorite Sonic story.
The supporting cast is superb and everyone in it are the most in character they have been since practically forever. Knuckles being the biggest example of this.
The gameplay is good, fun, and enjoyable across all four playstyles, though some are more fun than others.
The Avatar concept and how they were handled in the story with their own character growth arc.
The character creation is huge and has plenty of clothing options and physical features and is pretty great. Would really like to see it again in a spinoff game of sorts.
Eggman’s characterization was great and is at his most threatening and darkest in the series. Crusherthedoctor’s recent post on his portrayal explains this point well.
The voice cast brought their A game and have greatly exceeded expectations. Hopefully they will be able to keep up this kind of performance in the future.
Warren Graff actually did a decent to good job with translation, as both scripts are practically 1:1 with each other, with only a few things left out or mistranslated.
The music is amazing, though I know for some the amount of synth/techno is annoying, personally I think all the tracks are good to awesome. Another thing is how the all of the vocal tracks specifically tie into the themes of the story, which hasn’t been done since at least Black Knight.
Infinite. Just. Infinite.
The different changes and remixes to classic levels was a pretty cool idea and was done pretty well.
The fact that Forces and Mania are actually connected and tie into each other is a great idea and I hope that Sonic Team keeps doing more in depth continuity things like that.
Mind control wasn’t a factor or used here and that is a very good thing. Especially in the case of Shadow.
The Wispons are fun to use and are a big part of why the Avatar stages are so good to me.
The fact that Sega/Sonic Team are actually branching out into story driven DLC for the first time with Sonic, as well as slowly making other characters playable again.
On that note, Playable Shadow.
The character dialogue in the radio chatter mostly as well as in the cutscenes is really enjoyable. Everyone almost always has something important to say that fits with the events of the plot.
Dislikes:
The story has a moderate case of “Tell, don’t Show”, which brings it down a fair bit. It really could have used a few more cutscenes to really bring the ideas and plot points it was trying to make together.
Levels are too short and needed to be longer.
Classic Sonic didn’t serve much of a point other than to add another playstyle to the game. I know the his addition was probably set in stone long before Mania, but I feel they should have just left him out of it and just had the Phantom Ruby teleport to Forces at the end without Classic.
Sonic and especially Tails characterizations were wack and a bit off at times. Sonic’s is more forgivable since shrugging off (or at least pretending to) mental trauma is sort of his thing. But they still should have made more of a bigger deal about him being captured and tortured and should have shown the effect that had on him. Tails is much worse and this has been going on since probably Unleashed or longer. Hopefully these issues get addressed and fixed in a later story.
Not enough enemy variety, it was mostly just the same robots throughout the game. There really should have been different robots Eggman had to have made during his reign over the planet.
The difficulty was markedly rather easy, even on Hard mode.
Sega needs to not use any more returning levels and bosses after this game, this also includes the Wisps. It was tolerable here, but I don’t think the fandom can take much more of seeing Green Hill, Chemical Plant, the Death Egg, and so on after Forces, same goes for seeing bosses like the Egg Dragoon and the Wisps for the fifth time.
There wasn’t an option to change the height and body type of the custom characters, which is a damn shame. More species would have been nice too.
The last Infinite boss was a let down. I was expecting Infinite to go really crazy with the Phantom Ruby like he did during the Avatar’s Metropolis City stage, but he didn’t.
The “Is Classic Sonic from the Past or an actual other Dimension?” kerfuffle that still hasn’t been solved.
No (fake) Shadow or Chaos fight.
Why aren’t there more Wispons? I thought that the achievements stated that there were over 50 wispons? Why are there only six? It seems like a cop out to only have six (technically 7) actual wispons and have the rest just be upgrades to them. We could have had a Rocket Wisp rocket launcher or a Cyan sniper rifle wispon.
Misc.:
These are various likes, dislikes, and mehs that I found not too big of a deal to put into the major ones.
D: Wish there was some way they could have incorporated actual, full on voice acting for the custom characters/avatars. With the ability to pick your voice like in Mass Effect.
M: I wish that the Avatar had a super form, or better yet, a Phantom Ruby powered form to fight Infinite with.
D: Why do they need to make a fake Metal Sonic? Couldn’t Eggman just use the real one?
D: I wish the forgotten Sonic characters were in this.
D: I wish there were more enemies in the final battle scene besides the known illusions, like other anthros working for Eggman either of their own free will or via force and other robots made by Eggman.
L: The return of “Long time no see”
L: That Jackals, Wolves, Dogs, and Bears are now officially canon Sonic species.
M: The Chaos Emeralds weren’t in the game. Would have liked a brief explanation about why no one used them in the story but it’s not that big of a deal so eh.
M: Dark Sonic wasn’t in it or made canon and neither was Hyper Sonic
M: Cream, Vanilla, and Gemerl weren’t in it.
M/D: Blaze wasn’t in it. They could have found a way to include her in there, I’m sure.
L: Some of Adventure’s plot points were brought up again.
L: That creepy chestburster moment during the final boss.
L: Those creepy giant, twisted Infinite abominations.
D/M: Sonic wasn’t the leader of the Resistance. I still think they could have really made a great character arc for him in Forces if they had made him the leader. But I;m still glad they made Knuckles leader since he got some much needed character rerailment and him being the leader helped with that.
M: No Sonamy unfortunately
L: I like the little cube figure manifestations that appear when ever you have the Asteroid wispon equipped.
D: The final phase of the boss apes too much off of Sonic Colors’ final boss. It’s an okay fight all things considered, but I would have liked it if it had a more unique fighting style.
M: Some of the locations in the game have been changed from where they’ve been traditionally in Sonic lore, such as Green Hill being in the middle of a continent instead of being in South Island. This kinda irks me but it’s nothing that really ruins the story.
If I were to give Forces a rating, despite how dumb scores have become and how they’re abused and used arbitrarily by gaming media to put more or less value and worth on a game as a crappy shorthand measuring stick for what people would enjoy, I would give it objectively 7-7.5/10 and for my personal score 8/10.
It is a fun, enjoyable game. It’s not as good as Generations gameplaywise, but that doesn’t make it unplayable or not enjoyable in the slightest. Don’t buy into the ever constant Sonic Hatebandwagon and give it a shot if you want a high speed platforming experience. If you’re more a Mario style platformer fan, aren’t fond of the boost style gameplay, or don’t like a more serious toned Sonic game, I suggest skipping it.
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Sonic Forces - Burning World 2
Chapter two! Thanks a lot for the feedback on the first chapter, I really appreciate it :)
Previous chapter
Restlessly, Sonic ran circles into the floor of the gray cell. He couldn’t tell how long it had been since his last encounter with Eggman; it felt like weeks, although he knew it couldn’t have been more than a few days, if at all. He had no way of knowing how much time had passed; the cell didn’t have any windows and there was no clock around.
After having listened some more to the doctor’s victory speech and future visions, he had been thrown back into the cell by his robots and hadn’t seen anyone since, except for Orbot and Cubot passing by his cell every now and then. In the beginning he had lurked near the bars on high alert, searching for any kind of way to break out and leave behind this dull grayness. However, after what he assumed to be hours of nothing happening, he had given up and had begun stalking around, boredom quickly overcoming him. He knew he should have tried to get at least some sleep, but his mind was being held wide awake by the knowledge of being this close to his arch enemy.
When the boredom had become too much, he had started what he was still doing now; running around in circles. And that’s how he ended up this way.
He was honestly thankful the cell was big enough to allow him to build up speed. He wasn’t sure if Eggman had built it intentionally like this or if he simply hadn’t thought about it, and he didn’t really care either. As long as he was able to run, everything already seemed a bit lighter, even in a situation like this.
Still. He couldn’t stay idle forever. There had to be a way out of here. He had to get back to his friends and save the day like he always did… because from what he had seen, the world really needed saving.
He still couldn’t quite believe it had gone this far; how could it be his friends hadn’t manage to stop Eggman? A picture of the masked jackal went through his mind, causing him to speed up even more, lost in thought. It definitely had to be because of him. A being fast enough to keep up with him and strong enough to beat him, strong enough to beat his friends…
Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, he couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit excited – in a dark, sinister way - at the thought of beating the masked guy. He immediately felt guilty for thinking this way. I should probably handle my own problems first and get out of this mess.
He was honestly a bit confused about Eggman’s behavior. He had expected the doctor to visit him more often and gloat about his victory in front of the hedgehog.
“Cubot, be careful! Don’t drop it!” Sonic’s ears perked up at the voice. The red and yellow forms of Eggman’s aide robots came into his field of view. He stopped his run and came to a hold right in front of the bars, observing the bickering robots. A smirk crept onto his face when the opportunity he had waited for finally presented itself. This’ll do I guess. Cubot was carrying a plate with… a chilidog on it. When his stomach growled loudly, Sonic remembered he hadn’t eaten anything ever since he had awoken.
“Hello Sonic. We’re here to bring you your lunch.” Sonic grinned at the red robot and crossed his arms confidently.
“Wow, thanks. I was already starting to think Eggface is gonna let me starve.” Not entirely true since he hadn’t really paid any mind to his physical needs due to his mind focusing entirely on the more dire problems; such as the world literally burning.
“Ah, I am sure if he wanted to kill you, he would do it in a more creative way.” Sonic raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer, waiting for the others to make the next move.
“Well, uh… here’s your food Sonic!” Cubot held out the plate until it touched the bars, the smell of his favorite food lingering in his sensitive nose. He gulped. Be strong, hedgehog.
“Why, thank you,” he said in a mocking tone, reaching out as if trying to grab the food. His gloved hand didn’t fit through the bars though. Orbot let out a sound which would probably be a groan if he wasn’t a robot.
“He can’t reach the food, you idiot!” Sonic let his ears hang down, sighing in faked desperation.
“I guess I’ll have to starve after all… thanks for going through the effort of making a chilidog just for me, I appreciate it, but looks like I won’t be able to eat it.” His stomach let out another growl as if to underline his words. Cubot and Orbot exchanged a glance, turning away from him and to each other. He slightly lifted an ear to catch what they were saying.
“…it’ll… fine for just a moment…” - “No! He’ll…” - “But boss said…” He scowled when he couldn’t make out any more, but quickly replaced it with a pained expression when they turned back to him.
“Alright… just a second, Sonic. I’m going to fetch, uhm… someone really quickly.” Orbot cast another glance at Cubot, eyes narrowed. “Don’t do anything stupid”, was what he read from that look. Then he disappeared around a corner, leaving him with an apparently nervous Cubot.
His stomach growled again and he let out a groan, making the yellow robot jump and look at him in sympathy; as far as that was possible for a machine.
“Just a moment, Sonic,”, he said. Sonic rolled his eyes inwardly. Outwardly, however, he let out a muffled whine.
“Come on Cubot, please. I don’t think I’m gonna last much longer… it’s been over two weeks, y'know?” Cubot looked at him, puzzled.
“You’ll last those few minutes! … or hours,” he added quietly, jumping when Sonic let out yet another groan.
“Hours?!”
“Well, uh, Orbot needs to fetch a certain type of robot with admin rights , but they are always pretty busy so it could take a while… in the worst case he’ll have to ask the boss himself…” Hah, lucky me.
“C'mon Cubot, just open the door and give the chilidog to me now. I’ll cover for you.” The robot stared at him.
“Haha, sorry Sonic, but wouldn’t you be outta here before you even get to take a bite of the chilidog?”
“Of course not! I’ll eat it properly. Besides, I don’t even know my way around here; I’d probably run right into Eggman’s arms.”
“Hm, true. I mean, the boss did design this base with the intention of making it impossible for you to escape…” Good to know.
The yellow robot hesitated, jumping yet again when Sonic’s stomach growled impatiently. He hadn’t really felt it until now, but damn he really was hungry. His vision blurred while he was staring at the robot and he did his best to resist rubbing his eyes, suppressing a yawn.
“Okay,” Cubot finally said. “But just for a moment.” His eyes began glowing and just like that the bars were gone.
And unlike last time, Sonic was prepared now.
Before the robot could even attempt to blink, he had spin-dashed him over, snatching the chilidog in the process and taking a quick bite. He stopped in front of the open hallway and turned around to cast a quick glance at the knocked out robot whose lights had shut off completely. “See? Told ya imma eat it properly,” he said with a full mouth, grinning, before turning and dashing off.
Okay. Now I just gotta find a way out of here. Preferably a fast one, he thought. Being able to run freely instead of in an ever repeating circle felt amazing, even if he was surrounded by gray metal walls. Sonic the Hedgehog just shouldn’t be confined, ever. He would make sure Eggman would remember that. But first, he had to actually escape; he had a world to save!
…
Had he actually taken the time Eggman had granted him to rest instead of staying awake for days straight, he may have actually reached his goal and put a quick end to everything. He may have avoided the following months and rescued the world with ease as he had done many times before, always the hero, his friends smiling at him and celebrating him and themselves for their accomplishments.
If he had just…
…
He had no idea what exactly happened. One moment he was running as fast as the wind, the next he was slammed into a wall head-first with a pained cry, sliding down on it and landing on his side. Groaning, he curled into a half ball, head ringing as his mind tried to process what had just happened. Okay, hedgehog, calm down, this isn’t so bad, you experienced worse before, take a deep breath… When the pain slowly ebbed away, he opened his eyes, staring dumbfounded at two black legs.
“Oh m… good job, Infi… yes, he…” Okay, maybe he had hit his head stronger than he had thought at first. The ringing in his ears kept increasing in volume; he couldn’t make out the actual sentence and didn’t recognize Eggman’s voice either until he stepped into his field of vision. The blue hedgehog took another deep breath and turned his head slightly upwards until he was able to see the other two. One was definitely Eggman looking down at him with a deep frown which granted him a feeling of satisfaction; at least he had managed to unsettle the doctor with his failed escape attempt. The other figure was undoubtedly the masked jackal, but he wasn’t looking at Sonic; he was already turning away and walking out of view. So he got me again, huh…
At this point the pain had all but vanished, replaced by a heavy feeling of numbness which was almost painful in its own unique way again. He noticed Eggman talking to him and did his best to focus on that.
“How did… out? Can you hear me, hedgehog?” His only acknowledgment was a blink. Crap. He could feel his consciousness fading away. It’s now or never.
He had no idea where he took the energy from, but somehow he managed to get up on his knees unnaturally quick, startling the doctor into taking a surprised step back. Exhaustion overwhelmed him and he threatened to fall forward, but he managed to remain on his knees.
“I’ll definitely get out of here,” he snarled, his voice way more powerful than he felt. At this point he was barely conscious of his own actions anymore; it was as if his body acted on its own. “Don’t think you can contain me here and have your way, Eggman. I’ll get out of here and destroy whatever dumb plan you came up with this time. That’s a promise. You’re going to regret ever facing off against me. You…” His sleepiness took him over and his body finally complied with his mind and let him fall to the side, more asleep than unconscious.
“You never cease to surprise me, Sonic,” Eggman muttered to himself. Okay, truth be told, he really hadn’t expected him to find a way out. Granted, it was mainly Cubot’s fault – damn that incompetent idiot! - but the hedgehog’s stubbornness and determination was truly nothing to underestimate.
“What are you going to do with him now, boss? I know this was Cubot’s fault, but it truly wouldn’t surprise me if he found another way out. He seemed really confident when we confronted him. I doubt any of your… security measures will be able to stop him. Especially since you constructed the cell so we can’t even give him his food without opening the bars.” He cast a glance at Orbot standing behind him, hands clasped together, looking at him in question. Deciding to ignore his underling’s insult, he thoughtfully looked down on the unconscious hedgehog. He had planned on ignoring Sonic for a while longer to focus on securing his power, but it looked like the rodent wouldn’t even allow him to do that. He would have to advance quicker with his plans for his captive.
“For now…”
Unlike the last time he had woken up, this time all the memories came flying back immediately. Without the sleepiness he had felt before, all he could think of was how stupid he had been! Not seeing that lame masked excuse of an experiment coming at him and letting himself get slammed into a wall without any resistance… with a growl he jumped up and planned on letting his frustration out the usual way; spin-dashing around as fast as he could. However, upon rising and dashing forward, he found he couldn’t get further than two steps away from his supposed bed before being yanked back forcefully. Startled, he stared at the ground. The sound of jangling chains caused him to take a better look at himself.
Wha… no way.
Ears drooping down, he felt his cheeks begin to burn in humiliation. Clenching his teeth, he raised his hands to his throat.
He was chained to the wall right next to the bed by his throat so he couldn’t reach the bars. A glowing blue chain was strapped around his neck; not tight enough to choke him, but also anything but comfortable.
Eggman had collared him.
Before he had the chance to yank on the collar and see if it would come off – unlikely but worth a shot – he heard footsteps approaching the cell. His head shot up, only to be greeted by the sight of Eggman, flanked by two robots yet again. He couldn’t make out the doctor’s expression due to being too far away and the bars blocking his view, but the smug tone in the doctor’s voice was already enough to rile him up.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty. You don’t look to happy about your new accessory. I even picked it in your color!”
“Shut it, Eggface,” Sonic snarled, not in the mood for any games.
“A bit touchy in the early morning, aren’t we?” Suddenly, the bars disappeared, allowing the doctor to approach the hedgehog whose ears folded back, spines bristling in warning. He felt humiliated; not only could he not escape despite the path being free of any obstacles, he couldn’t even spin-dash into Eggman’s face if he didn’t want to strangle himself. So he didn’t have a chance but to watch the doctor approach him, stopping just out of his range, probably wary of the kicks he could still execute.
“It wasn’t a good idea trying to escape, Sonic.” Sonic scoffed.
“Why? Am I supposed to be scared of pissing you off?” He didn’t show how much Eggman’s sinister expression unsettled him.
“You really don’t understand the situation you’re in hedgehog, do you? And here I planned to still give you some time to finish my preparations and let everything settle in. But it looks like you need to be taught the hard way, without any more delays.” He snapped his fingers, and suddenly Sonic’s body just… froze. He tried to move but found he couldn’t; the collar began burning uncomfortably and his body wouldn’t budge even as Eggman came closer and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. He let out a small yelp as the human applied pressure to a particularly sensitive spot, causing him to unwillingly curl in on himself, making him appear smaller than he actually was. “W-wha…” Move, dammit! He could hear the doctor huff somewhere above him, but he couldn’t raise his head to check.
“No matter how far you and your entire race evolve, in the end you are still an animal. And animals have instincts which don’t always work in their favor.” Sonic hissed through clenched teeth when he felt the chain being undone from the collar. Nothing was in his way, he could get away! So why wouldn’t his body move?!
“Let go, Eggman!”
“I don’t think so.” The human began moving away from the cell, followed by his robots, and all Sonic could do was dangle from his hand like a puppy being carried by its owner. He flinched when the grip grew stronger. Man, since when was Eggman this strong?!
After a while of walking, the doctor stopped abruptly and muttered something Sonic couldn’t make out. Suddenly, a cold metal hand grabbed his chin and forced his head up before his entire vision went black. Something was swiftly tied around his skull and knotted together with so much force it caused his head to ache. A blindfold? How had this happened so quickly?
“Can’t have you memorizing any paths around here. You are obviously not going to escape from the cell again and even if you would, I heavily doubt you’d be able to find your way around, but precaution never hurts anyone.”
Eggman paused and looked down at the hedgehog. He had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since they had left the cell, and after applying the blindfold he had gone even stiffer than before, ears raised and spines bristled. If he listened closely, he could hear his ragged breathing. It wasn’t like he could move much anyway, but he had expected him to put up more of a fight. Thinking about it, he couldn’t remember a time he had ever seen the hedgehog as cornered as he was now. Getting robbed of his eyesight might have had a bigger effect on him than he had first thought; making him uncertain and unsettling him. He would keep that in mind for their… future games together.
“What’s wrong, rodent? Scared?”, he taunted, trying to get a reaction out of him to confirm his suspicions. All he got was an annoyed huff.
“Get going already, Egghead.” Hm. His voice sounded the same way as it always did when he wasn’t in action; condescending and almost bored. Either he was pretty talented at masking his fear or he didn’t even notice how much his body had reacted to the limitation. Interesting.
“Fine. Look forward to it, hedgehog. I’m sure we are going to have a lot of fun together.”
Thanks for reading! You can also visit me on my ao3 (Emitsu) or FF.net (xXEmitsuXx) accounts if you’d like :)
#sonic the hedgehog#sonic forces#doctor eggman#ivo robotnik#fanfiction#myart#my art#capture#chapter 2
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TKP Reader Survey Results
So the other day I ran that survey to ask whether or not y’all wanna see me cover Archie’s Sonic X comics when the time comes (among other things). It ran for a couple days and I got 367 responses, so I’d say I’ve got enough data to go over the results
And the results are...
1. The Sonic X Comics
With a whopping 71.4% majority, y’all have made it very clear that you want to see me cover the Sonic X comics. Only 8.2% said they didn’t want to see me cover them, and 20.4% were indifferent
With that, I think it’s safe to say that yes, we will be taking a look at the Sonic X comics
2. Sonic X Coverage Schedule
The results of the scheduling question were much closer, but 50% of you approved of doing them chronologically alongside the main Archie Sonic series, while about 30% of you supported taking a hiatus from the main series to cover Sonic X or even doing them all at a later date.
Because of this, I’ll probably be jumping back and forth between the Sonic X comics and Archie Sonic in a little over 50 issues. I may, however, do them a little differently. With Sonic X being a lighthearted series of stories taking place between episodes of the anime, it doesn’t really have as much continuity or lore to dive into. Most of y’all are probably already at least vaguely familiar with the premise and cast of the show, which the comics hardly deviate from. And to be honest, I’ll probably skip a lot of stuff with Chris’s human friends
If this is the case and my Sonic X coverage ends up being lighter, I may cover multiple issues a day to get through them quickly
...
Now let’s talk about the questions I added just for fun!
3. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic platformers
Sonic Adventure 2 (75 votes)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles (56 votes)
Sonic Mania (52 votes)
Sonic Adventure (23 votes)
Sonic Generations (19 votes)
Sonic Unleashed (17 votes)
Sonic 2 (Genesis) (15 votes)
Sonic CD (14 votes)
Sonic Rush (14 votes)
Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog (tie) (11 votes)
This poll went pretty much how you’d expect, but still! A good variety of games here. Nice to see Sonic Adventure and Unleashed getting a lot of love even though people tend to rag on those games
Personally, seeing all three of the Advance games get a few votes makes me happy since those are the ones I played the most growing up. I spent so many bus rides in elementary school replaying the first few levels of Advance 1 and 2...
I am also genuinely surprised that one single person voted for Sonic Chaos for Game Gear
4. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic Cartoons
Sonic Mania Adventures/Team Sonic Racing Overdrive (65 votes)
Sonic: The Movie (The OVA) (63 votes)
SatAM (60 votes)
Sonic Boom (60 votes)
Sonic X (57 votes)
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (31 votes)
Sonic Underground (10 votes)
This was actually really close! We practically had a five-way tie for first. It seems like every Sonic cartoon gets its share of love (although Underground definitely gets less than others)
And finally:
5. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic Characters (only counting the major Sega characters to prevent the list from being 50 items long)
Blaze (49 votes)
Shadow (40 votes)
Rouge (33 votes)
Eggman (32 votes)
Tails (31 votes)
Big (24 votes)
Metal Sonic (24 votes)
Silver (24 votes)
Sonic (23 votes)
Knuckles (23 votes)
Amy (16 votes)
Omega (13 votes)
Cream (9 votes)
Charmy (4 votes)
Espio (4 votes)
Vector (3 votes)
This is a little surprising! But not the most surprising. Like two thirds of my audience is LGBT furries, and lord knows we all latched onto Shadow, Rouge, and Blaze HARD as kids. Blaze taking first is a little surprising, but she really does stand out in the games’ female cast and is just generally cool. Eggman being #4 (ahead of the entirety of Team Sonic!) is surprising, but I think in recent years Mike Pollock has been reminding everyone how great of a character he is
I think the biggest surprise here is that Amy is all the way down in 11th place. Everyone loves Amy! If I had to guess, I’d say there are two reasons for this. 1) Amy’s always been a very inconsistent character. Someone who loves Adventure Amy isn’t necessarily going to like her in Sonic X, Sonic Boom, Archie, Forces, etc. And two: a lot of people would probably rank Amy in their top 5, but when forced to vote for just one, less people would call her their absolute fave. I’m willing to bet a lot of y’all who voted for Blaze and Rouge would still put Amy in your top 5
...
Anyway, this survey was fun! Thanks for your feedback, everyone, and thank you for continuing to support this blog!
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