#even if shadow goes about things his own way? sonic knows he can always count on shadow when he needs to

[mystery-talks-chaos]

Yippee new story!

(Staring Tails and Amy! Why? Because we needd more for the two!)

Word count: 1835

Tails turned around as he heard Amy sigh from beside him.

 

“Are you alright?” He asked, tilting his head in a way Amy can only describe as adorable. 

 

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Amy said, looking down at the basket she was picking. It was slightly over half-way full, which was more than Tails could say considering his wasn’t even quarter way full.

 

It was on of those, quite moments, Amy enjoyed having around Tails. The two would go out doing an activity, spending time together, without saying anything... Just enjoying the other's company. 

 

True, it was weird sometimes, wanting to say something to fill the silence; however, at moments like these, the silence was something that fit.

 

The two of them were there picking strawberries for Amy to make her infamous strawberry cake. (Which wasn't really infamous considering Tails claimed to have not tasted it once. Something Amy refused to let past!)

 

“We should do things like this more often,” Amy said with a small smile, looking at the young fox beside her.

 

“Yeah! We should!” Tails exclaimed, raising a fist to the air. “I love doing things like this with you! I wish we could always do things like this together! Too bad we are always stuck trying to stop Eggman…” Tails said, mumbling the last part.

 

Unbeknownst to Tails, Amy actually heard it, and was truthfully thinking the same thing.

 

Amy always wondered how her life would have been if she hadn’t met Sonic on Mushroom Island, and if she didn’t follow him…

 

Would she have been living a normal life? A life like all the girls her age?

 

It was a weird thought she concluded. Sometimes, she was sad that she gave up her chance to live a normal peaceful life… One where she didn’t have to worry about fighting, or about what next robot Eggman would bring next. Nor about whether they would be able to succeed in stopping Eggman’s next plan. Nor about whether this would be the last time she would see her friends laughing in front of her…

 

Other times, however, she was glad that she left it! If she hadn’t followed Sonic, she would never have been able to meet all her friends, or meet out with them, like she was now with Tails…

 

Speaking of the kit, she wondered how it was for him… 

 

He was Sonic’s side-kick… Sonic’s right hand… Sonic’s partner in crime…

 

But… he was still a kid. 

 

Even younger than Amy! 

 

Only seven years old… 

 

He hasn’t even reached his double digits…

 

If it was this hard for Amy, how hard was it for him?

 

Seeing all the kids his age play in playgrounds, and whine over having candy, or because they are forced to do a chore…

 

Tails never got that privilege, as far as Amy was concerned…

 

Amy might not know too much about the kid’s past; however, it was clearly obvious that he wasn’t half as privileged as the other kids his age!

 

Like, this seven (SEVEN) year old goes to fight huge robots, which scare even the bravest of people, without a second thought. And he’s been doing it for so long that it seems to have just become a habit to him… Like it was nothing out of the ordinary…

 

Amy wondered how he felt… 

 

Does he regret staying with Sonic? Giving up his chance of a normal life, to fight against a mad man on a weekly basis at least…

 

“Not really…” Tails whispered, looking down at the tiny strawberry in his hand. 

 

Amy’s head snapped to the kit beside her. Had she said that out loud?

 

“Really? Like… you don’t regret it at all?” Amy asked, hesitating a bit when asking.

 

“Like I said, I don’t think I regret it,” Tails said, finally popping the tiny strawberry he was holding into his mouth. “I mean think about it! If I hadn’t stayed with Sonic, then I wouldn’t have met Knuckles, or Shadow, or Cream, or Charmy, or Vector, or any one else! I wouldn’t have met you! How can I regret meeting you?!”

 

Amy chuckled a bit at his response, before opening her mouth. “But don't you regret giving up your chance of having a normal life? Like, you could have been living with your family if you didn’t stay with Sonic! You could have a lot more friends! A lot more friends your age! You could be stressing about a test, or what you will have for lunch tomorrow rather than what Eggman’s next plan is!”

 

Amy knew she said something wrong when Tails’ ear folded back and his eyes glanced down at the floor.

 

“I wouldn’t be living like that if I hadn’t met Sonic,” Tails whispered, his voice wavering in a way Amy has never heard before.

 

 True, Amy might have known Tails for a long time, but she has never seen him this vulnerable. His feet shifting against each other, hands tightening against the basket he was holding… Tails might not have the same enthusiasm as Sonic when fighting; however, he never ever backed away from a fight, no matter how outnumbered he was. Amy and the group often referred to this as one of the many things he has got from Sonic, much to the youngsters embarrassment.

 

Back on topic, Amy didn’t know what he meant when he said that…

 

What did he mean that he wouldn’t have lived like that? Did he not have parents? Then again, him not having parents would make sense as he lives with Sonic as Sonic’s younger brother, and as far as she was aware they had no parents?

 

Was Tails an orphan? Was that what he was coming at?

 

From experience, Amy knew that the best way to get information and to get people to warm up was to listen. So that’s what she would do.

 

“What do you mean?” Amy asked quietly.

 

“If… I hadn’t met Sonic… I… I wouldn’t be… half as happy as I am now…” Tails said, his eyes glued to the floor, as tears threatened to spill.

 

Amy couldn’t do anything but stare at the kit in front of her. His legs were shaking as they struggled to hold his weight, and his eyes were shut tight in an attempt to block out tears from flooding out. 

 

After using a second to regain her senses, Amy quickly put a hand on Tails' shoulder in comfort.

 

What she didn’t expect, however, was for Tails to flinch, hard, and take a step back in fear, before tripping over his basket, and falling on the ground. Tails then pulled his legs to his stomach and used his Tails as some sort of shield.

 

Amy could hear Tails’ small whimpers, which broke her heart, and made her regret thinking about the whole thing in the first place.

 

“P-P-Please! Pl-please d-don’t hurt m-me! I-I wo-won’t do it ag-again! Pr-Promise!” A meek voice said. It took Amy a second to notice that it was no other than Tails pleaing.

 

Amy immediately went down to her knees, hoping she could help her young friend out.

 

“Hey, Tails, its just me… Don’t worry… I’m here… No one’s going to hurt you!” Sadly, though, Amy’s attempts to calm Tails down were in vain, as the young fox started pleaing louder.

 

Amy then remembered something her parents used to do to her when she was younger…

 

Slowly, and carefully, Amy placed her hand on top of the tiny kit, and slowly moved it back and forth. After a few seconds, Amy could hear his cries quieting down, and she slowly pulled the little kit to her lap, whispering words of comfort. 

 

“Shh… It’s fine… It’s alright… No one’s going to hurt you…” Amy mumbled into the fox’s ear, knowing very well that he could hear her…

 

The little fox just kept crying, though it was in a more hushed tone. As he slowly loosened up, Amy could see his face, which was stained with tears, his eyes barely open, as though to glance at the person holding him.

 

Once Tails realized it was Amy, he quickly wiped off his tears, and hopped out of Amy’s lap, looking at the floor with embarrassed eyes. 

 

“I-I’m su-super s-sorry, A-Amy!” Tails stuttered through gasps, “I-I didn’t me-mean to cr-cry on you! I’m so-sorry for ge-getting your dr-dress w-wet!”

 

Amy stared at Tails for a good second, trying to get a grasp of what was happening. 

 

Tails… was apologizing… for having a breakdown… Although, it was Amy’s fault for bringing it up, without warning. In all honesty, she shouldn’t have boughten the subject up so randomly.

 

“Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong!” Amy said, making sure her voice was softer than normal. The last thing she needed was Tails being scared by her loud voice.

 

Tails continued rubbing his eyes harshly, before opening his mouth and trying to form some sentences.

 

“I-I ru-ruined it! I ruined yo-your day! It- It was su-supp-osed t-to b-be a fu-fun d-day straw- strawb-berry p-picking! A-and I ru-ruined i-it! A-and no-now your dr-dress i-is w-wet t-too! A-and its a-all my f-fault f-for cry-crying!” Tails said, looking as though he was about to have another breakdown. 

 

Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead he stood there, hands pulling on the fur of his Tails…

 

“Hey… Hey… None of that now!” Amy said, guiding Tails’ hands away from his fur, “You don’t have to be sorry! You did nothing wrong! I’m the one who should be sorry! I never should have said anything!”

 

Tails looked up at Amy with wide, questioning eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, only to be shushed by Amy who took on the job of patting his head.

 

The two sat like that for sometime, enjoying the others’ company. Tails slowly leaned in to Amy pushing his head into her chest snuggling into her warmth. 

 

Amy could feel Tails slowly relax in her arms as she slowly placed her chin on top of his furry head.

 

What could have happened to Tails to make him react so bad to that question?

 

What happened in Tails’ past?

 

Just how much does Sonic mean to Tails?

 

What would have happened to Tails if he never met Sonic?

Amy sighed, those were questions for another day… One thing at a time…

 

When the sun started to set, the two friends decided to head back to Sonic and Tails’ place for the night.

 

(Tails argued that they didn’t get nearly half the amount of strawberries Amy needed for her cake; however, Amy quoted him, saying that they would always come back another day to get some more, and that her recipe would work with the amount they have.)

 

With that the two headed off, keeping the other company…

 

One thing Amy knew was that she was going to find out what was going on with her young friend…

 

(After all, she going to have to know everything about him, if he’s going to be her future brother in law~)

[shadamyheadcanons]

((In reference to this story, for some reason.))

This...this pisses me off. I don’t *think* you’re trolling, so I’m choosing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don’t know how rude you’re being.

(I don’t want anyone else to go and harass this person, either.)

First off: my inbox is temporarily closed for a reason. I was feeling burnt out on answering questions. I worked my ass off for that story. I took AGES writing all 6000+ words of it. I was excited when I got a couple replies for it...only to be met with someone insulting my ship and making ignorant claims about characters’ ages.

The reply section is for sharing your thoughts on that post. It’s not there so you can make off-topic criticisms and accusations. I didn’t put in all that effort for free in my spare time in the hopes that random people would waltz in and insult the entire purpose of this blog. You have your own blog for that. The reply section is NOT an inbox.

Now, the age thing. Short answer: No.

Long answer under the cut, because although it took longer than I expected to get my first instance of Shadamy Age Discourse, I want to have all of this in one place in case I get any more of it.

I don’t know which bootleg wiki that number was pulled from, but there has never been one shred of evidence in canon that refers to Shadow as 18. Not a single one. Whoever told you that is either accidentally spreading misinformation or flat-out lying. Always check the source if you’re pulling something from a wiki.

As a side note: some people are calling Shadow 17 right now because when you google “Shadow the hedgehog age,” you get this...

....but that isn’t Shadow’s age, either. It’s the age of the 2005 game named after him. You can see the ages of some other games and the synopsis of ShTH right underneath. People said he was 15 two years ago because of this. I wish Google would format it differently. It gets worse every year. This is a good example of why telling a legitimately curious person to “just google it” is not always a good idea.

As for canon analysis, traditional numbers do not work for Shadow’s age. The official word is that he is ageless. His timeline goes like this:

1. Created 50 years before the events of SA2 by Gerald Robotnik. Gerald is able to enlist the help of Black Doom by promising he’ll deliver him the seven Chaos Emeralds 50 years in the future.

2. Maria seals him in a stasis pod and sends him to Earth, where he’s released 50 years later by Eggman.

3. Black Doom arrives on schedule and demands the Emeralds.

This means Shadow was alive for less than a year on the ARK, yet he was already perfectly capable of having deep thoughts and carrying on full conversations with Maria, as shown in flashbacks. Whether it’s because he’s the ultimate life form or it’s a side-effect of his Black Arms DNA, his chronological age simply doesn’t operate the same way other Mobians’ do. He wasn’t affected by his time in stasis, either; he behaved as if he’d lost Maria yesterday. If he’d been conscious and aging all that time, his psyche would have been broken beyond repair. It’s an Aang/Captain America kind of situation.

So Shadow isn’t a middle-aged man. He’s not an infant. He’s not 17. And he’s definitely not 18. He is canonically ageless.

I personally care more about mental maturity with regards to this. It’s subjective, of course, but my opinion is that he’s mentally about 15, for these reasons:

- Sonic, who’s supposed to be his equal/foil, is 15. Sonic’s rivals are also consistently very close to him in age: Knuckles is 16, Jet is 14, Silver is 14, Blaze is 14, etc. I don’t think Shadow is presented as more mature than Sonic is, either. They typically have valid but opposing viewpoints on how to deal with problems.

- Shadow is often naive and easily manipulated (Gerald in SA2, Black Doom in ShTH, even Eggman if you count Sonic Boom).

- In his self-titled game, he displays various immature behaviors like having mood swings and constantly peppering his speech with minor curses like “damn” and “hell,” as if he’s a typical 14-year-old trying to sound cool and mature on his first day of high school.

Shadamy is fine. A three-year age difference is perfectly normal for adults. Anyone who actually reads that story you replied to will know it takes place many years after current canon. Just like almost all of my headcanons, it focuses on the potential future they have together. They don’t need a relationship right now.

And you know what’s even more important than all of that? Sega recently removed the ages from the characters’ bios on their website. Every single one. This could mean one of two things:

1. Frontiers takes place after a time skip. Sonic’s voice is noticeably deeper, and Ian Flynn seems to know something we don’t:

[Source]

Maybe all the ages will be retconned. It wouldn’t be the first time. Amy was originally 8. Knuckles was originally 15. Rouge was 17 in Sonic Heroes. I assume Sega then realized their “sexy” femme fatale character was a minor, so they panicked and hastily bumped her up to 18, something that will never not be funny to me.

OR...

2. They could be ditching canon ages altogether, which I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to. Some fans feel it was a mistake to include them in the first place, and when you get right down to it, most of them don’t make sense.

- Sonic had a birthday, but his age didn’t change.

- There are basically no adults. Rouge is only 18, but she’s somehow a secret agent who also runs a casino. You have to be 20 to drink, gamble, and enter a casino in Japan! She has to break the law every time she goes in there!

- Jet’s 14, but he leads the Babylon Rogues even though Wave is apparently 18 and Storm is 19.

- Tails is a homeowner. He is eight. Charmy is a professional detective. He is five. These are hilariously nonsensical.

Soooo...yeah. Shadow’s an ageless enigma in a franchise where exact age doesn’t seem to mean anything. You can personally think of him as being one age or another in terms of vague maturity, but you shouldn’t go around nagging real, hardworking people about made-up numbers.

If you’re actually interested in Shadamy, you can read some of my stuff. Try this cute headcanon. Or this AU. Or this little friendship ficlet.

If you don’t like Shadamy and you’re only here to talk down about the ship and my work, then go literally anywhere else on the internet. Up to you.

[timewontwait]

🌀 @boku-no-terios​ said: ★ (generic shadow is fine since we haven't really interacted)        — send me a ★ and I’ll bold what applies to your muse. ( accepting ! )

I like you / I hate you / I dislike you/ I love you / You are family / I would take a bullet for you / I would shoot you / I would lie to your face / I would say something cruel to you on purpose / I would say something cruel to you accidentally / I would cheat on you / I would physically hurt you / You annoy me / You amuse me / I’d laugh at you / I’d laugh with you / I’d manipulate you / You scare me / You confuse me / I wish I knew you better / I trust you / I don’t trust you / You inspire me / I consider you an equal / You are beneath me / You’re better than me / I would trust you with my life / I think you’re mean / I think you’re petty / I think you’re childish / I think you’re smart / I think you’re stupid / I think you’re a bad person / I think you’re a good person / I’m not sure what kind of person you are / I wish you would listen to me / I want to make you proud / I wish you would notice me / I want to impress you / I would hurt other people for you / I’m not sure how to make you happy / I’m a bad influence on you / You deserve better than me / We make a great team / I’d have a one night stand with you / I’d have a relationship with you / I would marry you / I fantasize about our life together / I would trust you with my most treasured belonging / I would tell you my darkest secrets / You disgust me / You intimidate me / I hope I intimidate you / I’d hug you / I’d let you hug me / I’m scared of losing you / I don’t think you like me / I want to be better for you / I respect you / I don’t respect you / You’re my mentor / You’re my friend / You’re my best friend / I have a crush on you / I could easily watch you die / I’d get drunk with you / I’d party with you / I’d comfort you / I’d prank you / I’d spike your drink / I’d act behind your back / I’d abandon you / I’d hurt you to get what I want / I would choose my happiness over yours / I would choose your happiness over mine / I despise how much I care for you / I need you / I’m dependent on you / I don’t know what I’d do without you / I’m scared of you leaving me / I’d give my life for you / You frustrate me / I’d call for you in a time of need / I would protect you / I’d visit you in hospital / I’d carry you if you were hurt / I’d feel guilty if I hurt you / I’d let you be near me when I am vulnerable / I’d ignore a phone call from you / I’d call you at 3am / I’d break you out of jail / I’d get angry at you / I would shout at you / You’re too loud / You’re too quiet / You’re too sensitive / You can’t take a joke / You embarrass me / I feel nothing for you / You’re reckless / You’re bossy / You bore me / I would ask your advice / I would blame you for something I did / I would cry in your arms / You have the power to hurt me more than anyone else /

[theoutcastedartist]

I don’t think I’ll ever be over how amazing your art is! Every time I see it, I’m blown away!

I’m totally freaking out to see what comes next for your Shadows&Lights/ShadowLightAU, and there’s only 3 pages excluding character designs out! (I count cover pages as part of comic pages.) Ever since seeing your character designs for Sonic and Shadow - which by the way, can I say just how much I love their markings? Also, do Sonic’s glow in the dark since he’s “light”? - I was stoked to see how the two’s relationship developed enough to where Shadow realized Sonic’s body is low on energy and gives him a bracelet to help with that.

Also, how do you make your art? Traditional for the concept design and then digital for the touch ups, or is it all digital?

I hope life is treating you well, that the weather in your area is pleasant, and that your sleep schedule is healthy and stays healthy! ^w^

OKAY FIRST OF ALL CAN I SAY HOW MUCH OF A SMILE JUST READING THIS PUT ON MY FACE (literally my jaw and eyes hurt from how hard I smiled lmaoo) 😭😭😭💕💕💕💕

It brings me so much happiness whenever anyone gets excited over my content. Anywho time for me to ramble because I cannot help myself lol

With the markings along Shadow and Sonic's arms and legs, I was inspired by Shadow's quill design. Every time I looked at Shadow, I always thought his quills formed a downwards arrow so I decided to apply that to Shadow's arm + leg stripes and have Sonic's markings point in the opposite direction. The markings, especially Sonic's, were honestly very spur of the moment. Originally, I was planning to give Sonic some really awful scarring underneath the sports tape, which he wouldn't even remember where they came from in the first place (just like the first few years of his life lmao). But my brain literally went "teeheehee shadow is down and sonic is up" so the scarred legs and arms were scrapped.

In the AU, Sonic knows his markings look very unusual compared to the majority of Mobian stripes and fur patterns. The first 5 months of him being "aware", people would stare and comment about how "alien" or "unnatural" the fur looked (especially the giant "17" s on his hands), so he covers them with sports tape

Plus, he doesn't really like his markings to be in his direct line of sight since they also creep him out a bit and force him to think about the fact that he doesn't remember almost the first whole decade of his life, what his name used to be, his incredibly unusual speed... which he is proud of, but still finds it all to be very eerie.

Also Sonic's markings CAN glow in the dark, provided he has enough energy at the base level to do so. One of the ways his body has been able to continue functioning for so long, despite running on what is basically a heavily depleted battery, has been to shut down certain nonessential/non-survival needed functions. This includes a severe decrease in speed and certain other abilities and a lack of glowing along the markings when no light is present.

While Sonic still is the fastest thing alive, he isn't nearly as fast as he used to be at the A.R.K Facility (or when his energy is at a more normal and regulated capacity). He is constantly tired and is frequented by awful nightmares that he can't remember when he wakes up.

But yeah, when Sonic's energy is restored, his markings AND EYES can glow in the dark (he becomes "Sonic the Night Light" lmaoo)

Sonic and Shadow's characteristics are a bit more tweeked in the AU (cause Boom, while I love it, didn't really give me a lot to really go off of, especially Shadow lol) namely, when it comes to their emotional we'll beings:

Sonic in the AU is a lot more emotionally closed off and even goes as far as to deny the existence of his own emotions anytime anyone asks, he doesn't really see a need in himself reaching out to anyone, because what does he have to be sad about (oh boy if only he knew what was coming for him). He always strives to be the picture of a hero with an unwavering resolve, but always offers himself as a shoulder to cry on for his friends. He is good in nature, forgives very easily, and cares for everyone but himself.

Shadow, on the other hand, is more open with his emotions. He sees no real reason to hide them, so much so that he sometimes decides to make it everyone else's problem (hence him being so angry he tried to blow up the universe that one time). Other times, he'll just confident in Rouge. Though Shadow's biggest issue is being unable to let go of certain feelings, namely his festering anger towards the world, and that he holds onto grudges. He is also too afraid to care for others, though Rouge is a start to changing that.

Sonic's unwillingness to acknowledge his own emotions was one of the inital reasons Shadow felt very antagonistic towards him when they first met. This belief being that Sonic had some awful secret to hide, when really Sonic just... doesn't really know what to make of negative emotions, considers them to be unimportant, and therefore doesn't bother reaching out to others.

The relationship between these two is going to be a very interesting one to develop over the course of the comic.

As for how I make my art, it's all digital (with the exception of sketchbook doodles whenever I have a new idea in mind I want to save for reference later, but don't have immediate access to Medibang Paint)

Also in regards to all my digital art and animations, I do it all with my fingers because I keep losing my stylus like an idiot lmao

THANK YOU FOR SENDING IN THIS ASK (and for the well wishes of course!) 💕💕💕

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite? - Part 1: SILVER

There are some heroes I like. And there are some heroes I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a series in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the heroes in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves over the course of time. Two things to keep in mind:

1. These reviews will be focusing mainly on game portrayals. Though alternate media will occasionally be mentioned, it'll be for the sake of adding onto a point if a portrayal is similar enough, or to compare and contrast if a portrayal is different enough.

2. These are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, I decided to challenge myself by starting off with a complicated one. Born from the future, and never content to stay put in said future, it's the saviour whose debut came from the most unfortunate game... Silver the Hedgehog.

The Gist: Once upon a time, in the distant future, there was an idealistic young hedgehog named Silver, gifted with the power of telekinesis for reasons unknown. With his amazing potential, he was truly destined for a wonderful, prosperous li-just kidding, it was shit.

“All two of us.”

For as long as he knew, the world was forever plagued by Iblis, the terrible Flames of Disaster. Cities stood in ruin, flames stood high, the floor was lava... it was a bitter life to be certain, all thanks to Iblis. Not even defeating the titular creature did much good, since it would simply come back to be a shitty boss fight another day. What was he - and his friend, Blaze, a character we definitely never saw before and definitely didn't have a completely different backstory before - to do?

Trust the first person he sees, of course. Even if they look like they might be related to the same Flames of Disaster that he fights so constantly.

If he had eyelids, he'd be winking at the camera.

This mysterious fellow, Mephiles the Dark, informed Silver that if he were to wipe out Iblis for real, he would need to take a trip into the past, and eliminate the root of the problem... Sonic the Hedgehog? That was what Mephiles claimed, yes. What was his proof? There was no proof.

That was good enough for Silver.

Oh look, it's Fleetway Sonic.

After an elaborate series of events, which should sound exciting but really isn't because it was just Silver going “Iblis Trigger grrr” in varying tones of voice, he was finally able to corner the blue hedgehog... twice! And despite having less fighting know-how than the hero who saved the world plenty of times, he effortlessly came close to killing the blue hedgehog... twice!

This looks like a jobbing for...

Why twice? The first time was halted by Sonic's friend Amy Rose, who Silver had met beforehand after she mistook him for Sonic, an understandable mistake that even the keenest of eyes would be forgiven for making.

The second time was also interrupted, this time by Shadow the Hedgehog. There's only room for one controversial non-blue male hedgehog in this franchise, sonny boy. Actually, his reasons were more benevolent than that: he wanted to show Silver the truth about what was going on, by time travelling to the incident that gave birth to Iblis. Why was one able to to this, so long as more than one Chaos Emerald was present? No one knew.

That was good enough for Silver.

“I challenge you to a dumb-off.”

As it turned out, Iblis was one half of a sun god called Solaris, the other half being the aforementioned Mephiles. The Duke of Soleanna wanted to reunite with his late wife by harnessing Solaris' power, which succeeded from a certain point of view since he's dead now too. The resulting blunder split Solaris into two halves. One half was all brawn, with little capacity for intelligence. The other half was Iblis.

Understanding the error of his ways, and after making peace with Sonic, Silver went back to the future to try something different, which consisted of doing the same thing he always did. Luckily for him, the script decided it would work this time, albeit at the cost of Blaze sacrificing herself... Maybe? Sort of? It’s not entirely clear what happened to her, and it’s not like this was the last we ever saw of her.

~La laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, heading to a better game, la laaaaaa~

But ohhhhh nooooo, turns out THAT didn't solve anything either! In the present, Sonic was killed by Mephiles, after the latter realised he should probably do that already if he wanted to make any progress at all with his plan. This incident led to Iblis being brought into the present, and they fused to become the omnipotent Solaris once more. Such power... such divinity... such devastation...

Actually, he was really easy. The antlion from Underground Zone was harder.

Manchild robots - 1, god of time - 0.

With their super forms in tow, Silver, Shadow, and the revived Sonic joined forces to defeat Solaris, with Sonic in particular going the extra step in retconning Solaris out of existence entirely. Since time itself reset, meaning Iblis was no longer a memory, Silver's timeline was given a second chance. What was he to look forward to in this new, promising future?

Shit.

The Design: Let's take a closer look at Silver's appearance, shall we?

Or rather, a certain thing that's wrong with it.

He's holding up fifteen fingers.

Yes, you all know what I'm pointing to: the hairstyle. Let it be known that I'm very aware of the intention behind this design choice. It's supposed to be based on the Japanese Red Maple Leaf, which holds a lot of relevant symbolism for Silver's character. This is a fine idea in theory, and I can respect the intent and the creativity.

But here's the thing: If it looks like a ganja leaf, people are going to say it looks like a ganja leaf. I know some fans will gnash their teeth at me saying this, but the fact of the matter is that intentions and ideas, no matter how good they may be on paper, don't always translate well into the final product. Unleashed Secret Rings Black Knight Sonic '06 in general is certainly no stranger to showcasing examples of that, and Silver's hairstyle is no exception. There are ways to incorporate symbolism in a character’s design without making them look like meme bait in the process, and no amount of “umm ackshually” will change that, I'm afraid.

That said, there's another reason why I'm staying clean of Silver marijuana: it doesn't work for a hedgehog character. With the other hedgehogs, their hairstyles are simple and get the point across: Sonic's goes without saying, Shadow's is more angular to befit a slightly rougher hero, and Amy's is a cute bob cut of sorts. But Silver? Even without the ganja, you've still got the two tentacles making up the back of his head.

I'd rather not be reminded of hentai quills, thanks.

“I thought Crusher-san would like it :’(”

I do find it hilarious that they went through numerous designs for Silver, and this was what they chose to go with. Some of his prototype designs may have fared better had any of them been used instead... but we didn't end up with any of those ones. We ended up with this one, therefore I'm judging this one.

But don’t worry, it’s not all bad with Silver...

The Personality: As far as actual character goes, Silver's personality is as straightfoward as most characters in the series, yet it's no less interesting, because it took a while for it to fully evolve to what it currently is. The seeds of his character - a good-natured yet awkward and rather insecure kind of guy, who doesn't fully understand how the present time works - have always been there, but it was often downplayed in earlier titles due to him being hungry for Iblis Trigger blood... or being an arsehole for no reason.

Although to be fair, everyone in Rivals is an arsehole for no reason.

Eventually though, after the writers gave him a Snickers, these traits got more opportunity to shine. Mostly in side media admittedly, but it's been noted in the games as well. With no Iblis to angst over, he's proven to be a surprisingly bubbly chap, who just wants to know how you're all doing, fellow anthro kids. And whereas his naivety was previously used for intended tragedy to benefit the evil plan of a guy who thought taking the -istoph- out of Mephistopheles would make him inconspicuous, now it's been used for a bunch of low-key contexts that do a much better job at endearing him to the player.

Finally, something I can relate to.

Hell, he even seems to have learned from the Mephiles incident, as he was quick to make it clear to the next shadowy deep-voiced anthro with demonic eyes he met that he wasn't gonna fall for any of them fibs no more, ya hear?

“YouTube and Twitter don’t count.”

All in all, it works well enough, in my opinion. His personality does pave the way for some funny and wholesome moments, and since they’re no longer trying to build him up like he’s Shadow 2.0, he's nowhere near as much of a tool as he was before. So I guess you could say... I like it?

Does this mean I can say that I like the character as a whole then, design and '06-induced idiocy aside?

Well, not quite...

The Execution: This is where the complication part comes into play. We know now that I like his personality, not so much his design, but that's only the half of it. It would be more accurate to say that I like his personality... and dislike everything else.

Aside from that, obviously.

For starters, the creation process for his character and story was summed up with, in their own words, “Think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z”. So he comes off as rather lazy and uninspired. Now I'm not expecting my Sonic characters to be 100% unique, there's always going to be similarities to other franchises no matter what you do, even if subconsciously or by complete coincidence. Taking inspiration in itself is no big deal at all.

But... was that it? Copying a DBZ character to such a blatant extent? Was there no other thought put into it?

Naturally, this ties into an overarching problem: the franchise's mid-00's habit of trying way too hard to be the anthro Dragon Ball Z. Sonic has had DBZ influences since the early days, with the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic, but it didn't assimilate itself into every waking aspect of his universe. It was merely an additional flavor that added to the complete package, in the same way that a Death Star with a moustache didn't mean the franchise was suddenly Star Wars the Hedgehog.

But come the turn of the millenium, nearly every main title in the series ended with Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow saving the day, while everyone else either stood around being useless, or only helping in ways that no one actually cares about. Including the in-universe President apparently, since only Sonic and Shadow were featured in the photo on his desk.

Amy smiled. “I guess the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, huh?”

This reached its peak with - of course - Sonic '06, with Silver in particular being an obvious result of this then-ongoing trend. And yes, it would be unfair to use him as a scapegoat, considering it was already a problem long before he turned up. But moreso than even Shadow, it's an era that Silver is forever a relic of, for better or for worse.

But it doesn't stop there. Since Silver is considered a mainstay character, his gimmick of being from the future also creates problems of its own, because in order for him to make further appearances, he keeps turning up for little explained reason, and thus he suffers the Deadly Six problem of being shoved into places where he doesn't belong, for fanservice's own sake. Take Sonic Colours DS for example, where he went back in time JUST to check out Eggman's theme park... Okay...?

On one hand, I’d visit it too, since it's made by Eggman. On the other hand, I’d stay clear of it, since it's made by Eggman.

And when there IS a justification with more weight to it? It's just recycling the '06 routine of trying to avert his ruined future, which isn't much better. The cause may differ depending on the story, but if his future is a permanent shitehole for one reason or another, he might as well cut out the middle man and stay in the present altogether, since that's where his friends are anyway. But they seem intent on not doing that, despite the future schtick being a noose around his neck at this point.

In hindsight, maybe this was a hint to how the rest of the arc would turn out.

And then there's his dynamic with a certain purple cat... No, not Big. The other one.

“I’m here, by the way.”

Simply put: I don't like this dynamic. At all. Or rather, I don't like how they keep milking it. Blaze's backstory was radically changed to justify her presence in Silver's future, and it really shows, since she barely even shows up half the time, as if the developers themselves forgot she was in the game. But her backstory has since been restored to her original alternate dimension interpretation, so hanging around with the grey hedgehog is all good now, right?

To be brutally honest, I probably wouldn't care for this dynamic regardless. But I would be more willing to tolerate it, and I'd refrain from groaning every time they're seen together... if they weren't intent on playing it up so much in spite of '06 being wiped out, sometimes with a bit of commentary involving their thoughts and memories, which only succeeds at making things more confusing. If Blaze is around, Silver will be nearby, and if he's not at first, he will be soon enough. This franchise does have a problem in general with restricting who's allowed to interact with who (I personally believe Sonic Heroes may have led to this, or at least it accelerated it), but I'd argue it's at its most insufferable here, with Blaze's potential and her entire world taking a backseat to being the sidekick of Ganja Man.

And you might say “Well, it's part of the franchise now, so you'll just have to accept it”. To which I ask: Have you accepted Two Worlds? Have you accepted Solo Sonica? Have you accepted Sonic's friends not doing much as of late?

Yeah. That's what I thought. “It’s just how it is” doesn’t mean you can’t criticise it.

Meanwhile, Marine is lucky enough to get so much as a shout out.

So yeah, I have quite an extensive list of grievances involving poor Silver. But... very little of it has to do with him, right? They're all indirect problems that he just so happens to be linked to, as opposed to someone like Chris Thorndyke, who is genuinely a shit character through and through. This is more comparable to Tails being bitchy in Lost World, or Amy being manipulative in Chronicles, or Sonic being a smug dumbass in IDW, or Shadow not wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Boom. Frustrating, regrettable, but not really the character's own fault.

Yet even after all that, there's one last kick in the teeth... How do you fix all this? And how do you fix it when he's since gained a sizable fandom, many of whom like him for these very attributes? If you leave it as it is, you're stuck with this big, awkward mess that everyone pretends to ignore. If you try to do something about it, you'll get complaints about disrespecting the True Silver Spirit, and you’ll get questions about why you didn't create a new character instead... And if you did use a new character for the sake of a clean slate, THEN you'd get complaints about not using Silver.

It's a tough call to be sure, and it's such a shame because like I said, I do appreciate his personality, so I can't say he's bad outright. But with all this... clutter, I can only put him in the average category. So, in he goes.

Crusher Gives Silver a: Thumbs Sideways!

Well, I'm glad this one's out of the way. Putting my thoughts into words with Silver was harder than it should have been. I do slightly regret starting this series off on a rather downer note, but rest assured, it's a lot more positive from this point onwards, since while I have higher praise for some heroes more than others, the hero characters as a whole fare a lot better than the majority of villains not named Eggman.

I guess you could say that I hope to show why Sonic's friends aren't as shitty as the haters would suggest. ;)

[popculturebuffet]

Animation Reviews: OK KO: Red Action 3: Grudgement Day

Whelp I said i’d do all three in one day and I MEANT IT. And I may do it again just to stay on schedule in the future, but for now i’m just proud and exausted to have gotten this done. And after a rather “eh it has some things but it’s mostly just there” episode” we’ve come to our last episode and my personal faviorite, Red Action 3: Grudgment day. Also as a quick note I forgot red was actually a major part of “I hope this thing flies” back in my first review, but I probably would’ve left it out as while the plot is her racing with Rad, it’s entirely a rad episode, and like plaza prom which I had to realize wasn’t important, isn’t really necessary.  One last where we are in the series thing. We’re in season 3 and as I mentioned last time, RIGHT before the final episodes and one episode before the three part final arc and unrelated but beautiful epilogue that closes out the series. I didn’t go into my throughts on season 2 but it was good, the ending was just a  really sloppy end to an otherwise good arc that i’ll get to. Season 3 is somehow even better, using it’s shorter run time to tie up loose ends and character arcs left and right and , after trying all series to do it, crossing over with Sonic the hedgehog, another thing for another time, and the final episodes, both the wrap up to the story arc “Let’s fight ot the end” and the wonderful where are they now epilouge “Thank you for watching the show”, are absolutley amazing and how you end a show.. and thankfully endings of this calibur became the trend this year given that same year star vs ended terribly and the bad taste is still in my mouth over that one but that’s a story for another bunch of reviews. The point is as I said the crew used the time wisely and wrapped up most ongoing character and story arcs that needed resolution. And given they spent two episodes on it the team decided to pull the pin on red and enid getting together, and solve one dangling issue the fans likely had all in one go. IT’s grudgment day under the cut. 

We open with Rad and Red arguging and KO looking at them in a way that just screams:”Third mom, Rad, please stop fighting”  Enid comes in and wonders why one of her two best friends and her girlfriend are fighting. She dosen’t use the term but given the kiss at the end of the episode, more on that when we get to it, the general way Enid acts about this and the way Red acts around her this ep.. their a couple at this point.  I do wish they had an episode of them becoming offical, adressing Enid and Elodie.. bucnhes of other things but I concede that the crew was blindsighted by having a smaller season and had they you know NOT BEEN CANCELED FOR NO GOOD GOODAMN RESAON, we might have gotten more renid and more stories and a full on steven universe crossover with both sides. But I digress.. CN’s managment is terrible right now... but that’s not the reason for this article so we’re moving on.  Anyways Enid wants to know why their so pissy when she arrives, and Red .. is in the right this time. Showing her growth while she still got heated with rad.

Rad did at least start it, as she simply came in to take enid jelly surfing and was kind enough to ask him to come along.. and KO implictly given he’s there and their buds now and all that. But when rad insults her again she quits the explaning and goes right back to arguing with him while Enid and KO look on awkwardly. Then Red decides to go into a mocking impression of rad, which is not NEARLY as mean as it could’ve been given the guy has canocially, had a super virus get worse because he refused to get rest something the villian that gave it to him was COUNTING on as part of his evil scheme, was left on the floor in pain over his cocoa being too hot, and once confused his 6-11 year old friend for a doppleganger despite having GIVEN said friend his nametag, though to be fair red’s own best friend also thought he was rad and gave him her number, so everyone was kind of dumb that day but still, the point is she has a LOT of ammo. In contrast Rad STARTS light saying she says words like Cowabunga (she only does once at the end of this ep and has not at any time).. before saying Enid deserves someone better and flinging her surfboard... which Crinkly Wrinkly jumps on and crashes into a wall because of course he does.  Anyways Enid is offended at this and reveals rad’s been acting like a raving dickhead to Red anytime she shows up, which were this season 1 would be on brand but after 3 seasons of becoming a better person and an episode earlier this season where he rejected his dudebro friends once and for all, who by the way: Beefer and Mega Football Baby are the worst and I hate them and i’m greatful that their final apperance is rad realizing what a bad influence they’ve been and telling their asses off for their toxic masculinity. But I will however give OK KO credit as their SUPPOSED to be obnoxious, and the crew still dialed back hteir apperances to almost nothing when they realized it went horribly right, versus Rusty whose still mildly to massively annoying, but has yet to be fixed or removed from LIncoln’s crew, despite the show having a good track record for taking problematic characters and fixing them. And i’ve gotten entirely offf topic because all three of them piss me off so much, so let’s move on.  Where were we.. ah yes, since Rad being a dickhead this consisently is now an exception not the rule, Enid rightfully demands to know why and Rad.. makes up two very petty, weak and obviously pulled out of his butt to try and cover the real reason up reasons for his actions: Red didn’t follow him back on Social Media, which is both a website and what the website is in this universe apparently which Is brilliant, and that she took the last bit of cake at prom... you know after he realized he was screwing it up and fixed it all with a homoerotic dance fight. Plaza Prom is amazing. When pressed because Rad fired his stupid friends, Rad hastily challenges red to a power battle, which I haven’t had to cover yet: Basically a hero can challenge another hero to a fight, usually for respect, to settle a grudge or who took the last bagle, and it’s a socially accepted thing called a power batttle. Really given it seems like KO’s world has not had a hero civil war, and the one time we’ve seen heroes on heroes outside of these things has been when POINT was acting shady as fuck and thus needed to be stopped, it seems like a resonable mesure, especially since most heroes just.. shrug off damage from battles and stuff after a bit.  Unable to convince her girlfriend not to punch her best friend in the face, however much he deserves it, Red gives enid her belt with her time capusles inside, so they don’t go off mid fight and gives her an air kiss. Awww. Enid bemoans the fact this is happening for such dumb reasons when KO relaizes they can just use the belt to fix what once went wrong and end this petty fight before rad dies.  First stop, the Bodega a few months ago, which KO proves both by the fact they have mean beans, which theys topped selling months ago and is one of the single best refrences this show did and it’s done a LOT, and the social media feed being from months and months ago, with Beefer bragging elodie beat him up. Ewwwwww.... I don’t wnat to kjnow what he’s into. Gah gotta scrub my brain. ONe brain scrub later Rad needs only one more follower to 100. I hear when you get 100 this happens. 

Rad asks for a follow for follow from Red, who says she dosen’t have her phone. Enid is sure she’s lying, which she is, and follows Rad for her. Also I love rad’s file photo

Seriously they use this any time they need a picture of him. It’s one of the series best runners and is only topped by homer simpsons various terrible ones and this gravity falls masterpiece as being the best stock photo used for a character.

I will use this any time I have an excuse to and I have no shame about that. Anyways they go back but

As things have only gotten more heated at the power battle, so they try the prom to see if that’ll help.  Cue PROM. Seriously why they never did a second Plaza Prom episode is really beyond me. Lot of potetinal with that concept.. plus I like episodes that put tons of cast, main and supporting, in one event together, ever since venture bros. It’s always a fun time. Anyways, Enid wants to stop a paradox but KO has already interacted with his past self.. which is the KO enid’s talking to and a great gag.  So the two seeing Rad and Red both about to go for the cake decide to pull a destraction: Enid goes over and talks to Red to hold her off and get the cake to rad, while KO does what any sane person would do: Jumps onto Rad’s face while yelling rad I love you, and Rad is clearly more annoyed he’s on his face and this has very obviously happened before. .... I miss this show.  Anyway after giving the explination that she’s a shadow clone to explain why her past self is still up there DJing, she offers to dance and the two have a good cute time until enid gets the cake into rad’s mouth and bolts.. and now we get the thing I hinted at earlier. Red talks to the other Alley Teens about it, and notes that while she dosen’t know Enid she kinda likes her.. then backpedals as the teens make faces but are clearly not fooled by they all look really creepy especially Gregg. 

WHelp I have ny nightamres for tonight. But yeah this is implied to be what got Red to ask her out in the first place. Time travel is weird and inconsietent. This does give me a chance to adress the fact that the alley teens.. sorta stopped beiing a thing eventually. I mean their stillf riends as of the season 2 openoer but red and drupe show up for their own eps or supportingroles while Gregg just kinda vanishes, poor person. That being said given this interaction and how close they were I DO think their still friends; I mean gregg and drupe was confirmed by the flash forward as they visit rad’s cafe, but Red would still be their friend, they just all likely have more stuff to do as they grow older: by the end of season 2 Drupe has a buisness and gregg is probably in college. But I expect Drupe would be Red’s best woman at her wedding. I mean gregg would probably be her best person but still. Anyways they return to the present again and.

Yeah that. Their now battling in cars and Enid decides to cut the bullshit and just ask Rad why he’s pissed at Red, asking Red to pause the fight, which she agrees to.  KO and Enid throw rad int he back of his van tied up and ask him to be honest about why he’s so pissed off. After some dithering he says he lo.. lo.. and instead of saying he loves enid, thank god i’m so sick of love triangles, may they die in a fire, like the episode hinted at it’s a swerve. and unlike a vince russo swerve which ends in A “Buff Bagwell’s mother on a forklift match”.. no really

This is actually a great one: Rad’s fully moved on and I like that, evne if the finale does leave it vauge if those bodegamen at the end are theirs or not, given Rad’s her best friend by the end and she and red would need a surrogate, it’s not a huge stretch to say Rad sperm donored for them and is still a beloved uncle and figure in their lives. Anyways the point is Rad’s real beef is.. suprisingly sweet. Turns out Rad’s still pissed at the whole “Teens humilating, burning and spanking” ko thing and Red posting it online. Which is likely to adress the fact they.. never adressed that and was a good call and a good way to show rad’s growth: he’s not jealous , he’s not mad she’s taking up enid’s time, he’s mad that his best friend is dating someone who beat up his other best friend for just trying to help them then put it online for a cruel laugh. Granted Drupe did the same thing and he not only danced with her but is on good terms with her to this day, but odds are given they see her more and she’s in fact the designer for their mission outfits in season 3, she probably apologized off screen while Red figured KO forgiving her was good enough and just wanted to forget it, running away from things as usual. IT speaks to the diffrence in their personality: Red runs hot is stubborn and takes time to admit she’s wrong, Drupe is very chill and as the series goes on very nice, and probably wanted to get it out of the way asap given she frequents the bodega more often, either in the background or foreground.  Anyways after KO reveals he actually enjoys the video as a treasured memory of when he first met the alley teens, disturbing his friends, seriously this kid needed to remerge with his edgelord side yikes, Enid gives rad a headpat and kudos for being normal and Enid decides to take all of them to go fix this.  Back in the past we’re back at the bullying and before past red can post, present red explains she should stop and after clarfying this isn’t an end of the world situation, not an unfair assumption given you know time traveler, she reveals it’s for someone unimportant.. but whose important to someone they care about, and that what they were doing was a terrible thing they’ll be ashamed of anyway. It’s a good scene that shows how far red’s come: from pushing everyone but two people awaya nd treating most like garbage in a vain attempt to avoid being who she used to be, to accepting it, finding love, and becoming friends with someone she hurt and accepting she hurt him. Rad is also clearly moved seeing that Enid did indeed choose wisely. Back in the present. 

... NO not this time. No instead red and rad are pals, talking about how shredded they are and what not, and while Enid finds it annoying, understandably, she’s glad their not trying to kill each other and dosen’t have to buy Rad’s gravestone or visit her girlfriend in prison. In the alterted timeline, which their also aware of by rad’s comment, time travel just go with it, they were already planning on going jelly surfing and invite enid, and implictly ko along. 

So we end on our main trio and Red jelly surfing, Enid and Red sharing a board before wiping out, laughing about it and then, as if you hadn’t already seen the header but fuck it. 

Yup. The subtext just became.. text. Awww. In case you were wondering, I do like them as a couple, especially after this quintology, as it’s made me realize just hwo much they click and how much chemistry they have, and by this point their just adorable, their drama gone and they can just be happy and gay together. And that’s something cartoons are doing more of and tha’ts wonderful and it’s wonderful that, with all else he had to wrap up, Ian felt confirming the gay couples lasted was extremley important, as two others are shown married in the finale. And we’ll get to the finale more in a bit, but first Rad floats by with an “I support this”, to approving smiles, and enid thinking he’s a weirdo. Also I love the meta text of having a character voiced by the shows creator say that.  KO however is sad that the video is gone but ENid says the memories will last. Rad is understandably not sad about it suggests they make new ones and we end on our quintent taking a selfie together. THE END. Before final thoughts, this wouldn’t however be the last we saw of them. The finale has a bit more as it flashes forwards a bit: the relevant part is one shows Enid take over KO’s mom Carol’s dojo. with red, the two kissing again and alllooking over some supsciously familiar kids who look supsciously like the hue troop, but are probably there great grandparents. While Red dosent’ show up again after that, and could’ve gone back to the future eventuallyf or all we know, I like to think she stayed, and that as noted above, she and enid had kids together with Rad’s help given the similar looking kids we see running the bodega... which admitely was kept vauge by Ian on purpose so fans could draw their own inclusion so that’s the one i’m drawing; rad is still there for them aand still family to them, but isn’t with Enid in a romantic sense, if you think diffrently that’s fine. But My ending is these two crazy kids worked it out and are now happy ever after. and that ain’t bad.  Final Thoughts: A fantastic episode with TONS of great jokes, call backs and a great resolution , showing off Rad and Red’s character development greatly,f ixing a possible plot hole and giving fans the kiss that many of them had wanted for some time. ONe of the series best I can’t gush enough about it but I shall stop for your benifit. If you liked this review, subscribe for more, check out the backlog via the convient pages on my blog, and shoot me an ask, wether it’s to suggst an episode or just to ask me about my opinons or yell about them or ask what I think about certain shows or what i’ll cover. And until next time, later days. 

[mobius-prime]

216. Sonic the Hedgehog #148

Hey, nice cover art! For those who aren't familiar, it's drawn using the same style as the art from the little-appreciated Gameboy Advance game Sonic Battle. It's always interesting when the comics imitate the art style of one of the games for a little while as a kind of lowkey advertisement.

The Good, the Bad & the Unknown (Part Three): Genesis

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

We open not in the underground facility where all the action is taking place, but in Knothole, as Dylan delivers a message to Sally about how the Freedom Fighters haven't been answering any communications for the past hour. Oh, hey, Dylan, long time no see! We haven't seen the members of the Substitute Freedom Fighters in a while, now that I think about it. Shame, I always liked them. Anyway, Sally is highly concerned upon hearing of the loss of contact, and orders Dylan to bring Sonic's father Jules to the court immediately. Back in the facility, Tommy rushes off to find a way to help Rotor, Bunnie, and Fiona while leaving Tails behind to man the monitor room. Tails finds Sonic on the monitors, who is currently lying winded on the ground where he fell after the floor dropped. He hears a loud rumbling, and hops up in time to dodge an incoming train car, since it turns out he landed on some tracks for an underground rail system. Shadow isn't far behind, approaching Sonic rapidly, but Sonic decides he's going to turn the tables and fight on his own terms, hopping onto one of the passing cars (which is really more like a high-tech mine cart than anything). Shadow stops, catching up to Metal Sonic and Isaac and wondering why Sonic would use the train car to travel if he can run faster than it at his highest speeds, and neither of the two robots have an explanation.

I think that's literally the first time anyone in the entirety of the comic so far has actually acknowledged out loud that Robotnik is just Kintobor backwards. I mean, it's kind of obvious if you look at the name for more than two seconds, but no one's ever actually said it. While this is going on, Tommy arrives at the corridor where the other three teammates are being electrocuted, and searches around frantically for a way to save them without getting caught in the electricity himself. After finding a random leather glove, he hits a circuit box, hoping it will help.

This is where things get a little jumbled. Tails finds Sonic on the monitors, as well as the two pursuing robots close behind him, and becomes fascinated by the conversation that Metal Sonic and Isaac get into. Their conversation continues in the background of the next several pages, so instead of trying to describe it interspersed with the rest of the action I'll just summarize it here. Isaac explains that he was created by one Dr. Ivan Kintobor, who was born in 2006 - yes, our 2006, only a few decades before the Xorda dropped the gene bombs on Earth. Ivan anticipated the Xorda's genocidal response to the capture and dissection of one of their own by the humans, so he designed Isaac to be able to function in a post-apocalyptic environment before sealing himself away in a stasis pod. Isaac bore firsthand witness to the results of the gene bombs, which, contrary to their intention to kill all humans without disturbing the planet's ecosystems, threw tons of volcanic ash and dust into the atmosphere, transforming the planet's surface forever. As mentioned before, this was the first "Day of Fury" recorded by the echidnas, and over the next thousand years, humans devolved into the Overlanders we know today (though how losing one finger and nothing else counts as "devolving" I have no clue), while their residual DNA mixed with that of various ordinary animals, who consequently had their own evolution accelerated into Mobiankind. When Ivan, from his pod, learned that societies were emerging from the newly-created Mobian species, he ordered Isaac to chronicle important historical events of the planet in addition to scientific data. Not long after the sun finally burned through the rest of the ash and dust in the air, the energy from the gene bombs, having finally absorbed deep into the planet's crust, reacted with beryl deposits to create… the Chaos Emeralds! Yes, interestingly enough, this is the backstory of the Chaos Emeralds in the comics. But wait, remember how Sonic encountered red Chaos Emeralds on another planet during Tossed in Space? All I can imagine from that is that Earth must not have been the first planet the Xorda used their gene bombs on - it makes sense, as the other species of the galaxy are clearly terrified of them for some reason - and thus, there are slightly different versions of Chaos Emeralds on other planets that the Xorda have targeted before.

Anyway, Isaac explains all this to Metal Sonic as Sonic continues to ride his train car to get away from Shadow and the two robots. He tries to contact Tails for help, but Tails is caught up in listening to the impromptu history lesson over the monitors, and thus Sonic is attacked from behind by Shadow. He manages to throw him off by abruptly stopping his car, and abandons the vehicle while Shadow is still stunned from the impact to run down another side corridor, shutting the door behind him. Rotor, also listening to the audio feed as he, Bunnie and Fiona race to meet up, asks Tails if he's recording this, but Tails doesn't have time to figure out if he can download a recording form the computers' systems, as Shadow is quickly approaching Sonic's hiding place.

The three finally meet up, and Shadow directs them to the door Sonic has taken refuge behind, trying to deadlift it open. Isaac says frankly that if Sonic has gone in that particular room, he's dead, but Shadow replies that Sonic tends not to die even in the face of otherwise-mortal danger, lifting the door and calling in that he just wants to talk. Wait, what? Shadow, this entire time you've been beating on Sonic for no good reason, and now you want to try to talk things out? Sonic is clearly as skeptical as I am, immediately darting out to hit Shadow in the face once his hiding place is discovered, but at that moment everyone is distracted by an ominous new sight - the room Sonic was hiding in is in fact a gigantic launch base for a missile, whose thrusters have just fired… Wait, now I'm even more confused! How the hell did Sonic hide in that room for a good minute without somehow noticing the huge flaming missile behind him?! Ah, whatever, this is Penders, we already know his stories don't make much sense.

Playing Around

Writer/Pencils: Nelson Ribeiro Colors: Jason Jensen

Time for some more silly stuff! Apparently, the Freedom Fighters (along with a few other of their allies) have decided to put on a play for some of the younger children of Knothole, about one of their missions against Eggman. Sally isn't in the play, leading Rosie to question who will be playing her if not, well, her, but Sally just giggles and tells her to wait and see as Sonic and Tails come out to welcome the kids to their play. Before Sonic can even get his final words out a spiked mitt emerges from behind the curtain to drag him backstage, and we see none other than Knuckles in an auburn wig and blue vest and boots, furiously reminding Sonic that the only reason he's doing this is for the kids, and otherwise he would be clobbering Sonic into the ground right now for even suggesting this crazy scheme. Oh, boy, this should be good…

So, who exactly is playing who in this production? It opens with Knuckles-Sally in "her" room in Knothole, when Geoffrey, played by Bunnie, arrives to warn of an impending attack on the castle. Knuckles-Sally, barely able to contain his disdain for this whole affair, uses Nicole, played by Archimedes, to call Uncle Chuck for help, but just then, Eggman, played by Big the Cat, and Snively, played by Tails, burst in and capture the two to roboticize them. Wait, if Tails is playing Snively, then who is playing Tails? Why, Rotor of course, being laboriously held aloft by ropes controlled by Jules, Mighty, and Espio from the rafters. He and Sonic (played by, well, Sonic - guess we know who got the most preferential treatment during casting) are relaxing in Knothole when Uncle Chuck, also played by himself but sporting various kitchenware all over his body to suggest a roboticized form, rushes in to warn them of Knuckles-Sally's capture. Rotor-Tails flies Sonic to Robotropolis, where the two prepare to attack Eggman, Snively, and a shadow-bot played by Vector. Also, we get some convenient sound effects, courtesy of Amy Rose!

With Knuckles-Sally rescued, Sonic embraces "her" and goes in for a kiss, and well, let's just say he's really in the spirit of the role, with Knuckles having to warn him away from actually kissing him through clenched teeth, that is unless he's ready to redeem that promise of a clobbering. Oh, come on Knuckles, we all remember how you said quite a few issues ago how you didn't want to have to deal with girls and would rather only hang around boys - accept your gay side, my dude! Smooch that 'hog!

Destiny's Child

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Tim Smith 3 Colors: Jason Jensen

Tim Smith… 3? I'm so confused by this name. Do they perhaps mean Tim Smith III, as in, he's the third person in his family named Tim Smith? Or is there just a hidden cloning facility in the back of the Archie Comics headquarters that occasionally churns out extra Tim Smiths to draw for random issues of their comics?

Tails is hanging out alone by a pond at the outskirts of Knothole Village one afternoon, and it turns out that though he's kept quiet about it, he's extremely frustrated at the knowledge that even though his parents are alive somewhere on the other side of the galaxy, no one seems to be rushing to actually go and rescue them. Suddenly, Athair's disembodied head appears floating in front of him, speaking cryptically about how the hour of the Chosen One draws near or whatever. Tails isn't impressed, and confronts him about the whole Chosen One thing, that by now multiple different people have talked to him about it and he was even kidnapped and held hostage for months by Mammoth Mogul over it, yet no one will actually tell him what this supposed prophecy even refers to. He asks if everyone knows about this but him, and honestly, I don't blame him one bit for being upset - not even us readers know what the hell the prophecy is all about, and we're normally given behind the scenes info like, all the time!

Oh, about time someone informs Tails that he has other family still left on the planet! Seriously, this kid has believed he was an orphan all his life, and yet Merlin never thought to, you know, contact him and reassure him he still had an uncle? Athair recounts the exact hostage situation with Mogul from before, how it occurred when Tails was in transit to help Knuckles back then, and Tails waves him off, saying that Sonic already told him everything that happened while he was captured. He demands an explanation, but Athair simply fades from view, leaving him frustrated and alone by the water once more. However, Athair's voice echoes back to him after a moment, urging him to be patient, as soon he'll finally know what all this is about… and about time, too, this has been going on since literally the first era of the comic with no resolution in sight.

[ask-the-phan-site]

The Vain Emperor of the Track

>It’s time.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

This has been a long time waitin’. I can’t wait!

Same here. He’ll pay for what he’s done.

Playing with two people’s hearts like that is unforgivable. It’s time for him to face the fist of justice!

Then we’re off! Let the race begin!

>Mona becomes our van.

Let’s race!

Here we go!

>With that, we go on our way to take Trey Sterling’s heart.

>The penthouse overlooking the track is were very special guest to the school usually stay. This time, Sterling Sterling and his son, Trey, were staying here. They were trying to remain as calm as they can after receiving our calling card this morning.

I’m sure the police are doing whatever they can to get to the bottom of this. Don’t worry, son.

I’m sure, Dad. I’m not that worried... Although, these Phantom Thieves are quite tenacious... Especially the one called Crow.

Mr. Sterling: Now, now, things will be fine. Right now, you should get some sleep. We’ve got a lot to do later on. Good night.

Trey: Good night.

>Mr. Sterling goes off to his room while Trey stayed in the study. Everything was quite... Until...

?????: Good, we don’t want Daddy getting in the way.

Trey: !

>A red wave passes over. When it was done, the study had been replaced with a podium, a place where the Roman Emperor would sit in the Colosseum. Outside, the the track of the Colosseum of Vanity was roaring with excitement... And Trey had been replaced with his Shadow.

Shadow Trey: You have arrived.

You bet we did! And we’re here to win!

Shadow Trey: I’d like to see you try.

Believe us. We will.

Shadow Trey: Very well. To the track!

>With that, Shadow Trey leaves.

Okay, so we all remember the plan, right?

While Trey’s Shadow is distracted by his race with Zack, Joker, Panther, Queen, Crow, Wolf, Speed, X, Slice, and Dice, we will sneak the Treasure away before anyone notices. That’s pretty much it.

Lucy: Exactly.

Carmen: Good to hear. I still wish Player could be here. Or at least have contact with him.

Sorry, Red, but in the Metaverse, the only hacker you have is yours truly.

And we’re all happy that you’re here, Oracle.

We’re all counting on you.

Good luck today, Oracle.

Oracle: Thanks, you guys.

Me, Oracle, Connor, Chim-Chim, and Lucy will be in the pits over the radio.

I will join you as well. If anything happens to Joker, I want to be able to help.

Joker: Thank you, Fox. Wish us luck.

Then let’s get to it! Are we ready?

Everyone: Ready!

*Chirp*

>With that, we go our separate ways. Me, Fox, Panther, Queen, Crow, Wolf, Slice, Dice, Speed, X, Zack, Oracle, Lucy, Conor, Chim-Chim, and Ivy go to the track while Mona, Skull, Noir, Violet, Sophie, and Carmen go to retrieve the Treasure.

>Out on the track...

Oracle: Okay, Lucy, Conor, and Chim-Chim prepped the Mach 6, the Shooting Star, and Duel Aces and Ivy prepped Lydia (Zack’s car). So I did some tuning of my own.

Really? I can’t wait to see it.

>Just then, a large trailer was being pulled up to us... by a small car.

Hi, everyone! It’s been a while!

Panther: (happy) Jose, it’s good to see you again.

Zack: (confused) You know this kid?

Queen: Yes, he’s a friend of us.

Oracle: With a little technical know-how and the power of cognition, I managed to fix up some vehicles just for you. I didn’t want to store them in the garages here out of fear someone would sabotage them and they can’t really exist outside the Metaverse, so I asked Lavenza if I can store them in the Velvet Room. I also asked Jose to bring them here.

Jose: They look pretty good. Not as good as my ride, but still, nice machines.

>We go to the back of the trailer and Oracle opens them. Inside are four cars. One car had an Arsene-like design, the second had a Carmen-like design, the third had a Robin Hood-like design, and the fourth had a Valjean-like design.

WOW! These look so cool, Oracle!

Oracle: (smirking) That’s not all. Each of your cars also has a special feature. Joker, your car, Phantom Flyer, has a grappling hook with wires strong enough to pull the car or other things. Conor even helped me with laser sawblades. Use with care.

>I get in the Phantom Flyer. I drive it to the front of Jose’s car and fire the grappling hook at it. With ease, I manage to pull both Jose’s car and the trailer a decent 10 feet. Then, I activate the laser sawblades and Jose takes out a cinderblock. He moves it towards the sawblades and the block is cut with ease.

This is awesome, Oracle.

Oracle: Panther, your car, Flaming Kitty, has the same cloaking technology the Mach 6 and the Shooting Star have. But aside from that, it can also change its appearance to look like anything. Even other cars. It also has flamethrowers.

>Panther drives the car out. When she activates the cloaking technology, it becomes invisible. Then, it reappears as the Mach 6, then the Shooting Star, and then as Lydia before changing back. Next, she activates the flamethrowers which perfected roasted some marshmallows Jose just happened to have.

I wish I could show my mom! She would love this!

Oracle: Crow, your car, Freedom’s Strike, has the same camouflage technology like Panther’s. It can also shoot arrows and lasers and it also has sawblades both steel and laser.

>Crow drives the car out. It shot a few arrows and lasers into a target Jose set up. Then, Crow activates the laser sawblades and cuts a cinderblock. Then, the car changes its Robin Hood-like design to a Loki-like design. Then, steel sawblades come out and cuts the target in half.

(changing the car back to its original design) Quite amazing, Oracle. You know me all too well...

A little too well for my taste.

Yeesh, I think all that time you spent undercover really messed you up.

Either that or the connection made between you and the target.

Oracle: Now, Wolf, your car, Howling Silver, is built like a tank and is virtually indestructible. Even a wrecking ball can’t destroy it. And it has sonic canons for blasting your way through just about anything.

>Wolf drives his car out. Jose brought out his hammer and gave the car a good hard whack. But the car was just fine. Then, Wolf fires a sonic blast which shatters a stack of glass jars Jose set up.

Wolf: (excited) Sweet! I’m so going to talk to my superiors about making something like this in the real world.

Oracle: Good luck. I want to make cars for the others, but I’ll think about it after they finish their lessons.

Wolf: Probably good.

Dice: Hold on, Queen’s racing, too. How come she doesn’t have a car?

Queen: I’ve decided I’m just going to ride Agnes. She’s the closest to being a car.

Lucy: Is that even allowed?

Queen: There’s no rule against it.

Lucy: Fair enough.

>We take our cars to the track and we ready ourselves.

Racer Shadow: Yo, babe! Where’s your car?

It’s right here.

>Queen goes Third Tier.

Queen: PERSONA!

>Queen got on Agnes as Shadow Trey came on the track with his golden car.

Shadow Trey: Friends, Bostonians, countrymen, lend me your ears! Today will make the day that the Racer Family is finally put in their place! And I take down the legendary Phantom Thieves of Hearts! After this race, no one will ever question again who is the greatest person to ever live! Now, let us begin!

Announcer: Now watch as our most glorious emperor, Trey Sterling, goes up against the soon to be disgraced Racer Family and the Phantom Thieves!

>Shadow Trey comes to us.

Shadow Trey: Hope you’re ready to lose. That’s all you’ll ever be good for.

Speed: We’ll see about that.

Zack: You bet. I won’t lose to you this time.

Announcer: All drivers to your cars, please! All drivers to your!

Shadow Trey: (pointing and clicking) Later, Big Z.

>Zack was trying to hold back his rage as Trey’s Shadow left.

Ivy: Don’t let him get to you, bro. Remember what happened last time.

Zack: R- Right. That was the old Zack. The new Zack is way more cool under presser.

>Ivy left to join Oracle, Fox, Lucy, Conor, and Chim-Chim... I could tell Zack was still mad.

Joker: Are you alright?

Zack: It’s just... Ever since we were kids, Trey has always gotta do me up. Be better than me. And he does it with his old man’s money and then rubs it in my face especially. Why’s he gotta be like that?

Joker: I suppose we’ll know once we take his Treasure.

Zack: Still, I just can’t stand it. He’s worst than havin’ to eat fish.

>I know how you feel. >>You're the better person.

Zack: Come again?

Joker: Trey thinks he can buy his way into victory, but that’s not the same as having real talent. There are some things that even money can’t solve. And I speak from experience. Shido thought that because of his position, he could get away with anything, and look where that got him. The same thing will most likely happen to Trey.

Zack: You really think that?

I do. So to me, aside from Skull, that makes us brothers.

Zack: That’s... That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard. Hey, does that make Ivy like your sister, too?

Ivy: (who heard us and came over with Fox) We’re a package deal. You get one of us, you get both of us. Just remember that we ain’t leavin’ Carmen.

Joker: Don’t worry, you’re not going anywhere from her.

Zack: ... (smiling) Thanks, Joker. I owe you one.

Joker: Think nothing of it.

Zack: No really, you gotta let us thank you in some way. How ‘bout this, you change Trey’s heart, I might teach how to drive not just cars, but other stuff, too. How does that sound?

Joker: Well, if Mona where here, he’d say that would come in handy.

Fox: I agree. You never know when we might need to escape in just a car. You’ve already shown to be good on a motorcycle and you’re so close to passing your diver’s test with help from your father, I think it wouldn’t hurt to try other things.

>I think about it. I would be helpful to learn how to operate other forms of transportation.

Alright, you’re on.

Ivy: Then we have a deal.

Zack: You bet.

>Me and Zack do a fist bump together.

I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Shine Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…

Confidant: Zack & Ivy

Arcana: Shine (This Arcana is made up for this Confidant.)

Rank: 1

Ability: The Getaway Driver

Zack and Ivy will teach you better driving skills to use in the Metaverse.

Announcer: Last warning: All drivers to your cars, please! All drivers to your cars!

Joker: (putting the mask back on) Ready?

Zack: Ready as we’ll ever be.

>So, we get in our cars and Fox and Ivy rejoin the others.

Ready... Set... GO!!!

>And we’re off!

>Meanwhile, with the other at the podium, they were searching for the Treasure.

Skull: It’s gotta be here somewhere. We all sat that light thing right here.

Mona: He must have hidden it knowing someone would take it while he’s racing.

Sophie: I can sense it, too.

Carmen: I wish Oracle could have stayed with us.

Noir: I’m sure if we look harder, we can find it. Just think, where would someone as narcissistic as Trey would hide something that he believes gives him power?

Mona: My guess is somewhere really obvious. Someplace where he just can’t help but show it off to everyone.

Carmen: Maybe that?

>Carmen was pointing to some Shadows that were carrying something covered by a gold tarp.

Cognitive Being 1: There’s the prize for the winner of the race!

Cognitive Being 2: I sure wish I could enter to win it, but no one can beat the emperor. No one.

Cognitive Being 3: Still, whoever wins that... Oh, who am I kidding? Emperor Trey’s got this race in the bag!

I guess that’s it.

Violet: How are we going to get it? There are too many eyes watching.

Carmen: I think I can help with that. Oracle did a tune up to my tools. They should help us.

>Carmen pressed something on her coat and she turns invisible.

Noir: (taking out a small potion bottle) Panther gave us this camouflage potion. It should last us long enough to grab the Treasure and get out.

Carmen: Sounds simple enough... What’s the catch?

Straight to the point, huh?

Noir: Well, we might still have to fight a few Shadows along the way. Including the Palace Ruler. It’s usually unavoidable. So be ready.

Carmen: Thanks, I will.

Then here we go!

>Noir sprinkles the potion on herself and the others and they are hidden from view. They and Carmen go to take the Treasure.

>Meanwhile, back on the track, the race was raging on. A Shadow nearly rams me to the side, but luckily, I dodged it.

Oracle’s Voice: Be careful, Joker. I think Trey’s Shadow payed those guys to take you guys out.

Joker: No doubt. They don’t look like they’re going to let us leave this race with our lives.

Speed: Dad said and Uncle Rex used to deal with stuff like this all the time. I think we can make it through.

Ivy’s Voice: Just try not to do anything reckless.

Lucy’s Voice: Good luck with that. If there’s one thing you should know about Speed and X, “reckless” is their middle name.

Speed: Actually, my middle name is Daisuke.

Ivy’s Voice: Seriously?

X: Well Dad said it was either that or Pops.

Queen: Better watch it, we got one coming!

>A Shadow comes up to me. It transforms.

Bring it! Persona!

Tutorial

You have just entered a Race Battle.

If you have seen Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, this battle is similar to the battles there.

When you attack a Shadow, it gets knocked backwards. When its HP goes to 0, it will be defeated. However, if you get attacked, you will be the one knocked backwards. If your HP goes to 0, it is game over.

>Garuda attacks with Garudyne. Luckily, I dodge it. Arsene uses One-shot Kill. Garuda is knocked back and loses a lot of HP due to his weakness to Gunfire. Garuda drives (or flies or whatever he’s doing in this race) back up and attacks me, sending me back a bit. I drive back up and Arsene uses One-shot Kill again. Then, I attack with my own gun. He is knocked back good. Garuda tries again to attack me, but I dodge it. Arsene uses One-shot Kill again and Garuda is gone.

Joker: That was close.

>Then, I notice Flaming Kitty driving up.

Tutorial

When one of your teammates is in view, you can pass the baton to them.

During this time, the one who passed the baton will have time to regain HP and SP.

>I pass the baton to Panther.

Panther: Okay, it’s my turn now! Persona!

>A Shadow come up to her and transforms.

>The Oni tries to attack Panther, but she dodges it. Carmen uses Agilao. The Oni uses Snap. Panther is sent back a bit. Carmen uses Marin Karin and the Oni is Brainwashed. Oni does not act. Panther then uses the car’s flamethrower. It had a Burning effect. After snapping out of it, Oni attacks Panther with Giant Slice. It was a critical hit and Panther is knocked backwards. Thankfully, she recovered and Carmen used Diarama. The Oni tries to use Giant Slice on Panther again, but she dodges it. Carmen then uses Marin Karin again and Oni is once again Brainwashed. The Oni slows down. Then, Carmen uses Agidyne and the Oni is gone.

Panther: Yes! That’s cool!

>Queen passes ahead of Panther and she passes the baton to her.

Panther: Good luck!

Queen: Thanks.

>A Shadow comes up and transforms.

>The Shiki-Ouji uses Psio. Queen is weak to it and it really knocks her back. She recovers and drives onwards. Agnes uses Freidyne. The Shiki-Ouji is knocked way back. Queen takes this as an opportunity and uses Freidyne again. The Shiki-Ouji grives back up again and uses Double Snap. It was a critical hit and Queen is knocked back. Fortunately, she recovers quickly. Agnes then uses Diarahan. Shiki-Ouji uses Psio, but Queen dodges it. Agnes then uses Freidyne and Shiki-Ouji knocked backwards. Queen decides to go bigger and Agnes uses Atomic Flare. The Shiki-Ouji drives up again, but is real weak. Shiki-Ouji uses Taunt, but it didn’t work. Agnes uses Atomic Flare again and the Shiki-Ouji is gone.

Queen: So glad you’re on our side, Agnes.

>Queen spots Crow in Freedom’s Strike. Queen passes the baton to him.

Crow: My turn!

>A Shadow drives up to him and transforms.

Crow: My skills exceed yours! Persona!

>Throne uses Makougaon. Fortunately, Crow resisted. Robin Hood uses Eigaon. Throne is knocked back. Throne tries to attack Crow, but he dodges it. Robin Hood tries to use Mamudoon, but it misses. Throne uses Makougaon. Crow resists again. Robin Hood uses Eigaon. Throne is knocked back. Then, Robin Hood uses Megaton Raid. Throne moves back up again and Throne attacks. This time, it was a critical hit and Crow is thrown back. Crow drives up again and Robin Hood uses Eigaon. Throne is knocked back. Then, Robin Hood uses Megidola. Throne drives up again and uses Makougaon. Crow resists again. Robin Hood uses Eigaon, but Throne dodges it with Evade Curse. Throne hesitates. Robin Hood uses Mamudoon. Throne is knocked back. Then, Robin Hood uses Megidola. Throne drives back up again and attacks. Robin Hood uses Megaton Raid, but Throne dodges it. Throne attacks again and it is a critical hit. Throne attacks. Crow manages to regain the lead.

Crow: Very well. It seems that Instant Kill didn’t do much... I guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.

PERSONA!

>Freedom’s Strike also changes. Loki uses Eigaon. It was super effective and throws Throne backwards. Then, Loki uses Laevanteinn. The now weakened Throne drives back up again and tries to use Makougaon. However, Crow dodges it with Evade Bless. Loki uses Eigaon again and Throne was gone.

Good. And not a moment too soon.

>Crow sees Wolf driving Howling Silver. Crow passes the baton just has changes back from Black Mask Mode.

Crow: (in cool down) We’re almost there. Keeping going!

Wolf: Rodger!

>Another Shadow drives up and transforms.

Wolf: So you’re the last one between us, Sterling, and the lead. Alright, bring it on! Persona!

>Baal uses Charge. Valjean uses Heat Riser. Baal uses Ayamur. It was a critical hit and Wolf was knocked backed. Baal just hesitated. Wolf drives back up and Valjean uses One-shot Kill. Baal uses Panta Rhei. Valjean uses Trible Down. Baal uses Panta Rhei again. Valjean uses One-shot Kill. It was a critical hit and Baal is knocked way back. Valjean then uses Megidola. Baal recovers and uses Revolution. Valjean uses Agneyastra. It was a critical hit and forces Baal way back. Valjean then uses Megidolaon. Baal drives back up and uses Ayamur. It was a critical hit and Wolf is forced back. Baal then uses Panta Rhei. Wolf manages to drive back up with little HP. Valjean uses Heat Riser. Baal tries to use Ayamur again, but Wolf dodges it. Valjean uses Megidolaon and Baal is gone.

Wolf: Yes!

Oracle’s Voice: Great work, you guys! All that’s left is Trey’s Shadow.

Wolf: Right!

Joker: Let’s hope the others are doing great with the Treasure.

>Back with Carmen and the others, they managed to get close to the Treasure.

Carmen: (looking under the tarp) This looks like a job for the laser cutter.

>Carmen cuts open a hole big enough for her and the others to get in. They go inside.

Carmen: Got it.

Mona: This is the Treasure alright.

Sophie: It certainly has that vibe.

>They sneak away until they were in the clear. The Treasure was a shiny golden racing trophy.

What a surprise.

Skull: And I thought Kamoshida was bad. This just takes the cake.

>Carmen then takes a closer look at the trophy...

Carmen: (surprised) I see, that explains it.

Skull: What’s up, Red?

Carmen: Something real interesting.

>Back on the track, I managed to catch up to Wolf thanks to Slice, Dice, Speed, X, and Zack.

Wolf: Good luck to you all.

Joker: Thanks.

Slice: Me and Dice will take care of things in the rare.

>Me, Speed, X, and Zack drive up to Trey’s Shadow.

Shadow Trey: Well, look who finally decided to show up. I knew hiring those idiots wouldn’t help.

X: Goes to show you that good help is hard to find.

Shadow Trey: Fine, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

Speed: X and I will take care of Trey if he tries anything. Joker, Zack, think you can handle it?

Zack: You bet. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

Ivy’s Voice: Just try to focus. This isn’t like all the races we’re use to.

Joker: Don’t worry, he won’t be alone this time.

Zack: Thanks, Joker. Let’s do it!

>I nod... and go Third Tier.

Joker: PERSONA!

>Shadow Trey tries to use Brain Shake on me, but I dodge it. Raoul uses Concentrate. Shadow Trey uses Psiodyne. Raoul uses Phantom Show which puts Shadow Trey to Sleep.

Joker: Now’s your chance! Attack!

Speed: Here I come!

>I fling the Mach 6 forward with the Phantom Flyer’s grappling hook. Then, Speed attacks with his car’s laser sawblades. Speed drives back into position. Shadow Trey uses Taunt. I fall under Rage. I attack Shadow Trey with my car’s laser sawblades. Shadow Trey uses Psiodyne. It was a technical hit. I snap out of it and Raoul uses Eigaon. Shadow Trey tries to use Terror Claw, but I dodge it. I equipped Raoul with the One-shot Kill Skill Card and he uses One-shot Kill. It was a critical hit.

Joker: We get another one! Go!

X: This is for Annalise!

>I fling the Shooting Star forward and X rams Shadow Trey’s car, sending it back a bit. X moves back into position. Shadow Trey uses Brain Shake. Fortunately, I wasn’t Brainwashed. Raoul uses Concentrate. Shadow Trey uses Marin Karin. It didn’t work. Raoul uses Eigaon. It took a lot of Shadow Trey’s HP. Shadow Trey uses Sukukaja. Raoul uses One-shot Kill, but Shadow Trey dodges it. Shadow Trey then uses Marin Karin and I become Brainwashed. I nearly attack Speed. Shadow Trey uses Psiodyne. It was a technical hit. I snap out of it and Raoul uses Concentrate. Shadow Trey tries to use Brain Shake, but I dodge it. Raoul uses Phantom Show and it puts Shadow Trey to Sleep.

Joker: Get ready for another one! Just one more after this!

Zack: Here I go!

>I fling Lydia forward and Zack attacks Shadow Trey, sending him further back. Zack moves back into position.

Shadow Trey: (now really angry) I’m not done yet! Let me show you what happens when you cross me! I release upon you the deadly sin of vanity! You have no means of escape, human! The fraudulence of mankind shall bring forth ruin!

>Shadow Trey uses Distorted Vanity. Raoul uses Concentrate again. Shadow Trey uses Psiodyne. I’m knocked back a lot. Shadow trey then uses Skull Cracker. Fortunately, I didn’t get Confused. Raoul uses Phantom Show and Shadow Trey is Asleep again.

Joker: Now to finish this race!

>I give the final blow.

>After that, Shadow Trey was now back behind us. Then, I notice something.

Zack! Look!

>Zack was way ahead of us. He was in first place.

Ivy’s Voice: Go for it, bro! Go for it!

Zack: This is for you, sis! And everyone in Southie!

>Then, in a zoom... it was over. Zack crossed the finish line and won the race.

Cognition 1: (in disbelief) No way! Emperor Trey actually lost!?

Cognition 2: They must have cheated somehow.

Cognition 3: Actually, now that I think about it, doesn’t Emperor Trey do the same thing?

Cognition 4: Hey, you’re right! He paid those racers to kill those other racers!

Cognition 5: We’ve been supporting a cheater this whole time!

Cognitive Spectators: (outraged) Trey Sterling is a crook! A SPOILED LITTLE BRAT!

>Later at victory lane, Shadow Trey comes to us weakly.

Shadow Trey: It’s... It’s not possible... I should have won... I always win...

Wolf: Only because you paid those racers to lose with your father’s money. That’s not how you gain victory.

Shadow Trey: But, it’s my victory. I’m a proud son of Boston. I’m Boston Proud. Even the trophy says so.

??????: Does it really?

>Carmen and the others come to us with the trophy. She showed us the plaque at the bottom. Engraved on it was Trey’s name, but above it was another name that was chiseled out. I could definitely make out Zack’s first name, but his last name was completely unreadable.

Shadow Trey: The trophy? My trophy.

Carmen: I don’t think so. You clearly didn’t earn this. It was Zack’s.

>Shadow Trey looked like he was ready to attack one of us, but instead, he just drops to his knees and begins sobbing. We weren’t sure how to react... Then Zack comes over to Shadow Trey. He comes down to him.

Zack: (actually sympathetic towards his nemesis) Just... Why? Why do ya do this? Especially towards me and my sister?

Shadow Trey: (looking to him) ... You... You really want to know?

>Zack nods.

Shadow Trey: Look at you. You appear to be such an amateur, but the truth is... You were the better racer. You did a lot of things that were better than me. Compared to you, I was the real amateur. This was something even my father knew. He just wanted to see me happy. So, he decided to do whatever it took to make me happy. To make sure that I get what I want. From that very day at kindergarten, I convinced myself that my father and his money were the only way to get it. I love my father. He is a great man. If anyone could help me get my way, it’s him.

Noir: But that’s not how it works. There are somethings that you have to earn for yourself.

Shadow Trey: And make myself look like a fool? Like him? (points to Zack) Never. In this world, you take what you want the first chance you get. That’s why I’ve been so hard on Zack and Ivy. Because I didn’t want anyone to think that any way, despite our backgrounds... we would be the same. But we’re not. We... are rivals.

Zack: (shocked) ...

Speed: So you’re saying all this time, you and Zack could have been friends?

Shadow Trey: Maybe that’s another reason why I’ve always looked down on you. So that whenever you lose to me, you would realize that the only way to beat me was to befriend me. Though I wouldn’t be caught dead associating with someone from lower class, I could have changed all that.

Zack: But... We coulda been friends without all that.

Shadow Trey: !

Zack: Well, I don’t know. I’m still processin’ this. But bein’ so high and mighty around me and Ivy wouldn’t have made us friends. Just bein’ a good sport and welcomin’ anyone who shares the dream.

Shadow Trey: ...

Zack: I know you just wanted to be the best so that everyone would like you, but it never really hurts to show everyone who the real Trey Sterling is. You don’t need to hide behind your daddy’s wealth and power. You’ve got somethin’ that he could never get with his money.

Shadow Trey: ... What is that?

Zack: ... Beats me. It ain’t my life that needs fixin’. (offers his hand) So get up. Try to find just what you really can do.

Shadow Trey: ...

Joker: Listen to him. He may not look like a goofball, but he’s a wise goofball.

Carmen: He’s cares about others besides himself. I guess that includes you.

Shadow Trey: ...

Joker: It’s like we were saying...

You can’t buy talent or friendship. You ear it.

>Shadow Trey just sat silent for a bit. He thought of what we said... Then, he takes Zack’s hand and is pulled up.

Shadow Trey: I’m sorry. I now know that what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have treated you so terribly. And I also shouldn’t have played Bobby or Annalise. I don’t deserve either of them.

X: (whispering) That’s for sure.

Shadow Trey: For a while, I’ve always wanted to be as famous as my former idol, August Gaunt, as well loved by everyone as my old pen pal from Arizona, and a popular as... You, Akechi.

What!?

Shadow Trey: Yes, I know who you are. I suppose the me in the real world knows, too, but hasn’t fully figured it out yet. And even if he has, I doubt he’s going to say anything. Even he wouldn’t believe it. After all... It came to him in a dream. As did Augusts and his pen pal.

Crow: Then you know that my popularity as what you think.

Shadow Trey: I think so. I guess popularity, fame, and being well loved are very different things.

Carmen: You just have to find a way to connect them in a good way. Start with doing something that will get you well loved. For starters, apologizing to those two hearts you played... And maybe donate to a good charity.

Skull: Like the B.O.M.G.T.M. Foundation.

Crow: Or the Worldwide Engineering Brigade.

Shadow Trey: Yeah, I think those would be good starts.

>With that, Shadow Trey returns to his true self and we take our own leave as the Palace vanishes.

>To be concluded...

[spiritwinding]

for the duration of the classic games, sonic was Incredibly reserved. talked to no one and only used sign language when necessary, had no social life outside of talking to flickies and other woodland creatures, just was Completely isolated from people. he was SUPER close to his parents, and having them die made him essentially swear off of. talking to people. to steal lyrics from wicked: 

too long i've been afraid of losing love, i guess I've lost well if that's love it comes at much too high a cost

meeting tails and his relationship with him is what made him talk and start to accept friendship back into his life, that he Needs companionship and can’t get by on his own and that a life alone is a miserable one, but it was a gradual process that spaned the adventure games and sonic heroes, so here’s a rambly post about some of how sonic went from a hermit to the VERY anime friendship guy he is in sonic forces!

sonic is pretty prickly and easily irritated in adventure 1 and is still stuck in his Cool Lone Wolf kinda ways? avoids amy very obviously, openly says shes weird, frustrated with knuckles, very dismissive of tails etc. at the same time when he gets separated from tails when they crash in sa1 he’s genuinely sad and concerned for him, and prioritiizes how chaos would feel if locked in the master emerald while still rampaging. he very clearly cares about people, he’s just. distant and has kinda bad people skills. during sa1 sonic starts to realize he needs to listen to his friends and be more tolerant with them, though (amy stopping him from destroying gamma, how theyw oulda probably noticed birdie had an emerald if sonic hadn’t blown off amy so quickly, everyone bringing the chaos emeralds at the end), and he starts to? get along better with them? calls knuckles buddy in sa2, definitely gets along better with amy, puts a lot of his faith in tails when he gets shot out of the ark, AND fights with shadow at the end, is much less prickly in sa2 and just in general starts to embrace this group theyve kinda scrapped together

speaking of sa2, though: shadow! sonic has always had a short temper depending on the situation, but particularly in sa2 he didnt take kindly to a) being accussed of shit he didnt do and b) excUUse me how dare you copy me? like me?? still, he was definitely intrigued by shadow, and sonic is Painfully curious by nature, not to mention the whole affinity for chaos energy thing. kinda lilke a pull to the stuff. i also think sonic GETS aloof grumpy characters, because even if he wasnt ever grumpy, just short-tempered and kinda irritable, he was definitely aloof, and gets what it’s like to struggle to connect with others when you’re afraid of losing them. throughout the game they both come to respect eachother, and ultimately the fight they have at the end is. the first team fight sonic has? he has to put his trust in someone in the battlefield, really learn how to keep an eye on himself AND whoever hes fighting with, which is different than not hurting civilians for example. they both constantly ask eachother how theyre doing and sonic suggests to shadow that he needs to rest and that he can tag in. like regardless of everything that happenned during the game sonic cares about shadow, and whether by necessity or otherwise, trusts him to fight alongside

so when shadow, someone sonic probably considers somewhat of a friend, who was fighting with him and who sonic wanted to keep a close eye on, dies when he’s right next to him AND super sonic it doesn’t Feel Great. sonic felt responsible for shadow falling, for one, and for two, that’s someone he cares about dying. again. when thats what he wanted to avoid by essentially dissappearing from society: he didn’t want to lose people. of course losing shadow si very different and less painful than losing his parents, but it’s a reminded of what he’d been running away from all this time, and what he’s potentially going to go through again if tails, knuckles or amy die, too.

so he goes on another ‘vacation’ between sa2 and heroes-- distances himself from everyone else again, both to Repress and also to start to start to go back to the lonely nomadic lifestyle. the thing is, after going through what he did with everyone, tails in particular, he misses them. he misses company, now that he got it again, and realizes he doesn’t want to be alone again. being alone sucks, no matter how much you double down on it.

and tails and knuckles Show Up-- like they find HIM rather than the other way around. they come back, like a boomerang, and all three of them go to defeat eggman again, in an Entirely trio-based game, where sonic learns hwo to be a better teammate, and how to depend on others in a fight again. shadow turns out to be okay*, and at the end everyone refuses to let him fight neo on his own, and he’s? kinda overwhelmed? that he’s gathered people who are willing to support him, and that return like boomerangs, too

he wont be alone, because his friends will always be there to have his back, and he can always count on their help!! superpower of teamwork babyyyy. annd at the end, instead of going off on his own, he TAKES tails and knuckles with him!

sonic at the end of the day needs companionship. he leans towards ambivert and needs a Lot of alone time, and loves his personal space, but he needs to know someone is there to have his back ykno? he loves people, and needs people, and hates being alone like... in life. not like running alone or travelling alone, but just. having no one in his life is almost kinda terrifying. he knows what thats like and is aware he doesnt want to go back to having no one know his name except for the local flickies he saved from eggman.

*note: sonic definitely has unresolved shit from Everything That Has Ever Happened, aside from his parents deaths, because he’s so desensitized to all of it and just.. always Has to function, it isnt a question, and shadow ‘dying’ isnt an  exception. definitely not as bad as other stuff, like the guilt for everyone who DID die, but he never worked through? much of it? because unless it specifically worms its way to the surface, sonic doesn’t know it’s There, and even if he picks up on somethig he won’t adress it unless it’s Baaaaad, and that’s only a recent thing. repress and move on, thaaaaaaat’s life pal. it doesnt help that sonic is honestly seen as Emotionally Invincible by everyone around him, so who would think he has baggage abt somethign that happenned when he was 13? (btw he was 13 in sa2 which is a Yikes!) he feels he failed shadow, particularly because it was. the ‘death’ that happenned right after he also blamed himself when his mom died in his care. he works through the occasisonal thought about it by just! trying his best! not letting it happen again! but again, never worked thru it, never told anyone. someone write this w/ me somehow blease

[pollylynn]

Title: Dead Air WC: 1500

She won’t call the silence deafening. That would be hyperbole. It would be an oxymoron. It would be any number of the literary sins that are his purview. Were his purview.

It’s not deafening. It’s not even silence. It’s . . . some kind of lull, though. Something missing from her sonic backdrop that she can’t place at all, but its absence makes everything else too loud, too immediate, too pressing.

She thinks it’s the downstream silences at first. Ryan and Esposito are the opposite of subtle in this as in all things. They give his name wide berth. They turn the volume on their conversations way, way down when they’re tossing back and forth some joke he would have made—some joke he did make that they’ve repeated ad nauseam in the past. They mouth Castle Zone not quite behind her back when they’ve decided that adolescent fantasy and wild speculation are the keys to cracking a particular case.

But it’s not their silence that’s amplifying the rest of the world. It’s not the contagious silences that drop like a stone in the break room, the elevator, the odd corners of the bullpen, because word has spread out from the two of them as they warn everyone that Richard Castle is persona non grata in this homicide squad.

It’s not Lanie’s brand of silence, either, though that has a decibel level all its own. They haven’t fought. The two of them are simultaneously too close and not close enough to ever really fight, but they’d had a moment in the wake of Gina of the Rolling Suitcase, Gina of the Intended Summer on Top of Him. Lanie had come out of the impromptu workroom celebration—as only Lanie could have—with her fist cocked and her arms open. It had been too much. For Kate, it had been too much. It had been a moment, and now Lanie ostentatiously avoids the subject of him altogether. But it’s not that silence

It’s not the silence of her dad when he stops asking how her shadow is and what hideous crimes he’s committed lately, or the silence of the wordless workings of Montgomery’s jaw every time he catches her still at the board when he flips the lights off at night or on in the morning.

It’s not the silence of day after day without him. It’s not even her own silence.

That may be the weirdest thing about it. She expects it to be the fact that he’s not at her elbow, over her shoulder, trotting to catch up with her, talking, singing, whistling, tapping out rhythms on whatever surface is at hand, all the while. She assumes that it’s the fact that her own word count per day has dropped dramatically by simple virtue of the fact that she doesn’t have to tell him to shut up a thousand times an hour. She’s sure it must really be that the two of them aren’t bickering absolutely constantly.

But that’s not the silence, either.

She gives up on figuring it out. She gets used to it, like a constant headache thundering within the sore, thick bones just behind each ear. She lives with it, and she won’t call it deafening or anything else. She won’t expend another second trying to figure it out.

She does figure it out though. Weeks on and completely by accident, the solution drops almost literally in her lap.

She’s out of candy for her desktop dish. She seems always to be out of candy these days, and she’s always sure there’s a bag she’s stashed away somewhere. There never is these days, but she’s always sure.

It’s the middle of the night and she’s tearing her desk apart. That’s almost literal, too. She starts with the left-hand drawers. She works from top to bottom, from shallow to deep. She hauls each drawer out to its full, clattering extension with an impatient yank. She brushes aside half-used legal pads and nearly exhausted stacks of index cards and post-its. She digs beneath brand new folders and folders she keeps meaning to re-purpose. She scrabbles along the scarred metal bottoms until there’s grit beneath every one of her fingernails.

She slams the last of the left-hand drawers with a resounding bang. It fills the silence for exactly one second. She moves on to the wide center tray, even though it’s not deep enough to hide anything she’s after. Still, she tugs with purpose. She tugs with enough force that she goes rolling backward in her chair and very nearly pulls the whole drawer off its track.

It tilts crazily downward. She can see the telescoping silver-in-silver rails bending under the sudden, unwelcome weight. She manages to jam her knees up into the drawer’s lip before the whole thing goes crashing to the floor, along with all its contents. She winces at the force of the contact. A premonition of the pair of bruises she’ll have flashes on the back of her eyelids.

She tries to shove the damned thing back in and meets resistance. The track is bent or a wheel’s dislodged somewhere in the bowels of the desk. She sighs and slides one hand underneath for support and sets to work emptying the thing with the other.

She pulls out her stapler, a ruler, and three pairs of scissors, at least two of which she’d snatched out of his hands as he idly clashed the blades in some kind of meditative state. She jostles the drawer with her knee and so many bottles of desiccated White Out roll to the front that she loses count as she drops them into the trash.

Wedged far in the back, interfering with the task at hand, is an ancient pink phone message pad with yellow carbonless copies beneath, and wedged under that, a Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass that, for the short while between Olivia Debiasse and the silence, had pride of place in her desktop pencil cup. She pauses over that. She twirls it by the stem between her fingers and watches the array of things on her blotter ripple in and out of focus. She eyes the metal trash can and decides it’s stupid. It would be stupid to throw it away. She sets the glass down in the midst of everything.

A dried-out glue stick topples and makes a break for sweet freedom as she hunches her shoulders. She reaches out with a blind hand to catch it as she peers into the dark, far recesses of the drawer. She can’t really see what’s bent or busted. She can’t really see anything. She lifts the wide tray firmly upward and tries again to brute force things back on track. That’s when she hears it—the rattle of a solitary object somewhere in that steel case gloom.  

Her searching fingers come up with it. She knows its shape and weight before before she can see it. She knows its provenance. It finds its way into her closed fist, though she’d rather leave it there, far back and in the dark.

It’s a short, thick bolt with a washer and hex nut twirled loosely on to its end. She uncurls her fingers slowly, one by one, though she hardly needs visual confirmation. She tips it from one hand to the other. The washer drags a glissando along the threads. It’s deafening. It’s the secret of the silence.

It’s from the chair that sits empty at the end of her desk, of course. It’s the lingering bit of the mummy’s curse, because she couldn’t quite remember where this one was supposed to go after that phase of the prank had played out. With the chair tipped legs upright, settled awkwardly between her knees, she hadn’t been able to find any obvious place for it, and when she’d tested her reconstruction with her own weight, she’d discovered the slightest bit of give in the legs so that all four never quite touched the ground at the same time. She’d discovered the squeak and decided that the least she owed him for a year and then some of adolescent fantasy and wild speculation—for everything—was the minor irritation of a slightly janky chair.

But he hadn’t noticed, or if he had, it’d been a feature not a bug—just that little bit of give in the legs and he’d elevated his fidgeting game. He’d rock it from foot to foot, back to front and on the diagonal. And with it had come the tap of metal glides on scuffed linoleum. With it had come the squeak, faint and not quite rhythmic, maddening at first, then simply part of the soundtrack of her late nights, her early mornings, and the dead, dark hours smack in between the two. Maddening at first, then simply reassuring.

It’s heavy, cupped in the palm of her hand. It’s metal-on-metal cool, but warming rapidly.

It’s a metaphor.

It’s the silence.

It’s deafening.  

A/N: Awkward that this fell after my trip, not before, but that’s a wrap on Season 2. Hmmm.

image via homeofthenutty

[bossmedley]

i dont want to do homework heres more sonic headcanons because my brain literally never stops

shadow’s limiters are actually way more important than everyone thinks they are like, he can take off maybe two of them for a bit and be fine, but if he takes them off too much it can stop to malform him and stuff (I kinda thought of it like a biolizard/black doom mix thing) and if things get bad he can lose control. The limiters are also way more dangerous to take off in super form because more power = more power to limit so when he takes them off he gets more power but will probably pass tf out immediately (aka SA2).

Sonic heroes lied and when everyone saw shadow alive they cried and hugged and that’s not even a headcanon that’s just tea

Schooling in Sonic World (tm) isn’t really as stressed, and seen more like a “well, if you can you should probably go but no worries man” Amy went to school until about what we’d consider grade 8 or 9, and moved out after around the time. Cream still goes to school, charmy and tails don’t but they learn in their own ways. I can’t really think of any other characters I would say went to school. Espio did ninja school if were counting it

Big grew up helping on a farm with his family, and has grew a big heart and a big love for fishing. He knows so many fish facts and his knowledge on it is really amazing if you sit and listen for a while. Big is like a big brother to cream and she loves to go fishing with him and talk with him about it. Cream is really passionate about many things, unlike Big, and she is always starting on something new like learning to cook or sew or build tree houses or make sculptures. It connects with the scouts thing I said in the last post that she loves to try all kinds of new things all the time. Cream also plays on a little league soccer team, and she’s the fastest runner.

Big and cream is like a big brother, little sister relationship and amy and cream is the same (big sister little sister). Amy is always down to help cream with whatever new project she’s working on and is super supportive of it. Vanilla invites Amy and Big over for holidays just because they’re all like a little family.

Actually holidays are the Bomb if only for Vanilla because she is Super Mom, and for holidays like christmas and stuff she buys everyone presents and is the best cook for any outting. She is everyone’s mom.

Knuckles has a pretty sizeable garden on angel island, that he keeps kind of hidden away so no Eggbitch can destroy it. He has all kinds of trees and plants and he grows a lot of his own food in it. He gets kind of flustered telling people about it but everyone always ends up reassuring him that it’s fine

I also like what archie did (first person to say that?) where they didn’t have the two worlds thing but just. Sonic World (tm) is just a mixture of humans and anthros. that’s just how it is. If the humans looked like how they did in unleashed I’m honestly fine with it, I just don’t like hyper-realistic humans next to funny cartoony animal friends. 

I thought I had more but I kinda don’t and I’m tired, goodnight I love sonic t. hedgehog

[smashingatsonicspeed]

Smash Bros. Character Merit - Sonic the Hedgehog

Quick Disclaimer: I’m not very confident in any 3rd Party franchise getting a 2nd rep. But being the Sonic fan I am, I thought I’d give a specific section for this should it happen. I don’t think it’s the unlikeliest thing in the world as I’ll explain. But I doubt it comes anytime soon.

Miles "Tails" Prower

My Level of Want

If you didn't already know, Tails was who I voted for in the Smash Ballot. Perhaps it's a little greedy for me to suggest a 2nd Sonic rep over some Nintendo characters that could use some love. But when it comes to the one character I want most in Smash now that Sonic has already made it. Tails is it. Though a bit of a disclaimer, I won't be disappointed one way or another if Tails doesn't make the cut. Cause Sonic was already that dream inclusion fulfilled for me. Every new character that'd made it in Smash that I happen to like since Sonic got in is equivalent to whip cream on my glorious ice cream sundae. But Tails would be the sweet, sweet, sweet cherry on top. Tails is just my favorite Sonic character, and he just happens to be the franchise's equivalent of what Luigi is to Mario. Perhaps he's not treated or even portrayed as well as that nowadays but you'd be pretty hard pressed to suggest that someone else deserves the title of Sonic's Luigi. And what I mean by Luigi, as in the other character that often pops up in your head whenever you hear the franchise's name. The main character always pops in your head behind them, but not far behind them you usually imagine their sidekick, brother, or whichever role the player 2 character plays as right besides them running through the levels. When I think Sonic, I picture Sonic running through levels at a fast pace with his buddy Tails close behind. They're just one of the most iconic duos in gaming and despite being what would be another Sonic rep at face value, I count Tails as much of an icon of gaming as any. There would be naysayers if it were to happen, but Tails is absolutely the most iconic choice for another Sonic rep in Smash. It would absolutely make my entire life to see a Sonic & Tails Vs. Mario & Luigi battle be possible in Smash Bros. It's just one of those things I could die happy knowing that I got to see happen.

Estimated Chance

Sorry if that got a little gush-heavy over my most wanted character. But it's time to delve into a little reality. I'm not confident in it happening much at all, and I'm ok with that. As much as I said things about dying happy about it. Sonic being in Smash in general is also kind of already that. I don't think it's an impossibility, despite the ups and downs over the years the Sonic franchise is still one of the most popular franchises out there and as such the Sonic franchise would be the one to break the mold should they decide to break the only one character per 3rd Party franchise rule. For that to happen a character should have have to be arguably just as iconic to gaming as the main character and I think Tails fulfills that well enough. It might not be quite enough right now but should they look at it by the time Smash 6 (Or again 7, if you're like Sakurai) rolls around that he'll become an ever stronger possibility as Sonic would have a strong foothold in the series. I can keep my two fingers crossed for the two tailed fox. But I'm certainly not going to count on it. I understand that other companies' reps would probably provide more diversity and not everyone wants one of Sonic's "annoying friends" in Smash. So Tails isn't impossible but he's nowhere near a strong possibility. But if it ever happens, it'd be the one character that would probably put me in Etika-was-shown-Mewtwo-DLC kind of excitement

Main Game or DLC?

DLC is the only way this happens at all. It might also provide a little bit of a compromise that don't want any more Sonic characters in the game. If you wouldn't like Tails in Smash, then don't buy him.

Dr. Eggman

My Level of Want

If Tails can't make it, then Eggman would probably be the next best thing. And probably more neutrally accepted even amongst those that aren't big fans of the Sonic franchise if it were to happen since Eggman isn't one of Sonic's "annoying friends". I think the only problem might be a bit more difficulty on deciding how he'd fight. Best I could think of is something akin to Bowser Jr. only bigger, heavier. And in the Egg Mobile with obviously a different toolset. It'd be absolutely fun though to have Mike Pollock record lines for Smash as he's an absolute blast as Eggman. I do think it'd be more fitting if say they ever included a Sonic related Boss rather then as the 2nd Sonic character. But I certainly wouldn't complain.

Estimated Chance

3rd Party franchises getting 2nd reps are going to be quite low in chance. Once we hit the DLC period though anything goes. So who really knows. As for Eggman himself's chances of being the character to break that rule. Not to sound biased but I think Tails out prioritizes him for a few reasons. Maybe even Knuckles before Eggman too. Not that I think Tails is that much more likely (I'll be covering that next actually) But we did get Luigi in Smash before Bowser. You could say that was because Luigi was easier to make because he was more of a clone of Mario back in Smash 64. But you have to think that when it comes to 2nd reps, the iconic 2nd player and/or sidekick tends to get in over the main villain. Even if the Mario example isn't enough. Reminder that we still don't have K. Rool but we've had Diddy since Brawl. As I said earlier I'd rather Eggman represented as a boss should the Sonic series ever include one for any reason. It'd be fun to fight him with all the different characters that way.

Main Game or DLC?

DLC, per everyone in this post

Knuckles

My Level of Want

I do like Knuckles a lot and if there was room for 3 Sonic characters I might get behind him more. But as is when it’s doubtful if we even get more then just Sonic, Knuckles isn’t a priority to me personally like Tails is. Sonic & Tails is a really iconic duo of gaming. Knuckles is less so. Mainly people want Knuckles because they view him as a more “cooler” or more viable as a fighter despite Tails having been in Sonic fighting games before too. Still, I would feel it’d be like getting Wario before we got Luigi. Wario is more fit for fighting then the “coward” Luigi and is an iconic character of the Mario franchise in his own right. But he isn’t famous Player 2/Sidekick status like Tails is

Estimated Chance

Knuckles only gets chosen if Sakurai feels a character more well known for seeming like someone to fight over should be prioritized over someone that’s been in there longer whether it’s Tails or Eggman he would be picked over. And I don’t think Sakurai has ever gone that way with anyone. In my dreams, Sonic would get 5 reps to make all the Sonic fans happy. Get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman, and Shadow in there to appease all the Sonic fan wishes. But I know that only happens if Sega was bought out by Nintendo. And understand that’d be incredibly greedy in a game that’s supposed to be mostly Nintendo

Main Game or DLC?

DLC, per everyone in this post

Shadow

My Level of Want

First I want to say, that Sonic Adventure 2 is still my favorite Sonic game in the franchise. It’s what introduced me to Sonic, I have a lot of fun whenever I go back to play the game and one of my biggest wants for Sonic is a game going back to the Adventure formula that is streamlined for modern audiences. I understand the big complaint with the Adventure games is they haven’t aged that well, but that’s why a modern game with the adventure-style that’s cleaned up to the expectations of modern game could be a good idea for the Sonic franchise to take. My biggest hope is a kind of Sonic Odyssey where like what that game did rediscovered the gameplay of Super Mario 64 and cleaned it up for a new game that most people enjoy a lot. However, despite my love for SA2 there’s one character that made his big debut that’s been a pretty controversial subject. I do first want to say that I did like Shadow a lot… but pretty much only in SA2. He was a perfectly fine character in that game and a good foil for Sonic with an interesting past. And it quickly made him one of the most popular Sonic characters. Unfortunately, Sega took that popularity the wrong way and they forced him back into as many games as possible. At first Shadow returning wasn’t so bad, Heroes implied the Shadow in that game wasn’t even the same Shadow from SA2. Simply a clone that Engman created. But the Shadow the Hedgehog game retcons that. The Shadow in games past SA2 is indeed the same Shadow who somehow got rescued by Engman’s robots on his plunge down to Earth. For the exception of Sonic Battle, every game that’s not Sonic Adventure 2 has him just as one of the most polarizing characters in all of gaming. He has diehard fans that have supported him since SA2 and won’t ever shake off their love for him. But he’s also somewhat become a bit of a scapegoat for hate on why the 3D Sonic games fell as hard as they did. His story bringing too much of the franchise trying to take itself seriously as well as basically the poster child for the edgy meme when it comes to video game characters. He has reasons why he’s very popular, but he also has just as many reasons if not more on why people would utterly despise his inclusion from both the Sonic fanbase and outside of it. Combine that with the fact there’d probably be similar disdain on the level Dark Pit got, and Shadow’s inclusion would be one day where every single Smash Bros. discussion is simply filled with anger.

Estimated Chance

Shadow’s popularity probably at least had him score among the highest out of Sonic characters in the ballot if not the highest. But I still think Sakurai would choose a more classic character anyway. Shadow’s done fine enough in the Assist Trophy role. Let him stay there.

Main Game or DLC?

DLC, per everyone in this post

[cutegirlmayra]

Forces Prompt: Why did Shadow Join the Villains?

(x)

Summary: I want to write a prompt where Infinite (I guess that’s what we’re calling him now?) talks about having infinite time, where time is all one. and then convinces Shadow to join him, because it's not like they trusted him anyway, or did any good for him. He's always been the monster they'll never look to for help. Also.. he knows a thing or two about bringing something from the past... to the present. (Maria trigger) and that's why Shadow joins him, turning away from the rebellion/resistence.

So I did, lol.

Prompt:

“Shadow! Hurry up and take care of those Eggbots!”

“I’m on it.”

“Shadow! Don’t just rush in. Watch your back!”

Directly after the G.U.N solder gave his commands, Amy, on his same adjacent communicator, blipped on with similar urgency.

“We really need those paths cleared up for our forces to get through. You’re one of our only hopes.”

He glanced down at the communicator, then forward again.

‘Only hope..?’

After Sonic had been sent through time, the only options left were anyone who could fulfill his role.

Shadow...

 The Ultimate Lifeform...

However, after destroying countless robots, completely thousands of missions...

Being the last hope wasn’t enough...

“Shadow...”

After teleporting to destroy the last fleet of the street, Shadow’s head lifted up in surprise, not expecting to hear a voice outside of his own communications.

“...You...” He glared, standing up from having chaos speared the last of the piled robot’s sparking their last time.

“...You and I have something in common... Ultimate.. Life... form.” He hovered down, his cubes following the trail before spiraling rapidly around him.

In almost a seamless elegance, he gestures his hand out to Shadow, and then to the cubes around him.

“Imagine... if only creatures of normal intelligence and powers could see time manifested in such a way as Chaos shows us...” he brought one of the cubes closer to him, having it blink before looking down at it, holding a hand below it as it hovered over his chest.

“Such a marvelous ritual... counting time. But what if time could be all but one? A complete organism of itself... a unit of nothing, but everything.”

He suddenly looked up, back at Shadow.

“What if... I could pull the present away... and mash the past and future together?”

“You’re mad... and that’s why were taking you down.” Shadow pulled out a gun, cocking it, before lowering a Chaos Emerald into a pack on it’s center top.

“Heh. A gun? Is that all your allies can surmise? Or is that what your abilities dictate of you? To serve a people that never once thought of you as their friend...”

Shadow suddenly halted his advance, and widened his eyes.

“Shadow! Come in, Shadow? What’s the hold up?! Respond!”

He glanced quickly down at his communicator to the G.U.N solder’s abrupt voice.

“They only want to use you as that powered gun.” Infinite pointed directly towards the gun. “Think of it Shadow... an Eternity... no longer will you and I be immortal... but we’ll be one with time... and so will all things... past.. and future...” he spread his arms and indicated both parallels with them, before smashing them together. “Unified.”

“Shadow! Shadow!” the communicator started to fuzz, as Shadow looked down to it, then to Infinite.

Infinite narrowed his eyes, lowering his hands, “Why help them..? When they took all the time you’ve ever had... away from you?”

Shadow’s mind traced back to Maria, and quickly gripped his head.

“Urk... what has he told you!?” Referring to Eggman, he then threw the gun his way.

“About Maria!!!”

The gun fire shot multiple times, as the Chaos embedded power shot through him, making Infinite stagger back at each blow.

The fire raged in Shadow’s eyes, the flashes shown on his gritted teeth as he kept firing, no mercy... no law and order...

“Hahahaa.... hahaha...HAHAHAHA..!” Suddenly, Infinite reversed and mended time.

His wounds were healed as the bullets shot back from where they came through him, and even though he experienced the pain twice, he was able to hold the bullets where they once were, freezing time.

“Now... you see the beauty... of the past and future... as one.”

“The bullets... they killed you... and yet... you live?!” Shadow staggered back, now amazed as the wounds were healed, and yet... scars.

“Would you like to see her again?” In trauma of pain, his body recovered to normal, and he jerked his head up, slowly rising his body back to it’s straight form.

He had the body that was once untouched now with the body of the future bathed in bullet holed wounds. Time was infinite... and became one.

Shadow’s eyes shook.

“I could bring her... the past and future her... the living and rotting... together at last...” His eyes then glowed with his body as the cubes formed to create the time lapse he made spread around the whole area. “Infinite! She would be resurrected before your very eyes, Shadow! Join me! Create her awakening!”

Shadow’s whole being was engulfed in what was being offered, his being torn apart by such a offer, before the communicator came back on.

“Shadow? Are you alright? Weird energy readings are coming from you, and yet... you’re blipping out of signal. What’s going on? Shadow? Shadow?”

Amy’s voice came on, before Shadow slowly reached for his communicators...

Infinite’s eyes spazzed a moment open, before he began to slowly bellow a laugh that expanded across the space of the whole area, as Shadow broke the first communicator at the crush of his raw power within just a gloved-hand.

“And then, we shall take back time! Unhook it from it’s oppressors! Eggman’s only request is that we crush the resistance.”

Hovering back in the air, Infinite watched as Shadow destroyed the second communicator, and turned, pulling the Chaos Emerald out and dropping the G.U.N gun.

“Who’s first?” Infinite ducked his head, glaring towards the on-coming forces...

----

Amy ran into the mist of the army, looking for Shadow as they all advanced.

She turned to and fro before everyone had passed her, leaving a trail of destruction and fire around her.

“The last known signal... it had to be here...”

Shadow teleported, silently, behind her in a ray of red. A perfect camouflage.. as he readied his fist to take her out...

“Amy!”

In hearing an unexpected, but familiar voice, Shadow looked back, and pulled away, teleporting again.

Sonic comes bursting through, along with Classic Sonic, checking up on Amy and asking her questions.

She’s amazed and thrilled to see him, almost in shock, before crashing into him with a death hug.

He stampers back and falls, not realizing Shadow’s betrayal either.

Classic Sonic hasn’t met Amy yet, so he’s terribly confused on what’s going on and the odd greeting.

----

“Sonic... how’d he return?” Shadow met up back at the counsel, folding his arms as he looked to the others.

They looked at him a moment, before Infinite continued what seemed to be an already discussed topic. “Take your deadly six and keep them busy.”

He then turned to Shadow, “With time being reunited at last... some... side-effects... have taken place.” He placed both hands on the desk before them.

“Past and Future... Sonic was sent to the past, and with them merging so slowly... we need more of itself. Haha. Time that is.” He gestured with a block. “Stab this into Past Sonic... That should take care of our problem...”

“...And Maria?” Shadow was starting to doubt, feeling manipulated.

Infinite looked to the corner of his eye, up to the sky.

“If I’m not mistaken... the Ark’s arrival has already been half converted...”

Shadow immediately speed-walked to the window, before seeing the past side of the world being slowly brought to existence. He pushed his palms to the windows when he saw half the Ark already within the sky.

“Then...” Infinite threw the cube at him, and he caught it, squeezing it in his hold. “Now...Soon.... ‘When’ is never a question anymore...Shadow.”

Shadow nodded, showing his contentment, and immediately departed.

(My ideas continue as follow: Classic Sonic is merged with the cube, creating a energy force of time since everything connects to him, and allows Infinite to speed up the process of merging the two world’s times together. Then, the side-effects means Classic goes berserk, causing Modern Sonic to have to work with the forces even more before he, too, gets converted from time being merged. Chaos is being controlled by the Master Emerald that Eggman possesses, but I thought it would be cool if he merged with Modern Sonic (turning good later from being controlled by all seven Chaos Emeralds effects?) and create a new super, watery form for Sonic. either way, Classic is defeated and the cube escapes. They go on with the war.)