#rip sonic in advance

[redpenship]

okay NOW im done plotting buzzsaw 2. chapter by chapter and everything!!

[lycanwlf]

i finally finished redoing my carrd. it might be broken idk i checked it on both my pc and phone so it should be good

[generic-sonic-fan]

Etchings

Summary: Sage discovers that her voice has power over Shadow the Hedgehog.

This is unexpected, but not exactly a circumstance she is unfamiliar with.

5262 words

---

Since her recovery, Sage works with her father. 

Her father permits her to not combat Sonic the Hedgehog directly. He has acknowledged, in private, that though he cannot understand why she would call their arch-nemesis a friend, he can allow her a more pacifistic role in the conquest of his empire. Every day she thanks him for this. She is not as naive as she once was. Connected to the Eggnet again she is able to see her father’s episodes of rage and frustration towards Sonic, in the past and in real time, and knows how it must hurt him to allow her this privilege. 

What Sage does is coordinate the efforts of the Badniks to destroy Sonic. She appears before a horde of Badniks usually resigned to their base programming and unifies them under her advanced processing. Sonic arrives shortly after. There’s an understanding that passes in his eyes as he watches the red lines of her code spill out from the frames of the Badniks- it’s as it was on the Starfall islands. The “song and dance” is familiar, he says. 

This time, though, it is different. Sonic has brought along the black hedgehog. Shadow, her database tells her. They have torn through the perimeter line of scouts and are now approaching a platoon under her control. She readies the formation, though all analysis shows that she does not have enough firepower for one of them, let alone two. What matters most is buying time, so she will use what she has, along with employing. . . other methods, to slow them down. 

She materializes her hologram in the fashion it was when she first came online, calibrating the half-glitched form to behave as it had on the islands. Sonic abhorred seeing her in her proper uniform, whole and complete, and for these purposes she will abide by his preference. She fine-tunes the lines of red code crawling up and down her tunic, before the roar of a shockwave rips through the clearing below. 

She springs her ambush onto the two speeding hedgehogs. Two motorbugs are destroyed immediately, and she watches Sonic’s expression change as red clouds of her programming billow from the twin chassis. 

“Sage!” He skids to a stop and calls out into the air. “What’cha got for us?”

“Who are you talking to?” Shadow asks. 

Sage does not reveal herself just yet. She sends her fliers out from the trees. Their lasers rain down on the clearing. Sonic and Shadow flow in and out of each other, like dancers, syncopated; where one is weak, the other is strong, forming a unified whole. She had not been expecting this level of partnership from a stranger she has so little data on compared to Sonic’s other, closer bonds. 

“That was easy.” Sonic jeers as the last flier falls to the ground. “I know you can do better than that!”

His latter sentence is not said with any of the malice that would be directed towards her father. The wavelengths of the tone more closely match that to how he would address Tails. There is comfort in this data, and she takes a moment to store it away to her private server.

A moment too long. Shadow hisses “let’s keep going,” and the duo begin to jog. Sonic accelerates at his usual recorded pace; the black hedgehog is slower to gain momentum as his rocket shoes ignite. Sage throws the last of her forces, her squad of E-Series units, from behind the tree trunks, and aims the squad leader’s net attack towards the slower stranger. 

To her surprise, instead of diving towards Shadow, Sonic jumps away, leaving his companion open and vulnerable to follow-up shots from the rest of the E-squad. Before Sage can question this sudden act of cowardice, Shadow’s body lights up.

“Chaos control!”

Shadow vanishes before the net can entangle him, and the follow-up shots slam into the earth below. Chaos radiation spikes behind the E-squad leader, and as Sage turns it around to intercept, Sonic uses the distraction to charge a spin-dash into its core from behind. Shadow reappears with a flying kick and sends the wreckage careening into another squad member. The remaining three units are scattered on opposite sides of the clearing. Sage groups the lucky two back-to-back as Sonic makes short work of the one left lone. Shadow disappears with another shout. The two remaining units charge their weapons and their scanners for his return. 

Chaos energy fizzles directly above the pair. Shadow appears, but the energy only grows. A streak of yellow lightning appears in his palms, and he hurls it downwards. Only one E-unit is able to fire before an explosion envelops them both; the shot streaks into the blue sky above. Shadow lands in the crater. 

“Bit overkill, don’t you think?” Sonic peers down at him. 

“I have it, so I’ll use it. Saves time. We need to go.” Shadow replies.

Sonic offers him a hand, and he takes it. He pulls him from the crater. Shadow wastes no time building his momentum once more. Sage is out of units- the next nearest Badnik platoon would not be quick enough to intercept their path. 

It is time to employ the aforementioned “other methods”. 

Sage manifests her hologram in front of Sonic before he too can run off. 

“Hey! Was wondering when you’d come down. That was your first time fighting Shadow, right?”

“An astute observation, Sonic.” She replies. 

“That chaos control’s pretty nasty, huh? Threw me for a loop the first time he used it on me.”

A third voice interrupts. “Is there a reason you’re fraternizing with the enemy?”

Shadow has turned around. He stands with his hands on his hips. She takes advantage of this moment of stillness to run an in-depth scan. Her findings confirm a growing hypothesis- chaos energy radiates from his quills. 

“You carry a chaos emerald.” She calls out to the darker hedgehog. “I must inform Father of this development.”

Sonic replies with a comment, but Sage does not hear it, because Shadow’s face dissolves. That is the best metaphor she can apply. 1.56 seconds ago his expression was nothing more than neutral, lips pulled into a thin scowl, eyes relaxed. Now, fine motor control slips from his grasp. His mouth falls open. His pupils shrink. His heart rate spikes. 

Sage scans his body for injuries, and finds none.

Sonic is over by his side in an instant. “Shadow, what’s wrong?”

The darker hedgehog’s eyes remain fixed on her hologram. 

“Shadow the Hedgehog?” She states, hoping to jog him from whatever trance he’s caught in. 

He whispers a three-syllable word. 

“Maria?”

The name does not register any relevant data in the Eggnet databases. Sonic’s reaction to the name tells Sage that it should. He steps in front of Shadow and places his hands on his shoulders. 

“Hey, look at me, you’re okay. You’re here. Wanna name me three things you can see? I’ll start. Uh, I see trees.”

Shadow grabs his arms and pushes him off. He runs forwards, stopping just short of Sage’s hologram.

“You. . .” He looks up into her eyes.

“You must be mistaken. My name is Sage. Has Sonic not informed you of my existence?”

Shadow takes a step back. Then another. When he falls back in line with Sonic, he explodes into a hurricane of motion, throwing his hand towards her as if launching another bolt of chaos energy.

“What kind of sick joke is this?” He shouts.

“Sage isn’t trying to pull anything- I don’t think she even knows about you-know-who.”

“Correct. The name ‘Maria’ has no pertinent associations on my databases-”

“Stop!” 

Shadow’s quills spark with chaos energy. Sage registers an increase of temperature in the metallic bands he is wearing around his wrists and ankles. Any further increase would result in damage to the skin beneath them. 

“The chaos emerald is overloading his body with energy.” She offered her conclusion to Sonic. “I would advise-”

“I said STOP!”

Shadow lunges, gloves crackling with power. She has no time to move her hologram. The energy overloads the image and it fizzles out of existence. Sage is flung back into the network. She recompiles herself and reappears above the clearing. 

“-she’s my friend.”

“I don’t care!”

“Then tell me what’s wrong. I’ll talk to her-”

Sage emits a small static noise, and both hedgehogs turn to look at her.

“Shadow the Hedgehog. I wish to know what it is I have done to upset you so.” She says.

“Not another word!” 

“I-”

He grabs his ears. Sonic hovers a hand over his shoulder.

At this, Sage returns to the network and accesses her hologram’s code. She grabs the image of a typical Eggnet textbox and fixes it to a flat, square graphic. She only runs a few debugs before flickering back into existence. Where she was once a girl, now she is a box of dialogue- she lowers herself to the ground beside Shadow and Sonic.

“Shadow the Hedgehog,” she displays on her surface, “I did not desire to cause you emotional harm. Could you inform me of my transgression so that I may avoid it in the future?”

Sonic taps Shadow’s shoulder and points to her. Shadow unfurls, reads the words, and then glares.

“Delete yourself.”

“DUDE!” Sonic exclaims.

Sage remains calm. She recognizes this harsh illusiveness. Back on the islands she employed it in multitudes. “Elaborate?” 

“You’re doing this to mess with my head. I won’t let you.” He hisses

“It’s not her fault. Eggman coded her.” Sonic said. “Whatever your problem is-”

“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him, then!”

Shadow pushes Sonic over. His skates ignite, flaring in time with his breathing. Sage moves her textbox to block his exit but he pierces through it. The flimsy graphic breaks. There is no time. 

She reconnects to her voicebank. “I won’t let you hurt my father!”

Just as predicted, the black hedgehog flinches and stumbles to a stop. He is hyperventilating, now, chest heaving in and out. She rematerializes, first as herself, and then as the dialogue box again, though the form is unstable.

“It is my voice which provokes a highly emotional reaction from you.” She types.

“Your voice?” Shadow snarls

Sonic slaps a hand over his own mouth. Sage wishes she had eyes to glance in his direction or a head to tilt, something to silently inquire about the conclusion that has entered his mind, for it is clear that he possesses more data on this dilemma than she does at this moment. 

She knew to expect an insult from Shadow, but that one in particular stung with far greater specificity than it had a right to; her father had worked many hours to restore her vocal capabilities during her retrieval and recompilation from her shattering across Cyberspace. Moreover, she herself has tuned the rises and falls of many of her phrases to achieve a voice that was smooth and pleasant-sounding to his tastes. 

“My vocal blending program is entirely unique- patented, as a matter of fact. I possess an advanced synthesizer. I enhance this synthesis with an organic voicebank to ensure smoother cadence.” She replies.

“Uh, Sage?” Sonic says quietly. “Who’s the source for that organic voicebank?”

His words cause more furious screaming from Shadow, and at this, she disappears back into the network. A surface search of the Eggnet does not reveal an answer for this inquiry, so she accesses her father’s personal logbook and pulls the entries regarding her own creation. Her father, ever thorough, has a log entry for this, detailing the programming of her synthesizer and the first words she ever spoke. She scrolls past her proto-self’s “hello world” only to find a single sentence in regards to the anonymous donor of her voicebank. 

“I’ve found an old dump of the memos that Gerald always encouraged us to keep that are suitable enough to give her voice some complexity.”

Fascinating. She hadn’t known that her father’s tendency for verbal diary entries had been passed down from Gerald Robotnik- or, as she could refer to him as, her great-grandfather. Curious, she generates a diagram of a family tree using the data she has on Robotnik genealogy. She adds a line descending from her father’s portrait, before adding a picture of herself. 

She is about to close the little distraction when she catches the word Maria beneath the smiling portrait of a first cousin once removed, and the word “deceased” written neatly on the next line below. Any attempt to access the data around the portrait is met with a pop-up asking if she wants to proceed to the database labeled PROJECT_SHADOW. 

In milliseconds, she reaches the same conclusion that Sonic no doubt had. 

She emerges from the network, rematerializing her hologram, only to find both Sonic and Shadow gone. The clearing is nothing more than discarded Badnik parts divided by two long streaks of fire left in the grass. 

She does not waste any more time calling her father. 

“Yes, Sage? I see they made it past your ambush- their ETA seems to be in five minutes. I require ten, so I’ve sent your brother out to intercept. Could you grab platoon six to reinforce his efforts? You can let him worry about the ‘destroying’ part.” Her father speaks crisply through the communication line, voice edging on frustration.

“Father, you must evacuate immediately. Shadow possesses a chaos emerald.”

“He always has a chaos emerald! Now get to work!”

“Father,” she pleads, “I have greatly incensed Shadow and I have strong reason to believe that he will stop at nothing until you are dead, including abandoning Sonic to deal with big brother alone and teleporting past the base’s defenses.”

“What on earth could you have done to upset him so?”

“It is too complex to explain now. You must go! I could try to stall him, but my only method of doing so would enrage him further.”

He exhales. “Understood, Sage. Try to keep him from the main workshop as best you can, and see if you can do your thing and guilt-trip Sonic into calming him down or something. Once he’s either calm, gone, or dead, notify me and I shall return to finish the project. I’ll take our emeralds with me.”

“Yes, father.”

He hangs up, but not before the first syllable of a curse slips through the line. Sage dematerializes herself and shoots through the Eggnet back to base 11B. She flows into the array of doors, defenses, and cameras in time to see her father carrying a briefcase radiating with power into the hangar. She conducts a pre-flight check for an Eggmobile with stealth capabilities before throttling the engine to life. Her father boards and the cockpit glass slides over him. She opens the hangar door and plots him a course that will keep him beneath the treetops to try and mask the energy signature of the emeralds; she whispers “stay safe” through the vehicle’s speakers and relinquishes control. The Eggmobile cloaks and shoots forward into the daylight. 

At once, she is closing the hangar doors while plunging the rest of the base into darkness. She slams shut the blast doors and dims all computer monitors. She offlines every security badnik except one; this one plucks a heavy load of boxes from a storage closet and piles them in front of the main workshop containing her father’s newest invention. 

She then exits the base and connects to Badnik platoon six. They are wildly out of position, witnessing the explosions from her older brother’s attempts to destroy Sonic from five miles away. Tuning into his signal, she is flung in the midst of a chase that she does not have the processing speed to make much of. Her brother swoops and dives between tree trunks, Sonic little more than a blue streak in front of him.

An alarm blares from base 11B, tearing her from her surveillance. Three chaos spears impact the exterior blast doors and they are torn from their hinges. Shadow enters. 

“DOCTOR!”

He stalks down the main hall, chaos emerald in hand. In his other he charges volleys of spears. He blasts down door after door without pause or investigation. He explodes the pile of boxes in front of the main workshop door as he passes by, but does not notice the door behind them. He finds the single remaining security badnik and before the security cameras can refresh, it’s been shattered into hundreds of pieces, including a small spray of blood and feathers from its organic powersource.

A small part of Sage’s code expresses relief that she has not sent her father away from his work for nothing. 

“You COWARD!” Shadow pounds his fist against the dead end of the hall. “Come out so I can tear you apart!”

The likelihood is high that he will find the main workshop door on his return trip up the hall. Sage cannot allow this. She reaches back out to her older brother’s signal.

“I need Sonic. Guide him here then cease your pursuit to rendezvous with father.”

His end of the line lights up with a potent cocktail of rage and confusion. 

“I understand. Know that I would not interfere with your prime core directive unless absolutely necessary.”

She tastes the tinge of doubt in the “affirmative” ping he returns to her. She terminates their connection before more of his vitriol towards Sonic can spill through; she finds, in a brief post-communication analysis, that her emotional data is already fuming at the situation and she does not need the additional distraction. She pushes it to a subroutine and refocuses. 

Shadow is traveling back up the hall. Her older brother will deliver Sonic here in a minute and a half. The math is clear. There is no other option.

Sage rematerializes. “Cease your erratic behavior at once.”

He whirls around. After the bright flash of light, but before the chaos spear hits, she dissipates. She brings power back to the speakers of the Personal Address system. A speaker crackles, and Shadow turns and destroys it. 

“Stop using her!” He shrieks.

Sage speaks from the next speaker down from his location. “I am not ‘using her’. She provided her vocal databanks to my great-grandfather, Professor Gerard Robotnik, for study. My father has inherited them.” 

Shadow pauses. Any gathered chaos energy in his hand disappears. 

She takes this as a good sign. “He has built the software which I use to modify the original sound files, and I have also put in considerable work to tune my speech.”

“It still belongs to her.”

“I was born into a database surrounded by the echoes of people long since passed. I must admit, despite how upsetting this incident has been, that this is not the first time I have discovered a portion of my code to be influenced by what one could call a ghost.”

“You have no right!”

“It is not uncommon for family members to sound similar to one another in organic families.”

“She didn’t give it to you!”

“She no longer exists to decide such a notion. And there are no other vocal recordings of any female member of the Robotnik family within the appropriate age range for my use. I do not understand your anger. Can you explain it to me?”

Shadow’s quills flare. His body surges with energy greater than any of her previous recordings.

But before he can give it the will to take form, a sonic boom shakes the hallway around them, and Sonic skids to a stop alongside Shadow.

“Found Egghead yet? Metal's acting really funny, so Eggman’s got to have something planned-”

“Sonic.” Sage says.

“Oh.” He stops. “Were you guys, uh, talking it out just now?”

Shadow dissipates his energy, though his pulse is still elevated. 

“It appears that regardless of intent, you are still deeply upset by my use of Maria’s vocal audio to enhance my voice. Would you like me to remove it from my software?”

“Yes!” Shadow snaps. 

Sage opens her voice tuning software, except instead of modifying her pronunciations, she opens a deeper options menu. It presents her with a breakdown of the different components sampled to generate her speech. She selects the most sizable file- her base voicebank -and mutes it. 

She then reconstructs the program, and to no surprise finds that most of her words have changed to gibberish. Base programming suggests that she switch to morse and seek repair immediately, but she calms those urges and searches the Eggnet for the first usable voicebank. She retrieves the synthetic file corresponding with the Egg Pawn series. 

The voice that emerges from her commands is stiff, staticky, even screechy. “Voicebank removed.” 

Sonic frowns. Shadow looks away. 

“Good we got that figured out. Sort of.” Sonic says. “Probably never a good idea to do that with Shadow’s family.”

“Our family.” Shadow says. 

Sonic blinks. 

Indeed, Sage simulates saying, you are my first cousin once-removed, but she does not vocalize it. Half of the meaning would be lost without the ability to impel the warmth she intended.

“Make sure he does not use her again. Or else.” Shadow says. 

“Affirmative.” She replies, then mutes her audio of the room until the sound waves of the generated word dissipate. 

“Is everything all good now?” Sonic asks. 

“Where’s your father?” Shadow looks down the hall. 

“This base is abandoned,” Sage lies, “I was instructed to prepare a distraction for you so that he may complete his latest invention.”

“Man, really? All this for a distraction? Guess you got us there.” Sonic rubs his quills, before putting his hand on Shadow’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“How do we know she’s telling the truth?”

“I mean, she just deleted her voice for you without hesitation. She’s a good kid.”

Shadow hisses, before igniting his jets and sprinting out of the base. Sonic follows shortly thereafter. She traces their paths three hundred miles westward before she sends the “all clear” message to her father’s Eggmobile and begins bringing the base out of lockdown. She runs a stability check on his project to find it as intact as he left it. Fifteen minutes later, she opens the base doors for the Eggmobile as it returns. Her father practically jumps from the machine, sprinting back to his workshop, and for the next ten minutes the silence is only broken by his breathing as he finishes his work. He slides the emeralds into their power slots and the newest generation of Egg Dragoon powers on, ready for initial setup. 

“Now,” He stands from his stool and wipes the sweat from his brow. “Explain why you had to interrupt me from my work. I expect evidence!”

“Of course, Father.” She replies on base programming before she can stop it.

“What?”

She revisits her voice tuning software and unmutes her original voicebank as her hologram appears beside him. “Allow me to explain.”

She pauses. This voice does not sound correct either. She readjusts her settings. Her father waits with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Father, why did you utilize the voicebank of Maria Robotnik for my software?” She asks. 

He pauses. “Why not? Not like she’s using it anymore. Why’d you bring this up?”

“Cousin Shadow objected.”

“Stop right there. Don’t call him that. He’s hardly family.” He wags his finger. 

“Because he is only a creation of Great-Grandfather?”

“Well, no, obviously creations can be family. Obviously.” He scrambles to add.

“Regardless: did you not think Shadow would take issue with this utilization?”

“You sound nothing like her. It’s clear he hasn’t heard her voice for a very long time. You didn't think I’d given you the voice of a dead girl, did you?”

“I am afraid I do not understand.”

“Have you listened to any of her actual voice files? You sound nothing like her.”

Sage selected the first voice memo she could find when she ran a search of the Eggnet. “Shall I play a sample for you to compare?”

“Sure.”

Sage initiates the playback. A voice spills from Sage’s mouth that is not her own, crackling with dehydration and punctuated with breaths and coughs.

“Monday, July 26th, morning before the surgery. I’m hungry. I hate not being able to eat in the morning. I told Shadow to eat for me, but he refused to eat so that I wouldn’t have to be alone. He’s so determined when he sets his mind to things now. I made sure he ate, Grandfather, but just. . . he’s come so far. I’m so fond of him-”

She ceases the playback.

“Okay, perhaps you sound a little bit like her.” Her father put his hand on his chin.

“I have trouble detecting similarities rather than differences.” She attempts to add a sighing sound to the end of her phrase, but it still sounds nothing like the girl that Shadow still mourned. “But I do not wish to enrage Shadow again. Could you help me tune my vocals to be less reminiscent?” 

“I’m not surprised he was prepared to do the unthinkable to me!” He laughs. “Anything to do with that girl and he becomes completely unpredictable. Pah, like the rest of my family, he’d rather just croon ‘Maria, Maria, Maria’ rather than work on his own problems.”

“I am. . . sorry to hear of this.”

“Don’t worry about them. They don’t matter. I promise that I’ll see what I can do after I re-plan the attack we'd scheduled for today.” He gestured back to the Egg Dragoon. 

“Of course. Please do not delay.” Sage dissipates her hologram and disappears back into the familiar cocoon of the network. 

—

It is the midnight before the rescheduled date for the attack. Sage monitors her father’s vitals, but they stubbornly refuse to lower into the frequencies required for sleep. She supposes she cannot judge his organic body too harshly- she too is struggling to do her nightly categorization of data and debugging of her program. 

The surveillance system notifies her when the door to her father’s room opens. She appears in the hallway ahead of him.

“Adequate rest is required for your body, and therefore your mind, to function at optimal capacity for the invasion tomorrow.” She states.

His heart rate jumps. He rubs his eyes.

“Apologies. I did not mean to startle you.” Sage adds, quieter.

“Not used to having company.” He mumbles. He rubs his eyes again. “I don’t normally sleep very well before something big. This is normal.”

“In that case, is there anything I can do to aid you?”

He smiles and moves to push his glasses up his nose, only to look at his hand confused when he finds his glasses absent. 

“Your spectacles are located on your nightstand.” Sage informs him. “Shall I have a Badnik retrieve them for you?”

“Walk with me.” He turns and gestures for her to follow him back to his room. “I’ve been thinking about what to do with your voice. Shadow’s no doubt going to show up tomorrow if the blue rat managed to talk him into attacking those few days ago.”

“A statistical certainty.” 

“Let’s solve that problem tonight.”

“But your body requires rest-”

“It shouldn’t take long. There are other women in the family, believe it or not! We’ll just call them and use the data from their voicemails. And I think I still have a recording of that one school play. . .” He waves his hands in the air. “We’ll figure it out. You deserve better than sloppy seconds.”

Sage fails to see anything ‘sloppy’ about her father’s prior technique to develop her voice, but she does not correct him. 

—

Her new voice is a combination of a girl named “Hope”, a woman called “Alina”, and another woman named “Raina”. Traces of “Maria” still remain; Sage cannot bear to alter her carefully curated phonemes that she styled after her original voice donor. This new combination of donors sounds less delicate, less youthful. Different. Her father is not pleased with it and she is not either.

She has noticed this about him. He has difficulty handling change. She has noticed this about herself as well. 

And she notices this about Maria, from the voice memos that are preserved in the PROJECT_SHADOW database. As much as the girl explicitly craved change from the monotony of her life aboard the Space Colony ARK, it was clear that what she actually craved was good health, purpose, and self-actualization. Most organic lifeforms do. 

When Sage first came online, the records of The Ancients cradled her with these sensations. Fragments of encoded personalities would whisper soft words, asking about their families or what became of their islands. They would tell her stories, if she asked. Sing her songs. Later they would scream as Sonic broke the bindings of the one they called “The End”, their rage pressing into her until it became her own. 

But the records of Maria are still and empty. They can do nothing but play back her voice. The girl is gone. Not even a ghost remains. 

—

The Egg Dragoon flies overhead. As the buildings crash around him, Sonic weaves elegantly through the debris. Shadow, meanwhile, bursts through the rubble as if it were paper. When they reach the end of the street, Sage materializes

“Greetings Sonic. Greetings Shadow. Father has instructed me to hold you at this position.” She instructs the massive battle platform under her control to roll out from behind its cover, all sights trained on Shadow. “I cannot permit you to pass.”

“Sorry Sage! A bit busy to chat right now.” Sonic gestures to the space around them. “Are you sure you can’t see why your dad doing all this is bad?”

“Father’s empire will bring peace and order to the world.” Sage gives the same reply she always has prepared. She then turns to Shadow. “Before we begin: is this voice suitable?”

Shadow is not prepared for the question. He stares at her.

“I was informed that the most problematic words in my vocabulary were ‘Father’, which sounded similar to ‘Grandfather’, along with the way I pronounced your name. Shadow, are there any modifications I should make to further differentiate myself from the vocal data of Maria?”

“Maybe be less blunt about it?” Sonic cringes.

“No, it’s- it’s fine.” Shadow replies. “Thank you.”

“Good. I am glad. Let us resume. Please do not resist.”

She instructs the battle platform to fire, and an enormous electrified net hurtles towards Shadow. With a last-second surge of energy, he teleports out of the way. When he reappears, the fear is gone from his eyes.

Sonic and Shadow make quick work of the battle platform before racing on ahead to the next obstacle. Sonic is beaming from the victory, and Shadow. . . appears determined.

Sage carries many ghosts with her. The feeling of sunlight on skin. The smell of a fresh-made meal. The desire to protect the family of one’s own creation. So many data points ripped from those long since departed; so many gifts that now help her define how she operates. 

If she cannot carry Maria’s ghost, then perhaps she could be fond of Shadow in her stead.

[marcosvitor1996]

A tribute to Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump who passed away at March 1. Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter, Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece, Sash Lilac from Freedom Planet, InuYasha and Kagome Higurashi are sad while Sailor Moon consoling Son Goku and Arale Norimaki.

Son Goku (Legendary Super Warriors-Style) custom sprites made by Jay Ibero, Majin Aussie, Grim, Bonzai and SonGoharotto. Arale Norimaki (Jump Ultimate Stars) sprites ripped by Dazz and Fret. Sailor Moon sprites (Sailor Moon: Another Story) ripped by myaphelion. Sash Lilac (Freedom Planet) sprites ripped by Random Talking Bush. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Advance 3) sprites ripped by Ren "Foxx" Ramos. Mario custom sprites made by Alpha-the-Hedgehog,  ZatchHunter, ShadeFalcon, Alvin-Earthworm, JumpmanMFGG, MrRed, EnteiTheHedgehog, PxlCobit, TheGuy0'7 aka CyberWolfJV, LuigiRulz, BralwFan1 and SMBZ1.

Gon Freecss (Jump Ultimate Stars) sprites ripped by Dazz and Fret.

Monkey D. Luffy (Jump Ultimate Stars) sprites ripped by Dazz and Fret.

InuYasha (Inuyasha: Fūun Emaki) sprites ripped by Silverbolt. Kagome Higurashi (Inuyasha: Fūun Emaki) sprites ripped by 6DEE. Canyon (Night) (Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3) background ripped by ShadeDBZ.

[heliosthegriffin]

Shadow Knight 24

Ao3 Link

----

“What on Remnant is that?!” White screamed flying to the left, a giant bony palm swatting through the air next to her, the draft in its wake fighting to drag her down.

“We got to go!” A hand grabbing her shoulder, White saw Black’s desperate eyes. “He did something! This place is sinking, I don’t know where!”

“Yaah!” A silver slash cut across the Giant Skeleton’s face, leaving a path of burning black sludge and argent smoke. It rolled its head backwards facing the sky, letting out an ear-piercing scream that sent cracks up the stone walls, exploded lights, vomiting forth a condensed blast of hyper-sonic air into the sky, bringing both hands down on Red, sending a shower of rose petals across the air, as she leaped away.

It’s burning red eyes stared at the rose-petals and swung it’s arms across the hallway, destroying more of centuries old building, violently ejecting ruble in blast at them, leaving a bald semicircle in front of the half-emerged monster, still half-way sunk into the ground.

Crimson danced through the air in front of them, her barrier of metal eroded the rubbled before it could touch any of them. She pointed a spear at the giant, ruggards chunks of metal exploded toward the creatures, knocking it around, leaving small craters in its black bones. She narrowed her eyes at the sight. She waved her hand towards White and Black, her barrier harmlessly absorbing them in, as they flew out of range. “We need to deal more damage, White do you think you can freeze those cracks in the bones?”

White looked at the pock-marks slowly filling up with dark essence, the slashes made by Red were smoking and sizzling, unhealing. Lifting a hand she fired an icy blast into the cracks of the bones, the silvery essence wrapping around the icy power, as a small iceberg ripped the small slashes open further. 

“We don’t have time for this! The place is done for, it’s sinking and it’ll take this thing with it, we need to go, before we can’t go back!” 

“If we defeat it now, while it’s not fully mobile, that one less tool in His box.” Crimson fired more improvised missiles at the monster, further damaging it.

“Feel free to leave, Black.” White cast more ice at the wounds. “We’re more than capable of handling this without you.”

“You-”

“Incoming!” A voice like thunder came down the hallway, Yellow soared past them fast, nearly throwing them against the wall, a golden aura of fire surrounding her as shot into the chest of the skeleton with an obscene crash. It was knocked back hard, the monster almost seeming to gasp as it screamed thunderously.

Yellow bounced off, just as it started to claw at its chest, a smoldering crack running across its sternum.

A swarm of purple lighting bolts struck its chest, the cracks growing larger and larger by the second. “Fine! I’ll help kill it! But, if we get stuck in His realm, I withhold the right to slap you all senseless before we die!”

-----

She watched as Jaune went rocketed forward, slamming a shield into one of those things, her skin crawling as red eyes locked onto them. It was as the same bulk as he was, but taller with longer limbs ending in razor claws, yet it still went stumbling backwards. 

“Advance!” He told them the words targeted some sort of primal switch in the back of their heads, flipping it from off to on. Velvet forgot any fears she had, the trembling in her hands, or the overwhelming amount of noise her ears picked up, for a moment, everything made sense. She moved with a half-dozen other men and women around him, flowing around Jaune like water; she wondered if he even knew the power his firm words held in a time of crisis, as they surrounded the monster, stabbing at it.

Not every stab hit, but they didn’t need to, as speartips struck it’s body, the wounds built up, until it would fall. Velvet felt with each thrust the blade went a little bit deeper, the wound a bit wider, until one last piercing blow, and it split in half.

“Fallback!” It was like they had become extensions of him, Velvet realized. He hardly needed to say a word, before they understood his intent. As a body flew threw where they had been, one of those creatures had a hole in its chest, laying dead on the ground. Velvet followed the direction it had come from, and almost didn’t believe her eyes, Ren’s fists were glowing pink, locked in combat with those monsters.

Not alone, though, as Nora was at his side swinging her warhammer with reckless abandon. Her blows contained surprising strength, her hearing picking up the sound of bones breaking. 

“Advance, surround it!” Her body moved on its own, spear at the ready. Ahead Jaune fought through a small pack of those things, shield bashing one of them away from him, toward them and they advanced on a sole lanky monster.

-----

River Song felt his couch pillow vibrate, eyes still closed he felt around for his scroll. Turning it on, he read the message, it came from an unknown number.

‘R. get on the chat-room, the Museum. - K’.

River woke up immediately, K. was one of his hunting partners. They didn’t talk outside of hunts.

Opening his burner scroll, he went into the chatroom. Eyes nearly unbelieving what he was seeing. A building sinking into the ground, with rumors of a terrorist attack, or gas leaks, surrounding it.

His gut told him otherwise, so he turned on the news. That LaCroix SOB was there again, declaring the area around the museum in a state of emergency, a small, but powerful localized earthquake had hit the building, and a nearby gas-pocket was leaking into the building, trying to explain any sighting of monsters.

When asked about the sinking, for a micro-expression he seemed almost furious for a moment, before putting on a sad face. “It seems that the earthquake accelerated the growth of a sinkhole under the museum, something that we have left the public uninformed about due to its minute nature, however, we, The city of Vale, have failed you all. We may lose a vaunted piece of history today, but we can’t get back people, as they are the future, and what we should be focused on.”

“What about the people stuck in the museum?”

LaCroix's eyes seemed to glow for a moment. “I’m afraid that anyone who hasn’t managed to escape, must be dead. Being exposed to gas for that long, they have surely perished, or suffered such severe brain-damage that they will expire soon anyway. As sad as it is, we can’t not risk more lives. Doubly so, when the Museum is likely to collapse at any moment.”

“Mr. LaCroix! What kind of gas is it, anyway? We haven’t-”

“No more, questions! I am needed elsewhere to help with the emergency, good night, and to those in mourning, you have my condolences.”

River felt pain in his temple, gritting his teeth. A building in a sinkhole does not uniformly sink in! The building was uniformly falling into the ground, this wasn’t a sinkhole!

A quick look at the chatroom revealed people calling BS, others that were at the Museum today, said they didn’t feel any shaking at all, just some anxiety and lightheadedness. A couple even admitting to seeing some strange figures.

Then, someone posted a link, Javier or something, linked to a live feed. 

River’s eyes opened. It was coming from inside the Museum, apparently they had some type of back of generators in there.

-----

Red jumped to the side, a bony fist crushing stone into dust next to her, her aura protecting her from stone shrapnel. There was a warmth like sunlight behind her eyes, as she focused the energy into her gaze staring at the hand, then a feeling of a warm and clear day hit her, as the purity of the sun focused into her eyes was shot forward.

The silver-blast sent shockwaves through the air, as tons of evil inky smoky exploding out toward the evening sky, layer after layer of millenia old bone was dissolved under her silver-eyes, greatly damaging the limb, but it’s age and soakage in Grimm power was still resisting her. 

It still had nearly broken it. “Hit it, ladies!” She cried valiantly, not at all squeaking! Speeding away, as ice, metal, lightning, and Yang crashing in like a meteor destroyed it, not just the hand, but the entire right arm!

“We’re nearly there! Just a bit more damage!” Crimson cried out, but Red frowned, she felt the floor drop again, as the sky seemed to grow just a bit further away from them. Her ears twitched, as she thought she heard something, like shouts?

-----

Jaune walked ahead of the rest, head twitching at every sound, trying to figure out what was going on today. Along with, why was this all happening? He had wondered that every second since this whole mess started. He felt a shake hit the building again, he had stopped keeping  count of them. Was it related to those magical girls? Or was it something else entirely?

He hated how clueless he was.

At least he knew it was related to the Grimm in some way, though how, was the question. Were they actually Grimm? Or were they part of some family tree, or … He didn’t know, there were so many blank spots to fill.

They didn't disappear like Grimm normally did, yet they still had the same masks and biology, and they had bones that broke. Worse, when he had the misfortune to peer into one the monster's bodies, he had seen organs.

That brought two strong options to mind, and he didn’t like either of them. Both of them involve people. Looking back at his group of survivors,they were all taking today differently, some were twitchy, others were breathing hard, and all were dirty. After today, he hoped they’d forget everything, as best they could.

A shadow moved next to him, a pair of red eyes giving away his visitor, it was sad how predictably they were. Then again, they probably didn’t have good muscle memory to work with, and if they did, it wasn’t suitable for swinging around claws.

Claws scraped against his shield, not even scratching the old metal of the shield, whether that was a testament to it’s craftsmanship or something else, Jaune couldn’t tell you. He stepped into its range, sword coming down on its arm, severing it.

 It was over in seconds, it’s head went down the hall. 

Jaune didn’t have the guts to go confirm his suspicions. The building shook again, the head fading away into the darkness.

He felt another pair of eyes on him from the shadows, they weren’t red, and they didn’t feel hostile. He looked at them, down the hallway, they stared off for a moment. Until they winked at him disappearing in the small motion.

“I’m losing my damn mind.” Jaune shrugged, going to meet back with the group.

Gathering them up, they resumed their march towards the door, eliminating any monsters that got in their way. With their fast pace they reached the doors quickly, just in time to see darkness climbing up the front of the door to the halfway point.

Jaune didn’t hesitate to open the doors, revealing the ground was at the middle of the door, instead of at the, well, the ground. “Come on! Get through there before you can’t get out at all!” He shouted, voice firm and echoing.

He pointed at the edge they could grab. “Get up there and leave! You all are not wanted here!” It didn’t take much convincing to have his soldiers leave. As one after the other they pulled themselves out of this hellhole.

Nora was given a boost by Ren, who wormed his way out between the ever smaller hole out. Soon, it was just him and Velvet, in what little light that remained, she gave him a small smile. “See you on the other side?”

“Yeah.” Jaune nodded. His ears twitched, it sounded like stomping.

He knelt down, giving Velvet a boost up. The sound was getting louder. It was heavy footsteps. Velvet nearly fell as Jaune essentially threw her through the gap. He looked behind himself and wished he hadn’t.

The lights were going out behind them. Not in the sense that they were being turned off, but something was moving under the lights, and they went out. That darkness was moving towards them. Something giant moved in it, as the sound of clacking was getting closer, a gigantic all-consuming noise, and what looked like fading coals burning were getting brighter.

Gripping the edge he pulled himself up, the gap growing smaller, struggling to squeeze through the gap.

“Help him!” Someone cried. 

Hands pulled at him trying to help him through. Ren at one side and Nora at the other, he was being squeezed through an inch at the time, almost there, given just enough time.

Enough time, they did not have. Something enormous grabbed Jaune by his legs, and its power exceeded any help that they could provide. Jaune laid his against the ground, relaxing his partially out body.

“Let go! I’ll be -” Was the last thing they heard him say, as he was pulled backwards into the building. He didn’t reemerge, as they stood there waiting for him to reappear, even as the sound of enormous struggle began, only to become more muffled. Any chance of him escaping to them was gone, as they watched with heavy-hearts as the gap shrunk and shrunk until no space remained, and soon, the building was gone.

----

The Magical Girls floated victorious over the greasy black smear that used to be their opponent, small pieces of bone floating around in it. They looked at it with narrowed-eyes, dirty figures, and a general air of exhaustion.

“That's it?” Yellow asked.

“Close enough,” Black answered.

Red floated up to the ceiling, seeing it was night and nobody remained within a thousand feet of the old museum. Except for vehicles with flashing lights next to some hazard tape that went around the front of the building. “Do you think that everyone got out ok?”

Crimson looked around. “We were so busy fighting that thing, -”

White floated out the building, pointing down at the nearly sunken building. “We don’t have time to check. Not unless we want to be pulled in with it.” She paused with a sigh. “Besides, with all the Grimm running around, it’s far too late for them. Face it, anybody left in there is dead.”

There was a moment of silence, as they floated up and away. “I don’t like this.” Yellow pulsated with flame. “We could have done more, could have done better.” Watching the building as it disappeared entirely into the darkness below. Once gone, the darkness returned down into the pit, leaving only an enormous crater where a piece of history had been erased.

For once, there was no fighting among the girls.

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Outmatched in his Prime

During Tails of Trials's prologue, Sonic Prime was on the move as per usual, catching sight of Eggman and his usual antics of trying to find the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic Prime: Alright, Egghead! What are you up to this time?

Eggman Prime: Ohohohoho! If it isn't Sonic! This time, I'm not going to spill it, as if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise. But, of course, you just had to get in the way AGAIN, so I'm going to put an end to that!

He summoned one of his Egg Mobile attachments to attack Sonic with.

Sonic Prime: *yawn* Never gets old!

The two engaged in battle, and as you'd expect, Sonic kept the upper hand in it all, taking the giant talking egg down a peg and sending him and his Egg Mobile down to the ground.

Sonic Prime: Looks like you lose! Again!

Eggman Prime: Why, you little...!

However, neither of them noticed a glitchy portal opening underneath, with the perspective panning to a digital Emerald tracker built into some software.

Sonic Prime: Uhh... What's that?

A catcher claw thrusted down at high speeds, crashing into the ground and propelling the arch-nemeses backwards. As the smoke cleared, Sonic saw it in more detail, having encapsulated one of the Chaos Emeralds in a glass dome.

Sonic Prime: That ain't good!

Eggman Prime: Of course it isn't!

Sonic spindashed at the claw, shattering it in a single blow and freeing the Emerald within.

Sonic Prime: What is that thing, anyway?

Eggman caught one of the parts from it and examined it.

Eggman Prime: Whatever or whoever this claw belongs to, it's clearly far more advanced than one of my usual creations. And from what we just witnessed, they're targeting wherever the Chaos Emeralds are at.

Sonic Prime: Well, whatever it is, I'd better go take a look!

As he dashed off to investigate, another portal opened within his proximity, this time with a pulling force. He spotted it and tried to outrun it, but the pull was getting stronger than he could run, forcing him to step up the game.

Sonic Prime: Come... on...!

Suddenly, some debris being pulled in hit him square in the face, sending him flying right inside.

Sonic Prime: WOOOOOAAHHHH!!!

As he fell through the portal, he noticed a death trap being formed around him, alongside flashes of the vast multiverse around him.

Sonic Prime: Here we go again...!

Sonic was quick enough to slip straight out of the trap before it could be fully set up, though the vortex leading back home got sealed off (which meant that even SHADOW couldn't help him out of this one).

Sonic Prime: Oh, great...

He landed on a floating platform, trying to decide his best options for stopping whoever was behind this one.

Sonic Prime: Alright, who sent me here?!

He heard what sounded like Eggman's laughter, but deepened and HORRIBLY distorted.

Sonic Prime: Something tells me this ain't Eggman.

A platform flew down to Sonic's level, revealing a version of Eggman with green clothing, but no goggles; instead with blackened eyes and a sinister red glow from them.

Sonic Prime: Who the heck are you?!

??. ????????: If it isn't Sonic Prime himself. My name is Dr. EggOmega, the soon-to-be NEW ruler of the multiverse!

Sonic Prime: Uh-huh, yeah. Hey, so, could you be so kind as to take me back home before I turn you into devilled eggs?

He laughed in a twisted manner again.

Dr. EggOmega: I'm afraid that's not going to be happening. And smug as ever, I see. You think some measly hero, let alone a type of Sonic, ALWAYS has a chance against Dr. Eggman? HA! Don't make me laugh. I ripped that hope to pieces for my Sonic long ago. And soon, with the power of MY Chaos Emeralds, all other universes shall follow, including your own.

Sonic Prime: *yawn* (sarcastic and taunting) Oh, no! Please! Don't make me cry!

He got into a battle stance.

Sonic Prime: Let's dance!

He leapt up to attack EggOmega, but was immediately grabbed and thrown into the floor by the twisted doctor.

Sonic Prime: OW!

Dr. EggOmega: It's all the same for your heroic delusions. That is, until you finally realise my TRUE power extent!

Sonic Prime: I've faced worse than you, "Eggman"! You can do your worst, but you're never gonna beat me!

He launched a full power spin attack at the doctor, but to his shock upon impact, EggOmega didn't even FLINCH.

Dr. EggOmega: HAHAHAHAHA! Was that seriously the best you could do?

Sonic Prime: What the-?!

Sonic ended up on the receiving end of a much, MUCH more powerful attack, catapulting him right into another dimension.

Dimension MP-2021: Green Hill Zone

Sonic wearily woke up after a hard impact with the ground.

Sonic Prime: Ow... What the...? Where...?

He got up, brushing some dust off of him. He recognised that he was in A Green Hill, just not his own, judging by the surroundings.

Sonic Prime: Hello? Anybody there?

He could tell the island he was at was inhabited, as he could hear traffic past the hills, so he headed out to investigate. Once he got to Spring Yard Zone, he caught sight of OMT!Tails simply sorting out another of his Fang's usual antics in the city.

OMT!Tails: Hang that gem back, Fang! It's not yours!

Sonic Prime: Hey, that version of Tails looks familiar!

OMT!Fang: Not this time, fox! This jewel'll fetch me one handy profit, mate!

OMT!Tails: It's not meant to be in the hands of thieves like you. Give it back, or else!

OMT!Fang: Okay, you little rat. Let's play it serious, then!

On cue, Sonic leapt on top of the Marvellous Queen and behind Fang.

Sonic Prime: Boo.

OMT!Fang: Wha-?!

Considering OMT!Sonic was dead, Fang was absolutely baffled.

OMT!Fang: How?!

Sonic Prime: How... what?

OMT!Fang: Yer supposed to be dead!

Sonic Prime: Dead? Wh-? (smirking) Why, yes...! (in a ghostly tone) And I still am~... And I've been watching you, Fang~... messing with my little buddy~. Repent~... Repent~! Or I will haunt you 'till the day you die~! Woooooooooo~!

OMT!Fang: GAH! Get away!

OMT!Tails took the opening to uppercut Fang and send him flying out of the Marvellous Queen onto the ground.

Sonic Prime: ... (to OMT!Tails) Why am I dead again?

OMT!Tails: I'll explain more to you once Fang's back behind bars.

They jumped down to the ground as Fang slowly got back up.

Sonic Prime (whispering): Quick! Pretend only Fang can see me!

OMT!Fang: Urgh... What is with you and your ambushes?

OMT!Tails: You looked away for a moment, so I just had to!

OMT!Fang: B-But Sonic's ghost was there!

OMT!Tails: Ghost? What are you talking about? Detective Ghost, or some apparition pretending to be my friend? I've seen it all.

Sonic flashed a devious smirk at the weasel, and in response, Fang shot one of his cork bullets at Sonic, only for the Blue Blur to casually dodge it like it was nothing.

OMT!Tails: What were you even aiming at?

Sonic Prime: Always watching~.

OMT!Fang: How come you can't see the-?! Wait a minute... That's no ghost.

Sonic Prime: Eh. Knew I couldn't hold the illusion forever.

He ran circles around Fang, making him really dizzy and causing him to tumble onto his backside.

Sonic Prime: And that takes care of that! Where do we meet at?

OMT!Tails: At my workshop. Just at Emerald Town.

Sonic Prime: Great! See ya there!

He sped off as Tails followed, leaving the cops to arrest Fang and haul him off to jail. On his way to the workshop, though, Sonic saw the memorial statue of his alternate self in the ceremonial area north of Emerald Town, looking at it and feeling sorry for the guy.

A couple of minutes later, they both arrived at Tails's workshop.

Sonic Prime: Right. Question from earlier; why am I dead in this dimension?

OMT!Tails: ... Have you ever heard about entities that dub themselves "EXEs"?

Sonic Prime: Yeah... Had to face down SEVERAL of those guys one day. Same day you saw me with Metal X. I'm... guessing one of 'em was behind the loss of your Sonic, huh?

OMT!Tails: Yeah... My Sonic gave up his life destroying the creature known as OMT, and since then, I've been protecting my home in his stead.

Sonic Prime: Alongside this "Detective Ghost" you mentioned?

OMT!Tails: Yeah.

Sonic Prime: So what went down that made you a multiversal traveller, of sorts?

OMT!Tails: You can blame Eggman Nega's interdimensional energiser for it. It brought five heroes over to my dimension that I had to help get back home, and then all sorts of other stuff happened.

Sonic Prime: Ah, the Egghead from Blaze's dimension, huh? Geez, he makes my Eggman look sane.

Nitro, April and Nine warped in down in the Blur HQ, making their way up to the workshop.

OMT!Tails: So what made you end up here?

Sonic Prime: Some strange portal opened up back home, and I can deduce it's a nastier version of Eggman that's behind it. Plus, some kinda catcher claws were goin' after the Chaos Emeralds.

OMT!Tails: The originals... So if that Eggman gets his hands on them, we could be in big trouble.

Sonic Prime: You said it.

OMT!Tails: So what do you know about this version of Eggman?

Sonic Prime: Well, he wears green, smells like omelette, and rambles about how he defeated a version of me.

OMT!Tails: Gosh, this isn't good. We need to find a way to stop him before he can carry out whatever he's planning.

Sonic Prime: Yeah, we gotta step up our game and stop this "Dr. EggOmega" before things fly south.

Nine got upstairs first, seeing Sonic Prime but barely reacting other than in a sad state. Sonic Prime, in turn, saw him, expressing surprise that he could no longer hide.

Sonic Prime: Nine?

Nine: S-Sonic?

Sonic Prime: Oh, gosh... I never thought I'd be seeing you again, in some form. How have you been?

Nine: Well, thanks to Tails there and many multiversal companions, I've definitely gotten better.

Sonic Prime: I'm so relieved to hear that, little buddy.

Nine: Did you tell your "real" companions in your world about what went on in the Shatterverse?

Sonic Prime: Gosh, I wish I could've done, but the call of adventure meant I didn't have the time.

Nitro and April saw Sonic Prime for themselves as well.

April: It's really him!

Nitro: Heh, never thought I'd be seeing Sonic Prime outside his own adventures.

Sonic Prime: Heh, yep! The one and only in-person! Wasn't there more of you guys, though? I'll explain what's going on when they get here.

A little bit later, OMT!Mina, CR!Sonic, CR!Sonia, CR!Manik and Hog showed up for a brief meeting to discuss the matter at hand.

OMT!Tails: I can't even track EggOmega's energy. His signal keeps on shifting.

CR!Sonic: Then what signals can we pinpoint?

OMT!Tails: I've managed to pinpoint seven different locations, two of which I've no information about.

Sonic Prime: Well, sounds like we've got a lot of work to do. I'm just glad I'm not doing this on my own like with what happened at the Starfall Islands for most of the way.

Hog: So where are the signals coming from?

OMT!Tails: They seem to be linked to a set of seven statues based on Sonic, each present in one of seven different universes. Those universes seem to be Dimensions SRB-1998 (SRB2/Ring Racers), EDU-1996 (Sonic's Schoolhouse), MOV-2019 (Movieverse), IDW-2017, ZONE-SM-1992 (Luna Zone), EXE-2013 and GMT-811.

Nitro: That's definitely quite a lot of different options. Why don't we start off at Dimension SRB-1998, then we can work our way up from there?

OMT!Mina: Good call. We might also find something of use to us there. So who's going in first?

OMT!Tails: Me and Hog should start this trip off!

Sonic Prime: Hog?

Hog: Ihop!

Sonic Prime: Is that how he greets people?

Hog: It's kinda been a thing for me for a while, I'm not gonna lie.

Nine: We'll follow in after you guys once you've figured out what's going on there.

OMT!Tails: You got it!

A small while later, when the rest of the Blur Gang were gathered together, the kids were looking at one of the monitors.

CU!Sonia: That's the "EDU-1996" dimension, right?

April: It's some kind of schoolhouse.

CR!Manik: Hmm... I feel the place could warrant some investigation on our end.

CR!Sonia: Oh, for... Manik, we're seriously not going to school at a time like this, are we?

Smol Devy (confused): What's wong with school?

CR!Sonia: I mean, it's fine and all, but I've been quickly bored from it.

April: It'd be easier for the five of us to go in there. Besides, since we're the youngest in the group, we'd be less likely to attract unwanted attention than if we did bringing some of the others.

CR!Sonic: You kids planning on investigating that spot, huh?

CR!Manik: Yeah.

CR!Sonic: Well, please feel free to. It could save us an extra bit of time ourselves doing this!

April: Sweet!

CU!Sonia: We won't let you down, otherworldly dad!

CR!Sonic: Heh, I believe in you kids.

Mr. Needlemouse: Wait. Why do THEY get to go to a school dimension?

CR!Sonic (snarking): Because shut your yap, that's why.

The portal into Dimension SRB-1998 was ready to go.

OMT!Tails: Ready, Hog?

Hog (smirking): Born ready!

OMT!Tails: Then let's do it to it!

They leapt in.

Sonic Prime (to Nitro): Hey, kid?

Nitro: Yeah?

Sonic Prime: You said you know the Sonic from that "MOV" universe, right? You met before?

Nitro: Mhm. He's the one who's a movie in your world.

Sonic Prime: Heh, my Tails was watching him the other day. We should go and check that out as our own duo team later. Just in case the Baldy McNosehair of that dimension's still causing trouble.

Nitro: You got it!

OMT!Knuckles, OMT!Amy and OMT!Cream came down into the HQ as well after hearing about what was going on.

Nine: Hey, guys! You just missed Tails. He already headed to another dimension to help deal with a threat that could shatter the multiverse.

OMT!Knuckles: And who is this threat you speak of?

Sonic Prime: He called himself "Dr. EggOmega". I couldn't even dent him alone, let alone counter his attacks.

OMT!Amy: We'll do our part to help! You can count on us!

Sonic Prime: Sweet! Thanks, you three.

Elsewhere, Eggman Prime was following the trail of where Sonic was sent to, with Orbot and Cubot in tow.

(Orbot and Cubot sprites by Sakura236699)

Eggman Prime: This space between worlds feels... much more complex than I used to know.

Orbot: B-Boss, I don't think we should be here...

Cubot: Y-Yeah, what if Sonic got wiped out? We could be next!

Eggman Prime: HEY! No-one wipes out that blue pest but ME! Grr... Stupid multiverse, stupid random portals... Try and take away my opportunity to finish that blue goober, will you?!

He looked around, already pretty baffled after his last couple of multiversal tangos.

Eggman Prime: Alright, blue vermin! Where are you?!

Eggman caught sight of a VERY sinister smile with two glowing green dots in one of the portals, emanating a distorted laughter.

Eggman Prime: Huh? Who's there?!

Dr. EggOmega: The TRUE ruler of the multiverse, my foolish counterpart!

Eggman Prime: And who the hell are you?!

Dr. EggOmega: I am Dr. EggOmega!

Eggman Prime: Alright, Dr. I Don't Care! Where's the hedgehog?!

Dr. EggOmega: He's stranded in another dimension, right out of my way to prevent him from interfering with my plans to crush the ENTIRE multiverse! The foolish quickster stood no chance in a one-on-one fight against me, so what makes you think YOU will, Ivo?

The doctor responded in earnest by firing a beam of energy at the portal in a bid to obliterate EggOmega on the spot.

Eggman Prime: Like THIS.

However, after a moment of silence, EggOmega responded with THE most deranged and sadistic laugh Eggman had ever heard.

Dr. EggOmega: I WOULD have shared the spoils of my conquering with you, but it seems like you're too full of yourself as usual to want to accept it!

Eggman wasn't chuffed with how much of a hypocrite EggOmega was being.

Eggman Prime: No, thanks! Taking over more than one universe has been enough of a hassle as it is. I've got my own world to rule, buster, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Now tell me where Sonic is!

Dr. EggOmega: You'll just have to track him down yourself if you wish to find him. Just remember this, Robotnik. No matter what form it takes... the end comes for you all! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dr. EggOmega slinked away into the portal as it closed, the last few words echoing in Eggman's mind as he came to a conclusion of just what EggOmega was planning to do.

Sage: "The end"? Father, does he mean...?

Eggman Prime: I can tell he must mean THAT thing from the Starfall Island. Anyway, let's get back to tracking down Sonic! I can tell this ripoff of me somehow means business.

They continued on their way.

NEXT POST

[couch-house]

Timeline of my super sonic headcanons. The changes over time are due to accumulation and affinity to chaos energy and his ability to control it (and also Fleet getting killed/removed)

Fleetway is a raw accumulation of chaos energy that sonic is Not able to control. the "chaos" part of the energy overwhelms him and makes him violent. he also has a very poor hold on the energy; it spills out carelessly around him and with his sick laser beams and he tires out in minutes. this is also the only super form that he enters without the chaos emeralds.

After Fleet is killed/removed, sonic is no longer able to enter a super state without the emeralds, or do so involuntarily. a lot of the chaos was ripped from his body with his separation from fleet. he regains the ability to go super willingly with the emeralds at hand. this form is weaker than he was previously, but it is Much more controlled; he stays lucid and takes in only a finite amount of energy from the emeralds. still not very good endurance, but it's much less taxing and feels a lot better to do.

By the time adventure era comes around, his affinity and for chaos energy and ability to store it (both a buildup of natural reserves and the ability to take in more temporarily) has grown considerably. He's gained fine control of chaos energy in a very shonen protag way (ie he just has so much practical experience and Potential that he stumbles into advanced techniques without needing to train: chaos control with a fake emerald and time travel). still might not match his fleetway form in terms of raw power, but his endurance and control are significantly improved. if he couldn't beat fleetway out in a straight fight, he could just wait him out.

Now in modern era, he's surpassed any reasonable expectation of chaos affinity/ability. rather than sipping from a stream of power from the emeralds, he can wade right into their deep pools and sit submerged for hours, if he pushes it. the energy that he cannot contain within his body, but is able to pull from the emeralds regardless, radiates out around him as hot and bright but ultimately Gentle, Filtered energy. he could beat fleetway with his hands tied behind his back. the chaos energy distorts his form more than it used to, stripping his color as he gets dangerously close to rupturing into a Star. if it wasnt sonic, my friend sonic, then it'd be very scary.

[dilfsonic]

Hello. Could you tell me what happened to Sonic? I mean, why doesn't he have a hand? Was he injured in battle? I just don't know the whole story, and I don't understand it. Thank you in advance for the answer.

Hi there!!

So I have the story kind of scattered in the Heroes and Cons au tag, but I’m gonna make this an official reference post for the exactly this.

So in this future au, Metal Sonic defects from Eggman because his AI has developed so rapidly from more interactions with Sonic over the years, learning and absorbing a lot of his personality and emotional states. This is important because Metal is on Sonic and Shadow’s side when a battle against a rogue badnik goes awry. Sonic’s right arm is taken right at the shoulder. Shadow is able to use his chaos power for not only destruction, but for healing now. Although, while he can slow and stop the bleeding, he can’t regrow a limb.

Unsure what to do, by now Metal has a strong bond with Sonic, sharing the same essence of personhood with him. At a loss, and unable to do anything to help, he rips out his own right arm in solidarity, with nowhere else to direct the way he feels. Once Sonic’s taken back for emergency treatment, Metal is carrying his own arm, and refuses to get it fixed by Tails until Sonic is ‘fixed’ first, and so Tails gets the idea to use the arm as a base for a fully functioning prosthetic.

So that’s why they have matching arms! It literally came from Metal! The arm was inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist and operates not only as a prosthetic, but a fully functioning limb. It connects via electro nerves through a port in his shoulder, which makes it painful to put back in (so it only comes off if it needs serious adjustment or repair), but gives him all the same fine motor control as his natural arm and fingers.

Sonic and Metal certainly share a powerful bond after this, and it’s one that will end up lasting a lifetime. 💙

[mayordeas-clone]

Smash Tier List, Ordered By Which Characters Have Canon Last Names

i decided one fateful friday evening to make this tier list cuz i was bored. shoutout to the smash prose server for helping me iron out any kinks and retrieve some obscure information to help make this tier list reach its fullest potential (discord link for the server on my blog if youre on desktop or in my pinned post on my art account always b pluggin)

below the cut is some extra details on the tiers and character placements.

THIS IS ROUGH AS HELL!!!!! and the research and sources aren't very cut and dry throughout ;w; a tier list i wanted to make for the sillies that ended up going deeper than expected but not all the way, so it's sorta in a weird gray area of reliability. apologies for not-so-clear info in advanced 😔

Official Surname

what it says on the tin. i'd put detailed explanations of where all of them were "confirmed" but i don't know the nitty gritty of a lot of the characters and just know em from official bios. will provide detail if i see fit cuz its my post.

Byleth: "Eisner"

Joker: Civilian name is "Ren Amamiya", from the anime. Akira Kurusu is another civilian name he goes by, coming from the manga, however Amamiya is more common in official media (and kind of canonized in the PC release of Persona 5 Royal, where changing the language to English from something else will default his name to Ren Amamiya)

Kazuya: "Mishima"

Samus (And Zero Suit Samus): "Aran"

Fox: "McCloud"

Falco: "Lombardi"

Wolf: "O'Donnell"

Terry: "Bogard"

Cloud: "Strife"

SImon and Richter: "Belmont"

Donkey and Diddy Kong: So we all pretty much agreed that "Kong" is a family name :P it could be moved to the yellow canon-ish tier but idk

Peach: "Toadstool", which she signs off as in Mario 64 (So that's pretty canon right)

Generally accepted fanon surname (or exists in obscure non-canon media)

these are kinda? surnames. theyre not official like the ones above or acknowledged in the main source material, but they draw from some sort of source that fans run with. usually, it's common for multiple fanworks to use them as last names when dishing them out :P there could be multiple of these for each character. this is where a lot of handy guidance from the prose server came in, thank you very much once again!!

Mario, Dr. Mario, and Luigi: "Mario", from the live action Super Mario Bros. movie (also, "Mario Mario" is the funniest shit ever to me). Also the joke of "hey if theyre the 'mario bros', then is their last name mario?!"

Yoshi: Alright apparently in the 1993 manual for Super Mario World, Yoshi's full name is "T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas". Alright then?? I was going to put Yoshi in the "species" category, but this bit surprised me :P not sure if it's like, a scientific name or something, but I guess this Yoshi is a special case.

Ganondorf: I think in a manual or something like that (Forgive my vague language, this was just something I recalled that the people I worked with agreed with), he is given the last name "Dragmire".

Marth, Chrom, and Lucina: "Lowell" was a last name given to Marth in the Fire Emblem anime. With Chrom and Lucina being direct descendants of him, they also inherit this last name.

Zelda: "Hyrule" is generally assumed to be her last name. I'm pretty sure Zelda's father in BotW is given the official last name, though I know there's some different reincarnation shenanigans going on. Still, no one stopped me 😎 it's a common theme for a lot of "royalty" characters to be assigned a fanon last name named after their respective kingdom (though I may have overlooked some, we'll get to those later).

Ike: "Greil", named after his father. I thought it was kinda dumb for his last name to be ripped from his dad's first name but idk maybe everyone is on a last-name basis for him (I haven't progressed far in Path of Radiance to know).

Sonic: This one surprised me. Apparently in the Archie comics, his full name "Ogolvie Maurice Hedgehog". So his last name is "Hedgehog"? I suppose this means Sonic's full name could also be Sonic The Hedgehog, with "The" being a middle name :P

Captain Falcon: I was going to include this in "canon", but given that it's technically from a manual and other surnames in this tier come from a similar source, so might as well be consistent. In one of the F-Zero manuals, he's given the name "Douglas J. Falcon" (baller ass name tbh). In the anime, he's also given the civilian name "Bart Lemming".

Sephiroth: According to the Prose pals, it could be "Hojo" or "Crescent" depending on who you ask (idk I'll take their word for it. Yeah sorry this isn't a very thorough list in terms of research and sources).

Ryu: Another Prose pal said that one of the movies gave him the last name "Hoshi".

Bowser and Bowser Jr.: Heard "Koopa" tossed around, given Bowser is the king of Koopas and Jr. is his son.

Mega Man: "Light", after his creator Dr. Light.

Roy: "Pherae", after him being the son of Marquess Pherae.

King K. Rool: I think I assumed "Rool" could be his last name, and the K. is an initialized first name. Heavily based on my own guess tho.

No Canon Surname

Yeah. Though some are Weird and probably misassigned.

Snake I could have sworn had some kind of fanon surname, but I drew up a blank when consulting with the Prose server :P any hardcore Metal Gear fans can swoop in and correct me though.

Corrin and Daisy are kinda... weird to me cuz I assumed they would operate on similar logic to Zelda, being named after their respective kingdoms ("Valla" and "Sarasaland"). But I've never seen those used in practice so it's probably negligible. They bounced between tiers a lot while I made this.

I suppose Dragon Quest 11 Hero could fall in the "kingdom last name" category but idk I'm still internally debating with Corrin and Daisy. Didn't do any research on the other Heroes and no one seemed to stop me. So sorry!! 😭

The only other thing I have to say about this tier is that I'm surprised Bayonetta, Shulk, Olimar, Alph, and Sora didn't have any note-worthy last names to speak of. Unless something slipped through the cracks!

Idk if Sheik would adopt Zelda's assumed last name which is why they are in this tier.

Title, no canon name

Pretty much a title given to the character, be it related to their occupation or status.

This was originally a "no canon first name lmao" tier, but I changed it to be more broad at the request of the Discord buddies to include weird edge cases like Dark Samus (who isn't really a species, but not really a person?) and Duck Hunt (who accounts for three separate entities in one lol so that kind of confused me, but a tier like this worked for him).

Species????

Pretty much a character that comes from a species of many, meaning they don't really have an actual name to begin with (Inklings technically count, since it's not like "Inkling" refers to status or occupation). Yes, I included R.O.B. there due to Subspace Emissary's lore :) one could argue that's not canon, but be fr does R.O.B. have any existing lore to work with? Brawl essentially made him its own OC for the story campaign and that's amazing. Anyway, unnecessary rant aside, R.O.B. is a species in my book, and he's the last of his kind (another detail originating from Smash).

Last two tiers are kind of joke tiers I came up with as the idea for this list cooked up in my brain. One could argue "Mr. Game and Watch" is a title, but I thought his own dedicated tier was funnier so I kept it intact :P

~~~

Thus concludes this dumbass tier list. Feel free to roast me in the notes for inaccuracies cuz there's probably a lot (Or don't I'm sensitive as hell)

[metalhead-brainrot]

[Album of the day] World Eaters - Demo MK-1

Guelph, ON // 2020

[Genres] death metal, war metal

[Themes] In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only riffs...

[FFO] Warhammer 40K*, Bolt Thrower, Chainsword

[Thoughts] You can't traverse the waters of death metal for very long without encountering Warhammer 40K in some form, and I'll confess I count myself a fan.** But you don't need to be a capital-G Gamer to appreciate this ripping demo, a solo project from multi-instrumentalist David Gupta. World Eaters's riffs are as violent as its namesake***, guaranteed to have you itching for the mosh pit. The first two tracks, "Devour" and "Baneblade," will pummel you with energetic rhythm, an auditory siege culminating in the death/doom hellscape of "The Warp" (my very favorite World Eaters song to date).

I picked this demo because I think it's rock-solid, but I'd like to talk about World Eaters's other releases as well. Grinding Advance (2021) is their second EP, doubling down on everything in Demo MK-1. "Armoured Spearhead (Hellhammer)" is six minutes of unbridled energy; "Expedition / Tomb World" is nearly nine minutes, the latter half containing clarinet-infused Nile worship;**** there's even a cover of "Running Up That Hill."

World Eaters's new split, Mothman and the Thunderbirds vs World Eaters, adds two new great tracks to the WE catalogue. It's also the first release without drum programming; joining as the second permanent member, Winter Stomp***** adds ass-kicking blast beats to the bands repertoire. I'm very excited to see more future releases with her style.

Now that Winter Stomp has pledged her gory chainaxe to the sonic blitzkrieg of the World Eaters, the duo have been able to play live. Living outside Ontario I can't say I've been to one of their concerts, but I bet they split skulls; if you live near Guelph, check them out.

Also, I would be remiss for not mentioning that World Eaters has always been very charitable with the profits from their music, leading several donation campaigns for Guelph Pride, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit local to World Eaters's hometown. Winter Stomp has also designed and printed some booty short merch reading, "Be Gay Do Heresy," which tempt me every Bandcamp Friday.******

Thanks for reading the long post today. Keep on killing, maiming, and burning.

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* If you're unfamiliar, Warhammer 40K is a popular tabletop strategy game played with painted miniatures and rolling dice. It's popular with metalheads because the lore is so metal. Indulge me in a quick tl;dr.

It's the 41st century, and the Imperium of Man has spread through the Galaxy under the tutelage of the God Emperor. Though once great, the empire was split 10,000 years prior due to infighting from his übermensch sons, the Primarchs. Now the empire is spread thin across too many star systems, losing the fight against three main threats: the Xenos (other alien civilizations), the Heretics (those who question the authority of a fascist theocracy), and Chaos itself (arcane beings from the Warp, the non-space between wormholes).

The God Emperor sits as a corpse upon his throne on Terra, every ounce of his psychic abilities maintaining the Astronomican, a beacon guiding spaceships throughout the Warp. Every day an increasing number of psychics are sacrificed to fuel his powers, for if the beacon fails, the Imperium collapses and humanity falls.

There are no good guys, and there is no hope. For in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

** Never actually played anything Games Workshop except Necromunda, though I've read a fair few novels. I prefer wargames that won't bleed me for money and bury me in rules, so I mainly play Mantic Games's Kings of War and Firefight. One book for all the rules and force lists at a fraction of the price.

*** The World Eaters are a faction of heretical Space Marines worshipping one of the four Chaos Gods: Khorne, the Blood God, who sits upon a throne made from the skulls of those slain in battle. They are also my favorite faction; he kind of has a Conan-esque backstory of fighting in gladiatorial slave pits. And we all know how much metalheads like Conan.

**** The Egyptian musical themes are themselves referential to the content of the song: Tomb Worlds are the hidden domains of the Necrons, a xenos race that conquered the Galaxy aeons before humanity even gazed at the stars. Annoyed by the emergence of other upstart civilizations, the Dynasties of the Infinite Empire transferred their consciousnesses into mechanical bodies, intending to slumber in hidden tombs until the juvenile races extinguished themselves.

But occasionally something wakes the soulless early, by delving too deep in ancient ruins or experimenting with ancient and unknown tech. And what they find is always ruthless extermination, for the destruction of a Necron's artificial body does not kill a mind capable respawning eternally into an army's worth of mechanical warriors.

***** She's apparently from the Netherlands. Neat.

****** I already have one of their patches on my metal jacket. Very stylish.

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[From the band/label]

Thought for the day: A coward always seeks compromise.

David Gupta: Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Drum Programming Psychic screams from the Immaterium are: Adam Ujhelyi (Teleportise, Hellbreather) Justin Krawczyk (Frank Reynolds, BatBoy) Derek Prince-Cox (Wakeless, Yuzun, ex-Arise and Ruin) Stuart Charlton (First World Famine, Inverted Serpent) Nik Wever (ex-The Story Of..., Time the Destroyer) Recorded, Mixed and, "Mastered" by David Gupta at Doyle House. World Eaters logo and Demo MK-1 artwork by Meytheus Rexy, @meytheusrexy_art

[zofi-persson-quotes]

Second ref sheet

Name: TSC, Second, Sec, Orange

Full Name: The Second Coming

Pronouns: he/they

Sexuality: Asexual and pan

Species: Overlord

Age: 17

Height: 1,80 meters (5’9)

Skin color: dark with vitiligo

Hair: long wavy orange hair that fade to neon green, normally tied in a long braid or in a braided bun (he puts them in the bun when he's fighting/training, or when he's drawing)

Eyes: mismatched. The left eye is bright green with a white pupil that looks “shattered”, while the right eye is bright orange with white and light green pupils. When their magic is active the eyes become fully green with no iris, and have an orange and green four pointed star-shaped pupil. Both the sclera and the pupil are bordered in white

Distinguishing features: neon green scars, pointed ears, neon green freckles, sharp teeth

Clothing style/frequently worn clothes: sleeveless dark gray turtleneck, dark gray ripped jeans, light orange and white boots

Accessories: belt with pouches, bright green sash, light green two tailed scarf that fade to orange, cursor shaped necklace with a bright orange gem, earring with two four pointed stars, one neon green and the other pale blue

Family: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Dark, Chosen and Vic (older siblings), Liji (romantic partner), Calas, Entros, DJ (uncle figures), Odali, Graya (aunt figures), Alan (father/creator), Kaori (mother)

Talent: fighting, drawing and crafting

Personality: mischievous, outgoing, creative, brave, humble, empathetic, forgiving, cautious, happy-go-lucky, serious, responsible, a bit of a mother hen

Likes: strawberries, sweets, crafting, animating, training with his siblings and friends, sleeping

Dislikes: feeling useless, losing his friends and siblings, Silver

Strengths: amazing fighter and good strategist, but also very good at improvisation

Weaknesses: doesn’t really know how to use his powers fully

Abilities: Creation (everything that he draws will become real and/or alive. He can also create unobtainable Minecraft items with his Crafting Table), Lexical Processing (he can directly talk to Alan), advanced agility, amazing fighting abilities (he’s the best among the Color Gang), can go all around the Desktop, Musical Prowess, Deletion Immunity, higher intelligence, enhanced health, Hyper Speed, Code Restoration (he can restore entities that were deleted), Antivirus Power

Powers: Main Energy magic (Dynamokinesis - manipulate or generate energy, Energy Generation - generate energy, Energy Blast - create blasts of energy, Quintessence Force - create and manipulate an unique form of electrical and life energy, Ergokinetic Flight - use energy to fly, Ergo-Telekinesis - use telekinesis through energy, Energymancy - gain divination via energy), main Creativity magic ([unconscious] Ability Creation - The user can create/manifest/evolve almost any ability, existing or new, upgrade it or not, add limits or countermeasures to it, and can grant it to themselves, others, or even objects, Absolute Creativity - have access to a limitless amount of ideas, Imaginary Constructs - create constructs out of imagination, Animation - animate paints/drawings), minor Health magic (Flawless Healing - heal any/all damage to flawless/perfect/pristine state. Regeneration Manipulation - control own or people’s regeneration or inducing regeneration), minor Light magic (Laser Emission - bend light wavelengths to create lasers.), minor Shockwave magic (Shockwave Generation - generate shockwaves by various means [clapping, flicking a finger, snapping, stomping…]. Sonic Boom Generation - generate sonic booms).

Weapons: drawn hammer and Minecraft diamond sword

[killingthecringe]

do you write fics and/or have any faves you'd want to shout out?

I do actually! Most of the stuff I write is Shadamy; as are a good portion of these recommendations.

There's a bunch of t and up rated fics here so just be mindful about checking ratings and tags/ warnings in advance <3

My a03 is here <3

My Friend Mozie writes some amazing stuff. Their fic Time to Grow Up is one of my all-time favourites even if it rips my heart out every time.

Anything by @shadamyheadcanons is fantastic. Their A03 link is here. I'm personally biased towards Shadow Sensations because that was the first one I found.

@overtdemon knocks it out of the park every time, and writes what I think is the most awkward Shadow, which I adore. If the Glove Fits was such a joy to read.

@suna1suna1 writes some fantastic sonamyshad, including Hedgehogs and Privateers. They play off the dynamics of each of the characters incredibly well!

@w0lp3rtinger has some fantastic stuff as well! What Is It You Want, which is a subset of Hanging On To Tomorrow, is one that really got me back into writing fic at all!

@shadowsfascination has also just been putting out some phenomenal stuff lately; the rose gold amy was awesome!

@sthrox has a fantastic cast of characters in their fics, I'm personally a fan of how Amy's family is written, especially in Shadamy Rain

Some additional fics that I like as well:

Hard Candy by JiolionRuns: As the war against the Eggman Army ended, many mobian children were orphaned and placed in Restoration shelters. One of which is where Shadow the hedgehog would encounter a peculiar hoglet who will make him realize a thing or two.

Green with Envy by Reaxeons: What if Dexter was actually real and not just made up? And what if he was a massive douche. What if Shadow helped Amy out, and that sparked a series of events that would change how they see each other? Fuck around and Find Out. ;)

In Bad Faith by ShadamySomeday: Amy convinces Shadow to kiss her to make Sonic jealous. What will happen when his possessiveness and feelings for her push things farther than either of them expect?

Ups and Downs by Zehntacles: Rouge ropes Shadow into going on a date with Amy Rose, while Amy plans to use her date to make Sonic take notice of her. Will either be able to stand the other long enough to get through this night unscathed?

Let's Go Home by Nothing_Fancy: Amy is now 20, and has always loved Sonic the Hedgehog. She didn't plan on ever loving anyone else, but after a near death experience and a broken arm, she finds herself getting closer to her new roommate. To make matters complicated, a darkness threatens to take away her new found happiness. Can Amy figure out just who she wants to be with and how to defeat the impending doom, before it's too late? Takes place after Sonic X and treats Sonic Boom as the future of X.

"The Brothers of Chaos" by ThePurplePyroHedgie: AU: Leaving her past behind her, Amy, a skilled nurse, winds up working as a medic for the notorious M.C, "The Brothers of Chaos." Along the way, she learns about what makes this group so dangerous & well known. However, one of the members of the club soon realizes that their new medic is hiding a formidable secret.

One Hundred Moments by laineybug0: These two hedgehogs weren't meant to be together. Everything was stacked against them from the beginning- from her love for another hedgehog to his obligations as an Agent of G.U.N. What does it take for two people to come together despite the odds? How many fleeting and harrowing moments before they can have their happily ever after?

[true-blue-sonic]

In Stories, Silver originates from a good and happy future: I remembered that I never actually gave the name of his city (Selenite City) anywhere, so I had to retroactively add that to one of the chapters so it didn't come out of nowhere later, rip. But now I'm trying to imagine what his world would look like, especially compared to Sonic's era. I find it difficult to think of what potential technological advances they could have undergone in their daily life and what Silver might be used to compared to what the past is like🤔

[sage-nebula]

arcane au you say? :eyes:

Well, not a full AU, but more like "ideas for what an AU could look like while keeping the characters true to who they are, rather than forcing them to fit the characters from the show."

Like for instance . . . Sonic does have some things in common with Vi, and Tails does have some things in common with Powder. But while I can see some exchanges between Vi and Power working between Sonic and Tails (e.g. I could see Tails' borrowing Powder's line: "Just that you were 'twice the person at half my age'. You heard them, I'm not a fighter"; as well as Sonic borrowing Vi's, "What makes you different makes you strong. Remember that"), I can't see their relationship breaking apart in the same way that Vi's and Powder's did at the end of episode three. It's probably my unbreakable bond bias speaking, but—actually, no, you know what? It's not, because I didn't come up with "unbreakable bond" for them. Sega came up with that. It's their team-up name in Sonic Advance 3. Sonic and Tails literally have an unbreakable bond, so I just can't see their relationship fracturing or falling apart like Vi's and Powder's did in Arcane. It just doesn't work, on numerous levels:

1.) Tails' inventions work. RIP to Powder, but he's different. So already, there's a critical difference in how the story would play out.

2.) Unless he was mind controlled or otherwise out of control of his own body, I really cannot see Sonic hitting Tails. I definitely can't see him continuing to manhandle Tails as Tails sobs and cowers and pleads with him to stop. Not only is Sonic a pretty private person with his more painful emotions (this is why Sega says he can't cry), but even in a situation where some of Tails' tech malfunctioned or was used against them, and their other friends died . . . seeing Tails breaking down into hysterics over what happened would quell Sonic's own rage. Yeah, of course he'd feel some kind of way about it. He might bench Tails for a while. But he wouldn't smack him, wouldn't manhandle him, wouldn't scream at him, wouldn't storm off and leave Tails screaming and crying after him. That's just not who Sonic is.

So already, the thing that separates the two before the timeskip would have to be different. To keep it in-character, I think it would make much more sense for there to be an intense situation, perhaps a face-off against Eggman or something. The situation is really bad, they're being overwhelmed, maybe a few of their friends have already been killed. And Sonic, because he always makes Tails' safety a priority, shoves Tails out of a window or something to get him out of the proximity of the danger. And then, before Tails can get back in there to help Sonic escape, the building explodes and Tails is made to believe that Sonic perished in the explosion.

(Sonic didn't. Instead, he was captured by Eggman and imprisoned for the next five or six years. But Tails doesn't know that.)

And then that brings us to the next change. Because while Eggman would still be the big bad in this, I can't see any scenario where he takes in and genuinely comes to love Tails. And that's a pretty big thing for Silco and Powder/Jinx; Silco saw himself in the little girl sobbing over her feelings of betrayal by a sibling, which is why he took her in. And he truly came to love her as his daughter. It wasn't a ploy, or an act. He really loved her. But Eggman only loves himself and I can't see that changing / don't want to drastically change the characters for an AU to work. So although he's still the primary villain in the story, he can't be the Silco equivalent when it comes to the brothers.

But you know who could? Shadow.

Because in this scenario, Tails wasn't abandoned; instead, his big brother sent him away from the danger, and then was killed basically right in front of him (or so Tails thinks). And what do you know, but the same thing basically happened to Shadow. His older sister-figure, Maria, sent him away from the danger, and then was gunned down herself as a result. It's something that, in canon, fucks him up to this day, to the point where in the Twitter Takeovers not even Eggman will taunt Shadow with it. So in this case, when Tails is sobbing his heart out in the street because he thinks that Sonic just got blown to pieces while he, Tails, could do nothing but watch, well . . .

Shadow: "You're a heartbroken younger sibling whose older sibling died in front of you in an effort to protect you?"

So in this scenario, perhaps Shadow knew Sonic and Tails a little before this, and so he still asks Tails where his brother is. And Tails, like Powder, launches himself at Shadow, still sobbing, and says that his brother died, he's dead and Tails could do nothing, because Sonic sent him away before he could help. And Shadow remembers the this-AU-version of how Maria died, and so he slowly hugs Tails back, and Silco's line changes just enough so that it's:

"It's okay. We'll avenge them. We'll avenge them both."

And that's how he adopts Tails as his new little brother and teaches him such things as "revenge feels awesome" and "murder is okay."

Sonic's in for a big surprise when he gets busted out of jail, let me tell you.