#AND RESCUE SONIC FROM PRISON. BASICALLY BY HERSELF

[fragglesystem]

people gotta stop talking about how it’s actually totally okay and fine if amy isn’t in this movie because she wouldn’t have anything to add/because it’s about shadow anyway/whatever.

does this scene mean nothing to you

[cutegirlmayra]

Metamy Prompt for the Week event

Prompt:

In the Classic Dimension, Sonic has discovered that Dr. Robotnik has collected ‘Phantom Shards’ that carry the same basic principle abilities as the once intact Phantom Ruby. However, seeing how unstable they are apart, he’s created a gooey substance that puts it’s trapped target to sleep and creates their dream-clones!

Wanting to target Sonic’s friends, Dr. Robotnik places them into a sleep that the Phantom Shards then make into their worst nightmare!

Fighting off these nightmarish realities, Sonic has successfully awakened Tails through a data-bit thunderstorm zone, dodging bolts as they try to electrocute him.

Faster than sound also means speedy close-calls, and Sonic learns from rescuing Tails that his friends’ greatest dreams seem to be the key to destroying their nightmares.

For Tails, he had to believe in himself, that he could be just as brave and cool as Sonic was as a hero.

This desire manifested as the X-Tornado, that ghost-piloted Sonic towards the antidote after defeating a flying Egg-boss.

After taking the antidote, Tails awoke and immediately began looking into these Phantom Shards, and their antidote for waking up.

Sonic also saved Knuckles, who’s nightmare was failing in protecting the Master Emerald, leading to the end of the world. Dr. Robotnik greatly underestimated the Phantom Shards power, and as the world fell into chaos, Sonic discovered Knuckles’s greatest dream was to create world peace.

This manifested as the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald giving Sonic the necessary power to turn Super, even if they were just dream-clones of the actual emeralds.

Saving the day yet again, Sonic was surprised to learn Dr. Robotnik still had one prisoner left over... and could fathom who that could be...

Sonic darted into the room and the metal doors quickly slid shut, he looked to see that from the far right corner was what appeared to be like a giant water chamber that resembled the steampunk diver’s suit head.

He saw Rosy the Rascal floating in her sleep within the goo... much like his other friends.

He zoomed up to the glass and began banging on it, trying to look in more but a strange optical illusion was keeping him from seeing her well enough.

Then... flying down directly behind him... was Metal Sonic.

Sonic turned around and put his fists up, but Dr. Robotnik came down from a chute with... Another Metal Sonic!?

He laughed his typical way, then seemed to state that Rosy’s worst nightmare was indeed, Metal Sonic!

He stated that Sonic may have defeated his greatest creation previously... but two of them!?

Phantom Metal Sonic and Metal Sonic then spread out to come at Sonic from different angles, and it was a tricky fight to maneuver.

However, Classic Doctor Robotnik wasn’t able to predict the feuding robotic spirit that the real Metal Sonic had. Wanting to be the one to fight and end Sonic, it would constantly get cut-off or crash into the Phantom dream-clone, causing Sonic to wind around them and set-up some intercepting collisions.

He defeated the real Metal Sonic, having had a miniature explosion that knocked him to the right into some consoles... making him slide his metallic, heavy body off and hang with his arms still crooked up on the consoles but his head down.

The dream-clone of Metal Sonic was also looking like it’d short-circuit... twitching in the with sparks, but glared menacingly over to Rosy’s water chamber.

Without the antidote, she would remain asleep... and taking her out of the goo with the Phantom Shards inside would be risky... So Sonic didn’t see this coming.

In a last effort to remain permeant in this reality, Phantom Metal Sonic dived and slashed open the glass fisheye effect of the holding water chamber, gushing out the goo that Sonic had to dodge, least he’d be put under a sleep paralysis as well.

Dr. Robotnik started biting his nails, faking his concern for Sonic, before laughing at the predicament he was now in.

 Rescue the girl and risk falling to the Phantom Shards’ nightmares? Or continue fighting a never-ending struggle?

Sonic had to think fast, grabbing the Miles-Electric that Modern Tails had gifted him, he remembered that Modern Tails had told him he had an ‘app’ of sorts that could reprogram one Eggman robot to do one specific task. But it would only work for a short period of time.

Looking to see the real Metal Sonic struggling through sparks to rise and fight again, he rushed over to him and turned the Miles-Electric upside, clicking the app and quickly typing in his commands with his tongue out on the other side of his mouth.

A lightning static traveled between the two orbed points, and he shoved this into Metal Sonic’s head, the electric waves now traveling through his metallic shell and into his computing processes.

Enraged at the ‘cheating’ Dr. Robotnik hollered and stomped in his Eggmobile, seeing Metal Sonic retrieve Amy from the Goo and wipe it off her.

In his eyes, Tails’s logo showed the downloaded processes completed, and he stared at her as though wondering what he was doing.

She looked so small and frail in his arms... immediately, he accessed what his new programming was.

The timer was set... and the command: Be her replacement hero while I’m busy, help her to learn to rely on her own abilities but with your aid, protect and make her unafraid of you anymore.

He was twitching at the loathsome command, the new objective was so humbly sickening.

Of course this frail creature should fear him!

He felt his claws twitching before finally, Sonic sped over after distracting the dream-clone and held her, showing he was still actively fighting but glared back at the dream-clone.

The Phantom Metal Sonic suddenly stopped and began to shake again, finally exploding as he saw Sonic protectively shielding her.

In a humorous quip, Dr. Robotnik concluded that Rosy’s greatest dream must be that ‘Love conquers all’ and then opened the metal doors for Sonic to come and face him... The greatest of all fears!

Sonic rolled his eyes, watching him disappear up the chute and then handed Rosy back to Metal Sonic, giving Metal a condensing pat on his heat as though rubbing in the harsh truth of his new servitude to her.

Absolutely unacceptable..!

Sonic took off as Metal Sonic was left to babysit the sleeping girl, and his face revealed every bit of malice he felt towards the situation...

For the first few minutes, he just monitored her heart beat.

In the next, his eyelids began to soften from their cold-stare and turn to a neutral look as he noticed her getting cold and began to regulate a heat through his engine, making sure not to scratch her as he did so, but heating her soggy form up to dry.

When she sneezed in her sleep, he felt his whole systems freak out as her heart momentarily adjusted to the increase in body pressure and decrease blood flow back into it.

Even though it was a mili-second of change, the fact that her body’s output had slightly altered sent him into a panicked frenzy.

Not knowing how to handle that, and seeing she was back to recovering health and stable levels, he lowered his eyelids as though frustrated with the fact that now... this once ‘greatest creation’ that could compete with that of even Sonic, invented to be the better of his organic trash, was suddenly now the nursemaid.

Infuriating!

She breathed lightly.

Insulting!

He adjusted her headband that was slightly slipping off from the slippery goo in her quills.

... Revolting...

He lightly pushed her up more towards his chest so she wasn’t sagging limply in his arms, and giving her the heat necessary for her chest and the rest of her clothes to dry and stay warm.

... Pathetic little thing...

He sharp, silvery claw shone as he lifted it to her bangs, moving them with a waft to the side.

He recounted the humiliating memory of another instance, where he had crashed into a sliding metal door while Sonic had successfully made it to her, tied up and hanging from a pole.

His sharp quills had freed her at once with a low-turning spin-dash, and she had hugged him in gratitude while Metal Sonic was incinerated by a frustrated Eggman.

His memory was downloaded into another Metal body, upgraded but relatively looking the same.

... And yet, Sonic didn’t want to burden himself by taking her along to fight Eggman.

He even chuckled at the scene of Metal holding her.

He wanted her to conquer her greatest fear... Him.

Metal Sonic looked up a moment, his new programming trying to come up with ways that she wouldn’t be afraid of him anymore.

Although he didn’t like the programming, nor any living-organism,... he still contemplated ways to achieve his newly downloaded goals.

Sonic finally returned, and as he did, gave Rosy the antidote.

Upon waking up, she was teetering, but her enthusiasm over Sonic’s face made her want to run to him. Instead, she lunged forward and Metal Sonic had to catch her before falling.

Once her eyes adjusted, she noticed Sonic still chuckling with a hand over his mouth as her eyes blinked over to being in Metal Sonic’s hold...

She immediately summoned her hammer and started to bash him.

Sonic takes off as Rosy tries to follow him, still scared and whining out about the loyal, puppy-like Metal Sonic tagging along behind her, but when he knocks one of Eggman’s missiles away from hitting her... using all his jet-strength to propel it in a new direction... she stood amazed.

He flew down to her and just stared at her...

She tried to walk back but he zipped at sonic-speeds to place his hand to her waist and pull her back.

She blushed in fright but looked back to see him pointing to a muddy puddle, showing she would have stepped in it.

He let her go as she marveled and covered half her face with her hands... bundled into fists at her shyness.

She begins to defend herself and learn how to fight the Eggman robots while under the careful, chaperone eye of Metal Sonic.

As she runs up a loop-de-loop, he’s there to assist her.

When she swings and misses a robot, he annihilates it before she can open her eyes, so she believes she hit it and destroyed it.

With her confidence rising, she learns self-reliance, and finally catches up to Team Sonic as they prepare for the last few zones of battle.

Dr. Robotnik put himself into the dream-goo, so his greatest dream might come to pass! Switching the concoction around, his Phantom Empire was glitching into existence everywhere.

Metal Sonic didn’t mind...

But his eyes turned to Rosy, who was fearful of these images...

He immediately decided he didn’t like it, and glared threateningly towards the metal statues and structures.

However... He didn’t notice the timer... had finally concluded.

Not wanting to leave her side, he fought as the Eggman objectives began to successfully override Tails’s software update, and rebooted him.

As he stepped away, hoping to move as far away from Rosy as possible, he gripped his head as Eggman’s logo began to flash and show the rebooting process downloading up.

When the others realized this, Rosy threw out her hand, stopping them. She wanted to be the one... to defeat him.

It was emotional, seeing the once helpful friend turn into a fierce, villainous robot once again.

But she wasn’t afraid of him anymore.

She couldn’t deal the last blow, and as she fell to her knees and cried over his sparking form, he lifted a metallic claw up...

Sonic quickly moved her out of the way of his attempted slash, as his claws lengthened to try and deal further damage to her.

Rosy softly cried as Sonic moved away from her, spun to give one last finishing blow and kicked him into the sky.

As he exploded, Rosy reached out to him, crying out as Tails and Knuckles had to hold her back.

She was so saddened to see him go... she vowed that if she ever found a nice robot, she could preserve it, no matter what the cost.

Her outstretched hand... withdrew into a shaking fist, full of conviction.

She wasn’t afraid of robots anymore...

She wanted to help them.

Although Metal Sonic had reverted back to his original form, forgetting all about their adventures together... her silent knight in dark blue, metallic armor that would let her practice in safety... swinging her hammer... as he then almost swiped her away after his programming changed...

She sobbed quietly into her hands, still shaking in anger at how Eggman could create such terrifying robots... but amazed at how Tails could reinvent them into loving friends.

“You really shouldn’t have made him so nice, Sonic. Then, Rosy wouldn’t have formed such a strong attachment to him.” Classic Tails commented, putting his hands to his hips and leaning towards the culprit.

Sonic just shrugged, looking back at Amy and wanting to comfort her, but feeling that she needed to cry over it a little bit longer.

Metal Sonic had completed his objective, after all... and Sonic smiled to see that, but quickly frowned as he closed his eyes, folded his arms, and waited for Rosy a distance away...

She balled over Metal Sonic’s deactivated head... unable to, in the end, part with it.

It took several minutes... and some could argue, still more time later for her grief to mend… but that’s where her love of reforming others came into play, along with her independence... she would never forget when she first got so excited over completing the zone that she reached a fist up for a light pound of comradery.

Realizing he was her greatest fear though, she hesitated and pulled back slightly, but he immediately, robotically, advanced up to her and without blinking or removing his eyes from her, directly faced her and lifted his own hand up.

Slowly, he curled every finger into a fist and lightly knocked her bundled hand in the show of ‘Good job, congrats on your first--kinda--solo run.’

She would never forget it... and holding her hand close to her heart... she would never forget what lessons it gave her.

About robots. About people...

She looked to Sonic, who--as though sensing her inquisitive gaze--looked back over his shoulder at her...

Some robots could be even warmer than people...

[peterstanslizzie]

Reacting To: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 2 Episode 9)

Episode Title: All That Glitters

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers.

1. Now that the truth about Dr. Emilia being the one responsible for driving a wedge between mutes and humans is out, everyone is pretty much against her and they want to stop her from getting to Scarlemagne’s coronation. However, Kipo mostly wants to talk to Scarlemagne and probably convince him to join their side. 

2. Gerard then arrives shortly and Benson, Wolf and Dave go into hiding. He tells Kipo that she’s ordered by Scarlemagne to join him at the food court. Side note: I am loving the wink Kipo is giving us here in this picture. 

3. As Wolf, Benson and Dave are making their way back to Dr. Emilia’s headquarters, they are discussing about their plan of action, which is to hand over a perfume bottle to her instead of the nectar bomb so that they can use the bomb to blow up the tunnel’s entrance to prevent her from getting to Scarlemagne’s palace.

4. When they get back, Dr. Emilia already knew about them lying to her. She confronts them about it but they try to play it off like Kipo is very stressed out about having to fight the Mega Monkey and that’s why she ran off. I’m trying to connect the dots here; Does Dr. Emilia know that Kipo is Song and Lio’s daughter? No, right? Just checking lol. They then hand over the fake nectar bomb to her. 

5. Dr. Emilia tells Zane and Greta that they seem know of their hidden plan to kill Kipo after using her. Therefore, she has no choice but to use the sonic emitter on the Mega Monkey since Kipo isn’t around. 

6. Meanwhile, Kipo is randomly playing a board-game about strategy with Scarlemagne and they’re actually having fun with each other. However, it’s not all fun and games for Scarlemagne as he reveals that all the mute groups will be arriving tomorrow morning and he has something ready for them. I guess he’s going to use his pheromones to control them?

7. Kipo tries to convince him to not follow through with his plan but he won’t listen to her since becoming King was all her ever wanted. Also, Kipo needs to stop saying “Hugo” around him; It’s definitely his trigger word. She does have a plan though and proceeds to then break her dad out of prison. She wants Lio to help her make Scarlemagne a present but Lio isn’t so convinced that it would work. By the way, I didn’t appreciate how Lio referred to him as a “lunatic tyrant” and neither did Kipo. Lio abandoned Hugo and it was a crappy thing for him to do. Point. Blank. Period. 

8. Dr. Emilia is now ready to deploy her rescue teams, which comprise of the Alpha team, the B team and the Strike team. But before they could go, Benson tells everyone that he made pancakes. I immediately knew that this was a set-up but it’s funny how Dr. Emilia couldn’t see that. After serving them pancakes, we notice that Mandu is feeling left out of the group because he feels like he doesn’t contribute as much as the others. Poor thing. Eventually, Dave goes into the tunnel to detonate the nectar bomb. 

9. As I’ve predicted, Kipo is trying to recreate Hugo’s old blue blanket with the stars pattern on it in order to bring out the inner Hugo from inside of Scarlemagne. I love how Kipo is calling out her dad for giving up on Hugo so easily. I so agree with her; Her doing so convinces Lio to go through with her plan but as they make their way to Scarlemagne, they are spotted by the Mod Frogs.

10. Benson and the others are continuing to whip up more pancakes for the humans. But OMG BENSON! Why did you have to expose Song’s old journal like that!? *faceplams. Dr. Emilia is caught off guard by this but doesn’t do anything. Suddenly, we hear the nectar bomb explosion and Wolf tells everyone to check out that tunnel, which had caved in. Oh and Benson just had to leave the book on the table. Nice going Benson...

11. The Mod Frogs are now attacking Kipo and Lio for destroying their home but Kipo is able to handle all three of them very easily. Scarlemagne sees all of this and questions them. He also sprays his pheromones on Lio and get the truth out from him to which he confesses to Scarlemagne that he regrets giving up on him. You can tell from the look in his eyes that him saying that to him means a lot. 

12. It also looks like the Mod Frogs are going to be in a lot of trouble it seems. Back to the nectar explosion, Dave, Benson and Wolf manage to trap the humans near the site but of course, they didn’t account for Dr. Emilia.

13. Scarlemagne is playing Kipo the song he plans to have for his grand entrance but he ends up not liking it. Kipo, in turn, plays a suggestion of her own, one that is more relaxed and Scarlemagne really likes it. Lio and Song sure do raise their “kids” to be musically inclined. Eventually, the two of them play a piano duet. That’s really cool! I really hope Scarlemagne’s turns “good” by the end of the season. 

14. That’s so awesome. I love seeing them bond like that. After playing the piano, Kipo suggests to Scarlemagne that he should act like more of himself  with the other mutes in order to gain their loyalty instead of forcing them to follow him. However, Scarlemagne doesn’t think that anyone would choose to be his follower. Kipo thinks otherwise because he’s likable to her. She then passes the blanket she made for him and apologizes to him for everything that happened to him. She leaves him be in order to give him space to re-consider what he originally planned to do to the mutes. This has gotta be my favorite scene of the entire show thus far. It really warmed my heart. 

15. It’s time for Wolf, Benson and Dave vs Dr. Emilia. Let’s see how Dr. Emilia’s fighting chops are like lol. Well, she’s a pretty good fighter actually. She did knock out Benson and Dave (poor guys) and with Wolf, it’s pretty even. Well, she shouldn’t be so proud of herself since Wolf is a little girl after all lmao. In the end, she outclassed Wolf and throws all three of them into her glass cage to potentially lure Kipo in to rescue them. I guess this is Mandu’s time to shine? Where is she anyways?

16. After breaking Stalky (to Wolf’s heartbreak), Dr. Emilia is stopped by Mandu (there she is!) and we get this bada** fight scene between her and Dr. Emilia. Mandu is killing it out there! And guess what? She defeats her by stinging her leg with Stalky’s broken part. Mandu is the MVP of this episode for sure! She then rescues the others and they’re so impressed by her; As they should be. 

17. Time is running out and the coronation is about to start. Wolf is very sad about her shattered Stalky but she has to move on without it. I’m sure if they had more time, she could have gotten it fixed. 

18. So we get to the coronation and all the mute groups are gathered there. Despite doing her best to get through to Scarlemagne, it looks like he’s still focused on being a forceful and mind-controlling ruler. He addresses the crowd and tells them that they have a choice between swearing their loyalty to him or to oppose him and become encased in solid gold, like in the case of the Mod Frogs. Oh my...are they dead? I guess they are...So, the mutes have no other choice but to pledge their loyalty to him.

19. We find out that Scarlemagne only turned the Mod Frogs to gold because he doesn’t want them to bother Kipo again. I guess Scarlemagne still has a soft spot for Kipo despite all the other treacheries. Nonetheless, Kipo is upset with what happened to the frogs. Scarlemagne sees that she’s hurt and tells her that he is willing to let everyone go if she’s willing to let him gild (I had to Google that. It basically means cover something in gold) Lio. She obviously declines his offer and that’s that; Scarlemagne is then crowned emperor.

20. This was another solid episode from the season. As you can tell, my favorite scenes were the interactions we saw between Kipo and Scarlemagne. Scarlemagne is definitely fond of Kipo due to her showing her sympathy towards him but he’s still hurting from his past and it’s hard to change him. 

21. I’m planning to watch the last episode of the season on Tuesday since I will be busy on Monday. So please stay tuned for when I post my review of episode 10 (season finale) on that day. Thank you for reading my review. I really appreciate it. Till then, see ya!

[mobius-prime]

296. Sonic the Hedgehog #211

Home Invasion (Part Two): Security Measures

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Matt Herms

After a brief recap of prior events, we launch right into the action as Sonic, Sally, Tails, and Khan burst back into New Mobotropolis to save the day. The Iron Queen is unconcerned when Geoffrey taunts her about her defeat being imminent, certain that with Iron Nicole under her control, she'll have no problem winning anyway.

You know, you'd think she'd have seen this coming, considering that right after Sally cut Nicole off from the Iron Queen's control for like five whole minutes, her plans started being thwarted left and right. The Iron Queen is furious and begins to use the nanites to fight Nicole, and Nicole likewise fights back with her own set of nanites, each conjuring up machines, shields, walls, and so on to battle it out. Sonic heads straight for Amy and the Iron King to help out, while Snively crawls around in a panic seeing everything he's worked so hard for fall apart around him in an instant.

You know, as much as I realize Snively is a self-serving traitor and thus obviously doesn't want to be captured by the very people he's screwed over so many times, what is he really so terrified of? Sure, Sally's angry with him, but A. she has every right to be and B. this is Sally we're talking about. It's not like she's about to sentence him to be publicly burnt at the stake or something. Even the worst of the worst get fair treatment in New Mobotropolis' prison system - three square meals a day, humane living conditions, and so on. At worst, Snively would spend a very boring few years in prison until he found a way to break out or otherwise reformed his behavior or something. Snively tries to remain confident in the face of Sally's accusations, reminding her that they still have three other clans to call on in the Dragon Kingdom, but, well, clearly he hasn't read the latest arc of SU. Khan descends on his cloud from above and calls out to the Yagyu that on his word of honor they’re free of the Iron Dominion, and to Lien-Da's shock and anger, the Yagyu on the field immediately pack up and leave, uncaring what happens to the Legion without them. However, Lien-Da suddenly realizes this could be a blessing in disguise for her, as with the Iron King and Queen tied up in their own fights and the Iron Dominion's support base crumbling, this is her chance to seize power of the Eggman Empire for herself. The Iron Queen overhears her announcement of the change in management to her troops, and tries to take control of the Legion's cybernetics to force them to continue fighting for her, but Lien-Da's already got that one covered.

…okay, yikes, definitely didn't see that one coming. The legionnaires panic upon seeing their Grandmaster basically explode in front of them, and look to Snively for guidance, but at this point Snively completely breaks and goes running off screaming, leaving the legionnaires to gather up Lien-Da's limp form and retreat to the Eggdome, leaving the Iron King and Queen to fend for themselves. The Iron King is doing a good job of holding his own on account of his invulnerability, but luckily, the heroes have access to just the macguffin they need!

It's actually never clearly stated, but the implication here is supposed to be that when the Iron King stole the fan, he hid it in the Iron Fortress, and when the Raiju occupied said fortress, Espio was able to go there and retrieve the fan with their blessing. Khan blows the Iron King straight out of the comic with the encouragement of Sonic's trash talk by his side (I mean it, too - this is the last time we ever see the Iron King), leaving the Iron Queen to fight alone. Snively sees the Iron King fly straight through the metal dome over the city and panics to the point of incoherence, heading straight for the prison and shakily typing in the code to open Eggman's cell.

Hey, look, it's exactly what I was talking about last issue. Snively, given the choice between surrendering peacefully to Sally and receiving fair treatment in prison, or going back to his abusive, controlling uncle, chooses the latter, simply because it's all he knows anymore. And even worse, Eggman totally called it. He knows just how much influence he has over Snively, and relishes it, using it to his fullest advantage to make sure he always has a loyal lackey in the end. The heroes back in the coliseum offer the Iron Queen a fair chance to surrender, but unwilling to give up, she uses the nanites to encase herself in a giant mechanical Chinese dragon in one last-ditch effort to win. Tails fires on the dragon from the Tornado, while Khan and Amy chime in with lightning powers and heavy hammering respectively, and the Iron Queen makes a break for the hole in the city's dome, trying to escape so she can come back and win another day. However, Sonic simply isn't having it, and runs all the way up the length of the dragon to ensure she can't get away.

Nice job using a catchphrase that isn't even yours, Regina. Antoine handcuffs the defeated queen while the rest of the heroes celebrate winning the day, none of them yet realizing the renewed storm brewing on the horizon now that Eggman has escaped and is sane once more. Snively tentatively suggests doubling back to rescue Regina, but Eggman refuses, saying that he's already got new plans and now that he's had time to "rest and recharge," he's more ready than ever to complete his world conquest…

[mobius-prime]

269. Sonic Universe #2

The Shadow Saga (Part 2 of 4): Time & Again

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

So, do you remember how way back when we got the single-issue incomplete "adaption" of Sonic Adventure 2, I mentioned that the events of the incident would be clarified by Ian Flynn in a later issue? Well, this is the one! Interspersed within the events of the modern story are flashbacks to what happened during Sonic Adventure 2, heavily modified to fit within the comic's world. However, I've elected to tackle the modern half of the story first, and explore Sonic Adventure 2 afterward, mostly because though Ian seems to be trying to draw parallels between the latter story and the former, they don't really… work all that well, nowhere near the level that they did in the first arc of KtE anyway.

The modern story opens with Shadow approaching the Freedom Fighters' camp not far from the Eggdome in the middle of the night, waking Sonic up to invite him along to a little bonus mission.

I mean, while I can understand wanting to invite Sonic on a mission against Eggman, 1. he's already on one, and 2. you'd think Shadow would realize he'd need some sleep before the final battle against his arch-nemesis. What, you can't handle this alone, Shadow? Well, as it turns out he's not actually alone, as Sonic reaches the rendezvous point first (zooming off ahead of Shadow, of course), and finds Rouge waiting for him. Apparently, Eggman's been working on a sneaky plan to turn a telescope in the city into a massive laser capable of wiping the Freedom Fighters' little camp off the map, shield or no… as well as half of the rest of the city. Sonic thinks this is overkill even for someone like Eggman, but as Shadow catches up he explains that GUN doesn't quite think so.

To be fair, Sonic, you haven't been seeing the behind-the-scenes insane ramblings of his that Snively's been subject to recently. They break into the laser control room, and Sonic and Shadow deal with the smaller security lasers while Rouge hacks into the control system, trying to disable the thing. The cannon is already moving into position to fire, and worse still, the console then fries itself, Rouge having accidentally triggered a self-destruct command. Sonic and Shadow try to destroy the cannon directly, but no amount of spindashing or Chaos Spear-ing will pierce its armor, so Rouge suggests going for the bolts holding it in place, hoping it might throw off the shot.

Brilliant job, guys! Shadow, seeing no other choice, removes his inhibitor rings and climbs onto the top of the cannon just as it begins to fire. He uses all of his power to force the shot to misfire outwards instead of straight ahead, wrecking the barrel but saving the Freedom Fighters. This is really the only place where the parallels Ian tries to draw make sense, as then we see a flashback of him using his power a year ago to force the ARK back into orbit, and subsequently falling back into the atmosphere.

Aww, look at 'em! As the sun begins to rise, the three walk back towards the camp, and Sonic asks if they want in on the invasion. Shadow refuses, saying that he believes this is Sonic's fight considering how long he's been fighting against Eggman. As Sonic leaves, Rouge smirks at Shadow, and remarks on how far their relationship has come from before. Shadow, of course, has to defend his ego and insists he merely respects Sonic, to which Rouge teases him even more about how of course he can't admit he's made a friend.

Now, time to take a look at what their relationship used to be like, in the very-condensed Adaption 2.0 of Sonic Adventure 2! Instead of following exactly how it's portrayed in this issue, I'm just going to explain how exactly everything went down starting from the beginning, relying on context clues from this issue and previous ones. In case you've forgotten, during the events of the incident, both Tails and Knuckles were otherwise occupied, Amy was chilling in Mercia with Rob, and basically no one was even aware of where Sonic was at the time, as he was apprehended while sneaking back into Knothole while he was still supposed to be confined there. StH#98 covered what happened leading up to his arrest and subsequent breakout, but naturally, after the GUN truck chase he was rearrested and taken to Prison Island. Meanwhile, of course, Shadow had been released from his pod by Eggman, stolen a Chaos Emerald from Station Square, and presumably explained how the ARK's Eclipse Cannon worked to Eggman. Like in the game, Rouge also showed up at this point to offer her support in procuring more Chaos Emeralds - though as you might remember, at this point in the comic's history the emeralds still hadn't been combined into their distinct seven forms yet, so the Eclipse Cannon only required seven random emeralds to fire. Conspicuously missing is the entire plot point about Rouge stealing the Master Emerald from Knuckles, and the both of them subsequently searching for its shattered remnants all over the world, but if we're being quite honest the entire story still makes perfect sense without Knuckles and the Master Emerald, which I suppose is lucky for Ian trying to make sense out of all of this.

The point at which this issue actually starts recapping prior events begins on Prison Island after Sonic had broken out of prison once again - without the help of Amy or anyone else, mind you, since once again, they were all elsewhere at time. Really, this version of events is so stripped-down precisely because half of the game cast is missing, which is why the events of the game were able to fit into a single day despite several days passing in the game itself. Sonic and Shadow had their famous "faker" exchange in the forest and began fighting each other, with Rouge's voice coming over Shadow's communicator and informing them she'd found the remaining six Chaos Emeralds they'd need. At that point, Eggman reminded Shadow the whole island was about to blow, and at the same time Rouge called for help as she'd found herself stuck inside the vault. When Sonic heard Eggman tell Shadow to leave her and that they'd come back later to "dig the emeralds out of the ashes," he was outraged and offered Shadow a truce so they could rescue Rouge together. Shadow accepted, and they raced back to the facility as the timer counted down, with Shadow Chaos Control-ing them off the island and into the desert just before the place exploded.

See, while I understand where Ian is going with this, I really don't like his rewrite of Shadow's motivations here. For those not familiar, in the game, Shadow makes the decision to go back for Rouge entirely on his own, because the thought of her dying alone in the facility made him flash back to Maria's death. Later on, when she tries to talk to him about how he saved her, he avoids her questions, giving a similar excuse to this one, but with it being pretty obvious that that's not the case, as he hasn't stopped thinking about Maria since the mission. Here, Ian makes it seem like Shadow actually didn't care and indeed was only after the Chaos Emeralds, and he only went to the trouble of rescuing her thanks to Sonic's suggestion. However, I understand why this was kind of necessary - with his main allies elsewhere, Sonic needed someone to ally with for the next part of the plot. He ended up teaming up with Rouge, who was quite offended at Shadow's attitude, to break into the pyramid containing Eggman's base, and she piloted the space shuttle within up to the ARK. As I've pointed out before, at no point in the comic is it even slightly hinted that Eggman broke the moon in half as he does in the game - the only indication we have of such an event would be in StH#197, when Sonic recognizes Mobius from orbit by its half-destroyed moon, but in all fairness, the issue doesn't actually state the reason why the moon is broken. Remember, it's canon that Mobius has one hundred moons - that wasn't even retconned! Ian just made up a story behind it and put it in the Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia afterwards, but with one hundred whole-ass moons, it's entirely probable that at least one got bodied at some point in the planet's history, and Sonic just happened to recognize that particular one as he was reentering the planet's atmosphere. But anyway, once Sonic and Rouge made it up to the ARK, Sonic and Shadow quickly got into a fight on the catwalks outside the station, presumably while Eggman slotted the emeralds into their positions in the cannon.

*sigh* One of the biggest problems I have with the preboot is its handling of Shadow's entire story. I don't think Shadow ever got an actual chance to shine from his initial appearance until StH#171, when he had his whole "This is who I am" moment after exploring Gerald's digital diary. Everything about him, his entire backstory, was horribly neglected compared to his actually very rich and deep character arc from the games. This, above, is exactly what I'm talking about. In the game, it's implied that Shadow actually wins his final fight against Sonic (though Sonic obviously doesn't die from it), and then once the Eclipse Cannon is up and running, he moves into one of the ARK's observation rooms to quietly reflect on the past and watch the station crash into the planet. He doesn't snap out of it until Amy enters the room and her subsequent words trigger a flashback of Maria's real final wish. Furthermore, he's the only person in the cast who doesn't actually see the video of Gerald's execution or read his final diary entry. In other words, in the game, he comes back to his right mind organically, by remembering what his purpose is, while in the comic he apparently just got to watch a video telling him outright why he's wrong without him actually having to do the thinking that brings him back to reality. Seeing as Shadow is my favorite character in the entire franchise, this brushing-aside of one of the most important moments in his character arc irks me a little. But then again, I will still acknowledge that Ian wasn't really left a lot to work with here, and if anything the fault lies more with Karl Bollers and Kenders carelessly brushing past Sonic Adventure 2 in favor of their ongoing story about Robotropolis getting nuked or whatever.

Anyway, in the end, Shadow and Sonic went to the ARK's internal chamber that housed the Biolizard, and when it fused with the ARK to bring it crashing down to earth anyway, he and Sonic went Super and defeated it out in space, just like in the game. The game actually doesn't give a very clear reason why Shadow fell from orbit while Sonic was fine, but in the comic, it's shown that the act of teleporting the ARK back into orbit exhausted all his energy, resulting in the loss of his Super form early. As one of the above images shows, Sonic actually reached for him but was unable to catch him in time, hence his remark of not wanting to go through that again (even though realistically a fall from a five-story cannon is hardly going to do the same damage to Shadow as a fall from orbit). And that's it! As I said, the comic's adaption is incredibly stripped-down from the events of the game, but with so much of the cast missing, it kind of had to be. While I don't agree with all of Ian's decisions on how to adapt the circumstances while still retaining the basic gist of the story, I understand his ultimate conclusions, and in the end, they do work pretty well given how different the history of the world is in the comics versus the game. And despite Shadow not having a clear history with Rouge in the comics as he does in the games, Ian's finally saw fit to bring them together as a team in this issue, and they remain as such for the rest of the comic, including through the reboot.

But - hey, speaking of which, remember another adaption that was missing a few key plot points? Say… the first Sonic Adventure? Remember how the conclusion of Gamma's entire character arc was totally forgotten about and ignored? That would seem to imply that he's still out there somewhere… I wonder what he's up to nowadays. And for that matter, with the entirety of Sonic Heroes missing from the comics' timeline, where the heck is Omega in all this? Does he even exist? Gee, I wonder if we'll ever get to see these two important robot characters in the comic - like, say, next issue?