#i have shadow’s muzzle as more of a triangle shape and sonic’s as more of a heart shape

[veloriium]

you can really see who my favorite character is in this

[lightninghikaru]

i’m not sure if this will be a spoiler for a future fic so if it is don’t use it

eggman manages to capture sonic in a fight. but instead of using him as bait for shadow, he instead uses him as a shield. the gang can’t attack eggman with the possibility of sonic getting hurt too. what will they do? how can they stop eggman without getting sonic hurt?

This was an interesting one! I hope you enjoy!

He hears the clash of fighting; Team dark must have found Eggman. They had reached out because Sonic had gone missing and they had a lead. Of course Shadow got there as fast as he could. Breaking through the door he sees Rouge and On the defensive with a mysterious masked figure riding a stranger hover board. 

It reminded him of the extreme gear but it was round in shape with a flat top for the strange rider to stand on. Yellow wings on either side floating above the ground. 

The rider themself wore a full body mechanized suit. Mostly black. Chest plate was a dark grey with accents of blue on a stripe down the chest and shoulders. White gloves going up to the elbow bringing a contrast to all the dark. Boots that were shackled onto the base of the gear matched the blue on the rest of the outfit. The rider wore an obscuring helmet. Also back except the muzzle was a steel silver and the eye shield was a deep crimson. The shape of the helmet was also strange. Two blue triangles mimicking the appearance of hedgehog ears and the back was pointed out like a thick singular quill.  

The rider was slightly slouched forward, arms dangling and head lowered. Shadow moves over to Rouge and Omega who look like they’re ready to rip Robotnik in two. The rider hovered between them and Robotnik. 

“Ah! Welcome to the party Shadow!” Robotnik said with a laugh. “I’d like to introduce you to my new lackey; I call him the Phantom Rider!” He boasted. 

“We’ll defeat him just like any of your other robots, Doctor.” Shadow said getting ready to charge at the Phantom Rider. 

“Shadow stop!” Rouge grabbed him by the arm and pulled him further back. 

“What are you doing? Robotnik is right there. We just have to defeat this guy and then we can force to tell us where Sonic is.” Shadow snarled. 

“That is Sonic!” Rouge said as Shadow turned back towards the Phantom Rider. 

“Why must you spoil all of my fun!” Robotnik pouted. 

“SCANS COMPLETE. HELMET IS GIVING OF RADIO WAVES THAT ARE MUTING SONICS ABILITIES. VITAL SIGNS SHOW HE IS IN REM SLEEP.” Omega said, 

“He’s sleepwalking?” Rouge asked shocked, 

“It’s a bit more complex than that, my dear Rouge. But yes, the Helmet is giving me control of Sonic’s body and the boy has no idea!” Robotnik laughs. “How will you fight your friend when he can’t defend himself?” 

“Coward!” Shadow snarled as Robotnik continued to laugh. 

“If it prevents you from stopping my plans it’s worth it! Phantom Rider!” His body stiffens to attention hearing Robotnik call out to him. “Destroy these pests!” 

Phantom Rider shoots missiles at them as they all jump out of the way. 

“Any ideas?” Shadow asked, trying not to panic. Sonic was hovering around trying to kill them and he wasn’t even aware. Robotnik was going to pay. 

“We have to get him off that board. But it looks like the bots are attached to it. If we break the board with him on it he could get hurt.” Rouge said. 

“At least his Chaos energy is muted.” Shadow said. They all dodge another attack. 

“SCANS INDICATE HE IS POWERING THE BOARD.” Omega said, 

“So as long as he’s connected to it, it’ll never die.” Rouge groaned. “Do you think we can just pull the helmet off?” 

“We can give it a try. Omega If you see an opportunity to grab the board from behind, do so. Make sure you aim the board's weapons as Eggman when you do.” 

“I APPROVE THIS PLAN!” 

They spread out as Shadow snaps behind Phantom Rider on top of the hover board. He grabs the helmet and tries to pull it off but it doesn’t seem to budge. Phantom Rider reaches up trying to get him to let go. 

“Did you really think it’d make it that easy? The helmet is magnetized to the suit. But I’m sure his neck can take that kind of strain.” Robotnik taunted. 

“Damn,” Shadow snarled before snapping away as Phantom Rider grabs his wrist. 

Shadow appears next to Rouge, taking her off guard for a moment. He grabs her and moves her out of the way of another attack. “We can’t get close like this, and anytime I try to get at Eggman Sonic blocks me.” 

“I’m going to try and wake up Sonic using my chaos energy. Maybe waking him up will stop Robotnik’s control.” Shadow said. 

“Worth a shot. I’ll keep him distracted. Omega’s close to being in range to grab the board.” Rouge said. 

Shadow snaps back onto the bard behind the Phantom Rider. They are unable to turn around with their feet locked in place as Shadow grabs Sonic’s arm and begins pushing his chaos energy into him. “Wake up!” 

The Phantom Riders body jolts to the shock before starting to slump forward. Omega takes the opportunity to grab the board and point the front at Eggman who panics and dives out of the way as some more projectiles rocket out of it. 

Sonic hears a strange buzzing in his ear and muffled noises as he starts to come to. Everything felt restrictive like he was smothered under a heavy blanket. His eyes open and he sees everything tinted red by the helmet's visor. His left arm was being held tight, he reached up with his right hand at the helmet. 

More muffled sounds and the buzzing was getting louder. 

What happened? Where was he? What was the last thing he remembered? He thinks he was heading back home from Angel Island? But… something happened… 

Whatever was holding his left arm released and Sonic tried to pull off the helmet. It wouldn’t budge. He started to notice the helmet had his muzzle tightly shut. Letting out a panicked whine at the feeling of being trapped. 

“Sonic, try to stay calm. We’ll get you out of there.” Sonic turned to the muffled voice seeing Shadow next to him. He was only able to relax for a moment before he realized he couldn’t move his feet! 

The buzzing was starting to hurt. 

Shadow tried to keep Sonic from panicking further but the muffled whines and whimpers coming from his partner told him it wasn’t working. Even being this close Shadow couldn’t see Sonic’s eyes. Could Sonic even see him? 

“Let me try and get his feet free.” Rouge said, kneeing in front of Sonic and trying to find some sort of mechanism that would release him. 

“I won’t let you!” Robotnik yelled out as he pressed a button on his console. 

Sonic was unaware what was happening around him but all of a sudden the visor in front of his eyes starts becoming blindingly bright. Not even closing his eyes gave him relief from the searing pain. 

The bussing noise became mind numbing. 

Something at the back of his mind told him to go back to sleep. A part of him wanted to if that meant the pain would stop. But Shadow was there, he had to get out, he had to get free. 

Shadow starts to notice the accumulation of chaos energy building. 

“WARNING! SONIC’S CHAOS LEVELS ARE RISING.” Omega said, 

“Move!” Shadow yells, diving as Rogue to get her away as Omega lets go of the hover board and steps further back. 

Sonic lets out a blinging Chaos Blast that sends an aftershock though the entire base. Shutting down all of the nearby equipment. 

“Retreat!” Robotnik yells as he runs away. Shadow quickly gets back up and sees the Phantom Rider and hover board on the ground. 

“Sonic!” Shadow rushes over. The visor on the helmet was severely cracked and missing a piece showing Sonic’s shut eyes behind it. He rips the restraints holding his feet to the board first before trying to take off the Helmet. 

It slipped off easily this time to Shadow’s relief. “Sonic?” He asked quieter, Sonic’s brows furrowed as he let out a grumble. 

“Is he okay?” Rouge flew over and Omega was right behind her. 

“VITALS ARE STABLIZING.” Omega said, 

“Somebody wanna grab me like a million aspirin? Feels like my head is splitting in two…” Sonic said with a groan. 

“Good to have you back, Hun.” Rough said. 

“Did I go somewhere?” Sonic asked, too tired to move. 

“WE WILL FURTHER EXPLAIN AFTER YOU HAVE RECOVERED.” Omega said, 

“Omega’s right. You rest. We’ll get you home.” Shadow said, 

“M’kay.” Sonic said, shutting his eyes and letting himself fall asleep. He knows he’s safe with his team. Unaware the other three were beginning to plot their revenge on Robotnik.  

[thespectral-wolf]

@fangirlsbefangirling​ said: Ooh, I love it! Any tips on the eyes? I’ve been attempting Sonic drawings myself.

Hi! Sorry for the very late reply. I'm terrible at explaining things, but I'll try my best.

So first of all, the best way to learn anything is to observe it. Thankfully, Sonic has a lot of references available thanks to its extensive media so it’s easy to see what are the most common “principles” of its style. So here are my “rules” on how to draw the infamous monoeyes of Sonic characters:

The eyes are basically just big cartoon eyes that are squished together so much that the border between them disappear. You can think of two intersecting ovals when sketching them. Drawing a visible border between the eyes is also helpful when drawing the pupils because you know where they should stop when a character is looking sideways.

When the characters’ eyelids are down, their brows are a lot of times lowered, so it doesn’t give the feeling that their eyelids are connected. Alternatively I draw a small line in the middle to indicate the border.

The official shorts for Sonic Mania and TSR do it in a way that you can still see the curve of both eyes:

(the first pic is my favourite split-second frame from the shorts.)

My progress on the eyes is usually that I start with the eyebrows, as those define the expression.

Also, here’s a step-by-step of how I do it (demonstrated with Shadow since the original comment was on my Shadow sketch):

First I define the brows. Shadow has an angular eye shape and he usually (i.e. always) has a scowl.

The male characters have defined brows, so I draw in the edges, and add a wrinkle where they meet.

I then add the pupils and other details (for Shadow’s red eyeshadow-thingies, I draw an inwards curve inside the eye to create the triangle shapes):

I actually draw the muzzle earlier, but the most important part of it is that the top of the muzzle that (along with the middle of the brows) serves as the bridge of the nose.

This pseudo nose-bridge is even more noticeable with Shadow’s early game artworks, since his brows almost touch the bottom of his eyes:

But the best way to learn is to do a lot of expression practices with only drawing the eyes. Here’s some examples of some of my older attempts:

I hope this helps.