#this feels like when i watched sonic adventure 2 but sonic adventure 2 looked better

[boygirlctommy]

watching ark: tas and <3 the animation is so bad even my dad can tell

[sonicjustbecause]

About Sonic

I never talked extensively about Sonic and what I think about him overall, despite him being my favourite (I see more Shadow as some mystical guy, alive certainly, yet somewhat more like a guide or a protector and Sonic's Shadow, but that's for another time as I talked about him a lot).

There is still this silly battle between Sonic fans on who is your favourite take of the character. The character has been inconsistent, in videogame too, even if we only take game/Japanese media (An example? Adventure Sonic is, at least the way I perceive him, mysterious and whimsical, joyful but slightly grumpy. Unleashed Sonic is calm, balanced, a bit quiet overall. The thing that remains consistent is that he is kind earthed and optimistic. Most of the time.

Even people who tell how Sonic is supposed to be interpret him very differently from each othes adn from the games, the way they make him talk or act in certain situation in their stories is not the same I see in videogames.

For Sonic unleashed I saw the whole cutscenes both in English and in Japanese, so...

Not that this bother me, as I previously said, since is a team who work on Sonic is normal different people have a different perception of the character, is based on our personal experiences. And in next years things will change over and over.

Let's talk about how is shown in various media, not necessarily Japanese since they influence each others (example the chili dogs).

SatAM, AoStH.

Aosth/SatAM Sonic was most likely the most mischievous incarnation of the character, since he apparently took joy to make fun of Eggman but also to the french coyote, Antoine, who is a sort of 'Luigi' in this show. I remember him as being creative, impatient, bold and very self confident, but not evil.

I didn't watch Sonic underground. It was aired in Italy but I don't know when. I can say nothing

OAV Sonic

Adventure Sonic and X Sonic traits start to appear here. This Sonic is aloof, whimsical and grumpy and not as joyful as we are used to see him. but is heart is ih the right place, of course.

Adventure Sonic

If I saw Sonic OVA only in latest years, I can say I played the two Adventure games early in the '00s. This Sonic feels to me as whimsical, elusive, mysterious (especially in Adventure 2, it is perceived as such especially by Shadow "Tell me, who are you?" and Sonic's answer is rather enigmatic, is also there you start to realize you know nothing about Sonic, where he comes from etc... you know the others better), still a bit grumpy yet way more joyful than the one from the OVA, a happy guy I would say.

In particular I loved the expressions in Sonic Adventure. Here come the folded ears you often see in Prime.

X Sonic

The most quiet of all. Elusive, still a bit whimsical and grumpy if you don't take him the right way, but this doesn't mean you lost him. Socially awkward and unaware of this, I think sometimes he is leaning in the Asperger territory sometimes. Joyful, optimistic, gentle, sometimes melodramatic and funny but he can get very serious when needed.

Archie Sonic

Archie Sonic is one I don't like much. He's self centered, most of his monologues tell how awesome he is, how good looking he is, how fast he is, well, 90% about himself and it go moldy soon. And can be a jerk toward his friends sometimes. Unlike other versions, he's never too serious.

Fleetway Sonic.

Unlike other sonic incarnation, Fleetway Sonic is a jerk, a bully, he constantly makes offensive jokes toward his friends, including Tails (in other media he is more protective toward Tails). He seems to care or express nice though only when his friends are not around. Is hard to read those comics. So far the worst Sonic

IDW Sonic

Not completely bad, not completely good. He got some traits from Archie Sonic. IDW Sonic seems to me the less sincere and less carefree of all. Like, Sonic we know is mostly feeling oriented. He can be thoughful when needed, but mostly he does what he feels is right rather than what he thinks is right. IDW Sonic is well known especially for his obsession of giving a second chance (and then a third, a four) to all his opponents. That is a thing Goku does and is fine because is true to himself. But Sonic is not like that. Sonic is not so merciful, he is a kind hearted character but there is still a red line and he tends to be wary toward those who don't deserve his trust, like Eggman. He forgives his enemies. After they show they're wort deserving forgiving, not before, unlike IDW Sonic. IDW Sonic is also cunning and can be manipulative, that's unique to this version. You can see the true sonic only when he is alone. Then he is more like himself, in his monologues about his friends, and how much he worries about them or appreciate them. Also his opinion of himself is not as high as the one we see in Archie comics. He is overall aloof.

Unleashed Sonic

This one is among the most gentle and down to Earth Sonic I've ever seen. He is slightly quiet and never a jerk. Instead he is fully supportive and encouraging toward his new friend Chip who is clumsy, despite being a god.

Frontiers Sonic

Sonic's personality changed again. He is still kind hearted, brave and strong. But compared tho before he is more mature, thoughful and slightly melancholic. He smiles less and I don't see his joyful exictment anymore. He just smiles when happy.

Boom Sonic

Sonic is usually elusive. Not in Sonic Boom. I perceived this incarnation as very playful and carefree, although an attention seeker.

Movie Sonic

Oh... this is one that goes through a character arc. He is shown to be a good hearted, hyperactive and lonely kid. He is very playful and talkative yet not gossipy. He talks alot just to not feel alone and took the bad habit. Once he found a family and some living being to talk with at times however, is shown he is not as sociable as you may assume by the way he lets his tongue run. He doesn't trust so easily people he meets the first time, as is shown with Tails and only later he feels more comfortable to have Tails around and opens up to him.

Prime Sonic

Another that goes into a character arc. Here he got new traits, like clumsiness, low attention span, affectionateness. And old ones like elusiveness. This Sonic is particularly interesting for some of his traits that are hard to spot. He clearly appears to be this impulsive, talkative (yet not gossipy), overconfident kid who trips on his feet and is deemed annoying (I personally don't find him annoying). He loves his friends and is ready to protect them but, before the prism shattering, is shown (and suggested by a conversation between his friends) that he also likes to spend time alone, without people around (here one trait that not many notice). Sonic is aware of his flaws and during his experience in the shatterverse he gets in touch with all of them, either the counterpart of his friends tell him or he realize his mistakes by his own. On the outside he is cheerful, a bit dimwitted sometimes, friendly. But as the serie goes forward, he is more, gloomy and pensive and he fully opens up only to Shadow and only later to the rest of his friends in the shatterspace (including Nine, who first sees through him). In the end of the serie is shown he is more considerate toward his friends and he hold some of his energies back.

What else? This is all what I can think of, I haven't played all the games. I may mention Sonic Cronicles, but there Sonic is the way you want him to be.

To me is hard to choose. As long as is not the one of Archie, IDW or Fleetway, I'm fine with all of them. My favourite might be Adventure Sonic and Prime Sonic.

[thevioletscout]

Got to see Sonic 3 early at a fan event! If you saw a brunette white girl in a black and white striped jacket who had keychains on her cat backpack of a dark chao and knockoff Shadow, that was probably me.

Gonna share my thoughts because I need to. Spoilers under the cut.

- I personally still like 2 the most. That doesn't mean 3's bad, it was great, but 2 just felt like a stronger film.

- I was honestly pretty wary about Keanu Reeves as Shadow, but I think he did excellent, and for a very peculiar reason that surprised myself; At certain points, he sounds like a teenager. Obviously its the kind of gruff Shadow voice we’re all used to, but there were times he would sound strangely youthful, and its a nice reminder that despite the 50 year stasis, despite the ultimate lifeform thing- Shadow's still a kid, just like Team Sonic.

- My brother even pointed out that Commander Walter objected to shooting the Robotniks and Shadow when they were escaping because "they're kids!" He said kids, plural.

- I think Jim Carrey did great as both Eggman and Gerald Robotnik. There was even a scene near the end where he was downright scary as the latter. That said, I wasn't a big fan of many of the scenes where they interacted. It kinda felt like the plot of the movie would get pulled to a grinding halt so we could just watch extended Jim Carrey comedy. I could probably be in the minority about this, and I can accept that, I just personally think cutting out some of the bits would have helped the movie flow a bit better.

- Fight scenes were so cool. It's not usually something I’d care that much about, but I think with Sonic in general getting the action right is a huge draw, and damn did this get it right.

- I'm not a big fan of Maria's illness not being referenced at all. I can kinda understand it because they're on Earth the whole time now, not in space, but it removes a lot of the important factors of Maria's character. It especially feels bad in the wake of Sonic x Shadow Generations, where the effects of her condition were actually shown, and when compared to the Wicked movie adaptation where they actually went out of their way to do a more respectful depiction of a wheelchair user.

- I like her using rollerskates though. That feels like a cute parallel between her and Shadow, and that could have been an interesting detail Robotnik worked into Shadow's design if he was actually made by him in this version.

- Sidenote, I swore that the whole Shadow was found in a meteor thing was a coverup for the real story, but no thats just his origin in the movies. That definitely carries some interesting implications for Shadow in the SCU.

- They kinda cutely referenced Sonic and Shadow looking alike, but otherwise it didn’t affect anything. G.U.N. didn't even try to use that to frame Sonic for what Shadow was doing. I kinda don't mind that though, I think there's enough retroactive implications to draw from.

- I wasn't sure they would actually use Live & Learn, but they did and holy shit it was so worth it! And Sonic and Shadow did the Adventure 2 pose!!! Theater went nuts, and I was going nuts with them.

- I'm once again probably going to be in the minority about this, but I kinda wish we got more Tom and Maddie. Like it or not, they were major characters in the previous movies, but in this one they just feel like they're there. I would say that it probably would have made Tom's near death experience more impactful, but to be fair my entire theater was in shock and scared out of their minds that they actually killed him so I think it was plenty impactful.

- They just straight up yeeted Gerald into incineration. I get it, there was no other neat way to take him out but damn. Tails and Knuckles killed a man.

- And finally the mid-credits scene holy shit.

- Okay so- I want you guys to know that I was a "Amy's secretly in the movie" truther. Every time Team Sonic was in trouble I was waiting for Amy to suddenly make her debut. I had this vision of her hammer being the first thing we see before Amy herself is slowly revealed. And yet, nothing. Every time they would find a different way out and around the G.U.N. infiltration I finally accepted that Amy wasn't going to appear.

- But then that scene during the credits. Sonic is confronted by Metal Sonic- who looks FANTASTIC btw. That's when I knew we were probably getting Amy next, but I wasn't sure when and how. Then Sonic gets surrounded by several of the metal copies, and like I predicted; first we see her hammer, flying through the air as it takes out several of the bots. Then we see her, dressed in a cloak to hide her features just a bit longer. Finally, she puts the hood down and- GOD SHE'S SO CUTE, I LOVE HER.

- I cannot impress upon you how crazy everyone in the theater went. We love this pink hedgehog.

- Wade only had one scene thank fuck.

There were probably a few other misc things I can talk about but I need more time to process it all. As I said to someone sitting in front of me; "How am I supposed to wait another two years???"

EDIT: ONE MORE THOUGHT

- One thing I find interesting is that after Shadow escapes, he just wants to be left alone. Most of what he's doing when Team Sonic finds him is just self defense from G.U.N. If I remember correctly he even tries to tell Sonic and the others to just walk away, and he dips on the motorcycle as soon as he's able to, once again warning them not to follow. He even spares Sonic and simply handcuffs him to something when the fight's over. It seems like it isn't until Gerald finds him that the revenge plan even gets started for him. He didn't want to go out of his way to hurt anyone, he just wanted to grieve in peace. Unironically, such a good understanding of Shadow's character.

[glassmarcus]

Dragon Quest 4‘s JRPG vibes

So weirdly enough, I had never touched a true Dragon Quest game until this year. Sure I've played the first Dragon Quest Heroes, checked out the Dragon Quest Builders demo, watched like 5 episodes of the Dragon Quest: Adventures of Dai reboot, and played a few matches as The Hero in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but I never experienced a numbered entry. I’m not sure if you've heard, but Dragon Quest is a bit of a big deal. Even of you don't make full eye contact with the franchise, It's pretty hard to avoid seeing it in your periphery. Dragon Quest was always something that I assumes was up my alley, but I don't want to get sucked in to playing 11 games that aren't all necessarily accessible. So I avoided its gaze. But upon the passing of franchise artist, Akira Toriyama, my attention towards the series became harder to divert.

It was never a question of if I would engage with main line Dragon Quest, but to what degree I would. First of all, its character art is helmed by the GOAT himself, so I was magnetized towards it by default. I'm willing to give everything Toriyama had a hand in a shot. If my Xbox Series S had the ability to play games that aren't Sonic Unleashed, I would have already played Blue Dragon by now. But even beyond wanting to celebrate Toriyama's legacy and appreciating his craft, Dragon Quest was always an inevitability due to its DNA being a part of every Japanese Role Playing Game that came after it. The curiosity is too strong for me to resist.

When the first entry in the series was on sale on the Nintendo Eshop, I pounced at the chance to try it out. My first reaction to this purchase was "Wait, this isn't the NES version". It seemed to be some mobile rerelease of the original game. I didn't research this, I just know in my soul that's what it was. The graphics looked a bit more modern and I assumed there were quality of life additions that would make my journey smoother while still evoking the soul of the original. So I started playing it, and seeing it in motion really caught me off guard. When you combine the constant idle movement of the sprites with the mediocre art, this game becomes profoundly ugly. I was having trouble keeping my dinner down with how ugly it was. I'm talking Greek tragedy where the goddess of beauty gets jealous of someone levels of ugly. My face was scrunched up for the next hour after seeing it. I came to this series because of the art, I wasn't going to subject myself to this much of a downgrade. I had no choice but to accept my lost 3 dollars and drop the playthrough.

I decided to not trust Dragon Quest 2 and 3 on the Wshop a jump straight to Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen. Still seeking Quality of Life improvements, I gravitated towards the DS remake. And I was elated to see that this version of the game isn't a hideous chimera of conflicting art directions. It looks good for the most part and the sprite art for Toriyama's designs really shine in the battles. The overworld sprites leave a bit to be desired but I'm sure the original wasn't much better in that regard. Again, not researching this at, it’s just a gut feeling I have.

Going into a popular old school JRPGs such as this, I expected to get closer to the roots of the conventions I've come accustomed to. With Dragon Quest 4, it wasn't just to norms that I saw start to blossom, but the more fringe ideas as well. Dragon Quest 4 has a very odd structure. It's set up like a 5 act saga and it adds such grandeur to the whole journey. And what makes it so different is that the first 4 acts are basically nothing but set up. Each act follows a different group of main characters and their own mini adventures. They're vignettes, but they are also well connected in that they increasing build toward the main scenario in act 5. Each story in Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen acts as its own tutorial on how to play a JRPG

Chapter 1 is the base essence of the gameplay loop: Hit creatures that are weaker than you, so that you can get stronger and have more creatures that are weaker than you that you can hit. You play as a knight who can only attack and defend as options. And you won't be defending in this part of the game. It's quite dull, but I will admit there is a satisfaction to just slugging it out with the boss of the chapter after leveling up to the point in which you can do so.

Chapter 2 adds far more to the basics with party management and magic. In this part of the game you follow the adventures of a Tsarevna and her two vassals. I'm not sure how it works in the original, but in this version you have full control over each party member's actions and those actions are far more varied than just attacking. This is where the battles become even slightly interesting as you have to manage party members hp and mp and figure out which roles they will play in fights.

Chapter 3 introduces an important aspect of all RPGs, the economy. This vignette is about a merchant trying to start his own business, and the only way to do that is by completing quest and selling inventory. Gameplay wise, it's similar to chapter 1 as you only control one character without any magic. But the task you do outside of battles are far more complex and require exploration and knowledge of the world.

Chapter 4...doesn't really have a strong identity of its own. You play as 2 sisters who are both magic users so you aren't doing anything particularly new. The only lesson it serves to teach is how vital item use can be mid battle, as that lesson acts as the bouncer for the real game that comes afterwards.

Chapter 5 is where the game opens up for you to fully explore. It takes a hell of a long time to get going, but I respect the structure. It's very similar to how Mother 3 introduces its party members before chapter 4 starts. I have little doubt that Mother 3 derived its structure from Chapters of the Chosen, unless there's some other older RPG that takes this vignette approach. I'm not expert on the roots of RPG history, I really only know the bullet points. Regardless ,I love seeing connections of mechanics and tropes throughout time.

I played this game mainly for research purposes and I walked away with many mixed conclusions on it. It was pretty much exactly the experience I sought out. Dragon Quest 4 has Immaculate JRPG vibes. It feels like an adventure where anything can happen and it can only achieve this by being unhinged. A lot of modern RPGs have a fair level curve where you can usually beat any enemy you encounter and can avoid the ones you can't beat. Dragon Quest plays by different rules. Every area of this game is a potpourri of monsters of varied strength and composition. Some encounters might be cake walks, others might be marathons. You'll be fighting a couple of weak healing slimes in one battle and then pulling up to a hardened gang of shamans who can Insta-kill you in the next. It is frustrating, but the friction the game provides does a lot to sell this dangerous, yet wondrous dungeon delving world.

The disorganized balancing is but a small piece to the Dragon Quest puzzle. This opposition to the player is baked into every mechanic in the game. Dragon Quest 4 is game composed almost exclusively out of monkey paws. There are a lot of really strong spells your party members can use against monsters and it adds a lot to strategies you can build in fights. But the down side of this is that enemies can use any of these spells, so those same ones can be used against you. I know spamming sleep magic is effective because I've seen the results on both the sending and receiving end.

And it's not just the spells being symmetrical in availability that acts as a double edged sword. The effects of those spells follow that same internal logic. Spells can miss you seemingly at random, but your spells can just as easily fail. Even the ability to resurrect party members isn't guaranteed on both sides. My favorite example has to be the bounce spell. It reflects spells back at the caster and can be a great counter to magic attacks. It is not however, a good counter to healing magic, as that is also reflected. Characters with this buff cannot be healed sometimes. When you cast bounce, you need to be sure your character doesn't need anymore buffs afterwards and that you have plenty of healing items to use instead. It adds this risk and reward to the spell and ends up being far more interesting than if the spell only worked with damaging spells.

Keeping up to date with the best equipment available is vital to your success in this game, so it's only natural that the most brutal double edge sword can be a literal double edge sword. Cursed items are an RPG staple. Them being present in Chapters of the Chosen is no surprise, but the commitment to the permanency is still appreciated. You will get a debuff if you have a cursed weapon, and you will not be able to unequip them. There may be some way to cleanse the curse, probably at a church or something, but when I encountered it I didn't know how and just had to adapt and accept that my tank would always go last in turn order.

The adaptation to the brutal old RPG design sensibilities is what makes this game enjoyable. If there was no memorable adversity, I would have just been bored. Modern RPGs, hell, even just slightly later RPGs than this one, have more interesting battle mechanics and satisfying traversal. They don't really need this kind of design to be fun and would probably just get in the way. If Octopath Traveler pulled some of the shit this game pulled, I would have never gotten through it. I know this for certain because the secret final boss feels like some early JRPG bullshit and I never actually beat it because the 60 hours of game prior to that were relatively friction-less. I feel like there's a balance between mechanical smoothness and roughness that I want games to have.

I don't think Dragon Quest 4 comes close to hitting this balance, I still had fun with it. I don’t know if it is good or bad, but it's funny and charming, which I think are all I really require to like a game. its consistency in its mechanics and indifference to the player feels brutal, but that only strengthens the contrast from the surface level coziness of the setting. That dissonance is where I think the essence of classic JPRGs comes from. If this story had a dark and grim tone, but was mechanically the same, I wouldn't fuck with it. But it's a colorful world filled with goofy Akira Toriyama Monsters. So when I get jumped by a gang of Giant Slimes and get party wiped, I can really help but smile along with them.

[the-sky-queen]

I WAS ABLE TO WATCH PRIME SEASON 3 EPISODE 2 AND I AM SCREAMING!!!!!

Thoughts and spoilers under the cut :D

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So, I gotta talk about the Grim Birdies first. They are really cool and super powerful! Like they are just epic. Their screams are haunting, but i wish they had more than two. It gets a little annoying to have to listen to the same two sound effects over and over again. But I really like the main one who got her face crushed. I kept looking at her in the trailers and seeing that little 'scar' she has and wondering how she got it, and now I know! Yay!

Next, OH MY GOODNESS THEY WASTED NO TIME GETTING EVERYONE TO TEAM UP. I wish they spend a little more time on everyone's reaction to each other, rather than just having the two Bigs look at each other, but it's fine. THE ROSE TRIPLETS HAVE UNITED AND I LOVE IT. I noticed how when they were all saying what they were gonna do when this is over, Thorn said jungle, Black said adventuring, but Rusty didn't say anything, which I hope means she's gonna go back to No Place. Whatever happens to her, I'm putting her in No Place for With Great Power Comes because I can't bring myself to separate Rusty from Black. They're too perfect. :)

Let's see, uhhhhhhh oh yeah! So, Nine being a giant floating head is kinda silly. Like yeah, it makes total sense, but just not being able to see what the rest of his body is doing leads to some awkward bits. I kinda wish they just didn't make him able to do this? I was imagining Nine only getting info from his bots and like, making it so we don't see him as much can help build some suspense for the finale, you know? Not showing your villain can do WONDERS for the story and the fear factor. Take Sauron from lotr for example. We barely see him throughout the trilogy, but we FEEL his presence in every single movie. If he was shown more, his fear factor would decrease. He would become less impressive. So, yeah, I don't think Nine should be a floating head, but that's just me. I hope he won't feel the need to pop up constantly in the coming episodes.

And of course, CAN WE TALK ABOUT SONIC??????? So, it looks like one of my original predictions was semi right in a way. Sonic's going to be losing his energy gradually over the course of the season. GOODNESS JUST. THE WAY HE STUMBLED OUT OF THE ROOM. BOY YOU ARE NOT OKAY. YOU BETTER NOT JUMP RIGHT BACK INTO THE ACTION NEXT EPISODE. SIT DOWN. TAKE A NAP. IT'S NOT GOING TO FIX THINGS BUT IT MIGHT HELP A LITTLE BIT.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh yeah! And also MANGEY IS THE CUTEST LITTLE BOY EVER. During that one scene where they were talking about Nine I think he was slinking out of the room because he felt bad for being connected to Nine and I was like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT LO AND BEHOLD, HE'S ALSO STILL A GENIUS EVEN THOUGH HE'S A FERAL BOY AND I LOVE THAT SO MUCH. Mangey also seems to be sticking close to Sonic and I love that. He's filling in for Tails. :( aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Also, where is Shadow?????????????????? We're seriously not checking back in on him????? aaaaaaaaaaaaaa Boy really is doing that one Undertale AU down there. (says the girl who has no knowledge of Undertale besides the comics for said AU)

And to end it off, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did you leave the rest of the Kraken crew in No Place???????? Did you think you'd be coming back?????????????? There's no way you thought that, the entire world is falling apart. Come on guys, we're in the final showdown, the time for dumb mistakes is over.

Let's see . . . I think that's all my thoughts. Still not big on the council, but I don't think anyone is. (I kid you not, I was begging Grim Birdy to tear Babble's mech open and kidnap him so we don't have to listen to him for a few episodes. Alas. Not so.)

So, that's everything! YOU GUYS CAN TALK WITH ME ABOUT MY PREDICTIONS AND SUCH BUT PLEASE NO SPOILERS.

[mirersc]

CHAOS REVERSED - ROUGE ADVENTURE 2 SCENES

“I don't understand, how could G.U.N mistake me for the likes of yours!?” Rouge spitted out with annoyance dripping in her tone, her hands landing on her hips.

“You think I am happy that they mistook me for a girl!? Well, guess what, I am not, however I don't whine like you,” Knuckles crossed his arms and huffed under his breath, Rouge in front of him seeing suddenly red.

“Why you! I'll have you know mister, that I do not WHINE!” she glared at the echidna and her fists tightened. Knuckles on the other hand chuckled, “Oh, really? Then what are you doing now? Oh wait– I know. Watch!”

He cleared his throat and pitched his voice as much as he could, “Look at me, look at me! I'm whining like a damsel in distress, because G.U.N mistook me for an echidna. An incredibly hot and handsome echidna. Why couldn't I be like him?”

Rouge almost choked at the imitation, “What!? Oh, no, I believe that you take this further than you actually should. You don't want to see me truly getting mad. You just don't, so you better cut that attitude short, if you don’t wish my heels planted on your stomach, stinky piglet!”

~~~

“Relax doc’. I'm not here to steal anything this time. After all I learned my lesson,” Sonic grinned at the scientist, however the other didn't share the same joy.

“I doubt it, rat, though I would be definitely lying, if I were to say that I am not the slightest interested to learn the reason behind your– uninvited presence in my base,” Eggman glared through his glasses and crossed his arms.

Even after the many times Sonic had helped him carry out his plans, he would be insane to start trusting the hedgehog like a decent teammate. For all he knew, he could be working for that annoying bat, if he deemed that the prize she gave him was worthy of putting his quills in danger.

Sonic might have been wearing his heart on his sleeve, but that didn't mean that he didn't master the art of deceiving, thus why Eggman was always wary around him. Or at least, until he was certain that the hedgehog wouldn't betray him.

Speaking of the devil, a chuckle escaped from his lips, “Oh, why are you always that bad-tempered? I still haven't uttered my second sentence and you are already fuming? Chaos, Rouge must have been getting on your tail more and more lately, Eggy.”

Eggman bristled at the name, “Don’t call me that, you, pig!”

It had been bad when that kid had started calling him that. He didn’t need more underestimating. He hated disrespect with all his inner being.

And Sonic of course knew that.

Toying with the cuff of his glove, Sonic gave a side glance to the human in the room, “Maybe, when you stop messing up my species each time you try to insult me I won’t. For now, I think I will be enjoying myself.”

That insufferable fool!

He wanted to shout, to curse, grab a broom and make the other get lost from his sight, but the only thing he ended up spurting was a choked mumble, “Grrr– if you didn’t have ties with the emeralds I would have long gotten rid of you, pest.”

A blue ear twitched and emerald eyes darkened, “What was that, Eggy?”

A pair of red-fabric covered arms raised up in response. “Ra–! I mean– nothing, Sonic. Eeeverything is just– perfect~” the doctor sang and and clapped his arms with feigned joy.

That got the hedgehog before him to retrieve his collected look and fall back to a relaxed stance.

“That’s what I’ve thought. Now, what would you be up to this time? I didn’t make all this wah here to be leaving without some thrill, you know.”

Eggman sighed internally, wishing he could facepalm. This was gonna be a veeery looong road to world domination.

~~~

"TAKE THIS!!!" Vector spinned his hammer and then with mighty force broke the wall. Shadow, Maria and Rouge were left speechless.

Meanwhile, the crocodile dusted himself and smirked at his friends, "I know, I am awesome, no need to gauge at me like that. However, feel free to continue, I love the praise."

Immediately Shadow broke into a fistful of chokes and Maria yelped and patted his back, “Shadow! Don’t worry I got you. Deep breaths.” This brought a chuckle out of Vector as Rouge whistled, "Dear Chaos, hun, you seem like a daredevil with this baby in your hands.”

Vector let out a huge grin, "Obviously, Rouge. You expected anything less from this crocodile in front of you?"

Rouge walked in front of her friend and gave him a wink, “Certainly, no, hot stuff.” She then whispered to him, “Next time keep it a bit mild though if you could, hun, sunshine over here–,” she pointed at Shadow, “–doesn't function quite well after seeing super hot demonstrations like mine and yours.”

“You know that I… *cough* c-can hear you, Rouge *cough*.” Shadow glared at the bat as he tried to compose himself and he would carry on scolding Rouge hadn't it been for Maria to interrupt him, “Shadow, no! Please calm down and let your cough subside. We don't want you choking for the rest of the trip.”

Rouge and Vector laughed, when Shadow groaned and Omega let out a cheerful buzz. Shadow was just too easy to tease at times.

The sound of footsteps reached Rouge’s sensitive ears, but before she could warn anyone, a chuckle got her first, “Now that would be a hilarious sight to watch, am I right?”

Teal eyes made eye contact with a pair of emerald and violet ones and team D.I.A with Vector took a fighting stance. Sonic let out a disappointing whine, “Gah, really? I try to partake in your nice conversation and that's how you treat me? I am most definitely let down here, guys.”

Rouge knew that this was the hedgehog's way to mock them, but she couldn't help, but feel somewhat bad at how she behaved around the younger. Usually this wouldn't affect her, but hanging around with younger children did certainly leave an impact on her.

Still she managed swiftly to reply back, “I’m sorry, blue, but I don't indulge in conversations with Eggman's sidekicks. That, unless you decide to take a visit on our side, sugar.” The hedgehog seemed to debate for a second Rouge's offer, before Knuckles punched him in the head, “Are you serious? Do you honestly consider that bat's offer? Remember you have a job to carry on, or are you having second thoughts?”

“Me? Second thoughts? Pleeease, Knux, now where did that thought come from?”

“My name is Knuckles for the last time, hedgehog!”

The echidna tsked, not letting Sonic time to respond and stepped forward calling upon a chaos spear in his hand as he did so, “Party time is over. I am not letting you go any further than this.”

~~~

“Have no fear our dear hero here, for Vector the Great is here!” Vector opened up his eyes to see an annoyed and bruised Rouge inside the cage. His eyes widened in shock, “Holy chaos Rouge! How did you end up like this?”

Rouge shrugged as she let out a sigh, stretching her wings as she did so, “Long story short, hun, let's just say that G.U.N is getting more and more on my nerves lately. I might end up like sunshine in the end…”

~~~

“Have we made any progress yet with the chaos emeralds? Last time I checked, I believe you'd promised me that all emeralds would be under my control, right, Knuckles?”

Eggman let his gaze fall on the echidna and he in return crossed his arms nonchalantly, “No need to worry, doctor. Soon all emeralds shall be in our disposal. There's only one left to find; the yellow one.”

Huffing under his breath, Eggman grinned, “Brilliant! That means we are one step away from my glory to shine and my Eggman Empire to rise!” He turned to look at his computer, typing several algorithms and chuckled, “We just have to find the last chaos emerald and then not even Rouge will be able to stand in my way, oh, ho, ho. This is splendid news.”

Knuckles continued watching Eggman for a few minutes, before finding himself getting starstruck by space’s illustrious light. A small smirk found its way at his lips.

Soon he would have his revenge. Both Locke and Tikal would find justice.

Suddenly a whistle captured both the echidna and the doctor’s attention and they looked behind them to see Sonic perched atop a generator with a newspaper in his hands.

Eggman scowled, “What is it, hedgehog? If you have no news, find another place to laze around.”

~~~

Chaos Reversed is one of your swap sonic AUs where the sonic characters swap roles and powers with each other, but on this one they keep their personalities the same for the most part. Everyone except the villains themselves are swapped, thus why Eggman’s role the same. The swaps aren’t only between two characters.

Roles!

• Rouge is Sonic and Sonic is Rouge.

• Knuckles is Shadow and Shadow is Knuckles.

• Maria -still a human- is Tails and Tikal is Maria.

• Locke is Gerald. Gerald remains in his role but the backstory is different.

• Vector is Amy -no, he isn’t in love with Rouge, pleease-.

• E-123 Omega is Maria’s creation instead of Eggman’s.

Feel free to ask questions about this au! Some things are different and some remain the same.

[darkjanet2]

Sonic Adventure 2: Sonadow

Chapter 24: Amy's Heartbroken, Sonic’s True Feelings

*In Sonic's house*

Sonic was watching Beavis & Butthead on TV when the knock came at his door. He paused it, frowning slightly, wondering who would come by at such an odd time. He went over to the door and looked through the peephole. He opened the door to reveal who it was.

"Amy?" He exclaimed in surprise as he recognized her. She was smiling widely, looking very happy. Amy wore a white dress with a pink heart pattern, white glitter ballet flats, and a white bow. The color of her lipstick was pink.

"Hey, Sonic! How are you?" Amy asked him brightly.

"Oh, I'm doing great," Sonic responded awkwardly as she walked past him to enter his house.

Sonic frowned slightly, shutting the door behind them. "So, uh… what are you doing here?"

"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing since you've been so busy lately!" Amy explained excitedly.

"I'm just watching TV right now…" Sonic said, looking away from her. "Do you want something or..?"

"No, I don't need anything," Amy told him happily. "Actually, I just wanted to talk to you about something… but if you're busy, then that's okay, too."

Sonic blinked in surprise. "Uh… what do you want to talk about?" he asked.

"I want to talk about being together," Amy answered simply. "You know, like we hang out. We can be together all the time now, and we can still work out together and do stuff together."

Sonic felt himself start to blush, even though she couldn't see it. "Um, that's very nice of you, Amy…" he began nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "But I think I'll pass-"

"Oh no, Sonic! Not this time!" Amy interrupted before he could finish saying no. "I want our friends and family to know about this so they'll approve of us getting married!"

"Are you for real?! There's no way I can marry you! No one is going to want to marry someone like you!" Sonic protested angrily. "Everyone hates me, you know they do! And besides, I'd never get married! It's not possible."

"What do you mean?!" Amy asked.

"I mean … I… I… I don't love you, Amy." Sonic finally spoke up after a long awkward silence between them. Amy gaped at him in disbelief, her expression twisting into something more confused and hurt than before. "I mean, I don't like you. I don't want to marry you. That's what I meant."

Amy's eyes swelled in tears as she started to get mad at him. "Sonic! You can't tell me that! After everything we've done, after all we've been through, you still don't feel anything for me? Is there no other explanation why you keep rejecting me!?"

"I kept rejecting you because you asked me some stupid questions and made me embarrassed about my feelings," Sonic admitted bitterly. "And you didn't want to give me any time to answer them. So I got angry and pushed you away! I thought it would make you stop asking those stupid questions, but you never did! You just kept asking until you got what you wanted, and you know damn well that your relationship means nothing to me! You were just using me! Like always! Well, I'm not falling for it anymore!"

There was a long silence between the two again as Sonic stared angrily at Amy. When he eventually broke their gaze, he saw that tears were streaming down her face. His expression softened slightly in guilt and pity, even though he knew it wouldn't change anything. He still hated himself and couldn't forgive himself for how he had treated Amy.

Sonic sighed, "Look, Amy, I'm... I'm sorry. I really am. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. You didn't deserve it. I wish things had ended differently. But we just can't go back to how things used to be, right? I mean, that's impossible. So let's just put it behind us and forget about it. Okay?" He hugged Amy tightly, trying to comfort her. She held onto him and sobbed quietly against his shoulder. Eventually, she pulled away from him and wiped away her tears. Sonic took her hands gently in his and smiled softly. "That's better, huh?"Amy nodded in agreement, sniffling slightly. "Okay… let's just forget about it."

"Amy... there's something I need to tell you," said Sonic.

Amy looked puzzled but waited for him to continue. He sighed again and looked away from her. "I'm… I'm gay. That means I won't be kissing a girl..." Amy's mouth dropped open in shock. Sonic continued before she could reply, "I know that sounds crazy. A guy who likes guys shouldn't like girls, either. But… that's what happened. So if you ever wanna kiss another guy, just ignore me."

"No, I... I'm so happy for you," said Amy.

Sonic's face lit up in joy. "Really?"

"Of course! I mean, I know you haven't dated anyone in years, but you seemed so happy. I didn’t even know you were gay until recently, but you’re obviously really happy!" said Amy.

"Yeah," Sonic replied with a smile. "I really am.”

“So who was it?” she asked.

“It’s… It’s Shadow,” Sonic said. “He was my boyfriend for awhile. But I lost him recently trying to save him from falling to his death,” said Sonic sadly.

Amy placed her hand to her mouth in shocked. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry. But… Shadow? You loved him? Sonic, why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him, sounding concerned.

“Because I didn’t show you about my true feelings with Shadow. Since that day, we started a battle in the forest and Shadow kissed me. I couldn’t get him off my mind afterwards, and eventually I fell in love with him. That’s why I tried to stay away from him, because I thought you might hate me. But I couldn’t avoid it forever, and eventually I realized that I couldn’t pretend anymore. I needed to tell you,” said Sonic, rubbing himself in his arms self consciously.

“So that’s why you loved Shadow. It wasn’t just because he kissed you or saved your life, or because you fell in love with him,” said Amy knowingly. “It was because he reminded you of me.”

“Exactly,” said Sonic, nodding with depression. “Now, I know I should have told you sooner. God, I missed Shadow so much. I missed him every day and every night. And the more time passes, the worse I feel when I think about him. I feel so sad all the time. But I have you and Tails and Knuckles now, and I don’t want to ruin that,” Sonic wiped his tears away as he said the last part.

“Oh, Sonic!” Amy cried, moving closer and hugging him.

Sonic returned her embrace, wrapping his arms around Amy’s waist. “Thanks, Amy. For understanding. I’m glad you understand.”

“Y-you’re welcome, Sonic,” she smiled weakly as she wiped her tears away.

Sonic sighed, “So… wanna watch Beavis and Butthead?” he asked.

Amy nodded, “I love that show. It’s hilarious.”

Sonic turned on the TV and started watching Beavis and Butthead together.

*Eggman’s Lair*

Eggman was sitting on a chair while typing the keyboard of his computer with both hands, occasionally glancing over at the TV screen. His lips quirked into a small, sly smirk whenever he caught sight of Sonic and Amy in the picture on the screen.

“Hehehehe, time to take revenge, you pathetic little hedgehog,” Eggman grinned, chuckling darkly to himself. “You’ve ruined everything I worked so hard for! And your precious little girlfriend, too!”

“Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Orbot. “Because last time Shadow worked for you, we almost died before crashing the Earth! The next time will probably end in disaster! Why else would we want to risk that?”

“Oh, I believe we’ll survive this time, Orbot. I have a plan, and I think it’ll go smoothly,” smirked Eggman.

“But sir, how can you know?” asked Cubot.

“I just do,” Eggman replied.

“If you say so, sir,” said Orbot reluctantly.

“Just wait till you see what I’m planning. Then you’ll realize that you were wrong all along,” Eggman grinned evilly, twiddling his fingers.

[bryastar]

word salad #1

hi journal. it's been a long time.

today I was watching sonic x ..... but the sub version. a while back I tried the 4 kids dub but only got to episode 6 (or 5, I forget it's the one where eggman brings a robot to the school). honestly I feel more invested with the sub version, but we'll see. primarily I wanna see how it works in the sonic adventure stories, (which all I remember is a scene with e102 gamma and the finale part of the sonic adventure 2 story. we had this recorded on a VHS and watched over and over again, I liked seeing how different it was compared to the game.)

I've been trying to practice better drawing habits. things like using my shoulders instead of my wrists, or not holding the pencil too close to the tip. maybe I should get one of those pencil holders like I used back in school. the apple pencil feels heavier than I was expecting but the extra weight is nice at the same time strangely enough.

yesterday I practiced with using pencil pressure and doodled a twilight and then Fluttershy. I've also been trying to get a better habit of blocking out my sketches with simple shapes.

I also drew a racing snail today based on an old game idea from back in high school. I wanna try to expand a bit by drawing more than just ponies all the time. it's honestly kind of relaxing (tho annoying when after that I feel out of energy and motivation to draw more after that but...baby steps)

and I guess while I'm here....why am I writing this?

I wanna try to open up more a bit I guess? I wanna share a more genuine side of myself. try to write down my thoughts and feelings more in a place where I can look back and see where I came from? I'm giving myself a goal to do one entry per day for a week, and we'll see where we go from here.

uhm....

meow

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Cyber Revolution, Entry 22: The Treasure Hunter

''Tap the rhythm against the floor to look for another door. I am slipping to the mystery of the night. I know there is an easy way, but it is my choice anyway. Don't let me waste my time in futile thinking anymore. Fated not to be tamed, watch me I never will lean upon you. I can go – by myself!''

– Fly in the Freedom by Sonic Adventure 2 (Theme of Rouge)

xXxXxXx

It was the middle of the night, the mansion being dead silent. The room was only illuminated by the moonlight coming from a nearby window, only for it to darken when a shadow-like figure appeared behind the window, easily opening it and making her way inside the room. She looked around, making sure there weren't any cameras inside the room, then smiled in satisfaction.

This person was an anthropomorphic bat with white fur, tan skin, turquoise eyes with two large eyelashes on each one, and a curvy figure. She had large pointy ears, small fangs, a small black nose on her muzzle, a short pointy tail, and a pair of dark purple wings on her back. Only her head appeared to have fur, which flared out into six points at the back. She was wearing powder blue eyeshadow and a pink lipstick and her attire consisted of a black, skin-tight, strapless unitard with a pink, heart-shaped chestplate with white trim, along with long white gloves and high-heeled boots with pink cuffs. Her boots also had gray soles and featured pink hearts on the toes. She also had a small white bag with a strap over her shoulder. Once she was assured that no one would interrupt her, she started to make her way over to a portrait, opening it like a door and observing the vault before her. She then reached for her bag, taking out a compact from it. Opening it, she smiled at the tiny mirror and taking the powder puff that was inside it. She then gathered some of the powder before tapping it over the number pad on the vault, before blowing away the excess powder, leaving only four numbers covered.

''They really need to up the security here.''

Rouge the Bat smiled as she punched in the number code, having observed earlier in the day the directions the owner used to open the vault. The number pad glowed green and the vault opened, with Rouge's eyes sparking as she saw the pink jewel inside it.

''Oh, you're so beautiful! So perfect!''

Rouge grabbed the pink jewel, examining it with glee. She felt as if she was in Heaven, having managed to successfully steal another jewel from some rich person who'd probably not even miss it. She felt that should could give it a much better home. She then placed the jewel in her bag, sighing dramatically.

''Despite the dazzling reward, there really isn't any challenge, as expected,'' Rouge muttered under her breath, a little disappointed that there wasn't more to her heist. She shook her head, leaving through the window and flying into the night.

xXx

Tails stretched his arms, yawning. ''We're finally done… What's the time?''

''It's like 1 AM in the morning,'' Warren responded, yawning and squinting at the computer monitor. They were at their workshop, finally done decoding and cataloguing all of the data they got from the Codex Research Facility, creating two separate files, one for themselves and another for Touka and Shadow, including back-ups. ''I feel like my brain had been fried, and we're still not done.''

''I wonder whether we should tell Lucas about what we found out,'' Tails said, leaning back in his seat. ''He did say that he wanted to learn more about the origins of Irregulars, and we actually got some insight into that.''

''Yeah, but I'm not sure whether Touka and Shadow will agree to us telling Lucas or the rest of the team what we had found out,'' Warren pointed out. ''You saw it for yourself, that information is part of Project Shadow.''

''I think we should call them and ask them about it,'' Tails said, reaching for the AR Visor on the top of his head, but was hesitant. ''Uh, do you think they're asleep?''

''I'm pretty sure everyone's asleep at this point, aside from us,'' Warren replied in a deadpan tone. ''But, I still think we should go ahead with it. If they don't pick up, we'll give them a call tomorrow.''

''You know that 'tomorrow' is now, right?'' Tails replied, deciding to call Touka, because he didn't want to deal with a grumpy Shadow. Warren snorted as they waited for the call to pick up. It took a minute, but the holographic screen revealed an annoyed Touka, sitting on her bed and frowning as she stared at them. Shadow, who also woke up, was sitting next to her, was just glaring at the two.

''I hope you have a good reason for calling us in the middle of the night,'' Touka said.

''We managed to finally finish decoding all the data we got from Codex, so we wanted to ask you if you could come over tomorrow to pick up the USB stick,'' Tails explained.

''You could've just called us in the morning to tell us that,'' Shadow said, his gaze softening slightly.

''There was something else we wanted to tell you about. Some of the information we had found concerns the possible origin of Irregulars and we wanted to share it with everyone, but it's part of Project Shadow, so we wanted to ask for your opinion first, since this is very personal to you,'' Warren explained.

''We are only going to talk about the part that concerns Irregulars in general, so you don't have to worry about sharing any information you're not comfortable with,'' Tails added.

Touka and Shadow both had to admit that they were a little surprised that they even asked, but pleased nevertheless. ''How important is the information you got?''

''Important enough for everyone to know,'' Warren replied.

''You two could come earlier to take a look at it, if you want and tell us whether you're okay with what we have prepared,'' Tails suggested. Touka and Shadow fell silent for a moment, exchanging glances as if engaged in a wordless conversation.

''Go for it,'' Touka finally said, much to Warren and Tails' surprise. ''I'm curious what you have uncovered. Good night!''

The screen went black, with Warren just sighing in relief. ''Man, it's always so tense with these two around.''

''At least we can call everyone else for a meeting,'' Tails replied, already typing up a message and sending it to everyone. Warren took a deep breath, leaning against the table.

''I just want to go to sleep.''

xXx

''…and Mum's paranoid that someone might break into our house to steal her jewel and gemstone collection,'' Lily concluded, with Minami and Amy giving her surprised looks. The two were on their way towards the Taylor Workshop, having ran into Lily and Knuckles on their way there, with the latter two telling them about last night's break into into the mansion of Lauren Crystle's, Lily's mother, close friend. Minami furrowed a brow.

''I had no idea your mother was interested in gemology,'' she said. Lily waved her off.

''Actually, she isn't. She just likes to collect valuable gemstones and then brag in front of her friends about them. She has a whole room just dedicated to her hobby,'' Lily explained.

''Now that someone stole from her friend, she voiced her concerns during breakfast over her collection being the next target and demands additional security. Lily's father stated that there was no reason to be worried, though,'' Knuckles added.

''Really, why?'' Amy asked, confused.

''I think that Dad just didn't want to deal with Mum's dramatics, so he blew it off,'' Lily replied, shrugging. ''Honestly, I don't really care about it, although I'd like to learn more about this mysterious thief.''

''If this thief knows what is good for them, they wouldn't dare to steal from our home as long as I'm the Guardian,'' Knuckles said.

''Nevertheless, if you ever need help, you know you can call us,'' Amy noted. Knuckles simply nodded in response as they arrived at the workshop. The rest of Team Neos was already there, with Warren and Tails working on a device, with Sonic peering curiously over Tails' shoulder. Lucas was talking to Makoto and Silver, while Touka and Shadow were in the corner of the room, reading something on a holographic screen.

''Hey, guys! Hope you haven't started without us,'' Minami announced their presence as they joined the rest of the team.

''Don't worry, we were waiting for you,'' Warren told her, with Tails picking up the device they had been working on earlier, disconnecting it from the computer.

''What's that?'' Sonic asked.

''It's a portable AR Field generator, something Warren worked on before I came along. We wanted to use it for our presentation,'' Tails explained. He pressed a button on it, the AR Field suddenly spreading through the entire room and revealing a bunch of holographic screens floating around them. ''All done!''

As their friends settled either on the couch or just leaned against it, Warren and Tails turned towards them, feeling a little nervous. After all, the information they had discovered felt like a huge bombshell since any information regarding Irregulars was limited and investigations in their origins were basically non-existent due to the government forbidding it. However, given the existence of the Codex Research Facility, that hadn't always been the case.

''So, you already know why we have called you here,'' Warren started, noting everyone's gazes of anticipation. Sonic held up his hand as if he was in a class.

''Yeah, you said you had figured out the origins of Irregulars,'' Sonic said.

''Right, except that's not completely the case. As a matter of fact, all of the information we got was from the Codex Research Facility, being part of Prof. Hiroshi Sakamoto's research,'' Warren explained, briefly glancing at Touka and Shadow, who looked quite tense.

''There are a few points we wanted to go through,'' Tails said, grabbing a nearby holographic screen that was filled with notes. ''For starters, you all know that any research concerning Irregulars had been forbidden, not helped due to Shadow basically destroying a good chunk of the Codex Research Facility.'' Tails glanced at the ebony hedgehog. ''Yeah, there is no way to sugarcoat this one. Sorry, Shadow.''

''I don't mind,'' Shadow replied, arms folded across his chest.

''Nevertheless, before that, the scientists at Codex were tasked with the research of Irregulars, who had proven themselves a threat since there really wasn't anyone who could properly deal with them at the time, since the Irregular Hunters haven't even been formed yet and combat-oriented ARNavs weren't developed yet,'' Warren continued. ''The main directive of this research was to learn the origins of the Irregulars, their connection to BioEnergy and whether there was a possibility to control them properly without them being a danger to humanity.''

''Prof. Sakamoto had even detailed in his notes how Codex had created a task force to capture Irregulars and bring them there for research. Let's just say that some members got seriously hurt during that process,'' Tails continued. ''During the research, they had come to the same conclusions as we did. Irregulars, unlike regular ARNavs, are both biological and digital in nature, needing to sleep and eat while also being able to manipulate data and survive outside an AR Field, as well as be able to manipulate BioEnergy. However, they still didn't know why that was the case.''

''Considering what you had told us, it looks like they figured it out eventually,'' Amy commented.

''Correct, although this only happened because Prof. Sakamoto had help from an outside contributor,'' Warren replied.

''Really? He couldn't figure it out by himself?'' Makoto was stunned.

''Who was the contributor?'' Silver asked.

''Unfortunately, that information had been redacted,'' Tails replied, turning a holographic screen towards them and showing them the notes with the redacted parts. ''Whoeever it was, Prof. Sakamoto didn't want anyone to know. We don't know why either, because he never elaborated on that in detail, so unless you guys know anything, this is all we got.''

''If we knew anything, we would've told you. Prof. Sakamoto made sure that Shadow and I stay as far away from the research areas as possible unless he specifically called for us, which was rare,'' Touka explained.

''That still didn't prevent you from going to areas you weren't supposed to be at,'' Shadow remarked dryly. Touka just shrugged.

''So? I was bored,'' she replied, with Shadow rolling his eyes. Touka turned to Warren and Tails. ''In any case, we don't really have anything to add.''

''Fortunately, we do,'' Warren replied. ''We all know that ARNavs are sentient digital beings created in a controlled environment. Irregulars, however, aren't really created as much as they're… I guess 'born' would be the correct term? I'm not sure.''

''I'd go with the term 'awoken','' Tails added, glancing at Warren, then turned towards fellow Irregular teammates. ''None of us really remembers where we come from. We have absolutely no memories of our past save from the moment we awoke.''

''That's correct,'' Knuckles said.

''The reason for that is because Irregulars are literal errors that appeared in the current system. They are amalgamations of stray data that has been caught between an AR Field and the real world, glitching out and forming into an Irregular. That also explains why we have no memories of anything before awakening. We're literally not supposed to exist,'' Tails explained. There was a moment of silence, with his teammates exchanging glances, being rather surprised, but at the same time, they seemed to be more accepting of that fact. With all the things that happened to them, this may not have been as shocking as it was supposed to be.

''That would explain why so many Irregulars have appeared in Neos City, since this place is filled with AR Fields,'' Sonic pointed out.

Tails simply nodded and continued, ''There is something else I want to add. According to Prof. Sakamoto, it is actually almost impossible for an Irregular to be artificially created. It wasn't elaborated on why though, but I have a couple of theories regarding that. More importantly, the remaining data shows that there had been several unsuccessful attempts of creating an artificial Irregular that they would be able to control, hence why I said that it's almost impossible to create one. However, thanks to the anonymous contributor, there was one, and only one, successful creation.''

As if on cue, everyone turned their heads towards Shadow. The ebony hedgehog wasn't too keen on all of the sudden attention he got, opting to just scowl and ignore it. They knew about his and Touka's past, as they had told them, and he wasn't going to answer any unnecessary questions.

''Moving on,'' Warren started, drawing everyone's attention. ''There was also a section about the research on BioEnergy and its connection to Irregulars. However, neither Tails nor I are really comfortable talking about it in detail because it is tied to Project Shadow, so we'll leave that one to Touka and Shadow to explain, if they want to.'' He paused, catching the two's intense gaze. ''All we can say is that there was an attempt at weaponizing BioEnergy and Irregulars, but they had failed.''

''Not only failed, but failed spectacularly,'' Tails added in a snarky tone.

''Hmph, it is ironic that what the Professor couldn't achieve, you have managed to figure out,'' Shadow said suddenly, ignoring the looks he got.

''You mean, Chaos Surge?'' Lucas asked. Shadow nodded, then noted Sonic's curious look.

''Do you want to tell us more?'' Sonic asked.

''I was only going to fill in the gaps,'' Shadow replied. He did respect Tails and Warren for not sharing all of the information, him and Touka having decided after the call they got that they would add more if necessary. Shadow recalled Prof. Sakamoto's last log, having read it after he woke up from his stasis pod, feeling the rage simmering again, but kept himself calm. ''The Professor has never shared what the true purpose of his research, but he would still run exams on me. He had also insisted on me and Touka developing a close bond, and I suppose that was all part of his experiment. It even reached a point where we both were put into danger just to see whether he can trigger anything.''

''Honestly, I'm just glad we don't have to deal with him or anything regarding Codex anymore,'' Touka said, sighing in relief. There was a moment of silence, suddenly broken by Silver.

''Do you guys think we'll meet more Irregulars like us?'' Silver asked.

''Well, Knuckles and I had already a run in with Big and Froggy, and there were also the Babylon Rogues. I guess anything's possible,'' Lily said.

xXx

Knuckles yawned, walking away from the kitchen while eating handful of grapes. He woke up in the middle of the night feeling a little hungry and, after failing to fall asleep, he decided to just get his favorite snack to calm his nerves. It was a rather quiet night, but Knuckles remained alert. It was a habit of his, something he learned from his travels, to listen to his gut feeling and be prepared for anything. He had been told that the Crystle Mansion was quite secure, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't do a little patrol around just to be sure. He was Lily's Guardian, after all, and that extended to her home as well.

Throwing the last grape into his mouth, Knuckles walked past a hallway leading to a room belonging to Lily's mother, that being her hobby room, the one she displayed all the gemstones and jewels she gathered. No one was allowed to enter it, but Knuckles stopped for a moment, a strange feeling bubbling inside his chest and then walked over to it. After opening the door, he peered inside, his purple eyes widening in surprise at what he saw.

Inside was a white bat ARNav taking a red jewel out of the display case. Knuckles' brow furrowed as he slammed the door open, causing the thief to get startled and turn towards him. Knuckles clenched his fists, walking right over to her.

''Who are you and what are you doing with that jewel?'' Knuckles confronted the intruder. The bat ARNav gave him an intrigued gaze, still holding up the red jewel.

''My name is Rouge the Bat. Better known as the treasure hunter, Rouge,'' Rouge introduced herself, then tilted her head slightly as she gazed at Knuckles. ''And, who are you, handsome?''

''I'm Knuckles the Echidna, the Guardian of the Crystle Mansion, and you have no business being here,'' Knuckles responded, trying to ignore the ''handsome'' comment. Rouge put her fingertip on her lips, acting as if she were surprised.

''Oh, really? I had no idea!'' she said, walking around Knuckles. The red echidna was scowling, arms folded across his chest as he observed her circling him as if she was checking him out. ''I had just found some beautiful jewels and I just couldn't resist taking a closer look at them.''

''You got your chance to take a look at them, now give me back the jewel and leave before I make you leave!'' Knuckles warned her, but Rouge didn't appear to be particularly threatened.

''Don't worry, I was planning on leaving, but not without a souvenir,'' Rouge replied casually, brushing with her hand against Knuckles shoulder as she walked past him. Knuckles tensed for a moment, shivering feeling a chill down his spine, but then quickly turned towards Rouge.

''Give me the jewel back,'' he demanded. Rouge smirked, placing one hand on her hip as she turned towards him.

''Why don't you take it by yourself?'' she replied, holding the jewel up. Knuckles stepped towards her, but Rouge stepped back. Frowning, he stepped again towards her, reaching for the jewel, but Rouge leapt back. Now annoyed, Knuckles lunged at Rouge, but she quickly flapped her wings, flying up and causing Knuckles to crash into a nearby display. He shook his head, looking up at Rouge as she hovered above him. ''Huh? Is that all you've got?''

''You'll pay for this!'' Knuckles growled.

''I'm sorry honey, but I don't have any money on me,'' Rouge teased him, then winked at Knuckles. ''Would a kiss be enough?''

''Wh-ah, no!'' Knuckles stammered, his cheeks taking a sudden shade of red, being caught off guard by Rouge's question. Rouge took advantage of this, doing a two-finger salute and quickly flew out through the skylight.

''I'll be seeing you later!''

Knuckles just stared at the skylight, completely stunned. Suddenly, a pit formed in his stomach, followed by the sensation of dread as he realized that Rouge had just escaped with the jewel he was supposed to protect simply because he froze. He hated it.

xXx

''Why have you told me not to tell your parents that I know who stole the jewel?'' Knuckles asked.

Lily hummed as she and Knuckles were going over to Heizeru Park. She, her parents and Bennet had been awoken in the middle of the night by Knuckles, who regretfully told them that one of the jewels from Lauren's collection had been stolen, apologizing for his failure to guard the Crystle Mansion. However, he had woken up Lily first and immediately told her who the culprit was, but to his confusion, she insisted that he keep it a secret. He also had to face the anger from her parents, who immediately went into blaming him for allowing the jewel to get stolen. Lily defended him, going by the narrative of Knuckles already finding the jewel stolen, but she didn't explain to the echidna why she decided to lie to her own parents. Instead, she called Team Neos for a meeting the next day.

''Mainly because the thief who stole the jewel is Rouge the Bat and I feel that this is something we should be handling instead of my parents calling the police,'' Lily replied.

''I do agree that I should make up for my mistake,'' Knuckles responded, although Lily could hear the disheartened tone in his voice. She was about to continue the conversation, when a blue blur ran right past them, halting to a stop and turning around.

''Hey, there you are! Everyone's already waiting for you at Heizeru Park!'' Sonic told them. ''Speaking of which, why did you ask for meeting up there and not at your place?''

''Mainly because I don't want to convince my parents to have my friends over without a proper plan, especially since they're already in an awful mood because of what happened,'' Lily replied. ''You remember how Bennet didn't even want to let you inside and you got lucky because Knuckles and I found you in one of our booby traps? I want to avoid that.''

''Yeah, I'd like to avoid that too,'' Sonic agreed, glancing at Knuckles. ''Are you okay, Knux?''

''I will be fine once I find Rouge and take that jewel back from her,'' Knuckles responded, scowling. Sonic gave him a thumbs up.

''Don't worry, we'll help you with that,'' he said in a chipper tone. Knuckles gazed at Sonic, feeling at the same time both annoyed and relieved by his assurance. He felt it was his personal responsibility to return the jewel from Rouge, but at the same time, having some assistance wasn't a bad thing, especially since he already knew that he could rely on Team Neos to help him. After all, this was the reason they all agreed to work together – to combat all kinds of threats as a team.

When they arrived at Heizeru Park, they found the rest of the team at the clearing close to the pond, already talking about some random topic. Lily and Knuckles were mildly surprised that Touka and Shadow were there as well, since the two were usually just doing their own thing. Admittedly, they were a bit apart from the rest of the group, with Touka leaning against a tree, while Shadow was sitting on the branch above, just observing the situation quietly.

''Hey, guys!'' Lily called out for the group, who turned towards her. ''Knux and I already told you during the call what happened, but I guess we kind of need to elaborate on it.''

''You did tell us that you had a break in and Rouge stole a jewel, and that you wanted to do something about it,'' Amy said.

''Correct,'' Knuckles replied.

''Do you have any idea where to find her?'' Minami asked.

''No, but she had told me that 'she'll be seeing me later'. However, I don't understand the meaning of it,'' Knuckles replied. ''I don't know whether she is going to return to steal more jewels, but I believe that it is a possibility and I want to prepare for it.''

''So, what's the plan?'' Silver asked, his question causing a few heads turn right towards Lucas, who appeared to be startled by the sudden attention.

''Uh… Why are you all looking at me like that?'' he asked.

''You're the self-proclaimed leader and the one who comes up with a plan. Don't be so surprised,'' Touka snarked, a slight smirk on her lips. Lucas frowned, glancing at Touka.

''Yeah, I know, but…'' Lucas trailed off for a moment, glancing at Lily and Knuckles. ''I want to first hear what exactly you want to do. After all, this situation is personal to you.''

''Honestly, if Knuckles is right and Rouge would return, maybe we could ambush her or make some kind of trap?'' Lily suggested, shrugging. ''That's what we wanted to talk about in detail.''

''Well, I'm all for this trap idea,'' Minami replied. ''If Rouge is anything like her video game counterpart, she will return to grab the rest of the jewels that are at the mansion. The only question is when.''

''Unfortunately, I don't have the information, but I am willing to stand guard until she does appear,'' Knuckles replied. Lucas hummed at the comment, folding his arms across his chest as he thought about the trap idea.

''You know, I think a trap could work, but we don't really know when Rouge would plan to strike again,'' he said. ''I mean, an alarm system could also do the job…''

''There is an alarm system at the gate and cameras inside the mansion, but Rouge didn't trigger any alarm nor was she seen on any of the cameras. When she escaped, she used the skylight above the room,'' Knuckles explained.

''Honestly, I'm not surprised about that,'' Warren said, remembering the spy aspect of Rouge's character. Lucas' eyes lit up and he hit with his fist against his palm.

''I think we can work around this,'' he said, grinning.

xXx

''Chaos Surge!''

Dr. Eggman furrowed a brow as he observed Ferra and Metal Sonic charging up with power on one of his computer screens. The two had spent the past few days learning how to harness and control their new ability, growing quite strong. He just let them do their own thing, figuring that this way, they'll be an even better asset to his own plans. He himself had been busy with the fallout of infecting the Buddy Bots with a virus. He let the android he created, Dr. Tamago, do the talking to the public and the investigators and while he knew that people wouldn't so easily trust the company after what had happened, he also knew that after some time passed, everyone would forget about it, especially if he made sure that his Eggman Empire wasn't associated with the Tamago Corporation.

''I got the attention of Neos City and Sonic and his friends. Tamago Corporation has had its reputation recovered and no one is the wiser,'' Dr. Eggman said, rubbing his hands as he pulled up another screen. ''Excellent!''

''Have you already finished your new project, Boss?'' Orbot asked, bringing along with Cubot a few snacks and a blue mug of coffee on a tray, the red text on the mug saying #1 Brilliant Genius.

''Yeah, you sound quite happy, despite your recent defeat,'' Cubot added, only to get elbowed by Orbot. The spherical robot gave him a warning look, not wanting to get on Eggman's bad side by reminding him of the defeat several days ago. Eggman just glared at the two, then turned towards the monitors.

''That encounter was far from a defeat. I have achieved what I wanted and my current project is close to being finished,'' Eggman replied, adding with a growl, ''It would've been faster if a certain duo was actually doing what they're supposed to do.''

''Oh, you mean Mephiles and Toshiro? They're already here,'' Cubot replied.

''Why haven't you told me that earlier?'' Eggman asked angrily.

''You… haven't asked?'' Orbot said, shrugging.

''Just tell the two to get over here,'' Eggman replied, now impatient, with Orbot and Cubot quickly leaving. It didn't take long until Toshiro and Mephiles entered the room, with Eggman getting up. ''I have told you two to give me a report the moment you return!''

''With all due respect, sir, we didn't want to interrupt you in case you were busy,'' Toshiro replied, but Eggman interrupted him.

''I don't care about your excuses, I want results! Especially since you two just decided to disappear during the invasion,'' Eggman growled.

''Then, you will be pleased to hear that Prof. Sakamoto has finalized a way to synthetize a proper energy source for you,'' Mephiles replied. ''It is not the infinite source of energy you demanded, but it is satisfactory enough.''

''Do you have the data with you?'' Eggman asked.

''No, but the Professor is in the process of finishing it. However, his mental health isn't the best as of late,'' Toshiro replied.

''In other words, he's losing his grip on reality,'' Mephiles added. Eggman sat back down in the swivel chair, staring at the two as he clasped his hands, with his index fingers pointing up.

''As long as he finishes the project, I don't care. It is… unfortunate to lose a brilliant mind, but I might as well take back all of the resources I gave him if he's of no more use to me,'' he said.

''So, you're planning to let him rot in his own madness?'' Toshiro asked. Eggman just waved him off, turning back to the computer screen behind him.

''As long as he doesn't attempt to sabotage my own plans, be it intentionally or unintentionally, I frankly don't care what he's up to,'' he replied. ''However, I do have another project for you two. Since you have been missing from the action last time, you'll be leading tonight's attack.''

''You are planning an attack on Neos City?'' Toshiro asked.

''Not on Neos City, but on Sonic and his friends,'' Eggman replied. ''It has been several days since the first attack and I don't want them to get too comfortable. You two know how to find whomever you're searching for, so take the Badniks and attack them.''

''Yes, sir,'' Toshiro replied, him and Mephiles leaving the room, passing by Orbot and Cubot, who apparently overheard the conversation.

''I guess that means that we should reset the 'X Days Without An Attack' counter,'' Cubot said. Toshiro and Mephiles didn't pay much attention to the two as they were focused on their task.

''I suppose we should make this an attack without making our presence known,'' Mephiles told Toshiro. ''It's still not time for our grand entrance.''

''You're right. Fortunately, Dr. Eggman did give us some key information to use,'' Toshiro replied. ''Rest assured, we it won't be long until all pieces are set.''

xXx

''So, is everyone ready for guard duty?'' Lucas asked, him and Sonic standing in front of the main entrance to the hobby room filled with the jewels and gemstones, the door behind them locked.

''Yeah!''

''We're ready!''

''Hopefully this works!''

''I still doubt Rouge would return tonight specifically.''

There was a chorus of responses from the rest of their teammates, some excited, some cynical. Nevertheless, they all agreed to go along with the plan they came up and try to catch Rouge in the act. After Lily managed to persuade her parents to let Team Neos on the case, they agreed, but not without some strong disapproval and comments regarding whom she's friends with; something everyone ignored. Lily also had to work around her and Knuckles' lie about knowing who the culprit was, explaining how they were doing this just because they felt that they might return for the rest of the collection. After all, the mansion now appeared to be a very easy target.

''Honestly, it's a miracle they agreed to this rather than calling the authorities or hiring additional bodyguards,'' Lily grumbled over the screen. She and Knuckles had also a good feeling that another reason why her parents approved of this was because Knuckles blamed himself for what happened, and seeing the echidna who previously put them in their place having a slice of humble pie made them feel vindicated.

''I'm sure that we got this,'' Sonic replied as he looked at the screens that showed where everyone was.

Makoto and Silver were stationed at the front gate, making sure no one could enter the yard through it. Minami and Amy were patrolling the front yard, Amy having her hammer out. Touka and Shadow took over the woods surrounding the mansion and the part behind it. Warren and Tails were stationed at the side entrance to the hobby room, the door behind them locked. Lily and Knuckles were locked up inside the jewel room, with Knuckles staring ahead stoically, his arms folded across his chest as he observed the skylight above, as if expecting Rouge to enter the room through it.

''Now, all we have to do is to wait. The moment you notice something, send out a warning,'' Lucas added, then turned the holographic screen off, looking at Sonic, who was walking up and down the corridor at a quite fast pace. ''Are you planning on making a hole in the hallway?''

''You know that I'm not the most patient person,'' Sonic replied. ''This is probably going to be a long wait.''

''You could go out from time to time just to check on everyone,'' Lucas suggested. Sonic just nodded, looking at the door behind him, wondering how Knuckles was doing.

The echidna in question was currently not moving from his spot, standing in front of the display of a green jewel, still staring at the skylight and feeling tense. Lily sat down next to him, giving him an empathetic look.

''Hey, Knuckles, are you feeling okay?'' she asked. ''You had been talking about how you need to make up for your mistake, but honestly, I don't think it's that bad. Yeah, sure, an expensive jewel was stolen, but you said you're here to protect me, not Mum's collection of gemstones.''

Knuckles frowned, being silent at first, but then started talking.

''I brought dishonor to my status as your Guardian. While I swore to protect you, this also extends to your home. I deeply apologize for my failure,'' Knuckles added solemly, staring ahead. Lily gazed at him, a sympathetic look on her expression, and shifted closer to him. ''All I want is to fix my mistake.''

''Knux, listen… You haven't failed anything,'' Lily told him in a comforting tone. Knuckles just frowned harder.

''You're just stating that to make me feel better,'' he responded. Lily just rolled her eyes, humming.

''Yeah, you're right, I do want to make you feel better because I feel like you're too hard on yourself,'' she admitted, tilting her head. ''Also, I think there's a bit more to it than you just losing a jewel to Rouge.''

Knuckles stiffened, a slight shade of red tinting his cheeks as he clenched his fists tighter. He then looked at Lily. ''Do you swear you won't tell anyone about what I'm going to tell you?''

''Of course not, cross my heart and hope to die if I ever do,'' Lily replied, with Knuckles sitting next to her, crossing his legs and taking a deep breath as he placed his hands on his knees.

''I believe that Rouge has somehow charmed me… or at least she put me under a hex,'' Knuckles started. Lily gave him a surprised look.

''What do you mean by that?''

''During our encounter, we had a conversation and I… I started feeling weird, to the point that I just froze. I'm ashamed to admit that I wasn't able to do anything at the moment and my inaction allowed Rouge to escape,'' Knuckles admitted.

''Was it something specific you guys were talking about?'' Lily asked, prying for more details to make sense of the situation. Knuckles shook his head.

''I… No, I just told her to hand over the jewel and she started to act weird and… bewitching, I suppose,'' he replied, remembering how he shivered at Rouge's touch. Lily stared at him for a moment, gears turning in her head as she processed the information, then snorted in amusement.

''I think I understand what's going on,'' she said. Knuckles gave her a confused look.

''You do?''

''Yeah, and rest assured, Rouge didn't put a hex on you,'' Lily assured him.

''Then, why-?'' Knuckle's voice died in his throat. Frankly, he felt quite foolish. He sighed, leaning back against the display case. ''I feel as if I should focus on my task rather than think about what had happened.''

''If you want to do that, that's okay. I'll be with you the whole time. If Rouge appears and tries to 'charm' you again, I'll have your back,'' Lily assured him, holding up her fist towards Knuckles. Knuckles smiled, lifting his arm and doing a fist bump.

''Thank you,'' he replied, grateful for Lily's presence. Whenever he felt like he doubted his actions, she was there to clear his mind and give him a proper direction. Sure, he was supposed to protect her, but he had to admit that he was content with Lily looking after him.

xXx

''Finally, they fell asleep,'' Rouge muttered under her breath, hanging upside down from a tree at the woods surrounding the Crystle Mansion. She had been observing the whole place for hours, waiting for Team Neos to get tired and the lack of sleep getting to them. She had seen Silver and Makoto leaning against the gate, Amy and Minami having fallen asleep on the sunloungers next to the swimming pool, and Touka and Shadow being sound asleep while hiding behind some bushes. She also was well aware that Sonic, Lucas, Tails and Warren were guarding both entrances and that Lily and Knuckles were inside the hobby room. How did she know that? She had followed Knuckles and Lily to Heizeru Park and eavesdropped their conversation with their friends. She heard their entire plan and knew that she could easily find a way inside without alerting anyone. Knuckles and his friends shouldn't have talked about it in the public. You never know who might overhear it.

Rouge did come prepared this time, just in case something happened. She flew up, a white and pink bag being slung over her shoulder and she flew towards the skylight she used the last night to break into the mansion. Fortunately for her, it was still open, so she easily slipped inside, landing right in front of Knuckles. To her surprise, he was standing leaned against a display case, arms still folded across his chest, yet he was fast asleep. Lily was next to him, sitting leaned against the display case, just as asleep as he was.

Rouge had to admit that they looked kind of cute like this. Unfortunately for them, she was planning to leave this place completely empty. She walked up towards the display case, reaching for the green jewel inside it, only to get startled when a gloved fist grabbed her arm. Her eyes widened as she stared at Knuckles, now fully awake and glaring at her.

''I… I thought you were asleep,'' Rouge said, completely stunned.

''No, you have been tricked,'' Knuckles replied. To Rouge's surprise, Lily suddenly got up, giving her a victorious look.

''I had figured that you might stick around, which is why I told everyone to meet up at Heizeru Park to talk about what we should do. Once we were done, I just sent everyone a message about the actual plan, which was to bait you here,'' Lily explained. Rouge smirked.

''You're a smart cookie, sweetheart,'' she said, ripping her arm out of Knuckles' grip and stepping back.

''Now, give us back the jewel you stole,'' Knuckles demanded. Rouge's ears twitched as she heard a clicking sound coming from both entrances, Sonic, Lucas, Tails and Warren entering the room. She then turned to Knuckles, who was ready to fight her. She reached for her bag, showing the red jewel she had stolen.

''You'll have to catch me if you want your precious jewel back,'' she said, reaching once again for the bag, but this time, she pulled out a white orb with a pink heart on it. Just as Knuckles, Tails and Sonic lunged at her, she threw the mini-bomb which exploded, acting like a smoke bomb. This allowed her to quickly fly up to the skylight, hearing coughing from behind her. Unfortunately for her, there was a flash of cyan and light blue lights, with Silver and Shadow hovering in front of the skylight and blocking her path, Silver using his psychokinesis and Shadow using his air shoes.

''You're not getting past us,'' Silver told her.

''Oh, I think I will,'' Rouge replied, reaching for her bag again and throwing blue powder at both of them, forcing Silver and Shadow to close their eyes and back away on instinct, being blinded for a moment. She flew past them, but was taken by surprise when she saw Amy appearing before her on her hoverboard. Amy leapt from her hoverboard, swinging her hammer at Rouge, but Rouge managed to dodge it. She flew away as fast as possible, taking a moment to turn back and being astonished to see Knuckles following her on a hoverboard.

''You're not getting away with this!'' Knuckles yelled after her. Rouge just laughed in response, turning her attention back to her flight path. They reached the more urban landscape, with Rouge flying above a building, only to realize that Knuckles caught up to her. She turned back, reaching for her bag again and throwing one of her smoke bombs at him. However, Knuckles leapt of the hoverboard and lunged at her, tackling her and causing both of them to tumble onto the rooftop of a nearby building. Rouge's bag fell off, her ears twitching as she heard the clinking of the jewel, which had fallen out of her bag. It was quite painful.

Both Rouge and Knuckles got up on their feet, glancing at the jewel, then glaring at each other, with Knuckles taking a swing at Rouge. She dodged it, flying up and going for a dive kick, but Knuckles avoided it and went for another punch.

''You know, I had a lovely time playing with you,'' Rouge said, avoiding the punch and going for a kick in the gut, but Knuckles managed to catch her leg.

''I'm not pleased with any of your games,'' Knuckles responded, holding onto Rouge's leg and swinging her around before letting her go. Rouge flew back, but used her wings to stop herself, hovering on the rooftop.

She was about to attack Knuckles, when she and the echidna suddenly heard the sound of buzzing. They looked up, surprised to see a swarm of wasp or bee-like robots, which suddenly started to fire lasers from their stingers. Knuckles and Rouge dodged the laser blasts, being pushed back towards the edge of the rooftop. Rouge then flew up in an attempt to escape the barrage of laser blasts, only for one to hit her right in the right wing. She cried out in pain, finding herself plummeting towards the street below her. Rouge closed her eyes, aware that she couldn't fly herself up due to her injured wing and already accepted her fate, when she suddenly felt someone grabbing her. She forced her eyes open, stunned to see Knuckles carrying her bridal style and gliding towards the ground. She realized that she probably jumped after her when she got hit.

''Y-You saved me?'' Rouge stuttered in awe as they landed safely on the ground.

''You may be getting on my nerves, but I'm not going to let you die,'' Knuckles replied. Rouge stared at him, feeling her heart racing. ''Are you okay?''

''Uh, I am…'' Rouge replied, her mind fuzzy and her cheeks slightly red. She was stunned that Knuckles had saved her, despite the fact that he made it clear that he disliked her. ''You can let me down now.''

''Oh, right,'' Knuckles mumbled, letting go off Rouge. Both looked up at the wasp-like robots, which flew after them. Knuckles glanced at Rouge. ''How about a truce until we take care of those robots?''

''Gladly,'' Rouge replied, both turning towards their common enemy. She flapped with her injured wing, feeling a sting of pain, but she figured she could handle it.

Knuckles and Rouge charged towards the wasp-like robots, with Knuckles punching one that appeared behind Rouge and Rouge kicking down another one that aimed at Knuckles. Another robot appeared, firing at Rouge, but Knuckles managed to pull her away before the laser blast could hit her.

''Thanks for the save, Big Guy,'' Rouge complimented him.

''I must admit, you're a good fighter,'' Knuckles returned the compliment, with both looking up, seeing another bunch of wasp robots surrounding them. Both prepared to for the assault, only for the wasp robots to be stopped mid-air by cyan energy. A blue and a black and red ball smashed right through them, their rescuers revealing themselves to be Silver, Sonic and Shadow.

''Yo, Knux, are you okay?'' Sonic asked, standing in the middle of the smashed robots.

''Fortunately, I am,'' Knuckles replied, relieved to see his teammates. It didn't take long for the rest of them to arrive, with Tails and Warren immediately investigating the robots.

''Guys, these are Buzz Bombers, Eggman's Badniks,'' Warren told his friends.

''Why would Eggman send those out?'' Makoto asked.

''Probably to ruin our night,'' Sonic said, shrugging. ''It doesn't look like there are more of them.''

Knuckles turned to Rouge to see what she had to say, only to realize that she was gone. He looked around frantically, only to see her suddenly fly down and holding her bag, having gone to the rooftop to pick it up.

''It appears that our truce has come to an end,'' Rouge said, turning to Knuckles. She was startled when he suddenly held her hand, a faint blush tinting her cheeks as she looked at Knuckles in astonishment. However, the strange feeling of fuzziness came to an sudden end when the echidna threw her over his shoulder and slammed her right into the ground. Rouge felt her back ache, but it didn't stop her from jumping on her feet and yelling at Knuckles, her face red, ''What the hell was that for?!''

The echidna warrior was taken aback by her sudden outburst, a look of guilt forming on his expression, ''I-I thought we'd be continuing our fight.''

Rouge groaned, rubbing her temples, then reached for her bag and took out the jewel, tossing it at Knuckles. ''I hate to part with it, but I guess I need to repay you for saving my life. You can have it back.''

Knuckles was genuinely stunned to see the red jewel back in his hands, looking down at it, then back at Rouge. ''I'm sorry… for hurting you earlier.''

''Don't worry, Big Guy, it's fine. I've been through worse,'' Rouge replied, blowing a kiss at him and then flying away. ''Bye!''

Knuckles stared at her as she vanished into the night, still a little stunned, with Lily approaching him. ''Are you okay?''

''I'm fine,'' Knuckles replied, still trying to process what just had happened. He was glad to have managed to get back the jewel and be done with everything, but at the same time he felt as if his interactions with Rouge weren't over yet.

As for Rouge, she managed to find a good spot on a building, allowing for her injured wing to rest. She sighed, enjoying the cold breeze that cooled the burnt spot and gazed down at the streets. While she felt a bit bitter for returning the jewel to Knuckles, she realized that it didn't really matter. As a matter of fact, she had a lot of fun tonight and she was looking forward to interacting more with Knuckles and his friends.

''I guess I had finally found my match.''

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#Sonic Cyber Revolution (Masterlist)

[sonic7ischaos]

Sonic Unleashed would've been better as an inertia based, 3D physics platformer. In the day stages.

Not in an "I don't like the boost gameplay" kind of way, it's not my favorite but Unleashed and Gens are still good games, I mean for the sake of consistency of control. You teach the player in Windmill Isle how Sonic controls in this one, X to boost, A to jump, B to stomp/slide, LB/RB to side step, LT/RT to drift. Sonic controls like a tank you have to use these tools to guide him like a missile through reaction challenges in 3D, and platforming challenges in 2D. There's more to it, but that's the core right?

Ok, now forget literally all of that because the only thing we're keeping from any of it is that A is jump. Here's a God of War-esque combat system with...weirdly good 3D platforming sections and light, Adventure 1-esque puzzle solving?

Ok, now give Day Sonic the same level of 3D control as the Werehog and his basic mechanics from the Adventure games, polished up a little so scripted loops and corkscrews aren't necessary, then make the transition. NOW, it feels less like you're playing 2 separate games stapled together, and instead, you're playing 1 game which changes up its pacing with puzzle solving and combat mechanics. Aside from Unleashed level themes just seeming really fun to do Sonic style physics platforming in, it makes the whole package more cohesive, the night stages becoming an extension of the gameplay of the day stages, rather than something fundamentally different from the other half of the game.

Generations would benefit from a change like this too, though at least there, there's a conceptual reason to differentiate them mechanically, you want to really emphasize the difference between Modern and Classic Sonic, so one gets the Unleashed style boost mechanics, and one gets an admittedly VERY imperfect take on the 2D style physics gameplay. If the Modern stages were essentially 3D takes on the classic inertia gameplay, they'd get to JUST BE 3D, with none of the 2.5D stuff to allow Modern Sonic to do actual platforming challenges, which would mean Classic stages would have more meaning as the only parts of the game that play out in 2D.

Been watching gameplay from Sonic Dream Team, and it got me thinking about the good boost games (my feelings on Colors are complicated, but mostly middling to negative, and I would murder Forces with my bare hands if it were a person). Sort of killed most of my excitement for the gameplay of it, but on the bright side, the presentation elements all seem to be top notch and it still looks to be a solid take on the boost gameplay, sort of demonstrating even better than Frontiers did that THAT type of gameplay works a lot better when you give the player full 360 degrees of movement and good control over the camera.

It's just not a physics based Sonic game, so I care a lot less, and feel a lot less bad about not being able to play it without Apple stuff. Might pick it up anyway if it gets ported to Switch, to satiate my curiosity and get a more thorough understanding of it for discussion purposes.

[stealthwebs]

RULES/INFO BELOW

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Ty for reading through !! More rules will be applied the more the blog goes on. Information for this version of Sonic will be listed below!! It is not mandatory to read, but it is suggested if you want to get a better understanding of him!!

Alright, let's do this one last time. His name is Sonic the hedgehog, 18 years old, but his "undercover" name is Stealth. He was bitter by a radioactive spider, and..well, I'm sure you know the rest. He's been Stealth for 6 years, saves a couple people here and there, occasionally goes for a run, and all the usual stuff. His Uncle Chuck died long ago, but he's learning to get himself past it. Undercover or not, he's always down for a good adventure. He has incredible speed and strength, always looking for something to do in his free time.

His webs are completely organic, so he doesn't have to wear any web shooters for this. He also isn't involved in the Spider Society- Or, he was. But, he got extremely bored of it, so he left. He still has a watch he stole to help him travel and not die in any dimensions, so, he has no need to worry about it.

And for the last 6 years, he has been the one and only Stealth. And he still is! He thinks that's a good accomplishment for himself.

[blazehedgehog]

That was the first YouTube ad you've run, right? I assume you can't talk specific dollar amounts, but did it pay well? Is this a game changer for your future?

I've had a small handful of offers over the years. One I think I can talk a little about was I got contacted by Raid: Shadow Legends back when they were blanketing all of Youtube with sponsorships.

Since literally half of Youtube was doing ad reads for Raid and I was in a position where I didn't need what they were offering, I felt comfortable saying no. Their offer wasn't nothing, but it also wasn't, like, "this is so much money that I can't refuse."

I'm probably not even allowed to hint at how much they're paying me for this current sponsor deal, but I will say that circumstances are very different for me now and I'd like to get in to a position where I can live more comfortably. That's not to say I'm so desperate that I'll take anything I can get; I actually just had to turn down an indie developer looking to sponsor my next video, and I need recharge time after what a grind the Sonic Adventure 2 video felt like. But I am more open to the idea overall.

What I might be allowed to say is that most of the potential of a sponsorship like this comes from how many people actually click on my offer code and go through with the thing. I did (or will) get paid some amount up front, but the idea is to generate referrals.

And at the time of this writing it's too early to tell. It hasn't even been 48 hours as I write this, and analytics on this kind of stuff can be delayed quite a bit.

All I can hope for is that I did a good enough job.

Advertisers (and possibly the law) generally frown on you influencing too much on the ads you work on, so I probably shouldn't really comment on whether or not I think I did a good job, positive or negative. It was more that the video overall, as a whole, was very strenuous to work on, and I worked through many late nights, weekends, and holidays to get it done, even if that work was occasionally staring blankly at a computer screen and hyper-focusing on worry for 16 hours straight.

The last day and a half has been a lot of emotional highs (buzzing with excitement so badly I couldn't sleep last night) and heavy lows where I don't want anyone to talk to me.

In truth, I won't know the scale of how good or bad things are until probably closer to the end of the month, and then it'll probably be close to another month before I see any of these earnings.

I watched Nerdsync's video on "Whisper of the Heart" during production and I find myself reflecting on it a lot this last week. At the time I wondered if Scott was okay, because there's a lot of talk about the depression that can come with this work and the second guessing yourself and having to depend on others while you chase your dreams... This Sonic Adventure 2 video took a lot out of me in ways I don't think anyone was prepared for and I think I understand that video a bit better now.

Even if it's just a silly technical video that's 50% modding tutorial and isn't, like, this deeply emotional thing, it still felt that way during production, especially as I missed deadline after deadline and the weeks piled up. I feel like this thing took a piece of my soul, somehow. And hard work alone is no guarantee of success.

But I'm going to stop here. There's a lot of emotions I'm feeling about this that are screaming to get out and there might be other outlets for that I'll get around to eventually.

[sonicjustbecause]

Sonic 06 - (Og Shadow) The healthiest Shadow.

This guy, or at least, this guy in the older game series is so much fun to analyze. His (former)subtle personality doesn't make all the nuance visible at first glance, you have to pay attention when you watch the cutscenes.

06 Shadow is the most beloved by fan. I think there we see a more sane and mature Shadow, it gives satisfaction. He overcame many of his issues and is finally looking forward, not back.

Personally I place him in the whole pictures of 'Maekawa's Shadow'. His maturity there is also in line with the atmosphere of the game, that has a more serious tone compared to heroes or Adventure 2 (it was serious but it had space for comedy).

He is not healed. Still has traces of some old habits (coping mechanism) and is still surrounded by a veil of sadness but he is doing a lot better than before.

The coping mecanism that is still there is Shadow's poor eye contact (even Maekawa made fun of that fact, claiming Shadow looks at Rouge's clevage instead of at her eyes). For the rest, he seems more in control of his emotions. When he is emotionally stressed it shows but he has a obvious higher lever of tolerance, he is quick to regain his composure.

The most noticeable improvement is in his social skills. In older game, he socializes in a passive way, never making the first move and looking tense around people. He used to let people approach him, observe them, test them and if he liked them, he may have follow them, becoming their friends, opening up if they proved to be sincere (Sonic, Amy).

In Sonic06 Shadow himself approach people, talks to them, looks more comfortable around them. He is overall steady and confident. He made Silver join the good side. He feels more an active part of the Sonic crew rather than the passive guy who only talks with those he already know. Even his personal space is smaller.

he needs moments of silence and solitude but that's due to a personality trait and there is nothing to worry about or to fix.

[nightlight-firelight]

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait! Art block (Or writing block?) is the worst and I’ve been busy. I’m also trying to make this a gender neutral story and I’m not too experienced on this so hopefully I’m doing ok so far! Now with that out of the way, on to chapter 2!

“Falling (in love) So Fast That I Can’t Even Think!”

Chapter 2

You take a second to realize that he was holding you a bit tight around the waist, and the silence of the tension began to build every second that neither of you moved.

“Hi?” You ask him. You mentally smacked yourself in the head for that comment. At this point of view, you can see that the, now real and very handsome doctor, eyes were a shade of blue that could take your breath away and-

“Oh, um,” Eggman studdered out a bit softer and less confident the what you have seen him in the show. “Hi.” He finally decided to look around at his predicament and examined your room.

“Where am I?” Eggman finally pulled you back onto the bed, creaking slightly from the unexpected new weight. Your mind finally snaps back into reality as the warmth from his hands fades from your hips, already missing the connection he had. You need to relax, and not freak out the poor man sitting on your bed.

“You’re in my room.” You finally managed to push the words out of your lips. His face turns to confusion and worries at all of the merchandise of not just his universe, but the main Sonic series as well. His mind mostly likely wandered into a ‘crazy fan’ mode and tried to back up. You perk up and lean back slightly, making sure to not fall off the bed this time, but also give him some space to relax. Ivo’s movements began to quicken as he still backs up, almost falling off the other side of the bed. He catches himself and looks at you with a face of slight panic and worry.

“What’s all this? Who are you and what-” You cut him off with a hand slightly raised, signaling to calm down and to relax. “Breath, please. I won’t hurt you.” You promised him as you instruct him through a breathing exercise. After a small bit of confusion between the two of you, you lead the poor man into your living room, hesitantly on his part, and led him down on your couch. Just walking into your kitchen to grab two white ceramic mugs, you hear him clear his throat.

“So, what’s going on?” You can feel his gaze on you as the first mug is filled with hot liquid, the steam coming from the filling mug as your brain thinks of what you should do. You switch mugs, taking out his mug for yours. You take a breath.

You’re in my house, and not in your multiverse.” Finally giving him some type of answer as his, at this point, huge bear paw-like hands, envelope the mug and took a small sip. You went to grab your mug as he commented on the choice of beverage you had given him.

“Hot Cocoa?” The question you as you at on the opposite side of the couch, holding what you liked to think, that at this moment was your liquid courage. You take a small sip and taste the liquid pooling into your body. You almost blush as you remembered the ‘CowBot’ episode where Eggman offered Sonic and Tails hot coco and messed with them, waiting for his machine to arrive.

“I thought you might like it.” You confess as he stairs back into his cup, pondering on his whole situation. He takes a breath and looks at you.

“Can you explain to me how I may have gotten here?” All you could do is nod as you start the long trek into the explanation of who is and on all of your knowledge on how he may have gotten here.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The next few hours were, as you expected, emotional. You had to start with who you were, where he was, and leading him into the conversation that may or may not have caused way too much emotion for the both of you.

“So the main series follows Sonic and his friends, but mostly Sonic, throughout his adventures fighting his version of the doctor. There in the form of games.” He takes a sec and has a look that tells you to keep going. You explain all the story of how the franchise came to be from the nineties till the game you were kinda worried about. Sonic Adventure 2. You tell him the basic plot points and slowly explain how the Main Univers Doc’s Grandfather died along with his grandchild, Maira. He winces when you explain this and see that he’s shaking whenever the two popped up. When you explained that Shadow was made by his Grandfather, his mood perked up and he getting giddy and you have to admit, his cute squeal of figuring out that somewhere he could be related to one of the most powerful people on his island. You smile and after his cute reaction, keeps the conversation going with more information about the franchise. By the time you had reached the current point of the history of the franchise, the man had a lot of questions.

“So let me get this straight,” Eggman’s posture was lax as he was leaned back into the couch, making himself more at home for the time being. “You’re telling me that the main version of me has released a water monster god, a prototype of Shadow, that is a giant lizard, a god within the earth that’s made of darkness, and tried to play with time and space like it was a toy?” He questioned as he took another sip of his now lukewarm cup of cocoa, stroking his mustache pensively, looking at you for a reasonable answer on why he would do so. “Well the BioLizard thing wasn’t truly his fault, but the rest were planed. And I’m saying ‘planned’ with quotes because I don’t think for a second that he thought a few of those through.” You chuckle at the main Doc’s decisions. While you did think his plans were really good, sometimes you think he may have never really thought things through before going to start his plans. Doc downs the rest of his drink as you realized that your cup is still half full. He sets it on the counter in front of the two of you and leans back into your couch. You smile at the thought that he’s finally warming up to you. In all reality, he could take you down with a swing of his fist and run anytime, but having him trust you this much to serve him a drink and have a nice conversation did bring up some fuzzy feelings you have been trying to push down withing the last few hours.

“So I’m still confused, how did I get here?” Doc asks as he cracks his spin a bit to relax better. You take another sip of your dink and set your cup down. You look him in the eye with a bit of confusion. “I’m not sure. I just watch the DVD and you were the one to start seeing me, after the ending of your battle with Sonic and Tails, that white light appeared and you grabbed me before I fell off my bed.” You look towards him and blush a bit, your face now warm from the memory of the save. “Thank you for catching me, I don’t think a concussion would have helped the situation now, would it?” You try and make the small joke appealing to make it less awkward. He blushes and nods, a small ‘no problem’ slips from his lips as you can see he’s trying to not make eye contact and his cheeks, just slightly visible under his mustache, a small bit of warmth wraps around his cheeks. Your brain gets hit with a moment of clarity and you jump up from the couch and take a second to grab your DVD player from your room, bringing it back to him to study. “I’m not sure if this would help you get back home,” You start, “ But it’s a start.” You also hand him the note that came with the box along with the Sonic figure. He takes the figure first and rolls it over a bit, looking at the detail.

“So this figure and the note came along in the box with the DVDs?” He asked as he set the figure down as he grabbed the note. You blush and remember that wasn’t the only thing in the box. You almost had forgotten the figure of the living breathing man in front of you. You ask him to give you a second and hurry back to your room. Searching the room, you almost give up on finding the figure, until you spot it halfway under the bed. You bend over and grab the figure and examine it. It’s still the same figure, but less detailed now. It actually looks like how one of the box set figures is. Cheaply made and having a missing paint splotch here and there. It still was a good-looking figure though, just not as best made. You start your very slow pace back to the living room, taking a small bit of time to think about something. The Sonic figure was still the same as it was before the doctor arrived, why did the doctor change-. You stop mid-way in your hallway to finally piece a big puzzle together. The figure of the doctor was some type of catalyst for his arrival. Like a gateway to get here. ‘And now that the figure is back to normal, does that mean that the Sonic one-’ You didn’t finish that thought as you hurry back to the living room, the doctor just putting the not back onto the counter. He looks up as grabs the DVD player and sets it onto his lap. He smiles as you enter the room.

“ Hey, you ok?” He asks you as you sit back down next to him, gently grab the Sonic figure, cradling it with some care.

“I’m ok,” You answer with some melancholy in your voice. “It’s just that I’ve been thinking of something that just came to me.” You look over to him, Doc staring back, patiently waiting for you to continue. You take a breath and look him in the eyes. “The box set also came with a figure of you as well.” You explain as you gave him the small toy, his face going into a slight pout over the quality as he looks it over.

“I’m much more handsome than this.” He sulks over the craftsmanship of his figure compared to the one in your hand. You pat him on the back with your free hand, feeling him tense for a sec and then relax. You giggle at the line, remembering it from the 30th-anniversary comic. Your mood lightening up a bit at his reaction. “It was actually just as well made before you appeared in my room.” You explained as you rub your thumber gingerly over Sonic’s quills. Your mood dampens a bit. “I’m really thinking that the figure was the way-”

And a giant flash of white engulfed both of your eyesight. You scream as you feel a sense of weightlessness as you clutch the figure closer to you. Opening your eyes after that flashbang of light, as see that you’re in. You blink and take a look around. You try and gain a scene of where you were as you feel like you were falling down. You see Eggman trying his best not to scream as he is also in the same predicament as you. You look at this ‘tube’ as you decided to call it and take a look a the warping walls. They move with colors that remind you of the goop In Super Mario Sunshine. The colors of yellow, magenta, and white mixing together and making the whole experience feel like a trippy dip around a pipe. The tube had some slight aura to it as it was some type of fuzzy feeling in the back of your spine, not good but not unpleasant either. You look down past your now slightly screaming partner in crime to see a large warp ring that looked something right of the Sonic movie, looking to land right over some type of woods. You realized from the rate your accelerating from and the height from the ring to the ground would lead to more than a few broken bones.

Holding your breath and snaping your eyes closed as you wait for the pain to hit, the now cool air of the new land you arrived on pools into your skin as you want to feel at least a bit of joy knowing that right at the end, you feel cool. You never did feel the ground but instead a pair of arms holding you and the sensation of rocketing back up. Opening your eyes, you see Doc holding you again, having been lifted from the ground by two sleek black jetpack type of wings protruding from the back of his jacket. He looks down at you with a smirk and chuckles a bit.

“We have got to stop doing this.” He’s sarcastic, and the potential way of flirting, way of teasing sends you a bit more than tomato red in the face as you wonder if it’s the altitude of the comment that making it hard to think right at the moment. You almost didn’t hear him as he starts to talk.

“It looks like we’re flying over Seaside Island Jungle.” He starts to explain. “I’m going to fly us back to my lair and we can figure out from there what’s going on.” You look over his shoulder for a brief second to see the portal closing and finally dusting away with a puff of gold sparks. Looking back and see a breathtaking view, seeing the full grand scale of the island from up in the clouds. You can even start making out at sever locations from both seasons. You only think of what’s going to happen next when you see golden sparks emulate from your closed hands and feel a heavyweight in your arms and Doc quickly getting down to the ground, getting to be just at the end of ‘Nameless village’ as your reflexes grab on tightly to what you were holding onto. You both look down and see a very unconscious Sonic the Hedgehog in our arms. You look him over and inspect the teenager and see that he’s breathing, and in an ok shape. You look back at Doc and even he’s surprised by this addition to the group.

“Is he ok?”You question him as he gives Sonic a once over. You getting used to finally landing on the ground, stretching your legs after that small adventure.

‘He’ll be fine after some rest, but he looks exhausted.” Eggman questions as you scoop Sonic back up into your arms, being careful of his quills, making sure you don’t end up looking like a human banana peel. You look over at Doc and he looks like he’s, and you have to look a bit more closely at his expression because he looks, jealous? You ponder on that thought that the man might be jealous of the unconscious blue blur as the both of you set off into town, wondering where to go from here.

“Hey!” You hear a cry from in front of the, three? of you. You look up and see four multi-colored anthropomorphic animals. “What did the two of you do to Sonic?” Cried the two-tailed Kitsune. You see all three, with the exception of Amy, who at this point is trying to stop the trio, of Sonic’s friends close in around you. You give a panicked look to Doc as it dawned on you that Doc and yourself were about to be attacked by Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks.

Shit.

[kevinwastaken]

sonic movie 2 spoilers under the cut i have A LOT to say holy shit

HOLY SHIT THIS MOVIE IS BETTER THAN THE FIRST I LOVED IT

theres so much i want to say but i have NO IDEA how to start or how to end

first and foremost they did knuckles SO MUCH JUSTICE sega wishes they could write as well as whoever the hell made this script. hes no longer the comic relief dumbass, hes a warrior!! like he used to be!! and he has dignity and honour!! and hes a little gullible but its okay, thats how he originally was anyway x

AND TAILS!! his camaraderie with sonic was so great. i loved how he came all the way to help him from whatever planet hes from and how they just bonded so well immediately and theyre already like brothers I LOVE IT

particularly i liked the scene on the beach where sonic and knuckles stopped and breathed for a sec after having lost the master emerald to robotnik and bonded over what happened to them both the day longclaw died. i liked how they related it back as knuckles’s family was fighting against her and UGH it was so sad but it was so great

AND THE REFS! they never cease to amaze me. i counted a dr robotniks mean bean machine ref (which is funny because ive been thinking about booting up my ps2 again to play it, i want to get good at puyo puyo), a sonic adventure reference during the dance off in siberia, AND ALL THE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES REFS!! jesus christ. theres probably more, but theyre slipping my mind

post sleep edit, remembered the manuel in the death egg looking like a manuel for a sega genesis game, that got a chuckle out of me iirc LOL

also kinda feel bad for rachel and what happened in her wedding. poor girl got set up and for what😭 a sting operation? its positively TRAGIC

ALSO THE WAY THEY ALL CAME TOGETHER AT THE END LIKE IT WAS SONIC HEROES I LOVED THAT!!!! I CAN TELL THEYRE GOING TO BE BESTIES JUST BY THE END SCENE WHERE THEYRE PLAYING BASEBALL I LOVE IT I LOVE IT

AND HOLY SHIT MY JAW DROPPED THE MOMENT I KNEW SUPER SONIC WAS GONNA SHOW UP OH MY GOD i shouldve seen it coming with the inclusion of the master emerald and the chaos emeralds and everything BUT OH MY GOD???? HE WAS SO STUNNING!!!! HE LOOKED ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS IN THE MOVIE I WAS IN AWE

AND THE ENDDDD OH MY GOD THE POST CREDITS SCENE WITH SHADOW!!!! I HAD A FEELING HE WAS GOING TO SHOW UP BUT I SCREAMED WHEN THEY SHOWED HIM I CANT WAIT FOR THE THIRD MOVIE!!!!! I BET THERES GONNA BE THIS WHOLE THING WITH GERALD ROBOTNIK, MARIA, THE INCIDENT WITH GUN STORMING THE SPACE COLONY ARK, I CANT WAIT!!!!!!

i did have a few gripes though. theyre a bit miniscule though

first of all, fuck whoever decided robotnik should floss. fuck you for that

second, did not enjoy how small the emeralds were. i know its probably so they can make sense in a human filled world but the emeralds were literally the size of my finger. and the master emerald was the size of ONE in game chaos emerald

also was a bit weirded out by agent stone drawing robotnik in his lattes but ummm hes gay so its fine idk the fujoshis will have a field day with that

alsooo kind of sad there wasnt anything with crazy carl drawing tails gets trolled or uganda knuckles. that wouldve been funny i think

ANYWAY GO WATCH THE MOVIE GO WATCH IT NOW IM GONNA PISS MYSELF I LOVED IT

ps whoever runs this show please bring in crush 40 to write the ending song of the next movie im tired of this kid cudi guy

[adventseven]

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Film Review

           Sonic has raced back to the silver screen in a sequel that takes everything that was great about the original and charges it up. As he faces threats both new and old, Sonic makes new friends and learns what it takes to be a real hero.

           Sonic The Hedgehog 2 stars Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic. The film also features Sonic veteran Colleen O’Shaunessey as the voice of Tails and Idris Elba as the voice of Knuckles. James Mardsen and Tika Sumpter also return as Tom and Maddie Wachowski.

I found this movie to be more than generally acceptable. I think they did a good job of expanding on the first film. The writers added two more classic characters and more plot elements from the lore of Sonic. Sonic really got his time to shine in this one. Getting to see him adventure with Tails and battle with Knuckles not just physically but also  ideologically was very fun. He’s one of the most purely good characters in cinema right now, and it’s nice to see a hero who is willing to save the day no matter what.

           Tails and Knuckles were both great in the film. Knuckles was the fun and reliable sidekick he’s always been. He was integral to the plot and one of the brightest parts of the film. He looked cool using his powers and he also got to ride a plane, which was a nice touch. Knuckles proved to be a worthy foil to Sonic. His character arc through the film was good, better than I expected. I’d compare him to Drax from the GoTG films, except with his feelings of revenge focused towards Sonic and instead of Dr. Robotnik.

           The additions of these characters, as well as the introduction of the Chaos and Master Emeralds, are all great ways the filmmakers have expanded the sequel with the help of the lore of Sonic. It made the film feel bigger, and gave it the feel of an adventure film as well as a superhero film. It also made Knuckle's connection to Sonic more personal, and more tragic. Also this film has a mid credits scene that introduces another classic Sonic character that I know will be really cool.

           The other human characters have less screen time this time around but they were still crucial to the plot. The Wackowskis and Wade all helped Sonic and Tails save the day. I actually enjoyed Maddie’s sister in this one more than the last one, especially when she helped Maddie save Tales from a new secret government task force led by “Olive Garden Guy” from the first movie. Also how Shemar Moore looks absolutely chiseled at 51 is beyond me. I need to get me one of those Hollywood personal trainers.

           This. Film. Looks. Amazing. The animation quality is some of the best I’ve ever seen, especially in a video game adaptation. Sonic and friends were able to keep their iconic looks from the games while mostly looking like they could exist in our world. The hair animation is flawless, the texture and follicles were impeccable. There’s a moment where Sonic washes up onto a beach and the sand realistically gets stuck in his hair. Props to the CG department because they really went all out on this movie. It just shows that everybody working on this film really cares about the final product.

           I knew I had to end my analysis of the film with a bang, and what better a bang than talking about the human-cartoon acting god that is Jim Carrey. I enjoyed every second that Jim Carrey was on the screen. He was goofy, quirky, and absolutely unhinged. It was as if he fully channeled his Riddler energy into his performance this time around, because he was on a whole new level of bonkers in Sonic 2. It’s like his Riddler walked so his Dr. Robotnik could run. If this is the last time we see Carrey on the silver screen, then he gave us a really god damn fun one.

           In closing I highly recommend you watch this delight in a theater. Get yourself a big ol bucket of popcorn, with extra butter of course, and just let yourself feel joy again. Sonic exists to bring joy to children and the parents that introduce Sonic to them. To bring joy to the older siblings who want to show their younger siblings the fun hero and all his friends. Sonic exists to bring people together. Paramount, keep everyone on board, they are making the most solid video game movies to date. And one last thing, do you have the number of Shemar Moore’s personal trainer? I wanna have nice muscles like him. Please Paramount, help a guy out!

SCORE: 8.1/10

By Julian Hayden

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