Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I generally don't read Sonic fics.
Sonic Fic Ideas, Discussion, and Rec Thread
- Thread starter AwarenessBringer
- Start date
- Discussion
Then why are you posting in the SonicFics thread?
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
[redacted for insensitivity]
EDIT: and I actually like that fic I mentioned enough to recommend it. Ain't that enough?
Last edited:
FortePlus
The THRILL from Green Hill
- Location
- Toronto
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Same fam.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I can imagine that finding a good Sonic fanfiction is hard to find, especially if you have more of an interest in anime-based stories than video game ones, but I appreciate that you are all willing to give this thread a chance.
An interesting enough Sonic Mass Crossover
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I noticed Time Trials this week which is a mass Sonic crossover that looks interesting. My favorite chapter as of now is probably
in it.
16 where Big the Cat meets Johnny Lightfoot and Sticks the Badger followed by some genuine kindness and humor
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Some ideas for fanfiction can be made possible by thinking of a good divergence for even one certain scenario, like Eggman making a real, if uneasy, alliance with Naugus (of SATAM origin and Archie fame) in a similar vein to the Shredder's partnership with Krang from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. With Eggman supplying the scientific side of evil and Naugus the magical half, they would each fill in for the other's limitations and force their enemies to acquire magical skills as well as scientific ones. I can imagine that their organization would be called the Egg-Ixis Empire with Naugus branding himself the title of "Ixis Prima" to go with Ivo Robotnik's Eggman nom de plume. In addition, Eggman would try to keep an eye on Naugus' activities by having his nephew, Snively, spy on Naugus' supporter, Regina Ferrum, as her second in command before both co-dictators are left bamboozled that the two soon enough fell in love with each other.
That idea bears exploring for the future.
That idea bears exploring for the future.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I've also been thinking about giving Sonic a different Team Sonic such as him adventuring with Mighty and Ray in one route and doing mercenary work alongside Bean and Bark in another, so I think it's interesting to think about as well.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Considering the variations of Tails throughout Sonic media from the one we know in the games to the younger orphan who studied under Professor Von Schlemmer in the original cartoon and the slightly older kid who was born on the day Mobotropolis first became Robotropolis in the old Archie continuity and grew up close to Sally Acorn, I just had a thought that an interesting way to combine these various counterparts in a story would be to use the Cable method from Marvel comics (have an infant Tails sent to the future where Von Schlemmer exists according to the rebooted Archie where he'll grow up to be a scientific genius and skilled fighter to help out Sonic and company in the present day).
Don't have much of an idea for when Tails will be born before then or how the STC Nameless Zone and his Archie family would factor in much, but it sounded good at the time.
Don't have much of an idea for when Tails will be born before then or how the STC Nameless Zone and his Archie family would factor in much, but it sounded good at the time.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Took sometime, but I was able to work on some Sonic-related stuff:
Echoic: One-shot. Sonic finds Echo the Dolphin of Meropis washed up on a beach.
To Be Finicky About Something: One-shot. Sonic and his mercenary team do a meet and greet in the Casino Night Zone.
Echoic: One-shot. Sonic finds Echo the Dolphin of Meropis washed up on a beach.
To Be Finicky About Something: One-shot. Sonic and his mercenary team do a meet and greet in the Casino Night Zone.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I was doing some exploring on DeviantArt the other day when I saw a depiction of some characters from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog like the reporter Collie Chang and country singer Catty Carlisle living at/coming from Westopolis and the Southern Baronies respectively which I figured was insightful enough to consider for a composite of Sonic universes, even though it all probably depends on the character's individual role and accent, but that's something to figure out later as I go along.
In addition, I know that the aforementioned cartoon featured the Chaos Emeralds differently from most sources (instead of there being seven of unlimited power, there were four granting individual powers of invisibility, invisibility, immortality, and control over life itself), but I wonder if three more were added, what powers would they have, like elemental control, death, and maybe something else.
In addition, I know that the aforementioned cartoon featured the Chaos Emeralds differently from most sources (instead of there being seven of unlimited power, there were four granting individual powers of invisibility, invisibility, immortality, and control over life itself), but I wonder if three more were added, what powers would they have, like elemental control, death, and maybe something else.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Read the Rouge/Shadow role swap story, Hold On To What If, and while I can imagine that it might be interesting in it's own way, the author's shipping history leaves an uncertain feeling in me.
Anyway, I have a new story to recommend on here: Masked Natures. The name was my idea, and it's written by another Sonic fan.
Anyway, I have a new story to recommend on here: Masked Natures. The name was my idea, and it's written by another Sonic fan.
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I know that on FanfictionNet and Archive of Our Own at least, The Knothole Resistance has adapted the Archie Freedom Fighters in a Forces/IDW kind of way, and I actually can feel some inspiration in the AUs of Sally Acorn dying at the end of Operation Endgame and Sonic leaving at the results of what happened, but I want to give IDW a chance to see if they may actually give the Pre-SGW and Post-SGW Archie worlds proper conclusions before I do anything on my own. Nonetheless, I do like how KitareHamakura on DeviantArt has been making interesting, if somewhat radical, redesigns of the Knothole Freedom Fighters in IDW fashion, and I am curious if IDW will officially make spiritual successors of Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Nicole, Rotor, and Antione eventually like they did with Starline and the preceding albino Echidna villains from Archie and STC.
- Pronouns
- Female
A crossover idea that reworks a bunch of characters into the Sonic world.
Return of the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad (Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega-Crossover)
Dr. Eggman reinstates the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad (mostly so that Scratch and Grounder will stop bugging him). However, learning from his errors, he not only gives Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts upgrades, he also adds Snively and some new recruits of the Eggman Empire to the roster. Shenanigans ensue.
Said new recruits:
Spinel (Steven Universe), a rather experimental Gem based creation of Eggman designed to lure people into a false sense of security with friendship and goofiness. However, she is genuinely goofy and has a bit of an issue with clinginess. Considers Her "older brothers" Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts super cool.
KVN (Final Space), a really, really, REALLY annoying robot who tries to be helpful, but is really only useful for games. Is a bit of a troll.
Ripper Roo (Crash Bandicoot), an insane Dog-Kangaroo hybrid sent to Eggman as a gift from an old college friend. Serves as demolition expert.
Hol Horse (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure), a Cowardly mercenary. Serves as a marksman.
-
Thoughts?
Return of the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad (Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega-Crossover)
Dr. Eggman reinstates the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad (mostly so that Scratch and Grounder will stop bugging him). However, learning from his errors, he not only gives Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts upgrades, he also adds Snively and some new recruits of the Eggman Empire to the roster. Shenanigans ensue.
Said new recruits:
Spinel (Steven Universe), a rather experimental Gem based creation of Eggman designed to lure people into a false sense of security with friendship and goofiness. However, she is genuinely goofy and has a bit of an issue with clinginess. Considers Her "older brothers" Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts super cool.
KVN (Final Space), a really, really, REALLY annoying robot who tries to be helpful, but is really only useful for games. Is a bit of a troll.
Ripper Roo (Crash Bandicoot), an insane Dog-Kangaroo hybrid sent to Eggman as a gift from an old college friend. Serves as demolition expert.
Hol Horse (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure), a Cowardly mercenary. Serves as a marksman.
-
Thoughts?
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I can't say I really any of these new recruits at the moment, but I can imagine that the appearance of Steven Universe, Crash Bandicoot, and the rest should probably be guaranteed so that the story can feel more like a crossover.
Still, if you have an idea for it, you can do what you want to do.
Anyway, I'd like to share some Sonic one-shots taking place in either Sonic the Comic, or the right setting for him to meet Archie's Madonna Garnet, if that's okay.
This looks like a legit sonic boss. And speaking of Sonic.
When the war of independence failed the ideas of independence from Britannia on and before the final battle the followers of Mobius would escape east and north. The ones that fled East would form the Kingdom of Mobius and ones that fled North would form the Acorn Kingdom. From there the three Nations would remain in a cold war until dictator Robotnik arise to conquer the two rebel kingdoms.
This fact would be normally irrelevant to Leolouch if were not the fact the City he lived in was under attacked. Dragging his unconscious friend Rivalz into tunnel. Near helpless, Leolouch could do nothing as the Knightmare frames and Badniks fight each other.
"I know you can't hear me Rivelz but I've been through this before. We will survive, I have to survive, for Nunnally's sake."
Suddenly, one of the machines turned to see the pair hidden in the tunnels. It turn to capture them until a blue blur suddenly slashes through it.
"Wha!?" A flabbergasted Leolouch exclaimed.
The blur lands next to duo allowing Leolouch to get a full look at his savior. It was a lanky blue hedgehog wearing a armored glove in his dominant hand with a sword with golden hilt in it. He was wearing a familiar pendent.
"Hey you alright you and your friend doing alright?" The Hedgehog spoke not recognizing his old friend.
"Olgilvie you don't recognize me?"
The mention of that name provoked very strong reaction.
"Listen! I don't know who you are but my isn't Olgilvie!!" A Knightmare frame breaks open the groups hiding place. It immediately sets it eyes on the Hedgehog.
"It's Sonic the Hedgehog!!" He yelled leaping to action.
Sonic Underground/SatAM x Code Geass.
When the war of independence failed the ideas of independence from Britannia on and before the final battle the followers of Mobius would escape east and north. The ones that fled East would form the Kingdom of Mobius and ones that fled North would form the Acorn Kingdom. From there the three Nations would remain in a cold war until dictator Robotnik arise to conquer the two rebel kingdoms.
This fact would be normally irrelevant to Leolouch if were not the fact the City he lived in was under attacked. Dragging his unconscious friend Rivalz into tunnel. Near helpless, Leolouch could do nothing as the Knightmare frames and Badniks fight each other.
"I know you can't hear me Rivelz but I've been through this before. We will survive, I have to survive, for Nunnally's sake."
Suddenly, one of the machines turned to see the pair hidden in the tunnels. It turn to capture them until a blue blur suddenly slashes through it.
"Wha!?" A flabbergasted Leolouch exclaimed.
The blur lands next to duo allowing Leolouch to get a full look at his savior. It was a lanky blue hedgehog wearing a armored glove in his dominant hand with a sword with golden hilt in it. He was wearing a familiar pendent.
"Hey you alright you and your friend doing alright?" The Hedgehog spoke not recognizing his old friend.
"Olgilvie you don't recognize me?"
The mention of that name provoked very strong reaction.
"Listen! I don't know who you are but my isn't Olgilvie!!" A Knightmare frame breaks open the groups hiding place. It immediately sets it eyes on the Hedgehog.
"It's Sonic the Hedgehog!!" He yelled leaping to action.
Sonic Underground/SatAM x Code Geass.
Ruby Haze (Archie Sonic Self-insert)
- Location
- United States
Since there aren't many fanfic recommendations on this thread yet, I think I'll add one that hasn't gotten enough love.
Its a self-insert fic called Ruby Haze. It follows the author's self-insert, John, as he literally crashes into the early days of Archie Sonic with the Phantom Ruby fused into its body. The thing sets it apart from most other fics, is that instead of taking place on the front lines, John crashlands in Mercia and joins the freedom fighters their. So far almost none of the "main" characters have made an actual appearance in the story yet and the author has stated focus on worldbuilding. Its on this forum and Spacebattles and has a TvTropes page.
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
forums.spacebattles.com
Its a self-insert fic called Ruby Haze. It follows the author's self-insert, John, as he literally crashes into the early days of Archie Sonic with the Phantom Ruby fused into its body. The thing sets it apart from most other fics, is that instead of taking place on the front lines, John crashlands in Mercia and joins the freedom fighters their. So far almost none of the "main" characters have made an actual appearance in the story yet and the author has stated focus on worldbuilding. Its on this forum and Spacebattles and has a TvTropes page.
Ruby Haze [Archie Sonic SI] Sci-Fi - Fantasy - Action
Ruby Haze is an experimental self-insert fic in which I take a schmuck (loosely based on myself) and put him through the gauntlet, Sonic the Hedgehog style! Our protagonist, the oddball everyman, is an outsider locked in and forced to face a new reality. He isn't powerless, instead finding...
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Ruby Haze [Archie Sonic SI]
Ruby Haze is an experimental self-insert fic in which I take a schmuck (loosely based on myself) and put him through the gauntlet, Sonic the Hedgehog style! Our protagonist, the oddball everyman, is an outsider locked in and forced to face a new reality. He isn't powerless, instead finding...
forums.spacebattles.com
The Critters (Sonic/The Boys crossover)
Personally I prefer something like this. The Critters (Sonic the Hedgehog/The Boys Crossover Round Robin)
Various stories
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I apologize for not being on here for a while. I tend to bounce and forth every now and then, you see. Even more shocking, I recently scrapped my stories on FanFictionNet for the sake of posting and following on Archive of Our Own. The other website just became more unreliable overtime.
Still, I think I will do what I can to share some Sonic stories on here again, starting with those below.
"Sonic X: Gotta Go Fast again is a thrilling continuation of the beloved anime, promising action-packed escapades and heartwarming moments as our heroes embark on their next chapter."
An Atomizing Appearance: "As a result of coincidentally shared circumstances, Sonic the Hedgehog of the Knothole Freedom Fighters meets Kommissar Lien-Da of the Dark Legion during a mission in Robotropolis. Will the female echidna change her path, or will she convince Sonic to do whatever it takes to achieve victory? That is a question only Lien-Da herself can answer."
Fresh Bounty Hunters: "After being accused by his own friends of treason in the war against Doctor Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog soon decides to leave the Knothole Freedom Fighters and joins up with Nicolette the Weasel and her gang of mercs."
The Acceptance of Being a Rabbot: "Sudden circumstances upon Bunnie Rabbot becoming a Knothole Freedom Fighter results in more changes than one."
A depiction of Metal Sonic as the protagonist in a Sonic X that borrows from other continuities.
Power of the Stars: "After Eggman opens up a portal using the Master Emerald, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles find themselves in a new world. It's up to them to stop the evil doctor's plans and return home, all with the help of some new friends— plumbers, princesses, and star-people alike. Even with new places and powers to discover, their two worlds might not be as different as they think."
A crossover with Mass Effect.
A crossover between SATAM and Classic Sonic.
A mass Sonic crossover.
The Handheld Assistant: "As the Robotnik War carries on, a computer of unknown origin leaves a profound effect on the Knothole Freedom Fighters, including Sonic."
Quick Draw Style: "When the Diamond Cutters were betrayed by one of their own and left for dead, only one survived, and he will make his stand against the Eggman Empire and anyone else not by whispering, but by slinging."
Crisis of Existence: "When the Eggman Empire of Planet Mobius, forged and led by a mysterious lifeform who has looked above his conquered victims for a decade and more, attempts to tap into unlimited power, a collision of dimensions is started that, if not stopped, must be balanced, or else all is lost."
After the End: "Sonic the Comic continuation. Upon the defeat of Chaos and Super Sonic remerging with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters do what they can to move forward."
I only hope I can get back into regular updating the Sonic stories I myself have written. Some of them have been waiting for years.
Still, I think I will do what I can to share some Sonic stories on here again, starting with those below.
"Sonic X: Gotta Go Fast again is a thrilling continuation of the beloved anime, promising action-packed escapades and heartwarming moments as our heroes embark on their next chapter."
An Atomizing Appearance: "As a result of coincidentally shared circumstances, Sonic the Hedgehog of the Knothole Freedom Fighters meets Kommissar Lien-Da of the Dark Legion during a mission in Robotropolis. Will the female echidna change her path, or will she convince Sonic to do whatever it takes to achieve victory? That is a question only Lien-Da herself can answer."
Fresh Bounty Hunters: "After being accused by his own friends of treason in the war against Doctor Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog soon decides to leave the Knothole Freedom Fighters and joins up with Nicolette the Weasel and her gang of mercs."
The Acceptance of Being a Rabbot: "Sudden circumstances upon Bunnie Rabbot becoming a Knothole Freedom Fighter results in more changes than one."
A depiction of Metal Sonic as the protagonist in a Sonic X that borrows from other continuities.
Power of the Stars: "After Eggman opens up a portal using the Master Emerald, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles find themselves in a new world. It's up to them to stop the evil doctor's plans and return home, all with the help of some new friends— plumbers, princesses, and star-people alike. Even with new places and powers to discover, their two worlds might not be as different as they think."
A crossover with Mass Effect.
A crossover between SATAM and Classic Sonic.
A mass Sonic crossover.
The Handheld Assistant: "As the Robotnik War carries on, a computer of unknown origin leaves a profound effect on the Knothole Freedom Fighters, including Sonic."
Quick Draw Style: "When the Diamond Cutters were betrayed by one of their own and left for dead, only one survived, and he will make his stand against the Eggman Empire and anyone else not by whispering, but by slinging."
Crisis of Existence: "When the Eggman Empire of Planet Mobius, forged and led by a mysterious lifeform who has looked above his conquered victims for a decade and more, attempts to tap into unlimited power, a collision of dimensions is started that, if not stopped, must be balanced, or else all is lost."
After the End: "Sonic the Comic continuation. Upon the defeat of Chaos and Super Sonic remerging with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters do what they can to move forward."
I only hope I can get back into regular updating the Sonic stories I myself have written. Some of them have been waiting for years.
- Location
- Argentina
A Young Squirrel Woman Career As A Supervillain Secretary (Sonic IDW/Youjo Senki Massive AU)
Summary: One of the most stupid ideas you could ever think of to become famous is to try to attempt to be a Hero, because you are very likely to get killed. And even if you do not get killed, there is a reason people who gets superpowers tends to become criminals and that reason is because it is way easier to make money that way. Famous sponsored Heroes make a lot of money thanks to their fame allowing them to sell out for money but most Heroes barely make ends meet. Heck the most famous Hero in the world? Sonic The Hedgehog? He is basically a Hobo, no clue how he keeps getting new shoes? Doing odd jobs using his super speed or something? Charity perhaps?
That being said, I legally don't exist in this universe so... I became a supervillain.
Well not quite, I became a supervillain's... Secretary.
Chapter 01: Rise up Sunshine!
While Tanya had liked heroes as a young boy back in her first life, that has been largely because those heroes were fictional, because it wasn't real.
On her second life, finding herself forced to be a magical soldier on alternate Great War? She stopped believing in Heroes.
Then apparently Being X got tired of her not dying and a portal sucked her into a different world, or maybe it was someone else who did the portal deal, she never found out.
Good news, she still had a Type 97 Computation Orb, even better news, somehow the Type 95 Computation Orb got left behind in the previous universe.
Bad news, how did Tanya first notice that she now was in a different universe?
She was now literally a squirrel person and not in the sense she suddenly really liked squirrels.
Worse, she was apparently in the universe of Sonic the hedgehog or something like that... and she never played those games, she had a Super Nintendo as a kid in her first life!
So of course Tanya ended working for the bad guy... and not just because of the very good dental plan.
*****
Tanya was... having a bad day.
Well "Tanya The Squirrel" was.
Tanya Sally A. Squirrel, to be precise, that's what the fake ID she bought said.
Some days like this one she was having, Tanya actually missed the Great War. Sure the (Magical!) Great War was more dangerous but at least it still had previous knowledge she could use. Then again not getting brainwashed by the Type 95 or dealing with Mary Sue anymore was a welcome change.
This?
Again, she didn't know anything about Sonic, Salaryman had a Super Nintendo as a kid!
Sure there were a few Sonic games in the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo Gamecube but Salaryman had not played them. And after that he had been to busy with work to do more than-
'Focus.'
Tanya looked at the mirror and brushed her teeth, being a mix of squirrel and person that looked out from a cartoon for kids was weird.
"Why did I decide to work for the bad guy anyway and how come he has not replaced me with a robot yet?"
'Probably the fact that any robot of his that's not an idiot tends to betray him. And the idiots keep getting things wrong.'
"I can't quit... or can I?"
'Sure, then how I pay my rent? Or the university? Just because I am doing remote learning doesn't make it free. What I am gonna do, move to the woods and live like an actual animal squirrel instead of a Islander squirrel? Also what if they look into the fact my paperwork is fake? Even with access to my Boss super computers I don't think I got rid of all evidence that I am not a local.'
"Ha! Well enough moping, the Eggman Empire is not gonna administrate itself."
*****
It had all started with an online Ad. Not knowing better (again, Salaryman had not played a Sonic game in his life) Tanya called the provided number, did the interview by phone and computer and upon entering her new workplace ... ended accidentally kicking a blue hedgehog... "there".
Well, more like the blue hedgehog accidentally crashed into Tanya, reflexes from her time in the Great War kicked in, plus some magic as she still has a Type 97, and the blue hedgehog ended with a kick between his legs, at that point a robot blue hedgehog attacked the real hedgehog and Tanya hurried up to not be late for her job interview.
Due to nepotism, aka Doctor Eggman having watched what had just happened, Tanya was hired on the spot.
A week later Doctor Eggman took over the world and so for the last two months "Tanya The Squirrel" had helped him run it.
What else was she gonna do? Ask for help from Sonic? After what she did to him? Even if that worked, then what? How was she gonna pay the bills? And what about her literally being an illegal alien?
"Ah Tanya, I got good news!" The Doctor was in a good mood, that was good for her. Then again he mostly had been in a good mod since he took over the world two months ago. When he wasn't Tanya made sure it was the stupid robots the ones who talked to him first. That's how Doctor Eggman ended losing most of those stupid robots... then replaced them for more stupid robots. Maybe he misses not having any social interaction otherwise? Or maybe he needs to fell superior.
"Let me guess, Sonic fell and broke a leg?"
"Hohoho, no, although that would have been hilarious! I made a new weapon!"
"Okay, how is that different than normal?"
"These gloves use ambient Chaos energy, meaning that at least in this planet they practically will never run out of power!" Doctor Eggman said showing a pair of gloves, then called a generic looking robot and made the robot wear them.
'Why couldn't just make the gloves be part of the robot instead? Maybe he plans to use them himself?'
And then he made the generic looking robot fight small toy robots that looked like Sonic, the things even had windup keys!
"Either those toy like robots are really weak or those gloves give super strength."
"Yes, they give super strength! And that's not all!"
"They are not dry clean only?"
"Eh no, while they are waterproof, better not to risk them inside a washing machine."
Now an idiot would try to steal the gloves to try to become some sort of Hero, as if Doctor Eggman would be stupid enough to not pull failsafes on the things (And they weren't her size anyway).
"I also made running shoes that give you super speed!"
"What?"
"Yes I know, but I already made shoes to give myself super speed more that once and please refer to Clause 4F in your contract."
"You want me to fight Sonic? I specifically am not affected by that clause since I am an administration minion, not a combat one."
"Oops, I meant 5F."
"You want me to do some errands and with super speed I will do them faster?"
"Yes! I need you to visit several of my factories to inspect how they are doing... and the teleporter is still unsafe for organics so only Metal Sonic and my other robots can use it."
Good thing Doctor Eggman no longer used animals as batteries. Not out the kindness of his heart but because with the amount of robots he needed to rule over the world using animals was impractical compared to Chaos energy batteries he now had the resources, machines and money to mass produce at a fast speed.
Of course ambient Chaos energy could only do so much so the battery factory had a Chaos Emerald on it to charge the batteries. Everything else was nuclear power.
Ugh... she was gonna to get into the armor Doctor Eggman made her if only to protect herself against nuclear radiation.
It didn't help the thing made her paranoid about getting mind controlled, hence why she never used it unless she had to.
"Okay, are the Super Speed Running Shoes compatible with my armor?"
"Ugh... rats, we will have to test things before you leave."
'Wonderful.'
*****
The armor was nothing special and made Tanya look like a tin can. Not that different from comercial robots available that definitely aren't old model badniks modified with regular batteries and way cheaper armor and sold by several different companies Doctor Eggman licensed his old designs to.
Having stickers in the the back and front that claimed she was a mere delivery robot from a non existent company? Well that was just safety concerns.
Specifically Tanya own safety.
******
"Hard Boiled Egg Deliveries?" Tails said seeing what looked like a tin can with legs and arms go pass him at super speed.
A quick online check up showed the company didn't exist or lacked even a Webpage. A check on Tails' phone showed there also wasn't... actually there was a phone App.
Tails took out his "test phone" and tested the App on it.
It was full of the usual Ads, and of spyware that sandboxing protected from, but at least it wasn't a virus or any kind of malware, at least not not beyond the usual delivery App.
Tails tried to place an order for pizza.
"We are sorry but currently our test prototype delivery robot is booked in for the next six months. However if you have notifications enabled we will tell you as soon as an opening becomes available."
Tails closed down the App and deleted it.
Typical Unicorn that would probably go bankrupt in less that two years or a university students project then, most likely nothing to worry about. Doctor Eggman would have filled the city with "delivery robots" not just use a single one. And if it was just a one off thing to try to kill Sonic why bother with the App at all?
*****
Sonic saw a trash can on legs carrying a huge box in a backpack... the box had the label from a nearby supermarket.
"Doctor Eggman made another robot to buy him food uh? And people call me lazy." Sonic said then went back to work on relaxing under the parasol on the fake beach in front of the hotel he was in. When this blowed on eggbreath face somehow he was sure Tails or someone else would call him about it.
*****
Since neither Sonic the Hedgehog or anyone else tried to trash Tanya, it seemed wasting a few hours coding that fake phone App had been worth it.
"Hard Boiled Egg Deliveries? Did I make a robot while drunk again?" My boss said, much to my dismay.
"Hello Doctor, here is your food order."
"Tanya? Did you make a delivery robot?"
"No, this is my armor, I just added stickers to it."
"Uh... it really does look really generic, wonder why I never noticed before? Can you put the food on the cupboards and fridge? I am... busy."
Only my armor prevented the boss from noticing my raised eyebrow, as he was still dressed in his sleeping clothes, a sure sign he was not gonna do anything but laze off for the rest of the day.
"Yes Doctor."
After I was done storing the food, I removed the armor and took shower with a lot of soap, then went to clean the armor. After that it was more paperwork.
"Ugh... I don't get vacations until I have at least six months working here."
And only one sick day every two months, then again due to her literal illegal alien status is not like she had even tried to negotiate for better work conditions, not that it was smart to even try with a supervillain anyway.
AN: How Tanya the squirrel looks like, minus armor: Sally Acorn (Sonic the Comic)
See the "newsreader" look specifically.
Summary: One of the most stupid ideas you could ever think of to become famous is to try to attempt to be a Hero, because you are very likely to get killed. And even if you do not get killed, there is a reason people who gets superpowers tends to become criminals and that reason is because it is way easier to make money that way. Famous sponsored Heroes make a lot of money thanks to their fame allowing them to sell out for money but most Heroes barely make ends meet. Heck the most famous Hero in the world? Sonic The Hedgehog? He is basically a Hobo, no clue how he keeps getting new shoes? Doing odd jobs using his super speed or something? Charity perhaps?
That being said, I legally don't exist in this universe so... I became a supervillain.
Well not quite, I became a supervillain's... Secretary.
Chapter 01: Rise up Sunshine!
While Tanya had liked heroes as a young boy back in her first life, that has been largely because those heroes were fictional, because it wasn't real.
On her second life, finding herself forced to be a magical soldier on alternate Great War? She stopped believing in Heroes.
Then apparently Being X got tired of her not dying and a portal sucked her into a different world, or maybe it was someone else who did the portal deal, she never found out.
Good news, she still had a Type 97 Computation Orb, even better news, somehow the Type 95 Computation Orb got left behind in the previous universe.
Bad news, how did Tanya first notice that she now was in a different universe?
She was now literally a squirrel person and not in the sense she suddenly really liked squirrels.
Worse, she was apparently in the universe of Sonic the hedgehog or something like that... and she never played those games, she had a Super Nintendo as a kid in her first life!
So of course Tanya ended working for the bad guy... and not just because of the very good dental plan.
*****
Tanya was... having a bad day.
Well "Tanya The Squirrel" was.
Tanya Sally A. Squirrel, to be precise, that's what the fake ID she bought said.
Some days like this one she was having, Tanya actually missed the Great War. Sure the (Magical!) Great War was more dangerous but at least it still had previous knowledge she could use. Then again not getting brainwashed by the Type 95 or dealing with Mary Sue anymore was a welcome change.
This?
Again, she didn't know anything about Sonic, Salaryman had a Super Nintendo as a kid!
Sure there were a few Sonic games in the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo Gamecube but Salaryman had not played them. And after that he had been to busy with work to do more than-
'Focus.'
Tanya looked at the mirror and brushed her teeth, being a mix of squirrel and person that looked out from a cartoon for kids was weird.
"Why did I decide to work for the bad guy anyway and how come he has not replaced me with a robot yet?"
'Probably the fact that any robot of his that's not an idiot tends to betray him. And the idiots keep getting things wrong.'
"I can't quit... or can I?"
'Sure, then how I pay my rent? Or the university? Just because I am doing remote learning doesn't make it free. What I am gonna do, move to the woods and live like an actual animal squirrel instead of a Islander squirrel? Also what if they look into the fact my paperwork is fake? Even with access to my Boss super computers I don't think I got rid of all evidence that I am not a local.'
"Ha! Well enough moping, the Eggman Empire is not gonna administrate itself."
*****
It had all started with an online Ad. Not knowing better (again, Salaryman had not played a Sonic game in his life) Tanya called the provided number, did the interview by phone and computer and upon entering her new workplace ... ended accidentally kicking a blue hedgehog... "there".
Well, more like the blue hedgehog accidentally crashed into Tanya, reflexes from her time in the Great War kicked in, plus some magic as she still has a Type 97, and the blue hedgehog ended with a kick between his legs, at that point a robot blue hedgehog attacked the real hedgehog and Tanya hurried up to not be late for her job interview.
Due to nepotism, aka Doctor Eggman having watched what had just happened, Tanya was hired on the spot.
A week later Doctor Eggman took over the world and so for the last two months "Tanya The Squirrel" had helped him run it.
What else was she gonna do? Ask for help from Sonic? After what she did to him? Even if that worked, then what? How was she gonna pay the bills? And what about her literally being an illegal alien?
"Ah Tanya, I got good news!" The Doctor was in a good mood, that was good for her. Then again he mostly had been in a good mod since he took over the world two months ago. When he wasn't Tanya made sure it was the stupid robots the ones who talked to him first. That's how Doctor Eggman ended losing most of those stupid robots... then replaced them for more stupid robots. Maybe he misses not having any social interaction otherwise? Or maybe he needs to fell superior.
"Let me guess, Sonic fell and broke a leg?"
"Hohoho, no, although that would have been hilarious! I made a new weapon!"
"Okay, how is that different than normal?"
"These gloves use ambient Chaos energy, meaning that at least in this planet they practically will never run out of power!" Doctor Eggman said showing a pair of gloves, then called a generic looking robot and made the robot wear them.
'Why couldn't just make the gloves be part of the robot instead? Maybe he plans to use them himself?'
And then he made the generic looking robot fight small toy robots that looked like Sonic, the things even had windup keys!
"Either those toy like robots are really weak or those gloves give super strength."
"Yes, they give super strength! And that's not all!"
"They are not dry clean only?"
"Eh no, while they are waterproof, better not to risk them inside a washing machine."
Now an idiot would try to steal the gloves to try to become some sort of Hero, as if Doctor Eggman would be stupid enough to not pull failsafes on the things (And they weren't her size anyway).
"I also made running shoes that give you super speed!"
"What?"
"Yes I know, but I already made shoes to give myself super speed more that once and please refer to Clause 4F in your contract."
"You want me to fight Sonic? I specifically am not affected by that clause since I am an administration minion, not a combat one."
"Oops, I meant 5F."
"You want me to do some errands and with super speed I will do them faster?"
"Yes! I need you to visit several of my factories to inspect how they are doing... and the teleporter is still unsafe for organics so only Metal Sonic and my other robots can use it."
Good thing Doctor Eggman no longer used animals as batteries. Not out the kindness of his heart but because with the amount of robots he needed to rule over the world using animals was impractical compared to Chaos energy batteries he now had the resources, machines and money to mass produce at a fast speed.
Of course ambient Chaos energy could only do so much so the battery factory had a Chaos Emerald on it to charge the batteries. Everything else was nuclear power.
Ugh... she was gonna to get into the armor Doctor Eggman made her if only to protect herself against nuclear radiation.
It didn't help the thing made her paranoid about getting mind controlled, hence why she never used it unless she had to.
"Okay, are the Super Speed Running Shoes compatible with my armor?"
"Ugh... rats, we will have to test things before you leave."
'Wonderful.'
*****
The armor was nothing special and made Tanya look like a tin can. Not that different from comercial robots available that definitely aren't old model badniks modified with regular batteries and way cheaper armor and sold by several different companies Doctor Eggman licensed his old designs to.
Having stickers in the the back and front that claimed she was a mere delivery robot from a non existent company? Well that was just safety concerns.
Specifically Tanya own safety.
******
"Hard Boiled Egg Deliveries?" Tails said seeing what looked like a tin can with legs and arms go pass him at super speed.
A quick online check up showed the company didn't exist or lacked even a Webpage. A check on Tails' phone showed there also wasn't... actually there was a phone App.
Tails took out his "test phone" and tested the App on it.
It was full of the usual Ads, and of spyware that sandboxing protected from, but at least it wasn't a virus or any kind of malware, at least not not beyond the usual delivery App.
Tails tried to place an order for pizza.
"We are sorry but currently our test prototype delivery robot is booked in for the next six months. However if you have notifications enabled we will tell you as soon as an opening becomes available."
Tails closed down the App and deleted it.
Typical Unicorn that would probably go bankrupt in less that two years or a university students project then, most likely nothing to worry about. Doctor Eggman would have filled the city with "delivery robots" not just use a single one. And if it was just a one off thing to try to kill Sonic why bother with the App at all?
*****
Sonic saw a trash can on legs carrying a huge box in a backpack... the box had the label from a nearby supermarket.
"Doctor Eggman made another robot to buy him food uh? And people call me lazy." Sonic said then went back to work on relaxing under the parasol on the fake beach in front of the hotel he was in. When this blowed on eggbreath face somehow he was sure Tails or someone else would call him about it.
*****
Since neither Sonic the Hedgehog or anyone else tried to trash Tanya, it seemed wasting a few hours coding that fake phone App had been worth it.
"Hard Boiled Egg Deliveries? Did I make a robot while drunk again?" My boss said, much to my dismay.
"Hello Doctor, here is your food order."
"Tanya? Did you make a delivery robot?"
"No, this is my armor, I just added stickers to it."
"Uh... it really does look really generic, wonder why I never noticed before? Can you put the food on the cupboards and fridge? I am... busy."
Only my armor prevented the boss from noticing my raised eyebrow, as he was still dressed in his sleeping clothes, a sure sign he was not gonna do anything but laze off for the rest of the day.
"Yes Doctor."
After I was done storing the food, I removed the armor and took shower with a lot of soap, then went to clean the armor. After that it was more paperwork.
"Ugh... I don't get vacations until I have at least six months working here."
And only one sick day every two months, then again due to her literal illegal alien status is not like she had even tried to negotiate for better work conditions, not that it was smart to even try with a supervillain anyway.
AN: How Tanya the squirrel looks like, minus armor: Sally Acorn (Sonic the Comic)
See the "newsreader" look specifically.
Tanya is right to be paranoid about her literally illegal alien status cause G.U.N.
Yes it was dumb to work for Doctor Eggman but think about it from Tanya's point of view.
She has no legal ID paperwork, save the one she faked and the one provided by the Eggman Empire, no university degree, no friends, no contacts or allies. Even getting a job as a garbage collector would have involved some background checks.
Tanya doesn't know anything about the world she is in save the stuff she found out after she arrived. Her knowledge of Sonic at the beginning was limited to "Has super speed, Sega's Mascot to rival Mario in the 90s and it showed up in that Smash Bros game I played in the Nintendo Gamecube".
That's it.
Of course Tanya has found out more things since then, but her working conditions are okay and the pay is good... for the moment.
Yes it was dumb to work for Doctor Eggman but think about it from Tanya's point of view.
She has no legal ID paperwork, save the one she faked and the one provided by the Eggman Empire, no university degree, no friends, no contacts or allies. Even getting a job as a garbage collector would have involved some background checks.
Tanya doesn't know anything about the world she is in save the stuff she found out after she arrived. Her knowledge of Sonic at the beginning was limited to "Has super speed, Sega's Mascot to rival Mario in the 90s and it showed up in that Smash Bros game I played in the Nintendo Gamecube".
That's it.
Of course Tanya has found out more things since then, but her working conditions are okay and the pay is good... for the moment.
Technical Intuition (Sonic the Comic)
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
That's one way of adopting the Ricky design as a villain protagonist, I guess. I can't say I'm a follower of the Tanya stuff, but its your story.
In other news, I just posted a new story taking place in the world of Sonic the Comic by Fleetway called Technical Intuition. Ironically, though, I got to posting just before I wrote in the summary. Awkward!
Sega Cast Watch Sonic Boom
- Location
- United States of America
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Brain Uploading
- Location
- The Midlands.
A fic snippet that's not quite big enough to justify its own thread yet...
With a dull thud, the shuttlepod locked into place against the docking collar. Two green lights flashed on the panel by the hatch, indicating a good pressure seal. "Well, that much is still intact," Shadow remarked, watching the panel for a few seconds as the shuttle's systems attempted to handshake with the ARK's. Predictably, they failed.
"Didn't think we'd be that lucky," said Rouge, picking up the Halligan tool and sledgehammer they'd brought for this eventuality. Shadow hit the button to open the shuttle's outer airlock door, revealing a very pitted and sun-bleached hatch with a faded collection of logos from the ARK's various space agency sponsors. Its own control panel was totally dead, not even the fault indicator LED having any power left, but the manual override lever required surprisingly little force to engage. Two good whacks with the hammer were enough to force the blade of the Halligan into place, and once Shadow had forced it open far enough to get a grip on the edge the two of them were able to pull it the rest of the way open with relative ease.
The lights inside the airlock were as dead as the control panel had been, but the light from inside the shuttle was enough to glint off half a dozen scattered cartridge cases. Shadow's slight flinch would have gone unnoticed by anyone who didn't know him as well as Rouge. "You still good to go?" she said quietly.
"I'm sure as hell not backing out now," he replied. "Mask up." They both donned half-face respirators with CO2 and carbon monoxide scrubbers, and Shadow switched on a small air-quality monitor and clipped it to the lapel of his body armour. They repeated the process for forcing the inner airlock door, which was slightly more stubborn, and as soon as it yielded a wave of warm and humid air rushed in. The gas detector started chirping, and its screen flashed CAUTION.
"About what I expected." Shadow tucked thge Halligan into a loop on his belt and switched on the handheld radio clipped next to it. "Sonic, Tails? This is Shadow. Comms check."
"Five by five," Tails replied. "We're still in the airlock, manual override's FUBAR. Gonna have to cut the door."
"Understood. We've made it inside. Air quality's lousy but still sub-lethal, at least in this sectior, and reserve power's long gone. Hope you brought a big enough battery."
"Relax. Worse comes to worst I can jury rig a really big hamster wheel or something-"
"Spin on it," Sonic growled.
"Still salty about him and Tanya, huh?" Shadow muttered, making sure his thumb was off the push-to-talk button. "I'm giving those two another week to resolve their relationship drama, then I'm getting Amy involved. Alright, computer room's three decks down, stairs are at the end of this corridor." He drew his pistol from its holster, worked the slide to chamber a round and then turned on the underbarrel torch.
"Expecting xenomorphs?" Rouge quipped.
"Nah, just expecting the unexpected. C'mon, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get out of this tomb."
Walking through the dark, silent corridors of the Space Colony ARK was exactly as uncomfortable an experience as Shadow had expected it to be, but not for quite the reason he expected. The bullet holes, spent brass and occasional bloodstain certainly weren't pleasant to see, but no worse than what he'd seen during the Black Arms crisis or afterwards: Walking through the aftermath of a vicious gunfight was something that a GUN Office of Special Investigations field agent quickly became accustomed to, particularly if they volunteered for the Professional Standards Taskforce.
No, what was really screwing with his head was all the memories from before the day everything went to hell. The rarely-used meeting room in Sector H-7 where some of the crew held a LAN party every Friday night, at which he'd learned to everyone else's great amusement that being a real genetically-engineered supersoldier did not translate to being any good at driving the Warthog. A painting on the wall of a corridor, donated by an artist who'd benefitted from one of the treatments pioneered by the ARK's biomedical science department, that he'd liked enough to track down a digital copy and use it as his desktop wallpaper for a while. The cargo bay where he and Maria once stalked each other in an epic 1v1 NERF battle...
"Hey, Shadow. You holding up okay?" Sonic called out over the radio.
Shadow chuckled, rather bleakly. "I haven't had a traumatic PTSD flashback or anything yet, so I've got that going for me."
"You know, you didn't have to tag along for this. If it brings back too many bad memories then Tails can manage solo."
"Oh, I can, can I?"
"Guys," Shadow said firmly. "I'm alright. Not gonna claim I'm enjoying myself but I'm handling it so far. And no disrespect to your tech skills, Tails, but looking for the data we need will go faster if someone with firsthand experience on ARK systems and actual admin credentials is on hand. Besides, if we find what we're looking for then it'll be totally worth it." He paused for a moment, wondering if he should really disclose this, then shrugged and ploughed on. "But for the record? I can handle the bad memories just fine. It's the good ones I'm worried about."
On the other side of the ARK's gravity wheel, Sonic and Tails shared a solemn look. "That dude's therapist is gonna need therapy," Tails sighed.
"Hell, his therapist's therapist is gonna need therapy," Sonic replied. "So how 'bout we try and get this done before he starts really riding the edge, huh?" He couldn't claim to know Shadow all that well -everyone who honestly could claim that was probably on this station when shit went down all those years ago- but he figured the odds were good that he wasn't coping as well as he claimed, and he was really keen on not finding out what would happen if and when the guy tripped over something out-and-out triggering up here.
"That's one thing we can still agree on," Tails replied, eyes narrowed.
The tension between them that had briefly slackened was back in full force. Sonic was still angry with Tails, and still thought he had some pretty damn good reasons to be angry, but he couldn't help feeling bad about that.
Server rooms, Rouge mused idly, looked pretty much the same fifty-odd years ago as they did today. The servers and switches were bulkier and more squarish in design back when the ARK was operational, but the utilitarian steel rack mounts, the cheap plywood desk and the rather uncomfortable-looking swivel chair upholstered in andard-issue Waiting Room Blue were timeless in their (for want of a better word) aesthetic. The assortment of anime figurines on the desk and the poster of what seemed to be a map of Middle-Earth wouldn't have been out of place in a modern server room either.
Shadow crouched down to examine a rectangular object about the size of a large toolbox on the floor by some electrical outlets, holstering his pistol and shining a small pocket torch on the box to reveal a very small liquid crystal display: It must be the UPS for the server room.
"I'll be damned. Would you believe this thing's still holding a charge?" Shadow remarked. "Which suggests that someone took the time to power everything off, so if we're really lucky they put the servers through the proper shutdown process and we won't have to spend all morning rebuilding the database and error-checking the drives before we get down to business." He smiled wistfully. "Whoever it was, I owe 'em one."
There was a faint shudder through the deck, followed by an almost imperceptible low thrumming sound. "Sounds like Tails is making progress," said Rouge. "How long will it take to-?" The overhead lighting came on suddenly, flooding the room with harsh blue-white light. "Ow! Damn it Prower!" Rouge squinted balefully at her radio. "A little warning would have been nice."
"Sorry. Thought that circuit was off at the main breaker panel. Anyway, good news. The reactor cold-start sequence is going fine so far, and it looks like we've got at least partial function on the airscrubbers. Should be able to lose these masks in about half an hour."
"Good. Looking good at our end too. Someone shut off all the servers before the backup batteries ran down, so odds are all the data on these drives should be intact. What's the reactor output at?"
"Sixteen... No, seventeen percent now."
"Alright. Turn the power back on in here as soon as it hits twenty and we can get started."
It only took a couple of minutes before the servers started coming on, LEDs flashing in patterns that probably made sense to whoever used to work here as internal cooling fans began to whirr and hard drives chattered and hummed. Shadow listened intently for any rhythmic clicks or pings that suggested a defective drive, but there were none. "Minor miracle number two for today. Nothing sounds like it's dead or dying at least, so that's a start." He sat at the operator's desk, feeling around the front panel of the little mini-desktop until he found the power button. It powered on and began the boot-up sequence.
"They definitely didn't skimp on the hardware when they built this place," Rouge observed.
"If you're working in orbit, it tends to be cheaper to overbuild the crap out of the equipment and only have to send it up once." Shadow stared at the keyboard for a moment, then typed in a long sequence of characters. "Okay, I'm gonna look really dumb if that wasn't my password last time I was up here... Hah! Score one for the art and science of hypnotherapy."
Rouge looked from the desktop to Shadow, then back to the desktop. "Is that the dude from the 'Loss' meme cosplaying as an elf?"
"I think he's meant to be Link from the Zelda games, but yes. And that webcomic was actually kinda good apart from the story arc that meme comes from, believe it or not. Anyway, before we do anything else I'm gonna pull up the self-test data from these servers, see if any of them are- What the hell?" He stared at the pop-up notification on the desktop, which had come from the ARK's internal messenger system.
"You okay buddy?" Rouge asked softly.
Shadow was silent for a moment. "Yeah," he said at last. "Yeah, I'm okay. Must have been one I didn't get to see before... Well, yeah." If Rouge noticed the way his hand shook as he reached for the mouse and dismissed the notification, she was kind enough not to mention it. "Better get back on track-"
A second message notification popped up. "What," said Shadow, too stunned to pronounce the question mark. Hesitantly, he moved the cursor to the messenger app and brought it up on the screen.
Rouge and Shadow both stared at the little red number 2 next to the profile labelled "Maria Robotnik". As they watched, the 2 became a 3.
"Getting a little less okay now," said Shadow, not even attempting to disguise the strain in his voice. He keyed his radio. "Tails, kill all external comms right now."
"What? I never turned them on in the first place."
"Check the fucking breaker panel then!" Shadow snapped. "And then start getting the security systems back online because if external comms are down then we've got someone up here with us, and whoever they are they picked entirely the wrong person to screw around with!"
"Alright, alright. But does one of you mind telling me what just happened?"
"Gonna have to get back to you on that one, kid." Shadow stood up from his desk and massaged his temples with thumb and forefinger. "You did see that too, right?" he asked Rouge.
"Yep. 'Fraid so," she replied.
"Oh, so I'm probably not finally losing my mind then." He snorted. "Pity. That would have made everything so much less complicated."
"Hey, Shadow? Good news and bad news." Sonic sounded very nearly as rattled as Rouge was feeling right now. "Good news is, comms are definitely offline and it looks like the security cameras are mostly still working. Bad news is, someone started accessing the cameras before Tails did. You got any buddies in the Trenchcoat Brigade we could call on for some help with this?"
Shadow's laughter didn't sound terribly sane even in his own ears. "Sorry, bud. Trenchcoats were more Ivo's thing back in the day." He opened the workstation's application menu and selected a network traffic monitor. "Now, I don't know who is doing this, how they're doing it or especially why they're doing this, but I am gonna find them and kick their sorry ass from here to the Mystic Realm and back..."
"Shadow? I've gotten access to the security cameras. We are definitely the only people up here. And there's no way anyone could be getting to the ARK's systems from outside: Even if there's power running to the comms dish through some local backup system I don't have on my schematics or something, the dish is too far out of alignment: It's pointing out into deep space," Tails insisted. "I dunno what's going on, but there's nobody here but us."
"Check the secondary systems then. There might be say to get in through the internal radio network. Or, I dunno, some kind of quantum bullshit sidechannel hack. There's got to be something!"
"Shadow, you're starting to sound kinda irrational-"
"Oh yeah? Kid, f I was being irrational I'd be trying to convince you that Maria Robotnik's ghost just slid into my DMs!" Shadow yelled. He sagged forward in his chair, head in his hands. "This isn't happening," he breathed. "This is all just some kind of fucked up dream, or a psychotic break. I'm gonna wake up in restraints on the psych ward, and have a hell of an awkward conversation with Dr Furness, and then in a couple of weeks they'll let me go home and none of this will have fucking happened!"
"Hoo boy," Sonic sighed. "Charlie's in the trees."
Tails gave him a hard look. "You're not wrong, you're just an asshole."
If he hadn't been a bit preoccupied with everything else that was going on, Shadow might have been a little embarrassed at the rather unmanly yelp he made when the messenger app's voice call ringtone started sounding.
It was at this point that Rouge decided that enough was enough. She grabbed the back of the chair and yanked an unprotesting Shadxow out of the way, then grabbed the mouse and accepted the call. "There had better be a really good explanation for this," she snarled.
"Finally! Shadow, I know this is gonna sound pretty crazy, but... Hey, who's the hot chick in the spy catsuit?"
"?" Shadow replied, eloquently. That voice...
"I'm a friend of his. Now just who the hell are you and why do you have Maria's login details?" Rouge glared into the webcam built into the workstation's monitor.
"Damn it, I told Grandpa we should have read you in on this. Look, remember the neural datalink project everyone was excited about, and how someone testing it had a heart attack and needed the defibrillator? |Well, turns out they just kind of... didn't notice, 'cause when they're logged in here? Well, I am not even gonna speculate on the metaphysics but... here I am."
"!" said Shadow.
"You're not really buying this, are you."
Rouge piched the bridge of her nose. "No, really. Ya think?"
"Alright, alright, stupid question. Okay, things I know about Shadow that he probably hasn't told anyone else... He doesn't hate My Chemical Romance as much as he pretends to, he's absolutely terrible at Halo, he hated Cousin Ivo's Battletech fanfiction so much he resorted to physical violence, it's kinda his fault we have almost two tons of creamed corn in storage..."
"It's you." Shadow stood up from his chair and moved towards the screen. "It... It really is you. You're... Maria!"
For the first time in many a year, Shadow let himself cry.
"Well," Sonic remarked, "that... happened."
"Brain uploading," Tails muttered. "They invented brain uploading."
"Wanna hear the best part?" a chipper young woman's voice chimed in over the radiuo. "It was a complete accident. All they were trying to do was build a better VR headset. Oh, and did you guys know your radios aren't encrypted?"
"We do now," Tails replied. "And as soon as you and Shadow are done having a moment, I want all the deets on Eggman's fanfiction."
Sonic sighed heavily. "This is gonna be a very weird day, isn't it."
With a dull thud, the shuttlepod locked into place against the docking collar. Two green lights flashed on the panel by the hatch, indicating a good pressure seal. "Well, that much is still intact," Shadow remarked, watching the panel for a few seconds as the shuttle's systems attempted to handshake with the ARK's. Predictably, they failed.
"Didn't think we'd be that lucky," said Rouge, picking up the Halligan tool and sledgehammer they'd brought for this eventuality. Shadow hit the button to open the shuttle's outer airlock door, revealing a very pitted and sun-bleached hatch with a faded collection of logos from the ARK's various space agency sponsors. Its own control panel was totally dead, not even the fault indicator LED having any power left, but the manual override lever required surprisingly little force to engage. Two good whacks with the hammer were enough to force the blade of the Halligan into place, and once Shadow had forced it open far enough to get a grip on the edge the two of them were able to pull it the rest of the way open with relative ease.
The lights inside the airlock were as dead as the control panel had been, but the light from inside the shuttle was enough to glint off half a dozen scattered cartridge cases. Shadow's slight flinch would have gone unnoticed by anyone who didn't know him as well as Rouge. "You still good to go?" she said quietly.
"I'm sure as hell not backing out now," he replied. "Mask up." They both donned half-face respirators with CO2 and carbon monoxide scrubbers, and Shadow switched on a small air-quality monitor and clipped it to the lapel of his body armour. They repeated the process for forcing the inner airlock door, which was slightly more stubborn, and as soon as it yielded a wave of warm and humid air rushed in. The gas detector started chirping, and its screen flashed CAUTION.
"About what I expected." Shadow tucked thge Halligan into a loop on his belt and switched on the handheld radio clipped next to it. "Sonic, Tails? This is Shadow. Comms check."
"Five by five," Tails replied. "We're still in the airlock, manual override's FUBAR. Gonna have to cut the door."
"Understood. We've made it inside. Air quality's lousy but still sub-lethal, at least in this sectior, and reserve power's long gone. Hope you brought a big enough battery."
"Relax. Worse comes to worst I can jury rig a really big hamster wheel or something-"
"Spin on it," Sonic growled.
"Still salty about him and Tanya, huh?" Shadow muttered, making sure his thumb was off the push-to-talk button. "I'm giving those two another week to resolve their relationship drama, then I'm getting Amy involved. Alright, computer room's three decks down, stairs are at the end of this corridor." He drew his pistol from its holster, worked the slide to chamber a round and then turned on the underbarrel torch.
"Expecting xenomorphs?" Rouge quipped.
"Nah, just expecting the unexpected. C'mon, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get out of this tomb."
Walking through the dark, silent corridors of the Space Colony ARK was exactly as uncomfortable an experience as Shadow had expected it to be, but not for quite the reason he expected. The bullet holes, spent brass and occasional bloodstain certainly weren't pleasant to see, but no worse than what he'd seen during the Black Arms crisis or afterwards: Walking through the aftermath of a vicious gunfight was something that a GUN Office of Special Investigations field agent quickly became accustomed to, particularly if they volunteered for the Professional Standards Taskforce.
No, what was really screwing with his head was all the memories from before the day everything went to hell. The rarely-used meeting room in Sector H-7 where some of the crew held a LAN party every Friday night, at which he'd learned to everyone else's great amusement that being a real genetically-engineered supersoldier did not translate to being any good at driving the Warthog. A painting on the wall of a corridor, donated by an artist who'd benefitted from one of the treatments pioneered by the ARK's biomedical science department, that he'd liked enough to track down a digital copy and use it as his desktop wallpaper for a while. The cargo bay where he and Maria once stalked each other in an epic 1v1 NERF battle...
"Hey, Shadow. You holding up okay?" Sonic called out over the radio.
Shadow chuckled, rather bleakly. "I haven't had a traumatic PTSD flashback or anything yet, so I've got that going for me."
"You know, you didn't have to tag along for this. If it brings back too many bad memories then Tails can manage solo."
"Oh, I can, can I?"
"Guys," Shadow said firmly. "I'm alright. Not gonna claim I'm enjoying myself but I'm handling it so far. And no disrespect to your tech skills, Tails, but looking for the data we need will go faster if someone with firsthand experience on ARK systems and actual admin credentials is on hand. Besides, if we find what we're looking for then it'll be totally worth it." He paused for a moment, wondering if he should really disclose this, then shrugged and ploughed on. "But for the record? I can handle the bad memories just fine. It's the good ones I'm worried about."
On the other side of the ARK's gravity wheel, Sonic and Tails shared a solemn look. "That dude's therapist is gonna need therapy," Tails sighed.
"Hell, his therapist's therapist is gonna need therapy," Sonic replied. "So how 'bout we try and get this done before he starts really riding the edge, huh?" He couldn't claim to know Shadow all that well -everyone who honestly could claim that was probably on this station when shit went down all those years ago- but he figured the odds were good that he wasn't coping as well as he claimed, and he was really keen on not finding out what would happen if and when the guy tripped over something out-and-out triggering up here.
"That's one thing we can still agree on," Tails replied, eyes narrowed.
The tension between them that had briefly slackened was back in full force. Sonic was still angry with Tails, and still thought he had some pretty damn good reasons to be angry, but he couldn't help feeling bad about that.
Server rooms, Rouge mused idly, looked pretty much the same fifty-odd years ago as they did today. The servers and switches were bulkier and more squarish in design back when the ARK was operational, but the utilitarian steel rack mounts, the cheap plywood desk and the rather uncomfortable-looking swivel chair upholstered in andard-issue Waiting Room Blue were timeless in their (for want of a better word) aesthetic. The assortment of anime figurines on the desk and the poster of what seemed to be a map of Middle-Earth wouldn't have been out of place in a modern server room either.
Shadow crouched down to examine a rectangular object about the size of a large toolbox on the floor by some electrical outlets, holstering his pistol and shining a small pocket torch on the box to reveal a very small liquid crystal display: It must be the UPS for the server room.
"I'll be damned. Would you believe this thing's still holding a charge?" Shadow remarked. "Which suggests that someone took the time to power everything off, so if we're really lucky they put the servers through the proper shutdown process and we won't have to spend all morning rebuilding the database and error-checking the drives before we get down to business." He smiled wistfully. "Whoever it was, I owe 'em one."
There was a faint shudder through the deck, followed by an almost imperceptible low thrumming sound. "Sounds like Tails is making progress," said Rouge. "How long will it take to-?" The overhead lighting came on suddenly, flooding the room with harsh blue-white light. "Ow! Damn it Prower!" Rouge squinted balefully at her radio. "A little warning would have been nice."
"Sorry. Thought that circuit was off at the main breaker panel. Anyway, good news. The reactor cold-start sequence is going fine so far, and it looks like we've got at least partial function on the airscrubbers. Should be able to lose these masks in about half an hour."
"Good. Looking good at our end too. Someone shut off all the servers before the backup batteries ran down, so odds are all the data on these drives should be intact. What's the reactor output at?"
"Sixteen... No, seventeen percent now."
"Alright. Turn the power back on in here as soon as it hits twenty and we can get started."
It only took a couple of minutes before the servers started coming on, LEDs flashing in patterns that probably made sense to whoever used to work here as internal cooling fans began to whirr and hard drives chattered and hummed. Shadow listened intently for any rhythmic clicks or pings that suggested a defective drive, but there were none. "Minor miracle number two for today. Nothing sounds like it's dead or dying at least, so that's a start." He sat at the operator's desk, feeling around the front panel of the little mini-desktop until he found the power button. It powered on and began the boot-up sequence.
"They definitely didn't skimp on the hardware when they built this place," Rouge observed.
"If you're working in orbit, it tends to be cheaper to overbuild the crap out of the equipment and only have to send it up once." Shadow stared at the keyboard for a moment, then typed in a long sequence of characters. "Okay, I'm gonna look really dumb if that wasn't my password last time I was up here... Hah! Score one for the art and science of hypnotherapy."
Rouge looked from the desktop to Shadow, then back to the desktop. "Is that the dude from the 'Loss' meme cosplaying as an elf?"
"I think he's meant to be Link from the Zelda games, but yes. And that webcomic was actually kinda good apart from the story arc that meme comes from, believe it or not. Anyway, before we do anything else I'm gonna pull up the self-test data from these servers, see if any of them are- What the hell?" He stared at the pop-up notification on the desktop, which had come from the ARK's internal messenger system.
"You okay buddy?" Rouge asked softly.
Shadow was silent for a moment. "Yeah," he said at last. "Yeah, I'm okay. Must have been one I didn't get to see before... Well, yeah." If Rouge noticed the way his hand shook as he reached for the mouse and dismissed the notification, she was kind enough not to mention it. "Better get back on track-"
A second message notification popped up. "What," said Shadow, too stunned to pronounce the question mark. Hesitantly, he moved the cursor to the messenger app and brought it up on the screen.
Rouge and Shadow both stared at the little red number 2 next to the profile labelled "Maria Robotnik". As they watched, the 2 became a 3.
"Getting a little less okay now," said Shadow, not even attempting to disguise the strain in his voice. He keyed his radio. "Tails, kill all external comms right now."
"What? I never turned them on in the first place."
"Check the fucking breaker panel then!" Shadow snapped. "And then start getting the security systems back online because if external comms are down then we've got someone up here with us, and whoever they are they picked entirely the wrong person to screw around with!"
"Alright, alright. But does one of you mind telling me what just happened?"
"Gonna have to get back to you on that one, kid." Shadow stood up from his desk and massaged his temples with thumb and forefinger. "You did see that too, right?" he asked Rouge.
"Yep. 'Fraid so," she replied.
"Oh, so I'm probably not finally losing my mind then." He snorted. "Pity. That would have made everything so much less complicated."
"Hey, Shadow? Good news and bad news." Sonic sounded very nearly as rattled as Rouge was feeling right now. "Good news is, comms are definitely offline and it looks like the security cameras are mostly still working. Bad news is, someone started accessing the cameras before Tails did. You got any buddies in the Trenchcoat Brigade we could call on for some help with this?"
Shadow's laughter didn't sound terribly sane even in his own ears. "Sorry, bud. Trenchcoats were more Ivo's thing back in the day." He opened the workstation's application menu and selected a network traffic monitor. "Now, I don't know who is doing this, how they're doing it or especially why they're doing this, but I am gonna find them and kick their sorry ass from here to the Mystic Realm and back..."
"Shadow? I've gotten access to the security cameras. We are definitely the only people up here. And there's no way anyone could be getting to the ARK's systems from outside: Even if there's power running to the comms dish through some local backup system I don't have on my schematics or something, the dish is too far out of alignment: It's pointing out into deep space," Tails insisted. "I dunno what's going on, but there's nobody here but us."
"Check the secondary systems then. There might be say to get in through the internal radio network. Or, I dunno, some kind of quantum bullshit sidechannel hack. There's got to be something!"
"Shadow, you're starting to sound kinda irrational-"
"Oh yeah? Kid, f I was being irrational I'd be trying to convince you that Maria Robotnik's ghost just slid into my DMs!" Shadow yelled. He sagged forward in his chair, head in his hands. "This isn't happening," he breathed. "This is all just some kind of fucked up dream, or a psychotic break. I'm gonna wake up in restraints on the psych ward, and have a hell of an awkward conversation with Dr Furness, and then in a couple of weeks they'll let me go home and none of this will have fucking happened!"
"Hoo boy," Sonic sighed. "Charlie's in the trees."
Tails gave him a hard look. "You're not wrong, you're just an asshole."
If he hadn't been a bit preoccupied with everything else that was going on, Shadow might have been a little embarrassed at the rather unmanly yelp he made when the messenger app's voice call ringtone started sounding.
It was at this point that Rouge decided that enough was enough. She grabbed the back of the chair and yanked an unprotesting Shadxow out of the way, then grabbed the mouse and accepted the call. "There had better be a really good explanation for this," she snarled.
"Finally! Shadow, I know this is gonna sound pretty crazy, but... Hey, who's the hot chick in the spy catsuit?"
"?" Shadow replied, eloquently. That voice...
"I'm a friend of his. Now just who the hell are you and why do you have Maria's login details?" Rouge glared into the webcam built into the workstation's monitor.
"Damn it, I told Grandpa we should have read you in on this. Look, remember the neural datalink project everyone was excited about, and how someone testing it had a heart attack and needed the defibrillator? |Well, turns out they just kind of... didn't notice, 'cause when they're logged in here? Well, I am not even gonna speculate on the metaphysics but... here I am."
"!" said Shadow.
"You're not really buying this, are you."
Rouge piched the bridge of her nose. "No, really. Ya think?"
"Alright, alright, stupid question. Okay, things I know about Shadow that he probably hasn't told anyone else... He doesn't hate My Chemical Romance as much as he pretends to, he's absolutely terrible at Halo, he hated Cousin Ivo's Battletech fanfiction so much he resorted to physical violence, it's kinda his fault we have almost two tons of creamed corn in storage..."
"It's you." Shadow stood up from his chair and moved towards the screen. "It... It really is you. You're... Maria!"
For the first time in many a year, Shadow let himself cry.
"Well," Sonic remarked, "that... happened."
"Brain uploading," Tails muttered. "They invented brain uploading."
"Wanna hear the best part?" a chipper young woman's voice chimed in over the radiuo. "It was a complete accident. All they were trying to do was build a better VR headset. Oh, and did you guys know your radios aren't encrypted?"
"We do now," Tails replied. "And as soon as you and Shadow are done having a moment, I want all the deets on Eggman's fanfiction."
Sonic sighed heavily. "This is gonna be a very weird day, isn't it."
- Location
- Argentina
Tails: Oh my god they invented brain uploading!
Also Tails: I want to know about Eggman's shitty fanfic so I can mock him about it.
Also Tails: I want to know about Eggman's shitty fanfic so I can mock him about it.
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