This section covers Bad Guys, Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Zeti Hunt, and Test Run.
When introducing any new character to the series, I don't want them to be baggage or superfluous. I want them to fill some kind of niche that isn't already provided by the games. For example, Dr. Eggman is the main villain. We don't need to introduce some other major villain.
So anyway Dr. Starline will be our major villain until issue 50.
Oh just read the original comic. After Zavok gives him the talk, Starline desires to surpass Eggman. I don’t think there’s much of a difference between it and Haya IDW.
People talking that Bad Guys only exists to prop up Starline, when it felt like it fleshed out Zavok a bit more. I liked the conversation he had with Starline about preferring warriors rather than robots.
In that same conversation, in my server, we joked about implying Zavok is a really great relationship counseler because, my god, just read this:
Machines are efficient, tireless, and unquestionably loyal. When programmed properly. Traits I thought you'd hold in high regard.
At the cost of flexibility, passion, and ingenuity. Robots are fine tools, but only that. Strong warriors will do everything a robot can and more.
And in the time you find a dozen, I can build you an army of thousands. None of them will disrespect you. Ignore all the work you've done. Throw you away only because you dared to disagree with his knee-jerk reaction--!
He will never take you back.
That's... fine. We're in this for revenge, remember?
More importantly--you don't need him.
Set scene to White Park Chateau. Amy, Rouge, and Cream are there for a very specific reason: rumors say that the notorious crime boss, Clutch the Opossum, has retired himself there as a simple arms dealer. The parts he deals includes those from the E-series line. Tails had notified them that, while trying to fix Omega, he needs those parts to fully rebuild Omega's body.
Haya and Tails, meanwhile, are down at a nearby abandoned Eggman base. The activation code for Omega's body needs an Eggman Cipher, and that can only be found through one of the Eggnet computers. After bantering between one another about this base’s derelict state, it’s time for Tails to focus connecting his Miles Electric to one of the computers. Haya understands, but gets bored and starts leaning on one of the wall paneling of the computer room. This force accidentally pushes the loose paneling away, knocking over a pile of scrap and revealing a most curious sight: a handful of Chao and pacified Eggman's robots being read a story by a much larger robot.
In the original comic, Sonic knew about one of Eggman’s bases and said that he keeps tabs on stuff like that. …Why? Sonic doesn’t particularly care about Eggman, so why would he pay attention to where his bases are for stuff like this? I’d better skip all of the explanation hullabaloo and start it straight with the girls driving to White Park and Haya & Tails being at that base, with a throwaway line on how Tails found it instead; it’s not all that important to know how they found an Eggman base if you account for all the bases throughout the franchise
It’s absolutely insane Sonic would be acting this way. What the hell kind of Sonic did you write that wants to instantly go out to try and sucker-punch, spin dash, kick in the head, upper kick, and stomp the tail of a cowering girl? Then afterward, when done trying to attack, he starts justifying his decision to attack, leading Tails with the responsibility to apologize to Belle?? Sonic explains he gets stir-crazy being cooped up inside as if he didn’t spend 6 months in prison and came out fairly calm.
If the excuse here is that Sonic is running on a lack of sleep, that also doesn’t make sense. Chao Races and Badnik Bases should be taking place at least a few days after the Metal Virus Saga and Bad Guys; the Bad Guys miniseries took place over a few days, and here Starline developed the Tricore. Sonic would have had enough sleep not to act this insane around other people. This is not the end of Sonic’s complete and utter dislike of Belle, as I’ll be noting down Every Single Instance.
If you notice, Chao are also here now. This will be important.
The force was quite loud, so the Chao start crying as the large robot fumbles on what to do. Haya and Tails' experiences lets them know to quickly start picking up and pet all the Chao on their heads. The large robot is relieved for their help and introduces herself as Belle the Tinkerer. She explains she's been on a long winding path to find her father.
Have you seen my father?
Eats a lot, got a large moustache, builds theme parks?
He's a bit on on the round side, yes.
Haya and Tails look at eachother. They both realize this is a robot created during Mr. Tinker's days, but as they try and relay this information...
This is a very different version of Belle. You can count the amount of genuine smiles she’s given throughout the IDW run on one hand. In this rewrite, Belle is programmed to be a very happy girl, and that’s all she knows. It’s a pretty terrifying concept, and you saw with the crying Chao that she could not access her own sadness to aleviate the Chao’s crying. It seems Mr. Tinker didn’t have enough time to activate the more nuanced emotions in her, but it seems more that maybe her current state was good enough for him. Belle here will be a good example that, despite the more pacifist side of Mr. Tinker, he's still just as controlling as Eggman.
Throughout this rewrite summary, imagine Belle being this perpetual smiler and optimist. And this makes sense even in the actual IDW run, as Belle canonically doesn’t even have free will.
With how Belle is much less robotic then other robot characters in Sonic with her seemingly having full free will and Starline even noting all the emotional responses data he got from her, would you say Belle is equal to that of a Reploid?
Belle is fully sentient and emotional, but I wouldn’t necessarily say she has free will; she still very much operates following the directives Tinker programmed into her, and has some obvious robotic behavior patterns. So not quite? But also, in the context of the story I don’t think that discounts her personhood. Robot intelligence in Sonic is weird and squishy and hard to classify.
So true. It’s a spectrum, so you should solidly pin down where she is in terms of that. But also, that Belle currently doesn’t have an arc where she’s gained free will is extremely iffy and it’s so weird the cast/narrative hasn’t commented on that yet. “As long as she’s good”, but the Sonic franchise has always focused on being ‘free’ rather than ‘good’.
Another thing this arc is weird about is this attempt at creating a mystery. "Who is Belle’s creator" is treated like a very big mystery throughout the run. It doesn’t take half a cell to figure out that it was Mr. Tinker, so the change here is based on Belle having the arc to accept Mr. Tinker is gone and the cast in having to tactfully relay it to her.
I read some critiques about Belle and while some are okay, I've read some reaaaal stupid ones, such as her name. People are seriously hung up that her name is apparently based on a French word (speaking Japanese and English in Sonic doesn't need an explanation, but French does?), and implying giving her name the French word for 'beauty' is pedophilic, as if beauty is inherently sexual. Fuck off with that.
...The Egg Firewall activates; talking with Belle distracted Tails. The defensive turrets all activate and turn their scopes on the group, including the Chao inside. This is bad, but Belle sees no problem as she doesn’t understand bad situations. Haya and Tails grab onto the Chao who all converge inside Tails' tails for safety, though this disables Tails' flight ability. Haya grabs Belle by the arm and everyone manages to escape. Imagine Tails having to dodge having his tails shot off throughout the escape.
Back outside the freezing air, Belle tries heading back inside--she's under the belief she can convince the turrets to be good--but Haya stops her; she's going to damage herself if she does. There's also the matter with the Chao, but Tails then gets a message from Rouge to head to White Park ASAP, which includes coordinates. Of course--White Park Chateau has a Chao shelter for adoption or relocation to habitable Chao Gardens, so the Chao would be safe there.
With nowhere else to go, Belle joins the duo and the Chao back at White Park Chateau, with Tails flying a bit slower to get a lot of folk on these wings safely across.
In the original run’s escape, Belle pushed Tails away from an Egg Keeper. Tails broke the robot, but Sonic just stood there. He’s even got a hand on his hip, so he wasn’t particularly bothered by her danger. Sonic then judged Belle’s kick reflex skill as “weird”, as if his partner isn’t a fox with two tails. After escaping and getting the call from Rouge, Belle asks for a ride alongside the Tornado. Sonic just… doesn’t answer. Sonic has to be reminded that Belle saved Tails’ life, someone who Sonic considers like a little brother, all the while having the moodiest face imaginable. After grunting in frustration, Sonic smugly advises Belle to hold on to a wing and smiles calmly at Belle screams in fear while trying to not fall to her death. I genuinely have no idea what Belle has done to cause Sonic this much ire.
I also added a bit of extra worldbuilding by way of Chao shelters. It adds to the general theme of this arc I've been using. I’ll be saying what theme it is later on.
That's Haya's side before they reconvene. Imagine his and the girls' sides interspurring between the issues. So what's up with the other side?
Why was Cream tagging along with the girls? Rouge needed someone with a Chao, and her first go-to person, and who was willing to go on an adventure, was Cream. Gemerl requested to tag along, but he's still heavily damaged from his fight during and post the Metal Virus, but they promise to also fix him up when they get the necessary parts.
Gemerl stays behind; he got damaged awhile back after the Metal Virus got cleaned up. He also doesn’t really do anything of importance in this arc, nor does he develop, he’s just extra muscle to characters who already have it. Vanilla also trusts Cream alone with Amy, even Rouge for being more of an adult despite her thieving nature.
Doesn't Omega deserve the same kindness? It'll make a huge positive impact!
YES! IMPACT CRATERS FROM MY-MMPH!
Omega's violently destructive in this part. I'd cut that--he's only destructive to Eggman's robots to prove himself as the superior robot. Nuance
Inside White Park Chateau, Rouge registers Cream's Chao Cheese and writes her name down in the Chao Races as "Ms. Facet"--wouldn't want anyone knowing she was registered here. As they stand on the rafters to watch over the race, they quickly spot the person matching their description: Clutch the Opossum.
The Chao Race start. While Cheese was overwhelmed on the running section, they could catch up on the flying section. A Dark Chao, however, knocks Cheese down into the water below. This is a tough race, but Cheese manages to reach the qualifying bracket with one final wind.
It seems Rouge's plan of luring Clutch came true as the opossum himself approaches the trio. Wishing to meet with all the new trainers in the chateau, Clutch makes his leave after handing them his businesscard. Rouge leaves to discuss things with Clutch as she tells the other two to book a room for the night. The last thing Rouge saw before turning the corner was Amy and Cream putting first aid on Cheese. The kick done on that Dark Chao did hurt quite a bit.
Later that night, Rouge enters Clutch's apartment and discusses trading Cheese for anything in his apartment's collection, only IF Cheese manages to get out on top in tomorrow's races. Rouge leaves to "think it over", but she leaves behind Omega's head sneakily. Seems the two have something planned already.
They already discussed the plan beforehand. It helps make Rouge that much more of a trickster to both Clutch and the audience if she had alread discussed it with Omega instead of right in the middle of his apartment with quite a lot of echo for him to hear.
In the original comic, Clutch mentions to treat his Chao well... if they win atleast. That's a pretty good line to keep for the theme I'm going for this arc.
Rouge leaves the apartment, but is then ambushed by a mysterious cloaked figure.
Shadow arrives at White Park based on the same rumor about Clutch. However, he’s here to make sure no foolish person does what they please with those stolen parts. While there, he spots a mysterious hooded person jumping around White Park Grand Chateau. Following them around, the hooded person turns around and thwacks a wooden log at them. Shadow’s dazed, but is then followed up by a powerful push from that person.
Shadow can lift a truck, I’m sure he could tank a wooden log being swung at him by Starline’s Tricore-powered hands. Also quit the beastly angry faces you’re giving Shadow, showing teeth and stuff like that. He doesn’t outwardly express himself like that. He’s subtle. The Shadow mandates need to extend to artists too, I fear…
One advice I’ve read while writing Shadow is that, since he and Sonic are mirroring eachother, whatever he says and does must line up with what Sonic could say, provided you change his tone and character development here and there.
Morning arrives and we see Amy and Cream at the Chao shelter caring for the Chao inside. Cream asks if Amy tried adopting a Chao, but Amy explains she can't due to it being a big responsibility. Cream starts teasing her that she could use it to practice raising a child with Haya, to which Amy tries changing the topic by asking where Rouge is.
Right here-
Phew!
-watching you neglect your future responsibilities.
Nooo!!
Good morning, Ms. Rouge!
You're supposed to be setting a good example for Cream.
Oh, you're right! Cream, if you're ever going to loot a hotel, make sure the guests are loaded first.
That's not what I-!
The chateau's PA rings loudly. All trainers, bring your Chao to the park. Cream and Cheese run excitedly as Amy sighs in relief and Rouge stares smugly.
Kindness and cruelty, with the Chao right in the middle of it. That's the theme I'm going for this arc. In the games, the Chao change depending on how its owner treats them, so I'm having that center this entire arc with Clutch being cruel to his Chao, the girls being kind to them, and Belle not knowing how to be kind to the Chao because she doesn't know what cruelty is to pull as comparison.
A big problem with the original arc is how disconnected both stories A and B are. The only time the A and B plot are connected is when Belle opens up the Chao cage. By giving both plots a central theme helps justify the existence of both plots by providing multiple views of that central theme. If you can also combine it with a concept, like explaining to non-Sonic fans what the Chao here are, then that's a bonus too.
This is actually the second version of this arc’s rewrite on this website. I had no idea how to rectify Chao Bases since it was so boring, but tying it all together under this umbrella made it more fun again.
As the trainers leave for the races, Shadow is back in the chateau. After being knocked off the roof by the robed figure, a businesscard flew out of their pocket, one belonging to a certain Clutch the Opossum.
The Chao Races start. Cheese is doing excellently as all the girls cheer them on, but throughout the exciting noise and flashy cheering, Shadow enters the vacant penthouse suite of Clutch. Towering parts of Eggman's robots confirm the rumors, though he notices a draped cage. Opening it, he sees a horrible sight, but gets surprised at Omega's words of equal surprise at his arrival.
Cheese has won the Chao Races; they're number one what a winner. Cheese looks towards the Dark Chao, revealed to be trained by Clutch, and they see the Dark Chao terrified for their life. After failing to get Cheese away from Cream and Amy, Rouge explains her initial plan to the two and they decide to go along with her.
Time passes, and the three girls enter Clutch's suite. Rouge's codeword fails to pick up, but Clutch's amusement is cut short by Shadow's kick to his jaw, landing him unconscious.
Aw, yes! Take that!-
My, didn't expect your help, Shadow!
Hmph. Check under that cloth--better take care of what's beneath.
And where are you heading off to?
To do my own thing.
Cream and Cheese check under the cloth to see a very appropriate cage. A handful of Chao are seen shivering and sad. Even more, grey cocoons are littered around the cage, some wrinkled or fully deflated with age. This cycle seems to have gone for a very long time. Cream wonders how to get them out, Amy has to look over the sleeping Clutch, and Rouge suddenly has to go contact Tails. Good idea, according to Amy; extra manpower is very needed!
And so the two plots reconvene. Haya and Belle enter the chateau (the latter surrounded by Chao) and meet up with Amy. Amy double-takes seeing Belle, but leads the both along to Clutch's suite.
Wow she developed from Sonic-, ahah, I mean, Haya Rush after hearing Haya's chasing Blaze for the first time.
Mr. Haya, you're here! The poor Chao are trapped in this cage!
That's bad?
Yeah.
Then leave it to me! Belle the Tinkerer can unlock any locks!
Yay! Thank you!
Oh! Alright, sweet!
While Cream is amazed and grateful for Belle’s help, Sonic is weirded out by Belle’s abilities and looks like he wants nothing to do with this. Really, he’d also be genuinely happy someone is this fast in stepping up to help others, just like him, no matter how weird they look.
Cream leads Belle to the locks, leaving Haya and Amy to talk with one another. Amy assumed Rouge would come back with Tails, but that seemed to not be the case. Haya runs outside to look for them, now only leaving Amy, Cream, Belle, and... A laugh rings out, it turns out Clutch played possum. Before making his escape, he activates all the robots inside as distraction. While robotic Motobugs are easy to deal with, two Snowies have also been activated.
It would definitely be more of a challenge for Amy and Cream if there were more than one Snowy.
Tails groggily wakes up. He last remembered being attacked by Rouge and now... now they're ontop of a giant merry-go-round?!
The rollercoaster setting had already been used in-game, so this time I'm using the merry-go-round as its last setting. It's striking imagery and hasn't been tackled yet, probably because it was nowhere to be seen in the IDW comics, ha ha. Actually, go compare how Sonic 4's White Park and IDW's White Park compare. Bright and colorful vs. a dull purple-red. I'm impressed you can make Sonic 4 look more colorful.
Rouge also wakes up as well and explains that she had been hypnotized--she can't believe it herself. Seeing as they're both bound up, Tails looks outside his carriage to see multiple Chao, also bound up and crying for help. Above the entire attraction is the cloaked figure that had been scurrying around this entire arc. With them all bound up in one place, he'll have no problem taking them all in as test subjects
Haya runs around the rollercoaster tracks for a higher scouting point. Hearing the cries for help, he spots the merry-go-round along with Tails and Rouge inside. Right, they're inside there, but how to reach the top...? While musing it over, the cloaked figure turns around to announce himself to Haya. A thick gust flies over his hoodie, dramatically revealing the fantabulous Doctor Starline.
So throughout all of this, you might be asking: “What's Starline doing here” at first? You know, before discovering that he can grab the DNA of Tails and... Rouge. Well, Clutch was here with Eggman parts, so Starline would initially be here to further implant cybernetic parts onto the future Surge and Kit.
Okay, cool. Doesn't explain why he's jumping through and fro the building's rooftops when he could just go home already. So in this rewrite, he's also seeking Chao DNA, but why? Well, seeing as the Chao easily adapt and change depending on its owner's behavior towards them, he wanted to implant that DNA onto Surge and Kit to make them more easily submissive towards him; adapt and change to his orders. Seeing as he only got Tails' DNA, he had to resort to hypnotism which is a lot more subjective in assuring their submissiveness. Starline's plan failing here clearly had consequences, and that would naturally lead to his fall later on.
Nice location, but very impractical, Starline!
Why, Haya, after dealing with so many of Eggman's plans, who are you to complain about the pizazz? Besides, this all seems to work out in my favor... You can't even reach me!
That definitely frustrates Haya, but then Shadow manages to arrive. Oh dear, the two could actually launch eachother to easily reach the attraction now. No matter, Starline presses a button and a large "BOOM" is heard ontop of the highest mountain: the one the chateau is placed directly on. What's worse, the resultant avalanche is also on-route to the merry-go-round if it passes through the chateau. The top carriages have a chance to survive, but the bottom carriages...
Haya dashes towards the upcoming avalanche while Shadow stays on the tracks. He runs on a downhill track to gain momentum, runs up an upwards track, jumps, uses a Chaos Snap, and just barely manages to hold onto the beaming holding on to the middle carriages. Seeing the bound-up Chao inside the carriage, he snaps his fingers to cut their bounds and starts climbing upwards.
The ultimate kindness vs. the ultimate cruelty. Unfortuntely, Eggman is not available as the latter so we'll have to make do with Starline. After being shown many ways of being kind to Chao, and also seeing the cruel side, the audience will now see how both sides clash.
As Shadow climbs up the attraction, Rouge has finally lost her patience and untied her bonds in the meantime. She then yells her codeword at Omega's head. Starline took Omega's head with him which he would plan to take home as a trophy, but his ego comes at a cost now; Omega's sudden loud frequencies throws the doctor off balance and he falls off the merry-go-round. Shadow is prepared to give chase, but Rouge stops him as there are bigger things to stop, namely the avalanche. Shadow's initially furious at this change of plans, but realizes that stopping Starline's plan would benefit more than stopping the man himself. Rouge asks Tails to be a "big boy" and to start freeing the Chao as she heads off to notify Amy and Cream of the avalanche.
At the Clutch zone, one of the Snowies has been wrecked as Amy and Cream perform a team-up move to destroy the second Snowy. By grabbing onto Amy, she flies up above, spindashes in the air before shooting Amy down towards the Snowy’s head, cleaving its head clean off which turns into a projectile that drills through a bunch of Eggman’s robots. There are still some straggling robots left, but Belle manages to unlock the cage as the Chao are let loose to destroy the rest. Rouge barges onto the roof of Clutch’s room and asks the group to quickly grab those E-100 Series parts as an avalanche is approaching.
Haya and Shadow arrive at the path of the approaching avalanche. Its path is too wide; enough to ring around the chateau and onto the attractions behind it. Using their superspeed, the two move land and earth to corner the avalanche’s path to strictly the chateau. They attempt closing it down even more, but outright halting mother nature won’t work as their makeshift dam crumbles as they join with the avalanche.
In the initial rewrite, I just rewrote “wooden dam” with “earth dam”, but simply replacing a term doesn’t mean squat when the outcome is ultimately the same. Therefore, I expanded the problem by accounting with my theming/concept of Chao safety by having the Chao be in direct harm’s way, forcing Haya and Shadow to actually safe them.
Rouge, Tails, Amy, Cream, Omega, and Belle head downstairs and get an Omochao to notify the residents to seek higher shelter. As the tenants go, Starline has one last attempt to try and get Tails. Rouge and Amy immediately go for the offensive and attack, Belle cheering on even though she has no context; she just likes supporting her new friends in what they’re doing.
During the fight, Tails tries to get out of Starline’s path, but the platypus uses his tri-core’s Speed power and grabs Tails by the tails. Tails thinks fast and pulls on Belle’s tail, causing her to kick reflexively at Starline’s beak and throwing him at a window, shattering it. Everyone flees upwards as Starline has to get back up again, but he then spots the rushing avalanche reaching him at lightning speed. Before the storm would fatally cover Starline, he actives the Power in his Tri-Core to power through the impact.
The original comic had Starline be covered in snow along with the broken window. Starline could’ve been sliced into bits by glass shards and wood shrapnel, but he only had to take a shower to be fine again. So I’m changing it to have the glass break first before the snow arrives. The force of him being thrown at that window is perfectly acceptable as its slapstick makes it more survivable.
It’s a good thing the White Park Chateau was built to withstand an avalanche. As the storm stops, Amy steps onto snow to hear if the two hedgehogs are nearby. Rouge doubts what she’s doing, but she hammers the snow where they’re at, loosening it enough for the two hedgehogs to spindash out of there.
As everyone reconvenes, Haya hears about Belle’s help and he congratulates her on having helped everyone. She bows, and is then asked by Tails if she could help him with something at his workshop. Belle happily accepts.
I'll deal with Clutch's junk, don't you worry.
...
Back at the workshop, now surrounded by the saved Chao, Omega’s body is fully fixed up and operational with help from Belle. Vanilla arrives to come pick up Cream and she tells her of the exciting adventure she just had. Vanilla is, of course, frazzled by this, but saw this as inevitable and is happy to see no scratch on Cream.
My, Cream’s friends are always so busy.
Also I wouldn’t have the all-loving Amy throw Rouge under the bus.
Outside, Haya thanks Shadow for the help. Shadow doesn’t respond and tosses an apple at one of the Dark Chao. Inside, Belle is happily sweeping the floors as Tails is staring at what he’s scanned of Belle: Eggtech. He looks at Belle who’s doing a little dance while sweeping. Again, Tails has deduced that Belle must’ve been created by Mr. Tinker, but can only stare back down at his tablet as he tries thinking on how to break to her that her father is Eggman. He’s then startled by Belle offering him coffee; nice and strong, no milk and lots and lots of sugar. Tails tries it, but it’s too strong for a young fox to fully ingest and blehs it out.
Back at his lab, Starline had survived the snow and is drying himself off. While he couldn’t get Tails, he’s atleast got his DNA strain in the form of his fur. What will he do with it? Hmm…
You would think Clutch would’ve been reported by anyone there, right? Amy, Cream, Rouge… Amy still has a high authority in the Restoration.
So how come no one reported Clutch’s activities to the authorities after the events of [Chao Races and Badnik Bases] despite there being several witnesses.
Mostly because it wasn’t relevant to the plot of CRABB, or appropriate for the tone of a Sonic story. Generally if we see any sort of law enforcement, they’re serving as an obstacle to whatever our heroes are doing (see: SA1-2). Villains tend to get their comeuppance through other means.
Also, the finer points of how government and law enforcement works on the islands is a major blind spot in the series’ worldbuilding. Not just in the comic, the whole franchise. If I were to to move the story in that direction, I’d be stepping on SEGA’s toes and perhaps establishing things they don’t want to deal with.
But if the story were to go that way, I’ve got a a couple reasons why it wouldn’t work:
-Rouge, the key witness, would NEVER go to the cops what with her being an internationally-famous thief and spy.
-Clutch absolutely has the White Park law enforcement in his pocket. Any report made against him would conveniently go missing.
My reasoning isn’t watertight, and perhaps if there’s time it’d be worth putting in a throwaway line to plug that plothole. But for now, that’s the reasoning goin’ on behind the scenes.
We just had the Metal Virus, what do you mean not “appropriate for the tone of a Sonic story”? Amy also doesn’t think to report it? Or create a blacklist with Clutch’s face front and center? Also isn’t Rouge in kahoots with a president???
Not sure many people were clamoring for a Zeti arc, but they were placed here and so they have to leave ASAP.
Also, what the heck?? Zeti Hunt and Test Run are swapped?? Chao Bases and Test Run I feel are Belle-centric stories, so I want to space them apart. Plus, as I’ve said again, these Zeti need to go.
The story starts with Zavok, still hurt and leaning against an Egg Knight. He quietly rests against a tree and closes his eyes. His time here on Haya’s World had made him suffer greatly, loss after loss and, if he’d be lesser, he’d scream out in frustration. Instead, he huffs out a light fire out of his mouth before continuing his journey. “Find the Zeti.”
Oh we’re not starting with Haya and Eggman? Well I’m not sure why Eggman is out in Winterburg suddenly hunting Zeti now. Also I wanna point out a quote from the original comic. ;p
Back to “Baldy McNosehair” it is then!
That’s not funny! It’s never been funny! It’s never going to be funny!
Abridged reference be darned, just adding this quote here to show Flynn is making fun of the franchise, meaning I can pull the same punches. Also, if you believe I’ve been rude to Flynn in this page, look at how people have been treating Pontac and Graff.
I’m so happy [Pontac and Graff are] not writing for the games anymore because, fuck me, I would’ve found them and dropkicked them myself had there been any more writing like this.
Healthy thing to talk about a writer like that. 14 thousand likes on the video too! Anyway here's a quote from Warren Graff that says all of the writing decisions came from Sega
Correction, Ken and I wrote a million drafts for each game. Each draft got a ton of character and story notes from Sega/Sonic Team. Every word we wrote, every character trait, and every story point was given to us by them or based on the Sonic Game Bible. We had very little say. Don't get me wrong. I loved my time with Sega, everyone was amazing. We just didn't have a lot of creative freedom, which is understandable. It's their most important IP. They are rightfully protective of it. I would be too.
Riverside is Zavok’s first destination. Everything’s turned pristine and he spots Zazz has been splayed out and forced to cook out in the sun. He yells out to himself that he doesn’t wanna be a cooked egg before greeting Zavok. Zavok grabs Zazz by the neck and rips him out of his bounds before ordering the destruction of the city.
A verbal comedy of Zazz talking about eggs and physical comedy with Zavok ripping Zazz out of his bounds by the neck. Zazz is funny too, not just crazy. Also he's got that mech of his to cause further destruction, so it wouldn't make sense for him to be out of town to try and hunt fish.
Now in Vista Vew, Zomom is put inside a cramped box, with his fat being squished out of the box’s bars. Some kids are throwing food in his face, and he’s genuinely trying to give them pitching advice only so they can aim into his mouth. Class is over though, as Zazz emerges with his Moon Mech and destroys the cage holding Zomom. Finally, he can now eat without having it be thrown at him. Definitely an improvement.
I write “pitching advice” here, but Zomom’s an idiot so all he can say is “THROW BETTER! THROW LOWER! THROW HARDER!”
On their way to the next town, Zavok wonders why all of their towns has been cleaned up and repaired. Zazz promises he tore it down, and Zomom definitely remembers eating some of the walls. That’s when Master Zik, along with Zeena and Zor, reconvenes and reveals how that happened. They’re in a state pretty adept at rebuilding and recovering extraterritiorial cities: the United Federation.
Honestly, good thing. Most of the IDW locations are implied to be close to Central City, or atleast on the continent housing it. It’s all thanks to them drawing Tails’ House from Sonic Battle that implies it.
Zavok’s plan? Enter its capital and destroy their leader. They’ll be so harrowed that nobody will stand in their way. However, Zik tells them that their destruction has caused a pattern to form, so they’ll need to distract everyone. Very well, destroy any towns outside of the Federation’s jurisdiction before retreating into Central City.
Reports about Orchardville being attacked by horned demons are being sent, and so the Chaotix are called to figure out who they could be. Well, obviously it’s the Deadly Six, and with the path they’re headed, they might be headed to towns like Winterburg.
Enter Haya. He had just finished destroying one of Eggman’s bases, escaping the explosion with a piece of metal acting as snowboard. Eggman curses him and flies away. Haya then gets contacted by Tails that the Zeti have all grouped up and might be headed to Winterburg. Good thing Haya can just rest up in that village, so he’s just laying down with a cup of hot chocolate he created by dumping a bar of chocolate inside of it.
Why did Haya do that?
Tails is in his Lab with Belle and unveils his Zeti Zapper and Zeti Launcher. The former will disable their electro-magnetic powers, and the latter will return them to Lost Hex. Belle praises the genius invention, but Vector is worried if things could go wrong. Haya assures him to trust Tails’ gizmos.
Oh boy, oh no, the Deadly Six used their big jump abilities to then land in the heard of Central City. Zomom crushes a car under his weight, Zeena breaks all of the shopping glass. Just madness, me thinks. The Chaotix start rushing back to Central City, Haya dashes off, and Tails is quick to pack up his stuff to head there. Tails asks if Belle can watch over the lab, and she happily salutes before Tails enters a truck to haul the Zeti Launcher.
Nobody’s prepared for the chaos, but thankfully there are some people quick to arms. Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin were at the hair saloon, having their hair salooned, before hearing the commotion outside. Whisper naturally pulls out the Wispon she always has under her cloak to drive back the Zeti, Tangle is helping pull in barricades with her tail, and Lanolin uses her bell to create platforms for civilians to safely cross the now-cracked terrain.
They’re making good effort, but soon become no match for the Zeti. Zavok electrocutes Whisper by interfering with her mask, causing Tangle to then rashly launch her tail at Zavok. Zavok effortlessly grabs her tail, spins her around, then has her fly off to who knows where. Lanolin’s NOT a fighter, so she grabs the dazed Whisper and retreats out of there. The group nears the White House, but are then ambushed by Rouge.
It should be important to note that Rouge works with the President. This is a point that Sonic Pict and Sonic Comic have reiterated.
No way are they gonna reach the President, so Rouge will have to fight them off until GUN arrives. She’s doing a pretty good job too, dodging strikes and throwing her bombs to daze the members. Of course, it’s a 6v1, so Rouge incorrectly predicted Zazz and she gets jumped. Fashionably late, Haya dashes into the scene and has them release Rouge. Haya then fights them on, with assistance from Rouge.
Zavok figures out that the bombs Rouge sends are homing, so he redirects the bombs in their direction. So sad. They’re incapacitated now. But oh joy, Tails is now here and quickly drops the Zeti Zappers on each member. Although they can’t use their electro-magnetic powers, they’re still strong enough to tear them apart.
But it’s over now. GUN has arrived; Shadow is hanging on one of the exhaust pipes of a GUN military truck. They’re surrounded, and fighting now would be a death sentence. Shadow stares at Zavok; he knows his zombified self got thrown onto Angel Island, like a projectile, like a weapon. Careless.
Tails unloads his truck and shows them the Zeti Launcher. Rouge asks if they can’t just throw the lot in prison, but Tails says that Lost Hex is their prison. The Zeti counter that they’ll return, that they’ll come back and hit harder. Haya wishes them good luck, which only infuriates them.
Yeah no discussion about morality. Sorry lol.
…because at the end of the day, when you’re having a discussion like [Sonic’s morality], or having a thematic discussion like that, what you end up on is the one that’s considered the correct position, especially if the one that you end on doesn’t get countered in any way. And, while I would argue the [Metal Virus arc] itself should be a counter, when we get to the end of, I believe, #44, Sonic reflects on everything and still just decides to say “I’m standing by my positions instead of getting into my fear.” Like, I get that they’re supposed to be counterarguments, but there are supposed to be two sides of that argument. But when one basically gets a page, and the other basically gets the entire half of the chapter and that half of the chapter is never given a direct counterargument, how is that not undercutting?
I can see where you’re coming from, but at the same time, this book is not meant to be a balanced moral debate.
As the Zeti board the rocket and it flies off, Tails gets a notification and is visibly concerned: the power to the lab has been cut off. He can’t get Belle, so he contacts the Chaotix to check out what’s going on.
Busting through the front door, the Chaotix find Tails’ Workshop to be trashed. The lights are off, but they quickly adjust their eyesifght to see Belle laying on the floor, deactivated. They also see Starline, who had just finished ejecting his USB port out of Belle.
The Chaotix are disgusted at Starline, and they start shooting whatever they can on the low upstart. Unfortunately, his Tri-Core allows him to dodge every last bullet before he makes a beeline out of the lab. Vector heads to Belle’s deactivates body and shakes it awake.
Belle activates, but is confused as to what happened. All she saw was Starline entering the lab before everything went dark. Her logs do indicate that her security’s been breached while deactivated and starts falsely justifying what had happened before repeating “I don’t understand” to herself over and over–her programming doesn’t allow for any negativity. Charmy doesn’t understand, Espio stands solemnly, and Vector brushes her hair.
In the original comic, Belle can cry. I don’t know why Tinker installed that in her.
Welcome to a true showcase of Belle's horror. She was just violated, but her programming of only thinking positively doesn't allow her to get to grips that what had just happened. What happened is horrible, there's nothing positive to pull, and she's just unable to understand. She can't understand.
Starline’s a sick person here, and this is just foreshadowing of his horrible control over Surge and Kit much later.
The Zeti are back on Lost Hex, the Lava Mountain area to be exact. As promised, the rocket disassembles itself and their Zeti Zappers deactivate. Although dismayed, Zavok rallies their team spirit yet again. They’re warriors, and survived a harsh world. Soon, they’ll return and return the favor tenfold.
We start back at Tails’ Workshop. Long time no seen, and Belle continues to work as Tails’ assistant. A small extension has been built in the lab for Belle to make herself at home.
In IDW, this arc mainly starts with Belle’s integration with the Restoration, aka.: character purgatory. Her first day there doesn’t really develop her character and is more meant to showcase how horrible of a time she’s having; the Chief Mechanic even implies to destroy Belle if she doesn’t leave soon. Haha, very funny, a psychotic murderer as the chief mechanic...
My decision to have Belle live at Tails’ Workshop is based on 2 things: The fact the Restoration doesn’t exist in this rewrite, and this is largely based on Mario lore; Mario’s house in games like Super Mario RPG and Dr. Mario 64 gained a green extension in Paper Mario when Luigi starting living with Mario again.
While Belle helps around the workshop, her boundless optimism is her own flaw as she doesn’t consider any negatives, causing circuits to overload and many other accidents. Tails isn’t entirely bothered by this, but wants her to learn how to critically analyze a situation before executing it.
Oh look, Tangle swings on by and uses her tail to hold onto a falling airplane caused by Belle’s reflexive kick. Tangle introduces herself to Belle and declares eachother tail buddies. Belle in response gives a happy, but comedically professional disclaimer about not pulling her tail without proper authorization.
Tangle even calls out the Restoration to be stickled with rules and regulations. Why is this a Sonic location, and especially one portrayed as a positive force? Later on, Tangle is absolutely depressed with having Restoration donations to catalogue. I’m telling you – The Restoration is character purgatory because she can quit at any time. Unfortunately, Jewel became unimportant, so she got tossed in there like the rest of them, and Tangle doesn't like leaving behind her best friend. Destroy the Restoration!! They haven't done anything!! Why is there a 16-year-old (Jewel) in control of this entire organization??
Haya arrives at Tails’ place, carrying Amy. Amy explains that people living close to coast have been seeing a giant Star Post off the coast, one with 4 giant electric orbs floating around it causing flash floods, storms, and the long-reaching power outages which reached Amy's apartment.
Did you know that this tower doesn’t even have an official name? I’m serious here. Sonic Wiki Zone doesn’t even have an article for it because of that. The IDW Sonic Hub Wiki does have an article and gives it the conjectural name “Eggman’s Tower”. This is another point to bring up about IDW Sonic; a lot of IDW locations go unnamed until several issues (months) later. The IDW Sonic Hub Wiki has a whole disambiguation article for previously unnamed towns.
Vista View, the first location of this comic’s run, didn’t get named until issue 13, like almost a year later. Locations are a character in their own right, with history and culture leading audiences to want to know more about it. Name them.
So Haya, Tails, and Amy prepare to head off with the Tornado to stop this tower. Tangle wants to join, and Haya’s all for it, but Tails really doesn’t want Belle to be alone after what happened previously, so he has Tangle watch over her. The trio arrive at the base and destroy the robots guarding the entrance. Amy knocks the door into the base open, but that force causes the portal inside to react and suck all three inside.
Back at the workshop, Tangle is bored. She then gets an idea and asks Belle to join her in joining the rest of the trio. Not able to see anything negative about this plan, Belle accepts and the two ride on the Big Bang towards their direction.
Having Tangle initiate the adventure would make more sense than Belle, who’d have no idea if Mr. Tinker is on that tower. Where did she even get the idea from? Just a guess? That’s incredibly risky to hotwire and possibly cause an accident with the Big Bang for.
Back at the trio, they’ve managed to enter a digital world where the three are in outer space. Space-themed robots such as asteroids or suns are swiftly destroyed by the three. With Tails’ deduction, he has Amy destroy a dwarf planet, which then turns into green framework that turns into a gridline that forms into the path forward.
I can't just let the Classic IDW stories hog all the fun level gimmicks and enemy designs.
After entering another portal, the three suddenly find themselves in… a regular boring town. All the buildings are the same, aligned the same, and with dull red, green, white, or blue house paint.
This would be an honestly weird location if all the previous IDW locales weren’t just blocky buildings. I’m also having a more extreme contrast by having this exciting space adventure before having them land in this bleak and empty town.
They enter inside a house and find a dummy sitting on the table, again a full-on dull yellow color. Odd…
Belle and Tangle arrive at the tower and enter inside, passing by a deactivated portal. Belle tries humming happily, but Tangle shushes her since they’re supposed to be stealthy. Climbing up the scaffolding of the main room, they overhear Orbot and Cubot on the main desk activating the portals. They’ve seen Haya, Tails, and Amy inside the test chambers and are dreading contacting Eggman. However, their dread turns to confusion as Eggman seems delighted to their welcome.
Belle is also delighted with Eggman’s voice; it brings her back to the past. This reminiscing causes her grip on the desk platform to fall, making her fall onto the bridge below. Tangle tries grabbing her, but the trotting Egg Pawns would see her. Belle, aloof of the danger, stands up and welcomes herself to them. She shakes their hand and… their eyes turn pink? The Pawn looks at their own hands, confused, and starts walking with the rest of the group, confused and with a more lively walk.
Welcome to Belle's special ability: pacifying Eggman's robots. It's how she managed to read bedtime stories to those robots back in Chao Races. Of course, a simple command would override Belle's Pacification back into their original programming
When the Pawns leave, Tangle hoists Belle back up and stares at her in confusion before continuing on investigating. Belle smiles.
Inside the simulation, the trio finally get Eggman speeching to them, his word spread all throughout the tacky furniture. He explains the simulations are for testing wide-scale invasions, the resources for doing so requiring a lot of electricity, hence the tower generating storms.
They never really wrote why the tower was causing storms and floods.
No way are the three gonna let Eggman continue, but Eggman already sent his horde of robotic troops to the house they’re in. After destroying the lot of them, Eggman changes the environment of the town they’re in. The scaffolding breaks, shakes, and the tiles are even rumbling too. The group hold onto the earthquake that’s happening until they see what has happened–the town has turned into a group of monster houses!
The final boss of this arc always was a bit funny to me. The arena’s a blank background that artists don’t have to draw on, and there are four Egg Viper recolors, with one of them just being the original red. Also I think the art is just plain unfinished? When Tangle gives herself brain damage on the green Egg Viper, Adam Bryce Thomas gets switched with Evan Stanley and the coloring suddenly gets shaded. Genuinely looks like a bootleg.
That’s why I’m making the town itself the boss of this arc. Not only is it more visually interesting and creative, but having towns assimilate into fighting for Eggman would foreshadow Eggperial Tower and its ability to assimilate the nearby ground.
The fight is on. One of the houses grabs a lamp post like a rod and aims it at the heroes, the lamp post shoots a deadly laser beam that the three avoid. Another one, a windmill tower, shoots a strong gust of air that flies the three up into the air. Then finally, one of the angel fountain statues shoots a piercing blade of water right at them.
The perspective shifts to a tablet showing a feed of one of the monster houses. Tangle and Belle are watching cautiously and somewhat worried, Tangle already haven entangled Orbot and Cubot. They stare at many of the portals littered about the main room, even ones high up on the wall, wondering which one leads to Haya and Co… Belle comes up with the idea to track the location of the monster house’s feed and redirect one of the portals here to a nearby portal close to the fight.
Tangle enters inside while having her tail attached to one of the nearby poles. Now with the three alone, Orbot and Cubot try asking Belle what her deal is. Belle happily explains that she’s the daughter of Mr. Tinker, which caused the two robots to ask her more about what he was like; the duo only had a few seconds with this Mr. Tinker persona, after all. To Belle, Mr. Tinker treated her like a daughter, always ready to help the villagers, and always served Tinker the same coffee. Strong, no milk. "Oh, oh, and lots of sugar, right?" Orbot interrupts, but Belle is shocked how they know what kind of coffee Tinker likes.
This swapping of conversations will not only help develop Belle’s character and her past, or Orbot and Cubot’s longing to not be abused by Eggman, but it also sparks a friendly relationship between Belle and the two lackeys. The original comic simply reiterated the point of them being helpers of Eggman, which doesn’t add much.
Before Orbot and Cubot explain, a sudden video call from Eggman interrupts the three of them; that blasted lemur got in and the two haven’t told him about it. Belle happily explains that they’re having a nice conversation. Hearing that familiar voice causes Eggman to turn on autopilot before taking off his VR helmet. He takes a good long look at Belle, then realizes that this is a creation of his.
Belle remarks how Eggman looks and sounds strikingly similar to Mr. Tinker, asking him if he’s a close relative to him. Eggman laughs at how naive his delusional alter-ego made his creation, then tells straight up how she’s the result of arbitrary circumstances of a brain damaged simpleton. He tells Belle that he’s cured now, that he doesn’t need her, and explains how his unrestrained virtual reality tower is more superior than some rollercoaster in a shed.
He then proposes to join him; make her better, make her fit more in-line with the Eggman Empire...
...
Belle violently throws away the tablet in response, causing it to shatter and turn off. Orbot and Cubot ask why she did that, but Belle can’t answer–all of her answers are negative, but her programming has forced out this negativity, so she's just blankly confused.
What if I make Eggman a tad bit more cruel? He’s usually like that to his creations. Belle is also allowed this freak-out; these are very special circumstances for her. You’re programmed as a happy helpful girl, you’re praised by your creator, all is well. Your creator then disappears, you’re now aimlessly wandering the world trying to find happiness. Later on, you find your creator again and tells you that you’re useless and that you’re not good enough–you should be something else. But you’ve been a happy helpful girl, right? Wasn’t that what her creator only wanted out of her? Her programming conflicted with what she should be feeling, and thus she freaked out.
The portal is somewhat reverberating. Orbot explains that objects shouldn’t be left in energy tunnels for too long as it would create a feedback loop and cause an implosion from under its own energy weight. Oh well…
Haya, Tails, Amy, and Tangle have been wrecking the houses meanwhile. Tangle’s been controlling the light posts to redirect the laser beams towards the houses, Haya smashes the fountains, Amy is parrying the blows of fists made out of street curbs, and Tails has been throwing tiny shrapnel that could lead directly to where the core controller could be. They’re doing a good job.
Autopilot is disengaged, and Eggman is enraged at the state that the street is in. Eggman then has all the robots attack at once. Tangle’s tail is lightly tugged by Belle, which she’s indicating is time for everyone to go. She holds on tight to Haya and Amy (Tails can fly) as they all exit out of the street simulation and back into the tower. Belle calmly explains that the portal’s compressing energy has created a vortex, which will suck up everything into a massive implosion. The possibility of escaping are low.
But Haya likes those odds. Everyone holds onto Haya as everyone boards on the Tornado before the tower shrinks onto itself before completely disappearing. In his mancave, Eggman’s VR helmet zaps him a small bit.
Sunset falls, and everyone finally starts talking on the Tornado. Tangle asks what to do with Orbot and Cubot, and Belle suggests to just leave them be–they’ve been nice to her. Orbot and Cubot then want to use this opportunity for some R&R before falling off of the plane. Haya wishes them later before continuing to stare ahead. Tails remarks on Belle making this decision and asks what’s up. Belle doesn’t want to, but Amy chimes in that they’re friends, and understanding eachother makes eachother happy.
Belle nods then explains what had happened in her call with Eggman. After breaking the tablet, she’s conflicted about what she should do now that her father is most likely gone: follow her programming to please the father she loves, or follow the Eggman Empire to please the father she saw. Everyone is quiet, but Haya then asks her what she wants out of herself; without what either of her fathers want. Belle has yet to calculate a decision, which Haya finds okay–as long as she finds her own path. Tails then breaks up the conversation to tell everyone that the storm has cleared up, so it should be a smooth flight back.
Haya would look a bit more sympathetic towards Belle’s talk at the Tornado. I dunno, he looked really angry at her and didn’t say anything in the original comic.
