Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of its associated characters and lore.
[AE]
After the End
[AE]
A Brief, or Lasting Victory?
[AE]
The Remains of Doctor Ivo Robotnik's Retreat, Planet Mobius, 2000
Located far north of the Metropolis City Zone in a mountainous area, Sonic the Hedgehog, alongside his fellow Freedom Fighters, Amy Rose and Miles "Tails" Prower, and their allies, Knuckles the Echidna and Ebony the Mystic Mog, had stopped the Chaos energy-powered Drakon known only as Chaos, from using the power of the Chaos Emeralds to destroy Mobius followed by remerging Sonic with his own Chaos-powered split personality, Super Sonic, before the latter would have gone on the offensive on everyone present. With everything said and done, the five heroes took a brief moment to relax from the recent excitement and reflect on what they had experienced since Chaos was released from his imprisonment, and then turned to the two criminals responsible for the entire incident who were just about to escape separately before Ebony used her magic to conjure chains of energy to bind the officially as well as mentally fallen dictator of Mobius, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, and his just then resigned assistant scientist, Grimer Wormtongue, which prevented them from escaping.
The two villains tried to escape from their bindings, Grimer in hopeless fright from the consequences of getting caught, and Robotnik in sheer anger at being kept from witnessing the death of Mobius that he wanted to see happen at either Chaos, or Super Sonic's hands, but no amount of physical strength on their part was able to set them free from Ebony's magic, which left a grimacing Sonic to glare over them while Amy and the others watched in neither approval at Sonic's seemingly threatening stance towards Robotnik and Grimer, or disapproval at the same time. The three official Freedom Fighters and their two allies, old and new alike, were never tolerant of the evil Robotnik and Grimer had done over their lives, and right then, considering Sonic's facial expression and clenched fists had the look of murderous rage, it looked like Robotnik and Grimer had finally met their punisher at last.
"Before I decide how I want to end today, I want to know which one of you heartless jerks let Chaos out in the first place," Sonic snarled in anger, fully remembering his friend, Johnny Lightfoot's, death at the hands of Chaos followed by Knuckles's look of great loss upon the Floating Island he protected being sunken beneath the Mobian ocean it hovered over when he tried to keep the Chaos Emeralds away from the aforementioned monster's clutches.
"I can answer that one wholeheartedly, Sonic," the red echidna interjected before pointing at the cowering Grimer with an accusatory finger. "After you showed up from wherever you were at, Robotnik said that since Grimer was the one who released Chaos, he should've been the one to stop him somehow while you were catching your breath."
"I-I was only trying to rekindle Robotnik's dashed hopes," Grimer stuttered in terror. "I just didn't look up the fact that Chaos was completely uncontrollable any more than I realized Robotnik was irreversibly mad!" In panic, he then gestured to Robotnik with his head. "If anything, you should take it all out on him! He's the one who inspired me to be evil among other things in the first place!"
Unable to stay silent anymore, Amy approached Grimer in mounting fury as she exclaimed, "Oh, so it took Robotnik's second world destroying attempt to really wake you up? Is that it, Grimer?!" Folding her arms with a heavy frown, she added, "I almost thought that you'd finally abandon this monster after helping us out with the Plax, but that was just wishful thinking, wasn't it?"
No longer thrashing with his bindings anymore, Robotnik opted instead to glare menacingly at his former lackey upon realizing his earlier betrayal as Tails then joined his friends in condemning their age-old enemies. "If you were really concerned about your ex-boss's well-being, Grimer, you should've just turned both him and yourself to the authorities where you would've been placed in an asylum on one end and thrown in jail in the other. Either way, you would never need to run anymore, or be unprovided for simply from doing the right thing. Instead, you nearly destroyed the world and got a good Freedom Fighter, our friend, killed!" He then turned his glare toward Robotnik. "And you, Doctor, I never told anyone about this, even in my letters to my family in the Nameless Zone, but there was this one time I thought I actually had the chance to assassinate you a while back before Super Sonic's E.M.P. destroyed your empire!"
Robotnik merely raised an eyebrow while everyone in witness merely looked on in a mix of confusion and surprise at Tails admitted to being from the legendary magical dimension known as the Nameless Zone as well as his until then unknown adventure. Undeterred, however, Tails went on, "It turned out to just be an illusion, a test of character by this magical unicorn guy who told me that if I just followed my good instincts, you would be defeated eventually." Clenching his fists as tears spilled from his eyes, Tails then added, "But right now, I almost wish that motorcade thing was real and that I actually took the shot because no matter how evil I would've been for killing you, especially like that, at least all the misery that still happened even after you fell from power would never have happened!"
In sympathy, Amy placed her left hand on Tails' shoulder to support him while Sonic and Knuckles looked on in similar compassion mixed with grief, Grimer tried once again to escape his bindings, and a quiet Ebony raised her hands for calm before Robotnik chuckled cruelly and then burst out in maniacal laughter which startled everyone present until the five heroes' shock turned to outrage. "Oh, please, you imbeciles," Robotnik said as he laughed. "As far as I am concerned, all four of you do-gooding Freedom Fighters, official and otherwise, are to blame for my evil actions thus far! Sonic might as well have created me through time travel, Knuckles didn't catch onto my evil fast enough when we first worked together, Tails might as well have had many real opportunities to murder me before I did something worse, and Miss Rose's words to me after my attempt to destructively merge Shanazar with Mobius failed were what led me to end it all!" He then turned to Amy with a sharp, maddened look as he added, "In other words, Amy, you killed Johnny Lightfoot as much as Grimer and Chaos did!"
As Amy's anger turned to teary-eyed horror at Robotnik's mocking words, the insane Human continued to sadistically laugh at his enemies' pain before an impatient and angry Sonic used his super speed to run straight towards him and punch him in the face. Down, but not out, Robotnik chuckled at what was happening before Sonic brought his right leg on his windpipe as if intending to crush it.
"Sonic," Ebony called out in concern, but was kept from intervening by Knuckles who, despite having a similar look of shock as her, Amy, and Tails, nonetheless trusted Sonic well-enough to come to his senses on his own.
"Go ahead, spike ball," Robotnik demanded as best he could. "Your one-time friend no longer exists. Clean up you mistake at long last!"
Sonic, however, released his foot from Robotnik's throat and brought his face up close to the latter's. "I am not a killer, lard belly. Right now, I honestly wish I were, but I had a good friend who would not approve of me doing you in like this." Exhaling his breath, Sonic glared at both the angry Robotnik and the scared Grimer as he then said, "Good people like Johnny have suffered and even died because of you two monsters, but there's been enough of that already and I'm sure there isn't a police station, courthouse, or Zone Leader on Mobius who would hesitate in seeing the both of you rot in cells for what you've done."
Turning back to his friends, Sonic forced a hopeful smile which he felt in some degree and said to them, "Let's take these freaks to Metropolis, guys, then we can do the best we can in moving past this nightmare."
Reciprocating Sonic's expression and words, Ebony tightened her binds around the two estranged villains with Sonic helping to watch them while Knuckles and Amy gathered the seven Chaos Emeralds present and Tails got their vehicle prepped for the trip to Metropolis. Before they could leave, however, Ebony felt the need to bring up two points to Sonic.
"You seemed pretty stressed right then, Sonic," she said to the blue hedgehog. "Are you well?"
Having a realization himself, Sonic paused before eventually replying, "I didn't feel the urge to go Super then, Ebony, but I'm honestly not sure if that's good, or bad." Seeing Ebony's slight downcast expression, Sonic added quickly, "For what it's worth, if you actually did turn Super Sonic good, I hope that if and when I do transform, it'll turn out alright, but I can't be certain until then, that's all."
Showing a look of honest surprise, Ebony could not help but ask, "I'm sorry, but do I dare ask what happened to the usual Sonic?"
It was then the Hero of Mobius' turn to show a slight downcast look. "Well, he lost a friend, and after some lone-thinking, he's decided he wants to improve himself to be better than what he was, so that he won't lose another friend again."
Smiling kindly, Ebony said, "Well, if you feel that you must, but please don't forget to keep your loved ones close to you still." She then adopted a serious look as she added, "Speaking of keeping someone close, should we look for Chaos after Super threw him off the mountain?"
Recognizing the possibility of Chaos returning to power, Sonic nodded with his own serious face before turning to Tails. "You heard her, Tails. Let's make sure that ugly fish never comes back again."
Getting onto their aerial vehicle while Ebony used her magic to float herself and their two captives, the Freedom Fighters with their allies and captives hovered down to the bottom of the mountain where they saw a large, purple-furred cat of a Mobian fisherman starting to climb it himself before noticing the seven people approaching above him. Waving his left hand giddily, the burly cat walked up to them as Ebony floated down on the ground followed by the others landing.
"Wow, he's huge," Tails whispered to his friends considering the cat was taller than even the captured Robotnik.
"Be nice, Tails," Amy quickly chided before going to introduce themselves to the new person.
"Hi, there," the fisherman greeted the uncertain group optimistically. Catching a good look at the people, however, especially with the way he noticeably recognized the familiar faces of Sonic and Robotnik, the cat scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Looks like my catch of the day was telling me the truth when he said I wasn't noticing what was going on above me." Letting out a chuckle, he explained to Sonic and his equally curious friends, "Come out to a new place to fish and I find myself with what sounded like harsh weather, crocodiles in the lake I was trying to fish at, a screaming fish falling down and almost getting eaten by the crocs, and when I saved him, he told me that his house was under attack by thieves and begged me to help him save his jewel collection, but here you all are."
"You know who we are then," Sonic asked for the sake of argument, especially considering that if the cat had Chaos on him, he was not going anywhere.
"Well, sure! I may not be a big city kind of cat, but I do read newspapers every now and then as much as I hear stories from people I meet talking about the mean Doctor Robotnik out to rule the world and the nice Freedom Fighters stopping him every time." Noticing Ebony, he then added, "Although, I can't say I can put a name to you, ma'am. Sorry."
Smiling at her fellow feline's kind attitude, Ebony replied, "It's no trouble, my friend. My name is Ebony. I was mostly just at the right place and time to help. And you are?"
The cat then gestured to himself and said, "You can call me Big."
Not understanding what the cat said, Knuckles shrugged with his arms raised and commented, "Yeah, I'm sure anyone who looks at you can notice that, but-."
"Knuckles, don't make fun of him," Amy admonished, then turning to Tails added, "And that means you, too, Tails."
"You were probably thinking the same thing, too," Tails couldn't help but defend himself.
Shaking his head with a knowing smile, Sonic interjected, "Guys, I think Big was just saying that his name is Big the Cat, or something like that."
Big himself looked confused at the sight in front of him as he said, "Isn't that what I said?"
Taking a moment to process that, Knuckles and the two official Freedom Fighters responded awkwardly in unison, "Oh."
Deciding to get back on topic, Knuckles then said, "Let's save the meet and greet for later, everybody." Turning to Big, he then asked, "Do you have Chaos with you? Um, the talking fish thing?"
"Oh, yeah," Big answered with a nod as he then showed the fish basket he carrying on his right arm. "He's right in here." Opening it up, Big then showed Sonic and his friends the unconscious Drakon that was once Chaos to them. "He was getting pretty crazy with the begging and the anger issues, so I kind of knocked him out on the head, or the body whichever, as I was telling him that I would help, but something tells me he's not really a good guy at all, huh?"
Grimacing at the Drakon, Sonic replied, "No, he isn't, Big, but thanks for holding onto him. It will make bringing him to justice much easier."
"I like to help when I can," Big said as he then closed the basket and gave it, with Chaos inside it, to Sonic. "Just be sure to return it when you're done using it, please. I'd join you on the way, but I don't want to give Ebony, or that fancy flying machine of yours too much to carry."
Showing an appreciative smile alongside her friends while the two captive baddies rolled their eyes at Big's innocence, Amy replied, "If you love fishing so much, you're always welcome to come to South Island, Big. There's lots of nice places to fish and stuff like that. We can even give you your basket back there if we don't see each other sooner."
Returning the smile, Big shook Amy's right hand, saying, "I'd love to, Amy Rose! I'm sure I'll find my way straight to you guys – oh, look out!"
Quickly grabbed by the surprised cat, the Freedom Fighters alongside Knuckles and Ebony were pulled away from their spots just in time before an energy blast nearly took them all out. Unfortunately, with Ebony's concentration broken, Robotnik and Grimer were set free to either stand still in disinterest in the former's case or look in fear as was how the latter reacted.
"What the heck is going on now," Tails yelled in annoyance as a sizable group of robots sped towards them from the sky. All of them had spherical large heads with gold armor plating and eye-like visors while their hands were connected to them in a spindly fashion. It didn't take long for Sonic and Knuckles to recognize them for what they were.
"Red, your Guardian Robots have gone haywire again," Sonic exclaimed.
"These are the machines that Porker Lewis was helping Knuckles work with," Amy asked in shock at the menacing sight of them all.
Knuckles finally responded in disbelief, "I don't understand. We left all of mine back on the Floating Island when it sunk! How can they be here?!"
"Come, my old foe," the leading Guardian Robot commented with a masculine voice speaking through an electronic speaker. "Surely you'd know of only one genius scientist who could pull this off."
Recognizing the voice, Knuckles narrowed his eyes and growled just as the Robot's head opened to reveal a white-furred echidna with cybernetic implants smirking at them all in an evil way from the cockpit.
"It's that old creeper," Sonic exclaimed in angry recognition of the villain that once cooperated with Robotnik before the latter fell from power.
"Zachary," Knuckles identified in clear expectation of a fight with Sonic, Tails, Amy, Ebony, and even Big preparing themselves for combat.
"Well, well, if it isn't my fellow doctor," Robotnik commented with only slight interest at the sight of Doctor Zachary while Grimer looked about indecisively of what he should do given the standoff then.
Chuckling at the sight of rebellion from his primary adversaries, Grimer's fear, and even Robotnik's apathy, Zachary then said, "I hate to interrupt this cheery moment among victorious friends, but while I find Robotnik, Grimer, and Chaos to be a bit self-deluded, weak-willed, and typically Drakon-like in their behavior respectively, I believe I'll have a better use for all three of them then you fools, so hand them over to me, or things will get ugly very fast."
Letting loose an amused chuckle of his own, Sonic replied with a determined grin, "Hate to break it to you, Zac, but when it comes to 'fast', I've got everyone so far beat. Now let's go."
Zachary smiled wickedly as he then proclaimed, "My pleasure, Sonic the Hedgehog and company!"
It was then that another conflict would begin so very soon.
[AE]
From Sonic the Comic – Online to Sonic the Continuation, there have been some fan-comics over the years that have done what they could to continue where the original British Sonic the Comic left off at. From what I could see, though, there is very little fanfiction of Sonic the Comic, which is kind of unfortunate since it had some pretty interesting concepts back in the day and the two above fan-comics have realized just as much interesting ideas of their own to help adapt some other Sonic content from the games at least into what their creators' think a continuation of Sonic the Comic would go as. Therefore, looking back on Nigel Kitching's (who did a good amount of work on the aforementioned official comic book) Yahoo-posted plans for how he wanted Sonic the Comic to go from even before it met its unfortunate demise as well as my own personal thoughts, I figured that maybe posting a mini-series of what I think would have immediately happened after STC's 184 th and final issue (not counting the reprints) would be helpful in giving me something to do while also inspiring some other Sonic writers to maybe write about Sonic the Comic themselves.
Although, as a mini-series, I cannot say that I will be making this a full long story in terms of introducing STC Sequel-exclusive characters, or even adapting Sonic game characters like Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog into the mix partly because I have too many other things to work and partly because I want this to just be like the final episodes of shows like Warehouse 13 where its less about the action and more about the coming to terms of the approaching ending sort of thing as well as partly because I am not sure I have enough imagination to come up with original ideas for continuing Sonic the Comic without borrowing the ideas of others, which is something I am not comfortable with, regardless. Besides, in all honesty, if I wanted to write a full story about Sonic the Comic, I would go back to the beginning and make sure it's earlier issues were not so simplistic and that some scrapped ideas like the Sonic/Amy/Johnny love triangle among others were given the spotlight as I move forward working on the continuity issues here and there, but I am not sure if I would be able to do it all and then expand from it there, so you know. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy what I depict here and feel inspired from it.