COVER

Just like the last two, but featuring the all-new Chaotix. Mighty is in this story but not on the cover or with the group, because he was foolishly left out of the game and I was left with the same problem Archie comics had: Mighty is in my continuity and established as a valued member of Chaotix, but he doesn’t appear to exist in the games now, so how do you keep him in? Well, after this Sonic Heroes adaptation that problem was easily solved because I just went back to my usual Mighty, Espio, Vector, Charmy format of Chaotix, with some slight character tweaks based on the games and to give Mighty a less generic character, but for this adaptation I had to have Mighty be kidnapped and used as bait. That’s an odd choice because Mighty is seen to be very powerful (strength) and fast, so you’d thing Metal would take the much weaker Charmy, but it had to be done so I sucked it up and did it. It worked and everything fell back into place afterwards but I hope SEGA brings back Mighty (and Ray, and Nack, and maybe Bean and Bark too, lol).

1

Anyways, we got that same (but subtly different) Mobius monologue and then the first time two Teams interact before the Last story, as Knuckles pretty much orders and demands that Chaotix take good care of his Island and the Emeralds. It isn’t that he doesn’t trust them, but he seems annoyed at having to leave the Island now, going back to his solitude and his philosophy that “surface matters” are not his concern. His aggressiveness is toned down later and replaced with the respect bond between him and Chaotix again, but here he seems very annoyed having to go, but Chaotix are left to assume his duties. Oh and this is the first time we see Mushroom Hill, one of my favourite Zones ever.

2

Something they are very happy about, as it shows how much faith Knuckles has in them to Guard his Island and the Emeralds. Anyway, the story promptly shifts to Chaotix and we have this all-new stuff here. First, of course, my custom-made Emerald Shrine background based on Sonic Adventure, which gets the correct number of Emeralds, looks a lot more open and bright than the dull Emerald Chamber and allows for some impressive attack sequences later and in later comics. All of Chaotix but Mighty have their Heroes outfits on, Charmy’s was edited by me and is pretty basic, but correct. Vector’s sprites were made by me based on a few poses made by someone else whose name I forget, I think it was someone on the Sonic Stadium message board, but he never finished it so, because the custom made Heroes Vector that was out there looked so butt ugly, I spliced the props onto an Advanced version of Vector (in all the comics before this one, Vector was his Chaotix sprite, which I preferred over the Advance look, but replaced it here and never used it again except for Chaotix: Roots) and edited all the poses, and even made a few new ones, into this, the best mix of Vector styles as this one is tall and lanky like he should be (the big, bulky look looks good and everything, but it was a huge change from what Vector has been presented as in comics and games before) but has all his Heroes stuff on (chain, shoes, wrist pieces, no walkman). Espio is a sprite made by Zach “Zin” Furr, a great spriter who also made a Heroes Charmy and Vector but they didn’t fit right into my comics so I kept my ones, and has a few extra poses by Akamay later. I had edited the old Espio Advance sprite (seen in TTSS and Perfect Chaos) to look like his Sonic Heroes counterpart (it was seen at the end of TCRS) but it didn’t look very good, whereas this excellent Espio looked fantastic so it became my default Espio, and I used it as a base to create a whole heap of extra poses (running, dramatic standing, reactions, fighting, etc). Espio’s character is now more of the leader of the group, he is quiet and reserved and senses things with his Ninja skills, that apparently were learned out of continuity. Charmy and Vector are the same, Mighty has a more cocky and arrogant attitude now. Metal teleports in a very similar way to Shadow’s Chaos Control, but it’s not, he can just teleport, and he whips Mighty away with ease.

3

Before the rest can help, Metal downs them all with the impressive light show attack we’ve seen from other characters before, and takes Mighty. Originally, he took Mighty and just left but I added in him absorbing power from the Chaos Emeralds before he went because, in the game, Metal gains the power of Chaos to become Metal Madness/Overlord, but he doesn’t encounter Chaos in my story, so he absorbs some power here to compensate (some power, it is later revealed that he miscalculated how much power he would need and didn’t take enough for his master plan, the plan revealed in I, Metal and Sonic Battle: Metal Ragnorak). Anyway, with that done, he flees and Chaotix set out to rescue Mighty, which sounds a little better than them being tricked into rescuing Eggman like in the game, as that kinda made Chaotix out to be the bad guys.

4

Here’s the little craft they used to leave the Island, a craft that took me ages to do properly and it still didn’t come out exactly right. It was originally going to be just a craft based on that weird thing in Knuckles’ Chaotix that shoots you off into the level you want, but that was too small, then it was this drill-like machine also from Chaotix, but that was too small, so it became this odd mix of an Egg-O-Matic and an elevator from Knuckles’ Chaotix, this is to show it was probably made for Knuckles by Tails to let him travel over vast areas quickly. In Fleetway, Chaotix had a vehicle that was similar and I tried to recreate it, it does work but the engine effects look odd, the fireball was only supposed to be diagonal when they took off or started to land, not in the air, but it’s a mixture of flames and air, to show that it’s powered by some odd thing, it’s a little complicated but it seems to work and it’s better than Charmy flying them both to Floating Island (especially when we know he has a tendency to get tired, like Tails, when he flies long distances, hence why he can’t fly from the surface to Floating Island, because of the distance). Anyway, they get the same transition scene form normal skies to polluted skies.

5

All these backgrounds were custom made by me with the specific intent to show that they had landed in a different area (actually the other side of where Sonic and Amy were) and to show Robotropolis behind them and in the foreground too, as all these Robots are busy carrying out duties and there’s all this machinery everywhere (also, Spikes is hiding behind that Egg Prison in the third frame, he’s gone in the forth, because you’d blink and miss it lol). This is why Chaotix have to sneak around, promoting their stealth, because of all the Robots and stuff, and the mixed background/foreground was needed for them to have some cover, though it was pretty tricky to do it all and get the effect right, but I love these busy Robots all doing these odd tasks and being oblivious to Chaotix. The discourse in the third and forth panels was based loosely on a scene from Star Trek: First Contact where Picard and his men see the Borg working on the dish outside whilst outside the ship.

6

Things get a little more hectic, but they successfully reach the entrance to Eggman’s base safely (or not, you can see the Robot waiting to leap out from behind the entrance). The Robot that appears is some kind of Mecha version of a Digimon that I liked the look of and thought would fit well. As it leaps in, Espio instinctively turns invisible and the Robot sees only two of them, because it’s obviously dumb. The invisibility effect is much better this time then in TTSS (where it worked to show him changing colour to blend into the background) as now you can see Espio as a kind of ghost, like he appears in Sonic Heroes. I actually cannot remember how to do this effect, I did it in Paint Shop Pro 7 but it escapes me now how I did it. When Espio hits the fantastic Spinning Top Attack on the Robot, he is half visible and half-invisible, which is pretty funky, and Charmy gets to say his enthusiastic line from Sonic heroes (originally said to Team Rose).

7

Working together as a unit, Chaotix make short work of this Robot. Unlike Team Rose, they are a cohesive team already and have tactics and battle plans all worked out, so they leap into a fight knowing that they can trust their team mates to be backing them up, whereas Team Rose ended up relying on each other, and Team Sonic rely more on one-on-one abilities to win. However, the Robot has a delayed explosion, which was really there to get them into the base in a comedic way other than just walking right in, and it shows that the characters can be hurt and damaged when the Robots they smash explode under their feet or whatever.

8

They also have a run through the complex and it’s interesting to note that Vector keeps pace with Espio and Charmy is left straggling because he can’t fly as fast as they run (unlike Tails, who flies about as fast as he runs and that is often enough to keep pace with Sonic). But Espio runs full pelt from the start, whereas Vector takes his time accelerating to full speed because he’s so big, and this brings them to Mighty.

9

Interestingly enough, Mighty opts to warn them off rather than letting them free him so he can help them fight, and they head off to care of Eggman, promising to free Mighty afterwards. This is where Eggman openly admits that it’s all a big trap, but Chaotix don’t really care; they want to take Eggman out, free Mighty and leave. However, Eggman sends out Zonik to fight them. Which is interesting at the time, because Zonik is inferior to Metal now, so you have to wonder why Eggman doesn’t have them fight Metal, but he has it all planned out and I guess he believes that Zonik will be able to handle them, seeing as it mopped the floor with Chaotix and Knuckles in TTSS.

10

Again, Chaotix are a team, so they all attack together, rather than Espio handling it alone. So Vector uses his Strength to try to weaken the Robot, but his Strength is nothing to Zonik, best shown with that awesome flash kick that Zonik does, which knocks Vector out for the duration. With the strongest member downed, Espio has Charmy fly to distract Zonik’s attention so that Espio can take the initiative, resulting in not only a new fireball from Zonik’s chest laser but another invisibility shift for Espio and a fireball fest directed at Charmy, who has to use all his speed and small size to weave out of the path of the attack so Espio can sneak behind Zonik.

11

This allows him to hit the pinning Top Attack and catch Zonik off guard, and then they follow up with a double team attack, showing that their abilities have increased since they last fought Zonik. However, Zonik fires back, blasting his fireballs, which Espio dodges with a Daredevil-like back flip, however Charmy takes it full force. Vector awakens in time to see another Fleetway influence, as the Metallix’s only weak spot was noted as being the neck joint, and Espio flings a Ninja Star at that joint, severing Zonik’s head and causing the Robot to be engulfed in flames.

12

However, again, the remains remain in the frame, but Chaotix turn away, their attention diverted by Eggman’s megalomaniac speech, and they miss the remains moulding and transforming into liquid and then into Metal, proving that it was Metal all along, but why would Metal lose to Chaotix when it is obviously powerful enough to defeat them? The answer lies ahead, but for now it’s like a mystery (well, unless you’ve played and completed the game lol).

Overall

I like this part, it really fleshes Chaotix out as individual characters, having their game personalities as a base and then working off that and developing their personalities more really worked to make them heroes and formidable in their own right, especially in their team work and their approach to the situation. This was, next to Team Dark and Last Story, one of my favourite parts to do when doing this adaptation of Sonic Heroes, just because we don’t know much about Chaotix in my universe and this gave them a chance to shine and take centre stage.