Sonic Wave

Sonic Wave is a fanfic by BearfootTruck. One of several high school fics, it tells the story of Sonic and his friends as they take part in a daring new classroom experiment. This story is based off of Ron Jones' infamous Third Wave experiment from 1967, and also uses ideas from the 1981 television special The Wave as well as the 2008 German movie Die Welle.
==Synopsis==
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and some of the other main characters now live in San Santos, where they are students at James F. Charleston High School. During history class, they learn about the Tedescan Civil War. Here, some students are confused about how the Nationalists could woo so many people to their cause. Thus, Mr. Obotir – their teacher – comes up with a novel idea: He is going to indoctrinate his students in the ways of strength, discipline, community and action.
First, he teaches them correct seating posture. Once they’ve gotten this down, then they get up, walk around for a bit, and when commanded, they have to get back to their seats as quickly as possible and assume the correct seating posture. Additionally, students have to stand up before asking or answering questions, all statements must be prefaced with "Mr. Obotir", and questions must be as short as possible – ideally, three words or less. At first, this experiment has mixed results, but after repeated drilling, most – if not all – of the students are able to follow the rules.
During lunch and after school, Sonic and Tails discuss the experiment. Sonic thinks that there’s something rotten about it. Tails understands his feelings, but he believes that Ol' Blue shouldn’t worry because Mr. Obotir didn’t say that they had to practice any of those things outside of school. In fact, the Two-Tailed Wonder thinks that it was a very interesting experiment and would like to give it another go. Meanwhile, Knuckles gets a visit from Rouge, who teases him for practicing the “correct” seating posture outside of class. Rad Red tells her that it’s very important to him because it makes him feel better, but the jewel thief doesn’t believe him.
The next day, Mr. Obotir notices that everyone in his class is sitting with the "correct" posture…everyone except Sonic, that is. Instead of getting angry, Mr. Obotir uses this to begin the next phase of the experiment. In order to strengthen their sense of community, he creates a name for their new movement: "The Wave". He also makes them do a salute that’s suspiciously similar to the "Nazi salute" and asks for a volunteer to design a logo. Shadow volunteers for this task and uses the Nordic rune "Uruz" (aka "Ur"). For the rest of class, Obotir makes students stand up one at a time and repeat the two mottos while saluting. This time, everyone does it without error. By now, Tails also senses that something is wrong with this experiment, but neither he nor Sonic have a solid plan about how to respond.
By Day Three, The Wave is gaining steam. A few more students in the school have joined, and Mr. Obotir is now issuing ID cards. Some of these cards have red "X"s, and anyone with such a card becomes a prefect, making sure that order and discipline are enforced. Most students are singing The Wave's praises, citing their increased academic performance and motivation. They also design a banner for the movement and start recruiting others to their cause. The only obstacle to The Wave – aside from faculty members' objections – is a series of scathing rumors being spread about the movement. Although he's not a prefect, Shadow takes it upon himself to investigate the source of these rumors.
Sonic and Tails have had enough of The Wave. The two of them find out that Amy and Cream have become infatuated with the movement, so Sonic politely asks Cream to look up information related to the Tedescan Civil War. Furthermore, a local gang leader has joined The Wave. Fortunately, Tails has come up with a plan: He created a leaflet detailing the evils of the movement and telling people what will happen if they don’t save themselves from it. He prints a few copies for Sonic, who covertly distributes them throughout the neighborhood as a test run. They plan to distribute more at school tomorrow.
In the meantime, Shadow has discovered that Rouge is the one who's spreading rumors about The Wave orally. As a result, her locker is vandalized. That evening, Rouge encounters Knuckles while out on a stroll. He warns her to stop spreading rumors, but she insists that it's just a joke and tells the Knuckster to lighten up. However, Knuckles takes The Wave very seriously, so seriously that he gets fed up with Rouge’s teasing and shoves her to the ground in a fit of rage. Naturally, Rouge's feelings are hurt, so she kicks Knuckles and flies back home.
Back home, Rouge is laying on her bed, crying. Then, Shadow shows up. At first, she thinks Shadow is going to comfort her, but then the Ultimate Life Form tells her that The Wave cannot be stopped. Rouge yells at him and keeps crying after he’s left. Sonic – who just so happened to be taking a stroll himself – has heard the whole thing and tries to comfort Rouge. At first, she wants the Blue Blur to go away, but he assures her that she's not alone and that he and Tails will be there for her. Rouge gives Sonic a hug and stops crying. After some slight pressure from her, Sonic takes her out to eat with him. At the restaurant, they discuss their new plan, and Big Blue even gives Rouge a sample leaflet.
After finishing their meal, Sonic and Rouge attempt to contact Obotir in order to get him to stop the experiment. Since their teacher’s not home, they go back to Rouge’s place, where they discover a graffiti tag of The Wave's symbol. Sonic is about to remove it when some gang members show up. Luckily, the duo manages to defeat them, and the jewel thief gives Big Blue a little kiss before they part.
The next morning, Rouge wakes Sonic and Tails up a bit early and cooks breakfast for them. Tails has printed up a whole batch of leaflets, so they stuff them into their bags and head for school. Along the way, they find out that Silver's become depressed because Blaze has become hugely obsessed with The Wave and has stopped talking to him. Thus, the trio accepts him into their cadre. They manage to distribute all their leaflets without getting caught, but their efforts seem to be in vain: Mr. Obotir announces that his students are a part of a nationwide movement and that they are to attend a special rally in the school gym tomorrow at noon. Sonic doesn’t believe it, but a magazine ad for an electronics company causes him to believe that it really is the case. After Ol' Blue gets dragged out of class, Shadow begins torturing him in one of the bathrooms, but Silver manages to save him.
After school, Shadow is holding a gathering of his own in an empty field, where he gives a speech about The Wave. Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Silver are all having a pizza party at Sonic's house when Espio shows up. Although a Wave member himself, Espio politely warns Sonic that The Wave is stepping up its efforts against any opposition. Just then, a bunch of gang members perform a drive-by on Sonic's house. Fortunately, everyone survives, and the Blue Blur calls the police. However, there’s not much that they can do about the rally.
On the fifth day, Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Silver decide to attend the rally to see what’s going down. They are shocked to see a full-blown Nuremberg-style rally in the gym with banners, marching, uniforms, heiling, and – worst of all – a pile of library books being burnt. Then, the special announcement comes on: Mr. Obotir reveals that he’s running for president and will bring The Wave to the entirety of Columbia. Suddenly, Sonic and his cohorts are subdued and captured.
When they come to, they’re in the school basement. Here, Mr. Obotir also reveals another secret: He's actually Dr. Robotnik, and he created this experiment in order to get the school to turn against itself and to set up a new capital for his Eggman Empire. Due to a noise complaint, two officers of the San Santos PD show up in the gym and order the members of The Wave to disperse. In a surprising move, they all pull out WWII-era weapons and start firing at the officers. The officers survive and fall back to a safer position, where they call for backup.
Eventually, more squad cars arrive, and the SSPD sets up a defensive perimeter around the school. The members of The Wave also take up positions in the windows, and when they start using automatic weapons, the SSPD S.W.A.T. team is called in. By this time, a bunch of people have evacuated the school. Some of the Wave members think it's gone too far and retreat…or at least try to. A few S.W.A.T. officers attempt to storm the building, but are incapacitated (not killed) by gunfire on Shadow's part. Next, they call in an APC, but it gets destroyed by a Panzerschreck, again brought on by Shadow.
Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Silver are attempting to escape, but the combination of their restraints and the robot guards makes it seem impossible. However, after some sneaky moves on Tails' part, they escape and meet up with Captain Davison, Lieutenant Forrest and Sergeant Hand of the SSPD. They explain what’s going on to Davison. There’s another problem: Innocent students and faculty members are being held hostage. Furthermore, none of the officers can kill any of the Wave members without suffering a major media backlash. Instead, Sonic and his friends tell them about new plan.
To this end, Silver lifts up a S.W.A.T. van with his PK power and uses it as a moveable cover for his friends and the S.W.A.T. officers. Once they’re in, he returns the van, and the next phase begins. Now, they have to find Robotnik, and if they encounter any Wave members along the way, then they can only use less-lethal force against them. Soon, they find the Doctor and capture him. With Robotnik in custody, they take him to the A/V room, where they force him to give a special announcement.
Now back in his Mr. Obotir disguise, Robotnik announces that the experiment is over and that they very nearly started a war that was as destructive as the Tedescan Civil War, all because they were swayed by the lure of improved motivation, camaraderie and higher academic performance. To conclude the spiel, Tails plays a more graphic documentary than the one that they were shown on the first day. Not only does it show the aftermath of the war, but it also has footage of some riots that occurred after the unification. The members of The Wave are horrified, and as a result, they throw down their weapons. Robotnik is arrested and taken to jail.
Despite all the injuries suffered, nobody has been killed in the police shootout. Everyone in school is given free counseling should they require it. Also, in spite of their willingness to use violence, the students of The Wave aren’t arrested, nor is the shootout added to their records, assuming they have one. In return, they have to give up their weapons, and they have to participate in community service projects. On an individual level, Blaze admits that she was wrong and embraces Silver. Knuckles gets down on his knees before Rouge, begging her forgiveness. She forgives him, but then subjects him to tickle torture. As for Sonic and Tails, they receive congratulations from Superintendent Coleman and Captain Davison before going home.
===Sonic Says===
Silver is looking up information for an essay he’s writing. He finds a website and decides to incorporate information from it into his essay. Then, Sonic steps in and tells the audience to look at other sources as well to make sure that it’s correct. He also advises them to check for biased language and opinions.
==Characters==
===Main===
*Sonic the Hedgehog
*Miles "Tails" Prower
*Knuckles the Echidna
*Dr. Robotnik/Mr. Obotir
*Shadow the Hedgehog
*Rouge the Bat
*Silver the Hedgehog
===Minor===
*Amy Rose
*Cream the Rabbit
*Espio the Chameleon
*Blaze the Cat
*Uncle Chuck
*Joseph Butkus
*Al Caholleck
*Ivanna Naylor
*Abby Normal
*Sally Acorn
*Bunnie Rabbot
*Antoine Depardieu/D'Coolette
*Rotor Walrus
*Richard Shaw
*Jet the Hawk
*Wave the Swallow
*Storm the Albatross
*Bean the Dynamite
*Bark the Polar Bear
*Marisa
*Gang leader
*Gang members
*SWATbots
*E-1000s
*Officer James Stolzfus
*Officer Ben Wenger
*SSPD officers
*SSPD S.W.A.T. officers
*Firefighters
*Paramedics
*News reporters
===Guest Stars===
*Superintendent Coleman
*Lieutenant Fred Ericson
*Lieutenant Robert Forrest
*Sergeant Martin Hand
*Captain Davison
==Trivia==
*Some of the terminology used by Wave members is borrowed from the Ku Klux Klan. For example, "Klavern" is used for "local organization". Also, the terms "AYAW" and "AWAI", meaning "Are you a Wave?" and "A Wave am I".
*Several characters' names are references to various adaptations of The Wave or to other works:
**Principal Ross is a reference to Mr. Ross, the teacher from the 1981 version of The Wave.
**Mr. Gansel's name is a reference to Dennis Gansel, the director of the 2008 film Die Welle.
**Officer Stolzfus is a reference to Tim Stoltefuss, a character from Die Welle.
**Officer Wenger is a reference to Herr Wenger, the teacher from Die Welle.
**Captain Davison is a reference to Bruce Davison, the actor who played Mr. Ross in the 1981 version of The Wave.
**Robert Forrest is a reference to Robert Urich and Steve Forrest, two actors from the TV show S.W.A.T.
**Martin Hand is a reference to Martin Landau, the actor who played Rollin Hand in the Mission: Impossible TV series.
*Storm's line about Mr. Obotir giving up on teaching about the Gay Nineties is a reference to the Beavis and Butt-Head episode "No Laughing".
*Knuckles' line about being "rougher than the rest of them" is a reference to "Unknown From M.E."
*The word "Untermensch" is German for "subhuman", a word commonly used by the Nazis to describe Jews and other people considered undesirable.
*Euclid was a brand of heavy-duty construction equipment, now a part of Hitachi Construction Machinery.
*The piece of paper that Rouge found with the phrase "remember, the third in a series is often the strongest" is a reference to the supposed origin of the Third Wave's name: a myth that it came from surfers.
*Sonic’s line about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor is a reference to the movie Animal House.
*During the torture sequence, some of Sonic's lines are references to the song "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider.
*Parts of Shadow's speech at the party are taken from some of Hitler's speeches.
*The cops taking twenty-seven 8X10 color glossy photos and so on is a reference to the song "Alice’s Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie.
*Some aspects of the rally, including Tails' line about being "pilgrims in an unholy land", are references to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
*Shadow forcing Sonic and friends to do things “the easy way” is a reference to Back to the Future II.
*One of the paper excerpts that Mr. Obotir reads is a reference to the song "Paid In Full" by Eric B & Rakim.
*Part of Mr. Obotir's speech at the rally is a reference to the song "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath.
*There are two references to Die Hard during the climax. The first is when Shadow injures the members of S.W.A.T. team 1. The second one occurs with Shadow blowing up "the tank" and Bean saying "the quarterback is toast".
**Additionally, the hostage situation is an homage to Die Hard all in itself.
*One of the essays that Robotnik reads towards the end is a reference to the song "I’m a Gangster" by Rappy McRapperson, real name Joshua A. Katz.
*The message "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF" from the end of the final documentary is a reference to "Believe in Myself".
==External links==
* "Sonic Wave" on Fanfiction.net
Category:Owner:BearfootTruck
Category:Fanfiction