Belle the Tinkerer

**Belle the Tinkerer** is a character that appears in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic series and its spin-offs published by IDW Publishing. She is a robot based on a female anthropomorphic mouse from Sonic's world. Unlike normal robots, Belle is made primarily of wood.

## History

### Creation and early history

Belle was created some time after an amnesiac Dr. Eggman took on the persona of "Mr. Tinker" and became a name for himself within Windmill Village. He created and showed off Belle as a new creation. Whilst using similar components to Eggman's Badniks, it was an unconventional design. While the villagers were nervous that her creation was a sign of Eggman's original memories and persona resurfacing, they warmed up to his new creation.

Sometime after Belle was created, her creator (whom Belle referred to as her "Dad") went missing and she decided to look for him. During this time, Dr. Eggman had returned to his evil ways and attacked the village by dumping the Metal Virus upon the defenceless inhabitants. When Belle returned to the village, the townsfolk were gone, having turned into Zombots and wandered off to spread the infection.

Belle remained in the village alone during the Metal Virus crisis, but eventually the villagers would return after the virus had been purged from the planet thanks to Super Sonic and Super Silver. Sadly, the villagers had come to believe that Dr. Eggman had deceived them and decided to remove and destroy everything Mr. Tinker had built in the village. The villagers believed that Belle was a spy robot and lost all trust in her, refusing to let her help in the town's repairs and eventually chasing her out of town altogether. With nowhere else to go, Belle wandered off into the forest and found her way into an abandoned Eggman base, deciding to take shelter there.

### Meeting Sonic

When Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower entered the abandoned Eggman base, Belle would sneak through the shadows of the base, avoiding the boys' attention, and later hide in a pile of scrapped robots.[6] Eventually though, Belle fell out of her hideout when Sonic accidentally kicked a screw into it. Sonic immediately mistook her for a Badnik and attacked while trying to guess her name. However, Belle kept avoiding Sonic's attacks until he pulled her tail. This caused her to kick Sonic with both legs by reflex, which she apologized for.

Belle explained that she was not created by Eggman, but by another creator she had been trying to find for a while. Tails was likewise impressed that she was made of wood. However, they were interrupted by an alarm in the base that was triggered after Tails forgot to turn off the local computer's firewall. Beats then arrived and surrounded the heroes. While Sonic and Tails were discussing how to get out of their current situation, Belle noticed that an Egg Keeper was trying to catch Tails. She thus pushed Tails away, leaving her to get immobilized by the Badnik herself. Fortunately, Tails destroyed the Egg Keeper and freed Belle. Sonic then told Belle that they would have to take advantage of her unusual abilities as the situation around them got worse.

After Tails made an escape route for them, Belle rescued Tails when he was caught by an Egg Keeper by making a leap that pulled Tails out of the Egg Keeper's grasp after Sonic pulled her tail. Sonic then dragged both of them outside the base. Afterward, Belle asked them to take her with them to White Park Zone as her current hideout had been taken over by Badniks. After Tails convinced Sonic to let her come along, the latter had Belle choose a wing on the Tornado to ride on all the way to White Park Zone, but she did not enjoy the ride.

After being sat off at the White Park Grand Chateau, Belle was still shaky from the flight. Amy then led Belle and Sonic to the suite of Clutch the Opossum, who was lying unconscious on the floor. At the same time, Cream wanted to release the Chao Clutch had locked in a cage with numerous locks. Upon hearing this, Belle decided to help Cream open the cage since tinkering was her specialty. Cream then introduced herself to Belle. Soon after, Clutch got up and activated the Badniks in his suite, before escaping himself. Belle was then surrounded by hostile Badniks again.

Belle was able to unlock the cage containing the Chao and the little creatures came to Amy's aid by tackling the Snowy that was attacking her. Once the Badniks in the suite were dealt with, she, Tails, Amy, Rouge, Cream and Gemerl headed downstairs to the lounge hall of the chateau to warn the guests to evacuate as an avalanche was about to bury the building. However, before the heroes could make their own exit, Dr. Starline appeared and attempted to kidnap Tails. Just as the platypus attempted to grab him, Tails pulled on Belle's own tail, causing her to kick Starline in the bill. As Starline tended to his bill, Tails and Belle fled, just in time to avoid being buried by tons of snow.

After leaving the chateau, Belle accompanied Sonic and Tails back to Tails' workshop near Spiral Hill. There, Belle was easily able to decode the E-100 blueprints that the boys had visited her base for, allowing them to fix E-123 Omega. Tails once again questioned Belle regarding her ability to decipher Eggman's code, but Belle reiterated that Eggman was not her creator.

### Test Run

Belle was later led to the Restoration's new HQ by Sonic and Tails in hopes of instating Belle into the organization and give her a new home. There, they were welcomed by Amy and Jewel. After Belle said that she was good at carpentry work, Jewel sent her to the machine shop. There, Belle tried to help the chief there, but her clumsiness only got her into trouble. When a forklift later ran over her tail, Belle automatically kicked the crate she was carrying into a boat hanging from a frame and broke its restraints. This caused a panic in the shop, but Tangle quickly came and stopped the boat's fall. Belle, however, lost her job in the workshop because of her screw-up.

As Tangle took Belle with her, Belle confessed to Tangle that she had a difficult time in the Restoration. Tangle, on the other hand, quickly became excited over the function Belle's tail had, which she could relate to. Moments later, they both heard rumors that a new Eggman tower, which was causing unnatural storms, had appeared just off the coast. Tangle and Belle thus went to Jewel, where they met Sonic, Tails and Amy. While the others talked, Belle wondered if "he" might be in the tower. However, she refused to say anything because she would then have to explain herself. Regardless, she gave Tangle the idea of the two of them getting to the tower and helping Sonic investigate it themselves. Belle subsequently took Tangle to an unused Big Bang Extreme Gear that she had hotwired. Immediately after, Belle and Tangle rode it out of the HQ.

Arriving at Eggman's tower, Belle and Tangle crashed the Big Bang upon landing, depriving them of one of their means of escape. Passing the broken Badniks in front the entrance, Belle followed Tangle into the tower while taking notice of the Eggman Empire decal on the wall. The duo soon after ended up in a room full of Badniks. Not yet detected by the robots, Belle and Tangle climbed the interior of the tower while avoiding detection until they came upon Orbot and Cubot discussing Sonic, Tails and Amy, who had broken into the tower and ended up inside the test chambers for Eggman's robots. After watching the robotic duo relay these news to Eggman, who decided to make use of this opportunity, Belle asked Tangle if that was Eggman's voice she heard. After Tangle confirmed that and began heading out to help Sonic, Belle accidentally slipped and fell down right in front of some Egg Pawns. However, the Egg Pawns did not detect Belle. Belle was then pulled back up by Tangle, who demanded an explanation. Belle thus told her that she was a Badnik herself and that she came to the tower to seek answers about her origin from Eggman. She assured her that she did not want to hurt anyone, but understood if Tangle did not trust her. To her surprise however, Tangle chose to trust her anyhow, and the two resumed their search for Sonic and co.

Belle and Tangle soon after found and restrained Orbot and Cubot. They then tried to get the robot duo to tell them which one of the portals in the facility would take them to Sonic, Tails and Amy. Meanwhile, Belle redirected the Egg Pawn patrols so that they could not intervene with their interrogation. When Tangle later got the information she needed from Orbot and Cubot, she tried to head into a portal to rescue Sonic and co., but Belle stopped her, as she feared for her safety. However, she was persuaded by Tangle to let her do it and allowed the lemur passage into the portal.

While waiting for Tangle and the others to emerge from the portal, Belle began talking with the bound Orbot and Cubot, asking what kind of work they did for Eggman. While they were chatting, the doctor suddenly called on Orbot's PDA, yelling for an update. After hearing Belle's startled squeak, the doctor took off his VR headset and spoke to the puppet via the video link. Examining Belle's chassis, Eggman immediately recognized the girl as one of his own creations, realizing that he must have built her during his time as Mr. Tinker. The two spoke briefly and Belle asked what he had built the tower for, the doctor gladly explaining the purpose behind the facility. Although Eggman saw that Belle obviously cared for Mr. Tinker, he completely disregarded her feelings for him and rhetorically asked what made his alter-ego more worthy of her admiration than his own creative genius.

Eggman's transmission was cut off after a shocked Belle dropped the PDA to the floor. A short while later, Tangle emerged from the portal with Sonic, Tails and Amy in tow. However, because Tangle's tail had remained within the portal for so long, it had caused a catastrophic power feedback loop, causing it to overload and begin drawing in the surrounding structure like a black hole. The heroes, along with Orbot and Cubot, made their way to the Tornado and took off before the tower completely imploded. Following their escape and the departure of Eggman's lackeys, Belle explained the truth of her creation to Sonic and the others, breaking down crying as she came to the realization that her "father" was gone.

### Abduction

While Belle was adjusting to life in the Restoration, Restoration HQ was attacked by the Deadly Six. At the same time as the attack, Dr. Starline infiltrated the base while the Restoration members were distracted by the Zeti. Making his way to the workshop, Starline found Belle and the chief mechanic being threatened by Zomom. He knocked out the obese Zeti with a dose of neurotoxin from his heel-spur before doing the same to the mechanic, threatening to kill him if Belle didn't leave with him. Unwilling to put her friend in jeopardy, Belle complied.

While Sonic and his friends were distracted with fighting the Deadly Six, Starline was able to escape with Belle unchallenged. He brought the marionette back to his repository where he examined her construction and programming in detail, taking great care not to damage her in any way. While restrained, Belle listened to Starline monologue about he had deduced that Belle was one of Dr. Eggman's creations and how he was responsible for restoring the doctor's true personality. Belle was outraged by the revelation that Starline had taken her father away from her, but the doctor revelled in her outburst as he received a torrential influx of emotional data from her.

As Starline's computer downloaded the emotional code from Belle, the marionette's restraints were unlocked by Espio, who had turned invisible and infiltrated the repository. Belle was shocked by Espio's arrival, thinking that he was a ghost. Her outburst ended up giving the chameleon's presence away to Starline, leading to the other Chaotix members bursting in. Having already uploaded his findings to his cloud server, Dr. Starline destroyed his computer and made his escape, using his Tricore-enhanced abilities to evade the Chaotix. Belle had been saved, but Starline had inflicted even greater emotional trauma on her.

### Camping trip

Following the stress of recent events, Amy decided to take Belle, Tangle and Jewel on a camping trip to Forest Ridge Zone. During the girls' first night at the campground, Amy decided to lift everyone's spirits with some fortune card reading. However, when she drew a card for Belle, she was shocked and tried to hide it. When Belle leaned over to try and see the card, Amy dropped it and the card drifted into the campfire and burned up. Amy assured Belle that it was okay and that she had gotten a good fortune, though Belle didn't believe it.

Upset about the fortune card, Belle walked into the woods while the other girls were sleeping. While walking, she came across a shrub that had been sculpted to resemble Sonic's head. Hearing a rustling, she lit her finger lighter to get a better view when suddenly a Moto Bug charged out of the foliage at her. Belle raised her arms as the Badnik struck her, but fell backwards and hit her head on a rock, taking her offline. She would wake up a short while later to find the forest on fire and two dark silhouettes standing before her. Her hand had also caught fire as she had left her lighter going while unconscious, resulting in the wood coating her hand burning away. The Moto Bug Belle had met earlier used its wheel to kick up dirt to put out the fire on her hand. Because she hadn't closed her lighter, Belle suddenly thought that she had caused the forest fire.

Before Belle could ponder on the situation further, Tangle arrived on the scene, almost attacking the friendly Moto Bug on sight. Belle stopped Tangle from attacking, telling her how the little Badnik had helped her. After bandaging Belle's damaged hand, Tangle took her and "Motobud" to find Ashe, the park ranger's son, who was missing. After accidentally sliding down a steep incline, the girls got on Motobud's back, riding it like a motorcycle, and Belle used her reflex kick to launch the trio over a ravine. On the other side, they found Ashe and his pet Wisp Red Hot. Ashe was frightened, thinking that the Badnik-riding puppet might hurt him, but Belle reassured him by honking her nose and making him smile. When she asked what had happened, the boy told her that a young woman and a boy his age had started the fire.

As the group tried to make their way back to the main campground, the path they were walking on crumbled and the group fell into a ravine. Grabbing onto a log, Tangle used her tail to pull the others onto it as it drifted downstream. Belle did her best to keep Ashe calm, reassuring him that they were going to be alright. After surviving a waterfall, the group soon made it back to the main campground where Ashe was reunited with his father. Belle then helped Jewel with her plan to stop the fire from spreading and evacuating the other campers to a safe distance. After the campground was saved, the girls would return home and Belle would visit Tails to get her hand fixed.

### Battle for the Empire

One day, Belle worked with Tails to try and replicate Motobud's programming and share it among other Badniks, making them non-aggressive. The experiment proved to be a success and the Badniks they had salvaged became pacifistic, not even reacting to Sonic's presence.

That night, both Belle and Motobud fell victim to a mysterious electronic signal, leaving Tails' workshop and being drawn to an unknown source. When Sonic and Tails interrupted them, they attacked. Luckily, Tails had saved his Zeti Zapper prototype and planted it on Belle's back, cancelling out the mysterious control signal and bringing her back to her senses. Belle revealed that the signal was summoning every Badnik worldwide, leading the heroes to naturally conclude that Dr. Eggman was behind it. With Motobud still being affected by the signal, they decided to follow him to its source.

After following Motobud for several miles and encountering many other Badniks along the way, Sonic, Tails and Belle discovered Eggperial City. To stop Motobud from going any further, Belle was forced to cut his power. After opening up his chassis, Belle discovered a hand-written note inside. The not had been written by Mr. Tinker shortly before his Eggman personality had been restored; Tinker expressed that he was afraid of becoming Eggman again and apologized to Belle and to the world for whatever Eggman would do upon his return. As upset as Belle was, she wanted to keep going and give Eggman a piece of her mind, and so Sonic sped her on towards the city.

When the trio arrived in the city, they found that Eggman was attacking the central tower in one of his old mechs and Metal Sonic was lying disabled in the street. As Belle went to help Metal, Sonic and Tails were attacked by Surge and Kit while a horde of Badniks began to advance on her. Taking Metal inside a building, she used herself as a router in order for her Zeti Zapper to prevent him from falling under the influence of the control signal. Metal came back online and suddenly thrust a clawed arm past Belle's face, slashing a Moto Bug that was about to attack her from behind. Recognizing Belle as Eggman tech, Metal led her to his master's present location.

Belle and Metal would find Eggman standing amid the wreckage of two of his mechs, with Dr. Starline - the true perpetrator of the mysterious signal - lying beaten at his feet. She called out to the doctor, addressing him as "Father", and telling him about the note he had left for her. She stated that Starline had ruined their lives, though Eggman didn't consider being restored to his true self as a mistake. Belle acknowledged this and said that she wanted to say goodbye to her father and vowed to help any robots that the doctor abandoned. Eggman, impressed by how Belle had managed to fix Metal Sonic and override Starline's signal, offered for the marionette to come work for him as a mechanic, but Belle refused. Eggman seemed to accept this and left the scene along with Metal, bidding Belle farewell. As Eggman left, Starline was wallowing in his defeat, cursing himself for his failure. At that moment, several tons of debris fell from the damaged structure above and collapsed on him, which Belle witnessed before running off to rejoin Sonic and Tails.

### Escaping the Empire

Riding in on the back of a Fullboar, Belle reunited with her friends, who had just finished fighting with Dr. Starline's cronies. However, Dr. Eggman had regained control of his Badnik army and had sent them to intercept the heroes. With the unconscious Kit in tow, Sonic, Tails and Belle ran from the robot horde and Belle explained to her friends that Starline was responsible for everything that had happened and that she had seen him get crushed to death. Accessing the Eggnet, Belle drew up a map that led to a hangar containing a shuttle. While she and Tails took Kit and headed for the hangar, Sonic hung back to distract Eggman's army.

Tails and Belle defeated the Guards outside the hangar and hijacked the shuttle, flying it over the streets where Sonic was battling countless Badniks. Sonic made it aboard the shuttle, but a few seconds later, Metal Sonic attacked with his Maximum Overdrive and brought the craft crashing down. With Metal after them, the heroes ducked down through a series of alleyways and backstreets, but the murderous robot was relentless in his pursuit. However, Kit had regained consciousness during the heroes' flight and Sonic convinced the boy to use his hydrokinetic powers to help them slow Metal down. This gave them time to reach the city limits, although Metal would soon catch up to them again. Belle tried appealing to Metal, thinking that he wouldn't harm a fellow Eggman robot and standing between him and Sonic. Metal hesitated for a brief moment, but then slapped the puppet aside. Fortunately for the heroes, an explosion occurred back in the centre of the city and Metal Sonic retreated to ensure that Dr. Eggman was unharmed.

## Appearance

Belle is a robot whose external chassis is made out of oak hardwood, giving her a marionette doll-like appearance. Modeled like an antropomorphic mouse (sans the ears), she has orange fur and a tan muzzle. She also has medium-length braids that are held together with green bands at the ends and a large fuzzy tuff of hair-like fur or fur-like hair on her forehead. She also has blue eyes, three freckles on each cheek, buck teeth, and a round pink nose (akin to a clown nose). Her eyelashes also have thick ends. Her arms and legs, on the other hand, are tan and rectangular in shape. Lastly. she has an orange thread with a tuft at the end for a tail.

For attire, she wears a light pink puffy-sleeved t-shirt with a white collar, a pointy green cap, green puffy shortalls with yellow buttons, white cuffs on her wrists, white socks, and light pink Mary Jane shoes with yellow buttons. She also has white hands that closely resemble gloves.

## Personality

Despite being a robot, Belle is remarkably lifelike and self-actualizing. As such, she is able to express virtually all kinds of emotions, including despair. Belle has a good heart and loves helping out people by fixing things and solving problems. However, while enthusiastic, she is rather clumsy and naïve, which leads her into all kinds of trouble and mishaps. Apparently insecure, she tends to worry about what other people think of her.

Belle is quite shy and a bit timid. However, in the face of real danger, she can leap into action. Apparently a pacifist, she cannot fight, nor does she like it, so she tries her best to avoid conflict. Being made of wood, she also has an aversion to fire. She is apparently quite embarrassed by her honking clown nose.

## Powers and abilities

Belle is quite flexible and has great reflexes, being able to successfully dodge all of Sonic's hand-to-hand combat attacks.

Belle's fingers conceal various handyman tools inside them that she can reveal by opening her fingers. One of the tools concelled is a lighter, which the wooden android is reluctant to use. Her tail also possesses a unique function that makes Belle kick backwards by reflex when it is pulled. This functionality can be used by Belle to make herself perform enhanced jumps.

Besides her physical abilities, Belle is also a highly skilled mechanic. She has shown herself to be remarkably talented at fixing broken robots and even hotwiring vehicles. As an Eggman robot, she can also read Eggman's blueprint ciphers perfectly, interface with Badniks and other Eggtech and can wirelessly access the Eggnet.

## Relationships

### Friends/allies

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Amy Rose
* Cheese the Chao
* Cream the Rabbit
* Gemerl
* reprogrammed Moto Bug

### Enemies

* Clutch the Opossum
* Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
* Dr. Starline
* Badniks
* Orbot
* Cubot

## Concept and creation

Belle was conceptualized and designed by Evan Stanley. The crew at IDW Publishing wanted to introduce a character with a recognizable design and concept that would them stand out and yet fit into Sonic's world and cast. Eventually it was decided that Belle would be a robot (a common concept) designed like a marionette doll (a new concept).

Late in her design phase, it was decided to add jawlines under Belle's mouth in order to make it clear that she was a robot.

## Trivia

* Belle was first revealed at the online New York Comic Con IDW Sonic Panel on 9 October 2020.
* Belle's catchphrase of "Oh my gears and starters!" is a callback to the Sonic Archie Comics. Dr. Robotnik would often say this line when alarmed by something.

## References

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `StH35`
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `StH36`
3. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #37, "Test Run, Part 1"
4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `StH38`
5. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #39, "Test Run, Part 3"

## External links

* Belle the Tinkerer at the Sonic News Network