Sonic the Hedgehog (WI02)

## Sonic the Hedgehog

**Sonic the Hedgehog** is a major character from *What If Emerl Survived?*. He is Emerl's mentor and a hero with experience fighting Doctor Eggman, having imparted much of his knowledge and skills onto Emerl via the 'link' they shared.

## Personality

Sonic is typically cool-headed and adventurous, following his heart and travelling the world. This puts him in direct conflict with Doctor Eggman, who he thwarts the evil plans of at every opportunity. After linking with Emerl and being thrust into the role of his mentor, he takes a hands-off approach and teaches by example, imparting the ideals of heroism and freedom - as well as a light attitude - onto him during his developmental stages.

## History

### Sonic Battle & Advance 3 Arc

Sonic's history is identical to that of the video game timeline's until the ending of *Sonic Battle*, whereupon entering the Death Egg to confront Ultimate Emerl using the Master Emerald, he chose to remain hidden and observe him for a bit longer rather than announce himself. From a distance, he recited Tikal's Prayer and neutralized the Chaos Emeralds within Emerl's body, but the energy he'd captured from the stars detonated by the Final Egg Blaster were enough to keep him running under his original programming. Sonic was knocked back by a punch from Ultimate Emerl, but landed atop the Master Emerald where he'd left it, using it's power to transform into Super Sonic.

In a battle spanning only 30 seconds, Super Sonic fought Ultimate Emerl and was able to overwhelm him, using the positive energy of the Master Emerald to soothe Emerl's madness and calm him down. During the intense battle, he accidentally blew off Emerl's arm, bringing proceedings to a standstill as Sonic briefly thought he'd killed his friend. While starting to cry, Sonic heard Emerl's voice upon reactivation, revealing him to be alive. They escaped the Death Egg's explosion using Super Sonic's Chaos Control, taking the Master Emerald with them back to Earth.

Some time later, Doctor Eggman returned with his next scheme - stealing the Master Emerald alongside his new enforcer Gemerl. Sonic and Emerl teamed up to battle against the pair and eventually came to face the Hyper Eggrobo at the Master Emerald altar, which they destroyed.

### Sonic 06 Arc

Some time after Part 1, Sonic went travelling to see the Festival of the Sun in Soleanna, intervening when its opening ceremony was crashed by an attack from Doctor Eggman. While escorting Princess Elise to safety, Sonic was assisted in repelling Eggman's follow-up attack by Emerl, who'd followed him to Soleanna. The three of them spent the night in an inn, and come morning Sonic and Emerl once again set out to chase Eggman's new Egg Carrier, leaving Elise in the care of Tails and the Soleanna police force. At Wave Ocean, he proved unable to navigate towards the Egg Carrier in time to prevent its escape, and sent Emerl back to the city to join Tails in guarding the princess.

Sonic was next seen in a town square in the heart of Soleanna, currently in the middle of battling Silver the Hedgehog when Emerl and Gemerl crashed into the pavement nearby. Due to Silver's interference, Sonic was unable to assist Emerl or Tails in their fights with Gemerl, leading to both the robot's and Silver's escape. Amy Rose lamented her unintentional involvement with the events after having helped Silver find Sonic, but he comforted her with the knowledge that she was only trying to do the right thing. Sonic, Tails and Emerl then went to meet with Knuckles the Echidna in Soleanna's New City, where they were given Eggman's terms for the release of Princess Elise: relinquishing Emerl and the Chaos Emeralds. Everyone but Emerl was initially opposed to this, but after the Gizoid pointed out that Eggman would be unable to remove the Chaos Emeralds from his body and that Team Sonic would surely rescue him, Sonic complimented Emerl's selflessness and agreed to the plan.

At the site of the Solaris Prototype, Sonic witnessed Gemerl's surprise attack on Emerl, and was trapped inside the Prototype's energy vortex. He, Tails and Knuckles were banished through time, appearing 200 years into the future where they met up with Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. Some time later, at the Flame Core, they discovered a Chaos Emerald and were attacked by Iblis. Sonic's link with Emerl allowed the robot to track his location, and he appeared just before a battle could break out, eliminating Iblis with a single punch after cooling it into rock. Sonic then revealed his plan to use a joint-Chaos Control to warp back to the present, using the future Chaos Emeralds they'd been gathering in Emerl's absence - he successfully performed the technique with Shadow and escaped back to present Soleanna with Tails, Knuckles and Rouge.

Later, in Part 3, Sonic was seen rescuing Elise from Doctor Eggman yet again, but was briefly held up by Silver the Hedgehog. Shadow and Emerl appeared to handle the situation for him, and Sonic escaped with the princess. By the time he met back up with Emerl, however, Doctor Eggman had managed to kidnap her again by launching a direct threat against her people should she not turn herself in, forcing Sonic and Emerl to chase his Egg Carrier through Kingdom Valley where they teamed up with Silver and Blaze the Cat. Sonic witnessed the Egg Carrier's engine failure and Elise's death, falling to despair at having failed until Emerl proposed using his newfound ability to generate time portals as a solution. Silver confirmed that Emerl indeed possessed this ability, and Sonic traveled back with the Gizoid to the moment at the Egg Carrier launched, stowing away with him on the ship.

In the air, Sonic and Emerl confronted Doctor Eggman at the Carrier's bridge and rescued Elise, demanding he surrender. Eggman refused, summoning Gemerl and challenging the pair to a fight down below, to which Sonic accepted. He and Emerl did battle with the Egg Wyvern on a scaffolding platform below the Egg Carrier until Gemerl hijacked the machine and completely destroyed their footing, leaving Sonic to fall in hopes that Emerl would be left defenseless while saving him. Emerl did save Sonic, but was also able to use his newly-acquired ESP abilities from Silver to completely immobilize the Egg Wyvern for a combination attack, in which he threw Sonic into the machine to have him ricochet multiple times against its frame to batter it. From this attack, Sonic leapt back up into the Egg Carrier's bridge and evacuated Elise, successfully getting her to safety atop a nearby cliffside.

#### Grudge Match

With Elise and Emerl safe, Sonic and the two of them lolled around the hillside in joyful celebration of their victory, but were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Gemerl, who'd survived the crashes of the Egg Wyvern and Carrier. Sonic allowed Gemerl his request of a one-on-one duel and took Elise aside, respecting that Emerl had to deal with his rival on his own.

After the long battle was over, the three of them walked back towards town while socializing, but were once again interrupted by an interloper. This time, Mephiles the Dark appeared, with Sonic immediately sensing he was an enemy and preparing to fight him off. Before Emerl could answer Sonic's question on who Mephiles was, he was targeted by a long crystalline lance attack, which Sonic leapt into the path of in an instant. Though in immense pain from having the lance impale into his back and through his chest, Sonic smiled, telling Emerl it would be 'up to him'. Sonic's death, however, severed his link with Emerl, reverting him back to his most basic state in need of a master to guide him. Elise was unable to restrain her emotions any more and, having watched her two close friends die in front of her, broke down into tears - releasing Iblis.

#### End of the World

Elise was left with Sonic's corpse at the End of the World, which she held in mourning. After the situation was explained to the others who'd been gathered, Silver proposed the idea of using the Chaos Emeralds to revive him. Elise felt as though she could sense Sonic's spirit still in the wind, and the plan to resurrect him was put together.

Thanks to the powers of Masterl, Sonic's spirit was re-joined with his body, bringing him back to life. While blearily watching the battle between his savior and Solaris, Sonic idly mused that Emerl and Gemerl could do anything if they worked together. Recalling that he named Emerl after a Chaos Emerald, he dubbed the fusion form 'Masterl' after the Master Emerald. Once Solaris was destroyed, Sonic was caught up in the Ultimate Chaos Control and relocated to the fields outside of Soleanna where he'd been with Emerl and Elise shortly prior.

Argus arrived almost immediately after the relocation, its incoming arrival briefly paralyzing Sonic with pain in his head as he heard its name whispered into his mind. When it dipped from a wormhole in the sky and kidnapped Emerl and Gemerl, Sonic was presumably one of the few that attempted to attack it - but was struck once again with an affliction, this time a total loss of strength. Helpless, Sonic watched his friend be taken away and banished to the Twilight Cage.

## Powers and abilities

Sonic's abilities are identical to that of his video game canon counterpart's circa *Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)*, boasting supersonic speed and enough physical strength to deal heavy damage to armoured machines like the Egg Wyvern. He also has access to all of the techniques seen in *Sonic Battle,* as shown through their use by Emerl via his Copy Ability.

## Transformations

### Super Sonic

By using Chaos energy either from the Chaos Emeralds or Master Emerald, Sonic can take on a Super transformation. He debuted this form in Part 1 to contend with Ultimate Emerl, where he used its positive energies to soothe his rage while fighting him. His strength in this form was enough to tear off Emerl's arm completely by mistake during their clash, showing that it far exceeded even the first iteration of Ultimate Emerl (who had the combined strength of his base form any all playable characters from *Sonic Battle*) in terms of raw power.

## Relationships

### Emerl

Sonic has been a consistent friend and teacher to Emerl since his reactivation on Emerald Beach, whereupon Sonic gave him his name. After being the foundation for his personality in *Sonic Battle*, he witnessed Emerl grow into his own person from the influences of those around him and frequently expresses pride at his developments, such as when he offered to give himself up to Doctor Eggman in order to rescue Princess Elise. In Part 3, Sonic even hinted at idea of Emerl surpassing him if given enough time, becoming the greatest hero in history.

### Amy Rose

Amy is Sonic's friend, but he often shows exasperation towards her for imprinting the idea of 'playing house' upon Emerl, in which he is assigned the role of Emerl's father and Amy the mother. Despite this, the two are close, and Sonic comforted her in Part 2 when she was stricken with guilt at having unknowingly assisted Silver in his plan to kill him.

## Trivia

* Both the names 'Emerl' and 'Masterl' were coined by Sonic, ironically adding a layer of legitimacy to Amy's assigned role of him as their parent.