Kronos

Kronos is a character created by the user breadryo! and he was created on 7/14/23.

## Kronos

* "Sonic"
* God

## Overview

Kronos is an AI that was inserted into a playtester build of Sonic CD in 1992 with the purpose of revealing the truth behind the "Sega CD 1992 Incident" that happened at SEGA to the playtesters.

## Biography

There are rumors that in 1992, during the development of Sonic CD, the disappearance of 3 playtesters was caused by SEGA itself, or one of the employees caused it themself. Nobody could figure out the truth behind it for a while, until the playtesters found a modified build of the game during the development. When played, everything seemed the same at first, until they tried to go back in time with one of the Time Warp Signs. Everything stopped, and text appeared on the screen, reading: “Uh oh! You can’t go back in time! Try again!” The playtesters were then booted back to the start of Palmtree Panic, except Sonic looked different. He had scars on his legs, bandaged wrists, and longer boots. His eyes were unnaturally large, he had black fluff on the tips of his ears, and the sides of his muzzle had strange red floating swirls beside them, like a blush. To top it all off, Sonic was wearing a necklace with a ring at the end of it around his neck, and dark rings wrapped around the ends of his quills. This wasn’t Sonic. When the playtesters questioned what this change was, “Sonic” answered. “Hello! I am Kronos! Find Dr. Robotnik with me, and I’ll give you a surprise!” And so, the playtesters got to the end of Palmtree Panic's last Zone. Noticeably, Amy was completely absent from Zone 1, and all the Time Warp Signs were completely removed from the area. Besides that, things were normal. Reaching the end of Zone 3, the playtesters were met by Dr. Robotnik in his EGG-HVC-001. The boss fight continued on as usual, until the EGG-HVC-001 was destroyed. Instead of retreating like usual, Robotnik just layed in the rubble. Kronos was no longer under their control, and the music stopped completely. Text appeared on the screen again. “Hm…A crashed vehicle…doesn’t that remind you of something, John?” Kronos picked up Robotnik from the rubble, whose legs seemed to be scarred and broken from having the rubble fall on them. He remained unmoving as Kronos observed and messed with his damaged legs.“Doesn’t it remind you of…the first time you ever had to hide a body? When you crashed the car in your drunken state. When you broke his legs, scarred them…killed him. You only hid him because you were afraid of what all of us would do when we found out…” Kronos tossed Robotnik's body to the side, turning to the camera and wagging his finger. "So you tossed him to the river. What a surprise! Follow me to Collision Chaos. I have another surprise for you!” And from that point on, the game changed completely. Collision Chaos was lifeless. Its color palette had been completely washed out, and it seemed much larger than it was originally. The music was also replaced with a strange, droning noise. Not even Metal Sonic or Amy were present at the start of it. Kronos led the playtesters in completely different directions, a labyrinth of empty colors with nowhere to go. Kronos would downright refuse to let the playtesters go to certain areas, leading them in a straight path. After what felt like an eternity getting through this dull version of Collision Chaos, Kronos took control again, pushing the Goal Sign to the ground as the camera panned to the right, revealing a fearful Amy Rose. Upon seeing Kronos, she took a few steps back, attempting to escape him. But of course, being Sonic, Kronos was faster, grabbing the shorter pink hedgehog and holding her up as she struggled. More text appeared on the screen. “Amy Rose? A rose…that garden! It's the next surprise! Do you remember killing her in the garden? Over what? Can you even remember? What I hope you do remember is the scratches those thorns left on you when you picked up her body out of the rose bushes…the same scratches you covered up with bandages on your wrists…not because they hurt, but because you didn’t want anyone to know of your sins. You really are a coward, John.” Kronos picked up the Goal Sign, holding it up to Amy’s chest. "...You held it up to her like this…and then you stabbed her through the chest!” He then stabbed the Goal Sign through Amy, his pupils dilating as he did so. A wide, dark smile appeared on his face as he tore the sign out of her and just…let her sit there on the ground, suffering. "Do you have any sort of empathy, John? Are you truly as apathetic as ever? I expected that from you…only one round left. Your final surprise!” A black screen. The next round should have been Tidal Tempest, which was the last round at that point in development, however it was replaced with an entirely new, off putting round simply called “Suffocation.” It was dark, the background resembling SEGAs own offices, but heavily destroyed The floor was covered in water, slowing the playtesters down unless they jumped. Kronos’s pupils were heavily dilated, looking at the screen. The level wasn’t long, as with only a few steps, Metal Sonic appeared, launching himself at Kronos and knocking him to the ground. Kronos got up, spindashing in Metal Sonic's direction, but was stopped by his hand, which made sparks due to the pressure and speed Kronos was putting on it. He threw him in the other direction, Kronos landing on the wall and spindashing off of it once more. The two kept fighting in this automated boss fight for about 30 more seconds, until Metal Sonic ended up on the ground, heavily damaged. “You gave me a real fight, robot. You amuse me.” Metal Sonic got up, his eyes lighting up red with anger as he glared at the tall, blue hedgehog. Electricity flared up around him as Kronos went on. “Unfortunately, as you’re just another part of the show, it’s time you-” Metal Sonic's sprite then turned red, and swiftly dashed towards Kronos, interrupting him and, for once, catching him off guard. He struck him right in the chest with such power and speed that he managed to go right through him, breaking open his ribcage and leaving a trail of blood behind. Slowing himself down, Metal Sonic’s body was stained with Kronos’ blood dripping from his face, turning around to see him coughing up his own blood, his ribs exposed by the wound Metal Sonic had left on his chest. “YOU!!!” Kronos yelled out with rage, trying to stop his blood from pouring out of him. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!” He coughed, pulling at his ears with anger and stomping his foot. He looked at the robotic hedgehog with the most expression he had ever shown in the entire game, pure fury. "I’m not the bad guy here…HE IS! All I'm doing is PROVING MY POINT. YOU…YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DIE JUST LIKE HIS LAST VICTIM DID!” Metal Sonic remained motionless, only blankly staring at Kronos like he usually did. “...Fine. I’ll show you what happens when you disobey GOD.” Kronos growled. And then, the screen went entirely black. Metal Sonic appeared in a dark void, the bodies of Dr. Robotnik and Amy floating above him. They were decaying and looking even worse than they did before, their blood dripping onto Metal Sonic's face. The sound of static played in the background, getting louder, and louder, until suddenly…A glowing, red eye appeared, followed by two large hands wrapping around Metal Sonic’s neck, “strangling” him until his head fell off, a horrible laughing sound coming from the SEGA CD. The red eye then revealed itself as Metal Sonic's head joined Robotnik and Amy, floating in this dark space…It was Kronos, except he was taller and more animalistic, his fur darker and his ribcage still ripped open. He had sharp, scarred claws, a wide, twisted smile and, of course, a piercing red eye. He spoke. “This is what happens to sinners like you, John. You can’t go back and change what has already been broken. You can’t hide what you’ve done forever. Eventually, all of them will find out…all of them will know how much of a terrible person you are…and you’ll get what you deserve.” Images appeared on the screen. Images of crime scenes and evidence relating to the three playtesters who went missing. One of them died in a car crash, the other stabbed in a garden, and the last strangled to death during a fight in SEGA’s own offices. Images of their bodies, autopsies, etc. “And to all of you, who may find this…I hope you can understand this beautiful show I’ve put on for you. I know you’ll try to act like this never happened. But you can’t outrun your fate. You can’t outrun your GOD.” Everything went black, once more. “Goodnight.”

This build of Sonic CD was hidden from the public for years, until sometime in 2009 when the internet managed to get their hands on it, revealing what secrets were buried deep, deep within it. As for the incident, the images provided in the game were proved to be tied back to an actual, real, massive case…and a man named John, who had previously worked at SEGA as a playtester but mysteriously disappeared. Dr. Robotnik’s death was based on the death of John’s best friend who was also a playtester at SEGA. Apparently, he had gone driving with him while intoxicated after his wife had divorced him. He ended up crashing the car, killing his best friend, and, (being drunk and not having a full grasp on the situation,) dumped his friend's body into a nearby river. Amy’s death was based on after that, with John having no other place to go, he attempted going back to his ex-wife (who had worked at SEGA for only 3 years before getting a new job.), trying to persuade her to let him back in while in her garden. Eventually, they ended up arguing and he ended up stabbing her with his pocket knife, her body falling into the roses. While trying to take her body to hide her, his hands were cut by the rose's thorns, and he ended up bandaging them to hide that he killed her. Lastly, Metal Sonic’s death was based on an incident where John fought another playtester who had been investigating the death of his best friend and ex-wife, thinking he had caused it. He ended up strangling him to death and ran away, disappearing. Apparently, this employee was the brother of the anonymous person who created the build and shared all the evidence he had with them, which means the build was built off of revenge to prove to the playtesters that John caused it all. Whoever John was, nobody found him. He was presumed dead by the police during the investigation, but the internet attempted to figure out his whereabouts for a long while. Nothing was found, and nothing ever will be.

## Abilities/Weaknesses

### Abilities

* Kronos has all the abilities Sonic has in Sonic CD, with the addition of being able to kill NPCs/other characters to recreate the incident.
* Due to being trained on the evidence, autopsies, and other information from the incident, Kronos can solve puzzles/mysteries fairly easily with the experience he has.
* Kronos can easily manipulate others based on their guilt, unless he doesn't think they did anything wrong.

### Weaknesses

* Kronos also has all the weaknesses of Sonic in Sonic CD, he can still be easily physically damaged.
* Kronos isn't able to travel back/forward in time due to his morals.
* Kronos is easily angered by any minor inconvenience, which can distract him from his programming/mess with him mentally.

## Trivia

* Kronos' story is called "SEGA CD 1992."
* SEGA CD 1992 is inspired by Petscop, specifically the idea of a game being created to call out a bad person for their crimes.
* Kronos' design is inspired by things in LSD Dream Emulator and Yume NIkki.
* Bushrat would hate Kronos due to how he calls himself "God." There's also an unintentional parallel between their designs, with Bushrat's Unstable form and Kronos' God form having the same pupil shapes, but with different colors. Ryo likes to think this is an actual allusion between the two, even if it was unintentional.
* Kronos doesn't know anything about Sonic CD past Tidal Tempest due to being created in an early build.
* Kronos was originally called "Chronos," but this was changed due to another exe already having that name.
* Kronos has the same VA as Rift . (JustSpiral)
* The ring on Kronos' neck is also based on the ring Sonic has around his neck in the MC Sonic screen from Sonic CD.

## Gallery

Kronos' full ref.What John looks like.A "poster" for SEGA CD 1992.Kronos' official sprite.A doodle of Kronos with Model 1 by @celeryreal\_food.A traditional painting of Kronos.Miscellaneous Kronos doodles.A doodle of Kronos created while Ryo was still trying to figure out his story. Originally, Kronos was going to be the spirit of one of Johns victims.More concept doodles.drive the car john.