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tev-the-random · 2 years

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A Casual Sonic Forces Rewrite

Part 6 - Silver the Badass

Just a warning: none of the images used here belong to me!

Just another warning: mild swearing here and there. Honestly, if you’ve gotten this far in this series, I don’t think you even need a warning anymore.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Gaze upon me, dear readers, — if you exist — and contemplate for yourselves: I haven’t, in fact, died a horrible and silent death.

So I have decided to come back to this series after a long, long hiatus. And I must admit, after re-reading the previous parts to catch up with my own lore, I made some editions to them here and there, both to rephrase some things I think I worded poorly, change some very minor details and correct some grammatical errors. For those of you who are new here: you’re welcome. I have saved you from eye-bleeding.

Except for the episode Shadow part, I plan on completely rewriting that someday-

Anyhow, let’s pick this up from where we left off!

Previously on A Casual Sonic Forces Rewrite: Sonic finally got to be reunited with the Resistance after long months of imprisonment in a nightmarish virtual reality.

While they catch up off-screen, let us back away a little and see what Tails and Classic Sonic are up to, shall we?

We open the scene with a dialogue:

‘Ugh, what is up with this signal?’ Tails says irritably. ‘We’ve been all over the place, and still no sign of Eggman or the masked one!’

Classic Sonic, of course, does not respond. He seems bored and rather impatient.

Tails sighs. ‘I’m so sorry, I-I don’t know what’s going on. The radar seems to be malfunctioning, we should’ve already found them by now!’

The fox sounds a little nervous. Classic gives him a reassuring pat on the back, which doesn’t seem to soothe him all that much.

‘I’m sorry about this... I failed my Sonic, and now I’m failing you too... let’s just go back. Maybe Omega’s malware infected the scanner or something, we need to-’

Tails is interrupted by a beeping noise coming from his device. He analyses it for a moment before making a hesitant remark, ‘there’s a big surge of power coming from the mountains ahead... Might be a promising signal. Do you want to check this last one out?’

The hedgehog nods, and Tails lets out a short smile.

‘Alright then. This way!’

Now, this is originally where we would have a Green Hill level. But in a game where Green Hill is reutilised no less than nine times, I think perhaps we should reinvent a little! So instead of the good old grassy fields, Classic and Tails go through Mountainside, which is... a very self-explanatory name.

This level should consist of going up a mountain, maybe through some caves and mines inside of it, with various flying enemies on our way. The 2D aspect of Classic Sonic should make for an interesting variation of the scenarios. Perhaps there could be some points during the stage where we can choose to take Tails’ help to reach new areas, though in most cases, the player would be encouraged to run instead — this is a Sonic level, after all. We would reach the end at the top of a plateau, where a new cutscene begins.

Tails and Classic Sonic hide behind some rocks upon seeing Infinite and Shadow. The jackal is floating in the air, literally looking down on the hedgehog. The two of them say nothing, and the tension is palpable. From behind their hiding spot, Tails seems triumphant.

Eggman arrives at the scene on his Egg Mobile.

‘Glad to see the two of you getting along,’ he says with sarcasm. Shadow crosses his arms and looks away, while Infinite merely gets down on the ground and tilts his head at the doctor. ‘What is your report?’

The ex-mercenary proceeds to pull a Phantom Ruby prototype from... wherever it is that people pull things from in the Sonic universe...

‘This was the last prototype in the area,’ he responds, crushing the stone in his hand as if it was nothing. ‘The only ones left should be in the Mystic Jungle lab. With that, the defective remains of the Phantom Ruby Project will have been disposed of successfully.’

‘Hm... Leave those last ones be. We’ll lock down the lab and the Resistance will be none the wiser. That’ll be all.’

Infinite tenses up ever so slightly in surprise. He interrupts Eggman before the man can leave.

‘Why would we keep faulty models?’

‘In case we need a backup, of course!’ The mad scientist states with a chuckle. ‘If there is something I’ve learned over the years fighting that blue nuisance, it’s that you should always have a plan B.’

‘We won’t need a plan B.’ The jackal sounds annoyed. ‘My power is infinite. There is no need to keep inferior copies.’ He adjusts his mask and shakes his head as if stating the obvious.

‘There’s always room for improvement. Those prototypes can only record the DNA of the one who activates it, anyway. There’s nothing to worry about.’

For a short moment, Infinite says nothing.

Tails murmurs from his spot, ‘Mystic Jungle... I wonder where that is. I’ll have to do some research...’

This warrants a scan of Shadow’s watchful gaze. At first glance, he finds nothing, but his guard is now visibly up.

‘We move forward with the plan, then?’ Infinite returns.

‘Of course! Only three short days and the Resistance will be erased. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise!’ Doctor Robotnik lets out an evil laughter.

‘And the Resistance will yield to the Phantom Ruby’s power. The weak shall submit.’

Both mercenary and scientist nod at each other and leave the area flying. The Shadow copy stays behind, however, still looking around for the source of the earlier noise. Once he finds nothing and turns to leave, Classic Sonic comes out of hiding and spin dashes at him, unable to contain himself.

‘Sonic, wait!’ Tails calls out, but it’s too late.

Shadow blocks the attack and stands face to face with the tiny hedgehog. ‘You. The Doctor warned about your escape. We should’ve known you’d run to your fox the first chance you got.’ The faker Ultimate Life Form squares up.

‘Shadow, you don’t want to do this!’ Tails comes to stand next to his friend, also prepared to fight.

Shadow does not respond, and the three of them engage in battle.

Classic Sonic boss battle against Shadow, woo!

I know this sounds a little unorthodox, but honestly, that’s the beauty of it. Although Shadow and Classic Sonic never interacted on-screen, — like, ever — Shadow knows about the little blue blur’s escape from Eggman’s laboratory, as should be expected. Fighting the rival that was such a staple of the early modern Sonic era as Classic Sonic sounds like a really interesting experience to me.

How exactly this battle would go, I only have some vague ideas. Of course, the fight would have to happen on a 2D environment, and that really limits the set of attack patterns we can create for Shadow. The first thing I think of are chaos spears and homing attacks, which the player would have to dodge, as well as instances where Shadow would teleport around the scenery to make himself a difficult target. Maybe Tails will once again play a role in assisting during this boss fight.

Upon being defeated, fake Shadow runs away without another word. Tails closes the scene with a line:

‘The Phantom Ruby Project... Come on, we need to get to the bottom of this!’

And cut! Look at that, you got a bunch of clothing despite your avatar being nowhere to be seen, nice!

I know it’s a bit early for it, but I want the next scenes to go by without any interruption. Intermission time!

Given how erratic Infinite’s powers are, I thought it would be fair for Tail’s scanner to keep track of him, albeit faultily. Luckily, as the masked jackal brought his illusions and the Phantom Ruby prototypes with him to the mountains, we were able to get a big enough surge of energy for our heroes to follow.

As you must have noticed, I’m hammering Tails’ newfound insecurity in. Although the presence of Classic Sonic encouraged him to pursue the enemy, it is still another Sonic he can fail, another Sonic he can lose. Of course, Classic’s boredom wasn’t directed at the fox himself, but Tails is in a fragile place right now. He’s determined to be as efficient as he can be as a way to pseudo-avenge his lost brother. He just needs a little bit of confidence back, guys, I swear he’ll be ok-

(Is anybody else absolutely in love with the new Sonic movie, by the way? Tails, my beloved)

Much like Infinite had fake Shadow around during earlier scenes, we see he still keeps this illusion of his nemesis close by whenever he needs it; in this case, to guard his meeting with Eggman. Perhaps this is his way to remind himself why he’s here in the first place, — which would be indicative of his unhealthy obsession with Shadow’s opinion — or maybe this is to amuse himself with the thought of his worst enemy now being his lackey. Either way, there’s that awkward energy of being in the same room with a person you despise. Perhaps Infinite shouldn’t be left alone to his devices so often...

I think this little dialogue between Infinite and Eggman is one of the most interesting scenes so far. Not only is it the first insight we have of the jackal and his relationship with his only ally, it also says a lot about his personality: he needs to be the best and most powerful one, and he feels threatened by the prospect of keeping other Phantom Ruby prototypes around to eventually replace him — even if nobody ever said that would happen. For Eggman to imply he can fail or that there can be something better than him is an insult.

Infinite is more than just an intimidating force: he’s someone with a big, but very fragile ego. And by saying that “the weak shall submit”, he intends to prove once and for all that he’s not weak.

Some of you might have picked up that this isn’t the original order of things. Eggman is locking the Mystic Jungle lab down before the Resistance has any chance to infiltrate it. Trust me, I will soon explain why.

Now, about Shadow’s line: since we’re giving these secondary enemies more attention and trying keep their status as illusions a secret, I thought it’d be fair to give fake Shadow, the only one of them who could plausibly speak, at least a little line in the game. There’s not much to say about it: since Classic Sonic was captured by Eggman, surely the doctor would tell his allies about it. Knowing anything about Sonic, it would have been safe to assume his classic self would want to join Tails. Simple as that.

Anyway, Intermission’s over!

Now we cut back to the Resistance with another dialogue:

‘I’m glad you’re alright, Sonic. We had lost all hope that you would ever return,’ says Blaze with a calm, but genuine smile.

‘I’m glad to finally see you guys. I’ve been worried sick!’ Sonic responds, beaming. ‘I should have known you’d all be together this whole time. And this resistance thing... wow.’

‘Hey, don’t sound so surprised!’ Knuckles comments jokingly. ‘Of course we couldn’t just sit back and watch Eggman take over!’

‘Haha! Sure thing! Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘We’re currently waiting on Silver’s report. There was a sudden lockdown report from Eggman’s Mystic Jungle base, so we sent Silver to scout the area for information,’ Blaze points out.

An alarm interrupts the group. Amy comes in: ‘It’s Silver! We’re picking up something in Mystic Jungle!’

‘Guys! It’s him!’ Silver shouts from the communicator, his voiced almost drowned by the sound of the Phantom Ruby.

‘I’m on it! Been looking forward to another rematch with this guy!’ Sonic sounds eager upon saying this.

Amy, on the other hand, sounds concerned. ‘Are you sure, Sonic? You just came back from... whatever it is that Eggman was doing to you. I think you should-’

‘Eh, don’t worry about it, I’m fine! I’ll be more than happy to lend a hand on this one!’

There’s something strange about his tone. Nevertheless, the dialogue ends there, and we’re sent straight to a Mystic Jungle level with our boy Sonic.

The stage starts with Amy guiding us:

‘Silver and the masked one are up ahead by Eggman’s lab. There seems to be some weird energy around the forest... be careful!’

‘What’s he even doing here anyway? Was this a trap all along?’ Knuckles questions.

And then we cut most of the dialogue for the rest of the level, because those desperate soldiers failed to sell the severity of the problem with their exposition anyway, so why bother-

Now, unlike the original, this version of Luminous Forest should be pretty much intact. After all, the place has been locked down, it’s not like Dr Eggman will be there the keep an eye on it... but there’s something weird about this place. Various parts of the level seem to be flooded, and jets of water come out during certain sections for us to time ourselves and evade. It’s almost like there’s water following us, trying to keep us from progressing.

By the mid-to-end of the level, Amy comes up again to warn us about an “unidentified life form on the radar. What is that?!”

Suddenly, a gigantic snake resembling an anaconda emerges from the flooding river and attempts to attack Sonic.

‘Woah there! I didn’t mean to bother your... very... watery home, buddy.’

Sonic jumps around with a quick time event to avoid the snake’s onslaught. However, the creature still manages to nom the hedgehog.

‘Oh come on, we don’t have time for this! Hedgehogs don’t make good snacks.’

Similarly to the original scene, more quick time events ensue and Sonic manages to kick his way out of the anaconda’s mouth. He’s then shot towards the end of the level.

Now onto my favourite part: the cutscene between Silver and Infinite!

I’m so glad they gave Silver a moment to shine in this game! He’s one of my favourite characters, yet one that rarely gets any important role at all. If he went through the trouble of going back in time to fix the outcome of this war, he should at least do something to make a difference for the future, so this was definitely the right call, in my opinion!

However, when I look at this scene, I can’t help but feel like there’s something missing. They’re pitting two of the most powerful characters in this franchise against each other, yet all they do is fly around and bump against each other a couple of times. I know the creators probably wanted to save some time and resources by making this battle so short, but time to waste and a budget are both things we don’t have here.

I want an anime battle between these two.

(As a filmmaker, the way they “shot” this scene makes me very happy)

The scene starts just like the original, except Infinite is actually holding a Phantom Ruby prototype in his hands.

‘This wasn’t part of my agenda, but I’m always happy to crush a hero. It keeps the rabble in line. Shows them that there is no hope.’

‘Does anyone but you believe your lies?’

The stone is put away once the fight begins.

We see Infinite shooting red lasers from his hands while Silver flies around to avoid them, causing the blasts to destroy the walls instead. The psychic hedgehog then lifts the resulting debris with his power and sends them hurling towards the enemy, who quickly gets out of the way.

Silver is taken by surprise when a dozen copies of Infinite fill the air around him. With his red cubes of doom, the Infinites charge at our hero, who uses the debris under his control to protect himself. As the jackal presses against his defences, Silver creates a wave of energy from within his cocoon of stones and wood, which strikes the fake Infinites, destroying them.

The rivals shoot their respective blasts of psychic energy at each other. The beams meet with an intense force, and both parties struggle to stand their ground for a few instants until an explosion results from the clash. This outburst causes the Phantom Ruby prototype to drop, and we focus on it as it hits the ground.

Silver and Infinite find themselves facing each other once again, breathless.

‘Is that all?’ The mercenary asks, unamused.

‘Definitely not,’ Silver retorts. ‘I’ve heard about you in the future. You’re not invincible, you’re just arrogant! It takes more than that to crush a hero!’

We get a close of Infinite’s eye through the mask as he squints in disgust. Before he can respond, a giant boulder covered in a cyan aura hits the jackal square in the back. The rock is smashed into pieces and the villain is sent sliding across the floor, only for Silver to catch him with his power.

‘Ha! It’s over now!’ Silver is triumphant.

Infinite grunts, and for a fraction of a second, you’d think he’s in pain. But then he bursts out laughing. We hear the Phantom Ruby sound, and Silver’s cyan hold over the mercenary dissipates into a red glitching effect, to his horror.

As a massive red attack is comes his way, Silver attempts to protect himself once more. It isn’t enough: his shield shatters, and Silver is sent flying across the scenery, hitting a wall and falling to the ground, defeated.

‘Seeing is believing.’ Infinite charges, ready to finish off the hero. But he’s interrupted by a blue spiky ball.

‘You okay, Silver?’ says Sonic, landing in front of his friend.

‘Ugh...’ Silver is currently trying very hard to get up.

‘Time to tag out, I got it from here!’

‘Well, look who’s back. The little blue saviour.’ Infinite’s tone is dripping with disdain. ‘But what’s that I smell?’

The villain finally gets down on the ground and starts approaching Sonic, who slightly flinches, but otherwise doesn’t move. The enemy chuckles.

‘You reek of fear. Glad to see I’ve left an impression.’

Sonic stands his ground, although his eyes show a bit of nervousness. He raises his eyebrows smugly, then sniffs himself for a second. ‘Yeah, no, that’s definitely not fear you’re smelling. I ran all the way over here.’ He boasts a smile. ‘And you haven’t left an impression. I don’t even know your name!’

‘You may call me... Infinite.’

‘Ah! See, Silver? His name is Infinite!’ He turns to Silver, who’s still trying to regain his footing, then back to the enemy. ‘Now we’re finally getting to know each other after all this time! I feel like the natural next step would be to tell us about Eggman’s plans, don’t you think?’

‘Only if you share the Resistance’s. It would only be fair.’ Infinite says so with a mocking tone, crossing his arms.

Sonic prepares to fight. ‘Nah, you lost me there, pal.’

With another wave of the Phantom Ruby’s power, however, Sonic and Silver get lifted from the ground. Slowly, all the water nearby also starts to rise, though it doesn’t seem to be the ruby’s doing.

‘Look at you,’ the jackal says, once again up close to Sonic’s face. Shortly, you can see fear in Sonic’s eyes, but that is soon replaced with defiance. ‘Still not worth the effort to finish off.’

Infinite lifts himself in the air, ready to leave. ‘We can fight again soon enough, if that’s what you truly want. A rematch should be amusing if you actually put up a fight. For now, though... they’re all yours, Chaos.’

The raising water finally forms the shape of a gigantic water monster, much to Sonic’s surprise. Perfect Chaos attacks, sending the blue blur far off, then goes after him.

‘Sonic!’ Regaining control of his abilities, though still battered, Silver follows the two of them.

End of scene!

That was a looong one. I know not even half of this could make the final cut for the game, but I like to dream. And it’s only in dreams that we can get this much Silver and Infinite content.

But we’re still not over! Because now, we have another boss battle against Chaos!

A battle against Perfect Chaos outside of Station Square, what are the odds! You may be confused now, but just give me a moment to geek out, I’ll explain it in a second-

We’d initiate it with Sonic going ‘How is he like this?! I thought the Resistance had Chaos Emeralds!’ Because I like making people confused.

I’d like to borrow the snake from the original Infinite battle for this one. This long creature is bursting out of the water every now and again for you to run along it. But this isn’t you average auto-running Sonic Speed Battle Sonic Forces boss battle, you must keep up with your platform if you don’t want to be dragged down into the depths!

I’ll allow Sonic one joke when the snake comes out to help:

‘Huh, I guess it wasn’t a water snake after all. Thanks for the help, buddy, we’ll be clearing this place up in no time!’

We can add Chaos himself as platforms as well. As he tries to attack you, given that you manage to dodge it, you can run up his tentacles to attack him instead.

I also think we should use the fact that Silver is here, albeit hurt. He’d be creating occasional platforms for us to go onto since we no longer have Infinite making the forest funky. Plus, there could be some quick time event once you’re close to defeating Chaos, in which Silver must catch you in the air and shoot you straight into the deity’s weak point.

Once the enemy is finally down, a tired-sounding Sonic can say something along the lines of “That wasn’t so hard! Whatever Chaos Emeralds Eggman fed Chaos weren’t all that powerful after all. But Infinite still escaped...”

To which Silver would reply in a pained voice ‘Come on, Sonic. We gotta get back to HQ.’

And now we’re done! Ready for your daily dose of Intermission?

I would first like to mention the way Sonic offered himself for this mission. He’s overeager, anxious to help and prove himself again. All these six months unable to help his friends made him feel like he’s failed them, so not only is this an opportunity to compensate for that, it is also an opportunity to fight the guy who has caused all of this pain. Despite having barely stepped foot outside of prison for the first time in months, Sonic is ready to take this task without a hint of hesitation.

You can see I’ve hinted towards Chaos’ appearance during the level, with the strange behaviour of the water in the jungle. Even if the player doesn’t catch this while playing the stage, Sonic notes the fact when he meets the snake. This is a “very watery” place, please tell me that’s enough foreshadowing-

The reason why we’re only visiting Mystic Jungle after Eggman shut it down is solely because of Infinite. He’s not supposed to be here at all. Eggman told him to leave the prototypes of this lab alone, yet he couldn’t listen; he had to come and take them for the same reasons I mentioned previously. I use this both to make the situation more spicy — Knuckles even thinks this might be a trap, the Resistance can’t catch a break! — and to show somewhat early on that although Infinite is loyal to Eggman, he’s not his lackey; he has free will and he will exert it occasionally. Keep that in mind.

I. Cannot. Stress. Enough. Just how powerful Silver is. Why is no one talking about that? Where are the Silver anime battles? I need this boy’s true potential to shine at least once every ten years to sustain my mortal form.

I have also decided to indulge myself with a bit of a banter between them. Leave me alone.

Another important point I have to make is that Sonic doesn’t feel all that powerful when he’s around Infinite. His previous defeat and his time in the virtual reality have affected how he sees this enemy, which I think is only fair. He’s still cocky and likes to poke fun at the situation, but not to the extent where he feels detached from it.

And on that same line, Infinite still believes Sonic is too weak for him. He’s not even gonna bother fighting. He’ll hold himself on that high ground until he gets knocked down from it, and the fall shall hurt. For now though, he’s pretty much enjoying himself by being a menace.

The reason why I replaced Infinite’s battle with Chaos’ is because I had a feeling there were too many Infinite battles. If this is supposed to be an “ultimate enemy” kind of guy, he should not get these many boss fights. The fact that we win all three of them makes him feel bland; how is this guy a threat if we keep getting the better of him?

Now, Perfect Chaos: he’s an illusion. It’s simple as that. Infinite can create whatever illusions he wants, why wouldn’t he conjure up something more useful like Perfect Chaos? You could argue that that takes more power, but come on: that’s just teasing at this point. But don’t worry: this won’t stay as vague forever, it’ll be brought up again in the future.

Sonic pointing out how easy the fight was compared to his previous battle with the deity is also supposed to be a hint.

Despite that, I wanted to show that both Silver and Sonic are tired from this encounter. This will be important, as I want them to be kept away from the next mission. You’ll see why on the next part!

Yes, the snake is sentient and it’s just tired of this mess in its home. Go on, hedgehog, get rid of this water monster and get the hell out of my house-

[I would insert here an image of Sonic and Silver friendship if Tumblr wasn't so stingy with it's image limite

So that’s that for now!

I’m so glad to come back to this, I’ve been considering returning for a while now. It’s been way too long since the last part. There was kind of a period there where I just lost the motivation to keep writing this, despite already having a complete timeline of how I wanted things to go. But now we’re back and I have two more years of proper English under my belt, let’s goooo-

Seeya on Part 7! Have a nice day!

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