Sonic & Tails: Frames of Animation

Chapter 1
Unbound by Chaos

(Uploaded on June 5, 2018)


[Sonic]

South Island – Green Hill Zone

Have you ever really felt free in your life?

As if, you feel you have the ability to make your own choices?

To pave your life the way you want to?

Well, that's the type of person I am.

I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog! You might have heard of me – the Blue Blur, the Fastest Thing Alive, Knight of the Wind, stuff like that?

You might be wondering what I'm doing right now. Well, it's been quite some time since my friends and I managed to take back Mobius from the clutches of Eggman's empire. Boy, that was one heck of a time. (And yeah, I'm well aware of the fact that you guys may have seen our past gameas fairly… err… mediocre. Trust me, things went different here.)

But now that things have calmed down, and everyone's managed to rebuild, I've just been out and about. The bright blue skies, the fresh green grass… There's just something about Green Hill Zone that keeps me coming back. It may not be my real home, but it's pretty dang close.

I can't tell you how many times I've run through this zone in my spare time. Grabbing Rings, bashing the occasional Badnik, running through loop-de-loops… In fact, that's what I'm doing right now. I can feel the rushing wind between my quills as my feet ran straight down another hill.

"AW, YEAH!" I cried. "This is happening!"

Finally, I jumped off an uphill slope at full speed, landing atop another one of the many loops in the zone. I laid against a familiar life monitor, smiling as I gazed at the beautiful sight before me. It was pretty hard work removing all the sand from the zone – to this day, I still don't know how and why Eggman bothered putting so much sand in the first place.

"I never tire of this place," I said aloud. "Though I do wish Eggman would stop throwing Badniks on it."

Speaking of Eggman, it's been a while since he was last seen. I've run about the entire continent for a while, but he seems to have completely vanished. I know that after the whopping defeat I gave him together with my past self and Gadget (and jeez, that mech he threw at us totally didn't look familiar or anything) he'd need to go underground for a while to recuperate, but sheesh! It's been months since then. Where could he be?

It doesn't matter now what happens,
I will never give up the fight~!

As if on cue, I heard my phone's ringtone go off. I pulled it out of my hammerspace and looked at the screen – it was from Tails! Huh, I wonder what he's calling for?

I answered the call. "Hey, Tails! What's going on?"

"Sonic!" I heard Tails reply. "Eggman's attacking Station Square again! He's got a load of Badniks, too! Hurry on back so we can take care of this!"

"Alright, Tails! I'm on my way!" Putting my phone back into my inventory, I leaped off the loop-de-loop and dashed as fast as I could away from South Island.

So now Eggman chooses to come back, huh? Pretty strange timing, but you know what? That's just fine with me. I've been itching to beat some Robuttnik anyway! Maybe afterwards I can even visit those Chao Gardens Cream likes so much. Be a nice change of pace, you know?


Station Square

I dash into Station Square to find Badniks everywhere! Motobugs and Buzz Bombers and Egg Pawns all over the place! I could see several civilians fleeing in fear, too. And here I thought Eggman had stopped with the whole nostalgia thing. Like sheesh, those are the only Badniks I see out of him anymore. And that's not even going to the constant reusing of his past mechs.

Well, whatever. I've got a city to save!

Curling into a ball, I smashed into a nearby Buzz Bomber, bouncing on several more like a pinball bouncing on bumpers. Landing on the floor, I quickly boosted through the Motobugs in range, hearing a stream of delightful popping sounds as I went.

When I looked back, there were plenty of rescued animals hopping away and a crowd of cheerful cries from my audience. Heh, I always know how to put on a show.

"Sonic, you made it!" Flying to me was my best buddy, Tails! He's a pretty nifty mechanic and the smartest guy I know (and no, Eggman doesn't count). The most notable thing about him, of course, was his two tails – which is actually how he got his nickname.

"Well, it's not like I wouldn't have made it," I replied. "You know there's no way I could miss this party for the world!"

Holding my fist up, the two of us performed a fist bump (heh heh). I asked him, "So, where's Eggman? I think we better bring this welcoming back party to him personally."

"I heard on the news he's hanging out in front of Casinopolis. It might take a while though, what with all these Badniks everywhere."

"Oh come on, Badnik destruction is our specialty! We'll take 'em down and have plenty of time to spare!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw several of the Egg Pawns gearing up to attack, shields and lances in hand.

"Speaking of which," I added, "I think now's a good time to start. How about it?"

"You said it, Sonic!" Tails and I got into battle stances, big dumb grins on our faces. The Egg Pawns started running toward us, running at their usual pathetic speeds as the two of us separated to attack.

One of three Egg Pawns tried slashing at me with their lance, but I easily backflipped out of the way and followed up by kicking its legs out from underneath it. As it fumbled about, I hopped on it and burst it to pieces.

I rushed at another Egg Pawn, but this one actually got a little smart, utilizing its shield to block me from attack. Its companion jumped and tried to slice me horizontally, but I hadn't been taken aback enough for me to just take a hit from that too. "Whoa, Badniks using an actual strategy?" I commented. "Never thought I'd see the day!"

Crouching down and Spin Dashing easily took care of the shield, and it went flying away. Quickly, I rushed to the shield and grabbed it, and – taking a page from Captain America – threw it in an arc toward the other two Egg Pawns. Before my eyes, the shield bounced between them, though the one still with a shield of its own simply hid behind it as its friend turned into scrap metal.

While it was cowering, I snuck up behind it and tapped it on the shoulder. It turned to my direction, but I just dashed to where it wasn't looking. I tapped again, and snickered as it once more jusssst missed me. It looked kinda pissed now, so I just dropped an Air Cracker and hollered "Over here!"

Enraged, the Badnik rushed to my position… and promptly blew up from the mine I just placed, having not paid any sort of attention to the floor. That was three down, and zero left to go. I looked at Tails, and he seemed to be doing alright, too, spinning his tails around as a weapon against the two Egg Pawns he was fighting. Two more explosions occurred, and he met up back with me. "Two Badniks down!" he proclaimed cheerfully. "How about you?"

"Piece of cake," I bragged. "I guess Eggman forgot to spend any time fortifying any defenses in the time he was away."

More electronic sounds could be heard in front of us, and we turned to see even more Badniks ahead, ready to avenge their fallen comrades. I personally don't see how they think greater numbers means a greater advantage, but who cares?

"Betcha a hundred Rings I can take down more Badniks than you," I teased Tails.

"You're on!"


[Tails]

Station Square – Casinopolis Entrance

Man, I still can't believe Eggman's decided to make his return only now. I mean, it's been over eight months since we took Mobius back, and it doesn't even look like he brought anything new to the table.

"OH HO HO HO HO HO!" I heard Eggman holler his signature Santa Claus laugh, and as Sonic and I grew closer, we saw his Egg Mobile hovering over a crowd of frightened civilians. Various Badniks stood before him, aiming their weapons at the crowd. "Tremble in fear, citizens of Station Square! Bow before your future ruler!"

"Ruler? Don't make me laugh!"

In a flash, Sonic dashed in front of the crowd, standing against Eggman and his not-really-mighty army. Pointing a finger at him, he shouted, "You had your one chance at ruling the world and you screwed it up. Who'd take you back after that?"

"Why, if it isn't Sonic!" Eggman sneered. "I should've expected that you'd show yourself here in my moment of triumph."

"Doesn't look like much of a triumph to me," I overheard Sonic retort as I dashed to his side. "Your army this time around was pretty weak. What, you run out of those giant Death Egg Robots?" I noted the arrangement of Badniks to be had – more Motobugs, Buzz Bombers, and Egg Pawns. Something tells me he finally ran out of ideas. (Then again, he kind of hit that point back in 2013.)

"Of course I did, you and your pesky friends were the ones who destroyed them all in the first place!" Eggman replied. "But that's not important. I've got something far more powerful than any of that!"

"Let me guess," Sonic began sarcastically, "is it Infinite again? The Deadly Six? The Time Eater?"

"Chaos maybe?" I chimed in. "Oh, maybe even the Egg Walker! Now that's a classic."

"Hmph! Do you honestly think I would easily recycle my past projects like that?"

"Yes," Sonic and I answered simultaneously. Our franchise was so mired in nostalgia it wouldn't surprise me anymore if he brought out the freaking Drill Car of all things. (Man, wasn't that a pathetic piece of technology?)

"Okay, okay, maybe I've gotten a little lazy over the years…" (A little? I found myself thinking. Try a lot!) "…but that doesn't matter. You'll see the new weapon up my sleeve soon enough!" Eggman pointed a finger at us, yelling "BADNIKS! ATTACK!"

The two of us saw the small Badnik armada rush right at us, and we immediately got to work tearing them down. A few Egg Pawns tried to surround me, but I simply smacked their lances out of their hands by swiping my tails at them. As they tried to rush me anyway (Not too intelligent, huh? I thought), I flew up and dropped some Dummy Ring Bombs at them, taking them out immediately.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a few Buzz Bombers approach of me, aiming their blasters at my position. "Come and get me!" I teased them – man, I'm taking more and more cues from Sonic every day! – dashing away as a bunch of blaster shots hit where I was just standing.

I hopped onto a Motobug, smirking as I felt the Badnik panic over the extra weight. It tried to speed away upon seeing the other Buzz Bombers target its position, but I knew it'd be too slow to dodge. Their shots fired, and I jumped off before I lost my Rings from them. I hopped onto another Motobug, and repeated the process with all the other Motobugs.

You know, now that I think about it, it's been a while since I last intellectually challenged myself. I've built a TV out of paperclips, translated an entire alien language (though not without difficulty), and even made a fake Chaos Emerald. Maybe I should take some inspiration from Dr. Light and make a robot assistant? I mean, I'm pretty sure I can make AI that won't try to betray me. Or lock me up.

Or maybe I should take my Miles Electric and make it into a 3DS! I've always been fascinated with how so much power was crammed into a small, closable system; it'd also be easier to carry too! But then the screens would be pretty small, and typing stuff on it would be pretty difficult. Still, it's a nice thought…

…oh! All the Motobugs are dead! Huh, I was so preoccupied thinking that I didn't notice. No wonder Sonic mentions 'conking out whenever I ramble a little long…'

Deciding to put an end to this, I summoned my red arm cannon into existence and fired an Energy Ball, dispatching the rest of the Buzz Bombers without a sweat. "That all you got, Eggman?" I called out to the doctor. "'Cause that was nothing!"

"That was just the warm-up!" Eggman claimed, somehow still grinning. That's strange, he'd normally be pissed and yelling 'You're going to pay for this!' or something. What's he got up his sleeve?

"Warm-up? This?" Sonic said, looking laidback. "You sure you got the screws on your head bolted tight?"

"Behold, one of my latest inventions!" he continued, as if Sonic hadn't said anything. "The Animated Life Thieving Gun!" From beneath his Egg Mobile, some sort of gun appeared attached to a mechanical arm. Without warning, it charged up and fired some sort of beam into the crowd.

"H-Huh!?" I cried, Sonic and I spinning about to look at whoever was hit. The crowd had dispersed a bit, leaving a brown cat easily visible. He was convulsing in pain, the green beam drawing away some sort of energy from him.

"Hey, knock it off!" Sonic exclaimed, rushing up and jumping at Eggman's mech. Unfortunately, he just bounced off some sort of blue barrier, which covered the entirety of the Egg Mobile. It… looked a lot like how our shield power-ups used to.

"HA!" Eggman crowed. "Did you honestly think I'd leave myself vulnerable like that? Just sit back and enjoy the show before you."

The poor sap kept convulsing for a while, a few whimpers coming unbidden from his throat. I got out my Miles Electric, urgently trying to analyze the civilian and figure out what it was that Eggman was doing to him. He likes to proclaim that 'all his machines are made for destruction,' so whatever that gun was doing couldn't have been good.

"W-What the-!?" I jolted with surprise. This guy's life readings… they were still as active as normal, but somehow they were slowing down!

"Tails! What's going on!?" Sonic called out to me.

"Eggman's doing something to his life readings!" I replied, tapping a few more functions on my tablet. "I'm trying to figure out why, but I just don't have enough information!"

Finally, the beam retreated back to Eggman's gun contraption, and the civilian went limp for a bit. He doesn't look dead – that's not Eggman's MO – but it could be so much worse.

The civilian seemed to be looking himself over, but I immediately noticed something was wrong. His head was lagging in movement, looking like it had several frames of animation cut out of it. In fact, it seemed to be applying to the rest of his body. Whenever his arms and legs moved, they were practically jolting to position, looking reallllllly unnatural in so many ways.

The crowd gasped in horror as the poor cat shrieked. "N-No way!" I shouted. D-Don't tell me…!

"That's right," Eggman stated smugly. "With this invention… I can remove other people's frames of animation and take it for my own! They'll be jerking in movement! They'll be too slow to get out of the way!"

"T-That's not possible!" Sonic exclaimed, his eyes as wide as mine's and the audience. "We've always been self-aware, but nothing like that!"

"Ah yes, you're wondering about that. Well you see, all that stuff with the Phantom Ruby caused a lot of havoc to the spectrum of reality. And our universe has always been rather connected to the way our games play. So by abusing that little rip in reality…"

"…you can modify the way our world works in relation to the way games work!" I finished. This was just unreal, and yet… it made so much sense. "Frames per seconds, glitches, physic snafus, plotholes, gameplay powers… All of that can be affected!"

"This is a new low, even for you, Eggman!" Sonic said beside me.

"Well, of course! True genius relies on no limits," Eggman proudly proclaimed. "And the best part? It can work on anyone. Knuckles, Shadow, even Big the Cat! Nobody is safe from my ART Gun! And not… even… you two!"

My eyes widened as I realized exactly what Eggman wanted to do next. But it was too late. Eggman's gun charged up and fired again at us, a green ray of doom headed right for us.

"Brace yourself!" Sonic said, crossing his arms in a guarding position. I followed him, and closed my eyes in preparation.

The beam hit us, and…

…nothing happened?

Instead, a jolt of energy surged through our bodies, cracking all around us yet not causing any pain at all. Electronic, computer-like sounds echoed throughout, almost as if it were loading a program.

"Wait, what's happening?" Sonic asked, looking at all the glitch-like squares materializing all about us – not unlike Infinite's virtual reality projections now that I think about it. He ran in place for a bit – and he clearly hadn't been slowed down or lost any frames or anything. Heck, I felt the same way!

"WHAT IS THIS!?" Eggman roared in frustration. "That was supposed to cripple you two! And what's with the Phantom Ruby squares around you?"

Suddenly, some sort of game screen opened up in front of my eyes, completely independent of any screen or tablet. It just sat there like a heads-up display. I could feel my face still radiating shock as I read the contents of the screen.


Miles "Tails" Prower
Level 1 (E-Rank)
The Two-Tailed Technician

HP: 30/30
SP: 16/16
POW: 20
DEF: 20
SPEED: 35
COOL: 14

EXP: 0
To Next Level: 15

[Gear] [Rank-Up Bonuses] [Combat Abilities] [Passive Abilities]

[Back to Menu]


Was this… an RPG status screen? The heck?

"Hey, what's that screen you're reading!?" I heard Eggman yelling at us. I wasn't quite paying attention to him, blankly touching the button that read [Passive Abilities].


Passive Abilities

[Scan] Lv. MAX
Your IQ is one that can rival the great Dr. Eggman's. With your intellect and your trusty Miles Electric, you can scan the stats of enemies and even get a basic description of them!

[Technician] Lv. 1
You're pretty smart when it comes to technology. Heck, you can practically improvise Ring monitors all on your own! This ability will allow you to manufacture new and helpful devices out of various materials you can find.

[Flight] Lv. 1
With your abnormal two tails, you can defy all the laws of physics and fly on your own power. You can even carry two other people as you go! Unfortunately, there are limits – there's only so long you can fly, after all.


Beside me, Sonic was gaping at his own screen. "Holy crap, we've really gone meta now," he muttered. He had a point – it was like we were in one of those endless 'Gamer' fanfics that populate the Internet!

…wait, we're in one, aren't we?

"NNNGH! Okay, fine! Maybe the ART Gun doesn't work on you. But I know what will!" Eggman tapped a few buttons on his control panel, and down from the sky descended another one of Eggman's robots.

This one, however, was different from the rest he'd thrown at us. We've seen it before, over twenty-four years ago, when he used it to bomb Angel Island. It was a circular machine, with three bomb launchers atop of it and a potent flamethrower attached to its front. I recalled the name I heard Eggman calling it once - the Fire Breath. (And yes, I know how dumb of a name that is.)

"The ART Gun doesn't just steal frames per second… it can give them to others! Watch!" Once more, Eggman fired the ART Gun, except this time it didn't look like it was taking out. It seemed to be transferring energy to the machine, just like Eggman said.

"My reborn Fire Breath can take you down with these extra frames of animation! You may have avoided losing any frames yourself, but you won't get any advantage out of that!"

Faster than I've ever seen it, the Fire Breath started rushing toward us – a much different action than it would perform twenty-four years ago. As it reached my position, I dashed out of the way, closing the weird status screen while I was at it. "Whoa! He wasn't kidding!" I shouted, throwing another one of my Dummy Ring Monitors at it.

I looked up at the mid-boss and immediately noticed something odd. There was some sort of… tag above the Fire Breath. I narrowed my eyes at it.

[BOSS] Fire Breath Lv. 2
HP:
47/50, FP: 20/20

It looks just like our status screens from earlier, I realized. Did… Did Eggman's gun reshape our visual perspectives into a JRPG?

That's a malfunction I've never seen before!

…and now I'm hoping the RPG we're imitating won't be Sonic Chronicles again. Boy, the music we had to go through…

Sonic, having dodged out of the way like me, immediately struck the Fire Breath with his signature Spin Attack, and I watched as the HP value on the Fire Breath lowered.

[BOSS] Fire Breath (Lv. 2)
HP:
44/50, FP: 20/20

…okay, maybe Eggman's malfunction didn't just reshape our visual senses. It must've reshaped our physical ones, too!

In response to Sonic's attack, the Fire Breath spat out some flames, but it went way faster than usual! Sonic couldn't react fast enough (hey, he may be the Fastest Thing Alive, but he's not perfect!), and he was burned!

"YOWCH!" he yelped, falling to the floor. As he did, I noticed another strange tag above his head.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Lv. 1)
The Fastest Thing Alive
HP: 19/24, SP: 12/12

I'm pretty sure that if I could look directly above my head, there'd be a similar tag up there too. This was getting crazier and crazier by the second!

"How the heck is it so fast!?" Sonic exclaimed, dodging a barrage of bombs being dropped in at practically light speed. "This is worse than Infinite's shenangians!"

I found myself Spin Dashing out of the way of several other bombs as he spoke. "Didn't you hear me?" Eggman taunted us from high up. "It's supercharged from the frames of animation I stole! It's like overclocking a computer to run at 90 FPS!"

Once more, the Fire Breath sped at us, slamming into my body with precision. I grunted, having taken worse before, but I noticed in the upper-left corner of my vision a new tag appearing.

Miles "Tails" Prower
The Two-Tailed Technician
HP: 27/30, SP: 16/16

Huh, so there's my tag. Alrighty then, I just gotta keep a close eye on it.

I whipped my tails onto the Fire Breath, taking off more of its HP and getting it to back off a bit. I rolled away from it, expecting it to shoot another stream of fire – and so it did. I summoned my blaster and shot it at it a few more times, but it barely seemed to affect it at all.

More bombs dropped, and I decided to get some distance away from the crazy machine. Evidently, Sonic had the same idea, grouping to where I went. "Jeez, this is way crazier than anything we've ever dealt before!" Sonic said. "Becoming an RPG protagonist, Eggman stealing FPS, and now this. How the heck do we deal with this?"

"I don't think our usual strategy will work," I said, referring to our typical 'rush in and dodge' approach to fighting bosses. "This thing's faster than we can expect right now, and we're not dropping any Rings upon taking hits."

"You noticed too, huh?" Sonic grimaced. "With the way this thing attacks, our HP will be taking quite the hits, and we won't have any Rings to fall back on."

"OH HO HO HO HO! Now do you see?" Eggman said. "You can try all you might, but you'll never be able to best this mid-boss!"


[Sonic]

Admittedly, Eggman did have a bit of a point. This Fire Breath thing is practically cheating. It knocked off five of my hit points with just its fire attack! For a 'first boss,' that's not good. I kind of miss the days of cakewalk first bosses. You know, like Chaos 0. Man, he was easy.

I glared at the Fire Breath, clenching my hands into fists. "Greaaaaaaat," I drawled. "If you're going to throw an overpowered boss on us, at least give us some sort of tutorial or something!"

And on cue, another screen popped up in front of my and Tails' faces.


[TUTORIAL]
Frame Draining

Congratulations on starting Sonic & Tails: Frames of Animation™! This role-playing game has been meticulously crafted to give you one of the best Sonic™ experiences around.

We apologize in advance if you are only now receiving tutorial notices in the middle of the first boss fight. Due to development issues, we were not able to fully play test the entirety of the game and thus the notices are bugged to appear a little later than usual.

Since you have opted to play on the 'Experienced' difficulty, we are assuming that you have a basic idea of the combat and passive systems work, so we will skip to all the new, exclusive content that you won't find in most other RPGs.

You may have noticed the FP stat listed on the enemy tag. These are 'Frame Points,' and they are a very important factor to playing this game. This tutorial will teach you how to effectively utilize enemy FP in combat.

Initiate the tutorial?

[YES] / [NO]


Well, that was a little on the nose. 'Development issues.' Pfft, I bet it was probably SEGA rushing their game again, or something. It happens all the time. 2006 was a pretty buggy year in that regard.

I wouldn't normally accept tutorials, because they're usually too slow for my liking. But I'll admit that this may be pretty important to listen to, so I went and clicked the [YES] option that appeared.


[TUTORIAL]
Frame Draining (1/2)

To start with, Frame Points are the representation of the amount of extra frames per second an enemy has. FP can power up a foe and make them faster, even stronger. The more FP a foe has, the stronger it is compared to normal.

Luckily, there is a way to get rid of enemy FP – Frame Draining. This attack will drain a sufficient amount of FP from enemies so long as it is performed successfully.

To start a Frame Drain attack, go up to the enemy and smash your palm against it, willing a Command Prompt to start up. Try it out!


Tails and I stared at the tutorial notice. "That's quite the new gimmick," Tails noted.

"Doesn't sound half bad," I said. "Alright, let's give it a shot!" I put my hands on the floor and pushed off, dashing straight toward the Fire Breath with my palm outstretched.

As I slammed against the Fire Breath, I noticed a green screen of text appear between my hand and the 'bot, glitching out at the edges. A sensation went through my mind, and I instinctively started pulling my palm away from the boss.

Energy began to surge from the enemy to my body, and I noted with interest the Fire Breath's FP going down.

[BOSS] Fire Breath (Lv. 2)
HP:
42/50, FP: 10/20

Eventually, it drained all the way to zero, and I jumped back again on instinct, feeling a little bit stronger than usual. I noted the words 'EXCELLENT!' appear in the corner of my vision. At the very least, this game knows how to compliment its players.

"Hey Sonic, look!" Tails interrupted me. "The boss has slowed down!" Sure enough, the Fire Breath was moving again, but this time at normal speed. Whatever that 'Frame Drain' thing did, it zapped the mid-boss's overpoweredness away. I could get used to that!

"WHAT!?" Eggman screeched. "Where are you pulling all these new abilities from!?"

The tutorial notice changed again.


[TUTORIAL]
Frame Draining (2/2)

If things go as planned, the enemy's FP will be drained to zero and the word 'EXCELLENT!' will have appeared. This is your indication that the attack has been successful.

Draining FP will restore your SP (Skill Points) at a slow rate and temporarily power up your next attack. SP can be used to perform Special Attacks, but we can get to those at a later date.

The 'EXCELLENT!' prompt is indicative of your Action Commands. Action Commands are actions executed by your instincts, and come in four flavors: OK, GOOD, GREAT, and EXCELLENT. They can also have a wide variety of effects on the game. For example, your timing for Frame Drain's Action Command will determine how strong your attack will be.

And that does it for this tutorial. Frame Draining is an essential method for weakening and taking down enemies, so remember to use it whenever you see an enemy with FP. With that, we hope you enjoy your experience with Frames of Animation!

[OK]


I clicked on the [OK] button, ending the tutorial. Man, that was a little too wordy for my tastes. But that doesn't matter now, because we've got the upper hand against the Fire Breath! (…that is still a terrible name.)

"Now we're talking!" I said aloud. "Come on Tails – let's show this thing who's boss!" With a grin back on my face, I spun into the Fire Breath – and just like the tutorial said, my attack was a little stronger.

The Fire Breath tried to toss some more bombs at us, but since they were so much slower than last time Tails and I managed to easily dodge them. Tails tossed a few Dummy Ring Monitors as I threw a punch at the Fire Breath. We continued like this for a while, slowly draining the boss's health as it ineffectually tried to fight back. Without all that FP, this mid-boss is actually pretty weak.

Finally, its HP had reached 6 out of 50, and I believed now was a good time to end this.

"Hey, Tails! How 'bout we finish this together?" I called to him.

He knew what I was talking about. "Alright, Sonic!" Taking my hand, the two of us rolled up into one big ball and initiated a Spin Combo (you know, that thing from Sonic 4) and slammed into the Fire Breath, taking down the last of its HP and finally bringing it down.

As usual, a litany of explosions lit up the 'bot's exterior, and it stumbled about erratically as it became clear it could no longer function. At last, a bigger explosion engulfed the whole boss, the pieces of scrap metal it left behind falling onto the ground.

"Phew!" I wiped my forehead in relief. "We made it!"

A new window popped up in front of our faces.

VICTORY!

EXP Earned: 15 (LEVEL UP!)
Rings Earned: 100

Items: N/A

[CONTINUE]

"We sure did," Tails replied, tapping the [CONTINUE] button for me. The screen changed again, telling us that we'd leveled up, with some rather poppy fanfare playing in the background. (Actually, it doesn't sound like something too far out of place in one of Mario's games.)


Sonic the Hedgehog
Level 2 (E-Rank)
The Fastest Thing Alive

HP: 24/24 (+2)
SP: 12/12 (+1)
POW: 16 (+2)
DEF: 16 (+1)
SPEED: 60 (+2)
COOL: 30 (+2)

EXP: 15
To Next Level: 30


[TUTORIAL]
Leveling Up

When you get enough EXP (Experience Points) from defeating enemies, you can level up and become stronger. Leveling up with give a boost to all your stats, which all do a variety of things.

HP (Hit Points) represent the amount of relative hits you can take before you fall.
SP (Skill Points) represent the amount of energy you have to perform Special Attacks.
POW (Power) represents how much damage you can perform upon doing attacks.
DEF (Defense) represents how much damage you can block from taking hits.
SPD (Speed) represents your relative speed. Higher values mean you can dodge enemy attacks more efficiently.
COOL (Cool Points) represent your luck value. The higher it is, the more chance you have of perform Critical Hits. It may also have other effects down the line.

When you level up, you can also choose a stat to give a bonus upgrade to. Just tap one of your stats and stop the roulette!


…and this system is totally ripped off from Mario's games, too. Well, we copied power-ups and Super Mario Galaxy, so I supposed this isn't too surprising.

I decided to give a bonus upgrade to my DEF stat. A roulette appeared next to it, just like the tutorial said, a series of numbers between two to four rolling. Actually, it was rolling at a fairly slow speed, so it didn't take me too much effort to roll a four.

Looking at Tails, I saw he seemed to be giving an increase to his COOL stat (Man, that sounds like a pretty cool stat). He evidently seemed to notice the slow roll too, easily getting a four just like me.


Miles "Tails" Prower
Level 2 (E-Rank)
The Two-Tailed Technician

HP: 27/32
SP: 16/17
POW: 21
DEF: 22
SPEED: 37
COOL: 15 (+4)

EXP: 15
To Next Level: 30


After our stats increased, the two screens dropped from our vision. I turned back to Eggman. "Hah! That all you got?" I taunted. "Maybe you should play with us again when you've got an actual army!"

"You may celebrate your victory now, but know that this is only the beginning!" And just like that, Eggface was back to being smug and confident again.

"I dunno," I said, "your grand comeback consisted of nothing more than a bunch of useless Badniks. And sure, you've got that gun thing, but that alone won't conquer a world."

"Of course I know it won't conquer a single world! That's why I have dozens more ART Guns and Badniks doing the conquering work off world."

Wait… what?

"O-Off world?" I could see the gears metaphorically turning in Tails' head. "T-Then, that would mean…!"

"That's right. I'm taking the Eggman Empire to the multiverse!"

My jaw dropped. Eggman figured out how to travel through dimensions!?

"Oh come on, don't look at me like that!" Eggman scoffed. "You know dimensional travel is easily possible. You do it all the time with your Smash tournaments, and don't tell me you've forgotten about the situation eight months ago. This is merely just the first step in my grand scheme!"

"So that's what you were doing for the past eight months!" Tails gasped in realization. "You were setting up bases on other dimensions, gathering your forces and leaving us in the dark! But even with the rip in reality, it'll take a strong catalyst in order to make dimensional travel truly accessible like that!"

"Hmph. You think I didn't account for that? I'm surprised how little you think of me!" Eggman reached into his coat, pulling out a very familiar stone.

Again, both our eyes widened. "The Phantom Ruby!" we exclaimed together.

"Oh come on, that's not fair!" I shouted. "We destroyed that thing eight months ago!"

"Yes, yes, you believed you did with that Triple Boost of yours," Eggman hand waved. "What you didn't know is that you merely depowered it. But even so, it has enough juice left in it for me to initiate my newest plan to conquer everything."

This was getting worse and worse by the second! "You won't get away with this, Eggman!" I said.

"That's what you think. Just try and stop me when I'm literally light years away from you!" The Phantom Ruby in his hands began to glow, and a crimson vortex appeared above Eggman's head.

"So long, Sonic, my eternal nemesis! Don't worry – I'll be back for Mobius some other time! OH HO HO HO HO HO HO!"

Eggman ascended into the portal, and there was nothing Tails or I could do to stop him. And attacking him at this moment definitely wasn't wise (I've learned from the Lost Hex), so the two of us just glared at his Egg Mobile as it went in and vanished.

As the portal dissipated, I looked back at the poor civilian that was now missing half his animation frames. Already, my mind was conjuring up images of Eggman inflicting that fate on dozens upon dozens of civilians, across several different dimensions. With their abilities to even move crippled, they wouldn't be able to stop any of Eggman's forces, since they'd have no idea how to adapt. And that would leave their planets ripe for the taking.

As I heard the sound of an ambulance approach, one thing crossed my mind.

We can't let Eggman just walk out and do as he pleases. My duty as Eggman's 'eternal nemesis,' as he put it, wouldn't allow me to just sit back and wait for him to come back. We need to get out there and stop his sinister plan! But in order to get a leg up on that, Tails and I needed to regroup.

"What are we going to do, Sonic?" Tails asked me.

"Let's head to your place," I replied. "We might be able to figure something out from there."

"Alright. Let's get to it!"


Mystic Ruins – Tails' Workshop

When we got to Tails' workshop, we found Knuckles and Amy waiting for us. Knuckles is the sole resident of Angel Island (which can fly) and guardian of the Master Emerald. We used to be rivals, but now we're pretty vitriolic buddies. You really don't want to be on the receiving ends of his punches.

Amy's the resident… love interest of mine. (Ugh!) She has quite the crush on me, but she's gotten that problem pretty subdued over the past few years. She's pretty formidable, too – she can whip out Piko Piko Hammers from practically anywhere.

"Hey, Sonic!" Knuckles said. "Long time no see!"

"Knuckles! Amy!" Tails said. "It's good to see you again."

"Same here. So, I heard you two were caught up in another Eggman attack? I swear he never knows when to give up."

"Yeah, we were," I told him. "And this time, he's actually got a pretty good plan up his sleeves."

"Really?" Amy asked, her eyebrows raised. "That doesn't sound good. What's he doing now?"

The two of us relayed to Knuckles and Amy the events of the last couple of hours and what Eggman told us about his plan. There was a lot to go over, and the two of them were pretty shocked at all the news.

"Stealing other people's frames per second?" Knuckles asked incredulously. "That's… That sounds insane!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," I stated. "It was like something straight out of a fanfic."

"We seem to be taking a lot of inspiration from fanfics, now that I think about it," Amy added, putting a finger under her chin. "I mean, just look at what happened last year. An OC, a cringe-inducing edgelord, do-everything plot devices…"

I shuddered. "Don't remind me. Listening to Infinite speak just physically hurt to listen to."

"Speaking of fanfic tropes," Tails interjected, "look what Eggman's goof gave us!"

A blue status screen that I was increasingly getting used to popped up, making Knuckles and Amy's eyes widen again.

"W-Whoa!" Knuckles flinched. "W-What is that!?"

"It's a status screen, just like an RPG!" Tails chimed in.

"A-An RPG?" Amy stared at the screen in amazement. "We're doing the whole Sonic Chronicles thing again?"

"I think it's just us two, really," I explained, pulling up my own status screen. "It's a by-product of whatever Eggman zapped us with. I'm not complaining – it's pretty cool, if I do say so myself."

A look of longing briefly appeared on Knuckles' face. "Hey, I want that too!" His face promptly began to scrunch up, as if he were trying really hard to use the restroom or something. I felt… confused.

"Knuckles? What are you doing?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm trying to do what you just did! Make a screen thing pop up!"

Tails' eyelids became half-closed. In a deadpan tone, he snarked, "Knuckles, that's not how it works. You'd have better luck trying to challenge Big to an intelligence duel."

"Alright, then! Then tell me where Eggman is! Maybe if I get zapped by his gun, I can get your cool RPG powers too!"

"Okay, first off," I interrupted him, "Eggman's actually off planet, so even if you wanted to, you're not gonna be able to catch him. Second, there's a 50-50 chance that instead of giving you these 'cool powers,' you'd just get your frames of animation stolen. And something tells me you won't be able to punch well without them."

Finally, Knuckles saw reason. "Great," he muttered. "I guess that means I'm sitting out this adventure."

Amy tried to cheer him up. "Come on, Knuckles! I know Eggman's new invention means it's too risky to go out and look for Eggman ourselves, but we can still help from the sidelines! We still have all of our communications technology from eight months ago, it's just a matter of tuning them to be able to work across dimensions."

"We do enough of that already," he groaned. "Remember the Lost Hex? We got our literal lives sucked out of us. I don't wanna go through that again."

"Don't worry! This is Sonic we're talking about. He'll get to Eggman before he does anything like that!"

"You know it!" I added. "We'll take care of Eggman before he conquers even a single dimension!"

Suddenly, I heard a bit of rummaging beside me. I turned to look in the direction of the sound, and I saw Tails going through one of his drawers. Amy asked, "Tails? What are you looking for?"

"It's something I was working on in my spare time," he responded. "I think I still have it in here… Gotcha!" He pulled out his hand to reveal… another Phantom Ruby!

It didn't take us long to realize what it was. "A Phantom Ruby Replica!" we stated together. Tails and Gadget had told me about them during the whole 'Eggman's taken over!' incident. After having discovered the Phantom Ruby, Eggman had gone to work making several replicas, much like how Tails once made a fake Chaos Emerald. They hadn't lived up to his expectations, so he disposed of them, but Gadget managed to use them to stop Eggman's last-ditch-effort sun attack.

"Yep!" Tails said cheerfully. "Gadget showed me his Replica while we were still taking back the planet, so I managed to figure out how to recreate them. I even improved on what Eggman didn't do, so they don't break after so many uses. If we use this in combination with the upgrades I recently made with my Miles Electric…"

Pulling out said tablet, Tails plugged the Phantom Ruby Replica (I should just start calling them 'Ruby Replicas') onto one of its antennae. He then pulled out another Replica and stuck on the other antenna.

To our amazement, both Replicas began to vibrantly glow. Tails aimed the tablet beside us, and all of us watched as a blue portal opened up, not unlike the one Eggman went through.

Knuckles' jaw was practically unhinged. Amy simply let out a "Whoa!" while I whistled with appreciation.

"That's great!" I grinned. "Now we can start chasing down Eggman!"

"I've calculated the coordinates of this portal to send us to the closest dimension with activities from Eggman. I've also tuned it with our own RPG senses, so the difficulty level shouldn't be too high yet. It'll be the perfect start to our newest adventure."

"What are we waiting for then?" I said. "We've got an Eggman to scramble!"

"We'll get the rest of our friends and get the Resistance Base back up and running," Amy told us. "If I'm right, something tells me this is going to be bigger than we're expecting, so we need to be prepared."

"Heh, sounds good to me," Knuckles proclaimed. "I can't wait to be Commander again!"

"Knuckles, we're not going to be doing any resisting for now; we're just setting things up for Sonic and Tails."

"…I can still be Commander when we finish doing that, right?"

Amy sighed. "Yes, Knuckles," she conceded, "you can be Commander afterward."

"AW YEAH!" Knuckles pumped a fist in the air. Same old Knuckles. Then again, if I were Commander once, I think I'd like to be Commander again the next chance I'd get.

"Good luck with that, guys!" I said, gearing up. "We'll be back to check up before you know it!"

"Make sure to bring back some souvenirs, too!" Amy suggested. "I've always wanted to see what other dimensions are like."

"Don't worry! If all goes well," Tails said, "we'll practically be drowning in them."

"Okay, let's move!"

With that, Tails and I ran through the swirling portal, ready to begin our next grand adventure. Eggman may have a new threat up his sleeves, but we've got new powers too.

And who knows? We might even make some new friends along the way, see some new sights. The planetary trek I had ten years ago was pretty dang fun, so I'm sure this dimensional romp will be much of the same.

Either way, this is going to be a journey neither of us will ever forget.

And I can't wait!


NEXT TIME:

"Not Quite the Day We've Waited For"


Here's a story I've had in my imagination for the longest time now. (Specifically, since October 2017 or so. Man, time flies!) I wanted to have a fanfic that was pretty damn meta, so I came up with this ridiculous plot of Eggman stealing people's frames per second. Hey, the Sonic twitter is already pretty self-aware, so why not extend it to the rest of the Sonic universe?

If my current motivation persists (which it probably won't, but we can be a little optimistic, can't we), then I hope to have this fic span a good long while. This is going to be fairly experimental as I really get into writing! Some notes on this chapter:

This is going to be a first-person fic, because I think some fics can get really interesting when you're put into the mind of a specific character, hear their thoughts and perspectives, and listen to their beautiful first-person snark. Expect to be reading the perspectives of all of our future party members, too! (And no, I won't tell you who they are now. That'd spoil the fic!)

Sonic's Air Cracker and Tails' Energy Ball attacks both come from Sonic Battle, where they're Sonic's mid-air trap attack and ground attack, respectively. I felt like it'd be fun to use them, so that Sonic and Tails can have a more diversified moveset.

Yes, Sonic 3's first mid-boss is literally named Fire Breath, according to Sonic Retro. I am not making this up.

And I'm bringing back the Phantom Ruby because damn was it totally underutilized and poorly used in Sonic Forces – just like everything else in the game. Besides, we never did see the end of the Phantom Ruby now, did you?

Also, I refuse to believe all those Phantom Rubies in Forces were 'prototypes.' That specifically contradicts all the previous lore we know about the Phantom Ruby, so it makes a lot more sense for them to be Eggman trying to replicate them to use for his army, but not meeting his expectations. See? I can write plot better than Sonic Team can!

And yes, this is going to technically be one of the many 'Gamer' fics in existence. Now before you decide to leave, this isn't going to be a traditional one –the systems will be based off the Mario & Luigi series. I really like playing the Mario & Luigi series, and I've beaten four out of the five games, so I thought it'd be fun to try writing a Gamer fic using that. There's only so many Gamer fics you can read before you just start getting tired of them and want innovation, you know?

This author's note is running rather long, so I think I'll stop here. Next time on Sonic & Tails: Frames of Animation, we visit our first world and take a look at our first new party member! If you know your songs, you can probably tell where our first destination is…