Preface: Hello, again! This story is another installment of my one-shot line, and it serves as my little "bridging" story between Sonic Mania Adventures and Sonic Mania Plus's Encore Mode. However, it's told in a bit of a different style than usual. Hope it's not too alienating!
Phantomic Reaction
[Character Selected: Dr. Eggman]
[Current World: Mobius]
[Current Location: Angel Island, Abandoned Lab]
Alright, guys. This has gone on for too long. For almost three years, people have been debating whether or not Sonic Mania Adventures and Encore Mode are the canon events following Sonic Forces. So here I am today to put it all to a rest.
[BGM: Tee Lopes - Sonic & Tails BGM]
It began after Dr. Eggman abandoned Metal Sonic at the beginning of Part 6. Upon returning to his laboratory, Eggman looked around and saw that everything seemed to be intact. Turning to the ruins of the Hard-Boiled Heavies, however, he saw something he hadn't before: in the hands of the Heavy Magician was some kind of backup power source.
Immediately, Eggman got to work installing the backup system. It took a while, but eventually, the robot sprang back to life and tipped her yellow hat. "Thank you for rebooting me, sir!" she said. "I have excellent news: I can track the Phantom Ruby's energy, and it's still here!"
Having not learned his lesson yet, Eggman got excited. "Where is it?" he asked, grinning widely.
"Err, slight snag," said the Heavy Magician. "It's in another dimension."
The dimension in question was the Modern Sonic world. After Sonic Forces, Infinite returned to the remains of the Eggman Empire fortress and discovered the remains of the Phantom Ruby, as well as blueprints for the Phantom Ruby Prototypes. He grabbed them and went into hiding, hoping he could use his minimal scientific knowledge to reverse-engineer the blueprints to repair the Phantom Ruby. Long story short, it worked.
Anyway, Eggman remembered a dimensional teleporter he was working on and began trying to open a portal to the Modern dimension. Using the same tracking mechanism he used for the Chaos Emeralds, he put together a new tracker with the help of the Heavy Magician that will guide him right to the Phantom Ruby.
Once the tracker was complete, Eggman activated the dimensional teleporter and a portal began to appear in front of him. "It's working! It's functioning properly!" he said, eagerly. "Soon, the Phantom Ruby will be mine again!"
"Not if I have to say anything about it, Robuttnik!" he suddenly heard Sonic say. The hedgehog was just about to leave Angel Island with Tails on the Tornado when he decided to do one last check of Eggman's lab. Good thing he did, huh?
"Rats! I forgot about Sonic!" said the Heavy Magician. At that moment, the portal finally opened up, revealing a bustling city full of mobians. "Quickly! We have to get to the portal first!"
As the scientist and robot began to walk towards the portal, Sonic quickly looked around for something he could use. All that was nearby was a water pitcher, so he quickly grabbed it, ran up to the machine, and dumped the water onto it.
"No way! I can't believe this!" Eggman shouted in anger. He turned towards Sonic. "You won't get away with this, hedgehog!" he declared.
"Oh, I think I-woah!" In his haste to get away, Sonic slammed right into Dr. Eggman's body. The impact sent him flying right into the sliver of the portal that was still open, alongside the Phantom Ruby tracker.
Eggman sighed. "I was so close, but at least Sonic is trapped in that other dimension forever!" he said.
"Actually," corrected the Heavy Magician, "the ruby has the power to open up portals back into this dimension, so theoretically, Sonic could come back. Luckily, I have a backup plan in case the hedgehog returns. And it involves these two…"
Eggman watched the robot type on the nearby computer. The monitor turned into a picture of a familiar flying squirrel and armadillo. "Those two?" he responded. "That's...actually brilliant! One of them foiled my plot on the island that rose out of the ground, and the other hasn't seen me for a while…"
[Character Selected: Sonic]
[Current World: Modern Sonic's World]
[Current Location: Seaside City]
Meanwhile, in the Modern dimension, the townsfolk stared in awe as Sonic suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Modern Sonic was off helping others fend off the Badniks remaining from Modern Eggman's defeat, so to suddenly see another Sonic out of nowhere was surprising.
Sonic got to his feet and looked around. "Uh, hi, everyone!" he said awkwardly. "I wasn't expecting to visit again so soon!" Suddenly, he heard beeping at his feet and picked up the Phantom Ruby tracker. "Good thing this came with me," he said. "Huh, it looks like someone beat Alt-Tails to the Phantom Ruby's remains. And it looks like it's coming towards me…"
[BGM: Game Symphony Japan, Jun Senoue - Escape From The City - City Escape - (Live at GAME SYMPHONY JAPAN 17th CONCERT SEGA Special 2016)]
"Giant truck!" he suddenly heard one of the townsfolk say. Sure enough, a giant truck, not unlike the one in City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2, was coming right towards Sonic. The others ran away to avoid getting hit, while the hedgehog started to run.
"Gee, one second in the world I just escaped from, and already I'm a wanted fugitive!" Sonic said to himself, trying not to hit any pedestrians. He saw Buzz Bombers beginning to fly towards him, so he curled into a Spin Attack and drilled right through them. Instead of bursting apart and revealing one of those little animals, though, the Badniks burst into red cubes. "Hey, these must be Phantom Ruby replicas!" he said.
By this point, the figure driving the truck was getting really mad. He began to fire missiles out of the truck, aimed right at Sonic. "Wuh-oh!" Sonic shouted. He curled into a Spin Attack once, but this time he activated that Insta-Shield trick from Sonic 3K, causing the missiles to redirect back at the truck. The driver flew right out of the cockpit and fell onto the hard road.
"Infinite?" said Sonic, recognizing the face of the figure. "How did you get the Phantom Ruby back?"
[BGM: SEGA SOUND TEAM, Tomoya Ohtani - Battle with Infinite - First Bout]
After overcoming his initial shock, Infinite got a nice grin on his face. "I rebuilt it with my own two hands, thank you very much!" he declared. "And if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have even known about its existence in the first place."
That made Sonic pretty agitated. "That 'this is all your fault' stuff only worked once!" he said, pointing his finger at the jackal. "I already feel bad about all that stuff, but I'm not gonna let it get to me again!"
"Very well," said Infinite. He activated the Phantom Ruby and at least created the illusion of him turning back into his Ruby-empowered form. He flew through the streets, continuing to pursue Sonic as lasers destroyed everything in his path. Sonic was quick to dodge them, but Infinite was also quick to dodge the hedgehog whenever he tried to attack.
Rats! He's somehow faster than me! Sonic thought as his Spin Attack resulted in him flying right onto a park bench. Guess I gotta be more, 'ingenuine,' as Tails would say… As he had the thought, Sonic found himself surrounded by several clones of Infinite. But this time, he was ready. He wasn't gonna get distracted this time. Sonic began to focus and leapt into a Spin Attack, plowing through the clones and leaving red cubes in their wake.
"Grr! You're as stubborn as the Sonic from this world!" Infinite growled. Suddenly, Sonic whacked right into the jackal's face, causing his mask to slip. "That's it!" he shouted. Next thing Sonic knew, he was being strangled by Infinite and lifted high into the air. The city began to shrink as they continued to go up and up.
"Not so fast!" said the hedgehog. He reached his arm out and attempted to yank the Phantom Ruby right out of Infinite's hand..
"No! I will not give up this power again!" shouted the jackal. "I can't afford to be powerless again!"
Suddenly, Sonic stopped. "That's why you've done all this?" he asked. "You're afraid about being weak?"
Infinite growled. "I am not weak," he said. "I am not weak," he repeated, more firmly. One last time, he shouted, "I! AM! NOT! WEAK!" and threw Sonic towards terra firma. In his anger, however, Infinite also let go of the Phantom Ruby. His form began to revert to his usual appearance and he began to fall himself.
[BGM: End]
Luckily, Sonic managed to curl into a ball before he hit ground, cushioning his fall. After seeing Infinite begin to fall as well, he began to run in a circle several times, until eventually, a cocoon of speed was formed. Infinite fell right in and survived the fall. "Alright, Infinite. Tell me what happened," the hedgehog said in a serious tone as the cocoon faded.
"Why did you save me?" asked the jackal, confused. "A-after what I did to everyone?"
"Because if I let you die," Sonic said with a nod, "I'd be just as bad as you. But anyway, tell me what happened."
"Well, actually..." Infinite tried to bypass the subject.
"I'm waiting," said Sonic, tapping his foot.
"Fine!" Infinite began his story. "I was the leader of a squad of jackal thieves when I attacked Dr. Eggman. It was about a month before he took over. He hired me as a mercenary when that Shadow the Hedgehog killed my whole squad. When we came face-to-face in the Mystic Jungle, he called me weak. And that's when I took on that mask and changed my image."
Sonic listened to his story. "Hmm, that sounds rough," he said. "You mind explaining why you don't like being called weak?"
Infinite began to cry. "Okay, fine!" he said.
Sonic took him into an alley and took on the persona of a German psychiatrist. Infinite began telling him his life story and even his real name. To not anger the part of the fanbase who give him the name 'Zero' and make up their own backstory for him, I am not going to mention either. The point is, Sonic convinced him to try to rebuild his life and turn over a new leaf.
As the jackal ran off, trying not to get caught, Sonic nodded, approving his own actions. "If only Eggman was this easy to turn over," he said, looking at the Phantom Ruby. "Now, let's see if you can get me home." Then, as if by sheer coincidence, a portal back to the Classic dimension opened up. "Oh. That was unsatisfyingly easy," the hedgehog remarked. But he was not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, so he happily jumped through without a single thought, ready to destroy the ruby once and for all.
Unfortunately, the ruby wound up floating across the Angel Island Zone, and after Sonic discovered Mighty and Ray were trapped, he freed them before the Heavy Magician took the Phantom Ruby while they weren't looking. Then the robot revived the other Heavies, time was turned back, blah blah blah.
There you have it. Both Sonic Mania Adventures and Encore Mode are canon, and that's what happened between them. So you can stop debating now.
And if you're wondering if this is all real, my dad's friend's uncle's cousin's stepfather works at Sega, and he said it's totally real.
The End
Credits
Voices:
Mike Pollock - Dr. Eggman
Jesus von Any - Various Voices
Issac Ryan Brown - Sonic
Liam O'Brien - Infinite
Music:
Tee Lopes
Game Symphony Japan
Jun Senoue
SEGA SOUND TEAM
Tomoya Ohtani
Additional Music:
Hunter Bridges - Double Take - Encore Save Select (Credits)]
Written by: Alfred von Any
Edits by: Jesus von Any
Postface: Well, there you have it! That is my explanation for how Mania Adventures and Encore Mode are both canon in my AU! I'm pretty proud of how I executed it - I thought it'd be funny having it seem like it was being told by some random dude on the internet rather than a more professional style. I'm not too entirely sure of how I executed Infinite, though - as we all know, Sonic Forces was basically just wasted potential (although, hot take: Classic Sonic probably could've worked if they tried harder to incorporate him into the story). I know that Infinite is crazy powerful, and yet he barely uses his power due to the game's basically half-done state. So I thought "Well, maybe he discovered the Phantom Ruby survived and wanted to retain that power." I'll admit: that whole bit at the end was kinda based off of all the other 'origin story' fics I've seen on here. I had a brain fart, okay?
Anyway, that should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all later! Stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him are properties of Sega Corp. No copyright infringement with this company nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~