A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction by Black Mantle
This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Preface
December 26, 2002
Here I am again, writing another fan-fiction from the deep recesses of my mind, this one from another classic video game series, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Although Sonic dates back to the early nineties, I really only became a fan in recent years. You see, in the video game golden years of the Genesis and the Super NES, I was a Nintendo fan; so I back then, I had an almost fan-boyish detestment of Sega's new mascot, and the attack ads they put out against my favourite video game supplier. I was young and so infantile back then.
Fast forward a few years and I had missed both the Genesis and the Saturn, though in my opinion, missing the later was not a big deal. However, after a brief absence from video games between '96 and '99, I regained my interest in them; and in the short span of a year got a PSX, N64, GBC, and (of course) a DreamCast, the most underrated video game system ever released.
Recently, I've added a PS2 (a piece of junk in my opinion as the only game worth having is Final Fantasy X), GBA, and a GameCube. Naturally, I have both Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Mega Collection (which almost makes up for my missing the Genesis), as well as Sonic Advance.
I have come to be a Sonic fan despite my original gagging at Sega, but even in the old days I had to admit I liked the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon on ABC, usually referred to as "SatAM". It's too bad that I didn't tape any episodes of it; today I religiously record episodes of my favourite shows--I currently have every episode of M*A*S*H on tape except for the two seasons that are on DVD.
To wrap this up, I have written this story that mixes some of the Sonic Adventure characters (Shadow and later Rogue, from SA2) into the SatAM universe. I have plans to extend this to several Acts and even have the first 4 laid out in my head right now, so if it seems short, there should be more coming soon.
Black Mantle
December 29, 2002
I'll be finishing the first Act of "The Darkness of Chaos" and posting it today. I would like to thank those who have posted reviews of my story already; I especially want to thank and thank SonicFan#1, whomever you are or are. ;-)
To Toni, yes, Shadow and Sally will meet; as far as making them a couple, I am making no comment on that at this point. I already have plans for how their relationship is going to develop. With regards to Geoffrey, I found I had a place for him; although, I will admit that I have not read many of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, so my knowledge of him is very limited. I am solely going on the following: he was a former guard who is very protective of Sally, and he doesn't like Sonic one bit. If anyone asks about other characters like Rotor (who got a bit part), Antoine, Hershey, Dulcy, etc… don't ask; if I feel I have a use for them, they'll show up, otherwise they may just as well have never existed.
Penultimate-lifeform has commented on my strange labelling system of Acts and Chapters. For those who haven't figured it out, the story is going to be a long one, so I've divided it up twice. Acts are the large segments that are further divided into Chapters. I didn't want to have it listed as one large story made up of dozens of chapters because the story does go in specific arcs, and could be seen as different episodes of a TV show, or books in a set. Take Lord of the Rings for instance, that rather hefty tale is divided into 6 books with over 20 chapters each. (Yes, it's 6 not 3, "Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "Return of the King" represent 2 books each.) As for the Preface, I could have called it "Letters from the Author", but I preferred "Preface", go figure.
Well, I hope you like the rest of this Act. I don't know when the next Act will come out, hopefully sometime in the New Year, late 2004 at the latest. Heh, heh. Just kidding, hopefully sometime in January.
Black Mantle
January 12, 2003
Coming at you faster than the speed of sound (heh, heh) is the second Act of "The Darkness of Chaos". I have decided to re-evaluate the rating on my story to 'R' because of this act.
And thanks, Kit Kat for the comment; it's always nice to be appreciated.
Black Mantle
February 17, 2003
It's been a month since the last act, so it's time for more Shadow goodness. I've already made a bit of a change to my plans, at first I had planned 4 acts in this story arc, but the 4 have now become 5. Don't worry, it just means more Shadow the Hedgehog fiction for you, though it will take a bit longer.
I would also like to thank CCC for her review. I love writing these stories, but there is a real satisfaction in knowing that people who read them enjoy them too. Not that it matters much, I'd still write this if you all thought it was crap, just to smite you; so there. >P
BTW; I've been playing Skies of Arcadia Legends, and if you have a GameCube, I would really suggest this awesome game. I have it on the DreamCast (natch) and I loved it so much, I had to get the GCN version for the extra goodies and the chance to play it again. Sure I could have just played the DC version again, but, you know…
Black Mantle
February 21, 2003
Here's the end of Act III, and I've received one more compliment, this time from Formerly Known As, who he or she was formerly known as is anybody's guess.
Unfortunately, FanFiction.net is pissing me off again. First it's the banishment of NC-17 rated stories, along with it came a change to the filtering system to automatically focus on G to PG-13 stories, ignoring R rated stories unless you specify that you want them. Now they've changed the upload system so that certain tags are filtered; they filtered tags before, but now they're stripping the p tags so that you can't put style information in them, and are being replaced with common p tags.
Since my new stories are coming out all bland, I'm considering reserving some web space and putting my stories there. I haven't decided (as some of you may know), because I've had some bad dealings with them after certain unscrupulous individuals were linking directly to my content instead of going through the main pages, and my site was getting pulled.
Weither or not I go ahead with that plan, I'll still keep putting them up on FanFiction.net and FanDomination.net, but I want full control over the formatting of my stories. I'll let you know in the future if I get any such web space.
Black Mantle
March 5, 2003
Thanks NocturnalWolf for the review, but I was going to continue this story with or without your threats, so calm down.
It looks like FanDomination.net is back from the grave, but not for long if they don't get more donations. They may have to go with some form of advertising, which may not be all bad, but ad-free is always better than ad-overloaded. For those who weren't aware, FD was undergoing an upgrade and while you could upload new stories, editing or uploading new chapters to existing stories wasn't possible.
Black Mantle
March 7, 2003
Two more reviews; sweet! Thanks Craig and Ramenth; I'm flattered you think this would be a good enough story to send to Sega (barring the fact that I kill off Sonic in Act 1).
Actually, this brings up an interesting point that relates to a previous review I got. Sega doesn't accept fan submitted suggestions; in fact, almost no video game company does. This is because of the legal problems that arise. If you give them a suggestion and they use it, do they have to pay you royalties? And what if they had already come up with the idea that you suggested, how do they prove that it was theirs and not yours?
Someone (Toni) had suggested that I get Shadow and Sally together. I have already answered that particular situation, but I think I need a full explanation as to how I handle suggestions:
1. If you send in a suggestion and I use it, I will give credit for where the idea came from. Since this is not-for-profit, I don't think there's going to be any real legal or monetary circumstances for using your ideas; besides, you submitted it for the purpose of me using it.
2. If you submit an idea that I already came up with, I will give no credit for it; since you didn't come up with it, I did. Since I don't post info on where I'm taking my stories, (I like keeping it a surprise as best I can) I'm the only one who actually knows where the idea came from; so you'll just have to take my word for it on whose idea it was. This is exactly what companies like Sega are trying to avoid.
Please feel free to send in suggestions, I am always glad to listen to what you think; just remember that this is my story, and I'm writing what I want to write. Well, that enough of that little rant.
On a Sonic related note:
Just the other day I got a rather rude, albeit welcome surprise; Sonic Advance 2 is coming out next week! After dragging its heels on a date, THQ finally gave a North American date for this game. I don't know when they actually announced it, but I heard about it while trolling GameFAQs and confirmed it at EB. I am half considering adding Cream and Cheese in my fic; but I really have no place for them. At this point, they've got about as much chance of appearing as either Big the Cat or Omochao, like that's going to happen.
So on with the story…
Act IV is now being posted, hopefully to BOTH FanFiction.net and FanDomination.net, though the later seems to be acting up again. For the first time, I am using a character while NOT keeping them in character. Read the blurb on Act IV for a better description.
Well, that's all I have to say for now; so check out the new Act, the first chapter of which will be up shortly.
Black Mantle
March 13, 2003
Dear NocturnalWolf:
The whole point of the cliffhanger is that it is all part of my evil plot for world domination. As this story goes on, I shall end each part with progressively worse cliff hangers that will leave you thirsting for more; until finally, all those reading this story will be my unwitting slaves! And then I will lead my army of fan-fic-induced zombies to total world domination! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
For the rest of you who couldn't care about the mad ranting of a total looney, I am right now writing Act V, which will be the last act of this story. Although it will be the end, I have plans for a follow-up. Then again, I had plans for a follow-up to "The Last Standing", but nothing came of it.
On a semi-related note, I picked up Sonic Advance 2 yesterday, and the game rocks as much as the first one; but there are a few changes I want to point out. First, boss battles are pulled out and are treated as an area of their own. Also, the boss fights are running battles, meaning you are chasing after Robotnik/Eggman along a straightaway, and you have to avoid his attacks while getting close enough to attack him yourself. Another change is the way you continue. In the original, if you fail in the 2nd zone, you could continue from there; in Sonic Advance 2, if you fail to complete Zone 2 or the Boss Battle, you have to go back to Zone 1. And get this, you have to unlock the Tiny Chao Garden, is that a bummer or what?
Black Mantle
March 20, 2003
I thought I'd give a quick update on the progress of Act V.
Act V is moving along, and it's going to be a doozy, weighing in at 7 chapters, the longest act so far. Three of the chapters are finished, another 2 are done but I plan to go back and redo them. Were it not for school and work, I'd be finished and ready to post by the end of the weekend, but I plan to start before the end of the month, April 1st at the latest.
Now it's up to you to decide; am I telling you the truth, or am I using the excuse of school and work to explain my slacking off? Or maybe it's actually finished and ready to go right now, and I'm holding back solely to drive all of you nuts. (read: NocturnalWolf)
In case you haven't heard, there's been a bit of a debacle going on at DiC. FYI, DiC is the company that created the various American Sonic cartoons, including SatAM. They were planning to release more of the episodes on DVD in conjunction with a company called UAV Entertainment, but Sega moved in to quash the deal. My guess is that as part of it's plan to really boost Sonic's image in the upcoming 12 months, Sega wanted to downplay the Americanized versions of Sonic in favour of the games' version. Although I can certainly understand this, I'm disappointed nonetheless.
Black Mantle
March 23, 2003
The first draft of Act V is complete. I still have to review the whole thing to correct spelling and grammar mistakes, although there is almost always some left undiscovered. This thing is almost 60,000 words for crying out loud; Hell, I just found an error way back in Act I! After reviewing, I also have to convert it to HTML for posting, but that usually doesn't take too long, so I should be posting the first chapter tomorrow.
And now just to annoy you and make things generally irritating for you, I am posting the title to Act V, enjoy.
Black Mantle
March 24, 2003
As promised, here's chapter 1, so HEADS UP!
Black Mantle
March 30, 2003
As the saying goes: All good things must come to an end. And so here is the last chapter of The Darkness of Chaos. It been quite a few months for me, and I hope you all enjoyed it; unless you got frightened off by the size of the whole thing. Be sure to let me know what you thought of my lengthy tome.
For those who liked it, I am planning a follow up, but I am going in hiatus for a little while to take a break; actually, I'm bogged down with schoolwork at the moment. But if I do get around to writing more, expect it in the summer.
Black Mantle
June 1, 2003
It's been two months since I finished The Darkness of Chaos, so I figured I'd give a brief update on the sequel. First, I am currently writing it, but it's slow going with full time work and all. Second, I'm hoping to have the first part done by the end of June or July; I'm no where near finished the first act, but already it's gearing up to be longer than any of the acts in DoC. So I hope you'll bear with me until I release the first chapter of After the Darkness.
I've also got a few more reviews, making it the story with the most reviews; although there's a repeat review and NocturnalWolf left 3 of them, so that knocks it to a tie with The Last Standing at 11 unique reviews. It would seem that someone else wishes me to put Shadow and Sally together; too bad, I've already got Shadow with Rouge, and Bunnie trying to muzzle her way in as is, but it has given me a few interesting ideas.
So anyway, I'm hoping that I can get some good writing time over the next month, but with work and my recently revived addition to Pokémon, it's not going to be easy. Right now I'm knee deep in Sapphire (have barely touched Ruby yet) and almost ready to challenge the Elite Four; but if those blasted Regi-pokémon don't cut me some slack, I'm going to go Shark this damn thing for a bunch of Master Balls and teach those uptight, we-ain't-going-in-your-puny-Ultra-Balls-no-matter-how-much-damage-or-status-ailments-you-inflict-on-us bastards once and for all!
Black Mantle
