Waking up in orbit above a planet wasn’t on John’s list of things to do. Nor was crash landing in Mercia and joining the Freedom Fighters. Fortunately he’s far from powerless, even if he is still trying to figure out how to get his newfound abilities to work. Of course with all that power, one question remains; What will he do with it? After all, there is only so much one can do with a Phantom Ruby.
Ruby Haze is an experimental self insert by weredrago2. It involves the author’s self-insert, John, literally crash landing in the early days of Archie Sonic with a Phantom Ruby fused into his hand.
It can be found on SpaceBattles
and Sufficient Velocity.
Ruby Haze contains examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: When John finally gets his hands on a book of magic, he discovers that many of his abilities are actually advanced magic techniques; the Phantom Ruby simply allowed him to skip over the basics.
- Appropriated Appellation: After learning that Sheriff’s forces have been calling him the Scarlet Wizard, John decides to take the full name of John Scarlet.
- Ascended Extra: The Mercian Freedom Fighters get a lot more focus than they did in canon.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Unlike the rest of the Robians who are just mindless drones, Barbe Vis had his mind overwritten with a fake personality so Robotnik could take advantage of his strategic abilities.
- Classical Anti-Hero: John. He's a normal guy who’s been ripped away from everything thing he knows and thrust into a massive conflict with powers he doesn’t understand, which has understandably left him a stressed out mess with severe confidence issues. He’s caught between being terrified of his own powers and being weighed down by the feeling that he simply just isn’t doing enough with them.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Metal Sonic's fight with Enerjak ends the second the god is able to land a clean shot on the robot.
- Cyborg: Presto and Cadence are these as a result of being partially roboticized.
- Defeat Means Friendship: John ends up befriending and being made an honorary member of a group of pirates after he defeats their leader.
- Discard and Draw: In exchange for a massive increase in physical abilities, John's dragon form loses access to the abilities of the Phantom Ruby.
- Enemy Mine: John is forced to team up with Metal Sonic to fight Enerjak.
- Energy Absorption: John discovers that he can recharge the Phantom Ruby by siphoning power from energy sources.
- Everyone Has Standards: When writing out a list of possible energy sources to look into, John crosses out Wisps.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Not evil but the idea is the same. When John saves her from badniks on a salvage mission gone wrong, Fiona can’t understand why he would bother saving her when he could’ve just let her die and take the loot for himself, especially since she duped him onto the salvage mission in the first place.
- Expy:
- Presto and Cadence are based on Tempo and Kat from Tempo.
- Per
Word of God, Fifi is the author’s take on Whisper the Wolf.
- Failed a Spot Check: Despite several obvious clues, John fails to recognize the Phantom Ruby or realize that he’s in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog until it’s literally spelled out in front of him. Its played for drama, as its the first indication that the Phantom Ruby might be altering his mind.
- Fake Wizardry: Downplayed. While Phantom Ruby’s powers are essentially magic and everybody assumes he’s a wizard, John himself doesn’t actually have any powers of his own and barely knows how to use the Phantom Ruby. John chooses to take a "fake it till you make it" approach to his situation and takes great care to avoid people learning about his lack of proficiency as he tries to figure out his powers. He’s working on trying to completely ditch the fake part, though.
- Fantastic Racism: Overlanders are not well liked among the rest of Mobius. Most Mobians still remember the Great War and their perception of Overlanders has only been tainted further by Robotnik. When John’s status as an “Overlander” is revealed while traveling on a ship, the captain demands John get off his ship despite the fact that he paid good money and is currently defending said ship from pirates.
- Fuel Meter of Power: The Phantom Ruby has a finite amount of power and John needs to pull energy from other sources to recharge it.
- Harmful Healing: Discussed. John is not a trained medical professional and barely understands how the Phantom Ruby works, so he’s understandably worried of something going horribly wrong if he attempts to use it for healing purposes. And while he did use it to heal Figment, that came with some side effects.
- Hired Guns: John hires a large number of mercenaries to help train the Crazy Critters on how to use their newly purchased firearms and to provide additional manpower. Mostly notable among these hires are Fiona, Bark, and Bean.
- How Do I Shot Web?: John spends a lot of the early story trying to figure out use the Phantom Ruby’s powers. Even after figuring out the basics, John still doesn’t know everything it can do and often has to work out how to use his new powers on the fly.
- Jive Turkey: Vector talks almost exclusively like this, due to the story being early in the Archie continuity, much to John's annoyance and confusion. John manages to get him to tone it down.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After John snaps out of his Heroic Safe Mode, he realizes that he severely damaged or destroyed several Robians.
- My Skull Runneth Over: When John uses a Power Ring to try and find the displaced Knuckles, he makes the mistake of asking to be shown every Echidna on Mobius. Since Knuckles is far from the Last of His Kind in the Archie continuity, the flood of information overwhelms him until he specifically asks for Knuckles.
- Mythology Gag: Metal Sonic escapes from Null Space through sheer speed, just like Sonic did in Sonic Forces.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: John tends to spontaneously develop new abilities as he needs them. It's justified, given the reality warping nature of the Phantom Ruby.
- Oh, Crap!: John has this reaction when he comes face-to-face with Big Arms, while the Phantom Ruby is almost completely drained.
- One-Winged Angel: When fighting Metal Sonic, John gives into the Ruby's power and transforms into a dragon.
- Patchwork Fic: While the story mainly takes place in the Archie Sonic continuity, the author has drawn elements from various other incarnations of Sonic, like the various games and cartoons.
- Rock Beats Laser: Subverted. While far from ineffective, the Crazy Critter’s primitive weapons can only do so much against the sheer might and numbers of Robotnik’s forces. This leads to John looking into purchasing the firepower needed to close the gap.
- Schizo Tech: Overlander weaponry is almost totally identical to the weapons used by most modern militaries on Earth, something John finds especially jarring considering it exists side by side with more primitive firearms and sci-fi blasters.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After accidentally reviving Metal Sonic 2.5 and promptly trapping it in Null Space, John decides he’s had enough and attempts to cut his visit to Angel Island short. Unfortunately, Metal Sonic has other plans.
- Sentient Phlebotinum: The Phantom Ruby is implied to be sentient early on and there are times when it seems to influence his actions. When fighting with Metal Sonic it seems to actively start putting thoughts in John’s head.
- Shout-Out:
- A group of rabbits with Scottish accents charge with a battlecry of “Freedom!”
- The first book on magic John finds is called the Ars Ixia.
- When teaching himself elemental magic, John takes cues from Avatar: The Last Airbender to get him in the mindset of using each element.
- Take That!: John notes that the Phantom Ruby is from a “game he liked (and another he didn’t)”.
- Tears of Joy: John sheds some after Merna the Merhog shows him a Chao Garden.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After accidentally exposing himself as an “overlander” while fighting some pirates, the captain of the ship threatens John and demands that he gets off his ship. This immediately comes back to bite him, as John promptly sides with the pirates due to them treating him with respect in spite of his species.
- Villain Takes an Interest: John ends up getting on Mammoth Mogul’s radar, who sends the Fearsome Foursome to test him.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: John tends to lose control whenever he starts to really tap into the Phantom Ruby's power or is placed in a life or death situation. Thankfully he's discovered that Power Rings can help keep the Ruby's influence in check.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Rob O' the Hedge talks exclusively like this. It's an affectation (apparently Mercian royalty is expected to speak in such a manner); he drops the accent a couple times in more private/stressful moments.
- Your Heart's Desire: Fiona wound up seeing hers when she touched the Phantom Ruby. This causes her to start making plans to steal the Ruby in order to make the vision a reality.
