Fanfic / Sonic Runaways

"I’m afraid I’ve grown out of restrictions."

— Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Runaways: SHACKLED

BREAK FREE!

Sonic Runaways is a serialized Sonic the Hedgehog Alternate Universe Fic, its first chapter being released on May 26th, 2021 on the Webnovel website. It is written by Nat Quin.

The story, split up into multiple arcs that each follow adaptations of Sonic games, follows a version of Sonic the Hedgehog who was taken under the wing of Lord Robotnik at a young age. For 21 years of his life, he and his best friend Tails the Fox fought for the country of the dystopian Robotnik Empire in their quest to Take Over the World of Erius. However, after a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal that started with Sonic attempting to negotiate Robotnik out of using the Robodoom space station to blow up their two enemy countries, Sonic is Thrown Out the Airlock. However, he is rescued by Tails in their biplane, the Tornado. Tails informs him that Sonic is now the Robotnik Empire's most wanted criminal. Sonic and Tails promptly pack their bags, and start their exploit to escape the country. Thus, sparking a much larger adventure that has no end in sight.

Sonic Runaways has one full saga, "Genesis", with "The World Adventure" saga currently coming out with new chapters.

Sonic Runaways contains examples of:

• Abandoned Area: In Sonic Runaways: HEXED, the Lost Hex is described as being littered with ruins of old Hexi/Zeti settlements and monuments. Many of these areas are completely deserted, as there are only seven examples of intelligent life that still live on the Lost Hex.
• Abandon Ship: In Sonic Runaways: RESTRAINED, Robotnik accidentally shoots a laser beam into the Robodoom (Death Egg). It starts to explode. As soon as Tails, Amy and Ata the Olm take escape pods out of the exploding spaceship, Super Sonic quickly finishes the job and tears the Robodoom apart after nearly 3 entire arcs.
• Abridged for Children: In-story. The old VHS tape Sonic buys in the Iron Dominion has a sweet nursery rhyme sing-along about Little Planet! It's made for kids, welcoming them to travel to the planetoid! However, it conveniently cuts out the part where fresh-meat-eating plants infest the entirety of Little Planet.
• Absurd Altitude: Sonic hitches a ride on the outside of Robotnik's space shuttle, and is instantly whisked off to outer space. Somehow, Sonic's grip on the shuttle doesn't even loosen.
• Absurd Cutting Power: Sonic's quills are sharp enough to slice through some of the hardest of metals.
• Absurdly Cool City: Echidnaopolis is technologically impressive, almost futuristic, but doesn't sacrifice nature to achieve this.
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Zomom attempts to hold Zik away from Sonic and Tails by holding her arms out to the side. Zik is so short she can just run right under them.
• Absurd Phobia: Sonic the Hedgehog is afraid of non-anthropomorphic hedgehogs, describing them as an "underdeveloped mirror of all [he] could have been".
• Academy of Evil: Lord Robotnik has an intensive training program for kids as young as two years old that basically inducts the two greatest students into his military. Sonic and Tails were the first duo to be accepted into the program, way back in their childhood. The program would remain dormant until Sonic and Tails fled as adults, only for the program to be revived and won by Susie the Frog and Pico the Woolly Mammoth.
• A Cappella: While traveling to Tropical Coast in HEXED, Sonic, Tails and Zomom the Hexi all sing an old country song Sonic knew from his childhood with no instruments to back up their voices.
• Accidental Misnaming: Amy doesn't know Tails' name. Even weeks into their friendship. She calls him "foxboy" once, and eventually just sticks with it, not bothering to learn his actual name. Even many villains/rivals pick up on it and use it to taunt Tails in particular, though Amy never meant any harm in the first place.
• Accidental Pervert: When Sonic picks up Amy of the Roses in an attempt to escape the Cosmic Eternity airship during SHACKLED, Amy notes that Sonic is "touching her legs". Sonic tries to check if it's okay, but of course it is in Amy's eyes. Sonic's just the accidental perv in question. Amy is the Covert Pervert at this point in time before this trait becomes an expected part of her character.
• Acrophobic Bird: In WANTED, Tails outright refuses to fly Sonic after Robotnik's Rob-O-Matic pod when the tyrant escapes from the Spider Mech. He states that finishing off Robotnik isn't worth Sonic losing control and going into a Hyper state.
• Action Genre: All of the Sonic Runaways arcs are action-based.
• Action Girl: Amy of the Roses (post-SHACKLED), Rouge the Bat, Penumbra the Spider, and all the Deadly Seven fit here. Every one of these characters (except Amy) have been shown to even put up a good fight against Sonic AND Tails.
• Action Politician: Lord Robotnik, Warlord Pachacamac and Iron Queen usually attack the heroes on their own, be it in mechs or with their own hands. On some occasions though, Metal Sonic is sent by Robotnik to grief the heroes. Knuckles was also similarly used by Pachacamac, but more often than not, these leaders attack directly.
• Action Prologue: WANTED, the first story arc in Sonic Runaways, starts with Sonic jumping out a window and chasing down a space shuttle.
• Actually a Good Idea: Zomom is stated to be a genius by Zik the Hexi after saying that they should burn the demons living inside the Hexis' hearts. This calls back to the previous chapter, when Zomom is scared of being burned herself for harboring a sin.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Given to Zavok especially. The original Zavok being a cruel, abusive leader in the official Sonic series, in Runaways Zavok is just a little angry. In Runaways, Zavok values her teammates and treats them well. Guaranteed, if it was Lost World Zavok seeing two children mess with the Dark Battery's commands, things would have gotten a lot uglier.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Since most adaptations of stories already told in the official Sonic series have at least one major twist added to their core plot, the endings always turn out differently as a result.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Given to most characters coming from the official Sonic series, to fit with the series' theme of breaking free of chains imposed upon you by others. For example, Sonic now has some daddy issues with his adoptive father, Lord Robotnik.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Most Runaways female characters are taller/more curvy than in official Sonic media. Male characters are mostly portrayed as more handsome than their "the Hedgehog" counterparts. However, the Sonic Lost World villains (the Zeti/Deadly Six) have been completely overhauled. Once ogre-like, mostly male beasts, they are now all cutesy human-like women called the Hexis or Deadly Seven.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Nearly every major character has this. Sonic and Tails served the Robotnik Empire, Amy of the Roses was turned into a statue upon traveling to Little Planet, and Knuckles was surrounded by his clan his whole life.
• Adaptational Context Change: Sonic takes one of Gemerl's lines from IDW's Metal Virus saga and says it in the RESTRAINED arc when he promises to take care of Tails until his best friend is well.
• Adaptational Curves: Amy of the Roses, the Deadly Seven, and Iron Queen are portrayed as much more curvy than their official counterparts in Sonic Runaways concept art. In Amy's case, she is also subject to an Age Lift along with many of the other characters.
• Adaptational Diversity: In concept art, Zavok is now black as in the skin color (as opposed to a shade of dark gray like in Lost World).
• Adaptational Dumbass: Amy Rose from the official series, though silly and obsessive, is far smarter than Amy of the Roses from Sonic Runaways. Amy of the Roses is just brainless half the time. Also done to Iron Queen, but to a much lesser extent.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Metal Sonic, Tails and Rouge are introduced in the Sonic 1-based arc, the first Seedrian is seen in the Sonic CD-based arc, and a whole lot of Sonic Adventure elements are put into the Sonic 3 & Knuckles-based arc.
• Adaptational Explanation: Much more is explained about the Zeti in Sonic Runaways: HEXED when compared to Lost World.
• Adaptational Heroism: Metal Sonic, in Runaways, actually tries to protect Amy of the Roses from Lord Robotnik while she is captured under his supervision. However, this was only done in an attempt to be seen as more heroic like Sonic himself. Metal even ends up killing himself while trying to ensure her safety.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Due to being trained by Robotnik, Sonic is much more aware of how machines work than his official counterpart. Zomom used to be an idiot, but is now a perfectly intelligent character.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Sonic is much less willing to help Knuckles at first when the echidna offers a deal in RESTRAINED. Sonic even calls Knuckles high, which certainly got on Knuckles' nerves. This is far different from Sonic in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, who went along with a similar alliance without a problem.
• Adaptational Job Change: Sonic wasn't part of any actual military in the official, main game series until Sonic Forces.
• Adaptational Karma: At the end of Sonic CD, Eggman got away just fine. In the Sonic Runaways arc based on Sonic CD, SHACKLED, Robotnik has his human body get eaten alive by a giant plant.
• Adaptational Nationality: In Sonic Runaways, Sonic is born on an island in the territory of the Robotnik Empire.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Upon his first appearance in RESTRAINED, Knuckles welcomes Sonic onto his island with open arms instead of a closed fist. He is much more controlled than his official counterpart. However, throughout the arc, he slowly grows more of a backbone and stops putting up with anyone's garbage.
• Adaptational Nonsapience: Swatbots in the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series and comics could articulate full sentences, but in Runaways they are mute.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Zavok is lesbian in Sonic Runaways.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Despite mainly being a reimagining of the wind-harnessing mainline Sonic, Runaways Sonic has his electricity powers from the live action/CGI film version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Also, Amy can now use her tarot cards to summon weapons.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Robotnik, although for the most part still being the same evil guy he always was in the official series, does show some amount of humanity and vulnerability. The first instance of this was when he was defeated by Sonic and Tails, actually crying upon the thought of losing the hedgehog he had raised like a son. He also saves Iron Queen at the cost of his own life, showing a genuine friendship had formed between them. He even suffers a mental breakdown in RESTRAINED upon realizing he can no longer control his actions.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: The first saga of Sonic Runaways takes place across many months, whereas the original Sonic games they follow take place across an ambiguous timespan. Also, the characters at the start of the book are already older in-universe than their counterparts in the latest official Sonic games.
• Adaptational Villainy: The flora of Little Planet, as opposed to being explicitly a good thing like in Sonic CD, are more often than not portrayed in Runaways as a violent, sentient, meat-eating invasive species.
• Adaptational Wealth: Robotnik, instead of being nothing but an aspiring world conqueror, already owned one of the big three richest countries on the planet decades prior to when the first story arc began. He even gave Sonic and Tails some of his wealth before they ran away.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: Amy of the Roses has a multitude of tarot card spells she can use to fight, but still seems very effective with an ordinary hammer as seen in RESTRAINED. Sonic isn't particularly known to use weapons often in the official series, but in Runaways he uses a variety of weapons made from his electricity powers. At the beginning of HEXED, he even shows proficiency in the blade.
• Adaptation Deviation: Well, I heard Rouge wears a hat.
• Adaptation Distillation: In Sonic Runaways: RESTRAINED, which was already Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic Adventure all in the same story, all of the separate character stories from Sonic Adventure were cut from the arc entirely. The Adventure portion of the story was basically reduced to just Sonic's story. Knuckles' story had a few paragraphs when Knuckles and Ata searched for the Master Emerald shards, though. Some day, Big.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Sonic now has one eye green the other blue instead of purely green. All the white on his clothing has been turned black. Rouge now has red hair dye on her before completely white hair.
• Adaptation Expansion: Done for the first three arcs, which followed early-90s video games with pretty simple stories and 4 lines of dialogue between them all. Especially noticeable in WANTED, which didn't even concern itself with little animals stuffed inside robots. It essentially just took the locations from the first game.
• Adaptation Name Change: The man went from Robotnik to Eggman in the official series, then back to Robotnik in Runaways. Also, Amy Rose was simply made into "Amy of the Roses". If it can really count as a name change at this point, Sonic's best friend went from Miles Prower with "Tails" as a nickname... to just "Tails the Fox".
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Lord Robotnik was Sonic's legal adoptive parent in Sonic Runaways. As a bonus, he even killed Sonic's prior parental figure and pinned it on an enemy country.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Especially evident in Sonic himself, he has personality elements from Joker (Persona 5) mixed in.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Amy's attraction to Sonic is no longer one-sided. Also, Sonic relies much more on Tails to help him out of trouble as opposed to the other way around in Runaways.
• Adapted Out: Despite The World Adventure saga being underway, Chip from Sonic Unleashed is nowhere to be found.
• A Day In The Lime Light: Zeena was the first Deadly Seven member, and the only secondary character who isn't technically a villain to get an entire chapter centered around her and her inner demons.
• Addictive Magic: Sonic willingly discards the Chaos Emeralds the first time he uses them as soon as he doesn't immediately need them, stating that he doesn't want to be consumed with power like Robotnik was.
• Adipose Rex: Robotnik, like usual, is very overweight. This time, he just so happens to be leading an entire dystopian country.
• Admiring the Abomination: Tikal is fascinated by Chaos upon hearing about it from her grandmother in Sonic Runaways: RESTRAINED.
• Adopt-a-Servant: Sonic, as well as being Robotnik's adoptive son (and only son at that), was a complete slave to the empire his father ran.
• Adopted into Royalty: Sonic was adopted into the Robotnik family, and Robotnik is essentially royalty.
• Adopt the Dog: Robotnik, without hesitation, saves Iron Queen from Verdure Vista. But he ends up dying because of it
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Verdure Vista is a wall of plants that make up the face of Vista the Carnation. The wall continuously expands throughout the entirety of Metallic Madness Zone as Sonic and the others try to escape, only to end up fighting back in the end.
• A Father to His Men: Master Zik shows care for all her students, the rest of the Deadly Seven.
• Affectionate Nickname: Would it really be a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction if Amy didn't call Sonic "Sonikku"? Even with the villains, Robotnik gives Iron Queen full permission to call him by his first name, "Ivo". Iron Queen allows him to call her "Regina" as well. Zavok calls Zomom "Zom", and Zomom calls Zavok "Zav".
• Age Lift: Nearly every character is subject to this. Sonic is 15 in the official series, and is 23 in Runaways. Even characters who were already adults in the official series were aged up, like Rouge being turned from 18 to 26.
• Agitated Item Stomping: Knuckles, upon finding that a button opening an entrance to Hidden Palace has been removed, gets so angry he tears the remaining wires out with his teeth and starts thrashing them around.
• A God Am I: The nigh unbeatable Mecha Sonic often refers to himself as a god (in reference to Super Mario Bros. Z). However, when he says this a little too loudly with Calamity Chaos in the same room, it ultimately leads to the robot's quick demise.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Mecha Sonic turns against his creator, Lord Robotnik. Mecha Sonic aims to enslave all organic life and lead an indestructible empire of machines.
• Air-Dashing: Sonic retains his Homing Attack ability from the games. The story probably wouldn't have gotten past page 1 without it.

• Alien Hair: Vista the Carnation, a humanoid carnation from planet Green Gate, has hair styled after a basic carnation. However, whether it's hair or actually just a flower is unknown.
• Alien Invasion: This happened to Little Planet when Vista arrived.
• Alien Kudzu: Vista's plants have been described numerous times to have taken the title of dominant species on Little Planet. They are present and a threat in almost every chapter after Vista's first appearance.

• Alien Sea: Collision Chaos' sea is neon, purple in some areas and orange in others, and also in the sky.

• Aliens Speaking English: Every alien shown in Sonic Runaways speaks English. Vista, the Babylonians (including Longclaw), and even the Hexis if you count them. Although the last two can be explained by the Hexis' predecessors, the Zeti, as well as Babylonians living very closely to Erian life at some point.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: In HEXED, Desert Ruins Zone has all kinds of cacti. Some of it's even sentient. However, Desert Ruins has structures styled after Egypt much like its other incarnations.
• Alleged Lookalikes: Amy of the Roses cannot tell the difference between Sonic and Metal Sonic for the longest time, which is why she willingly stays with Metal during SHACKLED. She is only able to tell the difference when she sees both Metal Sonic and the real Sonic side by side as they both race to save her.
• All for Nothing: WANTED follows Sonic and Tails fighting tooth and nail to escape the Robotnik Empire in order to find a safe haven in the Iron Dominion. SHACKLED starts off with showing how Sonic and Tails are actually far worse off in the Iron Dominion than they were in the Robotnik Empire before they rebelled.
• All Gravity Is the Same: Erius, Little Planet, and the Robodoom all seem to have the same force of gravity.
• All Is Well That Ends Well: Said by Tails after Calamity Chaos was pacified after wrecking Echidnaopolis. With dead bodies of his neighbors and fellow clan members littering the destroyed city he calls home, Knuckles is reasonably disturbed by this.
• Alliterative Name: Palmtree Panic and Wacky Workbench did not have alliterative names in-universe before Sonic and Metal Sonic named them, according to Aurora the Guardian. She even says "alliteration is fun" when Sonic mentions a location by one of his made-up names.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Amy, as always, is shamelessly crushing on Sonic. Sonic actually does love her back quite a lot, but he is hesitant to get in a serious relationship with her or even just say that he loves her. This is out of fear he will break her heart, possibly because of his tendency to have smaller crushes on just about any girl he meets.
• All-Loving Hero: Amy of the Roses tried to [[save Warlord Pachacamac after he tried to kill her, but failed as Sonic pulled her away.]]
• All-Natural Gem Polish: The Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald all have a brilliant cut right out the gate.
• All Planets Are Earth-Like: Little Planet and Lost Hex are both very similar to Erius, which is similar to Earth.
• All That Glitters: The Iron Dominion seems like "paradise" to Sonic at first, but living there for months makes him realize it's hardly better than the Robotnik Empire.
• All There in the Manual: Many pieces of trivia or backstory elements about Sonic Runaways and its characters are only presented or confirmed by the author on her Twitter and the Sonic Runaways Fandom wiki.
• All There in the Stinger: In Sonic Runaways: HEXED's epilogue, important characters such as Ata and [[Professor Pickle]] either return after a long absence, or appear for the first time in the continuity. They set up the goal of the World Adventure saga going forward: find the 7 World Instruments and piece the planet back together.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: In the semifinal chapter of Sonic Runaways: SHACKLED, Sonic must take out the Robot Generators in every Zone on Little Planet that he has already gone through.
• All Webbed Up: The Spider Mech in Prison Hill does this to Tails. Surprisingly, Penumbra the Spider has never been shown doing this.
• Almighty Idiot: When Vista the Carnation fuses with the plants of Little Planet to become Verdure Vista, she loses her mind and humanity.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: Due to Zomom's tornado in HEXED, Sonic and Tails nearly suffocate. A countdown accompanies this.
• Anger Is Not Enough: Up until the end of RESTRAINED, Sonic often lost control of his anger and went into a Hyper state, a state of mind that only unleashes itself when he is really angry. While Hyper, he can control great amounts of electricity and amplify his base powers exponentially. However, when he's like this, he cannot control himself very well. He certainly can't defeat Calamity Chaos even with the (dwindling) powers of the Master Emerald. Faced with a foe he can't defeat, Sonic must calm himself. He proceeds to use a little positive attitude and The Power of Friendship to pacify Calamity Chaos.
• Campfire Character Exploration: In HEXED, Master Zik the Hexi gathers her team comprised of Sonic, Tails, Zomom and Zoga around a campfire and tells them all the ancient tale of how the Zeti were banished to the Lost Hex upon the Dawn of Space.
• Character Development: Present in nearly every hero character brought in from the pre-existing Sonic the Hedgehog series. Sonic and Tails themselves used to be puppets to the Robotnik Empire, and are now two of its greatest enemies. Amy went from wanting complete destruction of her enemies like Lord Robotnik, to attempting to save Pachacamac, who had just tried to kill her and her friends. Knuckles was just a timid servant to the Knuckles clan until they went against his morals, and eventually grew such a backbone that he declared a revolution of the entire clan. He is now the chief of the Knuckles clan. Even Lord Robotnik learned to genuinely care about Iron Queen to the point of sacrificing himself for her, despite both of them being in charge of opposing countries.
• Chest of Medals: Warlord Pachacamac's white suit is stated to be covered in medals upon his introduction in RESTRAINED.
• Cuddle Bug: The first thing Amy does upon being able to move her arms for the first time in years is hug Sonic, declaring her satisfaction with this new ability she will use many times throughout the series.
• Grass is Greener: Sonic and Tails put their all into escaping the Robotnik Empire and going to the nearby Iron Dominion to avoid execution, only to find things aren't actually much better there. Hey, at least they still have their heads.
• In Harmony with Nature: Everything about Vista the Carnation. She is able to commune, fuse, and exert control to plants. Unfortunately, she has only ever been seen using these powers to eradicate all meaty animal life in order to make plants the dominant living things of the universe.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: Tails is often helps Sonic out of sticky situations the hedgehog gets himself into, usually by literally carrying him and flying out of the immediate battle. But when Tails falls ill and therefore physically frail around the beginning of SHACKLED, Sonic suddenly must look out for his weakened lifelong friend. This usually ends up in Sonic needing to carry Tails out of danger a lot more often.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: A past event known as "The Uprising" is sometimes brought up to Sonic. All that is known about it is that it was a battle where Sonic went into a Hyper state, and subsequently did something he still greatly regrets and tries to forget.