Fanfic / Time Trials

A Massive Multiplayer Crisis Crossover Patchwork Fic series, written by Armla and based on the various adaptations of Sonic the Hedgehog.

The story starts in the present-day universe of the mainstream Sonic game continuity, then jumps into a dystopian future timeline where The Eggman Empire has conquered the world and it seems Sonic and his allies are no longer around to stop him, leaving only a dwindling group of survivors to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.

Sounds pretty familiar, right?

The premise itself is hardly unusual, even for Sonic Fan Fic, and its Canon Welding and Worldbuilding draws on a lot of popular fanon. What makes it somewhat unique is its non-linear narrative, which jumps back and forth between time frames and locations as more elements from alternate continuities are introduced. Continuity Porn, and boatloads of Mythology Gags abound, and while the overall tone is generally pretty typical of the games, things do get pretty grim at some junctures.

Can be read at Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction Dot Net.

Time Trials contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: It'd be quicker to list the female characters who aren't skilled fighters.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Averted. Several characters are explicitly stated to practice trigger discipline and keep their weapons' safeties engaged outside of combat. Carlos even lectures Sonic on handling firearms properly after he snatches away a gun that is being pointed at him by Shadow, rather than lecturing Shadow himself.
• Ascended Extra: Like the Archie and Fleetway comics before them, relatively minor or background characters from the games and other media are fleshed out and given more prominent roles.
• Back from the Dead: Many of the characters who have been killed off in the Bad Future are alive and well in the present day, because their deaths technically haven't happened yet. Shard is a twofold example of this, as he’s revealed to have been retconned into a Composite Character; he was Hyper Metal Sonic from the Sonic OVA prior to becoming Shard, and after being Put on a Bus left his ultimate fate in the comics unknown, his story picks up here where it left off.
• Colony Drop: Angel Island falls out of the sky after the Master Emerald is shattered.
• Crapsack World: The Bad Future. Every single Zone from Green Hill to Mushroom Hill is a warzone, a Polluted Wasteland, or both. It’s all but stated outright that the majority of the planet’s population have been killed, roboticized, or placed into prisoner-of-war camps. The Resistance is horrendously outmatched, running low on just about everything from manpower to food and weapons. The entire planet seems to be in a state of decay, and even the Eggman Empire’s ostensible victory is implied to be ultimately meaningless, if the presence of the rusting and decrepit Swatbot patrolling aimlessly around Angel Island is anything to go by.
• Crisis Crossover: Between just about every Sonic game, comic, and TV series you can think of. Multiple continuities are smushed together, with bits and pieces of alternate realities bleeding into the mainstream universe. Some characters from the games don't even recognize characters who know their comic-book counterparts.
• Desolation Shot: The second chapter sets the scene with boatloads of Scenery Gorn while Royce is looking out across the Green Hill Zone.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Averted. G.U.N.’s forces wield the same hardware they were seen using in the games, Omega’s weapons are all military-grade, and several members of the Resistance are shown using firearms modeled on real-world weapons.
• Floating Continent: Angel Island, which seems to be the focal point for the action in both the present day and the Bad Future.
• Green Hill Zone: The Trope Namer is where the fic starts; the chapter that follows it is set in a dystopian Bad Future version of it.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: Zonic of the Zone Cops appears in chapter 32.
• Implacable Man: The Super Badnik that doggedly pursues Royce in the Bad Future chapters shrugs off everything The Resistance throws at it, in the vein of The Terminator. It's heavily implied to be a reprogrammed E-123 Omega.
• La Résistance: The Resistance seen in the Bad Future, which is comprised mainly of minor characters from the comics and cartoons after most of the heroes are implied to have been Killed Offscreen.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Sonic's World is inhabited by both humans and Funny Animal characters, referred to as Mobians. The etymology of the word Mobian is explained as being derived from Mobius, a somewhat antiquated name for Sonic's World that's largely fallen out of use in favor of Earth.
• Meaningful Background Event: A pair of Mobian bears are mentioned in Chapter 24, seen on a news report helping people try and escape the rising floodwaters in Station Square. It’s subtly implied from their descriptions that they might be Mad Mike and Big Griz, indicating that we might see more characters who’ve been killed off in the Bad Future.
• Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Carlos is utterly unperturbed at being held at gunpoint by Shadow during their first encounter in the present day, flatly stating that if Shadow was going to shoot him, then he would have done it already...and also, the safety is still on. Shadow looks as though he might fall for it for a moment, but Sonic swipes the gun away from him before he can call Carlos' bluff, leading to Carlos making a grab for the gun while Sonic is distracted. Shadow observes that was a pretty ballsy move; only then does Carlos admit that he wasn’t bluffing about the safety being on.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Zig-zagged. Characters from outside the mainstream game continuity recognize the characters from the games, but the game characters don't recognize characters from outside the game canon or remember their interactions with them.
• Unexpected Character: In a story with this many characters, there’s bound to be some surprises even if you go in with an idea of who- or what- to expect. Characters from alternate canons such as the Fleetway comics can also potentially be this, due to the comics not being published outside of the UK.
• War Is Hell: The bleak tone of the Bad Future chapters stems largely from this. The Resistance has been reduced to a handful of survivors who are just barely scraping by, running low on just about everything from clean water to morale.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Just about every major plot point is one. The first glimpse we get of the Bad Future makes it come across as a Darker and Edgier version of Sonic Forces with a smattering of Sonic the Comic after Robotnik’s time-skip takeover of the planet. The Genesis Wave bringing several alternate continuities together is reminiscent of Archie’s Worlds Unite, while the Master Emerald being shattered recalls the events of both Sonic Adventure games; it even appears to temporarily cease to exist for a moment, something that was a plot point in Sonic Rivals. The Emerald Network’s time-travel shenanigans are similar to Silver’s attempts to avert his own Bad Future from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (and just about every subsequent game and comic he’s appeared in). A slight subversion occurs when Station Square is flooded in the vein of the first Sonic Adventure, as Chaos isn’t actually responsible but then the robot pirates from Sonic Rush Adventure show up, being led by none other than Captain Metal, whose goals remain the same as his debut in Sonic Universe. The similarities are frequently alluded to, if not outright Lampshaded.