Chaos Theory T. Echidna's Author's Notes For "Shadows
of the Future"
Explains In-Jokes, References, Quotes, And Any
Unanswered Questions You May Have After Finishing the
Story
WARNING!! The following pages contain MAJOR SPOILERS
for the story! If you have not read it ALL THE WAY
THROUGH, then TURN BACK NOW!!
Last chance to turn back...
(Picture of Queen Riku-Dari placed here to create "spoiler space".)
Still here? Then either you've read the story or you
really like to ruin things for yourself! At any rate,
you've asked for it now; let's start the author's
notes!
NOTE: If you have a question or comment about something
else in the story that ISN'T covered here, please feel
free to e-mail
me. Or if you just wanna say how great it was (yeah
right!) that's fine too...
Q. WAIT a minute--is that thing in
Hydrocity at the very very end what I THINK it is?!
A. If you mean, "is it a Chaos Monster like from Sonic
Adventure" then the answer is....YES. BWAHAHAHAHA...
Q. Is the evil Queen still
alive?
A. Yes indeedy she is. I specifically wrote that part
where she gets cut in the leg by the knife of a crazed
commoner so that later on she'd have that limp to
distinguish her...and notice that the ragged,
black-furred creature that stowed away on The Big
Spaceship was LIMPING...
Q. How did she get there? Why
wasn't she killed by Amy's hammer?
A. Amy's hammer never hit her--bear in mind what the
Queen's power was. TELEPORTATION. It went off
automatically on instinct there--and don't tell me that
teleportation doesn't work that way, I've seen some other
sci-fi things that say otherwise. For example, in the
role-playing game "Paranoia", a character with teleport
ability might have it randomly go off if they get too
panicked. The same thing happened here. Why did she go
to the spaceship, then? The REAL answer is that I wanted
to set up for a sequel, but the story answer is that the
Dark Master was setting her up to be better able to take
out its enemies after it died. It can see a little bit
into the future, you see.
Q. Why didn't the Queen die when
the Dark Master did? After all, Knuckles was in danger
of dying when HIS Master Emerald got sick.
A. It didn't have as strong a bond with her as the
Master Emerald has with Knuckles. It is the JEWELS, not
the people, who choose their "Guardians"--the one who is
bonded to them--and they also choose how deep and
complete the link will be. The Master Emerald really
REALLY "likes" Knuckles, even as a kid, so it bonded
itself really strongly to him. However, the Dark
Master's bond with young Princess Riku-Dari was only
enough to (a) intensify the evil and unstable parts of
her personality so that she'd be the perfect evil despot
when she grew up, and (b) give her her magical powers.
Other than that, she had no physical connection to it.
The result is that now that the Dark Master is dead, she
has lost her teleportation ability, but that's IT. Once
she rests and heals up, she'll be a formidable enemy
again.
Q. How come her teleporting is
such a big deal when the guy who bought Electra could do
that, too?
A. You weren't paying attention enough. Go read the
beginning of Chapter 10 again, carefully. In it, "Mole"
says that his tiny teleporter is the ONLY one that exists
of that size, and that "not even the QUEEN has one!" So
his is mechanical; hers WAS an inherent ability, before
the Dark Master was destroyed.
Q. How do you pronounce these
weird echidna names?
A. Okay, here goes:
Anansi is pronounced "ah-NAHN-see".
Lenara is pronounced "len-AHR-ah".
Korel is pronounced "koh-REL."
Lorinda is pronounced "Lorinda". Seriously, you
should be able to figure that one out for yourselves!
Shirlana is pronounced "shuhr-LAH-nah."
Django is pronounced "JONG-go". Really. (It's a
real name; it's Arabic in case you're wondering.)
Riku-Dari is pronounced "REE-koo DAH-ree".
Kalo is pronounced "KAY-low".
Q. Why do some of them have exotic
names and some not?
A. The ones that have ordinary names, or partial
ordinary names (i.e., they sound more like the names of
the other Freedom Fighters and such) are from the days
when the echidnas used to live down on the ground and the
Island wasn't Floating yet--heck, it wasn't an island
yet! Anyway, they used to live down on the ground among
the other races and interact with them a LOT more than
they did later on. And sometimes echidnas would decide
to adopt parts of the surrounding culture, such as names.
They adopted other parts of their culture too, but over
the centuries the names are the only part that has
survived, even onto the Arellan version of the echidnas'
culture. And yes, before you ask, the echidnas with the
Mobian names very often WERE part of the rebel group that
wanted to break off, just so you know. Lorinda with her
Mobian last name "Steele" may very well be a direct
descendant of those original rebels.
Q. Why did the plants and
everything start getting sick on the Floating Island when
the Master Emerald started dying? I thought all it did
was hold the Island in the sky!
A. This may be the truth in the Sega version, but in MY
version the Master Emerald has a symbiotic relationship
with the entire Island; it is dependent on the Island,
and the Island is dependent on it. The machines were
breaking down because they'd been running on the Master
Emerald's magical power--that was explained in Chapter 7.
As for the other things, the plants and animals and
people, the reason they were sick is because, over the
years, whenever the Master Emerald saw that a living
thing on the Island was sick, it would feel sorry for it
and help it out with some of its energy. Over time, the
life forms on the Island became dependent on this extra
energy, although the Master Emerald certainly didn't MEAN
for that to happen. When it started being drained, the
Master Emerald pulled that energy BACK into itself, as it
was no longer "extra" and it now needed that energy to
survive. So all the life-forms were left in the lurch
and therefore started dying without the extra energy they
had become dependent on.
Knuckles and the Chaotix--Knuckles is considered to be
the Master Emerald's "Guardian". It saw something it
REALLY liked in his personality when he was only 7 years
old and has been bonded to him ever since, very strongly.
Like all "Guardians" of any Master Power Gem, he was
given a special power or two (in this case, gliding, and
his ability to punch through ANYTHING without hurting
himself), which is a minor extension of the Master's own
power, in order to better defend it. Each Guardian gets
a different power almost at random; so Knuckles can
glide, the Queen could teleport. Another one might be
able to turn invisible, breathe underwater, walk through
fire, whatever. Anyway, Knuckles is the Master's VERY
BEST line of defense, so that's why he kept most of his
strength when the plants and other things on the Island
were already dying. The Chaotix, as "helper-guardians",
have a much looser bond to the Master. See, they were
not chosen BY it, but they were chosen by the person that
was chosen by it, so it's a two-step removal. The deal
is, the Chaotix members can occasionally be helped by the
Emerald's magic--as when Charmy's wing and Espio's
poisoning both suddenly healed themselves at the end--but
they are NOT dependent on it for their lives, and it
doesn't give them powers.
Strangely enough, because Bunnie did such a good job of
healing Espio (what she did was all ANYBODY could do; the
poison was so bad that its effects could never ENTIRELY
be purged except by magic) and also working well with the
other Chaotix and helping to guard the Emerald while
Knuckles was gone, the Master may very well have chosen
her as another helper-Guardian! In other words, IT might
now consider her a Chaotix member even though she's NOT
one officially as far as the other animals are concerned!
This could have some interesting complications but I'm
not sure if I'm gonna go that way or not...
Q. Why do most of the people in
the City of the Stars not seem to know how close to
Mobius they are?
A. The sky-dome has a fake picture of sky on it that
blocks out the view of the real sky. And they're so out
of touch with their history and so isolationist that they
think the large blue planet you can see when you go to
the edge of the city--something hardly ANYBODY does, 'cos
it's considered boring and depressing--is just another,
larger moon or something.
Q. So why did the auctioneer say
that Sonic and co. were from "so far away nobody knows
the name of their land" or whatever it was?
A. She was lying to make them sound more exotic so she'd
get a better profit, duh!
Q. Hey, you said there wasn't any
gratuitous violence in this story! I am a concerned
parent and I let my little girl read this story because
she loves Sonic so much and she is only 7 years old. So
what's up with the scenes where Amy bashes that guy's
head in and the part where the Queen slits the slave's
throat with her claws?
A. First of all, I TOLD you the story was PG or even
PG-13 at the VERY VERY BEGINNING of this story. If you
didn't read that part it's your own fault. Secondly,
look again at the disclaimer. GRATUITOUS violence. As
in, unnecessary. But those bits of violence WERE
necessary; they helped the story and character
development! I wanted Amy Rose, whom everbody thinks of
as a total useless wimp, to toughen up, toughen up a LOT,
and toughen up FAST. To do that, I had to have something
DRASTIC happen to her. And think about it--she was
trapped by people who were about to kill her, her only
means of defense was her magical hammer--and logically,
WHAT would something like that hammer actually do to
living flesh and bone in real life, eh? (I try to be
scientific in my view of the Sonic universe whenever
possible.) As for the Queen, I had her slit the slave's
throat to show exactly HOW evil, tempermental, and crazy
she was. It made the scene later on where she completely
FLIPS OUT and starts quoting old pop songs and show tunes
while stroking the Dark Master a little more realistic.
The reader isn't left going "Hey, how come she's nuts all
of a sudden?"--she was ALWAYS nuts. And I made sure to
set that up.
So no, the violence was NOT gratuitous. If you're
offended, it ain't my fault, I covered my tail by putting
that disclaimer in at the beginning.
Q. What is the political situation
on Arellus now that King Django has taken over?
A. That's an interesting question and one that I haven't
really explored yet. I doubt things will become any more
democratic under King Django's reign; he IS a canny,
tricky, opportunistic politician after all. He'll
probably make JUST enough token reforms to pat the
peasants on the head while of course keeping most of the
power for himself still. I mean, he didn't grab the
THRONE to be a PRESIDENT; they are still being run by a
monarchy after all. Whether the rebelling people will
eventually decide they want to get rid of him regardless
of the fact that he abolished slavery in one fell swoop
is to be determined, but for now they seem to be happy
enough to just calm down and accept their lot being ruled
by a slightly less harsh despot--yet still a despot.
They MIGHT overthrow the monarchy entirely, or maybe a
new underground movement will form, but that's stuff for
the long-term future. I really haven't decided what's
going to happen yet myself. One thing that IS a big
definite improvement--no more evil Wizard-Queens (or
Kings.) Anyone who takes the throne from now on will
have nothing but their OWN worse personality traits to
hold them down--they won't have their minds twisted and
warped by the Dark Master anymore.
Q. Will we be going back there in
a later story to see what's going on anytime soon?
A. Maybe. I do have ideas for sequels but they're
complicated enough already without throwing in a visit to
the moon or two. Probably won't happen anytime soon, but
we'll see...
Q. What's up with only women being
allowed to rule? The men didn't seem very opressed
walking around the city and Knuckles is about as
independent a character as you can get!
Q. That's because the men really AREN'T opressed. In
echidna society, the female IS considered to be somewhat
superior to the male because their ancient religious
teachings back from the day when they were barely walking
upright teach that the universe was hatched from the
primordial egg that was laid by the very very first
being; a female. She created the first male because it
gets BORING being omnipotent, you know. And so there you
go. But only the really devout, old-fashioned religious
nuts still actually believe in that story or even
further, use it to influence their lives. The story HAS
influenced their CULTURE, though, and men have somewhat
inferior rights to women--but only in two areas:
1. Men MAY NOT be the ruler of the entire country.
(That has now been changed, or at least temporarily, by
Lord/King Django.) They can be the head of ANYTHING
ELSE, though. They can be President of a supremely
wealthy company and make billions of dollars a year.
They can be on the Queen's cabinet and moderate or even
cancel some of her decisions. (The Cabinet is elected
democratically once every 6 years. Echidnas live quite a
long time, by the way.) They can be a governor, senator,
mayor, etc. They just can't be King. There IS no such
word as "King" in the echidna language--they had to
borrow it from Mobian if they want to talk about a King.
Because it means "male ultimate ruler" and there IS no
such thing in their society. So what is the Queen's
husband called? The Royal Consort. And that would have
eventually been poor Knuckles' title if he hadn't snapped
out of the Dark Master's spell in time...(shudder.)
2. When a man gets married, he leaves HIS House to go
join his wife's. He takes on HER last name, as do their
children. Of course, modernistic echidna couples may
hyphenate or let the husband keep his name, or whatever.
But traditionally if, for example, Lorinda Steele married
Anansi Korel, he would become Anansi Steele. She would
NOT become Lorinda Korel. It just isn't done.
So that's it. Men traditionally cannot rule the ENTIRE
country but they can rule anything else, and they change
their names when they get married. Other than that,
though, they are TOTALLY equal to women in every way.
And that's why Knuckles is not an "opressed"
character.
Q. Why did the Special Zone go
"dead" after the Chaos Emeralds were all drained?
Wouldn't it just disappear?
A. Because I say so! Honestly, how do YOU know what
would happen? I DARE you to test it! And for this dare,
you are NOT allowed to do any hacking or use a Beta
cartridge of Sonic 3 (if any such thing exists) or
whatever. Just try to remove the Chaos Emerald from a
Special Zone (I don't mean win it by correctly doing the
stage, I mean REMOVE it.) and see what happens.
You can't, can ya? So therefore, my interpretation of
what happens is just as valid as any other--and a lot
more interesting to write about than some! Neener neener
nee-neerrrr...
Q. Why did you have Bunnie being a
nurse? I didn't know that/don't think that's correct/I
KNOW that's not correct!
A. I don't know that she is, but I read it in a fanfic
somewhere (I forget which) and thought it suited her
personality so well that I really liked it, and it stuck
in my head. Then it made it into my own fanfic. It may
not be official but it works.
Q. There are non-intelligent
animals on Mobius? Since when?
A. Again, this ain't canon, I just made it up. It
seemed to me it would just be easier to write about
certain things if there were some non-intelligent
ordinary animals crawling, flying, and swimming around.
In my version of the Sonic universe, the Chaos Energy
that infects the entire planet randomly made some
individuals evolve while leaving others alone. (It IS
called "CHAOS Energy", after all--you expect it to be
predictable?!) There are enough intelligent Mobians to
make several entire civilisations, but there are lots of
the ordinary animal kind around, too. I don't know if
I'm going to keep this in my later stories, though.
Also, I vaguely remember reading something about Sonic's
Uncle Chuck having a PET dog before it (and he) got
roboticised, and I don't think he'd have a SENTIENT pet,
so...
Q. Your story is a confusing mix
of SegaSonic and the cartoon, with even a few comic-book
references (like the chili-dogs) thrown in!
A. Thanks, I try. ;)
Q. Why does your idea of the
Floating Island clash so violently with Sega's idea
(i.e., "Sonic Adventure")?
A. Well, you've caught me out on that one. Truth is,
though I CALL myself a SegaSonic chick, that particular
plot point in an actual, official game was just too
INCONVENIENT for me. It would have trashed my entire
storyline! The fact that I knew NOTHING about the actual
plot of the game until I was something like 90% done with
my story might have something to do with the difference,
too...
(For those of you who don't know the game's plot, the
infamous (Perfect) Chaos Monster was unleashed on the
world when it crashed OUT of the Master Emerald where it
had been living for some time, shattering the Emerald
into a bazillion pieces and causing the Island to crash
into the sea! Knuckles is physically fine but MAD, and
he uses his "emerald sense"--a part of the story that I
DID find useful--to search out the pieces and put them
back together. Does this remind anybody of Link looking
for the 8 Triforce fragments...ah, forget it...ANYWAY, if
this had happened in MY version, Knuckles would have died
instantly or at least gone into a coma, and the Island
would have smacked into Mobius with the force of a
giganic meteor and caused just as much damage--tidal
waves, earthquakes, clouds of dust blocking out the sun,
etc. Eventually everybody and everything on BOTH places
would be dead. So I think you can see why I chose to
throw this particular plot-point out the window!)
Q. Why did Knuckles fall under the
Queen's spell so quickly and easily?
A. Well....ummm...how to put this...first of all, yes, I
KNOW it happened fast but for pete's sake, the story is
already 120 pages long in manuscript form! Anyway, the
explanations are that (a) he was VERY weak by this time,
so he was susceptible, (b) she fed him that really GREAT
wine...which was also drugged, in case you didn't catch
that, (c) he was having the wine on an empty stomach, so
it hit him even HARDER than it normally would have, (d)
let's face it--he's a hormone-crazed lonely 17-year-old
and she's a Hot Echidna Mama, if she wasn't evil he
wouldn't NEED drugs to fall under her spell! and (e) I
foreshadowed the idea that he might be turning evil later
on in the story in that scene in Chapter Two where Espio
gets poisoned and falls into the Hydrocity lake. RIGHT
after he thinks about how everything that's not dying is
turning evil, he wonders how this plague will affect
Knuckles. It's not subtle at all, it's a rather large
WHAP upside the head piece of foreshadowing.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Why did Knux get seperated from the
others when they all teleported?
A. Because I thought it would make a better story.
Seriously, the reason is that the transporter was VERY
unstable and unreliable when it was FIRST used...and now
it's been running for 12 years with no-one around to tend
it. It's even worse now. Just because people who are
near each other NOW touch it at the same time doesn't
mean they're going to be anywhere near each other when
they pop out! Heck, they're lucky that Knuckles didn't
end up on a completely different planet or in another
universe, or at the bottom of an ocean or something!
Appearing at a different location in the same town is
dang precise for this messed-up machine.
Q. Why did the six Mobians not
ALSO get thrown back in time 500 years?
A. See the previous answer. The transporter is
unreliable and experimental. The first time it was used,
it threw the City of the Sun (or what was left of it) 500
years into the past; the second time it sends six people
somewhere else but in the present. The time-circuits are
screwy. Go figure.
Q. What IS the deal between Vector
and Dulcy, anyway?
A. No-one knows and it is best not to ask...However, in
my immediate sequels to this story that I am SORTA
planning, "The Chaotix Chronicles", each Chaotix member
will get a seperate short story all to himself, and I MAY
explore that in Vector's story. It's nothing important,
at any rate. Just a little joke.
Q. Where do the inhabitants of the
Floating Island live, in terms of "Zones"?
A. Well, this is only my own interpretation but here
goes:
Knuckles hangs out in the Mushroom Hills most of the
time.
Espio is a wanderer but he seems to "wander" back to
Angel Island and Sandopolis most often.
Charmy lives in the elegant sophistication of Marble
Gardens, "but of course".
Vector prefers the waters of Hydrocity Lake and the
beaches of Angel Island, where he was hatched and
raised.
Mighty originally also used to live in a tropical area of
Mobius, but later on, when he became a member of the
Chaotix, he moved to the Ice Cap Zone just BECAUSE it was
such a harsh climate, so he could show off how "macho" he
is to the others. And also the other Chaotix members
can't come there because they're cold-blooded and would
freeze to death, so he has plenty of privacy.
Kalo is not an official Chaotix member yet but for now he
wanders around the Island fixing things.
Electra WILL be moving to the Island later and when she
does, it'll be to Sandopolis.
Chaos Theory (whom you haven't met in fanfic form yet,
but she comes from an alternate universe called the
"Betaverse") is neutral--she does not belong to ANY
organisation--and she will live in the Launch Base Zone,
where she leaves everyone alone and they GLADLY leave her
alone (her experiments are rather explosive.)
Q. Why do the Power Rings change
size?
A. Well, that may not be canon, but I figured the
characters gotta have SOME way of carryin' em when
they've got no clothes on, eh?
Q. Did Sonic have a crush on
Lorinda, too? It kinda seemed he did in that one
scene.
A. Nah. He admired her as a person but falling in love
with her--that was Knux's job...poor guy...
Q. What's with Amy and Tails? Are
they going to become a "couple"?
A. Well, like many other Tails fans, I also think he and
Amy would make a MUCH cuter couple than Amy and Sonic.
Besides, Sonic's never gonna notice her, anyway! As for
Amy and Tails being a "couple", they're a bit young for
that now, but wait 6 or 7 few years and see what
happens...
Q. Tails sure figured out how to
fly that thing FAST!
A. Yes I know that bit reads as somewhat unrealistic.
But let's put it this way--in the end, they are either
going to make it home in the spaceship, or they're not.
It's OBVIOUS I'm not gonna strand my heroes after all the
nasty stuff I've put them through, so rather than plod
through endless chapter after endless Chapter of
technobabble as Tails and the others attempt to figure
out the spaceship, I just cut right to the chase and show
them landing. It's quick, simple, and easy. At the very
end of the story you WANT to start hurrying things along
and "summarizing", anyway; it's sorta traditional.
Q. Will there be a sequel?
A. I am flattered you asked that question! (Even though
it's actually just ME typing up all of this...) The
answer is, I sincerely hope so. The proposed "Chaotix
Chronicles" will be four seperate short stories starring
each Chaotix member while ALSO, I hope, laying down
important background information for the next BIG story.
I don't know much about that, but I do know it'll involve
Quicksilver, Kalo, and the new Chaos Monster in the
Hydrocity lake, as well as the not-dead Queen Riku-Dari,
in important roles...
If you REALLY want more punishment, click HERE to read the explanations of
all the in-jokes, references, and quotes in the
story.
Click HERE to return to the main Fanfic page.
Click HERE to return to the main Fanstuff page.
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