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Description
  Chapter 11 - The Legacy
  After six long weeks have passed since the massive battle with Terra, followed by the restoration of Blades of the Rebellion and every other computer game (as all gamers needed to do was to delete Optimizing Omelette, apparently without my antidote), there came the annual Most Dangerous Game Awards ceremony, hosted by none other than Mayor Fink. During this event, game developers were given awards for achieving the best in a category for their games, whether AAA or indie. Like in those Awardy Awards (Which Sticks won long ago), we were all to wear formal clothes, even us developers:
    For my current friends outside the red carpet, Sonic, wore a penguin-like tuxedo and bow tie of his own color, Amy wore a purple strapless derby dress with a sparkly texture, long white gloves, pink bracelets, and red low-heeled shoes, and Sticks wore a modified version of her black one-shoulder dress (After she had destroyed her first attire from her first ceremony) with similar white hemlines and black medium-heeled shoes, but this time, with the addition of platinum tiger stripes, to go with her wild personality. But where was Knuckles? He said that he had a job…
    As for my girlfriend Zooey, she wore the same rainbow necklace I gave her, as well as a similarly colorful dress full of feathers, beads and glitter, upon her love towards rainbows.
  And for me and my crew of Freakware, walking on the carpet, Willabelle wore a complex, cream-colored kimono-like dress, with wide sleeves, flowers, hearts bow ties, and layers of different colors (Sort of forgot what colors they were...), Mic was portrayed as a Welsh guard with that funny tall and fluffy black hat, Tim and Tom Two-Heads simply wore neckties (green for Tim, orange for Tom), Fingers was wearing a brown tuxedo he referred as a “monkey suit” (No jokes about it, please), and finally, I wore a gold Stewart Hughes Diamond Edition (No, I’m not kidding, I really did buy it from a luxury store, with a massive “hero’s discount!”), for being the guest of honor.
    “Hold it!” ordered Knuckles (wearing the same tuxedo Sonic wore and his security badge, for the third time), inspecting me and my crew with his metal-detecting wand. After a half a minute, he declared, “You’re all clean! Just making sure that no one’s bringing pepper spray or a potion turning people into monsters.”
    While my crew chuckled, I was left a little annoyed. “I hope not.” And then we continued walking, with my averting eyes.
Throughout the ceremony, each of the awards, whether they were for best visuals, indie, RPG, platformer, action, etc., were given to different games. For our game, while it was only nominated for the categories mentioned above, it received a certain award I haven’t expected at all…
“And finally, it’s what you’ve been waiting for,” announced Mayor Fink, followed by a suspenseful drumroll. “This final award, for ‘Game of the Year,’ shall go to...BLADES OF THE REBELLION, produced by Freakware!”
    While epic orchestra played, the whole audience gave a round of huge applause whereas my development team and I frolicked up the red stairs to the fancy stage where the mayor gave us the grand trophy, revealed to have miniature statuettes of me and my crew.
    Fink shook all of our hands. “Congratulations, Freakware! You’ve came all the way to earn this!” Then, he pointed out to me, “And Tails, is there something you’d like to say about your part-time job of game making?”
    “Oh, absolutely,” I answered enthusiastically. So I announced on the microphone, “My and crew and I would like to thank everyone for bringing all of their support throughout time. We give grace to our all of our fans for supporting our fundraiser, building a loyal fandom, and helping us stop a crazy bully who wanted to destroy our precious dreams. I give grace to my crew for helping me cope with my childhood and make our game promoting equality among pals of different shapes and sizes. And last, but not least, we give grace to my very best friends, Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, and Sticks the Badger, for being the vital inspirations for all the playable characters, Scion, Amoroso, Nucleus, and Bonnie Bones.” I chuckled playfully, “And then, I am the inspiration of Horns…”
    The audience began to laugh as well, with Knuckles guffawing until his midsection hurt.
  Fingers added, “It was quite a pleasure fulfilling Tails’ dream by helping out with this of magnificent game of ours. Despite plenty of challenges we have been through, like sabotage by a cybercriminal, it was all worth it in the end.”
  Mayor Fink continued, “And let’s hear it for Tails and his crew! They have come all the way to earn this prestige, and I just hope they continue their part-time career by creating another masterpiece like BotR one day!”
  Everyone clapped once more, as Freakware and I bowed, with the trophy in my hands. After years of our hard work, this annual game award ceremony was indeed one of my happiest days of my life, without a doubt.
  And to make the day even sweeter, Sonic, Knuckles and I brought our instruments and reunited as Dude-itude; the mayor had assigned us to play a tribute song in the end of the gathering, which was called “Endless Possibility,” where I was the lead singer:
[...]
But how will I know when I get there?
And how will I know when to leave?
We've all gotta start from somewhere
And it's right there for me
The possibilities are never ending
I see it, I see it, and now it's all within my reach (Endless Possibility)
I see it, I see it now, it's always been inside of me (And now I feel so free)
Endless Possibility
[...]
    After the ceremony, I decided to have my crew meet my friends for the first (proper) time, so we did so outside, starting with smiles.
    “It’s so nice to see you all!” greeted Willabelle, shaking all my friends’ hands. “So how long have each of you been friends with Tails?”
    “Pretty long,” answered Sonic, “Though I’ve been with him the longest. Together, though, we’ve been through lots of adventures, whether it involved a giant cyborg snake, or using fire and ice to defeat a robot using magnets.”
    “Interesting! You know, I’m starting to remember something; weren’t you one who rescued Tails from Terra’s gang?”
    “Yep, indeed that I saved him from those goons; they weren’t much of a match for me.”
    “And Sonic, thank you so much for taking good care of him when you had the chance,” complemented Fingers. “He was a great kid who deserved much better from everyone else.”
    “Say, what ever happened to Terra?” asked Mic. “She might have been a terrible person recently, but I’m beginning to think that she would’ve lived a decent life if only if people didn’t pick on her at some point.
    “After we defeated her,” answered Amy, “Eggman used an antidote to revert her back into her old self, but since the fight, she wasn’t the same anymore; it’s been said that as all of her accounts in the whole internet were deactivated, she stopped using the computer anymore, before being sent to a prison where she received special therapy. Then, I heard that sometime later, she somehow managed to break free, and then disappear, never to be seen anywhere again, despite deliberate investigation by the best detectives around. Maybe she died, maybe she changed her identity, who knows? Everything has been serene so far, but since her disappearance, many of us have learned a valuable lesson, that negativity against an ‘abnormal’ person can hurt really bad, whether it’s picking on them, or getting back at them.”
    The human girl replied with a smile, “Thankfully, since the incident, we’ve got all of those anti-bullying and equality-supporting programs on the rise! And best of all, I received a letter from Mayor Fink that Foreman Fred and his crew will be rebuilding Oddity Oasis, and that I’ll be able to gather and support all the good mutants again, once it’s finished.”
    “If they come to our planet, will aliens be welcome in your new sanctuary, Willabelle?” asked Sticks.
    She giggled. “Yes, Sticks. Even aliens are welcome to stay, if they want to come, of course.”
    After the meeting, everyone gave each other hugs before my two groups’ farewells.
  Despite the ceremony, my crew and I remembered that we once agreed that game development would just be one-time since The Odd Guardians, and that this minor career turned out to be extremely risky, so we had no plans of making another full-pledged game. Which is why as of today, Freakware is disbanded until further notice. But before then, we took our time to make the post-game DLC as exactly planned, though our breaks became extended for various reasons.
  One particular reason was so that I would be able to spend more time with Zooey, to make up for all of those abrupt-ending dates before then. Specifically, the two of us had our latest date on a gondola rowed by Tim and Tom Two-Heads, on a large river before Seaside Coast.
  “Liking the view, you two?” asked Tim.
  “Just take a nice look of all the beautiful trees, rocks and flowers around you two,” added Tom.
  “Oh, we definitely like this scenery!” I answered while resting my arms. “Just don’t row too fast, you two, alright?”
  “With a fine weather and setting, this is definitely a romantic idea, Tim and Tom,” complemented Zooey. “And now the two of us can enjoy this time together…”
  “...Without any interruption,” I added. Then, the two of us kissed.
    “While you keep rowing, Tom,” said Tim, pulling out a camera, “I will be a taking a good picture of the two, with their names on it.”
    And so during our kiss, a flash from the camera came towards us.
    Almost a month after the date, the downloadable content for my game had released; it consisted of costumes for the playable characters, five new extra-hard stages with new music, and especially a new playable character, named Stanislav, who paid indirect homage to Larry the Liger from The Odd Guardians.
    That newcomer was the ruby-striped, dark purple metal-furred liger bogatyr (Russian warrior)/warlock that wore sleek, dark red-violet armor and a hood and had very tall, massive and muscular structure, long and massive claws and fangs, a groomy mane resembling upward hedgehog quills, and a tail with a tuft resembling a candle flame.
    According to the story expansion, Stanislav was a long-time rival to Scion after the day he first laid his eyes on him. Since then, the two mighty cats competed with each other in determining who was the superior one in terms of overall attributes. Regardless of their violent rivalry, that liger was neither a villain nor a hero, but somewhere in between.
    His playstyle followed an archetype of a high-risk, high-reward stealth fighter, involving a half-serrated, double-bladed shashka and brutal hand-to-hand combat, both mixed with powerful dark magic (opposing Horns’ light magic). He played with an extremely high-learning curve due to complex controls requiring strict timing and specific orders of button inputs, soft or firm. But once mastered, he would demonstrate immense strength, combo-racking, speed (nearly running as fast as Scion), and versatility that actually exceeds that of Amoroso. However, to compensate for his great power, of all characters, Stanislav had the lowest HP gauge, though his self-healing ability (by holding Up) could counteract that.
    During my friends’ game time at my home, upon the DLC’s release…
    “How are the new stages and Stanislav?” I asked Sonic.
    “Well, Tails,” he said, while playing my game, “As your new content of your game...these are AWESOME! Despite my mixed feelings towards the costumes, I love the edgy designs and extra challenge of these new stages, as well as this new character, who sort of reminds me of a dark hedgehog who just made a video focusing on your DLC.”
    “What dark hedgehog, Sonic?” asked Amy.
    Indeed did the new content, especially Stanislav, receive special attention from certain players, according to a live gameplay/self-recording hybrid video made by Shadow the Hedgehog, competing with an actual liger though the online multiplayer VS mode, with voice chat:
    “Disgust, Animosity, Malice, Nastiness!” groused Shadow, wearing a red and white gaming headset while smashing buttons on a wireless controller. “Seriously, where’s that dang fourth Crystal of Truth?”
    “You mean, fourth crystal SHARD,” snarled the large liger, wearing a shirt with Stanislav’s face. “Man, I thought you’re the Ultimate Lifeform. So you should’ve figured it out by now, bro. Meanwhile, I’m in good standing.” When he sprinted to the crystal shard first, and won the race, “Rawwr! I am… all of me, with this new character I’m playing here!”
    Realizing that he lost, Shadow threw a fit of rage and breaking his controller in half with his bare hands. “DANG ME!! But mark my words, I’ll soon break Sonic’s record of having the fastest complete speedrun! I will do whatever it takes to bring that blue rat to his knees, if it is the last thing I ever do!”
    “Like, dude, this is why people call you ‘Ow the Edge.’ You really need anger management this minute.”
    Aside from that considerably embarrassing video, after our game time, Zooey came to visit us while hiding her arms. “Hi, everyone, and you too, Tails.”
    “Zooey!” I exclaimed. “What brings you here for today?”
    “Well, since you’ve already confirmed that the characters from Blades of the Rebellion were inspired by your friends,” she continued, revealing a big green bag, “I thought it would be nice to make you all these.”
    We all looked with awe, and what was inside the bag were costumes based on what my characters wore!
    First, I grabbed Horns’ clothes and tome. “Whoa, neat...”
    Next, Sonic snatched Scion’s spandex suit and katana. “It’s like this is drawn to me.”
    Then, Knuckles took Nucleus’ garments. “By the love of Thor…”
    Later, Amy pulled Amoroso’s metallic armor. “I don’t believe it!”
    And finally, Sticks swiped Bonnie’s pirate coat, eyepatch, and the rest of her attire. With excitement, she said, “ARRR!”
    Once we all put on these well-done costumes, the vixen asked, “So what do you guys think? It took me a while to make all of these.”
    “Like, this is among the best outfits we have EVER worn!” Amy squealed with joy. “Thank you so much, Zooey! You’re definitely one of the best costume designer we have ever met!” And then, she hugged her, as tight as a rope’s knot.
    “I say we give her a ‘bear’ hug!” added Knuckles, before the rest of us joined in after Amy.
    After giving our thanks, the five of us decided to go out to the beach and pretend play as our characters, with Zooey looking with laughter. This was, of course, was followed by Dr. Eggman sending us robots to attack us, once again...
    “Pssst, nothing personal, kids!” laughed the doctor as he watched his Badniks chasing after us five. “Robots, destroy those rebels!”
    Sticks, as “Bonnie,” raised her cutlass high in the air. “Avast, mateys! 'Tis the hour to sword fight them bad robots once 'n fer all!”
    “One more thing,” said Zooey from a distance, “I made sure that those weapons you’re holding are actually real, in case a real fight like this happens.”
    Sonic smiled. “Sweet! Now, Scion says, we must learn to adapt if we want survive the unfitting!” And he ran off to use his katana to slice the Motobugs in half, even though this kind of experience was quite young.
    Amy/‘Amoroso’ charged with her sword and cried in a British accent, “Let us fight these bloody robots together!”
    Knuckles/‘Nucleus the Noble’ held his flail-axe hybrid and replied, “Aye, it’s clobbering time!”
    As for me, I discovered that my tome was implanted with some old gadgets like a cloaking device and a “digital bomb/projectile container” I gave to Zooey, but it turned out that my aerial attacks that I’ve recently been training were just enough to take down Eggman’s robots; my first one was a shuttle loop towards the Bee Bots. SWOOP!
    Sonic- I mean, “Scion” (Sorry!), gave me a thumbs up. “Nice one, Horns!”
    During bedtime, I had a third dream involving Blades of the Rebellion, but this time, a positive one. In that dream, everything was brought back to normal, as proven when I saw myself in the center of Amoroso’s beautiful throne room where all the villagers from all the realms and the main characters kneeling before me, though the wolfdog was the one placing a small crown on my head.
    “Thank you, Tails,” said Amoroso, “Your quest is over. All your kingdoms are now saved.”
    “But I didn’t do much, actually,” I laughed nervously. “All I did was-”
    “Nonsense!” interrupted Nucleus. “Your role might have been a wee bit limited, but it was good that you stood up against that bully of yours and learned from all those mistakes you made, whether late or on time.”
    Scion added, “And you already know that spending time with your loved ones is considered important, not just focusing so much on us! We’re just representations of your philosophy of equality.”
    “And thankfully, I have spent more time with Zooey and my friends, more than before,” I informed. “But no matter what, you’ll always be my representations of my philosophy of equality.”
    “By th' way,” Bonnie informed, “I hear that Nominatus might be returnin', but that's just a rumor, eh?”
    “Blimey!” exclaimed Horns. “Let’s give Tails a break, and take him for a drink for now.”
    And so after the royal honoring, the six of us all walked to a bar near us, where the characters and I made a toast with frothy cream soda in mugs. And boy, were they GOOD.
    Special Thanks To...
    In the end, I would like thank all of my interviewees for kindly adding to my story: Sonic the Hedgehog (and Knuckles), for revealing his actions and what happened to the concert, Knuckles (as well as Dave and the others), who was involved with the bully’s boycott and battle, even Dr. Eggman, who provided me his story with Terra, and especially Zooey, who managed to explain my backstory when I lacked the guts to tell it before then.
    Thank you all for reading, and always find your strengths of your differences, no matter how others see you.
THE END

Description
  Chapter 11 - The Legacy
  After six long weeks have passed since the massive battle with Terra, followed by the restoration of Blades of the Rebellion and every other computer game (as all gamers needed to do was to delete Optimizing Omelette, apparently without my antidote), there came the annual Most Dangerous Game Awards ceremony, hosted by none other than Mayor Fink. During this event, game developers were given awards for achieving the best in a category for their games, whether AAA or indie. Like in those Awardy Awards (Which Sticks won long ago), we were all to wear formal clothes, even us developers:
    For my current friends outside the red carpet, Sonic, wore a penguin-like tuxedo and bow tie of his own color, Amy wore a purple strapless derby dress with a sparkly texture, long white gloves, pink bracelets, and red low-heeled shoes, and Sticks wore a modified version of her black one-shoulder dress (After she had destroyed her first attire from her first ceremony) with similar white hemlines and black medium-heeled shoes, but this time, with the addition of platinum tiger stripes, to go with her wild personality. But where was Knuckles? He said that he had a job…
    As for my girlfriend Zooey, she wore the same rainbow necklace I gave her, as well as a similarly colorful dress full of feathers, beads and glitter, upon her love towards rainbows.
  And for me and my crew of Freakware, walking on the carpet, Willabelle wore a complex, cream-colored kimono-like dress, with wide sleeves, flowers, hearts bow ties, and layers of different colors (Sort of forgot what colors they were...), Mic was portrayed as a Welsh guard with that funny tall and fluffy black hat, Tim and Tom Two-Heads simply wore neckties (green for Tim, orange for Tom), Fingers was wearing a brown tuxedo he referred as a “monkey suit” (No jokes about it, please), and finally, I wore a gold Stewart Hughes Diamond Edition (No, I’m not kidding, I really did buy it from a luxury store, with a massive “hero’s discount!”), for being the guest of honor.
    “Hold it!” ordered Knuckles (wearing the same tuxedo Sonic wore and his security badge, for the third time), inspecting me and my crew with his metal-detecting wand. After a half a minute, he declared, “You’re all clean! Just making sure that no one’s bringing pepper spray or a potion turning people into monsters.”
    While my crew chuckled, I was left a little annoyed. “I hope not.” And then we continued walking, with my averting eyes.
Throughout the ceremony, each of the awards, whether they were for best visuals, indie, RPG, platformer, action, etc., were given to different games. For our game, while it was only nominated for the categories mentioned above, it received a certain award I haven’t expected at all…
“And finally, it’s what you’ve been waiting for,” announced Mayor Fink, followed by a suspenseful drumroll. “This final award, for ‘Game of the Year,’ shall go to...BLADES OF THE REBELLION, produced by Freakware!”
    While epic orchestra played, the whole audience gave a round of huge applause whereas my development team and I frolicked up the red stairs to the fancy stage where the mayor gave us the grand trophy, revealed to have miniature statuettes of me and my crew.
    Fink shook all of our hands. “Congratulations, Freakware! You’ve came all the way to earn this!” Then, he pointed out to me, “And Tails, is there something you’d like to say about your part-time job of game making?”
    “Oh, absolutely,” I answered enthusiastically. So I announced on the microphone, “My and crew and I would like to thank everyone for bringing all of their support throughout time. We give grace to our all of our fans for supporting our fundraiser, building a loyal fandom, and helping us stop a crazy bully who wanted to destroy our precious dreams. I give grace to my crew for helping me cope with my childhood and make our game promoting equality among pals of different shapes and sizes. And last, but not least, we give grace to my very best friends, Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, and Sticks the Badger, for being the vital inspirations for all the playable characters, Scion, Amoroso, Nucleus, and Bonnie Bones.” I chuckled playfully, “And then, I am the inspiration of Horns…”
    The audience began to laugh as well, with Knuckles guffawing until his midsection hurt.
  Fingers added, “It was quite a pleasure fulfilling Tails’ dream by helping out with this of magnificent game of ours. Despite plenty of challenges we have been through, like sabotage by a cybercriminal, it was all worth it in the end.”
  Mayor Fink continued, “And let’s hear it for Tails and his crew! They have come all the way to earn this prestige, and I just hope they continue their part-time career by creating another masterpiece like BotR one day!”
  Everyone clapped once more, as Freakware and I bowed, with the trophy in my hands. After years of our hard work, this annual game award ceremony was indeed one of my happiest days of my life, without a doubt.
  And to make the day even sweeter, Sonic, Knuckles and I brought our instruments and reunited as Dude-itude; the mayor had assigned us to play a tribute song in the end of the gathering, which was called “Endless Possibility,” where I was the lead singer:
[...]
But how will I know when I get there?
And how will I know when to leave?
We've all gotta start from somewhere
And it's right there for me
The possibilities are never ending
I see it, I see it, and now it's all within my reach (Endless Possibility)
I see it, I see it now, it's always been inside of me (And now I feel so free)
Endless Possibility
[...]
    After the ceremony, I decided to have my crew meet my friends for the first (proper) time, so we did so outside, starting with smiles.
    “It’s so nice to see you all!” greeted Willabelle, shaking all my friends’ hands. “So how long have each of you been friends with Tails?”
    “Pretty long,” answered Sonic, “Though I’ve been with him the longest. Together, though, we’ve been through lots of adventures, whether it involved a giant cyborg snake, or using fire and ice to defeat a robot using magnets.”
    “Interesting! You know, I’m starting to remember something; weren’t you one who rescued Tails from Terra’s gang?”
    “Yep, indeed that I saved him from those goons; they weren’t much of a match for me.”
    “And Sonic, thank you so much for taking good care of him when you had the chance,” complemented Fingers. “He was a great kid who deserved much better from everyone else.”
    “Say, what ever happened to Terra?” asked Mic. “She might have been a terrible person recently, but I’m beginning to think that she would’ve lived a decent life if only if people didn’t pick on her at some point.
    “After we defeated her,” answered Amy, “Eggman used an antidote to revert her back into her old self, but since the fight, she wasn’t the same anymore; it’s been said that as all of her accounts in the whole internet were deactivated, she stopped using the computer anymore, before being sent to a prison where she received special therapy. Then, I heard that sometime later, she somehow managed to break free, and then disappear, never to be seen anywhere again, despite deliberate investigation by the best detectives around. Maybe she died, maybe she changed her identity, who knows? Everything has been serene so far, but since her disappearance, many of us have learned a valuable lesson, that negativity against an ‘abnormal’ person can hurt really bad, whether it’s picking on them, or getting back at them.”
    The human girl replied with a smile, “Thankfully, since the incident, we’ve got all of those anti-bullying and equality-supporting programs on the rise! And best of all, I received a letter from Mayor Fink that Foreman Fred and his crew will be rebuilding Oddity Oasis, and that I’ll be able to gather and support all the good mutants again, once it’s finished.”
    “If they come to our planet, will aliens be welcome in your new sanctuary, Willabelle?” asked Sticks.
    She giggled. “Yes, Sticks. Even aliens are welcome to stay, if they want to come, of course.”
    After the meeting, everyone gave each other hugs before my two groups’ farewells.
  Despite the ceremony, my crew and I remembered that we once agreed that game development would just be one-time since The Odd Guardians, and that this minor career turned out to be extremely risky, so we had no plans of making another full-pledged game. Which is why as of today, Freakware is disbanded until further notice. But before then, we took our time to make the post-game DLC as exactly planned, though our breaks became extended for various reasons.
  One particular reason was so that I would be able to spend more time with Zooey, to make up for all of those abrupt-ending dates before then. Specifically, the two of us had our latest date on a gondola rowed by Tim and Tom Two-Heads, on a large river before Seaside Coast.
  “Liking the view, you two?” asked Tim.
  “Just take a nice look of all the beautiful trees, rocks and flowers around you two,” added Tom.
  “Oh, we definitely like this scenery!” I answered while resting my arms. “Just don’t row too fast, you two, alright?”
  “With a fine weather and setting, this is definitely a romantic idea, Tim and Tom,” complemented Zooey. “And now the two of us can enjoy this time together…”
  “...Without any interruption,” I added. Then, the two of us kissed.
    “While you keep rowing, Tom,” said Tim, pulling out a camera, “I will be a taking a good picture of the two, with their names on it.”
    And so during our kiss, a flash from the camera came towards us.
    Almost a month after the date, the downloadable content for my game had released; it consisted of costumes for the playable characters, five new extra-hard stages with new music, and especially a new playable character, named Stanislav, who paid indirect homage to Larry the Liger from The Odd Guardians.
    That newcomer was the ruby-striped, dark purple metal-furred liger bogatyr (Russian warrior)/warlock that wore sleek, dark red-violet armor and a hood and had very tall, massive and muscular structure, long and massive claws and fangs, a groomy mane resembling upward hedgehog quills, and a tail with a tuft resembling a candle flame.
    According to the story expansion, Stanislav was a long-time rival to Scion after the day he first laid his eyes on him. Since then, the two mighty cats competed with each other in determining who was the superior one in terms of overall attributes. Regardless of their violent rivalry, that liger was neither a villain nor a hero, but somewhere in between.
    His playstyle followed an archetype of a high-risk, high-reward stealth fighter, involving a half-serrated, double-bladed shashka and brutal hand-to-hand combat, both mixed with powerful dark magic (opposing Horns’ light magic). He played with an extremely high-learning curve due to complex controls requiring strict timing and specific orders of button inputs, soft or firm. But once mastered, he would demonstrate immense strength, combo-racking, speed (nearly running as fast as Scion), and versatility that actually exceeds that of Amoroso. However, to compensate for his great power, of all characters, Stanislav had the lowest HP gauge, though his self-healing ability (by holding Up) could counteract that.
    During my friends’ game time at my home, upon the DLC’s release…
    “How are the new stages and Stanislav?” I asked Sonic.
    “Well, Tails,” he said, while playing my game, “As your new content of your game...these are AWESOME! Despite my mixed feelings towards the costumes, I love the edgy designs and extra challenge of these new stages, as well as this new character, who sort of reminds me of a dark hedgehog who just made a video focusing on your DLC.”
    “What dark hedgehog, Sonic?” asked Amy.
    Indeed did the new content, especially Stanislav, receive special attention from certain players, according to a live gameplay/self-recording hybrid video made by Shadow the Hedgehog, competing with an actual liger though the online multiplayer VS mode, with voice chat:
    “Disgust, Animosity, Malice, Nastiness!” groused Shadow, wearing a red and white gaming headset while smashing buttons on a wireless controller. “Seriously, where’s that dang fourth Crystal of Truth?”
    “You mean, fourth crystal SHARD,” snarled the large liger, wearing a shirt with Stanislav’s face. “Man, I thought you’re the Ultimate Lifeform. So you should’ve figured it out by now, bro. Meanwhile, I’m in good standing.” When he sprinted to the crystal shard first, and won the race, “Rawwr! I am… all of me, with this new character I’m playing here!”
    Realizing that he lost, Shadow threw a fit of rage and breaking his controller in half with his bare hands. “DANG ME!! But mark my words, I’ll soon break Sonic’s record of having the fastest complete speedrun! I will do whatever it takes to bring that blue rat to his knees, if it is the last thing I ever do!”
    “Like, dude, this is why people call you ‘Ow the Edge.’ You really need anger management this minute.”
    Aside from that considerably embarrassing video, after our game time, Zooey came to visit us while hiding her arms. “Hi, everyone, and you too, Tails.”
    “Zooey!” I exclaimed. “What brings you here for today?”
    “Well, since you’ve already confirmed that the characters from Blades of the Rebellion were inspired by your friends,” she continued, revealing a big green bag, “I thought it would be nice to make you all these.”
    We all looked with awe, and what was inside the bag were costumes based on what my characters wore!
    First, I grabbed Horns’ clothes and tome. “Whoa, neat...”
    Next, Sonic snatched Scion’s spandex suit and katana. “It’s like this is drawn to me.”
    Then, Knuckles took Nucleus’ garments. “By the love of Thor…”
    Later, Amy pulled Amoroso’s metallic armor. “I don’t believe it!”
    And finally, Sticks swiped Bonnie’s pirate coat, eyepatch, and the rest of her attire. With excitement, she said, “ARRR!”
    Once we all put on these well-done costumes, the vixen asked, “So what do you guys think? It took me a while to make all of these.”
    “Like, this is among the best outfits we have EVER worn!” Amy squealed with joy. “Thank you so much, Zooey! You’re definitely one of the best costume designer we have ever met!” And then, she hugged her, as tight as a rope’s knot.
    “I say we give her a ‘bear’ hug!” added Knuckles, before the rest of us joined in after Amy.
    After giving our thanks, the five of us decided to go out to the beach and pretend play as our characters, with Zooey looking with laughter. This was, of course, was followed by Dr. Eggman sending us robots to attack us, once again...
    “Pssst, nothing personal, kids!” laughed the doctor as he watched his Badniks chasing after us five. “Robots, destroy those rebels!”
    Sticks, as “Bonnie,” raised her cutlass high in the air. “Avast, mateys! 'Tis the hour to sword fight them bad robots once 'n fer all!”
    “One more thing,” said Zooey from a distance, “I made sure that those weapons you’re holding are actually real, in case a real fight like this happens.”
    Sonic smiled. “Sweet! Now, Scion says, we must learn to adapt if we want survive the unfitting!” And he ran off to use his katana to slice the Motobugs in half, even though this kind of experience was quite young.
    Amy/‘Amoroso’ charged with her sword and cried in a British accent, “Let us fight these bloody robots together!”
    Knuckles/‘Nucleus the Noble’ held his flail-axe hybrid and replied, “Aye, it’s clobbering time!”
    As for me, I discovered that my tome was implanted with some old gadgets like a cloaking device and a “digital bomb/projectile container” I gave to Zooey, but it turned out that my aerial attacks that I’ve recently been training were just enough to take down Eggman’s robots; my first one was a shuttle loop towards the Bee Bots. SWOOP!
    Sonic- I mean, “Scion” (Sorry!), gave me a thumbs up. “Nice one, Horns!”
    During bedtime, I had a third dream involving Blades of the Rebellion, but this time, a positive one. In that dream, everything was brought back to normal, as proven when I saw myself in the center of Amoroso’s beautiful throne room where all the villagers from all the realms and the main characters kneeling before me, though the wolfdog was the one placing a small crown on my head.
    “Thank you, Tails,” said Amoroso, “Your quest is over. All your kingdoms are now saved.”
    “But I didn’t do much, actually,” I laughed nervously. “All I did was-”
    “Nonsense!” interrupted Nucleus. “Your role might have been a wee bit limited, but it was good that you stood up against that bully of yours and learned from all those mistakes you made, whether late or on time.”
    Scion added, “And you already know that spending time with your loved ones is considered important, not just focusing so much on us! We’re just representations of your philosophy of equality.”
    “And thankfully, I have spent more time with Zooey and my friends, more than before,” I informed. “But no matter what, you’ll always be my representations of my philosophy of equality.”
    “By th' way,” Bonnie informed, “I hear that Nominatus might be returnin', but that's just a rumor, eh?”
    “Blimey!” exclaimed Horns. “Let’s give Tails a break, and take him for a drink for now.”
    And so after the royal honoring, the six of us all walked to a bar near us, where the characters and I made a toast with frothy cream soda in mugs. And boy, were they GOOD.
    Special Thanks To...
    In the end, I would like thank all of my interviewees for kindly adding to my story: Sonic the Hedgehog (and Knuckles), for revealing his actions and what happened to the concert, Knuckles (as well as Dave and the others), who was involved with the bully’s boycott and battle, even Dr. Eggman, who provided me his story with Terra, and especially Zooey, who managed to explain my backstory when I lacked the guts to tell it before then.
    Thank you all for reading, and always find your strengths of your differences, no matter how others see you.
THE END