Sonic Heroes - Eggman's Greatest Defeat, or Greatest Scheme to Date?
by Ishntknew
WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!
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Sonic Heroes. A name that makes many people cringe. I personally found it to be a great game, but the plot was riddled with plotholes. Metal Sonic, a robot whose AI was designed to obey Eggman, betraying the doctor? Eggman getting a radio to the Chaotix while being trapped inside of a prison cell? Not to mention, how did Metal capture Eggman in the first place? How could Sonic Team have left so many plotholes? I have come to one conclusion. It was all faked. To be more specific, it's all a giant plot staged by Eggman. This is the part where, for a brief second, you all go "HUH?!", then after that "Pfft, no way, Sonic Team's just off the ball, they're not smart enough or patient enough to pull something like that off. And it doesn't explain everything anyway." Now, wait a moment. You say Sonic Team's not patient enough to stretch a plot out over two games. Even in the Sonic Adventure series, they were starkly different plots. But remember Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. Sonic and Knuckles was a direct continuation of Sonic 3, with the same plot. Sure, it SEEMED like you defeated Eggman at the end of Sonic 3... just as it SEEMS as you've already defeated Metal. Still not convinced? That's fine. That's what this article is for.

Let's begin by looking at the plan as I see it. Eggman one day hatches (forgive the pun) an evil scheme. He upgrades Metal Sonic with transformation capabilities, and the ability to copy life data. When did Eggman give him these capabilities? I'm not sure. But sometime between the time that he did and the beginning of Sonic Heroes, Metal somehow came in contact with Sonic. It could've been a random "fan" wanting to shake Sonic's hand, but somehow he managed to copy Sonic's data. Afterwards, he's sent to kidnap the frog which was once posessed by Chaos' tail, and a Chao. Meanwhile, Eggman has created a clone of Shadow, and a robot named Omega. He places Omega in a cell, and instructs him to feign attacking when the treasure hunter Rouge shows up, and likewise instructs Shadow to protect Rouge. The two are then to escort Rouge to the flagship of the new Egg Fleet, allowing her to get Chaos Emeralds along the way. Eggman then sends a letter to Sonic, and a radio to the Chaotix, to lure them to the Egg Fleet, then waits in a "prison cell" that's actually a control room. Metal copied the data of the four teams as they made their way to the Egg Fleet. Of most interest is the data of Chaos from Team Rose's animals, and the data of the ultimate lifeform from Shadow's clone. Vector, ignoring the keys he had just spent some time collecting, busts down the door to the cell and announces that he knows who it is that's been leading them along. Ironically, he states it's part of being a good detective, missing several clues to Eggman's true scheme that are about the room. Eggman tells them that Metal Sonic has betrayed him, while Metal Sonic transforms into a giant dragon thing. Eggman, who made sure that the teams had brought the Chaos Emeralds before they got there, leads them to use the Emeralds. Metal then copies the data of Super Sonic, and after Eggman's instructions to use it, the data of the Team Blast. Metal then fakes his defeat, and everyone runs off, save Shadow and Omega, who then take Metal to a pre-designated place, and wait for the beginning of Eggman's next plan.

Nice theory, hm? But it seems unlikely that this was the intent at this point. It's much too intricate for the age group! But remember, Sonic Heroes was trying to get back to its roots. Meaning it was aimed at people who played the classic Sonic games... and many of those people have now grown up. It would now take a real big plot twist to impress them now. Super space station and a metal copy of Sonic ain't gonna cut it anymore. In any case, allow me to explain. We'll start by looking at Metal Sonic's copying data. This is a given, as it's shown quite a lot throughout the game. So far, so good. Next, the fact that he must have Sonic's data by the beginning of Sonic Heroes.

First, we have this image, of Sonic kidnapping these animals! There is NO WAY that Metal fought Sonic at Seaside Hill, transformed into Sonic, kidnapped the animals, had them gone long enough for Team Rose to worry and for it to be printed in the newspaper, and Team Rose STILL managed to meet up with Team Sonic at Grand Metropolis. And look at Team Dark. Two of which were meant to obey Eggman, and one a master treasure hunter. If Eggman wants the Chaos Emeralds, what better way to have a treasure hunter with many opporitunities to collect them escorted to the Egg Fleet? Plus, since when does Eggman have this "hidden treasure" that Rouge wants? It seems more than likely that the origin of the rumor of a secret treasure was from Eggman or Metal. Shadow, rather quickly for his complete lack of memory and apparent lack of knowledge of who's who and what's what, fights off Omega. And, of course, the biggest "plothole" in the entire game... Team Chaotix getting the radio, despite Eggman's supposed incarceration. How could Eggman have gotten that radio to them when he's stuck in a prison cell? Sure, he could have had another robot get the radio to the Chaotix if a robot had one radio and he had the other, but why wouldn't he just get that robot to expose Metal's plan and have his own robots free him? Moreover, who would he trust with the radio more than Metal Sonic, his greatest creation, the one who had fought so hard for him so many times before? I doubt there's anyone that Eggman would trust more.

Now, let's look at some things throughout the game. When Metal posing as Eggman first meets up with Team Dark, he says "You must be Omega..." Why would Metal say this? And why wouldn't Omega catch it? If Omega truly thought it was Eggman, he would've caught such a mistake as his own creator realizing this as new knowledge. And if we're to assume Sonic Heroes' plot as true, why would Metal know about one of Eggman's past failed projects? Metal would've KNOWN who Omega was if he saw him being locked up firsthand. By the theory presented in this article, he was told by Eggman who Omega was, but didn't know exactly what he looked like. Thus, "you must be Omega". We also have the fact that Eggman's leading Team Chaotix on a wild goose chase, having them collect so many hermit crabs, put out so many candles, having them find so many Chao, instead of just leading them to the Egg Fleet. Why would he want to drag out the time until they arrive? Wouldn't he be afraid of starvation? Perhaps to gather Chaos Emeralds... And also, why would he call for the Chaotix? A group of two-bit heroes who managed to stop ONE of his many plans. Surely Sonic would not allow even Eggman to die, and would be the first one Eggman would think to call for. It just doesn't make sense.

Finally, the end of the game. There's been a ton of points BEFORE this, but the end of the game... Oh, the end of the game was what REALLY tipped me off. Omega, after defeating Eggman, proudly announces "Eggman target completely destroyed!" despite the fact that he's melting into a puddle of some sort of liquid metal. I doubt Omega's stupid enough for him to think that a human could do THAT. Team Sonic and Team Rose are relatively uneventful, all we learn is that Team Rose helped with the Chaos Data. But Team Chaotix, we see where Eggman's been imprisoned all this time. He's been locked in a cell, right? Oh, but wait a moment...

What are these? Control panels? In a CELL?! What kind of control panels would be in a cell? Maybe a light switch... several light switches... scattered all around the room. Seriously, that "cell" has more machinery operating devices than my bedroom does. And I have lots of video game systems... So, either this was faked, Metal decided to give Eggman a SUPER LUXURY CELL and forgot the furniture, or Metal locked Eggman in a control room. But who's stupid enough to lock someone you wanna keep out of the way in a freakin' CONTROL ROOM? Not to mention, what kind of control room locks from the outside? The only door on the Egg Fleet that would make sense to lock from the outside would be a cell... but if it was a cell, it wouldn't make sense to have control panels. Next up comes the Last story. After all you've seen here, listen to THIS wav. Sounds a bit suspiscious now, doesn't it? Almost like Eggman wanted them to use the Chaos Emeralds then and there, but didn't want them to know he knew they had them. Is this Deem Bristow, a GREAT voice actor as evidenced by his work in Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Shuffle having an off line, which just so happens to coincide with this theory? Or perhaps it was intentional? However, why would Eggman want the Sonic Heroes to do Team Blast? Well, it seems that the most efficient way for Metal to copy data is in fights. If Metal has the data for Team Blast, he might be able to use it in a later attack... But why do I think he feigned his defeat? Well, let's look at it. Apparently, he has the powers of the ultimate lifeform, Chaos, himself, and all the other teams. Yet he goes down after only five hits? Sure, it's Sonic in his super form (though Tails and Knuckles seem to be in their normal forms, just given the ability of flight by Sonic's power), but both Chaos and the Finalhazard went down after more hits than that. And the Biolizard was only the PROTOTYPE to the ultimate lifeform. Not to mention, Metal himself stood up to more than five attacks in Knuckles' Chaotix. What, did the power of the teams and Chaos and Shadow make him WEAKER? No. I think not. After the dust settles and Metal powers down, all flee. One thing to notice is that, despite being in that cell for three days, apparently without being fed, Eggman is full of energy and still able to run. Oh, and notice how quickly Omega has dropped his target on Eggman, despite that it was obviously the REAL Eggman who "locked him up" from the quote "You must be Omega!" Nope. Omega doesn't make a SINGLE attempt to harm the unarmed Eggman. And call me crazy, but I don't think an insane robot bent on its creator's death would be honorable enough to not take the opporitunity. Instead, he waits with Shadow until everyone else is gone, then picks up Metal Sonic...

They intend to take this evil robot somewhere? Neither of them are smart enough to reprogram him, and Metal has no reason to join up with heroes (or even anti-heroes, as it were). Something seems to be up, and I think that slimeball has an idea what it is.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the article. If it's accurate, it could mean that Sonic Heroes would go from a huge disappointment to many Eggman fans to awe at one of his greatest schemes ever. Sure, he's fooled that Echidna before, but has he ever managed to pull a fast one over on the gamers? According to most everyone accepting Eggman's role without question, I would say that it's quite possible. Even if I'm not right, there's a chance a Sonic Team exec could stumble across this article and decide to use the story in Sonic Heroes 2. Should this happen, I pledge to forfeit all legal rights over this idea entirely to Sonic Team and promise not to take legal action. So use it, you know you want to. Here's hoping that we see the full extent of Eggman's power in Sonic Heroes 2!