Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

When I was five, I was introduced to the Sonic series via the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. I loved the series since then and I still do.

The first game I ever played was the Gamecube re-release of Sonic Adventure 2- Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. However, I never got the chance to play it again after I was seven.

I was playing Sonic 2 on my Genesis emulator when I realized that I could download a ROM of SA2B to play for nostalgia. So I went online and searched for ROMs of the game online.

I downloaded a Gamecube emulator so I could play it, and I noticed something strange when looking for the ROM:

A file was named Sonic2Battle. GCR.

I figured this would be the game I was looking for, so I downloaded it. It worked fine and started up normal.

I decided to play the Dark Story since Shadow is my favorite character. Strangely enough, the first level had SHADOW as the character. I brushed it off since I had Pro-Action Replay activated. Another weird thing was that when Shadow destroyed a GUN robot, blood would splatter. It was almost as if people were actually inside the machines, but once again I thought it was P.A.R.'s doing. Only after the level did I realize that I had absolutely NO codes for the game.

Once it got to the first Dark Story boss fight, I was weirded out. The boss was Sonic, looking confused. A cutscene played with Sonic and Shadow in a stare-off.

After a minute of silence, Sonic growled and said, "You murderer! How could you kill those humans?! I mean, they will pay for what they did to us, but that doesn't mean they should be slaughtered like cows!" Why did Sonic say that? Weren't they enemies at this point in time?

Shadow merely replied, "What are you talking about? YOU ordered me to kill them! You couldn't POSSIBLY forget your own orders!" Sonic was enraged at this point and the cutscene ended, signaling the beginning of the boss fight. Sonic wasn't an easy opponent to beat, but I managed to do it with 2 Rings left. Another cutscene played showing Sonic on the ground, holding on to his life by a thread.

"Shadow...." he weakly spoke, almost as if someone was crushing his throat, "Why..... Why are you killing ME? Why would you attack your own brother?" All I could think was, "What the fuck is going on?! Sonic and Shadow aren't brothers!

This is probably a hacked version." Back to the game: Shadow didn't respond and slammed his foot onto Sonic's neck, killing him instantly and staining Shadow's hover shoes with blood.

I reset the game and went to the Story Select screen. Sonic wasn't shown in the Hero side, but instead, he was in a separate story titled "DECEASED". I was curious about it, but I played the Hero Story anyway. It started with a cutscene showing Tails and Knuckles walking through Green Hill Zone, the secret level you get when you collect all the emblems. Tails didn't say anything and Knuckles put a hand on the fox's shoulder. "It's not your fault it happened, Tails. Let's not think about it and focus on how we're gonna beat Eggman."

Tails smacked Knuckles's hand off his shoulder and yelled at him, crying as he called out the echidna, "DON'T TRY TO MAKE ME FELL HAPPY! IF SONIC HADN'T DIED, THAT FAT BASTARD WOULD BE IN HELL!"

I was instantly shocked. Tails SWORE? It's as if this wasn't a kid's game. I let the cutscene continue, but it cut out to the level start-up. The side design and the little spindash-like symbol were red, which symbolized Knuckles. The level was of course Green Hill, but the mission said, "Chase Tails!"

The level started, only with a darker-pitched theme and the trees were wilting. Knuckles stood there and yelled out, "Tails! TAILS!" every time the fox appeared, flying away from Knuckles. Once I got to the end, I was greeted with yet ANOTHER cutscene, this time showing Eggman in front of Tails.

"Well fox boy, where is your mech? It's still damaged from our LAST encounter, isn't it?"

"Egg-g-g-g-man......"

"Sayonara, Miles Prower."

The lazer pierced Tails in the chest and killed him in a matter of seconds.

"TAAAIIIILLSS!"

Knuckles rushed down to his friend's side and held the lifeless fox. Knuckles cried knowing both his friends were dead. "Well then, shall I finish the job?" Eggman aimed his lazer at Knuckles. The red echidna turned pitch black and stood up. He backhanded the lazer and destroyed it. "What?! Only Sonic could turn Dark!" That statement only made Knuckles's anger grow.

Knuckles picked up Eggman's mech and threw it into the air. Eggman was flung out of the cockpit and was about to land on Knuckles. However, the black echidna punched at Eggman with such force that the scientist exploded, with guts and blood flying everywhere. I wanted to shut off the laptop then, but I just HAD to see what was going on.

It went back to the Story Select. There were two stories to choose from- End and DECEASED. Eggman and Tails joined Sonic on the DECEASED story, and Knuckles wasn't seen on either story. I picked End only because I would save DECEASED for last.

The level started up with no cutscene or loading. Shadow and Rouge were in a dark hallway. The walls oozed with blood and had portraits of Sonic, Tails, and Eggman- all covered in blood and had no eyes. I had them run down the hall until they suddenly stopped. Knuckles was standing in front of a doorway, still black. He said nothing, only looking at Shadow and Rouge with malice and hatred.

Before I knew it, Knuckles rushed at Rouge and killed her. Shadow stared at Knuckles in shock, and finally spoke. "Kn-Knuckles... What did you do?" Knuckles looked at Shadow and charged at him. I assumed control of Shadow at this point and dashed into the doorway. It brought me back to the Story Select.

The only story available was DECEASED, and it had everyone but Knuckles. Even the multiplayer characters were there, which was odd seeing as how Amy was the only multiplayer character involved within the storyline. I had no choice, so I picked the story and expected the worse.

It started where End left off, with Shadow entering the room. Everyone other than Knuckles was there, all with black eyes and covered with blood. They each muttered something involved with how they died.

"Brother..."

"Lazer..."

"Cockiness..."

"Hatred..."

Amy, Metal Sonic, and the two Chao were silent. Decapitated Chao heads lined the room after I tried speaking to Tikal. When I tried Chaos, he actually spoke, saying something that haunted me to this day.

"YOU BETTER RUN, FOR EVEN YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS CAN BE YOUR MURDERER."

Knuckles then appeared behind Shadow and punched through his chest, killing my favorite character. I cried for a good ten minutes over seeing this. Why did this person hack such a beloved game? They turned it into a horrible massacre!

I called a friend up and told him the whole story. He said that the same thing happened to him, only instead TAILS was killed last. Tails was his favorite character. Another friend said Rouge was killed last. Rouge was her favorite character.

I pieced it together and realized something. This game was hacked because the person hated having his favorite character Knuckles not have much involvement in Sonic games anymore. He makes the player have to deal with losing their favorite character by having them survive a massacre of the cast at Knuckles's hands, only to be killed in the end.

I hate Knuckles to this day.

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