Personality: Shard began life as a weapon; an emotionless killer, meant to mimic and surpass the capabilities of his creator’s hated rival. But eventually that need to be the superior hedgehog- and to prove himself superior- took more and more priority over his core programming of serving Dr. Robotnik, and after being abandoned following multiple failed attempts, grew into an independent, cocksure personality - that was still dead set on proving its superiority to Sonic. The final steps of Metal Sonic’s evolution into Shard came from his attempt to do so. After kidnapping Miles “Tails” Prower and challenging Sonic to a death race for his safety, their words and actions, their refusal to abandon each other in the face of death, convince Metal Sonic that truly surpassing his limitations and proving his strength meant choosing life; abandoning his quest to best Sonic and apparently sacrificing himself to save them. A bit cliche, to be sure, but this is a comic book and we’ve got terribly dubbed 90’s OVAs to reference here. And, because this is a comic book, of course it wasn’t actually the end for Shard.
Over ten real years and one hundred and fifty issues later, Shard took the last step of his journey as he was rebuilt in a new body, his personality and memories preserved in his gemstone power core and now determined to atone for his past actions and prove he’d actually learned the lessons of his past. His sense of superiority remained; and in fairness, he is objectively physically superior to most of the people around him, organic or mechanical. After his rebuilding, however, it also helps serve to cover for his insecurities regarding his isolation from those around him; the average people of New Mobitropolis would fear him, and as far as he’s concerned they would be right to do so in light of his past. A major part of the reason he seeks to defend the city and its people is directly stated to be an effort to eventually assuage these fears, and make it possible for him to connect to people outside of his team. Until such a time comes, however, he has to keep his existence secret from almost everyone; he’s shown particularly wanting to connect with Sonic’s family, including Sonic’s Uncle Chuck, the one that rebuilt his current body. He’s only shown interacting with his team in the context of their missions; he’s comfortable working with them, and there’s no real animosity, but the only person he’s shown connecting with on a personal basis is another AI, frequently visiting the computer interface that forms her network and entering into a virtual space with her. Another significant part of his cover for these insecurities is the level of snark Shard sprinkles into his conversation. It’s free, it goes everywhere. Though as much as it’s a cover, a big part of it is also just that Shard is a snarky sassy boy.
Shard is very notably action-oriented, rushing into fights and acting impulsively in the face of danger. When a teammate falls into an open pit, he immediately leaps to the rescue, despite the fact that they’re on a mission which requires stealth and his mode of flight is notably noisy. When the current Metal Sonic attacks, taking a hostage, Shard rushes off to face him and draw him away from the city. Despite this, Shard isn’t a total meathead. During a virtual chess match, he’s capable of reasoning out that if the goal is to take out the enemy king, in said virtual environment where the pieces are bigger than him, there’s technically no reason to not just physically blast the king. Likewise, he’s capable of reasoning during a combat mission that blowing apart the arcane ritual their enemy is conducting will ensure their goal with more certainty than engaging the enemy in combat would. As brash and violent as Shard can be, he’s also capable of reaching out to enemies in situations similar to his own. When fighting another version of Metal Sonic, he recognizes that it too is more than a simple drone, capable of reasoning and thinking, he tries pushing it to break its own programming the way he did, only regretfully going for a killing blow once it became clear that Metal Sonic’s built-in failsafes wouldn’t allow it to gain any kind of independence. This attempt at redemption was strong enough that it led to Shard’s own near death, giving Metal Sonic time to determine that Shard’s gem power core was also his weakness, self-destructing and cracking the gem along with heavily damaging Shard’s physical body.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Mimikyuu
Shard | Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)
Name: Phas
E-mail: geoduelist87@yahoo.com
Preferred Contact:
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Character
Name: Shard
Series: Sonic the Hedgehog - Archie Comics
Timeline: Sonic Universe #50 - after the fight with Metal Sonic
Canon Resource Links:
Shard on the: Sonic Wiki and Archie Sonic Wiki.
Personality:
Shard began life as a weapon; an emotionless killer, meant to mimic and surpass the capabilities of his creator’s hated rival. But eventually that need to be the superior hedgehog- and to prove himself superior- took more and more priority over his core programming of serving Dr. Robotnik, and after being abandoned following multiple failed attempts, grew into an independent, cocksure personality - that was still dead set on proving its superiority to Sonic. The final steps of Metal Sonic’s evolution into Shard came from his attempt to do so. After kidnapping Miles “Tails” Prower and challenging Sonic to a death race for his safety, their words and actions, their refusal to abandon each other in the face of death, convince Metal Sonic that truly surpassing his limitations and proving his strength meant choosing life; abandoning his quest to best Sonic and apparently sacrificing himself to save them. A bit cliche, to be sure, but this is a comic book and we’ve got terribly dubbed 90’s OVAs to reference here. And, because this is a comic book, of course it wasn’t actually the end for Shard.
Over ten real years and one hundred and fifty issues later, Shard took the last step of his journey as he was rebuilt in a new body, his personality and memories preserved in his gemstone power core and now determined to atone for his past actions and prove he’d actually learned the lessons of his past. His sense of superiority remained; and in fairness, he is objectively physically superior to most of the people around him, organic or mechanical. After his rebuilding, however, it also helps serve to cover for his insecurities regarding his isolation from those around him; the average people of New Mobitropolis would fear him, and as far as he’s concerned they would be right to do so in light of his past. A major part of the reason he seeks to defend the city and its people is directly stated to be an effort to eventually assuage these fears, and make it possible for him to connect to people outside of his team. Until such a time comes, however, he has to keep his existence secret from almost everyone; he’s shown particularly wanting to connect with Sonic’s family, including Sonic’s Uncle Chuck, the one that rebuilt his current body. He’s only shown interacting with his team in the context of their missions; he’s comfortable working with them, and there’s no real animosity, but the only person he’s shown connecting with on a personal basis is another AI, frequently visiting the computer interface that forms her network and entering into a virtual space with her. Another significant part of his cover for these insecurities is the level of snark Shard sprinkles into his conversation. It’s free, it goes everywhere. Though as much as it’s a cover, a big part of it is also just that Shard is a snarky sassy boy.
Shard is very notably action-oriented, rushing into fights and acting impulsively in the face of danger. When a teammate falls into an open pit, he immediately leaps to the rescue, despite the fact that they’re on a mission which requires stealth and his mode of flight is notably noisy. When the current Metal Sonic attacks, taking a hostage, Shard rushes off to face him and draw him away from the city. Despite this, Shard isn’t a total meathead. During a virtual chess match, he’s capable of reasoning out that if the goal is to take out the enemy king, in said virtual environment where the pieces are bigger than him, there’s technically no reason to not just physically blast the king. Likewise, he’s capable of reasoning during a combat mission that blowing apart the arcane ritual their enemy is conducting will ensure their goal with more certainty than engaging the enemy in combat would. As brash and violent as Shard can be, he’s also capable of reaching out to enemies in situations similar to his own. When fighting another version of Metal Sonic, he recognizes that it too is more than a simple drone, capable of reasoning and thinking, he tries pushing it to break its own programming the way he did, only regretfully going for a killing blow once it became clear that Metal Sonic’s built-in failsafes wouldn’t allow it to gain any kind of independence. This attempt at redemption was strong enough that it led to Shard’s own near death, giving Metal Sonic time to determine that Shard’s gem power core was also his weakness, self-destructing and cracking the gem along with heavily damaging Shard’s physical body.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Mimikyuu
Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples
RP Sample: One moida-game intro thread, after which nothing bad ever happened.
Victory Road Sample: A TDM thread.