Chuck Thorndyke


 * For other uses of the term, see Chuck.

Chuck Thorndyke (チャック・ソーンダイク) is a character that appears in the anime series Sonic X and its comic series published by Archie Comics. He is an elderly human, as well as the paternal grandfather of Christopher Thorndyke. A scientist and inventor, Chuck loves conducting experiments, creating inventions, and discovering new technologies. He is also a close friend of Miles "Tails" Prower, whom he has created many inventions with, including the X Tornado.

Past
Chuck's passion has always been to create machines and discover new technologies. He is also known to be a long-time fan of baseball.

When he was young, Chuck participated in wrestling, and became known as "Thorndyke the Throttler". When he was just twelve years old, Chuck had a son who came to be named Nelson Thorndyke. Nelson would eventually marry Lindsey Fair, who would later give birth to Chuck's grandson - Christopher Thorndyke. However, because Nelson and Lindsey chose to focus on their careers for the sake of Chris, Chris rarely saw his parents. Chuck did not try to remedy this void in Chris' life however, because he was too absorbed in his research.

New World Saga
After Chris turned twelve, Chuck heard from the news that a blue hedgehog had outran the Speed Team last night. Going to Chris to tell him the news, he found the blue hedgehog sitting next to his grandson. Thinking this hedgehog to be a robot, Chuck attempted to dismantle him until Chris told him the truth - that this hedgehog was an organic being from another world and that his name was Sonic. Initially shocked, Chuck quickly learned that Sonic's friends, Cream and Cheese, were in need of rescuing. Asking around, Chuck found out that Cream and Cheese had been taken to Area 99 to be studied by the military. Sonic set out to rescue them, but Chuck stopped him, knowing he could not simply break into Area 99 and back out like that: he needed to think things through.

Chuck soon after took Sonic and Chris to the vicinity of Area 99. There, he gave Sonic an Infrared Scope to stay in contact with him and Chris and see the area's laser sensors. Aided by Chuck and Chris, Sonic was able to breach the base, where he managed to rescue Cream and Cheese. The trio then escaped Area 99 with the aid of Tails, who carried them off in the Tornado 2. Back at the Thorndyke Mansion, Chuck was properly introduced to Tails, Cream and Cheese, and was impressed by the microchip paper airplanes Tails had used to cripple Area 99's security systems. Taking a liking to Tails, Chuck tried asking him where to find his world and its technology.

Chuck would later observe Tails' care-taking of the Tornado until he went out with Chris to search for Sonic. However, they were unable to find him. When Dr. Eggman and E-23 Missile Wrist later attacked Station Square, Chuck saw Tails and Chris take off in the Tornado 2 to handle the situation. In the process, the group recovered Amy, who took up residence in the Thorndyke Mansion. Not long after, Chuck overheard Sonic and his friends' explanation of the Chaos Emeralds to Chris and of how they brought Sonic and co. to Earth via Chaos Control. While Chuck believed that the Chaos Emeralds were probably gone, Sonic explained that the Emeralds had merely been scattered, meaning that if the Emeralds were on Earth, they could gather them and use them to get Sonic and co. back to their world. When the green Chaos Emerald later surfaced in Station Square at a construction site, Chuck saw Tails and Amy take off in the Tornado 2 to get the Emerald. After they and their friends returned with the Emerald, Chuck was worried about keeping it in his lab until Tails promised to adjust his equipment for him.

When Chuck prepared to analyze the Chaos Emerald with Chris and Tails, Ella tried to get into Chuck's lab to clean it. In order not to draw attention, Tails pretended to be a plush toy while Ella was there. When Ella started to notice something was wrong however, Chuck and Chris took Tails outside. There, they came across Mr. Tanaka, who insisted that Chuck took it easy. Despite telling him that he had no need for that, Tanaka took Chuck away to take a nap. Chuck, while having breakfast with Sonic, Tails and Amy, later got a visit from Chris, who asked Sonic and co. to lay low while his parents were back home. After Chris left for school, Chuck told Tails and Amy about Chris' parents and their careers. Later that day, Chuck welcomed back his son and his wife when they arrived. Chris, however, did not come back from school at the intended time. Although amused by how quickly Nelson lost his cool, he told him to calm down and wait for Chris when he tried calling his people. Eventually though, Chris came home, and Chuck had a nice dinner with his family.

Soon after, Lindsey planned to organize a house party, prompting Tanaka to force Chuck to wear a suit, much to his discomfort. Before the party, Chuck talked with Chris about keeping Sonic and co. hidden from the guests. Once they saw that Cream and Cheese were out in the open however, they covered for them when Lindsey was about to spot them. Chuck later retreated to his room until Chris came and revealed that Cream and Cheese were wandering around again. Having him, Chris, Tails and Amy split up to cover more ground, Chuck looked around outside until he stumbled over some flower pots. In an attempt to avoid suspension, Chuck pretended like nothing when Ella checked up on him. Chuck then came through the window to greet Chris' teacher, Mr. Stewart, who had come to visit Chris. When Cream then revealed herself, Chuck helped convince Ella that Cream was just a toy. When Sam Speed then arrived, Chuck had to help cover for Cream (as well as Sonic). When Cream then, in anger, erupted at Chris for thinking ill of his mother, who had to leave the party early to attend a movie, in front of the guests, Chuck tried to distract everybody by having a confused Ella dance with her. After the party, Chuck and Mr. Tanaka (who knew about Sonic and co.) helped convince Chris to let Ella in on the alien guests they were harboring. The following evening, Chuck and everybody else saw Ella and Cream solidify a dear friendship.

When Bokkun arrived at the Thorndyke Mansion with a message from Dr. Eggman, who explained that his E-90 Super Sweeper was currently sucking up the Earth's satellites from the stratosphere, Chuck burst in to explain what the stratosphere was in simplified terms. Chuck then tried to take Bokkun out, only for the robot to detonate one of his Television Bombs in Chuck's face. Afterward, Chuck saw Sonic and Tails take off in the Tornado 2 to destroy Super Sweeper. However, they failed, and had to return home. Deciding that the Tornado 2 was no match for Super Sweeper, Tails thought about using their Chaos Emerald to boost the biplane, although the problem would be to get rid of all that excess energy. Chuck therefore took Tails to his secret laboratory where they worked together to create the X Tornado, a jetplane that could run safely on the Chaos Emerald. Later, Chuck helped the X Tornado take off by clearing its runway. After Super Sweeper was destroyed by Sonic, Tails and Chris with the X Tornado's aid, Chuck congratulated Sonic for a job well done back home.

When Chris and the Thorndyke Mansion's staff had to go attend the opening of Hotel de Blanc at Emerald Coast, Chuck stayed at the mansion with Sonic. Eventually though, Chuck learned that Eggman was attacking Emerald Coast, which he informed Sonic of when he returned from a run by showing him the news. Immediately after, Bokkun dropped by with a bomb-based invite which blew up in Chuck and Sonic's faces. While Chuck was stupefied, Sonic ran off to save the day. During dinner later on, Chuck and his friends received a video from Eggman via Bokkun who alerted them to the presence of a Chaos Emerald at the soon-to-be-demolished Diamond Stadium. In the video, Eggman challenged them to a game of baseball. Afterward, Bokkun began pelting Chuck and co. with baseballs until Ella got rid of him. Hurrying to Diamond Stadium, Chuck was ecstatic about going to the stadium of his favorite baseball team. There, Eggman issued his challenge: they would play a game of baseball, and the winner would get away with both the Chaos Emeralds they had found. Being a fan of baseball, Chuck accepted the challenge on behalf of everyone. Afterward, Chuck and Eggman began laying down the rules. Despite some difficulties against Eggman's team, Chuck, Sonic and their friends managed to take the lead, prompting Eggman to cheat by escaping with one of the Emeralds. Chuck was not set back by this however, as he was sure that they had learned an important lesson from the game. In addition, the show that Chuck and his friends had convinced the Diamond Stadium's owner to move the stadium's turf to the new stadium and keep the groundskeeper to maintain it.

Back home, Chuck met Sonic and Cream when they were looking for Tails, and told them that Tails, Chris, Amy and Frances had left in the X Tornado a while ago. Soon after, Chuck received an annonymous phone call that told him that Chris and his friends were in danger at Tingalin Villa, prompting him to send Sonic there. Later, Chuck was with Cream and Cheese when a news report came on as the President announced that G.U.N. was to attack Eggman's headquarters. Chuck continued to watch the coverage on TV as the X Tornado appeared to assist G.U.N., which ended with Sonic emerging victorious from Eggman's decimated fortress with both of the Chaos Emeralds that Eggman had acquired by that point.

Chaos Emerald Saga
When words came out that Sonic had been invited to attend a party at the White House and meet the President, Chuck went with Chris and Sonic's friends, whereas Sonic refused to go due to other obligations with Helen. When Chris became worried, Chuck tried to console him, only for Sonic to finally arrive with Helen on a commandeered G.U.N. helicopter. Afterwards, Chuck shared a laugh when Jerome Wise passed out from frustration when he discovered that the media he stalled until Sonic showed up were fast asleep.

For the most part, Chuck remained at home when Sonic, Chris, and the others went out to deal with Eggman or hunt for Chaos Emeralds. However, one day, he was called by his son Nelson, asking him and his friends to come to Filmdom City. Nelson planned on presenting a wedding anniversary ring he bought to Lindsey on the set of her latest movie. However, Chuck soon discovered that the ring was another Chaos Emerald, which had not adapted to the others yet, thereby causing it to become unstable when exposed to other Emeralds. When Nelson's plan fell apart after he tripped and caused the Emerald to become unstable, Chuck tries to intervene in the argument that erupted between his son and daughter-in-law, but both of them told him to stay out of it. Things avoided getting worse however when Eggman crashed the set in the Egg Fort II to claim the Emerald and sicced E-74 Weazo on the Thorndykes. Though E-74 was destroyed by Sonic and Knuckles, Eggman got away with the Emerald. Chuck, however, was just satisfied to see his grandson, son, and daughter-in-law gain a newfound love for each other, and celebrated Nelson and Lindsey's anniversary with everyone else.

When Sonic went on a rampant run he could not stop, Chuck came up with several inventions meant to stop Sonic in his tracks, but all of them failed.

One day, Chuck discovered that the Chaos Emeralds he and his friends had gathered were gone and a note from Chris that said that he had taken the Emeralds to help Sonic and co. get home. Learning soon after that Chris had been taken prisoner by Eggman, along with the Chaos Emeralds that Sonic and his friends had collected, Chuck set out with Tails, Amy, Cream, and Cheese in the X Tornado to try and rescue Chris, but the Egg Fort II, upon transforming into the E-99 Eggsterminator, proved to be too dangerous for Tails to get close enough to engage it. However, Sonic, upon being transformed into Super Sonic, destroyed the Eggsterminator and induced Chaos Control. Tails warned Chuck he would be sent back with them to their world, but Chuck assured Tails it would be his honor to go back with them. However, Super Sonic instead brought the Mystic Ruins and Angel Island to Earth.

Chaos Saga
Six months after Super Sonic brought the Mystic Ruins and Angel Island to Earth, Chuck met Sonic and Chris at the Thorndyke Mansion when they returned with a new friend from Sonic's world, Big the Cat. Big explained that he was looking for his buddy Froggy, who took off after swallowing something weird that drove him crazy and eat the Chaos Emerald that Big had found around the same time. Also learning of the threat of Eggman's new ally, Chaos, who grew stronger for each Chaos Emerald it absorbed, Chuck realized that they would need to once more gather the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman did, or Chaos would become unstoppable.

Later, upon learning that Chaos had gained all seven Chaos Emeralds and transformed into Perfect Chaos with their negative energy, Chuck was forced to evacuate the Thorndyke Mansion with Ella, Cream, and Cheese, while Mister Tanaka remains behind to wait for Chris, due to being a skilled swimmer, so he would be fine when the flood waters reached the estate.

Shadow Saga
With Station Square undergoing repairs from Perfect Chaos' attack, Chuck and his family moved to the capital until the repairs were done. Chuck soon discovered though that Sonic was wanted by G.U.N. and the police for crimes performed by someone that looked like him. After Sonic had a run-in with that look-alike, revealed to be Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form, Chuck arrived with Chris, who pleaded with Sonic to turn himself in. Sonic agreed once he learned that he was being taken to Prison Island to be incarcerated.

Chuck remained behind as Amy, Tails, Chris, and Mister Tanaka went to bust Sonic out of Prison Island. He later learned on the news that Prison Island had been destroyed. However, no casualties were found, much to his relief that Chris, who had vanished during the break-out of Sonic, was okay.

Egg Moon Saga
Because of Super Sonic and Super Shadow using Chaos Control to restore the Space Colony ARK to a stable orbit, more and more things from Sonic's world began to show up on Earth. Concerned, the President consulted Chuck about it, but Chuck assured him there was nothing to be worried about. Later, back at the Thorndyke Mansion, Chuck was with Sonic's friends when Amy grew frustrated by Sonic being late for their date and hitting something invisible with her hammer as she vented her anger. He was then confronted by Vector and Charmy of the Chaotix, leading to a scuffle before Sonic arrived with Vector's client, Vanilla, allowing her to reunite with her daughter Cream, before Sonic then started picking on Vector for his mistake.

Chuck later took Chris and all of Sonic's friends to celebrate the first sunrise of the New Year on the Thorndyke yacht, only to have it ruined when the Sun was eclipsed by the Moon, which had been repaired by Eggman and dubbed the "Egg Moon". When Eggman announced that the Egg Moon was malfunctioning and needed repairs, he offered his Sunshine Balls to remedy the situation until the eclipse ended. However, Sonic suspected otherwise, and began destroying the Mirror Towers that provided power to the Sunshine Balls, much to Chuck and the others' shock.

As a result, an angry mob led by Jerome Wise surrounded the Thorndyke Mansion. Though Amy knocked down a wall to allow Chuck and everyone else to escape, they were soon surrounded by Jerome and the mob, until Sam and the Speed Team arrived, forcing Jerome and the mob to disperse. It was only after Sonic returned to the Thorndyke Mansion with Chris, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, and Topaz that Chuck learned that Eggman had staged the eclipse, and agreed to have Topaz and Mister Tanaka take Rouge and Knuckles up to the Egg Moon to destroy its transmitter, while Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Chris went to the White House to rescue the President and Christina Cooper, whom Eggman had taken hostage.

Emerl Saga
With Eggman incarcerated, Chuck believed the world to be safe now. However, he was proven otherwise when his son's company, Thorndyke Industries, ran into trouble when the appliances they produced turned rogue and hostile thanks to sabotage from Eggman, forcing Chuck and the others to deal with them while Bokkun broke Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe out from prison.

As a result of Eggman's escape, the President decided to hold the Chaos Emerald Martial Arts Mash-Up to lure Eggman back into the open with its prize: a Chaos Emerald. Chuck took part, but was forced to withdraw due to needing to be taken to the hospital when he injured himself before his match against E-77 Lucky. He was thus forced to watch the tournament from his hospital bed with Nelson and Lindsey. After Emerl won the tournament however, he went berserk from the energy of the Chaos Emerald. Chuck returned to help Sonic and co. stop Emerl, but could not do much more than analyze Emerl's rampage. Fortunately, Cream and Cheese managed to do the robot in for good.

Homebound Saga
Shortly after the Emerl incident, Chuck learned that the G.U.N. destroyer Seahawk had gone missing, and joined Sonic and his friends as they searched for it, discovering that Eggman had captured the ship with his Egg Battleship and had taken the crew and passengers hostage to ensure Sonic or G.U.N. could not interfere in his plans for the lost continent of Murasia. However, Eggman's plans were foiled again, Murasia sank back beneath the waves, and Decoe and Bocoe, after being abandoned by Eggman, chose to defect and join Chuck, who is able to repair them and get their support back home in his lab.

However, when Christina Tomar arrived to reveal the threat of the Time Suspension Phenomenon, Chuck worked with Tails on Project Homebound to create a gateway that would allow Sonic and everything from his world to return there. After the initial test run allowed most of the things from Sonic's world, such as the Flickies and even Eggman in his Grand Egg Imperial, to return, additional power provided by the Eclipse Cannon allowed all of Sonic's friends to return as well. During their departure, Chuck said an emotional goodbye to Tails. However, before Sonic could use the portal, Chris shut it down. He then took Sonic and ran away, much to Chuck's initial shock. However, as Topaz, Mister Tanaka, Sam, and even Nelson and Lindsey tried to look for him, Chuck told Nelson and Lindsey of the real reason Chris ran away: their negligence of him due to their busy timetables with their jobs. Thanks to Chuck's advice, Nelson and Lindsey found Chris waiting for them at their old lake retreat and were able to establish a better relationship with him.

Chuck's friendship with Tails also made it so Chuck left Tails a parting gift for him in the rebuilt Tornado 2. When Tails found himself in trouble fighting the Grand Egg Imperial, a message from Chuck played, revealing he left one final gift for Tails, before giving the command to transform the Tornado 2 into the Hyper Tornado.

Post-Homebound Saga
Over the next six years, Chuck gave Chris lessons in piloting all kinds of vehicles.

Metarex Saga
One day, Chuck found out that Chris had traveled to the world of Sonic. Finding the portal Chris had used, Chuck discovered that it had been locked down. Chuck thus dared not to tamper with the machine out of fear that he would end up trapping Chris on Sonic's world. Meeting up with Nelson, Lindsey, Helen, Danny and Frances, Chuck brought the bad news, although they all eventually agreed to trust that Chris would be fine in the meantime. Eventually, Chuck figured out how to sent items through the portal to Sonic's world. Telling Nelson and Lindsey about it, the couple decided to use this opportunity to sent Chris extra luggage.

Personality
Chuck is good-humored and witty, and means well for his friends and family, but circumstances can cause him to behave eccentrically. He is always helping Chris, Sonic and their friends out whenever they need help.

For all his oddities, however, Chuck is a wise man, who, very much like Tails, uses his intellect when faced with problems.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Much in the same way that Chris bonds with Sonic the Hedgehog during the latter's stay with the family, and the maid Ella bonds with Cream the Rabbit and Amy Rose, Chuck and Tails formed a strong bond when the latter had been transported to Earth, due to their shared expertise with machines. It was partially thanks to Chuck that the X Tornado was made, as well as the rescue of Cream and Cheese.

Chuck often joined Tails in the X Tornado during their skirmishes with Dr. Eggman. When finding out that Tails and the others would return to their native dimension, Chuck modified the X Tornado so that its abilities could be enhanced in case of an emergency.

Friends/Family

 * Christopher Thorndyke (beloved grandson)
 * Nelson Thorndyke (son)
 * Lindsey Thorndyke (daughter-in-law)
 * Sam Speed (son-in-law)
 * Ella
 * Mr. Tanaka
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower (good friend and fellow inventor)
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Big the Cat
 * Emerl
 * Helen
 * Frances
 * Danny

Enemies

 * Doctor Eggman
 * Decoe
 * Bocoe
 * Bokkun
 * Chaos (formely)

Trivia

 * Chuck bears an uncanny resemblance to Christopher Lloyd's character Emmet "Doc" Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy and animated series spin-off.
 * His name is possibly a reference to Sonic's uncle Charles Hedgehog (more commonly referred to as Uncle Chuck) from Sonic the Hedgehog television series, Sonic Underground, and the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs.