Wave the Swallow (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)


 * For the version of this character after the Super Genesis Wave, see Wave the Swallow (Archie).

Wave the Swallow is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. She was a Mobian swallow, and the resident technical genius for the Babylon Rogues. As a former member of the Battle Bird Armada, Wave worked with Dr. Fukurokov until she crossed him and went Rogue after escaping jail. She was quite knowledgeable in mechanics and technological expertise, and was responsible for maintaining the Rogues' zeppelin and its supplies. After a failed battle to steal a Sol Emerald, Wave found a clue to Babylon Garden that enabled the Rogues to discover the means to unlock it.

Battle Bird Armada
Wave was originally a mechanic in the Battle Bird Armada, and worked under Dr. Fukurokov years ago. She shared the responsibility of maintaining the Armada's equipment, until she was found making unauthorized modifications to the Battle Fortress's engines, which she felt she had the right to do. Dr. Fukurokov then threw her in the brig with Wave believing he was simply jealous of her skills. While there, she found herself alongside Jet the Hawk and Storm the Albatross, who had both been imprisoned for their own offenses.

Jet broke them out soon after and Wave decided to go with them to avoid getting jailed again, though frustrated that they had no Extreme Gear to use. Eager to get revenge on Fukurokov and the Armada by finding the Babylon Garden for themselves, she became the mechanic of the "Babylon Rogues", and they deserted in an old zeppelin which she took upon herself to maintain, becoming a primary target of the Battle Lord in order to find the Garden ever since. Sometime after the desertion, Wave broke into the Battle Fortress and freed a disobedient soldier, Predator Hawk, from confinement. Predator joined the team, and the four hunted both the Armada and treasure, though Predator eventually got fed up of their activities and left to join Mammoth Mogul, leaving the Rogues minus one member.

Sonic Riders
Wave's temporary employment with Dr. Eggman started after Jet the Hawk was captured while using his Extreme Gear to steal a vapor accelerator. Jet cut a deal with Eggman, and brought along Wave and Storm the Albatross as they approached Knothole, setting off an alarm that drew out Sonic the Hedgehog. Keeping up with the Hedgehog despite his speed, Wave joined her teammates in landing blows on him before introducing herself. The following day, Wave and her cohorts returned to attack Knothole, only to be met by Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles the Echidna on Tails' own Extreme Gear. In the ensuing battle, Wave was complimentary of Tails' flying abilities, but insulted the quality of his board to his anger.

Trouble in Paradise and Treasure Team Tango
Some time after the fight with Sonic and friends, Wave and the rest of the Babylon Rogues showed up near Cocoa Island in their zeppelin, apparently planning to attack the Battle Bird Armada. When Wave made note of the Armada's fortress' damaged condition, wondering if other rogues were responsible, Jet simply brushed it off, stating that only the rogues could touch the relics of their ancestors, and they were "going to remind their old buddies why that is".

Following their business with the Armada, Wave's scanners picked up an unusual energy signal from the Great Forest, and Wave persuaded Jet to investigate it. Zeroing in on Team Hooligan, they then dropped explosives from the blimp, but eventually descended on their airboards, stealing the source of the signal; a Sol Emerald. The sudden appearance of Bean, who recognized them and happily latched onto Jet, caught Wave off guard along with Storm who muttered to her that he'd thought that the Battle Lord had "taken care of" Bean in the past, to which she dryly replied, "No such luck."

The sight of Nack bearing his sniper rifle on Jet caused the Rogues to scatter, and Wave began weaving around Bark, dodging his swings and telling the others to get the Emerald so they could leave. As they fled back towards the blimp, a shot from Nack's rifle struck the Emerald, causing it to erupt into a ring of flame that knocked Wave and the others to the ground. Seeing the Emerald was undamaged, Wave crawled onto her board and flew away as Jet ordered the blimp drop its bomb payload to take care of Team Hooligan so they could pick the Emerald out of the remains. Much to Wave's utter shock, Bean caused the bombs to detonate prematurely, causing no harm as Jet told her to be glad that Bean was more Rogue than Armada. Soon, Team Dark and Team Rose arrived, and a four-way struggle for the Sol Emerald began.

During the battle, Wave found herself dodging Bean and flames from Blaze. Once she saw that Jet had been attacked by Shadow, Wave attempted to intercept the hedgehog and threatened hin to hand over the Sol Emerald, but she was then struck by Rouge from behind, causing her to collide with him and Storm. Unbeknownst to her however, Teams Rose and Dark eventually teamed up to herd the others together and Wave was stuck with Rouge the Bat interfering with her flying. She told the bat to get out of her way, but Rouge merely laughed at her and Wave could not shake her off.

Eventually, Wave fell from her board, yelling for her teammates to catch her as she landed atop them in a heap, where they were soon joined by Nack, Bean and Bark. Suddenly, a bomb in the hands of Bean ignited (thanks to Blaze), exploding on them all. Storm shielded Wave from most of the blast, but her Extreme Gear was left damaged and scorched. As Jet tried to plan a new course of action, Wave declared they had enough, grabbed her boss by the headfeathers and dragged him off, saying they were going before losing the blimp too. When Jet insisted that he was in charge, she angrily overrode him, ranting indignantly over what it would take to repair their boards while Storm silently followed behind, carrying them.

Babylon Rising
Not long after the Sol Emerald fiasco, Wave and Jet followed Storm on a lead to what he thought was treasure in Soleanna, but just ended up at the city's library instead. The trip would have been a waste for the Rogues, but as they were leaving, Wave happened upon a book written in ancient Babylonian. Translating the text, she found it contained information on where to find the key to their ultimate objective: the Babylon Garden. Wave then took the book and used it as a guide to locate the entrance to the underground ruins in the Gigan Mountains where they found the key, though Jet had irritated Wave by then with asking her if they were in the right place.

While trying to explain to Storm what the Garden was believed to be, Wave cautioned Jet to be mindful of traps as he removed the key, but he ignored her and accidentally set one off. The room sealed, trapping the Rogues, and forced them to confront the key's guardian, Angelus. Wave noticed projectors around the room and at first believed Angelus to be just a hologram, only to be surprised and impressed by the Babylonian technology when she realized the hologram was enhanced with force fields and that it could attack them. Deducing that neutralizing the force fields would render Angelus harmless, Wave then instructed the Rogues to destroy its projectors, and smashed one by herself while also keeping the key out of reach.

With the fight over, Wave questioned if they should still take the key, but Jet reminded her it was the entire reason they ever became Rogues and she agreed. The ruins began to collapse and the Rogues barely escaped to the surface in time, only to be cornered by Speedy and the entire Battle Bird Armada behind him. A brief standoff followed with Wave mocking Speedy's flight harness, and the Rogues then took off, easily evading laser fire from Armada flying pods. As Speedy gave chase with a pair of Dr. Fukurokov's new Pursuit Drones, Wave observed one briefly to deduce its construction, and quickly destroyed it by removing a central connection pin that held the drone together.

Wave then went to help Jet and struck Speedy just in time to prevent the young bird from killing him. However the Battle Lord himself soon joined the fight, and Wave was easily kicked aside as she tried to take him out with a spin move. Once the Battle Lord defeated them all, he then threatened to kill Jet if the Rogues did not surrender the key and rejoin the Armada, leaving Wave and Storm no choice but to give in, to which he accepted them back with open arms. Wave then watched with interest as the Battle Lord placed his family ring from ancient Babylon into the key, and was taken aback to see by the display of a holographic map revealing Babylon Garden's exact location.

Back aboard the Battle Fortress, Wave found herself receiving unwanted attention from Battle Bird scouts as Dr. Fukurokov briefed them about the city blocking their objective, New Mobotropolis. Wave was then deployed with a device that Fukurokov designed to bring down the dome force field, which she was reluctant to admit might work. With that task done, she joined up with Jet and Storm to keep Sonic busy during the Armada's attack. Seeing the Fortress eventually in position over the city, Wave headed back to towards the site as the base fired it's drill beam and arrived at the gaping crater it left behind. Sonic caught up and attacked Wave and the others as they descended to the bottom, leaving Wave to catch the hedgehog by surpass and imprison him a second time with the Gravity Ring. Though Wave had saved Jet's life, he barely acknowledged it for which she became indignant.

Inside the Garden, Wave led them to the control center with her scanner and was surprised to find a robot that took the key from them. As she tried to ask it questions though, Sonic burst into the room, taking down Wave and the other Rogues while demanding answers. After Wave listened to the robot's explanation of Babylon Garden being a spaceship that brought the ancient Babylonians to Mobius, she came to the stunning realization that the Rouges and Battle Birds were descended from an alien race. Before the impact of this news was able to set in, Wave received an even bigger shock when the robot informed them it was going to open a wormhole to return to it's home world, which would create a black hole and destroy Mobius.

In a panic, Wave quickly found she had nowhere near enough time to reprogram the launch procedure and told the others their only option was to remove the key to stop it. At that moment, Speedy arrived on the scene and took everyone down a second time, gloating over their predicament. The interference allowed Sonic to destroy the key though, which caused the Garden to fall as Wave made it clear they had to evacuate immediately, and she escaped before it crashed into a mountainside. After observing the crash site a bit, the Rogues turned to leave as Wave continued to ponder the revelation of their heritage and what it meant.
 * Note: From this point, Wave's history continues from her new life in the altered timeline.

Personality
Wave is confident and sly, not above mocking others. Despite her occasionally cruel attitude, she is not especially malicious. While not the leader of the trio, she is often more responsible and goal-oriented than Jet. Wave takes great pride in her skills as a mechanic and the work she puts into it while demeaning the skills of others like Tails with his own airboards, which makes her a bit of a trash-talker. Considers all of the Rogue's Gear her own, she obsesses greatly over the effort put into keeping their Extreme Gear in the best condition possible that she gives them priority over anything else once they take enough damage. As such, she becomes indignant when Jet and Storm are rough with the equipment she creates.

Powers and abilities
Wave is a skilled Extreme Gear rider and a remarkable mechanic, as well as having some skill with explosives. Her expertise is so great, that she is capable of making accurate assessments over how various devices of both ancient and modern technology may work, along with their potential strengths and weakness, after just a cursory inspection. Wave can also read ancient Babylonian, which proved invaluable as she was able to translate the writing in an old book that told where to find the key to the Babylon Garden. In addition, Wave has some decent martial arts skills, and is a great acrobat, as seen by how she backflipped over one of Dr. Fukurokov's Pursuit Drones before destroying it and smashed one of the hologram projectors in Angelus's lair with some sort of double-spinning kick, which she performed while hand-standing on her airboard.

Trivia

 * In Sonic Universe #33 and onward, Wave's nose holes disappear in her beak area.