Wave the Swallow

"Well, I never imagined anyone who would enter the race with such a piece of junk!"

- Wave the Swallow, Sonic Riders

Wave the Swallow (ウェーブ・ザ・スワロー) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an anthropomorphic eighteen-year-old swallow and is the technical and mechanical expert of the current generation of Babylon Rogues. She is the daughter of the tech expert of the previous generation of Babylon Rogues, which she takes after, and takes care of her groups' customized Extreme Gears.

Because of her knowledge on Extreme Gear, Wave is brimming with self-confidence and can be a bit of a trash-talker and highly critical of others' work with Extreme Gear. She hates thick-headed or stupid people and she tends to give advice only she can understand. Regardless, Wave is level-headed and serves as the voice of reason in of the Babylon Rogues, though she is often mistreated by the other members.

Early Life
Wave was born into the Babylon clan of thieves known as the Babylon Rogues. She is a descendant of the Babylonians, an alien race that stranded on Earth in ancient times and became a legendary band of thieves which continued their legacy of thieving for generations.

During her early life, Wave was raised by her father, who taught her his technical and mechanical skills. At some point, she became a member of the Babylon Rogues and was joined by Jet the Hawk and Storm the Albatross. Together, the three of them formed the newest generation of Babylon Rogues and continued their clan's legacy of theft, with Wave serving as the team's technological genius and Extreme Gear mechanic.

During her carrier as a member Babylon Rogues, Wave and her team engaged in a number of unknown criminal activities and managed to build up an infamous reputation.

Sonic Riders
In Sonic Riders, Wave and Storm found Dr. Eggman arriving on their airship with a proposition for Jet. When the two brought the news to Jet, she noticed Jet's Key to Babylon Garden, which could reveal Babylon Garden and its hidden treasure, but Storm kept her from it. Eggman then arrived and revealed the Key to Babylon Garden could reveal Babylon Garden if they collected the seven Chaos Emeralds, though he warned Sonic the Hedgehog would get in their way. Wanting their ancestors' treasure, the Babylon Rogues agreed to work with Eggman.

As their plan, the doctor hosted the EX World Grand Prix, where the contestants had to pay an entry free of one Chaos Emerald, and the winner got to claim all seven. Wave and her team then only had to win the competition. Traveling to Future City, Wave and her team stole a Chaos Emerald as an entry feed. While fleeing, Wave caught Storm when he was hit by Knuckles and got away.

After entering the EX World Grand Prix and passing the first rounds, Wave met Team Sonic so she could see their Extreme Gear. After checking Tails' Blue Star, Wave secretly planted a bomb on it, before dismissing it as a piece of junk and left. In the follow race, she beat Amy and advanced further in the competition.

Back at their headquarters, Wave began arguing with Storm of how he blamed her for losing to Knuckles, until Jet told them he suspected Eggman was hiding something and send Storm to find what the doctor could be hiding. As Wave and Jet awaited Storm's return, Wave began to fret while lecturing Jet on his responsibilities, until she saw Jet had snuck away. Soon after, Wave lost to Tails in an official race and was eliminated from the World Grand Prix.

At the finals, Wave and Jet met Storm, having brought Eggman's diary with him. As Wave examined it, the group learned that the Treasure of Babylon was not a gem as Eggman made them believe, but actually the Babylonians' advanced technology, which the doctor hoped to use for world domination. When Jet then tried to leave, Wave convinced him to stay and win the finals by stating the possibility that the treasure could still be valuable. In the finals, Jet almost lost to Sonic, but Wave detonated the bomb on Sonic's Blue Star, allowing Jet to win. When Jet then unearth Babylon Garden with the Chaos Emeralds and the Key to Babylon Garden, Eggman stole the Key and went after the treasure himself, promoting Wave and the others to chase after him.

Arriving on Babylon Garden, Wave and Strom faced Tails and Knuckles, but were forced to leave when E-10000s attacked. When they found Jet, Wave took the Key to Babylon Garden on Jet's behalf when he refused and entered Babylon Garden to get the treasure, but accidently awoke the Babylon Guardian. With the arrival of Team Sonic and Amy, Wave and the others defeated the Babylon Guardian and found the Treasure of Babylon, which was a Magic Carpet, much to Eggman's disappointment. Wave and Tails however, saw that it was an ancient prototype of Extreme Gear. With the ordeal over, Wave and the rest of the Babylon Rogues left Sonic and his friends until next time.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, a few months after the World Grand Prix, Wave and her team were on a treasure hunt to Gigan Rocks to find an Ark of the Cosmos, an engine unit for Babylon Garden. After getting the Ark of the Cosmos, Wave tried to make a wish on a shooting star despite being ridiculed by Storm. However, some falling meteors created tremors that activated the ruins' trap, causing some boulders to drop down on them. However, Wave and her team were saved when Jet used the Ark of the Cosmos.

Back on the their airship, Wave began analyzing the Ark of the Cosmos and told Jet about her finds. Having also read some Babylonian scrolls that there were five Arks of the Cosmos, Wave was ready to build a radar to find them when Storm came with a news report saying that a SCR-GP stole an Ark of the Cosmos from the Megalo City Museum, promoting the team to love for Megalo Station.

Arriving in Monopole, Wave and Storm followed Jet and the robot with the Ark of the Cosmos to a dome, There, Wave saw Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy were there, and that they had the Ark of the Cosmos they were looking for. Overhearing the group planned to go to MeteorTech, Wave, Jet and Storm went ahead to gather information. Arriving at MeteorTech, Wave helped Jet repel the security robots with the Ark of the Cosmos and reunited with Sonic's group, with Wave greeting Tails. When more security robots showed up though, Sonic and his friends left, with Wave and Jet chasing after them.

When they got to the control room, Wave and the others found Dr. Eggman, who owned MeteorTech. Under persuasion, the doctor revealed that the MeteorTech mother computer had an Ark of the Cosmos, and that the robots that were currently on a global rampage were collecting more Arks of the Cosmos which was due to the Arks of the Cosmos' influence. Wave and the others then noticed that both Amy and Storm were gone and saw on monitor images that Storm and SCR-HD were chasing Amy. Returning to the Babylon Rogues' airship, Wave worked on deciphering some ancient Babylonian texts until Storm returned with two Arks of the Cosmos. Wave told her team that the texts said that the Arks of the Cosmos were severed from Babylon Garden's engine because they almost triggered a "lightless black." No sooner though, Wave and the others discovered that two of their Arks of the Cosmos had been stolen by Eggman, who planned to use them to take control of the world's robots and conquer the world. Wasting no time, the Babylon Rogues followed Eggman.

Arriving at the Crimson Tower, Wave and her team met Sonic and his friends, and Wave explained to them about the Crimson Tower. She and her team then raced against Sonic and his friends to Eggman with the Arks of the Cosmos at stake.

At the end of the race, which ended with a tie, Eggman and the global robot rampage were stopped. When Babylon Garden appeared due to all Arks of the Cosmos being present and Sonic handed over his, Wave prepared to head to Babylon Garden with her team and the Arks of the Cosmos. However, she was attacked by SCR-HD, who stole all the Arks of the Cosmos from her and took them to Babylon Garden. This transformed Babylon Garden into Astral Babylon and created a black hole, the "lightless black", which would consume the planet. After figuring out a plan to stop the black hole, Wave and her team followed Team Sonic to Astral Babylon, where they faced and defeated Master Core: ABIS, saving the world. With everything over, Wave asked Jet if he was okay with the truth about their ancestry. Hearing that Jet was content with it, Wave took her leave with her team.

Sonic Free Riders
In Sonic Free Riders, Wave and the Babylon Rogues entered the newest World Grand Prix hosted by Dr. Eggman as Team Babylon to seek fame. When Omochao had an interview with the team, Wave was inpatient to get the cash prize, though she agreed with Jet that she should pity their first opponents.

In the first round, Team Babylon faced Team Dark, who Wave advised to ignore after they trash-talked them. Between the races, Wave tried to defend Jet when Rouge rebuked his complements and had to deal with Storm argue with E-10000B which she thought was a pointless endeavor. After they beat Team Dark, Wave remained confident her team would the Grand Prix.

In their next race, Team Babylon faced Team Rose. As Team Babylon won over their opponents again and again, Wave taunted Vector with how he had deal with his annoying team-mates.

After defeating Team Rose, Team Babylon advanced to the finals with Team Heroes, though Wave was confident Team Heroes could not win with Tails's Extreme Gear. During the face-off, Wave secretly sabotaged Team Heroes' Extreme Gear with Storm. Before the final race against Team Heroes, Wave taunted Tails and assure Jet they would win, which made Jet suspicious that she had cheated, but Wave played innocent. After the race, Jet accused Wave for Team Heroes' mechanical issues during the race, but Wave denied it. Regardless, Jet ensured Team Babylon's victory in a rematch, and Wave praised Jet for his victory. As Team Babylon was hailed as winners, Wave taunted Tails about not expecting to match her in Extreme Gear expertise, but still encouraged him.

As the Grand Prix continued, Team Babylon lost a few times too, with Wave being confident before the race, only to be in disbelief (once even in denial) when beaten. After the tournament was over, Wave and the other teams went to the awards ceremony to collect their prizes but Eggman made all of the competitors race his "ultimate Gear-jockey robot". After winning the race, Eggman revealed that he used the World Grand Prix to gather the riders' racing data with his E-10000 robots to create the ultimate Extreme Gear which he could use for his own agenda. Eggman then challenging Wave and the others to a race, but lost, and Wave mocked the doctor's inability to determine the problem, before dismissing Storm's suggestion to take the racing data, finding it useless. Metal Sonic then revealed himself as the one controlling E-10000B and passing fake data to Eggman, while taking the real data himself in an effort to beat Sonic on Extreme Gear.

Wave and the others then saw Sonic and Metal Sonic square off in a rival race to the finish, with Sonic winning. As the World Grand Prix came to a close and it was revealed the prizes were fake, Wave was upset about leaving the competition empty-handed since it would kill the Babylon Rogues' reputation.

Personality
Because of her knowledge, Wave is brimming with self-confidence. She is very arrogant about her expertise at constructing any type of Extreme Gear, certain that no one can match her in the field of Extreme Gear mechanics. She is a super achiever and holds very high standards for how Extreme Gears should be and never hesitates to dismiss others Extreme Gear. She takes great pride in her skills and is passionate about her profession, becoming indignant when someone insults or blames her work for their own failures. She has a keen eye for detail, takes notice of everything and hates thick-headed and stupid people. Also, she tends to give advice understandable to only herself and not others.

Wave often refuses to admit others' talents with Extreme Gear mechanics due to her dislike of anyone who could rival her. She often hold back on her compliments and will either continue to dismiss or deny that the person has any skill at all to cover up any sense of generous gesture she may hold. In the cases she does give compliments, she will disguise them as insults. It is only in the rarest of cases that Wave gives well-meant compliments.

While generally fun-loving like the rest of the Babylon Rogues, Wave is very level-headed and serve as the voice of reason amongst her group, often lecturing Jet and Storm of their responsibilities. Because her teammates' unreliability, Wave believes that she has to take change of the team if anything is to get done. She is very serious on a job, staying dedicated to the task at hand and insists on no lack of dedication. When things do not go as planned, however, she tends to get impatient. Also, she can also be quite stubborn and obstinated when making a decision.

Wave is usually rude, and has a sly attitude and snide sense humor. Being the most outgoing of the Babylon Rogues, Wave has no problem insulting others and mock others' Extreme Gear. She will also take complements or conversations from others and twist them around so that she can throw them back at others as a snide comment. Also, in races, Wave finds fun in insulting and degrading her opponents' skills.

When it comes to accomplishing her teams' goal, Wave is perfectly willing to cheat in official competitions, such as sabotaging Sonic's Extreme Gear in Sonic Riders and Sonic Free Riders, even without Jet knowing it. Likewise, she will gladly take whatever beneficial chance that might present itself, such as taking the Key to Babylon Garden on behalf of Jet when Sonic returned it, despite Jet refusing.

Wave also has a great deal of greedy love for money and treasure, and her primary motive in life is to acquire as much wealth as possible, which was the sole reason she willingly competed in the World Grand Prix in Sonic Riders and Sonic Free Riders.

Mechanical Skills and Intelligence
Easily the most intelligent of the current generation of Babylon Rogues, Wave is very knowledgeable and a superb mechanic. Her specialty lies in the field of Extreme Gear mechanics, and is presumably the foremost Extreme Gear expert in the world. Described as a really brilliant mecha mechanic, Wave is a mechanical genius, gifted in craft of Extreme Gear mechanics, and has advanced mechanical knowledge and experience about tuning, building and the workings of Extreme Gear that far surpasses that of both Tails and Dr. Eggman.

Besides Extreme Gear, Wave is also well-versed in other types of mechanics and technologies, being able to fix many things and shows well-above general knowledge of the functions and operations of different technology, such as microchip-sized diaries, MeteorTech's signal network, explosives, and even the Babylonians' technology. Additionally, Wave is also quite intelligent in the field of science and physics, being able to analyze and understand the scientific concepts of the Arks of the Cosmos. She also has knowledge about how to decipher the ancient texts written by the Babylonians.

Extreme Gear Skills
As a member of the Babylon Rouges, Wave is a highly adept Extreme Gear rider, and is presumably one of the best Extreme Gear riders in the world, having been acknowledged as a legendary wind master. When riding on an Extreme Gear, Wave can move expertly at high speeds, perform both complex and impressive tricks and body movements while in mid-air, and engage in combat with other Extreme Gear riders while riding her own Extreme Gear and not lose control. She is also able to ride her Extreme Gear through mid-air with great precisions and control over her movements.

Miscellaneous Skills
Aside from her intelligence and Extreme Gear skills, Wave is a talented and professional thief. Having pulled off many successful heists and escaped captured from the authorities, Wave is a skilled thief and talented with slight of hand.

While not having been shown fighting in direct hand-to-hand combat, Wave is skilled at utilizing various types of gadgets and tools efficiently in combat, ranging from using giant wrench/spanners as clubs to planting small explosives on her opponents.

Type-W
Wave's main choice of equipment is her Type-W Extreme Gear. The Type-W is a Board type flight-based Extreme Gear, constructed by Wave herself, which is meant for flight at high altitude. Thanks to Wave's Extreme Gear mechanics expertise, the Type-W is a highly advanced piece of technology with an ultra-compact body that contains high-standard mechanics.

Combat Equipment
When engaged in combat, Wave preferred choice of weapon is a large wrench/spanner that she uses skillfully as a club in melee combat to whacks her foes. However, she also uses small packs of dynamite and other explosives that she plants on her opponents and then detonates for maximum damage.

Archie Comics
In the Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic books and its spin-off comics, Wave was a member of the Battle Bird Armada, but was put in brig when she tried to modify Dr. Fukurokov's engines. She was eventually freed by Jet the Hawk, alongside Storm the Albatross, and together they formed the Babylon Rogues and intended to obtain glory by finding the fabled Babylon Garden before the Battle Bird Armada.

After deflecting from the Battle Bird Armada, Wave and her team were employed by Dr. Eggman to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog, but failed. Following that, Wave and her team attempted to steal one of the Sol Emeralds when it showed up on Mobius, but she made her team retreat. Eventually, Wave and her team discovered the means of finding Babylon Garden, but were forced to rejoin the Battle Bird Armada. After finding Babylon Garden, Wave and her allies were stopped in their efforts by Sonic, who destroyed Babylon Garden.

Jet the Hawk
Wave views Jet as an unreliable younger brother, but regardless, she does respect his role as leader and follows his leadership.

Unlike Storm, Wave would not be bothered if she would call her leader, Jet, by his name. She is the creator of Type-J and always does whatever Jet tells her to do. She seems annoyed when Jet told her that her speeches are boring. However, despite almost always listening to Jet, she says in Sonic Riders, "Unless I take charge, nothing ever gets done here!". In Sonic Free Riders, she acts much more loyal towards Jet when she shows concern for his disapproval of Team Dark, telling him that he should just ignore them. Also, in one cutscene, she slightly bows towards Jet, approving of his riding skills. Despite this attitude change, she lies to him in the game. In the Babylon Story, before Jet was about to race Sonic, he told Wave not to cheat by doing "something" to Sonic's Extreme Gear. Wave tells him that she did not do anything to his gear, and they race. Suspiciously, Jet won, much to his concern, and found out that Wave did mess up Sonic's gear. Wave apologized and claimed herself guilty, while Sonic and Jet were ready for their rematch without Wave cheating.

Storm the Albatross
Storm and Wave are friends, but the two seem to get into small arguments, much to Jet's annoyance. When Storm lost against Knuckles, he complained to Wave and Jet that he must have cheated. Wave then thought he was criticizing how she built his Extreme Gear, which angered her and caused her to shout "What!? Are you implying that you lost because of MY Gear!!? No one can tune a Gear the way I can!!! Accept it, buddy! It's not the board. Your skills just suck!". Storm, feeling shocked and disheartened by this, repeated "Wh-wh-what?! Su...S...S...Suck!?" to which Wave replied; "Yes. 'S-U-C-K. Suck."

Miles "Tails" Prower
Wave and Tails are rivals at inventing, since they are both intelligent. In Sonic Riders, Wave was impressed by Tails' inventions but couldn't admit it; when she examined the custom Extreme Gear Tails had created for Sonic, she privately noted that it was 'not half bad, for an amateur...', but out loud she insulted it instead, saying that he had made "a piece of junk". She also teased Tails by calling him "shorty". In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the two did not seem to rival each other at anything. When Wave was injured by the robots in the game, Tails was seen trying to help her get up. In Sonic Free Riders, she called him "shrimp" instead. Once again, they did not talk much or show much rivalry until one scene, when Tails examined the Extreme Gear she made and commented,  Your Gear is still as amazing as ever, Wave...". Wave ungratefully replied, "Is that supposed to be sarcasm, shrimp?"'', much to Tails' dismay, and he told her that he actually meant it. Wave and Tails have not spoken to each other since.

Friends/Allies

 * Jet the Hawk
 * Storm the Albatross

Rivals

 * Miles "Tails" Prower (Arch-rival)
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Rouge the Bat

Quotes

 * "You think you could win with that board?" - Wave before starting a race.
 * "This isn't half bad for an amateur." - Wave's thoughts on the Blue Star.
 * "Man you really are worthless!" Wave to Storm when following him into Jet's room after Storm barged into the room.
 * "What! Are you implying that you lost because of my Gear?!" - Wave hearing Storm blame his defeat on her Extreme Gear.
 * "Really, Jet! How can you be so relaxed at a time like this? Don't you see? As a leader, you've got responsibilities." - Wave complaining on Jet being lazy and not taking the leadership seriously.
 * "Unless I take charge, nothing ever gets down here." - Wave noticing that Jet left her.
 * "Wha-? Are you crazy? If they don't want it, then let's take it. Treasure is treasure." - Wave shocked at Jet rejecting the Key to Babylon from Sonic.
 * "Long time, no see, Shorty." - Wave meeting Tails in MeteorTech.
 * "And just exactly what's wrong with being it for the treasure, hmm?" - Wave about competing for the prize of the World Grand Prix in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "Wow, tripped over a monosyllabic word, Storm. Good for you..." - Wave on Storm's mistake of using the word 'food' instead of 'fued' in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "Is that supposed to be sarcasm, shrimp?" - Wave in response to Tails' compliment in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "If that was the result of your best efforts, this next race is going to be a disappointment." - Wave's comment on Tails's research on Extreme Gear.
 * "Don't expect to catch up to my level of expertise, but hey... Knock yourself out, shrimp." - Wave to Tails after defeating Team Heroes.
 * "It's bad luck. It HAS to be bad luck." - Wave after losing to Team Rose in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "You call yourself a genius and you can't identify the problem?" - Wave taunting Dr. Eggman after he lost his race in Sonic Free Riders.

Trivia

 * Wave is the only female member of the Babylon Rogues.
 * Even though her 2D art shows her hair with a dark part, this is nowhere to be found in her 3D art, but it can be seen in her Sonic Free Riders artwork.
 * An odd trait that Wave has is her curved beak. However, her species have straight beaks.
 * Her beak also has nostrils in her 2D artwork, as is the case for Jet and Storm.
 * When Wave is scolding Jet about his responsibilities in Sonic Riders, she starts speaking quickly, to the comical point where her speech is sped up. When the scene is slowed down, it is revealed that she is speaking with her Japanese voice in the English version.
 * Both her English and Japanese voice actresses play Sakura Haruno in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden as of 2010.
 * Wave seems to be more loyal to Jet in Sonic Free Riders than in the first and second Riders games, possibly due to the fact that Jet has noticeably matured.
 * Wave makes a cameo appearance in Speed Highway in Sonic Generations.
 * Wave is shown to be very competitive and can't stand losing almost as much as Jet. However, she usually uses some dirty trick to sabotage Sonic and his friends.
 * On Wave's Sonic Riders series 2D artwork the flames on her wrist are dark purple however on her Sonic Channel and 3D artwork the flames are pink or lavender.
 * Wave is the only female bird character in the games.
 * Wave (as well as Storm) has yet to appear playable in games outside the Sonic Riders series.