- Not to be confused with the Space Colony ARK.
The Arks of the Cosmos (星の聖櫃 Hoshi no Seihitsu?, lit. "Ark of the Stars") are objects that appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They are five ancient, ring-shaped metallic stones created by the Babylonians that allow the user to manipulate gravity. The Arks play a major role in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, where they are discovered around the world by individuals including Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet the Hawk, and Dr. Eggman.
Description[]
Powers and traits[]
The Arks of the Cosmos possess a magnetic field that allows them to take a mass' energy, or gravity, and convert it into other forms of energy, making them a powerful energy source. This also allows them to manipulate gravity, making it possible for the wielders of the Arks to either negate gravity or create bursts of gravity that can repel obstacles at will.
Wave explaining the relation of all five Arks of the Cosmos.
The Arks of the Cosmos possess a powerful program that draws them to one another for the purpose of returning them to Babylon Garden. Once all five Arks of the Cosmos are brought together, their resonance can call Babylon Garden. For this purpose, one of the Arks of the Cosmos serve as the Master Unit while the four others attract each other and serve under it. The potency of this program was demonstrated when the Master Unit was inserted in MeteoTech's computer; once all the Arks of the Cosmos were back on the earth, the Arks' program took control of the network and ordered all the robots connected to it to collect the Arks of the Cosmos.
In gameplay, any characters who do not possess an Ark of the Cosmos at any point in the story instead wear similar rings with identical gravity abilities, and one of four possible designs. These additional Arks are non-canon, as there are only five in the story.
History[]
Past[]
Much of the Arks of the Cosmos' history are shrouded in mystery. Apparently, they were created by the ancient Babylonians to be power units that could utilize the power of a black hole to power the warp drive of a spaceship called Astral Babylon, which would later become Babylon Garden.
When the ancient Babylonians approached Sonic's world in the distant past, they discovered that they could not control the Arks of the Cosmos and that their power was about to create a black hole. In order to prevent this, the ancient Babylonians disconnected the Arks of the Cosmos from Astral Babylon and sent them into orbit of Sonic's world, leaving them stranded there as a result.
The Arks of the Cosmos then remained in orbit of Sonic's world for an unknown amount of time until eventually falling down on their own, but at different points in time. Two of them fell down during the time of the Babylonian, who hid them at Gigan Rocks and Crimson Crater, and when another one appeared, it became at part of Monopole's museum exhibit. Dr. Eggman later found the one in Crimson Crater and used it as a power source in MeteoTech's mother computer.
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity[]
When the Ark of the Cosmos fell into Sonic's world and activated the robots
The last two Arks of the Cosmos fell down during the beginning of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, one at Crimson Tower, which came into the possession of SCR-HD, and the other to Tails who passed it on to Sonic. Due to an unknown program inside of the Arks of Cosmos, they took control of the MeteoTech network and drove SCR-HD and the SCR-GP robots to go on a rampage and search out the other Arks of the Cosmos and return them to Babylon Garden. Once they learn of this, Team Sonic try to reclaim the Arks of the Cosmos to stop the global robot rampage, while Jet and the Babylon Rogues are hunting them to become the fastest Extreme Gear riders in the world.
Eventually all five Arks of the Cosmos were brought together, and they called Babylon Garden to them. Sonic then gives his Arks of the Cosmos to the Babylon Rogues, but then SCR-HD (barely functional) appears, takes all five Arks of the Cosmos from Wave, and takes them back to Babylon Garden. When he got there, the core of Babylon Garden reacts with the Arks of the Cosmos and creates a black hole, and SCR-HD becomes Master Core: ABIS. Sonic and the others have to fight him to prevent the black hole from consuming the planet. Because Sonic and friends no longer have any of the Arks of the Cosmos, ABIS controls gravity, but they manage to use it against him and defeat him. It is unknown what happened to the Arks after the fight, but it is believed that they were restored to Babylon Garden, allowing it flight once again.
Trivia[]
- Each playable character that holds an Ark of the Cosmos has it by their color; Sonic has the blue Ark, Jet has the green Ark, Amy has the pink striped Ark, Storm and SCR-HD fight over the grey and purple Ark, and Eggman has the Master Unit, which is colored yellow.
- With some exceptions, all of the characters wear their Ark of the Cosmos bands on different parts of their body:
- Both Sonic and Eggman wear their Ark of the Cosmos on their left wrists.
- Jet wears his Ark of the Cosmos on his right wrist.
- Amy wears her Ark of the Cosmos as a pendant.
- Storm bears his Ark of the Cosmos on his finger like a ring.
- SCR-HD has his Ark of the Cosmos inside of him.
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
