- For other uses, see Team Dark (disambiguation).
Team Dark (チームダーク Chīmu Dāku?) is a group that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a team that was founded by Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega, all of whom joined forces to track down their common target: Dr. Eggman. Eventually meeting up with Team Sonic, Team Rose and Team Chaotix, the trio assisted in the defeat of the rogue Metal Sonic. Consisting of highly powerful and fearsome individuals in their own right, Team Dark is a force to be reckoned with and has often appeared to contend with some of the world's greatest threats and champions.
History[]
Sonic Heroes[]
In Sonic Heroes, Rouge broke into one of Dr. Eggman's bases in search of his secret treasure. There, she found a stasis capsule and activated it. Unbeknownst to her, E-123 Omega was activated and slowly advanced toward Rouge and the capsule. Meanwhile, Rouge was shocked to find Shadow, who was presumed dead after the events on the Space Colony ARK, inside the pod. As Shadow awakened, Omega began attacking Shadow, believing him to be an Eggman robot. After saving Rouge from the spray of bullets, Shadow engaged Omega. Before things could escalate further though, Rouge stepped in to break up the fighting. Afterward, Rouge was able to piece together the whole story: Omega was mad at his creator for decommissioning and imprisoning him and now wanted to take revenge by destroying all Eggman's machinery, and Shadow had lost all his memories prior to his release from the stasis capsule. Seeing that their common target was Eggman, who had what they each wanted, Rouge had the trio form Team Dark so they could look for Eggman together.
Shortly after starting their search, Team Dark found Eggman and his Egg Hawk. Although they defeated the Egg Hawk, Eggman got away. Pursuing Eggman to Grand Metropolis with renewed resolve, the team crushed the opposition in the city and escaped its Power Plant. Afterward, they met Team Chaotix, who they engaged in battle over an assumption Rouge made about them. After the fight, the three arrived in the casino area where they met Eggman again. Shadow asked Eggman about his past, but Eggman remarked that he had "no past to remember". Overcoming Eggman's horde of robots, the trio continued their pursuit and headed to his base at Bullet Station. After destroying it, the three faced the doctor and his Egg Albatross. Upon beating him however, the trio saw that the Eggman they had been chasing was a fake, much to Omega's fury. Furthermore, they found the remains of a Shadow Android, making them question whether Shadow was the genuine article or merely a replica. Continuing their hunt, the trio eventually came across Team Sonic and fought them to see which one of them got to go after Eggman. Afterward, the trio continued their hunt through a spooky castle mansion before coming across the doctor again. After overcoming another one of his robot swarms, the trio ventured to his headquarters among the Egg Fleet where they defeated him and his Egg Emperor. With Eggman seemingly destroyed, Omega considered his mission complete. Soon after, Rouge went looking for Eggman's treasure, only to find a warehouse full of Shadow Androids. As Omega prepared to destroy the warehouse, he reassured Rouge, who did not know if Shadow was real or not, that Eggman needed the original Shadow to make the Shadow Androids.
Not long after, the trio (along with Teams Sonic, Chaotix and Rose) united to see Neo Metal Sonic reveal himself. As it turned out, Neo Metal Sonic, who had been impersonating Eggman, had been the mastermind staging the teams' adventures so he could copy their data for a plan to conquer the world himself. As Neo Metal Sonic transformed into Metal Madness, the real Eggman saw the teams had collected all the Chaos Emeralds and got the idea of using the Emeralds against Metal Sonic. The teams then volunteered to stall Metal Madness with the others while Team Sonic prepared the Chaos Emeralds. Despite their efforts, Metal Madness transformed into Metal Overlord, but a super transformed Team Sonic then arrived and defeated him. Afterward, the trio split up, with Rouge deciding to go after the Master Emerald, and Shadow and Omega staying behind with an inert Metal Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)[]
Sonic Free Riders[]
In Sonic Free Riders, Shadow and Rouge appeared to take part in the second World Grand Prix hosted by a disguised Dr. Eggman as Team Dark. However, both members cared little for the competition: Rouge was only interested in the Grand Prix's large cash prize and Shadow's only interest was testing his racing skills.
Disregarding formalities, Shadow and Rouge arrived 15 minutes late to the opening ceremony. As the team got ready to compete however, Omochao told them that they needed a third member for their team to be eligible for participation. Despite feeling that another member was unnecessary, Team Dark picked a random E-10000B from the street. Having a full team now, the group got ready to face Team Babylon in the first round. Although their opponents mocked them, the trio held their own against them, prompting a lot of trash talk. After beating Team Babylon, Team Dark advanced to the next round, where Team Heroes awaited. During the races though, E-10000B began to overheat. Dismissing E-10000B's need for a rest, Rouge and Shadow kept competing, much to the disgust of Team Heroes. Regardless, the trio beat the heroes. Just as the trio thought they could claim the prize, Omochao reminded them that they still had to face Team Rose in the finals. Between the races however, E-10000B started to overheat even more. Ignoring him, Rouge and Shadow pressed on. After the decisive race however, E-10000B broke down, which, according to the rules, cost Team Dark their victory. Fortunately, the trio were permitted a rematch with Team Rose as they were. As such, while 10000B was taken away to be repaired, Rouge and Shadow beat Team Rose. However, they were forced to wait for the awards ceremony before collecting their prize.
During the extra rounds, the trio had their own fair share of defeats too. At the end of the tournament, the team and the others came to the awards ceremony to collect their prizes, but Eggman made them have a final race against his "ultimate Gear-Jockey robot." After the race, Eggman revealed he had used the Grand Prix to collect everyone's racing data with his E-10000 robots to create the ultimate Extreme Gear for him to use. Eggman subsequently challenged the team and the others to a race. After the teams beat Eggman, Metal Sonic revealed himself as the one controlling E-10000B, and it was discovered that Metal Sonic had given Eggman fake data so he could use the real data to beat Sonic in Extreme Gear riding. After Sonic defeated Metal Sonic in a race though, it was revealed that Eggman never had a prize to give out. However, Rouge and Shadow were hardly surprised by this turn of events.
Sonic Forces[]
In Sonic Forces, Team Dark were on a reconnaissance mission regarding Dr. Eggman's new base of operations. Omega, however, soon stormed the base, recklessly destroying the doctor's minions and ignoring Rouge's request to wait for back-up from Shadow. Soon after, Omega came across Infinite, who he deemed an interference in his mission. Rouge had picked up transmissions from Omega concerning his fight but soon lost all contact with him. Due to this, Shadow immediately rushed to the base to try and find Omega at his last recorded coordinates.[2] Shadow was unable to find Omega, however, and only barely escaped his subsequent encounter with Infinite.
For the next seven months, the trio remained apart. Rouge in particular joined the Resistance in their war against the Eggman Empire, and a heavily damaged and inoperable Omega was eventually discovered by Tails, who tried to repair him until he got interrupted by a Phantom Chaos. During the last days of the Resistance-Eggman Empire war, Shadow joined the Resistance as well after saving Sonic from a Phantom Copy of himself. Later, during the battle at the Eggman Empire Fortress, the trio was reunited when a fully functional Omega joined the Resistance's side in the fight. The trio proceeded to fight the Eggman Empire's army of Phantom Copies alongside the Resistance until the source of the Phantom Copies, made by a ruby, was neutralized by both Sonics and the Rookie. With the war over, the trio met up with the other members of the Resistance in Resistance HQ, where Knuckles announced the disbandment of the Resistance.
Team Sonic Racing[]
In Team Sonic Racing, Team Dark joined Dodon Pa's Grand Prix alongside Dr. Eggman and his team. However, the team's true intentions for joining the Grand Prix were to investigate Dr. Eggman's intentions.[3] In that Grand Prix awaited opponents like Team Sonic, Team Rose and Team Vector. For the races, the trio received the Dark Reaper, Lip Spyder and Cross Dozer to race in.
During a race between Teams Dark and Sonic, they worked on getting the upper hand on one another, with Omega and Rouge being busy dealing with Tails and Knuckles, while Shadow took the lead and went head-to-head with Sonic. During the race however, Eggman intruded on the teams' race in order to compete against them on his own as a "special guest" (which Dodon Pa permitted despite knowing it was a lie). After Eggman began gaining the lead, Rouge suggested that their teams put aside their feud in order to deal with Eggman, which Team Sonic accepted. Following Team Sonic's example, the trio executed the Slingshot on Shadow, thus allowing him to pass Eggman alongside Sonic. Rouge and Omega then joined forces with Tails, Knuckles, Team Vector and Team Rose. Together, they surrounded Eggman on the racetrack before delivering a massive beatdown on the doctor with their combined Wisp power-ups. However, Dodon Pa was too busy watching Eggman's beating to see which one between Sonic and Shadow crossed the finish line first. As such, the two hedgehogs decided to have a rematch.[4]
Eventually, Shadow met Sonic, who wanted to know if he was working with Eggman. Shadow replied grimly that he was only in the Grand Prix to stop Eggman's plans. However, as the two hedgehogs' egos clashed, Shadow and Sonic would challenge each other to a race. Afterward, they agreed to watch out for both Dodon Pa, whose motivations for hosting the Grand Prix was a mystery, and Eggman. In the meantime, Rouge had learned that Dodon Pa and Eggman were seemingly working together. As such, she told Sonic and Shadow after their race of what she had learned and that Dodon Pa was not to be trusted, though the rivals were more concerned with beating each other. Upon hearing this, Omega suggested eliminating both Eggman and Dodon Pa. A couple of races later, Eggman sent hundreds of Eggpawns after the racers. However, the trio quickly defeated the robots with the aid of the other teams. Afterward, Omega looked forward to eliminating more Eggpawns, as Eggman would confirm that those were just the beginning. When Omochao later discovered that Dodon Pa was sending information on the teams' teamwork to an unknown receiver, Rouge speculated that the receiver was Eggman. She subsequently calmed an angry Knuckles down when he thought about bailing on the Grand Prix.
Later, it was revealed that Dodon Pa was not malevolent and actually the President of Donpa Motors. Rouge would then ask Dodon Pa of why he was holding the Grand Prix and why he invited everyone so secretly. Dodon Pa explained that he was using the Grand Prix to gather information for his corporation's top secret Ultimate Energy Engine, which Dodon Pa wanted to use for philanthropic purposes. Still, Rouge wondered why he wanted them to race for him, and not his employees. Dodon Pa explained in return that he wanted the best racers to produce the data he needed (hence Rouge and her friends). Along the way, Rouge also got Dodon Pa to tell about his hidden treasures, which she planned to steal in the future. Still, there was the matter of finishing the Ultimate Energy Engine, which Rouge knew meant racing some more. Their conflict with Dodon Pa now resolved, Shadow came to Sonic to remind him that they still had Eggman to worry about.
Soon after, the heroes learned from Big that Eggman had kidnapped Dodon Pa and brought him to the Final Fortress. Wanting to rescue Dodon Pa, Team Dark and co. went to the Final Fortress. There, Eggman had them compete in a number of races with Team Eggman and his army of Eggpawns in exchange for Dodon Pa, not knowing Eggman was using them to gather the Ultimate Team Energy needed to finish the Ultimate Energy Engine. Once the engine was complete, Eggman stole it from Dodon Pa and incorporated it into his Death Egg. Team Dark and their allies subsequently faced the Death Egg and beat it in a race. However, the Death Egg soon after went crazy and drove into the Final Fortress's core. As the Final Fortress crashed, Team Dark were forced to abandon their cars and evacuate the airship while Team Sonic saved Dodon Pa. Down on the ground, Team Dark were reunited with Team Sonic when they arrived with Dodon Pa. Just as the Grand Prix seemed over since the cars had been destroyed when the Final Fortress crashed, Dodon Pa decided to give everyone new cars, thus allowing Team Dark and their comrades to race once more.
Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings[]
Shadow is launching an assault on Eggman's robots at Pyramid Cave. His goal is to reach a spacecraft that will take him to the ARK, as he suspects the Black Arms may have returned. He coincidentally runs into Rouge, who's gathering intel for G.U.N., alongside backup being provided by E-123 Omega. Rouge tells him that this is only a supply depot, but after defeating a giant Egg Breaker, she tells Shadow that she can take him to a spacecraft. In return, she makes him promise to attend Sonic's birthday party. As the episode ends, she teasingly asks if he's interested in raiding a G.U.N. base.
IDW Publishing[]
Other game appearances[]
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood[]
In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, the trio were slowly recruited by Sonic's party, who were out on a mission to stop the Nocturnus Clan, a group of echidnas exiled to the Twilight Cage 4,000 years ago, from achieving world domination after they had stolen the Chaos Emeralds; Rouge joined Sonic's party on behalf of GUN; Shadow joined the party after they agreed to help him find Omega, who had gone missing; and Omega joined the group at the request of his teammates after they found him in Metropolis and repaired him from the damage the Nocturnus Clan's robots had dealt to him.
Eventually, Team Dark and their allies made it to Angel Island where they assisted Sonic with his attempt to stop the Nocturnus Clan's leader, Imperator Ix, from stealing the Master Emerald. Despite their efforts though, Ix got away with the Emerald and used it to create a wormhole into Sonic’s dimension so the Nocturnus Clan could conquer it.
Having survived Angel Island's subsequent fall, the trio and their allies came up with the plan of following Ix into the Twilight Cage and reclaimed the Emeralds to stop him. Using the Blue Cyclone, Tails and Eggman created for this purpose, Team Dark and their comrades traveled into the Twilight Cage while Eggman remained behind to watch the wormhole. Inside the Twilight Cage, the team and their allies got five of the Chaos Emeralds back and forged alliances with the local alien races. When they prepared to infiltrate Nocturne to find the last Emeralds, the group was able to enter this stronghold with help from their alien allies. Once they arrived on Nocturne, the group got the last Chaos Emeralds back and Team Dark participated in the final battle against Ix while Knuckles got the Master Emerald back. After Sonic defeated Ix, he started to close the wormhole out of the Twilight Cage, but Team Dark and the others got through it just in time. When they returned home however, Team Dark and their allies saw that much time had passed, thus allowing Eggman to build up his forces, which they faced upon exit from the Twilight Cage.
Equipment[]
- Black Shot: Shadow's personal Extreme Gear from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity onwards, designed by Accevice Corp. and later redesigned by Accelovice.
- Cross Dozer: E-123 Omega's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
- Darkness: Shadow's default Extreme Gear in Sonic Riders.
- Dark Reaper: Shadow's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
- E-Gear: E-10000B's personal Extreme Gear, designed by Dr. Eggman.
- Lip Spyder: Rouge the Bat's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
- Temptation: Rouge's personal Extreme Gear, originally designed by Robotnik Corp., later redesigned by Accevice Corp. and Accelovice.
In other media[]
Animation[]
TailsTube[]
In Surprise Gift Exchange Bonanza, The Team is invited to exchange Christmas gifts. Shadow would leave, but return to get a scarf from Tails.[5]
Books and comics[]
Archie Comics[]
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the trio is a small, surgical strike force in the greater G.U.N. military. In the original continuity. It was formed to retrieve a Chaos Emerald from Feist in the Special Zone. The team was highly unorthodox in that it was comprised of traditional enemies of the humans and Overlanders - namely two Mobians and an advanced Badnik. The trio handled missions that were beyond the scope of traditional G.U.N. soldiers or weapons. Its three members could do the work of twenty heavily-supported skilled soldiers or more. The name of the team was two-fold, in part referring to the shady pasts and dealings of each member, and in part referring to the nature of many of their missions. Most of their actions were to go to unknown to the world at large, and were often under this directive: "Do whatever it takes."
After the events of Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide, the trio's past became virtually identical to its game counterpart, although the team itself remained a close affiliate of G.U.N.
Theme songs[]
Trivia[]
- Team Dark is the only team in Sonic Heroes to have an inorganic member.
- It is the only team in Sonic Heroes that is not named in-game by one of its members.
- This is the only Sonic Heroes team whose leader is a Fly Type, this being Rouge.
- Since his debut, Omega has only been featured in games in which Shadow appears.
- An unused taunt from Neo Metal Sonic (disguised as Dr. Eggman) in Sonic Heroes has him claiming, "Without me, Team Dark is nothing but a bunch of buffoons!"[6] This may imply that the team in Sonic Adventure 2 is considered to be the original iteration of Team Dark.
References[]
- ↑ Team Sonic Racing (PC) English digital instruction booklet, "Team Dark."
- ↑ Sonic Forces: Looming Shadow, "Looming Shadow"
- ↑ 【特別企画】『チームソニックレーシング』レーサー直撃インタビュー! その3「チーム ダーク」 (Japanese). Characters. Sega. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved on 7 May 2019.
- ↑ Team Sonic Racing One-shot, "Team Sonic Racing One-Shot"
- ↑ TailsTube No. 6 (Surprise Gift Exchange Bonanza)
- ↑ Sonic Heroes Unused Voice Clips, Retrieved on 9 January 2023.