Verti-Cal

Verti-Cal,^[2] or just Cal^[3] for short, is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. He is a Zone-Imp^[1] who lived in the Unknown Zone with Horizont-Al until he was imprisoned in the Zone Jail.

Appearance

Verti-Cal is a lanky, humanoid zone-imp with connected eyeballs, green eyes (which were formerly black), and a small tuft of sprout-cut, blonde hair on his head (which was formerly black). For attire, he originally wore a pair of purple boots, a purple shirt with two white vertically facing arrows on it, a pair of red, green, and yellow striped pants, and a green, red, and yellow striped hat. Following his imprisonment in the Zone Jail, he would replace his shirt and pants with an orange jumpsuit. In his mechanical form, Al is much more tall and metallic, possessing a gray spiked body with a large wheel in place of legs, blue "eyes", and two laser cannons for arms.^[1][4][5][3]

History

Vertigo A´ Go-Go!

Verti-Cal originally lived in the Unknown Zone with his friend Horizont-Al. When Sonic was teleported to their Zone by a group of Power Rings, Cal and Al greeted him, despite the hedgehog initially mistaking them for minions of Robotnik. Cal and Al subsequently bid Sonic farewell when he was pushed out of the zone by its nonsensical physic.^[3] Some time later, Cal and Al would play a game of baseball with each other.^[6]

Opposites Detract

Following the activation of the Ultimate Annihilator, Cal and Al's Zone was decimated to a microscopic level by the omega wave, altering both of them in the process into mechanical demi-gods. Their new forms also caused the hostility between them to grow, with each blaming the other for allowing the Zone to be decimated. This culminated in Cal and Al constantly fighting each other with their powers. Eventually, Sonic and Tails were accidentally sucked into the Zone by a portal on Mobius, and were immediately stunned by a blast for Horizont-Al. Realizing their use, Cal and Al agreed to take control of Sonic and Tails' minds, outfit them with armor and weapons, and use them as pawns to fight their war for them, with Cal taking control of Sonic, and Al taking control of Tails respectively. Although the battle originally appeared evenly matched, Sonic gained the upper hand, and would have destroyed Tails for Cal, had he not broken Al's control by remembering his friendship with Tails. Sonic attempted to convince Cal and Al into living peacefully again, which they briefly considered, only to continue with their destructive war. Believing them to be a lost cause, Sonic and Tails left the Unknown Zone through the portal.^[2]

Inside Job

Cal and Al's war would eventually start damaging other zones, prompting the Zone Cops to hunt them down, and return them to their regular forms with Control Collars. Cal and Al would then be brought to the Zone Jail, where they were frequently beat up by the guards and other inmates there. Eventually, Scourge the Hedgehog was imprisoned in the Zone Jail, which led to the inmates bullying Cal and Al less in favor of him. Despite Scourge's hostility towards them, Cal and Al kept him company, and shared their meals with him to cheer him up. They would also help him back up after he was attacked by other inmates. Scourge would later stop Jeffrey St. Croix from abusing Cal and Al, but only as an excuse to beat him up, and not out of fondness for the duo. When Scourge and his Destructix opened all the cells in the Zone Jail, Cal and Al were brought to him by Predator Hawk, as Scourge had ordered. Scourge had Sergeant Simian destroy their Control Collars, despite them pleading him not to, transforming them back into their mechanical forms. Al and Cal then let out their pent-up rage over being abused by the guards and other inmates and went on a rampage through the prison, but were reverted to their normal forms by the Zone Cops' F.O.E. Inhibitors. Once again captured, Cal and Al begged Scourge not to leave them behind, as they had been some of the only prisoners that treated him kindly. However, Scourge cared nothing for them, and escaped through a Warp Ring with his team, abandoning them to their fate.^[4][7][8][5]

Personality

Normally, Verti-Cal is a cheerful, fun-loving individual who spent all his time playing games with Horizont-Al. Verti-Cal is kind and helpful to others, although he is also cowardly and slightly selfish, as he does not attempt helping others if doing so would put him in danger, claiming that he prefers to sympathize rather than needing to heal. Even when being attacked, Cal shows no hostility towards others. However, Cal features a split personality of sorts between his regular and robotic forms, as evidenced when he begged Scourge not to make him revert to that form by removing his Control Collar. In his robotic form, Cal is much more serious and grim, claiming that amusement is a concept he barely remembers. He also becomes extremely aggressive and vindictive, desiring to destroy anyone who has wronged him. In his robotic form, Cal possesses a lack of empathy, caring nothing for any innocent lives that could be lost in the crossfire of his war with Al, and putting Sonic and Tails under mind control and using them as pawns to settle his feud with Al. Cal’s robotic form is also very arrogant, boasting of his incredible power and claiming that all life forms besides him and Al are their “geometric inferiors”. However, Cal’s robotic form still possesses some restraint and sense of friendship, momentarily considering making peace with Al when persuaded by Sonic and Tails, though he decided against it, and later putting aside his grudge with Al and joining forces with him to get revenge on the Zone Jail guards and inmates who had abused them both, and not attacking Scourge when they went on their rampage.

Powers and abilities

Verti-Cal is nigh-omnipotent and possesses the ability to manipulate reality in his home zone, the Unknown Zone, though it is unknown if he can manipulate reality in other zones as well, but, considering that he and Al travelled to Mobius Prime at least on two occasions, it's very likely that he can. Cal’s control over reality allows him to manipulate laws of physics, such as creating a miniature tornado, manipulate gravity in a Zone with no such thing existing and manipulate matter, such as creating objects out of thin air, such as armor and a metal spear. He can also levitate in the air and put other beings under mind control, though strong-willed beings can break free from his control. Cal possesses an impressive healing factor, able to eventually regenerate his entire body from total annihilation via his Ethereal Essence. Cal can also shapeshift into a giant robot. In his robot form, Cal possesses great strength and durability due to his size and metallic body, able to harm Horizont-Al’s robot form with a punch and withstand being blasted by one of Horizont-Al’s energy beams.

Cal is a monstrously powerful being, mere side effects of his and Al's battle threatened existence of unknown amount of other Zones, which are entire universes, Cal’s robot form might be the result of Cal's body adaping to his destruction by Ultimate Annihilator, giving him a better protection, body also seem to evolve even further, as in Zone Jail he and Al reappear in far more detailed and menacing forms than what they appeared in before, indicating them getting stronger.

Verti-Cal is also stated to be Extra-dimensional, meaning he exists in 4 or 5 spatial dimensions compared to standard 3, which makes him infinitely superior to almost anything in lower dimensions, it is also consistent, considering that Mr. Mxyzptlk, character he is a parody to is also a being from a Higher Dimension.

Weaknesses

Cal becomes powerless if restrained by a Control Collar or F.O.E. Inhibitor.^[4][5]

Relationships

Friends/allies

• Destructix
  • Fiona Fox
  • Predator Hawk
  • Scourge the Hedgehog (to a degree)
  • Sergeant Simian
• Horizont-Al (best friend)

Neutral

• Knothole Freedom Fighters
  • Miles "Tails" Prower
  • Sonic the Hedgehog

Enemies

• Jeffrey St. Croix
• Zone Cops

Trivia

• Verti-Cal and Horizont-Al are both a nod to the character Mister Mxyzptlk from the Superman comics. Just like him, they are small, annoying creatures from a another dimension who resemble humans and display the power to warp reality. Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal being zone-imps and existing on higher dimension further references Mxyzptlk, who is called a fifth-dimensional imp.
• Cal and Al are first characters to appear in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series who are not based on a character from the games or the Sonic the Hedgehog television series.

References

External links

• Verti-Cal and Horizont-Al at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.