Scratch

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Scratch resembles a tall, lanky, roughly humanoid rooster or chicken with white feathers, scaled feet, wing-like arms, silver body armor, black collar and belt, a red rooster comb on top of his head, a red two-feathered tail, and a yellow beak and legs, similar to Cluckoids or Clucker (named コケッコー "Kokekko" in Japan), one of the enemy Badniks in the Wing Fortress Zone ofSonic 2. He is distinctified by his prominent cockadoodle-like laugh, "Ba-ha! Ha-ha!". Scratch seems to be the leader of the badniks, has an IQ of 40, and is marginally smarter than Grounder, making up for his lack of Grounder's assorted gadgets.

Abilities

Scratch does not have much in the way of abilities. Like a real rooster/chicken, Scratch is capable of pecking foes, with the pecking more reminiscent of a woodpecker. He also seems to have a telescopic neck which can extend and retract - his head often retracts into his torso to protect himself. He is also said to be the smartest of the badniks, but that isn't saying much considering how stupid they all are.

Like his counterpart Grounder, Scratch is amazingly stupid and fails at almost everything he does. One example of Scratch's stupidity is in the "Attack on Pinball Fortress" episode. Scratch accidentally gets zapped by Dr. Robotnik's Stupidity Ray, but Scratch does not change because he is already so stupid that he cannot be made any more stupid. However, also like Grounder, he is quite persistent and fairly durable - whenever either of them get damaged or blown to bits (which is very often), they can be repaired very easily and always come back for more. Robotnik himself wondered in one episode why he bothers to constantly repair them despite how much they fail.

Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts in their monster forms.

In the episode "Trail of the Missing Tails", Scratch, Grounder and Coconutsare temporarily transformed into giant monster versions of themselves. Scratch looks more like an ordinary chicken in this state, almost resembling Cluck, the mechanical chicken pet of Robotnik in the "SatAM" animated series. In this state, the robots are much bigger and stronger than normal, but it is unknown if they have any further new abilities.Scratch and Grounder also appeared in the earliest issues of the Sonic comic book published by Archie Comics. However, the characters themselves were prominently featured only in their first appearance there, published in issue #2. Subsequent appearances of the two were minor; their last appearance in the comic was part of a flashback in issue #57. However, Scratch appears in issue 4 (Tails' Little Tale) without Grounder and Grounder appears (without Scratch) in the story "Sonic Spin City!", published in Sonic Super Special #15. Recently in issue #187 Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts have all returned, now as employees of Mammoth Mogul who has taken over Casino Night Zone and employed the old badniks as workers. Scratch now serves as a body guard to Mogul, standing outside his office in a suit and tie, stopping anyone who attempts to disturb his new boss. Although he looks tough, Scratch's cowardliness is still present evidences by how he did allowed Geoffrey St. John to see Mogul out of sheer intimidation.