Scratch and Grounder are a pair of fictional badnik robots created by Dr. Robotnik as adversaries of Sonic the Hedgehog in the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. They form the greater part of Robotnik's "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" (often abbreviated to SSSSS Squad and, occasionally, 6-S).
Scratch and Grounder are largely comic relief characters, as is this incarnation of Robotnik himself, and though charged with the capture of Sonic and his friend Tails, they almost always fail. Not only this, but the two are also highly gullible, easily being deceived by Sonic no matter how bizarre his disguises. These repeated failures frequently result in the two hapless robots receiving a lot of abuse (both verbal and physical) from Robotnik.
Scratch and Grounder were supposed to be created as geniuses but as one can see, that ended up being far from the case. The truth is that if Grounder and Scratch didn't have their brains bolted in, they would have lost them long ago. Although both robots have shown intelligence, they show even more so that they are very repetitive. They reuse many types of traps including holes, giant traps resembling bear-traps and mouse-traps, and disguised objects. Most often, these plots end up hurting themselves.
There is a definite show in class. Although Scratch and Grounder work on the same levels, Scratch seems to act as a superior. He comes up with the majority of their small plots and delegates most of what they do. Grounder acts more as the second-in-command doing the work of he tool and fixing things. However it just is that most of the time they bicker like two brothers.
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.
left to right: Coconuts, Scratch, and Grounder listen for the sound of Sonic in pain
Scratch resembles a large, humanoid chicken (similar to Clucker, one of the badniks in the Wing Fortress Zone of Sonic 2). He is distinctified by his prominent laugh, "Ba-Ha-ha-ha!" Scratch later appeared in a special stage of Sonic Spinball.
Grounder is a small green machine with tank tracks, as well as drills instead of his hands and nose. These drills can be unscrewed and/or replaced with other useful tools, such as grappling claws or helicopter blades. Grounder's design was purposefully derived from several different badnik characters from early Sonic games, especially a badnik of the same name from Sonic 2's Aquatic Ruin Zone, though their color schemes were different and they attacked by bursting out of walls or from the ground.
Grounder is a sort of "clone" of Scratch. While being created by Robotnik in the cartoon, Scratch has his feather plucked and put into a cloner. He looks different because Scratch pulled a lever that wasn't supposed to be pulled during the process (when Robotnik chastises him for it, he responds "Well, how was I to know? I was just hatched!"). When he sees the copy of himself, he immediately asks Robotnik "Am I THAT ugly?" resulting in a small argument between the duo.
The two were occasionally aided by a robot monkey named Coconuts (also from Sonic 2), although most of the time, he would be competing with them rather than helping them, in hopes of being promoted out of janitor status. All three of them appeared as opponents in the game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was a clone of Puyo Puyo.