Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 257


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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 257 is the two hundred and fifty-seventh issue of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Official Solicitation
The "COUNTDOWN" is over, the "CHAOS" has just begun! "Damage Control": The shattered world is causing chaos everywhere, and Station Square is about to implode! Sonic and the Freedom Fighters must spring into action to save the day, unless someone beats them to the punch. Cue: Dr. Eggman. Will the evil doctor be the one to save the world? Or will his newfound power give him ultimate control? If the ending to issue 256 left you breathless, you cannot miss the next chapter in the ALL-NEW saga of Sonic's comic adventures! Featuring a special wrap-around cover by Rafa Knight and Variant art from Lamar Wells!

Story One
Damage Control

The story opens with the Freedom Fighters arriving in Station Square. They quickly separate into Team Freedom (Tails, Rotor and Big) to keep the unstable environment under control and Team Fighters (Amy, Bunnie and Antoine) to save every endangered citizen with Sonic as the leader of both factions and Sally as their mentor overseeing their efforts from the Sky Patrol through T-Pup and Omochao's receivers. At the Sky Patrol, Cream timidly claims that she should be there as well, but Sally says that her and Cheese are supposed to stay inside the Sky Patrol should she need assistance with anything. NICOLE appears in her Holo-Lynx form and Sally asks what she learned from the World Networks. Needless to say, things were going from bad to worse.

Meanwhile, Antoine and Bunnie have a serious conversation regarding their newfound split memories while helping Sonic and Amy in rescuing some waterlogged citizens while Team Freedom is able to save an elevator full of misfortunate Twinkle Park clients. Back on the Sky Patrol, Sally suggests that the teams use the sewer access to control the flooding. As she resumes her conversation with NICOLE, she learns that there isn't a single unaffected spot on the planet and that all of them are reporting mass chaos. Sally starts to question if she'll be really able to save everyone, to which Cream replies that she shouldn't take on all the burden alone. Sally claims that it is her responsibility due to her actions on the former reality as Eggman's mindless and soulless robotic slave and she has to make amends. NICOLE then comforts her and says she won't do this at this direst moment, stating that, even if they're confused and distraught over the dual memories, they have to manage this darkest crisis. To do so, they need her to organize and direct them. NICOLE adds that there's nobody else to mentor a single one of them better than her, reminding her that she inspired Dulcy and helped Lupe and that she's the best person to lead them. NICOLE ends the conversation, stating that all of them are on this together and that she's not alone. Sally takes NICOLE's words out of courage and Cream quickly rallies all of the action that she missed from the feed back to her. Sally thanks her and asks NICOLE to see if she can work on confirming the safety of Vanilla, King Acorn and their friends abroad and then start tracking the most endangered areas.

Meanwhile, aboard the Death Egg, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot survey the damage to the planet from the Eggnet satellite data. Eggman claims that all of this is the darkest consequence of the Super Genesis' Wave's energy shadow and that the reality damage has been done beyond repair. Angry over having to conquer a broken world, Eggman quickly searches his Eggnet for anything in regards to the planet's odd phenomena that he could potentially use to overcome this crisis. He then finds an article about Professor Pickle's research on the Gaia manuscripts and asks his henchbots if there are any Egg Army units near Spagonia. The bots give him negative, due to them being busy securing their territories following the disaster's outcome and the transmissions jammed in the process. He asks if any Badnik Hordes are near, and Orbot reveals that E-107's Eta unit is the nearest. Eggman tells them to send Eta and his squad to Spagonia University to grab anything and anyone related to Pickle's research there.

Back to the Station Square, after suffering another lycantropy case during the rescue of a couple of kids, Sonic regroups with Amy and they realize that they're running in circles to save the endangered citizens. Realizing that they need to find a way to evacuate the people out of the city, Sally asks Rotor if the Sky Patrol can handle it, to which the walrus gives a negative, due to space restraints. As hope seems to be lost, all of these tortuous efforts are paid off by the arrival of the UFAF Letter of Gabriel, headed by Captain Amanda Tower. She deploys GUN units to colaborate on the rescue efforts and welcomes the Sky Patrol, starting a communication link with Sally who thanks them for their assistance, though Amanda insists on thanking them for formidably managing the disaster with such a small squad and claims that they made a real difference. Sally tears up a bit, realizing that everything in Station Square has been under control and then tells Amanda that they're used to dealing with Shadow the Hedgehog's own freedom fighter group instead of GUN directly. Amanda replies that they're off doing their own part in saving the world.

Back to the Sky Patrol, Vanilla and King Acorn are brought up on the communication screen as Cream lets her mom know that she's fine. Vanilla tells her to stay close to the Freedom Fighters and that Gemerl will help her look after Chocola while she's gone. Cream bids her moom goodbye in silent tears and Vanilla leaves the communication to King Acorn. Sally asks her father how Mobotropolis is and he reveals that Westside Island was safely spared the worst. He asks what they've gathered on the rest of the world and NICOLE reveals that, according to the data they've compared with the Eggnet, the chunks of crust have been stablized for now. Sally then replies that while that's fine, they still have no proper explanation for how can anyone breathe, how the oceans still function, or how the fragments of crust are floating in the first place. Despite this, King Acorn congratulates them on a job well done and tells them to rest up for now. Sonic meets up an exhausted Tails and the fox reveals that with such a crazy day, he almost completely forgot about the whole dual memory issue. Sonic comforts Tails, saying that their memories are safe and sound and that they must focus on what's really happening now.

Sonic then asks NICOLE if he can get Chuck on the way to Spagonia. NICOLE reveals that she was just about to do so and they quickly contact a horribly distraught Ben the Muttski. Sonic asks if the university is still stand or if he's hurt, to which he gives both positive and negative respectively, and then asks if he can get him in touch with Chuck. Sonic then reveals that he's thinking that the quakes that occurred previously were connected to what happened today, and since Chuck was researching on them, it seemed a good idea to check with him on his research. Muttski then claims that "They took him!" Sonic, curiously, tries to learn who abducted his uncle. Muttski replies that the Badniks have captured Chuck and Pickle and stolen all of their research.

Key Events

 * It's revealed that in the altered Prime Zone:
 * The events of Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3 took place.
 * Dulcy the Dragon and Lupe Wolf still exist.
 * Like in the original timeline, Station Square was once ravaged by Perfect Chaos.
 * Team Fighters and Team Freedom are re-formed as sections of the main team.
 * Sonic starts to show signs of turning into a monstrous form.
 * G.U.N. forces, led by Captain Amanda Tower, work together with the Freedom Fighters to assist the people of Station Square.
 * Dr. Eggman captures Uncle Chuck and his friend, Professor Pickle.

Background Information

 * This issue is the first to feature artwork by Rafa Knight.
 * This is the second issue in the series to feature a wrap-around cover.
 * Oddly, Amy is not present on either cover, despite being a core member of the Freedom Fighters. However, it is worth noting that all of the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series members of the group are featured, which is the most likely reason for Amy's absence as she was not featured in that series.
 * Silver the Hedgehog's parents (Richard Erin and Deborah Erin) from Evan Stanley's fan comic Ghosts of the Future make a cameo appearance during the scene when Rotor is directing the rescue operations outside of Twinkle Park (albeit slightly recoloured).
 * Additionally, characters resembling Chuck Thorndyke and Ella from Sonic X, Princess Sara from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Honey the Cat, and Namco/Bandai's Klonoa also make background appearances.
 * In one panel, movie posters for "Chao In Space 3" (reference to the fictional "Chao in Space" movie posters that appeared throughout the Sonic Adventure games) and a film called "The Lost World" can be seen. The latter is a reference to the game Sonic Lost World, and the logo is based on that of the Jurassic Park film series.
 * The license plate on the car which Big tosses reads G2GFA (Gotta go fast).
 * On Eggman's computer screen, webpages displaying "Eggle" and "Eggwiki" can be seen. These are of course references to Google and Wikipedia respectively.
 * King Acorn's line "A smashing idea" is a nod to Nigel Thornberry, a character from the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys; famously voiced by British actor Tim Curry, who also provided King Acorn's voice in the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series.
 * According to Bunnie and Antoine, neither of them where in Station Square when Perfect Chaos attacked in this timeline, in comparison to the old one where they where aiding in the rescue efforts.