Official Solicitation
“Robotnik Reigns Supreme – Part Twoâ€
Writer: Nigel Kitching
Even though Robotnik is now the most power creature in the universe Sonic is still willing to fight him, but Robotnik knows he know has abilities Sonic couldn’t understand and demonstrates by firing chaos energy out of one of his eyes which seemingly knocks Sonic unconscious. When Sonic come through he is no longer on the Floating Island with Tails and Knuckles but is in some kind of polluted city. He sees some Troopers bothering a couple of Mobians in capes and destroys them. The Mobians turn out to be Amy and Johnny so Sonic is surprised they couldn’t handle the Troopers without his help. But neither of them seems to recognise Sonic and Johnny wants to leave thinking it’s a trick Robotnik is playing on them. Sonic want to know where he is and Amy explains to him that they’re in the Emerald Hill Zone, which was turned into a dump for toxic chemicals after Robotnik took over. Not believing this Sonic says that they’re the Freedom Fighters but the two are still clueless and run away as “Oscar the Pig†(Porker Lewis’s previous identity from when he lived in the Special Stage) turns up with his death squad. Porker tells Sonic to identify himself and finds there’s no record of any Sonic the Hedgehog on his database so he tells the badniks to take Sonic down. After Sonic defeats them he turns on Porker to get answers but Robotnik shows up saying Porker can’t be blamed as he has no idea who Sonic is. History has been rewritten so Sonic was never included! Without him around Amy and Johnny never became Freedom Fighters and Porker never had a hero to look up to and give him courage. Sonic demands to know what happened to Tails and Robotnik replies asking if he remembered how he met Tails. Sonic says of course he does, he pulled Tails out of a swamp a long time ago. Only in this world Sonic wasn’t around to save Tails, so Sonic’s best friend is dead!
“First Flightâ€
Writer: Lew Stringer
Artist: Robert Corona
This story concerns Tails’s life before he joined the Freedom Fighters. While taking a walk in his homeland, the Nameless Zone, a bully called Witless Chris decides to make fun of Tails about having more then one tail. Tails argues that he was born this way but when Witless and his friend Scratchy continue to bully him he runs away. Witless brags about how he fights six bears before breakfast every morning and is overheard by two bats, who are warriors from a rival group to the foxes. They think that Witless would be ideal to fight in their Arena of Doom and even if he isn’t as good as he claims it’ll be sport for the crowds to watch. So they kidnap him and as Scratchy tells him to fight them off Witless admits he made all his stories up. Hearing this Tails comes back and tries to save him but accidentally runs off a cliff falling to what would seem to be his doom. However this was the perfect moment for Tails to discover his natural talent and soon flies after the bats. He fights them off but doesn’t manage to catch Witless who falls in a muddy puddle (Though as he says to Scratchy we’ll never know for sure if he let Witless fall on purpose). After this Witless says he owes Tails an apology and the other two doubt they’ll be hearing anymore of his stories.
“Show of Strengthâ€
Writer: Lew Stringer
Artist: Robert Corona
Continued on from the first story two Mobians are walking along the streets. One of them complains that life couldn’t get any worse so the other says at least it’s not raining. On queue it the rain begins to pore and Sonic turns up also saying he can stop Robotnik’s reign, but the two Mobians laugh at him causing some Troopers to show up to punish them for talking in the streets. Sonic beats the Troopers making the Mobians think they maybe he can defeat Robotnik. But Robotnik thinks otherwise causing an earthquake in the area. He then threatens to crush Mobius in the palm of his hand but Sonic reminds him if he does that he’ll have nothing to rule. Robotnik realises this and decides to let the planet live because he enjoys seeing the citizens in misery. As he goes a Mobian questions how they can defeat someone so mighty, to which Sonic replies that Robotnik let them live, and this is his first mistake.
“Yesterday’s Heroesâ€
Writer: Lew Stringer
Artist: Robert Corona
A distress signal is sent out from the Sunshine Valley Zone as it is being attacked by badniks. The signal is picked up by Amy and Tekno then Shortfuse who all turn up to help out. But it seems a new hero called Ultra-Duck picks up the signal first and defeats the badniks before them. Amy reveals this isn’t the first time this has happened recently and Shortfuse says he too has had similar upstages from this guy. Ultra-Duck jokes that they should retire and the citizens agree with him! When the three get back to Tekno’s lab they discuss the possibility that Ultra-Duck could know where the badniks will attack before it happens and from examining the remains of a badnik Tekno finds it’s another case of outdated badniks being used, and they’ve been programmed to lose. At this point some real badniks turn up and the citizens turn to Ultra-Duck for help, but it turns out he’s running away. Amy and Shortfuse manage to takedown the badniks while Tekno stops Ultra-Duck to discover he’s really Big Bill Screwloose, an engineer who used to work for Robotnik. It turns out he was reprogramming the badniks so the citizens would lose faith in the Freedom Fighters and turn to him. However he’s soon put out of action and takes up a new job as a garbage sweep.
Cover Art: Mick McMahon and John M Burns