Sonic The Hedgehog #49

Featured stories[]

Wound Up[]

• Story & Art: Evan Stanley
• Colors: Matt Herms (p. 1-15) & Heather Breckel (p. 16-20)
• Letters: Shawn Lee
• Editors: Riley Farmer, David Mariotte
• Special thanks to: Mai Kiyotaki, Michael Cisneros, Sandra Jo, Sonic Team, and everyone at Sega for their invaluable assistance

Synopsis[]

Outside Tails' workshop, Belle is examining the Miles Electric which has a cable connected to Motobud, her new Motobug companion. She and Motobud are surrounded by several idle Akatentoes and Ginpes. Tails, hiding within a bush, checks up on Belle, who tells him that all the cables are in, Motobud's nonaggression subroutine is isolated, and the wireless broadcast is primed. She expresses a bit of worry over what could happen, only for a cloaked Sonic to remind everyone that he was still waiting. Due to this, Belle sends the signal to the other Badniks. Tails yanks the rope connected to Sonic's cloak, unveiling the hedgehog; he acts out as if he is unaware of any nearby danger. The Badniks stare at him for a moment and, instead of attacking, become distracted with their surroundings. Tails finds joy in the test working and Belle finds hope in getting the reprogramming to stick in order to save all of Dr. Eggman's robots. Hearing this, Tails asks for her not to get ahead of herself, due to Eggman being unpredictable; he adds that there have been weird things going on in the world lately that does not seem like his style. However, Sonic states that they will be able to handle whatever Eggman starts and expresses his hunger for tacos. Tails goes to join him and asks if Belle wants to come along, only for her to choose to stay outside with Motobud and cuddle with it.

That night, as Sonic is sleeping, he wakes up to scraping noises. He sees Motobud scratching the door, prompting him to ask the Badnik if it wanted to go outside but also stop it from damaging the door further. Once Sonic touches the Badnik, however, it turns around to swipe at the hedgehog. As Sonic keeps away from Motobud standing on the couch, Tails walks into the room cranky from being woken up so late at night. The pair are soon alerted to a crash; Belle appears and states that she has to get out. As she walks toward the door, Tails rushes in front of Belle to find that her and Motobud's eyes were glowing to show signs of them under a control signal, similar to the one that they were testing but much worse. The fox begs for Belle to fight the signal, only for her to ignore this and take a swing at him; this is blocked by Sonic. Sonic asks if Tails can create something to fix the situation, prompting the fox to attempt to find a solution. Jumping over Motobud, Sonic runs up a bookshelf and tries to get Belle to tell him if Dr. Eggman or Dr. Starline was behind this act. Belle instead pulls on her tail to kick and break the bookshelf, making Sonic fall and give up on banter with her. While Belle continues to try to kick him, Sonic calls for an update from Tails; he replies that he is almost ready. Sonic is then tripped up by Motobud. He narrowly manages to dodge an attack from Belle using a blade in her index finger. Motobud pins Sonic's right glove down with its pincer, allowing Belle to bring up more tools from her fingers.

Tails tackles Belle and plants a Zeti Zapper on her. It electrocutes her and following this, there is a moment of silence. Belle recovers to hear Tails explain to her that he had a prototype Zeti Zapper left over that would be able to stop any wireless signals going in or out of her. As she is asked if she is okay, Belle tells the pair that there is a beacon calling all of Eggman's Badniks to him as Sonic has Motobud overwhelmed and pinned down with his left foot. She decides that she will find Eggman in order to give him a piece of her mind as she is tired of being yanked around by him. When Tails asks for the coordinates for the army of Badniks, Belle states that she thinks it is to the south but realizes that she is quickly losing the memory of it already. Sonic suggests following Motobud instead. They go outside to find that the other Badniks had left the premises already. Setting Motobud down, Sonic, Tails, and Belle follow Motobud toward Eggman's beacon. Running down a hill, the trio see a vegetable with people inside it struggling with Badniks. One in particular tries to fend them off with a Hover Wispon in order to clear a path. Sonic quickly rushes the group out of the truck onto the hill with the others, telling them that so long as they did not get in the way of the Badniks they will not harm them. He then instructs them on going to Tails' workshop nearby to wait for the situation to blow over. When the group comply, Sonic, Tails, and Belle continue on.

Later, as the trio have been tailing Motobud for hours, Tails wonders if they were getting any closer to the beacon. Sonic notes that the last time he checked, there was nothing but the woods in the way they were heading. Tails flies up to see they were heading toward; he bares witness to a giant hexagonal-shaped city with a large command tower in the center of it. He returns to relay the news to the others, noting that it was definitely something created by Eggman. A worried Belle exclaims that they have to stop Motobud. Due to the intensity of the signal, Sonic states that Motobud cannot be stopped and he only knows of one way to stop Badniks. Belle suggests putting the Zeti Zapper on Motobud instead, to which Tails interjects as this would make her vulnerable to the signal again. Belle tells the pair that she has been studying Motobud's construction and that she might be able to cut its power. However, she does not know if this will scrap it but decides to follow through in order to not let Eggman win. As she finds the wire that she has to cut, Sonic and Tails slowly get surrounded by Badniks that take notice of them. Belle shares a look of concern with Tails before cutting the wire, shutting off Motobud's power.

The Badniks continue toward Eggman's city, giving Sonic and Tails the chance to check on Belle. Belle finds a piece of paper stuck within Motobud's shell. It is a letter addressed to her from Eggman's "Mr. Tinker" persona that he wrote after being kidnapped by Rough and Tumble. In the letter, Mr. Tinker explains that it is too late to rescue him but he wishes to use it as a chance to confess. He stated that he is proud of his life, especially with Belle in it. His captor was adamant that that he is the would-be despot, Dr. Eggman, which he did not like the sound of. However, he could not deny the logic of his evidence. Mr. Tinker claimed that he is not Eggman but apologizes in advance if he loses himself to this nightmare, to both Belle and the world. Mr. Tinker expressed his love for Belle before signing off and slipping the letter into Motobud's casing. Sonic and Tails have this information relayed to them by Belle, prompting a moment of silence. Belle realizes that Mr. Tinker is truly gone and finds herself stupid for believing that she could make a difference. She releases the letter, which Sonic stops from blowing into the wind with his foot. Returning it to Belle, he tells her that she has already made a difference; Sonic claims that this includes all the little wins, the good memories between the hard times, and the friends they found. He tells Belle that no one can take this away, and they will keep moving forward together. Tails says that they have to check out the city but tells Belle that she can return to the workshop if she wants. She refuses, declaring that Sonic is right and wishes to move on with them. With this, Sonic has Tails and Belle hold onto him as he rushes toward Eggman's new city.

Appearances[]

Characters:

• Badnik Horde
  • Akatento (multiple) (first appearance)
  • Buzz Bomber (multiple)
  • Caterkiller (multiple)
  • Crabmeat (multiple)
  • Egg Pawn (multiple)
  • Ginpe (multiple) (first appearance)
  • Motobug (multiple)
    • Motobud
• Belle the Tinkerer
• Dr. Eggman (flashback)
• Dr. Starline (flashback)
• Gala the Hound
• Miles "Tails" Prower
• Rough the Skunk (flashback)
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Tumble the Skunk (flashback)

Races and species:

• Human (flashback)
• Wisp
  • Green Wisp

Locations:

• Sonic's universe
  • Sonic's world
    • Central City (flashback)
    • Eggperial City (first appearance)
    • Final Egg (flashback)
    • Forest Ridge Zone Campground (flashback)
    • Tails' Workshop

Items:

• Chili dog (mentioned)
• Egg Goggles (flashback)
• Miles Electric
• Sonic's shoes
• Warp Topaz (flashback)
• Wispon
  • Hover Wispon
• Zeti Zapper

Vehicles:

• Car

Misc.:

• Boost
• Eggman Empire
• Propeller Flying

Continuity[]

• Motobud is still missing the antennae it lost in Sonic the Hedgehog #47, "Trial by Fire, Part 3".
• Tails alludes to the fire at the Forest Ridge Zone Campground that happened in Sonic the Hedgehog #45-#47, and the blackout in Central City that was caused in Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #1.
• Badniks from across the globe are wirelessly controlled and called to Eggperial City. It is revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4 that this is due to Dr. Starline uploading an override algorithm at Eggperial City.

Trivia[]

• Sonic tapping his foot on the first page while under the sheet and saying, "I'm waiting" is a reference to the catchphrase frequently said by his counterparts from all three DiC cartoons.
• On page four, Sonic is sleeping on a couch with a book covering his face. This might be a callback to the opening cutscene of Sonic and the Secret Rings, where Sonic is shown sleeping in the exact same manner.
• On pages five and six, there are a few figures that resemble subjects and objects from different franchises:
  • A Metal Gear REX from the Metal Gear franchise.
  • A Dalek from Doctor Who.
  • A Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
  • Metabee from the Medabots franchise.
  • A freighter and an X-wing starfighter from Star Wars.
  • The Lambda robot from Lupin the Third Part II.
  • An Arwing from the Star Fox series.
  • Mettaton from Undertale.
  • Astro Boy from the Astro Boy franchise.
  • A Guardian Robot from Sonic the Comic.
  • A model based on the real-life plane, the Wright Flyer.
  • Sega Chan, a planned entertainment system by Sega.
  • The RX-78-2 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • The Iron Giant from The Iron Giant.
  • Giant Robo from the Giant Robo series.
• On page twelve, the vegetable truck that is being driven is the same one from Sonic the Hedgehog #17, "Plague", first seen on page seven.
• The Crabmeat and Egg Pawn's eyes on page sixteen glow their regular blue instead of purple.