Sonic The Hedgehog #50

Featured stories[]

Battle for the Empire[]

• Story: Ian Flynn
• Art: Adam Bryce Thomas
• Colors: Matt Herms (p. 1-10, 17-19), Heather Breckel (p. 15-16, 20-21, 27-28, 31-37, 40-42), Reggie Graham (p. 11-14, 22-26, 29-30, 38-39)
• Letters: Shawn Lee
• Assistant Editor: Nick Niño
• 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[]

Multiple Badniks continue to head toward Eggperial City, as well as Sonic, Tails, and Belle. Tails questions why Dr. Eggman would make a big deal about summoning a large number of Badniks, to which Sonic chalks up to his like for big presentations; however, Tails points out that this is usually accompanied by some form of declaration. Now running within the compounds, Sonic reminds Belle that it is not too late to sit the mission out, only for the helper robot to once again refuse and wish see it through. In Eggman's quarters, Orbot tells Dr. Starline the their surveillance detected Sonic, Tails, and Belle within the city. Hearing this, Starline requests for Surge and Kit to be notified and engage them immediately.

Starline finds excitement in his plan finally coming to fruition; he expresses his joy in Surge and Kit's preparation to destroy Sonic and Tails, as well as his army of Badniks' ability to handle any global resistance. As he also expresses joy that he could welcome Eggman to his side, a large shadow over the headquarters from the window. It is revealed to be Dr. Eggman within his Egg Emperor mech. Immediately attacked by the mech with its spear, Starline quickly dodges and uses his Tricore to run up it. He compliments Eggman on his entrance but mentions that he did not hope it would come down to this showdown as he did not wish to embarrass the doctor. Flying up to the head of the Egg Emperor, Starline switches to the Tricore's power aspect and strikes it in the head with a punch.

From afar, Sonic, Tails, and Belle witness the flashy battle at the command tower. While Sonic thinks that Eggman is attacking his own city, Tails believes that he is actually battling someone. A shocked Belle exclaims after spotting a deactivated Metal Sonic. As Sonic expresses how he still does not understand what is going on, Belle resolves to fix Metal Sonic after not being able to save Motobud. She says that though she cannot save every Badnik, she cannot abandon a robot in need. Sonic warns Belle to be careful fixing the robot as he is dangerous. Hearing this, Tails reminds Sonic that he had the fox cub repair Metal Sonic after being defeated as Neo Metal Sonic. However, the hedgehog claims that this was due to him believing Eggman was truly done and did not even know about the existence of Starline. Before Sonic could talk more about it, he is whisked away. A confused Tails questions where he went, only for him to be swiftly taken away by water tentacles. Belle sees this but before she can do anything, she witnesses several Badniks approach her.

Tails finds himself hoisted up by water tentacles coming from a Hydro Pack that he sees worn by blue fennec. He introduces himself as "Kitsunami" and tells Tails that he is his target. Tails uses his tails to dispel the water holding him to break away from Kit. As he flies up, he tells Kit that there must be a misunderstanding, only for the fennec to disagree and insist that it was entirely by design. He states to Tails that it takes approximately 118 milliliters of liquid and 40 seconds to drown, insisting that their fight would not take long. Meanwhile, Sonic is dragged off to a dome shaped area by a green tenrec speedster. Once Sonic is thrown against a railing, he decides to introduce himself as he does not know who this is. The tenrec states that she already knows who he is and that is her problem. She tells Sonic that due to his inaction of not taking Eggman or Starline out, she would not have been created. The tenrec also suggests that he could have just quit if that went against his moral code. However, as Sonic continued his ways of giving these villains freedom, they continued to repeat their mistakes, with the tenrec adding that the whole world loved him for it. Due to this, the tenrec decided to end all of it as it was what she believed they deserved. Slightly confused over where this argument came from, Sonic once again tries to introduce himself but slower. The infuriated tenrec introduces herself as Surge and states that his "speed of sound" cannot compete with her "speed of light". With this, Sonic and Surge engage in an intense one-on-one speed battle.

Eggman looks for Starline in the Egg Emperor mech after the platypus took cover. He expresses his surprise in Starline's ability to be so cunning; however, after he deduced that Zavok attacking his facilities did not match his motivations, he looked into how the Zeti escaped prison. The warden had told Eggman how Starline was the one who broke him out. As Starline continues to hide, he tries not to panic and begins to formulate a plan. Thinking about how Eggman must have had an escape route built into the command tower, Starline takes into consideration the height of the tower, the speed at which he could escape, and the prep time to launch the mech and fly back to the tower. Deducing that the hangar was not too far away and there could be more mechs in storage if Eggman was piloting an older one. An annoyed Eggman calls for Starline not to run away but to face him with dignity and stand his ground long enough to be destroyed by him. Suddenly, Eggman spots a giant fist punch up from the ground. He shoots at it but soon finds himself mech-to-mech with Starline piloting the Super Eggrobo. As the two mechs clash, Starline pleads with Eggman to listen; he states that his plan will work and the world will be theirs. However, Eggman tells him that he does not share, stating that he does not settle for less and Starline is nothing before him.

Elsewhere, Belle hides from Badniks while she is almost done working on Metal Sonic. However, she remembers that once he is back online Starline's signal would affect him just like what happened to her and Motobud. Thinking about the situation, she decides to act as a router and use her Zeti Zapper to block the control signal to Metal Sonic. As he begins to wake up, the robot appears to be ready to lunge at Belle. He instead destroys a Motobug that attempted to attack Belle from behind. As the helper robot does not understand what happened, she accesses his files through their new connection. She discovers that he recognizes her as Eggman tech and his connection to the Eggnet is what allows him to find Dr. Eggman. Accepting the new part of her journey, and due to the fact that she could not allow Metal Sonic to leave her range, Belle follows the robot to an elevator to go find Eggman.

Tails continues to fly away from Kit, as well as dodge his water coils. The fox cub compliments Kit on his control over them, which confuses the fennec. Seeing a breakthrough, Tails continues by saying he has not seen that kind of tech in a long time and it looks much cooler. Though Kit is flattered, he ashamedly admits that it is not his. Tails says that despite this, he is still operating it, which takes a lot of skill and finesse. Kit asks the fox cub why he is being nice to him as he is trying to destroy him. Tails replies saying that they could find common ground instead; he adds that his powers are unique and suggests that not everyone appreciates that. While Kit reflects on this comment, Tails talks about how he knows what it is like to be different. Referring to his twin tails, the fox cub says that it took a lot of practice to perfect his skills and it was not easy. However, he was able to get support from his friends, and offers his friendship to Kit as he gets the feeling that he did not receive a similar kind of help.

Kit refuses, stating that he does not need friends, leaving Tails to ask if they could work through it with competitive rivalry. Kit does not answer as he does not want to decide anything without Surge. Seeing that he is vulnerable but volatile, Tails decides to handle the situation carefully. The fox cub claims that his throat is getting sore from yelling and asks if he could join Kit; he states that he wants to call a truce until all the facts are sorted out. Kit accepts this, allowing Tails to fly over to him. The fox cub first asks about the Badniks, to which Kit answers that Dr. Starline summoned them for his own army. Tails explains to the fennec that he tried to kidnap him but did not know why. Assuming that it was for something awful, he asks if he hurt Kit. The fennec replies that he did repeatedly, erasing his memories and forcing him to be happy when it happened. He screams that he hates him, solidifying the water around him into large spires. Tails says that he wants to stop the doctor and asks if they could do that together. Intrigued by the offer, Kit asks what would happen after, to which the fox cub says that they should take things one step at a time as the most important part was stopping Starline's plans. When Tails prepares to find Sonic, however, Kit erupts and states that Surge has to destroy Sonic as it was all she wanted, leaving Kit to prevent Tails from intercepting.

Sonic and Surge continue their heated battle, leaving both of them to begin to sweat. The hedgehog says that it has been a while since he has fought like this and hopes that Surge is having fun as well. Angered by this comment, she states that this is supposed to be a duel to the death. Sonic replies that he has dealt with such situations before and has also faced with others that have had the whole "the world wronged me so I'm going to destroy the world" schtick. Zipping around him, Surge claims that it is not a schtick, but who she was. Understanding this point regardless, Sonic trips Surge up, making her lose her balance and topple to lower ground. The hedgehog tells her that though he does not know her story and cannot judge, he states that he cannot allow her to harm anyone else. With this, Surge tells him to end her but the hedgehog refuses in order to give her a chance. She calls him naive but Sonic says that he likes to keep it simple. He prefers to live in the moment, find the good times that the world has to offer and enjoy them, as well as wanting everyone to have freedom to do that, too; he notes that Surge would not have this opportunity if he took it away from her. Sonic states that he has made peace with other enemies to know that there is a better way and is willing to chalk this first interaction up to "a rocky start" in order to have a do-over with Surge.

Surge finds disbelief in Sonic's calmness over this and even briefly thinks about what reinventing herself and seeing the world. However, she notes that this is the same world that rejected her; she believes that if she had volunteered to work with Starline, she did not have anything good going for her life. Charging up and glaring at Sonic, she states that if she was kidnapped, no one looked for her. Seeing as she was not about to stop so easily, Sonic agrees to continue fighting. Surge tries to kick Sonic, wishing to have some of his freedom and life of no regrets. Fighting her off, Sonic states that he will not allow Surge to take that same freedom away from anyone else. If she chooses to become a problem, then she also chooses to get fought by the hedgehog. Surge lunges at him, exclaiming that she was built to end Sonic, his morals, his friends, and his world; she aims to burn it down and dance on the ashes.

Back with the doctors, Starline claims that he was doing all of this for Eggman. Eggman retorts that Starline is wasting his time, wrecking his stuff, and ticking him off. The Egg Emperor deflects the Super Eggrobo's shots and slices at it with its spear, eventually stabbing its torso. Acknowledging Eggman as the superior mech pilot, Starline states that he chose the wrong machine to face him. The platypus ejects himself from the mech and launches a devastating attack on the Egg Emperor called the Tricore Blast that puts the mech out of commission. Before Starline can claim victory, Eggman emerges from the rubble and tells that platypus that he played himself. The doctor had specifically chosen the Egg Emperor for their battle once he realized it was Starline that raided his Power Core reserves. Eggman knew that Starline's obsession with his past exploits would give him logical tunnel vision and knew that he would use the Power Cores' power, however he utilized it, to its fullest extent. Due to this, he knew that Starline would deplete that power just to make his point.

Looking at the glove and realizing that Eggman is right, Starline tries to play it off and pretends to commend the doctor before attempting to hypnotize him. However, he sees that it has no effect on Eggman once he put his goggles on. Eggman states that Starline had already told him all about his inventions, including his glove, and rhetorically asks him if he actually thought he would let him stay by his side without taking some precautions. Shocked at the revelation that Eggman was actually listening to him, Starline says that it was not fair as the doctor had not shown this much foresight before. Eggman admits that he has made his mistakes, but one of them was tolerating Starline for so long. Not willing to give up, the platypus attempts to attack Eggman with a Multi-Tool Heel Spur, only for the doctor to catch him by the leg and slam him onto the ground. As a last move, Eggman removes Starline's glove. Belle arrives on the scene with Metal Sonic, telling Eggman that she had found his letter that he wrote as Mr. Tinker before Starline ruined their lives. Eggman acknowledges that Starline has made a mess of things, but did not believe putting him back into his right state of mind was a mistake.

Knowing that this was how Eggman felt and could not change this, she declares that she is saying goodbye to him, due to her father now lost, and must move on. Not understanding Belle or Starline's clingy personalities, Eggman tells Belle that if she is not with him, she is against him. He then asks if she plans on dueling Metal Sonic, which she declines and says that she instead fixed him, much like how she is going to fix all the robots he has abandoned. Following a large rumble, Eggman asks how Belle bypassed the control signal, to which she answers that she used herself as a secure router. The doctor takes glee in realizing that she interfaces with Metal Sonic's coding directly and offers Belle a position of joining him as a mechanic. The helper robot refuses, choosing to go back to her friends, leaving Eggman to say his farewell to her. More rumbles happen in the area, leading to debris falling from above. Belle spots this and tells Starline to move before he was caught up in it. However, Starline has descended into a more unstable state in utter disbelief that his plans were all for nought. As more debris falls, Belle is unable to reach Starline and runs off as the doctor is crushed.

Outside, Tails sees a bridge collapse before being hit by another one of Kit's water coils. The fennec taunts the fox cub by saying that he cannot run forever as he will eventually have to give in. However, Tails tells Kit that he will have to run out of water eventually, and after noting the size of his reservoir, he predicted that his supply would run about at that moment. Sure enough, Kit is unable to produce any more water from his Hydro Pack and desperately tries to control what little particles he has left. Tails rushes to shut off his pack before it can be refilled. Seeing that he has been defeated, Kit falls to his knees with disgrace, leading Tails to hope that he did not shut down any vital functions.

Sonic and Surge continue to be fighting at a standstill, leading Surge to demand for Sonic to fall; the hedgehog simply says that he does not quit. Surge charges up electricity within a tornado to zap Sonic, only for the hedgehog to easily dodge her blasts and throw her off balance with a Spin Attack. Surge topples over a cliff but hangs on by a stray bar. Sonic rushes over and attempts to call a truce to help her up. Surge instead zaps Sonic with her finger to cheekily get the last hit. Suddenly, debris falls from above, forcing Sonic away from the edge and promptly causing Surge to fall. Reflecting on the battle, Sonic says that the real problem with giving people a choice is that fact that one cannot stop them from making the wrong ones. Looking at the large chasm, Sonic decides to leave to find Tails and Belle. Outside, Sonic meets up with Tails who is carrying a dejected Kit. After Tails introduces him, both Sonic and the fox cub realize that Kit was trying to distract Tails from interfering with Sonic and Surge's battle. However, Sonic reveals that she was lost to Eggman's city and did not see how she could survive the fall.

Belle finds the duo while riding on a Fullboar and expresses her relief that they are safe. Tails asks how she kept the Badnik from attacking her, while Sonic asks about where Metal Sonic was. Belle tells them that she repaired Metal Sonic and he returned to Eggman before they both left. In relation to the Badnik, Belle had programmed it not to attack Sonic and Tails but it was weirdly friendly to her anyway. Tails deduces that Starline must be behind this, or at the very least behind sending Surge and Kit against the duo. Sonic finds annoyance in having to deal with Starline but is prepared to fight him as well. However, Belle tells them about Starline's breakdown and how he was now also lost to the city. The trio then hear Eggman's intercom, who apologizes to them for catching him in an awkward moment. The doctor explains that Eggperial City was not ready for visitors, but Starline arrived to make a mess of the place. Despite this, as they are guests at his home, Eggman states that he will be a gracious host by unleashing his swarm of Badniks upon them as means of a proper welcome.

Appearances[]

Characters:

• Badnik Horde
  • Buzz Bomber (x3)
  • Buzzer (multiple)
  • Caterkiller
  • Crabmeat
  • Egg Pawn (multiple)
  • Fullboar
  • Mecha-Bu (first appearance)
  • Motobug (multiple)
    • Motobud (mentioned)
  • Slicer (multiple) (first appearance)
  • Spina (multiple)
• Belle the Tinkerer
• Cubot
• Dr. Eggman
• Dr. Starline (death)
• Kitsunami the Fennec
• Metal Sonic
  • Neo Metal Sonic (mentioned)
• Miles "Tails" Prower
• Orbot
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Surge the Tenrec
• Zavok (mentioned)

Races and species:

• Human
• Zeti (mentioned)

Locations:

• Sonic's universe
  • Sonic's world
    • Eggperial City
    • Everhold Prison (mentioned)

Items:

• Egg Goggles
• Hydro Pack
• Giant Fake Chaos Emerald (first appearance)
• Multi-Tool Heel Spur
• Power Core (mentioned)
• Sonic's shoes
• Tricore
• Zeti Zapper

Vehicles:

• Egg Emperor
• Super Eggrobo 2.0

Misc.:

• Boost
• Eggman Empire
• Eggnet (mentioned)
• Eggtech (mentioned)
• Operation: Remaster
• Propeller Flying
• Slide
• Spin Attack
• Tricore Blast (first appearance)

Continuity[]

• Sonic, Tails, and Belle make it to Eggperial City, after journeying there following the previous issue.
• Dr. Eggman's Badnik Horde is still being summoned to Eggperial City via Dr. Starline's override algorithm, which was activated in Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4.
• Sonic reminds Belle that she does not have to join them in the mission, which is what Tails first told her in the previous issue.
• Starline is still in control of the Eggman Empire following the events of Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4.
• Starline continues to act out part of Operation: Remaster by having Surge and Kit fight Sonic and Tails and controlling Eggman's army of Badniks, something he has plotted since Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1, "A Few Bad Men".
• Eggman equips himself with the Egg Emperor mech to fight Starline, which he collected from his Memorial Garage in Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4.
• Metal Sonic is still damaged and offline, following the events of Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4.
• Belle recalls shutting off Motobud's power, which occurred in the previous issue.
• Tails reminds Sonic of how he de-weaponized and repaired Metal Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog #12, "The Cost of the Battle for Angel Island".
• Surge and Kit still attempt to go through with their plan of eliminating Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Starline, all of the allies, and the rest of the world, which was first conceived in Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #3.
• The topic of Zavok being broken out of jail is brought up by Eggman, which Starline did in Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1, "A Few Bad Men".
• Tails recalls Starline trying to kidnap him, which occurred in Sonic the Hedgehog #35-#36, "Chao Races and Badnik Bases".

Trivia[]

• Though Dr. Eggman says that his reasoning for choosing the Egg Emperor to fight Dr. Starline is due to him figuring out that he raided his Power Core reserves, this can also be seen as a reference to Sonic Heroes in general as both the Egg Emperor and Power Cores debuted in this game.