#sth 182

Fallen Angel

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

The familiar face of Knuckles addresses the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix as Enerjak, inviting them to follow him so he can lead them into a peaceful, happy new world free of technology. Sure, the whole "no more pain and suffering" thing sounds great, but Nicole rightfully points out that it was technology that allowed her to become a living being, and Julie-Su reminds him of how badly things went before when he had access to this much power, begging him to come back to her. Enerjak merely frowns in disappointment and informs them that he'll demonstrate his power to all of them to prove he's in the right.

So do you guys remember how, during the original M25YL arc, we learned that nearly everything in that future came about because Knuckles once again went all Chaos-y, and tried to "remake Mobius as he saw fit," which included forcibly taking away Julie-Su's cybernetics? And how for some unfathomable reason, after all that, she elected to stay with him and didn't seem to harbor him any ill will for essentially forcing his own bodily ideals onto her without her consent, literally changing parts of her body against her will? Yeah, this is precisely why I have such a problem with Kenders having made that the backstory for future Knuckles. Despite her distaste for the Legion, Julie-Su clearly has no intention of getting rid of her cybernetic parts, and in fact rather likes them. Here in this situation, she's rather traumatized by Enerjak's attempt to "liberate" her from her cybernetics, and has to be handed off to Mighty so Sonic can continue the fight against Enerjak. Before the fight can go much further, with Sonic calling Enerjak by all sorts of mocking puns on his name, none other than Shadow enters the fray! Turns out he's working for G.U.N. now, and is the agent that Rouge sent to help out. Enerjak is enraged as Sonic jumps back into the fight, calling him by yet another mocking nickname.

This page is one of my prime examples for exactly why I love Ian's writing of Sonic so much. Shadow begins unleashing ridiculous amounts of Chaos energy, making Nicole struggle to hold all the nanites in place so the city doesn't get destroyed by the raw power, and she points out worriedly that since she doesn't have enough power to maintain the energy shield, they're wide open for an attack from Eggman. Her fears aren't unfounded, either - at that exact moment, Eggman is watching the proceedings while Snively works on an "improvement" to his last few remaining Egg Grapes, surprised to see Shadow there. Apparently, it wasn't Enerjak scrambling New Mobotropolis' communications after all - it was Eggman, deliberately trying to make it seem like everyone has abandoned the fight for freedom and having outright lied to Sonic during the attack on Knothole about the world turning their backs on the Freedom Fighters. I mean, granted, we kind of knew that wasn't true already, considering the group we know as "the Freedom Fighters" are just the Knothole (now New Mobotropolis) chapter. As Eggman launches his fleet towards the city, Shadow continues his fight against Enerjak, but even his substantial fighting ability isn't enough to take him down. Somewhere along the line, Enerjak's helmet is knocked off, and Sonic is surprised and disturbed to see that Enerjak is in fact Knuckles, not having realized such until now. Despite his misgivings, he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix charge forward to take on Enerjak as one, but Enerjak, thoroughly angered by now, merely freezes everyone in place effortlessly with Chaos energy.

Oh boy, one of those "we must burn this world to make room for the new order" types! Sonic calls out to Enerjak, trying to reach the true Knuckles within, but Enerjak coldly insists there's nothing anyone can do to make him change his mind. However, Eggman would like to contest that statement! He shows up in his Egg Fleet and overwhelms Enerjak's attempt to resist with an extra-strong teleportation beam, taking him directly to the center of the Egg Grapes for energy extraction. Eggman, projecting a hologram of himself onto the ground, cheerfully reminds Sonic of their "deal," and is unfazed when Sonic angrily tells him that kidnapping Knuckles wasn't supposed to be part of that deal. As the Egg Fleet leaves the city, Sonic tries to rally everyone for a rescue plan, but Sally heads him off, saying that as much as they don't want to leave Knuckles in the hands of Eggman, rescuing him would only unleash Enerjak onto the world again. Before Sonic and Julie-Su can argue the point, a warp ring portal suddenly opens up and a hand drags the two of them through it, depositing them onto Angel Island with no warning.

Well, I suppose Locke isn't the worst person to be kidnapped by. He informs them that after Enerjak's last rampage, he and the rest of the Brotherhood designed a weapon to be used against him should he ever return. Sonic is eager to go get this weapon to turn Knuckles back to normal, but Locke clarifies - this is a killing weapon. If they use it, Knuckles won't survive the process. And he intends to use it anyway. …I take it back, there are definitely better people to be kidnapped by than Locke.

Albion's Shameful Secret

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

So, how did Locke find out about what was going on? Well, if his island suddenly blowing up wasn't enough of a clue, turns out he was visiting Albion not long ago, only to find it a ruined, abandoned wasteland. There, he watched a video recording by none other than Gala-Na, who explained the true nature of Finitevus. Once upon a time, he was an ordinary, promising young scientist within the city, and in fact was the one who came up with the technical side of the plan to contain Green Knuckles' power a year ago. He was the one in the suit that the Chaos Syphon was connected to, and received the full brunt of the energy wave that Knuckles unleashed that day.

Why am I not surprised that Gala-Na of all people would scoff at such a thing? Extremist one moment, slothful the next. Finitevus started going power-mad and using dark energies in his experiments, and eventually was deemed so dangerous that Gala-Na called for his execution. Goddamn, woman, you'd think she'd have learned from the last time she tried to "neutralize" someone imbued with insane amounts of power without their consent! Predictably, Finitevus escaped, and when he returned he had the entire Egg Fleet behind him, having betrayed Albion's location to Eggman. This is where the recording ends, as Gala-Na recorded her spiel during the invasion, and ended the video by begging whoever might find her message not to repeat her mistakes as her people were captured and killed around her. Great, even more systematic erasure of Kenders' echidna-related worldbuilding by Ian! Seriously, Ian, I know Kenders was kind of a dick, but you could at the very least not kill off 99% of the entire echidna population in the process of fixing his mistakes.