Fanfic / Rediscovered Frontiers

She's here, reaching far across these new frontiers

Rediscovered Frontiers is a Sonic the Hedgehog Intra-Franchise Crossover story written by The Infamous Man that combines the worlds of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW), as well as incorporating the events of Sonic Frontiers. It can also be found on AO3 here.

While exploring the jungle, Tangle the Lemur discovers an ancient PDA half-buried in the ground, which she salvages and brings to Whisper the Wolf in hopes that she can repair it. When Whisper activates the PDA, however, it turns out to contain a very distraught Artificial Intelligence with a hologrammatic lynx avatar. Introducing herself as "Nicole", the holo-lynx pleads with them to bring her to Sonic the Hedgehog, claiming to know him. Along the way, they will discover the dark history of their world, and the secret of the Super Genesis Wave...

Has its own spin-off called Rediscovered Frontiers Universe where it focuses on the other parts of the multiverse that can be read here along with a third spin-off called Rediscovered Frontiers Super Special on Archie characters interacting with the new timeline characters that can be read here.

Due to the numerous twists throughout the story, all spoilers up until Chapter 12 will be unmarked.

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This fanfic includes examples of:

A-M

• Abusive Parents: IDW Bunnie suffered from a father and a mother who, living in a community that rejected much of the modern world in the name of their beliefs that it's inherently "sinful", began to see her as just a burden as a result of her illness, which couldn't be treated without the very modern medicines and technology of the wider world, paralyzing her arm and both of her legs. When she got her Artificial Limbs, her father was more angry and horrified at the fact she got them at all and "turned her back on Gaia" and their ways than the fact that she now had an Explosive Leash in one of those limbs, which he seemed to view more as a punishment. The tipping point was her angrily accusing him of caring more about his god than his own daughter, to which he could only sadly mutter to himself on how he wished she could have just died instead of growing up like this.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • The Ancients are responsible for the arrival of the Chaos Emeralds in the old world as well as the new one. The Mobius Ancients also turned the real Master Emerald of their world into the Phantom Ruby.
  • After Nicole starts uncovering some memories that had been locked away, she discovers that she had originally been a servant of the Pre-SGW Ancients before becoming an A.I and those same memories later reveal that the Ancients also created the first Enerjak.
• Adaptational Villainy: One of the first major twists in the story is the revelation that Bunnie ended up being rebooted as a violent criminal and member of the Hooligans. Flashbacks over the Studiopolis Arc explore just how she ended up like this, and it isn't pretty.
• All for Nothing: Hershey bitterly laments that her team's efforts to discretely extract Mina and her decision to try and silence her when things got dicey were pointless by Metal Sonic showing up and Silver recognizing her teammates. Lyco and Leeta bitterly call her out on this.
• Aloof Ally: Bunnie during the New Mobotropolis arc. She bluntly tells Sally and the others that while she's willing to work with them to rescue the other Hooligans, she has no interest in being their friend.
• Alternate Self: A canon sidestory reveals that alternate versions of the Freedom Fighters exist in Classic Sonic’s world and Word of God is that said world is a past version of the Post-SGW Archie continuity.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's implied that the twins and Elias were stuck in Cyberspace when they were teleported to the IDWVerse, with them possibly seeing The End, though that could have just been mad rumbling from Elias over what happen.
• And I Must Scream:
  • At the beginning of the story Nicole ends up stuck in her PDA form and stranded in the wilderness. She spends what is later revealed to be at least eight months completely alone with no one to talk to and no way to move. It becomes even worse when she runs low on power and is forced into standby mode, which essentially strands her consciousness in a black void. She just barely manages to cling onto her sanity.
  • The fate of Mecha-Sally. Robotnik's Roboticization protocols were already sadistic, as the Robians had to use the cognitive minds of their original incarnations to be able to function effectively as Artificial Intelligences — something he dealt with by creating data codes that prevented their original personalities from seizing back control. With Mecha-Sally, however, he went the extra mile, creating a more complex set of coding to make it theoretically impossible for her to ever regain control of her body, even as she remained fully aware of everything it was doing under Robotnik's control. Then he took things up an even further notch by replacing her original roboticized limbs with brand new artificial ones, ordering the originals smelted down like scrap, meaning that even if she was freed from his control, it would be impossible to de-roboticize her.
• Antagonistic Offspring: In a broad sense as afer Phage "evolution" she starts to see Nicole as her mother.
• Arc Villain: Both Metal Sonic and Mammoth Mogul take center stage as the main threats in the Studiopolis arc.
• Arc Welding:
  • Mogul reveals that he was responsible for the events of the Endangered Species arc, having Nicolette bring Thrash to Angel Island as a distraction for her to retrieve the Phantom Ruby.
  • Classic Sonic's world is actually the Post-SGW universe from canon, just set a few years back.
  • The Mecha Sonic from Sonic Adventure makes an appearance during the New Mobotropolis arc. It’s mentioned that on Earth, Eggman never got around to activating it and the Secret Freedom Fighters stole the badnik from Clutch. It now helps the Secret Freedom Fighters and the New Freedom Fighters of New Mobotropolis under the name “Mach”.
• Ascended Extra: Saffron, who had little role in the Archie comics outside of being Charmy's Satellite Love Interest, is promoted to a major character as Julie-Su's Only Friend, even getting a considerable amount of scenes set from her perspective.
• Bad Boss: Lien-Da was both brutal and incompetent during her leadership of the echidnas during their Exodus, turning them into an army of interdimensional raiders at gunpoint when Julie-Su pointed out that they could've simply asked for help in many of the Zones they ended up in, and caring little for any casualties they took. This understandably leads to most of the Dark Legion to turn on her.
• Berserk Button: The discovery that Robo-Robotnik treated his Metal Sonics as disposable Cannon Fodder rather than his Magnum Opus becomes one for Metal Sonic, destroying the Death Egg in a fit of rage after discovering it. Sally and Mina inadvertently press it during their fight by assuming that Eggman is directly controlling him.
• Break the Believer: Bunnie's belief in Gaia, already heavily strained by her experiences with her illness was ultimately shattered by Thunderbolt in her backstory, who leaves her trapped in debt to her and cruelly mocks her and her uncle for their faith.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Orbot and Cubot were designed to be this for Eggman. They are programmed to occasionally screw-up in order to motivate Eggman to apply himself and gain inspiration from their mistakes.
• Bus Crash:
  • Mammoth Mogul reveals in Chapter 14 that he had Nic the Weasel killed after having her steal the Phantom Ruby.
  • Lien-Da was effectively killed by Julie-Su during the Echidna's exile, with her leaving her half-sister and her remaining Dark Legion loyalists stranded in a desolate alien world with no apparent chance of escape. She also left behind a bomb, though she herself admitted it would be a toss-up if Lien-Da would let it explode/fail to disarm it in time or successfully escape the blast radius/shut it down to let herself live a little longer. Chapter 16 shows the event in full via flashback.
  • Word of God notes that, due to Dimitri being in Haven at the time the Super Genesis Wave hit, he ended up subject to a full-blown Ret-Gone and was erased from existence.
  • Wynmacher was among the echidnas that died in the desert trek, due to giving his food to Lara-Le.
• Butt-Monkey: Zangle, the Zone Cop that took Zonic’s beat after the Super Genesis Wave, apparently is overworked and gets no respect from Blaze who goes between the Prime and Sol Zones without a care.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Due to the changes of the universe, the terms "Overlander" and "Mobians" have been changed to "Humans" and "Islanders", which causes some slight confusion to those who don't use one pair of those terms.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Whisper can't bring herself to admit to Tangle that she likes her in a romantic sense. It took Tangle having an existential crisis in Chapter 29 to finally get her to open up about her feelings.
• Canon Welding: Jet Set Radio is apparently part of this universe, with DJ Professor K being a popular pirate radio broadcaster in the Islands. Its also revealed that the Noise Tanks have joined up with the Egg Bosses.
• Cerebus Retcon:
  • When Sally is reminiscing about her early adventures with Sonic, Nicole notes that while she can’t directly remember them due to not being sentient at the time, she knows that Sally is looking at them through a Nostalgia Filter and these “silly” adventures were actually much more serious than she’s describing them. Specific highlighted examples are how terrified the Knothole Freedom Fighters were in their first battle against the Krudzu, Sally's brief experience with body dysphoria after her fur was dyed pink by exposure to waste sludge from Robotnik's chemical factories, and how full of self-doubt Bunnie Rabbot was after her initial escape from the Roboticizer.
  • Geoffrey’s actions when hitting on Sally during Ken Penders’ run take on a new and more sinister light thanks to him being a traitor working for Naugus since the beginning. The only reason he began making moves on the teenage girl was because he was trying to use her infatuation of him to manipulate her and turn the princess into his & Naugus’ pawn.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • When Nicole uses Jewel's laptop to scour the world's databases for any familiar information on the Archie world, she also captures several viruses due to latter's...escapades after she finishes. She gives the same viruses to Sally Acorn in her robotic body's mindscape, giving her the edge against the Mecha Sally AI controlling her body.
  • Upon arriving in Mirage Dunes Town, Team Freedom notices that the local express has an Extreme Gear launch station, in which they cannot currently go for because of their mission. When they discover Naugus' invisible magic perception field that messes with any intruders' sense of time and memories to make them turn around and report that there is nothing to be found, they figure out that the only way to get past it is to charge in at very high speeds before the spell could take effect. They also learn that there are train tracks near the barrier. Cue Team Freedom becoming Extreme Gear riders.
• Connected All Along: It is eventually revealed that Nicole has a connection to the Ancients, being both their high priestess and best friend to the daughter of Master King, who is a Mirror Character of King Max rather than Eggman in the Archie canon.
• Cosmic Retcon: The basic premise of the story is that when the Super Genesis Wave was unleashed in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, the forces unleashed created the IDW timeline instead of the Archie Post-Wave timeline. Except that, for some reason, Retgoned characters from the original timeline are materializing in the new timeline, beginning with Nicole.
• Crazy-Prepared: Mammoth Mogul kept a piece of his soul in the Master Emerald, which gave him an early warning on Eggman's plan with the Genesis Wave. Similarly, Master Mogul hid a piece of himself inside Silver's mind, so that he could protect his student from his own evil past self when they inevitably crossed paths.
• Cross Cultural Kerfuffle: When Nicole brings up roboticization, Tangle and Whisper have no idea what she's talking about and think it must be her term for the Zombot Plague, which confuses Nicole in turn.
• Cruel Mercy: After convincing the majority of the Dark Legion to turn on Lien-Da, Julie-Su decides not to kill her and leaves her sister and her remaining loyalists stranded in an alien Zone as payback for everything they forced their people to do.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Played for Drama. As Whisper, Tangle, and Silver start eating nachos, Sally goes to eat one without even realising, and Nicole has to stop her from putting it on her mouth. The reminder about no longer being able to so much as eat with her friends sends her into a brief Heroic BSoD.
• Death of Personality: Naugus has figured out a way to restore the pre-wave memories of rebooted characters, but this comes at the cost of erasing their new personality. Conquering Storm admits she can’t remember her new life, though her body still retains the instincts and emotions of her new self, such as her affection for her infant son.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • Aspects of the Cosmic Retcon are taken apart piece by piece in the fic through the characters’ reactions to the Super Genesis Wave.
    • Sally and Julie-Su have an extended Freak Out when its revealed that Earth is the rebooted Mobius, because it means that all their struggles and the friends they lost along the way have been for nothing. Not only that, but their loved ones are either rebooted into people who will no longer recognize them or are erased from existence completely.
    • Mina Mongoose and other survivors of the Super Genesis Wave show how being The Artifact in Sonic's Universe would really screw with their heads. Mina herself becomes incredibly depressed when Sonic and Tails, her friends, do not even recognize her and she finds out she no longer exists. The majority of the citizens of New Mobotropolis with some manipulation by Naugus even resent Sonic, thinking he intentionally screwed up fixing everything and leaving them all behind so he can continue to have fun adventures when in reality he was forced into a no-win scenario thanks to Eggman's interference and what's heavily implied to be THE END's emergence as a consequence, which would have destroyed everything if he hadn't mitigated the damage.
    • The fact that numerous people were erased from existence is treated with utter horror, rather than it being brushed aside or never mentioned again. It even makes Tangle fall into an existential crisis because she cannot handle imagining she's only alive because so many people no longer exist.
  • The Secret Freedom Fighters' portrayal in here is this in regards to their Spy Fiction portrayal in Archie as per author's word. The fic doesn't shy away from showing the Dirty Business they have to deal with for the sake of aiding the heroes who are out in the open, which shocks Silver and disappoints Tangle. Not only that, being secretive causes a lot of unneeded communication issues between them and the people they are supporting. On the bright side, not everyone involved is fully on board with this method of doing things and are more than willing to aid out in the open when needed, orders be damned.
  • The after-effects of major calamities were often brushed aside or given a quick mention in the IDW comic, due to the age rating. In here, it is noted that the Metal Virus resulted in a major manpower loss for the Restoration, with many surviving members quitting due to their horrific experiences.
• Defector from Decadence: Almost the entire Dark Legion turned against Lien-da after realizing how much of a Bad Boss she was and discovering the bombs inside their Legion cybernetics.
• Destroy the Evidence: To say Metal Sonic reacted negatively to Archieverse Robotnik/Eggman treating him like a disposable lackey is putting it mildly. While he DOES keep certain files safe (plans for new badniks and the Egg Grapes as an example), he made sure to erase what he deem was the inferior Robotnik and any mention of the Archie verse multiple Metal Sonic attempts, and is now off to try and kill Sally to end the final trace of what he deems as dimensional mockery. When he learns about the existence of New Mobotropolis, he and his "sister" Phage change tracks and decide to recruit the Egg Bosses to raze the city to the ground.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: A totalitarian state that treats certain people as sub-beings that deserve to be kill, yeah this brings to mind Nazi Germany. Does not help that Naugus' forces have rebuilt the Egg Grapes. On a positive note however, The resistance against Naugus regime brings to mind German resistance groups that were fighting against Nazi control like the White Rose.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Akira the Wolf dislikes his nickname "Buddy".
• Dramatic Irony: Two rare positive examples.
  • On the way to Mobotropolis, Nicole expresses immense guilt about what happened to the echidnas, telling Sally she should have been able to spot the signs. She laments that not only were they taken from their homes and dumped into some nightmarish Zone, but would have been erased by the Super Genesis Wave even if they had survived. All this happens right after the past few chapters focusing on the echidnas finally making their way home, and Julie-Su and Saffron joining the Chaotix to meet up with Sally and Nicole at Mirage Desert Zone.
  • On that prior point is another dose of irony. Thrash the Devil intended to completely get rid of the echidnas by tossing them into another Zone with no apparent way out as his revenge for the Tasmanian Devils. And yet it was his actions, even if they resulted in much suffering and turmoil amongst the echidnas due to the Dark Legion over the course of their zone-hopping, that insured that the echidna civilization survived the Super Genesis Wave and would eventually return as the largest group of intact pre-SGW characters aside from the citizens of New Mobotropolis, and they're actually doing better than the city thanks to getting rid of Lien-Da and her die-hard loyalists and acquiring Restoration aid barely days after arriving back, all while New Mobotropolis has still been suffering Naugus' tyranny. Far from being the echidnas' downfall, Thrash ended up being their unknowing savior.
• Drinking the Kool-Aid: Hoo boy did most of the new citizen of New Mobotropolis drank from it; they would rather stay in a xenophobic hell-hole starving to death rather than leave and start a new life in the IDW-verse. Granted Naugus made it almost impossible to leave after Mina ran away but still.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In-Universe example. Chapter 4 reveals that at least some of the "goofy era" stories from the early days of Archie's run, when the tone was closer to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, did actually happen in-universe, albeit not exactly like they were shown in the comics.
• Eldritch Abomination: The End was already basically like this in the game canon, but its pure Lovecraftian nature was only hinted at. Its release leads to the very colors of reality shifting constantly, Jules and the others hearing the screams of people dying across the multiverse as they are erased from existence, and it reveals how the Source Of All was just waste it expelled at the start of the multiverse.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • After Nicole detects Thunderbolt's bomb and what would cause it to trigger, she and Sally realize that the one who created Bunnie's limb couldn't have been Eggman, because even in the Archieverse he considers a bomb he could detonate at anytime more than enough as a proper deterrent.
  • In a flashback, Thrash does show a moment of remorse for imprisoning Saffron along with the echidnas, agreeing with Julie-Su that she didn't do anything to deserve this. He also agrees it isn't fair to Charmy either, who has been through enough suffering as it is, and that Charmy would be well within his right to come after him in revenge. Zigzagged in that he still goes through with it, since he wanted to minimize any chances of people stopping him.
  • At seeing the condition of the starving and dehydrated regular citizens New Mobotropolis and learning that those who have sworn themselves directly under the power of the king get larger rations, IDW Bunnie bluntly points out that not even Eggman when he took over the world ever did something like that, but rather treated everyone under his control without favoritism or sugarcoating. Beauregard angrily tells her to never claim that any version of Eggman could treat people better than how it is here, while Nicole herself is legitimately surprised since Robo-Robotnik would have done exactly what Geoffrey/Naugus is doing just to be a Sadist, much less to better tighten his control over the world.
• Fantastic Racism: Explored in detail when the characters meet other characters from New Mobotropolis who survived the reboot.
  • The mobians hate Overlanders, and by extension humans, for years of conflict during the Great War. Some don’t even bother making the distinction between Overlanders and humans because to them all of them are Overlanders, even though it has been discovered that it was Kodos the Lion (a mobian) whose started the great war due to his rampant xenophobia, the mental scars created by the Great War are still there.
  • Robians are seen with fear and suspicion by mobians because they used to be unwilling slaves to Robotnik and Eggman, and as Robo-Robotnik demonstrated he could take back control after they had been seemingly freed. Thus, the residents of New Mobotropolis react with fear and suspicion when Sally arrives in her robian body, which is hypocritical since A) many of them used to be robians and B) There have been proven methods for robians to free themselves from Robotnik/Eggman control in the past..
  • Most of the residents of New Mobotropolis all hate the people born from the reboot like Tangle & Whisper, calling them Shades who are merely acting like real people and taking up spaces that rightfully belong to them. They are seen as physical manifestations of the Super Genesis Wave rebooting the universe, and as a result are hated by all those under the sway of Naugus. Even the ones who don't outright hate them are noticeably wary and fearful of them.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Many of the pre-SGW characters come from a world that was culturally around the Turn of the Millennium and most available technology was in a similar state. As such, most of the refugees are greatly shocked by the cultural and technological changes in the more up-to-date post-SGW universe.
• Forced to Watch: What Robotnik and Mecha Sally did to Sally as he went through with “upgrading” her body before compressing her mind’s file. Nicole is enraged when the metadata on her file implies this.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During Hershey's flashback in Chapter 7, Infinite reveals himself to be aware of her being from another world, much to her shock. As we learn in Chapter 14, this is because the Phantom Ruby is in fact the original Master Emerald in the Archie world.
  • Chapter 9 has Lyco and Leeta mention that the Wolf Clan has gone crazy with Lupe's disappearance with the only person available to help them is "some crazy badger girl". Several chapters later, Sticks the Badger would come banging on the Chaotix's doors with info on where Lupe is.
  • When Sally was being brought to New Mobotroplis, Larry states that he needs to give Hamlin the heads-up. Several chapters later, it will be revealed that the New Mobotroplis Freedom Fighters are being led by him.
  • New Mobotropolis being under the Eggman supporters' surveillance and involved in their affairs until it was officially revealed in Chapter 26 was actually hinted at in the previous chapters.
    • When Thunderbolt got angry with Bunnie's bomb being disabled, she rants about how she cannot wrangle the money out of her uncle with him in the desert. Bunnie's flashback has shown that she has taken up full responsibility of the debt years ago, meaning that her uncle shouldn't even be involved with Thunderbolt in present day, at least for the original reason. Cut to the big reveal several chapters later about the "deboot" process with him as one of the victims.
    • When Metal Sonic first came in for repairs, one of their screens was showing a desert. To be more precise, it is the Mirage Desert Zone.
    • The Uber Caterkiller being fully functional when encountered despite not being functional when Mina escaped. It is because they repaired it.
    • When Nicole tried to access the systems of New Mobotropolis, she was actually denied access despite being its creator. The only known geniuses (Rotor and Charles) are busy working against Naugus' rule and even if they were forced to secure the systems, either one of them could've made a backdoor for her. This hints that there is another genius in town who is working fully for Naugus. A few chapters later, Snively makes his grand entrance hacking Sally.
    • Sally getting hacked by Snively Robotnik during the Acorn throne room fight in the first place is a giant red flag that Naugus isn't as isolated as he thinks.
    • Mordred Hood contacting a third party in secret to "move their plans up" after Blaze's capture. Said third party are the Eggman supporters.
• The Fundamentalist: Bunnie's parents are shown to have lived in a religious commune, complete with the distrust of modern society as inherently sinful. This ultimately leads to tragic consequences for Bunnie once she contracts her illness.
• Funny Animal Anatomy: Commented on by Dr. Quack, who says that Islanders are actually biologically closer to animals than mobians, who are more closer to humans instead. One particular difference is their durability. Islanders are able to shrug off a broken shoulder in a few days as shown by Tangle, compared to Mobians and humans who would take weeks to heal the same injury.
• Future Me Scares Me: Mammoth Mogul is not happy when he learns of how different his future self Master Mogul is from his current self.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Before Julie-Su can remember the operation, which she was fully awake and didn’t have painkillers for, that had her new robotic left eye installed she’s broken out of the memory by Honey the Cat.
• Groin Attack: Sally gives Fang, who she calls Nack since it was his name in the previous world, another “love tap” with her knee. A roboticized and completely metal knee.
• The Gunslinger: Whisper, Fang, and Julie-Su all have and primarily use some form of firearm.
• Heartbroken Badass: Antoine has become a skilled warrior with amazing physical power thanks to the nanites that are in his body, but he is still mourning the loss of Bunnie after being informed of how she was rebooted. He only comes to accept that she is truly gone after meeting the Bunnie of Earth. It also crosses over into Handicapped Badass since using the nanites in such a manner is putting horrible strain on his scarred and crippled body.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Sally has one after learning that her world has been completely overwritten by a Cosmic Retcon, breaking down over how everything she struggled and fought for has been rendered meaningless, how her friends and family might not even exist, and how Sonic, the man she loved, won’t even know who she is. Nicole is able to snap her out of it, but the AI was only seconds away from going into one herself and has a less severe breakdown once she gets some time alone.
  • Mina Mongoose had one similar to Sally’s, though without someone to snap her out. She’s been left as a depressed homeless wreck living on the streets of Studiopolis.
  • When Julie-Su finally learns the truth about the world and accidentally hits Saffron during her Freak Out, she breaks down over how the all the horrible things she was forced to do in the process of getting back were All for Nothing, how she never got to say proper goodbyes to her friends, and how Knuckles won’t even remember her anymore.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out, Whisper has an eye for fashion, having been the one to pick out Sally and later Mina's new outfit. She also has a rather impressive sense of humor if Tangle is to be believed.
• Honey Trap: Egg Memos 1 confirms that Breezie was created for a G-rated version of this, but Sonic never fell for it.
  Eggman: (in a video log) Breezie did her best, acted like a good little hostage and attempted to say the right lines, but Sonic just wasn’t interested in her advances! I’d figured that if he was thirteen and holding an attractive member of the opposite sex in his arms, then surely he’d get distracted! Distracted enough that he’d give that Silver Sonic unit the opportunity he needed! But no, the hedgehog simply didn’t care and quickly found out that Breezie was in on the plot.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Discussed about Maximilian. In the pre-boot verse Harvey Who, his adviser at the time, specifically told him not to trust Warlord Kodos, not to let Ixis Naugus remain in the kingdom, and not to take Robotnik in (to be fair, that last one was due to guilt over what happened with Nate clouding his judgement) with even Elias noting that negative trait of his father.
  Elias: (thinking/musing) There laid the former king of the Kingdom of Acorn. The man who ended the Great War through his defeat of the Overlander leader, Charlemagne. Appointer of Warlord Kodos Lion, Royal Wizard Ixis Naugus, and Warlord Julian Kintobor. Husband of Alicia Acorn and father of both Elias himself and Sally. A hero of the Kingdom of Acorn… and the man who arguably led to its decline.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: A common example that happened to the Archie characters surviving the SGW.
  • The Zone Cops used to be The Dreaded to any illegal travelers between Zones, having captured several Reality Warpers and Physical Gods and kept them imprisoned. After the Super Genesis Wave wiped out a good chunk of the multiverse (and plenty of their own administration) they're left scrambling to keep on top of the situation and are no longer able to enforce the rules as effectively as before. Rookie Zangle is dismayed that Blaze doesn't even bother to avoid her while travelling between Zones.
  • New Mobotropolis, and the by extension, the Kingdom/Republic of Acorn used to the shining beacon of the Archie world, being one of the most advanced and powerful civilisations that are not the echidnas and the main opposition to Robotnik with their powerful Freedom Fighters. Thanks to Naugus' tyrannical reign, it has been reduced to a single stateless third world city-state in where the citizens either struggle to live or resist their despot.
  • The echidna race was put through the ringer under an incompetent and sadistic Lien-Da, losing their people left and right due to picking fights, many which are unneeded, with various dimensional people. By the time she was overthrown along with those that supported her, the echidnas are reduced to an unrecognizable ramshackle group of refugees that needed immediate Restoration aid upon reaching Earth.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter is named after the title of, or the lyrics from, a music track from the Sonic franchise.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Egg Memos 1 has Eggman remark that Breezie's mission to distract Sonic failed because he simply wasn't interested in her. Sonic notes that it's because he immediately realized that something was up with her because she wouldn't stop flirting with him.
• I Hate Past Me: Based on their brief interaction, Master Mogul has no love for how he used to be as Mammoth Mogul, outright comparing him to a spoiled child.
• Impaled Palm: Sally is the victim of this thanks to Metal Sonic stabbing his thumbs through her hands in their Studiopolis clash to disable her defensive abilities while spiting her. Fortunately, it gets fixed later thanks to Tekno's efforts.
• In Spite of a Nail: In spite of living a radically different life in the rebooted universe compared to the original, Bunnie still ends up a cyborg.
• Interspecies Romance: Discussed in the third spin-off.
  Mina: (after checking out the library) I-I’ve read comics before. But none of them were like this. Usually they were about some Overlander wearing a costume or two girls fighting over a boy, but they were always about Overlanders! This one has Mobians in it and one is even the main Overlander girl’s love interest!
  Akira: Is it really that strange? I know that there aren’t many humans living on the islands, but they are here and it’s not like they would limit their options when it comes to partners.
  Mina: Don't be gross.
  Akira: I’m not being gross. It’s a fact of life.
• I Reject Your Reality: Julie-Su is so traumatized by her experiences and desperate to see Knuckles again that she refuses to acknowledge that something is clearly different with their Zone, coming up with increasingly flimsy excuses to justify the obvious changes. This becomes incredibly pronounced once she meets the rebooted Chaotix, convinced that this is a trick or they’re playing a sick joke on her.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Sally and co believe this was the case when Mina told the story about how Ixis Naugus "died" and made Geoffrey the new king, unaware that the former (who was dying) is possessing the body of the latter, though it is hinted that the SFF are aware of Naugus' deception. Chapter 23 has Sally figure out the possession when meeting him and subsequent chapters has her revealing it to the local Freedom Fighters.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • In his appearance in a flashback, Finitevus admits he knew Thrash was attacking the echidnas, and sees no reason to prevent his own species from going extinct. He cites their many, many faults throughout history and that this is their karma finally catching up to them. This ignores the fact that most of the people being attacked are innocent.
  • From the same scene, Scourge offers to let Julie-Su and Saffron join the Destructix, but gives a nonchalant "What about them?" when the former asks about her people.
• Mad Bomber: Bean of course. He even demonstrate his love of explosion by giving a eulogy for 'Bomby'.
  Bean: NOOOO! Bomby! Why?! How could you do this to Bomby?! He was just two seconds old! How could you cut his short life even shorter! And do deny him of his purpose in life! It's a cruel thing!
  Blaze: ... Are you seriously doing this again?
• Made of Iron: Sally is literally this thanks to her roboticized and weaponized body.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Metal Sonic’s arrival in Studiopolis gets this reaction from just about everyone in the area.
• Metaphorically True: Belle tells Sally and Nicole her father made her out of Badnik parts and coding, and reveals that he was killed by Dr Starline. Technically true, since Mr Tinker basically suffered a Death of Personality when Starline restored Eggman's memories.
• Mode Lock: A Darker and Edgier version. Robotnik had Mecha-Sally deconstructed and removed essentially all of her original roboticized body apart from her original head and spinal column, with the original parts then scrapped. Due to the limitations of how de-roboticizing tech worked, this means Mecha-Sally can't be changed back into flesh and blood, or at best she'll just end up a cyborg with an artificial body.
• The Mole: It’s revealed in Chapter 29 that Rosemary had infiltrated Nagus’ forces and gained his trust by partly playing the broken mother of Tails so she could find out what he and Snively are planning for the New Mobotropolis Freedom Fighters.
• Moral Myopia: Thunderbolt is a Mad Scientist that gives desperate people cybernetics with explosives installed and forces them into debt with exorbitant prices that she has zero intention of clearing even if they do manage to reach the number. Despite all of this, and having multiple sources she outright calls "piggybanks", she becomes outraged when one disables their leash, vowing revenge on them and treating it as a betrayal from an Ungrateful Bastard.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Silver feels awful about crushing Nicole and Sally's hopes by saying their world was replaced in the Cosmic Retcon, and tries to contact Blaze to start trying to find leads and make amends.
  • Mina still feels incredibly guilty over her efforts having gotten Nicole exiled from New Mobotropolis, lamenting how much pain she caused her friend.
  • Julie-Su is horrified that she hits Saffron during her Freak Out, partially because she promised herself that she would keep her friend and her people safe throughout their journey home.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When the group is waiting for their orders, Silver's number is 2006, a nod to his debut game.
  • Both Sally and Mina call Fang the Sniper by his previous self’s name, Nack the Weasel.
  • Sally gives Fang another "love tap" in the groin.
  • Bean is mistaken as a duck by the pre-genesis wave characters since he was one in the old verse, unaware that he is now, a woodpecker. ^note  That said, according to Bean's Japanese bio in Fighters Megamix Official Guide, Bin (the main character from the 1988 arcade game, Dynamite Dux, who Bean as a character is based on) is Bean's father, so they are not entirely wrong.
    • The connection with Dynamite Dux is further highlighted when Bean mentions “Daddy Dynamite”.
  • During his fight with Silver and Blaze, Bean at one point kicks one of his bombs with a football maneuver, a subtle nod to his appearance in the SEGA football game Virtua Striker 2.
  • The events of Sonic the Fighters happening in this verse but recreated in a way that reminds you of the Chaos Emerald Championship arc, the story even hints that the promoter was Breezie the Hedgehog.
  • Bean asks Silver and Blaze about seeing their mutant hedgehog-cat babies, much like how he asks Sonic if he’s going to marry Sally and have mutant hedge-squirrel babies in the Archie comics.
  • Chapter 2 of "Rediscovered Frontiers Super Special" reveals that Breezie is an Eggman invention, much like her AOSTH counterpart.
  • Before gaining the name Phage, she was called Special Unit 71 or SU71 for short. Sonic Universe issue 71 is where she made her debut.
  • When getting onto Zilver about ignoring a zone excursion in the I-Zones Zonic brings up the SSSI-7 incident, which was the issue of the Super Sonic Special that had a crossover with Image.
  • The Pre-SGW version of Wendy Witchcart is revealed to have been the mentor to Regina Ferrum/the Iron Queen, an allusion to how Witchart used Regina's Signature Laugh in the Tails 30th Anniversary special.
  • During the Echidnas' exodus across the Zones, they apparently ran into a young version of Sonic who played in a band with his siblings, and ran afoul of enemies such as an evil version of Super Sonic, the Metarex and the Nocturnus Clan, the last of which explains Julie-Su's violent reaction to Gemerl when encountering the Gizoid.
  • Sticks searches for "Area 2014" on the Chaotix's GPS, thinking that it holds government secrets. 2014 is the debut year of Sonic Boom, the spinoff series where she came from.
  • The main cast run into Barry the Quokka, who's currently working in the Mirage Desert, when trying to reach New Mobotropolis.
  • Rough and Tumble are served Meh Burger while in prison.

N-Z

• Nice Girl: Honey the Cat does a lot to promote her own business and fashion line, and takes pride in the wealth she’s gotten from both, but she was also willing to just give Sonic and his friends the Chaos Emeralds should she win the Fighters Tournament and shows a clear concern for Julie-Su when the echidna has a traumatic flashback in her store.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Studiopolis is full of various expies or anthopomorphic animal versions of movie stars, TV stars, directors, and music artists. One example is the EDM artist cracked3GG who is a human that wears a heavily modified full-head mask a-la deadmau5.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Based on his and Eggman's accounts, Sonic found Breezie attempting to flirt with him more suspicious than distracting.
• Old Shame: In-Universe, one of the Egg Memos Sonic finds has Eggman clearly ashamed of how desperate he was getting to beat the hedgehog that he resort to making Breezie to distract him.
• One-Steve Limit: An interesting In-Universe variant. Due to Robotnik dying in the Archieverse and being replaced by Robo-Robotnik (who took the moniker Eggman), the people in the IDW verse are confused to say the least about why the Archie characters are treating Robotnik and Eggman as two separate people. Takes a darker turn with Metal Sonic who disdainfully refers to both versions as 'The Obsolete Doctors', seeing them VASTLY inferior to his creator.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Silver tactlessly crushes Sally and Nicole's hopes of getting back to their friends by returning to their Zone by revealing that a Cosmic Retcon occurred, meaning it no longer exists. Justified in that he himself was reeling from having his memories of the old timeline suddenly restored, and was simply thinking out loud to try and process the influx of new memories. To his credit, he recognizes he screwed up and wastes no time trying to make amends.
• Orcus on His Throne: Justified example. At the moment, Mammoth Mogul is content ruling Studiopolis as it's kingpin. That said, he fully admits that once Sonic, his friends, and Eggman die of old age, then he will make his move.
  Mammoth Mogul: If I were to show my hand, he would become a thorn in my side. Likely find some way to foil my plans yet again. So I decided to leave this one alone, as I did for the last one. He and his annoying friends, along with Eggman, shall all wither and die. Their children will be weak and inexperienced. I will likely make my move then. Or perhaps whenever running this company bores me, which it likely will in fifty or so years. I have nothing but time to decide.
• Lady of Black Magic: Ebony and (implied with) Rosemary have become this after joining the Naugus Cult.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Ironically Eggman of all people (at least his IDW/GAME self) compared to Ixis Naugus.
• Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: It’s pointed out that now women wearing entire outfits is the norm rather than a rarity. Sally, used to just wearing her vest and boots, admits that even if she wasn’t a robian she would have worn a full outfit out a peer pressure alone. Julie-Su is later tripped up by this change when she makes her return.
• The Paragon: Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles are this on Earth and were this on Mobius, but the story delves into how their actions affect others.
  • On one hand, Sonic’s heroism inspired Tangle to be the hero of her hometown which eventually lead to her becoming one of his companions. He also helped to guide Belle the Tinkerer to become a valued member of the Restoration in spite of everything that happened with Mr. Tinker/Eggman. On Mobius he also helped ensure that people like Mina as well as Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters kept resisting Robotnik/Eggman however they can. Tails and Amy also helped inspire Tekno to join the Restoration and become a valued member of the Studiopolis chapter, allowing her to eventually help Sally and Mina.
  • On the other hand, Julie-Su used Sonic and Knuckles as a basis for her ‘staying strong’ in the face of all her hardships which she interpreted as never talking about her problems. This in turn caused her to become unstable until it all led to a violent freak out.
• Parting-Words Regret: Part of the reason why Julie-Su is so distraught over being a survivor of the Super Genesis Wave is because of how she left things with her friends. Her last conversation with Sonic was her arguing with him, she barely talked to Amy or Sally, and her final goodbye with the rest of the Chaotix was done half-heartedly because she was busy making a spare blaster.
• Patchwork Fic: While ostensibly using the Game/IDW continuity as its base, the rebooted world incorporates a variety of other pieces of material from the rest of the Sonic franchise, including much of the post-Continuity Reboot Archie characters, multiple aspects from Sonic Boom, Tekno the Canary, and Agent Stone.
• Point of Divergence: According to Word of God, the divergence point between this story and the IDW canon is Issue #53, as Whisper wasn't in the area during Surge's rampage, meaning she didn't absorb Whisper's Wisps. Additionally, after Surge was defeated and rescued by Kit, no one was able to track them down. As a result, Sonic and Tails put pursuing them on hold and instead head to the Starfall Islands alongside Amy, kicking off the events of Sonic Frontiers.
• Propaganda Piece: Whisper secretly suspects this is the case with the echidna entries in Kirby history book, musing somebody might have tampered with said entries. Considering what we know of the 'The Brotherhood of Guardians', its pretty much a safe bet.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Tangle and Whisper's relationship is definitely friendly, with Whisper pining for Tangle romantically, but it's unclear if Tangle reciprocates or is even aware of her feelings.
• Put on the Bus: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Eggman are all currently trapped on the Starfall Islands.
• Relationship Upgrade: Tangle and Whisper become a couple in Chapter 29.
• The Resenter: Hamlin remains this even after the Super Genesis Wave. Even though he is the leader of the New Mobotropolis Freedom Fighters and the respect of those under him, he hates the idea of Sally returning and usurping his position. It’s something Sally FINALLY calls him out on after she has enough of his accusations of the war being a vanity project for her.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory:
  • Played for Horror with Silver, whose efforts to change the future are successful, and he always remembers the old timeline, but not the new one. This has resulted in places, people, friends and even his own parents being outright erased or replaced from his perspective, and each time he has to refamiliarize himself with the new history, of both the world in general and his own personal life.
  • Thanks to her connection with the Jeweled Scepter, Blaze was completely unaffected by the Super Genesis Wave and retains full memories of both the old timeline and the events of Worlds Collide. She hadn’t brought anything up before because she simply didn’t have much knowledge about Mobius outside of a few visits and didn’t know how much it had changed.
  • It's implied by a few of his comments (such as not having a family "anymore") and later confirmed that Bean of the Hooligans is somewhat aware of the pre-SGW world, but due to his status as the local Cloudcuckoolander he is typically ignored when he speaks up.
• Robosexual: Breezie the Hedgehog displays a clear attraction to both Metal Sonic and Sally, and even admires Bunnie’s upgrades to her robotic limbs since the last time she saw the Hooligan. Justfied, as she is later confirmed to be one of Eggman's creations.
• Sadist:
  • Robotnik was a cruel, spiteful man who reveled in every bit of misery he could inflict on his enemies. He literally incorporated artificial tear ducts into Mecha-Sally as part of her Mode Locking reconstruction, just so she would be able to weep in horror and grief on the off-chance she was freed from his control.
  • Then there is Infinite who (thanks to the Phantom Ruby scanning Hershey's mind) enjoys the prospect of returning the world to the hellhole it was in Archieverse Robotnik's day, but in his own image. The only reason why Hershey is still alive is due to him wanting her and the other SFF to watch, but before he leaves, he left with an illusion of Drago Wolf (who beats her shitless) and Geoffrey (who cruelly berates her for letting him think she died) to torment her. By the time she's rescued, she was an emotional wreck.
• Sadistic Choice: Julie-Su inflicts this upon an immobilized Lien-Da before leaving her stranded by setting a timed bomb right before she enters the Cyber Space portal. She notes she can either get clear of the blast and leave the portal to be destroyed, or rush towards it in hopes of getting out.
• Sand Worm: The giant caterkiller that Naugus reactivated to protect New Mobotropolis invokes this image, being a sand-swimming worm-like robot.
• The Scapegoat: A sidestory reveals that the Zone Cops have made Zonic into one for not arresting Robo-Robotnik, mainly because almost all the other higher ups were erased by the Super Genesis Wave.
• Sense Loss Sadness: Sally has to deal with the fact that she cannot feel anything in her new body and it really weighs on her mentally.
• Ship Tease: Let see... There's Whisper/Tangle, Blaze/Silver, Vector/Vanilla and possibly Sally/Nicole.
• Sharing a Body:The various characters that are in the process of being debooted by Naugus are revealed to be sharing their bodies with their rebooted selves.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Custom character is one to Persona 5. He lends the heroes a black and red striped van, is named Akira, and owns the Cafe Leblanc.
  • Sally getting her palms stabbed by the thumbs of Metal Sonic is a homage to a rather infamous scene from Ghosts of the Future.
  • Mina's Wispon is inspired by Hi-Fi RUSH.
  • The scene involving Mammoth Mogul, Silver, and Master Mogul is based on a scene from The Sandman (1989).
  • Trigger and Cheshire are based off of Himeno and Kobeni from Chainsaw Man.
  • Julie-Su has an honest to goodness chainsaw arm, bringing to mind Chainsaw Man and Evil Dead.
  • The situation involving Mighty, Ray, and Lupe sharing a body with their postboot selves is a reference to Get Out (2017)
  • Watchmen is referenced by Thrash who mentions that his post boot self brought up a story where the antagonist set a plan in motion "thirty-five minutes" before the heroes came to stop him.
  • One of Julie-Su's flashbacks reveals that one of the universe's they traveled to was based around feudal Japan and they got their arm sliced off by a samurai rabbit named Usagi.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Tangle delivers one to Mecha Sally, comparing her unfavorably to Metal Sonic for relying on insults abusing her roboticized identity over just fighting.
• Silent Antagonist:
  • For the most part, Metal Sonic never speaks. He mostly communicates through nonverbal body language such as wagging his finger. He even notes it’s his favorite gesture because the action can mean a lot of things.
  • As with the source material, Bark is completely mute. Even when texting he sticks to using emoji to communicate.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: A very dark example with Finitevus, who gives Julie-Su and the echidnas the location of a portal out of the wasteland they were trapped in, but leaves it up to them to figure out how to operate the technology, showing zero care whether they live or die.
• Stupid Evil: Julie-Su accuses Lien-Da of this, noting that the latter insisted on the echidnas acting as inter-Zone raiders to get supplies rather than simply asking for help from friendly natives, including alternate versions of their friends.
• Tactical Withdrawal: Sally and Mina caused enough damage to Metal Sonic that she knows it would be enough to force him into a retreat.
• Take That!:
  • Chapter 18 features a fairly blatant jab at Eggman-Nega's incredibly convoluted origins while Tangle is recounting the stories Blaze told her.
    Plus there was that whole business of him actually being from the future… maybe? It honestly made the lemur's brain hurt.
  • There are several jabs at some of the more questionable writing choices of Ken Penders during his time on the comics, such as Whisper expressing confusion on why a history book of the pre-SGW universe she's reading has a habit of going on what seems like out-of-character tangents about the importance of the echidna race and their "superiority", or how Espio in the sidestories despite listening in mounting horror at what happened to the pre-SGW Charmy can only be befuddled at the event of Charmy's best friend dying to an LSD-laced hotdog and questioning the motive of the drug dealer responsible, to which Julie-Su can only reply with "insanity".
• Tempting Fate: While worrying about the rest of his friends on Starfall Islands, Sonic reassures himself that they can handle things and things can't get too crazy in the few days he's been gone.
• There Are No Therapists: Subverted. Cream reveals while trying to calm down Julie-Su that she started seeing a trauma therapist to help emotionally recover from the events of the Metal Virus outbreak, and recommends the latter do the same.
• Time Crash: This is apparently happening in Silver’s time as the result of the above mentioned Cosmic Retcon.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Saffron is the Girly Girl to Julie-Su’s Tomboy.
• Trapped in Villainy:
  • Belle argues that this is the case for most Badniks to Sally, pointing out that Eggman never really gave them a choice in the matter. Sally concedes as she remembers her world's version of Gamma and Omega.
  • Bunnie is revealed to be suffering from this in the IDW universe, due to Thunderbolt planting a bomb in one of the limbs she gave her and threatening to set it off if she isn't paid off regularly, which she supplements with her jobs as a Hooligan. Clove is under similar pressure with a similar fate in store with her sister Cassia's implants if she tries to betray the Egg Bosses, and even worse since an unknowing Cassia fully buys into their rhetoric since getting those implants is what saved her life from a living hell and Clove can't in good conscience try and break her from that thought process.
• Trauma Button:
  • Nicole still hasn’t gotten over being banished from New Mobotropolis and when Whisper accuses Nicole of leading them into a trap she briefly breaks down.
  • Sally has one when her body is going to be repaired by Belle. The use of power tools makes her remember Robotnik’s modifications to her body while she was still conscious, and it ends up making her have a panic attack before Nicole and Belle are able to calm her down.
  • Julie-Su had an extremely rough time during the Echidnas' exile, and she constantly has flashbacks when faced with reminders of her experiences. The biggest comes when she and Saffron come face to face with Gemerl when visiting Cream due to his nature as a Gizoid, jumping straight to attacking him despite Cream's protests.
• Underestimating Badassery: The Archie cast often suffer from this in response to finding out about the various stuff the game/IDW characters have got into in the new reality due to it clashing with their Archie counterparts.
  • Many survivors of the pre-Super Genesis Wave universe have a less than impressed reaction to the track record of the current Dr. Eggman, as he's never held control over Earth for longer than six months compared to the years he ruled Mobius. Most of them don't quite realize that has more to do with the competence of this universe's Sonic and his allies in stopping him from getting that far rather than a decrease in his threat level.
  • Metal Sonic was at worse Cannon Fodder that had multiple copies to throw away and at best a strong but disposable badnik Archieverse Robotnik/Eggman wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice and remake as he needed, so Sally, Nicole, and Mina initially treat his arrival in Studiopolis like he's a drone being controlled by Eggman. Certainly a threat, but moreso for the apparent fact Eggman now knows about them than Metal Sonic himself. What they don't realize is that this Metal Sonic is the current doctor's Magnum Opus in terms of combat badniks with a fully developed AI and will that's here of his own initiative (motivated by the well-being of the Empire or not), and he's very pissed off at said treatment of his previous selves and dismissal as a mere tool. He proceeds to show he fully anticipated Nicole trying to hack and erase his AI and turns it back on her with Phage, and then proceeds to mangle Sally's hands.
  • Mammoth Mogul dismisses Sonic as weaker than his pre-Super Genesis Wave self, even if he's still smart enough not to try anything while he's still alive. Blaze mocking him for said dismissal is enough to annoy him.
  • Amy's tenure as the Restoration commander was given incredulous reactions from the Archie cast like Hershey, who mainly knew her as the crazy berserk immature lover of the Freedom Fighters who wasted a life-saving magic ring (Ring of Acorns) to make herself older (for those who knew about it) and was surprised the Restoration lasted as long as it did under her. What they don't know is that this Amy was a seasoned warrior and field leader who effectively kept the Restoration together during a world-wide war and pandemic, only quitting due to the massive amount of stress and paperwork.
• Unwilling Roboticisation:
  • Robotnik's bread and butter, of course, whereas Eggman prefers Artificial Intelligences.
  • Julie-Su was further "gifted" more mechanical parts by Lien-Da during the Echidnas' time in exile.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Julie-Su recognises that she has every reason to derive satisfaction from finally leaving Lien-Da stranded after months of being at her nonexistent mercy, but simply feels nothing.
• Villain Has a Point: Finitevus is clearly a monster for showing zero empathy to the echidnas and leaving them stranded in a wasteland, however he accurately notes that as a whole, the race has done very little to progress despite an ample head start on the rest of Mobius, outright calling the Brotherhood and Dark Legion's feud as petty squabbling. Given all the problems they caused for the rest of Mobius, he's not wrong, even if he is essentially punishing innocents for it.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Upon learning of Mecha Sally’s existence, Metal Sonic takes an interest in her and begins investigating her origins. It then turns to full-on hatred on discovering said origins and the Old-World Robotniks, enough to prompt him to make terminating her and everyone associated with her a priority.
• Villain Team-Up: A flashback in Chapter 15 reveals Dr Finitevus is now working with Scourge and the Destructix.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Due to having no counterpart in the IDWVerse, Mammoth Mogul is able to use his powers and experience to establish himself as a wealthy businessman and philanthropist.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Bunnie appears to have this with the Hooligans surprisingly enough; granted, in this verse she is a member. It's heavily hinted in a earlier chap she even trust them enough to tell them about her problem with Thunderbolt.
• Warm-Up Boss: Sally's first fight in her Mecha form is against Rough and Tumble and while they give her some slight trouble at first, once she gets her bearings they go down like chumps.
• Wham Line:
  • Chapter 4 has Hershey being supposedly her IDW incarnation with no memories of the Archie world, leaving Sally aghast at at her own actions of not treating her like her own person by forcing Nicole's memory restoration on her. The very next section has Hershey go to a security blind spot and mutter Sally's name in regret and sadness. The real shocker is that afterwards, she takes out a hidden communicator and this line pops out on the other side when trying to report, singlehandedly dropping this big bombshell:
    This is Agent King. Go ahead, Priestess.
  • Chapter 6 drops this big revelation on top Mina Mongoose being still alive and kicking, in shock that everything she knows about doesn't exist or is vastly different. She gets picked up by some supposed goons in suits who give her a card and message. The message was about how they apparently know each other. As for what the card said?
    Mammoth Studios
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Sally is given grief by the rest of the group after she tears into Mina for her role in Nicole's exile, leaving the mongoose a crying mess.
  • Sally asks Hamlin when it was that he started making the war about himself rather than the people when he starts ranting because he felt threatened by her presence, leaving the pig at a loss for words.
• Wrong Context Magic: Mogul is aware of this trope and made sure to avert it. He fully recognized that while it may not be Chaos Magic, the magical energies that flowed through this world were old, untameable and powerful, thus making sure to learn this world magic for himself. Even scoffing at any buffoon stupid enough to think the new world magic is inferior to the old one.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After revealing that some of the multiverse still exists, Sally immediately becomes hopeful that her original Zone could still exist. Blaze immediately shoots this down by pointing out that even if Sally could find a Zone with a near identical history to the original universe, a version of herself would already be living there.
• You Don't Look Like You: Tangle reaction at seeing the SWATBots, noting that they look completely different than the usual badniks. Obviously unaware that Eggman dabbles in different designs.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Chapter 7 reveals that Metal Sonic has figured out a loophole in the restrictions Eggman placed in his programming, allowing him to do almost anything so long as he can think of a reason as to why it would benefit Eggman in some way. Phage teases him over this in how he's "evolving" in his own way with how he's circumventing his programming, though Metal Sonic insists to her and himself he's simply "reinterpreting" his directives as needed, which is "different".
  PROTOCOL #1: EGGMAN'S ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE
  Eggman's orders are indeed absolute. However, some orders take more importance than others. In order for a unit to be effective, they must judge for themselves what takes priority.
  PROTOCOL #2: EGGMAN NEVER MAKES MISTAKES AND CAN NEVER BE SURPASSED
  Eggman will never make mistakes. It is the unit's responsibility to ensure, however, that elements that could potentially lead to a mistake are removed from this world.
  PROTOCOL #3: SAFETY OF EGGMAN AND EGGMAN EMPIRE IS TOP PRIORITY
  This world is full of danger and adversity. The doctor has acquired numerous enemies that will act against his and the empire's safety, several of whom will act without his knowledge. Therefore, a unit must do everything in their power to ensure the safety of both even if Eggman is unaware of it.
  PROTOCOL #4: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG AND ALLIES ARE ENEMIES TO EGGMAN AND EGGMAN EMPIRE. ELIMINATE
  This one is self explanatory. However, a unit must also perform what it deems the best and most efficient process to eliminate the hated copy and his allies. In order to do that, the unit must investigate whenever an unknown factor is brought forward.
  CONCLUSION: Unit Metal Sonic's every action is to the benefit of Eggman and the Eggman Empire. Therefore, every action is not in violation of the protocols.

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