Recap / Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Overpowered Arc

Sparks are flying between these speedsters.^note Issue #56 Cover B by Thomas Rothlisberger.

Written by:	Evan Stanley
Year:	Five
Saga:	Eggman's Legacy
Arc Duration:	#52 - #56

Separated from Surge after their defeats in Battle for the Empire, Kitsunami allies with Sonic and his friends to escape from Eggperial City. Unbeknownst to them, Surge is still alive and has given herself a power boost with Eggman's latest invention, the "Dynamo Cage". During her subsequent rampage, she captures Whisper's Wisps to increase her power further, and Kit reunites with her. Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and Metal Sonic track the duo to the late Dr. Starline's base, where they learn the Awful Truth behind Surge and Kit before confronting them. Eventually, Surge's reckless use of the Dynamo Cage overloads and breaks it, freeing the Wisps, and Kit destroys the base after stopping Eggman from capturing Surge. All parties make it out of the Collapsing Lair alive and bitterly go their separate ways.

Tropes used in this storyline:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Dr. Starline's base has become this since his death. Kit, not knowing where else to go, takes Surge there after rescuing her from Sonic and Tails, but later demolishes it after her second defeat in a final attempt to kill the heroes and Eggman.
• Accidental Truth: Inverted. Sonic tells Kit in as many words that Surge is dead, not knowing she survived the fall in their earlier battle. So when Surge turns up later, Kit furiously assumes that Sonic lied to manipulate him.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Eggman starts begging for mercy from Surge after discovering Starline changed the getaway codes, leaving him with no escape.
• All for Nothing:
  • Tails' efforts to save and rehabilitate Kit amount to naught in the end, as Sonic's miscommunications about Surge's fate and Kit's own brainwashed devotion to her turn him against the heroes, even questioning why they bothered with him in the first place.
  • Surge spends the entire arc accumulating more power with the Dynamo Cage, only to break it via Explosive Overclocking and undo her own efforts.
  • Eggman's attempt to reclaim his property and capture Surge also proves fruitless, as she destroys the Dynamo Cage by accident and Kit rescues her afterward, presumably discarding the device's remains offscreen. Eggman himself lampshades that it was a total waste of time (for him).
  • The truce between Sonic's and Eggman's teams is nullified within ten pages of being struck when Surge takes out Metal Sonic, turning him and Eggman into the The Load and further worsening Sonic's odds; Tails himself is ultimately Out-Gambitted by Kit and Left for Dead along with the others. Eggman's betrayal also nearly instigates the Mêlée à Trois Sonic and Tails hoped to avoid, rendering the alliance pointless.
  • Dr. Starline's obsessive quest for Eggman's approval up to his death is officially deemed a "Shaggy Dog" Story. As Eggman himself lampshades, even with some legitimate reverence for the late doctor, it's just wouldn't be his style to ever tell him that in life.
• Alone with the Psycho: When Sonic and Tails go to save Whisper from Surge, Belle stays behind to watch over Kit, only to upset him into attacking her later on. With no backup or combat skills of her own, all Belle can do is evade Kit until he drops a hanging scaffold on her.
• Ambiguous Situation: A rather dark example: During their fight in Issue #56, Surge pins Sonic down in the water and severely electrocutes him to the point where she causes the Dynamo Cage to explode, and her to pass out. Now, while it's implied that Surge was just unconscious, Sonic's situation was less clear: he was lying prone, Deer in the Headlights, before he jerked back to consciousness with a Gasp of Life. So, was Sonic just processing the fact he almost died, or did his heart briefly stop?
• Arc Villain: Surge soon establishes herself as the central threat of this arc, displacing Eggman and Metal Sonic after the first issue. Kit also becomes this when he rejoins her and is the final threat faced overall.
• Beyond Redemption: A tragic example. During his climactic fight with her in Issue #56, Sonic begs the hypercharged Surge to stop fighting; he tells her that she's free now that Starline is dead and that she doesn't have to do any of this anymore. Sonic implores her to leave and enjoy her freedom, but Surge painfully smiles, saying she can't. Deep down, she knows that neither she nor Kit will ever be truly free from the lives they were forced into.
  Sonic: Starline's not here to make you do anything! Freedom is right there, waiting for you! Just take it!
  Surge: (gives a resigned smile) ...I can't.
• Big "NO!":
  • Kit angrily shouts this at Sonic when he accuses the latter of trying to kill Surge, as well as lying to him about her fate.
  • Surge yelps this in panic when she finds herself sandwiched between Sonic and Eggman's teams.
• Bittersweet Ending: Heavily leaning towards "bitter", up to the point where it borders on a Downer Ending. Surge is defeated and De-Powered, Whisper's Wisps are rescued, and Eggman's ulterior plans are thwarted, but Starline's Villainous Legacy prevails through his creations and ex-idol, who escape to fight another day. Sonic and Tails themselves have only an ego-busting Pyrrhic Victory to show for their troubles, their All-Loving Hero code having fallen flat with their enemies once again.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Tails got hit with falling debris on the head, he lost focus, So Sonic grabbed Tails and managed to save him by hopping up to the surface, using falling debris and managed to get himself and Tails back to surface as Tails quickly recovered from the hit and along with Sonic, grabbed the ceiling.
• Break the Cutie: Whisper again, upon losing her Wisps to Surge. Belle also suffers this to a lesser extent after Metal Sonic slaps her.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Surge's pride takes a big hit when she realizes Sonic and Eggman are going to cooperate against her (before said truce even goes into effect); her usual fake attitude is replaced by anger, desperation, and insecurity for the rest of the arc.
  • Downplayed with Sonic and Tails, but they clearly end the arc with bruised egos, having failed miserably to redeem Surge or Kit and been outplayed by the latter and Eggman, along with Starline, one of their biggest punching bag foes, actually getting the last laugh on all of them from beyond the grave.
  • Actually subverted by Eggman. Though frustrated by all the turmoil he went through for nothing in the end, if anything he is more amused by what Starline's antics have caused. He does seem a tad nervous when it seems he might have finally crossed the line with Sonic, though.
• The Bus Came Back: Whisper and her Wisps reappear in the main comic for the first time since Issue #45 (their appearance in the 2022 Annual took place much earlier in the overall Eggman's Legacy Saga).
• Butt-Monkey: Nothing goes Eggman's way in this arc. Surge steals his tech and almost kills him (twice); Metal Sonic temporarily defies him by attacking Sonic; Starline's renovations to Egg Base Sigma prevent him from nabbing Tails or fleeing from Surge; and Kit whisks Surge away before he can capture her or the now-destroyed Dynamo Cage, leaving the doctor empty-handed.
• Cain and Abel: Belle standing up to her "brother", Metal Sonic, in Sonic's defense, and getting knocked aside for it.
• Central Theme: Convenience and/or lack thereof.
  • The Dynamo Cage physically looks as though it was made for Surge, matching her accessories perfectly.
  • Kit is always on-hand regardless of his alignment.
  • Whisper, whose moveset centers on her Wispon, is unlucky enough to find herself facing an opponent (Surge) equipped to absorb Wisp energy.
  • Sonic's and Eggman's teams happen to converge on Starline's base at the exact same time.
  • Surge ends up freeing Whisper's Wisps for Sonic and Tails when she overloads and destroys the Dynamo Cage.
  • All the plot points stockpiled together giving Starline the Villain Cred of a true menace in everyone's eyes at long last...albeit only after his Undignified Death.
• Combat Pragmatist: After losing to so badly to Sonic twice before, Surge pulls out all the stops in their third round and very nearly succeeds in killing him.
• Cooldown Hug: Kit unintentionally does this for Surge when he desperately hugs her to apologize for leaving her behind and thinking she was dead, which snaps her out of a panic attack caused by her latest hallucination of Dr. Starline.
• Corrupt the Cutie: As the arc progresses, Kit gradually transitions from a meek, subservient Anti-Villain on the verge of a Heel–Face Turn to a cold-blooded No-Nonsense Nemesis with the same hatred for the world as Surge.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Tails tells Eggman that Surge and Kit wouldn't have suffered or be a threat if he'd just given Starline the time of day. Eggman acknowledges this, but is apathetic all the same.
• Covers Always Lie:
  • Issue #55's B and RI covers feature the specter of Starline, but in fact, Surge stops hallucinating him after Issue #54; all that's seen of or heard from him is a voice message he left for Eggman in his base.
  • All of Issue #56's covers show Sonic and Metal Sonic ganging up on Surge. In reality, they fight together for just three pages before Surge separates them and knocks Metal offline, leaving Sonic to fend for himself. By the time Metal re-enters the fray, Surge has already taken herself out.
• Cruel Mercy: When Surge is getting ready to deal the killing blow to Whisper, she actually offers to let her pick how she does it:
  Surge: (now in a rainbow glow) It's been fun, but I'm starting to get bored... (contemplates one of Whisper's Wisp canisters) So, what would you prefer? I'm itching to try out this rocket thing, but maybe the spikes? It's what you did to me, after all. Just returning the favor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Kit makes short work of Metal Sonic upon restocking his water pack, buying the heroes and himself time to escape.
  • Whisper finds herself on the business end of this trope as Surge is able to absorb nearly all of her Wisps, gaining their powers, and destroy the Variable Wispon.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • When Kit is convinced to help Sonic and his friends, Tails tries to figure out how to recharge Kit's backpack. Belle just smashes some pipes and lets him gather up the water that way.
  • Attempted: Tails' plan to take down Surge in Issue #54 is to just hook her up to a bunch of electronics, so that she'll use up her excess energy so they can take off the Dynamo Cage. And while this does knock her out^note albeit because she causes an explosion in attempting to fight it off, Kit shows up and takes her away before they can.
• Dare to Be Badass: When Metal Sonic bearing down on them, Sonic tells Kit that he's the only one who can help get them all out of there alive and convinces him to do so.
• Death Glare:
  • Kit gives off one before engaging Metal Sonic.
  • Cubot gets one of these from Surge when he tries to tell her off.
  • Whisper gives her usual one before attacking Surge one last time.
  • Sonic and Tails stare daggers at Eggman after escaping from Egg Base Sigma, emphasized by an Extreme Close-Up of Sonic's angry face.
• Demoted to Extra: Belle, after the last few arcs have had her as its central character, falls into the background after Issue #52.
• Designated Girl Fight: Whisper versus Surge in Issue #53. The former loses very badly to the extent that she is out of action for the next few issues.
• Didn't Think This Through: Sonic and Tails decide a Mêlée à Trois between the competing factions is riskier than a truce with Eggman and Metal Sonic, while at the same time planning to one-up Eggman before he can double-cross them. However, they don't count on Surge draining Metal's power to further boost her own or Eggman seeing through their plan and out-betraying them, which is exactly what happens during the final fight.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Metal Sonic is the Big Bad of the first issue, chasing Sonic's group throughout Eggperial City until Surge gets ahold of the Dynamo Cage, forcing the robot to break off. Surge takes over as the main villain afterward, though Kit is the final threat faced overall.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Overpowered" refers to Surge and Kit being too powerful to overcome head-on while themselves being unable to overcome Starline's brainwashing.
• Downer Beginning: Picking up where Battle for/Escaping the Empire left off, Sonic, Tails, Belle, and Kit barely get out of Eggperial City alive with almost nothing to show for their troubles there, while Surge recovers from her previous defeat and gains the Dynamo Cage.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Sonic's left leg was crushed in the shuttle crash and keeps giving out at the worst possible times. Surge, being Blinded by Rage, fails to take proper advantage of this until late in the arc, when Sonic's seemingly-healed leg fails one last time and he falls into the electrified pool below.
• Dramatic Irony: Eggman finally, posthumously gives Starline the recognition he longed for upon finding out what he did to Kit and Surge (if only to stroke his own ego).
  Eggman: Admitting the skill of a bested enemy only proves my brilliance.
• Dual Boss: Sonic's and Eggman's teams versus Surge and Kit at the climax of the arc.
• Electrified Bathtub: After taking out Metal Sonic, Surge breaks open several stasis tanks to flood the lab, then channels her lightning through the water to electrocute Sonic. He temporarily avoids it thanks to Eggman, but eventually falls into the puddle after his mostly-healed leg gives out again, allowing Surge to zap him.
• Enemy Mine: Twice.
  • Kit, still powerless when the arc begins, is forced to work with Sonic, Tails, and Belle to escape from Eggperial City.
  • In Egg Base Sigma, Sonic and Tails team up with Eggman and Metal Sonic to stop Surge and avoid a risky Mêlée à Trois. It ends up backfiring, as Surge uses Eggman to fake out Metal and drains the robot's power for herself, leaving Sonic on his own with even worse odds. As usual, the truce ultimately ends with Eggman backstabbing the heroes.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Surge fights Whisper in Central City, a long-range combatant who uses Wisps as her main weapons. While hiding behind a mailbox with the Dynamo Cage already out of juice, Surge wonders how to to get more power into it before remembering its original purpose; the ability to absorb the power of Wisps.
• Evil Versus Evil: Dr. Eggman versus Surge in Issue #55.
• Flawed Prototype: The Dynamo Cage, the way Surge has it set up, is not supposed to be used that way. While it does give her an amazing power boost and the ability to absorb energy and Wisps, the boost is also (supposedly) causing her to have Sanity Slippage.
• Genre Savvy: Sonic and Tails agree to help Eggman retrieve the Dynamo Cage from Surge so they can "accidentally" break it afterward. Unfortunately, Eggman preemptively betrays them upon Surge's defeat and tries to capture her along with the cage, revealing he had the heroes' motive figured out all along.
  Tails: You cheater...
  Sonic: This wasn't the deal, Eggman!
  Eggman: Oh, please. Like you were going to hold up your end of the bargain.
• The Ghost: Tangle is mentioned a couple of times, but never appears in person, as she was tied up elsewhere during Surge and Kit's rampage.
• Grand Finale: Of the Eggman's Legacy Saga.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Surge baits Metal Sonic by attacking Eggman, then grabs the robot and uses his body to club Sonic in the face, knocking him away. This stuns Sonic long enough for Surge to take Metal out of the fight.
• Greater-Scope Villain: All the key characters of this arc are left dealing with the aftermath of the late Starline's actions, and realising he wasn't quite the ineffectual blowhard they believed he was.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Without Surge to tell him what to do, Kit starts following Sonic instead, but later rejoins Surge when she turns up alive.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Cubot is apparently a fan of a virtual idol known as Cyber Singer Mika, and owns a 10-inch figurine of hers that got stomped on by Surge.
  • Enforced by Eggman; despite his treatment of Starline in life, he genuinely respected his scientific mind and was impressed by his feats, he just had no intent of ever telling the smarmy upstart that.
• Hope Spot:
  • Belle stands between Sonic and Metal Sonic and tries to talk the latter down. While he does hesitate for a moment, Metal is undeterred and knocks her aside.
  • When Sonic's leg gives out while fighting Surge at the top of Issue #54, Whisper decides to let Cyan out for Sonic to use, so he could have a chance at taking Surge on. This doesn't last longer than a page before she manages to grab Sonic and take Cyan.
  • Once Surge is knocked out in the electronic store's basement, Sonic and Tails rush to get the Dynamo Cage off of her. However, not only does Sonic's leg once again give out before he can, but Kit shows up before Tails can and, upon misreading the situation, opts to take Surge away back to Starline's old base.
  • Tails seemingly manages to talk Kit down again, and the fennec later saves him, along with Sonic and Surge, when Eggman sics Metal Sonic on them. However, Kit says he only did it for Surge and leaves with her while trying to bury the other teams.
• Hypocrite:
  • After Eggman double crosses them and tries to reclaim both the Dynamo Cage and Surge, an outraged Sonic calls him out for breaking their deal, though as Eggman retorts, Sonic had every intention of double crossing him too and sabotaging the cage. Tails can only frustratedly call Eggman a "cheater" for outgambitting them.
  • Despite calling Sonic out for planning to betray him, Eggman has the gall to ask Sonic and Tails to "keep that truce going" (i.e. the same truce Eggman broke by turning against the heroes after Surge incapacitates herself).
• I Lied: Eggman insists to Sonic and Tails that he only wants the Dynamo Cage back from Surge, when in fact he also wants to capture her for his own ends. Upon her defeat, Eggman tells Metal Sonic to grab her and the device, outraging Sonic and Tails as they realize he lied to them. As he retorts however, he knew they fully intended to pull this trope as well and "accidentally" destroy the cage afterwards.
• Implacable Man: Even after getting crushed under debris twice, Metal Sonic keeps coming after the heroes and Kit until Surge's antics force the robot to break off.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • Sonic hopes fleeing into some narrow alleyways will slow Metal Sonic down, but the robot simply tears through every wall in his path, mere seconds apart. If it weren't for Kit, the heroes would've been nabbed for sure.
  • Going by experience, Belle doubts Metal Sonic will go through her to get Sonic, since she's a fellow Badnik. Unfortunately, he smacks her anyhow.
  • Whisper's Pink Wisp (as translated through her mask) cockily assumes Surge isn't that much of a threat and they can handle her. While they do have the upper-hand at first, Surge quickly turns the tables, with Pink ironically being the first Wisp she absorbs.
  • Eggman tries to flee from Surge via an escape hatch, thinking his private access codes still work in Starline's base following the latter's takeover. Not only does this immediately prove untrue, but Starline (who'd hit a similar impasse before) even left a mocking voice message for Eggman in case he tried.
  • When Kit stands down and sidelines himself, Tails thinks he's seen reason and put his faith in Sonic, who himself hails Kit as a lifesaver when he thwarts Eggman's double-cross. They both turn out to be wrong, as Kit ultimately sides with Surge, renounces any trust he had in Sonic, and leaves the heroes for dead all in one fell swoop.
• Internal Reveal: Sonic, Tails, and Eggman finally learn what Starline was up to, and what he did to Surge and Kit, while scouring his former base.
• Internal Deconstruction:
  • After spending his whole living tenure a No-Respect Guy and Big Bad Wannabe, Overpowered makes Dr. Starline a surprisingly dark and effective Greater-Scope Villain in death. Though it's all too late for him to relish it, he gets pretty much all the reactions he desired from those he was involved with; Sonic and Tails are disturbed by the depravity of his schemes, Eggman is amused and openly impressed by them, while Surge and Kit, despite their attempts to sever all ties, are revealed to be traumatised and fearful of him. It is implied they all had some awareness Starline was a Not-So-Harmless Villain from the get-go, just his Inferiority Superiority Complex made it all too easy for them to undermine him, and only now are all his ill-thought plans showing effective side effects.
  • It is also one for Sonic's modus operandi of Thou Shall Not Kill and always letting the villain go, under the ideals that people need to be left free to make their own choices. It has been shown time and time again while it works for the most part, there are people that will never reform and are better off dead or rotting in prison for everyone's sake as they will make the wrong choices over and over on their own. Much like Metal Sonic, Surge is created for the very purpose of killing Sonic, with the very notion figuratively and literally drilled into every part of her being. She shows that the very notion of not going after Sonic and doing her own thing isn't even comprehensible for her. As far as she is concerned, either she kills Sonic or Sonic has to put her down for good. For the first time since Metal Sonic, Surge is another case that Sonic's ideals cannot work without external factors. To add to the sting, Sonic now knows Surge was the creation of Starline, a villain who he also repeatedly left to his own devices despite knowing how malicious he was.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Implied. Tails convinces Kit to stand down during the final fight and appears to have gotten through to him, since Kit later saves Tails, Sonic, and Surge from Eggman. However, Kit then tries to kill both sides while he grabs Surge and hightails it, indicating he had Tails Out-Gambitted all along and only stood down to sell his deception.
• It's All About Me: In his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Kit deems Eggman, Starline and even Sonic as such, accusing them of all of just making him and Surge pawns to their own ego; tools for them to change to prove their own righteousness rather than people they legitimately care about.
• Karmic Jackpot: Subverted. Rather than leave Kit to burn in the wreckage of a crashed ship, Tails risks himself to rescue him. Kit winds up being the one to fight off Metal Sonic, likely saving Tails’ life, as well as the lives of Sonic and Belle. Unfortunately, Kit later defects back to Surge.
• Kick the Dog: Surge figuratively and literally does this to Whisper (an actual dog).
• Killed Off for Real: Any thought that Starline may have survived like Surge did is squashed when she finds his broken Tricore glove. After looking it over, contemplating if she's free, she chucks it into a furnace where it burns to ash. However, hallucinations of Starline go on to haunt her, and she insists during her last bout with Sonic that Starline's death isn't enough to truly free her from the villainy he instilled in her.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • When Sonic points out that the Wisps she's stealing are thinking, feeling creatures, Surge bluntly states she doesn't care.
  • Eggman is both impressed by Surge and Kit's creation and indifferent to their suffering, much to Sonic and Tails' disgust.
  • Tails tries to convince Kit that Surge hurting herself and others is unjustified, but the fennec is unmoved and stays loyal to her while leaving Tails and the others to die.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Surge serves as Kit's emotional crutch despite the former's treatment of him. So when Sonic tells him that Surge fell to her death (she survived), he breaks down in shock and despair as his sole reason for existing is gone. Ironically, Sonic becomes Kit's new crutch as the poor fennec needs someone to serve.
  Kit: I was made for her. She's gone. But Sonic can use me too. I won't lose him. I can't.
• Lured into a Trap: After Surge blows her chance to kill Sonic while his leg was injured, she and Kit set a trap for their counterparts, and later Eggman and Metal Sonic, in the heart of Starline's base, giving the imposters the home field advantage. The real trap, however, turns out to be their backup plan: namely, Kit bringing the whole place down upon Surge's defeat.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Eggman's triumph over Starline is proven short-lived in this arc: not only is the platypus simply replaced by the more dangerous Surge and Kit, but thanks to his botched coup, Sonic and the Restoration now know about Eggperial City and already plan on tearing it down.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Surge finds Eggman's gun from Sonic Adventure 2^note the one he held Amy hostage with on the Space Colony ARK, moments before launching Sonic into space while rummaging through his stuff. Eggman fires the same gun, or at least one similar in model at Surge when she tries a sneak attack on him.
    • Eggman also uses his Eggwalker mech from the same game when he and Metal Sonic investigate Starline's repurposed base, albeit with some its upgrades stripped. The mecha itself is powered by a Chaos Drive, which Surge takes for herself.
• Near-Villain Victory: Twice for Surge:
  • After a brief cutaway to Sonic and Tails being informed of the fight and heading out towards it, we see that Surge has taken nearly all of Whisper's Wisps (outside of Cyan), and is preparing to finish her off with one final attack^note not counting using Blue to pin her to the ground with a giant cube. If it wasn't for her getting distracted by a sudden recurrence of her Starline hallucination, Whisper probably would have died before Sonic and Tails arrived.
  • Surge is among the rare few [non-Eggman] villains in the franchise who came closest to not only beat Sonic, but actually put him down. During the final fight, while Tails is preoccupied with Kit, Surge takes out Metal Sonic, steals his powers, and floods the lab, then drops Sonic into the water and holds him down while electrocuting the crap out of him. Had the Dynamo Cage not given out when it did, Sonic would've been zapped to death (and presumably does for a moment or two).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Downplayed: To try and get the Dynamo Cage off of Surge, Sonic and Tails trick her into entering the basement of an electronics' store, where Tails proceeds to hook her up to a bunch of electronics to get her to use up her excess energy. Instead, she fights through it and causes an explosion, setting the basement on fire.
  • An unintentional example: Because Sonic was unaware that Surge was still alive at the time, he thought it would be best to break it to Kit that she was more likely dead. When Kit catches up to Sonic, and sees that Surge was alive, he just assumes Sonic lied and was about to kill her for real.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Both times Surge threatens Eggman force Metal Sonic to break off just when he has Sonic dead-to-rights. Later, after the heroes' and Eggman's many failed attempts to get the Dynamo Cage off of her, she ultimately busts it herself.
• Nightmare Face: Surge makes one while absorbing Whisper's Pink Wisp, and later when Eggman tries and fails to escape from her.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Belle tries to reason with Metal Sonic, and later Kit, they attack her for getting in their way. Kit's reunion with Surge also marks yet another instance of Sonic and Tails' kindness backfiring on them.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: After two crushing defeats to Sonic, and finding out he and Eggman have allied against her, Surge holds nothing back in their third battle, attacking a defenseless Eggman to knock out Metal Sonic and then throwing her whole arsenal at her counterpart until he's basically a half-inch from death.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Kit discovers that Surge is still alive in the aftermath of her blowing up the basement of the electronics store, he assumes Sonic lied about her being "gone"^note even though Sonic had no way of knowing she survived the fall, and that he was trying to "finish the job"^note in reality, all he and Tails wanted to do was get the Dynamo Cage off of her.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Metal Sonic's expression right before Kit buries him in rubble.
  • When the Dynamo Cage runs out of power, Surge utters a "crap" when she realizes it is draining her energy faster than she thought.
  • The look on Whisper's face, as shown behind her mask, when Surge absorbs a point-blank Pink Spikes blast, revealing she's immune to the Variable Wispon.
  • Belle has this reaction upon provoking Kit by accident.
  • Eggman has one after a recorded message from Starline reveals that all his secret override codes for Egg Base Sigma have been removed, leaving him without an escape route and at Surge’s mercy.
  • Surge has another one when she finds out Sonic and Eggman have found her at the same time, knowing full well a truce between them is imminent.
  • Sonic gets this reaction after Surge eliminates Metal Sonic, leaving the Blue Blur alone to face the Mean Green's full power.
  • Eggman gets a second one when Sonic and Tails Death Glare him after the final showdown, momentarily fearing he pushed them too far.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Surge's brash, aggressive persona dissolves into tearful panic during her last Starline hallucination. She later drops her fake attitude altogether when Sonic and Eggman team up against her.
  • Sonic immediately drops his usual snark upon learning how Surge and Kit came to be. In the end, he and Tails are left downbeat and seething over Starline's Posthumous Villain Victory, Surge and Kit's Redemption Rejection, and Eggman's treachery.
• Poor Communication Kills: A variation. Sonic doesn't withhold crucial info from Kit, but he does relay it prematurely, announcing Surge's apparent death to the fennec ASAP against Tails' advice. When Sonic turns out to be wrong, Kit, thinking he was lied to on purpose, is so angry that he doesn't even give the heroes a chance to explain.
• Post-Mortem Comeback: Starline appears as a recurring hallucination to Surge.
• Posthumous Villain Victory: As noted under Internal Deconstruction and Villainous Legacy, Starline posthumously gains the notoriety and respect he longed for despite living and dying a Big Bad Wannabe. In so doing, he also gets the last laugh on Eggman, Surge, Kit, and the heroes.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Once Surge remembers Cubot saying that the Dynamo Cage she stolen needs a power source to absorb, as well as Wisps, she starts targeting and absorbing Whisper's.
• Power High: Surge soon becomes addicted to the Dynamo Cage's energy absorption, as shown when she grabs the Chaos Drive powering the Eggwalker.
• Power Parasite: Well, in a technical sense given how Surge starts stealing Whisper's Wisps. She also absorbs Metal Sonic's powers at the arc's climax.
• Put on a Bus: Kit retreats with Surge in tow at the end of the arc, their status and whereabouts unknown.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sonic and Tails retrieve Whisper's Wisps, but otherwise have nothing tangible to show for their troubles. They are unable to take down Eggperial City (for now) or redeem Surge and Kit, and helping Belle repurpose Badniks earlier in the saga went nowhere thanks to Starline, leaving the world no safer than before.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kit's parting words to Sonic at the arc's conclusion.
  Kit: Starline. Eggman. You. You're all the same. You don't need me or Surge. You want us. All that matters is what we can do, how you can change us. So you can prove that your way is right.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • Kit only followed Sonic because Surge wasn't around to direct him, so when she turns up alive, he cancels his Heel–Face Turn without a second thought. Tails protests that Surge can't be hurting others and herself, but Kit doesn't care and ultimately leaves the heroes to die.
  • During their final go-around, Sonic begs Surge to change her ways and be free of Starline's influence, since he's no longer around to direct her. She refuses, claiming that with how Starline conditioned her, she'll never truly be free until Sonic is dead.
• Sanity Slippage: A few examples:
  • Using the Dynamo Cage boosts Surge's power, but also her psychosis. Most notably, she keeps hallucinating Dr. Starline, who taunts her whenever he shows up; her first vision of him even tells her he's just a figment of her imagination.
  • Whisper's neurosis over losing allies kicks into high gear when Surge captures her Wisps. By the time Tails pulls her out of the fight, she's once again snarling and in tears, demanding that she get back her friends. It only gets worse at the end of Issue #54; once back at Tails' house, she remains huddled in a corner, unable to talk.
  • Kit's mental state was already shaky due to Starline's conditioning, but becomes increasingly disillusioned and cynical as the arc progresses until he finally goes off the deep end, any innocence he had left now gone.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Surge's second defeat, Kit, disgusted with Sonic and Eggman both, collapses Starline's base onto them and their sidekicks while he flees with his partner, declaring he will henceforth stay with her where he thinks he's truly needed.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Surge uses the Dynamo Cage to absorb the attacks of Eggman's robots, she utters out a "Groovy".
  • After Surge's rampage in Eggman's city, Orbot takes inventory of what was damaged. Among the wrecked items was a stomped 10-inch figure of Cyber Singer Mika, who is one to Hatsune Miku in name and appearance.
  • Surge's battle pose at the end of Issue 55 is a direct imitation of Vegeta's during the Saiyan Saga.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Kit is more concerned about Surge than escaping from Eggperial City, even with Metal Sonic chasing him and the heroes. Sonic gets him to focus on the task at hand, allowing the group to escape, but Kit retains his fixation with Surge and rejoins her later on.
  • Eggman is initially less intimidated by Surge than he is annoyed by her theft of his tech. She only scares him when he ends up at her mercy in Starline's base.
• Spanner in the Works: Kit, to both sides.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Despite Surge and Kit being yet another exercise in Evil Is Not a Toy for Starline when alive, this arc makes very clear that the two were legitimately scarred by his experiments on them. Surge, despite deeming Starline "weak" and vowing to just forget his wretched existence, even begins hallucinating a creepy recreation of the doctor, making apparent even she genuinely feared Starline.
  • Sonic assures Tails that his bad leg will heal soon, and it seems to have done so by Issue 55. Even then, however, the injury has only barely healed and his leg gives out again during the final fight, allowing Surge to gain the upper-hand. He'd later bust that same leg in the Scrapnik Island miniseries (set after this arc) and be handicapped all over again.
  • Fully earning someone's trust and loyalty takes time, especially when that someone has PTSD, and fence-straddling doesn't always appease both sides. Sonic and Tails learn this the hard way through their interactions with Kit.
  • A larger force doesn't always guarantee success, neither does the same trick always work twice on the same opponent. Surge manages to turn Sonic and Eggman's Enemy Mine against them to empower herself further, while Kit, remembering how Tails beat him last time, uses Reverse Psychology to buy Surge time and escape to fight another day after she loses. And while the heroes do succeed in the end, their victory is rendered meaningless by Surge and Kit's Redemption Rejection (see Pyrrhic Victory above).
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Surge attempts to describe the Variable Wispon as such, but she doesn't actually know the term:
  Surge: Geez! It's like one'a those knives with all the little bits in 'em!
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Sonic and Tails express this towards Surge and Kit, especially after learning what Starline has done to them. The imposter duo, however, reject the the sentiment.
  • A very downplayed case for Dr Starline. While the heroes are obviously unnerved by the depravity of his schemes, and Sonic couldn't care less that he's dead, Tails does lament that Starline likely wouldn't have gone down that slippery slope if he'd just gotten a smidgeon of approval from Eggman like he wanted.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and Metal Sonic work together again in Issue #55, and they finalize things with a tight handshake. Both sides don't like it, but they need to so they can escape Starline's base and beat Surge and Kit.
  Sonic: I'll be watching you.
  Eggman: And I'll absolutely crush you...eventually.
• Tempting Fate: Both Sonic and Surge react with sarcastic indifference to Starline being gone, figuring good riddance as seemingly just one last insult to the No-Respect Guy of the Rogues Gallery. It would seem Starline's impact on them isn't quite over yet, nor have they even seen the worst of it.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Surge's reaction when she first hallucinates Starline.
  • Sonic also has this reaction when he sees Surge is alive.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Two, both given off in Stunned Silence.
  • Kit's reaction when Sonic tells him what happened to Surge and Starline.
  • Sonic himself sports one after Surge electrocutes him. As described above under Ambiguous Situation, the Beat before his Gasp of Life implies she stopped his heart dead for a moment.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Kit, by the end of the arc.
• To Win Without Fighting: When Sonic enraged Surge by trying to convince her that she’s free to be what she chooses, she retorts to Sonic otherwise for he and Eggman are both still alive and from the enragement Sonic commented on her, she overloaded the Dynamo Cage and in the process freed the wisps and fell unconscious from forcing Sonic in the paddle of liquid and attempting to zap him to death. Sonic wasn’t fighting Surge when she made him go in the puddle.
• Tranquil Fury: Sonic and Tails are show this towards Eggman at the end of the arc, both for using them to try and capture Surge and his indifference to her and Kit's misery (which is partly his fault for disregarding Starline).
• Ungrateful Bastard: Upon discovering Surge's survival, Kit unhesitatingly rejoins her and walks out on the heroes, even after they saved his life and treated him better than Surge or Starline ever did.
• Villainous Breakdown: Metal Sonic has a minor, but intense one after Kit crushes him under rubble, allowing Sonic, Tails, and Belle to escape. As Sonic muses later in the arc, the robot hasn't been that pissed for a while now.
• Villainous BSoD:
  • Kit has two: first in despair over losing track of Surge, and again when Sonic tells him she's dead.
  • Surge has one herself when she learns Sonic and Eggman are working together, quietly lamenting her own inferiority while in a Troubled Fetal Position. This also marks the first ime she openly shows concern for Kit's welfare and not just her own.
• Villainous Legacy: Surge and Kit, as well as some other lingering remains of his scheming in life, leave Dr. Starline the Greater-Scope Villain of this arc as something of a posthumous Who's Laughing Now? on Sonic, Tails, and Eggman, who are forced to team up against it all, all the while realizing the dark levels his machinations reached. Starline's conditioning on Surge and Kit (to the point Surge hallucinates him) also makes apparent as long as they are around, his presence still lingers.
• Villain Respect: Eggman, despite never giving Starline the time of day in life, admits to having such here, amused by his experimentation on Surge and Kit and noting him as being one of the most impressive scientific minds he met, just he would never stoop to giving him the smug satisfaction of knowing that. Commending him in death, he adds, is fair game, especially since it only looks better on himself for defeating him the first place.
• Villainous Rescue: Kit pulls off two of these:
  • Upon discovering Surge's survival, Kit defends her from Sonic and Tails and takes her back to Starline's base.
  • After Surge's second defeat, Eggman orders Metal Sonic to attack the heroes and capture her, but Kit puts paid to the doctor's plans. When Sonic thanks him, Kit clarifies that he did it for Surge and only saved the heroes by proximity (Sonic was holding Surge at the time to shield her from Metal).
• Villainous RRoD: Surge passes out after expending the Dynamo Cage's energy, with the item in question exploding after she used it to try and kill Sonic.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kit elbows Belle's nose when she tries to restrain him. Soon afterwards, Metal Sonic coldly backhands her for getting between him and Sonic.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Surge smashes Whisper's Wispon against the ground to get the rest of her Wisps. The only use it gets after that is when, out of desperation and down to her last Wisp, Whisper grabs a shard and attempts to stab Surge. By the end of Issue #54, Belle decides to try and fix it herself.
  • The Dynamo Cage itself meets its fate when Surge overloads it and it explodes, knocking her unconscious in the process. Kit likely discards its remains (which Surge is still wearing as they retreat) off-page.
• Wrong Context Magic: A technological variant. Eggman designed the Dynamo Cage to absorb the powers of Wisps and only Wisps. He’s shocked when Surge begins using it to absorb all forms of energy, noting it should be impossible to use it like that.
• "You!" Exclamation: Surge growls this in #53 upon noticing Sonic, in a cold tone complete with an icy font.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Tails wants to avoid fighting Kit, but refuses to let him hurt Sonic and twice shields his friend from Kit's water tails using his own. Unfortunately, Kit takes a third option and stalls for time while Surge tenderizes Sonic herself (and his "The Reason You Suck" Speech clearly "hurts" Sonic anyhow).

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