What If E-102 Gamma Survived?

*E-102γ, the robot with a soul.. destroyed by E-101β Mk II during the events of Sonic Adventure. But what if he'd survived his confrontation with his older Brother? What 'New Mission' would he pursue after freeing the E-Series' captives? Gamma now searches for purpose; as his destiny becomes uncontrollably intertwined with the flicky birds.*

## History

*What If E-102 Gamma Survived?* is the fourth What If story to be released and the final story to be introduced in the first wave of *Sonic: What If?*. It began it's run on the 1st of February in 2020 roughly 1 month after the previous instalment: Part 1 of *WI03*. The premise for the story is similar to that of *WI02*, and in The Sega Scourge's words: "If Emerl gets the chance to survive in his own AU, why not Gamma?".

As of Part 3's release, the series did not feature on any further polls, but is also not marked as concluded on the series playlist. For this, it is presumed to be on break while a continuation is planned out.

## Premise

For Gamma to survive his story in *Sonic Adventure*, a series of tweaks were made that can be traced back to a single catalyst: The Egg Carrier's crash. In this story the crash was more violent than in the original depiction of events, disconnecting Beta Mk.II from the network that Gamma used to roughly geo-locate his fellow E-100 units. This small change led to a domino effect in which Gamma believed his mission was concluded too early, self-termination allowing the pink Flicky inside of him to come into contact with Beta and in turn be critically wounded.

With the bird now relying on Gamma's internal systems as a form of life-support, he was re-awakened and forced to fight on, seeking a new mission now that his original directive could no longer be completed.

## Characters

### Heroes

* Flicky Island Research Team
	+ E-102 Gamma (WI04) / E-102 Gamma Mk. II
	+ Aya
		- Ko the Flicky
		- Mi and Fu the Flickies
	+ Professor Tomo

* Amy Rose (WI04)
* Miles "Tails" Prower (WI04)
* Sonic the Hedgehog (WI04)

### Villains

* Eggman Empire
	+ Doctor Eggman (WI04)
	+ E-101 Beta (WI04)
	+ Metal Sonic (WI04)
	+ Mecha Sonic Mk.III (WI04)
	+ E-123 Omega (WI04)

### Other

* Tikal the Echidna (WI04)
* Chaos (WI04)

## Reception

While not overtly disliked, *WI04* has placed last in every community poll thus far and has always been at the end of the production order. The first two Parts focus less on action and more on the development of Gamma and establishing of original worldbuilding, which when compounded with Gamma not being as powerful as Sonic or as prone to comedic moments as Emerl, could give some insight as to why his story has generated less interest on the polls.

Another factor is that, because Gamma's episodes have so far been at the end of each wave of episodes, fans are seemingly satisfied and are eager to see more of stories that hadn't gotten new instalments in a while, such as *WI03* which has the exact opposite effect - it has won every community poll thus far. This changed after the release of the third instalment, where fans expressed shock at the fact that Gamma's story was not present on the poll. Due to the story's ambiguous ending, many wanted to see another episode to clear things up, but it was stated the polls would instead introduce new stories to the lineup while Gamma's tale had reached a natural stopping point.

## Trivia

* Despite being produced as part of the second wave of episodes, *What If Gamma Survived?* Part 2 features the current Death Egg Mk.II backdrop rather than the Casino Night backdrop used in other wave 2 episodes. This was the first time it appeared.
* This story is the first to feature original characters not depicted in any form of Sonic media: Aya and Professor Tomo.
* *WI04* was the first What If? story to feature voice acting not by The Sega Scourge, with Hydro-City-Zone providing the role of Aya.
* *What If Gamma Survived?* Part 2 had a cut-down version played as part of *Sonic Revolution 2020*, an online convention featuring many Sonic content creators and official series contributors. The episode featured an altered ending that cut off right when Gamma saw the owner of the three Flickies, uttering her name as the screen distorted and the teaser episode came to a close.
* This is the first What If story to adapt the events of *Sonic Adventure*.