Team Freedom

Team Freedom, from *Sonic the Hedgehog* #239.

 I present your defenders of freedom at home...**Team Freedom!**
 — Rotor the Walrus, *Sonic the Hedgehog* #236

**Team Freedom** is a group that appears in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. It is a sub-unit of the Freedom Fighters that forms when the group is broken up into smaller teams for missions.

## History

### Formation

Following the loss of several members, the Knothole Freedom Fighters were officially dissolved, leading Rotor and Sonic to believe they needed to change strategies. While Sonic opted to head Team Fighters in pursuit of the Death Egg Mark 2, Rotor Walrus decided to be the leader of a new team of heroes specifically meant to respond to threats against the city from the homefront. Even though King Naugus opposed the idea, the majority of the Council agreed to the proposal and voted in support of it. As the new leader, Rotor then rebuilt the former Badniks Heavy and Bomb with Tails help, while also holding auditions for anyone interested in joining his team. By the end, there were only two (technically three) applicants: Big the Cat, and Cream the Rabbit, accompanied by Cheese. Rotor accepted all of them, bringing Team Freedom to a total of six members.

With the roster filled up, Rotor then held a public reveal of Team Freedom in front of New Mobotroplois's community center in order to gain support from the citizens. King Naugus attended the event as well, remaining doubtful of the group's reliability in dealing with potential threats from Dr. Eggman, and tried to dissuade the people from trusting in them. At that exact moment though, a corner of the community center vanished under mysterious circumstances, and the crowd panicked as the building started to topple. Team Freedom quickly sprang into action under Rotor's guidance as he, Cheese & Bomb caused an explosion to blast back falling debris, while Heavy & Big caught the building, and Cream began to airlift out people trapped on the upper floors. With the disaster averted, the people cheered their approval of Team Freedom's heroics, which worked against Naugus who had been unable to do anything due to inner personal matters, forcing him to think up new tactics to keep the city under his control.

### In Action

Following their attack on Feral Forest, Dr. Eggman launched the Death Egg towards New Mobotropolis believing that he would be able to take over it easily without Team Fighters defending the city. Rotor managed to activate the shield before the Death Egg entered the city, thus angering Dr. Eggman. Using Tails Doll to destroy the shield generator from within the city, Dr. Eggman's forces managed to invade through Egg Pods. Rotor raced into action and told his team to "push them out of the city". During the fight, Cream was startled by the robot's weapons, and was saved by Big destroying the robots with one punch. Rotor ordered Cream and Cheese to guide the citizens to the center of the city for safety as he and Big continued fighting. Ixis Naugus stepped in to "save" them and destroyed several robots with his magic. After a confrontation with the other wizards in his mind-Agunus, Nusgau, and Suguna-however, he fell to the ground in pain and Rotor had to save him from incoming robots. Rotor ordered Big to carry Naugus to the military's perimeter and then return to the battle. Heavy then asked Rotor if they should fall back because of the numbers, but Rotor wanted Eggman to fight for every inch he gained in the city, and asked Heavy and Bomb to put their old Chaotix attitude to work. Rotor, Heavy and Bomb were almost surrounded by more of Eggman's robots until Big rushed back to join them with the fight.

On board the Death Egg, Dr. Eggman was annoyed by Team Freedom's efforts and sent Team Metal-which consisted of Metal Sonic, Metal Tails and Metal Amy-to engage them. Rotor ordered his team to focus on the new enemy instead of the Egg Swats, depending on the military to stop the mass-produced robots. As they fought off the Metal Series, the Secret Freedom Fighters struck from the shadows and helped take care of the Egg Swats. Heavy and Bomb prepared to engage Metal Sonic, but Shard attacked and carried it at super speed, leaving Heavy confused, with Bomb pinging. Meanwhile, Silver and Elias used their abilities to stun both Metal Amy and Metal Tails, leaving Big and Rotor to finish them off. With Eggman realizing that Team Freedom were a bigger threat than anticipated, the Death Egg retreated with the Egg Swats and Eggman began planning his revenge against Team Freedom. The team celebrated their victory, but Rotor began to wonder who was helping them take down the enemy forces, while Big told him not to worry about it.

Team Freedom would later attend one of Mina Mongoose and the Forget Me Knots' concerts, which was held to raise support for lifting Nicole's exile. When Tails Doll caused the stage to collapse-though unobserved-Team Freedom went into action, saving the band from injury. Their next call to action would be when Metal Sonic v3.7 attacked Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital and threatened the comatose Antoine D'Coolette, though Shard would once again come to their aid in secret and lured the invader away. Subsequently, the group learned of Tails Doll's role in the various "accidents" that had taken place in the city, and confronted it at the power station only for it to transform into a monstrous entity that they were forced to engage. The battle was interrupted as the second Genesis Wave struck Mobius.

### Shattered World Crisis

#### Act One

When Earth shattered following the effects from the Shattered World Crisis, Team Freedom was formed from the regrouped Freedom Fighters. The group was deployed in Station Square in an effort to manage the damage caused by the disaster, which included major flooding. Once that crisis had been stabilized, the group-consisting of Sally, Rotor, Bunnie, and Nicole-joined in an assault on an Bullet Train carrying a captive Uncle Chuck and his colleague, Professor Dillon Pickle. Following this successful venture, Team Freedom was next reformed to back up Team Fighters on a mission to recover a Chaos Emerald in Soumerca. However, traps had been set for both teams, and it was only the intervention of Cream the Rabbit and a small squad of supporters that saved both of them from capture.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia*, "Team Freedom and Team Fighters"
2. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #236, "Cry Freedom!"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Sonic the Hedgehog* #236, "Leader of the Band"
4. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #239, "Heroes Part One: Team Building"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Sonic the Hedgehog* #240, "Heroes Part Two: For the People"
6. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #241, "Unraveling"
7. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #50, "Forged in Fire"
8. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #247, "At All Costs Part One: Fate Interrupted"
9. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #257, "Damage Control"
10. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #258, "The Chase: Part One"
11. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #259, "The Chase: Part Two"
12. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #266, "Ambushed! Part One"
13. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #267, "Ambushed! Part Two"