Sonic The Hedgehog Online Issue 252

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***Sonic the Hedgehog Online Issue 252*** is the two hundred and fifty-second issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog original continuity and the fifth issue of STH Online continuation series.

## Summary

### Official Solicitation

*The veil of secrecy unveils an enemy and ally alike in “Redemption, Part Two: Fever Pitch”! With nothing left to lose, Naugus is determined to bring all of New Mobotropolis down with him! Can the Freedom Fighters trust their undercover counterparts long enough to save the city?! Featuring cover art from DEEGEEMIN, RocketPOW!, Gendeerfluid, and Yoojimbo!*

### Story One

*Redemption Part Two: Fever Pitch*
At the top of Castle Acorn, Naugus (now in a form called Ugly Geoffrey) orders the Freedom Fighters to stand down and become his vessels. Sonic, defiantly, orders Team Freedom and Team Fighters to fight Naugus. As he turns to Sally however, she starts shaking uncontrollably and states she is terrified. While she keeps apologizing, Sonic consoles Sally as he escorts her away to safety, saying that although he can't stay with her right now, he'll come back to her after they stop Naugus. As Rotor orders Cream to get the woman Naugus is holding hostage, Heavy realizes it's Hershey, much to his and Cream's shock, while Hershey pleads for Geoffrey to stop as she knows this isn't what he wants, only for Naugus to reply that what his apprentice wants no longer matters. As he is mocked by the voices over his lashing out, the amalgamation his current body has become and that he can't kill Hershey because Geoffrey keeps fighting over control to keep her alive, the latter tries to argue with Naugus, stating that the kingdom won't follow a king who kills the innocent. Naugus merely rebukes by claiming that kingdoms are ruled by absolute power.

As Elias notices the tremors, he is found by members of the Acorn Military who were shocked at the appearance of their former king. Elias in response orders the men to protect his father while donning his former king uniform and wielding the Sword of Light. Meanwhile, at Secret HQ, Director Who ponders at how he was outfoxed, since he never expected Naugus to possess Geoffrey's body, admiring the former's cunning. Shard then asks where Sonic is, as the Freedom Fighters could use his help, to which Nicole responds that he was moving Sally away to safety as she had another "episode". Silver, realizing that if Geoffrey was possessed, he was actually warning Naugus of their plans, decides to head out into the field. Lyco and Leeta try to stop him, but Director Who says to let him go, claiming that agent Ace is correct as the time for espionage has passed. He then orders operatives Jack (Shard) and Joker (Larry) to follow him for backup as both firepower and unpredictability while agents Queen of Diamonds (Lyco) and Queen of Hearts (Leeta) act as long-range support, noting that they must act quickly before the current king destroys his own city.

With debris reaching the Freedom Fighters, Rotor and Amy break it away, but Cream gets hit by a stone and Team Freedom starts falling. Rotor tries to rescue them, but Naugus keeps him away, as "traitors must die". With his telekinesis, Silver saves them, though Cream asks him about his outfit, leaving the former nervous. Heavy, realizing he must be part of a new Secret Service, tells her not to ask Silver too many questions since he just saved their lives and that he has his reasons. Cream assents, and just thanks him for rescuing them, much to his relief. After Team Freedom introduce themselves, Silver asks if she can still fly after taking such a hit. She believes she does and takes flight again, hovering briefly before falling to the ground. Thinking that she has a concussion, Silver suggest that Big, Heavy and Bomb take her to the hospital and make sure she stays safe, noting that it's best for the latter two to stay away from Naugus' magic anyway as they were partially made from the city's nanites. Noticing he's well informed, Heavy wonders if it's wise to reduce their firepower as it is, to which Silver assures him that he has backup of his own on the way.

As Sonic returns to the battle, he notices Larry tangled up in a tree, who thanks Sonic for showing up and he can't believe he's having some good luck for a change, to which Sonic remarks that given how he likely ended up there, it just evens things out. While freeing him, Sonic asks about the new look, to which Larry replies that there's no time to explain, but that he was on his way to fight Naugus before he was separated from his "ride". Sonic comments that he wasn't expecting to see Larry on the front lines again, but that they'll take any help they can get, and offers Larry to come with him to face Naugus, to which he accepts. However, Sonic trips midway and Larry is sent flying, to which the former blames the jinx. Sonic then sees a hand offering help, much to his disbelief.

Larry is seen landing on Naugus' face, causing the latter to hit himself and miss Larry several times, leaving Rotor dumbstruck at his presence, while Amy is delighted at the foe's blunders and Silver glees at the fact that his jinxes are working in their favor. At that last comment, Rotor questions how Silver knows about Larry and his abilities, to which Silver says that he'll explain once Naugus is beaten. Tails, meanwhile, ponders how Larry is still wearing the same uniform he saw him and Leeta on back in Feral Forest and that now Silver had one of his own as well. While wondering about the implications, Naugus blasts a crystallization beam, missing Rotor, but hitting Tails and Amy.

En route, Sonic is still skeptical about Shard's tale of surviving the melted lava, only for the latter to point out the many times the former cheated death, citing the black hole generator as an example. When Sonic questions how and why he is even active, Shard explains that Uncle Chuck had a hand in it: His core was recovered in Mount Mobius and then given to Chuck, who used it's data to build the Metal Sonic Troopers. However, he was given a second chance after Naugus became king, as he assumes "cheap knockoffs weren't enough anymore". When Sonic points out the irony in that, a frustated Shard asks to give him a chance, as he's the one that taught him the real value of life. As Shard tries to explain this, Sonic sees the crystallization beam and warns Shard, but it reaches the latter's engine. As they're going down, Sonic asks Shard to launch him into Naugus, which he complies. With the former flying, the latter awkwardly greets the rest of Team Fighters when he lands.

Striking Naugus with enough force to release Hershey, Sonic greets the latter as recovers from the impact and mentions that he thought she was dead while thanking Larry for buying time and annoying Naugus with the jinxes. As Naugus is infuriated by the "quickster's" presence, Sonic just responds that while he would normally enjoy provoking the wizard, he has a bigger priority, so he'll stop dragging this out, telling Larry to leave the area and take Hershey with him, but she refuses, claiming she won't leave Geoffrey while he's suffering, startling him long enough for Naugus to strike back. Injured, Sonic is taunted by Naugus to lay down his life in service to the kingdom as Antoine did, revealing that he was the one who told Eggman about Elias' plan of leaving the city, enraging Sonic.

Somewhere else, Elias is rescuing a family from their crumbling house when he asks to Nicole whether she can reroute the nanites and stabilize the populated areas, to which she explains that preventing the tremors from leveling the city is alone already taking a toll and dividing the nanites further would be catastrophic. Understanding this, he urges her to direct him to the next rescue point, where he organizes the evacuation and personally rescues many of the citizens to their immense gratitude. Once the majority of the people had been saved, a commander assured the rest would be safely evacuated while the "true king" joined the Freedom Fighters in saving the city. Ordering Nicole to patch him through to Sonic and the populace, he re-introduces himself to the public by explaining that while everyone must be confused by this and that he's sorry to keep them waiting for his return, he has been waiting for the right opportunity to retake the kingdom as everyone he cares for has suffered greatly since he abandoned his duties and intends to make things right, for he's on his way to the battle right now with a plan to defeat Naugus, although there's no time to explain and he needs everyone to be ready to promptly follow his exact orders.

As he orders Lyco and Leeta to divide Naugus' attention as much as possible, he explain to the those confused by Shard's presence that he's on their side and pleads for them to let him help, which a wary Tails agrees. Hershey however asks what will happen to Geoffrey as he's within Naugus, to which he apologizes to Hershey by arguing that many innocent people will die if they don't act and that their only hope is for the Sword of Light to expel Naugus from Geoffrey's body, assuring her that while it'll certainly hurt, it won't kill him (though he internally admits it's a bluff, as he doesn't know how to separate their bodies, let alone non-lethally, but considers the lie as one of his burdens as king). Ordering Silver to give him a platform while Rotor and Shard keep him distracted, Elias managed to almost reach striking distance only for Naugus to prepare a blast of magical energy, failing his plan. But Sonic saves him at the last moment, picking up the sword and spin dashing forward, moving towards Naugus in a bid to avenge his friend...

### Off-Panel

* **Script**: SonicWindAttack
* **Pencils**: Wani Ramirez
* **Inks**: Linkstar21
* **Colors**: ZombieMocha
* **Letters**: Lav

***"No Copyright Law in The Universe Will Stop Z"***

### Appearances

#### Characters

* Freedom Fighters
	+ Team Fighters
		- Amy Rose
		- Miles "Tails" Prower
		- Sonic the Hedgehog
		- T-Pup
	+ Team Freedom
		- Big the Cat
		- Bomb
		- Cheese the Chao
		- Cream the Rabbit
		- Heavy
		- Rotor Walrus
	+ Secret Freedom Fighters
		- Silver the Hedgehog
		- Nicole
		- Elias Acorn
		- Harvey Who
		- Larry Lynx
		- Leeta
		- Lyco
		- Shard the Metal Sonic
* House Acorn
	+ Sally Acorn
	+ Maximillian Acorn
	+ Alicia Acorn
* Order of Ixis
	+ Geoffrey St. John
	+ Ixis Naugus
		- Ixis Agunus
		- Ixis Nusgau
		- Ixis Suguna
* Hershey the Cat
* Bernadette Hedgehog
* Doctor Eggman (Mentioned)
* Sir Charles Hedgehog (Mentioned)

## Key Events

* An unknown figure reveals himself to Sonic: the figure being none-other than Shard the Metal Sonic.
* The Secret Freedom Fighters have made their first public appearance.

## Trivia

* There was an alternate panel of Sonic baring his teeth to Naugus after his revelation to him, but it was scrapped.
* The sequence of Elias saving the citizens was a parallel to Mecha Sally and the Egg-swats' assault on Furville in issue #236.

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 *Sonic Universe Online* (SUO)