Mobius Encyclopaedia
Register
Advertisement
The subject of this article appeared after the Super Genesis Wave.
Sr231
This article is incomplete or has incomplete sections. You can help Mobius Encyclopaedia by expanding it.
Previous Issue ←—→ Next Issue

STH 260
Main Cover

STH 260 V
Sonic Versus Variant Cover

Sonic the Hedgehog
Publication Details
Issue 

260

Date Published 

May 21, 2014

Publishing Company 

Archie Comics Publications

Production Staff
Cover Artist
Variant Cover Artist
Writer
Pencils
Inks
Letters
Colors
Assistant Editor
Editor
Editor in Chief
President
Publisher
Special Thanks

Anthony Gaccione at Sega Licensing

First Appearances
Characters
Locations
Only Appearance
  

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 260 is the two hundred and sixtieth issue of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Summary[]

Official Solicitation[]

Journey under the sea with Sonic the Hedgehog in the first chapter of an EPIC new SAGA! "Waves of Change": Part One – What could be worse than a world shattered to pieces? How about dark monsters rising from the abyss?! While Sonic and the Freedom Fighters race to find the Chaos Emeralds and Gaia Temples, Sonic ends up discovering a whole new world of adventure deep beneath the waves! But will those he encounters prove to be friend or foe? Then, in "Light in the Dark: Part One", Sally, Nicole, Tails and Antoine venture into the Eggman's latest grab for power to retrieve a desperately-needed Chaos Emerald! Featuring all-new cover art from superstar Ben Bates and a special SONIC VERSUS variant cover from Sonic artist Evan Stanley!

Story One[]

Waves of Change, Part One: First Ripples

Onboard the Sky Patrol, Sonic, Big, Sally, Antoine, Tails Amy, Cream, and Bunnie view footage taken the previous night of monsters attacking in Westopolis. NICOLE states that G.U.N. and local law enforcement had arrived to handle the situation. Tails notes how this phenomenon could connect to the manuscripts Professor Pickle and Uncle chuck were studying. While Sonic paces around pondering, Bunnie recalls how the dark energy Uncle Chuck was testing was corruptive, and worries if the monsters were once animals infected by the energy. Sonic nervously interrupts after hearing this and states that thanks to the professors, they know that they have to simply bring the emeralds to the Gaia Temples, bragging that finding the temples are easy. Sally sarcastically says to Sonic that actually finding the chaos emeralds isn't hard but does agree with him that they must find them quickly, starting by breaking into search and recovery teams.

The next day Sonic, Amy, and Rotor arrive to a beach to locate a possible Gaia Temple when Amy suddenly hears music from the rocks. Following it, the group discovers the source coming from a hole in the ground. Amy calls down to it, and a faint voice responds asking who they are. Amy answers surprised and the voice eagerly tells them to wait there. Hours later, sunset approaches on the group still waiting. When Sonic complains that they have been waiting forever, someone interrupts him. Emerging from the water is Razor the Shark and his chao, Crusher, who asks Sonic and his friends if they are the ones he was sent to escort. Sonic tells him he doesn't even know him when Razor's chao abruptly tries to bite Sonic's hand. Razor holds him back and asks which one of the trio is the "Great Hero" the priestess wanted, to which Sonic brags to be himself, boasting about beating Eggman a million times, but Razor gives him a confused look. Amy asks about the Gaia Temple to Razor, but Razor doesn't know about any temples. However, he states that the Eusebes Shrine, the place he is sworn to protect, does have a temple inside they can examine. To escort them, Razor gives Amy, Sonic, and Rotor air charms to help them breath underwater. Once the group enters, all but Sonic swim through marveling at the ability the charms offer, while Sonic walks on the ocean floor freaking out in his head because he HATES water, especially from his previous encounter with Chaos. Razor leads the group into a cave to the shrine and informs them they'll hit the surface soon. Sonic gleefully rushes ahead and jumps out of the water onto sand and begins hugging it. Then, a young manta ray named Pearly arrives and tells Sonic to shush. They all walk inside of a house and see Coral, the shrine's priestess, playing a flute to a chao named Aquarius which causes the chao to turn into a cocoon. After finishing, Coral welcomes the group, introducing herself and Pearly as her apprentice. Rotor rudely asks about the temple and Amy hits him in the stomach, saying they'd be happy to help Coral out. Coral is doubtful of her practices lately, with some things going wrong, and wonders if the message she had received from the spirits was false. Before she can indulge, Razor encourages everyone to get some rest and figure things out later. After Coral departs, Razor welcomes the Freedom Fighters to rest in the shrine, but warns them that they do not want to go outside at night because of Dark Gaia eels.

In one of the rooms, Amy talks to Sally about how their progress with Sally asking how Sonic is doing. Amy tells her that he's really hard to read sometimes as she watches Sonic playing with the chao. Amy walks out and sees Coral sad and asks if she can't sleep. She answers "no" because she was waiting for her chao to hatch. Amy sympathizes with her in her mind of the duties she has to live up to but troubled by her inexperience. The next day, Sonic and Rotor examine the temple and the scene switches to Amy talking to pearl about why she doesn't like chao and Razor makes a joke that Pearly should be scared of Amy because she has spines on her head. They hear Coral scream and they all run in, finding Coral in tears because Aquarius hasn't hatched yet from her reincarnation. Razor thinks Sonic has done something to her and grabs him. Sonic yells back that he wasn't doing anything but to see what was wrong as Rotor grabs Razor away from Sonic. Amy asks Sonic from outside that they have "company" as a shrimp warrior tells Amy that she is trespassing.

Story Two[]

The Light in The Dark, Part One

While Sonic, Amy, and Rotor search for one of the Gaia Temples, Sally rallies the rest of the Freedom Fighters for a meeting aboard Sky Patrol. Sally and Nicole shows off files that the former stole from the Death Egg, regarding Egg Army operations searching for resources throughout the world. From there, they discover an energy reading from an excavation site, most likely where they hope to find a Chaos Emerald that would help them restore the planet. Nicole points out that the excavation halted sometime before the planet started breaking apart. Sally sees this as an opportunity to covertly retrieve the Emerald before the dig continues. She takes Nicole, Tails, and Antoine along for the mission.

Upon reaching their destination, they find a large metal door leading to the caves where the excavation took place. Nicole hacks into the security system, shutting down all robot activity and masking any video feeds and transmissions. However, with the system being "more capable than they anticipated", they are given a little over an hour (72 minutes to be exact) to find the Emerald and leave before it reactivates.

They are surprised to see the fortified walls still standing even with the earthquakes, and despite Antoine's worry of dangerous gases in the caves, Nicole's scans dismiss it. They find another door where the dig has reportedly stopped due to change in the terrain, and a reading of a Chaos Emerald past it. Nicole opens the door like the one at the entrance but, despite Sally's advice to be ready for anything, the team is shocked by what they find beyond the door.

Key Events[]

  • It's confirmed that the events of Sonic CD took place in the post-Super Genesis Wave timeline.
  • Sonic, Amy and Rotor are sent to search for the first Gaia Temple.
  • They meet Razor the Shark, who escorts them down to the underwater city of Meropis.
  • Sally, Tails and Antoine go on their own mission to snag a Chaos Emerald which the Egg Army where mining for before the Shattered World Crisis began.

Quotes[]

Background Information[]

  • The Off Panel for this issue is a parody of the film Sharknado.
  • The construction worker Egg Pawn variants in the second story come from the Planet Wisp level in Sonic Colors.
  • This is the first issue since #242 to have a back-up story.
  • Coral is shown playing the "Mystic Melody", an optional upgrade for playable characters from Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Rotor mentions that he beat his high score on "Angry Chao", a parody of the popular smartphone game Angry Birds.
  • While chatting to Coral, Amy makes allusions to the games Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Rush. We also see flashbacks to the events of Sonic CD (a young Amy being captured by Metal Sonic) and Sonic Adventure (Amy facing Zero).
  • Despite Tails appearing on the cover, it is actually Rotor who is with Sonic and Amy while Tails is with Sally and Antoine in a different mission.

Reprint History[]

This issue has been reprinted in the following places:

Continuity[]

Both stories in the issue occur concurrently, and take place roughly parallel to "The Great Chaos Caper" (SU: #63-#66).

External links[]

Advertisement