Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 244

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 244 is the two hundred forty-fourth issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series published by Archie Comics.

Official Solicitation

 * Endangered Species - Part 2 - Sonic and Team Fighters can't retake Albion on their own. Who can help turn the tide? Knuckles, that's who! Knuckles confronts old enemies and old hardships all at once to save the last of his people. And is it a good or a bad thing the mysterious Thrash the Tasmanian Devil has arrived?

Endangered Species - Part Two: Extinction Event
On Albion, Knuckles walks around the island looking for his fellow Echidna tribe during the post-attack. As he's walking around, he notices several light flashes. On his way there, he finds T-Pup and a Devil Dog. Knuckles runs off the devil dog and wonders why T-Pup is here. He decides to use T-Pup's monitier to find T-Pup's owner, Tails.

Several minutes later, he finds Team Fighters–Sonic, Tails, Amy, and a destroyed Metal Knuckles. Knuckles wakes them up and asks them why they were knocked out. Sonic remembers Metal Knuckles knocking him out, but Tails says that he and Amy took charge to defeat Metal Knuckles. Amy fought the robot, while Tails hacked the mechanics of the island. Tails pressed a wrong switch, causing the island's inhabitants to be knocked out, resulting Tails and Amy's knock out, and Metal Knuckles' turning offline.

However, Amy remember that they all weren't put together, so someone must have moved them together. Knuckles comments that maybe Julie-Su came here via Warp Ring, saw them, and put them together. Knuckles comments no, as only he and Espio have Warp Rings. Sonic then decides to walk the island with the others. Minutes later, Knuckles starts to remember that someone else has a Warp Ring that he has encountered before. Suddenly, Tails sees a mysterious figure with a Warp Ring.....

As it turns out, Thrash the Tasmanian Devil and several Devil Dogs are by a Warp Ring. Knuckles comments why he's there and Thrash then explains what happened: Thrash came on the island via Warp Ring and took refuge of the echidnas to a place to stay, which was a Warp Ring. He then found Team Fighters and put them all together by each other, feeling sympathy for the Mobians. Thrash then says that he took care of the echidnas by literally wiping them out in the timeline, thus they are "gone." (Thrash comments on that he got a Warp Ring thanks to Knuckles back in Downunda and that this was his "old quest" he was referring to.)

Knuckles, seeing with rage, attacks Thrash and commands him to bring them back. Thrash says that Knuckles was lucky to be alive, as he (and another echidna somewhere) are the only echidnas alive in Mobius. Knuckles is then blown away via Thrash's screaming power. Sonic counters back at Thrash by a Homing Shot. Sonic, saying that he let the echidna tribe down and even let Knuckles hit first, told Thrash to return things back to normal. Thrash then uses his screaming powers again and blows Sonic away. Knuckles and Team Fighters are helping defeat the Devil Dogs.

However, a mysterious plant source combines with Metal Knuckles, and the robotic echidna returns to live...

Trivia

 * This is the first time Thrash has appeared since Sonic Universe #12.
 * According to Ian Flynn in the issue, a last-minute change of story happened with this issue; in the story, Thrash trap many echidnas (i.e. Julie-Su and Lara-Su) to a Warp Ring and they were elimanted from the timeline. This last-minute change was made supposely because of Ken Penders, a previous writer for the comic series. However, reports of Penders say that he didn't cause the change, but Archie did.