Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Comic)

The Chemical Plant Zone is a location that appears in Sonic the Comic series published by Fleetway Editions. It is a large industrial Zone on Mobius. During Dr. Ivo Robotnik's global rule, it played a huge role in the pollution of Mobius and was also the sole producer of Mega Mack, the chemical designed to kill Sonic the Hedgehog.

Origin
Once, the Chemical Plant Zone was a beautiful landscape with the native Flock living here in harmony. After Dr. Robotnik took over Mobius, he destroyed these lands and built the Chemical Plant Zone on top of them, turning the Zone into a source of pollution and forcing the Flock to go underground to fight him.

Ruled by Robotnik
During Sonic's six months absence, the Chemical Plant Zone became the doctor's forced labor camp for the Emerald Hill Folk, where Robotnik would assign severe work duties to the population which would completely exhaust them. Lazy workers were struck by Troopers with electric whips, or made into organic batteries for Badniks. Around that time, Robotnik conducted experiments in the Chemical Plant Zone that would grant him Sonic's powers. However, that research was lost when Amy Rose came and sabotaged the machine for the experiment which turned her fur pink in the process.

The factories' prisoners were eventually freed by Sonic when he returned and infiltrated them as Bob Beaky. While leading his friends home through the sewers however, the group were ambushed by Megatox, a villain made entirely of Mega Mack. Forced to fight Megatox, Sonic managed to defeat him by spraying him over the countryside.

Despite its loss, the Chemical Plant Zone continued to be a prime source of pollution as Nutzan Bolt (one of Robotnik's lieutenants) ran its operations. He and Robotnik subsequently plotted to breach the Chemical Plant Zone's walls and let the toxic Mega Mack spill into the neighboring Zones and flush Sonic out. Loosing Sonic during a mission to the Chemical Plant Zone, Tails ended up joining the Flock to stop Nutzan Bolt's plans. Thanks to pure luck, Tails incapacitated Nutzan, and the Flock was able to halt his operations.

The Chemical Plant Zone was later the location of Robotnikcon One, a mass-volunteer Badnik Processing Plant disguised as a convention forcing people to attend. Before too many people were turned into Badniks, the Freedom Fighters arrived and destroyed the centre.

Obsessed with finding Tails and get revenge, Nutzan Bolts returned and began ripping apart the Chemical Planet Zone, causing it to be frozen by chemical ice and snow which made it uninhabitable to anyone but him. The remaining citizens were thus forced underground. Blaming Tails for this, the inhabitants planned to kill him. However, Tails was still called in by Sab to help save the Zone. With the help of Sab and Sol Furic, Tails found Nutzan's new Ice Palace and defeated him for good. With the Chemical Plant Zone safe and returning to normal, the locals relented and Tails was a hero once more.

In retaliation for being placed into a Cybernik shell, Shortfuse the Cybernik decided to destroy one of the Chemical Plant Zone's factories with the aid of Tekno the Canary. Their mission to plant a bomb went wrong when Metamorphia intervened and stopped Shortfuse from evading the blast. As Metamorphia took Tekno to the Citadel Robotnik, Shortfuse was caught in the explosion and sank to the bottom of the ocean in the Chemical Plant Zone. Fortunately, his life-support held out long enough for him to escape. On hearing of the destruction, Robotnik took away Metamorphia's powers and turned her into a Badnik.

The Freedom Fighters later came to the Chemical Plant Zone to confirmed whether an old version Sonic they found was Sonic from the future as he claimed. While the tests of a trusted biologist were positive, it turned out the old Sonic was but a rapidly-aging clone. Near the end of Robotnik's reign, the Freedom Fighters (minus Sonic) took a trip to the Chemical Plant Zone and discovered that slaves were being used to create poisonous Toxo Cubes. Upon seeing that Vermin the Cybernik was leading the operation, Shortfuse disobeyed orders and fought him, completely ignoring that Johnny Lightfoot was about to die. While Tails saved Johnny just in time and the team stopped the Toxo Cube production, Shortfuse's actions got him expelled from the team.

Post-Ruled by Robotnik
Following Robotnik's fall from power, the Chemical Plant Zone was abandoned and shut down. However, it was not cleaned up, and toxic waste seeped into a nearby river, leading to the creation of the mutant Veg-Heads in the Plowright Zone. A clean up operation of the Zone and the nearby coastline (including the new holiday resort Skegpool) was eventually implemented, but shortly afterwards the factory was purchased by the Marxio Brothers and re-opened, with a promise to make it more environmentally friendly. The plant was nearly destroyed by Megatox, who had managed to reform and planned to wreck further destruction, but he was defeated again by Sonic after the Marxio Brothers called him in to solve the problem.