Special Zone (Archie)

The Void, also known as the Zone of Silence and the Special Zone, is a fictional dimension in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. Depending on whether is it found in the Archie Comics or SatAM, it was either created or discovered by the wizard Ixis Naugus.

Effects
The Void and the Zone of Silence share the quality of being nearly impossible to escape. In SatAM, it was discovered that Sonic's super speed allowed him to escape a Void portal, and he could also pull others through with him. However, prolonged imprisonment in the Void led to side effects, the most obvious being a slow crystallization effect of the body that prevented anyone from escaping the Void for long. Any land in the Void was made from strange crystals, which Naugus could mold into any shape using his magic.

Archie's Zone of Silence has similar qualities, including the crystallization effect. However, victims of this began to resemble sculptures made from Chaos Emeralds. Naugus, while in the Zone, was also omnipotent, making it impossible to defeat him inside. Other side effect on long-term captives of the Zone of Silence included insanity and apparent amnesia, and the only protection from worse effects was Naugus' crystallization of his minions, or being a native of the Zone. In addition, Naugus was later permanently freed from the Zone thanks to the use of the Sword of Acorns. The Zone of Silence changed to resemble 32-bit levels from the Sonic the Hedgehog games following the teleportation of every Chaos Emerald in the universe into it.

SatAM
In the SatAM cartoon, the Void was discovered by Ixis Naugus. Going inside to investigave, he was betrayed by his associate Dr. Robotnik and sealed inside. From that point onward, the Void served Robotnik as a place to dump his most unwanted enemies. This was the fate of King Acorn, and Sonic himself would have been imprisoned here if not for the actions of another Freedom Fighter.

Towards the end of the series, Naugus was able to open a portal connecting Mobius and the Void, allowing him to send an artifact that pulled Sally Acorn and Bunnie Rabbot in. Similarly drawing in Sonic, Naugus was able to escape the Void temporarily, but ended up trapped once again, along with King Acorn.

Archie
The Archie Comics feature a plot similar to that of SatAM, the main difference being that Naugus created the Zone of Silence rather than discovering it. Together with King Acorn, he was also locked inside with several other characters, including: Warlord Kodos, Uma Arachnis, and the enigmatic Feist. After several failed attempts to escape, he made his getaway with the help of the Arachne, though Kodos and Uma Arachnis managed to escape for good some time previously.

Dr. Eggman attempted to mine energy from the Zone of Silence, protecting his machinery with a small army of prisoners, which consisted mainly of captured inhabitants of Angel Island, among them members of the Dark Legion. However, all the original prisoners were drawn into the Zone when the Arachne freed Ixis Naugus using the Sword of Acorns.

After his computer virus "son" A.D.A.M. was defeated, the Zone became the resting place of every known Chaos Emerald in the universe. The Master Emerald was saved from this, having been held in place by Locke and Dr. Finitevus. All these Chaos Emeralds were then fused together into seven gems by Feist, who following Naugus' escape became the ruler of the Zone of Silence. Reshaping it, he named it the Special Zone to signify its change from the hostile environment of the Zone of Silence to the game-like environment of the games.