Tornado (Sonic the Comic)

The Tornado is a vehicle that appears in the Sonic the Comic series. It is an is a vintage-style biplane used by the Freedom Fighters. It is typically piloted by Tails, with Sonic standing/seated on its wings.

Appearance
The Tornado is an old vintage biplane with a fuselage and two main wings attached with a pair of poles on both sides. The fuselage has a power plant with a grey tractor screw and a cockpit with only one seat (although it would in some cases have two). The plane's empennage has two small horizontal stabilizers and one vertical stabilizer. It also has three wheels, two under the lower main wing and one below the empennage.

Originally, the Tornado had a red fuselage with grey wings, tractor screw and power plant. The horizontal stabilizers were grey with red ends and the vertical stabilizer was red with a white stripe. Finally, its sides were emblazoned with white stretchy F-letter labels which occasionally had the word "SONIC" written in white over them. Later, the Tornado got a purple color scheme with a yellow-edged vertical stabilizer and wings, yellow horizontal stabilizers, and yellow lines across the fuselage. The tractor screw also became purple with a yellow bolt.

Features and abilities
In addition to high-speed flight, the Tornado has a storage compartment on the bottom where it could release a net to capture and haul in prey.

History
The Tornado was originally kept in a hangar in Sonic's Secret Underground Base and used by Sonic and Tails to reach distant areas like the Wing Fortress Zone, Oil Ocean Zone, and Hill Top Zone. The duo also once used it to pursue the Sky Pirates and take back the Chaos Emeralds they stole. Shortly after, the Tornado was used by the Freedom Fighters to look for Sonic and Amy when they got trapped on Miracle Planet.

Sonic and Tails put the Tornado to action again to reach the Floating Island where Tails caught Dr. Robotnik with the Tornado's net. After Dr. Robotnik escaped with the aid of Knuckles though, Sonic and Tails used the Tornado to reach them. When the Freedom Fighters' base was discovered by Dr. Robotnik, the heroes took the Tornado with them when going undercover as Bob Beaky's Travelling Circus. They often towed the plane behind the caravan, hidden under a tarpaulin.

One time the Tornado was used for a direct attack on a Badnik transport at Emerald Valley Bridge. It was also used by the Freedom Fighters to travel around the Floating Island during the uprising of the second Death Egg. The Tornado was eventually destroyed, along with the Freedom Fighers' caravan, when Super Sonic went berserk and attacked his own teammates, leading Sonic to (temporarily) believe that he had killed his friends.

Following Robotnik's defeat, Tails rebuilt the Tornado, which he and Sonic used to reach Flickies' Island. During one of their travels in the Tornado, Sonic and Tails got caught in a Tantaror's games until they got out. Another time, the Tornado got wheel-clamped before Tails could use it to stop Windy Wallis. The Tornado faced further hardship as the Freedom Fighters used it to reach the Chemical Plant Zone, the Floating Island during a Drakon Empire invasion, and the Sun Valley Zone where it almost crashed, before it was shot down during a Badnik attack.

Rebuilding the Tornado, it was used by Sonic and Tails to go to Flickies' Island, and by Tails to lure the Skeleton Crew ghosts away until they were forced to return at midnight. When used to reach D.R.A.T.'s island base though, the Tornado had to turn around when a force-field threatened to blank it out. Another time, it was shot down by Claws during Tails' trip to the Polarzone. Rebuilding the Tornado with a new color scheme, Tails and Amy used the Tornado to reach the Floating Island, only to leave it (with Knuckles and Porker Lewis onboard the Tornado) as it fell from the sky.