Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 279

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 279 is the two hundred seventy-ninth issue in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics.

Official solicitation

 * SONIC is in the FIGHT FOR HIS LIFE in—"Face of the Enemy" Part Two: Sonic and his friends are at the mercy of Egg Boss Nephthys and her Egg Army! They came to rescue a Gaia Key Guardian-but can they manage to escape with their lives?! Then, in the finale to "Hidden Costs," revelations abound! Sally and Clove both think their plans have succeeded-but at what cost? Featuring cover art by jamming Jamal Peppers and Sonic CG artist supreme Rafa Knight!

Face Of The Enemy Part Two: Friends in Deed

 * Writer: Ian Flynn
 * Pencils: Adam Bryce Thomas
 * Inks: Terry Austin
 * Colors: Gabriel Cassata
 * Inks: John Workman

Summary
Outside of the Gaia Temple in the Arid Sands Zone, Sonic (in his werehog form) is caught by an Egg Army led by Nephthys the Vulture, an Egg Boss, and is forced to fight them. Meanwhile, Antoine fends off a few badniks before Spike the Porcupine and Trevor Burrow the Mole, come to aid him in finding Ehsan.

Big defeats two Dark Gaia monsters and meets back up with Chip and Sonar the Fennec. Chip then explains his plan of luring the Dark Gaia beasts to fight the Egg Army and sneak past them while engaged in battle. Meanwhile, Sonic fights Nephthys, who tells Sonic to give up as Eggman is unstoppable. Sonic ignores her suggestion and continues their battle.

Antoine, Spike and Trevor find Ehsan’s cell and Antoine asks him if he was harmed. Ehsan only says replies with a no but notes that the curry they kept feeding him was awful. Trevor senses movement from down the hall by Egg Army soldiers and Dark Gaia monsters. Spike fends them off and the trio are met by Chip, Sonar and Big, with Chip telling Sonar that he knew his plan would work. Big frees Ehsan and Chip tells everyone to leave while he goes to tell Sonic that Ehsan is free.

Sonic is able to defeat Nephthys and runs off with Chip, promising to battle Nephthys again when the time came. Ehsan gives the Gaia Keys to Sonic and thanks him for his rescue. Sonic tells him that he was only shot at and it was Chip, Spike, Sonar, Trevor, Antoine and Big that deserved his true thanks. Sonic and Spike share their thanks while Big tells Sonar they must find four more Gaia key protectors, much to Antoine’s annoyance.

After Sonic, Chip, Antoine and Big leave, Spike, Sonar and Trevor get back to their base and are revealed to have been working with Nephthys from the start. Nephthys assures the ‘Freedom Fighters’ that the power balance they already established can still be maintained so all was well and she would call Eggman to tell him what happened. Eggman calls Nephthys instead and informs her that she is needed on the Death Egg for a ‘priority one’ mission.

Appearances

 * Badnik Horde
 * Chip
 * Ehsan
 * Nephthys the Vulture
 * New Freedom Fighters
 * Antoine D'Coolette
 * Big the Cat
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Sonic the Werehog
 * Shamar Freedom Fighters
 * Sonar the Fennec
 * Spike the Porcupine
 * Trevor Burrow the Mole

Trivia

 * Nephthys mentioning how it is futile to fight Eggman bears similarities to the thought process of the valley villagers from Sonic Underground episode "The Last Resort".
 * When Sonic pulls Nephthys to the ground, he yells "GET OVER HERE" which is a reference to a move Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat series uses.

Hidden Costs Part Three

 * Writer: Aleah Baker
 * Pencils: Evan Stanley
 * Inks: Terry Austin
 * Colors: Gabriel Cassata
 * Letters: John Workman

Summary
Bunnie is apprehended by two Egg Army soldiers working with Cassia the Pronghorn, who has taken the blue Chaos Emerald Bunnie found. Cassie decides to let Bunnie go since she helped her earlier but plans to keep the Chaos Emerald. Despite this, Bunnie attacks the soldiers, takes the emerald and flies away for the sake of the world. One soldier wanted to shoot her down but Cassia prevents him from doing so since she could see Bunnie wanted it more. Cassia’s sister, Clove the Pronghorn arrives and finds her injured. Clove orders a soldier to help carry her in. The soldier mentions to Clove that he thought Cassia was getting better. Clove just glares away.

Bunnie meets back up with Sally and discusses how there are some people out there who only join Eggman in desperation. Sally supposes that they can only keep moving forward. The pair return to the Sky Patrol to find Antoine in extreme worry over Bunnie’s conditions. Cream and Antoine agree that there should be a celebration after finding the last Chaos Emerald. While filled with glee, the gang’s conversations are all heard by Tails Doll who was hiding in a vent nearby.

Clove confronts Eggman, thinking that Cassia’s cybernetics would cure her illness. Eggman tells her that he lied and only meant that the cybernetics would only restore some functionality but not cure her entirely and only prevent her from degrading further and if Cassia stops undergoing it, she would inevitably die. Clove asks why Eggman lied in the first place and he replies he just wanted to have some form of loyalty from her instead of being taken advantage of. Eggman receives an encrypted message and informs Clove that her sister will still receive her treatment but only if she continued to serve under the Eggman Empire. Clove agrees and Eggman ends the conversation.

Clove returns to her sister and gives her an embrace. Cassia apologizes for her reckless actions and only did so because she felt weak. She reminds Clove that after her treatment, they could run away from Eggman. Even though Clove knew this was not true any longer, she agreed to wait a little longer.

Appearances

 * Dr.Eggman
 * New Freedom Fighters
 * Antoine D'Coolette
 * Bunnie D'Coolette
 * Cheese the Chao
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Nicole the Holo-Lynx
 * Sally Acorn
 * Northamera Egg Army
 * Cassia the Pronghorn
 * Clove the Pronghorn
 * Tails Doll

Trivia

 * While in Cassia was in bed, the poster for the Chaos Emerald Championship can be seen behind her.

Off Panel

 * Script: Eric Esquivel
 * Pencils: Lamar Wells
 * Inks: Rick Bryant
 * Colors: Aleah Baker

Summary
Chip explains his plan of needing to lure the monsters in to distract the Egg Army. He starts laying out cookies much to Sonar’s confusion but it is revealed that he was attracting Cookie Monsters to help out.

Appearances

 * Chip
 * Shamar Freedom Fighters
 * Sonar the Fennec

Trivia

 * Multi-coloured versions of the Sesame Street character, Cookie Monster are seen.

Quotes

 * Antoine: Trying to blind me so you can roast me? Zat is not ze fair fight!


 * Chip: Wait--Big! You're okay!
 * Sonar: I--whu--what happened?!
 * Big: Hello!


 * Nephthys: He can't be stopped. We either live in his empire, or die in the fallout of your feud.
 * Sonic: OR--I KICK HIS BUTT AND WE ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. YOU CAN THANK ME LATER.

Trivia

 * The main cover for this issue is a follow-up to the previous issue's main cover, with Sonic now being in his Werehog form, and the background images being of different characters.