Tails will expect to help the Knothole group, as he is now a Freedom Fighter, but Sally refuses under the belief that it’s far too dangerous. To Tails's surprise, Sonic agrees with Sally, his reason being that he doesn’t want a repeat of the fox's near death experience in Robotropolis, which up to now, he’s kept quiet.
Feeling shocked and betrayed, Tails delivers a What the Hell, Hero? speech directed at Sonic, ranting about how the hedgehog said he was a Freedom Fighter and is now deciding to dash his hopes at the last minute.
After he storms off, Sally is nonplussed at the outburst, but isn’t too concerned, believing that Tails is just upset and he'll eventually understand it’s for his safety.
Tails decides to run away and find a Chaos Emerald himself. Specifically, the one from Maga, which Antoine handed over to Knuckles, or as he's known to them, Mr. Guardian.
Knuckles works alone at this moment in time. He's butted heads with Sonic ever since they met, especially since he declared that Sonic and Sally were entirely at fault for Naugus escaping the Void.
However, he seems to have a soft spot for Tails, or will at least listen to him, after his Big Damn Heroes moment.
Tails might not be able to get the Chaos Emerald from Knuckles, but he might be able to convince him to at least help them fight Naugus and Snively.
- Following on from this, Knux may take Tails to his sanctuary on Angel Island (which would be a much bigger floating island than the timestone one, hell, it'd probably be more of a floating continent) & train him in some form of ancient echidna marital art so he can better defend himself and show him the reason why it's dangerous for anyone to use the chaos emeralds, nevermind the heroes or villains. There may even be one point in his training in which he goes into some mystical cave or temple to confront his worst fears al'a The Empire Strikes Back. (This may also be an opportunity to show Tails's origins, how he was abandoned by his parents & how he came into the care of the freedom fighters.) Also, while on said island, he'll meet a familiar face which brings me to my next point.
So Dulce isn't exactly the fan favourite to say the least, but writing her out of continuity is just as bad as her being shoehorned into it (in this troper's opinion anyway). Besides, she does have a lot of awesome potential as a character, being a powerful dragon who can breathe fire AND ice, plus being of a special breed that are said to have certain powers. In fact, it was one of Ben Hurst's original plans for the third season to have her come into these powers (and I’m pretty sure it was one of the few details about the third season that was known before the full notes were released). Also, one of the chaos emeralds is stated to control fire and we all know what dragons are best known for. So I'm almost certain Dulcy is going to come back in sea3on & this is how I think it'll go; it will be revealed via flashback that sometime after the celebration (& before the main story started), Dulcy was contacted telepathically by an elder dragon (which could be Glint from the Archie Comics or a similar, but completely original character) who told her that it was time for her to begin her training as a protector-class dragon & instructed her to leave Knothole & come to either Angel Island or Vesuvio from the Archie comics. So after saying her goodbyes to her friends in Knothole, she did just that. After which, there are two scenarios in which she could be reunited with her mobian friends:
- It will later be revealed she's living on Angel Island with Knuckles, Glint & the mother dragon & her baby from the season 2 episode “Dulcy” maybe along with a few other surviving dragons. Also, unless they decide to give Knuckles powered flight like in the Archie Comics rather than just simple gliding, it will also be reveled that either Dulcy, Glint or one of the other dragons are how he gets to & from Angel Island, as well as all the other mystical places on Mobius. So if we go on from the above suggestion that Tails will run away from Knothole & Knuckles will decide to take Angel Island, Knuckles will introduce Glint to Tails & the three will go to Angel Island or Dulcy will take take them there. Either way, Dulce & Tails will have a happy reunion. Dulcy & Tails will continue their training under their respective senseis until they learn that Knothole has been discovered & is being attacked (either the freedom fighters have found a chaos emerald and foolishly decided to take it back or, as I've suggested below, Sonic kidnaps Snively to hold him hostage. Either way, the villains manage to locate Knothole and launch an suprise assault, destroying the sanctuary and capturing any surviving villagers for roboticisation. At this point, Gavin's treachery might also be revealed & he may be forced to leave the knothole group). So Dulcy, Tails, a group of dragons & after much convincing, Knuckles, will go to rescue the freedom fighters and as many surviving villagers as possible.
- The second (and perhaps much more darker, tragic & even heartbreaking) possibility is that the freedom fighters reunite with her in Vesuvio during their hunt for the Chaos Emeralds (Vesuvio naturally being the home of the fire emerald). They track the emerald’s energies to Vesuvio where they are greeted first by two dragon children who save the group from a couple of hover swats. The children’s father then shows up and is at first unsure about this group of mobians. However, when they mention Dulcy, the three reveal they know her and offer to take the FF to Vesuvio to meet her. When they arrive in the ancient city, they are met by a large crowd of Vesuvio‘s draconian inhabitants who have mixed reactions to these strange outsiders. Among the crowd are the mother dragon & her baby from Season 2, the mother of the two children and Dulcy herself who the freedom fighters are overjoyed to see again, Tails especially if he's tagging along. However, Dulcy herself seems a little reluctant to say hello, which somewhat confuses the FF. They also notice she has a black eye and a broken arm which she claims happened during one of her crash landings. They are then met by a group of elder dragons including Glint who question the FF as to who they are. The FF explain they are looking for a chaos emerald somwhere in the area and tracked its energies to Vesuvio. They also inform the dragons that Snively has taken over his uncle's empire and now has the powerful wizard Naugus on his side and that two are seeking the emeralds to use their power, thus why they are also seeking the emeralds to stop them. Unfortunately, only Glint, the mother dragon, the two parent dragons & their children are the only ones willing to believe them. Most of the elders and a sizable number of the Vesuvioian dragons are distrustful of the freedom fighters (believing them to be treasure hunters or worse, in the employ of their rival race the Gryphons, who want to steal their chaos emerald which is presumably a sacred stone to them called the pyrostone or something like that), the most vocal being Dulcy's new mate Zan
(or an expy), one of the only two protector dragons in Vesuvio (the other obviously being Dulcy herself) & highly respected & who like his archie counterpart, is extremely xenophobic towards non-dragons. To the FF's surprise, Dulcy actually somewhat agrees with Zan's sentiments & tells her friends they should probably go. Fortunately, Glint & the FF's few draconian allies manage to convince the rest of the elders to let the group stay albeit under the care of the two parent dragons seeing as how the father dragon is the one who brought them to the city. Later on, Sonic and/or Tails may decide to swing by Dulcy's place in the protector-dragon quarters of the city (of which Dulcy and Zan are currently the only inhabitants) to pay her a visit and witness Zan giving Dulcy a nasty verbal berating over her suggesting she go visit her friends, even looking about ready to hit her (he fortunately doesn't when she concedes). Sonic and/or Tails go and tell the rest of group plus their new dragon friends what they've just witnessed and are obviously appalled and disgusted. Said dragon friends then reveal that they've suspected Zan's abusive behavior for a while, with Dulcy not having been herself & her visitations to them becoming less frequent after her union with Zan (they also suspect, to the shock & horror of the FF, that her broken arm & black eye weren’t an accident as she claims) but haven't been able to prove it due to her living in the protector quarters (& being one of the only two inhabitants of it sides Zan) separate from the rest of the city, her not saying anything about it (obviously being too afraid of and subservient to Zan to speak out against him) and Zan himself commanding great respect from the citzens of Vesuvio and even a majority of the elders due to not only being one of the only two protector dragons currently fit to fight, but also being extremely powerful & skilled. So the FF work to convince the dragons of Vesuvio that they're not their enemy, give Dulcy the strength & courage she needs to stand up to her absuer and out Zan's abusive nature to the rest of the Vesuvioian dragons. Zan, in turn, tries to convince everyone that the FF are treasure hunters and/or agents of the Gryphons trying to steal the pyrostone from them and may even try to turn Dulcy against her former friends, an easy feat considering he has her in his power.
In both scenarios, Dulcy would undergo training from her sensei and start to develop her protector powers which may include avatar-style elemental bending, the ability to turn her wings into energy & fly at supersonic speed, precognition & limited invisibility. However, she wouldn't be too powerful at this stage because A:she's still training & has presumably only been doing so for a few months (though she would've learnt & advanced far quicker than most other protector dragons in training) & B:if she does rejoin the Knothole Freedom Fighters, making her too powerful may have her usurp Bunnie's Action Girl role again which is one of the main reasons she's hated in the first place (in this troper's opinion anyway, if it weren't for that & if she had a proper introductory episode, I personally think she wouldn't have been as hated and would've probably been a Base-Breaking Character at worst).
The comic could also fix the other big issue fans have with Dulcy by inserting flashbacks in her return story showing how she came to Knothole (probably quite literally crashing into the village after escaping some of Robotnik's air forces and having to be nursed back to health by the Freedom Fighters) and joined the freedom fighters as well as showing the friendships she had with the individual freedom fighters (challenging Sonic to races & even chili-dog eating completions, receiving some motherly comfort from Sally after having a nightmare, helping Rotor & Bunnie lift some heavy machinery, getting a spa treatment & pedicure from Bunnie with Sally & few of knothole's villagers helping out), in particular one with Tails. Being that she has a childlike mentality, Dulce would've probably been the closest thing to having another child in Knothole (plus Tails naturally being of the curious sort, would be in awe of such a huge creature and Dulcy would naturally find the young fox cub irresistibly adorable) so it's likely the two could have had a close friendship which would also be shown in these flashbacks. In the second scenario in the context of Dulcy's abuse at the hands of Zan, these flashbacks become a lot more tragic & heartbreaking.
Personality wise, she'd still have her childishness and klutziness, but these would be toned down (the klutziness in particular would be heavily toned down & under Glint's training, she would've also gotten a hellva lot better at landings) & she would have developed some maturity as well. In the second scenario, her abusive relationship with Zan would also probably leave some heavy emotional scarring and her friends would have to help her recover (It may also be what helps her to mature a little since her childlike naivety was what made it so easy for Zan to manipulate & abuse her).
In addition, the comic could also develop & expand on the mobian dragons as a whole. Their history, culture, biology even and their relationships with the other races of Mobius including the Terapods, as well as the ancient civilizations such as the Echidnas, Wolf Pack, Mandarra, the Kraken's race and the Drood.Like in a lot of fantasy series, they could be led a council of elder dragons and the comic could also show what other classes of dragons there are.
One common element in both scenarios would be the city of Vesuvio which like it's Archie counterpart, is an ancient dragon city said to be home to the first of their kind. It could either be located within a massive volcano like in Archie or in a high mountainous & volcanic region (think a combination of Marble Zone & Hill Top Zone). It may also have special sections reserved for dragons of high importance such as protectors and elders.In the first scenario, the city is an abandoned ruin (either having been lost long ago or being one of the first places Robotnik attacked in his campagin to wipe out the mobian dragons) and Mobius few remaining dragons are living on Angel Island, confident they're completely safe from Robotnik and any other threats. In the second scenario, Vesuivo is inhabited by the draconian survivors of Robotnik's rule, having rediscovered the city after Robotnik's takeover and establishing a safe haven for the dragon race. They could also be given a rival race in the form of another mythological creature, presumably another flying one like as suggested above, Gryphons and the comic could also give deep lore on them as well.
It could also be revealed that in addition to them, Satam Mobius is also host to other mythological creatures such as mermaids, elves (Lazaar's species) & trolls (Naugus's species), all of which even existed back when Mobius was Earth, but were feared & hunted by humans, thus forcing them to go into hiding until they faded into myth & fairytale, only coming out of hiding when humanity was wiped out and replaced by the much friendlier and accepting mobians (Robotnik would've also likely carried out campaigns of extermination on these other creatures as well, either through roboticisation or outright killing).
The group will set off to said underground world with their newest member Gavin in tow (and minus Antoine), unaware that he’s studying the group to find their weaknesses and drive them apart so that his commander Dirk can take control of the resistance. And along the journey, he believes he’s discovered one; their strong affection and protectiveness of the young Tails. So after meeting the Kraken and convincing him to give them the Emerald (Tails naturally being psyched to have met the Kraken & exploring his underground world) and just before they make their triumphant return to Knothole, Gavin (possibly under Dirk's orders since it's likely the two will have some form of long-distance two-way communication since Gavin is supposed to report the Knothole group's progress) will kidnap Tails by drugging him (either by offering him some laced candy or drink or using a chloroform rag) and then tricks the group into thinking he’s been captured (depending on how intelligent and resourceful Gavin is, he may also fake a transmission from Robotropolis saying the the young lad has already been robotiscised. Alternatively, Dirk may send out said transmission).
Meanwhile, Gavin takes the unconscious Tails to a cave in some remote location and ties him up, leaving a week’s worth of food & water for the young fox (Gavin doesn’t seem that ruthless, at least not to the point of actually murdering a young boy or turning him over to those who would put him through a fate worse than death for that matter. He may have even developed a soft spot for the fox, perhaps reminding him of when he was a child and admiring his bravery, cunning and intelligence for his age. So he’ll do his best to keep the cub alive but imprisoned until the plan is complete and Dirk has assumed complete control of the resistance and defeated Naugus and Snively).
However, Gavin severely underestimates the boy’s intelligence and resourcefulness and Tails manages to untie himself and escape his cave prison.
Unfortunately, he has no idea where he is or how to get back to Knothole and may actually be at least a little scared that he’ll never find his way home and see his adoptive family again. And it’s at this point he may either be:
- Found by Knuckles and we go with a slightly different version of the “Tails and Knux going to Angel Island, possibly meeting Dulcy and then reuniting with the FF in Boulder Bay with the Terrapods or at Knothole as it’s being destroyed” plot line.
- Forced to try to find his own way home, a journey which will put the freedom fighter skills Sonic and the others have taught him to the test. Perhaps he might even learn a few new ones (this plotline may also take elements from Tails Adventure and Tails Skypatrol). Along the way, he may meet a certain pink hedgehog and a certain lop-eared rabbit girl and her strange fairy-like companion.
Meanwhile the Knothole group, still under the belief that their young comrade has fallen victim to the robotisciser, are absolutely devastated, even holding a pseudo-funeral for the fox boy (which they do for any member of theirs who falls victim to the robotisciser).
Sonic and Sally take it the hardest, beating themselves up over the loss of Tails and regretting ever bringing the young fox along with them.
It's at this point Sonic may accidentally reveal the fox's near-death experience in Robotropolis, something that, coupled with her already intense grief and the fact that Sonic kept her in the dark about it, will cause Sally to lose it completely and snap at the hedgehog, putting a serious strain on their relationship, if not outright ending it.
That evening, Sonic and Sally are sitting by themselves on tree stumps on the opposite sides of Knothole, reminiscing about all the happy times they had with the chipper young fox cub, the loss of whom may be a contributing factor in their Heroic BSoD along with their possible break-up. The other freedom fighters will also reminisce about the happy times they had with Tails (Bunnie in particular may be sitting on her bed sobbing when Gavin comes in and offers to comfort her, starting to feel guilty and unsure about continuing the rest of the plan).
During this, Tails himself is trying to navigate though a dark forest until he tires out & decides to rest for the night. Alone, frightened and desperately missing his surrogate family, the young lad is also confused as to why he's been betrayed by a freedom fighter.
Finally, in a reference to the bad ending of Sonic 2 (8-Bit), the chapter ends with both Sonic and Sally looking up and seeing a image of Tails in the night sky.
Over the course of the next few chapters, Gavin will concoct more ways to sabotage and undermine the Knothole group (as previously stated though, he may feel uneasy about doing so though) which causes rifts in the group and starts to divide them.
At the next Freedom Fighter meeting, it’ll be revealed that the other Freedom Fighter groups haven’t had as much success, with most having disappeared, possibly captured or even killed and the ones who haven’t have come back empty handed except for Dirk’s group, who have also managed to find a Chaos Emerald.
Now having not one, but two Chaos Emeralds in their possession, Dirk will be eager to use their power to defeat Naugus and Snively. He will also likely use the loss of the other Freedom Fighters, coupled with the fact the Knothole group brought along a ten-year old child on a dangerous mission and got him captured and robotiscised, against Sally and possibly strengthen his chances of turning the resistance against the Knothole Freedom Fighters and taking over the role of leadership.
Perhaps during another one of their confrontations, Sonic may mention Tails's loss to Snively and/or Naugus, who will be confused at first and not know what he's talking about.
Later on however, Snively may discover the fake transmission and he and Naugus correctly deduce there are divisions in the resistance and that the Knothole group have been fooled as part of a ploy for power by another resistance member. Snively and Naugus then may decide to play along with the "Tails is roboticized" story and use the civil war in the resistance to their advantage.
Eventually though, they’ll find out the truth in either two ways:
- Sonic and/or Bunnie may catch Gavin sneaking food and water out of Knothole's pantry and flying off to who knows where. The two will then follow him (Sonic naturally being able to keep with Gavin's flying speed though not without difficulty while Bunnie sits on his shoulders) to the cave where he's holding Tails prisoner. When he gets there, he's shocked to find the cave empty. It is then that Sonic and Bunnie confront Gavin and he attempts to escape them, but fails and is then taken back to Knothole.
- If we go with the suggestion that Sonic takes Snively hostage and if the alleged roboticisation of Tails hasn't been brought up to him or Naugus by this point, Sonic and/or Sally may do so in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him. Snively then reveals he knows nothing of the sort and that even if he had captured Tails, he would have held the cub hostage knowing Sonic and the FF care deeply for him instead of immediately roboticising him. This prompts Sonic to interrogate Gavin who like in the above scenario, makes a failed attempt at escaping them.
Either way, Sonic and the Knothole Freedom Fighters force Gavin to spill the whole thing, revealing he kidnapped Tails and faked his roboticisation, planning to hide him in the cave until his mission was complete and has been sabotaging the group all under Dirk's orders so he could undermine the Knothole group and assume full control of the resistance.
Notice how, when Knuckles told the Freedom Fighters that the main reason he has to protect the Chaos Emeralds from Naugus was because of Sonic and Sally using the Power Stones, the blue blur immediately gets angry and defensive? How he immediately starts putting Knuckles down and dismissing his work as inconsequential because he didn't pull his weight and fight Robotnik?
Or how, at the Freedom Fighter meeting, when Dirk begins to question Sally's leadership and calls her a child, Sonic's instant reaction is to resort to petty insults, inadvertently proving Dirk right?
All this has been brought about from the fact that it seemed like he had beat Robotnik once and for all and that everything seemed to be alright again. Now they have to start from scratch and not only fight someone who is significantly more competent than Robotnik but a sorcerer with his own agenda.
Dirk may have been out of line, but he represents the people who are disillusioned with the fact that they're taking orders from someone who not only failed to rid the world of tyranny, but ushered in a much more dangerous threat. And Sonic knows it.
Sonic's always acted without thinking, but he always seems to come out on top because of it. But back then, he was considered Mobius's greatest Freedom Fighter who could do no wrong and a beacon of hope. This is the first time he's experienced people turning on him.
This is a massive blow to his ego and some are seeing him as nothing more than a bolshy little brat. Someone who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and who only got to the top because he was friends with Daddy's Little Princess.
He'll take it upon himself to prove that Snively and Naugus are no match for him, and it'll nearly kill him.
- To give a suggest as to what that brash action could be, he might kidnap Snively to hold him hostage to either get Naugus to surrender or try & lure him into a trap. If that's the case, then it may cost him more than just his life.
He could deliver a speech that is 50% What the Hell, Hero? and 50% Kick Them While They Are Down.
For example:
- Dirk: It appears that I was right this whole time, and you all refused to listen. You were warned about what'd happen if you took orders from children. Children who don't know what they're doing if what's happened since the last meeting is anything to go by! Griff. How many members of your team came back from your little hunt? Lupe. I apologize for your tribe being unnecessarily thinned out. But what am I sorry for? It should be the Princess being held accountable for the losses you've all faced. She's been quiet since we met. Oh, I forgot. The Princess has lost someone too. An innocent child was dragged into the Roboticiser because of her stupidity. She brought an inexperienced brat into war and now he's a mindless drone, hauling scrap metal in Robotropolis and robbed of his future. Shame on you, Acorn.
Sonic: Hey, that’s a low blow. Not cool!
Dirk: Don’t you dare deflect, boy! Don’t you dare! If I had assumed leadership, none of this would have happened, and you know it! Perhaps the Princess should speak for herself and answer to the people whose lives were destroyed because of her!
Dirk proceeds to completely change the way things are done and decrees that they will learn to fight like soldiers. Sneaking around and sabotaging has failed, and they will build weapons to fight Snively.
Perhaps Knuckles lets Tails tag along with him, most likely keeping the fact that he knows the Freedom Fighters will eventually find him a secret.
The subplot could be that Sally's just discovered that Tails has ran away, which triggers her fears. Sussing out that her charge has likely left to find a Chaos Emerald, she decides to kill two birds with one stone and get her team to look for two objectives simultaneously. Meanwhile, Sonic is panicking because he remembers what happened to Tails when he went up against Naugus and abandons the hunt to find him before the bad guys do.
Tails and Knuckles arrive at Boulder Bay, where they run into the terrapod herd, which is now led by Baby-T, who had a growth spurt. And uses the communication device to talk to them.
Baby-T believes that Tails left the Freedom Fighters because they don’t need him, as that was his reason for refusing to live with the herd. This Innocently Insensitive observation causes Tails to fall to pieces as he remembers Sonic and Sally not letting him help in the big mission. He realises that he's nothing more than a frightened little boy who wandered out into a dangerous world thinking he was ready.
Cue the Freedom Fighters finding him and a reunion.
- Alternatively, if Tails is allowed to come on the big mission in the first place or if we follow on from the "Tails, Dulcy & Knuckles rescuing the freedom fighters from Knothole's destruction & setting up shop on Angel Island" theory, the FF might go to the great jungle in search of one of the chaos emeralds and encounter the terapod herd along with Baby-T (who as suggested above, could have grown into an adult & leader of the herd or might still be "Baby-T".) who'll help them navigate the great jungle & find the emerald which may be hidden in some kind of ancient temple (along the way, they may also encounter the Jungle-based group of freedom fighters which were originally going to appear in the second season). Also, Knuckles and/or Dulcy may be able to freely communicate with the terapods, thus negating the need for a translator device.
Perhaps his next big feat will be helping in the reverse-engineering of Snively's resonatrix device. While the FF almost certainly already have Rotor & Uncle Chuck working on it, he could still help them out in some major way. Or perhaps, one of them could be taken out of action (Rotor or Chuck might have an accident in the workshop or Rotor may come down with an Illness), thus Rotor/Uncle Chuck may need Tails to help bulid the emerald trackers, of which he'd happily obliged. Another possibility is that both are taken out of action midway though the tracker's development (again via an accident and/or an act of sabotage by Gavin) & thus Tails may decide to finish making them himself, something that will no doubt surprise & impress the FF.
Tails himself may also have a secondary, more personal motivation for helping reverse-engineer the resonatrix or even finishing the device himself. The second to last panel of page 28 chapter implies that in spite of Sonic's reassuring pep talk, he still feels insecure about his place on the team. He may even be anticipating Sally and/or even Sonic to bar him from coming on the big mission. So he thinks that if he helps Rotor and/or Uncle Chuck create the emerald tracker (or finishes making them himself), he'll impress Sally and/or Sonic enough that they'll let him come along on the emerald hunt (something that may sour his disappointment even further if we go with the first WMG and he is prevented from joining the hunt).
The comic could also introduce another aspect from mainstream Tails. It could be revealed that the boy has a secret passion for aircraft what with being a living helicopter himself and may even prove to be capable of flying one. Perhaps at some point in the story, he and another freedom fighter are flying in the Freedom Stormer. However, the plane may be attacked or struck by lightning, incapacitating the pilot & forcing Tails to fly the plane himself to safety. If we go with the theory of him becoming separated from the rest of the freedom fighters and being forced to find his own way home, he may come across a biplane (the satam version of the Tornado) that he'll find out belonged to his father, a brave pilot who valiantly fought in the Great War against the War Claws's aerial forces, something that'll no doubt inspire the cub. He'll then use said biplane in his quest to return home.
The storyline could be that Robotnik has discovered a way of projecting himself outside of the void (as suggested above, he could’ve learnt how to use magic during his time serving under Naugus and used the library in the wizard’s sanctuary to learn more, enough to make a magical projection machine using the void crystals to reach outstide the void) in the guise of some anicient spirit or the ghost of one of Knuckles tribespeople (Pachacamac, Tikal, Athair or Knuckles's father Locke) and tell him that he needs to stop both the freedom fighters and Naugus & Snively from having the chaos emeralds as well as gather them himself to take back to Angel Island where it'll be almost guaranteed they'll be safe.
Knuckles, not realizing that the spirit is actually the dreaded dictator manipulating him into gathering all the chaos emeralds in one place (he may also know the location of the Angel Island via the power of the void crystals), will then go on to be a third party in the chaos emerald hunt, opposing both the FF and Naugus & Snively, becoming a thorn in the side of both.
Even if Robotnik is brought back from the void and made Naugus’s lackey like in the original plan for season 3, he may still be able to keep up his masquerade using a portable version of the crystal projection device, pretending to be subservient to Naugus knowing that once he has all seven chaos emeralds, not only will he have absolute rule over Mobius (and perhaps even the entire universe), he'll no longer have to fear the wizard.
If Knuckles does manage to get all 7 chaos emeralds, the FF may find a way to locate Angel Island (possibly using the same emerald tracking device they used to uncover the emeralds in the first place) and go there to retrieve them, followed by Naugus & Robotnik (at this point, Snively may have defected to the freedom fighters while secretly plotting to betray them as well, as in the original plan for season 3). What would follow then would pretty much be a loose adaptation of Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles and the "Robotnik Reigns Supreme" storyline from STC, with both Sonic & Co and Naugus & Robotnik traversing Angel Island's varied locales, opposing both Knuckles & each other, eventually ending in them locating Knuckles's sanctum and Robotnik revealing his deception to Knuckles and gaining both the seven emeralds, plus the Master Emerald keeping Angel Island afloat, thus becoming a nigh-unstoppable godlike being who'll completely obliterate Naugus and cement his control over Mobius, requiring Sonic to defeat him with wits instead of speed.
This plotline could also still somewhat work even if we go with the "Tails convincing Knux to help FF & the FF being forced to set up a new HQ on Angel Island" theory, albeit it'd be more Robotnik manipulating the entire group rather than just Knuckles.
- The Forest Emerald:Almost certainly somewhere in the Great Forest, either in the underground kingdom of the Kraken or if the Freedom Fighters are really lucky, directly underneath Knothole. In either case, it would be the reason why the Great Forest has remained one of the few habitable places on Mobius.
- The Water Emerald:Possibly in some sunken ruins al'a the Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1 or the Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic 2.
- The Fire Emerald:As suggested above, located in Vesuvio and considered a sacred stone to the dragon race. Alternate locations could be ones based on the Marble Zone from Sonic 1 or the Hill Top Zone from Sonic 2 (& even then, it could still have a connection to the mobian dragons)
- The Darkness Emerald: As suggested below, the Darkness Emerald could be Lazaar's Magic Computer.
- The Buzz Bombers from the pilot episode “Heads or Tails”:In addition to them, it’ll also be revealed Robotnik actually used many of his “badnik” robots (i.e. Motobug, Chopper, Crabmeat, Caterkiller etc) from the games back in the early days of his empire (he may have even used the chameleon badnik Newtron in an attempt to locate Knothole using its cloaking capabilities to track the FF without them knowing, which only fails due to Rotor placing anti-robot sensors in select locations around the Great Forest after the Sallybot incident). However, the freedom fighters constant attacks on his factories forced him to discontinue the line & focus instead on the Swatbots who were much quicker & cheaper to manufacture in comparison (the buzz bombers disobeying Robotnik may have also contributed to their decommissioning). Perhaps sometime later in the series, either Snively or Robotnik when he returns, may revive the badnik line and upgrade them into their Sonic 2 counterparts (e.g. Buzz Bomber becoming Buzzer, Chopper becoming Masher, Crabmeat becoming Shellcracker, Caterkiller becoming Crawlton etc). Alternateivley, it could be shown that the pilot episode takes place in an alternate universe, thus explaining the Buzz Bomber's absence from the rest of the series (and why everything else in the pilot is different from the rest of the series for that matter).
- Muttski, also from “Heads or Tails”:He was mentioned in the short "Waiting is The Hardest Part", so the sea3on hasn't written him out of canon.
- The Kraken from “Sub-Sonic”:He may possess a clue to the location of one of the emeralds or may even be in possession of an emerald itself, most likely the forest one which may be responsible for the green water which in turn has kept the Great Forest one of the few habitable places on Mobius.
- Lazaar from “Super Sonic”:Many fans have speculated he’s the voice Naugus was talking to at the beginning of Chapter 4. His magic computer may even be a chaos emerald, most likely the darkness one.
- The Nasty Hyenas from “Fed Up With Antoine”
- Dulcy's mother Sabina from "Blast To The Past Part 2" & "Dulcy”:If Dulcy does rejoin the freedom fighters at some point in the story, the team could come across her mother whose more than likely roboticised. They could even deliberately seek her out for clues to the emeralds locations, using a power ring to temporally restore her free will. There will also certainly be an emotional momment between Dulce & her mother in she tells Dulcy how proud she is of her and that they'll be reuntied forever one day.
- The Mother Dragon & her baby from “Dulcy”:As I’ve mentioned above, she & her daughter may be living on Angel Island or in Vesuvio along with some other surviving dragons. At this point, said baby may have grown a bit, at least to the point of being able to talk & may view Dulcy as an older sister figure.
- Ro-Becca from, well, “Ro-Becca”:Being that the short “Hare-Care” has introduced Bunnie’s Salon to the SatAM universe, Rotor might reprogram her to be Bunnie’s assistant to help her out round and look after the place while Bunnie’s away on missions.
Satam is considered one of the darkest iterations of Sonic so it would make total sense to include a psycho super sonic al'a fleetway. Plus, it would fit with the whole "chaos is enriched by the power of the heart". In addition to increasing power, the super form may also amplify the current emotional state of the user. So if Sonic sees someone close to him getting seriously hurt (Sally, Tails or even Uncle Chuck) before transforming, the transformation may magnify his pain and rage to the point of going completely berserk and trying to destroy everything in sight.
We got Knuckles so it wouldn't be inconceivable that we could see the likes of other SEGA & Archie characters, perhaps even a few fleetway ones as well. Here's some ideas for who they could be and what they could be like;
- Amy Rose:
- Cream The Rabbit & Cheese The Chao:
- Tekno The Canary:
- Ebony:
- The Remote Robot/T-Pup:
- The Battle Kukku/Battle Bird Armada:Secondary villians & the main antagonists of the "Tails being separated from the from the freedom fighters and forced to find his own way back story arc" theory.
- Nack The Weasel:
- The Chaotix:
- The Knuckles Clan: Since Knuckles himself has been introduced, it's more than likely his fellow echidnas will be too. Their history and relationship to the chaos emeralds will likely mirror that of the games. As mentioned above, Robotnik may also find a way to impersonate one of them to trick Knux into gathering all the chaos emeralds for him.
- Pachacamac
- Tikal:The scroll Knuckles gave Sally contained a modified version of her prayer so she's definitely a possibility.
- Athair
- Locke
- Geoffery St John:
- Tiara Cyberooski/Boobowski:
- Mina Mongoose:
- Hope Kintobor:Perhaps as a way of introducing a Token Human to the freedom fighters.
- Colin Kintobor:
- Nate Morgan
- Glint:
- Hershey:
It would certainly be a fun & creative idea as to how these two universes & their inhabitants would interact with each other & Sea3on is the best opportunity for it to happen.
Yes, Gavin is Dirk's Mole in the Knothole Freedom Fighters. However, so far he's been a Minion with an F in Evil; he seems to be a Nice Guy, and he hasn't done anything underhanded. (Admittedly, he hasn't had much of an opportunity yet.) So if Dirk ever orders him to betray Sonic, Sally and company, he'll either refuse outright, or he'll obey his boss up to a point, then decide he can't go through with it. This could play out in several ways:
- Gavin might give Dirk a passionate speech, arguing that the Knothole team are honorable fighters who should be supported, not abandoned.
- If Gavin's speech gets through to Dirk, he'll apologize to the Freedom Fighters and start working with them. If not, his stubborn Pride won't allow him to back down. At best, he'll simply cut ties with Knothole and Gavin and go his own way. At worst, he'll do a Face–Heel Turn and ally himself with Snively and Naugus.
- Gavin might have to do a Heroic Sacrifice (or at least attempt one) to save his new friends.
