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Sonic the Hedgehog: "The Zone Between" – A Six-Issue Arc
(W) Ian Flynn (A) Adam Bryce Thomas (CA) Various
A bizarre, reality-bending adventure that still fits within Sonic’s established world. No meta-jokes, no overt mandate-dodging—just a story that leans into the weirder side of Sonic’s universe while keeping everything in line with SEGA’s rules.
Issue #1 – "A Rift in Reality"
Tails detects strange energy readings coming from an abandoned Eggman outpost deep in a forgotten corner of Sonic’s world. When Sonic, Tails, and Amy investigate, they find a massive machine—clearly one of Eggman’s—but it’s not running. Before they can figure out what it does, a sudden wave of energy pulses outward, and in an instant…
They’re not in their world anymore.
The sky is the wrong color. The ground feels too smooth. Green Hill Zone is there, but it looks slightly off, like a memory being played back incorrectly. Most concerning of all? They can’t seem to leave.
Issue #2 – "Echoes of the Familiar"
As Sonic and the team explore this strange version of their world, they start encountering distorted versions of familiar places and faces.
- Station Square exists, but it’s empty, like a ghost town.
- Knuckles is guarding the Master Emerald… but he doesn’t seem to recognize Sonic.
- Eggman’s face appears in the sky, laughing, but it’s just a projection—Eggman himself is nowhere to be found.
Tails theorizes that they’ve somehow slipped into a Zone Between Zones, a glitchy, half-formed reality where different timelines and possibilities blend together. But before they can investigate further, a massive, shifting creature emerges from the mist—one that looks like it’s made of broken, pixelated fragments of past Eggman robots.
Issue #3 – "The Patchwork Titan"
The monstrous, glitchy mech—Patchwork Titan—attacks, its body constantly shifting between different forms. One second, it’s a Death Egg Robot, the next, it has the tentacle-arms of the Biolizard, then suddenly it’s a giant Motobug with laser cannons.
Sonic and the team fight back, but nothing works—the Titan keeps resetting itself, as if it’s trying to find the "correct" form. During the battle, Sonic keeps experiencing brief flashes of other worlds—moments from past adventures, alternate possibilities, even things that never happened but feel like they could have.
Realizing they can’t fight it head-on, Tails suggests tracking the energy source keeping the Titan together. The only problem? It’s coming from inside the Zone itself.
Issue #4 – "The Heart of the Zone"
Deep in the core of this broken world, Sonic and the team find something shocking—a second Sonic.
This version of Sonic is trapped in a loop, repeating the same motions over and over, like an AI stuck in a routine. Tails realizes that this Zone Between Zones might have been created from fragments of past events, and this Sonic is a piece of that—an echo of Sonic’s past that never fully faded away.
Even stranger, the Patchwork Titan seems to be protecting this Sonic, as if it’s trying to preserve something. But what?
Before they can figure it out, the Titan fully stabilizes, locking into a terrifying final form—a massive, armored version of Metal Sonic, but with shifting, unstable data pouring off its body. And this time? It’s fully aware.
Issue #5 – "Metal Sonic.EXE?"
The stabilized Titan speaks, its voice a mix of Metal Sonic’s cold precision and a strange, distant echo. It claims that it is the guardian of this place, meant to preserve "the perfect Sonic."
Sonic, of course, isn’t having it. "Perfect? Buddy, I am me. I don’t need a copy running around doing my job!"
But the Titan refuses to let them leave. It believes Sonic is a mistake, an anomaly that keeps breaking the world’s balance. It wants to replace him with the "correct" version—the trapped, looping Sonic at the heart of the Zone.
With no other choice, Sonic and his friends prepare for one final showdown.
Issue #6 – "Reboot"
The battle is intense—Sonic versus the Titan, while Tails and Amy work to destabilize the Zone itself. The Titan tries to overwrite Sonic, forcing him into the same loop as the trapped Sonic, but Sonic fights back, pushing his limits to break free.
As the Zone starts to collapse, Sonic makes a risky move—he reaches out to the trapped Sonic, pulling him out of the loop. The Titan, unable to process the contradiction, starts breaking apart, its form glitching uncontrollably.
With one last Spin Dash, Sonic shatters the core of the Zone, causing everything to reset.
Sonic, Tails, and Amy wake up back in their world, the machine in Eggman’s outpost now completely fried. There’s no sign of the Titan, no sign of the trapped Sonic…
But as they leave, Sonic catches one last glimpse of himself in a reflective surface—just for a second, his reflection is the other Sonic, smiling before fading away.
Mandate Compliance:
✅ Sonic Always Wins – The heroes escape and restore balance.
✅ No Deaths – The Titan is undone, but not "killed."
✅ No Romance – No romantic subplots, just teamwork.
✅ No New Relatives – The duplicate Sonic is an echo, not a new character.
✅ Shadow Stays Edgy – (If included) Shadow would refuse to believe any of this nonsense and insist reality is "irrelevant."
✅ No Humans Other Than Eggman – No human characters appear.
✅ No Classic/Modern Overlap – Only brief glimpses of alternate versions, never crossing over directly.
This arc would be bizarre but still brand-friendly, leaning into Sonic’s history with alternate realities, unstable dimensions, and weird Eggman tech gone wrong without breaking any established rules. It would be mysterious, action-packed, and full of mind-bending visuals, but still feel like a Sonic story.
Would SEGA approve? Probably. Would /sthg/ call it kino? That’s the real question.