Decap Attack came back this issue, so we’re down a Sonic story again, but we get to see what the Freedom Fighters are up to in this last story, as I assume more progress is being made towards the big milestone issue
The team is minus Tekno today, but I guess at this stage she’s still more considered their friend from the Emerald Hill Zone who lets them crash at her house and sometimes helps out
Yessss! It’s Vermin! Amy wants to be cautious, but the prospect of having a yaoi battle with his rival is too much of a temptation for Shortfuse
That bear guy cheering them on gets me. I bet he writes slash fanfics
Johnny has the worst luck in these comics! Even outside of the whole dying so close to the ending thing!
Shortfuse, please stop being distracted by your homoerotic tension with the guy egging you on for two minutes to save Johnny, please!
Nope, Shortfuse couldn’t do it. He gave into temptation and Tails needed to save Johnny from an even earlier grave
Uhh, Shortfuse, I don't think this is a simple “we won” situation…
We don’t see Amy lose her temper very often, but she’s right here. I had worried that the whole “needing an excuse for Shortfuse to leave the team” thing was going to result in a stretch of a plot point where characters get angry with each other for no reason (like the forced conflict between Adora and Glimmer in later seasons of SPOP >.>), but Shortfuse both not prioritising saving Johnny’s life and then doubling down on his choice not to do that is pretty bad. I mean, I’m an enabler, I wanted Shortfuse to fight Vermin, but I also love this sort of drama and this is the logical conclusion to this arc. I know I joke about Shortfuse being Stringer’s fave guy, but I do respect how he’s still willing to show Shortfuse get into bad situations and straight up be wrong - a lot of writers don’t do that to their fave guy
“Go paddle your own canoe then!” also goes hard as fuck. I love that line
With that bout of leftist in-fighting, Shortfuse’s short run as part of the Freedom Fighters is over! Kinda funny that it ends on a note of the next issue’s story being called “Solidarity”. Y’know, in my head I thought I remembered this era of the Freedom Fighters lasting longer than it did? But I guess that might be because, even if it was short, there were a lot of memorable stories involving characters I like in this part of the comic? As a kid, with the Special Zone arc largely being about stuff I wasn’t interested in, I must’ve just latched onto the stories about these guys instead
