290. Sonic the Hedgehog #209
Iron Dominion (Part One)
Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Matt Herms
Sally is distraught as Tails attempts to hack into New Mobotropolis' mainframe from Freedom HQ. She blames herself for not putting the pieces together about Nicole, the nanites, and the Iron Queen sooner - and while I don't blame her specifically, she does have a point, as I mentioned before. Like, seriously, how did no one realize the danger there earlier? Sonic, in a lovely gesture of respect, allows Khan to be the first to comfort her despite his pangs of envy about their budding relationship, and after Khan does his best to reassure her, Sonic chimes in about how they're obviously fine since he escaped the city, and that she needs to stop wallowing in self-pity. She's indignant for a split second before collecting herself and calmly thanking Sonic for setting her straight. Sonic and Khan then good-naturedly tease each other a little about their very different approaches to wooing Sally, which I appreciate a great deal - similarly to with Sally and Mina, I'm glad the comics never devolve into petty jealousy even between two characters who are interested in the same person. It's definitely a welcome breath of fresh air in the midst of so many other crappy fictional love triangles.
Sonic and Sally get ready to be digitized, with Sally asking Khan to watch over them while they're inside. He protests that he doesn't even know how to work a computer, which seems ridiculous given the highly advanced futuristic world he lives in - like damn dude, I know Mobians in this universe haven't always been so friendly with technology, but you literally hail from a land ruled over by a technomage! I'm pretty sure the Iron Queen wouldn't have set up shop there if there was no techno for her to mage! Either way, Sally of course just meant for him to keep Freedom HQ secure while Tails manages the technical aspects of the mission, and with that, they enter the digital world, which conveniently just looked like a green, techy version of New Mobotropolis. They get ready to break into the city by breaking down the front do- uh, code, but before they can do so Iron Nicole arrives to confront them.
Of course, things are never that easy. The Iron Queen herself chooses this moment to show up in cyberspace, except she's gigantic, towering over the heroes and the city. Sonic grabs Sally and tears off to escape her rapidly-approaching hand, and they wonder how to rescue Nicole and how the Iron Queen is even here in the first place given that there's no digitizer in the city. Of course, she's a technomage, so we see a nice little scene of her crouching over her staff and yelling insults at it, while a bemused Snively watches, unable to see anything she's looking at. Annoyed, he leaves the room, and Lien-Da mocks him for not getting as much attention as he wants from his new beau before reporting that the capture of all the city's residents is going smoothly.
Somehow, I don't think that's a good thing…
Back in cyberspace, Sonic tells Sally to handle Nicole while he distracts the Iron Queen, but unfortunately, since this is a digital world Iron Nicole can do basically whatever she wants, and copies his spin dash effortlessly, redirecting any shots he tries to fire off at her master. In Freedom HQ, Khan becomes more and more worried as he sees them losing the battle, and asks Tails where the access to the city's mainframe is, leaving the room immediately when Tails absentmindedly gives him the location. Tails realizes his mistake a second later, and runs out of the room to confront Khan as he tries to fly back to the city. Khan admits he plans to "put Nicole out of her misery," justifying his decision by pointing out how traumatized he is from being used by the Iron Queen in a similar manner to murder the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters and how he doesn't want Nicole to suffer in the same way. Tails struggles with him physically, trying to stop him and yelling that they can trust Sonic and Sally to save her.
Aw c'mon Khan, more murder isn't the answer, even if it's supposed to be a mercy murder! In the digital world, Sally figures out that she can "cast" a firewall that Rotor built some time ago, and puts up a red wall of coding to try to block the Iron Queen's magic, though the Iron Queen realizes what she's trying to do pretty quickly and blasts the wall apart. Sally, undaunted, rushes to Nicole and yells for Sonic to once again take on the Iron Queen, and while Sonic distracts her by deftly planting his entire spiky body into her digital eyeball, Sally builds an entire firewall "room" around herself and Nicole. Instantly, Nicole's connection to the Iron Queen is broken, and within seconds she's building more defenses in her code to ensure she can't be controlled again. She's furious and humiliated that this happened at all, and when Sally tries to reassure her that they're in control once more, Nicole sadly explains why she doesn't agree - most of the populace is imprisoned and the Legion and Yagyu are stationed everywhere, and even if they were to somehow immediately take the city back, the Iron Queen still has three other clans as reinforcements abroad, and could come back even stronger and wise to their weaknesses.
A decent plan, actually. I mean, who better to act as a spy than an AI who can transform her body and skillfully act, independent of any accidental emotional displays that an organic might be susceptible to? Nicole immediately shatters the firewall and pretends to "purge" the code trapping her, and Sally puts on a great show of running terrified, yelling at Tails to get them out of the simulation. Sonic and Sally vanish, and "Iron Nicole" reassures the Iron Queen that the invaders have been forced from the system and the city remains under her control. Back in the real world, however, Sally happily explains to the others her success, and Khan and Tails both report in that absolutely nothing of note happened while they were gone, sharing a secret glance while Tails pulls an absolutely perfect "I-told-you-so" smug smile. The four of them quickly pack up some supplies and then pile into (or onto, in the case of Sonic and Sally - seriously, Tails, you need to build more seats) the Tornado to head straight for the Dragon Kingdom, to ensure that when they do retake the city, the Iron Queen will have no more reinforcements to call on.