Sonic Triple Trouble (Archie)

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Sonic Triple Trouble #1 "Sonic Triple Trouble "
Writer: Mike Gallagher and Ken Penders
Pencils: Patrick Spaziante, Barry Grossman, Dave Manak, Art Mawhinney, Rich Koslowski, Harvey Mercadoocasio, Ken Penders and Jon D'Agostino
Cover artist: Patrick Spaziante/Harvey Mercadoocasio

Sonic Triple Trouble is the third speciality 48 page issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. It was released in October 1995 and takes place after issue 27.

This comic features three stories: TTTriple TTTrouble, Submersible Rehearsal, and First Contact.

TTTriple TTTrouble

One of the greatest power sources in the universe, a Chaos Emerald, is now in the hands of Dr. Robotnik. He shows off his new-found jewel to Crabmeat as he laments over his plans to take over Mobius with it. He puts the emerald on his three-pronged power inducer and activates it, intending to pollute the whole planet in a matter of days. As he laughs with glee over his plan, Crabmeat realizes it set the controls for a six-prong inducer, hence, it begins to overload. As alarms start to go off, Robotnik panics and runs away, crushing Crabmeat while he leaves his lab. He is able to escape just as the Chaos Emerald explodes, breaking into two, and launching itself out of the lab and into space. With the Chaos Emerald pieces in halves and unstable, he decides to call on a bounty hunter to retrieve the emeralds for him before the Freedom Fighters can get them.

In Knothole Village, Sonic is fixing up some chili dogs when Tails rushes into the kitchen. He asks Sonic to join him in Rotor's lab. He follows, asking Tails if it's about the submarine Rotor's making. Tails notes he is making the submarine, but something appeared on Knothole's radar. They arrive as Rotor, stationed at a radar display, shows a large power signature that can only be generated by a Chaos Emerald. Rotor is able to modify the screen to show video of one of the Chaos Emerald halves heading for Mobius like a meteor. It crashes right into the Great Forest. With the power of the Chaos Emerald, the three witness as the entire area that the emerald landed into is morphed into an entirely different zone. After the creation of the zone is done, Rotor loses the video feed. Before Rotor can react, Sonic dashes off and out of Knothole to investigate the new zone himself. As he leaves the entrance to Knothole, an unknown being watches him run off, intent on chasing him down.

Elsewhere, on the Floating Island, Knuckles is relaxing in the sun. Suddenly, the red sun that he was facing turns green for a few moments. He gets up and notices a green meteor passing by the sun and over his island. He looks over to see the green meteor, the other Chaos Emerald shard, crash into Mount Osohai in the Dragon Spine Mountain Range, a mountain that has never been climbed. Rather than climb the mountain, he decides to jump off a cliff and glide to it. After some time, he arrives, digging his knuckles into the mountain-side for grip. He looks into the hole caused by the meteor and notices it is a Chaos Emerald, and that it is continuing to dig into the mountain. Suddenly, the whole mountain starts to rumble, causing him to loose grip. He starts to glide away, but is hit by a rock and knocked unconscious, sending him plummeting to the ground below.

Back at the Great Forest, Sonic arrives at a small building which leads to the new zone, titled 'Triple Trouble'. He dashes in as the unknown figure from before reports to Robotnik. Robotnik starts to go crazy as Sonic gets closer to getting the shard every second the figure waits. He mutes Robotnik and prepares the enter the new zone with his hovering sky-cycle that can mimic Sonic's movements. In Triple Trouble, Sonic effortlessly jumps and dashes through the various zones, from Great Turquoise Zone, Sunset Park Zone, Meta Junglira Zone, Robotnik Winter Zone, Tidal Plant Zone, and, finally, the Atomic Destroyer Zone. With the boss defeated, Sonic exits the game and sees the Chaos Emerald. Using his Super Peel-Out, he quickly enters the room and shuts down the machine holding the Chaos Emerald. He picks it up off the machine holding it, realizing it's own half a Chaos Emerald, explaining the weirdness of the zone. He's then hit with a neural disruptor pulse, knocking him to the ground. The being from before enters the room, holding a neural disruptor over the down-and-out Sonic, introducing himself as Nack the Weasel.

Background Information

• Nack the Weasel is introduced.
• This issue is a direct adaptation of Sonic Triple Trouble, which was released a year prior to this comic.
• The term Eggman is used for the first time in the comic series as Sonic defeats the boss in Triple Trouble. This is likely to distinguish the boss from Robotnik, who is not in the zone at the time.