Archie Sonic X Issue 12

Archie Sonic X Issue 12 is the twelfth issue of the Sonic X comic series published by Archie Comics.

Official solicitation

 * “Attack from Area 99!”: With evil Eggman behind bars, Sonic finds himself a man without a mission. Even his best friend Tails is otherwise occupied… and big time! Tails has been called in by the government to reverse-engineer the alien technology in the tripod from Sonic X #7. However, Agent Westwood, aka Cowboy has other plans for this super-powered, alien war machine. Hmmm… sounds like Sonic could be on another mission soon enough!

Attack from Area 99!

 * Writer: Joe Edkin
 * Pencils: Tim Smith III
 * Inks: Jim Amash
 * Letters: John Workman
 * Colors: Ben Hunzeker
 * Editor: Mike Pellerito
 * Managing editor: Victor Gorelick
 * Editor-in-chief: Richard Goldwater
 * Special thanks to SEGA: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez at SEGA Licensing and SEGA Studio USA

Synopsis
With Dr. Eggman and his hench-bots -- Bokkun, Decoe and Bocoe -- imprisoned after their failed EggMoon plan, Sonic the Hedgehog realizes that he cannot entertain himself without an adventure to go on. He makes his way to Angel Island and whines at Knuckles, insisting that with Eggman gone nobody will steal the Master Emerald. Knuckles refuses to play with him and asks Sonic to go bug someone else.

Restless from a lack of adventuring, Sonic spins around the Thorndyke Mansion and begs Tails and Chuck to fly him somewhere. They explain that they can't fly the X-Tornado until they've finished their modifications, prompting Sonic to ask where Chris is. Chuck tells him that Chris is at Soccer practice and Sonic dashes away to go play. At the Soccer field, Sonic annoys Chris's friends by being a ball-hog; explaining that having Sonic on his team is cheating, Chris suggests that Sonic spend some time with Sam and the Speed Team. Sonic heckles Sam, hounding him on when they can start their next mission.

At the Thorndyke residence, Tails is taken away by G.U.N. soldiers. Meanwhile, the Speed Team receives orders to intercept a group of illegal street racers in Station Square. One of the racers knocks a baby out of its mother's grasp, but Sonic rushes to the rescue and returns the child unharmed. Sonic catches up with one of the cars, ripping out its gears, while Sam uses a grappling hook to catch the other. While Sonic and the Speed Team apprehend the criminals, Eggman lies in his prison cell and studies his grandfather's journals. He explains to Decoe and Bocoe that he has sent Bokkun to activate one of his grandfather's weapons and that he has hatched a plan to break out of prison.

Tails is handed over to Captain Westwood in Area 99. Westwood shows Tails the robot ship he uncovered in the desert. Claiming that the President requested Tails' help, Westwood suggests that he may be able to figure out how to activate the vessel. Tails manages to hack his way into the robotic vehicle's control room while Westwood schemes of using the ship's weapons to win favor with the President. Tails presses a button, activating the ship, and Westwood pushes him aside to take control. However, Westwood quickly causes the machine to go out of control and shoot lasers.

Back in Station Square, Sonic pesters Sam about when they can go on their next mission. Sam warns Sonic that it could be weeks before they get another assignment when an alarm sounds, signaling an Eggman attack. Once they arrive at the scene of the robot ship's rampage, Sonic recognizes it from his previous fight and warns Sam that it's not one of Eggman's robots. Inside the ship, Westwood urges Tails to disconnect the weapons system. Tails explains that the ship repairs itself every time he disconnects its wiring. The ship shoots down several G.U.N. robots and Sonic bounces off of its force field. Landing on Sam's car, he tells his fellow speedster that the robot's force field has to go down when it fires lasers.

Sam spies the hole in the field, but it's too small for his car to fit through. Sonic suggests that they should fire the car's grappling hook through the hole. They fire the hook on to the ship's laser cannon and Sonic tugs at it, causing the cannon to fire inside the force field. The laser ricochets back and forth between the field and the robot, damaging the vehicle faster than it can repair itself. The robotic menace crashes in the Station Square State Park and Sonic and Sam find Tails and Westwood crawling out of the wreckage.

Appearances
Characters:
 * Bocoe
 * Bokkun
 * Captain Westwood
 * Cheung
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Decoe
 * Devine
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Frances
 * Gerald Robotnik
 * Gun Beetle
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * President
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Speed Team
 * Dawn
 * Paul
 * Sam Speed
 * Topaz

Locations:
 * Earth
 * Angel Island
 * Altar of the Emeralds
 * Area 99
 * Paris
 * Station Square
 * Station Square State Park
 * Thorndyke Mansion

Items:
 * Egg Moon
 * Master Emerald

Quotes

 * Sonic: Here you go...safe and sound! Wow! Babies seem to be accident-prone on Earth!

Trivia

 * This issue takes place directly after the "Egg Moon Saga" in the Sonic X anime.
 * On an earlier prototype of the cover, the electronics store in the background featured an advertisment for the Nintendo Wii console.