THE ORIGINAL TAILS STORY ARC
This was produced back in the time-lost days of April 2000. While some of the material made it to print, much of this was scrapped after the original plan of four continuous strips per issue was dropped (our artists are only Humes!).

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Issues 185-187 - "Just Like Old Crimes"
Essentially a Tails story where Nack is the major villain. Tails needs to show his confidence here; after all, in Lew's stories, he's really on high and will stand up even to Nack. Nack, I figure, wants to re-establish himself on Mobius and is stealing equipment to do it. If the Chaos Emeralds are still scattered, perhaps he's stolen a refrigeration unit to try and get his hands on them, but he'd have his fingers in a whole range of pots. Maybe we could show one particular interest: using a mass release of prisoners in the Metropolis Zone High Security Prison to distract from a series of minor raids elsewhere. I think Nack would want to hit hard and fast. Imagine Tails and the cops really ready to stop out of town raids, but realising they've been tricked and going back to help the prisoners - except the prison escape might be very shallow and easily dealt with, while Nack succeeds and stealing from the small stores after all. Tails, however, might think that he's won. This keeps Tails' confidence high. I figure Nack never really loses (or at least never should) so the epilogue would probably be him celebrating on how his plans have worked out after all. Basically, he should have a plot with enough subtleties to keep everybody guessing.

Issues 188-190 - "The Flood"
Some archaeologists are investigating the Aquatic Ruin Zone when the flood barrier breaks and they're trapped. None of the police can get there so Tails has to go in. But his confidence is shattered when he finds that much of the zone is crumbling - it's ancient, after all. Perhaps there are two archaeologists and one of them drowns. Tails sees that he's failed. It would be especially good if the other one blamed Tails, and Tails agreed. Perhaps the writing would be pitched so people would think the accusation unfair, but none of the characters would see this.

Issue 191 - "Twilight"
I want to write an introspective Tails instalment which is structurally quite similar to "Hero of Mobius" in #42 but which deals with more of Tails' grief. Maybe Amy would be worth putting in here as a guest-star.

Issue 192-onwards
Tails is summoned to the Nameless Zone but doesn't get back in time before the dimension gate closes. He doesn't believe that he can help anybody - his confidence is shattered and he's back to square one. But he grows in skill as he helps the diplomatic on goings with Roubal and the Goblin overlords. I had a plot in mind where Tails' father has a terminal illness and wants to be killed to put him out of his pain. Tails' strip seems like an ideal point to play with ideas of euthanasia. Back on Mobius of course, people are worried sick. Nobody knows where Tails has gone, apart from - Nack. It seems a lovely irony to me that of all the people to know where he's gone it would have to be Nack. He'd probably have bugged Tails during their Metropolis battle or something. Maybe he'd try and sell this information on to the gang! ^_^

SONIC 188-190 PLOT PROPOSAL, August 2000

This plot was scrapped outright early on. The intention was to do an action-intense strip with Sonic on his own, bringing back some old enemies and introducing the Big/Chaos team-up. All of this would be carried forward into the Syndicate.
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SONIC
Plot proposal for issues 188-190

This run of stories does not need to follow on from the pilot run. There's no continuation directly of plot threads from that run. Here we're dealing with a fresh scenario featuring a few old faces. The plot will also be rather less complicated than recent stories. These have had lots of little subplots and a great deal of talking. This will have a lot of action, alleviated by a few comic interludes.

NOTE: Nigel Kitching had a lot of ideas for these guys. I'm paraphrasing some of his notes here. ~ Ed.

PLOT OVERVIEW

Sonic arrives on Flickies' Island to investigate a boat moored there: he figures that it is Grimer returning to his old base. Instead Big and the Chaos Prosecutor are on the Island, hunting down all the information they can find about the outpost. Grimer has been monitoring the Kintobor computer systems though and takes the Island as the perfect time to strike. He sends Death-Trap, who destroy Sonic's only transport off the island, leaving Sonic constantly on the run with none of his friends knowing that he's there (save Kintobor). We'll see a few plot strands focused upon during the run.

DEATH-TRAP

Death-Trap are a gang of lethal mercenaries hired by Robotnik to bring Sonic to justice back when they were both in Shanazar City. Kalus is the leader, incredibly tall, and made out of stone. He's not villainous at all, he just hunts down criminals for a living. Prank is an incredibly mean and evil little guy who just love petty acts of malice. He has gained the soul of a Mystic Genie, which he can summon at will. Prank has no sense of responsibility and is likely to clash often with Kalus. Totem Billy is the weirdest of the three, and all he does is track using his incredible sense of smell (which he'll use before or instead of his eyes and ears in most cases). Since Sonic will be close at hand most of the time, Totem Billy won't be used much. The big thing that will be played up in this run will be the tension between Kalus and Prank. At one point, Prank will torture Sonic with the intent of killing him. Kalus does not see that it is his job to administer justice, only to bring criminals to be answerable. Deathtrap move around on an enormous red motorbike.

BIG AND BUDDY

First thing to note, is that I'm going to name the Prosecutor "buddy" - which will be what Big calls him all the time. This doesn't have the awkward link to Froggy that calling him Froggy or Fishy would have. The comedy here will mostly be that Buddy's shrewd, sharp mind will work at far too quick a pace for Big to follow. But Big isn't a complete neanderthal: although he's slow, Big is a nice guy and at times we'll see him teaching Buddy the differences between right and wrong when he realises what he's trying to do. Big's enthusiasm for fishing will also come across. Let's not paint Big as a pea-brained, lazy miscreant, but as a genuine and caring person who is being unwittingly exploited by the infinitely sharper mind of Buddy.

GRIMER

Grimer won't appear much or at all during this story, but he'll be crucial to it nonetheless. He has come to the conclusion that to bring his Master back from his lunacy, he'll have to take over Mobius himself: first things first, he has to kill Sonic, and so brings back Deathtrap for the job.

SONIC

Sonic will be alone against his enemies (although Big will prove crucial later on). Sonic won't ask for help from any of his friends because firstly he thinks that he can deal with just about anything and secondly he doesn't want them in danger. As a result, nobody will know that he's on Flickies' Island being hunted down by Deathtrap and will be in big trouble. Recently, Sonic has been upstaged or at least his role lessened by his supporting cast: Ebony, Porker, Knuckles, Pochacamac etc. Now we're going to see him alone and at a large disadvantage.

THE KINTOBOR COMPUTER

The surveillance patch story thread will be primed for a possible return.

FLICKIES’ ISLAND

We never really saw all that much of Flickies' Island. It has all the standard lava pits and ice regions, but Sonic always stuck around the green areas. Here, Sonic and Deathtrap will chase each other through the more perilous areas.

Now follows individual instalment synopses.

ISSUE 188 -- "THE HUNT IS ON"

Kintobor will inform Sonic that a boat has been reported as heading out to Flickies' Island. Sonic decides to check it out, but tells Kintobor not to tell any of his friends. They'll only worry, and pointlessly. Sonic will arrive on the Island, but his transport ship will be blown to pieces by Death-Trap. Sonic doesn't know why they’re back, but they still want to capture him. He doesn't fancy his luck against Prank's genie so he runs for cover until he can find a plan. Sonic will soon find that losing Death-Trap is trickier than it looks. Big and Buddy are alerted by the confusion - it was they that have come to the Island. Buddy is investigating all the information and ancient writing along the temple, but there is one door that he thinks leads to the watch guard quarters. In here, according to the writing, there is a portal back to Planet Drak where Buddy plans to try and find a Prosecutor suit before planning his way to turn back into Chaos. It's sealed up, and hasn't been touched. Big can't open it, but Buddy realizes that maybe by using Sonic's speed, the sealed door can be weakened.

ISSUE 189 -- "THRILL OF THE HUNT"

This instalment will contain fragmented hunt scenes, interspersed with Big and Buddy sections. Sonic and Death-Trap will be unaware that there is anybody else on the Island (Totem Billy may realise it, but it wouldn't mean anything to him so he wouldn't mention it). At one point, Buddy may be trying to get Big to block all the other passageways apart from the one that he wants opened. Big will be too slow and the hunt will pass right past them. Later, Buddy tries to get Sonic back into the area by cutting a rope bridge over the mountain pass. Again, Big and Buddy will be arguing as the guys move on overhead. Big and Buddy will eventually realise that Sonic is heading back to the base section, and rush there. Sonic will lose Death-Trap somehow in order to investigate Grimer. Big will reluctantly bash him over the head when he’s isn't looking. Sonic will be tied up by a bunch of vines over the door, as Death-Trap are about to arrive.

ISSUE 190 -- "IN FOR THE KILL"

Big realises what's going to happen and scolds Buddy because his game might hurt somebody. He pulls Sonic off the vines, but in the following stand-off, the door is blown open anyway. Big and Buddy crawl out of hiding to investigate inside. Here, Buddy might find a Mobius Ring but he has never seen one before (they were invented only when the Drakons decided to retreat from Mobius) and so frustratedly tries to work it out. Meanwhile, Prank will torture Sonic (probably involving spiders, since I guess that Robotnik will have told Prank about Sonic's fear of them). Kalus will stop Prank, who wants to kill Sonic. Big will watch this, and take Sonic away quietly and take him off in the boat. Death-Trap will be unconcerned: they will never stop until Sonic is brought to justice so whether it takes a day, a year or a decade it makes little difference. On the way back, Buddy will hide in Big's rucksack, afraid that he'll be recognised by Sonic. Probably the last scene will be the Big and Sonic rowing away, with Buddy's eye glowering out of Big's backpack.

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THE WANDERING SENTINEL, September 2000

Villains! STC has always had a host of memorable original villains, and STC-O has been creating some of its own. Here’s a pitch for a new villain that never got off the drawing board.
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What STC lacks is a villain with integrity. We've got antagonists that are driven by revenge, lust for power, personal motives, political beliefs and fear. But none of them are antagonists that feel they are doing the right thing despite opposition from the heroes of Mobius. This is my Wandering Sentinel.

Thousands of years ago, a well-meaning Echidna grew tired of the relentless ruthlessness of the Echidnas, who had become as mean and war-hardened as the Drakons from the battle. Unaware of the Drakons' nature, he betrayed the Echidnas, hoping to try and force some kind of resolution to a battle that was deadlocked and simply leeching off lives. Think of the same sort of reasoning as Bilbo's betrayal of the dwarves in Tolkein's "The Hobbit". But this echidna chose wrongly: he soon realised that the Drakons were only interested in winning and wanted to try and return to his own side. He knew that he couldn't betray the Drakons openly - he'd be killed. He couldn't return to his people either; they would shun him. Trapped, the Drakons soon picked up his dangerous streak and made sure of his loyalty by trapping his soul in a Sentinel robot. This would make him unacceptable to the Echidnas, the Drakons thought: he would look like another mindless robot doing only what it was programmed and his pleas would smack of trickery. Nobody could possibly believe him.

But the Sentinel did not stay either. He fled, taking with him a large ship of Sentinels into whom his soul could drift into. He became a wretched fugitive, but an honourable one. As long as there were Sentinels left on Mobius, his soul would infest them so he couldn't escape by death either. He was trapped.

So he dedicated his life to making amends. Over the centuries, he's had his finger in many pies and has protected Knuckles a lot on occasion. Maybe if he can convince Knuckles to believe his story and forgive his betrayal, the spell will be made redundant and he will be freed. Until then, he has to face persecution by Sonic (his introduction will deepen these suspicions). Although chivalrous, he is also wearied, so he will be for the most part an antagonist (although not necessarily villainous) for the most part. But he still loved Knuckles, though Knuckles may not realise it. Think Magwich in "Great Expectations".

Of course, we wouldn't see all this backstory too early (and I'll probably change it all by then). But we could start off with the arrival of a Wandering Sentinel and leave his past to speculation for another day.

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THE SYNDICATE, September 2000

The Syndicate: a team of dastardly villains whose machinations carried the plot for eleven issues and saw some extremely big developments. However, the idea of them had been around before Sonic Adventure 2, and so here’s the original pitch before Shadow & Rouge got involved. (As you can see from these pitches, Hume Ed really wanted to write for Grimer!) Also note the early take on Vichama as “Villain B”. He would later be given the name Storm and the role of the Syndicate’s muscle before Shadow came along, which led to him being turned into the mysterious God of Death…
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This post deals with the whole Syndicate of bad guys idea. Just to clear a few things up pitch a few things slightly differently. Put a few things into place etc.

The starting point is probably going to be Grimer. He's going to be the man with the plan behind it all. Thing is, Grimer doesn't have any resources apart from the Egg Carrier and he doesn't have the strength or vision to see any of his potential plans through. He needs a team of yes-men to do his job for him. But he's not stupid enough to believe that he can control any of them. He needs to bargain and he knows that even then he'll only manage to keep them under his thumb for so long. Perhaps though, he only needs that long.

So maybe we'll have the Egg Carrier opening to the skies. I don't think that it should be SO big that it carries the Island. It would look cool, but a little too big nonetheless. Maybe it's a similar size to Flickies Island though. Still, it's going to be big stuff. And Grimer will fix it, launch it etc. I figure that his first call will probably be Doctor Zachary. He knows that Zachary is down on the Island from his patch on the Kintobor computer. I'm sure they'd strike a perfectly good deal.

What Doctor Zachary wants, I guess, is revenge. That's a really complicated motive and will need a lot of extrapolation at some point, but essentially we'll see him as representative of villain-type A: vengeful.

Next stop is three rogue echidnas. Zac will have taken them out of the Island and will probably figure out how to free them using Tikal's staff. The reason I pick three is simply so there's enough to be a threat, but not too many for it to seem like character flooding. Of course, if it becomes favourable to introduce a fourth (or delete the third) we can do this. But I think three is the favourite. My thoughts on the characters of these three follow, but obviously this may change wholesale especially with some good artwork...

The first will be villain type B: psychopathic. This is a serial killer. Maybe just motiveless malignity. I don't think there's any need to go too much further. This is like the worst of Prank but with the ambitions of Super Sonic, although with the power of neither. Maybe one day he'll succeed in killing one of our characters, but that's way off. We've had two deaths in the first 184 issues so there's no need to plan a sudden spate of deaths now.

The second villain, who I'm unsurprisingly going to put down as villain type C, is a gangster. He probably exploited the war to run protection rackets. Time was, he was king of the hill, a tycoon that nobody could touch. Nowadays, he's lost his boys but he's still got the same forceful personality that made him who he was 8000 years ago. At the moment, he needs the technology and power that this syndicate can offer him - and besides, it's either that or prison at present. Maybe someday he'll end up breaking off though; would he try and usurp Max Gamble's gangster authority? A big turf war might break out.

The third villain will be type D, a sort of power-crazed manipulator. He's the whispering figure in the shadows, probably with a barbaric sense of cruelty, a sharp mind and a knack for duping people. Maybe he'd work well long-term as an enemy for Knuckles. In the short-term, he may establish himself as something of a leader for the group.