Hello again, folks! Now that our most anticipated issue to date has been out for some time, we figured it was the right opportunity to give some insight on the whole process! So without further ado, let’s jump straight into it!

As usual, let’s begin with the cover. Unlike the covers for 248 and 249 which were dynamic action covers, we wanted the 250 cover to be more grounded and calm, yet equally powerful in its own way. As a milestone issue, it was worthy of a double-page cover, so we enlisted our then-art editor Tim “J” Campbell to draw out some concepts, one half of each being incorporated into the finished product, which he penciled and inked himself. The ridiculous amount of detail that went into the destroyed Death Egg is a testament to his Patrick Spaziante-esque art style, as well as Doozycute’s skill in being able to color the whole thing. Unfortunately the translucent images of Tails, Rotor and Nicole in the sky seemed to have given the wrong impression that they had died, which was most certainly not the case.

Sonic having a bandage around his forehead was a personal touch I came up with, since he still had a nasty bruise from his headbutt at the end of 249. And since they were just in a lab, there was bound to be at least one first aid kit around in case an experiment went awry.

Having a crowd to celebrate Sally’s return as she exited the Science Center was also an opportunity to include plenty of cameos from characters we haven’t seen in a long time. @drawloverlala​ meticulously managed to include old favorites like Mina Mongoose and the Forget-Me-Knots, Dr. Quack with his wife and three children, the Council of Acorn, Arlo the Armadillo, Cyril the Eagle, and even various OCs from Sonic fan artists, including her own Lemon the Parrot.

The brief montage sequence on page 2 was also another personal idea of mine, since it’s been a while since we’ve had a moment of genuine relief and celebration between the Freedom Fighters and their families. If you’re wondering why Silver is being held up by Amy, he’s still out of it from being shot in the chest in 249… twice.

Even though the Secret Freedom Fighters haven’t done much in ASO so far, it’s important for us to keep bringing some attention to them to prepare for the roles we have planned for them in upcoming stories. Even though they’re all overjoyed to see Sally back to her old self, their covert nature sadly keeps them from being able to celebrate properly. And Larry being Larry, of course we had to include a moment of his jinx screwing him over in the background.

Even though Naugus possessed Geoffrey’s body to quell the Ixis Wizards inside his mind, his reckless overuse of his Magicks during the fight with Metal Sonic in 249 showed that it was far from a perfect solution. However, the fact that he can still dispel the mutations with the Chaos Emerald shows that he still maintains some degree of control over the situation.

Relating to the above point, we see that Naugus is still relying on Nicole to create a ring energy converter to cure his illness, which was first mentioned back in 247.

When Lala first sketched out the panel of Geoffrey barely sticking his head out to talk to Nicole, his face looked like a Temmie from Undertale, which was obviously changed in the final version.

Now we finally reach the meat and potatoes of the story, Sally’s mental state following her deroboticization. Our goal was to invoke as much realistic emotion as we could from such a traumatic ordeal, without veering too far into poorly-written angst and drama. Even after everything that’s just happened, Sally acknowledges that there’s still much work left to be done, and Sonic is there to support her when it becomes too much to bear on her own.

On a lighter note, Lala also took the opportunity to include some easter eggs in Sonic’s room. Along with his race car bed, there’s also a spare pair of his signature red shoes, a Sega Dreamcast, his Extreme Gear the Blue Star II, his backpack from SatAM, a Chao plushie, and a Forget-Me-Knots poster parodying the Bohemian Rhapsody.

We get to see more of Sonic’s chivalrous side here, offering to leave his own room to give Sally some alone time with her parents. But the fact that she asks him to stay shows that she does indeed consider him a part of her family.

The next day, we see that Sonic’s forehead bandage is gone, since it’s been established that all of the rings he’s collected in the past allow him to heal quickly.

With the characters gathering at the Coliseum, it was a good chance to showcase the various Freedom Fighters’ reactions to Sally’s return and vice versa, based off of their individual relationships with each other and the events of the Mecha Sally arc. Tails and Rotor are obviously happy to have her back, but she’s still too shell-shocked to respond top them properly. And although they fixed up T-Pup, he’s outright scared of her after she damaged him in the last issue. The same goes for Cream and Cheese after she attempted to shoot them, but they at least try to work past their fears. Sally has no special relationship to the rest of Team Freedom, but she’s happy to see them regardless. The person she is happiest to see is Nicole, after their emotional farewell all the way back in 230. She’s grateful to Silver for stopping her, but too ashamed to look Amy in the face after the events of 239, although the latter seems to mistake this for annoyance, especially when she’s shown to be perfectly fine speaking to Mina.

While Tails and Rotor discuss the recently-captured Emerl, we also get confirmation that Sally does indeed remember everything that happened while she was roboticized, which is sure to weigh on her mind for quite some time.

When the Freedom Fighters are leaving for Chuck’s Diner, we see a cameo of Tails holding the Miles Electric, his portable computer that we first saw in Sonic Unleashed.

On to the next story, On the Backburner. We see Eggman repairing the same control room that Sonic destroyed back in 248. There was also planned to be a page showing Metal Sonic returning to the Death Egg, but it was scrapped since it was deemed unnecessary.

Contrary to his usual bouts of anger, we see Eggman grow surprisingly depressed from the loss of Mecha Sally, not even bothering to argue with his insubordinate Grandmasters. Both he and the Freedom Fighters need time to rest and rebuild to prepare for the inevitable rematch, which is hinted at with Eggman’s new projects.

Now we have Birds of a Feather, which I wrote personally. The story begins with Freedom HQ unlit to set the somber tone, only for the lights to abruptly turn on as Nicole (and subsequently Knuckles) appears.

During Knuckles’ conversation with Sally, he was meant to directly reference events from the Endangered Species remake and beyond. But since this issue ended up being released before KES was completed, his wording was changed to be more vague.

One thing I wanted to touch upon in the story is how Sally really did kill Sonic and the others, in Silver’s future at least. Whether it was prevented or not, that would surely be something to weigh on her mind,

In the flashback of Locke’s sacrifice, I had written in the script for Super Sonic to be fighting Enerjak in the background, but there didn’t end up being enough room for that.

FInally there’s the Off-Panel, also written by me. It began as two separate jokes I made up randomly, Cream holding an Omochao Gun from the Shadow the Hedgehog game and holding the Tails Doll in a cardboard prison. Eventually I found a way to combine the two by having Cream punish Sally for trying to kill her in 249, with her and Cheese standing guard over both her and Tails Doll.

That’s all for this one, folks! Hope you enjoyed these little fun facts, and look forward to 251!