Starting with Sonic #257, the Freedom Fighters conduct rescue operations in a flooded Station Square while Sally directs the team from the Sky Patrol. (Nicole helps her coordinate efforts while Cream is there for no particular reason.) It soon becomes obvious that Sally has abstained from partaking in the rescue because she's still troubled from disturbing memories as Mecha Sally, and this is the part I find most interesting of the recent issues.
You see, I've always wanted the comics to devote some time to showing Sally trying to cope with the atrocities she committed as Mecha Sally. There's a lot of story potential there and I really hoped Ian Flynn would use it as a path to character development. Alas, the resolution comes off rather slapdash. Sally starts angsting right in the middle of a mission and feels that saving the people of Station Square will make up for her misdeeds. Shortly after Nicole drags her back to reality, a G.U.N. fleet arrives and congratulates the Freedom Fighters on rescuing the populace. Sally sheds a tear and says, "I... we will be okay."
And I'm like, "Wait... that's it?"
Considering all the hardships Sally has been through, her catharsis seemed far too brief and convenient. I didn't really feel the weight of Sally's burden if she could forgive herself after one issue. What really bugs me is that this plot point is really the last remaining tie we have to the previous continuity. Considering Flynn spent all of two years on the Mecha Sally arc, I was hoping he could at least devote a few months to the aftermath. Now that this point has been resolved, it seems unlikely that the old timeline will ever be mentioned again. This much is obvious by the constant references the Freedom Fighters make to game events in the next two issues. Sega are making their mark.
For the sake of brevity, I'll gloss over Sonic #258 and #259, stating only that the Freedom Fighters have rescued Uncle Chuck and his partner Professor Pickle, and are now set to restore the Chaos Emeralds to seven ancient temples so that the planet may be reunited again. So while this is the beginning of a new adventure, I was really hoping the Freedom Fighters could catch some downtime at home for a change. With all the action that's been going on, none of them really had time to adjust to this new world back at Knothole. (Flynn should have matched the more casual pacing of the Mega Man comic, which devoted as much time to the characters as the action.) I'm starting to think that the memory restoration was just a token process to appease fans, and that Flynn has since abandoned it. I don't expect the dual memories will haunt the Freedom Fighters indefinitely, but I feel that some sort of group resolution at home would be a fitting conclusion to the storyline. Let me know what you think!