At the start of the reboot era in Archie Sonic, there had been what seemed to be a major side quest arc that got kicked off when Wacky Wally (Naugus) touched Nicole's hand-held and somehow caused her to spontaneously become a discharge foci for residual Genesis Wave energy. Prior to that point, the only people with pre-reboot memories had been Sonic, Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot, and none of these four had any memories of the reboot timeline until this sidequest was started.
And then, within a week or two of in-game time upon the last of the residual Genesis Wave Energy being distributed, with everyone that could regain their pre-reboot memories getting those memories, those same memories faded away and everyone, even the original four to have nothing but reboot memories, only remembered the new timeline as the old one was seemingly completely forgotten.
So let's explore what might happen if there had been an actual purpose to this abandoned side quest (instead of the writers deciding that it wasn't actually going anywhere). A purpose that an Outsider got dragged into, told nothing about, and made a receptacle of those lost memories, all hosted in a body that does not belong to the new iteration of Mobius: that of Metal Sally…
And then, within a week or two of in-game time upon the last of the residual Genesis Wave Energy being distributed, with everyone that could regain their pre-reboot memories getting those memories, those same memories faded away and everyone, even the original four to have nothing but reboot memories, only remembered the new timeline as the old one was seemingly completely forgotten.
So let's explore what might happen if there had been an actual purpose to this abandoned side quest (instead of the writers deciding that it wasn't actually going anywhere). A purpose that an Outsider got dragged into, told nothing about, and made a receptacle of those lost memories, all hosted in a body that does not belong to the new iteration of Mobius: that of Metal Sally…