|This character exists primarily or exclusively within the Sonic the Comic continuity.|
Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity.
The Fundamental Four from Sonic the Comic #80. Art by Nigel Dobbyn and Steve White
|Group Overview and Statistics|
The Fundamental Four were a team of villains from the Special Zone who were enemies of the Chaotix Crew. They were created by Nigel Kitching and Nigel Dobbyn, and appeared in the two-part Chaotix Crew story "The Fundamental Four".
The Fundamental Four, who bickered constantly, were made up of Hydran, Squall, Gravel and Flare.
Hydran was the leader of the group. He was made of water, and in order to maintain his shape he wore a specially-made stretchy suit with a fishbowl-like head. He claimed that scissors were the "one thing" he feared and that, without his suit, he'd be "a puddle on the floor". While wearing the suit, he could stretch and contort his body to extreme limits, and even subdue Mighty the Armadillo by tying him up with his arm.
Squall appeared to be made of air or smoke, and had bat-like ears and snout, as well as clawed hands. He could make whirlwinds with his body. While he seemed somewhat scornful of Gravel's unintelligible humour (see below), he was also the one who broke up an argument between Hydran and Flare to make them re-focus their attention on Chaotix.
Gravel is a man of earth (resembling soil, with small tufts of plant matter on his "skin") who speaks only unintelligible gibberish, although his teammates seem to understand him fine and respond as normal. He is the largest and strongest of the group. Like Knuckles, he can cause earthquakes by slamming the ground.
Flare is the only female in the group, and is made of fire. The flames around her take the form of an extremely long quiff, a short skirt, and long gloves. She has the ability to fly, and can fling fireballs at enemies.
The Fundamental Four were old enemies of Chaotix. On a previous occasion, Chaotix captured them and sent them to prison, where they remained for four years. They attempted to take revenge by breaking into Chaotix's headquarters and liquidizing them. Despite their bickering, they managed to defeat Vector, Espio and Mighty with little difficulty, although Charmy had been kicked out of the headquarters a short time before for being irritating, and therefore was able to seek help.
Charmy soon returned with worker bees from the Hive. The workers systematically defeated the Fundamental Four by using their powers against them to fashion them into an urn: first, they cut open Hydran's suit; they mixed Hydran's water up with the body of Gravel; they shovelled the mixture into Squall; finally, Charmy sprayed Flare with high octane fuel, causing her to explode and harden the other three members of the team into a pot. Vector (as well as Mighty and Espio) was greatly annoyed by this ("You can't defeat the Fundamental Four by turning them into a pot... it's too stupid!"), but became even more annoyed when they discovered that the Fundamental Four had survived the transformation, baked into the clay pot, and that they would not stop talking.
- The members of the Fundamental Four are each made of one of the classical elements of Ancient Greece: water, air, earth, and fire.
- The Fundamental Four are a parody of Marvel Comics' superhero group, the Fantastic Four. They are the first Marvel parody characters to appear in Sonic the Comic. Other residents of the Special Zone, introduced later on, were also parodies of Marvel characters, e.g. the Bulk (parody of the Hulk) in Sonic the Comic #94, "Eve of Destruction".