What If Gamma Survived?

''E-102γ, the robot with a soul.. destroyed by E-101β Mk II during the events of Sonic Adventure. But what if he'd survived his confrontation with his older Brother? What 'New Mission' would he pursue after freeing the E-Series' captives? Gamma now searches for purpose; as his destiny becomes uncontrollably intertwined with the flicky birds.''

History
What If Gamma Survived? is the fourth What If story to be released and the final story to be introduced in the first wave of Sonic: What If?. It began it's run on the 1st of February in 2020 roughly 1 month after the previous installment: Part 1 of #WI03. The premise for the story is similar to that of #WI02, and in The Sega Scourge's words: "If Emerl gets the chance to survive in his own AU, why not Gamma?".

Premise
For Gamma to survive his story in Sonic Adventure, a series of tweaks were made that can be traced back to a single catalyst: The Egg Carrier's crash. In this story the crash was more violent than in the original depiction of events, disconnecting Beta Mk.II from the network that Gamma used to roughly geo-locate his fellow E-100 units.

When he reached the drifting airship, Gamma was able to pinpoint Zeta's location and terminate them - but Beta did not make his usual appearance after that fight had concluded and Gamma returned to the ship's deck. Also presumably due to the more substantial damage the upgrading chamber took in the crash, he was late enough for Gamma to reach the conclusion that he was the final E-100 series unit left functional and self-terminate. The pink Flicky was released from his body and tried to call out to Beta upon his belated arrival to no avail, becoming critically injured by a cold-hearted attack from the upgraded machine. As the Flicky's life faded away, Beta began to depart with presumably the intent to find Doctor Eggman, but found himself blasted back down to the ground by a surprise attack from a re-activated Gamma. The pink Flicky had retreated back inside of Gamma's body to preserve it's own life, giving him the power to go on while in turn his systems kept the bird from expiring. With this symbiotic relationship established, Gamma now had the means to survive beyond his initial purpose.

Sonic Adventure Arc

 * What If Gamma Survived? Part 1

Gamma 3D Arc

 * What If Gamma Survived? Part 2

Reception
While not overtly disliked, #WI04 has placed last in every community poll thus far and has always been at the end of the production order. The first two Parts focus less on action and more on the development of Gamma and establishing of original worldbuilding, which when compounded with Gamma not being as powerful as Sonic or as charming as Emerl, could give us some insight as to why his story has generated less interest on the polls.

Another factor is that, because Gamma's episodes have so far been at the end of each wave of episodes, fans are satisfied with him and are more eager to see more of stories that hadn't gotten new installments in a while, such as #WI03 which has the exact opposite effect - it has won every community poll thus far.

Trivia

 * Despite being produced as part of the second wave of episodes, What If Gamma Survived? Part 2 features the current Time Machine backdrop rather than the Casino Night backdrop used in other wave 2 episodes. This was the first time it appeared.
 * This story is the first to feature original characters not depicted in any form of Sonic media: Aya and Professor Tomo.
 * #WI04 was the first What If story to feature voice acting, with Hydro-City-Zone playing the role of Aya.
 * What If Gamma Survived? Part 2 had a cut-down version played as part of Sonic Revolution, an online convention featuring many Sonic content creators and official series contributors. The episode featured an altered ending that cut off right when Gamma saw the owner of the three Flickies, uttering her name as the screen distorted and the teaser episode came to a close.
 * This is the first What If story to adapt the events of Sonic Adventure.