Sonic the Hedgehog:
Mecha Mayhem
by Chronos the Cat
Part One: Endless Madness
…It was one of the darkest times in the lives of the Freedom Fighters-- "Mecha Madness".
Their greatest warrior (and a close friend for most of the core group), Sonic the Hedgehog, had been roboticized and now fought for their enemy, Robotnik.
To save Knothole from Mecha Sonic, Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of the Floating Island, allowed himself to be roboticized by the roboticizer the Freedom Fighters had taken from Robotnik. Using a neuro-overrider, he was able to retain his free will, and protect Knothole.
The battle ended with both robots plunging into the heart of Robotropolis, where they crashed into Robotnik's nuclear warheads. The resulting explosion destroyed Robotropolis.
Unfortunately, Robotnik escaped the carnage in an underground bunker. Furthermore, a few minutes later, the badly damaged but still operational Mecha Sonic arrived at the bunker, holding the nearly de-activated Mecha Knuckles.
Though both sides had taken heavy losses, and neither had gotten everything they'd wanted, Robotnik had still came out ahead...
Believing Sonic and Knuckles dead, the Freedom Fighters held a memorial service for them, and contacted the Chaotix, telling them of Knuckles' passing.
A week or so later, after both Knothole and Robotropolis had been repaired some, Sally, Geoffrey, Tails, and Bunnie snuck into Robotropolis to steal an important component for Rotor's "Inter-dimensional Framistat" (his portal to the Zone of Silence). However, when they were discovered, Robotnik unleashed his two most powerful minions on them-- Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles!
The Freedom Fighters barely managed to escape.
Sally contacted the Chaotix again to inform them of the situation. The Freedom Fighters then began considering the implications of this latest development.
Sally now realized that they needed to get serious about defeating Robotnik. They had to use all the resources at their disposal. And so, she roboticized herself, becoming "Mecha Sally" (of course she used a neuro-overrider). She encouraged the others to do the same, but the only one brave enough to do it was Tails.
Soon after this, Robotnik's latest weapon of mass destruction, the Death Egg, was completed. Leaving Snively in charge of Robotropolis, Robotnik, Mecha Sonic, and Mecha Knuckles boarded the Death Egg.
Their first stop was the Power Ring Grotto, where they stocked up on Power Rings. Then they headed to the Floating Island.
Detecting two Chaos Emeralds on the Island, Robotnik sent Mecha Sonic and Knuckles each after one. Standing in their way, however, were the Chaotix.
It was a mean fight. If it had been any other two robots, the Chaotix probably would have won. As it was, though, the robots defeated the Chaotix and proceeded with their mission. Mecha Sonic found the spare Emerald and with it returned to the Death Egg. Meanwhile, Knuckles went after the Island's Emerald.
In Haven, Locke watched this. If Knuckles took the Island's Emerald, the Island would fall. He couldn't let this happen. And yet, Locke couldn't bring himself to destroy his son, either.
In desperation, he tried a dangerous gambit. He used the power of the Emerald to separate his soul from his body and enter Knuckles. He then searched for Knuckles' consciousness. He found it, buried deep within the robot's circuitry. Locke awoke his son's spirit, and explained he was there to help Knuckles regain control of Knuckles' body. Knuckles was a bit shaken to be woken by what he assumed to be Locke's ghost, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. Together, they fought the robotic personality the roboticizer had provided, and over-rode it.
Mecha-Knuckles still did not have a will of it's own, but it would now obey any master, not just Robotnik. Locke ordered it to cease what it had been doing. Locke then gave Knuckles a quick lesson on how to make himself the sole master of his robotic form.
Knuckles now asked Locke what he was doing there-- had he really returned from beyond the grave to save Knuckles? Locke said he would explain some other time-- right now they had to deal with the Death Egg.
Knuckles decided to return to the Death Egg with a fake emerald so Robotnik would think he was still loyal, then sabotage the Death Egg. For this plan to work, though, Robotnik must think that he had the real Emerald-- which meant he must see the Island fall.
Locke knew how to do that without endangering the population, so they proceeded with the plan. As Knuckles returned to the Death Egg with the fake Emerald, Locke's spirit returned to Locke's body. Meanwhile, the Island plummeted to the ocean below.
Robotnik was only mildly surprised when the Island began bobbing upon the water instead of sinking under the waves. He speculated that the air trapped in the Island's underground caverns must give it a great deal of buoyancy. However, he didn't really care-- destroying the Island hadn't been his objective, just an expected side effect.
Robotnik hooked up the Chaos Emeralds, and then began raising the Death Egg to the right height for maximum range. Meanwhile, Mecha Knuckles snuck to the room with the Emeralds. Knowing it would cause a destructive energy imbalance, he cut the wires connected to one of the prongs on the real Emerald's energy inducer, essentially changing it from a 3 pronged inducer to a 2 pronged inducer. He then hightailed it out of the Death Egg.
Meanwhile, Robotnik powered up the roboticization guns. Suddenly, an alarm went off. Robotnik checked it to discover Knuckles' sabotage. Realizing that the energy imbalance had already begun a chain reaction, which would cause an explosion large enough to destroy the Death Egg, and that it could happen any second, he ordered Mecha Sonic to get him as far away from the Death Egg as possible, as fast as possible.
Mecha Sonic obliged. He cut through the Egg's hull, grabbed Robotnik, and flew out at top speed. Robotnik protested at first-- but then the Death Egg exploded, and they barely escaped the shock wave.
The Floating Island rose back to its' proper height, and Mecha Knuckles landed and made up with the Chaotix. Knux told the story of how he had gotten his will back, and Archimedes confirmed that Knux' will was indeed free.
The Chaotix contacted the Freedom Fighters to let them know Knux was free, then held a party to celebrate his return.
Meanwhile, Robotnik returned to Robotropolis... or more accurately, "Snivopolis."
"Snivopolis?!" Robotnik cried.
Part Two: Programming Dysfunction
Soon Mecha Sally led an attack on Robotropolis to capture Mecha Sonic. Though the plan succeeded, in the battle, Sally suffered severe damage, including some to her head, resulting in many of her systems failing, and her programming freezing.
Rotor put a neuro-overrider in Sonic's circuitry, restoring his free will.
Sonic was greatly disturbed by his actions under Robotnik's command, especially hurting Sally. They headed back to Knothole at top speed, to repair Sally.
Rotor and Sir Charles were able to fully repair Sally, though they warned some minor damage might have been done to her programming. When they reactivated her, however, she seemed fine.
Then Antoine dropped a bombshell-- by allowing himself to be roboticized, Sonic violated a direct order from Sally, and must be court martialed for this. When reminded of this, Sally became infuriated at Sonic, and refused to hear his claims that he had not willingly been roboticized.
And so, a trial was held. Sonic was convicted, and sentenced to exile.
Before the sentence could be carried out, Sally summoned the Freedom Fighters, announcing that it was time to attack Robotropolis all out and re-take it. Several protested that they weren't ready for that. She blasted each of them (with a painful but non-lethal ray), accusing them of being on Robotnik's side.
She then decided that they were right, they weren't powerful enough, and ordered the Freedom Fighters to all be roboticized. Many more protested or refused, and Sally began blasting them. Sonic intervened, starting a battle between the two of them. Other Freedom Fighters joined in on Sonic's side, forcing Sally to admit defeat. She ran off into the forest, screaming that they were all Robotnik-sympathizers, and that she would destroy them.
By now it was painfully apparent that her programming had indeed been corrupted, and far more than Rotor and Sir Charles had suspected. Indeed, it appeared she was functionally insane.
The Freedom Fighters declared Sonic's trial invalid, and appointed him as their new leader.
Part Three: Industrial Insanity
One morning the Freedom Fighters awoke to discover Rotor roboticized and unconscious, on the floor of his lab. Luckily, whoever had roboticized him had used the Freedom Fighter's roboticizer, allowing them to de-roboticize him. He had no idea what had happened.
Later, Uncle Chuck was working in his Spy-Shack, when someone blasted him from behind, knocking him out.
Later, one of his spies discovered him lying there, unconscious. They reactivated him, but he also had no clue what had happened to him.
Over the next week, several important devices were stolen from Robotropolis-- all the necessary parts to build a roboticizer. Robotnik was baffled. Who could possibly want to build a roboticizer? He just hoped it wasn't a sign of the Freedom Fighters up to some new trick.
…Mina had been an ordinary Knothole villager until the robot came. It attacked her in her home, captured her, and took her to a secret place in the forest. She had heard descriptions of the roboticizer from the Freedom Fighters. The moment she saw it, she knew that's what it was, and she knew she was in trouble. She knew that soon she would be an all too willing slave to the evil Dr. Robotnik.
She tried to escape, but it was futile. She was placed in the roboticizer, and transformed into a mindless mechanical automaton. But when she stepped out of the roboticizer, it was not Robotnik to whom she pledged her loyalty...
Over the next few weeks, Knothole villagers continued to disappear.
And then, one day, Knothole was attacked by an army of robots, many of them roboticized Mobians. Their leader was Mecha Sally, but she had a new name now: "Mechole". Mechole declared that she would kill Robotnik, roboticize the planet, and rule it as Queen. She was the one who had been kidnapping the villagers, and she was also the one who had assaulted Rotor and Sir Charles, to download their knowledge of the roboticizer.
Sonic and the Freedom Fighters drove her off.
Sonic was devastated by what had happened to Sally.
As Mechole's plans proceeded, she had her robotic slaves build troops for her army. Meanwhile, she reprogrammed many robots of Robotnik's to work for her. Once she deemed her army large enough, she attacked Robotropolis. Though her army was destroyed, the battle gave her enough time to get into Robotnik's headquarters and have a showdown.
She sent her Combot bodyguards to destroy Dr. Robotnik, but he had Combot bodyguards of his own. As his Combots fought hers, Mechole attacked Robotnik herself.
Mechole was faster and more heavily armed, but Robotnik was physically stronger. She was shocked to learn that even his live arm was quite strong. He revealed that years ago, he had experimented with cybernetics. Since the cyborgs had created retained their free will, and he didn't trust anyone with that much power, he had been unable to create a cyborg army-- but he had still taken the time to cybernetically enhance himself.
He pinned her, then tore off her head. Her head continued to function, but he gloated that she was now helpless. She didn't see it that way however. She fired lasers out of her eyes into his face, blinding him. Then, headless, her body rose to its feet, and fired at him with its main gun. Robotnik's massive body tumbled to the ground, dead.
Her body picked her head up, and took it to the main computer. She hooked her brain directly into the city's computer system, overrode the computer's defenses, and took control of the city.
The next time the Freedom Fighters went to Robotropolis, there had been a few changes. The city had been renamed Mechatropolis, the factories were producing a model of Metal Sonics instead of Swatbots, and the city was ruled by "Her Majesty, M-Bot 000-- Queen Mechole. Mechole also had a new body, more fearsome than the first.
Mechole's armed forces were divided into 3 branches. The army was led by Metal Sonic the Mecha Hog; the Mechatropolis Guard was led by Guardian the Echidnabot (styled after Mecha Knuckles); and the Secret Service was led by M.U. Bot 007-- Metal Geoffrey.
Though saddened by how far Sally had fallen, the Freedom Fighters resolved to fight this new menace as they had that of Robotnik.
Part Four: Automation Ambition
As Mechole knew the location of Knothole, it was now necessary to evacuate the village, and move to a new location. Unfortunately, Mechole also knew all the places the Freedom Fighters had considered as fallback spots. It was a very tough decision for Sonic as to where to fall back to.
One day, the Freedom Fighters got a tip that someone very important wanted to meet with Sonic. Sonic smelled something fishy, but decided to go along with it. He took Tails and Bunnie with him as backup, just in case.
He had them hide near the rendezvous point, then continued on ahead, alone. When he found the "important individual", he was shocked. It appeared to be a fully deroboticized Sally!
Sonic knew this was too good to be true, and he was right. She explained that she was actually one of Robotnik's Auto-Automatons, reprogrammed with Mechole's personality. Mechole said she had done this as a demonstration. If Sonic agreed to side with her against the Freedom Fighters, she would be willing to transfer his mind into a Sonic Automaton-- the next best thing to actually being deroboticized, and the closest he was likely to ever get. He refused.
She couldn't understand why. Didn't he love her? Didn't he want to see her assume her rightful place as ruler of Mobius? If he wanted power, she was willing to share some of it... she just wanted him by her side.
Sonic told her he wasn't interested in power-- she should know that. And as for his love for her, he had loved Sally. By her own admission, she wasn't Sally anymore.
In outrage, she ordered her Combots (which had been in cloak up till now) to attack and capture him. Bunnie and Tails came to his aid, and together, they escaped.
Some time after this, Mechole used Robotnik's portal to the Zone of Silence to send some of her troops in, to find the King. When they located the Dark Knight the King had become, they did battle with him and captured him. They then took him back to Mechatropolis. Mechole roboticized him, then scanned his memory. She was pleased to discover that the King's memories were still locked within the Dark Knight's head. With some fancy programming, she overrode the magical memory block she found there, and restored the King's true personality.
Before he could wake up in a mechanical body, she deroboticized him. When he finally woke up, sane for the first time in a decade, he was greeted by what he believed to be a grown up Sally. In actual fact, it was Mechole in the Sally Automaton.
The reunion went well at first, for "Sally" told only parts of the story, and all from her point of view. However, when she started showing him around her city, he was appalled.
It didn't take him long to discern that her Kingdom was no better than Robotnik's, and he told her so in no uncertain terms. Mechole was devastated. She had thought the King would be on her side.
She had him restrained, re-roboticized him, then copied his programming into an Automaton. She then altered the Automaton's programming, so it would play the part of her loving father, while overlooking the problems the real King had protested.
Part Five: Engineer Endgame
In Mechatropolis, Mechole was living out her dreams. She had her father back, and had built Auto-Automatons of Sonic, Knuckles, and Geoffrey. In the form of her Sally Automaton, she basked in their warm, artificial love for her, and tried to forget it was all a fantasy.
Under Sally's command, the Freedom Fighters had utilized hit-and-run techniques, designed to maximize the damage to Robotropolis while minimizing the number of Mobians put at risk. She had felt that, over time, these attacks would cripple Robotnik's empire.
Sonic, however, was an impatient Hedgehog. He wasn't about to wait decades for Mechole's empire to fall. He gathered as many Freedom Fighter groups as he could together, and trained all who were willing to fight. He even offered neuro-overriders and use of the Freedom Fighter's roboticizer to whoever was brave enough to assume Mecha form for the cause.
Once he felt his army was sufficient, they attacked Mechatropolis for a final battle.
Under other circumstances, this could have been a fatal mistake. Luckily, though, Antoine was a bit of a military strategist, and gave Sonic helpful advice. Meanwhile, Mechole's strategic skills were decreased somewhat by her insanity. For instance, like Robotnik, she overestimated the power of robots (both on her side and on the Freedom Fighter side), and was obsessed with Sonic and the Freedom Fighters.
Finally, she came out of her headquarters, in her fearsome mechanical body, and personally attacked Sonic's command post. She easily overcame Sonic's guards, and she and Sonic began battling. Sonic used all the tricks up his sleeve, but could not win. It seemed he was done for... Until Antoine came to his aid. Mechole was caught off guard, and Antoine critically damaged her. With what was left of her strength, she ruthlessly attacked Antoine, but Sonic used what was left of his own fading energy to finish Mechole off.
As Rotor and Dr. Quack tended to Sonic and Antoine, Mechole's troops continued to resist Sonic's forces. Sir Charles investigated and discovered that Mechole's programming still operated the city's computer systems.
Tails, Bunnie, and several other Freedom Fighters headed to Mechole's headquarters to deactivate the central computer. Mechole tried to call back enough forces to deal with them, but it was too late. The Freedom Fighters broke into the building and headed for Robotnik's War Room, where the main computer terminal was located. They discovered it to be jam-packed with additions to the computer system-- including Mecha Sally's head.
When they disconnected the head, the computer system went down. The head continued to struggle, shooting at them from its eyes, until Tails opened it up and shut it down.
Without Mechole's direction, her robots began to act mindlessly, but continued to fight. Sonic had the troops fall back for the time being.
Later, Rotor and Sir Charles headed to the War Room, where they were able to reprogram all of the city's 'bots. The battle robots were shut down, and the roboticized Mobians were ordered to assemble to have their free wills restored. Rotor didn't have enough neuro-overriders to go around, but Charles knew of another way to restore a roboticized Mobian's mind-- having the 'bot touch a Power Ring.
The city would require quite a bit of cleaning up, but at long last, Mobotropolis belonged to the Mobians once more!
Part Six: Robotic Restoration
In Mechole's files, the Freedom Fighters found schematics for several types of de-roboticizers. These would allow many to return to flesh-and-blood forms, including most of those Mechole had roboticized. Unfortunately, they would not work on those roboticized by the first model of roboticizer, such as Sir Charles, or any that had undergone extensive repairs or modification (such as Sonic). Still, it was better than nothing.
Among those deroboticized was the King himself. He was pleased Mechole's evil reign had been brought to an end, and relieved to learn that the Freedom Fighters intended to return the throne to him.
He was greatly saddened, however, by what Sally had become. The Freedom Fighters assured him it wasn't her fault, and Sir Charles cautiously announced that it might be possible to restore her to the way she once was, at least mentally.
Sir Charles and Rotor began working on that project, while the King saw to the restoration of Mobotropolis.
But then, the King's body began to turn to crystal, a result of certain compromises he had had to make in the Zone of Silence. The only thing that could cure him, he revealed to Doctor Quack, was his Sword. He had Geoffrey St. John form a team and begin a search for it.
Finally, Rotor and Sir Charles completed reprogramming Sally as best they could. They warned that what they had done was similar to giving a mentally ill Mobian certain drugs-- it would alleviate some of the worst of the symptoms, but without proper counseling, it was only a temporary measure. And in the end, it would be up to Sally herself to change her way of thinking.
Since the rest of her original mechanical body had been lost, they transferred her brain to the Sally Automaton. (In addition to being more pleasing to the eye, this was part of her therapy-- looking like her old self should help Sally to think and feel like her old self.)
When she was reactivated, Sally was appalled by her own actions. Sonic tried to comfort her, reminding her that there was nothing she could've done, but it didn't help much. She knew that, but she remembered Mechole's thoughts as though they were her own.
Realizing that it was unlikely the people would ever trust her again, she suggested to her father that he chose someone else as his successor; perhaps Sonic, since he was the hero of the rebellion.
The King agreed another successor would be prudent, but had someone else in mind than Sonic...
Sally then told the FF of a part of Mechole's origin that they had been unaware of. When Mecha Sally had went insane, she had decided she would need someone completely loyal to her if she were going to defeat Robotnik. The obvious answer was robots, but all robots except herself, Sonic, and Uncle Chuck were loyal to Robotnik. She needed a way to change the robots' loyalties without giving them free will.
To figure out how to do this, she had roboticized Rotor and copied his memories and skills, then copied the memories and skills of Uncle Chuck as well. She had also asked Nicole for help, but Nicole had refused to help. Sally had then attempted to copy Nicole's memory banks, but Nicole had defenses against such things. The two computer programs had fought until both were in shambles. As Nicole's systems attempted to repair the damage, it had accidentally combined the Mecha Sally program and the Nicole program, creating Mechole.
Both the Mecha Sally unit and the Nicole unit ended up with the same Mechole program. After that both systems had kept in constant communication, working as one.
The FF had disconnected and repaired the Sally unit, but... the Nicole unit had never been found...
Part Five: Metallic Madness
As the restoration of Mobotropolis continued, robots and computers formerly belong in to Mechole began to disappear from the city. Sally believed Mechole (in Nicole's hardware) to be responsible for this.
She and Sonic tried to stop Mechole. They were unable to locate Mechole's base, but were able to prevent her from stealing any more equipment.
Sonic and Sally began a crusade to defeat Mechole. They had many battles with Mechole's forces.
Eventually, they located Mechole's base, attacked it, and defeated her.
Meanwhile, Athair contacted Knuckles and took him to the Forgotten Tribe. Knuckles lead the tribe to the Kingdom of Mercia, where they were captured by the High Sheriff. Knuckles teamed up with Rob O' the Hedge, and together they freed the Echidnas and lead them to Albion.
Meanwhile, Geoffrey and company tracked down the Sword of Acorns. They had just acquired it, though, when Mammoth Mogul and his Fearsome Foursome attacked.
Geoffrey and company defeated the Fearsome Foursome, but didn't realize that Mammoth Mogul had switched the sword with a fake.
Mammoth Mogul then retreated, and Geoffrey and co. returned to Mobotropolis.
Since the King was conscious and free of Naugus's influence, the King would know it wasn't the real sword immediately. Mammoth Mogul had to make his move fast.
He transported Enerjak to the Floating Island. Enerjak decided to get revenge on Knuckles. He captured the Chaotix, but Knuckles didn't come. And so he conquered the Island and prepared to conquer the world.
Locke contacted the Freedom Fighters, posing as Knuckles. He told them to come quickly.
Meanwhile, Athair contacted Knuckles, and told him how to use Knuckles' own innate powers to teleport back to the Island instantly.
Back on the Island, Mammoth Mogul used the Sword of Acorns to drain Enerjak of his Chaos Energy and become Master Mogul.
Moments later, Knuckles and the Freedom Fighters both arrived on the Island. But then, Master Mogul captured Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails, and trapped them in an alternate Zone.
The Ancient Walkers freed them, giving them enough Power Rings to change, when hit by Master Mogul's Chaos Energy, into Super Mecha Sonic, Hyper Mecha Knuckles, and Turbo Mecha Tails.
Though they Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails fought well, it was not they who finally defeated Master Mogul, but Locke. He used the Power of the Chaos Emerald, and trapped Master Mogul in a giant "Master Emerald".
Knuckles found the real Sword of Acorns and returned it to Sally. The Freedom Fighters then returned to Mobotropolis.
Meanwhile, Knuckles rescued the Chaotix.
When the King finally held the sword, his body returned to normal, and his true crown appeared.
King Acorn then sent Geoffrey and his team on a new mission. They were to return to the Floating Island, and find out the fate of Queen Alicia and Prince Elias...
Epilogue
Not long after Knuckles and the Chaotix apprehended Ebony Hare for drug trafficking, Geoffrey and his team returned to the Island in search of the missing Royals.
At the royal compound, the found Prince Elias, who had recently moved there after having been raised by the Echidna Brotherhood of Guardians.
Elias took them to Haven, where the Brotherhood handed over the cryogenically frozen Queen Alicia.
The Royals in tow, Geoffrey returned to Mobotropolis.
The King appointed Elias as heir to the throne. This is something he wasn't prepared for, but later, in private, Sally promised to help guide him.
After many twists and turns, it appeared peace had at last returned to Mobius...
The End?
...If only!
Epilogue Two
Elsewhere, Mecha Mina laughed. They thought they had beaten Mechole? Mechole always kept backups. They may have captured the Nicole unit, but this unit also held the Mechole Program!
Alone, Sally went over her plans for the future. She knew that Mechole wasn't defeated yet, and she would have to convince Elias to hunt Mechole's other hosts down. After all… there could only be one Queen of Mobius!
To be continued…?