Disclaimers:
- I only own what I myself created, and nothing more. The character Nick Isaac is used with Nick Isaac Hedgehog's permission.
- Like with Freedom Series 1, this fanfic is mostly based on the universe of "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie", although it borrows some elements from other Sonic material. I should warn you, this fanfic is going to blaze its own trail plot-wise, rather than stick to Sonic canon. If you don't like that, you should stop reading now and find another fanfic.
- You should read Freedom Series 1: The Founding Fathers before reading this. Otherwise, some parts of this fanfic will probably confuse you. I should also warn you that this fanfic is more designed to set the plot up for future fanfics in Freedom Series, rather than be a standalone story.
Chapter 1: End of a Burden
March 3rd, 2314 – 4:00 PM – Prower Residence, Forest Town, Elona
"Tails, are you ready to try it again?" Sonic said, standing next to an exhausted Miles 'Tails' Prower in the backyard of the Prower house.
"Sonic...let me rest..." Tails gasped out.
"No way! I wanna see you try to fly again!"
"Ugh..."
About a month and a half ago, Kyle had taken Sonic and Tails on a ride in a helicopter, as a present for Tails' sixth birthday. He'd been half regretting his dad giving him that gift ever since. That had given Sonic the idea of using Tails' twin appendages like the propellers of the helicopter to get him to fly. Well, to their surprise, their little experiment had actually worked. While it was cool that Tails could fly now with his tails, he didn't like at all how Sonic kept pestering him to show off his flying every ten seconds. He thought his tails were going to fall off at this rate.
"Alright, I'll do it..." Tails muttered.
"Alright!" Sonic said, jumping for joy. "Thanks Tails!"
Tails spun his tails around again, just like the rotor on a helicopter. The trimmed blades of grass beneath his feet fanned out from the downdraft as he slowly rose into the air. He rose up about two feet off of the grass, but then collapsed to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.
"That was great! Do it again Tails!" the twelve-year-old hedgehog yelled.
"Sonic...don't make me fly again."
Despite his real name being Miles, Sonic had constantly called him Tails instead ever since he was born. He remembered how his parents had tried to get Sonic to stop doing that, but after a while they had given up. Soon after, everyone in the Prower household started calling him Tails instead of his real name. It didn't bother him that much though. Miles sounded a little strange anyway, and Tails had a certain ring to it that he liked.
"SONIC! TAILS!" a voice called from the house. It sounded like Tails' dad's voice.
My dad is finally home again... He'll make Sonic stop.
Tails breathed a sigh of relief as he lay on the grass. Natalie, Tails' mom, worried quite a bit over anything that happened to him. After she'd learned about his and Sonic's little experiment with flying, she'd almost had a seizure. She'd constantly told everyone about how dangerous it would be for Tails to fly, that if he kept doing it he'd run into power lines or hit a tree or something. So, she'd done everything she could to keep Tails from flying. That included forcing Tails' dad Kyle to keep an eye on Sonic and Tails so that they couldn't practice flying.
Unfortunately though, Kyle ran off this afternoon to get some groceries. As soon as Tails saw his father's car pull out of the driveway from his bedroom window, Sonic zipped into the room and dragged him to the backyard. Tails had been forced to fly around the backyard for the last hour now, and he was really worn out. Hopefully though, now that Kyle was back, he could finally have a rest.
---
"SONIC! TAILS!" Kyle called again from inside the house, his hands full of grocery bags.
He put the bags down on the table in the kitchen and wondered where the two could be. He looked around the kitchen a little, and then glanced out the window. He saw his son laying face down in the grass, while Sonic stood next to him.
Oh no... Sonic's at it again. Natalie is going to have a fit when she finds out about this.
This wasn't the first thing that Sonic had done to upset Kyle's wife. Ever since being adopted about six years ago, Sonic had done all sorts of things that she didn't like.
Like, for example, there were Sonic's daily runs through the Elona wilderness where he often said he crossed two hundred miles per hour. At first, Natalie had tried to stop Sonic from running, afraid he'd kill himself one day if he did it long enough. However, there was simply nothing she could do about stopping him, since there wasn't anything or anyone in the country fast enough to keep up with him.
Even I can't keep up with him, Kyle thought. And I was able to keep up with his dad Swift for crying out loud. That kid is a whole other story from his dad. I never realized how right I was when I said that Sonic's name was perfect for him. Just how fast can that little blue hedgehog go?
Kyle walked over to the backyard door, and opened it up.
"SONIC! Stop making Tails fly!" Kyle yelled across the yard.
As his name left Kyle's mouth, Sonic instantly jumped into a back flip away from Tails and landed near the fence bordering the edge of the yard.
"Sonic! Get over here right now! If you run away I'll ground you for a week!"
He saw Sonic get a rebellious grin on his face, and then he jumped over the wall. Kyle could hear him sprinting off on the street just outside the yard. He broke into a run to try to catch Sonic. Despite the fact Kyle had a fully roboticized body, he easily got up to speed, and leaped over the fence after Sonic. As he landed on the pavement, he could barely distinguish the young hedgehog's form way down the road. He wasn't moving, which meant he was waiting for Kyle.
Kyle ran towards him as fast as he could, while Sonic stood still. Maybe Sonic would decide to be cooperative this time. Unfortunately, when Kyle had about thirty more feet left to cover to reach Sonic, the hedgehog took off running again down the road. Sonic turned his head around and flashed a broad grin at Kyle.
"SONIC! STOP NOW!" Kyle shouted.
However, instead of stopping, Sonic put on so much speed that he left a trail of flames behind him. At that point, Kyle just gave up and stopped running.
Even if he still had his lighter flesh and blood body, there was no way he'd be able to catch up to Sonic. He briefly glanced down at his metal body, which he'd been living in for the last six years now. He'd gotten it when he'd been captured and roboticized by Robotnik during an attack on his main base. He'd originally lost his free will with his old body as well. Fortunately though, Sonic's father Swift managed to destroy the mind control program by electrocuting Kyle with a high voltage power line. However, Robotnik called a surprise squadron of robots to defend himself, and the robots killed Swift before Kyle could get him to safety.
To make matters worse, Robotnik managed to escape his secret base after killing Swift. Not only was Kyle denied his chance to avenge Swift, it also meant that Robotnik was free to attack Planet Freedom again if he so desired. However, nobody had heard a peep from Robotnik since then. Some thought he was dead, but one thing that Robotnik told Kyle during the fighting had haunted him to this very day:
"You Freedomians...you think you've already won. Remember what I said the last time you caught me? I'll say it again in case you forgot: This is only the beginning."
He's not dead. I know it, Kyle thought. I don't think he'd go down that easy. For all anyone knows, he's just regrouping...recovering from the loss of his main base, and getting ready to strike again...
He then heard footsteps on the pavement behind him, and turned around. It was his son Tails.
"Hey son," Kyle said. "I'm sorry I left you alone with Sonic again."
"It's okay..." Tails said between deep breaths. "I just need to sit down..."
He sat down on the curb of the road, breathing hard. Kyle watched him as he rested, and then sat down on the curb with him. Suddenly, his head snapped up, as if he had suddenly recalled something important.
"Hey! I remembered, I got a call from Mom while you were gone!"
"Really? What did she say?"
"She said that the de-roboticizer is finished!"
At the mention of the de-roboticizer being finished, Kyle was so happy he felt like he was walking on air. Finally, after being a robot for more than half a decade, he could return to his original flesh and blood body! He almost felt like a teenager who was finally getting his braces off after having to wear them for so many months. Only, the happiness was multiplied several times over.
"That's great!" Kyle said, grinning as wide as he could.
"She says we should go over to her lab at the college right away! Finally, I'll get to see what you really look like! Like how you looked in your wedding pictures with Mom!"
"That's right! I've been a robot your whole life, haven't I?"
Tails nodded.
"Well, don't worry," Kyle said as he jumped up into a stand. "We'll go as soon as Sonic gets back!"
As he said that, Sonic actually did come running back down the street. Seeing the two foxes sitting on the curb on the side of the road, he screeched to a halt.
"Hey Sonic!" Kyle shouted.
"You can ground me now if you want... I'm tired of running." Sonic said, facing down at the blacktop. Apparently, he felt sorry that he had run off so recklessly, which was a rarity for Sonic. Perhaps he didn't like how he had left Tails exhausted in the backyard like that.
"Never mind about grounding you!" Kyle said.
Sonic snapped his head up, surprised by Kyle's reply.
"What?! Why?"
"Natalie just finished the de-roboticizer!"
"Really? Awesome!" Sonic smiled as big as he could.
"Come on! Let's go to the college right now! I can't wait to be back in my old body again!"
The three of them ran back to the house, jumped in Kyle's car, and rushed to Elona University as fast as they could.
20 minutes later, at Elona University...
Kyle was ecstatic the whole way to the college. Normally, he was a careful driver, but he was so excited he went at least ten miles per hour over the speed limit the whole way, and even ran a few stop signs and red lights. He pulled up in front of the science buildings, and jumped out of the car as fast as he could. Sonic and Tails trailed behind him. Finally, he reached Natalie's lab, and pushed the double doors open. In the center of the room was the machine, the de-roboticizer. Natalie was standing in front of it with a broad grin on her face. Kyle smiled back at his wife.
"Kyle!" Natalie said, her yellow fur and glasses shining from the bright lights in the ceiling.
"Natalie, you finally finished it!" Kyle said as he ran over to Natalie. "Thank you so much for all of your hard work!"
"You're welcome, sweetie," Natalie said, the two of them hugging. "I'm sorry about keeping you waiting so long..."
"That's okay, Natalie," Kyle said, as he and Natalie turned to look at the machine. "I totally understand why it took you so long, from everything you've told me."
The reason it had taken Natalie so long to figure out a way to reverse roboticization was because of how complex roboticizers were. The science behind Robotnik's dreaded machine was almost as complex as rocket science, maybe even more so. There were lots of totally original parts and forces behind making it work. No other scientists besides Robotnik had ever seen anything like what made up the roboticizer. It had taken many years of careful experimenting and tinkering to figure out exactly how the entire process of roboticization went. That itself was only half the job. Then, a way to make the entire process work in reverse had to be found, which was no easy task with how complex it was in the first place. Kyle understood that it had taken a lot of sweat and blood, and even a few small miracles to get the de-roboticizer finished.
But now, here it was...ready to transform Kyle back into what he used to be, a flesh and blood fox. Kyle and Natalie took their eyes off of the machine, and then looked back at Sonic and Tails. The two of them were so excited about this moment that they had momentarily forgotten that the kids were there. Kyle laughed a little, and then looked back at Natalie.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Natalie said. "Get in!"
"Sure!" Kyle said, moving towards the metal platform in the middle of the room.
Natalie walked over to a large computer on one wall, and started pressing buttons and pulling levers. She watched the monitors as a glass cylinder descended down from the middle of the room. It slammed down over the metal platform that Kyle was now standing on. Kyle watched as his wife pressed more buttons.
Finally, she turned around and said, "It's ready!"
Kyle gave a thumbs-up sign and said, "Throw the switch!"
Natalie pulled down the red lever she had on the computer console. Blue energy rings surged across the outside of the chamber. A few moments later, a bright blue circle of light came up from the bottom of the glass chamber. As it passed over Kyle's body, he felt the metal transforming back into living tissue. Slowly but surely, the circle of light went from the soles of his feet all the way up to the tips of his big pointy ears. The process complete, Natalie raised the glass tube up into the ceiling, and Kyle stepped off of the platform. He was back to his old flesh and blood body again.
Kyle held his hands in front of his face, smiling as he saw that they were his original fingers, and not his metal ones. Instead of that old metal, his fingers were now covered with his original coat of red fur. He folded down his fingers a few times, forming fists with his hands. Then, he noticed other things. The red tint from his robot visual sensors were gone, as well as the heads-up display. He was seeing through his natural eyes now. He could also smell the scents of the room. He could smell the coffee on a desk nearby, he could smell his wife's perfume; he could smell everything!
"Is this real? It's like a dream..." Kyle said.
"It's real, all right," Natalie said, coming over to Kyle.
The two of them hugged and kissed. The two of them then looked to Sonic and Tails.
"Tails..." Kyle said. "How do I look?"
"You look just like you did in your wedding pictures," Tails said. "You look great!"
"Come over here, big guy! You too, Sonic!" Kyle said.
Sonic and Tails came over, and the four of them hugged together for a moment.
"I can't believe it!" Tails said, feeling his father's arms, covered with their red fur instead of the metal he had grown accustomed to. "You really are back to normal! No more metal!"
"Yeah, I know!" Kyle said.
"This is a great invention, Natalie!" Sonic said.
"Thank you Sonic!" Natalie said back.
"Hey, what do you say we go out and celebrate?" Kyle said. "Since this is the first time in six years that I've been able to eat, let's go out to a great restaurant and buy the tastiest and most expensive meals on the menu!"
"Or we could just go get chilidogs..." Sonic suggested.
"Heh, that sounds good too Sonic," Natalie said.
"Wow, that's a surprise," Tails remarked. "You like health food, not chilidogs."
"I know, son," Natalie said, wiping a tear out from under her glasses. "I'm so happy I don't care what we eat!"
"Come on, let's go!" Kyle said.
The four of them started to step towards the exit out of the laboratory. Two seconds later, a massive explosion blew apart an entire wall of the laboratory. Parts of the ceiling collapsed, sending debris crashing down to the floor. A sickening crack of bone could be heard, and Kyle turned his eyes to the source of the noise. Natalie had been crushed underneath a giant chunk of the concrete wall, only her head and arms showing. A pool of blood was spreading from where she lay. Her glasses had fallen off of her face, and lay broken on the tile floor.
"NATALIE!" Kyle screamed, the first tears he'd produced in years streaming down his face. He rushed over to her side and kneeled next to her, but she wasn't breathing. Kyle felt for a pulse, but there wasn't one. She was dead, killed instantly by the block of cement that had crushed her body.
No...Natalie! What caused that explosion?!
Two missiles flew in through the new hole in the wall, hitting the de-roboticizer and its computer. The second and third explosions sent a shower of metal, glass, and plastic flying all over the room. A metal piece of shrapnel sliced past Kyle's left leg, tearing a deep cut that started bleeding profusely. He screamed out in pain, clutching at the wound. Kyle hadn't felt real pain in a very long time due to his robot body, and so the deep cut really hurt him a lot.
When the dust finally settled and the last pieces of debris clattered to the floor, a jet engine could be heard approaching from outside the building. Kyle, Sonic and Tails turned their eyes to the hole in the wall to see what was making the noise. Dr. Robotnik appeared in his egg ship, hovering above the destruction of Natalie Prower's laboratory, and gloating over it all.