Chapter Two:
The Shadow of the Future
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Arriving in the conference room, the Freedom Fighters all took their seats. Since Tails wasn't an official Freedom Fighter yet, he didn't have a spot or chair at the table, and had to carry in a chair from another room. Techno-Sonic decided to stand.
Once everybody else was seated, Techno-Sonic began speaking. "You've asked why I've traveled back in time. Well it all boils down to two words: Chrono-nik won."
He paused for a moment, looking around to see the Freedom Fighters' reactions. As his words began to sink in, and their eyes widen, he continued.
"There just isn't anyone or anything left to fight for. Mobius has been stripped of virtually all purely biological life, and been polluted so badly that even if Chrono-nik were somehow defeated, the planet would still be uninhabitable. The only life forms left are a few single celled organisms, and technorganic life such as technimals. And of the technimals, most would be loyal to Chrono-nik even without the obedience program—either out of fear or, impossible as it sounds, in some cases by choice. The fact of the matter is, since technimals can reproduce or even be built from scratch, many of them have never experienced complete free-will, and wouldn't know what to do with it if I gave it to them."
Sonic broke in. "But what about the other Freedom Fighters? And the Knothole villagers? I mean even if you don't have anyone else to fight for, you can still fight for your own future, right?"
Techno-Sonic shook his head sadly. "No, I'm afraid not. Knothole was destroyed… a long time ago. And as for the Freedom Fighters, all of you ...are dead. I'm the only one left." He hung his head, not meeting their gaze.
After a moment, Rotor said, "Man."
Tails asked, "You sure? All of us?"
Techno-Sonic nodded.
Antoine shrieked, "This cannot be! I am too young and handsome to be dying!"
Techno-Sonic looked up, a slight smirk on his face. "Ant, you don't die until years from now."
"Oh, then that's alright. All right? What am I saying? I will always be too young and so very handsome to die!"
Techno-Sonic shook his head. Antoine's antics had slightly lightened the mood of the room, but this didn't last for long, especially when Sally asked, "If we're all going to die, how does it happen? Do we die of old age, or-- ?"
"Chrono-nik and his minions kill you. How else?" With that he heaved a deep sigh of regret.
"This stinks!" the present Sonic said.
"I am not smelling anything," Antoine said in confusion.
"I mean, I seriously don't like this."
"Oh. Well, why are you complaining?" Antoine asked. "You are zee one who survives! Zee rest of us, we have just learned zat our fates are already written; zat we are doomed to die before our time!"
Sonic scowled. "Great. So I get to watch my friends get killed, and then for a special bonus, I get to watch the world die as well! What more could a hedgehog ask for?! ...Thanks, but no thanks."
Sally continued her inquiry, saying, "What about the roboticized Mobians, and other technimals who, like you, once opposed Robotnik?"
"We managed to de-roboticize many of the Robians, but they were all killed along with the other rebel groups and the majority of Mobius's population."
"Robians?" Sonic asked.
"Roboticized Mobians. I guess that term hasn't been created yet." Techno-Sonic clarified.
"Ah."
Techno-Sonic continued, "As for other technimals, I did manage to free quite a few of them at one point. We even formed a new Freedom Fighter group. But they too were all killed eventually. Now finding other potentially rebellious technimals is like looking for a needle in a haystack, especially since even most of the former Mobians are scared stiff of Chrono-nik. I really have no way of knowing whom I can trust. And even if I was able to free more people willing to fight, what for? To watch them die as well?
"I don't want to sound like I've given up. If I had to, I'd fight on against Chrono-nik for all eternity. But once I got my hands on the time machine, it just seemed like a better idea to go back in time and change history. My original intention was simply to prevent Chrono-nik from becoming so powerful, and destroying the world, but then I realized, if I was going to change history, why stop there? I now plan on traveling back to the year 3224 and preventing the coup. If Robotnik never takes over, none of this will ever happen."
"That makes sense," Sally said. "But if you're heading for the coup, why stop here?"
"I need your help. I can alter my appearance so I can pass as a normal Mobian, but that won't help me convince King Acorn of Chrono-nik's threat—or rather, the threat posed by Warlord Julian, as he was then known. Of course I could just blast in there and annihilate Julian, but I feel I owe the King an explanation. I don't want to wait for the coup to happen either—there's way too many ways things could go wrong. If the King was still trapped in the Zone of Silence, if something happened to one of us, or if Julian somehow managed to escape... there would be no way of knowing what the future might be. I need a way to warn the King of the coup before it happens. Then with his troops and my powers, we should be able to deal with Julian once and for all."
Bunnie asked, "So how do y'all plan on doin' that?"
Sonic looked at his future-self and added, "Yeah, and what's it got to do with us?"
"Well... I figure the only person who can convince the King of Julian's treachery... would be the King's own daughter!" As he said this he looked over at Sally, whose eyes widened as he finished the sentence.
"You want to take me with you to the past?!" She asked.
"In a way. You see, we have no way of knowing if this will work. There are many different theories as to how time travel works, and although I'm pretty sure which theory is correct, I have no way of proving it until we try it. I believe that we shall be able to change history, and that this course of history will then be replaced by the new history. However, there are some theories that claim it is impossible or at least extremely difficult to change history, and other theories that say attempts to change history merely result in the creation of new alternate universes. The original history would thus still exist. In either case, I don't want to leave the rest of you without Sally. So, what I intend—"
"Hold on," Sonic said, "do you actually understand all of that?!"
"Um, yes... I actually know the math behind these theories, but I figured you guys might have a hard time following that, so I simplified the theories for your sake."
Sonic moaned. "That was the simplified version?! Aww, man! Time travel makes my head hurt! ...And you know the math?! The only math I know how to do is adding and subtracting! ...Are you sure you're me?!"
Techno-Sonic made a half smile. "Being technorganic does have its advantages. Keep in mind, it's not just my body that's enhanced. My brain has cybernetic implants in it, which greatly enhance my mental capabilities. Um... in other words, I've become smarter since I was technomorphed."
Sonic thought about that for a moment. "Oh, man, that's freaky!"
When no one else had anything to say, Techno-Sonic continued. "As I was saying, since we can't be certain we'll be able to change this course of history, what I want to do is use my advanced systems to create a correctly aged clone of Sally. I'll then copy her memories and brain patterns into the clone. The result will be, in essence, two 'Sally's. One can come with me, the other can stay here. Of course, I won't do this unless you agree to it, Sally."
The room was silent now for a few moments as everyone digested this unusual proposition. Even when some of them had started to form some ideas about this, they stayed silent (even Antoine) waiting to see what Sally had to say about this.
She showed little emotion as she thought. Finally, she said, "Two of me? That would certainly be interesting. If we were to stay in the same time period, it could be quite confusing, but since we wouldn't be, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem. In fact, no matter which theory of time travel turned out to be true, I still wouldn't be likely to see my other self again, would I?"
"No. If history can't be changed, then we already know you would never meet, or at least the other you wouldn't stay long, because there was only one you in my history. And if we can change history, well obviously the only way you could meet would be if changes in history create alternate universes, but even then you'd be unlikely to meet again."
"That's what I figured. In that case, my biggest question is; this cloning process—is it safe?"
"Pretty much. There's a slight chance you might get infected with the Technomorphosis Virus (one in three million, six hundred fifty thousand, seven hundred, and thirty-nine) but even if that did happen, my nanites have been re-programmed, so you wouldn't loose any of your free will. There are no other possible dangers to you, the original article."
"What about to the clone? Are you sure she'll be all right? I wouldn't want to do this if there was a good chance of her turning out deformed or mentally unstable or anything like that. And I'm assuming that there isn't any more chance of her becoming Robotnik's slave—or Chrono-nik's, I should say—than there is of that happening to me, right?"
"Right. Obviously, in a procedure this complicated, there are lots of things that could go wrong, but in this case, none of those things are very likely. Unfortunately, I haven't had an opportunity to test the cloning procedure, but I have run countless simulations. And I'll be monitoring the process, so even if something were to go wrong, I'd see it and be able to correct it. Factoring everything together, I'd say there's only a one in seventeen million, three hundred eighty-six thousand, twenty-nine chance of something going wrong that I couldn't fix."
"Yeah, if you say so," Sonic said. "Sally, I don't think you should do it. This guy is starting to sound like Rotor, and we all know how often his stuff blows up."
"Hey!" Rotor protested.
The room was silent for a moment, then Techno-Sonic asked, "So, Sally, what do you think? Will you do it? Will you allow me to clone you so we can go back in time and erase this awful course of history?"
She thought for a moment, then said, "I think I've made up my mind, but before I make my final decision—Freedom Fighters, do you have any questions or comments regarding this?"
"Yeah," Sonic said. "I've got a question for you, 'Techno-Sonic.'"
"What's that?"
"Why now? Why'd you come to this point in time? I mean you had the entire past and future of the Freedom Fighters at your fingertips. What's so special about this point in time?"
"Well... I already told you that Chrono-nik's empire is based on time-travel. If I traveled to a point in time when he possesses that power, he would detect my arrival and stop me. I had to go back farther than that. However, I wanted Sally as old as possible, so she could relate to her father the full range of Robotnik's evil. Also, an older Sally will be more dramatic than one only a few years older than what he's used to. Finally," he said with a smile, "I didn't think Sally would have been all to receptive to my plans as a child."
Sally looked thoughtfully at him. "I'm guessing by your reaction when you first saw me that another reason you wanted me older was so I'd be as close to the way you remember me as possible."
"Well, yes, that's also true."
Sonic thought for a moment, then said, "Okay, I think I follow you, but that doesn't quite answer my question. I mean if you wanted Sally to be as old as possible, why didn't you come several years from now? ...Unless you're saying Robotnik's gonna get really powerful like you said sometime soon...!?"
Techno-Sonic scowled grimly and said in a deadly serious voice, "Yes. Some time next year. He got caught in his own doomsday weapon, and appeared to have been destroyed. But somehow, he returned, more powerful than ever, and possessing the power of time-travel. And after that, we were never able to strike any major blows against him again. He'd become unstoppable."
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Bunnie spoke up. "Does this have anythin' to do with that time y'all mentioned earlier when a super robot is gonna' seem to kill 'Butnik?"
"No, that's another time."
"Oh. So what yer' sayin' is that he seems ta die more than once, eh?"
Techno-Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it was only those two times. The first time was when Eve, or whatever that 'bot was named, shot him; and the second time was when Snively sabotaged Robotnik's 'Ultimate Annihilator. ...At least, I'm pretty sure he called it the 'Ultimate Annihilator' – all those doomsday devices kind of blended together after a while."
Sonic asked, "Doesn't your cyborg mind give you better memory?"
"Of course. I can remember perfectly anything that happened after my technomorphosis... And everything before that I remember just as well as I did back when I was technomorphed. It's just that my enhancements can't bring back memories that had already started to fade or had been lost by the time I was technomorphed."
"Oh. Well, that sucks."
When a pause developed in the conversation, Tails raised his hand and spoke. "I was thinking... On one hand, it'd be nice to have everybody de-roboticized, the King back, and Robotnik gone, but on the other, I'm not sure I want my entire life to be erased. Couldn't Techno-Sonic just stay with us and help us fight Robotnik now?"
Techno-Sonic looked at Tails with a thoughtfulness that slowly turned to sadness. "That's a good idea, Tails, but I'm afraid it wouldn't work. I have the power to destroy Robotropolis, but we wouldn't want to do that. We would want to de-roboticize everyone first, and even then, if we planned on moving back to Mobotropolis after Robotnik's defeat, we'd have to try to leave as many buildings as possible standing. We could do it, but... it would take time. Time that is in short supply. Once Robotnik becomes Chrono-nik, even I won't be able to stop him."
"Then come back earlier, when there was more time to beat him!"
"That's what I intend to do—I'm going to come back ten years ago! I'm sorry if it bothers you that your entire life will be changed, but it's for you're own good. I promise, though, I'll make sure your new life is just as good if not better than the one you know."
"I just want to still be friends with all of you, especially you, Sonic."
Techno-Sonic said, "I'm sure the alternate you and my alternate past-self will still be friends. And I was already friends with Sally, Rotor and Antoine before the coup (if you want to call it friendship in the case of Antoine), so you'll probably make friends with them too. As for Bunnie, I can't be certain you'll still be friends, but you never know."
"Not to be worrying about it, Tails," said Antoine. "There is no need to be getting your brain tangled trying to understand his gibberish, for we are not to be going through wit' it. It is surly too very strange and dangerous, non?"
"I hate to say this," said Sonic, "but I have to agree with Ant on this one. Time-travel, cloning, ...I just don't think we want to get mixed up in anything so far-out. There's gotta be tons of things that could go wrong, and the only reason for thinking they won't is 'cause 'Techno-Sonic' says so." Sonic turned to Techno-Sonic and said, "I'm sorry, dude, I guess I just don't completely trust you yet."
Techno-Sonic nodded. "That's understandable. You'd have to be quite naive to accept such a fantastic story as mine without question."
"See? See?" Antoine asked. "I have always been saying zat zee 'Edge'og; 'ee is not to be trusted. And now, he is even admitting to it. And when Sonic is saying 'ee is not to be trusted, I am trusting zat 'ee is to be trusted in saying zat. So, I trust you all will be trusting me now when I say you should not to be trusting him, oui?"
While Sonic and Tails tried to piece together what Antoine had said, Sally asked, "What exactly is it that you're afraid of, Antoine?"
"Many t'ings. Bats, spiders, snakes, robots, pigeons, high places, low places, wet places, dry places, and any place in Robotropolis. ..Oh, wait. I am forgetting, I am afraid of abso-tutely not one t'ing. Now you are to be forgetting everyt'ing I just said."
Sally sighed. "I meant what is it that concerns you right now?"
"Him! Zis 'Tek-no-Sonic.' I am very much not to be trusting him."
"Yes, but why?"
"Well, 'ee is a robot, non? I am not to be believing 'is ridiculous tale of coming from the future! Non! I say he is a robot sent here by Robotnik to roboticize us all. And zis 'cloning' t'ing, it is obviously just a clever trick to lure you into being zee first one roboticized!'
Sally shook her head. "I admit we still need to know more about this cloning procedure, but like I said before, if Robotnik knew our location, why would he lay a trap? Why not just attack? And if he doesn't, than how would one of his robots get here?"
"Oh, yes, I am not t'inking about zis. Zose are very good questions, to which I am not knowing zee answers. All I can t'ink of is zat Robotnik sent zis robot 'ere to trick us because 'ee is a big, yellow-jellied chicken."
"Actually," Sonic said, "I think Robotnik's just a big, fat, jerk. In any case, even if 'Techno-Sonic' doesn't work for Robotnik, that doesn't mean his story's true, and even if it is... well, he's said himself that he's changed. How do we know how much?"
Antoine nodded his head vigorously. "Moi and Sonic 'av' never been agreeing in all that very much, but in this we do. We should not to be trusting zis stranger zat claims to be Sonic zee 'Og-'edge from zee future and wants to perform dangerous experiments on us! (I do not see why 'ee is pretending to be Sonic. 'Ee would have much better chance of getting our trust if 'ee were to claim to be moi, non?)"
Techno-Sonic sighed and shook his head. "I'm not going to performing 'experiments' on anybody—I already know what the results of the cloning process will be. And as I already said, the only person I want to perform it on is Sally. Really, Antoine, were you even listening?"
"Don't mind him, he's just exaggerating," Rotor said.
Sally looked at Sonic with a trace of concern. "Sonic... you're not usually this suspicious. In fact, quite often I think you're too trusting. What's so special about him?"
"I don't really know... Something about him just rubs me the wrong way, I guess."
Techno-Sonic nodded softly, and said, "I guess I should have expected this. I could always handle meeting other versions of myself, but I always just accepted it as other people with my personality and memories. To meet someone who really was me, but didn't have my personality... I've been asking too much of you, Sonic. I'm sorry. If it matters, I think I know what it is about me that bothers you."
"I'm listening."
"Well... I now see that there's an integral part of you that I have for the most part lost: my sense of humor. ...The future just isn't funny."
Sonic put his hand to his chin for a moment, then said, "You know, I think you're right."
Techno-Sonic nodded in acknowledgment.
Sonic's eyes widened, then he made a lop-sided smile. "You really must have lost your sense of humor—if I'd been delivered a line like that, I would have said, 'Of course I'm right. I'm always right!'"
Techno-Sonic smiled weakly. "I really was quite a character, wasn't I? Sally, how in the world did you ever put up with me?"
She stifled a slight giggle and said, "It isn't easy!"
The young Sonic said, "Hey! What are you two talking about? Don't you know I'm the coolest dude around?"
Sally rolled her eyes. "Right. How could we ever have forgotten that?
"Seriously," she continued, "does anyone else have any comments regarding this?"
Bunnie said, "Ah say if we all have a chance to undo everythin' that's happened since ol' Blubber-but reahed his ugly mustache, then ah say, let's do it!"
Rotor thought about it then said, "Techno-Sonic. Regarding the cloning procedure: I understand the concept of cloning in theory—you take a cell of a living being and cause it to reproduce and grow, following it's DNA pattern, until it becomes a new being with the same genes, and thus, shape and attributes, as the original. ...But while the clone is in embryonic stage, it requires a womb or an egg, depending on the species. Who or what is going to provide that? Also, I can't imagine how you would rapidly age the cone, or give it Sally's memories. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you'd explain these things."
"I see," Techno-Sonic said. "Well, first of all, technically speaking, cloning isn't precisely the correct term for what I'm planing on doing. You recall how I said Technimals can be assembled? Well, first I'm going to scan her DNA. But instead of using that to create an embryo, I'll have my nanites do other examinations of her body, so I can reproduce her current appearance and age, and so the clone will still have such things as the antibodies to the diseases Sally's had so far in her lifetime. Then I'll have the nanites use the information they gather to assemble a technorganic duplicate of Sally. It should be virtually identical to Sally, except it won't possess any scars or other damage Sally's body might have—including damage caused by Robotnik's pollution. Also, due to the nature of the process, the clone's cells will of course be cybernetic, and she'll have her own set of nanites—but they'll remain dormant except when she's injured or ill. (When they'll speed recovery.) This will also prevent the deterioration of the body normally associated with aging. In other words, not only will she have the ability to recover from most injuries, but also, her life span --like that of all technimals -- shall be potentially infinite.
"As for how I plan to copy Sally's memory, a brain is not that different from a computer, it's just made out of different materials, and with a design superior to that of the computers of your era. It won't be hard for my nanites to read Sally's brain's 'programming' and copy it into the clone."
This disturbed Sally a bit. "You mean you're going to be literally reading my mind? I'm not so sure I like that idea."
Techno-Sonic shook his head. "No. My nanites will be reading your brain. There's a big difference. Nanites aren't in any way conscious; and they won't 'know' what you're thinking—only the nature of how your brain goes about the process of thinking. They won't be decoding it. They'll simply be examining the physical, chemical, and bio-electric nature of your brain, and using that information to create an exact copy of it."
Sally looked unsure. "I still don't like the idea of having microscopic robots crawling around inside my body and brain. Are you sure it's safe?"
"Yes. As I said there's an extremely small chance that a few of my nanites might revert to virus mode and start technomorphing you. But not only is the chance of that happening astronomically small, even if it did, my nanites have had the program which would cause them to make you Chrono-nik's slave completely erased. And you don't need to worry about how effective the erasure was; you yourself wrote the computer virus that did the job.
"There's absolutely nothing else that can go wrong for you. As for the copy, the risk for her is not much greater than for you, and isn't it worth it to beat Chrono-nik?"
She nodded resolutely. "Yes. Although the thought of your cloning method still creeps me out, I'm willing to undergo it if it means we can prevent the coup." She turned to the other Freedom Fighters. "That is, unless any of you see some reason why I shouldn't. Keep in mind, he did ask my permission to do this procedure. I don't see why he would have asked for permission if he were planning anything underhanded. And if he is telling the truth, I trust his judgment that this is safe."
"I still say don't do it," Sonic said. "You may trust him, but I'm still not sure. And time travel makes my head spin. It's dangerous and confusing and.. crazy... and... and... oh, I just don't like it."
Sally sighed. "We've got the point. Now does anyone have any logical objections." Antoine raised his hand and started to speak, but Sally cut him off. "No? Good, it's settled. Techno-Sonic, I agree to the cloning procedure. Do you need anything to do it?"
"Only some raw materials. I'll need some metal—preferably titanium, but anything you have will do. And I'll also need some organic material. What it is doesn't really matter to me, I just need the chemicals. Anything handy will do; mulch, wood, food...—anything that was once alive. Whatever you decide to use, I'll need approximately your body weight of it.
"It'll take about thirty minutes for the nanites to fully examine your body. To save time, I'm going to send them in now, okay? You won't fell a thing."
She nodded her agreement. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He stood there for a few seconds, then let her go.
"Alright. Done. Now, we should probably do this outside, in case I need any chemicals you can't provide—I should be able to scavenge small amounts of almost any chemical I need from the environment." He paused, then added, "However, this isn't something we want the villagers watching."
Sally nodded. "We could go off into the forest a little ways," she suggested.
"That's what I was thinking."
"All right then. Rotor and I will go get the materials, and we'll meet you by the edge of the forest."
They all headed out of the headquarters. Sally, Rotor, Antoine and Bunnie went to get the supplies, while Sonic and Tails accompanied Techno-Sonic to the outskirts of town.
As they approached the trees, Sonic stopped Techno-Sonic.
"What is it?"
Sonic took a deep breath, then let it out again. "Look, I'm sorry for not believing you, and for trying to stop you. It's just that your appearance and your stories of the future really freaked me. I don't want what you said to be true."
Techno-Sonic nodded. "I know."
"You do?"
"Of course! I am you, after all."
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NEXT: Shadows of Chrono-nik
