Chapter 4

My Daddy, Unit One

Later, the hedgehog brought their newest member to their home. Sonic carried a sleeping Muttski in his arms. Once they got there, Sonic yawned. "If it's all the same with you guys, I think Muttski and I gonna turn in for the night," he said and left for his room.

His mother directed Maria to a nearby door, and she followed. Inside was a small cozy bedroom with a celestial bed that dominated the room and a small bathroom. It had an old fashioned touch, and everything was new and well kept. "I'll need to speak with Nicole about making your room tomorrow. Until then, you can have the guest room, okay?" the purple hedgehog asked in a motherly tone.

"This'll do. Thank you," replied Maria.

As the two unpacked her luggage, Bernadette found something at the bottom of Maria's bag. It was a yellow cat toy with a blue bow. She turned to the blonde hedgehog curiously. "Not to lecture you or anything, but aren't you a little old to have these kinds of toys?"

Maria looked at the plush cat, and then back at her so-called mother. "It's more of a memento of my birth parents. It was the only gift I remember getting from them... before…" She paused, because she was uncertain of how to phrase it.

"Before what, dear?"

The blonde hedgehog sighed. "Let's just say I didn't know them very well."

As a mother normally would, the purple hedgehog could easily tell she wasn't very happy with this. But she still wanted to comfort her heart. She took Maria's hands into her own. "Neither did Muttski," she began. "His parent's died in a fire when he was only seven. Then, like you, Sonic took him in… well, we all did. We became the family he never had growing up, and we'll do the same for you. I promise."

Maria smiled. "I know you will. Thanks, Mom." She was not going to get used to saying that any time soon.

After a quick hug, Bernadette started heading for the door. "Take as much time as you need to get settled. If you need anything, our room is just down the hall," she said to her and closed the door. "Good night… my daughter."

The blonde hedgehog slipped into her sleepers, and she tiredly crawled into bed. She stared out into the starry night, counting the blessings she had been given since her death. 'A second chance at life, a warm home, a caring family, plenty of friends… What more could a girl ask for?' She yawned and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, small white flakes drifted from the sky to the ground. From Castle Acorn to residential abode, the land was colored with snow. Maria was sleeping lightly, dreaming about her hero in black and red. She smiled in her sleep, and she hugged her pillow. Suddenly, there was the sound of a loud crash from downstairs. She woke up with a shock and looked around timorously.

She quickly went down to the living room and saw something unexpected. Some of the Hedgehog family was up and running, but that was not what got her attention. She looked around to see wreaths on the windows, garland on the banisters, and stockings over the fireplace. They had been decorating while she was asleep.

Also, Maria could see that the crash came from a glass bowl Sonic had dropped. The blue hedgehog looked over to see her sister, and he was disappointed. "Aw, man! So much for the surprise…"

"What are you guys doing?" asked Maria.

"We were decorating the house. Since it is your first Christmas outside of the ARK, we wanted to surprise you."

"Well, I am definitely surprised." Maria giggled. "You didn't decorate the tree without me, did you?"

"Nope," Bernadette jumped in. "Your Uncle Charles and Muttski are out getting one as we speak." Then there was a knock on the door. "I bet that's them."

The door opened, and there stood the two. Behind them was a tree that couldn't easily fit through the door. "Mind giving your uncle a hand? This is always the tricky part."

"Here. Allow me." Maria then stepped over and got a firm grip on the trunk of the tree. "Chaos Control!" With a bright flash, she, Charles and the tree were in the house.

"Did I forget to mention she could do that?" Sonic asked cheekily.

"That would've been good to know," Uncle Chuck said in a dizzy tone.

After he had sat down for a little bit, they began opening boxes and pulling out the decorations for the tree. Sonic was quick (as expected) to grab the tinsel and spin it around the pine branches. Uncle Chuck and Muttski started wiring the lights. And the girls put on the ornaments one by one.

After about two minutes of decorating, Sonic noticed something. "Hey, where's Dad?"

The blonde hedgehog looked over and saw a silhouette of a hedgehog in the corridor. "I think he's in the kitchen. I'll get him." And so she went to do so. Upon entrance, though, there was yet another surprise, this one more disturbing.

There, she saw Jules wrapping part of his arm up with some silver tape. Around him were a few tools and gadgets. He noticed her and chuckled in embarrassment. "Hey there…" He looked at his arm. "As soon as you reach the age when your warranty expires, you start falling apart. Pretty soon, there's gonna be more duct tape than me."

"Here. Let me help." Maria approached her adoptive father and grabbed a socket wrench. She tightened the loose bolts and secured his arm again. Once, she was finished, she became curious and said, "Dad? Can I ask you something?" But before she could say anymore…

"Let me guess. You want to know how I became a Robian, don't you?" Jules asked.

"N-no. I was gonna ask how…" she paused and looked confused. "Robian?"

"Roboticized Mobian. You know, it's a play on words."

"Oh… well, actually, that was what I was gonna ask you."

"Alright then…" the metal father then sat down, and Maria sat next to him. "Hmmm… where to begin?" he thought aloud, then he knew where the story should start. "Long ago, on Mobius, we had a time called the Great War, a five-year conflict between us Mobians and the Overlanders. I was on the front lines back in the day, your Uncle Chuck was a medical officer, and your mother was raising our seven-year-old Sonic."

"Oh, yeah," his 'daughter' replied. "Sonic told me a bit about that. Weren't 'Overlanders' what you called humans back then?"

"That's right," he replied. "Anyway, during one of my missions to save some comrades, I was shot from behind by an enemy trooper. I survived…barely, but I was badly wounded. Charles did all he could to save me, but he was running out of resources and time. Soon, he was down to one last option…"

"The Roboticizer… the medical revolution made by humans."

"Oh, it would've been, if it wasn't for what happened next…"

In his laboratory, Charles Hedgehog was checking the insides and outs of the machine. He wanted to make sure the Roboticizer was ready, because he didn't want to lose his brother. As he was finishing up, a Mobian duck came in. He was pushing a wheelchair seating a dying hedgehog man. Behind them, his wife and son followed. The elder hedgehog stopped what he was doing and helped the duck load him into the machine.

Once the glass chamber was brought down, the child Sonic came up to it. "Be careful, Daddy."

Bernadette turned to her brother-in-law. "Charles, are you sure this will work? I don't want to be a widow."

"Not to worry, Bernie," he replied. "I've triple-checked the blueprints and scanned to ensure every piece was in place. I also made a few tests in advance. All my calculations say that this will be affective. When it works, you'll have your husband back."

The purple hedgehog smiled, knowing he was right. She then picked up her son and backed away. She came beside Charles, who was configuring with the control panel.

He grabbed the lever that would kick it into gear, but before pulling it, he looked at Jules in the machine. "This is for you, brother…" He pulled the lever, and the machine activated. A glow came over the mortally wounded hedgehog and he was starting to transform…

Slowly, yet surely, the machine transformed the hedgehog's wounded limbs into steel. When it became enough, Jules stood up on his own, looked at the trio… and smiled. They laughed and cheered as they were going to be one big happy family again.

Suddenly, sparks started to come out of the control panel, and soon a red electrical charge ran through the rest of Jules' body. He made a terrifying shriek as more of him was roboticized.

"No! NO!" Charles desperately pulled the shut-down lever to get him out, but it wouldn't budge.

Soon, Jules' face started to transform. His mouth was segmented into two parts, and his quills became steel. His ears became all metallic and the whites of his eyes were now black. He continued to scream until the process was finished. He was roboticized from head to toe.

The Roboticizer opened and green smoke poured out of the cylinder, the newly robotic hedgehog walked out of the machine slowly.

"Jules…?" his wife asked nervously.

Two red, demonic optics kicked on where his brown eyes once were. "Unit One: activated. Priority one: detect master unit."

The robot's son yelled, "Daddy! No!"

"This unit is not your father, organic life form. This unit is robotic." He said in a cold, mindless, synthetic voice.

A hoarse laugh came from the background. The three fleshy ones looked to see an old human with an orange mustache and a belly that jiggled like jelly. "Success! A brilliant success!"

Charles jumped between him and the other two. "Who are you? And what have you done to my brother?"

"Permit me to introduce myself," he began. "I am Ivo Robotnik. I've come here to conquer this world and enslave all, human and Mobian alike, and the Roboticizer is all that I need for this." He then turned to Jules. "Unit One, throw them in and turn it on."

"Yes, master." He said. He grabbed his wife and threw her in, and then he activated the medical miracle, now a weapon of doom.

"Jules! Please! It's me, your wife!" Her shouts were short lived as the roboticization process kicked in. This time it was much faster, lasting only seconds. "Unit Two: activated."

"Mommy!" Sonic cried. He threw a piece of metal at Robotnik, hitting him clean on the head. "You bad man!"

"So, you dare to defy me, do you?" He commanded Sonic's parents to throw him in. Sonic was picked up by his Uncle Chuck, and they ran off.

But he wasn't fast enough. Jules and Bernadette caught up to them, but Charles threw his nephew outside the lab.

"Uncle Chuck!"

"Forget about me, Sonny Boy! Save yourself!" he shouted as his brother and sister-in-law dragged him back to the lab. The young boy decided to do as he was told.

Sonic ran off into an open field. When he saw no robots were chasing him, the hedgehog boy began to cry. All he wanted was to be comforted by his family, but now he was completely alone… or so he thought.

"Having problems today, son?" asked a voice from behind. An old Mobian owl showed up with a warm, friendly smile.

Sonic didn't respond at first. He wasn't sure who he could trust without his parents. "Y-yeah. My mom and dad and Uncle Chuck are gone… probably forever. A bad man turned them bad with a 'Robot-a-sizer.'"

The owl put a finger to his beak. "Hmm… I've heard rumors of a blue hedgehog that ran faster than sound to escape Robotnik. Would that be you by chance?"

"Uh-huh. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Harvey Who." The owl then sat down beside him. "Tell me, Sonic… What if I were to tell you that we could save your family from this 'bad man?'"

"You… you could do that?" Sonic turned cheerful.

"Young lad, with your special talents, we can do that and more. We could end this meaningless war, stop Robotnik, and restore peace to Mobius."

"Then... I'll help you. I want my family back."

"And you will get them back," the owl assured him. "Welcome to the Freedom Fighters, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Maria sighed. The more tales of Eggman she heard, the more she felt her family name had crumbled. "So Ivo… I mean, 'Eggman,' sabotaged the Roboticizer, and Sonic had to live without you."

Jules nodded. "That's why he became a Freedom Fighter in the first place."

"But wait... how did Mom and Uncle Chuck change back to normal? And why not you?"

"Well, after the war, an alien race called the Bem de-roboticized the Robians, one by one. There were few exceptions, like myself, and they had a good reason. They told me that the wounds I had received during the war were so critical, that if the process were to be reversed… it would…" the mechanical hedgehog looked upset. "It would kill me. So instead, they restored my free will and my memories."

Maria looked at Jules with pity. "Do you miss being a Mobian?"

Jules sighed again. "Yes… It's like I'm a ghost made of steel," he told her. "I can't eat. I can't sleep. I can't hold my wife or children and feel their warmth… I miss being alive."

Maria was mute for a moment. She could see how much her adoptive father hated his body, and she wished she could help him. So the girl made a decision. "I can try to change you back!" she said, cheerfully.

"What?" Jules asked surprised. "Don't be ridiculous. The man who invented that thing-"

"…was my grandfather," interrupted Maria. "I saw him build the machine myself, and I've learned all its mechanics and programming. I'm certain I can find a way to reverse the process and save you." She placed her hands on her father's cold, metal shoulders. "I promise you… maybe not before Christmas, but someday... no more Unit One. I'll make you Jules Hedgehog again."

If Robians in his day could move their mouths, Jules would be beaming from cheek to cheek. "Such a compassionate heart… I guess the Robotnik family isn't so bad after all." He then embraced her new daughter, and she returned the gesture. Maria smiled, though Jules didn't notice. Being able to help those in need always satisfied her inside.

"Uncle Jules! Cousin Maria!" Manic called out. "Where are you two?"

"Oh… Coming!" Maria laughed, and she and her father went to the living room to finish decorating the Christmas tree.