Repairing a Fallen Hero

by H411OWED KN1GHT 64

They say that some villains are truly irredeemable. But for one broken villain, a light still shines within him. All is not lost. He can be repaired, he can be redeemed. There is hope for him yet. This is my interpretation of the epilogue of Sonic Advance 3. Feel free to read and write a review of this story.

Repairing a Fallen Hero

Began writing on 16/04/2021

A few days ago, in the recent past…

"Destroy, Destroy, Destroy! I shall destroy everything!" droned the increasingly manic voice of Ultimate Gemerl, the transformed form of Robotnik's latest creation, Gemerl, who, after the destruction Hyper Eggrobo, for some reason, due to either the damage sustained or other factors unknown, rammed into Sonic and absorbed the negative power of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into the saucer shaped monstrosity, who then proceeded to backstabbed the Mad Doctor by grabbing him with one of his newly formed clawed 'hands' on one of his tentacle arms and threw him over to where Sonic was!

After his betrayal, he declared that he would destroy the entire universe and flew off into space to fulfil his insane ambition.

Without another word, Sonic used the positivity of the Emeralds to transform to Super Sonic!

Both Sonic and Robotnik looked silently at each other, both wordlessly agree to put aside their differences and formed an unspoken alliance.

Super Sonic soon flew off after the deranged machine, with Robotnik following after him shortly thereafter, by activating his redesigned Egg Mobile's Over Charge Boosters, both adversaries chasing Ultimate Gemerl in hot pursuit.

"Can't you fly any slower!?" growled Robotnik, who was behind Super Sonic, "I'm barely keeping up with you as it is!"

"Hey, you're keeping up with me so far, aren't you!?" Super Sonic replied, both hero and villain dodging a laser fired from their shared adversary, "So what are you complaining about!?"

"The Over Charge Boosters of my redesigned Egg Mobile was only designed to be used as a means to escape in the event of you defeating me, which you did, by the way!" remarked Robotnik angerly, "It was never built for this level of speed! It's only because of the power of the Chaos Emeralds that my machine managing to keep up and keeping the boosters from exploding, and both them are powered by Chaos Drives!"

They soon began to evade missiles that were fired from both of Ultimate Gemerl's hands that were moving along his two extended front arms.

"You mean the crystallised forms of Chaos Energy that your grandad created!?" said a surprised Super Sonic, referring to Robotnik's noble deceased grandfather, who was immortalised as a hero after the Black Arms Invasion, an event that happened long after his death.

Super Sonic charged Robotnik with Chaos Energy and threw him at Ultimate Gemerl's 'mouth piece', exposing the red orb, his only weak spot, after which the golden yellow hedgehog rammed into the orb, causing the evil machine to screech in pain!

"The one and the same!" Robotnik answered, "They were easy to create and replicate once I read through my grandfather's notes in his dairy! The Emeralds power are not only serving to overclock the Drives, giving them the power to keep up with you, barely, but also stabilizing them to keep them from exploding!"

"Your defiance changes nothing!" roared Ultimate Gemerl overhead, who extended both his front arms to fire lasers from his hands from multiple directions, causing both Super Sonic and Robotnik to dodge, "Your futile actions only serve to delay the inevitable, a fate that you cannot change! The both of you are destined to die here, in the coldness of space, while I will live on and destroy the universe, and destroying your precious planet Earth will serve as a start!"

"Heh, looks whose talking!" Super Sonic sassed, "You were talking rather big some time ago, and now it's you that ain't looking so hot right now!"

"As much as I hate to agree with him, he's right!" Robotnik reluctantly agreed, "You may be powerful, Ultimate Gemerl, but you're not invincible! You can be weakened; you can be hurt! Which means it's you that is delaying the inevitable! Now it's time to pay the piper and learn of the full weight of the consequences of daring to defy your creator and master!"

"I am the ultimate robotic life form, I, who has attained godhood with the power of the Chaos Emeralds!" replied Ultimate Gemerl, "I will not be destroyed or even killed by filthy organic vermin, especially not by the likes of the two of you!"

Ultimate Gemerl extended all four arms and began to spin at a rapid pace and flew towards them, causing the both dodge the attack!

After several minutes of dodging all manner of attacks and attacking Ultimate Gemerl when Robotnik managed to exposed his weak spot, the insane machine was sparking with electricity all over, thus showing that his body had taken critical levels of damage.

"Keep it up, Sonic! We've got him right where we want him!" cheered Robotnik, "He's on his last legs, figuratively speaking! He has to be running out of steam by now! One more attack, and he's history!"

"You hear that, Ultimate Gemerl?" Super Sonic said confidently, "It's all about to come to an end! You'll never succeed in realizing your ambitions, cause there're about to be sent to the junk pile, with you along with it! It's game over for you!"

"I WILL INCINERATE YOU!" roared Ultimate Gemerl, as he brought hands together and, in a last-ditch effort, fired an enormous laser at them and moved up and down to hit them!

But both hero and villain weaved to and fro to dodge the laser while Super Sonic charged Robotnik with Chaos Energy again, this time, full power!

Robotnik and his Egg Mobile shimmered with an orange aura as he and Super Sonic went into position after Ultimate Gemerl finished firing his laser, draining the last of his weapons supply.

"FIRE!" yelled Robotnik, who was then flung by Super Sonic at Ultimate Gemerl to expose his weak spot!

Not wasting a single second, Super Sonic boosted towards the insane machine and rammed into the red orb, continued onward and came out from the other side!

Super Sonic, now utterly spent, fell down back to Earth, but before he lost consciousness, he chuckled, "Heh, heh, heh, heh…. You lose, metal head…."

Meanwhile, explosions were rampant all over Ultimate Gemerl's body as he now faced his destruction, yelling, "NO! NO! NO! NO! "

The twisted machine soon exploded to reveal for who he was, his true body, the body that he had before he transformed.

As he plummeted towards Earth, he screamed while flailing in futile and impotent rage, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!".

Soon after, a white flash engulfed the whole planet, forcing the Evil Scientist to shield his eyes…

Later on, at Angel Island, Sonic, who returned to his normal state, regained consciousness and opened his eyes to see all his friends, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Cheese circled around him.

"It's about time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty!" Knuckles joked good naturedly as he held out his left hand to help Sonic up.

"Heh, sorry to keep you waiting, Prince Charming!" Sonic replied just as good naturedly as he used his right hand to grab the hand of the Guardian of the Master Emerald to pull himself up and back on his feet.

Sonic recognised the place where he and his friends were standing on as the Altar of the Master Emerald

Sonic soon asked his friends, "So guys, what did I miss?"

"You missed the whole planet turning back to normal, that's what!" said Amy with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, by defeating Ultimate Gemerl, the powers of the Chaos Emeralds combined with the power of the Master Emerald had managed to undo the damage that Eggman caused with the Chaos Warp Engine, returning Earth to the way it should be!" explained Tails.

"You did, Mr Sonic!" Cream cheered, while Cheese chirped in response.

"Yeah, but as much as I don't want to admit it," Sonic replied, "I wouldn't have beaten him if it wasn't for Eggman…"

While it wounded his pride to acknowledge that, he knew that the alliance between him and his arch nemesis was essentially necessary to stop Gemerl's rampage.

"Hey, now that you mention it, where is that eggheaded creep!?" Amy growled, whipping out her signature weapon, the Piko Piko Hammer.

Tails, Sonic, Cream and Cheese backed off in fear, for woe betide anyone foolish enough to place themselves in Amy's crosshairs…

Knuckles turned to see Robotnik flying off into the distance and said pointing, "Judging from what I'm seeing, he's long gone by now."

Everyone else turned to see what Knuckles was seeing.

"He must've escaped in the confusion of the Earth transforming back to its proper state…" said Tails reflectively.

"Serves him right, thinking he can just do whatever he wants without thinking about others, the meanie!" Cream huffed angrily, "Hopefully he'll learn his lesson this time and never do bad stuff again!"

"When has that ever happened before?" remarked Amy, knowing full well that their enemy will just get ready to plot his next master plan a few weeks after his latest ones fall into ruins.

She was mentally preparing herself already…

Cheese, annoyed, flew over and bonked Amy on the head for ruining the good mood.

"Ow! Hey!" cried Amy, glaring at the red bow tied Chao.

"Cheese, that was uncalled for! Apologize this instant!" reprimanded Cream.

"I'm afraid that I have to take Cheese's side here, Cream. Nobody wants to think about what Eggman's planning now, not when things just got back to normal…" Tails remarked.

Cream and Amy looked at Tails incredulous for what he just said while Cheese puffed up his little chest, pleased at knowing that he was in the right.

Sonic decided to intervene before things turned ugly, saying, "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like celebrating right now! Who's with me?"

Tails, Amy and Cream's faces lit up at that and readily agreed, while Cheese chirped a merry tune in response.

"Yo Knuckles, you wanna join in on the fun?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Knuckles replied, "I've only just got my island back and I want to get back to guard duty, so…"

He turned to the others, smiled and said light heartedly and good naturedly, "Get out of my island, all of ya!"

Sonic laughed and replied just as light heartedly and good naturedly, albeit in a slightly teasing tone, "Whatever you say, old man!" and sped off, with Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese chasing after him.

"Hey, I'm not that old!" Knuckles cried in Sonic's direction, "I'm sixteen years old, I'm only one year older than you!"

"That still makes you an old man!" Sonic's voice cried from the distance.

"Grrrr! Sonic really gets on my nerves sometimes!" Knuckles growled before calming down and said with a smile, "But I have to admit, he sure knows how to keep things interesting…"

With that, he decided to lay down on his back, placed his hands on the back of his head and take a long and well-deserved snooze on the Altar of the Master Emerald.

"Because God knows I need a break after this one." he thought to himself as fell into sleep.

Meanwhile, in his Egg Mobile in the sky, Dr Robotnik was utterly fuming over what has happened.

"Ooooohhhhh, I can't believe this!" he growled, "I can't believe Gemerl turned on me like that! Everything was going so well! Ok, that might not be exactly true, but I still had a powerful robot that I could use to carry out my schemes! What in the world went wrong!?"

"All I want to do is win, just once! What's wrong with that!?" Robotnik continued to grumble, "And is it really too much to ask that I can at least one lousy robot that's actually loyal to me rather than against me, like that renegade Omega or Metal Sonic before I reprogramed him!? Plus, there's no point in searching for Gemerl and get him reprogramed as well as getting him fixed, he's probably bitten the dust by now!"

His thoughts turned back Altar Emerald, the transformed Master Emerald Altar where everything went wrong with Gemerl's malfunction and subsequent treachery and his mood soured even further.

"To think that there was once a time when I coveted the very power that you once possessed by turning you into my servant…" Robotnik growled bitterly, "You have truly and absolutely disappointed me, Gizoid…"

He fired the Egg Mobile's thrusters to full throttle and sped off to plan his next evil scheme…

After he spends the next few weeks sulking about his latest failure, that is.

Back to present time…

Cream, her mother and Cheese were walking along the beaches of their summer house near Emerald Coast in Station Square, a few weeks after what has gone down in history as the Chaos Warp Incident, both rabbits chatting to themselves while Cheese hummed a merry tune.

But that was when Cheese caught the shape of something up ahead and immediately flew off, much to the startled confusion of both the young and older rabbits.

"Cheese, where are you going?" cried Cream, concerned for Cheese's actions.

"Oh my, whatever is the matter with the poor dear?" Vanilla questioned to herself.

Cheese flew back seconds later, chirping and flailing his little body in all directions!

"Cheese, calm down!" asked Vanilla, become concerned with the distressed Chao's current behaviour.

"Cheese, what's wrong?" said an equally concerned Cream.

Cheese merely kept chirping and was jabbing his stubby left arm in the direction he came from and flew back.

"Cheese, wait for us!" Cream yelled and ran after her pet Chao, with Vanilla following afterwards, chasing two of her three young charges in hot pursuit!

Both rabbits ran as fast as they could until they came around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks!

Cream ran to her mother and hid behind her, clinging to her dress with fright, while Vanilla covered her mouth with right hand with shock.

Their reaction was justified, for the two rabbits saw what Cheese was point at what or rather, who, was lying flat on the sand.

The individual was none other than Gemerl!

"It's that horrible robot that worked for Eggman!" Cream shrieked, terrified at what was before her.

Vanilla, on the other hand, looked at the poor robot with pitying eyes.

After a few moments, Vanilla said, "Stay here, you two." to her daughter and Cheese and walk towards the robot.

"Be careful, mother!" said Cream worryingly.

When she reached Gemerl, Vanilla knelt down and inspected him.

Turning him over, she could see that the three curved horns on his head as well as the two yellow finned objects on his fore arms and the same yellow finned objects that served as his kneecaps were battered and chipped in some places, while most of his armour were dented here and there.

After a few moments of consideration, she lifted the robot from the beach.

"Mother, what are you doing!?" Cream cried, aghast at what her mother was doing.

"We're taking him back to the house and call Tails so he can fix him." Vanilla said as she began walking, with Gemerl in tow.

"But he's one of that horrible Eggman's robots!" Cream protested, "He'll attack us if we fix him!"

Cheese chirped in agreement.

"Even so, I cannot leave him like this." said Vanilla, as her walked past her daughter and Cheese.

"But mother!" cried Cream, trying to reason with her mother.

"I will not hear another word!" said Vanilla with a parental tone, stopping in her tracks and turning her head to the right to look at her daughter.

Cream was visibly frightened of her mother, or rather, Cream was scared of that what her mother was carrying is someone that could attack them without warning at any given moment.

Seeing her daughter's distress, Vanilla sighed and said softly and sympathetically, "Cream, you must understand that all life is sacred, be it the life of a friend, a stranger, or even an enemy. If we leave him here to rust, we will be no better than Eggman is, and I refuse to raise a daughter who does not believe in giving someone a second chance."

She looked at the robot in her arms and added, "Despite what you and your friends have told me of the evil things that he has done recently, I believe that there is good inside him for some reason. If there is a chance to save what good there is in there, then I will take it and hope for the best."

Vanilla looked back at Cream and added, "You will understand this one day, my child."

Vanilla then turned to look ahead and said simply, "Now, let us return home." and walked on.

After a moment of hesitation, Cream and Cheese went after Vanilla as not to be left behind.

A few minutes later, they arrived back at the summer house and laid him out on the dining room table.

While Cream watched Gemerl with suspicion, Cheese glared angrily at the robot.

Chocola, Cheese's younger brother, merely look that their, 'guest', which in both Cream and Cheese's minds, that's using the word rather loosely, with mere curiosity.

Vanilla wasted no time in calling Tails, using their rather old-fashioned telephone, a vintage QY wall mounted wooden rotary dial telephone, to be precise, and soon managed to contact him.

She soon heard Tails politely asking who was calling him.

"Hello, Tails? It's me, Vanilla." Vanilla began.

Vanilla heard Tails' response.

"I'm rather fine, thank you." she answered, "But there is something rather important that I must speak to you of."

She waited to hear Tails' question.

"It's that robot that you, Cream and your friends fought a few days ago, we were having our daily walk around the beach at our summer house when Cheese spotted him." Vanilla replied.

Vanilla winched at the two tailed fox's frantic response.

"No, we are in no immediate danger," she said after shaking the noise from her head, "but the poor fellow is out of shape and rather damaged and we, or rather I to be more accurate, would like you to fix him."

Vanilla listened to the fox's severe reprimand for her actions,

"Yes, both Cream and Cheese also have similar thoughts." answered Vanilla, "They both feel that we should rather just leave him where we found him and let him rot for all the evil things that he did under that dreadful Eggman's employ, but I have a feeling that there is still goodness inside him, and I want you to save him if you can."

"And to be honest with you, for some strange reason, I feel like I've seen him before, but I can't put my finger on it. Can you come and fetch him at your earliest convenience?" she added.

Vanilla listened to Tails' answer.

"Excellent!" replied Vanilla happily, "Then we will see you soon! Goodbye for now!"

She placed the phone back on its clasp on the wall.

Turning to look at her three young charges, Vanilla said to them, "Good news, Tails has agreed to fix our guest and will fetch him in about three and a half hours since he will be arriving on the Tornado 3. Until then, let's give the house a spring clean, shall we?"

"Yes, mother!" said Cream dutifully while both Cheese and Chocola saluted the older female rabbit and all three went off to get started.

Vanilla smiled, but she could tell that Cream thought that three and a half hours was far too long for her tastes and that she would rather be rid of Gemerl sooner rather than later...

She soon followed her daughter and the two-bow tie wearing Chao.

Sometime later, in the air.

As he flew towards his destination in the fully upgraded Tornado 3, Tails' mind raced with thoughts of what's happened.

"I can't believe It, Gemerl survived!?" Tails thought, sweat running down his head, "I thought that would he have burned up at re-entry of Earth's atmosphere. There should be no conceivable way that he could've survived that!"

Tails soon calmed down.

"Then again, we could've said that for Shadow as well, after everything that happened on Space Colony Ark. But unlike Gemerl, Shadow was still in his Super Form at the time!" he reasoned, "That said, I'm surprised that Gemerl is still in one piece, if my reaction was of any indication…"

Several minutes ago…

Tails humming a merry tune as he tinkered away to pass the time in his house in Emerald Town.

He had nothing particular in mind, just putting together a few bits and bobs here and there and was reaching a high point of the song when heard his mobile phone rang, it's ringtone singing, "I wanna fly high! So, I can reach the highest of all the Heavens!"

"Hmm? I wonder who that could be?" Tails said to himself as he went to pick it up while the song reached its high point, "Waiting for me so, I've got to fly higher!"

Tails press the accept icon and held the phone to left ear.

"Hello, to whom am I speaking?" Tails asked politely.

Tails waited for the answer.

"Oh, hello Vanilla!" replied Tails, happy to hear the voice of a friend, "How are you?"

Tails listened to Vanilla's response.

Tails then asked, "'Something important'? What is it, exactly?"

Vanilla gave Tails her response.

"WHAT!? GEMERL IS STILL ALIVE!?" Tails screamed in terror, before asking her franticly, "You and Cream are not hurt, are you!?"

Tails listened to Vanilla's response.

"Vanilla, do you understand how incredibly foolish you are right now, taking him to your summer house!?" Tails said severely, "Gemerl could reactivate at any moment! Both you, Cream, Cheese and Chocola would be utterly defenceless against him! He could hold you all hostage, or worse! Why would you do such a thing!?"

Vanilla explains her reasons.

"I see…" Tails replied.

He listened to Vanilla's question.

Tails looked at the clock on his wall which read quarter to twelve and said, "Yes, I have some free time on my hands. I'll get the Tornado 3 prepped and leave at twelve pm, so I'll arrive at half past three in the afternoon and take him off your hands!"

He listens to Vanilla's reply.

"You too, Vanilla! Bye!" Tails replied and finish the conversation, after which he began to make preparations to ready the Tornado 3 for its flight.

Back at present time.

"Still, what Vanilla said is true." Tails mused aloud to himself, "There is some eerily familiar about Gemerl that's been bugging me for quite some time now. Maybe fixing him might be the key to solving this mystery!"

Firing up the engine, Tails flew off to Vanilla and Cream's summer residence.

Tails arrived soon after and loaded Gemerl on to then plane.

Vanilla thanked Tails for accepting the request and apologized the inconvenience, while Tails replied that it was nothing, adding that it would be nice to have another robotic ally besides Omega, Robotnik's renegade E-series robot on their side.

When Tails boarded the plane, he saw Cream eying Gemerl wearingly, while Cheese glared at the robot with utter disdain, his pom pom turning into a spiked ball.

Chocola on the other hand, was looking at his elder brother questioningly, his pom pom turning into a question mark, not understanding at all what the fuss was all about.

"Geez, Gemerl's appearance must have made Cream and Cheese really spooked…" thought Tails worryingly.

He soon said goodbye to the two rabbits and flew back to his house.

Upon landing, he first cleared his worktable, ran back to the Tornado 3, grabbed Gemerl, and propped him on the table on a sitting position.

"All right, my robot friend," said Tails, pushing a wheeled chair to the worktable and siting on it, "It's time to find out what makes you tick, starting by finding out who you really are!"

Finding the memory chip was remarkably simple, there was an opening at the back of Gemerl's head, which caused Tails to muse, "Hmmm. That's odd, the place of where the memory chip is familiar, and quite eerily so…"

He placed the memory chip into his computer and managed to access the files but most of the data was fried, due to damage and his transformation to Ultimate Gemerl, no doubt.

Only some data remained, five of which were, oddly, recordings and one odd program.

"Curiouser and curiouser…" Tails said, stroking the cheek tufts on his muzzle, as if it were a moustache, "There are several recorded logs inside your memory chip, maybe those should shed some light on you, Gemerl."

He clicked on the first log to see what they entailed, but soon as he listened to the first recording, his face paled and said with fear and dread, "Oh no…."

The next day, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream as well both Vanilla and Cheese arrived at Tails' house as the two tailed fox had summoned them for an emergency meeting.

He wouldn't say the specific, but from what Tails said, it was serious.

"I wonder what's gotten Tails frightened all of a sudden?" said Sonic, concerned for his lifelong friend and brother in arms.

"Yeah, what's gotten him so spooked?" Knuckles replied.

"I hope Eggman hasn't announced another evil plan already, we only just through the last one…" Amy said worryingly.

Cream, Vanilla and Cheese looked at each other with equal concern.

"Well, we won't find out by just standing around." Sonic remarked and knocked on the door.

"Come in you guys," came the muffled voice of Tails from the other side of the door, "the door's unlocked."

'The door's unlocked'...?

Scratch that, this was serious…

Deadly serious...

Tails would never leave the door unlocked…

With trepidation, they opened the door, went inside, and headed straight to Tails' workshop to find their host sitting on a wheeled chair and-

"GEMERL!?" cried Sonic, Knuckles and Amy, scared out of their wits at the sight of their otherwise deactivated adversary.

"Hey, what's that bucket of bolts doing here!?" Sonic demanded.

"Vanilla found Gemerl when she, Cream, and Cheese were having their usual walk, and she asked me to fix him." Tails replied.

"WHAT!?" the three shrieked, incredulous at what they just heard.

"Lady, have you gone nuts!?" Knuckles yelled at Vanilla angrily, shaking his right fist, "Why would you do that for!? He's one of Eggman's chrome dome henchbots! You really don't think he can be turned into a good guy, do ya!?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell her!" cried Cream, "He's just a mean and horrible robot working for that rotten bully Eggman, yet mother insists that there is 'good' inside of him, when there isn't any at all!"

Vanilla frowned.

It seemed that her words from yesterday had not reached her daughter at all…

"I gotta agree with Cream, Vanilla!" Amy seconded, "I thought you were smarter than this! He's nowhere as nice as Gamma is! Gemerl's pure evil, plain and simple!"

That was a name Sonic had not heard for a long time.

E-102 Gamma.

The E-series robot he had fought on the Egg Carrier.

The robot that came to an inch of defeating and possibly ending the blue hedgehog's life if not for Amy's heartfelt intervention.

"Eggman really outdid himself with that one..." Sonic thought to himself, reflecting on that battle, "I wonder where he is now? I would like to have a rematch with that guy someday if we meet again!"

Unfortunately for both Sonic and Amy, neither of them knows that they will never see him ever again...

They would never know of Gamma's demise at the hands of his 'older brother', E-101 Beta, who was also destroyed by the noble robot...

Summoning her Piko Piko Hammer, Amy turned to Cream and said, "Just say the word Cream, and I'll smash him into scrap metal!"

Before Cream, who was all too happy to give the order for Amy to destroy him so he could never hurt anyone ever again and before Vanilla could protest and remind Cream of her words from yesterday, Tails intervened, saying, "You three would not be saying that if you knew what I found out last night…"

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" ask Amy while Knuckles nodded his head.

"Think back, Sonic. Think back to our first battle with Gemerl on Route 99." Tails replied.

Sonic crossed his arms, lowered his head, closed his eyes and allowed his mind to drift into the past…

Sometime ago on Route 99…

Sonic and Tails ran on the numerous roads that ran through the city, the first area to be changed by Dr Robotnik's nefarious device, the Chaos Warp Engine.

An action that both knew nothing of at the moment…

"Phew, this place is absolutely hectic!" said Tails as he and Sonic ran, "Whatever Eggman did has totally messed up the whole planet!"

"Yeah, Eggman really did a number on this place…" Sonic replied, looking around him, "But hey, at least we got the first Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic held up his left hand to show Tails the red Chaos Emerald that they had collected.

"Your right, Sonic!" Tails said with a smile, "We just need to find our friends and get to the bottom of this mess!"

"I'm sorry, but that will not happen." said an unknown male robotic voice, it's owner unseen.

Sonic and Tails stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they heard it.

"Whose there!? Where are you!?" Tails demanded.

Their unseen enemy replied, "Dr Eggman, my master, has ordered me to destroy you and your friend, as well as taking back the Chaos Emerald you have on hand. Which means I cannot let you go any further than this."

Well, it seems their unknown opponent has made his allegiances quite clear…

"That's pretty big talk, for someone who's skulking around!" Sonic mocked, "Since you talk a good game, why don't you come down here and fight us?"

"Don't antagonize him!" Tails hissed worryingly, "We have no idea who he is, or what he is capable of!"

"I'd listen to the boy if I were you, hedgehog." Their new enemy replied, "You know what they say, 'Be careful of what you wish for…'"

A loud thud was heard, which caused the dynamic duo to turn and face their new adversary.

Their opponent was some kind of humanoid robot who possessed five-fingered grey hands.

His feet were in the shape of shoes with black soles and yellow lines around them.

His upper arms, abdomen, and thighs were also grey.

He also had black spherical joints that were his shoulders and pelvis leg joints.

He was relatively thick armoured around his forearms and lower legs, with each one having yellow cuffs.

He also had fin-like objects on his forearms and kneecaps.

He had some form of jetpack as well, he had three grey circles on his chest that were in the shape of a triangle and finally, he had a black spherical head that had a grey mouth plate, blue eyes with red rims, grey circular caps assuming to be his ears, and a curved yellow horn that had points that were sticking out from the sides and, oddly enough, another blue eye that was in the centre of his forehead.

The robot crossed his arms and finished his quotation, "'Because you might just come to live and regret it…' "

"Well, that's rather obliging of you, coming at us directly rather than just hiding in the shadows!" Sonic remarked.

"I'm glad that I meet your approval." The robot replied, "Besides, I like to deal with my enemies with a more… shall we say, hands on approach?"

"Who are you!?" Tails demanded.

"I am Gemerl, Tails." the robot, now identified as Gemerl answered, "My creator has ordered both you and your friend's extermination…"

"Before get to the main event, you better start talking, bolt brain!" growled Sonic, "What's Eggman up to, what has he done!?"

"Tsk, tsk." Gemerl replied, using Sonic's signature finger wag, "You don't really think that I'd rat out him out by telling you his master plan, do you?"

Sonic growled.

Nobody uses that finger wag at him!

Only he gets to use that finger wag!

"If you won't tell us, Gemerl, then we'll just have to beat it out of you!" Tails declared, both he and Sonic assuming fighting stances.

"If you wish to perish so early, then I will be happy to oblige!" snarled Gemerl as he activated the boosters of his jetpack and flew towards them!

Both Sonic and Tails dodged out of the way, but the evil robot grinded to a halt, boosted after Sonic and attacked him with a power left hook!

Sonic rubbed his painful right cheek.

"You sure know how to throw a mean left hook!" Sonic said, "But can you keep up with me?!"

Sonic sped past him, planning to attack him from above with a Homing Attack.

But as jumped into the air, he came face to face with Gemerl with a look of disbelieve on his face!

Gemerl then kicked Sonic back down to the metal platform, the hedgehog winching from the painful impact.

"Does that answer your question?" asked Gemerl condescendingly.

"BACK OFF!" cried Tails, as he flew from the sky and landed a powerful left punch on the insidious machine's face!

But was unfazed, like the punch meant nothing at all…

Gemerl descended down, landing on his feet, a few meters away from the young fox.

He then looked at Tails and said, "I know what you thinking, 'Facing him directly alone won't work, so I'll work in tandem with Sonic to make an opportunity for me to attack him from a different angle when he least expects it', right?"

Tails said nothing, merely hovering in the air.

Gemerl also mere folded his arms and replied, "I don't think so…"

No soon the vile android had spoken those words, a barrage of missiles fired from his back and flew straight at Tails!

Tails panicked and franticly flew to dodge the missiles!

Sonic got up on one knee and saw the scene unfold.

"You've gotta be kidding me, this guy can fire missiles!?" Sonic thought panickily, "Eggman's covered all of his bases this time!"

Tails dodged here, there and everywhere, but the missiles slowly gained on him!

"I can't keep this up forever! I have to think of a solution, and fast!" thought Tails franticly.

He looked at Gemerl and the cogs in his brain began to spin as an idea began to take shape and thought, "I've got it!"

He descended downward and flew straight towards Gemerl!

"Tails, what are you doing!?" Sonic cried, aghast at what Tails was doing!

Tails ignored the blue hedgehog and flew on!

Gemerl saw Tails coming towards him and sneered, "Little fool, you know you can't defeat me by charging at me without thinking of a fool proof plan!"

"That's the whole idea!" Tails replied and flew over him!

"WHAT!?" Gemerl cried as he watched Tails flew overhead to turned back to see what was coming towards him, realizing the clever fox's plan all too late!

KABOOM!

The missiles hit Gemerl dead on target, an explosion around Gemerl's vicinity could be seen!

Tails flew back to help Sonic back up on his feet.

"Tails, that was both reckless and awesome!" Sonic complimented his brother in arms with a smile.

"The missiles were homing, so I had to think of something- "

But before Tails could finish, a familiar voice was heard saying, "So you thought to use the missiles against me by charging full steam ahead, fly above me at the last second and then resume your course so they would hit me instead? A clever plan, but…"

The heroes turned to see the smoke clear to see Gemerl unscathed due to an energy shield!

"…As you can see, it was an utterly futile strategy." Gemerl said with an arrogant tone, "To be honest, I'm a little disappointed, fox. The master made you out to be much smarter than this…"

"Oh great, this guy has a shield too?!" Sonic groaned.

"Eggman really has thought of everything…" murmured Tails fearfully.

"And with that, I will take my leave." Gemerl said, activating his jet pack and began to hover into the air and turning in the opposite direction.

"Hey, you're not turning chicken, are you!?" cried Sonic, shaking his right fist above him.

"Oh, I would never dream of it, Sonic!" Gemerl replied, turning to face him, "It's just that Dr Eggman has requested that me and him are going deal with you personally, so I'm just going to fall back to his position up ahead."

The evil android turned back around but turned his head to look at the two heroes and said in a dark tone, "You can chase me if you desire, but know this; only death awaits you and your friend where the master and I are waiting at the end of this road. So, if you wish to die… Then follow me, if you dare!"

Gemerl then sped away, laughing an evil laugh.

Tails summoned a Heal Drone to their wounds while Sonic growled, "Who does that bucket of bolts thinks he is!? He was just toying with us!"

Indeed, the battle was a crushing, humiliating and one-sided whitewash...

"Nothing seems to affect him at all, he even has a shield to protect him from his own missiles!" said Tails, concerned about their new enemy.

"Yeah, but there's one thing that I don't get." Sonic said, rubbing his chin.

"What do you mean?" asked a confused Tails.

Sonic soon answered, "Call me crazy, but I swear that there is something familiar about him…"

"Now that I think about, I was thinking of the same thing." Tails concurred who then asked, "Why do you think that is?"

"We'll think about that later." Sonic replied, "Right now, we've got an Egghead to scramble!"

Sonic then ran off in Gemerl's direction, with Tails following behind him.

Back to the present…

Sonic allowed his mind to wander for little longer to think about how they got their own back at Gemerl for their humiliating defeat on Route 99 at Sunset Hill, before they met up with Knuckles, until he opened his eyes looked at Tails and said thoughtfully, "Now that I think about it, he looks similar to Emerl."

He began to think about his Giziod friend from the events that transpired at the Awakening.

"He sure hits like Emerl…" said Knuckles, who fought Gemerl at Toy Kingdom, rubbing his left chin from the rather nasty right hook the wretched android gave the Master Emerald Guardian.

"He definitely fights like Emerl…" replied Amy, thinking back to Cyber Track, when Gemerl stole Sonic's Piko Piko Hammer, one of four custom made hammers she had made for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Cream and managed to fight her on equal footing with it when the four tried to gang up on him, before meeting Cream.

Speaking of Cream, she stubbornly refused to even think about the horrible android, especially what happened on Altar Emerald where Gemerl had hurt Cheese greatly.

Cheese shuddered at the memories and pain.

Vanilla also felt it odd that he was similar to Emerl, the kind hearted robot that she had the pleasure of meeting during the Awakening.

"That's what I was thinking as well." Tails replied, 'Why did Gemerl feel and looked so eerily similar to Emerl?' That was when I had a look at his memory banks that I made a horrifying discovery…"

Silence followed…

"What did you find out?" asked Vanilla, with trepidation, breaking the silence.

"The reason that Gemerl is so similar to Emerl…" Tails began.

After a few moments later, he said in a grave tone "…Is because Gemerl is Emerl!"

Most of everyone's reactions to this revelation was instantaneous.

"Is this supposed to be some kind of sick joke, Tails!?" Knuckles roared, "Because if it is, I'm not laughing!"

"How dare you even consider saying that he is Emerl!" Amy yelled, pointing to Gemerl.

Vanilla covered her mouth with her left hand in shock, thinking that what she had suspected was indeed correct.

Cream, appalled, was about to voice her objections with some very unladylike words, well, the best unladylike words that a six-year-old girl could think of that is, when Sonic interjected, "Hold up guys, I think Tails is on to something."

"Don't listen to him, Sonic! He's talking crazy!" cried Knuckles.

"You don't believe what he's saying, do you!?" Amy objected

"He's lying!" shrieked Cream.

Vanilla was about to scold her daughter for such slander when Sonic said, "Tails would never say something like this if it wasn't true."

Although reluctant, Knuckles, Amy and Cream had to agree with Sonic; they know that Tails was no liar, he would never make such a bold claim if didn't have the evidence to back it up.

"You got anything to prove it?" Sonic asked, "I know you're not lying, it's the Doubtful Three you need to convince…"

The aforementioned 'Doubtful Three' glared at Sonic for that remark, a glare that went unnoticed by him.

Tails plugged a cable to the back of Gemerl's head and connected the other plug on his computer and resumed his seat on the wheelchair.

"I have very concrete evidence to prove my words." Tails replied, pushing his wheelchair to the computer and said, "Just watch Gemerl's head."

Tails clicked one of the icons, and soon, Gemerl's eyes flickered on to show a display screen, and on it was none other than the face of their arch enemy, Dr Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik!

"What the!?" Knuckles cried before Sonic shushed him.

"I can't believe it, I truly can't believe how lucky I am today!" the recording of Robotnik began, acting as giddy as a child in a sweet shop, "When my sensors detected some kind of signal this morning, I initially wasn't that interested. After all, it's only been a few days since the Occupation, where I briefly had control over the entire world, for a while, and that imbecile Ix finally got the comeuppance he deserved! But that was when one of my Egg Pawns told me that the signal was originating from the crash site of Death Egg, or to be more specific, the Death Egg that I used at the Awakening, which housed the Final Egg Blaster, it piqued my interest, so I went over to see where it came from with a squad of four Egg Pawns, and didn't I know it, the signal was coming from you, my dear Emerl!"

Amy gasped at what she was seeing.

"A pity that you've been reduced to just a head and, err, is that your left arm and hand and right leg and foot or is that your left leg and foot?" the Mad Doctor questioned awkwardly, turning Emerl's to look at the other remaining pieces of the noble Gizoid's body, "Meh, doesn't matter really, I- "

The sound of metallic footsteps could be heard coming from the Evil Scientist's left, causing to turn and see what was going on.

He saw four Egg Pawns coming his way.

"Yes, what is it?" Robotnik demanded.

The Egg Pawn in the back stepped forward to show the Villainous Scoundrel his quarry.

"Ooooo, how delightful! Do you see this, Emerl!?" Robotnik turned Emerl's head to look at him and then back to what the Egg Pawn was holding, "It's your chest! Well, what's left of it anyway, and it's only the front that's exposed, and even then, there's only half of the insides that's missing… Regardless, now I can make full research of how you Gizoids work!"

Suddenly a thought came to the Maniacal Genius's mind, an idea that made him look at Emerl and say evilly, "Lightbulb…."

Then the recording ended.

Gemerl's eyes turned off.

The whole room was silent…

"And that's not the only recording" said Tails, breaking the silence.

"WHAT!?" was the unanimous cry of horror.

Tails clicked on the second recording, showing the display screen from Gemerl's eyes showing that the recording was from Robotnik's base at the time this time around.

"Project: E-124 has begun with a bit of a slow start admittingly." said the voice of the Insane Researcher, "The remaining half of the exposed chest has revealed a complex tapestry of mechanisms, wiring and circuitry, that was far ahead of its time. It will take some time to find out how to perfectly replicate the intricate workings of this marvellous machine, and when I do, it's going to be game over for that annoying hedgehog and his friends! Nya, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The second recording ended, Gemerl's eyes dimmed.

"'Project: E-124'?" Vanilla asked, unsure.

"That was probably Gemerl's name before Eggman came up with the name." Tails replied.

"Omega wouldn't be happy to hear or see that, that Eggman was making a robot that was going to be even stronger than him." Sonic remarked, thinking about Team Dark's powerhouse member and Robotnik's renegade E-series robot.

"I would imagine so." Tails replied.

Tails clicked on the third recording, the display screen showing up once again.

The Mad Scientist was looking at two sets of schematics on a holographic screen as he muttered, "Jeez Louise, and I thought the construction inside Emerl's chest was complicated. After removing the memory chip and removing the metal from his head, with great difficulty, might I add, the inside is even more so!"

Amy and Vanilla gasped at this

The Foul Fiend had the sheer audacity to tear Emerl apart and treat him like he was some kind of laboratory specimen rather than a living person!

"The Nocturnus Clan have done the impossible!" said Robotnik with a sense of wonder in his voice, "Something that only the greatest of scientific minds could possibly dream of! They have actually managed to create what is a perfect robotic equivalent of an organic brain! No wonder the Gizoids were such a formidable fighting force, the backbone of their civilization and the vanguard of the Nocturnus Clan's army! They can think, plan and adapt, like any human and mobian can! The implications of their sheer scientific genius are simply staggering! They were taking robotics to the next level before robotics even existed! They were literally pioneering the Industrial Revolution before the Industrial Revolution was even a thing! No wonder the Knuckles Clan were so desperate to get their greedy mitts on the Chaos Emeralds!"

Knuckles growled at the Doctors callous mention of the tragic, yet karmic fate of his ancestors…

"Replicating their construction will be more difficult than I initially suspected. After all, my earlier E-series robots, E-121 Phi were strong and clever, but they were nothing compared to what Emerl is! Sure, they could keep up with Sonic and his friends in a fight, but they were robots that were created by the engineering that our civilization currently possesses, engineering that would have been considered as primitive to the Nocturnus at the time, thus they were superfluous copies of a real Gizoid! Plus, the fourteen Phi's that I created were powered by Chaos Shards! How were the Gizoids operational at the time? What was their power source back at the day? Who was the one who-? Bah! If I keep on fanboying about this, I'll never get Project: E-124 done at this rate! Time to get back to work!"

He then turned to Emerl's head and said while waving his right hand, "Ta ta for now, my soon to be instrument of destruction!"

The third recording finished, Gemerl's eyes dimmed again.

"Hey, there's something I just don't get here." Said Knuckles, who was pondering something.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

Knuckles replied, "If Emerl was recording all of this, shouldn't he be still alive? Like, y'know, still be able to think and talk? I'd think he'd have plenty of things to say right about now!"

"I believe that Emerl was in some kind of limbo, neither living or dead." Tails answered, "He probably had only enough power to record what was going on around him all this time, not enough to be alive and be able to contact us…"

Sonic soon felt that this was all his fault.

If only he hadn't charged in without thinking and with the Master Emerald in tow, he could've prevented it from being shattered to pieces! He could've found another way to calm and stabilize Emerl, preventing his destruction!

But there was no point in worrying about what could've been and what if, all he could do was focus on what was happening at the present.

Plus, he could've prevented Knuckles giving him the riot act too…

Tails soon clicked on the fourth recording…

"I've done it, I've finally cracked the code!" Robotnik joyously cried, "Well, two codes, actually! Not only I can now replicate the mechanisms of a Gizoid, but also, after examining the metal used to make Emerl, after some trial and error, I can replicate that too!"

Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Vanilla gasped at what they were seeing and hearing!

This means that he could potentially create his own army of Gizoids, and they already know the power of what a legion of them possessed…

Cream, who was standing between Amy and Knuckles, was merely silent throughout this whole thing.

Vanilla noticed this and knew that this was troubling…

"Now that I know how recreate the metal used, I can create my new composite metal armour for Project: E-124! I will combine that metal with the metal that I used to create my renegade creation, E-123 Omega to create an indestructible metal that cannot be dented or scratched!" He soon turned towards Emerl's head and said with a merry voice, "The day that you will be remade in my image is coming soon, Emerl! Ho, ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

Tails ended the fourth recording.

"That was the recording that I found most troubling…" said Tails gravely…

"'Troubling'? Try 'catastrophic'!" Knuckles replied, "He could be making whole armies, no, scratch that, entire legions of Gizoids right now, and it would be right under everyone else's noses!"

Knuckles was right. Their enemy could unleash an army of Gizoids on an unsuspecting world and nobody would be able resist them, especially if he were to unleash them on Nocturnia, a city nation that was still under construction under the watchful eyes of Shade and her people's king, or 'Imperator', Nestor!

"We have to find a way to warn them!" Amy said resolutely, "We have to tell Shadow and Rouge, they'll know what to do!"

"Your right, Amy," concurred Tails, "Shadow and Rouge are the top mobian agents of GUN and are our friends within the organization, as well as its human leader, Commander Abraham Tower. GUN as a whole have close ties to our country's government, so once we explain the situation to them, they could inform the President, who in turn will warn the other nations!"

"I know that Nestor and Shade will listen, but I dunno about the rest of the Nocturnus Clan, though…" Knuckles added worryingly.

Indeed, according to Shade, many of the Nocturnus Clan Echidnas were still consumed by bigotry and a sense of superiority over the many humans and mobians that inhabit Earth, which meant many would refuse outside help while some others, including Shade and Nestor who would listen and accept their ally's aid.

This just goes to show just how deep Ix's evil and treachery ran…

"Is there another one?" Vanilla asked.

Tail answered, "Indeed, and it's the last one."

Tails clicked on the final recording, Gemerl's eyes shorn one last time.

"It's almost done, it's almost complete!" said the recording of Robotnik maniacally, "Soon you will awaken and global domination will be within my grasp! There's just one last detail to take care of…"

Robotnik turned around to face what was assumed to be the complete Gemerl and said evilly, "I took the liberty of copying all your battle data and placed it somewhere safe. I'll need it for some other project in the future, I suppose. But now, I'm going delete all of your data, and your memories with it!"

Everyone except Cream and Tails gasped in horror!

"No, you wouldn't," Sonic growled, "you wouldn't dare!"

"He would." Tails simply replied, "And he did…"

The recording of Robotnik continued, "Even with all my planning, I know that there is a possibility, however slim, that you might break free from my programming and remember everything and turn against me, and I am not prepared to let you have all of those powers that you acquired during the Awakening to be used right from the get go! 'Better to be safe than sorry', as they say…"

Knuckles grinded his teeth in rage.

"Oh, how I will delight on watching you eradicate all your former friends, one by one! And when Sonic's the last to go, do you know what I'm going to tell him, before he dies by your hands? That the one who killed all his friends was you, remade in my image all along! I will savour the look of despair when he learns of this fact and will do nothing as you end his miserable life, finally allowing me to rule the Earth as the leader of the Eggman Empire! Now, I believe it's time wrap up this final conversation, as you won't remember any of this too! Say goodbye to your old life as Emerl and awaken to your new one as my slave, Project: E-124! Or rather… Project: Gemerl! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The final recording ended as the Evil Doctor's haunting laughter echoed across the room…

Amy soon broke the silence crying, "I can't believe that Eggman would do something so horrible!"

"Just when I thought Eggman couldn't be more despicable…" Vanilla said sadly.

"He's just sunk to a new low, using our friend like this…" Knuckles said, seething with tranquil rage…

"Indeed." said Tails solemnly, "This was truly vile and cruel, even for him…"

Sonic than said to Tails, "I'm guessing that whatever Eggman did to Emerl's memories didn't take?"

"That's correct, Sonic." Tails answered, "Eggman's attempt was sloppy, he was too hasty to prevent betrayal. He didn't make sure the erasure was thorough."

"But he still got betrayed by Gemerl, so why is that?" asked Amy

"Yeah, why is that?" Knuckles agreed.

"I found out the answer to that question, actually." Said Tails.

Sonic then asked, "Well don't keep us in the dark buddy, what was it?"

"Emerl's old programming." Tails gravely said as he clicked on the program.

A new window popped up, show lines of words written in an unknown language.

Unknown to everyone else, that is.

"Hey, that's the language of the Nocturnus Clan!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"That's right," Tails replied, "and that's what ultimately ruined Eggman's plans."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

Tails answered, "One of these words is one simple directive; 'conquer and destroy'. The damage that we caused Gemerl on Altar Emerald and him being in close proximity to the Chaos Emeralds must have caused Emerl's original programming to reactivate, which led to his transformation and subsequent insanity."

Tails then added, "It also contains detailed accounts of his time in service to the Nocturnus Clan when it was ruled by Ix, and from what I read, it wasn't pretty…"

"He doesn't have that awful thing inside anymore, does he?" ask Vanilla.

"No, he does not, Vanilla." Tails replied with a smile, "The ones you see on my computer are copies of the recordings and programming. I deleted the originals as soon as I did so."

"I also crushed the original memory chip as well." He added.

"Smart thinking, Tails!" complimented Sonic heartily, with a thumbs up and signature smile.

"Yeah, that's a relief." Knuckles seconded, "Last thing we need is for him to go on another rampage like he did a few weeks ago!"

"Which means he won't harm anyone anymore!" Amy said happily, she then turned to Cream and asked, "Isn't that great, Cream?"

Silence….

"Cream…?" asked Amy worryingly.

Silence….

"Hey Cream, you alright?" asked a concerned Sonic.

"I hate him…!" whispered Cream, seething with anger and tears rolling down her cheeks…

"Hey Cream- "Knuckles began, but-

"I HATE HIM!" shrieked Cream, causing everyone in the room to move backwards in shock.

"HOW DARE HE!?" Cream yelled in anger and resentment, "HOW DARE HE DO THAT TO EMERL!? HE TOOK THAT SWEET AND KIND EMERL AWAY AND TURNED HIM INTO A HORRIBLE AND HEARTLESS ROBOT! EMERL WOULD NEVER HARM SO MUCH AS A FLY, AND THAT ROTTEN EGGMAN TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER FOR HIS SELFISH NEEDS, NEVER THINKING ABOUT ANYBODY BUT HIMSELF! HE'S TAKEN AWAY EMERL'S MOMERIES OF ALL OF US, MEANING HE'LL NEVER BE THE SAME EVER AGAIN! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE EGGMAN FOR THIS! NEVER! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM!"

Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cheese and Knuckles were alarmed at this emotional outburst!

They all knew that Cream was a sweet, kind and innocent rabbit who was always polite, courteous and pious!

She would never wish anything bad to happen to anyone, not ever her worst enemy!

She never had a bad bone in her body, for goodness' sake!

She may have expressed distain for Robotnik's villainy, but to hear her actually express hatred for someone without a second thought!?

This was completely out of character for her!

Knuckles immediately verbalized everyone's thoughts at what was playing out before them; "Red Flag!"

"Cream, I will not tolerate the use of such words in our house, in the presence of your friends, or anywhere else for that matter!" Vanilla demanded in an authoritative tone that would brook no arguments, "I order you to cease saying such language, this instant!"

She stamped her left foot on the floor at the last word for emphasis.

Now the four heroes and Cheese were afraid of Vanilla.

She was always seen as a kind hearted woman who, much like her daughter, would always help those in need and would never lose her composure!

To see her raise her voice at her own child and to even demand Cream to do as she was told!?

Much like Cream, this was also completely out of character for her!

"Double Red Flag!" cried Knuckles, again saying everyone's thoughts verbally.

Unfortunately, Vanilla's attempt to bring Cream to heel failed as the young rabbit turned to her mother and screamed at her,

"I HATE HIM!"

She ran towards her mother and banged her little fists on the skirt of Vanilla's dress, yelling repeatedly, "I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM!"

This continued for several more minutes.

Soon Cream ran out of steam and laid curled on the floor, wailing in anguish and despair…

Vanilla could not stay angry at her daughter for long, and she soon knelt down and scooped her up as she too sobbed, albeit quietly, in sadness at this dreadful revelation, holding Cream close.

Cheese landed on Cream's head and tried to sooth her in any way he could.

"Should we consider this as a 'Triple Red Flag'?" asked Amy worryingly.

"I think this goes beyond Red Flag territory now…" Tails replied with equal concern.

Sonic soon asked his echidna friend, "What flag would you call this, Knuckles?"

The Master Emerald Guardian simply replied, "Crimson."

After awhile, Vanilla soon stood up holding Cream as her muffled cries were heard coming from her mother's bosom and asked Tails calmly while tears rolled down her cheeks, "If it's all right with you, I'd like to take Cream back to our home near Night Carnival."

"Of course." Tails said, nodding.

He knew that this may have emotionally traumatized Cream and she would need time to recover.

"If it helps, I can get you and Cream's belongings from the summer house and bring them to your place." Amy offered.

"Thank you, Amy, that would be greatly appreciated." said Vanilla, nodding with a smile.

"You'll have to use the Tornado 3 to get to the summer house. Fly there, then to Vanilla's house and then back here when you're done." said Tails.

"Gotcha!" Amy replied as she sped off to prep the air plane for take-off.

Tails had given Amy a few pointers on how to fly in their spare time.

Vanilla nodded a silent "Thank you" to Tails and made her way to her car to take her crying daughter home, with Cheese following after them.

"I think it's time for the rest of us to get outta here." Knuckles said, "After all, I think all of us are emotionally drained."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." agreed Sonic.

He then turned to Tails and asked, "Do you think you can fix Gemerl?"

"I should be able too," Tails replied, "but it's going to take a while. A lot of work needs to be done, so I'll let you guys know when it's finished."

"You gonna start work when we leave?" Knuckles asked Tails.

"No." Tails answered, "A lot of emotional turmoil have gone down today. Once Amy gets back, I'm going to hit the hay for the rest of the day and start tomorrow."

Sonic placed a hand on Tails' left shoulder and said with a smile, "Take as long as you need, little buddy."

Sonic and Knuckles left soon after.

Amy soon arrived back on the Tornado 3 after finishing her task and was asked to inform Vanilla and Cream of Tails' plan as she left.

Soon after, Tails closed the door, locked it and soon retired for the rest of the evening.

Several weeks had passed the day after Gemerl's revelation, Tails has worked tirelessly to fulfil the task that was given to him; the task of fixing Gemerl.

After several more weeks, Tails summoned everyone to his house, stating that Gemerl had been fixed and that he had a surprise waiting for them.

Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Vanilla, Cream and Cheese soon arrived at the young kitsune's house and made their way to Tails' workshop.

When they arrived, they saw that Tails and Gemerl were sitting exactly like they were before, only this time, their guest was spotless and had no battle damage.

"I've managed to fix Gemerl, guys." Tails announced.

"Way to go Tails!" Sonic congratulated, a smile on his face.

"It wasn't easy," Tails replied, "almost all of the circuitry and mechanisms were totalled after the final battle against him, including his head, meaning I hand to rely on Gerald Robotnik's notes and what I seen of Nocturnus technology before we left Nocturne after the Occupation."

"You and Eggman really did a number on him, huh?" said Knuckles, giving the blue hedgehog a sideways glance with a knowing grin.

"Er, heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…" chuckled Sonic while rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Not only that, I also had to make new armour for him after I fixed him, while salvaging what remained of Emerl's original construction of his inner workings and what Eggman possibly added." Tails added.

"Er, not to question you Tails, but he looks the same to me." Amy replied.

"That was because I had to take every single piece of metal that was on him to study the composition of the metal that Eggman used to make Gemerl's armour."

"Why did you do that for?" Vanilla asked.

Tails answered, "So I can make my own composite metal comprised of the metal used to make Gizoids, the metal Eggman used to build Omega and the metal I used to make the Tornado 3, once I learned how to recreate the other two metals used in his creation."

So does that mean he's now indestructible?" Amy asked curiously.

Tails replied, "Not necessarily Amy, but he can shrug off most attacks. Only attacks of considerable strength and power would be able to scratch or dent the new armour."

"I see." said Vanilla, talking to herself.

"Not only that, but after some study, along with some trial and error, by which I mean a lot of trial and error, I finally managed to recreate the Gizoid's ability to analyse and copy any opponent's movements, fighting styles and abilities!" Tails added proudly.

"Nice one, Tails!" said Amy happily.

"So, does that mean that he's some kind of robotic hodgepodge stew?" Knuckles asked, his right hand under his chin, "Gemerl's now a hodgepodge Gizoid made of Nocturnus tech, Eggman tech and as well as Tails tech?"

"'Tails tech'?" Tails repeated, pondering what Knuckles just said, "Hmmm, that sounds rather catchy!"

Tails then asked, "Can I use that term?"

Knuckles simply replied heartily, "Yeah sure, go right ahead!"

"Thanks!" Tails answered.

"Did you hear that Cream?" Amy said to Cream, brimming with joy, "We're now only one step away from getting Emerl back now!"

"It still would not be the same…" said a sombre Cream, "It would still not be Emerl. His memories of us are gone, stolen forever…. He would never ever be the same, never…"

The faces of Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Vanilla saddened at the depressed look of Cream's face…

A concerned Cheese plopped on his owner's head and rubbed his left arm on it to provide her with comfort, but to no avail…

"Oh, I would not be so sure about that, Cream." Tails remarked, causing everyone to look at the genius inventor.

"What do mean by that, exactly?" asked Vanilla curiously.

"What I mean." replied Tails confidently, "is that we can bring back Emerl with this!"

The young two tailed fox picked up something from the table for all to see.

"Is that a memory chip?" asked Sonic, unsure of what Tails was doing.

"Not just any memory chip, Sonic," Tails said with a smile on the young fox's face, "this is a memory chip that houses a copy of Emerl's original battle data, memories and personality!"

"WHAT!?" everyone cried at the same time with shock and disbelief!

"How is that possible!?" said Knuckles, unable to believe what he just heard.

"Well, you see, it was some after Emerl fought Chaos and before he was sent to the Death Egg during the Awakening…" said Tails as he explained what happened on that day…

Long ago, during the Awakening…

Tails, Sonic and Knuckles were on Holy Summit, discussing about their current strategy concerning Robotnik's newest incarnation of the dreaded Death Egg battle fortress when they heard a male robotic voice cry out, "Hey guys, sorry to keep you waiting!"

They turned to look at the voice's owner.

The being in question was a mostly mustard yellow humanoid robot.

He had five-fingered olive-brown hands and feet that were in the shape of shoes with orange soles.

His upper arms, abdomen, thighs were also olive-brown.

He had spherical orange joints that served as shoulders and pelvis-leg joints.

He was also relatively thick armoured around the forearms and lower legs, which both had orange cuffs.

He had thick kneecaps and some kind of jet pack on his back.

He had three beige circles on his chest which formed a triangle.

And finally, he had a spherical head with a beige mouth piece, blue eyes, orange caps for ears and a curved horn with some kind capsule shaped object that looked like an eye on his forehead, which was closed for some reason.

Sonic hailed the newcomer, shouting, "Hey Emerl, we were waiting for ya!"

The being, identified as Emerl, was a Gizoid, meaning 'everything' in the ancient tongue.

He was a robotic lifeform who was designed and operated as a combat android in the service of the "Fourth Great Civilization", until circumstances unknown caused its people to disappear, leaving them forgotten to the pages of history.

Emerl, who was found in ancient ruins, thousands of years later, was discovered in a warehouse by Professor Gerald Robotnik, the noble grandfather to the evil scientist, Dr Ivo Robotnik, and was taken to the Space Colony Ark, where he tried to quell the Gizoid's more destructive impulses.

When the government tried to halt the progress of Project: Shadow, Gerald offered up Emerl as a substitute in an attempt to stall for time until he can finish creating Shadow, hoping his research would be able to save the life of his granddaughter and Robotnik's cousin, Maria Robotnik, who was suffering from N.I.D.S at the time.

When subsequent events which led to the tragedy as the Ark Massacre caused Emerl to fall into the professor's possession again, he tried to destroy robot's core, but failed.

When that failed, Gerald managed to give Emerl a coded "soul", using Maria's personality as a base.

Emerl soon was seized and sealed away by the government, until Robotnik got his filthy hands on him.

After Robotnik threw him aside for refusing to follow his orders, Emerl was found washed ashore by Sonic on Emerald Beach, found of the southern end of Emerald Town.

After Emerl challenged Sonic to a fight and subsequently lost, he formed a 'Link' a bond similar to that of a master and servant and swore his loyalty to the blue hedgehog.

Since his reactivation, he formed many other Links than just Sonic during that time.

He formed Links with Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Cream and ironically enough, Chaos Gamma, a robot made in the image of E-102 Gamma, after Emerl could not bring himself to treat him coldly after their final battle.

When he reached Sonic and the others, Emerl said, "Hey guys, what's up?"

"We were just going over the plan." Tails replied, he then asked, "What about you?"

"Oh, I had some sparing sessions with that Chaos guy Knuckles mentioned." answered Emerl.

"WHAT!?" cried Knuckles incredulously, "You fought Chaos and won!?"

"Defeating Chaos is no easy feat!" Tails remarked.

"Yeah, he was hard to beat, even when he had no Chaos Emeralds inside him!" Sonic added, thinking back to his first battle with the powerful Chao Guardian during the beginning of the Chaos Unleashed Catastrophe.

"I would've been down sooner, but then Chaos Gamma showed up and we had a good-natured throw down too." Emerl added

"Chaos Gamma, that Gamma lookalike?" asked Knuckles.

"Yep." Emerl simply replied.

"That sounds like it was a rather beneficial excursion!" said Tails.

"Yeah, with the data you got from those two, you'll be able to crack that egg wide open in not time!" Sonic seconded.

"Yeah, about that…" said Emerl, rather nervously.

"What's the matter buddy, cold feet?" questioned Knuckles.

"Kinda…" Emerl replied, adding, "Sorry to be a pain, but there's something I need to discuss with Tails, in private."

"'In private'?" asked Sonic, who was confused at his Gizoid friend's current behavior, "What's the problem with just saying it here?"

"Yeah, not to rush you, but we're on a tight time schedule here." remarked Knuckles.

"Look guys, this is important!" Emerl argued.

Before both the echidna and hedgehog could object, Tails intervened, saying, "It's alright you guys, it won't take too long. Besides, there's still some time before Shadow, Rouge, Amy and Cream arrive."

He tuned to Emerl and asked him," Where do you want to talk about it, Emerl?"

"Your workshop in Emerald Town would be great." replied Emerl

Soon after, Emerl jetted off to Emerald Town with Tails in tow, holding the fox's hand.

When they arrived, Tails sat on a wheeled chair and asked Emerl, who sat on a work bench, "All right Emerl, what's this about, and why did you wanted it to be private?"

Emerl soon replied, "The reason I wanted to this to private is because I don't to lower morale when we need it right now and what I want to talk to you about is something that's being bugging me when I was walking down from Holy Summit."

"What were you thinking about?" asked Tails, a little unsure of what Emerl was talking about.

Emerl explained what was going through his CPU.

"I see…" Tails said thoughtfully after listening to Emerl's explanation, "You think that Eggman has something kind of hidden plan up his sleeve?"

"Yeah, given what you guys told me about him, I'm sure Egghead's got some kind of back-up plan in place." Emerl answered, "I mean, he wouldn't just call us from outta the blue and say something like he did if he didn't have something cooked up ahead of time!"

"And your worried he might have found some kind of loophole that he could exploit to make you form a Link with him?" asked Tails.

Emerl replied, "Yeah, and he's also probably found a way to make it stick, turning me into his personal attack dog."

"Surely you have some kind of defensive program that would protect you from such control?" Tails countered.

"Dude, he's just as smart as you are, and in a bad way!" Emerl argued, "He managed build fourteen cheap knockoffs of me, so I'm pretty sure he could find a chink in my armour!"

"So, what do you need me for?" Tails asked with concern.

"Worst case scenario, he could erase my memories about you guys." Emerl responded, "So I need you to do me a solid and make a back-copy of my memories, abilities and personality."

"Do you really think it will happen?" inquired Tails.

"Best case scenario, it won't happen. But I'd rather be safe than sorry just in case he pulls that kind of stunt." Emerl requested.

"Then let's get you hooked up to my computer and make a back-up memory chip with your current data, just in case your fears are justified." Tails acquiesced.

"Thanks Tails, I owe ya one!" said a grateful Emerl.

"You can repay me by saving the Earth and wrecking Eggman's Final Egg Blaster." Tails replied.

Tails soon deactivated Emerl, placed his original memory chip into the computer and copied everything that Emerl requested, although there was some strange program written in some weird language, but he'll look into that later, when Robotnik's latest scheme is foiled.

A few minutes later, Emerl and Tails were soon back at the Altar and ready to go!

As Emerl was teleported to the Death Egg, Knuckles asked Tails, "So what was it that Emerl wanted to talk to you about, anyway? He could have told us what was on his mind right here, so what's he afraid about?"

"I can't say for now," Tails replied, "but once Emerl gets back, I'll explain everything."

Knuckles said no more about the subject, although he mumbled to himself, "Well, I still think he should've just told us what's going on…"

Unfortunately for Emerl, as they say, 'The rest is history'…

Back at the present, Tails had finished explaining everything.

"I see… So, he was afraid that Eggman would find a way to control him, so he wanted to have something planned just in case something like that happened?" asked Vanilla thoughtfully.

"Indeed." Tails replied, "And unfortunately, Eggman's plan worked, almost too well…"

"Which means I was right too!" cried Knuckles angrily, "That numbskull should have told us what was on his mind right there and then!"

Placing the memory chip down on the table away from him so it would not be smashed, Tails replied, "He didn't want us to worry while Eggman still had the Final Egg Blaster active! If we faltered and hesitated to send Emerl up there, Earth would have been destroyed, alone with every single human and mobian with it!"

"That doesn't mean jack squat, Tails!" Knuckles argued, "He still should have told us what was going on, otherwise none of this would have happened to him right now!"

"Knuckles, please calm down." said Vanilla in a placating tone, her left hand on the echidna's left shoulder, "Emerl didn't wanted us to worry and he would not want all of us to be upset."

"And look where that got him." Knuckles said rather bitterly, "Because he didn't tell us when should've had, Sonic wouldn't've had to fight Emerl, causing the Master Emerald to be smashed into pieces, Emerl wouldn't've had to sacrifice himself and then Eggman wouldn't have rebuilt him as he is, right now!"

Silence filled the room…

"I think Emerl made the right call." said Sonic breaking the silence," It means we now have a chance to bring him back!"

"Wait, hold up!" Knuckles said, quickly regaining his former demeanour, "That chip has a copy of Emerl's memories and battle data that he had up until he was teleported to the Death Egg, right? That means he still has the original program in him too!"

"That's right, what if he gets pressured or damaged enough, won't he just return to his original self and try to destroy everything like he did years ago!?" said Cream, rather frightfully.

"What if he gets mind controlled too!?" said an equally frightened Amy.

"I anticipated that possibility." replied Tails, "Which is why when I rebuilt his head, I installed many different fire walls of my own design to prevent something like that happening again, plus I took the liberty to delete the original programming from the memory chip too!"

"Way to go, little buddy!" said Sonic, overjoyed.

"All right!" Knuckles said, equally joyful.

"Did you hear that, Cream? Emerl will soon be back!" said Amy enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Cream said with equal enthusiasm, while Cheese chirped a joyous tune!

Vanilla merely smiled, seeing the light of hope in her daughter's eyes had returned and seeing her smile again.

Tails was about to place the memory chip into the Gizoid's head when Vanilla raised her left hand and asked, "Wait a moment, what about the copies of recordings and Emerl's old programming?"

Tails replied, "I plan to show these to show him what happened to him. I also plan to delete them afterwards."

Vanilla breathed a sigh of relief.

Tails soon placed the new memory in the slot in the back of the Gizoid head and said to everyone, "Ok everyone, I going to bring Emerl back online!"

Everyone cheered at the news!

Tails opened a panel atop of the jet pack and remarked, "Of course we need to give him a wide berth since he will be regaining consciousness shortly, we don't want to overwhelm him all at once."

Everyone nodded, understanding this.

Tails pressed a few buttons on the panel and then close the door shut.

"Ok, he's about to wake up," Tails said laying the Gizoid flat on his back, turned to everyone and added, "so let's hide on the left side of the workshop door while he gets his bearings together."

Everyone made themselves scarce and hid.

After a few seconds, they heard a groan coming from the room and an unfamiliar voice said in a tone that would suggest that someone was just rudely woken up, "Oh man... Tell the guy with the jackhammer to lay off, will ya? My audio sensors are still ringing…"

Everyone gave Tails, who was at the back, a look that says, 'Explain. Now'.

Tails chuckled and whispered sheepishly, "I have also changed his voice too…"

Meanwhile in the room, Emerl hopped of the worktable and surveyed his surroundings.

"Hey, I recognise this place, this is Tails' workshop in Emerald Town!" Emerl said to himself, "What the heck am I still doing here? Me and Tails should be back at the Altar by no- "

Cream, who could not keep her emotions in check any longer, ran into the room, crying, "EMERL!"

Emerl turned just in time see a jubilant Cream jump towards he managed to grab her, while the young mobian rabbit laughed with unrestrained joy.

Emerl span around for a few seconds before coming to a stop and placed her on the floor, kneel down on one leg to look at her and said, "Whoa, hold on there, little lady, what's gotten you so happy?"

"I'm just happy to see you again, Emerl!" cried Cream happily as she latched on to Emerl with a big hug, with Cheese singing his approval.

Emerl replied, "Hey, c'mon kiddo, I wasn't gone for that long, was I?"

"Good to see you up and about, Emerl!" Sonic voice rang, causing to Emerl to turn and see everyone gathered in the doorway.

"Hey Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Vanilla!" Emerl greeted everyone with a cheerful tone in his voice.

"I'm so glad to have you back, safe and sound, Emerl!" said an overjoyed Amy.

Vanilla merely smiled at the heart-warming scene that was playing out before her.

A confused Emerl let go of Cream, who ran back to the others while Cheese flew after her, stood back up and asked, "Sorry, but do you fellas mind telling me what's going on here? Why's Cream acting like I just came back from the-.

Emerl soon realized what was wrong as he cried, "Hey, what wrong with my vocaliser!?"

"I may have made a few changes here and there…" Tails said, scratching the back of his head, looking rather sheepish…

"Tails, what else did you do? I thought this was about copying my memories, battle data and personality into a spare memory chip in case Eggman pulled a fast one!" said Emerl with his arms crossed while tapping his right foot, acting like a parent who had just caught their children doing something they shouldn't be doing red handed.

"You'll have to take a look in the mirror. You're in for quite the shock." said Knuckles

Emerl went to the mirror and looked at his rebuilt body.

"WHOA!" cried Emerl as he looked at himself all over, "When did I get the sweet upgrade!? I would've minded if you asked me for permission first, but think I can get used to this!"

Emerl was grinning from ear to ear, if the sound of his voice was any indication.

Emerl was admiring his new body, flexing it in all direction as he added, "I gotta say Tails, the new paint job totally rocks!"

"I'm glad you approve!" Tails replied, trying to sound natural.

After flexing some more, Emerl looked into mirror and remarked while stroking his chin, "I'm not so sure about that perpetual frown though… But if it can scare the willies outta ol' Walrus Stache, I'll take it!"

Everyone laughed at Emerl's joke about Robotnik's signature moustache.

"Ha, I'm pumped!" Emerl declared confidently, looking at his friends, "C'mon, let get back to the Altar so Tails can fire up the teleporter, send me to the Death Egg and I'll scramble Egghead and his overgrown pea shooter in no time!"

The good mood was dampened as everyone except Emerl looked uneasy at each other…

Emerl caught on to this and said, "Hey, what the matter, guys? Nothing bad happened while I was gone, was I?"

Tails decided that it was time and said uneasily, "Emerl, you might wanna sit down. There is much to tell you…"

Emerl was starting to get the sinking feeling in his internal systems that this was something that he wasn't going like hearing…

Hours passed, as Sonic and Tails explained to Emerl everything that had happened, Sonic's final battle against him, his self-destruction, the Marauder Riots, the Occupation, the Chaos Warp Incident, his discovery by Vanilla and Cream, his reconstruction by Robotnik and the truth of his past, including his servitude to Ix and what happened when he was found by Professor Gerald years later and the Black Arms Invasion 50 years later.

Silence filled the room….

Emerl, who was sitting on the work table soon spoke, rather calmly, "So that's it, huh? Looks like my hunch was right after all…"

Knuckles was sorely tempted to tell Emerl that he should've just told them what was on his CPU back at the Altar during that escapade so he could've avoided all of this from happening, but wisely held his tongue…

"And he rebuilt me into this?" Emerl continued, looking at his hands.

"Indeed, it was a terrible revelation for us all…" said Vanilla solemnly.

"But now that your you again, everything's a-okay!" said Amy, feeling that everything's coming to satisfying conclusion.

Emerl hopped off the table and turned to look at the door way to the Tornado 3's hanger and said, "Sorry Amy, I don't think it's going to be that simple."

"Why's that, Emerl?" asked the pink hedgehog.

"Oh gee, I wonder why? Maybe it's because of the fact-," Emerl replied sarcastically before bellowed at the top of his vocaliser while turning towards them, "THAT I'M WALKING, TALKING, LIVING AND BREATHING WMD!?"

Everyone jumped back at Emeral's emotional outburst.

"Did you guys not see the logs about who I was, about who I am!?" Emerl ranted, "I was built to go around stomping some poor schmucks' home turf like I owned the place and lay the beatdown on anybody who was so much as even thinking of taking the fight to me! Nobody stood a chance!"

Everyone was saddened at the sound of despair on the Gizoid's voice.

"I can't even begin to imagine just how many people I practically curb stomped just to fulfil some sick old man's ambition to have him and his clan to be the top dogs of Earth! He's literally Eggman if he was an Echidna back at the day, only worse!" Emerl's anger and disgust was all too real. "Amnesia be fragged, cause like it or not, there's blood on my hands!"

"And it doesn't help that not only being found by the prof only served to cause what happened on Space Colony Ark to go down, his pit slag insane grandson managed to get his hands on me and turned me into…, into…, into this!" he added, looking at his hands with revulsion and loathing.

"We thought you were completely destroyed when you self-destructed after what happened on the Death Egg!" Tails countered.

"AND I DON'T BLAME YOU FOR THAT!" yelled Emerl, his frustration getting the better of him.

Everyone reeled back at this explosion of his emotions.

Emerl, having realized what he had done, calmed down, pinched his non-existent nose bridge and replied, "Look, I get it, ok? I don't condemn you for not looking for me as you were still grieving my 'demise' for God knows how long!"

Emerl turned towards the hanger, threws his arms in the air and looked at the ceiling as he continued to rant, "Heck, I wouldn't've trusted myself into thinking that I was still alive after blowing myself to smithereens! But that doesn't change the facts that I almost screwed the world five times, if you include Gerald going insane after Maria died, which caused Shadow to go on a revenge driven rampage by the way, using Earth as target practice for the Final Egg Blaster and what I did recently to my resume of wrong doings as well!"

"What happened with the Chaos Warp Engine wasn't you, Emerl!" Sonic argued, "That was all on Eggman, you weren't yourself!"

"That doesn't make less of a sinner for what I did, Big Blue!" countered Emerl, turning to point his right index finger at the blue hedgehog, "You saw the recordings, I saw the recordings, the whole lot of you saw the recordings! All of it! Do you even begin to understand what would've happened if you hadn't stopped me on both occasions!? I would've killed all of my friends, Cream included!"

Both Vanilla and Amy understood the grief and anguish that was going through Emerl's CPU right now…

"Scrap, I've would've gone on to wreck the entire universe because I recently ended up having a god complex if you and Eggman hadn't teamed up to shut me down when I went cuckoo for cocoa puffs!"

"You were hurt and injured!" Vanilla replied, sadness prominent in her voice, "I could not in good conscience just leave you to wither and perish, Emerl!"

"And you took me into your summer house, knowing full well what I did as Eggman's lapdog!?" Emerl retorted incredulously looking at Cream's mother, "Sorry Vanilla, but this needs to be said! Do you realise just how stupid and idiotic you were when you found me!?"

Vanilla stepped backwards at this, Amy and Cheese came to try and comfort the older female rabbit.

"Do you know how much danger you were putting yourself in!?" cried Emerl, who continued to rant, "I could've reactivated at any time! I could've hurt you, Cream and Cheese! I could've held the whole family hostage, or worse! But despite knowing all of that, you asked Tails to fix me!? You should've just left me to rust and corrode! Heck, better yet, you should've just had Sonic and the others turn me into scrap metal at the very first chance you got!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" yelled Cream, tears flowing from her eyes.

Everyone turned to look at Cream, who walked up to Emerl, lowering her head.

"When we first found you, I didn't want anything to do with you… I just wanted you to stay there, deactivated after the horrible things you did…" Cream murmured, her little clenched fists shaking.

Emerl walked to Cream, knelt down on one knee, placed his left hand on her right shoulder and said, "Hey there, you don't mean all of that, do you? Your like, the sweetest cinnamon bun I've ever known! There's not a bad bone in that little body of yours, so you couldn't possibly- "

"I DID!" Cream yelled as she swatted Emerl's left hand away from her right shoulder.

Emerl stepped back four steps at this.

"Until several weeks ago, I thought you were just another robot working for that awful Eggman…" Cream continued, "Until we found out who you really were, I thought you were an awful machine that did nothing but hurt my friends… I didn't want to be around you, I wanted to be rid of you! I wanted Amy to smash you so you could never harm me or my friends ever again! I wanted you to be GONE! I wanted you to be KILLED! I wanted you to be DEAD!"

Her emotions ran past her breaking point as she shrieked to the heavens,

"I WANTED YOU TO DIE!"

Everyone was gobsmacked at what Cream had just said!

For Cream, someone who would not wish a horrible fate upon even her worst enemy, to actually wishing someone to be killed, someone to be dead or for that person even die!?

This was well and truly out of character for her!

Amy and Tails covered their mouths with their left and right hands respectively in shock.

Sonic just stared at her, not believing that she would even consider such things.

Vanilla went to Knuckles and whispered to him, "Should we consider this as a 'Crimson Flag'?"

Knuckles nodded, simply saying, "Oh yeah, definitely Crimson…"

Emerl merely whispered in shock, "Cream…"

After struggling to keep her emotions in check, Cream continued, "But Mother said something to me. She said, 'All life is sacred, be it the life of a friend, a stranger or even an enemy'."

Vanilla's eyes lit up upon hearing that.

Were her words finally…?

"If I left you where I found and left you to rust and corrode, I would be no better than Eggman is…" said Cream, lifting her head to show Emerl her tears, "Mother said if there was a chance to save someone who still had good inside them, then I should take it."

Emerl looked at Cream in silence and wonder…

Cream soon said, "I thought you would never be yourself since Eggman took away your memories of us. I had given up hope… But now I know that you can be turned back to your old self and now you wish we'd just left you where you were just so you can be punished for doing things that you can't possibly remember!?"

Cream trembled as she mumbled, "I won't allow it… I will not permit it! I forbid it!"

She struggled to restrain her emotions again, but it was futile, so she yelled, "SO I DON'T WANT YOU TO EVEN THINK ABOUT DYING FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU HAD NO RECOLLECTION OF! DON'T YOU EVEN SAY SUCH THINGS EVER AGAIN, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

Silence soon followed after Cream's emotional reprimand.

Emerl walked back to Cream and knelt down to one knee as before

Cream soon felt Emerl embracing her into hug, his left hand on the top of Cream's head as he said tenderly, "Don't worry kid, I'm not planning on going anywhere, not now, not ever…"

Cream soon sobbed into Emerl's chest as he heard those words.

Amy soon cried onto Sonic's shoulders, much to the blue hedgehog's embarrassment, and to Knuckles' amusement.

Tails' heart soon gladdened at the thought that Vanilla truly made the right decision to call him to fix their once thought fallen friend.

Vanilla just simply smiled, knowing that her words had well and truly got through to Cream, and she knew her daughter would now be a better woman in the future for it.

After a few moments, Emerl stood up asked Tails, "Did you get rid of that program?"

Tails knew what the Gizoid meant and replied, "Yes, I erased that program completely before I inserted the memory chip into you, plus I personally added several fire walls of my own design to keep from having your systems from being hijacked or corrupted by any viruses."

"That all I need to know." said Emerl nodding, and made his way to the Tornado 3's hanger.

Everyone followed him, wondering where he was going.

They found Emerl, who was standing outside the hanger, looking up the starlit sky, under the light of a full moon.

"So, are you gonna tell us what's going through that computer brain of yours this time?" asked Knuckles rather bluntly, which earned him an elbow to the side from Amy for his bluntness.

"Hey!" Knuckles complained.

"He's right, y'know." replied Emerl, "If I just told everyone what was on my mind way back when, I could've have prevented this from happening in the first place. So, I'm gonna say what's on my processor right now, I'm deciding on who I am right now."

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused Tails.

"Yeah, your Emerl!" Sonic added.

"I know that," Emerl replied, "but at the same time, I'm not. I have my memories, but this isn't my body. You guys gave me a second chance in life and I plan to take it, but if I'm still going to be relevant, to still have a place in the future, I need to consider what, or who I am."

Everyone listened as he was speaking.

"The memories of the past are mine, but I don't want to be tied down by them. I want to create a new future for myself, a future where I can fight for what I believe in, not just what some lousy directive that's trying to tell me what do and boss me around."

Emerl looked to the moon in the star covered night sky and finished, "I want walk a new path in my second life, the one that I've been given, to create my new future, one that is forged by my own hands."

Everyone was in awe at what was spoken.

"Then what is your answer, Gizoid?" said Vanilla, in a tone that showed that she acknowledged him as a living being, not a machine.

After a few silent moments, the Gizoid spoke, "The memoires of my former self will always be mine forever."

Everyone's ears perked up at the words, 'my former self'.

"But from here on out," Emerl began, before turning around to face his friends, the moonlight shining resplendently from his armour and continued, "I wish to be referred to as Gemerl, Emerl's reincarnation…"

Emerl, or rather, Gemerl, raised his right hand up to face level and clenched it to a determined fist as he added, "…and his successor."

Everyone smiled as they looked that their friend's optics, optics filled with same emotion he had before.

He was filled with determination.

Sonic walked up to the reborn Gizoid and held out his left hand saying, "It's good to have you back, Gemerl."

Gemerl shook Sonic's hand and said, "It's good to be back, my main hedgehog."

Soon, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Vanilla went to over to Gemerl and expressed similar sentiments.

Cream soon came up to Gemerl and leaped into him to give a hug and said with a smile, "You'll always be Emerl to me."

Gemerl's optics gleamed with joy to see the young female rabbit looking so happy again, after all the years of suffering she suffered, long after his former self's heroic self-sacrifice.

He placed Cream on Amy's shoulders so he could look at her in the eyes and said, "Ok kid. From now on, you have my personal permission to call me 'Emerl'. You are the only one who gets away with calling me by that name."

Cream smiled and leapt from Amy with a squeal of delight and hugged Gemerl again, whilst ignoring Amy's protest of, "Hey, don't you use me as a spring board!"

Everyone laughed at this and returned inside to celebrate the joyous occasion before each one returned to their homes.

Several days later…

Station Square was a bustling city, much more so after the reconstruction of the city after the Flooding of Station Square.

Within the city, Vanilla, along with Cheese, Cream, Chocola and Gemerl were walking the busy streetways, each holding a bag of shopping.

"Did we make sure that we brought everything?" asked Vanilla looking over to see her three young charges and their newly returned friend.

"Absolutely!" said Cream, who was smiling with joy.

Both Cheese and Chocola hummed the same response.

"Well, let's see." Gemerl began as held a piece of paper, "We got all the fruit and veg we need from the grocery store, all the Chao related things from the Chao shop, and all the other food, cleaning products and other things such as lightbulbs and spare clothes from the super market. So yeah, I think that's everything!"

"That's good to hear!" Vanilla replied, "Just making sure we didn't miss anything!"

"And if we do, I'll just jet back here and get it when we get back to the summer house!" Gemerl added.

Vanilla nodded and resumed looking ahead while walking.

Whilst they were walking, Cream was in deep thought about something.

She was so absorbed in her thinking, she absentmindedly hopped on to a bench they were passing through and placed her share of the shopping on the ground.

Vanilla, Gemerl and the two Chao soon realized that Cream was missing and turned to see Cream was sitting on a bench, lost in deep thought.

All four looked at each other as they realized that something was amiss, so they made their way back to the bench, Vanilla sitting on Cream's right, while Gemerl sat on her left.

Both Cheese and Chocola floated in front of her, a concerned and troubled frown visible on both the bow tied Chao's brow.

"Hey, what wrong kiddo?" ask Gemerl, not used to seeing Cream in such deep thinking.

"Is there something wrong, my child?" Vanilla asked, concerned at what would cause her daughter to trail behind.

"Do you think that Tails has managed to warn GUN about what Eggman could be planning?"

Both Vanilla and Gemerl, of course, knew that Cream was referring to the possibility that Robotnik could be manufacturing his own personal Gizoid army, and Tails has been trying to get into contact with Shadow and Rouge, GUN's top mobian agents and two members of Team Dark, so they could warn both Commander Abraham Tower and the President, who could warn the rest of the world of a potential hostile world invasion.

"I've been keeping tabs with Tails on that, but he says that no response has been made." Gemerl answered.

"But why!?" asked Vanilla, aghast at what was just said.

"It's hard to say," Gemerl replied, placing his left hand under his chin, "but Tails thinks there are a lot of members of GUN, both human and mobian, who were related to those that participated in the Ark Massacre resent Sonic and the others for what happened in the aftermath of the Space Colony Ark Conspiracy, so it's possible that those guys are deliberately trying to stifle that info and are not even trying to pass it on to Shadow and Rouge purely out of spite and enmity…"

Cream and Vanilla looked at each other with great concern.

They heard what happened on Space Colony Ark fifty years ago, and what they heard wasn't pretty…

He then added, "And I also think those same GUN members are still ticked off that Shadow showed the entire organization up at the end of the Black Arms Invasion."

Silence soon followed.

"Are you worried that Eggman could send those knockoffs out at any time and nobody will be able to stop him?" Gemerl asked.

Cream nodded

"You must not worry Cream," reassured Vanilla, "No matter what vile scheme the awful man can concoct, Sonic and his friends will always be there to stop his mad ambitions, just as they've always done."

"Yeah, she's right little lady!" Gemerl seconded, "Eggman can pull any trick he likes, it not gonna save him from the butt kicking he deserves!"

Cream smiled at this reassurance.

"In fact," Gemerl continued, "when he shows up again, the very first phoney Gizoid he sends at me, I'm gonna kick his- "

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

A scream was heard from the sky which caused the five to look up to see a female human falling the tallest building, rapidly heading towards the ground below!

"Uh oh, gotta jet!" cried Gemerl as he jumped off the bench, activated his jet pack and flew off at high speed towards the civilian, while Cream, Vanilla and both Cheese and Chocola cheered him on!

He soon reached the falling woman and grabbed her, while saying "Gotcha!".

The woman opened her eyes to looked at her rescuer who asked kindly, "Are you ok, Ma'am?"

She nodded her head and when she asked who he was, the Gizoid replied, "The names Gemerl, your friendly heroic Gizoid, at your service!"

As he flew back down with his rescuee in tow, he knew he had a new life ahead of him, a life far better than his previous one, one where him can fight for he believes in, and he was going to make the most of the second chance he had been given, a chance grated to him by the compassion and kindness of the mother of one of his dear friends.

As he touched down, he was surrounded by the other citizens who praised and congratulated him for his heroism.

As he looked on to see the smiling faces of the two rabbits and two bow tied Chao, one thought was going through his CPU.

"Man, I love being a hero!"

THE END

Disclaimer

All Sonic characters are property of Sega.

Please support the official release.

Voice Cast

VA: Mike Pollock as Dr Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik

VA: Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog

VA: Liam O' Brien as Past Gemerl/Ultimate Gemerl, CV: Archer (Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works)

VA: Dave Mitchell as Knuckles the Echidna

VA: Cindy Robinson as Amy Rose

VA: Colleen Villard as Tails the Fox

VA: Michelle Ruff as Cream the Rabbit

VA: Tara Strong as Vanilla the Rabbit, CV: Twilight Velvet (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)

VA: Liam O' Brien as Past Emerl, CV: Angel/ Warren Worthington III (Wolverine and the X-Men)

VA: Liam O' Brien as Emerl/ Gemerl, CV: Air Raid (Transformers: War for Cybertron)

A/N

VA means Voice Actor

CV means Character Voice, just to give the reader an idea on what the character that has not been voiced in the games sound like or the voices used for the 'Modern' era of earlier characters.

The Chaos Warp Incident: Sonic Advance 3

The Awakening: Sonic Battle

The Chaos Unleashed Catastrophe/The Flooding of Station Square: Sonic Adventure

The Ark Massacre/The Space Colony Ark Conspiracy: Sonic Adventure 2

The Black Arms Invasion: Shadow the Hedgehog (the video game)

The Marauder Riots: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

The Occupation: Sonic Chronicles 2 (hypothetical, sadly…)

Finished writing on 11/05/2021

Story written by H411OWED KN1GHT 64