Hey everyone! Time for another chapter! But first, review time!

Void Reader: Robotnik's appearance in the story certainly changes things, as for his dynamic with the group, you'll have to read and see!

Perturbo: The help on that scene was amazing! Makes things much better! Really happy with the chapter overall!

1TGN: Knuckles leaving the trio is certainly a bit of a change back to how things used to be. Sonic and Tails' interactions really show just how much Sonic cares for the fox, even if he's a bit of a monster. As for how things go with Robotnik, you'll have to read to find out!

That's everyone! Time to get this chapter going!

Nightstalkers

Robotic Reflections

"I don't get visitors often out here, and especially not during a blizzard so you'll have to ignore the mess." The man spoke, gesturing to the room around them. "But I figure it's better than freezing out there. I will say, you three gave me quite a surprise when you set off the sensors around the sanctuary. Had me convinced you were a pack of monsters out there."

"So you're the one that let us in?" Sally asked, "How'd you know we weren't monsters?"

"Well, just because I'm in here doesn't mean I'm completely blind to what's happening outside. Some cameras trained on the entrance told me everything I needed to know."

"What even is this place?" Tails added.

"I like to think of it as a personal sanctuary, somewhere I can get some work done without those blasted monsters interrupting me. But, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask what you three are doing here?"

"We're out here looking for something and we got led here." Sally responded, "Just didn't expect the snowstorm…"

"You wouldn't happen to be searching for this would you?"

The man reached into the folds of his cloak and produced a large gemstone, about the size of his palm. The gem had a deep purple hue to it, and it was almost cone-like in shape. A faint glow radiated from it, barely visible as it reflected against the metal of the man's robotic hand.

The trio immediately recognized it as a Chaos Emerald…

Seeing their surprised expressions, Robotnik continued. "I do believe we're here for the same thing, and that we have a common enemy. You see, I've been doing quite a bit of research on these gemstones myself."

"What kind of research?" Tails asked.

"I've been trying to figure out what exactly they are, and more importantly, why they were so essential to seal away a god… I'm sure if you've heard about these gemstones you've heard about Hizarn being sealed away before, it was through some power contained within the stones that it was even possible… I've been trying to find out how to harness that power to its fullest, I've already figured out how to use it as a power supply, but tapping into its full potential has proven to be a challenge…"

"Well, what are you going to do with it?" Tails continued, looking over some of the tables around the workshop. Mechanical contraptions like these had always fascinated the fox, especially given that he'd assembled the pistol holstered on his waist, as well as the modifications to Sonic's dagger.

"Why, fulfill the prophecy of course. Given that you three are here and looking for Chaos Emeralds, I'm sure you've heard the prophecy before, that a hero of legend will come to seal Hizarn away once more… Well, I've done some work of my own in fulfilling that myself…"

As if on command, one of the doorways connected to the workshop opened. From within the dark hallway behind, a pair of glowing red digital eyes looked at the trio of mobians as a mobian-like form emerged from the darkness.

The machine had the appearance of a blue mobian hedgehog. Blue metal plating covered much of the surface of the robot, including its silver-gray colored mechanical limbs. A brown cloak wrapped around the machine, and a black hilted silver colored sword rested at its side.

The thing that instantly caught the trio's attention, however, was the green colored Chaos Emerald embedded in the machine's chest.

"Behold, the Hero of Legend!" Robotnik spoke, gesturing toward the automaton. "After countless hours of studying the stories of Hizarn being sealed away before, I constructed this machine, one built to replicate that hero, to fulfill the prophecy, and finally seal Hizarn away for good!"

Sonic had some trouble even focusing on what the roboticist had to say, as his attention was completely gripped by the machine in front of him. As much as he wanted to deny the destiny Minerva had presented to him, he couldn't help but feel he was looking into a mirror… The machine's red electronic eyes stared deep into Sonic's soul.

This robot was him, or rather, what he could become.

"Of course, it's going to require either figuring out how exactly to tap into the Chaos Emerald's power, or we're simply going to need more of them! But for now, I figure it's time I showed you three to your quarters. Can't have you going back out into that blizzard to freeze!"

The scientist ushered the trio toward an elevator at the back of the workshop as Tails tried to get a good look at all the different projects scattered across the tables.

"You'll be escorted to a spot to stay until the storm passes, and perhaps you three could be of help in my research, but that'll have to be figured out later. Make yourselves at home." Robotnik spoke as the trio entered the elevator and the door shut behind them.

The group of Mobians finally had a second to themselves as the elevator started to ascend.

"He seems nice," Tails commented.

"Almost too nice…" Sonic responded, "Something's going on here, and I'm not quite sure what…"

"He's obviously managed to learn a lot about Hizarn and the whole prophecy." Sally added, "Maybe he'll know something to help us locate Chaos Emeralds, if he's found two already, that's two less we need to find, and he probably knows a bit about how to track them down."

"I don't think he's just going to give up the two he's got…"

"So maybe we need to locate others first and return here afterward."

"That smoke led us here," Sonic continued. "So there's got to be something we can do…"

The door to the elevator opened as it finished its ascent, ending the conversation. Immediately, the mobians were met by a red colored robot with glowing blue slats for eyes. His head and body were formed by two interconnecting halves of a sphere, implying that it could retract into a ball of sorts if necessary. Next to him was a second similar robot, except this one was yellow and was cube shaped.

"Greetings!" The red robot said. "You must be the three new arrivals. I'm Orbot, and this is my colleague Cubot."

"Hello!" The yellow robot spoke, giving a very over exaggerated wave to the trio.

"We'll be leading you three to your quarters, where you can stay until the storm outside passes. However, I will say that the access to it is closed with a DNA based lock, which means in order to allow you unrestricted access to your rooms, we'll need to take a blood sample from each of you. It'll just be a small prick, just for safety precautions of course."

Orbot motioned the group over to a nearby hydraulic door with a terminal of sorts in front of it. "If you could please put one of your fingers on the white circle, it'll take a sample, after that, we can use that sample to read your DNA from just the surface. It's getting the data that's the hard part…"

Sonic looked over to the terminal, spotting the small glowing white circle that had appeared on its display. He removed his glove and gingerly set one of his fingers on the spot indicated. A sharp prick almost instantly came from the device, and he jerked his hand back in surprise.

"Sorry about that." Orbot responded, "But there's not a better way to do this."

The other two mobians repeated the process after Sonic, prompting similar responses from the three of them.

"Excellent, now that information should be uploaded to the database, so now, if you simply place your hand on the terminal, it should give you access to your quarters. If there's anything else you need, please just let us know."

The hydraulic door opened as the two robots started back toward the elevator, leaving the trio to themselves once again. Figuring there wasn't anything better to do, they decided to take a look at their quarters.

Inside was more or less what they'd expected, in fact, it was similar to the place they'd stayed on Angel Island. It wasn't much outside of a place to stay, but it was better than freezing outside.

Now in relative privacy, Tails removed his headband and sat down on the edge of one of the beds. He'd been finding himself wearing his headband less and less frequently as of late as he grew accustomed to not having to hide his identity around the other Freedom Fighters.

"It's nice of Robotnik to give us somewhere to stay here." Tails began as he surveyed the room.

"Yeah, but maybe Sonic's right about this… Something's wrong here… This is just too nice…"

"What are you thinking about Sonic?" The fox continued, looking over at the hedgehog, who seemed to have something on his mind.

Sonic didn't respond for a second as he finished his thought. "Why did that robot look just like me?"

"Well, you do remember what Minerva said right?"

"I know Tails, but I'm not some hero… Just drop it, alright!?"

Tails' surprise at Sonic snapping back at him quickly turned into sadness as his gaze drifted downward in defeat. "Okay…"

"Tails I'm sorry, it's just been a stressful day. I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm sorry."

"You're alright," The Nightspawn replied, seemingly cheering up a bit.

"It's just… Weird…"

"Well, I don't think it's something we can figure out right now." Sally continued, "But one thing's for sure, something is going on here, and I'm not sure it's something good."

The other two agreed as they took some time to rest in their quarters as they waited for the storm to clear…

-X-

"Here are the DNA samples you wanted," Orbot said as he entered into Robotnik's workshop, his yellow cube shaped companion trailing closely behind as he carried a few small vials, each containing one of the three blood samples taken at the terminal outside the Freedom Fighter's quarters.

"Excellent," Robotnik responded from his computer chair, the robotic Hero of Legend standing next to him. "Let's see what we have here…"

The scientist retrieved the trio of samples and set them on his desk.

"Hmmmm…" He mused, considering each of the unlabeled vials before grabbing one. "We'll try this one first."

He passed the vial to the stoic robotic hedgehog next to him and the machine carefully let a single drop of blood fall into an intake atop the desk. It wasn't long before the results appeared on Robotnik's display.

"Well, standard mobian chipmunk DNA structure, not really much of note here…"

The scientist continued to scroll through his data though nothing else of note seemed to jump out at him.

"See, this is why we stopped using organic subjects, DNA test results are always so inconclusive… Moving to machine testing has been far better than anything Project Zero could have ever dreamed of…"

"We're glad for it sir," Orbot added.

"I mean besides," Robotnik continued, gesturing to the robotic hedgehog next to him. "This machine could have taken down that lab rat we were using before a hundred times over without even trying!"

He continued scrolling through the data a bit more before deciding there wasn't anything else of worth. "Well, not much out of the ordinary here, let's try the next sample."

Closing the data and handing one of the two remaining vials to the robotic hedgehog, it wasn't long until the next set of results appeared on the screen.

"How many times do I have to tell you…" Robotnik began, turning to Orbot and Cubot. "Make sure to completely clean the vials! There's Nightstalker DNA in these results!"

"But sir, that's a new vial!" Orbot responded.

"Then how is there-" Robotnik continued before stopping himself mid sentence as he turned to his monitor. Now that he looked a bit closer, the Nightstalker DNA wasn't just trace amounts. In fact, it seemed to have perfectly meshed with the rest of the mobian DNA.

"Fascinating… The DNA isn't just leftovers… It's actually part of the fox's genetic makeup!"

"But what does that mean?" Cubot asked.

"It means… The fox has got a bit more to his parentage than he's letting on. I've always wanted a chance to study a half breed like this since I learned about the possibility of their existence. Interesting for sure… But maybe that will come after what we're really here for…"

Grabbing the third and final vial, he turned it over to the mechanical hedgehog, and it wasn't long until the final set of results were on the screen.

"Well, that's certainly not something I was expecting…" Robotnik continued, "It seems like the hedgehog has a natural connection to Chaos Energy. While that's not uncommon for species like the echidnas, it is quite strange for a hedgehog like him…"

"But why is that important?" Cubot asked.

"It's important because the original Hero of Legend was capable of that as well. But we're going to have to run a few more testing exercises to see exactly how that manifests in our hedgehog friend…"

Robotnik leaned back in his chair, "But that can wait until tomorrow when this storm blows over, then, we'll see what this hedgehog is really capable of…"

Alright everyone, that's it for this chapter! Let me know what you thought about it in a review! Until next time!