A multitude of voices. Hers was one of them. All together, they murmured and chattered amongst themselves, like a whispering crowd in a theater. She could barely pick out her own thoughts amongst them, and the buzzing in the back of her head felt like it was supposed to be a voice. Whether hers or someone else's, she could not tell.

She then tried to close her eyes, but a bright light remained superimposed on her retinas. Where was that light coming from? Was the buzzing coming from the light, too? And where were the voices coming from? She could hear them all whispering around her, but she could not see their source. A cold sense of dread began creeping up her spine as she tried to focus in on a single voice, but to no avail.

"What happened to me...?"

Memories flooded her mind. Badniks swarming her and others at a small hotel. Being dragged off during the night. Being shocked into unconsciousness when she fought back too much.

"Eggman. He did this to me," she hissed, watching as images of the mad doctor flashed before her eyes. His laughter filled her ears and made her blood run hot with anger. The voices around her began to grow as they clamored together, becoming louder and louder with each passing second.

The buzzing seemed to be directing the other voices, leading chatter. The controller, then. Why couldn't she hear it? All she could make out was that distant, droning buzzing. Where was it coming from? And that light - was it beginning to fade?

Feeling, or a mockery of it, began to spark in her limbs and she twitched. Her eyes flew open, but she was unable to focus on her surroundings. All she saw was a vague, blurry facade of a dark room filled with blinking lights and dials. A large silhouette blocked some of the room. Probably Eggman. For as blurry as he was, she was able to make out that he was facing away from her, clicking away at the computer in front of him and paying no mind to his surroundings. It was probably best to not draw attention to herself, she decided, and nearly closed her mechanized eyes. Enough to not draw attention to herself, but still giving herself a clear line of sight to Eggman's location. If he moved or left the room, she would know and he would be none the wiser.

She tuned in to what he was saying, sure it couldn't be anything good.

"-So far, the project has been a success," Eggman said, a wicked grin on his face. "The first of the cyborgs is nearly complete, and there have been no hiccups in my testing thus far. I think this is the start of my most successful project to date."

"Those things scare the wits out of me, Uncle Ivo. What's so special about them?"

Things? The renegade wanted to come to life and fight right then.

"I created them to be weapons, nephew. But more than that, they are my first attempt at fusing living tissue with machinery instead of simply replacing it all. That, Snively, is why they're so special. These "things" aren't just weapons at my beck and call, they're among the first wave of cyborgs! And they have the technology to let them do the same thing to others built right into them."

"That would save a lot of time when it comes to roboticization," Snively commented thoughtfully. "You're a genius, Uncle Ivo!"

Eggman chuckled darkly. "Once this first wave of cyborgs is complete, I think I'll take them out on a little test run. Let's make a bet, shall we? I'd wager that my cyborgs will have what it takes to finally catch and neutralize that annoying blue blur! He won't know what hit him!"

Blue blur... Sonic? The renegade didn't want to fight Sonic! There was no way she was staying around here.

Eggman then stood from his chair, a fiendish grin on his face. "I'll have the first wave done by morning. Then you'll see the true extent of what I've created. See you then, nephew." Eggman then ended the transmission and switched his computer off, swiftly vacating the nearly pitch black room and leaving the unfinished cyborg by her lonesome.

The renegade waited a few minutes after Eggman had left and broke the container she was in. "Ugh..." she groaned, clumsily stumbling to the cold floor below. Her legs were weak and shaky, and a strange fatigue made her entire body ache. She could immediately tell what didn't belong on her. Her left arm, now a mockery of a limb fashioned from metal and wires that connected to her flesh at the base of her shoulder. Her eyes, which were being flooded with input and scans of the area. Her tail, which she could hardly feel anymore. Her lower legs, made from steel and holding up the rest of this twisted body. She stifled a horrified gasp and threw a metal hand up to her mouth to silence herself. Her mechanized lenses flitted about, trying to make sense of what was in front of her.

I'm hideous.

The thought rushed into her head so quickly that it shocked even her. She shuddered and held herself, wincing as her metallic joints scraped and creaked with every movement. She wished to have some light, and her eyes lit up, providing two awkward flashlights in her head. She blinked rapidly and looked about the room to get her bearings, trying to keep her mind off her disfigured body.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long as her glowing eyes fell upon a set of chambers that stood next to her own. Inside were other Mobians, all asleep, and all cut apart and remade like she'd been. Shock wrote itself on her face.

"Oh f*ck..." she breathed, her heart clambering into her throat. 49 Mobians were lined up like soldiers taking their vigil, all trapped in suspended animation. "Wh- I gotta wake them up!"

Thinking quickly, she whirled around on her heel and set her sights on the main computer. Lunging towards its controls, she booted up the computer- Eggman had been careless not locking it- and began desperately clicking through the files in search of a way to free the 49 Mobians from their stasis. Finally, an icon popped up in the files. A single red X. The renegade clicked on it, and the room was filled with an interactive interface that connected to all the drones, including herself.

"What the…?" She momentarily marveled at the interface before getting right back to searching for a way to free her fellow Mobians. But as she scoured the interface, she came across something else instead. In the bottom right of the holographic display, there was a small icon of a USB flash drive that was simply labeled as "Back-Up." It was easily overlooked, borderline insignificant, but something about it drew her attention nonetheless.

"Back-Up...?" She opened it and looked it over; a perfect duplicate of the interface before her. This looked like it could be important; she activated it and the voices seemed to get twice as loud. "Another connection? I'm keeping this." Without another word, she downloaded the interface and watched as the duplicate was securely saved directly to her own software. With the network safe, she backed out of the interface and began looking elsewhere in the program. After a moment, she closed it and fiddled with it a bit until the option to delete it appeared. She selected it, and the buzzing stopped, replaced by a mechanical voice.

"Project Cyber online. Hello, Unit 1. What are your orders?"

"Wh-" It took her a moment to realize that the computer was talking directly to her. She looked up at the ominous blue screen as it seemingly gazed back at her. "...can you wake up the others? We have to get out of here."

"Of course, Unit 1. Disengaging Stasis Chambers now."

The chambers opened, and the 49 other cyborgs collapsed to the floor. A few moments later, Unit 1 could hear them groaning, their thoughts becoming more clear.

What's going on?

Where am I?

What happened?

I wanna go home!

What the- am I a cyborg?!

"Everyone, calm down," Unit 1 said gently, steadily approaching the confused Mobians. "I know this is a lot-"

A lot? Look at us!

What has happened to us?

Where are we?

"One of Eggman's bases. He did this to us. I got us out of his network and formed a new one between us."

The roboticized Mobians all murmured in response, and Unit 1 could feel the uncertainty growing amongst them.

What do we do now?

"We have to get out of here. If Eggman comes back, he'll be able to put us back under control. No one should be able to control us."

The gathered Mobians murmured their agreement, and the discordant buzzing in Unit 1's mind became a single, unified hum.

"Computer, do you know if Eggman has any ships? We gotta get out of here."

"He has a few here. I will help you commandeer them."

"Then let's go."

A multitude of voices. Hers was one of them. Right now, they all sang the same tune, and Unit 1 was oddly okay with the arrangement.