The Soul of a Weapon

by Thrippa

Shadow, chasing fragments of the Black Comet, is knocked out by an explosion of Chaos energy and finds a being from his past haunting both his nightmares and his waking moments.

3. History of a Weapon

2. History of a Weapon

Muttering irritably to herself, Rouge piloted her small plane towards the ARK. With the first mission she'd been given there, she'd been assigned a vehicle that could handle spaceflight as well as atmospheric flight, and it had proved its worth during the Black Arms invasion. She was now returning once more to the ARK, because the trip to talk to Shadow had proven a complete failure.

When she'd arrived at the hospital, she'd been told that visiting hours were over and that she'd need to come back - but only with some proof that she was a relative; no one else would be admitted. Her government credentials had at least waived the relationship requirement, but nothing else. She couldn't even find out how he was doing because of 'patient privacy'. Nothing daunted, she'd left the building and after a bit of work on her laptop, managed to hack into the hospital database to find out a room number. The medical details were encrypted and probably beyond her anyway (why didn't doctors just speak English?), so she hadn't bothered with decoding them. With room number in mind, she'd flown to the fourth floor, counted down eight windows and peeked in. The two humans in the room were clearly not Shadow, so she'd glided to the opposite end of the building and tried again. This time she'd levered the window-latch open and landed inside; fortunately, although it was a double room, Shadow was the only patient at the moment. Unfortunately, he was completely unconscious, and a little judicious shaking failed to rouse him. A glance at the medical chart revealed the unintelligible medicalese she'd expected, but appeared to confirm that he hadn't woken up since being admitted. Rouge made one more try, whispering to him urgently and even invoking the sacred name of Maria Robotnik, but the black hedgehog didn't so much as twitch an ear. She glared at the still figure in the bed, tapping a boot toe on the linoleum. Picking up the sound of feet approaching in the hallway, she slipped back out the window, closed it behind her and set off to the airport.

Once in the air, she'd called in to her contact and learned that Sam Garret had been apprehended skulking around Emerald Beach. She was vaguely aware of the man, though she had no idea why he'd be spying on her, but his face was definitely that of the 'janitor' who'd planted the bug on her. Ah well, she'd figure that out later. Right now, she needed to get more information on this Gizoid.

Getting to the ARK proved a bit trickier than expected, due to the damage done in the Black Arms' attack. She had heard that GUN was planning to get crews up to repair the colony - though what would ultimately become of it was open to question - but the short-term response had been to tether several of the gravity switches in various areas and run the power up to maximum, to prevent any more parts from breaking loose or falling towards the Earth. Thus, Rouge had to not only avoid the floating debris, but also avoid the gravity globes' areas of effect, which didn't improve her mood any. By the time she managed to guide her ship into the docking bay, she was about ready to take someone's head off. An unfortunate GUN Beetle robot arrived to ward off the intruder, and found itself battered to bits by repeated kicks.

Rouge dusted the gloved fingertips of one hand lightly against her pink breastplate as she scanned for additional defenders, standing with one boot planted on the broken remains of the Beetle. When none appeared, she began working her way through the colony, heading for the research wing. She moved cautiously, not for fear of more robotic defenders, but in case of air leaks or other damage to the structure of the colony itself. Twice she did have to detour around areas where air-tight doors were solidly shut, and another time she backtracked of her own accord because of a peculiar odor in the air. Additionally, there were occasional corpses of Black Arms, or worse, fragments of bodies, but she ignored them and the death-smell that hovered around them. Reaching the research area at last, she hesitated, wondering which way to go. "Well let's see," she said aloud (the silence was getting on her nerves), "if I keep going this way, I can check Professor Gerald's old rooms and see if he hid anything interesting in them. Or, I can go that way," she turned her head to look at the appropriate hall, "and work my way down to the Eclipse Cannon's secret chamber. Hmm." She looked from one corridor to the other, weighing her options. She didn't even consider the 'official' colony computer, because if Gerald had anything to hide, it wouldn't be there; it would be in one of the computers he could restrict access to. Or not on a computer at all, she realized; from what she had studied about him, the Professor had been a compulsive note-taker, and scads of useless, temporary or inane info was jotted on margins of important notes, plans of his creations, and even the wall of his cell in Prison Island. Amid the calculations and everything else, he'd jotted down the menu of each meal and seasoning suggestions.

It was the possibility of hidden items that decided her, possibly because it aroused her treasure-hunting instincts. She strode decisively down the corridor, pausing briefly in the observation room right before the Professor's quarters, where she'd seen Shadow gazing pensively out at the Earth when she'd first met him. She spared the blue-and-white globe the merest glance before proceeding, though; nostalgia was something that happened to other people.

She opened the first door she came to. "Maria," she stated decisively. It was a young girl's bedroom, unmistakably. Not what she was looking for. She turned to the next door, on the opposite side of the hall. Her first reaction was professional disgust. What sort of idiots did they have searching this place!? On closer inspection, though she realized the room hadn't been searched; fifty years of neglect plus the stresses of the aborted Earth-dive and the battle with the Black Arms had merely put the finishing touches on the chaos left by a completely untidy resident. Wrinkling her nose fastidiously, Rouge began searching the room. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, but the hidden compartment behind the couch proved refractory to her initial attempts to open it. Grinning at the challenge, she settled herself on the floor beside the safe, pulled out a few useful tools, and set to work.

Her eventual reward didn't look like much. Fifty-plus years of the desert-dry air in the ARK had desiccated the leather cover to something that crumbled to powder in her hands. The endpapers and interior pages were still intact, though, brittle though they were. Rouge opened the book cautiously, and scowled to see that at least those two pages had been written in ink, now faded to lines and splotches. It looked like it should mostly be legible, but only with effort, and she wasn't fond of reading at the best of times. I'll save it for now; see if I can't find something else. But I can't carry it like this, it'll disintegrate. She glanced around the room, then stepped out into the hall. There hadn't been anything in Maria's room . . . . Door number three was clearly Shadow's bedroom, opposite that was a bathroom, and then the hall ended in a general living area. Aha! She thought triumphantly as she spotted the kitchen nook. A quick rummage through the cabinets turned up a plastic container big enough to hold the journal; she slipped it in carefully and fastened the lid. She tucked the container away, then returned to Gerald's room to finish her search.

Forty minutes later, she decided there was nothing else to find, so she sat down at the computer and flipped the power switch. The access codes for the Eclipse Cannon's computer proved to unlock this one as well, so she didn't have to work on cracking the passwords; she quickly had access to all of Gerald's public files. She set one search program to work on those, seeking the words 'Gizoid' and 'Chaos Emerald', but not expecting much of a result, while she worked at finding the Professor's private files. To her utter amazement, the public search proved successful at once; the official journal had a large amount of information on both topics. Gerald had actually entered government employ because of researches he'd done with a Chaos Emerald, while trying to create an improved power source for artificial limbs. The initial entry was noted as a summary of his prior research, done while he actually was a professor at a university. Rouge couldn't understand the more technical details of the initial report, but the important things were clear enough. Interesting. I never realized the Chaos Emeralds actually affected living things by their mere proximity. She scanned on through the entries quickly, smiling to herself at the ever increasing references to 'Dr. Bronston' who quickly became just 'Mary'. "No wonder Shadow doesn't know a female when he sees one," she said to herself, "it doesn't look like his creator did either."

She skimmed down to the initial mention of 'Gizoid', then had to back up until she found where the Professor first mentioned the robot, since he'd had it for months before identifying it. He'd had no idea what he'd found when he'd found it, apparently someone had simply dumped it in a storage warehouse for potential spare parts. Or maybe to look at later, and never gotten back to it. Regardless, Gerald had picked it up, looking for computer chips to replace ones he'd burned out trying to store Chaos energy, and been shocked to discover that it moved when brought into the vicinity of his violet Emerald and actually tried to drag itself towards it. Removal to an adjacent lab had returned the robot to its inert state. No wonder Eggman couldn't get anything out of it, if he didn't have a Chaos Emerald on hand. Or perhaps he tried to power it with one of those shards? She pulled out the shard she'd collected from the smashed Phi. Even in its fragmented form, the crystal glowed like a firefly, brightening and dimming while the color shifted subtly from yellow to gold, and on into orange, then back towards yellow again. She put it away again, and returned to her reading, wishing he'd filmed himself like he had for his put-down of Black Doom and his final words.

So, Professor Gerald had never himself found out where the Gizoid had come from, only that it had been entered into inventory with an ancient stone tablet. He and Dr. Bronston had discovered that both the materials and the circuitry were completely unlike anything modern humans or dokan had made, and that the thing was incredibly ancient, older even than the Echidnan Empire's collapse. The tablet had been sold to a dokan museum, so the two scientists had taken a trip south into the dokan lands to see it. (Gerald had finally realized that he was head-over-heels for Mary.) They'd made a brief detour at Mary's insistence to inspect a new phenomenon that was occurring in the dokan lands, but later spread world-wide. Now that's interesting. This says those golden rings only appeared then, they hadn't existed before. Rouge made a note of that; it wasn't what she was looking for, but it might be valuable. She read on, to where Gerald recovered the tablet, skipping over the parts where he despaired of getting a useful translation. The Gizoid, which meant 'everything' . . . a figure or person falling from the stars . . . the destruction of the Fourth Great Civilization. . . a winged island, which he estimated predated the Echidnan Empire by two thousand years. Also, the 'power stones', critical for the functioning of the puppet, which was also called the 'Ultimate Being'. The bat laughed out loud at that. Shadow's not as unique as he thought! Or do I mean original? Rouge also recognized several of the things in the diary from her treasure-hunting background. The writing he described sounded like the Babylonian cuneiform, which was used by several cities in that area, at least two of which - including Babylon itself - were supposed to have possessed great 'magic' or technology. Rouge had seen the writing herself, prowling the ruins of one of the cities, and collected a cache of very valuable jewelry, apparently hidden by a thief and forgotten or lost.

She worked her way through the computerized diary until her stomach informed he it was way past time to eat. Rummaging for the provisions she'd brought, she returned to the living area, and was pleased to find that the microwave still worked. She returned to the computer afterwards. Skimming further, the Gizoid seemed to have vanished from the records. Finally the name popped up again, when the Gerald (now married with two sons) returned to ARKauai; the Professor had hid the robot right back where he'd found it, returning it to the junk sheds for six years. Determined to prevent the weapon from becoming a hazard, he intended to form a Link with it and prevent its obeying anyone else. Installing his Chaos Emerald in the thing, he was amazed when it actually tried to speak to him, but proceeded with his plan, showing him several stun-gun prototypes which were all that his conscience had allowed him to make. The Gizoid, which had apparently absorbed the English language during its prior time in the lab, seemed to find that acceptable and declared that it would follow his commands and never leave his side. So, that's how you form a Link, noted the bat, you show it either physical or mechanical power. I wonder why the Doctor was muttering about Chaos Emeralds and key words? The Emeralds power it, but it apparently only needs one to form a Link. The journal indicated that fighting moves would have been as effective had the scientist known any. Shortly after, Gerald denied the President's initial request to research eternal youth and health, ranting in his diary about how it violated natural human limits, and also his fears about its potential for racial strife it the government withheld such a discovery from the dokan. Well, that certainly was a possibility, conceded Rouge. There wasn't much institutional racism, largely due to the separation of the human and dokan nations, but there were plenty of individuals on both sides who disliked or despised the other side for one reason or another.

The bat hissed in irritation as the next several years' worth of entries dealt with some sort of polymorphic cell, then Gerald's grief over Mary's unexpected death. For a few months it seemed he'd already gone mad, as the entries became vague and distraught, then suddenly they snapped back into focus again, so tightly that Rouge couldn't believe that no one had foreseen the problems ahead. She shivered slightly, feeling a chill. Gerald was so wrapped up in his infant granddaughter, Maria, it was obvious that if anything happened to her he would go mad.

Rouge had to get up and pace. She scowled in annoyance at herself. Not only was this not happening to her, it wasn't happening at all - it was the mere memory of something that had happened and been done with fifty years before she was born. Finally she forced herself back to the computer. There seemed to be little else to learn at this point; the majority of the diary was now devoted to Maria, although the Space Colony ARK was planned out and hammered at various supervisors and coworkers as an alternate research facility, to prevent further accidents such as the one that had killed Mary. Reading between the lines, Rouge suspected it was also a way to get the Gizoid out of easy view, as apparently several researchers had been asking about it. Its circuitry was adapted to create the Chaos drives, and then to power the Artificial Chaos robots that guarded the new ARK, while the Gizoid was set to carving out new chambers in the asteroid the space colony was being constructed on. Another dull spot: Maria got sick, was diagnosed with NIDS; Gerald accepted charge of Project: Shadow; the Biolizard; Chaos rats (that was new to Rouge, she'd never heard of Chaos rats); the Heal Units. Rouge smothered a yawn. Maria's parents moved up to the ARK, left to investigate an unusual comet, and died when their shuttle inexplicably exploded. References to a boy named 'Mokie', who was apparently one of Maria's friends. Maria's health crashed, Gerald decided the Biolizard wasn't suitable, nor the rats, and after much agonizing decided on a dokan hedgehog because of a friend of his who possessed the uncommon curling gene. Hmm, wonder if this 'Rafe Curl' is any relation to Sonic? He can do the curl thing, too. Then GUN tried to remove all the researchers from the ARK. Gerald argued that Maria's treatment could not be continued on Earth, and won the right to stay. The new Project: Shadow was modified from the hedgehog embryo in storage, and modeled after - Rouge blinked in shock - modeled after an old mosaic that Gerald had found on Angel Island. The white bat grinned, she'd seen that mural once, right before Knuckles had chased her out of the underground palace. So Shadow was supposed to have been gold . . . . I wonder if he knows that? Also, the Eclipse Cannon was designed and built. Black Doom must have turned up, although I don't see any mention of him. Still, Gerald probably knew that 'private' is a meaningless term in government work. He wouldn't have committed anything treasonous to a computer log. The Gizoid was rarely mentioned, but appeared to be still reduced to a common serving 'bot. Then the Biolizard went berserk, and the artificial Chaos along with her. The latter were shut down and the former put into stasis. And now again came motions to shut down the facility, and Gerald handed the Gizoid over to GUN. He dropped it off on ARKauai on his way to visit his new grandson Ivo. Rouge didn't make the connection at first, but when Gerald noted that the bald infant looked like an egg, it clicked, and she laughed aloud that Eggman's nom de guerre was inspired by a nickname was given by his grandfather. But now events came fast; the Gizoid was shown guns that were more powerful than Gerald's little stun toys, and switched its Link to the new researchers. They fed it weaponry info until it suddenly went berserk, and destroyed nearly the entire installation on Kauai. Professor Robotnik was hauled to Prison Island to answer for the robot's behavior and to repair it. Now, Gerald noted in his diary a line from the tablet: 'When the Gizoid had learned all that it could, it became a god of wrath and all was destroyed.' And speculated that had the robot possessed all seven Chaos Emeralds instead of just the one, the entire planet might have been destroyed. The Professor made several attempts to destroy the robot, but was unable to do so, so he set out to reprogram the AI to be emotion-based and free willed, apparently hoping that a robot that could feel fear and joy would be better able to resist the lure of destruction, if such destruction might put those it cared about at risk. And free will, of course, would mean that it couldn't be simply ordered to cause mayhem. (Rouge had a sudden vision of Omega, who was - intentionally or not - a free-willed, emotional robot created by Gerald's grandson who was very much in favor of mayhem, at least as it applied to Eggman and his other robots.)

And then, Gerald got the news about the ARK disaster, complete with a teary-eyed speech from the soldier who had supposedly stood by Maria's side as she died, killed by Project: Shadow when it went berserk. He reported the tale he was told word for word . . . and that was essentially the end of the diary. Rouge knew, from Shadow, what had really happened at the end, that the soldiers had shot the child in cold blood and she had been dead before they got to her, but she had to admit it was a pretty little story. So tragic, and the last request of the dying girl, 'bring hope to humanity'. Not quite what she'd said to Shadow, but similar enough that it had probably fit her personality. Rouge wondered if Gerald had really believed the story. There was only one more entry, and it sounded like a farewell. In thoughtful silence the bat shut the computer down and headed back to her ship. She'd look at the notebook tomorrow, after she'd gotten a good night's sleep.

As it turned out, she didn't get to the written journal the next day; she decided she'd better go to the beach first to see if the robot was still there, or if Eggman really had retrieved it. She put on the sunhat and sunglasses she'd worn during the trip to Eggman's canyon base, but neither helped as much as she would have liked. Even the sight of the mysterious gold rings strung in midair along the beach failed to raise her spirits, although she remembered that Professor Gerald had written that they were a version of Chaos energy. She glided along the beach, squinting against the glare, and ducked quickly behind an empty lifeguard's stand when she spotted a cloud of sand approaching.

Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of the planet, was acting like the idiot he was. His initial sprint along a line of the golden rings morphed into some sort of shadow boxing, then he stopped near one of the outcrops of rock that were scattered along the otherwise sandy beach. Rouge abandoned her hiding spot and flew to the top of the rock.

She was just in time to hear Sonic sigh. "Man, I'm so bored." Rouge raised an eyebrow at the comment. It had been less than a month since the Black Arms invasion, and most of the intervening time had been punctuated by pieces of the Black Comet smashing to Earth. She knew that Sonic had nearly gotten himself flattened by one of the earlier ones. 'Boring' was not a word most people would apply to recent events. Although that may be the problem. He's not completely stupid, and I suppose it's not easy for someone as impatient as he is to sit by and watch other people dealing with something he can't do anything about. Then the hedgehog below her perked up, looking at something she couldn't see near another one of the outcrops. "Hmm?" she heard him say. "What's this?" He went halfway around the rock and exclaimed, "It's a robot!"

So much for finding it herself. Still, at least Eggman hadn't beaten her to it. She glided to the next outcrop and found a smooth spot where she could stretch out on her front and see without being seen. Besides, Sonic's almost as easy as Knuckles to work around. Possibly easier in this instance, because he's so easygoing he won't see the harm in telling the robot to listen to me, whereas Knuckles would be suspicious of anything I said. She watched and listened as the blue hedgehog asked the robot if it was all right. It really did look like Eggman's Phi robot; except that the former had been new, shiny silver and this one was a weathered gold and tan, they were practically identical. A faint hissing or buzzing sound came from the device, barely loud enough for the bat to hear. It certainly looked more like a piece of junk than an all-powerful weapon.

Sonic sat back on his heels and scratched an ear. "I wonder if it's busted," he mused. He reached forward, tracing a line down the amber chest. A much brighter shade of yellow marked the track his glove had taken. Looking at his now-filthy fingertip, he snorted. "Look at all this dust. I wonder how long it's been here." He looked around, leaning back a bit to scan up and down the beach past the rocks, but didn't look up. He shook the robot sharply. "Hey! Are you all right?" he demanded again, loudly.

Rouge smothered her own snort. Really, Sonic. Yelling at it is hardly going to– wait! She blinked and wiggled a bit closer. She couldn't tell in the sunlight if there was a glow in the robot's eyes, but the head was slowly turning left, then reversed and tracked back to the right.

"Hey! It's moving now!" exclaimed the hedgehog. "Need any help?" He started trying to pull the battered android to its feet. "Can you walk by yourself?"

The robot buzzed a bit louder. Rouge scowled, trying to figure out what had activated it. Inspiration hit, and she pulled a small device out of the pouch on her belt. A glance at the tiny screen confirmed her hunch. Bingo. Sonic's got some sort of Chaos energy residue, maybe from those rings he was picking up, maybe just 'cause it's him. Not much, but it must be enough to minimally activate the robot. I wonder if Shadow would have the same effect on it? She shoved the last thought away. Why was she thinking about Shadow now? She needed to see what Sonic was going to do with the robot. She'd bet her gem collection he'd haul it off to the fox boy.

"Can't speak, eh?" the hedgehog was asking the robot. It was upright, but only staying that way with his help. "Well, it figures. Can't expect much from ol' Eggman. Well, let's get you over to Tails' first, so we can help you out!"

Rouge mentally congratulated herself, then froze as the robot's buzzing suddenly became static-lashed words. "Show. . . . . .power. . . or I sh . . .all ob . . . ey . . . . Sha . . . ll conqu . . . r a . . . ll. . ." it rasped.

"Huh? What did you say? Show my power? Like this?" Laughing, the blue hedgehog raised a fist and generated a brief flare of Chaos energy. Fortunately the robot's crackling response kept Sonic from hearing the alarm generated by Rouge's Chaos detector. She hastily switched it off.

"What! Whoa!" exclaimed Sonic as the robot somehow seemed to grow slightly, becoming steadier on its feet and somehow more focused. "I sha . . .ll not . . . represent . . .and become. . . of all . . ." it crackled.

The puzzled hedgehog shook his head, muttering. Rouge missed the first part, but heard "I wonder if this thing can even be fixed. I better take it to Tails before it blows up." To the robot, he added, "Tails' house is north of town. Follow me!" He dashed off, then returned before the robot had completed its first slow step. Shaking his head he grabbed the robot by one arm and dragged it off up the beach.

Rouge sat up. Looks like I arrived a little too late. It must have established a 'Link' when Sonic generated that Chaos burst. But with Sonic? What a strange choice - I wouldn't have thought he'd bother with an old robot, except maybe as target practice.

Oh well, that won't stop the government's best agent from completing her mission! I'll just have to convince Sonic to tell the robot I'm in charge. She'd let him get it to Tails first, though; she didn't fancy having to haul the thing around the city because it was unable to walk.