v. The Gizoid

On their return to Kauai, Mary started an intensive study of the rings, which appeared to be formed of solidified Chaos energy, while Gerald became absorbed in translating the stone tablet that had been discovered with the robot.

The stone tablet proved to be a great challenge. It was not written in the glyphs of the Echidnan Empire, which were well researched and reasonably well understood; but in a cuneiform type of script that was much harder to decipher. It seemed to trace to the earliest days of civilization in the Babylon region - an era when humans and dokan had both apparently lived in the area. Gerald managed to determine that there had been a metal - doll? - or puppet, called... Gizoid? Or perhaps "Everything". A figure falling from the stars or the sky...something about the Fourth Civilization ending. And here, as in the Echidnan legends, were magic stones from the gods, although these seem to have had the power to affect time as well, and something about a flying island, or a city with wings; although this predated the disaster that created Angel Island by nearly three thousand years. The important thing was that the stones apparently had powered the Gizoid puppet, which appeared to be the same being as the robot he had found. The Ultimate Being was another term that apparently applied to it.

The translations having reached a point where he needed more language research, he returned to studying the robot itself, hooking it up to a computer and trying to access any information that might be stored inside. The resulting avalanche of data crashed three mainframes in a row, despite the increasing safeguards he tried with each consecutive attempt. After observing the emerald's increased glow in the Gizoid's presence and the Gizoid's apparent attempts to reach the gem, he placed the emerald in one of the sockets behind the chest plate. With the chaos emerald actually seated in its frame, the robot became far more mobile, and clumsily followed Gerald around the lab, mimicking his movements until he commanded it to stop. What data he had managed to salvage revealed an incredible amount of information about ancient weapons and combat techniques; apparently this Gizoid really was trying to absorb and imitate everything that went on around it. Gerald was appalled to realize that he had uncovered a being that was supposed to have destroyed the Fourth Great Civilization - and alarmed by the realization that it could absorb modern weapons and techniques just as easily. At least, he thought, there was only the one Chaos Emerald, the Gizoid's true power seemed to require all the stones of the gods...

He did not actually take the stone tablet on their honeymoon, nor Mary her rings - she'd discovered that dropping them around the stalk of a plant sufficed to keep them from vanishing. She did however wear two to the wedding - an event that Gerald came perilously close to missing; Scott Baleff practically had to drag Gerald out of the lab in time to change and make it to the chapel. They were married on Kauai, in the ARK's chapel. They had tried to no avail to get permission for the dokan to come, but the government got stubborn and would not release visas to the mainland (and certainly not to a secret research center). So, they were married on the island where most of their human friends were, followed by a trip to Gerald's ancestral estate. He took great delight in showing a rather shocked Mary just how rich a husband she'd captured. Then they left the estate once again in the hands of the accountants and caretakers and returned to the research that both found far more intriguing than mere money.

A fresh look at the tablet and a few new references enabled Gerald to improve his translation. "Gizoid" was both the name of the puppet/robot and the word for "everything". The Gizoid would absorb everything that its master offered it, knowledge, attacks and energy. Retranslating the "falling figure" section yielded the statement "When the figure falls from the heavens, and the Stone of the Gods is joined, all that exists will become one again." To its master it promised absolute obedience; and he worried that someone else might form the critical bond with it and use it for evil ends. He began focusing his attention on discovering how to become the master, or perhaps prevent the bond from being formed, to enable him to retain control over the being.

During this search, life reared its head in a rather literal fashion; a delighted Mary brought him news that they were pregnant. As there were no proper child-related facilities on the island, they arranged to be transferred to a lab on the mainland. Gerald now was assigned to create actual vehicles and patrol robots to utilize his chaos drives; off of Kauai, they had to postpone their more innovative research. Before they left the island, Gerald retrieved the Chaos Emerald and hid the Gizoid back in the warehouse. He still needed to find a way to render it harmless before another researcher discovered its secrets. Therefore he took the stone tablet to the mainland with him as well as the emerald: the latter as precaution against anyone else using it, and the former to search for a clue to the Gizoid's possible permanent control - or destruction.

Things almost fell apart their third day at Central City Labs, though. Gerald stormed in with a scowl that would have made a Knuckles proud. Mary looked at him in alarm. "What's wrong, Gerald? You look ready to spit nails!"

Gerald dropped heavily into a seat, ignoring the protesting creak. "Those...those... SOLDIERS!" He pronounced it as if it were a string of four-letter words. "They're telling me that I have to arm these things, they want to use MY creations to kill anyone who disagrees with them, or just doesn't see things the way they do. They challenged MY loyalty, simply because I consider it wrong to kill people on a whim!" His complaints degenerated into a sort of growl.

Mary stepped behind him, resting her hands on his shoulders. She had wondered a few times how Gerald had ended up working for GUN, given his views on violence. However, this seemed a rather poor time to bring that up. She began to rub lightly at the tension in his muscles. "Well," she pointed out reasonably, "these are supposed to be guard units for important areas. Perhaps they'd let you develop some sort of stun weapons? Then the robots could stop intruders before they could damage things or threaten anyone, while still leaving them unharmed for questioning or in case of mistaken identity. You could ask at least. After all, they'll get more information from a live prisoner than a dead body."

Gerald growled again, but without as much force. The tension seemed to be draining from his mind as she rubbed it out of his shoulders. He didn't like it - the military could replace the stunners with real weapons easily enough. But then, they could have added weapons to his designs themselves fairly easily as well. Perhaps, if he had the guard robots and vehicles built with stun bolts they'd let at least some of them remain, which would be that many fewer that were lethal. He was supposed to be designing things to help people! How had he ended up working for the military? He tipped his head back to look up at her. "I suppose you're right." He smiled and consciously relaxed his muscles. "What would I do without you?"

"Whatever you had to," Mary smiled back and leaned over to kiss his forehead. She determined privately to speak to the research head and try to get Gerald reassigned to the prosthetics department. It was more appropriate to both his talents and his ethics. Gerald, being Gerald, would never ask to be transferred, he'd just sit and steam until something blew; which left it up to her to try and avert disaster.

Gerald managed to hand in his revised designs, with the stunners built in to the units. In return, he received a transfer to the bio-prosthetics unit. Once again designing artificial limbs and extremities, utilizing the ultra-light materials Mary had replicated or created based off the Gizoid's components and trying to develop a micro-chaos drive to power them, he was much happier. He had always felt that the best use of technology was to improve people's lives. He was happier still when Mary delivered their son, Gerald Robotnik Jr.

Mary returned to the lab part-time about six months after Gerry was born. Money was not a problem, given the family wealth, but she missed her job. Gerry had a playpen in the corner of a lab full of fascinating things going whir and click. Things went well for almost two years until GUN asked that Mary be assigned to design the vehicles and robots she'd gotten Gerald out of designing. Their first big fight was over his disgust at her designing lethal military machines and her indignation at his actually forbidding her to accept the assignment. GUN further elevated the tension by requiring either an acceptance of the assignment from Mary or a resignation from the research division for both of them. Leaving the division for refusing an assignment would have ruined both scientists' reputations permanently. Gerald wasn't particularly concerned about his own reputation, but he could not in conscience require Mary to besmirch her own over his crisis of ethics. He conceded, and apologized for trying to control her decision. Mary sweetened the bitterness of his concession by informing him that their family was about to increase again. Three years later they returned to the ARK with two sons, Gerry and Ivan.

Gerald's first order of business was to recover the Gizoid. Its dark corner among the discarded parts had proved as good a hiding place for six years as thirty. Reinstalling the Chaos Emerald, the professor began to work with what he had learned from further studies of the tablet and the ancient language. The bond between master and robot was called a link. The scientist's initial plan was to form a link with the Gizoid, thereby removing the risk that another person might take over control of the robot and discover its weapon potential. If he could figure out how to form a link, at least. Rather to his shock, the Gizoid when powered up this time spoke - not the peculiar fragmented sounds it had made previously, but "Li..nnka, leeen...k". In similarly fractured syllables it continued, "Show me your true strength and I shall obey. I am all things and all shall belong to me." Rather amazed by the sudden ability to speak English, Gerald brought out models of a few of the stunning weapons he'd created for the GUN "Beetle" patrol robots. The Gizoid pondered them a moment then announced, "I shall follow your every command and never leave your side." Gerald was a bit dazed at the suddenness of it all, but at least he no longer had to worry what the other researchers might do with it. And as Mary pointed out that night, the robot was designed to adapt, and obviously had made use of its previous time in the lab to absorb and adapt to the English language. Gerald made the Gizoid a sort of laboratory assistant and then nearly quit his job entirely because of the next assignment he was given.

Someone had misread, misheard, or simply misunderstood the facts, in the chain from head researcher to President. The Commander of GUN had reported to the President that the Chaos Emerald was actually alive; it could enhance the life of plants and animals and bring machines to life. Inspired by such an amazing power the President had handed back the mandate that Gerald was to be assigned to research eternal life; for surely such a marvelous power could be harnessed to extend human life indefinitely. Gerald was appalled, for such an assignment clashed with his deepest views on life and morality. Immortality not only violated the natural order, it was something that no people were worthy of, and he feared that humans (for humans would never share this discovery with the dokan, he was sure) would abuse such a gift completely. He would design weapons before he'd strive for human immortality. The President and the Commander were not used to being told no; and the resultant battle of wills was intense. But at last Gerald, with coaching from Mary, managed to convince them that the reports they had received were flawed and what they wanted was impossible. He was then presented with an odd form of DNA and asked to see if he could identify it. Some strange creature had been found and they wanted to know what it was. This was intended to be a sign of his disgrace, he knew; but to use the Chaos Emeralds to live for ever? Never, he vowed.

A/N: As it turns out the dial-up here is a lot more reliable than my cable service was being the last few weeks. And really not too slow, either. So here's the end of Chapter 2. At the moment I'm roughing out 7. iii, so there's a good bit more to come.