Chapter 17: The Dark Truth About Gerald Robotnik
The red light was flashing and the alarm went off, a deafening sound in his ears as he covered his ears with both of his hands to block it out.
"Auugh! What the hell's going on?! Why doesn't the cannon fire?!" yelled Eggman over the din.
He quickly tapped the keyboard on his computer, attempting to mute it, but it was useless. There wasn't even a single error in his calculations so why was this happening? Was it possible that someone had tampered with them?
"Dammit! That can't be right! The readings are all perfect!" he said. He frantically tried to run through the calculations again, but it was useless.
"What the hell happened?!" yelled Eggman, slamming his fist onto the desk.
"Boss! We've got trouble! The ARK is going to crash on Earth!" cried Cubot.
"What?! How?" demanded Eggman.
"I don't know! It was a sort of accident. If we don't make it out alive, then we'll all die!" cried Cubot.
"What should we do?" asked Orbot.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?! Where's Shadow, and why didn't he handle the situation?!" snapped Eggman.
The screen came on to static to show the image of his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, who was tied up with a chain and chair. The mathematics scribbled on the wall behind him were written in chalk.
"Wh-who's that?" asked Orbot.
"That's... That's my grandfather, Gerald Robotnik!" exclaimed Eggman in shock.
*Meanwhile*
Sonic came into the Main Control Room and reunited with his friends, Tails and Amy were so happy that Sonic was alive and well after so long. He explained what had happened and how he survived the pod before the explosion as they listened to him.
"So you're telling me that you used Chaos Control to teleport and came back to the ARK?" asked Tails.
Sonic nodded as everyone looked at him in awe.
"I still can't believe you could do it," said Tails. "But I'm glad that you're okay."
Amy hugged Sonic, "Yeah, I'm so happy that you made it out!" Amy tried to kiss Sonic, but he dodged her and laughed before pulling away.
Sonic smiled. "Aw, c'mon, Ames. You're not exactly subtle."
Tails rolled his eyes before turning his attention, a clanking sound coming from the ceiling above them. Everyone stood up and prepared to defend themselves if something attacked them. But what they saw shocked them. A white-furred bat came down from the ceiling, and Knuckles recognized her.
"You?!" Knuckles said in shock. The bat grinned at him and Knuckles threw his arms in exasperated. "Oh, why haven't you given up already?!" Knuckles groaned.
Rogue closed her eyes and threw her hand in the air. "Oh, relax. I'm not here to fight you. It's all over for us."
Knuckles raised his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"I just received a message from my boss. The President of the United Federation," Rogue said. "He said that the Space Colony ARK is currently approaching the Earth. It won't stop until the planet is completely destroyed."
Their eyes widened. "It's coming for the entire earth?" asked Sonic.
"Yes, but there's one problem," said Rogue.
"And what would that be?" asked Amy.
"The Arks have been programmed to attack anything that moves in its path," said Rogue.
"So wait a minute, you're saying that we're gonna have to evacuate every human being on the planet?" asked Sonic.
Rogue nodded, "If we don't stop it, millions of people will die."
Tails and Amy gasped and Sonic and Knuckles reacted with fear. They knew that the Arks would never stop unless someone stopped them, which meant it was up to them to save humanity. Their plan may work, or it might not, but at least they had a chance of stopping the invasion.
"What should we do? We have to do something fast!" cried Tails.
Suddenly the ARK began to rumble and shake violently. As everyone else grabbed onto something for support, everything went black and suddenly the lights flickered on again.
"What the hell? What's with the vibration?" asked Knuckles.
Sonic held onto the desk as he regained his balance. He turned around to see Rouge rubbing her head. "Whatever just happened, it must have knocked our systems offline. We need to get moving before we lose any more time," she stated.
A door opened to reveal Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot entered the room, and Knuckles stood there in a fighting stance.
"I knew you were behind this! And now you'll pay for your crimes!" said Knuckles.
Eggman walked towards the group. "Now, hold on. There's no reason to attack one another, especially when we know that it's hopeless. The Arks won't stop until we've reached our destination," said Eggman.
"What do you mean?" asked Sonic.
Eggman scoffed, "You're pretty persistent for a hedgehog, aren't you? Did you survive the explosion?"
Sonic furrowed his eyebrows, "Who cares about that? The question is, why are you threatening Earth? You should know that the entire world is at risk!"
Eggman smirked. "You have nothing to worry about."
"Then explain it," growled Knuckles. The others agreed with him.
"I have two disks about the secret of my grandfather's invention. One disk contains a copy of the equations for my grandfather's creation and I intend to keep that one forever. The second disk contains a copy of the equation to my grandfather's diary." explained Eggman. Everyone stared at him in disbelief.
"Now I'll let you watch the first one," Eggman placed the disk in the optical drive inside the computer and pressed play. As soon as he did, the screen filled with data showing the details of the Arks, and then the old man appeared on the screen bound with a chain in a chair with the mathematics scribble in the background.
"But... we'd already watched that," complained Amy.
"Of course you'd already seen it," Eggman snapped at her. "Now be quiet and watch the video," he said in an irritated tone.
"This is insane! How could you do something like that?! Don't you realize what kind of destruction you're causing?!" yelled Gerald.
"Of course not," said the army leader in a calm voice. "We know you created a dangerous weapon that threatened to wipe out humanity. We are going to make you pay for your crime against mankind. We must destroy it."
"Destroy it?! You must be out of your mind! I'm a scientist, not a killer!" protested Gerald.
"What is the difference between a killer and a scientist?!" he yelled. "Your kind has always been obsessed with science, with science alone!"
"There is nothing being interested in science! You killed my granddaughter without mercy!" cried Gerald.
"Say what?!" shocked Sonic.
"They killed his granddaughter? How old was she?" asked Knuckles.
"She was 12," said Eggman.
"What?! Why the fuck did they do that?!" shouted Sonic angrily.
"For their experiment," replied Eggman.
"Experiment for what?" asked Sonic.
"If you want to know, so shut up and watch the video," said Eggman.
They resumed watching the video before Prof. Gerald Robotnik said a final word.
"I plan to give you a taste of revenge," Gerald said.
'What?' Sonic thought.
"Once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the colony will destroy the planet!" yelled Gerald.
"Did he just say destroy the planet?!" shocked Orbot.
"All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything from me will feel loss and despair!" yelled Gerald. He panted heavily from the struggle. His throat hurt from yelling, and he could barely move.
"Is there anything else you want to say?" asked the army leader calmly.
Gerald hung his head down," No..." he said quietly.
The soldier cocked his rifle, "Ready!"
A gunshot rang through the speakers, a blood spurt coming from the old man's head. The bullet grazed his head, causing it to bleed profusely. Gerald's head fell lifelessly onto his shoulder and a small pool of blood formed underneath him. Then the screen was static and faded to black.
"Oh, my God," said Rogue aghasted.
"Damn. He lost his marbles and wanted to destroy the planet," said Knuckles as he looked down, shaking his head.
"That's terrible!" exclaimed Amy as she covered her mouth. "How could he even want to destroy the whole planet?"
"Is that what happened 50 years ago?" asked Sonic, staring at the floor.
"Yes, he was executed," said Tails.
"This is what Shadow was talking about. He talked about how Maria was killed by the army," said Sonic.
Amy's eyes widened, "Maria!? Are you serious?"
"No doubt about it," Sonic turned to Eggman. "Eggman, I really want to know what happened between Maria and Shadow. Why didn't you tell anyone about them?" he asked. "They murdered your family!"
Eggman glared at him. "My family wasn't part of this experiment. They didn't belong to it!" he said firmly.
"But-"
"Do not talk back to me, Sonic! Or I'll end you here and now!" Eggman cut him off.
"Guys, stop. This is neither the time nor place to argue," said Rouge, stepping in between Eggman and Sonic. "Now what about the second disk you have? About your grandfather's diary?" she asked Eggman.
He sighed, "Here," he gave the second disc to Rogue, and she placed the disc into the computer. The screen changed to a diary. She cleared her throat and began to read.
"I don't quite know what happened nor what went wrong. Was it a mistake to create the ultimate lifeform? I thought it would be something that would benefit mankind. But then the military guards landed on the colony that day. They were sent to destroy the research project that I had been working on. My colleagues at the research facility, my granddaughter, Maria. I hope you all are safe. The colony was completely shut down, probably to keep from falling into the wrong hands. The ARK was shut down under the premise that there had been an accident. I found Maria's name among those who died when the ARK was shut down. She meant everything to me and I couldn't bear the thought that she died because of my research. I lost everything. I had nothing more to live for... I went insane. All I could think about was to avenge her... somehow, someway. I got scared as I no longer was able to control my thoughts. All I could think about was that I wanted it to all end. Based on my original projections, I was able to complete my project, Shadow. I designed its mind to be perfect, and pure. I will leave everything to him. If you wish, release and awaken it, to the world. If you wish to fill the world with destruction..." Rogue gasped slightly as she stopped reading and turned to Eggman.
"So that's why you released Shadow from the base," said Rogue.
"Is this true? I thought you created Shadow," said Sonic.
"Who said I created Shadow? It could be possible that he came from somewhere else. He was created to become a weapon for a purpose, but I never believed I would use it for such a noble cause," said Eggman.
"So... how do we stop the colony? We have to save people on Earth!" said Amy.
"She's right, how much time do we have left?" asked Tails.
"Uh, we got 27 minutes until the colony impacts the Earth," answered Orbot.
"The core of the Eclipse Cannon is now highly reactive and explosive. This is because the Chaos Emeralds are overpowered," Eggman said. "If the colony collides with Earth, it will shatter into pieces like my grandfather predicted. That mad scientist!"
"So, what are we waiting for? We have to stop the colony now!" said Sonic.
"And that's not all. The Space Colony ARK position may have shifted due amount of energy given off by the Emeralds. We have to stop the energy," said Eggman.
"But how do we do that?" asked Tails.
Rogue snapped her fingers, "That's it! " she turned to Knuckles, and Knuckles looked confused. "We can use your Master Emerald to stop the energy."
"Huh? My Master Emerald?" puzzled Knuckles.
"Yes, the only way to stop the energy from destroying the Earth," said Rouge.
Knuckles looked at the Master Emerald, then looked at Rogue. His eyebrows furrowed with determination.
"Alright, we can stop this. Let's hope this works," said Knuckles.
"The reaction of the Chaos Emeralds is moving toward the Cannon's Core! It may be too late!" cried Tails.
"We still got time left if we work together," said Orbot.
"Yeah, we're gonna stop this thing no matter what!" said Cubot.
"Heh, no worries. Just leave it to me! I'm the world's fastest hedgehog!" Sonic pointed to himself.
"Then let's get to work!" said Eggman.