Emerl

Before the events of the games…
Emerl was created many millennia before the events of the games by the ancient echidna clan Nocturnus. The Nocturnus were the strongest nation in the world on a par with the Knuckles Clan and possessed incredible technological advancement. One day, the Knuckles Clan in another expansion attempt was exterminated by the god of destruction Chaos and the Nocturnus lost a rival. This caused Nocturnus’ progress to become unstoppable and uncontrollable. Soon, Nocturnus created the Gizoids, a weapon of perfect power capable of absorbing Chaos energy and copying combat abilities. Nocturnus became completely unbeatable and it led to their doom – an unknown entity consumed their entire clan and imprisoned them in the Twilight Cage – an outworld prison for nations who were consumed by lust for power. Thus, technically, the Gizoids led to the expulsion of Nocturnus, which would later create the legend that it was the Gizoid that destroyed its own creators.

Many years later, human scientist Professor Gerald Robotnik found one of the Gizoids and took it to Space Colony Ark to investigate. Gerald discovered two things – first, the Gizoid was establishing a “link” with whoever he thought was strong enough. Once such a link was established, Gizoid obeyed his “master” completely, completing his every order. Secondly, Gizoid copied the behavior of others and was able to absorb the Chaos energy. More importantly, Gizoid was so powerful that it was capable of destroying the whole world. Gerald decided to improve Gizoid so as to avoid the worst – he sewed into the robot a program activating the personality of Gerald’s granddaughter Maria Robotnik in Gizoid at the moment when her last words before her death will be uttered – “Bring hope to humanity”. After the events on Ark, during which the colony was shut down and research archived, Gizoid was seized by the government and shut down as a dangerous project.

Sonic Battle (2003)
50 years later, Dr. Ivo Robotnik aka Eggman, Gerald’s grandson who wants to take over the world using the power of robots, captures Gizoid to use it for his own purposes. However, Gizoid did not establish a “link” with Eggman, so Eggman, frustrated with Gizoid, created the E-121 Phi series of robots based on the Gizoid program and simply abandoned Gizoid himself.

Sonic the Hedgehog finds the abandoned robot on Emerald Town beach. In an attempt to understand what kind of robot it is, Sonic talks to him, to which Gizoid responds by demanding to show Sonic’s power. Sonic, having nothing against it, shows a couple of his moves, causing Gizoid to establish a “link” with Sonic. Still not understanding what’s going on, Sonic takes the robot to his friend the genius mechanic Miles “Tails” Prower. Along the way, Sonic encounters Shadow the Hedgehog, who, for some reason, tries to destroy the robot. However, Shadow loses to Sonic in the fight and retreats. He warns Sonic to keep an eye on the robot.

Tails investigates the robot and discovers its ability to absorb Emeralds and copy abilities. Sonic finds the robot’s abilities cool and decides to pump up Gizoid. Sonic gives the robot the name Emerl, because it can absorb Emeralds. Thus, Emerl begins to learn basic human things and fighting skills with Sonic and his friends. Eggman, using the E-121 Phi again tries to destroy Sonic and his friends, and in the process, Emerl acquires new Chaos Emeralds and learns many new things. Sonic has become Emerl’s best friend, and it is from Sonic that Emerl takes the basic concepts of rightness. Tails helped open Emerl’s eyes to who he is by investigating the robot’s programming and discovering a system there that will turn Emerl into an uncontrollable weapon when he collects all the Emeralds. Rouge the Bat, a thief and treasure hunter tricked Sonic and kidnapped Emerl to train him as a perfect thief, but in the process they formed a friendship and in the future Emerl would refer to her as a second mother. His first mother, however, was Amy Rose, who tried to play family with Sonic and repeatedly treated Emerl as her own child. Despite her childish nature, Amy was very worried about Emerl, always wishing him nothing but the best and when he was kidnapped did everything to save him without sparing herself. Knuckles the Echidna became another good friend to Emerl, giving Emerl, besides good and nice things, the brutality and determination to fight no matter what. Cream the Rabbit taught Emerl empathy and showed that there are more important things than fighting, which helped Emerl to be more humane. Emerl from his side also helped Cream to understand that she can’t always sit on the sidelines and that sometimes you have to fight to protect yourself and the ones you love. Shadow the Hedgehog was the last person to believe in Emerl. Shadow believed to the end that Emerl was just a weapon, but in the end, Shadow was the one who uttered the very phrase that Gerald entrusted to Emerl – “Bring hope to humanity.” Shadow, being the de facto brother of Emerl, believed that Emerl was more than just a weapon and that he could become a good person. Therefore, Shadow trusted Emerl with the last, seventh Chaos Emerald and activated Gerald’s program in Emerl. 

However, after Emerl absorbed all the Chaos Emeralds, destroyed all the E-121 Phi robots with his friends, activated Gerald’s program and gained hope for a better future, Eggman announces that he intends to destroy the planet using the Final Egg Blaster, located in space and aimed at Earth. Tails offered to go to Death Egg, Eggman’s station where the weapon was located and defeat the evil doctor, but the transporter only had room for one and the chosen one to defeat Eggman was Emerl. Meeting Eggman, Emerl won, but then, suddenly, Eggman activated the Final Egg Blaster and destroyed the planet. Driven insane by grief and despair, Emerl lost his identity and the superweapon program was reactivated. Eggman screamed that he didn’t really shoot and it was just an image on the screen to fool Emerl, but the robot was no longer listening. The activated program would lead to the destruction of Earth, so Sonic had to fight Emerl. Sonic won, but inflicted severe damage on Emerl. That’s when it turned out that the emotion program wasn’t the only one Gerald had implanted in Emerl. Gerald Robotnik knew that Gizoid could get out of control, so he created one last program – if the robot gets out of control it will self-destruct.

Emerl said goodbye to Sonic. Sonic stayed with Emerl until the end, but there was nothing he could do. Following the last program, Emerl self-destructed and left behind only shards of Chaos Emeralds. All of his friends he treasured – Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Shadow said goodbye to Emerl. They all believed that Emerl still exists in Chaos Emerald shards and that when all the wars and conflict were over, Emerl will return to them.