Disclaimer - I do not own sonic or any other characters. They are property of SEGA and anything sonic the hedgehog affiliated with it.

For those who like the book cover here is the image I commissioned; go to deviantart and type or copy and paste this in

/art/Commission-TimeCrisis2-307085714

Could a computer be designed in such a way to go beyond its programming and gain awareness? Aware of emotions and other abilities only organic beings could experience? Was it possible under extreme and unreal circumstances? What type of action was there for someone or something, itching, writhing, to feel the electric touch of life? Nicole, once compact, now had her own free movement within the city of New Mobotropolis. She was in fact that AI...

She gave the impression that she had a personality because of her excellent programming, or so she told them. They did not know as much as they thought they knew about her. However, her friends considered her to have her own persona. Nicole was everywhere inside New Mobotropolis; always. She even created a holographic image of herself in recent times. With the power of New Mobotropolis she now could preserve her form for as long as she wanted. Though, today she remained mostly formless, not needing to show herself, watching the lives of people through the many cameras of the city. She was looking through a particular security camera in the break room right now knowing one of her friends was about to enter.

While she was waiting, she had been trying to identify a conundrum all day...something that had happened in her past….

Right as Sally entered the room, she grabbed a cup of water and began drinking from it. Then Sally spoke aloud in the room knowing she would hear her. Telling her that after walking in the sun all day she felt like her body was on fire. Nicole watched the slight contractions her body made as she drank the liquid.

With a large "Ahhhh!" her body would loosen and Nicole stared at her wondering if she could ever experience it again…

Nicole materialized on the other side of the room; her holographic face was neutral. Sally glanced over at Nicole without saying a word, and she got more water to drink taking a seat at a table to drink this time. Nicole remained quiet while Sally was drinking her water, knowing she would speak when she finished. Nicole looked at a counter she stood next to. She put her hand to it and squeezed it...hard...

She registered it and the software and nanites that concentrated the energy around her hologram, so she could touch physical objects, told her she connected with the object. Nevertheless, she felt nothing….

Thought was all she could do now...

Before she could begin describing it, she lifted her hand from the counter staring blankly at her hand. She hadn't been able to classify it since it happened…it was like an illusion….

Nicole ran a search on the Internet as Sally lounged in this break room sipping her drink. She looked for facts, information, and research about the chemical reactions that caused emotions; the topic had been intriguing her for a while now.

After the brief time she switched bodies with Sally, being back in her current form all she could do was think, she could not understand…it…anymore…

Though she had experienced emotions temporarily, for the first time as well, she could only remember the experience. She could not remember how it felt...only the thought of it...

It was a like a magic trick; it was mind-boggling. She could remember the memory of what happened, but couldn't feel it. The past few months of her work around the city had been tougher with her own mental distractions going on….

Sonic...

When Sonic was in her presence, after her body switch with Sally, she could not focus on her task. What shocked her most was that she did not mind. In all the years of her existence, she had never put any priority above her main task, and as time went on it became worse. It had never been the same since she had saw him in Sally's body...

It'd gone on for some time now, and her unsettled thoughts had led her to this point where she had been making plans. Following that day in the Knothole...

Despite this, he affected her so much that when he came around she allowed lenience on her endless task of running the city. She had come to want a body in recent times...

It was all that ran through her CPU every day for the last few years. She stopped processing as Sonic walked into the room. He walked pass Sally exchanging a brief greeting with her and walked over to the pop machine. He deposited money into the machine and looked at her staring at him with her usual neutral expression.

"Hey Nicole." he said guzzling his drink with a stoic face.

Nicole spoke in a neutral tone, though she formed a small smile on her face "Hello Sonic, how are you?"

Ever since the body switch with Sally she wanted to recall the things she felt. But as hard as she tried she could not "I'm cool, I..." Sonic glanced at the clock on the wall. His eyes widened in surprise "I'm late!"

He quickly drank his pop and dashed out of the room taking a glance at Sally as he left the room. Nicole watched him as her face became neutral again; she focused on him. She used processing power and took notice of subtleties about him. His facial muscles formed a frown as he looked at Sally. They had just recently broken up...

Something in her changed after her temporary body switch with Sally...she had her own...thoughts...now...

Soon though Sally finally spoke rambling about Sonic. Nicole walked over and took a seat with her at the table. Sally knew Nicole couldn't understand what she was feeling, but she didn't care, and it was true. Nicole did not understand anything Sally said when she talked about 'How she felt'. She talked about Sonic for a while and dismissed herself; she was late now too. After she left Nicole looked at the glass Sally had drunk out of. She picked up the cup and squeezed it. The glass broke, but she felt nothing; the curious look on her face did not fade though.

With a blank look at her unscathed hand, she moved each finger, and the hologram emulation software that projected her, told her that region sixty six of her hologram was moving. She wanted to feel emotions like organic's again. Just once more…

Hoping that if it was possible she could make it permanent, as these last few years her thoughts were getting the better of her...

Every passing day she became more preoccupied with wanting a body. So much so she began to think of ways to make a body; an organic physical form. Which luckily, she had endless information and resources at her disposal. There still was confusion on one subject though; an organic's soul. Though she already had some information on that subject already…

Soon though she became uninterested in the broken glass, and dematerialized out of the room to continue her work of running the city today…

A few hours later Nicole rematerialized in a secret dungeon in Castle Acorn..

A room filled with a computer, beakers, and a large tank of a greenish liquid with a single piece of brown tissue floating inside it. She thought of being alive again; it was a plan of hers that had been in the works for sometime now. The experience of physical sensation had blown her mind the brief time she had switched bodies with Sally. Every little touch in Sally's body, the smallest breeze of air that moved across Sally's body ingrained itself into Nicole's memory. The recorded memory of the incident was placed into a special folder on her HDD no one knew of…

Nicole could not forget the memory while in Sally's body; though she could not currently feel or remember how it felt. It drove her crazy and she had already made up her mind that she wanted to achieve physical sensation again. And now that the city had the capacities she'd been waiting for she was going full forward with her plans. As she tapped the keys on the computers keyboard in this room she had a blank face on her holographic form. She registered region sixty six and sixty seven were touching objects as she typed. She had motives she wanted to finally complete...

That was pretty short. Make it a habit to review, it helps everyone out. Especially me. What is Nicole up to? What has pushed her to this point? Find out next time! Later.