Epilogue

The ARK swung in its silent orbit high above the Earth. Suddenly a computer clicked on deep in the heart of the asteroid as it began receiving a signal from a camera far below. On a tiny spot of green surrounded by ocean, a soldier was training this camera on a mustached man tied to a chair in a bare, walled enclosure. Behind the soldier holding the camera stood several more readying their firearms and a grim-looking commander. The man in the chair began to speak: "This is a death sentence for every human being on Earth. If my calculations are correct..." He told how the space colony would impact in twenty-three minutes. He spoke of Chaos Emeralds and the irrevocability of the program. "...All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me...will feel my loss, and despair!"

A moment of silence, the soldier confirming that there was nothing the man wished to add, and the signal terminated, triggering a last set of preprogrammed instructions. The ARK continued in its lonely path, but motors whined and energy fields powered up, folding in the stabilizing solar panels and beginning the slow process of attracting dust and rocks enough to give the illusion of an uninhabited asteroid; after which all systems but the those maintaining the rock shield and a certain stasis field would go on standby. Down on Prison Island the traditional "Ready!... Aim!...Fire!" had already signaled the end of a man named Gerald Robotnik. Ships and divers scoured the waters around the island, and troops combed the deep recesses of the base, searching for a missing robot and mysterious gem. One squad escorted a stasis bed to a new location deep in the sub-levels of the base, as a black hedgehog lay immobile in an artificial sleep that had no dreams. And on the mainland an infant dreamed, who would grow up on tales of his grandfather the great inventor and scientist, until the day he found the robot hidden in his father's factory and the diary it contained. Then he would go in search of a hidden weapon that his grandfather called his greatest invention.

Finis

Thanks for reading! I may pick up with Shadow's story later, but I thought Gerald's had a lot of potential.