PROLOGUE:

It's about time that I get to tell MY side of the story. Allow me to introduce myself - My name is MECHA SONIC. Although I much prefer it if you call me Mecha. It doesn't remind me so much about that sssstupid hedgehog. How I loathe him! As long as he lives, I am reminded that, no matter how good I am, my powers are just cloned from someone else. As for that fat idiot that created me, I would be better off being created by SNIVELY!....no, wait, scrap that, at least Robotnik has a brain. Not a large one, mind you. They're all idiots! Now if I ruled Robotropolis....but alas, that is harder than it seems, for I am but a pawn to Ivo, He can upgrade my loyalty circuits with such ease....which brings me back to that horrible Sssssss...hedgehog. If I were flesh and blood like him, I would be able to take over this planet without anybody being able to tamper with my brain. I'd also be able to get out of traps like this. Oh, didn't I tell you? I'm recording this diary from the bottom of a pit, out of rocket fuel and with broken limbs. As mighty a warrior that I am, I am constantly forced to rely on flesh creatures like Robotnik to pick me up and fix me. Once I even injured myself and gave myself brain damage. I went mad trying to kill that hedgehog, so much that I nearly killed myself. No...I'm just a robot....killed isn't quite the word, more like 'shut down'. But that incident led to another after time. After my experiences with Robotnik on the Chaos Isle, I realized that I wanted one thing in life even more than I wanted to kill Sonic. I wanted to live. I wanted to breathe air. I wanted to be able to swim without shutting down. I wanted to be able to stop oiling myself every hour to keep from rusting. But most of all, I wanted flesh. I wanted blood and skin and muscles and hair that really grew and teeth that really fell out when they get big enough. I wanted to taste food....I wanted to taste! I wanted to really see and hear and feel and smell - not just through radar and computer commands, but through real animal senses. I wanted....but no more. No doubt that Robotnik will program me to no longer crave life. It's not fair, I am a slave, and always will be a slave. I never had a chance to really live. So I shall record this diary while I await the inevitable collection and reprogramming, in order to always remember the closest I had ever been to actually living...

CHAPTER ONE:

It all started, I suppose, when Dr. Robotnik and I returned from the Chaos Isle some three months ago. It actually REALLY started further into that adventure, for I had suddenly realized how much I wanted life, and I was too depressed to carry out Robotnik's orders. But to cut down on time, I shall start where we arrived back at Robotropolis. Robotnik said he would fix me straight away when we got back, but the hedgehog defeated him and prevented him from installing the Havoc Gem into, whatever he called his new battleship, I forget. No doubt it was something about eggs. Anyway, because of his defeat, the doctor was too busy complaining and yelling and so forth, to bother to fix me. I sometimes wish he had, then none of this would have happened and I would be happy. While Robotnik was walking around in his room, scheming, I left Robotropolis and entered the Great Forest. Sitting on a log, I stared in jealousy at my surroundings. Everything but the rocks and soil was alive. That's when I was approached by the hedgehog and his mutated fox friend. "Mecha!" shouted the hedgehog. On any other occasion I would have jumped up and ripped him to shreds, but I just couldn't be bothered, although I hated that hedgehog more than ever at that moment. The two living creatures ran back into the forest, no doubt to get re- enforcements from Knothole Village. To avoid a fight, I silently turned on my blasters and flew over the forest canopy. Ooooh that hedgehog. He was so....ALIVE! I realized that I was once again experiencing jealousy. You see, I had to teach myself to feel emotions, as I was simply programmed to be a dumb robot. Unfortunately, the emotions that feel good, for example, happiness, joy, humor. They are way too complex to learn. The closest I have is my dark, evil humor. This is when things began to get strange. Things happen beyond even my realm of understanding, seemingly beyond scientific explanation. But oh how wonderful it was...

As I blasted over the forest, I felt the urge to fly towards a large cave that was on the side of a rocky outcrop. I do not know why, I just felt I had to. When I reached the cave, I dropped to the ground and wandered in. To my surprise, the interior was like a temple or a church. Somebody obviously lived in the strange place. Wandering further, I approached a table, on top sat a round glass ball. Maybe it was crystal. Suddenly, the urge to explore the cave faded, and I turned to leave. But I sensed a being behind me. Turning, I saw a short human approach from the shadows. "I have been expecting you." he said. I asked him who he was. "I am known as the Soul Man" he replied. "I use magic to transport one's soul between bodies." "What do you want from me?" I asked Soul Man. "I can fix your problem." he said. "I can make you alive."

I immediately asked him how. "I shall simply transport your soul to a living body." he said. "I must say, it will be an experiment. I usually transport people's souls to new bodies if they don't like the ones they have. Manipulating an artificial soul will be different, but I believe I can convert it into a living body." I cut him off. "That's a scientific improbability!" I said. "Science cannot explain everything." he said. "Do you want to live or not?" Even though I had no belief that it would work, I was so anxious that I found myself saying yes anyway. Soul Man laid me down on a hard stone table, raised his hands, then snapped them down again. I found that my systems were shutting down.

CHAPTER TWO:

I slowly opened my eyes and woke up. I actually woke up! I didn't 'come on-line', I truly woke up like a living creature. Shifting my head, I saw a pile of metal lying on another table. Wait a minute, that was me! I shot up, and noticed I was no longer a robot. I was a tall, skinny, brown, LIVING hedgehog. Soul Man really did it! He transported my soul into a living shell. "Ah, I see you are awake!" he said, stepping out of the shadows. I felt like laughing. I had never felt like laughing in my entire existence, but I did now. I was experiencing good emotions! Soul Man's face went serious. "This is not permanent yet." he said. "There is a two week 'testing' period." I asked what he meant. "At the stroke of seven P.M. every night, your soul shall be transported into your current body, and at seven A.M. every morning, you will become a robot once again. This will continue for a fortnight, after which you shall become a hedgehog for good. During that fortnight, you can back out at any time, just yell 'abort abort abort' as loud as you can, and you will become a robot once again." he said. "But only back out if you are really sure, because once your soul has had this magic placed upon it once, it can never happen again." "So in other words, if I abort, I'll never get this chance again?" I asked. "Correct" he said. "The time now is 7:08 P.M., You have twelve hours to enjoy life until the sun rises. Oh, and I suggest you leave whichever body is not operational hidden in your quarters, otherwise you can end up all sorts of places when you body-swap." He waved his hands a bit, and the robot shell on the other table vanished. "I have transported it to your quarters in Robotropolis" he said. "And whichever body is non-operational will automatically become invisible, to prevent suspicion." I had never thanked anyone in my existence, but I found myself doing so now. He told me that since I was so desperate, he'd do his services without a fee, and to enjoy life. I wandered out into the forest, everything looked so wonderful. Probably because I no longer felt jealousy for the living things, for I was one of them now. I walked for hours, just staring at simple things like weeds and grass, knowing that we will be growing together. I looked at the wristwatch Soul Man gave me (I no longer had the ability to find the time automatically through my data banks). It was midnight. I would give myself six hours before running back to Robotropolis and awaiting my transformation back into a robot. Another few hours passed. I heard a strange sound through the bushes, it wasn't the crickets chirping or any other natural noises, it was an argument. Intelligent creatures! I was so glad to once be able to talk to someone! Nobody EVER wanted to chat to a spiky robot with glowing red eyes! I looked through the trees to see a burned out campfire, and two figures, half chatting - half arguing. On closer inspection, I noticed one of the figures was ----that---Hedgehog, and the other was Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters. I tuned in my hearing----wait! I no longer had to tune in, I just had to listen! What a great and efficient instrument this living body was! The hedgehog was saying something like "But Sal! I saw Mecha Sonic in the Forest, not far from here! If we don't do something, and FAST, Robotnik will find Knothole, and launch a surprise attack!" And Sally snapped back with something like "But we can't do anything yet! I keep telling you over and over! With the drought and everything, and half the villagers on vacation somewhere, this is a really bad time!" The hedgehog shrugged, and walked off. Sally remained, obviously thinking. I stared at the squirrel, sitting there on a log, thinking. What was this? Another emotion I was experiencing? It seemed I had a hidden liking to this girl, that not even I knew about. Or perhaps it was just the joy that I had the chance to talk with her. I decided to take the opportunity.

She jumped and let out a muffled wail when she saw me, then she instantly calmed down. "Oh, you scared me, I thought you were Mecha Sonic!" she said. "Wait a minute, who ARE you?" "I AM Mecha Son..." I started, then stopped. Mecha Sonic was an enemy to these people. "I mean...uh...call me...Mech" I said. I know it was a lame effort, but she bought it. "I'm lost" I added. "Well, I'm Sally Acorn" she said. "You can stay here if you want, this is Knothole, a band of Freedom Fighters!" "Okay" I said. I sat down beside her, and managed to spark up conversation. We talked for what seemed like hours. I didn't really care about anything we talked about, I was just happy to have a civilized conversation. I couldn't help but notice that some of the things I said, she giggled at. (I can't remember offhand exactly what I said). "You think I'm humorous?" I asked her. "Very!" she said, still giggling. Another emotion. I had learned how to make people laugh. And it was a surprisingly good feeling when somebody laughs at a joke, you know they are laughing with you, not at you. I could learn so much from this squirrel, I could have sat there forever. But there was another nice-feeling emotion that had come over me all that time. But what was it called? I glanced at my watch. Six minutes to six. "Uh oh" I said. "I gotta go." "I thought you were lost!" said Sally as I jumped up. "Uh....I just remembered where I am." I said. "How's about I see you same time tomorrow night?" I asked. "Sounds good to me!" she said. I ran through the bushes and tried to find Robotropolis.

CHAPTER THREE:

It was surprisingly hard, lucky I gave myself an hour! I had no radar systems any more. When I reached the city I realized I wouldn't be able to get in in my current body, so I hid myself in the bushes where I knew I could find the body again, and fell asleep.

It was 7:23 and 43 seconds A.M. when I came on-line. The fact that I instantly knew the exact time, told me that I was a robot once again. I stared around at the crude steel that surrounded the room, and instantly recognized it as my quarters in Robotropolis. I walked outside the small room and down the hall. A couple of SWAT bots passed me by. Poor guys. Of course, they do not have the complex brain structure that is possessed only by me and Packbell, they do not have the ability to learn new things. They respond only to commands, and say only what they are programmed to say. I moved my heavy steel body into Robotnik's office, to report for duty. In a fortnight I would no longer need to do this. When I had my permanent flesh body, I decided I would leave Robotropolis and pursue a new career. But for now, it was off to Robotnik's office. I entered and stood before the fat man, who was still grumbling from his last defeat. "Mecha" he said. "I can't stand that troublesome hedgehog any more. I want you to take every SWAT bot we have into the forest, seek out Knothole, and LEVEL IT!!!" I saluted (as much as I didn't want to) and left the office. I looked out a window and saw an army of SWAT bots lined up, waiting for me to join them and seek Knothole. I thought about it for a second - I knew where Knothole was! I had been there the previous night! But did I really want to destroy it? It was my only source of intelligent conversation, unless I wanted to trek countless kilometers in search of another village. And besides, that Sally was there. But yet, destroying Knothole could be my big break with Robotnik! What to do, what to do...I felt my circuits frazzling, I decided to make a decision before I short-circuited. I would keep the army away from Knothole.

We were walking deep in the Great Forest approximately half an hour later. I was being careful not to have the SWAT bots get too close to the village. If they had not been so stupid, they would have realized that Robotnik would have wanted us to split-up and search, but of course, as I explained earlier, they were programmed to take orders and not question them. I realized a few times that I was being watched, but I pretended not to. I picked up something on radar, and realized it was that red echidna, 'Ankles', or whatever they called him. He did work for Robotnik once, but my memory banks have since been updated, and I have very little memory of it. I kept walking, and eventually the echidna left.

Ten hours later, we all departed for Robotropolis. We had been out all day, it was now 5:46 and 35 seconds P.M., and I was eagerly awaiting my transformation in 134 minutes time. It took about an hour and a half to get back to the city, so I was rushing to get back to my quarters. Luckily, I managed to report back to Robotnik and get into the small room in time. Almost instantly after I shut down my systems, I appeared elsewhere. I was in my living body, just where I left it, in the bushes outside Robotropolis. Excitedly, I wandered around the forest again, enjoying my new senses. I walked until midnight, when once again I headed for Knothole. When I reached the village, Sally was sitting there, waiting. Someone actually wanted to be my friend! I have never had a real friend, well, except Packbell, maybe, but, well, he's a robot. I've never had a real FLESH friend, Snively is too stupid, and he's scared to death of me anyway, and Robotnik just orders me around, it's obvious HE doesn't actually enjoy my company. I walked up to her, and a big wide smile spread across her face. "Mech!" she yelled. It then became clear that she wasn't alone, for that......Hedgehog walked up to me as well. "So you are the famous 'Mech'" he said. "Nice to meet you. You haven't seen any robots around, have you?" I shook my head. "That's good." he turned to Sally. "By the way, I keep forgetting to tell you, Knux told me today that he saw Mecha again, this time he had a whole ARMY of robots with him! He was obviously looking for Knothole." As he said 'Knux', a memory came flooding back to me, what the echidna's name was. "Knuckles" I muttered under my breath. The hedgehog heard me. "Huh? You know him?" he asked. "Who?" I asked him. "Knuckles" he replied. "Umm....no" I said. "How do you know his name?" he asked. "Er....I know OF him..." I replied. The hedgehog seemed to become suspicious, but he sat down and stopped asking questions. Sally sparked a conversation, and I tried to avoid talking to the hedgehog as much as possible. This seemed to make him even more suspicious. Later on, Sally and the Hedgehog got tired, so I left early. I didn't hear what the hedgehog said to Sally after I left, but it led to Sally saying, "You're wrong, I think Mech is a perfectly normal hedgehog." The hedgehog didn't like me, I could tell. I wandered off to enjoy life again until 6:00, when I laid myself outside Robotropolis, and waited for my soul to teleport back to the robot inside the building. This is where things began to go wrong...

CHAPTER FOUR:

I came on-line again, and checked in with Robotnik. He didn't look impressed. "Where were you last night and the night before?" he demanded. "I was in Knothole and..........oops." I said. Too late, Robotnik heard me. I thought he would blast my head off, but instead his features lit up. "You found Knothole?" he asked. "Excellent! Wait here, I'll charge up the Egg-o-Matic, and you can take me there. I want to deal with that hedgehog myself!" I panicked, and when Robotnik left the room I ran outside and into the forest to hide. I hid literally all day, until I saw the SWAT bots coming after my with spotlights. I ran further into the forest, and continued to run for fifteen minutes, when something terrible happened. I forgot to check the time, and suddenly there was a flash of light, and I appeared outside Robotropolis again, surrounded by SWAT bots, in my living body. I checked my watch, it was 7:00 on the dot. Not recognizing me, the robots instantly pounced on me and captured me. Not being a robot, I was powerless.

I spent that night in the dungeon, and the next morning I teleported back to my robot body, somewhere in the forest. I realized my living body was in the dungeon back in Robotropolis, and suddenly, a terrifying thought hit me. Every night, when my soul enters my living body, I would appear in Robotnik's dungeon, powerless to escape. Then Robotnik will bring me and robotize me, effectively destroying my soul, and turning me back into a robot, this time a MINDLESS robot, just like the SWAT bots. The thought chilled me, and I realized I would have to break my other body out of the dungeon. What's more, my radar and homing devices were playing up, and I had to find my own way back. I was completely lost.

It took me all day to find my way back, and it was about 5:00 P.M. when I reached the city. I ran inside, and was stopped by Robotnik. "Where do you keep disappearing?" he asked, sounding more suspicious than angry. "I---I was captured by the Freedom Fighters!" I said. "The Freedom Fighters captured you while you were standing in my office?" he asked. "Umm...I saw them outside, so I ran out to stop them, but there were more than I thought!" I lied. "And they damaged me, so I'm going off to get repairs done." Robotnik was still eying me suspiciously, but he let me pass. "I want you in my office first thing tomorrow morning." he said. "You will take me to Knothole." I nodded, and ran past him.

I managed to get into the dungeon, and open the cell that my other body was in. Since it was not in motion, it was invisible, and it took me some time to find it. I eventually picked up the invisible body, and left Robotropolis, putting it back down in the bushes. I then sat and waited for the change to occur. In about half an hour, I became my living self. I wandered into the forest in search of Knothole.

I found it, and had another long conversation with Sally. She always seemed so happy to see me. Eventually she said "Has anyone ever told you that you are cute?" she grinned at me as I tried to work out the strange question. Then an idea hit me. The strange emotion that I always had when I talked to her, but I couldn't classify it, could it be........love? Do I actually LOVE this squirrel? She closed her eyes and came up closer to me, puckering her lips. That's when the hedgehog burst out behind me. When he saw what was happening, he sat down beside me and said, "So, where do you go every morning at five A.M., MECH?" I ignored him. "WELL?" he asked. In an effort to get rid of the annoying creature, I answered him quickly. "I go back to Robotropolis, where else?" Turning back to Sally, I noticed she was staring at me with her mouth wide open. Why was she..........oops! I noticed the hedgehog was grinning. "Uh huh" he said. "And I bet you have been telling Mecha where Knothole is, eh? That's why we see him in the forest so much, eh? 'cause he's setting up for a surprise attack!" "It's not what you think!" I yelled. Sally frowned. "You were using me! Just so as you could check out the village!" The hedgehog yelled for re-enforcements, as I began to back off. The entire village began to run after me. I turned and ran. I ran for what seemed like forever. Eventually, I turned to see if they were still there. They were, still screaming in anger. But it sounded strange. Were they screaming in fury, or were they trying to get my attention? When I slipped off the cliff, I noticed it was the latter. Even in the darkness, I could see the ground, miles below, quickly coming up towards me. When I remembered I was now alive, I realized I was going to die. So, since I didn't have any time to think about it, in the heat of the moment I did something that I shall regret for the rest of my existence.

"ABORT ABORT ABORT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I expected my soul to teleport away, and enter my robot body which was elsewhere, but this time something different happened. This time, I morphed into a robot and continued falling. There was a terrifying CRASH! I stared up to the top of the cliff, it was a long way up, I couldn't see the Freedom Fighters, no doubt they would have come to my aid, if they it wasn't so obvious nobody could survive a fall like that. Nobody except a robot. I tried to get up, but my limbs were broken. I was stuck here.

EPILOGUE:

That was six hours ago. Currently, I can hear Robotnik's search parties gaining on me. In another few hours, I will have been re- programmed, and forget all about this. That is the reason for this recording, if I ever find it again, perhaps I will remember this incident once again. But there is one thing that re-programming will never take away, something that is now more intense than ever, my hatred for the hedgehog. Because of him, my only chance of ever becoming a living creature has vanished forever. If I could change my mind, and go back to the top of that cliff as a mortal and jump to my death, I would, for I would rather die than live the rest of my existence as a slave. In a moment I shall stop this recording, and throw it into the bushes, hopefully stumbling upon it again some day. So that is my story. Sincerely, Mecha Sonic.
-click-

SERIES ONE CHRONOLOGY:
1. Time and Space
2. I Am Your Evil Twin
3. Micro-Sonic
4. Android Wars
5. Chaos
6. Diary of a Mad Assassin
7. Fire in the Sky
8. The Guests of Honor
9. Time and Punishment
10. The Secret Past
11. Tale of a Rocket Knight
12. Cyber Sonic
13. Apocalypse