The yellow hedgehog girl sat in a room alone. She waited for someone to come in. She was surprised to see Shadow and Prowl’s holo-form. “Shadow?” she asked.
“Agent Shadow,” grunted the black and red hedgehog. “The one beside me is Prowl of the Autobots.”
“Pleased to meet you, Ma’am,” greeted Prowl.
“Shadow, what’s going on here?” asked the hedgehog girl.
“Agent Shadow, and I want answers. You said you were on Eggman’s moon base. How did you get down here?”
“I used Chaos Control like you did.”
“So, you’re Chaos-sensitive?”
“Maybe a little less than you. I was trying to get to the Space Colony, but I ended up here.”
“Why to the Space Colony?”
“I thought you would be there.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re the one who understands my position.” Shadow arched an eyeridge.
“I fail to see how,” he remarked. The hedgehog girl looked pleadingly at him.
“Shadow, please! I know I look different, but it IS me!”
“You took Maria’s name and styled your quills like Maria did her hair. Why?” The hedgehog girl then realized what was going on.
“Is there a surefire way for you to see that I’m not lying?”
“That’s where Prowl comes in.” Prowl then strode forward.
“Ma’am, I have been authorized to corroborate everything you’re going to say,” he explained. “Right now, you’re in a room that’s lined with the most advanced lie detectors on Mobius and Cybertron. Right now, I need you to lie to me. How old are you?”
“17,” replied the girl. A light flashed red in the ceiling.
“Okay, good. Now, Shadow, proceed with your questions.” Shadow stepped forward.
“How did you get to the moon in the first place?”
“Morgane Le Fay brought me there, albeit without all my memories.”
“So you were resurrected?”
“That’s right. My soul was just put into a new body.”
“Where did the body come from?”
“The Space Colony ARK. Genetics lab 17, room five. The same room you were created in.”
“Prowl.” Prowl took that as a cue to check. He remotely connected to the security feeds on the ARK.
“Access code 17-42,” the girl chimed in. Prowl tried it and was stunned at the results. It showed Eggman carrying a tube of green liquid with the hedgehog girl inside.
“Confirmed.”
“Thank you,” replied Shadow. He resumed his interrogation. “So, you’re an artificial life-form like me.”
“Not quite. You see, you’re a hybrid of Black Arms and Hedgehog, I’ve got human DNA in that mix.”
“Human? How was it made compatible?”
“That’s one of Professor Gerald’s secrets. It should be found in his personal logs. The code to access that is 4-1-7.” Shadow nodded to Prowl, and the Autobot Cop accessed that part of the computer systems. His eyes widened as the read the data.
“Sh-Shadow,” he stammered, “it says here that the human part of that body…came from a Ms. Maria Robotnik!” Shadow’s eyes went wide.
“Maria?!” he breathed. He then glared at the hedgehog girl. “What memories do you have?! Whose soul did Morgane put in that body?!”
“…Do you remember when we had a walk around the ARK a couple of times?” asked the girl. “I always told you about how I wanted to see the surface of Mobius.”
“…And then you died of your NIDS,” muttered Shadow. The girl could see that it was an obvious lie.
“Come on, Shadow, you know what really happened. Your ear always flicked whenever you lied. It was from a government soldier’s bullet. It managed to go through my shoulder blade and hit my heart as I activated your stasis pod and sent you to the surface of the planet. I distinctly remember telling you to give the rest of my former race to be happy.”
“I don’t believe it, it IS you! Maria!” Shadow then brought the girl, now believing it was his best friend, Maria Robotnik, into a bear hug. They stayed that way for a good minute.
“So, you believe her?” asked Prowl.
“Of course, I do!” snapped Shadow as he broke off the hug. “And if she’s gotten intel on the Decepticons, then we should decode it now!”
“I’ve already decoded most of it on the way here,” called Maria. “I was gathering more until Megatron found out after I discovered who’s going into space and who was staying.”
“Then we should tell Optimus what we can,” declared Prowl.
After everyone heard the story about Maria, the rest of the intel was decoded, plans were made, and the loading of ships increased. The remaining intel was who on Megatron’s side would stay. The Combaticons and Metal Sonic were ordered to stay on Mobius, the Nemesis, Whale Shark, Decimator, and Revenge would go to Cybertron. On each ship were Clench, Knock-out, Megatron, and Shockwave on the Nemesis with Megatron in command of the ship, Obsidian, Strika, and Eggman on the Whale Shark with Eggman in charge, Tankor and Morgane on the Revenge with Morgane as Captain, and Jetstorm, Overdrive, and Thundercracker aboard the Decimator with Thundercracker as the head honcho. Their flight path was also discovered, so the Autobots knew where to confront them. The journey to Cybertron would have the following stops in the following order: Nebulos, Animatros, Velocitron, and Gigantion. Optimus had to make a few decisions on who would go on what ship out of the people going to space. As he pondered, Teletraan popped up. “Hey, Prime, could I have a word?”
“Sure, buddy,” answered Optimus. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s about the A.I. situation.”
“…A.I. situation?
“I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a situation concerning me. If I stay here, the guys in space won’t be able to coordinate effectively. If I go, though, then the guys here have the same issue.”
“Not if the Technobots have anything to say about it.”
“…Sir?”
“Remember that bit of code you isolated before the World Rings affair went down?”
“Yeah?”
“Turns out, it was naturally-occurring code with a few similarities from you. It’s been trying to form its own personality.”
“…It’s an A.I?! I’m a DAD?!”
“If you want the A.I. to take over Mobian affairs while you go out to space, you need to raise it.”
“Give me half an hour!” Teletraan 1 then vanished. Optimus then got a call from Afterburner.
“Prime, we’ve got a situation here!” he clamored. “Teletraan’s just locked himself into a server that only us Technobots got access to! He’s taken that code-bud!”
“Give him half an hour,” replied Optimus.
“…Oh, yeah, computer time’s faster than real time. …He’s raising that baby A.I. alone? That’s gotta be stressful.”
“Tell your brothers that you need to check on him every chance you guys get. That baby can’t rely on Teletraan alone.”
“You got it, sir.” The call ended and Optimus grinned.
“I wonder what the new A.I.’s gonna identify as?” he mused to himself.”