Emerl

## Bio

The **Gizoid**, later known as **Emerl** is a character that appears in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. He was an ancient and powerful robot that was created 4,000 years ago by the Fourth Great Civilization. Millennia later, Emerl was discovered by Gerald Robotnik, who, in an attempt to quell his destructive tendencies, gave him a "soul" based on that of his granddaughter, Maria. In the present day, Emerl was acquired by Dr. Eggman, who tried to use him for world domination, but threw him away when he refused to respond to his commands. He was later found by Sonic the Hedgehog, who, together with his friends and allies, shaped Emerl into an independent and free being. Emerl was destroyed by Sonic when he went haywire and tried to destroy the earth.

## Appearance

Emerl was a humanoid, mostly mustard-yellow, robot. He possessed five-fingered olive-brown hands and feet in the shape of shoes with orange soles. His upper arms, abdomen and thighs were olive-brown, and he had spherical orange joints as shoulders and pelvis-legs joints. He also had relatively thick armor around his forearms and lower legs (each one possessing orange cuffs), thick kneecaps, and some kind of jetpack on his back. On his chest, he had three beige circles. Lastly, he possessed a spherical head with a beige mouth plate, light blue eyes, orange caps for ears, and a curved orange horn with a concealed blue eye on it on his forehead.

## Personality

In his base state, Emerl possessed no personality of his own. Since his main power was to copy the skills and traits of others, he would carry over the behavior patterns and personality traits of those he mimicked. A constant exhibited by him however was that he would only listen to those who could demonstrate their true strength to him. Once that requirement was met, Emerl would establish a contract with his new master and submit himself to them with unwavering loyalty. This contract is referred to as a "Link". While a Link was in play, Emerl would promise to never leave his master's side and ignore others' commands unless he was ordered by his master to obey someone else or he established a new Link with someone who demonstrated an overwhelming power.

Designed to be powered by Chaos Emeralds, Emerl grew mentally with each Chaos Emeralds he absorbed. When he first was found by Sonic, Emerl, who only had one Chaos Emerald at the time, was like a baby and incapable of doing anything beyond basic behavior, like walking and (incomplete) fighting skills. However, he could still operate upon his base programming of forging Links with powerful individuals and seeking to a make all things his. As a result, Emerl showed an interest in playing with others in order to learn new things. As he spent more time with Sonic and everyone else though, Emerl would steadily evolve from the state of an infant to that of a self-sufficient and mature individual.

Possessing an artificial intelligence, Emerl is capable of feeling genuine emotions. Early on though, Emerl was a little naïve about emotions and did not understand more complex feelings, such as love. However, as he grew and learned from others, he got wiser about emotions in general.

Early on, Emerl's personality was a sort of amalgam identity from every person he had met, incorporating each of these people's traits into himself and bringing them together. He originally demonstrated each of the more prominent traits of others, resulting in contradicting behavior, but as he developed, these trains mended out and became more in tune with each other. However, Emerl was most prominently influenced by Sonic, to the point that some people would comment on how similar they were. Emerl would therefore often show impatience, a laid-back attitude, a carefree demeanor, and at times an arrogant, smug, and self-confident attitude. However, these qualities would be tempered by a certain sense of politeness instilled in him by Amy. He likewise never tried intentionally to make a girl cry, as Sonic had told him that this was the worst thing a person could do, and would feel regret when he accidentally did it.

What Emerl maintained through his upbringing was a passion for fighting and martial arts. Whenever there was a fight brewing, Emerl would gladly participate in it, referring to such activities as "playing". Originally, Emerl would fight rather roughly, if not ruthlessly, but after learning about sadness from Cream and how his behavior impacted others, Emerl learned to restrain himself, to the point where he would refuse to fight back, even when getting pummeled, for the sake of a friend. This also taught Emerl about empathy, which led him to feel sympathy for living beings.

At the end of his upbringing, after being freed from his past as a weapon, Emerl had become a confident, kind, courageous, noble, sympathetic and a little smug robot with a bit of an attitude and mouth. He also cherished his feelings of friendship and the people he had made connections with.

When found by Sonic, Emerl possessed no ability to speak properly, being only capable of uttering a few broken sentences. However, with each subsequent Chaos Emerald he absorbed, his vocabulary would grow. After getting his second Emerald, with the exception of the first words he spoke after that, Emerl could say (and repeat) single words or sentences that he just heard; after getting his third Emerald, he could speak words and sentences he had heard before independently, although he would mix others' manners of speaking together which would make his behavior hard to define; after getting his fourth Emerald, Emerl could speak more independent sentences, although he would occasionally mix others' way of speaking into his sentences as well; after getting his fifth Emerald, Emerl could speak more intelligently and in his own words; and after getting his sixth and seventh Emerald, he could speak entirely in his own way without the influence of others.

Despite the kindness and sympathetic attitude he came to possess under Sonic's care, as the ancient weapon of legend in his previous life, Emerl was a seemingly lethal and mindless war machine with unparalleled destructive tendencies, which was best demonstrated by how he actively sought to destroy the earth with the Final Egg Blaster after running amok, all while showing cold and emotionless machine-like behavior. He also seemed hungry for power, given how he automatically began demanding his seventh Chaos Emerald once he sensed it. In addition, given that ancient stone tablets referred to him as a "god of wrath" back then, it would imply that this side of him possessed quite the temper.

Should Emerl go out of control, he will act upon the final program installed into him by Prof. Gerald Robotnik, which dictates that weapon should terminate itself if it goes out of control, and self-destruct.

## Powers & Abilities

Described as the ultimate combat weapon of his age and the world's deadliest weapon, Emerl is an extremely powerful machine and one of the more powerful entities in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. The fact that ancient stone tablets refer to him as a deity at full power speaks volumes of his true strength. Capable of seemingly endless growth, Emerl's power does not possess a known limit. Near the end of his life, Emerl's power had grown to astronomical height; not only did he possess unlimited power and energy via the seven Chaos Emeralds, but also such vast combat and weapon data from 4,000 years ago that it could make even highly advanced computers crash, along with the training of Sonic and several of his most powerful friends. These skills together made Emerl powerful enough to fight and defeat both Sonic and Shadow at the same time. Gerald Robotnik even theorized that at this level of strength, Emerl could destroy the whole world single-handedly. Taking this even further before his death, Emerl would gain the energy displayed by the Final Egg Blaster, a weapon capable of destroying entire clusters of stars.

Emerl's principal and most recognized skill was his ability to copy any techniques of those he participates in combat with either by observation, or by being attacked by attack techniques. This apparently extended to all aspects of a target outside of its physical form, be it either movement patterns, powers and abilities (such as super speed, chaos powers, super strength, flight, etc.), or even coloration. This allowed Emerl to for example adopt Sonic's speed for running and Knuckles' strength for punches. In addition, Emerl was capable of absorbing and copying any form of weapon technology and then manifest them at will, such as Amy's Piko Piko Hammer for the Girl Crush technique, making him a shapeshifting weapon arsenal. Even when he is not physically capable of performing a technique, such as Tails' ability to fly with his twin-tails or Chaos' malleable strikes, he could mimic them in another way; in Tails' case, he spun his arms around his body like a helicopter to mimic Tails' twin-tails and in Chaos' case, he extended his arms outward with cable-like cords to mimic Chaos' malleable limbs. Emerl was likewise able to develop new moves based on the data of the skills he copied, which were highly powerful and extra varied. His overall copying skill basically allowed Emerl to grow stronger for each battle he participated in. The process that Emerl used to gain skill and weapons had no known limitation and would "continue to loop indefinitely". These traits not only gave Emerl endless data storage space, but also made his combat potential, and the overall number of skills and weapons he could obtain, unlimited. While he did had a limit to how many skills he could put to use at once, this limit was seemingly circumvented when he overloaded with power.

Emerl was also able to absorb Chaos Emeralds and harness their energy to empower himself. In fact, his power and skills increased for each Chaos Emerald he obtained. He would later also develop the ability to detect sources of emerald-based energy sources, much like an Emerald Detector.

## Weakness

Although he had unlimited data storage space, Emerl's systems had a limit to how much power they could contain. As such, he was prone to overloading when he absorbed too many abilities or when capturing too much energy at once. In this state, Emerl himself would become highly unstable and revert to his innate destructive programming, causing him to go on a complete rampage and losing all self-control, which in turn would activate his self-destruct program.

## Variants

### E-121 Phi

*Main article: E-121 Phi*

The **E-121 Phi** was a mass-produced E-Series copy of Emerl, made by Dr. Eggman. Like Emerl, the Phis could copy fighting moves, but only the skillset of one person, and were powered by Chaos Emerald shards. Fourteen Phis were produced, all of which were destroyed by Emerl and his allies to get their Emerald Shards. They only appeared in *Sonic Battle*.

### Gemerl

*Main article: Gemerl*

**Gemerl** is a robot built by Dr. Eggman from Emerl's data. This robot was designed to be the ultimate combat robot. While Gemerl does not possess Emerl's vast move set, he possesses skills like flight, enhanced durability, teleportation, missile deployment, force-field generation, and the ability to "merge" with Eggman's machinery. Originally loyal to Eggman, Gemerl eventually betrayed him and went on a rampage until he was defeated. Afterward, Gemerl was recovered, reprogrammed by Tails, and became a part of Cream's family. He first appeared in Sonic Advance 3 adaption.

## Relationships

### Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog was what could be described as Emerl's guardian. When they first met, Emerl recognized Sonic's power, causing him to establish a Link with him. As his programming dictated, Emerl subsequently swore loyalty toward Sonic, which made him refuse to leave his side. Early on, Emerl would obey Sonic's every command and ignore everyone else's. As such, their relationship, from Emerl's perspective, was that of a master and his servant. As time passed and Emerl evolved though, Emerl's relationship with Sonic became more and more one of friendship and caring. Early on during his upbringing, Emerl would in particular miss Sonic when apart from him, even when ordered by him to obey someone else, and show excitement when reunited with him. Like a child, Emerl would during his development also call for Sonic when he felt upset or scared, like a child calling for their parent for comfort and safety.

Like his other friends, Emerl would mimic Sonic's behavior and personality as he developed. Even so, Sonic was a particularly strong influence on Emerl. While the other character traits he learned from his friends faded and became less prominent as he grew, what he mimicked from Sonic would persist, even at the end of his upbringing. These traits would go on to form a large part of Emerl's conclusive personality. When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Sonic for having taken care of him. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl thanked Sonic for all the fun they had and told him that he would miss him, showing just how much he meant to him.

### Miles "Tails" Prower

Miles "Tails" Prower was another one of Emerl's closest friends. Emerl initially started out distant towards Tails since he had made a Link with Sonic and not him. However, he started listening to Tails after Sonic told him to. Although Tails was a little weary of Emerl in the beginning, he still saw him as his friend and would therefore try to protect him.

Like his other friends, Emerl would mimic Tails's behavior and personality as he developed. Emerl would in particular emulate Tails' politeness. When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Tails for having taken care of him and happiness over having gotten to know him. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl told Tails that he would miss him and recognized his efforts to get stronger as attempts to better protect him, showing just how much he meant to him and how much he understood how important he was to him.

### Rouge the Bat

Rouge the Bat was someone Emerl came to regard as a friend even though she initially only wanted his power for herself. Like many others, Emerl was originally distant towards Rouge due to the Link he had established with Sonic and not her. However, he started listening to Rouge after she tricked Sonic into making him obey her. As Rouge later began training him to become the ultimate jewel thief robot, Emerl would half-heartedly follow her orders, mostly because he missed his other friends. Emerl would later unintentionally betray Rouge by absorbing a Chaos Emerald they stole together. Soon after, when Emerl's desire for "fun" got in the way of a fight, she decided that Emerl was not worth the trouble and returned him to Sonic.

Despite her treatment of him, Emerl did not seem to hold a grudge at Rouge. When they met again after parting ways, Emerl casually greeted her, though his manner of speaking (which he had picked up from Knuckles bothered her. In addition, while on his own later on, Emerl sought out Rouge, possibly because he missed her, which would imply that he had come to care for her. However, Emerl would act rudely towards her at that point in time due to Knuckles' influence. During their subsequent encounters though, after having his manners straighten out, Emerl would beave much more politely towards Rouge. Noticeably, he once referred to her as "Mama Rouge" on his own as a salutation after she had helped him on a few occasions, indicating that he may had come to consider her family. When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Rouge for having taken care of him and helping him achieve his independence, and later happiness over having gotten to know her.

### Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles the Echidna was another one of Emerl's good friends, and his eventual battle partner. Their first meeting was less than stella though, with Knuckles attacking Emerl after mistaking him for a E-121 Phi, and only calming down after Emerl beat him, much to Knuckles' frustration. Furthermore, because Emerl had established a Link with Sonic and not Knuckles, Emerl would often ignore Knuckles early on (sometimes upon Sonic's instruction), and when not doing that, he would repeat what Knuckles would say, albeit in a manner that would provoke Knuckles' rage.

Despite these rough encounters, Emerl maintained a positive outlook on Knuckles. Noticeably, when Knuckles returned to train him, Emerl showed interest in learning from him. Even so, when they teamed up, Emerl would, due the traits he had borrowed from Sonic, take charge and hurry on ahead of Knuckles. While they were together, Emerl would be strongly influenced by Knuckles, namely by copying his passion for combat. Unfortunately, he also picked up Knuckles' uncourtly way of speaking, which would land Knuckles in hot water with some of his friends and allies, and make him take a hard look at himself. Furthermore, Emerl would prove rather fearful of Knuckles' anger; when his behavior got on Knuckles's nerves and made him yell at him, Emerl would get scared and call out for Sonic for comfort. Nonetheless, Emerl did not seem to hold this against Knuckles, as he was soon back to treating Knuckles as he always had. Eventually, Emerl and Knuckles ended up in good synch with each other, as Emerl emulated Knuckles more and more. However, Knuckles was ultimately not a positive influence on Emerl's manners and intellect. Regardless, Emerl would earn Knuckles' respect after beating the echidna while he did not hold back, and eventually earned his place as his battle partner. Even so, Emerl could not help but annoy Knuckles with his smugness and naivety at inconvenient times, like after winning his decisive battle with him, or when he was trapped in Dr. Eggman's "spiky rodent trap", or when he revealed Knuckles' latest blunder to Sonic despite promising to keep it a secret.

When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Knuckles for having taken care of him and happiness over having gotten to know him. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl told Knuckles that he would miss him and asked Sonic to go easy on him since he was such a good guy despite being as gullible he is, showing that he recognized Knuckles as a good person despite his rough edges.

### Amy Rose

Amy Rose was another one of Emerl's guardians, and his self-proclaimed mother. When they first met, Emerl was quick to listen to Amy (although that was presumably because he had been ordered by Sonic to listen to her shortly before he met her) and quickly accepted her request to refer to her as his mother, which he would usually do after that. Although their first meeting was brief, Emerl quickly came to like her, as he would call out for her after Rouge took him away from her. When they later met again, Emerl would express joy over seeing her again. However, his limited vocabulary and manner of speech caused him to speak inappropriately to Amy. This would prompt Amy to scold Emerl severely. These lessons would stick with Emerl, causing him to get nervous and submissive towards Amy whenever she raised her voice at him. However, Amy's scolding also taught Emerl some much-needed manners.

While training with Amy, Emerl would recognize her as a strong individual. As Emerl continued to grow wiser, he would also start to notice Amy's crush on Sonic. Although he had trouble understanding why Amy would go to extreme lengths to get Sonic's attention, he could nonetheless recognize when Amy had the wrong idea about Sonic's behavior. When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Amy for having taken care of him and happiness over having gotten to know her. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl told Amy that he would miss her, showing just how much he had come to care for her.

### Cream the Rabbit

Cream the Rabbit was a close friend of Emerl who taught him about sadness and emotions. When they first met, Emerl would politely greet her, quickly establishing a good relation with her. Despite Cream's reluctance to fight, Emerl recognized her and Cheese as a strong team. As Emerl grew wiser and could better interact with Cream, Emerl would be taught about concepts like love by Cream, although Emerl did not always understand what she was trying to tell him. When they later got kidnapped by Dr. Eggman and worked to escape his base, Emerl found himself confused by Cream's reluctance to fight (or "play" as he would call it) Eggman's minions. In addition, Emerl ended up scarring Cream and making her cry from his violent behavior and callous treatment of his opponents. Due to having been taught what sadness was by Cream prior, Emerl learned from seeing Cream cry to feel sympathy for other beings. Having made Cream cry also made Emerl feel guilty about his behavior, which caused him to actively seek to protect Cream and not fight his opponents at all so that he would not see her "cute eyes" (as he put them) full of tears again, even when he got pummeled mercilessly by his opponents. After seeing Cream cry over letting himself get hurt though, Emerl seemingly found a middle ground when Cream agreed to fight by his side. These instances showed Emerl to be more considerate of Cream's feelings. He similarly took it upon himself to cheer her up and would be happy when she laughed thanks to himself.

When he later became a fully independent individual, Emerl expressed gratefulness towards Cream for having taken care of him and happiness over having gotten to know her. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl told Cream that he would miss her, showing just how much she had come to mean to him.

### Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog and Emerl, despite having their differences, shared many key similarities. In addition to both of them being made as weapons of war, they also possessed the same "soul", with both of them having been programmed with a "soul" similar to Maria Robotnik's by Professor Gerald. Originally though, Emerl was targeted by Shadow for destruction, as Shadow refused to let Emerl pose a threat to the world should Emerl's true power awaken. When they fought however, Emerl never seemed to be afraid of Shadow; in fact, he seemed excited about getting to "play" with him. Similarly, when Shadow decided to welcome him as a fellow weapon of war, Emerl thought it sounded fun to learn who he was from Eggman with Shadow's help after Sonic told him to do it. However, Shadow's grim view on their natures as weapons and the fate that awaited them would make Emerl sad, even when he did not understand what he was saying. Nonetheless, Shadow would prove to be the one who would grant Emerl his freedom from his past as a superweapon by willingly giving him the final Chaos Emerald and resetting his programming with Professor Gerald's keywords, something which Emerl was grateful for. After that, they developed some sort of rivalry, as Shadow wanted to know which one of them was the strongest, something which Emerl embraced with unwavering confidence. Despite this new dynamic though, Emerl was still grateful towards Shadow for having taken care of him and happy over having gotten to know him. Later, when he was about to die onboard the Death Egg, Emerl asked Shadow for answers to his existence, showing that he had come to rely on Shadow for answers about himself.

### Chaos Gamma

Chaos Gamma was one of Dr. Eggman's enforcers, who sought revenge on Emerl for having taken the power that Chaos Gamma believed rightfully belonged to him. As such, they would fight on numerous occasions. After their last hostile battle though, which left Gamma so broken that he could not move and got stuck in a loop, Emerl could not help but feel sympathy and sadness about Chaos Gamma's fate, showing that despite their hostile past, he could not bring himself to treat Chaos Gamma coldly. Fortunately, Chaos Gamma would soon after abandon his vendetta and become Emerl's sparring partner in preparation for his final battle with Eggman.

### Dr. Eggman

Dr. Eggman was the one who awoke Emerl in the present day, his intentions for doing so being to use his power to conquer the world. Despite this, Emerl ended up becoming Eggman's enemy, namely because Eggman failed to establish a Link with him, who ended up being raised benevolently by Sonic and his allies.

Although they were enemies, Emerl did not seem to take Eggman too seriously. When the time later came for Emerl to stop Eggman's scheme with the Final Egg Blaster, Emerl felt that he had a few things to settle with him since he was the one who had awoken him. At that time, Emerl had no fear of Eggman and looked forward to to putting an end to their struggle, as demonstrated when he confronted Eggman onboard the Death Egg. Although he later admitted that Eggman was "not cool" when he begged for forgiveness upon his defeat, Emerl nevertheless showed him mercy and told Eggman that he was grateful towards him for awakening him, as that led to his meeting with Sonic and co. Tragically, Emerl's kindness allowed Eggman to set in motion the events that would lead to Emerl's destruction.

### Friends/allies

* Amy Rose
* Chaos
* Cheese
* Cream the Rabbit
* Gerald Robotnik
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Rouge the Bat
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Sonic the Hedgehog

### Enemies

* Eggman Empire
	+ Dr. Eggman
	+ E-121 Phi
	+ Guard Robo