Emerl

"Emerl is capable of strengthening himself by acquiring his opponent's moves. Collect as many moves as possible and customize Emerl's fighting skills!"

Emerl (エメル Emeru) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and the main protagonist of Sonic Battle. He is the most powerful Gizoid created by the Nocturnus Clan, but was left behind when the Nocturnus Clan was pulled into the Twilight Cage. About 4,000 years later, Emerl was discovered by Gerald Robotnik, who classified him as a superweapon. Gerald attempted to nullify his destructive programming, but failed. In an attempt to curb it, he gave it the same qualities as his creation, Shadow the Hedgehog, a "soul" based on that of Gerald's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik.

In Sonic Battle
About fifty years prior to Sonic Battle, Professor Gerald Robotnik found it in a warehouse, and took it to the Space Colony ARK for research. He managed to create a Link with the Gizoid, and figured out that it could learn how to do anything, and that it got stronger when absorbing Chaos Emeralds. He then started Project: Gizoid and equipped the robot with a "heart", a free-willed emotions-based AI. Unfortunately, the project was never finished as Gerald had to hand over the Gizoid to the government in order to buy more time for his Project Shadow, the research experiment to create the ultimate lifeform. However, the Gizoid soon absorbed a large amount of weapons, and decimated a large section of the ARK. The government then finally decided that Gerald's research was too dangerous to continue, canceled Project Shadow, and killed or imprisoned all that knew about it.

Gerald's grandson, Doctor Eggman later found the Gizoid, and brought it to one of his bases. While experimenting with the robot, Eggman gave the Gizoid a Chaos Emerald which it absorbed. As he couldn't retrieve the jewel, Eggman got angry at the robot and threw it away on a beach.

Later, Sonic the Hedgehog found the robot lying around on the beach and tried to communicate with it. The Gizoid only mumbled "Show... power... OR I sh...all ob...ey... Sha...ll conqu...r a...ll..." Sonic answered by showing off a few lightning quick moves. The Gizoid reacted to the moves, and created a Link with Sonic, without him knowing. Sonic, wondering what was up with the robot, decided to take it to Miles "Tails" Prower to ask him about it. However, he stumbled upon Shadow the Hedgehog who demanded that he was given the robot. Sonic fought him off and went to see Tails. He examined the robot and figured out that it could copy abilities and absorb Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Tails then fought the Gizoid for a while, teaching him their moves and Sonic decides to (in a spectacular show of a lack of imagination) named it "Emerl" due to the fact that it absorbs Chaos Emeralds. They then decided to give him a Chaos Emerald, and went to visit Knuckles the Echidna in order to borrow the one he currently owned. On the way they met and fought both an E-121 Phi robot and a rebuilt E-102 Gamma, who both escaped. When they finally arrived, Knuckles attacked the Gizoid due to a misunderstanding, but the Gizoid defeated him and absorbed the Emerald. After his second Emerald, Emerl learned how to speak, but could only say words that he had already heard, and always repeated them twice.

After discovering how the Gizoid worked, Sonic started fighting the robot constantly to teach him new attacks. Tails, who wanted to learn more about the mysterious robot, instead wanted to take him to Central City in order to use a large database to figure out what he was. However, the data was forbidden and Tails and Emerl were attacked by guard robots, from whom they escaped. On the way home, they ran into Shadow, who again wanted to destroy Emerl. Tails and Emerl defeated him, and Rouge the Bat arrived to take the weakened Shadow away. He continued home, only to run into an angered Knuckles who again challenged Emerl, who won. E-102 then found them again, and they had to fight him off. After the fight, Tails finally got home to tell Sonic about the information he had found, namely that Emerl was a weapon. Sonic shrugged it off, and started teaching Emerl more moves.

Three days prior to the game, Rouge had been ordered by the President to find out all she could about the Gizoid. She went to the database, and discovered that Dr. Eggman was already accessing the information. Upon being confronted, Eggman told Rouge that he had already thrown away the robot and then sent a Phi robot to attack her. Rouge destroyed it, kept the Emerald shard and left to find the Gizoid. She found it in the hands of Sonic, and tricked him into letting Emerl listen to her. When Sonic was away, Rouge then swiped Emerl from Amy Rose, who spent time with the robot as she thought of him as a baby project between Sonic and herself. After fighting off the protective female hedgehog, Rouge took Emerl home, fighting Gamma on the way. Once home, Rouge told Emerl that he was to become the world's greatest thief robot. She trained Emerl for a while and then took him along to steal a Chaos Emerald. However, once she got her hands on the jewel, Emerl took it from her and absorbed it, much to her dismay. Sonic then arrived to take Emerl back and Rouge left, saying that the immature robot could never become a master thief.

After this third Emerald, Emerl started to talk normally, but could still only use words he had heard. Knuckles, interested in Emerl's connection to the Chaos Emeralds and doubting that Sonic could make him into a great warrior, later decided to spend some time with him. Upon arriving at Tails' lab, the two friends saw on TV that two Emerl-looking robots were out stealing jewelry. Knuckles decided to do something about it, and took Emerl with him to destroy the copies. They ran into Gamma, and beat him yet again. Rouge then appeared, and told them that Eggman was trying to get his hands on Emerl. Knuckles and Emerl then proceeded to Night Babylon, where they asked around to where the fake Emerls were. However, Emerl was mistaken for one of the robber robots and they were forced to fight several guard robots. Eventually they ended up in Rouge's club, where they fought Rouge herself. After that, they quickly found two Phi robots, destroyed them, and took their shards. Rouge thanked them for stopping the Phis from attacking her club, and gave them her own Emerald shard. The echidna and the robot then continued their search and ended up destroying two more robots and creating a fourth Emerald for Emerl.

On one of her usual trips searching for Sonic, Amy again scared the blue hero away, and took it as a sign that he wanted her to take care of their "baby", Emerl. While Amy was overjoyed by Sonic's decision, Emerl ran off to fight two nearby Phi robots. Amy followed suit and they ended up with two new Emerald shards. Deciding that Sonic would be very impressed if she gave Emerl a new Chaos Emerald, Amy went on a search for new Phi robots. She first decided to train some, though. Amy and Emerl went to Amy's apartment, where Cream the Rabbit and Cheese temporarily lived. Amy then taught Emerl about boxercising, which Cream disliked. The trio fought for a while, until Emerl felt Chaos Emeralds nearby and ran off. Amy followed him to Night Babylon, where she found him insulting Rouge. After fighting the disdained bat, Amy started to explain only to be interrupted by two attacking Phi robots. After Amy and Emerl destroyed the robots and took their shards, Rouge gave them another shard as well, creating the fifth Chaos Emerald for Emerl to absorb.

Eggman finally decided to take matters into his own hands and captured Emerl, along with Cream, and took them to the Gimme Shelter. While trying to escape, Emerl destroyed four Phi robots and got their shards, but was stopped by the shard-powered Gamma, as Emerl stopped fighting since it made Cream sad. After watching Emerl getting constantly smacked around, Cream decided that fighting can be good if it is used to protect someone, and out of will to protect Emerl began to attack Gamma. However, it is shown while Cream and Emerl were hiding from view, Eggman was threatening Sonic with the aforementioned two as hostages, only nowhere to be seen. Along with Cream, Emerl quickly decide to plot an escape and managed to defeat Gamma and take its shard as well, creating a sixth Chaos Emerald. As Eggman came there to check up on things, Cream and Emerl managed to trap him and escape.

Prior to the game, Shadow had been hearing voices. Upon investigating, he found the Gizoid in Gimme Shelter. Rouge, who was also there, explained that it was The Ultimate Being (Ultimate Lifeform in the western versions) and that it was a weapon just like Shadow had been. The duo was then attacked by guard robots. They fought back most of them, but Shadow got injured and Rouge had to drag him home. Shadow had some disturbing nightmares and some flashbacks from certain characters' previous scenarios, and decided that the weapon of mass destruction, the Gizoid, had to be destroyed before it got all the Chaos Emeralds. After a few attempts to take the robot by force (mentioned above), Shadow decided to simply tell Sonic his point of view. Sonic upon hearing so isn't convinced one bit into believing Emerl is a weapon alongside with Shadow being one as well, and out of intuition lets Emerl walk with the other hedgehog to discover their true selves. Rouge during Shadow's time alone with Emerl told him that Emerl could be made into a peaceful being by giving him all the Chaos Emeralds and saying "bring hope to humanity" as a programed code left behind by Gerald Robotnik. Shadow then did just that, and instead of becoming an insane world-destroyer, Emerl continued to be his usual self. Impressed by the ultimate being, Shadow eventually channels his Chaos Control without his emerald, having two fierce with Emerl. He then decided to go all-out, and let Emerl train against all of his friends before fighting Shadow again, this time winning. After this Emerl got the chance to fights his friends again, except Sonic was nowhere to be found. Upon returning to Shadow, he also found Sonic, who wanted to fight Emerl again, this time with Shadow. Emerl managed to defeat the two hedgehogs, with Sonic spending time with him and Shadow putting on his usual rough and annoyed exterior and leaving out of assumption of his time being wasted.

From there, Emerl had started living a normal life with his friends.

That didn't last long, however, as Eggman was going over the current scenario on how Emerl has developed. However, he states that upon reading his grandfather's journals on the Gizoid, he had came up with a new plan, and had finished his Final Egg Blaster, placed on his newly rebuilt Death Egg threatening the Earth with it. Using a teleportation device built by Tails that could only transport one person at the time, Emerl traveled to the Death Egg and defeated Eggman, but also had a chance to train up with his friends before setting off.

Thinking that the doctor had learned his lesson, Emerl turned away to leave, as suddenly Eggman fired the Final Egg Blaster on some nearby stars, destroying them. This overwhelming power activated a part of Emerl's program that his friends did not know about: if the Gizoid is shown a very strong amount of new power that trumps its current level, it will break its old Link to form a new one with the owner of the power.

However, it did not go as Eggman had planned due to a backfire, as not only did the the old Link break, but the Final Egg Blaster produced too much energy for Emerl to capture, driving him insane and causing Emerl's personality to be deleted, and allowed him to turn into the weapon of mass destruction that he was built to be. Emerl spouted out some binary (it should be noted that the binary doesn't actually mean anything), knocked Eggman out, and aimed the Final Egg Blaster at Earth, which was set to fire in 60 seconds. Thinking that Emerl could be stopped by negating the energy of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic brought the timely-appearing Master Emerald to the Death Egg. However, Emerl got annoyed by the light the large jewel produced, and shattered it. Meanwhile, Tails had devised a theory that Emerl's initial programming could be reversed again if he took enough damage, but this would most likely destroy Emerl's body, especially due to all of the mass energy he took in beforehand. As it was the only way out, Sonic and Emerl fight at astounding speeds (seeing as the Final Egg Blaster has only thirty seconds left to fire) and succeeded with the plan.

As Emerl started to break down, he reverted to his old personality and thanked Sonic for all the good times they had together. Sonic desperately tried to save his friend without accepting goodbye, but Emerl disappeared in a flash of light, leaving only the shards of the Chaos Emeralds behind.

Moveset
Note that Emerl's moveset depends on how the player customize him. Before the player starts acquiring skills, this is his set moveset: