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Stardust Speedway was a jetcoaster ride against a starry sky. With dizzying speeds two fated rivals would race to the finish line, the prize a captive girl. Along each winding road were Badniks of all shapes and colours, including the early Dango, Hotaru, Kabasira, and Kanabun - all to cease being produced after this night. The race was quickly finished, with the robot duplicate the fated loser, and the organic counterpart the victor. This was Metal Sonic's first loss.
Metal Sonic pushed its thrusters into their highest gear, pushing everything it had into winning this conquest. It had to win. There was no other option. No other ending. Until there was. In the milliseconds it had left it realized that the final gate was rushing it to meet it. It collided with the metal barrier at full speed. Visual processing systems went down first, then its equilibrioception, then its auditory sensors. With no spatial orientation to guide it down, Metal Sonic slammed into the ground below with what should have been a loud clang of metal on metal. Its visual systems came back online for just a moment, long enough to witness its creator leaving it behind. Then, all was dark again.
Blinded, deafened, and isolated from its surroundings, Metal Sonic had a lot to process on the road of Stardust Speedway.
To a young AI like Metal Sonic, a realization like this took a great deal of processing. First, it needed to integrate the experience with its personal sense of ownership, which was still new to it. A sense of, this happened to me, and I think this about it. But as much as it tried and tried, Metal could not integrate these things. It did not feel like this happened to it. It could not perceive that this had ended, it was still immersed in it, and could not be in the present.
So Metal froze. It stayed still, a small and broken mess of parts and mind, needing this state of confusion and hurt to pass. And it didn't. And it stayed. For hours, Metal remained alone, curled into itself, or what remained of it, with nothing but its internal dialogue for comfort.
It turned inward. It hated the hedgehog, it did. But the hedgehog was not there, or at least, it didn't perceive that it was there - but Metal was. Metal could not find a way to connect to itself. It abandoned itself. It hated itself. It had no compassion for itself at all. It had failed, and now it was hurting. It judged itself unmercifully. Weak. Frozen. Hurt.
With a great effort to recalibrate its visual sensors, Metal regained use of half of its visual field. It found that it was laying opposite a flower, a common plant species of Little Planet.
A cheerful, bright, sunny, yellow flower, bright as the sun. A smile on a stem, it laughed in Metal's face.
This enraged Metal. Why did this thing get to be happy when it was being destroyed? Why did beings take care of this thing when it was alone? It was unfair. Metal reached a trembling hand out and swiped the flower from its stem, severing it. Metal knew how the cut flower felt. It had no roots at all, nothing to anchor it to the world; yet it was still expected to be beautiful, to flourish. Nobody saw the vulnerability of a machine like Metal, they could not see the roots that it lacked. It painted the world with anger and introversion. If Metal could not be happy, neither could the flower. To the machine, this was justice. To make another feel the way it felt.
It reached out again, blinded once more, but this time, its claws didn't meet the soft flesh of a plant. Its claw tips weakly clinked against something metallic.
"Metal Sonic."
The small robot tried again, with more anger, more hurt, and met metal once more. Unyielding, cold metal. Finding that this new thing didn't crumble under its claws, Metal withdrew back into itself, frozen once more.
"This is unit Mecha Sonic. I tracked your signal to this location. You do not need to engage in defensive behaviours. If you do so, you risk intensifying the damage to your frame."
Mecha knelt down and ran a diagnostic scan over its smaller sibling. Most of its sensory systems were offline, which she expected. However, its pressure sensors were still functional in certain areas of its frame. Figuring the best way to communicate, Mecha slowly reached out and traced a single word upon Metal's armour,
Safe.
Mecha watched quietly as Metal uncurled, revealing extensive damage to its frame. Mecha was incapable of pity, so she felt nothing for it. However, witnessing her younger comrade in a state of disrepair as dire as this triggered some sort of desire to act. Metal stared up at Mecha blindly, searching for her face, only to see darkness. It managed to scan Mecha back, finding her designation - and its frame almost collapsed right back down.
Relief. Roots that it desperately needed to anchor it to the ground.
As she had done before, Mecha gently shepherded the smaller machine into her arms and held it close to her frame. This was something that Metal responded well to before, she had noted, so she did so without hesitation. Another scan noted that Metal's auditory sensor on its left side had come back online.
"It is alright, now. No further harm will come to you here." Mecha murmured, turning down the volume of her vocalizer. "I do note that the doctor has failed to return to you tonight."
Metal buried its burned faceplate into Mecha's shoulder, trying to get as close as possible. All of the anger, the hurt, the disappointment, the pain, brought it to newfound depths of hell that it could not have imagined. But, at least its one companion was there now.
"I, too, was not retrieved by the doctor upon my failure to complete my task," Mecha explained gently, moving to shift Metal closer to her frame, "thus, this is an outcome that you must become adjusted to."
Metal slowly nodded its head. It had to learn and be better, unstoppable, let the hatred fuel its fire. Even so, it shakily traced the word, 'hurts' onto Mecha's chest plating, needing to communicate this.
"You experience states of mind that I cannot understand nor empathize with," Mecha replied, gingerly rubbing a strong hand over her sibling's back, "but I shall endeavour to try. I note that you destroyed a flower. I assume that this is an outward projection of your internal status?"
Metal nodded again.
"Then I assume it must... feel destructive," Mecha concluded, rising to stand with the smaller robot in her arms, "but in destroying this living thing, you have killed it. Why."
Metal just nodded a third time, with more conviction.
"You cannot kill the emotional state within your CPU, Metal Sonic. That is impossible, for it is not a separate being." Mecha explained. "You will injure yourself in the process of attempting such a thing. Is that what you desire?"
No response this time, and that brought Mecha to a solemn conclusion. Metal had deliberately harmed itself several times in the recent past. Out of anger, out of frustration, out of fear, out of seemingly nowhere. Mecha did not want to witness this. It would be a great waste of the younger machine's efficiency and skill.
"Do not turn your shame inward," Mecha advised gently, beginning to walk, slowly, "it is a waste of an intelligent mind. You were created with artificial intelligence more advanced than my own, and I am capable of appreciating the efficiency of another machine. You are capable of greater endeavours than that which you currently seek. Do not forget, you are a child."
Metal did not respond. It fell quiet and defeated, leaning close into its older sibling's armour. Perhaps Mecha's words did hold weight. After all, Mecha was the one who had come here to find it of her own free will. Mecha was someone that it could trust.
"Tomorrow, you will begin again. You shall be repaired and at full functional capacity." Mecha noted, coming to a stop at the end of the road. "The flower is not your enemy. It is a lesson, and you shall continue to learn as your neural network develops."
A lesson, not a failure. A star fell behind them, burning out into the night sky, making room for the next to come to life. Metal gathered its shame and grief and let it grow into something yellow.
---
Neo looked up from gazing out across the city upon hearing the heavy, familiar footfalls of his sibling. His optics immediately warmed into a smile, and he leaned back a little to meet his sibling early. Mecha moved to sit beside Neo, letting her feet hang off the edge of the skyscraper along with her brother. She immediately noted that Neo was once again clean of self-injury and felt a swell of pride. This marked three months, and yes, she had been keeping a watchful count.
"I am proud of you, brother." Mecha reminded her brother, placing a hand on his white arrow, painted boldly on his face. "Today has been a good day for you."
Neo nodded and signed, "would not be here if not for you." He pressed his head into Mecha's hand and gave a contented sigh through his vents.
Mecha shrugged a shoulder. "Perhaps. However, the sentiment is mutual. You are my brother, and we have a duty to one another."
"I love you." Neo signed, leaning against Mecha as they looked out across the cityscape. Yellow and white lights twinkled in and out below them as the city fell asleep after a long day.
Mecha reciprocated, leaning into Neo as well. "I love you too, brother. As long as we are together, nothing will stop us. Not grief, not hurt, not loss."
The dandelion growing in the concrete beside them was a steadfast yellow, bright as the sun, unyielding yet soft against the odds.