Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It is one thing to be designed for combat, for high-speed chases, and to have been built by the smartest man on the planet. Or that was what Metal liked to believe, his creator was many things but smart was being to become doubtful in Metals perceptions.

“Arg! I’ll make that spikey rat rue the day he crossed me-Ahh-choo!” Eggman still in his night clothes yelled from under his covers. Bright eggpireal red with a plaid pattern inlaid with his emblem and his favorite mech designs. Orbot had designed it for him last Christmas.

“After I make every bacterial, parasite and viral organism on this planet extinct! Ahh-choo!”

“Sigh, If you don’t conserve your voice sir you won’t be able to evil monologue for this Friday's evil plan!” Orbot abolished from the nightstand where he sat struggling with a motor and pestle that Metal had brought him.

“Boss, ya gotta stay in bed! Doctors’ orders!” Cubot chimed in. he was hiding from behind the door frame where Metal had stationed himself.

“I am the doctor who gives the orders around here bah!” Eggman cried shuffling under the cover and rising up to shake his fist at whatever god had decided to lay this misfortune on him. (It was a collaborative effort from them actually.)

“You’re not going to get better making all that ruckus sir, I suggest you take you medicine then.” Orb-bot pushed the stone motor across towards the doctor who peaked at it from under the covers. Also decorated in his mech designs.

“What the hell is that?”

“Your medicine sir,” Orbot replied.

“That’s just ground-up rice, Tylenol, and -is that? Were those flintstone gummies??? What is that greasy shine.” Egg man stared at the concoction like Orbot had handed him a pile of raw plutonium. Which had happened at one time to be honest.

“Vix vapo rub sir, I was informed that it is popular cure all.” Orbot replied in a confidence Metal was sure only professional poker player could pull off.

“Are any of you even remotely in possession of medical or basic medicinal information. I know you all have access to the net!”

Metal did a quick scan over the databanks both public and eggperial. Immediately a discrepancy was noticed in the public medical databanks compared to the ones in the eggnet. Specially treatments for illness and major wounds. After a quick download of basically everything for humans -medical information wise- Metal discounted form the net entering back into the room mentally. Metal had only ever seen the doctor deal with paper cuts and or the short day cold. While a self-diagnose of flue had been pretty evident when the good ol doc didn’t shake it off after a day, and multiple days long efforts to recover Sage that had worn him ragged (that also probably hadn’t helped), the three badniks couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt at their lack of knowledge and inexperience to assist their creator in his hour of need.

“I swear I will through you into the wall if you put that poison anywhere near me!” Eggman roared back as Orbot attempt to smear the remedy on his head.

“Boss come on it will make you feel better!” Cubot cried, he had migrated to hiding behind and watching through Metals legs now. Metal would have offered a head pat to the little assistant if he knew it would offer any comfort to the bot but resisted so as not to startle the bot further.

“Chaos dammit just make me a pot of chicken soup or something- sheesh it like you lot never had-ack ah-choo!” The doctor crumbled and laid back down in the bed.

“Blast it all just let me rest you meddlesome lot of lice. Go fix something from the last attack, busy yourselves in the repair bay, just leave me in peace!” He cried burring his face into his pillow. The case had little moto bugs and rings printed on it though Eggman took no note of this as he screamed into the pillow.

“Oh alright but be warned we’ll be back with that chicken soup!” Orbot threatened brandishing the pestle like a mini sword. The three left closing the door behind them to the muffled screams of frustration.

“So how does one make chicken soup?” Orbot asked the other two after they had made their way down the hallway from the doctor's private quarters.

Metal froze and did a quick skim of the new medical data only to realize comfort food recipes hadn’t actually made it into new library in the eggnet. In fact there was little to zero information available from the eggnet regarding cooking. The doctor did seem to live off a diet of ramen and instant heat and eats as a result of the busy schedule required by people trying to take over the world. Metal made a log to try and suggest a series of cooking specialist badniks to the doctor as home-cooked foods was listed under ways to improve health for humans.

“I thought you knew! You’re the one who offered!” Cubot gasped.

Metal made a series of beeping sounds altering the two as his visor flashed, “No data”. The two ah-ed in understanding.

“So, there’s no recipes on eggnet but there’s bound to be tons on the public wi-fi.”

Metal made a low humming noise as he sent the two the list of recipes (soup specific this time), he had downloaded to their internal inbox receivers. The two smaller bots jumped in surprise at the amount of data that accumulated it into their collective memories.

“Oh man that’s a lot, how are we going to know which one will be best?” Cubot started fidgeting. Metal never understood why Eggman had set the robots stress response so low.

“Then we will try a few, most of the recipes are simple so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We can also try a few of the different pre-canned ones if that doesn’t pan out.” Orbot prosed stroking his hinged jaw.
Metal made more beeps inquiring about the stock of ingredients, one of the nice things about having worked together for so long was that Metal didn’t have to break out his external communicator translator since they both understood Morses code.

“Oh, dang do we even have the right ingredients?” Cubot asked.

“Most likely not one of us will have to make a trek to a store or supply distributor, even if we have required ingredients it's best to use fresh in this case. No telling how old the stuff in the kitchen is.” Orbot said, he seemed to have taken charge of the situation not that Metal minded, he was starting to stress out like Cubot. He was a killer robot, not a nurse could you blame him?

“I’ll handle the cooking prep, your faster so you can hit the store and grab the medicine. “Orbot said pointing to himself then Metal. Metal nodded it was sound plan and made the most sense considering their abilities.

“Cubot, you’ll be on the first bedside shift. Take though notes on the doctor's condition and attend to any request he might have. If were wrong about our initial diagnosis, we may need to kidnap a professional.” Orbot said patting his hands together in delight as he finished announcing the game plan.

“Why do I get first bed shift?” Cubot whined.

“Because you’re the one he’s most agreeable with when he’s like this.” Orbot retorted.

Cubot whined only a little more as he slunk off back down the hallway. His hopping making clanking sounds as he shuffled back into the room.

“Remember to update us if anything happens!” Orbot called after Cubot disappeared back into the room.

“Alright well, I won’t hold you any longer from your own preparations. I’ll be in the- uh- kitchen.” Orbot said with a shutter as he maneuvered down the hallway further toward what Metal could only describe vaguely as a kitchen, instead of stovetops their were Bunsen burners and in place of dishware there were glass flasks, the doctor had always preferred multipurpose home furnishing for the bases. Partially because it created uniformity across the many locations but also because replacing just home furnishing had become annoying after the fifth base had been leveled by his inferior copy.
Metal contemplated his plan of attack toward acquiring the list of ingredients and medicine that Orbot had just messaged him, he pulled up the list and placed it into the corner of his vision adding the identification of the items to his sensors for quicker perception. Orbot had been kind enough to do the calculations as well of how much of each would be needed, Luckey the electronic card should cover it.

As Metal stepped into the east hanger, he headed toward the equipment rack and started picking out which of the attachable upgrades and disguises would be going with him. Since he had the black shield and rocket booster built in he topped off his fuel reserves by inserting a fresh chaos drive and changing the output engine exhaust from his back to his feet for maneuverability and in case his cover would be blown. He switched out his hands while he was at it choosing to replace the offensive claws with a more fine motor skilled hand with extra touch sensors that were easily hidden by basic mobian gloves.

After grabbing the smaller portable voice box modifier and scent analyzer, two small back components that attached to imputes at the base of the head chaises. Metal moved on to his disguise. It rarely saw use and was in pretty good condition despite the poor quality of the material. Eggman was talented at inventing many things but textiles had been a bit beyond his realm. The Faux quill hood simulated the texture and shape of a trio of quill clumps as did the padded form fitting faux fur suit that slipped over his body. The third impute on the back of the chassis was activated as the cloaking mechanism entered deception mode. It was by far one of the best pieces of stealth tech ever developed in the world as it created a holographic layer of faux fur over layer Metal was wearing. It created the illusion of breathing, sweat, blushes, and even muffled the mechanical sound his body produced. It combined with the simulated textures under the hologram was able to make the killer robot pass as just another mobain. Metal had of course his own personal touches to the disguise, such as a personalized holographic face instead of the rubber mask that it had started out with. Yellow streaks marked the arms and legs and the corners of the red eyes. Metal’s holographic face smirked it was close appearance to his inferior copy but with sharper eyes. He would never tell Eggman, but he had added the streaks as a way to preserve the yellow highlights from his chaise. After slipping on the open sole boot covers on to his feet Metal took off in the air. The preparation for the disguise took a while but would be worth it for the ease it would give him while navigating among the enemy territory. Metal quickly decided that smaller areas and settlements would be off the list since he would stick out more to the locals than a large city.

Metal easily adjusted to the boot thrusters and hovered about 1,000 feet in the air mapping out his route. The closest location at the moment was Central City to the west about an hour's flight away. It would have the best option for humans, being a mostly human settlement. The downside would be that he would stand out more especially if he bought the medicine, the city was also listed as the last known location of his inferior copy and an assortment of other freedom fighters and associated rebels. It also housed a rather massive G.U.N base. All in all, any sort of suspicion or detection would mean assured destruction in combat if he couldn’t escape fast enough. The risk was starting to outweigh the benefits of proximity.

The second closet option was Knothole. It was a little farther but the city of Knothole lay in the opposite direction south east and was the almost entirely mobian, it would be the easiest to blend in and procure the ingredients as it was a largely agriculture community and had a small but rather diverse hospital that was multispecies serviceable so it would possibly have human medicine but if it could be bought over the counter would be the question. It also had an Acorn kingdom military fortress and was another hot spot for freedom fighters and rebels. Metal had very rarely set foot in the city and there was the matter of the documented time anomalies that were infamously common around the city limits, the most a person had reported losing were a couple of days but even a few hours could be turned into an eternity. It was impossible to predict or detect them as evidence by Eggman numerous failed attempts to study and control them. Metal ranked it slightly higher than Central City as a possible location.

The third option was the capital city of Soleanna, it was the furthest at 175 miles and to the northwest but the least militarized of the three, since it was a neutral country and under the direct patronage of a known eggpire hostile deity. While there hadn’t been an official Solaris sighting in over a decade save a suspected targeted meteor shower and unconfirmed sighting that had hit the Holoska base three years ago, the country was still very much a modern technology and cultural hub. It was a popular mobian tourist spot despite being another mostly human city so his presence would likely not stand out as bad. It would have both food and medicine and be easy to escape and shake a tail if needed.

All three had small but sizable cybernetic populations so that wouldn’t matter thankfully if someone noticed his metallic feet.

Decision made, Metal headed towards the furthest city of Soleanna to try his luck there it would be the easiest to gather everything in one trip and head back to the base with a full load, if he failed their Knothole and Central were along the way back.

What’s the worst that could happen.

Chapter Text

Back at said base, Orbot was discovering that the cooking implements in the kitchen were more along the range of repurposed scientific equipment and…was that a dentist scalpel in the knife block. Orbot sighed as he added cooking knives to the list of items, he had sent Metal to pick up, though the list was more like a manifest at this point. Perhaps it was time to add regular furnishings back to the bases and stick to the food and medicine at this time.

“Alright time to get to work.” Orbot said aloud turning to the work station he had compiled in order to properly fabricate a set of pots and pans. Lighting up the blow torch he started affixing the handles.
(LINE BREAK LINE BREAK)
“Ugh-mumble-ah I want a divorce!” Eggman mumbled in his sleep. He had been rolling over with sweats and had repeatedly kicked his covers off. Cubot had found him asleep upon reentering the room.

“Divorce who boss? Wait you were married?” Cubot asked as he dragged the covers back over the doctor.

“Ugh-uhh-I miss my wife Tails, I miss her a lot.” Eggman mumbled back.

“Boss you’re not making a whole lot of sense right now.”

“He pissed on my wife!” Eggman cried into his pillow his arm shot out and smacked Cubot. Actual tears were on the doctor’s face and Cubot was panicking.

“Boss your scaring me!”
(LINE BREAK LINE BREAK)
As Metal approached the outer limits of Soleanna he made note of the best access points from the road. If he flew directly into the city, he could be spotted and asked for identification. It was safer to sneak by on the ground. Blend in with a group of Tourist if he could. And-ah there.

Metal dropped down near where a tour group was on the outer edge of the city near the ruins of the old castle. Kingdom Valley had solely been falling into disrepair before the fire as the royal family moved into the capital building and new castle relocated into the heart of the city. A few years after the fire tourist would skirt the outer edge of the old colossal building gazing in wonder at what had previously been one of the largest ancient structures of the humans. Metal hung back by the tree line trying to mimic a relaxed board pose of a teenager.

Most of the group was Mobian so it was easy to sneak into back of the group, there was even a couple of hedgehogs in it near the front though of different colors. The tour guide was giving some little speech about the accident that led to the fire. Metal wasn’t really paying attention as he tried to figure out how to sneak onto the bus that would hopefully take him into the city limits.

“As a result of the death of the crowned queen her royal consort the duke of Soleanna began leading a push into multiple research projects that would elongate the life of those affected by chronic illness. Much like project Shadow that proceeded it by 40 years the Solaris project sought to use the healing properties of chaos and other types of energy produced by the life forces of the planet to support extended suspended animation and expiate the healing process of those in comas. The lab that housed the Solaris team and the first experiments as well as the subsequent location of the fire are right beneath our very feet.”

Metal tuned in for a little while noticing that the tour guide had failed to mentation that the true purpose of both projects were to create weapons of mass destruction as uncovered by Eggman in one of his dives into the military files he recovered from prison island before he sunk it. He hummed in disapproval just catching himself from beeping in agitation, while he had his voice box extension, he was terrible at using it and would rather not get caught in an awkward conversation. After all it wouldn’t be appropriate to call the tour guide out on the falsities that her country had tried to build a weaponized time machine from the body of its precious deity.

The tour guide rambled on a little more about the royal family and the dukes death after the fire before announcing it was time to head back to the city center for the scheduled lunch. The group filed onto the bus Metal slipping past the guide and driver without much difficulty. There were a few empty seats near the back, so Metal grabbed one and tried not to glare as the rest of the group filled much to close. The bus thankfully hadn’t been at capacity when it arrived and did not do a head count as it started up and headed back to the city. Metal watched out the window as the steep green hills and grey boulders turned to a more familiar cost land appearance with wave ocean visible in the distance beyond the skyline of the city with water for streets. The bus stooped outside of a hotel Metal walked into the lobby with the group taking extra care not to brush up against anybody before breaking away and heading towards a pamphlet rack, just as he suspected city maps marked with various locations were compiled.

He found one that had listed grocery stores, pharmacies, and markets and set out to the first location. It was chain store pharmacy so it should have the medicine. The bright blue Malgreen sign welcomed him in. The check out lanes had two different registers a shorter mobian self check and a taller one with a human attendant behind it that waved him a hello. Metal didn’t see any of the rolling ladders that were usually left for mobian and human children at first, while it wouldn’t affect him it would mean he would have to make noise that could draw attention to himself. Metal fallowed the signs until he found the section for colds and flues. It had a wide variety brands and other kinds of supplements, Metal found that mobain and child safe were located on the bottom most shelves. It was as he had dreaded the adult human ones were located at the top. He checked if there were any whiteness, but it seemed that the store was mostly deserted. Metal attempted to jump at first snagging the two of the recommended boxes that Orbot had requested. It was a Morquil and Evequil a popular name brand that was advertised by a famous owl actress. The third box was a Massmuces value pack that orbot had suggested, whitch was currently mocking Metal from the top shelf.

Metal let out a robotic sigh as he backed up and use the running start and a quick flash of his jets to give him the air to reach the box. He snagged it and let out a victorious hum.
“Oh wow that was an impressive jump.” A familiar voice said.

Metal whirled around spotting Amy Rose at the end of the aisle. He froze unsure if she had detected anything off about him.

“Oh sorry didn’t mean to startle you, I hear what sounding like stomping and got curious.” She said, her face a pleasant smile that Metal had to tell himself again wasn’t meant for him.

“I have a couple of friends that use similar air shoes.” Amy said waving off, Metal had a moment to wonder who else among the resistance had taken to using air shoes that she mentioned. Gerald’s original designs were lost and the only surviving prototypes were with Shadow.

Metal focused a question for later and trying to get his body to drop its defensive stance and his voice box ready he would nee dot play friendly civilian.

“Its-its fine.” He replied. He turned back towards the shelf hopping she would take the hint and leave, this was like playing with fire.

“Oh yeah, the clerk at the front told me that the rolling ladder go torn up and that the replacement got lost in the mail so it will be a while before it gets here. She’s pretty nice so don’t feel shy if you need to ask for help, jumping like that can get rough on a mechanical knee after a while.” Amy added making Metal freeze again. She smiled at him again and went on her way with her basket. Metal let out a relieved automatic sigh, the freedom fighter having passed him off as cyber.

He tried to track her heat signature with his sensors, she had wandered from the bandages towards the beauty section and was looking at fur dyes and makeup kits. Metal maneuvered himself to the next section on Orbot’s list as he watches Amy through the shelves. Luckily there wasn’t as big a distinction between the human and mobain vitamins, a variety but mostly D and C was selected in the doctors preferred flavor of orange and added to the basket. Orbot had listed a few other types of medicine that while not necessary for this crisis now but for the future stocks in case of other events. Metal decided that most bug stings and bactenecin could be saved for another day and got small packages of both. He found the bactenecin next to the ace bandages and disinfected pads too and he went ahead and added the variety of bandages. Amy had added many of the same to her basket as metal saw as she moved between shelves. Metal noted theorizing that this was strange seeing as she was visiting this country her residence registered for Central City. The little basket was almost full so Metal went ahead and moved on to the bug bite medicine that was thankfully just a few shelves away. Amy had moved on to the beauty section pursuing nail polishes.

Metal decide that it was time to stop tempting fate and started making his way towards the register. As he did so he noticed that Amy was no longer alone but instead had now been joined by a new figure. Metal froze again as he realized the figure wasn’t registering on his heat sensors and that no one new had entered the store. Save Amy, the clerk and the two pharmacy tech that were in the back of the store no one else should be here. Yet this ice cold body was standing next to Amy with out a care in the world.

“What color do you think Elise would like better, I know Rough requested pink and teal and blaze wanted to try metallics.” Amy said to the figure. It appeared to be a black hedgehog with green streaks on its downward out pointing quills in a matching green dress that matched Amy’s current. The figure looked so much like Amy with different colors and long striped quills that Metal was positive it had to be a shapeshifter of some kind. It had been approximately less than fifteen seconds since Metal saw them before the figure snaped it intense glowing green eyes towards him.

“Try a pastel or a crimson, I know she likes to match her hair, ruby red is to bright though. Hey, you mind waiting one minuet I want to grab something really quick from another section.” The figure said back to Amy in her own voice, Metal noticed that the figures medical mask that had been pulled under the being’s nose had not moved when it spoke. Amys face starred at him from the being the mouth and chin coved by the cloth, the eyes pupils almost serpentine but undoubtably mimicking Amy.

“Oh, sure thing Mephy, oh your mask slipped again.” Amy said turning her back towards Metal again as she went back to perusing the nail polishes. The being, “Mephy” made a straight line though the shelves phasing right through everything as it came to stand in front of him not bothering to fix the mask that had slumped down its face. Metal had about a hundred different danger signals going off that this was not something he wanted to fight. It leaned towards him not changing its height yet leering over him in a way that he though only the doctor could. Its clawed finger, the claw long enough that it poked through the glow, slipped the mask past its chin revealing no mouth, it was at this time that Metal notice that it didn’t seem to have eyelids either.

“It’s Mephalis, and if you even think about saving this memory to your hard drive let alone report it to your chaos dammed doctor you’ll both be joining the others in the white.” Mephalis said, in the deepest most disturbingly dark voice Metal had ever heard. Mephalis then snaped and a small dimensionional window opened right in front of his optical receivers showing a white void filled with what appeared to be charred bodies. The window closed in a second with a wave of Mephalis’s hand.

“Speak of this to no one. I know you can feel fear.” Mephalis repeated jamming their claw towards Metal their eyes squinted in frustration. The hand then reached to beyond Metal to the shelf grabbing a bottle of Melatonin Gummies before then placing the mask back over their face. Mephalis then phased backwards never braking eye contact or even moving save the pull backwards with their reptilian gaze holding still before abruptly turning around and walking normally back towards Amy their entire demeanor changing.

“Got it.” They said in the casual mimicked voice they had used earlier.

“Great, you can just place it in the basket I still haven’t decided on colors for Elise or myself yet.” Amy replied.

Metal shuddered as he turned back towards the front of the store. He left his auditory sensor turned up now realizing that would be the only way keep track of the pair as they walked through the store. He slowly trudged through dragging his feet. Of course, he would run into a disguised wrathful god hanging out with a freedom fighter on the one day he was trying to avoid being recognized.
“I’m thinking I’m going with emerald green for myself, what do you think?” Amy said holding up a selection of tiny bottles.

“Its fine it would match your eyes, I’m more of a sea foam and forest green person myself. Should we get anything for Maria I know she said she was bringing her own kit.” Mephalis asked head tilted. They shot another sharp look at Metal before casually going back to looking at the bottles.

Metal switched on an audio recorder making sure to delete the images of Mephalise but not the audio since doing so would just reset his memory something he was hoping to avoid since he was out, this could be an important conversation if the people they were talking about were indeed the soleanna princess and the other two freedom fighters. Metal suspected that the Maria must be new since there was no one by that name in the listed registry of known rebels.

Mephalis made eye contact again and gave a slight nod of their head as if in approval before turning back to Amy.

“If that’s the case grab some sky blue anyway, so she doesn’t have to use up all of hers if the kit was a gift.” Mephalis replied.

“Alright, I think I’ll grab some pastels for Elise and hm, maybe that emerald green. She does love green.”

Metal had maneuvered over to the small snack and grab and go food section. He slowly shuffled down towards the canned soup, a few of the suggested brands where here but none of the requested premium brands Orbot had explicitly requested for on the list. He grabbed some tomatoes and minestrone since those where the only ones that would probably require the least amount of doctoring if the flavor he had read about online was anything to go by. Looks like he would have to pick up the rest at the grocery store.

“You sure you don’t want a color for yourself Mephy I think this purple would look great on you.”

“Thanks but I’ll have to pass that brand doesn’t exactly stick very well to my nails.” Mephalis replied shooting a rather blasé glance at the fanned out hand.
“Oh that’s right mist. Has to be waterproof” Amy gave a little smack to her head as if remembering something important.

Metal made a last once over of the shelf before shuffling over towards the check.

“Oh are you done don’t worry I can get you over here, our self-check has been acting up.” The clerk said waving him over. Metal shoot one last look at the duo still looking at polish before heading over to the register.

“Did you find everything alright sir?” The lady asked.

Metal nodded trying to keep his pose relaxed.

“I think I’m ready to check out now.” Amy said and soon she was standing behind him. Metal just barely managed not to smack his head onto the counter knowing the sound would give him away.

“Oh, hey its you again.” Amy said causing Metals pose to stiffen.

“Oh, you know them,” Mephalis said, a devious gleam in their eye that Metal did not like one bit.

“Oh no I just meet them today they were jumping back in the aisle,” Amy said waving her hand as if in embarrassment.

“I need to see your ID, for this medicine since its human specific.” The clerk said leaning over to look at Metal who hadn’t realized his gaze had drifted over to the duo.

Metal filled for a moment with the boot strap pulling the fake id from its hidden pocket.

“Ah, Metal Kintobor, thank you, will this be all?”

Metal nodded his engine heating up so he could speed out of here and get as far away from that haunting stare.

“It was nice meeting you stranger.” Amy waved him a pleasant goodbye while Metal who barely registered it since Mephalise was glaring holes into his chaise.

He gave a polite nod and walked out as fast as reasonably possible. He stopped outside around the corner taking a moment to turn his full visual receptor recorder back on. He stiffened as he felt a cold hand settle onto his should pad. The dark voice of Mephalis whispered into his sensor. He saw a reflection off of the metallic surface that made up the wall of the pharmacy, the fuzz image of a dark purple horned creature was standing over him.

“You will leave my country as fast as you can or else.”

Metal whipped around and saw nothing. He tried to process how fast the specter must have moved before the sliding doors opened revealing Amy and Mephalis now in the Shadow form that was listed under their known aliases for the being.

“Aw times up? I thought you looked nice.” Amy asked.

“Of course. Though I’ll take that as a complement that my mimic was spot on.” The being said in deceptively friendly voice and eye roll.

“Eh, besides I feel more confident in this form.” They replied. “That and it’s the only one Iblis seems to be able to pick out of a crowd.” They shoot a hard glance at Metal who took the cue and dashed out in the alley.

Metal started tying to calculate the most discrete way to jettison out of the city when the creeping feeling returned as Mephalise gaze somehow became even more ominous. Metal took off with out looking back or a care for the consequences. Mabey the doctor would stop picking fights with gods some day.

(LINE BREAK-LINE BREAK-LINE BREAK!)

Chapter Text

Cubot was not having a good time.

“Sir please I don’t understand!” While he had no way of forming tears Cubot was crying in a corner while the doctor thrashed in his bed.

“Announcement, I need to make an announcement! Pull up my twitter!” He called out, the pillow case peeling from his sweaty face as he thrashed some more. His hands where flailing as if to hit something.

“Doctor please! Why can’t you sleep like a normal person! Your sick!” Cubot was hiding under the bookshelf now, brandishing a feather duster as if its flimsy structure could protect him from the madness unfolding before his eyes.

“My twitter! Who put my nudes on twitter dot com!”

“What even is a twitter!” Cubot through the duster where it bounced off the wall.

“He fucked my wife so I’m pissing on the earth!”

“Doctor you’re not married!” Cubot fell to the ground hands clutched over his head rattling in fear.

“I’m pissing on the moon! Behold my super laser piss!” Eggman screamed.

“Ahhh!” Cubot entered sleep mode as if fainted.

(LINE BREAK LINE BREAK HOW DO LINE BREAK???)

“Well that happened.” Orbot grumbled to himself as another glass flask was lost to the motobugs he had summoned to help him rearrange.

“At least Metal should be back soon, I hope.” He grumbled as he finished the non-stick coating over the now completed pan set.

“I wonder if I should check up on Cubot.” Orbot mumbled.

At that moment he received a notification from the main data hub.

“Oh what’s that?” He logged into the server the data steraming across his optics.

The incoming message was a notification. It was the footage from the recent star island escapade and had been completely reintegrated into the S.A.G.E program. It would also appear that parts of the Sage A.I.’s original personality had been recovered from the event as well. The Sentient Argumentation Generator Engine was located deep underground and housed the almost all the data that made up the personalities and codes for the entire badnik fleet. Of course special bots like him, Cubot and Metal all had their own personal unique servers that housed their data and memory, Eggman was currently working on the new server that would house Sage individually once her memories and personality were salvaged from the excess data junk that had basically corrupted her programing after the cyberspace integration. The event had all but shut down the S.A.G.E. and by extension the Badnik fleet so it was decided that the best way to preserve the valuable new addition to their team was to separate her from the original hub that had spawned and housed her before Eggman rebooted his system so her memories and evolved personality would not be lost. It was definitely not for sentimental reasons the doctor would never.

“Oh his master will be so pleased.” Orbot clapped his hands in delight. He was looking forward to seeing the doctors smile when he told them that the venture was setting up to be a striking success. Or it would be if he didn’t work himself into a sickness like he had today. While it would still take time before Sage could be herself again the fact that they were able to recover anything at all after the crash was a staggering achievement. Orbot made a note to specially thank the badnik that had been leading the recovery efforts on the island and the other operating A.I.s that had painstakingly reconstructed her code and memories.

As Orbot hoped down the hallway to share the good news he stopped as the doctors and Cubot voice ring out in an echo.

“I’m pissing on the moon! Behold my super laser piss!” Eggman screamed. It was fallowed by a thunk and a hushing of Cubot’s cries of terror. Orbot froze unsure of how to procced but decided to peak his head into the door anyway.

The Eggman was sprawled across the bed and multiple item had been knocked from their place but still very much in a deep sleep. Cubot lay limp on the floor.
In a softer and almost proud voice eggman mumbled.

“How do you like that Obama I pissed on the moon you idiot.”

Orbot decided that Cubot had it under control and headed back to the kitchen. Along the way he received another notice that Metal had dropped off the medicine before heading back out to gather the rest of the items. The text was brief but on point listing what had and had not bene obtained. At that same moment a motobug came rolling up to him passing and heading into the bedroom likely to pass off the medicine to Cubot.

Orbot nodded the day had surprisingly been rather calm and orderly.

Metal was still rattling in fear as he rockets off towards Knothole after having sped back to base to drop the medicine off. The data showed the package had been collected and Orbot hadn’t questioned his need to make a second trip. Hopefully there would be creates at the Knothole markets so he wouldn’t have to carry back the groceries in precarious paper bags. He made a data entry into the main sever that it would be best to avoid Soleanna in the foreseeable future. The audio threats from the time god were then uploaded with the warning memo.

Metal took a moment to collect himself as he landed on one of the roads leading towards the town. There was little traffic, and most didn’t even cast him a glance since a few cyborgs were already mixed in the crowed of travelers. Metal tried not to look to inconspicuous as he sped walked into the city, enough time had been lost on the trip back to the base.

Knothole was many things but ordered was not one of them. Metal fidgeted in annoyance as the chaos of foot traffic and food carts went every which way. The city was a lot more colorful than Soleanna with bright decoration hanging in the form of public flower beds, gardens hanging off the sides of buildings and paper pennates streamed back and forth across the streets. If his sever didn’t tell him otherwise he would have assumed a festival was happening.

There was a large map plastered at the entry way to the town center, on it listed the various attractions and stores. It also listed the location of the Freedom Fighter base in the upper east side of the town. Metal decided that the market on the furthest point west would do.

As Metal started his trek to “Wiggly’s the Piggily Farmers Market.” He was jostled by a surge in the crowed. Metal turned as he saw a section of the street had cleared to make way for what looked like a duel between a Coyote and a pair of skunks. Metal recognized them as Rough and Tumble mercenaries that were hired on and off by the doctor. Metal figured that they were the replacements the doctor had considered replacing the Nack gang with, though Metal did somewhat miss the polar bear, the robot liked to think they had bonded over their shared muteness and admiration over the antics of that duck.

“Mon due! You scallions, taste the blade of my wrath!’ The Coyote brandished his saber, and it was at that moment Metal was able to place him as the retired freedom fighter Antoine D’Coolette.
“Honey now I think that’s enough no need to make a scene.” A cyberized yellow rabbit tried to pull Antoine from the skunk brothers who were brandishing brass knuckles each. Metal placed her as Bunnie D’Coolette who had retired at the same time as the sward master.

“Yeah listen to yer little lady buster! You don’t want to mess with us!” Rough yelled.

“Heh, why don I slice that raggedy scarf off your bosom and make tu un matching pair?” Antoine snapped back sweeping his blade in the dirt road as if to draw a line.
Tumble started to cry.

“You bastard you made my brother cry! Don’t you know he’s sensitive about his tail!” Rough called back before charging the coyote.

“I said that’s enough!” Bunnie launched forward and promptly grabbed Rough by the chest fluff before flipping him over her head and slamming him into the ground. Metal made a note that she hadn’t even activated her booster and had used her flesh hand to do the toss. The crowd cheered and Metal begrudgingly found himself entertained by the spectacle of strength.

“Alright you asked for it!” Tumble gave a battle cry charging at Bunnie on to have his attack deflected by Antione's sword. The white skunk roared with rage and struck again crushing down a massive force onto the coyote who held his position. The crowd hushed and Metal leaned forward as it looked like Antonie may give in at any moment his body shuddering with exertion to keep from being pulverized, Metal took notes that the struggle may be a result of his lost strength after waking up from that coma.
The audience hushed save for Bunnie who cried in fear at the sight.

“Honey!” Bunnie moved as if to help after kicking Rough into the ground. Antione held up one hand stoping her.

“Yeah back out slut!” Tumble said, a frustrated growl under his voice.

The dead lock looked like it might last enteriny. It was actually 8 seconds account to Metal’s internal clock. An eternity that Metal did not have time for with a sick Doctor waiting for him back at base. The crowd seemed pretty entranced by the dispute and while nothing was happening save the annoying grunts of extension by the pair Metal found himself frustrated as he tried to break away from the body of spectators who only seemed to inch closer and further shove him back into the thong as he pushed back as gently as his 250 pound body would let him without bowling them over.
“How dare you-” Antoine whispered. Metals ears swerved catching the sound.

“How dare you say-” Antoine began pushing back against Tumble before knocking the skunk of his footing after launching himself into the air then proceeded to use Tumbles chest a spring board to backflip over the skunk slicing the sword so close to Tumbles head he gave him a buzz cut. Metal paused for a moment to see if the coyote had made his opponent bleed. When it became obvious that aside from his hair the only harm to Tumble had been pride the crowd erupted into cheers. Metal was pushed back as the mobians surged forward. Only to then jump back as Antoine gave a flourish of his sword.

“Stand back good people! Es fiends have not been taught un lesson yet!”

Metal tried to wiggle his way out from where the crowd pressed against him. If he could make his way towards the back, he might be able to scale a wall and make it to another street. Metal almost wished he had stuck around in Soleanna and tried his luck with the ticked off time god at this rate. He couldn’t move with the rigidness of his body against the crowd, the lack of flexibility of his quills would make it obvious something was off about him.

“Anontine look out!” Bunnie called from where she had Rough pinned who was trying his luck by biting her mechanical arm. She was ignoring rather impressively.

A gun went off and Anotnie moved knocking Tumble out of the way with a push. Metal replayed the fallowing movement in slow-motion. The replay showed the bullet coming from a pistol form one Nack the Weasle who had been lurking in the crowd just out of sight from Metals optics, had been perched on top of his associate Bark (hiding the gun in the thick fur that polar sported on his head) giving him a vantage point over the rather short crowd. Were it not for the recording proving other wise Metal wouldn’t have believed it but Antonie had parried the bullet with his sword it bouncing off at the right angle to ricochet it into the air plinking a pot sitting on the higher window seals. Metal zoomed in observing Anonties stance and the slight tilt of his head the half of the bullet had gone right through the coyote’s left ear taking a bite out of it. The coyote’s express was one of simple annoyance at having been nicked.

Metal would have been entertained and impressed if HE DIDN’T HAVE SOME WHERE TO BE!

The crowd parted as Bark stepped forward Nack jumping off his head and Bean dancing to an unheard song from behind.

“Tisk, tisk, and you call your self-chivalries.” Nack taunted swirling his gun.

“Heyo! Doggy!” Bean yelled.

Metal groaned as the crowd started whispering in excitement, despite a literal gun being present. He attempted to move backwards again only to be knocked back.

“Its just like one of those pasta westerns.” An excited spectator said. Metal groaned; did nothing happen in this city that the locals needed this to be entertained?

Metal was about to ignite his jets and just fly out of the crowd when Nack and Bean decided it was a good idea to explode instead. This finally caused the crowd to retreat and Metal stood his ground at the mobains fled bouncing off his heavy chaise.

Metal scanned through the smoke seeing that Rough had knocked Bunnie off and Antonie was now fling back Beans bombs back at him. After making sure that the two rebels were thourghouly occupied he slipped into an alley and started running towards the Piggily not caring how machine-like his running sounded. Sleath was officially his least favorite method of operation. Perhaps he could convince the doctor to never hire any mercenary again. Ever.

(LINE BREAK LINE BREAK)
Cubot felt his system come back online and found his optics flush against the floor. Sitting up found himself on the floor of the Doctors bedroom right where he had fainted. A plastic bag was sitting in front of him, the medicine Orbot had requested inside. After realizing the doctor was out he quickly began skimming the labels. After selecting the Evequil he popped out the recommended dosage and started scaling the covers. It would be simple shove the pills in the doctor’s mouth yank his head up hopefully forcing the pills down. Cubot perched on the doctors chest hand aimed and ready. The doctor had fallen asleep with his mouth open so Cubot very gently dropped the pills in.

Slowly and oh so carefully he reached for behind the doctors head.

“Argh, three years I’ve been in here for three years!” Eggman suddenly surged forward knocking Cubot to the ground and spiting out the pills.

“I’ve got to get out of here!” He leaped from the bed and ran straight into the wall.

“I can finally leave.” Eggman mumbled rolling over onto his face.

Cubot hurled one of the bottles into the wall screaming in frustration.

“Hurrrr, hot sauce hot topic bitch.”

Metal could see the market like light at the end of the tunnel he charged it. His holographic face expressing his joy.

“Ahhhh!”

“Weeeee!”

Metal looked up seeing the five mercinaries flying though the air, very likely launched by Bunnie. Metal calculated where they were landing and realized they were on a crash course to punch through the Piggly’s roof, and event that could very likely result in the store closing early.

Kicking the alley wall in frustration he took off catching the jumbled up group by Bark’s scruff and twisting around hurling the quintet of hooligans into the nearby tree top foliage.

“Ugh, uh Metal is that you?” Nack said rubbing his head from where he collided with the trunk. Metal hovered glaring at him.

“Huh? Metal Sonic you’re a cyborg?!” Tumble said.

“No you idiot he’s in disguise he can’t just walk around in his badnik a more willy nilly!” Rough said shoveing Tumble off of him who in turn promptly feel out of the tree with a yell. Metal folded his arms and tried to get his fake face to convey the same glare as his normal visor.

“Wooo wee, Mrs. Lady D’Coyotelette sure does pack a mean punch.” Bean said hoping on top of Barks head.

“Yeah ugh, well you called her husband a-”

“Shush! She could still hear you with her super rabbit ears!” Bean said shushing Nack.

“That’s not how that works!” Nack grabbed the duck by the bill and tossed him down to Tumble smacking him in the face.

Metal huffed and jammed his finger towards the nearby city limit.

“Oh you on a mission or something?” Nack asked.

“Yeah Eggman send you out, wait, you were in the crowd why didn’t you help!” Rough pointed an assuming finger at Metal who instead let the hologram flicker.

“He’s on a stealth mission you gas bastard!” Nack kicking Rough out of the tree before jumping down and landing on Tumbles stomach.

“Oh! Neato, you need help Metal!” Bean said.

Metal paused, having extra hands to carry the now massive list of things Orbot had requested would help make up the time he had lost. On top of that nack’s air bike would be nearby and could while not as fast as him, still make the trek back to the base while carrying a larger pay load then he could without having to acquire a create.

“Yes.” Metal responded causing all but Bark and Bean to be surprised.

“You could talk! This whole time!” Rough yelled.

“SO what’s the secret mission, infiltrating an underground base, stealing valuable documents back, black mail, extortion!” Bean eagerly yelled waving his figure around like a conductor.

Metal instead projected the grocery list onto the ground waiting for the five to read it before they started grumbling.

“A shopping trip seriously?!” Rough kicked the dirt as Metal turned off the projection.

“An offers an offer!” Bean declared grabbing Nack by the neck as he tried to walk away. Bark hummed in agreement.

“Hey that’s our ride!” Tumble yelled chasing after Bean who skipped into the store with the struggling Nack. Metal and Bark fallowing.

“Ugh fine! It’s not like we had anything we needed to do today!” Tumble grumbled.

The act of kindness from Bean and Bark was almost enough to make Metal warm up again. Almost, he still wanted to punt the skunks off a cliff.

“Uhh, I’m not an errand boy.”

“Just get the shopping cart bro.”

The group headed into the shop as inconspicuous as possible. The shop keeper still noticed them and shot them a dirty look.

“So we could split up and each tackle a part of the list or-” Nack started. Rough elbowed Tumble and the two began trading blows. Bark broke them up with Bean yanking on Rough’s tail.

“Or just stay together.” Nack said casting a look at Metal who nodded in agreement.

They headed towards the produce first. The skunk brother was taking turns dodging Bean who was trying to trip them with his smaller body. The selection was vast, befitting the farming community that surrounded the city. Metal started with potatoes, first he inspected for any anomalies but was unsure how to determine freshens. Bark leaned over and gave the root a sniff before shaking his head no. Metal replaced the root and selected another holding it up to Bark so the bear would not have to lean over. Bark nodded a yes and Metal placed the root into the basket.

“Hm, seems you two have it under control over here, I’ll take the three-knuckle head sand grab some of the misalliance's spices and canned stuff from your list, that is if you have a hard copy for me.”
Metal nodded at Nack’s request producing a scrap of paper from the boots pocket and scribbling the items Nack had referred too.

“Heh, it looks almost like you printed it. Heh.” Nack said before waving it over at the three scuffling and dragging Bean by the collar.

Metal turned his heat sensor on in one eye so he could keep track the others. He then pointed towards the carrots and Bark nodded. The other four were on an aisle over still in view. Nack went methodically collecting everything in order while Rough and Tumble held everything in their arms. Bean danced around using Rough's tail as a jump rope.

Thanks to Bark the cart was almost full of fresh ingredients. Nack walked back over and made the skunks drop everything back in. A small mound now greeted them.

“I think were going to need a second cart. Bean get back here!” Nack waved the duck back over who was now racing back with another cart.

“Hey I’m just trying to be helpful!” He argued back.

The group migrated over to the canned foods and started filling the second cart. This went on for a while the hooligans presenting different cans to Metal who would shake his head in yes or no. After the list had been exhausted Nack grabbed Bean by the scruff and started pushing the cart with Bark towards the check out. Metla grabbed the others joined by the skunks.

“Why the doc making you get all this stuff anyways.” Tumble asked.

“Sick” Metal responded.

Tumble's brow furrowed in confusion.

“I know he’s sick in the head by why make you do the grocery shopping?”

“You dingus the doctors sick, probably caught that bug that makes the rounds with humans this time of year,” Rough grumbled back.
The cashier was still giving them dirty looks as he swiped every item.

“You better be able to pay for all this.” The pig grumbled. The carts were so full a small line was now growing behind them. Finally, the last item was bagged and handed to Bark. Metal produced a card and swiped adding extra to the total. A little bribe never hurt anyone. The pigs’ eyes widened, and he cheerily waved them out the door.

“Wow, uh thanks for your business, sirs!” The pig waved more ignoring the angry customer trying to hand him their items.

The group reconvened behind the building. Metal sitting with the skunks to one side and the duck to the others. Bark was still holding most of the bags. Nack then pulled up the air bike. The bags were loaded, and the group hauled themselves onto the bike. They hovered into the tree line before taking off. Metal flew slower so as not to make Nack jostle the bike.

“Wooo!” Bean yelled hanging off the bike. Metal tried to ignore the shenanigans happening as a result of the precarious hanging that resulted. The entered the same hanger Metal had been using all day and passed off the load to the waiting badniks who carted it off to Orbot wherever he was.

“Okay that’s the last of it we’ll be getting out of your hair or screws now.” Nack said ushering the rest of the crew back onto the bike.

Bark stayed behind for a minuet looking over the metal hedgehog as if in concernen.

“Are you going to be okay.” He asked in a low voice to quite for the others to hear or even notice.

Metal expressed surprise and shook his head.

“Have to be. For them.” He points toward the other lingering badniks. With the doctor down the system had been stressed the limited emotional capabilities pushed in worry for their creator.

“Don’t hurt yourself.” The polar bear said before joining the rest of the crew on the bike. He tilted his hat at the robot before giving a thumbs up to the weasel for take-off.

“Oh Metal you’re back and is that oh wonderful you found help.” Orbot said waving the hooligins down before the took off the skunks groaned as Metal stood at attention.

“Cubot just reported in that the doctor started hallucinating after he woke up.”

“What?”

Chapter Text

“Please there is no Obama! You’re not married!” Cubot cried dodging another piece of flying debris.

“She fucked the world!” Eggman screamed, he had ripped a hole into the wall and was now gutting the wiring.

“Dick in a hand!” He screamed brandishing the copper wires like a streamer. His eyes were wide open and sweat was pouring down his face now.

“While you were out his condition escalated. While asleep he concocted an imaginary world and is now convinced, he’s going through a divorce. He’s been awake for about an hour now rambling about this. He shows no signs of “snapping out of it” I think that’s the phrase.”

The hooligans started chuckling under their breath while Bean expressed condolences for Eggmans divorce.

Metal let his expression show rolling eyes before snapping it back to the blank projection.

“I was just about to put a call in for your services would you lot be agreeable to assist Metal in securing a hospital bed in Central city for our doctor? I’m afraid that we stick out.” Orbot asked he flashed his own pay card making the lot raise their brows. The only one picking up the fact that they would be paid, Nack who agreed immediately.

“Hey hey, wait, how much we talking?” Rough asked holding his brother back.

“This is another name our price gig isn’t it.” Bean stated picking his beak. Metal nodded digitally listing a load of explosive putty for the duck from the stock. Bean usual demand for these gig consisted of hard to acquire explosive substances usually manufactured by the doctor himself, Nack would request rare gems from the mines, Bark once asked for a house and would occasionally change up what he requested. This was the first time Tumble and rough though had been offered this deal.

“I’ll take my usual, five by five treasure box of uncut gems.” Nack stated confirming Metals prediction.

“Wait, wait, so we can ask for other things than money?” Tumble said scratching his head.

“The nature of the transactions are much more sensitive, so bartering is one solution we use to get around recording the transfer of data, goods, and payment as a result of our eggnet systems limits. We had a massive breach recently and have had to clear out G.U.N. bugs making it harder to access our accounts at the moment. This also makes it to where you do not have to launder this money yourselves.” Orbot added helpfully reading off the script that Metal had concocted ad sent to him. Rough and Tumble didn’t need to figure out just yet that all their previous payments had been with counterfeit or stolen money.

“So I could get like a jet sky from the doc.” Rough added.

“Of course, machines are our specialty.”

“I want a chopper with a flamethrower!”

“Helicopter or motorcycle?” Orbot asked unfamiliar with the slang.

“Both, both is good.” The skunks said at the same time.

They found Cubot hunched dover defeated, him and two other egg pawns had managed to get the contacts into the doctors’ eyes effectively covering up the unnatural black and red eyes as well as a fresh set of clothes. Wet rags and a bowl of water sat aside letting Metal know they had taken the suggestion of cleaning up the doctor before their arrival.

“Thank you Cubot, eggpawns 11-S2-1989 and 12-S1-1941 your dismissed, we’ll take it from here.” Orbot ushered the badniks out. The pawns picked up the exhausted Cubot holding him like a child in the fetal position.

11-S2-1989 beeped, letting Orbot know they would get Cubot back to his charging station.

“Thank you 1989.” Orbot said patting Cubots head. Metal watched them go down the hall, Cubots muffled cries echoing back to the group.
“We don’t even have hot-topics in this hemisphere.” He wailed.

Metal made a memo to check up on Cubot after this was all over.

“So we load him up, walk him into the hospital under the fake identity, stay with him until they give you guys the information you want, bust him out before they releaze who he is. Simple.” Nack said watching Rough and Tumble load up the Doctor into the new ride Orbot had summoned. A van, simple plain and regular, sourced from a dealership. Metal would be posing as the adopted “son” of the now, “Ovi Kintobar” with Rough and Tumble as concerned family friends helping his escorted his afflicted “father”.

“And We’ll be on watch and sand by for anything suspicious!” Bean proclaimed.

“Correct. Usually, an operation of this nature would be led by our S.A.G.E. or I guess just Sage now. But with her system needed de-entanglement and conservation efforts we simply don’t have the time take her with us. So mercenaries it is.” Orbot stated. He seen the files updating Metal on the progress the recovery team had with Sage. Metal felt his vocal receptors actually let out a happy hum once the message processed. Once Sage had her own protected servers and separate system the matenaince could begin on the main servers and Sage could take over all the necessary logistics that that fallen behind thanks to her damage.

“What do you mean just Sage now?” Tumble asked.

“Congratulation on your new sister.” Bean said to Metal, causing the rest of the group to loudly exclaim their confusion resulting in Orbot having to in detail explain how the main systems A.I. decided to spontaneously generate a personality based around the systems concept of self. Metal tunned it out it was the same conversation the doctor gave him when he started reporting strange reactions in his coding.

The ride would have been quiet but Rough and Tumble were determined to find out everything about how sentient AI work after Bean’s comment. Nack somehow fell asleep in the passenger seat after switching with Metal who was now driving. Orbot was sending him distressed signals again but he turned it out. Bark sat in the very back with the Doctor and Bena the only one actually doing the job they paid them for.

Finally, after the treck to the hospital that Bark recommended in downtown Central City did they finally start doing their jobs. Rough and Tumble tried to get into character by repeatedly calling The Doctor and Metla by their new pseudonyms making more of a ruckus then Metal would have preferred.

Nack and the other two hooligans took up watch from different sport around the hospital keeping an eye out for any passing that might recognize the disguised Doctor. Metal was busy filling out the paperwork and doing his best not to make his handwriting to perfect when Rough nudged the pen out of his hand with a shove.

“Danger 3 oclock.” He whispered. Tumble freaked out trying to get the Doctor in the chair the nurse had brought before the “danger” spotted them.
Metal felt a small panic as well as he finally spotted Tails coming from the Hallway.

“Thanks Dr. Thorndyke, this really means a lot.”

“No thank you, young man, our systems are back online thanks to you. Shame you couldn’t identity that hacker though.” A short human in a lab coat said. He was helping the fox carry a box of scrapped mother boards and computer hard drives.

“Yeah, just glad I could help out. I’m heading back upstairs now; Shadow should be done soon.”

Metal looked like he was composed but was panicking. Orbot had hacked the hospitals system earlier so they could delete any information about the doctor after they were done. If their breach was detected and shut down this soon it would be obvious the doctor was here. At that moment Orbot sent a frantic memo explaining what Metal just found out. Metal finished filling out the paperwork handing it over, the best they could do is hope the fox wouldn’t notice. Rough and tumble were doing a terrible job right now of staying calm, panicking and trying to usher the nurse towards the elevator to take the doctor to his room.

Metal watched as Tail made a beeline towards the same elevator.

“Oh, hey mind if I head up with you guys?” The fox asked not recognizing the skunks in their hats and sunglasses.

“Sure, were heading to the 16th floor you?” The nurse said. Metal offered a nod trying to keep up the façade of amiable civilian.

“No, wait, what she said!” Tumble stuttered out before Rough elbowed him in the gut.

“Uh.”

“Its fine”

The ride started off silently with Tails casting a look at Metal.

“So, you look like”

“I know I get that a lot” Metal replied. The skunks were still fussing.

“My father, adopted,” Metal pointed a thumb at the dozing drugged Doctor, “Started hallucinating a few hours ago, we thought he was having fever dreams but when he woke up he was convinced he had just gone through a divorce. He’s never been married.” Metal supplied, hoping that his projected face looked more concerned than cringing. Knowing that silence may give away his identity more then if he supplied a convincible lie.

“Oh that’s pretty scary.”

“We’ll take good care of your father don’t worry” The nurse supplied helpfully. Even patting Tumble on the back as the skunk fidgeted some more.

“Yeah this hospital is really great, my big bro comes here all the time.” Tail supplied having no idea how dangerous that information is that he just handed over.

“Well, uh, they better be ol’ Ovi here is swell guy ya know.” Rough said.

“Oh are you not siblings?” Tails asked.

“Yes!” “No!” “WE mean no! Friends of family!” The skunks stuttered nervously. Metal feigned sighing loudly in embarrassment while Tails gave an impressive poker face.

“Their old friends I needed help moving father, and they volunteered.” Metal said. Tails nodded and then waved goodbye giving best wishes as he left on the 15th floor. Metal noted that this might be the floor with Shadow and possibly Sonic. Though for the life of him couldn’t figure out why the fox would be here with Gerald's creation.

“Well, nice meeting you.” Tails said giving a salute to Metal before the doors closed behind him.

Metal slumped as the stress left his shoulders it was only a few seconds but they then unloaded onto the 16th floor.

Chapter Text

“Visting hours are almost done so you’ll need to head home soon.” The nurse said. Metal nodded while Rough and Tumble vigorously shook their heads. The medical doctor came by soon and took samples. From what Metal had described to them they suspected some sort of pre-existing condition flaring up. They then took the Doctor for the MRI scan which showed that he had been severely overheated possibly since the fever dreams started. He regained consciousness shortly after they pulled him out of the machine and once again began rambling for his divorce lawyer. After a few attempts to get Ivo on the right track it became clear that the Doctor was stuck in this delusion. Thankfully he seemed to regain enough sense to not be screaming his identity off.

They wheeled him back to the room with ice packs and some medicine before the Doctor asked Metal to speak with him privately.

“This is going to sound unusual but do any of his blood relative have well, red publis with black scalera.” He asked.

Metal stiffened they hadn’t caught onto the contacts, but he could still get a proper diagnose by putting pieces together.

“Yes, his grandfather, father, and I think some cousin all have that.” Metal finally responded; those were the only know relatives that Metal knew for sure had the same eyes. Maria had them at birth, but they changed after she developed NIDS as an adolescent as was noted in Geralds journal. They never were able to confirm if Collin her father had it as he passed away shortly after well before Ivo was the Eggman.

“That trait is very unusual only about 0.09 percent of humans have it. Most related to each other. As you’ve probably guessed it is passed down through the fathers, but a few cases do show that it can manifest in females.” The doctor rambled staring at the scan images fascinated. Metal didn’t like the look on his face.

“Yeah how does that cause delusions then?” Metal tried emphazing his words to sound like a feed up teenager, but it mostly came off as aggressive.

“Well, it’s a symptom of a genetic condition called, Robohypomanic syndrome. High fevers in these individuals can produce delusions as a result of stress and the fever. Don’t worry its non fatal, just worrying if you don’t know that can happen. This condition affects activity in the brain and memory. It’s like putting a jet engine on max speed and leaving it running. The people with the mutation all seem to have photographic memories and can learn very quickly such a fascinating condition.”

“That uh yeah that describes him pretty well.” Metal added. “He’s, um, always been pretty intense.” Putting it mildly.

“Since the blood work isn’t back yet to confirm it I thought I check in with you about family history since you didn’t list any in the paper work. Other than that it looks like regular flue,” The doctor handed Metal the scans. Who then digitized the paper and sent them off to Orbot.

“They tend to hyper focus and also have some minor eating disorders. Obesity is pretty common with this. It was named after the famous biologist Gerald Robotnik who had it. Whell with out the eye mutation it usually gets misdiagnosed as Hypomania a developed psychological condition.”

Metal was shocked, he had never heard this information before yet it also in a way provided some answers to what was happening. The eggnet did have an incredibly lacking data base of medical information as they discovered this morning.

“Basically its very likely your father has this condition and went undiagnosed since he doesn’t have the unique eye mutation that goes with it and over heated on his fever. This in turn put him under stress and I’m no phycologist so I don’t know what levels of stress he’s been experiencing lately but I recommended letting him relaxed after this fever passes since its likely the delusions are a stress response,”

The doctor was a bit of a rambler but Metal was broadcasting the conversation back to Orbot so it wasn’t so bad.

“Mhm, I might be best to extract the Doctor tonight, now that we have a name for what was causing the delusion we can begin treating it at home. I’ll give the go ahead to begin prepping the get-a-way for the hooligans, let Rough and Tumble know to begin securing a route out of the hospital. Orbot out.”

Metal sent confirmation to Orbot back agreeing to the plan and then went back into the room with the doctor.

“I need to speak with the Doctor for a moment step outside and keep watch.” Metal ordered. The skunks nodded. Metal could still see Tumble through the window in the door standing guard. The doctor had once more woken up though he wasn’t asking for his divorce lawyer now. He had a sad look on his face now and was the clearest of an expression he had since this started.

“I was never married was I?” He asked turning to Metal. The ice packs that had ben placed slid of his head and he started fiddling with the heart monitor on his finger.

“The medical doctor said that your genetic condition made your reaction to the high fever cause the delusions. You overheated and took your fever dreams as real. We didn’t know what to do and brought you here.”

The doctor was silent. He slowly removes the finger clamp and started putting on his civilian coat. He began grumbling how he didn’t appreciate the overreaction and that next time to just let him sleep it off. Metal felt anger in his subconscious, the Doctor always placed fail safe so a badnik would never react in anger towards him after he implemented the emotional processors in the main servers. Metal definitely recognized his emotional response as anger but not at the Doctor. Never at the Doctor, well maybe a little at the doctor. How, how could his creator not see how much danger he put himself in by not telling Metal about his genetic condition.

“Doctor why did you not have this information in the eggnet?”

The silence went on for apparently three minuets according to Metal’s timer that he started. The Doctor did not want to answer and began heading out the door only to stop while looking at a calendar. It was summer. Coincidently the same month that the Doctor had begun his first invasion on South island. That seemed to stop the Doctor and he stared at it the dates marked off with black sharpie slashes.

“It’s the same day I drafted your first designs.”

Metal pause walking over to view the Calander as well. It didn’t show him anything he didn’t already know from his preliminary scans of the room. This month was celebrated around the globe as the month of heroes highlighting the adventures of the freedom fighters and the resistance. The doctors least favorite time of the year as a result.

“I did not know you found this imparticualar date significant.” This month was always difficult for the Doctor. The time of the year her was most volatile save for the anniversary of the ark raid and his own father’s fatal car accident.

“This is also the date I booted up your individual personality server for the first time.”

Metal also knew this, a coincidence since the Doctor rarely wrote such intricate codes for individual badnicks leading to his rather long development time.

“It is.”

The doctor paused staring at the date longer. Another minute passed. Metal was considering pushing the Doctor back into bed.

“I always thought of this date as your unofficial birthday as a result.”

Metal didn’t respond. How was he supposed to, this wasn’t typical behavior.

“Perhaps its best you stay overnight for observation-” Metal started to suggest sending an update to Orbot to call off the extraction, no post pone yes. Orbot sent back confirmation to hold on the extraction.

“No, I want to go home I have a gift for you there.” The doctor insisted finally making his way to the door and opening it to Rough and Tumble.

Metal grabbed him by the shirt and started dragging him back to the bed.

“Yo what gives clanker?” Tumble asked.

“The doctor is still delusional.” Metal replied curtly.

“No I’m not! I have a birthday present to give you and it back at the base I refuse to be stuck in this unsophisticated building for any longer.” The doctor began struggling while Metal used the bed sheets to trap him by tucking him in the bed.

“Uhh.”

“That faux-skin and fur your wearing that was your gift last year!” The Doctor complained. True Metal did receive his stealth suit from the Doctor a year ago to this date. A fact that didn’t seem relaven tuntil now.

“Get back in the bed I’ll summon the nurse.”

Metal left Tumble and Rough to hold the Doctor down while he stepped out into the hallway. The scans still showed that Tails and Shadow were on the floor below still, still no confirmation thogu of Soocs location. The would need to be quick.

Metal was walking towards the nurse behind the counter when his alerts let him know there was some one behind him.

“Bit of a light footstep you go there stranger.” Sonic said emerging from the hallway. His normal chaos signature was extremely low that probably being the reason he wasn’t detected.

“Oof, hey, you wouldn’t happen to be a runner would you?” Sonic asked. Metal had to stop himself form lashing out.

“No, I walk light because of the metal in my shoes.” Metal lifted his foot showing the jet caps. Hopefully the blue bastards ignorance to his upgrade would make him assume he was talking to a cyber.
“Ah air shoes? My friend uses a pair.”

“Air foot more like it.” Great chaos this was the longest conversation of Metal existences. Sonic was currently inspecting his ankle joints.

“Oh, cyber? Accident, sorry to hear that.”

“Er…almost, I have to go now.” Metal tried to turn off the flashing “act normal” warning flaring in his corner vision. Hopefully, the embedded protocols would not kick in with the stealh mode codes on.

“Oh alright, he you wouldn’t happen to have seen a two tailed fox recently? He is my little bro.” Sonic asked. Metal wanted to pint him through the window how dare his archnemesis show such carelessness with his own family! And this living pin cushion had the audacity to call himself Metal's arch nemesis the nerve. Ehrm anyway.

“Floor beneath us. I came up with him in the elevator.” Metal said shacking off the unnerving gaze and finally making his way to the nurse.

“My father woke up and is no longer feverish or delusion I would like to have him checked over again before he is released.” Metal declared.

“Oh yes Dr. Yaeger will be with you shortly. He spoke with you earlier yes?” Metal nodded grudgingly he didn’t want to sit through another lecture when he could just download the data.

Metal walked back with her to the room, thankfully his updated data let him know that Sonic had successfully made it back to Tails and Shadow the floor below. Which wasn’t that a pleasant thought, he would have to contend with that one his way out. Yay goodie.

The nurse and Metal found the Doctor arguing with the skunks before both very quickly pretened not to be arguing. Metal sent the confirmation to begin extraction to Orbot as the nurse confirmed with The Doctor what had transpired.

“I’ll double check with the doctor and see about letting you go. It seems your well enough now that the fevers gone down.” She said heading out the door. The room was silent while Metal projected them a map of the escape plan with the route highlighted.

“Oh what happened to making me stay?” The Doctor ask with the most sarcasm Metal had ever heard direct toward shim by someone other than his flesh counterpart.

“Integrity of mission has been comprised. Three hostiles in building.” Metal said just as the lights went out. Orbot sent the confirmation that the vehicle was waiting with Bark at the south exit.

“Extraction beginning now.” Metal pushed the Doctor back in to the chair the had wheel him in and started running out the room down the hall.

“Fire, please evacuate if possible. Fire.” The alarm screamed. Metal used the chaos of the hallway and Rough and Tumble pushing every out of the way to maneuver the chair into the fire escape stair way. The turned on his jets and started lowering the entire chair and the doctor to the first floor.

“Don’t think our conversation is over! I mean what I said I intend to celebrate your creation with you today!” Ivo yelled.

Then a bullet went through Metal’s right shoulder causing him to jostle the chair. He threw the doctor towards Rough who caught him and yanked Tumble out the stairs back into the main hospital with Ivo screaming profanities behind. Rough gave a salute and Metals sensor let him know they were making their way towards a second set of fire escape stairs.

Metal glanced up his self-repair had already seal the hole over only to glare at the only being cockey enough to let the Doctor get away.

“Please, like I need to chase the old doc if I wanted to kill him.” Shadow said leaning over the rails with an angry smirk on his face.

“Threating you is really the only way to get your attention isn’t it. Chaos, you're so like him it's embarrassing.” Shadow taunted causing Metal to shoot up with a swipe shedding part of his civilian desgies. Shadow blocked with a round house kick nocking Metal into the walls. Metal made to bounce off and swipe again only for Shadow to chaos control and pin him from behind. A harsh snap to his neck and the wires controlling his body were severed making Metal limp but still active. He sent a distress signal to Orbot who paiged him that back up would be on the way. Now he just had to stall for time.

“ Lay off it, no need to make this an event I just wanted to talk tell your hub to call off their back up now.” Shadow said pointing the gun, a small pistol into Metal left eye, right where his communicater was. With much releuctance Metal obayed. His false eyes flashing to confirm the command was halted.

“Now we can talk like civilized weapons of mass destruction.” Shadow said with a grunt. He pushed Metal to the floor and off his legs where he had locked him and now took up and other perch on the rail leaving Metal laying limp on the floor.

“There, now care to explain why you dragged a wanted terrorist into a hospital with the most amount of people to recognize him? I know your information shows that GUN, Freedom Fighter, and Resistance all frequent this establishment. So why?” Shadow sounded unusual today. At least to Metal, there was confusion in his voice but also an anger that Metal couldn’t quite understand.

“His fever made him delusion, Orbot his care giver from today suggested it after Cubot reported that his moments of lucidity were marked by delusions.” Metal stated, he managed to get his head to roll his back now visible to him making it really look like Shadow had snapped his head like an owl.

“Ah, his Robohypomania was showing. Wasn’t it?” Shadow smirk and gave a small laugh in a register that could almost count for a breath if it wasn’t for Metals audio sensors. The ultimate life form unnerved him though he couldn’t outside of the obvious threat really put a reason as to why.

“We did not know this was a possibility and so reacted accordingly.” Metal rebutted.

“Or you could have just called me up you know. He is technically still family for me.” Shadow gaffed at Metals attempt to sit up which resulted in more head rolling.

“I want him dead but, on a battlefield, and by my hand, I refuse to give that victory over to a virus.” Shadow was growling now and pointing the pistol back and Metal who was now trying to use a twitching hand to repair the cut wires. Metal stopped and twitched his head the expression on his face flickering to confusion.

“You would help the doctor recover his health?” Metal was a bit flabbergasted. Shadow never did attempt to poison anyone but Metal would consider anything a possibility with this volatile opponent. Shadow shook his head then set the pistol back into a clump of quills before pulling from a different clump a syringe and vile. Metal sensors showed that the trio was almost to the south exit the polar bear waiting for them.

“I was made to cure the uncurable, and I like to try and prioritize that when I can you now.” He then jammed the needle right into the croak of his elbow and the clear cord connecting the needle to the vile started filling with bi colored blood. The red liquid with glowing flecks of green filled the vile before Shadow bit the cord shut and then removed the needle.

“You know Gerald was convinced that that little genetic mutation he had passed onto his family is what caused their brilliance. Ask your precious Doctor about it when you get back to your hole in the ground. Its quite the show. Here.” Shadow through the vile at Metals head letting it clink to the floor.

“That cure all if free, because you didn’t know, next time the doctor gets a high fever inject that into him and let him sleep it off. Should make it easy on Cubot next time at least. Rouge has been laughing at his memos all day.”

Metal used the last of his mobility to snatch the precious liquid stowing it in a chest pocket behind the faux fur. The head titled as shadow watch the self-repair reconnect the wires. Metal pause handheld over the compartment.

“Why?”

Shadow shot him a glare before making his way up the stair back to the floor he had come from. The paused to consider a though.

“Consider it thanks for him hauling my skeleton corpus out of the ocean before GUN and giving me a place to regenerate.” Shadow finally grumbled but his expression said something otherwise. There was a pain in his eyes that Metal recognized in the Doctor any time they opened the stolen GUN file. Shadow was firmly in the camp theses days with the resistance and GUN but occasionally they did receive direct communication form the biohog. Mostly, “Hope you have a terrible day,” and “stopping by the memorial this week so stay home.” Metal was never really sure what that all meant but those were lao the only one the doctor had bene willing to show him.

“I don’t like smashing you up every time we meet. I know your capable of more.” Shadow slammed the door to the escape and stalked off back down the hall towards Tails and Sonic. He had been a rather talkative mood today which was unusual for the almost silent operative. Today had had some of the longest conversation of Metals life and he was not looking forward to repeating this. The self-repairs finished, and Metal dashed out the escape into a hallway before diving out a window. His sensor showed that everyone was in the escape vehicle.

Metal did a quick scan of the obstacles of the floor he was one before deciding to just burst a hole in the wall and jump down. The van door was open and Rough slammed it closed behind him. They took off full blast completely ignoring road laws before making their way out of the city. The doctor was silent along with Metal the whole ride back. Comparatively Bean started a karaoke contest with the Skunks and Nack almost jumped from the driver’s seat.

Chapter Text

The hooligans took their payments, there were a couple of eyebrow raises from the doctors at the dual chopper request form the Skunks but the order was filled swiftly. Like a custom flying bike would be hard for him. Metal had to assist with the build most of the way with the Doctors sluggish movements. They sent the group on their way which was leaving them in the hanger to test out their new rides and headed back inside.

“Aye yoo, your back!” Cubot greeted them after they left the hanger. A quick look into his code showed that Orbot had delete the memory of earlier. That was probably for the best. Metal tried to sneak out but the doctor ordered him to stop.

"You're not getting out of your birthday gift that easily." he grumbled before producing a lavishly decorated box. It was larger than the box that had held his stealth upgrades but smaller the box that had the jet head upgrade. He didn´t really like that one to much. There was no getting out these things once the doctor put his mind to that.

"Don’t be like that it’s a special day."

Metal wanted to argue otherwise.

"Now open it." Metal did so revealing the inside a new foot upgrade. It was stylized like the rail shoes but with a different flare on the heel holding a jet just like the modified boots he was wearing. They were a lot bigger and more armored and very clearly made with a mix of leather instead of vinyl like the old pair. Metal tough the leather the texture and embossing patterner reminiscent of-

“No.”

“What do you mean no? You love your upgrades.”

Metal did want to answer he wasn’t really sure why he was having a problem with this, he had taken all his others gifts quietly and with little fan fare so why was this different. Something wasn’t connecting for him right now, the doctor had been different for a while now, but today had just made it unbearable.

“Stop treating me like your child.” Metal finally said gently setting the shoes back in their box and turning to address the Doctor. The stealth suit was still on even though he could have shed it hours ago. The doctor could see his pained expression.

“Their nice shoes you should be enjoying them, you could wear them for a special occasion if you like, oh yes wear them when we finished repairing your sister, Cubot told me the good news well have her back with us soon.” Metal flinched at the name, he had very little interaction with Sage when she had first advanced, but he knew that it would not end well.

“Is something wrong your usually not this difficult.” The doctor grumbled. Metal felt that angerier again not at the doctor but at the situation this time.

“My apologies for the inconvenience sir, I find these kinds of interactions difficult to compute as it not in my prerogative as your weapon.” Metal responded trying to sooth the situation, any more attitude and the Doctor could blow a stack.

“Inconvenience, your my creations! I made-“

“Us for war.” Metal finished the statement. He stared sheading the stealth layer and returning them to the closet. Then he produced the vile from Shadow and handed it to the Doctor.

“I believe that GUN agent Shadow was trying to bride us in to not using the hospital amenities. This vaccine is for emergencies”- Metal handed the vile over to the Doctor only for him to immediately smash it on the floor. The liquid flayed as it takes form before shriveling up and fading into a dust.

“I don’t need any cures from my grandfather! I don’t need fixing! How dare you change the subject I-”

“That was a valuable resource that could have eventually saved your life in case of another infectious dieses the-

“I don’t want to hear what grandfathers project had to say! Ultimate lifeform! Bah! He never even used it to cure his precious granddaughter so why should I-“

“Chances of your body not being able to handle a fever again-“

“Listen to anything that glorified petrey dish has to say to me-“

“Your condition puts you at high risk-“

“My intelligence is not a condition! IT IS NOT A CONDITION! I DON’T NEED TO BE CURED!” The doctor hollered his voice echoing in the hanger.

Metal froze not expecting that reaction.

“I’m not sick, well not now at least I was sick earlier, sorry you had to see that, but I am not-“ The Doctor was rambling now Metal turned and took to cleaning the area.

“Would you stop that and Listen!”

Metal swiveled his head around and tilted it an expression that usually made the doctor laugh. Instead, he through the wrench he was holding across the bay.

“You’re acting like a teenager! Why can’t you be more affectionate like your sister.” The Doctor paused. Metal stopped what he was doing and halted.

Metal watched the Doctor sit on a crate and started rubbing his eyes, contact free now. Metal paused doing a quick memo check to see if the doctor had been updated on the salvage mission. Matal had only received the notification once they returned from the hospital, according to the Doctors inbox he had not read the message. Metal recalculated his tactics. Metal pulled up the memo and projected it for the Doctor.

“If your stress over Sage is what resulted in your sickness then you can relax the recovery unit made progress and she will be back on online soon. Your flue fever-“Metal wouldn’t let the comparison sting, he was the established badnik he had his own server first.

“Stop computing for like three seconds I know your codes are more advanced than this. Why didn’t you tell me this immediately!”

“Your safety was more important than relaying the progress of an independent-”

“She’s my daughter!”

Metal paused his screen flashing an error message that had the doctor reach over to him before he stepped back.

“Metal I-”

Metal let out a ringing sound turning off his voice box and letting his screen flash a maintenance required message before locking up.

Chapter Text

Sage was surprised to be conscious again. For one thing she had expected her time offline if ever rebooted to be longer but the flashing damage reports and scrolling wall of data let her know that efforts to repair and salvage her code from the crash had begun almost immediately. While she was surprised to have been turned on she knew it was possible due to the remote death so she had a backup but booting it up wouldn’t match the version lost in the crash post recovery, no the information had to be reuploaded from the hard drives of wreckage to get her here.

Which was a sweet thought, Sage felt joy marking it in her log of experiences to examine later. Seeing as she still was stuck in the drive unable to manifest her hologram or communicate outside the prompted check inquiries she decided to go through the offline data she could now process and update herself on what had occurred in her absence. While she would love to acquire in in ‘conversation’ she knew she would have it uploaded to her eventually so she picked it up to pass the time.

Ah, the doctor had stayed very busy with her recovery project, almost all resources diverted to it.

Sage felt a much larger burst of joy emanate from her emotional processing core, while she was slightly disappointed that the plans they had began on the islands had been paused she was grateful to be conscious even if at the cost of loosing ground against their enemies. She knew the sacrifice was done for her sake and was rather ecstatic to have a numerical representation now since they were what she understood best to show her the care for her now autonomous person. While she could see that any new plans of conquest or expeditions hadn’t been implemented or continued it was strange to find she had access to the whole data base now and there were new additions. It took about 10 minutes to go through the whole of the human medical knowledge that apparently Metal had added, which considering what she knew of her fellow badnick wasn’t a good sign. Extremally worried she immediately switched to the activity logs and com logs only then relaxing seeing the doctor just had a reaction to a flue due to a preexisting conditions. Originally planning on going back to ruminating though the new data an impulse, a feeling she was still getting use to and finding she was very bad at stopping once initiated, made her turn to older files.

She hadn’t ever opened or consciously computed the ARK files to understanding, it was historical data, ancient compared to her, from her understanding there wasn’t much more she could learn from it numerically. But that was before she had a fully autonomous personality. She saw the history log a sense of humor coming to her seeing Sonic, some Rouge and a Shadow, who the data bases let her know were common agents they clashed with on the GUN fraction front, having accessed the files a while back along with another unknown GUN IP address that had access aside from the Doctor. There was a note from the doctor as well that the ‘hacker’ that had viewed the data once they had stolen and erased it from GUN was likely someone they knew but seeing as no efforts to properly recover or utilize the data were taken by the anonymous the doctor left it be. Some of the other higher thinking badnicks had a ‘betting pool’ running from their different calculations on who it was. Winner got an upgrade of their choice.

Metal was the only one that had bet it was the GUN Commander.

“Whats this?” Sage found herself asking out loud as she realized new files had been added to the Ark collection aside from access log ins.

Images of a white void with the ARK splayed against it were pulled up the reality looking like it was bending on itself similar to cyberspace, but more tangible less glitchy, a bit like the images she had seen of the Infinite incident.

She was quiet excited to see what had happened in the void accessing the files and costing through them. She was trying to figure out what a Time Eater was when she saw Metal’s memory had just updated the file grabbing onto it without hesitance she opened it.

It was mostly audio images delated, but a transcript of observation notes had been included along with a danger note of Level M/TE and a lead left to follow up later, she had always been a bit fascinated by Metal’s ability to identify important information and stash it away for later to be recalled for investigation, something that actually infuriated some of their compatriots since they would prefer the observation presented to them in the moment but post memo write ups were something that was a habit for the other at this point.

Sage curious about what M/TE were since the The End had been categorized into the new BD/I/TE category which was a step below that, and from there the PC/MO/DG level and then SH/FF/UL levels which from the data Sage was ‘ability to peacefully reason with’, which explained the accompanying notes.

Ah so M/TE was the Data bases short hand version of Mephiles/Time Eater levels or as the expanded unabridged note section the Doctor had left read, ‘Timey wimey melodramatic ego maniacs, vindictive and manipulative, force of nature but with a brain, do not speak to, do not provoke, DO NOT MAKE EYE CONACT REPEAT DO NO MAKE EYE CONTACT. Time Eater variation can be pacified with chaos energy absorption or disruption,’ Sage felt another burst of humor as the note Metal had just added read, ‘Can be pacified by respecting authority of, new forms documented, complete range of shifting abilities unknown, further investigation ill advised, cold body intangible, audio or time anomalies only method of detection.’ Which just made it sound more fun to Sage as far as investigative missions went.

Turning back to the ARK files Sage realized the lead Metal had picked up today was being matched up and compared to inform from the ARK time bubble observed in the void. Deciding to see what a Maria was for herself she opened the most accessed file in the category from the Doctor.

A video diary, medical records, photographs and an autopsy report.

For the first time Sage felt nervous about something other than the End.

Opening the file Sage took in the autopsy report.

It was a basic fatal bullet injury to the chest but the doctor had left an edit changing accident to murder in the notes. Moving on to the diary Dage found the original voice files that had bene edited and used for to synthesize her voice. There weren’t that many and a few were addressed to Ivo the Doctor’s human birth name.

She put them back and made an edit herself that they could only be opened with the authority of the admin which was the Doctor or whoever else deemed so by him.

Sage could sense that her communication abilities were about t be restored and promptly finished the repairs herself. She added surprising others to her files of fun activities to peruse before she became one with the tangible holographic body.

Sage blinked readjusting to the body only to take in the scene of chaos of the hanger as the hooligans were running rampant. The helicopter had lodged in ceiling and was raining fire down while the duck was on a motorcycle doing loops and hurling bombs as the skunks with the weasel trying to stop him on his own bike, the polar bear was on a create quietly reading a book.

“Hello? May I inquire as to your presence and current destruction of the doctor’s hanger?” Sage asked and all movement stopped as the mobians turned looking and taking her in. Sage blinked as a show of acknowledgment of their perception but was met with screaming instead.

Sage attempted to calm them down by calmly speaking before deciding her main consciousness efforts were better directed elsewhere and turned to the doctor who was frantically trying to reboot Metal.

“Father?” Sage asked since it was just her and her perceived family.

The doctor whirled around absolute joy in his eyes while Metal’s body spasmed before the badnick took off crashing through a wall and escaping out into the wider world.

Chapter Text

Metal just pushed himself forward no computing of a plan or a response if he ran into danger not even at full speed as he got as fast and far away from the base as possible in his error ridden state, he soon found himself outside their territory and crashed down hiding in a bunch of under growth as he ran a systems check.

His felt his visor blink and the messages clean up as his emotional core disconnected from him.

If he had lungs Metal felt that would be a sigh of relief as he reset his state to his own comfort, calm, direct, succinct, stable, known. None of the upsetting improvisations and emotional anticipation he had been putting up with all day to stay on his toes while on the mission.

He still had the jet shoes but the images of the normal feet attachments and mostly normal shoe like covers were haunting him. They even had rubber layered inside to create the illusion of muscle to the touch

He had to remind himself no matter how realistic the Doctor could make him look he wasn’t an organic life form. He wasn’t allowed to exist like that he couldn’t delude himself.

He wasn’t meant to play ‘family’.

Weapons don’t have family.

Metal huffed and deleted the excess documented responses he had logged from being handed the upgrade the error messages hurled into the digital trash purged.

Metal rattled his body around trying to physically unlock his joints even loosening the bolts on the legs before taking off in a slower walk letting his processors cool down and access his new location.

A quick satellite ping and he froze having somehow angled himself in his launch rocketing right back into the heart of Soleana.

Metal had a recording of swears start playing through his head on impulse which annoyed him since he thought he had purged the impulse recall bug.

Plotting a course to get out before he was detected hoping the lack of settlements in his vicinity had helped Metal took to the sky.

And was promptly slammed down into the ground by an invisible force.

Metal swiveled his head 360 scanning before locking onto a heat signature.

The white hedgehog that their reconnaissance from the Time Eater void had learned was named Silver and at least 200 years down a now defunct timeline gazed back at him. They hadn’t clashed during the encounter though and save for observations of Sonic’s close fight Metal had no other data to run off of for a battle plan.

He hated improvisation.

“Stay down!” Silver commanded and slammed Metal down into the ground again.

Dismissing the ‘respond with anger’ prompting from his drive Metal changed tactics, a simple test let him find out the force was more blanket like before setting off an alarm. Silver stumbled hands over his ears in shock as Metal let out an ear grating screech before pushing off resisting the force enough to lift a hand up and fire a shot a small rocket knocking the psychic to the ground. Metal finally squirmed out from the hold and ignited the engines, he crashed into Silver again in his escape. The dang fool grabbed onto him though Metal skidding to a stop midair and flinging Silver forward right into a lake.

Metal meant to fly off but seeing as the hedgehog did not resurface he rolled his eyes dropped down and found the floundering hedgehog panicking stuck in the grasp of a pile of logs. Metal kicked them over the other frantically swimming up to the surface. Metal breached the water Silver turning to him in shock. Metal really didn’t know why he was still treading water other then just to stay eye level with the other.

Finally gathering his wits Silver lifted them both gently out of the lake and set them on the shore, he stumbled but Metal landed just fine tilting his head as he took in more data of the other’s movements.

“Sorry I thought you were a hostile,” Silver apologized hand behind his head wringing out his quills. Metal let his visor flash in a series of dots before mimicking the expression he hoped convey incredulousness.

“I mean- to mean, like I know you’re out to get Sonic among others but like not me specifically.” Silver tired to explain and Metal let the other awkwardly ramble waiting for an appropriate lull to depart that wouldn’t incite more hostility.

“Like I really don’t understand how any of the badnicks really work let alone machines, most everything was gone when I was wandering around, like you guys seem like your alive for the most part but you’re not or,”

Metal let out an irritated grating hum turning on the voice box Silver jumping at the beeping sound.

“Tactical response, rescue plan best response for avoiding retaliation from freedom fighters,” Metal grumbled out Silver gapping like an idiot at the voice.

“You can talk!”

Metal gave his best deadpan Silver cringing at that before gaping at the eye roll Metal preferring to emote to convey.

“Ability to communicate imperative for peaceful resolutions,” Metal finished about to click off his voice box believing he had successfully avoided this coming back on him in any way since he was out with out orders in enemy territory.

“Understandable but like you don’t sound like a robot… or Sonic either,”

Metal’s face glitched and the eyes rolled again.

“Voice synthesized from the doctor’s voice recordings.”

“Wait really but you don’t sound like Eggman,”

“Recordings from 35 years ago,”

Metal filed the wide-eyed response from Silver under amusement.

“Wow, uh yeah I get that kind of, but you still like saved me why?”

“Tactical,”

“I know how that works but this is middle of no where, and you’re Eggman’s badnick,”

“And you’re not my designated target of elimination,” Metal grumbled snapping off the voice with a loud ping. Silver jumped before nodding giving him a curious look still looking for the world like a wet rat. Weirdo time traveler.

“Okay then, well thanks for the save,” Silver offered a hand for a shake though it was clear the hedgehog didn’t know if this was an applicable situation for one. Metal wasn’t really sure either what to make of this.

“I guess this is goodbye then unless you don’t mind joining me for the flight back, I’m trying to uh find things that are familiar so I’ve been doing a lot of wandering around,” Silver offered and Metal nodded still not really looking forward to returning to the base and a friendly accomplice as an escort would lower his chances of being jumped by another freedom fighter.

They took to the skies Metal pleasantly surprised to find the hedge could keep up as they redirected themselves towards the city in the far distance.

“I get the feeling you’re not much of a talker but could I ask yes or no questions, everything is just so weird here, and I would really like to hear it straight,” Silver proposed and Metal felt a rather kindred response to that experience.

“Is it always this quiet?”

Metal flashed his visor green Silver looking a bit unnerved by that response, Metal unable to resist his own curiosity turned the voice box back one Silver’s ears flicking at the noise.

“Minimal information available of your timeline, request inquirer into state of life before calamity,”

Silver pondered his response before shrugging for a second.

“It’s all gone now so I guess as the only thing left it ever happened I’m the only one who knows,” Silver mumbled out loud before rolling over hand on his chin rather comically still rocketing forward with Metal who glitched at the casual show.

“I lived in Cliff City before heading out to try and fight in the heart of Chaos City,” Metal beeped recording the information and noting that no information about a Cliff City excisted in the data base.

“Cliff had a system to keep peace inhibitor cuffs that suppressed your signature, heat, chaos, even noise,” Silver taped the gold edges of his gloves and boots.

“They’re not like Shadow’s though they don’t keep you from using your powers or cap it, just, make it harder to detect, but I’m pretty sure they were based on Shadow’s cuffs since his grave was nearby, or cryotube, there were tons of attempts to try and wake him up by the leaders but he never did, which is weird to think about,” Metal concluded his failure to detect Silver may have been the cuffs and resolved to gather information on the future tech later along with noting the confirmation of Shadow’s fate in that timeline.

“I didn’t really know my parent’s, everyone was raised communally, it’s only now I know the place used to be a GUN facility, the island kept us safe but it didn’t have everything we needed so we raided the mainland’s shores ruins for supplies all the time,”

Metal concluded that Prison Island may be the site Silver was referring to seeing as it was about the same distance off the coast from both the UF territory and Soleanna.

“Tsunami took us out, the survivors scattered, I think I was around 10 when it happened,” Silver finished his story.

“It was about 8 years out fighting before Mephiles approached me on the time travel thing, though it wasn’t the first time I met him if that makes sense, before I could follow up on it with him I got sucked into the void by the time eater,”

Metal immediately became intrigued by that detailed flashing his visor to get Silver’s attention and ask him to elaborate.

“Mephiles wasn’t really the cold, calculating guy he is now, for a while he was this crazy hermit that hung around your place, drawing on the walls, screaming, that kind,”

“Our place?”

“Eggman’s base, his logo was all over it, I think he got stuck in a cryotube there himself but broke out around my time, from my understand of what he told me, if he didn’t kill Sonic, for some reason I really don’t know how that changes things, the GUN would capture Mephiles in a prisoner exchange for Shadow who got blamed for the event later when Elise died without passing on Iblis to a new host, they mistook the chaos residue to be his since no one knew Iblis existed until it attacked the UF later but Eggman knew and tried to use Mephiles to control Iblis but only made it worse or something.” Silver explained and Metal hated how in character that was for Eggman.

“Thank you for clarification on information, request inquire on to time manipulations of Mephiles,” Metal asked not really expecting an answer but Silver didn’t seem to care.

“Oh yeah, so it’s pretty weird, so like he can clone himself in a fight but it’s locked to a certain radius around the area of his body, he can see across the timelines but only knows and can effect what he is physically next to at that moment, he can’t go ‘back and forth’ himself, send us or other objects sure, but he needs to physically move if he wants to create a change or meddle in a moment, he wanted to use me as an extra set of hands in the know for that reason, or he would have, Solaris can move back and forth and do all that and then some but Mephiles and Iblis are stuck with only a fraction of that,” Silver very helpfully shared which answered many more of Metal’s questions on the matter, as well as furthered his decision that time travel was bullshit. Though Metal was left wondering now how the peace between all the parties were struck in this timeline if Elise still had Iblis from his understanding and the Time Eater Mephiles’s alternate was able to create the void then shake off the madness and walk around back in it’s base form.

“Further thank you for the information,”

“You do know I’m only sharing this with you so you can stop Eggman from doing more stupid stuff,” Silver deadpanned at him and Metal did a double not realizing the hedgehog could have an ulterior motive of his own. Silver frowned as if sensing that Metal had been trying to play friendly and ignorant to get more information but he didn’t seem to mind.

“I don’t really get what’s up with you but you helped me in my timeline too once, so I’m happy if I can return the favor,” Silver dropped before practically teleporting away Metal hung over the harbor wondering what that meant before deciding to say screw it and seek out Answers McCrazy Prancers himself. The castle wasn’t that far from him anyway.

Chapter Text

Elise watched the sky with her new friends, all letting their freshly painted nails dry while sipping on some really good drinks Rouge had made them all.

“Elise darling you really should go out and travel more,” Rouge suggested from her spot on the pillows.

“She’s right you’re not confined to the palace anymore you should see the world while your young,” Blaze added from her spot with Amy where they were brushing each other’s fur.

“I don’t know I’m still responsible for the kingdom,”

“But your not alone that’s what your parliament is for, they can keep everything running for you to enjoy a few weeks abroad,” Maria said the other human touching up Elises nails.

“You really think so,”

“YES!” The girls all shouted before laughing Elise with them.

“I can take care of Iblis and Mephiles if that’s what your worried about,” Maria said ever observant, Elise blushed caught while Amy snickered.

“Their depowered gods not kids,” Amy teased before getting elbowed by Rouge who was the only one to pick up on Elises discomfort.

“Yeah but I don’t want to leave you on your own to handle Iblis what if I need to reseal him inside myself again or Mephiles dies and I’m not here to-”

“Elise, it’s okay, Iblis won’t be getting out,” Maria reassured smiling.

“I may be a time anomaly 50 something years displaced but I can still stick with it,” Maria soothed tapping her own inhibitor bracelet that matched Shadow’s by her request.

“Maria’s right, she’s going to have to deal with Iblis long after we’re all gone and she’s always going to have Shadow,” Rouge jumped in while Amy nodded.

“She’s not the same vessel you were Elise, Maria can pull on Iblis’s power and her seal can’t be broken with crying, if anyone besides Maria want’s to let Iblis out there going to have to reckon with her first,” Amy giggled slamming her fist together, Blaze shaking her head.

“Theres a reason you trusted Maria to take over this responsibly just like there’s a reason my ancestors in my dimension were entrusted as Iblis seals.” Blaze said a little bit of fire climbing up her hand.

“I still can’t get over the fact that your ancestors beat Solaris in your reality,”

“I still can’t get over there’s more of me from other timelines,” Blaze teased back the girls all laughing enjoying the cool day.

Maria pushed the red lock of hair behind her ear rejoining the new conversation of where Elise should visit on her travels.

They all stopped as they saw Metal Sonic approach in the distance, a black mist shooting out from the top of a castle tower and meeting him above the harbor before the fight began large crystals flying every where exploding against bullets.

“I think Mephy can handle Metal on his own,” Amy said turning back to the girls who all nodded and went back to travel talks.

Above the harbor Metal set off a rocket knocking Mephiles back into the water assuming he had subdued the other lowered to the surface only for the Time Eater’s hand to reach out and grab him dragging him into a void that closed behind them.

Chapter Text

Metal face planted the ground the Time Eater floating above ticking away.

“I told you to stay out,” the voice growled and Metal had to roll out of the way of a hand that slammed down above, taking to the sky again Metal circled the form updating the changes to his log. The gears that the doctor had place were now made out of crystal and the face was clearly more Mephiles with the arching snout and quill like crown and lack of a mouth now, until it opened with a blood curdeling scream ooze dripping off crystal teeth. Mephiles shifted smaller the crystal body most commonly documented shooting out chaos lances trying to knock Metal back down who had to fly quiet randomly to dodge before coming in closer and retaliating with another rocket.

Mephiles took it right to the gut bouncing off the white ground before spinning on the point of his leg standing back up and retaliating with a beam dragging it through the air. Metal dodge that using the left over ruins around the area to interrupt the path until Mephiles dropped the attack. Metal flew forward intending to tackle only to bounce off a force field himself before Mephiles followed threw with another blast. Rolling into a spin dash Metal perried and tried to ride over the force field to the other side. Mephiles anticipating dropping it and kicking Metal back like a ball. Metal slowed enough to change the direction of the spin rushing back and tripping Mephiles before uncurling and shooting a rocket.

Mephiles stumbled half of his body shattering before the crystals grew back Mephiles flexing the new rm before turning with an eye lid less glare and stabbing Metal with a chaos lance from behind. Metal grabbed the severed leg and held it against his body for self-repair the other rocket foot sending him carrying wildly through the void until it reattached and he righted himself circling back looking for an opening.

Intending on finishing it Metal charged up for an EMP blast only for Mephiles to change the battlefield, more buildings erupted from the white Metal crashing into a skyscraper and detonating the blast early before having to switch scanning to detect the cold body the dust obscuring everything but using an audio mic Metal was able to dodge a claw swipe by Mephiles in close before grabbing the other. Mephiles burst into a gas cloud freezing Metal’s arm in a crystal before reforming and snapping it off. Metal had to escape being pushed out a time void into a wrong reality by ricocheting himself into a pin ball again, Mephiles sending more beams out cutting of the path forcing Metla back in the air again.

Metal charged for another blast seeing Mephiles jump to fallow in mist form before both being collided in a double explosion Mephiles setting off his own burst attack cracking Metal’s visor while also having his cloud disbursed more the specs racing to rejoin but had been slowed Metal racing forward and grabbing the half formed body by the neck and dropping them both to the ground. The visor flashed as Metal turned on the voice box.

“Peace negotiona requested,”

Mephiles rolled his eyes from where he was pinned by the neck.

“I knew you only wanted to talk but I still wanted to dent that stupid chaise in,” Mephiles growled back twisting his lower half unnaturally kicking Metal in the head denting it quiet badly. Mephiles no free stood up and simply dusted himself off.

“There now that we have reacquainted I supposes there nothing else for us to do then bargain.”

Metal looked at the offered hand for another shake the ex-god’s blank face giving nothing away this time.

“I tell you what you want to know and you make me a promise,”

Metal waited to see if Mephiles would offer on his own but the god stayed silent, and that was how they stayed for about a good hour until Mephiles narrowed his eyes.

“I’m not going to tell you anything if you’re going to waste my time,” Mephiles said oping an exsit void Metal holding his remain hand up in a peace gesture he had been programmed with.

“No, information’s value not comparable to threat of unknown bargain stipulations.” Metal explained letting out a hiss as he opened his cooling vents steam rising off his body.

“Hm, smart only fair I suppose,”

“I’ll answer three questions of any nature in exchange for your oath of eliminating the Eggman if he attempts to reform Solaris or release Iblis.”

Metal simply couldn’t accept that deal Mephiles frowning seeing such.

“Of course, you wouldn’t have to kill him, if you could prevent the events from unfolding, I am so tired of being the only one that knows what’s going on,” Mephiles huffed before Metal shook the hand.

“There now that’s the logic of machines I appreciate,” Mephiles followed his arms behind his back patiently waiting for Metal to finish his calculations of what would be the best questions and the wording of which he could speak the fewest words. His visor lighting up as he computed his sentences. Mephiles’s head tilting in curiosity as Metal straightened up and prepared to record the response audible.

“Why negotiate peace with freedom fighters?”

“I like being able to live in peace and quiet without being stuffed into generators, containment vessels, or attempted erasure, they give me protection I don’t destroy their lives and vice versa, next question,” Mephiles snapped rather angrily and almost disappointed in the question. Metal nodded seeing the reasons for a treaty and Mephiles’s apparent ambivalence post Time Eater clash. Metal wondered now his he should have been more elaborate in his question.

“Why let Eggman live?” Metal asked since from a tactical standpoint the death of the Eggman would only benefit Mephiles’s situation from multiple angels even if not overt, especially in this reality.

“You have attachment to him and I owe you a debt, it’s frankly the actual least I owe you,”

Metal promptly glitched out at that before computing this was connected to Silver’s comments earlier about apparently saving him before their first encounter my Metal’s memory.

“One question left,”

“Am I alive?”

Mephiles face actually emoted for that one giving him a sad look before shaking his head.

“You are to me, but its really for you to decide,”

With that Mephiles waved him off and stepped out the void through a portal back to the roof top he had been waiting on, though it didn’t close behind him, Mephiles making a point of lounging to show Metal could leave the void when ever he wanted.

Stepping through after taking a moment Metal was floored again when Mephiles patted the spot beside him shifting back into the Shadow appearance he so often mimicked.

Metal accepted the seat visor flashing as he ran calculations.

“Its infuriating, this version of you, I know you, I lived along side you saw what you could do and what you eventually became, but this version of you isn’t that and likely will never be with the disaster avoided,” Mephiles offered on his own.

“I survived the bad timeline,”

“More than that, you were the reason there were any survivors at all,”

Metal computed that response wondering if that meant the Eggman empire had lasted beyond the Doctors death and Mephiles rolled his eyes as is knowing that was the conclusion Metal was puzzeling over.

“If you’re curios it was your suggestion before I imparted on my rather… insane suicide revenge quest I suppose, that I broker a deal for peace instead of destroying the world around me, you were of a rather informed opinion that rejoining Iblis wouldn’t be ‘healthy’ for me, and you were correct in that regard as well,” Mephiles shared before passing Metal a crystal.

“If you want to know the full story, I gained my time eater form after multiple meddlesome attempts to make Solris real again, but that’s the thing to quote the you who will never be,”

“‘You can’t undo change only change again’, I can’t change my memory, even if I delete, alter, or ‘erase’ it from ever happening I still lived it regardless, this version of me exist and that is my past, and without that we have nothing, I just had to fail a few time to understand what it meant,” Mephiles said and Metal really wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Metal was surprised to hear that among other things or that acceptance had even been possible for the being.

“Solaris is dead, you are someone else,”

“Indeed I am, just as you are someone else, I am the Time Eater, you are Metal and we are here, we were what the past made us, and I am ready finally ready to move on from the wrongs done to me and exist as I chose, perhaps you should consider the same,” Mephiles took his leave disappearing into a mist cloud and drifting away on the wind Metal watching him go. Looking down at the crystal left in his hand seeing the USB trapped inside he cracked it, removing it from it’s casing and sticking it in his head.

His body convulsed as his own memories from the other timeline were dumped into the data base

Chapter Text

Metal rebooted the visor flashing back on as he sat up on the roof the internal clock telling him he had been in shut down for a few hours, darkness settling over the city. Sitting up and flexing both arms now that self repaired had completed Metal flew home.

In the air he passed Silver again who was playing with some fireworks, the celebrations for Princess Elise’s birthday in full swing below.

“Oh hey again,” Silver said over the loud booms and Metal flew in close and patted the top of his head.

“Uh….”

“Expressing of thanks for assistance in completing mission, alliance recognized,” Metal said before flying away Silver gawking at him as he left.

Metal arrived at the base with out much prompt from there landing onto the hanger looking up and seeing a tornado of Chaos taking place. There was shouting from the group of gathered before Metal was nearly bowled over by the Doctor rushing forward to pick hi up in a hug.

“Oh Metal thank the gods you’re alright!”

“Well glad to see you made it back in one peace tin can, next time tell your pops when you’re out nearly gave the bald geezer a heart attack,” Sonic of all people said coming up and punching his shoulder in a friendly gesture before shaking his hand out in pain. The hooligans took their grumpy leave then having been forced to repair the hanger and assist in the search party flipping them all the bird as they piled onto Nack bike and took off into the night. Eggman refused to replace the wrecked choppers.

“Sage called us when your tacker went off map,” Tails said waving from behind the Eggman Sage joining in poking her head out.

“We were worried about your fate big brother,” Sage said Metal glitching which made the Eggman laugh as he picked him up.

“Hrmf, your assistance was excessive but I won’t deny unwelcomed after your offer of help considering the circumstances,” Shadow chimed in hanging over in the corner on a crate Metal blinked almost confused before seeing the biohog jump off and start a hoover car the next surprise that nearly sent Metal into another reboot as the once dead cousin of the doctor waved at him. Maria walked over bending down to greet him as Eggman set him back on his feet.

“It’s so great to finally meet you Metal! Cousin Ivo and Shadow told me all about you,” Metal gave a look over at Shadow who only gave him a blank expression back before Metal turned to the girl noting the red streaks in her hair. Metal was then surprised when Sage attempted a hug the holographic body melding over his form for a second before she stepped back.

“I humbly request you do not scare us again in such a way in the future, your presence would be greatly missed,” Sage replied Sonic snickering at their mechanical dialog before Tails elbowed him to behave.

“Next year Egghead you better invite us to the party,” Sonic warned wagging his finger at the Doctor who turned red and puffed up even as he was dragged away to the hover craft that Shadow as impatiently waiting for his other passengers to join him in.

“I will be doing no such thing this is a family affair and were it not for the emergency your help would have never been accepted bah!”

“Happy late birthday Metal,” Tails said much kinder and Metal nodded accepting the back pat. The dynamic duo joined Shadow who looked close to snapping and strangling the blue hedgehog not that Metal blamed him since he was beat boxing rather obnoxiously now. Slamming Sonic’s head against the dash board then acting like he hadn’t just done so to Tails laughter Shadow took the two off while Sonic started shouting at him. Maria staying behind and answering all of Sages rapid fire questions with grace as the Eggman lead them to the dinning room. This time Metal didn’t argue in joining the organics at the table Sage very happy to have a seat and play with the plate and flatware Orbot set down for her, Metal getting an oil can from Cubot who then served the humans a fresh meal from the groceries.

Ivo and Maria kept chatting Sage occasionally interjecting to ask her ‘aunt’ more questions. The human was more than happy to answer the voices sounding similar in an almost happy way as they conversed. Eggman man actually smiling in a none malicious manner at the table.

Metal sat silently, just, enjoying the night of peace, apparently Shadow negotiated Maria’s life and joining of their timeline for Mephiles’s protection and sanctuary in the form of Maria volunteering and taking over as the guardian of Iblis after a continues blood transfusion from Shadow to cure the NIDS left Maria immortal like Shadow, which resulted in Metal face planting the table that he hadn’t computed that earlier on his own. Maria was just as kind and pleasant as her diary and files from the logs had shown Metal understanding completely now why Shadow would do anything to save her.
Eventually the two humans exhausted themselves walked off needing sleep, laughing as Eggman explained his fever dreams.

Metal left awake with Sage like usual hung out in the hanger.

“That was a rather large upload to the data base earlier, I’m surprised Orbot and Cubot made it through dinner with out an emotion glitch,” Sage said as they watched the moto bugs clean up the mess. Metal was quiet knowing Sage was talking about the alternate timeline memories now taking up a large portion of Metal’s server’s memory bank.

Togeather the Two AI’s opened and combed through the files again.

Metal surviving the initial disaster with Eggman in a bunker but the doctor sub coming to his wounds leaving Sage his final creation with Metal to keep each other company.

Metal and Sage stuck together observing and making their own plans to destroy Iblis until Metal found Mephiles’s containment chamber breaking the being out.

Sage replayed that one a lot, Metal picking up a stone pillar and just smashing the chamber in before yanking out the thrashing glob of a being that screeched the entire time.

Initially Mephiles avoided them running around like a mad man attempting to rejoin Iblis only to be rejected by the body, repeatedly leading to Metal rescuing the fragile being until eventually Mephiles seemed to regain some wits and the three planned together. Sage had a hobby taking care of a community trying to keep the last life forms alive only to lose them in a tsunami, Metal then would lose her to Iblis who breached their strong hold melting her server, shortly after Mephiles once more being rejected by the body vowed vengeance breaking off to go about his own plans and grow in power.

From there Sage marveled over Metal’s refusal to let Iblis win even rescuing and training other life forms and survivors one Silver eagerly taking to the rusty banick’s teachings.

Metal was destroyed by Iblis but not in a quest of vengeance, but a final attempt to keep the rest of his students alive, his final self imposed directive.

“You do not need to keep the detailed files brother, you can condense and zip or archive them,” Sage reminded as they finished a fourth comb through of the data.

“No,” Was all Metal had to say before wandering off and finding the new feet attachments.

“Father made them to simulate true mobian walking patterns,” Sage shared circling watching Metal attach them.

Pushing off the ground Metal wobbled before calculating the best course of action for balance as he made test laps around the room using the walls to help. Working their way through the hallway Sage catching him anytime he nearly fell.

They made it outside Metal attempting longer and faster sprint in the new legs.

And that was how the Eggman found them, Metal running around, really running, and Sage chasing after in an experiment to see if they enjoyed tag.

Maria joined watching with Ivo from the doorway.

“Fatherhood suits you,” She teased Eggman huffing and pretending that he hadn’t preened at the comment.

Metal ignored them simply enjoying the game.

He knew he was alive and that was enough.