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When Tails alerted him of a new Eggman base, Sonic accepted the offer with glee, figuring it’d be like every other time. He’d go in, kick some butt, trash the place, and claim another win. Easy!
But of course, things had to get more complicated than they should be. And not the good, exciting complicated this time.
Oh, no.
The base itself had been exactly as always. A different layout, maybe, as if that’d throw him off. Fresh materials signaled that it was newly constructed, not a single scratch on pristine walls. He changed that pretty quick.
Badniks, booby traps, the usual. He tore through all of them, reinforced steel giving in to his spin dash with satisfying crunches that left him grinning. You’d think that Eggman would learn something from losing this many times, but apparently not.
Blowing a raspberry at the nearest security camera before taking it out of commission, something bright red caught his eye. A gaudy “Do Not Enter” sign handily showing him the entrance to the control center. Heh, this was too easy.
It wasn’t until he blew a hole in it, the poor badnik that he kicked through tumbling across the room, that his world came crashing down.
“Metal!” Sonic exclaimed at the sight of his robotic copy, a bit too much cheer in his voice. “I didn’t expect you to be here! Should make things… more…”
He didn’t usually pay attention to screens. Info grabbing wasn’t his job, nor was it a goal today. But this took up the entire wall, the glow backlighting his enemy standing before it, no visible reaction to his dramatic entrance.
It was hard to ignore the file, labeled clearly with PROJECT: METAL SONIC.
It was even harder to ignore the profile of a young hedgehog, her bright smile hauntingly familiar.
“...Tania?”
No more than a whisper, but Metal turns around.
As much as Sonic would like to say that something magical happened right then, the only thing remotely close was the chaos energy that blazed in the robot’s core booster as they lunged , ferocity rivaling that of Shadow on a bad day. If he’d ducked a millisecond later, Sonic was sure his head would be rolling on the floor.
Inertia carried Metal through the ragged hole in the wall, giving the hero a brief reprieve to prepare himself before the badnik came at him full force, claws extended like knives.
“Wait, wait!” Sonic caught the charge with both hands, his fingers interlocking with Metal’s. His arms would be thanking him for that later, he winced, gritting his teeth to the jolt of pain as he pushed back. At least he didn’t dislocate one.
He opened his mouth to say something, not that he knew what to say. Cold, sharp steel punctured the backs of his hands as Metal tightened their grip, the heat flaring from their booster causing beads of sweat to dot Sonic’s face.
They showed no sign of stopping. If anything, they increased power, brute force easing the deadlock in their favor. If those digital red eyes could show any emotion at all, Sonic was sure it’d be pure hate.
None of the little sister he’d been looking for.
Forced back, the smooth floor offered no purchase to his skidding shoes. As he hit the adjacent wall, the Metal’s sheer force allowed him to get up horizontally and propel himself forward using his legs, twisting their positions to hopefully gain an upper hand.
Sonic didn’t predict the way Metal grabbed his wrists, using what was supposed to help the former to their own advantage. The big screen flickered as they flung the surprised hedgehog into it, an ugly crack splattering where he landed quills first.
“Met—gUH!” he wheezed, cut off as said robot grabbed him by the neck, what air was left in him forced out in a strangled squeak. “Mmph—! L-listen…” Sonic tried, attempting in vain to pry Metal’s hands off him and they squeezed, an uncomfortable amount of pressure crushing his trachea and decorating his vision with spots of color. “...please!”
“METAL SONIC! WHAT IS THIS?!” a voice that was undeniably Eggman’s echoed from somewhere in the building. “I TOLD YOU TO PROTECT THE BASE! WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!”
Metal, of course, having no voice box, couldn’t respond. But it served as enough of a distraction for them to loosen their hold, giving Sonic just what he needed to wrench himself out of their grasp, a swift kick to the booster sending them flying into the opposite wall.
Oxygen rushing to his brain brought both relief and nausea as the hedgehog crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath. Eggman was back, and clearly unhappy. He was out of time.
Sonic shakily stood up, throwing a glance back as red eyes pierced him from across the room. Metal’s file was still open, a large crack in the glass cutting right through the face of Tania.
It seemed… creepily symbolic. He felt something lodge in his throat, although that might be because Metal had a death grip on it five seconds ago. There was no time to dwell on it. He committed that marred image to memory as he smashed through the control panel, an error message flashing on the screen for a split second before it went dark.
A louder “METAL?” told of Eggman’s approach as the badnik turned toward the sound before looking back, energy flickering in their core as they prepared for another attack. But their opponent was already gone, a fading blue trail the only sign that he was ever there.
Sonic popped out a vent and crawled onto the grass with a stuttered sigh, the sky a welcome sight. As much as he liked to mess with Eggman… not today.
“Tania,” he whispers, no one but the wind to hear him. The clouds above him seemed to morph into her face the longer he looked.
“I’ll be back. I promise.”