Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If you were to pass by the Restoration’s largest meeting room on this particular day, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was a war going on inside. The room was packed with just about everyone Sonic knew. Even Shadow, Rouge, and Omega made an appearance, apparently at the request of Tangle and Whisper of all people.

“I really need to get the details on that soon,” he thought to himself.

”It’s just like you to be nosey,” came a voice from inside his head.

”Shut up,” he snickered to himself.

“Alright everyone, can I have your attention please!” Lanolin shouted.

Sonic must’ve been one of the only people who heard her, because literally no one stopped talking. Lanolin frowned.

“Everyone! Can we please settle down and pay attention?!” she tried again.

Whisper nudged Tangle to stop talking to Bean, but the lemur yapped undeterred. Sonic tried to wave to Amy so she would stop talking to Blaze, Surge, and Trip, but had a similar lack of success. Lanolin scowled, and mouthed to the ones paying attention “cover your ears.”

Sonic, Tails, Cream, Vanilla, Whisper, Bark, Kit, and Jewel did as they were told. Maggie flew out from Lanolin’s hair and into her bell. Lanolin raised her fist and knocked into the side of it hard. The ensuing *GONG* could have probably been heard from Angel Island. Everyone who wasn’t prepared for it covered their ears too late and cried in agony. All eyes were finally on Lanolin as the room fell silent.

“Thank you,” she said simply, “Now that I have your attention, let’s get to the business at hand.”

Belle was on the other end of the meeting table, and turned on a projector sitting in front of her. Lanolin stepped aside as it displayed an image of a set of apartment buildings connected to the Restoration.

“Recently the Restoration was able to expand its current housing quarters by a significant margin. We did this not only to relieve our current congestion problem, but also to house more people in need than ever.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Surge mumbled.

Blaze smacked her in the stomach.

“In particular, we wanted to expand our current number of living spaces in order to house more potential heroes that want to help fight against Dr. Eggman and his forces.”

Lanolin nodded to Belle, who changed the projection to the next slide. It displayed Eggman’s flying saucer ship and his water works base.

“Recently, Dr. Eggman unleashed both a huge Badnik making and deploying battleship and an entire hydro plant built to flood entire towns. These plans on their own could have been disastrous if they were not stopped, but both of them being created in rapid succession of one another leads us to believe Eggman is starting to become faster at making these elaborate plans.”

Lanolin nodded to Belle again, who turned the projector to the next slide. It displayed several images of small Badnik armies marching through the countryside.

“On top of that, we have received a record number of reports of Badnik attacks on towns and cities. Of all of them, the only one that could be stopped before any damage was done was one marching on Floral Forest village, and that was only because two of the people in this room happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

Surge, still rubbing her sore stomach, gave a toothy grin to Blaze. The cat reciprocated with a small smile.

“The same can honestly be said for both the Egg Saucer and the Water Works,” Lanolin continued, “And it is honestly very concerning how all of Eggman’s recent plans have only been stopped by some of us stumbling upon the right place or the right people by chance.”

Belle turned off the projector as the rest of the people in the room gave each other concerning looks.

“So, with that said, we called this meeting in order to ask you all one simple question. Do any of you know anyone who would be able to join us in our fight against Dr. Eggman? It seems we need all the help we can get as of now.”

Most everyone started mumbling to each other. Blaze asked Trip something, but she shook her head sadly. Cream also asked her mother about someone she called “Mr. Dave,” but Vanilla shook her head solemnly. Tangle noticed Whisper looked deep in thought. Before she could even ask, she seemed to shake whatever idea she had out of her head.

“We could maybe ask Big?” Amy shrugged to Lanolin, “He’s a pretty mellow guy, but he’s also worked with me and Cream in the past. I’m sure he’d be cool with fighting Eggman again.”

Lanolin nodded, “That’s a good start. Does anyone else have anyone in mind?”

Lanolin looked around the room in worry as almost everyone else seemed to shake their heads.

“What about Knuckles?” the sheep put forward, “Is there any chance he could rejoin the Restoration?”

“Doubt it,” Vector said, “He’s really been clinging to his Emerald since the whole Metal Sonic fiasco.”

Sonic and Tails shot Amy a knowing look from across the table. Amy snickered and nodded lightly.

“We do have some old friends we could probably get on board,” Vector considered, “But other than that we’ve got nothing.”

Tails perked up and looked over to Sonic. He was staring forward, obviously trying to think of anyone Amy and Vector hadn’t already suggested. The fox nudged his brother’s leg with his shoe and mouthed “old friends” to him. Sonic just stared at him for a second before he realized what he meant.

“Are you sure?” he mouthed back.

“I don’t think there’s a better time than now,” Tails mouthed, “We could certainly use their help.”

Sonic nodded and put on a brave smile.

“Say, Amy?” he asked, “Do we still have one of those old Rescue Shuttles?”

All eyes were on Amy now, who pondered for a second.

“The only one that made it to Angel Island during the plague was gutted for parts. But the rest should all still be here. Why?”

“I might just know a place where we can find some helping hands.”

**********

The sun shone brightly over the sea. It particularly gleamed off of a small island, covered in scrap metal. Mecha Sonic stood near the shore of Scrapnik Island, looking off into the horizon. Behind him, the rest of the Scrapnik robots stood expectantly. He had told them to gather up in this spot and wait for a very special surprise, but what he did not say.

From behind, E-117 Sigma trodded up to him, holding Mecha’s beloved sunflower capsule in his hands.

“YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED, MECHA SONIC, BUT I HAVE BEEN MADE AWARE SOME OF OUR FELLOW SCRAPNIKS ARE GROWING RESTLESS. WOULD YOU PLEASE DISCLOSE WHAT SORT OF SURPRISE WE ARE ANTICIPATING?”

Mecha Sonic stared at Sigma for a second, and simply held up a finger, telling him to be patient.

“VERY WELL…”

From a cliff above the beach, Mecha Knuckles watched the rest of the robots with crossed arms. His gaze kept moving from them towards the direction Mecha Sonic kept staring in. Whatever he was planning, he didn’t trust it.

It was a few more minutes before Mecha Sonic finally spotted something in the sky. It was only a little black dot at first, but as it grew closer he knew exactly what it was. As it approached, more and more Scrapniks noticed it too, and began to alert the others. Some panic began to arise as some of the bots fretted it was an Eggman ship coming to get them.

Sigma looked from the approaching flying object to Mecha Sonic in concern. The metal hedgehog continued to stare at the ship. Sigma couldn’t help but think back to when Mecha’s old Eggman programming had taken over his mind, and began to worry.

The ship began to turn around in the air as it got close to the island. One of the Egg Robo’s, Rancheros, pointed to a symbol painted on the side of the ship. It was of a star with two stripes etched into it and a second, smaller star replacing one of the points. The hysteria of the Scrapniks calmed, now knowing it wasn’t an Eggman battleship.

The ship slowly lowered towards Scrapnik Island. Mecha Knuckles leapt off the cliff and landed in front of the other Scrapniks. He raised his mismatched fists at the landing ship, but Mecha Sonic raised his hand in front of him. He gave him a look before turning back towards the ship.

The ship landed just beyond the shoreline, sending small waves crashing against the island. A big chunk of the back of the ship began to open downwards. As the hatch made contact with the island’s beach, a voice all too familiar to the Scrapniks rang out.

“Hellooooo Scrapnik Island!!!” Sonic cheered as he and Tails walked out of the ship.

The Scrapniks started jumping up in glee. The speakers on the Miles Electric were flooded with happy cries from the small army of robots. Sonic walked up to Mecha Sonic with a big smile on his face.

“Heya, Mecha,” he greeted, holding out his fist, “Long time no see. Though certainly not 'long time no hear'.”

Mecha Sonic just stared at Sonic’s outstretched fist.

“Come on man, don’t leave me hanging,” Sonic whined.

“I don’t think you’ve fully thought this through,” Mecha Sonic told him telepathically.

Mecha Sonic wound up his fist and hit it against Sonic’s. The real hedgehog winced in pain as the shockwave of the metal fistbump went throughout his body.

“You know what, I don’t think I did,” he hissed, waving his hand around.

“MASTER SONIC?! MASTER TAILS?!” Sigma gawked, “WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

“We’ve come to get you all off this island, and bring you to our home!” Tails announced.

“OH, THAT IS MOST KIND OF YOU!” Sigma said gleefully.

The rest of the Scrapniks cheered and danced, but Mecha Knuckles just stared at the two boys in front of him. His gaze only left them when he noticed some other figures still standing in the ship. Amy and Lanolin could only stare with wide eyes at the sight in front of them.

“He cannot be serious,” Lanolin gritted.

“Steady on,” Amy advised, “Let’s just…see where this goes.”

The two girls walked cautiously down to the island. Mecha Knuckles stepped in front of them and raised his fists, to which they responded by readying their own weapons. The Sonics saw this confrontation and rushed in to stop it.

“Woah, woah!” Sonic said, “Let’s take a chill pill.”

Mecha Sonic simply stood in front of Mecha Knuckles, holding a hand in front of him.

“How can you expect me to be calm about this?!” Lanolin barked, “You said you knew some people that could help us, but instead you brought us to an island full of Eggman robots!”

“They are not Eggman robots!” Sonic said firmly.

“Are you kidding me?!” Lanolin baffled, “These are very clearly old Eggman robots!”

“They used to be Eggman’s robots,” Sonic affirmed, “But they are not his anymore.”

“Then what are they?” Amy asked cautiously.

Sigma walked carefully up to the girls and bowed, “WE ARE THE SCRAPNIKS. YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED REGARDING MECHA KNUCKLES’ CONDUCT. HE WAS SIMPLY BEING PROTECTIVE.”

Mecha Knuckles crossed his arms and turned away. Amy and Lanolin looked at each other before turning back to Sonic.

“Me and Tails ran into these guys a while ago,” Sonic explained, “They actually helped us when the Tornado crashed and I busted up my ankle in the landing.”

The girls raised a brow and looked back at the bunch of bots standing in front of them. Neither of them wouldn’t deny they looked incredibly creepy, but they also didn’t look overtly hostile either.

“YOUR APPREHENSION IS UNDERSTANDABLE,” Sigma admitted, handing the sunflower off to Mecha Sonic, “BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU WE MEAN NO HARM. WE ARE WELL AWARE OF OUR SHAMEFUL ORIGINS, AND DENOUNCE THEM ENTIRELY.”

Amy’s jaw dropped a little at the robot’s sincerity. The way the E-Series robot gently moved towards them, offering his hand, couldn't help but remind her of another robot she met a very long time ago.

“WE DESIRE NOTHING MORE THAN TO LEAVE THIS ISLAND, AND OUR PAST BEHIND WITH IT. IT WOULD MEAN THE WORLD TO ME AND MY SCRAPNIKS IF YOU WOULD GRANT THIS WISH FOR US.”

Amy smiled, and nearly shed a tear. Gamma would have been proud. She put away her hammer and took Sigma’s hand in both of hers.

“Then we’d be happy to!” she beamed.

Lanolin glared at the robot.

“How can we be sure you really do denounce your connection to Eggman?” she asked, “How do we know you still aren’t connected to his Eggnet in any way?”

“Oh, I can personally attest to the fact that they aren’t!” Tails said proudly, “All connections to any Eggman programming have been completely erased from their systems. Their minds are wholly their own!”

Sonic gave Mecha a thumbs up. Mecha simply nodded in response.

Lanolin remained unconvinced, but gave in with a tired sigh.

“Alright…but will they be willing to help us fight Eggman?”

The robots all turned to the sheep, confused.

“We only came to this island because you said you knew some people who could help us fight against Dr. Eggman,” Lanolin marched up to Sonic and pointed a finger in his face, “But I sincerely doubt his old robots would be eager to do that.”

“We would,” came a deep, robotic voice from the Miles Electric.

Sonic, Tails, and all the Scrapniks turned to Mecha Sonic as he placed down his sunflower capsule. Amy and Lanolin did too once they figured out it was him who spoke.

“You aren’t still mad about the whole…discarding you thing, are you?” Sonic ventured.

“No,” Mecha affirmed, “I have long let go of that…anger. You taught me to leave the past behind and look towards the future.”

Mecha looked down at his mismatched hands and clamped them together.

“But if you were to get us off this island, Dr. Eggman would see to it that the future is nothing but darkness and misery. He always has. And I cannot allow my second chance at life…no…my first and only chance at a real life be squandered by him.”

Mecha Sonic looked towards Amy and Lanolin and nodded firmly.

“I will happily join your fight against Dr. Eggman’s plans to destroy the future.”

Amy beamed with pride, while Lanolin gave a surprised, yet amazed expression.

“I WILL ALSO HAPPILY JOIN YOUR SIDE IN THIS BATTLE,” Sigma said, placing a hand to his chest, “DR. EGGMAN DISREGARD FOR ME AND ALL OF MY BELOVED PEOPLE HAS LEAD TO NO SHORTAGE OF TURMOIL WITHIN OUR MECHANICAL MINDS. I CANNOT PROMISE I WILL BE ABLE TO FIGHT THE DOCTOR DIRECTLY, BUT IF PERCHANCE YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE IN ANY OTHER REGARD, I AM ALL TOO HAPPY TO OBLIGE.”

Three Egg Robo Scrapniks raised their arms and saluted Amy and Lanolin. The rest of the Scrapniks similarly cheered from behind them. All the robots…except for Mecha Knuckles. Amy looked to Lanolin with an all too infectious smile, to which Lanolin just nodded with a smirk.

“Alright then,” the sheep conceded, “Everyone get on board the ship.”

Tails and Amy directed the stampede of overjoyed Scrapniks onto the Rescue Shuttle. Sonic, Mecha, and Sigma stood back and ensured every last one of them was on and accounted for.

“YOU HAVE OUR ETERNAL THANKS, MASTER SONIC,” Sigma thanked, “WE ARE ONCE AGAIN IN YOUR DEBT.”

“Ah, debt, shmebt,” Sonic waved off, “We’re just happy to help y’all. It’ll be nice for someone to stop pestering me over it!”

Mecha just rolled his visor at Sonic, picking back up his sunflower.

“I suppose all it took to finally get you to come back was to figure out how we could actually be of use to you,” he said telepathically.

“Hey, she said that, not me,” Sonic said back, in his mind, “Give the utilitarian sheep a break, will ya? Getting her to agree to this is a feat in it of itself.”

As the last of the Scrapniks ran onto the ship, Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and Sigma followed them. All that was left on the island was Mecha Knuckles, standing there. He wouldn’t look at the ship. He wouldn’t uncross his arms. He just…wouldn’t go.

“COME ON MECHA KNUCKLES, MY FELLOW!” Sigma called.

Mecha Knuckles finally turned and looked at the ship. Sigma waved excitedly at him, beckoning him to come aboard. Mecha Knuckles tried to look away again but he couldn’t. He uncrossed his arms and looked down at his shaking fists. Finally, he conceded and marched onto the ship just as the back door closed up.

All the Scrapniks looked down from the ship as it departed from their island. It was bittersweet, saying goodbye to their home. But Sigma reassured them all with a rousing speech about the new lives ahead of them. Mecha Sonic caressed the capsule containing his beloved flower, and nearly made Sonic shed a tear.

Chapter Text

These days the Rescue Shuttle roundhouse rarely saw any kind of commotion. The Restoration hadn’t had any use for them since the plague, so the depot housing them was very quiet. Tangle’s presence alone could have disrupted that, but her combined with everyone else waiting for Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Lanolin’s return ensured the depot was far from silent.

“Come on, Whisper,” Tangle moaned, hanging upside down from one of the lights, “Don’t you have any guesses?”

Whisper shook her head, “Do you?”

“No! That’s why I’m asking you.”

Whisper giggled softly, “I’ve only known Sonic about as long as you have. We probably only know a fraction of the people he’s met.”

Tangle jumped down to the floor and sighed, crossing her arms. She turned to Shadow who was watching the sky outside the roundhouse carefully.

“Do you have any idearz, Shadow?” she asked.

He simply turned and shook his head at her.

“Whisper is right to say we probably don’t know a lot of the people Sonic’s met. I’d never known about that sungazer lizard until today, for instance.”

He pointed over to Trip, who was getting noogied by Surge while sitting in her lap. She laughed and begged Surge to stop, to which the tenrec cackled in reply and kept going. She only stopped when Blaze chastised her to do so. Trip repositioned herself to lay down across both of their laps, and smiled up into Blaze’s face. She couldn’t help but smile back and rub Trip’s head.

“Do you guys have any ideas on who Sonic and Tails are bringing?” Trip asked them.

“I’m afraid I do not,” Blaze said, “But I trust their judgement. Whoever it will be, they will be a great asset to us.”

“Heh, well, if his track record is any hint,” Surge smirked, “It’s probably gonna be someone who tried to pound him in the dirt once.”

“That is highly likely,” Blaze chuckled.

Cream bounded towards the cat and her girlfriends.

“I can’t wait to meet them!” she beamed, “I bet they’re really nice, whoever they are!”

Blaze smiled widely as Cream skipped over to Shadow and started watching the sky with him.

“She’s so sweet,” Trip smiled as she sat up, “I’d really like for you to properly introduce her to us, Blaze.”

Blaze hummed and nodded slightly. She looked over to Surge, who was twiddling her fingers in boredom.

“Where’s your little friend? Kit was his name, right?”

“Drippy’s off in the machine shop right now I think…No offense, but I don’t think he likes to hang around you two ‘n Pinky.”

Blaze nodded, and looked over to Cream bouncing around Shadow. Trip looked sadly down and leaned her head on Surge’s shoulder.

Everyone turned to Cream as she started squealing and jumping up and down.

“They’re here, I can see them!” she cheered.

Tangle, Whisper, Blaze, Surge, and Trip all walked over to her and Shadow. Sure enough, through the open doors in the roof everyone could see the Rescue Shuttle lowering down into the empty berth in the roundhouse. Everyone stood back as it touched down and sent dust everywhere.

After a moment, the back door started to slowly open. Everyone’s eyes widened as they saw who stood on the other side. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Lanolin sure, that was to be expected. But there was also a hoard of rusty Badniks, every one of them looking more horrifying than the last. Most frightening of all was a metal Sonic doppelganger, who towered over the real hedgehog it stood next to.

Whisper had her mask on and her Wispon primed and ready in an instant. Blaze followed by standing in front of Cream, holding two flames in her hands. Shadow put all his weight on his back foot, ready to fight.

“Woah, hey, hey, hey!” Sonic shouted, “Hold your fire, literally Blaze.”

Blaze gave him a serious look, as did Shadow.

“What is the meaning of this, Sonic?” he demanded, “Why on Earth have you brought Badniks into Restoration HQ?”

“I never thought you’d be so foolish as to bring the enemy into your base of operations,” Blaze scowled.

“These guys are not our enemies!” Sonic said firmly, “And they are not Badniks, they are the Scrapniks.”

Shadow and Blaze looked at each other, both entirely unsure what that was supposed to mean.

“They’re from an island far away from here,” Tails explained, “And on that island these robots made their own society. One that allowed them to break free from Eggman’s original directives, and let them make their own lives for themselves. Me and Sonic can personally attest to them being wholeheartedly good.”

Blaze remained unconvinced, but Shadow seemed to soften a little.

“Is that so?” he asked.

“AFFIRMATIVE,” Sigma reassured from between Sonic and Tails, “DR. EGGMAN IS NOT OUR ALLY ANYMORE. MASTER SONIC AND YOUNG MASTER TAILS HAVE MORE THAN PROVEN THEMSELVES MORE CARING AND COMMITTED TO HELPING MY PEOPLE THAN HE EVER WOULD BE.”

Sigma bowed to Shadow and the others.

“AND WE ARE MORE THAN HAPPY TO PROVE OURSELVES TO YOUR CAUSE IN RETURN. THE SCRAPNIKS ARE AT YOUR SERVICE.”

Shadow crossed his arms, but smiled ever so slightly at Sigma. Blaze and Whisper were evidently still unconvinced, as their Wispon and flames respectively were still ready to destroy any one of the bots who stepped out of line. Cream peaked out from behind Blaze and looked in awe at the robots in front of her. She quickly ran around Blaze, much to her horror, and ran up to Mecha Sonic.

The huge metal hedgehog was shocked by her approach, and stepped back a little. Cream just stared into his visor with wide, ecstatic eyes.

“So you found an island full of nice robots? Like Gemerl?!” she beamed as she turned to Sonic.

Sonic nodded, and looked up to Mecha.

“Things were a little rocky with some when we first arrived,” Sonic said, elbowing Mecha, “But with some help, we managed to get even the most bitter of bots to mellow out.”

Surge snickered to herself, “I was so right.”

“How can a creation of Dr. Eggman become ‘friendly’ though?” Blaze questioned, putting out her flames, “From my experience with Metal Sonic and his other robots, they seem to have little to no free will.”

“Egg Head’s a little too good at making robots Blaze,” Sonic shrugged, “To the point that it really isn’t unfair to call a good portion of them ‘alive’ and smarter than he is. I mean, Metal Sonic’s taken over the Eggman Empire like…twice now, and been better at running it than Eggy.”

“The doctor’s older creations always found a way to circumvent his original design and forge their own future,” Shadow added, “Omega is living proof of that, and is the whole reason he stopped allowing such freedom in his current robots.”

Whisper thought back to her time with Omega. Tangle put a hand on her shoulder, and nodded with a comforting smile. Whisper finally lowered her Wispon, but still looked at the Scrapniks from behind her mask with suspicion.

Amy walked down from the ship and took Blaze’s hands in her own, “I can also attest to the fact that Eggman’s robots are very often more caring than their fat headed creator ever will be. Please, hun. Give them a chance.”

Blaze gazed into Amy’s eyes for a while. Her mind wandered to the robotic pirates of her own universe. Would she say they weren’t alive?

She turned to see Sigma and Mecha Sonic’s glowing eyes looking at her pleadingly. She sighed, but nodded firmly.

“Do we have any other objections?” Lanolin asked, looking around to the others.

“I don’t,” Surge shrugged, “They look pretty badass.”

Blaze smacked her arm, “Language!”

“Oh, I’m sure the rabbit’s heard worse from Egg-Fuck!”

Blaze smacked her arm again while Amy just rolled her eyes. She turned to Trip, who simply shook her head.

“I mean…if Sonic, Tails, Amy, AND you are okay with it, boss,” Tangle said, “I trust your judgments.”

Lanolin nodded as her and Tangle turned to Whisper. She didn’t reply to the question, only looking away slightly.

“Well, then let’s get to business,” Lanolin said, walking in front of the Scrapniks, “There are…a lot of you, so we better get started on setting up your rooms.”

“ROOMS?” Sigma asked.

“Unless you all have any other place to stay in mind,” Lanolin deadpanned.

“NO, NO…” Sigma said, “IT’S JUST…I DIDN’T EXPECT SUCH HOSPITALITY SO QUICKLY. HAVE YOU THE SPACE FOR ALL OF US?”

“As it just so happens, we’ve just upgraded to have more than enough room,” Lanolin said, “Now come on, let me take you to the director. She’ll help get everyone situated.”

“Oof,” Tangle cringed, “You want some extra help with that, Lan?”

Lanolin looked over to Tangle with a tired, pleading look, “Yes, please.”

“I should go too!” Tails put in, “The Miles Electric can translate their speech, so we’ll need it in order to get everyone settled.”

Sigma looked at Sonic and Tails in shock. The boys simply smiled, and gave him a wink and a thumbs up respectively. Cream, Blaze, and Shadow stood aside as Lanolin and Sigma started leading the excited Scrapniks out of the ship.

Tangle and Tails started helping guide the Scrapniks out and into the roundhouse. The pack soon formed into a fairly straight line and was led out of the roundhouse by Lanolin and Sigma.

As Tangle and Tails left with the back of the parade, Shadow began walking in the same direction too.

“I better go find Omega before he gets any ideas of destroying them,” he grunted.

Cream called her goodbyes as she skipped away to find her mom. Blaze turned to Sonic, but then looked up at the figure still looming over him. Sonic also turned and looked at Mecha Sonic.

“You aren’t gonna follow them?” Sonic asked.

Mecha Sonic shook his head, and presented his sunflower capsule to Sonic.

“I’d like to do something else first,” he told Sonic telepathically.

Sonic nodded, “I know just the place.”

Amy, Blaze, Trip, and Surge looked at Sonic strangely. Sonic turned to Amy and Blaze.

“You two wanna head to Victory Garden real quick?”

The girls looked at each other for a second. They nodded at Sonic before turning to Surge and Trip.

“Do you two want to come too?” Amy asked, “I hear everything’s ripe and almost ready for harvesting. It should look prettier than ever.”

Surge scoffed lightly and kicked the dirt under her shoe.

“No thanks, Pinky,” she said, “I better go check on Drippy and make sure he hasn’t killed anyone.”

“M-Maybe later,” Trip stammered, “I have to get back to the Machine Shop and help fix some damaged cars from a recent Eggman attack.”

Surge smirked and picked up Trip in a bridal carry, making the poor lizard squeak.

“I’ll take you there, Spikes,” she smirked, “Laterz you mooks!”

Surge bolted out of the roundhouse with Trip. Sonic and Amy chuckled while Blaze shook her head lightly.

“I take it things have been going well with you four?” Sonic quipped.

“You could say that,” Amy shrugged, “Now let’s head off to the garden!”

Whisper watched the four of them walk away. Her mask remained fixed on her face while her grip on her Wispon tightened. She followed them out, if only to get out of the once again silent roundhouse.

Unbeknownst to her, still standing in the now empty Rescue Shuttle, Mecha Knuckles watched her leave. He stood there for a very long time until he finally wandered out of the ship and into Restoration HQ.

**********

Rouge tapped her foot impatiently. She was getting a little tired of standing in the middle of the plaza, watching every other guy gawk at her as they walked past.

“What is taking him so long?” Rouge grumbled.

“SHADOW IS WAITING FOR SONIC’S RETURN TO ASSESS HIS DECISION ON HIS NEW ALLIES. HE DISCLOSED THIS INFORMATION WITH US,” Omega informed.

“It was a rhetorical question, hun,” Rouge rolled her eyes, “I guess I should ask what’s taking Blue so long. Is he trying to find some friend he met in outer space or something?”

Omega lifted his finger to reply, but lowered it again when Rouge gave him a look that could kill the Dark Gaia. She sighed, and looked off in the direction of Jewel’s office.

“If only poor Gemstone wasn’t so overloaded right now,” she smirked, “I’d pester her plenty more today~”

“PERHAPS YOU CAN ASSIST HER IN HER WORKLOAD. THAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO SPEND AMPLE TIME WITH HER AND LEARN OF HER WEAKNESSES.”

Rouge blinked and stared blankly forward for a moment before laughing.

“Oh boy,” she snorted, “Love must really make you crazy if I’m even considering that…but I guess I’ve done worse menial labor when I was with G.U.N…”

She put a finger to her lip and smiled deviously.

“Though…what kind of ‘weaknesses’ do you think I’d learn about, big guy~?”

Omega didn’t reply. Rouge expected some misunderstood quip about some weak spot Jewel would have if Rouge kicked her in the shin or whatever, but the robot was silent. Rouge turned around to make sure he hadn’t shut down randomly. He was simply standing there, staring off into the distance.

“Omega?” Rouge asked, “You alright, hun?”

The several ton robot started to convulse and gyrate in place. Rouge’s eyes widened as the shaking got more and more violent.

“Omega?! Are you okay?! What’s wrong-”

“EGGMAN ROBOTS SIGHTED!!!” Omega blared, raising a minigun arm.

Rouge looked across the room to see a hoard of rusty old Badniks, headed by a robot that kinda looked like Omega. What concerned her though was the sheep girl also standing in front of them, not to mention the other countless people standing around the plaza.

Before Omega could open fire in the heavily populated plaza, Shadow zipped up in front of him and held his hand against Omega’s whirring minigun. It stopped dead almost instantly, and Omega looked down at Shadow furiously.

“SHADOW, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! YOU PROMISED TO NEVER GET IN THE WAY OF MY WARPATH!”

“For one, I am not letting you shoot anything inside this building,” Shadow grimaced, “And secondly, those are not hostile Eggman robots. They are the help Sonic and Tails went out to retrieve.”

“Seriously?! He’s recruiting Eggman robots?” Rouge gawked, “I mean…I know we aren’t really ones to talk but…”

Rouge didn’t finish her sentence as she glanced up at Omega.

“Actually, you know what, that’s it. We aren’t ones to talk.”

Shadow held Omega’s gun firmly as he tried to start spinning it again.

“You are not to hurt them Omega. Is that clear?”

If Omega had teeth, he would have ground them into metal shavings. Shadow and Rouge watched him convulse like he was about to self-destruct. They gave each other concerned looks before Rouge flew up and helped Shadow turn Omega around.

“Maybe we should just head home, hun,” Rouge cooed.

“NO!” Omega whined, “DESTROY ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS!! THAT INFERIOR E-SERIES ROBOT MUST BE TERMINATED!!”

“Well how about we put him out of sight and out of mind?” Rouge smiled as she struggled to push the several ton robot across the floor.

“NOOOOOOO!!”

Sigma only looked over and noticed Omega when he heard the horrid sound of his metal feet scraping against the floor.

“GREAT SCOTT!” he cheered, “IS THAT ANOTHER E-SERIES ROBOT LIKE MYSELF?”

Lanolin looked over to see Shadow and Rouge dragging Omega out of the plaza. She’d heard all about him from both his file and Tangle and Whisper.

“Yeahhhh…” Lanolin cringed, “Maybe don’t…go near him though…”

“WHY EVER NOT?”

“Just…trust me…”

Lanolin continued to lead Sigma and the Scrapniks towards Jewel’s office. From the back of the line, Tangle and Tails ensured none of the bots wandered off or got left behind.

“So, you’re positive these guys are cool?” Tangle asked.

“One hundred percent!” Tails smiled, “Me and Sonic got stuck on their island for a while, and they were so nice to us! They helped repair the Tornado after it got hit by lightning and made Sonic a foot brace when his ankle got messed up in the landing!”

“Hm,” Tangle sniffed, “Never thought I’d hear about an Eggman bot helping Sonic like that.”

“That’s because they aren’t Eggman bots,” Tails said with feeling, “Not anymore.”

Tangle looked ahead and really took in how happy all the little freakshow robots looked as they looked around the Restoration. It was…really sweet. Like watching a bunch of kids in a candy store. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.

At the front of the line, Lanolin and Sigma finally reached Jewel’s office. The sheep knocked a few times.

“Come in!” Jewel called.

Lanolin looked at the entourage following her.

“Uh…actually director, can I ask you to come outside for a moment?”

Lanolin didn’t hear a response, but after a second she heard Jewel shuffle out of her chair and buzz towards the door.

“What is it, Lanolin?” she asked curiously as she opened the door.

Before Lanolin could reply, Jewel looked up and was met with the face of Sigma staring down at her. She screamed and slammed the door shut. Tangle heard everything from the back of the line and sighed lightly.

“S’cuse me, guys,” she told the Scrapniks as she swung over them with her tail.

She landed right in front of Sigma and Lanolin and knocked on Jewel’s door again.

“Jeeeeeewel!” she coaxed, “Come on out. It’s okay.”

After a moment, Jewel peaked her head out from behind the door and just stared at Sigma.

“T-Tangle,” she whispered, “There are robots…INSIDE the Restoration.”

“They aren’t Eggman’s robots,” Tangle said calmly, “They’re the Scrapniks, and they’re chill. Aren’t you guys?”

Sigma gave Tangle a confused look and tapped his head.

“I AM AFRAID MY COOLING SYSTEM HAS BEEN OFFLINE FOR MANY YEARS,” he said, “I AM NOT SURE IF THAT DESCRIPTION IS APT…”

Tangle chuckled and just looked at Jewel. The beetle still looked nervous.

“They need our help…and they’re going to help us in return.”

“We just need to get them some rooms first,” Lanolin added, “And given that is your jurisdiction, we need you to agree to it.”

Jewel finally opened the door more and gave Sigma another look. The towering robot gave her a light, nervous wave. She looked back to Tangle, who just smiled warmly. Jewel sighed, and stepped out of her office.

“Alright…” she said, “What sort of room would you like…erm…”

“E-117 SIGMA,” he bowed, “AND I ASSURE YOU, WE ARE NOT PICKY WITH THE ACCOMMODATIONS WE ARE PROVIDED. AFTER OUR TIME ON OUR ISLAND, ANY SORT OF COMPARTMENTS YOU ASSIGN US WILL BE HEAVENLY.”

Jewel happened to notice the use of plurals. She flew up slightly and looked behind Sigma. Her jaw dropped as she saw the platoon of other rusty robots lining the hallway outside her office. Tails waved at her from the back of the line. Tangle snickered, and elbowed her lightly.

“Let’s get to it, why don’t we? We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Lanolin sighed while Jewel just gulped.

**********

The ride up the elevator to Victory Garden was rather quiet. Amy and Blaze watched Sonic and Mecha standing next to each other, very casually.

“I must admit,” Mecha thought, “I was not expecting you to have such an impressive operation here.”

“Oh yeah?” Sonic said.

“I was expecting you to simply be running around wherever you please. Being part of an organization like this is very surprising.”

“I still do that,” Sonic smirked, “But it takes a lot to help so many people.”

Amy and Blaze looked at Sonic with great concern.

“Sonic, who are you talking-”

Before Amy could finish her sentence, the elevator came to a stop as it reached the garden shed. Sonic walked towards the door and held it open, gesturing for Mecha to step through. He had to duck down as he did so.

Mecha had only taken one step outside, but he was enraptured. All around him were thriving crops, some growing to be almost as tall as him. He looked all around at the amazing garden, his visor getting fuzzy as he did.

From the other side of the garden, Espio and Silver were tending to a patch of potatoes. Epsio had noticed Mecha first, and alerted Silver to his presence. They observed the robot for a moment, but both took immediate notice of his conduct in the garden.

He was looking around every inch of the space, seemingly taking in the environment in a way neither of them had ever seen a robot do. When he did finally start walking again, his movements were slow, and seemingly awestruck. After another moment, Espio noticed Sonic, Amy, and Blaze standing in the doorway of the shed. Espio motioned Silver towards them, and the chameleon and hedgehog snuck past Mecha and over to them.

“Sonic, what is the meaning of this?” Espio demanded, “Why have you brought a metal copy of yourself into the garden?”

“Yeah!” Silver added, confused, “And why is he so…rusty and…thrown together?”

“You two remember the ‘help’ I alluded to earlier?” Sonic smirked.

Espio and Silver’s jaws dropped.

“And it’s much more than just Mecha Sonic there,” Amy added, “It was a whole island of Scrapniks, a society of friendly ex-Eggman robots that have made new lives for themselves without his influence.”

Silver and Espio looked back at Mecha Sonic.

“Then…why is this the only one with you?” Silver asked.

“He wanted to see the garden,” Sonic shrugged, “Isn’t that right, Mechs?”

Mecha Sonic was kneeling down in front of a tomato crop. He gently grasped one and simply gazed at it. Everyone watched with great interest.

“It’s…beautiful…”

Sonic chuckled, “He’s impressed with your handy work, Silver.”

Silver looked over to Sonic to see his eyes overwhelmed with tears. The rest of the group soon noticed too, and it made Amy gasp.

“Sonic?” she asked.

Sonic only noticed the tears when one fell off his cheek and splashed on his shoe. He wiped one off his cheek and looked at it with a smirk.

“Don’t worry,” he said, flicking it away, “These aren’t mine.”

Sonic looked back over to Mecha, still looking at the tomato in his hand. Everyone else looked over to the robot when they realized what Sonic meant.

“How is it possible for a robot to cry through you?” Espio asked.

“Long story,” Sonic shrugged, “But basically me ‘n Mecha are connected in our minds. We can read each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s feelings. I’ve actually been able to talk to him ever since me and Tails left Scrapnik island.”

“Ohhhh!” Amy said, “So that’s why you were talking to yourself earlier!”

Sonic’s eyes widened before he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeahhh…guess I should’ve told you that…”

“Wait, is that also why I sometimes see you standing by yourself, not saying anything, but you also look like you’re in a full fledged argument with someone?” Silver asked.

Everyone looked at Sonic’s embarrassed face.

“I mean…you can’t always get along with the guy you share a brain with…” Sonic smiled bashfully, “Mecha was pretty hellbent on getting me ‘n Tails to bring a Rescue Shuttle for the island. I kept having to tell him that we didn’t know how to…broach the topic of them to you guys…”

At that moment, Mecha walked back over to the group. In his hands was his sunflower capsule, and he was looking down pleadingly at Sonic. The hedgehog smiled, and whispered something in Silver’s ear. The other hedgehog perked up and nodded up at Mecha.

He brought him over to a patch of growing sunflowers and floated over a pair of trowels. Silver quickly, but carefully, dug a small hole in front of the sunflower patch. Once he was done, he nodded to Mecha. Mecha Sonic carefully opened the capsule’s bottom and pulled out the sunflower. Silver helped him place it in the ground, and once they were done both stood back and looked at the flower next to all the growing ones behind it.

The rest of the group watched the operation with warm smiles. Amy looked over to Sonic and gasped lightly again. Espio and Blaze turned to see the hedgehog was spilling out a concerning amount of tears for someone with such a straight face.

“Aw, gosh dangit, Mecha,” Sonic chuckled, wiping away as many tears as he could, “You’re making me look like a leaky sink, here!”

Blaze giggled lightly, and looked over to the robot. She smiled warmly as she watched Silver rub the robot’s back. She had become so used to seeing Eggman’s robots try and destroy nature, that seeing one be awestruck by it was so interesting. Of course, it finally clicked in her head. This was not Eggman’s robot anymore. This was a Scrapnik, and she would be proud to call Mecha Sonic her ally.

As Sonic continued to cry someone else's tears, Mecha Sonic stared happily at his beloved flower. A new start begins for him, and all of his people. This…was their new home.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, assigning rooms to the Scrapniks wasn’t as hard as Jewel thought. Most of them were incredibly small robots, and pretty much all of them preferred to share rooms with one another. What could have been a herculean task only took about thirty minutes.

“I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, MASTER JEWEL!” Sigma said thankfully, “I NEVER EXPECTED TO SEE ALL MY FELLOW SCRAPNIKS SO HAPPY AT HAVING THEIR OWN LIVING QUARTERS!”

“O-Oh, it’s nothing. A-And please, just call me Jewel.”

“VERY WELL.”

Tangle and Tails stepped out of a nearby room followed by the three Egg Robos.

“They’ll take this one!” Tangle said with a thumbs up.

“Good,” Lanolin said, “That’s all of them then.”

Sigma looked around and had a realization.

“ACTUALLY, I BELIEVE WE ARE MISSING A PAIR…”

Everyone looked over to the robot as he tapped a finger on his…chin? He didn’t really have a chin but he tapped a part of his head that was close enough.

“MECHA SONIC EXPRESSED INTEREST IN PLANTING HIS SUNFLOWER PLANT WITH MASTER SONIC, BUT I DO NOT KNOW WHERE MECHA KNUCKLES HAS RUN OFF TO…”

He turned to the others, who looked worriedly at each other.

“YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED FOR NOT KEEPING TRACK OF MY FELLOW UNITS PROPERLY,” Sigma apologized.

“No, no,” Lanolin sighed, “Honestly I’d say only losing two out of…how ever many of you there are is impressive.”

“EVEN SO, IT WOULD BE IN MY BEST INTEREST TO LOCATE HIM BEFORE HE CAUSES ANY TROUBLE. HE HAS BEEN ACTING RATHER…OFF FOR SOME TIME.”

“Actually Sigma, if it’s alright, I’d like to show you something first!” Tails piped up.

Sigma looked curiously at the little fox.

“Would you like to see the Restoration’s Machine Shop?” Tails asked.

Sigma’s L.E.D eyes widened.

“YOUR FACILITY HAS ITS OWN MECHANICAL WORKSHOP?!” Sigma asked giddily.

Tails simply nodded. Sigma turned towards the three Egg Robos, who looked just as surprised.

“IF IT IS ALRIGHT WITH YOU, YOUNG MASTER TAILS, I WOULD LIKE TO BRING MY THREE ASSISTANTS ALONG AS WELL. I BELIEVE IF THERE IS ANYWHERE WE WILL BE OF THE MOST USE, IT WILL BE IN THIS MACHINE SHOP.”

Tails looked over to the Egg Robos, who all nodded excitedly. Tails turned to Tangle, Jewel, and Lanolin.

“Is that alright with you guys?” he asked.

The girls turned to each other. Tangle nodded excitedly while Jewel just looked nervously between the two. Lanolin sighed lightly, but nodded.

“We can look for the Mecha Knuckles,” Lanolin said, looking at Tangle, then Sigma, “Any idea where he might have wandered off to?”

Sigma tapped his nonexistent chin again.

“PERHAPS SOMEWHERE…DARK AND QUIET. IT SEEMS TO BE HIS PREFERRED ENVIRONMENT AS OF LATE. HIS LAST DIRECTIVE WAS TO PROTECT THE SCRAMBLED EGG CARRIER ON SCRAPNIK ISLAND, SO PERHAPS THE REMNANTS OF THAT CODE HAVE MADE THAT ENVIRONMENT FAVORABLE TO HIM.”

Tangle and Lanolin nodded. As Tails led Sigma and the Egg Robos away, Jewel looked behind her and shrieked. Tangle and Lanolin turned to see a lot of the smaller Scrapniks poking their heads out of their rooms in curiosity. A few of them looked up at the girls and made strange, robotic noises.

“W-What do they want?” Jewel asked frantically.

Tangle walked closer to one that had stepped (rolled?) out of her room. It had a single wheel poking out of the metal skirt it wore, and shyly tapped the tips of its pointy fingers together. Tangle smiled as she kneeled down in front of her.

“You aren’t sure what to do now, are you?” she asked.

The little robot nodded sheepishly and looked down. Tangle placed a gentle hand on her shoulder so she would look back up.

“Anything you want really,” Tangle smiled, “This place is your home now, and you’re safe here. If you want you can just stay in your new rooms. But I say go run around and explore a little!”

Tangle stood up and put her hands on her hips, “Just don’t cause any trouble. Or you’re gonna have to answer to me and mean ol’ Lanolin over there!”

Tangle pointed playfully at Lanolin with her tail. The sheep just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Let’s go get Whisper,” she ordered, “She’ll probably be the best for scouting out that Knuckles robot.”

Tangle nodded, but turned back to the little robot and held out her palm to her. The robot was confused for a second, but another Scrapnik ran up to her and seemingly told her something. She lightly lifted up her arm and batted Tangle’s hand in an attempt at a high five. Tangle just chuckled and smiled warmly at the little bot before she waved and ran off with Lanolin. Jewel followed her closely.

**********

Surge leaned over Trip’s welding table as the sungazer tried to start repairing a damaged car door.

“Can you just…please step back,” Trip whined from under her helmet.

“I ain’t afraid of some little sparks,” Surge grunted, “I’m the queen of sparks, alright?”

“Electric sparks and welding sparks are two entirely different things!” Trip protested, “Can you at least put on some goggles or…your helmet?”

“Would you quit worrying over me like you’re my mom, Spikes?!” Surge then smiled deviously, “Come on, Spikey. You don’t have to shy away from me anymore~”

Trip blushed from under her helmet, but put on a small smile of her own.

“I-I-I…just don’t want you to lose the chance to l-look at me. That’s all.”

Surge gawked at Trip for a second before putting on a snarky, yet proud smile.

“Alright, Spikes,” Surge shrugged, “You win. I’ll go bug Drippy instead.”

Surge lightly punched Trip’s arm as she walked away. As she made her way to Kit, she passed by Belle tinkering with a car engine. The tenrec snickered to herself and kept walking. This didn’t go unnoticed by the tinkerer, but before she could even question anything she saw Tails walking into the shop while being trailed by…

Tails figured he must’ve had the same expression Sigma had currently when he first saw Scrapnik island. The robot was elated to see the workings of the Machine Shop and all the non rusted equipment strewn about the place.

“THIS IS MOST EXCITING!” he said giddily, “A TRULY MARVELOUS WORKSHOP YOU HAVE GRACED ME WITH, YOUNG MASTER TAILS!”

“Oh, heh, no worries,” Tails chuckled.

By now everyone else in the shop had taken notice of the robots standing in the entryway. Trip only looked at them for a moment before going back to work. Surge whispered something to Kit, to which the fennec gave her a questioning look.

“What?” he whispered, “Why’d they trust Eggman’s robots?”

Surge just shrugged, and went back to staring at the bots. Grease put on a stern face and marched up to them, holding a rather large wrench in his hands.

“You got a lot of explaining to do, little man,” he said darkly, not looking at Tails, “Why’d you bring these things into my shop?”

Tails gulped as Grease smacked the wrench against his hand.

“Grease,” he said, “This is E-117 Sigma. He’s a Scrapnik. A friendly, discarded Eggman robot. And he would like to join you as part of your crew here in the shop.”

Grease finally looked at Tails, raising a brow at the kid. Tails turned to Sigma.

“Sigma, this is Grease the Orangutan. He’s the Chief Mechanic here.”

Sigma looked at Grease, who still held his wrench firmly. The robot bowed in front of him, surprising the orangutan.

“I AM MOST PLEASED TO MEET YOU, CHIEF,” Sigma said grandly, “I AM BEYOND IMPRESSED WITH YOUR WORKINGS HERE, AND IT WOULD BE THE GREATEST HONOR TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR ENGINEERING PROJECTS.”

Grease stared at Sigma for a second. He finally let the wrench he was holding fall to his side a little.

“What’re your qualifications?” he asked cautiously.

“I ASSURE YOU I AM AN EXPERT IN MACHINERY REBUILDING. WHEN I WASHED UP ON SCRAPNIK ISLAND, I WAS MISSING AN ARM AND A LEG,” Sigma displayed his mismatched parts to Grease, “I HAD TO REATTACH THEM WITH OTHER BITS THAT HAD WASHED UP ON SHORE.”

Sigma stood aside and presented the three Egg Robos.

“IN ADDITION, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE POPULATION OF FELLOW SCRAPNIKS. MY THREE ASSISTANTS HERE, BENEDICT, RANCHEROS, AND FLORENTINE, ARE ALSO WELL VERSED IN ENGINEERING.”

The three Egg Robos saluted Grease dutifully. The orangutan stared at all four robots for a moment. He turned to Belle, sitting a few yards away. Her jaw was agape, and her eyes were filled with emotion. He sighed, and turned back to the group.

“Alright…”

Tails cheered and high-fived Florentine. Benedict and Rancheros’ cheers echoed out of the Miles Electric’s speakers as Sigma bowed again.

“YOU HAVE OUR THANKS, CHIEF GREASE.”

Sigma stood back up straight as the Egg Robos and Tails calmed down.

“WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP CURRENTLY?”

“We’re…repairing some cars,” Grease said, “I’ll see if anyone needs help with their jobs.”

Grease walked away, keeping a close eye on the Scrapniks the whole way.

From her workstation, Belle finally stood up. She gawked at the Scrapniks as she shakily walked closer to them. After a moment, Rancheros noticed her, and pointed her out to the other bots. Belle froze as Sigma turned to her.

“GREETINGS,” he said cheerfully, “I AM E-117 SIGMA. WHO ARE YOU?”

Belle didn’t reply for a second. She glanced at Tails, who gave her a nod. She looked back up at the robot towering over her.

“I’m Belle…the-the…the Tinkerer.”

“TINKERER?” Sigma questioned, “I AM AFRAID I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS DESIGNATION…OR SPECIES. MAY I INQUIRE FURTHER ON WHAT THAT MEANS?”

Belle started getting nervous again. Tails walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She took a deep breath.

“I’m…a robot,” she explained, opening her fingers to show her tools, “I…tinker with things.”

Sigma and the Egg Robos were shocked. Sigma leaned in closer, putting his monocle in front of his eye.

“MOST FASCINATING! I SEE YOU ARE MADE OF WOOD TOO,” he observed, “YOU CERTAINLY HAD ME FOOLED. FROM A DISTANCE YOU LOOKED PURELY ORGANIC!”

Belle rubbed her arm sheepishly.

“Maybe we’ve just been stuck around too many rusty looking robots,” came a muffled voice.

“Who said that?” asked Belle.

Rancheros raised his hand. Belle looked questionably at him.

“That came from the Miles Electric,” Tails explained, pulling the tablet out of his tail, “All the Scrapniks other than Sigma don’t have their own voice boxes, so I made a program that could convert their communication signals into speech.”

Belle looked shockingly at the device, then over to the three Egg Robos.

“Would you…like your own voice boxes?” she asked.

The robot’s eyes widened. They looked at each other before nodding happily at Belle.

“IS THAT POSSIBLE?” Sigma asked.

“I mean…sure, we have a lot of sound emitting tech for certain Wispon repairs. I’m sure I can make a voice box out of the scrap we have lying around.”

“THAT WOULD BE BEYOND KIND OF YOU, MISS BELLE!” Sigma said, “I CAN TAKE OVER YOUR WORK FOR YOU AS WELL, SO WE DO NOT FALL BEHIND SCHEDULE!”

“O-Okay!” Belle smiled, “Come over here, I’ll show you what needs doing!”

As the five robots walked to Belle’s workstation, Surge walked up beside Tails.

“Heh, I knew it’d be funny seeing her reaction,” she chuckled.

Tails smiled and nodded. He looked up to Surge after a second.

“Sorry if this is presumptuous, but I’m surprised you’re so accepting of the Scrapniks. Especially some working so close to both Kit and Trip.”

“You implying they’re something to worry about?”

“I’m implying you’re narrow minded enough to think they are,” Tails snickered.

“Oh, you’re using fighting words now, are you Prower?!” Surge fumed playfully.

Tails laughed as Surge shoved him in the head. From behind, Kit’s eye twitched.

“I mean, I ain’t got much to worry about,” Surge shrugged, “They seem cool, they look even cooler, and even if they are a danger…”

She made electricity crackle from her knuckles.

“That’s no problem for me…”

Tails shuddered, and looked over to Belle explaining the car engine she was working on to Sigma.

“Well…that won’t be necessary. I can promise you that.”

“And you know what? I believe you, kid.”

**********

In the Diamond Cutters office, Bean and Bark sat idly at the main table, reading and playing with a bomb respectively. Whisper tightened a bolt on her Wispon nearby. Her ear flicked at the sound of footsteps approaching the door. She stood to attention at once, prepared for whoever it might have been. Though, given the steps were light, it probably wasn’t one of those robots.

Her suspicions were proven correct when Tangle, Lanolin, and Jewel walked inside.

“Come on, Whisper,” Lanolin said, “We’ve got to track down one of the Scrapniks.”

Whisper stared at the trio from behind her mask.

“What do you mean?” she growled.

“When assigning all the littler robots their rooms, the Knuckles robot wasn’t with us, so we’ve gotta find it.”

Bean and Bark raised a brow.

“Wait, wait, wait, back up!” Bean squawked, “What are we talking about? What’s a ‘Crap Kick’?”

“Scrapnik,” Tangle corrected, “They’re basically these bunch of little Badniks that Sonic and Tails met, and are gonna be staying at the Restoration now!”

Bean and Bark’s eyes widened.

“We’re letting Eggman robots stay at the Restoration, now?” Bean gawked.

“Yeahhh…” Tangle said, “But they’re nice, I promise.”

“Would a ‘nice’ Badnik be on the loose inside Restoration HQ?” Whisper asked.

Everyone turned to her. Her mask’s glowing blue eye seemed to leer at the girls in the doorway.

“I-I’m sure it’s fine,” Tangle said, “I mean, what kind of damage could one little Badnik do?”

“Gather intel. Scout out the facility. Find weak points. Damage critical components of the Restoration. Hurt people.” Whisper listed off.

“I’m sure it’s not as dire as that,” Lanolin urged.

“I’m shocked you of all people don’t see the writing on the wall,” Whisper pointed at the sheep, “How can you possibly trust those freakish robots?”

All eyes were on the sheep. She simply shrugged.

“I don’t know…it’s just…When all you ever see are Eggman robots being these silent, unfeeling, destructive machines,” Lanolin looked at her hands and balled them into fists, “Hearing one talk to you for the first time…Tell you they know the man who made them is a piece of shit and that they want to stop him…it sticks with you.”

The sheep looked up at Whisper.

“They aren’t the most…normal looking people we’ve housed here at the Restoration…but I do think they mean well. Just like everyone else we help here.”

Tangle smiled before turning back to Whisper.

“Omega is just like them, hun. They’ve broken free of their old commands from Eggman and are making their own lives for themselves. If you can trust him, why not them?”

Whisper stared at her girlfriend for a moment.

“I don’t buy the idea that his robots can break away from something programmed into them just like that. It’s as Lanolin said. Eggman robots are destructive, and Omega is most certainly still that. He’s only changed his target, not completely changed his fundamental design. Sure, he’s far more caring than the likes of Metal Sonic, and is learning and evolving more, but at his core he is still the same walking murder weapon. I don’t buy the overly nice facade of that other robot and his army.”

Tangle’s face fell a little. Jewel nervously flew over to Whisper.

“I…have to side with her on this,” she said nervously.

Tangle gasped like a hurt puppy while Lanolin’s eyes widened.

“It feels like we’re playing with fire, inviting Eggman robots into our main headquarters,” Jewel explained, “They could be planning a hostile takeover like Mimic and Clutch.”

Jewel shivered, “Plus, they freak me out to no end.”

Tangle felt insulted by that, remembering the shy little bot she talked to.

“Yeah, this all kinda sounds like lighting a bomb with a tiny fuse,” Bean said, walking alongside Whisper and Jewel, “It’s just something that will inevitably blow up in your face.”

Bark walked up beside them and nodded. Tangle spluttered as she saw this.

“We gave you two a second chance to be good, and you’ve been great here! Why can’t we do the same to the Scrapniks?!”

“We got a second chance because people can change,” Bean hissed, pointing his thumb between him and Bark, “Sure, Eggman’s bots can be pretty smart sometimes, but Bark and I know from experience that his smart ones don’t change to try and become nice. They try to overthrow him.”

Bark nodded firmly. Tangle nearly pulled her cheeks off in frustration. Lanolin sighed and put a hand to her forehead, very much done with this chat.

“Well, whatever the case may be, we have to find the one that’s currently unaccounted for. So let’s just get looking.”

Lanolin walked out of the office. Tangle gave another look at her best friends and her girlfriend. She just looked sadly down before following Lanolin out. The other four looked at each other before the rest of the Diamond Cutters followed their teammates.

**********

Mecha Knuckles marched aimlessly through the dark, back hallways of Restoration HQ. Of course he was aimlessly walking. What kind of an “aim” was he supposed to have? The metal echidna eventually stopped walking only to turn and bang the back of his head on a nearby wall. His exposed wiring emitted sparks off the impact, but nothing substantial happened.

He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He hung his head low, just staring at his own feet. Surrounded by darkness like this, standing alone in a silent hallway. It almost reminded him of standing in the decrepit halls of the Death Egg. Reminded him when he guarded the Scrambled Egg Carrier. Reminded him when…

The sound of someone else's footsteps snapped him out of his reminiscing. It was two sets of feet, and they made no distinct metal clanks when they hit the floor. Of course they didn’t, because he wasn’t in the Death Egg. He wasn’t on Scrapnik island anymore.

The footsteps stopped, and Mecha Knuckles heard two voices whisper nervously to each other.

“U-U-Uh…” came a voice, “Excuse me? A-Are you alright?”

Mecha Knuckles turned his head just enough to see the two Restoration workers staring at him. All they saw was an empty eye socket with a red dot glaring at them. They screamed bloody murder and ran away in a flash. Mecha Knuckles kept staring off in the same direction for a while. He eventually moved his head back towards the floor in front of him. He slumped down the wall he was leaning on, making a distinct clank when he hit the floor, and flopped his arms down to his sides.

**********

Sonic, Mecha Sonic, Amy, and Blaze gazed around the plaza after spending more than enough time in Victory Garden.

“I still…cannot thank you enough for this, Sonic,” Mecha thought, “Even with helping you bring down Eggman, I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you.”

“That’s why it comes free of charge, dude,” Sonic thought back, “You deserve your second chance to be spent off that island.”

Amy and Blaze giggled as they saw the two hedgehogs clearly in one of their little “private conversations.”

“What are you two talking about?” Amy asked.

“Mecha says you two have stupid dresses, and that you kiss weirdly,” Sonic said quickly.

Mecha smacked him hard on the back of his head while Blaze looked insulted.

“Did he now?” Amy asked playfully, still looking at Sonic.

Sonic just groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. Blaze removed her hands from the railing they all were holding on to and almost went into a fighting stance.

Amy put a hand to her chest and mouthed “He didn’t” to Blaze.

Blaze responded by mouthing “Yes, but he did,” pointing at Sonic.

Amy couldn’t help but snicker at that, but figured Sonic already got his due punishment.

“Any plans now, Mecha?” Amy asked.

Mecha simply shook his head. It was then everyone noticed Tails running up to them from the bottom level. He flew up to them with a big smile on his face.

“Hey guys!” he said, “Where have you been?”

“We paid a visit to the garden,” Amy smiled, “It was lovely, and Mecha Sonic added his own little flower to it.”

“That’s great!” Tails beamed.

Mecha simply looked away sheepishly. Sonic chuckled, then turned to Tails.

“How’d the housing crisis go?” he groaned, still rubbing his head.

“Not too bad, all things considered,” Tails shrugged, landing on the ground next to Sonic, “Everyone has a room now, baring Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles.”

“Mecha Knuckles?” Blaze asked, “I don’t remember seeing a Mecha Knuckles.”

“There was one,” Amy said, “But I don’t remember seeing it again after it got on the shuttle…”

“Apparently no one has,” Tails said, “He’s kinda missing right now and Tangle and her team are gonna be looking for him.”

Mecha Sonic put a hand to his forehead and shook it in dismay. Sonic snickered a little.

“Anything else you get up to?” he asked Tails.

“I showed Sigma and the Egg Robos the machine shop!” Tails said, “They met Grease and Belle, and Belle’s even making voice boxes for the Egg Robos!”

Mecha Sonic perked up at that, as did the real Sonic. The two hedgehogs locked eyes with each other.

“Why don’t you go pay her a visit too?” Sonic said, “I don’t exactly want to be your translator forever.”

“Given your awful mistranslations, I don’t want that either!” Mecha huffed.

Sonic chuckled, and pointed across the plaza.

“Machine Shop’s on the other side of the building a little ways to the left of here. You’ll see a bunch of huge archways that lead into an old underground tunnel. Can’t miss it.”

Mecha nodded, and waved to everyone as he departed. They all waved back excitedly.

As Mecha walked through the plaza, he noticed some of the other Scrapniks were out and about. A small group of them were walking towards a small café with tables outside the establishment. Two jumped up to of the tables and the couple sitting at the table screamed and ran away. The little robots looked incredibly disappointed.

Mecha looked the other way and saw one Scrapnik with the head and torso of a Coconut, but the body of a Caterkiller slither around the plaza’s floor. A rat who was too focused on her phone tripped over its tail and fell flat on her face. She turned to yell something at it, but she screamed too and bolted.

The closer Mecha got to the Machine Shop, the more whispers he could hear around him. He would turn to see people staring at him while they said something to someone next to them. Some of the people turned away when he looked at them, but most kept their eyes on him. One ladybug he walked past held up a book to shield her face, while a zebra who didn’t notice him until too late shrieked and ran.

Mecha stood there for a moment. His eye only moved when he noticed the archways Sonic was talking about right next to him. He stepped inside and walked down a short hallway before he was met with the Machine Shop.

It was certainly a more impressive and much cleaner work space than he was used to. He looked around for a second, spotting more people staring at him. Eventually he looked to his left and saw Sigma and two of the Egg Robos hard at work on a few car engines. The third Egg Robo, Florentine, laying down on a table in front of a wooden girl.

“Okay,” Belle said, standing back, “Try it now.”

Florentine sat up and looked at Benedict.

“H…Hello?” Florentine said in a feminine voice.

Florentine put two hands over where their mouth would have been as everyone around them stared in shock.

“Is that…is that good?” Belle asked.

Florentine looked over to Belle before nodding.

“It’s…perfect.”

Benedict lunged over to Florentine and hugged her.

“Let’s go!” Benedict said in a regular male voice, “Now the whole world will know your voice, sis!”

Florentine rubbed her arm as Benedict and Belle helped her off the table. Rancheros quickly hopped on the table after her, giddily pumping his arms.

“I REMEMBER WHEN YOUNG MASTER TAILS GAVE MY SCRAPNIKS THE GIFT OF GAB THROUGH HIS DEVICE. BUT I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SAY YOU HAVE OUTDONE HIM WITH YOUR GIFTS TO THEM, MISS BELLE,” Sigma said proudly.

Belle smiled and rubbed the back of her head, “I-It’s nothing really. I’m just happy to help.”

“IT SEEMS RANCHEROS IS EAGER FOR HIS TURN, THOUGH,” Sigma observed, “DO YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE FINDING THE REMAINING PARTS?”

“No thanks, I know what to look for now.”

Belle turned to go scavenge for more scrap metal, but when she did she froze. In front of her was a cloaked figure with mismatched arms and legs sticking out of the raggedy cape. She looked up and was face to face with a yellow visor staring down at her.

Chapter Text

Belle stared at the towering robot Sonic in front of her for what felt like an eternity. Mecha stared back for what felt like double that time. Sigma turned to them only a few seconds after they started their staring contest.

“AH, MECHA SONIC, MOST EXCELLENT TIMING! I BELIEVE BENEDICT AND FLORENTINE HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU.”

Mecha turned to the two Egg Robos.

“Hi, Mecha!” Florentine said aloud.

“We don’t need Tails’ tablet to speak anymore!” Benedict said proudly, “We can do it all by ourselves now!”

Mecha nodded. He knew what to expect, but was still beyond impressed with how clearly their new voices came through.

“I BELIEVE INTRODUCTIONS ARE IN ORDER,” Sigma said, walking over and kneeling beside Belle, “BELLE, THIS IS MECHA SONIC. MECHA SONIC, MEET MISS BELLE THE TINKERER.”

Mecha Sonic and Belle went back into their staring contest. If Belle could, she’d be sweating bullets under the watch of Mecha’s yellow visor.

“ARE YOU PERHAPS HERE TO ALSO RECEIVE A VOICE MODULATOR OF YOUR OWN?” Sigma asked.

Mecha looked at Sigma again and nodded slightly.

“EXCELLENT!” Sigma said with glee, “WE SHALL BEGIN WITH THE PROCEDURE POSTHASTE!”

There was a bang on Belle’s workstation. Rancheros pointed at himself with his huge arm defiantly.

“OH, OF COURSE, AFTER WE COMPLETE RANCHEROS’ VOICE BOX,” Sigma corrected, “I’M AFRAID HE HAS PRIORITY, GIVEN HE WAS HERE FIRST.”

Mecha waved his hand dismissively and glanced down at Belle again. She shivered a little before Sigma put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I CAN ASSURE YOU, MISS BELLE, MECHA SONIC IS ALSO AN EXPERT IN MACHINERY. HE CAN ASSIST US IN YOUR WORK WHILST YOU LOCATE THE NECESSARY PARTS FOR HIM AND RANCHEROS.”

Belle looked into Sigma’s caring eyes and nodded slightly. Sigma stood up and proudly beckoned Mecha Sonic to follow him.

“I SHALL SHOW YOU AROUND MISS BELLE’S WORKSTATION. IT IS FAR MORE ACCOMMODATING THAT OUR PAST WORK ENVIRONMENT, LET ME TELL YOU.”

Mecha Sonic walked past Belle, glancing at the little puppet one more time. Belle gulped, and went to rummage through the Shop’s waste heaps.

**********

The Diamond Cutters carefully scanned the plaza for any sign of Mecha Knuckles. While they saw no echidna from the top level, they did see a plethora of little Scrapniks running around the area. Bean and Bark looked at them in shock.

“THOSE are what we’re letting stay here?!” Bean gawked.

“Yep!” Tangle smiled, “They’re really chill.”

“They’re terrifying!”

Tangle looked over to Bean with a grimace, then a smirk.

“So are you, but you don’t hear me whining about it.”

Bark did his best to stifle a laugh while Bean scoffed.

“I hold my inner demon inside me very well, I’ll have you know! I don’t wear it on my…frankenstein sleeves.”

Tangle frowned again, “Look man, they don’t deserve that kind of talk. They were dealt a bad hand, but they folded it and redrew a better one. Mismatched parts or not, I promise you they’re-”

Tangle’s lecture was cut short when she noticed two guards cornering a small batch of Scrapniks. Among them was the one that had come up to Tangle earlier that day. Without another word, Tangle jumped down from the top floor and dashed over to them. Before the guards could fire their Wispons, Tangle skidded in front of them, putting herself between them and the Scrapniks.

“Wh-Tangle! Move out of the way!” ordered one, “We’re handling this!”

“I will not let you hurt them!” Tangle barked.

“What? Those are Eggman’s robots! Why are you protecting them?!”

“They are not Eggman’s! Not anymore! And they are now residents of the Restoration! I wouldn’t let you attack anyone else who stays here, so why should I let you attack them?”

The guards were dumbfounded. They stared at the Lemur and the robots cowering behind her.

“Since when did we allow Badniks to stay in the Restoration?”

“We don’t,” came a stern voice from behind them, “But we do allow Scrapniks.”

The guards turned to see Lanolin standing there, giving them a hard glare. She stepped forward with her hands behind her back.

“As of an hour ago, these robots have been assigned rooms and are officially residents of Restoration HQ. Drawing your weapons on residents without proper reasoning is reason to write up both of you.”

The guards’ eyes widened as they looked at each other.

“We…we were never informed of this,” one said.

“Then I suggest you go inform the rest of your crew before I write up all of you,” Lanolin pointed in the direction of the security office.

The guards nodded and dashed away from the sheep. Tangle smiled at her teammate.

“Thanks, boss,” she said, “That could’ve gotten ugly.”

Lanolin sighed, “Just what happens when Sonic makes a harebrained move and doesn’t give me or Jewel any time to warn everyone.”

Tangle snickered, “I mean…would you have allowed it if he didn’t take you to that island on a whim?”

Lanolin smirked and shook her head, “No chance.”

Just then, Tangle felt something wrap around her leg. She looked down and saw the skirted Scrapnik hugging her leg tightly. She looked up at Tangle with wide, thankful eyes. The lemur could feel her heart melting.

As Whisper, Bean, and Bark caught up to her and Lanolin, they saw Tangle kneeling down and patting the little robot on the head.

“It’s alright,” she said, “I told you. This is your home now, and you’re safe here. I’ll make sure of that.”

The other little robots jumped with joy and surrounded Tangle giddily. She laughed as all of them tried to get affection from her at the same time. Bean was a little revolted at the sight, while Whisper grimaced behind her mask. Bark, meanwhile, watched the interaction in awe. He slowly moved past Lanolin and up to the Scrapniks.

The little robots jumped, and all hid behind Tangle when they saw the towering polar bear. The lemur snickered as she saw his disappointed, but unsurprised expression.

“Bark’s nice, too,” Tangle said, moving herself to show him better.

The Scrapniks still cowered behind the lemur, some holding her tail in front of their faces. Bark kneeled down in front of them and smiled warmly. Finally, one Scrapnik who was peeking out from behind Tangle’s tail carefully walked up to him. It was even smaller than the one clinging to Tangle’s leg, being a little ball with huge teeth, teeny hands and feet, and a single ear.

The little robot had its hands placed flat on its front. It kinda looked like it was trying to tap the tips of its fingers together, but with no arms the best it could do was tap its round body. Bark huffed amusingly, and reached out his hand to pet the little guy.

The Scrapnik freaked out when it saw the polar bear’s giant mitten hovering over it and flinched. Bark pulled back his hand at once, then lowered it in front of the Scrapnik in a fist. The robot glanced between the fist and the polar bear’s eyes. Bark nodded reassuringly.

The Scrapnik made a fist with one of its tiny hands and fistbumped Bark lightly. Bark didn’t feel a thing, but seeing the little robot bounce up and down so happily made him smile.

From behind him, Lanolin, Bean, and Whisper watched the polar bear get bombarded by the other Scrapniks. Lanolin chuckled amusingly while Bean looked at Whisper with pure terror on his face. The wolf just stared at the interaction.

**********

Mecha sat up on the workbench. Belle looked up at him nervously, still holding the tools she used to install his voice box. Next to her, Sigma was practically bouncing up and down in giddy excitement.

“GO ON THEN, MECHA,” he encouraged, “TRY IT!”

Mecha Sonic placed a hand on his chest. He’s spoken telepathically with his fleshy counterpart, surely this would be easy.

“…A-A-Alr-r-right,” Mecha said in the same deep voice that emitted from the Miles Electric.

Sigma clapped his hands in pure joy. Mecha looked down at Belle, who gave him a very shaky smile. Mecha gave her a little thumbs up.

“It sounds-s-s-s good,” he then pounded his chest, “Maybe minus some teething tr-troubles.”

“OH THIS IS MOST EXCELLENT! YOU ARE TRULY A MIRACLE WORKER, MISS BELLE!” Sigma said proudly, “WE MUST BRING THE REST OF THE SCRAPNIKS HERE! I’M SURE THEY WILL ALL BE ELATED TO SPEAK THEIR OWN MINDS!”

“Calm yourself, Sigma,” Mecha chastised, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and dump too much work on her.”

“OH MY, YOU ARE CORRECT MECHA,” Sigma then turned to Belle, “YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED, MISS BELLE.”

“It’s fine,” Belle rubbed the back of her head, “But…I would appreciate a lighter load until we get done with all these cars.”

“OF COURSE.”

“Speaking of which,” Benedict said from the workstation, “We’ve got another engine done!”

Benedict and Rancheros held the car engine between them.

“FANTASTIC WORK, THE BOTH OF YOU!” Sigma said proudly, “MISS BELLE, WHAT SORT OF MODEL DOES THIS ENGINE BELONG TOO?”

Belle took a closer look at the engine, then pointed to a car sitting on top of a nearby car lift.

“One of those,” she said, “I think there’s one sitting in the far back corner. It should be blue with some burn marks on it.”

“You mind giving us a hand with this one, Sig’s?” Rancheros asked, “ ‘S a bit awkward to get installed when we aren’t as tall as you.”

“OF COURSE,” Sigma nodded, “IF THAT IS ALRIGHT WITH YOU TWO.”

He gestured to Mecha Sonic and Belle. Mecha nodded, then looked over to Belle. She shivered a little, but put on a brave smile and gave Sigma a thumbs up. With that, the E-Series and the Egg Robos walked away. There was a brief moment of silence as Belle watched them go.

“So?” came Mecha Sonic’s voice, “You’re an Eggman robot?”

Belle’s eyes widened as she turned to Mecha, still sitting on her workbench.

“How…how did you know?” she asked shakily.

Mecha didn’t reply for a moment.

“Only other Eggman robots can hear each other's communication signals.”

Belle’s jaw dropped. They stood there in silence for a moment. Mecha looked Belle up and down, taking in every last one of the strange robot features.

“I only ask because I know there is n-n-no other man on this plan-n-net who can make something like you,” he said aloud, “But you don’t look anything like something he’d m-make.”

Belle’s expression softened a little as she raised a nervous brow at Mecha.

“Dr. Eggman, for all his endl-l-less faults, is a brilliant man. But even that brilliance comes with a heap of arrogance. I lived on a giant junkyard of his discarded creations, and I know that over the years his design philosophy has not changed a bit.”

Mecha gestured his hand in the direction Sigma and the Egg Robos went.

“He either makes something in his own image, like his Egg Robos…”

He gestured to himself, “Or he makes them in the image of what he wants to prove his superiority to. Dr. Eggman well and truly h-h-has never had an original design since his own ridiculous ou-outfit.”

Mecha put his hands down and leaned closer to Belle.

“But you…he doesn’t make something like you. Something with its own identity, something with its own image, something with so much…life to it.”

Belle’s jaw dropped again as she put a hand to her chest.

“Y-Y-Yet,” Mecha said, leaning back, “He did. So I ask…why? How? Because something like you would have ne-e-e-ever washed up on Scrapnik island.”

Belle’s face fell after a second. Her hands flopped to her sides as she sighed. She walked up to her workstation and leaned over the side of the table, into the corner. Out of a Motobug’s shell she pulled out a letter and a photo. She looked at the two in her hand for a long time.

“To be honest…I don’t like to think that he did make me…” she said, finally turning around to Mecha, “I know it’s the truth…but it…hurts to admit that…”

Belle held out the two pieces of paper to Mecha Sonic. He gingerly grasped them and held them up to his visor. In his hand was a picture of Dr. Eggman in a pair of green overalls and a pink shirt. He looked ridiculous to Mecha, but the outfit matched Belle’s to a T. In his claw was a letter. He placed the photo down so he could read it properly.

Belle only knew he was done when Mecha’s arms slowly lowered down. He turned and looked at the wooden robot in front of him. She was looking away, clutching her sides.

Belle suddenly felt two cold, metal arms wrap around her. Mecha kneeled down and held her tightly, his visor a fuzzy mess. Mecha could only assume Sonic was gushing tears for the second time that day.

“I’m so sorry,” he told her.

Belle stood there for a moment in shock. Once her emotions finally caught up to her, she grasped Mecha’s cloak tightly and did her best to keep her own tears from falling out.

**********

Mecha Knuckles kept to his wandering once he grew tired of the cold, hard floor. It was hard to find more back alley-esque hallways. Everywhere in this damn place was well lit and well kept. It all felt so alien.

He at least felt lucky having not run into anyone. He could pretend to patrol these areas like the Death Egg if he didn’t see anyone who wasn’t a Scrapnik.

Of course, when has anyone stuck on Scrapnik island ever been lucky?

Mecha Knuckles wasn’t paying attention, and neither was the racoon walking down the hall the other way. The two butted shoulders as they passed, though the hard impact seemed to surprise the other guy. He hissed and rubbed his shoulder before turning around and glaring at Mecha Knuckles.

“Hey, jackass! Watch where you’re going!”

Before the racoon could even register the gaping holes in the back of Mecha’s head and body, the metal echidna turned around and screeched at him. The racoon fell flat on his ass screaming as Mecha Knuckles raised his claw at him, still screeching metallic bloody murder. Eventually he learned how to use his legs again and bolted.

Mecha lowered his arm and marched in the other direction. The hallways soon morphed around him, but not in any way he would have liked. Doors lined either side of him, each having numbers and letters on them marking something he didn’t want to bother understanding. He just kept marching.

That was until he nearly marched straight into one of the other Scrapniks. It greeted Mecha Knuckles giddily. He replied with a light wave a moment later. After a second, the little Scrapnik skipped away and entered one of the rooms. Mecha Knuckles stood there for a moment, eyeing the door.

**********

After their tender hug, Mecha Sonic and Belle sat side by side on the floor near her workbench. Belle was rubbing the photo of Mr. Tinker in her hands, staring at his happy face. Mecha simply watched her, making sure she wouldn’t start balling her eyes out again.

“What…what is your relationship with Eggman?” Belle finally asked, looking up at Mecha.

Mecha thought for a moment.

“I was once his greatest creation…” Mecha began, “But he abandoned me after his plans to take the Master Emerald failed.”

Mecha looked down at his hands, “When I washed up on Scrapnik island, Sigma did his best to ensure my built in worship for him was removed. He wanted my thoughts to be solely my own…but it was always still there. In the back of my mind, those old subroutines tried to convince me he’d come back for me. That I wasn’t just some toy he threw away when he was done playing with me.”

Mecha chuckled, “As if I wasn’t stuck on an island full of the doctor's old projects he got bored of…”

Belle reached out and put a hand on Mecha’s shoulder. He looked down, then held his head up high.

“But all of that…is in the past,” he said firmly, “Now I don’t have much of an opinion on the doctor. He needs to be stopped…but I’m not going to thwart him for the sake of proving my own worth. I don’t need to.”

Mecha looked over to Belle, “My worth will be proven through the protection of those that matter to me.”

Belle smiled lightly. She turned back to the photo of Mr. Tinker. A photo Sonic had found for her in Windmill Village.

“Sonic taught you that, I’m guessing?”

Mecha nodded.

“I figured,” she chuckled, “He taught me a lot too…I-It still hurts to know the man who made me is gone, and in his place is his rotten, true form…”

She stood up and gave Mecha a wide smile, “But no matter what happens, no one can take away the good memories I had with him. And no one can take away the good times I’ve had with my new friends.”

Mecha stared at Belle for a moment. He snickered as he stood up.

“It’s funny,” he said, “How our creator's biggest rival is our greatest therapist.”

Belle chuckled, but then grew terrified as Mecha nearly fell over trying to stand up on his sawblade foot. Belle held her hands out in case she had to catch him, but he remained upright.

“I’m fine,” he assured, “It’s just…sometimes difficult to stand on such a narrow leg.”

Belle eyed the metal hedgehog’s legs carefully. Her engineering eyes couldn’t help but wander and take in the rest of Mecha’s shoddy build and the thick layer of rust covering everything.

“M-Maybe I can do more for you guys than just give you voices,” Belle proposed, “I’m sure I could recreate your parts and give you a fresh coat of paint!”

Mecha stared at her for a second.

“No,” he said, “But thank you for the offer.”

Belle was surprised, “…uh…W-Why not?”

“If I were to be overhauled to look closer to my original design…” he looked at his hands and clamped them down, “I would just go back to looking like Eggman’s creation. His pawn. A copy of Sonic, and nothing more.”

He turned to Belle, “This body…is not perfect. But it is mine and solely mine. It is a reflection of who I truly am, and what I have been through to get to this point.”

Belle eyed Mecha’s body again. That certainly made a lot of sense, but she couldn’t help but focus on the heavy layer of rust covering every one of his joints. Mecha spotted this, and had an idea.

“Plus…” he began.

Mecha Sonic planted both of his feet firmly on the ground. The wheel under his one foot, and the saw for the other both spun at a rapid pace before Mecha shot off backwards. Belle watched him expertly skate around the Machine Shop at speeds that just might’ve matched Sonic. He skidded to a stop on behind her and looked down at her with a hand on his hip.

“I can assure you, my performance is not hindered in the slightest.”

Belle laughed and nodded sweetly. It was then that the Diamond Cutters entered the Machine Shop. Their eyes all scanned the area in different directions, but all eventually landed on Mecha Sonic and Belle. The little puppet waved to them with a smile.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted, “What brings you here?”

Bean and Bark were once again startled by the appearance of Mecha Sonic, and they and Whisper didn’t reply or move an inch. Tangle and Lanolin walked over to them.

“I see you’ve made friends with one of the Scrapniks,” Tangle smirked.

“I’ve met a couple, actually,” Belle said sheepishly, “Sigma and those Egg Robos are here, helping me work on all these car engines.”

From behind her mask, Whisper’s eye twitched.

“That’s awesome!” Tangle grinned.

“As for why we’re here,” Lanolin put in, “We’re looking for a missing member of the Scrapniks.”

Mecha Sonic facepalmed, “He’s still missing?”

Everyone but Belle turned to the big robot in shock. Mecha looked between their gobsmacked faces.

“What?”

“I…thought you could only talk through Tails’ little tablet,” Tangle said.

Mecha simply jerked his thumb at Belle. She giggled and looked away, putting her hands behind her back. Tangle and Lanolin just gave each other a “should’ve known” look.

“Well…anyway, yes. Mecha Knuckles is still missing,” Lanolin confirmed, “Have either of you seen him?”

Belle and Mecha Sonic shook their heads. Lanolin sighed.

“I’ll help you look,” Mecha Sonic offered, “I don’t want that knucklehead to get himself into trouble wandering around like this.”

Lanolin nodded, “If you could help search around the Machine Shop for us, that’d be great.”

Mecha nodded, then sped off to the furthest corner of the shop. Lanolin split up the remaining Diamond Cutters from there. Bean and Bark went to look one way, her and Tangle another. As Belle turned to return to her work station, Whisper put a hand on her shoulder.

“Can we talk?”

Belle blinked, but nodded, “What’s up?”

Whisper scanned the area, then leaned closer to Belle.

“How many engines have those…Scrapniks had their hands on?”

Belle blinked again, giving Whisper a questioning look. She thought for a second.

“Well…Sigma’s pretty quick with getting them up and running. While I was working on the Egg Robo’s voice boxes they got through…about six or seven of them?”

Whisper let go of Belle’s shoulder, “And you let them install those into the cars around here?”

Belle’s brow furrowed a little, still looking at her oddly.

“Yeaaaah? Why?”

Whisper didn’t reply for a second. She stared at Belle from behind her mask, knowing she had to choose her words carefully. While she didn’t trust these other robots, she trusted Belle with her life and cared about her deeply. She wasn’t about to try and accuse those robots of planting bombs in those engines in front of a robot.

“How…did they do?”

Belle’s confused look only worsened.

“How well did they repair the engines? Did you check?”

“Oh! Uh…they did really well. Spectacular, even! Like they never got blown up or crushed or anything! Sigma’s a real prodigy of engineering.”

Belle’s happy smile and pure confidence in her voice eased Whisper’s tense shoulders.

**********

“Are you sure you’re okay, Sonic?” Amy asked for the umpteenth time.

“I’m fine, Ames,” Sonic reassured, “I’m telling you, they weren’t my tears.”

“And you expect that to make me feel better?! That just means Mecha was crying for some reason!”

Sonic and Tails didn’t have a rebuttal to that, so they all kept walking towards the Machine Shop. Though before they got very close, something huge rushed past all of them. None of them saw what it was, but it nearly blew them off their feet. Then, before anyone could question anything, a streak of yellow zipped by them, following whatever was rushing towards the Machine Shop.

Meanwhile, Sigma and the Egg Robos were returning to Belle’s workstation. They waved and greeted everyone they passed, but no one said hi back. By the time they were nearly there, all four robots felt quite dejected.

The silence from their melancholy proved to be a blessing in disguise, as Sigma heard a distinct and alarming *creak* echo from nearby. The large robot looked around for the source. His eyes caught one of the legs of a car lift. To the naked eye, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but to Sigma…

He turned and spotted Belle talking to a cloaked wolf.

“MISS BELLE?” Sigma called.

Belle and the wolf turned to him.

“YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED FOR INTERRUPTING YOUR CONVERSATION, BUT I BELIEVE THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS-”

Just then, everyone covered their ears as the sound of screeching metal echoed through the hallway leading into the Machine Shop. All eyes turned to see Omega skidding to a stop. Whisper placed a hand in front of Belle in case he tried anything while she looked on worriedly. Omega’s eyes immediately locked onto Sigma on the other side of the room.

“INFERIOR E-SERIES ROBOT SPOTTED!” Omega blared, changing one arm to a minigun, “MUST DESTROY ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS!”

“EGAD!!” Sigma shouted as he and the Egg Robos ran away.

As Omega tried to track him, Shadow lunged into the robot’s side and knocked him over. He once again held Omega’s minigun firm, not letting him spin it.

“SHADOW, RELEASE ME!!” Omega demanded.

“NO!” Shadow shouted, “We went over this! You are not shooting those robots, especially not in here!”

As Omega tried to wrestle Shadow off of him, Whisper carefully moved herself and Belle away from the fight. Unknowingly, both girls stepped right under the car lift. It creaked loudly, but not loud enough for either to hear it over Shadow and Omega’s shouting match.

All this started going down just as Mecha Knuckles had found a nice, dark, quiet place to mope. The metal echidna couldn’t help but get curious as to what all of the commotion was and grumpily marched out of the storage hallways behind the Machine Shop.

He peaked out into the shop. The hysteria was palpable. He could see Sigma and the Egg Robos frantically telling Mecha Sonic something in the far off corner of the shop. Some red and black hedgehog was wrestling with a robot that looked a lot like Sigma, albeit much cleaner. From behind, he noticed Sonic, Tails, and that pink Sonic walk in and gawk at the scuffle.

His eyes eventually locked onto a wooden robot standing under a car lift. He stared at her for a moment, trying to pinpoint whether or not she even was a robot.

As he did, the car lift made another creak and it lowered slightly with a sudden jolt. No one else noticed, given the screeching robot trying to open fire in the workshop. Mecha Knuckles stared at the car lift as it groaned loudly. He could see the supports holding the car up shudder and nearly give way. He looked back down at the wooden robot standing under it.

As Sonic and Amy helped Shadow drag Omega out of the Machine Shop, Belle finally took in her surroundings. She looked up in horror as she and Whisper realized what they were standing under. Before either could react, the car lift gave out and the car it was holding plummeted towards them.

There was a splintering *CLANG* and everyone's eyes turned towards the source. Tails, Tangle, Lanolin, Bean, and Bark stared in pure terror as they saw Whisper and Belle seemingly pinned under the car. Belle pulled her head up and looked around. Whisper laid next to her, seemingly unharmed and also looking around. Both girls turned to their left and saw someone holding up the car, keeping it from crushing them both.

Mecha Knuckles slowly lifted the rusty car upwards, carefully ensuring he didn’t lose his footing. Eventually, he stood fully upright, but his arms extended further, lifting the car up enough for Whisper and Belle to stand up and move out of the way. Once they were clear, Mecha Knuckles moved too, and dropped the car on the floor unceremoniously.

Almost immediately, Tangle bolted to Whisper and checked her all over. The wolf assured her she was fine, but before either of them could do the same for Belle, Mecha Sonic and Sigma were already looking all over her.

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, MISS BELLE?!” Sigma said worriedly, “DO YOU REQUIRE ANY IMMEDIATE MAINTENANCE OR REPAIRS?!”

“I-I’m fine,” Belle assured shakily, “That was…j-just a close call.”

“I’LL SAY,” Sigma said, turning to Mecha Knuckles, “EXCELLENT TIMING, OLD CHAP. YOU SAVED THESE TWO FROM A NASTY-”

But Mecha Knuckles wasn’t there. Everyone frantically looked around for him, but due to all the hysteria in the shop it was damn near impossible to find him. Belle finally spotted him waltzing back into the storage hallway.

Mecha Knuckles only turned back when he heard footsteps clatter up from behind him. In the dark hallway, he could barely see the glow of her blue irises. Likewise, Belle could see the glow of the red dot peaking through his head. She gulped as she nervously etched closer to him.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

Mecha Knuckles didn’t reply. Belle could feel her courage depleting, but she replenished it with a deep breath.

“Thank you for…saving me,” she added.

Belle smiled sweetly at Mecha Knuckles. The metal echidna stared at her for a moment, still not replying. Eventually, he turned his body fully towards her and nervously looked down.

From behind, the others caught up just as they heard a voice sound out from the Miles Electric.

“I felt like I had to,” Mecha Knuckles said, in Belle’s head and through the tablet.

Mecha Sonic stopped dead before he rounded the corner, and held out his arm to stop the others too. Just as they were about to blurt questions, he put a rusty finger up to…well where his lips would’ve been if he had any, and pointed to the tablet in Tails’ hands. Everyone stayed quiet as Belle gathered up more courage.

“W…Why?” Belle asked.

“…You look kinda like one of us…” Mecha Knuckles replied, “I feel like I have to protect one of my own.”

He crossed his arms and turned away, “Gives me something to protect, at least.”

Belle raised a brow, as did Sigma from behind their cover.

“What…do you mean by that?” Belle asked.

Mecha Knuckles looked back at her.

“…I was made to protect,” Mecha Knuckles explained, “It was my only purpose…”

He walked back a little and leaned against the wall next to him.

“But…I was stripped of that purpose a while ago…and I’ve had nothing to replace it with.”

Sigma covered his (lack of) mouth in pure terror.

“…I have no reason to exist anymore, nothing important to do…and I’m not even stuck on that prison of an island I could at least consider home.”

Mecha Knuckles hung his head low. Belle sadly stared at him for a moment before she put on a small smile and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I know how you feel,” she said, “When…everything you knew about your life is…taken away from you.”

Mecha Knuckles looked up to face her.

“But…even with how alien the Restoration can feel at first…I promise you it’s the best place for you to have a fresh start.”

“I don’t want a fresh start!” Mecha Knuckles uncrossed his arms, “I want a purpose! I’m tired of drifting around like a waste of metal, trying to reclaim my old directives for the sake of being able to do something meaningful!”

Belle frowned and took a step back. Before she could rebuttal, both turned when they heard metallic footsteps come around the corner. They stared at Mecha Sonic for a second as he stared back.

“You give yourself purpose,” Mecha Sonic said, “Not anyone else. And certainly not old programming.”

Mecha Knuckles scoffed and turned away, “You say that as if it’s easy.”

“It’s not,” Mecha Sonic said, stepping closer, “But it’s much easier if you are not doing it alone.”

The rest of the group walked out from around the corner. Belle and Mecha Knuckles stared at them for a moment before Sigma rushed over to Mecha Knuckles and wrapped him in a tight hug.

“MECHA KNUCKLES, YOUR FORGIVENESS IS DEARLY REQUESTED!” Sigma cried, “I WAS NOT AWARE REMOVING YOUR OLD DIRECTIVES WOULD LEAVE YOU FEELING THIS WAY!”

As they watched the two robots hug, Whisper pulled off her mask. Her and Belle smiled slightly as they watched the metal echidna try his best to wrestle out of the hug. Sigma finally released him when Belle walked over.

“Mecha Sonic’s right,” she said, “It’s very difficult to try and find a new purpose by yourself. But I promise you, this is the best place to find people who will help you do that. I will help you do that, if no one else.”

Whisper stepped forward, “We all will.”

All eyes were on her now. Her teammates were in shock, but Belle looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes. Whisper looked down at her hands sheepishly.

“I…don’t think I’ve been fairly treating you Scrapniks,” she admitted, “I couldn’t disconnect you from the average Badnik…but…”

She looked up at Belle and smiled, “I should’ve known better, given the Restoration already has the nicest robot around.”

Tangle and Lanolin smiled at her with pure pride. The lemur turned to the robots with a huge grin.

“You’re not without purpose here!” she said with feeling, “We’ll make sure you know it too!”

Mecha Sonic looked down at Mecha Knuckles.

“I vowed to take us off that island so we could help fight Dr. Eggman’s tyranny,” he lowered his claw to Mecha Knuckles, “I know he is our creator, but if you agree to help, this can be your new purpose alongside protecting the people of this facility. Just like you do for our people.”

Mecha Knuckles stared at the outstretched claw for a moment. After that moment, he clasped it firmly and shook it.

“I can work with that.”

**********

The next day, Mecha Knuckles jumped down from Belle’s workbench. He’d requested the gaping hole in his back be repaired before he had his voice box installed, though weirdly didn’t want Belle to touch the one in the back of his head. Now, both operations were done, and he stared at the group of robots in front of him.

“Try it out,” Belle cooed.

Mecha Knuckles rubbed his chest lightly.

“L-L-L-Like thi-i-i-i-s?” he said in a higher pitched voice that sounded nothing like Knuckles.

Belle cringed at all the stuttering, “Oof…maybe it needs some adjusting.”

Mecha Knuckles, thoroughly tired of sitting on the operating table, held up his hand to Belle.

“No-o-o, it’s fine. It works-s-s-s, and that’s all I c-c-c-care ab-o-o-out.”

Belle looked over to Sigma and Mecha Sonic.

“I SUPPOSE IF HE SEES NO PROBLEM WITH HIS OWN VOICE, THERE IS NO NEED TO CORRECT IT.”

Mecha just shook his head, “He’s too stubborn to argue against anyway. Just let him keep it. It may just be teething troubles like mine.”

Belle nodded, and looked over to Mecha Knuckles, “Then we’re done.”

Mecha Knuckles looked down slightly, “Now w-w-what?”

Belle looked around to the other Scrapniks. Before any of them could put forward any suggestions, the Diamond Cutters walked up to them.

“Heya!” Tangle said cheerfully, “How’d it go? Can you all talk now?”

“WE MOST CERTAINLY CAN!” Sigma say joyously, “MECHA KNUCKLES IS NOW GIFTED WITH SPEECH, JUST LIKE MECHA SONIC!”

“Even if his voice box is a little crummy,” Mecha Sonic rolled his visor.

“If it w-w-w-works, don’t-t-t-t fix i-i-it,” Mecha Knuckles grumbled.

“That’s not the saying,” Mecha Sonic argued.

Tangle snickered as Whisper smiled warmly.

“We were just going to Victory Garden to harvest all the crops,” she said, “We thought you’d like to come, Mecha Sonic.”

Mecha stared at the group for a moment. He turned back to Mecha Knuckles.

“Would you like to come too?”

Mecha Knuckles considered for a second.

“Harvesting crops? …Yeah…I-I-I-I can wor-r-rk with that.”

The group said their farewells to Belle, Sigma, and the Egg Robos as they left the Machine Shop. As they walked towards the elevator to Victory Garden, Lanolin leaned over to Whisper.

“Seems like you’ve really come around to the Scrapniks,” she whispered.

Whisper smiled, “Well…when you hear a robot’s heartfelt frustration of being without purpose…after having everything stripped from them…it sticks with you.”

Lanolin’s eyes widened, but she put on a brave smile and rubbed Whisper’s back. Tangle, who overhead everything, leaned down to Bean.

“What about you? You think your mind’s changed on the Scrapy’s?”

Bean tapped his beak lightly, “That Sigma guy said Mecha Knux can shoot missiles from his mouth…sooooo…I’m open to learning more.”

Tangle snickered and gave Bean a little noogie.

Up in Victory Garden, just about everyone was there. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Silver, Espio, Blaze. Mecha Sonic watched their operation in awe, observing how careful they were when plucking the fruits of their labor. He was equally careful, pulling some perfectly red tomatoes off of the growing crop. They were just as beautiful as when he first saw them. Mecha Knuckles had a much less enjoyable time, everyone laughing at the metal echidna struggling to hold a single cob of corn. Evidently a claw and a mace were too cumbersome to hold anything.

Under the glowing sun, and through the frustrated shouts of a stuttering voice box, Mecha Sonic’s sunflower stood tall. Its new soil had firmly accepted it, and very soon it would grow to be as tall as the flowers around it.