Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[EMERALD COAST, EMERALD SEA… The Recent Past]

There was certainly a time when Emerald Coast used to roar with life like the burn of an engine. It wasn’t terribly long ago, Breezie could count the years on just one of her hands. Counting in binary was just more convenient, after all.

Nowadays, though, Perfect Chaos’ waves still rippled into Emerald Coast’s future. There were a lot more eroded heaps where cliffs used to be, and the winding beach was thinning out pitifully. What would’ve made magazine setpieces for its sunbathing opportunities was now desolate and wistful. 

Especially remarkable at dusk, Breezie thought to herself as she trailed behind Empire City’s number one choice of energy specialist. Though, her faith in that title was beginning to dwindle over the course of this trip.

“Not that I’m averse to spending the better part of my day dodging paparazzi-” the ego boost wasn’t worth the hassle. “-and moseying through Casinopolis,” the thing ran itself.. “But what have we even been accomplishing out here? You told me we’d be putting an end to the increasing trend of nation-wide blackouts. That’s missed airtime and a lot of dough I’m spending on backup generators in Empire City.”

“And if I didn’t recognise the dire circumstances, I wouldn’t have come to you directly, ma’am.” The tiger politely retorted. “I firmly believe that, figuratively, we’re in the right spot to get digging. Once we find what we’re looking for, it’ll be lights on for the citizens…” They trailed off once they realised Breezie’s attention was waning. “ ...and your empire will be yet again secured. ” 

Her head shot up, her eyes blinking awake, before rolling. “Ugh- see, you’re not helpful when you’re cryptic. All that yap, and I still don’t see how dragging our heels in the sand like this is meant to be some kind of ‘business outing’.”

“I ensure you, Miss Breezie.” The energy specialist lifted a handheld off of their toolbelt and held it up to the air. “The enormous readings we’ve been getting from out here could mean everything in regards to the recent outages.”

Breezie’s face scrunched up at the muzzle. “So there’s a lot of energy output from this area. How could that mean anything for us? Wiring doesn’t work like plant roots and water.”

They didn’t seem phased by her point as they adjusted the dial on their meter’s side. “You’re fully correct. About circuit functions. But when it comes to energy generation, supernatural forces can cause a lot of interference.”

“What,” Breezie scoffed, then stumbled on a shallower spot of sand. She brushed herself off and grumbled on, “Some kind of phantom is the problem?”

“You have a very close-minded view of what the term ‘supernatural’ immediately entails.” The tiger tipped their uniform hat, before a loud ringing caught their attention. Breezie squinted over their shoulder as they held their device out at arms length. 

“...That’s some racket.” Breezie said slowly.

“We’re closing in on the source. About fifteen paces ahead.”

“Hah! You’re telling me this has all been some kind of treasure hunt? Why didn’t you tell me! I could’ve dug a rusty metal detector out of some shambles thrift store , just for the occasion.” She threw her hands around for the theatrics.

But her escort was dead ahead, head-and-hands-first in the sand. “Oh wow you’re actually digging. I was joking.”

She heard a muffled ‘Aha!’ from the hole they’d made, and tiptoed over to peer in. Between their hands - hastily trying to dust as much sediment off the damned thing - was a glittering gemstone, its cut crude and nonsensical. It faintly pulsed from its centre to its edges, the pattern infinite in its beginning and destination. Breezie found herself teetering toward the pit’s slope, and steeled herself. Just getting near that thing made her internals feel all backwards. Even despite its dull, scraped surface…

“Well, this thing’s no joke.” The tiger tittered, turning the hunk of red around in their fingers. They held up their power meter directly to one of its fractal faces. Its little speakers wailed horribly with high-pitched beeps, the most mechanical ‘turn back now’ she’d ever heard. “...Readings say ‘negative’- d’ah, I can’t stand exponents.”

“Negative readings?” Breezie hissed, clutching her head. “That doesn’t sound ideal…” What a damned headache this thing was.

They snapped their fingers at her. “And right you’d be, ma’am. These kinds of energy signatures sabotage neighbouring ones. My theory is it’s been effectively running nearby power plants in reverse. Like if you turned the thermostat anti-clockwise. Instead of sapping energy from other sources, it outright disrupts them.” The Emerald Sea’s waves lapped with soft crashes against the sand. 

“Emerald Coast has never looked less of the beach it was before. This crystal’s been slowly dug up by natural erosion patterns. Even so far out from Empire City, the power it radiates is seeping through. No wonder your systems have been on the fritz.”

Breezie was sure her brain short-circuited, somewhere along the lines of that speech. “Got it, yadda-yadda, shiny rock a net abyss for me.” She snatched the thing out of their hands, looking for its deepest faults to exploit into shards. “ Enough of you, you piece of-” Her grip faltered as she caught a dark blue silhouette in the distance, over the water.

“ Miss Breezie-” they quickly interjected, scrambling out of the hole. “-If I may. Attempting to break something so powerful could have unforeseen circumstances. Also…” They held up their cell phone to her, big blocks of text immediately assaulting her eyes.

Breezie begrudgingly pulled her gaze from the stuttering blur poised over the ocean. “Funny to plead to my reading abilities with your dinky, cheap screen…” She grumbled, rubbing at her eyes.

They scrolled, tapping insistently at an image. “Not that, sorry- this. ” Breezie’s pupils dilated minutely with recognition, seeing the large silver Death Egg facsimile and the blazing second sun behind it. “A crystal of this description was utilised in the war, to devastating effects. People on scene called it the Phantom Ruby. It contains the power to bend reality as we know it.”

“Really, now?” Her ears perked up - it was an intriguing prospect. All that power, in the palm of her hand...

She grimaced again, its energy sending another bout of circuit-spinning migraines between her eyes. “Mgh- so it’s one of the doctor’s toys. Big whoop, it always blows up in his face. And besides, I know some of my way around gemology. This thing doesn’t look 8 years old, it looks like a fossil. We found it beneath an eroded cliff-face, for pete’s sake.”

“You make rational points, ma’am. But the resemblance is uncanny, and the evidence is in our hands. Considering its known abilities, who’re we to say where - or when - this thing can go.” They parried, face tough like stone.

Breezie sighed, letting her eyes glaze over the glimmering concaves of the ruby in her palms. A prized treasure, then. She’d be foolish not to recognise the value of parading the thing around. If it weren’t for how agonising it was just to breathe near. Not to mention-

Her eyes softly passed over the horizon again, straining them to catch the shape of a black cape swaying in the wind.

…She had to dispose of it. But how? In what sensible fashion?

“...Ma’am? We should really get this thing in a capsule, if the hole in your revenue is dire enough to need patching.”

She hauled the gem into the arms of the tiger, nodding quickly. “Lock this little bugger up. The less I have to look at it, the more I can focus on what to do with it.”

They blinked plainly at her, rummaging through their case for the item capsule. “Whatever you say, ma’am.”

“Yes, yes, now let’s get out of this dust pile. The private jet will give me some peace of mind, at least.” Breezie waved her hand, looking out towards the horizon. Truthfully, aching as she was behind her eyes, she was already weaving together the flow chart for a large-scale project.

With the deep blue spectre out of sight, she turned on her heel and marched - praying to never see it again.

~

[CASINO PARK, NORTHWEST DISTRICT… A Jet and a Limo Later]

The R&D Resort didn’t need to be several stories tall. Its function could be served with one small room with a table to talk around. But Breezie didn’t go small - and it fed her considerably to push through the revolving door with the ex-S6 Squad tailing close behind. “And you all received my messages before my flight okay?” Breezie asked, the dull grey item case tucked beneath her arm.

Scratch scrambled to talk at her side, flailing to keep himself upright lest he trip. “Yes ma’am, loud and clear. Orders have reached staff and the expansion’s began without question, except…” He faltered as the elevator doors slid open on cue, just as expected of them.

Breezie’s head turned slowly, pinning the entourage with a patient stare as they stepped forth and began to skyrocket upwards. “—except?”

“We have some questions, ma’am..” Coconuts piped up, mouth spread in a wide skin-saving grin.

Breezie pinched the line of her brow, “Great start, fellas.” She let out a long sigh, her ear flicking when the elevator hit the resort’s top floor with a bright ‘ding’.

The hedgehog brushed back her quills and marched forward, muzzle tilted high. “Hit me nice and quick, there’s a lotta work to do.”

Grounder’s treads whirred to keep pace with her. “Why a race?”

“Easy!” She scoffed, splaying her free hand. “It’s a speedster-eat-spotlight world. I know the types that’ll show up to this kind of event, and they’re the hands I’m looking to pawn this thing off to.” Breezie untucked the item case from under her arm and grimaced in anticipation as she gripped the lid.

Scratch gave it a skeptical glance. “Why’re we even pawning it off, ma’am? Isn’t this thing supposed to be powerful?”

Breezie sucked in a breath between her teeth and gave the lid a harsh turn. “Well, if you just brace yourselves—“

It was immediately clear not even she had braced enough, as the ruby’s energy swept through the four of them and threatened to fry their circuits. Breezie abruptly scrambled to shut the lid again once the others’ screams reached her, sound starting to distort in her ears before it finally cranked shut and they all practically doubled over. 

She clasped her midriff, hissing slowly to try and ease herself - the dread that she’d hurt the three stung far worse.

Coconuts was the first to pipe up, rubbing his head and cursing, “That thing’s worse than any EMP Robotnik got blasted with! Why do we have it!”

Her shoulders relaxed a little, patting the top of the case. “This puppy has been inverting energy signatures all the way from Soumerca. It’s been a thorn in our side right under our nose.” Breezie handed the case over to Scratch, who fumbled with it before holding it at arm’s length.

“Explains why things aren’t running on backup anymore. Is it safe for us to have it here, though?” He grimaced, tilting his face as far away from the unflattering box as possible. “And not at a non-neighbourly distance?”

She brushed off the sides of her suit and strode ahead. “Keeping it in this capsule has already proven safe, so I’m not particularly concerned. It’ll be out of our hands soon enough.”

Breezie’s pace slowed as she approached the balcony, settling her hands over the rail with a satisfied simper.

Even in the wake of Eggman’s attacks just a few years prior, Casino Park bounced back perfectly - towering over the dozens of stories below as a testament to her power, and the capital of her empire. The egg-pawn staff made quick work of repairs and alterations from Metal Sonic’s initial blueprints (worn but lovingly kept as they were). The only thing they’d failed to fix over the past months were the inexplicable energy fluctuations, which were hindering distribution and expansion alike.

She tipped her head up at the clouds, closer than ever from this skyscraper in particular. If anything, she was relieved she could return to her work and leave the chaos behind. Not to mention, this event would bring in so many attendees - a steep incline on her charts was guaranteed.

Grounder rolled up just by Breezie’s foot, “Are we gunna need a vault on toppa all the race track biz?”

Breezie glanced down with a chuckle. “Oh heavens above, no way. I’m not lining up staff to get blown through.” She wagged her finger as she continued on, “You want something kept secure, you put it in an unassuming box with no army to flank it. Nobody’ll double-take this ugly thing.” Her words were accentuated with a mocking tap on the case’s top.

Scratch cocked his head to the side. “Where’d you come across that philosophy, ma’am?”

Breezie looked warmly to an empty space beside her, her gaze tight - like she was remembering a specific tile in the ground. 

“Someone I ought to thank.” Her chest unwound itself as she grabbed the item case from Scratch. “Now, let’s get moving. I want to have fliers printed within 72 hours. Preferably a third of that time, this baby is an unsightly paperweight.”

Chapter Text

[SPIRAL HILL VILLAGE… Present Day]

The sound barrier split with the pulse of Sonic’s boost.

“Y’know, Metalhead - if you wanna reach my level you gotta ditch the terrorizing and get into some banter for once in your life!” The hedgehog cockily jabbed, rolling in circles around the robot’s ankles.

Metal Sonic stood stoic. She didn’t spin her head to keep up with him, just flicked a perfectly placed kick. Sonic the Hedgehog was her adversary across the ages, her squishy double. The only thing that matched her speed, and vice-versa.

Her kick sent Sonic slamming into the bell tower’s side, accentuating the impact with a humiliating toll. He shook his head with a groan, “Worth the 32nd shot…” and dived out of the path of Metal’s next lunge.

Tails kept close by, his distance not necessary considering Metal Sonic’s only target would be Sonic himself. “I don’t think they have enough spackle to fix this place if it’s turned on its head!” The fox emphasised, pointing to the crack left in the tower’s side.

Sonic grimaced. “Yyyikes. Roger, I’ll keep the collateral on the col- little. ” He rolled his shoulder, giving a thumbs up to his adversary. “Sound good to you, Metal?”

The words either didn’t register or didn’t matter to the robot, as she blasted toward Sonic all the same. He clicked his tongue. “No respect for local architecture these days!” 

He swerved and caught Metal’s foot, using her speed against her as he carried that flow into a heavy throw that sent her flying. Sonic brushed off his hand as she corrected herself in the air, posed to attack again.

“Woah, where’d that throw come from!” Tails shot from the sidelines, following the specifics with the Miles Electric. 

Sonic laughed and patted his (non-existent) bicep, “You throw down with Knuckles enough times, and you pick up that kinda stuff.”

Tails nodded cordially. “A valid gloat— save it for later, though. Metal’s turbine is still in great shape,” he shielded his face as the two hedgehogs broke into a sprint side-by-side. “And that’s not gonna be in your favour!”

The fastest thing alive thought as fast as he was moving, so a detour down Spiral Hill was a win-win in getting Metal out of the way of civilians, and working out how he was going to knock her down. Blurs of trees and bushes lined the edges of his vision as he kept on his opponent beside him. 

If anything, he always looked forward to fighting Metal Sonic. Having someone capable of keeping up with him was always a thrill. Sure, Shadow could do the same, but he wasn’t made to match and better him in every way. Sonic cut Metal off at the foot of the hill, bashing his forehead with hers.

No, this was a personal challenge on Eggman’s part. And he was happy to oblige, to at least validate his own ego and crush the doctor’s.

He managed to win out the charge, knocking Metal Sonic back a few feet and beginning to rev up in a spin-dash. 

Because no matter how much energy he used, no matter how beaten he’d get…

He sped forward, rolling with Metal off the ramp-like curve of the hill and into the sky. His leg swept out.

…he NEVER slows down.

The kick slammed into Metal’s noggin, her body slicing through the air and colliding into Spiral Hill Village’s bell with a echoing, humiliating ‘dong’ .

Sonic cackled and dived down, catching Tails’ hands and assessing the damage from up high.

Metal Sonic slowly slinked out from beneath the swinging bell, sparks flickering at the edges of her visor. She readied another charge, eyes burning their gaze into Sonic…

The duo heard a distant radio screech from Metal’s position, the robot reeling as if it made her artificial ears sting. Loud chatter barked at her from some unseen place, and she hesitated another glare at Sonic before turning her heel and blasting off in the other direction.

Tails’ muzzle scrunched at the nose. “Eggman gave her orders to flee..?” He theorised beneath his breath.

Sonic shrugged, dusting himself off as soon as Tails set him down. “Or she’s just a coward all the same! I’ll take my bets.” He clapped the fox on the shoulder, grinning with all cheek.

His friend didn’t seem entirely convinced, “Metal Sonic had more than enough energy to continue the battle going, and looked ready to. What made Eggman fall back?” Tails tapped away at the Miles Electric, its small antenna turning as he searched news outlets for any kind of remarkable shifts.

The fox’s face fell in confusion. “Wait, what.”

Sonic pursed his lips and leaned over to look at the screen himself, “What’s up?” The two were staring down a blurry image reposted by multiple news sites - a large, office-like room with an almost-missable logo on one of the computers reading ‘Casino Park Relay’.

“Huh. Guess they’re toeing into racing territory. Why’s this shocking, though?” Sonic grumbled, tapping frequently at the refresh button with his gloved finger.

Tails kept squinting at the quoted text captioning every article. “That’s just the thing, it’s not just some race. ‘Following recent leaks, Breeze Media is happy to announce the Phantom Ruby Relay, with applications opening in the next two weeks and a material prize on offer’…”

The hedgehog blinked at the screen plainly. “…So, A - there’s no way she didn’t stage those leaks for publicity. B - she’s totally just using the Phantom Ruby as just. Cool titling, right? There’s no way she has it. We don’t even know where it is.”

“I mean… it would be a smart marketing ploy.” Tails shrugs. “And, yeah. The Phantom Ruby hasn’t been seen for years . For all we know, it should’ve been destroyed in our final defense against Eggman’s attack, there’s no way it’s being used as a prize incentive for a race.”

~

[CASINO PARK… Right That Moment]

Breezie sat reclined in her chair, turning the flier design over in her hand. “That thing’s only significant use will be serving as the prize incentive for this race.”

She set the flier back down, tapping her heel against the table. “Nevermind the graphic design - I’d known it’d worked from the overwhelming response on our PR account.” Her chair creaked as she swerved around to the staff-pawns she’d called to the green room. “Whereabouts are the samples for the photoshoot I requested? I scheduled it for twenty minutes from now, and I see nothing.”

As the words left her mouth, the double-doors flew open with a large trolley array being shoved through and the ex-S6 squad all squabbling over who was to blame for almost being late, who was to blame for being slightly ahead of schedule…

“Ahem,” Breezie cleared her throat, staring unamused toward the chaos. 

Coconuts appealed first, “Boss, Scratch made us late with all his squawking about organisation—“

Scratch shoved the shortest badnik out of the way, “ He wanted to leave half the darned load back at the depot and come back for it—!”

“—It would’ve been less work— “

“—This is more efficient !”

Breezie soothed the crease between her browline as Grounder slowly rolled up to her with a clipboard. “Everythin’s accounted for, Miss Breezie!”

Her body relaxed from the shoulders down. “Thank you,” She tapped at one of the lines. “And the E-Rider is here?”

She watched, partly amused, as Scratch scrambled onto the trolley to fling aside a tarp and wheel over the shimmering red extreme gear in question. “Right here!”

Breezie ran her hands over the vehicle’s handlebars, grinning wide. “Beautiful… this is a classic, apparently. What good condition, too. Certainly welcome in my collection, let alone for some quick takes for the media.”

Coconuts rubbed his hands together, “If that’s all good, ma’am— can I ask why you’re dressed like that?”

Her outfit of choice was a commissioned piece from Honey the Cat, indifferent in palette to her usual attire. The tall red tracksuit reached from shoulder to ankle, flanked with white racing stripes up its side. She adjusted her shades onto her browline. “What do you mean, this is for the photoshoot.”

“You look like a highschool gym coach.” Grounder stated bluntly.

Breezie gawked, “I do not ! This is the typical thing you see people wearing to races, Honey had a dozen Pinterest tabs open to reference from! I don’t look like a gym coach ,” She turned to Scratcher and Coconuts. “Back me up, here!”

The two refused to look at her, their mouths practically sautered shut. Breezie’s eye twitched, dragging her palm down her face.

“Whatever. I need those fliers to be widespread, and make it snappy.” She swung a leg over the E-Rider, almost toppling with it. “...Would you look at that, I’m a natural already.” She joked, tilting her head just so for the cameras as the S6 Squad sped back out the door with armfuls of fliers.

~

[CLUB ROUGE, NIGHT BABYLON… Simultaneously]

Shadow sat squirrelled up to the TV in the corner, his face scrunched up and jaw loose in indignant shock.

“Careful, you’ll ruin your eyesight sitting that close.” Rouge called from the bar in a mocking tone, chuckling at Shadow’s stiff expression. “What’s even got you so worked up about it, anyway? It’s just a race.” She turned back to the ice machine, loading a glass up to its rim.

“The Doctor levelled entire cities with that ruby backing his armaments. Why is it being dangled around by a television personality ?” He scoffed, rewinding back to the smug green hedgehog dancing her fingers around the ruby’s green-screened image behind her.

“Like she even has it, look at her dancing around the damn thing.” Rouge pointed out, sliding a cold cup of water across the coffee table to Shadow’s corner. “Hydrate yourself.”

“I’m the ultimate-” He looked back at Rouge, and immediately shrunk back with a sip of water at her intense expression. “All the same, if we presume it’s an empty statement, and are false…”

Rouge worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “Fair point ,” She took her seat beside the hedgehog, tucking her knees up to her chest and nursing a Chaos Soda between her hands like a hot cocoa. “If you’re so fed up about it, why don’t you enter? Hardly anyone’s as fast as you, so no worries there.”

She looked to Shadow as he stood and swirled the glass of water, watching the cluster of ice cubes clink together. “Because what’s the point of playing along with a childish game if people’s lives are at stake?”

“‘Cause what if you’re wrong and end up looking like an idiot.” Rouge dead-panned, smirking up at him.

“... Ugh .” He grumbled, sipping at the cool, flavourless beverage. “I suppose the only qualm would be trying to persuade Omega to get involved on a mission that doesn’t guarantee some level of destruction.”

“And finding a third,” Rouge piped up, looking over her claws.

…Wait. Shadow’s head jerked to look back down at her, “What do you mean.”

“Mmn,” Rouge stretched out on the floor, cracking her knuckles. “I’m on sabbatical, is all. It’d be above me to go jewel-hunting at the height of my relaxation, don’t you think?”

His usual scowl was missing on his face, in lieu of a baffled gawk. “You stole something this morning, on our way here. That bracelet, it’s still around your-”

The sound of something shiny smashing through the window cleaved through the air. Followed by a distant car alarm.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find another fine, capable individual to help you along.” She crossed the club’s floor to ascend the staircase. “I’d be happy to cheer you on from a friendly distance.”

“You’re making all the trouble to come along, it shouldn’t be too much to ask that you clear the first race for us-” By the time Shadow had gotten to the third quarter of his sentence, Rouge was already out of the club’s first floor and planning how to make the most out of the brief time they’d be spending in Casino Park.

~

[EGGBASE DESIGNATION-(Like you ought to know!), ??????... Concurrently]

From beyond the creek of the open door, the room exploded with green that flooded out of the monitor’s screen, and the Eggman’s voice threatened to crack it with a scream.

“That rodent! Every casino in her puny empire is lined hall-to-hall with my egg-pawns, my handiwork! Even out of my grasp, she still finds a way to be a spoilt, defiant scoundrel !” He crushed the computer’s mouse in his oversized fist. “And with the catalyst of power I seized and weaponised– from thin air, she’s found the crown jewel of taunts to try and tip me over! ”

Orbot and Cubot watched from the floor with wrung hands as the man continued on his rampage. Cubot raised a finger, jaw unhinging to offer some advice, but Orbot quickly slapped a hand over it upon seeing the imminent threat of the monitor becoming airborne.

“ Sir, we can’t rule out that this is a fantastic glow on your track record! You did build her after all, isn’t it worthy of praise to be the inventor of something that grows to uncontrollably exceed you at every step of the way?”

Cubot watched as Orbot became airborne, Eggman dusting off his hands with a huff. 

“As her creator, she should be reeling beneath my heel without a line of rebellion in her code. But instead …” His hand flourished before the green hedgehog on the screen, then tightened around the view of her head into a fist with a crunch of his knuckles. He grumbled, falling back into his chair. “How is the progression on Metal Sonic’s repairs?”

Her rotors flickered as she stared, barely sautered together enough to be considered “in one piece”, after her engine overheated earlier that day. The wires were meant to take days to replace, having melted together into a formless coalescence. She was missing multiple of her physical functions, but Metal Sonic glared unbidden, with stern loyalty, through the crack in the door.

“Hardly functional, sir. Expected turnaround date is in a week’s time,” Orbot answered, pulling his top half back on straight before clasping his hands together. “She’s still in the workshop now.”

The machinery that had gotten to sawing and soldering and repairing - only that afternoon - was still smoking with electricity from how she’d dismantled it in a humiliated fury, just moments before. She was perfect, she was unconquerable, no matter the state she was in. If that false hedgehog was anywhere NEAR her level of damage, then- then, she could’ve salivated were she organic–

“...Hrm.” The doctor turned in his chair, waving his hand dismissively. “No use making scrap, I’ll find some decoy for her place.”

Her claws scraped agonisingly against the wall. Cubot’s head jerked at the piercing stimuli, turning to the door.

Nobody. He twisted his head a few times; must have a loose screw in there. Well, another for the collection.

“What’re you doing, just standing there?!” Eggman barked, almost leaping out of his chair. “Get those idiot skunks in here! Better their skin than any I’ve manufactured,”

The two geometric bots saluted and rattled away down the hall, with Metal Sonic avoiding their path to descend towards the doctor’s armoury. 

~

[CASINO PARK… Barely A Week On]

The office was buzzing with chit-chat and the scent of coffee on the air. There was a hefty pile of unused poster designs for the event, with Scratch snatching and shoving into the paper shredder and Grounder peacefully juggling scrunched-up balls between his drills.

Breezie nursed a hot styrofoam cup of espresso, her heels kicked up on the console as her eyes scanned the spreadsheet projected before her.

“I ought to pay you more for how easy you make this business,” She rose her coffee a little, tapping the desk as Coconuts scrolled the list of applicants. “Whatta the colours mean?”

Coconuts clicked his tongue, “It’s sorted by criminal record or clean record.”

“…That’s a lot of red.” She looked into her cup, swirling the third or so that was left.

“Should we be cutting them out so that we aren’t headlining criminals and potentially providing them with world-ending power?”

There was a flat stare between them, before they both broke it with an uproar of laughter.

Breezie swept a tear from her cheek, “Ohh- let’s not kid ourselves, now. Sonic himself throws down with GUN every other week like it’s a routine tea date. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Scratch peeked over from the ear-piercing paper shredder, squinting at a few colorful faces in particular. “The Chaotix ?”

“Yeah,” Breezie turned in her chair, an eyebrow raised skeptically. “It’s a valuable prize, of course they wanna line their pockets.”

“Do we really want a detective agency moseying around the premises?” Scratch grimaced, tugging at the collar of his tie.

The hedgehog rolled herself around and squinted at the monitor, “Bah- There’s nothing the Chaotix will find that isn’t being shown at face value. I’m an honest woman, after all! What do I have to hide—“ She swung her hand. “—everybody wants the ruby, and the winner takes all. There’s nothing to investigate.”

Grounder rattled over, dropping the balled-up papers. “What about the chargin’ ports, boss?”

Breezie’s face fell a little, lips drawing into a thin line as she clutched the sides of her chair. “…I want extra security on the Chaotix. Give them a room as far away from any electrical facilities, I want no visible circuitry leading anywhere .” She fiddled with her cuffs, feeling her sinuses buzz like a faulty lamp.

Coconuts punched in some notes beside the chart, as well as updating orders to the security wing. Breezie quietly unwound to the sound of keys clicking, no longer hyper-conscious of her breathing.

“…So,” she cautiously broke the silence. “With the Chaotix, Sonic, Team Dark, Rose, and the Babylon Rogues… we need just a little more filler for the last two entries. Anything unremarkable?” She drummed her fingers along the desk.

“There’s a, uh, ‘Tumble and Rough’?”

Breezie smacked her lips. “Never heard of ‘em.” She squinted at the two skunks on the screen, parsing their files. “…brief interlude as henchmen for Dr. Ivo Robotnik, hah - yeah, that’s the dumb muscle he’d use. Success rate of, approximately 0%. Damn, they didn’t even lie on their resume.”

“Blacklist?” Coconut hovered the mouse pointer over a trash icon.

“Hah! No, this is perfect - they’re paired with supposedly some rando, they’ll eat dirt.” She grinned, folding her knuckles and turning away from the roster. “This is a piece of pie.”

Scratch quietly squawked, “Who’s Team Mecha?”

Breezie swiveled two full rotations in her speed. “Mecha? We just shrugged in Eggman’s lackeys, what’s this?” She looked over the pictured applicants, obscured by their cowls and some very poor lighting.

She mulled over the appearances as clicks and typing filled the air. “...Different IP than the uh, ‘Team Rumble’. Not any notable Egg-bases, either, that we have on our lists. Applying under “Blur”, “Brain” and “Brawn”-” Breezie’s eyes burnt holes in the monitor as she tuned out to Coconuts’ analyses.

It could’ve been a trick of the light- a dead pixel, either on the sheet’s screen or her own visual HUD. But beneath that cowl, this blue figure pictured before her…

A pinprick of red where its eye should’ve been.

Coconuts’ voice, faintly laden with concern, breached her focus after a long while. “...Ma’am? Are you-”

“Put them down for the race.” She cut in bluntly, hitting a 180 turn on her heel and striding her way out of the room.

“You’re sure?”

Her flourishes came in a little over-performed, “Oh come now, they’re- fresh faces. Rookies. Elimination fodder. If they’re not coming from the doctor, who am I to keep out some rogue bots from trying to prove something? Not my business - I trust you to get those responses out. What’s there to worry about! After all, nobody’s as fast as the blue blur.”

She laughed as she disappeared behind the resounding ‘click’ of the elevator doors shutting.

Nobody except you.

Breezie rattled her knuckles against her chin as she stared down her reflection in the wall. With every floor she blasted past, her eyes narrowed deeper in thought. The figure was burnt into her retinas - a leather cowl shrouding any chance at a recognisable face in darkness; metallic silvers and blues obscured beneath an exaggerated cape. It was an ominous portrait: all semblance of background swallowed up in void. 

She could make out the obvious from the signs, so to be ruminating on it so heavily was… frustrating . More than any other woman, Breezie the Hedgehog did Not get hung up on a single topic. She was sporadic, elastic, witty. It was baked into her since she could fathom the world in its shape.

Her fist slammed into the wall, “So what makes you change everything.”

The elevator came to a stop with an unpleasantly cheerful ‘ding’. Breezie strode down the hall to her office and barely considered the swinging open of the door. It wasn’t meaningful to her, nor was the world. If it all fell into her palm, why should she care about every last little detail?

Her eyes, however, locked on one such detail - one she’d all but forgotten until then. On her desk, glittering lecherously in carmine pink, was the Phantom Ruby. Hammering at her head like a tidal wave, just from sitting there so pretty. She grit her teeth in a bludgeoned scowl, snatching it up and holding it above her nose with a fierce glower.

“You aren’t even that good of a paperweight, but you interfere so much you demand importance.” She laughed callously, “Of course you’re fit for that hedgehog’s hands, you’re practically foils .”

A deep thrum echoed out from the ruby’s core, exploding past the room’s walls and floor - making it all cave in like glass around Breezie. Her eyes widened; in the same blink of time she held quick to the gemstone like it would hold her up above the chaos. The world was swirling with no real pattern, yet symmetrically all the same. It was the realest dizziness she’d ever processed, and the longer she clung to it… the more she felt like she was going to be sick.

Her body thudded back down on solid ground, the ruby perched perfectly in her palm. The carpet from before was pulled away for hastily-laid sheet metal, loud and tedious to step across.

Breezie sat up with a groan, rubbing between her eyes like it could give her any reprieve. The room was dark, characterised through tinny green tiling along every stretch of graspable land. It was harrowingly empty, electrical hums calling from the walls. She grimaced, trying to find familiarity in the environment. And to her credit, she did upon turning around.

Serpentine cables and imperial wires ran down from the ceiling into an oversized machine. Though obscured by a tarp, she could see the foreboding green light shining through the material - and the three-spined silhouette floating, as if in some kind of stasis.

Her hand reached quietly for the tarp. You…

A series of systems in her gut lurched as heels clicked sharply behind her. She turned, meeting the new living encounter in the eyes. But…

It was her. 

[ A METALLIC MADNESS ZONE… A Long Time Ago]

Breezie blinked in confusion at this doppelganger, how it stared right into her with an equally awe-filled expression. Her quills looked lighter - there was a fresh glossiness to her entire being that Breezie couldn’t say she recognised in her own reflection. She was a poor fake - stepping toward her without a word, how dare she, what possibly gave her the confidence and gall to–

The hedgehog’s shoulders shook as the fake hedgehog passed right through her, like she existed less than the air. The pale Breezie gazed up at the tarp in wonder, her hand folding back the tarp’s edge slowly - like its contents may leap out at her with a vengeance. The tarp came crashing down from barely a tug, dust from months of work kicking up and surrounding the two hedgehogs as the machine’s occupant was exposed to the realm of comprehension and vision.

This naiver Breezie froze up as the newly-built Metal Sonic inside moved her lenses to stare directly into the woman’s core.

“Shaping up to be my greatest creation yet,” both Breezies shot up at the commanding voice. Her mind, baffled by this scene as it was, began to– recall, rather than freshly process. This was a memory.

Robotnik stood - admittedly much stouter back then - in the doorway, pacing up to the young hedgehog’s side. “Of course it tempts curiosity.”

“Doctor-” The pale-quilled woman bowed her head in some vague respect as Robotnik drained the tank of its fluid and the robot inside stood with a curious tilt of the head. “I didn’t realise what this was. My apologies...”

“Bah. Nobody knew what to call the wonder of immense storms and extreme mountains until they invented the ‘sublime’. I’ve named my perfection, accordingly.” The tube opened with a deep hiss. “This is Metal Sonic. My masterpiece in the making.”

“Masterpiece indeed,” She watched herself whisper, before flashing him a cheeky grin, “And it’s better than the other metallic models?”

“Why of course she is!” Robotnik stomped a heavy foot down, “She is built on the blueprints of my past genius. This specimen is one of a kind, the one that will stand above them all, including that wretched little rodent.”

“Careful, I’m a hedgehog too, Doctor. You’ll hurt my feelings,” She grinned, before slowly tilting her head, “Please elaborate. I must hear more about what else you’ve based such Robotic Perfection on?”

Breezie watched, her knuckles digging into the hard edges of the ruby, as an uncomfortably heavy silence filled the space between man and machine. Darkness flooded his gaze for a moment before being replaced with a jolly mask. Contempt wove her brows into a narrowed, bitter glare as his eyes glittered with amusement. Amusement.

“Some other time!” He bolstered, readjusting his crimson coat with a flourish. “Metal Sonic is due a bout of internal testing. Run along, Breezie.” 

“You talk to me like I’m a child! I know you’re hiding something interesting! Afterall, it’s not like you to miss an opportunity to brag about yourself!” She huffed as his large hands ushered her away to the door of the lab. 

A wiser Breezie followed, her heels clicking against the familiar tile with her eyes heavy and glaring holes into his wide grin. The two figures paused at the door and she watched as her head slowly drew over her shoulder to stare into the iris lit darkness. For a moment, all time signatures paused. Breezie wondered if this was how long the moment truly was, or if the ruby was simply replicating how it felt to be trapped in the red of Metal Sonic’s gaze– before striding off as she was told.

It felt like their own, miniature eternity, and she never knew why until now. Metal Sonic was scanning her. Scanning her. Wait. Breezie’s entire body froze stiff as she saw red now facing her- the real her, who was years away from this moment in time in a world that was far extracted from the false reality this heavy gem was conjuring up for her. And yet, her imagination- or whatever attention the ruby was feeding off of- had far betrayed her, as Metal now bore her gaze through her, digging into her chest like a shiv.

Get away from me. She wanted to hiss, clamping her eyes closed as she heard the scraping of Metal’s feet come closer. Leave me alone. And closer. Just, take me somewhere else! And closer. Anywhere! Just get rid of her! Then it was quiet, and Breezie felt her body stagger with relief at the sight of her office. Her knees buckled, and she let herself collapse against her expensive floor, in her expensive room, in her expensive building that she built herself. 

This was reality. Or was it? She couldn’t tell, it felt that at any moment she’d be met with an unreality different or too close to her own. Breezie opened her eyes once more after a long, long breath, and glared scrutinizingly at the gem.

“I need to get rid of you.”

Chapter Text

[CASINO PARK… Finally]

“Yikes! Flashing lights warning much?” Sonic squinted hard as they entered the park. He rubbed his nose judgmentally as he fought against LED induced blindness, and challenged it with a grin, ”Where’s my shades? I feel like I could get a suntan from all this!”

“This place must be a nightmare on energy bills,” Tails dryly remarked, “What do you think Knuckles?”

“Can’t say I miss this place…” The red echidna grumbled, struggling to get his purple tinted goggles over his eyes. The fox stumbled over to help him, as Sonic scanned over the raceway with a hum rising from his chest.

“Heeey Soooonniiic~!” A particular ringing voice raised out of the crowds. The blue blur turned and smiled, letting Amy rush him at full speeds and nearly tackle him to the ground in a hug.

“Ames! Heya! I didn’t know you’d be racing!” Sonic spun her around before gently tossing her out of his arms. Knuckles and Tails glanced over with delight as She landed with a steady bounce. The two hedgehogs grinned happily at each other. “When’d you get here?”

“Just now! I was a little late due to all the city traffic but– Oh hey look! It’s Shadow!” Amy exclaimed, pointing out past his shoulder to reveal the grumpy looking hedgehog stomping through the crowd. Sonic grinned, leaning on his Xtreme board to send a wide armed wave.

“Hey! Hey Shadow hey!” He was brutally ignored the moment their eyes locked, and watched as Shadow made an immediate hard turn towards the opposite direction. Sonic smirked, “Hold this-” He passed his board to Amy as he zoomed off and around the ultimate lifeform, spinning a circle around him for good measure. “Yooo Shadow! What’re the odds you finally join a fun event like this huh?”

"Don't make this any more aggravating than it has to be, Sonic." Shadow glared, his arms crossing just at the sight of him.

“Hey man,” Sonic held his hands up, “I'm here for the same reason as you! So why don’t we just chill out there, eh?"

"Tch. Then just stay out of my way, and we can get this done," Shadow pushed him to the side, readjusting his grip on his board. Sonic propped a hand on his hip, mouthing his words mockingly before Omega soon stomped into view. The hedgehog grinned up at him.

“Having fun with your teammate, big guy?”

“DO NOT PATRONIZE ME.” Omega boomed at him, “JUST BECAUSE WE ARE AFTER THE SAME GOALS DOES NOT MEAN GLORY IS ON THE LINE. YOU WILL NOT TAKE THAT AWAY FROM US!”

“Woah, woah!” Sonic bounced away from him, “Don’t get your wires in a twist bud, I hear you. We’ll see you out on the track!”

“LIKEWISE.” Omega puffed out his chest and clenched his metal fist tight, “YOU WILL BECOME VERY ACQUAINTED WITH THE TASTE OF OUR DUST.”

“That’s the spirit, good luck out there!” Sonic laughed, waving the robot off. He thought for a moment, and hummed. He didn’t notice any Rouge with them. Must be out in the concession stands or something before the race? Or something… He considered, before waving the thoughts off. He was sure he’d see her later. “Might as well check out the other competitors…”

“Hey, Sonic!” Amy caught back up to him, pushing his board back into his arms, “There’s some people I think you’d want to see.”

“Woah, really?” He perked up, “What’s with the seriousness?”

“Just uh- Just come on over!” Amy tugged at his wrist, dragging him through the crowds of soon-to-be audience members. Sonic waved warmly to the people around him, cheering him on and wishing him luck, before coming to a stop beside his pink friend. The two leaned, and his stomach immediately twisted at the sight.

“Who the heck are those guys?”

“They look like trouble.” Amy mumbled with worry. Sonic took in a deep, deep breath. Sat together, disturbingly silent, and causing crowds to sift around them were three darkly cloaked figures. A number one on the red flag list after all of their years of fighting- and with the extreme gear at their sides, it was clear they weren’t just here for a show. 

The two stared tensely at the mysterious team, backing up slowly as Amy’s eyes trained on the middle cloaked figure and the curve of its hood. 

“So, scary, intimidating, but not cause of concern, what’s with them?” Sonic knocked a thumb over his shoulder. Amy shook her head.

“Oh actually, it’s not them I was worried about- I just saw them in the crowd while we were looking because they- well- looked scary,” She explained, “My concerns are with–”

“YEEAAHAAHAHAAA! YOU BETTER GET READY TO RUMBLE!”

“BECAUSE-WINNING-THE-COMPETITION-IS-GONNA-BE ROUGH—!”

“—AND TUMBLE!”

“Why did Breezie let them in?!” Amy wailed, motioning towards the troublesome duo with a wide wave of her arm. Sonic immediately felt a headache coming on. Now he saw what Amy was going on about. Emerging from the annoyed crowd, hooting and hollering, were the dynamically disastrous duo themselves, and horribly, of course, holding their own pairs of x-gear.

“The ratings?” He grinded his teeth together with a mixture of tension and concern. 

“The ratings.” Amy nodded. The two skunks’ eyes widened to bug-like levels of offense.

“Ratings?! What’s ratings have to do with any of it!?” Rough snapped at them, his voice wiry with confusion and rising annoyance.

“Because Breezie likes filming with extras.” Sonic smirked, high-fiving Amy and spurring a yell of anger out of the two hooligans. 

“Why you–!” Tumble imitated the actions of throttling Sonic while Rough pointed scrutinizingly at the pair.

“You’re lucky this is a competition! Cause instead of knockin’ your blocks in like we oughta, we’re just gonna crush you out there on the track!” He yammered. Sonic raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by the gloating. He glanced over at Amy, tilting his head. Wanna go for it? He silently asked, but she shook her head playfully, gesturing to have a go. To which he did with a wide grin.

“Oh yeah? And which one of you knuckleheads is up first?” He simply asked. ”Because whoever it is, everyone’s sending in their most dangerous, strongest, craziest player to take out everyone in their way and secure their spot in the next race.”

Rough and Tumble stared at him blankly, frozen in place as they reconsidered what looked to be their entire game plan. The two sputtered, and then squirmed- before Rough whipped a finger at Sonic's sneakers.

“YOUR SHOE’S UNTIED!” He yelled, and the two skunks swerved and ran off in clear view of the two hedgehogs- Sonic watching the whole while unimpressed without even a glance down. Amy let out a snort.

“Yeah, they won’t be an issue,” She sighed with relief.

“I’m glad I could dispel any doubts,” He rubbed his nose amusedly. A loud blare shook from above, and the two hedgehogs watched as the crowds began to cheer and disperse- making way for them to stride towards the track. Above, flying high for the entire world to see, was race stripe painted the largest jumbotron Sonic had ever seen. And Eggman had quite the collection.

With a brief glare of the Breeze Media logo, Breezie emerged in prime HD, her smile practiced and her actions no doubt prerecorded.

“Racers!” Her voice rattled across the entire city, “Round one starts in three minutes! Please make your way to the starting line, or face immediate disqualification!”

“Even pre-recorded, she’s in a rush, ain’t she?” Sonic remarked. He knocked a thumb over his shoulder, “Sounds like it's my queue to find a seat then!”

“You're not racing this round? That's a surprise,” Amy tilted her head. He cracked his knuckles.

“Yeah, it was Tails’s idea. Like I said; people are sending their best first, but if Knuckles beats ‘em all- then we can get a more secure lead next round with me when peoples’ second choices are in.”  Sonic said. Amy nodded thoughtfully before chuckling.

“That makes sense. And no matter which of us wins, we’re all on each other’s sides, so somehow, eventually, we’ll save the day!” Amy smiled at him, beaming even further when he gave her an encouraging thumbs up. 

“Racers~!” Their attention was now on the dame above, who was now waving a hand for a large infographic to appear with her. A race track, a map, and a goal to finish. 

“Hehe! Sounds like my queue! I’m gonna head to my seat, it’s on the other side of the track, catch you later, Sonic!” Amy waved an ecstatic goodbye, to which he returned. ”And good luck anyways!”

“With your attention most definitely on me,” The digitized Breezie preened, “Racers and viewers– May I introduce you to our lovely track for your entertainment tonight…” With the arc of her arm, a birds-eye view panned over the track in its entirety. ‘ROULETTE ROAD’, introduced in capital case and a glitter-stroked font, twisted and curved in on itself - titanic clockwork powering cartoonishly large slot reels. If there were anyone in the world with the power to push this much aesthetic and pure grandeur, it was Breezie the Hedgehog.

“She sure spared no expense,” Sonic mumbled to himself, plopping down on one of the sideline’s seats, along with many others. 

“As you can see, I spared no expense,” Sonic smirked to himself as Breezie flipped her hair this way and that. She grinned proudly at the screen as she twirled that holographic mirage of the phantom ruby in her hands, almost like she knew it was hypnotizing all who desired its power, before pulling the full from their eyes in one, clean, sweep, “The first race starts in just a breath. So just remember; this is a survival race! That means the two teams finishing in last place each round will be immediately eliminated!”

Huh? Sonic blinked with surprise. Many other gasps rippled across the stadium, and he gripped his board tight. She didn't mention that!

But the recording of Breezie didn’t care, as she pointed up through the screen and shouted, “Okay? Okay! Then with that out of the way…Threetwoone–GO!”

~

[BREEZIE’S OFFICE… Watching from afar.]

“It’s so predictable in the most enthusing way. I ramp up the drama, and the people eat it up no matter how backhanded or last minute it is,” The hedgehog mused slowly to herself as she gulped champagne past her lips, she sighed, “That’s the privilege that I earned; as the Queen of Entertainment.”

Her eyes skated past the audience security cameras to the race tracks screen, and swallowed as the racers boomed past the line. Perfect, she thought. It’s going to go exactly as you know it will. And if it doesn’t— It won’t. 

“Knuckles makes the perfect landing– And takes advantage of his speed!”

“Storm is… Building Momentum!”

“Big makes a perfect landing, taking advantage of her speed boost!”

“Fumble is–!”

Breezie’s eyes narrowed hard. Oh nnno. A terrible, and she meant it– Terrible hunk of junk wearing a tacky ‘I am real’ baseball cap rolled out into the main camera’s view. It swayed, and bobbled, and its moments jerked it across the track with an automated level of imperfect precision. With a slight bump, the face it’s head was very much an upside down bucket with a happy face painted on became very clear. Her head snapped around to the audience cameras, a slight bit of relief smoothing through her chest as she heard honest and endeared laughter rise from the stadium. But, she wasn’t completely sated.

“–Not looking too good? What’s his teammates saying right now to encourage their… um… partner?”

“You got this, Fumble!”

“Yeah! Make ‘em crumble!”

“Eyes on them for when you see a crash coming in,” Breezie hissed through her ear-piece. A quick ‘yes ma’am’ on the other line soothed her worries. It’s gonna make great views. And- whatever harm that came from it would be nothing against who she wanted to actually win this race. In fact, Breezie preened to herself, that’s why she let the imbeciles in. Cannon fodor and the perfect way to cleanly trim the fat off of the race, contestants that would take others down with them.

The house always won and–

“Mayday! Mayday! Fumble has hit a bump! This could cost him– errr– it the race?”

There it is. Breezie focused back on the screen with a smile on her face. A smile that began to stiffen a little as Fumble— and his now missing bucket head— began to weave around aimlessly across the track. It screeched, and its limbs fell apart, and its weight jerked around at unexpected intervals- only made worse when it happened to fly off a ramp. Like just now, as it flailed pathetically in the air, making his teammates on the sideline scream, before crashing down on one unfortunate albatross.

“A collision has taken place! Storm and Fumble have gone up in an explosion of excitement!” That was a fun way to say death, but she was sure at least one of them was fine. The audience oo-ed and awe-d at it all the same, and when she saw the bird hit the ground– yeah there was some movement. What a good sport, that saved her a good lawsuit, and any complaints she knew the rogues would have could be sullied by barely a dent in her pocket.

But… that wasn’t the team she thought would be taken down by Team ‘Is now biting security while being escorted out’. She thought it would be– Team Rose. Or– Perhaps the Chaotix. She bit her knuckle, heat rising at the back of her ears. A setback. All it was, was a setback. Breezie paced back and forth in her office, and only stilled when the race ended, swapping her camera footage to the security cams. She pressed her face as close as she could to the holograms and twitched as she listened to anything she could get out of them, anything she could learn that she could twist and rig to her own pre-planned design.

“Anyone notice how quickly the rogues and the idiots got booted out of the casino?” Her eyes snapped to the tiny cam of the red echidna. His arms were crossed. “Suspicious.”

“Seems a little tight knit,” Her brow furrowed at Tails, who was fidgeting with his little tech pad out of worry, before all of their eyes focused hard on– “Sonic? What do you think?”

“Heh. I think it's a bummer! I would’ve loved to rub that in Jet’s face a bit! Heheh! …Nah, I think there’s a bit of something wrong.”

She hated meddlers. But if Sonic and his little team were on it, then they’d see it through somehow, someway, with a high probability of success. And at the end of things, that was what her plan revolved around. Someone to ease her damn worries about– About…

Breezie turned off the cameras, she turned off the lights, and sunk heavily into her chair with her hand already caressing over the phantom ruby with her eyes glittering at its splendor. There was that familiar pulse again, and this time, she let it ebb through her. There was no shock, there was no pain, just a visage now that once more took over her office with the glow of a red light.

Where would it take her now, except far far away from here?

~

[ANOTHER METALLIC MADNESS ZONE… Many Years Ago]

Ah. This again– Breezie looked around with the married feelings of disgust and disappointment crawling up her spine. It was- There was no doubt about it. She knew what day this was. 

She could hear it in the clicking of precious stiletto heels echoing down the hall. Breezie’s eyes tracked the mirage, the way she panted and breathed like she even felt exhaustion, and followed her back into her room to gather what the others had packed for her.

Shaking hands stuffed her own manual into the worn and already stuffed bags with a clumsy level of efficiency- before clipping it shut and squeezing it tight to her chest. Breezie stared heartlessly, as this dumb- dumb- girl still tried to cry her heartache out even when they both knew she’d already run out of tears. 

The others were waiting. She urged herself. Hurry up, you know there’s no time. She squeezed the ruby in her fist. What are you waiting for? 

Then a light suddenly shined into the room, and a clunking of feet rang out from the edge of Breezie’s vision. A soft red glow. Her head slowly turned with shock and confusion, while her past self– No, this couldn’t be her past self if this never– ran to the visage with her arms outstretched.

“Metal-!” She whispered, embracing perfection close like she owned her. 

Breezie stood, frozen in place, her eyes wide as she took in the image in front of her. Her heart lurched low into her stomach, as claws caressed a synthetically furred cheek, before skating down to squeeze her gloved hand. 

The two ran out the door, and Breezie stumbled after them. Her eyes stretched wide as they ran through the halls- but where those two lucky, awful, illusions got to run into the light together she found herself somehow lagging behind with each step, before she was running alone- hearing only her heels clicking through the halls.

Until she heard it, until she felt it. As the heavy ruby lagged in her hand, she could feel a metallic foot trying to materialize behind her, beside her—And it was urging her. 

This could really be ours. If you let it be. The world around her melted as she came to a stop as a familiar voice purred over her shoulder. The past doesn’t have to stay that way.  She could feel a weight, lean over her shoulder, the conscious space of two bodies just inches apart. It can be changed by you. Breezie could see herself, the memory of walking out of Robotnik’s base alone, before seeing it shimmer away in a glamour of red light.

Breezie drummed her fingers along the spiraling edges of the ruby, its power prickling across every fiber of her fur and coursing through every wire she once thought to be a vessel. Her eyes darkened around its tender pulse, before she squeezed it back into her pocket along with the suffocating feelings that filled her chest.

“…No, not quite.” She muttered, turning her head back to the window.

Chapter Text

[ROULETTE ROAD… Blazing Through Lap 3]

“Out of my way, Sonic!” Shadow growled, attempting a half hearted push against his shoulder as the two hedgehogs rushed through the brightly lit track.

“C’mon man! No reason to be so competitive!” Sonic shoved back, his smirk refusing to be wiped off so easily. “No matter who wins, the Phantom Ruby will be safe!”

“Like I’d let you win regardless!” Shadow sped forward, “If you’re so relaxed about this, then move aside!”

“Shadow is taking the lead!”

Sonic grinned cockily as he carved a line through the other competitors. Can’t shake a challenge can ya! Well! Who’d I be not to oblige! Shadow let out a yell of frustration as the blue blur took a ramp and flew above him, before landing with a slight bump on the ground. Sonic let out a whoop of excitement. Guess the ultimate lifeform would have to deal with second place this time!

“Sonic makes a perfect landing and takes advantage of his speed boost! Unless he drops his guard, he should easily win first place!”

Cheers radiated from the crowds as he made a hard drift, reaching out a hand to twiddle his fingers as best as he could to the gated back audience members reaching back. His board sparked with energy, and it felt like he was grinding out every bit of speed he could out of the track below him. It didn’t beat running, but with the way the wind roared in his ears, it got a close second. Nothing could stop him now.

“But what’s this–?”

“What’s what?” Sonic turned his head, before shouting as a racer hard rammed into him.

An action, he could forgive, if he didn’t dodge the second attempt just a breath later. He grinded his board down, breaking for just a moment and watching his competitor careen into the wall with sparks flying in the air and an almost explosive collision. Sonic burst forward, hoping to lose the disoriented racer in his dust, only for them to catch up with a dangerous level of insistence.

Who the heck was that? Shadow? Was he really playing that hard? Sonic chanced a look over his shoulder, and narrowed his eyes at the racer now neck and neck with him. Clothed in a now flaming tarp, he watched as the fabric burned away, revealing the now soot covered shine of yellow steel and two twin turbines now revving up from its back.

“Metal Tails!?” Sonic shouted, before getting his lungs pumped with smoke as the robotic menace boomed forwards, its boosters trailing tails of exhaust behind. Well, that’s a mouthful and a half.

“Mr Sonic! Are you okay?” Cream rode up next to him, the pack of racers already catching up. Sonic waved a hand, coughing and fanning away what he could before holding up a bright thumbs up.

“It’s all good! Keep it up from behind! I’ll take out this partycrasher!” Sonic exclaimed, shooting forward the best he could with Shadow riding up from behind. The dark hedgehog glared and Sonic sent a look of boiling confidence back. “Looks like you can still aim for First Place!”

“Tch! I will succeed over both of you!” Shadow proclaimed, zooming away from him with a focused expression. Sonic drew his eyes forward, smoothing back his quills before taking another trick jump forward.

“Brain is building speed!”

“Unless that was good improv, it seems like you’re an actual competitor!” Sonic watched the robot’s head swivel around to glare at him. The doppelganger burst forward but he gave a hard slam to its side, demanding its attention. “Nuh uh! If you’re here, that means you’ve got friends with you! And I don’t like the chances of those guys going forward! So you’re stuck with me, bud!"

The two drove their boards into each other, Sonic grimaced as hard steel dug against his fur and spines. He let out a quick breath when Brain grinded forwards, but braved ramming into it again seeing others pass them by. The two separated once more as they flew off their own respective ramps and he hit a wobbly landing as Sonic watched the robot glide above. He burst forward, not giving it a second of relief when it hit the ground and faced the consequences of a brutal zap to him and his board.

It let out a puff of distress, and Sonic internally grieved Tails’s hard work, but that could wait. He needed this robot out- and with the finish line so close…

“It’s neck and neck!”

…Sonic crashed back into the bot, over- and over again. He could hear fans cheer on the sidelines, and the sounds of his board wheezing for energy and speed. But suddenly, as they reached the final few paces, he felt his board tilt– Brain hit the brakes, a split second of backing up giving it the perfect moment to burst forward- flipping Sonic around and sending him and his board spinning out backwards.

He let out a wheeze of surprise and pain as he slammed into something before hitting the ground hard. His board slipped beneath his feet and he clutched his head- as the wind picked up around him and whatever poor schmuck he took out braced themselves against the other riders swerving around them and across the finish line.

Sonic looked up blearily beyond the finish line, catching the glint of Brain’s eyes looking toward him tauntingly - wagging a finger. He laughed weakly, “Fair enough! If it’s like that… why play nice, anyway, right..!” And slumped down against the track’s felt ground.

…Only for Shadow to grasp him by the backspines and heave him up. “YOU-”

“Bwuh. Oh, hey, Shadow. Did you see that?”

Shadow’s eye twitched. “SEE IT? You spun out into me ! We both wiped out ! You dragged me down WITH YOU- ” He shook Sonic, his exasperated and appalled expression stretching his eyes wide.

“Hey, hey, that bot was the one that got you into this, cool off!” Sonic swatted Shadow’s hand, provoking the ultimate lifeform to heave him up by the chest-fur instead, reeling back a fist.

“Excuse me–”

The two hedgehog’s heads snapped over at the Egg-Pawn that had addressed them.

“Track maintenance. Any eliminated racers, please leave the racing grounds through your designated exit zones.”

Shadow turned slowly back to Sonic, eyes fiery and ready to boil over with rage. Sonic grimaced sympathetically - and for the impending hit.

~

[OFF-TRACK… Barely ten minutes on]

Shadow shoved through the crowd to where he could spot Omega sat in the audience, with Rouge perched on top of him. She quickly caught sight of the hedgehog by the time he was a few rows away, waving over her head. He waved back shortly, keeping his head down.

“Theeere you are! We didn’t want to think about leaving without you, no matter what mood or state that wipeout got you in.” She accentuated her last clause with a playful tone, leaning down from Omega’s shoulder to nudge Shadow in the cheek when he got close enough.

He huffed softly, tightening his hand into a fist. “I’m unscathed. But both me and the hedgehog are eliminated, and Team Mecha is either armed with egg tech or one of Robotnik’s bots in the flesh. Sonic said he had something in mind, but he’s already failed this once . We only had one race remaining, this should’ve been an easily executed operation.” Shadow scowled. “...Sorry, Silver.”

Silver was sat on the other side of Omega- with a corndog and a bittersweet smile - wearing a grey shirt with ‘I’m With Team Dark’ scrawled across it. “It’s okay..! Thank you for randomly making the choice to invite me!”

A sympathetic look was exchanged from the entire team, with Shadow taking a weary breath.

“I can’t believe he’d even allow himself to lose so catastrophically, with so much on the line.” He smeared his palm down his face. “It’s ridiculous - I should’ve known I couldn’t put faith in him to take this as seriously as me. Ugh… At the very least, it shouldn’t be hard to override Breezie’s security systems - at least, I’m assuming, Rouge.”

…There was no witty response. He froze, eyes widening as he glanced up to Omega’s unoccupied shoulder, where his friend should be sat. “Rouge? Where did she…” Anxiety crawled up in his chest, glancing around.

Omega didn’t offer any insight regarding her location, simply holding out a plastic cup to Shadow. “SODA?” Shadow stared at him bewildered, glancing to Silver who wore a stare as placid as cardboard.

~

[BREEZIE’S OFFICE… In the midst of all of this]

“No. No. Nononon no– No!” Breezie snarled, throwing a remote through the holographic display. Her fist shook at her side, a silent relief prickling at the back of her mind that her rage hadn’t cost another TV. She smoothed back her quills. She would not let his inherited anger be her’s, but the ceiling had started crashing in, she couldn’t help but panic. Her teeth dug hard into her knuckles.

She was running out of control. It was all so perfect at the start- how did it fall apart so quickly?! The Rogues, she could hold her breath, the hedgehogs? If it was only one of them, that would be just fine– but both in one go? Her eyes narrowed. If neither Sonic nor Shadow made it through, whoever the ruby landed in the hands of… It– It– It could be anyone!?

“Ugh!” Breezie slammed her hands on her desk. This wasn’t how this stupid race was supposed to happen. She glared up at her glowing screen, clicking her fingers impatiently on the wood. She swiped through the different, various footage. Reporters desperately trying to get a word in with Sonic, security cameras scanning for meddlers, audience members shocked and scrambling– 

A cloaked figure, blue smothered beneath a cowl reaching towards the now revealed Metal Tails who had snuck into a ‘safe’ area away from the eyes of the panicking public. The cloaked figure hastily threw a new smock over the yellow doppelganger, and Breezie’s eyes squinted- seeing an all-too familiar metal hand. 

She took in a heavy breath. 

She knew it was her.

She knew it was her the moment she applied. 

But part of her had yearned regardless…

Breezie shook her head, a whirlwind of thoughts finally settling in. She had to play around this somehow, right? There had to be something she could do. She was here. So close. Vividly so. It’d been so long since they’d been face to face- but if she was here then there was no way the ruby and her could come close– Breezie’s hand drifted towards the stone- gripping it between her fingers.

It hurt. Oh Gaia it stung so much. Energy coursed through her fur, she almost thought she could smell an electrical fire stirring up from her synthetic fur. But no, it was worse than that. She could feel herself saddled with these- unnecessary feelings- and they were only being emblazoned. Where was this cursed thing taking her now? When it wasn’t their first meeting, when it wasn’t what she wished she’d done– What in Gaia’s name now?!

“Breezie,”

Her head snapped upwards. Memory bound wire printed her a picture perfect painting for her. Breezie’s face twitched, and her head rose as she remembered her warm coppery timbre, how she loomed so beautifully above her against the rising skyline, still being built piece by piece. 

Reality met her in its souring beauty as they stood in front of each other, and Breezie’s innerworkings felt like they were being gutted as Neo leaned away— Her obsession more enticing than anything- everything- Breezie could offer her. Sonic. Sonic. Sonic. Nothing could beat the allure of being Sonic. Not even her! Breezie could feel her functions roar in her ears as the world darkened red at its edges.

Neo– Neo she wanted her, she wanted her too, but she turned away from it– Why!? She knew why. She could change why. 

She could just snip one thing, and then another, and then it’d be perfect. But why stop there? Breezie could change everything. She felt it. The power was right in her hand– Rip Eggman out of the equation, no master for anyone to crumble beneath. Pluck out Sonic, and whoever would take his place, so no more fixation could be in their way– Breezie could mold everything around just them, just her and Neo–!

A world where Neo never lost her freedom, a world she knew they both wanted, a world–!

[CASINO PARK… If You Go All In]

Breezie paused, the air rushing around her pausing- like it was taking a single breath. Perhaps the only breath there was around them in a million mile radius. 

Everything was quiet. All that met her was smog. Her shoulders shot upwards with fear when a mechanical hand took her own, but when she looked up– There was Neo, by her side. Exactly where she wished. The only thing with her in a complete world of ruin.

Is this all there is? Her voice failed to ask. Dark eyes met her, before looking away to the wasteland of their world. Nothing left to rise from, nothing left to conquer. The difference between exoskeleton and bone meant nothing, it was all, just, nothing. 

She closed her eyes.

And then opened them, her office meeting her like a flashbang. The businesswoman immediately turned away- stuffing the Ruby back into its case where she never should’ve removed it from. Breezie let out a breath. It doesn’t matter if I can't rig who wins. What matters is… She glared out the window. I decide what I want. And the house always wins. She turned with a flourish and marched out of the office.

As her face disappeared behind the elevator’s gilded doors, a distant pair of feet landed upon the plush carpet, pausing to confirm Breezie wasn’t coming back– then continuing, with the room and its treasure at their disposal.

Chapter Text

[CASINO PARK… Bright and Early]

Pinball Highway was already on level with the middle floor of Breezie’s tallest skyscrapers. That was the thrill of it, her engineer argued. “Something to make your stomach drop around a sharp turn”, was her specific wording. Sure enough, if you’d asked Breezie right that morning - as she teetered off the edge of one of said skyscrapers with a wide view of the track…

Yes, any stomach she could’ve had would’ve been free-falling. She held taut to the handlebar of the E-Rider, chancing a glance down at the high street far, far below. Yikes. Her eyes dragged to the motorcyclist helmet held under her arm. Perhaps this is going to be way less than enough. 

She wheezed a tight breath out between her teeth. “This is fine. You’re just- doing what Sonic would have. It’s not hard to think like Sonic.” Breezie let her eyes fall shut for a moment, imagini- “No nevermind it’s far more agonising than it’s worth.”

The racers slowly filed in, one by one by the third until she was eyeing down the last hopes she had for this competition. A third of the chaotix and renown-in-her-circle Amy Rose weren’t exactly pushovers, but Metal Sonic was a different beast. Her beast. There was only one hedgehog to meet her match, and he had already been undercut.

Breezie cricked the joint in her neck– not that she needed to. In hindsight, she supposed the doctor must have baked all those “organic-isms” into her so she wouldn’t suspect anything to be out of the ordinary…

A groan pushed past her lips as the oversized jumbotron jolted to life for the third and final time that week, her pre-recorded visage springing to life in front of a fly-over of the track that awaited them. 

She sighed heavily, the words wafting in and out one ear. “...can’t imagine what it took to get this far…” She drummed her fingers against the handlebar. “...be ready to go out with a bang…” Self-consciousness gnawed inward at Breezie’s hollow chest. Did she really talk this much? “...and don’t get cooked! Start your engines!” She quickly jolted awake and shoved the helmet over her head.

As her past self flickered away to a countdown, Breezie breathed stiffly and fixed the collar on her jacket, ‘HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE’ ironed across its back in bold letters. Out of the ordinary- that was right, she was far from the ordinary. She hammered this barrel into one piece and she’d blow it and its fish to smithereens.

The countdown came to a blaring stop, and she slammed her sole down on her gear’s pedal. The E-Rider’s engine roared alive, and Breezie careened off the skyscraper’s edge toward the starting line. She grimaced for the impact, flinching away from the sight of the ground growing closer and closer. 

[PINBALL HIGHWAY… Barely Made It]

Her landing, while successful, was rough - a grotesque scratching sound splitting the air as there would definitely be a horrible scuff on the extreme gear’s undercarriage to have buffed later. The bike ricocheted back into place from the impact, Breezie barely lifting herself up and out of the way as she corrected her balance. 

The crimson-painted asphalt below fell into a smooth blur, allowing her to glide easily across the road. Right- she had this handled. All planned out- nothing more to catch her off guard.

“But what’s this?! Sonic has entered the racing track!”

“WWWW WhAt!?” Breezie snapped her head around. And there he was, stabilising himself with barely a look of effort on his face after no doubt an equally high drop. The blue blur didn’t acknowledge her - his piercing emerald eyes trained straight ahead - as he steered his board into the terrifying gusts of wind Breezie was doing her best to avoid.

He cut into the slipstream, and was sent flying forwards, feeding Breezie his dust with the rest of the flailing pack. He soon reached its end in seconds, flying out of it with a flip that landed him right next to one shocked Amy Rose.

“Sonic!?” She exclaimed, “You’re not supposed to be here!”

“Spitefully speaking, neither is she!” He remarked, pointing to Metal up ahead. The pink hedgehog took a moment to pretend she was thinking before nodding.

“Good motive!” Amy grinned, making him bark out a laugh. She held up a hand, “Don’t let me stop you! Go get her, Sonic!”

“Thanks, Ames!” He shouted, giving her a crisp high five before rocketing after the robot. 

Breezie huffed from the back, eyes narrowing. Okay. OKAY! The business woman looked around wildly at the other racers around her,grinding spectacularly while she flailed to keep her head. Just. Do what Sonic does! Do what Sonic does! Gaia that's gonna get me killed-! Come on–! Squeezing her handlebars tight and urging her engine to go faster.

She bulleted forward, pushing herself as hard as she could from slipstream to slipstream- shouts of confused competitors being ignored as she swerved past them. Breezie had a hedgehog she needed to wring the ear of, and she’d finally caught up right next to him- seeing his face shift from adrenaline fueled determination to sly cheekiness.

“Oh? Is the fun police here to give me a ticket? Sorry! But I don’t slow down for those!” Sonic remarked. Breezie frowned, flipping down her visor to give him an eyeful of her annoyed glare. His expression stretched, “Breezie!?”

“You shouldn’t be here, Mr Hero!” She scowled, “You already lost!”

“Oh so you don’t want my help?” Sonic crossed his arms sourly before swinging one out to point forward, “I’m all for a fair race, but Metal’s on her way to win the ruby, and I’m not letting that happen!”

Breezie opened her mouth to respond, only for her gut to drop. No. No this wasn’t right. This was inefficient. If Metal really wanted the ruby, why in the world would she finish a stupid race? She revved her engine, urging Sonic to keep up as they gained more speed. As adaptive as Metal was made to be, she was as one-note as her creator. If she wanted something, she was going to get it, and it was going to be by force.

“Metal Sonic built this place from the ground up,” She managed her drifts cautiously against the steady upward climb of the track. “If anybody knows her way around, it’s her. With her speed-”

“ My speed-” Sonic interjected, earning a furnace-fresh scowl from the woman.

“-and her navigation, she’ll find the ruby in moments.” Breezie’s face fell a little, eyes going slightly distant. “She’s probably already worked out her route. The race doesn’t matter anymore, we just need to keep her on-track.

Sonic and Breezie swerved around eachother’s trail, keeping on Metal Sonic’s slipstream. The blue hedgehog squinted, “I’ve busted through this place before. Won’t Metal have to go through security to get to the ruby? That’ll buy us time, right?”

Breezie swallowed. Sure, she only needed a fraction of her staff to guard the charging ports around the facility. But that didn’t save the fact that she knew her own paranoia, and that no guards awaited Metal Sonic’s siege.

“...Breezie-” Sonic repeated with a more urgent tone.

“-Metal and I have known one another longer than the two of you have been at it. No matter how long it’s been, we know each other's moves better than anyone. It’s safer to presume she knows the best place to look.”

Sonic took in her words and adjusted his weight on his gear, paralleling her wavering movements. “Aaaand where would that be?”

“My office,” She answered curtly, weaving ahead of the hedgehog.

“Big fancy windows? Nice curtains?”

Breezie grumbled, “When you put it like that- wait, how do you-?”

Sonic pointed ahead, as Metal made a steady climb up the track. “This incline’s coming up on it. Call me crazy, I don’t think she’s gearin’ up for a wide turn.”

“Dammit…!” Breezie sucked in a breath, feeling the dread burn down to her wires. The track’s structure was practically leaving her office open to Metal, gift-wrapped for her troubles. 

As her momentary haze fell away, she revved up the gear and blasted ahead of Sonic, who faltered in her slipstream to catch up. “Woah, what’re you doing!?”

“I’m cutting her off, she can’t get in there.” Breezie retorted sharply, synthetic fur blistering against the wind as she chased after Metal.

“You’re insane, she’ll steamroll right through you!”

And I’ll get put back together, she wanted to say- say it with so much contempt to shove the righteousness in the hedgehog’s oblivious little face.

“-And, it’ll knock her off-course. Giving you an opening. It’s worth it, I’ll make it out with barely a scratch.” She boasted, as loudly as she could to smother the fear glittering in her circuits. Rather it be her to turn me into scrap, than The Doctor.

Sonic’s face was hardened like stone, before steering to make way for her. “If you’re sure y’know what you’re doing…”

Breezie scoffed, tossing her helmet to the wayside and flicking her quills. “Oh, please– I saw it in a movie once.”

“What movie?” Sonic kept up her bravado, grinning playfully.

“Begging for a good word? You know I don’t believe in free promotion.” Breezie caught Metal Sonic’s stream before Sonic could prod her for an elaboration. She sprung off the momentum, driving on a diagonal to catch up to Metal’s position as she approached the end of the incline. Breezie swerved, leaning the E-Rider so far toward the ground that her shoulder clipped against the track. She bit back a hiss and came to a sharp stop in Metal Sonic’s way.

Her heart pounded as the robot blazed ahead, closing in on Breezie and leaving her with nothing to do but squeeze her eyes shut and brace for the clash.

An ear-splitting screech blasted her sensors from inches in front of her. Her eyelids twitched open skittishly, taking in the red irises blaring before her own. Metal Sonic had stopped on a dime, leering barely a breath’s distance away from her. If either of them could truly breathe, that was. Breezie’s shoulders relaxed against her better judgment, confusion cascading across her face. She should be in pieces, but only her arm was barely left with a scratch.

“...Why didn’t-” Breezie barely got to whisper two words before Metal seemed to rapidly reboot, foregoing her gear and veering around the hedgehog to rocket off-course and straight to her office. Breezie’s internal battery buzzed, her console stuttering on the scene for several ticks, struggling to even begin to process what any of it could have implied.

She shook in place, barely registering the true hedgehog beside her as he exchanged a look of concern, then charged a spindash that left an angry black mark on the asphalt.

The only good thing about Metal being ahead was that Sonic could avoid the rain of glass as he spun himself off the track and into the air. Crowds gasped and shouted, and faintly through the wild wind deafening him from all earthly things, he could hear the announcer give him a stellar 10 on the backflip- before he narrowly caught himself on the edge, standing in a jagged hedgehog-shaped hole. 

[THE HEART OF MADNESS… At The Climax]

“Waugh,” Sonic swung his arms, teetering into a stronger balance to pin Metal with a cocky stare. “Hey now, collateral damage isn’t how I roll! Where’s the dedication to your act, buddy?”

Metal’s turbine stuttered and buzzed - from damage or fury, Sonic couldn’t begin to know. She clawed into the wool ground, heaving herself up to make a break for the tinted item case that held the ruby. Sonic matched her advance around Breezie’s desk, snatching up the case and stancing himself on a bent knee with a grin that was all cheek.

“What’s the matter - can’t keep up? Nothing new for you- hwoh!” He ducked as Metal swiped for his face. She rounded the desk, Sonic mirroring her with equal speed. Their petty chase became a blue-red blur around the table, the air around them whirring with footfall and engine blasts.

“I could do this forever,” Sonic spat, taunting Metal as he ran backwards and sent her a piercing glare. “But you’re on my time, ain’t’cha? Sooner or later, you’ll run out of energy. That’s what makes me the real deal..” 

Sonic switched anti-clockwise, barrelling at Metal with a foot planted on her chest. Her lenses flickered up scathingly to the blue menace as he waggled his finger.

“…I NEVER slow down!” He announced with that sure-fire smirk.

No hum or buzz accentuated Metal’s movements as her body turned too far for her head and her legs bent to kick the hedgehog off his feet. Her claws snatched the item case clean out of the air as Sonic hit the ground with a hiss of pain.

She turned the case between thin, tinny fingers - cracking it open with an ominous creak and holding it overhead almost to gloat to Sonic: his loss, her victory, the birth of a fresh era of chaos beneath the Phantom Ruby’s glow…

…All of that promised delight sunk like a stone, as the item case held nothing but still air. Her vitality died as quick as the programmed praise for an achieved mission cancelled its execution.

Sonic and Metal stared, from below and from above, at the empty case, a heavy and uncharacteristically slow silence growing louder between them. After a while, the organic beneath her had the gall to snicker and push to his feet.

“Huh.. heh- Talk about a rug-pull, am I right?”

Her head dropped to meet his gaze with a full-throttle glare, tracking his movement as he circled her. Walking so calmly, as if the fight was forgotten with no moult to trace its shape. He motioned vastly with his hand, “All that rough-and-roundhousing, fore-fronting the entire race…”

He whistled a little, staring off into something out of the physical space. Then his head snapped right back to look at Metal, smirking right into his reflection in her visor.

“And you’re still gonna crawl back to that egghead with only failure in your hands.” Sonic made sure to say the words slow, sinking them past Metal’s auditory sensors like tar.

Metal’s body was stiff as the cockiness rolled over her. Servos twitching one degree one way then the other. Lenses constricting.

Sonic chuckled, brushing off one of his back spines. “Some bummer, am I right?”

The stench of burnt wool was unfortunately the first thing to register to Sonic, and not his double barrelling forward off a blazing turbine, leaving scorch marks across the ground in her wake and swiping at his face. He caught it soon enough to lean back, but so late that a few quills were sent flying off his brow. 

She carried the momentum into a full-body shove, pinning Sonic to the ground and beginning to batter him. One fist crashed into his cheek, then the opposite into the other. With the increasing speed of her punches came more power, and Sonic blocked his face with his arms - bracing against the harsh metal pistoning downward. He’d get out with some bruises after this for sure, but he preferred it to becoming hedgehog purée.

Still, Metal was voracious - her fists wouldn’t stop bashing. To anyone else, moving too fast to see more than a blur. But Sonic’s eyes were on Metal. The intense red of her robotic irises burned into his retinas with so much tangible fury, that Sonic for once found her act believable - that she could feel just like him.

He almost gagged on the way his gut turned with dread. “Woah-hey!” Sonic interjected between blows, “Steady there, you lost already-”

Metal Sonic did not stop; Metal Sonic did not search, in the gaps her blinding speed allowed her, for an opening; Metal Sonic did not put up any intelligence, however artificial, in her fight.

Metal Sonic had failed horribly, and the only way to return even semi-victorious was to leave this blasted doppelganger no more than a grinning smear on the floor she built.

The two hedgehogs rolled together across the carpet - with Sonic blocking and exchanging hits to try and shake Metal off, while she would only pause to pick Sonic up and slam him into the ground. They came to a stop at the ledge the shattered window had created; Sonic’s head dangled over it as he let out a disoriented groan, staring at Casino Park upside-down. Breezie still stood on Pinball Highway’s edge, eyes widening with growing horror.

Sonic deliriously scoffed, “Nice hustle, high roller! You coulda told me you had the ruby moved!” 

“I didn’t!” Breezie snapped back. It was unlike her to be whipping out any less than full sentences. The hedgehog should’ve won, the ruby should’ve been there, this should’ve been out of her hands by the first starting line-

With a steady mechanical whir, Metal Sonic’s leg rose at the knee, steel foot held over Sonic’s head like a tolling bell. His eyes squeezed shut, tensing for the stomp.

A loud bang sent Sonic’s ears ringing for a moment, blinking up blearily with a decidedly ‘un-smooshed’ face. Soot marked the side of Metal’s head, still smoking from a fresh explosive impact that she was evidently still recovering from. She turned to the source of the blow with a grating creak from her neck joint.

“Is this what you’re looking for, Blue?”

The condescending tone hit Sonic’s ears through the tinnitus, swerving his head to follow Metal’s scowl. “Rouge?!”

The bat was perched nonchalantly on the railing of a distant catwalk. Between her hands, she juggled a bomb and a glittering pink stone that both ‘Sonic’s recognised in an instant. 

Rouge grinned all too wide, “Who knew an amateur heist like this was going to cause such a riot!” She spun the Phantom Ruby on her finger.

Breezie’s ear flicked. “A renowned thief on my property, on top of all of this - I should’ve known something was suspicious about your absence from your lackeys-”

“Not like you made it hard for me, princess,” Rouge barked out a laugh at the hedgehog’s burning face. “Anywho, it was sweet of you to leave no pawns in either of our way - but how about we wrap this romp up all clean-like?” Her gaze narrowed as Metal Sonic left her rival forgotten in lieu of jetting towards Rouge. She descended from the rail just short of Metal’s collision, cutting through the air like it knew to make way for her. 

Metal wrenched her head from the railing, turbine hissing with smoke as she blazed after the bat, following her smooth glides and dives with red-hot zigzags. 

Breezie watched with a slow clutch over where her heart would’ve been, Metal burning lines in her vision that refused to leave.

Rouge cursed under her breath as Metal narrowly missed her wing. “ Goddamn. Oi, Royal Blue, downtime’s over. Go long!” She shouted over her shoulder at the sprawled-out Sonic, lobbing the ruby through the air.

Sonic shook out his quills, springing from the ledge to snatch up the ruby and carry the momentum into a rolling landing on the highway, right at Breezie’s side.

He rolled his shoulder, “Whew! What a ride,” he sprung his nose with his thumb. “Uh, hold this.”

Before Breezie could offer any absent-minded rebuttal, the ruby was in her hands again and Sonic was but a pair of footprints in the carpet. The ruby’s energy cascaded through the entirety of her once again, suppressing an agonised scream as it singed beneath her fur. The triumphant shouts above her twisted away, bubbling beneath that horrific red sky again. 

There was no more fight, just the wasteland she’d seen the night before. Pinball Highway’s incline peeled back to a straight, leveled ground that would never inhabit life again. She looked dully through the smog, gritting her teeth as the negative energy continued to simultaneously over-and-underpower her systems.

Neo Metal Sonic stood just as she always did, surrounded by the unraveling world. Watching it passively, like one might stargaze or look for nameable shapes in the clouds. Her boots thudded heavily as she turned, staring down Breezie expectantly.

She could have mistook the look as, seeking out praise - waiting for fury, anything. But Breezie saw the bare corroded rust beneath her now tattered gloves holding the ruby. She wasn’t to be spared of this ruin.

Metal was simply waiting for her to topple over for the last time.

“...You’d be to blame for all of this, wouldn’t you.” Breezie’s voice was broken with defeated awe. She walked, creaking like any rusted badnik, right up to the false hedgehog.

Her hand - crumbling away from oxidation and devastation - reached to cup Neo Metal Sonic’s cheek. “You beautiful monster.”

The mirage was split as the real Metal Sonic’s body landed and slid to a stop in front of her, smoking and staggering. Breezie stared down at the robot, her hands unscathed again as she was grounded back in reality. Metal’s head lifted slowly, meeting her gaze and ceasing to move. The world around them still turned, the relay distantly continuing nevermind this roadside… “security breach”.

Breezie hesitated forward. Then continued, outstretching her welcoming hand to Metal’s head. The robot flinched, glanced sideward, then slammed her fist down and blasted off-site with whatever was left of her faltering turbine’s power. Breezie stood, immobilised, for a long minute - allowing the real world to wash its way back in. Her muzzle scrunched up in distress, hand falling from where Metal’s darling face would have been to hang uselessly at her side.

Rouge and Sonic’s figures rose into view from off the turn’s edge - with Sonic dangling from Rouge’s grip with a big cocky grin. “Hey, look at that! You scared ‘er off.”

The green hedgehog offered no response as she sighed, shrugging and looking over the ruby in her hold… and then Sonic’s outstretched hand. His look was quietly expectant (just like Neo’s, she thought), like she might attempt to bolt.

In all of her mania and lasting shock, Breezie pushed a completely normal laugh from her lungs. “Oh, please. Keep it for all I care! The old thing was a lousy paperweight anyway.” She waved her hand at him dismissively. “Consider it ‘compensation’ for your ‘voluntary work’. A participation trophy. Whatever you do-gooders wanna call it.”

Sonic and Rouge exchanged a confused look, before the latter shrugged. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, ma’am. Though I doubt you’ll get much with all the inevitable clean-up..” Rouge motioned to the giant hole in her office window. All those tempered glass expenses.

Breezie’s laugh squeezed painfully, “Ahahah, of course …” 

~

Wherever you are, I cannot be with you. But know that I yearned to be so.

Breezie leaned against her desk, watching her city flourish through a hedgehog shaped hole in her grand window. Her eyebrows narrowed, as she slowly spun a glass of champagne in her hand.

Part of me hopes it's lonely, to be without me. 

“A failure! A complete embarrassment of a failure!” Eggman ranted angrily as he screwed one of Metal’s loose panes back in. Her sensors fizzled at the sensation she could only associate with pain, before gazing down at her oil pricked claws. “Of all the ways we could’ve lost that stupid rock again– It was due to both of those awful hedgehogs! She’ll pay for this! I swear she’s going to pay for this!

Maybe that’s selfish. But I think we’ve both worked too hard to carve out that luxury into our programmed hard drives.

The businesswoman gazed down at her nicked arm, a slit opened into wire and oil that she would soon expose to Grounder, or Coconuts, or whichever of the three boys she decided to trust fixing to. Either way– that wasn’t now. That was later. When she was done musing over it, caressing over it, and treating their last touch like it was something reverent instead of accidental.

It’s a waste of RAM to even think about you, especially now.

“Damn it all, I’ve got too much of a stinkin’ headache to fix you completely tonight. Power down, conserve your energy, and we’ll continue where we left off tomorrow.” Metal tracked her master and every heavy step he took before he completely escaped her view. She slinked off the operating table, and limped pathetically to her consolation prize; the window view.

After all, what we could’ve had is over.

It was nighttime in Casino Park. The hedgehog swallowed down another gulp of her drink.

What we wanted never had never existed.

It was dawn at the Eggbase. Metal squeezed her fist at her side, imagining a hand interlaced with her claws.

And what we could’ve been was doomed.

Breezie blinked, surprised by the moisture against her cheek. Setting down her glass of champagne and wiping pathetically at her eyes. The alcohol dripping down her face would grow sticky and messy without cleaning, as would her optics. What a terrible system to make a robot cry. It was a hassle- An utter hassle- But soon, she was clean.

She let out a breath, and gazed up at her shattered glass. Walking over, she traced the imperfect outline of perfection, and let it prick her through her gloves until she had been satisfied by the sensation. Breezie’s lips pressed together- as she stepped through the silhouette and stood still along the balcony’s edge and closed her eyes to the cold night air.

A soft gust of wind rippled across her sensors, brushing through her quills and fur.

They would replace the glass tomorrow, and there would be no trace left of Neo.

Sonic and his friends would take the ruby far, far, away– and there would be no trace left of her mirages.

But there would be here, until the end of time, ruling above it all, somehow, someway. And for once, Breezie didn’t feel the utmost pride about that idea. Nor did she feel a foolish hope for anything else. There was simply the wind, the breeze, the city below and the sky above. And somewhere, there was Metal- witnessing the sun and not the moon- But there, vivid, in the world she was living in.

But you were here today.

Metal stared out through the window of this noxious base, looking through clouds of factory smog towards an endless red skyline. Her claws pressed together, circling the feeling of oil for her mind to comprehend and layer over.

But you were here today.

Breezie returned inside with her gaze farther than any ‘now’.

But you were here, once.

Metal clawed lines down the window until she reached the hard edge.

And that’s enough to keep missing you.