Chapter Text
It lived.
A single eye cracked open. It twitched as cool water hit its eye before settling, looking out at the world through the sliver of an opening.
“Sir, your attention please.”
“What is it? …Oh!”
Light. Water. It knew these concepts. It knew of a third, and it was blissfully absent. Pain. The idea of pain was embedded deep into what passed for its psyche, and yet it wasn’t here.
“Brainwaves! Finally! I was almost ready to consider I might have done something wrong.”
“You, sir? Never.”
“I know, I know. Check its vitals.”
A thing swam into focus, distorted by the shape of the container. It was… familiar. But different. Red, instead of gray. Wider than before.
“Its eye is open.”
“Do you think it can see us?”
“Bah. It only barely has a brain at all right now. It can’t process anything it’s looking at. More importantly, has it started generating chaos?”
“Minute amounts, but yes. Very promising.”
The shape went away, and was replaced by something blue. It was hard to see through the water, but piercing red eyes cut through the haze.
Its eye opened a little wider, trying to see the half-hidden figure clearly.
-----------------------------------
Eggman looked up and scowled. “Metal, step away from that! Sigma, keep an eye on its development.”
The large green robot blinked. “What about my other duties?” he asked, anxious.
He waved it off. “Bah, I’ll assign an Egg Pawn to the repair station. Three of them could do your job, easy. This is more important.”
Sigma tapped his fingers together. “...As you say.” He turned back to the tube. The organism’s single operating eye was slowly opening, focusing on Metal Sonic. The doppelganger had not moved as ordered, but Sigma wasn’t about to say anything. “Doctor, may I ask about your plans for Project Penumbra? The original specimen was not exactly stable, and, forgive me, biology is outside your usual specialties. Are you certain you can succeed where Gerald failed?”
Sigma winced, fearing reprisal, but the Doctor thankfully seemed to be in a good mood today and merely smirked. “Oh, I have plans alright.” He steepled his fingers. “Nothing you need to worry about until I get the first prototype up and running. Just monitor the specimen, keep it alive, and alert me for any drastic changes.”
The Doctor turned towards the door, waving dismissively. “Before I can get started, I have to send the war machine on an errand.”
And with that he was gone, the doors sliding shut behind him. Sigma suppressed an artificial sigh and turned back to Project Penumbra.
Metal was still staring at it.
Sigma whirred, concerned. “Is something wrong with it?” Metal had a more sophisticated sensory suite than even Sigma himself, so if there was anything going on that Sigma couldn’t sense, Metal Sonic would be the one to see it.
But the robotic hedgehog shook his head. “No. Just curious. The Doctor believes this to be his next great weapon, does he?”
“It seems so,” Sigma agreed warily. “Though--” He checked quickly, but there were no active feeds in the room. “--don’t tell anyone I said this, but I’m not sure he has a plan for what to do with it once it’s done, yet.”
Metal scoffed, finally turning away and stalking out of the room to who-knew-where. “That would hardly be a surprise…”
Sigma watched him go, then sighed for real. Things were so tense lately…
In the tube, Project Penumbra’s eye creaked closed.
[Heyu]
“Triplets? Seriously? Incredible.”
I took a sip from my cup and sifted through the papers in front of me. More newcomer applications, mostly, though my focus was on a schematic making use of Artificial Chaos Emeralds. The blueprints themselves meant less than nothing to me, but the accompanying brief explained how chaos energy converted to electricity well enough that three ACEs would be able to power the whole town once it was complete. This generator called for five, just in case.
I had no idea why I was given this, but I supposed it was good to know.
“Right? I’m so happy for them! They’re really making up for lost time! Charlotte’s practically glowing, though Wilbur’s been worried.”
“I bet.” I adjusted the phone to my other shoulder, setting my cup aside for the bartender to collect. “Eggs or live birth?”
“The doctor’s not sure. They were eggs in the ultrasound, but the shells look like they’re dissolving so they’re expecting a live birth, Wilbur said.”
“Wild. Let them know that if they ever need help, they can reach out,” I said firmly. “We’ve got more money than we know what to do with after that G.U.N. contract, and Humi refuses to spend any of it on parts when she can just scavenge instead. If they can’t open the shop while they’re taking care of freaking triplets--”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Hayden, that Honey Cat girl is capable of running the boutique while Charlotte’s out of commission. But I’ll let them know you offered.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“So, is anything new with you?” she asked. “Can I talk to Humi?”
“Maybe! Let’s see if I can find her.”
With that, I stood up, dropped a few bills on the counter and waved to Shelldon, then stepped outside with papers under my arm.
“As for me, things are… busy. Always so very busy,” I said looking around.
The town center--a bit of a misnomer, since we exclusively expanded towards the cliffs and the sea rather than towards the deep jungle, so it was actually the northernmost tip--not important. The town center was coming along nicely. Amy’s house was basically finished, just needed a coat of paint. Shelldon’s tavern was finished, with Fry’s truck parked behind it while he worked the kitchens. The music studio was constantly giving off some tune or other. Spud’s farm had expanded into a few new plots.
“We’re better than ever after that attack, and the new houses are coming along great too. You guys should come visit, it’s way different than it was when you came for Easter.”
Mom laughed. “I just might! After all, you’ve got a big day coming up!”
“Mm.”
Almost a full year now. I wonder if Humi even realized.
Just over eleven months ago, I was just a random nobody cashier. Just eleven months ago my home got destroyed by a giant water dragon god. Just eleven months ago I met Humi, a little gremlin of a mouse who wormed her way into my heart so thoroughly that I could hardly remember what it was like to live without her.
I looked up and saw some of her robot squirrels flying over towards the cliffs, each of them carrying some scrap metal they probably got from the Final Egg, that old base of Robotnik’s from our first adventure.
“Have you found her yet?”
“No, I don’t hear her. She’s probably still out at the Egg Carrier. She’s been spending a lot of time out there, stripping it for parts--”
“You let my adorable granddaughter go to a dangerous, slowly-sinking death trap alone?”
“Not alone,” I defended. “She took Waverly and Razor with her, plus the Clarion and two Heapfrogs. She’ll be fine.”
…Wait. When did I start thinking like that?
“I’m still not happy about it, but I guess if she’s not alone it’ll be fine,” Mom said.
I frowned to myself, bothered. I really should go check on her… I made sure she never went anywhere without a few rings to tank a hit for her, but… I shook my head.
My ears twitched, and I looked to see Iota waving at me from the gardens. The phone in my hand let out a burst of static that made me wince, and Iota’s voice filtered through.
“Apologies: Sorry, Mrs. Fiver, but I need to borrow Heyu for a moment.”
“Oh? I suppose I need to focus on my chili for a bit,” Mom said reluctantly. “I’ll let you have him then. Call me back soon!”
“Bye Mom, love you.” I flipped the phone closed and jogged over. “Since when could you do that?” I asked once I was next to Iota.
“Recently! Humi installed radio capabilities into each of us,” Iota explained. “Cavendish said he needed a way to coordinate the goodniks easier, and since Humi thinks Eggman might be able to hack into us if she lets her robots maintain a wireless connection like the Eggnet, this was her solution.” He blinked, then waved his hands. “But that’s not important! Heyu, look at this!”
I flinch back as he presses an envelope into my face. “Hey!” I took it and unfolded it with a grunt. “‘Mr. Y-Iota… Fiver,’ sure, I guess that’s your full name. ‘We at Central University’s Biology Department have reviewed your submitted footage and have found the information therein most intriguing. Given that additional recordings of yours were also used in an official Guardian Units of Nations public statement, we have deemed your submission reliable and worthy of further investigation. Our Professors of Zoology and Veterinary Sciences would like to lead a student expedition to properly describe the Queengem Bat in its natural habitat, and are requesting your help in reaching…’ Whoa.” I scanned the rest of the letter, which went on a bit about what was expected and when. I smiled. “Congrats, big guy!”
“Elation: They accepted my name suggestion! They want me on an expedition! My name will be attached to a legitimate new species description!” Iota shuffled in place in what could generously be called a happy dance.
I handed the letter back, opening up his chest compartment and slipping it inside. I grinned. “And all you’ve got to do is lead a bunch of college students back through those haunted mines and collapsed subway tunnels in Pumpkin Hill.”
Iota froze. “...Ah.”
I chuckled and gave him a pat on the back. “Ah, he says. You’ll be fine. Amy knows some occult stuff, we can ask her. And it’s not for a few months yet, so--”
“Say cheese!”
“Huh?” SNAP. “Agh?!” I screwed my eyes shut in the face of a way-too-big flash. “Oi!”
The tourist turned away without even a second glance as the photo printed, it being one of those instant cameras. I glared after them and elbowed Iota, who beeped. A second later, one of Humi’s Skwirlygigs descended carrying a box labelled ‘Donations for Rebuilding’ and shoved it in the tourist’s face. The robotic squirrel stared at their camera and chittered until they dropped a twenty in.
Hmph.
Time for a story. When I was growing up, I was, in fact, a fuzzy little bunny in a school alongside humans. Even after I got tall and gangly, I was still furry, big-eyed and smaller than most of my classmates. It wasn’t something often talked about, but Mobians? Generally, humans found us cute.
Our neighborhood in Central had plenty of human tourists coming in to check out the proportionately smaller buildings and marvel at the candy-colored citizens going about their lives, and a lot of my neighbors back then made their living taking advantage of that fact. It was something I got used to eventually--I had to or I’d have gone mad--but I was happy to leave it behind when I moved to Station Square. The Square had a slightly higher proportion of Mobian citizens and therefore a lot less gawkers, and my job mostly catered to locals.
But Station Square was ultimately a tourist city, and now there was a settlement on its outskirts that was A) a semi-active archeological site for a lost civilization, B) home to a couple dozen Mobians trying to live in a more traditional small community, and C) swarming with robots that could be trusted not to attack them like Robotnik’s. I really should have expected the tourists coming our way.
Good for business. Bad for privacy.
Thankfully that camera fiend was an outlier, but I still hoped that the fad would die down sooner rather than later, or else I might have to… I dunno. Privatize the train line leading here? Was that a thing I could do? Half the folks moving out here did so to get away from the city, and here it was, coming after them.
I’d have to talk to Maddie about limiting--I groaned. “Oh, damn it,” I murmured, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“What’s wrong?” Iota asked, concerned.
“I really hope Miss Gildenhall didn’t help fund this village just because she thinks we’re cute.” Maddie was a nice enough woman, but I’d be seriously cross if this whole thing turned out to be some rich woman’s idea of--of--of a model train set. “I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt but I’m definitely going to… something.” I sighed. “I need coffee.”
“But you hate coffee.”
“I said need, not want. Whatever. Have you seen Humi?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
Iota raised a finger, preparing to speak, but my ears twitched and I leaned to look past him, towards the cliffs. Iota turned to follow my gaze.
We both stared. “Iota, what do your robot eyes see?”
His cameras whirred as they zoomed in. “Report: That appears to be Waverly carrying a huge ball of scrap metal up the cliff.”
The twenty-five-foot whale scaled the mountain slowly before setting the junk on a clear space on the top of the plateau. She stood, dusted her hands off, and then freaking jumped back down, causing a shockwave that could be felt all the way where we were standing, half a mile away. I resisted the urge to smirk when that rude tourist from before stumbled and tripped into Spud’s field, catching themselves on Jackie the Scarecrow.
“And now the Smackrats are descending upon the pile, deconstructing it,” Iota informed.
(“What are you doing?!” Spud yelled. “Get your hands off my wife!”
“Wait, it was an accident, I swear!”)
I shook my head, amused. “What is she building up there?”
“It’s a landing pad!”
I jumped, whirling around. “Humi!”
She climbed up Iota before settling cross-legged on his head. “Don’t ask me what it’s for yet, it’s a surprise!”
I pointed at her, then towards the cliffs. “I thought you were--I didn’t hear you. Why didn’t I hear you?” I demanded.
She giggled. “I emptied my pockets! I wanted to see if I could sneak up on you!”
I blinked, relaxing. “Oh, good. That was pretty good, actually…”
“Humi, were you not at the Egg Carrier today?” Iota asked.
“No, I sent some bots out and asked Waverly to help move that, but I’ve been busy with something else.” Humi’s face grew a little more serious. “I’m basically done now. Since saving him was your idea, I figured you’d wanna be there when he woke up.”
I straightened, handing my paperwork off to Iota for storage. “He’s ready then? Lead the way.”
[M?e?c?h?a?]
Starting up…
Checking subsystems…
Reticulating splines…
Detecting errors…
…
Adaptive Processing: ONLINE
Encyclopedia: ONLINE
Tactical: ONLINE
Analytics: ONLINE
Memory: ONLINE
Net Connection: DISABLED
Weapon Systems: OFFLINE
…
Checks complete
No errors detected
Running…
What the heck was a spline and why would you reticulate it?
That was the first coherent thought he had once he came to full awareness.
…Everything felt weird.
Running diagnostics.
He read the data as it came in, growing more and more confused. His boosters were being ‘clamped’ at forty percent? What did that mean? He felt… soft? What was an ACES Drive and why had it replaced his reactor, and what did it mean that it had a current rating of 3?
…He had a chest compartment that was registering as ‘open.’ What was going on?
(“Three shards? Is there a reason you’re doing that instead of a full ACE?”
“It’s an experiment! See, all the artificial emeralds react to everything basically the same except for each other! If they’re different colors, they can interact in new and exciting ways!”
“What does the red blue and yellow combination do?”
“Hopefully we find out!”)
The voices… his audio receptors were still loading. He could hear, but it was murky; he was only comprehending every third word, but the voices were achingly familiar.
Diagnostics said his senses were undergoing a first-time activation booting sequence. His optics, too, but also… touch? He had one of those?
What did he remember? He remembered… confusion. Fear. Panic. Determination. Resolve. And something that he thought might have been pain, before cutting out.
Metal Sonic. His replacement, his predecessor. Eggman’s favorite. He was attacking… Fiver and Vanilla. And Mecha Sonic got in the way.
And now he was awake.
Why?
With a snap and a hiss, his ears came all the way on, followed by his speakers barking, his hands twitching, and finally his optics activating.
He was in a messy, sparsely decorated room with an obviously-patched hole in the ceiling and tools and machines everywhere, and for the merest fraction of a second he was terrified that somehow, Eggman had decided to repair him and his torment wasn’t over.
Until he registered the people in the room with him. A tall brown hare, a bulky blue robot, and a little white mouse, all watching him expectantly.
Mecha blinked. “What--” He gasped, raising a hand to his mouthplate in surprise.
Fiver’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ll be… that’s the clearest I’ve heard any of your bots’ voices, packrat.”
Humi smirked. “Cosmo helped me fine-tune it. Want one, Iota?”
“No thank you. I like my voice just the way it is. I designed it myself, after all.”
“Is this… my voice?” Mecha always hated his voice before, because he didn’t have one. Eggman never gave him a real voice, just a glorified TTS program. It was so flat and dull, and served as a constant reminder of how little he mattered. Now, though? “Why do I sound like this?” Like someone in a boy band?... He kind of liked it.
Humi pouted at him. “Rude. I picked it out myself, but if you don’t like it we can workshop it--”
“No!” Mecha covered his face again. “No. I mean…” It sounds just like what I hear in my head when I’m thinking… He frowned, feeling his face. It was oddly… pliable, the mouthplate was. And there was a strange divot right in the center. Wait, frowning? “A mouth?!” He had a mouth?!
The others chuckled, amused. Iota grabbed a hand mirror from a table and handed it over. Mecha inspected himself. Still a hedgehog,but different. His metal quills curled more than Sonic’s and splayed out a little more; from the front it gave him the silhouette of a stubby star. He was a deep navy that looked almost black in this light, with yellow racing stripes sweeping back from his eyes and up his central quill. His yellow eyes were expressive in a way they never were before, and he had a mouth that was currently gaping slightly as he took it all in.
“I look…”
“Incredible? Fantastic? Like a work of art?” Humi offered smugly. “So handsome Sonic would be jealous? Go ahead, I know I’m amazing.”
Heyu sighed fondly. “Humi.”
“What? I put my all into this, I deserve to be a little proud!”
Mecha rubbed his chin, flexing his fingers; they were made of the same flexible material his ‘muzzle’ was, and he could actually feel through them. “...I look… like somebody else.” Someone else. He smiled. It was a novel sensation but pleasantly so. He angled the mirror down; his chest was still open, and three colorful crystals orbited each other in a suspended energy field. “Emerald shards?”
“Humi thinks that she can make something special with them,” Iota informed him.
“And I did!” she declared. “Look at him, he’s right there!”
Mecha’s smile slipped. “I don’t understand. Why--?” am I here? He closed the compartment.
“Why not?” Heyu said easily, grinning. “You got somewhere else to be?”
Mecha looked up at them. “I was your enemy.”
The three of them exchanged looks.
“That’s ancient history,” Heyu said seriously. “And yeah, you tried to hurt us, but you didn’t, really. So why raise a fuss?”
“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make them your friend,” Iota recited. “You’re hardly the first badnik to rebel.”
“You saved my dad,” Humi said quietly. “...You caused us a lot of trouble, but not half as much as you were going through yourself. And I decided I can forgive a lot in exchange for saving Heyu and Vanilla from someone trying to kill them.”
The four of them fell into an uncomfortable silence, not sure how to proceed.
Until Heyu clapped his hands, and a tinny ringing filled the room. “Welp! What do you want to call yourself?”
Mecha blinked, bewildered. Uh?
“You were Mecha Sonic, but you don’t really look like Sonic anymore.”
“Never did, honestly,” Humi agreed.
“And Humi’s got, like three different vehicles around here that she calls mecha, so sticking with that would get confusing.” Here Heyu paused, then pulled a piece of paper out of his belt pouches, wrote a word, folded it up, and handed it down to Humi, who just stared at it confusedly.
Mecha--he thought about it, ignoring the byplay. He was being given a chance to start over. To be himself for the first time ever. But who was that? What did ‘himself’ look like? Well apparently that person had racing stripes. He didn’t think he deserved this, but… it was being given freely. He’d be a fool to argue.
Names… Eggman’s names were all terribly utilitarian, more like descriptors and glorified serial numbers. Metal Sonic, Egg Robo, Sigma, Omega… He wanted a real name, one that described him.
…
He was still broken, he thought. But maybe being broken didn’t mean being useless. He rested a hand on his chestplate, feeling the generator hum underneath.
I think-- “I like Shard...”
Humi blinked, unfolding the paper and staring at the word written there. She turned and smacked the hare with her tail. “How?!”
Heyu grinned smugly. “I’m just that good.”
Shard coughed, smiling awkwardly. “...What now?”
Heyu stepped aside, revealing the door of the workshop. “Whatever you want, kid. But if you want my advice, Vanilla might be happy to see you.”
Right, the other rabbit he saved.
Shard stood up, testing out his limbs, and nodded. “I can do that.”
It was a good day. Finally, a good day.
[Metal]
Metal Sonic watched--not in person, but through a camera--as Eggman gave E-123 Omega his final overview.
The walking tank had been thoroughly tested, examined, re-tested and put through his paces, charging through gauntlets and obstacle courses that even Metal himself might have struggled with, destroying everything in his path with an unbridled bloodlust and frightening enthusiasm.
Metal had plans. The Doctor was an abject failure and an embarrassment, but he had loyalty programmed into all of his minions. All but one.
Most of them weren’t smart enough to be trouble, but Omega… Metal hated to admit this even in his own mind, but Omega’s sheer firepower and tenacity could prove problematic, and his loyalty was ironclad.
Before he could make any sort of move, he had to get rid of E-123 Omega.
Eggman was speaking. “...all fully loaded, and I’ve sent orders to these locations I’m downloading into your database now; if you’re ever short on ammo, you can resupply at one of these bases.”
“THANK YOU DOCTOR! I COULD ONLY BE HAPPIER IF MY MAGAZINES WERE TRULY BOTTOMLESS!”
“Yes yes,” Eggman dismissed. He smirked “Omega my boy, you are without a doubt the most powerful single unit I have ever created.”
“CORRECT.”
“I have many missions for you in the future. E-102 Gamma, the previous greatest success of the E-100 series. That infernal Sonic, I’d like to see him run through a wall of bullets, heh… I might even send you after that upstart mouse who thinks she’s a better roboticist than me! But first, a true test of your abilities! Something a previous elite failed completely.”
Omega was vibrating. “I AM SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER EGGMAN ROBOTS! WHATEVER TASK YOU ASSIGN, IT WILL BE FULFILLED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!”
Eggman chortled, patting him on the head. “Easy, Omega. I’m afraid this first mission is a retrieval; I need at least some of your target intact.”
“...DISAPPOINTING BUT CONTINUE.”
“Ohoho… Project Penumbra is proceeding well, but I’m not blind to the BioLizard’s previous difficulties. I don’t want a mutating cancerous monster rampaging on my ship, I want a weapon. I need a stabilizing agent. I need Shadow the Hedgehog.”
A screen on the wall lit up. It depicted a news report on a local daredevil show, about how an intermission act suffered an attack that had to be dealt with on the scene. The image zoomed in, until a black and red hedgehog filled the screen.
“I WILL ANNIHILATE HIM AND BRING YOU HIS CORPSE!”
“Don’t underestimate him! He may look feeble in this image, but he’s a force to be reckoned with,” Eggman cautioned. “Find him. Fight him. Bring him to me. I would prefer him alive for study, but…” He grinned nastily. “I can make do.”
Omega saluted. “I WILL NOT FAIL YOU, DOCTOR.”
“That’s my boy!”
Metal cut the feed, thinking.
Interesting. Omega would be gone for the foreseeable future.
Foolish Doctor. This is exactly what he needed…