Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Rumination and Reawakening
It had been years since Eggman had died. How many exactly, Sonic was unsure of. He never liked remembering. But though the time was lost on him, the events were as clear as the sun today, a cloudless summer day.
During what would become his last scheme, Dr. Eggman had been building a new titanic new robot, possessing a nation-destroying armoury and built specifically for rodent extermination. A simple scheme purely to rid himself of Sonic, but if it works, then it works. He had almost succeeded in keeping it a complete secret, trying not to reveal himself before necessary, and only a chance discovery by Tails of unusual badnik behaviour had made the heroes aware that he was up to something. They gathered the Chaos Emeralds as a precaution, and began a search for the doctor, Sonic being joined by Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Rouge.
They found what they were looking for just in time before completion. A 108-meter-tall, 30-meter-wide titanic robot folded inside a building, red, yellow and black all over and in the top was the cockpit. Numerous limbs protruded from the sides of its long snake-slender body, each with their own weapon, while at the bottom were chain tracks for movement. The centre, a bit thicker than the rest of the body, held its energy source, still not fully charged or ready, but the unexpected guests had forced the doctor’s hand and as he activated it, the building crumbling at the monster machine’s unfolding.
The battle was fierce and deadly close. Flames, lasers, missiles and all kinds of projectiles erupted from its limps, setting a nearby forest ablaze and leaving the earth scorched and desolate. Anytime Sonic and the others managed to land a hit it seemed to only dent it. Knuckles could sense the robot was powered by some new form of chaos energy, similar to the Master Emerald, but it was… different, wrong somehow.
Near the end of the battle, Eggman had succeeded in injuring Sonic’s right leg severely, leaving him incapacitated. But the day was saved by Tails and Rouge who had managed to infiltrate the machine after Sonic's injury, and with the 7 Chaos Emeralds, they succeeded in destroying its heart, making its weird energy disperse, systems fail, and the whole thing collapse in on itself. As he was making his escape in his hovercraft, Eggman sprouted the usual banter of “I will be back!” and “pesky animals!”
But as the titantic robot continued falling apart, one of its limps fell abruptly his way, taking Eggman by surprise and crashing into the hovercraft. The hovercraft continued to fly on a little but started to fail as he kept ascending.
His cries for help made everyone sprint into action again, but he was too far away for Tails or Rouge to fly fast enough when they had realized the situation, and Sonic was too injured to use his speed to grab him when he was near the ground.
By the time they got to the crash site, all of him was lying silently in a dried-up ravine near the forest. His last breath had been used up before they had arrived.
And so, Mobius enjoyed peace. Finally, peace.
Most quickly grew accustomed to this new world, happy that no longer did they have to fear for their own and their children’s future. A few grew restless from the disappearing of their adventures, even starting to miss… not necessarily the man, but the excitement he could create. And perhaps eventually, they discovered that they missed the man himself. Perhaps.
Sonic and Eggman. Two names that seemed unable to exist without the other. It had actually been Sonic that teasingly made up the name Eggman, but the doctor decided to adopt it, twisting a mocking joke into a cruel scorn. That turned out to be characteristic of many of their meetings throughout the years, in a way socializing through banter and battle. Truth be told neither knew anyone else as determined as each other, always coming back no matter the obstacles before them. Each were the other’s one constant in an always changing world, and didn’t everyone need something to cling on to? It gave excitement, it gave purpose, it gave a unique connection. A love-hate relationship without the love but all the dependence.
And now... No, not now, it was a long time ago, but…
Now, there was just one name left. The name that had failed to save the other. A bad leg wouldn't stop a real hero.
He shook his head slightly. Sonic was growing increasingly tired that he couldn’t help but dwell on those memories and thoughts. An annoying habit he had picked up ever since the event, one that had made him learn more about himself than he had ever wanted to.
After his death, they had searched and demolished each and every one of Eggman’s bases that they could find, G.U.N managing to salvage some of the equipment. The heroes always kept an eye out for the different creations Eggman had created over the years. Orbot and Cubot, when they were found, had of course mourned their creator, yet also quickly adapted to the new reality, surprising Sonic and friends. Maybe it was precisely because of the sorrow they adapted so fast, trying to focus instead on the future, Amy had wondered. She took them in, and they still live with her to this day. She was much more tolerant of their bumbling behaviour than any other would be, so that worked out fine.
Sage was… a different story. She did not take it well, and eventually, she disappeared as well, though this was by choice. Before she vanished, Tails had given her a piece of tech or code (Sonic had no clue about what it was) so that she could always contact him. She hadn’t thanked him, but she accepted, nonetheless.
But that still left Metal Sonic.
It… he… was a mystery that Sonic still pondered over. Not constantly like Eggman, but enough for his friends to sometimes ask him if it was Eggman or Metal Sonic on his mind. Because Eggman’s most dangerous creation had disappeared the very same day, completely and utterly.
Shortly before the final confrontation with Eggman, their last duel had been fought in a giant warehouse, filled with Eggman tech, robots and explosions. Sonic and Tails had attempted to sneak into it to access the computer for information on Eggman’s location using the shipment information they deduced it had to contain. Sonic wasn’t normally one for stealth, but it would be best if Eggman didn’t know that they were closing in on him, Tails had argued. The warehouse was situated a long distance from the main base in use at the time, probably in the hope that the discovery of one would not endanger the other. And it was important, for Metal Sonic was assigned as its overseer.
And somehow the robot had figured out that two boxes should not be moving by themselves – with blue and orange legs sticking out from them.
After a punch nearly hit his shoulder through the wood, Sonic threw the box away and engaged his mechanical counterpart, while Tails took care of the other badniks attempting to assist Metal Sonic. Their fight had eventually taken them to the munitions section, where all the explosions were secured inside different vaults to contain them if any went off prematurely.
Sonic had been pushed up against one vault door, when Metal Sonic’s fist came crashing towards him. It not only missed Sonic who dodged but got stuck, making it all the way through to the other side. Sonic gave Metal Sonic a punch of his own to the head when behind him, one of the badniks that Tails was dealing with exploded, sending shrapnel flying around. Metal Sonic got his hand free just in time for a piece from the badnik to fly straight into the hole where the hand had just been, setting off everything inside.
The door held together but the shockwave that blasted through the hole sent Metal Sonic flying. He hit one of the industrial hanging lamps near the ceiling, nearly cutting the left arm off his body from the impact. The robot fell to the floor, where one of his feet also got damaged from the crash, though Sonic didn’t see how severely.
Thankfully, nothing else in the building was damaged, the explosion almost completely contained within the vault. Sonic approached Metal Sonic cautiously, who was rising up and starting his now scratching turbine. He gave a quick whistle before saying “I’m glad you can’t feel pain because that would've hurt.” If it had sounded snarky to Metal Sonic, it was unintentional.
He was met with a simply last look of hatred, before his opponent flew out a window, their turbine stuttering. Sonic and Tails got the shipment information they wanted, collected their friends and headed towards the main base, to the battle that would turn out to end all this.
But for some reason, the robot never made it back to base as usual. He vanished, never seen again by anyone. No evidence and no clues ever turned up in Sonic’s searches.
It was odd. He had never given much thought about his metal clone before he was gone. Just another rival, like all the others. Knuckles, Shadow, Jet, Surge… The list goes on. Only when that list had been reduced for the first time ever had he suddenly felt strange.
Was it curiosity over his fate? A sense of missing something? The feeling of not liking change? Well, that one he could apply to everything at this point, he supposed. Was it… sadness over another death? Even though robots could not die, so to speak.
He didn’t know and he didn’t like it. Where was he? Was he offline, rusting away? Or was he still around, planning his next move? Would he even know what to do without Dr. Eggman?
Did he himself know?
His eyes started to narrow, frown deepening. Sonic had been looking at the heavens and now looked down at a small spot of dirt surrounded by grass. He really had to stop coming to the ravine.
And he really had to leave now, for he didn’t want to be late for another get-together again.
A small lark was flying around, its wings flapping as fast as it could. Desperately.
Behind it, a falcon followed in close pursuit, eager for a meal it could feed its chicks. For 10 minutes now this chase had been going on, and the small bird was starting to lose all its energy much faster than its predator was.
As it flew high above the trees near a cliff, It saw an entrance to a small cave, well-hidden behind a bush growing in front of it on the cliffside. The lark flew inside and, not at the entrance but close, lay something blue. It looked like those creatures that it would fly over, but this one had holes in its body it could go into. Perfect for hiding from that falcon.
If the falcon hadn’t already spotted it going in.
While the lark hid behind something yellow in the centre of the body, the falcon relentlessly used its claws to try and snatch it. The panicking bird jumped and rushed from one place to another, the falcon always following its movements.
At some point, one of them hit something.
Inside the body, a UEFI activated and commenced booting up the hardware. Electricity and data started to flow through wires and limbs, reaching a CPU that had long hungered. Its Power-on Self-Test checked its crucial components. Several error messages appeared, though none were critical enough to prevent the continuing boot-up. Satisfied, it allowed the operating system to commence its activation.
The yellow blades where the lark had hidden started to slowly spin around, with enough time for the bird to jump away so that it would avoid getting cut to pieces. Arms and legs jolted from activation. The turbine in the chest was running faster and faster, and combined with the other start-up noises and activities, it scared both birds away from him, with the falcon deciding to stop the hunt.
Two red eyes appeared on a LED visor, as consistently threatening as ever.
His head started turning to observe his surroundings. He was still in the cave where his last recordings had shown him flying in. While he normally would simply return to base, Dr. Eggman had made it a priority this time to stay hidden until he was ready with a new machine, and he had concluded there was a high risk of Sonic and/or Tails following him. Better then to hide, to send a signal over the Eggnet calling for pickup at a later time for when the Sonic and Tails would be long gone, then deactivate to save on energy.
But rescue had never come, he could conclude. He registered this as an anomaly that would be reprimanded.
For a moment the robot sat still, letting his body warm up while running diagnosis, which showed several issues in his software, all stemming from disuse but they were fixable. When he attempted to move his right arm, his joints were squeaking loudly and barely lifting at first, but with little use it worked fine again. The left arm, however, was barely hanging on, not responding to any input he made. The back of his left foot was almost wholly gone and his battery was low but not depleted enough for concern yet. The turbine was still marked by the blast, so he would not be able to achieve full speed, though it was functional for flight, and lastly his back was filled with soot from the explosion that had almost taken him out. But he could move, he could travel, which meant he could be fixed if he found a base.
His attempts to establish an online connection kept failing; he surmised that it wouldn’t be possible to connect to the Eggnet from inside the cave. He slowly stood up, almost falling again due to the damaged foot, and headed to the exit. The summer day was bright and fresh, with tiny clouds now forming in the horizon. The internet connection became strong enough now to connect to the Eggnet.
The search for bases yielded… only two. And it was the two that had been abandoned the longest. The machine briefly stopped in its tracks. Another anomaly? Dr. Eggman had plenty of bases, always building new ones, and almost always rebuilding the old, the two now remaining being rare exemptions.
He grew increasingly perturbed by the millisecond and set off to the closest of the two bases. It was several kilometres away, but he calculated he could make it.
Metal Sonic had a new mission: To be fully repaired imminently, so he could assist Dr. Eggman with whatever was wrong.