"There!" Tails exclaimed, as he finished repairing the robot he'd been working on for weeks. Said robot's optics flickered on, red artificial irises appearing on his black screen.

Computing data…

Vision: Enabled

Audio: Enabled

Radio: Disabled

ERROR

The blue robot known as Metal Sonic made a beep of confusion. This system error surprised him. When had he gotten here? When had Eggman given him the ability to produce sound? What had happened to his radio?

His thought process was interrupted when Tails walked into his line of view. Or rather, Tails' shoes. The robot's head snapped up to look him directly in the eyes. Tails jolted ever so slightly, but once he'd regained his composure, he gave a small wave.

"You're lucky I was able to repair you," Tails said after a moment, watching the robot get up from the table he was laying on. Before Metal could test his new audio device, Tails spoke into a device located on his wrist. Although he was deliberately quiet, Metal could make out a few words; "... Sonic?... yes, he's operational… you did? I'm glad…"

As Metal looked around, he noticed this was not the lava he'd last remembered. In fact, the last memory he could remember was pushing Sonic's hand away as he prepared to be destroyed. He searched his logs for anything that could explain why he'd gotten here, but found nothing. Even a full-scale virus scan yielded nothing. Nothing appeared to be wrong with his systems, despite the fact that his radio was not functioning.

He turned his attention to Tails when the fox hung up on the call. Metal deduced that after he'd shut down when he thought he was destroyed, Sonic managed to save him. But that made no sense. Yes, he'd saved the president, but surely that didn't warrant Sonic forgiving him for everything he'd done. It was the only logical conclusion, and yet… Metal didn't want to believe it was true. Tails seemed to notice his confusion, because he said, "You were out for a few years."

"Years?" Metal repeated, excited at the prospect of being able to test his new audio system. Although, Metal had already found through a quick scan of the internet that it had been many years since he had been operational. His own question was simply to test his new features, not because he needed the information repeated- like flimsy organics sometimes did.

Tails nodded, but Metal's attention was no longer on him. Metal moved towards the door, watching as a familiar blue blur rushed towards the building in which he stood. Next to Sonic, was a black and red streak moving just as fast, that the robot didn't recognize. Metal walked outside, ignoring Tails' protests that he shouldn't be outside yet. He stopped under a tree near the building, watching intently as Sonic and the unfamiliar hedgehog skidded to a stop a few feet away.

He heard their banter as Sonic walked towards him. They seemed to be arguing about who had won the race, the black and red hedgehog obviously in a bad mood.

"So that's the robot your friend's been repairing?" the ebony hedgehog asked.

"Yep," Sonic replied in his usual carefree tone, and grinned when he reached Metal, "hey, Metal. Missed me?"

"No," Metal responded, and it was the truth. He remembered Eggman's orders- eliminate Sonic - but, oddly, he wasn't compelled to follow them. It was as if the entire order had been wiped from his database. As he looked through his database as Sonic rambled on about something or the other, Metal noticed a new order- live. Metal knew instantly that the fox had messed with more things than he should've.

Metal ignored Sonic, even as the annoying hedgehog started waving his hand in front of Metal's optics, saying something that sounded an awful lot like,"Metal? You still in there? Hello? Earth to Metal."

Metal looked towards the ebony hedgehog, watching as he tried - in vain - to get a white butterfly to stop fluttering around his face. The hedgehog was flailing his arms to shoo the butterfly away, looking much like the insect itself in his movements. Eventually, the hedgehog noticed his staring and stopped, and the butterfly landed stubbornly on his nose. Sonic stopped waving a hand in front of the robot, looking over at Tails when he flew over to them.

Metal watched Shadow as he put a hand up to his nose and coaxed the butterfly onto one of his fingers, covered by pure white gloves. Metal used his jet to propel himself towards Shadow, and landed in front of him. Sonic seemed to notice Shadow's insect and laughed at him.

"Aww, Shadow's making friends!" he teased, earning a glare from Shadow. Metal ignored them, staring intently at the butterfly. The creature fascinated him, and he wondered how it was able to fly with such puny wings. Surely this primitive being was tricking him into thinking that it could fly! Shadow noticed Metal looking at the butterfly, and a smirk played at his lips. He lowered the hand with the near his lips and blew out a puff of air, sending the butterfly towards Metal.

The butterfly landed right on Metal's nose, and he had to go cross eyed to see it. His strange expression caused Sonic and Tails to laugh, and even Shadow gave a quiet chuckle. The robot didn't care. All he was interested in was the strange creature on his nose.