Welcome at long last to the second full-length story in the Project Blur universe! A few months after the events of Insurrection, the world is once more at peace, rebuilding what was destroyed by the Black Arms. However, they aren't the only ones who have been rebuilding. Inspired by his near success working with Shadow, Dr. Robotnik has turned his attention to a new and improved version of the creation that brought Sonic the closest he's ever been to death... Hyper Metal Sonic.

Sonic Heroes had an awful lot of potential that we both felt was ridiculously wasted. Insurrection needed to happen first, or Shadow's amnesia would make no sense (Sonic would never have left him alone long enough!), and Eggman also needed longer to prepare a new plan than a revolution already waiting to happen would need to ignite itself. With that slight loop made in the timeline, everything was ready to go! In Unity, Project Blur ties in cause and consequence to the events of Sonic Heroes, a chain of events linking back into the past and spilling on across the future.

(The Project Blur universe covers the "main" Sonic games without external input, with the exception that Sonic CD and the Sonic movie are fused into one, because we absolutely love that depiction of Metal. For some more slightly old fic touching on that subject, check out Ardil the Traveller's solo profile!)

We hope you enjoy the story! Let us know what you think! (Updates every Saturday, or that's the plan!)

- The Chaotic Alliance (Ardil and Sparky)

Prologue
Waking Up

Blackness.

Where am I?

A point of light spread into a line. Sound crackled, modulated into a hiss and a hum.

I feel weird.

The line slid open upwards and down, eyes opening. Seen from an oddly tilted angle, the fat man, Eggman, was turning away from a computer screen that read:

ACTIVATION SEQUENCE:
COMPLETE

"At last!" He came closer. "Can you hear me?"

Yeah, I can hear you. He wanted to twitch his ears, but couldn't. Instead, he grasped for a voice, found it unexpectedly.

"-can hear you."

"Repeat that!"

"Yeah, I can hear you!" Exasperated, he pushed himself up, the click and clatter of metal on metal echoing his movements. It wasn't right, but it wasn't wrong, either. He focused on the doctor, felt conflicted for a moment, and sat still.

"Good! Now repeat your primary objective." The doctor leant forwards as if eagerly awaiting the answer, an answer that shot at once into the forefront of his mind with stunning force.

"Kill him."

"Very good!" Eggman rubbed his hands together in glee. "Report your current status."

I feel fine. Weird, but fine. "Pretty good."

"In detail."

He rolled his eyes and reached back to the lightning shapes at the back of his mind, answers appearing in words that he only felt, speaking themselves almost before he could think them through. "Power source stable. Motor functions optimal. Visual sensors calibrated for low light. Jet function optimal at low levels, no data for high-power calibration." He paused, took over again. "Time for a test run!"

"You," Eggman grumbled, "were better without speakers."

Fractured memories slipped through his mind, momentary images. Cold and pain, this world isn't big enough for the both of us, determination and fire, one of us has to go. Something buried in his subconscious shifted into unease and he let the memories fade. The past didn't matter, only one thing in the world mattered. He was going to win.

Eggman turned, walked to a door and opened it. Outside, a corridor wall meant he couldn't see much. "Proceed to the testing site, then."

I'm going to win.

Silence.

"Did you hear me?!"

He twitched, jumped off the table with a light click as he hit the floor. Yeah, yeah. "Testing site, right." He was about to ask which way when he realised he knew, a good chunk of the layout imprinted into his mind. Had he been here before? Or did he just know? He shook his head: he didn't care. Let's go!

The testing site was a vast indoor arena, almost hemispherical in shape, catwalks and girders bearing targets and forming obstacles in the air. Finally he could open up, not certain what had stopped him in the corridor, not caring. Speed and power took over, limitless, effortless. From a bunker down on the ground, Eggman monitored him, occasionally issuing commands. He obeyed them for now, not certain what impulse prompted him to.

Eventually, the arena badly damaged now by high-speed impacts and his plating scuffed here and there with streaks of weaker metal, he stopped again, drifting lightly down to the ground on a precise jet that cut off just as his feet touched the floor. Eggman stepped out of the bunker and walked up to him, a wide grin visible under his bushy moustache.

"Very good! Unfortunately, you still aren't complete."

What? "What do you mean?"

"Silence!" He found he couldn't disobey the command, and settled for imagining a glare directed at the annoying figure in front of him. "You must have noticed your power source is far stronger than its previous version! Strong enough to burn out even that jet I designed you. I have great plans for you — when you have the data you need, you will be indestructible!"

I think I'm pretty tough already! He still couldn't speak, but he looked down at his arm, rubbing off a streak of weaker metal with a wrenching squealing noise. Aren't I? Looking up again, he met Eggman's eyes over the curve of the fat man's stomach, challenging him to answer the silent question even as his feelings lurched unpleasantly. Something about his strength… something scared him. His objective scared him. Was he strong enough? Suddenly he wasn't sure, and he hated it all the more for it.

"Your predecessor may have failed," Eggman went on, "but you will be far stronger! Yes, you will be my greatest creation!" He gestured grandly. "You will destroy that annoying hedgehog and the world will be mine!"

Oh yeah? But of course it would, except… was he really going to let Eggman rule over him? Even the temporarily imposed silence was a restriction he hated. He folded his arms and kept listening.

"All you have to do is scan a few things and bring back the data on them. Even in this state, you'll be able to do that! Four little steps and you will finally be complete!"

He tensed, the equivalent to gritting his teeth, focusing all his will against the hated command that still overrode his own desires. "What four steps?" he forced out, surprising himself, frustrated and angry a moment later when Eggman didn't even seem to realise what had just happened. You can't control me!

"You're going to have the morphing power of Chaos! Yes, the ancient God of Destruction! You'll have the powers of the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow the Hedgehog! And you'll have a new copy of the life data from your counterpart! He won't be able to stop you then!"

My counterpart. The one who calls himself Sonic. "He has to die!" If he could have smiled, he might have. Yes, it all made sense. The blue hedgehog scared him, even as he was him. He had to go. Then there would only be one, unique and strong, better and faster than anything else in the world. Only one, the real Sonic, the best and strongest.

"Yes," Eggman agreed, "he does."

Did I say that out loud? He shrugged it off, uncaring. Well, whatever. I'll get all this power, and "I'll kill him! Nothing can stop me!"

"That's the spirit!" Eggman laughed.