The Rescue Mission

by CrystalMaiden77

After Eggman, Orbot and Cubot get captured by a GUN affiliate named SWORD, Metal Sonic has to request help from someone he never thought he'd turn to.

Three days ago, in a heavily guarded base in Siberia, four handcuffed prisoners were being forced to walk down the white halls of the base with soldiers walking behind and in front of them holding tasers in their hands. Eggman, Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot were brought down the halls and into a room that was a small office, with a large black desk with a white computer on it, and a black spinner chair on the other side of it. The chair spun around to face Eggman after the soldiers closed the door, revealing a gray-haired balding man with black sunglasses and a black suit with his arms crossed looking at him disapprovingly. From the way everyone saluted him, it was clear that he was the leader of SWORD. There were a few soldiers in the room, as well as several SWORD agents dressed in black suits, with half of them being female. " Dr. Eggman, we've been expecting you... " he said resentfully, in a disapproving tone. He glared at the prisoners standing in front of him, noticing their facial expressions; Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot looked scared and nervous, in direct contrast with their master, who glared right back.

Instead of being afraid or intimidated, Eggman exclaimed angrily, " How did you know I was coming?! Did you and GUN exchange information?! Did you send your surveillance bots after me?! I never revealed to Sonic that SWORD even existed! How on Earth did you know I was planning an attack?! "

The man said resentfully, " You're not the one who will be asking the questions. As you may have already determined, I am the leader of SWORD. And unlike the leader of GUN would do, I am not only going to imprison you. " Metal Knuckles, Orbot and Cubot looked confused and scared at hearing that, while Eggman became even more angry and bewildered than before.

" What?! You aren't simply going to interrogate me?! What else are you going to do?! I demand an answer! " Eggman exclaimed, wishing he wasn't handcuffed and held by a soldier so he could slam his fist onto the desk dramatically.

The leader of SWORD explained, " Allow me to explain. SWORD and GUN have had a strong alliance since the fall of the Berlin Wall, exchanging information and weaponry with each other, with GUN being the dominant force in the alliance. However, that wasn't always the case. In fact, the reason SWORD formed in the first place was as the Holoskan government's response to the rise of GUN at the start of the Cold War, and the two agencies have spent most of their existences as equally powerful enemies. By the time the Cold War had ended, our agency had realized that they were wrong. We were wrong for opposing GUN. Because of this, we at SWORD felt so much guilt and regret about what we did in opposing them that we dedicated ourselves to making up for our mistakes by being an agency of good! You are an evil mad scientist, while we are the epitome of righteousness. " While Orbot and Metal Knuckles looked curious and intrigued by the history lesson and Cubot seemed to not be listening, Eggman groaned and complained, " ' Good, ' yeah, right! There is nothing I hate more than self-righteousness! "

The leader of SWORD rolled his eyes, although no one could see it behind the sunglasses, and continued, " We are an agency of justice. Unlike you, we and GUN build robots and weaponry for the purposes of helping humanity and protecting the world from threats of all kinds. But there's something that sets us apart from GUN, and that is our dedication to justice. There is nothing that matters more to us than carrying out justice, and we will go to any lengths and do anything at all for the greater good. Our influence doesn't dominate the world like GUN; in fact, these days, the current generation doesn't even remember who we are. These days, GUN has to be careful what it does, despite how good its intentions are, because it's constantly in the public eye. But we, Dr. Eggman, do not have that problem. We can go to any lengths and stop at nothing to do the right thing and go to the greatest of extremes, and as long as we keep sending GUN weapons, intelligence and machinery, everything will be perfectly fine. We don't have to be bothered with people saying we're too extreme and too heavy-handed and saying we've gone too far, and because of this, our dedication to doing what is right, greatly exceeds that of any other agency on the globe... And that brings up the question of you, Dr. Eggman... What are we planning to do with you? "

Now he was looking scared. Eggman gasped with a look of dread on his face, and stammered while panicking, " N-Now, just wait a second, here! Y-Y-You aren't planning to kill me, are you?! " The leader of SWORD chuckled, and said resentfully, " No. Unlike you, we won't stoop to that level. What we're going to do, Eggman, is improve the world. You see, while you are a very capable engineer, you have never once used your high intelligence to do anything good. You build robots and weaponry, but instead of using them to do righteous things like giving criminals what they deserve, you use them in your attempts to take over the world and run it as you see fit. Because of this dedication to your megalomaniacal obsession, your skills and intelligence are wasted, and the world is a far worse place because of it. In your entire time on this planet, you have never once done anything with your engineering skills to improve the world or assist it. " Eggman insisted in frustration, " N-Never once?! I FIXED THE GODDAMN MOON! "

" After blowing it up, " the leader deadpanned. There was a silence. " ONLY IN HALF! " The leader rolled his eyes and continued, " The way you are acting right now, your intelligence is wasted and the world is continuously put in jeopardy. However, if we found a way to solve both problems, the world would be safe and be vastly improved as a result! Which is why I am pleased to tell you that I have found the solution at last! You see, the scientists of SWORD have come up with a method of altering an individual's brain chemistry to very exact specifications using a special serum. Because of this, these scientists will be able to change you completely from a sociopathic megalomaniac, to our BENEVOLENT ENGINEER! It'll be like having Gerald Robotnik back on our side! Only this time, we won't have to deal with him defecting to GUN to escape communist Holoska, because you won't be able to choose to do that! You'll spend the rest of your life here in our base, making things in our lab, and there won't be a thing you can do about it! The world will be SAFE! No longer will the world have to deal with you attacking cities like Station Square with giant mechs and robot armies simply to bait Sonic into fighting you! No longer will you endanger innocent people and attempt to ruin their lives with your plans of world domination! No longer will the world cower in fear of the next extremely dangerous monster you attempt to control! Nothing like the tragedy of the Station Square Flood is ever happening again. All I need is your DNA sample and a couple of days to make the serum, and justice will prevail! No longer will anyone abuse the Chaos Emeralds, and it will be because of us! We're going to make up for the Cold War by SAVING THE WORLD, and there's nothing that anybody can do about it! "

Eggman gasped, frightened and panicked. Now he knew things were getting serious. " THIS IS MADNESS! You're going to rip away my free will, and BRAINWASH ME INTO WORKING FOR YOU?! You call that justice?! Sonic would NEVER approve of this! " he exclaimed, unable to believe what was happening as Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot looked nervous and creeped out. Suddenly, the soldier holding him quickly ripped out a strand of hair from his head and handed it to a soldier behind him. " OW! " Eggman cried out angrily, and gasped at realizing what that meant.

The leader of SWORD rolled his eyes and said, " We expected you and GUN to not be supportive of this. We anticipated people not understanding how dire the situation is and not understanding how important it is that the problem of people abusing the Chaos Emeralds gets fixed, simply because everyone is used to the way things are now. Everyone has fallen into the trap of thinking that simply because there are dedicated ' heroes ' that always foil your plans, that there is no reason to stop the plans from ever happening again. We knew that people would be accusing us of ' going too far ' to do the right thing, which was exactly why we didn't tell Sonic. You see, Eggman, the thing about Sonic the Hedgehog is that as much of a hero as he is for fighting against you, he doesn't truly fix the problem he claims to solve. He'll destroy your evil robots and dangerous machines and get the Chaos Emeralds out of your clutches multiple times, but he'll always stop just short of doing anything at all to prevent any further plans of yours from ever again transpiring. If anything, Sonic personally benefits from you being a dangerous menace, because his life would stop being exciting if you weren't a villain, and eventually he would stop getting benefits to being a hero like tax exemption and reward money that allow him to not have to get a job with a wage. The problem of your dangerousness is like a weed that infests the garden of the world; while Sonic is content to simply pluck out the weed and eagerly wait for it to grow back, we want to rip it out by the roots. What sets us apart from Sonic is that he'll refuse to rid the world of you out of a misplaced sense of self-righteousness, despite the objective fact that it would make the world a better place, while we see that doing good is more complicated than a teenager like Sonic can understand. Sometimes to do the right thing, you have to do things that will upset some people. Sometimes you have to ' shoot the dog, ' for the sake for the greater good, and while people may disagree with you and say you've gone too far, it is worth it in the end if it means making the world a better place than it was before you did it. Sonic's not the only hero this world could have. As useful as he's been, he's too soft, and his young and overly emotional mind has meant that he hasn't carried out a permanent solution. That's why we have taken it into our own hands, as our responsibility, to be the heroes of this planet, by saving it, from ever being threatened by you again! So we don't care if you think we're evil! We know we're exactly the opposite! We're the heroes of this world, and we'll stop at nothing to save it! " The leader smiled eagerly, incredibly happy and proud of himself, while Eggman and his robots cringed and looked him at him nervously.

At that point, all of the soldiers and SWORD agents in the room saluted and recited the SWORD pledge passionately. " For truth! And JUSTICE! We won't let anyone stand in its way, for heroism, and righteousness! WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT! " The leader of SWORD said, " Exactly! And you will do well to remember that, Eggman! As for the army of robots you brought here; we'll have them repaired and then upgraded and reprogrammed to work for us! "

Scared and trembling, Metal Knuckles timidly stammered, " Um, s-s-sir?... W-W-What about us? " being as polite as he could, hoping his sudden question wouldn't annoy the man. The man looked at the robot with a surprised and intrigued expression. Not only had this robot spoken to him, and in a voice that sounded like Knuckles except higher and more ditzy and innocent-sounding, but the robot also seemed to speak just like a non-robot would, with his behavior, body language and speech being rather lifelike and human. The leader smiled and thought, " Eggman had actually done an impressive job with this one! He's certainly a lot more lifelike than that Metal Sonic, or so I've heard... "

The man said with a smile, " Of course, I've had a plan for you three as well! You shall be interrogated for all the information you have in separate rooms at the same time that Eggman is! And we will find out what you're all useful for to see if we can benefit from reprogramming you! You in particular seem useful to our side, since you possess the same abilities Knuckles has, and appear to be more well-mannered than he is, making you more likely to obey us as a result. As for Cubot and Orbot, I have reason to believe for now that as they are incapable of fighting because they are nothing more than Eggman's personal assistants, they will soon have served their purpose. Because of this, I may order them to be dismantled. "

Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot gasped and looked frightened, and Metal Knuckles begged him desperately, " NO! PLEASE DON'T KILL THEM! They're my FRIENDS! " which surprised and intrigued the man even more. Why would Metal Knuckles be upset that robots who weren't him were in danger of being put down? Had Eggman given him empathy? Why did he call them his friends? And why did the robot say the word kill instead of dismantle?

Eggman rolled his eyes and said in annoyance, " Now, Metal Knuckles, what have I told you about referring to my creations as alive? It's not ' kill, ' it's ' dismantle. ' I don't know why you're getting so worked up over such incompetent fools. It must be all that time I let you spend doing the chores with them out of boredom! It's gotten you too attached! You're robots, not people, you can't be ' killed. ' Your lives can't be worth anything if you don't possess any to begin with. " He then returned to looking at the leader of SWORD in annoyance, not noticing Orbot and Cubot looking at him offended with frustration and exasperation, or Metal Knuckles looking at him with an incredibly sad but resigned expression on his face. It was clear that none of the robots agreed with the notion that they weren't alive in their own way, and disliked, yet were used to, the fact that Eggman only thought of his creations as machines programmed to do what he wanted. Unfortunately for the robots, the leader of SWORD agreed with Eggman completely on this, being prejudiced against robots just like he was. He stood up and said authoritatively, " Soldiers! Send these four to their assigned cell. They will be there until it is time for interrogation! "

The soldiers saluted him and forcibly led Eggman and his robots out of the room, down the white hallway leading to their cell. Eventually, the soldiers reached a large white metal door, caused it to open automatically with a retina scan that identified who they were, and brought them into a large, dark and empty white room, shutting the door behind them and leaving them alone. They unhappily looked all over the room and found no method of escape from it; there were nothing but walls, a ceiling, and a floor made of metal surrounding them. The room had no air duct that could be escaped through; the air came in from underneath the door. The metal walls, ceiling and floor were indestructible and could not be so much as dented by Metal Knuckles' hitting against them even if he tried. The situation looked bleak, and there was a silence as Eggman sat on the floor angrily with his arms crossed while everyone else looked melancholic.

The silence was interrupted when Metal Knuckles started to smile, and said with hope in his eyes, " Don't worry, everyone! We'll all be okay! " causing everyone to look at him with the exact same expressions as before. He giggled childishly, and Eggman asked in mild annoyance, " And why do you think that is? " Metal Knuckles continued to smile, his golden eyes full of innocence and happiness, with a naive but powerful hope that could not be extinguished by a thing.

" We don't have to worry about that scary stuff! Metal Sonic is coming to SAVE US ALL! " he said optimistically, with a great big smile on his face that showed the amount of faith he had in him. Eggman's eyes widened in realization when he heard this, and he finally remembered the mission he gave Metal Sonic just in case. He had told him that if he didn't return in 72 hours, he was to storm the base and rescue his master. And when 72 hours passed, that was just what he was going to do.

Eggman replied with a smile, " You're right. In 72 hours, he'll realize we aren't coming back on our own, and he'll find a way to rescue us just like I ordered him to! With the most powerful robot in the world fighting against them, they'll have an extremely difficult time keeping us imprisoned! They won't have a chance. " He chuckled in satisfaction, smirking evilly. " SWORD thought they could out-predict me! But I'm one step ahead of them... "

Meanwhile, Sonic was in the Mystic Ruins, lying on the ground napping with his arms under his head and a smile on his face. He loved nature, and while he was usually all about running, it was environments like this that made him appreciate standing still.

His thoughts were interrupted when all of a sudden, he heard what seemed like the sound of metal feet walking towards him, and stood up from the ground. He was confused; the sound clearly belonged to a robot, and one of Eggman's robots no doubt, but if the robot was going to attack him, why was it just walking towards him calmly? Wouldn't it rush up to him at high speed instead? Confused and curious, as well as instinctively feeling suspicious and wary, Sonic slowly turned around to see what was coming up to him, and was shocked at seeing Metal Sonic walk up to him holding paper in his right hand, with a serious expression on his face that seemed to have a hint of worry and stress to it.

Before Sonic could react or say a word in response, Metal Sonic gave him the piece of paper instantly, with the worry in his eyes seeming to increase momentarily, and lifted his arms up with his black palms facing him in a disarming gesture while saying with a serious tone, " I'm not here to fight you, " at a quicker speed than was usual; was he nervous? Sonic wondered this, but his eyes immediately fixated on what was drawn and written on the piece of paper Metal Sonic had given to him. From the title alone, it was clearly a piece of paper containing Eggman's plans; and from the date right beside it, the plans had been scheduled to be carried out three days ago.

Now Sonic was really confused. First, Metal Sonic walks up to him calmly instead of rushing at him and attacking him, then he gives him a piece of paper with Eggman's plans on it and says he's not here to fight him? Sonic was wary, but he was also overwhelmed with curiosity, so rather than attacking him or even saying anything antagonistic or insulting, Sonic decided to stay quiet and listen to what he had to say. After all, judging from Metal Sonic's strange behavior, this could be important. Metal Sonic was now standing in front of him with his arms crossed, with his eyes looking at the ground and his body language being slightly fidgety, almost as if he was acting awkward about conversing with him.

Metal Sonic explained to him in a serious tone, " 76 hours ago, Dr. Eggman left with an army of robots to take weaponry and information from the heavily guarded base of a Siberian GUN affiliate called SWORD, bringing Orbot, Cubot, and Metal Knuckles along with him. He stated that if he hadn't returned in 72 hours, my mission was to leave for the base and rescue him and the others, who would have been captured by SWORD and imprisoned. The base is heavily guarded, with hundreds if not thousands of armed soldiers in it, anti-aircraft weaponry, electrified walls, and a security system that all combine to make it seem almost impenetrable. Due to this, it seems that even I may have difficulty infiltrating it alone without being captured or destroyed, and my life experiences have taught me that the amount of luck I possess is insufficient for setting out to do something so risky and life-threatening without assistance. The only one with the amount of skills and luck who could achieve this without injury, is you. It may be against protocol for me to request your help when I was specifically ordered by my idiot boss to go on the mission alone, but if it ensures the mission's success, I have no other choice. "

Sonic couldn't believe it. Metal Sonic was acting completely different from how he remembered him. He had come up to him explaining to him his mission, telling him that he couldn't do it alone and he needed the help of his greatest enemy in order to carry it out. While he did have his arms crossed to show him that he wasn't letting his guard down, Sonic was feeling nothing but shock and curiosity, intrigued by how Metal Sonic was acting. He was actually being humble and asking for his help? He was saying that he was too unlucky to survive a dangerous mission, rather than being arrogant and cocky and assuming he'll come through it unscathed? He was actually asking for his help and clearly trusting him to help him?

Sonic was filled with questions, and only refrained from asking them because the robot might have more to say. Why was Metal Sonic acting more human? Why wasn't he acting like the intimidating evil robot he always knew him to be? Was this his true self, the side of him he never showed to others, that he only revealed because he felt the situation was so dire? Why did Metal Sonic cringe and look really nervous at saying, " electrified walls, " as if the very act of saying those two words was painful for him? Was he really that affected by his loss in the Death Egg Mk II? And why did he seem to believe in luck despite being a logical-minded robot? Sonic's mind was full of questions, but the one most pressing to his mind, was the one he chose to ask; by that point, two seconds had passed.

Sonic asked in a confused tone, " So, uh, why would I want to rescue Eggman? Not that I'm trying to insult you or anything, I'm just curious... " He was trying as hard as he possibly could to not look antagonistic to Metal Sonic, with a curious and confused expression on his face rather than a teasing or hateful one, and trying to pick his words carefully to make sure he wouldn't anger him.

As if he was expecting that answer, Metal Sonic explained in a serious tone that seemed to gradually get more emotion, " Well, Eggman is the entire reason that your life has the thrills and excitement that make it satisfying for you, and he is also the reason you possess the reputation of a hero that gives your life several perks, such as reward money to live off of that eliminates the need for you to get a job with a paying wage that you would not find exciting in the slightest. Due to this, it is clear that you would personally benefit from ensuring that the idiot escapes the base so that he can return to challenging you and entertaining you. And due to the fact that you're the hero of the world, saving people is already something you agree with doing, so it is only natural that you would want to rescue him. "

" I know you are capable of doing this, Sonic. You are capable of achieving things that many cannot, and defying the odds even when they seem stacked against you. So regardless of our past encounters, I cannot deny that you are the greatest possible choice for assistance. " He seemed to have admiration in his tone when he said those last three sentences, with his eyes widening a little rather than being narrowed as they usually were as if he was expressing how he truly felt. He went from having his arms crossed to letting them hang at his sides with his head slightly down as he explained to him,

" I understand why you'd be reluctant to work with me. But this will be different from our past encounters. It has to be... there is no other way. So I will make sure not to be an inconvenience. You have my word. I'll be your ally, not your rival, because this is no time for fighting and arguing; in such dire circumstances, it is neither the time nor the place, and it would only waste what little time I have. I don't know what conditions SWORD is keeping them all in, but I would rather not dwell on what could happen to them if I don't save them in time or what they're doing to them now. So... as difficult as it is for me to do this, I have to request help from you... I have no other choice. "

Sonic's eyes were wide open in realization and amazement as he let it all sink in, with Metal looking everywhere but at him with an expression of nervousness and discomfort as he waited for a response from him, almost as if he was acting awkward and fidgety. After three seconds passed, Sonic realized he hadn't said anything to respond to him and had to say something immediately to compensate for making him wait, so he uncrossed his arms, and said with a genuine smile,

" Sure, why not? " Metal looked at him in surprise and confusion with his eyes widened and said quietly, " Really? " unable to believe things had actually worked out well for him. He was certain Sonic was going to put up a lot more resistance, and he certainly wasn't expecting Sonic to smile at him like he liked him, and respected him, and cared about him, and... was proud of him? A warm feeling was soon felt that he managed to identify as happiness, a joy and satisfaction at the possibility of finally getting the approval of Sonic for even one brief fleeting moment. So, while he was cautious of believing it at first, it was only two seconds before he slowly started to smile, which was another thing that Sonic was astounded by; rather than being a smirk, it was an actual smile. This again piqued Sonic's curiousity, but he avoided asking why because he knew that would be too personal a question. He didn't want to push his luck. So instead, he said with a smile,

" Of course I'll rescue Eggman! It's the right thing to do, after all, and if you wanna come along, I'll be happy to let you help. After all, it is your mission, and there's plenty that you're capable of, too! You'd be a lot of help as long as you keep your promise not to hurt me, and since saving these robots is so important to you, I can tell that you will. I'm glad you came to me, Metal. It couldn't have been easy asking for my help, but I'm really glad that you swallowed your pride and did. I'm proud of you, Metal, I really am. "

Metal seemed to smile even more at hearing confirmation that Sonic was indeed impressed with him. After all, he had spent almost his entire life trying to impress Sonic, trying to prove that he was superior to him and not inferior like was the only possible alternative, so to see him expressing approval of him, even if for one fleeting moment, brought him indescribable joy, despite the fact that he had to reveal his soft side to him to get it. If anything, Sonic seemed to like his soft side; he appreciated it, rather than thinking he was weak and pathetic or accusing him of faking it.

" I'll go home and tell Tails what's going on. You'll have to wait at his workshop for a while; I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do, and it'll be hard to convince him to trust you not to hurt us. I'm sure it'll only take a few minutes though. Be back in a bit! " Sonic said cheerfully with his usual carefree demeanor, before running at the speed of sound up to his house on the hill overlooking the Mystic Ruins, instantly going from standing near him to entering his house in a blue blur.

Metal stared in confusion and amazement with his eyes widened, unable to believe what just transpired. " That was easier than I expected, " he said under his breath in shock and relief, unable to believe his good luck. Rather than Sonic getting angry with him and not trusting him, treating him with hatred and wariness, he actually smiled at him and acted cheerful and carefree around him after hearing him out, acting like he did around his friends.

Metal soon began to wonder if the reason for his sudden good fortune was that, for the moment at least, the universe considered him to be Sonic's friend. Or at the very least, his ally. Metal felt a little embarrassed at the universe considering him to be Sonic's friend for now, but if it meant that he was going to get a break from his horrid and absolutely dreadful luck, it was for the best. He soon felt grateful for it, and was incredibly relieved that Sonic had given him a chance.

Sonic was going to trust him. That would make the mission a whole lot more bearable. He trusted him. But what about Tails? That child would never feel safe around him, a very powerful robot that could easily kill him if he ever wanted to. Would Tails refuse to come? He couldn't have that; Tails would be necessary for the mission's completion, due to his skills as an expert pilot, as well as his intelligence and ability to fly obviously coming in handy.

To him, it was a concrete fact that some people experienced more good fortune than others, and since Sonic was a hero working against the idiot scientist, it was clear that it was people saving and improving the world that the universe tended to favor. It made him wish that he himself could be in a position to garner the universe's favor in such a way, being a hero who used his skills and intelligence to actually accomplish something and have people like him and be impressed with him who weren't on the idiot's side.

But he knew it was never going to happen. The world would never accept him as a hero. The world didn't accept him. So while fighting Eggman like Sonic did might help solve his problem with luck, he still couldn't imagine his life not becoming even more miserable from what it would change into. Was freedom worth it if it meant a life of unbearable isolation and danger?

Metal sighed wearily with his head down, and started walking to Tails' Workshop unhappily, not looking forward to how awkward and uncomfortable it would be having to go on a plane ride with Sonic and Tails feeling completely untrusted by the latter. It stressed him out knowing that Tails would be afraid of him. He insisted to himself that it was purely because Tails was wrong and not at all because he cared about the child. Tails was wrong about him wanting to hurt him, and it always stressed him out when people were wrong, so it was only logical that he'd feel negative emotions about Tails having a wrong opinion about him. But he couldn't just outright say that he's wrong, because Tails would never believe him, and even if he did say it, how could he possibly do so without sounding rude? He didn't want to push his luck any more than he already had. He didn't wanna scare the kid. He needed to get his trust. How could he possibly carry out the mission without Tails piloting the plane?

As he sat down in front of the door to the workshop, he sighed heavily, with his head down in deep thought, his red eyes dimmed instead of glowing menacingly like they did when he was planning on attacking. He wondered if Sonic had noticed this and that was why he decided to trust him. Were his emotions really that obvious? He hoped not; he couldn't let anyone know he had a soft side.

Metal heard Sonic and Tails walking up to him, and quickly realized he might have looked weak by sitting in front of the workshop with his head down in deep thought looking dejected and worried and conflicted, so he stood up slowly to avoid startling the timid kid in front of him, and assumed a bored and aloof expression to hide his nervousness. Avoiding eye contact with the worried and scared Tails, he looked at the workshop while having his arms crossed to avoid looking weak as Sonic said cheerfully, " Alright, I've convinced him to help! He'll be piloting the Tornado-1 all the way to Siberia! It sure is a good thing this little genius brother of mine made the plane so darn fast! It'll reach our destination in less than an hour! Come on, everyone, let's find this base and check it out! "

With that, Sonic jumped onto the wing of the plane with a carefree smile, and Metal uncrossed his arms and walked towards the plane with a seemingly bored expression on his face. Tails couldn't help but notice how Metal climbed into the back seat, buckled his seatbelts and tightened them, clearly wanting to make absolutely sure he would be safe. Tails wondered if it was because Metal doubted his skills as a pilot or simply didn't trust him not to pilot the plane in a reckless manner just to put him in danger, and was even more nervous as a result as he cautiously went over to the front seat of the plane, with a wary expression on his face.

The plane ride to SWORD's base was a long one, and Sonic's carefree banter with Tails was the only thing that prevented it from having a long awkward silence that would've been stifling and unbearable, especially for Metal Sonic, who felt unwanted enough as it was. Sonic was trying to reassure Tails that he had nothing to worry about by cheerfully talking with him about nothing in particular in his usual carefree manner as if it was just a normal plane ride for the two of them, clearly trying to act as if Metal Sonic wasn't there and distract Tails from that fact. And while it did help by providing Tails with something to focus on other than the fact that Eggman's most powerful robot was in the same plane as him, he still felt wary about trusting Metal, and knowing that even his best friend didn't agree with him in his wariness only worried him all the more. He was relieved when the plane finally reached the base.

" Hey! There it is! Says right there on the radar, that's SWORD's base! " Sonic exclaimed in excitement, which immediately got Metal's attention. He looked forward to see what was in front of the plane, and upon seeing a certain part of the area's defenses, he was immediately filled with dread.

Electrified walls stood surrounding the base from every direction, with visible electricity coming out of them and making a horrible buzzing sound that overwhelmed him about as much as the mere sight of them did. They brought back some horrible memories.

He started shaking and trembling uncontrollably as he tensed up and put his head down with his hands on his head as he tried to ignore the presence of the walls, and his shrunken red eyes dimmed and seemed to shift into a U shape with the pupils vanishing as he " closed " them. He tried as hard as possible to calm down and feel safe again, with the logical part of his mind reminding him in frustration that he was safe in the plane and he needed to calm down and get a hold of himself, because the world's most powerful robot couldn't be that weak and vulnerable, and if Sonic caught him feeling that way, he'd be humiliated.

Thankfully for him, Sonic and Tails were completely oblivious to how he was acting in the presence of those walls, because they were looking straight ahead and down at the base, taking into account all of the dangers it posed and soon realizing that they couldn't go there right away. They weren't prepared. But while Tails looked even more worried and nervous about the danger of the mission Metal wanted him to help with, Sonic got all the more excited and said,

" Wow! This place is really guarded! Well, little bro, it looks like we're not gonna be able to go in there right away! " Tails asked nervously, " What are we gonna do? " Sonic laughed a little and said with excitement,

" What we always do! Collect the seven Chaos Emeralds! This little base might be dangerous now, but if I go Super, there's no way it'll take me down! With the power of those emeralds, this mission will be a piece of cake! All we have to do is find them, and we'll have nothing to worry about! Of course, looking for all the emeralds is gonna take a while. You know what that means?! Another adventure! Heh heh heh! That's great! I've been looking forward to another adventure! Come on, Tails, it'll be fun! We already have one emerald in the workshop, so all we have to do is use it to track down the others! And then we'll find all of those emeralds as fast as we can! How hard could it be? "

Metal would've rolled his eyes at Sonic's immature cockiness if it weren't for the fact that he was extremely panicked at the moment; instead, he was so afraid for his safety that he was thankful that Sonic was saying something at all, because it provided a necessary distraction. Sonic's plan was guaranteed to work, not only because it was a rather good plan all on its own, but also because with Sonic and Tails' luck and skill, the plan's probability of success was at 100%. It was practically a law of the universe at this point. He would dedicate himself to doing whatever he could to getting them to trust him, gathering the emeralds for the mission and proving himself as a trustworthy ally for the sake of the alliance.

He was surprised when Sonic looked over at him with a cheerful smile and said in a friendly carefree tone, " We've got it all figured out, Metal! We'll find the emeralds and storm that base in no time! And it'll be all the more easy because you're gonna help us! Sound like a plan? " Metal was surprised for a few seconds and looked at Sonic with his eyes widened, taken off guard by Sonic actually talking to him for the first time since the flight began, as well as by the cheerful tone he was spoken to in. Sonic, meanwhile, had spoken to him because he had noticed that Metal Sonic was oddly silent in the plane, and figured that it was because he felt like he didn't belong, and so he decided to talk to him to make him feel more accepted and included. He had spent the vast majority of the flight talking to Tails, and he hoped Metal wasn't upset that he was ignoring him.

After a few seconds of being silent from surprise, Metal finally stammered in confusion and surprise, " W-Well, um, yeah! " and nodded to express his agreement with the plan. He hoped he wasn't coming off as weak and pathetic, since he didn't exactly look menacing like this. Sonic took note of Metal's unusual behavior at being addressed like a friend by him, but chose not to draw attention to it. Instead, he smiled, gave him a thumbs-up and said cheerfully, " Great! That's just what I like to hear! We'll be home soon, Metal, and as soon as we get that emerald from the workshop, we'll track down the others and work together to find them! " and turned back around to face forwards, politely ignoring Metal's confused expression.

Metal Sonic was, again, confused and conflicted by how friendly Sonic was being to him. Was it because Eggman hadn't sent him to fight Sonic in years? Did spending that long a time without fighting him cause Sonic to stop hating him as much as he used to? Come to think of it, Sonic had never really treated him with hatred. At worst, he acted cocky and teased him, but he teased him playfully, in a playful way rather being outright hateful of him. It was almost as if he didn't really hate him. Was it because he was Eggman's robot, so Sonic didn't hate him as much because he thought he was only programmed to be his enemy and wasn't really responsible for his actions as a result? For some reason he couldn't understand, that thought calmed and comforted him. He expected to feel ashamed and embarrassed that Sonic didn't view him as an enemy to be completely hated and thus taken seriously, but instead, he felt relieved and thankful.

Was it because Sonic was such a powerful fighter and worthy opponent that he couldn't afford to have him hating him with a passion, because of what he would do to him if he fought him with all of his strength? All of the times he lost to Sonic in a fight, he was put through nothing but pain and misery. He could only imagine what it would be like to lose a fight if Sonic truly hated him with a passion and wanted him dead... Or destroyed, as Eggman would put it.

Metal looked depressed and annoyed as he returned to staring to the left of him with his hand on his chin in boredom. Just because he was a robot, he was treated as a second-class citizen.

Eventually, the Tornado-1 landed on the runway near Tails' workshop after a long plane ride back from Siberia. Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane before it finished landing and gracefully landed on his two feet on the ground after back-flipping in the air, which caused Metal Sonic to roll his eyes at his recklessness and unbuckle his seatbelts to leave the back seat after the plane had stopped moving, thinking to himself, " Why does he think that's a good idea? He's lucky he doesn't get himself killed! Not that I care or anything. "

Now that all three of them were out of the plane, Sonic said with a carefree smile, " That was fun! Now let's locate those emeralds! " and opened a small red toolbox in the gray cabinet in the workshop that contained a Chaos Emerald. Still looking timid because Metal Sonic was around, Tails cautiously took the emerald out of the toolbox with shaky hands and placed it into a hole in an electronic device connected to his computer, and used the computer mouse to click through various menus to find the Chaos Emerald Locater he programmed into it by taking advantage of its GPS. Soon, what looked like a video of the planet from outer space showed up on the screen, and several different red dots appeared in various locations on the planet's surface indicating the locations of emeralds.

A long time passed as Tails clicked each of the dots on the screen to zoom in multiple times on their locations and then wrote each of them down on a small piece of paper in front of him, which Metal Sonic tried not to get bored by due to the complete silence. He was impressed by the fact that Tails was intelligent enough to make a computer program for himself that displayed the locations of the Chaos Emeralds on a map of the world, although he knew he shouldn't be surprised that Tails, who he considered to be the true " most brilliant inventor in the world, " would be capable of that.

But he didn't want to look suspicious by commenting on the emerald locater; for all he knew, Sonic and Tails would think he was going to tell Eggman to arrange for it to be stolen or replicated, as opposed to simply expressing the fact that he was impressed. He also didn't want to look like he had gone soft by admitting he was proud of Tails for something he accomplished. So he stayed silent, standing to the left of Tails with his arms crossed in boredom waiting for Tails to finish writing the locations down. He was incredibly relieved when it was over.

Sonic said with a carefree demeanor, " Great job, little bro! Alright, we've located all the emeralds we need to find! One's in Green Hill Zone, one's in Marble Garden Zone - on Angel Island where Knuckles is, that could be a problem. One's in Ice Mountain Zone - oh, geez, uh, the one with all the water? Heh heh, let's put that one last. Then there's one in the capital of Shamar and one in Dragon Road in Chun-Nan. All areas I've been to! How convenient! "

Metal rolled his eyes, thinking in annoyance, " Convenient for you, maybe, but of all the areas you just mentioned, I've put aside the time to visit only three of them. Granted, the first one I'm extremely familiar with, but... Oh, great. I'll have to explain myself to him because of that. "

Tails, on the other hand, looked nervous. Sonic was trying his best to cheer him up and reassure him he was safe by acting exactly the same as he usually did around him, and while it did relieve some of the tension of working with Metal Sonic, someone who could kill him with the flick of his wrist, he still couldn't help but be really uneasy about the fact that Sonic just made it incredibly obvious that he was afraid of water in front of someone who could use that information against him.

Just after Sonic had stated the location of the emerald in Chun-Nan, he said, " And finally, the last emerald we need is... in Shadow's house... Aw, great. Looks like we're putting this one off until the very end. " Metal's eyes widened in shock at hearing Shadow's name, only to quickly narrow again in mild annoyance at Sonic being exasperated while saying it. He remembered the adventure he and Shadow had together when Eggman had sent him to work with Shadow to defeat Eggman Nega. He was awkward about going up to him for assistance, and was surprised when not only did Shadow agree to work with him, but worked with him rather well. Rather than constantly insulting him and showing that he didn't trust him like one would expect someone so cynical to act towards him, Shadow actually treated him with respect. Not only did he take the mission seriously - unlike Sonic was right now - but he actually showed that he cared about his well-being, which he never thought he'd hear from anyone not on Eggman's side.

Shadow was the first and so far only person not working for Eggman who asked him if he was okay, something he wished he was able to thank him for back then; not just because it would be awkward to thank him, but also because Eggman had temporarily removed his ability to speak in favor of loudspeakers for himself to converse with Shadow with. On the one hand, it prevented him from saying anything he'd regret, but on the other hand, it prevented him from expressing any gratitude. When the two of them were trapped in the Ifrit's dimension and he had to tear the Chaos Emerald out of his chest to allow Shadow to warp them home, Shadow was actually concerned and panicked, and told him he was worried he would destroy himself. In truth, he was worried for nothing; while doing so did cause him to deactivate from the damage and the loss of his temporary power source, Eggman was able to fix him and return him to getting energy from oxygen quite easily, although it was still very painful taking the emerald out of himself in the first place. But the sheer fact that he was so worried about a robot he had thought of as his enemy destroying himself, gave him a whole new respect for Shadow.

He knew that everyone thought of Shadow as overly cynical, negative and aloof, but now he knew that they were wrong to hate him. Not only was he an extremely powerful fighter like Sonic was, but he was noble and compassionate; he just made it hard to tell. He wished Shadow and him could go on more adventures together. He wished the two of them could be friends. So hearing Sonic express such exasperation with having to ask for help from someone he respected so much was confusing and irritating for Metal Sonic, who had assumed that Sonic liked Shadow more than that.

" What's wrong with Shadow? " Metal Sonic asked in annoyance and confusion, still having his arms crossed from before. The instant he said that, he hoped he wasn't in trouble as Tails looked at him in surprise seeming intimidated. " Oh, he's really reluctant to help me when I ask for it. It's no biggie, though, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, " Sonic replied in exasperation without taking his eyes off the computer screen, assuming that Metal Sonic had only asked that out of curiosity. Metal Sonic couldn't help but be annoyed at hearing that, and wondered if Shadow's reluctance to help Sonic came from his serious, cynical and aloof personality contrasting with Sonic's carefree, idealistic and fun-loving nature, or from Sonic being rude to him for not thinking the way he did. Tails noticed how he looked at Sonic in mild annoyance and worried because of it, although he couldn't help but wonder why Metal Sonic would be annoyed at him for insulting Shadow. After all, it's not like he insulted him. Did he actually like Shadow?

Sonic went back to smiling in his usual carefree way as he said, " Right now, though, it's time to go after the first one, in Green Hill Zone! I figured I'd go after the easiest one the first. It's how my adventures usually go. Come on, everyone! " and jumped onto the wing of the plane eagerly. After putting the emerald back into the toolbox, Tails used his tails to fly into the front seat of the plane while Metal used his jet engine chest to fly over to the back seat, sat down in it, and buckled up his seatbelts and tightened them just in case. Tails drove the Tornado-1 down the runway and flew it up into the air, and it was only then that Metal realized what Sonic had said.

He had said the word, " adventures. " Sonic considered this to be an adventure. He wasn't fighting any particular villain, or dealing with any traps or robots. All he was doing was traveling the world to collect six Chaos Emeralds, but he still thought of himself as going on an adventure, with him. Metal Sonic was going on an adventure with Sonic the Hedgehog, and his eyes widened in realization when it hit him. He never thought that would happen.

Sonic looked back at him while he was thinking about this, and saw joy in Metal Sonic's eyes along with a smile the likes of which he had almost never seen on him before; it wasn't a smirk, but a genuine likable smile. And fortunately for him, Metal Sonic wasn't looking at him when he briefly looked at him in the back seat; his eyes had a far-away look to them, not focused on anything in particular, as if he was in deep thought about something that made him happy. Sonic smiled and returned to staring ahead before Metal could see him looking at him in curiosity. He wondered if the reason for Metal's happiness was that he realized he was actually going on an adventure with him and being treated like just another friend of his while it was happening, and found that heartwarming to think about.

Then he looked at Tails, who still had a nervous and worried expression on his face as he piloted the plane, and his smile turned into a worried frown as he realized that while he himself was treating Metal like an accepted part of the group, Tails wasn't.

The poor kid was afraid of him. He was reluctant to go on the adventure from the very beginning, all because he knew Metal would be there. In fact, the only reason he could convince his little brother figure to go with him in the end was by allowing him to secretly take an EMP ray gun along with him. While Sonic was brave enough, idealistic enough and optimistic enough to trust Metal to help him, Tails wasn't, and it made the adventure difficult for the both of them; Tails because he was afraid Metal would do something evil at the quickest opportunity, and Metal because he felt like he didn't belong. It would take a long time for Tails to stop being worried and afraid around Metal Sonic during the temporary truce. Sonic knew it wouldn't be a good idea to try too hard to push the kid to be friendly to him and trust him when he was so afraid of him; that would only make Tails even more afraid.

He couldn't just leave him alone with him, not only because Tails wouldn't trust Metal not to hurt him with Sonic not around, but also because even he himself was worried about that happening. Even if he did plan to do that, it couldn't be until later, when Tails and him had been given more reason to trust Metal Sonic not to break his word. What was he going to do when the plane landed in Green Hill Zone? He wasn't sure if Metal could be trusted to search for the emerald alone. What if he couldn't resist the temptation to use it against him? Plus, since he's never been in Green Hill Zone, he couldn't possibly know the layout. What if he gets lost and can't find the plane again? Granted, he seemed like a rather intelligent robot, so that probably wasn't going to happen, but still.

Sonic decided that just to be safe, he would wait until later to send him off to search for an emerald alone. They would all go to find the emeralds together, one at a time, searching for the first one at the very least while being all in a group within sight of each other. After all, he couldn't leave Tails alone at the plane. What if he snapped and went home from the anxiety? What if he got hurt while no one else was there? No, this way was safer. Sonic was slightly ashamed of focusing so much on the safest possible option when that was the complete opposite of who he was, but in a situation like this, it was probably for the best.

It wasn't long before the Tornado-1 landed in Green Hill Zone at last. Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane and landed on the grass of the meadow with a nostalgic smile, saying, " It's been a while since I've been here! " and chuckling. The last time he had been through there was during the Time Eater adventure, but even then, he hadn't gone through all of it, so there were still plenty of areas in the meadow that he was now unfamiliar with. " A really long while. Haven't been all the way through this place for five and a half years! But that's not that much of a problem. I don't have to go through it as fast as possible with as little mistakes as possible, I just have to search the entire place. Not much familiarity required for that! Come on, everyone! Let's go through this place like I used to and search for the emerald! We're all staying within sight of each other so no one gets separated from the group, so I'll look to the left, you'll look to your right, and Metal, you'll look ahead, since you've never been here before. Let's go! "

Sonic and Tails were rather quick to notice how skilled Metal was at going through the first third of it alone, jumping at all of the right times and knowing exactly how to keep his momentum. It was made even more obvious when he started to take a higher route than them, although since he was still within sight of them, Sonic couldn't say he was breaking the rule. Searching Green Hill Zone's first third soon became more of a race than a search with Sonic and Tails doing their best to keep up. Whenever they got to a part where there were multiple paths, Sonic had to tell Tails to take the lower path as he followed Metal Sonic in the upper one.

While the narration makes the race sound like it was a worrying and nerve-wracking experience for Sonic, the truth was that he was enjoying the challenge of it, even though he was still suspicious. Sonic was even smiling during the race, finding it fun and exciting, allowing him to get the search done a lot quicker than he expected. Everyone's eyes were still looking all around the area despite trying to get through it as fast as possible, so it wasn't like they would've run past the emerald if it was there.

Metal was serious, being completely focused on going through the place the way he had before to avoid any embarrassing screw-ups in front of Sonic and getting the mission done as fast as possible, and Tails was worried that Metal would get too far away from them and not stop at the end of the first third of the hill, as well as suspicious that he had somehow located the emerald in Green Hill Zone before coming to Sonic and memorized the layout in advance. But Sonic was having fun, and by the time they had finished searching the first third of the hill, he was smiling from the excitement when they stopped at the goalpost Eggman had put there years ago.

" Woo-hoo! That was fun! " Sonic exclaimed cheerfully as Tails caught up with the two of them. He chuckled and said, " Wasn't expecting a race! You're pretty good at this, Metal! Almost like you've been here more than me! Heh heh heh! We got the search a third of the way done already! Keep it up! " He briefly put his hand on his shoulder at the second sentence to express casual approval of his skills and gave him a thumbs-up after he finished talking, smiling all the while in his usual carefree demeanor.

Metal Sonic was standing with his arms crossed in front of him with his usual bored, serious, " only sane man " expression, trying to hide the fact that he was incredibly worried about the incoming suspicion, but he took Sonic's carefree and lighthearted approach to commenting about his skills to mean that Sonic thought he was just a natural. He didn't realize that Sonic was just being polite; he already suspected that Metal had been through this place before, but assumed that he had gone through it on his various missions for Eggman, and so didn't want to look nosy or remind him they were usually enemies by asking for the exact details. Tails, on the other hand, had no such qualms, being too worried and nervous to be able to hold back his suspicion.

" Yeah! You were really good! You went through it flawlessly! " Tails said to Metal Sonic, unsuccessfully trying to sound purely impressed rather than confused. Realizing he was attracting suspicion, Metal admitted in embarrassment, " I wasn't perfect, I made some mistakes. I was a millisecond off with my last jump and it didn't keep the momentum as well as it should've. " Even more suspicious, Tails asked, " How did you know you were a millisecond off? " taking that as even more proof that he memorized the layout of the level and trained at it. Sonic looked at Tails with a smile trying to hide how worried he was at what he was doing; if Metal didn't want to tell him, it was better to just stay out of it.

" W-Well, I-I was focusing really hard on what was ahead of me and doing calculations and going through various simulations in my mind to determine the best way to go through the area, including knowing when to jump, and my senses were sped up to the speed of sound because that's how fast I was moving and so that's how fast I was thinking, a-and that's how I figured out how to do it so well, I just examined the area in front of me and thought at length about what to do next at the speed of sound, it's no big deal. " Metal Sonic stammered nervously, trying to only look like he was being humble and not trying to hide something.

Tails said with an impressed tone to try to mask his suspicion, " So you did it this well on the very first try?! All because you're a robot and so you noticed and analyzed everything and made some calculations at a really quick speed? Well, you must be really observant! Although Sonic can think at the speed of sound when he's going that fast, too, so I don't know why he's not a natural on the first try. "

Noticing how nervous Metal was, Sonic said with a shrug, " It's no big deal, Tails, I'm just not as good at calculating stuff as a robot is. Go figure! Anyway, the next third of the area is coming right up, so- "

" You've been practicing, haven't you?! " Tails interrupted to Sonic's exasperation, still with an impressed smile to try and pretend he was just complimenting him instead of expressing suspicion - an act which nobody was fooled by, as Metal became even more nervous, with his eyes darting back and forth and his body language getting fidgety. " How did you know to do that before we located an emerald here? Was it just a really lucky guess? Or do you have a locater of your own? "

" I don't have an emerald locater, and even if I did, I wouldn't have used it before coming to Sonic because I didn't know we'd be going after the emeralds. I wasn't thinking that far ahead. Which is extremely unlike me, but since I was going to request Sonic's help and he would be the one making all the decisions, I had decided not to make any plans of my own. Anyways, kid, your older brother is right, we should really start searching the rest of the hill now, we have a mission to focus on. " Metal Sonic said with a tone of mild annoyance to try and hide his nervousness, hoping he wouldn't anger Sonic or intimidate Tails a little too much by sounding annoyed with him.

" But then why were you practicing? If you didn't know you'd even be coming here, why did you take the time to master it before the adventure? " Tails said, this time with nothing but confusion in his tone; he was certain that Metal had an emerald locater back at the base, and being proven wrong left him with no explanation. " You can never be too prepared. " Metal Sonic said in a serious tone.

" S-So, when did you last go through this place? " Tails asked in confusion, seeming more nervous as he realized how long he had been pressuring Metal Sonic for the truth and pushing his luck. " Two and a half years ago, " Metal admitted with the same serious tone, not realizing he was very gradually bit by bit revealing the truth he was hiding. Tails was even more confused at hearing this because of how good he was at going through the area after that long implying he had gone through it an extremely large amount of times. " Two and a half years?! And you're still an expert?! How many times have you gone through this place?! " Tails exclaimed, which caused him to soon hope that he hadn't pushed his luck too far with such a question.

Metal looked at the ground with his arms crossed while reluctantly admitting quietly, " ...201. " Sonic and Tails were shocked at hearing this, and Tails' eyes went as big as marbles when he realized how experienced he really was.

" Wow! You had enough time on your hands to go through it that much? But I thought you were always cooped up in the base unless Eggman sent you out of it for a mission. I doubt Eggman sent you here specifically to master going through the area. Were you sent here on a mission a couple times and passed through the area on your way? " Sonic continued to stare at the scene with a nervous smile. He didn't outright stop Tails because it would make it obvious that he was suspicious as well and was covering for Metal, which wouldn't make him look good to his best friend. That, and seeing if Metal would snap at Tails was the perfect secret test of character that allowed him to see if he really could be trusted as his ally. So far, he hadn't done anything wrong yet, simply expressed mild annoyance at the kid's nosiness.

Metal was worried about telling them the truth. But he also knew that if he said yes, Tails would want to know about the missions he was sent on by Eggman, and reminding the two of them that he usually did what Eggman told him to do regardless of their disapproval and his lack of enthusiasm would not do well to cultivate an atmosphere of trust. So he sighed and reluctantly admitted,

" Actually, no... I came here of my own accord. The idiot doesn't keep very good track of all the robots in his base, especially not when he's busy with his latest futile plans, so every so often when I could get away with it, I would sneak out of the base and go here for a few hours. It was a daily thing. I didn't have very much to do with my spare time. Oh, sure, I had something to do in the morning, since the idiot would always tell certain robots of his about his newest plans and inventions every meal and my attendance was required, but that was often it, so I would find myself with long stretches of the day with absolutely nothing to do. And I didn't want to just spend all of my free time in sleep mode, that seemed like a waste. So eventually I decided to start spending my time training and practicing to get better at the things I could do, such as running at the speed of sound, jumping, spin-dashing... "

" All things that Sonic can do? " Tails asked nonchalantly, soon realizing that he had tricked Metal into being comfortable enough to have a casual conversation with him that would eventually lead into telling him the truth.

" Yeah, all those things. I even taught myself the Homing-Attack! I spent hours every day back then practicing to try to improve my skills, partially to alleviate boredom, and partially to attempt to give myself a feeling of accomplishment, " Metal explained nonchalantly with a bored tone, although he did seem proud of himself for learning the homing-attack all by himself without Eggman having to download the information into him later. Tails asked in confusion and curiosity, " Attempt? "

" Well, it wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped. It may have been because I had no one there to compare myself to. It's not like Sonic was right there with me competing with me and showing me how I had progressed. So I set the bar too high and aimed for perfection because I didn't know where to stop, and all it did was stress me out when I noticed every mistake I would inevitably make and focused on the mistakes instead of my actual progress. I-I wouldn't truly get the sense of accomplishment I wanted because I had impossibly high standards for myself because I didn't know when to stop! I started going through Green Hill Zone because I heard Sonic had been there and I wanted to get as good at it as possible for the sake of it, but because I had no idea what his record was, I kept going through it over and over again setting better and better times being unable to feel satisfied with them because I didn't know what they meant. All I noticed was the mistakes that I would inevitably make whenever I was even a millisecond off in any of my jumps and all I focused on was them, so after a certain point, when I had set a record I was completely unable to beat, I was always finishing the area less satisfied with myself when I finished than when I came in. It was a vicious cycle, " Metal explained with a melancholic tone that became more nervous at a certain point.

Sonic and Tails couldn't believe what they were hearing. Was Metal Sonic actually insecure of his own skills? " Why didn't you stop? " Tails asked sadly, with his eyes full of pity. It was clear that he had figured out just how stressed out Metal Sonic's perfectionism against himself had made him. " I-I couldn't... I just couldn't. The logical part of my mind was telling me to. Intellectually, I knew that it was only stressing me out, but I-I just couldn't bring myself to stop, because I was certain that if I stopped training, my skills would get rusty and I would lose all of the progress I had made. It was important to me. The logical part of my mind was constantly warning me that I had improved as much as I could've and so I was gaining nothing but stress from those endeavors, but the emotional part just couldn't stop fixating on trying to prove I wasn't inferior and pathetic as a result, and the fact that I had nothing else to do didn't help, so eventually the stress started building up and everything spiraled out of control! I tried to hide it by bottling it up and acting calm and emotionless, but every so often something would irritate me so much that I'd release it in the form of complaining, and if it weren't for that and my combat training, which only lasts for 30 minutes, it would've happened so much sooner... I-I, it eventually got too much for me to handle... and I, I made a lot of mistakes... I'm sure you remember it, the, result... It's something I've never been proud of. I wasn't thinking straight when it happened. I was just so stressed out about everything in my life and eventually it got to me! "

He went from looking nervous and anxious to looking depressed, and said, " All of the stresses in my life seemed to stem from being a robot based off Sonic and all of the pressure that it came with, everything I had to live up to, everything I didn't have, and all because I was based on him. So eventually it got to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore, and... well, you remember the result. If I was thinking straight, I wouldn't have said those things or done any of that. It wouldn't have happened sooner and it'll never happen again. It was just the culmination of so much stress of the high expectations and what I didn't have and the misery of having to work for Eggman that was all bottled up until it all came out at once, and after it happened, I lost all hope. So I had to stop training. "

Metal Sonic started to smile a little as he continued, " Then Orbot suggested that I start reading books as my main way of passing the time, and that's been my hobby ever since. I've read everything from encyclopedias to history books to the dictionary, none of which are books that Sonic would be interested in, and it's because of that that I was able to come to terms with the fact that I had a separate identity from him. If anything, I'm a lot more content than I was before, and all because I got something else to do. " He smiled genuinely, causing Sonic and Tails to smile as well; not only because they were relieved that he wasn't as miserable as before, but also because if the Metal Overlord Incident was what could happen if the stress got to him, then him becoming more of a well-read bookworm and intellectual was a very good thing.

Knowing he had to say something quickly to try to prevent him from figuring out he had opened up to his enemies, Tails said with a smile, " That's good! That's good to hear. I read books like that a lot, too. It's nice to see we aren't so different, " and giggled. Of course, he soon gasped and became worried and nervous when he realized that there was plenty about Metal that he didn't want to have in common with him, and remembered how afraid of him he was. Noticing his change in demeanor, Metal sighed and said, " We should return to searching for the emerald. So far we've spent more time on South Island talking than doing what we came for, " and ran off at the speed of sound in the direction of the second third of Green Hill Zone, causing Sonic to smile in excitement at another race and say with a laugh, " Hey, no fair! I wasn't ready yet! Come on, Tails! " causing Tails to follow him as they ran through the area.

It wasn't long before all of Green Hill Zone had been searched, with Tails being the one finding the Chaos Emerald. " Guys, I found it! " Tails yelled out when he found it near the end of the last third of the hill, causing Metal to reluctantly fly back to him and start standing in front of him with Sonic running up to the two of them with a grin. " Great job, little bro! We'll have all of them before we know it! " Sonic exclaimed happily. Metal Sonic was a little annoyed that he hadn't been the one who found the emerald, but he knew that he couldn't express his disappointment without getting everyone annoyed with him, so he kept it to himself.

Suddenly, Tails' stomach rumbled, and he laughed nervously in embarrassment while scratching the back of his neck, saying nervously, " I-It's lunchtime, isn't it? " Metal looked up in the sky and stated, " The sun is at its highest point, so I would say it most certainly is. I suppose now we'll be flying back to your home to obtain some sustenance? " with his arms crossed and a bored expression as usual. His internal clock allowed him to check what time it was whenever he wanted to, so he didn't need to look at the sun to determine if it was lunchtime; he was mostly just being facetious, taking the opportunity to be sarcastic and get away with it. Fortunately for him, he did, because as he expected, his sarcasm was so subtle that it wasn't noticed at all.

Seeing the perfect opportunity to give Metal another secret test of character, Sonic grinned and said energetically, " I have a better idea! We're only three miles away from the nearest town! And you know what's in that town? A chili dog stand! Why don't I run there real quick and get us a bite to eat? " Confused, Tails asked, " But won't a panic be created when Metal Sonic shows up there? " A part of him worried that Sonic meant he was leaving him alone with Metal, and he hoped in his thoughts, " Oh, Sonic, don't tell me you're doing what I think you're doing! "

Sonic felt a little sorry for Tails for what he was going to do, but if it meant proving to him that he could trust Metal not to hurt him and making him less uneasy around him, it would be worth it. So he laughed a little and ruffled his hair before saying affectionately, " Don't worry, Tails, you'll be fine! I'll be right back! " and sped off at the speed of sound, knowing that Metal wouldn't do anything to hurt him.

Tails gasped with a frightened expression and called out, " W-Wait, Sonic! You can't just... " and trailed off, worried about what would happen if he finished his thought right in front of the one he was referring to. There was an awkward silence as he and Metal were left alone. Understanding his fear, Metal sighed wearily, rolled his eyes and sat down in front of a tree with his arms and legs crossed, muttering, " What I wouldn't give for a book. "

At first, being left alone with Metal Sonic was nerve-wracking for Tails, but after only a minute, it soon became clear that such a fight was never going to happen, and Tails slightly calmed down. The silence went from nerve-wracking and intimidating to awkward and boring, and Tails felt the temptation to attempt to try and talk with the only company he had simply to pass the time. " Y-You sure like books, don't you? " Tails asked with a nervous smile, still not entirely trusting him. " Obviously, " Metal Sonic deadpanned, looking at the ground instead of him; he seemed to have a problem with making eye contact with other people, only doing it when he was listening very intently or giving out very important information.

Tails had to hold back a sigh of sadness and exasperation at his annoyed but straightforward response. He was starting to think that Metal didn't appreciate small talk. And he was right; Metal preferred meaningful conversations over pointless chitchat that served no other purpose than to fill an uncomfortable silence. For once, Tails wasn't surprised by his behavior that day. After all, nobody would expect a robot like Metal Sonic to appreciate small talk or even participate in it. His behavior had surprised him a lot, but unlike Sonic, he was more likely to push the thought that he was revealing his true self into the back of his mind out of caution and wariness of being too trusting of him. Wondering if he could trick him into revealing more about himself by starting an actual conversation in a subtle way, Tails asked politely, " S-So, where do you get them? "

Metal Sonic became worried upon hearing that question, and his expression showed it. " Um... The library... In the base! Y-Yeah, in home base... " he said nervously, his now shrunken red eyes looking everywhere except at him.

Suddenly, a blue blur appeared on the horizon, and instantly sped from the horizon to right in front of the two of them and stopped, revealing itself to be Sonic having run at the speed of sound back to where they were. He was holding two chili dogs in his hand with an eager grin on his face. He said with excitement, " Hey, little bro! I got us some lunch! Let's eat! " and sat down on the grass with Tails to enjoy the lunch he had bought for them. He would've been rather disappointed if he found out that Metal and Tails barely spoke to each other while he was gone, but the sheer fact that Tails was unharmed by him was enough to put him in an even better mood than he was when he left. He was right to trust him.

" Man, I love chili dogs! They're the most delicious food in the whole entire world! I could have them every day! And I do! " Sonic said with a smile after taking his first bite. Metal Sonic rolled his eyes at Sonic's enthusiasm, and stared at the sight of the two of them sitting on the ground eating chili dogs with his arms crossed and a weary expression on his face.

Noticing Metal Sonic sitting in front of the tree melancholically looking at the ground with his arms and legs crossed in the position easily recognizable as that of a teen drowned in thought, Sonic asked Tails with a smile, " So, did you two talk while I was gone? " hoping Metal had opened up to him more; he had barely spoken since the adventure began. Tails said nervously, " Not really. I asked him where he got his books, and he said there was a library in Eggman's base. "

Sonic said with a laugh, " Huh. Never would've imagined an entire library in the base of that evil genius, but I guess since he's supposed to be a smart guy, it makes sense that he'd have a lot of books around. " After hearing that, Metal Sonic thought, " Smart guy, yeah right, " and rolled his eyes. Sonic continued cheerfully, " Although I can't imagine anyone other than him and Metal actually visiting it. All the other robots are probably too busy and not interested in reading. Right, Metal? "

There was a brief silence. " Huh? Uh, y-yeah, that is correct. S-Sorry, I was just deep in thought about something... " Metal replied nervously, surprised at actually being addressed in what he thought was purely a two-way conversation. Sonic usually just talked with Tails. He wasn't used to not being ignored. He didn't expect to be actually included in the conversation. He didn't expect to be included at all.

Tails looked at him in confusion and nervousness, surprised that he had actually said the word, " sorry, " and stuttered a little in his speech. While Tails was curious about what he was thinking about, Sonic thought nothing of it and returned to having friendly banter with Tails about nothing in particular while eating lunch with him.

It wasn't long before they had returned to where they had left the Tornado-1. During the plane ride to their next destination, Angel Island, Sonic had a cheerful conversation with Tails about nothing in particular to reassure him that everything was fine, while Metal sat completely silent in the back seat, staring at the scenery below and worrying about how long the mission was taking. The cheerful banter hid what Sonic was truly worrying about from everyone else. Knuckles was on Angel Island, and he knew that he wouldn't approve of Metal Sonic being there, and no amount of convincing would make him understand. That was how cynical he was; he was always prone to thinking the worst of Sonic, and even today, he still didn't completely trust him, thinking of him as a reckless idiot and feeling like his cocky and carefree attitude was just to make people let their guards down.

" Alright, little bro, now we can't land the plane near Marble Garden Zone itself because Knuckles will see it in the sky; we all know he would never approve of Metal Sonic being with us, and the last thing we need is for him to jump to the wrong conclusions. So why don't we land the plane in Mushroom Hill Zone where there's a lot of trees for cover? Then, we'll run all the way to where we really need to be and then make our way back! Sound good? " Sonic said with a smile. Tails replied nervously, " Yeah, that's probably the best idea. "

The plane flew around the floating island to reach a forest full of giant mushrooms near the edge of it, and Tails carefully landed it in a glade surrounded by trees where Knuckles wouldn't be able to see the plane in the sky. Sonic jumped off the wing to land on the ground on his feet, while Metal waited for the plane to stop moving before unbuckling his seatbelts and carefully getting out of the plane with Tails.

After everyone had gotten out of the plane, Sonic said to Tails with a smile, " Alright, so here's what we'll do! We'll all run from here to Marble Garden Zone, and when we reach there, you and I will search the western side while Metal will search the eastern side! That way, if Knuckles finds us, he won't see us with one of Eggman's most infamous robots and jump to the wrong conclusions. He's always prone to worrying that the worst has happened and thinking the worst of everyone. "

Metal thought with his arms crossed and a mildly annoyed expression, " Sounds just like me. " Tails was nervous about the prospect of letting Metal Sonic try to search for the emerald unsupervised, worrying that he would try to steal the Master Emerald or use a Chaos Emerald to make himself more powerful, but he tried to calm down by reminding himself that Metal knew he wouldn't be able to keep having their help if he did that.

Metal questioned, " So are there any dangers on this island that I'm not aware of? " with a serious expression. Sonic and Tails immediately looked at him when he said that; he was usually so quiet that it was always surprising when he said anything at all. Sonic explained cheerfully, " It's just a straight shot from here to Marble Garden Zone. We just run through the woods and we're there! There's no dangers that weren't there in Green Hill Zone. We're perfectly safe! There's nothing safer than a forest! "

Metal looked annoyed and worried, and said with a serious expression, looking paranoid in the process, " A forest is hardly without any dangers to be found! All those trees block your view and prevent you from seeing if there are any threats coming near you! What if a bear attacks us and we couldn't see it coming because the trees were in the way? Forests are full of dangerous wildlife that won't hesitate to attack you! Even the plant life can be dangerous; what if you run into some poison ivy or eat some berries not knowing that they're poisonous? Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe! True, that isn't a threat to me, but the two of you still need to watch out for it! Not to mention how dangerous it is being in an area surrounded by trees when a storm's going on! What if a tree nearby gets, struck by lightning and catches on fire?! It's already bad enough that this floating deathtrap of an island is so high up in the sky and lightning always strikes the highest point. This place probably gets struck by lightning more than all of the lightning rods in the world! The less time we spend here, the better! " He had cringed and looked very nervous at mentioning lightning. Even trees being electrocuted was too strong of a reminder.

Seeing how worried Tails was because of his own fear of lightning, Sonic laughed nervously and said while trying not to sound antagonistic, " Uh, Metal? Y-You're kinda worrying Tails here. You're probably right about all this stuff, but let's not let that prevent us from enjoying our time here, you know? It's not all bad. "

After looking scared from almost getting in trouble and then annoyed with himself for the mistake, Metal sighed and admitted nervously, " S-Sorry I got all worked up. Cloudy days put me on edge, and I haven't watched the weather report today, " which surprised Sonic and Tails.

Trying to avoid looking weak by showing how worried he was that he was in trouble, Metal started walking through the woods and being followed by Sonic and Tails as a result as he said with a serious expression,

" I'm just saying there are dangers to look out for. You have to remain ever vigilant, and stay alert, and never let your guards down, because all it would take is one threat rushing up to us because we weren't completely aware of our surroundings. The two of you need to be careful so that nothing will happen to you during the mission, especially you. " He looked at Tails briefly after saying that, and continued, " As the child that Sonic's looking after, it is his responsibility to ensure that nothing will happen to you, and since I'm here on a mission with you, it is my responsibility, as well. The last thing we need is for anything to happen to a vital member of our team. "

Sonic and Tails couldn't believe it. Metal Sonic was actually expressing concern about their safety. Tails felt conflicted about hearing that. On the one hand, he was upset that Metal Sonic underestimated his combat prowess and wanted to protect him because of his young age, seeing him as just a child in need of protection. But on the other hand, he couldn't help but find it heartwarming that Metal Sonic would feel a desire to protect a child like him from being hurt, even if he did personally benefit from doing so. He wondered if Sonic was right to trust him. Of course, he soon went right back to being wary of him when he came to the conclusion that Metal only cared about them because they were necessary for the completion of his mission, meaning that as soon as the truce ended, he would go back to wanting them dead. Because of this train of thought, Tails went from looking confused to smiling warmly to looking worried and wary in the span of seconds, while Sonic, who didn't think about the possibility that Metal only cared because of the alliance, simply smiled in approval.

Not wanting to look like he had gone soft, Metal said to them in a serious no-nonsense tone, " The mission won't get done in time if we simply walk for all of it. I suggest that we run through this wooded area and not cease until we reach our destination, " changing the subject in a hurry. Sonic said cheerfully, " Good idea, Metal! " and responded to Metal flying forwards at the speed of sound by running after him, with Tails following him at a slightly slower speed.

The three of them sped through Mushroom Hill Zone as fast as they could, going through it with similar skill. Sonic had gotten into another impromptu race with Metal Sonic, and it was a good thing that he wasn't a sore loser when losing didn't mean much, because Metal Sonic was in the lead, due to his ability to fly removing the necessity for him to jump; Tails could fly in his own way, but he couldn't fly as fast as him.

By the time they had finished going through the mushroom-filled forest, several minutes had passed. Sonic ran up to Metal laughing a little from enjoying the race, with Tails catching up to them soon afterwards. " That was fun! You did great, Metal! " he said with a laugh. Sonic soon noticed that Metal was staring at Marble Garden Zone with his arms crossed and a serious expression. After a few seconds, Metal looked up at the sky to see where the sun was, and Sonic asked, " What's up, Metal? "

" I'm ascertaining what direction we are facing by analyzing where the sun is in the sky and what time of day it is. After all, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and we need to search different sides of the area, so determining which way is north is a necessity. I have determined that we are facing north right now, so my method has been a success, " Metal answered nonchalantly. He had an internal compass in him as an upgrade, so he didn't entirely need to go to all that trouble just to find out what direction he was facing, but he just wanted to be sure. Sonic couldn't help but be amazed that he was so good at analyzing things and getting information from it and determining what to do as a result of that, and yet acted like it was no big deal; although he supposed he shouldn't be so surprised that a robot was an expert at analyzing and processing data. Still, not even Tails had thought to do that, and he analyzed the world around him better than Sonic ever could without even thinking anything of it.

Metal turned to him and asked nonchalantly, " Are you aware of where exactly in the area the part of it we're looking at is? If it's in the middle, or the west, or the east? That information would be rather convenient. " After two seconds of shocked silence from still trying to get used to how skilled he was at analysis, Sonic said with a casual smile, " Yeah, we're right in the middle of the Marble Garden Zone, looking at the southern part - apparently - so now all we have to do is go to the left part while you go to the right part, and we'll go through the plan just like I planned! Heh heh! "

Then, he noticed something red in the distance, and said nervously, " Uh-oh. " Expecting a threat, Metal immediately turned to look at what Sonic must have seen, and noticed that Knuckles was sitting on the ground in the distance past the bushes to the left of them, thankfully with his back turned to them so he couldn't see them in the bushes. Metal thought with his eyes widened in surprise and confusion, " Is that... " only to look annoyed with himself, facepalm and think, " Of course not, you idiot, he's imprisoned right now. "

Understanding the problem that being seen by Knuckles would result in, Metal Sonic said in a serious but annoyed tone, " Well, this presents a problem. I suggest that you two distract him and ensure that he's facing the other way while I fly to the most eastern part of the area and start my search there. If you can get him to leave, that would be most optimal. " Sonic smiled and gave him a thumbs-up while Tails looked nervous, feeling wary about the fact that Sonic was letting Metal Sonic make plans for the team. But he couldn't just tell Sonic that, because he would just dismiss his worries as him being overly pessimistic and reassure him that things would be fine.

The two of them walked over to Knuckles and approached him, making sure to speak to him from the western side of him so that Metal Sonic would be able to avoid getting spotted by him. Sonic said with a nervous smile and a carefree tone that was forced, " Hey, Knuckles! What'cha doing here? S-Shouldn't you be guarding the Master Emerald like you're supposed to? " He laughed nervously, and Tails joined in with him as he saw Metal flying off to the east in the distance, and hoped that he was going where he said he was.

Knuckles looked nervous and embarrassed before standing up and saying to them with a nervous smile, " Well, I could be doing that. But I've thinking lately; I haven't been spending much time helping you guys out since I met you. So I figured, why not help you the next time you show up? It must take a while doing whatever it is you're doing with only two people, so why don't I help while you're still on my island? " Knuckles was able to tell the Master Emerald to shrink down to the size of a pebble and hide it in his shoe, which was why he had no problem with not spending very much time at the shrine for the past few years; he was guarding it in a way that didn't require him to sit around in one spot all day. But he couldn't let anyone find out about that and risk people coming after him trying to steal his shoes and thus the emerald in the process, so he chose against telling Sonic and Tails that the emerald was fine.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails looked nervous at his offer. They knew Metal Sonic would be meeting with them at the middle part of Marble Garden Zone after searching all of the eastern part, and they couldn't risk Knuckles seeing him there. But they could benefit from having him help them search the western side - a side of the area far away from where Metal was - and if Metal showed up at the middle part, Tails could distract Knuckles while Sonic and Metal would run back to the plane. So, after a few seconds where they looked nervous, they looked at each other, and then at him, before Tails said nervously, " We're here looking for a Chaos Emerald. We'll go from the western side of the area to back here, searching for it as we go through the area. You can come along if you want, as long as you stay within our sight so we know where you are. "

Knuckles said with a smile, " Great! " and ran to the west at a fast speed, disappearing out of their sight as Sonic stayed behind to tell Tails about the plan. " Okay, you'll distract Knuckles if you see Metal Sonic here, and keep him from seeing me getting Metal to go straight to the plane, and when he's finally out of sight, we'll tell him we just remembered the emerald was somewhere else and run to the plane. Got it? " Tails said nervously, " Got it, " and the two of them ran after Knuckles as fast as they could, knowing he would get suspicious if they made him wait any longer. If they weren't so concerned about the possibility of Knuckles finding out Metal Sonic was on the island, they would be suspicious of why Knuckles was suddenly acting so friendly and willing to help them.

The truth was that Knuckles was feeling guilty about getting into so many fights with Sonic with Eggman's encouragement, and was worried that Sonic was considering ending the friendship because he couldn't be trusted not to hurt him and wasn't being as useful to him as he could've been. It was because of those concerns that he had insisted on helping them find a Chaos Emerald. Unfortunately, that insistence of his wasn't nearly as appreciated as he had hoped.

Soon, Metal heard the sound of Knuckles talking in the distance to the right of him, and hid behind a marble pillar near some ancient ruins after Sonic saw him. He subtly rolled the emerald over to Sonic, who smiled and gave him a thumbs-up while Knuckles was looking at Tails deep in conversation. Interrupting Knuckles, Sonic said with a smile, " Hey! I found the emerald! " and picked up the Chaos Emerald to show it to Knuckles and Tails, who both looked happy and excited.

Remembering the plan, Tails asked, " S-So, Knuckles, have you enjoyed helping us out today? " with a nervous smile, distracting Knuckles as Sonic quietly went over to Metal and whispered for him to go back to the plane with him. Sonic and Metal ran off at the speed of sound, causing Knuckles to hear the sound of rushing wind and turn around to see one blue blur speed off into the bushes; Sonic and Metal's blurs seemed to combine into one from running so close together. " Huh? Hey, he's leaving already? I didn't even get to ap- " Knuckles said in confused disappointment. " We're in a hurry! Bye, Knuckles! " Tails said nervously, before running after the two of them, hoping Knuckles wouldn't follow them.

It wasn't long before Sonic, Tails and Metal had reached the Tornado-1 at last. When they did, Sonic said with a carefree smile, " Phew! That was close! Great job finding the emerald, Metal! We're proud of you! " and gave him a thumbs-up that made Metal have a confused and worried expression, feeling even more conflicted as a result. He didn't want to smile and look like he liked Sonic, but he didn't want to frown and look like he was ungrateful for the approval, either. Thankfully, the thumbs-up only lasted a second before Sonic casually jumped onto the wing of the plane in preparation for the next plane ride, and Tails got into the pilot's seat afterwards, which was Metal's cue to sit in the back seat and buckle his seatbelts and tighten them before the plane took off, and flew up into the sky. The Tornado-1 was flying off Angel Island, and soon became even higher up in the clouds.

Playfully teasing him, Sonic asked with a smile, " So why do you always sit in there with the seatbelts on you all buckled up? " Metal answered, " For safety reasons, " with a serious expression, and thought in exasperation with him, " I'd be rather foolish if I went on a plane ride without a seatbelt, Sonic... " Sonic chuckled and said cheerfully, " That makes sense! Me, I personally can't stand sitting all buckled up in that tight confined space! Feels way too restrictive for me. I'd rather stand here on the wing of plane, feeling the wind through my hair like I'm flying across the sky! Now that's the feeling of freedom! " Metal Sonic deadpanned with his arms crossed, " Aren't you worried that you'll fall off the plane? " unable to hold back his sarcasm any longer.

Without missing a beat, Sonic said cheerfully, " Nah, I'll be fine! I've done this hundreds of times and nothing went wrong! Besides, I've survived falling to the ground from high distances without getting injured before! I even fell from space a couple times, but I still managed to be A-okay! Besides, if anything happens, Tails will come for me. There's nothing to worry about! "

Metal looked surprised with his eyes widened at hearing that last sentence, realizing that Sonic must have figured out that he was worried about his safety. His thoughts were interrupted by Sonic saying with a carefree smile, " Now that we've got the emerald from Marble Garden Zone, we've got three out of seven of the emeralds, and it's only been one day! "

Getting worried, Metal Sonic checked his internal clock by imagining a Check Time icon appear in the bottom left of his field of vision and being clicked on and looked at his wrist, causing him to see on his wrist the sight of a digital clock saying 5:05 PM in his mind's eye, and looked over at the sun to confirm it; the sky was various shades of orange, yellow and pink, and the sun was a lot closer to the horizon. He didn't want to admit it, but the sky looked beautiful; he barely ever saw the sun set with his own eyes. But it didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that they were running out of time. He imagined a Back icon appearing and being clicked on to make the digital clock stop obscuring his vision.

Having a feeling of dread, he couldn't help but say out loud in a worried and almost whispered voice, " We're running out of time. What if we're too late? What if they... "

Wanting to reassure him, Sonic said with a smile, " Don't worry, Metal, we've got plenty of time! 72 hours is a pretty big number, so if they've held them in the base for three days without hurting them, I'm sure four days won't be any different! Trust me, I've got it all under control! Nothing will happen to them as long as I have anything to say about it! " and chuckled.

Under normal circumstances, Metal would've been annoyed and rolled his eyes at Sonic's immature cocky attitude, but his confidence at the moment actually reassured him. It reminded him that Sonic the Hedgehog was guaranteed to win.

Changing the subject, Sonic said with a smile, " Since it's getting dark out, I think we should call it a day. Me and Tails are gonna go home and have some dinner before getting some sleep... " Suddenly, he got an idea. Metal had passed all of the other secret tests of character with flying colors; now he had the perfect test in mind. He just hoped Tails wouldn't object to it too much. " Hey, I've got an idea! Since it's already getting late and it'll take a while for you to get back to Eggman's base, why don't you spend the night at our place? After all, you are part of our team, and you'll have a busy day tomorrow, so you'll need a lot of time to recharge your batteries, and what better way to save time than by staying with us? Besides, you've proven that you can be trusted. You even got a Chaos Emerald for us completely unsupervised, so clearly you're gonna keep your word. How about it, Metal? Just one night? "

Metal looked worried and confused for a few seconds, feeling conflicted again as he considered agreeing to his offer. Sleeping over at Sonic's house and not doing anything to hurt him would be the perfect way to get Sonic and Tails to trust him for the mission, even if it made him look like he had gone soft. There was nothing to worry about.

Tails was incredibly worried and afraid of the potential consequences. He thought nervously, " Oh, Sonic, why do you have to be so reckless?! Please don't let anything happen to us! Okay, Tails, calm down. Calm down! Metal Sonic hasn't done anything to betray our trust yet. He wouldn't do anything that would make us not help him with his mission anymore. He wouldn't come to us for help if he didn't think he desperately needed it. S-So maybe this won't be so bad. And even if he does try to kill us in our sleep, I'll just lock my door at night, and make Sonic promise to lock his. If he breaks down the door, I'll fly out the window. Oh, I hope this doesn't backfire! "

After a few seconds of consideration, Metal said, " Well, alright. It's getting late, and I'm getting low on battery. And I do need a lot of energy for tomorrow, so it's only logical that I get some rest as soon as possible. I suppose it would be the most pragmatic choice, " to which Sonic responded, " Great! You won't regret it! " making Tails all the more nervous. This caused him to return to having friendly banter with Tails about nothing in particular to try and reassure him that everything was fine, while Metal stared at the scenery to the left of him with his metal hand on his chin in boredom, with only Sonic's carefree banter with Tails and the wind blowing around him to listen to. He still couldn't believe Sonic trusted him to stay over at his place for the night. He never could've imagined that things would turn out so well for him.

Eventually, the Tornado-1 landed on the runway in front of Tails' Workshop, and Sonic jumped off the wing and landed on his feet on the ground below, while Metal and Tails waited for the plane to stop moving before getting out of it. The three of them quickly went into the house on the hill.

When Sonic opened the front door, the three of them walked into a living room with a wooden plank floor, a green couch, a brown oval-shaped table with a remote control on it and a widescreen TV in front of it, a green armchair to the left of the couch, and a yellow cabinet near the couch against the wooden plank wall, all to the right of the front door. The living room had two exits to it; a western hallway leading north that led to the washroom, Sonic's room, Tails' room, the door to the basement, and the laundry room, and an eastern hallway leading north that led to the kitchen, the second largest room in the house.

Sonic said with a smile, " Well, here we are, Metal! Our humble abode! Since you don't need to eat and have nothing else to do, I guess now's as good a time as any to call it a night... We, uh, don't have a recharging capsule or anything like that... " Metal replied, " That's of no issue... " and Sonic and Tails were astonished when he simply laid down on the couch and covered himself over with the blankets, and stated with a bored but tired expression, " I recharge by going into sleep mode and regaining energy through oxygen intake. While I'm awake and thinking, I use up more energy than I gain, but it's different when I'm asleep. "

His head sank into a soft pillow on the couch, and he said in a bored but tired tone while lying on his side, " See you in the morning... " He " closed " his eyes, with his red eyes taking on a U shape and dimming considerably. Sonic and Tails couldn't help but stare in astonishment. It really helped to humanize him.

Sonic and Tails quietly went to the kitchen to make dinner, and once they were in it, Tails whispered nervously, " Promise me you'll lock your door tonight, okay? " Sonic looked at him sadly at seeing how little he trusted Metal Sonic even after everything that had happened that day. Tails whispered with a nervous smile, " I-I know there's not much of a chance he'll attack us in our sleep, but hey, better safe than sorry, right? You never know. " Sonic sighed unhappily. He whispered, " Alright, I'll humor you. But he's not gonna do that, Tails. You'll see, " and ruffled his hair with a small smile, getting Tails to smile nervously in response.

When Metal woke up on the couch of Sonic's house, it took him a few seconds to adjust to the fact that he wasn't waking up from his bed as usual. It was morning, as he could tell by his internal clock and the window outside. It was 7:00 AM, which shocked him. For the first time in months, he had woken up at a point in time later than four in the morning. He sighed wearily, once again waking up from a dream about Sonic comforting him feeling confused and conflicted at liking it so much. It wasn't the first time he had a dream where Sonic showed him compassion or had a heart-to-heart conversation with him, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. Torn between being ashamed of himself and appreciating the dream, his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a doorbell ring, which sent him into a state of alarm. Anyone ringing the doorbell of Sonic's house would freak at finding out Metal Sonic was there, especially with the high probability that it was one of Sonic's friends who had done so.

Knowing Sonic would get the door, he sped into the basement at the speed of sound to hide and closed the door. He imagined a Volume icon appear in his mind's eye and being clicked, and when he saw Volume Up, Mute and Volume Down icons appearing along with a green number showing the volume, he visualized the Volume Up icon being clicked multiple times. By doing this, he mentally turned up the sensitivity of his auditory sensors to make sure he could listen in clearly as he heard Sonic walk out of his room to greet the person at the door. He knew eavesdropping was considered rude, but he was curious, he wondered if the person was a threat, and he figured that since he was temporarily part of Sonic's team, he had every right to find out what was going on with his teammates.

Sonic opened the door and groaned, complaining, " Amy! You woke me up! I was having such a good dream, too! " Amy giggled and said flirtatiously, " A good dream, huh? Was it about me? " and started giggling again. Sonic sighed in annoyance and deadpanned, " No, Amy, it wasn't. Why are you here? I don't have time for this right now. In case you haven't noticed, I'm gonna be busy today. "

Ignoring how Sonic was treating her in order to continue smiling, Amy said happily while trying to stay optimistic, " For a date, silly! I had a dream that we were on one! Dreams mean something, you know! So I thought, what better way to make sure the dream comes true? Besides, you shouldn't be surprised. Fated lovers are always drawn together! " and giggled while Sonic groaned and rolled his eyes, shaking his head at her. " Fine! I'll go on a date with you today. Just, uh, go to that pizza place in Station Square this lunch, and wait there, and I'll definitely show up this time! "

Speaking in the same flirtatious tone to hide how annoyed she was, Amy asked suspiciously with a smile, " And you're not gonna stand me up like every other time? " Sonic said with a fake smile, " No, of course not, see you later! " and pushed her out of the door before shutting it and locking it, and sighing with relief.

Upon hearing the full extent of the conversation, Metal Sonic returned the volume of his auditory sensors to their original setting by visualizing the Volume Down and Back icons being clicked, feeling annoyed with Sonic for the way he treated Amy, not appreciating the love and affection that robots like him were universally deprived of. " But I suppose if I had to deal with a stalker with a crush, I would act the same way. I wouldn't want to bother with a relationship, either, " he thought with his arms crossed, reluctantly admitting to himself that Sonic wasn't a jerk just because he wasn't friendly to people who annoyed him.

It wasn't long before Tails walked out of his bedroom and into the kitchen with a nervous but confused expression, and whispered in confusion as Sonic was making bagels for the two of them, " He didn't try to come in... " Sonic smiled and ruffled his hair before placing plates with bagels on them on the kitchen table, saying quietly, " I told you he could be trusted. " Tails still looked wary as Metal reluctantly walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table with a bored expression, but he wasn't as afraid of him as before. Nervously smiling at him, he was becoming increasingly open to the possibility that if Metal hadn't taken the opportunity to hurt or kill him while he was asleep, he might never do it, during the adventure at least; he kept himself aware of the idea that Metal Sonic was probably only keeping the two of them alive because he felt he needed them to complete his mission.

Sonic said with a friendly smile, " Hey, Metal! Did you have a good sleep? " Answering right away to avoid suspicion of otherwise, Metal replied with his arms crossed, " I'm at 100% again, so yes, I'm well-rested. The couch was a lot more comfortable than I thought... " He wondered if he was lying to them; technically, he did get the sleep he needed, which might qualify his sleep as good, but his sleep was also plagued with nightmares like they usually were, which he didn't want to tell them.

" That's good to hear! We're pretty well-rested ourselves! Looks like we'll all be super prepared for the busy day ahead of us! " Sonic said cheerfully as him and Tails had their breakfast. Metal Sonic questioned, " So have you decided on our next destination? " remembering that Sonic wanted to put Ice Mountain Zone last.

Sonic nodded and answered with a carefree tone, " We'll go to Dragon Road in Chun-Nan, and after that we'll be going to the capital of Shamar! That way, we'll get all of the areas outside of the country out of the way at once! Pretty convenient, huh? " Metal nodded and admitted, " It does sound rather efficient. "

Tails added with a nervous smile, " I-It's a good thing the Tornado-1 is so fast that we'll be able to get the next two emeralds without the day ending, heh heh... " gaining the courage to speak to him and wanting to prove he wasn't as afraid as he was last night. Sonic smiled at him for that as Metal replied nonchalantly, " Well, considering the amount of upgrades you've given to planes over the years, it's only logical that the Tornado-1 can fly at such high speeds. You've certainly got a lot more experience with planes than the idiot I have to work for... " with his arms crossed to act aloof as if he wasn't trying to flatter him, merely stating an objective fact. The compliments didn't go unnoticed by Tails, though, who thought it was more like something Sonic would say and quickly realized that Metal had implied he was a better mechanic than Eggman, and tried not to blush as he smiled nervously and said, " Thanks, " while scratching the back of his neck.

" I-I doubt I'm a better mechanic than Eggman, though. He's a lot older than me and he's got a lot more experience, and he's a genius, too, after all... " Tails replied with a bashful smile, not being confident enough to take the compliment as true. Metal shrugged and replied nonchalantly without even looking at him, " Take it from me, kid, the man's an idiot. He's got less common sense than a three-year-old on a sugar rush. Meanwhile, you're obviously a lot more level-headed than he is and a lot more grounded in reality, which makes you far more likely to make intelligent decisions. Although you two have different areas of expertise - with him it's robots and with you it's planes - so I suppose it's not as easy as it looks to compare you two as engineers. I can't imagine you not being skilled at making robots, though. It can't be hard to top that. "

Still smiling bashfully, Tails said, " W-Well, thanks... " appreciating the compliment; coming from a robot built by Eggman, being called potentially better at making robots than Eggman meant a lot. He would've been suspicious of the compliments if it weren't for the fact that Metal Sonic was so nonchalant and matter-of-fact about them, stating them as if they were objective facts that anyone could figure out on their own, acting aloof with his arms crossed as he said them as if it was no big deal. He clearly wasn't trying to flatter him, and it probably didn't even cross his mind that he was doing that, so he wasn't saying that with ulterior motives like trying to trick him into trusting him more. And someone like Metal Sonic wouldn't compliment someone unless he had a lot of respect for the aspect of them he was complimenting, so again, it meant a lot coming from him. After hearing that, Tails found himself starting to wonder if he had been too untrusting of him.

Sonic smiled at the sight. Metal Sonic was actually complimenting Tails, even if he was trying to act like it was no big deal and he was just stating a fact. Everyone had always assumed he thought of Tails as pathetic for not being as good a fighter as Sonic, but it was clear at the moment that he respected Tails for his intelligence, even if he was trying to act all aloof about it. He had passed so many of the secret tests of character he had given him during the adventure. This was what convinced Sonic to give him another test.

Sonic smiled in a manner that made it clear he had come up with an idea, and said, " I'm glad you two are getting along! Because when we're looking for the next Chaos Emerald in Dragon Road, you two are gonna look for it together! I'll run around the area at the speed of sound alone while you two work together to find the emeralds in a different part of the area! It'll be a great opportunity for you two to work as a team! "

Tails was shocked and nervous at hearing that. He saw Metal Sonic shrug his shoulders and say nonchalantly, " Sounds fine to me. I could fly at the same speed as him for the sake of the mission; after all, I can't have him getting harmed because I wasn't right there to protect him. "

Tails seemed conflicted at hearing Metal Sonic once again say that he felt it was his responsibility to protect him from harm. He might have only been saying that because he needed him for the mission, but it was still rather heartwarming that he wanted to protect someone he thought of as weak instead of dismissing him as useless or attacking him to prove himself superior. He thought back to the last time he was alone with him. Aside from the awkward silence and them barely talking to each other, it wasn't really that bad.

It wouldn't be as fun as searching with just Sonic, since Metal would be a lot more focused on searching for the emerald and too aloof and serious to open up to him or engage in friendly banter, but at least it wouldn't be dangerous. If anything, it would be more like searching for an emerald with Shadow than with an evil robot who could try to kill him, and while neither option sounded fun to him, he preferred the former over the latter; the more time he spent around Metal Sonic, the more he found himself comparing him to Shadow, someone who, while aloof and cynical, wasn't evil or vicious to him. And Sonic was clearly not going to change his mind about this, risky as it may have been, and Tails didn't want to look like a bad friend by acting like he didn't trust his judgment. Sonic had been proven right about trusting Metal Sonic again and again and again that adventure; at this rate, he probably wouldn't be wrong again. So, after a second or two of being conflicted, Tails said with a nervous smile to humor Sonic,

" Okay, Sonic, I'll do it. He's proven he can be trusted over and over again and you haven't been wrong yet. A-And if he really is gonna protect me, I'll be safe from any danger! It could be fun! Heh heh... " Metal rolled his eyes at being talked about like he wasn't there and Tails still being very reluctant to believe he wasn't a psychopathic monster who would hurt him for no reason, and was soon thankful that neither Sonic or Tails had seen his annoyed reaction. They had finished their breakfasts, and were now pushing in their chairs and putting their plates in the sink to be washed later. Sonic was eager to search for the other two emeralds and prove to Tails that Metal wouldn't hurt him during the mission, while Tails was dreading it, both because of his paranoid worries and because Metal Sonic's seriousness meant he wasn't going to be making searching for the emeralds entertaining.

It was a long plane ride to Chun-Nan, and like the plane ride to Holoska, it had taken around an hour. It was due to this that he was relieved when the plane finally landed in the wilderness near the capital of Chun-Nan, with Sonic jumping off the wing of the plane and landing perfectly on the grassy ground below with a practiced grace. Sonic was optimistic about him and Tails searching for the emerald together without him, while Tails was worried and looking forward to it being over. Tails was so worried, in fact, that he secretly took along with him a small EMP ray gun and hid it in his shoe, just in case Metal would attack him.

Sonic said, " Alright, now, Dragon Road is north of here, and lucky for me, we're near the closest route to it. Unfortunately, the quickest way for me to get there is to go through a town, and obviously Metal can't do that because of his reputation. So you two will have to go a different route around the town instead of in it. Luckily, the town is surrounded by trees, so it won't be too hard to not get spotted near it. "

Tails and Metal looked around at the area surrounding them where they would have to go through. It was a very mountainous area with rivers flowing through grassy fields that had small bridges built across them. Tails said with a nervous smile, " Alright, so you'll go to Dragon Road the quick way and we'll take the scenic route. Got it. " Sonic said cheerfully, " That's right, little bro! After that, it's just Arid Sands and Ice Mountain Zone to go! Now, when we actually get to Dragon Road, you two will take the more mountainous route through it, since your ability to fly will let you go through it more easily. We'll all meet back here when the search is over! "

With that, he sped off in a blue blur, running at the speed of sound towards the nearby town in the distance. Metal soon flew after him in the same general direction, being sure to do so at Tails' speed so that he could keep up better, and it was only a few minutes before the two groups separated as Sonic went into the town while Tails and Metal went into the forest around it. The two of them sped through the forest without talking to each other, with Tails being too nervous to say anything and Metal being completely focused on getting to Dragon Road. It wasn't long before everyone had reached Dragon Road at last. When they did, Tails and Metal could see that they were in an area of higher elevation than Sonic, who was running through the grassy field below them as they looked down on him from a more mountainous part of the area.

Tails tried to hide how nervous he was at actually having to look for a Chaos Emerald while alone with Metal Sonic. He thought, " He's tried for the entire adventure to make me let my guard down around him. He's gonna try to lure me into a false sense of security and tell me that I'm safe, and then bam! He'll attack me! I can feel it coming! "

" Now remember, Tails, this place isn't completely safe simply because you can see for miles in every direction. A wide open space means there could be dangers coming at you from any direction! We have an emerald to search for, so I can't focus all of my attention on protecting you, " Metal Sonic told him with a serious expression, which completely threw Tails for a loop. He was expecting him to either mistreat him or act suspiciously warm and friendly to him to lure him into a false sense of security and get him to trust him, so him acting just as serious, paranoid and cautious as back home was more surprising than it should have been. Tails was so surprised and confused that he was unable to speak, so there were a few seconds of silence that Metal took note of before continuing, " Follow me, " and flying off at the speed of sound, snapping Tails out of it and forcing him to run after him to keep up.

While Sonic would entertain Tails and make him feel more at ease with friendly banter and joking around, Metal Sonic was completely focused on the mission, not speaking to him because of how serious he was about the task at hand. The fact that he couldn't think of anything to say to Tails was another reason for his silence, as he didn't want to say anything that would intimidate him or annoy him, but he also didn't want to open up to him and reveal his soft side; it was embarrassing enough for him that answering one question from the curious little fox had caused him to tell him and Sonic his life story.

Tails, on the other hand, was silent because he was nervous around Metal Sonic and didn't want to annoy him by talking to him when he was so focused on the mission, and he couldn't think of anything to say anyways.

As Metal Sonic flew over the mountainous terrain at slightly less than the speed of sound, he was highly focused on everything his senses were taking in, paying close attention to his optical, tactile, auditory, and even olfactory sensors to be as aware of his surroundings as possible.

It was because of this that he soon picked up on the sound of the wings of tiny birds flapping rapidly behind and above him. Anyone else would have noticed this and then immediately paid attention to something else, but someone as paranoid of potential threats as Metal Sonic quickly became suspicious, wondering why hummingbirds would be following his every movement.

Based on all of the data he was taking in, Metal Sonic became increasingly suspicious that the so-called ' hummingbirds ' that were flying behind him, were actually fake hummingbirds sent to spy on him, presumably for SWORD, who was his main adversary at the moment, and would have logically found out he was going to storm their base and sent spies after him. But he couldn't just tell Tails what he was suspicious of; those hummingbirds must have been able to record sound effectively from quite a distance away, so they would hear him warning Tails and take action accordingly. So in order to confirm his suspicions, Metal Sonic suddenly changed his flying direction to northeast - causing Tails to follow him in confusion - and his auditory sensors picked up that the so-called hummingbirds were still directly behind and above him.

Getting even more suspicious, he gradually changed his flying direction to east, and then southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, and finally north again, going in a large circle, and his ears heard that the so-called hummingbirds were still following directly behind him despite the way he was moving. Confused, Tails asked, " Uh, what's going on? " wondering if he was malfunctioning from the way he was moving in a circle.

He gasped when suddenly, Metal jumped upwards, whipped directly around and flew up in the sky at what Tails saw as a hummingbird flying towards him, and turned on his boost to surround himself with fire as he tore it apart with his burning claws viciously, before returning to the ground just as quickly as he had left it. Tails went from being horrified to confused and bewildered at seeing that the supposed ' hummingbird ' was in fact made of metal, with an organic skin covered in feathers to hide it. Metal pieces were all that were left of the bird after Metal Sonic had destroyed it, with feathers stuck to the exterior of a couple of the metal pieces that made it all the more obvious that this was no ordinary bird.

Worried, Tails thought, " What?! Where did that come from, and why was it following us? And how did Metal Sonic figure out that it wasn't real and destroy it?... Maybe he didn't know it wasn't real and just felt like killing a bird for the fun of it. I knew he wasn't trustw- "

His thoughts were interrupted when Metal stated in a quiet but serious tone, " I knew it. We're being spied on. " The robot could still detect the sound of a robotic hummingbird flapping its wings in the sky, and noticed that it seemed to be flying away from him. This made him believe that it was flying away from him in a retreat, rather than going to a safer distance to view him from another angle.

Tails exclaimed nervously, " Huh?! How did you figure it out?! " Metal Sonic explained with a serious tone, " My auditory sensors picked up on the sound of the flapping of a hummingbird's wings following directly behind me. Clearly it couldn't have been an ordinary hummingbird, because despite me going at the speed of 520 m/ph, it had no trouble keeping up with me, and when I changed direction to confirm my suspicions, it continued to follow directly behind me, which proved that we were being followed. No ordinary hummingbird would even exist in Chun-Nan, let alone follow me at a speed that could keep up with me! These birds are supposed to be native to the Americas, not this place. All of the data is indicating that this was a robotic hummingbird sent by SWORD to spy on us! After all, in all his years of building robots that looked like animals, my idiot boss has never built one that looked just like the real thing. This must have been the work of SWORD! They must have detected your plane flying towards their base, found out I was with you, figured out we were searching for the Chaos Emeralds, and sent spies after us! They might have even placed a tracking device on the plane in order to ascertain where we were when it landed! If they sent these robots down here after we landed, there must be far more dangerous robots in the vicinity! Stay alert and don't let down your guard! It is just as I predicted, Tails; it's dangerous here. "

As Tails stared at Metal Sonic with his eyes as big as marbles from his amazement and awe at how good he was at analyzing and processing information to the point of figuring out that much from the sound of a bird's wings alone, the second robotic hummingbird activated a special function that neither of them had anticipated.

Metal suddenly went into an offensive stance facing him, and looked panicked and confused as he felt like his body was being pulled and jerked by someone invisible as he was forced against his will to move into an offensive position. " What?! No! LET ME GO! " Metal Sonic exclaimed in panic. This, along with the fact that his dimly lit eyes weren't glowing menacingly like he actually wanted to hurt him, clued Tails into the fact that he was only being controlled. Scared, Tails gasped, wondering how SWORD was remote controlling him and hoping he wouldn't be killed as a result.

Metal resisted with all of his willpower by exerting all of his strength doing the exact opposite of what they wanted him to do, like jerking back his arm when SWORD attempted to make him swing it at Tails. He groaned from the exertion, using all of his strength to remain standing in one place and keep his arms at his side, and angrily demanded, " STOP CONTROLLING ME! No! " Tails gasped, and as Metal Sonic forced himself to his knees with his hands on his head rather than let himself be made to hurt him, the child exclaimed, " Let him go! " to whoever could have been listening.

Deciding that he might as well talk because his cover was blown, one of the SWORD agents demanded through a loudspeaker in the robotic hummingbird behind a hill nearby, " Stop defying our orders! Tails is a threat to our plans! He is trying to get the evil Dr. Eggman out of our base so he can continue wrecking havoc on the world! Anyone trying to rescue Eggman is our enemy! " Metal angrily said, " And I thought GUN was self-righteous! No! I won't let you make me hurt him! SWORD! I know what you did! RELEASE THEM! "

Tails was shocked at hearing that from him. He thought, " All this time I thought he was just an evil murderous robot who didn't care about anyone but himself! I've got to do something! " Feeling guilty about being so untrusting of him, Tails realized that Metal Sonic was truly genuine about not wanting to hurt him, refusing to do so even when he had a good excuse.

Metal looked at the ground as he sat there kneeled down to it, with his optical sensors taking in nothing except the ground below him. It wasn't long before the voice over the loudspeaker coming from behind a tree demanded, " Stop looking at the ground! " And that was when it hit him. The SWORD agent wouldn't have specifically told him to stop looking at the ground, as opposed to telling him to hurt Tails again, if him doing so wasn't a direct impediment to them. He analyzed and processed that data, and soon concluded that through hacking into him, the SWORD agent could only see what he was seeing and hear what he was hearing in the area where he was, implying that the robotic hummingbird he hadn't destroyed yet had its camera and microphone functions turned off and switched over so that they could see and hear what he did instead of the bird.

He knew that if Tails destroyed the robotic hummingbird that the controlling signal was coming from, he would break the connection between him and SWORD, but he couldn't let him know about the bird without warning SWORD to move the bird out of danger; at least not without being subtle. Hoping Tails would understand what he meant, he forced his head and body to jerk to the side as if to indicate to Tails what direction to look - which thankfully caused the child to see the robotic hummingbird as a result - and shouted, " EMP! " knowing that the SWORD agent would assume he meant shooting at himself and not the bird. Tails knew better.

He immediately shot the robotic hummingbird with waves of energy from his small blue EMP ray gun, destroying it and causing it to explode into hundreds of metal pieces. After he did this, the connection was broken, and he felt proud of himself for being responsible for that. It didn't take long for him to realize that Metal had known about his EMP ray gun all along, and feel guilty about making him feel so untrusted.

Relieved at no longer having to exert all of his strength and willpower trying to resist being controlled, Metal sighed in relief, and whispered, " Thanks... " while taking a minute to catch his breath, panting in exhaustion to regain some of the energy he had lost trying to resist SWORD's control. Tails walked up to him, and smiled warmly as he said, " You're welcome... And thank you, for resisting with all of your strength and refusing to hurt me. I'm sorry, Metal Sonic. Maybe I misjudged you. I should have known all along that you wouldn't hurt me. " Metal nodded and admitted, " I have no reason to, kiddo. If anyone tried to make me, I'd find a way out of it. " This conveyed to Tails the message that even if Eggman told him to hurt him, he'd still try to find a way out of it, and he smiled even more as a result.

Feeling guilty as Metal slowly stood up and stopped panting, Tails asked nervously, " So, um, how did you know I had an EMP gun with me? " Metal replied nonchalantly, " Well, I just assumed you had it on you. Or something to that effect. You clearly didn't trust me not to hurt you, so it was only logical that you'd bring a weapon with you just in case. " Tails sighed sadly and asked with his head hung down in shame, " Are you mad at me? "

Metal reluctantly admitted, " No. I understand why you brought it with you, and I knew I had nothing to worry about, because you would've never had to use it against me in the first place... " A part of him was annoyed with himself for letting his soft side show again, but he couldn't help but try to comfort the child. He thought in annoyance with himself, " What is it about this child that keeps making it so difficult for me not to look like I've gone soft? It must be his youthful innocence making me let my guard down. Well, at least I can take solace in the knowledge that he'll never tell anyone other than Sonic about this. After all, who would ever believe him? "

Tails smiled, and said with his hands behind his back, " Thanks... So, um, don't you wanna know how I fit an EMP ray gun in my shoe? " Metal found himself smiling at how cute the kid was being and said with amusement with his arms crossed, " Heh, I guess so. How? " Tails said with an insecure smile while humbly scratching the back of his neck, " Well, I sorta did some tinkering on my shoes so that they'd have a little pocket dimension hidden behind the bottom soles that I could peel away at. I can store a lot of stuff in there, but only if the object in question is small enough to be put in there in the first place. It's really limited, I know, but I guess I can't expect too much of myself. "

" What, are you kidding?! That's great! It's a lot more impressive than anything the idiot's done! And it takes a lot to impress someone like me; I'm so jaded these days that almost nothing surprises me anymore. So what if it's not as good as it could be? If you made a larger entrance to one of those pocket dimensions, you wouldn't have to worry about putting only small objects in them. Keep working on it, kiddo. You're getting better at it than the idiot every day. And take it from me, he's not getting any better, " Metal Sonic said with an impressed smile, with his arms crossed and one of his black eyes narrowed as if he was cocking an eyebrow to make himself look less like he had gone soft.

Tails smiled nervously and blushed a little and said, " T-Thanks... " He was too insecure to really believe it, but it felt good hearing it anyway, and being shown that kind of admiration from someone normally so aloof and serious was heartwarming.

After a few seconds, Metal Sonic said with the same amused smile, " Alright, so, now that the robotic hummingbirds sent to spy on us have been dealt with, I say we continue going through Dragon Road and complete the mission as fast as possible. SWORD has probably sent more dangerous robots here, and it would be pretty fun if we went and smashed them all on the way! " He was finding it difficult not to talk like Sonic in his rare good mood. He spoke just like Sonic when he was first built, but gradually developed his own method of speaking as his personality diverged from him, and while he usually tried to speak in his own way to set himself apart from Sonic as someone serious and non-emotional, he found it hard not to revert back to talking informally like Sonic did on the rare occasion that he was actually in a good mood. Upon noticing how he was talking, he felt embarrassed and continued, speaking in a serious tone the way he normally did to overcompensate to Tails' amusement,

" Uh, I mean, we have to complete our assigned objective as quickly as within our means, and be extremely aware of our surroundings in order to find any threats and neutralize them. We have to stay alert, and remain ever vigilant, because you can never be too careful. According to my calculations, the probability that SWORD has sent a large quantity of combat robots to fight us at an Eggman rate is approximately 92%, as is the likelihood that they used their spying hummingbirds to hear what Sonic said at the plane and thus find out about our next destinations and sent robots there in advance. I suggest we search through the rest of the area and then return to the Tornado-1 to remove the tracking device that must have been placed on the bottom of the plane. " With that, he started flying at 520 m/ph away from Tails, causing him to run after him with a giggle and say jokingly, " Hey, not fair! I wasn't ready yet! "

The two of them started speeding through the rest of Dragon Road as fast as they could, keeping an eye out for any Chaos Emerald, finally being alone with each other without an awkward silence to deal with; this time, the silence wasn't so troubling, as while they were both very focused on looking for the emerald, they felt comfortable with each other while doing so.

It wasn't long before Tails and Metal Sonic had finished searching Dragon Road for the emerald. While they were heading through the forest just outside of town on their way back to the plane, they heard the sound of screams coming from the town, and Tails stopped with a panicked expression. " The town's being attacked by robots! " he exclaimed with fear and concern, not wanting any civilians to get hurt. Still being focused on getting back to the plane, Metal said apathetically, " Then Sonic will save- " only for Tails to start running towards the town to save it before he could finish his sentence.

" Hey, stop! You'll get hurt! " he exclaimed as Tails jumped over the bushes and into the town to fight robots alone. It was at this point when Metal Sonic panicked. He knew he couldn't go into the town because of his reputation, but he couldn't let anything happen to Tails and compromise the mission. Deciding that protecting Tails was of higher priority than not being seen in public, he groaned and said quietly, " Damn it, Tails! " with a worried tone and impulsively flew into the town at the speed of sound to go after the child.

The town, which was a grassy place that had rivers flowing through it and Chinese architecture, had a large amount of robots attacking it, with civilians running and hiding from them. The robots in question looked like they belonged to Eggman, but since he was imprisoned, it didn't take long for Metal Sonic to deduce that they had been reprogrammed by SWORD, meaning that SWORD now possessed a far larger robot army than he had anticipated.

Upon entering the town, the first thing he noticed, to his horror, was a 10-foot tall white robot holding an electrified metal object in its metallic claw, threatening a group of children. " Tell me where Sonic, Tails, or Metal Sonic are! " it said threateningly, scaring the children.

After seeing this, his eyes shrunk and dimmed when the electricity. Knowing how it felt to be electrocuted made him determined to prevent it from happening to anyone else.

In an instant, he went from panicked with his red eyes shrunken and dim to enraged with his eyes glowing menacingly, and he immediately rushed towards the robot at the speed of sound and started attacking it viciously. He flew in a circle around it with his boost on to surround the robot with a fiery tornado burning it to the point where it dropped the electrified object, spin-dashed through the robot multiple times in a row, homing-attacked every part of it as it fell apart, and bounce-attacked the remains, all at the speed of sound within the span of seconds. The children were awestruck at seeing a blue blur speed towards the robot, turn orange and create a fire tornado around it, and then become a blue blur again and start flying through the robot in every direction, destroying what had threatened them in seconds.

When they were finally safe, the blue blur stopped moving to reveal a robotic blue hedgehog with a jet engine chest standing in front of them with his back turned to them, who sighed in relief at defeating the robot that tried to electrocute them. It only took a second for Metal Sonic to realize that he was probably going to freak out some civilians by revealing himself to them, say, " Uh-oh, " and slowly turned around to face the children with a worried expression, expecting his good deed to be swiftly punished.

" YAY! " the children cheered happily, full of appreciation for what he had done for them. Metal stood there in a stunned silence as the children thanked him, saying, " Thank you so much! " " You saved our lives! " " You're a hero! " and, " Cool! A robot version of Sonic saved us! The other kids are never gonna believe this! " As he stared at the sight of the children cheering and thanking him, he slowly started to smile at being treated like a hero for once. He wondered why the children weren't afraid of him; either their parents hadn't told them about Eggman's most infamous robot because of their young age, or their youthful innocence made them naive and idealistic enough to trust him and find him admirable simply because of a single act of heroism. He realized it must have been both, since the kids clearly didn't know his name.

After a few seconds of cheering and thanking him, the children stopped, while still looking at him with eyes full of admiration and happiness, and one of the children said, " Wow, Mr. Robot! You saved us from being electrocuted! Why did you do that for us? " Realizing he was revealing his soft side, Metal Sonic looked away with his arms crossed while admitting in a dejected tone with a serious expression, " Because I know how it feels... " The children looked at him with sympathy, understanding why he had felt compelled to save them.

He thought in annoyance, " Yet another moment where a child makes me show my soft side. Great. Well, I don't suppose I should tell Sonic or Tails about what I just did. After all, even if they did believe me, I don't want them thinking I've gone soft. "

It wasn't long before Metal Sonic remembered why he had come into town in the first place. He gasped with his eyes widened and exclaimed fearfully, " Tails! " and flew away from the children at the speed of sound, proceeding to search the whole town in a blue blur that hid his panicked expression.

Thankfully, it only took a minute before he found Tails at the southeastern side of the town. To his relief, the child wasn't injured in the slightest. In fact, when he saw him, he was spin-dashing through the last robot left in the town and destroying it with ease. He was surrounded by the rubble of mechs he had destroyed.

Metal sighed in relief, getting Tails' attention, and the child looked worried upon seeing him. He smiled nervously and said, " See, I'm fine! I'm not too weak to defeat a bunch of robots attacking a town!... I'm not in trouble, am I? " Noticing how afraid he was and not wanting to go back to square one, Metal sighed, rolled his eyes and replied reluctantly with his arms crossed,

" No, you're not in trouble. Let's just go back to the Tornado-1 and not tell Sonic about this. I was not given permission by him to enter the town and protecting you was my responsibility, so it is clear to me that telling Sonic what just transpired would not be a wise idea. And you were told to stay with me, so you might get into trouble as well. Clearly this is something we should both keep secret from him. We're going back to the Tornado-1 to wait for Sonic and remove the tracking device from it. Follow me, I know the way. "

Tails sighed in relief at not getting into trouble, and ran after him as he flew back into the forest at slightly less than the speed of sound. It was only a few minutes before the two of them reached the Tornado-1 at last. After removing the tracking device from the bottom of the plane, Tails destroyed it with the EMP gun while Metal looked away nervously, and smiled. He placed the EMP gun back into the pocket dimension under the sole of his shoe, and said, " Now we just have to wait for Sonic! He's probably still running through Dragon Road. "

A few seconds passed. Metal sighed in boredom, and commented in mild annoyance with his arms crossed, " Why doesn't he have a cell phone on him? If he had one on his person, we would be able to contact him and inform him of the mission's completion, as well as give him the information we obtained. Instead he's running around without a cell phone on hand with no way of knowing that we're here. "

Trying to get him less annoyed, Tails said unhappily, " Well, the only place he could put the phone in is in his shoe if I modify it to be like mine, and then he wouldn't be able to hear it ring. If he wears any clothing to put the phone in, the clothing will just get ripped apart when he does a spin-dash. And Sonic always said that part of the reason he likes running is because of the feeling of freedom it gives him! Having a cell phone with him would detract from that feeling by making him feel like he's still tied down because at any moment, someone could call him and interrupt him from his running. Besides, he's already running at the speed of sound right now, and four times faster if he's boosting, so he's already going as fast as he can. Knowing we're here won't make him get here any faster. Although it probably would be better if he knew what we found out as soon as possible. That way, if he sees any unusually fast hummingbirds following him, he'll know what they really are and defeat them before they can find out too much. "

Metal Sonic complained, " They already know about our next destinations. They've probably already sent robots there to attack us. " Tails said with a nervous smile, " At least they don't know the exact locations of the Chaos Emeralds! " Metal Sonic said with his hand on his chin looking away from him,

" You're right, but they must be aware that we're searching for the emeralds to storm their base and have a desire to stop us. Obviously they have a plan. They must be planning to make use of the four of them somehow. GUN has collected a massive amount of information on the idiot that includes everything from his plans to what robots he built, so I highly doubt they could be keeping them captured purely for interrogation purposes, when they couldn't possibly give them information they don't already know. "

Impressed by his ability to analyze, Tails said, " Well, judging from what that SWORD agent said to us through that robotic hummingbird, they think Eggman's evil, too, so they can't be trying to work with him. They seem to be even more against him than Sonic is! They want to keep him from getting out and continuing to carry out his evil plans so much that they'll even try to destroy me and Sonic for the sake of the greater good! "

Metal Sonic said in annoyance, " I thought GUN was self-righteous, but they never went to lengths as great as this! " Tails nodded, and there was a silence afterwards, as they had said everything they wanted to say about the topic at hand.

Wanting to break the silence, Tails asked curiously, " So, why don't you like GUN? " Metal Sonic answered resentfully, " I was told what they had done on the ARK 50 years ago. " Remembering the adventure where he met Shadow, Tails nodded and said with sympathy for him, " Yeah, that was pretty awful. Shadow's working with them, now, so I guess he's forgiven them. They've gotten a lot better since then. " He smiled.

After thinking for a few seconds, Metal looked worried, and said, " Tails? Kiddo? " Tails asked in curiousity, " Huh? What is it? " Still with his arms crossed and looking away to try and avoid looking weak, Metal Sonic said with a serious expression in a worried tone, " I-I don't believe telling Sonic about SWORD hacking into me is a wise idea. It would only cause him to think that it would happen again. The truth is that they hacked into me with a virus and my antivirus software is advanced enough to adapt it into memory and provide defenses against it, ensuring that they'll never be able to do that again. But, he wouldn't understand... He wouldn't allow me to search for the emeralds with you anymore... "

Tails sighed sadly. He said, " You're right. Let's keep that between us... " Relieved, Metal Sonic said, " Good... "

After a few seconds of thinking, Tails smiled warmly at realizing what he had said before. " You really wanna search for the emeralds with me? " Embarrassed at realizing he had revealed his soft side, Metal nervously looked away and didn't reply to him, hoping it was a rhetorical question. Tails said with a nervous smile, " But I thought that since you feel an obligation to protect me, you would think of searching for the emeralds while alone with me as just a chore, especially when there are dangerous robots nearby. I didn't know you appreciated spending time with me. "

Knowing he had already shown his soft side and there was nothing he could do to hide it, Metal sighed and said with a small smile, " You're a good kid, Tails. There's no reason I wouldn't. " He still had his arms crossed, hoping he looked less like a softie and more like a powerful robot who was impressed with the child.

Tails smiled warmly at hearing that. Suddenly, a blue blur sped towards them at the speed of sound and stopped, revealing itself to be Sonic the Hedgehog. " Hi, guys! Guess what I've got! " He revealed that he was holding a Chaos Emerald in his hand, and grinned as Tails said cheerfully, " Great job! " while Metal made no reaction, having already assumed that Sonic would get it because he and Tails hadn't found the emerald where they looked. Sonic put the emerald in the trunk of the Tornado-1 with a smile, and jumped on the wing of the plane while saying, " Just a few more to go! Shamar, here we come! "

Remembering what he had to tell him, Tails said with a worried tone, " Wait, Sonic! There's something you should know! " Confused and concerned, Sonic asked, " What is it? "

After the two of them had spent a long time explaining everything they learned to Sonic, he said with an excited smile, " Well, then that's just what we're gonna do! Come on, everyone! Let's go to Shamar! We're got another Chaos Emerald to find! " thrilled at the adventure starting to really feel like there was an antagonistic force he would be working against. Encouraged by his enthusiasm, Tails flew into the pilot's seat of the plane and buckled his seatbelts in preparation, and Metal Sonic buckled himself into the back seat of the plane and tightened his seatbelts just in case.

The plane soon took off into the skies and starting flying to the southwest in the direction of Shamar. While Sonic was excited and Tails was fascinated by the adventure they were going on, Metal Sonic was more serious about it than ever, knowing that if SWORD's plans succeeded, it was unlikely that the world would benefit. Since he was living in that world, he naturally didn't want it to get even worse, when he already thought the world was a cruel and unforgiving place. During the plane ride, Metal made sure to keep a close look out for any more robotic hummingbirds that could be following them. Fortunately, he never did see any, but soon came to the conclusion that since SWORD already knew where they were going, they didn't feel that sending more spies after them was necessary.

Since Shamar was a lot closer to Chun-Nan than Chun-Nan was to Station Square, the plane ride to Shamar wasn't nearly as long as the previous one. At the speed the Tornado-1 was traveling, it only took 15 minutes for the plane to land in a desert near the capital of Shamar. Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane and landed gracefully on the ground with a flip before it even landed, while Metal Sonic and Tails waited until the plane was no longer moving before carefully getting out of it.

After leaving the plane, the three of them curiously looked at their surroundings, with Metal doing so in order to analyze the environment around him for any Chaos Emerald or potential threat. There was a vast sandy desert surrounding them that stretched out for miles in every direction. There were no cacti in sight, and mountains were the only variation in the landscape. At the horizon to the west was a town with Arabic architecture, the same one Sonic had been in during the adventure where he had to be a werehog.

After a few seconds of everyone examining their surroundings, Sonic said with a smile, " Alright, now here's the plan. Metal and I will go through the desert at the speed of sound, staying within each other's sight while searching for a Chaos Emerald, and Tails, you'll go to town and find out if there's any Chaos Emerald there. We'll all meet up at the Tornado-1 in a few hours! "

Metal was incredibly worried and concerned about Tails going to town without anyone with him to keep him safe, aware of the possibility that a dangerous robot could kill him without anyone there to protect him, but he didn't voice his concern, because he was certain that Sonic with his carefree nature would just assume Tails would be fine. Tails would acknowledge his concern, but because Sonic's the leader of the group, it wouldn't make a difference. All he would be doing is worrying the child, which for all he knew, could negatively impact his fighting abilities. And he fought off the robots in Chun-Nan without any injuries, so if he really got that much luck from Sonic, he would probably be fine in Shamar, too. It was also likely that Sonic would be annoyed at his overprotectiveness of Tails and accuse him of disrespecting him for being a kid, and he couldn't risk the alliance, especially not so far in. So Metal stayed silent and didn't voice his objections, hoping that the kid wouldn't get himself into any trouble he couldn't get out of.

After making the plan and sending Tails to the town, Sonic ran through Arid Sands with Metal at the speed of sound, with the two of them not speaking to each other much because of how focused Metal Sonic was on the task at hand. While Sonic was thrilled and excited at running through the area again, Metal was serious and dedicated to searching for a Chaos Emerald. Both of them boosted a lot as they went through the desert, with Metal being thankful that his boost had been upgraded nearly five years ago to be more like Sonic's boost but with fire, rather than being damaging to himself or requiring him to stop and regain energy after using it.

While Sonic and Metal spent hours searching through the desert, Tails spent hours searching through the town. He appreciated getting to visit a foreign country and all, but he couldn't help but be bothered by the heat, and bored of the experience of walking through every street and alley looking for an emerald. It didn't help that he couldn't go into every building and search through it, so he couldn't search the town as thoroughly as he felt was necessary.

When he reached the town plaza three hours later, Tails finally found the Chaos Emerald he was looking for. " There it is! " he exclaimed happily, and ran towards it, only to stop and gasp when several different mechs with jetpacks flew towards the emerald and landed right in front of it, surrounding it. They were clearly combat robots of Eggman's before SWORD reprogrammed them. Thinking fast, Tails spin-dashed through all of them before they could land a hit on him, only to be terrified when a 50-foot tall white robot landed on the ground behind him and grabbed him in front of a gathering crowd of people, holding him high in the air threateningly. It said to him, " Tails located. For trying to rescue Dr. Eggman, you are a threat to the plans of SWORD! Prepare for total destruction! "

Frightened, Tails tried to calm himself down with the thought that Sonic or Metal would be coming to save him soon. In the meantime, however, he had to do whatever he could to stall for time. " What's SWORD planning?! What are they going to do with a Chaos Emerald?! " he asked while trying to look brave, hoping the robot would be simple-minded enough to tell him.

Fortunately for him, the robot did not understand the meaning of the word, " confidential, " nor did he understand that Tails was stalling for time, and this caused him to answer, " They are keeping the evil doctor imprisoned until they finish developing a serum that will rewire his brain to become their loyal engineer, making him build inventions and robots for SWORD to help them protect Holoska and benefit humanity- "

" They're BRAINWASHING HIM?! " Tails exclaimed, with Sonic's influence causing him to be sickened by the very concept of someone's free will and freedom being stripped away from them. He stammered fearfully, " T-They're, they're enslaving him and BRAINWASHING HIM?! " while the gathering crowd overhearing the commotion looked at him and the robot in shock. Half of them were horrified, while the other half agreed with the plan, with some of them nodding their heads in approval.

" Correct. It is a vital step in the improvement of the world. Another vital step, is the removal of the Chaos Emeralds. The entire history of the world has been spent with people fighting over them, and over the past five and a half years, Dr. Eggman has been attempting to use them for evil. It is because of this that SWORD has decided to destroy the Chaos Emeralds for the greater good, throwing them into a volcano to ensure that no one will abuse the sacred emeralds ever again! They will sink into the lava and the hole in the volcano will be sealed off, preventing anyone from ever using them again! "

Tails was horrified. " What?! But if the Chaos Emeralds get destroyed, Sonic won't be able to turn into Super Sonic anymore! Sometimes he needs to do that to beat a villain like Eggman! And what if destroying the Chaos Emeralds destabilizes the universe and destroys it?! They're mystical jewels of cosmic importance that the universe has spent an untold amount of time being used to! How will it react to them suddenly being destroyed?! " he exclaimed fearfully.

" That's absurd. No one will be required to beat Dr. Eggman once SWORD is finished with him. When SWORD has completed their plans, there will be no more villains threatening the world! " Tails couldn't believe what he was hearing. They genuinely did believe themselves to be righteous, despite everything they were planning to do. " We'll never let SWORD do any of that! " he exclaimed, trying to look brave instead of worried. None of the crowd listening to the robot agreed with that part of the plan, being worried and apprehensive at the Chaos Emeralds being destroyed and the world's status quo changing so drastically.

" They also plan to reprogram all of the robots that were formerly on Eggman's side to the side of SWORD to benefit them and their affiliate GUN. They have already reprogrammed almost all of the robot army Eggman brought with him when he attacked their base, with the exception of Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot, who were imprisoned with Eggman. But they have much bigger plans in mind! Wars have always been fought with humans and Mobians as combatants, and this causes unnecessary bloodshed and misery. When SWORD's plans are complete, wars will only be fought with robots who used to work for Eggman battling each other. SWORD will reprogram to their side all of the robots who can fight in a war, and dismantle any that are unable to fight in battle, such as Cubot and Orbot, for example. " the robot explained, convinced of SWORD's righteousness. All of the crowd seemed to agree with that plan, seeing robots as nothing but machines made to serve them rather than beings with rights. Tails exclaimed fearfully, " What?!... You're going to destroy Cubot and Orbot?! "

" NOT IF I CAN HELP IT! " An orange blur sped through the head of the robot at four times the speed of sound and stopped at the ground, revealing itself to have been Metal Sonic doing a homing-attack at the robot's head with his boost turned on. The crowd was shocked as he glared at the robot with his fists clenched and his red eyes glowing menacingly while it malfunctioned and dropped Tails, allowing Tails to fly safely to the ground below and grab the Chaos Emerald on the ground, exclaiming happily, " METAL! "

Metal instantly flew at the robot with his boost on, and started flying through every part of it in every direction multiple times, spin-dashing and homing-attacking it, destroying it in an orange blur as a fiery ball of destruction. The robot was completely unable to attack him from the speed he was flying around it. A minute later, the crowd saw nothing left of the dangerous robot other than metal rubble, and Metal landed on the ground and sighed in relief, no longer looking angry and menacing now that the threat had been neutralized.

Tails exclaimed happily, " You saved me! Oh, I knew you would come! Well, you or Sonic, but either way, I'm alive! " Speaking to Tails in his usual aloof and serious manner with his arms crossed and his back facing the crowd - apparently not noticing it - Metal stated, " Of course I saved you. We're a team! And I refuse to allow that robot to threaten you and get away with it. Now that I am aware of what SWORD is planning, I will do everything in my power to stop it. "

It was at this point when he heard the sound of children in the crowd cheering for him, and turned around in surprise, looking confused and worried with his black eyes widened as he saw that an entire crowd of people had witnessed him rescue Tails. While most of the crowd simply looked shocked and confused and slightly wary at seeing Metal working with Tails, the children of the crowd in their youthful innocence were nothing but happy and excited at seeing a robot version of Sonic rescue Tails and save the town. The children all cheered and exclaimed things like, " Cool! A robot Sonic saved the town! " " My mom's never gonna believe this! " " Awesome! " and, " Wow! He's a HERO! " The rest of the crowd was still wary and suspicious of him, but decided not to do anything against him for Tails' sake, not wanting to scare their children or provoke him. Metal couldn't help but smile at seeing the children cheering and calling him a hero, although since he was embarrassed of showing his soft side, he still had a nervous expression, looking humble in the process.

He turned back to Tails and said while trying to keep his aloof and serious composure, " Y-Yes, well, um. I'll be waiting for you with Sonic, " and flew away at the speed of sound, leaving Tails standing in the town plaza with a Chaos Emerald and a smile on his face. He cheerfully reassured the crowd, " Don't worry, everyone. For now at least, he's on my side, " and used his tails to fly away in the direction that Metal Sonic went, with the Chaos Emerald in his hand, leaving behind a confused and shocked crowd that wondered if Metal Sonic wasn't as evil as they were led to believe.

When Tails and Metal returned to the Tornado-1, they found Sonic waiting there with a smile on his face, oblivious to what had happened in the town. He chuckled and said, " I see you found the emerald! Great job!... Hey, what's wrong? " He quickly noticed a worried expression on Tails' face.

Tails told him with a panicked tone, " We found out about SWORD's plans, and I don't think you're gonna like them! "

After he was told about them, Sonic gasped in horror, with his carefree demeanor breaking for the first time in the adventure. Being someone who loved freedom, he was sickened by the concept of someone being completely brainwashed and losing their free will, and being forced to work for someone they would normally refuse to work for, even if the victim happened to be Eggman. " They're going to BRAINWASH and ENSLAVE him?! " Sonic exclaimed in shock.

Metal Sonic told him with a determined tone and his arms crossed, " He's not the only one. They've already reprogrammed the army of robots he brought with him to be on their side, which from a robot's perspective, is no better than brainwashing! "

As Metal Sonic started ranting about SWORD threatening to brainwash Cubot and Orbot in righteous indignation, Sonic couldn't help but feel incredibly proud of him.

Tails explained with a panicked tone, " That's not all they're planning to do! You know how SWORD is trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds before we do? Well, that's because they're planning to DESTROY THEM! "

" What?! That's crazy! They don't know what kind of impact that could have! What if destroying something as powerful as the Chaos Emeralds ends up destroying the universe?! And I doubt this is good news for Knuckles, either, because their same logic could also apply to the Master Emerald that keeps their power in check! And if they destroy the Master Emerald before the Chaos Emeralds, the Chaos Emeralds might become way too powerful and chaotic from losing what kept them in check! The universe is probably so used to their existence in it that it'll collapse without them, and besides, if all the emeralds are in a volcano, how am I supposed to go super? What if I need to do that again, but can't? " Sonic exclaimed anxiously, recognizing the seriousness of the situation.

" Exactly! " Tails said with a worried tone. Metal Sonic said in determination, " I knew they were planning something. " Sonic said confidently, " Come on, everyone, let's take to the skies! Only two more emeralds to go! " and jumped onto the wing of the plane. Tails used his tails to fly into the pilot's seat and buckled up in it to prepare for flight, and Metal buckled himself into the back seat and tightened the seatbelts as usual, looking serious and determined.

The flight to Ice Mountain Zone took around an hour, since it was the plane going from one hemisphere to the other, and throughout all of it, Metal Sonic was wishing that the plane would go faster. He was relieved when the plane finally landed in Ice Mountain Zone at last. The sooner he got that emerald, the better.

Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane and landed on the soft fluffy snow on the ground below him, but his carefree smile soon faded when he remembered all of the water that the area had. It was bad enough that Ice Mountain Zone was freezing cold and him and Tails weren't wearing winter clothes - after all, they would be ripped apart from a single spin-dash - but the water made the area almost unbearable. He never liked Ice Mountain Zone, not just because it was cold, but also because of the water. He didn't like the possibility that the Chaos Emerald was underwater or in an area that he had to go through an underwater area to reach.

It was times like this that made Sonic thankful that he had help looking for the emerald. He smiled again at turning to face Tails and Metal, who had gotten out of the plane. Tails could fly, which made traveling through water a lot easier for him because he could just fly through the water and get out of it to prevent himself from running out of air. And Metal could not only fly, but he didn't need to breathe. He was the best equipped to deal with the water areas out of the three of them.

He said with a smile, " Okay, here's what we'll do. Tails, you'll search through every part of the area that requires going through underwater areas to get to, and Metal, you'll search for the Chaos Emerald in the underwater areas that aren't required to get to the end of the area. After all, you two can both fly and one of you doesn't really have to breathe, so water shouldn't be a problem for you! Meanwhile, I'll speed through the area avoiding all the water and running across its surface if I have to. We'll meet back here later! I know we can do this, guys! "

Metal didn't exactly like being underwater. He was used to breathing; it was a reflex, something he had to consciously make himself not do. But even though he didn't like having to go underwater, he knew that he had no choice but to agree to do what Sonic asked. So instead of voicing his concerns, he immediately nodded when Sonic gave him the task.

With that, Sonic ran at the speed of sound into the area he had been in two years before. Tails and Metal started out following him, only to soon separate as they all started searching in the areas they had been assigned. While Sonic searched above water and ran across the surface of the water to avoid falling into it, Tails searched through the parts of the area above water that he needed to go through an underwater area to reach, and Metal Sonic was stuck flying through the majority of the underwater areas at the speed of sound, paying very close attention to not breathing and keeping his eyes on the bottom of the underwater areas for a Chaos Emerald. He was determined to be the one to find the emerald this time; he wasn't exactly enjoying searching for it, and if someone else got it, he would feel like he had just wasted his time.

While he spent the next hour searching for a Chaos Emerald alone, he had a lot of time to think. He wasn't nearly as grateful for being alone as he was in Marble Garden Zone, since Tails warming up to him meant that he didn't feel like as much of an outcast as before, so it wasn't nearly as awkward working with Sonic as it used to be. Granted, he still didn't like having to keep all of his complaints, sarcasm and thoughts that could risk the alliance if spoken aloud to himself, but he was used to doing that around Eggman when his creator was in a bad mood.

After almost an hour of searching, during which he considered the possibility of redeeming himself and worried about all the negative consequences of trying, Metal Sonic finally found the Chaos Emerald at the bottom of the final lake. Relieved that he didn't have to hold his breath anymore, he picked it up and flew out of the lake and up into the sky at the speed of sound, returning to where the Tornado-1 was left to wait for Sonic and Tails to show up.

When they did, Tails was shivering. Sonic wasn't as cold as him because he spent so much of his time running above land keeping himself warm with the friction, not to mention all the Rings he collected helped a lot, but Tails, who had to spend so much of his time under freezing water, was not in such good condition. Feeling sorry for him, Sonic apologized, " Sorry, little bro. It had to be done, " with his hand on Tails' shoulder. He ruffled his hair as Tails smiled nervously, and then said with a smile, " Great job, Metal! You've found us the sixth one! Now we're finally done searching through areas of the world looking for Chaos Emeralds! The last one we need is... "

His smile faded and he looked exasperated while saying, " With Shadow... " and groaned with his hand on his forehead, annoying Metal and making him roll his eyes at him with his arms crossed, getting into the back seat of the plane so Sonic wouldn't notice his irritated expression. Sonic jumped onto the wing of the plane and said, " Don't worry, buddy. We're going home first so that you can have some warm blankets to warm you up, and I'll run to Shadow's house myself while you stay home. Let's take to the skies! "

As Metal Sonic tightened his seatbelts just in case, the plane took flight, flying high above the icy mountain below. During the flight to Sonic and Tails' house, Metal Sonic stared at the ground to the left of him with his hand on his chin with a bored and annoyed expression while Sonic cheerfully bantered with Tails about nothing in particular, which included making plans for ordering pizza later and complimenting Tails on his work on the plane.

It wasn't long before the plane landed in the Mystic Ruins on the runway near Sonic and Tails' house, and Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane as it landed. When it finally stopped moving, Tails and Metal Sonic unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the plane. Sonic took the Chaos Emeralds out of the plane, ran at the speed of sound into Tails' Workshop to put the emeralds with the others, and then back to Tails instantly, looking like a blue blur vanishing and then reappearing in under a second.

Seeing that Tails was still shivering, Sonic put his arm around him compassionately and said unhappily with a gentle and caring tone, " I'm sorry, little bro. This is all my fault... Want me to carry you to the couch? " Tails smiled nervously and said with embarrassment at Metal Sonic seeing what was happening, " Aw, Sonic, I'm not three-years-old anymore... " blushing from appreciating the kindness he was getting from Sonic that he had been deprived of before meeting him; not that he knew that, since like most people, he had no memory of when he was three-years-old, and Sonic thought it was better not to remind him. He barely remembered meeting Knuckles, let alone being bullied for having two tails on Cocoa Island, and Sonic believed it was better that way.

Sonic ruffled his hair and walked with the shivering Tails to their house with his arm around him while Metal followed them, taking note of the love and kindness Sonic was treating his little brother figure with when he was worried about him. He had always appreciated this side of Sonic. He had been seeing throughout the entire adventure that Sonic wasn't just this cocky annoying jerk who taunted and teased his enemies and got a sadistic kick out of annoying them with immature insults; to most people, he was friendly, charismatic, and carefree, if annoyingly optimistic to the point of appearing cheesy.

Metal always heard that Sonic acted friendly towards most people, but he was so fixated on the way Sonic treated him that for most of his life, he was convinced that Sonic was only pretending to be friendly and nice for PR reasons, and that the way he acted towards his enemies was his true self. As he became older, Metal had realized gradually that this wasn't the case.

As Metal walked into the house feeling conflicted and hiding it with a bored expression, Sonic brought Tails to the couch so that he would sit down on it, ran away in a blue blur and came back with several blankets from the closet at the speed of sound, covering Tails over with them saying compassionately, " There you go. " Sonic ruffled his hair again with Tails smiling as a result, and said unhappily, " Now I'm gonna have to go to Shadow's house and try to convince him to let me borrow his Chaos Emerald. "

" Why wouldn't he lend it to you? " Metal questioned in annoyance with Sonic's confusing exasperation with Shadow. " All you would have to do is tell him you need it to save the world, and he would give it to you. "

Sonic and Tails were once again surprised and confused by his behavior. " Well, whenever I try to get his help, he always wants me to do something first. There's always gotta be a condition. He keeps saying it's because he's annoyed by my personality. So I doubt it'll be as simple as just going up to him and asking for the emerald to stop Eggman, " Sonic complained.

" I'm sure he'll only ask you to bring him back the emerald when it scatters across the world after you've used it. He recognizes the importance of saving the world. He's a hero, too, you know. He'll understand, " Metal Sonic replied nonchalantly, sitting down on the couch at the other end of Tails while failing to realize how human and natural his speech had sounded.

Sonic was mildly annoyed by Metal Sonic having such faith in Shadow's good nature when he was usually so cynical and pessimistic, but he didn't want to show it and risk Metal Sonic worrying that he had gotten into trouble and risked the alliance by having an argument with him. So instead of rolling his eyes, he smiled and said with a friendly tone, " You sure have a high opinion of Shadow. I guess it does make sense, since you're so similar in personality to him, that you would like him so much. You two have a lot in common! "

From hearing this, Metal Sonic had a smile on him that neither of them had ever seen before, with his eyes widened and an expression that implied he was honored to be compared to the ultimate lifeform. " Really? " he said in a quiet but pleased tone, making Tails all the more curious. He didn't even notice that he was letting his guard down and showing his soft side around Sonic and Tails, because of how honored he was that he could have anything in common with Shadow.

" Yeah! You're both really serious and determined and have an independent nature, and act all aloof all the time instead of being friendly to everyone you meet! You both think things through a lot instead of taking huge risks on a whim for the sake of excitement. That's what I do, and while it is pretty fun, I'm not about to say that my way's the right way for everyone. And you're both intelligent and great at fighting, sharing the same abilities as me with your own unique ones. I can see why you like him so much. Birds of a feather flock together, you know? Heh heh. Speaking of Shadow, I think it's about time I go to his house for the emerald. See you in a bit! " Sonic said cheerfully, playfully teasing Metal Sonic and trying not to offend him by complimenting him and being careful about what exactly he said. Sonic ran out of the house at the speed of sound in a blue blur, instantly disappearing after he said that, while Metal smiled on the couch, honored that he had so much in common with Shadow. " Wow... "

After a couple seconds, however, he realized he was letting his soft side show in front of Tails, looked embarrassed, cleared his throat and crossed his arms while saying with an aloof demeanor nonchalantly, " I mean... it is only logical that it would be a good thing that I have so much in common with such a powerful hedgehog, " causing Tails to smile and stifle a giggle. Sonic had left Metal Sonic alone with Tails again, but because Tails finally trusted him, he didn't mind.

Overcome with curiosity, Tails asked, " So, what happened to make you respect Shadow so much? I've never seen anyone express such admiration of him before! Not that there's no reason to admire him. I'm just curious about what event caused you to respect him more than anyone else I know, since he's supposed to be your enemy most of the time. "

Metal Sonic sighed wearily. He knew he was going to have to tell Tails the truth, because the kid wouldn't stop pestering him about it until he knew the answer. Hoping Tails would believe him, he explained with a serious tone that gradually gave way to informality, " Two years ago, Eggman was locked away and impersonated by Eggman Nega, a descendant of his that came from a so-called ' soul dimension ' 200 years ahead of ours, who wanted to destroy the world with a fire elemental called an Ifrit, and my creator sent me to Shadow to get his help in stopping him. Before he did that, he put a Chaos Emerald in me as a power source, removing my necessity to breathe, and temporarily removed my ability to speak while placing loudspeakers in me so that he could be the one to talk to Shadow. I suppose it was because he's such an arrogant narcissist that he wanted to be the one doing all the talking while I, as his robot slave, wasn't able to say anything. So I went to him for help, the idiot did the talking, and thankfully for everyone involved, Shadow agreed without hesitation. I spent an entire mission with him after that, fighting alongside him to prevent the world's destruction by Eggman Nega! "

" And while it was annoying not being able to speak to him, the mission still managed to be the greatest mission of my life! He never once acted like he didn't trust me or insulted me or, anything like that. He was serious about the mission like I was, so he wasn't friendly like Sonic is to me right now, but it didn't change the fact that he treated me like his ally. At one point, he even asked if I was okay!... I, I couldn't believe it! No one who wasn't on Eggman's side had ever asked me if I was okay before. And at the end of the mission, the two of us were trapped in the Ifrit's dimension, and I had to take the Chaos Emerald out of my chest so that Shadow could Chaos Control us back home, painful though it may have been. I couldn't tell him about my intentions, and my connection with the idiot had been broken because we were in a separate dimension, so Shadow wasn't aware of what I was doing at first, and he actually got concerned about me and expressed a worry that I would destroy myself! And when I gave him that emerald, instead of leaving me in that dimension to never be repaired again, he brought me home... No one not on Eggman's side had ever treated me with such compassion before... " Tails couldn't help but feel sorry for him when he said that last sentence.

" So if you were wondering why I respect the ultimate lifeform so much, there's your answer, kiddo. I gained a whole new respect for him because of that. Spending an entire mission with him had changed my opinion of him from apathetic and neutral to respecting him more than anyone else in the world... " Metal Sonic told him, with a melancholic tone that made it clear that he wished Shadow and him could work together again. Pitying him, Tails said, " I understand now... " and thought,

" I can't believe this adventure has had me feeling sorry for Metal Sonic. I guess he's pretty jealous of Omega. He got to leave Eggman's side, be friends with Shadow, and even join GUN, and it looks like he has no problem being trusted. He's able to live a sorta normal life as a trusted agent of GUN and friend of Shadow. Would that even be possible for Metal Sonic? He's so infamous that I don't know if anyone would trust him. It's amazing that I do! And even then, it's only for this one adventure... I hope. I know I shouldn't get attached to him when he's just gonna go back to being my enemy after this. But still, I saw a side of him I've never seen before. "

Meanwhile, Sonic reached Shadow's house after a long period of running at the speed of sound, and reluctantly rang the doorbell. " Sooooooonic! " He gasped at hearing Amy angrily call out his name behind him, and turned around to see her standing behind him with her hammer ready, looking furious. " YOU STOOD ME UP AGAIN! " Amy yelled at him. As soon as Shadow opened the door, Sonic ran inside past him, slammed the door shut, and locked the door in a panic as Amy started smacking the door angrily and repeatedly.

Sonic turned to Shadow, who was standing with his arms crossed and an amused smirk on his face, and begged him, " I need your Chaos Emerald! Please! It's an emergency! " Shadow deadpanned, " I assume you require it to defeat the doctor? " Sonic nodded frantically, and cringed at hearing Amy calling out his name again angrily.

Shadow looked amused again, and decided to take advantage of an opportunity. The truth was that he would've let Sonic have the emerald to defeat Eggman anyways, since Eggman winning would inconvenience him and make the world a worse place - which definitely wouldn't be something Maria would've approved of - and he was certain Sonic would just steal his emerald if he refused to give it to him anyways. But Sonic was convinced that he would only get the emerald if he did what he wanted, and Shadow wasn't one to let an opportunity like that pass him by. Sonic was going to do anything he asked, and he had the perfect idea.

" I will relinquish my control of it temporarily on two conditions, blue hedgehog. First, bring the emerald back to me after you are finished with it, and second... You have to kiss Amy Rose. " Shadow deadpanned most of what he said, and had an amused smirk on the last sentence, entertained by the horrified reaction of the immature blue hedgehog in front of him. " WHAT?! " Sonic exclaimed with his hands on his head, causing Shadow to chuckle at the sight. Shadow clarified, " On the lips, for six seconds. "

Panicking, Sonic thought, " He wants me to kiss Amy?! Even if I did like her, why would I want to kiss her when she's like this?! What if opening the door causes me to get hurt before I can even do it?! It's a risk to my health AND my dignity! Arrgh, why would he make me do this?!... But what other choice do I have? My only other option is stealing the emerald, and I don't know how long Shadow will be home! I have to get it as soon as possible, I don't have time to wait for him to leave so I can take it, and he's probably just gonna leave with it anyways!... Ugh, it looks like I don't have a choice. " So after a few seconds of panicking, Sonic sighed in exasperation and exclaimed angrily, " Fine! "

He unlocked the door, opened it quickly, threw his arms around Amy and kissed her before she could react to the door being opened and attack him. She was shocked by the sudden kiss, but rather than getting angrier, she dropped her hammer, started blushing and closed her eyes, placed her hands on his shoulders, and enjoyed it, being reminded of how much she loved him with that one action. The rational part of her mind was telling her that he was obviously only doing it because Shadow was forcing him to, since he looked annoyed and worried before doing it and Shadow was watching with a smirk from the front door, but the emotional part of her mind that completely dominated it was too overwhelmed with happiness at the kiss to care why it was happening.

After it ended and Sonic pulled away, Amy was smiling in pure joy and happiness, infatuated and with all of her anger having faded away and disappeared. She sighed happily at the kiss, and commented, " If that's what you're gonna do after standing me up, then go ahead and do it! " and giggled. Sonic sighed in exasperation and said, " Listen, you can't tell anyone else about this, alright? " Wanting to do anything for him to make it more likely that she'll be kissed again, Amy promised him, " I won't. It'll be between you and me! " She saw Shadow standing at the door with his arms crossed and an amused smirk on his face, and added, " And Shadow. " She giggled and said, " See you later, Sonic! Hope you enjoyed the kiss, because you can do it whenever you want! "

Amy ran back home afterwards, and Sonic moaned in embarrassment, shaking his head with his hand on top of it. He thought unhappily, " Ugh, why couldn't it have been Blaze? It would've still been embarrassing, but not nearly as much! " The kiss on its own wasn't really that bad - if anything, it was kind of nice - but the fact that it was with Amy Rose, was humiliating for him. He was a free spirit, someone adventurous and carefree who loved freedom and didn't want to be tied down, and he was proud of how he avoided Amy's advances because it was the representation of that, of who he was. It was because of this that he would be humiliated by the very thought of giving into Amy's advances and letting himself be tied down into a relationship, having his freedom restricted even more than his duty as the hero of the world and his responsibility of raising Tails already did. It wasn't just the fact that it was Amy, it was the idea of getting into a relationship at all that embarrassed him, and he hoped for the sake of his dignity and reputation that Amy wouldn't tell anyone what he did.

He was distracted from his thoughts when Shadow handed him the green Chaos Emerald and told him, " You kept your word, blue hedgehog. You earned this, " and smirked again at the thought of what he got him to do. Sonic sighed, said, " Thanks, " took the emerald and ran back home at the speed of sound. He would've used Chaos Control, but he barely pulled it off the first time, and he preferred the feeling of running to warping.

It wasn't long before Sonic returned to his home at last, holding the emerald in his hand. By that point, the thunder and lightning had long since stopped and so had the rain, which had only started falling after he gave Amy that kiss, as if the weather itself was sympathizing with him. He shuddered at the memory of it, and opened the door with a carefree smile, eager to get started on lunch and then reach the most exciting part of the adventure.

By the time Sonic had returned home, Metal had calmed himself down, so when Sonic walked into the house saying with a smile, " Don't ask me how, but I managed to get it! The seventh Chaos Emerald! " Metal was sitting on the couch reading an encyclopedia from the bookshelf nearby and Tails was sitting beside him watching TV, no longer being cold enough to require blankets around him. Tails said happily, " That's great! "

" Yep! And now I can get started on our lunch! Of course, we'll have to make it quick. How does peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sound? " Sonic said cheerfully. " Great! " Tails replied with a smile as Sonic put down the Chaos Emerald next to the front door. Tails went into the kitchen, eager for his lunch to be made.

" Hey, Metal! Like that encyclopedia, huh? " Sonic commented with a smile. " I've already read this one back at home base, but it does serve its purpose as a method of alleviating boredom, " Metal Sonic replied. " You know, Tails read it, too, a while ago! It was the first book he ever read when I first brought him home to live with me! You two have similar tastes. You both like nonfiction a lot! Anyhoo, me and my little bro are gonna have lunch in the kitchen. You can join us if you want. I know you don't eat, but that doesn't mean you should be excluded from the group! Besides, you being there will cut down on the time we spend thinking up a plan for rescuing old Egghead! " Sonic said cheerfully.

Metal tried not to sigh when he heard that. He knew that he was probably going to have to explain to Sonic and Tails why he wasn't going to be joining their side permanently, and he was certain they weren't going to take it well.

" You are correct. We should be discussing a plan. SWORD's base is protected by highly dangerous threats and we need to make preparations for dealing with them, " Metal Sonic replied immediately so as to hide the train of thought he was on from Sonic. " You must be really looking forward to it, Metal! " he said with excitement as Metal sat at the kitchen table next to Tails. Sonic was looking forward to the challenge and danger of storming SWORD's base. Metal let out a sigh of weariness and said unhappily, " Let's just get this over with. "

Sonic said with a smile, " Well, look on the bright side, Metal. You may not be with them right now, but that doesn't mean you're all alone! As long as we're working together, we're like friends, too! I get it if you don't like that concept, but it's true. You've been a great teammate to us! You can be relied on and you can be trusted, and you didn't cause us any real trouble. You kept your word, Metal; you weren't an inconvenience. I know you'd rather be with your friends and so you can't wait to rescue them and go back to being with them, but it's not like you're hated here, you know? This has been fun! And if you ever wanna do it again, give me a call. I doubt something like this will ever happen again, but just saying; if you ever want my help again, you're welcome anytime. " Tails nodded, smiling warmly at him; he still appreciated how he had saved his life, probably more than once, and even he had to admit that the adventure with him had been a lot better than he had expected.

Metal couldn't hold back a smile when hearing that heartwarming speech, even though it made it look like he had gone soft. He sighed in relief and said, " That's good. I was worried... "

He soon became nervous and embarrassed after saying that, since he had revealed his soft side and possibly implied that he didn't hate Sonic anymore.

" W-We should be discussing a plan. With my luck, our chances of victory are greatly diminished simply by my being here. " Sonic couldn't help but be amused at a robot believing in luck and talking about the universe as if it were a sentient being dedicated to tormenting him and making the hero of the world succeed, while Tails was intrigued by it and took it as proof that his AI really was as advanced as a human or Mobian brain if he was able to understand such concepts and believe in them. But rather than comment on it and risk annoying him, they decided to discuss a plan with him instead.

Sonic said cheerfully, " You're right, Metal! So while we figure out how to go about it, I'm gonna make some lunch for me and my little bro! " ruffled Tails' hair and got started on making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for him and Tails, pulling out the ingredients to do so. Metal stated with a serious expression,

" The base is surrounded by dangers ranging from electrified walls to a security system with surveillance cameras in the base to spying robotic hummingbirds that will see us coming long before we see them, to anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground below. Tails, your skill as an engineer is required for us to deal with all this. Your plane can take out the security system, the robotic hummingbirds, the extremely dangerous walls and the anti-aircraft machines with the weapons built into it, but we will need more than that to storm the base successfully. So, since you're the most intelligent person in the room and the one who builds such necessary things, what do you suggest? "

Tails couldn't help but smile at Metal nonchalantly complimenting him again - so nonchalantly that he probably didn't realize he was doing it - and said, trying to look confident when he really wasn't, " W-Well, those birds must be able to see our plane from a really long distance if they were able to spot us even though I turned around the plane and went home before flying over the base. If they're gonna have such an early alert to us, they're gonna throw everything they can at us before we're even ready, so the best way to ensure our success is to get there without being spotted. Now I know what you're thinking, how could a plane flying over an area not be spotted? Well, something I've been working on recently is, well, a cloaking device for the Tornado-1. Of course, I used the mystical power of a Chaos Emerald for making something like that, which isn't exactly new for me, but it's still something I threw together and i-it's mostly scientific. "

" Well, that's a lot better than anything Eggman ever made. That invention sounds like it will be useful long after the mission has been completed! If I were you, I would use that device as much as physically possible; there's no reason you shouldn't, since the idiot can't send his mechs to attack you in the sky if he can't see your plane to begin with, " Metal said, trying to sound nonchalant and aloof with his arms crossed so that he could express his approval of Tails' brilliant invention without looking like he had gone soft. Sonic smiled at the sight while Tails smiled nervously from appreciating the compliment and being too insecure to believe it.

" W-Well, the problem is that it can only have a limited amount of energy stored in it. I can send energy from the Chaos Emeralds into it to recharge it to 100%, but I can only use it for a certain amount of time before it runs out of energy. I think I should turn it on 15 minutes before flying right up to the actual base; we don't how far away those birds can see us from, so we should be careful just in case, and 15 minutes means it won't run out of energy before we reach the base itself while still being useful for as long as we need it, " Tails said nervously as Sonic gave him his lunch and started eating his.

" That sounds perfect, I don't see a flaw. Granted, perfection is a logical impossibility, but it seems that way to me. So after we attack the outside of the base and eliminate the threat of their electrified walls, anti-aircraft weaponry, and cut off their security system and surveillance system, I will fly down to the base with nothing left to attack me, and Sonic, after using all of the emeralds to achieve a more powerful and invincible form, will fly into the base in a similar manner. Meanwhile, you will continue flying around the base shooting at it with the plane invisible to keep you safe; when Sonic is finished, he will require your plane to return home, and you have to be nearby for him to do that. If your cloaking device is about to run out of energy, I suggest flying as far away as you can and landing the plane north of the base to wait for him. I am not aware of the base's layout and we have no method of finding it out, so Sonic and I will have to fly through the base's interior as fast as possible hoping we find a map; it will probably be in the room where SWORD's information is kept. "

" Once we find it, I'll take a picture of the map with my mind to save it to memory, and use my navigational skills to guide Sonic to the cell; he'll have to move at a slower speed so that he will be able to follow me. Any security doors will be easily bypassed by my own abilities or Super Sonic boosting through it, and we'll dodge any bullets or lasers shot at us with our reflexes. Our destination will be the cell where the idiot is being held, and we will waste no time in getting there to liberate them. Sonic, once we reach it, we'll have to split up. I'll tell you the directions to the room where the idiot's airship is being stored so you can get it outside the base to be used, " Metal Sonic replied.

Tails offered, " I could give you a piece of paper so that you could write down the directions for him! That way, he won't forget them and get lost. " Metal replied, " That would be useful, " which caused Tails to smile, run at slightly less than the speed of sound out of the room to get a small piece of paper and pencil, come back in less than a second in a yellow blur and hand it to him. Metal quickly returned to explaining the plan he had come up with after taking the piece of paper and pencil in his right hand.

" The airship would still be functional because it would logically have been fixed after being brought down by SWORD so that they could use it for themselves. I'm not looking forward to the escort mission that I'll be doing after you leave, but I'll have to do it regardless. I'll get them out of the base safely and into the airship outside. The airship must be to the south of the base far away from where the Tornado-1 would be. Since it's noon, the sun's in the north, so it should be easy to figure out which way's south. "

Tails said with an insecure smile, " I-I have a stun gun you could use to make the escort mission easier! I-It'll knock the soldiers out for an hour non-lethally and it has infinite ammo! You, you could use that. " Metal smiled in satisfaction, letting himself show his approval of the kid even though it could make him look weak, and said, " Excellent! I'll just tell the idiot that I stole it from you, and then return it when I'm done with it so he won't take advantage of it. " Tails smiled.

Metal sighed wearily upon getting to the hard part of the plan, hoping Sonic would understand, and said, " Once you've landed the airship, I need you to return to Tails without waiting for me and fly home in the Tornado-1 as fast as possible. As I explained to you when I first requested this alliance, I do not have permission from my idiot boss to have you or anyone supporting you helping me. I was expected to go alone; how he thought I was capable of rescuing him from a heavily guarded base with no assistance or preparation is beyond me, but that's besides the point. Eggman's plan to attack SWORD and take its weaponry and intelligence was supposed to be a secret, so just the act of me telling you about it in the first place would be considered an act of treason, and he would only reward my efforts with a punishment. Worst case scenario, he'll try to reprogram me to admire him, and I refuse to have a major part of my identity altered like that! "

Sonic said with a carefree smile, " So you need to take all the credit? No problemo! It'll be like we weren't even there! " Worried, Metal Sonic asked for clarification, " You really have no problem with it? " Sonic replied cheerfully, " It's not a big deal! I don't just do heroic things for the fame of it, after all, although that is a factor. As long as I know that SWORD's plans are gonna be stopped, it doesn't matter to me if old Egghead doesn't know I helped with it! Although I don't know why you're so worried about him reprogramming you. If it really got to that point, you could just leave his side and come to us! We wouldn't let him do that to you! Sure, it'd be kinda tricky getting used to the change, but it's better than being brainwashed, right? "

Relieved, Metal reluctantly said, " Yes, it is. It wouldn't exactly be easy for me, since I'd be separated from my comrades and I can't go out in public without causing a panic, but, as difficult as it is for me to say this, I'd rather join your side than be brainwashed by Eggman, especially if it robs me of my free will. Wait, that was redundant, wasn't it? I guess so. Anyways, if my creator ever plans to do that to me, I will seriously consider it... " Sonic and Tails smiled warmly at hearing that.

" I-I would prefer to live alone, however, although contact with you would still be needed, especially since I would be unable to get books from the library myself. As long as I have books, I'll be satisfied. U-Uh, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. That is an unlikely scenario as long as I'm careful enough, so we should discuss this if it actually transpires, although I do believe in planning for every possibility, " he continued nervously, with his nervousness increasing by the end of it by a significant degree.

Sonic and Tails smiled. Changing the subject, Sonic said after finishing his lunch, " So, I've been meaning to ask you, Metal. Why did Eggman attack SWORD in the first place? How did he even know about them? " Metal Sonic said with a serious but worried expression, " Do you promise not to tell anyone? " Sonic and Tails nodded with one of their palms facing him in a " promising " gesture. He sighed, hoping Eggman wouldn't find out, and told them everything he knew about them.

" Gerald used to be SWORD's top engineer, until he discovered some classified information that revealed to him just how much suffering the government caused the people of Holoska. It was him discovering that SWORD wasn't truly as righteous as it claimed that caused SWORD to come after him for execution despite everything he had done for them, and it caused him to join GUN at the quickest opportunity, with GUN faking some documents so that they could have SWORD's top engineer working for them. Gerald Robotnik told Eggman's parents exactly why he had defected from SWORD, and it was because of this that Eggman developed a grudge against them. He never hated them as much as GUN, but he still wanted to get revenge against them at any opportunity. Because of this, it is only logical that he would've tried to storm their base as soon as he located it. Taking their robots and weaponry was only a very minor part of his plan. What he was truly after, was the information on what Gerald Robotnik had done for them and what they planned to do to him. He wanted to expose to the world how they had treated his grandfather in the hopes of them being dissolved as an organization, not approving of how SWORD had fallen obscure and had its reputation improved from becoming a GUN affiliate. That was why he tried to storm the base. But he was unaware of how prepared they were for his attack. He was unaware that GUN had warned SWORD that he would come after them for revenge someday, and that they had made their own plans that they would carry out as soon as he came to them. "

Sonic and Tails nodded. Sonic said with a smile, " We're not gonna have to worry about SWORD's plans succeeding, because with us fighting against them, with all of the seven Chaos Emeralds, we're guaranteed to win! " and the two of them finished the last of their lunch with their next bite.

" Now that we're done lunch, it's finally time to go to that base and stop their plans for good! Looks like our adventure is coming to an end. Come on, guys! " Sonic said before running at the speed of sound to Tails' Workshop, being a little unhappy that his adventure with Metal Sonic was coming to an end so soon and hiding it with a cheerful smile.

Tails and Metal Sonic followed Sonic to the workshop, where he was taking all of the Chaos Emeralds and putting them into the trunk of the plane to be used later. As the two of them helped him with the task to speed things along, Sonic commented cheerfully, " I've absorbed a lot of Ring Energy without losing any in this adventure, so I'll be able to maintain my super form a lot longer than I ever did before! So it looks like this will be a piece of cake! "

After everyone had finished taking the Chaos Emeralds into the trunk of the Tornado-1, thankful that the plane had a trunk because there wasn't enough room in the front and back seats for them, they got into the plane. Sonic jumped onto the wing of the plane, Tails got into the pilot's seat with his stun gun in his hand and buckled himself in before checking to see if everything was working properly as usual, and Metal Sonic got into the back seat and put on his seatbelts, tightening them just in case.

After that, the plane started moving, reached the end of the runway and started flying through the sky, and the hour-long flight to Siberia, Holoska had begun. After an entire hour, the Tornado-1 finally reached SWORD's base. Metal Sonic hated the presence of the electrified walls, and was thankful that Tails was going to shoot them apart with his plane. Tails did the job perfectly. Metal Sonic couldn't help but wonder how Sonic could keep himself from falling off the plane's wing with all the turbulence and the plane turning so much, not thinking that him being accustomed to the wind was a good enough explanation, and quickly attributed it to his luck. Sonic was lucky, and that reassured him. Everything was going to work out perfectly.

Tails flew the plane around the base shooting at all of its defenses and destroying them, not having to worry too much about dodging bullets and lasers because of the plane's cloaking device; the soldiers were shooting randomly in every direction, with all of the anti-aircraft machines firing at once in every which way in a desperate attempt to shoot the invisible target. It only took a few minutes for all of the base's defenses to be destroyed. Sonic gave Tails a hi-five while he and him cheered, with Metal Sonic nodding in approval with his arms crossed.

" Here's the stun gun, Metal... Good luck... " Tails said to Metal Sonic with a sad smile that tried to hide how unhappy he was that the adventure was coming to an end. He was worried that this would be the last time Metal Sonic would ever be on his side. He handed Metal Sonic the dark blue stun gun. " Thank you. You have been extremely helpful for the mission, Tails. Thank you for everything... and farewell, " Metal Sonic said to him melancholically, in a serious tone that unsuccessfully tried to mask his unhappiness and his soft side.

As Metal Sonic took the stun gun and thanked Tails, Sonic opened the trunk of the plane, and jumped into it, standing in the center of a circle of Chaos Emeralds to absorb their power from being in close proximity to all of them at once. The mystical power of the Chaos Emeralds was absorbed into his aura and filled it with their energy, causing him to go into the invincible form of his that he had used against Eggman time and time again. With the Ring Energy of the thousands of Rings that were absorbed into his aura as he ran through places like Green Hill Zone looking for emeralds, Sonic would be able to maintain his super form for far longer than usual, and he was thankful for that. The Chaos Emeralds seemed to disappear after their energy was absorbed into him, changing from a solid state to an energy state as they fused with his energy field temporarily, and Sonic was finally ready for storming the base.

After nodding to each other that they were ready, Metal Sonic and Sonic flew down to the base below at the speed of sound, with Sonic being slightly faster than sound, and as they flew into the exposed entrance to the base that had its steel front door destroyed, Tails kept flying his plane around the base shooting at it from every direction as instructed, making sure every so often to look at the gauge he installed on his plane to keep track of the cloaking device's amount of energy.

Sonic and Metal flew through the white hallways of the base so fast that they were a yellow and blue blur. They flew into the entrance to every room they saw. As they were speeding through the base, the soldiers and agents they passed by panicked and called the information room warning the agents there that Metal Sonic and Super Sonic were flying through the base's hallways, seemingly unstoppable. They got past any steel doors with their own abilities, such as Metal Sonic's boost letting him create hot enough fire to melt the obstruction or Super Sonic ramming through it, and since Tails had destroyed the power lines giving the security system its own electricity to run off of, SWORD didn't even have the benefit of a security system or functioning surveillance cameras to help them.

When they happened upon the room where Eggman's mechs were being reprogrammed, they destroyed every last one of them, with Metal Sonic not having a problem with it because since they were mindless mechs who had no personality rather than having his advanced AI, they were nothing more than machines. When they reached the room where the scientists of SWORD were putting the finishing touches on a brainwashing serum for Eggman, they destroyed everything in it in a blur, with Sonic being outraged that they would try to rob someone of their free will and freedom to the point of not hesitating at all at going on a rampage. They flew through the base, circumventing its interior as they searched the part of it furthest from the center before going into the more central hallways and circumventing those, flying at high speeds in a counter-clockwise direction as they went into every room in the base one by one.

Everyone in the base was soon called on their cell phones by anyone witnessing Sonic and Metal flying past them, with every agent and soldier being warned about the infiltrators, but it didn't truly matter, because whenever someone tried to pinpoint their locations based off what the soldiers or agents calling them had said, Sonic and Metal had already moved far from that location.

When two black-suited agents of SWORD walked into the cell room of Eggman with two soldiers behind them, they were all surprised when their cell phones rang at nearly the exact same time, with their ringtones - various songs they had heard on the radio - distracting them and making them answer the calls. All of them were shocked at what they were told, and looked panicked as a result. The brown-haired agent shut the cell door in a panic and yelled out, " Metal Sonic is here! " much to the excitement of Metal Knuckles, who cheered, " YAY! HE'S HERE! HE'S HERE! He's come to save us! See, Daddy, I told you he'd come! " while Cubot and Orbot jumped for joy and celebrated.

The agents and soldiers looked at Eggman quizzically, who had a smile on his face. Eggman chuckled lightly and said in amusement, " Normally I'd scold you for calling me your father again... " and said while smirking at the agents and soldiers in satisfaction, " But I'm in such a good mood that I'll let it slide. "

After a couple of minutes, Metal and Sonic reached the information room at last, and after scaring away the agents in it, they went up to a computer and Metal sat in the seat in front of it, thankful that the agent using it hadn't logged off because he had left in a panic; because of this, Metal didn't have to do any hacking at all. He moved the computer mouse around, clicking when he needed to, and quickly brought up the map of the base. The hallways of the map were light blue, while the empty space was dark blue and the lines showing the walls of the base were another shade of blue. The map was too big to fit on one computer screen without making the text on it too small to read, so Metal clicked an icon on the screen that brought the image of the map to a gigantic computer screen in the room - that feature was probably used in PowerPoint presentations - looked over at the image, and proceeded to memorize it.

He visualized the Save to Memory icon in the bottom left corner of his field of vision, bringing it up in his mind's eye, and imagined it darkening as if it had been clicked, and the icon disappeared, and he had successfully saved the image to memory, taking a picture of it with his mind. From Sonic's perspective, Metal had simply looked at the map on the gigantic computer screen with a serious and focused expression, and then apparently " blinked " with his red eyes disappearing and reappearing, and Sonic couldn't help but be amazed at just what that robot was capable of. He thought, " He can do a lot more than just fight, that's for sure, " with an impressed smile as he watched Metal.

Working at the speed of sound, Metal visualized the Load Saved Picture icon in the corner of his field of vision, imagined it being clicked, and an image of various icons in his mind's eye in a bar at the bottom of his field of vision showed up, with almost every one having a number on it, with the exception of the leftmost one, which stated Most Recent. He imagined that icon being clicked, and brought up the saved image of the map to his mind's eye. He visualized the Create a Copy icon and imagined it being clicked, copying the image so that he could alter it without the original image being altered, and then studied the image, determining from the text on it where he was and the best path to Eggman's cell. After he had figured it out, analyzing the image in his mind's eye, he visualized the hallway he was planning to fly through turning red as opposed to the light blue color it was before, and visualized Eggman's cell turning red and the room he was currently in turning orange.

He visualized the Back icon appearing and being clicked so that he could look around the room he was in and face the entrance he had gone through, and visualized the Return icon appearing and being clicked to bring the image back to his mind's eye. He compared what he had seen with the map in his mind and visualized a tiny dark blue arrow pointing in the direction he was facing appearing at the exact location he was on the map. He walked a few steps forwards and imagined the blue arrow moving in the same way, successfully telling the program in his CPU to make the arrow move through the map the same way he did. This way, he could keep track of where in the base he was.

" I have successfully determined the quickest route to Eggman's cell, " he stated with a serious expression, not being cocky or prideful about his abilities as a robot. Then, he visualized the map flipping to the side to account for Sonic facing forwards with his back to the cell door later, and quickly figured out the quickest route to the room where Eggman's airship was being stored.

He returned to seeing what was actually around him as he did before, thought about how he was going to explain the directions to Sonic, and wrote the explanation down on a piece of paper with the pencil as short and concisely as possible while still being understandable, using the desk in front of the computer as a hard surface for the paper to be on. He handed it to Sonic afterwards. Sonic took note of the fact that his handwriting looked just like Sonic's only much neater, as if he had at one point practiced writing for hours on end with the intention of getting better handwriting than him. The instructions consisted of sentences like, " Go down the hall to the left and take the third right, " and, " if you've reached the interrogation rooms, you've gone too far. " Sonic smiled and gave him a thumbs-up, understanding the instructions.

" Follow me, " Metal Sonic said with a serious expression, and flew out of the room at the speed of sound, with Sonic flying behind him at a slower than usual speed to be able to follow him; he was still in his super form, with plenty of Ring Energy left. Sonic was impressed by Metal Sonic's navigation skills as he flew through the hallways as if he knew exactly where to go. It was certainly different from when they were going through the hallways before; now that Metal knew where to go, he was taking a lot more turns than before, going to the center of the base instead of simply circling around it.

It only took a few minutes for them to reach Eggman's cell at last. They stopped in front of a very large white steel door with a retina scanner in front of it. Metal Sonic turned to Sonic and said melancholically, " Well, you remember what to do next... Farewell, Sonic the Hedgehog... " and added quietly under his breath, " And thank you, " which Sonic chose not to tell him he heard. Sonic smiled, and gave him a thumbs-up before flying away faster than the speed of sound, focusing on following the directions written down for him.

As Metal Sonic used his navigational skills to guide Eggman, Metal Knuckles, Cubot and Orbot out of the base while using a stun gun to knock out any soldiers and agents trying to attack them, Sonic was flying through the base at slightly over the speed of sound following the directions he was given by Metal. It was only a few minutes before he reached the airship room at last. When he did, he pressed a button that caused the ceiling of the room to open up and expose the sky, found his way into the control room of Eggman's airship, and felt a lot of pressure. He said nervously, " Uh, okay, um, I can do this. I used to fly a plane before Tails came along! Took me months to get used to the controls, but... Ugh, what am I gonna do?! I can barely fly a biplane, let alone an airship! I wish I could just call Tails on a cell phone and get him to fly the airship instead! I don't even know where he is! "

" Right here! " Tails said cheerfully, revealing he was in the airship the whole time. Sonic gasped happily and hugged him, saying, " TAILS! Thank goodness you're here! " Tails returned the hug, and when it ended, he said with a smile, " I figured you'd need some help with this. Besides, flying around the base shooting at it when there was nothing left to shoot at was getting boring. So I left the plane with the cloaking device on parked to the north of the base. Don't worry, I know exactly where it is. I'll fly this for you! "

Tails sat down on the chair in the control room, put on the seatbelt just in case, and quickly figured out how to activate the airship's reverse magnets and rocket propellers that would make it " float " up out of the airship room and start flying through the sky to just south of the base. Tails did exactly as he wanted perfectly, with Sonic being incredibly proud of him.

" We did it, pal... Now let's get back to the plane. You'll give me the directions, okay? " Sonic said, still in his super form. Tails nodded, and Sonic lifted him into his arms and flew out of the airship around the base and to the north as fast as he could, getting to the plane long before Eggman had escaped the base.

When they finally reached the plane, Sonic and Tails got into it, and sighed, partially in relief from the adventure being over and completed without a hitch, and partially from them being incredibly melancholic that possibly the only adventure where Metal would be on their side was already over.

" I guess Metal Sonic meant we had to wait until after the airship left before I flew the plane out of here? " Tails asked after a silence. Sonic said, " Yeah, that's probably what he wanted. If both the airship and our plane are in the sky at the same time, we run the risk of Eggman seeing us in the sky. Sure, we'll be flying in opposite directions and thus not facing each other... " Tails said with a sad smile, " But you can never be too careful... " Sonic sighed unhappily and replied,

" Yeah... I can't believe it's over already... " Already missing Metal, Tails nodded and said sadly, " Me, neither. This adventure was a lot better than I thought it would be. I can't believe it's already come to an end... What if it's the only time Metal Sonic will have ever been on our side? What if it was really goodbye? Will we be able to handle him being sent to hurt us again? "

Trying to comfort him, Sonic placed his hand on Tails' shoulder and reassured him, " Eggman hasn't sent Metal Sonic to fight us or anything in years. I don't think we'll have to worry about that. Besides, even if he does get those orders and carries them out, it won't mean that this adventure meant nothing to him. Don't you remember the way he thanked you for all your help today? He's clearly gotten a lot of respect for you, and considering how I've been nicer to him in the past two days than I ever was, he's probably gotten respect for me, too! That's not all gonna go away! It's something permanent. It's something you remember... So yeah, if his ' idiot boss ' tells him to fight me or whatever, then sure, he'll follow his orders, but it'll be because he feels forced to. It won't mean nothing has changed. Something has changed between us, little bro. I can feel it. "

Sonic smiled, and said, " Things have gotten better. I can tell. " He knew that Metal Sonic was still going to have some difficulty with him because of the fact that he was based off him, but he could tell that things had gotten better between the two of them. The adventure was a good thing, for him, Tails, and Metal Sonic, and neither of them would ever forget it. " Come on, little buddy. Let's go home. "