Tails was flying the Tornado-2 over a forest on a cloudy day on his way home. He had been flying it for over two hours when he started to notice that there was fog in the sky. The sky was getting foggy, and it wasn't long before it started to rain. Tails jumped and screamed at hearing the loud sound of thunder up in the sky coupled with a flash of lightning in the distance, and it soon became impossible to see in front of his plane from the fog and the storm, which was so loud that he couldn't hear himself think as the wind rushed past him.
Panicking, Tails desperately wanted to land the plane for his own safety, but since he was flying over a forest, it seemed too risky when he couldn't even see if there were trees in front of his windshield. He jumped and screamed at hearing thunder again, and his fear of lightning began to overwhelm him; lightning always struck the highest point. He immediately went pale and started shaking uncontrollably and breathing rapidly, frightened of the idea of him or his plane being struck by lightning. With his heart racing, he had no choice but to try to land.
Panicked, Tails started flying the Tornado-2 lower and lower to try and land it, hoping to steer past anything that popped up in front of him. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a terrible idea. Just a minute later, his plane crashed into a tree, and the force at which it crashed jerked Tails forwards at a high speed, causing his forehead to slam into the hard metal dashboard in front of him and making him let go of the controls in a daze. As the Tornado-2 started falling to the ground in a nose-dive, Tails felt excruciating pain in his now-damp forehead and was overwhelmed by fear and dizziness, which caused him to lose consciousness before the plane hit the ground with a loud crashing sound.
Meanwhile, Metal Sonic was heading through the forest on his way to home base when he heard something that made him jump. It was a loud crashing noise, which he immediately analyzed and determined to be a small biplane crashing in the woods behind him. He thought with his eyes wide open in surprise, " Is that... Tails' plane? " since it was the only small biplane he could think of at the moment. Soon afterwards, he jumped at hearing another crashing noise, and quickly determined that the plane had crashed into a tree before and had just fallen to the ground. Curious about how Tails could've possibly crashed his plane into a tree despite being an expert pilot, Metal Sonic immediately started flying at the speed of sound in the direction of the noises he heard to investigate the crash.
When he reached the site of the crash, he saw exactly what he had suspected, and immediately started analyzing what was in front of him. The Tornado-2 was crashed into a tree, a tree with a thick trunk that would've done a lot of damage to the plane. The plane must have been traveling at high speeds before it crashed, because the force at which it crashed into the tree had crushed the front of it up to the windshield, making it entirely non-functional and forcing it to fall to the grassy ground in a nose-dive. The bottom of the plane was in direct contact with the ground, to the point where it seemed possible to stand up from the ground and be able to reach into the cockpit as if it was the front seat of a car. Since it was raining and the sky was foggy, Metal Sonic figured out that a plausible explanation for the crash was that Tails couldn't see where he was flying, and perhaps even panicked in the process. Staring at the sight in front of him, Metal Sonic analyzed and processed all of that information at the speed of sound, due to his lightning fast reflexes and thinking processes, so he took in all of the information about the plane and how it could've crashed in an instant. Just as instantly as he noticed everything else, he saw that as he had suspected, Tails was in the pilot's seat, and immediately flew over to the side of him at the speed of sound to take a closer look at him.
Tails was unconscious in the pilot's seat with his forehead against the dashboard with a small pool of blood trickling from it slowly, and his hands and arms were on the dashboard on either side of his head; he had clearly panicked so much that he let go of the controls. Wanting to investigate further, Metal Sonic carefully lifted up Tails' head from the dashboard so that his forehead was facing him, and his eyes went wide open as he couldn't help but be shocked by the wound on his forehead that was visible through his yellow fur; there was a nasty purple bruise surrounding the wound, but it was hidden beneath the fur. He felt stressed out from seeing that as he carefully lifted Tails to a sitting position, made it so that the back of his head was against the headrest of his seat, and then quickly pulled a lever behind the seat to make it lean back, ensuring that Tails wouldn't fall forwards to the dashboard again when he let go of him. He noticed that Tails had a sad and stressed out expression on his face with his eyes closed from losing consciousness, revealing just how upset he was by his experience.
Analyzing and processing everything in front of him, Metal Sonic couldn't help but notice that he was getting stressed out just from seeing the wound on the eight-year-old child's forehead. All in an instant, he pondered why that could be the case; after all, Tails was the best friend and little brother figure of Sonic, his sworn enemy, so he would be expected to hate Tails as well, and thus want him to get hurt. But instead, he was panicked at seeing that happen to him.
He quickly deduced several reasons for this. One, Tails was a genius inventor who actually improved the world with his inventions - unlike Eggman - and so the world would be worse off without him, and he felt like the world was so terrible that it desperately needed someone like Tails to improve it. Two, Tails didn't have a personality that annoyed him like Sonic did, since he was humble, polite, intelligent, and a sweet kid who never really taunted him or did anything to inconvenience him, aside from fighting him alongside Sonic in the Metal Overlord fight that he didn't like to remember, and helping Sonic in a few races five years ago that he barely remembered at all. Three, if anything happened to Tails, Sonic's grief would cause him to become a far more vicious enemy from being in an understandably bad mood, and the last thing he wanted was for his enemy to get even more dangerous. For all of these reasons, he didn't want the kid to die. He would be incredibly stressed out from that happening, so he felt like he had to prevent that from happening, even if his idiot boss would disapprove.
In order to prevent Tails from dying, he had to help him as fast and effectively as possible, starting with dealing with the wound on his forehead. After thinking about all of this, Metal Sonic looked serious and determined, partially to hide the stress, and got to work, hoping that Tails wouldn't wake up while he was doing it and complicate things.
He started scanning his surroundings looking for something that could tend to the wound; there must have been a First Aid Kit in Tails' plane. He quickly noticed one in the back seat; since barely anyone ever used the back seat, it was often used for storing things instead, since there was apparently no glove compartment or trunk in that plane for some reason. He flew over to it in a blue blur, picked it up, opened it up, and started analyzing its contents, all at the speed of sound; he would have to work quickly and think quickly to accomplish what he wanted, since Tails' bleeding meant he was clearly on a time limit. Analyzing what was in it and searching for the first thing he'd need to use, he found several white cotton balls and a bottle of powder that, judging from its label, would stop bleeding in seconds; it was apparently used on soldiers in the battlefields. Tails and Sonic must have gotten access to such a high-end medical item as a reward for being heroes. Wasting no time, Metal Sonic immediately put some powder on a cotton ball, and carefully held it to Tails' wound, waiting for a few stressful seconds as he stood on the ground to the left of him just outside the plane. The bleeding stopped, and he felt a sense of accomplishment from achieving that.
With a sigh of relief, Metal Sonic discarded the used cotton ball into the bushes near him and looked back into the First Aid Kit in the back seat. It had a bottle labeled as Hydrogen Peroxide in it, which seemed to be a disinfectant for wounds considering the label on it. He instantly twisted off the bottlecap, put a cotton ball right at the top of the bottle, poured some of its contents onto the cotton ball, put the bottle back into the First Aid Kit facing upright so that it wouldn't spill, and carefully dabbed the disinfectant-soaked cotton ball on the wound on Tails' forehead for a couple of seconds, looking stressed out and anxious the whole time. He was thankful that Tails was completely unconscious more than ever, since he figured it would sting fiercely and the kid would never cooperate with him during this. He wasn't sure how long he was supposed to keep the cotton ball against his head, which was why he put it against it for several seconds. Afterwards, he discarded the used cotton ball into the bushes with the other one, not caring about littering at a time like this, and felt another sense of accomplishment at successfully disinfecting the wound. He smiled a little at what he did for him, although he knew his work wasn't finished.
Metal Sonic immediately went straight back to the First Aid Kit in the back seat and looked into its contents for the third item he'd need. After putting the bottlecap back on the Hydrogen Peroxide so it wouldn't spill, he pulled out some medical tape and cut it from the tape roll with his retractable claws, and got to work bandaging Tails' head, carefully lifting his head forwards a little from the back of his neck and head so that he could put the bandages all the way around his head.
After bandaging Tails' head, he sighed in relief and felt another sense of accomplishment, and smiled again, relieved and proud of himself. He wasn't very familiar with tending to the injuries of anyone, especially not a non-robot, but he seemed to be doing just fine so far. Of course, he had to stay alert and not get his hopes up; he frowned and crossed his arms as he remembered that with his luck, every time he tried to be optimistic, he was met with misfortune, and every time something good happened to him, something bad was just waiting around the corner. So he couldn't let himself be optimistic and assume that he was doing perfectly and nothing could go wrong, because that rarely ended well for someone that the universe loathed so much. In his life, he had to rely entirely on his skills, because luck wasn't something he had. Sonic was the one with good luck, while he himself had bad luck, being a perfect balance to someone with such supernaturally good luck that he could survive trillions of attempts on his life without so much as a single permanent injury. He envied Sonic for that, as well as for many other things, including how universally loved he was.
He went back to looking at Tails, and his expression softened. Sonic's good luck also spread to his friends, keeping them safe from being killed before their time. Tails, being the companion Sonic valued the most, would get more luck than anyone else from him, so it was guaranteed that Tails was never going to die, except from old age. Metal Sonic smiled in relief when he thought about that. A plane crash wouldn't kill Tails. He wasn't unlucky enough for that. So all the hard work he put into helping the kid wasn't going to go to waste just to spite him, because Tails' good luck would override his own bad luck; if something good could happen to someone lucky like Sonic or Tails, it would happen even if it was also good for someone unlucky. He was thankful for that.
After a full minute during which he was in deep thought, Metal Sonic focused on assisting Tails again, being slightly annoyed with and mentally slapping himself for getting distracted by his own thoughts, and examined the child for any other injuries, looking him up and down. It was annoyingly difficult to find any injuries because the kid's skin was covered entirely in fur, so unless he had any outright wounds that would show themselves through bleeding through the fur, he wouldn't be able to see them without going through the long and tedious process of parting his fur to find injuries himself.
After a few seconds, he sighed in frustration, and decided to use the X-Ray Vision upgrade that Eggman had given him for his recent birthday. He visualized an X-Ray Vision icon in the bottom left corner of his field of vision and imagined it being clicked, switching to X-Ray Vision Mode. Using his upgrade, Metal Sonic soon found out that the kid had strained legs and an injured left arm from being jerked forwards from the plane crash at however fast the plane had been previously traveling. There was nothing he could do about the legs, but the arm he could work with. After exiting X-Ray Vision Mode by mentally clicking a Back icon, he quickly got out some more medical tape from the First Aid Kit.
He gently lifted up the injured arm, carefully bandaged it with one hand while holding it gingerly from beneath with the other, pulled out a blue blanket from the back seat, and folded it and wrapped it around Tails so that it was a makeshift sling, holding the arm in place in front of Tails' chest, which was rising and falling slowly. He used a bit of the medical tape to make sure the blanket-sling wouldn't be able to fall off him or anything, and then smiled, feeling satisfied from a job well done. Tails was sitting in the front seat of the crashed plane as it was leaned back, with his head bandaged and his left arm bandaged with a blanket for a sling.
Now that he was completely finished taking care of Tails' injuries, the only thing left to do to ensure he wouldn't die was to take him to a hospital. After all, the chances that Sonic would come across him in the forest before something happened to him were rather slim, even with their good luck, and if he simply took him to Sonic's house, Sonic might catch him there and accuse him of hurting Tails, which would motivate him to go after him for revenge. Bringing Tails to the hospital was the safest option, for both him, and the one who assisted him.
He decided on a plan to lift the kid up and carry him in his arms, fly to Station Square at the speed of sound, bring him into the hospital waiting room and fly back to home base, ignoring all of the screaming civilians that would result from him going to the city. He was upset and annoyed by the fact that everywhere he went, people not on Eggman's side would scream in fear of him if not outright try to destroy him, while Sonic never had that problem. It wasn't fair. It made everyone seem cowardly to him, but he still understood that even the bravest of civilians had a logical reason to be afraid of Eggman's most infamous robot, who was very capable of killing people who got in his way. He personally wouldn't bother hurting any of them unless they provoked him, and even then, they weren't worth outright fighting like Sonic was, so he'd just push them away and continue with his business while ignoring them. But they didn't know that. They thought he was just a heartless killing machine.
Metal Sonic sighed wearily, and looked depressed with his head hung low. While it was quite easy to intimidate people into doing what he wanted without even trying, he sometimes wished he could just visit a city and be treated just like everybody else. He wished he was able to experience the world like Sonic, instead of his mere existence in a city or town resulting in people running away screaming and the police being called, who would immediately call Sonic because they could never handle him. Sonic had nothing but freedom, while Metal Sonic was always trapped, cooped up in the base and only technically allowed to leave when Eggman told him to. In practice, he would sneak out of it whenever he could get away with it, which was often because Eggman was so busy, but that wasn't true freedom. He was trapped in a cage.
He was saddened by the thought, and he sighed in annoyance with himself for getting jealous of Sonic yet again. He hated how practically everything he thought about eventually came back to Sonic. That juvenile hedgehog was always on his mind, and he hated it. It wasn't always this way. When he was first created, he didn't care about beating Sonic. He had never lost to him before, so he just assumed he would win against him easily, causing him to not think of Sonic as an important enemy so much as a minor nuisance that would quickly be dealt with. But losing to him for the first time proved to him that Sonic was a worthy opponent, and he was so humiliated by the loss that he became extremely fixated on surpassing him, defeating him, and proving himself to him for years afterwards, leading up to the Metal Overlord incident that caused Eggman to have to program that self-destructive obsession out of him. But as important as it was to him to try and surpass Sonic, he had always wished he could have a life that was completely separate from him, instead of the circumstances of his life making him a prominent feature of it and his thoughts even when he hadn't seen him in person for months. He wished he could be just seen as his own person, without being compared to Sonic and wanting to contrast himself from him or be more like him because of it. He wished he could just be himself. But he couldn't, because he was based off someone else. His entire identity was shaped by the fact that he was based off someone else. It was the reason he had the life that he did, and the abilities he did, and the personality he did before the experiences of his life changed it. It was responsible for his body and his mind, everything that made him who he was. He owed everything to Sonic. Because without Sonic, he would've never existed. A copy was who he was, and if he was an original, he wouldn't be himself. Accepting that after the Metal Overlord incident should've been uplifting, but instead, it was depressing, because he didn't want to be someone whose entire identity was the result of being based on someone he wasn't. It felt hollow and unsatisfying. That was who he was. But did he really want to be that person to begin with?
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Tails moan softly in the pilot's seat. The kid's facial expression looked more worried, and pained, making it clear that he had regained consciousness. " Oh, wonderful, " Metal Sonic thought sarcastically, shaking his head with his hand on it. " This won't make it difficult to get him to the hospital at all, " he thought sarcastically, being exasperated with how the kid would never cooperate with him carrying him to the hospital, at least not without a long period of convincing. He was certain that the kid would think he was in danger; worst case scenario, he'd scream at seeing him and attack him, instinctively feeling like he was in danger even though he had clearly just been bandaged up by him. Metal Sonic was also rather annoyed with himself for getting distracted by his own thoughts again; if he had just focused on giving the kid medical attention without stopping for a few minutes multiple times to contemplate his miserable life, he would've gotten him there without any fussing from him at all. But now the kid was conscious, and he had to deal with it.
Tails regained consciousness at last, and became aware that he was sitting in the Tornado-2 with a stinging pain in his wet forehead and left arm, and a dull aching pain in his legs, torso and arms. He noticed that it was raining outside, hearing the raindrops falling on the plane and feeling some on his right arm, but thankfully for him, there wasn't any thunder.
To his surprise, he was sitting with the back of his head against the headrest of his seat as if he had never crashed the plane; in fact, the seat he was sitting on seemed to be leaned back. To his even greater surprise and confusion, he felt bandages on his head, and his left arm was bandaged and held tightly in place in front of his chest by what seemed like the plane's blanket fashioned into a makeshift sling. Realizing that his injuries had been taken care of, Tails smiled at ease knowing that Sonic must have been helping him, said softly, " Sonic... " and slowly forced his eyes to open, centimeter by centimeter, squinting through the light because his eyes weren't adjusted to the light after being closed for that long.
Tails saw that his plane had indeed crashed into a tree and was on the ground of a forest, and there was indeed a light blue blanket wrapped around him as a sling with his injured arm bandaged and held still. But when he looked to the left of him at what he assumed was his brother, he got a shocking and frightening surprise. Metal Sonic was there, standing on the ground to the left of him, with his arms crossed and a mildly annoyed look on his face.
Tails was so frightened by seeing Metal Sonic next to him with his injuries that he was unable to even scream; he felt a lump in his throat, and couldn't utter a word. He went pale, tensed up, started trembling and breathing rapidly and erratically, and had a stressed out and nervous look on his face, silently pleading with him not to hurt him and hoping that Sonic would come save him. He wasn't sure what was going on; did Sonic come by and help him, only for Metal Sonic to defeat him while he was doing it, hide Sonic somewhere, and now Metal Sonic was going to hurt, kill, or kidnap him? Was that it?... But then why did he wait for him to wake up?
Hoping that Sonic wasn't dead or permanently injured, Tails' back pressed as close to the pilot's seat as possible as he desperately hoped that he wouldn't get hurt or killed. Three seconds had passed between Tails noticing Metal Sonic and reacting to him, three seconds of silence.
Instead of attacking him, however, Metal Sonic rolled his eyes, sighed wearily, and said to him in reluctance, revealing that his voice sounded just like Sonic's voice with the pitch a little bit deeper, " Relax, kid, I'm not gonna hurt you. " This response completely took Tails by surprise, and he went from looking stressed out and fearful for his life to utterly confused. It wasn't like Metal Sonic to not hurt him when he was so vulnerable, or at least he didn't think it was; he was lucky enough to have never been hurt by him before. Why would he say he wasn't going to hurt him? Was it just a trick to make him let his guard down? But that would imply that Metal Sonic thought he needed to make an eight-year-old child let his guard down in the first place, which couldn't have been the case when Metal Sonic had every reason to think he would easily defeat him in a fight even if he was completely prepared. He seemed to be sincere in what he was saying. Tails thought it over in his head for a few seconds, still trembling, and remembered how Metal Sonic had rolled his eyes at his fearful reaction, sighed in exasperation with him, and told him that he wasn't going to hurt him. He clearly expected his fearful response to him, and was mildly annoyed by it. Why? Tails thought Metal Sonic liked it when people were afraid of him! Why would he be annoyed by it? Perhaps he didn't want him to be afraid of him so that he would cooperate with him, do what he wanted instead of attacking him or trying to get away. But his tone didn't imply that he was going to kidnap him and take him to Eggman's base. It was devoid of any anger that would make it intimidating. In fact, it wasn't intimidating at all. It almost seemed... reassuring?
Noticing that Tails had gone for seven whole seconds without trying to attack or get away from him, Metal Sonic decided to say something else, something that to Tails was even more shocking. " Why would I give you medical attention just to hurt you afterwards?" he pointed out wearily. Tails' eyes went wide open and he gasped, and quickly looked at his left arm and felt the bandages on his forehead with his right arm, and then looked at him in surprise at helping him. He couldn't believe someone like Metal Sonic had actually helped him with his injuries! Sonic wasn't anywhere to be seen, so it looked like he was the only one who could've helped him with them. And he seemed to have done a really good job; his forehead had stopped bleeding, probably because he used the powder on it, and he had put his injured arm in a sling to keep it still. The only question that was in his head at the moment was soon one that he ended up asking despite the fear. " Why?! " he asked in confusion, and promptly flinched afterwards. He was still very intimidated by Metal Sonic and didn't want to offend him and get hurt from it. He instinctively still feared him and felt like he was in danger, even though the rational part of his mind was telling him that he was clearly trying to help.
Expecting this question, Metal Sonic sighed again and explained reluctantly, " Well, there are multiple reasons. One of them is you're not Sonic. I'd have no reason to gain satisfaction from anything happening to someone who's not Sonic. And even if that was the case, I'd probably be rather opposed to the idea of him dying in a plane crash instead of a battle with me. " This didn't seem to reassure Tails at all. Metal Sonic looked away from him and silently cursed at realizing that he had only made things worse, annoyed with himself and the situation he was in. Ideally, he would tell Tails the other reasons and be believed by him and trusted by him to help him, but he doubted he was that lucky. However, since he needed to get his trust, he decided to give it a shot anyway.
" Besides, I highly doubt the world would improve if anything were to happen to you out here. The world's a cruel and unforgiving place as it is, and I'd rather not let it get even worse because it lost someone who could improve it as much as you could, " Metal Sonic explained, still looking bored. Confused and suspicious, Tails said doubtfully, " Wait... you want the world to be a better place? "
" Well, since I'm living in it, " Metal Sonic responded casually, in a tone that implied it should've been obvious, " I would naturally want it to get better. My idiot boss would only make it worse, as much as he loves to delude himself into thinking otherwise. He's too much of an idiot to properly run a planet! He can barely run his own base! So he's wasting his time with this ' take over the world ' nonsense while you're making things that could make it at least slightly more tolerable. It's only logical that I'd wanna keep you alive! "
Tails looked down, seeming confused and nervous; his reasoning made perfect sense, but he was still hesitant to take the risk of believing him. Metal Sonic genuinely wanting the world to become a better place sounded too good to be true, so Tails was wary at letting himself believe it. But he couldn't help but notice how Metal Sonic called Eggman an idiot who was wasting his time, and ended up smiling in spite of himself at remembering it; he found it amusing that one of Eggman's own robots had no respect for him at all. Metal Sonic caught the smile, and couldn't help but smile in satisfaction as a result.
" Besides, your engineering skills are hardly the only reason that your life should be saved. Your personality is also a reason! You're certainly a lot more likable than Sonic is, at least in that you're polite and humble. You're rather kind for a child! Not like most children who are nothing but selfish brats who just insult and injure anyone even remotely different from them, " Metal Sonic explained, with a friendly smile until the last part of his final sentence, where he looked annoyed again, expressing his cynicism once more. Tails couldn't believe it. Metal Sonic was actually showing a noble side. It was almost as if he didn't really hate him. Tails had to force himself not to smile at this; after all, he always assumed that Metal Sonic thought of him as Sonic's weak and pathetic little tag-along kid, and yet here he was saying he greatly improved the world and was a lot more likable than Sonic was. He didn't, however, like hearing that Metal Sonic thought of most children as bullies, and wondered if it was working for Eggman that caused him to develop that level of extreme cynicism. But the way he spoke about them at least implied that he was noble enough to dislike bullies instead of approving of them.
" T-Thanks... " Tails managed to say with an appreciative tone and a nervous smile. He appreciated how Metal Sonic was treating him better than he treated most people at the moment, but still couldn't get rid of the lingering fear and distrust of him. " T-There sure is quite a storm outside, huh? " Tails commented with a weak smile, wanting to make conversation and change the subject.
Metal Sonic deadpanned instantly, " I noticed, " and rolled his eyes at the child pointing out the obvious. He said to him in exasperation with his arms crossed, " Why were you flying a plane during a lightning storm? " in no doubt what was the same tone he used when he pointed out Eggman's lack of common sense. " Did it not occur to you that you could've had difficulty seeing during your flight, or that lightning could strike you? I would've expected a genius like you to have been more careful... " He shook his head at him. There was no malice in his speech, to Tails' confusion. He wasn't trying to insult him, even if it came off that way. If anything, he seemed to have been scolding him for getting himself into danger, as if he cared about his safety.
Tails sighed, ashamed of himself, and replied sadly, " It wasn't raining at first!... But you're right... I should've checked the weather report... " His head hung low, clearly blaming himself for what just happened. Metal Sonic couldn't help but feel sympathy for him at seeing the kid be so ashamed of himself. " Relax, kid, you couldn't have known... I've seen the weather report for today; it didn't mention anything about rain, " he told him reluctantly. Tails could've sworn he heard a comforting tone, but decided not to point it out and risk anything. Instead, he asked in confusion, " You watch the weather report? " having a hard time imagining Metal Sonic doing anything with his time other than attacking Sonic.
" Yes, I do. It's all he lets me watch on TV. I watch it every day, just in case. And this morning, my idiot boss and I had been told that there wouldn't be a drop of rain on the horizon. He said that since it was clearly going to be sunny, it was the perfect time for him to test out his ' latest invention. ' I suppose that invention of his has long since short-circuited from the lightning? " he deadpanned, and then smiled in amusement during the last sentence and chuckled at imagining Eggman's reaction. It was a likable chuckle, rather than an evil one. Tails noticed that it sounded like how Shadow would sound if he chuckled. In fact, Metal Sonic's voice sounded rather similar to Shadow, being the voice of a teenager rather than that of an intimidating robot.
Tails couldn't help but smile at hearing most of what he said and the fact that he was actually capable of having a normal and likable laugh as opposed to an evil one, but after a few seconds, he realized what the last word of the sentence was, and he cringed at noticing the rain around him, reminded of his greatest fear. He tensed up and looked nervous, whimpering, " Lightning... I don't like lightning... " and grimaced at the memory of trying to land his plane and not get struck by lightning in the process. Suddenly, he jumped at hearing thunder again - thunder which made even Metal Sonic gasp from its loud sound - and started trembling, and his tails wrapped around himself in an instinctive protective reaction.
Analyzing his reaction, Metal Sonic sighed in sympathy at figuring out that the kid was scared of lightning. It was a logical fear. Lightning was extremely dangerous, after all, albeit very unlikely to strike you unless you were high up... like Tails was in that plane. His eyes went wide open and he felt even more stress at realizing just how close the child came to being struck by lightning, which would've been a traumatic experience for him; much like Metal Sonic himself flying into an electrified wall five years ago, giving him PTSD from being forced to relive what had been turned into his greatest fear. It was impossible not to feel sorry for him at that moment. He soon realized that the kid would never be able to handle being flown to the hospital during that kind of storm. He would have to get him home, instead. That would be the only solution he would cooperate with to the problem of him being in the middle of the woods with strained legs with no food or water in sight. But in order to get him to cooperate with him and allow him to carry him to Sonic's house with little fuss, he'd have no choice but to try to calm him down.
He reluctantly admitted, cringing at multiple points, " You're not the only one who doesn't like lightning. I've been electrocuted before, and I've hated lightning ever since... Thankfully I live in a place that's completely safe from it, being underground and all. " His voice was filled with relief in the last sentence. Confused, Tails whimpered, " Um, n-not to be... w-why w-would you be... when were you... " not wanting to offend him and still scared of the lightning.
" Well, flying into an electrified wall at 3,072 miles per hour will do that to you... I still can't stand those things to this day!... Obviously electrocution was only half of the experience, but I still can't help but get stressed out at the possibility of being electrocuted again, " Metal Sonic admitted reluctantly, looking away from him. He was reluctant to look weak by admitting that he had developed a deep-seated fear of something from going through a traumatic experience, and spoke as nonchalantly and emotionlessly as he could to make talking about it easier and attempt to hide his fear. He couldn't stand talking about that experience, but if it would calm the kid down, it was just what he had to do. Even talking about it was a difficult task for him, and it took all of his effort not to reveal through a shaky voice or upset tone just how much of an impact the experience had on him.
Tails couldn't believe that Metal Sonic had actually opened up to him in that way. He thought in astonishment, " He has a soft side! " His breathing soon went from rapid to slow and deep as he calmed down at the realization that he was definitely not going to hurt him. He wouldn't tell him what his greatest fear was if he was planning to hurt him; he would be trying to look as powerful as possible, not trying to calm him down by opening up to him and revealing his soft side in the process. Tails soon went from being frightened to calm as he slowly stopped shaking, and smiled at him warmly, thankful that he was treating him that way. He supposed he should've seen this coming; after all, Metal Sonic was based off Sonic, who definitely had a noble side himself, so it made sense that instinctively, Metal Sonic would have compassion and a sense of right and wrong himself, even if he wasn't given any opportunities to show it thanks to having to work for Eggman. Metal Sonic soon noticed that Tails was calm and even smiling at him, and felt another sense of accomplishment for being responsible for that.
He sighed, and explained seriously, " You need to get home. Sonic will take you to the hospital from there. I can't fly you there in this kind of storm. The major problem right now is that your legs are strained from the plane crash, so you can't get there by yourself. " Tails recognized the problem and replied nervously, " Yeah. And I could use my tails to fly home, but that would take a while, and I just wanna get inside as fast as possible. Plus, I'm way too exhausted to fly right now, partially 'cause I just woke up... Wait, how did you know my legs were strained? And how'd you know my arm was hurt, for that matter? "
Hoping he would believe him, Metal Sonic explained, " Well, I used the X-Ray Vision upgrade that Eggman gave me recently. That's how I accessed your injuries. " Tails was naturally confused at how such an upgrade would ever help him beat Sonic, only to figure that Eggman probably intended him to use it to find out how damaged Sonic's bones were if he ever hurt him, allowing him to know when he has an advantage over him due to a broken bone. Then he promptly went back to confused because that wouldn't help him beat Sonic at all because it would be obvious that Sonic had damaged bones anyways, and if anything, that upgrade would simply cause him to assume he's defeated him when he hasn't. So Tails asked timidly, " Okay, um, why did he give you that? "
He sighed, and reluctantly admitted, " It was a birthday present, okay? I got it last week, " looking away from him in embarrassment. Tails was shocked at finding out that Eggman gave his robots birthday presents. It did make sense that he would do that for the robot most suited to match Sonic in a fight, since if any robot would be Eggman's favorite, it had to be Metal Sonic. Even though he disobeyed him, he was still his greatest creation. Then the last sentence hit him like a ton of bricks. " Last week? Hey, that was Sonic's birthday, too! " he pointed out, only to regret it and look nervous again.
Metal Sonic said unenthusiastically, " Yeah, I know, I share a birthday with my greatest rival. My idiot boss thought it would be thematically appropriate to make his robot counterpart of Sonic on the same day that Sonic came into the world. I suppose it's only logical, but it's still rather humiliating... " Tails smiled warmly and reassured him, " I won't tell anyone. " There was something rather comforting about Metal Sonic showing embarrassment. It helped humanize him, and it was part of what helped him see that robot in a new perspective. He wondered if he wasn't as evil as he thought.
" Thanks, " Metal Sonic said unhappily, grateful for that reassurance. Just before he could suggest it, Tails asked him with a timid smile, " So, um, if I can't get home myself, c-could you, maybe, sort of, I don't know... take me home? " Surprised, he looked over at the bandaged kid in the plane who had said that with a shy smile, and felt another sense of accomplishment at getting proof that he had completely succeeded in getting his trust that day. It was heartwarming how that child was smiling at him, someone that he was usually afraid of, with his eyes full of joy and appreciation.
" Sure, why not? But let's not tell anyone that I helped you, alright, kiddo? It'll be our little secret... I-I-I mean, I-I don't suppose my idiot boss would approve of me saving your life. " Metal Sonic replied, with a warm smile in the first three sentences that was replaced with nervousness and then a deadpan look of seriousness that hid his embarrassment. He was having a hard time managing to continue speaking formally when Tails was making him so happy, and he slipped back into talking just like Sonic did for the second sentence, causing him to get embarrassed of his supposedly childish way of speaking and immediately overcompensate afterwards.
Tails giggled and said cheerfully, " I won't tell anyone, Metal, I promise… " unintentionally calling him by the same affectionate nickname that his closest friends did. Tails allowed him to lift him into his arms and carry him, since he was too exhausted and injured to come home on his own, and Metal Sonic promptly flew to Sonic's house, brought him to the living room couch, covered him over with the blanket on the couch, and then instantly flew out of the house at the speed of sound, hearing Tails saying, " Thank you! " just as he started leaving the house to make sure Sonic wouldn't find out he was there. He sighed in relief as he made his way back to Eggman's base, feeling a major sense of accomplishment that he hadn't felt in quite a long time.