Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are copyright SEGA.

This is the revised version of my first story. It was deleted at one point, but since has returned. I cannot say if it has improved from the version previous, although I certainly hope it has. Many changes have been made in plot, dialogue, scene transition, and more. I hope you give it a read and find it worth your time.

Alright, I'm done bothering you.

Chapter 1

Deadly Resolve

His eyes glowed dimly in the darkness, scanning the dark room with his backlight vision. With a steady pattern, he walked out of the shadows cast by the flickering electric lights. He was active once more. Despite the shut down order issued so many times through his system, the mecha had reactivated again.

It was the same mecha that had been built to destroy Sonic. The same mecha that nearly controlled the world. The one who had brought the greatest together to be destroyed in a single stroke. But he was also the mecha that had failed. He was Metal Sonic.

Everything made sense now. It took years of brooding and plotting his enemy's great defeat. All of that had been for nothing. His only purpose had been to destroy Sonic, but that was beyond his capability level. After his failed plans, simple losses and ultimate defeat, he had learned a function that was not intended in his original programming. Metal Sonic had learned to quit. He had now walked in the footsteps of previous inventions and plots. He was no different than the rest of that madman's creations.

The robot sighed, projecting the appropriate amount of anguish into his mechanized voice. Once again, he decided to watch his latest failure play out in his mind. Almost three months ago, he and Sonic had fought at the edge of the atmosphere, parting blows until his mechanical frame could take no more. Even his superior form, the Metal Overlord, had not been enough to beat Sonic. The metal hedgehog copy had fashioned the Overlord himself, and successfully transformed with enough spare energy to last a millennia.

Why had it not worked?

Metal Sonic's mechanical mind searched through his memory banks at an amazing speed. In half of a second, he loaded the file containing the closest battle he ever had with his archrival. Mentally viewing the data he had stored from his defeat, the mecha watched with an intense, hawk-like focus.

It began as it always did, with Sonic and his two companions dashing around while he prepared his crystalline attack. They were struck rather hard by the first attack, but easily recovered by the time he prepared the second. Four capture missiles launched from his fingers, and he watched as the echidna, which looked more like a small red dot from his perspective, was overtaken by one. The containment barrier was quickly broken, and he quickly rejoined the other two.

The rest of the fight played out in his mind, and he eventually found himself near the end. A flash of gold blazed against the darkened sky, followed by several gashes in his mechanical frame. Thunder sounded from somewhere in the background as he slowly sank downward.

It wasn't long until the struggle was over, and Metal Sonic felt a strange pain as he remembered the experience of losing again. He was convinced that losing to Sonic was beyond his control. Despite the countless hours he spent planning everything from locking up Eggman, to gathering up his enemies, to the complicated data scanning, he would not have beaten Sonic.

Why was it Sonic who always won? Metal Sonic had struggled with the question for a long time now. He had his friends with him, that was a possible reason. He was never without help. Metal's initial plan had been to destroy Sonic and his friends in a single blow so they would witness his newly formed powers. His plan had backfired.

But he had brought them all together for a reason. Once Sonic was defeated, his friends would be next. They had proven to be the most troublesome, and therefore would likely interfere with his plans for the future. So he had brought them all together to be destroyed. With Sonic gone and nowhere to run, it would be mere exercise. Next, he intended to eliminate Eggman, override the controls for the Shadow Androids, construct new robots and siege the planet. Then he would rule the world as the Metal Overlord, the supreme being of Mobius, conquer of the world.

Instead he was here, rusting in a carrier which was running out of fuel as he pondered aimlessly. His great mind was being wasted, but he didn't care. His Metal Overlord form couldn't be repeated. There wasn't enough chaos energy to sustain it. Metal couldn't pilot the carrier; the controls refused to work and he didn't want to fix them.

He did not know why.

Metal Sonic could only guess as to what was happening on the planet's surface. G.U.N. was probably going to discover the ship soon, and shoot it down over the ocean to keep it from landing in a civilian area. Shadow was most likely resuming his work as an agent. It was possible he recovered from his amnesia. There was also Omega, who had destroyed all of the Android models to prevent them from being used. The last E-100 Series robot was now rusting away in the engine room, where Metal had left him.

It was his fault for making him… angry.

The thought of such a powerful emotion made him tense somehow, and he enjoyed it. The heated pulsation of rage had driven his hand to strike Omega down. The feeling of it made him think he was powerful. And maybe he had been. Wherever that power was, it had left him now.

Purpose had left him just like his temporary emotions.

Metal Sonic leaned against the steel wall. He liked to believe there was more of a reason left for him to be than to hesitantly wait until his power drained and he was left as an empty blue shell. Yet here he was. Slowly fading away on a failing vessel. In a way, he was dying. But Metal wasn't afraid. Metal Sonic wasn't capable of fear.

Sonic didn't seem to be capable of fear either. That was odd, at least from a machine's perspective. Sonic was always "living on the edge." To further use the phrase, he was running on the edge. Sonic had friends all around him, there was no question as to why he was so happy. With his friends depending on him and helping him there was no way he could give up or be afraid.

That's it.

Metal bolted upright from his leaning position. All he had to do was get rid of Sonic's friends. Remove them all, one by one. Then Sonic would go into depression without his friends whimsical little comforts. Perhaps then he would become afraid. The evil robot relished the thought of Sonic begging for mercy. But then Metal Sonic leaned against the wall again.

It won't work, he thought shortly, banishing the thought as he sank to the floor. Nothing ever works.

Metal reconsidered the idea.

But what use will it be if I do not try?

Metal Sonic stood up, methodically walking towards the door as he debated with himself. He trudged out of the dark room where he had imprisoned his creator. The door slid open, revealing the Annihilator's black styled surface platform. Gray clouds drifted by lazily in the flawless night sky. Many bright stars were visible, and gleamed like tiny pieces of glitter that had been strewn about the atmosphere. Metal still remained on the grand Egg Fleet lead ship that he had used to try and stop Sonic. It was the same ship that he and his organic rival had fought on, dueling to the death.

I have to try again, one last try, Metal Sonic promised to himself, ending his debate. Just one last try.

…

The moon's pale reflection wavered over the surface of the water, illuminating the tips of the waves as they gently cascaded over one another. It reminded her of a game of leap frog in a way, although she couldn't recall how long it had been since she last played the game. The scene was strangely funny, but not from a comical perspective. It was both interesting and distracting to watch one little wave roll over another, only to be overtaken by the one behind it. Other people might think that she was just easily amused, but it was nice to have something else to think about, other than... that.

Her mother always told her that when you get knocked down, you always have a choice to get back up. This was one of those times.

"What's wrong, Amy?" Cream asked, waking Amy from her dreamy daze.

Amy looked at the young rabbit. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Cream."

"Are you thinking about Sonic?" Cream guessed. Amy was surprised at her accuracy.

"Well, sort of. How did you know?" Amy gaped a little.

Cream giggled, then smiled cheerfully. "You get this dreamy look on your face."

Amy laughed a little, but then Rouge walked by, causing her to automatically sit up straighter and scowl slightly. To celebrate Eggman's arrest, the bat girl had invited everyone to her new apartment complex by the lakeside. Most people had come, but some didn't bother to reply.

Shadow had been invited, but no one knew if he even read the letter. Quite predictably, he didn't show up. Knuckles insisted it was a trap so the treasure huntress could steal the Master Emerald, but he came anyway. A few other people were there too, including Tails and Big. No one actually invited the Chaotix, but both Charmy and Vector had shown up regardless.

Eggman couldn't bother them anymore, so they had no reason to worry about robots falling from the sky and attacking them, as such had happened on one occasion.

Some time ago, Sonic had cornered the doctor in one of his bases, destroyed his army down to the last robot, and took him into the waiting arms of G.U.N. After that, Sonic seemed more bored than anything else. He hadn't gotten the chance to fight anything for almost two months now, which encouraged him to run through the city more often than he used to. Sometimes he had almost nothing to do, and Amy's invitations to have tea didn't seem to relieve him of his boredom. They even seemed to cause him to leave more often. It nearly broke Amy's heart every time he disappeared for week-long trips, but she never told him that.

"I know!" Cream suddenly said, getting up from her seat next to Amy. "I'm going to go talk to Mister Sonic!"

"Hmm... huh? What about Sonic?" the pink hedgehog asked in puzzlement. Honestly, she had to keep her head out of the clouds!

The rabbit giggled. "You'll see."

Cream happily skipped off to Sonic and Knuckles, who were situated at the grill. The Emerald Guardian was doing most of the cooking, while the blue hedgehog just talked. He was eating a chilidog, his third, while Knuckles looked suspiciously over his shoulder at Rouge.

"I'm telling you, Sonic," Knuckles said for the fourth time that night. "One minute she's going to sneak off while I'm not watching her."

"I thought you had someone guarding that big, green rock of yours," Sonic said in a mimicking sort of way.

"I do," Knuckles affirmed, not reacting to the insult to the Master Emerald. "I asked Espio to take care of it, just for tonight."

Sonic felt someone tug at his glove. He turned around, looking down at a small rabbit.

"Hey, Cream," Sonic smiled, kneeling down so he was at eye level with her. "Do you want some food? What'll it be, a hotdog or a hamburger?"

Cream smiled sweetly. "Will you go on a date with Amy?" she asked.

Sonic was caught off guard by the abruptness of the question. "Um… did she ask you to say that?"

The rabbit put her mouth to Sonic's ear and whispered conspiratorially, "Amy doesn't know that we're talking about this."

Sonic tried his best to keep smiling, but he felt the grin tugging at his lips weaken. The matter was something more complicated than Cream could handle, and he felt sympathetic for her concerns. She only wanted what was best for her friend, and Sonic could respect that. But Amy...

"Uh... well, Cream. You see, Amy and I are... just friends, and..." Sonic skeptically glanced at Amy, who was staring at Cream with a similar look. It seemed as though Cream was telling the truth.

"Will you go with her to Twinkle Park tomorrow?" Cream asked innocently. "I was going to go with her, but I have lessons that day."

Although Cream presented the question harmlessly enough, Sonic's head was spinning with several things that could go wrong. On one hand, he didn't want to disappoint Cream, who didn't understand that dating wasn't as simple it seemed. Amy was nice to hang out with, and he had discovered that her personality contained more mature points that he had expected. However, she was always trying to impress him, and seemed too... overcommitted.

On the other hand, most of the experiences were endurable, although that trip to the movies had ended in disaster. Not an episode he wanted to repeat.

"Well…um..." Sonic started, only to have Cream give him her puppy dog eyes. "I… well, fine. Jeez, kid, you'd make a good salesperson. I'll take her to the park tomorrow."

"Thank you Mister Sonic!" Cream exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "Amy will be so happy!"

"Um… Tell her I'll be at her apartment at, like, eleven tomorrow."

Cream smiled before flaunting back to Amy. Sonic rubbed the back of his head, wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"What did he say?" the pink hedgehog immediately blurted, suspicious of her friend's secrecy.

Cream smiled innocently and recited, "Sonic's taking you to the park tomorrow at eleven. He's going to pick you up at your house, so you had better be ready."

Amy gasped, feeling an explosion of happiness. "Thank you so much, Cream! I need to get home so I can get some sleep! Vanilla probably wants you home. Do you want to go back now?"

Cream yawned, "Yes, please. Just let me find Cheese."

The rabbit left, coming back moments later with the blue chao in her arms. Cheese was smiling widely, and had chocolate at the corners of his mouth.

"He was eating Charmy's ice cream," Cream explained. The chao sighed happily.

Another little laughed escaped from Amy, and she glanced at Sonic on impulse. He wasn't even looking her direction, but she still felt a kind of nervous satisfaction from his answer. Sonic had agreed to not only come with her to the park, but take her, and that made a world of a difference. She knew things would be different this time.

…

Metal Sonic's mechanical mind processed information at an astounding speed. He had already formulated a theory, and was considering the next step. The only way to counter his enemies allies would be to have one of his own. Not knowing when the ship's tormented engine would fail, he decided to act as quickly as possible. This time, he wanted support, something that he might be able to consider a companion. Metal thought for a moment before activating his search function.

[System Search Enabled: /Processing/ Process Complete:/ 247 Items listed/ Displaying:]

Chao.

That was the first item displayed, as well as the most predictable. The definition of "chao" was short, but descriptive:

chao n. 1a. A small creature commonly domesticated as a pet and is able to take on the characteristics of its owner. b. An animal that has an unstable genetic structure. c. A descendant of the mythical God of Destruction, Chaos. 2a. Slang A term for someone who is needy.

Metal Sonic pondered this. It seemed to him as though a chao would make an appropriate companion. But where would he get one? Less than four months ago, he had taken a chao from one of Sonic's friends. This was necessary to copy its chaos data, thus verifying his newly produced chaos field. He believed that it had been chocolate brown in color.

But that was beside the point. Chao were small in size, and made for naturally good spies, but it would be difficult to train one for such a task. Getting it would be near impossible; obtaining one legally required a handler's license. They could be purchased by other means at a black market deal, although he was nowhere near such an establishment, and going to such great lengths would prove irrational. Not to mention having to raise it. That would be absurd.

So why not create one instead? Programming code was easy compared to the reprehensible chore of training an organism for practical purposes. It seemed like a far off idea, but his return to the fray needed some monument of dedication, mostly to keep himself motivated.

Metal did not understand why he needed to be motivated, only that it would be important if he intended to continue his current endeavors.

And so, he began to collect parts. They weren't hard to find. Many random pieces of scrap lay scattered in the general area. They were merely pieces and components of robots that Sonic had destroyed, at least partially. It only made sense to him that he was building his new resolve from what remained of the old one. That, of course, presented itself as an excellent motivation.

Laying the pieces out n the floor, he drafted a mental model of the chao which he could refer to during assembly. He managed to create a makeshift blowtorch using a broken flamethrower and half-empty gas tank, which proved invaluable the construction process. With the aid of pictures and mental images, he managed to meld the steel into an accurate exterior which would suit the artificial chao. After one hour thirty seven minutes and forty two seconds, the body, head, and appendages were completed, although the model was, rather sad albeit accurate. No matter. That could be fixed later.

Next, Metal Sonic constructed the circuitry. This was a painstaking process of crisscrossing wires and positioning electrical components, but he eventually finished. Once that was done, he searched for a computer chip to place inside his new companion's body. After several robots around the fortress were raided of mechanical parts, he finally found a chip which had been taken from a robot with basic artificial intelligence. The rest he had to program in, which he did by loading massive amounts of code using a rather beaten, but operable, console.

Once finished, he activated the power modules of the "chao". Its crimson red eyes lit up at a sluggish pace. It shut down multiple times, and he had to keep restarting it to see if anything would result. Finally, it was able to activate its visual receptors, although he knew that the feedback was probably very poor. It was a shameful palled gray, and the parts were roughly assembled, but he intended to fix it later on. The fake chao seemed confused, and kept looking at Metal, then the wall, the floor, and back to Metal again. Its contemptible visual reception, in stark contrast to its complicated programming, would most likely leave it mentally scrambled for a while.

"Hello," Metal greeted, speaking for the first time in days. "I am you master, Metal Sonic."

It didn't seem to notice him at first. Metal Sonic thought for a moment as he watched it turn its head from side to side. Perhaps its sound receptors hadn't kicked in yet. It occurred to Metal that he should name it while he waited. He had never named anything before, other than his Overlord Form. But after a few moments, an idea came to him.

"You are Neon, my creation. I made you to be my associate." The newly named chao, Neon, only stared at Metal as he talked, its eyes occasionally wandering aimlessly.

Metal Sonic decided that it needed further adjustments to fully operate. That was another thing. Should it be designated as a he instead? Metal was a copy of a Sonic, and that meant he was, from a philosophical point of view, male. Or just an imitation of one, really. But nevertheless...

Sighing for an unapparent reason, the mechanical hedgehog picked up his creation and walked to the doors leading into the hallway. After some walking, he found the hanger, were he had not been since he first loaded onto the Egg Fleet to take what was to be permanent command of the Eggman Empire.

The setting was different than what he expected.

Tanks of raw fuel, crates and wrecked aircraft covered the hanger floor. Metal Sonic managed to find one of his creator's floating pods, stashed behind a crate of small airplane wings. No doubt it had been intended as an escape vehicle for his creator. It wasn't the most advanced Metal Sonic had seen, but it would get them safely to his destination if he made the correct calculations.

After dragging it out from its hiding place and replacing a broken starter, the pod was ready for a test drive. When he was able to confirm that the antigravity systems worked, the metal hedgehog refueled it and estimated how much time he had to get to land and back before the cruiser continued its course past Central City.

Thirty minutes for safe landing. Twenty for lift-off location. One hour for total time on land, including initiating liftoff. Twenty-five minutes to get back into the cruiser.

Estimated total time: two hours and fifteen minutes.

Perfect, he thought to himself.

Metal Sonic easily located the fox's lab. It was a dark brown color in the pale moonlight, and impressive in size. The wide, airplane hangar doors were at the end of a larger expansion of the research building. This area no doubt contained his airplane, assuming that he had only one. The hangar doors faced a large runway for the plane to access easily. It was an impressive establishment, Metal thought, given that it was made by a mere child.

He chose to land a safe distance away from the building in case the fox was still awake, or might return home if he was out. After concealing the pod behind some nearby bushes, he picked up Neon and circled the building several times. No lights were on. Once he had decided it was safe, he snuck his way closer, drawing closer to the hangar doors. Neon attempted to struggle his way out of Metal's grip, but it was ignored.

Upon reaching the door, Metal Sonic set Neon down and hacked the control panel on the wall. Although it was more difficult than he expected, he gained access to the door controls, and ordered them open. The doors slid open, making a loud electric humming noise as they did so. Metal Sonic was alarmed at first, and quickly took Neon before dashing into the brush. For several slow minutes, nothing happened, and Metal Sonic assumed that the fox was not home to hear what had gone on.

Criticizing himself for not being more careful, he entered the lab and switched on the light. The lab had rustic orange walls and several neatly organized shelves for tools. There was a work large table close to the middle of the workspace where unfinished gadgets lay dormant. He walked over to the fox's bi-plane, the Blue Tornado.

Metal cleared some space by roughly shoving off several devices and tools from the work table. He set down Neon on blueprints to a device which he immediately deemed insignificant.

"I'm going to turn you off for now," Metal Sonic said to his tiny companion.

The metallic chao gave no response, other than a blank stare. Metal Sonic took out the chip in the back of Neon's head, shutting it down. Once Neon was off, Metal Sonic began to take off parts, customized his systems, added body plates, dissembling the Blue Tornado in the process.

After some time, Metal had completely changed the chao. He worked for half an hour until he finally placed the upgraded chip into the new body and waited for Neon to boot up. The chao's eyes lit up slowly, they became their usual faint red. It looked at Metal with recognition

"Chao, chao," the robotic chao droned monotonously, imitating the cheerful tone of an organic chao.

It was mostly blue, having been recreated from parts of the biplane. Large sections of gray still stood out from the rest of the color, but it was passable. There was no dot above its head like a normal chao, Metal critiqued, but that was a superfluous detail anyway, and one that he didn't care for. One of the bi-plane's miniature rockets had been removed, which Metal Sonic had placed on Neon's back. Although ineffective at the moment, he could certainly make it useful later.

It, or perhaps, he tried to say something, but all that Metal Sonic could make out were several blips and other odd computerized noises. His sound system wasn't calibrated yet. Neon was picked up by his creator, who held him in one hand.

"Let's leave, Neon," Metal Sonic said shortly as he picked his chao and walked towards the exit. He stopped at the doorway and purposefully tossed a small piece of metal that he had taken from the ship on the floor.

If capable, he would have grinned. His ruse made him feel... clever. Then, Metal Sonic gave the room one last look before turning around and striding back into the night. Although unnecessary, he smashed the control panel outside with a clenched fist.

The metal bolt rolled on the floor, turning sideways and falling over. Printed in red on the upside of the bolt, was a circle shaped head with half-circle teeth coming from the bottom and a large moustache in the middle. It was the infamous insignia of Doctor Eggman.