Live Again

"I've done it!" Eggman shouted, "I've finally created a weapon that can stop Sonic cold!"

"I've heard that one before," Bokkun teased "What makes this one so special?"

"Oh-ho, you'll find out soon enough!" Replied the doctor, ignoring his minion's sleight, "Now I just need to find the proper robot to place it on..." The doctor searched through the database of his creations, looking for something that would be powerful enough to create the desired effect. He stopped when he came to one of his older projects. This would do nicely.

"That old thing?" Bokkun asked, "I thought you retired him long ago!"

"I've been working on some improvements. It's sort of a pet project I've been tinkering with. I think it's time I tried it out!" Eggman grabbed a communicator and started barking order: "Bocoe! Decoe! Bring me the capsule containing Metal Sonic!"

It was a beautiful day outside, and Sonic had decided to get in a morning run before getting ready for the trip. It was mostly to calm his nerves. Sonic didn't like the fact that they would be traveling by boat, but he wasn't about to let that stop him from going on vacation with his friends. Sonic's thoughts were violently interrupted when he was suddenly hit by something from his right.

It took everything he had to keep control of himself so he wouldn't skid across the ground on his face. When he was finally able to stop safely, Sonic looked over to see what had hit him. The thing he saw in front of him was vaguely familiar, but also very different. It was a blue robot just a bit taller than sonic, with five large spines decorating its head. It wore a black cape around its waist, had glowing, blood-red eyes, and almost looked like…

"Metal? Seriously!? Wow, Egghead sure gave you a makeover!" Sonic said, amazed.

"I think you'll find that more than my appearance has changed, Sonic," the machine replied. Indeed, many things had been upgraded. His previous form had not even been capable of true speech, communicating through mechanical clicks and beeps.

"Well, seems to me you're here to party," Sonic laughed, "so let's go!" The two speed demons flew at each other, each trying to land a high-speed attack while dodging those of their opponent. Finally, sonic managed to land a homing attack, but found that his double had an unfair advantage. Metal Sonic's hands shot up and a black force field appeared to protect him from Sonic's attack.

"Hey, no fair!" Sonic shouted. If he had lips, Metal Sonic would have smiled evilly. He had warned his counterpart that things had changed. With renewed vigor, the two flew at each other again to continue their fight.

Sonic was beginning to wear down, but he knew that his mechanical double still had plenty of fight in him. He also knew that Metal probably had a few other tricks up his sleeve. Eggman had definitely improved the robot's design. Sonic finally decided that it was time to take out the big guns. "Let's see how you handle this, Metal!" Sonic yelled as he took out the seven Chaos Emeralds. Unfortunately for Sonic, this was exactly what Metal Sonic had been waiting for. As Sonic attempted to transform into Super Sonic, Metal unleashed the doctor's secret weapon. A sphere of dark energy radiated from Metal Sonic's core, and the Chaos Emeralds reacted badly to it. They sparked and flared and flashed wildly, and instead of strengthening energy a wave of intense pain flowed from the gems that Sonic was helpless to stop. For a moment he thought he would be torn apart by the Emeralds' uncontrollable power, but just as Sonic thought he wouldn't be able to take any more, the Chaos Emeralds flew apart as if they were repulsed by one another. The blue blur collapsed, completely exhausted from the pain.

Metal Sonic was quite pleased with the outcome of the battle. Eggman's weapon had caused the Emeralds to backfire just as he'd said it would, and now the machine was free to be rid of his flesh and blood counterpart once and for all. He raised his clawed hand, fully intent on ripping the hedgehog's throat out. Before he could, though, he received a transmission from Eggman. "I'm glad to see that my weapon was such a success! Leave Sonic and return to base. We have to find those Emeralds!"

Leave Sonic? When his nemesis was on the brink of death? Not a chance! He brought his claw down swiftly, and was just about to pierce his foe's soft neck when his arm suddenly stopped. Metal snarled in frustration, "What's going on?!"

Eggman's voice came to him once again, "I said leave him, Metal Sonic! That's an order! We have more important things to concentrate on right now."

Knowing that it would be impossible to disobey his master's orders, the robot grudgingly obliged. "This is why all of Eggman's plans fall apart," he said to himself as he flew off. He was stronger now, though, and Metal Sonic swore that someday soon he would get out from under his creator's thumb and show that idiot how it was done!

Author's Note: I'm back! This is a sequal to 'New Growth', so if you haven't read that story yet, you might get a little lost later on. You have been warned. My last story was mostly Tails' POV, but this story is going to have a little bit of everyone, including a few OCs (Normally I hate creating OCs, but for this story I'll need a few for some small parts). If anyone's curious as to what the new Metal Sonic looks like, just Google Neo Metal Sonic from Sonic Heroes (Look for Dark Makora's pic. I did not make this, its just the best pic I could find). Since I really should say it: Sonic and the rest all belong to SEGA, any OCs belong to me (though I don't care if anyone uses them).