A response to my poll, as promised, a story explaining why Eggman's robots are so maddingly out of character. It will be a three shot, the first chapter explaining Metal Knuckles' craziness, the second Shadow Android's origins, and the third Metal Sonic's reasons for no longer hating Sonic the Hedgehog. Metal Sonic's protectiveness is explained bit by bit in each of the stories.

Project Starvix note: Apologies to aquagirl555 for not responding further, but I knew I'd be posting this relatively soon.

Project Starvix FanFiction tip: Be aware you can't put links in PM's unless they're from FanFiction or FictionPress. If you wish to give links, you need to separate periods from everything else.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Sonic related, including *Sob* Eggman's robots. I just like to mess with 'em.

I am Metal Sonic. My primary objective is to destroy Sonic the Hedgehog. I will do so and nothing will get in my way.

I idly watched my Master, Eggman, as the scientist worked at his newest invention. I wasn't all that interested, unless of course the thing he was designing was an upgrade to better help me kill Sonic the Hedgehog once and for all.

It did not seem to be an upgrade, though. So I only stayed because Eggman insisted.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Eggman finally finished putting the thing together. He chuckled maniacally as he prepared to turn it on.

"At last!" he said triumphantly. "I've designed the perfect creation that will enable me to be rid of that cursed hedgehog once and for all!"

In spite of myself I stiffened. This was quite intriguing to me; perhaps this thing that Eggman created was useful after all. "What is it, Master?" I asked.

Eggman quickly flicked a switch on the machine's back, and bright green eyes lit up. The thing sat up quickly, revealing itself to be a robotical version of that cursed Echidna loser that kept hanging around Sonic.

"Eternal systems online. Systems booting…" After a slight pause, the machine turned to Eggman and spoke to him directly. "I am mecha bot 03, a.k.a. Metal Knuckles, ready to serve you Master."

"Another mecha bot, Master?" I blurted out. "What could possibly induce you to create it?"

"The fact that you obviously can't do the one thing that I ask: To kill Sonic the Hedgehog," Eggman replied.

I bristled. "I will kill him," I promised. "And I will not need the help of this piece of trash."

"Enough! I'll not have his back talk from you, Metal Sonic, I made you!" Eggman yelled at me. "Now, to lure Sonic into a little trap…"

I seethed inwardly as Eggman proceeded to brag about his latest foolproof plan. (Secretly, I have always envisioned him as the fool.) He would use a Chaos Emerald to trick Sonic into a race through Reactive Factory. I would be his opponent; Metal Knuckles would be hiding near the finish line. When Sonic zoomed past him, Metal Knuckles would take him out with a built-in sniper rifle. He'd been designed to be a crack shot against super fast opponents.

I was furious! "Sonic is MY target!" I snapped to Metal Knuckles as soon as Eggman ordered me and Metal Knuckles out of the room to recharge for the next day.

"Not anymore," Metal Knuckles replied, his voice sounding quite pleased that I was angry. "You're so flawed he had to give your 'target' to someone who could actually get rid of him."

I whirled to Metal Knuckles, my anger valves rising to a dangerous level. "You stay away from my target," I warned him.

"If you weren't a loser, there'd be no target for me to stay away from," Metal Knuckles taunted, getting into his recharge chamber. "But you wouldn't know that. You're so outdated I bet you were hunting down targets back when Dinosaurs roamed the earth!"

A low growl escaped the back of my throat.

"Of course, it's a good thing those tar pits were there; otherwise the Dinos wouldn't be extinct. I know you didn't hit any of THOSE targets, either!"

Furious, I threw a punch at the infuriating machine, but to my surprise Metal Knuckles blocked me effortlessly. He was shockingly strong; even with my servomotors wide open in an effort to overpower him he held me back as if I was an amusing plaything.

"Don't. Touch. Me," Metal Knuckles whispered in my ear, before he rammed his fists into my chest plate. The blow knocked me to my knees; but the new mecha saw no need to press his attack as he reentered his recharge chamber.

I clenched my fists as Metal Knuckles powered down for his first recharge. How DARE this upstart just waltz in here and try to destroy Sonic! Sonic was MINE to destroy, and mine alone!

My eyes fell to his arm, where his sniper rifle was hidden. I began to form a plan. "If I can't hit my target…" I whispered, tip-toeing to the robot. "Then I'll see to it you won't, either."

My master was pleased that all was going according to plan. The hedgehog had wanted the emerald; and he was too conceited to pass up a chance to beat me in a race. I could practically hear Eggman chuckling with glee. I wished I had a mouth so that I could smirk; it was hard for me to find ways to express amusement, not that I felt that sensation often.

But we'll see who's gleeful when this is all over. That cursed Metal Knuckles should be taking aim right about now…

The hedgehog paused briefly, just before the finish line, sticking his tongue out to taunt me. "I guess you just can't beat the original. Sonic the Hedgehog, accept no substitutes!" he taunted me, feeling cocky because he knew he'd won. I almost felt sorry that I had sabotaged Metal Knuckles; a shot to the head would have served that cursed hedgehog right.

Almost sorry being the keyword. Sonic the Hedgehog would get a shot to the head, but it would be my weapon that unleashed that shot.

Behind me, I heard a clicking sound and knew Metal Knuckles had taken his shot. Sonic also knew, but later, and because of a more obvious clue.

You see, Metal Knuckles exploded. I always did enjoy overkill.

"Whoa," Sonic whispered, looking quite awed at the massive explosion I had caused by hooking up Metal Knuckles' firing trigger with his power core cooling restraints. When he had taken his shot, it had overheated every inch of his body until it spontaneously combusted. Probably not fun to experience, but it was certainly fun to watch. Destroying things was my specialty, after all.

I couldn't help but feel some measure of pride in seeing the look of admiration on Sonic's face as he took in the massive explosion. He obviously didn't know what had exploded, or why, but he was impressed all the same. Then he turned around and put on such a burst of speed that mere seconds later my sensors picked up the evidence of a sonic boom in the area.

I wish I had had the foresight to shoot Sonic while he was preoccupied with Metal Knuckles' fiery demise, but I contented myself with the thought that I had already demolished one rival that day; the other one would fall soon enough.

Sonic the Hedgehog was my target. For trying to steal that target, Metal Knuckles deserved his fate.

Eggman was furious, as I knew he'd be. But I had made sure to wipe the monitor's recording systems last night so he could not prove I had sabotaged Metal Knuckles; and now that I was his only mecha bot he could not afford to disassemble me.

So the fool occupied himself by trying to reassemble Metal Knuckles; as if that was possible. I was certain that the machine was beyond even the slightest hope of repair.

Yet as the days went by, it seemed to become apparent that Eggman was, in fact, doing the impossible. I grew more uneasy as the form of Metal Knuckles began to take shape; and as Eggman never left the assembly room I was unable to sabotage his machine further. I grew increasingly uneasy until at last things came to a head.

Eggman was prepared to reactivate Metal Knuckles.

As my inventor prepared to turn on his latest invention once again, I silently charged my weapons systems and prepared for anything. Metal Knuckles had proved to be quite violent and if he suspected I had been involved with foul play he would attack me the instant he was back online.

Eggman took a deep breath and flicked a switch on the back of Metal Knuckles' back. His optical sensors started to glow a brilliant green color.

"Metal Knuckles?" Eggman called. "Can you hear me?"

Metal Knuckles cocked his head and stared at his creator. Then he giggled.

"Geez, you're fat!" he laughed. "And you have silly little spaghetti legs!" He started to laugh harder, so hard in fact that he fell off of the platform Eggman had placed him on and hit the floor. The impact just seemed to make him laugh harder. Suddenly he stopped, his gaze falling on a control panel to his left. A bright yellow light was flashing on the console.

"Pretty…" Metal Knuckles mused admiringly, completely transfixed by the bright yellow button. "What does this do?" He yelled suddenly, jumping up and hitting the button, which happened to be a self-destruct mechanism.

"No!" Eggman shrieked, rushing to the console and typing in a code that deactivated the destruction of the base. Metal Knuckles took no notice; he was currently in the middle of the room trying his luck at river stomp, it seemed. Eggman quickly jogged over to him and flicked him off. Metal Knuckles slowly powered down.

I looked at Eggman expectantly. The scientist was panting, but he stood up straight and smoothed back what little hair he had to compose himself. "I can fix that," he told me matter-of-factly.

But it soon became apparent that Eggman couldn't fix that. No matter how many times he tried, or how many parts he swapped out, the explosion had damaged Metal Knuckles' hard drive so badly the damage to his logic sensors could not be repaired. He was still insanely strong and still a masterful sharpshooter, but he no longer had the attention span or the memory unit necessary to make use of those skills. I thought it poetic justice that the machine who I hated almost as much as I hated the hedgehog should spend the rest of his days as a babbling lunatic. Perhaps he and Dr. Eggman could be peers.

Eggman, however, would not disassemble Metal Knuckles. Perhaps he still had a small part of humanity left that would not allow him to destroy something he had created. More than likely, however, he was just too stubborn and prideful to admit that he wasn't smart enough to figure out how to fix his own machine. Metal Knuckles' AI chip, while flawed, was growing steadily, however. Metal Knuckles was starting to turn himself on when the doctor turned him off. It would not be long, I thought, before Eggman was forced to destroy him before the crazy machine did something to damage the base.

I was unprepared for Eggman's solution to this new dilemma, however.

It was late and I was in the process of recharging when Eggman came into the recharging center and interrupted me. He looked like he'd been stranded in the Sahara desert without food and water for weeks.

"Metal Sonic," he said, not even bothering to glance at me. "Come with me."

I did not wish to leave my recharging center but my command matrix degreed that Eggman was my master and that I had to obey him. For now, at least. So I followed him to the lab.

"Get on the table," he told me, going over to where he kept his tools. "It's time I upgraded you to be more useful to me."

I felt a surge of excitement; whenever he stated that it meant I would soon get another chance to best Sonic the Hedgehog. I got upon the table and Eggman deactivated my motor functions so I could not move while he was working.

But something was wrong. He was not upgrading my weapons; or fine tuning my speed or strength. Instead he opened up the hidden door to my memory unit.

"Just as I thought," he muttered. "You don't seem to like Metal Knuckles."

What does that have to do with destroying Sonic? I wished I could will my motor functions back on; he's starting to…he's deleting my memory files! Stop! Stop it; quit altering my memories!

"We'll just have to fix that," Eggman mused to himself more than anyone, and then he shut me down completely and I remembered no more.

….Rebooting…Rebooting…

I silently waited until my rebooting procedure had finished before I reactivated my optical sensors. I looked around, ascertaining my location. I was in Eggman's laboratory. I quickly checked my memory files to see what had happened; it seemed I had been chasing Sonic the Hedgehog through Reactive Factory and he turned unexpectedly and damaged me before I had had time to react. My hatred for my organic double intensified; he had humiliated me yet again.

"Good morning Metal Sonic. I trust you're functioning normally again?"

I looked up to where Eggman was standing, giving me a malevolent smile that he assumed would reassure me.

"I am functioning fully," I assured him.

"Good. Good," Eggman looked pleased. "I have…someone I would like you to meet."

I unsteadily got to my feet and followed him to my recharging center. When he opened the door, the first thing I noticed was that another recharging chamber had been added near my own. I was wondering what the meaning of that was when…something…jumped right in front of me.

"HI!" The something said happily.

I instinctively activated my weapons systems and took aim at the thing when internal warnings started to flash inside my CPU unit.

Do not destroy, my Primary Objective Center informed me.

'Why?' I asked it.

Primary Objective: Protect. Explained my P.O.C.

'Primary Objective is to destroy Priority One Hedgehog!' I argued.

Negative. Primary Objective: Protect.

'Explain!'

Protect. Protect. Protect.

I felt…confused. Conflicted. Primary Objective had always been to destroy, not protect. I…I was not even sure what 'protect' meant. Only that it meant do not destroy for certain; I deactivated my weapon and my P.O.C. quieted.

I decided to study this thing that I was supposed to…protect…in order to see if it would give me any clues as to what protect meant so I could carry out my primary objective.

It was a mecha bot series just as I was; that was surprising. I idly wondered when Eggman had found the time to create it without my knowledge. It resembled Knuckles the Echidna; and was bouncing up and down happily without a care in the world. It seemed defective to me.

Eggman took this opportunity to excuse himself. "I'll just let the two of you get acquainted," he stated, turning to the machine and staring at him. "I just hope you can remember to listen to Metal Sonic," he told it before walking out.

"What is your designation?" I asked after an uneasy silence.

The echidna robot gave me a blank stare. "You talk funny," he finally said, grinning at me.

I started to feel frustrated. "I mean…what is…" I scanned my memory banks, looking for a simpler way to put my request. "What is…your name?"

"What is your name?" he replied instead of answering.

"My designation is Mecha bot 2, but you may refer to me as Metal Sonic," I told him.

"Ohhhhhhh," he nodded wisely and leaned forward, motioning me to come closer as if he were about to reveal some great secret. "I'm Metal Knuckles," he whispered in my ear. "And I like to PAR-TAY!"

This last word he shouted; temporarily causing my hearing matrix to overload and I jerked back, grabbing my ear. I glared at Metal Knuckles while he did some sort of bizarre dance step around the room; when all at once he stopped and pointed at a power supply for our recharge stations. "What's that do?" he asked, reaching over to touch it.

My P.O.C. started to go off again.

Primary Objective: Protect! Primary Objective: Protect!

"Stop!" I cried, reaching out and grabbing his hand before he could touch the power supply and overload his systems. Metal Knuckles gave me a weird look.

"Why?" he asked.

"Touching that would send 500,000 volts of electricity through your body, permanently damaging you if not destroying you outright," I explained.

Metal Knuckles gave me a blank look. "No it won't," He said simply.

What? How did he come up with that conclusion? "Do not touch that power supply," I ordered again,

"Why?" he asked again, even though the answer was obvious and I had just finished explaining it to him.

"Because I said so," I replied, unsure of how else to explain my actions.

"Oh." Surprisingly, Metal Knuckles decreed this to be a perfectly logical explanation as to why he should not touch a power supply conduit and backed off.

I was surprised he had given in so easily; but perhaps more so when an exhilarating feeling I had never felt before flooded my matrix.

Primary directive complete, my P.O.C. droned. Initiating reward commands.

Reward commands? I had not known there was a reward for completing primary objectives, but then, I had never been able to complete my primary objective before. It was a very pleasant feeling; I ran a diagnostic and discovered it was known as happiness.

I watched as Metal Knuckles darted around the room, looking in odd places for new things to discover, and decided I liked him. He had given me a gift; albeit unknowingly; he had allowed me to complete my primary objective for the first time, and unlocked a reward I otherwise would never have known. Happiness. It was such a nice change from feeling hatred.

"Hey, what's that?" Metal Knuckles asked, darting off.

My P.O.C. started blaring again. Primary objective: Protect! Primary objective: Protect!

And it seems, that Metal Knuckles would see to it that I would feel happiness again. And a good many times at that.

I shook my head as a delighted squeal came from the corridor. "Metal Sonic, Metal Sonic, there's another ME in a shiny wall in here, and his eyes are GLOWING!" Metal Knuckles called.

I walked into the corridors and confirmed that Metal Knuckles was staring at a mirror, and was now making funny poses into it. Within moments he got bored and prepared to run off again, however.

"Metal Knuckles!" I called, causing him to stop and look at me.

"What?" he asked.

"Return to our recharging center and prepare for your recharge cycle."

Metal Knuckles seemed to visibly deflate. "Aw…do I have too?" he moaned.

"Yes."

He sighed, but nevertheless he obeyed me and went to recharge himself. My P.O.C. confirmed my objective as completed and rewarded me again. I was definitely better at Protect than I was Destroy. I recalled hearing someone liken the cursed hedgehog, Sonic, as a protector, and I now realized why he seemed to enjoy the title.

I decided I would be the greatest protector ever. Even better than Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Metal Sonic, my battery's not draaaaaaaiiiinnned," Metal Knuckles called from inside his recharge center, his voice going into a delicious whine.

"I do not care. It is your recharging time," I replied, going to ensure he actually started to recharge before I recharged myself.

I am Metal Sonic. My primary objective is to destroy Sonic the Hedgehog…and it is to protect Metal Knuckles. I will do both and nothing will get in my way.