Author Note: Well, Thoughts Behind Words is officially continuing and replacing Dialogue after becoming my first story to surpass Dialogue in popularity during a month. This will probably delay my other stories, but a truly successful (read: well fed) author panders to his fanbase. On with the show!
Dinner
"Wow this is nice… where'd you get it?" Amy asked, looking down at the posh Italian dinner before her, set on a table for two and decorated with flowers and a candle. To one side stood the blue machine that had technically just kidnapped her. It was hesitant in its answer.
+I…. I… I had been ordered to cause mass disruption already, so I subtracted the cost of the table, accessories, and the pasta from the cost of property damage I would usually cause… I stole it.+ It looked away as it finally admitted the truth.
"Oh. I guess it's okay then. Thank you." Amy said. The robot would have destroyed these things if he had not stolen them, so… it was the best he could do for her, and she showed her appreciation for his thought by eating the dinner. After she had finished she turned to the machine and nodded. "That was very good."
+It was the best I could do for you.+ Metal Sonic said, having decided its was best for seeking her approval.
"Thank you." Amy said.
As metal arms had taken her away she had noticed no traps, no other machines, and now that she was here in this empty room in a barely functioning base Metal Sonic had done nothing to keep her from escaping. She could practically walk out if she wanted to. Whatever Metal Sonic's creator had intended, she had not been brought here because of Sonic. This was about what had happened between the two a week ago. That was why she stayed as silence filled the room for minutes on end before Metal finally spoke.
+About what happened last time… was that on purpose?+ Metal Sonic said.
"What?" Amy asked, having an idea about what he meant but not at all certain.
+The… physical contact of your mouth.+ Metal Sonic was a machine, and that meant he felt no guilt in using purposefully archaic descriptions if it meant keeping his head circuits from overloading in embarrassment.
"Oh, well… yeah." Amy answered, blushing slightly. Oh, the things her friends would say if they had seen her. Metal Sonic obviously noticed and hastily followed up with an absurdly apologetic question.
+Am I discomforting you?+
"I… I'm just not used to this." Amy said.
+To what?+ According to Metal Sonics memory banks, she had several times kissed unsuspecting hedgehogs. Amy let out a long sigh.
"I don't know. Having someone actually say they like me, notice me when they aren't rescuing me, and doing stuff for me… even if they are a little morally ambiguous about it." The rant was a small one, but Amy would never have admitted it in front of anyone else: she was growing tired of Sonic's negligence.
+If he ignores you, then why do you continue to be attracted to him?+ Metal Sonic let loose with the piercing question, hoping to understand this person who aroused jealousy within him. Amy leaned back in her chair and adopted an expression not concerned with anywhere on the physical plane.
"Because he's soooo heroic!" She said. "He's cool and handsome and brave and goes around saving the day and is always so calm, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks." Metal Sonic did not respond, and Amy slowly realized what affect her words must have had on the robot.
+And I am none of those things.+ Metal said, clenching one of his claws to distract his circuitry. Amy quickly worked to comfort the machine, never one to let a person drown themselves in their own sorrow.
"No, you can be good if you want to be, but just in a different way." She said. He had done this for her hadn't he? He had listened to her ask him to abandon his trap. He had saved her when her life was on the line. Metal Sonic looked her straight in the eyes.
+Are you attracted to me?+ He bluntly asked. Amy was taken aback and not sure what the answer was or how to say it.
"I…"
*What the heck!* Both Amy and Metal Sonic's head turned to face the source of the interrupting voice, a painfully familiar blue hedgehog.
"Ah!" Amy cried out in shock and quickly tried to protect herself. "This isn't what it…" Both biological and mechanical Sonic stared at her, wondering why she was so quick to defend the scene. "What does it look like?" She weakly asked.
*Dunno. Maybe like your ON A DATE WITH MY EVIL ROBOTIC COPY!* Sonic yelled the last part for emphasis. Faced with such sudden aggression Amy stood up and crossed her arms, deciding that she wouldn't suffer such abuse.
"Well maybe if someone paid more attention…" She said.
*Pay attention? I save your life.* Sonic shot back. He was under no obligation to speak to her, and he despised her making him seem like a criminal for trying to live his own life.
"You'd do that for anyone." Amy said, realizing how little she meant in his eyes.
*So? This isn't like you.* Deep down Sonic was disturbed by such a sudden mood shift being brought on by no less than his complete antithesis.
"Hey, it's not like I have anything better to do when I'm kidnapped." Amy said bitterly.
*Than dating a robot?* Sonic asked, wondering if he had really made her that desperate.
+Correction…+ Metal Sonic began, incensed by his fool of an organic copy's destruction of an important discussion with his half thought out accusations.
*Shut up; you're not part of this.* Sonic barked in a way Metal Sonic had never seen before.
"Why can't he talk?" Amy asked.
*I dunno, he only started recently.* Sonic said with a sarcastic smirk, thinking back to the days when the robot was more symbol than person, and issued his challenges without a word.
+Correction…+ Metal Sonic hissed
*Shut…UP!* Sonic yelled in sudden fury, turning and punching Metal in the face and knocking him away. He watched Metal fall and let his breathing slow. *Come on, let's get out of here.* he said to Amy, leaving the machine on the ground.
"Okay." Amy said meekly, accepting that she needed to get home. His visual sensors damaged, Metal Sonic detected rather saw her leave, and could barely comprehend it. The Biological Sonic had yelled at her, demeaned her, and attacked Metal just for trying to defend her, and yet when given the choice she still… chose… him…
Metal Sonic had barely righted himself by then and the thoughts running through his circuits became so intense that his lower legs shut off completely, leaving him to sink down on his knees and scream in fury.
+Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!+
(Oh, grow up.) A human's voice behind him said. Metal regained control of his motor functions and turned to meet his maker, a mustachio man best described as a limbed egg.
+Creator! I was merely lamenting my loss.+ Metal said a tad too defensively.
(Of a certain girl's affection?) The man said, leaning forward to bring his face closer too but still above Metal's level.
+Yes.+ Metal Sonic's programs forced him to say, and he quickly sought a way out +Wait, there may to be a bug in my vocabulary function.+
(Is there one?) The man asked.
+No.+ Metal Sonic admitted.
(This is why I removed your lying function.) The man said, not needing to remind either of the unpleasantness between them known as the Metal Overlord incident.
+How did you know my intent?+ Metal Sonic asked, assured that he would get some sort of answer through his creator's egotistical need to describe everything he did.
(How often have you chosen to kidnap her in the past month? Don't answer. Your motivations were obvious to one of my intellect, and to most other people as well probably.) With that the man turned and headed back to the base's inner sanctuary, a far more fortified position than where Metal Sonic had taken Amy and the dinner. With their meeting over Metal crept off to have his visual sensors repaired, a duty long ago taken over by menial machines after his creator decided that Metal wasn't worth a personal investment of time.
It was much later in the day when Metal reached the base's inner sanctuary, a circular chamber filled with monitors and pointless blinking lights that surrounded a single central chair, a chair specially built to only ever hold one man, the man who currently sat in it. Metal Sonic had come to be assigned to storage, something his creator did see fit to personally oversee, but instead was entreated to come up to the technological throne itself.
(Back from repairs? Good. Here's a debit card.) The egg-shaped man said as he passed a plastic card with magnetic and radio implants on it into Metal Sonic's hands. The blue robot looked at it with curiosity, knowing what it was but not why it was in his claws.
+You have money?+ He finally asked his creator.
(What! Of course I have money. How do you think I get my suits tailored? I happen to own a legitimate chain of repairs shops, currently unable to be attacked those fools.) The fat man exclaimed, heaving in his seat. After that he leant back and calmed himself. (There's ten thousand on the card. You're on leave until further instruction.)
+Clarify 'Leave'+ Metal Sonic asked, not knowing a definition of the word that would pertain to him given how his creator had used it.
(I don't need you right now, and you won't be in storage. In fact, I don't want you anywhere near the base.) His creator said slowly.
+Won't I be attacked?+ Metal Sonic said, thinking this some ultimate punishment devised by his scheming master, to be abandoned to his enemies once and for all.
(They can't.) His creator replied with surprising glee. (Legally you are considered a separate person from me, but as having performed all actions either under force or due to insanity. They can only act against you if you are currently doing something.)
+I see.+ Metal Sonic said wondering why his creator would have gone to the legal effort of having such a thing clarified by the law, but his tone showed that he had done it and was proud at having gotten away with it. +I am departing now.+ With those words Metal Sonic turned and left the base, having nothing but the debit card to take with him. Back within the base the fat man leaned back in his chair and grinned in satisfaction at a well-worked scheme.
(Someone start up some popcorn: This is going to be great.) Dr. Eggman said.
