~Chapter 2: The Villain Arises~

Silver and Mephiles led Shard and Metallix to their home - a destroyed city with new houses built from the debris.

"Whoa... the whole city... it's..." Shard began, speechless as he stared at the ruined city.

"Gone," Metallix ended for him, staring at the same sight.

Silver turned to them. "What? The city's been like that for centuries," he said simply.

Shard shook his head. "Not when we were around," he corrected. "This was our home city. But then..." The machine paused and shook off the flashbacks, trying to smile. "Never mind. The past can't be changed. What happened back then doesn't matter anymore."

"It would still be nice to know the full story," Silver pinioned. "And only you two could tell it."

"We'll tell you later," Shard assured. "Can you just show us around first? Introduce us to a few people and stuff?"

"Um... sure," Silver replied unsurely. He led the way into the city, with the two robots following close behind while Mephiles seemed to walk separately from the group.

Silver first headed into his home. "This is where I live," he introduced. "It's an average house; most of us living in this city have homes like this one."

The two robots examined the interior closely. "Not much of a house..." Shard muttered to himself. Silver heard this and was initially quite irritated, but he had to remind himself that these two came from a time where houses were much different.

"So... Do you live here alone?" Shard questioned after a pause.

"Well... yeah," Silver admitted quite sadly. "I've lived alone for a long time. You see, my parents died when I was a kid..."

"Spare us the sob-stories," Metallix interrupted heartlessly.

Silver glared at him with a rush of anger for a moment before he took in a deep breath to calm himself down. Shard attempted to change the subject.

"So, how does living in this era feel?" he asked. "Peaceful? Simple? Complex? Terrifying? Enlighten us!"

Silver turned his attention to him. "Um, well... I suppose you could say it's pretty peaceful," he described. "We all just get on with what we have to do..."

"Yet you don't like it," Mephiles quietly reminded, resulting in him getting a dark look from Silver. Silver decided to just ignore the comment, moving on from the subject.

"Anyway, what was life like back in your original time?" he asked.

Shard decided to deliver the answer just after both of the robots hesitated to speak. "Well, you see, this "city" you live in is on top of a REAL city," he explained. "Cities were a lot larger with taller buildings, not to mention that those buildings were a lot more practical than the ones you guys have. Also, no offense, but... our structures were much more efficient."

"Interesting," Silver gasped quietly, genuinely interested in the description. Mephiles rolled his eyes, practically sensing Silver's interest. There seemed to be a silence as Shard and Metallix recalled the past before Shard decided to speak again.

"Sorry about that. So who lives in this... city?" he queried.

"Not many people," Silver answered. "Though we have a mix of humans, animals and even some robots."

"By some you mean barely any, right?" Shard assumed.

"Sorta," Silver admitted. "The ones who live here are good guys, but the rest... they belong to this criminal known as Eggman Nega. In fact, Shard, you kinda look like one of those robots..."

"Oh, thanks," Shard responded sarcastically, frowning. "Anything else you'd like to warn me about? You know, anymore duplicates?"

Silver thought for a moment before answering. "Nope."

"Good," Shard exhaled.

Just then, three extremely small robots ran into Silver's house, all looking quite happy.

"What the...?!" Shard reacted, surprised.

"Oh no..." Silver muttered.

Metallix pointed his arm laser, ready to attack, but was stopped by Silver.

"Hey, don't worry these guys aren't bad!" he assured.

"Wahh! They're on me!" Shard squealed as the three little robots clung to him. "What even are these things?"

"They are called Bits," Silver answered. "They're cute little guys, aren't they? Even though they do become rather annoying at times."

Shard began to chuckle. "They are kinda cute; look at them!" He cuddled them as if they were teddy bears, laughing. Metallix looked disgusted at the sight while Silver just laughed quietly as the Bits just snuggled into Shard.

"I'm guessing they like the company of another robot," Silver guessed. That's when the Bits all got up, observing Metallix. Metallix stared down at them with a warning glare. Shard chuckled.

"Oh, come on, Metallix, they're not gonna hurt you," he told him.

"I don't care," Metallix growled. All three Bits seemed scared of Metallix, so just went back to cuddling with Shard.

"...I'm guessing that you guys don't want to look around some more just yet," Silver guessed, smiling.

"Hang on a sec, I'm being loved," Shard responded, holding the three smaller hedgehog robots. Again, Silver could only chuckle.

That's when an explosion occurred.

Immediately, the group ran outside to look at what was going on. "What was that?!" Silver asked, worried.

"It could be Eggman Nega again," Mephiles assumed calmly.

"Whatever it is, we have to take it down!" Silver yelled confidently.

A robot then made its way into view, emerging from the smoke of the explosion. It was a blue robotic hedgehog with long, sharp quills, lined with white stripes. A black cape flowed out from the machine's spiked belt as he stared at the group with dangerous red eyes.

"Yep. Definitely another one of Nega's," Silver confirmed. Suddenly, without warning, Metallix darted forwards, flying directly towards the robot.

"Metallix, wait a second!" Silver called out, but it was no use.

Shard was staring in shock. "It can't be..." he uttered to himself quietly as the Bits all hid behind him. Silver glanced at him, having heard his words. However, he had no time to question Shard, so decided to run forwards to aid Metallix.

The enemy robot charged up some lightning in his hand, firing it at Metallix. Metallix narrowly dodged, gritting his teeth. "That trick won't work on me this time," he hissed as he fired a charged laser shot at him. Simialrly, the other robot dodged, darkly chuckling.

"No, but it will work on the rest of these pathetic organics," he responded.

"Hey, you!" Silver yelled, flying upwards and trying to use his psychokinesis to short-circuit the opponent.

"Silver, no!" Shard cried from where he was, also flying up. The only one who didn't join the fight was Mephiles.

As Silver attempted his attack, he became the victim of the hedgebot's lightning strike, sending him crashing back down to the ground. Metallix growled and fired more lasers at the robot as Shard joined his side.

"I didn't think we'd be seeing you again..." Shard admitted, sounding both angry yet still surprised.

The mechanical hedgehog laughed evilly. "I thought that you had been destroyed with the rest of your friends," he replied honestly. "Oh well, at least now I can destroy you both personally."

"I'd like to see you try!" Shard snapped, flying towards him, ready to punch. The other robot grabbed him and forced some of his lightning into his circuits, causing Shard to scream.

Enraged, Metallix tackled the enemy robot, wrestling him as Shard fell down much like how Silver did.

The blue Bit ran to Shard's side, looking really worried. He shook him a little to try getting him up.

Metallix had been thrown into one of the collapsed skyscrapers, giving the opposing robot the chance to turn his attention back to Shard. He noticed the Bit by his side, wishing he could smirk as he charged up another lightning attack. As the blue Bit looked up, he barely had any time to move as he was hit directly by the lightning bolt, instantly shutting down since he wasn't built to fight.

Silver, having been helped up by Mephiles, stared in horror. "He's... He's willing to kill innocent beings..." he gasped. "We have to stop him!"

The robot landed by Shard and lifted him up. "Now tell me: Where are the Chaos Emeralds?" he asked.

"I... I don't know..." Shard growled. This caused his opponent to punch his chest, directly where the gem shard was.

"If you don't answer truthfully I'll shatter your power gem," he threatened.

"That was... my honest answer...!" Shard answered angrily. The robot didn't seemed to believe him, but that's when Silver started to short-circuit him once again. The robot malfunctioned, but then he started to glow.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled out. In a flash of bright white light, he was gone.

"Damn..." Silver panted as Shard got himself up. Metallix also flew back over to the group.

"Where did he go?" Metallix asked darkly.

"He just... teleported!" Silver described.

"He managed to use Chaos Control due to the energy he had absorbed in the past," Shard translated.

"Damn him..." Metallix rasped.

Shard then lifted up the incredibly damaged blue Bit as the red and yellow Bit seemed to mourn for him. "We've gotta fix this little guy."

"We have a repair chamber, don't worry," Silver assured. "But I think our real concern is who that guy was."

"Oh... him..." Shard reacted, sounding uncomfortable. He then let out a large sigh. "I guess now's a good time to tell you about what happened in the past..."

"Shard, we don't need to tell these fools anything," Metallix hissed, narrowing his LED eyes.

"No, Metallix! They need to know about what kind of enemy they're dealing with!" Shard shot back at him. Metallix huffed and fell silent as Shard managed to calm himself down. "Look... Let's just get back inside and get this little guy fixed up. Then I'll explain everything you guys need to know."

And with that, the group headed back into Silver's house as Shard placed the blue Bit into an automatic repair chamber. It'd be a while until the Bit was fully fixed, so he decided to explain the story as the Bit was being repaired.

~End of Chapter~