~Metal Sniper~

Sonic and Tails made their way through the grassy landscape known as Grass Hillock, avoiding basic obstacles which got in their way. The presence of badniks in the area instantly made Doctor Eggman the top suspect behind the mysterious robot the two friends had just encountered.

Once the two had traversed the area Sonic skidded to a halt, Tails landing by his side. The blue hedgehog had found some claw marks on a tree.

"Looks like the sorta thing an animal would do," Tails examined.

"Or the sorta thing someone with a bad temper would do," Sonic added, running his hand down the claw marks. "These claw marks look like they were caused by somebody's hands instead of the claws of an animal."

"Do you think it was that robot we saw earlier?" Tails queried.

"Maybe," Sonic replied. "Can't imagine a robot with a temper, though. Especially if it's one of Eggman's robots."

"Are there any more clues around here?" Tails asked the blue blur.

"Hm..." Sonic reacted, tapping his chin as he looked around. He then caught sight of the same hedgebot from before, sat on the branch of another tree. "Hey!" Sonic exclaimed when his gaze had fixed onto the robot. However, the robot blasted out of the tree upon being seen.

"After him!" Sonic shouted, chasing the hedgebot as Tails followed.

The chrome hedgebot looked back as he flew, a facial expression on his face unlike any other of Eggman's machines. His artificial mouth bared his what must have been metallic teeth as his eyes seemed to narrow. Looking back ahead of himself, the hedgebot picked up as much speed as he could.

Sonic scowled upon seeing this and began to sprint faster. "Hey! Who do you think you are, anyway?!" he snapped once he found himself running beside the chrome robot. The robot glared at him before pointing his laser, causing Sonic to instantly slow down to narrowly avoid being shot. Slowing down caused Sonic to fall behind by quite a few feet, the hedgebot now zooming ahead. The blue blur's eyes squinted in annoyance before he jumped up into the air and performed a Homing Attack, striking the robot in the back. The robot fell straight to the ground, and before he could get back up he was pinned by Tails.

"Gotcha!" Tails exclaimed almost joyfully, proud of himself. Sonic came to a halt beside the fox, getting a closer look at the robotic hedgehog. He looked a lot like Metal Sonic, but as previously observed he had a face which could pull more expressions. On his back were metallic spines much like Sonic's instead of an engine, and instead of a laser in his chest there was a golden lightning bolt. Around his waist was a regular brown belt with a golden buckle and his entire body was just silver. While Sonic observed silently, Tails was just fascinated by the design.

"Wow, have you seen this robot's facial design?" he asked Sonic excitably. "This is unlike anything I have ever seen before!"

"Get offa me, fox boy!" the robot suddenly yelled, its voice identical to a relatively young male voice. Tails just looked amazed.

"Amazing... It sounds like an actual living thing when it talks!" he praised.

"Off!" the robot repeated, wiggling around to try and shake Tails off.

Sonic crouched down, looking at the robot closely. "You seem to be more mouthy than the other robots built by Egghead," he acknowledged. "Is he trying to build a robot which can outsass me?" The blue hedgehog stood back up to his full height and looked at Tails. "Think you can crack his code or something, buddy?"

"I can try analysing his data," Tails replied. "By doing that I can see every tiny fragment of data within his programming and work out what that data is being used for. I'm assuming already that a lot of his data consists of some kind of free will..."

"Free will?" Sonic questioned. "Explains why his attitude stinks like a rotten egg."

The hedgebot growled angrily at Sonic. "Watch what you're saying, hedgehog, or else I'll make you regret it!" he warned.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll make me regret it and you'll fight me to prove you're the best, blah blah blah..." Sonic mocked, gesturing with his hands while keeping a bored expression on his face. "Tell me something I haven't already heard a thousand times."

"Alright. You eat too many chili dogs and you should go on a diet," the robot retorted.

Sonic instantly looked offended. "Tails, dismantle that thing right now!" he demanded. "I do not need to go on a diet..."

"Hang on a second, Sonic, this robot is far too advanced to just disassemble," Tails responded to the teenage hedgehog. "Let me just shut him down for a while..." The twin-tailed fox started tinkering with the back of the hedgebot's head before the robot fell limp. "There!" the fox announced, attempting to lift the hedgebot up. Due to the struggle, Sonic felt that it was best if he was the one to pick up the machine.

"Let's head back," Sonic said. Once earning a nod from Tails, the blue blur sped off with his fox friend following close behind him.

...

In the workshop, Tails was investigating all of the files he had found stored within Sniper's database. Currently Sonic was not with him as he could never find the patience to watch Tails do his work, so Tails was working on the metal hedgehog by himself. So far he had found nothing useful, but he was rather persistant. He had to discover something or else he would have wasted far too much of his time.

"Hm..." the young fox muttered as he searched through the database. Still nothing useful. "You really are a strange one..."

The silver hedgebot had reactivated not long after arriving at Tails' workshop, but currently he was wearing a metallic collar which currently had a red light glowing as if it was the precious jewel of a necklace. The collar, however, was by no means a fashion accessory. It prevented the mechanical hedgehog from using any of his abilities, disabling his boosters and lasers. Tails also had a remote by his side in case the hedgebot tried to attack him hand-to-hand, and pressing the buttons on this particular remote would electrocute the machine and hopefully stop him from trying to resist.

Tails' blue eyes glanced in the 'bot's direction, seeing a pair of glowing orange eyes staring right back at him. "I'm guessing you're a very recent piece of technology, Metal Sniper," the fox said, having learned the name of the robot when browsing through his database. Metal Sniper looked confused upon hearing Tails speak his name, but then frowned slightly.

"Yeah, what of it?" the hedgebot grumbled in response.

"Nothing's wrong with it, I was just clarifying it," Tails replied. "Anyway, now that you're being a little more cooperative, would you like to tell me about yourself? Your files are difficult to get into."

Metal Sniper huffed and folded his arms, rolling his eyes to exaggerate his disbelief towards Tails' question. "You honestly think I'm gonna just tell you everything about myself?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well... yeah..." Tails responded nervously. "You are kinda being held hostage, y'know."

Once again, Sniper huffed. "Tch. I'm not being held hostage!" he assured confidently. "I'm just... getting to know the neighbourhood." The young robot extended his hand, gesturing for a handshake. "Hi, I'm your new neighbour, by the way."

Tails stared at the machine oddly. "...I see," was all he could say in response. "...Moving on... Let's talk about your creator. It was Doctor Eggman, correct?"

"Maaaaybe," Sniper responded in an almost playful tone of voice. Tails was already beginning to dislike the robot, but was actually fascinated at his level of personality. No robot had ever been this animated with its expressions; it was almost as if Sniper was just a regular organic.

"...I'll just take that as a yes," Tails decided. "You look like the sorta robot Eggman would build, but did he intend to make you so... alive?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Sniper answered. Tails narrowed his eyes, still not too amused with Sniper's behaviour.

"You should probably just answer my questions or else I'll get Sonic in here," he threatened. "And trust me, he likes trashing robots like you."

Sniper just laughed. "How adorable! You're not strong enough to "trash" me yourself, so you need Sonic to do it for ya!" The robot burst out laughing, incredibly amused by Tails' threat. Tails, however, was the direct opposite. He did not like the fact that this robot was already feeling the confidence to mock him.

Wait... He was feeling the confidence.

Feeling.

Robots couldn't feel. Not even Eggman's most advanced machines had feelings. Only E-102 Gamma was able to express some kind of emotion, and E-123 Omega was just starting to slowly grasp the idea of emotion by starting off with curiosity. Sniper, however, was a new robot who was just so... emotive.

Could this really have been intentional?

Tails managed to keep calm, even with this childish robot laughing at him like this. "Y'know, you're the first emotional robot I've ever seen," he stated.

Sniper immediately stopped laughing and stared at Tails, his mouth hung open in offence. "Who are you calling emotional?!" he reacted. Tails just shook his head.

"You know what I mean," he responded. "Now please, I'd find it incredibly useful if you just answered my questions. I want to know more about you."

"Well, I don't want you to know more about me," Sniper retorted, smirking smugly. Tails grit his teeth, now looking quite frustrated. But just as he began to grew annoyed with the hedgebot, Sonic dashed into the room.

"Hey, lil' buddy! What's up? Find anything out about this hunk of metal?" the blue blur asked.

"Nothing much," Tails sighed as Sniper walked over to Sonic and began inspecting him. "He's being rather... stubborn."

Sonic looked uncomfortable with this hedgebot looking him up and down. "How so?" he queried, trying his best to sound casual as he kept a cautious eye on Sniper. "I didn't think robots had it in them to refuse orders."

"Yeah, well, Metal Sniper is different," Tails confirmed.

Sniper stopped inspecting Sonic and sharply turned his head to face the young fox. "That's Sniper to you, fox-boy!" he snapped.

"...See what I mean?" Tails asked Sonic, sounding discreetly irritated.

"I can see it now," Sonic answered. "Man, Eggman really did make this one advanced with emotion simulators, didn't he? ...Eggman built this thing, right?"

"I'm pretty sure Eggman built him, yes," Tails assumed. "But I don't think he wanted Sniper to behave like this, and I don't think these emotions are just simulations, either."

Sonic just laughed. "What are you talking about, Tails? Of course they're simulations!" he insisted with confidence. "Robots don't feel emotions!"

Sniper listened to Sonic's words, putting his hands on his hips. "Hey, shut your mouth!" he demanded. Sonic only continued to laugh.

"This is too funny! Egghead actually made him have a bad temper!" he continued, seeing the hedgebot clench his fists in frustration.

"Again, I don't think Eggman wanted him to be like this..." Tails muttered.

"'Him'?" Sonic asked, his laughter slowly dying down. "Tails, that thing is just a walking weapon; a tool created by Baldy McNosehair. It's not a 'he', it's an 'it'." Sonic walked right over to Sniper, smirking a little upon seeing how offended the machine looked. "This new toy of Eggman's has the same amount of emotions and thoughts as my toaster - and by that, I mean it has none at all. Because robots are machines, and machines cannot think, feel or do anything for themselves. They are just weapons with legs. And even scrappy here knows that."

Sniper grew more and more angered with each word, almost throwing himself at Sonic to actually follow one of his initial objectives: Destroy Sonic. But the robot restrained himself and only stared up at the blue hedgehog in silence, a look of pure hatred in his eyes as he frowned.

Sonic could only chuckle at Sniper's silence, taking this as a sign that he was right. "See? It can't even process anything I just said to it," he pointed out. "It's just a broken robot, Tails. Maybe we should just make it into something useful. Like a waffle maker. Or a microwave."

Tails glanced at Sniper, feeling somewhat sympathetic when he recognized the pure rage in his orange LED eyes. Yet Sniper wasn't acting the same around Sonic; he was quiet. He was serious (right now, at least). Perhaps Sniper would have attacked Sonic immediately if it weren't for his collar, but Tails couldn't be sure that Sniper would ever react in such a way. After all, he knew so little about what he was actually like. So far all that could be seen of the hedgebot was that he had an incredibly childish personality. Tails wanted to find out about Sniper's motives, whether they were orders given to him by his creator or not, and he wanted to find out what exactly went through Sniper's mind. Yes, Tails would describe Sniper's main database as a "mind" because the robot clearly was thinking independently. Or that's how it seemed, at least.

"...I don't think turning him into anything would be necessary right now, Sonic," the fox chuckled awkwardly after his brief pause. "Maybe I can reprogramme him or something. You go out and pass the time, Sonic; I'll tell you if I ever find anything out about this robot."

"You go ahead and do that, but be careful," Sonic warned. "Whether those emotions are simulated or not, it's clear that this 'bot is more advanced than the majority of Eggman's badniks."

Tails only chuckled softly. "Don't worry too much about me, Sonic; that collar he's wearing should keep him under control."

"You sure he can't take it off?" Sonic asked, sounding slightly worried.

"When have I ever been wrong about my inventions?" Tails smiled proudly, causing Sonic to laugh softly.

"Okay, Tails, I believe ya," he concluded. "I just don't wanna see you get hurt."

"C'mon, Sonic, you and I have both seen worse," Tails reminded. "We've battled the baddest bad guys around. I think I know what I'm doing with this 'bot."

"If you say so," Sonic replied, looking over at Sniper. Sniper finally seemed to return to behaving in a childish manner, grinning nervously as he put his hands behind his back when spotting Sonic's green eyes staring right at him. Sonic's eyes narrowed, but he shook his head. "I'll see you later on, lil' buddy," Sonic last said before dashing out of the small building.

Once Sonic had left, Tails turned back to face Sniper. Sniper turned his head to look at Tails before frowning.

"What?" the robot asked. "What're you looking at me for?"

Tails could only chuckle. He really did find Sniper's personality fascinating, even if he did hate the robot's actual rudeness. It was amazing to see a robot with so much life compared to what had been seen in the past.

But while Tails may have found Sniper's personality interesting, other inventors did not think the same way.

...

"Oh dear, Cubot. The doctor has damaged this poor robot's head again. Look: it has a dent."

"Wow! That's some dent you got there, rookie! Looks a lot like a wrench hit; I've had a few of those myself!"

"Guys, I'm fine. It's not like I feel pain."

"Yes, but head dents can cause malfunctions."

"Yeah! I'm pretty sure my first head dent left me with a permanent malfunction!"

"Exactly. And you don't want to end up like Cubot, do you? Here, allow me to fix you..."

"Really, Orbot, I'm okay. I can fix it myself."

"That's a terrible idea! You could loosen a wire or damage a computer chip!"

"It's no big deal. I'd be getting dents all the time if I was out fighting like the other badniks."

"But you're not out fighting like them because you're defective. That's why you only stay in the base."

"Yeah! And you make it fun 'round here, too!"

"Even though your games do get us into a lot of trouble..."

"Only if we get caught red-handed! And that rarely happens!"

"Don't encourage him too much, Cubot..."

"Why not? He's only been active for a week, I don't wanna drag his hopes and dreams down just yet!"

"I don't think he has hopes and dreams..."

"Yes, I do."

"Really? Well, that's a first. Most robots just act according to their programming, even when they are defects."

"Stop calling me a defect..."

"My apologies."

"Should we go and tidy up the office? I'm sure Doctor Eggman would appreciate us if we start doing chores without his commands..."

"Perhaps so."

"Yeah! Let's try it! I'd like some good ol' appreciation for once!"

"We'll tidy the office once we fix that dent of yours, Metal Sniper. It will only take a few minutes."

"Fine..."

"Oh, and while we repair you, do tell us about these "hopes and dreams" you think you have."

"You'll listen to me?"

"Of course we will, kid! But don't rely on me to remember a single word you say!"

"...What Cubot is trying to say is that we will listen to you because your dreams are probably very interesting. I myself have one or two dreams, but some robots - such as Cubot - do not have the ability to dream."

"Well, that's sad..."

"It truly is. Now come on; we need to fix you before the doctor gets angry with all three of us."

"You're the best, guys..."

~End of Chapter~