Chapter 2: Metal Sonic PT 2
The next day, Sir Topham Hatt arrived to give the engines some more duties, well not all of them. Thomas, Henry and James were left in the sheds and they were both awake.
"Morning James." Thomas greeted.
"Morning Thomas, you plan on showing off that robot again?" James giggled.
"I don't have to, he can go out on his own you know. But he's probably still recharging." Thomas said.
Henry looked at Metal Sonic who was sitting in Thomas' cab.
"Hmm, hey Thomas, don't you think it's strange how his name is Metal Sonic. Almost like he's supposed to be some kind of robotic version of someone." Henry said.
"Yeah I thought it was strange too. But I'm not bothered by it, hopefully soon he can continue that mission...whatever it is." Thomas said.
"What if he's bad Thomas, after all, he doesn't even look friendly." James asked.
"Oh come on, if he was bad, he wouldn't have befriended us." Thomas scoffed.
"Suit yourself, but if you're wrong, Sir Topham Hatt will be very cross." James said.
Thomas looked down in thought, he hoped he could trust Metal.
Meanwhile at G.U.N. HQ...
Shadow and Rouge were talking alone while the GUN agents were talking about the latest mission.
"So the robot got away huh? Why am I not surprised?" Rouge chuckled.
"Hmph, we could've gone after him. But there would be no point, he was bound to go offline anyway." Shadow scoffed.
"Sure, as many times as he's been defeated by Sonic and rebuilt, it would be no surprise if he comes back." Rouge said.
Shadow said nothing and thought about changing the subject when a GUN agent walked towards them.
"Agents Rouge and Shadow, the commander has found a signal on a chaos emerald on an island. You need to take Omega with you." The agent handed Rouge the envelop.
"Hmm, the Island of Sodor huh? Very well, maybe I could find some jewels while I'm there." Rouge said.
Shadow crossed his arms and shook his head with shame. She was never gonna stop was she? Just as Omega came over, Shadow took out his green chaos emerald and chaos controlled them there.
Back on Sodor...
Team Dark arrive by a long stretch of track which was part of the main line. They look around seeing nobody there.
"It's a little quiet...too quiet." Rouge figured.
Omega did a scan of the island.
"This island is equally divided by meatbags and other robotics...sentient robotics...I think I just found what you would call my "Happy Place"." Omega used his claws to air quote the setting.
"Interesting, now to find some valuable stuff." Rouge smirked.
Shadow allowed a small smile to creep onto his face.
"I assume you're gonna ask for help, or search the scrap yard?" Shadow turned his head to her.
"Shut up Shadow, I don't need help to find jewels, In fact I-"
Rouge is cut off when they heard Gordon's whistle, the big blue engine came into view pulling the express. The three were rather surprised to see how sentient the engine was due to it having a face. Gordon didn't seem to notice them as he raced by with 4 express coaches.
"Woah, he's pretty big. You got competition Omega." Rouge looked up at the robot.
Omega clenched his claws into fists and he looked to the sky.
"I shall investigate these inferior robots myself." Omega said.
Before Shadow or Rouge could argue, Omega flew off into the distance.
"Are you sure having Omega go off by himself is a good idea?" Rouge asked.
"No...but we'd cover more ground so we can find the chaos emerald." Shadow decided.
"Fine, just don't get lost." Rouge teased.
Shadow said nothing before skating away. Meanwhile, Percy was out at the quarry helping Mavis sort out some trucks into sidings. The trucks didn't want to be shunted and were giving them a hard time.
"Come on you silly trucks, we have a lot of work to do here." Percy groaned.
"NO! NO! WE DON'T WANT TO!" The trucks argued.
"Ugh." Percy said.
Mavis came over looking exhausted.
"You too huh?" Mavis chuckled.
"Yeah, it's such a bother...but I can manage." Percy assured.
Rouge had flown by and used her Treasure Scope to search for any hidden jewels in the rocks. Using her feet she began to dig through different walls of rocks and found a few large jewels.
"Hmm, these will do. But I'm sure there's more." Rouge looked around.
She spotted Percy and Mavis working and Percy was still struggling with the trucks, they wouldn't budge and the siding was not that far away.
"I guess he's in need of some extra muscle." Rouge thought.
She flew down with her massive strength she kicked the front troublesome truck into the others and they all went straight into the siding and slammed into each other. The trucks were dazed and confused.
"Woah, thanks for your help! Who are you?" Percy asked.
"I'm Rouge the bat, but just call me Rouge. And you are?" Rouge asked landing on her feet.
"I'm Percy, we don't get many mobians around here." Percy said.
It was true that then engines were aware of mobians but none lived on the island. Mavis came over after finally getting her trucks in place.
"Excellent work, I saw the whole thing. So what's a mobian doing around here?" Mavis asked.
"Oh I'm just a treasure hunter looking for some nice jewels to collect, and I've already found a few." Rouge said.
"I bet there are a lot of valuable items around the island." Percy said.
This intrigued Rouge, and while she usually never needed help...it wouldn't hurt to have someone tag along.
"Well then sweetie, would you like to help me?" Rouge smirked.
"Sure, I'm finished with my job. What are you going to do Mavis?" Percy asked.
"I have to rest, but you have fun." Mavis said before leaving.
"Alright, see ya!"
Rouge sat on Percy's deck as Percy whistled and left the quarry to help find more valuable objects. Back with Omega, he flew over the island looking down on all the engines, vehicles and humans working together on their jobs. He felt what others called "Jealous" that there were more robotic being around unlike at Station Square where it was just him and those pathetic GUN robots who he felt were useless. He thought it was strange how the engines actually enjoyed working, yet seemed sad whenever something went wrong. These beings apparently were not fond of destroying like he was.
"These robots are much more confusing than Gamma or any of the robots before me. Where are their weapons? Can they fly? Can they feel pain?"
Omega had all those questions in his head until he noticed Harold the Helicopter flying ahead of him.
"Okay so some can fly...he must be one of the lucky ones." Omega figured.
He finally flew over Tidmouth Sheds thinking it was some kind of base. James had already left leaving Thomas and Henry behind who were back to sleeping. Metal Sonic was just awakening when he saw Omega walking over to Henry. Metal Sonic didn't panic and instead stayed hidden, he knew he would blow his chances if Omega spotted him. If there was one thing Omega would get totally wrong, it would be the number identification. Omega thought that the higher the number, the more superior you were..so to him...Thomas must have been the most powerful since he was #1. But first he awoke Henry who was rather shocked to see the bigger robot in front of him.
"Large green robot, identify yourself." Omega demanded.
"I'm Henry...who are you?" Henry asked.
"I am E-123 Omega, agent of G.U.N., we are looking for a chaos emerald." Omega explained.
"Um...what's a chaos emerald?" Henry asked.
"I do not expect you to know that at all. What I am more interested in is how that little blue robot gained superiority." Omega pointed to the sleeping Thomas.
"Thomas is strong...but he's not the strongest." Henry admitted.
"You're covering for him!" Omega accused Henry.
"What?"
"Thomas is obviously the most powerful, AND I WILL CHALLENGE HIM!" Omega raised his voice.
This woke up Thomas who looked around almost in a panic.
"WHO-WHAT-WHERE...oh you're new!" Thomas said.
"Thomas, I challenge you for title of superior machine!" Omega walked in front of him.
"Um what? What kind of challenge?" Thomas asked.
Omega examined him all over while Metal Sonic had to hide under him. When Omega was finished, he went back in front of him.
"A race!"
Thomas could sense this would be much more difficult than his races with Bertie. He felt very intimidated with the hulking robot towering over him. Metal Sonic had sneaked back into the cab and growled.
"I got to get rid of him." Metal Sonic thought.
"Thomas, he's from G.U.N., you better be very careful." Henry told him.
"Do you accept...Thomas?" Omega asked.
What choice did he have, he figured the robot would do something to him if he refused.
"Okay...but to where?" Thomas asked.
Henry had an idea.
"How about to the quarry? It's a pretty long way from here and it will give you a bit of a fair chance." Henry said.
Omega scanned the island again to find the Quarry and found it.
"Reasonable finish, very well. Let's begin!" Omega said.
Omega gave Thomas a 10 second head start before they raced away from the sheds. Omega flew in the air next to him.
"GO THOMAS!" Henry shouted.
But Omega didn't plan to play very fair, but neither was Metal Sonic. He finally revealed himself by racing up beside Thomas, Omega wasn't that surprised.
"Looks like I'll be showing you both who the better robot is." Omega said.
Metal Sonic's red eyes glowed angrily leaving Thomas unaware that he had just stepped between the robot showdown. With Shadow, he was following the signal to where the chaos emerald was while skating beside the main line. He zipped by a few stations and people who didn't expect to see him. Shadow could care less about anything that was going on around here, he was just worried about finding the emerald. Engines like Edward, Toby and even Donald and Douglas were surprised by the black and red hedgehog.
"Hmm, I must be getting close. The signal is very strong." Shadow said.
At one point he passed by Percy and Rouge who were still collecting jewels. Rouge had just found a few more by the windmill.
"Wow...so many jewels. I'll have to come by here more often." Rouge said.
"That would be nice." Percy smiled.
Rouge smiled back at him, maybe this place wouldn't be so bad to use as a vacation spot. Shadow caught up with Gordon who bragged to himself about how fast he was. But he was silenced when Shadow raced by without a word.
"Whoa...who's that?" Gordon wondered.
Shadow was somehow completely oblivious to Thomas, Omega and Metal Sonic who were still racing nearby. Omega was rather impressed by Thomas' speed, he must have practiced. But Thomas was now conflicted, Omega had tried to explain to Thomas that Metal Sonic was evil, but Metal Sonic tried to say that Omega was the enemy. Seeing the conversation getting nowhere, the robots eventually decided to settle it once and for all, a battle race. Omega transformed his hands into guns and started to shoot at Metal who fired some lazers back. Thomas began to panic.
"Is this really necessary?" Thomas asked.
"YES!" The robots said.
Metal Sonic tried to land a punch to Omega who blocked it and kicked him away. Metal Sonic tried to shoot more lazers but Omega ducked behind Thomas and the lazer shot hit Thomas's side instead.
"OW!" Thomas yelled.
"Sorry." Metal said.
The three raced passed Percy and Rouge who were surprised.
"THOMAS?" Percy gasped.
"So Metal was here all along. Interesting, Percy let's follow them." Rouge said.
"Right!"
Shadow finally found the location of the chaos emerald which was buried within the coal of James' tender. James was on his way to the docks when Shadow jumped straight into his cab startling his driver and fireman. The fireman was just about to shovel some more coal into in the firebox and that pile just happened to have the blue emerald.
"Hand over the emerald." Shadow demanded.
The fireman did so without hesitation before Shadow tried to locate Rouge and Omega.
"Rouge! Come in Rouge, where are you?" Shadow asked.
"Chasing down Omega and Metal Sonic who are racing Thomas." Rouge said.
"Who the hell is-"
Before Shadow could finish, he could see the chase up ahead.
"Nevermind."
Shadow leaped out of the cab and raced ahead surprising James.
"Whoa...things are getting stranger all the time." James thought.
Metal and Omega were busy duking it out right on top of Thomas as if he was an arena. Percy and Rouge had caught up and were trying to assist.
"THOMAS WHAT'S GOING ON?" Percy asked.
"I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE!" Thomas shouted.
Shadow raced up.
"I GOT THE EMERALD!" Shadow held it up.
"Nice work, now what about Omega?" Rouge pointed ahead.
Shadow saw the robots fighting on top of Thomas and decided to join in.
"CHAOS SPEAR!"
Shadow fired some spears at Metal who barely had any time to dodge them. Omega fired at him but missed and ended up destroying the tracks ahead. Seeing no switches up ahead, Shadow had an idea.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
Everyone is teleported over the broken track and the battle race continues.
"Um Omega, you mind not destroying the island as much as you probably want to?" Rouge groaned.
"ENOUGH!" Omega yelled.
He turned to Thomas.
"Thomas, this isn't over!"
He turned to Metal and tackled him into the sky and the two spiral away far into the distance.
"You engines stay away, we'll finish this." Rouge said.
Thomas and Percy stop while Shadow and Rouge chase after the robots. James arrived looking as horrified as they were.
"Did I just see what I thought I did?" James asked.
"Yep." Thomas and Percy both answered.
The robots continued to battle each other but Metal was simply trying to get away. He needed Thomas to understand, but had to deal with Omega first. They were heading straight for the docks where Cranky was busy unloading some more crates, Metal saw his chance. Metal flew passed Cranky just barely dodging a very large crate he was carrying. But Omega didn't dodge in time.
WHAM!
Omega is smacked by the crate and flung back giving Metal the chance to fly away and escape. Omega crashes into the ground hard damaging more tracks. As he got up, he saw Shadow and Rouge standing there with a disapproving glare. Thomas and Percy arrived.
"Everyone alright?" Thomas asked.
"Where's Metal?" Percy asked.
"We're fine but Metal got away." Rouge said.
"Lucky." Omega grumbled.
"Come on we got what we've came for." Shadow said.
"Wait Shadow." Rouge said.
Rouge walked straight over to Percy and kissed him on the cheek and he blushed.
"Thanks for the jewels, I'll be back for more." Rouge winked.
"And we will finish our challenge Thomas." Omega vowed.
"Hmph...they'll never change. CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted.
Team Dark leave while Thomas smiles at Percy.
"Again?" Thomas smirked.
"You get used to it." Percy said.
Finally Metal comes back and stands in front of Thomas.
"Thomas...I'm sorry for lying to you. I just needed a place to lay low until Sonic and the others stopped looking for me." Metal said.
But Thomas smiled.
"Evil or not, you were a great help and a good friend." Thomas said.
"You'll come back someday right?" Percy asked.
Metal was mentally happy that Thomas had forgiven him, as for coming back?
"Maybe...if I find the time." Metal said.
"Well...I guess this is goodbye for now." Thomas figured.
"Indeed...and thank you." Metal said.
"For what?" Thomas asked.
"For showing me part of the world."
This made Thomas smile big. Metal nodded once before taking off into the sky leaving the island.
"Farewell Thomas the tank engine...I will see you again...someday..."
End of ARC 1
To be continued in ARC 2: Island of Camelot...
So ARC 1 is finished finally. And now for ARC 2, the evil King Arthur is revived and ends up on Sodor...will Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table defeat him once again? Stay tuned!