~That Machine~

"You've been awfully quiet for the past few minutes, Sniper," Tails acknowledged as he continued to browse through the hedgebot's files on the computer. He caught sight of the robot folding his arms.

"That's because I'm bored," Sniper muttered quietly.

"Bored?" Tails queried, wondering if that's what Sniper truly was feeling; a robot being "bored" was unheard of.

"Yeah. Bored," Sniper repeated.

"I see," the young fox reacted awkwardly, trying to think of something for the captive hedgebot to do. "...Well... What do you wanna do...? I mean, you can't really do anything which involves leaving this room or hurting people, but I guess you can find something to do."

"Like what?" Sniper scoffed, his attitude being an overall impatient and rude one. "If you ask me this whole workshop look boring. It's full of boring stuff. Tools, blueprints, computers... These are all things which contradict the whole idea of 'fun'."

"Actually, my hobbies usually involve tools and computers," Tails corrected. "So to me, this whole room is a big play area."

Sniper huffed. "You're more boring than Doctor Eggman," he grumbled.

"A-ha! I knew Doctor Eggman was your creator, I just knew it!" Tails exclaimed gleefully.

"Tch. Wasn't it obvious?" Sniper asked rhetorically. "Seriously, who else builds killer robots around here? Were you honestly having doubts about Eggman being my creator?"

"I wouldn't say you live up to the whole 'killer robot' name..." Tails mumbled, mainly to himself. "And I wasn't having doubts, I just prefer it when information is confirmed."

The metallic hedgehog grinned as Tails continued his work. "Then I guess you and I are gonna have quite a few problems becoming friends," he concluded. Tails gave him a confusing glance.

"Huh?" was the sound that came out of the fox's mouth.

"I won't confirm any information if I can help it," Sniper explained. "Everything will be for me to know and for you to find out."

Tails frowned a little and rolled his eyes. Despite Sniper's personality being incredibly fascinating, he was still annoying and rude. He was deliberately going to be uncooperative just to watch Tails struggle.

Perhaps that was his idea of fun.

...

Sonic sprinted through the nearby plains, feeling the wind upon his face. This was a great way for him to pass the time; it was relaxing and fun at the same time. Sonic smiled and inhaled deeply while he ran, breathing in the fresh air. He exhaled loudly before picking up speed to dash even faster than he already was doing. Right now Sonic felt as though he could care for nothing else in the world; he just wanted to run.

But Sonic was suddenly snapped out of his little world. A laser was fired at him from above, hitting the ground beside him but causing him to stumble due to the impact. Sonic slowed down and tumbled a little, but didn't fall to the floor. The blue hedgehog skidded to a halt and turned to face behind him, only to find himself face-to-face with a primarily violet hedgebot. Like Sniper, this robot had a rather expressive face. Something about the robot's build and expression made it appear more feminine than masculine, but despite it having this girly appearance, it still seemed highly dangerous.

At first Sonic scowled at the new hedgebot which had appeared before him, but was quick to grin smugly. "Heh heh. Eggman's created a new series of toys, hasn't he?" he guessed. "What does he call you guys? 'The Robots With Smiley Faces'? You are the only ones I've seen with mouths, after all."

The violet robot narrowed her eyes, her pink irises blaring to show her anger. Sonic laughed at her reaction. "What's the matter? Got nothing to say?" he mocked. "You're not like the other 'bot I came across; he wouldn't shut up."

Still, this hedgebot continued to glower at Sonic, but suddenly perked up as if she had heard something in the distance. Sonic tilted his head at her posture, but flinched when the mechanical hedgehog vanished in a flash of light. While vanishing, Sonic sensed a very faint wave of Chaos energy. He immediately came to a conclusion because of the brief sensation he felt.

"Chaos energy...? That must mean Eggman has harnessed the power of the Chaos Emeralds..." the blue blur theorized. "That robot is obviously being powered or enhanced by that energy, and it seemed like it was able to perform 'Chaos Control'." Sonic frowned in a slightly serious manner. "I should tell Tails about this..."

Having decided that informing Tails about this new robot was the best idea, Sonic sped off back towards Tails' workshop. He wasn't too worried about the robot itself, but was more worried about Eggman's power. It was likely that Eggman had the Chaos Emeralds, but on the other hand it was also possible that he had only copied their data from a previous sample of their energy. After all, Eggman had retrieved the Emeralds many times, so it was likely that he had come up with a way to copy the power of the Emeralds to power his latest machines; maybe what Sonic had sensed wasn't Chaos energy at all, but instead it was artificial energy.

...

Tails sat with an irritated frown on his face as Sniper sat slouched in and old chair. The robot was casually throwing a wrench into the air and catching it absentmindedly, but when Tails did attempt to take the tool from him he ended up becoming very possessive.

"Mine," was the word Tails recalled hearing him mutter.

But luckily for the young fox, Sonic was quick to return. Tails guessed that he was back to hear about the progress he had made, but truth be told no progress had actually been made at all. The young mechanic let out a heavy sigh as he turned around, ready to speak, but found himself being cut off by his hedgehog friend.

"Sniper's not the only new robot of Eggman's," he announced. "I just ran into another one of his toys. It didn't put up much of a fight; it ran away before anything could actually happen."

"Another robot?" Tails questioned. "Are you sure it belonged to Eggman? Eggman's not the only person who can build robots around here."

"Trust me, Tails, I've seen enough of his tech to be able to recognize his work," Sonic clarified. "Even if his work has gotten... better."

Tails seemed concerned. "If you're the one admitting that Eggman's building better robots, then something serious must be going on," he figured out.

It was at that moment that Sonic turned to look over at Sniper, the hedgebot who was still casually throwing a wrench up into the air and catching it. The speedster narrowed his green eyes and pointed an accusing finger at the machine.

"Alright, you'd better start talking, bolt-head, or else I'll have you scrapped in no time!" he threatened. The threat barely seemed to phase Sniper, but he did stop throwing the wrench to show that he had indeed heard what Sonic had said. Sonic knew that Sniper wasn't going to react much more to what he had said, so he decided to continue speaking. "C'mon, you've gotta know something! What is Egghead up to? And why is he suddenly building advanced machines such as yourself and that other thing I bumped into?"

"It's none of your business," Sniper huffed in response, looking away from Sonic in an ignorant manner as he started throwing the wrench up into the air again. "...It's none of mine either, actually."

Sonic scowled and zipped in front of Sniper catching the wrench. Sniper hadn't even't noticed Sonic's sudden appearance, so he flexed his metallic fingers as if he was about to catch the wrench. Realising that he had caught nothing, he flexed his fingers a few mor times before staring at his empty hand, then looking up at the blue hedgehog. His LED eyes flickered two times as if he was blinking in confusion before he pouted childishly.

"You'd better start talking, scrappy," Sonic insisted dangerously. The comment merely made Sniper fold his arms.

"Well, I don't want to start talking," he shot back.

"What you "want" is out of the question," Sonic stated.

Sniper suddenly had an excitable yet cheeky expression on his face as he grinned. "Ohhhh I see what this is," he reacted. "You're interrogating me, aren't you?"

"Yes!" Sonic snapped, finding the robot to be incredibly annoying. "Urgh! Did Eggman deliberately give you the power to annoy people to death?!"

"Maybe," Sniper muttered under his breath as he wore a tiny smirk on his face.

"Gah! Why did I even ask...?" Sonic responded, disappointed in himself for practically encouraging the robot to behave so smugly. Sniper only kept his smirk on his face.

"I doubt Sniper will give us any answers, judging by his attitude..." Tails clarified as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah, the attitude that robots shouldn't have," Sonic expanded, shooting Sniper a glare as he made his point.

"Look. Sniper won't help us, but we don't need him to," Tails explained. "Eggman will no doubt reveal his 'Brilliant Plan' when he finally faces us, but by then we would have already taken out most of these robots. I mean, you are still Sonic the Hedgehog, after all; the hero who always saves the day from Doctor Eggman."

Sonic grinned at the praise Tails was giving him, his hands on his hips. "I wish I heard you say it like that every day," he responded. Tails just let out a sigh and rolled his eyes as he turned back to his computer.

"You should go back out there to look for more of those robots," he stated.

"What? And leave you on your own with Metal Diaper-wearer here?" Sonic questioned, not comfortable with the idea of leaving Tails with a literal living weapon.

"I'll be fine; right now Sniper is as harmless as a Chao," Tails assured with a smile on his face. "

"Is there no way to mute him or anything?" Sonic queried. "His voice synthesizer is the most annoying feature of his. I guess Eggman finally realized that I prefer robots that don't talk back to me when I insult them."

Tails chuckled. "Maybe that is why Sniper here has the ability to talk," he agreed. "Hopefully I can find out more about this lil' guy while you're gone; the files I have downloaded from his database are very cryptic."

"Only you can solve the mystery behind files like that, buddy," Sonic admitted. "You are the tech-king, after all."

"Tech-king?" Tails repeated, shaking his head a little as he continued his computer work. "That's a new one."

Sonic laughed quietly. "I'll come back later, okay?" he replied. "Hopefully when I return I'll have a bunch of spare parts for you to use for your gadgets and gizmos, or I'll just bring you back some robot parts which you can analyse or something."

"Hm... Whichever suits you best, Sonic," Tails chuckled, knowing that Sonic would most likely destroy any robot without saving a critical part. The fox heard the sound of Sonic once again darting out of the workshop, but the breeze which followed Sonic's exit ended up blowing some of Tails' paperwork into the air. Tails frowned at this, only to be more infuriated by Sniper's laughter. The young fox let out a heavy sigh as he proceeded to tidy up.

~End of Chapter~