~Enemy~

(Current Year: 1993)

Metal had awakened from his sleep-mode once again. So far, so good. He hadn't had to fight that hedgehog yet. All robots were in there chambers as Metal was, as always, the first to wake up. The only robot he didn't see was Mecha. 'Strange…' Metal thought. Since nobody else was awake yet, he decided to go and look for him.

There was no sign of the tall robot hedgehog anywhere. Metal then saw Ivo walking around. "Master," he said, walking over to him. "Where is Mecha?"

"Hm?" Ivo asked.

"The tall blue robot hedgehog that is nicknamed 'Mecha Sonic'," Metal described.

"Oh right… That robot…" Ivo said nervously. "You see… I had to have him… dismantled…"

"Why?" Metal asked, shocked and angry.

"He had no purpose anymore and was defective," Ivo explained. "There was nothing else I could do with him."

Metal didn't know how to respond. He never really saw Mecha Sonic as his "friend", but he didn't hate him. This event seemed to make Metal angry because of the loss of a robot, sad because of the same reason and scared in case it might happen to him. Anything he was told to do, he was going to do. There was no way some "defectiveness" was going to stop him.

Frightened, Metal eventually responded with: "Whatever I must do, Master, I will do. And I will not become defective and purposeless. I swear."

"That's what I want to hear!" Ivo praised. "A robot full of confidence and determination! I think you may have a number of possibilities within you. And by that, I mean much more than just being Callie's guardian."

"What possibilities do you think I have?" Metal asked, curious.

"I'll decide later after I look at your blueprints," Ivo replied. "You can just run along now."

Metal nodded once to show respect and then left. He was still in shock over what had happened to Mecha, but was trying to shake it off. He had to worry about himself – he didn't want the same fate.

Metal then saw Callie sitting on top of a workbench, kicking her legs quite happily, nodding her head to the side as she did. Metal walked over to her.

"You're up early," Metal said.

Callie looked at him. "I know," she replied, smiling. "So are you. Usually you're a sleepy-head."

"No, I'm not!" Metal argued immaturely, putting his hands on his hips. Where his hips would be, anyway.

"Yes, you are!" Callie laughed.

"No, I'm not!" Metal repeated, playing along.

"Sleepy-head! Sleepy-head!" Callie taunted, still laughing.

"Come here, you!" Metal said, picking Callie up as she laughed madly. He spun around once with her in his arms. He then put her down on the floor. Callie then hugged him.

"I love you, Metal…" she said cutely.

Metal hugged back. "I love you, too," he responded. "Now, how about we go and do some painting?"

"Yay!" Callie cheered, immediately running to her Play Room, where she had all of her stuff to do in the day – including painting. Metal would have smiled, walking behind her. He was quite far behind since she was running.

Arriving, Metal could see that Callie had already clipped the paper on the stand and was painting away with her paintbrush. He crouched down beside her.

"What are you painting?" Metal asked.

"You as a fairy princess," Callie answered as she painted, giggling.

"Is that supposed to be my long blonde hair?" asked Metal, pointing at the long line of yellow paint down the side of what must have been his head.

"Yes," Callie nodded, still a little giggly. "And I still need to do your pretty pink dress and wings!"

"Of course, how could you forget my dress!" Metal said, almost as if he had forgotten, too.

Callie laughed and painted his pink dress on, then his pink high-heel shoes and some blue fairy wings, Finally she drew the pink wand with the yellow stay at the end, doing yellow dots around it so that it looked like fairy dust. The area around was just a blue sky with black birds and white clouds. "I'm finished~!" Callie announced.

Metal looked at the painting. "Wow, you are some artist, Callie!" Metal praised. "I think you should put that one up on the wall with the others."

"Okay~!" Callie chirped, taking the clip from the board so she could take off the picture, then clipping the clip back on once she had the picture in her hands. Callie then got some blue-tack and stuck a little ball of it on each of the four corners on the back of the painting. Finally she ran over to the wall, stood on her tip-toes and stuck the painting on the wall. She then relaxed back on her feet.

"It looks beautiful there, Callie," Metal commented.

"Thank you," Callie accepted.

Again Metal would have smiled, until he heard the intercom tuning in.

"Metal, I need you over here – alone," Ivo said through it. The intercom was then turned off.

Metal looked at Callie. "You just keep painting in here until I get back, okay?" he instructed.

"Okay, Metal," Callie replied.

"Good girl," Metal said, ruffling her hair, which was now growing a little. He then turned around and left the room.

Metal arrived at Ivo's office. "You called, Master?" he said.

Ivo looked at him. "Metal, I know you're not going to like this, but you're going to have to become the next rival of Sonic," he explained.

"Can't you just build a new robot?" Metal questioned.

"I did," Ivo answered. "But he went wrong. His name was going to be Steel Sonic. Now I've just left him incomplete in my Scraps Room until I can decide what to do with him. I can't risk making that mistake again."

"What makes you think that I won't make a similar mistake?" Metal asked.

"You already look like Sonic and already have some attacks in your hardware," Ivo replied. "I just need to improve the attacks and add some new ones."

"I don't look like Sonic," Metal corrected. "Sonic looks like me."

Ivo sighed. "Just come with me to the Upgrades Room," he commanded, walking out. Metal followed closely behind.

Ivo got Metal to lie down on a table and had to shut him down for the process. An hour and a half passed until Metal had been fully upgraded. Ivo switched him back on. Metal sat up and looked around, almost as if he had no idea who or where he was.

"How do you feel?" Ivo asked.

Metal looked at him, taking about four seconds until finally responding. "Different."

"Believe it or not, but that is a good sign," Ivo assured. "We'll be leaving to Little Planet in half an hour. Callie will be coming, too. You should tell her that."

Metal stood up and left the room, still feeling uncomfortable. This new feeling felt odd, and he didn't like it. But he was going to get used to it.

When he got back to the room Callie was in, she looked rather happy.

"Metal, look at this new picture I did!" she cheered, holding up the picture for him to see.

Metal looked at it. It was a picture of him and Callie holding hands, painted very accurately for a three year-old. In fact, it was the quality of a nine year-old's work. On the top with different coloured letters it said: 'BEST FRENDS', both 'S's and the 'R' being backwards.

"Do you like it?" Callie asked. "I made it for you."

"It's wonderful, Callie," Metal answered, not taking his eyes off the picture. "In fact, I think it's the best one you have ever done."

"You really think so?" Callie asked.

"I know so," Metal confirmed. "I'll put this up on the side of my chamber."

Callie went with him when he went to the Robot Chamber Room, where he found his labelled chamber and stuck the painting on it. Callie smiled.

Metal then knelt down to Callie's level. "Callie, I need you to listen to me," he began. "In half an hour we'll be heading to Little Planet."

"What's that?" Callie asked curiously.

"It's a planet which your daddy… owns."

"Does it have an outside?" Callie asked.

"A what?" Metal responded.

"An outside," Callie repeated. "With green grass and flowers?"

"…Sort of," Metal replied. "I just had to let you know that so you could get ready. Then we will go there and I will have to fight that evil Sonic hedgehog."

Callie gasped. "But what if he turns you into a frog?" she asked, panicking.

This statement made Metal realise he had been telling Callie far too many fairy tales. Before he could face-palm, a worded response saved him.

"I'll be challenging him to a race if he survives the traps we have set up for him," he said.

"I hope that you win the race!" Callie voted. "I know you will win! You're amazing!"

"Don't worry, I'll win," Metal assured. "Come on, let us get ready for the journey."

I think you know what might be coming! Where will Metal go on from the upcoming situation? Find out soon!