For the next 2 days, Metal simply observed Tails' home. Using the hiding spot he had spotted, he conducted what humans had called a stakeout.
During those two days, Tails never seamed to go outside. Metal had witnessed some flashes of light coming from what he assumed was Tails' workshop. From what Metal had seen of Tails, he was most likely trying to deal with his grief in his own way. There were times that Metal glimpsed Tails through a window, and Metal could see it whatever Tails was doing was not working.
Metal had his own problems to deal with though. While he did not need any food or drink to keep him alive, he still needed to conserve his battery. He worked around this by going into sleep mode at night, waiting until morning came before turning back on.
The 2 days were rather uneventful, to the point where Metal wondered if Tails was ever going to leave his house.
However at around noon, at 11:36 am specifically, Metal witnessed Tails leave the house. Metal began to monitor Tails' movements closely, wondering what Tails would do.
He saw Tails going in the direction away from his hiding spot. After cross-referencing the direction he's going with some other information, he concluded that Tails was going to a nearby town Metal had spotted when flying over to Tails's house.
Once Tails was far enough away, he activated his thruster. He had decided that he would follow Tails to the town and hopefully, a situation might happen that would involve him saving Tails.
He followed him above the tree's, following Tails' signature until he entered town.
From here, Metal decided to take to the roofs to continue following Tails. Determining that he would likely get less attention if he traveled the roofs then normally flying in the air.
Metal followed Tails through the town, jumping across roofs as he traveled. At times he would need to use his thruster to jump across larger gaps and move to rooftops that were across the streets.
Metal had noticed that some people heard the sound of his thruster, but Metal was able to quickly move out of sight before they caught a glimpse of him. He lost sight of Tails a few times, but managed to find him again pretty quickly.
Eventually, Tails entered a store and Metal observed it from the roof. The sign of the store was Park General Store.Metal analyzed the stuff people had brought out, and concluded that Tails must have left his home to get food.
He watched the store for awhile, watching the people enter, exit and walk by the building, observing their actions.
He saw a man accidentally bumping into a couple, a mother leaving the store with a child who was asking for something from the bag, and a couple arguing about something.
As Metal watched, he wondered if these were the kind of people Sonic saved at a regular basis. These were the same kind that Metal once threatened, and he wondered if they would trust him if he ever decided to save them.
Metal focused back on the general store, where he saw some of Tails through the window. He looked like he was in front of a counter talking to someone.
Metal couldn't tell what the conversation was, but judging from Tails' reaction, it was most likely about Sonic. Tails seamed to be demanding something from the person. Eventually, the person gave him a brown bag and Tails left.
He began to walk back home and Metal went back to following him. For awhile, Tails followed a similar path to when he was going to the store until he came across a crowded street that had tons of cars going across.
For awhile, Tails simply stood, waiting for the Don't Walk sign to change. Eventually, Tails sighed and decided to take another route. Metal calculated the route change and continued to follow him from the roofs.
Tails eventually decided to take a shortcut through an alleyway, and Metal jumped from the roof across. Just before he landed on the adjacent rooftop he heard voices.
"Well, look who wandered in here?"
Metal stopped and began to track where the voice came from, which was the alleyway that was next the roof Metal was on. Metal ran over and watched the scene from above.
He saw Tails cornered by three people who were wearing black beanie caps. One of them, who Metal guessed was the leader, was holding a baseball bat.
"I was just passing through." Tails said.
"Well you picked the wrong alley to pass through." The leader said pointing the baseball bat at Tails.
"Wait, isn't this Sonic's sidekick?" One of the thugs asked the leader.
"Hey that's right. Where's your friend by the way?" The leader taunted Tails.
Tails simply glared at him, clearly trying to hold back both anger and tears.
"Oh right we forgot, he's dead."
The leader and the others laughed.
Metal clenched his hands on the ledge he was observing from. What gave those people the right to mock Tails in light of the death of Sonic.
"I...I'm warning you." Tails said trying to keep his composure. "I know how to defend myself."
One of the thugs simply replied by kicking Tails, knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop the bag of groceries he was holding.
The thugs simply laughed at him. Watching this, Metal came to the conclusion that he had to intervene, or else Tails would be gravely injured or worse.
He leaped down from the ledge, just out of view from the thugs, who continued to taunt Tails.
"Not so tough without your friend aren't ya." One taunted as Tails tried to get up.
"You can barely fight for yourself." Another said.
"What do you think, should I hit him again?" The leader asked.
The two others cheered in response.
"Alright." he said raising the bat towards Tails again.
"Leave him alone."
Everyone then stopped and turned in the direction of the voice.
Metal Sonic was standing at the entry of the alleyway, glaring at the thugs.
The leader smiled. "Well look who it is, the dead hero's robotic counterpart. Did you come to see us beat up the sidekick?"
"No." Metal said continuing to glare. "I came to protect him. Leave now or I will use force."
The thugs stared at him for a moment, they then began to laugh again.
"You, protecting him?" One of the thugs said between his laughs. "Sorry, but from what we've seen, you're only purpose seams to be to work for Eggman."
Metal said nothing, continuing to glare at him.
"Hit him again."
The leader turned back to Tails and raised the bat at him.
"I told you to leave him alone." Metal said. "This is my final warning. Leave or I will use force."
The leader turned in anger to Metal and walked towards him.
"You want to get hit?" The leader asked pointing the bat at Metal. "Because we can shut you up pretty easily."
Metal was silent.
The leader sighed and shook his head. "Suit yourself."
The leader swung the bat and it hit the side of Metal's head, knocking him down.
Metal got up and glared at him.
"That, was a mistake." He said.
The leader ignored this and raised the bat upwards for another swing. Just as he swung it down, the bat suddenly stopped.
The leader looked at the bat in surprise, and saw that Metal had stopped it with his hand. He clenched his fist around the bat and it snapped in half.
"What the?" The leader said in surprise before Metal punched him in the face, causing him to stumble back.
"Boss, you alright?" One of the thugs asked.
Clenching his nose, the leader pointed at Metal. "Get him."
The two turned towards Metal and after a moment, charged at him.
One thug came in swinging his fists at Metal, who effortlessly dodged them. Once he found an opening, Metal punched him in the stomach, causing him to double over. Metal then kicked the thugs leg, it must have broken something as the thug collapsed, screaming in pain.
The other thug tried to tackle him, but Metal detected him and managed to step out of the way just as he leaped towards him. Metal activated his thruster and flew towards the thug, grabbing the thug's head just as he was getting up.
He slammed the thugs head against the wall, which caused a groan of pain from him. Metal slammed his head against the wall again, not satisfied with that response. The thug slumped against the wall unconscious.
Metal heard an angry cry, he turned and saw the leader charging at him with one half of the broken baseball bat, his nose bleeding. Metal dodged the swing, grabbed the arm that was holding the broken bat, and slammed him against the wall, pinning him with his other arm.
Metal glared at the leader, who was terrified right now.
"No, please, don't kill me." The leader screamed.
"I will not kill you." Metal said, gripping the arm that was holding the broken bat tightly. "Instead, I will only give you this warning."
He pointed to Tails. "If you threaten him or anyone else again, I will look for you, and what I did to you and the two others won't be the worst of it."
Despite fact that, from the leaders perspective, Metal wasn't showing emotion thanks to his robotic face. It was clear his voice was filled with anger.
Metal leaned in closer to the leaders face. "Do you understand?"
At first, the leader was too terrified to respond. The only sound coming from him being "I...I..."
Metal was clearly unsatisfied with that answer and began to tighten his grip on his arm until the sound a bone breaking was heard.
The leader screamed in pain, dropping the broken bat. "OKAY, OKAY. I WON'T THREATEN HIM OR ANYONE ELSE!" he yelled.
Metal let go of the arm, which fell limply, and backed away from the leader.
The leader slowly got up and began to limp away. The thug that Metal had slammed against the wall had woken up and was carrying the one with the broken leg.
Metal watched as they left, and once he was sure they were gone, he turned to Tails, who was getting back up.
"Are you alright?" Metal asked approaching Tails.
Tails stared at him for a moment, not knowing what to say to his enemy saving him.
"I can take care of myself." Tails finally said looking away from him.
"Negative, you were outnumbered, and in your current emotional state, it was likely they would win." Metal responded.
Tails glared at Metal. "Were you following me?"
"Affirmative, my objective is to keep you safe."
"Who gave you that order?" Tails asked. "I highly doubt Eggman would even tell you that."
"Correct, Eggman did not give me that order. I gave that order to myself."
Tails stared at him before shaking his head. "I don't believe that for a minute."
He walked past Metal and back to the bag of groceries, picking up some of what fell out of the bag.
He was about to pick the bag up when he heard Metal speak.
"Let me get that for you."
Tails turned and saw Metal walking up to him.
"I told you, I don't need help. Especially from you." Tails said sternly.
Metal ignored him and picked up the bag. He then stared at Tails, as if waiting for him to tell him what to do.
Tails sighed. "Fine, you can carry the bags home, but I'll be watching you."
Metal nodded. "Understood."
They then continued through the alley to Tails' home. With Tails keeping an eye on Metal all the way through.
Tails unlocked the door with the key under the mat. Which Metal still thought was a bad hiding place for a key.
Tails entered the home and Metal followed him into the kitchen, where Tails pointed to the counter.
"Put the bag here." He said all the while glaring at Metal as if he was going to do something wrong.
Metal did so and then stared at Tails.
"You can go now." Tails said pointing to the door.
Metal stared at the door for a moment before turning back to Tails.
"Why would I do that?" Metal asked.
"I don't want you around here." Tails said. "Just go back to Eggman, or continue to do whatever Eggman ordered you to do."
Metal simply just stood there. "I'm afraid I can not do that."
"Why?" Tails spat in frustration and anger.
"I do not have enough energy to make the journey back to Eggman's base, or to continue what Eggman had previously ordered me to do before I changed that."
Tails glared at him, annoyed that the robot copy of his friend seamed insistent on staying.
He finally sighed. "Fine, you can say." he said, clearly not wanting to say those words. "But I'm gonna set some rules for you that I want you to follow."
Metal tilted his head. "And what might those be?" he asked.
"One, you are not allowed in my room or workshop." Tails started. "Two, you can watch TV, but I won't allow you to watch anything that's playing news, and if I want to watch the TV, you'll give it to me."
"Three, if I have any of my friends over, you will stay hidden and not make a sound. Finally, If you break any of those rules, I won't hesitate to reduce you to scrap and return you to Eggman."
Tails leaned in close to Metal. "Do you understand?" he asked in a dangerous tone.
Metal processed the information for a moment before replying. "Affirmative."
"Good." Tails said. "Now I'm going to go to my workshop. Remember what I said."
Tails left and went through a door that Metal presumed lead to the workshop before he heard Tails lock it for extra security. Leaving Metal alone.
Metal stared at the bag of groceries. Tails had forgotten to unpack the groceries before he explained the rules to Metal.
Metal could tell that Tails was not going to trust him anytime soon. That was understantable, he probably would not believe that Metal had turned against Eggman for good. He needed to make steps that would help get Tails to trust him.
He figured that doing some chores around the house would be a good place to start.
Metal approached the bag and began to take the food out of it. Scanning the food to figure out which goes where.
Metal knew where to put things like the milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. But he did have trouble putting some of the groceries in their respective places, causing him to check Tails' cabinets to see where they were usually put.
Eventually, Metal had emptied the bag and put the groceries in where he thought were their proper places.
Metal looked around and saw that there was a pile of dishes and some silverware near a sink. Most of them looked like they haven't been cleaned. He decided made that his next priority.
Metal approached the sink and turned on the water, watching it flow out for a few seconds before grabbing the first plate. He found the dish soap nearby and squeezed the exact amount needed to clean the plate out of the bottle.
He then put the soap bottle aside and grabbed a sponge and scrubbed the plate down until that plate looked clean to him.
Placing it aside, he moved on to the next plate and repeated the process.
Half an hour passed and Tails exited his workshop. As he walked out, he saw Metal finishing cleaning up the remaining plates.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
Metal turned to Tails. "You did not say anything about not being allowed to do any work in your home. So I am cleaning your plates."
Tails stared at him for a moment. He then sighed and just went to his room, no 'Thank you.' from him or anything. Tails just seemed to see Metal as an unwanted guest for now.
Alone, Metal assessed his current situation. He had managed to get Tails to let him stay at his home, so he was making progress in gaining Tails' trust. However it was obvious Tails didn't fully trust him yet.
He also thought about Eggman. There was no doubt he was tracking his movements as evidenced by his call 2 days ago. After the Metal Overlord incident, Eggman had placed a tracker inside Metal to check his movements so he wouldn't betray him again.
Because Metal had not moved on yet, there was no doubt Eggman was beginning to grow suspicious of Metal.
Metal walked out of the kitchen and stared at the door to Tails' bedroom. He calculated he only had about 5 days until Eggman called again. Knowing that information, he knew he had to get Tails to trust him more. Not fully, but to the point where Tails could remove the tracker inside of him.
It was not going to be a short process, Metal understood that, but Metal needed to do that in order to get Eggman off his back and proceed on what he intended to do.
Replace Sonic as the world's hero.
