~Twin~
Shard and Sniper arrived at the scene. Sniper, of course, stayed hidden while Shard went to fight alongside Sonic.
"Let me guess. Scourge again?" Shard asked Sonic.
"Yup," Sonic answered. "We've already dealt with his team before you got here – now it's just him."
"Pfft. He's got no chance," he laughed.
"Then let's get him!" Sonic then ran at Scourge, followed by Shard.
…
Sniper was stood whistling, getting a bit bored already. However, he saw someone behind a tree, watching the fight. It was another robot, looking awfully similar to him. The rookie agent robot narrowed his eyes, rushing through the battle and to the tree, tackling down whoever was behind it. He didn't realise that Sonic had noticed him.
"Who are you!" Sniper demanded.
The robot beneath him flinched.
"Answer me!" Sniper commanded.
"F-F-Flash!" the 'bot responded. "My name is Flash!" Flash looked just like Sniper did before he had his body changed to look like he was wearing a battle suit, also being a darker shade of chrome. His irises were light blue and the golden lightning bolt on his chest was reversed. Also, he was not wearing a belt.
Sniper allowed Flash to stand up as he too got on his feet. "Okay then, Flash, what are you doing here?" he interrogated.
"Scourge and his team were coming to cause trouble, so I followed them to try and stop them!" Flash answered hurriedly. "I wasn't built to fight, I was built for peace! I couldn't even inflict any pain on any of them!"
"Man, you really are useless," Sniper snickered.
"Hey! It's not my fault I was built to protect the environment!" Flash countered, feeling insulted.
"I was built to be evil, but I'm not evil," Sniper shrugged. "You can always go against your programming."
"I don't want to go against my programming," Flash replied plainly. "I like being the way I am."
"Right, you can just go home now. We've got everything under control here," Sniper confirmed, turning around.
Flash sighed. "Okay… After you've taken Scourge down I'll go back and take him with me."
"Yeah, you do that," Sniper responded. "We'll make sure he's unconscious." Just as he said that he saw Scourge get kicked into another tree nearby, getting knocked out. "…He's down. Now go and take him with you and make sure he doesn't come back here for a long time."
"I-I'll try…" Flash stuttered nervously.
Sniper tilted his head. "Why are you so nervy?" he asked.
"I don't know…" Flash answered. "I get scared easily…"
"BOO!" Sniper yelled. Flash yelped and jumped into his arms, quivering with fear. Sniper was just laughing his head off.
"That's not funny!" Flash scolded, looking embarrassed as he jumped out of Sniper's arms.
"Sorry, I just had to do it," Sniper responded, trying to calm down his laughter. If he was Mobian, he'd be wiping a tear from his eye due to his hard laughing. He then looked in the corner of his eye and saw Cheryl on the other side of where the fight had just taken place. "Cheryl…" he said quietly to himself, turning to Flash. "Be right back," he stated, rushing to Cheryl.
"Cheryl, what are you doing it?" Sniper asked her.
"I heard fighting," Cheryl answered. "Then I saw you. I was worried…"
"Don't worry, everything's been taken care of," Sniper assured.
"You!" Sonic could be heard exclaiming. Sniper turned around, seeing the blue hedgehog marching towards him. He frowned and almost seemed to be standing in a defence position.
"I thought I destroyed you!" Sonic continued.
"Well, you didn't. Too bad," Sniper replied, sticking his metallic tongue out.
Sonic growled. "Now you're gonna get it!" Before he and Sniper could get into a squabble, Shard skidded between them both.
"Hey, guys, chill out!" he commanded, looking at Sonic. "I brought Sniper back, Sonic. He's my lil' bro; I don't want to lose him. He was just upset from losing me, that's all."
Again, Sonic growled. "Fine, he can get his chance," he finalized. "But if he tries anything, he can take a trip to the scrapheap." He then sped off.
Shard turned to Sniper, folding his arms and frowning. "'Built for stealth' you said. 'I'm the master at keeping hidden' you said," he quoted.
Sniper chuckled nervously. "H-Hey, I got distracted," he excused.
"Right…" Shard responded. He then noticed Cheryl. "Hey, who's this? A friend? More than a friend?" Shard grinned cheekily when he guessed the last part.
"No!" Sniper shot back, embarrassed. "Just a friend. And she needs help – she's been living on her own ever since her parents were killed by a Metal Sonic Trooper."
"Nicole can figure something out," Shard assured. "She's quite smart…" He then sighed happily. "I've never seen an AI like her anywhere else…"
Sniper couldn't help but fall on the floor and roll around laughing.
Shard snapped out of his little daydream. "Hey! I-I didn't mean that… I wasn't trying to say… What I meant was…!" he stuttered.
"Shard's got a crush, Shard's got a crush~!" Sniper sang.
Shard's metallic muzzle went red a little as he growled quietly. However, everyone there was too busy to notice that they were being watched…
Standing on a rock in the shadows of the trees in the night's darkness was a red-eyed robot, staring right at the few. His silhouette showed that he was a similar design to Shard, but when the clouds in the sky cleared, the moonlight shone onto him only slightly. He was an indigo colour, but his arms were silver. He had a yellow power gem shard in his chest and red, pointed shoes, along with a mouth. His left arm was fitted with an arm cannon, which he aimed at the group…
And…
He fired.
(Cue music: watch?v=2HX-KiYN7WA)
A laser hit between Shard, Sniper and Cheryl, causing the three to dive down, Sniper covering Cheryl to protect her. They all looked back, seeing the hedgebot fly towards them, landing on his feet. Again he aimed his cannon, this time firing much quicker. The laser went towards Sniper and Cheryl, but Shard jumped and grabbed them both, flying out of the way and placing them down.
"Shard, who is that?" Sniper asked, panicking. "Why does he look like…"
"My old body?" Shard finished. "I'm wondering that myself. Get Cheryl to safety and back me up!"
Sniper nodded, helping Cheryl up and running off with her.
Shard turned his attention to the other hedgebot. "Who are you!" he demanded, aiming at the blue hedgebot as the two had a standoff.
The other robot didn't reply, but just stood there, waiting for Shard to make a move. As he expected Shard fired at him, but he flew to the side at Sonic speed and fired his own attack at Shard, catching him in the side and knocking him down.
"Argh!" Shard grunted as he fell. He looked up, seeing his counterpart walk up to the side of him, aiming at his head with his arm cannon.
Sniper ran up silently behind the metal hedgehog, jumping up, ready to strike. However, the Robian didn't even need to look at him as he fired the charged laser at the young robot. Sniper was sent flying back into a tree.
Shard swept the other off balance, jumping up to his feet and firing at him, but the blue robot moved. Shard wrestled him, attempting to grab the power gem in his chest. The other machine shot Shard in the leg, causing him to fall over.
"Shard!" Sniper yelled.
The other robot turned and walked towards the kid-bot, stopping a few feet away, he aimed again.
Shard saw his younger brother in peril, standing up slowly as he carefully aimed at his opponent. "Get away from my brother, you piece of scrap!" he yelled, firing,
The metallic Mobian turned his head, seeing the laser heading towards him. He had no time to move before he was hit in the chest, causing him to fall down onto his back, eyes flickering off.
…
Sniper stood up. "…Thanks, bro," he thanked.
"No problem," Shard replied as he knelt beside the shut down 'bot. "He's not permanently deactive. We could use him for something, though. He might supply us with information."
"Yeah, or he'll kill us," Sniper countered.
"I'll make sure none of that happens," Shard assured. "We'll outnumber him. He wouldn't stand a chance."
"Fine, I trust you…" Sniper sighed. He then saw Flash picking up Scourge. Flash smiled slightly and waved at him as he opened up a rift to his world (an ability he was given so he could chase down Scourge or any other threats to Moebius). In response, Sniper waved back. Flash then jumped through the rift, the rift then closing after he went through.
Shard lifted his look-alike up, throwing him over his shoulder. "Come on, we're off back to HQ," he confirmed. "Charles can look at this guy while I call a meeting."
"You can do that?" Sniper questioned.
"Yeah, anyone can in the team if it's important," Shard replied. "Now let's go. By the way, we're gonna have to call each other by our call-signs in case he picks up our conversations."
"Okay," Sniper responded, walking with his older brother.
…
I was going to have this guy appear later, but oh well. I'm trying to catch up with this, but I didn't know if it was day or night, so I just guessed it was night time. If it wasn't… then it doesn't matter. Let's just say it was evening in the third chapter and now it's night! :D
