I'm Starting to Learn

"So, we have two out of seven emeralds, Sonic has one but there is no way he will simply hand it over, and we have no idea where the other emeralds are. Do I understand this situation correctly?"

"Yes, you do understand this situation correctly"

Tails groaned and slumped his head onto the table, just missing his scrambled eggs.

Metal put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "Hey, come on. Is my optimistic mood that bad?"

Tails lifted his head and pointed across the table. "No, but that is." Vector was shoveling plate after plate of maple syrup saturated pancakes into his maw and was showing no sign of stopping any time soon.

One cake somehow landed smack on Metal's face. He had a 'T-T' emote on his lenses as it slid off. "That's disgusting" Metal said.

Vector put down his current plate, swallowed and said, "Hey, it's all you can eat. As long as I can eat it, ain't nothing wrong with it. Hey, aren't you gonna have some?"

Metal gave Vector an 'O-O;' look. "Are you sure you're an Ace Detective?"

"Wha… Oh, yeah, ha ha, sorry, not in 'sleuth' mode right now."

Metal shook his head in a disgruntled way. "You're going to be in 'sloth' mode when we walk out of here."

Tails giggled, and then took on a depressed face. "So, how are we going to do this? Even with a tracker and the Tornado, it takes me at least a month to find a single emerald. We have no tracker, no plane, and no leads."

"We'll do what Sonic does" said Metal while putting his hands behind his head. "We'll wait until some random thing happens to give us a clue and get us started."

"No one is as lucky as Sonic" said Tails. "And since he's so fast, that makes it all the easier for him. We need a real plan"

Vector stopped eating and looked at Tails and Metal. "What about Shadow?"

"What?" asked Tails and Metal in unison.

"Yeah, ya know, that guy always seems to have at least one on him. And I heard rumor that he can manipulate chaos energy, or somethin nutty like that. Even if he didn't have an emerald, he could probably help us find the others." After his speech, Vector went back to his breakfast binge.

Metal put a hand on his chin and thought out loud, "He more than likely would have at least one on him. And I know first hand what he is capable of. Perhaps…"

"But he's a wanderer" whined Tails. "How are we supposed to find him?"

"I happen to have a guess. Shadow is, for some unknown reason, drawn to helping others. He, however, does it discreetly. While still with Eggman," Metal's voice dripped with coldness at that name, "he tried his best to keep track of Shadow by looking at 'miracles' that happened in cities and towns. There has been a frequent amount of 'miracles' happening at a city known as 'Dark Metrople'. I know it's not the best lead, but what have we got to loose? If he's not there, at least we can get information from a G.U.N. headquarters that's nearby."

Tails sighed. "Alright, I'll bite. How far away is Dark Metrople from here?"

"Two days worth by air. But I don't want to carry Vector all that way, do you?"

Tails gave a slight shudder. "Sonic is bad enough."

"I suggest that we go by boat and then walk the rest of the way. It will be four days longer, but I would like to feel more secure."

Again, Vector paused from his eating contest with himself. "What are you afraid of? You are a death vehicle. The only time anyone manages to beat you is when we got some sort of magic thing of ultimate power. What could possibly scare you?"

Metal looked down and clenched his fist. Right now, he wanted to rip Vector to shreds. After all that happened, it still didn't take much to set Metal off. But Metal knew it wasn't him. It was Metal Sonic… wasn't it?

Now that Metal thought about it, why couldn't he, just Metal, get angry? He had every right to after that comment. But he didn't have the right to end him. He did, however have the right to do something about it.

"Excuse me" Metal said quietly while getting up. "I need to vent some frustration."

Tails gave Vector a disgusted look. "What did I do? !" cried Vector.

"Would you like to be reminded that you're a robot that everyone thinks will kill the world?" said Tails. "Go rent us a boat or something. I need to talk to him." Tails quickly got up and ran after Metal.

Vector took another look at the food in front of him. "Oh well, more for me."

Tails ran out just in time to see Metal take off, rather slowly. Slow enough that Tails could catch him. Tails quickly spun his namesakes and proceeded to chase Metal.

Metal was slowly twirling as he rose into the sky, taking in everything he could see while he spun. He saw that Tails was chasing after him, but didn't stop, and didn't slow down either.

At fifty feet in the air, Metal did a quick spin and made it look like he was on his side relaxing. "Glad you decided to come up" he said as Tails hovered next to him. "It can get pretty lonely up here all by your self."

"Metal, you sound monotone again. What's wrong?"

Metal shifted slightly. "You're the first person to ever ask me that… before I answer that, fly with me. I just want to look down below and know that someone else is looking at the beauty with me."

"Well, you did promise me a free fly run. Want to race?"

"… No. I don't enjoy racing. I do, however, enjoy performing." Metal rushed forward as fast as Tails could fly and performed a loop-de-loop. While in mid loop, Metal started flipping and kicking out his legs in an almost poetic fashion. When Metal finished, Tails clapped and whistled for Metal.

"Bravo! 10 for 10!" Tails flew over to Metal. "That was amazing! Olympic worthy, even!"

Metal put his head down in an embarrassed manner. "Oh, please. You're just saying that. So, what can you do?"

"Uh, well… I've never rally tried anything like that before. Can we just fly over the city and talk together?"

"I would like that." Metal and Tails started to slowly move over the city. Metal pointed out things that Tails never noticed before, like the magnificent way the sun reflected off of mirror like windows, or like huge clumps of trees looked like bushes from up there.

"I am sorry Tails" Metal said suddenly. "Forgive me if I sound corny, but I wanted to feel more bonded to you. I know that must sound childish…"

Tails put a hand on Metal. "Don't worry about it. You have every right to be childish. You never were one."

"That's not entirely true… but thank you." Metal sighed. "It was not what Vector said, rather, how I felt because off it. I don't know who I am. I feel happy one minute, then feel angry another. I know nothing of emotions, and I know hardly anything about myself. Do I want to be happy go lucky? Do I want to be calm? I am having a hard time finding myself."

Tails frowned apologetically. "It must be hard to wake up one day and find your self without a self. But you don't have to be one way all the time. Sure, Sonic always acts like an extreme dare devil, and shadow always act like a loner, but even they aren't that way all the time. If Sonic thinks he's failed at something big, he turns solemn and won't talk to anyone for a long time." This caught Metal by surprise. He had never looked at his foe any other way than happy and… invincible. It was hard for him to picture Sonic not smiling, let alone being sad and acting weak. Tails continued "Keep looking for who you want to be. No one can stop you from doing that."

"Thank you" said Metal. A sudden question appeared in his mind. "Tails, who are you?"

"What do you mean? You know me."

"Yes, I know who you are, but I don't know you. Where did you come from? What got you interested in machines? Why do you have two tails? I'm sure your parents are proud of you." Metal wasn't sure how, but he could feel the air around Tails loose a few degrees. And after a quick look at Tails face, Metal could tell he struck a nerve.

"Tails I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No" Tails sniffed. "You didn't know that would set me off."

"If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand."

A few tears left Tails cheeks. "I always want to talk about it. But no one wants to listen. I'll tell you if you'll listen and… carry me. I can't fly and cry at the same time."

-break-

Vector waited in the boat ready to, as a sailor might say, heave hoe. Why did he eat so much after he knew they were going on a boat ride? He wasn't one to get seasick… but who wouldn't want to up chuck after thirty plates of that horrible sugar covered cakes made in pans?

Vector leaned over the side of a decent sized travel boat looking greener than before. Everything was packed and ready to go. "Except antacids" Vector moaned to himself. "I always forget the antacids." Vector looked up to see his favorite robot hedgehog (there's more than one, so he could say that without feeling stupid) walking slowly up to the dock.

In Metals arms was a curled up orange wad of fur with its tails hanging off to the side. Despite feeling no warmth, Tails had his head buried in Metal's shoulder. Tears ran down Metal's arm and dripped off of the thick part. Both Metal and Tails gave off an air of sorrow.

All queasiness disappeared and Vector ran over to them. "What happened? Is the kid okay?"

Metal tilted his head down to Tails. As he spoke, his voice, while not cheery, did not sound sad either. "I have learned that there are worse things in the world other than my own miseries, that others have pain too. Do not worry. A little of the weight that was on his shoulders has been lifted." Metal looked back up at Vector. "Is the boat ready?"

"Yeah" said Vector as he pointed behind him. "It's ready. What did you guys talk about anyway?"

"We talked about how neither of us got to be kids." Metal handed Tails to Vector. "Please, put Tails in a warm bed while I get our boat going."

Vector held Tails in one arm and saluted with the other. "Aye aye, captain Metal." Vector took Tails to a lower level of their vehicle. Metal jumped on top of the boat to the controls and started it up. He didn't know which way to go, but he just wanted to get away from the land of cold reality.

He felt a certain calm while steering the boat away. The gentle bobbing, while unfelt in his false gut, made the horizon lift and fall in a nice way.

Thirty feet from the dock, Metal's hands crushed the steering wheel. Metal doubled over, thinking 'not now, please not now.' A rage burned in Metal that aroused when he knew he was there. Metal got up and turned around. At the edge of the dock they just left, Sonic was throwing the blue emerald up and down rather smugly. Metal shook fiercely from the anger that was burning him up. Metal Sonic was now doing advanced equations to determine the best way of tripping Sonic into the water.

Metal quickly grabbed his head and tried his best to shake these thoughts away. He started to think differently, think about anything other than the hedgehog that was about to Chaos Control himself to the boat.

The words of Chaos came to him, and he listened to what he hoped was his heart and thought logically about the situation. A Chaos Emerald gave the user unique abilities depending on their thought process. One of the more commonly used abilities was Chaos Control. Chaos Control, in essence, could be anything you wanted it to be, from teleportation to a speed boost. It could also warp time and slow it down, or speed you up. Chaos, the substance, was conflicting. If two forces, even under the same element, were to collide with different intensions, instead of a bigger wad of chaos, both energies would fizzle out.

From nowhere Metal pulled out the white emerald and held it up to the sun. Sonic stopped tossing the emerald he was holding. Using binocular vision, Metal could see Sonic had an irritated expression. Sonic wouldn't dare use Chaos Control if Metal could cancel it out and make him land in the water. Not that Metal knew a thing about using the emeralds, but Sonic didn't know that.

And so the boat continued to ride away, the two continued to stare at each other until the dock was out of Metal's view. And Metal wondered if he was insane. He was unsure if he had a personality disorder. He also thought he heard Sonic say "I'll never let you replace me."

Metal rested on the port side of the boat, staring into the water, still feeling angry. He searched deep in his mind to find a reason of why he hated Sonic. The only thing he could think of was that he was programmed… and jealous. Sonic was everything Metal wanted to be. Loved by practically everyone on the planet, who wouldn't want to be him? Metal was worse off because he was considered a clone to a degree. He wasn't really one though… just his feelings getting the best of him.

"What's eatin ya?" came Vector's voice next to Metal.

"Myself…" said Metal looking up at Vector. "I'm confused. Am I in the wrong for wanting to do what I'm doing?"

"Why are ya asking a stupid question like that?"

"You talk to me as if you have known me your whole life. Why? After everything I've done to you, how can you give me a smile?"

Vector frowned and scratched his head. "I'm not really sure. I just got this feeling in my gut, I guess." He leaned over the banister. "The smart thing would have been to leave you alone and run away. But something tells me you need my help."

"Are you saying that I am inadequate?" Metal's voice sounded a little angry.

"What? No! I was just-" Metal gave him a playful punch in the ribs.

"Who says robots can't have a sense of humor?"

"Ha ha, very funny. Thought you were going to crush me for a sec there."

"But you have to admit, I got you pretty good"

"Yeah, it was pretty good" Vector gave Metal a hard slap on the jet. However, there was a little to much strength in that slap for Metal to handle. Metal rocked forward while swinging his arms around in an attempt to regain his balance. But, as fate seemed to have it out for him, Metal plummeted into the sea… again.

Vector was too shocked to react at first. After he shook his head, he dived in after Metal. Under the water, Metal was sinking and struggling to get his jet to ignite, but fire and water didn't hang out, he remembered. He looked up to see Vector swimming crocodile style toward him. Metal reached his hand out to Vector, as Vector did to Metal. A mere three inches from each other, the air in Vector's lungs gave out and he had to rise to the surface, leaving Metal to sink.

On the surface, Vector quickly jumped into the boat. "Tails!" he cried while running to a lower deck. "Wake up! Metal fell in the water! He's sinking!"

Back under the water, Metal had his arms crossed and legs outstretched much like Sonic would have done in this situation. 'Well' Metal thought, 'at least Tails made me water proof.'

He looked up at the thumb sized speck that was the boat. It started to drive away back towards land. They were probably off to get scuba gear to come and save him.

When Metal hit the ocean floor, he saw that he landed right in the middle of a tremendous rock bed. The rocks were very large and covered in algae, and almost made the place Metal was standing in a maze. Metal got up and tried to climb a rock, but the algae made it too slippery. He tried to pick up a large rock, but the water pressure made it to heavy. The only options was for Metal was to wait to be rescued or start walking.

With a hope of finding a way back to land, Metal started to head into the underwater maze. He felt safe now. Sonic could never find him down here.

-Author's Note-

I'm quite proud of myself for that very last line. Aside from Sonic when he's being the determinator, I felt it really fit.

Here we just have the plot moving along with Metal ever so slowly developing the character I wanted him to have. I feel it was a stroke of brilliance to compare Metal and Tails by their lack of childhoods, but maybe that's just me. I really wanted them to connect and I think I did that well.

The Conflicted Writer