Chapter 7

Enter Metal Shadow


On a bench in the Eggman dungeon, three robots sat. Their maker was mad for them letting Chris and Team Dark get away with 'Daisy.' For the fifth time that month, they were stuck there.

Bokkun stood up and flew to the window. While he watched some birds fly by in the moonlight, he sighed. "You know, if the doctor hadn't dumped us here, we could have been out and searching for her now. I miss that little fella..."

"Well, you know him... he has his ideas. And he usually wants to be prepared for a confrontation with Sonic," Decoe shrugged.

"But Sonic isn't here at the moment. That's why we should act now!" he rebutted.

"If you want to fight Shadow, be my guest," Bocoe said tired, "but I'm not the one who'll pick up your scrap pieces. Don't forget how merciless he is once he's mad enough."

The robot grabbed the bars on the window and started yanking them. "This is torture! I can't stand being locked up! Something happen now!"

"Great. He's going to lose it. Like it wasn't enough being locked up down here," Bocoe said to his yellow companion who nodded in response.

"I know!" Bokkun exclaimed and pointed at the others."You could tell me about how babies are created, now that we have plenty of time!"

Decoe and Bocoe looked at each other. They didn't want to tell the black robot. But he was annoyingly persistant. "Rock-Doughnut-Thursday? Loser tells?" one suggested, and the other agreed.

"One... two... three... shoot!" And they each held their hand in a different position.

"I win! Rock squishes doughnut!"

"No, no! Doughnut makes rock delicious!"

"Okay, now you're just stalling... Tell me now!" Bokkun ordered.

"Whoever loses will!" Both Decoe and Bocoe exclaimed.

The small one grew rather ticked and attacked them, and they start wrestling on the floor.

While dust and dirt flew, a large familiar shape emerged from the darkness. "Larry! Curly! Mo! Cut that out!" the shape said, which caused the fight to stop at once. It was the doctor. He crossed his arms, annoyed.

"Let us out! We'll be good! Just let us out!" they all beg still lying on the dirty floor.

The doctor simply stared at them.

"PLEASE! WE BEG YOU! WE'LL BEHAVE!"

Eggman snorted. "That's what you said last time, and the time before that, and the time before that… Shall I go on?" he reminded them. "So instead of letting you out, I'm kicking you out!"

"What?!" they shouted. "But what'll we do?"

"I don't care! You just can't be here!"

"But you can't do all the hard work in your… uh, age."

"I won't have to." He elbowed a button behind him, and out from a hole in the wall came a ball and a cube.

Each of the shapes broke in half and sprouted long skinny bodies and arms. The round one landed on the table, while the edged one crashed on the floor. "Good evening, sir," the round one said. "Orbot and Cubot, activated and reporting for duty."

The edged one, Cubot, crawled onto the table. "Hoo-boy!" He shouted. "Ah reckon that bounce threw somethin' outta whack!"

"Oh, dear," Orbot moaned. "It appears your voice chip was damaged in the fall."

"We'll deal with that later." The doctor went to the jail cell and opened the door. "Right now, show these ex-minions to the door."

"You got it, Pardner!" Cubot then hobbled over and started pushing Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun. "Git a movin', ya lil' varmints! Git! Git! Git!"

"We're moving! Keep your circuits on!" Bokkun shouted angrily.

The three former minions of Eggman followed Orbot and Cubot to the door. Once there, the round one opened it. "There's a rowboat for you three down at the dock, literally with your names on it. I think you know what to do." With that, Cubot shoved them out into the dirt, and they slammed the door.

"Can you believe him, kicking us out like that?" Decoe asked.

"Yeah, and after all we did for him, too." Bokkun said.

They couldn't go anywhere for a job, because who would hire three enemy robots, they thought. So they decided to get back at the Doctor... somehow... eventually...


Shortly, his new minions arrived back in the same room they left to find Eggman. "They're gone. Anything else, sir?" Orbot asked.

"Actually, yes. I have something I want to show you... Follow me." he instructed and they followed him.

On the way to the lab, there was complete silence. None of them said a word, until Cubot gained enough courage to pop the question they both were thinking. "What is it you want to show us, Chief?" He asked with a low voice.

"You'll see," he said simply.

In the lab, the robots were instructed to stand while he would explain more about this 'something.' The robots looked around, but the only thing they saw in the room was an object that was covered by a tarp.

Eggman cleared his throat. "I want to tell you more about my latest creation. When those three lost Daisy, I came to the conclusion she would need someone to watch over her, to keeping her away from our enemies, and to make sure she won't turn against us. Its purpose is to keep her here and safe. She is, after all, the heir to all this... The princess of the great Eggman Empire!" He went to the object and yanked the tarp off.

"Well, short mah circuits and call meh 'Sparky!'" Cubot exclaimed.

There in front of them was a robot smaller than Eggman but larger than the other two. It resembled that of a black and red hedgehog with what looked like a cannon for an arm. Eggman went behind it and pressed a small button behind its neck. The robot's eyes beamed a sinister red as it turned on. "Metal Shadow: activated. Weapon systems: online. Awaiting mission objective."

The doctor grinned. "First off, I think I shall ask you to demonstrate some of your abilities," he snapped his fingers, and a cardboard cutout shaped and colored like his blue nemesis appeared from the floor next to them. In a quick move, Metal Shadow turned around and shot at the cardboard with his arm cannon until there was nothing left.

"That's what happens to those unwanted who dare near my Daisy." The doctor said cold. He then picked up a football. He tossed it and snapped his fingers again. Metal Shadow shot a large net and caught the ball in the midair. "And this is what happens if she tries to run away. Impressed?" The doctor asked satisfied.

Orbot and Cubot nodded forthwith.

He then turned to Metal Shadow. "Now, with your weapons calibrated, you can be used to your full potential."

The robot then stood erect. "Understood. This unit will destroy Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Not yet. Right now, I have a more important assignment for you." He inserted a gold piece of hair into his head. The robot read the DNA signature and an image of the girl appeared in his memory banks. "Find this girl, and bring her to me… alive."

"This is not Sonic the Hedgehog! Not this unit's target! This unit-!" It then suddenly turned off, much to Eggman's pleasure, and it turned back on. "Target acknowledged."

The old man chuckled. "A soft-reboot defiance kill-switch… if only I had installed that in Omega. If only it could be installed in the real Shadow. But now, you have been perfected. You think as viciously as you attack. You are my undying, heartless weapon of misery and despair. How do you like that?"

"Mission objective is acceptable. Mission objective: initiated." The robot hedgehog began for the door.

"Are we to accompany Metal Shadow during his first rodeo?" Orbot asked. "Ah reckon it'll be harder than wrangling a bull with a jump rope."

"Listen, boys… you two are terrible robots, and that's great. But you lack experience for such an assignment."

"But you programmed us with a full database of all your advanced technology and known strengths of the Freedom Fighters," Orbot argued.

"Well... if you want an assignment, there is an important assignment that I could never trust those other three trash cans to do."

"Yee-haw!" Cubot slapped hands with his rounded counterpart. They were both rather excited.

But that quickly dissolved as Eggman gave them their job… as well as a sponge on a stick and a bucket. "Mop the bathroom."