Chapter 12: A Glitch

September 10th, 2316 – 10:00 PM – Robotropolis, Robotnik Empire

We did it…we finally did it!

As Canma rushed down a hallway in the Robotropolis Core, she didn't feel like she was running at all. Rather the vixen felt like she was floating on air with how happy she was over all of this. Here she stood as witness to her lifelong dream finally being fulfilled. Every window she passed by afforded her a beautiful view of the destruction unfolding outside. She only pitied that most of the forces sat too far away from Robotropolis for her to get an up-close look at their destruction. However, she knew she'd likely get another chance later. This was only the beginning. Soon the hedgehogs would move to other areas, and they would cleanse the human plague from this world forever.

Canma suddenly had an idea. Why stop here? After freeing Planet Freedom, they could take one of the spaceships left behind after the chaos, and use it to transport the metal hedgehogs to every other colony the humans owned. Finally, the hedgehogs would destroy earth , and the disease of homo sapiens would be stamped out forever, right at its source. It was a fitting punishment for a race that ripped her world to pieces.

She laughed long and hard at the thought. It would be so beautiful a sight. And Canma wanted to be there to see it for herself. Too bad she hadn't gotten to see the hedgehogs start on their destructive mission like she had wanted to. After all, it had been the exact point where the end for humanity began. Oh well…hearing the entire situation reported to her by Falc had been plenty good enough.

She felt only one true regret out of this entire situation: Nail. A horrible shame she had to get Redrum to kill him, since the gray fox didn't see things her way. Canma would have loved to have him as her mate and start a family together, but she knew it'd be too dangerous to keep him close with those crazy ideas about preserving humanity in his head. Oh well. Canma knew she could surely find someone else to replace him.

In any case, all she had left to do for now was meet up with Falc in the sewers, and from there they'd slip out of the city. She descended wherever she could towards the sewer levels, but the Robotropolis Core's confusing layout slowed her down a lot. Not to mention robotic sentries that occasionally got in her way, although they weren't too difficult to deal with. With the fat man dead, they seemed confused and disoriented.

Canma guessed she was about to the ground floor, when a familiar face stepped around the corner in front of her. It was…Nail! Looked like Redrum hadn't killed him after all, but he took care of Redrum instead. However, the fox seemed just as surprised seeing her as she did, but he quickly recovered and started to draw out a handgun. Even though he limped on one leg and cradled an arm, Canma understood guns were just as effective at killing no matter how wounded their users were. The vixen knew she'd be taking a big risk fighting him, so she turned and ran the other way, as Nail took aim. "Canma! Stop or I'll shoot!"

Two gunshots rang out, but Canma ducked safely around a corner even before he'd fired. The bullets harmlessly hit a metal wall off to the side of the hall. She let loose a sigh of relief. Nail was a crack shot, and she believed for sure one of those bullets would take her down. But now, with Nail's leg banged up like that, he sure wouldn't be keeping up with her, much less fighting her. And to make things even better, up ahead she saw a door labeled "Sewer Facilities." It even hung partially open, which meant Falc had to have come this way already.

However, more bullets pinged off of the walls and the metal door, leaving sparks everywhere. Nail just wasn't giving up. However, that didn't matter now. Canma slammed the door closed behind her. There didn't seem to be any way to lock it though… Glancing up, she saw exposed pipes on the ceiling. With a few slashes from her sword, she had a nice baseball bat-sized piece, and stuck it through the door handle leading into the room. Nail sure wouldn't be getting in here now, since the pipe had the handle wedged shut. The door shook as Nail tried futilely to open it.

Canma just shook her head and laughed, before she started down into the sewer. Satisfied, she continued on her journey to the escape point. It couldn't be soon enough, considering the cut pipe started spilling a vile-smelling smoke all over the place. She retched at the smell. These damn humans and their chemicals and pollutants…

But as she turned the first corner, a fist smashed right into her forehead. The vixen screamed as she flew backwards, splashing into the horrible sewer water, which quickly covered her from head to toe. Some of it seeped into her mouth, and the vixen retched, rearing back up and coughing, as she put a hand to the searing wound on her head. As she collected herself, Canma looked up. Knuckles stood there, holding Falc unconscious over her back, and he looked absolutely furious to boot. "Looks like this son of a bitch was telling the truth." The echidna pointed at the raccoon on his back. "So he was on your side the entire time, huh? Backstabbing bastard. At least we've caught him, and now I'm taking you in."

Canma inched backwards in the sewer water, trying to scoot away from Knuckles. She didn't know how she was going to get out of this one. However, a thought struck her. Perhaps she could convince Knuckles they were a lesser evil and then he'd leave them alone… She gave her voice a pleading tone. "But Sonic…Metal Sonic… Shouldn't you be trying to stop them?"

"Tails is working on that," Knuckles smirked. "Funny that one good thing came out of that program you made. Thanks to you, they're not attacking furries anymore, and that means Tails won't need any help from me." Canma let out a long sigh. So much for that plan. In the background, Nail continued to beat on the nearby door way. Knuckles cocked his head towards it. The vixen took advantage of the opportunity to draw her sword, but Knuckles was faster. He reached out and grabbed her arm before she could fully pull out the blade. The echidna smirked again. "I don't think so."

And then he yanked hard, throwing her by the hand headfirst into a wall of pipes. She'd never felt such a pain before… That wound from getting hit in the head by Knuckles the first time multiplied the pain from the second impact many times. She just sat there rolling around in the sewer water, howling in agony. Knuckles walked towards the door, before he pulled out the pipe and threw the handle down. Nail stood there with his gun drawn, and then looked in bewilderment as he saw the echidna standing there. "Knuckles? How did you—"

"Coon boy here told me where he was meeting psycho purple ninja vixen. Turns out he's a-"

Nail raised up a hand to stop him. "I already know. Redrum's a traitor too."

At the mention of Redrum being on Canma's side, Knuckles' eyes widened again. "Damn! Who on this mission doesn't have a hidden agenda?"

"Looks like it's just you, me, and Tails. Anyway, I've already taken care of Redrum. He's not dead, but he isn't gonna be going anywhere for a while, believe me."

Canma closed her eyes and sighed. She couldn't think of a way for Tails to stop her plan now, since his reprogrammer should have been destroyed. But the success of her human genocide plan wouldn't do her a lot of good if she ended up getting thrown into jai. However, she noticed the two seemed to be talking it up a bit, and not paying much attention to her. She had a can of sleeping gas in her belt… If she could just reach it… Her hand slowly moved down towards the utility belt.

Click. Canma looked up, and stared down the barrel of Nail's handgun. "Nuh-uh sweetheart. I don't think so." Canma growled at Nail, and she couldn't believe she'd been caught by these two. They'd been so easy to fool before…why not now? "Stand up with your hands above your head and face the wall, understand?"

Canma complied. However, the vixen realized she was standing right next to the pipe she'd cut open just a few moments ago. The same noxious-smelling gas she'd detected before kept pumping out of it at a rapid rate. While right now it was shooting down the hall past them, she might could reach up and bend it towards her two adversaries. Canma grinned, as she realized Nail's order to raise her arms up put her hands right next to the pipe.

In an instant, she jumped up, and used her body weight to pull it down. It was sturdy, but it clearly wasn't designed to hold her weight. Then, she jerked it to the side, aiming it at Nail and Knuckles. They screamed and coughed as the gas flew all around them, closing their eyes as the chemical stung their eyes. Knuckles dropped Falc to the floor in the struggle. Canma reached out to grab him…but then Nail managed to get some shots off, driving her away, back towards the door leading into the sewers.

"Freeze!" Nail screamed as he rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision to fire again. Meanwhile, Knuckles also stepped out next to him, going into a fighting stance. That put the two of them between Canma and Falc. How would she save her brother now? She'd never be able to take them both on… As she continued to debate what to do, Knuckles suddenly rushed forwards, which made the decision for her. Canma whirled around, picked up the cut pipe off of the floor, and slammed the door back closed behind her. After stuffing the pipe through the handle, this time on the hallway side of the door, she took off at a run. With Knuckles' strength, that door wasn't going to stay closed for long.

While she'd certainly be able to hide before then, tears fell from her eyes as she ran. Falc wouldn't be there to enjoy their victory. He'd just be sitting in a jail cell in a military prison somewhere, rotting away… Canma didn't know how she was going to deal with this. Even though they didn't see eye to eye on how humans and their technology should be treated, Canma realized she loved him as a brother when they'd worked together on this mission.

Truth to be told, Canma had been afraid he'd betray her, but he'd been loyal to his word and carried out the mission perfectly. That made the loss of him all the harder… This had gone from the best day of her life to one of the worst. It made her feel like she was standing in the village again that day, as the humans took everything she knew away from her.

Once again, it was their fault this was happening, as they were turning furry against furry. She screamed out her rage at them as she ran. However, vengeance would be swift. In just a few days time, maybe less, the humans would be cleansed from this world. And then she could save her brother, wherever they were taking her. It would be all right in the end. She just have to make an alteration to her plan and fight onward a little more. This wouldn't be so hard; she'd been through far worse…


Sonic practically felt like crying as he tore through dozens of human soldiers by the minute, but he couldn't even do that. While just about every city he'd been forced to destroy had made him wish he could just kill himself to stop the madness, this incident felt particularly worse. He'd almost been free there…almost… But something seemed to have gone wrong with Tails' reprogrammer, based on what he'd heard the two of them talking about as he'd flown away.

He really doubted Tails would have intentionally programmed him to kill every human he laid eyes on, so some error must have slipped into his work… But how? Sonic knew Tails as the best guy around with computers, so how'd such a huge mistake creep into his program? It made no sense.

Those thoughts did little to distract him though from what he was doing now, in tandem with his metallic "brother" Metal Sonic. He watched painfully, just as he'd been forced to watch everything else he was doing as a robot, as he stabbed his clawed arm right through another human soldier and out the other side. The human howled in misery, before the screams quickly died away and he fell limp. The program made Sonic calmly toss aside the body, before he advanced upon his next victim.

Each time he killed another person, or destroyed another building, it was like a knife to the heart. Even though Sonic really wasn't the one willing the destruction, he couldn't help but wonder how he was going to live with himself once he managed to get control again. It was nobody's fault but his own that he was in this situation now, considering he hadn't been able to escape capture from Robotnik in that fateful encounter. Thus, he was at least indirectly responsible for everything that was happening now.

"Die you traitor!" Sonic whirled around to face a human brandishing a large machine gun. The man opened fire, but as usual, Sonic's robotic body brushed them aside as if they were just raindrops. He calmly strode right through the bullets, before grabbing the man's head and twisting it around, so his neck snapped. The lifeless body collapsed to the ground, as the machine gun's clatter finally got cut off.

I am a traitor… If only he'd managed to kill me then this would all be over… I used to think the phrase "there are things worse than death" was just a joke, but now I see that it's totally true.

At least that was the last human in the zone, or so his computer said, which left only furries behind. He hadn't harmed a hair on their heads, for whatever reason. Maybe Canma had something to do with the foul up in Tails' program? Although how had she managed that? She clearly didn't use any human technology, since she hated the humans so dearly. So, how would she manage to mess with the program?

But then Sonic's head snapped to the left, as he detected a new group of humans approaching nearby. They were several miles out, so the camera eyes zoomed in and looked through the fog and clouds to see what the force consisted of. What Sonic saw caused him to jolt with fear. It was the Presidential shuttle! The hedgehog could recognize the craft anywhere, considering it had a very unique design. The craft almost resembled a graceful white bird, with how the metal curved into a smooth, narrow body and thin wings.

What was the President doing here?! Naturally, several ships escorted the craft, but it wouldn't make a bit of difference with Sonic's robotic body. The President was a human, and thus his new mind control program labeled him as worthy of death. Sonic, powerless to stop his own body, shot straight forwards to the craft, closing the distance in a time that seemed far too short. Metal Sonic pulled up alongside him, the two hurtling right at the front of the ship.

With just a few swings, they cut right through the metal and into the bridge at the front of the ship. Everybody moved away from the controls and crowded in front of the President and Sera, who were standing at the back of the room. The President looked like he was about to faint, right there, but he somehow remained conscious and standing. The man turned to his daughter. "I told you this was a bad idea Sera!"

"But you said that Tails was going to free Sonic! Not make him kill everyone! I wanted to see him when he came to again!" She sounded surprisingly irritated for someone so close to death. In any case, she turned away from her father and attempted to reason with the two metallic hedgehogs. Like that would do any good…Sonic grimly thought. "Come on Sonic! I know you're in there! Come out and stop killing people! Please! I'm begging you! I know you can fight it!"

For a long moment, Sonic just sat there, and so did Metal. The program controlling them scanned Sara, reading her bio signs and such. She was part furry, due to her cat ears and her cat tail, but she was also part human. The program Sonic had been running on didn't seem to know what to do with a hybrid. It strictly forbid the killing of furries, but it also strictly forbid not killing humans.

So what's it going to do with someone like her, who's a mix of both? What's going to be the final verdict?

Instantly, Sonic stood right in front of Sera, before he plunged his claw straight into Sera's side, before Metal rushed up and joined in on the other side. Sera screamed so loud that her cries actually overloaded Sonic's electronic ears for a moment, before she finally fell limp and crashed to the floor, dead. That scream chilled Sonic to the bone. For a moment, his brain even refused to register what he just saw happen right in front of his eyes.

No…no no no! I didn't do that! I didn't! I didn't!

While Sonic didn't particularly like Sera, he absolutely hated seeing any harm come to her. But this…this was just too much. He couldn't believe that he'd actually killed Sera by his own hand. It was just….an impossible event. But here he was, seeing it happening with a front row seat. Sonic attempted to will himself to pull his arm out of Sera's body, even though he knew it was pointless with the program in full control.

But then, Sonic's hand immediately pulled from Sera's body. The hedgehog stopped. Had that arm just moved at his command? He told it to pull out… Sonic tried it again. He willed his arm to move to the left with his mind, and the arm complied. Then he tried jumping up, and his body jumped. He willed his head to turn, and it was so. He was back in command. Sonic had almost forgotten what it felt like to be in control of his own body, and how much he took it for granted.

But before he could dwell on it more, he sensed the program controlling his body freaking out. It apparently decided previously that striking the human portion of the body was okay, but now it was having second thoughts since killing the human part had also killed the furry part. That caused a direct contradiction in the program's rules, and the program was shorting out since it had violated one of its own directives. Finally, it just quit and deactivated. Sonic felt himself in total control. If his robotic face would have allowed it, he'd have smiled right there.

But the moment of happiness was blown in an instant, as he looked down towards the dead Sera. "Sera!" he shouted in a robotic voice, and then he stopped for a moment. It felt so surprising to Sonic that what he wanted to say had been said by his own mouth, since he'd been forced to stay silent for so long. Regardless, he reached down and picked her up. "No…Sera… Why'd you have to die right after I came back? Why?"

The humans standing in the room just stared on in astonishment. It looked like they were just as surprised as Sonic that he'd suddenly regained control. However, eventually, the President approached first. A soldier moved to stand in his way, but the President just pushed him aside, coming closer. "Sonic… Are you really back?"

The hedgehog just stared at him…unable to say anything. How could he? He murdered the President's daughter right in front of everybody, with his own hands. But eventually, he found the will to speak. "Y-yes…" Once he found his voice, he couldn't stop talking. "Mr. President, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't stop myself, that program—"

He suddenly cut off. The Prez seemed unable to say anything himself. The situation felt most confusing to the both of them. Regardless, the President spoke as slowly and evenly as he could. "I understand Sonic… It wasn't your fault…it was the program—"

The hedgehog interrupted. "No…it was mine. I let Robotnik take control of me and Metal Soni—" And then he cut off. In all of the confusion he'd totally forgotten about Metal. The President seemed to as well. The two of them turned to look nearby, where Metal stood. He just stood there…staring back. Metal got all of Sonic's life data, which meant he should be operating according to his personality.

That should have meant they didn't have anything to worry about, but Sonic felt uneasy… He decided to try talking. "Metal? How do you feel?"

Metal again just stood there quietly, not saying anything. Long, awkward seconds passed. But finally, the robot spoke. "It seems you finally got your wish, Sonic," he said flatly.

Sonic blinked in the way robots did: his green glowing eyes winked for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

"I have your memories with your life data. Allow me to play one that you have recorded in your mind…" And then there was a clicking noise, as if Metal was reading a CD or something and about to play an audio track. A light beam shot forth from Metal's eyes, and a hologram took shape in the middle of the floor. It showed Sonic and Tails eating breakfast at their hideout, several weeks ago, before they decided to go on the vacation that started this whole mess.

"I heard you turning around in bed last night, and mumbling. I thought I heard you say 'Metal' too."

"Eh...it's nothing Tails."

"No it isn't Sonic," Tails said, a little firmer. "I know you're thinking about Metal again."

Sonic let out a sigh, and whirled around to face Tails. "All right, I admit it."

Tails let out a sigh himself, and rolled his eyes. "Are you ever gonna stop thinking about him? He's just a robot, and not really a person."

"I think different Tails. I think he could have been a great help since he went good."

"Well I just think that's nuts Sonic. I mean, yeah, he saved the President and that owl in the end when I brought out your personality. But what if Robotnik came up with a way to get Metal's programming going back to the way it was? He's a machine, and machines don't really have feelings. They just do what they're told to do, and they don't care who gets hurt."

Sonic let out a 'hmph', and returned to cooking his meal. Sonic spoke to Tails as he started cooking his bacon. "You'll never understand Tails. You just won't. I know there's something more to Metal than what meets the eye…"

The recording stopped there, and Metal switched off his projector. "Now do you see what I mean?" Metal said, still in that flat, metallic voice of his.

"Yes…" Sonic said. While he felt glad they now had a metal on their side, he couldn't have wished for darker circumstances under which it could happen. If only it had been at a more peaceful, less difficult time…

"However," Metal said, his tone suddenly changing to harshness and hatred. "You have done evil." Sonic's eyes widened. What did he mean? What was he talking about? When had he done any kind of evil? Regardless, Metal Sonic continued. "Look at everything you have done while you were under mind control. It's your fault. You believe it yourself, and so do I, since we are linked by your life data. It's your fault all those soldiers and people died. You know what we think. All evil must be eradicated from this world, and that includes you because of the handiwork you have done."

The robotic hedgehog stepped forward towards his counterpart, moving very slowly and deliberately. Sonic took a step back, feeling nervous. There must have been some kind of bug when Metal Sonic's mind control deactivated. He appeared to be taking everything Sonic believed to an extreme, and if this kept up, that would be very bad indeed. Metal Sonic continued with his speech. "After I am done with you, I will destroy everyone on this planet who has done any evil, and then I will destroy myself. We will all be brought to justice." Metal Sonic pointed a metallic finger right at his counterpart. "Sonic, for the good of Planet Freedom, you must die!"

And then he engaged his thrusters, barreling straight at Sonic.