~Techno~

EMMI was walking around the Death Egg aimlessly, looking at her hands. "Why… Why can't I de-roboticize myself…?" she asked herself in a worried tone of voice. "I've not changed, have I…? What's happening to me…?"

…

While EMMI was walking around, the others were all resting. Most were resting peacefully, Metal being in his recharge chamber in his room. However, he was having nightmares worse than he had ever had before.

…

(Metal's nightmare)

"Metal!" Sniper cried painfully, as if he was in agony. He was lying on the ground, holding where his stomach would be and cringing. There were no visible injuries on him. Metal was panicking and was also horrified as he knelt beside Sniper, holding him in his arms.

"Sniper… please… everything's going to be alright…" he assured, trying to sound calm.

Sniper looked up at him as real tears poured from his screen-covered eyes. He was crying. "Make it stop… Please, brother, make it stop!" he begged.

Metal was unsure of what to do as he just held onto him tightly. When he looked up, he saw a black and yellow version of himself looking down at him. Not doing anything, just standing there, staring.

"Tell me I can help him…" Metal could only say, sadness in his vocal tone.

The black and yellow hedgebot did not respond.

Metal just hugged Sniper, resting his head on his shoulder.

Sniper cried even more, pain overtaking him. "Make it stop! Make it stop! Please! It hurts so much!"

"Sniper… I can't…" Metal replied quietly and sadly. He knew that Sniper was in the third stage of NEPS.

"Metal… Please…" Sniper pleaded. "I can't take it anymore! There's too much pain! Make it stop!"

A tear of oil left Metal's eye. "I don't want to lose you…"

Suddenly, Sniper jumped to his feet, looking fine. He lunged at the other Metal and got into a ferocious fight with him. However, the fight ended quickly with the black and yellow robot throwing Sniper down into the large pit behind him. It turned out that they were by a volcano.

"No!" Metal bellowed, looking over the edge. He saw Sniper struggling to get out of the lava. Metal was horrified, but jumped down and hung off the edge by one hand, using the other to try and grab Sniper. "Grab my hand!" he shouted.

Sniper tried to crawl up the side of the volcano, reaching for Metal's hand. He almost had it…

…

(Real World)

Metal was awakened by something disturbing him, looking around quickly. Standing in front of him was EMMI.

"Oh… It's only you…" Metal said, sounding relieved.

EMMI didn't respond. She just stood there, staring at him vacantly.

Metal tilted his head to the side slightly. "EMMI? Are you alright?" he asked.

Again, the violet hedgebot did not respond. Instead, she whipped out her arm-laser and aimed at him.

Metal jumped right out of his open recharge chamber, managing to avoid the first shot she fired. "What the hell, EMMI!" he shouted. "If this is your attempt at a joke then it's not working!"

EMMI fired at him again. Metal managed to dive out of the way again. "EMMI, if you want me to destroy you, I gladly will!" Metal warned.

"Target must be destroyed!" EMMI said emotionlessly, firing at him again.

Metal decided to fly out of his room to avoid any of his stuff being damaged. After all, it was the stuff Callie gave him…

…

"Sniper! Sniper, wake up!" Cheryl whispered, knocking on the glass of his recharge chamber.

"Ugh…" Sniper groaned, twitching slightly as he began to wake up.

Cheryl opened up his recharge chamber, then tugging his arm. "Now would be nice!" she demanded.

"Five more minutes…" Sniper grunted, pulling his arm away.

Cheryl then pulled him out of the capsule, causing him to fall onto the floor and wake up suddenly, orange irises coming to life as he sprung to his feet in a karate position, looking around for a threat. When he saw Cheryl, he almost hit her by accident, but managed to regain his relaxed posture.

"What do you want?" Sniper asked, not sounding too happy with being awakened so suddenly.

"I think Metal's in trouble!" Cheryl replied, sounding worried.

"He can save himself," Sniper assured, sounding okay with the fact Metal was in danger.

"Sniper, he's your brother! You should be helping him!" Cheryl reminded. "I'll help you as well since Metal is one of the best friends I ever had."

Sniper sighed in defeat. "Fine…" he agreed. "Let's go, even though you just woke me up from my awesome dream of awesomeness…"

…

(Sniper's Dream)

Sniper was standing wearing some armour while holding a sword. Behind him were three hundred giant ants wearing the same thing. In front of him was Mephiles, with a large pit behind him which seemingly had no bottom to it.

"This is blasphemy! This is madness!" Mephiles shouted at Sniper, but was pointing to one of the ants when he shouted 'This is madness'.

"…Madness?" Sniper responded, turning to the ant before bellowing a large and loud yell at the dark hedgehog. "THIS IS SPARTA!" He then kicked Mephiles down the hole.

That's what happens when you call Sniper's ants the wrong name.

…

(Real World)

"Sniper! Snap out of it!" Cheryl commanded.

"Sorry," Sniper apologized, shaking his head quickly.

Cheryl just ran ahead, causing Sniper to follow. Once they had found Metal, they were surprised to see that EMMI was his attacker.

"EMMI, what are you doing!" Cheryl yelled at her.

EMMI glared at them angrily, gritting her teeth. She aimed at Cheryl, but Metal tackled her to the ground. "Don't you dare!" he shouted angrily.

"You will be destroyed!" she repeated, still without emotion.

Silver then entered the room hurriedly, seeing EMMI about to attack Metal again, quickly using his powers to restrain her. "What's just caused her to do this?" he asked Metal.

"I would tell you if I knew," Metal replied simply.

EMMI's circuits then started to fry slightly due to the way Silver was using his power, so he let her go in a panic, not wanting to hurt her.

"…Why did you just do that?" Metal asked.

"I was going to kill her! I don't want to hurt EMMI too much…" Silver answered.

EMMI then growled, flying towards them. As the three got ready to fight – Cheryl hiding behind Sniper for protection – someone tackled EMMI down. A robot, to be exact. It looked a little bit like Silver Sonic II, only his eyes were black with red irises in the shape of diamonds. He wore a black cape, also wearing black shoes, and he had a small metal quiff on his head. Everyone kept cautious upon seeing him, having their guard up in case he was a foe.

"Target: EMMI. Abbreviation for: Eggman's Mechanical Manufactured Intelligence," the hedgebot said robotically. Unlike the other robots like Metal, Sniper and EMMI etc., he just spoke blandly.

Metal decided to speak up. "Who are you?" he asked.

The robot just aimed his built-in machine gun at him, his irises turning orange.

Metal charged lightning up with his hands, ready for any hostility.

"My scanners show that you are a friend of EMMI," the robot stated, still sounding emotionless.

"Is that meant to mean I am your enemy?" Metal interrogated.

"It means you are not my enemy," the robot answered, his irises going back to being red as he transformed his machine gun back into his arm, then looking at EMMI and shutting her down before standing up.

"Who are you?" Metal asked again, lowering his arms and discharging his energy.

"I am Techno-Matter, I am from the future," he replied.

Silver looked a little surprised. "Techno-Matter?" he repeated. "You… what the…" He seemed lost for words.

EMMI managed to silently reboot herself, since she couldn't be shut down properly due to her little 'malfunction' she had during the process of being created. She looked at Silver seeing him looking confused and stuttering. "…Have I missed something?" she asked.

Metal and the others looked at her, not even knowing how to answer.

Techno looked down at her, his facial expression showing… nothing.

Silver ran over and helped her up after regaining himself. "Are you okay? What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.

"…Going inside my capsule?" EMMI responded as if it was obvious. "Then somehow I ended up on the floor."

"You became a psycho! You were all like 'Grrrr!' and then you were like 'Pew! Pew!' and then finally you were like 'Urggghhh…' – taken out my Mr Awesome here!" Sniper said, doing the actions for what he described.

"I am Techno-Matter," Techno reminded.

EMMI looked back once she had got to her feet, seeing Techno-Matter. She looked surprised. "What the heck… you're… you're alive and…" she looked as if she was about to fain, but EMMI is the kind of person who doesn't faint easily. "Look at yourself… you're a… you're a… a robot!"

"As are you," Techno added.

"Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?" Metal requested.

…

All this time and this happens! And before you say it, Techno is NOT a Silver Sonic II re-colour! My friend designed him and when he saw Silver Sonic II he gasped and said: "Oh my god Techno-Matter looks just like that but with…" and then the description. Anyway, he said I could use him in this. I might buy Techno from him, actually! XD Anyway, I will see you next chapter! Soon we'll be on Sonic Rivals!