After fending off the Egg-Metal and patching up the damage done to the Metal Vanguard, its crew relaxed as the ship made its way to the delapidated Scrap Brain Zone.

"Destination approaching," announed Avina before running a scan on the abandoned factory complex. "Power appears to have failed throughout the facitity due to generator failure. Good thing the sun's still out."

"Good thing we can SEE the sun here," added Sonic, remembering how the thick smog the factory produced in its prime practically blocked out the sunlight and rendered the sky a putrid yellow-brown. "I remember when this place was spewing so much crud into the air that it was impossible to see it." Sonic shook his head and shuddered.

"This talk about power supplies is making me consider upgrading this ship to solar power," commented Gray. "Perhaps it can be done with materials salvaged from this factory."

"Well, provided that crazy Egg-Metal doesn't come back, we should have time to do such an upgrade while the others search for the prototype," added Tails. "Speaking of that...it seemed to act as if IT was Dr. Eggman himself."

"Yeah," confirmed Sonic. "Did Eggman turn himself into a Metal somehow?"

"He could have if he managed to implement successful mind uploading. Such technology has been theorized about for as long as AI research has been mainstream."

"At least he lost the egg belly," laughed Sonic as the Metal Vanguard landed at the largest opening Avina could find that was closest to the prototype. "Well, this is as close as I could get," the AI announced. "Good luck, guys. I'll keep the ship's defenses active in case the Egg-Metal comes back." Her avatar gave a thumbs-up as her friends disembarked, with Tails and Gray splitting off from the others to search for parts for their solar power upgrade project.

"So," began Sonic, "There was a robot knock-off...err...Metal BEFORE Gray?"

"Yeah, but it was never deployed," replied Tia. "Eggman was using it, and the one Chaos Emerald he managed to obtain during his South Island attack, to test an experimental Chaos Reactor that would allow the Emeralds to power a robot and boost its abilities with each new one obtained. Unfortunately, the reactor within the Metal Prototype was so unstable that it overloaded the robot's system when the Emerald was installed and it was activated. It went completely out of control and had to be deactivated."

"Then won't it do the same if we reactivate it again?" asked Sonic.

"Without an Emerald, its power, in all aspects, will be limited," the cream-colored gynoid replied. "It may not even remember what it did. Eggman's journal entries on the prototype reveal that, upon memory scan, almost all of its programming was corrupted by the overload. Its mind will likely be a blank slate."

"We're gonna reactivate him either way. Gray and Tails can always modify him to run on a more conventional power supply," said a determined-as-always Steel. "I can't let this one remain abandoned and alone here for Eggman to use in his scheme. I think I know what he plans to do."

"What's that?" asked Sonic, although he knew that, whatever the bad Doctor had planned wouldn't be good for anyone.

"That Metal you fought...I have a feeling Tails is onto something, and that it IS Eggman. He's going to attempt to do what he attempted to have Metaro do. He's gonna absorb the prototype."

Eventually, a frightened gasp from Teyla alerted Sonic, Steel, and Tia to the presence of the prototype. Rusty was quick to put a hand on her shoulder. "He is inactive, Teyla."

The Arctic Vixen android slowly approached the sleepign robot, gently lifting up its right arm, which created a loud creaking sound. "He looks...sad. His head is down," she observed.

"Yeah, he does," Steel confirmed before opening up his chest panel and reconnecting various disconnected circuits before pressing a button. "I hope this works. I'm not as good at this as Tails or Gray."

After pressing the button and backing away, Steel watched as a pair of yellow pupils flickered into existence on the black visor that served as the prototype's eyes. The robot then jerkily tried to pull itself up before letting out a long, drawn-out "Ahh."

"So this is Silver Sonic Version 0, huh?" remarked Sonic, a bit unimpressed by this clunky-looking Hedgehog-shaped robot that was covered in rust spots and apparently struggling even to speak. "Can it even talk?"

"It does have a speech module," answered Tia, "but the overload wiped out its database, meaning that it likely doesn't know how to talk."

"This is gonna be fun then," snarked the blue Hedgehog as the clunky robot turned its head to face him, uttering a simple "Ee?"

Sonic wasn't sure how to reply, scratching the back of his ear while just staring back at the robot before him. "Uhh...I'm Sonic," he finally said.

"Uuuuuuuuhhhh...I'm...Soooo-nic," the prototype repeated, earning a facepalm from the Hedgeghog.

Steel just chuckled before introducing himself. "I'm Steel, one of your fellow Metals. Like you, I was abandoned by Dr. Eggman."

The prototype slowly turned his head to face Steel. "Steeeeeeeeeeel...Me-tal. You...Steel?"

Steel nodded. "Yes, I'm Steel."

"It seems like his learning algorithms are intact," smiled Tia. "Over time, he'll no doubt learn to say more."

"Yeah, but can he keep up with us?" asked Sonic, still not impressed with this infantile machine, earning a stern look from Steel.

"Keep up!" repeated Proto, the words not being as drawn-out as before. "Can you keep up, Sonic?"

"Kid, I could outrun you," bragged the Hedgehog, his ego overriding any knowledge that the prototype probably didn't fully know what it was saying.

"I'm...Kid?" repeated the Prototype. "You outrun?"

"No problem!" grinned Sonic, ready to put his trademark speed on full display for the impressionable machine.

"I...keep up!"

Sonic just smirked before taking off at full speed, easily jumping over and weaving between the piles of scrap and debris littering the ground. The prototype watched for a bit before activating its own jets and taking off after the Hedgehog, eventually crashing through a wall before ploughing into the pile of scrap atop which the blue Hedgehog stood. The impact caused the scrap pile to collapse, forcing Sonic to jump onto another pile.

"I keep up, So-nic!" announced the prototype.

"Yeah, but you definitely need some flying lessons."

"Flying lessons? I keep up, Sonic!"

"You crashed through a wall," countered the Hedgehog, pointing to the hole in the wall that the robot created. "You're not supposed to do that."

"Not crash through wall...to keep up?"

"No way," replied Sonic with a sigh. He wanted to say that smashing through walls was okay if breaking into an active Egg Base, but didn't want to confuse this 'Kid.'

Steel was quick to catch up to the prototype, who was now using his jets to hover a few feet off the ground. "If you'd like, we can help you. We could upgrade you with newer technology. We could give you a name if you'd like," the steel-blue android offered.

"Name...Silver Sonic Zero...Zero!" replied the dated robot. "Name Zero?"

Steel smiled. "If that's what you want it to be, then yes."

"Name Zero! Yes!"

"Well, Zero, do you want to come with us?" asked Steel.

"Yes! Zero come with Steel."

"Then welcome to the party, Zero."

"Kid's not too bad," commented Sonic. "Seems like he'll at least be a fast learner."

"You keep up with Zero, Sonic?"

"In a race, I probably could, but I don't know about learning. You're learning to talk faster than I did."

"That is good?"

"Oh yeah."

Steel smiled a bit before shedding a tear, Zero's childishness reminding him of Metaro. Zero noticed this and tilted his head, getting the impression that something was wrong despite his lack of knowledge about emotions. The outdated robot placed one of the pincer claws that served as his hands below the android's weepy eye, catching the next tear that fell. Steel responded by chuckling as he gently put a hand around Zero's wrist. "You kinda remind me of someone."

"Someone?" the robot repeated.

"Yeah. He was a young-minded robot like you. His name was Metaro."

"Metaro...no keep up?" asked Zero, trying his best to ask why Metaro wasn't around with his limited vocabulary.

Steel sighed. "He was with Dr. Eggman, who was manipulating him into believing that Sonic was evil, and that my friends and I had been brainwashed into serving him. He also pretended to be fatherly toward the bot, but was really just roping him along until he was ready to fully put his plans for him in motion."

"What Eggman's plans?" asked Zero, quickly picking up on the words Steel and his friends had spoken.

"He planned to have Metaro absorb the previous robots from his line into himself to become more powerful. This included you. Unfortunately for the Doctor, Metaro learned of the plan a bit prematurely, and his sense of morality caused him to begin seeing through the lies he was told. Eggman had prepared for this, and ordered him to be reset. One of my friends managed to stop the reset from going through, allowing Metaro to retain enough of his identity to sacrifice himself so that we could eventually make our way to you."

Zero hung his head in both thought and sadness, though he barely understood the latter. "N-N-New name...Name Metaro!"

Steel wasn't sure how to react to Zero's decision to take Metaro's name for himself. He knew the prototype Metal didn't understand the full emotional impact of the Metal Boy's sacrifice. Would it be respectful to the fallen Metal's legacy to allow this clueless robot to take his name?

"No way?" asked the childish Metal. "Not Metaro?"

"That's...up to you," Steel replied uneasily. "If you do decide to call yourself Metaro, I guess...I'd have to get used to it, but it won't be easy."

"I...stay Zero."

"Again, it's up to you. In the end, I started this journey to give all Metals the chance for freedom. I can't deny that to you based on my own personal feelings, hard as that can be. Metaro was the one I couldn't save, but he saved me and my friends. His final request was that I never forget him. That's not just a matter of not deleting files from my memory either. I'm more than just a robot."

Zero looked at his pincer claw, as well as all the other parts of his body that he could see, and compared them to Steel's. "Steel...no robot."

"That's because I've been given upgrades to make me look like a real Anthro. It's what I wanted. If you want, you can receive similar upgrades. I think I have the perfect template in mind for you if you say yes."

"Yes! I want upgrade!"