Chapter 3: Secret

Amy unlocked her front door and stepped inside. She moved into the hallway until her arm was fully stretched out behind herself holding her door open. She looked back over her shoulder, and saw the man – who still looked really quite remarkably like Sonic – standing outside.

"Come in," she said to him.

He gave a single nod of his head and finally followed her inside. Amy moved forwards and turned to watch, finding it odd that he took great care to close the door, as though he thought the door itself was something delicate that he had to take care with.

"I have some soup I can heat up for you," she offered.

His head tilted to one side in a jerky motion.

"Soup?" Amy said, mimicking spooning soup into her mouth.

He frowned, but righted his head. Amy took a deep breath and started for the kitchen. Indoors, the man's footsteps were more noticeable. At first, she cringed a little at how loudly he stomped his feet when he walked, but, as she took down a can of soup from a kitchen cupboard, she told herself it was a good thing that he was so loud; at least if he tried anything during the night, she would hear him long before he reached her. She shook her head a little to try to clear such a sinister thought from her mind and began opening the tin. The stranger stopped walking, though she could sense he was standing some way behind her. She dumped the tin into a pan and placed it on the stove before turning around to face him. He was standing by the breakfast bar, by the entrance to her living room, his head turned to one side, his eyes cast down towards a small table littered with framed photos of Amy's friends.

Amy hesitated, taking his moment of distraction to study him a little closer. He was an unusual blend of pitiful and frightful. His rigid posture made him seem like he was ready to pounce at any moment, like a coiled spring, but the ragged, stained cloak he was wearing and the threadbare shoes he had on – along with his generally tatty quills and fur – made him seem infinitely less threatening.

"Hey, you can have a shower if you like,"Amy offered him.

His head turned to her in that same rigid way it had in the back of the taxi, and his flat red eyes fixed onto hers.

"I have some men's shower gel," Amy continued, moving towards him. "I bought it for So – some friend of mine, but... I never gave it to him in the end."

She pushed aside the memory that she had in fact bought the shower gel because she liked the way it smelled, and had wanted to smell it on Sonic, and passed the stranger, opening her hall closet to retrieve the shower gel. She then moved to the bathroom, stepping inside and turning on the light. The stranger slowly stepped into the room with her, squinting a little as he stepped into the bright overhead light.

"I'll take your... Coat," Amy offered, holding out an upturned hand towards him expectantly.

He slowly removed the cloak and passed it to her, and, as she took it, she failed to stop her eyes from raking over him. In the absence of his scabby garment, she could see that his physique was also identical to Sonic's. She thought that maybe he was a little taller than Sonic, but, noticing again the rigidity of his torso and shoulders, she decided he was probably exactly the same height as Sonic, but just appeared taller due to how he held himself.

"I'll leave you to it, there are fresh towels on the shelf," she said.

He gave a single nod of his head and accepted the bottle of shower gel she was offering him. She frowned a little as, despite reaching for it confidently, he was strangely hesitant and particular about accepting it gently from her hand. She offered him a tight smile and then slipped passed him, exiting the room. The blast of air as she moved told her he smelled as scruffy as he looked, and her lip curled involuntarily.

"I'll wash this for you," she called back over her shoulder.

Amy took another step before stumbling to a halt. She swallowed slowly before turning her head to again look back over her shoulder. She drew in a long, slow gasp of horror at what she saw, her entire body turning to allow her a better, more direct, view. The stranger was still standing where she had left him, under the bathroom light, but, with his back turned to her, she could see that he had a quite nasty looking gash running diagonally across his back.

"Oh my goodness!" she blurted out. "What happened to you?"

She started towards him and he turned suddenly, something slightly harsher about his otherwise blank face as he met her eyes. She stopped abruptly, her eyes only lingering on his for a moment before slowly wandering down over the rest of his body, noticing then that, under the bright light, he was in fact sporting a few wounds, all of which, like the one on his back, looked to be a few days' old.

"Gee, you've really been through something awful, huh?" she asked gently, meeting his eyes again.

He stayed still and silent, staring at her hard before sighing again and turning his back on her once more. Amy reached a hand out towards him and opened her mouth to tell him she had not meant to insult him, but when he stepped into the shower she quickly backed out of the room, closing the door between them. She paused at the closed door, unable to stop her brain from asking her whether or not she thought watching him shower would be like watching Sonic shower. She felt her face grow hot and she quickly marched herself back to the kitchen, angrily stirring the soup and forcing herself to focus on the fact that this stranger could be anyone, and she ought to be more guarded. She finished heating up the soup, pouring it out into a bowl and placing it onto the breakfast bar along with a bread roll and a glass of water. She considered that maybe the soup was steaming a little too much, and maybe she had actually boiled it rather than just heated it up: but before she could give the matter too much thought, the bathroom door opened and, from a haze of steam, her guest emerged, sniffing loudly at the air.

"I made you some soup," she offered.

He ignored her entirely, sniffing his way over to the food. He was clutching a wet towel in one hand, but threw it to the floor to pick up the bowl of soup in both hands, lifting it to his lips and throwing his head back.

"It's hot!" Amy warned him.

A moment later he almost dropped the bowl and coughed, almost choking. Amy hurriedly took the bowl from his hands before he dropped it, placing it back onto the bar. She started to tell him he should let it cool, but stopped when she noticed he had grabbed up the glass of water in one hand and the bread roll in the other. He drank and ate both in seconds, before glaring at her and pushing the glass out towards her.

"I'll get you more water," she offered. "If you want, there's another bread roll in the..."

Amy's voice trailed off, and the glass in her hand began to overflow under the tap as she watched her guest retrieve her last bread roll and cram it into his mouth with one hand, raking around for more food with his other hand.

"I guess you really are hungry, huh?" she asked awkwardly, turning off the tap and pouring out a little of the water from the glass.

She made to offer him the drink but he had already moved over to her fridge. Amy started to tell him she could make him something else to eat, but stopped as he started indiscriminately grabbing food from inside and eating it frantically. Her jaw dropped and she almost dropped his glass of water as she watched him devour two whole carrots, drink an almost full carton of milk until it was empty, tip the contents of a container of cooked chicken down his throat and finally munch his way through 2 boiled eggs.

"You're not supposed to eat the shells..." she said faintly as he finished crunching his way through the last whole egg.

He took the glass of water from her hand and drank it whole before grabbing up the bowl of soup again and this time drinking it down entirely. He then paused, licking his lips, his eyes narrowing a little as though deep in thought.

"I could have made you a sandwich," Amy told him flatly.

He suddenly darted off back towards the bathroom and she shook her head. He had left the fridge door open and his wet towel on the floor, alongside the discarded milk carton and plastic food containers her chicken and eggs had been stored in.

"He's worse than Sonic," she grumbled, picking up after him.

When he still did not emerge after her cleaning up after him, she continued to retrieve some spare linen and a pillow, placing them on the couch. She wanted to have a bath, but felt a little uncomfortable doing so with a stranger in her house, and so decided to just go to bed. She approached the bathroom door awkwardly, hesitating for a moment there before knocking.

"Um, hey there!" she called through the door. "I put out some bedding for you, you can sleep on the couch. I, uh, I hope you're okay?"

He did not answer her, though given that he had yet to say a single word to her, she was not entirely surprised.

"Well, good night!"

She started towards her bedroom, but the bathroom door opened and he emerged once more. She smiled at him a little awkwardly and he peered into the living room, looking about before turning back to her and giving what appeared to be a small, awkward bow to her. She looked over at the living room and made a small "oh" sound.

"You're welcome," she told him, assuming he was thanking her.

He straightened up and, for a prolonged moment, they stood looking at each other in silence.

"I, uh, I still don't know your name," Amy eventually said, when the silence started to feel uncomfortable and she felt the need to end it somehow – anyhow.

He looked into the living room again before moving back through towards the kitchen. Amy followed him curiously, watching as he looked around the room, eventually selecting the drawer she had taken his soup spoon from. He opened it up and took out another spoon, holding it up.

"Spoon?" she asked.

He tapped a finger against the spoon and Amy nodded.

"Your name is Spoon?" she said. "Well, that's an unusual name, but I like it!"

He looked displeased, and he returned the spoon to the drawer a little roughly before stomping over to the fridge again and opening it up. He retrieved an egg and Amy quickly shook her head.

"You already ate the cooked eggs, those aren't cooked!" she hurriedly warned him.

He held the egg between his thumb and forefinger, looking at it pointedly before looking at Amy again.

"Oh, I see!" she said. "Your name is Spoon Egg!"

His hand slowly lowered.

"That's a very, very... Unusual name, Spoon Egg," she said.

He sighed.

"Well, goodnight, Spoon Egg!"

Amy turned and moved off to her bedroom, closing the door behind herself and pressing her back against it. She sighed and closed her eyes, silently asking herself why she had brought Spoon Egg home with her. She hoped that a night of sleep would clear her head, and gladly crawled into her bed.

Amy awoke in the morning after a disturbed night. She had heard Spoon Egg moving about her house a lot during the night. He kept going to the bathroom, opening and closing her fridge, and doing something that sounded as though he was drinking directly from the tap in her kitchen sink. She carefully made her way out of her room, but her caution quickly gave way to shock when she saw the state of her living room. She stood in the living room doorway aghast as she took in the scene around her. Her fridge door was wide open, and the interior was entirely bare. There were two broken eggs on the floor, along with clumsily torn open cardboard boxes of food, an empty tub of ice cream and several empty tins, including one of cat food.

Amy turned to her couch, where her guest was sprawled, one leg hanging over the edge of an arm rest, the other hanging down to the floor below. He was on his back, his arms equally splayed at his side, his mouth open, eyes closed, and snoring softly. His mouth was stained with ketchup, chocolate ice cream and what appeared to be a chunk of cat food. Amy's face twisted in disgust: what sort of animal was this man? She had initially been too afraid to leave her room and worried about taking a shower, but, seeing how clearly dead to the world he was, she confidently entered the bathroom and angrily scrubbed herself clean in the shower. When she emerged, he was as she had left him, and he remained that way as she tidied up the mess he had left. As she tidied, she realised that he had eaten the contents of her freezer too, meaning that, not only had he eaten a tin of cat food, but he had also eaten frozen waffles and frozen (and raw) beefburgers. He appeared to have drunk the half-bottle of tomato ketchup from her fridge and licked clean the jar of mango chutney she had stored there.

"Unbelievable," she grumbled as she mopped up the broken eggs from the kitchen floor.

Despite her muttering – not so quietly – several other complaints as she tidied and cleaned around Spoon Egg, he remained deeply asleep, snoring away obliviously.

"You might as well be Sonic, you jerk," she told him as she walked past him.

She paused as she reached his feet, one of which was on the armrest of her couch , inches away from the small side-table she had decorated with framed photos of her friends. She frowned as she noticed that the largest photo, in the very middle of the display, was missing. She looked about herself, eventually finding it facedown on the floor. She bent down and picked it up, returning it to its rightful place, finding it odd that only the one photo had fallen from the table, and yet all the ones around it remained in place. She smiled at the photo – it had always been her favourite – seeing her own face and Sonic's smiling back at her. She then looked around to satisfy herself that everything was back in order before filling her kettle and setting it on to boil to make some tea.

It was then she heard a knock on her front door.

Amy turned towards the door, casting one last disparaging glance at her guest before walking down the hall and opening the door to find a slightly anxious looking Tails waiting for her.

"Oh, hey Amy," he greeted her.

"Tails, hi!" she answered. "What are you doing here?"

He fumbled a little with his hands, his brows knitting over his large blue eyes.

"Um, Amy, last night was really awkward," he said carefully. "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry. I didn't realise you thought you were going on a date with Sonic – and neither did Knuckles – and we felt really bad that you left. Are you okay?"

Amy hesitated before blurting out a loud "oh" of realisation.

"I guess I forgot about that," she said with a frown.

"Oh..." Tails said, nodding slowly. "Well, that's fine, I just wanted to let you know that Knuckles and I didn't mean anything, we thought we were all going out to celebrate. As a team, you know?"

"It's fine, don't worry about it!" Amy assured him.

Tails gave her a sceptical look.

"Really Tails, it's fine," she insisted. "I ended up having a great night last night!"

"You-you did?" he asked incredulously. "R-really?"

"Yeah, it was... Interesting," she said with a smile.

"Oh, well, that's good," he said, smiling back at her. "I thought maybe you were upset, I'm glad you're okay and..."

Tails's voice slowly trailed off and his eyes lost focus from Amy's, moving slowly upwards before fixing onto something above her head.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" he asked in a low voice.

Amy frowned.

"You-you did?" he asked.

Amy screwed up her face.

"She did?" he asked.

Amy turned her head, starting in alarm as she found Spoon Egg standing behind her. He had been so heavy-footed the night before, she was shocked that he had managed to sneak up behind her so silently. As she watched him, his hands moved through a series of rapid gestures.

"That's not true," Tails said.

Amy turned to her friend abruptly, but his eyes were still on Spoon Egg.

"No, I swear!" the fox insisted. "I wouldn't do that!"

"What?" Amy grunted in confusion.

"I don't understand why you were out last night anyway," Tails continued, apparently addressing Spoon Egg in some sort of odd, one-sided conversation. "What happened?"

Amy slowly turned to her guest expectantly, and, as he continued making hand gestures, the realisation slowly dawned on her that he was speaking to Tails in sign language.

"Oh, you're deaf!" she said softly. "Well, that explains a lot..."

"He's not deaf, Amy."

Amy turned to Tails upon his words.

"He just... Can't talk," he added.

Amy frowned.

"Why is he in your house, Amy?" Tails asked, sounding suddenly almost accusatory.

"He was hungry," she replied defiantly. "And he needed a shower. And a place to sleep."

"Where did you even find him?" Tails asked.

"He was at the..."

Amy narrowed her eyes critically.

"Wait a minute!" she corrected herself. "How do you know Spoon Egg?"

"What?" Tails echoed.

Spoon Egg made a few hand gestures.

"She thinks your name is Spoon Egg?" Tails asked him.

"He told me his name was Spoon Egg!" Amy said.

"How?" Tails asked her.

"With..."

Amy started to make shapes in the air with her hands before realising how ridiculous the whole situation was.

"Come in," she resigned, stepping back and beckoning Tails to enter her house.

He quickly obliged, and together he and Spoon Egg moved into the living room, where they began conversing exclusively in sign language. Amy let them continue for a few moments before stepping between them.

"Okay, enough!" she protested. "What is going on here? How do you two know each other?"

Spoon Egg looked at Tails, and so Amy turned to her friend expectantly.

"Uh, well, Amy," he began awkwardly. "The thing is... How do you know him?"

Amy frowned.

"I mean, if he stayed at your house last night, you knew him before, right?" Tails continued. "You didn't just take some stranger home with you last night, right?"

"So what if I did?" Amy snootily responded.

"Amy, he could have been anyone!"

Amy paused long enough to consider how Sonic would react when Tails told him she had taken a strange man home with her before nodding her head.

"Don't tell Sonic?" she said quietly.

Tails looked over at his apparent friend for a moment before meeting Amy's eyes and nodding.

"I won't tell Sonic you let him stay at your house if you don't tell Sonic about him at all," he offered.

"Okay deal," Amy agreed. "So who is he?"

"He's my source."

"Your source?"

"Yes."

"Your source of what?"

"I, uh, didn't really hack into Eggman's computer."

"I knew it!"

"I had an insider feeding me data."

"Spoon Egg's a spy?"

"He's not a spy Amy, he's the prototype."

Amy paused.

"I mean, it's like you said," Tails continued, his tone lower and less confident. "Eggman hasn't just been applying his bioengineering experiments to his most basic robots."

"Wait... What?" Amy muttered.

"He started his experiments on his most advanced robot... But once he had free-will and he started to experience more complex emotions, and he realised Doctor Eggman was abusing him, he started to resent him."

Amy's face slowly fell.

"I found him one day," Tails continued. "He'd broken his leg – he was still mostly robotic back then – and I repaired it for him, and in return, he told me some of Eggman's secrets. We then started meeting in that same place every week. He told me information about Eggman's experiments and his attack plans, and I fixed him up where I could. I mean, lately, it's been a mostly one-sided deal, since he's about 80% organic at this point..."

Amy slowly turned her head to look at the hedgehog standing in the middle of her living room who looked so uncannily like Sonic.

"He really looks like Sonic," Tails said.

Amy turned to him and gave him a flat look.

"I didn't know if you would notice so much," Tails explained. "Since you thought Shadow and Silver both look like Sonic..."

Amy narrowed her eyes.

"So for his other cyborgs, Eggman took body parts off of wild animals and insects he caught and killed," Tails continued. "But for him, it was a bit different. Eggman grew all of his organic body parts in his lab. Using, um, Sonic's DNA."

Amy's face dropped again.

"I know he looks really different to the last time you saw him Amy, but this is actually Metal Sonic."

As the red-eyed hedgehog before her gave a singular, stiff, nod of his head, Amy felt her stomach sink.

"B-but I let him sleep in my house," she whispered to Tails, keeping wide eyes fixed onto Metal as she spoke.

"Well, I mean, he said Eggman found out he's been leaking information to us and kicked him out," Tails whispered back. "He will need a place to stay now."

"H-he's not... He's a robot? He looks so real – but then again he acts so strange – he ate all the food in my house!"

"He just recently got a digestive system installed, I think he's still learning that he needs to eat and drink every day and that he needs to use the bathroom now."

"This is really weird, Tails."

"Yeah, I guess it must be weird for you. It's not so weird for me because I've been talking to him this whole time, and he's changed gradually for me, but for you, suddenly seeing him like this must be kinda odd."

"80%?"

"What?"

"You said 80%. You said he was 80% organic. What 20% of him is still robot?"

"Oh, well, he doesn't have a voicebox."

"That's why he can't talk."

"And he had mechanical lenses in his eyes, to enhance his eyesight."

"Enhance his eyesight how?"

"Mostly it lets him see in the dark."

"Night vision? Oh..."

"Yeah. And, um, actually, hey Metal?"

Metal moved his monotone red eyes to Tails at the sound of his name.

"Metal," Amy said softly. "Because the spoon was made of metal. And Egg because he came from Eggman..."

"Take off your gloves," Tails said to Metal. "Show Amy."

Metal's eyes hardened in a way that made Amy gulp.

"It's okay," Tails told him.

He stared at Tails a little longer before turning his attention to Amy and removing the worn leather gloves he wore.

"Metal..." she muttered as he uncovered a pair of hands she was only too familiar with. "That's why they felt so cold..."

"I don't think Eggman ever planned to give him organic hands," Tails told Amy as she stared at the sickeningly familiar, sharp, metallic fingers of her one-time captor. "It's pretty much the only part of him I can take care of any more."

Amy slowly looked up into Metal's eyes, which were already looking down at hers.

"Can he feel pain?" she asked quietly.

"The same as we can, yes," Tails replied.

"He has a really bad injury on his back," Amy explained, her eyes still on Metal's. "Does it hurt?"

Metal gave a single shake of his head.

"It looks like it hurts," Amy said quietly.

"What sort of injury is it?" Tails asked, moving around to Metal's back. "Is it something we can – oh wow!"

Metal looked back over his shoulder at Tails.

"Hey buddy, that looks like it's infected," Tails told him.

Amy felt a little odd hearing Tails call Metal Sonic "buddy", but she pushed the thought down and moved around to join him at Metal's back.

"Did Eggman do this to you?" she asked, her eyes on the wound.

Metal turned partially towards them and made a series of precise hand movements.

"He said Eggman removed the protocol from his robots that meant they recognised Metal as an ally," Tails explained. "They all assaulted him. He fought them off, but there were too many of them. He got away because he's faster than them."

Amy moved her eyes to the centre of Metal's body. It looked exactly the same as Sonic's.

"He doesn't have his jet engine any more," she commented.

"But he has Sonic's DNA and he trained to be fast," Tails replied.

Amy nodded her head a few times before shaking it vigorously.

"This is insane!" she declared, rounding on Tails.

"Yeah, it is!" Tails replied with almost as much vigour. "Why did you take him home with you if you had no idea who he was?"

"That wasn't the part of this I was referring to!" Amy argued back. "And, for the record, the only reason I took him home with me was because I didn't know who he was! If I had known he was the cold and creepy robot who kidnapped me when I was a kid, I would have left him to starve in the street!"

Tails looked over at Metal and Amy copied his actions, finding the former robot was staring back at her with what she was coming to realise was his default, characteristic blank expression.

"No offence," she told him. "But now that I know who you are, you're going to have to leave."

She folded her arms and set her face into a hardened look of determination to drive her point home.

"He's got nowhere else to go, Amy," Tails said quietly.

"He can stay at your place," she pointed out, rounding on Tails.

"Um, the thing about that is, I don't think that would work," he awkwardly answered her.

"Well, he's not staying here, that's for sure!" she shot back.

"If he comes to my house, Sonic will see him!"

"If he stays at my house, Sonic will see him!"

"Sonic is at my house every day! He only comes over to your house when he's…"

Tails's voice trailed off and his mouth puckered, a slightly fearful look passing over his eyes.

"When he's what?" Amy demanded.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Metal sign something. Tails hurriedly shook his head in reply.

"What did he just say?" Amy asked Tails.

"Nothing!" Tails hurriedly lied. "And I was only gonna say that Sonic only really ever comes to your house when he's hungry and he doesn't have any food in his house, and I don't have anything to give him, and he doesn't have any money."

Amy was a little hurt by Tails's remark, but was shortly distracted from her feelings when she noticed Metal signing something to Tails. She turned to him, but he had stopped by the time she was facing him. When she noticed Tails signing something back, she rounded on him again.

"What are you two talking about?" she demanded.

"Nothing," Tails lied through an awkward grin, touching the tips of his index fingers together nervously.

Amy sighed and turned to eye Metal over. It was odd to her that, although he did look remarkably like Sonic, he very clearly was not Sonic. Although, she reasoned, that was something that had always been true about Metal Sonic – despite being a robotic copy of Sonic, he had never quite captured Sonic's likeness. The biggest difference between the two had always been character, and, as she looked at the flat, blank face looking back at her, she concluded that even becoming an organic being with independent thoughts and emotions, Metal was still distinctly lacking in the abundance of character and personality Sonic exuded.

"He can't stay here," she said, turning to Tails again.

"Amy, he helped us fight Eggman's cyborgs," Tails countered. "Without him, who knows what could have happened? Because of him, we knew when they would strike and how to beat them. We caught them before they hurt anyone. Without Metal's help, people could have died!"

"Yes, but..." Amy looked over at Metal again, frowning a little as she found him using one of his lethally pointed metal fingers to pick at his teeth. "Oh wow, he has teeth and everything..."

"Yeah, and, you know, he is Sonic's ultimate rival, right?"

Amy turned her attention back to Tails, narrowing her eyes when she found him suddenly looking confident.

"And, you know, I don't think Sonic would be too happy to know you took his ultimate rival home with you last night..." the fox continued.

"What are you getting at, Tails?" she countered, folding her arms defiantly. "Because, by that logic, I don't think Sonic would be too happy to know his supposed best friend has been colluding with his ultimate rival all this time – and that his best friend calls his rival "buddy"."

"I won't tell Sonic if you don't."

"We already agreed to that."

Tails brightened and Amy sighed.

"I agreed I wouldn't tell Sonic you've been talking to this bag of bolts if you promised not to tell Sonic that I took a stranger home with me last night!" she reminded him.

"Right," he said, nodding slowly. "Only it wasn't a stranger you took home, it was Metal Sonic."

"Whatever," she answered dismissively. "Now you and Metal can leave, and we can never talk about this again. To each other, or to Sonic. Okay?"

"Well, if I ever did talk to Sonic about it, I'm not sure he'd be happy."

"Which is why we're stopping this now and pretending it never happened."

"How do you think Sonic will react when I tell him Metal stayed the night with you?"

"We already went over this – wait – why are you saying it like that?"

"I mean, the way I say it, the way Sonic hears it, it might sound like something else, if you know what I mean..."

Amy's jaw slowly fell open.

"So..." Tails began slowly. "Metal can stay here for now and we'll keep it a secret?"

"I can't believe you're blackmailing me like this, Tails!" Amy cried.

"I'll help you look after him and keep him hidden–"

"He's eaten all the food in my house!"

"I'll buy you more food!"

"He's rude!"

Tails looked over at Metal and Amy copied his action, finding him plainly staring back at her. Her lip twitched involuntarily when she considered how bad the wound on his back looked.

"He can stay here until he heals his wounds," she decided, turning back to Tails.

"Thanks, Amy!" Tails gushed.

"But after that, he has to leave!" she insisted.

"We'll figure something out."

"Something that involves him leaving!"

Tails made a noise that could have been a sound of agreement of disagreement, before signing something to Metal, who only replied by giving him a blank stare.

"Great, well, I'll go shopping for you, and I'll see you both later!" Tails finished, before letting himself out.

A second after he closed the front door, it occurred to Amy that he had signed his last remark to Metal, and she wondered why. Presumably he had said something he had not wanted her to understand. She turned critical eyes to Metal, who was once more picking at his teeth.

"Stop that!" she snapped irritably.

His finger curled downwards and his lips closed together, and, for the first time, she saw a distinct expression on his face.

"This is my house, and if you're going to live here, you have live by my rules, Mister!" she insisted.

His scowl deepened, making his already unusual red eyes seem more intense.

"You're out of here as soon as you've recovered," she continued, pointing a finger at him. "So, for your sake as well as mine, let's make sure that happens quickly."

She stomped through the house to her bathroom, recovering her small first aid kit. When she headed back to find Metal, he had moved, and she growled in frustration when she found him standing in front of her fridge, the door open. He was peering into the empty shelves as though he thought food might materialise there if he watched long enough. She thumped the first aid box down onto the breakfast bar and he turned his head far enough to look over his shoulder at her.

"You ate it all already, remember?" she told him sternly.

He stared blankly back at her and she crossed her arms and pouted back at him: it was clearly going to take all her willpower just to get through the next few days.

Next Chapter: Metal is very, very undomesticated, and his bad manners and general indifference infuriate Amy. After some degree of tension, Amy tries to reach out to Metal by finding a way they can communicate with each other: but that falls flat, and she's left feeling frustrated again. Later, when she goes out, Amy comes across Eggman's latest cyborg. Chapter 4: Wild