A/N: This is corny but WHO CARES. Thank you. Thank you for reading this far and thank you especially to the people who have left reviews and messaged me in support of this dumb shit story (you know who you are, especially you Sonic and Kleo! you're real Gs) now onward to robot depression and banter or whatever the hell this story is at this point BHNSJMAHSDBNJ cries. EDIT: I've decided the theme for this fic is Walk Away by Jake Hill. I highly recommend listening
Silver and Neo pressed on to the next room in the armoury. This time, Silver took the high ground, speeding up a set of stairs to venture on the upper floor, while Neo scouted out the room below. Motion-sensitive lights flicked on, and the two dimmed their optics slightly to account for the brightness. Silver went off further ahead, periodically pinging Neo to let him know where he was. There wasn't much to speak of upstairs, just a training room with generic training equipment. Silver internally whined at how boring his choice had been.
He soon got his wish for action, though, as he heard a robot whir to life below. Silver listened, tilting his head this way and that, figuring that Neo had it covered.
He absolutely did not have it covered, apparently. Several more GUN robots came online and promptly fired at Neo all at once. And then a GUN soldier joined the fray, moving in on him quickly.
Neo was down - his signal had cut off for a split second.
"Fuck!"
Silver sprinted down the upper corridor towards a glass window. Shooting out the glass with his pistol, he leaped through to land a flying kick on one of the robots firing at his sibling. The second it was down, Silver jumped from his ledge above and tackled the soldier below to the ground. He kneed their groin, then landed a punch square in their face, knocking them out cold. Then the robot came rushing at him, and he turned to meet it head-on. He ducked just as it pounced for his head. He blocked its kicks with his arms, then grabbed their right fist, then their left just as they threw them, and he high kicked their hold and pushed back. He threw back a punch at their torso but didn't see the foot aiming just at his chest. He was thrown back, and it was just enough time for him to make use of his new position to grab the pistols that had clattered to the floor and aim at their head. Just as he went to fire, the firearms exploded in his hands - shot apart with the other robot's laser gun - and he was thrown to the floor with a bang.
Silver grinned and wiped black oil from his chin with his thumb. "You think this is intimidating me? That's so cute!"
"Halt. You are under arrest." It droned back at him.
"Ding dong, you're wrong!" Silver shot back with that cocky grin he wore so well.
The mech picked themselves up and ran at him. Silver jumped to his feet, drawing the robot to the stairs. Silver was more agile than these drones, and he knew he'd have the upper hand here - or, so he thought. They took the exchange about halfway up, away from Neo. Silver saw their alternating strikes coming at him and dodged every one of them, landing a kick in the lower body in return - but they grabbed his ankle and flung him over the rail, his back hitting the floor with a bang. He bared his teeth in a snarl and rolled over just in time to dodge the fist coming down at him. His opponent landed with a bang beside him, narrowly missing his head. He snickered and grinned up at them from the floor.
"You're. Too. Slow. What do you run on, Windows XP?"
Silver was the first to regain his stance and managed to duck before his opponent hit his head. He got back into a comfortable rhythm, dodging and returning blows in a lightspeed dance. He made sure to check his radar for a second - Neo would chastise him for not doing that, he was sure - and noticed another robot coming up fast from behind. He ducked to avoid another swing before jumping as high as he could, spinning in the air and firing his wrist lasers at the new member of the party before landing with a thud behind them. As the robot turned, Silver moved from his crouching position to kick its legs out from under it, bringing it to the ground. He promptly fired his laser into the robot's head, crashing its CPU, and then turned on the first robot with a dangerous grin. It came at him with the same predictable pattern, and he made quick work of dodging its fists. It got one good hit in on his face, and it only fuelled his fire more. He spat oil onto the floor and fired his laser into its face. It dropped to the ground, dead to the world.
A second soldier moved in on him, aiming two pistols at him. Silver spun around with a grin and pounced, sending the two pistols clattering away onto the floor. The soldier wrestled with him, trying to throw him off, but Silver caught their fists in his and pushed back hard, towards their face. The impact knocked them out right away.
Thank Chaos.
They were safe, for now. Silver ran over to Neo, who was groggily pulling himself up to sit against a metal crate. His younger brother climbed onto the crate, sat down with his legs crossed and leaned down, holding Neo's face between his hands.
"Hey princess. You good?"
Neo had taken a particularly hard blow to the head, leaving a slight dent on the top that Silver noticed.
It took Neo a moment to recognize that the fingers at his temples were tracing the letter "N." Neo knew who it was without onlining his optics, and he relaxed a little, just enough that Silver noticed. Silver smiled down at him.
"GUN 'bots did a number on you, huh? Dear Chaos, I leave you alone for one second..." Silver murmured, switching up the pattern he was tracing. Neo struggled to follow it through the harsh pounding in his head, but when he did, he gave Silver a half-hearted hiss and signed, "I'm not an idiot."
"Okay, Mx. Gets-Hit-A-Lot." Silver retorted with a quiet laugh.
"I hope you die in sleep mode." Neo signed back.
"I hope you crash into a wall and explode." Silver retaliated.
"I hope you go back to your tube." Neo countered.
"I hope you lose your hands and can't sign anymore." Silver returned the compliment.
"I hope you lose your hands and can't hold a gun anymore." Neo reciprocated.
"Shh. Let's not bring my babies into this." Silver hushed him, tracing "family" on his forehead instead, across his white arrow. "Just, take a sec to chill. Can't have you crashing on us." He leaned down further as Neo's optics came back online, almost nose-to-nose with him. "Okay?"
Neo's sarcastic squint at him told Silver that he would be fine. If he was well enough to be an asshole, things couldn't be that bad. Relieved, Silver patted Neo's head and climbed back up to his feet, scanning their surroundings for a moment. Neo tilted his head back to look up at him and noticed that Silver's hands were shaking slightly. He tilted his head and gave a questioning beep.
"I'm good." Silver told him without looking down. He clenched his fists to stop the shaking. Neo gave an insistent beep and Silver gave a sigh as he looked down at him - oil dripping onto the ground from his mouth. Shit. He had been trying to delay having Neo see that.
Neo was on his feet in an instant. He turned and grabbed Silver's hands in his, searching his little brother's face protectively.
Silver smiled at him. "I'm fine, bro, promise."
Neo shook his head and squinted his optics at him. The scratched paint, blackened knuckles, and oil stains said otherwise.
Silver laughed quietly. A bittersweet feeling bloomed in his chest. "We're too young for this shit, aren't we?"
Neo's optics softened. He steadied Silver as the younger robot hopped down from the crate. "When this is over, you will get to be a kid. I promise."
Silver bumped his forehead to his brother's and laughed again, a little louder. "I wanna play video games with you. I know you'll be a sore loser, but I think it'd be fun to beat you."
Neo reached out and wiped the stains from Silver's face with a nod. A small smile came over his optics that he couldn't hide as he signed back, "I can't lose."
Silver smirked and bonked his head to Neo's again. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you go into sleep mode at night."
Neo rolled his optics and bent down to pick up the two abandoned pistols, handing them to Silver. Silver took them with a grin and spun them around his trigger finger, knowing it would piss his brother off. He ignored the irritated squint as he put out another broad-sweep scan, and clearly, he detected something, as the pistols slowly stopped spinning around his fingers.
Neo detected it too and sharply looked over to the wall, as if listening for something on the other side. His optics glowed brighter as he stepped in front of Silver, claws flexed and ready to swipe at whoever dared to come near his sibling this time. At the same time, a weather warning popped up on his HUD - thunderstorms. Not a problem. He tuned out the torrential rain outside to focus on the more important thing happening.
"Bro. Use your words. What are you thinking?" Silver asked in a hushed voice, peeking over Neo's shoulder to look at his hands.
"Grenade."
"What?"
An explosion outside rocked the ground and Silver stumbled into Neo with an "oop" of surprise.
"Ah. Grenade. Gotcha."
Silver steadied his hands on his pistols and steeled his face. He moved to stand next to Neo.
"Don't suppose they want to have a friendly chat with us, bro?"
Neo hissed at him to keep quiet. Another explosion, closer this time, and the wall crumbled down into nothing. Smoke poured into the room, sweeping around the legs of tables and around the two machines. For a long moment, smoke clouded them from view, only the bright crimson and amber of their optics shining through the dust.
"What a waste of precious ammo..." Silver murmured as he stepped forward through the smoke. He waved a pistol about to clear his view a little before pressing on to meet the attackers. "Alright, who wants some?" He cocked his guns and swept the sights left and right in warning. "Form an orderly queue, people."
When the smoke cleared, he slowly lowered his hands and his mouth formed an "oh".
Several military trucks pulled up, the screeching of tyres marking their arrival. Smoke from burned rubber clouded the air. As Neo marched up behind him, Silver steeled himself and cocked his pistols again.
"I guess this is it. They want us dead." Silver looked to Neo and grinned dangerously. "You still got fight in you?"
Neo reached out and put a hand on Silver's shoulder. He gave it a squeeze. Silver gave a nod and looked on as soldiers piled out of the vans in droves.
"Let's show 'em what we're made of." Silver enthusiastically stated, a confident, almost evil smirk coming over him.
"That's my line." Neo signed to his side with irritation.
"Yeah, of course, you'd make this about a script, Mx. Dramatic."
"Idiot." Neo retorted.
"Asshole." Silver retaliated.
"Loser." Neo replied.
"Don't get blown up." Silver hit back.
"I won't." Neo signed with a squinted optic.
"You so will." Silver said with a laugh.
"You can shut up at any time." Neo "politely" reminded him.
"I'm telling Mecha that you've been bullying me." Silver warned him.
"Do it."
"Okay, I will. He'll give you the neutral face of displeasure."
"Duck."
"Goose?"
Neo rolled his optics and pushed Silver behind a metal crate, saving them both from a poorly-aimed laser. As he did, a crack of lightning lit up the ground and the robots taking cover. Neo hissed, silently cursing the lightning he was usually so fond of, and yanked Silver to his feet before taking off to the left. Silver zipped after him. A heavy military van screeched to a halt in their path, and Neo calculated where to jump before leaping into the air and clearing the obstacle with ease. Silver followed behind him, jumping a little lower - and his back hit the roof of the van before he rolled off and landed on his feet unsteadily. A motorbike came next, pulling around in a circle to cut them off, and Neo dodged to one side to avoid it before continuing. A second bike pulled in, and Silver hesitated - he skidded for a moment, and it was just enough time for a van to pull out in front of him, cutting him off from Neo.
They were trying to separate them.
Silver gave a low growl and ducked aside to get around them, only to have another van ram into him from behind whilst he was distracted. He toppled to the ground and skidded several feet on his side before regaining his stance. A soldier ran up on him with a gun aimed in his face, and Silver braced himself for it - until Neo pounced over the top of the vehicle blocking him from his brother and crashed into them. He sent the soldier packing into the ground and rolled to a stop, swiftly regaining his footing, and turned to Silver. He kicked the gun over to his brother, who nodded and grabbed it.
In that moment, the robot reinforcements descended on them, surrounding them in a circle. Neo moved close to his brother, staring down the robots with murder in his gaze. Soldiers ran in to join the circle and aimed their weapons at the two robots.
"We have you surrounded. Give up."
Silver swept his gun around at all of them in a warning. "We're here for our 'bots. Just let them go."
A soldier moved in too close, and Neo saw his chance. He grabbed them by the arm, whisked them close to him, and Silver aimed the gun at their head for good measure.
"Call off the reinforcements and they won't be killed." Silver said, cocking his gun. He was bluffing, of course, but they wouldn't have known that.
"They're in the HQ. Now let them go!" A soldier called out.
"What kind of monsters are you?!" Another soldier cried, moving back along with everyone else.
Silver pointed the gun at them. "You be quiet. Radio for your boss to call this off."
The soldier in Neo's grip saw their chance. Instead of a radio, they quickly pulled out their laser gun and fired in his face. Stunned, Neo let them go and staggered back with a string of coded curse words. He was temporarily blinded as his visual sensors glitched out. Seeing a gap in the circle, one of the bike riders pushed in to separate the brothers again. Silver went to help Neo, but a GUN mech stepped in front of him and kicked him back several feet. Silver scrambled to his feet and went to go back, but the other robots joined on pushing him back.
The other half of the squadron pushed Neo the other way, and unable to see or detect anything, he kept going the way they wanted him to. Seeing no other choice, he took off blindly across the base, assuming that Silver was hot on his trail. Silver cursed under his breath and ran in the opposite direction - the headquarters. He sent Neo a ping to let him know where he was and kept going.
Lightning divided the sky in half.
Silver broke through a fire escape with an elbow to the glass pane of the door. The alarms were set off instantly, causing red lights from above to flash through the pitch black. He pressed on, determined to reach his last family members. It was a good thing that he had an endless power supply - he had been moving for so long now that another robot might need recharging at this point. He made way down the corridor, following the green light of another fire escape door like it was a star in the sky. Once at the end, he skidded around the corner and kept going, his footfalls loud and distinctly metallic against the hard floor.
He came to a stop by a tall metal door aptly labelled "GUN Headquarters" with a sign across it. Why would they stash Pawns here? It didn't make sense, but it was the only intel he had, and he was taking it. The sooner this was done, the better. He set his jaw, steeled himself, cocked his gun, and shoved the door open. He took a step inside and swept the sights around, moving close to the wall to protect his back.
The lights snapped on, and at the end of the long, furnished room, a familiar face spun around in a chair to meet him.
Silver halted. It was a trap. Of course it was. Why wouldn't it be? GUN never played fair. The soldiers must have radioed him to tell him that Silver would come. He almost laughed at the stupidity of it all. He cursed himself for falling for it.
"... Well, this is dramatic. If you wanted a final showdown you shoulda just asked." Silver quipped. He steadied his hand and took another step forward towards the GUN commander. "Now, where are they?"
"It's over." The man snarled at him.
"You're entitled to your opinion." Silver said with a shrug, trying to sound casual. "Didn't answer my question though."
A laser gun pointed at him with intent and the metal door banged shut behind him with the flip of a switch.
"Is an artificial being's life really worth more than a living being's?"
It's not worth more. It's the same. It's the same goddamn thing. Silver thought, but said nothing yet.
"Your precious "brother" has already been destroyed by my men."
"You're bluffing. I can still read his signal, he's outside."
"Of course, of course... But we already have eyes on your beloved Mecha. Did you really think we would let him go?"
Silver's engine hitched for a second at the mention at his sibling's name. He growled and held up his pistol, aiming it just off-center.
No, obviously. I wasn't born yesterday. Wait- Okay, kinda was. This asshole...
"Where are they." Silver repeated, lower this time. He advanced on the commander. "They're my family and you're holding them hostage."
"There are no other machines here. Just you." The commander rose from his chair and stepped into the center of the room. "And this... is where it ends."
A standoff ensued for a long, tense minute. The two aimed their weapons at each other, neither one backing down.
"Come on, Silver..." Silver trained his pistol on the human before him, grit his teeth, and tilted his head downward. "He's the bad guy. You're the good guy." He took off the safety with a click and steadied his hand. "It's simple. It's so... simple."
The commander laughed at him, seeing him as a coward. It echoed around the room, assaulting Silver from all directions.
"What's the matter little robot? Afraid?"
Silver hesitated. Several long moments passed. Then, he looked down and away. "I'm not a killer..." Slowly, he lowered his hand and let out a shaky exhale through his vents. "I'm not."
"Yes, you are. And now you will pay."
Silver reacted a few milliseconds too late - a laser pierced through his side as he jumped to one side, and he held air in his vents as he squeezed his gun's trigger in retaliation. The bullet struck the commander in the shoulder, who yelled in surprise. In the split seconds that followed, Silver noticed the weapon on the table behind the man, and he froze. Fuck.
The commander spun around, grabbed the grenade launcher from the table, and fired with military precision. Silver ducked out of the way, letting the metal door get blown up behind him. He vaulted over a table and hit the ground running, sprinting away as quickly as he could. The dark of the corridors shielded him from view, eliminating any chance of an accurate shot at him as he ran - but he didn't expect the next blow to come so quickly.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!"
The world went white and his ears rang painfully. Silver's auditory receptors glitched out and before he could process it, he was on the ground, and something was wrong. Disoriented, he went to stand, but the world shook around him and he fell back down all over again. With a gasp of surprise Silver clambered up to his feet and ran. He set his jaw and forced his legs to work, but kept stumbling sideways into the walls over and over with heavy bangs as his systems struggled to recalibrate.
"I should shoot you in the face for what you've done. I should. You deserve it." Silver whispered to himself, clenching his hand hard around his weapon as if afraid to lose it.
Silver didn't have the sensibility to keep up his speed, and he staggered sideways into the wall again as an explosion went off right behind him. He fell again but gathered himself up, body numb with what would have been adrenaline.
"But fuck! I can't! I don't want to!"
Silver clumsily turned on his heel and returned fire with a pistol, deliberately letting the bullet ricochet off the walls as he couldn't detect his target accurately. He turned and ran again. A scan told him that the bullet hadn't hit its target, and he felt a pang of relief at that, even with this happening. He ducked as the whistle of the next grenade came for him, and it soared over his head and struck the ground several feet ahead. He skidded for a moment before making a leap over the rubble.
As he moved, he brought up his files on the commander and his family, digging through them. A name popped up several times - Maria. Oh.
"Stop doing that! Stop! I don't want to kill you!" Silver screamed over his shoulder. He was losing his cool and couldn't keep a grip on his emotions. Chaos, he understood how Neo lost his head so easily now. He was surrendering and being relentlessly pursued like some hunted animal anyway. Another explosion behind him threw him off balance and he fell against the wall, unable to recalibrate his stabilizers quickly enough to take off running.
"You will pay!"
"It's not my fault that Maria died!" Silver yelled, grit in his voice as anger and desperation took over his fear. The volume of his voice made the words echo, and it was then that Silver knew he had struck a chord. Good. "Doing this will never bring her back!" He had to stop for a second to reboot his calibration systems as the disorientation was getting too much.
"Don't speak her name." Came the gravelly reply from the shadows. The heavy footfalls of the man's boots reverberated against the metal walls.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Silver hissed, shakily aiming his pistol through the darkness. "Hurts when someone you love has their name dragged through hell!"
"You don't know a thing about what hurts."
Silver couldn't hold back a hopeless laugh. "Ha! So my pressure sensors aren't going haywire right now? I beg to differ, meatbag. I can name at least three parts that-" That was when he got a readout on his physical damages, and he trailed off. "Ah. Make that at least five."
"I plan to make it all of them."
Silver didn't stick around to find out if that was true. He flipped his visual sensors to night vision mode. Now he could see at least thirty feet further in front of himself, and he took off without a second thought. Another explosion blew a hole in the wall, revealing the chaos of the storm outside. A crack of lightning blazed across the sky outside, striking the antenna on the building outside with a sickening crack. The peel of thunder came not long after as Silver dropped down onto the fire escape on the floor below, deciding that he wouldn't add getting electrocuted to the list of shit going wrong by taking off into the sky.
The commander marched past the hole in the wall just as another flash of lightning struck the ground immediately outside. The bright light blinded and disoriented him and in a slip of his hand, he fired the launcher into the ceiling. It came down with a loud bang and crash, burying him in a mess of rubble. Karma at its finest. But...
Silver stopped cold upon hearing it. He didn't need to think about what to do next. He spun around and ran back the way he had come, vaulting himself back up to the floor above with a low growl. He pushed his systems to the limit, jumping over the rubble and wreckage as much as his stabilizers would allow him. He hurriedly searched the ground for organic lifeforms and saw a hand under a pile of bricks and metal. He was there in an instant, digging the man free to find him bloodied and bruised.
The commander coughed and went to roll over to get up, but a bruised rib stopped him, and he rolled back over onto his back with a groan.
"Why have you come back?" He spat up at the robot.
"Well, I put "mega bitch" into my GPS and it led me here." Silver said flatly. "Now hold on." He knelt by the man's side, tossing his pistol away. It skidded across the floor with a metallic grating sound until it hit the wall and stopped.
"What are you-"
"You deserve to suffer for what you've done to my family, you really do, and I don't forgive you for it," Silver said quietly, "but you don't deserve to die." He pressed a hand to the commander's wound to stop the bleeding and leaned on it just enough to stop the blood flow. He looked at the man's face, seeing the anger and confusion on it. "You remind me of my brother, you know. He was like this, once. He focused so much on revenge that he forgot who he was. Made him crazy, for lack of a better term." He ripped a scrap of cloth from the man's trousers to use as a dressing. He fired his grappling hook into the floor and snapped it with his other hand without hesitation, using the cord to wrap the cloth tightly around the commander's injury. "As it turns out, evil can't be killed. But sometimes, it can be fixed. Helped. You just have to be shown who you are again, or something cheesy like that."
The man tried to glare at him, his lips forming a firm line that threatened to pull into a snarl. Was this machine accusing him of being evil? It was so hideously ironic in his mind that he almost laughed in the robot's face. But its next words stopped him in a way that he hadn't expected.
"Listen," Silver leaned close, "I'm sorry that you lost her." His words became softer, as did his face. "That pain, it never goes away. I know. You want someone else to hurt the way you do, so that it feels real, so that everyone else sees what's going on inside you." He took another piece of cloth and pressed it to the commander's forehead, over a gash that had opened there. "But people see it. I see it. And I'm sorry that you feel like that... I don't wish loss like that on anybody. But I'm sure she wouldn't want this. From what I've heard, she was a very kind girl, and she loved artificial life."
"You don't know what she would have wanted." He growled up at the robot.
"I don't need to. That's for you to figure out." Silver whispered, quieter now. "Listen. Don't let loss destroy you. Some things can never be fixed, but they can be carried. Don't carry it with this hate. Carry it with honour, honour of her, what she would have wanted, when you know what that is."
"She was the closest I had to a sister." The commander murmured, the stoicism fading from his face.
"I know. I can't imagine. I'm sorry."
The man stayed silent now. Talking about Maria was a weak point of his that most didn't care to cross. His stomach turned, his eyes felt like they were burning, and he had to subdue the shaking that started in his body. Past the stoic, stoney exterior, he missed her. God, he missed her, and it killed him.
"It's okay if it hurts," Silver told him, wrapping another scrap around the man's arm, "you're allowed to be hurt by it. In those moments that I thought I would lose my older brother Mecha, it wrecked me. I hadn't had a family before him and Neo, and to have them almost taken away so soon, it... scared me." He paused, meeting the commander's eyes. "The thing they don't tell you about grief is that it feels so much like fear. But you know, being afraid doesn't make you weak. It just makes you alive. And you know what? You're allowed to live. To experience everything that comes with it, the hurt, the grief, the fear... So don't shut it out. Because it'll come knocking later on and it'll take what you owe it."
The commander remained silent, listening. He tried his best to steel his face, to hide the agony behind it, but the stinging in his eyes betrayed him.
Silver gave a half-hearted smile. "You're a big boy. I'm sure you have things from here." He stood up, walked over to his pistol, and picked it up. He turned back to look at the human on the floor, at first with uncertainty, then a distinct softness. That softness that should have made him weak, an easy target - but in actuality, it made him stronger. Actually, he felt so much bigger, taller, even, with this.
"You have grandkids at home. Go tell them you love them... 'Cause it hurt you to lose Maria and it'd hurt them to lose you."
Without waiting for a response, Silver took off. He jumped down from the hole in the wall and landed in a kneeling position. He was met unceremoniously by the torrential rain outside that whipped against his armour. Murmuring a curse, Silver stepped into the shelter of the wall, or what little shelter it offered. With a grunt he slid down against it to sit down. His injuries had finally caught up to him, and he dropped his pistol by his side as he looked down at his frame.
"Shit. Fuck."
He tilted his head back and smiled, then quietly laughed.
"I think I did the right thing, but fuck. It hurts."
His laughter turned into a cry.
"It hurts."
It hurt because, as much as he felt better for being kind, he still wanted some kind of justice for his siblings. He wanted confirmation that the military wouldn't hunt them down after this. It hurt that he had to spill his guts about something so private, loss, to the man who had hunted him down like a wild animal. It should never have come to this in the first place, damn it. He brushed a hand over the exposed circuitry in his side and winced. It was a cruel reminder that he was still part machine, as much as he was alive in his mind. He felt for Neo, then - the dysmorphia between the two things was painful. He bumped the back of his head to the wall and tried to steel himself, clenching a fist to ease the trembling.
"I shouldn't have to be the bigger person. I'm a fucking kid."
Taking a deep inhale through his intake, he looked down again. Oil dripped onto the floor from a gash in his face and a tear in his left arm. He sighed and pressed a hand to each of them, wiping the liquid away to shake it off onto the ground.
"And if feeling like that makes me childish," Silver murmured as he stood up, "then let me be childish." He steadied himself with a hand to the wall and a smirk returned to its rightful place. "Damn. Neo's gonna kick my ass to Stardust Speedway and back for getting roughed up like this. And I guess for not stomping that guy out when I could've."
A realization dawned on him, and his hand slid down the wall as he looked around.
"Where is that idiot anyway..."
He checked in with his HUD, initially to look for Neo, only to find that his Sonic-tracking finger missiles had come online. Either he was glitching out hard, or he had come here.
"What the-" Silver spun around and scanned everything in disbelief and panic. "Oh no no no... You shouldn't be here. You'll get exploded." Sure enough, he picked up priority-one meatbag in the distance doing Chaos knows what at high speeds. He hurriedly went to boot his jet engine, only to find that it stalled and screeched on him. He groaned and flopped back against the wall in exasperation with a hand running down his face. "G-Great. Guess I'm grounded now. The irony... Hey dad, guess what, I'm grounding myself!"
Silver stopped to read the rest of the scan results and noticed Mecha's signal. Oh, no. His "stomach" flipped and he went to run towards the signal, but as soon as he did, his face met the ground with a bang and he fell unconscious, CPU on standby to recover from all that had just happened.
Sonic crouched atop a cliff with Tails and Mecha by his side.
"Looks like they're havin' a party down there." Sonic commented, squinting as he looked on.
"That's a great way of saying they're in danger." Tails sarcastically remarked to his side with an ear flattened. "Um, a-Are we about to be accomplices to mass murder?"
Mecha laughed. "Negative. Silver would not allow Metal Sonic to kill a living being."
An explosion down below brought irony to his words, and Sonic winced. "You sure about that, bolt-brain? Looks pretty murderous to me."
"Affirmative. I am indeed certain." Mecha stated. "They are the units being pursued in this situation, it is not the other way around. They will not return fire unless absolutely necessary. It is not Silver's... way. He will be keeping a tight rein on Neo's actions and I trust that."
Tails sighed in exasperation. "My life is becoming a never-ending game of illegal or frowned upon." He stood up and fixed his backpack. "Right. If we can get in, I should be able to disable the security..." He shielded his eyes from the rain with a hand to his forehead and squinted. "And we can get an aircraft out of there. They might be too hurt to move."
Sonic gave a nod. "Right on. Between the two of you, we have two capable pilots."
Mecha and Tails exchanged looks and nods.
"Mecha, you good to cover us?" Sonic turned to Mecha to ask him, a serious tone coming over him now. "This'll be risky. We need your, uh... talents."
"Affirmative." Mecha responded, promptly activating his defense systems. "Let us proceed."
Tails pulled an odd-looking console out from his bag over his shoulder and started messing with it as they walked down the side of the cliff. Mecha peered down at it, a little too close, and Tails nervously smiled at him.
"Oh, this?"
Mecha nodded.
"I'm gonna use it to hack into the security. Now if you look at this..."
Sonic smiled to himself as Tails explained the technology to the curious robot, not understanding half of it, but proud of his adoptive sibling's smarts anyway. He tuned out their chatter as they got closer to the towering GUN fortress, deciding to focus on what was most important - getting in and out quick, and keeping these two safe amongst all these fireworks. He really had his work cut out for him.
After the conversation ended, Mecha straightened and stared ahead, putting out a broad-sweep scan of their surroundings. Nothing of interest came up, so he dismissed the results and relaxed.
Sonic looked at him, puzzled. "What's up? Not got a virus again have you?"
Mecha looked at him after a moment. "Negative. However, I may have contracted Nevgon."
"What's nevgon?" Sonic asked, furrowing a brow with concern.
"Nevgon give you up." Mecha stated, then walked on.
Sonic snorted and laughed, following behind him. "You kill me with those jokes, dude."
Mecha looked over his shoulder at the hedgehog. "If I was to kill you, I would do so using my fists. If my fist made contact with your face at a speed of-"
"Ooookay, got it." Sonic silenced him with a laugh. "No punching. That hurt last time."
Mecha paused, recalling what he had done. He moved aside slightly, avoiding the hedgehog as if afraid to hurt him again. "... Understood."
"It's okay," Sonic reassured him with a smile, "I trust you." He moved closer to Mecha, closing that gap between them to prove it.
Mecha gave a nod of gratitude and looked ahead. "I appreciate your words. Not many would trust a machine such as myself."
"But you're not just a machine, you know?" Sonic told him with a shrug. "You're like us in a lot of ways, people should try to see that more."
"Why is my sentience a prerequisite for organic empathy?" Mecha mused, mostly to himself. "Why does my validity rest on how human one can make me? Why is it not acceptable to simply acknowledge a creature's right to be what it is, as it is?"
Sonic tilted his head. "That's pretty deep, dude."
Mecha looked at him. "Consider this. A child awaits the return of their parents from their place of work. That child does not need to understand the complexities of the working world for that act to be meaningful. It simply is. Such a concept is not disputed by your kind, for most would agree with it. However, my care for my family would be readily disputed by most due to what I am - a robot. It is assumed that, because I lack empathy and have a limited emotional range, I am incapable of caring. My manner of caring is my own, it does not need to become more human to be valid."
"Yeah, I getcha. I guess we should learn to leave things be, huh?" Sonic gave a nod, privately humbled by that.
"Indeed. I suppose my query is, why are such beings not enough as they are?" Mecha asked, looking ahead now. "Does it truly matter if a being cannot communicate in words if it shows a pain that one can recognize? Does it matter if a being cannot feel emotion if it can choose to act in ways that one considers good, irrespective of that lack of emotion? Those forms of existence are just as acceptable as your own, even if you cannot comprehend their depth. There are private worlds that you cannot understand, and will never see - it is best to accept them for what they are rather than criticize them."
Tails hopped ahead a little to catch up to them, intrigued by the conversation. "This sorta thing why I've always liked machines. I like figuring out how they work and stuff, it's so much more interesting than figuring out people."
Mecha looked down at him fondly. "Affirmative."
They moved in silence for a while, the wind whistling loudly around them.
"... I-It's kinda cold." Tails complained, pinning his ears back and holding his console closer to his chest.
Mecha startled at that, remembering that organics could feel that. He carefully put an arm around Tails and pulled him close to his side, where the heat from his engine quickly provided some warmth for the small fox. His thick shoulder plating offered some shelter from the rain, too, which Tails was thankful for. The more Mecha did things like this, the easier it was for Tails to forgive the robot's less civil past.
The group came to a stop a distance away from the fortress.
"Alrighty. Tails, do your thing." Sonic said, turning to Tails with a grin.
"Roger!" Tails tapped away on the screen and Mecha watched with his head tilted, intrigued. The fox clearly knew his stuff as he navigated the many buttons and readouts with expert precision. A few taps here and there and he gave a satisfied nod.
"Okay, we're clear Sonic!"
"Nice one lil' buddy." Sonic scrubbed Tails' head and jogged on ahead. Mecha followed closely, now on the alert and fiercely watching out for threats. The three came to the fortress' outer wall and put their backs to it. Mecha put out another scan before speaking.
"I have pinpointed both Silver and Neo's locations. They are close." Mecha stated, tilting his head this way and that as he read the coordinates. "They are not with any other units of interest to us. However, they may be incapacitated, judging by the strength of their signals."
"Right, no time to waste! Let's go." Sonic looked up, noticing that a camera didn't turn upon what should have triggered it, and grinned. He motioned for the two to follow and jumped up onto the wall, scaling it and jumping down with ease. Mecha jumped up, turned, and held out a hand to Tails, who jumped and took it. Mecha pulled him up as gently as he could, and then held him under his arm as he jumped down to the other side. The three pressed against the wall, looking around.
"Hedgehog. I suggest that you locate Silver, for you two work effectively together. He is approximately one hundred feet to your left. I shall locate Neo, for I am best equipped to deal with their... attitude," Mecha began, pinging for their coordinates again, "and Miles, the closest aircraft hangar is to your right. There are no soldiers occupying it at this time. Ping me if you require assistance and I shall come at once, however, it is currently safe to proceed."
"Sounds like a plan, boss!" Sonic replied with a salute. "Catch ya later." With that, he zipped off in search of a certain silver robot in the direction that Mecha had sent him.
"Roger!" Tails gave a thumbs-up and disappeared to the hangar, secretly excited to get to pilot something.
With the two of them gone, Mecha looked ahead and focused on his mission. He locked onto Neo's signal and took off, pushing down his worries as best as he could. Neo was strong and capable, he would be fine. It was just concerning that Neo and Silver weren't together - something must have gone very wrong. He pushed harder at that realization, determined to find his brothers online and functioning. At once he became a target, which wasn't a problem. He dodged and ducked bullets and lasers as needed, staying solidly on his path.
Nothing would stop him. Not this time.
"Is this your happiness, Neo?"
Mecha stepped out into the roaring wind and rain that raged atop the deck of the Final Fortress. He looked up into the stormy skies to find his little brother, now a "monster" of scrap metal and lightning, fighting to the death. He would risk everything for this last stand. If he had any shred of rationality left, it would have been paper-thin by now, as he was screaming nonsense and threats over the cracking of thunder in different voices. He really didn't know who he was anymore.
"No. This is not it. You are not happy."
Rain pattered off of Mecha's armour with a distinct metallic tone as he watched his brother - no longer the small navy blue robot who would lock itself away for hours on end, but the embodiment of its confusion, rage and terror. A preventable mess. Mecha couldn't understand why it had been allowed to progress to this. Everyone had seen it coming and done nothing. It was as if Mecha was the only being who had seen through Neo's anger for what it logically was.
"You are hurting."
Mecha raised an arm in front of his face as he walked out onto the deck, braving the harsh winds. He pinged Neo but didn't get a response. Of course he wouldn't, the robot was out of their mind. Dismissing the idea to ping him again, Mecha's gaze came to rest on Eggman. Why was he just standing by, watching this? That was his son! He pushed onward, towards Eggman, wondering why, why? Why this? Why speak of his son as if he were a monster?
"Do something."
Mecha stood, staring at Eggman, who stared back at him through the torrents of rain.
"Do something."
"I can't do anything, Mecha."
"Incorrect. You can still act and you are actively choosing not to."
"Mecha... you've done enough. Stand down, let them handle it."
Mecha went to step past him and Eggman put an arm out to stop him. Mecha stopped, but still looked straight ahead, focused.
"Let me pass." Mecha demanded.
"No. You'll be destroyed." Eggman warned him.
"He is my brother. I must assist him." Mecha responded, still looking ahead.
"He's out of control. There's nothing you can do!"
"He is hurt."
"Stop this. He's going to destroy you."
"Let me pass." Mecha repeated himself in a lower voice, inching forward just one step.
"Don't threaten me, Mecha. I'm trying to protect you." Eggman snapped at him, protectively but sternly.
"Indeed, that might be your intention. But who will protect Metal Sonic."
Eggman hesitated. "Metal needs to be stopped. He'll destroy everything and everyone and you can't stop him now."
"They will destroy him. They are destroying him. Why watch. Why allow this to happen. Why." Mecha insisted.
"He betrayed me, Mecha. I can't do anything now, he'll kill me if I go near him."
Mecha stayed resilient. "He imprisoned you to protect you."
Eggman snorted and said nothing.
Mecha met his eyes, not understanding that response. "You do not believe me. Why."
"Stop trying to justify his behaviour, Mecha! He needs to be stopped whether you like it or not, and there's nothing we can do to help that."
"You are betraying him. You have been betraying him since his construction."
"Mecha, stop."
"You have seen this coming and have not acted. Why."
"Shut up, Mecha. Now."
Mecha stepped past him defiantly and Eggman grabbed his arm.
"I wont have another of my robots turn on me. Stop it, now, or I'll be forced to do something about it."
"Do not threaten me." Mecha repeated back to him, tilting his head downward dangerously. He didn't flinch when Omega's left cannon trained on his head in warning, but stayed very still. He was getting closer to acting in self-defense now, and he would if necessary. Shadow, too, took a few steps towards him with a fist clenched and a snarl forming on his face, Rouge close behind him.
Eggman tightened his grip on the robot's arm and leaned closer to him. "You're disobeying me for him! Its absurd! I created you!"
Mecha held his glare without fear and raised his head. Usually, Mecha was the type to plan things out. He wasn't as rash and impulsive as Neo was. But this had been going on for too long and he was tired of watching. He wrenched his arm free, an easy feat with his mechanical strength, and marched off towards the center of the deck. That was when Omega put himself in front of Mecha, holding his cannons up to Mecha's face.
"All Eggman robots must be eliminated. That includes you."
Mecha stared straight into the cannons without emotion. He had respect for Omega, and wouldn't attack him if he didn't have to - but it was becoming very difficult for his programming to not detect Omega as a threat. He was still registered as a comrade in Mecha's registry, and the file was starting to convert to register him as an enemy.
"Unit E-123 Omega. I do not wish to fight you."
"I was built to destroy. Dr. Eggman builds inferior robots like you, and I destroy them. Metal Sonic will be destroyed, and I will destroy you."
Mecha held his steely resolve. He knew this other robot well and knew how to work around him. "You will not get an opportunity to destroy Eggman's robots if someone else destroys them first. In addition, I do not intend to engage in combat with you at this time. Thus, your endeavour to destroy me will not be satisfactory. It will be disappointing."
Omega faltered for a moment, and that was all Mecha needed. He took off running, ignoring the shouts behind him - they got drowned out by the downpour anyway - and fired up his jet engine. Focusing as best as he could, Mecha tried to draw in the immense Chaos energy from the battle above, drawing in its power. Just a few more seconds and he could take off to help his brother -
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
Neo stopped time.
He knew. He knew and he stopped Mecha from acting to save him in the last moments of battle.
What felt like an hour passed, and Mecha staggered to a halt as time resumed. He spun around in alarm to find that the battle was done, and Neo was crashing down onto the deck. Mecha tripped over his own feet as he sprinted back down the deck, towards his brother, finding him crying out to Sonic for death.
No, Mecha wouldn't let him die.
He skidded to a stop and knelt by Neo. Before he knew it he was gathering Neo into his arms, murmuring reassurances under the cracking of thunder for nobody else to hear.
Everyone else had failed him, and Mecha refused to be one of them.
Neo cried into his armour, and Mecha let him.
"You are safe now."
Mecha spotted his navy blue brother through the rain and put his last ounces of stamina into running. Neo was tiring and hurt, and Mecha could see a thousand ways that he would get hurt again. Without hesitation he slammed his body into Neo, pushing him down to the ground as a shot from a gun sailed over their heads.
Neo shuttered his optics in surprise and stared up at Mecha.
Mecha sharply looked over his shoulder and rose to stand, facing the soldier who had advanced on Neo. He loosened his shoulders, shook his hands out, and stalked towards them.
"I recommend that you retreat immediately." Mecha warned them, lowering his head and clenching his fists. "I will defend myself with force."
The soldier held their nerve for just a moment before thinking better of it. They ditched their weapon and fled - Mecha was scarier-looking than Neo, and they didn't want to risk being maimed by both of them combined. Satisfied, Mecha looked back at Neo. Neo pulled himself up, leaning against a crate, and stared at him.
"Brother. What is your status." Mecha asked him. He didn't move or flinch as a bullet came at him, simply lifting his hand and catching it.
"Fantastic," Neo replied sarcastically, "perfect."
Mecha dipped his head and shook it. "I do not appreciate the sarcasm. I will scan you to find out if I must."
"I am operational," Neo responded with a huff. The laser burn across his face said all it needed to about that.
They looked at each other for a long moment, neither robot moving. And then, at the same time, they ran at each other and tackled each other in a hug.
"You idiot! What are you doing here?!" Neo asked, pressing his forehead to Mecha's affectionately.
"Preventing disaster." Mecha stated matter-of-factly, returning the gesture.
"This is not a disaster. We have freed many apprehended units." Neo retorted with a scoff.
"Admit you have made a mistake, will you, brother? You have made a snap judgement, as you usually do, and you are refusing to admit it, as you always do." Mecha muttered back at him.
"I do not always make snap judgements." Neo replied with a roll of his optics.
"Then how would you describe this..." Mecha asked, turning to gesture to the overturned military vans and demolished motorbikes strewn around the place. Several on fire. He slapped away another bullet without flinching.
"You wanna be scrapped here?!" A soldier called to their right, the one who had fired at him. "There are easier ways to destroy yourself!"
Mecha turned his head slightly but didn't bother to look at them. "Affirmative. Such as threatening the machine with super-strength and a disregard for your safety."
"Admittedly, I may have misjudged the scale of the situation," Neo finally admitted, ignoring the soldier's comment, "In retrospect, I might have made some erroneous assumptions based on anger. I have lost Silver in the process."
"I have noticed," Mecha replied, flicking another bullet away, "so the hedgehog is currently locating him."
"The hedgehog?!" Neo hissed and stepped up to Mecha's face. "What business does he have with-"
Mecha placed a finger to Neo's muzzle plate. "You misjudged the scale of the situation. Therefore, it would be wise to employ some assistance in de-scaling it."
Neo stepped back and huffed. "If the hedgehog injures him, it is on you."
Mecha gave him a long look. "I am asking you to trust my decision, and me. Do you trust me?"
"I trust you." Neo reluctantly responded.
"Then cease the complaints." Mecha reprimanded him, catching yet another bullet. This time he turned on his heel to face the soldier and held it up, turning it so that it glinted against the flash of lightning above. "I am capable of throwing this at you at a speed that would mortally wound you. I suggest that you find a better use of your time. Consider other human activities such as gardening, or yoga."
"You're bluffing!"
Mecha cocked his head. That was a challenge. He pulled his arm back, making out as if he would throw the bullet, and the soldier promptly turned tail and fled. Mecha chuckled and dropped it, turning back to Neo.
"You have such a way with the local humans." Neo remarked sarcastically.
"Likewise. Your homicidal tendencies shine through best when in close proximity to people." Mecha responded, dusting off his hands. He detected another soldier advancing on them and turned to face them, bending down to pick up the bullet to repeat the last interaction.
Neo put a hand on his shoulder and shook it. "Wait. That one is friendly."
Mecha looked at him, puzzled. "I am beginning to think that I should scan you for glitches."
"No, that is Pisces," Neo told him, pointing to the soldier who waved, "they have assisted us."
Mecha straightened and tilted his head. "Are you certain? Why would a Pisces have the courage to assist you?"
"Hey, I heard that!" The soldier grumbled as they walked over.
"Based on my research and generally speaking, Pisceans are sensitive, pessimistic, and indecisive." Mecha explained, not getting why they were offended.
The soldier groaned and turned as if to walk away. "Not you too..." They shook their head and turned back again. "Okay, look, we're not just sensitive-" They paused, looking Mecha up and down, who followed their eyes questioningly. "Oh, no way. You're that robot."
Mecha folded his arms defensively and inclined his head. "My designation is Mecha Sonic, not "That Robot"."
"Dare I ask what your sign is?"
"Aquarius."
"Alright. That's your name now, since apparently, I'm just Pisces to the lot of you."
Mecha cocked his head. "As you wish. However, I shall not be logging it as my unit designation any time soon. You may continue to be incorrect."
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I've heard about you."
"Indeed. I can tell by the manner in which you are aiming a gun at my face." Mecha stated, tapping his fingers against his arm plating and dipping his head.
"Oh! Shit- Sorry, force of habit. Military things." The soldier pocketed their gun and signed a quick "sorry" to Neo, who had been staring them down with murderous intent the whole time. "Aquarius. I know you were kept here before, and... my sibling helped you."
Neo's optics brightened at that, as did Mecha's. That explained a lot.
"They got fired. Obviously. Not that they'd want to work here anymore after, well. That happened." The soldier clarified, referring to how the commander had ordered Mecha to attack them. "So when you guys showed up here and didn't kill me on the spot, it was kinda hard not to rebel and help you too, even if you were jerks."
Mecha walked over to them and dipped his head. "Please forward my thanks to your sibling. I owe them too much to repay."
The soldier shook their head. "It's nothing. They said you were a good person, that the things done to you were really undeserved. Anyway, I'm definitely getting fired after this too. I'm thinking about working in a café or something. That would be nice... less explosions, less government corruption, less killer robots slandering my star sign."
Neo gave a nod of approval and signed, "we will repay your family."
"Just buy a cuppa in my future café and we're even!" The soldier said with a laugh. "Anyway, to more pressing matters..." They looked around as another van pulled up a small distance away. "I'll distract them. Get out of here." With that, they jogged away towards the van, and Neo and Mecha watched as they pointed in the opposite direction and motioned for the soldiers piling out from the vehicle to follow them.
"Some humans are acceptable." Neo remarked with a smile in his optics.
"Indeed. Now, let us not waste more time." Mecha responded, then took off towards the hangar with Neo, trusting that Sonic would show up with Silver soon.
Sonic spotted Silver laying face-down, rather ungracefully, on the ground by a wall. He ran over to the robot and knelt by him, shaking him gently.
"Hey. Wake up." Sonic gently said in his ear.
Silver rolled over and flopped an arm over his chest, revealing his arm's extensive injuries with a groan. His optics came online and he stared up at Sonic, at first confused, and then thankful.
"Is that you, flesh-hog?"
"It sure is, robo-hog. You look like you got blown up a few times."
Silver winced as he sat up, holding a hand to his chest. "Yeah, you could say that. You know, the usual for a hedgehog-series... Next on my schedule is, wait, lemme check..." He paused as if consulting some internal calendar, "ah, getting blown up tomorrow, too. The excitement never ends."
Sonic shook his head and placed a hand to Silver's back to help him up. "The blood really brings out your silver paint."
Silver looked down to find that oil had spilled all over his front and he grimaced. "Thanks. I-It's in fashion at the moment, you know."
"I didn't think you were so rusty in battle." Sonic teased him as he helped the robot up to his feet. "You look so banged up."
"Read at 19:08pm." Silver mumbled, feeling his head spin with the sudden movements he was making.
"I- This is a verbal conversation."
"Read at 19:09pm..." Silver whispered before collapsing backwards. Sonic caught him with a quiet "woah" of surprise.
"Okay, no standing for you." Sonic braced himself and picked the robot up, putting him over his shoulder. He was heavy, but nowhere near as heavy as Mecha or Neo, having been designed to be lighter and more agile. Sonic was glad that he was stronger than the average Mobian, but the weight still pressed on his shoulder a fair amount.
"Where's Neo? Is he okay?" Silver murmured, staring down at the floor as blackness clouded his vision.
"He's with Mecha. You know those two, they'll be fine." Sonic reassured him with a smile, even if Silver couldn't see it.
"Yeah... they're fine..." Silver breathed, going limp over the hedgehog's shoulder. "If they get killed, I'll... kill 'em..."
Silver went quiet for a moment, and Sonic grimaced with concern. "You good?"
"I'm soooo good right now..." Silver said under his breath. "Just, y'know... got blown up a few times... played therapist to an adult man who tried to kill me... saw Neo get shot in the face... all in a day's work. It's all good. Soooo good."
"Well, hang in there. You'll be fine." Sonic said, looking around for the clearest way to the hangar.
"Oh yeah, 'm always fine. I gotta be." Silver said quietly. He fell quiet for another moment, watching a drop of oil spill onto the floor. "I miss M. You looked after 'im, right?"
"Of course," Sonic replied, glancing over his shoulder to check for other exits, "he's family too."
Silver smiled. "Good." His smile dropped, though, after a second. "Oh, he's gon' give me the neutral face of displeasure. He's gonna be like... I cannot believe you would do something this stupid. And I'll be like... I think we both know I'd be this stupid." He did his best impression of Mecha, getting a quiet laugh from Sonic.
"Buddy, you're not stupid. Your heart's always in the right place." Sonic told him, before slipping around a corner and checking for soldiers.
"I don' have a heart, idiot." Silver murmured.
"It was a figure of speech, Silv." Sonic replied with another small laugh.
"'M tired of worrying about hurting people. I wanna be like you." Silver lamented, mostly to himself.
"Buddy, if you think I've never hurt anyone then you haven't paid attention." Sonic ducked under a camera and crouched a little behind a stack of crates, waiting for a GUN mech to move away. "I've lost my head before. I've been a jerk before. Heck, Tails worries his little head off about me every day. I'm not perfect. I'm just some hedgehog."
"I literally got missiles in my fingers made jus' for you." Silver reminded him sadly. "Does a good guy who doesn't hurt anyone have sum'n like that..."
"Hey, Silv?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll take ya to a firing range sometime. It seems right up your alley."
"'M sorry I was such a jerk to you before."
"It's cool. It comes with the territory when you're literally built to maim me."
"Don' remind me..." Silver whimpered, holding his head in his hands. "I don't like it."
"Hey Silv?"
"Hmm?"
"You're gonna be okay."
"I know, I know..." Silver let his hands hang again and smiled. "Hey Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"I jus' want you to know that you're a..." Silver paused to hack up oil into his hand. "A bro to me."
Sonic smiled and readjusted his grip on Silver as he moved to hide behind another stack of crates. "You're family to me too."
"Hey, Sonic? I think 'm adopted."
"Depends on how you look at it, I guess?"
"Emotionally."
"Ah. Gotcha."
"Hey Sonic?"
"What's up?"
"Why doesn't dad love me anymore?"
Sonic paused. "He's, uh... a complicated man. I'm sure he does. He did make you, after all."
"I dunno... 'pparently he said I need to grow up." Silver whispered, trying to lift his head to look around, but couldn't find the strength. "I'm the family disappointment. Neo said 'm not but... look at me right now."
"You're not a disappointment, dude." Sonic disagreed with a shake of his head and a frown. "You're a hero."
Silver found a smile coming over him again, and he rested his head back down.
"Listen to me, kiddo. You've been through a lot. Most kids your age don't spend their time getting blown up repeatedly." Sonic told him, slipping behind a bunker now. "Most kids don't have to save lives or free hostages. And look at you, you've been doing that. At your age I did none of those things, you know? It's pretty damn cool if you ask me."
Silver gave a weak nod. "Guess so. Hey Sonic?"
"Kiddo?"
"Uh... uh... I'm gonna lose it."
"Lose what?"
"Consciousness!"
True to his word, Silver fell silent over Sonic's shoulder. Sonic sighed and patted the robot's back.
"Yeah, buddy. I know."
Sonic looked around for what felt like the hundredth time, being as careful as he could. He wanted to protect Silver anyway, but if he let the robot get hurt any more, Neo would probably, no, definitely, come for his blood. Just as he went to take a step, Silver startled awake and panicked.
"No no no no I don't-"
Sonic stopped immediately and adjusted his hold of the robot, trying not to hurt him. "Easy buddy, what's wrong?"
"I-I don't wanna die." Silver stared at the ground in terror. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
"Steady, kiddo. You won't, I promise." Sonic said gently, rubbing Silver's back to try to ground him.
"I shot that man." Silver continued, still staring at the floor. "I shot him. He tried t'kill me and I shot him."
"You're okay, I promise." Sonic shushed him gently. "You don't have to shoot anyone again. You're safe."
"I could've killed 'im..." Silver cried, holding his head in his hands again. "I'm so bad... so so bad..."
Sonic figured that Silver wouldn't calm down enough for him to go any further ahead. He carefully prized the robot from off of his shoulder and set him down against the bunker wall, putting his hands on his shoulders to steady him.
"Where are we right now?" Sonic asked him quietly.
"We're... we're..." Silver stared blankly at Sonic. "We're in a video game."
"Not quite, buddy. We're at the GUN fortress. Okay, I'm gonna ask you to use your super-smart robot brain to do somethin' for me. How long will it take us to get back to your dad's base?"
"What, t'get all the way there?"
"I'll take a rough estimate."
Silver looked down and counted on his fingers. "Well... if I had'ta guess, taking account of all possible variables... and every possible outcome... and all possible problems and issues... if I had to guess, I'd say, kinda like... forever. What do you think?"
"What do I think?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm. Forever sounds about right." Sonic said with a small laugh. "What do you think Mecha would say?"
Silver considered that. "Uhh... if I hadt'a guess... Mecha would pull this face," he paused to make the most neutral face possible, "and he'd say, I estimate that it will take us three hours twenty minutes and fifty-two seconds, potentially forever. Affirmative."
"That sure is a long time," Sonic remarked, sounding interested, "but ya know what would make that time so much shorter?"
"What?"
"If you stay with me and settle down. You're freaking out."
"I'm so not freaking out! I just... I-I just..." Silver stopped, and Sonic could see the cogs turning in his head as he thought, "m'kay, maybe I freaked. Yeah, definitely freaked. Sorry. Sorry."
"Can you tell me where we are?" Sonic asked again.
"The fuckin'... stupid GUN fortress of hell." Silver replied, sounding drained. "It sucks here. There's not even room service or gaming consoles... all they have is explosions 'n near-death experiences."
"Yeah, buddy," Sonic sighed with relief and pulled the robot into a hug, "but it's okay. You're okay."
Silver nestled his face into Sonic's shoulder. "Okay. M'lucky to have you as a bro in my collection of bros."
Sonic rubbed his back and smiled. "I'm luckier, kiddo. Now, we good to get going again?"
"Yeah..." Silver replied, his voice trailing off. "Gotta go fast 'n all that..." Before he knew it his lights were out again, and Sonic gathered the robot into his arms to carry him again.
"Good night Silv." Sonic shielded his eyes from the rain after putting Silver back over his shoulder. "Yeah. Gotta go fast... sounds about right." He started off again, squinting against the rain. "I'm booking us in at a shooting range after this. Promise."
Silver murmured something incomprehensible, and Sonic reached up to pat his head.
"Sleep well lil' hero."