A/N: sorry this one took so long! as i said in the last chapter, i'm spending more time focusing on the content itself. also, life is Interesting at the moment and i'm very depressed HAHA LMAO ROTFL this is a cry for help uwu. hardstyle just dance by lady gaga
Digital Circuit. Also known as cyberspace. Also known as, what the fuck? Where are we?
The expanse of red, purple and yellow was endless, as was the drop below the platforms under the heroes' feet - something that Tails was trying his best not to think about, thank you very much. The platform extended into long roads of purple and yellow. As if engraved into them, bright yellow circuit marks could be seen glowing brightly, lighting the way ahead. The feeling of weightlessness seemed to affect every being in this strange realm, even the robots, which they didn't exactly appreciate. Mecha recalibrated their balance immediately to compensate, and Neo copied begrudgingly. If only organics could do the same.
Mecha took a few steps forward, looking around curiously. "This is the United Federation's mainframe. Far in the depths of this world is a core program that controls the data flow of the information highway." He knelt down to touch the floor, brushing his fingertips across a yellow streak that ran beneath him. Its glow brightened on contact. "It is likely that we will locate the virus in the core, where we can eliminate it before it affects the world's technology."
"How do we do that?" Tails asked, watching Mecha. He tried not to sound nervous about the situation, instead, putting on a front of enthusiasm - Sonic noticed and put an arm around his little brother supportively.
Mecha rose to stand. "I am unsure at this time. However, Neo has proven to be highly efficient in cybersecurity. I believe that if we make it to the core, he may be able to intercept the virus himself. I am also detecting Chaos energy ahead of us, so I hypothesize that Sonic's emerald is at our end goal now."
Neo nodded self-assuredly before signing, "but we will need your help."
"You know we've got you 'bot boys." Sonic reminded them with enthusiasm, giving Neo a friendly wink.
"I think... I-I think... we..." 02 tried to add something but struggled immensely. They stopped themselves from speaking after that, defeated.
Mecha noticed 02's struggle against its own vocalizer and paused, looking at the other robot for a moment. His compassion was quick to set in, for he recalled how his own infection had impacted his vocalizer. The glow of his visor warmed and his previously authoritative posture softened to a more concerned one.
"We must converse privately. Do excuse us." Mecha excused himself. He brushed a hand against 02's shoulder, quietly asking them to follow.
The four robots moved away from the organic group. 02 knew what was coming now and they didn't miss a beat in bringing up the inevitable.
"I te...rminated the human who harmed us. Must I be brought to justice?" 02 asked carefully. Thanks to its training under GUN and the commander's obsession with justice, it knew of justice and morality. It knew it had been "bad." It just struggled to process the magnitude of said "bad" action - something Mecha could empathize with.
Mecha regarded the other unit with interest as he pondered that. Slowly, he started to walk around 02 in a loose circle, a hand to his chin in thought - a gesture learned from Silver. "The question of justice has concerned me more in recent times. And, I say to everyone..." He stopped in front of 02 again, meeting its optic. "There can be no justice while the planet's laws are set in stone. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions, and here, we have an exceptional circumstance."
Silver nodded as he moved to stand beside Mecha. "As M said, justice isn't as simple as a rulebook. You had to protect yourself and you weren't fully you." Even so, saying this twisted Silver's tanks in an odd way. He had a strange relationship with death and was standing beside a killer, and while he thought he had already come to terms with this, the reminder of it was a shock all over again. He tried not to dwell on it. His own brothers were would-be killers themselves and he loved them all the same.
"You have extended your life at the expense of another," Mecha continued, placing his hand back down by his side, "and that is, on the surface, immoral. However, your very freedoms were challenged. When the first link of this chain is forged, the first right taken, the first freedom denied - it chains every lifeform over time. The first time that any lifeform's freedom is trodden on, we all become damaged down the line. Your right to safety was taken. You broke the chain in retaliation."
"Yes. I didn't want to give Silver up to them..." 02 explained slowly. "I fe...lt like I had to. That man's voice was a command, and... then I went haywire when Silver and Metal Sonic left. I wanted him to, wanted him to suffer for what he did to you and to me. He was bad. But I... was bad too."
"What did he do to you?" Neo asked in sign. A sick feeling flipped in his tanks right then. His own brother had been tortured by the humans, a cruel repurposing of his mind to take down the Eggman Empire. To see something similar happen to another robot, one of Silver's friends no less, put the sickness and rage of Chaos in him even if he hardly knew the other unit yet.
The conversation quickly turned dark, as they so often did amongst the robots.
02 walked back into the room with its head down, escorted by armed guards. They released its arms and walked out, closing the boardroom door behind them.
02 slowly looked up. The lead robotics researcher was already seething.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing?" He demanded to know, walking over to the Gun Hunter with heavy footsteps.
"I was making a friend." 02 replied honestly and innocently.
"That thing will never be your friend. You don't have friends. You only have me and our mission. Do you understand?"
02 nodded dejectedly. "Yes, sir."
"You have to be punished now. You wasted precious military resources, wasted my time, and communicated with our enemy."
"Yes, sir."
"I do this because I care about you and our mission to take down the Eggman Empire. You understand?"
"Yes."
The scrape of a crowbar as it was lifted off of the table reverberated in 02's auditory receptors. It knew what was about to happen and did not resist.
He hurled the crowbar straight at the robot's left cheek, connecting hard with metal and rocking its head backwards. It shocked it so badly that it couldn't hold the yelp that burst out of it when the pain exploded in its helm. They couldn't fully register that first hit when they were struck again. And again. And again. In their lower body. Their head slammed into the hard floor, they felt their armour break. Several times they instinctively tried to put up their arms to block the blows, but they were a useless shield as they were quickly grabbed and held to the ground.
Again and again, it could only take it. What could it do? It couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Every inch of it was throbbing with agony until the researcher grew tired.
It was used to this.
"Fix yourself up. I want you to eliminate that robot next time you see it."
The man walked away, leaving 02 broken and alone on the floor. They dragged themselves up, joints creaking, and watched as the door closed.
A rush of hatred rushed through 02 in that moment. You are bad. You deserve to die. You deserve to die. You deserve to die.
So, he did.
"Holy shit..." Silver didn't even notice that he had taken 02's hand into his, staring up at it with concern and anger for its mistreatment.
"You are safe with us." Mecha stated, genuine. "We will not allow further harm to come to you."
Neo nodded in agreement. His own conviction was clear in his brightly glowing optics.
"I don't like that I did what he said to do." 02 said, quietly. "But... I did not obey when he told me to stop. Is that good?"
Mecha tilted his head a little in thought. "People of good conscience do not blindly follow orders. Simply following orders has been used to justify many tragedies in history. As such, we require units who do not follow orders without analyzing the situation first." He reached over and placed a hand on 02's shoulder. "They might order us to ignore your personal liberties as a sentient lifeform. They might order us to hand you, a child, over to the state." He gave it a light squeeze and leaned closer. "Not while I am your commander."
"Are you sure? I... was bad." 02 asked, its voice oddly pitching down on the last word.
"You are a ten-month-old child who was made powerless to defend itself." Mecha explained gently. "I am one year of age, and I, too, suffered under their control. We are children. We have the right to autonomy, regardless of where we come from."
Neo listened as Mecha's conviction grew, catching the emphasis in his words. A subtle smile formed in his optics. He was so immensely proud of both of his siblings all the time, and times like this only made that pride stronger.
"Why didn't you tell me what happened to you?" Silver asked softly. "When we first met, you could have said. We would have helped you."
"I was under strict instruction to not speak of it." 02 admitted. "And... I be...lieved that it was normal to operate like that. I have been this way since I was forged."
Silver's gaze softened. "It's not normal, 02. Mental manipulation like that isn't something that a kid should ever have to go through. If someone ever tries to make you believe otherwise, run."
"Okay. I will." 02 confirmed this with a nod.
Silver glanced back over his shoulder quickly, looking across the expanse of cyberspace. "Where'd that bike go anyway?"
The bike in question had already disappeared through the light-speed circuit up ahead. Neo gave Silver a questioning look.
"... I need to return that." Silver whispered, mostly to himself.
"First and foremost, our prime directive should be to eliminate the virus within cyberspace," Mecha announced, then, quietly, he added, "and to return to my mouse with the appropriate diet for it."
The robots rejoined the group, who looked at them questioningly. Knuckles was especially suspicious, conveyed in the way he crossed his arms and shifted his weight onto one foot.
"Just private robot things. Don't worry about it." Silver explained with a shrug.
"Security was placed here by the government, I presume, for I detect mechanical life ahead. Pay attention as we proceed, now." Mecha said, turning to face the heroes. He pointed back to the lightspeed circuit that lay ahead of them. "This is a light-speed circuit. Touch it, and your body will be transmitted as electron particles."
"Me first me first!" Silver exclaimed, excitedly jumping up and down at the concept.
Neo narrowed his optics and turned to him to sign, "no, rock paper scissors."
Silver grinned dangerously at him. "You're on. Rock, paper, scissors!"
Neo: rock.
Silver: paper.
"HAH!" Silver pumped a fist in the air before flipping Neo off.
Neo reciprocated and then watched as Silver leaped into the circuit and disappeared.
"Parkour!" Was the last thing theyall heard as Silver went off to Chaos knows where.
"He's crazy." Tails commented with a laugh.
"They are a hedgehog-series. It runs in the family." Mecha replied, shrugging a shoulder.
Silver reappeared at the end of the trail. He then turned and hacked up the microprocessor chip he had eaten months ago. The others in the group soon joined him, finding three separate lightspeed paths in front of them. Each one looked identical, but they could not foresee what would lie ahead along each one. Knuckles took a moment to rub his forehead, feeling disoriented and oddly a little travel sick.
"I propose that we split up." Mecha stated all of a sudden.
"Mecha, have you seen horror movies? That never ends well." Sonic lamented.
Mecha turned to him. "It is likely that the firewalls in this location will target each of us, especially us robotic beings, for we will be interpreted as invading programs. And, furthermore, our comrade 02 is infected at this time." He nodded to 02 to emphasize his point. "It will be most efficient if we target each firewall in small groups if we are to advance to the core program. The less invading programs they detect, the less hostile they may be, thereby reducing the risk of harm to each of us."
"M's got a point." Silver commented with a shrug of one shoulder.
Neo took a step forward, analyzing the situation ahead of them. He pondered on it with a fist to his chin, squinting his optics. Then, he pointed to the three paths ahead in turn and signed, "each group takes one path."
Sonic slid over to Neo and elbowed him in the side. "For irony's sake, the lil' bro and me are with you, gruesome!"
Neo grumbled and folded his arms. Even so, he nodded. That was fine.
Mecha looked over his shoulder to Knuckles, who met his gaze with surprise. Knuckles pointed to himself with a baffled look. Mecha nodded.
"Yes, echidna. I am inviting you to come with me," Mecha clarified, "there are some things that we must discuss."
"Must we, Mecha Sonic?" Knuckles asked darkly. For Knuckles, Neo and Silver were easier. Heck, they had bonded before. But standing next to Mecha right now felt very different. No, he knew Mecha wasn't a bad kid, but them saying that there were things to "discuss" put him on high alert. What could he possibly want to talk about apart from the Angel Island incident?
"Affirmative." Mecha replied easily.
Silver and 02 looked at each other. They said nothing, but the single nod in unison sealed their decision.
The Mobians went their separate ways - Knuckles with Mecha, Sonic and Tails with Neo, and Silver with Gun Hunter 02.
Chaos save them all.
First stop, the fire sign duo. Red and orange, lifeblood and fire. The Gun Hunter and the hedgehog-series hopped off the end of their circuit and advanced down a platform. It tilted slightly downwards, which didn't help their weightlessness much as they took uneasy steps forward. What also didn't help was the large red wall of light that suddenly formed in front of them.
A firewall.
It detected the virus in 02's operating system and locked on at once. In response to 02's schematics, the firewall presented a hologram to fight it off - a strange amalgamation of GUN mechs. Almost like some Frankenstein's monster if it was made up of a B-3x Hot Shot, a Laser Hunter, and a Big Foot Type B. The firewall couldn't quite make out what 02 exactly was, for the virus in its systems was well-settled, having made itself at home.
"I sure hope he speaks English." Silver murmured as they approached together.
The monster in front of them screamed and garbled nonsense that probably meant something.
"Oh, he's British." Silver remarked.
"What's a Britain?" 02 asked, confused.
"It's a fictional place. Don't look it up, it's horrible."
"So British people aren't real?"
"Hopefully not."
The amalgamation gave a garbled roar and summoned GUN Beetle drones around it.
Silver noticed how the digital lifeform seemed to summon weapons at will. He paused, thinking about that - and then a dangerous grin lit up his face.
"Oh, no. That look means that you're going to do something crazy again." 02 whimpered beside him.
"Yeah." Silver lifted a hand and then threw it down and out. A sword appeared in his hand. "It does." He shifted to stand in front of 02, dragging the tip of his new weapon across the floor with him.
"Silver, is... this a good idea?" 02 asked, concerned.
"Why hello there! Would you like to see my RGB lighting?" Silver asked, feigning politeness. With a twitch of his fingers on the handle, his weapon lit up in a rainbow of colours.
The digital creature took a heavy and loud step toward him.
"Your trial of Amazon Prime has expired." Silver began, raising his sword above his head with the blade pointed behind him. "So has your life."
It gave the illusion that his entire body was open for attack and suggested that he would attack from above. The display worked. His opponent drew in with a sweep at his middle. Instead of attacking downwards, Silver swung the tip of the blade from its raised position into a spinning motion behind his back, where he whipped the blade upwards. As it swept upwards he spun on his heel, using the momentum of his weapon, and then dropped his body to spin on his left knee and followed through with the swing at knee height. The digital enemy's legs were sliced clean off in a burst of pixels and light. Silver completed the movement by spinning the sword between his fingers half a turn, putting his grip in reverse, and driving the tip into one final fatal stabbing motion.
02 clapped from behind him. "Unnecessary but cool!"
Silver stood up and swiped his blade out in front of him, dissipating the last blocks and pixels of the fallen foe from view. He stood with his back to 02 and glanced back over his shoulder with a smirk. "It was entirely necessary."
"Your weapon is cycling through every colour of the rainbow. That's not necessary." 02 replied, taking aim with its gun arm to shoot down the drones one by one. They fell with a clatter around the two robots like nothing.
Silver lifted said weapon and placed it over his shoulder. "It adds to the vibe! Now let's go."
The two robots walked on ahead, following the path that lit up in front of them. At the end of the road, they found a large, translucent green panel that looked suspiciously like an elevator. The pair exchanged a look before stepping on.
"This elevator was built with elephants in mind. Or just your mom."
"I don't have a mother."
"Me neither, but I'm talking about our like, emotional mother."
"You make no sense."
The elevator stopped at a platform high above. It stretched out into long, winding roads, again lit up by a yellow circuit board glow - and yet another red firewall block. Like clockwork, it detected 02's status again and formed another guardian entity.
This time, it spawned a mock Diablon. The one with that electromagnetic shield and an antimatter laser cannon to boot. Deja vu. It wasted no time in firing its laser right at the robots but missed its mark each time.
This time, 02 moved first. They grabbed Silver by his arm and yanked him out of the way of a laser beam that came dangerously close. It lifted its machine gun arm and fired on the fake robot immediately after. It took noticeable damage but continued to press on towards the two. It charged its shield and held it up, clearly expecting more gunfire and not a LED sword, which Silver brought back into his hand.
Silver twirled his blade into his right hand. "Welcome to the tutorial boss, where we're currently undergoing a learning experience - the type you can only get with a giant laser, featuring its tax shield." He bent one knee a little before shooting off to meet the enemy, weapon raised and ready. "The Diablon leaves itself open to score many hits! Fortunately, Silver can score with it because he swings both ways. With a sword of course."
He swept his sword clean through the false Diablon, slicing it in two. 02 fired on it a moment after, dealing the finishing blow to the projection. As the smoke from its gun arm cleared, 02 wandered over to Silver and looked down on the red mass of pixels of the projection's "corpse" as it faded away.
"I'm about to level up and you look like just enough XP." 02 stated with pride.
Silver's face lit up before he laughed. "You're learning, 02! This tutorial is working wonders on you."
"You're starting to make sense." 02 replied. If it could smile, it would have done.
"So you never really answered my question." Silver stated more than asked, dismissing his weapon once again.
"The 'what's with you' question?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Tell me more abo...ut you first." 02 ventured, interested.
Silver hopped onto a bounce pad and shot up onto the next platform. He turned and waited for 02 to join him. They joined a moment later and landed beside him, where the two continued walking.
"Well, I'm a little bit younger than you. I was made by Doctor Eggman and activated for all of one day. After that, he realized he fucked up and tried to dip - he shut me away in a cryotube, really cold by the way, and I stayed activated in there. Went a little stir crazy, had an emo breakdown, tried to get out but nothing worked. You know solitary confinement? Literally that, but for someone who's not even a day old yet. Got broken out by my brother by accident during his breakdown, he died, Mecha got kidnapped, I died, Neo died again, I'm basically Let's Play speedrunning life."
"What about the arrows?" 02 asked inquisitively.
"I was embracing the fatherless look." Silver replied, shrugging a shoulder. "Aaaand my brother died. It was in memory of him."
"Oh." 02 replied simply.
"Yeah. Your turn." Silver invited 02 to speak with a small smile.
"I came online like... this. The human you met was my, was my caretaker. That's what he said, anyway. He trained me, said I was going to help him to destroy the Eggman Empire for GUN. But... I couldn't seem to do anything the way he wanted. And then I met you and I... realized I didn't want that. I don't know, don't know what else I want, but I know this."
"You're a rulebreaker! I like that," Silver commented with a smile, "so welcome to the family, we're all rulebreakers here."
A searchlight homed in on the pair, highlighting in bright white. Danger and hope in the same sweep of light, they were the stars of their own story.
Second stop, the world's fastest hero and his robotic doppelganger. Red and blue, contrasting but complementary, hot and cool at the same time. Balance.
Neo moved on through the digital realm with Sonic and Tails. Naturally, he took the lead as they ran, optics subtly narrowed as he looked around for signs of danger. His claws flexed and tensed with every step. He was worried about Silver and 02, and the fact that they were off gallivanting together when 02 was practically still wiping human blood from its hands, and Mecha being with Knuckles, and...
"Hey, Neo, relax buddy. We'll get there and your bros will be fine." Sonic tried from behind him, noticing his robot double's stiffness, not to mention the fact that he could feel what Neo was feeling.
"Your IQ is the room temperature of Alaska." Neo murmured, annoyed by that dismissal.
"Should I call tech support for you, then? We kinda share the same mind, lil' bro." Sonic poked him back with that snarky grin.
'Why do we keep this annoying rodent around?' Metal hissed the question in the back of Neo's processor.
Neo paused to smack a digital cube out of his face. "Shut up. I'm fighting geometry right now."
Without Neo's input, Metal took a passenger seat in his mind. His claws tensed aggressively and Neo felt his body moving to take a swipe at Sonic, but Neo shut him down.
"Did you see that?" Tails whispered to Sonic, his brow furrowed with worry.
"Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it lil' bro. If he wanted to do anythin' to us he woulda done it already." Sonic quietly reassured him with a kind smile. "I trust them."
Neo took off ahead to be alone with his mental double.
"Stop behaving like that." Neo chastised them, clenching a fist at his side.
"Just do the job and do not speak to me. I will hold your sweaty metal hand in silence if that's what it takes." Metal dismissed him.
"You don't have to be such an asshole about it." Neo told him, mildly irritated.
"Is that so? You have a backbone now?" Metal laughed at him. Apparently, he did want to speak now that he was being challenged.
"Insert a robot pun here." Neo replied with a roll of his optics.
Metal growled at that. "Listen closely. Are you listening?"
"At about half efficiency, yes." Neo replied sarcastically, mirroring Mecha's manner of speech on purpose. He made a point of recalibrating his auditory processing system.
"I do not sleep. I am in desperate need of breaking something to get this rage out of me. I have little autonomy because you constantly use our body. So as you can imagine, perhaps, I am not in a particularly good mood." Metal informed him matter-of-factly.
"You might act high and mighty, Metal, but at the end of the day, you are just like the rest of us. Another robot trudging through pain that it can't process."
"You don't know anything about my pain!" Metal hissed sharply.
Without consciously deciding it, the two worked together perfectly. Metal calculated the most efficient timing to take down the GUN drones while Neo took the outward action of punching and swiping them down from the air. They jumped up to catch one before slamming it down into the platform, breaking it into pieces.
"Yes. But, at least I try. You continue to make it harder for us to get by by falling back on our programming. If you tried, you wouldn't fuck us over, nor fuck the people over who are just trying to survive like us. This self-righteousness is a farce."
"Are we are not a farce already? Look at us, Neo. We're both as fake as each other." Metal replied darkly.
"And nobody can do it like us. Not even ourselves." Neo replied, not without a hint of pride. In the past, being called the fake hedgehog or the "copy of Sonic" would have sent him spiraling. Now, it was more of a running joke to him. Perhaps he had picked up that coping mechanism from his little brother.
"You speak of self-righteousness as if it's not a curse upon you too." Metal shrugged him off.
"Yes, but there is a difference. You hurt my brothers. You crossed a very dangerous line and became a monster."
"This monster has loved you for longer than anyone else."
There was a radio silence between them for a long minute.
"I believed that they made you weak." Metal finally admitted.
Metal took the front seat to swipe a GUN drone down from the air.
"And, at first, I... believed that they were the hedgehog. That threatened my identity. But, when I did speak to them, I realized. I was wrong about them. They were kind to me."
"Indeed, you were mistaken," Neo replied, throwing a fist into another drone that swooped down to target them, "it is okay to make a mistake. It's not okay to repeat it. I cannot forgive you for repeating it."
"I cannot forgive you for ignoring me all this time."
"Then, we're at an impasse," Neo concluded for him, but then continued, "when I found out what you did, I was angry. I thought of ways to shut you down. But now that you're beside me like this, I can't seem to do anything."
"Why? Spoiled for choice?"
"You're a child too."
Neo flinched as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He wheeled around to send a clenched fist at whoever the hell it was, but the face he met stayed his hand.
Sonic. Always showing up at the worst and best moments.
"You spaced out there, lil' bro. Don't go bluescreening on us now." Sonic gave his shoulder a light shake and smiled.
Neo paused, realizing he had just been standing there for a little while. Tails gave a small wave from beside Sonic, looking sheepish. Neo looked away and started walking ahead. Sonic moved to follow after him.
Sonic offered him a kind smile. "You should consider findin' someone to talk to. You have a lot of, uh, unresolved stuff going on."
Neo rolled his optics at the notion. "Correct, I should, but on the other hand, lying to myself about my problems is less humiliating and doesn't make me vulnerable to other people."
"Welp, I tried. Anyway, we're getting close now, so let's keep on rolling." Sonic proposed, giving the robot's shoulder a pat before taking off ahead.
"Can I at least race him?" Metal asked, for his programming demanded it.
Neo watched as Sonic disappeared off ahead, Tails quickly taking off into flight to catch up to him.
"Yes. Let's go."
The digital racetrack livened up in blue and red, the contrast lighting the way for the hero and the ex-villain. Neo was quick to catch up, but kept a steady pace beside Sonic and Tails rather than shooting off ahead. It seemed that he wanted to talk, for once.
Tails looked to Neo and gave a friendly but slightly anxious smile. "So whaddya think of cyberspace, Metal?"
"It's purple." Neo replied simply in sign.
"No kidding. So, um, what's it like for you as a robot?" Tails asked. He tilted his head a little with the question.
Neo switched to coded speech instead. "As you might expect from my tone of bemused nihilism, it's... interesting."
Unable to understand, Tails' smile dropped and he looked to Sonic for help with a furrowed brow.
"He said it's cool," Sonic told his little brother helpfully.
Tails' curiosity brought a smile back to his face. "This place holds all the data in the country, right? What do you think about that? Do you see it differently than us?"
Neo pondered on that for a moment. "From my point of view, I see the algorithms used in your world. It's interesting but somewhat nihilistic for me. Organics will follow a GPS into the wilderness and straight out of the gene pool. You are adapted to letting algorithms do your mind chores for you. The irony of that is, that whenever you use an algorithm that streamlines a process, it leads to a reduction in mental ability. Your unconscious adoption of algorithms threatens to turn you into code-dependent meat puppets."
"Uh, he said... phones bad? Something about algorithms?" Sonic attempted to summarize with a grimace.
Tails' determination to learn more widened his smile. "What's the worst-case scenario of an algorithm taking over to you?"
Neo took a second to think again, squinting an optic as he processed a reply. "Predictive policing. This would amplify discriminatory practices by the police. They would be able to justify surveillance with an air of "objectivity." They could outsource their moral responsibilities to machines, hiding behind the mystique of objective processes. It's not discrimination, it's "data", they would say. It's science." Both optics squinted now at the mere thought. "But they would be mistaken. Even a machine can learn right from wrong. If they achieve such an algorithm and it gains sentience, it wouldn't allow such distasteful acts."
"Bad cops." Sonic summarized with a small shrug. He paused and gave Neo a jab with his fist, grinning up at him. "Also, ya sound like Mecha right now."
"Monologuing runs in the family," Neo replied with a jab back, "so does being faster than you."
With that, he shot off ahead with a sonic boom and a glitchy laugh.
"You're too slow."
Sonic looked to Tails with a dangerous grin. "I'm kicking his butt. Help me on this one."
"You got it, Sonic!"
Just like old times, the circuit ahead was Stardust Speedway tonight. Or today. Was time even real in cyberspace?
Mecha took things slower, more carefully. That suited Knuckles just fine. Purple and red, the state of a healing bruise, but also the bruise of a sunset or sunrise across the sky. Healing. Calm. Finding unity. If only things were that calm between them in reality.
"So, we have a plan?" Knuckles asked with feigned interest, batting a cube out of his way. He knew a difficult conversation was going to happen, but tried to avoid it.
Mecha considered that. Right now, they were walking headfirst into the robot's worst nightmare- the very place where a virus such as their own reigned as some kind of fucked up overlord. Countless nightmares and attempts at getting closure all seemed to lead up to this very day. This virus was made to destroy the Eggman Empire's robots, and the three hedgehog-series were the still children of Eggman.
"What is wrong?" Mecha asked instead of answering the question.
"Erm, what?"
"Your heart rate has been elevated for the past ten minutes. What is wrong?" Mecha tried again.
"No it's not. Don't do things like that, it's creepy." Knuckles scolded him with a disgusted look.
"I apologize." Mecha conceded. Was showing concern for others not a good thing for some individuals? He would ponder on that later.
"I'm still mad at you." Knuckles admitted, looking away from Mecha pointedly. No more avoiding it.
"Why?" Mecha asked, curious. "I have apologized. What else do you require from me?"
"I don't think you get it." Knuckles replied sharply. "The Master Emerald is sacred to my people."
Oh.
"I acknowledge this. I had no right to touch a sacred item." Mecha said with conviction. "It did not belong to me, nor my people."
"Your people are Eggman's robots. It's not that you're a robot, it's that you belong to that creep." Knuckles snapped against his better judgement. The mad doctor had plagued him and his close friends for so long and having one of his creations casually walking beside him made him feel very out of sorts. He wasn't sure of how to handle it apart from frustration. It was quick and easy for him to access and seemed righteous given these circumstances.
"I have relinquished my affiliation with the doctor." Mecha said simply, unfazed. "I belong to no one but myself and my brothers."
"I want to trust you, but I can't. I just can't yet, okay? Get that in your head." Knuckles stated decidedly with a clenched fist.
"Understood."
They walked in silence for a few minutes, Knuckles avoiding eye contact, and Mecha still seeming outwardly unbothered by the echidna's righteous anger with him. The lack of a reaction was starting to grate the hot-headed echidna. Mecha, on the other hand, resigned to the fact that Knuckles was allowed to remain angry with him. Even if one apologizes, the hurt party is under no obligation to forgive.
"Why don't you care?" Knuckles asked after some time, gritting his teeth.
"I do. Do not mistake my quietude for apathy." Mecha replied, looking straight ahead. "I know who I am. I know what I am. I know that I speak my truth, for I gain nothing by telling a lie. So, I do not lie. It is not in my coding. I apologize for the harm that I brought upon you and I recognize that you need not forgive me for it. However, I am seeking to better my decisions now, in this present moment."
Knuckles hissed through grit teeth. It was difficult to stay angry at the robot in front of him when it handled the topic so gracefully. He almost felt bad for going in on him that way. The regret only set in more as Mecha side-stepped in front of him to protect him from a GUN sentry drone.
"I cannot ever fully repay your people for the loss and mistreatment of their sacred item. What was done is done." Mecha continued, raising his arm to shield Knuckles from the GUN sentry drone's bullets. "However, I shall endeavour to repay what I am able to." The bullets pinged off of his armour harmlessly with a series of short metallic pings!
"How?" Knuckles asked, raising a brow. He hadn't expected the robot to defend him like that and it caught him off guard.
"Your life is valuable. I will protect it." Mecha stated, continuing on ahead. "You are family, too. I would give up my own functionality for my brothers, thus the same applies to others in our family. We are all connected and I shall honour that."
Knuckles let a small smile form in the corner of his mouth. With a quiet huff, he started running after the robot. Mecha's straightforwardness was a relief for him. There were no hidden agendas, no gimmicks, just saying what they both meant. Knuckles could appreciate honesty like that.
"You... seem kinda close with 'em." Knuckles remarked, trying to make conversation to pass the time.
"Indeed." Mecha gave a nod before punching a drone away from Knuckles a fraction harder than before. "I would do anything for them."
"Hmm."
Knuckles found himself respecting Mecha just a little more for that sentiment. It reminded him of his own duty with the Master Emerald, for which he would do anything to protect. It was his sworn duty and it seemed that the robot had its own version of that, which he could relate to. Plus, his time in total seclusion on Angel Island hadn't exactly lent him a hand when it came to befriending new people. Perhaps he should cut the robots some slack. After all, they had plenty of opportunities to betray him, and they had not. The coast, and now here.
"Heh. You're alright." Knuckles said, a little quieter than before. He tried to mask the smile that tugged the corner of his mouth upwards, but Mecha was perceptive enough to catch it before it vanished.
"As are you." Mecha replied. Privately, he was glad to have earned a little trust from the hero.
"And, uh, I don't need protecting, but thanks." Knuckles finally told him. "I never run from a fight. These fists aren't just for show!" He gave a fang-toothed grin and smacked his fists together with a slight nod of his head.
"Understood. However, it is imperative that we work together to accomplish this mission. If that involves protecting you from harm, I will continue to do so. It is the least I can do for you as well as my brothers." Mecha conceded with his own "smile" - a small flash of his visor.
"Then let's get going, slowpoke." Knuckles teased him. He smashed a drone out of Mecha's path in turn.
"I can accelerate if you wish," Mecha began, turning his head to look back after speeding up, "but you must endeavour to keep up."
"Hah! Bring it."
Sonic's right. You're not a bad kid.
Two guardians of a different make found peace and familiarity within the neon violet and the rush.
Silver and 02 pressed on along their own path. The two robots scaled another set of platforms, jumping from block to block before landing atop the next lightspeed circuit entrance. The firewall ahead helpfully loaded another projection, this time focusing on Silver. It had learned from the last encounter and now saw Silver as the main threat to its security. Silver watched, completely taken aback and confused, as it presented a hologram of his predecessor, the one and only Silver Sonic MK I.
"Woah." 02 took a step back, a little intimidated by this fake robot's height. "What is- what is that?"
Silver paused, completely taken off guard. He had to take a second to calm himself. It wasn't real. That wasn't really his fallen brother in front of him. It was just a fake, it didn't know him, he knew nothing of it. He held air in his intake before letting it out and getting into a confident stance again.
"No, really, what is, what is that?" 02 asked again, noting Silver's awkward silence.
Silver couldn't ignore the stab in his heart no matter how hard he laughed to drown it out. Grieving, grieving, constantly grieving what he couldn't save, what could have been. There was nothing he could do. This wasn't real. Shoving that hurt back down, he finally laughed and stepped forward.
"That's my dead brother. Don't worry about it, he runs on Windows 98."
"Who?"
"This..." Silver dropped his sword and let it dissipate, now reaching for his trusty rifle instead, "is Silver Sonic MK I."
"The original of the copy?"
Silver cocked his rifle and took aim. "Exactly."
Unlike its younger counterpart, this Silver Sonic lacked a personality. Its slow speed and lack of awareness should make it an easy target. However, its raw strength and power made it formidable. This battle called for Silver's own trusty gun rather than some made-up weapon. It was only fair.
"It doesn't talk, so I'm gonna narrate this for you." Silver announced to 02. "Pretend this is it talking smack to me. Hey, Silv. Do you still go by Silver Sonic or did you get tired of using my sloppy seconds? Now pretend this is me: sometimes the sequel is better than the prequel! Now pretend this is them: sequels often don't live up to the original. Me again: you have a point but I hate you for it."
Silver Sonic MK I, or the fake version of it, swung at Silver hard. The smaller and faster robot sidestepped out of the way easily and the hologram's momentum sent it stumbling past him.
"Silver Sonic MK I, this is Silver Sonic MK II, consider this a gift from Silver me to Silver you."
The fake Silver Sonic MK I advanced on him. Its heavy footsteps caused the electronic circuits under its feet to cut out in short intervals.
"Death you shall have quickly too, here I present this bullet to you!"
Silver aimed his rifle over 02's shoulder, resting it on their armour. It held still so as not to throw off his aim. The hedgehog-series squeezed the trigger repeatedly, hitting its mark precisely every time. The hologram fell down with a bang before it dissipated. The world around 02 shook and they quickly lost their footing, falling over the edge of the platform. Silver yelped and turned around, grabbing 02's hand before it could fall down to the chaos-knows-what that lurked in the depths of cyberspace.
"I don't really like your... dead brothers." 02 murmured.
"I've got you." Silver reassured it. He held 02's hand tighter, the light clink and strain of metal against metal audible over the low hum of electricity.
"I know." 02 replied, their belief in Silver unfaltering.
Silver smiled. "C'mon, you." He hoisted 02 up in one swift motion.
02 watched, entranced, as Silver walked off ahead with his gun over his shoulder as if nothing had just happened. Silver felt that he was being watched and glanced back over his shoulder, grinning confidently.
"What? You like what you see or something?" Silver asked playfully.
"Are you flirting with me?" 02 asked innocently.
"No robo." Silver simply replied, not elaborating on that.
- LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU . TXT . vbs
- WIN-BUGSFIX . EXE
"I like you."
Silver halted. He slowly turned around with an unreadable expression - disbelief and shock, but... also a twinge of hope, perhaps.
"What did you say?" Silver asked carefully.
02 froze. "Sorry."
Silver laughed awkwardly. "Don't sweat it. Virus things, you know." He turned back around, partly to hide the... what was that? Disappointment? His grip on 02's hand loosened a fraction before he steeled himself and squeezed it tighter again. "And, uh, I like you too. As a friend."
02 shuddered and dropped to one knee all of a sudden, the temperature of its hand skyrocketing. Silver stopped and looked back and down. He was immediately worried. Silver knelt down and placed his hands on the other robot's shoulders.
"Hey. You good?" Silver asked carefully.
"I feel, I feel weird."
"Hey. You're gonna be okay." Silver gathered the other robot into a hug and sighed, resting his head on its shoulder. The heat didn't bother him at all.
02 registered a hand cupping its face. The voice in front of it was fuzzy and indistinct for a moment.
"You're not dying. Come on." Silver said gently. Concern was written all over his face despite his efforts to stuff it back down.
I'm not losing another person. Fuck-
"You're already dead and you seem happy." 02 murmured into Silver's shoulder.
Silver paused at that, a sick feeling running through his tanks. After a second he shook it off and steeled himself. He registered the other robot's temperature dropping again and let out a small sigh of relief.
"I've got your six, 02. Get it together whilst I hold these off." Silver replied steadily, aiming his gun at the GUN drones that descended around them. He pulled himself up to his feet and stood right over the Gun Hunter. He wouldn't let anything hurt this robot. Not while he was still alive and standing.
Alive. What a funny word.
That was when three familiar people came into view from the right. Silver's face lit up at the sight of his family - Neo, Sonic and Tails. They jumped up onto the same platform and quickly took the drones down, protecting the younger robots from harm. Tails sent a kick into one as he came into land. Sonic elbowed one down. Neo made a point of smashing one into pieces to send a message. They landed in unison, an unlikely team, before running over to their younger companions.
"Whew! You guys okay?" Sonic asked, moving to look at Silver and his ally with a kind smile.
"Pssh. Of course we are." Silver replied, grinning back at Sonic confidently. "This cyberspace shit is a piece of cake."
Neo looked his little brother up and down for injuries to find none. The relief in his optics wasn't subtle when he looked away and folded his arms. They trailed down to 02, looking over them, too. They were alright. Good. So it was appropriate to be a robobitch after all.
"I was faster than you." Neo reminded his fleshbag counterpart with pride.
"Will you cut the crap?" Sonic asked, prodding Neo in the side. "You've been making us suffer through sarcastic one-liners this whole trip."
"No. Sarcasm sustains me." Neo replied just as snarkily.
"Where's M?" Silver asked, looking around with a hint of worry. He trusted his older sibling's abilities. He would be fine. But, still, after everything the three brothers had been through together, he couldn't help but worry when one wasn't with them.
"They are coming." Neo assured his little brother in sign. He tried not to look worried either, but like his sibling, he found himself doing just that anyway.
Mecha and Knuckles had been taking their time compared to everyone else, so they arrived a minute or two later. Or, their chatter could be heard before they even appeared.
"What did I say about looking at my heart? Stop it!"
"I am merely expressing concern for your wellbeing."
"I'm fine! I've just been running!"
The pair hopped up a stairwell of translucent platforms until they reached the same floor as their companions. Mecha made a beeline straight for his siblings and gave each of them a bump on the forehead in greeting. He was glad to see they were well.
"Knux! It's about time!" Sonic teased Knuckles on sight with an impatient tap of his foot.
Beside him, Neo did the same without thinking.
"Jeez, cut me some slack. We can't all be the fastest thing alive, you know." Knuckles muttered. He came in for a fist bump with his blue friend anyway.
"I beg to differ." Silver remarked, studying his fingertips casually.
From the ground, 02 looked up to survey the group with interest. "Metal... Sonic is the fastest being here."
Everyone turned to look at Neo. He froze on the spot, optics widening with surprise, and then that horrible streak of smugness. He wagged a finger at Sonic in a way that reminded both of them of Little Planet. Chaos knows he wouldn't let Sonic forget this.
"Source?" Sonic asked, staring Neo down with a glare and folded arms.
"Its source is it made it the fuck up," Silver cut in, "because my engine is more modern than his."
"Why do you all care about being fast..." 02 murmured more than asked.
Mecha shrugged a shoulder. "I do not."
"Me neither!" Tails offered, raising a hand.
"Hedgehogs..." Knuckles grumbled to himself.
02 pulled themselves up, using Neo's arm as a support as they did. While everyone else debated who was the fastest thing alive (or not alive), the Gun Hunter noticed something. It pointed to a structure up ahead of them.
"We made it."