Metal Sonic stood within a faint tube; the dusty glass seemingly unused for quite some time. As he stood there, his eyes would periodically scan the room around him. It was a metallic room covered in wires and computers, though what was once neat and full of power is now a mess of broken parts and old tech. Apparently, this was the last room Eggman had that could repair the bot since Sonic had been rushing through and destroying rooms since their last encounter. The phantom ruby was going to do the job in creating an illusion to do it, but apparently that plan had failed. Metal felt the anger in him as he was replaced by some illusion, but it couldn't be helped if he wasn't operating properly.

As he finished scanning the room, he heard the door slide open. His red eyes shifted to it quick to see if Eggman was finally going to finish the repairs, but he was instead met with another robot. This robot, however, interested him. It had a sleek solver color to it, its metal quills jagged and fingers like claws that were bolted on by small metal rods. He had the same eye design as Metal, but the way it looked around the room seemed uncertain. Was it malfunctioning in some way and coming in for repairs? It registers as an older model, so it's possible and Metal was fine with that as it would mean Eggman wasn't far behind.

But Eggman never appeared. Instead, the silver robot moved in on its own and made his way over to Metal. It tilted it's head this way and that, raising a hand and bringing it down on the glass holding Metal inside. It would crack, then another swing would make those cracks spread. Further and further, they would go as he beat on the tub, one final swing causing the entire thing to shatter around Metal. Metal Sonic took a step forward, looking up at the monstrosity of a robot, having a much clearer view of it. Shoulder guards and sound joints, showing just how old it really was, but there were pieces here and there that weren't of the original design. Metal stood on guard as his systems continued to evaluate if this thing was still on Eggman's side, only to receive a sudden message in his system.

'Eggman has a plan that needs to be finished. We will get it done. Follow.' The message read within his head, giving him new orders as he now watched the robot leave, following close behind after. As they walked through the lab, each room seemed to be more destroyed than the last. Metal clenched his fist as he analyzed the damage as something only a ball of destruction like Sonic would cause. They continued until they reached a door, the silver robot slamming it open and pointing out the door. Metal moved out, getting directions to a Chaos Emerald not far away from the base they were in, the outside world full of dirty rocks and some metallic trees. Metal stared at it, not recalling this when he went in, but then dropped it to continue on his mission.

And they did their mission with speed and precision, the robot Metal was following finding a blue emerald near the edge of a cliff not far from the base, then a green emerald in the ocean ruins of a palace Metal found familiar. The yellow emerald was within a jungle across the ocean, metal zipping through and snagging, bringing their count up to three. As they were moving around, Metal tried to contact Eggman several times, but to no avail. It was frustrating, but the clearance this robot had to give orders would have to do until Eggman responded.

Metal's scans of the machine had not gone without reward. Apparently, this was formerly a Mecha Sonic that Eggman had created long ago when he created the Death Egg, slowly being repurposed into a robot called Silver Sonic. While Eggman gave up very early on with a 1.0 version being laughably beatable and 2.0 being too bulky and easily tricked into hurting itself, this one scanned as version 3.5, a version nowhere within Metal's database. The model schematics for a 3.0 were there, matching this robot closely, but whatever enhancements this one had acquired were out of Metal's reach. This didn't matter in the end as Metal had to follow the orders, continuing on their quest the emeralds. This led them to Angel Island, both using their boosters to soar up to the floating mystical place where they were met with…

"Eggman's Robots identified. Extermination with the best of weaponry, advised." A robotic voice shook the ground, a bulking machine with cannons for hands and fingers that quickly spun into machine guns locking onto the two robots. Metal easily identified this monstrosity as Omega, Eggman's rogue war machine of a unit, but couldn't discern why on earth he was on Angel Island. The hulking monstrosity came closer, aiming its gun at Silver Sonic's face, the robot not moving an inch as another voice came out from behind him.

"Omega, don't! You aren't fully repaired yet!" The voice warned, Metal clenching his fists as he recognized the sound of the black hedgehog who dared called himself the ultimate life form. Metal Sonic crossed his arms as the black hedgehog jumped over the monster bot and landed in front of the metal hedgehogs, gritting his teeth. "I wouldn't even waste my ammo on poor copies like these."

"I have ammo for days, Shadow. They can be wiped away with a simple pull of my trigger." Omega stated, his voiced robotic and full of malice for the machines before him. Shadow pushed the mechanical arm-gun down, gritting his teeth as he got in Silver Sonic's face, Metal taking the time to examine the situation more clearly as the two were staring each other down. Shadow had said that Omega wasn't fully repaired yet and, upon closer inspection, it seemed to be true as Omega had a large whole ripped clean through his chest. The cause is unknown, nor does it matter as a white Chaos Emerald sat within the hole, most likely keeping the robot online. Metal Sonic took a step towards the robot, only for Shadow to turn and kick Metal as hard as he could, a loud clang behind heard as Metal was sent several yards away. Silver Sonic let out an auditory whirring noise as he spun into a ball and dashed at Shadow for hitting metal, leading to a clash between the two.

"Shadow, destroy these worthless wastes of metal." Omega commanded in a sort of cheering fashion, watching them clash and slam into each other. As this was happening, Metal had gotten back up, slowly moving towards the two in an effort to get into the fight. Omega took notice and slammed his arm into Metal to keep him away. "Disappointment." Omega growled, Metal staring lifelessly at him. While this was happening, the two other fighters became preoccupied with each other, Shadow warping around the robot and kicking Silver Sonic about with chaotic force. Omega then took a look at Metal, who was once again approaching and slammed his hand into the robot, gripping tightly and pulling him in. Their eyes met and Omega began to speak.

"Worthless model… Did you activate that monster?" He asked, malic in his robotic voice. Metal staired lifelessly into the robot's eyes and Omega let out a small whir. He then squeezed down violently onto metals body, the force breaking his body and opening up a lot of his internal circuitry. Metal immediately began to swing and kick for freedom as Omega opened his own chest. Within moments, a few wires shot between the two and Metal's world grew dark. There was no sound, sight, information. It was baren and cold.

… Cold?

In a flash, Metal had his vision returned to him, standing before Omega in a strange void. There were white specs all around and green streaks, the image felt like it came from a galaxy far off into the system they lived in. Omega staired at the little robot and his words came out in echoes, an urgency filling his voice box like he was terrified.

"Eggman made that thing in order to destroy Sonic and bring about the perfect world… Eggman's perfect world. Eggman Land was not what this robot had in mind and did horrible things… If I were you, I would let myself explode before following. I'm giving you the chance. Let's see what you do, copy…" Omega suddenly vanished has his words finished, Metal seeing the world spin as he had fallen onto the ground, back at the battle field. Shadow lay weakly in the ground as Silver Sonic crossed his arms, emerald in hand. He would turn and walk over to the broken blue robot, lifting him up off the ground and over his shoulder. Instructions stated that they would go in for repairs and then find the rest of the emeralds. Metal let himself turn off, acknowledging these instructions, yet…

Metal looked around the mechanical room with a faint feeling of uneasiness. It wasn't the room that was making him feel this way, nor the fact he was having a multitude of parts and pieces changed around by the robotic arms to repair the damage that Omega had done to him. What made the metal doppelganger uneasy was the fact he was FEELING uneasy. Why did he have this programmed into him? Had Eggman been messing with programs to simulated more than just the chaotic drive to destroy and capture? Or-Bot and Cu-Bot were like this to some extent, but Metal Sonic passed it off because it never concerned him. And now Omega's damage had done this to him and it's bringing the heaviest feelings upon him and he simply didn't know how to handle or process the feelings.

It was frustrating and Metal decided not to think on it anymore, deciding to look through his files once more, hoping to find some more instruction after he is released and to stop any possible hacks that Sonic's meddlesome friends and other people fire at Eggman to try and slow his plans down or simply meddle with him. This time, it was one hack from Sonic's friend, Tails having his own work smeared all over the code of this one hack that was rummaging through the files to this base and the network Metal connected too in order to talk to Silver Sonic. Before Metal could properly delete it, he stopped and wondered for a moment. What EXACTLY was Tails doing looking through old files.

A slow few moments was all it took for Metal to see what was exactly being done. Silver Sonic had hacked Tails first and they were now in a small battle of programs. Tails seemed to be trying to gain access to a file Silver was guarding with everything he had while he was trying to access some blueprints for a 'Dimensional Portal Device'. Metal watched the two fight for a moment, sending code back and forth with some disinterest. He wasn't made for advanced code like this, simply firewalls and self-protection from outside code. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Omega from transferring programs or activating them within Metal Sonic. Metal thought it must be due to Omega being one of Eggman's robots, but trying to settle on that conclusion felt wrong. And feeling was the main problem in the moment and something Metal wanted desperately to stop experiencing.

Out of curiosity and desperation to escape the robotic jail of feeling, Metal Sonic peered into the folder Silver Sonic was protecting in an effort to learn exactly what Silver Sonic was planning. Hopefully, Metal could help and soon rule the world like Eggman dreamed of. A minute later and a cold weight found itself in Metal Sonic's body as he saw the plans Silver Sonic had, Eggman being removed and the world being ripped apart to be put back together, only perfect chunks allowed to be in this world. Going into further detail and Metal knew why Silver Sonic would protect this file. If Tails knew, he'd destroy his data and do everything he could to stop Silver Sonic. Metal needed to do something to stop this…

… But why? Suddenly, he had the feeling that he needed to do something to preserve the world. The world had attacked him for so long and he was programmed not to care, yet thinking the world he had battled and fought over being ripped apart in this way filled him with anger. This emotional bug Omega had given him had really made things bad and Metal thought to reprogram himself or reset his current program. Then the thought of Eggman came to mind and a few things clicked, Metal knowing Eggman would hate for one of his robots to usurp him and cause chaos like this. Metal had done it before and the results were nasty, so of course Metal would be programmed to hate another robot stepping out of line. But what could Metal Sonic do to stop this when Silver Sonic had so many emeralds on hand. At this rate, only Sonic could…

Silver Sonic slammed his fist down on the table as Metal shot up. He looked down and noticed that his body had been fully repaired. Directives came into Metals head again, this time having a garbled voice to it.

"Get… up… Going to see Tails…"

The cold hair brushed across Metal Sonic's body as he felt himself free falling from the sky. Silver Sonic had done so much more than Metal was ready for, beating the poor fox down and then luring Sonic into a secluded location for Metal to end his life. Things were happening too fast and Metal was growing more uneasy as Tails continued to mutter about the end of the world. Silver Sonic had so much trust in Metal that he never bothered to check the blue robot's current programming and that was the only thing Metal had going at the time. When the moment came for the execution, Metal couldn't hold it back anymore. Eggman would be so disappointed if he let it happen anyway, right? That was Metal's reasoning for altering the devices code to send Sonic somewhere safe at the cost of being sent with Sonic to the new world. Metal could only hope he would learn why he felt these things and why he chose the things he chose, his power flickering as the damage from Silver Sonic's attacked had left him inoperative for the moment.

He could hear Sonic trying to reach Tails as they continued to fall, though he hoped he wasn't nearby to deal with that. He still hated Sonic, but he needed him in order to stop what was going to happen and maybe to help deal with whatever Omega had done to him. With that thought in mind, Metal fully shut off for the moment, colliding with the ground soon after as murky water coated and hid him from sight, the sweet silence of non-operation, something he would enjoy if he had the ability to experience it as it passed the time.

Metal Sonic darted around the wooden area, hearing the roars grow fainter and fainter. The wolves must have still been salty over their defeat or still afraid and finally running in fear from the fight they had outside the day before, though either reason didn't matter. He had no time for trivial things like that since the search for the Chaos Emerald held a higher importance to him. Zecora didn't need this kind of power polluting the forest she called home. She gave him odd wooden plating in places and undented the metal that could be recovered with heat, made him look a little mossy, but functional and safe from the waters around him. She cared for him like no one else did, not even the dumb blue pony who slammed her hoof right into his face before he could figure out how to communicate. It infuriated him to no end and he wasn't going to let this stop him from achieving his goal. He slashed violently at overgrown roots and vines, growling his metallic growl as he tried to find the emerald. For the few days they started their lives on this world, he and Tails had been trapped in this swamp and left dangers all around and he was about to put it to an end. As he continued his rampage, something made him stop.

A few bunnies were hopping around the edge of the forest, moving about between it and the open air. Metal came to a stand still as he watched them tackle each other with happiness, acting as though they hadn't seen each other in years and the reunion was overwhelming. That wasn't was had Metal stock still, watching the bunnies. How were they crossing between the forest and outside area without the vines attacking? If the emerald was causing this chaos, then it should still be happening, unless it was something else entirely or-

Metal bolted upward with his jets, looking around desperately for the roaring that had been growing ever distant. It wasn't the wolves that were energized this time, but something that must have taken the emerald directly and has carried it off. Metal kicked himself for assuming at the start, though before he rushed for it, he held himself back as he thought again to assuming to quick. The right choice in this situation was something he really couldn't think on, nor could he feel right on either choice he'd go with. With that emerald out there, the world was in grave danger, yet it could still be in the forest itself and leaving could jeopardize Zecora's life and Tails as well.

Metal took a moment and decided on one thing. Sonic must have been the one that beat the wolves that rushed by long before and if there is Sonic, there is someone who will save the world. That thought calmed Metal's racing thoughts as he slowly lowered himself back down, looking behind himself to where Zecora's hut lay. He would have to convey the news of the forest being free and then set up things for her to go out to town like she mentioned around the time they met. Metal leaned down and gathered his energy, blasting off as a boom echoed throughout the sky. The boom would soon catch the attention of a cyan pony who had finally gotten a little nap, scaring her off her cloud and into the forest, giving her the knowledge that she was allowed to go in and search for the imposter who had scared her the night before. The boom also caught the attention of a hedgehog and three fillies who were on their way to investigate the forest for his friend and a missing emerald. A fox would jolt from his table along with his new pet dog, a zebra not far off having the same reaction as they peered out their respective window and door to see what the sound was that was vastly different from the roars from before.

The last person the booming sound alerted was a pink pony, bouncing up and down the path with cakes on her back. The sound nearly had her fall right over, her bubbly, curly tail swiping left and right to keep bouncing the boxed cakes into place so she wouldn't lose them. She tilted her head, her mane bouncing like her tail did, albeit more naturally like it reacted to her mood. She seemed confused as she looked over to the forest and saw many figures make their way towards it. Things clicked in her mind, seeing everyone heading to the forest and the sounds making it seem like neat, cool things were happening. She slowly got a big grin, wiggling with glee as she darted down the hill she was on, squealing about a loud party going on and not wanting to wait to have fun.