What If.....Sonic and Metal Sonic Switched Places?

A Fanfiction by Stoney



THE COPYRIGHT:

"Okay, class!" Professor Gerald barked out, punctuating the exclamation with a hearty slap of a ruler on his desk. Many of the people in the room simultaneously jumped a little in their seats, startled at the loud sound this caused. The Professor didn't seem to notice, continuing as if nothing had happened.

"I know you guys have had a difficult time getting to school this morning." Gerald began, looking around at the half-drowned students and sparing a sideways glance outside his window at the raging tempest taking place, "...but now that you're here we'd better get on with the lesson."

Someone in the back abruptly sneezed twice. "Bless you, 'Twan." The Professor remarked in stride, turning to the long blackboard set up at the front of the room. Picking up a worn stub of chalk, he set to work writing out the subject of today's lesson. "Now, today we'll be studying copyrights and their effect on literature. Everyone open your books, please."

There was a great rustling and shuffling throughout the room as everyone unzipped their backpacks and removed identical copies of a large, thick textbook. On the covers shone the same identical title; 'Stuff Nobody Cares About, Vol. 1' by Sou Watt.

Professor Gerald, who'd gotten out his own copy and begun flipping through it, then instructed everyone to turn to page 107 and get out some paper to copy down notes. Most of the students immediately obeyed, except for one. The Professor glanced up and opened his mouth to speak, but paused upon seeing the silent hedgehog sitting in the front row. "Shadow, open your book please." Gerald repeated, a note of sternness in his voice.

The hedgehog didn't move. "Shadow, open your book." The professor again repeated, his voice now cold and commanding.

The hedgehog sneered defiantly, but otherwise made no move to do as was said. "Make me." He retorted in a soft but unwelcoming tone.

The room had dropped to complete silence by now. One of the other students sitting next to Shadow gently nudged him and whispered, "Shadow, please, don't make another scene-"

"Shut up, Amy." Shadow growled, interrupting her. The pink hedgehog to whom he'd spoken paused and gave him a hurt look before dropping silent. Slowly, Gerald moved out from behind his desk, striding up to Shadow's and slamming his ruler down upon it with even more force than he'd used previously.

Again, some of the more startled students in the room jumped slightly. Shadow didn't so much as flinch.

"I will not go through this game with you again, boy." Gerald spoke slowly, his glare hot enough to melt ice. Shadow's eyes flashed angrily at the word 'boy', but otherwise he kept still. "As long as you remain under my supervision," Gerald continued, "you will do as I say. Is that understood?"

Shadow gave a snort of dark amusement. "Yeah, right. I bet you're not even a real teacher."

There was a pause so absolute, it seemed as if the auditory version of a black hole had opened inside the room.

"What!"

"I SAID," Shadow replied while leaning back and clasping his arms behind his head, "that I bet you're not even a real teacher. Where's your credentials, huh?" To the other students in the room, it sounded like Shadow had been waiting a long time to say this, but had refrained from doing so until now. "I bet you don't have any. The school was just desperate for teachers when they hired you. It didn't matter to them if you had a degree as long as you took the job." The scorn in his voice made Gerald's moustache go rigid with rage. "Well? Do you deny it?" Shadow asked gleefully, crossing his arms and smirking. "Do you, Faker?"

Slowly, everyone's eyes turned to watch the Professor's reaction. For a moment he simply stood and regarded Shadow in silence, expression eerily calm. Finally he nodded. "Right, that does it. Stand up, let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Shadow's expression was deceptively innocent.

"To see Principal Acorn. Come on, let's go."

Although his face remained impassive as he stood up, Shadow's fists were clenched so tight that their knuckles were white. "While I'm gone, read pages 107 through 110 in your textbooks." Gerald spoke to the rest of the class as he walked over to the door and opened it, ushering Shadow through. "And no funny business, either! I'll be watching for any."

The door slammed shut with a decisive clang.

The other students in the room silently stared at each other for a few moments afterward, too stunned to speak. One of them, a small, pale human girl sitting in a dark corner, spoke up suddenly. "Poor Shadow."

Her classmates gaped in disbelief. This had to have been the first time she'd spoken all year. She didn't glance up or anything, but continued to gaze sadly at the floor. "He doesn't deserve half of what happens to him. It may look like he's a jerk, but it's just a cover, really."

"How would you know, Maria?" A cobalt blue hedgehog broke in, green eyes narrowed in suspicion. "For all we know, Shadow hardly knows you, and vice versa. You haven't been hanging around with him after school, have you?"

Maria didn't make any movement in response, but the sudden reddening of her face confirmed that the hedgehog had hit the nail on the head. A bright scarlet echidna named Knuckles smirked at him from a couple rows above Maria. "You should talk, Sonic. How come you and Sally always disappear after school without a trace? Where do you go off to, hmmm?"

Sonic went silent instantly, the blush on his face making his blue fur look purple. But his reaction was nothing compared to that of the pink hedgehog Shadow had snapped at earlier; with a sudden screech of outrage, she leaped from her chair and glared daggers at Sonic. "Say WHAT?!"

Knuckles laughed lightly before returning to his reading, deciding he didn't really want to watch what Sonic was about to go through.

Sonic buried his face in his hands. "Why me...?" He asked helplessly before being roughly accosted by the pink hedgehog.

"Why, Sonic? Why does she force you to leave with her? Huh?! Where do you go?!" She burst out.

"Uhhh...I...um..." Sonic was at a complete loss for words. Luckily, he was saved by a white fruit bat bursting into gleeful laughter behind him. The pink hedgehog's glare quickly switched from Sonic to the bat. "What's so funny?!" She demanded angrily.

"It's just...you two!" She giggled, struggling to muffle her laughter with one hand. "You're so ridiculous!" She rolled her eyes, all trace of mirth suddenly vanishing from her complexion and being replaced by annoyance. "I mean, COME ON, Amy! Just tell him you love him and get it over with!" She huffed.

Sonic slowly turned to look at Amy. It wasn't a pretty sight. Her cheeks were even redder than Knuckles' fur, but the rest of her face had gone stark white, eyes bulging and mouth slack. She didn't move.

"Real smooth, Rouge." Knuckles hissed sarcastically at the bat without looking up. "I'm sure she'll be able to confess everything to Sonic now that you've gone and told him for her."

"Uh...Amy?" Sonic asked slowly, reaching out to place a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

No reaction. Perplexed, Sonic waved a hand in front of Amy's face. Still nothing. He sighed.

"Great, she's in shock. We might have to carry her out of here now, thanks a lot Rouge."

"Well, it's not like SHE was gonna say anything!" The bat burst out angrily. "Seriously, though! Watching you two is pathetic! I'm sick of watching her struggle to get up enough courage to tell you anything. Just get married and have kids already, you know you want to! Sheesh."

Sonic stood up and turned around to face Rouge so suddenly that he knocked his whole desk over. "SHUT UP!!" He bellowed loudly, eyes blazing with a sudden fury. "Don't you DARE ever say anything like that again! Do you realize that you've probably embarrassed Amy so much that she may never recover? And frankly, I would've MUCH preferred she tell me anything instead of you!"

He breathed heavily for a few moments after his outburst, a vein pulsing visibly in his temple. Then without another word he picked his desk back up, set it on his feet, and slammed himself back down into its seat. Rouge was left speechless in her rage at having been talked to like that, looking like she had a lot to say but not knowing how to say it. Luckily, she never needed to say anything; Professor Gerald re-entered the room at that moment, this time alone.

"Right!" He barked like nothing had happened. "Have you all read the-eh?"

He'd noticed Amy, who had apparently recovered from her shock enough to pass out cold on the floor. Sonic sweatdropped, wondering how he was going to explain this one.

"Uh...she said she was feeling sick, sir." The blue hedgehog invented. "I think she needs to see the nurse..."

"I'll take her," Knuckles volunteered quickly, eager to get Amy out of the room so he could study in peace. Gerald looked at him and slowly nodded.

"Well...okay, then. Off you go."

Knuckles quickly scooped up Amy's unconscious form and slipped out the door. Gerald walked back over to the seat behind his desk and slowly sat down in it, sighing and massaging his forehead.

"Right, well, if there are no more distractions..." He paused, as if expecting some other remarkable happenstance to occur. When none did, he relaxed slightly and continued. "...we shall get on with the lesson. Maria, could you please start us off by reading the paragraph at the top of page 108?"

The pale human girl in the back corner nodded meekly, flipping to the requested page and reading what was written there:

"Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles 'Tails' Prower, Amy Rose, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, and all related characters are copyright to SEGA. Sally Acorn, Rotor, Antoine D' Coolette, Bunnie Rabbot, Snively, and the other Freedom Fighters are copyright to DiC Productions, and/or Archie Comics. All other characters are copyright to their respective owners unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved."



AUTHOR'S INCOHERENT RAMBLINGS 'N STUFF:

Wow. What a winter! You guys probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I've gone through to get this next chapter to you. Since you probably don't care about it all anyway, I'll just tell you about the foremost disaster and leave it at that.

A major ice storm hit around mid-February, literally freezing solid the city I live in. To make matters worse, as the ice froze, its weight caused every tree branch from here to Florida to fall off, breaking anything they happened to land on--including power lines, cars, houses, and people.

The day after the storm, my front and back yards looked like they were bombed by terrorists. I kid you not.

What followed was a lovely week without heat, electricity or working plumbing as the power companies struggled to get several hundred thousand people's utilities up and running again throughout the city. I happened to be one of the lucky few who were last to be fixed, which meant that pretty much everything in the fridge had become rotten junk and had to be thrown away by the time my appliances started working again.

.....But I digress. The storm also forced school to close for a week, which to me is always a good thing. So, I guess you could say the experience wasn't a total loss. After all, at least the beavers will be happy; there's a nice little pile of lumber for them to use on the curb of every house within eyesight for miles around. Although today as I was walking home from work, I saw several birds making nests inside some of them. I think that's a definite sign they've been there too long, don't you?

Blah blah blah, okay, I think I've said enough now. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter. And remember, any questions, comments, recipies, money, or fine jewelry can be sent to my email address at stoney107@yahoo.com. No spammers, please, but you can send me flames if you want; I can use them to melt the ice block around my car.


Chapter Four: Realization


"What's that, shugah-hog?"

Mecha turned his head in the direction of the new voice. A tan rabbit with three robotic limbs was smiling at him kindly from her position near the door. Slowly, a memory surfaced in Mecha's mind; her name was Bunnie Rabbot.

"I asked..." He suddenly stopped, surprised at his own voice. Gone was the familiar metallic undertone he'd carried his whole life; in its place was a smooth, organic tenor. It seemed new and alien to him, but familiar at the same time...shaking off the rising questions in his mind, he repeated his first inquiry. "I asked, 'What just happened?'"

Bunnie grinned at him and rolled her eyes. "Well, what d'ya think? We came and gaht yah, shugah."

"You...got me?" He repeated slowly, still startled at his new voice. More memories were returning to him...Bunnie was a Freedom Fighter, and had gotten her robot parts from a half-completed roboticization that he'd saved her from..he and Rotor had taken her back to Knothole, where she'd asked Sally to join the Freedom Fighters and had nearly taken his head off when demonstrating her Martial-Arts skills...

Mecha jerked himself violently back to reality. What the--?!? He'd never done any of that! What was happening to him?! His eyes grew wide with sudden panic. "Where am I? What's going on?!" He yelled, lashing out and upsetting the covers that had been carefully laid over him.

Bunnie placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, her other one held up in a calming gesture. "Whoa, take it easy there. Calm dahn, shugah. We went to get y'all from Robahtrop'lis and brought yah back here, thah's all."

Reason and logic rose up through the chaos of Mecha's mind. He suddenly understood; the Freedom Fighters had gone to rescue the hedgehog from his master's city, and had captured him when he was disabled thanks to that failed experiment...

"How long are you planning on keeping me prisoner here?" He asked flatly, eyes burning with contained anger. Bunnie didn't notice; In fact, she did the last thing Mecha expected her to do.

She laughed.

"Oh, come on shugah!" She drawled, covering her mouth to stifle a new batch of giggles. "Ah know yah don't lahk bein' in this here Medical Ward that much, but it'll only be a coup'la days at the most b'fore yer outta here."

Mecha slowly blinked as two words from her sentence registered in his mind. "...Medical Ward?"

The smile melted from Bunnie's face like snow in the sun. She cocked her head to the side slightly and gave Mecha a puzzled stare before answering. "Well, yeah, o' course. Whar else would we put yah?"

Medical Ward. Noun. A repair facility for biological organisms. Mecha knew the definition by heart, but he still had a difficult grasp using it in this particular context. He slowly turned to scan the surroundings again. "I'm in a...Medical Ward?"

Something wasn't right. He glanced at Bunnie again. Why was she treating him in such a friendly manner? He was her enemy, wasn't he? He glanced down at the covers that had been carefully draped over him. Why was he in a Medical Ward instead of a workshop of some sort? For that matter, why had they placed him in a cushioned bed when they knew he could just as well go without it?

Confused, he looked at his hands for an answer. They were clad in snug, clean white gloves. He arched an eyebrow and frowned. Why could he feel every inch of their fabric surface with his hands? Had the Freedom Fighters equipped him with more sensors to help him 'feel'? But more importantly, since when had he worn gloves?

Always, his mind seemed to answer. Mecha shook his head again to clear the cobwebs out of his thoughts. Something was definitely wrong around here...

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bunnie looking at him perplexedly, wondering what he was thinking. Slowly, dreading what he might see, Mecha pulled off the glove on his right hand.

Metal Sonic's breath caught in his throat, his face frozen in an almost comical expression of surprise.

The hand's surface didn't glare up at him in a flash of silver. The joints didn't creak slightly as he bent them. His fingers didn't shine with their sharp, conelike surface. In fact, they no longer shined at all.

His hand, once a remarkable conglomeration of circuitry and hinges, was metal no more. Instead, an organic limb of flesh, muscle, and blood stood in its place. The pale tan color of his palm stood out with frightening clarity in his eyes. Tiny wrinkles folded themselves around the joints in his fingers, each of which was soft, round, and fleshy instead of the sharp, pointed talons he'd claimed before.

Mecha didn't even know his jaw had dropped. With a fear borne from panic, he practically ripped the glove off his other hand, hoping that it was normal, that it was still robotic---but it wasn't. The two hands were mirror images of each other. Mecha's breathing began to quicken, his wide eyes snapping back and forth from one hand to the next, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.

"Shugah-hog.....you okay?" Bunnie asked cautiously, wondering why the hedgehog in front of her was staring at his hands like he'd never seen them before. No reply came for a few moments.

"I-I.....I.....I....." Metal stammered, unable to form a sentence past that one word. A deep, dark dread was forming in his mind, which was currently thinking, making connections, and forming a conclusion that shocked him to the core of his being. No, he thought. No, it's impossible. It doesn't make any sense. It can't be...

The covers flew off his body as he tossed them away, to reveal the deep blue fur and tan belly of an organic hedgehog.

...but it was.

His mouth opened and closed a couple times like a beached fish, trying to form words and failing. He tried to speak, to say something, to express his complete and unbelievable shock, but no sound came out of his mouth. He couldn't think. He didn't know what to think. One of the most basic and fundamental certainties of his life had just been shattered, leaving him startled, frightened, and feeling very much alone.

Finally, he found his voice.

".....I'M ALIVE!" He screeched, staring at his body like it'd leap up and attack him. Bunnie's expression relaxed into understanding. This was obviously a case of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and nothing more.

"Well, yah! Ah admit Robahtnik had us worried, too.....but still, we managed to get yah outta there alraht. There ain't no reason to be all suhprahsed 'bout it."

Mecha barely heard her, his eyes traveling incredulously over his body until they came to rest on his feet.

His feet...he paused.

They were covered by shoes.

Red shoes.

With a white horizontal strap over each of them.

Mecha slowly, shakily reached a hand out to lightly touch the shoes. He'd seen them somewhere before.....

"I-I need a mirror." He spoke up calmly, the surprise in his voice replaced by dread. "C-could you get me a mirror, please?" Ordinarily he'd be disgusted at the idea of asking a Freedom Fighter for anything, but at the moment he was feeling anything but ordinary.

Bunnie looked at him oddly, but did as he requested, picking up a small hand mirror from a nearby dresser and handing it to him. "Shur, shugah." She shrugged.

"Thanks." He took the mirror and closed his eyes as he moved it in front of his face. Taking a deep, shaky breath to somehow try bracing himself for he knew not what, he opened his eyes.

And at that moment in Mecha's mind, the world stopped turning.

Sounds went silent.

Movement ceased.

All was still.

Mecha's heart stopped beating.

--------------------

A scream exploded out of the Medical Hut and rang throughout Knothole like a gunshot, waking Tails from the peaceful slumber he'd enjoyed not a moment before. The small two-tailed fox yelped in surprise and fell out of bed, leaping back to his feet again almost immediately. What was THAT?!

The scream repeated itself, only louder and accompanied by a smashing, tearing noise. Tails raced across his hut to his window. The scream seemed to be coming from this direction...he glanced outside, wondering if they were under attack. However, before he could see anything but the familiar shape of the Medical Hut, he heard the desperate scream repeat itself again. He winced and shut his eyes, clamping his hands tightly down over his ears to muffle the painful sound.

The smashing noise grew louder, sounding to Tails like something being forcibly broken through. It quickly stopped, but the scream continued on, stretching out for a few more agonizing moments before it abruptly cut off.

Tails slowly opened one eye to look outside. There was a large dust cloud slowly rising from around the side of the Medical Hut facing his window. He tensely waited a couple moments for it to clear, then gasped, both eyes flying wide open.

The first thing he saw was the massive hole. Wide and jagged at the edges, it stood out on the Medical Hut's wall like a tree at Robotropolis. Upon a closer look, he also spotted Bunnie's unconscious form sprawled out on the floor inside the building.

Tails literally flew over to his bedside and yanked on his shoes and socks as quickly as he could. Something told him this would be a bad day...

--------------------

"WHAT THE--?!"

"Holy crap!"

Knuckles and Espio uttered dual exclamations as an incoherent blue blur suddenly flashed by them, heading into the forest. They stopped walking, deciding it would be pretty pointless to visit Sonic at the Medical Hut, like they had been about to do just now. "What was up with that?!" Espio muttered, surprised. Knuckles just shook his head.

"Who knows. Maybe they tried to make Amy his nurse again or something." The echidna mused.

Espio grinned. "That'd explain it, all right. Think we should go after him?"

Knux waved a hand dismissively. "Naw, the Freedom Fighters'll take care of it. Let's just head over to their teleporter and leave. I'm getting worried about leaving the island alone this long."

Espio shrugged as they resumed walking in a different direction. "What's to worry about? The rest of the Chaotix are up there. They can handle things for a little bit."

"It's not them I'm worried about." Knux muttered, not seeing Espio's widening eyes or knowing expression.

The purple chameleon sucked in a breath and casually clasped his hands behind his head. "You're thinking about Rouge, then." Espio remarked out of the blue with a small smile.

Knuckles stumbled over his own feet in surprise. "Huh? Whuh?" He sputtered in shock, staring openly at his companion.

"Hey, I understand how you feel, Knux. I mean, she's already stolen the Master once, so you've got a right to worry."

Knuckles' expression became one big frown. "I was NOT thinking about her!" He protested hotly.

"Suuuuure you weren't, Knux." Espio retorted in an unbelieving tone. "It's really obvious, you know. Everyone can tell you're-" Espio suddenly halted, blinking in surprise.

"What? What is it?" Knuckles asked. When he received no reply, he followed the chameleon's gaze and stopped walking, himself.

Up the street a large crowd was beginning to gather around a massive hole in the wall of one of the huts. What was inside the hole seemed to be the focus of their attention, however. They were talking and murmuring among each other in tones of surprise and disbelief, their voices carrying over to where Knuckles and Espio stood.

"-disappeared-"

"-can't believe it-"

"-is she okay?-"

"-no warning-"

"-who did it?-"

"-escaped-"

Knuckles' expression darkened as he heard this. "Oh, wonderful." He growled sarcastically.

--------------------

Sonic wearily shook his head, cursing the body he was in for not having tear ducts.

A few minutes ago, he had woken up-no, come online-and found that Robotnik had apparently been successful in roboticizing him. He was now identical in appearance to Metal Sonic; The mad doctor was not without a sense of irony, it seemed.

Sonic gazed, heartbroken, at the steel mockery of hands at the ends of his arms. A flat yellow plate with just enough flexibility to bend like normal, with several curved spikes of metal for fingers poking out at the ends. A larger spike was attached to the side, obviously meant to be the thumb. He slowly clenched and unclenched them, his thoughts dark and brooding.

On the bright side, he still had his free will-probably a side effect from the damage he'd caused the machine. Robotnik obviously didn't know about that, or else Sonic wouldn't be in one piece right now.

"Now what should I do?" He asked himself hopelessly, grimacing at his metallic voice. Talking to himself wasn't something he did often, but there wasn't anyone else he could speak with right now and he needed to do something to ease the massive loneliness weighing down on him. "I can't go back to Knothole; they'll shoot me on the spot. If I stay here at Robotropolis then everyone will try to come rescue me, putting themselves in danger." Sonic didn't know was that the rescue attempt had already occurred, and had been successful, oddly enough.

Searching for some kind of answer to his dilemma, Sonic's eyes roamed around the room he was in. It was quite bare-a metal table for a bed, placed next to a generator he could plug himself into to recharge. Most robots probably didn't concern themselves with decoration, he thought, noting the absence of wallpaper, carpeting, or any other interior furniture. Just four bare metal walls, a whitewashed ceiling, and a plain linoleum floor were all the glamour the area could muster.

A small beep sounded inside Sonic's head. In one corner of his pixilated vision, a message popped up. Incoming transmission, audio only. Display?

Unsure how to respond, Sonic spoke out loud. "Uh, yeah, sure."

Command not recognized. Please repeat.

Rolling his eyes, Sonic spoke again. "Yes."

"Attention unit 'Metal Sonic'." A dull monotone began speaking, drowning out all other sound. It must be a SWATbot, Sonic realized. "Security has confirmed reports of intruders entering complexes 23-Beta, 45-Epsilon, and 80-Sigma."

Somewhere in Sonic's new computer mind, a memory file activated itself. Those names were code words for three new factories that had been built recently. Intrigued, Sonic searched for more information about them. He gasped-or gave the robotic equivalent of one, at least-as he found the results.

Apparently, Robotnik had begun trying his hand at genetic experimentation. The factories, collectively known as "G-3", were creating needles, test tubes, microscopes and other medical tools that Robotnik was moving to his laboratories for research. This surprised Sonic to no end, since until now Robotnik's creations had been purely mechanical, as a rule. But he couldn't deny the data before him, or what it implied.

"Sir, do you wish to review the data?" The SWATbot's voice interrupted Sonic's thoughts, bringing him crashing back to the present.

Sonic blinked for a moment, nodded, then realized that the SWATbot couldn't see him. "Yes," He spoke instead.

Immediately, his view of the bare room around him was suddenly replaced.

The change was so abrupt that Sonic wondered whether he'd been teleported outside. Around him was a dark, dirty street that he recognized as being in Robotropolis. He was surprised and startled for a couple seconds, before he realized that what he was seeing was a video, probably taken by one of Robotnik's security cameras. This, apparently, was the data the SWATbot had mentioned.

He studied the images closer. A single, towering building dwarfed the side of the street opposite from where the camera was. THAT was new, Sonic thought with surprise. How could such a large structure have been built without either him or the other Freedom Fighters noticing?

As he watched, a small figure broke up the stillness of the scene, slipping out of the shadows of an alley. Sonic squinted, trying to focus on the figure, but it was covered in some sort of cloak that hid its shape from view. The mysterious figure glanced around a couple moments to check the street for guards, its hood casting heavy shadows across its face. Then it quietly slipped inside one of the building's doors without a sound. The images stopped as abruptly as they began, and Sonic's view of the bare metal room suddenly returned. End of file, the message blinked in the corner of his vision.

Who was that? Sonic wondered, taking a deep breath to fuel his internal fusion generator. He blinked. Waitaminute, internal fusion generator? What's that?

At that moment the programming in his CPU kicked in, sending one overpowering message into his mind: REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK.

Caught completely off-guard, Sonic reeled from the sheer force of the command, his thoughts scattering to the four winds. He gasped and flailed about in confusion, a cry exiting his throat as he accidentally fell off the table he'd been laying upon. He landed on the floor with a metallic grunt, trying to collect himself before the message slammed into his consciousness a millisecond later, sending him careening sideways into the wall.

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, it bellowed.

Sonic blinked rapidly, trying to remember what he'd been thinking of. It was getting increasingly hard to focus. He clenched his eyes shut and held his face in his hands, struggling to retain his fragile hold on the fleeting thoughts and images that even now were escaping him. There was an image of a squirrel wearing a blue vest, and a fox with two tails. But no matter how hard he tried, Sonic couldn't make out their faces...

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, the message demanded.

"N-no!" Sonic gasped, but it was an empty exclamation. He couldn't concentrate--it had become difficult to recall why he didn't want to do as the message said. Something to do with...with Robotnik...something he'd done in the past...

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, the message boomed.

Was Robotnik his master? Sonic couldn't remember anymore...

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, the message thundered.

"I...I don't know," Sonic replied nervously. "I don't know if I should..."

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, the message roared.

Yes, Sonic thought tentatively. Yes, maybe that would be the right thing to do...

REPORT INTRUSION TO MASTER ROBOTNIK, the message screamed.

Alright, Sonic thought with firmer resolve. Alright, I will...

REPORT-

"ALRIGHT!" Sonic yelled angrily, his voice drowning out the message as his internal radio activated and automatically dialed the frequency for Robotnik's Command Center. Once again his view was replaced, this time by the image of a long-nosed, short human sitting in a solid iron chair that appeared to be a bit too big for him, and operating a myriad of controls that Sonic could just barely see at the bottom of his view.

"Yes?" The human asked. His voice was high and nasal, the few strands of remaining hair on his almost-bald head drifting slightly like seaweed on the ocean floor with each movement he made.

"Snively," Sonic spoke in a short, clipped tone that didn't betray his irritation, "I have news for Robotnik. Where is he?"

"Still healing after that fiasco you two performed," Robotnik's nephew replied with a smugness whose origin became apparent with his next sentence. "He's left me in charge until his health returns, which means that you'll be answering to ME for the time being. So tell me; what's so important that you had to call and interrupt the game I was watching?"

In Sonic's new mechanical mind, a mysterious anger emerged out of nowhere, directed towards Snively. His attitude, the look on his face, the way his eyes silently declared his superiority.all of it grated on Sonic's nerves to no end. He realized that his expression was turning into a snarl and caught himself just in time, reminding himself that he probably wasn't programmed to obey Snively unless Robotnik personally told him to. "Why did Robotnik not contact me to confirm this change?" He spoke in a carefully measured voice, his jaw clenched.

Snively rolled his eyes haughtily. "How could he have?" He shot right back, tone sharp. "He's in the emergency medical ward, underneath supervision and on life support as we speak. It's not like he's fit for a face-to-face discussion."

"I don't care." Sonic's voice was flat. "He would contact me if such a change in authority took place."

"Look," the smugness in Snively's voice was rapidly becoming cold and irritable, "it doesn't matter. Robotnik has given me specific orders, and I intend to do them. You should, too, if you know what's good for you."

The thinly-veiled threat did not go by unnoticed. Sonic's red pupils suddenly flamed bright as he replied softly, "Forget it. I'll tell Robotnik later, in person." He cut the connection immediately afterward, giving Snively no time to respond.

Suddenly, an overpowering presence in Sonic's mind retreated, allowing a flood of memories to resurface; memories of being in Knothole and fighting against Robotnik. For a few moments Sonic stood perfectly still, as the implications of what he'd nearly done sank in.

"Ohmigosh!" He gasped, backing up until he hit the wall and staring at his hands in horror. "What just happened? What's wrong with me?! I was...I almost..."

The thoughts running through his head were so frightening that he immediately slammed his mental doors shut on them. Instead, he tried to sort out what had happened before he'd called Snively. Whatever that message had been, it seemed designed to block out memories and make him cooperate with his body's programming. But why would it be there, unless...

"...unless Robotnik knew I might keep my free will." Sonic finished. He paused. "Oh, crud."

He had to hand it to Robotnik-the doctor was smarter than he looked.

--------------------

Running.

Don't know where, don't know how long.

Just running.

Gotta keep running.

Can't stop. Mustn't stop.

Gotta get away...

No! Don't think! Don't close your eyes! You'll see it!

See the face...

The face in the mirror...

My face...

NO! NOT my face! HIS face! Not mine! His!

I'm not him. I'M NOT HIM!

I CAN'T be him! It can't be true! It can't! I won't let it!

I'm my own person! ME! The greatest robot ever created by Dr. Eggman! I'm not him! Anyone but him! It doesn't make sense! It's not possible! I refuse to believe it!

I'M NOT HIM! I CAN'T BE!

I HATE HIM!!

I HATE HIM HATE HIM HATE HIM!!

A frustrated, agonized scream broke free from Mecha's throat, scaring the birds away from the forest treetops in a massive dark cloud. He paused long enough to beat his fists uselessly against a rock to vent some of his rage, and then he was running again.

It's not true...I don't want it to be true...

Please don't let it be true...please...

Faster, faster! Hurry! Quickly!

Don't think. Don't pause. Don't hesitate. Just run.

Run, run, run!

Get away...

Gotta get away...outdistance everything.....

Outdistance my fear. Outdistance my thoughts.

Outdistance the truth...

A choked sob escaped the newly-organic throat of Mecha, his anger seamlessly changing into grief. His feet stumbled, faltered, and slowed their pace despite his mental urging. He finally trailed to a halt somewhere in the depths of the Great Forest, with tall, silent trees standing watch around him.

All the strength left his legs at once; he collapsed on the cold, dusty ground. Fluid leaked out from his eyes, and strange spasms shook his chest as a small moaning sound welled up within him. He rested his head on his arms, quietly crying the first and last tears of his life.

"I hate you all....." He sobbed.

--------------------

The next day, Sonic was peacefully recharging in the room where he'd first come online when he recieved a rather rude awakening.

"Where is he?!?"

The scream practically shook the very foundations of the fortress, jolting Sonic out of stasis.

"WHERE IS THAT HEDGEHOG?!?!"

That one actually did shake the fortress; Sonic could feel the table he lay on vibrate as he heard it. The door to his plain metal room slammed open, denting the wall it hit. In the doorway stood a livid Robotnik, still wearing a pale green dressing gown from the ER. "Where...is...he?!" He panted, out of breath from screaming so hard.

Sonic, deciding to play along, sat up and inquired in a confused voice, "Who, sir?"

Another scream momentarily shorted out Sonic's auditory circuits. "Don't give me that! You know very well who I mean!" Robotnik yelled. "THE HEDGEHOG!!! WHERE IS HE??!"

Sonic hid a mischievous smile from Robotnik with his hand, deciding to make the doctor mad just for the hell of it. Tossing caution to the wind, he thought up an appropriately infuriating answer and replied in a calm tone that sent Robotnik's blood pressure skyrocketing.

"He escaped. The Freedom Fighters rescued him."

This had not been what Robotnik wanted to hear. "What?! WHAT?!?!" He bellowed like a mad bull. Sonic allowed himself an internal grin, silently enjoying Robotnik's discomfort.

"It gets worse, sir." Sonic continued in a maddeningly calm voice, deciding to clue Robotnik in on what he'd heard earlier just to make him even madder. "Our cameras spotted an unidentified intruder entering the G-3. Inventory reports three-quarters of their current shipment missing."

Robotnik stopped moving entirely for a full three seconds, a vein throbbing visibly in his temple.

Then he exploded.

Hurling curses like an enraged demon, he glanced around with a wild look in his eyes, searching for some object he could expel his wrath upon. His eyes settled on Sonic for the briefest of moments, but passed him by; he was too valuable to damage. The door to Sonic's room was closest to him, so with the pained screech of tearing metal he used his robotic arm to rip the door away from its hinges and smash it onto the floor.

Sonic allowed himself a smug internal grin. A thought occurred to him that he ought to record this moment for posterity, and began saving what he saw and heard as an audio/visual file on his hard drive.

By now Robotnik had begun jumping up and down on top of the wrecked door repeatedly while yelling as much as his miniscule human lungs would allow, his face beet red and his eyes practically popping out of their sockets. Sonic realized that had he been his normal organic self, he might have been laughing right now. But robots did not have a gag reflex, and Sonic found himself unable to laugh the way he was used to, but rather play a recording of Mecha's voice laughing.

Robotnik's voice snapped like a bear trap's jaws, jolting him from his reverie. "Mecha, I want you to PERSONALLY find this intruder. When you do, bring him to me." The deadly edge in Robotnik's voice conjured up several frightening images of what he possibly had in mind for the trespasser. "And call for SWATbot team 3 to report here immediately." He added as an afterthought.

Still playing the part of obedient robot, Sonic got to his feet and stood rigidly at attention while saluting his superior smartly. Robotnik gave a careless wave in the direction of the now-empty doorway, dismissing him. Sonic marched out, arms stiff and swinging at his sides, and continued to do so for some distance down the hallway before dropping the act and breaking out into a quick jog. This was his chance to find out who that intruder was, help him with whatever he was doing, and perhaps sabotage Robotnik's factories in the process. Sonic smiled. But why should he stop there? Perhaps he could access Robotnik's central computer and give it a lovely virus. Or maybe a bunch of top-secret files could "mysteriously" go missing and "somehow" wind up with the Freedom Fighters. For a few moments, Sonic began to feel more like his normal self than ever, and his smile became a cheerful grin.

Maybe getting roboticized wasn't such a bad idea after all......

--------------------

After waking up several hours later in the same spot where he'd fallen, Mecha mentally slapped himself.

Hard.

He would have done so physically, but reconsidered when he saw his mud- caked, filthy gloves and recalled the many diseases one could get from touching the mouth with dirty materials.

Stupid...he'd acted so stupid. Instead of sitting down and trying to sort out the situation logically, he had let panic take over. Now he was tired, lost, and far away from any help he could have obtained. He smashed a fist into the dirt, wincing at the pain it caused. Damn these new emotions! Everything was so confusing to him now. He no longer knew what to think or what to do. He longed for the clear, simple logic of his CPU, and the precise, calculating efficiency with which it handled input.

Metal blinked, suddenly realizing for the first time that he had no idea where his real body was. Surprised and irritated that the thought hadn't occurred to him earlier, he mulled over the list of possible locations where it could be. Although he had no solid facts to go on, he had his suspicions: It was entirely possible that the Freedom Fighters had stolen it, naively thinking they could reprogram him to assist their cause. Something told Mecha that this was not the case, though, and that his body was still in Robotropolis somewhere.

If that was the case, he would need to return to the city for it.

Miserable and furious at himself, he slowly sat up and looked around for anything recognizable. When nothing familiar appeared, he immediately tried to access his radar. But then he remembered that he didn't have one anymore; it, like the rest of his mechanical functions, was not present in this biological body.

A pure, heated rage slowly blossomed in Mecha's mind. He hated this body. He hated every fiber of it, every cell and atom. It wasn't his. It didn't belong to him.

But then...where was its true owner? It was obvious Sonic wasn't in this body, which meant his consciousness was somewhere else. It could've been destroyed, obliterated when Metal had replaced it (an idea that greatly appealed to him), but he doubted it. He'd fought Sonic before, and knew the hedgehog was tougher than that.

That left only one logical explanation. Mecha's rage tripled as he came to a conclusion to explain both of the disappearances: Sonic had stolen his real body, probably because it was so superior to this crude organic one.

The very thought enraged and terrified him at the same time.

Mecha sank wearily to his knees. He felt like he was falling with nothing to hold on to. The world had suddenly decided to give him a hearty kick to the rear end, and he was having difficulty easing the pain in his posterior.

What could he do? As if in answer, the rage reasserted itself, melting his fear away. The answer was obvious to him, although it would've appeared illogical to his robotic self: He would go back to Robotropolis, confront Sonic, and demand his body be returned to him. If his rival refused to comply, he'd take it by force.

Then reason caught up with Mecha, showing him the large flaws in this plan. He knew from experience that every robot in Robotropolis was programmed to shoot Sonic (or anyone looking remotely like him) on sight, and he doubted they'd know that Sonic currently wasn't the one in this body. Furthermore, he had no idea how he was supposed to resume control of his true self if Sonic agreed to let him do so-consciousness transference was not a widely studied or even believed area of science, and Robotnik had sadly not had the foresight to insert some data into him upon activation about the little that was known on the subject.

Metal Sonic clenched a fist. Well, he'd just have to do a little research on his own, then...

He stood up, dusted away some of the dust and grit that had accumulated on his fur, and grimly gazed at the bright afternoon sky shining between the trees. It almost seemed to be mocking his dark predicament. He turned away from it with a faint growl, choosing to stare instead at the shadow he cast on the ground. The shadow wasn't his own, either. It wasn't the blocky, sharp-edged one he was familiar with; no, this one framed the shape of the one person he hated more than any other.

Sonic would not get away with this, he promised himself. He WOULD get his real body back, or he would die trying.

And if he was successful...

For a moment the sun was hidden behind a passing cloud, and in the temporary darkness Mecha's face almost seemed to take on the shape of his former, robotic one.

...If he was successful, Sonic would pay.