To Feel

By Unit 03

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Chapter 3: Understanding

After a few minutes, Metal Sonic was back on his feet and feeling fine.

"01001001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01111001 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 00111111" As he walked out of the test area, a cool breeze passed by. Strange, even though he was standing still, the feeling was almost like flying. Metal got himself together. He wanted to stop by the repair bay just to get everything checked out. As he walked, Metal Sonic couldn't help but think what else he could feel.

Metal Sonic stood before an entrance with no door; a 12 foot high entrance to be exact. Inside, dozens of the same drone robots running around everywhere. The sound of drills and ratchets engulfed any other noise. Wielding torches were in almost every corner, sparks flying. Robots, big and small, were being fixed. Spare parts being lifted up and out by cables on the roof. Metal Sonic stepped in, looking around at the commotion. As soon as he set foot in the bay, two small repair bots rushed over to him. One stood to his left, the other to his right. As they began their scan of Metal Sonic's body, he remained still. Expansive red beams traced Metal Sonic top to bottom. Once they finished, one went behind Metal Sonic. The other bot spoke.

"You sustained damage to your booster. Most likely you were running beyond it capacity. The repairs should take three minutes." After saying he had to say, he went and help the other. Metal Sonic didn't say a word. Now he understood what pain was for.
The robots finished the repairs. "All set. You can go now." Metal Sonic didn't even look back at the repair bots. He turned around, and blasted off.

Metal Sonic flew far off. He left the borders of the fort behind. He was flying aimlessly, not caring where he'd go. As he went out for miles, he remembered his battles with Sonic. He remembered seeing Sonic almost as damaged as he was. It stood out in his mind; the image of Sonic, covered in his own blood. Before he could finish thinking, Metal Sonic found himself over a small forest. There was something he had to find out. He landed in the forest, looking around for something. He found one. There was a small brown rabbit in his sight. In the blink of an eye, he dashed right up to it and slashed its side with his right hand, leaving four red streaks in its fur. The rabbit tried to hop away but the wounds had gone down to its ribs. It twitched, nearly convulsing. Metal Sonic watched as the rabbit bled more and more. He watched until it closed its eyes and stopped moving. Metal Sonic looked at his hand, blood on the fingertips. Maybe out of wonder, maybe fascination, maybe curiosity, no matter what the reason, he took the same hand slowly moved it below his other arm and in one swift motion, slashed his own side and chest right across, tearing open four lines.

Now he knew. The overwhelming pain, the anguish, the feeling of terror. He clenched his fists tight. His arms firmly crossed against his chest. He fell to his knees, dropping his head down into the ground.
"01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01110011 00111111" The many times before when he had attacked and killed, he never even thought about how his victims felt. Now he knew. Metal Sonic thought to himself in his moment of empathy, that no one should have to feel like this.
He jumped up, throwing open his arms and flying back. He had to return to be repaired again. The main fort was too far now, he would have to settle for a smaller outpost. In the air, the heat from his booster intensified the pain on his torn armor. His other senses were being overwhelmed. His hearing escaped him completely, and slowly, his vision got darker and blurrier. The outpost was in sight. Everything was getting darker, more and more black. He was almost there, then his vision shut down. His booster went out and his fall began. He started falling towards the outpost, but unable to land. All went blank.

*unknown time laps*

Metal Sonic woke up, this time in an open top bay. Four robots were tending to his repairs. The pain was gone. All his senses were back. He sat up abruptly, looking around, then looking at himself.

"You had crash landed near this outpost. Your repairs are complete now. We will inform Dr. Robotnik of your situation." As the small robot was about to walk away, Metal Sonic grabbed it by the shoulder.

"01001110 01101111 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100" The robot turned back.

"You don' want me to relay the message?" Metal Sonic took his hand off the bot.

"01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00100000 01101101 01111001 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110"

"Alright then. As long as you take care of it, then no problem." Metal Sonic got up walked a few feet away from them. As he blasted away, he sent the little robot a bit back, all landing on their backs. He started in the direction of the main fort, then turned towards another direction unnoticed.

"01001110 01101111 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01000100 01101111 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001110 01101111 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101"