EPISODE V: Ghosts & Signals


"YOU COULD HAVE DIED!"

"But I didn't, so it's fine now, right?" Chris asked, voice trembling weakly. Even he clearly didn't believe his own words.

Grandpa turned away, gripping his hair in his hands and trying very hard not to rip any of it out. In just two days, the situation's escalated to the point where both he himself and his grandson almost died!

Chris almost DIED! The worst part was that Grandpa had not a clue what to do.

His thoughts were crashing into each other and scattering, making it incredibly difficult to form a coherent string of them. Finally he choked out, "No, Chris, it's not fine, because you almost died today! What were you even thinking!?" He whirled back around to see his grandson, who sat on the stool, looking down at the floor, shoulders slumped. "I get you want to help," he said more gently, edge still seeping in anyway, "but throwing yourself into danger like that— you… you could have died."

. . . .

Metal Sonic opened the door a crack and peered in, listening to the now hushed voices of Chris and Grandpa. After a moment, the unit shut the door and resumed its trek down the hallway, unsure of where it wanted to go currently. It stopped at the edge of the staircase and after considering for a minute, it treaded down the stairs and slipped into the library.

After finding a thick book to read, bold faux-gold letters staring up at the unit from the cover, Metal Sonic sat down in the middle of the floor and opened it, turning to the first page.

It did not have peace for very long.

Thirty pages into the book, the library door swung open. Metal Sonic lifted its head to see Tails entering. The twin-tailed fox stopped in his tracks, wordlessly glaring back at the unit. Metal Sonic eventually broke the staring contest, turning its gaze back onto the page it was reading a moment ago.

Tails shuffled on over to a bookcase, taking a few books from the shelves. Tucking them under his arm, he started to walk back towards the door— and then stopped again. He turned, looking directly at Metal Sonic.

"Why?"

Metal Sonic looked up, red eyes unreadable.

"Why'd you save Chris?" Tails asked. "Are you trying to get on our good side? Gain our trust?" The amber fox's lips twitched. "It's not gonna work. Whatever Eggman's planning. It won't work."

Metal Sonic did not react.

Tails heaved a sigh. "You winning over Chris doesn't mean anything. I just hope he realizes that you're not what he thinks you are before it's too late." And with that, the young Mobian finally left the room.

Metal Sonic stared at the closed door for a long time before slowly looking back down at the book in its lap. It turned the page and resumed reading.

. . . .

Tails shut the lab door behind him and set down the books, only keeping one in hand as he moved to sit down on a stool. Amy, Julie-Su, Cream, and Cheese were all still asleep— the former two were huddled together on the air mattress, Amy drooling on her pillow and Julie snoring nearly as loud as Grandpa's power generator, while Cream and Cheese cuddled in the makeshift hammock that Grandpa strung up in the corner.

Tails opened up the book, determined to get at least twenty minutes of recreational reading in before he set to work on trying to upgrade his Miles Electric to detect Chaos Energy. Now that they had an actual Chaos Emerald here, it shouldn't be as hard to figure out.

Tails hoped that the book would distract him from thinking about anything other than the tale within, but that turned out to not be the case.

Thoughts about Metal Sonic and his intentions ran rampant all throughout the twin-tailed fox's brain. That robot just had to be up to something. There was only one other time he'd ever rebelled against Doctor Eggman and— well, that was kind of a weird time for everyone involved.

Metal Sonic, in short, got himself an upgrade, completely lost his marbles, turned on Eggman, and then decided the best way to take over the world for himself was to turn into a freaking robo-dragon. Tails wondered what Sonic would've had to say to that, if he'd been there— probably some silly, slightly cheesy quip about it not being a good look on the robot or something.

A pang of sadness struck his heart. The book slipped from his hands, falling to the floor with a thud. Tails slowly slid off the stool, dropping down onto the floor himself. He tucked his legs close and buried his face in his knees, unable to stop the tears from falling.

. . . .

Amy wasn't sure what woke her, but she couldn't help but grimace at the drool that was apparently dribbling from her mouth. She slowly sat up with a long, drawn out yawn, stretching her arms.

Then her ear twitched.

Her eyes snapped back open, and as her eyes adjusted she could see Tails in the corner, hunched over and crying softly. The pink hedgehog quickly clambered off the mattress and tip-toed over to the younger Mobian. She placed her hand on his shoulder, startling him.

Tails looked up, eyes red from the tears.

"Hey," Amy said gently, sitting down next him. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing," Tails mumbled. Yeah, that was a lie.

"Tails," she continued, "this doesn't look like nothing."

Tails refused to reply, instead dropping his face back onto his knees. Amy put her hand back onto his shoulder. "Want me to just stay here?"

"Mmhm," was the only response she got and the only one she needed.

When Tails wanted to talk, he would do so when he was good and ready. For now, she would just be there for him.

. . . .

"How long do you think they'll keep this up?"

Ella and Mr. Tanaka sat in the living room, sipping tea and coffee respectively and sharing a plate of freshly baked cookies.

They've known from the start that there were aliens in the house— Ella had caught a glimpse of the bunny rabbit child running around the corner once while taking the laundry downstairs, and Mr. Tanaka saw the pink hedgehog wandering around the flower garden in the backyard. They continued to see the aliens here and there, despite said aliens' attempts at being sneaky. And more food than usual continued to disappear from the fridge.

The aliens' physical appearances also made it quite clear that Metal Sonic, as they knew from the moment they'd met the robot, was in fact not one of Grandpa's creations.

Mr. Tanaka shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee. "I think it's baffling that Master Christopher and Master Charles think we don't know." It was also a bit amusing, that they thought they could actually hide the presence of the aliens.

"Should we say something?" Ella asked before biting into a cookie.

Mr. Tanaka shrugged again. "Maybe we should just purposefully walk in on them and tell them we knew all along. Let them worry about picking up their jaws from the floor themselves."

It was more of a joke than anything else, and he could tell from Ella's snort she knew that too.

. . . .

Julie-Su woke up, a scream dying in her throat before it could escape. She clawed at her chest, the remnants of the nightmare still holding control, thinking that the sweat dampening her fur was that terrible silicone-like slime. Her breathing was out of control, lungs taking in and exhaling air rapidly, too rapidly— her heart rattled against her chest, pumping blood and adrenaline throughout her body.

Once it hit her that it was just another nightmare, her breathing started to slow. She dropped her hands, letting them fall back to her sides, and her heartrate gradually returned to normal.

She'd had many terrible nightmares before, mostly about the Dark Legion and her so-called "sister."

But even those horrible memories paled in comparison to everything that happened with the Metal Virus. She'd been one of the countless victims. If it hadn't been for Sonic, she wouldn't be here right now. None of them would be.

Julie rolled over, pushing and kicking the blankets off, and saw Amy and Tails in the corner, both fast asleep, lying against the wall. The both of them were going to be complaining about their necks when they woke up.

The pink echidna rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.

There was no way she was going back to sleep now, not that she even wanted to.

. . . .

Metal Sonic dropped its book.

It remained still, analyzing the odd signal it was now picking up. It was an SOS signal, one being sent over a familiar channel. Why it felt familiar was a mystery to the unit. That, alongside the signal's sudden appearance, peaked its curiosity.

Metal Sonic slowly stood, and approached the window. It hesitated a moment, casting a glance over its shoulder towards the library door. Then it pushed open the window and climbed out, eager to sate its curiosity.

. . . .

Tails awoke to the sound of something beeping softly. As his blurry vision slowly cleared up, he realized it was his Miles Electric. He quickly stood up, wobbling with exhaustion, and stumbled for the device. He found it on the worktable and turned it on.

Notifications about having detected an SOS signal flashed across the screen.

"What the… ?" Tails muttered, eyes widening.

. . . .

Metal Sonic found the source approximately five kilometers into the forest outside Station Square. Naturally, so did Doctor Eggman, apparently: as a giant mechanical jaguar was slowly prowling towards the source— a heavily damaged, hedgehog-shaped robot that Metal Sonic found to be familiar somehow. The jaguar stopped upon seeing Metal Sonic and growled.

Metal Sonic lifted its claws menacingly, turbine thrumming loudly against the unnatural silence of the forest.

Both stood there a long time, each waiting for the other to make the first move— like two cowboys waiting for the other to grab their gun and shoot. Metal Sonic charged first, talons outstretched.

The unit ducked as the jaguar lunged, trying to bite the smaller machine's head off. Metal Sonic flung one arm forward, slashing into the oversized mechanical jaguar's armor.

The jaguar beeped loudly in pain, and whirled around, trying to clamp its mouth down on Metal Sonic. The mech managed to snag ahold of the unit's leg. Metal Sonic beeped sharply, slashing at the jaguar's face in an attempt to make it let go.

The jaguar squeezed its jaws against the leg, crushing metal and wires in the process.

Metal Sonic beeped and buzzed in desperation as it slammed its hand against the robotic jaguar's face, digging its talons deep into the armor and more delicate parts underneath.

The jaguar released a long beep, but did not let go, instead choosing to squeeze harder.

"Hey! Cut it out!" Something slammed into the other side of the jaguar's face, loosening its grip and dislodging Metal Sonic. The unit fell to the ground, and it scrambled back, clutching its damaged leg with on hand. It lifted its head to see a red echidna smashing the robotic jaguar's face with his fists.

A piece of paneling fell away, revealing something glowing underneath. The machine's power source. "This looks important!" The echidna grabbed the thing and ripped it out, flying sparks following. The jaguar started to wobble, its optics flickering. It sunk to its knees, irises darkening for good, and then slumped onto its side.

Metal Sonic stared at the jaguar, and then looked up at the echidna. The Mobian finally turned towards the unit, a frown on his face. "I have no idea why Eggman's robots are fighting each other all of a sudden, but—" He shook his head, walking up to Metal Sonic. "You picked up that SOS signal too, right? That's why you're here?"

Metal Sonic nodded slowly.

The echidna hummed, and then stepped past him towards the other downed robot. Metal Sonic turned its head with him, finally getting a much better look at the machine that had transmitted the signal.

The robot vaguely resembled Metal Sonic— very vaguely. Its blue paint was darker, and where there should only be silver for its muzzle and ears there was a peach color, and it had gray, zig-zagged pieces of metal under its nose and right above its eyes that seemed to be stand-ins for a mustache and eyebrows. The machine's arms and legs were gone, and its optical screen was blank. If it was operational when it transmitted that SOS signal, then it must have shut down not that long ago.

"Uncle Chuck?" The echidna kneeled down, clearly unsure of what to do.

Metal Sonic slowly attempted to stand, but its damaged leg twisted underneath it, and it fell face-first back into the grass. It let out a sharp beep of frustration.

Five seconds later, it found itself unceremoniously being lifted off the ground and flung onto a shoulder. Metal Sonic buzzed indignantly and tried to kick the culprit.

"Would you calm down?" the echidna snapped, sighing as he hoisted the other robot over his unoccupied shoulder. "I could just leave you here, but I'm not going to do that."

Metal Sonic stopped struggling after a moment and let its arms and legs hang, letting out one final long and loud beep of frustration. The least the echidna could do was let it use its good leg, instead of carrying it like this!

"Thank you," the echidna said, sounding almost smug. "Now, if I can just remember which way I—"

"Knuckles!"

Metal Sonic recognized the voice as belonging to Tails.

"Tails!" the echidna, apparently "Knuckles," greeted cheerily. "Good to see you! What are you— oh, you must've—"

"Yeah, my Miles Electric detected an SOS," Tails said. "Why are you carrying Metal Sonic and— is that Uncle Chuck?!"

"Can I explain after we get someplace where I can put these guys down?" Knuckles asked. "Metal Sonic's shoulder pad is digging into my neck and it's kind of uncomfortable."

. . . .

Metal Sonic sat on a stool in the corner of the garage, watching silently as Tails and Grandpa worked on repairing the unit evidently dubbed "Uncle Chuck." Grandpa took some time to fix up Metal Sonic's leg a bit while Tails started the work, and when he was finished, he then moved onto assisting the two-tailed fox to speed things along.

"… and Von Schlemmer's radio picked up the SOS signal. We figured out where it was coming from before the signal vanished, so I went to investigate. Found Metal Sonic fighting off one of Eggman's robots and Uncle Chuck looking like he went into a warzone."

This Von Schlemmer that Knuckles befriended after arriving on this world was apparently something called an "auto mechanic" and was a tinkerer of sorts— building his own equipment rather than purchasing it.

Metal Sonic filed this information away, not certain if it would prove useful or not.

As repairs for Uncle Chuck continued, Metal Sonic pushed itself off the stool and left the lab. It wandered the mansion aimlessly for a bit, before coming to the door leading to the patio. It stepped out, sunlight and the sounds of backyard wildlife greeting. Metal Sonic spied Chris in his usual spot, drawing in his sketchpad again.

Metal Sonic walked over, and then stopped, standing there a long time before actually sitting down next to him.

"Hey Metal," Chris greeted, lowering his sketchbook and offering a small yet strained smile. "I— I heard what happened. Are you okay?"

Metal Sonic waved to its newly repaired leg, beeping softly.

Chris breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

Metal Sonic merely looked up at the sky, observing the clouds.

Silence stretched out for a few minutes. And then Chris spoke again. "Grandpa… he's really upset right now. I… I shouldn't have done what did. He's right, I almost died. I would have if you hadn't been there."

Metal Sonic beeped again, turning its gaze away from the sky to focus on Chris. Chris was staring at the small flower in front of him.

"I've never seen him so scared," Chris murmured after a moment.

Metal Sonic placed a hand on Chris' shoulder. The two simply sat quietly, the both of them eventually looking up to watch the clouds together.