Author's notes:
My one-year anniversary since I started this trainwreck was yesterday, and I really wanted to post something then, but I ran into a problem or two, in which I had to find a workaround. I am exhausted, spent most of the day on this, and falling behind on course work, so don't expect another chapter for another few days, even if I have some of it mapped in my head. Its just finding time to write. I would love to hear your thoughts, and I will end up going back over for spelling mistakes- someday. I promise.
Anyway, make sure to stay save and I'll see you next time.
-Anomalous123.
Chapter 12:
The last thing he expected was to run into the royal twat himself; Commander Abraham Towers. Never mind getting smacked into the wall by a fly fist while going at Mark 2. It left a nice whole and cracked his communicator.
Swearing, he peeled himself from the nice shaped hole in the wall, ready to active his shoes when his foot caught something solid, causing him to lose his balance and trip. The world tilted sidewards as he went down, processor grinding to a halt as he looked up to the very man himself, looming over his form like a predator to his pray.
Trying to lighten the mood, he unwisely chooses this time to jest. "If you want me, at least buy me a drink first," he laughed nervously, hand moving to scratch the back of his neck before a foot pinned it in place, pushing down on the appendage.
"Enough of your games," the Commander commented dryly, a hint of curiosity bleeding through. "You're one of Robotnick's abominations, correct? A prototype? I feared he continued his project from all those years ago but, standing here now, I realise that your just a robot. A minion to do his bidding."
As he spoke, he placed a hand in his pocket and brought out a laser pen."Now, here is how things are going to go down. You OWE me for every robot you so selfishly destroyed, so I am going to ask you a question for everyone, and every time you answer wrong or give me an unsatisfactory answer, one of your limbs will be dislocated from the rest of your body. Understood?" The metal stud of his shoe pushed deeper as the figure below him began to struggle, the words sparking fear within him.
"Hey, come on! No need to be so hasty. I'm sure we can work this out WITHOUT any violence, I'm sure," the metal hedgehog stuttered out, attempting to pry the human's leg with a claw, to no avail. It was positioned on his joint, preventing it from lifting further than a few centimetres from the ground. He growled in agitation, throwing the man a glare, his eyes flashing red momentarily.
"Get off of me!" He demanded lips pulled back in a threatening snarl. The human didn't even flinch. Instead, he had the nerve to laugh.
Bloody laugh.
"Oh, and why would I do that? I've had bigger threats from Project: Shadow, and I'm still alive. What are you going to do, huh? Suddenly find the strength to shoot me into the nearest wall? Try to shoot me? Claw at my leg like the scum you are? You robots, going around thinking your superior, but you're really not. Any move against me, and you will quickly learn crawl back to your master."
The blue hedgehog winced, knowing how hard it was to hop with one leg until he got a replacement, never mind having to crawl miles at a time or call for help. That's just embarrassing. The others would never live it down; defeated by a pesky human. Hah. He would be the laughing stock of Eggman's gallery of 'bots.
The laser lowered in threat, sparking to life, ready to slice through metal joints within under his kneecap. His joints locked up in anticipation, fear racing through him as the man looked him deep in the eye, grinning. Those hydrochloric orbs peering into his soul. He shivered.
He felt so exposed.
So helpless.
Was this how his origin felt every day?
It was terrifying, waiting for him to move or speak... or, do anything apart from stare at him.
The man didn't seem happy, observing his body with a thoughtful expression. He forced back a whimper. It looked like he wanted to examine him. Detect him. It made various alarm bells to scream at him, 'get out!'
Was he fated to be dismantled, and stitched back together, acting as a tool for the humans.
No, he refused to do so. He couldn't.
He won't be anyone's puppet.
Never again!
"Where is Project: Chaos and Project: Shadow? Where is the 'good doctor' keeping them?"
Well, crap. His panic raises.
Silence follows and the Lazer flicks on, hovering just centimetres from the wiring to his legs. He felt himself whimper involuntarily. "I don't know, okay! He doesn't tell us anything, I promise!"
The heated tip ghosted over one of his cables, severing one of the many tubes that acted as nerve receptors. He hisses, unable to hold back the pain. He couldn't let this mad man the satisfaction. "Wrong answer. You look EXACTLY like him, Robotnick probably created you to take his place! Now, I will give you one more chance before I server the limb and use it as a pitching wedge at my next golf tournament. Where are they?"
If he had lungs, he would be close to hyperventilating. His best asset was his speed, that counted as a lethal weapon most days, as he refused to take up arms against a living creature. No matter how much justification, threats or bribery tactics others tried to throw at him, he just couldn't consciously harm another unless it was in self-defence.
That's why Eggman made Metal Shadow leave, who had no qualms in punishing those who stood in their way. He wondered if that just made him the rational one, or the coward. There were many situations where it would have been easy to fight back, but he refused to, leading to injuries on both sides.
There had been many occasions where his opponent had been harmed more than was necessary when he ended up in a state of repair. Shadow was merciless to those who managed to hurt him, and even time hadn't taken this away. Sometimes it scared him, other times, it made him feel safe and protected
Right now... He was growing angry
This man... this MONSTER had imprisoned his and Shadow's origin, used them. Manipulated them for all those years.
It was the first time he wanted to hurt someone... and he hated it. Anger was something he avoided at all coast, always finding the lighter side of circumstances if only to save both sides from the conflict it caused. Anger was pointless without someone to defend.
To protect.
And the base programming of all bots designed by the doctor to protect one family in particular; the Robotnicks... or, what was left of them.
And this man had done everything short of killing the last remaining members. Torture, experiments, imprisoned, threatened, starved, maimed.
The list went on.
No more.
It had to end.
He didn't think his consciousness could handle someone walking away free after all that.
With an inhuman screech, the energy built up inside him and burst outwards, rippling in controlled shockwaves as the men were blasting backwards. Soldiers and robot parts went flying as a golden light enveloped him.
Metal Shadow skidded to a halt, head snapping in the way that the explosion of energy came from. Similar to a Chaos Blast, the energy exploded outward, but unlike its signature move, it only capacitated those within the area, not out to kill. The skill was unique to Metal Sonic, a signature move that sent a shock to the system of its target, causing temporal paralysis to their limbs.
It was a useful attack, although it did not last for very long.
It was an escape plan at best. A diversion tactic at worst.
Something to stun his opponents until helped arrived or he slinked away.
And, the fact that the epicentre isn't moving spoke volumes about his state.
'For f*ck sake,' he thought with a roll of his eyes before he sped away, following the pull of the source of the blast. 'Leave it up to Metal to mess their plan up.'
Before he could make it, however, his communicator burst to life as the doctors voice filtered through. "Shadow, report," he starts, annoyance lacing his voice. "Sonics signal has gone offline."
He swore under his breath, mind going through multiple excuses and plausible reasons as to what may have caused it. As a condition of allowing them to leave the base, they had to travel as a unit due to Metal Sonic's 'hero complex'. And every time one of them disobeys, Shadow faced the punishment. It was unfair as it is mostly his companion's fault, but the doctor had always played favourites.
Regardless of what Metal Sonic had gotten into, he is fucked. The doctor would know eventually unless he lied.
It was a gamble, but it sometimes worked if he was distracted enough. Hopefully, the situation with G.U.N provided an admirable distraction. Save himself some time to bring Sonic back before they both get in trouble.
The doctor could get very... creative when angry.
Instead, he sends imagines of the patchwork bots, hoping to provide a distraction.
The rage and cursing that followed proved it worked a little too well.
He grinned and began his search, going to the general area that he had last heard from Metal Sonic, hoping to find him before the worst happens.
To say the android was pissed was an understatement. He was livid at himself for leaving the morally debilitating hedgehog to handle things on his own. His companion always had this tendency to do things the hard way, trying to find a third option in a choice of life or death situations. To find a backdoor, another path that is considered 'righteous' and it always coast him.
Eggman tried and failed, to make him see sense, but it was in his nature to see the good in people. It was an almost pathological need to do good and help people that drove Metal Shadow up the damn wall.
Leaving their opponents alive was almost a mistake. A kind of mercy that should never be granted to anyone, especially ones who were desperate enough to come back and finish the job.
Commander Towers was a paranoid man who would lose everything should the arc incident ever get out. He would be dishorned and fired from his job if it the higher-ups ever find out of his failer to contain two known weapons on the general public. If they ever know that, he not only failed more than once to recapture them but put his innocent men's lives on the line to subdue or kill the ghost who just kept coming back to save his own skin.
His actions were scandalous and cause the media attention he couldn't afford to have.
He was a man with many mistakes. Many regrets. But he was now too deep within the lies, too deep within the secretes and the mysteries and the cover-ups that he had no choice.
He thought he was doing the right thing all those years ago, and he couldn't change his mind. Could never look back. No amount of reminiscing and second-guessing never brought anyone back from the dead, so why should he start now?
Unfortunately, the choice left him with an axe to grind.
The seemingly immortal man. The one who served no matter what was thrown at him, no matter how many times they tried to kill him would haunt his fear, pop up in his nightmares until he was a sobbing mess on the bathroom floor at 3 am, avoiding the mirror.
Who would even look into the face of a killer?
No, he couldn't turn back. His only choice was to march on, taking responsibility and finally right the wrongs as best as he could.
He was doing well, until he showed up again, fury burning bright since the day he left.
His axe had dulled but was still ready for battle. His fiery death nothing more than a party trick. A true illusionist amongst normality.
He demanded how and what was rightfully his, all diplomatic and reasoning as if he mellowed by his time away. The moment he denayed the request, the man got ugly. He outright declared war against G.U.N, cursing its name to the moon and back and promising their demise. He was ruthless, picking off agents. One. At. A Time. It started off slow, at first, before Towers cracked under the pressure.
He instructed his team to send an agent to gather intel and directly regretted it. His PR team faced his wrath and a half was fired on the spot.
They didn't know, how could they? But it was just another mistake to add to his growing list of failures that lead to the decision that could his legacy to crash and burn
It started with the scientist; just a few agents who questioned his leadership skills a bit too much. They started to see his obsession with the 'Ovi Kintobor' case and the way he threw wave after wave of soldiers at the problem until the dwindling numbers forced them to retreat.
Certainly, they got a few robots in return, fashioned into security 'bots to increase security around Station Square as he tried to plan his next move. It was hard, filtering between plans of what to do with the badger girl, how to get both Projects back and how to silence the doctor once and for all or imprison him effectively enough until they could have a long 'talk'.
The goals were ambitions, but he always prided himself to adapt to the new situation. To twist them to his favour, so he told the public that a serial killer was on the loose in the area and they bought it. Fewer innocent casualties and even fewer places to hide. It was a win-win situation.
Just like before, fear was a great motivator, resulting in barely anyone roaming the streets past seven o'clock and the homeless seemed to banned together to find places to hide from the main parts of town. It was almost too perfect. He would ensure that if anyone was sneaking around the city for supplies, they would be caught and captured for questioning. There was little place to hide from the high tech trackers installed on the patchwork bots.
He could almost thank the doctor for designing them in a way that GUN scientist could easily repair and equip them with a little extra.
It was all going to plan- a little too well- until a bunch of signals went offline. It was like someone had to a switch to each of their cameras feeds and was rapidly turning them off one by one.
Unable to access the footage, he took it as an open invitation to investigate the mysterious occurrences himself, taking a squad into town to find the culprit.
Seeing Project: Chaos not only making quips but also running around was shocking, to say the least. He remembered himself thinking how the hedgehog on the verge of death was able to bounce back in the little of just over 24 hours. He hadn't even talked before, now he had a sense of humour?
It just had to be another one of his twisted creations to psych him out.
Getting close enough to the target revealed his worst fear; a robot resembling the blue hedgehog, right down to the green eyes, it's peach arms and the fur! It scarily looked like skin slapped onto an exco-skeleton, combining both mechanical and biological elements. That said, bits and pieces stuck out, mostly on the arms and legs, mostly the joints. You could see wires connecting the pieces together as if it was the only way to keep them together.
He struck the fake, hard, making it fly back into a brick wall of the library. The thing recovered, getting up, only to trip. The display would have been comical if he wasn't so pissed.
Didn't Robotnick realise their mistakes the first time! Why create more? For his own amusement, perhaps? For revenge? To prove a point?
All of them were plausible.
Abraham entertained the thought that he created more just so he could watch the world burn.
The doctor was driven mad by his families death and where-ever that accident sent him too. It could be the fact that his humanity was simply withered away, leaving an insane mad man who wanted to watch the world suffer as he did all those years ago. Despite his rejection of the idea, he can kind of relate.
His actions had been shaped by the arc incident, every move made was related to ending the sealing the whole thing away as a bad memory and youthful naivety.
He realises, now, that it life wasn't that simple. History always had a way to resurface; to pick up where it left off.
These events were inevitable, and he finds himself doing last time. Continuing this pointless feud spread across his lifetime.
The 'integration' doesn't go as planned and he's left paralysed on the cold floor, unable to move as he watches the light die from the figure who blasted his men away and probably impacted them too.
It isn't like anything like the E.M.P, but its similar enough to bring back bad memories of broken ribs and ringing ears.
At least it wasn't Project Shadow's Chaos Blast. He had heard many horror stories following those, and after what happened to the previous Commanders, he figures himself lucky.
He watches as the robot collapses, one leg served from his body.
A surge of pride wells up within him as he remembered to drop the blade in a way that it served his wiring all in one go.
The best thing? The little sucker didn't even notice. Didn't even feel it go snap because he had served the nerve endings.
It's now hobbling around, losing its balance as it crashes to the floor, the metallic thump e going in the empty street. Its eyes are wide, gathering up the missing limb and cradling it to its chest.
The thing glances around, a look of something unreadable on his face before it morphs into utter disappointment with a hint of shame.
A gasp tears their attention away from the injured creature, and he curses the fact that he couldn't turn his neck to see who the intruder is. Luckily, it moves and he gets a brown coat and a blue dress flew pass him to kneel down.
He watches the exchange with as much intensity as possible, but his vision is blurry and ears don't seem to be working.
Instead, he hears static.
Knuckles is not freaking out. Nope. He is cool and collected just like always, and this situation wasn't any different...
Ah, screw it.
Okay, maybe he was freaking out. Just a little on the inside.
Finding the second blue hedgehog, surrounded by G.U.N soldiers with a missing leg could definitely do that to you. Without little thought, he dumped the original in the doorway, promising he would come back for him soon before running out there, kneeling next to Blue's lookalike.
From there, he noticed the wires poking out the stump of his leg, seeing the exoskeleton mostly hidden under the fur and skin. An aroid, then? Wouldn't be the first time. But why copy Blue.
The smaller one looked perfect, curling up into a ball and shivering uncontrollably. Mutters of 'Metal' and 'Shads' was streaming out of his vocal modulator, his hands clutching at his quills as they changed to the words 'I didn't mean to' and 'I'm sorry'.
Knuckles stared at the figure, eyes narrowing in sympathy before he moved forward, hands going out to help him stand.
As his hands touched the android, however, it sprang up, almost butting foreheads with Knuckles before hopping back, expression terrified. The two stared at each other, one concerned, the other, wary before the silence became too much. Knuckle As cleared his throat and spoke, trying to sound non-threatening as possible.
"Hey, its okay," he started, hands out in a placating gesture, finding it the best approach, for now. The poor bot was scared and injured and that can make them deadly with the wrong move. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know what happened and if I can help you before these human's start getting trigger happy again. Are you apart of G.U.N? Can you speak freely?"
He knows he's probably asking too many questions, and that they are probably pressed for time, but he had to take it slow if he didn't want the other to run away. If this robot had gone through a fraction of the torture and abuse Blue had seemingly gone through, no wondering it was acting like this.
The spark in those eyes. That tell-tale fear cammed into his small frame was signs if held some sentient. Fabricated or not, the emotions the android felt were real enough to affect him, and that fact shouldn't be taken lightly.
Suddenly, recognition sparked behind his optics and his mouth fell open slightly.
"You... you're Tails' friend, aren't you? The one who saved my origin?" A grin broke out on his face and he hobbled over, slowly, careful not to fall in the process. He beamed as Knuckles brain short curated. Did he know Tails? He knew him, too! But how?
"You are!" He almost yelled with childish excitement. "It's always nice to meet a new friend! I don't have many, so its always an honour to get to know someone. I hope we can be the best of friends?" A hand was thrust out, the claw that served as a hand glinting under the moonlight.
Without thought, he took it, mind still catching up with the situation. Many thoughts whirled around his head, trying to grasp his attention. Who was this? What did he want? How did he know them? Who was this origin?
The list goes on.
Instead, he found himself settling on the first question. The one question that matters. "What, and who, are you?"
The grin spread wider as he held up a thumb in a friendly gesture. "I'm Sonic The Hedgehog, aka, Mental Sonic, and we should get the heck out of here before they wake up." He pointed behind him to the bodies that littered the floor.
He felt himself nodded, mind finally registering the twitching limbs of the soldiers on the floor before scooping the smaller upon reflex and fleeing the scene.
A few minutes later, a black and red-striped hedgehog entered the scene as the agents started to collect themselves and climb to their feet.
He smirked as a hoard of weapons was trained on him.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
TBC:
: For those waiting for the next instalment on Edge of Insanity, please be patient. It is currently under edit and I am giving time together my thoughts to determine which direction I want to take. That said, if you have any ideas or need help coming up with ideas of your own, drop me a message under the same account name on here: Anmalous123, and I will invite you onto the server. :