Chapter 6: The Hard Way

"Well, this looks like a jolly fun place," Rouge said sarcastically as Metal landed them all in a valley basin, by an old concrete bunker covered with graffiti.

"Is Eggman in there?" Amy asked Metal.

Metal, who was still holding Amy in his arms, simply drifted over to an open hatchway and began lowering into it.

"Wait for me!" Rouge called, hurrying down the steps after them.

Once they had reached the floor below, Metal's eyes glowed so brightly, Amy could no longer look directly at them: but the red light they emitted illuminated the dark corridors within. Rouge joined them and Metal moved on. He kept hold of Amy, but she didn't object: the bunker reeked of death and there was a strange, muffled sound coming from somewhere below them that almost sounded like a voice speaking over a microphone.

"Hmm, disappointing, I was hoping I could find some treasures here," Rouge commented as they moved through the hallway.

"I doubt the mad scientist collected precious jewels, Rouge," Amy replied.

"Not jewels," Rouge corrected her. "I meant his research. It was controversial, but there are collectors and scientists and government agents alike who would pay top dollar for even a whiff of what this crackpot was working on."

"I think we're all catching a whiff of what he was working on," Amy said dryly.

"At least we seem to be moving away from the worst of it."

They rounded a corner and Metal placed Amy down on her feet before grabbing what appeared to be a raised section of the concrete wall. With great effort, he slid it aside, revealing a rickety service elevator.

"Oh, I am not getting in there!" Rouge immediately said.

"Well, I can't fly, so I am," Amy replied, stepping into it after Metal.

"Ugh," Rouge groaned, before following them in.

"If this takes us to Sonic, it doesn't matter," Amy told her as the elevator lowered them to the floor below.

When the elevator stopped, Amy boldly marched on, down a short corridor – that was at least fully-lit – until she reached a dead-end and a closed door. She threw the door open and marched into the room beyond, but quickly lost all her momentum, stumbling to a halt, at what lay within. Rouge stopped behind her, gasping and gripping her shoulders.

"Is this Eggman?" Amy asked. "What is he doing to those poor kids?"

Amy moved a few steps forward, touching a hand to one of the two glass cylinders in the room. Each one contained a pre-teenage child, suspended in a green liquid with a mask over their mouths and noses and a series of tubes connected to them. Rouge appeared at her side, touching the other cylinder.

"That's Eggman's logo at the top," the bat commented, casting her eyes up the familiar logo emblazoned on the metal lid of the cylinders.

"We have to set them free!" Amy said, turning to Rouge.

"Honey, in theory, I agree with you," Rouge said gently. "But we don't know why they're in here. This place gives me the creeps, and I'm not just one hundred percent sure these kids are actually, you know, kids."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

Before Rouge could answer her, the lights around them flickered.

"What was that?" Amy asked, looking about herself.

When a stone-chip and a line of dust dropped from the ceiling, Rouge gave her a hard look.

"Let's keep moving," she said. "We'll circle back this way once we find the others."

"Right," Amy agreed. "Which way, Metal?"

Metal had stopped, which, only in that moment, did Amy realise was odd. He was standing at a small desk, one hand resting on the back of the bulky leather swivel chair before it. Again she found herself wondering if he missed Eggman – because, if the clues around them were indication, Eggman had been using that very room as his personal office lately – and she started towards him. She touched a hand to his arm at the back of the chair and he turned to her, his face as unreadable as ever.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

Behind her, she heard a click and the sound of a heavy door dragging open over the floor, the opening letting into the room the sound of frantic voices.

"Tails, do something!" Sonic's voice cried.

Amy spun around as a voice announced "five", looking in time to see Rouge darting through the open doorway. She raced after her friend, with Metal following her, the pair of them moving into the next room as the voice announced "four". Eggman was standing to one side of them, and Orbot and Cubot were directly in front of them. Shadow, Tails and Knuckles were at the opposite end of the room and Sonic was standing in the centre of the room, under some glaringly bright lights.

"Three."

"What the hell is this, Eggman?" Rouge demanded, approaching Eggman.

"Two."

"Tails, buddy, do something!" Sonic pleaded. "Anything!"

"One."

"This is my final victory over that bothersome blue rodent," Eggman said to Rouge with a grin.

Amy started forwards, intent on running over to Sonic, who looked and sounded desperate: but she barely made it one step forwards before a force akin to a strong earthquake shook the entire structure and she fell facedown to the ground. The ground shook and rumbled, and the lights flickered violently, stone chips and dust popping out of the ceiling in a way that was terrifying when Amy considered that they currently under two other floors of concrete bunker. But through it all, she could hear Sonic screaming and the sound motivated her. She grabbed at Eggman, who had fallen down, and, as the largest body among them, was the highest point around her. Gripping her hands into his clothes, she hauled herself up to her feet, pulling herself along to the podium and leaning into it to keep herself upright.

The rumbling eased and the lights stabilised, and Amy was the only one on her feet. In the centre of the room, the brilliant lights dimmed and the sound of a loud hum dying away filled the air.

"Sequence complete," the voice announced above Amy's head.

Amy squinted through the clouds of dust in the room: she could barely see Eggman, Rouge and Orbot and Cubot beside her, let alone anything else. The first thing that did come into focus as the dust began to clear was Metal, walking onto the colourful tiled floor. As he moved, the dust dissipated around him.

"Wh-where's Sonic?" Amy asked.

The dust had cleared enough that she could see the other side of the room, see Shadow, Tails and Knuckles again. In the centre of the room, Metal was standing where Sonic had been, but there was no sign of Sonic.

"How perfect," Eggman said.

Amy turned to him for an explanation, but before either of them could say anything more, Shadow zapped into sight in the air, sinking a fist into Eggman's face, the force of the blow throwing him against the back wall.

"Shadow, stop!" Tails yelled, his voice cracking into a near scream of desperation.

Amy turned to him for an explanation as Rouge leapt forwards and grabbed her arms around Shadow's arms from behind, holding him back.

"We all feel the same way, Shadow, but Eggman might be the only one who can undo this!" she said.

"You better undo this!" Knuckles called over from the other side of the room.

"Prower, you can fix this, right?" Shadow snarled, glaring across the room at Tails.

Tails's mouth moved as though he was trying to talk, but his eyes were locked onto the centre of the room. Amy shifted her attention there as Metal snatched a hand suddenly through the air. He then turned to face Eggman, and, for a long, awful moment, Amy couldn't explain to herself what it was that she seeing in his hand.

"You can change him back Prower," Shadow said. "You saw those diagrams!"

"Oh, you found cooky Crick's little art room, did you?" Eggman said from his position sitting against the wall.

"I'm gonna murder you!" Shadow snarled at him.

"Shadow, I don't know how this things works!" Tails called out. "I can't risk it! I could make it worse! You saw those... Mutants we found. I-I don't wanna make it any worse – it sounded painful enough when Sonic was turned into... Well, that."

Amy turned wide eyes back to Metal, her entire being stilling as she looked at the small, fragile blue creature thrashing around in the grip of Metal's hand.

"Th-that's Sonic?" she asked faintly, pointing towards Metal.

Eggman got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"You can't say I wasn't fair," he said. "I let him keep his favourite colour."

The little blue flicky in Metal's hand began squawking indignantly, wriggling to the point that it almost strangled itself against Metal's thumb.

"No," Amy said, shaking her head. "No, that is not Sonic!"

"I'm afraid it is, Amy," Tails called over. "This machine... It can turn alter the form of any organic structure."

Amy turned to Shadow.

"This thing turns one creature into another," he told her. "And you are going to change him back, or I will kill you!" he said to Eggman.

"Shadow, if you harm Eggman, he won't help us," Rouge warned him, maintaining her hold of him.

"Eggman, if you're not gonna help us change Sonic back, can you at least ask Metal to stop crushing him?" Tails called over.

Eggman stood up.

"Release him, Metal," he said.

Metal instantly obeyed, opening out his hand. The flicky flew out of his hand and across the room, where it began pecking at Knuckles's head.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" Knuckles protested as he tried to protect his head with his arms.

"There's no point in killing Sonic," Eggman told Metal. "This fate is more suitable, don't you think? He can't run his smart mouth any more, he'll only live another two or three years – if he's lucky – he's slow, he's weak, and he's utterly useless. I couldn't have dreamt up a better torture for him than this."

"You bastard," Amy ground out, before leaping at Eggman.

"Amy!" Rouge cried, releasing Shadow and grabbing Amy.

"I'm gonna kill him!" Amy cried, grabbing Eggman's shirt with one hand to hold herself in place as Rouge tried to pull her away, swinging her other fist repeatedly into his shoulder.

"She's got the right idea, why are you stopping her?" Shadow asked Rouge.

"Because we're going to need Eggman to fix this!" Rouge harshly replied.

"He already said he won't do anything!" Shadow argued.

"You guys, wait!" Tails called over. "Knuckles just told me he was the one who trapped Sonic in the machine in the first place!"

Amy released Eggman and turned her head, glaring across the room at Knuckles.

"It wasn't like that, it was an accident!" Knuckles wailed.

"But this is good!" Tails said. "This means Knuckles knows how to activate the machine! If he shows me what he did, I might be able to reverse it. He said when it trapped Sonic, it said something about storing data on him – that means the code to create Sonic's biological form exists in this machine's database, we just have to call it up and use it on Sonic!"

Amy relaxed a little and Rouge finally released her.

"You better not screw this up, Prower!" Shadow shouted, pointing a finger across the room at Tails.

"I'm sure Sonic is touched that you care so much, Shadow," Tails nervously replied.

"I don't care, I just refuse to continue when my last defeat was at the hands of a damn flicky!" Shadow shot back.

"O-okay," Tails said, nodding his head. "So, uh, Knuckles? What did you do first?"

"I pressed the red button first, but I don't think it did anything," Knuckles said.

Eggman chuckled and Amy growled at him.

"Easy girl," Rouge said to her softly.

"Pfft, she has every right to be outraged," Shadow scoffed. "We're putting our trust in the hands of the biggest idiot here."

"Hey!" Knuckles yelled, shaking a fist at Shadow from across the room.

"Don't mind him, Knuckles, just concentrate," Tails insisted. "It doesn't matter if you don't think anything happened at first, just press all the same buttons that you did before! And Sonic? If you could go back out there."

Flicky Sonic hovered in the air above Knuckles's head, but made no attempt to obey Tails's request.

"Can he not understand us any more?" Amy asked.

"I think he can understand us," Tails called back. "I think it's more that he wants to know this is definitely gonna work before he risks turning into something even smaller. R-right, Sonic?"

Sonic landed on the top edge of the podium and Tails nodded.

"Okay, go ahead, Knuckles," he said.

Knuckles began pressing buttons on the podium and Amy was forced to look away as the spotlights snapped back on overhead, their initial glare painful to behold until her eyes adjusted. As she blinked away the brightness, she could hear Knuckles and Tails still talking, but only the sound of their voices, their actual words were being drowned out by another, louder, closer sound. Amy blinked against the glare of the lights, her eyes focusing onto Metal, who was still standing in the middle of the tiled floor. He was standing very still, but he was whistling and whining and buzzing frantically.

"Hn, it only seems fair that we turn Metal Sonic into a pathetic little bird too," Shadow said, glaring over at Eggman.

Metal began warbling louder still, clearly in a panic that exactly what Shadow had just said would unfold.

"Source trace completed: species code unknown," a female voice announced overhead.

"There's no need to panic, Metal," Eggman calmly assured his favourite creation. "This machine can only operate on organic life. You are mineral and therefore immune to its effects."

"Target locked, please confirm new genetic structure."

Amy looked at Eggman.

"Are you sure?" she asked him. "Because it sounds like it's working! Maybe if you fix Sonic, nothing bad has to happen to Metal!"

"Transmogrification sequence engaged," a female voice announced overhead.

Metal let out a long, scratchy, shriek.

"I don't expect a little rat like you to understand something as complex as this machine," Eggman said, turning to face Amy. "But surely your tiny hedgehog brain can at least understand the difference between something that is organic and something that is mineral."

"New genetic structure confirmed and accepted," the voice announced. "Transmogrification sequence initiated."

Amy folded her arms.

"Obviously I understand that Sonic is a living creature and Metal is a robot!" she snapped. "But are you sure you understand this machine?"

"It sounds like it might be working on your boy, Eggman," Rouge added.

"Source code loaded and stored to memory. Metamorphosis in ten seconds and counting."

Eggman's grin faltered.

"Ten."

Eggman turned to look across the room at Metal, held in place in the centre of the floor.

"Nine."

"Well, 2% of your brain is organic, Metal," Eggman said, drawing out another crackling cry from the robot.

"Eight."

"Therefore it is possible the machine could transmogrify your physical condition."

"Seven."

"But it's only 2%!"

"Six."

"It's highly improbable."

"Five."

"But not impossible," Amy said, narrowing her eyes at Eggman.

"Four."

"2% is highly improbable," Eggman repeated.

"Three."

"But not impossible!" Amy repeated.

"Two."

"Not too late to shut it down and fix this, Eggman," Rouge tried.

"One."

Amy started to shout at Eggman to stop the machine, but she was once more taken off her feet as another almighty rumbling shook the entire bunker, the lights flickering just as they had before. And, just as Sonic had, Metal screamed – or rather, he made a high-pitched whining sound that seemed like a scream – through it all. More stone stone chips and dust rained down from the ceiling, and when the rumbling stopped and the bright lights shut off, Rouge was the first to speak, saying something Amy was already also thinking.

"How many of these "transmogrifications" can this bunker handle before it collapses entirely?"

As the dust started to settle, Amy accepted Rouge's hand, allowing her to pull her to her feet. Shadow was alright upright – Amy actually wondered if he had ever even fallen down – and he was smiling.

"That can't be a good sight," he said to Eggman. "Now are you going to fix this, or do we have beat it out of you?"

Eggman had a hand behind his back, and only when he whipped it out did Amy realise she should have suspected him of plotting something. He pulled out a laser gun, and although Shadow was fast enough to stop him, he hesitated – perhaps because Eggman didn't aim it at anyone, rather he pointed it out to his side – and he was able to fire the weapon. The blast hit a box low on the wall, that exploded in a brilliant display of blue sparks. At the other end of the room, Knuckles yelped and leapt back from the podium, clutching one smoking gloved hand.

"What did you just do, Eggman?" Tails yelled across the room.

Eggman smiled and swapped the gun to his opposite hand, holding it out to his side again. Amy looked in that direction and saw another box on the wall – but this time Shadow reacted, pouncing at Eggman and kicking the gun out of his hand.

"He's trying to destroy the machine so we can't fix Sonic!" Shadow called across the room. "Prower, you know how to build this thing, right?"

"Um, no?" Tails responded.

"You son of a bitch, you better get back through there and get those plans!" Shadow roared.

Tails nodded and turned around, starting for the doorway and staircase beyond it: but he stopped short when another burst of blue sparks erupted from the machine.

"Ah ha, Metal, my boy!" Eggman said with a smug smirk. "Destroy it. Destroy it all!"

Amy turned her head to see where Metal was – and indeed what he was – but all she could see was the sparking and rising flames as the machine caught alight.

"We have to get out of here, right now!" Rouge said, grabbing Amy's arm.

"Tails, Knuckles!" Amy called across the room.

"We'll get out this way, you go!" Tails called back.

"Make sure you protect Sonic!" Amy shouted back.

"On it!" Knuckles said, before grabbing Sonic in both his hands.

"He's not gonna like that..." Rouge muttered. "Come on sweetie, a fire down here is a bad thing."

Amy dug her heels in and held fast until Tails and Knuckles were out of sight before acquiescing and allowing Rouge to pull her back through the bunker. The first place they passed was the room with the two children in cylinders of liquid, and both Amy and Rouge stopped in front of them.

"Do you like that?" Eggman asked as he joined them. "I created them using the machine. One was a plucky and the other was a rocky."

Rouge gave him a hard look.

"I hope you mean that," she said, before running on and dragging Amy with her.

They ran back past the service elevator shaft, at which point Rouge nodded at Shadow, who had caught up to them. Amy watched on as Shadow and Rouge smashed out the ramshackle wooden elevator, and didn't object when Rouge then grabbed her hand and flew up the emptied lift shaft. At the top, all three of them raced along the corridors, the darkness no longer being such an issue, as parts of the roof had cracked, letting in daylight. When they reached the exit, part of the wall around the stairway had collapsed, widening the opening. As she had done at the elevator shaft, Rouge grabbed one of Amy's hands and one of Shadow's hands and flew them all outside. They were the first to clear the chaos, and Amy instinctively started to go back inside, only stopping when Shadow stuck an arm out to block her path. She made to argue with him, but lost her ire when a flicky shot up out of the hatch, followed by Tails and then Knuckles.

"Oh, Sonic!" Amy wailed.

She grabbed at him, but he flew up out of her reach, hovering around a bit before landing on Tails's shoulder.

"This is awful!" she said. "Tails, you do know how to fix this, right?"

"We found a room in there with plans for how the machine worked," Shadow said. "But this idiot didn't take a copy."

"Hey!" Tails cried defensively. "I didn't think I would need it!"

"You took plenty of other useless crap out of that shit-hole!" Shadow shouted.

"Hey, back off, Shadow!" Knuckles interjected. "Tails is a genius. And he has an identical memory – he can remember what he saw and build another machine. Right, Tails?"

"It's eidetic memory," Tails said quietly. "A-and I didn't really pay attention. The things on those walls were ridiculous! The power supplies he was talking about, the formulae..."

"You said the circuit diagrams were sound," Shadow reminded him.

He nodded frantically.

"Y-y-yeah, they totally were!" he said. "B-but I-I don't r-remember them now!"

"Don't crowd him!" Amy said, stepping between Tails and Shadow. "If you stress him out, he'll have a harder time figuring it out!"

"Of course all of this would be a lost easier if this selfish asshole would just hand over what we need to rebuild that machine," Rouge said coldly, glaring at Eggman as he emerged from the hatch, followed immediately by Orbot and Cubot.

"This selfish prick isn't helping anyone," Knuckles said, glaring at Eggman. "He didn't even bother waiting for Metal! He left him in there!"

A horrible wrenching sound leaked out of the open hatch and everyone fled from it, running out of the valley and partway up the hillside. The bunker imploded in on itself, black smoke and flames erupting out of the wreckage. In the confusion and desperation to escape, everyone had scattered, and Amy found herself with Tails and Sonic on what must have been the east side of the valley, as they were facing the setting sun. Knuckles and Rouge were on the south side, Shadow was on the north side and Eggman was in his eggmobile with Orbot and Cubot on the west side.

"What happened to Metal?" Amy asked, turning to Tails.

"You didn't see?" Tails asked. "The machine turned him into a Mobian!"

Amy's eyebrows shot up.

"The machine said something about a stored DNA code," Tails continued. "I think it just recalled the last code it stored – which was obviously Sonic's – and it turned Metal into an organic hedgehog."

"And he's stuck down there?" Amy asked, pointing at the mess of burning rubble in the centre of the valley basin.

"I guess so," Tails said with a shrug. "But he caused all of this. He destroyed that machine."

Sonic flew up from Tails's shoulder and hovered in the air in front of the fox's face, twittering at him.

"I don't understand you, Sonic, I'm sorry!" Tails said to him.

Sonic turned around and swooped down into the valley.

"Sonic!" Amy wailed, tearing after him.

"Oh, gees, Amy!" Tails moaned, before starting after her.

Amy had her eyes on Sonic as she ran, so much so, she wasn't looking where she was putting her feet, and, as she reached the valley basin, she tripped over a chunk of rubble. Shadow appeared at her side and helped her back onto her feet before grabbing a hand around Tails's arm as he made to run past them.

"Where do you think you're going, boy?" Shadow asked him.

"To get Metal Sonic," Tails replied.

"Why?" Shadow asked.

"It's what Sonic would do," Tails replied, pointing at the flicky circling around them. "Sonic always says that everyone deserves a second chance. He tried to give Metal a second chance before, and he always said he was open to Metal turning good. Now, the way he is, the way Eggman just abandoned him and left him for dead, maybe he'll actually consider it."

"Sonic is an idiot and you are naïve."

"Yeah, well, I'm going to get him out. Help me or don't, I don't care."

Tails yanked his arm out of Shadow's hold and jogged over to the remains of the bunker. Amy started to follow him as he began hauling up pieces of debris and shoving them aside. He stopped after moving two, looking at something in his hand.

"What is that?" Amy asked as she joined him.

"Eggman rigged the place with semtex," Tails replied. "Blowing this place up was always his plan."

"Correction: blowing this place up was my plan B, Tails," Eggman said as he swooped around over their heads in his eggmobile. "Plan A was turning all of you pests into something harmless. Too bad I didn't get all of you, but I got Sonic, and that's the most important thing."

Tails picked up a large chunk of concrete and attempted to fling it into the air at Eggman: but the rock was simply too heavy, so heavy, he could barely lift it, and so it only raised up to the height of his head before crashing back down to the ground. Eggman laughed at his attempt and Tails growled, clenching his fists.

"Well, my work is done," Eggman recovered. "So long, losers."

He started to move away, but he slowed to a halt as something began to move in the rubble. He drew back a little and peered down as, covered in dust, a figure began to emerge from the wreckage. Tails started forwards and Amy followed him, but both stopped when the blue hedgehog stood out of the rubble and shook himself off, spraying dust and stone chips all around him. He blinked a few times before focusing red eyes onto them. For a moment, Amy thought that Metal – in his new form – was actually going to join them. He looked innocent and vulnerable; though, Amy reasoned to herself, that was probably because of the confused look on his face and the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes. Weirdly, he looked less like Sonic as a Mobian hedgehog than he had as a robot: although his body was the same shade of blue as Sonic, little else about him was the same. His eyes were red, his arms were blue, the inside of his ears, the lower half of his face, his chest and the palms of his hands and soles of his feet were all grey. His eyes were sharper and slightly more triangular than Sonic's, and, just as his robotic body had been, he was taller than Sonic.

After staring at Tails and Amy with that oddly innocent look on his face, he turned around, looking up at Eggman. Eggman looked at him blankly for a moment before turning around and starting to move away.

"Dad, wait!"

Amy flinched at the sound of Metal's voice: of all the things she had expected him to say first, the very last thing she had expected to hear him do was call Eggman "dad". Eggman did stop and turn around, but he didn't look particularly pleased about it.

"I can't fly in this body!" Metal continued. "You have to let me ride in the eggmobile with you!"

"No," Eggman plainly replied.

Metal hesitated to answer, clearly taken aback by the response.

"But dad, I don't know how to run!" he eventually recovered.

"It's the same as walking, only you move your legs faster," Eggman flatly replied.

"Without my homing beacon, I don't know the way home from here!" Metal added.

"I can't help you with that," Eggman coldly responded. "Because I don't know where home is for you, hedgehog."

Metal reached out a hand, clawed fingers curling in the air.

"Dad, you're not going to leave me here, are you?" he asked.

"I only keep company with robots, you know that," Eggman replied. "I don't fraternise with Mobians. It always ends up blowing up in my face. You know that too."

"But dad, I'm not a Mobian, I'm your robot!"

"First of all, I'm not your father, and secondly, you are not a robot. Not any more."

Metal's out-stretched hand lowered to his side.

"You took those useless rust buckets with you when you came here, but you left me behind!" he said, sounding suddenly angry. "And now you're not even going to take me home with you?"

"Orbot and Cubot are useful servants," Eggman replied.

"Sir, maybe we should take Metal Sonic with us," Orbot said at Eggman's side.

"Or maybe I should leave you here with him," Eggman growled at him.

"I've always been loyal to you!" Metal shouted.

"That's not true."

"Everything I've done, I've done for you! I have always served your name, your empire, I have always fought for you and with you. You can't leave me here with these filthy rats!"

"Hey..." Tails muttered under his breath.

"Boy, you are one of those filthy rats now," Eggman told Metal.

"But you're going to rebuild the transmogrifier and change me back, right?" Metal pressed.

"Why would I do that?" Eggman asked. "You know if I do that, these rats will come sniffing around and try to use it to change Sonic back. I'm not taking that chance."

"So I'm just stuck like this now? This is worse than being terminated and put to scrap!"

"So Eggman, you do know how to rebuild the transmogrifier?" Tails called over to Eggman.

Eggman looked over at him for a long moment before speaking.

"I've said enough," he grumbled, before turning around and speeding off.

"Dad, wait!"

Metal started to run after him, but negotiating broken concrete and smouldering wood in bare feet was no easy task, and he stumbled several times, hopping and growling every time he stood on something sharp or hot. He kept going, all the way to the other side of the valley and even partway up the hillside before slowing to a halt. He called out "dad" one last time, his voice carrying around the entire valley.

"Well that was messed up," Rouge said as she joined Amy. "Come on, we should start going home. We've got a long way to go, and no fast way to get there."

"What about Metal?" Tails asked.

"What about him?" Shadow asked. "We're finished here."

"But Shadow, what if–"

Tails stopped abruptly as Shadow vanished. He sighed and shook his head.

"I know sweetie," Rouge said to him, rubbing his back. "But you can't say you're disappointed that he did that, because it's hardly surprising."

"I'm surprised he stuck around as long as he did," Knuckles added.

"Are you coming, Sonic?" Tails asked, looking up in the air.

Amy looked up and noticed that Sonic was circling around in the air. He came to a hover above Tails's head and turned his head pointedly towards Metal.

"Buddy, he calls Eggman "dad"," Tails said. "I don't think he's gonna want to side with us on this one."

"Heh, you say that like he's ever sided with us on anything," Knuckles scoffed.

"Also, I don't really want to think too much about how messed up it is that he's calling Eggman "dad"," Rouge added.

"Well, in his defence, I've heard Eggman call him son plenty, and refer himself as Metal's dad," Amy said. "Like I've heard Eggman say "go get them, son! Make dad proud!". And I doubt he actually understands what he's saying anyway. All he knows is what Eggman's taught him."

"Amy, you know I think you're a gem, but nobody here is going to take anything you say on the matter seriously," Rouge said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked, looking around the others.

"Amy, Metal's been keeping you prisoner – again – lately," Tails said. "It's basically like you have Stockholm Syndrome."

"He was not keeping me prisoner!" Amy objected.

"Espio said Metal was in your apartment and you were feeding him and cleaning him," Knuckles said.

"Espio snuck into my apartment and he was spying on me!" Amy protested.

"Yeah, when Vector told me your window broke, I asked him to go check on you," Knuckles replied.

Amy froze.

"I-in a caring, concerned, friendly sort of way," Tails quickly cut in. "R-right Knuckles?"

"So not only am I not strong enough to come here and fight with you, you don't even think I'm capable of being left on my own for a week!" Amy challenged.

Tails held up a finger and opened his mouth, but stopped when Sonic landed on his shoulder and pecked at his cheek fur. Knuckles started to step forwards, but Rouge put a hand out to stop him.

"Amy, you know how head-strong these three are," she started. "Once they've made their minds up about something–"

"Where the hell is my bike?"

Rouge stopped abruptly and turned as Shadow reappeared, glaring around them all before fixing his attention onto Rouge.

"You!" he said, pointing a finger at her. "You were supposed to be looking after my apartment while I was gone!"

"Shadow, you never told me you were going anywhere," Rouge calmly replied. "And you never asked me to look after your apartment. And I noticed your bike was gone, but I assumed you took it here."

"I left it parked at the front of the building!" Shadow growled back through tightly clenched teeth. "Are you telling me someone stole it?"

"Aw, dude, that sucks!" Tails said.

"Shut-up, you!" Shadow snapped at him.

"I was just trying to be sympathetic!" Tails wailed.

"Well all you're doing it being pathetic!" Shadow shot back, before vanishing again.

Rouge sighed.

"Well, let's get going, shall we?" she said, waving her hands to encourage the others to move.

They all started off, with Knuckles and Tails running at the front, Sonic still perched on Tails's shoulder, and Rouge and Amy running behind them. As the reached the top of the hill, Amy looked back over her shoulder, but she could no longer see any trace of Metal behind them.

"I kinda feel bad for Metal," Amy told Rouge. "How's he gonna get food or a place to sleep? He doesn't even have a pair of shoes!"

"He's Eggman's problem, not ours," Rouge replied.

"Besides, we've got company, up ahead," Knuckles interrupted them.

Amy peered around him, and, just as he had warned, something was racing towards them. They all skidded to a halt as the approaching figure likewise halted before them.

"My apartment has been robbed!" Shadow shouted at them.

"Really?" Rouge asked. "Who would be dumb enough to steal from you?"

"I don't know, but they took all my guns, all my money, my buffer for polishing my bike and for some reason they stole my jar of loose leaf green tea."

"Did you report it to the police?" Tails asked.

"Why would I do that?" Shadow snapped.

"To find out who did it?" Tails added meekly.

"I'll get Vector on the case," Knuckles said, nodding his head.

Shadow's top lip curled.

"Forget it," he said. "I'll find the bastards myself and kill them all!"

He vanished again and Amy looked around the others.

"He'll be fine," Rouge said. "His bike will probably be back up for auction within a week, I'll get it back for him."

"What about all his other stuff?" Amy asked.

"It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you didn't get Shadow his guns back," Tails muttered.

"But better make sure you get him some "loose leaf green tea"!" Knuckles said, before laughing.

"Come on, let's keep moving," Rouge said, shaking her head.


Next Chapter: The group arrive home the next day, and at her apartment, Amy has uncomfortable confrontations with five people that don't end well for her. The next day, when she learns that all her friends are planning to take action to help Sonic and have left her out of their plans entirely, Amy acts alone, and finds herself taking a risk she never normally would. Chapter 7: Homeless