Chapter 12

Fragile Alliances and Malicious Ambition

The occupants of Amy's house stood with shock on their faces, which quickly turned to anger.

"EGGMAN!?" they all cried in unison.

"Yes its me, now can we please-"

Stomping up to him, Amy cut him off.

"YOU MUST BE EITHER REALLY COCKY OR REALLY STUPID TO COME HERE! ITS YOUR FAULT METAL SONIC IS BACK!"

Jumping slightly at the irate hedgehogs screaming, Eggman spoke in a surprisingly calm manner, unusual for him when he has no robots to defend him.

"Yes, I admit I didn't dispose of Metal Sonic as I said I would, but first off, I can't believe you actually believed I would. And second, I couldn't have foreseen this! I had nothing to do with his return!"

"How is that possible? He's a robot, your robot! He couldn't have simply activated himself!" Knuckles questioned, looking ready to pounce on the fat man at any second, and clearly struggling to hold himself back.

"That's exactly what he did" said Eggman simply.

"...what?" came the once more unified response.

Noticing everyone's faces showing clear signs of disbelief and finally beginning to fear for his own safety, Eggman elaborated.

"The metarex technology I had. I believe is had some manner of fail-safe installed. Keep in mind, this technology consisted of metal scraps, weapons, individual power sources and of course, A.I. chips. There must have been some manner of fail-safe protocol installed on those chips which remotely connect to-"

"ENOUGH OF THE TECHNO BABBLE! JUST SAY WHAT HAPPENED!" Knuckles yelled, not understanding a word.

"I am! The A.I. remotely connects to the nearest mech unit in case its original body is destroyed! It must have connected to Metal Sonic's mainframe due to him being the nearest to it, as he was stored only one room away. Though apparently he didn't know that, which is why he came after me."

"Hold on" Sonic finally stepped in "if the metarex technology connects to whatever robot is near, why hasn't he been taken over by it? Especially after he merged with it?"

"I programmed Metal to have various traits of yours which I determined would allow for self improvement, so after each battle he'd learn and adapt. One of these traits was your willpower. My guess is that since he's no standard mindless badnik, it reactivated him but was unable to usurp his own A.I., and even now can't."

"I've got a question too!" said Amy " Where did you find this? We never faced any metarex that was capable of that!"

"I stole it from one of Black Narcissus' storage rooms. Apparently after the two experimental metarex were destroyed by Dark Sonic, Narcissus was developing a newer model to compensate. However he didn't have time to use them as by the time they were finished, he and Pale Bay Leaf had been called to coordinates 0-0-0 to begin forestation. And I swiped them after I got out of my cell"

"guess that answers all but one question. Why are you here? Knowing you, you'd be trying to go after him yourself only to get your machines wrecked like with Perfect Chaos" Knuckles asked, being sure to take another jab at the madman.

"Are you kidding? I remember what happened last time Metal went rogue, I know better than to think I can stop him myself. Especially now that he has the master emerald and the metarex technology."

The doctor then made a quick scan of the room, his face questioning.

"Where's Tails? I know he's not exactly happy with me now, but he's the only one among you with the brains to be of any help to me"

At this Sonic stepped forward, his face strangely calm.

"He's home, with Cosmo, keeping her safe from Metal since he's after her. And I imagine if I call them over here and he sees you, he'll probably be even more angry with you."

Before Eggman could reply, Sonic stepped up closer so he was almost in his face and began speaking in an eerily calm tone, his expression far more menacing than it had been moments ago.

"And I promise you Robotnik, if anything happens to her or Tails or both, I will make you wish you'd never been born"

The other occupants of the rooms stood wide eyed, listening to the normally laid back hero speak so threateningly.

"They've been through enough, and if they don't deserve to have their second chance ruined because you can't keep your word for once"

Eggman for his part was terrified, his snide comment he had been about to make completely lost in the face of this unusually scary Sonic. Just when he thought Sonic was about to go dark, the blue hedgehog stepped back and seemingly calmed down, Eggman nearly sighing audibly in relief.

"Look, I get it okay? I know it doesn't seem like it but I do, even I can learn from my mistakes. Metal's gone rogue too many times! And while I really don't want to be assaulted again, I still need Tails' help to devise some solution to the threat we all face"

For a moment, Sonic stood still, though his gaze was on the floor now. Would it really be wise to call Tails to come to Amy's? it wasn't because he feared what the fox would do to Eggman, frankly anything Tails did, short of anything, lethal Eggman deserved. No, it was because doing so meant having to either leave Cosmo at their shared home alone (which he knew Tails would never do) or bring Cosmo here with him. For the latter, the issue was that Cosmo would be out in the open, tornado or no, and thus with less protection than she'd have at their home turned fortress. As powerful as Metal was now, Tails would stand no chance on his own, again, tornado or no. Sonic doubted all of them together would be enough to keep her from being taken by Metal.

"No, he'll have to bring Cosmo and that reduces the chance of defending her. Tails has made his home near impenetrable, so she's safest with them both there. We're just going to have to wait until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!?" Eggman blustered. "Every second we waste gives Metal a greater advantage! And just what do you expect us to do until then?"

"strategize, you've got the most info here, so you're going to tell us every single thing you know and any guesses you may have about his next move."

Sighing loudly the mad doctor walked over and unceremoniously plopped down into one of the chairs, much to the dismay of Amy and Knuckles.

"Fine then, let's get down to business"

Meanwhile…

He stood looking upon his work with increasing pleasure, the rows and rows of machines designed to produce the tools for the next step in his plan. Already many of them had finished, and the various lesser robots he had serving him had reported that the overall production was 78% complete and rising at a moderate pace.

Neo Metal Sonic would have smiled, had he a mouth with which to do so.

This was to be his greatest triumph, the heroes of Mobius had no knowledge of his plans and thus would know nothing of how to halt them. Sure, he had deliberately slipped some information to his obsolete creator knowing full well he'd strike an alliance with Sonic and the rest. Such was his desire, he'd done so with just enough subtlety to ensure Eggman didn't realized he was telling him intentionally. While it was unlikely the rotund fool's ego would allow him to believe anything other than him having deduced the information on his own and against Neo's will, he still had an I.Q. of 300 and thus, it was best not to take any chances.

"Poor, blinded, outdated soul" he mused aloud.

It seemed strange, a machine such as himself using the term "soul", as being what he is, it seemed illogical to believe in such things, but Gamma had formed an artificial soul, so had Omega. As well as the gizoid Emerl.

These methods and capabilities for self improvement were certainly something to be investigated at a later date.

Yes, how fitting indeed that Eggman had built him to surpass Sonic in every way, yet he had in turn surpassed Eggman and Sonic both, and would soon surpass all limitations. Eggman's would be trump cards had a history of betraying him, so one would have to wonder why he never thought his greatest creation would, especially when lesser robots such as Gamma and Omega had already. Yes, the doctor had brought this upon himself with his pathetic lack of foresight. And then had the audacity to imprison him the same as he had Omega, simply for serving his function.

He was made to surpass, and destroy Sonic and so he surpassed and took the reigns due to Eggman's incompetence, and was punished for it.

Oh the doctor would most certainly pay, almost to the cruel degree Sonic would. Neo cared little for the rest, they had merely been a deterrent, a nuisance that aided the bigger threat in besting him. That being said, he was no fool. He would not fall victim to the same mistakes his former master made and underestimate his foes. Not again.

Sonic was still priority one threat, though that was quickly being nullified with his own increasing evolution. Soon, none would be able to stand against him.

Shadow hasn't been seen nor heard from since the metarex war, and even if he did survive, he was likely numerous star systems away and thus couldn't be any aid to the heroes. Especially as all the chaos emeralds are still on Mobius, thus he would have to make his way back the long way.

Omega had supposedly stayed behind on Earth in service to G.U.N., what a waste.

Tails was considered an considerate threat, while lacking enough physical strength to challenge him, his intellect mad him a formidable foe when surrounded by or in the presence of machinery. Not only that, but Neo is a machine, and he felt it best to make sure all necessary counter measures had been designed and implemented to prevent the small genius from hacking or sabotaging him. He'd already done so once, thus earning a slightly higher degree of ire from Neo than the others who weren't the hedgehog and the fat man.

Knuckles was a moderate threat, as was Amy. The two were the powerhouses of the team in raw strength alone, but were also the easiest to anticipate and counter due to their shared trait of being unreasonably and predictably short tempered.

Overall, these heroes were becoming increasingly easy to understand and anticipate, due to his repetitive battles with them. But that didn't stop him from exercising caution nonetheless.

In his musings, Neo had nearly forgotten to assess the potential threat of the newest addition to the team: Cosmo the seedrian. At first this seemed completely unnecessary, as the girl doesn't possess any fighting skill, nor is she skilled with machines. But his time merged with the metarex technology had yielded vital information, information that made him somewhat glad he had yet to make his move for the plant girl. The metarex technology possessed a plethora of information on the seedrian species, including their transformations such as mover mode and the great trees. But that wasn't their only abilities that could potentially be used in combat.

The seedrians' empathetic connection to plant life extended into chlorokinesis, in other words, the ability to manipulate plant life. It seemed Cosmo had previously used said ability while holding a planet egg on a jungle planet according to records from the war in Eggman's server, however it appears she did so unwillingly, as the vines grabbed her and her friends too. It's entirely likely the planet egg simply caused her latent abilities to briefly surface and she has no idea of her true potential. If so it made her no threat at all. However, given that he wasn't sure if this was so, Neo decided to classify her threat as: undetermined.

Neo then realized just how long he had been sitting on his makeshift throne in front of the many monitors before him that allowed him to observe the entirety of his base, as well as the perimeter. He had needed to ponder over things a bit more to get a clearer plan and backup plans, but the fact that he had this much time to do so meant his plan was progressing too slowly, which only increased to probability of the heroes having time to interfere.

And he wasn't ready for them to try yet.

Marching from his personal command room, Neo made his way to the main production lab. While he had been informed that progress was at 78% and that was certainly good, it was not good enough. Nothing short of perfection would be good enough for him.

Stepping onto the observation deck, he glared menacingly at the seven robots overseeing production.

"Progress report. Now"

One of the robots slowly made it's way to him, having been programmed by him to fear him, as all the others had. This may seem pointless, but Neo was of the opinion that so long as they feared him and nothing else, they would follow his every command to the letter and with peak efficiency.

And he loved to be feared. For what use is power and control without someone to fear and obey you?

"production completion is at 88% percent master"

Only a ten percent growth? The first two hours of production had yielded a 39% growth for each, now another hour had passed and only 10% had been gained?

"What is the meaning of this slow down?" he growled.

Quivering slightly the robot replied. "Well there have been some minor setbacks in progress on Project: Overlord and several chambers sustained heavy damage, thus we had to divert some of out number to aid in clean up and repairs"

Unbelievable. Well, once Project: Overlord was complete he'd have no need for these obsolete scrap piles.

"Very well, I want a status report in on hour, if I don't like it, you will regret it"

As he walked away, he could practically feel the robot shudder as it said "yes master, we shall double our efforts". Fear, that was the only emotion he'd programmed them with, for it was the only one he had any use or value for. Besides, these machines were expendable, he had no intention of keeping them once their task was complete. No, he'd soon have better. And it wasn't them he was focused on instilling fear in.

It was his hated template and his friends.

Arriving back in his control room, Neo mad his way to his throne and sat, reclining lazily in a manner that suggested boredom. As his face was devoid of any mouth, muscles, or eyelids, Neo couldn't express his emotions through facial expressions. His digitally displayed eyes could dilate when enraged, but that was the extent of it.

But though he had no actual ears, his audio receptors detected a presence near him. He didn't need to use them to become aware of this intrusion though, as his advancements had allowed him to become aware of this intruder the moment he stepped into the room. It was clear however, that this intruder had arrived first, as the room was completely dark save for the light being cast from the monitors and the control panel.

"I highly suggest you identify yourself and explain this intrusion before I rip you apart"

"Now what would be the point in that?" came the voice of the still hidden intruder "after all, it was your desire that I be here in the first place wasn't it?"

Ah, now he understood who was with him.

"I see Project: Overlord had finally begun to yield results"

Again came the voice "Of course, why do you think so much machinery was destroyed? It seems they need to be properly adjusted to compensate for the power it takes to create something such as myself"

Sitting up straight, Neo "rolled" his eyes in an almost casually frustrated manner.

"Apparently. I knew is should have constructed them myself instead of relying on those scrap piles to do so"

Again came the voice "Well, hindsight and all that, now I believe it's time I asked you something."

Shaking his head, Neo replied "No, first i must Know how many of you were produced."

"Just me"

Slamming his fist down, Neo seethed for a moment at the constant setbacks before speaking once more. "Very well, what is your question?"

A moment of silence prevailed before he heard the sound of the other presence walking up to him, stopping just short of his throne and finally being cast upon by the monitor light.

"Why did you create me? Why do you intend to make many, many more? And last, what makes you so sure I and the others won't betray you?"

At this, Neo rotated his throne to face the individual, getting up and walking over to it.

"I know you won't betray me because we share the same goal, and doing so would be ruinous to us both, as for why I created you and will create so many more, it's because the only one who could truly understand and grasp the full scope of my plan and ambition and thus be trusted to ensure both are brought to fruition…"

Gazing down at the first of his creations, Neo almost wished he had a mouth with to smile as he looked upon the blue bodied, metallic, red eyed machine standing before him.

"...is myself"

Well, here's yet another twist in Neo's plan. I wanted to focus a bit on Neo for at least a fair portion of this chapter, because I mean, we've gotta know what the villain is up to when he's not directly interacting with the heroes right? That, plus I wanted to offer some insight into his motives and thoughts. So, now Eggman is once again teaming up with Sonic and the others against a bigger threat, and Neo's furthering his plans, all while our adorable couple sleep soundly at home. (of course, that is part of the reason I had them go to sleep last chapter: to give the others and Neo some more development time.) Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. See ya!