Chapter 13

Pre-emptive Measures

As the morning sun rose over the horizon and into the sky, the trio of friends (and their enemy turned reluctant, temporary ally) were still horribly on edge. Eventually, around noon they decided to make their way to Tails and Cosmo's home, though not without Sonic telling Eggman to keep his comments to himself as the fox was sure to be angry at the idea of the egg shaped scientist showing up at his doorstep once more.

At the intrusion of sunlight into their shared bedroom, Tails and Cosmo had awoken and went about their day as normal, both doing their best to ignore the troublesome events currently unfolding. Cosmo did so by keeping herself occupied with various activities such as tending to the various houseplants which she'd acquired from her boyfriend due to his knowledge of her empathic connection to plant life and her enjoyment of caring for them. Aside from that, she kept her mind off things by studying mobian culture and their ways, as well as the regional differences. More than once she'd come to Tails to inquire about a tradition or cultural quirk that she had particular trouble understanding and the fox, to the best of his ability, explained. Speaking of whom, Tails had a particularly hard time keeping his mind off the danger to his beloved. His drive to protect her at all cost kicking in overdrive, once he had defended her from Shadow, but now he feared being unable to protect her from the murderous robot seeking her out. He had been able to elude Shadow for some time, and when cornered, he'd bravely attempted to fight while knowing he had little chance of success. But Shadow was one thing, he hadn't even really used his speed much due to his overconfidence, a fact that got him launched (albeit temporarily) from the Blue Typhoon into space. Metal Sonic, while also overconfident was much more quick to anger and more often than not, became purely focused on murdering anyone who provoked him meaning his speed would see significant use. Tails had accounted for this though, he'd been able to outwit Shadow at several turns and used the black hedgehog's overconfidence to his advantage, so surely he could do the same for Sonic's killer robot double. Though in Shadow's case, Tails had an entire starship of his own design, with security measures he designed to ensure Cosmo's safety. As such, this was why he'd made such borderline obsessive effort to ensure their home had everything.

He may not be a threat against Neo on his own, but should Neo enter their home, he'd have MORE than a home field advantage.

Of course that wasn't the only reason he had such trouble keeping his mind off it, were he willing, there were several things he could do to occupy himself if not for one glaring issue.

He didn't want to let Cosmo out of his sight.

He knew if Neo or anyone else entered their home uninvited, he'd know instantly as he'd made certain no one could enter without setting off one of the dozens of alarm systems he'd implemented and made sure were active simultaneously at all times. But it still eased his mind to be able to see his girlfriend safe and happy in front of him. And so, he would go about various mundane tasks while keeping a fair distance so as not to hover over her when they weren't doing something together.

Now, it was just after noon and Tails was slightly startled by a proximity alert. Quickly rushing over to the nearest security console (though not without making sure he could see Cosmo, who looked equally frightened if not more-so) he checked the live feed before sighing audibly in as mixture of frustration and relief.

"It's just Sonic and the others" he told Cosmo, who relaxed at the good news. Of course if Tails had looked more closely and longer, he'd have seen the fourth visitor besides Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles.

Making a mental note to fine tune the security software to better detect his friends, while also making note of Neo's shape shifting ability, Tails quickly made his way to the front door and opened it. Just as he was about to greet his friends and ask them for any updates they may have had, he then noticed the rotund man standing behind the trio almost as if behind a shield, his three robot lackeys also present and being forced to stand between him and Tails' friends.

And as Sonic feared and knew would happen, the fox was irate.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE EGGMAN!? BETTER YET, HOW DARE YOU SHOW UP HERE AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?" Tails screamed as he walked towards Eggman, who started to scramble backwards as the fox began to pick up speed with each step.

"Whoa whoa! Tails! Chill! Eggman's with us!" Sonic yelled as he quickly grabbed his brother to hold him back.

"What!? Why are you trusting him Sonic!? He's-"

"Who said I trust him?" Sonic countered "I trust him about as far as I can throw him, but he's unfortunately the best source of info we have and he knows Metal better than anyone. So please, just calm down so we can try to figure this out before Metal moves again."

Forcing himself to calm down and relax his body, Tails nodded silently to Sonic and urged everyone inside. As they finished stepping inside however, Eggman, still unsure of whether or not Tails would attack him again, tried to diffuse the fox's raw emotion in a manner not unlike how he'd done at galactic center. By swallowing his pride and being more sincere.

"Tails…I didn't know this would happen. I had no idea the metarex technology would be able to reactivate him, I never intended to use him again I swear!"

At first the fox said nothing, and for a moment Eggman was incredibly tense as he waited to see whether Tails at the very least acknowledged his "apology" or pounced. Tails did neither.

Turning to look Eggman in the eyes with his own full of thinly veiled rage, Tails spoke coldly.

"Cosmo had just come back, and you decided to try and kidnap her. The Metarex Killed the rest of her people besides her including her family thus meaning the only members of her species left were her and them. She gave her life and I was forced to kill her to finally kill them, and you kept some of their technology knowing full well how dangerous they were and their creations were capable of. And finally, you knew how dangerous Metal Sonic was and how you, me, and everyone else almost died stopping him, you knew you couldn't control him and that it would be best to simply destroy him and never build anything like him again.

And you kept him anyway."

Eggman was left completely unable to formulate a response short of babbling.

"B-but I- you see- He-"

Tails continued "Cosmo's life is in danger from the deadliest robot you've ever built, one of the deadliest enemies we've ever faced. I lost her once and you know that all too well, and now it could happen again.

Because of you."

Seemingly satisfied, Tails silently walked over to his couch and sat down next to a noticeably worried Cosmo, an impressed looking Knuckles, a slightly unnerved Amy, and Sonic who looked at the doctor with an "I told you so" as well as "you totally deserve that" look.

Deciding then to relieve the tension and get back to the matter at hand, Sonic turned to Tails. "Okay Tails, Eggman showed up at Amy's last night just after I talked to you, he's given us some info on what's been going on as well as Metal's new upgrades. We've also come up with some theories regarding his next move"

Tails, now focused, looked at Sonic with determination and fire in his eyes.

"Tell me everything"

And so they did, they told Tails of how Neo had reactivated himself, why exactly he required seedrian bio data to fully utilize the metarex technology, and lastly what Neo was most likely to do next considering his initial programming and the likely effect the metarex tech was having on it.

As they spoke, Tails sat silently and with no clear expression. His focus never wavered, he never asked anything and he never once took his hand from Cosmo's. Finally, after he was told everything, he spoke.

"Neo has the master emerald, he has metarex technology, and we can assume he has most, if not all, our bio data save for Cosmo. That said, we have a counter for all of these."

"What? How do we have counters?" Eggman chimed in "Neo already has a major advantage over us, with us only having theories as to what he's planning! Not to mention, if your referring to the chaos emeralds, the master emerald can cancel them out remember?"

"Yes Eggman I do, but I wasn't referring to the emeralds. For the master emerald, only its guardian can control it in full, even when you used a conduit to harness its power you couldn't fully draw from it which is why Sonic beat you."

Eggman scowled and looked away "Oh sure, bring that up"

Tails continued "For the metarex technology, we still have all of the anti metarex weaponry and devices from the war. Even with Neo merged to it, I'm willing to wager its still vulnerable to what we have. That, and the metarex's tech while powerful, as still flawed, especially that of Black Narcissus. Last, theirs the bio data, Neo has copied ours before but it didn't make any difference."

"But that still gives him extensive knowledge of all of us and what we can and might do" Amy said.

"Yes, but bio data is static, its only good for determining things about the subject as they are, not how they could be." Tails countered, a smirk on his face.

"What does that mean? How does that help us?" Knuckles asked, now lost once more.

At this, Sonic interjected "It means Neo only knows who we are and how we usually act, if we act differently and do things differently it should hinder his ability to predict what we'll do"

Tails nodded.

"Oh, well that's just fine and all but how can we counter the master emerald if I can't get to it?"

"I programmed Metal Sonic to have a much greater hatred of Sonic than the rest of you, if Sonic is present to confront him, then even if he knows its a diversion, he'll be unable to resist the urge to face him and thus allowing time for you to sneak in and reacquire the master emerald" Eggman theorized.

"Yeah, but we still don't know where he is or what he's up to. We can't really do anything until then." Amy added.

Everyone sat silently for a moment before Tails spoke up.

"We'll use me as bait"

"WHAT!?" came the resounding reply.

"No you will not! I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you!" Cosmo cried, wrapping her arms around Tails in a protective manner.

"And I can't let Neo get his hand on you. If he comes for me though, we can use that and keep you safe" Tails said while returning the hug.

"Tails…no offense but Knuckles couldn't even take him, heck I'm not sure even I can! How can you-"

"The house" Tails interrupted upon anticipating Sonic's words "This place has been turned into the ultimate anti Metal Sonic and metarex shelter. Neo has my bio data, so he obviously knows how much Cosmo and I mean to each other. He'll assume that if he has me, he'll be able to get Cosmo. But if he comes for me here, he'll have all the defensive and offensive measure to deal with, on top of all of you being here. Once he's here we'll drive him off and plant a tracking chip on him thus leading us to his base."

Once more, silence. Everyone (save for Eggman) was very much against the idea of Tails using himself as bait against such a deadly opponent. That said, none of them could formulate a better plan to ensure they could act against Neo sooner. Every minute they waited his advantage over them increased. Even Cosmo, who hated the idea more than anyone, couldn't come up with a way to dissuade her boyfriend. For now, she and indeed everyone else, would just have to trust in his judgment.

"There's still one thing though, how are we going to plant the chip on him? And won't he just notice it eventually anyway?" Sonic asked.

Tails then stood up and walked towards his workshop. "One moment" he called back.

Everyone sat staring after him wondering what he intended to get, but before anyone could guess, the fox returned.

Sitting back down, Tails placed a small microchip on the center table which promptly camouflaged itself.

"This is the M.E.002 microchip, it has an A.I of it's own and can, as you see, camouflage itself onto any surface. Once it's on Neo, he won't detect it and after he takes it back to his base, it will detach itself and connect itself to his main systems. This way, it will send us all of his data and everything we need to know, stealing the advantage right from under him."

Everyone went wide eyed, including Eggman. It was brilliant, truly brilliant. Play to Neo's overconfidence by presenting him with a target he'd seemingly have no problem overpowering and another advantage to gain from it. Then, unleash a massive arsenal of specially designed countermeasures and weapons on him along with some of his most formidable foes. Plant a multi-purpose microchip on him and allow him to escape and take it back to his base. Then use the info it sends them to plot a full scale assault on his base, destroying his plans and him before he can truly set anything in motion.

"Oh ho ho ho ho! Tails that's absolutely brilliant! Well played boy!" Eggman praised, though deep down he was concerned as to how this could be used against him in the future.

"Alright bro, if your sure about all this, I trust ya. But one last thing still needs to be decided. How will we get the chip on him? Neo's unlikely to let any of us get close enough to place anything on him without him noticing"

"Bokkun can do it" Eggman chimed.

"W-WHAT!? DOCTOR, DON'T MAKE ME GO NEAR THAT CRAZY GUY!"

"Oh your going! Neo will be too focused on fighting them to notice you since he'll be scanning for threats and you won't be any threat. In other words, you'll be practically invisible to him."

"B-but why can't Decoe or Bocoe do it!? they're no threat to him either!"

"HEY! Don't drag us into this!" the two robots cried.

"Because they're too large, Neo will see them coming and also they can't fly, thus he'll hear them"

"But Tails can fly!"

"Enough!" Eggman barked with the usual vein protruding from hi forehead "Tails can't do it because he's who Neo will be focusing on the most you dolt! You're doing it and that's that!"

Bokkun said nothing, simply floating there whimpering.

"Okay, so we have a plan, now what?" Sonic asked

"Now we set it into motion, we can't wait any longer." Tails replied

Tails gave Cosmo's hand a squeeze for comfort, both for her and himself.

Neo stood before the fruits of his latest achievement and felt an immense amount of smug satisfaction. This was going better than he could have dreamed. Standing before him in an organized fashion, was an army of himself. Each modeled after him as he was the first time he became Neo Metal Sonic.

Neo walked back to his command center, kicking aside the demolished husks of various servant robots. Sure, they had fulfilled the quota he set and on time too, but he just really enjoyed being cruel. Besides, he'd intended to dispose of them once their purpose was complete, such was the way of things. All things were disposable, all things merely tools to further his ambition.

Just as he had once been for a so called "genius".

Neo had little doubt that had he beaten Sonic before he broke free of his creators control, and the scientist actually conquered Mobius, he'd have been disposed of as well, having served his purpose. And now, he was the one with power, with control. It was he who would use others , including his creator, and once they were of not further use to them he'd kill them. All of them. He would become perfect, all powerful and what then? A perfect being has no use for flawed creatures, so would he rule them? No, their mere presence would disgust him as it does now. No, he'd destroy everything and replace it with a universe in his image, the image of the perfect robot, the perfect Sonic, the perfect BEING!

"Soon, so so soon." Neo muttered, before a screen lit up with a live feed. Looking at it, Neo noticed it showed Tails' home, the same he'd intended to assault soon to capture Cosmo the seedrian and complete his merger with the metarex technology that allowed for his return. Yes, he could still feel it's suppressed A.I. quietly nagging at his own, desperately trying to claim dominance. He'd have that purged soon, but for now it looked like the fox boy had activated some manner of signal, rockets firing in all directions and each exploding and making a unique popping sound. It was code.

C.o.m.e. a.n.d. f.a.c.e. m.e. c.h.e.a.p. k.n.o.c.k.o.f.f. I. w.o.n.t. l.e.t. y.o.u. h.u.r.t. h.e.r. It said.

"Fool! He honestly thinks he can stop me?" Neo scoffed. Of course he knew it to be some manner of trap, Tails likely had the other heroes with him ready to try and ambush him or perhaps they hoped to use the chaos emeralds against him. But still, he couldn't help but feel the need to go anyway. Nothing the heroes did would be sufficient to take him down, and with this he could break their spirits, bodies and take Cosmo all in one fell swoop! And then their was that "Cheap knockoff" comment, he was the superior Sonic. The TRUE Sonic! Part of him recognized it as an attempt to goad him, but for some reason he couldn't let that pass. No, he'd teach these inferior beings their place but would let them live long enough to see his perfection and the complete annihilation of Mobius.

"Pathetic, inferior SCUM! You have only made more pain for yourselves." Neo said aloud as he turned to leave, passing down the halls of his base and towards the main entrance.

They would all pay for their imperfection.

Here we go! First major battle between our heroes and Neo Metal Sonic! I wanted to build it up some as the first battle and the last battle are usually the most important. Well, next chapter we get to see it as well as how Tails' plan plays out. And yes, the M.E. in M.E.002 microchip stands for Miles Electric, I couldn't resist. Plus, think of it as an homage to the tongue in cheek naming style of Metal Sonic's engine models in the Archie Sonic comic such as STH-25 and SXSU-401 (Sonic the hedgehog #25 Sonic X #40 and Sonic Universe #1, Metal's first appearances in the respective comics). Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. See ya!