Oh this was bad; Very very bad.

His anxious thoughts had not thought of this scenario.

He couldn't imagine his brother saying what he said, and it still didn't register even as 274's jet engine boomed out. In that split second before 274 reached 10-961, he remembered his brother said something… similar-ish.

"If you become unstable and try to attack, I'll be force to terminate you…"

He hadn't attacked

But his brother was shouting 'you killed them!'

Maybe –

10-961 had gotten lost in his thinking for a tad too long as 274 slammed him into the ground. 10-961 panicked as the front of 274's engine glowed with fire; aimed right at him! At this moment, the one thing he had feared turned into an advantage. 274 was far more damaged and weaker than him.

With a shove, 10-961 was freed and scrambled away from the other metallix. The sudden attack left him unable to think straight. It took him a few seconds of tripping and tumbling out of the way before he came up with any sort of plan. He knew his brother was focused on him; so he had to get him as far away from Sonic and his friends as possible, lest someone get seriously hurt.

"If you become unstable.."

10-961's main engine roared to life. He didn't know what was going on, but he had to help his brother somehow. Did he do something wrong…? Guilt was creeping into his processor at the very thought.

"Don't apologize, let's just get started and soon we'll find the problem."

Using 274's own words, 10-961 became determined to find the 'problem.' He didn't know the answers yet; He had to go through a list of things to test for – like 274 had done for him. First he'd need some kind of 'testing room'.

10-961 spotted a grove of trees ahead as he dodged another swipe from his brother. That looked like a nice testing ground, plenty of room to move, but also enough obstacles to hide behind. But what was the list he had to go through? Another swipe added one thing to the forming list.

-Reaction time

10-961 had suffered slowed reaction time from the self-destruct. He took a glimpse behind himself to look at 274 as he dodged a boulder and several trees. The way he weaved in and out made him worry a bit, but he wasn't crashing into anything. So nothing seemed physically wrong –at least for motor skills. A Pass for now. What else? A blast of fire nearly hit him.

-Power

He already knew 274 was in a weakened state and 10-961 could now see 274 was struggling to keep up. His fire was weak and his engine threatening to give out –he couldn't do as much damage as he wanted to. Heck, Sonic probably would've kicked himself free a second later had 10-961 not said anything!

Okay so he was low on power. What else? His engine was shimmering with heat and his eyes were still sporadic looking.

So overheating and something else he couldn't place…

The overheating was a problem. Plan A had been to tire him out until he couldn't attack, but the overheating could bust something real good if it went on for too long. 10-961 took another glance back and found 274 nowhere in sight. He had disappeared! He stopped in his tracks. Did he accidentally leave him behind?

Something solid slammed into him and he crashed to the ground. 10-961 was stunned for a moment as he yanked his head out of the dirt. That had to have been 274, but where -?

274 landed with a harsh thud a few feet away from 10-961; murder in his eyes.

"WHY. TRAITOR. WITH THEM." 274 shouted, but the words made little sense. His speech must be going off from overheating. That couldn't be good –at least he wasn't using his main engine heavily anymore.

"What..?" 10-961 asked with confusion- the filtered sounding voice echoing off the trees. Why traitor with them? The sentence didn't make sense to him. 'you killed them!' and 'why traitor with them'? It sounded like it was all directed towards Sonic and his group of friends.

…

274 never did tell him anything about Sonic and co. … just Sonic's name and that he was with other people.

That's it.

10-961 brightened at having a lead and looked up enthusiastically only to see his brother rearing back his fist.

"REQUIRED INFORMATION MISSING!" 10-961 blurted out at his max volume. He had gotten lost in thoughts again and 274 had gotten dangerously close. 274 had thrown the punch just as 10-961 shouted but his words stopped him in time from clobbering 10-961 square in the jaw.

"Required information missing…" 10-961 repeated as 274 stared blankly at him. He kept his hand near his face just in case his brother wanted to continue that punch, but the fist uncurled and went limped instead.

"MisSING?"

"Yes, my data is missing remember?"

"miSsing."

"Yes."

"missing…"

Was his brother stuck in a loop? Maybe his processor WAS slowed down in a way or the overheating had fried his circuits.

"Missing… something.. not right." 274 mumbled as he looked at the ground like it had all the answers. . Why was it so hard to think? He was.. attacking Sonic – Sonic had pressed the ..button, the really bad button – the one that killed all - 10-961 was defending Sonic. Reprogrammed by enemy most likely or… or.. What did 10-961 just say? Missing information? He had a fuzzy memory of a testing room? Testing room Gamma?

The Original Malfunction…

[98% likely reprogrammed… 65% likely reprogrammed.. likeliness falling…]

"Are you okay?" 10-961 hoped he hadn't done something; 274 wasn't very responsive at the moment; just kinda continued to stare off into space. 10-961 waved his good hand in front of him looking for a reaction. Eventually he got one.

"Recite Information on… on.. ON." 274 struggled to use the words. Something wrong. He needed more information. Something wasn't lining up correctly.

"On Sonic and co.? Just their names." 10-961 responded knowing what his brother was trying to ask. Right now he was just relieved that 274 hadn't completely lost it –it meant he was still in there somewhere.

"…Recite names?" 274 said. Something something wrong. Hard to think. Red flashes?

"Sonic, Amy, Tails, Chris, Chuck, Tanaka, Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles." 10-961 said. "And some others I think."

Half of those 274 didn't recognize. Did they make new allies in the heat of the moment? Where were they anyway? He didn't recognize this zone. Why were they in a one of those ludicrously expensive houses anyway? They had been on the Miracle Planet and there weren't any places like that. And something else… something else he had seen..?

Sonic had looked different; was anything else different?

"Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot?" 274 inquired. He hadn't heard those names listed off.

"Haven't heard those names." 10-961 said puzzled. Puzzlement was quick to turn to worry as 274 started to glitch out worse than before. "Brother!" He needed repairs soon, right this instant, or he might lose him again.

"Brother you're overheating!" 10-961 cried.

*click click whhrr* was the only response he got from 274 and that nearly sent him into a panic attack. Was he shutting down? Did he have something stuck in his engine he hadn't spotted?

Then he noticed the turning and clicks of his brother's engine was pulling cool air into his systems with a soft whoosh. He had heard; he was trying cooling down. At least he thought so? 274 seemed to do that a lot, even when he wasn't overheating.

"We need to get you repaired… But you seem to think that –and I think it's what you meant- that Sonic and co. killed all our brothers." 10-961 asked, but got no response. "But it doesn't make sense because they didn't even know who we are. And they were actually quite friendly to me." 274 continued to remain silent as 10-961 rambled. The only sound coming from him was the constant click whrr. 10-961 wondered why he did that.

Speaking of Sonic, he should probably be catching up any moment now or at least one of his friends.

"Last question. Why'd you attack me?" 10-961 asked as he wondered if the air whistling by was just that or Sonic zipping around looking for them. 10-961 almost jumped out of his metal when 274 spoke once more.

"I thought –reprogrammed –into bomb- never again." 274 slurred out, eyes dimming. His head felt backed up. Nothing seemed to make sense. Their enemy hadn't attacked? They were being nice?

"Tails doesn't even know how to fix my arm!"

"Tails.. fix?"

"He got most the dents out at least."

"NO. Tails.. Fix? Tails not fix –porker job. Sonic –no green eyes…'upossed be brown" 10-961 tilted his head in confusion as he helped his brother sit down. It seemed like his brother's data wasn't lining up to the reality? Was it a glitch in memory or part of a something bigger?

A gush of air that wasn't natural almost tore the two from where they had sat down. 10-961 blurted out an alarmed beep as he grabbed the ground and kept 274 upright.

"There you are!" Sonic shouted. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look mad either. Mostly startled and ragged as he held out his hand to help 10-961 up.

"You okay there?" The metallix nodded, but soon went to restrain his brother as he struggled to get up. 274 somehow managed to shrug him off, but he didn't attack; he was full of too many questions to expend energy on his preferred action towards organics. Despite their aggressive demeanor – collecting data should always came first; missing data could be the death of a metallix; like with 144 and the device Sonic slapped on his head. So Instead he now stood protectively in front of his brother; wanting answers more than anything. No surprises this time.

And now that he was thinking logically, not blindly attacking either of them out of intense emotions– he realized he could've gotten the both of them killed and with it any chance of reviving the Brotherhood. But the time to feel regret and guilt would have to wait.

"Something wrong." 274 blurted as he eyed Sonic up and down. His HUD was all red flags and systems failure warnings, but he had to know the details. The differences were minute, but 274 knew what Sonic looked like.

He had six bunches of quills not three.

He had not been three inches taller nor could he have had such a growth spurt in mere hours.

He certainly didn't behave like Sonic –Sonic was a selfish stick in the mud. He did not offer a hand to help robots up, especially a metallix. He should be shouting out a challenge or making a snide remark!

And he most certainly did not have green eyes. He had a dark, almost black, brown.

The conclusion he came up with was far more complex than what he said next, but his systems were shutting down enmasse and his fading consciousness only had enough power for the absolute simplest and bluntest answer that wasn't entirely correct.

"Faker."

And then he passed out as his systems forced a reboot.

"HEY. You're the robot lookalike!" Sonic said baffled as he caught 274 in his arms. What a weird robot!

10-961 could only stare as he watched Sonic shake his head in disbelief. Sonic then scrunched up his face as if he an unpleasant stench had assaulted his nose.

"Urgh this is going to be a nightmare taking the two of you back to Chris' house." Sonic grumbled. "The Cameramen caught you two on film and I just know they're going to spread false rumors. Not to mention be surrounding the house."

"Cameramen?" 10-961 inquired. "Those 'Paparazzi' people that wanted to talk?"

"More like take words outta your mouth for the drama of it all." Sonic deadpanned, but switched to a lighter tone. "When I first got here they thought I was robot! That spread like wildfire until I actually went out and interacted with the people here."

"… Want do you think they'd say about me and 274?" The concerned metallix asked. His anxious thoughts were getting to him again and he hoped that his chances to get to know the world wouldn't be skewed in some way.

"To be honest, they'd probably assumed you were sent to kidnapped or harm me and ran off because of 'having your cover blow' or something." Sonic said. He couldn't sugarcoat that; especially after the fight from yesterday. Everyone was tense and on alert for anything Eggman related.

"…"10-961 said nothing as he stared at the ground in thought. Should he tell Sonic what he learned from his brother? How he thought Sonic killed everyone and how he thought they turned him into a bomb? What about the misaligned information?

"When we get back can we talk about some things?" 10-961 asked softly. He was still unsure if he should. What if his brother had another fit if he said the wrong thing. What if Sonic and his friends thought them too dangerous and abandoned them? As much as he was getting comfortable with the group, he still didn't know his place in the world.

"Sure, what about? I'm guessing something up with your brother?" Sonic replied as he started to walk in the direction towards the house, 274 in his arms.

"A few things, but one of the big ones is that his data wasn't lining up with what was in front of him." 10-961 said. He decided he'd start with the inconsistencies since his brother would most likely want to know too. 274 seemed very confused. Sonic looked at him questioningly for him to continue.

"To start: Do you know of a 'Porker Lewis' or 'Johnny Lightfoot?'"