The next day's dawn came and went – everyone deciding to sleep in for once.

At least they were, if not for the fact that poor Chris had to get up early for school and almost immediately noticed something was off.

Not with his eyes which he had still been rubbing lazily, but with his nose.

"Eugh." Chris pinched his nose. It smelled like rotting eggs had been smashed throughout the entire bottom floor. Then it changed swiftly into lavender, and then dirt, and then spoiled milk, and then sulfur; just spontaneously switching from scent to scent with no rhythm or reason.

Chris searched around in confusion. He couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Mr. Tanaka and Ella were also on the case to find the source of the ever-changing smell.

"What's going on?" Chris nasally asked as he began to search with them.

"I don't know, but rest assured Young Thorndyke we WILL find it. Before you have to go to school of course." Mr. Tanaka flatly said he checked the trash bin and took a big whiff.

"Have you checked to see if it's one of Tails' inventions went haywire?" Chris suggested. "Should we set up a search party?"

"We checked a few minutes ago and no Chris, it wasn't." Ella replied – Tanaka gagging too much to say anything for a moment.

"Augh! I – I would wish for the rest of the household to not wake up to this." Mr. Tanaka added as he covered his nose with a handkerchief. "But maybe Metallix 10-961 could help. I don't think he has a sense of smell."

"Alright, I'll go get him." Chris said before pinching his own nose shut again when the scent changed to another foul odor. "Euurhgah, and hopefully he has better luck finding the source!"

Chris rushed out of the kitchen in search for the metallix. After everyone had left the living room last night they had all heard shouting coming from downstairs. They had all ended up waiting for it to quiet down and for Sonic to come up and fill them in. Of course, Sonic was cryptic about what happened but said 10-961 was tired and sleeping on the couch for the night. So off to the couch Chris went.

"Hey, 10-961. Wake up! There's a weird smell down here and-" Chris said from around the corner before he entered the living room.

He soon grounded to a halt as he saw a faint stream of green vapor rising from the couch. He went from confused to panicking in a blink of an eye.

"10-961!" Chris shouted as he practically leaped to where the metallix was laying. Questions buzzed through his head as he thought of what could've happened last night.

A quick glance was all he needed before he was shouting to high hell for help.

But the help that came wasn't in a good mood.

"CHRIS! We're trying to sleep here! Do you know what – ?!" Amy shouted angrily before going into a coughing fit once the shifting smell hit her nose. "Who laid on the perfume last night?!"

"There's something wrong with 10-961! Get Tails!" Chris shouted to Amy.

"Chris is everything alright?" Ella said as she and Mr. Tanaka rushed towards him.

"10-961 leaking fuel or something. There's a big puddle of this weird green liquid on the floor next to him!" Chris explained before hurrying back to the metallix. "We have to wake him up!"

News spread quickly and soon enough everyone in the household was wide awake and frantically bounding down the stairs.

"What happened?" Tails cried just as he made it into the living room.

"Just look!" Chris cried back as his shaking and shouting failed to wake 10-961 up.

"I have to close off whatever's causing that – I'll be right back I need to get some tools!" Tails determinedly shouted as he rushed to the garage. He whirled his tails behind him to give him an extra boost in speed.

Just as he left a new sound entered the room.

Beep Beep! Beep Beep!

"Eh? What's that?" Amy asked as a little box seated next to the metallix went off.

"That's the camera feed for the garage!" Sonic grabbed the box and stared at the screen. "274's awake!"

"Go help Tails!" Amy frantically pointed towards the garage. If 274 was awake, he could only bring more bad luck to them as they rushed to help their new friend.

But through the camera's audio they hear not Tails screaming for help but…

*THUNK*

*"FLIPPING HECK!"*

Everyone in the room blinked in surprise.

"Was that 274?"

"uh… yeah.. yeah it was."

"Guess the little forcefield worked then?" Sonic smirked and jogged off to the garage – not as worried of Tails getting hurt as he was before.

He wasn't going to enter though unless Tails really needed his help. For now, he listened out by the hastily 'repaired' door.

"What's the meaning of this!?" 274 shouted angrily from behind the oddly solid bubble that hadn't been around him when he woke up a second ago.

"Sorry! Didn't want you to damage the house further!" Tails said as he gathered a bunch of his tools and threw them into his toolbox.

"What are doing with those?" 274 asked – his fury still fully burning, but suspiciousness went to the forefront for the moment.

"Something's wrong with your brother!" Tails explained hastily as he grabbed the last tool he thought he might need.

"What the heck did you do to him?!" 274's rage was at the front again. But Tails' concern was noted and filed away.

"Nothing! We found him this morning unresponsive with a fuel leak!" Tails explained further and made to leave.

"Fuel leak?" 274 leaned back from the forcefield in realization before erupting. "WAIT!"

Tails halted and looked curiously at the metallix.

"You don't have the right gear!"

"I'm just going to pinch off the line that's leaking and then repair it."

"That's not going to work! It'll back up and cause worse problems! Not to mention the effects it'll have on you stupid flesh creatures!" 274 shouted from within the forcefield. Tails waivered where he stood.

"What kind of fuel do you guys run on?" Tails inquired with his own suspiciousness and a squint in his eyes.

"Just let me out and I'll grab the stuff you'll need." 274 was suddenly calm and collected, the early rage seemingly gone. Tails didn't trust the mood shift one bit. But really, deep down, Tails knew he knew next to nothing about how the Metallix functioned and what it would take to fix 10,961.

"um, okay, but try anything-"

"And I'll regret it, right?" 274 interrupted with his deadpanned remark.

"right.." Tails repeated. "Just grab what we need to help your brother, and quickly!" Tails deactivated the forcefield and eyed 274 intensely as he awaited his next move.

274 nodded as he was finally freed and kept true to his word. But the equipment he was grabbing seemed odd to say the least.

The first thing he beelined to was the vacuum cleaner in the corner which he promptly emptied of its contents. He snatched a roll of duct tape as he reached for two large tapperwares that had Tails' lunch and dinner in them. Their contents were dumped, too.

"HEY." Tails stomped out. 274 ignored Tails anger, still busy cleaning out and collecting stuff from around the room. He gave a huff from his vents when he couldn't find a particular item.

"Rings."

"Excuse me?"

"Use your dysfunctional audio receptors and listen. I need rings." 274 grounded out in frustration.

"Power rings? What for?" Tails stood his ground, but his twitching tails gave away how tense he was.

"To stabilize the fuel leak, of course! I need three – no four of them asap." 274 mocked as he began tearing out strips of duct tape into equal lengths.

"How do I know you're not just gonna use them in a malicious way?" Tails spat out.

"If I did I'd be an imbecile like you, rings only fuel repair nanites or-" 274 meant to continue but cut himself off short.

"Or…?" Tails poked him to continue.

"Just get me the rings." 274 snapped his fingers and held out his hand. When Tails made no move, 274 narrow his eyes and gave an impatient droning noise.

"Fine. Four rings coming up." Tails relented as he turned around to go to his specialize storage box. In it were several golden rings; not many, but enough to pack a punch if needed.

"Here." Tails deadpanned as he tossed the four requested rings. 274 stuck out his arm precisely so that the airborne rings slid onto his arm, but caught the last one with his hands.

"Okay, here's how this works." 274 stared intensely at Tails, before abruptly slamming the ring over his chest. The ring immediately disintegrated as 274's chest whirled to life and sucked in the golden sparks of energy.

Tails stared in awe. 274 stared back. A second past, but it felt longer. Tails started to flick his Tails irritably as he waited for 274 to actually explain the light show, but 274 didn't and instead slapped two rings into the two tupperware then picked up the strips of duct tape and began fastening the tupperware to the vacuum cleaner.

"Hey, you didn't explain squat nothing!" Tails pouted before being shoved out the way.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Let's hope on your part that your faulty binocular vision picks up useful details." 274 rolled his eyes at Tails and waggled his hands dismissal-y before dragging the modified vacuum cleaner out of the garage. Tails simply crossed his arms and huffed, more annoyed than scared now.

"Do you even know where you're supposed to go?" Tails pointed out as the Metallix stalked out the room.

"Listen to the sounds of the rest of the flesh creatures who by now are having whiplash-like mood swings and about to throttle each other after an intense screaming match." The Metallix said matter-of-factly without looking back.

"What."

"Maybe I shouldn't clean up the vapor trail after I fix 10-961, seeing you guys tearing each other apart would be 'fun'." 274 thought aloud purposely as he turned back to stare down Tails. "Wonder how Sonic's faring in particular."

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Sonic said as he leaned out from the spot where he was eavesdropping. 274 spun his head towards Sonic in surprise, but his body had locked on the spot.

"Dude that's creepy." Sonic quipped nervously at the sight of the Metallix's 180-degree head turn. 274 just glared hard as the rest of his body slowly lined up with his head again; his head locked in the air without even a single twinge of movement.

"I'm not here to make you comfortable you menace." 274 said coldly as he stomped past Sonic, not letting his eyes leave his as he moved past. He suddenly stopped, gauged Sonic up and down, and gave a tilt of his head.

"In fact, I'm gonna bother you quite a bit, keep you on your toes and all that." 274 promised before slamming his metal foot right on top of Sonic's.

"OW!" Sonic yelped as he grabbed his injured foot.

"HEY, don't be so rude 274!" Tails was quick to step between the Metallix and Sonic; hands spread wide in a defensive posture. 274 blinked in surprise before hardening again, but the expression had not been lost to Tails as he filed it away.

"Alright 'Pixel Brain', you keep defending your idol." 274 leered as he leaned in uncomfortably close. "But one day he'll fall from the pedestal you all like to put him on and you'll see he ain't all that great."

"You don't know anything about my brother!" Tails proclaimed, now thoroughly fed up with 274.

274 backed up abruptly with wide eyes. He had expected Tails to defend Sonic of course, but the term brother had thrown him through a loop. Couple with Tails' unexpected courage, well 274 wasn't quite sure how to process that information yet. So he hardened his gaze again and blew a large amount of air through his vents in a loud huff and stormed off to find his own brother. After the Metallix had gone a little ways away, Tails turned to Sonic with worry.

"You okay Sonic?" Tails said as he examined his foot.

"I got some tough shoes, probably will bruise a bit later on, but no broken bones –promise!" Sonic gave his foot one last rub before putting it down. "Now the question is, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But that 274 sure is a jerk." Tails pouted in said Metallix's direction.

"Let's make sure he behaves around the others then. I may not know fully what his beef is, considering his beef is with other versions of ourselves, but he does care – for 10-961 at least." Sonic reassured Tails but stared at the robot solemnly before suddenly joking. "We might be able to warm up that metal heart of his one day."

"I kinda doubt it, but yeah let's follow him and make sure he doesn't stomp any more toes." Tails half-heartedly quipped. His mind stuck on 274's reactions to a few key moments. A shout suddenly sounded from where the others were and quickly the duo booked it to the room.

"Don't step on any more toes!" Sonic shouted out of panic before realizing his error.

274 was defending himself from Amy who had swung her hammer without warning. A quick look around revealed everyone was off.

Amy was swinging and shouting and cussing at anyone and anything.

Chris was devoid of all emotion – staring off into space.

Ella looked like she was about to throw a shoe at her reflection.

Tanaka was face down on the floor crying a flood out stiffly.

Cream was pouting in the corner.

Cheese was the worse with their color changing based on their mood; the mood was mood swings.

"Can you cut short the bafflement and get the pink rodent off?" 274 abruptly pointed out with a palm full of furious hedgehog.

"Right, right!" Sonic obeyed without thought. "Amy, what the heck are you doing?"

"SHUT UP!"Amy erupted, changing targets and swinging at Sonic.

"Amy what the HELL!" Sonic shouted in surprise before catching the hammer and yanking it from her hands. This didn't stop her as she tackled him to the ground. But instead of continuing to fight, she suddenly started bawling her eyes out on his chest.

"hue." 274 let slip. "huehuehue, bad luck to you~"

"Dude is that your laugh?"

The metallix didn't reply as he stuck one of the rings into 10-961's chest which burst apart as it did with 274. He then flipped the vacuum on and pushed it over the sizable puddle of green fuel. Once that was done, he took the nozzle off and started… vacuuming the air?

"Uh… what?" Tails raised an eyebrow.

"The stuff vaporizes into the atmosphere in warm conditions –considering the enclosed environment it's obviously still lingering in the air, affecting your so-called friends." 274 explained as he went around the room methodically. "Crack open the windows will you?"

Tails nodded dumbstruck. What kind of fuel was this?

"Any chance of this wearing off anytime soon?" Sonic deadpanned as Amy continued her fit on top of him.

"Give it 5 to 30 minutes. I'm hoping for 30, maybe more." 274 said. Sonic could've sworn the robot had a grin on his face.

Nearly an hour past before everyone returned back to normal. They were all groggy and exhausted afterward though – and topped off with confusion.

"Care to explain why we all got mood-swings the size of Africa?" Chris prodded at the amused metallix. He ignored the question, irritating the human more.

"10-961 not going to wake up anytime soon. He lost too much from the leak, but his systems have stabilized," The metallic rattled off. "Just got to find more and top him off and he should be good to go."

"Now the question continues to be what kind of fuel do you guys run on?!" Tails reiterated.

"Classified."

Tails was fuming.

"We're just trying to help!" Tails said. "We can't help if you don't tell us!"

"You say you 'just want to help', but I know your mobian tricks. You say that, and then you go and use us to further destroy yourselves! Time after time whenever there was a new breakthrough in science someone somewhere tried to hold it above others heads or use it to hurt others all in the name of what? No one ever helps just for 'kindness sake' like you all like to say; no one." Metallix ranted, deep seated fury making itself known.

"Sonic does." Amy tried to point out, but it only aggravated the metallic further.

"No. He. Doesn't." 274 ground out. "He only does it for the thrill or to boost his ego. He doesn't care in the least about others - only himself. And everyone else is a fool for believing otherwise."

"What happens if I prove you wrong?" Sonic quietly said no hint of anger at all on his features. Just… 274 couldn't place the emotion simply because he had never seen it on Sonic before. Not once, not at his friends, not at the people he saved, and certainly not at a metallix like 274. He was baffled, everything here baffled him.

"You won't." 274 bluntly said his conviction – like it was the cold, hard truth. But way deep down, in a part that he dared not dwell, the faintest of a little itty-bitty voice in the furthest corner of processor whispered 'but what if you are?'

"Well I'll try to anyway. But another point here to consider, how are you going to get the fuel? Things cost money and if you try to steal with the back-story we all set up to cover your butt – well we're going to have a lot of problems with the public and it'll slow you down in the end." Sonic explained carefully.

"Our fuel has no price." 274 let slip, but quickly tried to cover it up. "What sort of false backstory?"

Sonic quirked a brow at the metallix.

"So… what does that mean per se?" Sonic pried. "No one sells it? No one CAN sell it? Renewable resource like solar energy and all you have to do is stick yourself out in the sun? Or something your brothers came up with?"

"You can say it's renewable." 274 offered, but failed to elaborate. "Now, if I'm going to get it without problems –"

"It's Chaos Emeralds isn't it?" Sonic cut him off. "' Renewable' but a bit unstable, right? No one sane is going to put that it in their TV remote."

274 internally swore. He forgot that Sonic was deceptively smart – most other Mobians would've been either too stumped, too scared, or simply didn't care enough to ask in the first place. He can't underestimate him and yet he kept doing just that! First during the timeline battle and now here!

"Correction – Chaos energy." 274 fumed. He didn't like how any of this was panning out. Having to stay in their presence alone had been aggravating him and his foul mood hadn't gotten any better with time.

"Alright let's go get some then!" Sonic lit up. "Was that really so hard?"

274's engine sputtered and stalled; as did every other function within his being.

"W..wh-itt.."274 tried to speak, but his processor to voice connection was failing.

"We're going to have to ask Knuckles if we can use the Master Emerald though," Sonic continued uncaring or unfazed by 274's inner conflict. "Chaos Emeralds recently warped away on us."

"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW-" 274's voice glitched further. "-HAAEtT?!