The possibility of a security alarm was inevitable, seeing as they are on a high tech airship flying aimlessly in the sky, not caring in the world to where it's going. Things need to go smoothly if Shadow were to get anything out of this ship, he even had Omega double-check to see if there were any traps laid around the aircraft.

Stealth was not one of Shadow's strong suits, making him wish that Rouge were here with them, then she would've already led them to whoever is commandeering the flying ship. He doesn't have time to dwell on about that, though, and continued infiltrating deeper into the aircraft with Omega behind him.

But as they ventured further, something that Shadow had thought before breaking in was starting to bug him. The fact that Omega scanned the area for any robots and came out negative disturbed the black hedgehog but brushed it off, now it's getting on his nerves. He began to note the inside of the ship was old, left behind like it was nothing but garbage. Lights were flickering on and off, visible cobwebs on the corners of the ceiling, and the amount of dust seen of the floors.

Omega took the hint of the ship's condition, "It seems they did not bother to tidy this airship, should I take note of this?" The robot asked as quietly as they or he, can. Shadow furrowed his brow and lowered his eyes, thinking about it and nodded a yes, prompting Omega to use the ship's quality and age as a clue.

Before turning a corner, Shadow leaned over the wall and cocked his gun, ready to fire and waited for Omega to give him the go. But then the robot seemed to have shifted strangely and looked surprised, Shadow saw this and lowered his gun, "What's wrong?" He asks impatiently.

"There appears to be something wrong with the ship, the power source at first was at the power room of this aircraft, but now it looks like it has appeared at the control room, " Omega's head then turned towards the corner, " which is right around the corner." Shadow's eyes widened and immediately, he took a quick peek around the corner and there, he saw a dark figure standing in the control room with large wires attached to him.

Shadow narrowed his eyes and began to power himself with Chaos energy, Omega got the gesture and already dove into the scene headfirst, shooting at the dark figure, not holding back. This person, however, seems to be unaffected by the bullets and instead, the flying pieces of iron merely ricocheted from its skin.

The figure thrusts his sharp and metallic fingers towards Omega, but they did no damage whatsoever to him, this gave Shadow enough time to throw a spear of pure chaos energy at the robot as it was hit back at the wall. Omega stepped back, now fighting side by side with Shadow, whose gaze turned into shock because of the one they're fighting, was the same Metal Sonic who attacked him back at the water base.

"You again... Water alone isn't enough to beat you?"

"Shadow, you know who this robot is?"

The hedgehog just kept his eyes on the metal duplicate of his rival as it stood up from his attack, but still spoke to Omega anyway, "Yes, at one of Eggman's bases, I fought him but I had to leave immediately." Before they can continue talking, Metal ran up to Shadow and tried to stab him straight away, this didn't come to a surprise to Shadow since he was fast enough to dodge such an obvious attack like that.

But even though they were focused on fighting, Omega decided to scan Metal but luck was not on his side when the robot not only reacted fast but decided to target Omega's head. Fortunately, Shadow used to his hover shoes to give his leg a boost to kick Metal away from the E-robot. "Don't stand by so idly, Omega."

"I have a reason. There's awfully strange about this Metal Sonic, I have to keep scanning him for more information."

Shadow nodded and began to face off once more with Metal Sonic, but not just to defeat the robot and use this ship to good use, also to buy Omega enough time to get a full scan on Metal. Either way, they'll get more info from both options. "Time for a rematch. You aren't Sonic exactly, but this will do for now..."

Back at the lab, Tails was taking a closer look at the goop from Sonic's tracker under a microscope to know more about it. Even though Shadow had already got it checked out, for some reason, there was something about it that was nagging Tails that really grinds his gears and finally gave in to his curiosity.

Just then, Amy came out of Rouge's room with a big smile on her face, Tails looked at her and saw her smile, "You're awfully cheery, did something happen in there?" Tails asked, but his stance did not change and went back to what he was doing while Amy walked over to him. "Something good! Rouge really is a cool person once you get to know her."

"That's nice..." The young fox said before trailing off, his focus instantly switching back to checking the goo, but what caught his eye was that there was something up with the way the contagious virus operates. He squinted, looking closely at the components of the virus down to the tiniest details.

Amy noticed his expression change drastically and crept closer, wanting to look at whatever he's doing, "Tails, did you find something?" She asked in an interested manner, looking at the petri dish with a curious stare. Tails couldn't hear Amy ask, with him deeply thinking about what he had discovered. "N-no way..."

"Huh? Tails, snap out of it...!" The pink hedgehog shook Tails violently, snapping him from this shocking revelation. But that didn't stop him from looking incredibly worried, this prompted Amy to stop herself and let go of the fox. Tails, who was now shaking, tried to lift his arm and grab his chair, sitting down once he had it in his grasp. "Well? What is it?"

"Th-that goop we found on Sonic's tracker... It has a very complex... Makeup from what is normally found from a normal virus, this one was created through nanotechnology, which itself is highly advanced, " Calming himself a little, Tails looked over at the petri dish with a still look on his face. "But what really stood out to me was that the way it was made, it seems to infect the brain than the body itself. "

Amy took a step back and rubbed her chin, her eyes lowered until it viewed to the floor, she was thinking about it, "So this virus only infects the brain... What if, WHAT IF... Eggman has something in store for Sonic... Something big?" Before Tails can even respond back, the door behind them swing open and hit the wall loudly that it already caught Tails and Amy's attention.

It was Rouge, but she seemed to have changed into her jumpsuit, her posture looked confident, almost like she walked out of a battle unscathed. She looked directly at the two with fire in her eyes, "Where's Shadow?" She asked like nothing was wrong, but the tone of her voice was filled with concern, her breath hitched for a second but went back to normal afterward.

Amy stood there shocked but didn't waste any time dawdling and ran up to Rouge with a look of worry, "Rouge, you shouldn't be out of your bed, heck, you shouldn't be walking around!" The pink hedgehog said and tries to leas the white bat back to the bed, but Rouge held her ground, Amy wasn't able to pull her back to the bedroom.

"Rouge, what are you-"

"I'm fine now... I don't have time to stay in bed, I have to find Shadow," Rouge demanded, suddenly yelling at Amy and escaped her grip harshly, walking up to Tails. "Where the heck is Shadow?"

"Rouge, calm down! If you're really feeling fine, then I'll tell you where he is and some new info I got-" Suddenly, Tails' computer beeped and the three whipped their heads towards the monitor.

"Chaos Spear!" The spear was able to damage Metal, but it was only a dent as the robotic hedgehog made its move by kicking Shadow away. But Shadow caught its foot before it could hit him and threw it away from him as he fell back with Omega by his side. "Well, did you do it?"

"Yes, the scan is complete. There is something you should know about this Metal Sonic..."

"What-"

Metal clawed through the two but clearly missed and Shadow and Omega took a step back before going into a fighting stance, "We have to knock him out cold, he's the core of this entire ship, we can't destroy him yet." Shadow said and used a spin dash right at Metal's face, but the robot grabbed Shadow using nothing but its bare, however, the black hedgehog released himself from his attack and kicked Metal on its chin. The robot was sent flying but was able to simply fall back with a red glow in its eyes.

"Roger, immobilize Metal Sonic, not destroy him."

"Good, let's go!" The two then both attacked Metal at the same time with bullets flying around from Omega's arsenal to Shadow launching chaos energy-like bullets, but Metal Sonic took the hits and strikes back with a spin dash of his own, aiming at Omega first.

Shadow reacted fast and punched Metal away from Omega, summoning a chaos spear from his right hand, he immediately jabs the powerful weapon onto Metal's head. Already worrying that he might've done the opposite of what he was supposed to do, Metal Sonic began to only malfunction from the spear's impact, since it was still stuck in his head.

But then, something unexpected happened while the spear was still in the head, something that Shadow had not expected and what Omega had hoped to have warned Shadow about beforehand. Because of the flickering lights, it was definitely hard to see, but upon closer inspection, there a liquid was slowly pouring out of Metal's head. It seemed to only be one drop, but what took Shadow by surprise was the color of the liquid...

Red. Blood Red.

At that one instant, the whole world just dropped on Shadow, like a huge revelation had occurred to him a little too late. He tried to process from what he saw and felt, but it all pointed to one conclusion. The black hedgehog didn't wanna believe such a thing, the whole idea was insane in and of itself.

As he stood there, still shocked, Metal was still able to stand up with those cold dead look in its eyes, seeing Shadow with a look of panic on his face. The cold robot took this opportunity and just a split second, was already in front of Shadow, ready to stab the ebony hedgehog right then and there.

Shadow was too occupied with his thoughts to dodge Metal's attack fast enough, Omega was trying to push Shadow out of the way but he was out of Shadow's reach. Both not having enough time and the truth behind Metal becoming nothing but a buried secret once more, Shadow resorted to using Chaos Blast to get them out of this situation.

But then...

Metal was kicked down by someone, the kick itself packed a whole lot of punch to it since it was strong enough to make a hole below Metal Sonic as the robot fell down the floor level beneath them. Shadow gritted his teeth but his expression was nothing but confusion written all over his face until the person who attacked Metal landed in front of him.

He sighed, "Rouge..." He said, out of breath as the white bat turned around and gave Shadow that cheeky smile of hers, it ricked the black hedgehog. "What are you doing here?"

"Here to help you and Omega, duh. You two looked like you needed help."

"We were able to handle a few scratches."

"Yet you sent me to bed because of that very reason." The two glared at each other for a little whole before they were disturbed by Metal Sonic leaping from the lower floor and jumped back to the battle, more menacing than before, "This place is about to collapse, whoever this Metal Sonic is, he doesn't have enough power to keep this thing up in the air."

Shadow turned to Rouge, surprised to learn that she had caught up with the situation that he and Omega are in. "How did you-"

"Save it, Shadow. We'll have a little talk after this, " Before Metal can even attack, Rouge spread her wings and flew fast until she was at least an inch away from Metal Sonic and with just one kick, sent the robot duplicate flying and hitting the wall. "How about we all attack this time? Been a while since we used that attack."

Catching her drift, Shadow and Omega nodded and ran up to her, with the three now facing off the incredibly strong Metal Sonic, who looked angered and is bursting with energy. Rouge flew upon on Omega's shoulder while Shadow focused his chaos power, reconfiguring it with Omega's cannons.

"Chaos Inferno!!!"

A/NI'm not completely satisfied with the right scenes, next time I'll probably edit it and make it more intense.