Chapter 6: Metallic Madness and Mayhem

The Memorial Chao Garden had been built thanks to a grant from Prower Global Enterprises, so naturally the place was outfitted with all manner of top-notch security systems, including a direct link to the regional headquarters of GUE. Only seconds after Metal Sonic destroyed the statue, numerous squads were heading towards the park complex. Although Metal Sonic had more than enough time to make his escape and return to undetectable territory, he had a job before him, and wasn't about to leave until he was good and ready.

"C-cha-oooo" the chaos cried out in pain as they were gripped far too tightly by Metal's claws.

Finally, after about twenty minutes of exhaustive data gathering, and the deaths of about a dozen chao, Metal Sonic was able to announce that "Chaos Data...has been copied!"

The last word was deafened, however, by the sound of an authorative voice calling through a megaphone.

"Unregistered droid! This is Lieutenant Barker of the Guardian Units of Earth! We have you surrounded! Deactivate your combat functions and come out with your limbs were I can see 'em!"

A wall of soldiers, combat droids and armoured vehicles surrounded the perimeter of the Garden. Safely behind a pair of hover-tanks, Barker deactivated the megaphone function of his communication button, and patiently counted to thirty under his breath.

"Doesn't look like it's coming out," said Sergeant Smith, second-in-command of this operation.

"'fraid so, Jim," Barker responded.

"You saw what that thing did to those poor people at the studio. I say we send in all three siege droids and level the place, then sort out which bits are bot afterwards."

Barker responded with a cynical laugh. "Are you out of your mind?" he said. "You know who paid for this place, don't you?"

"Cripes, you mean-"

"Yeah! What do you think will happen if Lady Veronica Prower finds out we trashed the place? We'll both get canned, and that's if we're lucky. Trust me, Jim, protecting the public from lunatic droids is one thing, but you do not piss off the fox that's richer and more powerful than God almighty himself."

"Geeze, ease up on the blasphemy, will ya, Rick?" said Smith, cocking an eye brow.

"Anyway, from what I hear, the droid ran away after a fight with a couple of animaloids. If it can barely handle civilian furries, then a dozen of our boys should be more than enough to bring it down. Jim, I want you to take the lead on this one. If things get too hot, then try to lure the droid out here, and we'll smash it to bits with the big guns."

"You can count on me, Rick. But, seriously, you've got to stop with the f-word. You know it's because of slips like that that Captain Vectorson keeps passing you over for promotion."

That clearly struck a nerve. "That's not how you adress your superior officer," Lieutenant Barker answered gruffly. "Now round up your men and get in there!"

Without another word, Sergeant Smith signalled to the squad of soldiers to follow him, as he approached the entrance to the Memorial Chao Garden with his weapon at the ready. Thirteen men and women, elleven humans and two echidnas, went inside. There was a tense moment of silence, then the sounds of combat began. Weapons discharging, minor explosions going off, and people screaming - all of it could be heard by the GUE forces standing by outside the enclosure. Soon there were fewer noises, and finally there were none. As a bead of sweat formed on his forehead, the Lieutenant prepared to give the order to storm the Garden, but before he could open his mouth, he saw his longtime friend and fellow soldier stagger out of the door.

"JIM!" Barker shouted with obvious concern, all grievances forgotten. "What the hell happened in there? Where are the others?"

"Dead!" The sergeant sounded hoarse. "All of them! But I got it, sir, I trashed that tin can myself. Go inside and see for yourself."

Barker ran towards the Garden, dreading the sight of all those dead soldiers. But he never got that far. With his hand on the door handle, the lieutenant stood still, staring ahead with an empty expression. A trikle of blood ran from his mouth, then he fell over dead. Behind him, Sergeant Smith wasted no time turning his firearm on his other fellow GUE members. The shocking betrayal came so suddenly that many fell before any of the military agents could think to retaliate. Bullets hit Smith, only to bounce off as if they'd hit metal. When a GUE droid turned its considerably larger weapons against the turncoat, he jumped out of the line of fire with far greater speed than a human should be able to muster.

By the time Metal Sonic dropped his guise, the mighty attack force sent to apprehend him was crippled. The large combat vehicles that actually posed a threat were too slow to target the supersonic evil twin, and Metal Sonic consciously prioritized their destruction over the lesser threats like the very few remaining flesh-and-blood soldiers.

When the two surviving soldiers dropped their weapons and ran away, Metal Sonic stopped for a second to to observe the gift-wrapped prizes that had been delivered to him. The siege vehicles and GUE droids, all disabled now, were perfect raw material for the first stage of the transformation that would have to take place for Metal to be able to achieve his ultimate goal.

The robot got to work.

-

"You don't understand! I have to help Silver!" Blaze was yelling from the hospital bed.

"No, clearly you don't understand, miss Cat," the nurse argued. "Your new leg has to rest at least a full day before you subject it to any kind of stress, otherwise you might suffer permanent nerve damage!"

The word "permanent" was a left-over term from the old days before it became possible to regrow and replace any part of the body, short of the brain itself. In the sense the nurse was using it, it really just meant "until your next check-up".

"He can't fight Metal alone! I have to-"

At that point, the nurse stuck a sedative in Blaze's arm, and she passed out shortly after. Silver wouldn't be recieving backup for at least another couple of hours.

-

All there was to find outside the Memorial Chao Garden by the time Silver arrived was a lot of dead bodies, and droids and tanks that'd been stripped of all their interior mass. With a sinking feeling, Silver realised that Metal was trying to upgrade himself, and by the looks of things, he was already going to be a much more formidable opponent by the time Silver managed to catch up with him.

Trying not to be sick at the sight of so many mutilated bodies, Silver tried to concentrate on what he could remember from History class in school. Metal Sonic had attempted this exact same thing once before, back in Sonic the Hedgehog's time. If only he could remember how they'd defeated Metal back then.

Rather than spending even more time running only to arrive too late, Silver decided to take the intelligent approach and try to learn more about the nature of the renegade robot. Surely he had to have some weakness or flaw in his programming that could be exploited in order to put a stop to him for good.

Silver hurried towards the nearest Internet cafe. Those business still made a fair amount of money, thanks to the power of nostalgia. Getting a voice-operated Massively-Multimedia Watch was the modern way of accessing information fast, but Silver had never liked those gadgets much.

As paramedics arrived on the scene of the slaughter, an observer should let their vantage point pan out until it was looking down at the city from above the clouds. If so, they might catch a glimpse of a massive blue and silver winged shape. The Metal Overlord was back, but this time the villainous machine had no intention of ending its evolution at that point. Just a little more power, and then the greatest treasure trove of all would be within reach: The artificial satellite belt surrounding Earth.

In the next chapter:
- Shadow gets a call from an old acquaintance.
- Metal Sonic fails to appear in a chapter for the first time.
- Silver inadvertently does an awful lot of foreshadowing.