PoC: Nothing new except for this chapter, which is guilty of harboring characters PenFullofChaos819 declares no ownership of.

Metal: *Claps* Thank you for sharing the obvious with us for the thirteenth time. To commemorate this most un-momentous occasion, I've taken the liberty of reading a few of your future plans, which I will now publically expose.

PoC: No Met, I want to surprise everyone. Keep your trap shut until I say otherwise.

Metal: Oh come on, you already mentioned it in your last chap, so why not? Afraid you might fall short of your reviewer's expectations?

PoC: What part of "surprise" don't you get? I won't say it again: Keep…your…gob…SHUT.

Metal: Oh-ho getting gutsy are we? Looks like I'll have to knock you out for that insult. Do I feel sorry for you *Charges PoC*.

PoC: Hmph, I'll just erase you from my notes 'til you cool off *Mashes Backspace key*.

Silver: METAL, POC! I just heard the news!

PoC: No Silver!

Met: Let me do it!

Silver: PoC has officially exited his hiatus! He will now be updating Reason and his other deleted works!

Met: Urrrrrgh! And I got half-erased just to say it!

PoC: *Sigh* Yeah it's true, but I don't think it's that big a deal.

-l-

Plan

-l-

The world was coming back to him, slowly and in pieces. Little fragments of light were gradually picked up by his blurred optics. It was reminiscent of his de-active days, the days he'd spent watching and waiting for that small glimmer of light. Unlike his origins, Metal could still feel and think, thus he could remember the most recent events that had transpired. He'd been betrayed and likely captured by the enemy, which was no doubt a second-rate band of human scum. Any awakening he had in store would be a rude one.

When at last he 'opened' his eyes, unhindered beams flashed in them causing a temporary photo-overload. Attempting to shield himself was useless as something bound him in a reclined position. This was mostly just an annoyance, as he was certain there would be a chance for escape sooner or later. It made him wonder how stupid these humans must be if they really thought they had captured him. Easing his thoughts, Metal scanned the room for hostilities. To his amazement, the only thing that could qualify for a threat, and a minor one at that, would be the security camera in the room's right-hand corner. Other than that, the place had nothing but clean white walls with un-grouted white tile floor to match. A single large window gave view into the adjacent office-like establishment. In all, the place reminded him very much of the medical wing back at the Egg-base, which, by extension, made the atmosphere quite peaceful despite these dismal circumstances.

After taking time to survey his situation, Metal heard the faint sound of an automatic door sliding open. He sighed at the silly things that would follow his personal encounter with whoever it was. They'd likely try to rough him up for answers, hook him up to a device for torture, or some other manner of human nonsense. Eggman had been quite vivid about his description of these military humans:

"Remember Metal, should you ever be caught, those idiots from G.U.N. or A.I.M. will do anything to get you to reveal my location. If that time ever comes, I advise you to never drop your guard. They may be dumb, ogre-like fools with no understanding of my scientific genius, but they are ruthless. No telling what kind of dents, blows, or shocks you might take if they ever got a hold of you."

The warning hadn't frightened or unnerved Metal in the least. In fact, he was almost curious to see just how far these arrogant humans would go to get what they want. Calmly remembering he had a mission to fulfill, and some revenge to exact, he held his quizzical nature at bay. He relaxed his metallic body in his seat, as if he hadn't noticed the restraints at all, giving off a very confidant appearance. The unseen human, who had apparently been busy chatting with another, made his entrance at last. Unlike what Metal was expecting, the man appeared to be in his fifties, made evident by the subtle wrinkles in his cheeks and the grey in his hair. His eyes shone with unsurpassed wisdom and some trace amounts of long-hidden mental scars. The uniform he wore was decorated with a great number of small multi-colored badges that Metal was unfamiliar with. In obvious summary, he certainly didn't look dumb or ogre-like at all.

"Metal Sonic I presume?" the man inquired in a quiet, but remarkably commanding, voice "I am Commander General Bryant of A.I.M.; I believe we have already unofficially made each other's acquaintance."

Metal didn't much care for the greeting, but his observation skills were rather intriguing. In addition, the man he was speaking to was clearly used to dealing with many prisoners, and likely wasn't the least bit deterred by Metal's disrespectful silence. Or perhaps he figured Metal couldn't respond and therefore merely introduced himself as a formality.

Letting out an open-mouthed sigh, the general once again spoke "I know you are responsible for the death of at least one of my men, and for the seizure of several confidential blueprints." Metal listened to these read-off facts without much interest as the high-ranking man continued "It has come to my knowledge that you have been recently dispatched here on another 'secret' mission, have you not?"

Metal hated the general's emphasis on 'secret'. It was as if he knew about the intended attack all along, maybe was even prepared for it. This was distressing, considering the plan hadn't been formed more than a few days ago at best. Could they have hacked into Eggman's mainframe and somehow sniffed out his schemes? Nonsense, how could a bunch of simple-minded humans accomplish such a feat? Then again, Eggman, who is a human himself, wasn't the most careful of people. It wasn't impossible to think he had made a critical error.

"I see what they say about you is true." General Bryant broke the hardened hedgehog's thoughts "You are indeed a 'machine that, peculiarly, wears some clear signs of emotion on its shoulder'." his square jaw pulled up into a faint smile, which soon faded into a grimace as he proceeded "I admit you do exhibit a number of strikingly human characteristics, but that does not change your inherent heartless nature. Tell me, robot, if you can feel emotion; are you aware that the good man you killed had a family?"

Family? What the heck was that? And how would it be affected by that weak soldier's death? Metal didn't make the connection as nothing in his data could tie the word 'family' in with anything related to death. Not aware of what the general expected as a response, Metal shrugged in his usual, uncaring manner.

"That concept is foreign to you I see." Bryant guessed once seeing his captive's body language "However, then I must ask why you took his family photograph if you didn't understand what it was?"

Photograph… Breaking the word in two, Metal attempted to decipher the meaning. Photo, meaning light, graph meaning table, display, or capture was the best he could find. It was hard to match the first two, so he paired the latter, being capture, with the word 'light'. Light-capture… That still didn't make any sense. 'Oh yes hi Mr. Killer robot, have you seen my dead soldier's family light-capture? No? Welp, my mistake!'

"I have one of my own family you see." reaching into a hidden pouch on his vest, the human commander pulled forth a highly recognizable rectangle of that strangely elastic paper. Metal couldn't see his own red irises widen in surprise, but even if he had he would've made no effort contain it. It was quite a worthy cause for surprise.

Once Metal did break his memory-triggering daze, he opened his cache reservoir and pointed. The commander was initially somewhat startled by Metal's sudden reaction, but eventually approached the hedgehog, albeit with caution.

"I didn't know what it was when I found it." Metal confessed, speaking for the first time "You may take it, I have no use for it." as the human approached, he recoiled slightly "On one condition: Tell me everything about it."

The general nodded and reached into the cache, pulling out the now-dirty, but still mostly intact, picture. Stepping away from the machine, Bryant confirmed the photograph's contents with another nod.

"This is the one." he said, seemingly to someone not present "Just as you said he could be a great asset to us. I permit you to start your examination, but not until the other Eggman robot is destroyed." he seemingly finished talking as he made steps toward the door.

Hearing his words, Metal strained and thrashed violently against his bonds "You! Human! You said you'd tell me what that is!" he demanded of the high-ranking officer, who offered a callous glare in response.

"You want to know? Take a look." Bryant spat, flinging the picture back into Metal's lap "It's a picture of people a good man, a good friend, can never go back to, thanks to you." Metal's eyes looked down at the people shown in the photo "Unlike you, we humans have loved ones that wait for us, that support us every day until we come home. Now that family will no longer have someone to wait for."

The words of the mildly-angered man didn't adhere to Metal's mind instantly, mainly because he had nothing to relate with. What was the meaning of 'having someone to wait for you'? What was the point? Weren't these humans just here to fulfill their assigned tasks, like he was? Why then did they keep a reminder like this 'photo' on them?

It didn't make any sense. After all, it's not like anyone was waiting for him…

Coming to grips with the situation, Metal chose to ignore the man's words for now, in lieu of making his overdue escape. Summoning a fierce blast of jet-powered propulsion, Metal snapped out of his bonds with a sheering crack of the clasps that once held him. The sudden burst of speed was a bit much as Metal had embedded his arm in the chalk-white wall to steady himself. Metal cockily rubbed his nose while leaning on the damaged wall, his smug face seemingly saying 'Are you really surprised?' to the stunned human.

Fear, but no ounce of hesitation, shone on the general's face as he drew his sidearm. The sad cries of 'freeze' and 'stay where you are' hardly meant a thing to Metal. He merely smacked the great flesh-officer into the next room. Seeing the human was injured, but not dead, Metal passed over Bryant's hurt body with disinterest as he tried to get the door open. The doppelganger's disinterest shifted to wrath as soon as he felt a few 9mm rounds ricochet off his well-defended skull. While the gunfire clearly posed no threat, Metal's systems were programmed to retaliate against any sort of threat, be it minimal or otherwise. Grabbing the collar of the man's fancy uniform, the devilish hedgehog hoped to intimidate the man into submission. Like the unlucky soldier before him though, the general only replied by firing a proximal shot, slightly cracking Metal's left eye shield. Feeling his emotions, mainly anger, surfacing in face of this defiance, Metal crushingly gripped the man's wrist, causing a restrained grunt of agony to escape the trained general's lips.

Once the gun had fallen, Metal thought about finishing the job, no doubt a wise move should he ever be forced to encounter A.I.M. again. His icy hard gaze set down on the man, who was by now wincing with gritted teeth, in deep contemplation. Was it worth it? Killing this man as he lay defenseless? He wasn't exactly above cold-blooded murder, not that he knew the difference between that and a fair kill, so why not? Eliminate this foe and proceed on with his mission.

Considering these obvious facts, Metal couldn't understand why he should hesitate…

… And so he didn't.

Raising the shaken human higher, he stretched his arm and drove the poor man right through the large window bordering the two rooms.

Metal then cracked the same hand against the sliding door and growled "If you are powerless to pick yourself up, then you are unfit to return to those that care for you. Weakness is the greatest vice, general. You and that other coward have only yourselves to blame for your deaths." under the pressure of his terrifying strength the door gave way, allowing the sinister Metal his ill-earned freedom "It's been fun, but if you'll excuse me I have another weakling to dispose of."

He exited the room quickly, too quickly to hear the sound of a faint aching moan.

L

*Egg-base: Landing Zone*

L

Quite charming, was her opinion on her newly-appointed job. No really, to go from cold dark and lonely to red-hot and sweaty, could this 'Eggman' be any more disgusting? Sans the sight of his poorly managed blubber of course? Silvia thought not. Truly, what sick man would make her work in these conditions without proper protection? Checking to her right, she could see her sludge-loving camaraderie tackling the job without a qualm in the world. Actually, they seemed to enjoy bathing the excess pile of scum-covered junk in their grimy mop water. Silvia turned green and looked away as E-69 decided to take a literal bath in the bucket of tainted fluids.

It had come to her as a shock when the doctor called her up right after her very successful job, only to plague her with another even longer task! What had she done wrong to deserve it? How could their short conversation have been grounds enough to confine her to such a place?

"He cannot be serious!" she retched while picking up her next 'customer'. It was a scum-covered grease pan, or at least that's what it looked like. Realistically, it was hard to tell with all the…stuff that was caked and crusted on its every corner. Worse yet it stank, and to high hell at that. No amount of scrubbing or mopping would take that rank smell away.

"I'll bet it doesn't come off of fur easily either." she choked out, but resumed scrubbing none the less. She'd just about had a grip on the sticky situation, until a thick chunk of…something slipped off the object's top…

…and right into her face.

Spitting and sputtering at the mere contact, the poor hybrid desperately tried to rub the unknown, possibly poisonous, substance away from her mouth. Grossed out beyond sanity, Silvia rushed over to her bucket, gladly tossing the mystery meat in with its wretched brethren. Sitting down for a moment to catch her breath, the prototype pulled out her little doll friend.

"I can't…" she gasped with some restrained sadness "I can't do this anymore, I just can't! He said to come back whenever I got tired, but what did he mean? I'll bet he wants to make me do something even more disgusting! What do you think?"

The doll just stared back with its vacant, but somehow comforting, black beads for eyes. Hugging it gently, Silvia began carefully planning her next move. She would have to go back, but what would she say when she got there? What she really wanted was someone trustworthy to talk to, if only for a minute.

"But…he isn't back yet." that fact hit harder than the rank smell and pain of all her work combined. How she could have been so drawn to him in such a short span of time was…strange, even to her. She originally assumed it was his personality, but now it seemed to be more. It was like she had known him her whole life, which she technically had, only in a more figurative sense.

At this time of extreme self-doubt and lack-luster confidence, Silvia's attitude suddenly took an uphill swap "Hmph! Well, whatever. If he's just going to take forever with his mission, then I'll figure something out without him! That'll show him I'm not just someone's burden to carried around, right doll?" she smiled at the expressionless puppet "You know, I really need to think up a name for you, but that will have to wait. I have a trick that just might fool that big ol' Egghead."

Grinning deviously, Silvia looked around to see if she had a sufficient audience. There were too few at the moment, but it would have to do. Setting herself in position, she commenced her plan's first phase…

By crying out in the loudest, most pitiful scream she could muster.

Getting the immediate notice of 69 and 57 was mandatory, but soon she had a whole crowd coming over to check on her. Finding her to be unresponsive, and presumably damaged, a strong worker, nearly as big as 99, picked her up and rushed towards the medical wing in all haste.

"Hee-hee!" she giggled mentally "Phase one is now complete. Now, if can only get some real help when I'm alone." clutching the doll tightly in her little hands, Silvia remembered to keep up her flawless 'dead' act.

L

*Egg-base: 3-3 Laboratory*

L

Patting himself on the proverbial back, Eggman happily waited while his plan took effect. It wouldn't do to have the dear prototype wanting to back out on a mission so vital, so he added some extra…incentive. She could take up his cruel task in exchange for permanent leave from her current duties. A simple ploy he so devised upon chatting with her in person.

"She's a tough one." he said whilst twisting his beard (or perhaps nose)-hair "Reminds me of that brat Amy…no maybe more of a punk, like that stupid echidna. Hmm…no she's much smarter than she looks. She better not start acting like that accursed fox-boy! Oooh! Sometimes I hate him as much as that stinking hedgehog!" he snarled, recalling his few recent battles with the one called 'Tails'. The name alone was enough to make him gag. To be bested be an eight-year-old, and smart-mouthed one at that, was about as bad as his days got. Trying to put aside some humiliating memories, Eggman wrapped his thoughts again around the prototype "I wonder what kind of trouble she'll give me? Heh-heh! Probably not as much as she'll give Sonic! Erm…the non-Metal one of course." he added to the audience.

Hopping, not rolling, with a tray in hand, Orbot approached his preoccupied master with high-spirits "Your eggnog doctor." he said dutifully, setting the drink at the doctor's side.

Rotating his head slowly toward the beverage, then down to his assistant, then back to the drink, finally to his assistant one last time; the mad scientist picked up the milky drink and tossed it all over his slave "Idiot! I told you to never, NEVER give me anything with alcohol in it! My doctor said my liver is suffering enough as it is!"

Gently wiping the dripping remnants of the spilled contents off his armor, Orbot replied in a very patron-like manner "You do realize that not all eggnog has alcohol mixed with it. And that…" he stopped to point towards the wet floor "Was one such exception. I regret to inform you that your hepatologist was quite frank about your fatty liver disease. He stated more than just alcohol is involved, ergo you threw away a perfectly good drink, ergo the problem wasn't neutralized, ergo when did you start caring about your health?"

Infuriated, Eggman stood up and cracked his knuckles menacingly "Oh around the time I started smashing your head in, ergo I'm about to kill you, ergo your life is forfeehhehhhEHHHAAAHH!" Eggman shouted as the booby trap underfoot aided him in taking a face dive into the soppy mess below.

Orbot, unable to help himself, broke out in hysterical laughter "Looks like the 'egg' is on your face after all! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" this was all he was able to get out as the raging Eggman was soon after him, and in boiling hot pursuit.

-l-

End of Chapter Thirteen

-l-

Immensely long, but worth it (I hope). Not much for me to add personally. Oh except what I said before. 'Reason' is to be updated soon and all.

Serenity: Yep, 72's an evil jerk to be sure. Sorry, I like my suspense too much XD.

DanceDream: In excelsis de-oooo! Tell me, do you always sing with the radio (cuz I know do…um sometimes XD). Heh, yup I likes my 72's bad. Yup Eggman does have a big, bad plan (actually it's pretty slick by his standards) but in true PoC fashion he…hasn't revealed it yet! I know, I know, bad Pen bad…HATE ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART! Whoa shtuff! Where did that…? Uhh… Guess I've been playing Dissidia too much (hence the random quote DX). Oh he does have USE for her, rest assured! *evil chuckle* Hey hey HEY! Maybe I like getting all riled up about mah lateness! XD Nah, but you know me, I take my integrity seriously. C&D is my favorite part of writing! Huh? Harry, Frank, or M&M? OH WAIT! I getz it now! I…think so anyway? :D Glad you're excited! I hear ya. End of my semester and I still have a lot of church activity to catch up on (you're talking to this year's bona fide soloist! Not…that that's saying much XD).

Infamousplot: Take your time. This stuff isn't as serious as real life, obviously. I'll be waiting for your reply. Hang in there Infamous :)

Super Shadix 520: Thanks! To answer your question, I will soon and very soon. I THOUGHT about hinting to them in this chap, but I felt Metal and Silvia needed a bit more time (mainly Silvia) to develop. Not to worry, next chap you'll be seeing a veeeery familiar face (In the words of the Green Troll: Very related to Sonic Heroes, you could say hee-hee-hee! XD)

Until next time (Tuesday that is)!