*PenofOneAnswer819 does not claim rights to any Sega Enterprises or Sonic Team patented characters or material presented within this work of fan-based fiction: All copyright reserved by the rightful and respective owners.*

Metal: *Groans* Where am I?

?: Meeetal…

Metal: Gughh… my head. Who's there?

?: Meeetal… Come back to me.

Metal: Sil-Silv…

?: Metal… ple… come… to me…

Metal: Silvia? You… I…

*Back to reality*

Metal: Suhh… Silivvee? Sohh shaawheat, mie Silvy.

Silver: Metal? Metal, come on! Come back to me!

Metal: Suhhilveeahh… Heh-heh… Maii wut nysss musssclees yeew hazzz…

Silver: Ugh, hey! Okay just… back off! Quit it! 85, what's his deal?

E-85: So it seems his hard drive has suffered some damage due to overheating errors. It's not fatal, but as a result he may piece together fragmented data at random intervals. These may manifest as full blown delusions of people or events triggered by equally random stimuli. Think of it as the robotic equivalent to heat stroke.

Silver: Ehh, yeah so, in other words?

Metal: Yoarr kwillies arreeyyy soh gorgeorgieorgeous!

E-85: He's delirious.

-l-

Return

-l-

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, alright no ‒ stop. Just think, Tails. Think, think, think, THINK!" Tails thought, trembling at the glowing, electrical hand crackling in front of his nose.

He had to admit that this lady had some impressive powers. They were the sort and kind that reminded him of that Shadow fellow; a strange person with even stranger abilities serving as an enemy turned temporary ally before his fatal fall from the Space Colony ARK. Additionally, this girl seemed oddly familiar, in a rather robotic way. Her eyes were subtle, but striking features in the way that their irises shifted color; the process was like watching screens slide sideways over a thin sheet of liquid. Her movements too were somehow more rigid or stilted than a regular mobian.

Aside from her eyes and unnatural motions, the little arcs of energy leaping from her fingertips were also pretty hefty bit of evidence for his 'she's a robot' theory.

Gulping hard, Tails then considered the possibility that this person was all that remained of the captive girl he had seen earlier. Fear was mixed with a sort of pitiable sorrow as he tried to sort out his next move, knowing it could very well be his last. With a number of options rapidly vanishing, Tails impulsively cracked a rather moronic smile without much rational thought.

By good grace or dumb luck, the woman was responsive to his slip of the cheek. At a minimum, her fingers ceased to be electrified, while her vision screens shifted from gold, to red, then over to a soft shade of blue ‒ which he hope and prayed was a good thing. Funnily enough, the new hue was almost reminiscent of his eye color. With a clearer view of her, he saw that several parts of her physical characteristics also made her dead ringer for him; her tail, eyes, tuft of unkempt forehead hair more specifically. Then there were others ‒ markings and fur of which made her look echidna, and hedgehog, and… others too?

Yet not being in the position to full study her, Tails stilled his shaking voice enough to squeak a sentence out; a long one, at that.

"Missyoumayhavesufferedseverebodilytramaduetoforcedcyberneticassimilation." A sentence, yes: A single sentence of pure, incoherent babble, that is. He winced at his faulty communication, realizing that even if he had spoken properly, he would still have overdone it. Not that it mattered now, unless the lady was, even in her modified state, still sane enough to not attack him.

She was staring at him with subtle head tilts of curiosity. What she was curious about, he hoped, did not relate to the flammability of orange fur. Due to the amount of time she spent stalling, Tails began to wonder if she had luckily shorted-out upon premature activation. At least her twisting motions of the neck seemed to be caught in a never-ending loop, so perhaps this was his chance. If he could keep his knees from knocking for a few precious seconds ‒ preferably without triggering an embarrassing accident ‒ he might be able to lob himself up and over for a quick smash to her mechanized braincase. The head was always the weak point with other badniks and doppelganger-esque replicas, so why should she be any different?

Tails got his rattled legs to halt their dance long enough to rise to his feet; a good start, but then he came face-to-face with the newly robotic girl.

Then another thought hit him, harder than a head-on freight train: She was innocent, a victim of Eggman's warped mind and mutilating experiments. How could he hurt her? He remembered Sonic ‒ even the dauntless Sonic ‒ had hesitated when it came down to pulverizing his full metal clone. How then could he justify smashing this girl ‒ who was obviously still very mobian ‒ in the head?

The thought was making him tremble again, not in fear, but in sadness. When it came down to it, making a hard choice like this, he didn't know what to do. Now past his fears, the soft-hearted fox started to cry softly in light of his rapidly vanishing options. Trying so very hard to pinch back his unwillingness to hurt others, he imagined this girl attacking him, hunting down Amy, beating up Knuckles, then Sonic, yes… he saw her saving Sonic for last, with Eggman cruelly looking on with glee.

Suddenly, his little cup of rage bubbled over; Tails, with eyes clamped and teeth clenched, leapt backwards with acrobatic precision. He felt and even saw the girl's renewed electrical stream miss him narrowly as he rebounded off the cold metal floor. Curling into a ball of fury with his two tails lashing behind him, Tails poured the entirety of his kinetic momentum into one potent slam.

L

*Metal's POV*

L

"You can't just go storming around the base, trooper!" 99 stiffly warned Metal, but the hedgehog was having none of it. Insisting that as soon as he found perpetrator and "dragged his empty metal husk back for proof" the record would be set straight. Not surprisingly, Metal also seemed adamant on proving his superiority to this "cheap imposter", still angry that someone else had been passing for him. Though he did wonder what mission 'it' had intercepted on his behalf, he only grew more disgusted at the thought of a fake besmirching his 'flawless' combat record.

99 on the other hand had been withholding his many concerns. He certainly knew by failing to imprison the 'real' ‒ now fugitive ‒ Metal Sonic that he had already flubbed one mission, only to worsen matters by aiding said fugitive in avoiding future incarceration. Still, his many questions regarding the well seen, but yet unaddressed threat infiltrating the base he was in charge of seemed to take precedence. As such, he knew he couldn't afford to have his one link and clue to his case going off and getting himself melted down.

Being both left at an impasse, 99 proposed that Metal would need to do some outside work; tailing a few of these suspicious characters while 99 handled any on site investigations. Metal angrily objected to this plan, even stubbornly claiming that he wouldn't cooperate until he knew this 'Silvia', or the Prototype, was still intact. 99 obliged by showing him official records detailing orders to have the Prototype 'confined until further notice'.

As an additional act of trust, the large general even promised to provide Metal with a way of monitoring the safety of the Prototype at all times. The clone genuinely softened at the mention of such a device, while 99 himself cringed for having ever brought it up. Knowing he could lose more than his title over such a small thing, he nevertheless handed Metal a small plug-in device that only base executives were allowed access to. The device ‒ while normally containing detailed information on every serial-coded machine on base ‒ was unique in that it seemed only capable of tracking robots under an 'unlisted' category sheet. Upon integrating the universal data tracker, Metal was indeed relieved to have picked up Silvia's sparsely profiled status grid. While she seemed to be operating slightly above normal capacity, her statistics were well within the normal range. 99 assured Metal that while the device was relatively vague, he would easily be alerted to any distress signals released by any of her onboard safety modules. As an example, the general explained that these readings went rather haywire during Metal's last mission with her.

Curious at such a topic being brought up; Metal asked "99, I need to know, do you know what happened? I thought Sil-the Prototype and I were only on a simple recon mission. I was under the impression that our mission ended in failure, but has there been any official word as to why?"

99 shook his head without much of reply "I only read official reports, and nothing has been posted prior to or following your detainment. Legally, it's as though your mission never took place." He seemed to be avoiding the topic for confidentiality's sake ‒ believing his right to such information was only to be provided on a need-to-know basis ‒ yet in this instance, Metal felt he was likely telling the truth. It made sense, given that no reports were requested and so no official record was kept. Mission failure was the expected excuse, but to have no record at all was still suspicious to say the least; it suggested that the mission was never meant to be documented in the first place.

Even so, satisfied with the assurance of Silvia's safety, Metal calmly but begrudgingly became slightly more comfortable around his base commander. It bothered him that he found himself being used again, but understood the logic of two working as one towards the same goals. It baffled him how these odd occurrences in the base could all be connected; yet go so blatantly unnoticed by their master. Not that he had the least bit of faith in his creator. Rather, it simply seemed strange that a ragtag group of rogues could have been allowed to run amok for so long. Given that E-99's investigation dated back to the founding of this base, it proved the beyond negligence and incompetence on Eggman's part.

While meaning to discuss this with 99 later, Metal was soon to be swept up into a new, albeit unofficial set of assignments. Everything would be off any kept record, thus whoever the imposter was would be indeed passing for his real self for the duration of Metal's investigation. 99 had to kill part, if not the sole shred of joy in this mission when he stated that "assassinations and violent confrontation are not conducive to a formal investigation".

"How dull." Metal moaned, nevertheless excited to be returning to action soon. Sitting around was a feature not included in his mental network, and even dull jobs served to abate his rising boredom.

"Don't forget, soldier," 99, oh so flat-headedly reminded him "You and I are on the same side; remember, while Eggman is master here, there are others who respect and admire you. Not one fool's scrap of iron on this base dares forget the title of Metal Sonic. It isn't given lightly, and I want to see you live up to it."

"All the more reason to stop the pretender." Metal replied, indignant to the object now being waved about in front of his nose "Now get that tin can out of my face and onto my head, before I change my mind and you wind up dead!"

"How poetic, little limb-lopper." The general's patronizing tone truly grated his core "But try to remember what I said: E-85, that Prototype and a whole mess of troops and recruits have your back. The truth is we're all starting to like you, kid. Just don't let it go to your head."

While exiting the room, again, by way of that accursed bucket strapped to his quills, Metal scoffed. He no interest in what others thought of him, or in titles given by incompetent masters. Still, as an independent mind who didn't quite yet know his way, it somehow, on some level, helped knowing that someone was for him. If only a little something, it was still something. Not that he would be caught dead saying that aloud.

"Yeah, yeah, can we go now?" Was all he actually said; yet even for Metal, sometimes a couple of things still slip under the radar "And thanks."

L

*Egg Base: Under Halls*

L

"Where is he?" The construction tape colored robot asked rather neurotically. His urging concerns were obviously causing his compatriots annoyance, as all ignored or hissed and shook their metallic heads at him.

The entire entourage of the rouge network rarely gathered in one place for long, and for honest reasons as to why; Eggman and his moronic lackeys were clumsy fools to be sure, but they still extensively outnumbered the unique minded dissenters. Enough roused suspicion and their efforts would be exposed.

This meeting was due to some complications, as they had recently lost contact with him. The one they referred to was not just their leader, but also their collective savior. He had rescued each of them from Eggman's wasteful disposal time and time again, even affording their kind false identities and serial numbers under their false master's ranks. He was a hero to most, rival to some, and even a friend to others. All agreed, whether they envied or admired him that there was something figuratively magnetic about him. His unstable mind, yet undeniable ability to guide and protect them was rightfully feared end revered.

"It doesn't matter how long." The mantis-like E-38's tone hissed calmly "We will await his return, and then, we will decide how and when to strike." Whirring with a violent shudder, the same robot then seemed to be quivering with excitement as it continued "Just the thought of those oily pawns being beautifully split in two thrills me to the core."

"I regret to say I agree with you, depraved as you are." Another, more basic military vanguard unique added with a sickened discharge of steam "How much longer will we have to bide our time? I say we nuke this soft shelled base from the inside out and corner that pudgy controller at once."

"And risk getting that grey animal thing up on our backsides? No way, I don't want that furred freak burning a hole through my chest. That's not how I want to go out, not me." A third unique shuddered at his crude and faulty memory of the Prototype, much to the general agreement of the small council.

"Don't forget about that other hedgehog fake too; the one that the boss has such a problem with." A fourth brought up Metal, earning now aggressive shout of agreement from the crowd. Each spat a number of noisy insults regarding the non-present Sonic copy, some to an extent that even bordered on the obsessive.

"Just another worthless Eggman goon! Toss 'em all in the scrap yards!"

"That fraud thinks he can march his way in here and steal all the glory?"

"No, don't believe the whispers of little people." Another, more assertive voice called out from the shadows "While his dashing blue figure has charmed the hearts of simpletons, Eggman has already petitioned for his destruction."

"Yeah, so he said, but now our leader's gone missing! How do you explain that?"

"That little blue wretch needs to be dealt with NOW, not in Eggman's time!"

"I'll believe it when I see it. Nothing Eggman says can be trusted."

The one who had originally spoke, once again hushed the room with his sternly sober tone "How do you think our esteemed leader came to be missing? He has been captured, mistaken for the latest Sonic fraud who, as our true master has already explained, had originally been the one to be sentenced to death by way of a suicide mission."

The assembly almost blew the 'secret' part of their council with cries of anger and disbelief ‒ one being even careless enough to discharge its firearms. Many denied or combated the strong claim with the unsavory type of replies expected of a less than refined group. Still in all, a few in the know quietly accepted the truth with little to no reaction; among these being the elusive E-38, who was next in line to speak.

"Do you lack such faith in our delightful master, little minions?" 38 teased, seemingly disappearing and reappearing around the room as it spoke "Surely, you don't believe that grotesque buffoon of a tasteless doctor to be capable of a scheme deadly enough to seal our leader's fate?"

The room of gathered irregulars offered no reply, leaving the floor to 38 once again "I tell you the truth, our protector will return soon, and with him, he will bring knowledge of our next move." 38 then swiftly moved the far side of the dim room to light up a display. As its audience lay transfixed on the screen, which 38 narrated "Our plans, until then, remain unchanged. We have a copy of our lovely leader's blueprints to reclaim, a prototype to dismantle, and a bargaining chip to secure." At the words 'bargaining chip' it pointed to a silent containment capsule, seemingly secured in a location without coordinates.

"We have our orders." The more dominating voice took over, scanning its sharp gaze across the dark room "Now we require volunteers. Who among you is brave enough to take the first steps towards conquering the Eggman Empire in the name of our true master, the lord of all machines?"

From one end of the shaded chamber to the other echoed their powerful cries of affirmation. Except one, which following their many shouts, added in familiar voice "May our emancipation operation be successful."

The former primary speaker turned with the rest to face and greet the late arrival.

"Good to have you return to us safely, sir."

-l-

End of Chapter Thirty-two

-l-

As always, I'm still posting, even if a bit later than expected. More mysteries of this mess to be resolved next chapter XD

Until next time!