A black hedgehog fell out of the chamber. Chains were shackled to his legs and wrists and there was a red ring around his waist that glowed.
"Ah Shadow, you look tired. Have you've been getting enough sleep?" Magnus asked. Shadow looked up and lunged at Magnus but he stood just out of Shadow's grasp. Shadow fell back on the ground, tired after the very brief attack.
"If only I had all of my power," Shadow said. Magnus waved his hand in boredom.
"Yes, Yes. You would rip me apart. However Shadow, thanks to that ring around your waist. You don't even have half of your power at your disposal. If even if you did manage to get a hold of me. I doubt you could do any sort of real damage," Magnus sat down in front of Shadow.
"So what do you want this time?" Shadow asked. Magnus removed his glasses, wiped them off on his coat then put them back on.
"I wanted to know what you knew about a hedgehog named Vance," Shadow's expression didn't change as he searched for an answer. He then shook his head.
"I have never heard of this name, why are you asking me?" Magnus removed a device from his pocket, pressed a few buttons and gave it to Shadow. A video from Tails' labs played. Shadow watched as Vance took down both Metal Sonic and another Shadow, then used chaos control and disappeared. Shadow handed back the device and laughed. "Looks like he's Tails' new project, he was always talking about building the Perfect Life Form. Someone who could surpass me, Looks like he gave Metal and that wannabe Shadow trouble. Had it been me I would have taken him down,"
"Perhaps, either way you did not give me the answer I was looking for. Looks like it's up to Metal Sonic, I hope he's found some useful information," Magnus stood up and pressed a button. The chains on Shadows wrist and ankles reeled him back into the pod. As the pod closed Shadow gave Magnus a huge smile.
"Your days are coming to the end, Tails will be the unlikely hero of this story," He said then burst out into laughter. The pod closed and receded back into the floor. Magnus sighed and made his way to his lab.
Tails and Vance appeared right outside a forest. The trees were long past dead and there was sort of smoke cloud hovering over it. Vance looked around as Tails walked into the forest.
"Vance common, we have to get home," Tails said. Vance quickly caught up to Tails.
"Where are we?" He asked. Tails checked his map on his wrist.
"We are near the Freedom Fighters HQ, we will be there in a few seconds," He replied. Vance continued to look around.
"You make it sound like you've never been here," Vance commented. Tails nodded.
"That's correct, what was left of our fighters made this base. I stayed behind to finish building you," Tails stopped and checked the map. "Okay we're here. Vance knock on the fallen long,"
Vance hesitated for a moment, and then he did as he was told. Tails pulled off his backpack and waited. They stood there for a moment before the log shimmered out of existence. In its place was a door. Tails turned the handle and walked in followed by Vance. When he closed the door the room they stood in was completely dark. Tails stood there for a moment looking around for any source of light.
"Hello?" Tails said hesitantly. Just then red eyes appeared a little bit ahead of Tails. "Sally, is that you?"
"Yes, this is Sally," said the pair of eyes. Tails took out a flashlight and shined upon Sally. She stood against a door with her arms crossed. She pointed to Vance. "Is this your project Tails?"
"Yes, this is Vance. He's the android I've told you about," Tails said. Sally turned on the lights and walked over to Vance and inspected him.
"He bears a small resemblance to Sonic," She commented. She then turned to Tails. "Did you encounter any problems?"
"Yes, Magnus discovered my lab. Luckily I had already activated Vance," Tails pulled out a small chip. "Which reminds me, do you mind installing this data into Vance. It's all the information I had on our current situation,"
"I'm assuming Magnus found you out before you could finish installing it," Sally said as she turned to Vance. "Follow me to the lab,"
"Yeah, thanks Sally," Tails said as he rushed off. He opened the door Sally once stood against and another door past that. Omega was in front of a computer looking at something on a camera. NICOLE stood next to him watching as well. Omega pointed to something on the screen.
"It seems Tails plan is working, Metal Sonic has taken the bait," he said. NICOLE nodded.
"I agree. Based on what I know about previous Metal Sonic's it will only be a matter of time," Tails cleared his throat very loudly to announce his presence, NICOLE and Omega turned around. When NICOLE saw Tails she ran over to him and gave him a hug. "Ah Tails, it's so nice to see you, did everything go okay?"
"Yes everything is fine, Vance is here. I've having Sally add some finishing touches. What's going on with you guys?" Omega turned back to the computer. NICOLE released Tails and followed him over to Omega.
"Everything is going just as you predicted. Magnus made a mistake by making Metal Sonic 4.0 with the ability to think for himself. He's picked up your PDA and started searching through it. He will without a doubt being to ask questions,"
"Great, this is going well,"
"Tails you still haven't told me how exactly this is going to work," NICOLE said. Tails nodded.
"Well past Metal Sonic's have a history of betrayal when given free will, I'm hoping Metal Sonic 4.0 will do the same. But I know he knows that he isn't strong enough to do so on his own," NICOLE clapped his hands together.
"I see now, eventually he'll get Doctor Finitevus to help," Tails folded his arms and smiled.
"Yup that's the plan. With luck he'll even free the real Shadow. I know Finitevus is only helping Magnus so he can stay a free echidna, so he would be more than willing to help Metal Sonic overtake Magnus,"
"It seems like a good plan, but what about his hidden project?" Omega asked.
"Well that what Vance is for, I knew that Magnus is creating something very powerful. I'm just hoping Vance will be able to beat it,"
"I hope you're right Tails, because at this point failure means the end of us," NICOLE said. Tails nodded.
"Yeah, I know NICOLE," he said.
Vance followed Sally into a large room with tables and tools were in every corner. Vance noticed parts from old robots as well. He saw a Metal Sonic head off in the corner, but it was black and had yellow streaks. He pointed over to it.
"Is that a Metal Sonic's head?" he said. Sally looked over in the direction he was pointing.
"Yes, his name is Shard. He was the original Metal Sonic before the v3.0 series and the current v4.0 series,"
"What happened to him?" Vance asked. Sally pointed over to a table. Vance walked over to the table and sat on it.
"Before Dr. Eggman died, we launched an attack upon the Freedom Fighters. It was Metal Sonic 3.0, the original Shadow the Hedgehog and his team, a roboticized Sonic and myself," Sally pushed Vance down so that he was lying on his back. She went over and picked up a bag of tools and placed it on the table next to Vance's head.
"A roboticized Sonic, how did you manage to capture him?" Vance asked while sally searched for a tool. She pulled out a tool that was shaped like a gun and attached the chip Tails had given her to the end. Three thin clamps grabbed a handle of the chip and held it in place.
"Shadow assisted us in his capture along with Knuckles, Amy Rose, and the Chaotix. It was my job to turn Sonic back into Mecha Sonic,"
"I remember Mecha Sonic. He did that before you were roboticized," Vance said as Sally aimed the tool at his left eye.
"How do you remember what happened so many years ago?" She asked.
"Tails didn't manage to upload all of his memories of the past events. My last memory was around the time Metal Sonic 2.5 sacrificed himself to said Tails and Sonic," Sally nodded as she pressed the button the tool and the clamps extended and went to Vance's left eye. Vance eye, as if responding to this opened and allowed the chip held by the clamps to enter. A few seconds later the tool retracted from his eye and his eye closed. Vance sat up and got off the bed. He stood there for a moment before turning to Sally. "Thanks, Tails' memories has filled me in on almost everything,"
"Good, Tails and the others are having a discussion so we will wait here until they send for us," She said. Vance nodded.
"Well in the meantime please catch me up to what's been going on. I don't know about anything from your side," He said. She paused for a moment before nodding.
"I'll start with Shadow, since everything began to fall apart when he betrayed the Freedom Fighters. Eggman had been fighting with them for a few years after I allowed myself to be roboticized," Sally said.
"That must have been a tough decision for you to allow yourself to be roboticized," Vance asked. Sally nodded.
"Yes, but I was left with very few options. Once I had done that fighting the Freedom Fighters became easy for Eggman, with my inside knowledge I could think like the Freedom Fighters. After a few years passed Eggman grew tired of the consistent war between us. He also was aware that his eighth version of Metal Sonic began to doubt Eggman's power. So Eggman and I created an android. At the time he named that project the Egg Magnus to hide it from Metal Sonic, although Metal Sonic was far more intelligent than Eggman realized and had already discovered the project. However before Metal Sonic could act, Eggman had given us an order to attack Freedom HQ, and capture Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles," Sally paused for a moment and glanced over at Vance. "Are you following so far?"
"Yes, I am. I have a question. Being a roboticized version of your normal self leaves you emotionless and lacking of freewill. However I do not detect that within you," Sally nodded.
"I see, well I will get to that later in the story as well," Sally said as she continued. "When he gave us the order Metal Sonic was the first to question this action, claiming that having himself and I attack would mean the end to the both of us. Eggman however told us that Shadow the Hedgehog, Omega E-123, and Rouge the Bat would be assisting us. Eggman convinced Shadow into helping him capture Sonic, Omega and Rouge we forced,"
"How was he able to force them?" Vance asked. Sally pointed to her head.
"Free will, the same thing he gave to the eighth version of Metal Sonic v3.0. The same thing Eggman gave me was used on Omega and Rouge. He has managed to reverse it into a sort of mind control, a kind of unofficial roboticization. I'm not aware of how he convinced Shadow, but with them at our side Metal Sonic was more confident than ever. Shadow teleported us to the front door of Freedom HQ and we began our attack. It didn't long for us to find and capture Sonic. Tails however wasn't there at the time. During the attack Metal Sonic seemed to be having problems with Knuckles, Mighty, Espio and Vector. So as a last minute order Eggman told us to capture them as well. It was easily done with the help of Shadow and me. However we noticed that Rouge and Omega had somehow been freed from Eggman's control and began to fight us. Eggman also ordered the capture of them, Shadow easily caught Rogue but Metal Sonic had other plans for Omega. Instead of capturing him, he destroyed him. The Omega that is with us now is the same Omega just with a new body,"
"How is that possible if Metal Sonic destroyed him?" Vance crossed his arms and waited for an answer. Sally was getting ready to speak when Tails and the others walked into the room. Sally and Vance both turned to them.
"Sally, how is Vance?" Tails asked. Omega and NICOLE walked over to him as Tails talked to Sally.
"Vance is well, I installed the chip. He is now mostly caught up with our current events," She replied. Tails smiled.
"Awesome, thanks Sally," Tails said. Sally nodded and turned to NICOLE and Omega who were inspecting Vance. NICOLE was flying around Vance while Omega used scanners in his eyes to look him over.
"Great work Tails," said NICOLE. "He looks a little like Sonic, besides his color scheme. Do you know how well he functions in combat?"
"I'm not sure, I tried my best to copy how Sonic and Shadow battled when they fought Scourge, but the rest will have to be learned by him. Vance follow me, we are going to give you a workout," Tails said. They all walked to a door at the end of the room, the door was made out of steel had a keypad next to it. After Tails put in the code to unlock the door, he pushed it open and they walk into a room full of computers, charts and pictures. The room also had a giant piece of glass in the front, which displayed a very large and empty room. Tails and NICOLE went to two chairs facing the glass window and sat down. "Vance and Sally go into the room. We'll start with his hand to hand combat abilities,"
"Okay," Vance said. There was a door to the left of the room that lead out into the training space. Sally and he walked through the door into the room. After a moment they positioned themselves in the center of the room with five feet separating them. Tails push a button and spoke into the microphone in front of him.
"Okay, Vance for this first part I only want you to dodge or block. Do not attack," Tails said. Vance nodded and stood ready for an attack from Sally. "Okay then, Sally you may being when ready,"
Sally clenched her fists and made a swing at Vance. He ducked and jumped back a little. Sally tried to elbow him in the chest but Vance avoided that attack as well. Sally jumped at Vance and punched him in the face. Vance staggered a bit then regained his balance. Sally moved in close and went for a punch in his stomach. Vance saw this and quickly shifted to Sally's left, Sally continued a barrage of attacks they were either dodged or blocked by Vance.
"Vance is doing better than I expected," Tails said. NICOLE smiled.
"Yeah he's good, but I think Sally is holding back," she said. Tails nodded
"She will pick it up when she's ready,"
A punched from Sally had just been caught as Tails said this, Vance ducked the following kick. He brought up his arm to block an incoming punch, but Sally grabbed his wrist and tossed him over her head. Vance quickly regained his footing but was met with punched in the chest. This sent him tumbling backwards until he hit the wall. He looked up for a moment and saw Sally in the air diving at him. He quickly jumped up and dodged Sally as she punched the ground. Vance backed up a little as Sally stood back up. She ran at Vance and grabbed his wrists and began to spin him around in the air. When she released him she flew into glass window and fell to the floor.
"Ouch, that seemed like it hurt," NICOLE said as Vance got up and ducked an incoming kick from Sally, but before he could recover she punched into in the face. Vance staged back a little and was met by a kick in the gut. He backed up a little more as Sally stared at him.
"You seem to have a problem keeping up with me," she said. Vance remained silent, waiting for her next attack. Sally used the jets in her boots to propel herself towards Vance, as she came close to Vance he dashed to the right of her. She quickly deactivated her boots before she went crashing into the glass window. Sally turned around and went after Vance. He dodged her first kick then caught the next one. Sally lifted her free leg and kicked Vance in the ribs. He released her and stumbled back a little. Sally hit the ground then jumped back up to her feet.
"I Think he's doing pretty well," NICOLE said. "He doesn't seem too quick though, at least not like Sonic or Shadow,"
"He's quick, but I designed him not to be as fast as Sonic,"
"You mean you couldn't, Sonic's full speed has yet to be recorded. You used what you know from what you have seen from Sonic," Omega said. Tails frowned at him.
"Thank you Omega," he said in annoyance. Omega walked over towards the door.
"I'm going in, it want to see what he can do," he said. Tails nodded.
"Okay Vance, you can start fighting, Omega is coming in as well," Tails said. A smiled crossed Vance's face. Sally moved in to attack but was cut off by Omega who charged into the room and attempted tackle Vance. Vance grabbed Omega and tossed him to Sally. She kicked Omega out of her way and charged at Vance. Punched threw a punch at Sally, she dodged and kicked him in the ribs again. Vance grunted as he grabbed her leg and tossed her towards Omega. He grabbed her and threw her back at Vance. She reached out her hands attempting to grab Vance, but he spun himself into a ball and went under Sally. When he was close to Omega and jumped and kicked him in the chest. Omega stumbled back a little then grabbed Vance's leg. Vance tried to free himself but Omega grip was too powerful. He lifted Vance in the air and slammed to him to the ground, Omega raised him in the air again but Vance disappeared from his hands.
"What, where did he go," Omega said. He scanned the room looking for him. Sally walked over to Omega.
"You lost him?" she asked. Omega didn't answer.
"Where did he go?" NICOLE asked. Tails smiled a little.
"He starting to use his speed now," he said. Sally was looking around for him as well. She heard a small noise of vibration behind her. She turned to see Vance grabbing her arms. Before she could react he used her as a weapon and bashed Omega in the back. He then tossed her into the air and went after Omega. When he grabbed Omega's arm he was met with a quick punch in the gut. Omega then grabbed Vance's shoulders and tossed him in the air. Sally had just touched the ceiling as she saw Vance approaching. She used her boots and charged at Vance, she grabbed him by the waist the propelled them into the ground. Debris flew everywhere when they landed blinding Tails and NICOLE to what was happening. Tails and NICOLE ran out into the room to see what happened. When the debris cleared Vance stood up and brushed himself off. They looked down to see Sally motionless, her eyes were blank and her body sparked.
"I think we'll pause training for the moment, we need to get Sally repaired," Tails said.
"I'll repair the floor," NICOLE said as Tails picked up Sally.
"Vance, take Sally into the room you two were just in. This would be a good chance for you to put some of my mechanical skills to use. I'll be in there in a moment," Vance nodded as he took Mecha Sally and walked out of the room. Tails then turned to Omega.
"So what happened, I swore Sally had the upper hand over Vance,"
"Vance was able to spin just enough to change's Sally's falling direction, so he landed on her instead of the other way around. Vance's combat skills are good. He's learning how to use his speed to his advantage. He learns as he goes which will be something that will give Magnus a problem,"
"We'll do one more training session once Mecha Sally is repair, he still has a trick he doesn't know he has," Tails turned and left the room. Omega and NICOLE stood next to each other for a moment before NICOLE spoke up.
"Omega, can you continue working on the project?" Omega nodded.
"It should be done tomorrow,"
Metal Sonic returned to Dr. Magnus's lab with the PDA, he then set it down on a table and searched the lab for anybody that was around. He heard noises in the back of the lab and walked towards it. He saw Dr. Finitevus sitting at a table eating, he slowly approached him.
"Metal Sonic, you are made from nothing but metal. I can hear you walking behind me. Please hurry up and tell me what you want," He said. Metal Sonic stood next to Finitevus.
"I came to ask you to look at this. It's a PDA that I got from Tails lab,"
"Shouldn't you be giving this to Dr. Magnus?" Finitevus said as he continued eating. Metal Sonic placed it in front of him.
"I know that he's hiding something from me, the PDA has all of the information and memories of past Metal Sonic's. I want to know them, I want to know what they know," Metal Sonic crossed his arms and waited for an answer. Finitevus took another bite of his food, stood up wiping his hands and picked up the PDA and smiled.
"What is so important about this, it just contains the Metal Sonic's that existed before you," Finitevus said as he looked through the PDA.
"I'm curious, maybe I can learn something from the past Metal Sonic's," Finitevus thought for a moment then smiled.
"Okay Metal Sonic, I'll help you retrieve the information from this device. However, Magnus must not know of its existence, do you understand?" Finitevus said putting the PDA behind him in his belt. Metal Sonic nodded.