I warned you before but nevertheless, I won't be updating with as much frequency as before. I apologize for the delay. Enjoy!

Don't Surrender!

Robot Sonic looked around at all the destruction, hearing the screams of agony and cries for mercy. They pained him to his programming, but they deserved it. They all did. For the way they had treated him; the foul language, the sarcastic remarks, the physical and emotional pain, and the sacrifices he made, and the abuse he took. Most of these, Metal Sonic had not personally experienced. It was because of Astro's memories that he now so loathed the little humans running through the narrow streets.

He was taller than most of the buildings, yet he felt like an empty shell. Metal Sonic should have felt the triumph of being the ultimate machine. He was perfect in every way, leaving no room for weakness. He was king, and everyone else was his subjects. Those feelings were nonexistent, though, his depression and hatred were too great. It was time for them to die.

He launched rockets from his impenetrable hide, watching them explode on impact with buildings, cars, jets, and the road underneath him. Metal Overlord spun in a complete circle, his tail lowering everything around him. He was in emotional pain, and wanted revenge. Astro saw it all. 'He needs to find help before he lowers the entire city'. Sonic was protecting people from falling rubble, home-attacking pieces of building, falling lamp posts, and the occasional rocket.

Cars were strewn across the road, and Sonic spin-dashed through them, knocking them clear of the path. Metal Overlord saw the people running away; it angered him that they were getting away without so much as a scratch. They were meant to die under his feet, yet Astro and the organic Sonic were helping them escape. He charged, anything in his way blown over. Buildings collapsed under his god-like strength, walls of rubble were trampled underfoot, but one thing stopped him ten feet from his goal. He stopped running, puzzled by the little red speck on his chest preventing him from moving any closer.

Then the speck turned blue, and he was pushed off his feet. The speck pushed him through several buildings until he was back where he had started. That speck was Astro. He reared back his fist and punched with all his strength, sending Metal Overlord through one last building. It collapsed on him, burying the Overlord in metallic rubble. 'This is going to be easier than expected' Astro thought.

Almost as if in reply, the pile of rubble instantly exploded into waves of pure energy, temporarily overloading Astro's circuitry. This allowed Overlord to slap him into the building to his left. He powered up a laser beam and shot it at the hole he made in the building, bringing down the remains on the little robot. He raised a foot to finish Astro, but he suddenly felt pain in his chest as Sonic home-attacked him to the ground. Sonic ran to the wreckage, spin-dashing to help dig Astro out. He did, but it looked like he was unconscious.

Sonic woke him up and carefully helped him out of the pile of rubble. "We can't stop this thing without at least two chaos emeralds, and I only have one." Just then an enormous tail swatted Sonic away from Astro. He screamed in pain until he hit the floor, after which he silently bounced back into the air, spinning head-over-heals back down. Astro's eyes widened at his unmoving body. Overlord roared out in triumph as it raised its foot above the hedgehog.

Astro turned on his rockets at full thrust, hoping against hope that he would make it in time. Overlord let his foot fall. Just a centimeter above Sonic's head, a green blast knocked Overlord right off its feet. A red hedgehog-like creature with dreadlocks was already helping Sonic up by the time Astro figured out what had just happened. The creature was the cause of the blast.

"Don't worry Sonic, all we have to do is wait for Tails to show up. He's on his way right now on the X-Tornado and he's got a Chaos Emerald. All we have to do is keep Metal Sonic at bay until he arrives."

Sonic winced as he got up, "easier said than done, knuckle-head. Then again, Eggman rarely makes anything fun anymore. If Metal Sonic's bite is as big as his bark, all that waiting will be worth it. Thanks for the help."

Astro simply stood near them, unsure if he should tell them that the giant robotic monster was starting to lift itself back up. Overlord raged at his inability to get himself back up, having to roll on its stomach, then carefully lift himself up. The red menace would pay for the humiliation he had. He reared up, loading rockets into the launchers on his back. Overlord turned his back to his enemies and fired. Knuckles jumped into the air, grabbing onto one.

He tossed it to the side, smashing several other rockets. Astro used his digi-beam to destroy the rest. Sonic jumped into the air and boosted right into Overlords chest, forcing him to take a step back. Knuckles then jumped up to Overlord's chest and punched with all his strength, forcing him to take another step back. Finally, Astro let loose his arm cannon. The shot tore through several layers of metal, ripping through the supposedly impenetrable armor and making Overlord scream in pain.

A vital wire was singed in half. The sound was so loud, all glass up to a mile away from Overlord cracked and collapsed. He fell backward, sending an enormous shockwave out from where he hit the ground. A blanket of dust rose into the air, covering Overlord completely. Astro knew that this robot was being evil of its own choice, but it still hurt him to see a robot in so much pain. He lowered his arm, hoping that the shot changed its mind.

All was still. Astro worried that he might have killed him, so he rose up his hearing. There was a click, then the sound of struggling. Astro tuned his hearing back down, afraid that he knew what had happened. Overlord let out one last scream before it erupted into a wall of flame. Sonic and Knuckles, seeing this, braced themselves and covered their eyes.

A wall of heat blasted them first, burning off the ends of their fur. The shockwave came next. An invisible force threw all three heroes into the air like rag dolls, buildings collapsed under the enormous strain, cars flew in all directions, lamp posts were torn from what was left of the concrete, and the ground shook. Astro, Sonic, and Knuckles lay on the ground in a daze. Sonic was first to regain his bearings.

Sonic's P.O.V.:

My stomach hurt, my arms hurt, my feet hurt, my head hurt, and my quills hurt. Everything hurt. There was a bit of red on the ground beside me, and I realized that I had a gash in my left arm going from my shoulder to my elbow. I covered it with my hands to prevent it from bleeding anymore, as I was probably not going to find any medical gauze lying around. The blast completely demolished everything Metal Sonic was near, including the asphalt and cement. Where he had been, there was a black mark.

I thought I saw some blue in the middle, but burn marks weren't blue even if they were on the ground. The heat peeled off all the asphalt and cement around the blast. The burn mark was surrounded by brown dirt, and the dirt even stretched over the asphalt that survived, too. I looked around at the damage it caused elsewhere. The city was in shambles. Cars were sticking out of windows, lamp posts were sticking out of the ground like trees, most of the buildings were crumpled down to the third story, and dead or dying robots that seemed to be streetlights and caution signs littered the streets.

I briefly wondered if any were like Astro, with feelings and emotions. Knuckles got up next, rubbing his head. He looked around then said, "What have we done? We should have led him out of the city, if he was that dangerous. There's barely any city left." I nodded, still a little shocked at the robo-carnage that I saw with new eyes.

How many robots like Astro did I carelessly destroy while I 'saved' countless cities? Did Eggman's robots also feel like Astro did? I shoved the questions aside, saving them for later. "What heroes we were." I said sarcastically "we basically trashed an entire city in the span of two days."

"Two days? What did we miss?"

"Long story, at the moment, though, the authorities are going to be looking for someone to blame. No matter what world you're in, they usually blame the abnormal ones, which in this case would be us." I said. Getting thrown into a maximum security prison for saving a city was not very high on my 'things to do' list. Astro had woken up during the conversation, but probably missed most of it. "You okay, Astro?" He nodded his head, "I guess so..."

Suddenly his eyes widened, glowing blue slightly. He looked like he had seen a ghost. "Sonic, run over to where Metal Sonic died and pick up what you find there. After that, run away toward my dad, Dr. Tenma's house. Run as fast as you can, hurry." I didn't question him, for some reason, I just turned and boosted the way I was told.

Maybe it was his glowing eyes, or maybe it was the look in his face, the look that he had already done this before, several times. Whichever one, I boosted out of there. I ran straight for the charred, black scorch mark on the ground. Even when I was still a half-mile away, I saw something shining on the ground near the center. My heart doubled in pace. I knew that luster only too well.

Knuckle's P.O.V.:

Already, I was suspicious about this boy. He had just proved himself of having extraordinary powers, and was the only human I knew of that would stand up to the Metal Overlord. I wouldn't ever admit it to Sonic, but I have a slight fear of those lifeless eyes it had. They were false images, as the Metal Sonic was completely capable of thinking on its own. The thing that bothered me was that it became stronger and more knowledgeable the more it fought. It was way past my strength level even at its weakest moments now.

I had to use power from the Master Emerald shard I was using to track Sonic just to knock him down. When the kid whom Sonic called Astro finished talking to Sonic, he told me "Tails will be within its radius soon, we have to stop him!"

"Wait, from what?" I asked.

"No time, we have to go now!" By now, a dozen things were swirling through my head. I could see the X-tornado in the distance. Somehow, Astro knew Tails was in trouble. I needed to concentrate, slipping up was not an option. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but pinch myself to see if I wasn't dreaming when he picked me up and started flying.

I didn't know much about humans, but one thing I did know is that humans can't fly. Yet Astro was flying me right up to Tails. I knew right then, this was no ordinary human child. We reached the X-tornado in mere seconds. Tails noticed us right away, "Hey Knuckles, who's you-"

I didn't have time to be nice to him, "Tails, you need to turn back, now!"

"What?" Then it happened. A bright flash of light smothered everything away for a few seconds, then disappeared. I looked back and saw a glowing, blue orb slowly growing to engulf the entire city. This was Astro's city. I looked up to see if he was holding up. He looked at the remains of the city slowly being swallowed up by the blue orb of energy. Surprisingly, he only looked slightly worried. "Oh, that. Well then, let's get outa' here!"

The orb was growing, quickly picking up speed. It was halfway to us already. We turned the other direction and started flying. My dreadlocks flapped against the wind as I let go of Astro and started gliding as fast as I could. I could glide pretty fast, and I would just slow the kid down. When we were at the edge of the city, the orb was almost touching our feet, but it was slowing down.

It inched closer, centimeters from Astro and my feet. "Get onto the plane, then pull me in!" I told him. He nodded as the flickering orange flames he had suddenly became a constant blue. This enabled him to grab the back fin. He then offered me his other hand, which I thankfully took. The orb by now was up to my ankles, and I felt as if my feet had turned into lead weights.

I tightened my grip on Astro's hand, holding on for my actual life. It rose to my knees, and my hand started to slip. My grip loosened more, I was about to let go. Then the orb stopped, releasing my feet and legs. We outran whatever it had been.

Sonic's P.O.V.:

It was a Chaos Emerald! We were one step closer to going home! I didn't stop running until I was sure I was out of the blast radius. The last thing I wanted to do was to find out what exactly happened inside a blue flash. I scanned the sky for any sign of Tails. I smiled when I saw the X-tornado coming towards me. It landed as graceful as ever, thanks to Tails' flying skills.

Astro and Knuckles both hopped out of the back seat, looking like they ran from the blue flash instead of flying. "Sonic, I knew you'd be here!" Tails ran right up to me.

I patted him on the head and chuckled, "long time no see little buddy." I turned to Astro, "We've gotta get out of here, they have to blame someone, y'know."

He nodded, "Let's go back to my dad's house. I'm sure he can help you with your predicament." After we had introduced each other, Astro and I led Knuckles and Tails to the man called Tenma.

?:

I watched the disgustingly insignificant life forms with pure hatred. If I had my way, they would not be alive for long. I just needed time. I had already fooled the dim-witted Skunk to rebuild the Erase-O-Bot for me. It was charging as I watched in a secret lab underneath Metro City. I was fairly confident that the city would be rebuilt in, at most, four days with their advanced technology. I would give them an entire week. Then they will know to fear my name. I would not make the same mistake twice.