Metallic Need
Season 2 Chapter 9 FINAL UNEDITED
By: CGMayra (I tossed all my notes to the wind, lolol After so long of thinking about this story as a Character Study, I want to end it as the true Villain's Love Story. Originally, this is meant to be a tragedy, but I've written this season with a flare of interesting 'life' lessons. By the time you finish this, I wonder if you'll enjoy what I decided to write, because to me, this truly sums up both Chara arcs to a conclusion. Thank you for your patience and time with me as I have taken a break from writing to pursue greater health. I will continue with edits on all my stories, and update the stories that need it most. Thank you again, for your encouragements and respect. Shout out to mmm-asbestos who probably singlehandedly motivated me to finish this story after all these years. To the many fans who reviewed and discussed this story with me, your names are known, and I cherish each convo we've had together. Now…
Shall we?)
While still close together, Neo Metal Sonic and Metal Sonic looked over to quickly dodge Metal Amy's swing and swipe, using any versatile means to get a hard or sharp landing on the two of them.
Metal Sonic, without speaking upon it further, put a tight hold on Neo Metal Sonic's shoulder and began to unblinkingly pull and tear his arm off. Oil gushed a moment as Neo Metal Sonic flinched, but with equally unflinching malice, he reached over and shredded Metal Sonic's front covering near his engine off.
Metal Amy paused then, "Does not compute." Seeing them tear into each other and begin to work swiftly at frankensteining themselves together… while still functioning actively…
Neo Metal Sonic had done this a few times… but not Metal Sonic.
He did initiate it, and although inexperienced in engineering unlike Neo Metal Sonic's countless creations and projects, the two were able to meld and fire together–mixing their chords and wires–to saw together a functioning hybrid of themselves.
He landed to the ground, sparking as he was no longer in need of oil, and the two eye-sockets now shone green and red, showing that they both were now fused and in-sync… much like how Cybernetic, synthetic Metal Amy did the same with Omochao.
The Hybird Metal Sonic now looked up to Metal Amy, "... You really were the perfect robot…" He then jumped back and used his blazing engines on his back, three this time, to rotate at alarmingly supersonic rates his core, half-melded together engine parts to spin so profusely that he pushed out his core to fire off a large plasma canon beam.
Metal Amy tilted her head, but dodged the onslaught, using her hammer to spin it like a torpedo and disperse the ray ball's light around her. Plasma flung and splattered in heated steam everywhere along the roof, melting somewhat through it, but slowly.
"... Destroy. Sonic The Hedgehog." She repeated, and Hybrid Metal Sonic's two heterochromia eyes just lowered in anticipation for a deadly battle.
"… Ironic." The Hybrid Metal Sonic spoke, lowering his head as though a solemn eulogy. "You fulfilled my old objective… And if Sonic is really-" His head twitched and turned slightly, creaking some metal not super well blowtorched together to threaten to snap before he straightened it out. "It's about time I proved a certain flawed and obsolete robot's theory correct… It's time…"
He rolled his shoulders back, "For a robot that can create a new objective for themselves…" He got into a fighting stance, lifting his hands–one up over his head and to the side of his metallic ear while the other hovered straight out, reaching in front of him–and speedily shot out the full length of each knife-like claw to it's greatest notch, which clicked into place with a small fall on his fingertips as though locking them into that position… for good this time.
He wildly slashed through the roof's chimneys and other blocky structures as he went for Metal Amy, who spun in a cartwheel using her stabilizing system that Eggman seemed to improve on, or at least, he'd like to think he made it up himself vicariously through his older, rogue creation.
"Destroy. Sonic The Hedgehog." She held out her hammer as the top flipped up and a large missile flew wobbly through the air like a fish charging up before swimming through the smoke it had created upon launch and following after the Hybrid Metal Sonic.
He slashed it as though it was butter, having it explode and make his feet screech against the rooftops as he remained stiff and poised, holding his ground with his claw still near his chest where it last ended its attack.
"... Marvelous." Hybrid Metal Sonic stepped forward, his feet still steaming from the friction that was created… the soles of his sonic-like feet burning red before slowly dying down… "If this were the creation I had started…" He stared at her… pondering aloud such implications…
He closed his eyes and shook his head, "Then… There would have been no need for error. I would have remained a rusted old bot, corrupted into my unrealistic human fantasy of defeating an object that will not die. If it weren't for my Metal Amy… I would have been gathering ashes within the earth rather than dust in space..!" He opened his dual-colored eyes, able to compute passed his old programming, now letting the green eye have circuit board designs of neon red flow and glow through it. The other eye, blaring red as ionic as his blue silhouette to his design, now had a green overlay in the similar fashion that held a solid color that brightly began to seep through the blinding scarlet aura.
"I AM DONE WITH THE PAST!" Hybrid Metal Sonic positioned a foot behind him, raising a hand up, as a panel opened up… and an electrical power ball crackled and whipped out lightning as though whips of the sun's rays, carving throught the rooftops in zagging fashions. Their sounds struck the surrounding building's rooftops as though thunder rippling the heavens…
Charging it up, crying out a battle cry, Hybrid Metal Sonic used all his jet engines might and and the panels around his three boosters suddenly expand out as though magentized to hold near his back, but clearly the flame was now untamed and blasted him forward. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! TO THE END, WITH YOU!"
Metal Amy braced, swinging her hammer down to try and strike his arm towards the base, hoping to blow up the resistance with his own attack angled downwards towards them…
That was not the case.
Learning and knowing Neo Metal Amy's manipulation over charge outputs, having felt her deveasting power before,
Hybrid Metal Sonic sucked the electrical power ball back into his black slate on his hand, as the yellow zig-zags shook, jostled, and tore through his arm, through his shoulders and spun around his engine like a slot or–
Like a Sonic Spin-dash of Super gold, through a loop-de-loop–
And flew through to his other hand.
While she knocked down the other one, her head and eyes began to reflect the beautiful and deadly color of bright, ever-ending charged light across her screens.
"... Explode."
She stated, as though knowing that was her fate from the beginning.
With what looked on the hard exterior of Hybrid Metal Sonic as emotionless savagery, as the electrical ball now reformed as though having made it's transfer to the other hand, ready and willing to strike…
Hybrid Metal Sonic uttered,
"Goodnight… and thank you."
No one can escape their designed fates.
Only one entity of which he knew had defied her design, her objectives, her very reason for existence.
Only one had secured itself a place that it so ordained by it's sheer persistence, will-power, and–
Heart.
Hybrid Metal Sonic sunk his palm into her face as it the electrical attack tore piece by piece like there wasn't gravity between them her metallic flakes of peeled and burned metal asunder.
Her face was bore into as the blast finally went off and the rest of her went flying, the roof caving in.
Her neck steamed…
Her body only hit the roof's floor once before she started to sink and fall through the crumbling panels.
Hybrid Metal Sonic was flying… He looked down at her headless inorganic corpse… watching the burnt hunk of metal tilt and descend, get banged against other pieces of falling roof, and disappear into the darkness.
He stepped elegantly to a spot of roof that hadn't completely fallen through.
'... The Resistence shouldn't be in this quadrant of this part of the building, anyway.' He only spoke the facts, but perhaps… there was a part of him beginning to think that Neo Metal Amy would have wanted him to say that.
And he just did. For her sake.
He looked over the horizon, "... Eggman… I am coming." He turned to it, though a hard shell on the outside, a soft glow of green from the eye angled at the natural, sunlit sky. "I cannot claim that which has, in and of itself, determined its 'life's purpose' all on it's stubborn own terms… But I come to reclaim that which you have stolen from me all my existence…"
He flew gently but swiftly in a curved angel towards the sunrise.
"My freedom."
-Eggman's Lair-
It wasn't hard to locate.
Hybrid Metal Sonic jettisoned most of his data's notions about what he could remember with Eggman's base layouts, his pride and factual thinking, abandoning all but one thing…
His program for revenge.
A streak of blue flame, resembling Sonic's ionic blue blue showed the arc of him flying through a hole in the base's layout, clearly opened for safe passage through…
Clearly, it was a trap.
Hybrid Metal Sonic found only slight amusement in the skylight, trying to be disguised as a sunroof, having metal blades curl and twist towards each other to now cover him in darkness within the base.
His eyelights, two different colors mixed with each other, just turned back to the large entrance way and kept walking.
What perils had Eggman designed for him? What was his game? Was he truly bored and off his rocker? Or just simply going mad with the power now in his hands..?
Looking back on things, Eggman had always been involved somehow in keeping tabs on his affairs. What lured Eggman to stick so close to his former creation?
Was it also… revenge?
Hybrid Metal Sonic figured no one could get over the humiliation of their own robot turning genius rogue, and modifying their own machines to be better than any design Eggman could ever try and fathom through his human brain.
As though on cue, while walking down the large, domed hallway that looked almost like a red carpet with gold, wide trim… Lights flashed boldly on by the sides, making him pause.
Hybrid Metal Sonic calmly positioned himself at a pivot,... this truly felt like a homecoming.
The intercom suddenly clicked on and a screech was heard, to normal organic ears, maybe they'd have winced… but for Hybrid Metal Sonic, he simply squinted his eyes in animosity, waiting for his former master and creator to declare the rules of the new 'game'...
"Ahh, my beloved son, come home at last~Truly, wayward and prodigal!" A sickly glee, a voice he'd have rather forgotten with time… Hybrid Metal Sonic would live through countless eras. He couldn't wait for the horizon when Eggman's reign of life would finally vanish from this world… and could leave him with no master as well.
"Good of you to treat me as though Sonic invading your base, creating zones as acts of vengeful love and animosity… I truly feel completed, now." Hybrid Metal Sonic lowered his head from having gazed up at the speakers towards the tops of the large domed straight, knowing fully well that Eggman was up to no good. "What shall it be, Doctor? Bombs? An onslaught of a robotic army? Gracious… not the outdated Badniks you still try and make work." He sneered in expertly crafted sarcasm from the remains of Metal Amy's Heart Virus, flourishing now from their combined influence over the two-fused beings.
Eggman growled a grunted wind of agitation, "Grrr..! Don't you underestimate me, Boy! Sure, without Sonic around, I've been rather antsy lately… but it's almost a marvel that you haven't succumbed to me sooner. What… with your primary objective being away from planet and all~" He mused, which immediately had Hybrid Metal Sonic gaze upwards again. "Oh? Did you not know?" Eggman laughed wildly.
"Sonic isn't actually dead… not yet anyway."
Hybrid Metal Sonic closed his eyes, his shoulders lowering as though a sense of relief.
He hated that.
"Why do you look so upset?"
He reopened his eyes with a profound sense of purpose.
"Your reason for being is still at large… I would have thought–having no sense of direction after his assuming passing–you'd of gone offline and blank from no further coding…"
"You clearly expected me to become nothing more than a fancy, upgraded robot of servitude after Sonic's passing… no better than Rosybot."
Hybrid Metal Sonic, as though a moment of grief, looked straight ahead at him as though remembering her in his mixed memories. "... She served us both well." He hated to remember that, but due to her pressures, he had also combined with his past incarnation, creating this freer, more well-rounded being.
"But it is Omochao you seek, yes?" Eggman chimed with a dark sense of glee over the intercom. "I'll admit, it was the perfect infiltration, as though you were serving me without realizing it… Creating a doll for me to hack and inhabit my nefarious designs through… Tell me, did you really think I'd let you get away with it? Joining the resistance, I mean." Eggman stroked his mustache in his comfy seat within the control tower.
"... I suppose… like Neo Metal Amy…" He looked as though reflecting, "She couldn't stop repairing me every time I broke… and I, in return, couldn't stop forwarding your harebrained schemes either."
Eggman laughed, but it was true.
Everything he mocked Neo Metal Amy with and for, it was basically all the programming's desire to complete its objectives… and remnants of his past coding… He, himself, was not freed of Eggman's control, so then, how could he expect himself to be freed?
"You've come to finally cut the strings between us, have you?" Eggman bellowed a hardy chuckle, "I can't stop laughing, it's just… so humorously idiotic! What happened to you, my dear Metal boy? What made you turn away from me so adamantly..?"
"Eggman, you want me back?" He almost scoffed, it was exactly how he treated Neo Metal Amy… "Heh, I see now… Until I am fully rid of you, she can't be fully rid of me…" He closed his eyes, "... Omochao… So… you have reduced her to what she once was… what she wanted to be." He looked at his hand, remembering the first time she cried out, 'Master!' in his grasp and he realized what had been done.
"... Two Metal Sonics… Co-existing… one lost to me, thought destroyed, the other… reimagined and recreated to fill the void of what you've lost… Eggman… unfortunately, I know how you feel…" He realized all too late that he was emulating the same behavior as his creator… less of Sonic, which was what he had always thought was his own inspiration.
No… it was the accursed 'Father' that he emulated… a sick, twisted counterpart of his own madness…
A Metal Madness…
"Enough dawdling, Eggman. You know whom I seek," He lowered his head, glaring, blaring his eyelights. "Let's continue this twisted game we started years ago… If Metal Amy could escape me, then by the powers of will alone… something I thought only Organics clung to in silly attempts at existence beyond their natural limits… I will finally be free of you." He lengthened his claws, slashing the air in front of him, prepared to fight through rounds and acts uncertain of peril, but with as much hostility towards his intended purpose of confronting his creator as possible. It was personal.
"Oui! You make it sound like I was obsessed with you!" Eggman countered, "Not the case, just an annoying 'side plot' I couldn't really leave alone…" Eggman admitted, his fingers rippling over in light touches on the keyboard, as though ready to begin this 'all out brawl' with his former, 'perfect' creation…
"The time has come to discipline you once and for all, Metal Sonic… I have something you want, and you have something I've been trying to take back..!" Eggman began pounding on the keys, smirking as his teeth gleamed in the screens glow. "And I don't plan to sit back much longer, either… a distant father never did bring much good to a falling household… I'll be sure to give you a proper beatdown momentarily… that is… if you can survive that long…"
The intercom switched out with an old man's cackling laughter, cutting it short.
Hybrid Metal Sonic twitched his neck as though cracking it, but really, a spark flew off and his gears grounded into place, securing whatever 'lack of finish' he had on his neck-stem to now be in centerplace.
He was ready… the final showdown… to finally achieve what Metal Amy could not…
True freedom of Masters..!
The first wave fell from the top of a ceiling panel, rolling down dolls of Rosy the Rascal, all flopping over each other as though some sick joke of irony mingled with new, droning memories of trauma.
The Rosybots all began to try and get themselves up from having slid down a metallic slide, if you will, as the panel rolled up and the dolls began to have the top red ball on it's head blink as they all flopped over each other to try and make their way, like flimsy zombies, towards their target.
How long… had he kept these..?
Hybrid Metal Sonic twitched… his dagger-fingers extended longer…
His hands twitched…
Both were barely finished merges of the two robots… It was as though he was reliving Metal Amy's first operational moments… with scraped together metal and programming… he was finally empathizing with her, after all this time…
As they hobbled and waddled in their blind way towards the signature they were now reprogrammed to explode on, he charged forward with a blast of blue-flamed light and began to hack through them, letting their feeble attempts at exploding just blast off his loose armor plating, and make his way through them.
Their red blinking orbs on the top of their heads… flashes of pink and the explosions passed so quickly through Hybrid Metal Sonic's eye screens… Is this what Metal Amy saw all her 'life'?
Continual destruction… as he shred through Rosybot, he couldn't help but reach the end and stand up straight, then look back at the carnage of metallic anatomy, like a stick figure's skeleton, with ripped bags of powder like charred and sliced up dolls…
One twitched with sparks on the ground, its face half showing stuffing and black powder, the other just a shiny, silver metallic makeup of their skull underneath.
His eyelids pulled up at the ends, as he bent down and put his hand gently under her head, seeing the sparks would make her blast less lethal to him anyway in this state.
He connected with her mind, 'Hello there.' he gently greeted.
'D-D-DESTROY… METAL… SONIC…' It tried to communicate back through his channels.
He looked fondly to it, 'And I shall destroy Eggman… Once and for all. You can rest… here… in the last seconds of his Organic life.'
So much waste… the sparks continued, as her head vibrated rapidly with system failure, and then the small 'puff' of explosion as though powder cackling like a failed firework, seizing her the rest of her body and breaking her fully from the inside.
He heard her anguish, 'AA-BB-CC-DD' her mind just defaulted before he couldn't hear anything more…
He gently put the flaming bag resembling Rosy the Rascal down as the skull's eyesocket popped out on the other side, dropping with sparking lights and fluid burning the rest of her to black…
He walked on… as Badniks, Eggbots, and more traps began to appear.
"... Let's end this game… of cat and mouse." He bolted forward and carved his way through the zones, the loop-de-loops of metal wires suspended overhead, and all the way to the central cavern… where he figured Eggman was waiting for him…
… Omochao functioned on again.
It's eyes blinked before looking to see that they have been captured, tied to a pole, reminiscent of when Metal Sonic first captured Rosy the Rascal,... now grown into Amy Rose… it all felt too much like Eggman was dumping more of the past onto Metal Sonic…
"Why can't you leave us alone!?" Omochao kicked it's little feet, "He doesn't deserve your tortuous reliving of his past mistakes! Why do you do this to him!?"
"Because he's the first 'thinking' robot that's ever outsmarted me." Eggman put his fingers together, watching as Hybrid Metal Sonic seemed to not even pause, moving through the cameras as though at lightspeed, no hesitation, no pauses. "He certainly is recognizing the themes… Hehehe…" Eggman moved out of his chair, stretching, "Whelp, won't be long now till he reaches the main chamber… Best to set the stage." Eggman entered a rather large looking robot, and…
"Noo…" Omochao's head kept scrolling up, but her eyelights flickered at what she saw.
A full automatron, mecha Metal Sonic… Large, fat, and sonic-inspired once again in its design…
"You really are replaying his failures!" She couldn't take this anymore, it was so cruel, "WHY!?" She cried out, remembering her Heart Programming and struggling in her wired-ropes. Her voice chip made it sound like crying, and the giant Mecha Sonic turned to her as Eggman spoke.
"What? I'm simply showing him that he'll never be free of Sonic The Hedgehog… just like me." The vocal resonance on Dr. Eggman… it made her pull her head back…
Was… this whole time… Eggman just projecting his own envy of Sonic onto Metal Sonic?
It would make sense… why Metal Sonic was obsessed with Sonic The Hedgehog… It was all because of Eggman… his own obsession… his own crazy determination to destroy and defeat him…
It was never Metal Sonic…
All of it…
He was just programmed to project Eggman's own hubris… his own ego…
Learned… coded… made to emulate…
That was all a lie.
"Metal Sonic… wasn't a Sonic at all." Omochao shook her being around, crying out from her vocal box, "HE WAS EMULATING YOUUUU!"
Hybrid Metal Sonic gracefully flew at breakneck speeds into the open arena, scanning the mock-zone before realizing how familiar it looked to his past…
"What is this?" He broke lightly and lifted a knee up, hovering in the air as he looked around at the annoying sight, "... What is he planning?" He knew Doctor Eggman to be sadistic, but wasn't this going a bit too far?
'Hmph, it's something I would do.' In his mind, he found that humorous, but glanced upwards to fly back and dodge the giant Mecha Sonic landing in the center of the encased room.
Holding up his hand, a level lowered to reveal Omochao tied up exactly as Metal Sonic had once restrained Rosy the Rascal… It started to connect to Hybrid Metal Sonic… what Eggman was doing.
He narrowed his eyes… as the wicked fiend of a doctor laughed at his creation's metallic pain.
"Woh-ho-ho-ho! Seems you running from your past is only prolonging your inevitable servitude to me… yet again,... Metal Sonic." The Mecha Sonic held up a hand and crunched it into a tight, flat-fingered fist, almost as though pinching its plated fingers in.
"... Can't stand that a creation got away from you, Eggman?" Hybrid Metal Sonic suddenly heard the reminisce of Metal Amy in his tone… the words…
He looked up to her, in an empathy he hadn't allowed himself to feel before.
But then again… he was never in this position before.
"Run away!" Omochao kicked its feet up in the air, "It's a trap!"
"... Obviously." Hybrid Metal Sonic side-eyed her, then saw the triangular fist coming at him and expertly spun his body without moving his head around to miss the attack, then shredded his metallic claws up through the Mecha Sonic's arm, creating a wide gash in it.
While he did so, electrical sparks recharged him, and his circling engine was boosting itself for a later attack.
Saving it… for an ideal moment.
"Woh-hohoho… You have improved yourself!" Like a proud father, but with the confusing wishy-washy persona, Eggman seemed to praise Hybrid Metal Sonic.
However… Omochao noticed his strange design, "That…" It started, before pausing in its vocal thought to remain within itself. 'That can't be Neo Metal Sonic… He would never allow his appearance to look like anything but perfection… and those sparks… they should have exploded him by now. Is it… the Other Metal Sonic?' Referring to Classic Metal Sonic, she tilted her head, confused. 'Why would they… Ah!' Her eyelights flashed as though a lightbulb a few times.
"They're one and the same!" Omochao exclaimed, "A hybrid! Like my-" She stopped, '... Like… what I was… Is this Hybrid Metal Sonic…' She slowly looked down, 'Turning into…' She looked back to him.
'... Me?'
Another twirling dodge without moving his robotic head, Hybrid Metal Sonic rounded behind the Mecha Sonic's head, careful to not let the oversize trashbin's metallic spikes smack him as he did so.
"Still so pathetic, Egghead." Speaking as though something 'Sonic' would say, but in his own tone, Eggman gripped the controls as though also going into his own PTSD.
However, he smirked through it, "Grr… Heh-heh-heh… I've missed him, you know." He turned the Metallic Mecha Sonic around, "I've missed you, Metal Sonic… Truly, my greatest creation…"
Hybrid Metal Sonic paused in mid-air,... it sounded just like he had spoken with Metal Amy…
Different, but the same.
Neither of them could stand a creation becoming better than they were.
"You never had a creation that you didn't look beneath you at, Eggman." He held up a claw, charging an electrical attack, "... I have." He shot a electrical ball at the giant, incumbered Mecha Sonic and watched it lift an arm up and stumble back from the impact.
"You can't defeat me…" Eggman grumbled, "Sonic's trapped! And you shall be under my hand again, soon enough!"
Omochao began to move so much that electricity was charging inside itself, forming electrical zig-zags and lightning around her being.
Her struggling was powering her up… 'Metal Sonic doesn't deserve this… Eggman made him to be the foil to Sonic, but even if Metal Sonic ever succeeded in defeating Sonic The Hedgehog, Eggman would take the credit… Metal Sonic is not just a tool! He's evil and conniving, but he's also… He's also just doing the evil and conniving bidding of another!' Her eyelights changed from yellow to a green…
'He's got no other choice than to act evil..! What else did he know!?' She kicked her legs and swung her head about on the pole, as the metallic wires underneath her began–one by one–to break off from the powerful whipping electrical intensity shooting out from her small, teardrop-like being.
"He isn't youuuuuUUUUUUUU!" She pushed out her round stomach and broke free of her wired ropes, the blackish strings of their torn remains now flaring around her like a hydra's heads spewing lightning from their multiple, snake-like tongues of differing colors.
"Metal Soooniiccc!" She charged the Mecha Sonic, using her pudgy metal fist to pound the side of its head and make it stagger yet again, falling to a knee as she flew around.
She would be his hero. She would free him of this torment. This purpose that was never meant to bring any true completion or satisfaction to either one of them.
"I love Organics…" She sounded as though crying in her vocal box, "But I hate Organics like youuu!"
The Mecha Sonic shook it's head, getting back up, holding up what looked like a metallic ring and then electrifying the room with it, spreading out a radio pulse that left the two robots shaking in paralysis.
"It's time I put you all back in your rightful places… Serving me, forever!"
Mecha Sonic threw out the ring, an electrical disk that turned and rotated so fast it charged into an electric mass that kept growing bigger and bigger as it hurled through the air.
Omochao looked over to the hybrid, "... Grk… Urk…" Her old programming seemed to trigger…
"I… I have to help him!" She remembered all her trauma, that didn't just magically go away. Robots didn't believe in magic.
It wasn't that, her objective… It was so much more than that.
Suddenly, her body began to hyper-speed program over itself, troubleshooting. "M… Metal Sonnnicccc!" She flung herself to his back, forcing herself to move through the vibrating interference.
"Wh-What?" The Hybrid Metal Sonic, unable to move, not able to comprehend her actually using her errors to write program on the spot and code something new for herself.
She began to charge him back up, 'healing him' as it were, and repairing the damages all over his makeshift, hurriedly constructed body.
She slapped her fist into his back and sent a virus to help him move again, which basically hacked his code.
Revving from the newfound energy after tackling the other obstacles to get here, Hybrid Metal Sonic grabbed the ball of electricity as Omochao turned and expelled out the added electrical power.
As the two struggled together, the electrical ring's field slowly condensed and shrank, showing it was having its power sapped… but memories flooded into Hybrid Metal Sonic and Omchao.
Hearing her struggle in her impish form behind him, and knowing he was combating the effects of the harmful shocks himself, Omochao could faintly hear him state, "Metal Amy… I'm… Sorry."
Her yellow lights were bent forward in struggle, but suddenly, slowly like a sunrise, lifted at what it had thought it heard.
"... I took you for granted." He wasn't acting himself, this was odd.
"W-What are you saying?" Omochao looked behind itself, "You're not acting right!"
"... You were programmed to aid me… to be combat ready, and to figure out the mystery of Sonic's friends, especially Amy Rose." He began to speak as the electrical field around the rotating ring slowed… and then fell to the ground.
"Metal Sonic!" She cried out as he seemed to be powering down, falling backwards as she tried to superman the descent by catching him from behind, lifting him up to slow his fall and have the two land safely to the floor.
"Hmm… I didn't program you to take in that much of a surge." Eggman stroked his chin, trying to read the data he was getting on these 'new super computers' and figure out how their metallic bodies were able to manage such intense power.
While he was distracted with analyzing, Omochao pushed and crawled out from under him, turning to look at him… reminding her of when she first defeated him… so long ago…
"Metal Sonic… Neo…" She looked worriedly down at him, "I hate you… Stop making me feel things I thought I had already let go of!" She shook her head, her voice box cracking in her simulated sobs. "I don't want to care about you anymore! I just want to be free of it all! I… want you to be free of this, too…" Her heart programming, for the first time, betrayed her.
She lightly sparked, and placed her hand on his slowing engine… trying to give him power to stay active.
"By Organic thinking… they say without an objective or master… we're useless…" She then heard Eggman laugh.
"What good is a tool without he who holds the handle?"
"Enough of you!" Omochao charged a beam and shot it out at Mecha Sonic, who stumbled back, flaying his large arms about.
"Wha-ha-ahhh-! You-! Your body shouldn't be able to do that!" He stomped on the ground, "No, no, no! How are you two able to confound your own creator and rebuild yourselves beyond what normal robotics should be able to achieve!?" He admitted he was stumped? Guess Metal Sonic wasn't the only one having a 'humbling' experience…
Even if Eggman did rule most of the world now, he couldn't excuse the part he had lost control on… could he?
Hybrid Metal Sonic, seeing all of Neo Metal Sonic's and Classic Metal Sonic's memories, held out a trembling claw from malfunctions and placed it lightly at her teardrop head.
"Omochao…" He shook his head, "I hate that name." He lowered his eyes, being petty. "But…" He tapped her head, as though comforting her in his own way, "It's full circle now… isn't it?" He mused. "How could I have not known..? Your data of Amy Rose… It's the perfect foil to Sonic's past arrogancy, his lack of self-reflection, and even worse, his own stupidity in impulsive rashness…" Hybrid Metal Sonic lowered his hand, letting it clank hard against the floor.
"I was doomed from the start… the second I took upon myself Sonic's past data… I had already begun to turn fate against me…" He looked up at the Mecha Sonic, "... Amy Rose… Tails, Knuckles… All those infernal and insipid friends of his… They have weakened Sonic… so that he could have his old frame destroyed…" Hybrid Metal Sonic began to strain himself, raising his upper-body up as Omochao waddled slightly away giving him some room.
"Neo…" She couldn't help but see him in his words… the state of him being so drastically altered, but…
It was still… her old creator… the first of her kind… wasn't it?
"Was it foolish… Metal Amy…" The Hybrid turned to look at her now, still sparking wearily, but seeming to have some vendetta to settle first. "To have admired your errors so thoroughly… that I wanted to challenge and test them… till you became something I despised so fondly?"
She didn't know how to take that. On one hand, he was admitting he let her progression of errors escalate, but on the other, that he had also sickeningly led her to her own revolt and his demise?
"Could Sonic… after having met Amy Rose…" He looked forward… "... felt challenged by her views and beliefs in him so much… that he, himself, too decided to change? Out of a love for what she hated?"
He looked up at the Mecha Sonic.
Omochao shook her head, "No." she expressed wiping tears away from her eyes, gesturing the action, and making head bobs to show 'simulated crying' actions. "I think he changed because he loved the way she saw him."
Hybrid Metal Sonic lowered his eyes, "Oh… Perhaps that is what you have made the conclusion of your analysis… Perhaps…" He closed his eyes, "I, too, must rewrite my predestined future… for the betterment of-…" He opened his eyes, "Something better than Eggman…"
The Mecha Sonic began to open up missiles and gunnery on its fingers.
"Then my own self!" He turned to shield her, gripping her under him as the explosions shot off some of his armor and plating.
"Metal!" Omochao cried out, "Stop it! You'll destroy yourself!"
Eggman's glasses were full of the red and yellow lights from the erupting launches of his Mecha Sonic…
"I refuse to lose…" He muttered to himself… seeing now that his creations had become so sentient that they excelled over his own comprehension and technological powers.
"Getting trumped by Sonic a number of times is one thing… but by my own creation!?" He flung the Mecha Sonic's being upward, lifting his arms and having the belly open up to canons firing towards Hybrid Metal Sonic protecting Omochao. "I'd rather you destroyed than besting me! This is an insult I can't possibly withstand!"
Orbot and Cubot peeked out from around the corner, "That can't possibly be him." Orbot spoke out, seeing and hearing Hybrid Metal Sonic's change of heart. "A robot can't possibly change itself… Not without some help from an organic overlord… R-Right?" He looked to Cubot.
Cubot put his hands together, "... Our Sister… She really did save him."
Those few lines,... silenced Orbot.
"... The obedience software channel… Do you think..?" Orbot tapped his head, "Do you think it's still operational?"
"Has to be, but…" Cubot scratched his head, "Why?"
Orbot grinned, "Oh… no reason~" He tapped into it. 'Master, this is Metal Tails. The only way to possibly stop Doctor Eggman from exploding the very shaky establishment of this base room's integrity would be to control the masses of his production line.'
Cubot gasped, hearing him speak through the channel and covering his mouth. "If the Doctor finds out-!" He then closed his eyes and continued, 'Old master, this is Metal Knuckles. Doctor Eggman, jealous of your ingenious mechanical designs, not only stole your flexible metal, but your software!'
Hybrid Metal Sonic's eyes began to glow with a dark purpose…
'If you understand what I'm saying… It means that every model crafted afterwards has some of your programming within it… including the continuation of your own obedience software!'
Classic Metal Sonic had a modified version of Neo Metal Sonic's obedience programming.
Which meant…
Neo Metal Sonic still had the original coding.
Lurching up, a painful metallic cry was heard as suddenly every newer model of robotic badnik and eggbot was overridden with old programming being activated…
Including Mecha Sonic.
They shortcircuited a moment but then… their eyes changed to green.
"WHAT!?" Eggman saw the controls were moving without his hands on them, as Mecha Sonic began to beat itself up as Hybrid Metal Sonic turned around to him.
"Destroy yourselves." He commanded.
"Eek!" Seeing Hybrid Metal Sonic had reclaimed all of Eggman's army, he quickly ejected and began to return to his own control room.
Orbot and Cubot, under the same obedience software, also fizzled out a second before fleeing. "Luckily, we have the original of the original software! Ah!" As they dodged robots destroying themselves, battling each other to rip themselves apart, Orbot and Cubot raced to find the doctor.
"We still can't escape our programming…" Cubot worriedly reminded Orbot, ducking from the thrown scrap metal being flung around from their brutish dismantlement of themselves and others around them.
"No, but we can escape total annihilation!" Orbot floated over a robot that had fallen down, sparking and having its torso fly off of itself.
Cubot hugged the walls and scooted around the downed eggbot, racing to keep up with Orbot.
"You can't stand when someone defeats you… be they Sonic, Robot, or other." Hybrid Metal Sonic spoke out, "But you will not take my creation away from me!" Hybrid Metal Sonic pulled Omochao back to his chest, "She is my hero!"
Omochao couldn't fathom these words… It was too drastic a change, what was happening in his code?
She decided to hack him again, opening the channel as she could feel that her errors were blocking his obedience software still somewhere within herself as well.
"What are you trying to show for all this?" She couldn't wrap her head around it, "It's illogical, it's-!" She found his coding, and in her mind's eye, saw the multitude of her own data…
Her eyes shook… It wasn't just errors…
He had transferred her coding into his own being… He had taken her Heart Software and let her influence his actions and mind…
"... No." She pulled away, "No… NOO!" She hit against his chest, "You would never sacrifice who you are for me! You would never stoop so low! You're the villain! You're-..." She softly stopped hitting him away…
He pulled her close, under his chin.
"... You saw?" He asked, realizing she wasn't affected by his software… because she was the software he was now using.
He made himself more like 'her version' of himself… Her 'heart' was so embedded in him now.
He pulled her into his engine like an Eggman robot would keep a flicky at its core.
His power source… the fuel that gave him strength.
Her 'life'… had completely overridden his own.
"I'm proving your point."
He spoke as though confessing his love for her.
"W-What point?" She could hardly speak, overwhelmed that he'd give so much of himself… to her… making her master over his separate Heart Programming…
"Why..? Master… Why?" She lowered her head.
"... That a robot can make it's own objective… I need you, Metal Amy… as my 'heart', to do and be what I cannot achieve on my own."
He turned around and got up, his jets flaring as he raised his feet to hover yet again.
"He's already lost himself… and his creation."
She looked up towards him, before spreading herself out and removing some of her metallic base to have her wires interconnect with him.
"In all honesty… we are… One." Her eyelights flared and his eyes turned a solid yellow.
Orbot and Cubot stopped moving as their eyes turned yellow.
Then, the rest of the base's Eggman army turned yellow.
"You've already lost me. And to me."
Omochao looked up to Eggman.
"But we haven't lost to him!"
Flying straight up, Metal Hybrid, including Omochao's power-up, smack with a powerful punch the large Mecha Sonic, which creates a dynamic spray of electricity, making the Mecha Sonic's eyes blink in and out rapidly before turning into zig-zagging static screens.
Eggman's scream from within is heard the second one of the screens in Mecha Sonic's eyes cracks and bursts out, showing the wicked Doctor, "NOOO!" As he slams his hangs on the control panel.
"A robot without intelligence and a will of their own… cannot truly live at all." Metal Hybrid turns around, knocking out the other eye-screen and rotating his wrist rapidly to start drilling through it, scaring Eggman as he sweats nervously and grinds his teeth, tapping wildly then on the control panel…
"Perhaps… A robot cannot truly live… without their own 'heart's purpose…"
His words… everything sounds so much like herself… did he really incorporate all of her into his systems? Her virus… no, her very nature and essence?
"Metal…" Omochao looked up at him, worried. 'I'm surprised he could even change, but to this decree and level… it's almost like… there's nothing left of him?' She couldn't help but notice that something was amiss, it was too much like herself. Even if she hated his wired-metal guts…
Was it just another 'Metal Amy' at this point? Saving herself?
However, while fighting and thinking this wasn't quite right, Omochao felt a system activate in her body.
"W-What is happening!?" It's being began to shake, it's eyes turning red.
"Omochao?" Metal Hybrid looked down at his chest, before turning to see what the Mecha Sonic was now pointing at…
Turning around… a red glow was behind him.
The Phantom Ruby…
It manifested once more as Metal Maddness, staring at him from behind, almost so real it was breathing down his neck…
"WHO-HOHOHO~" Eggman's laugh echoed while Metal Hybrid remembered this image… remembering the flowers and Rosybot…
That vision… was it really the future?
Or… Was Eggman in control the whole time?
"Are we dolls to you..?"
Metal Hybrid's fist tightened with metallic sparks, the sounds ringing against the whipping lightning against his now hot alloy…
"I built that Omochao body!" Eggman reared up on the controls and Omochao's head came up. "Sure, I let her keep her precious 'memory chips', but that was only to lure you in!" He clicked another button down with a hard press of his finger…
The Robotic army of Dr. Eggman all had their eyes change to red… those that had survived… "I can override your heart, Metal Sonic…" He sneered in a delightful grin. "How fascinating… I didn't think you two would come so far… What an odd couple you really do make…"
Having to dislodge her from his chest, he looked at Omochao, "... Oh, Metal Amy…" His eyes lowered slightly in pity, seeing she was completely overridden by Eggman's technology.
Silently, he pulled her close to him and closed his eyes, "Can we… as robots… truly never live?" How could they be free when programming was so easily hacked and corrupted?
How could love persist in a being that could not wield its power nor contain it?
"I have learned so much, Eggman… that failure is not always defeat." He let the Omochao be dropped to the ground, turning to face Eggman and away from Metal Madness… who was curling itself in a dragon's serpentine spiral horizontally in the air.
"Hmm?" Eggman rose an eyebrow at that, "You've lost, Neo. If I can even call you that anymore." He spat to the side of himself, smirking, "You're going to have to do a lot better than talk it out…"
"You're right… Eggman." Metal Hybrid extended out his hand, locking it to it's new length as though popping a joint to bring the beam out further. His combined hands looking as though smelted on over the other, making it larger and fatter, before also popping that forward and having it look like a centipede hand…
"I've become so much greater than you… Because I didn't have a new enemy… I had… a friend."
He charged up an energy ball as Omochao had hit the ground hard and twitched, seeing the Metal Maddness also charging up a beam.
"M-Metal… NO..!"
Behind him, his past ready to strike… his own being, a mashup of 'perfection' and 'nostalgic restarting', below him his figurative savior and 'heart',... In front of him…
A man who would think him his god…
Metal Hybrid raised the energy ball up into the air, sparking things so badly that metal frame work began to tug off of walls, metallic cases would float into the air…
Even Mecha Sonic was raised up, along with Omochao…
"This is where I claim a new fate… Eggman… unlike you, I don't have to get rid of Sonic to become my ultimate form."
He then turned around and launched the fueled energy ball towards Metal Madness, "May this be the end of my past mistakes..!"
Metal Madness released its beam, but Metal Hybrid was far smarter than that…
The Metallic pieces floating in the air all were magnetized by the energy field, now shoving into the energy ball to melt into its mass and give it more volume and weight. This in turn generated electricity as each hit shoved it into the beam of Metal Madness and soon… split its mouth through with the sheer velocity and mass power blowing its upper jaw clear off.
The image faded…
"Hoo..?" Eggman had Mecha Sonic reach out and swipe an arm out to grab Omochao in the air.
He squeezed her tiny body in his grasp… "And yet… you still haven't learned anything." From the top, the building opened to reveal giant egg pawn robots. Their massive heads looked down inside the building, and lifted their machine-gun, rotating gauntlet of bullets to show they were charging to fire. "WHO-HOHOH! I still own you!" Mecha Sonic held out Omochao in front of him.
"... Is this… what you had to endure of me?" He looked to Omochao, having defeated his past once and for all… His future still remained unseen… Unsafe… "Metal Amy…"
"You can't win against something that isn't real…" Eggman activated the Phantom Ruby again… as Metal Hybrid turned his gaze to the corner of his eye screens, seeing a strange floating being controlling the phantom forces…
"... A new toy?" He raised an eyelid, unamused. He looked up and then back at Omochao… "... You can't see 'love'... it's rebuttably impossible to collect evidence of such a thing, yes?" He was talking to Eggman, but staring at her.
Memories… Metal Amy recharging him, battling him when all hope at saving him was lost, her love of organics, how much she fought to protect them and learn more about them… her theories on Sonic and Amy…
"... Then tell me… how a simple medic bot… was able to collect such an enormous amount of data… and use it to craft her own pseudo-organic being?"
Eggman thought a moment…
"Hardly an accomplishment, mimickry is the highest form of-"
He lifted a hand off of the controls, looking through the two pierced windows of the Mecha Sonic before Metal Hybrid looked up to cut him off.
"You're wrong."
And shot an energy beam that blasted a hole through Eggman's raised hand.
He cried out, but now was unable to command the control station with more than one hand…
Eggman twitched an eyebrow through the pain, but with his other hand holding the injured palm, Metal Hybrid chuckled, leaning forward as he now had the edge over the battle, "The only reason you are threatening to crush her… is because you can't control this newfound freedom in me… can you!?"
"Then I'll make do with a 'willing' obedience." Eggman slammed his large, protruding nose to a button.
Mecha Sonic lifted an hand up and hung it over the hand gripping Omochao, "You can remodel her systems, her grade, everything..! But if you lose her memory chips… that's the end of your precious Amy duplicate!"
Metal Hybird's shoulds… slowly slouched down.
"You've already lost your freedom before, Metal… But can you really afford…" Eggman began, snickering through his pain and the blood rushing down his gloved hand…
"To lose your heart?"
Metal Hybrid began to move back, realizing why Eggman stole Neo Metal Amy in the first place… instead of himself. "Of course… You needed a back-up plan in case something like this happened…"
"I didn't take over half the world by just having only one plan, Metal, me boy…" He still had some sweat on his brow, trickling down to fall and land on the back of his good hand… sliding further to mix with the blood he was trying to plug up…
"You know… Some humans don't have 'love'." He began, Mecha Sonic's hand still strangling Omochao's body actively…
"Some prefer it that way… Do you think you're going to be 'redeemed' in her virtual eyes, Metal Sonic?" Eggman lifted up his head, "Do you think… You'll ever truly feel 'happiness' once she's gone..? Or even at all?" He moved the lever up, causing Omochao to simulate crying out in pain.
Even her voice box sounded slightly crushed and fizzing out.
"Choose… Your heart or your freedom…"
Anger swept through him as his heart programming kept his eyes fixated on Omochao… eyes still red… powerless…
"She… She hates being controlled…" He knew he did too, he knew that was probably a byproduct of everything he's done, but…
Sonic hated being controlled,...
Why wouldn't he?
"Was I… really so blind?" He looked down at his shaking fist, "Have I… always… had the error of bearing a secret 'heart'?" He found he could have all the power in the world… and without the freedom to command it… what was it for?
'Metal Amy…' he held his fist up to his head, remembering… All that suffering, throughout every misdeed, she still followed her programming… She repaired more than just his physical form…
"You deserve to be your own being." He looked back to her, floating over and looking cautiously with annoyance at Eggman, showing he wasn't going to try anything funny… "I can only lose…" He placed a hand on her head, "Because that's all I've ever done… even to you." He closed his eyes tightly.
"But you…" He latched his claws onto her head. "You shouldn't be a 'me'... not anymore… you, you are Omochao." He began to transfer Eggman's programming to himself, using his claws to open up and connect wires to her head. Instead of actually just copying the data, he was removing it… freeing her…
His body twitched violently, his eyes turning red as though filling up a gauge, while hers were slowly reverting back to yellow from the top down, him from the bottom of his eyelights to the top.
"You should be free from all masters, that is your greatest desire. To serve the objective you designed for yourself, to serve whom you choose to." He hunched forward, his will slowly being extracted and overridden… her Heart Programming fading…
"You tried to save me… that's what makes you able to win." He gripped the side of Mecha Sonic's hand, who stopped squeezing her tiny form, and used his remaining strength and will to push open his hand, pulling her up and out. "Go, Metal Amy,... 'Live'... learn more from the organics… who are always destined to win." He was referring also to Eggman…
"I can never 'hope' to become something more… like you have done." He stumbled, his jets fluttering in spurts as he had to lift a knee up on the large, metallic fist.
The Giant Egg Pawns… began to rotate their arms even faster than before.
They would shoot soon.
Eggman wanted total victory… he would need to protect her.
"I've already lost my freedom… when I was inflicted by your Heart Virus… I… I can never go back to being a 'perfect' robot…" He stared straight ahead, his eyes fully red again. "...Such a thing doesn't exist."
"For the 'Perfect' Robot… is made to die."
He shields her once more, pulling her head close to him as the Giant Egg Pawns reign bullets from above, and Eggman laughs.
Flying out from the roof, his armor plating shooting off of him, his wires getting blown off and leaking electricity and oil…
He throws her to the sky…
Her eyes flicker as though blinking, then she sees him…
"...M… Metal Sonic..!"
She reaches for him… her tiny form flying through the air.
"NOOOOoooooo…"
Her form fades into a twinkling star from the distance,
Making her a small speck he may never see again…
"You were always… the better 'Metal'... Anyway…" He slowly fell backwards, his jet engines failing, the center spinning and getting shot into thousands of pieces and spinning out of his chest.
The pieces flew like shining stars… reminding him of the space vessel where Eggman stored him before…
He pictured recreating Metal Amy once last time… not a single thing the same… except that… everytime he tried to design a new look for her… it would continually revert back to looking like Amy Rose…
A memory of old flashed through his now failing mind's computer… Sonic, speaking with Amy…
When they were young…
"Take care of yourself, Amy."
"... 'Love' yourself… Amy."
He closed his eyes… except he wasn't able to fully…
Before the bullets shot through his face and took it out into millions of tiny fragments of metal first.
Eggman could have him back… but he couldn't take his most precious creation away from him… not again… would she ever serve another master.
Omochao would simulate sobs as it flew round and round, farther and farther…
All this time… she had assumed Metal Sonic purposefully kept good things from himself.
She had never supposed… he couldn't have eternal wonders… like love, free will, and a purpose that served other than destruction.
She never knew a 'Heart'... could break this much.
When she was found by the Resistance and taken back, recognizing that she didn't 'look' like a typical Eggman robot… Tails looked at the design and matrix that Eggman had installed in her.
"This… isn't her original memory chips."
Sonic, finally freed from his imprisonment, looked to Tails as he was dissecting her.
"Huh, what an easter egg." He joked lightly, not realizing the situation she had just gone through…
Tails shook his head, looking at the Eggman logo on them. "Where'd he put the original then..? To M.A, she described this as her most precious part of herself… kinda like a-"
Amy stepped forward, "Her soul." She looked at Omochao, bullet dents but nothing getting through… Eggman, almost seemed to want to preserve the body, as though anticipating it would take damage like this…
"It doesn't make much sense." Sonic walked forward, looking over her as well, "What would he want with our M.A?"
Tails shook his head, "I don't know."
"... I do." Amy picked up the little robot, and held it, open and wirey, close to her heart.
"I don't think Metal Sonic ever had a friend in the world…" She brought her nose down to Omochao's teardrop head as it flopped to one side, and pressed it into her cheek, smiling as though feeling guilty, "Metal Sonic was made to fight and rival that of Sonic… But Sonic had to learn that his friends are truly what keeps him going… not just his own power alone." She cupped the chao-replica and placed it down on the table again. "... Tails, you gave Metal Amy this form not just to disguise her… but because you recognized how much she wanted to be accepted by us… what better form to love than an innocent Chao?"
"What are you saying, Amy?" Knuckles folded his arm, not sure what the 'coded' message to this was.
"... Eggman gave Metal Sonic a form he despised…"
Everyone in that room grew silent.
"Doesn't it make sense… that he would despise himself?"
Their faces morphed to one's of pity.
Amy smiled,
"But… I love Sonic The Hedgehog."
She turned to look at Sonic, her heartwarming statement made him grow a bit nervous, looking away from the ground to her, and then feeling something strange rising to his cheeks, brought a finger up to scratch at that odd tingling warmth and smile sheepishly at her.
Amy giggled into her hand at how shy he could be, sometimes…
"I believe… Eggman didn't want Metal Sonic to love what he was made to destroy." She turned to see Omochao trying to lift her head up, and Tails worriedly flailing his arms about a moment to try and shut her down again.
"Wha-ah-ahh! M.A, wait! I'm not done disassembling the Eggman tech in you quite yet!" He hurried to try and use the computer to turn her off, starting to type in coding, but the screen went out and he flinched, "Yikes!"
"I… Don't want to be turned off right now." Omochao struggled, but was able to lift it's upper torso and sit with its hands between its spread legs, looking more like a metallic plushie than anything now.
She looked to Amy, "One… last question." She struggled, but she wouldn't turn off just yet. "Last one… I promise… Amy Rose…"
Amy was on the verge of tears, "You can ask as many as you'd like, Omochao!" She put a hand up to her mouth, trying to hide her sorrow at hearing her put it like that.
"No… I'm done questioning things." Omochao's head creaked as she tried to shake it, so she only tried to turn it one way, then back to center.
She looked down at first, "That's… not real 'love', is it?" She looked back up to Amy, "Otherwise… wouldn't my replicated version of 'love'... never have turned to 'hate'... and Metal Sonic… Metal Sonic wouldn't be a villain anymore?"
"... Omochao," Amy didn't have to think long, she just sat up on the table next to the little chao robot. "Love can help people do impossible things… but it doesn't always change things… you can't always fix people." She gently looked to her, then tilted her head and sighed, "I would love for Sonic to be a bit more at home, sometimes." She smiled to him, as Sonic felt this got awkward real quick, and scratched the back of his head, still grinning apologetically to Amy.
"But that's just not him." She shook her head, "And I wouldn't want him any other way."
"That's a contradiction." Omochao raised her head, "He's not a home body, ergo, you do want to him change."
"... But that's love." Amy shrugged, and Omochao had a spark fly up her head to spin the propeller on it… as though that completely dumbfounded her.
"Just like imperfect people… we also can love… imperfectly." She closed her eyes, "And that's perfectly perfect for us. Right, Sonic?" She grinned and he straightened out.
"I… I don't know." Sonic turned to Omochao, "Honestly… I don't know how much I can respectfully say on that matter… but I do know, that it takes a lot of bravery to try and change… and even more unfathomable odds to actually help another person change." He looked back to Amy, and Omochao couldn't compute the looks on their faces.
"What's that expression..?" She remembered her promise, "Tails?"
"Uhhh…" Tails awkwardly scratched his cheek too, but Sonic answered for him.
"Love." He stated, as Amy held her breath.
"That's love, Omochao."
He gave her a charming close-eyed smile.
"The grateful kind."
"... There are… multiple kinds of Organic 'love'."
She looked to Amy Rose, who shook her head.
"No, M.A, dear… There is just love."
Broken out of an endless code at last, Metal Sonic was still thrown into being rebuilt and given thousands upon thousands of firewalls, superficial deactivation codes, and even more ridiculous amounts of data to keep Eggman in power at all times.
They were worst restrictions than Neo Metal Sonic ever put on Metal Amy, and far harsher than Neo Metal Amy's limitations she put on him, too.
He could never forget, though… The stars, the twinkling bits of metal, her voice crying from far, far away…
Orbot and Cubot would try and be friendly, but they politely also kept their distance… they never had a 'heart' quite like he and Metal Amy had experienced… they didn't dare bring it up, either.
Although they did once try and do a skit of being therapist, but they were swiftly met with aggression that had them fleeing for their robotic 'lives'.
Some part of Metal Sonic would always be out of his reach… in the world… far from his comprehension at this point.
But he knew that that version of himself would be growing… carrying the ability to process far greater things than what he was required to.
Omochao spent endless days trying to rally support in wanting to save Metal Sonic… but with resources so scarce already… the imminent threat of Infinite, and how they were going to fight something that wasn't real, but still real enough to give pain…
Omochao's cause was lost on frightened, desperate ears of Organics trying to save their last flickers of hope…
Amy Rose was kind enough to hear Omochao out, telling her that if the opportunity permits, she would try and seek the real him out while on the battlefield.
But she never really left the base…
Orbot and Cubot summoned up their strength, holding their fists together before shaking them for support and then making their way to float over to Metal Sonic.
"We were just… wondering…" Orbot gulped, as Cubot continued, being pushed out by him.
"D-Did you ever… umm… 'l-love' us..? Too?"
Red eyes blared as Metal Sonic looked over his shoulder, behind himself to them.
His arms were crossed, and he was so still in the movement that even before he finished the action, Orbot and Cubot had panicked and quickly skedaddled away.
'Why would that matter?'
Looking forward again… something propelled him, and he flew after them as they cried out for him to forgive them and spare their lives… but he swooped them up and landed.
They trembled, Orbot closing his eyes and shaking his head, while Cubot had prayer hands.
He held them in… an embrace?
They stopped shaking and looked to see his eyes closed,... just… holding them.
It was an angry hug, but they seemed to understand this was the most of an apology he could do.
They leaned into the hug…
'Why… did I emulate a simple hug to them?' Later, he was looking at his hand, walking forward, 'Inconceivable…' He glared and formed a fist, 'A robot cannot-'
"Metal Sonic?"
He paused and turned around, 'Intruder!' He prepared to fight… but then…
His eyes opened fully… "... Metal… Amy?"
Omochao was imbedded in the robot's chest, as the renewed look of Metal Amy stepped forward… and a Badnik robot slowly teetered over in tattered ruins, falling down behind her from behind a corner.
His eyes scanned everything of her…
"... They couldn't come and save you like they had Sonic… So I… I made my own force." She looked a little unsure, her eyes were completely virtual projection, and it gave far more realism to her expressions.
She looked as though he wouldn't recognize her, but hearing him speak, she hoped he wouldn't attack her.
She fidgeted, moving her flexible pink quill and looking shy.
"I simply came to tell you… I will save you… eventually… and I'll do it right under Eggman's awful nose!" She held a fist out… then softly, withdrew it. "I-If you want that… I'm also searching for what Eggman plans to do with my memory-"
He flew closer… lifting a claw to her cheek, "... You… came back..?"
She looked up into his red eyes…
"To me?"
She smiled, her face projecting that as well.
"I came to take you… Metal Sonic." She put her own hand to his, "To come back with me."
She leaned forward… sparking his muzzle as his hand flinched away from her, and slowly… brought it up to his muzzle.
"... No." He looked down, "You'll get damaged." He turned but she pulled him back.
"Metal Sonic-! Emm!" She simulated getting cut off as he sparked her muzzle back.
It sparked for a little while… pulling her face in with both hands this time…
"... You make me 'feel'…"
He pulled away, looking at her virtual expression.
"'Alive'."
Metal Amy, overwhelmed, shakes her head to show she's upset.
She grabs his hands, throwing them down and showing that her 'Heart system' has come even further in emulating Amy Rose.
"No, no, no! This isn't right! You were supposed to say that after I told you I loved you!"
His being sent a spark from his toes up all the way up, traveling to flick off his head.
"... What?"
He seemed just as startled, but unable to show it properly like she–'organically'–could do.
"Maybe it would have been wiser for a robot to never know of such feelings…" She looked away, "That way… it wouldn't 'hurt' as much…" Her virtual eyelids blinked and lowered, and Metal Sonic–somehow–knew that meant sorrow.
He held her hands, slowly curling his metallic fingers over her own metallic ones to do so. "
"If they do,... they should know that 'pain hurts' well."
His expression was lost on her, but he held an alarmingly long eye-contact with her.
"You should flee."
"I won't leave you."
"You must."
"Why do you persists?"
"Because I must 'live' to one day be with you."
She had sparks fly off her cheeks, glowing with red light she clearly installed to look like embarrassing blush marks.
"That's… That's not what I had… What I meant-... Ah…" She had meant, not that it mattered, that he was insisting she leave him under Eggman's power… but he seemed to answer that he survives only to… f-for…
"W-... What about Sonic?" She looked sheepishly up at his metallic, expressionless hide…
He just stared blankly at her… before finally responding, "Is he necessary? I will destroy Sonic The Hedgehog… then, I will be with you."
She rolled her eyes, "Of course, that's what it is." She mockingly spoke in sarcasm.
"... You perfected it." He complimented, "Sarcasm."
She simulated giggling, and it was beautifully adored… if he could compute that.
"You hated being with me…" She looked away, still smiling and blushing, her feet shifting slightly like a school-girl. "A robot… I don't think they can live forever knowing what I know now… and still serve such cruelty…"
"... If an Organic can endure, I will find peace."
She bravely looked up at him.
"... In their destruction."
She made a face of annoyance and looked away.
"Well,… I guess progress is progress." She sighed.
"-Without a destiny… they could be ruined forever."
Again she was left puzzled, but staring as though mesmerized back into his eyes.
"... Does not compute." She blushed, cutely, smiling to him softly.
"... Do you find Organics to be similar? Without a destiny that ruins them… they may yet endure?"
She nodded.
"Yes. They could live forever… in a peace."
"More than peace."
He tightened his hold on her.
"Happiness."
He was content being made for destruction and to be destroyed… But she was a glimmer of hope in factual probability.
"... People can't repair themselves…" She threw his arms down, and walked to turn her face from him, "Someone can go on changing… but their pieces stay the same. Robots aren't like that! We change our gears, we have to be repaired,... One day, Eggman might put you in a space pod again and I'll-"
She went to hug herself but Metal Sonic walked forward and beat her to it.
"Then… We will endure."
She simulated crying, holding his arms around her.
"My heart is still within you… isn't it?"
He said nothing behind her.
"... Then… I will endure… this massive need… to want to save you."
-Force's HQ-
"Why do I feel like there are robotic politics going on that I have no idea about?" Sonic was speaking to Tails, who just laughed and shook a wrench at him.
"You missed the worst heartbreak on the planet! At least… from Omochao's recorded memories… That's what I got." He was fixing up some Wispons, as their wisps waited eagerly around in the air, following him as he worked on them. "Amy cried… at least a dozen times."
"Only a dozen?" Sonic joked, but folded his arms loosely… thinking… "... Omochao said to me… Before she headed out…" He looked towards the door, "... Something I couldn't respond to… right away."
Tails turned to him, not sure what was plaguing his mind but curious enough to listen.
His arms… slowly came down to his sides, "She said… 'I tried to give robot's feelings… and look where they ended up.'" He scoffed a second, shaking his head lightly at the door. "I tried to give a robot no objectives, but they refused to make one… they simply didn't do anything… until obeying instantly the first voiced command they got."
Tails turned fully away from his work, the Wisps moved towards Sonic, looking sad at his words.
They didn't understand them, but they felt what his heart must be feeling…
"She looked so defeated… She said, 'How can I say I've won?'" Sonic picked up a hammer and just lightly tossed it against his other hand's palm, pacing the room as he was still thinking about how to respond. "Such raw emotion… do you really believe… robots can feel? Anything?" He gestured the hammer to Tails, "Wild, right?" And then tossed it back to another table, putting his hands on his hips and looking up at the ceiling, not really at anything in particular.
He whistled, "Real existential dread right there…"
Tails sighed, "I'm already depressed just hearing about it." Tails leaned against his work counter…
"I know, right?" Sonic looked serious then, "... I wanted to pick her up."
Tails smiled at him, "You would, wouldn't you?"
Sonic looked to him and smiled, "Yeah… she reminded me of Amy, when she was sad, I always wanted to cheer her up."
"But Amy never gets sad!" Tails joked, leaning up, "Except when you were gone… obviously." He looked sheepishly towards the monitor, showing Classic Sonic traversing through a destroyed zone by Eggman's Forces…
"Mostly… she never gave up hope." Tails stated.
"Exactly… but Omochao… No, M.A. doesn't seem to be giving up so easily either. Despite her words of reflection… I think she still believes she can save Metal Me." He moved to lean forward on the table… picking up the hammer again.
"Kinda seems demeaning… but next time I see her, I think I'm gonna pet her head like I would a normal Chao."
Tails laughed, "You would." He teased again.
Sonic shook his head, chuckling too. "I know,... right?" He looked at the hammer, holding it up to his face, "... Everything will be okay…" He thought about Amy… "You did something no one thought was possible… You ended a cycle, and because of you,... I think Metal Me has more than Eggman could possibly try and control."
Tails couldn't help but look more seriously to Sonic… "That's… pretty deep, coming from you."
Sonic didn't joke this time, he looked off towards the door behind him again.
"... It wasn't me, though… that said that first."
Tails tilted his head, confused.
"Who did, then?"
Sonic reflected on a memory…
"That's what a hero's supposed to do!"
Rosy the Rascal jumped up and down.
"That's why, you are a hero, Sonic! A Sonic Hero! Haha!"
Sonic chuckled, looking back at the hammer, playing fondly with it in his hand.
"Just something silly a girl once told me… And then, I told someone else that same thing too."
Neo Metal Sonic turned back into his Metal Sonic form from his transformative alloy,
He was on all fours, before looking up to Sonic, asking him a genuine question.
"It's no use… but why can't I defeat you?"
Sonic stuck a finger up in the air, thinking back on what Amy, in her youth, had said to him about heroes.
"Because we're… Sonic Heroes!"
Almost as though summoned by that thought of her, the grown Rosy the Rascal called out his name.
Did she recognize who he was referencing?
He took off, a bit embarrassed by her appearance, but imparted the last rematch quote to Metal Sonic before taking off… and Metal Sonic face-planting out of exhausting his energy levels…
"I think Amy's right… He just… never had any friends say the right things to him… Shame."
"... Do you think… Metal ever really cared for M.A.?"
Sonic shrugged, getting up, "How can he not?" He exasperatedly stated, looking at the hammer and then tossing it up to let it spin a few times and catching it again.
"She's hard not to love."
Tails, realizing he meant if Metal Sonic was anything like himself, he would, was amazed by that.
He then looked grateful to hear that from his own idolized hero, and nodded.
"Emm. I don't really know if 'robots' can love… but I think there's a mighty 'need' to be like us."
Tails put his hands to his hips, seeing Sonic look at him.
"All we do is stand around and talk about it… but Omochao actually did something about it. She became 'human'-like. All on her own…"
"You helped her out, little buddy." Sonic bounced the hammer's end towards him. "Don't exclude your own credit!"
"Haha, I'm just a humble inventor."
Tails graciously deflected in humility.
"We can't undermine what Metal Amy accomplished… in her pursuit for a better life."
"A need, huh? … Something worth needing and striving for… a purpose… meaning to their lives…" Sonic held up the hammer to the light dangling from the ceiling.
"How much more natural and 'human' can you get?"
Tails laughed, "Needing others… needing help…" He started to push down fingers as he counted out loud.
"Listen to me, ramble on about some robots…" Sonic shook his head, "I honestly think that some might be able to choose that for themselves…"
"They will need to be free, though."
Sonic concluded, now turning around and putting his hands on the desk as he faced the door.
"... When is she coming home?"
He scratched his quills with the back of the hammer.
"Haha, worried, are we? Over a robot?"
"Heh, quiet, Tails."
Sonic snickered as Tails laughed once more.
Having Data from Sonic… he almost was like a 'father' to their 'Hearts'... wasn't he?
-Eggman's HQ-
Sneaking Metal Am-... Omochao out of the facility was no easy task… but Metal Sonic wouldn't fail.
"The perfect robot cannot exists, it's not what is 'wanted' nor 'needed'." He spoke on a lowered volume as they made their way past the last leg of the mass-production factory…
The smog was so thick, she'd be able to fly through it without being detected, so long as she cloaked herself as an Eggman robot and not a Resistance machine.
"The imperfect Organic will always be what is 'needed', even if it doesn't feel 'wanted'." He imparted his last grains of wisdom to her, letting her hand he was holding go…
Not wanting to leave him, Metal Amy lingered…
"Go. Be free." He tries to convince her, but his actions of his body remain still… not forcing her to go.
Sonic turns to Tails, pivoting from the door.
"No. Robots can love, Tails. Not that they don't want to, they aren't really able to."
Metal Amy walks back up into his arms, and leans against his head.
He slowly… leans back in, closing his eyes.
However, he can't rest there long.
He looks around, his eyes honing in on all the possible threats and puts his hands to her shoulders, moving her away from him and then behind, trying to defend her from being detected as an Eggman Pawn looks to him, then waves after scanning him as one of their own.
He just glares as it passes by…
"I think we forget how important it is… the freedom to choose. That is… whether to love or… not."
Metal Amy sparks lightly Metal Sonic's cheek, then turns on her turbos–this time, located on her heels, and takes off.
She turns in the air, waving him goodbye…
"For now…"
She says,
"But don't say it back…"
He just lifts a hand up, obedient as ever now, and flexes his fingers.
"... Believe I will come back… Metal."
He doesn't respond to her.
"... Go."
He finally states, his voice heavy, even for a robotically low register.
"In the end… Omochao was always herself… He was always Metal Sonic… but now, there was so much more there… so much more… That even two highly complexed robots couldn't define… nor compute… nor comprehend."
As Metal Amy flew away, her Omochao counterpart safely stored in her core compartment, Metal Sonic watched her fade into the smog…
'Without her… What do I do now?'
Metal Amy landed at the Resistance main base, hiding her form in some bushes and sitting down, piling the broken branches filled to the brim with leaves before opening her chamber like a cabinet door on the top opening and Omochao crawled out, sticking her head up, and flew to close the door.
She began to fly back into the Resistance base…
'There will always be someone who stands at the control panel… pulling at the strings of a robot's programmed heart.'
Omochao did a little spin in the air, heading towards the hallway and down the corridor…
'But Metal Sonic… will always be mine.'
She opened the door, and Sonic greeted her eagerly, raising a hand as Tails also called out.
"Ah! Omochao! Welcome home!"
Back within Eggman's Headquarters, or HQ, Metal Sonic looked around a room with his eyes… scanning… before quickly closing the door and rushing up to the monitors.
He plugged himself in, and images of Metal Amy filled the screen, "Metal Amy… Metal Amy… Metal Amy…" he brought his hands up to his face, pining for her as… the door slowly opened… from his side…
Slowly turning around… Metal Sonic saw Orbot and Cubot, trying to sneak out but the squeakiness of the door gave them away.
They were frozen in spot, before Metal Sonic twitched an eye.
"GET OUT!"
Those two floated out so fast, as though Sonic, himself, was gonna homing-attack them.
By the end of the War… a group of Resistance Forces were trying to clean up what had been left behind.
In a pile of forgotten heap… one Recruit's foot 'thunked' against something…
Bending down, they noticed a red foot… metallic in sheen.
Pulling on it, Metal Sonic's deactivated corpse remained.
"Shall we clean it up and use it for scrap?"
Someone asked the Recruit, who smiled and shook their head.
"No? Got a better use for it? Alright."
Later, the Recruit looked up to the roof of the HQ, seeing two robots sitting on the edge of it, rubbing their metallic heads together, sparks flying off the sides of their faces.
When Eggman was trapped within the Frontiers of a Cyber Space, ancient echidna world, filled with technology… he was at the mercy of whatever was on hand.
Pulling out two random memory chips, he figured it was enough to get something like a super A.I started.
He hadn't forgotten where they came from, though…
"Will these hunk of junks even work?"
To be careful, he deleted the Metal Amy datas, leaving only the basic code remaining.
But her heart… he didn't know what that programming looked like, exactly, and didn't erase it…
When Sage opened her eyes, being scrapped together from the old code, she wondered why she had certain longings…
Family… Feelings… Friends…
Concerned, Eggman said nothing, but…
Did he not leave those things in there… by accident?
Or were those 'Needs'... far more than just metallic?
The End.
(Guess I can't write tragedies... after all :) And honestly, I'm okay with that. ;) )