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It was the middle of the battle that seemed to have no end. The heroes felt exhausted. Despite this, Sonic's spirit did not wane, as he was still trying to catch Metal Sonic off guard and knock him out of his Neo form, brought on by the power he had once again mysteriously absorbed.
Tails detected Egg Carrier's signals, and immediately told his friends about it. They didn't waste any time in getting to the bottom of Eggman's plans. But who would have known that Metal Sonic would take them by surprise as they get there? Even though there were four of them, it still wasn't enough to overpower an army of Badniks in a matter of seconds. It was already getting on the nerves of some of his friends, but the blue blur didn't mind another challenge.
But something felt wrong to him this time. The usual tactic with Metal — to tick him off, to remind him who’s the copy, the inanimate being here, — wasn't working. Metal had always reacted to this vividly, as by the clockwork; it was enough to make him mad, to make him justify his sole role and nature. It was funny, Sonic thought. And he really missed it, the times when their battles were full of rivalry, excitement. Metal never displayed any real threat, and Sonic knew that. Like, becoming an Over-lame-lord? A simple show-off, to prove his strength and power, to intimidate them! His motives were clear. To Sonic, his jealousy was clear to see. But this time…
This time, Neo Metal hadn’t said a single word to him.
He skillfully managed the army of Badniks, not once being distracted by Sonic’s mockery, just simply sending more his way. Sonic demolished each one of them, one-on-one, leaving them lying there, completely powerless and motionless. Sonic decided to bring himself to Amy's side, to help her fight the oncoming robots. "I can't understand, it's like he's—"
"Ignoring you?" Amy interrupted him with a smirk on her face, while hitting a small Badnik with her hammer, which afterwards blasted into a larger one in the distance. “It seems like he's having more fun with Knuckles at the moment!”
Sonic only frowned at that, shooting his piercing gaze on Neo Metal, who was, indeed, currently fighting with Knuckles.
"If I wasn't busy kicking those ironheads, I'd be insulted to bits!" Sonic gave Amy a look. “Is he really trying to shut me up or something?”
“Well,” Amy started, eyes half-closed. “If I were him, I would probably try to do the same. Sometimes you're really unbearable, you know?”
“Gee, thanks, Ames, it's really flattering,” he half-closed his eyes too, while checking on Tails. He frowned slightly when he saw how one of the robots took him by the tails. “Hey, you—!”
“Don't take it too personal!” Amy said quickly, when she also noticed her friend being picked up like a plush toy. “May I help get his way quicker?”
Sonic just nodded to her, then started to Spin Dash her way. Amy, in a matter of seconds, smacked him with her hammer, sending him flying the way he wanted. He easily knocked out one robot, then another, and another one, moving closer and closer to Tails.
He was inches away, when he was hit by a Metal Sonic, sending him almost off the Egg Carrier.
Sonic didn't think that he could take Knuckles down so fast. Climbing back, he noticed that Metal had pushed him to the same side where echidna was.
After hearing his friend grunt with a heavy voice, Sonic would have dashed ahead, looking at the robot more annoyed than before. He would have, if it hadn't been for the sudden force field that appeared all over the blue hedgehog. Sonic was hit by the feeling of déjà vu... Now, he simply couldn't move.
He felt insulted, felt like he had been taken out of the game in the lowest possible way. He hadn't even been faced in combat with him yet!
Tails was out of reach, still being held back by the same Badnik — he could help disable the shield, but, in fact, right now he couldn't do anything, except stare in horror at something. What was he looking at…?
As if struck by realization, Sonic quickly moved his gaze to his only standing friend, who was a few feet away from Neo Metal.
If Knuckles and Sonic could, they'd rushed to help her. But neither had the chance even to get a word in.
It was as if Metal had done this all intentionally. So he could face her alone.
Amy stood in the middle of the Egg Carrier, panting heavily, clenching her hammer. It was scratched and dented from the relentless, constant hits. She could have easily summoned a new one, but she held onto that one unwaveringly with a dead grip. She stared intently at Neo Metal, who finally turned towards her, peering through the smoke around from the fractured Badniks. A wind was blowing, and his cloth of dark fabric waved in the air, as did Amy's ragged dress.
For a while it seemed as if there would be no end to that silence, until Metal stepped towards the pink hedgehog. She tensed, but didn't move an inch.
“If you even d-dare to touch her—” suddenly, Knuckles' voice came to her ears from a distance, growing quieter by the end of the sentence, until the echidna collapsed back onto the surface again. Tails meant to say something too, but his mouth was covered by the Badnik, as if he was interrupting a serious conversation.
The silence between the two foes was broken by Metal's sudden attack, which pushed Amy several steps away. Enough distance to focus on her defense, she thought. He swung at her another time, but Amy professionally blocked each of his hits with the handle of the hammer. It wasn't her first time trying to defend herself from him, she already knew his style. She wasn't afraid, only smirking at her foe when she could.
Neo Metal began to strike again, and, grasping the hilt of the hammer tightly, the pink hedgehog took a full swing backward, almost effortlessly returning the hit. He instantly blocked. Amy frowned, but her gaze moved on the blocking arm — the blow was not in vain and left a small dent. Something at Metal's side made a low, short, and displeased noise.
With one swipe, he threw the center of gravity of the hammer aside, allowing for another swing. However, it was too slow. Neo Metal, almost automatically and with a keen speed, was already preparing a hit of his own, aimed directly at Amy.
Gathering all her remaining strength, she was able to raise her weapon and put up a block. Metal's attack caught up with her, but despite the wear and tear on the hammer, it faithfully withstood the blow.
It went on until he was able to find her blind spot, throwing her far aside, by the push of the shoulder. But even as she had fallen, she still held her hammer firmly. Shivering from the pain in her muscles, Amy leaned on the hilt of the handle, bracing herself with its help.
"This will add… more distrust points towards you in the future, aha...!" she muttered, while covering one of her eyes and chuckling weakly, despite all the fatigue.
And then, after so long in silence, Metal couldn't take it anymore.
"There will be no future," he replied in a robotic, cold tone. Something about it made Amy twitch. "You will fall, just like your pathetic friends. No. Exceptions.”
Amy squeezed the hilt tighter, furrowing her eyebrows. "My friends are still here! Either you're losing your grip, or you don't really want us gone!"
"SILENCE," Neo Metal cut off, his voice tone too loud for her ears, she had to cover them for a moment. He was standing in front of her now, looking menacingly and casting a shadow on her figure. “In no matter of time it'll happen and you'll accept your fate—”
“Tell me something new!” She bluntly interrupted, fixing her quills with a frown.
Metal froze at her words, looking in surprise. Or, at least, it seemed that way.
"Don't look at me like that!” She exhaled, placing her hand on her hip and pointing her finger at his chest. “We've been fighting for years! It's been years, Metal! And you know what? You've never killed anyone, never done any real harm. You could easily hurt me for just touching you, but you still didn't.”
He looked at her hand, then moved visors on her face. “Who do you think you are—”
But she didn't care. “And I know that you wouldn't do that, because the only thing you find amusing is fighting Sonic,” she looked at her hand, checking on it, while leaning on her hammer handle. She knew Sonic couldn't hear them from that distance, not like he could even say anything in this situation anyway, so she continued. "You want to destroy him, a-a-all the time. But guess what? It's not just yours. Knuckles, Shadow, Silver… They all tried, they failed, but we're friends now. Because we believed in them, we gave them a chance. I gave them a chance. Just like I gave you one, do you remember? You still have a chance to become our friend, too!”
Metal took a step away with her words. They seemed utterly nonsensical to him. "If you're trying to buy yourself some time with sentimental memories of yours, you should think twice,” there's no way she'd bring up that one time when he was buried in the snow. Not again. “I had accepted my fate that time. I failed Eggman—"
"You did everything you could. Always. You've been really good at staying in service all these years!”
Amy opened her eyes wide and covered her mouth. Silence. Metal visors became dull for a moment, basically blank. All of Amy's enthusiasm began to slowly fade away. She really shouldn't have said those words, it was too mean, even if it was a simple truth, she thought.
"...If it weren't for your altruism,” Metal finally spoke. “I wouldn't be in service."
Amy felt a tingle in her chest. A moment of relief came over her. And a small feeling of hope. Maybe he would actually listen to her…
"...If it weren't for your altruism," Metal repeated, continuing now in his chilly tone. "I wouldn't have felt all the humiliation I've suffered all these years."
Amy's heart dropped. Oh no, no no no—
"All these years—" before continuing, Neo Metal brought his hands up to look at them. It was like his processor had been overloaded.
He'd been quiet throughout the battle, but now this girl was making him say absolutely irrelevant, irrational things, Metal thought.
He shook his head, then pointed his robotic claw at Amy. "You caught me off my guard. You caught me off guard using my imperfect copy's technique, which I perfectly ignored. But you caught me by incapacitating me! I won't let that slide again!*
Amy squirmed. "M-Metal, I didn’t—"
“I don't care about forgiveness,” he interrupted, again raising his voice. “Not from someone as imperfect as you and your organic friends. You're just pests on my and my master's way!”
Speaking truthfully, Amy only partly listened to his speech, as she was more focused on looking at him.
His hands were clenched, trembling a little. His torso was rising heavily, which was fascinating because he didn't even need to do that — he had no breath! His eyes flickered, distorted, clearly creating interference within the visor, there were pixels all over…
The perfect machine, created by the ingenious scientist, she thought, and it showed so many little things that no one had noticed before…. He really looked as if he was actually alive. But most importantly, she now saw something in him that reminded her of herself.
"Metal... you..." Amy started almost quietly, the moment he wanted to raise his hand to cast a lightning. She put a hand to her chin, pressing her lips tightly. Then she gathered her courage and inhaled. "...Are you hurt by our treatment of you?"
Another silence. He was just standing there in utter disbelief in what he was hearing. He looked around, as if searching for an answer to her behavior. But he didn't find anything, not a single trick, just Amy and her naive words.
"...Why do you persist in believing that I, the peak of what the mind of a man could create, would be hurt because an organic waste, that will eventually wither and rot away, is mistreating me? Do you realize what you're saying, Amy Rose?!” He could not take it. He burned, brimming with rage. “If you'd left me in the snow that day, I wouldn't be going through all this. It was a time when my processors could freeze, unable to withstand the pressure of the ice, and crack. I could have shut down for good. Exhale for the last time. Stop reliving the shame day after day. Then I wouldn't find out that during my absence, the doctor made an attempt to create a replacement for me. You should've let me rot that day!”
In a fit of rage, he hit the surface of Egg Carrier, crushing it under his fist. “I'll crush you just like that next. And then everyone else here. So all of you'll stop the mockery. Stop the— th e ecrhh—” His voice glitched and his eyes flickered once again.
He kneeled and froze, looking desperately at the surface he smashed a moment ago. Had he been so caught up in his thoughts that they had taken much longer than just mere seconds? How could he have clouded his mind with such a miscalculation in the form of unnecessary, sickening emotions, he asked himself. That brought him nothing but pain that a machine should not essentially experience.
He wanted to stay in that position for the rest of the time, he felt disappointed in himself. He didn't want to look at his captives like that. He felt like this, until Amy placed her hand on his head, which made his thoughts blank for a second.
"I've never regretted helping you that day…”
He raised his head to face her with his glitching eyes, which made her tremble, but she continued.
"I can't hold a grudge against you. It's probably stupid, but… I just can't," She turned her gaze as a faint blush formed on her face. She tried to stay calm and not make it weird. "...I just… I think it would be unfair if the person who helped me realize my dream would be forgotten… If it wasn't for our meeting back then, I wouldn't have met Sonic… But that's not what matters the most!” She blushed more, trying to stay calm at the gaze of Metal Sonic. But he still listened to her.
“...Both of us hate when people see us only as something unworthy. Weak… And I understand you! So much, it hurts!” She suddenly felt determined, as she clenched her fists and looked at Metal with confidence, while all he could do was just stare at her. “I was a kid that believed that my life would change if I met my knight in shining armor… but it turned out that all I needed was a killer robot who could chase me, so I could crack him up every time he tried to kidnap me again! Without you, I never would’ve even started training!”
Metal looked at her in awe. He didn't understand what she was trying to say. How could that make her so confident?
“I've learned to stand for myself in battles with you… No matter what kind it was, you were my sparring partner who never took me as some weak girl that should've just minded her business… It meant… A lot to me,” she kneeled to his side, putting her hands to his with a small, awkward smile. “You learned too… All those fights may not be victorious to you, but you are still there. No matter what Sonic or Eggman or anyone else is saying to you, your skills are growing, your understanding of yourself is growing… That's what's making you real!”
Something in Metal snapped. He felt a slight hull of his mechanical chest that then echoed throughout his body. He couldn't move. The view of his visors from within was jammed with interference, and the systems responsible for signaling him to action were overloading at a high rate akin to something organic beings could compare to the sensation of a severe migraine.
"I'm… I'm sorry for saying hurtful things to you, too. I never actually realized it was affecting you so much, until now…” Amy spoke softly. She carefully looked up at him.
There was a moment of silence from Metal. He might have wanted to listen t—
[ RECEIVED A MESSAGE ]
…
Suddenly, he got up.
“Metal?—”
"Stay back," he said with a voice disrupted by audio glitches, hard to hear. He repelled her arm mechanically, stiffening as he got up and took a step away from her.
Amy stood up, wanted to move closer, but Metal's coloring suddenly began to come off. It slowly turned into something similar to liquid titanium, his silhouette slowly began to lose its former shape and height. This meant that he was retreating.
He might have wanted to listen to Amy. But no. No. He can't allow himself to have such thoughts.
"Metal, wait! Metal—" Amy tried to stop him, observing no longer the robot, but its remains, which looked like spilled mercury. It slowly began to disappear from her sight, and Amy felt as if her words just... hadn't been heard. Waning, she just watched him leave. The liquid was gone in an instant.
As if on a snap, with the Metal’s vanishing, the force field that had been holding Sonic down finally disappeared, and he fell, landing on his feet. Blinking, he looked towards Amy, then at Tails, who had been released by the Badnik who... had suddenly just fallen? “Was Metal controlling them himself?” Sonic thought.
"Uggh... it feels like... Like..." Knuckles tried to say something, but it was obvious from the look of it that he was extremely dizzy. Sonic, nestled against him, took him under his arm, helping him up.
"It seems like Metal Sonic affected his brain waves with some sort of a signal while they were in a battle..." Tails was already flying near them, looking more thoughtful than simply surprised, checking something on his finally returned device. Sonic couldn't contain his smile, seeing that his brother was alright. "I knew I heard something by the corner of my ear!!”
"I'm glad to see you in good spirits with such an amazing fact!" He exhaled. Grasping Knuckles tighter, they started to walk towards Amy. "Amy, what was that about?!"
Amy stood, still staring at the same spot, folding her arms across her chest. Her gaze was concerned, regretful. "I think we won," she turned slowly to her friends, smiling weakly to them.
All three of them, even Knuckles, who was slowly starting to come to his senses, looked at her in surprise, completely different from each other.
"Amy, you did great!" Sonic exclaimed ahead of Tails, who had already opened his mouth. "From a distance, it even looked like you gave him a pretty good scare! I couldn't hear a thing, though..." He rubbed his nose, averting the gaze.
"I guess we shouldn't let our guard down..." Tails muttered, picking up his device, trying to detect any signals. "He's still near! We should try—"
"No," Amy said harshly, causing confusion in the little fox.
"But—"
"He's had enough for today."
"He? Enough?!" Knuckles pulled back from Sonic, trying to steady himself on his two. He rubbed his head, looking frowny and frustrated. Amy wanted to exclaim something, as he continued. "That ironhead almost sent us all to the other side, and you're telling me to leave him alone?!"
"H-hey, yo, Knuckles, I think—" Sonic tried to still support him, but the echidna slapped his reaching hand.
"You don’t get a word! It’s all you and your "Let's give him a chance and see what happens!" that influenced her! And what happened?! What happened?! Every time he stabs us in the back and you just watch it!"
"Look, it's his choice to become a killer robot! I'm just giving him a chance to change it!"
"Guys, his signal is getting weaker, if we don't hurry, then—"
"I beg you, everyone, be quiet! Why can't you just listen for once!" Amy shouted, feeling anger that was coming to her.
“We can deal with him! Amy, stand aside—”
“Don't you dare to push me away!" Amy yelled, unable to take anymore of that. She swung her hammer and struck the surface of the Egg Carrier, shattering a decent radius, causing it to warp and dent under the pressure of the hammer. Knuckles and Sonic covered with their hands, as pieces flew, while Tails held his face onto his tails. "You're insufferable! Do you hear me, insufferable!"
Now she was the one who fell to her knees, inhaling deeply. "He had every chance to overpower me, but he chose to leave. He listened to me, in some way," she replied with a sad look to the side, while others looked at her with a different type of shock. “And, please, listen, too…. We've made it through, let's just get out of here.”
"Amy..." Sonic watched her, not knowing what to say. He decided to stay silent.
"Hmph… Fine, if you say so… But next time, if he'll try to do something to you, I'm gonna kick the screws out of him," muttered Knuckles, punching his fists; he was already fully recovered. Sonic just sighed deeply at him.
Tails raised an eyebrow as he looked around at everyone, but at one point lowered his eyes on his device. "I think we should probably get out of here, they might be up to more than just that!"
Those words were enough for Sonic. "Then we shouldn't waste any second! We have nothing more to do here, anyway," he stood in a proper pose, curtsying. "Gentlemen, if you don't mind?"
Tails and Knuckles nodded to each other. Throwing the device to Sonic and twirling his two tails, Tails took off, then picked up the blue hedgehog and flew upwards. He looked back at Knuckles, who was slowly picking up Amy in his arms, before running after them. Once over the board, the echidna calmly began to float through the air, right behind Tails.
In an instant, they were already far away from the Egg Carrier.
Amy, seeming completely exhausted, looked back, hoping to see at least a trace of the escaped robot…
—
Somewhere in the low levels of the Egg Carrier, Neo Metal Sonic stood by the monitor, fixing some problems in his own systems. He stoically ignored the excited and praising screams of the robot assistants, Orbot and Cubot, who were trying so hard to get his attention with their pleasing speeches. Finally, in spite of all the background noise and clamor, Metal slowly began to discard his Neo form, returning to his usual, silent self, staring intensely into the screen as the heroes flew away in front of him.
"What an honor it was to witness a demonstration of such incredible strength, in such fine form!" Orbot uttered, standing to the side of Metal and clasping his hands together. "An unmatched duel, big bro!"
"Showed them who’s the boss!" Overly loud, either from nerves or another voice chip issues, shouted Cubot. Orbot eyed him with a slight frown, squeezing his hands tighter, but soon turned his attention away from the attitude of his robotic brother.
"How clever of the master to have thought of such a skillful plan! I'm sure he'll be very satisfied with our progress when he returns with Sage." The red spherical robot kept going while Metal was searching the system for some datafiles with precision.
"Does that mean we can take a break now?" Cubot looked towards Metal, putting his fingers together.
“Ah, yes, that show we told you about earlier is about to start, big bro." Orbot turned toward Metal cheerfully. "May we be dismissed?"
Metal turned his head slightly toward them. From the look in his visor, they knew immediately that they could very well be. So both saluted him, soon disappearing from the command center.
Once alone, the robot pressed a combination of keys, allowing him to see the hidden footage database. A usual practice on Eggman's side to analyze the weaknesses and strengths of his creations.
But his attention was focused on Amy, who was watching him vanish. Something about the way she looked made his internal processes shock with electricity. He'd never thought she'd say all those things. It was irrational.
And most of all, it was irrational that because of her words he didn't do what he had intended.
"You didn't help me. You didn't even see me as a person that day. You saw me as a lost toy that had lost its master. You saw more personality in the doctor than you ever saw in me!” He could have told her if he hadn't stopped himself. How foolish, how pathetic it sounded.
Dr. Eggman's plan was concise and simple in its objectives — Metal, in his Neo form, needed only to distract his loathsome copy along with the others, while the doctor, together with Sage, searched new territory nearby, undisturbed. Losing was irreversible and almost written into the plan itself — victory was not in the calculations.
What a foul humiliation, for which he was obliged to restore his long-abandoned systems and bring up data on his super-form! To act as a dummy for distraction. No, Metal desired victory, even if he had failed this time.
He didn't just want to divert attention from his maker. He wanted to tear them all to shreds. Once and for all. He wanted to prove to the doctor that he could do the job not only right, but even better! To finally eliminate the original parasite that caused all the trouble in the first place! The sole reason for why Metal Sonic was created!
The reason he met Amy Rose.
Eggman certainly will praise him for what a skillful actor he was. But he wasn't.
As if on automatic, he reached for a small storage compartment in his body, and a small yellow four-leafed flower appeared in Metal's hand. Quite withered from time, but still in one piece thanks to gentle care. Metal cast a meek visor glance at it, his thought processes moving forward. He placed it on the table.
He was seriously in a state where the smallest words of kindness could cause malfunction of his systems. It was a fatal mistake, he shouldn't have felt that way. Her words of gratitude to him for... How irrational that was. If he hadn't known her for so many years, he would have thought she was a lost creature who clung onto any sign of attention.
But the irony was that he was such a creature. A pathetic, flawed one.
She was grateful to him for meeting Sonic.
Something about that string of words caused stirring in his turbines, which made him slam his fists on the table.
He hated her for not leaving him in that snow. That she'd let him endure all those years of humiliation, trying to get the attention of his maker, of everyone else, hers. He's been doing all this for so long, the count just doesn't matter anymore.
Eggman would be back soon, he thought from the message. He and Sage set out to explore the new territory. Sage helped him analyze and detect threats.
He wanted to show Eggman what he was capable of. What he was made of. But as it turns out, all he's capable of is the bare minimum.
He unclenched his fist. Looked at the flower, which laid peacefully on the surface of his workplace.
He looked up at the monitor. Pressed the button to replay Amy's words.
…This was so foolish. He was seconds away from a total victory! It cost him nothing to shut her up… He should be furious. And yet his frustration started to wear off as he kept listening again and again, analyzing her speech.
The percentage of his anger dropped to a bare minimum now.
She was grateful to him, not only for meeting his pathetic copy, but for the opportunity to become stronger.
To become stronger...
If it weren't for her altruism, he would never have been able to become stronger himself.