Chaos Born

Battle For The Chaos Born - Part 2

For a robot, Metal Sonic was eerily quiet. In an otherwise silent complex, the whispering hiss of his moving joints and the tap of his metal foot on metal floor, sounding over and over again in a walking rhythm, were far too suspenseful and nerve-wracking for even the most toughened of the Sonic Allies. 

Nothing about Metal Sonic could be considered natural, especially when compared to other badniks and even to the likes of Orbot and Cubot and Omega.

Peering through a slit in the grating of a single storage unit door, Shadow could feel his quills shiver as the robotic hedgehog advanced closer and closer, walking menacingly slowly, his unwavering red optics staring creepily ahead of him at all times. The very fact that Metal was indeed a hedgehog was the very reason Shadow loathed him so much and even made him feel slightly sick. He could certainly remember times when they'd fought together on the same side but knowing that Metal's loyalties lay solely with Eggman was enough to confirm that, hedgehog or not, Metal Sonic couldn't be trusted.

No - there was nothing natural about Metal Sonic.

The robot stepped by with no indication that he could sense their presence. Shadow could spy his lethal claws hanging by his side as he came and went, carefully step-step-stepping his ominous way down the corridor with all the fear-factor movements of a rogue AI android.

Shadow never once took his eye off it.

A little behind him, another robot twitched and expelled pent-up air from his system in a sharp but silent hiss of unease.

"Easy Omega," Shadow murmured from the corner of his mouth. "Easy..." 

He then noticed a smaller presence at his side. Charmy's antennae were taught and they wobbled at the slightest movement within the storage room.

"He's just as creepy as I remember him," he gulped, his voice barely audible due to the fear that seemed to freeze his throat. Everyone else was in silent agreement on that regard.

"Yer think he might lead us t' Sonic?" Vector then risked asking, carefully watching Shadow's body language so as to be alerted should Metal come sauntering his way back.

"He might do," the darker hedgehog replied in a voice just as quiet. "I find it hard to believe that he'd willingly obey Eggman's brother suddenly out of the blue."

"Well, it has been ten years," Charmy reasoned. "You know when you don't drive a car for a really long time and the battery drains and the tyres deflate and the engine gets all gnarly and the brakes get gunked up..."

"Yes, we know."

"Well maybe Metal Sonic is like that. I know I'd be out of it if I'd slept for ten years."

"You wouldn't be 'out of it', Charmy, you'd be dead," Espio felt the need to correct.

"Whatever. The point is, we all know Metal," the adolescent bee continued. "He won't take commands from someone like Ira and he ain't stupid to think Eggman's giving his brother free run of the place. Maybe... Maybe he's biding his time."

"Believe me, Metal isn't obeying Ira willingly." Orbot's blue optics were dimmed so as to minimise the risk of their discovery but they pulsed a little brighter as he spoke. "If I know anything about him, he'll be working on overriding his system."

"The times he manages to do that," spoke Knuckles, "is when he gets too worked up over Sonic."

Charmy wrinkled his forehead in a brief moment of confusion. "Well, he has him already, doesn't he?"

To that, Knuckles shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like Sonic's running around and winding him up though, is he?"

"Are you suggesting that Metal is going to try and let Sonic out?" Shadow asked, obviously not looking at the echidna but keeping the guardian in his peripheral vision at all times.