Chapter Text
"It's no use... but why can't I defeat you?"
The now weakened machine ask, going back to his regular form. He scratch the metallic floor in frustration as he couldn't get up, shaking his head as he felt his conscious fading.
"Heh, because... we're Sonic Heroes!"
The blue hedgehog said cheerfully as he pointed one finger, his friends by his side nodded in agreement.
Metal Sonic was the most loyal badnik inside the Eggman empire, so it was a big surprise for everyone to learn he overtook it, took Eggman's identity and pretended to be him for 3 days as he collected the biometric of his enemies.
In that push to be better, to give the Empire a victory, he went out of control with his new Neo upgrade and took everything under his hand.
And it worked! He fool everybody, he got the data of every team, including Chaos, Shadow and Sonic himself. With all that power he was unstoppable! He achieved his perfect form as Metal Overlord! Nothing could stop him now!... except.
"Sonic!"
Amy scream as she ran towards them, the other teams were behind her too.
Sonic took that as his sign to leave, not before standing next to Metal Sonic to give him a playful;
"Anytime you want a rematch, just let me know. I'll be waiting"
And with that he ran away, followed by his team, his friends, as the machine finally shut down.
Yes, he had everything as Metal Overlord, Sonic himself couldn't defeat him! But he wasn't alone, he had Tails and Knuckles by his side, and with the power of the chaos emeralds provided by the other teams, Super Sonic managed to take him down.
Metal Sonic was created with one sole purpose: Be the better Sonic.
They were equal in speed and agility, yet the blue blur always managed to take him down, usually assisted by other people. And this was confirmed once again on their final battle.
With his system offline Metal didn't had much to do, he was trapped inside his own body until he was booted up again. He couldn't think, he couldn't feel his surroundings, all he could do was hear that annoying phrase from his organic copy;
"Nothing can stop the power of teamwork!"
"Nothing can stop the power of teamwork!"
"Nothing can stop the power of teamwork!"
Metal Sonic was booted up again just a week after Metal Overlord made his debut. His body was restored and his system immediately begin to download the new updates he missed while being offline.
His vision was obscured by the updates, but he could feel he was sitting in the corner of a room, which was... odd. He normally woke up laying down on a working table or standing up in the front line of a horde of badniks.
...wait, how did he remembered that? After his stunt as Neo Metal he was sure Eggman would wipe his memory to forget about that act of disobedience. And yet there he was, remembering the final battle and his perfect form.
He moved his arm, opening and closing his hand, he could feel that the Neo upgrade was gone from his body, but not the biometric data he collected. Was this a slip up? Why would the Doctor let him keep his memories AND his new strength?
When his system finally finish updating he look upfront, identifying were he was.
Just to see a big pair of black eyes staring at him.
He made a buzzing noise as he flinch in place, holding the wall behind him as he stood up.
"Wait, wait!" The thing in front of him spoke "not too fast, you just finish your updates!"
Now that he was up he noticed who was talking to him was a small plush toy, or a big plush perhaps? It was orange, with white round ears and muzzle, red shoes, two tails and a antenna with a red diamond on top of his head. It was a... doll of Tails?
"How are you feeling? Do you remember being Neo Metal, right?"
Metal look at the assumed badnik and nodded, looking around while he keep speaking.
"I'm glad! I got scared it wouldn't work but it did! This will be useful in the future, wiping a badnik's memory is such a dumb thing to do, it could be used to learn from past mistakes and be better"
They were on a storage room, spare parts of old badniks hanging in the walls and shelves, there was a laptop with a few wires out next to them.
He look at the Tails badnik and noticed he didn't had a mouth... yet he was speaking. How interesting.
Metal reach out and put a hand on the doll's muzzle to see if he would shut up. He did for a moment before it spoke again.
"What's wrong, Metal?"
How did it even know his name? The blue robot made another buzzing noise, shaking his head.
"Oh! He took your voice didn't he? Don't worry, I can fix that!"
The doll said excited... which was curious, normally advanced models get to have a voice and even more to get one that express emotions.
Metal was told to sit down and he did, he saw on the corner of his eye how the doll stood behind him and opened the back plate of his head, proceeding to then connect it to the laptop with a cable.
His hands were round cotton balls, and yet the blue badnik heard the keyboard made noise. Metal had no idea how he was even using the keyboard.
He felt something weird on his head before the doll unplugged the cable, his system updated automatically without giving him any details of what he got now.
"Alright, try speaking now"
"...hmmm"
Metal hummed, followed by a gasp of surprise. He didn't say anything, but was capable to make noises like he had vocal cords.
"Yay~ it worked!"
The doll cheer, floating in circles around the blue badnik. It could float? Interesting
"How did you do that?"
His voice was similar to Sonic's but deeper, he couldn't recall if it was the same he had as Neo Metal... it did sound more expressive than the one he had before, more alive.
"I've had a lot of free time since the last time we saw each other, I taught myself how to code and modify existing code, is very spaghetti like and amateur but it works"
"...who are you?"
The doll stop spinning and fall to the ground dramatically, simulating that he trip and fall
"What?"
He got up, floating in front of Metal once again.
"What do you mean? It's me Metal"
The blue badnik made a buzzing noise.
"Tails Doll, your partner, remember?"
He shook his head
"I've never heard of a Tails Doll before"
Tails Doll made a sad noise, his body slowly flopping to the floor, face down.
"NOOoooOooOoo... He must've wiped your memories of it... I thought you still had them"
Metal couldn't understand why this badnik was so... expressive in his actions. He could deduce he was made as a counterpart of Tails... he could also asume it was a defective model considering it was made of plush rather than metal, but why did the Doctor deleted that from his memory core?
He needed answers
"Alright, enough. Get up" Metal order "who are you and what connection we used to have? Why am I here?"
"So mean!"
The doll whine before getting up, wiping dust from their body.
"My name is Tails doll, me and Metal Knuckles were created a few years ago to assist you on the R races against Sonic and his friends. When the races were over I was storaged but not shut down since mg energy works differently, Metal Knuckles keep working on a few missions before he was storaged too, that's when I learn how to code to turn him on and so on and on"
The doll made a motion with one of their hands
"We haven't been able to see you in so long, but we have always been rooting for you on your missions! When you got your Neo update I was fascinated by it, even more when you took over and collected bio data from our enemies! I couldn't let that go to waste just because the Doctor's ego required you to forget about it, so before he wipe you out I created a copy of your memory and removed the bio data you collected from your body, I let the Doctor repair you and then I drag you over here to give you your memories back"
By the way he was built, Metal couldn't emote too much, but he was quite surprised by the doll's story.
The doctor considered the possibility to give him a team just like Sonic's, but then scrapped it and wiped it from his memory. Yet they seem to be loyal to him even when they haven't seen each other for years. The fact Tails Doll saved his memory and biometric data recollection was more than enough proof of it.
Then he remembered that phrase that tormented him the whole time he was inactive; "Nothing can stop the power of teamwork!"
Was this what he needed to finally beat him? To prove that he was better than him?
"Okay" that's all Metal Sonic had to said about that explanation "I would like to meet Metal Knuckles if possible. As you two saw on my last mission, failure was achieved just because Sonic had a whole team backing him up. If we can replicate that I will be unstoppable"
"Really?!" The doll squeal happy, holding both of Metal's hands with theirs "Team Metal Sonic is back in action! I am sure Metal Knuckles would love that too! Come on~"
They pushed the blue badnik with a surprisingly amount of strength for their size, lifting Metal from the ground, they let go and float ahead to lead the way.
Metal Sonic followed, unaware of how his whole life trajectory would change by following one small doll.
Tails Doll had a slow start everytime they start moving, catching up after a few seconds, it almost felt like a stealth mission as they walk through the halls of the current base they were on.
"Where even are we?"
"This is the Eggman Base under Radical City~" Tails doll cooed, "you are in "time out" so he put you here for now. But is perfect because this is one of the circuits we used to race on years ago, we could practice team building exercises to be the very best~"
The name didn't ring a bell, but it made sense the Doctor wouldn't have him on the current active base after taking the Egg Carrier for himself as Neo.
Looking around, the place seem pretty abandoned, the supply closet had more modern technology than the rest of it. There were still movement by some badniks here and there, so it was at least operational... well, it had to be for him being there.
Tails doll enter a room that was... half finished? One of the walls was literally made of dirt, it had a few holes on it and dirt on the floor. The doll float across the holes as they shout.
"Mecha! Come out come out! There is someone who wants to meet you!"
The room rumbled, a red badnik came out from the wall, their body covered in dirt and vines wrap around his limbs. He made a surprised noise when he saw Metal Sonic, cleaning himself up quickly
"Metal Sonic? Is it really you?"
His voice was similar to Knuckles but a pitch higher, not as deep. Unlike the doll the other robot nodded and chuckled, leaning his head to a side as his eyes show a happy expression.
Metal had never seen such a design before, each dreadlock was a extension of his body with a turbine by the end, he must've been very fast in the races Tails doll claim they participated together.
"Metal doesn't remember us sadly" the doll whined, floating closer to the red badnik "buuuut he seems quite interested in us as a team!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes" Metal nodded "my loathsome copy always gets the advantage because he has his friends by his side, he can't defeat me on his own. So I am proposing an alliance to match the power of Team Sonic, proving them we are the superior version of them"
"Sure" Metal Knuckles responded "I have been doing some training on my own to not end up too obsolete, would be nice to have a partner to spare in battle"
That sounds nice.
"Yayy~ I can come up with team based attacks and combos! From duos to all three of us, I am sure I can make that a executable file that we can get working"
That sounds wonderful.
Metal Sonic had no idea why Eggman scrapped them or the team idea, but if he manage to train them into a unstoppable force, he could prove the doctor he was right by taking over, because he had better ideas and a better understanding of the pest that was Sonic.
"Just you wait, Sonic... next time we see each other, I won't lose."
"...why did Metal said that out loud?"
Metal Knuckles whispered as he lean closer to Tails Doll
"I just gave him his voice, he doesn't know the difference of inner voice and outside voice" they giggled "is kind of cute"