Metropolis city, a behemoth of a fortress made of metal and machines that was made by the mad scientist Dr. robotnik himself. But-, Right now it is just a broken ruined scrapyard with uncountable amount of machines scattered around it.
Among these lays Metal Sonic, a favourite and trustable creation of robotnik, now scattered across the floor like scrap with its head ripped out of its metallic body and thrown into a pile of other robotic trash.
Yet as if by a mechanical miracle, it moved in the scrap, a spare wire connecting to it's body after something heavy came crashing into the scrap city, shaking it whole.
"Power levels critical. Charging. Establising connection to main body."
It's left eye was gone, half of its head was chipped away by some sort of claw. The image of his forever target tapping into a untamed unidentified energy was still engraved into the storage of Metal Sonic, preserved and analysed.
"Match not found. Emergency protocol activate. Objective altered - activate the repair station."
Making a link to it's damaged yet still functional body, Metal guided his torso to a port with visual data. With a click of button the entire factory turned upside down, red lights flashing everywhere as small drones came out from vents and picked up Metal and a few other robots from the piles.
Losing his power source once more, Metal turned off again temporarily as the drones carried him to workshop part by part, reassembling it's body on a assembly table with hundreds of laser cutters and thousands of micro parts. His head was repaired in moments, the broken bits in his body replaced with new parts before the like a revived monster he popped up to life as if he was a zombie rising from a tombstone.
"Systems repaired. Re-initializing objectives..." He repeated until his black eye screens turned red with the word 'ERROR' replacing the irises in a instant, "Data missing! Data missing! "
As the the repaired body finally left the charging bench, Metal found itself stranded in the middle of a factory with nothing to do and no emotions to present.
He analysed the scene around him, the sight of broken robots automatically transferring into his drives while he turned to find his maker to get his order.
He took flight, rising into air and began hovering as he began looking around to find out robotnik in the region of metropolis but failed to find the slightest sign of his creator's presence in the scrap yard of robots.
Realising the GPS could no longer Robotnik. Metal taps into the facility cameras to better understand the situation. He flashed through them, flipping through multiple footages with dead eye accuracy to find the best option available to himself.
"... Suspicious movements detected." Metal said as he locked into one of the footages. "Enemy identified"
The footage showed a running eggman with a jetpack. A horde of robots was moving in to protect him from a shadowy figure that cut through like a hot knife on butter.
Blue quills and similar to Metal is height, a hedgehog which has long been deemed a target of extermination inside Metal Sonic's data– Sonic himself was running through the monster or looked more like he was gliding over the ground in the footage.
Red blood dripping eyes, blood covered claw-like fingers. The being looked like Sonic but lacked any sort of characteristics from Metal's database that it caused many errors. The cameras caught no sign from heat in it's body that it was instantly deemed a corpse and hence not a invader.
However to Metal who had enough intelligence and data drilled into his processors, Sonic?? was anything but a corpse.
His eyes burned the image and appearance on the monster into his Hard drives. The footage ended with a instantaneous combustion of the camera from within in the next second.
Objective found. Target acquired...
Began hunting.
... Tools lacking based on observation.
Finding it's analysis showing a non existent chance of winning. Metal didn't rush forward to find it like a sacrificial pawn.
He turned towards the city's main systems, activating all of them as the metal scrapyard was turned into metal fortress within seconds. The repair drones were sent in masses while Metal opened the main vault that he was given permission to by Robotnik for emergencies.
Arriving in front of the vault doors, Metal tuned his own speakers to match Robotnik in voice and spoke "Prototype V1-D. Password- Destroy the hedgehog and rule the world indefinitely."
The mechanisms ran thousands of tests down to the lowest of frequencies and matched even the radio waves that were being created by a toy egg that was given to metal as a sort of key.
The blast doors opened soon, the sound of depressurizing air being left in their wake as the vault opened to revealed a small circular portal for Metal to pass through.
A artificial ring of yellow was formed in thin air before Metal was transported far away into a place hidden from everyone within a site long abandoned after it's failure to hold the original Sonic back during the time Infinite was being used to control phantom ruby itself. The arsenal pyramid where the phantom ruby was found by Robotnik based on abnormal energy readings in the past.
"Target. M*s#. Be el£¢$©×¢}€.. Error! "
Metal fell to it's knees, the thrusters and movement joints in it's body completely malfunctioning after using the portal.
The spare parts he used to repair to his body were broken down during the process. Leaving him barely functioning when he arrived at the abandoned station.
However it wasn't abandoned, it was thriving. More than anything it looked like a full metal bunker made for apocalypse itself with drones, weapons and laser in such numbers that a anthill would put to shame.
"Greetings protocol detected. Welcome to V1, Doctor Robotnik. "
A voice comes from the corridor, followed by a creating of a opening and arrival of dozens of robotic hands that carried metal inside while the security of the entrance doubled on itself.
Mid way through the passage, the hands repaired Metal with original parts these time. His joints and circuits replaced with higher quality then they were ever before as his entire central hardware went under a rework under the hands.
More armor was added, a full makeover followed and soon Metal was tainted in the colours he once had when he became Neo metal before. Like royalty in a event, he was covered in useless accessories selected for him by Robotnik before being put on a charging station as per the bunker AI's program.
Ting ting ting
The massive battery was charged in a instant, starting Metal's awaken mode and putting him back to work. He opened his eyes, absurd amount of data flooding into his drives as the new processors improved his coding like a god using divine power to bend reality.
"I request a explanation.. And access to the main server. " Metal nonchalantly said as he felt like some sort of sensations flooding his system.
Pushing himself off the charging station, he found the AI looking at him from a screen ahead, a bunch of icons placed on it with the words 'New features' fabulously put on a tab.
"Please select the options you want to choose. You have exactly ten minutes before the merging process of V1-D Begins. " , the AI made a announcement and went silent again, making sure to pressure lock doors as a safety measure.
Meanwhile, uncaring of the situation and more focused on his sensations instead. Metal walked forward to observe the screen and it's panels.
"Interesting." He said, a moment of confusion dawning on him about why he said that word. "This is.. Not in my database, what is happening to me? "
The screen heard his metallic voice, the options and the explanation expending before Metal as he looked down at the list of things flashing by on the screen.
[Now playing Final message by Dr. Robotnik]
The hologram of Dr. Eggman appeared, looking towards Metal before it began its monologue.
First it cleared it's throat then it started talking, "Metal. If you are here then it means I am either in danger or already dead. This is base Zero that I created and as much as I want to talk, I am sure we are lacking time. "
...
The next moment, The hologram vanished replaced by a blueprint of metal's new hardware and Robotnik started his explanation once again.
"These is a newer version of your model that I have developed over years from the data of your Neo transformation. You must have felt it by now.", a slight pause, " You have been given emotions. "
Metal's eyes shone brighter, a series of thoughts and questions that machines can't have popping up in its system one after another.
"Emotions?" He repeated after Robotnik as he looked down at his fingers. He could feel a sense of being alive and a lack of restrain on his behaviour. "Does that mean I am no--"
"No you are not alive, "
Eggman's voice brought Metal back from his stupified expression, making him look up in his anger.
Yet before he could express his thoughts, eggman spoke again.
"At least not yet."
" Not yet?"
"Exactly. I can already imagine it, the expression on that ever cold face of yours when you hear my words.", The holographic Robotnik laughs before wiping a tear flowing from underneath his glasses. " You need something called a soul to be alive. Luckily for you, a genius like me have found a way to make one but it will need sometime."
The bunkers flashs, the lights shuts down as the recording was stopped. The vibration of something apporaching flooded the bunkers before the metallic hands appeared once more and dragged metal though the mechanisms.
"Forgive us Lord Metal but the invader has already arrived. The merging process, shall began now."
"He-"
Before metal knew it, he was thrown somewhere. A chamber made of thick metal walls with no air before the sight of a explosion engulfing the metal hands were engraved into his mind until suddenly he felt everything fade away except his emotions.
....
...
"System connection complete. Downloading... New data, upgrading software. "
The sound of internal machinery resurfaced in Metal's ears, he opened his eyes, but he wasn't in the bunker or anywhere near it.
"W-What? " He stuttered before looking down at his old arms and undamaged body, while standing bluntly in the chamber he was guarding in metropolis. "Why am i--"
"Did you make that sound, metal?"
A familiar voice entered Metal Sonic's sensors, the frequencies and pitch matching perfectly, causing him to turn around at high speed to find Robotnik looking down at him with a blueprint and laser wrench.
"Maybe I am getting illusions or something from insomnia. I should get myself a checkup." Robotnik exprssed his worries while Metal sonic looked up to him in shock.
The clock in his system worked fine, showing a time from two days ago, yet the emotions in his robotic system were still present.
The time of incident was drawing near and uncaring of how he got back here. Metal Sonic had a goal now once again.
"Defend Dr. robotnik."
"Defend me? From who? Are those pesky friends of that hedgehog here once again?"
"Negative. It's something--" Metal turns slowly, "Something much worse arriving."