The Return of Metal SonicSequel to Daylight Savings

By K. M. Hollar

Copyright notice: Sonic, Tails, and related characters copyrighted by Sega. Slasher, Spike and Serena copyrighted by K. M. Hollar. Packbell and Bookshire copyrighted by Bookshire Draftwood. Used without permission.

Note: If you have not already read Daylight Savings, then Return will make absolutely no sense.

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Chapter 1

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"This was not my idea," Sonic mumbled as he stared into the dark water. He turned around. "You guys hear me? This ain't my idea. So don't blame me if somebody gets killed."

Rotor stood up from the powerful winch he and Knuckles were working on. "Knock it off, Sonic. Nobody's holding you responsible. We just need your help. That's all." Sonic sighed, folded his arms and looked back at the water again.

The three of them were standing on a large boulder overlooking a deep blue lagoon. The thundering waterfall roared from high above to go crashing in white froth into the pool. The whole area was still bruised by recent geological upheaval. Shattered trees littered the ground like firewood. A faint, warm breeze blew off the desert to their backs, carrying the scent of heated earth and rock.

Sonic fingered his belt uneasily. They were a long way from Knothole. All the way across the ocean, in fact. The nearby desert was known as the Great Desert and spanned more than five hundred square miles. The forest survived only because of the river. Sonic turned and faced east. That way was home. That was where he wanted to be. In fact, he would rather be in the Forbidden Zone--anyplace but here. For it was here, this lagoon, he had nearly been killed. He held up his left hand and flexed it. His mangled wrist had healed nicely, but he hadn't yet regained the strength in that hand.

Impatiently he turned to the walrus and echidna. "You guys ready yet?" Knuckles looked up. "Almost. You might give us a hand, if you're so all-fired ready to go."

Sonic gave a resigned sigh and walked over. He shook his head as he crouched down beside Rotor and Knux. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"What?"

"Helping bring back my worst enemy!"

"Oh, that. Hey, can you hold this thing down while I turn that?"

"Sure."

Rotor and Sally had been the ones who wanted to retrieve Metal Sonic. They thought they could modify him somehow and make him good. And Sonic had been solidly against it from the start. He knew the robot like no one else, and something told him they would never be able to do anything with him.

So Sonic had almost gone ballistic when they told him they needed him to do it for them. The idea was that Sonic could become hyper, swim down, attach the cable to Mecha and pull him back up. He fought them all the way down the line about it, but they won out in the end. Which is why Sonic was standing on the edge of the pool with deep regrets.

Knuckles stood up and dusted his hands off. "There. All secure." Rotor pulled the end of the chain off the spool, fed it through a pulley, and locked a powerful, twenty-pound electro-magnet onto the end. Then he placed the chain in Sonic's hands. "There," he said. "Swim down and stick this to Mecha, then come back up. We're gonna need you to hover above the water and hold the pulley so we can winch him up. Okay?" "Cool," Sonic said unenthusiastically. He laid the chain down, and crouched down with his wrists crossed against the front of his belt. Then he jumped into the air, chafing his hands across it's jewel-studded surface.

Knux and Rotor shaded their eyes against the sudden brilliance the super emeralds created during the transformation. The light subsided a bit, but only because it was now coming from Sonic's entire body. He was pulsing multiple colors, and energy stars circled up and around him, some hitting the ground with a hiss. His belt was invisible around his waist, but the energized emeralds shown like stars, drawing their power from their mother gems deep in Hidden Palace.

Sonic picked up the chain with the magnet on the end. Then with something like a glare he said, "See ya." He leaped off the rock and down into the water, the chain in one hand. As he plunged under he automatically held his breath, even though he knew he didn't need to. The emeralds put him on a sort of life-support system, so he didn't even need to breathe if he didn't want to. Invincibility in every since of the word.

Sonic swam toward the base of the waterfall. Mecha was somewhere below it. As Sonic entered the area where the water pounded and thundered, he felt a leery chill start in the pit of his stomach and spread through him. It increased as he felt the water beating him down, and the temperature dropping. Last time he had been dragged down by Metal Sonic's hold on his wrist instead of the weight of the chain. And last time he hadn't had any air in his lungs from hitting rocks on his way over the waterfall. He remembered the water being a lot colder, though.

His vision enhanced by the emeralds, he could see quite a distance through the darkness. His glowing body penetrated the dark like a spotlight, and that helped some. Gee, how deep was it? There was still only darkness below. The waterfall wasn't pushing him down so much anymore, and the pressure was increasing on his ears, even through his invincibility. The weight of the chain was still pulling him down, but Sonic was starting to get impatient. He kicked with his feet and paddled with his free hand, driving himself downward.

There was the ground, finally. It was covered with a slimy black mud, and there were weird lumps in it. Sonic let the chain fall and looked around. It was very dark. The water was like ice, and it seemed like nothing could, or ever would be alive down there.

The chain and magnet landed in the mud, stirring up a green-black cloud of it. Sonic looked around, scanning for the robot. He didn't see him. A faint twinge of hope shot through his heart. Maybe Metal Sonic had rotted away! The logical part of his mind replied with No way, it's only been six weeks. Sonic cast a longing glance upward. The water was a lighter blue above, the chain tracing a curved line up to the surface. Maybe they would believe him if he said he couldn't find the robot. But he hadn't really even looked. Reluctantly Sonic swam toward the bottom, looking at the black mud. He half expected to see some monster rise out of it and challenge him--a swamp monster. Maybe that's what the lumps were ... Sonic forced his imagination to a stop. He didn't need to be scaring himself. The lumps were probably just debris--rocks, sticks, robots ...

One of them had to be Mecha. He swam over the biggest ones, kicking with his feet to circulate the water and blow off the grime.

The dirt swirled off a mass of something. Sonic saw ropes, boards ... He recognized it. It was the bridge--the rope bridge. He felt sick at the sight of it, even as he remembered Mecha had been caught in it. Slowly he fanned the muck off, looking at the tangles of wood and rope, thinking of his last moments on it.

A glint. Something caught the light. The mud swirled off something metal--an arm. The fingers were still half-curled, as if holding on to something. Sonic shivered.

Metal Sonic was twisted in the ropes and half hidden under the remains of the bridge. Sonic pulled at the ropes, feeling them dissolve in his hands. There. The robot's body was free. Sonic reached down, swirling the water, blowing off Mecha's head. Suddenly he shuddered and withdrew. The robot's dead black eyes were staring up at him, one cracked, still full of malice. Sonic felt as if he were invading a grave--and this was a skull.

Sonic turned away and swam back to the chain, hauled it over and dropped the magnet onto the robot. He flicked it on. He heard it hum, and the magnet rotated a little as it locked to the robot's outer hull. "There," Sonic thought grimly. He turned and swam upward, pulling himself hand over hand up the chain and kicking his feet. The water grew steadily warmer, and the noise of the waterfall increased. The light grew. Sonic pushed off the chain and pressed his arms to his sides. He rocketed up and up, toward the light and away from the silent darkness below.

He burst out of the water with a yip, sailed through the air and landed on the rock, splashing Knux and Rotor. They yelled in surprise and jumped back. Sonic shook his head to fling the water from his ears, then grinned at them. "Gotcha," he laughed. "Creep," said Rotor. "Did you get Metal Sonic?" Sonic's expression changed to one of distaste. "Yeah. I found him. Give me the pulley. Might as well get this over with."

They handed him the pulley. Sonic pulled it along the length of the chain, then bounded out over the water. He hovered in one place, the energy bursts dropping downward and burning out. Sonic clasped his hands around the pulley to hold it steady and called, "All right, let 'er rip!"

Knuckles flipped a lever, setting the crank's teeth into the chain's links. It locked into place with a clack. Then Rotor pulled down the starting lever. The winch's moter hummed to life, and it began to turn with a chink- chink-chink as the teeth locked into place. The chain ran through the pulley in Sonic's hands and down into the water. Sonic felt the chain grow taut as it took up the slack. The winch ran slower, the engine whining. Slowly, link by link, the chain emerged from the water. Mecha's full two-hundred plus pounds were on the end, and Sonic could really feel it. He had to struggle to keep from being pulled down.

Slowly and steadily, the winch wound in the chain. The spool began to be thick with dripping metal links. Five minutes passed, then ten. Sonic was beginning to sweat, and his shoulders ached. "How much more?" he called to Rotor. "Another fifteen or twenty feet," came the reply. "Fifteen or twenty feet," Sonic panted to himself. "Heck."

The moter began to run faster, pulling the chain through the pulley. Sonic tightened his grip on it and looked down into the water. He could see the chain going down a short distance. Another moment passed, and Sonic caught sight of the end of it. The robot must be the dark thing. "I see him, guys," he called.

The robot broke the surface. The magnet was stuck to his side, and his arms and legs dangled down. Water streamed from every joint. His shiny blue outer hull was rusty and stained, and mud dripped from the intake in his belly. When he was finally out of the water, Rotor called, "Fly higher, Sonic, then bring him over." Sonic did, flying high enough to clear the rock, then letting the robot down.

Knuckles turned off the winch and magnet, and rolled up the chain. Then he stepped over and examined Metal Sonic with Rotor. Sonic landed on the rock with a sigh, swiped his hand across the belt to de-hyperize himself, then looked narrowly at the robot. Rotor was running his hands over Mecha's wet, metallic body. "Wow," he breathed. "Lookit how well constructed he is!" "Wow," said Sonic sarcastically, "lookit how evil he still looks. Rote, he's still capable of murder!" "Not right this minute," Knux put in. "He's off-line."

As Sonic stood there and tried to think of a good retort, Rotor said, "Hey guys, let's set him up and see if we can get the water to drain out." It took the three of them to do it, for Mecha's joints had rusted tight, but they managed. Dirty water streamed out of every seam and crack, darkening the surface of the rock. A little bit of oil leaked out as well, but most of it had been washed away already.

A moment later, Knux suggested they take him to the hovercraft, and Rotor agreed. Sonic said nothing, but helped them drag the robot off the rock, through a stand of trees, and into the open area beyond. Their burly hovercraft was parked there. It was smaller that a SWAT-bot craft, but larger than a hoverbike. The three of them could fit inside the cockpit with room to spare.

Knuckles unlocked the cargo compartment and opened it, then helped Sonic and Rotor stow the robot inside. As he shut and locked it, Sonic said, "What'll happen if he comes on again in there?" His two friends looked at him like they thought he was crazy. "Are you kidding?" Rotor asked incredulously. "He's completely shorted out, off-line! He won't be coming back on again for a long time." He pushed past Sonic and walked back toward the lagoon. Knux walked up beside Sonic and gave him a slap on the back that nearly winded the hedgehog. "Don't take it so hard, Sonic," he said reassuringly. Sonic sideyed him, rubbed his back and replied, "I just can't figure out why anybody would want to bring back Mecha. I say just let him stay there and rot! He's as evil as Packbell, and I don't think anybody can change that." Knuckles cast a look in the direction of the cargo hold. "Don't worry, Sonic. He's going to be completely reformatted. C'mon. Let's go help Rotor unhook the winch. I want to go to the Floating Island this afternoon."

The two walked off. In the darkness of the cargo compartment, the last of the water drained from Mecha's central power core. It sparked once, twice. Then it began to hum and glow, supplying power to Mecha's corroded parts. One metal hand twitched spasmodically. Then the fingers curled slowly, one by one, gritting with dirt. The red light in his black eyes flickered on, casting a dim glow into the darkness. The computer in his head came on. His first 'thought' was, "Initiate system check." A moment later he got a listing of his damaged parts. Metal Sonic could feel no pain, only that he was disabled. Slowly he turned his head, the rust in his joints giving him a hard time. The red half-circles in his eyes faded out, then on--giving the queer impression he was blinking. "Where am I?" He tried to activate his radar and tracking system, but they were inoperative. Aside from his video sensors, he was blind. Next he tried to move his limbs, but couldn't. "Download memory banks," he told his central system. Then he lay there and watched the replays of everything, all the way down to hitting the water, when instant shutdown had cut off recording. His thoughts about it ran something like this: "Self-unit shutdown when unit hit water. Self-unit cannot operate underwater. Therefore, unit must not be in the water now. Where is self-unit? Dr. Robotnik and counterpart Packbell did not know where self-unit was, and unit would not be in dark place if they had retrieved. Cursed Freedom Fighters did know. They would not tell Dr. Robotnik about self-unit. And so they retrieved self-unit. For what purpose? For what purpose?" Metal Sonic didn't know the answer to that one. A moment later he activated his internal cooling fans to dry out his inside parts.

After a while, his hearing sensors detected three life-forms moving in his direction. He shut down the fans and lay still and silent. ". . . will take a while, but I'm sure we can get him back on-line."

"Oh sure. Imagine Doc's face when he sees his own robot being used against him!"

"Yeah, I know. Hey Sonic, can you give us a hand with this thing?"

"Sure."

"Sssonic!" the robot hissed. "He is alive!"

The voices were just outside now. The first voice was continuing, "It will take a couple hours to get home--I hope I can wait that long! I've never seen how an intelligent robot works on the inside." As Rotor was speaking, he was unlocking the door. As it swung open, Metal Sonic literally photographed what he saw, engraving it into his memory. All three of them--Knuckles, Rotor and Sonic, just before they shoved the winch inside, thrusting the robot against the wall.

Rotor slammed the door shut and was turning to lock it when he caught sight of Sonic. The blue hedgehog was standing ramrod straight, his entire body stiffened, staring at the now-closed compartment. "Hey Sonic, what gives?" Rotor asked. Sonic gasped a little, then said, "Mecha was on." Knuckles and Rotor stared at him. "What?"

"Mecha was on," Sonic repeated a little louder, in case they hadn't heard him the first time. "His eyes were glowing and he was looking at us!"

Knuckles was the first to react. He wrenched the door open and muscled the winch out of the way. There lay Metal Sonic, as dead as when they had pulled him out of the water. Knux sighed, shook his head and turned to Sonic. "You had me going, pal." "No," Sonic exclaimed. "He was really on, because his eyes stood out in the dark. I saw him!" He reached into the compartment and touched the robot. Nothing happened. He looked at his unbelieving friends. "You gotta believe me!" he cried. The three of them stood there a moment. The Knuckles turned away, lips pressed together in a line. Rotor closed the door and locked it. "C'mon," he said quickly. They turned and walked toward the cockpit, Sonic let down and hurt that his friends didn't believe him.

Mecha's eyes came back on. "Ssonic is alive," he murmured. Then, feeling the rumble of the craft's engines, he did a complete shutdown. Sonic, in the cockpit, strapped himself in. He had a feeling he had brought up more than a robot from the lagoon. He had brought up trouble--a whole lot of trouble.

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Chapter 2

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Two days had passed since the Freedom Fighters had retrieved Metal Sonic. Rotor had hardly come out for air at all. He had taken Mecha apart to clean him out, and had found the robot completely dry inside. He had put it down to being hot inside the hovercraft, but it still puzzled him.

Sonic walked into Rotor's workshop to check on his progress. The robot's parts were strewn all over the place, and Rotor was sitting on a stool, both hands inside the robot's head. He looked up as Sonic came in. "Hi, Sonic." "Hiya, Rotor. How's it going?" Rotor sighed, withdrew his hands from the robot and wiped them on a nearby rag. "Okay, I guess. Mecha is extremely complicated inside. I can almost bet Packbell upgraded him in secret. There's some hardware in here I've never seen before, especially in a robot. Reformatting him is going to be harder than I thought." Sonic picked up on of Mecha's arms and looked at it. It was practically dripping oil. "Um, trying to loosen up the joints?" Sonic asked, wiping his hands on another greasy cloth. "Sure," said Rotor. "Everything's still full of dirt and rust. Gotta get it clean."

Sonic put his hands on his hips and surveyed the disassembled robot. "We should leave him like this," he muttered darkly. Rotor frowned at him. "C'mon, Sonic. He's going to be completely different when I get done." Sonic shook his head. "I hope so." Rotor turned back to the robot. "Will you go get Sally? I need Nichole to do a check on this computer system." "Sure," Sonic sighed. He turned and walked out, thinking, "I don't believe it. I'm helping bring back my worst enemy."

Sally wasn't in her hut, and Sonic couldn't find her. He started asking around, and finally tracked her down. She and Serena were taking a walk in the woods. Serena was deathly afraid of Metal Sonic, and Sally was trying to get her to calm down. Serena was talking as Sonic walked up. "Sal, he hates me just like he hates Sonic, maybe more! He's got it in for hedgehogs. I mean, what will happen when he powers up again and sees me'n Sonic? He'll go ballistic! He didn't care if he killed himself, as long as he killed Sonic, too, and he would have if it hadn't been for Slasher."

Sally was about to reply to this when Sonic interrupted her. "Hi girls. Sal, Rotor needs Nichole to do something with Mecha's computer." "Oh, okay," Sally replied. "Just a minute." She turned to Serena. "Serena, I've already told you. Metal Sonic will be completely different inside. He won't remember any of that. His memory will be clear. And he won't hate you or Sonic or anybody else. Only his outside will be the same. Try to get used to the idea. Okay?" Serena sighed and looked down. "Okay. I--I'll try." "Good girl," said Sally. "See ya later." She turned and walked back toward the village.

Sonic watched her go. Serena slipped her hand into his. "Sonic, no matter what they say, Mecha will still be Mecha. And it scares me!" Sonic looked down at her. "I know, 'Rena. It does me too." He sighed. "But Rotor and Sally are too enthused about this, and nothin'll stop 'em." The two hedgehogs stood there a moment. Then Sonic said, "I've got too much on my mind. What say we go find Tails and run some races?"

Serena's eyes lit up. "Yeah! I'd like that! C'mon. I know a great place."* * *

An hour later found Sonic, Tails and Serena out in the woods, about half a mile from Knothole. They had run races in the meadow for a while, and then Serena suggested obstacle courses. She had a favorite place in the woods that had some great obstacles. It was a steep hill covered with rocks. Only a few scraggly trees grew on it, and they made good markers. The three of them had been there about twenty minutes, and were having a lot of fun. Most of the amusement came from figuring out a course, racing through it, then timing each other.

Tails and Serena were sitting on a big boulder, watching Sonic run through a course. He jumped over rocks, squeezed between some, then swung around a short tree and came back. He reached his friends, slapped their rock and called, "Time!" They stopped their watches. "A minute and forty-five seconds," Tails announced. "That's what I got, too," Serena added. "Hey bro, ya beat my record by three seconds."

Sonic climbed up on the rock. "Whew, that was a tough one. Who wants to go next?" Serena looked at Tails. "Your call, Tails." The young fox handed Sonic his watch and slid to the ground. "Ready, set--" Sonic called. Tails crouched a little, but when Sonic got that far he stood up again and said, "Wait a minute. What's that?" The three of them were silent a moment. "What?" Sonic asked at last. "Shh," Tails replied. "I thought I heard a hoverbike engine."

No one said a word for a few minutes. Then Serena said, "I hear it. It's up in the trees, and it's coming this way." The two hedgehogs jumped off the building to join Tails on the ground. Then the three quickly and quietly ran for the cover of the trees. A moment later they flopped down behind some brush. "Think it's a SWAT-bot?" Tails whispered fearfully. "Maybe," Sonic replied softly. "But what in the world would a robot be doing way out here? And on a hoverbike?" "Who knows," Serena said. Then they all focused their attention on the top of the hill, where the bike and it's rider would appear.* * *

The person on the bike was dead lost. He had never seen this part of the woods before, and didn't have any idea as to what was ahead. He was concerned primarily on steering. His bike, damaged from the all-out race through Robotropolis, was getting hard to manage; almost unwieldy. With no brakes, the bike was starting to kick a little more with each turn. He didn't dare slow down, though, because of the other bike he thought was still chasing him.

The trees stopped up ahead. Eagerly he sped up, hoping for a clearing of some sort where he could ditch the bike and hide. But when he reached it, his stomach did a double flip-flop. It was a steep, almost treeless hill that was studded with rocks. Big rocks. Automatically his foot stomped on the brakes, and of course nothing happened. Then he took his foot off the accelerator, but by then it was too late. The bike was already coasting down the hill.* * *

The three hiding in the bushes were watching with their mouths open. "Who's the porcupine?" Tails murmured. "I donno," Sonic replied, "but why the heck is he going down the hill on his bike? He'll get himself killed!" Impulsively he stood up and stepped into the open. His friends followed. "Be careful," Serena said worriedly. "We don't know what side he's on. He might be armed."

Sonic cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, "Hey, slow down! You're gonna crash and burn!" "I can't!" came the reply. "I don't got no brakes!" There didn't seem to be anything they could do about that, and so the Freedom Fighters just stood there and watched.

The porcupine's hoverbike was picking up speed. He jerked it back and forth, trying desperately to keep from hitting the rocks. Several time the bottom and sides of his bike struck the stones with a shriek of metal and a shower of sparks. With each blow the bike became harder to handle. And the reason for that was that the hoverjets on the underside of the craft were damaged, letting the bike down toward the ground. The steering system was damaged as well; it must have have been the fifteen foot jump in the city that did it. It was supposed to lock automatically once the bike stopped, but it was freezing up now, for some reason. Once it locked completely, it's rider would have no control at all.

"He certainly has courage," Serena muttered under her breath. Sonic glanced at her. "What good will it do him if he gets himself killed? I can't stand this--I'm gonna help him stop that bike!" Sonic tore away from them, leaping from rock to rock like a large cricket. "Sonic--Sonic, wait!" Tails shouted, and took off after him. Serena rolled her eyes. "Here we go again," she muttered. Then she jumped off the rock and headed after the others.

The bike was closer to the bottom of the hill than the middle when Sonic caught up to it. He couldn't do much more than run alongside, so he shouted, "Use your hand brakes!" The porcupine jumped and looked at him. He hadn't realized Sonic was there. "What?" he called back. "I said use your hand brakes!" Sonic repeated. The porcupine looked down at the bike's controls, glanced at Sonic, then back to the road ahead. Without moving his gaze, he shouted, "Where are they?"

"On your steering wheel! Squeeze those little handles back!"

The porcupine had to dodge three boulders in succession before he had a chance to look down again. Then he saw the two oblong handles attached to the back of the steering wheel. They looked like the ones on regular bikes. He reached out with his fingers and grabbed them.

The hoverbike swerved out so suddenly it caught Sonic off guard and knocked him over. As he picked himself up, he could see that using the hand brakes had broken the last bit of control the porcupine had over the vehicle. Now it was skidding and fish-tailing down the hill, sometimes sideways, sometimes forward--and bucking like a wild horse. Sonic couldn't figure out how the kid managed to stay on. Then he noticed a worse problem. The hover bike was nearing the trees at the bottom of the hill. How long would it last in them with no steering? Sonic knew the answer to that; about five seconds. He ran desperately down the hill, hoping for one last chance to help stop the bike.

The porcupine was having a time of it. His arms felt like they were being jarred out of their sockets trying to ride the fish-out-of-water. His legs were bruised from when the bike smashed sideways into the rocks. He knew he needed to bail out, but he hadn't seen anywhere he would like to land. Then his eyes focused on the trees ahead; "Uh oh," he thought.

The bike smashed into one tree and was knocked spinning into another. The hoverjets died, sputtered to life, then died again. Only a vicious kick from it's rider brought them to life. But maybe it would have been better if they had not. The bike's underside caught the ground, flipping it over, rolling it. The porcupine was at once on top, then under, then on top--

"Oh my gosh!" Serena cried, putting her hands to her mouth. She took off running, caught up with Sonic, and beat him getting to the fallen bike. Tails arrived a few seconds later. Then they all stood there and looked.

The bike was lying on the ground, it's front part twisted around at almost a right angle. The porcupine was pinned beneath it on his back. His face was pale, eyes closed, and he lay motionless. "Is--is he dead?" Tails stuttered. "Donno," Sonic replied shortly. "Gimmie a hand, you two." He stooped down and grasped the bike's handlebars--he noticed they were wet with sweat--and lifted. With his friend's help, he got the bike off the fallen figure. Then he knelt beside the porcupine and felt his chest for a heartbeat. With relief, he felt a pulse--one that was hammering crazily with adrenaline.

"Yeah, he's alive," he told the others, turning his head to do so. When he looked back, he just barely saw the porcupine's arm move--as his hard fist slammed into Sonic's jaw. Sonic fell backward, holding his mouth. The porcupine sat up, glaring at him. "Thanks for the _help_," he snarled, "'cause now my bike's ruined!" He was still gasping for breath. He twisted his leg around sideways, revealing a deep scrape from ankle to knee. He looked at it grimly, then back up at Sonic. "I should beat the heck out of you--" he jumped to his feet, hands doubled into fists.

Sonic jumped to his feet as well. "Hey, whoa, time out," he said, making a T with his hands. "It's not my fault that happened! I didn't know your steering would break down when you used the hand brakes. It was an accident." "Yeah," Serena put in, stepping forward. "Besides, the reason you wrecked is because there's a tree branch wedged into the engines." The porcupine pushed past her, walked around to the sideways bike and looked at it's underside. Sure enough, a dead branch was twisted into the engine intake and stuck into the hoverjets. "Well," he said, looking first at Serena, then at Sonic, "this may be the reason I wrecked, but it ain't the reason my steering busted."

"Sorry," Sonic said. "We can get your hoverbike fixed, if you want. I'm Sonic, by the way. This is my sister Serena, and that's Tails."

"Oh really," came the reply. "You're Freedom Fighters, right?"

"Yep."

"Figures. I've heard the name Sonic slanged and cursed enough in Robotropolis. They only do that to the Freedom Fighters."

Sonic didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. "And what's your name?"

"My friends call me Spike, but ah, you can call me Spike."

"Spike," said Sonic, letting his eyes travel over the long, thin spines that covered the porcupine. "That's, um--" Spike held up a fist in his face. "--original."

A hand closed on Spike's arm. He turned and saw Serena standing there. She was half a head shorter than he, making him look down at her. Her eyes were blazing. "Don't you threaten my brother," she said softly. He only laughed at her. "Look who's talking!" he said. "Like, I'm really scared." He made a move to shove her away, but she stepped back before he could. Sonic bristled. No way was this stranger going to get away with that--

Someone called Sonic's name. It came from back in the woods. Sonic turned and called, "Over here!" Then he poked a finger at Spike's chest. "We'll finish this later," he said, his voice low. Spike only grinned nastily. "And who's that calling you? Your mom?"

"No," Sonic growled, "one of the other Freedom Fighters."

A higher, more feminine voice called, "Sonic! Can you call again?"

"Whassamatter, need a bigger lead?" he yelled. "C'mon, you can find us easier than that." He was interrupted by Spike's sneery voice saying, "And that must be your girlfriend. I see. You really are _in_ with the Freedom Fighters."

Before Sonic could reply, Slasher, the winged velociraptor (with Sally on her back,) came trotting out of the trees to their right. Sally called, "Hey Sonic, we're about ready to test the robot. Come on back and--wait, who's this?" She dismounted from Slasher and stood beside the great raptor. Sonic said stiffly, "Uh, Sal, Slash, this is Spike. He wrecked his bike out here and we were--trying to _help him out_." This last was aimed pointedly at Spike, who ignored it.

"Hi," Spike said, and his tone had changed completely. He actually sounded friendly. He took a step forward, then began to limp exaggeratedly. "Hey you guy, he's hurt," said Slasher.

"Oh, it's--not--bad," Spike winced. "It's only bone deep." He pretended to fall, and Sally caught him. "You guys," she said pleadingly to her three stone-faced friends. "He's hurt bad! C'mon, we gotta get him back to Knothole!" Sonic didn't answer. He was trying to get eye contact with the porcupine. Spike avoided his gaze.

Slasher picked Spike up in her forearms. He lay as limp as a sack of grain, pretending to be deathly ill. It alarmed Slasher and Sally. "Whoa," Slasher said. "I'm gonna get him to the village. See you guys." With that, she whirled around and vanished noiselessly into the trees.

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Chapter 3

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Spike wasn't present for the testing of Metal Sonic, although afterward Sonic wished he had been. It might not have lead to as much trouble as it did.

Rotor had the robot mostly assembled on his work bench. That meant Mecha's head and limbs were attached to his body. The minor parts, such as hands, feet and the rusty power core, were strewn about the workroom in various places. The robot was plugged into a generator outside. As Sonic, Tails, Serena, Sally and Slasher filed in, Rotor greeted them by waving one of Mecha's detached hands. "Hi guys," he said. He tossed the hand onto a nearby shelf, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Sonic shivered and rubbed his recently healed wrist.

"What's going on?" Serena asked, putting an arm around Sonic reassuringly. "Well," Rotor began, "this is a test. We're going to see what shape Mecha is in on the inside. So we're gonna power him up, and--" Sonic grabbed Rotor's arm. As the walrus turned and looked questioningly into the face of his friend, he noticed the slight tremor in Sonic's touch. "Don't do it," Sonic said softly. "You don't know who you're dealing with. Metal Sonic will kill us all."

Rotor pulled away. "Nuh-uh. I replaced his entire memory storage with new chips. He's not the same, now. This is just to see if his machinery works." Sonic slowly moved away, but his eyes held a strange light. Sonic was afraid.

"Okay, stand back, everybody," Rotor ordered. "Sally, you turn on the full power. Right here, this lever. I'll keep an eye on his energy levels from over here." Quietly, without anybody noticing, Slasher nudged her big body between the workbench and the others. She and Sonic locked eyes for a moment. She knew as well as he how unpredictable Mecha was, with or without new RAM.

"Okay, we're all set," Rotor exclaimed. Then he ordered, "Sally, throw the switch!" Sally did, with a flourish. As the semi-circles in Mecha's eyes began to glow, Rotor muttered, "I've always wanted to say that."

A low hum arose from the little robot's intake. Rotor and Sally watched with excitement as Mecha stirred a little, moving his head from side to side. Sonic, Tails, Serena and Slasher watched with growing apprehension. They had seen this robot in action, and didn't want to see it again.

Metal Sonic slowly moved his limbs, as if to see if they moved. Then he sat up abruptly, stretching the orange extension cords feeding into his back. His dull blue head turned slowly as he let his visual sensors scan the room. He said aloud, "Where am I?" but it was more of a demanded statement than a question. "You're in my workshop," Rotor replied delightedly. The robot turned toward him and scrutinized him from head to toe. "You are not he," the robot muttered. Sonic felt his heart plummet to his toes and caught his breath. Mecha heard him and swung his head around.

Sonic didn't duck behind Slasher soon enough. Mecha saw him. "Sssonic!" the robot cried in maniacal fury. Unaware his feet weren't attached, or that his power was coming from the cords in his back, Mecha hurled himself off the table and in Sonic's direction.

It happened so fast nobody had time to do anything. Sonic jumped backward in fright, stumbling against the wall. Serena and Tails dodged off sideways, and if it hadn't been for Slasher the crazed robot might have hurt Sonic badly. The big velociraptor, still standing between Sonic and his metal imitation, wheeled and lashed out with one hind foot. The blow brought Mecha to the floor with a crash. Down but not beaten, the robot dragged himself in Sonic's direction like a wounded animal. Slasher struck at the robot again to check his rush, then backed up to Sonic and dropped a wing like a curtain to hide him.

And then it was over. Mecha's last lunge had pulled the power cords from his back. He collapsed to the floor, once more a senseless piece of metal.* * *

It was late afternoon. Knothole was quiet, dozing lazily in the warm spring sun. The only signs of the morning's episode was the dismantled robot lying on Rotor's workbench, and the absence of Sonic, Serena and Slasher.

Spike had had his leg bandaged, met everybody and was now bored. He wandered around the village, mildly disappointed at the inactivity. Knuckles, back from his visit to the Floating Island, was in his hut, playing computer games with Tails. That was fun to watch for a while, but when neither of them had stopped after fifteen minutes, Spike drifted out again.

Vaguely he wondered where Sonic was. He checked around the village, and not finding him, wandered out on one of the paths into the woods. He poked along for what seemed like a long time with no incident, and stopped to lean against the trunk of a huge oak tree and think. An off day in Robotropolis, his former home, was more exciting than these boring Freedom Fighters, he thought. No wonder they haven't won. Maybe I should just leave.

A voice from somewhere overhead startled him.

"I just can't get over the way he looked."

"Vibrant hatred."

"He would have killed me if not for you, Slash."

Three different voices, one of them Sonic's. Are they talking about me? Spike wondered.

"It was a really bad idea to bring him here," Sonic said.

"Yeah," Serena agreed. "Look at what's happened, and he hasn't even been here that long!"

A pause. Spike looked up, but couldn't see them. The oak tree was almost completely leafed out for so early in the season, and they were somewhere in the center of it.

"He'll always hate you, Sonic," Slasher said, her voice lowered. "And look at what it's done to him. It'll do the same to you if you hate him back."

"But how? I can't help it."

Another pause. Spike didn't want to hear anymore. He left the path and headed for Knothole another way so they wouldn't see him. His face was burning. So, Sonic hated him without helping it, eh? Sonic hadn't seen anything, yet!

But Spike had stormed off too soon. If he had listened another minute, he would have realized their discussion was about Metal Sonic, not him.* * *

Spike told no one of what he had heard, but from that day onward he vowed to make life miserable for Sonic.

Sonic was even more set in his belief that Metal Sonic would always be evil. He avoided Rotor's workshop like the plague, and in general had nothing to do with the robot. Serena and Tails felt the same way, although Tails was interested to know Rotor had found a whole set of concealed memory and erased it.

Time passed. The days lengthened, and the woods gradually leafed out, welcoming spring. Usually it would have been a busy time for the Freedom Fighters; what with the trips to Robotropolis, contact with other bands and the general high-jinks that went with the passing of winter. But because of Metal Sonic, the pace in Knothole had dropped to a crawl. Sally was the one who planned their sabotage runs, and all her time was taken up with the robot. Rotor had hardly done anything else for weeks-- his life revolved around his workstation.

The tension in Knothole increased daily. Sonic's fear was reflected in Serena, and the two of them could stir up more trouble than little kids in a department store. They tried, too, and might have won the argument, if not for Spike.

Spike always let on that he and Sonic were best buds. And with his always-sincere-charm attitude, he could make anyone believe what he said. He never missed a chance to say or do something that would make Sonic look bad in his friend's eyes. He was so good at it it was hard to tell when he was lying or when he was simply stretching the truth a little.

The second testing of Metal Sonic was really where the trouble started. Sonic, Tails and Serena were conveniently absent, but a curious Spike was there. He had heard of Mecha, but didn't know of his evil, twisted nature, or of his association with Sonic the previous winter.

This time, Metal Sonic was roped down, and only one leg was attached. Rotor was taking no chances. Spike watched casually as the walrus worked to get the robot set up. "Whatcha got him tied up for?" he asked after a moment. Rotor glanced up at him, his hands busy with the extension cord in his back. "So he doesn't attack anybody this time. You might want to stand back a little." Spike did so, hastily. Then, as Rotor kept working and said nothing else, the porcupine leaned back against the wall and thrust his hands in his pockets.

He straightened up, however, when Sally and Slasher walked in. He greeted them politely, and they him. Then Sally approached the worktable. "Hows it going, Rotor?" she asked him. Rotor stepped back and wiped his forehead, leaving a streak of black grease. "Okay, I guess," he said. "I think I got all his memory erased pretty good, but there's some in there I can only reach with the computer. I think I got it. He should be safe this time." Sally folded her arms and looked at him sharply. "He'd better be," she said simply, but her body language said a certain walrus would be in trouble if it happened again. Spike watched this without a word.

The power-up sequence went smoothly. Rotor turned on the power himself this time, and watched the robot like a hawk, one hand on the switch. The half-circles in Mecha's eyes blinked on, like before. Here was the whirr of his engines starting and the robot stirred, moving his limbs a little. Then he sat up slowly, head turning side to side as he looked around. "Where am I?" he asked. His voice was soft, toneless. Rotor and Sally looked at each other, then Rotor ventured, "Where do you think you are?" The robot looked around again, finding his memory banks empty. His eyes rested on Slasher a moment--he recognized her, but with no previous recollections. "I appear to be in a construction bay of some kind," he said at last, using the term Robotnik used.

The robot turned and looked at Rotor and Sally. "Who are you?" he questioned bluntly. The two looked at each other, then back at the robot. "I'm Sally, and this is Rotor," the squirrel said. Mecha looked them up and down. "You--you are--are--Freedom Fighters, correct?" he said, making a visible effort to remember. The two nodded. The robot turned the other way, looking toward Slasher and Spike. "And who are you?" he said to Slasher, ignoring Spike. The raptor gazed at him coolly. "I am Slasher," she told him. "Slasher," Metal Sonic repeated. After a moment he looked back toward the others. "My memory banks are empty," he told Rotor, almost complainingly. "I cannot recall who any of you are. But--but there is one I shall never forget. His name is--"

Rotor snapped off the power switch. Mecha's eyes flickered off, and his engines ground to a halt. Sally drew a deep breath and looked at Rotor. "Better," she said, "but he still remembers Sonic." Rotor nodded and lifted his power drill. "Get Knux in here to help me and I'd say he'll be working in a week."* * *

Spike moseyed out of Rotor's workshop with a whole new bearing on Sonic. "So," he thought, "ol' Sonic's afraid of that robot? Ha! Mecha couldn't last against a SWAT-bot, let alone an Ultra SWAT. He's not nearly as scary as some I've seen. Sonic must really be a wimp."

Slasher passed him, heading towards the woods. Sonic glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then followed her. She was making a beeline for the oak tree. Once he figured that out, Spike stepped into the woods and circled around, coming up the tree from behind. Sonic was sitting on the lowest limb, feet dangling, watching the trail. Tails and Serena were perched higher up, nearly hidden by the thick leaves. Spike sat down behind a screen of brush to listen to what happened next.

"Hey, here she comes, guys."

The crunch of Slasher's feet on the path. "Hiya, Sonic. Everybody here?"

"Yup." A whoosh and thump as the raptor leaped up into the tree. A bit of moving around. Then Tails said, "Well?"

"It was probably a good thing you guys kept away. He was calmer and didn't remember any of us, but he still knows you, Sonic."

"Heck." A pause.

Serena: "Well, what happens now?"

Slasher's heavy sigh. "They're gonna get Knux working on him. Rotor said another week. I don't know what's gonna happen when I leave."

"I wish you didn't have to. Things are hard enough as it is."

Another pause. Then Tails said, "Was Spike there?" Spike pricked up his ears.

"Yeah," came the reply. "I think he was disappointed nothing happened."

You got that right, Spike thought.

"He's not impressed with Mecha. I guess he never heard about him or anything."

"Yeah, you're pry right," Sonic said. But he should try to have a robot modeled after him and see how he likes it." Spike bristled.

"I feel sorry for Spike," Serena said. "Have you guys ever noticed how sad he looks sometimes? I wonder if he has a family somewhere." This statement served to soften Spike's feelings toward her, but what Sonic said next sealed the rivalry between himself and Spike.

"If he does, they're probably robotized," Sonic snorted. "That might explain why he's such a geek."

"Sonic, that's mean!" Slasher snapped, hurt as though the remark had been aimed at her. "Never call someone names behind their back. I don't care that you don't like him--that's no excuse."

Embarrassed, Sonic changed the subject. After a moment Spike stalked away. That was two counts against Sonic. One more and--

Spike sneered and pounded his fist into his palm. An open fight was unacceptable. Go for the underhanded approach.

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Chapter 4

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Later that afternoon, Sally chased down Sonic.

He was sitting on the edge of a big rock overlooking the river. Just sitting there, all by himself. If Sally had not come for the reason she had, she might have realized he was lonesome. But instead, she stormed up to him. "Sonic!"

He jumped and nearly fell into the water below. "Sal!" he gasped, clutching his chest. "Don't do that!"

"Sonic Hedgehog, what have you been up to? I know you aren't enthusiastic about us fixing up Mecha, but you're acting like a little kid."

Sonic looked up at her, bewildered. "What'd I do?"

"What did you do? You know what you did. Look, if you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all!"

Sally turned and walked away, looking about a cheerful as a thundercloud. Sonic stared after her, wondering. He didn't remember doing anything bad. What had that been all about?* * *

As Sonic moped back to Knothole, his feelings hurt, he heard a sound. A hoverbike? He looked up. Coming down the path toward him was Spike's repaired hoverbike. Spike was driving, his long spines blown back in the wind. Seeing Sonic and acting like he didn't, he punched the accelerator.

Sonic was forced to dive from the trail as the bike roared past with a rush of hot air and dust. Sonic just barely had enough time to see the passenger before the bike disappeared around the bend. It was Serena, her arms around Spike's waist, her eyes bright with laughter. She hadn't seen Sonic and was having a good time.

Sonic's hands slowly curled into fists at his sides. His sister-- running around with an almost total stranger! A hard, steady rage began to unfurl in his heart. Spike was going too far. Way too far. He might even have been responsible for Sally's anger. Something was going on.

Sonic whirled around and stalked toward the village.* * *

Nothing else happened until dark. The Freedom Fighters had gone to their huts for the night, and the village was quiet. Sonic was lying in his hammock, hands behind his head, eyes fixed blankly in the ceiling. Sally had been mad at him all day; he still didn't know why. Serena had run around with Spike the rest of the afternoon--apparently he had been teaching her the intricacies of driving a hovercraft. She had just left Sonic's hut after telling him this to crash into her bed, exhausted. What next?

A soft tap on the door. Sonic sat up wearily. "Come in, it's open," he said. The swung open. There stood Spike, a dark, spiny silhouette in the moonlight, his arms folded. Sonic glared at him. "What do _you_ want?" he demanded. Spike stepped forward, his broad tail twitching like a cat's. "I just wanted to say," he purred, "that I haven't forgiven you for calling me a geek." He slammed the door shut, and Sonic heard him pelting down the row of huts toward his own.

The rage in Sonic's heart put out a leaf or two.* * *

Slasher, Tails and Serena all denied having told Spike what Sonic said about him in the tree, and Spike wouldn't say where he heard it. He was enjoying watching Sonic suffer.

And suffer Sonic did. Not only was he brooding over what would happen when Mecha was repaired, he was also trying to counter Spike's assault. Every time he turned around, the porcupine was running around with Serena or Tails, and even Slasher commented on how well Spike was adjusting to the Freedom Fighters. Sally bit his head off every time he turned around, and all Knuckles and Rotor wanted to talk about was Metal Sonic.

Sonic was caught between a rock and a hard place, all right. But, like most situations of that nature, it would get worse before it got better.

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Chapter 5

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"Guys, this is Metal Sonic," Rotor said with a flourish of his screwdriver. "The newest addition to the Freedom Fighters."

Fully intact, operational and cleaned, Metal Sonic stood in the middle of the village, looking around, recording all into his empty memory banks. The villagers gathered around, exclaiming with delight and admiration and touching the robot's gleaming metal body.

Sonic, Tails, Serena and Slasher were the only ones not pleased. They stood back from the others, watching coolly. "I don't trust him," Sonic muttered to his friends. "Did you know that Knux made an emergency remote control, just in case? I'm not the only paranoid person around here." Slasher drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We won't know if he's on our side until we've had him a month," she said quietly. "Then, if he's acting okay, we'll test his loyalties by sending him to the city. But still--"

They were interrupted by Rotor calling, "Hey Sonic, come over here and introduce yourself!" Sonic looked at Serena and muttered, "That could be a really bad idea." But he sulkily walked up to the group surrounding Metal Sonic. Mecha turned and looked straight at him. If he recognized his old rival, he didn't show it. "Greetings," he said automatically. He thrust out his right hand. Hesitantly Sonic took it with his left. As the robot shook his hand, he lifted the other and touched Sonic's wrist. Just a touch, but Sonic jerked away with a start, backing away. He didn't notice Spike a few feet away, watching the encounter like a hawk.

"Chicken," the porcupine thought.* * *

He followed Sonic and Serena to Sonic's hut a few minutes later. Curious, Spike stood beneath an open window and listened.

"Sonic, what's wrong? He touched you and you freaked."

Sonic, apparently pacing the room, replied with, "You know how he mangled my hand on the bridge."

Spike perked up. He hadn't heard anything about that.

"'Rena," Sonic continued ominously, "he _remembered_! Did you see him touch my wrist, watching me the whole time? He knows! They missed something in his memory or something." Sonic resumed pacing.

"Oh gosh," Serena sighed. "I don't think Rotor and Sally will be happy to hear that."

"I know."

Silence. Then, "C'mon, let's go tell Slasher."

Spike fled the premises, chuckling wickedly to himself.* * *

Sally was feeding Mecha's old memory chips into her computer, trying to find anything interesting. She had only been at it a few minutes when Spike came in. "Hey, Sally," he greeted her. "Hi, Spike," she returned distractedly, eyes on Nichole's screen. Spike flopped down in a chair a few feet away and tossed his hair out of his eyes.

After a moment of trying to ignore him and failing, Sally turned to him. "What do you want?"

He shrugged. "Oh, nothin' much. Sonic claims Mecha remembers him."

Sally snapped erect and looked at him. "You're kidding. He told you?"

"Sure enough," Spike lied. "He said something about him touching his wrist a certain way when they shook hands."

Sally, already aware of how skittish Sonic was around the robot, looked skeptical. "It was probably just his imagination."

Then Spike unloaded his bombshell. "Sonic says Mecha should be scrapped ASAP. Says he'll never work, be nothin' but trouble."

Sally bristled. This was the second time Spike had told her things Sonic had said. Unaware she was taking the bait, she growled, "I'm gonna hafta have a talk with him. We already went through this! Mecha is harmless." She turned back to the computer without seeing Spike's mischievous smirk. He had got her.

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Chapter 6

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A few more days slipped by. Spikes lies went undetected by all, save Sonic, who knew there was something amiss. But, with the Metal Sonic project nearly over, the Freedom Fighters picked up again. Tension eased (at least on the surface), and with all the things to be done, nobody noticed the situation between Spike and Sonic. The two were becoming bitter rivals.

Slasher had instructed Sonic to treat Spike as he had Knuckles on the Floating Island--try to avoid a fight, don't make things worse. The problem, though, was that Knux had had a motive and a reason--his point of view was understandable. Spike's only goal was to see Sonic hurt in silence.

Metal Sonic was allowed to roam freely around the village, so long as he didn't try to escape. But all the robot seemed interested in was getting acquainted with everyone. His personality was flat and subdued, as if wiped clean. He caused no trouble, and did not protest the manual shut-down every evening.

Sonic watched him from a distance, always on guard. Perhaps this is why he saw Mecha doing things a reformatted robot wouldn't do.

For instance, the robot would often stand at one end of the village for hours, scanning and re-scanning Knothole into his memory. Then he would walk to the other end and do it again. It looked suspiciously like he was 'casing the joint' for a takeover. But Sally (fed false information by Spike), only scoffed. "He's just looking," she would say. "What's wrong with that?"

Then there was the time Serena ran past Mecha and nearly knocked him over. Only Sonic, who was standing nearby, heard the robot mutter quietly, "Someday."

But what really freaked Sonic out was the evening he was sitting in the oak tree, stewing over his latest confrontation with Spike. Completely hidden in the green depths of the tree, his ears caught the sound of someone walking softly down the path. He leaned out, expecting Slasher--only to see Metal Sonic padding forward deliberately. Sonic watched him in uneasy silence. The robot advanced to a few feet beyond the tree's trunk where he hesitated, looking back indecisively. After a moment, he turned and walked back toward Knothole. As he passed beneath the tree, Sonic heard him mutter, "Ah, Packbell my friend, you must wait a while longer. I am not yet trusted here."

Sonic had sat in the tree long after the robot had gone, sick with dread.* * *

But after that particular episode, Mecha ceased all outward signs of treachery. The days passed without incident, and Metal Sonic became just another part of Knothole living. Spike, although still a thorn in Sonic's side, had quieted his pranks for a while, and it seemed as if things had settled down.

It was because of the lull Slasher decided to fly south to the other Freedom Fighter bands for news. She was planning to make it annual, and besides, they hadn't had any contact with them since the previous summer.

Sally spent an entire day with the big raptor, writing letters to recount their recent doings, and what had happened the winter before.

Slasher departed early in the morning for her two week trip, golden wings carrying her over the treetops and out of sight. Sonic, the only one to see her off, watched her go with a knot in his stomach. There went his sole protector. The two weeks, at that moment, seemed more like two years. Tails was more than half-sided with Sally and Rotor on the Metal Sonic issue, and liked Spike. Serena, although still leery around the robot, adored Spike almost as much as she did Sonic. So, he really had no one to confide in.

Spike peered out his window at Sonic, a wicked grin stealing across his face. Sonic looked very forlorn, standing alone in the pale dawn light.

"Ha! Slasher's gone. Now nobody's gonna stop me from really gettin' Sonic." Spike slid back down onto his bed and hugged his knees to his chest. "Serena's already on my side, and so is Tails. Sally believes everything I tell her, and the others are biased already because of Mecha." He cracked his knuckles one by one. "Heh heh. Prepare to die, Sonic."

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Chapter 7

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Things started going downhill that day.

Spike, in his search for ways to hurt Sonic, found a friend in Metal Sonic. Mecha listened quietly as Spike told him what a creep Sonic was, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Then Spike asked the robot if he knew of any way to make life miserable for Sonic. The robot asked him what he was already doing, and Spike listed off everything, ending with the statement that he was out of ideas.

Mecha thought for a moment, then said simply, "Take his place. Do what he does, but better. Turn the village against him."

"But how? I can't think of any more ways."

So Sonic's ultimate enemy instructed Sonic's wannabe ultimate rival.* * *

Three days later, Serena found Sonic sitting on the same rock overlooking the river. He sat with his feet hanging over, eyes fixed blankly on the swirling water below.

"Sonic!"

He jumped and nearly fell off. "'Rena!" he gasped, clutching his chest. "Don't do that! You're the second person, already!"

She sat down next to him. "Who was the first?"

"Sally."

Serena sat quietly for a few minutes, tossing pebbles into the river. Then she looked up at Sonic. "Bro, why don't you like Spike?"

Sonic glanced at her, his face darkening. "He's a bully, that's why." He looked at the churning water below. "And I'm the target of his bullying. He's a pain in the neck. He tells people things that ain't true, he terrorizes me when I'm alone, he just--oh, you get the idea." He looked up at his sister. She returned his gaze steadily. Then she said the last thing he expected: "I don't believe you." And she jumped to her feet and flounced away, leaving her brother sitting stunned on the rock.

The rage in his heart was growing tendrils and buds.* * *

Then next day, unable to find Tails or Serena and finding the meadow empty, Sonic headed for the rocky area where they had met Spike.

As he neared the open space, he heard voices shouting and laughing. They were there, all right. He stepped out of the trees, preparing to join them--and froze. His greeting died on his lips, and he simply stood and looked.

Serena and Tails were sitting on the boulder they had dubbed the 'timer rock,' watches in hand. And who should be running the course Sonic had mapped out but Spike. The porcupine was running as Sonic ran, feet a blur, arms bent and held high. He bounded from stone to stone, swung around the little marker tree and came back. Sonic listened as the two on the rock announced his time.

"One minute and forty-four seconds!"

"That's what I got, too."

"Hey Spike, you beat Sonic's record! Way to go!"

Sonic melted back into the woods. It would only be a little while before his rage blossomed into violence.* * *

"Hey Mecha, it's working. They're gettin' to where they like me better'n Sonic!"

"You are doing very well, my friend. Have their attitudes towards me changed?"

"Tails thinks you're all right, but 'Rena's still nervous."

"Well then, it is time for my part. Include me in every way possible. Once the young hedgehog accepts me, S--Son--her brother will be left without a leg to stand on."

"All right!"

"Remember, we must be done by the time Slasher returns."

"Oh, don't worry. Another few days is all it'll take, I swear."* * *

And Spike was right. Serena had nearly forgotten her fear of Metal Sonic after they played a few games together. Tails, already convinced, helped her make up her mind.

Spike was elated, and Mecha was pleased. The next step was to turn her and Tails completely against Sonic, hopefully before Slasher returned and stopped them.

But this was easier said than done. Serena loved her brother, and the things Spike told her about him disturbed her. She couldn't quite swallow it. Slasher was her confidante as well, and with the raptor gone it was difficult. No one to ask advice of. So Serena decided to play along, just to see what would happen.

It was only because of this that Mecha's move was premature. If not for her, his plan would have succeeded.

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Chapter 8

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"Spike, it is time for me to go to Robotropolis."

Spike shifted his weight from foot to foot, uncomfortable. "But I thought you had to stay here a month. You've still got another week and a half."

"Ah, my friend, that is where you are in error. I spent three weeks in your construction bay. So really, I have been with you more than long enough." Count on Mecha to find a loophole.

"But why do you have to go, anyway? We need to have a mission set up or something."

"But isn't the requirement for a new recruit to get into Robotropolis and get out alive?"

"Well ... " Spike didn't know. He wasn't a Freedom Fighter. "Well, okay. How're you gonna get out of Knothole without being spotted?"

"Simple. I will request an automatic shut-down tonight. Rotor will comply, I am sure. I will power up at midnight tonight and walk out. Would you care to accompany me?"

"Sure, why not. Sounds like fun."* * *

The two walked out of Spike's hut. After a moment, Serena, crouched behind the hut under a window, slumped against the wall and sighed. She had just known Mecha would scan the area and see her ... So, Mecha and Spike were going to sneak out tonight? She would just tell somebody ...

She hesitated. Tattle on Spike? After all, he was Such a nice guy. Even let her drive his hoverbike. He had showed her Metal Sonic was safe. And what had Mecha said that was so wrong? He was just wanting to prove himself. But at midnight? It just didn't seem legit, somehow ...* * *

Sonic watched Mecha and Spike walk off together. Those two spelled trouble, sure enough.

After a moment, Serena wandered into the open, looking extremely thoughtful. She only grunted when he said hi to her. Sonic watched her drift past. Look at her. Bad company had driven her completely out of her mind. That Spike. One day soon Sonic would catch him alone, and then ... payback time! Sonic slapped one fist against his palm. Soon, and very soon ...* * *

The day passed slowly. Serena was struggling, afraid to tell what she knew, and afraid not to. She avoided everybody, Sonic most of all. Sonic noticed this with a pang, assuming Spike had turned her completely against him. "Aw Slasher," he murmured, "you need to come home early. I'm losin', here."* * *

Darkness came. The Freedom Fighters retired for the night. Serena only sat on the edge of her bed, staring out the window. She had told no one and had almost convinced herself it was no big deal, but she had a gut-level feeling it wasn't right. "Tell Sonic," she thought. Then, "No, no, it's no big deal. He'd only worry. Tell Sonic. No! Tell Sonic. Tell somebody!"

She collapsed on to her bed and closed her eyes. She wanted to scream. "Why did I listen to Spike in the first place?" she wondered. Slowly the answer came to her. Although she liked Spike and Mecha, she didn't trust them. Trust was the problem. She trusted her brother with her life, and yet, she had all but betrayed him. Why? Because she thought Spike was fun to be around? The arguments she had been consoling herself with began to leak. If her loyalties were so divided, what kind of Freedom Fighter was she? A turncoat. A Benedict Arnold. A shame to the others. After all, Spike wasn't even a Freedom Fighter, and why? Because he couldn't be trusted.

Serena sat up and brushed her hair out of her eyes. She had a decision to make, and it needed to be made before midnight.* * *

Sonic couldn't seem to fall asleep. He turned one way, then the other, then lay on his back, but he couldn't get comfortable. At last he sat up and cupped his chin in his hands. He felt alone, abandoned. Nearly all his friends had given him the cold shoulder, and his one true friend was absent. Even his sister disliked and ignored him. He sighed, lay down and shut his eyes.

He dreamed. Spike stood before him in a dark place, looking more forlorn and frightened than Sonic had ever seen him. The porcupine looked to the left and right, as if afraid of attack. Then he turned to Sonic and held out his hands. "Sonic!" he cried, his voice echoey in the dream. "You're the only one left! Help me ... " Metal Sonic appeared behind him, his red eyes like floodlights in the darkness. He slashed at Spike with one hand and sent him reeling out of Sonic's view. Then the robot turned to Sonic and hissed, "We meet again, Sssonic. And this time I will kill you!"

Sonic turned to run, but he could only move in slow motion. He felt Mecha's cold hand on his shoulder, stopping him, spinning him around. "Sonic!" the robot said. Sonic struggled, trying to get away. "Let go! Lemme go!" he cried. The robot shook him, his eyes like red fire. "Sonic!" he said again. "Sonic!" The robot's voice changed, becoming higher, less sinister. The evil metal face changed, morphing into another ...

Sonic gasped and sat up, his heart thundering against his ribs. Serena was standing beside his bed, one hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked him. "You were dreaming." He nodded, unable to speak. The room was there, his bed was there; he was really awake. It had only been a dream. He looked at his sister for the first time. She was fully dressed and looked scared.

"What time is it?" he asked her. She glanced at her watch. "Ten 'til twelve."

"It's kinda late. What are you doin' here?"

She reached out and grabbed his hand. "Oh Sonic, I'm so sorry! I've been such a jerk to you--I saw what Spike was doing, but I ignored it. Can you forgive me, Sonie?

He nodded. "Yeah--but only if you don't call me Sonie." He yawned. "Thanks, but couldn't this have waited until morning?"

Serena shook her head and swallowed. "No, there's something else. Mecha and Spike are going to Robotropolis at midnight."

Sonic straightened. "Say what? How do you know?"

"I eavesdropped on them this morning. Mecha convinced Spike it was all right."

Sonic grabbed his watch off his nightstand. "It's twelve-oh-five. We'd better jam." He leaped out of his hammock, sat down and began to strap on his shoes. "Run to Rotor's workshop and get the remote control Knux made. We're gonna need it to stop Mecha. Wake up Sally--tell her her stupid robot turned on us." Serena fled. A moment later, Sonic did, too.

He pelted toward the trail leading out of the village. He felt the rage in his heart toward Spike begin to wither and fade. Metal Sonic had no friends, wanted none. Would he turn Spike over to Robotnik? Or simply kill him?

As he skidded onto the dark path, he realized another problem. Mecha knew Knothole's location. If he got away, he would tell Robotnik where the Freedom Fighters were located, and boom! Last winter all over again, although he doubted Slasher would be able to save them a second time.

The woods were pitch dark with no moon, and Sonic had to follow the trail by memory alone. So it was almost inevitable he hit something and stumbled. But it didn't feel like a rock or tree root. It was soft and yielding. He stood up, feeling around, wondering and fearful. His outstretched hands touched it--a body. Long, stiff quills. Spike. Was he dead? Had Mecha killed him? Sonic could barely make out his shape in the darkness. He seemed to be lying on his side. Sonic pulled him over onto his back, shaking him. "Spike! Spike, speak to me!" The porcupine groaned loudly in reply. He was nearly unconscious. Sonic remembered his dream; still so recent and almost real, it was easy to believe in the dark, eerie setting of the forest. Mecha had hit him on the right side of his face. A touch revealed the sticky blood there. Had the dream been more than a dream ...?

Spike shivered and opened his eyes. "Sonic?" he ventured. "What happened?"

"I think Mecha ditched you."

"Yeah ... he's going to Robotropolis."

"Spike, if he gets there the jig is up. The Freedom Fighters will be exterminated. You hear me, Spike? They'll kill us all!"

Spike sat up, gingerly touched his painful cheek, then climbed to his feet. "That dirty no-good liar. I should have figured--he's named after you."

The cut was so harsh and unexpected that at first Sonic couldn't think of how to react. He felt his cheeks burn, and shoved Spike back a step. "Knock it off. We're gonna hafta work together if we're gonna stop Mecha."

Spike's hateful sneer went unnoticed in the darkness, but he said, "We're gonna need my hoverbike. We can fix up my cut later." He turned and began to run back toward the village. After a moment of hesitation, Sonic followed.

In the village, lights were on, people stirring. Serena and Sally were talking furiously as Sonic and Spike ran up. Sonic glanced at Spike in the increased light and saw he had three deep cuts down the side of his face--Mecha had slapped him, all right. Dark blood dripped from them as Spike said, "Sally, Mecha is going to the city. I need my bike." He brushed past the squirrel without waiting for a reply. She looked after him, then turned to Sonic. "Sonic, I should have listened to you--" He cut her off. "We'll need the remote control. Did you find it, 'Rena?" She shook her head. He turned away. "Where's Knux?" Sally pointed across the clearing to where Knuckles was standing, bewildered. Sonic hurried up to him.

"What's the matter?"

"Mecha jetted. We need his remote."

Knuckles paled. "Uh-oh. That robot! The remote's in here." He stepped into his hut, then backed out and handed Sonic a black box covered with buttons. He took it as Spike tore up astride his hoverbike. "Get on," he said shortly. Sonic swung up behind him, adrenaline making his body feel charged and feather-light. To his surprise, Knuckles jumped on behind him. "Might as well come," he said in Sonic's ear.

The next instant Spike gunned the engines and took off across Knothole. Sonic waved to the others as they passed them, then focused his attention on the road ahead.

They entered the woods and began flying. The darkness was almost solid, so Spike flicked on the headlight. "Turn it off!" Sonic said. "Mecha'll see it!"

"No!" Spike called back. "If I turn it off we'll wreck, and besides, he'll hear us long before he sees us." Sonic glanced back at Knuckles and didn't answer.

After a moment, Spike slowed down and hung a hard right into the trees. "Shortcut," he said. "Hang on!" The two behind him held on the best they could as the bike wove through the trees and brush. Spike kept the petal to the floor. His jaw was thrust forward, his teeth clenched. He was going to hunt down Metal Sonic and show no mercy--not while he bore the three marks on his face. What really stung, though, was the fact that he had been Metal Sonic's stooge--just another means of escaping. Mecha would pay for this outrage.

The trees thinned abruptly, and the dark, starlit plain spread out before them. Spike clicked off the headlight and said, "You guys see him?" Sonic and Knuckles leaned off opposite sides, scanning the darkness. Suddenly Knuckles pointed. "There he is! See the light in his afterburner?" Sure enough, a yellow light, like a steady firefly, was skimming across the meadow. Spike threw the bike into gear and took off again, nearly throwing his passengers off backward.

After a few minutes, Sonic yelped, "This darn bike can't match Mecha's speed!" "Well, what do you suggest?" Spike snapped, unhappy as Sonic was but welcoming the chance to be rude. Sonic didn't answer. Instead, he slid off the bike, grabbed the back end and began to push. "Way to go, Sonic!" Knuckles said, looking back at him.

Sonic's feet began to spin, driving the craft to speeds it could never reach by itself. Spike gripped the steering wheel, concentrating on the nearly invisible robot ahead. "Knux!" Sonic chirped. "Take the remote!" Knuckles twisted around, his dreadlocks blowing over his face, and grabbed the remote control. One hand was around Spike's waist, so he flipped the power switch with his teeth. "This thing has a range of fifty feet!" the echidna called to his companions. "We gotta get closer!"

Spike turned his head and yelled over the wind, "Sonic, faster! There's only a couple miles left 'til we hit the city!" Indeed, the lights of Robotropolis illuminated the sky ahead. Sonic put his head down and pushed, wishing he had thought to don his emerald belt before leaving. But he could haul even without it. After all, he had been named 'Sonic' long before he had earned the emeralds.

They were gaining on the robot. Not even Mecha's high-powered engines could compare with Sonic's great speed. Metal Sonic looked back at them, his glowing red eyes becoming visible for an instant. They looked like the eyes of a demon in the darkness.

Knuckles pressed a button on the remote. Mecha automatically slowed, his quietly humming engines rising to a whine. The robot struggled, his mechanical body obeying the remote against his will. Sonic slowed down as well, but not enough. The hoverbike shot past the robot and swung around. Metal Sonic watched them, the red half-circle pupils in his eyes burning brightly, illuminating his face.

Knux pressed another button, trying to disable the robot, shut him down. Mecha fought the command, slowing to a halt as he did so. Sonic dragged the bike down to a crawl, ready to take off again at a moment's notice. The hunters circled the hunted and the robot turned with them, his eyes gleaming brighter and brighter as his fury increased. Knuckles had the remote in both hands now, playing it like a video game. Mecha jerked and moved like a mechanical toy, trying to block the transmission and failing.

One of the machines had to win. Sparks appeared behind the glass in Metal Sonic's eyes, just as they had when Sonic had blown his whistle back in guardpost five. Malfunctioning hardware. Mecha was burning from the inside out. The robot turned away, suddenly clutching at his head. He made a sound--a mechanical wail, like a flat-line heart monitor. It rose to a furious scream as he tried to take possession of the remote's control, block it, reverse it. The three on the bike flinched at the noise.

And then the remote in Knux's hands sparked and started to smoke; Mecha had won. As Knuckles dropped the burning controls on the ground, Metal Sonic stood erect, the battle over. But he hadn't yet regained control. As he powered up, they heard him say uncontrollably, "Damage report: Memory lost. Saved data destroyed. All base memory failed." Then the robot uttered and oath and sprang forward.

_______________________________________________________________________

Epilogue

_______________________________________________________________________

"And then what happened?" Slasher asked with interest.

It was the morning after the incident, and the big raptor had arrived back early. She was sprawled on a couch in the community hut, the other Freedom Fighters in various positions of comfort around the room. Sonic, Spike and Knuckles were seated on the fireplace hearth, taking turns telling the story.

Spike looked at Sonic. "Then he came flyin' at us, out for blood! I put the pedal to the metal and--"

"Nuh-uh," Sonic disagreed. "I shoved us out of the way."

"Well, whatever happened," Knuckles interrupted, "Mecha kept right on going; although I noticed he managed to step on the remote in passing. He went straight into the city. Didn't look back once."

"Which was good for us," Spike added, "because my bike died on the spot. I'll bet he did it, somehow."

"I had to push us all the way back to Knothole," Sonic chimed in.

Sally, in an armchair across the room, spoke up. "You should have seen them, Slasher. Spike had blood just everywhere, Knux had had his hands burned by the remote, and Sonic was about to drop from pushing the bike so far. What a sight."

Spike touched the tape on the side of his face and grinned, and Knux looked down at his bandaged hands ruefully. Sonic only shrugged. "Hey, we took out his memory, and that's what counts. Now he can't tell our location."

Serena, sitting against Slasher's warm side, said, "But he's back in circulation again. That'll mean trouble in the long run." The group looked at her and slowly nodded their agreement. It was a new threat.

After a moment, Sally stood up and crossed the room to where Sonic sat. "Sonic, I have and apology to make. I didn't believe you when you said Mecha was bad, although I should have. We never should have brought him back. You were right all along. I'm sorry." Sonic looked up at her. "It's okay, Sal. I guess it really didn't hurt anything." He glanced at Spike, who looked away. Knuckles, who was sitting on Sonic's other side, tapped him on the shoulder. "I need to apologize, too," he said when Sonic turned. "I didn't believe you, either. Sorry, pal." Sonic told him it was okay, too. Then Rotor came forward, and Serena, and the others.

The only one who didn't was Spike. He sat stone-faced, staring at the floor. He wasn't about to confess to lying to everyone about everything. He was too proud, and deep down, he despised Sonic with a passion. He sideyed the hedgehog, sitting a few feet away, surrounded by his chattering friends. Indeed, even if they were on speaking terms now, they would come to blows later. Spike was sure of it.

Slasher noticed his expression and read it correctly. Spike bore a grudge against Sonic. "I'd better be around when they take it out on each other," she thought. "Otherwise they might kill each other."

Perhaps Spike would prove himself in the days to come. Only time would tell. But for now, the story is ended.
THE END