"Did you just speak? Is that a malfunction? I should probably do a ch-"
"We don't have time for that! " Metal says to the confused robotnik before he grabs the control remote on robotnik's waist.
The security controls were overridden in a instant, the entire metropolis going into a critical war like emergency and a lockdown announcement began playing in it.
"This is Dr. Robotnik. I announce that the entire metropolis is going under curfew. All mobians are ordered to hide in their bunkers. "
Using Robotnik's voice to announce a curfew, Metal turned towards his creator who was looking at him with the laser wrench pointed at his face.
"You better explain. I am not fond of riddle my boy, especially not when you caused such a mess."
Finding no use in hiding anything, Metal spilled the beans, "... Sonic has been turned into a monster. I returned here after using V1. "
"V1?!" Roars robotnik before pulling metal close, "You Activated V1!!?"
"Affirmative."
"... I have to check!"
The control was changed, Robotnik instantly took over and connected with the AI of the V1 bunker. He put 1 password after another until he eventually got the AI online.
"Check V1 for me right now! Tell me it's still there! "
"Understood.... Error!! V1 has disappeared. Initiating search."
The AI's words dawned upon Eggman, there was no longer any room of doubt for Metal's words. He turned around, finding metal looking at the security footage and issuing commands to his army one after another.
"Double the security towards the industrial zone, attack anything that looks over 70% similar to the target. Unload everything at sight. ", Metal 's commands screamed urgency and danger.
Each second the clock was ticking in his system, the enemy was getting closer to them. There was no room for hesitation, but there was one thing left to be done.
Metal turned his head, looking at Robotnik before calling in a pair of jetpacks, "You must retreat father. The defenses can't kill him. *hands the jetpack to Robotnik* Head to Angel Island through the mines."
...
...
Robotnik shrugs, throwing the jetpack to the side. He grabs metal by the shoulder, glaring into his eyes and asked, "Did you think someone like me would run away when I have prep time? For god's sake, I don't care who is coming! Even if it's that Lucky blue rat then I won't surrender!! "
Metal looks at the prideful expression on Robotnik's face, there was no convincing to be done on the man in front of him unless he is sure of losing.
Leaving no options for him, Robotnik shot down Metal's warnings as needless banter and carried on his work but Metal wasn't one to back down when Robotnik's life was on stake.
'Initiative hovercart program, locations selected, duration 30 secs.'
With clanking steps of his metal body, Metal moved towards Robotnik who was trying to put down the curfew on Metropolis.
"What are you coming at me for? Even if you activated V1, there is no time bending ability in it. Go and prepare the defenses on the b- WAHH! ", Robotnik was picked up by metal and strapped with the Jetpack with force.
" I am doing this for your own good, father. A early retreat is a tactic not a pathetic escape."
Having said his words, Metal threw Robotnik in a Hovercraft that stopped just behind robotnik. Zooming through the air, the hovercraft vanished deeper into the metropolis's foundations while Metal himself turned back to control panel.
He placed his hand on the panel, "Override permissions, activate all defenses."
The clock ticked, the entire metropolis was dead silent. The turrets and drones covered every single corner of the city. The defenses were ramped up to max, a emergency of war was now placed upon the capital of eggman empire.
Minutes passed, hours passed and before Metal realised it two hours have already passed. Standing atop the tallest place in the city, he looked down at everything, a plan regarding hundreds of possibilities running through his head.
'What are his powers? What are the limits? I need data. Unless I can find a weakness, that monster won't be defeated.' He calculated all the possibilities, from teleportation to chaos control were well with expectations.
"Hmm? "
Suddenly, a message was received by Metal. His target has arrived without a care in the world, hovering towards Metropolis through the skies like it was playground for him.
Meanwhile, unaware of eyes locked onto him from all angles, Sonic?? flew down into the city while humming a tune to himself.
"How should I kill that egg this time? Break his spine like I did in the first resets or throw him into a blender? I still get pleasure from that despair I got fr-"
"The only place you are going to go to, is hell."
"Eh? N-" Before Sonic?? could speak, he was bombarded from all sides, bullets, flames, even tasers and lasers shredded him to bits before he could realise the situation.
However, he reappeared moments later, his hands clutching onto broken turret parts and broken robot limbs while he walked out of the smoke where he got shot.
"Now now now. I didn't expect this. Did that egg get better Deja vu then last time or did I arrive a little late?" Sonic?? Asked and tossed aside the scraps, "Anyway this seems more fun to me."
The next second, Sonic?? rose to the skies, a net of missiles greeting him as soon as he rose, blasting him back to ground in a second.
The ground then imploded into Lighting and poison, a cloud of deadly smoke and static shocking the hell out of his nervous system.
Yet, he seemed more in enjoyment then in pain.
"Ahh. Now this is what I would call a good massage. I feel like taking down the trio would be even more easy this time... Anyway-, "
The ground cracks and a shield appears Sonic??, a red shield that seemed to be made of blood and scrap metal. "Where is that egg? I can't sense him? "
~
Metal saw the monster in Sonic's form tear through the defenses of the city one by one. He noted his behavior, his speed, his strength and even absurd things that were happening.
"A mad psychopath who likes pain regardless of who it is inflicted on. Never would have expected someone I am based on would fall to such levels."
Leaning forward with a disappointed shake of head, metal freefalls down the refinery chimney he was standing on. He ramps up his thrusters, locking his eyes on the beast rampaging with insanity and blasts forward at high speed.
He appears near Sonic?? from within the sea of flames, delivering a brutal knee that sent the imposter into a building. However he wasn't done yet because he followed up behind him, catching up and delivered high speed tackle.
"Urgh! Now that wasn't very nice. " Sonic?? Mutters as he ragdolls away before teleporting behind Metal, "Lemme return the favor, Tin Can. "
Sweeping forward mid-air with a spin kick, Sonic?? Laughed like a maniac but his kick hit nothing but air. He saw as metal bent it's body a full 90 degrees while glaring at him with red eyes.
"Predictable." Was metal said before his claws dug through Sonic??'s chest, the spurt of blood following it tainted his blue armor red while the insanity filled face of Sonic?? was recorded in his eyes. "Who are you?"
"Me? I am a nobody, " Sonic?? Laughs in Metal's face and continues, "but if anything call me exe"
Exe vanishes, blurring away from reality. Even his blood on Metal's fingers vanished, probably returning back to his body.
Nevertheless Metal has already seen this trick from every angle so it wasn't a surprise to him.
He turned, Speaking in curiosity that aroused the new emotions he had just found resurfacing within him, "To think a being could manipulate reality without chaos or Phantom energy existed."
However Exe just laughed and laughed creepily from above. Not saying a word before his figure swooped down all of sudden only to miss metal once more.
"You ain't Sonic... You aren't even half as fast."
"Oh really!? How about this then? "
Like phantoms in misty morning, the two dashed through metropolis while leaving afterimages. They flew through the buildings, chasing after one another, strike after strike, destroying everything around them with no care in the process.
"Still. Too slow."
Metal grabs hold of Exe's neck, swinging him into a factory chimney, demolishing it in the process. He could see it, the reducing recovering speed of Exe and the weakening speed of his movements.
But he wasn't much better, his battery wasn't infinite, even now it was the same since none of the two were in their top shapes.
The chuckling of Exe would have demoralized a person but Metal hadn't experience feared before so it was just a thing he could threw through the window. He activated his jet thrusters at full force, launching himself at Exe and limit breaking speeds.
Crash crack
Using Exe as meat shield, metal barged into the refinery, crashing into the floor together before Exe appeared behind him undamaged and still laughing.
The bloody hands ripped through his core, taking away his battery while he hung lifeless in air, pierced through Exe's arms.
"To think Eggman's puppet could give me such entertainment, to think I was missing such a thrill everytime. ", lifting Metal up to his eyes, Exe smiled confidently at his Trophy in his hands, " Now should I wear this as a helmet or something?"
...
"Whate-"
Just as Exe wanted toss Metal aside, the robotic body came back to life and spun like a spinning top, crushing Exe's hand while Metal's fingers made their way to his neck.
Slowly leaning forward, Metal watched Exe's bleeding neck and spoke, "You lost. "
The next moment the engines in his jets, activated once more. He burst forward, dragging the almost Immortal monster's face through every inch of the floor before slamming them both into the melting chamber and activated with his controls.
The refinery or whatever was left of it started, molten lava and metals falling both Metal Sonic and Exe at once, scorching and cooling at once. Both of then were incased into a block of steel.
However Exe vanished once more, proving Metal Sonic's calculations wrong and left him alone in the metal box.
"What a pity. Did you really think something like could kill me? " Exe said. " Just because I showed restrain and played with you a little, you think you could win?"
The reality bending powers of Exe emerged once more in full force, there was no more fun to acquired here so he just wanted to leave.
However-
"But to think you dragged me though the floor. I would make sure to destroy you even worse in the next reset before I go hunt the rest of this blue rat's friends."
Then as if he never existed, Exe slowly faded into the darkness of the shadows, leaving Metal and metropolis alone as he left to hunt someone else for now.
"Reset. Others. No wonder I came back in time. "
Stuck in steel Cube, Metal Sonic was stuck, powerless and defeated. However each camera and microphone of each robot of eggman empire was his pair of eyes and ears.
One after another, the robots swarmed into the refinery, together they used their weapons to slowly chirp away at the cube before other arrived.
The repair work continues based on metal's command as Metropolis rebuilt itself with just 6 hours. However in these 6 hours, using every satellite at his arsenal, Metal gathered every single bit of knowledge.
He saw Exe's deeds, his path and his destination. He saw and heared the events through the internet before all hell was let loose on everything.
"He really was playing around. To think I called someone moving at twice Sonic's speed, slow. But... You haven't heard the last of me. You will pay for not doing the finishing blow. "
Metal's expression turns ruthless, there was no more chances for other but to him, each of the so called resets was a second chance in disguise.
He was going to turn this game upside down, no matter how much time it took him.