Metal was waiting at an abandoned power plant, he was doing a mission for G.U.N. as a favor for Shadow. As he waited he thought back to how quickly things had changed.
The Commander of the Guardian Units of Nations had been more than happy to grant a pardon for the near unlimited access Metal had granted them into Eggman's network. He understood it was far better to have the robot as an ally than an enemy and did not try to hinder his potential turn to the heroes side, a hard taught lesson from his prior mistakes.
Sonic's friends on the other hand had been less keen on his desertion at first, but after an altercation where he had used his body to shield Cream from a stray attack from one of Eggman's giant robots and freed the rabbit's mother from said robot, most of their opinion turned around surprisingly quick. As he earned more of their trust Metal began to understand what Sonic had told him about friendship and he was starting to agree with some of his points. It felt good to have people he could trust and rely on.
Not all of them were completely convinced yet, far from it, but that was okay, Metal had already far exceeded his initial estimations.
His new life had been so different from what he knew and he had stumbled a lot at first, but Sonic had helped out, teaching him the ropes as he put it. He was still living with the hedgehog, he got the feeling Sonic did not want that to change, he did not know why and when he inquired about it the hedgehog had gotten really flustered.
He and Gamma had clashed when they first met, Gamma attacked him not knowing he had defected, but fortunately Shadow cleared it up before it got out of hand.
Amy was out for his head though, for a reason inexplicable to him. There had been several instances where she had thrown herself at him calling out Sonic's name only to be mad he was not his organic counterpart. He had pointed out that if she could mistake a robot for Sonic that she might need glasses or similar ocular assistance as her eyesight was clearly compromised. Her response to his advice had been to chase him with her hammer, strange one that pink hedgehog. Sonic had been no help as he had fallen over laughing when he explained the situation and asked for clarification. Clearly there was some social norm he had broken, perhaps Rogue would be courteous enough to explain what he had done wrong?
Another strong detractor had been Tails, the mechanic fox was dubious due to his strong knowledge of mechanics and robotics.
The two of them had been forced to set their differences aside and worked together when an entity from space froze everyone on earth in time-stasis.
Only Metal and Tails had avoided this due to Metal's black shield which he covered the both of them with in the nick of time, he would have gone for anyone else if it had been possible, but the fox was the only one within range. They had set out on a long dangerous adventure to free everyone, but by the end the two had gotten a much better understanding of each other and become decently good friends.
As everyone was thawing out from stasis the fox had kindly offered to become his mechanic and fix him up if anything happened, which had confused many, as to them no time had passed and the two of them had gone from distrusting to becoming buddies in the blink of an eye.
Metal felt good when he remembered that memory, it was a memory that proved how much things had changed, how he had changed.
Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Team Chaotix (long story), Rogue and Cream and her mother Vanilla. He had made quite a lot of friends in a short time, but even then he felt he had a long way to go.
As Metal waited further, he started to wonder if they had been found out.
Just then a strong wind kick up as a giant flying mechanical mech descended from above, it's many snake-like heads bobbed almost comically when landing.
"ohohoho, seem like my rebelling creation is all on his lonesome, how convenient" Eggman announced his presence from his mecha's sound-speakers.
Metal mentally smirked as he got into his fighting stance, the trap had been sprung.
The power plant roared to life and across Eggman's machine sparks of electricity danced from the amount of power it absorbed from the generators.
"Time to rip you apart. I am going to enjoy examining you wreckage" two robots dropped from openings in the bottom of the floating machine.
They looked like copies of Metal Sonic, robot hedgehogs, but their bodies were monotone metal colored.
One of them dashed forward, but was hit by a black ball that unfurled into Shadow.
"What?! where did you come from?" Eggman exclaimed surprised
"We knew that order I received was fake, so we used it to lure you out" he replied coolly.
To Metal's surprise Shadow lifted his fist into the air "Chaos Recall!" four portals of black energy appeared around the hedgehog.
"Target locked! Eggman in sight, initializing extermination protocol" Gamma emerged from one of the portals and it disappeared behind him
"Hey, you are okay Metal?" Sonic stepped out of a portal "I am fine" He replied
Knuckles jumped out of a portal with a roar "Finally I get to crack you open for messing with Angel Island" Knuckles punched into his palm.
Several kunai flew out the last portal and downed Eggman's other robot before Espio leapt out "fear not, assistance is available"
"don't think you secured victory just yet" Eggman said annoyed, several more robots dropped from his mech "With the amount of power causing through Egg-Hydra I can produce an endless stream of deadly robots"
"Knuckles, Gamma, destroy those generators, we will keep Egghead busy" Sonic yelled as he dashed toward the growing robot horde, zipping in between them and causing them to hit each other.
"I was not aware you had reinforcements ready. How did you bring them all here?" Metal asked Shadow as he threw bot after bot into the electric field around the Egg-Hydra causing them to explode.
"I could only send out the signal, they had to respond on their end to come" Shadow answered as he kicked a robot into a charging group knocking them down like pins.
Eggman watched the heroes struggle against his endless army "why was I ever worried? I got numbers on my side" a huge rumble occurred "urgh!?" Eggman caught himself from falling off his chair "wha- power is decreasing?" He looked over and saw two of the generators collapse, he hastily pressed a series of buttons "Divert all power to weaponry"
Espio and Metal jumped out of the way as archs of lightning shot from the Egg-Hydra. "well if you have to do something right, you got to do it yourself" Eggman said over the speakers as his mecha started unleashing it's arsenal on the heroes.
"Woah, he is certainly not holding back" Sonic said as he jumped over a rocket and tumbled to dodge a hail of bullets "his aim is still atrocious though" the hero commented as he leapt away from the bite of one of the many snake heads.
A huge explosion signaled the destruction of the remaining generators and the Egg-Hydra's shield faded out of existence. "No matter, I do not need a shield do beat you"
"Espio, we need a diversion" Shadow called out.
The ninja chameleon complied and went through a couple handsigns before slamming his palm into the ground which created a large cloud of smoke obscuring the area.
"just what are you rodents up to?" Eggman said to himself as he could no longer see his adversaries.
Three golden forms rocketed into the air from the smokescreen. The doctor tried desperately to shoot them down with his ranged arsenal, but without success. When they reached the top of their height Sonic and Shadow in their super state uncurled from their ball form, pivoted around and delivered a powerful kick to Metal who was still in his ball form. Metal descended like a golden meteor toward Eggman's machine, far too fast for the doctor to avoid. He blew through the armor, ripped all the away through it's machinery and skidded as he landed on the other side.
"This, this can't be..." Eggman muttered shocked before he recovered and janked a lever down. The top of Egg-Hydra shot out an escape pod containing the doctor before it exploded.
"Eggman escaped again" Gamma said mechanically, but his frustration was clear.
"dang it!" Knuckles yelled equally frustrated.
"He is losing more and more ground, it is only a matter of time before he can't run anymore" Shadow calmed them down.
G.U.N. had been busy raiding Eggman's hidden bases, soon he would have nowhere to hide.
Shadow turned to the chameleon "I will make sure G.U.N. compensate you for your help" The ninja nodded thankful.
Espio was glad for the income, while the pay from G.U.N. was not the highest, they at least actually paid unlike most of Chaotix's clientele.
"you okay?" Sonic asked his robot counterpart.
"I am fine, the damage is superficial" Metal assured Sonic "I know. You just felt a little absent, something bothering you?"
Metal shook his head "why did any of you come? Me and Shadow could have handled it on our own"
Sonic smiled and put his hand on his shoulder "because that's what friends do" Everyone gathered around Metal "we wouldn't let Egghead scrap you if we could do something about it"
Metal Sonic looked up at the sky "thank you" he addressed them all. It had hung loosely inside his mind, but it finally sunk in, he was no longer alone.
"Man that move we pulled was awesome, I think we should call it something like "shooting star attack"" Shadow looked dully at Sonic "humph, you are going to name every attack you make? What are you, a cartoon character?" he sarcastically asked which made Sonic chuckle embarrassed while scratching the back of his head.
"strange coming from one who calls out the name for every of his chaos techniques when he uses them" Metal countered which made Shadow stare wide-eyed at him for the unexpected rebuff.
"Welp, he's kinda got you there Shadow" Sonic smiled at Metal's comeback.
"humph" Shadow crossed his arms seemingly annoyed, but he had a small smirk on his face.
-timeskip-
"Maan I am pooped" Sonic collapsed into his bed. Usually aliens had the good manners not to attack until the day after an Eggman attack.
"So, errr, you coming?" he asked as Metal just stood and observed him.
"if you insist" Metal crawled into bed with the hedgehog. Sonic had had a string of nightmares since his captivity and to help him Metal had slept together with him as suggested by Vanilla. After the nightmares were gone Sonic asked if he still could sleep with him, as he felt he slept much better that way. Metal did not mind, he also felt rest came easier beside his organic counterpart, so it became a permanent arrangement.
Though he was asked by Sonic to keep it between them, apparently he found it embarrassing which Metal did not understand. Surely anything to optimize one's well-being as long as it was consensual for all parties involved could not be viewed as embarrassing, then again Sonic was quite squeamish when it came to anything medical, one needle and he was over the hills before you could say "it will only sting for a moment".
Sonic crawled up beside him to enjoy the heat he radiated.
"I got into an argument with Amy today" Metal told Sonic
"mhm?"
"She accused me of "stealing her boyfriend""
Sonic choked a little upon hearing that "oh did she? How did you reply?"
"I said I was not aware that you were a pair and that if you were, that if you had come to prefer a robot over her, she should take a long hard look at herself"
"you didn't" Sonic said aghast
"I know she is your friend, but her attitude is not acceptable. You need to make it clear you do not see her that way." the hedgehog slouched together.
"yeah" he sighed heavily "I think I might have put it off for a bit too long. Never really had the courage to go through with it and break her heart." Sonic admitted
"then I shall assist you" it needed to be done and he would drag Sonic by the feet if he had to.
"thanks, you are yawn the best" Sonic dozed off.
Metal looked out the window at the night sky. The stars were very clear that night.
So much had changed in such a short amount of time. Metal glanced at Sonic. He had never meant to become a hero, he had only joined with Sonic to pour acid into the wound he had inflicted his creator, but Sonic, his worst enemy, his nemesis had ended up becoming one of his closest friends and supporters.
Ever since he had taken Sonic's offer, most of what he knew had been flipped on it's head. The world while not welcoming him with open arms did not send armies after him whenever he was spotted anymore, which he counted as a vast improvement.
The transition had been dizzying, he really fell into the deep end. This normal life for most people was quite complex and interconnected. He had not been aware of it, but when he abandoned Eggman, he left behind a simple existence. The thing he had to worry about back then was the next mission and Eggman's potential foul mood. It was kinda staggering how many new opportunities had opened to him, but he was learning and adapting.
Metal paused for a moment. His independent intelligence and his ability to adapt. Those were the only two qualities that Metal truly appreciated Eggman for giving him. Unknowingly the doctor had created something more than he had meant to and ever since he had tried to reign him in. He had made him capable of developing and growing and now he was becoming something else than what he was created for.
The robot looked back to Sonic. And it was all because of him, he could just have left him alone, but he instead had reached out, he had helped him at every step of the way and had influenced him to open his eyes and see the world in a new light. If not for him, he would be wandering aimlessly, roaming the world without a purpose, most likely becoming insane and then wasting away to nothing.
Eggman had taught him how to hate, but Sonic had shown him there was more to life than hate. That he could be more than a cold machine mercilessly following orders and become his own person rather than a reflection of a corrupted version of Sonic and his creator's ideals and find peace with himself.
Metal turned over, wrapped his arms around the hedgehog's frame and pulled his organic counterpart closer.
"I forgive you Sonic" He finally gave an answer to the apology Sonic given him back in the ranger's hut "for you saved me too"
