The clouds that had seemed so thin and harmless before had thickened and darkened since the other day. In spite of this, no wind blew. That is, other than the rush of air resistance Metal left in his wake while flying at breakneck speed toward his target. The programming that somewhat linked their minds allowed Metal to easily pinpoint his unsuspecting counterpart's location. He wasn't far off, and the distance between them was closing rapidly.
Only a mile or two away, Mobius's greatest hero was lazily laid back on the thickest branch of a tree at the edge of a forest, eyes closed, arms folded behind his head, expression content. He hadn't gotten much time to himself like this lately, what with every villain and their grandma acting up. Except for one in particular.
'When was the last time Egghead did anything?' he pondered. It wasn't normal for his arch enemy, judging from past experience. He was usually the first one to stir up trouble, and did so the most often. 'He must be planning something big…'
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than his right ear flicked; an involuntary response to unexpected sound. At this, his eyes shot open. Though he couldn't see anything unusual, he could detect a faint sound disturbance in the distance, and it was steadily growing louder.
'Probably just a plane or something…' he let his eyes close again. The sound was still getting louder and the cause, closer. More so than what was normal. It was getting too close for comfort. He cracked one emerald eye open just in time to catch a glimpse of glinting red steel before it hit his face with incredible speed-driven force.
Caught off-guard, he was knocked away and fell back-first onto the ground, skidding a short distance in the grass and soil. His attacker hovered a few inches off the ground nearby, his engine emitting a much fainter sound now. His cobalt-furred target picked himself up to a stand and turned to face him. Despite the bruise starting to form over his eye, he didn't display anger. On the contrary, he grinned.
"Not bad, Metal." The latter was surprised by this.
'How does he know my name? We've never met!' Even so, he made sure not to show his confusion. Not a difficult task, considering he couldn't manipulate his facial features in any way.
"I hope you've gotten better since last time," his look-alike went on casually, brushing a bit of dirt off his left shoulder. "Kicked your ass pretty good that day, didn't I?" Metal was frozen in place. He didn't have any idea what he was talking about, let alone how to respond to it. He'd never seen the hedgehog before, or if he did then he didn't remember. Yet somehow he did look familiar… Maybe because they looked similar? No, it seemed to be more than just that…
Without warning, his opponent dashed toward him to deliver a powerful punch to his stomach. He quickly countered by grabbing the offending arm and using its owner's speed against him. In one fluid motion, Sonic was roughly yanked around in a U-turn and thrown back in the direction he'd come from, straight toward a tree. Instead of slamming into it, however, he caught a branch and swung forward to flip up onto it in a crouching position, sporting a now clearly visible black eye and a smirk that contradicted it.
"You have gotten better."
The instant the compliment passed his lips Sonic used his abnormally powerful legs to launch himself straight into Metal, knocking him onto the unwelcoming earth. He kept him pinned to the ground securely by the shoulders, restricting his movement. Or at least, he thought so. The jet engine on Metal's back fired up and before Sonic knew what happened he was harshly shoved quills-first into the bark of a tree, held in place by the force of his captor's thruster. Metal deeply wished he could've given him the same smirk he'd received only moments ago.
For once, the tables had really turned. The teen found himself being crushed between the tree and his cast-iron adversary. The latter may have gotten just a bit too confident for his own good in that moment. He backed off slowly, again hovering just above the ground, knees bent. Once he was a few feet away he straightened out his legs, landed, and folded his arms, awaiting his prey's next move. So far, killing him didn't seem all that hard. Why had all the other robots made such a big deal about how tough he was? Was this really the same Sonic who'd shamelessly slain so many of his comrades?
Sonic had to put some effort into getting his quills out of the tree bark, but he managed to yank himself free. He copied Metal's exact position, but added that smirk of his. That infuriating, trademark smirk that always seemed to effectively piss off anyone he used it on. He especially loved using it to get a reaction out of Eggman. He was funny when he yelled. Too bad he wasn't there at the time.
As the moment passed, they both noticed the wind had started to pick up, making all the trees in the forest sway. It fit the situation perfectly, portraying the unspoken tension between both fighters. The calm before the storm, so to speak. The furrier of the two took a few small, slow, seemingly harmless steps toward the other before his speed spiked dramatically and he ran right into him, jamming an elbow into his chest hard enough to dent it noticeably. Before Metal had time to react, the former proceeded further by giving him a rather impressive left hook, causing his head to jerk up violently and involuntarily.
He yelled out in mixed fury and pain, but it came out garbled and glitchy for some reason. The sound information was distorted in some way before it got to his speakers. Was the dent in his chest preventing him from coherent speech? He didn't have time to run diagnostics. He stumbled back a few steps before steadying himself again. He tried jetting straight at his quarry once more, but the latter was quick enough to sidestep out of the way. Metal hadn't exactly been built to stop on a dime. Before he could halt and turn around, Sonic used a homing attack from above to send him crashing face-first into the dirt.
The advanced technology Metal had been designed with allowed him to feel great pain. Most notably, he felt the glass covering his screen break and scrape against his muzzle upon making contact with the ground and skidding on it. Now his vision was warped; it kept cutting to static and then back to a warped version of reality in an irregular manner. His chances of winning any fight greatly decreased. Even worse, he heard a crack of thunder not too far off. If the storm came any closer, he'd surely get struck.
Sonic was gone the second he heard the thunder. No sense being anywhere near anything electrical in the middle of a thunderstorm. Instead he left his steel look-alike to fend for himself. The damaged droid's limbs trembled with effort as he struggled to push himself up onto his knees, knowing full well he'd likely sustained irreversible damage even if he did manage to survive. He suddenly felt a small, cold ting on his scratched-up chrome, followed by another, and another. Soon the cold consumed his whole being.
In this state, he was less than waterproof. Movement became impossible. He collapsed to the now mire ground in defeat. It was over. He'd failed. His fate was at the mercy of the rain and lightning. He let himself shut down, and static faded out to black…
