Chapter 1: Housebreaking

September 6th, 2316 – 6:10 AM – New Earth City, South Island

The sun just peeked out over the horizon, casting its warm rays on the capital city of Planet Freedom. Windows of tall skyscrapers glistened in the first light of the day, like gigantic mirrors. A cool breeze whistled across the city, rustling leaves in the trees planted alongside the broad avenues. Because the citizens were only just starting to wake up, nary a sound could be heard anywhere. Cars peacefully glided down roads without interruption, since rush hour hadn't started yet.

A squirrel jogger went about his daily run on the sidewalks around the city, while listening to rock music on his portable music player. Unconsciously, he began to sing along with the lyrics as he ran.

However, two blurs rushing past him suddenly cut off his singing. He flew off of his feet and crashed down to the concrete on his back. Dazed, the squirrel shook his head and glanced up to see who knocked him down. However, the two blurs were already speeding around a corner out of sight. All he could see was that one was red, and the other orange-yellow. Sighing, the squirrel heaved himself back up off the ground and resumed his jogging.

If he were moving fast enough, the squirrel would have seen that the two blurs were none other than Knuckles and Tails. They had been traveling for more than twenty-four hours now, in order to deliver an urgent message to the President. It showed. Both of them panted heavily as sweat dripped down across their bodies and soaked their fur wet. They couldn't stop though, even with how long they had been running. Something horrible happened just a day ago that concerned the entire planet, and the President desperately needed to know about it.

At long last, the bridge leading to the President's island emerged into view.

"Almost there..." Tails said, between pants.

"Finally..." Knuckles answered.

It took less than a minute for them to reach the mansion at the center of the island estate, but to them it felt like hours. The guards appeared to have noticed them approaching, because they opened up the front doors as they entered. Standing in the giant entry hall was President Henry Rudot himself, wearing nothing but blue pajamas.

"Tails? Knuckles?" he asked, worriedly. "What's going on? What on Planet Freedom are you doing here at the crack of dawn?"

"Mr. President..." Tails started. "It's horrible! We've got to get you and Sarah far away from here as soon as possible!"

"What is it?" the President asked, moving closer.

"It's Sonic. Robotnik...he's... H-he's..."

Tails couldn't complete the sentence, because it was too terrible for him to speak it out loud. To say it would be for him to admit it was true. Knuckles picked up the slack for him instead.

"Robotnik roboticized Sonic! But it's even worse than that. He took Sonic's life data and used it to program a new model of Metal Sonic."

The President just stood there, speechless. He didn't seem to know how to react to this news. It hit him like a punch in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. He stood paralyzed to the spot for a few moments, before he finally found his voice.

"H-h-how could this happen? This...this is..." he pointed at Tails and Knuckles. "You and Sonic are the backbone of our planet's defenses against Robotnik. How can we ever hope to defeat him if he's got Sonic on his side now?"

"I don't know Mr. President," Knuckles said, sighing. "We'll just have to figure something out. First things first though. I'm betting that Robotnik will send those two here as soon as he can. You and Sarah need to get out of here fast, and find somewhere safe to hide. We can figure out where we'll go from there."

"Y-yes..." the President said, nodding. His knees quaked beneath him, like he was about to fall down from the fear. "I'll tell my men to make ready for our escape, and prepare the emergency bunker. If you excuse me, I'll go get my daughter from her bedroom."

"Let us do it," Tails said. "We can get to her faster. You just head for the warp hole room and we'll meet you there."

"All right," he replied, nodding again. "I trust you, but be quick. We'll leave the door open in the secret passageway to the warp room so you don't have to waste time searching for it."

The President and his personal troop of guards ran for a side door out of the hall. On the way out, one of the guards hit the general alarm. Meanwhile, Knuckles sprinted away and started bounding up the stairs towards the upper floors, where the bedrooms were. He took a quick glance over his shoulder, and saw that Tails was following.

Within a few moments, they reached the proper floor's landing. Knuckles dashed over to a tall pair of wooden doors, and twisted the golden handle. The door was locked. Sighing, he punched straight through the door lock, making a hole in the door where the knob used to be. After that, he pushed the doors open.

Beyond waited a hallway with a red carpet, and off-white walls. Expensive crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, in addition to various elaborate paintings on the walls. A few servants emerged from the doors lining the halls, checking to see what the commotion was. However, Knuckles paid no mind to any of it, as he ran past everything to get to Sarah's room with Tails following right behind.

Finally, he reached the proper door, but it was locked like the last one. Just then, Knuckles heard a glass window shattering on the other side, followed by a loud scream. Knuckles wasted no time, as he punched the door in, causing it to smash against the wall next to the doorway. Inside the room, Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs as she lay in her bed, trying to shrink back against the backboard as much as possible away from a broken window nearby. Her cat tail, visible from under the covers, had fluffed up to a huge size. Glass shards covered the floor, as the window's curtains fluttered in the breeze coming into the room.

"Aaaaah! Get away! Get awaaaaaay!" the girl shrieked, staring hard at something in front of her bed.

A robotic hedgehog hovered silently in the middle of the smashed window. The blue machine looked to be about one and a half times bigger than the original Metal Sonic, which allowed more room for a larger jet engine in its back. Several long spikes extended from the head. White streaks ran down each spike, in addition to the armor covering his arms and legs. The metallic armor sparkled in the morning light outside like it was made of diamond.

Claws extended out of both the hands as well as the feet, and each one of them looked to be at least a foot long. A black cape ruffled around behind the robot as he descended to the floor, extending out from black shoulder pads covering the upper arms. The eyes glowed an eerie red, like hot coals. Overall, the machine looked even more evil than the first Metal Sonic had been.

In an instant, Metal Sonic extended his claws and twisted his arm back, preparing to lunge at the human-cat hybrid on the bed. Knuckles wasted no time, as he zipped towards the bed and pulled the screaming Sarah out of the line of fire. He did it not a moment too soon, as Metal's attack tore a deep gash in the pillows, plush animals, and bedding, sending stuffing and feathers flying all around the room like a snowstorm.

Knuckles didn't stop to look, as he charged out of the room holding the screaming Sarah in his arms. Sarah took one look at what the robot's claws did to her bed, and fainted right there. Sighing, the echidna shoved the girl into Tails' arms.

"Tails! Get Sarah out of here!" he shouted. "I'll keep Metal busy!"

Tails hesitated for a moment. He looked to be unsure of leaving Knuckles alone to fight the robot. But then, he nodded and zipped back down the hall. Knuckles turned to face Metal, even though he knew this was probably a stupid idea. He still hadn't had a chance to recover from the injuries he'd received in their last fight together, and Robotnik seemed to have taken the time to repair his robot. Regardless, Knuckles went into a fighting stance and challenged the robot.

"All right...let's do this you metal pincushion!"

Metal's eyes flashed red, and then he "teleported" over to Knuckles. Just like in the last fight, Metal moved so fast that it was like he was warping rather than running from location to location. This time though, Knuckles knew that move was coming. He learned from the last fight that he had to attack even before Metal started moving, if he hoped to hit him. Knuckles threw a punch just as the robot teleported in next to him, and landed a hit on the head.

Metal Sonic's head bounced backwards to about a 45-degree angle, but then it snapped back into place. The robot responded by kicking Knuckles in the chest, sending him flying backwards across the corridor and into a mirror on the opposite wall. The glass shattered into a million pieces, and Knuckles winced in pain as the flying shards made many small cuts across his body. Not to mention, some old wounds he'd gotten in the last fight reopened, spilling blood across his fur. Grunting, the echidna dragged himself away from the mirror, trying to ignore the pain. He knew that focusing on it would mean his end.

Metal started to rev up his jet engine, which set fire to the carpet behind him as the flame came out. Knuckles widened his eyes, and jumped to the side. He was a tad too slow though, as one of Metal's spines clipped him while the robot blazed past. Metal smashed through the broken mirror's frame and the wall beyond.

Knuckles dragged himself up off the floor, holding one arm to the deep cut in his arm to hold the blood in. He stared in through the new hole in the wall, trying to see if he could spot Metal. Water splashed out of a broken pipe, wetting down the tiled floor Metal stood on in the next room. Judging by the ceramic fragments littering the floor, he'd just destroyed a sink after going through the wall.

In a second, Metal Sonic teleported back into the hallway. However, this time Knuckles was ready, as he jumped up into the air. He did a back flip in mid air, and felt his feet press against the high ceiling for a moment. Using the ceiling as leverage, he pushed off as hard as he could, heading straight for Metal like a missile. Knuckles brought up both of his fists to absorb the collision, and they crunched into the robot with the force of cannonballs. Metal smashed straight through the floor...and then the next floor...and the floor after that.

Grinning at his trick, Knuckles hovered above the new opening in the floor, before he started to let himself drop down through it to continue the fight. He made sure not to get too overconfident though. While Knuckles had gotten a lucky hit, Metal could take ridiculous amounts of punishment due to his hard metal body. This was only the start of the fight..

Tails ran for his life, holding the unconscious Sarah in his arms. The fox knew that Knuckles was in no shape to take on Metal by himself, but they had to keep Sarah safe in any case. At long last, he reached the echoing entry hallway. To save time, Tails jumped off of the landing and twisted his tails, going into a hover. He gently floated down to the floor, avoiding having to use the stairs entirely.

As soon as he was on the floor though, Tails took off running towards another flight leading towards the basement. The Presidential Mansion had a warp hole in a cavern underneath the building, which served as an emergency escape route. A false wall inside a pantry in the mansion's kitchen hid the corridor leading there.

The fox ran down another hallway, just as elaborately decorated as the bedroom corridor, and reached the end very quickly. After bursting through a door, he found himself standing in the mansion's kitchen. While this place would normally be teeming with cooks, preparing breakfast for the residents, they had already evacuated without stopping to clean up. The chefs left behind food in the middle of preparation in pots and skillets, while other things like a barrel of flour had been knocked over as people hurried to leave.

Tails made it several steps across the room, before the wall to his left imploded inwards. Pots and pans hanging from the wall flew all over the place in addition to the chunks of the marble wall. Tails ducked behind a metal counter to dodge the flying debris, and then he risked a glance upwards. Immediately, he wished he hadn't looked.

Another hedgehog robot stood in the new hole, with similar size and design to the first Metal Sonic. Longer spines covered the back, and the robotic eyes glowed green instead of red. Despite the smaller size and simpler design versus Metal Sonic 2.0, Tails found himself infinitely more afraid of this robot. Until one day ago, this machine was Tails' adopted brother Sonic. Technically it still was, but Tails just couldn't see his brother anywhere in that cold metal body and those soulless robotic eyes.

Tails choked up for a moment, before he took off running for the pantries. If he could just get there before Sonic caught up... Unfortunately though, Tails was far too slow. Sonic instantly warped in front of the door leading to the pantries, blocking the escape route. Tails felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

The fox quickly did a brainstorm, trying to think of something he could do to hold Sonic off long enough to get to escape. The only thing in reach right now though was a bag of flour. It would have to do, because there wasn't time to grab anything else. After putting down Sarah gently, Tails grabbed the bag, and hurled it as hard as he could across the room.

Sonic did a vertical cut with one of his claws before the bag hit him, slicing it in half. While it failed to knock him down, it did cover his entire front side in a coat of white powder. That included his eyes. Sonic took a moment to wipe the flour from there. Tails saw his chance, and picked up Sarah. He resumed his run, and steeled himself to run past Sonic. Unfortunately, Sonic apparently heard him approaching, and started twirling around like a top with his claws fully extended. Tails put on the brakes, just narrowly avoiding getting himself and Sarah chopped to bloody ribbons.

By now the spinning had flung the powder off of Sonic's body, and he could see again. Tails found himself in a tight spot. He couldn't fight Sonic and at the same time hold Sarah to keep her safe. What was he going to do? The metal hedgehog reared back his arm, and seemed to be preparing for an impaling attack.

Before he could strike though, the ceiling collapsed above him, crushing Sonic underneath a pile of debris. Metal Sonic emerged from the ceiling behind the debris, uncurling from his ball shape so that he went into a stand as he landed. Meanwhile, Sonic quickly cut the rocks on top of him to pebbles, with help from his claws. He stood up beside his metallic "brother", both of them blocking the doorway leading to the pantries. Tails backed away, and then broke into a run as he moved to leave the kitchen through the entrance door. Metal Sonic warped away from his position, to stand in front of him. The two hedgehogs now had Tails blocked from both sides.

Before either of them could make a move though, Knuckles jumped down through the hole in the ceiling, grunting as he landed. Blood poured from various cuts all across his body, but they didn't bother him at all. Sonic, who was closer, started to turn around to face Knuckles. However, the echidna was faster, delivering an uppercut into the hedgehog's chin which sent him flying onto a cooking range.

If he were still organic, Sonic would probably be crying in pain over getting burned by the hot stove. Apparently it wasn't so for him in metallic form, as he reacted to the intense heat on his body like the stove was turned off. A few faint burn marks scorched the back of his body, but otherwise there was no damage.

"This just keeps getting better and better..." Knuckles said, seeing that they were now facing off against both metal hedgehogs at the same time.

Tails didn't answer, instead turning to look at Metal Sonic behind him. The robot crossed his arms, and extended both sets of his claws to their full length. Tails steeled himself to dodge whatever attack was headed his way, when suddenly a troop of human guards rushed into the kitchen. All of them brought their laser rifles to bear, and opened fire. As the first blasts flew overhead, Tails ducked down to hide behind a counter with Sarah.

Over the firing, he heard one of the guards yelling, "Get the President's daughter out now! We'll cover you!"

Tails didn't bother to respond, as he picked up the girl and started rushing for the hidden exit. As he ran, the fox risked a glance over his shoulder.

Metal Sonic and Sonic decided to switch to attacking the guards instead, and warped over to engage them. While a few managed to get in some hits with their guns, the lasers appeared to have little effect on the robots' armor suits. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the counterattack against the guards. Metal Sonic claimed his first victim with a horizontal claw slash, taking a guard's head clean off. Sonic went into his spinning attack again, and ripped through several soldiers like a weed eater through blades of grass. The clean floor disappeared in the splatter of blood and organs.

Tails held back a few tears as he heard the pieces collapse to the floor, but he knew he couldn't try to go back to avenge them. If he did, their sacrifice would be a waste. Knuckles reached the door to the pantries first, and pushed it open. Tails chased right after him, pausing for a moment to close the door again and lock it. They ran through a hallway with many doors, each one leading to a pantry filled with a specific type of food. The one they were after was the liquor room.

Loud screeches filled the air, as one of the robots started to slice through the entrance door into the pantry area with his metal claws. It only took a few seconds, as the pieces of the destroyed door fell to the floor, the loud clangs resounding through the hallway. After that, two jet engines could be heard igniting. Tails tensed himself, preparing for the two robots to catch up.

At the same time, Knuckles made it to the door to the liquor room and opened it up. He stood aside to allow Tails to get inside. Beyond the threshold lay a room built with stone, and filled to the brim with large barrels of drink and racks of wine bottles. Once the fox and Sarah were in, Knuckles slammed the door closed and quickly pushed a large barrel in front of it. A second later, Tails thought he might as well have not even bothered, for all the good it did. Sonic and Metal Sonic smashed right through the thinner wooden door, and then straight through the barrel beyond. The alcohol soaked over their entire bodies.

But then Tails realized there was more to Knuckles' plan than met the eye. The jet engines on their backs ignited the alcohol, setting them on fire. While it probably didn't do any damage to the robots, at least it forced them to stop for a moment to put out the flames. Despite their tense situation, Tails couldn't help but grin a bit at the echidna's cleverness. The two robots started to wave their arms across their bodies to get rid of the fire. Meanwhile, Knuckles ran for the back of the room, where the secret passage already lay open behind a large barrel of beer.

Knuckles and Tails quickly darted inside, with Knuckles again pausing for a moment to throw a switch on the other side. A wall of stone slid back in place over the opening, hiding the passageway from view again on the other side. While it certainly wouldn't hold off Metal Sonic or Sonic, at least they'd have to waste some time trying to find where Knuckles and Tails had gone.

They sprinted down yet another corridor, this one made of rough rock walls. Caged light bulbs at intervals provided just barely enough light to see, while they could hear water dripping from the ceiling. This passageway looked to have been dug straight out of the rock underneath the mansion. Regardless, Knuckles and Tails hurried down the corridor as fast as they could. Metal Sonic and Sonic were right behind them, and they could discover the entrance to this hall at any moment.

For the first time though, they had a bit of luck, as the two metal hedgehogs didn't show up again the entire journey down the hallway. They finally arrived at a pair of open heavy steel doors. A warp portal hovered in the middle of a large chamber beyond, the soft light of the glowing gateway bathing the entire chamber in a blue hue. Tails could make out the silhouette of the President standing in front of the portal, along with his personal guards. He came over as he saw Tails and Knuckles approaching.

"I was getting worried!" he said, taking his daughter from Tails into his arms. "It shouldn't have taken you this long to get here!"

"Metal Sonic and Sonic started attacking the palace right after we reached her room," Knuckles said.

The President's eyes widened open. "Dear me! They're here already?"

"There's no time!" Tails said. "We have to get through that warp hole fast, before they catch up again!"

"Right!" the President said. He whirled around and gestured with his hands towards the portal. "Everyone through the warp hole, quickly! And seal off the entrance to the room as well!"

They couldn't shut off the warp hole itself; nobody knew enough yet about the portals to control them at will. However, even with how strong Metal Sonic and Sonic were, it would take them at least a minute or so to get through the hefty steel doors protecting the entrance to the warp room.

The President turned to the warp portal and jumped through it, and the other guards in the room quickly followed him. They quickly disappeared into the blue glow. Tails was about to jump through, when he realized they hadn't closed the door.

"Knuckles!" he shouted, heading for the lever next to the steel doors. "Get out of here! I'll close the door!"

"All right!" the echidna yelled back, running for the portal. "But be fast!"

Knuckles leaped through the hole as well, following the others. As Tails wrapped his hands around the lever to control the doors, he heard jet engines echoing up from the other end of the hall. Metal Sonic and Sonic had finally found the secret passage. The fox slammed the lever down, and the doors began to slide shut. Unfortunately, since they were so large and so heavy, they couldn't close quickly. Tails guessed it would take several seconds for them to shut at this rate. Trouble was, they didn't have several seconds right now. He had to do something to slow down the metal hedgehogs...

Suddenly, a burst of inspiration came to him. He moved to stand between the closing doors, to where his back and tails were facing the corridor. Next, after making sure he had a firm grip on the two doors, he started spinning his tails very rapidly, like a powerful fan. A gust of wind blew back down the passageway. The wind wasn't powerful at first, but it quickly gathered force. The narrow hall worked to increase the speed of the air stream, since the wind had to travel through a small space.

Tails glanced over his shoulder, and saw Metal Sonic and Sonic roar around the corner. His idea didn't seem to be working too well. The wind definitely slowed down the robots, but it looked like they were still going to make it if Tails didn't do something. He put on an extra burst of energy, forcing his tails to twist faster and faster. It was taking a lot of stamina out of him, but he just had to keep them back for only a couple more seconds...

Metal Sonic and Sonic slowed down more. They were starting to look like they were just hovering in midair, rather than moving forward at full force. However, Tails realized that the doors were going to squash him if this kept up.

Tails looked back at the warp hole, and let go of the doors. He shot straight forward to the blue portal thanks to how fast he'd been spinning his tails. At the same time, it kept the two hedgehogs from getting inside the room. Tails was dimly aware of hearing the clank of the doors slamming shut behind him, before the blue of the portal overtook him and he found himself swirling through the warp zone dimension.

Sonic furiously attacked the doors with his claws, but they were extra durable and would take quite a while to get through. At the same time, he was very happy Tails had managed to ensure everyone had escaped safely. It was just too bad he couldn't do anything to control his actions due to the roboticization procedure.

All right Tails! Smart idea using your tails like that! Now let's just hope I don't manage to break through these doors before everyone can get away.

It didn't take long to get through the door, between Metal Sonic and Sonic pounding on it like crazy. Eventually they made a sizeable hole in the metal, and squeezed through it into the warp room. Without so much as a pause, both of them dived into the warp portal. The warp dimension flew by the two of them, before another blue flash deposited them inside another manmade cavern like the first one. However, this cave had five tunnels branching out of the room, which made it impossible to determine where the escapees had gone. Inwardly, Sonic smiled.

All right...they got away. That's a relief. But what's Robotnik going to make us do now?

A voice crackled inside Sonic's head. It was the voice of Robotnik.

"I see that the President, his daughter, Knuckles, and Tails all managed to get away. Oh well…it doesn't matter. This will just slow things down a little bit. After the President sees the full extent of your powers, he'll surely surrender if he's got at least half a brain in his head. Now you two, go and destroy New Earth City! I don't want a single brick to remain standing! We need to make an example of it!"

Oh God no...please don't make me do this. I don't wanna destroy this city!

Regardless of what Sonic thought, he had no say in what his body did. Metal Sonic and Sonic rocketed back through the warp portal, off towards their first victim…