Sonic OVA 2: Shard's Adventure

~Chapter 1: The Computer Chip~

Metal dropped the president and Old Man Owl as he flew from the wreckage of the exploded ship, extremely damaged.

"Metal!" Sonic reacted as both of the rescued ones fell on him.

Metal looked up, seeing some debris falling directly down towards him. He had no time to move, and as the piece made contact with him, he buzzed, speaking in his robot language, as he fell down to the lava below.

"No!" Sonic shouted, jumping down after him.

"Don't do it, Sonic!" Tails yelled, but it was too late since Sonic had already jumped down. "What are you doing? Stop! SONIC!"

Another part of the ship fell in the lava, causing a fountain of lava. When it disappeared, Sonic could see Metal, still alive.

Metal looked up at him weakly.

Sonic shielded his eyes because the heat was hurting them, but looked again, seeing Metal trying to crawl up as sparks jumped from his broken parts.

"Grab a hold of my hand!" Sonic instructed, reaching his hand out so Metal could reach it.

Knuckles jumped down and grabbed Sonic, pulling him back. "Wait, don't do it, Sonic, he'll drag you under with him!" he warned.

Sonic ignored Knuckles, trying to pull away.

Metal continued to climb up towards Sonic, making some whirring high-pitched noises as if speaking. He reached for Sonic's hand. Sonic also reached, until Metal swatted Sonic's hand away.

"Huh?" Sonic reacted.

The lava began to engulf Metal, until a voice spoke in Sonic's head – Metal's voice.

"There is only one Sonic…" Metal stated as he was almost completely under the lava.

"No! Don't!" Sonic cried, still trying to pull away from Knuckles.

"Don't do it, Sonic!" Knuckles hollered.

It was too late. Metal was already under the lava.

"METAL!" Sonic screamed.

…

Seven years later…

The lava was now history. It had subsided, and no trouble had been seen in the Land of the Sky since. All the events that had happened there with Hyper Metal Sonic were mere memories which Sonic had tried to forget.

Knuckles had decided to explore the Land of the Sky, surveying the changes since seven years ago. The lava had indeed gone, which didn't seem much of a surprise to the red echidna, so he decided to leave the scene. Until one thing in particular caught his eye, causing him to look down the ditch again.

Down below was something that looked a little bit like a sculpture. It was holding onto the wall as if to drag itself up. The funny thing was, it was in the exact position Metal was in as the lava engulfed him all that time ago. And it was in the exact same spot. It even looked like a statue of Metal which was a little melted. That was when it hit him.

"What the…!" Knuckles reacted, backing off, but tripping up onto his back. He instantly sat up again, shaking his head. Knuckles stood up, looking down again. He had to get a better look.

Knuckles jumped and glided down to the bottom of the pit, landing beside the remains of Hyper Metal Sonic. It was him alright, only melted down, still maintaining his shape slightly. Knuckles was about to smash it, until hearing the whirs of electricity. The sounds were coming from inside the chest of Metal's remains. This confused the echidna even more. Knuckles scratched his head, debating whether to just leave the situation as if it never happened, destroy Metal's remains or find a way on discovering what was up with Metal. He then made his decision.

The echidna raised his fist, hitting Metal's chest, and out of it fell a computer chip that was still intact. The whirring of the static stopped.

Knuckles picked up the chip, examining it. He didn't know much about this stuff, so needed help from Tails.

…

Sonic was sat outside in the sun, lying on a sunbed as he held his plate of chilli dogs, shoving them one by one down his throat greedily.

Tails was on his motor-board, which was a surf board he had recently created with jet-boosters.

Sonic then saw something flying from the sky towards him. At first he assumed it was a threat, but then he realised that it was only Knuckles.

Knuckles landed by Sonic.

"Hey, Knuckles," Sonic greeted. "Haven't seen you in a while. Where've you been, bud?"

"I was just exploring the possible changes in the Land of the Sky," Knuckles answered. "But that's not why I'm here. I found Metal Sonic's remains there, and inside his chest was this." Knuckles showed Sonic the computer chip. "It's still completely intact."

Sonic looked at the chip, a little surprised. "…I think we need Tails over here," he stated.

Tails was still surfing around quite happily.

"Yo, Tails!" Sonic called.

Tails noticed Sonic calling for him, quickly turning and surfing to the shore. Once there, he jumped off his board and carried it under his arm. "What is it?" he asked.

"Knucklehead found this," Sonic said, handing Metal's chip to Tails.

Tails examined the chip, his eyes widening. "No way! This is a Custom AI ROBOTNIK Chip!" he exclaimed, sounding shocked.

Both Sonic and Knuckles had no idea what he meant. However, Tails continued.

"Robotnik only uses these to power his most advanced mechs! Knuckles, where did you find this?"

"In Hyper Metal Sonic's remains," Knuckles answered.

Tails looked at him, his expression changing. "Wait… You took this from his remains?" he asked, sounding horrified.

"I wasn't sure what it was, or why it was making weird noises," Knuckles excused. "Besides, I don't exactly know what it is."

"It's what contains all the programming and data of Metal," Tails explained. "If Robotnik ever got a hold of this, he would rebuild him! We have to destroy it now!"

"Tails, hang on a sec," Sonic intervened. "I think… I think he deserves a second chance."

"What!" Tails and Knuckles exclaimed in unison.

"Sonic, Metal tried to kill you, remember?" Tails reminded.

"But he saved Old Man Owl and the president," Sonic added. "Those were his last moments. If we brought him back, he'd be on our side, right?"

"It's not worth the risk, Sonic," Tails confirmed.

"Tails, you remember that I had a mind connection with Metal, right?" Sonic began.

"Yeah, so?" Tails remembered.

"Well, I still am connected. We both feel the exact same emotions, and even though most of the time I'm happy, I can still feel Metal's regret. In fact, now's the most time I'm feeling it. He's still alive inside that chip – we can bring him back!" Sonic clarified. "Let's give him a new body, and we need a new power source for him."

Tails sighed, giving in. "If you're so sure, then fine…" he agreed. "I'll get the power gem I found three weeks ago." With that, Tails went to get the power gem.

'Don't worry, Metal. We'll help you. We'll give you another chance.' Sonic said in his mind, hoping that his robotic counterpart had somehow heard him.

~End of Chapter~