~Chapter 15: The Finale~

3 months later…

Again, Tails was surfing happily. It was a lovely day, so why not? As usual, Sonic was laid on the beach listening to music with his sunglasses on. Shard was on two water-skis, holding onto a handle off the end of a rope. On the other end was Metal, who had been upgraded into Metal Sonic 2.5, looking like a blue and silver version of Shard with a yellow power gem. Metal was flying along at a high speed, pulling Shard along.

Eventually Shard fell off the skis into the water. Metal stopped. Seconds later, though, Shard resurfaced. "That was awesome!" he cheered.

Metal flew down and picked Shard and the skis up, flying back to shore. He untied himself, handing the rope to Shard. "My turn," he stated.

Shard sniggered. "Alright," he agreed, tying the rope around himself and standing in the shallow part of the water. He looked back at Metal, who was getting on the pair of skis and. He nodded to Shard once he was holding onto the end of the rope by the handle. Shard looked ahead of himself taking flight at full speed, pulling Metal along.

Tails had stopped surfing, now drying himself on the shore. He smiled as he watched Shard and Metal, until Metal was soon in the water. Shard pulled him out of the water with the skis, taking him back to the shore. He laughed a little.

"That was fun!" Shard pinioned, still laughing a little.

"I suppose it was," Metal replied, only smiling slightly.

Shard then looked at Metal, rubbing his chin in thought. "You know, I think you could do with a new name," he announced. "Your current name might remind you of your bad life."

"Hmph," Metal responded, folding his arms.

"Well, why don't you pick your own name?" Shard suggested. "I picked mine. Nothing too cheesy or cliché, though - something cool."

Metal just thought. Coming up with names wasn't really his thing, until he came up with something which he liked. "How about Metallix?"

"Metallix?" Shard repeated, sounding confused.

"It's not far from my old name, but it doesn't remind me of it," Metal explained.

Shard smiled. "Okay then, Metallix," he agreed. "And if we ever want to shorten your name, we can just call you Mex."

"Alright," Metallix nodded.

Sonic and Tails then ran over. "Yo, guys," Sonic greeted.

"Hey, Sonic," Shard responded. "I was just helping Metal here get a new name. From now on. He's Metallix, or Mex for short."

"Mex…" Sonic repeated. "Huh. I like it. Suits ya!"

"I suppose it does," Metallix replied. "But I like referring to myself as Metallix."

"All we can do now is hope that ol' Robotnik doesn't build another Metal Sonic," Sonic stated. "Hey, speaking of the old football, I guess we can give him a new name, too! How does Eggman sound?"

Tails laughed a little, as did Shard, while Metallix just smiled. "Suits him," Tails agreed as he laughed.

"Yeah, it does," Shard added, chuckling.

"I think that's going to stick in all of our minds for a while," Metallix stated.

"It sure is," Sonic laughed.

"Or he could be Humpty Dumpty," Shard altered.

Sonic and Tails just laughed, as did Shard. Metallix just snickered a little before returning to a smile.

Shard then bumped Metallix on the shoulder. "Hey, junior, catch me if you can!" he challenged, flying off.

"Oh, I bet I can catch you," Metallix responded, flying after him.

The two others watched them go, before Sonic turned to Tails, winking. "I guess a little run wouldn't hurt me," he said to him with a grin. "But the question is – can you keep up?" He then sped off.

Tails used his two tails to help himself fly, flying after Sonic. "Hey! Get back here!" he yelled, laughing.

With the two robots, Metallix managed to tag Shard on the shoulder.

"Alright, you got me," Shard chuckled as he stopped. Metallix stopped by him. He then saw Sonic and Tails.

"Let's go," Metallix said, hovering down to Sonic and Tails.

Shard also hovered down to them, both the hedgebots landing on the ground. The four just chuckled together, until Shard got a message from the president. It was to be informed to the others.

"Guys, apparently the president wants to award us all," he informed.

"Award us? Cool!" Sonic reacted happily. "Let's go!"

"Last one there is a rotten Eggman~!" Shard announced in a sing-song tone of voice. He flew off.

"Hey, wait for us!" Sonic yelled, running after him.

Shard looked back at him, grinning to himself, before picking up speed to as fast as he could go, which was now a little faster than before due to being repaired.

"Shard!" Sonic, Tails and Metallix shouted.

~The End~