Legal stuff: 1. This story and all characters created by me are copyrighted 5/19/1995 by Ryan Fields, so in other words, DON'T SCREW AROUND WITH THIS STORY! Also, do not use any of my characters in something else with out my permission. 2. Sonic the Hedgehog and other characters in the game/comic/show are copyrighted by SEGA, Archie, and/or DIC. Metal Fox An StH story by Ryan Fields Introduction It had been ten years since the destruction of Knothole. Only Dulcy and Sonic's Uncle Chuck had escaped. Chuck mysteriously disappeared though, leaving Dulcy alone. She eventually met up with another group of freedom fighters who openly welcomed her into their group. They felt that having a dragon might help improve their poor track record of fighting against Snively. Although she was a considerable help, they still were not greatly successful until a wolf who went by the name Robert Flack joined and became their leader. He was in his early twenties, and he was quite ambitious. He never let that cause him problems, however. He always had a clear head. It was also important to him to get to know everyone in the group. He was quite intelligent, and whenever anyone had a problem he could be depended on to find a solution. His guidance and leadership over the next twenty years made the group one of the greatest since the Knothole freedom fighters. Even with the efforts of Robert's group, Snively had increasing success. He was continuously turning more and more of Mobius into an industrial eyesore. Robert eventually moved the group into an underground base hidden below the central part of Robotropolis where they were able to slow Snively's progress. The story A brilliant blue light filled the small alley between two factories. A light so bright that it blotted out just about everything in the alley. When it faded, all that was left was a small, young red fox lying on the ground. Slowly, he opened his eyes and began surveying his surroundings. His head pounded and ached, and his heart was beating extremely fast. Nothing but a jumble of thoughts raced through his mind. He could not think. He could not remember anything. As hard as he tried, he was unable to focus his thoughts. He did not know where he was or how he had gotten there. The most frightening realization he had was that he could not recall his name, or any of his past for that matter. Alone and frightened, the young fox stood to the best of his ability and stumbled toward the street beyond the end of the alley. This was a big mistake. The fox walked out in the open right in front of a SWATBot patrol. "HALT!" ordered one of the SWATBots. The group of bots closed in on him and restrained him before he had any idea what was going on. A report was made to Snively, leader of Robotropolis. He was attending to another matter quite a few miles away so he ordered the bots to put the prisoner in a holding cell. The little fox was in poor condition. The pain in his head was intense and no matter how much he tried, he could not break the confusion that jumbled his mind. Time passed. How much time, the fox did not know. Everything was dark and blurred until at some point two SWATBots took him from his cell and dragged him to the roboticizer room. A short, pointy-nosed human stood just inside waiting for the boy. "Well, well, well... what do we have here?" said Snively in his ever annoying voice. "What were you doing wandering around the city alone?" he asked. The frightened fox gave no answer however. He just stared, confused and terrified, at Snively. Snively spoke again saying, "What's the matter? Can't you talk?" Still no reply. "I want information, boy. Are you with a freedom fighter group? You have to be. You couldn't have been surviving alone here in Robotropolis. Who are they? Where are they?" said Snively, but the boy did not speak. "SAY SOMETHING!" screamed Snively. This only made the boy start crying. "This is just a waste of my time," Snively decided. "Roboticize him." One of the SWATBots took the crying child and placed him in the roboticizer. The outer tube came down and Snively watched as the little fox was quickly roboticized. Snively then ordered a SWATBot to take the boy to a factory where he could begin work. The SWATBot took the roboticized fox to a small station in the factory and ordered him to begin working. The fox moved toward the console and cautiously pushed a button. This apparently satisfied the SWATBot that the boy had been successfully roboticized and that he was now a simple slave. The bot left and the little fox was once again alone. For some reason, the roboticization process had not converted him into a mindless slave, but rather it had cleared his head and stopped the pain. Not knowing exactly what to do, the little fox waited until there was no one around and then slipped out a small exit passage at the back of the factory and started running. * * * "Dulcy!" yelled Robert. "Yeah!?" replied Dulcy over the sound of the wind and rain. "Can you see anything!?" yelled Robert once more. "Barely!" "I think we should land and work our way back to the base on foot!" Dulcy acknowledged him and headed for the ground. Just as she was coming in for a landing a small silhouette became visible in front of her and she ran right into it. A metallic clang could be heard over the sounds of the storm. "Dulcy, what was that?" Robert said loudly. "I don't know!" she shouted and turned to look back. Lightning flashed briefly, allowing Dulcy and Robert to catch a brief glimpse of a small robot. Robert took a second to think and then yelled to Dulcy that they should take their discovery back to the base. Dulcy walked over without questioning Robert and picked up the small bot. The rain began to slack off and Robert and Dulcy managed to get back to the entrance to the underground home of the Robotropolis Underground Freedom Fighters. R.U.F.F. for short. They entered and were met by just about everyone in the base. As soon as the little robot was seen, everyone began asking questions at once. Robert said he would answer questions later and he and Dulcy proceeded to take the roboticized fox to the lab of Static, the resident electronics and communications expert. * * * "You what!?" shouted Static in surprise at the answer he had just been given from Robert. Static, a jaguar whose real name was Sydney Palec, ran most of the computer systems in the base. He was also a curious and innovative inventor. Electronics and computers were his main area of expertise, but he was also fairly skilled in the field of communications. "I had a premonition," repeated Robert. "You realize that he is probably under Snively's control. What if he wakes up? This is hardly the type of thing I... well, anyone expects of you! You're our leader! What were you thinking!?" screamed Static. He was always quick to get angry and yell without giving anyone a chance to explain something, but this time he had good reason. "I... I don't know exactly why I brought him here, but you just have to trust me," said Robert quietly. Static was right about Robert endangering the security of the base, and this behavior was not his normal and rational type. "If it makes any difference, I don't think he's under Snively's control," said Dulcy hoping to prevent an argument. "Why, Dulcy?" asked Robert in a calm tone. "Well, I've looked at quite a few of the daily worker bot routes and the area we were in is almost never used. When it is, the robots are usually transporting something. I've never seen a single robot use that route," replied Dulcy. "Hmm... that doesn't necessarily mean anything. We've never seen a case in which a worker bot recovered his free will," said Robert. "I have," Dulcy said, remembering her days when she was growing up in Knothole. "When? Who?" Static suddenly blurted out. "It was back at Knothole. Sonic the Hedgehog managed to snap his uncle out of it," answered Dulcy. "How?" asked Static. "I don't know. I wasn't with Sonic when he did it. I remember that we had managed to de-roboticize Chuck before that though. Maybe that had something to do with it," Dulcy replied. "Why didn't you tell me about this before!?" said Static, raising his voice a little. "You never asked," she said with a little grin. "Dulcy, sometimes I think your sense of responsibility is a bit whacked," sighed Static. "I want to ask you some more questions about that later." Dulcy shruged and nodded. Just then, a faint groan came from behind them. They turned toward the lab table where the robot had been lying. He was now sitting up holding his hand on his head and opening his eyes. They were glowing red. Static quickly grabbed a small electronic stunner he had built and pointed it toward the robot. The roboticized fox turned and looked at Static. The glow in his eyes faded and he made a sort of frightened gasping sound as he drew back a little. "Static, put it down," Robert commanded. Static lowered the stunner to his side, but he did not put it down. "It's ok, " said Dulcy with a friendly tone, "were not gonna hurt you." "Wh... where am I?" the little robot said with a slight metallic ring in his voice. Dulcy began to speak, but both Robert and Static interrupted, saying, "Wait! He could be under Snively's control!" "Who's Sni... Snively?" the little robot said. "He's kinda short, and has a really pointy nose," replied Dulcy. "Is h... he the guy that made me m... metal?" asked the bot. "Most likely," answered Robert. "What's your name?" Dulcy asked. The robot shrugged. "Where are you from?" was her next question. The robot just shrugged again. "Do you remember anything?" The robot thought for a second and then shook his head. "Hmm..." she said, "you need a name." "Well, he's a fox and he's metal. How does the name Metal Fox sound?" Static asked. "I think we can do better than that," said Robert. "I like it," spoke the little robot softly. "Ok. Well I guess we will call you Metal Fox from now on," Robert said. * * * Static was on his way to speak with Robert about Metal Fox. It had been a week since Robert and Dulcy had found Metal. Static had spent a couple days with him running tests and asking questions. After that, it was decided that Metal needed a better living space than the lab, so Dulcy agreed to let him stay with her temporarily. He never did ask to get his own room until he was older. Dulcy basically cared for him and raised him until that time. Static arrived at the door and pressed the door signal. A voice from the door speaker said 'come in'. Static entered Robert's room and saw Robert sitting at his desk. "You said you wanted to see me?" Static asked. "Yes. Come in and sit down," replied Robert. He waited as Static approached the desk and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. "So what did you find out about Metal?" "Unfortunately not a whole lot. Whatever happened to him before he was roboticized really fried his brain. All he can remember is being surrounded by a blue light and then waking up in an alley. When he stepped out of the alley he was spotted by some SWATBots and taken prisoner," explained Static. "Do you know why he was able to resist the mind control of the roboticizer?", asked Robert. "I scanned his neural net and from the results, I would have to say his brain was scrambled so badly that the roboticizer was not able to convert it normally. The makeup of his neural systems is slightly different from any I've seen before. I'm guessing that the roboticizer converted his brain and then attempted to repair it. The process it used to repair his brain must have reconnected his short term memory which seems to be what let him keep his free will as well." "That's quite interesting," Robert said. "Is there any chance that you can get him back his long term memory?" he asked. "If I can, it won't be anytime soon. I've barely even begun to understand the complex neural system created by the roboticizer," answered Static. "Well, keep me posted," said Robert. "Will do." * * * A year passed. Static talked with Dulcy about Sonic's Uncle Chuck and the work in Knothole on de-roboticization. Dulcy had only been about eleven years old then, and at that time she was a bit too young to understand all of the technical information involved in the process. Static almost gave up on building a de-roboticizer until he made a very unlikely discovery while digging through a junk yard for some spare parts. He shoved a sheet of steel out of the way causing a small box with some wires attached to a computer chip to fall to the ground. The small device beeped and then a synthesized feminine voice said, "AWAITING COMMAND." "Wha?" said Static. "What's this?" "I AM NICOLE," the device said. "What are you doing here?" asked Static. "INSUFFICIENT DATA," was the reply. Static picked up the device and took it back to the base. Once he was in his lab, he detached the small chip from the voice synthesizer it was connected to and integrated it into his own system. The chip was fairly old and was not completely compatible with his own system so he had to do a bit of modification. As soon as he was finished, he booted up the computer and connected a microphone. "AWAITING COMMAND," the voice said. "Who built you?" asked Static. "SEARCHING..." the voice said as the computer accessed the data on the chip. "INFORMATION MISSING." Static made a slight grunt of dissatisfaction and said, "Okay, who last used you?" "SEARCHING... PRINCESS SALLY ACORN." "Sally Acorn!? I don't believe this! " he shouted, not realizing how loud he had actually been. "You don't believe what," said a curious voice from behind. Static turned to see Metal standing just behind him. Static almost raised his voice to scold Metal for not using the door signal, but he then realized that the little fox would have been the first person he would have told anyway. This was the same chip that Sally Acorn had used to store research and information on the development of the de-roboticizer Dulcy had mentioned. If he could get that information, he might be able to modify it to work with the new roboticization process that Snively had developed. "Well, M.F.," Static said with a bit of enthusiasm in his voice, "I may have just found something that I might be able to use to turn you back into a normal fox." "Cool!" exclaimed Metal. Within a few months, Static had finished a prototype de-roboticizer and asked Metal to help him test it. He hadn't told anyone else about his little project, or about his choice to use Metal as a test subject. He knew no one would allow it, but he had no one else to test it on. Fortunately for him, and Metal, it worked... sort of. "So, how do you feel?" asked Static. "This is great! I'm not a robot anymore!" shouted the ecstatic fox. Just then, the lab door opened and Robert entered. He was about to say something but he saw Metal standing just beyond Static. He froze for a moment in shock and then recovered and said, "that's not-" "Metal Fox? Yes it is," interrupted Static, with a slight tone of apprehension in his voice. "But?! He?! How?!" blurted out Robert. "I built a de-roboticizer and used it to turn him back to normal." "Isn't that cool?" asked Metal. "It... well... Metal, would you please go into Static's office for a moment?" requested Robert. Metal shrugged and said, "Umm... I guess." He turned and sort of walk-skipped to the door and then entered the office and shut the door behind him. "Why wasn't I informed of this project?" asked Robert with a less than friendly tone. Static replied, "I was afraid that... well... you..." "That I wouldn't approve?" Robert said, finishing Static's sentence. "Well... yeah." "You thought right.. What if your machine hadn't worked? What if it had killed Metal? Did you have any assurance that it would work?" said Robert, slightly raising his voice. "Not exactly." mumbled Static. "What were you thinking?" asked Robert. "I didn't... didn't..." "That's right, you didn't think," accused Robert. "But it worked," said Static, trying desperately to get out of trouble. "Well, that's a good thing, and I'm glad it did. Dulcy, however, may be less than pleased that you proceeded to do this without telling her," Robert pointed out. Robert was right. Although Dulcy was overjoyed that Metal had been de-roboticized, she had a few angry words with Static. She regarded Metal as both a good friend and a son. Whenever anyone endangered Metal's life or well being she was known to become quite angry. It was lucky for Static that Dulcy was not violent natured or he might have spent a couple months recovering from some serious injuries. It was not until a couple years later that Static and Metal discovered something incredibly amazing, totally by accident. Metal was looking at Static's stun device and accidentally shocked himself. Electrical currents surrounded his body and his fur was quickly replaced with metal. He was a robot once again. Static had seen a bright flash through the window in his small office and came running in to see Metal in robot form. "What happened?!" Static gasped. "The stunner shocked me and... and..." Metal started to say, but before he could finish currents began to flow around him once more and he was returned to his normal form. Static quickly grabbed a scanner and took a quick reading from Metal's head. He later used another, more powerful scanning machine which revealed that there was a tiny chip in Metal's head which had not been removed during his de-roboticization. Static could not understand why he had not detected it before. He summoned Robert and Dulcy and used the stunner to give Metal a small shock. The same thing happened as before. Once Robert recovered from the sight he had just witnessed he said, "How is that possible?" "I don't know exactly," began Static, "but I have a possible hypothesis. After this happened the first time, I used the X-Scanner to trace a small energy fluctuation at a point in M.F.'s brain. For some reason, my de-roboticizer did not remove a certain microchip in his head. I believe that the chip somehow integrated the roboticizer technology into itself. In order to operate, however, it requires some sort of electrical charge. The shock causes the chip to initiate the roboticization process, but when it runs out of power M.F. returns to normal. I don't know the specifics of it yet but that is what I believe happens." "That's amazing," said Dulcy and Robert in unison. Static nodded and Metal smiled. "Metal, you are going to make one heck of a freedom fighter," Robert commented. Metal just giggled and kept smiling. The end. At least until the next story.