Tails vs Metal Sonic, part 1

Excerpt from COA:ACO Chapter 9, Part 3
Scene 3 [Tails vs Metal part 1]

-----

Metal found him standing atop a hill of broken and bisected mechs. It seemed as if he had simply been letting them come to him. The cobalt blue robot watched as a quartet of praying mantis type badnicks attacked from all sides. They were fast, and among the most deadly of all Eggman's badniks in close quarters. As one unit, the four of them threw their arm blades: eight deadly projectiles scythes towards their target, even as replacement arms flipped out and reattached to take the place of the ones that had been lost.

Tails spun in place, arms spread wide, the white tips of his tails flashing and catching the light. He slipped between four of the blades, and behind him, four more split in half. In moments, the mantid badniks were on him, bladed arms a blur. Metal knew from experience how Sonic would have fought: spin dashing and bouncing from one to another, or, if there was no room in close quarters, he would have jumped up to force the distance. Tails, however, weaved between the strikes, constantly spinning.

"That spinning motion..." Metal watched carefully. He was a learning robot, a constantly evolving AI. He was curious and inflective. It was what made him the most powerful and deadly of all the Doctor's creations.

With electronic eyes, he slowed down what he saw. It was all in that spinning motion. Metal saw, in that slow motion, how Tails used his namesakes to either wrap around his body or strike a target or both. The complex spinning movements allowed his tails to shield and attack from unexpected angles and directions. Metal saw how, as the boy turned, he used one tail to turn aside a strike and another to disarm a mantid badnik he had his back to. The boy then flipped the arms over his shoulder and used them to impale the robots to his left and right.

In moments, one enemy was disarmed, two were destroyed, and another was sliced in half at the waist. A final sweeping motion bisected the last remaining badnik. It fell, sparking, into a crumpled heap along with an unknown number of its comrades. A tiny Flicky bird managed to work its way out of the robot's remains, still sticky with stasis gel. It hopped for a few paces and then took flight.

Metal's burning red eyes betrayed no emotion.

'Strong. The boy is strong.'

Metal Sonic walked, now, slowly. Sunlight streaked across his polished surface and scattered off sharp edges that mocked the quills of the real Sonic Hedgehog. Yes: this little fox had become quite strong. The hundred or so slashed and ruined remains of Combots and other robots at his feet were proof enough of that.

"It's been a while, Metal," Tails said, also walking towards his opponent slowly, finally descending down the hill of broken badniks. "I've read a little about your new power plant. Is it true Doctor Eggman switched you to a 3:50 input from a 4:40? I must admit, I'm eager to see it in action."

"Mr. Prower," Metal spoke, voice dry and artificial. "I could say the same for you and your recent improvements. I regret we weren't able to meet in Westopolis last year. I would have liked to be the one who killed you friends in front of you."

"Yes, well Shadow beat you to it." Tails shrugged. "But I know you're disappointed that I'm here, and not Sonic."

"Robots do not lie," Metal admitted. "I would prefer a showdown with him. My goal is to see him broken before me. It is why I exist. In a way, it is a shame we do not have a Metal Tails. Then you would have a more appropriate opponent."

Tails just smirked.

"Did I say something amusing?" Metal asked, curious.

"You don't understand," the kitsune replied. "You're a more appropriate opponent than you realize. You've always been a good match for Sonic in the past, and your upgrades have kept you competitive. In fact, I'd say Sonic usually beats you due to luck and his friends more than anything else."

Metal Sonic stopped advancing, and Miles did likewise. Around them both, the tattered remains of the Combot Legion began to back away. Neither Miles nor Metal, however, gave them any heed. Both were focused entirely on each other. Finally, after a few seconds, Metal Sonic nodded, once.

"I see. To you, I am also a test as to how you would perform against the organic, original Sonic." Metal's eyes glowed and simmered. "Organics are often very complicated in their motivations. I did not predict that competition had led to animosity between the two of you."

"Let me clarify that, then… so that you will understand my organic motivations better." Miles pointed and twirled his finger. "It is not animosity that drives me to want to be test myself against him or to use you as a proxy for that. I'm not trying to surpass Sonic, and I have no interest in beating him or even competing with him. I want to push my limits and see what I'm capable of. My only real measuring stick is myself!"

"No matter how powerful you become, or how experienced you are," Metal replied. "But you are still just a bag of meat and bones."

The cobalt robot's chest intake began to warm up, humming softly.

"You still bleed. You still die." Metal's body began to glow with power and crackle with electricity as his internal generator cycled up. The large turbine engine in the center of his body slowly began to turn, and titanium interlocks spread in front of the intake to keep it clear of large debris. Spreading his arms, Metal Sonic's feet began to lift off the ground.

"Quite right." Miles' tails began to spin, and a blast of wind flew out from under him. "I am still mortal. I can still die. But I won't. Not today."

They shot forward in the same instant, passing in a quarter heartbeat, before turning and circling each other. In turn, each leaned his body forward, becoming more aerodynamic and increasing in speed. The rest of the world became a senseless blur of speed lines and uneven forms, coming and going in the time it takes to bat an eye. The rain of dirt and dust, kicked up by their passing, fell all around them in slow motion, but this strange state was like a second home to both individuals and neither hesitated.

Without warning or signal, both suddenly turned into sharp left turns, gaining distance from each other. One second, and well over a hundred paces later, two clouds of dust kicked up as Miles and Metal abruptly kicked into the ground, spun, and accelerated into a collision course. Watching his opponent, Tails couldn't help but smirk. This Metal Sonic… he had run from him many times before, leaving it to Sonic to handle the robot duplicate. Now it was his turn! His time to prove his worth! Here was an enemy Sonic had defeated before, albeit with difficulty. Destroying him was just the first step…

Racing towards Miles, Metal calculated his approach and that of his opponent. After a second, the two passed the point of no return – the mathematical limit where neither could avoid the other. Collision was, indeed, imminent. His memory banks brought up a correlation with the past, and compared this target with his primary one: Sonic the Hedgehog. Tails had always been fast, but never as aggressive as his mentor. This was certainly no longer the case. The not-so-little fox was also fast… faster than his record indicated, but still within projected speeds as a result of his growth. Metal felt confident that, if need be, he could speed-blitz the young kitsune.

The two hit with the roar of a derailed train.

From the area, a shockwave danced along the ground, uprooting sparse grasses and bits of soil. Sparks flew from Metal's shield as it locked forces with one of Miles' tails, ripples of strain flowing across the normally translucent energy field. The two seemed locked in position, before the kitsune's attack cut along the shield and the fighters passed each other again. Completing the pass, Metal double-checked what his sensors had dutifully reported.

That collision had been…

Metal's face couldn't frown, but if he were organic, then he knew he would be. The collision had damaged his shield. Its reserves were able to quickly repair the damage, but the fact that it had nearly been breached… how had so much energy been applied to it? Racing across the ground, passing through a staggered line of Combos, Metal scattered them like leaves. He didn't even have to see with his optics to know that Tails was right behind him.

Sonic wouldn't have been able to damage his shield in just one blow.

Not his new, improved shield.

One tail... did just one tail have a piercing power exceeding that of even a homing attack? It was true that the speed of the boy's tails, in terms of rotation or even striking, did exceed that of a typical spin attack. The boy could use his tails like that constantly. No wonder the force involved was able to crack his new shield! Luckily, the brat wasn't able to easily strike with both of the appendages and they had a limited range.

Cutting and reversing his engines, Metal skidded for only a few feet before heading in the opposite direction. Turning to his side and pivoting his body, he slammed into Tails, surprising the fox with the sudden move. Unprepared, Metal's shield slammed into the kitsune's body, and coupled with the boy's already high speed, knocked the wind out of him. Or so it seemed. The fox quickly recovered from being plastered against the solid energy shield to smirking.

Rearing back one hand, Miles flattened his palm. A golden nimbus of energy coalesced between his fingers, resolving into a ring. For a half second, it appeared to be a power ring... but then a second smaller ring came into being within the first one. Metal's optics recorded it with surprise.

'A ring within a ring?'

And then Tails thrust it into the shield.

At first, it seemed repulsed, but then a distinct golden glow began to interface with the shield, and one after another, the kitsune's fingers began to break through. Metal felt his body begin to vibrate. It took only a moment for him to process what was occurring.

'High frequency vibration!' Metal realized.

The boy was channeling energy into the shield, causing it to resonate at over 200,000 hertz. That alone would be within the shield tolerances, except that the energy wasn't dissipating. It was flowing around the shield and back to its point of origin and then doubling every half second. It was also causing a reciprocal vibration within his shield capacitors. If it reached more than a million hertz, Metal knew his more sensitive hardware - his shields, his optics, and his processors - would start to shear apart.

Desperate, Metal focused reserve power into the shield while powering down the capacitors, and golden crackles played with blue as the two forces pushed against each other. Then Metal's internal sensors told him that the inevitable had happened: he had exhausted his reserve supply of shield energy. Cutting through the remaining energy shield, the fox's flattened palm curled into a fist. Reacting as fast as his processors could, Metal cut his engines, spread his arms, and slowed his momentum just enough to miss the blow. He spun out of the exchange, but managed to land on his feet, cutting long furrows in the Mobian soil.

He turned, and saw Tails pulling his fist out of a small crater in the ground.

"Quick thinking…!" The fox looked over his shoulder. "You deduced that I was using a sympathetic oscillation to overload your internal systems, so you shut them down and switched to an isolated power supply, breaking the feedback loop. I guess I'm not surprised."

Metal didn't respond.

He simply raised his hands and pointed them at the kitsune. Small cylinders popped out of their slots and fired, twin laser beams raking the ground where Tails had been. Metal tracked the fox's movement as he ran, cutting burning streaks in the ground just behind him. The robot kept firing, even as Tails rolled behind the cover of a fallen Caterkiller assault mech, which promptly got cut in half a second before the unused ordinance inside the vehicle exploded, spraying fire everywhere. Still, Metal Sonic fired, following the boy's erratic movements as he jumped and cart wheeled over a parked Mobian air-truck, and then back flipped high into the air. Hissing in programmed anger, Metal kept firing wildly, destroying anything that passed behind the dodging kitsune.

"You can not avoid my blasts forever," Metal said, calmly, as Miles rolled behind another upturned assault badnik. Metal's lasers sliced into this one, as it had the once before, but instead of an explosion, and instead of Miles running out past the other end, it suddenly surged forward and flipped into the air. Calculating its trajectory, Metal instantly knew it was headed right for him. Attacking it with his beams, the tortured robot broke apart, but in the second and a half the distraction had brought…

The boy had disappeared.

Metal turned his head just fast enough to see a tawny orange blur slam into him. For a second time, Metal's protective shield flared under the brunt of a chaos energy powered vibration attack. This time, Metal lashed out instantly, abruptly shutting off his shield and attacking: clawed hands slashing at where the boy had been. Tails flipped overhead, fingers no longer having purchase on a shield. Instead, he twirled, and Metal juked and dodged to avoid a pair of slashing tails.

He skidded to a stop and lined up his lasers to take another shot with the ground below his feet erupted. With his shield still down, Metal took the brunt of the explosion and tumbled through the air. Damage reports flooded his processors as another explosion, and then another, went off nearby, deforming titanium and steel. Finally, his shield winked back on and he hit the ground, feet punching deeply into the scorched and blasted soil.

"What had...?" Metal looked up and saw a pair of silver objects curving through the air. Both promptly exploded in light and fury.

Bombs!

For a third time, Metal's shield came under attack, and for a second time, he was forced to drop his most potent defense or face the risk of tearing his insides apart. Tails was behind him this time; Metal turned and deflected a razor edged tail with the diamond hard blades on his fingers. A spray of sparks filled the air as he blocked another bladed strike and then another. Metal's right foot dug deep into the ground as both hands blocked a powerful downward stroke.

Grooves sliced open along the robot's forearms.

'I need to get some distance,' Metal calculated. 'With my shield more a liability than a strength, I need to keep outside the range of his tails...'

Then, the attacking Mobian gabbed hold of Metal's left arm, pulled it up and ducked low, and jerked it back. With a hiss of broken hydraulics, and popped metal bearings, Metal heard his arm break at the shoulder socket, and then at the elbow, and then deform at the shoulder itself, causing internal damage to his core body. Quickly activating his electro-shock systems, Metal desperately pumped as much energy as he could spare into his outer armor.

Tails opened his mouth in silent agony as his entire body convulsed. His iron grip on Metal's arm broke as the muscles in his arms and hands spasmed, just a second before Metal's external systems overloaded and exploded. The two were blown away from each other, and engulfed in a cloud of smoke and ash. For all of a few seconds, Metal experienced the organic sensation called 'blacking out.' One second, his sensors recorded him overloading his systems, and the next… he was imbedded in the ground, body smoking.

Trying to get back up, he accidentally tried to brace himself with his broken arm, and miscalculating the damage, heard it snap entirely at the elbow. Looking at the damage, and not just relying on his internal sensors, Metal saw that what was left of his arm was a twisted and useless mess. Reaching up with his good arm, he dug his steel claws into the shoulder and twisted, severing the broken husk.

It would only slow him down.

It was time to unlock that.

Sending an emergency burst communication to a pair of nearby E-1002 assault bots, Metal jumped back and away. He landed a good distance from the recovering kitsune, and a moment later the two E-series made a rocket assisted landed next to him. A hundred feet away, Tails got back on his feet, body still smoking from the electrical discharge. Burned fur and singed flesh ran up his right arm.

"Emergency Protocols active. Metal Sonic Phase Two unlocked," Metal announced, burying his one good hand into the E-1002 at his right side. "This is unfortunate. I had hoped to save this for Sonic..."

Within moments, the E-1002 began to fall apart, torn apart by silvery tendrils erupting out of Metal Sonic's arm. Pieces of the robot migrated from the sacrificial E-series mech into the cobalt monstrosity. Before Tails' eyes, the arm he had torn off began to rapidly regenerate and repair. Metal used his new left arm, before it was even fully recreated, to impale the other E-1002 and begin absorbing it as well.

"Oh. Oh! Oh!" Tails eyes lit up, a wide grin parting his face. "Active mimetic assimilation! I knew Eggman had been researching new methods of dynamic molecular bonding, but I never imagined! How wonderful!"

The fox laughed wildly, hands upraised in glee.

"Metal!" he pointed at the now larger robot. "Don't tell me your body has a Berserker Module?!"

"Curious," Metal Sonic Phase Two remarked. Its arms were now layered in white and black armor, and two adapted power plants and engines had been grafted onto its back. "So you know what it is, then?"

"A berserker? Of course I know!" Tails was still laughing happily. "You have to understand, I don't have one yet! I was never able to get enough functional nanites to make working berserker cells of my own! And now I see there's been one in front of me all this time! Eggman is a true genius!"

"How strange." Metal intoned. "A normal Mobian would not be excited seeing this new form. Additionally, if you know what berserker cells are, then you also must know that I possess Infinite Regeneration. I can not be defeated when they are unlocked."

Tails chuckled and bashfully craned his neck to the right.

"I suppose that's mostly true, but it can't help it," he explained, glancing over at Metal with dark blue eyes. "This is just very exciting for me. I'm so excited my body is tingling...! My hair is standing on end!"

Metal Sonic's triad of engines flared up.

"Then enjoy the sensation." Holding out his hands, a flare of light began to form in front of Metal's chest.  "As you die."