Post by Jammerlee on Feb 11, 2012 21:35:00 GMT -5
What was he doing out here?The rhetorical question passed through the metallix's mind as he stood on top of a natural rocky spire. Down below the massive sized Never Lake glistened in the sun, its shimmer only broken by the large shadow casting its reflection upon the mirror-like surface. It was a windy day, and down below the grasslands - empty of all but a few barren peaks and the occasional jutting cliff side - left a distant rustling in the air. Were he able to feel it he would have realized that, though the air was warm, the wind was pleasantly cool.
No, really, what was he doing out here?
Metal Sonic's gaze rose from the lake below, lifting skyward toward the significantly more interesting phenomenon above. His world, known as Gaia, was a fascinating place. With all the advanced science and technology that existed, there still remained the mystical and unexplained... few embodied this like the small globe, only a few miles across, hanging stationary within Gaia's atmosphere.
The Little Planet was making its yearly visit.
Blocking out a large portion of the sky and casting its enormous shadow over the lake, it defied all sense of gravity. So close you could practically touch it - so close that at one point a chain had linked it to the very mountain he was standing upon. It defied all scientific explanation, for gravity should have long ago crashed it into Gaia, tearing the land apart and sending a shockwave that would devastate, if not end, all life.
It was a significant location to the metallix. One that sent a wave of nostalgia through him, bringing up stored memories of the events that had taken place here. Memories that were both significant... and, in a way, stale. Over seven years ago, in this very place, Eggman had poured all of his expertise into his design, creating a sleek and streamlined body capable of blistering and versatile speed, perfectly able to mimic his greatest rival. With this body Eggman wrote his finest code, programming him with a fuzzy logic AI that would give him adaptability - that would allow him to learn, even predict. He was arguably the most sophisticated robot for his time - even now, despite the advancements technology had made since then, he remained a masterpiece. One of the great marvels of engineering.
Heh. A masterpiece. Why didn't he feel so great, if that was truly what he was...
It was here that the metallix was activated for the first time. A mindless machine; incapable of thought or emotion. It was all he had ever been intended to be. Metal rarely visited his earlier memories for this singular reason. Compared to who he was now, his older self felt so... lifeless. It was creepy on some level. Unlike his lesser advanced Badnik siblings, who were simply mindless machines incapable of becoming anything more, his AI constantly received data which it would process, determine the usefulness of, and file away in its own niche within his hard drive. It was from this ability to adapt and learn that, as more information funneled through his system... curiosity began to dwell within him. Before he knew it... he was thinking. It was a slow process at first, but soon his thoughts began to cascade. A hunger for knowledge developed - the more he learned, the more he compared, the more he found things that did not make sense. Things he wanted to make sense. The more his mind developed, the more he began to mimic those around him, learning these curious things called 'emotions'. It was only a matter of time from there before the rest of his cognitive abilities would follow... including his own self-awareness.
Even he couldn't quite tell what his first truly self-aware thought had been. An electronic being with perfect memory, he recalled everything with a blinding clarity only a rare few organics could match. Despite his ability to recall everything he had ever experienced, he found the singular moment when he realized he was more than the sum of his parts, that he was his own individual, difficult to pinpoint.
Ah, but that was getting away from the subject at hand... As his eyes remained locked with the skybound sphere, he recalled something more important. Something that redefined his life and gave him his very reason for existence. This was the site of his very first assignment, and his very first confrontation with the organic being he had been based off of. Even back then Sonic spoke to him as though he were a person, that cheeky smirk never leaving his face. It meant nothing to him at the time, but... looking back... it gave Metal a strange feeling toward his doppelganger. Respect, perhaps? Appreciation? He wasn't sure; only that it meant something to him in a way he couldn't quite describe. He pushed that thought aside. What really mattered was that it was on that planet above... during his first confrontation... that superior technology met its demise at the hands of raw natural talent.
With so many thoughts and memories swirling through his hard drive it was difficult to piece them all together coherently. Indeed. It was a significant location. The site where it all began...
Was that why he was out here?
The metallix's head dipped downward, staring down at the gentle ripples of the lake as the wind played with its surface. His first failure against Sonic. His first in a line of unending frustration and desperation to prove his own competence. He could vividly see with his literally photographic memory how many times he had pushed Eggman to allow him in on his plans; even before he was emotionally and cognitively developed enough to realize the significance he knew he had to fulfill the objective he had been created for. He had to prove himself superior to Sonic. It steered the course of his artificial life, and it was only understandable. What use was a robot that was unable to preform the function it had been designed for?
A person, his mind stated.
Ah. That struggle.
A person? Was that really what he was? It was what he wanted to believe. He had heard both sides of the argument - robots could not qualify as people as they were not actually alive... sentient robots should be treated as equal due to their intelligence. And where amid this conflict did it leave Metal? Exactly that. Conflicted. Having come from mindless roots he had never questioned his place as his creator's servant, and yet despite that he yearned for more than that implied. He wanted respect, to be acknowledged as the intelligent being he had become and not treated as though he were a mere object or tool.
Funny, that... the metallix had noticed for awhile that his creator was beginning to act strangely around him. In the beginning, as his mind developed, it started with the odd double-take. But it progressed to outright stares, and even examinations of his hard drive. Eventually that behavior seemed to change and evolve as Metal had. More and more he noticed his creator giving fewer commands, and more... options. "If you want", he would state. "Are you up to it?", he would even say, as well as the occasional "It's your choice" - it boggled the metallix. What was he supposed to say to that? It was even stranger than when he was named second-in-command and given authority over the rest of the Eggman Empire.
Finally, it reached the point where Metal confronted his creator. And that was when he heard those magical words: "You are a person, Metal, and deserving of the respect that one would afford to a living being."
A person.
Him.
Admitted by Eggman himself.
It was probably the closest the metallix had experienced to what organics knew as 'surreal'. There was only one other time when he had experienced that same airy feeling. The functions of his processor ground to a halt; almost as though they had frozen. But no, though he probably could have crashed if he hung that way too long, his mind was still active. The sheer implications and what they meant to his long stood beliefs had thrown his poor hard drive into a flurry of errors. Even now he still found it hard to grasp - even now he still felt awkward when his creator - his master - would speak to him as though they were on the same level. It was such a foreign concept.
So much did his creator trust and put his faith in him that, even following his betrayal, he had been allowed to remain second-in-command during the battle that ultimately lead to the rise of Eggmanland.
Ah, now there was a contrast. His greatest shame... versus his first true victory.
It was strange how Eggman had erased the memories of how he had betrayed the Empire and taken it for his own purposes, and then later offered to restore them when the metallix confronted him. If it weren't for Omega's meddling he would have likely never known the event had taken place at all. He had denied it at first, unable to believe that he, for as loyal as he was, could have betrayed the person he looked up to. But as he uncovered evidence the confirmation could not be denied. What? How? Why? The questions had plagued him. And as he searched for answers, more and more he found that only he himself would be able to answer them...
It was probably for the better that Eggman had chosen the course of action he had. Had those memories remained intact, without the knowledge he had received following their absence, there was no way he could predict his own behavior. How far he had lost touch with reality truly disturbed him, all due to his own lack of self-esteem. All due to losing to Sonic one too many times. All due to the belief that Eggman had abandoned him mid-upgrade when Final Egg was overthrown.
Bad timing and a misunderstanding.
The true irony came when the metallix re-discovered his motivation for imprisoning his own master. To protect him. Technically, to Metal's astonishment, he had never betrayed the Empire at all. The entire spectacle had been a cry for attention. To prove his worth and show his value - to take matters into his own hands and prove that with the right resources he was capable of defeating Sonic. Somewhere in his fanatic pursuit he had lost sight of what was right or questionable. He had spiraled into the depths of madness.
Metal shuddered as a power surge overtook his frame, folding his arms over his chest and cutting the output to his vision. It was all a jumbled mess. His betrayal, Eggman's behavior following that. None of it made sense - he feared he would never truly understand the irrationality of organic judgment. At least if there was one good thing that had come from it all, it was that the metallix had achieved his goal. Though he had lost to Sonic and his companions in the end, his command of the Egg Fleet and elaborate scheme had proven himself more than worthy of his role as a general.
It was that skill that allowed him to lead an army of Egg Pawns through Grand Metropolis. With the metallix leading the assault upon the city, it left Eggman free to seize its power supply from under it and take control, all while GUN was kept distracted believing rumors the assault was to take place in Station Square. A fine moment, but that wasn't the true victory.
No, that came when Sonic arrived.
Somehow, that hedgehog always knew. He was always on top of his game, even when the military wasn't. Breezing through the onslaught, the two rivals had found each other face to face. A familiar sight; one that had been repeated many times over the metallix's seven years of existence. But this time Metal had felt a confidence that had always been missing prior. As the blue wind crashed against the metallic storm the air became electric. Seizing his chance, Metal subdued his life-long rival, and as the city watched on, Grand Metropolis fell, becoming Eggmanland.
There were two emotions mixed in the following of that victory... disbelief, and... joy. Never had the metallix felt such intensity as all his frustrations gave way. He had won. He had finally proven himself.
The feeling was short lived, but sweet while it lasted. It was shortly after that victory that Metal received his lost memories back, and that... was when all the conflict began anew. He had gone too far in his pursuit against Sonic, and yet Eggman trusted him now more than ever. It was an odd juxtaposition to be in, and left him conflicted over how he should feel.
The wind swept through the air suddenly, whistling through the metallix's audio receptors and bringing him back to reality. He switched his vision back on, raising his head back to the sphere above, and pondered to himself. It would be so easy to dwell on his mistakes, as he often did, but what he had achieved was impossible to ignore. He had satisfied his objective - what had long become his personal goal - and helped give rise to what his master planned to be the capital of the world.. Now all that was left was... figuring out what would happen from there.
And to think it all started here, at this very lake, seven years ago.
... ... ...
What was he doing out here?
