Sonic stood on the edge of a cliff that was overlooking Central City. It was near noon right now and the weather was clear. From the distance he could see the Tornado, which Tails was flying. Since Eggman had been quiet for a few days, they had decided to take a day to relax and Sonic had decided to visit Central City. However, Sonic had some suspicions that Eggman might eventually show up, so he decided to have Tails fly around so just in case he spotted Eggman, he could notify Sonic and he could go and stop him.

So far, Tails hadn't reported any sighting of him or any of his robots. Sonic decided that he would give Tails another hour, and if Eggman hadn't been sighed by then, he would have Tails land the plane and they could explore the city for a bit.

But right now, Sonic felt relaxed. Despite the sounds of the city in the distance, he felt peaceful here. Almost as if he could just lie down and relax.

'Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea.' Sonic thought. 'Tails hasn't seen Eggman as of right now, might as well just rest right now.'

Sonic went down and lied on his back and began to drift off into sleep.

Suddenly, he heard a beeping noise.

'Darn, just as I was about to go to sleep.' He sarcastically thought.

He got up and got out a small device, the device was connected to the Miles Electric, so it could make and receive calls from it. He pressed a button on it and Tails voice came through.

"Sonic, Sonic are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here Tails." Sonic replied. "I was just about to take a nap, what is it?"

"I just saw Eggman and a few of his robots roaming around the city together." Tails explained. "A couple of them are just his typical Egg-Pawns, but there's another that I haven't quite seen before."

"Maybe it was that secret project he said he was working on in our last encounter with him." Sonic guessed thinking back. "He did say he was making something that would defeat me once and for all."

"Whatever this new robot is, you better go stop him and Eggman." Tails said.

"I'm on it." Sonic said.

He pressed the button again, and the call ended.

Putting the device away, he ran off the side of the cliff and towards the city.

In the city, Eggman paraded his minions in his Eggmobile as people stared.

In front of Eggman were the Egg-Pawns that Tails had mentioned, and the new robot. The robot's body was orange, aside from it's gray arms and legs. Both arms had three claw like fingers on each hand, with holes in the hands. On the body itself, it was colored orange and had four cylinders on the back of it. It's eyes were located in a visor, where they were simply blue.

The robots scanned the area, searching for any threats.

Suddenly, a blue sphere suddenly came around and destroyed the two Egg-Pawns, and landed in front of Eggman and the orange Robot.

Sonic had arrived.

"So Eggman." he said crossing his arms. "I'll take it you're not here for shopping."

"Ah Sonic, I've been looking for you." Eggman said with an evil grin.

"Gotta ask, what's with that new robot of yours?" Sonic said glaring at the robot. "An updated version of your standard robots?"

"Oh, this?" Eggman said indicating to the orange robot. "This is a new robot of mine. I call it, The Tortoise."

"So it's gonna be slow?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow. "Gotta say not pretty impressive."

"Oh just try and attack it." Eggman replied with a grin.

Sonic smirked. "If you insist."

Sonic charged up a spindash, and rolled straight towards the robot.

Just before Sonic was about to hit the robot, the robot extended one of its arms and created a shield. Sonic ran right into it and ended up bouncing right back, receiving a slight shock in the process.

"Ow what the?" Sonic said getting up looking at the robot as it retracted it's shield.

"As you can see." Eggman began as he explained what the robot did. "The Tortoise is made to easily defend itself against your attacks. It had a tougher metal and also runs on a new energy source, so it can never run out of power for the shields it makes."

"Well, that's great. You're not making this easy for me are you Eggman." Sonic said.

"I think I'll leave you two to play." Eggman said before he flew away on his Eggmobile, leaving Sonic alone with the robot.

Sonic stared at the robot, contemplating what to do.

'Well, some of my usual attacks won't do any good since it can defend itself against me. Maybe Eggman focused so much on defense that he didn't put any weapons on it.' Sonic thought to himself.

As if the robot heard his thoughts, it raised one of their arms, it's palm open, and fired a ball of energy at Sonic.

Sonic eye's widened and managed to dodge it before it hit him.

'Okay, scratch that. It can fight back.' Sonic thought.

He decided he might need help, once again he got out the communication device and pressed the button.

"Hello?" Tails voice came through.

"Hi Tails." Sonic said as he dodged the blasts the robot made. "Turns out Eggman's new robot is a bit difficult for me to beat. Can you fly over and scan the robot so you can give me a way to beat this thing."

"On it." Tails said and Sonic heard him put the communicator down.

Sonic continued to dodge the Tortoise's blasts of energy and tried to attack it, while he waited for Tails to analyze the robot. As he did that he spotted the Tornado flying above.

Finally Tails spoke. "Okay, I think I might know how to beat it."

"Tell me now." Sonic said. "I can't keep dodging this robot forever."

"Okay, judging from my observations, I recommend attacking it from the back." he heard Tails say. "It looks like whatever is powering the thing is in some of the cylinders in the back."

"So smash the cylinder's and the robot should deactivate." Sonic said got it.

"Still though." Tails continued. "This power source isn't like anything I've ever seen, I need to analyze it to know it's attributes."

As Tails was saying all this, the Tortoise spotted the Tornado in the sky and aimed an energy blast at the plane.

Sonic's eye's widened. "TAILS LOOK OUT!" he yelled over the communicator.

He attempted to stop it, but the Tortoise used it's other hand to make a shield and Sonic ran straight into it. It then fired the energy blast at the tornado.

Thankfully, Tails had gotten the message and was turning away from the area where the robot was in. However, the energy blast still found it's target, clipping the Tornado's wing slightly.

Tails looked at the damage and realized he couldn't stay airborne like this.

"Sonic, that robot hit part of a wing, I'm gonna have to land somewhere." He said over the communicator.

"Okay, hope you land safely." Sonic said before hanging up and facing the robot.

"Alright." he said to it. "You're about to learn that nobody hurts my friend."

He then charged at the robot again. This time though just as it made it's shield, he leaped over it and hit one of the cylinders, knocking it off.

The Tortoise turned around and formed a shield in one of it's hands and attempted to whack Sonic in the face. Apparently the loss of one of it's power cells slowed down it's reaction time, as Sonic dodged it pretty easily.

Sonic then began to charge at the Tortoise again. The robot had apparently learned form it's mistake and when Sonic attempted to leap over it to hit the power cells again, it shielded itself from Sonic's leap. Following his movements so that Sonic couldn't hit the power cells again. The Tortoise then hit Sonic with the shield knocking him back.

"Ok, the jump over and hit him strategy isn't going to work." Sonic muttered to himself. "Time to change tactics."

As Sonic was battling the Tortoise, Eggman was watching the whole thing from above in his Egg-mobile.

"Hmm. I don't like where this is heading." he muttered as Sonic dodged another blast from the Tortoise. "I think it's time to bring some assistance in the fight."

He pressed a button and a robotic voice came though. "Yes, Doctor?"

"It's time for you to step in." Eggman said.

"Affirmative." the voice said and the line cut off.

Meanwhile, Sonic had managed to find a way to bypass The Tortoise's current defense strategy and had slid under the robot and kicked another one of it's power cells off it's back.

"Error: Power capacity at 50 percent efficiency." he head the robot monotonously say.

"Okay if I can keep this up, I can have this bot down in about a couple of minutes and go check on Tails." Sonic said to himself.

He was about to charge at The Tortoise again when suddenly, he was slammed from the side and became pinned against a wall.

Recovering from the daze, Sonic stared at his new assailant and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw who it was.

"Metal?!" he said in surprise as he stared into the red optics of his enemy.

"Hello my copy." Metal Sonic said coldly. "And goodbye."

Metal raised a claw at Sonic, but Sonic managed to break free from Metal's grasp and dodge the slash.

"Come on Metal, can you wait your turn? I already have one robot I'm fighting right now." Sonic asked looking at Metal.

"Negative, the doctor has ordered your elimination." His robotic copy

Sonic sighed. "Thought you might say that."

Metal then charged at Sonic with his thruster's, which Sonic barely managed to dodge.

While Metal was fighting Sonic, The Tortoise, seeing an opportunity aimed it's hand, charged an energy blast, and fired it towards Sonic. The blast hit Sonic, knocking him to the ground.

Recovering from the knockdown, he saw Metal above him, his arm raised above him, ready to slam down on Sonic's face. Sonic spin-dashed into Metal, causing Metal to stumble a bit.

Sonic moved away from Metal and the Tortoise and stared at them, trying to consider his options.

'I can't fight both of them at once.' Sonic thought to himself. 'I probably could have fought Metal well if he was alone, but I also have this Tortoise bot to deal with and it's not making things any easier.'

He looked around, trying to figure out a way to fight both of them at the same time.

He then did something that Metal didn't expect. He ran to a nearby alleyway and went into it.

"Running away from me?" Metal asked. "That is very unlike you Sonic."

Metal Sonic took to the air and tracked Sonic's progress in the alleyway from above. He calculated that Sonic's current path through the alleyway would lead him to a dead end. His thought process then came up with an optimal plan to take down Sonic in the alleyway.

"Follow Sonic's path through the alleyway." he said to The Tortoise. "We'll cut him off there."

Metal then flew over the alley, where he tracked Sonic. While the Tortoise began to move towards the alley at a jogging pace.

In the alley, Sonic was running, turning various corners in the alley up until he came to a dead end.

He was about to run back when he head Metal's voice again.

"Don't even try it. The Tortoise is coming in at the other end of the alley."

Sonic looked back and he saw Metal gliding down in front of the wall.

"You know, it probably would have made sense for you to cut me off I the front of the alley, not the end." Sonic remarked. "Just pointing out a flaw in the plan is all I'm saying."

"Negative, with the Tortoise's shield capabilities, it ensures that you cannot escape." Metal replied.

Sonic slowly began to walk backwards and put his hands up. "Well, it looks like you got me."

"Indeed, all of my possible paths in our current encounter ended up here." Metal replied.

Sonic could hear the footsteps of the Tortoise getting closer. With two powerful robots surrounding him, he needed to figure out a plan to take them both out.

Sonic then smirked.

"Why wait for the Tortoise to arrive though?" Sonic asked Metal. "Why not charge at me and finish me off?"

Metal tilted his head. "That is not a sound strategy for the plan I made."

"Oh do you really think so?" Sonic asked as he listed to the footsteps of the Tortoise grow louder. "And where have those plans and strategy's gotten you? Me kicking your butt."

He then opened is arms. "Besides, the Tortoise is arriving soon and as you said, my only exit out of here is cut off. So why not finish me here?"

Metal simply stared at Sonic for a moment, processing what Sonic said.

It was true that Sonic had beaten him multiple times, but most of those was with the help of his friends. When he had faced Sonic when he was alone, he had nearly beaten him, but Sonic had always managed to pull through.

But now, Sonic had nowhere to go. The Tortoise was close to arriving at the other end of the alley, and it could easily cut off Sonic's escape with it's shield, leaving Sonic at the mercy of Metal.

Metal's thought process finally made a decision.

He glared at Sonic through his red optics.

"Very well." he said. "Your words have convinced me to finish you now."

Metal then began to charge up his thruster to full power.

Sonic got ready, he had to time this perfectly or else it wouldn't work.

As Metal continued to charge his thruster, Sonic could hear the Tortoises footsteps as if the robot was right next to him.

Sonic chanced a look back, and saw that the robot was just coming into view and was making it's way just behind where Sonic was.

"Thruster is fully charged." Metal said. "Goodbye Sonic."

Metal charged at full speed towards Sonic, his claws outstreached in an open grasp, Sonic simply just stood there as the distance between him and Metal rapidly closed.

'Now.' Sonic thought to himself.

Sonic jumped off the ground and flew above the Tortoise.

Almost as if the world was in slow motion, Sonic witnessed what happened.

He saw Metal stab through the Tortoise's armor as if it was made of butter, jamming his hand through it. The Tortoise meanwhile, was paying attention to Sonic, thinking he was going to go for his power cells again. It had deployed it's shield, not paying attention to Metal. The force of Metals thruster's brought him and the Tortoise to a wall, breaking some of the Tortoises remaining energy cells.

Sonic landed back on the ground on his feet and watched as Metal pulled his hand out of the Tortoises armor before turning to him.

"Looks like you missed." Sonic remarked.

He then spin-dashed towards Metal, this one being stronger, who was slammed into a pair of dumpsters. He then slumped to the ground in a sitting position.

Sonic put his hands on his hips and looked at the two defeated robots.

'Well, that was a bit more difficult then expected but I came up on top otherwise.' He thought sighing in exhaustion.

He then heard the beeping noise of the communicator. He quickly got it out as he pressed the button.

"Sonic, are you there?" He heard Tails say.

"Yeah, I'm here. did you land safely?" Sonic said, wanting to know if his friend was safe.

"It was a bit of a rough landing, but I ended up fine. How's the fight with Eggman's new robot?"

Sonic looked at now ruined form of the Tortoise and then at Metal. "Well aside from an unexpected apperence from Metal, I managed to defeat both it and Metal."

"Metal was there? Well, it's a good thing." Tails said with a sigh of relief.

"While you were fighting, I've been analyzing the energy source that's powering the robot. I gotta say, it's unlike anything I've seen before."

"Okay, but what is it?" Sonic asked.

"It seams like this source can power a machine for years, maybe even a century. However it seams like that if you don't handle it correctly, it becomes unstable."

"Well hopefully Eggman doesn't have any more of the stuff. What happens if..."

"Error: Energy source unstable."

Sonic froze and slowly turned his head towards the source of the sound.

He saw the Tortoise, the remaining cylinders that contained the energy source were now emitting an orange colored smoke.

"Sonic, what were you saying?" Tails asked

"Uh Tails." Sonic said the communicator in a worried tone. "What exactly happens if the energy becomes unstable?"

There was a moment of silence before Tails spoke again. "Oh no..."

"What is it?"

"If the energy source becomes unstable, it will blow up everything within a 3 mile radius."

"How long does it take?" Sonic asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

Tails sighed. "You have a minute and a half, maybe."

Sonic stood there quiet. He stared at the Tortoise's body, which was emitting more orange smoke.

There simply wasn't enough time to evacuate the area, not without people getting hurt, killed or left behind. Nor could he just throw the robot in the dumpster, as he doubted that it could hold the explosion the robot would cause.

This left him with only one option.

'No.' He thought to himself. 'There has to be another way.'

But that was the only option that he could do, the one that he didn't like at all.

He looked down at the ground and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry Tails." He said.

"Sonic what..."

He pressed the button, cutting Tails off.

He went to the Tortoise, picked up it's body and turned towards the alley exit. He then began to run.

As he did this, Metal began to look up and saw Sonic picking up the Tortoise and running away with it.

Metal was confused. What exactly was Sonic doing with the robot?

Metal activated his thruster and flew out of the alleyway, following Sonic's movements. He scanned the robot from afar, as he did so, warning signs flashed across his vision, warning of an explosion in less then a minute. There were also warnings to get out of the blast radius.

It only took Metal exactly half a second to figure out what was going on with the robot. The energy that was powering it had become unstable and it was about to explode.

Sonic seamed to frantically move through the city, running into various dead ends and trying to find an optimal path outside of the city. Eventually, he managed to find a path and ran out of the city. He didn't even stop once he'd cross the bridge that led out of the city.

He only came to a stop exactly 5 miles outside of the city in a forest. Just outside of any populated area. With only about 10 seconds left before the robot exploded.

Sonic placed the Tortoise down in the forest. Exhausted, he collapsed on the ground in a crouching position. He stared at the Tortoise for a moment before he then looked at the city.

"Error: energy levels critical, explosion imminent." He heard the Tortoise state.

"Well, not exactly how I expected to go." Sonic said to himself with a small smile on his face as he looked down. "But at least I went saving lives."

The Tortoise seamed to glow orange for a moment, before it blew apart in a thousand pieces, and Sonic closed his eyes as the blast reached him.