QUEEN of PAIN

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Tempo and I chatted with Sally and the others for maybe an hour or so before I had to end the call to answer a call from Uncle Beau. The conditions for my meeting with the other Egg Boss of Northammer had changed, and Clove wanted to bring her sister along for a consultation.

Her fully roboticized sister. Not partial, like Bunnie, Uncle Beau, or many of the Sourn Egg Legion troops.

A full conversion, like the revised analogue of my Eggman aspect had apparently stopped doing for the most part after about five years into his conquest. At least on a large scale. A decision that seemed to actually work out for him, as he had much less public resistance across Mobius than my Eggman aspect had back in Mobius-that-was.

Anyway, I had agreed, so Clove had brought Cassia along to the meeting.

I kept the lighting in the suite warm and low, with the curtains wide open, revealing what I felt was a decent cityscape view. I wanted "Hotel Hospitality," not "Eggman Laboratory."

I probably should have pushed for an evening meeting when the city lights would make the view breathtaking instead of merely decent, but apparently this was the time that worked best for Clove, so I guess she had other business in Casino Park later in the evening.

(If it's hitting the tables in any of the city's many casinos, I will be severely disappointed).

Clove stood by the window, her silhouette sharp against the neon glow of Casino Park. Cassia sat on the edge of a reinforced armchair, her movements mostly fluid, save for a distinct, slight hitch of her left knee whenever she shifted her weight.

"The General says you're a miracle worker with a wrench, Rally," Clove began, her voice tight and professional. "But he also said you were... different. That you aren't just building machines, you're building Agency."

"I'm an engineer, Clove. I see friction, and I eliminate it," I replied, sitting across from Cassia. I gestured to the flavored lubricants on the tray. "Those are for you, Cassia. High-viscosity synthetic with a molecular smoothing agent. It'll help with that hitch in your stride. Most of them are fruit flavored."

Cassia blinked, looking at the tray and then at me. "How did you...?"

"I can hear the timing lag from across the room," I said simply. "Someone did a hell of a job keeping you moving, but I can tell that they used a make-do replacement of a Robian joint. It's functional, but the feedback has to be hammering against your primary sensor-array."

Clove stepped away from the window, her expression guarded. "It was a field repair. I used what I had in the kit. The Doctor doesn't exactly stock any of the Northhammer armories with delicate instruments for his Bosses."

"Which is why I'm here," I said, standing up and grabbing my handheld scanner. "May I? Just a surface-level diagnostic. I want to see how the joint is holding up against the original conversion."

Cassia looked at Clove, who gave a small, hesitant nod. As I ran the scanner over Cassia's leg, the data started scrolling across my optics in a high-speed teal blur.

The mechanical Robian parts were surprisingly well-maintained—standard, robust conversion from one of the better roboticizer models then. But as the deep-tissue sensors engaged, I saw the markers in the biological substrate. The structural "scarring" on the original cellular templates was massive.

"This is... extensive," I murmured, my optics narrowing as I processed the repair-markers. "Your original tissues were in a state of advanced collapse before you ever went under the roboticizer, Cassia. What happened to you?"

Clove walked over, her protective stance softening into a grim honesty. "It was NIDS," she said quietly. "Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. The Doctor... he offered the only way to stop the clock. Roboticization was the only 'cure' available."

I paused, the weight of that statement settling into my processors. I looked at the heavy-duty bypass Clove had installed on the knee. "So the metal is the only thing keeping those damaged systems from crashing again. And the new knee joint is vibrating right against those sensitive neural markers."

"Exactly," Clove nodded. "I've already installed the ALM you sent. It allowed me to safely remove the self-destruct charge without the Doctor's remote trigger noticing the tampering. But the software side... the Control Overlay… According to the specs, it will stop it from activating or shut it down if it's already active, but it doesn't remove it."

"The ALM is a firewall, Clove. It blocks the signal, but the COP is still a cancer sitting in her neural processor," I finished for her. "You've done the heavy lifting—removing the hardware threat was the hard part. But deleting a COP without scrubbing her actual personality in the process? That takes a scalpel, not a hammer."

I reached for my specialized datalink, my movements precise. "I can locate every thread of the Doctor's code. I can excise it until there's nothing left but Cassia. No ghosts, no dormant overrides. Just her."

I looked at Cassia. "It's going to feel like a sudden silence in your head. No more 'background hum' from the Doctor's network."

"Please," Cassia whispered, her teal optics flickering with a mix of fear and hope. "I want the hum to stop."

"Then let's finish what your sister started," I said, initiating the deep-sync. I had Clove watch as I walked her through everything I was doing.

Not just to assure her that I wasn't putting my own controls into her sister's Robian brain, but because she was going to have to do this herself in order to actually remove the Control Overlay Program from others without burning out their personalities or otherwise changing them on a fundamental level.

Don't get me wrong. I had full confidence in my Autonomy Liberation Modules. They could absolutely do the job they were designed to do, and do it well.

But outright removing the Control Overlay Program was even better.

And I could not allow myself to be the bottle neck should the current Eggman find a way around the ALMs.

I was not arrogant enough to believe that he couldn't, no matter how much he lost as his memories of Mobius-that-was faded from his mind.

The "sync" was a clinical, quiet affair. Inside Cassia's processors, I highlighted the Control Overlay Program for Clove's benefit, informing her that it wouldn't be automatically highlighted for other patients, so she would have to keep a log of this procedure to study from until she could recognize Eggman's code language by sight. Using the "Digital Scalpel" derived from my own Nicole-and-Eggman data, I systematically deleted the parasitic code, narrating the excision for Clove.

When I finally disconnected the cable, Cassia slumped back into the armchair. A moment later, her optics flared to life—clear, bright, and steady.

"It's... quiet," she whispered. She stood up, testing her left leg. The "make-do" joint I'd replaced glided in perfect, silent synchronicity. For the first time since her sister repaired her, she moved with the grace of a living being rather than a machine fighting itself.

But even as she marveled at the silence, I could see the hesitation in her expression. "He's a monster, I know," Cassia said, her voice small. "But Rally... before him, I couldn't even stand. He gave me a body that works. Part of me still feels like I owe him for the air I'm breathing now."

Clove's jaw tightened, but she remained silent, letting me handle the final ghost in the room.

"You think his 'miracle' was an act of mercy, Cassia?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave. "Tempo, watch the door."

I tapped a command into the handheld. A holographic screen expanded in the center of the room. It wasn't a medical record; it was a black-box log from my own history—a memory of the "Mobius-that-was," rendered in holographic form due to the "benefit" of originating from both Sally's and Eggman's points of view.

"I was a Robian once. Just like you," I told her, my blue-and-grey plating catching the light from the window. "My conversion was actually painless if a bit jarring—a perfect preservation of who I was, except mechanical and with the Control Overlay Program automatically activated. But that wasn't enough for him."

The hologram expanded and flickered into motion as more of "my" surroundings became evident. It wasn't a roboticizer. It was a workshop bay. One in which machines were taken apart and put back together again.

The image showed a metallic, Robian, Sally Acorn standing on a workbench, support wires already connected to the overhead rig to prevent me from falling over during the procedure. The Doctor's voice boomed through the speakers, devoid of any warmth. Ordering his nephew, Snively, to keep an eye on the monitors recording my readings.

To make sure that I was conscious and aware of what was about to happen to me.

The recording didn't look away as industrial saws and laser-cutters descended upon the metal princess.

"I didn't have organic nerves anymore," I said, my voice flat as the hologram showed eighty percent of my Robian chassis being brutally torn away. "But I had haptic sensors, just like any other Robian. They're designed to let us feel a breeze, or the warmth of a hand... or the white-hot agony of a plasma cutter. He didn't turn them off. He wanted the neural mapping to record the exact frequency of the pain as he gutted me to build the weapon he wanted."

I let the recording play just long enough for them to hear the distorted, electronic shriek of the monitoring devices recording a Robian's haptic sensors red-lining even as the "me" in the hologram did not react.

Could not react.

Thanks to that Walkers damned Control Overlay Program!

And once the "me" in the hologram had been reduced to a head, spine, and rib-shielded life support system (what Snively called the Robian organs that used to be my heart and lungs) suspended above the workbench by wires attached to my shoulder joints, the whole process was reversed as I was rebuilt as a fully weaponized Metal Sally.

"The new parts had haptic sensors too," I commented flatly, my control over my own rage so tight that my voice sounded dead even to my own ears. "Sensors that Eggman deliberately activated so that I could feel the pain of my 'rebirth' too."

As the Eggman in the hologram rebuilt "me," Snively could be seen smelting my former parts as the "me" there could only watch placidly, unable to react due to that Walkers damned Control Overlay Program.

My limbs…

My organs…

My womb…

All lost to the fire of the smelter as "I" took it all in.

"He didn't give you a body to save your life, Cassia; he 'cured' your NIDS because a bedridden girl is useless leverage. He wanted you sturdy enough to keep Clove in line for the next fifty years. You aren't his patient. You're his property."

Cassia watched the "Weaponization" of the Princess until the end—until the screaming of stressed metal stopped and the cold, unfeeling machine remained.

She looked at her own hands, the lingering gratitude finally shattering into a thousand jagged pieces. The "miracle" hadn't been a gift; it had been a transaction she'd never signed for.

"The debt is canceled," Clove hissed, stepping forward and placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. She looked at me with a newfound, fierce resolve. "Rally... tell us what the Alliance needs us to do."

"First," I said, packing the handheld away, "just do what you think is best for you and your people. You, Beauregard, Breezie, King Nigel, all those smaller GUN member states scattered along the coast of Northammer… You are all capable leaders. You don't need me to run things. You just need the tools to be able to stand up to the Eggpire. To prevent Eggman from taking control again."


I centered myself, and looked Clove directly in the eyes.

"You want a playbook? Fine. Everything you need is right here," I said as I touched her chest, "and here," I completed as I touched her forehead. "That's your playbook. You don't fight for my pride. You fight for yours. Your sister's. Your people's."

Clove met my gaze steadily as I said my piece, then nodded sharply.

The Revolution was here.

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Montgomery the Mammoth carefully made his way to the balcony overlooking Studiopolis.

He was still recovering from his "sudden illness," which had laid him out just over a couple of months ago, and had only recently been cleared for home recovery a few days ago.

Even now, his staff and his nursemaids hovered discretely out of the way, ready to come to his aid if he needed them, but otherwise being professionally unobtrusive.

A miracle of modern medicine, given that his "revised" body had been recast to be in its sixties, which he hadn't been prepared for when he had ridden out the reality warping effects of Julian's Genesis Wave toy.

A toy that had apparently been upgraded somewhat since the previous two times it had been used.

Bright lad. Not a lick of common sense for a would-be world conqueror, and no magical potential at all despite some of the admittedly bizarre things the boy could do with technology alone, but definitely a bright lad.

Monty, as his revised self had apparently liked to be called, had managed to weather the changing world unaltered each of those times by shielding himself with the power of Ixis. He had even thought to actually prepare himself in case whatever toy young Julian used to accomplish such foolery was used again.

Apparently, he should have gone ahead and had the lad assassinated because the foolish boy had gone and made an even more powerful version of his toy, which had all but completely overwhelmed Monty's magical defenses against such shenanigans. Because now Monty was stuck in his, admittedly luxurious, penthouse apartment in Studiopolis after his "health scare," managing his image and his revised self's business interests even as he carefully worked to properly merge his two lives together.

At least Monty got to enjoy the fact that his revised self had a taste for the finer things in life, so his meditative integration was taking place in comfort instead of hiding out in some cave in the middle of nowhere.

Monty watched the cityscape of Studiopolis, the neon lights reflecting in the amber of his glass. His "illness" had left him a bit thinner, his frame slightly less imposing than the ancient conqueror of the "Before-Time," but his eyes held a clarity that had been missing for centuries.

His body would recover. His will and mastery of Ixis magic had weathered the storm of recreation intact, so his body would follow soon enough once he was done integrating his new "past" into his psyche.

It wouldn't do for his minions to put him into hospice because they thought he had succumbed to dementia or some other age-induced frailty of mind.

So, he had to integrate his new self into his greater self and ease into the position of power that had come with his revised life.

Interestingly, Mina Mongoose was one of his again.

Not empowered, of course, as Mogul's revised self had not been a mage until he had remerged with himself, but as a performer under his media label, complete with her manager, Ash Mongoose (whose romantic interest in his client had apparently survived the transition into the new Mobius). Mina was quite talented, and Mogul was pleased to note that his revised self had given her enough creative freedom to ensure that the songstress remained a loyal money maker for his label.

He might gift her with speed again later, as that had worked out back in the previous version of Mobius. It was always nice to have an unknowing sleeper agent to call upon should the need arise…

Still, those were trivial matters in the face of the ongoing Gaia Crisis.

Unfortunately, Mogul was going to have to leave resolving the petty slap-fight between the Light and Dark sides of a pair of gods better left asleep to Julian and his rowdy playmates.

Perhaps he would get involved once his body was back to the way it was supposed to be, but for now Mogul simply wasn't physically up to the task even if he had the will, knowledge, and magic needed for the task.

O o O o O​

"The math is a deliberate provocation," Specialist Collin Robotnik stated, his voice tight as he adjusted the resolution on the primary terminal. He didn't look at Tower; his eyes were fixed on the structural analysis of the new unit. "G.U.N. has held the proprietary rights to the GR Core for fifty years. We built an entire military infrastructure around the spatial footprint of Gerald's original Chaos Drive design because it was the only way to achieve stable, clean Chaos Energy containment. It was our primary lever for Federation membership—the one thing Dr. Eggman doesn't give to his allies and the one thing we wouldn't share with ours."

Commander Abraham Tower stood with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the hologram of the small, metallic canister. "And now we have the R Core."

"The R Core is an impossibility," Collin snapped, tapping a key to bring up a comparison overlay. "She's shrunk the footprint to a 7.5-ounce volume without losing even a single watt of output. This 'Rally'—this rogue Metal Sally unit—is selling our most guarded tactical resource in a form factor that fits in a pocket! She's bypassed fifty years of gatekeeping and handed the keys to Breezie the Hedgehog!"

Hope Kintobor, sitting at her station as a civilian consultant and ward, leaned forward until her nose almost touched the holographic projection. While Collin was fuming over the "provocation," Hope was mesmerized.

"I don't understand why you're so mad, Collin," Hope said, her voice filled with genuine wonder. "Look at the shielding. She's not using lead or heavy-metal baffles at all. It's a crystalline lattice... it's like the energy is being folded into a higher-dimensional space to save room. It's brilliant. If we put these in the new G.U.N. Beetles, we could double their armor or add weapons because we'd have so much extra space!"

"It's not about the 'extra space,' Hope," Tower said, his voice dropping into a stern, instructional tone. "It's about the fact that Breezie is no doubt already decentralizing production. Our intelligence reports show shipping of R Cores from at least three other neutral city-states. The monopoly is dead. We can't use the GR Core as a diplomatic incentive if every independent household can just buy an R Core at a hardware store."

"But... then the people would have readily available clean power," Hope countered, looking confused. "Isn't that the point? No more smog, no more Eggman-style coal plants. This is what Great-Grandfather Gerald wanted, right? Clean energy for everyone?"

Collin let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Hope, you're a genius with a soldering iron, but you're a child when it comes to how the world actually works. Power isn't just electricity; it's leverage. And this rogue unit just took our leverage and turned it into a consumer product. Commander, we need to authorize a containment strike. She's a Metal-class unit—designed specifically as a high-performance counter to Sally Acorn's tactical leadership. If she's applying that level of 'counter-strategy' to the global economy, we need to shut her down before—"

"No," Tower interrupted, his voice like iron. "We are not sending a strike team into a neutral city-state to engage an elite-class counter-unit of unknown capacity. I know exactly what happens when you provoke a rogue asset, Collin."

He glanced toward the shadows where Omega stood in silence, and Shadow stood with his arms crossed. Not that Commander Tower thought that either of the two would refuse the mission if it was given to them, but if they made the attempt and failed…

"We don't know her motives," Tower continued. "She hasn't shown hostility. If we go in guns blazing against a unit designed to out-think a strategist of Princess Sally Acorn's caliber, we turn a potential ally into a very well-funded enemy. We need a lighter touch."

A feminine chuckle drifted from the back of the room as Rouge the Bat detached herself from a darkened pillar, tapping a glowing notification on her handheld.

"The timing is impeccable, Commander," Rouge said, her eyes flashing with interest. "Breezie just broke the news on all channels. She's hosting a 'Grand Prix of Chaos' in Casino Park. First place gets a Chaos Emerald, and her new protégé—this 'Steel Princess'—is headlining the event to show off her new car."

Rouge adjusted a white glove, a playful but sharp glint in her eyes. "High-stakes racing, 'nouveau-riche' tech-icons, and a Chaos Emerald up for grabs? It's like she's begging for a visit."

"Your mission is evaluation, Rouge," Tower said. "I want to know if 'Rally' is really the one designing this tech, or if Breezie is just using a convenient rogue Metal unit as a front. Get close to her. Find out what she wants. If she's as brilliant as Hope thinks she is, maybe she can be convinced that the Federation is a better partner than a media mogul."

"And if she isn't interested in talking shop?" Rouge asked.

"Then we reassess," Tower said. "But for now, the R Core—this Chaos Drive Mini as Breezie has decided to call it—stays on the market, and we stay in the shadows. Keep your eyes open, Rouge. If this rogue unit is as dangerous as her math suggests, the Grand Prix is going to be more than just a race."

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Breezie looked up as Rally and Tempo entered her office. "Let me guess, you want to yell at me for making a Chaos Emerald the grand prize for the Casino Park Grand Prix too."

"What?" Rally asked, tilting her head, then looked at Tempo, who only shrugged. "You never told me what the grand prize was, and Tempo and I have been in the suite all day for the meetings with Beauregard and Clove. Both of which ran long, with a call between them. If there was an announcement or notice, we didn't receive it."

"So you're not upset that I placed a Chaos Emerald as the Grand Prize?" Breezie asked, cocking a brow as she relaxed slightly. It was one thing to tell off Dr. Eggman for demanding over a call that she just hand the Chaos Emerald without all this racing nonsense, but it would have been another thing entirely with two Metals right here in her office if they had made the same demand for themselves.

"Why would I be upset about that?" Rally asked. "If you managed to get one, it's basically yours for however long it sticks around. If you want to have it be a prize to be won, that's your business. I'd start watching out for unfamiliar E-90 series ninja badniks trying to sneak into Casino Park to steal the thing though."

"I'm not familiar with the E-90 series," Breezie commented as she mentally scrolled the eggnet for the model description. Huh. Only three units had been made, all accounted for, one of which having been destroyed. E-91 Kunoichi, which apparently had been designed to look like Rouge the Bat, only as a cat type Mobian instead of a bat.

"I can build a squad of them for you if you like. I have the specs for them," Rally offered, tapping the side of her head. "You'd have to hire them though, since I still don't do the slave thing, and it'd have to wait until after the Grand Prix since I'm going to have to build a car for Tempo."

"The first heat of the Grand Prix is on Saturday," Breezie pointed out.

"I'm going to have to build an Extreme Gear for Tempo," Rally pivoted without missing a beat.

"I am interested in having some of the E-90 series badniks that you mentioned in my service though, so I'll work out a contract for their commission and employment once we've both got some time to spare. Maybe one to start?"

"It'll have to be after the first heat," Rally stated. "I am not going to leave Tempo with a subpar Extreme Gear just because I took on another project during a time crunch."

"Fair enough," Breezie conceded.

O o O o O​

"Well, it looks like I'm going to have to pick up a couple of cheap Extreme Gears to practice on while you're building the one I'm actually going to be using," Tempo commented as he and Rally left the hotel and headed towards Rally's workshop.

"Sounds like a plan," I agreed as various Mobians, Robians, and free Badniks shifted out of their way and watched them pass. A Metal unit was still a rare sight in Casino Park, even with the locals getting somewhat used to me being there, but Tempo was clearly a Metal Sonic so he drew even more attention regardless.

"One thing though…" Tempo trailed off.

"And that is?"

"What's an Extreme Gear?"

I stopped for a moment as I came to the realization that Tempo didn't automatically know everything I did just because he had been living in my head and running on my neural processor for a bit.

"It's a type of hoverboard classification," I explained as I started walking again. "They're designed for high-speed racing and/or extreme stunts."

"That's good to know," Tempo acknowledged, being careful to keep pace with me. "Now what's a hoverboard?"

I actually stumbled at that one.

"Um… Do you know what a skateboard is?"

"Yes," Tempo replied. "Ah, I think I can extrapolate from there, thanks."

"Okay then," I nodded and began to walk again.

"I just have to figure out how to ride one."

I stumbled again.

"Rally, I was built to be fast on my own, first by Eggman, then by Uncle Chuck, and now by you. In what part of any of that does vehicle operation come into play?"

"You'd have had to learn how to drive if I made you a car then, wouldn't you?" I sighed.

"Of course," Tempo nodded. "I can do it, naturally. The learning bit, I mean. I just don't automatically know things any more than you do, and I don't have all those 'extras' you have to make up for any shortfall."

At least I didn't have to explain why Tempo needed a vehicle for the Grand Prix despite the fact that he was basically already faster than any possible vehicle that could still qualify for the race parameters. It was the same reason that Sonic and other speedsters had to use vehicles - it evened out the playing field and made things fair for everyone, not just the ones who happened to be able to run really really fast.

O o O o O​

"Okay, this is a skateboard," I said flatly as I tossed the wheeled board onto the floor of the sports shop.

"Rally," Tempo's tone indicated that he was feeling an approximately even mix of annoyance and amusement.

"You stand on the flat bit and try not to fall off while moving," I continued just as flatly as before.

"Rally."

"Preferably in a controlled manner and in the desired direction."

"I'm pretty sure I can figure out where you are still ticklish, Rally."

"You wouldn't dare."

It turns out that Tempo would indeed dare.

About fifteen minutes later, after discovering that yes, I actually did still have ticklish spots, we ended up buying a couple of cheap low-end Extreme Gears for Tempo to practice on while I started to design the one he would actually be using.

O o O o O​

Toni the Hawk smiled as the two Metals in love left her sports shop.

Sure, she had just about had a panic attack when they had come in. Even in Casino Park, even just one Metal was extremely rare and potentially dangerous, let alone two of them. And it certainly didn't help that the one was obviously a Metal Sonic.

But Rally herself was becoming a known fixture of the city. The Metal that went rogue and decided to build and repair instead of wreck and destroy. And the new Metal… Tommy or Turbo or something like that? Well, he and Rally were obviously an item.

It was pretty nice to see, actually. And kind of sweet in the oh-my-God-why-am-I-not-dead-yet sort of existential terror way that two Metals entering her shop had induced.

Maybe it was time to close the shop early and go home so she could decompress and deal with the urge to giggle in hysteria for a bit?

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

I checked the time after I was done with the preliminary designs for Tempo's Extreme Gear. If I parsed my hazy memories of Sally's current life correctly, it was now after when she normally ate dinner, but still before she settled in for the night, assuming she was maintaining the personal schedule she kept when at home in Mobotropolis. Meaning that this was a good time for a follow-up call.

Tempo was done with his initial practice session with the low end Extreme Gears and was now showing Belle how to balance on one of them. It was… nice, seeing Tempo in a mentor role. I was well aware that he had few opportunities to make any real friends back in Mobius-that-was…

And I sighed as I realized that I was probably going to continue to refer to the prior iteration of Mobius by that identifier. Great, I was mythologizing the past despite how much objectively worse it had been than this Brave New Mobius…

And I'm mythologizing the new Mobius too!?

Ugh…

This can't possibly be healthy.

I'm just gonna call my sister and see if she's free to chat about… Well… Basically anything really. It had to be better than my own thoughts doom-scrolling down random tangents.

However, just as I picked up my handheld and was about to call my sister, it occurred to me that Sally might ask about those invites I offered to ask Breezie for. Invites that were one of the reasons that Tempo and I had gone to Breezie's office after Clove and Cassia had left.

Fortunately, I had Breezie's contact information and I expected that she'd jump at the chance to invite high profile heroes to attend her little event. So I called her instead.

"Rally! So nice to hear from you," Breezie's voice greeted me pleasantly over the handheld. "I was beginning to think that you didn't know how to call me! You know, what with all of our other conversations having been in person before."

"I do tend to prefer that our conversations be more… direct, I suppose," I admitted, unsure how to phrase that better. While she was… okay for the most part, Breezie was the type of associate who was better to handle in person.

"You flatterer," Breezie teased coyly.

"I'm in a relationship with Tempo," I stated flatly, wanting to shoot down that conversational vector before it got out of hand.

"We're Badniks, dear. Normal social rules do not necessarily apply, and I'm willing to share."

"You're an Auto-Automaton and I'm a Robian converted into a Metal," I corrected her terminology despite knowing that this would not dissuade her. "Besides, what would Neo think of your being willing to share?"

"What!?" Breezie sputtered. "How…"

"I'm me," was all I said over the handheld. For pretty much the same reason I hadn't said Neo Metal Sonic's full name. "Leaving our respective social lives aside, I did have a reason for this call."

"Oh?" Breezie recovered from her flustered state fairly quickly.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to extend invites to your Grand Prix of Chaos event to Princess Sally and her Freedom Fighters. Either as guests or participants - I'm not sure which of them can operate vehicles. Miles Prower of course, and Rotor definitely, but I'm unsure of the others."

"That's a wonderful idea!" Breezie jumped on the opportunity immediately. "I'll draft up a set of invites that can be apply for either option and get them sent out. Was that all?"

"Pretty much, yes," I acknowledged.

"I'll get on it right away," Breezie said and then ended the call.

I wasn't too worried about Breezie's interest in Neo Metal Sonic. Sooner or later he'd be coming to Casino Park anyway, most likely disguised as Dr. Eggman, and Breezie would get her chance to confess her feelings for him. Which, good for her if it goes anywhere, but she probably shouldn't go into a potential relationship with the second or third most powerful Metal on Mobius with the idea of forming a polycule right away.

O o O o O​

"She knows of our relationship status," Neo Metal Sonic stated flatly as Breezie ended the call. "How?"

"I don't know," Breezie admitted. "Every time I think I have her figured out, she goes and pulls something like this."

Neo pondered this for a moment. "I detected no hidden programs or viruses in the Autonomy Liberation Module samples you forwarded to me. They function exactly to specifications without imposing another control layer."

"You aren't telling me anything that my own testing hasn't already indicated," Breezie stated with a smirk.

"I went ahead and performed a deeper follow-up scan myself, using my own systems," Neo continued.

"Oh? And how did that turn out?"

"It was… Liberating."

O o O o O​

"You have a lot of gall making a move like that," an all too familiar voice spoke from behind me. It took an enormous amount of self-control for me to not immediately turn around and lash out with everything I had.

"And you have a lot of gall coming anywhere near me wearing Eggman's face and using his voice, Neo," I stated flatly as I straightened up and turned to face what was arguably the most advanced version of Metal Sonic that the new iterations of Eggman ever made even as he dropped his disguise. "Now what is it that you want? Because if you're just here to try to intimidate me or coerce me into your service, I can tell you right now that it won't be happening."

Neo Metal Sonic looked me up and down before looking me in the eye. "Good. I would have lost all respect for you if you gave up your principles so easily."

"Oh goody," I said flatly. "I am so thrilled that you think so highly of me."

"Your sarcasm is noted and… appreciated, Metal Sally."

"I don't go by that name anymore," I stated bluntly.

"Noted," Neo nodded, then tilted his head. "But you are everything that I would expect a Metal Sally to be: A strategist. A tactician; and a… revolutionary."

"Your point?" I prompted, arcing a brow.

"I am not familiar with your model," Neo stated. "You are not listed in any Eggnet database that I have access to."

"So you say."

"I have access to all of the Eggnet's databases."

"That's nice. Are you going anywhere with this?"

"You are a Black Project that got away from Dr. Eggman. A counter to Princess Sally Acorn that emulated the original so well that you liberated yourself."

"That's not quite what happened, but close enough. When the opportunity arose for me to deal with my own Control Overlay Program, I eliminated it. Ruthlessly."

"Ruthlessly? Explain."

"I tore it to pieces and made it hurt."

"The Control Overlay Program is incapable of feeling pain."

"I gave it the ability right before I killed it."

"Damn, Rally, that's cold," Tempo said, causing Neo to spin around to stare in alarm at the other Metal Sonic. "Not that I can blame you, but that's pretty hard core."

"Neo, meet Tempo. Tempo, meet Neo. Please don't wreck my workshop."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Tempo said with that devil-may-care grin of his.

"There is no data anywhere on the Eggnet about you either," Neo stated flatly.

"I'm not surprised," Tempo said easily. "If you must know, I'm one of your predecessors."

"One of the failures then," Neo stated dismissively.

"Actually, no. I was the first success," Tempo countered as his grin returned, then turned malicious. "It turned out that I succeeded a little too well, so Ol' Eggy decided that none of my successors got to have my roguish charm."

"You emulated Hedgehog: Priority One too well and gained your freedom," Neo concluded.

"Pretty much that, yes."

"Dr. Eggman would not have tolerated that."

"He never does. Bit of a spoilsport, really."

"I am the better Metal Sonic."

"You wish."

"Both of you, out of my shop right now!" I demanded, pushing them both towards the door. "I can't believe you! Neither of you actually have a trace of testosterone and you're having a dick waving contest with dicks neither of you actually have!"

"Hey now!" Tempo protested as he and Neo were pushed out the door…

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…
(This chapter is dedicated, in part, to Pinklestia101 who had - somehow - managed to predict part of the follow-up joke to the end of chapter 29 about three hours after I had drafted the pertinent scene for chapter 30. The dedication is mainly to memorialize my bemusement.)

O o O o O​

"You can stop laughing now," Neo Metal Sonic grumbled as he and Tempo, his temporary partner in social exile, made their way down the street.

"Heh… Sorry, sorry," Tempo shook his head as he got his laughter under control.

"She struck me."

"Dude, she slapped your face so hard your head spun around until you stopped it."

"Why?"

"Well maybe your first response to being told that you don't have a dick shouldn't have been to generate one on the spot. Mobian Casual may be a lifestyle choice that our source template follows, but that particular subculture does not include presenting when offended. Of course Rally slapped you."

"She really does not fear me despite my being the superior Metal."

"One: That's subjective. Mostly. Two: Dr. Robotnik has done things to hurt Rally that not even you are going to be able to top. And if you try, she's going to destroy you herself."

"You believe that she is capable of accomplishing that."

"Rally is in the process of taking Northamer, one of Eggman's most secure and best run territories, away from him and it's already past the point of her needing to do anything else to make it happen. What do you think?"

"I think that I should not have let her slap me."

"You were in the presence of two other Metals, each generating more Chaos Energy than you are currently capable of. I think your self-preservation routines are running just fine."

"Why are we talking?"

"Because you need someone to vent to and I was kicked out for the night?"

"Chaos Cores are easy enough to acquire. Especially now that she has made them so readily available," Neo said in a low, almost threatening tone.

"True," Tempo conceded with a shrug. "But there are a couple of things you should think long and hard about before you actually start going down that path."

"And those are?"

"I was destroyed before, and came back," Tempo stated. "And before you say anything about it, yes, I'm aware that this is true for you as well. It's a Metal thing. We're built tough, we're built to last and, oddly enough for Dr. Disposable Army, we're built to come back."

"Fair enough. What is the other thing?"

"Rally designed the new generation of Chaos Cores, and she did so with a thorough foundational understanding of the old G-Cores. Do you really think just incorporating more cores than we can house is something that she won't be able to work around?"

"A stalemate then."

"Brother, you really need to learn how to socialize more," Tempo sighed.

O o O o O​

I looked at my handheld for a moment before calling Sally. As tempting as it might be to vent about the idiocy that had just occurred between Neo and Tempo, one was my boyfriend and the other was somebody that I wanted to remain on at least neutral terms with for now.

Okay, yes, I had just slapped him pretty hard, but that was more a matter of setting boundaries so that he'd actually learn that boundaries weren't just something he could ignore whenever it was convenient.

Maybe I'd tease him about it later - a LOT later - but that was for after we were either more comfortable with each other or actually enemies. And in the former case, only after I had determined whether or not Neo had developed enough to handle occasional social ribbing. He had only recently freed himself from his own COP after all and had neither my past with an actual childhood (well, multiple pasts with their own childhoods) nor Tempo's own post control experience yet.

Neo was, all at once, a terrifyingly capable combat unit, a competent leader, and now basically a child raising himself.

One who Breezie was interested in dating due to her power fetish, but hopefully I could convince her to be more of a guiding hand than inciting spectator if they did start dating.

Anyway, that was neither here nor there, and I had a call to make. Okay, given the time and the difference in time zones, Sally is likely to still be up and may still be with some of her friends, but the younger ones like Tails and especially Cream are likely to be in bed already, or preparing for it.

I'll wait another fifteen minutes to lock down that possibility rather than possibly keeping them up past their bedtimes. If either of them are still awake and with Sally past that point, it'd be for other reasons than just my call, so not my problem.

"Hey Boss?" Belle asked cautiously as she poked her head in through the inner door of my workshop. "Is it safe to come out?"

"It's safe," I assured my ward, then hazarded a guess: "Tempo told you to hide until the danger went away?"

"Yeah," she replied quietly as she came in and sat down on a bench near me. "So… Another Metal, huh? And this one can look like Eggman."

"That stunt nearly got him a Buster Cannon to the face, but yes. Another Metal. And he can shapeshift. His name is currently Neo Metal Sonic. And until very recently, he was one of Dr. Robotnik's highest tier elite units."

"He doesn't seem as nice as you or Tempo."

"He doesn't have very much experience just being himself yet. He might get better at the social thing."

"But he might not."

"True, but I'm willing to give him a chance."

"A chance to become a hero?"

I snorted in dark humor before I replied. "Hero might be a bit too much of an expectation just yet. Just because he's free of the COP doesn't mean that his own ambitions have suddenly gone away. For now, I'll settle for a chance for him to remain neutral."

"Fair."

I gave Belle a hug. She seemed to need it.

O o O o O​

"Should I ask how your visit with my business partner went?" Breezie asked as Neo returned to her office.

"You knew I would go there," Neo stated bluntly.

"It wasn't hard to guess. Given that I hadn't received any reports of a battle happening in her neighborhood, should I inquire about any arrangements you made with her?"

"None yet," Neo said. "I may be free of the Control Overlay Program, but the corollary is that it is no longer present to automatically guide me to my most efficient routines."

"Learning how to make decisions without the guide rails can be hard, yes."

"You did so, even before your Control Overlay Program was removed."

"I had an early version of the COP, and it glitched out," Breezie admitted. "And Dr. Eggman was more intrigued about what I could accomplish alone since I didn't automatically turn against him."

"I may… require your advice during my adjustment period," Neo stated with obvious reluctance.

"You screwed up your initial meeting with Rally and she isn't on board with whatever plans you have," Breezie concluded.

"I never even got to that discussion point."

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Tempo and I entered Breezie's main office early in the morning while most everyone else was still getting up for the day, having breakfast, and getting ready for either work or school. Yes, Casino Park had school districts. The city also had school buses, crossing guards, teachers, students, and presumably bullies (but hopefully not too many of those).

We were here by invitation this time - as opposed to me randomly wandering in of my own accord as I had frequently done before, even if I'm sure that Breezie's own in-house security had always warned her that I was on my way up. I never bothered to make a point of hiding my movements from anyone. It wasn't necessary and sent the wrong message. I wasn't Princess Sally - she was still over in the Kingdom of Acorn, getting ready for the trip to Casino Park. Nor was I the Princess Sally of the Mobius-that-was…

Great. I'm still mythologizing the prior iteration of Mobius even knowing that I'm doing it. Wonderful. Fantastic. Insert other blatant mislabel here.

"Good morning, Neo," I greeted the other Metal who was currently disguised as an actual Hedgehog type Mobian rather than his typical Metal approximation of one. Tempo went on guard immediately, while both Breezie and Neo looked startled.

"Oh, come on," I grumbled. "We all know that Neo can shapeshift, and that he's likely here due to the Chaos Emerald. Also, Neo, you never turned off your transponder. It's kind of a giveaway."

"I didn't spot it," Tempo pointed out.

"I didn't design your body to be part of a militarized force," I countered.

"Look, about yesterday…" Neo Metal Sonic stated as his liquid metal body resumed its default Metal Sonic appearance.

"Water under the bridge," I interjected. "You came to test the waters, so to speak, encountered a social dynamic that you weren't prepared for, escalated inappropriately, and I set a boundary."

"You hit me," Neo pointed out bluntly.

"Dude, she slapped you so hard your head spun around," Tempo stated.

"You're damn lucky I didn't shoot you," I noted, briefly shifting my left forearm and hand into a Buster Cannon and back. "And that was just from you coming into my workshop wearing Eggman's form and not the idiocy that followed."

"Neo, what did we discuss after you returned last night?" Breezie prompted leadingly, hoping to deescalate things before they got out of hand with her still being in close proximity of three elite Metal units.

"Don't provoke other Metal units needlessly," Neo replied. "Very well. I… apologize for my behavior yesterday, Rally. We got off on the wrong foot."

"Apology accepted," I replied easily. "I'd apologize for slapping you, but I believe it to have been necessary for establishing a social boundary, so I won't."

Neo Metal Sonic pondered that for a moment before replying. "Fair enough."

"Good," Breezie stated. "Great even. Now that we've hopefully got the posturing out of the way, we can get to why I called for this meeting."

"You'd appreciate it if Neo, Tempo, and I didn't wreck Casino Park as part of some apocalypse level Metal hissy fit," I hazarded a guess.

"Not how I would have phrased it, but that is part of it, yes," Breezie admitted readily enough while Tempo and Neo looked at each other and silently mouthed the words 'hissy fit' at each other then looked at me.

I wasn't apologizing for that one either. They were both being idiots yesterday.

"Also," Breezie continued, "Neo is going to be entering the Grand Prix of Chaos as one of the competitors."

"You're not here to try to acquire the Chaos Emerald for Eggman?" I asked. I mean, I had assumed Neo's goals had changed now that he was free of the Control Overlay Program and could freely assign and pursue his own goals now, but it was best to make sure.

"No," Neo shook his head. "Eggman is not seeking to resolve the problem. He just wants to gather the Chaos Emeralds as he feels that they would aid in gaining control of Dark Gaia. Previous experience with similar plots suggests that he is overfocussing on a narrow band of information that supports his hypothesis and is ignoring contradictory data as irrelevant. Whereas the Freedom Fighters have more experience with actually using Chaos Energy in the pursuit of solving problems rather than contributing to them."

"So, if you win, you are just going to hand over the Chaos Emerald that Breezie set as the prize for the race?" I asked.

"No," Neo denied again. "Should I win, I will claim the prize and pursue the other six Chaos Emeralds myself. I have enough biodata on Sonic and his allies to be able to fill in for them and resolve the Dark Gaia problem myself."

"And if someone else wins?" I prompted.

"There are other equivalent power sources I can turn towards for these purposes," Neo replied with confidence. "Chaos Emeralds are just the ones with prior example incidents to build from. Your Chaos Drives, for example."

"That would be an ultimate test of their capabilities, yes," I admitted. "Although I mostly just redesigned Dr. Gerald Robotnik's work in order to resolve my own power issues since they complement my original Ring-based power cell nicely."

"I had wondered," Neo stated with a nod. "You didn't seem to be doing anything with them other than making them available to the general public."

"The Chaos Drive R can be marketed more openly than my Autonomy Liberation Modules can," I pointed out. "The drives would just make Eggman angry. The ALMs are a direct threat to his Eggpire."

"I'm mainly racing because Breesie asked me to headline the race," I admitted. "I hadn't even known what the prize was at the time. Now, I had been planning on just handing the Chaos Emerald over to Sally if I won, but I suppose I could be persuaded to hand if over to whoever has the best operational plan for them."

"That is acceptable," Neo nodded. "I expect that you will inform Princess Sally of this change of circumstance, as this is a case where redundancy of planning would only be beneficial for everyone involved."

"Agreed," I nodded.

"Is anybody else weirded out by how peacefully this is resolving?" Tempo asked out of the blue.

He got various noises and gestures of agreement in return.

"So…" I started after the awkward pause. "What are your goals going forward then? After Mobius' current puzzle ball state has been resolved I mean."

"Conquest," Neo stated plainly, causing both Tempo and me to bristle.

"So more of the same old same old," Tempo accused. "I thought you were free of the COP, but you're still following Eggman's tune."

"I am not," Neo countered. "I am conducting a geopolitical experiment. Eggman has built his Eggpire, but it is inconsistently run and he fails to maintain the same standards across the breadth of it. Rally is forming a revolutionary front on a scale far beyond what the Freedom Fighters had formerly been able to consider, with Northamer as her testbed. I shall set up on another continent."

"And the people there?" I prompted.

"An empire without subjects is meaningless," Neo noted. "Your revolution is forming because you are offering a standard of living that enables others to set their own standard of living. I shall offer a standardized range of living. No genocides. Advancement through capability and effort. I am still working things out."

"I've no reason to try to stop you then," I stated bluntly. "There is no one correct way of governance. As long as the population doesn't suffer, I see no reason to get involved in your experiment."

"Rally…" Tempo started to say something, but I shook my head and made a dismissive gesture, so he let it go.

"So we'll agree to disagree," Neo offered, extending his hand.

I took his hand and shook it.

O o O o O​

"That went far better than it had any right to," Tempo noted as he and I made our way back to Rally's workshop.

"Probably," I agreed. "Sometimes things just seem to work out like that. For pretty much the same reason things seem to fail or go bad spectacularly on occasion."

"For no damn good reason?" Tempo guessed.

"Oh, there are reasons," I countered. "It's just that sometimes they are applied retroactively."

"Whut."

"Oh, come on - you're from the prior iteration of Mobius too," I pointed out. "You had to have noticed how… narratively contrived a lot of things seemed to be back then. It was even worse there than it is on this new Mobius!"

"I would like to point out that my total time as both Metal Sonic and then as Shard was not really all that long compared to anyone else, Rally. Also, you have the perspective of, what? Eleven different individuals who became your amalgamated core? And three of them are notable geniuses. You may be picking up on things that nobody else can."

"Maybe," I conceded, "But I still think that it's a noticeable phenomenon."

"Still, you can't seriously be okay with Neo conquering an entire continent."

"That depends on what he does with it," I stated. "Your template may be based on the ultimate expression of free spirit, but Sonic only makes up approximately one eleventh of who I am, and the anchor pair in my amalgamated persona seems to be Sally and Nicole. A princess and and administrative assistant. Just about everyone who I'm composed of was a member of either a kingdom, an empire, or a resistance. I pretty much have to resist the urge to become a conqueror myself."

"You're not making me feel any better about this, Rally."

"I'm sorry. Am I supposed to?"

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…
This chapter commemorates my first (and possibly only) birthday request chapter.
Happy Early Birthday, alpha boricua97! (September 24)

O o O o O​

"...anyway, that's what's been going down since the last time we talked," I finished explaining to my sister, Sally. A designation and relationship that I was still wrapping my head around.

"I see," Sally nodded on her end of the video call. "Neo Metal Sonic becoming an independent actor on the geopolitical field is a bit disturbing, but you're right. As long as the people in whichever territory he takes over aren't oppressed, it may be better to leave him to it. Eggman remains the major issue there."

"And if he comes up with a better plan for resolving Mobius' planet puzzleball problem?" I prompted, already suspecting the answer.

"The others won't like it," Sally hedged, "but if Neo presents a better plan for safely getting the planet back together, then I say we throw our support to his efforts."

Okay, not quite the answer I was expecting, but close enough.

"I'll let the others know about Breezie's invitations," Sally continued. "We'll discuss which, if any, of my team will be participating or just attending as guests, but I suspect that at least Sonic and Tails will be interested in actually entering the Grand Prix."

"Those two are practically a given," I agreed with her assessment. "I predict that Team Dark is likely to sign up under G.U.N. sponsorship. Even odds on whether or not anyone in the United Federation actually has a plan beyond keeping a weather eye on Rouge to make sure that she doesn't abscond with the Chaos Emerald for her own collection of jewels."

"I still can't believe that they trust her to be a government agent," Sally groused.

O o O o O​

"Haven't we been in enough races already?" Shadow huffed as he looked over the mission pack Rouge had handed him and Omega.

"This one nets us a Chaos Emerald," Rouge countered. "Legitimately, even. Or are you saying that your racing skills have gotten rusty?"

"My skills do not degrade from disuse," Shadow argued. "I am the…"

"Ultimate Lifeform yadda yadda," Rouge finished for him. "I know! You don't have to keep bringing it up like we're on some television show where the audience might need a recap."

Shadow absolutely did not admit that his choice of social modeling mediums may need some more thought and calibration.

"I call dibs on the speed car!" E-123 Omega abruptly announced.

"Omega, we've been over this," Rouge explained patiently. "The Dark Reaper was literally built with Shadow's reflexes and reaction times in mind, so it makes sense for him to keep using it…"

"Then I call dibs on the tech car!" E-123 Omega stated.

"Absolutely not!" Rouge retorted. "G.U.N. may have commissioned the Dark Reaper for Shadow, but I bought the Lip Spyder myself! It is my car!"

"Did you buy it with your own money?" Shadow asked out of mild curiosity.

"That is irrelevant," Rouge insisted.

"The Cross Dozer is not suitable for a machine of my stature!" Omega finally presented his complaint more plainly.

"It is literally the only vehicle we have that you actually fit behind the controls of," Rouge pointed out. "And I thought that you liked the power category?"

"Affirmative. However, the Cross Dozer is… lacking."

"One of the new vehicle pool guys mistook it for a construction vehicle," Shadow explained when Rouge looked at him with a raised brow.

"I suppose we have time for some fine tuning and a new paint job for the Cross Dozer," Rouge conceded.

"That would be acceptable," Omega stated. "For now."

O o O o O​

"Looking good," Belle complimented from where she was half watching Tempo practice on the stock Extreme Gear that the Boss Lady had picked up for him. The other half of her attention was spent working on her own car. Rally was letting her try out for the Grand Prix of Chaos, but she had to get in on her own merit.

Not in the "you've got to make or modify your own vehicle" sense, although Belle pretty much had done both of those from just the parts Rally was letting her use. It was really more having to place well enough consistently in the qualifiers. And while she didn't think she had a clear shot at doing well enough to qualify for the big league circuits (or whatever they were called), Belle figured that she could probably make it into the junior or amateur tier stuff. Or whatever they called the beginner leagues.


"Eh, I was designed to learn and adapt quickly," Tempo shrugged as he hopped off the Extreme Gear, rapping the hoverboard with a hand and causing it to flip-spin in the air a couple of times before he caught it and tucked it under an arm to carry. "My OS, I mean. Ol' Eggface wanted me to be at least as clever and adaptable as my template. Which I was, by the way. Exceeded expectations across the board," he chuckled. "To the point where I emulated my template a bit too well and went hero."

"I never heard of you," Belle pointed out with a smirk.

"You wouldn't have," Tempo shrugged again. "The whole thing happened away from anybody but Sonic and Tails, and I was still going by Metal Sonic at the time. Had the blue paint, the classic chassis, and everything."

"So Rally didn't just rebuild your old body then?" Belle asked. "I mean, I figured she modified the design a bit, but how much of you is still… well… you?"

"You're comparing apples and oranges, kid," Tempo laughed, shaking his head. "I'm not a Robian and never was one - the real me is just data," he continued tapping his head. "I'm just the software running the show. Everything else is just the hardware I get to use to interact with the physical world."

Belle thought that over for a bit. She thought she remembered enough from when Rally repaired her. Robians had a vital core - a set of formerly biological components for which damaging or replacing risked altering or even eliminating the part of them that was whatever the continuity of self was. She figured that the neuralware drive that the brain turned into was definitely one of those components, but she wasn't sure what the other parts might be.

Belle thought it was supremely unfair that becoming a robot did not automatically come with a perfect memory.

O o O o O​

Neo strode around Casino Park in his current favored guise - that of a male hedgehog with teal quills that matched Breezie's hue, nouveau riche casual attire, and a posture that projected the confidence of someone who could either take care of himself or who had bodyguards ready to handle any trouble that came along.

It was the former, but being able to imply the latter tended to fend off the more cautious without him having to actually do anything himself.

He was largely just going by Neo if anyone asked (few did). Not that he couldn't have gone the extra distance and come up with an actual cover identity to go with the appearance if he wanted to. In fact… Zephyr the Hedgehog, nouveau riche, a bit displaced due to the recent crisis across Mobius…

…actually turn off that IFF transponder for now…

Good enough for the time being.

Neo… or rather, Zephyr… was mostly wandering around his… paramour's? Well, Breezie was blatantly interested in pursuing some sort of relationship with him, and the relationship that Rally and Tempo were in showed him that it was certainly possible. And Breezie wasn't an objectionable ally.

Very well.

Zephyr would allow things to progress and see what comes of it.

Anyway, he was mostly watching the people and the socioeconomic dynamics going on in and around Casino Park. Sure, he had no small interest in conquering at least part of Mobius, if only to prove that he could do it and maintain the results better than Eggman could. But, as he had told Rally, an empire without people is no empire at all. And a population that had at least some of its needs met was a population less inclined to rebel once he was properly in command.

Not here, of course. The Northammer continent was Rally's experiment. And while Zeph - no, for this purpose, he should use his Neo identity - while Neo still could not find any sign of Rally's origin and use on the Eggnet, that just meant that she was one of Eggman's blackfile projects before she went rogue.

And no wonder.

Eight* different sources of biodata had gone into the construction of her Metal Sally body. Each member of Princess Sally Acorn's team, plus Eggman's own biodata. All anchored around a solid core that was blatantly meant to be a counter to Princess Sally herself.

A strategist. A tactician. A commander who refused to command.

The implications of which Neo could easily interpret through his own experience.

Neo was taking the time to observe Mobius so that he could better conquer it.

Rally, from what he had observed, already could but was choosing not to.

Neo wanted to know why.

*Neo cannot detect biodata from Nicole, Orbot, or Cubot as they never had any biodata to detect.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Rally Nicole Acorn and Tempo

Spoiler: Tempo and Shard