There had to be an explanation.
Sure, the incident may have appeared to practically exute normalcy when viewed and analyzed by an outsider looking in, what with it resembling the average fight between him and Sonic, complete with snarky one-liners, Doctor Eggman hurling orders at him, on occasion, the slightest amount of bloody gore, a lightning fast pace, and Metal losing (only by a diminutive error, he would later claim), but he knew better. Metal had reanalyzed the idiosyncratic scene 27.3 times and each analysis resulted in the same unsure conclusion; Sonic's quippy attitude had a hidden underlying message that he simply couldn't decode.
The battle started off like most did. After he snagged the Chaos emerald like the doctor ordered him to, Sonic appeared after what seemed like forever (it had been a while since the last of their fights and, though it confused him greatly, Metal Sonic had strangely begun to miss it) and attempted to swipe the gem from his hand, though Metal's superior speedy dodging and sharp attacks prolonged the fight.
That was when the tone of the fight began to shift.
As per usual, the blue blur began throwing witty comments about him and Metal ("Too slow!" "Catch up, Metalhead!" etc.), mostly pertaining to speed. However, the lighthearted jabs and clever jokes gradually morphed into complements ("Heh, keep that up and you might even get almost as fast as me! Almost.") and began to sound as if Sonic was hinting at something when he spoke ("Whoa, got some new tricks up your sleeve, huh? Nice."). The robot took note especially of the almost suggestive tone in his counterpart's voice in the simple line "Ha! How do you like that~?" (he tried to ignore, however, the few extra jolts of electricity that shot through his circuits placed where his spine would be, if he had one, upon hearing said line).
The confusion fully set in upon receiving the suggestion to "Try and keep up, Mets!". Mets? Where could that come from? Metalhead he could understand, due to it's insulting nature, but Mets? That couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a pet name! The realization left the botnick so shocked and flustered that his counterpart, met with the sound of Metal's internal fans whirling intensely in a desperate attempt to cool down the overheated and, consequently, bright red metal plates where his cheeks would be instead of protests or a comeback practically oozing with sarcasm, managed to wrangle the gem right out of Metal's hand. The endless data analysis and research he did suggested enemies never, unless attempting to mock said enemy, nicknamed each oth-
Wait...
Flustered?!
Red in the face!?
What on Mobus provoked that reaction from him?!
It certainly couldn't have been part of his original programming, could it? After all, what purpose could it potentially serve in combat? The concept itself made less sense than what Sonic did next.
As the blue blur whizzed by, Metal quickly recalibrated his systems and boosted himself in the same direction, hot on his target's tail. He could sort out this newly acquired information another day. At the moment, he had orders to follow and a mission to complete.
Sonic, however, didn't view the situation as seriously as his robot counterpart did, instead opting to ease up on his speed enough for Metal to catch up to him (though not so much that said robot could reach the Chaos emerald). "Ya know, Metal," he began, yanking the stone out of Metal's reach, "I was thinking, since the emerald's clearly going home with me this time," the badnik swiped at the gemstone again, missing, "and robuttnik over there probably won't be coming up with any new schemes for at least a month, I was, uh, wondering if...you and I could...maybe..." he missed again, cursing his inferior copy's luck and taking in the subtly nervous and slightly flustered look the organic hedgehog was unsuccessfully attempting to hide, "...hang out sometime?" Thrown off guard, he stopped in his tracks altogether, prompting Sonic to mimic the action. "I-I mean, if you're not, um, busy or anything."
...
"...Uh, Metal?"
...
"Mets? You still there?...Hello?"
Frozen in shock, the robotic copy internally scoffed. "Was he still there?", of course he was! Had the hedgehog gone blind? He was simply suffering from internal short circuiting due to shock at the moment, causing an inability to speak or move.
"...alrighty then, i'll take that as a no and just bring this," he held up the emerald in his hand, "back home."
The hedgehog slowly rotated around to run off into the distance, a grin plastered onto his face. "See ya around, Metalhead!" He added, giving the robot his signature thumbs up and winking before disappearing from Metal Sonic's sight and leaving him with only his thoughts.
