A twitch, a blink...

[Metallix]

...and a thin red line spread horizontally, lighting up the darkness. It was just a thin line at this point, almost like an old-school tube television with its horribly visible pixels and lines of colour. Patches of black were visible here and there in the form of breaks, and the line was fuzzy to say the least.

It blipped, and almost shrank to a red dot and then nothing... a pulse, a flash of light before the red line expanded outwards in a feeble fashion. It stretched from one side of the darkness all the way to the other, and slowly grew vertically in both directions.
Numbers and little lines - was it binary? So familiar - began to make themselves more visible as the red line eventually became more lines, many of them blinking in a violent fashion, some in a pathetic, slow manner. They were outlined in a darker red.

This didn't feel right, a consciousness mused silently.

Struggling, the consciousness began to realise that this red box of... stuff... was all it could see. This redness and a floating sensation... so comfortable, must sleep and rest...
But no. Why was this happening? Where or what was going on? No, it didn't matter... it was all neutrality right now.

Neutral. Did this mean there were other forms of existence? Was there an existence?
The red lines now pulsed a little more. Some numbers stopped flashing, and were slowly being replaced with weird patterns... as the consciousness became more aware of what was going on, it realised that these patterns were... words. It was a little confusing and jumbled, but these things dancing in front of it were most definitely words of some kind.

It was becoming clear that there was a spinning sensation here, a familiar one too. A moment of clarity made the consciousness realise that the fuzzy, comfortable feeling wasn't the one it wanted. Making a huge effort, the red light went insanely blurry - kinda like it was suffering from a huge amount of interference.
Violently, the redness stopped being lines and just became a mass of colour. The words were now much more clear... and the consciousness could understand them too.

~DIAGNOSTIC RUN COMPLETE #

The # was flashing, demanding attention. As soon as the consciousness looked at this and realised, the line of text disappeared and a new line slowly typed itself out from left to right.

~LEG HYDRAULICS 98% DAMAGE IN BOTH APPENDAGES - NOT CURRENTLY REPAIRABLE
~GYROSCOPE @ 46% DAMAGE SUSTAINED - IS APPROX. 2 HOURS FROM EMERGENCY OPERATIONAL PERMORNANCE
~87.3% OF ALL ARMOUR OBLITERATED, DENTED, BENT, BROKEN OR OTHERWISE RENDERED USELESS
~VISUAL CIRCUITRY BACKUP SUCCESSFULLY INSTALLED
~PERSONALITY PROFILE UPDATED AND READY FOR RE-IMPLEMENTATION

~REBOOTING VISUAL INPUT DRIVERS

The red blipped off, and then a circle of white appeared in the center of the being's vision - this was the viewing area, it had to be. And by the sounds of it the entity had to be a mechanoid of some kind. Yet it felt like there were some sort of higher functions available to it, that allowed it to realise the situation... slowly, at least.

The white circle expanded outwards equally, and the white blurred gently into high-def colour to reveal the scene before it.

The red letters and stuff had now turned into a familiar line green, and was sat in the bottom left of the viewing area. This rung a bell.
The actual view was weird. From what the mechanical being could tell, the surrounding area was fairly dark. And... filled with bubbles, it would appear. Slowly going from the top of the dark room to the bottom. Not that it could see the bottom, the small round spherical bubbles floating gently from a nearby green wavy thingy attached to the ceiling.

~VISUAL CHECK COMPLETE
~REINSTALLING PERSONALITY ROUTINES... CONFIRM Y/N #

Focusing on Y, the robot flinched. It became fully aware of what the hell was going on, all in the blink of an eye!
Everything flooded into his mind all at once. He realised where he was - not specifically, but he was on the bottom of a lake or an ocean, upside down.

Thinking, the robot thought back. He had been fighting against a red robot...

~PERSONALITY ROUTINES COMPLETE
~ATTEMPTING REINSERTION OF PRIMARY CODE AND MOTOR FUNCTIONS... #

Confirming the command, the robot now felt pain. This was unusual... he shouldn't be feeling pain - he was inorganic.
Thinking back, he had been afflicted with these accursed nanites long ago. And not so long ago, they'd remoulded him into an image that befit his new independence...

Independence - from whom? The red robot?

Gently, the robot moved its neck - that was still working at least, and propping the mechanoid upright against a set of nearby rocks. Forcing an arm outwards, he righted himself and sat back against the outcrop, allowing his gyro some time to settle. He really needed that ruddy thing upgrading...

He, the robot suddenly realised. He had a gender, which should be impossible. Damn nanites... damned doctor...
That was it - it all came flooding back. Robotnik, Rose, Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, F4....
That's right, he thought. I was on the way to find the Freedom Fighters, give them intel on the Empire. But there's no way of telling how long I've been down here for, so it might well be useless now. I don't even know if the hedgehog or his enemies are still alive...

Trying to stand, the robot remained motionless. The legs had ceased to function completely, all wiring looms and other essential components having been shattered by some sort of impact.

I'm not rusting and my nanites haven't begun full repairs, so it would be safe to assume that I've not been down here for too long. But I can't wait for the nanotech to hurry up... I need dry land and quick.

He had primary motor functions back, that was enough. Firing up the main thruster. it coughed and spluttered - kicking up sand clouds that blocked out the sunlight. He didn't have full visual options or filters yet, so now he was blinded.
Come on Metallix... As the robot was unable to stand under its own power, he had to blast off against the rocks behind him.
Self preservation was kicking in now; that was what drove him onwards.

Spooling up the thruster once more, it kept making an odd clicking sensation each revolution. Bend, out of shape and thus wouldn't be delivering optimal power.
But Metallix - greatest and most unique of the Metal Sonics - needed out.

A third and final time, giving it everything he had, the turbines finally began propelling him upwards. Sand, seaweed and other underwater life was sent flying out in all directions, but out the top of this a dark blue dot could be seen, head tilted back, trying and struggling to keep pointed towards the huge white ball towards the surface, that was clearly the sun.

A minor stall, and restart. The robot slowed, but was relentless in its pursuit of the surface.
Finally, Metallix broke free, water spraying outwards in an almighty display, joining Metallix in a bit for freedom from the planet's gravity - failing eventually and descending back down to the surface to rejoin the rest of the fluids below. Metallix however, remained hovering, now he didn't have gallons of water pressing him down and forcing him to remain on the floor of what appeared to be a lake.
The robot's metal surface finally saw raw and unfiltered daylight, the rays of light reflecting off the muddied carapace to reveal huge gaping holes in the torso, and the leg damage was also much more visible now - entire lumbar support panels being missing, and cables being melted to the structure in places, shorting out . The turbine was stuttering; he was running out of power and needed to land quickly.

Spinning about on the spot, the Metal Sonic spied a miraculous sight once he'd travelled about 75 degrees to his left. He could make that, easily. And where better to rebuild than somewhere with all the tech and parts he'd need? Sure, he had a phobia of the place but it'd certainly make for a temporary base of operations. And he'd need to get over that phobia eventually, some of the zones there had been created using the same technology that had been used in his own birth.

Propelling himself forwards across the lake - plumes of spray evaporating as the jet of the thruster passed overhead, Metallix eventually came to a giant chain. Using his hands to drag himself up, he deactivated the thruster. It would be a long journey to the Little Planet, but hopefully the freshly falling rain would wash a lot of the silt and dirt from his battered skin.

[Metallix]

After a period of time that a normal, fleshy person would consider "long" or "boring" in length, Metallix was still dragging himself up the massive chain. A bit more time and he'd be within the gravity well of the Little Planet and be able to descend - and that would be quicker than hauling his heavy mass upwards.

Already he could feel his left leg meshing together nicely; some of the cables were back within the carapace and the armour was folding itself back into a normal shape. The right limb was in need of a buffing up and to the naked eye, was operational.
Pulling up some schematics of his chassis in the HUD, Metallix span the wireframe around and zoomed until it came to his legs. The right one was badly mauled internally but structural integrity was going to return within the next ten minutes, so he could at least put some pressure on the limb once again.

Everywhere else on the body was still mashed up. It appeared to be the case that the nanites couldn't heal everywhere all at once, and also that they were largely ineffective underwater. So it seemed that they were working on the legs and moving up... but the feet were still in need of some R&R so there went that theory.

A slight lifting sensation crept over Metallix. As the gyro was still out, he had no real sensation of up and down other than his own intelligence. He should be heavier than this, he figured.
As he kept dragging himself along, the journey began getting easier and easier. Before long he was bracing himself against the huge links, preventing himself from sliding downwards.

He was in Little Planet space, if it disappeared now he'd be gone for a month - just like that. But that was something he could live with. A month to repair would be sufficient - but then there'd be no networks for him to infiltrate and hack into.

Throwing caution to the wind, Metallix let go of the chain. Immediately his metal body began to slide; metal on metal offering no friction and thus to resistance to gravity pulling him downwards.
Looking at where the chain ended, Metallix's eyes blipped a little. He was coming up upon the Palmtree Panic zone, and a large loop the loop loomed towards him. A large rocky landscape covered in grass, swoops and curves began to come into focus and Metallix, for the first time since reboot, felt something along the lines of happy.

[To Never Lake/Little Planet]