Metal Virus

### Description

converts anyone exposed to it into zombots contverts plant life to metallic life.

The **Metal Virus** was a synthetically manufactured virus created by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik to transform organic matter into metallic matter. Any creatures exposed to the virus became a robotic servant of Dr. Eggman. The virus was eventually purged from existence when Super Sonic and Super Silver used the Warp Topaz to extract the virus out of the infected population, and sent it into the sun, curing the planet.

## History

### Prior History

At some unknown point, either before or during the War, Dr. Eggman created the Metal Virus, a synthetic pathogen which was capable to transmutating living beings into robots.

### Post-Battle of Angel Island

After regaining his memories, Eggman began the manufacturing of the virus, as well as performing tests on its effective spreading and potency. Upon finishing his tests, he gives his new lackeys, Rough and Tumble another opportunity to fight Sonic, who had been detected in his Echo Mine base. In addition to giving the skunks a drilling mech, he gave them backpacks containing the said virus, telling them to press a button if they were defeated, not telling them that they were to be the subjects of the virus. (#12)

### Infection

While Dr. Starline made a distraction for Sonic, Eggman began conducting experiments of his Metal Virus on living creatures, plants and his robots. (#14) The skunk duo eventually reached Sonic and Amy in their drill machine. Sonic managed to outmaneuver the machine into going off a cliff and into the chasm below. Expecting some sort of weaponry, the skunks pressed the button to activate their mounted backpacks, releasing the goo contained within, to the skunks' surprise. Their surprise turned to horror as they were gradually assimilated by the goo, becoming mindless Zombots. Although Sonic trapped the two zombot skunks in a pit where they could do no harm to themselves or anyone else, he became infected with the virus due to being in physical contact with the skunks. (#15)

Following the battery of tests as well as Rough and Tumble's infection, Dr. Eggman was ready to distribute the Metal Virus across the planet. Launching his new Faceship, Eggman reintroduced himself to the world at large, starting with Windmill Village, whose residents had taken him in during his "Mr. Tinker" episode. The virus was dispensed from the Faceship and flooded the village, transforming its entire population into Zombots and contaminating all plants and wildlife. Under Eggman's command, the Zombots spread out in all directions, infecting everything and everyone in their path. (#16)

After Windmill Village, the Faceship moved on and dropped a viral payload on Seaside City. The infection spread like wildfire and the city would fall in under an hour. The Chaotix did what they could to rescue those who had not been infected, rallying them to the harbour where a Restoration shuttle would pick them up. However, they lost Charmy to the growing Zombot horde. (#17)

Eggman would next attack Floral Forest Village, home of Cream the Rabbit and her mother Vanilla. Sonic arrived on the scene as the Metal Virus was released, attempting to evacuate the villagers to the northern glade where a Restoration shuttle could extract them. While Cream and Vanilla were rescued, their Chao - Cheese and Chocola - were infected. Sonic tried to immobilize the infected Chao by trapping them inside jars, but the Zombot Chao smashed their way out after Sonic had left. It was also at this time that Eggman and Starline discovered that the Metal Virus was mutating and that the Zombots were becoming unresponsive to Eggman's voice commands. (#18)

### Crisis City

Following the saturation of Floral Forest, the Faceship then attacked Sunset City. Team Dark were on the scene during the initial outbreak, but could do little to stem the tide of the infection across such a densely populated area. Although Sonic arrived to help, his own infection made it extremely difficult to save anyone since he couldn't touch anyone without infecting them, as well. The Zombots also proved to be extremely resilient; neither Shadow the Hedgehog nor E-123 Omega were capable of significantly damaging them. (#19)

While Sonic had to run off his infection, Shadow and Omega put all their effort into holding off the Zombot hordes while Rouge the Bat led the surviving citizens to an evacuation truck. Shadow arrogantly believed that, as the ultimate life-form, he would be immune to the Metal Virus and was free to cut loose on the Zombots. This was not the case at all, however, as by the time Sonic returned to the city, Shadow had turned into a Zombot too. Whilst fending off the horde, Omega also had to confront the infected Shadow and was heavily damaged in the struggle. Before he was destroyed completely, Tails and Silver arrived in the city to help with the evacuation and Tails managed to save Omega's still-functioning head. Sonic and the other survivors fled from Sunset City and returned to Restoration HQ where Amy was attempting to coordinate relief efforts, but the Restoration's resources and personnel were too limited to handle a disaster of such magnitude. (#20)

### The Last Minute and Big's Big Adventure

   Tasked with finding out a cure for the virus, Tails heads to his lab near Central City, which housed a computer which could be used to devise a cure. However, Eggman arrived in his Faceship and deployed the Metal Virus onto the city, just as Tails had arrived. Tails managed to enter his lab after sneaking through the zombie-infested city. With the use of his computer, he managed to create a plan for the cure by using Sonic's speed. Unfortunately, Tail's power was cut, interupting the transferrance of the cure to Restoration HQ. Hoping to salvage the situation, Tails removed the memory wafer which still contained the cure, but was destroyed while the Zombots stormed into the lab. To add to Tail's misfortune, Sonic had lost his Bio-scanner, which contained the data of his infection and Sonic's resistance due to his speed- the source of Tail's data. (#21)

Meanwhile, at Restoration HQ, one of the refugees was infected with the Metal Virus, but hid himself under an anorak. Due to Big distracting Gemerl from scanning, the infected citizen slipped in while nobody was aware. Eventually, the infected citizen was revealed whilst in the midst of transforming into a Zombot, causing a panic in Restoration HQ, in addition to Zombot Charmy breaking out of his containment capsule. During the breach, both Vector and Vanilla were lost to the Zombots, those still uninfected managed to escape in a sole shuttlecraft. (#22)

While the Restoration was in disarray, Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline attempted to bring the Zombots back under control, but to no avail. Starline was also flabbergasted by Eggman's apparent non-chalance to the situation; the doctor hadn't considered developing any kind of vaccine against the virus and his only plan to avoid infection was simply staying out of the Zombots' reach. When Starline tried to urge him into looking into new methods of managing the infection, Eggman simply brushed him off, seemingly content to sit back and watch until the entire planet had been infected before working on fixing the situation. (#23)

### All or Nothing

Intent on helping Eggman in controlling the Metal Virus outbreak, Dr. Starline went behind Eggman's back to enlist the help of the Deadly Six, whose electromagnetic powers could help keep the Zombots in check. Starline reasoned that Eggman would thank him later for this when he summoned the Deadly Six onto the Faceship with the intent on implementing his solution to bring the Zombots under Eggman's control. Despite Starline having the advantage of the Cacophonic Conch, the Zeti disarmed the platypus and quickly took over Eggman's Faceship, with Eggman, Starline and Metal Sonic just escaping to Angel Island. With the Faceship, they each took a Chaos Emerald to boost their control of the massive numbers of Zombots, except for one to power the ship. The Zeti then went their separate ways, except for Zavok, who remained aboard the Faceship, with the intent on controlling the production of Metal Virus.

Forming a temporary alliance to take this threat down, Dr. Eggman and Sonic's friends took part in recovering the Chaos Emeralds from the Zeti, leaving the two in Zavok's possession last. Eggman deduced that the Warp Topaz, the gemstone in Starline's possession that was capable of opening inter-spatial portals, could be used in conjunction with Super Sonic's power to destroy the Metal Virus. Starline refused to allow anyone access to the Warp Topaz, but the decision was literally taken out of his hands when Metal Sonic snatched the doctor's glove from him. Eggman then took the glove and used the Warp Topaz to banish Starline through a portal.

Using spare parts from a Restoration shuttle, Eggman and Tails built a device to harness the Warp Topaz and generate multiple wormholes, allowing the surviving Restoration members to travel to locations that were being occupied by the Deadly Six members. Through a series of coordinated strikes, the heroes attacked Zik, Zeena, Zor, Zomom and Zazz, taking the Chaos Emeralds in their possession. At the same time time, Rouge - working with Eggman's lackeys Orbot and Cubot - sabotaged the Faceship, causing it to crash and destroying the machines that produced the Metal Virus. Although Zavok had lost the means of manufacturing the Metal Virus, he still had a massive army of Zombots to command. Having tracked the heroes to Angel Island, he transformed into his giant form and began throwing groups of Zombots onto the island. With the assistance of Metal Sonic and Silver, Sonic was able to take the last Chaos Emerald from Zavok.

   With the combined power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic then used his super transformation, which ultimately purged his infection. With the power of the Warp Topaz and their own Chaos Control powers, Super Sonic and Super Silver extracted the Metal Virus from everyone and everything, curing those affected. The collected mass of Metal Virus was then hurled through a portal and into the sun, destroying it completely.

### Legacy

With everyone cured, citizens began to celebrate, with a party being organized in Spiral Hill Village. Another notable after-effect of the virus was the tearing down of the contribution's of "Mr. Tinker" in Windmill Village, who the citizens believed that he was pretending all along. They also shunned his benevolent creation, Belle the Tinkerer, after having previously gained their trust. This further led Belle to find Dr. Eggman to get answers, and not to believe that he was the monster that the villagers claimed he was.

Dr. Starline used the data of the Metal Virus in creating Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami the Fennec. (IDW Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome Issue 3)

Due to the plants, such as those in the Forest Ridge Zone Campground being infected by the Metal Virus, they did not retain as much water in the winter, and were more vulnerable to catching fire. This fact was taken advantage of by Surge, in order to cause a mass panic to the citizens there. (StH: 47, Imposter Syndrome: #1)

At least in Central City, most of the citizens went back to their normal lives before the horrible onset of the virus, to Surge's surprise. (Imposter Syndrome: #1)

## Characteristics

The Metal Virus appears as a grey metallic liquid. In its microscopic form, it resembles a bacteriophage. It is spread via physical contact with its raw liquid form or with another infected organism. The infection spreads out from the initial point of contact until it envelops the victim's entire body, transmutating it into a semi-fluidic metallic state.

The virus only affects living organic matter; dead or processed organic matter remains unaltered. Total infection and transformation of a subject seems to occur in mere seconds for most, though for others it can take minutes. Sonic the Hedgehog was able to stave off his transformation by running, which burned off the virus to an extent and slowed its progress, but didn't stop it completely. Over time, as Sonic grew exhausted from constantly moving without stopping to eat or sleep, his ability to hold back the infection diminished. It was only after he absorbed the power of the Chaos Emeralds and became Super Sonic that he eradicated the virus from his body.

It is also worth noting that the Metal Virus is inherently unstable. As Dr. Eggman explains after teaming up with Sonic's friends, the virus destabilizes the molecular structure of those it infects. In 200 years' time, the Zombots created by the Metal Virus would completely disintegrate. This explains why the planet is said to be uninhabited in Silver's time.

## Trivia

* The Metal Virus was originally intended for use in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, where it was set to be the next major storyline following the landmark 300th issue, before the series was cancelled.
	+ The storyline was briefly foreshadowed during the Sonic Universe story arc *"Eggman's Dozen"*, in which plans for a "new method" of roboticization were said to be in development.