Metal Virus

The Metal Virus is a nanotechnological contagion featured in IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. Created by Dr. Eggman, the Metal Virus was designed to convert organic matter into metallic matter. Any people or animals infected with the virus would be transformed into Zombots: robotic slaves to Eggman's will.

History[]

Early history[]

Dr. Eggman had developed the Metal Virus at some point prior to, or during his war on the planet. The pathogen had remained untested by the time Eggman was defeated by Sonic and lost his memory, taking on a new identity as the kindly mechanic "Mr. Tinker" while in his amnesiac state. After the villainous Dr. Starline helped restore his true personality, Eggman began the manufacturing of the virus, as well as performing tests on its effective spreading and potency. These included testing the virus' effects on live animals, plants and processed organic matter such as foodstuffs.

Infection[]

Upon finishing his tests, he gave his new lackeys, Rough and Tumble, another opportunity to fight Sonic, who had been detected in his abandoned 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. The skunk duo fought against Sonic and Amy Rose, promptly losing their drilling machine. When they pressed the buttons on their backpacks, the liquid Metal Virus poured out over them, transforming them into mindless metallic zombies. 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.

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.

Loss of control[]

Eggman would continue to dump viral payloads on several populated areas with the sickness spreading like wildfire as the Zombots wandered in all directions, attacking every uninfected person they found. While Sonic and the Restoration struggled to rescue whoever they could, their task became increasingly hopeless as the Zombots proved to be invulnerable to most forms of attack and the slightest touch from them would spread the infection. As time went on, however, the Metal Virus' coding began to mutate, leading to the Zombots becoming unresponsive to Eggman's voice commands.

While the Restoration was in disarray following an outbreak within their own headquarters, 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.

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 use of Starline's Warp Topaz. With the Faceship, each of the Six 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.

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.