I inspired myself. Have an omake.
Suicide Mission
Metal Sonic stomped through the hallways, raging at the Egg Brain once again. The nerve of the researcher, to tell him that if he wanted upgrades he should prove himself worthy first!
Silver Sonic had failed even worse than him, and yet it had still seen fit to upgrade the fool enough to stand beside Alpha; what did Silver have that Metal didn't?!
He whirred a bit, the closest he could come to sighing without a voice. At least it had deigned to give him an opportunity to prove himself instead of simply leaving it at that: He had been placed in charge of a task force, composed of Pawns, Hammers, Flappers, and even an MP Gamma as his second-in-command, and ordered to hunt down Sonic and his friends. Simple enough, and perfectly in-line with his own desires; he would've liked a few more troops, but knew better than to rebel when that would just lead to him being decommissioned and his task force assigned to another, less worthy machine.
Well, time to go collect his adjutant to begin his mission...
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The Egg Brain gleefully watched Metal Sonic depart for his mission; that had gone far better than expected!
It had informed Metal Sonic that he was perfectly suitable for the mission he had been assigned, and it hadn't even been lying, save by omission: He was perfectly suitable because this mission had literally been made for him.
Metal Sonic was powerful, but not so much so as to be indispensable. He was incapable of speech, and so could not give away sensitive information. He was incredibly hateful of his target, and so would sooner be destroyed utterly than give him information even if he was capable of doing so; it had further exploited this flaw in order to trick him into accepting the mission in the first place. He was incredibly resistant to the Egg Brain's reprogramming attempts, and thus would likely be even more so to Tails'.
How better to dispose of such a machine than to send it on a suicide mission, giving it just enough force to make success mathematically plausible while relying on Sonic's tendency to acquire new powers or unforeseen assistance to eliminate that success chance?
The Gamma unit that had been sent along was both a further smokescreen to prevent Metal questioning the nature of his assignment, and a failsafe: If the Egg Brain's expectations of the original Sonic were unwarranted and Metal's task force managed to successfully defeat him, it was to shoot Metal Sonic in his moment of triumph; if, however, things went to plan, it was to prioritize its own safety over retrieving Metal (destroying Metal itself, if need be, to prevent his capture). And, of course, the Pawn-series units had been chosen for their expendability, and programmed to obey the Gamma unit over Metal Sonic.
...It may just have a knack for manipulating machines into doing what it wanted them to regardless of their own wishes.
