Metal Overlord

"See me as I am, no longer afraid of anything! I shall become the ultimate overlord, ruling as the world's most supreme being!"

- Metal Overlord's final boast

Metal Overlord (メタルオーバーロード) is the fully transformed version of Metal Madness, and Metal Sonic's strongest form to date. He is the final boss of Sonic Heroes. Frustrated at his continuous defeats at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic sought to become Metal Overlord in order to annihilate his arch-rival and eventually conquer the world himself.

After briefly fighting Team Rose, Team Dark and Team Chaotix, Metal Madness finishes his robotic metamorphosis and becomes Metal Overlord. Instantly after transforming, Metal Overlord takes it to the skies, but is pursued by Team Super Sonic, who defeats the metallic tyrant and causes him to revert to Metal Sonic. The song What I'm Made of... is played during the battle with him.

Physical Appearance
Metal Overlord's physical appearance is nearly identical to that of Metal Madness, meaning he resembles a large, blue, heavily-armed mechanical dragon, with two eyes lined up vertically on his head. He has several long spikes on his upper body and many smaller ones running down his back and his long, curved tail. He has a flamethrower as his right hand (though he is not seen using it), and his left hand has four fingers with claws that can be launched, but he has no legs. The only physical difference between Metal Overlord and Metal Madness is that he has grown a pair of mechanical wings on his lower body and detaches himself from the fleet, leaving several cables hanging from the bottom of his body.

History
Driven beyond the sense of sanity due to his constant defeats of Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic decided to take matters into his own hands of defeating Sonic. Eventually, he came up with the idea of transforming his body into one strong enough to not only defeat Sonic, but would allow him to assume world domination himself. The layout for this form is what became Metal Overlord.

In order to transform himself into Metal Overlord however, Metal Sonic needed sufficient amounts of data from strong enough characters to complete the transformation. As such, he elaborated a plan to lure Team Sonic to the Egg Fleet to destroy Sonic for good, while he, as Neo Metal Sonic, would scan them and copy their data to obtain their powers. Neo Metal Sonic also sought out Froggy and Chocola to obtain the data from Chaos. Later, Team Dark, Team Rose and Team Chaotix joined the adventure, and Neo Metal Sonic began copying their data as well.

After obtaining all the data he needed, Neo Metal Sonic revealed himself to the teams and began his long-awaited transformation. With the data and the debris from the Final Fortress, Neo Metal Sonic transformed himself into the early stage of Metal Overlord, Metal Madness. In order for Metal Madness to complete his transformation however, he needed time to make the finishing touches, but was then confronted by Team Rose, Team Dark and Team Chaotix. The teams could only slow him down however, and Metal Madness completed his transformation by sprouting mechanical wings, finally becoming Metal Overlord.

Just after transforming, Metal Overlord flew into the skies, intending to make his ambitions come true, but found himself pursued by Team Super Sonic. Confident however that even Super Sonic was no match for him, Metal Overlord began battling Team Super Sonic without hesitation. During the battle, Metal Overlord rants about his intention to rule over a robotic kingdom, and displays the extent of his insanity by claiming that the organic Sonic is a copy of him. Eventually, Metal Overlord is defeated, and he falls down from the sky in agony, unable to understand how he could lose, even with all the power he had obtained.

Metal Overlord eventually landed on the Final Fortress, where he reverted to Neo Metal Sonic and finally back to Metal Sonic, thus ending the threat of Metal Overlord for the time being.

Powers and Abilities
Being Metal Sonic's strongest know transformation, Metal Overlord is one of the most powerful robots Sonic and his friends have ever faced. In this form, Metal Overlord is strong enough to fight on par with Super Sonic, Knuckles the Echidna and Miles "Tails" Prower where the two latter has been granted Super Shields, and even then Team Super Sonic had only a slim chance of defeating him, if not even less.

Due to him having grown wings, Metal Overlord is capable of flight and can fly at incredible speeds,  but is still slower than Super Sonic. He is also capable of enormous feats of strength, as he can easily pick up ships from the Egg Fleet with just one hand and throw them. In battle, he can fire a rapid barrage of crystal pillars from his torso, launch the spikes on his back as homing missiles, much like as he could as Metal Madness, but can now fire them at a much faster rate. He can also fire his left claws as missiles that can trap the target in a crystal cage, which is strong enough to hold even super transformed characters.

Metal Overlord is also able to perform Chaos Control, possibly due to him copying Shadow the Hedgehog’s and Sonic the Hedgehog's data, which allows him to freeze time for at least 20 seconds. It is unknown if he can do it longer than that, or if he has the skills to further manipulate time and space.

Metal Overlord has proven himself to be highly resistant in this form, nearing that of invincibility. Normal attacks from even super transformed character cannot hurt him, and he does not appear to have any weak points in this form. The only known attack strong enough to inflict damage on him, is the team blast Super Sonic Power, a wide range attack, performed by Team Super Sonic

Boss Guide
Metal Overlord is fought in the Last Story as the final boss of Sonic Heroes. He attacks by shooting out crystal pillars, which Super Sonic can destroy with Homing Attack, Rocket Accel, Tornado Spin, or Light Attack (The Light Attack will cost 5 rings though, which is not recommended.), shoot out missiles that can trap your teammates, which Tails can Thunder Shoot for Team Blast charge, and by throwing large crafts at you, which can be destroyed by Knuckles (done by using his fire combination to create fireballs and directing them at the craft), gaining Blast charge. In the final rounds he will use Chaos Control to freeze time and gain some time to launch a counterattack. Keep repeating this pattern to build the Team Blast, Super Sonic Power and use as it is the only way to damage Metal Overlord. After five Team Blasts', Metal Overlord will be defeated.

Quotes

 * "Long time no see, Sonic, my loathsome copy!" - Metal Overlord before fighting Team Super Sonic.
 * "Sonic, I was created for the sole purpose of destroying you. But I could never seem to defeat you! That's why I transformed my own body with my own hands." - Metal Overlord, explaining why he transformed.
 * "But that was the past. Now you're nothing but a speck of dust to me." - Metal Overlord's responds to Super Sonic's taunts.
 * "Take this!" - Metal Overlord when launching his crystal barrage.
 * "I'll crush you!" - Metal Overlord when throwing an Egg Fleet ship.
 * "I'll skewer you!" - Metal Overlord when launching his spikes.
 * "Guooooo! Why! I had it all! I am the ultimate overlord, Metal Sonic! I am the real Sonic!" - Metal Overlord after being beaten by Team Super Sonic.
 * "Chaos Control!" - After Team Super Sonic performs Super Sonic Power four times.

Trivia

 * At the final battle there seems to be a grammar error in some versions of the game, where Metal Overlord says: "But that's was the past" instead of "that".
 * In an official Sega forum, a member of Sumo Digital (who works on the Sega Superstars series, excluding the original) said that the designer of Metal Sonic's new vehicle for Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed based part of it off Metal Overlord.
 * Metal Overlord has a strong sense of purpose. As early in the fight, he says that he was created for the sole purpose of destroying Sonic; but before the fight, he refers to Sonic as his "loathsome copy" by this he may have meant that he should have the title of the original Sonic, and when he's defeated, he says that he is "the real Sonic" or deserves to be the real Sonic.
 * It has been stated by comic book writer Ian Flynn that the Archie Comics are not allowed to use Metal Overlord in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series at the time being.
 * Metal_Overlord_Reference.jpger, in Sonic Universe #54, Sonic the Hedgehog, while fighting Metal Sonic, commented how he always beat Metal Sonic, even when the robot was a dragon. This is a reference to Metal Overlord, which was similar to a dragon.
 * Metal Overlord is the only boss of the 3D games who does not have a specific weak point, instead he must be attacked with Super Sonic Power, a wide range attack.
 * Metal Overlord's defeat animation was later reused for Black Doom's final form, Devil Doom's defeat in Shadow the Hedgehog. Unlike Devil Doom, however, Metal Overlord/Metal Sonic definitely survived.
 * This is the second gigantic form of Metal Sonic fought as a final boss. The first is Metal Sonic Kai.