Sonic Aftermath

(THE FOLLOWING POSTS ARE WITH THE NPC ALTA IN ORDER TO SHOW JUST HOW HE GETS IN THE POSTION HE IS IN LATER ON. THANK YOU.)

The streets where what you could imagine if you’re city was taken over by a mad man with a legion of robots at his command; dark, glumly, and dread in the air. But on a positive note, it was at least brighter than usual, which was good….right? With his hands in the pockets of his white sweat jacket, he looked casually around. He was surprised; he thought a city occupied by Robotnik would look a little barer but the only difference there seemed to be is the tall, dark metallic buildings, large amounts of smog, and SWAT bots continually patrolling the city. He half expected for everything to be turned into some robotic paradise with no living forms of life whatsoever, but maybe he was just hastily generalizing. Though the streets weren’t particularly crowded as he walked down to the nearest grocers for some food, it was still more than he expected. Sighing, he got out a small pocket book and flipped through until almost half of the book was left. Looking at the contents of what he had written (which was more or less his “To do list”) he sighed again, as he reached into his pocket for a pen. Still walking along, trying to pay as much attention as he could to not run into people, he took the cap off with his thumb while the pen was still in his coat pocket and got it out, as he tried to cross out one of the items on the list. But when he tried to cross the item out, he found that the pen was well dried out. He sighed deeply.

“Just my luck…” he quietly mumbles to himself as he reaches back into his pocket to find another pen. Though as he did, a SWATbot nearby simply caught his attention as he passed only being a few feet away. Of course, it was just patrolling like any other bot, but he couldn’t help being curious about it. He wanted to know just how they were made and with what materials; how they were programmed and so on and so forth. Already past it, he snickered slightly as he pulled out another pen from his pocket and pressed the button on top in order to use it, still all the while looking at the bot before turning forward and closing his eyes for a brief second. Once he opened his eyes though, he stopped dead with a look of fear on his face. He was staring at the pen- or to be more precise, the –not- pen. Instead of grabbing a pen, he had grabbed his sonic screw driver –and the button he pressed was to activate it.

“Oh Dear…”, was all he could meekly mutter as he turned around to the SWATbot closest to him. He knew what the sonic screw driver was supposed to do; but it was never quite tested out. Though now was the apparent time in which it would and a little part of him hoped it would do nothing at all.

When Alta pressed the button, the SWATbot suddenly seized up and started twitching spastically. Odd beeping and screeching sounds emerged from the bot as well, which caught the attention of another patrolling SWATbot further down the street. It began to run over to investigate, making loud clunking footfalls as it approached.

A few citizens out on the street turned to watch the bot. A bull in a haggard cloak spotted Alta, but instead of raising an alarm, he waved one hand to signal at him to run.

He winced at the sounds the bot was making, clenching his teeth as he did so. Seeing the bull, he slowly put his hands in his coat pockets, and began to calmly leave the scene, which an expression that could only be described as a little boy getting caught and being nervous about it. Once he managed to stroll a few blocks down and turning right at a corner he began to run immediately. The only problem was that he forgot to turn the sonic screw driver off, so any SWATbot he passed would encounter the same spazz syndrome as the other.

As Alta ran down the street, electric lights shorted out, surveillance cameras went dark, and the SWATbots he sprinted past suddenly seized up and fell over. All the citizens seemed to be looking at him now.

By this point SWAT Surveillance (an AI supercomputer tasked with monitoring the city) knew something bizarre was going on, and quickly came up with a plan to find the one responsible.

"Malfunctioning security cameras and SWATbots appear to be leaving a trail. Suggest getting ahead of the trail to apprehend the suspect."

A spybot near Alta's location cautiously scanned the area from up high, not wanting to get too close to be shut off. Eventually he spotted the strange man running down the street, with the SWATbots close by dropping like flies. Alta would see a camera flash above him from the spybot taking a photograph. SWAT Surveillance received Alta's mugshot a split second later. The AI started to compare Alta's face to the records of all Robotropolis citizens.

The bright flash made him blink as he still continued to run through. He had already realized that he had forgot to turn the sonic screwdriver and by now all he could think is that it wouldn’t matter if he turned it off since it was relevant that he would be found out now. He even questioned the reason why he was running as he already knew it would not take long before the battery to run out and for the SWATbots to catch up with him. Not to mention there was no real way to escape the city. But there wasn’t anything against trying to stay alive as long as he possible can, was there?

Adrenaline had already kicked in as his body took the “flight” response to his fearful situation; since by now he would have already begun to slow down. He could only imagine the pain to come from this later, but soon thought that he may be dead before then. As soon as another corner came up he turned left. All he could do was prolong his intimate demise.

SWAT Surveillance completed its check of Alta's mugshot. Of course no results were returned, considering he wasn't from around here. That meant he would have to be an intruder.

"Intruder present in Sector 4A-G. Uploading photograph now." The image was transmitted to all bots in the area. "All SWATbots in that sector, switch to pursuit. Shoot stun beams from a distance...target is equipped with EMP device of some sort."

If the SWATbots were merely interested in him before, they chased Alta now like a pack of rabid dogs. The spybot that took the photo continued to hover above, matching Alta's every move. All the while, it continually updated coordinates on where he was to the SWATbots on the ground. Alta would hear many heavy footsteps approaching now.

Upon hearing the footsteps he blinked quickly and looked behind him. He didn’t see anything behind him, but that was by no means an indicator that nothing was following. He then looked up to see the spybot hovering over him, looking down at him. As he looked forward his eyes looked more focused and determined. Instead of turning at the nearby corner, he turned straight into an alley. And just as he thought a tall fence was in his way. He jumped onto a nearby dumpster and hopped the fence with ease; after getting up from the landing beginning to run again. By now he was beginning to heavily breathe. He wished he had a watch on hand, because he was now beginning to fear that the battery was about to run out. Granted he had a backup battery, but it wouldn’t be long before he lost the energy to run. Adrenaline can only go so far; and so far it was going pretty far. He was surprised he was even able to hop the fence like he did.

“The things you do in life and death…..” he muttered quietly to himself, as he swallowed the last remnant of liquid in his throat before he gasped and started his heavy breathing again.

"Intruder sighted!"

Alta would hear a SWATbot saying this as he reached a junction of alleyways. To his left, a SWATbot waved for more of his friends to run over. In the meantime, he fired several stun bolts in Alta's general direction. To get away he'd have to head to the right into a passage brimming with dumpsters and garbage.

The SWATbot that sounded the alert quickly rushed over, thinking one of its shots had hit Alta. But when he got in range, he too shorted out and fell over. The other bots promptly stopped where they were, and began to approach more cautiously.

"EMP still active! Maintain distance!"

They waited for about a minute before one of the bots decided to approach. Sensing the EMP was no longer in operation, he started walking forwards faster. The other SWATbots fell into step behind him. One of them reached down to hoist up Alta by his shoulders.