Living in the City

[Decoe and Bocoe]

His face expressed being shocked and bewildered. As the small event took place, it made his head go around in circles as to what just happened. But before any more contemplating could be done, his programs went on a small fritz as his head the ground. Everything blacked out for a few seconds before it started up again.

‘Hey...’

Strangely enough, the internal parts of his program began to run correctly again, unlike the while before where everything was switched backwards and fumbled. Though his vision seemed to have gotten worse… Before things where on the fritz, but now all he could seem to see was a completely distorted image in a jumble of lines. He tried to blink several times, to see if he could at least see the form in front of him, but it was no use. Not only that, but he had missed a bit of whoever was talking to him. All he could here, was “What are you doing up here?”Everything else was a strange, static-y mess to him. But at the current moment, he didn’t worry too much about the rest of what he said, he would just answer the part of the question that he at least heard. They’ll be able to understand, right?

“…tghrila tac saw erus ot ekam gniyrt ot tsuj I saw”

Oh….dear. The words came out of his mouth like a record player playing a song backwards while at the same time the individual letters seemed as though they were badly edited together. It was not something pretty to the ears and even Decoe knew that. His expression changed into complete confusion after he said the strange sentence. How could that possible come from “I just wanted to make sure the cat was alright”?

[Amy Rose]

Shadow had vanished and returned so fast, I might have wondered if he had ever made a move in the first place. The figure from before now dropping from his grip sealed any second thoughts though. I wasn't sure what it was. I had seen a lot of Robotnik's creations, but nothing had taken such a human form like the one before us. I didn't see any of the doctor's signature emblems on him either. On top of that, he looked fairly small... and wimpy. What was going on? His response sounded like a VCR that had just eaten a tape.

I stood there with a perplexed expression on my face. The confusion of everything had just escalated by his appearance and I don't think we were going to get any answers from him in the state he was in. That left us with more things to worry about. Who knows? He might have been after me, too. I looked at the others around me with uncertainty. Where would we go from here? I kept my hammer out, but I lowered it a little as I took a few steps Shadow's way. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the robot had no intentions of harming us. Gamma had shown me that even Robotnik's most dedicated creations could have a change of heart after all.

"Shadow..." I trailed off. It was difficult to find the right words to say as I thought about it. I didn't know what might convince him and part of me was still scared from before.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

Tutley himself was about to jump off the roof as well, not wanting to be shown up....when just as suddenly, the hedgehog was back onthe roof. He would give a slight sigh, before walking towards the new "visitor". He would immediatly notice something was rather off about him. "Hm... this complexion... the backwards speech....", he would trail off, before giving the android a poke on the hand. "AHA! Synthetic skin polymer number 234!", he would say, bringing his right hand down on his open palmed left hand. "This... is a robot!", he said thinking he was the only one at the moment to tell. "But he seems to be in disrepair....", he said pulling his laptop out. This robot didn't seem to be too harmful, and if he wasn't mistaken, he could sweat the bot said something about watching a cat. Seemed harmless enough. A small antenna would extend from the bottom of his computer as he launched a series of programs. A male voice would be heard through the speakers, this one having a british accent. "Please hold... we are trying to connect your system to your robot's wirelessly. The system is either busy on this task, or... melting into slag." The turtle would facepalm. He HAD to install that computer personality program on sale...

[Shadow]

Shadow's frown deepened even further. It seemed Amy and the turtle were inclined to trust the obviously damaged robot, but Shadow was not so quick to find him innocent. Still, he had nothing on the bot other than strong suspicion, and it was obviously broken so it was unlikely he'd be able to get anything out of it. Still, no sense in not trying. He locked eyes with Amy for a moment, as if to confirm he understood her, then moved to kneel at the side of the prone robot, leaning over slightly to look directly into it's eyes and to ensure he had it's full attention.

"Alright," he said with a resigned sigh, "My friend here is apparently trying to access your systems, maybe find out what's wrong with you. While he's doing that, I want you to answer my questions." He adopted a sterner, more commanding tone and continued: "You will answer each of my questions, in the order I ask them, by nodding your head for yes or shaking it for no. Do you understand?"

[Decoe and Bocoe]

Decoe’s face soon went into a shocked-like sadness as he heard the turtle speak.

“Tobor~.” He seemed to reply, in a whiny sort of tone, as his face expression a turn of sadness.

But his attention was soon turned, as he heard the dark voice from before. He was soon looking towards the hedgehog, but as he would notice as he spoke, his eyes darted around the area he was in. Mainly, because Decoe’s vision was completely out of whack and he couldn’t tell where the hedgehog –was-. But, once the hedgehog was finally done, he nodded his head, blinking with a saddened expression on his face.


(Note to tutley. You should be able to get in easy. Decoe doesn’t have any ways to really reject something getting into his systems, since he has no fire walls or any other kind of hacking protection. )

[Shadow]

"Alright, good," the black hedgehog said, standing and crossing his arms once more. "Listen carefully, I'm only going to ask this once, and for your own sake you'd better answer truthfully. Did you have anything to do with the deer that attacked Amy a short while ago, or his employers? Were you here to spy on any of us? Were you created by Doctor Robotnik?" Keeping his questions to yes-or-no answers was rather limiting, but hopefully those three questions covered at least the biggest issues at hand. With any luck, Tutley would finish soon and restore the robot's speech, or it's speech could return on it's own.

[Decoe and Bocoe]

Decoe shook his head slowly for the first two answers, but the third one was what got to him.

Doctor Robotnik?

His expression looked bewildered as he thought about how to answer the last question exactly. Doctor Robotnik….did he mean Gerald? It was the only Robotnik he knew, other than Maria. But, if he was talking about Gerald, wouldn’t he say Professor Robotnik? Or, just say Gerald? Decoe blinked, still confused. He didn’t understand the question, -completely-. As he bit his lip, thinking of how to answer, a thought struck him. If his speech was backwards, what if he (in the program) prepared the –words- backwards? Maybe, like his problem with moving, the words could come out clearer if they were prepared like how they would come out. He took a few seconds or so to think of what to say, and then place it backwards. The results could be considered rewarding.

“Mean do you Robotnik what?”

Well, the words were finally –words- but the placement was out of whack. He shook his head slightly, with a furrowed brow. He could see a pattern, so he re-said his question soon after.

“What Robotnik do mean you?”

Darn it. Because of the uneven number of words, it still came out weird. But, it was better than anything else he had said.

[Jack-the-Hedgie]

Jack shuffled uncomfortably. He really wanted to get going before they wasted too much time, but he couldn't ignore this robot. After all, it might hold the key to figuring out this mystery. If nothing else, Jack was kept interested by the fact that... well, holy crap. It's a large robot! He had never really seen one up close, and he was fascinated as he watched it. Still, the way Shadow talked to it sounded as though he's dealt with stuff like this before... In fact, the mention of a certain name peaked his curiosity.

"Who's Doctor Robotnik, and what does he have to do with this?"

Yeah. He really had no idea about the infamous doctor, despite having been seen worldwide countless times. Normally, he would have waited for a better time to ask, but Shadow and Amy had been talking about a number of things since the black hedgehog showed up. He was surprised that a girl like Amy could have been in the military, giant hammer of Thor-like power aside. But with this F-4, and yet another mention of this Doctor, he couldn't keep quiet for long. Just who was this hedgehog? In fact, was he even sure he fully knew Amy?

[Tutley Sakamoto]

"Well, since some of you arn't quite filled in...", he began to say as the progress bar on accessing Decoe's system hit 100%, "Allow me to shed a bit of light on who he is." He would turn his laptop towards the group, typing frantically to repair the bot's optical sensors. As a result though, the bot's vision would probably change to what the laptop was displaying. The turtle would activate a program, which was actually one of his favorite video games.

The screen would fade to black, before words scrolled onto the bottom of the screen. "It was a dark time for little planet." The screen would reveal a island, on which stood a base, shaped much like a certain scientist's head. "The existance of the planet was threatened by one...", it said as the camera moved closer to the base at a rapid speed, moving towards one of the "eyes" of the base. "The evil scientist, Dr. Ivo Robotnik!", it would say as the doctor came into view peering from the window, laughing maniacally. "From his base on the planet, the invader sent a countless barrage of robots into the past, setting up robot generators and crushing the spark and potential of the past.", it would say as said flood of robots ran through a time post, coming out at a primitive jungle, immediatly persuing the wildlife, one of which was a cat. "Future after future fell...", it read as various areas of the planet became corrupted, lifeless shells of their former selves. A jungle transformed into a oil field... a polluted ocen which was once teeming with life...soon enough the face of the planet itself would change to a mechanical lifeless shell of itself. A pink hedgehog with a hammer would attempt fighting off the bots, only to get carried off herself by a robotic hedgehog. "But then... by chance, the doctors archenemy, a blue hedgehog named Sonic appeared on the planet!", it said as from the horision, said blue blur charged, entering the past from a time post. "Destroying the robots nearby, he discovered a generator, stopping the flow of robots to that area and saving the future!", it would say as said polluted oil field became a new future, one mixing life and machines in harmony as it made a fanfare. "A defence strategy was formed by the hedgehog. He would save the futures of each part of the planet, one by one, by destroying the generators in various ways.", it said as he buzzsawed into a generator in the ocean... pinball careening into another on a mountain, the planet soon half corrupted, half at peace. "Soon, he would learn of the time stones, the key to defeating robotnik and saving the planet.", it said as said hedgie spoke with one of the locals. "And so... the hedgehog set off, the entire planet's fate resting on a lone hedgehog's valor.", it said as the hedgehog stood in view of the speedway, before taking off into it.

"And thats just ONE of the good doctors little "adventures", he said clutching his fist. "If it wasn't for Sonic, a entire WORLD would nothing but a lifeless shell!", he blurted out in a fair bit of rage. But he closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath, to avoid going off the deep end. "But anyway, anyone else have a "friendly" story of the doctor to tell?", he asked as he went back to fixing the various glitches in the bot's programming from his visit with the ground. Something would seem rather suspicious about that game though... it was rather specific....far more than it should be for a Earthling game, anyway.

[Decoe and Bocoe]

Decoe blinked twice with a slightly shocked expression on his face as he began to see, in full view, the video that Tutley brought up. He blinked twice again as the video was showing, tilting his head to the left in curiosity after seeing the image of Dr. Robotnik popped up. He continued to watch the video in curiosity until it was finally over. He blinked, twice again, taking a bit to re-arrange the words to answer the dark voice’s question.

“Umm, no I wasn’t created by Dr. Robotnik….though he looks a lot like Professor Gerald. You know, with the mustache, and being bald, and glasses the….” He paused for a second, before continuing. “And being really big. …I wonder if realted they're...?”