Belly of the Beast

[Chadin]

"Thanks..." I replied to Giichi's remark about smiling. The later part however took a little longer to sink in and I only noticed it after Giichi finished asking which building might be the power plant. "Wait who's Stork...?" I blurted out quickly, but the question was quickly forgotten when a new voice practically scarred me right out of my fur.

Like Giichi I too spun around with my crossbow leveled at the little girl in surprise. Once my heart worked its way back down into my chest instead of my throat and I realized this little girl was no serious threat I lowered my weapon. I eyed the girl cautiously when Giichi asked if we could trust her. First instincts said no. But then again, at the moment we could use all the help we can get. "We might as well, Giichi. She wants Robotnik gone just as much as I do. Besides, its not like we really know our way around here; and we could use all the help we can get."

"So, Vanessa, right? We need to find out what Robotnik is up to. Do you know of a way we can get inside Robotnik's headquarters. We could use all the information you can offer. You know, factories, storehouses, weapon caches, that sort of thing."

[Giichi Twinkieland]

[Awww...I was hoping you'd run with the Storm Hawks reference XD]

"He looks like he's been gearing up for a big attack..." Vanessa pointed roughly north. "That way is his airbase. All kinds of big airships are over there. None of us are allowed anywhere near the place, but it's hard to hide them with how big they are...not to mention the noise and all the test firings he's been doing."

Giichi chewed his lip. For the moment, his mission to steal something valuable was forgotten and this had become more important. He was a thief but he was also charitable. "Tell me, do you know what his target is?"

Vanessa shook her head. "No...like I said...we're not allowed anywhere near the place."

"You know, there's something else I've been wondering about. There's no walls or anything preventing you from leaving the city, and I know we've seen a few of you watching us. Why don't you guys just leave this place?"

Vanessa sniffled a bit and kept silent. She looked like she was about to say something that would be hard for her to say. In any case, Vanessa pointed to what looked like a small scar on the back of her neck. "When Robotnik took over...he injected all of us with nanomachines that track our whereabouts. If we try to flee, his patrols find us in an instant. Not to mention we have our families and friends to worry about. Even if we escape...Robotnik takes them into the command center, and then...then...then we...never see them again." Tears welled up in Vanessa's eyes as she recounted all of this to the two adventurers.

"You lost someone in there, didn't you?" Giichi stepped closer to Vanessa, putting an arm around her shoulder. Vanessa grabbed Giichi's shoulder back, pulling him into an embrace. She cried into his shoulder, as she nodded up and down.

Little did Vanessa know, but Giichi was also using this to see if she was a robot disguised as a living creature. He didn't know if Robotnik had the technology to pull that off...but Vanessa definitely seemed like a real person. Fur felt genuine...she generated body heat...she did not move with any unusual stiffness or jerky motions...and these emotions would have been extremely hard to duplicate, even for an actor. She was genuine. Giichi knew they could trust her now.

"Don't worry Vanessa..." Giichi pat her on the back. "We're here to help. Just show us how to get into the command center, and we'll see what we can find out. Maybe we can find out what happened to those people and find out what the fleet's target is at the same time, hmm?"

Vanessa brought her tear-strained eyes up to meet Giichi's, and she nodded. In any case, she turned around and pointed down the alley she'd appeared from. There was a manhole cover there.

"The sewers here run close to one of the maintenance tunnels for the command center, and in one place they share a common wall that's in need of repair. Robotnik has us working as slaves, and some of the sewer workers have been chipping a hole into the wall. It should be just big enough for both of you to squeeze through into the maintenance tunnel. From there you can follow it to the underside of the command center. But be careful...Robotnik doesn't allow ANYONE into the command center unless he's punishing them. No one knows anything about what goes on in there."

In spite of the situation, Giichi smiled a bit. It sounded like something right up his alley. He looked forward to the challenge of cracking this tough nut. "Thanks Vanessa...can you take us to this hole?"

She nodded. "Just follow me. We've gotta be quick though." Vanessa rolled the manhole cover aside and went down the ladder. Giichi followed her in.

[Chadin]

Tracking devices implanted into innocent people. It disgusted me right to the core; more so than even Giichi might feel. I know better than just about anyone else alive what it feels like to endure the torments or Robotnik's experiments. I already had a very good hunch as to what became of all the people Robotnik decided to 'punish', but I couldn't bring myself to to tell the poor girl. Being transformed into a mindless, soulless machine was just about the worst fate a person could endure. Well, beside maybe what I had to go through, but that's just selfish of me to think that way. Unlike those robots I was saved, given another lease on life. Them, I can only hope they'll one day have that chance.

"Don't worry about us Vanessa, the Freedom Fighters favorite pass time is make life a living hell for people like Robotnik. We can take care of ourselves; just point us in the right direction and we'll take care of the rest." I followed after Giichi, making sure to first fold up my crossbow for ease of transit. Besides, I doubt we'll see any serious threats like swatbots inside a sewer and if we do, my knife will make short work of them in such tight corners.

Getting down into the sewers itself though, I nearly wretched from the stench. "Phew, man I thought it stunk up on the surface, but this takes the cake. So which way from her Vanessa?"

[Giichi Twinkieland]

While Chadin had enough breath to comment on the stench, Giichi was having such a hard time with it he could scarcely breathe. He actually needed a moment to recover once he got to the bottom of the ladder, and decided he would let Chadin do the talking till they got out of here.

Vanessa started down a nearby passageway. "It's not far...just come this way." She was headed into solid blackness now. "Don't worry about the light...just follow the wall on the right and you'll end up at the hole with me." With one hand over his nose, and the other brushing along the damp concrete, Giichi headed into the blackness. He really, really hoped there wasn't any security down here...or he most certainly wouldn't be able to defend himself.

But after turning the corner and walking forward another 30 seconds, he saw a small shaft of light near the floor...coming through a hole in the wall. Vanessa's legs were just visible by the light. Giichi felt a little encouraged by this sight, and moved faster to catch up to her.

"Okay...this is where I'll have to leave you..." Vanessa said, now whispering. "There's going to be security on the other side of this hole, so watch yourselves."

"Understood...thank you Vanessa...for everything." Giichi said, smiling...although she wouldn't really be able to see him smiling with how dark it was.

The cat easily crawled through the hole due to his small size. After the sewer, it took him a little bit to readjust his eyes. As he stood up from the crawling position, he couldn't help but gaze at the new surroundings.

What an amazing contrast.

The utility corridor's shiny metal walls positively sparkled from the bright overhead lights. Giant cables ran along the ceiling with columns on either side at intervals; the cables were no doubt the power lines for the command center. And the hallway just ran, and ran, and ran...as far as the eye could see back towards the power plant. But towards the command center, Giichi could just barely observe a large open doorway. It didn't seem to have guards around it...

In any case, he waited for Chadin to catch up.

[Chadin]

"Thanks for everything Vanessa. Don't worry, we'll do everything we can to help you people. It might take time, but we won't abandon you." I assured the young cat with a firm grasp on her shoulder.

I hopped down into the corridor after Giichi and quickly unfolded my crossbow. "Jeez, I never expected the service tunnel to be THIS big. I whispered in a hushed voice to Giichi. "Just think how much damage we could do with a few well placed explosives."

I shook myself out of that thought process. I have to focus on the task at hand. The Freedom Fighters can't do anything if we don't have useful information. Besides, crippling Robotnik's base can wait for another day.

"Okay, lets go." I took point going down the passage way towards the door. I walked very slow and deliberately so my hard hooves didn't clack and scrap on the hard concrete floor. So far I haven't seen a single bot along the way, but as I approached the large doors I peered very cautiously around the corner just to be safe.

Unfortunately, what I saw was not what I wanted to see. I quickly pulled my head back around the corner and turned to Giichi. "There's a maintenance bot around the corner." I whispered urgently. "Its not armed, but if it sees us it's going to raise the alarm for sure. I'm going to try and take it out quietly. If that thing sounds the alarm make a break for that hole." I pulled my knife from its sheath as I leaned my crossbow against the wall.

I peered back around the corner again, and watched with a predatory gaze on the unsuspecting bot. It was busily working on some kind of pipe or conduit, and had its back to us. But unfortunately it also stood directly in the path we wanted to go; and I wasn't about to risk this thing finishing its task just in time for us to be spotted.

The rest of the hallway looked clear, so I ever so slowly crept out from the door towards the bot. Obliviously the bot toiled away while I drew ever closer with knife at the ready. Time slowed to a crawl as I got so close I felt certain the bot would hear my racing heart beat. At last, agonizing moments later I was within reach. All my instincts kicked in and I lunged at the bot, driving my reinforced knife deep into the metal hide of the robot. It sputtered and flailed frantically for a few moments before it quickly short circuited and fell silent.

Glancing in both directions for fear of the piercing sound of metal being driven into metal has given me away, I released a massive sigh of relief as only silence answered my inner pleas. I returned my knife to its sheathe and pulled the bot away from the wall. Thankfully the bot looked like a trashcan with a pair of stubby arms and a pair of tracks on the bottom. Those tracks will still roll, even if the bot is disabled, meaning this thing will be easy to hide compared to the massive girth of a swatbot. "Giichi, give me a hand hiding this bot so the security bots don't find it." I called out, now feeling confident we are safe to speak for the moment.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi just shrugged at Chadin's comment to blow up this hallway. Didn't make any difference to him. In any case, he stalked after Chadin. The cat's soft padded feet meant he could effortlessly keep pace with the deer without making hardly any sound.

After listening to Chadin explaining he was going to take it out, Giichi stepped back. He certainly didn't mind someone else doing the work for him. Then the deer pulled out a knife.

A knife? A damned knife?! How are you going to stab through metal with a knife?

In disbelief, Giichi watched as Chadin stepped around the corner and just stabbed the hell out of the maintenance bot, almost as easily as if it were made of flesh. The cat stopped to check out the handiwork.

"Damn...I want one of those knives now."

Now Chadin was talking about hiding it. Giichi showed a blank face, as he looked up and down the hallway. There were columns at intervals, but a dead bot would be hard to miss even if you threw it behind one. "Uh...hide it? Hide it WHERE? We just gonna stuff it back in that hole we came through?" At least, that's the only thing he thought of, as he grasped the bot and started pushing it back.

[Chadin]

"Sorry, but this knife is sort of one of a kind. The MFF managed to steal a special alloy from Robotnik way back when and destroyed all the original research. But, we did manage to make these out of the alloy we did steal and have been using them against Robotnik ever since." I explained as I patted the knife securely stowed away in the sheath on my right leg.

I grunted along side Giichi as we pushed the bot back into the other passage way. "Not quite, but close. That passage we just came from has all kinds of pipes and cables running along it. All we gotta do is hide it among some of that stuff. As long as the bots aren't looking too closely they shouldn't find it for some time." After finding a suitable piece of scaffolding, me and Giichi pushed the bot in underneath. I smiled as I admired our handiwork. Turned with its back to the corridor the bot blended in quite well along side all the other equipment back there. A casual glance would hardly give anything away; and hopefully by then me and Giichi will be far from here and found a better way out.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

"One of a kind? Maybe I should steal it from you later." Giichi gave a hearty slap to Chadin's back and chuckled. "Naw...I'm kidding."

After they'd hid the bot, the two continued down the corridor. Another doorway was coming up, and this one seemed to open into a large chamber. They’d also notice a lot of sounds getting louder and louder as they approached: steam hissing; loud pounding; dull, noisy droning. Giichi paused to stand beside the doorway, and peered around the corner to see inside.

It looked like a gigantic mechanical room, filled with pipes, cables, rumbling machinery, and computers. But the room also had Spy Bots floating through the inticrate maze, not to mention Swat Bots trooping around on the floor and catwalks.

“Oh boy…this looks fun…” Giichi whispered to Chadin.

He supposed the first thing to do was find a way up into the building above. Fortunately, there seemed to be one in sight. Giichi could just make out a large cargo lift on the other side of the room…big enough to hold a decent-sized house.

“I think that’s our way in over there. So…now all we have to do is get to it. Any ideas?”

[Chadin]

I scanned the large room we'd have to enter. There certainly was plenty of places to hide behind or beneath. The problem was the spybots. Unlike the clumbering Swatbots those darn things can sneak up on you quite unexpectedly. Even with my keen hearing, all this noise from the machines would make it harder than normal to hear the faint drone of their hover units in time. "Well, we could risk sneaking along the mechanical equipment in here, but from what I can see, there's bound to be points where we need to break from cover. If we get spotted that's it. We have to try and escape before every bot in the city comes down on our heads. We need a distraction. Something that will get the bots' attention long enough for us to get across the room without alerting the bots to an intruder's presence. Now's about the time I wish Sonic was here. He'd be able to draw those bots off no problem."

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi turned around and stared at Chadin's weapon for a moment.

"I was thinking...your crossbow doesn't look like it shoots ordinary bolts. What kind of ammunition does it have? I'm guessing it's something that's good against robots, considering your knife's that way and you really hate Robotnik."

Giichi then turned around and pointed at a large box-like machine near the entrance...over to the left when looking towards the cargo lift. Going by the loud humming sound coming from it, it was probably an electrical transformer or a generator or something. A computer monitor and keyboard were mounted onto the side.

"Well...what if you tried shooting it at the monitor for that box thing over there...to the left? I bet that'd really **** that thing up if your crossbow's good for bots. Then while they all get into a tizzy and run to investigate, we run to the right, and then start making our way towards the lift. The room's pretty big so we can pick our own route over there."