Belly of the Beast

[Chadin]

I mulled the idea over for a moment as I glanced across the room at the control panel Giichi pointed out. I also took the time to trace out a possible route around the right-hand side of the room as he suggested. It did make some sense. But there was some risk too. "Well, the only thing is, my crossbow fires the same type of energy shots as the swatbots do. They're bright red and its also kinda loud too. I don't know the exact physics, but all I do know is that whatever reaction happens when I pull the trigger it makes quite the noise."

I shrugged though and pulled my crossbow out and unfolded it into firing mode. But it's worth a shot. If we move quick after I shoot we might be able to slip out of the room before the bots find us." I shouldered my crossbow and closed my left eye as I aimed down the sights. Mentally, I knew this was an easy shot, but the anxiety and fear of being caught made my heart start to race and my ears fold back in deep concentration. My gaze became fixated on the target, but my eye shifted constantly between it and the many bots roaming about inside the room. Any one of them might spot my shot. I had to try and time my shot for when the bots might all be looking away. Being seen I could have some impact on, but the noise. Even with all the machinery, the sound of this one shot would carry over it all for certain; and there was nothing I could do to stop that, to alleviate the noise I would make. I could actually feel a cold sweat crawling down from my forehead thanks to the tension. I prayed that my shot might somehow be silent, that it go unnoticed. My other senses seemed to dull, especially my hearing. I waited for what felt like agonizing minutes, but then, I saw my chance. I took in a deep, heavy breath to steady my aim. I pulled the trigger.

The crimson bolt exploded from the tip of my crossbow and streaked across the room. It smashed into the panel and exploded into a shower of sparks and sizzling circuitry. Maintenance bots scrambled towards the site of the malfunction, every spy eye and swatbot averted its gaze on the sight.

I ran. I ran, as fast as my two legs could carry me. I reached the edge of a large mechanical unit just as a pair of swatbots walked past the opposite corner as they marched towards the blazing transformer panel. My heart pounded away inside my throat, but I kept silent as they passed. They made no apparent effort to even bother turning. I glanced back over my shoulder, looking for Giichi. "I don't believe it! I whispered in an excited voice as loud as I dared. "I can't believe they didn't hear that shot and sound the alarm." The strange thing is, however that while to me it felt like my sense of hearing was merely dulled because of the adrenaline racing through my body, the reality in fact even Giichi, who would have been standing close by me, would have noticed that sound itself did not seem to exist for that brief moment while I took my shot.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi watched with great intensity as Chadin lined up his shot. His tail flicked back and forth. The fur on his back arched upwards...although this wouldn't be visible with it under his clothes. His legs went tense, preparing to send him running at a moments notice, as his hand tightly clutched the edge of the door frame. Giichi's claws involuntarily popped out from the tenseness, and they made small gashes in the metal as he tightened his grip and released it again and again.

Finally, the shot was fired. Giichi watched as the red flicker sailed to and hit the control panel dead center. But the cat stayed where he was as Chadin took off. The shot was so quiet...it had actually left the cat confused for a moment. Giichi planned to run as soon as he heard the shot, but he heard no sound. Since he'd been so focused on that plan from his fear, he didn't move even as the explosion occured.

After about a second...and a few rapid blinks...Giichi finally "woke up", you could say, and sprinted as fast as he could after Chadin. He just caught up to him when the deer mentioned the sound.

"But...there was no sound...I didn't hear anything..." Giichi shook his head. "Maybe...the sounds in the rest of the room drowned out the noise? Or I was just too focused on running to hear anything?"

[Chadin]

"You didn't hear anything either? I thought it was the adrenaline that blocked out the sound. But you were standing right behind me..." I momentarily entertained the idea of shooting again just to make sure I wasn't imagining things. I checked that idea as quickly as it came however. If I fired now the bots might hear and we'd be done for.

"Let's not worry about it for now, that panel isn't going to keep the bots distracted forever." I bolted across the corridor between the massive mechanical units and quickly slunk along the side till I reached the end. So far nothing has noticed us as far as I can tell. As I glanced around the corner I saw the freight elevator was just a short sprint away.

I glanced back behind me and waved my hand forward. "C'mon, we're almost there!" I ran for the elevator, and as soon as I entered the spacious lift, I pressed my back against the door frame to hide myself in case any bots happened to look this way. As soon as Giichi got aboard the elevator, I made sure to hit the switch that would close the door and send us up in the very heart of the evil, wretched city.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi hopped in and the doors slid closed behind the two. With a slow grumbling, the elevator shaft's walls started to slide past the lift. But the elevator moved incredibly slowly...at the rate of about a meter per second. Giichi chewed his lip as he watched the walls, and then stared up at the top of the shaft. He couldn't even see the top of it.

"Ah man...this is going to take forever..."

Giichi turned around, and noticed that a computer screen and keyboard had popped out next to the buttons when Chadin pressed the button for the top floor. The computer screen displayed a login with Robotnik's logo on the top. Looked like it wasn't as simple as just pressing the button to go all the way up. But that was okay...Giichi had defeated electronic lock systems before.

He walked to stand beside Chadin, and then gently nudged him out of the way from the buttons. "Excuse me a minute..." Giichi withdrew a crowbar from under his cloak, and shoved the curved end underneath one end of the panel. He grunted as he pulled back on the tool. Within about thirty seconds, the panel popped open. Giichi put the crowbar back under his cloak and this time pulled out a tiny palm-sized netbook with two cables dragging out of it.

He booted the machine up and started tapping keys. The same login screen appeared on Giichi's computer. Giichi opened a side window and tapped some more buttons. Millions of lines of text scrolled past on the side window, but the lines started to slow down. Eventually, one word was highlighted... Giichi copied and pasted this onto the password screen and typed in "Dr. Robotnik" for the login. Green text flashed over the login:

"Welcome Dr. Robotnik. Express elevator service to your top-floor quarters. Have a nice day!"

Giichi smiled, before turning back to the deer.

"There...we're good now. Not to mention there won't be any interruption while we go up."

[Dr. Robotnik]

On the top floor, Robotnik's personal computer softly beeped to let him know that he'd just received a new email message. It contained a detailed report of the main cargo lift's usage. Giichi's and Chadin's access under Robotnik's name sat in the top row, since it was the most recent usage.

[Chadin]

[Uh oh, the boss knows we're here... XD]

I watched curiously as Giichi did his thing. I couldn't help wondering where he'd been keeping that crowbar this whole time without it making noise or being noticeable. But, as I watched him toy around with his hand-held computer I smiled as I saw the computer accept the code. "So, do you do windows too?" I joked as I walked back towards the centre of the elevator car and stared up into the seemingly endless shaft above.

"Not that I'm complaining here, Giichi, but it might not be a good idea to ride this elevator all the way up. We don't exactly know where this thing stops and for all we know, this thing could open onto a Swatbot maintenance area; or Robotnik's private lab even! I don't know about you but the last thing I want to do is confront Robotnik head-on. At least, not unless we get really lucky and catch him alone. I came here to find out what he's up to, maybe even sabotage his plans; not assassinate him. What do you think?"

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi shrugged.

"Well...maybe. I guess I could see what other options we have here..." Giichi turned back to his netbook. The screen showed a list of what floors they could choose:

100-99 - Quarters & Command Tower
98-90 - Main Laboratories
89 - Roboticizer Floor & Backup Generators
88-85 - Prison
84-75 - Server Farm
74-40 - Warehouses
39-10 - Bot Storage & Armory
9-2 - Bot Factory & Maintenance
1 - Entrance Floor/Prisoner Processing
B1-5 - Mechanical Floors

"The server farm looks like it'd be a good floor to hit if you wanted intel...although I bet Robotnik's got the juiciest bits in his quarters. Not to mention I bet there'd be some awesome experimental technology to steal in those labs..."

He looked with some confusion at the 89th level. "What's a roboticizer? Whatever it is...it doesn't sound good... Do you know?" Giichi turned around to look at Chadin.

[Chadin]

My fur crawled as my gaze fell on the word 'robotizier'. In some ways I almost envy the people who get turned into a machine. At least when they are transformed into a machine they aren't conscious of if. At least, that's as far as me and my Freedom Fighter cell can tell. Me, I remember every horrible thing that was done to me, and every single agonizing moment of what I almost did to others. The thought occurred to me that this might be a golden opportunity to destroy the cursed machine once and for all; but my recessed fears and memories of my past quickly sprang up to quell that voice. Even mention of the labs sent similar chills down my spin and my hand unconsciously drifted to the metal plate attached to the base of my neck.

"The Robotizer is what Robotnik does to his enemies." I finally answered. It turns flesh and blood Mobians like you and me and turns you into a mindless robot; a puppet for Robotnik to use in his factories. No, I don't want to go anywhere near that place; or the labs. We could hit the server farms, maybe use your little computer to dig up what Robotnik's plans are. After that I'm open to suggestions. There might be some nifty toys for us to swipe in the armoury if we get lucky and manage to avoid getting caught. The warehouse is bound to be stockpiled with all sorts of things, probably less guarded too. In any case the trick will be getting out of here. Whatever we take had either be small enough to carry, or we steal a ship to take it with us."

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi raised an eyebrow as Chadin explained the Roboticizer, like he was saying 'oh really?'. The cat seemed to be having a hard time buying this concept. "How is that even supposed to work? I don't see how you could turn living flesh into metal..." He shook his head and shivered. "Never mind...it creeps me out all the same. Let's just hurry up and get what we came for..."

He selected Floor 75. After that, Giichi put away the netbook. "All right...and now we just wait." The cat leaned against the console, and several minutes later the doors hissed open. Giichi stood far off to the side, letting the doors open all the way before peeking out.

"Wow..."

Most server rooms were pretty dull and staffed by equally dull IT staff...but this was just dazzling. Row after row of servers...stacked dozens high...divided by glass floors all the way up to what must have been the 84th floor. The servers all sparkled with blue and green lights. With the room's dim lighting, it made the place look like a starry night sky.

"I never expected it to look so...beautiful. Problem is...I'm not sure where to even begin..."

He scanned the area for a terminal that they could start at.

[Chadin]

"Wow... I know what you mean, Giichi. Somehow this plan seemed a much more simple when we started. Lets just access a terminal and see what information we can access. Hopefully we don't have to search through every terminal just to find what we need.

I walked up to the same terminal Giichi approached and carefully examined the controls. Right about now I was wishing I'd paid closer attention to all the lessons Gracie, the resident Tech expert in the MFF, tried to teach me about computers way back when. As I started typing, some of it did start coming back to me. But I was practically sweating bullets as I sifted through the data banks for fear of tripping a firewall and sounding every alarm from here to the city limits. "Nothing much so far... just looks like a lot of shipping manifests and such. I haven't even seen many requests for special access yet. Maybe this level doesn't hold that kind of information. Hey, wait a second..." I paused scrolling down the list of materials and shipments when something caught my eye.

"Look at this... all of this stuff is being sent to the airbase inside Robotropolis. Its not even just typical shipments, weapons, bots, mobile power units. If I didn't know better, I'd say Robotnik is getting ready to mobilize... but where?"