Launch Base Zone

[Rampage]

[absence rule...]

Since Alpha was being held up in the air by the Swat-bot's, Alpha's kick cleanly smashed into the side Rampage's jaw. The badger staggered back from the blow, but as he glared back at Alpha, his cybernetic eye turned from a mild orange to a seething, hellish red. But despite that rather telling outburst, Rampage put on a big grin as he rolled his tongue around inside his mouth. He walked up to the defiant hedgehog and spat out a mix of his own blood and saliva into Alpha's face.

"Ohhhh, I LIKE 'EM spunky!!" Rampage sneered with devious glee. Then suddenly, Rampage's robotic arm reached out to grab the leg Alpha kicked him with. If he caught it in his robotic grasp he would begin to squeeze on Alpha's leg with his mechanically enhanced vice-like grip.

Of course by now everyone on board would feel the factory ship shudder from the blast wave of the exploding bulldozer. Several of the security monitors would have been knocked out by the blast, but those remaining would provide an ample view of the mayhem caused by the blast and the raging inferno outside.

[Alpha Omega]

Omega shook his head to clear the spit from his face, groaning a bit. He attempted to pull his foot from Rampage's hand, but the sudden shaking of the building would end up putting his leg right in the robotic hand. Omega started thrashing and trying to free his leg, while clenching his teeth and squinting.

[Dr. Robotnik]

[Aww crap sorry guys, I forgot it was my turn. Let me write this up for Chadin to start on now that he's in the ship.]

When Chadin entered the factory ship on the bottom floor, he'd find himself standing in an industrial-looking stairwell lit with bright orange lights. Smoke floated through the air from some unknown source, and he'd immediately feel oppressive heat billowing down the stairs towards him. It gave the place a very smoky, hazy feel. For now he was alone, but no doubt that would change soon.

---

Robotnik continued to watch over Gerald to see if he'd respond, but no such luck. The brief vibration of the ship got his attention, as he looked up to see a glass full of soda slightly ripple on the table where he'd been eating before. Immediately he rushed to the monitors to see what was going on, and let out a loud groan at the destruction the bulldozer had caused.

"Insurance is NEVER going to pay for this!"

However, he found his mood lifting slightly as he saw the lone transport ship with some of the shards on board leave. Robotnik had secretly ordered one of his bots to get them out of here, after he'd had his SWATpods do a brief analysis on his enemies. It looked like it was mostly just saboteurs on foot with no vehicles or anti-air weapons, so he thought he would take a chance and let one go. It seemed to have been the right choice.

Now he just had to slip the rest of the shards out of here...although he'd probably need to consider alternatives with most of the transport ships trashed.

On a corner of one screen, a red box flashed with the text BREACH AT EXIT POINT 32435. Robotnik quickly shifted the camera to focus on that area...and lo and behold it was that blasted deer again. Somehow, he was his biggest pain in this operation rather than Sonic and his friends. How was this happening? It didn't really matter.

Robotnik replayed a camera view of the view of the door outside, and the deer appeared to have done some sort of electrical discharge to break open the lock. Funny...Robo had remembered seeing that before when he was about to roboticize him. This deer definitely had some curious power he needed to study more.

"Rampage...you stay with our prisoner. I need to go down there and greet Mr. Deer. He's caused enough trouble for one day and needs to pay for it."

Robo started for the door, walking past the other two.

[Chadin]

[Wasn't sure if I should post here or in a separate thread, but for now, here goes. Also, while I'm at it, I might as well post as Rampage here too. Apologies if I bump the post order out of whack a little]

Entering the ship it felt like I literally walked right into a wall of hot, stifling air. As of right now, I was officially out of my element. I've had to deal with some similar situations with the MFF, but this time I am way in over my head and completely on my own; though that may not be true strictly speaking since I didn't know that Omega was also here.

But being so far out of my element, I could no longer rely on my familiar instincts. Stealth would not be much use to me inside a ship with long, narrow passages with security monitors no doubt everywhere. Plus, hooves are not known for their silence on steel floors. Speed was my best option now. If I get bogged down anywhere, I would be overwhelmed in a heart-beat.

With that in mind, I took a gamble that Robotnik will be be someplace high up in the ship, so I immediately started racing up the stairs. I double checked to make sure that my crossbow still had a charge loaded; to which it did, with about ten more ready to go and two remaining power cells left in my pack. Hardly as much as I would like to have given the situation, but with some luck I could pick off the power cells from a few Swat-bots along the way.

Meanwhile, Rampage was rather enjoying himself watching Omega squirm in pain. The shuddering of the ship did make him a touch leery about what kind of damage the ship might have sustained from a blast like that, but Robotnik didn't seem too concerned or to notice so he could probably disregard it.

Quote:"Rampage...you stay with our prisoner. I need to go down there and greet Mr. Deer. He's caused enough trouble for one day and needs to pay for it."

Rampage glanced out of the corner of his eye as Robotnik spoke, his attention momentarily broken. "Sure thing, boss. Though, I wouldn't bank on having anything left t' interrogate once I get through with 'em."

[Gerald Robotnik]

There was a moment where everything went black. And suddenly, Gerald found himself in a very confused position. He had totally blacked out, but why? Was he hit? Well, no, he was sitting down; and as he opened his eyes he recognized he was in the same room before. But something was different. For the first time he saw Ramapage and Alpha; and wondered just how they got there.

Quote: "Insurance is NEVER going to pay for this!"

However, he found his mood lifting slightly as he saw the lone transport ship with some of the shards on board leave. Robotnik had secretly ordered one of his bots to get them out of here, after he'd had his SWATpods do a brief analysis on his enemies. It looked like it was mostly just saboteurs on foot with no vehicles or anti-air weapons, so he thought he would take a chance and let one go. It seemed to have been the right choice.

Now he just had to slip the rest of the shards out of here...although he'd probably need to consider alternatives with most of the transport ships trashed.

On a corner of one screen, a red box flashed with the text BREACH AT EXIT POINT 32435. Robotnik quickly shifted the camera to focus on that area...and lo and behold it was that blasted deer again. Somehow, he was his biggest pain in this operation rather than Sonic and his friends. How was this happening? It didn't really matter.

Robotnik replayed a camera view of the view of the door outside, and the deer appeared to have done some sort of electrical discharge to break open the lock. Funny...Robo had remembered seeing that before when he was about to roboticize him. This deer definitely had some curious power he needed to study more.

"Rampage...you stay with our prisoner. I need to go down there and greet Mr. Deer. He's caused enough trouble for one day and needs to pay for it."

Robo started for the door, walking past the other two.

Hearing all the commotion, he first brought his head up. He looked around a bit franticly as he wasn’t sure just what was going on. He didn’t know why he blacked out, but it left him very confused. But as soon as he saw Robotnik started to leave he felt torn. He could tell Alpha was in pain, and had a sneaking suspicion he might have been with Chadin’s group. But there was also the fact that there were two robots and a badger who was half robotic; which all had guns. And Gerald, had absolutely nothing. It would be suicide, and as much as he was hating his analytical brain it was right.

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice a pawn to get the king.

He’d pray that the hedgehog would be alright, and that some circumstances would lead to a rescue. For now, he was close to Robotnik where he could do something about it. He already felt he was a lost cause and wasn’t going to reason.

“Wait for me!” Gerald shouted a little wearily as he got up and ran after Robotnik, following him through the door; all the while holding his head in his right hand.

[Alpha Omega]

Omega gritted his teeth, glaring at both Robotniks as they left the room, then turning his gaze back to Rampage. "You really think so, huh? Tell these pepper pots to put me down, then we'll see who'll be left!" He over exaggerated pointing at the SWATbots and Rampage, showing off the assortment of rings on his finger, hoping to get his attention.

[Dr. Robotnik]

As Chadin finished running up the stairs, he would find himself standing inside what looked like a gigantic ore refinery. A massive, echoing space greeted him, full of conveyor belts carrying raw ore from the island into big smelting vats of molten rock, billowing smoke and wavy heat all over the place.

As the vats filled they would be spilled into what looked like a giant lake of white hot ore in the middle of the room. The direction to go from here wouldn't look very clear, due to the complex nature of the space. Worker bots milled around, while SWATbots patrolled on the ground and on catwalks around the space, looking for any sign of trouble.

---

Upstairs, Robotnik's eyes shot open as Gerald rushed through the door after him. For once, Robo wasn't entirely happy for his idol tagging along. Gerald seemed to be bouncing back and forth between his good personality and his true Robotnik personality. If he wanted to help out, Robotnik planned to say no. He'd proven to be very unpredictable with this whole split personality business, and Robo couldn't take chances here.

"Yes Gerald, what is it? Do you want to help me kill the intruder?"

Forcing a smile, the doctor mischievously twirled his huge mustache on one side. The question was meant to ascertain what personality might be dominant at the moment.

[Chadin]

I had to shield my face initially as I entered the smelting room from the wave of heat I felt. Good, I reasoned, at least the Swat-bots infrared scanners will be next to useless in a place like this. So long as I stick to the shadows and avoid being seen, I should be able to sneak through this place with ease.

Of course, I didn't have a clue which way to go from here. This place was a maze of machinery, catwalks and vats of molten metal. Wait... did I just say molten metal? Much as I want payback on Gerald and Robotnik, this presented far to valuable an opportunity to wreck Robotnik's operations here permanently, and quite possibly, destroy this ship altogether; wrecking any future operations too. Plus, it might even have the benefit of drawing Robotnik out to me too, along with the inevitable swarm of Swat-bots. But the opportunity is far to valuable to pass up.

Now, all I needed to do was find some crane controls for one of the vats carrying the molten metal. Looking around, I spotted what I was looking for. A worker-bot operating the controls to a crane moving a vast vat of molten metal. That will do perfectly. Sure, the controls are high up above, but still, with all the machinery and stuff in here I ought to have little difficulty sneaking from one hiding place to another to reach it.

Fortunately, all the heavy equipment in here nicely muffled my hooves, so sneaking would be made all the easier. Plus, the Swat-bots were hardly difficult to spot patrolling around the vast room. With some luck and careful timing I should be able to reach those controls with being spotted.

So that's what I began to do. Creep from one shadowy hiding place to another whilst the Swat-bots were either looking some place else or wait for them to pass by before moving to the next hiding spot.

When I reached the stairs to the cat-walks above, I realized that the cat-walks above would make things tricky since there would be less cover. But from what I could tell, there were fewer bots up here, so with some careful timing and some fast sprinting I ought to be able to slip past them.

[whoops, forgot to slip Rampage in here...]

Rampage grinned from ear to... well the metal side of his jaw which could not emote the same way his real face could. He did notice the rings on his fingers, but that was of little consequence to him. It wouldn't surprise him at all that those rings might be more than fashion, but again, he didn't care.

This hedgehog had just appealed to the one thing Rampage couldn't resist. His ego and fighting spirit. "Sure, why not? Never did enjoy beating up someone who can't punch back. Swat-bot's drop 'em. Go stand outside and if anyone but me walks outta here, smoke 'em. Not like that's going to happen." As if not already bold enough, Rampage tossed his mauler laser rifle to the side and raised his fists into a boxing stance.

[Gerald Robotnik]

The look on his face when he saw Robotnik’s malicious grin and comment was nothing but shock.

“What?! No, wait, what’s going on?!” It would be apparent which Gerald was out; as the younger Gerald wasn’t much of a liar. “ Why did I black out back there? What’d you do…with…”

His voice began to trial away as he noticed something incredible peculiar in the corner of his eye. His face seemed to relax; though his mouth gave a slight frown while his brows furrowed a little.

“….me.”

Beside him on his left, just a little in front of him stood what he thought to be a very, convincing hallucination. The being that stood in front of him certainly looked very real, but he highly doubted anything with four, glowing yellow eyes existed anywhere in this dimension. He had a solitary look on his face that reminded him of those old marble sculptures done by ancient people long ago. He was just plain alien, from his skin color to what he wore. And he stood there, not moving a single itch as he held a long bow in his land as thought it was a walking stick.

Gerald brought his hands to his face, as a look of dread washed over it.

“Oh no…..not –more- hallucinations!” He exclaimed wearily, his voice muffled by his hands. By now, he didn’t care if he was crazy, or appearing crazy to Robotnik; he just wanted the madness to end. If it didn’t, he was going to start questioning reality soon.

“Though the man in front of you can not see me, I can assure you I am not a product of you’re overactive imagination.” the alien spoke, in a voice that sounded like it echoed; it’s tone serious and dry.

“Oh, great, that’s really assuring. It’s telling me it’s not a hallucination. Wonderful, just wonderful….”

The figure didn’t falter at all at Gerald’s misbelieving. He could have expected it. “There is much to explain, but little time to do so. I can not tell what is going on with you, but I assure you that you will be an important player in this theater. And that your theory about the situation is right. My time is drawing nearer to a close, but the outcomes are chaotic; the order destroyed by the shattering. There is no guarantee that you will live through this all; just as there is none for me, which is why I must give you this.”

Even though Gerald couldn’t see it, as his hands still covered his face, he held out his bow. It laid flat on the palm of his hands, perfectly balanced.

“There is no guarantee, but know that you must get through this. Not just for yourself but possible the stake of the whole universe.”

[Alpha Omega]

Omega scowled at the half-mechanical badger. He stretched his arms out, sore from being held, then his legs. He rubbed his chest a bit and took a deep breath. "Just a fist fight then, huh? Why not?"

He watched Rampage for a minute before leaping over him and attempting to slam his left elbow into the cyborg's back.