Launch Base Zone

[Dr. Robotnik]

[How about some theme music for those not out yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFP9QiLo3I8

]

Chadin and Gerald indeed would not encounter much resistance as they fled the ship, since all of the robots were also trying to escape as well. But now they had a new problem. The warning said the ship's structural integrity had been compromised. And both wound find out firsthand just how big a problem it was very soon. They'd no doubt find the computer's three minute estimate to be rather optimistic at this point.

As he dashed down the hallway, Gerald would pass under a large sign reading "SWATPOD HANGAR" with an arrow pointing dead ahead. As if a herald of what was to come, the sign fell off of its hinges and smashed to a million pieces right as the doctor finished going under it. The entire hallway creaked and groaned, with floors and walls alike shifting underfoot. It sounded like it was going to collapse at any moment.

---

Downstairs, Chadin too would need to book it. It would be difficult to exit on the lower floors since that's where all of the molten metal had gone. Most likely, he would need to try to find a way to get out on the higher floors. Pipes and lights detached from the ceiling overhead, clattering across the floor. Electrical wires snapped in two from the twisting and turning of the ship's structure, causing bright sparks as they disconnected and swished through the air. He too would pass by a sign indicating a SWATPod Hangar on upper floors, if he wanted to try to go for it. Or maybe he could try exiting through that hole he'd made earlier on during the attack...

[Chadin]

"What the same hell is going on around here!" Rampage growled dangerously under his breath as he ran through the narrow corridors. As soon as the alarms started blaring he broke away from his little 'chat' with Alpha and made his way straight to the Control room to retrieve the ship's video logs. He had a hunch, but he honestly didn't know what was going on and the best way to find out, and to study the opposition, was in those logs. After retrieving them, he made a mad dash for the Swat-pod hangar; directing his Com-bot's to grab a ship and follow after him.

Lucky for Gerald, but by the time he got there, Rampage and his Com-bot contingent were already blasting out of the hangar at high speed.

Down on the lower floors, I very quickly discovered that escaping through the main floors was going to be all but impossible. By the time I reached a door to the outside because of my aching ankle slowing me down, I discovered that the molten metal had already oozed out of the ship and formed a hissing pool of lava surrounding the ship.

I didn't really have any choice now. My only chance was to reach the hangar and pray I could somehow figure out how to fly one out of here. At least long enough to clear this ship.

Finding a stairway up, I moved as fast as I could. I leaped groups of steps on my one good leg, using the railing to keep me balanced. A wonder what adrenaline can do; and as the ship's alarms droned on and on about the impending danger and the continued to shake and fall apart, there was no shortage of the stuff in my system.

By some quirk of fate, luck or whatever, I entered the hangar from the stairway, at about the same time Gerald did. Whether it you could consider it good or bad luck would depend rather heavily on your point of view however.

"GERALD!!!" I seethed with fury as my hand instinctively drew my crossbow and aimed it at him. MY body still ached all over, so I could only hold it with one hand while my other clutched my side. Gerald would clearly be able to tell that I was exhausted and hurt. My fur was ruffled up, blackened and completely disheveled; I looked like I'd been through hell and back. Which wouldn't be far off the mark either. If he got close enough, he'd easily be able to smell the aroma of burnt fur.

[Gerald Robotnik]

As Gerald looked over towards him, Chadin would see the bow Gerald had been carrying around materialize right into his left hand. Even though Chadin’s cross bow was aimed at him, it was like Gerald didn’t notice; or more-over he wasn’t afraid. And to Gerald, why should he be afraid? To him, they were working together; as Gerald had no recollection of what he’d done when he had blacked out. So seeing the cross-bow aimed at him, seemed more like he was just aiming at what he thought was going to be a robot and not him.

“Chadin-!” Gerald shouted back, sounding somewhat relieved; even showing a half smile. It was almost as though he didn’t pick up the tone in Chadin’s voice. Perhaps he thought it was just that Chadin was exhausted. But Gerald would soon distracted when he realized he’d felt something in his hand and looked over. “-Wha?! How did that…?”

“N…Nevermind,” Gerald began as shake his head and started running into the hanger. “We need to get out of here! I think I know how to work one of these flying mechanisms.”

He pointed and ran over to the nearest pod and opened the door to sit inside it. Keeping the door open, and opening the other side, he began to mess with the controls. By the time Chadin would make it, the SWATpod would most likely be ready to fly out of there.

[Chadin]

The inexplicable appearance of the bow left me a little more than perplexed. However, in the back of my mind it came off as him drawing his weapon. At least until he himself discounted it and made no appearance to aim it at him.

Something didn't seem right though. In my mind, Gerald should have been at least a little worried to see me. After all, he'd ordered his creation to try and kill me. I would have thought if he'd done that he'd be a little less than thrilled to see me still alive.

In fact, Gerald was acting much more like how I remembered him. But that did nothing to alleviate my scepticism; and I sure as heck wasn't letting my guard down. This could be an act for all I knew. Heck, he could have been acting from the moment I first met him. Getting close to make me trust him till the right moment came. Well, if he thought he could trick me again, he had another thing coming.

I briefly thought about shooting the rotten traitor right then and there. But the image of Robonik's bloody arm dangling out of his battered machine stayed my trigger finger. Besides that, an alternate thought occurred to me. I was far too tired to fly one of these ships out of here myself. Perhaps I could take advantage of this.

I limped after Gerald, slinging my crossbow for now. As I got closer to the Swatpod's doorway, I drew my knife and stepped inside. With Gerald focused on the controls, it would be easy to get right up close with him. My scars momentarily flashed bright white and faded again as I glared angrily at the traitorous Overlander. Part of me wanted to just gut him right there, but luckily that part of my brain was quelled by my more logical side. For now, I needed him alive.

But alive didn't mean I had to take unnecessary risks. I pressed the razor sharp edge of the knife up against Gerald's throat; not enough to puncture or even cut him, but enough to punctuate my words. "I don't know what game you're playing at, Professor Robotnik..." I said in a low, dangerous tone with great emphasis on the word Robotnik. "I don't care how clever you think you are, or how stupid you think I am, but it's over. You're just lucky I'm too tired to fly this thing out of here myself or you'd be dead already. So here's how this is going to go: you fly this thing out of here or I show you how a knife that can punch through metal slices through flesh like hot knife through butter! Get the point?!" I pressed the edge of the blade a little harder against Gerald's neck for emphasis.

"And if you try anything funny, you'll be breathing out of a hole in your throat before you can list the first two numbers of pie!"

[Gerald Robotnik]

He took his glasses off briefly to see the consol better; as it was somewhat dim inside the compartment. If there was a problem he had with wearing them was having to take them off in the dark. But it would soon be all for the good as he managed to turn the systems on.

“Ah, I think I’ve-”

The moment he began to say aloud a relieving sentence, Chadin placed the knife up against his throat. Gerald gave out a shocked gasp and automatically moved himself back in the seat. The distance would be fixed soon enough, as Chadin put the knife in closer. Gerald quivered in fear as he listened to Chadin and looked at the knife at his throat. The look on his face afterwards as he moved his eyes over at Chadin was a mixture of emotions. He was scared, confused, maybe even worried; but most of all he looked as though he’d been betrayed. Not the anger filled type like Chadin’s own feelings of betrayal, but a hurt look that said ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

He didn’t speak a word too him, as he was practically a deer in the head-lights. He was so shocked, felt so betrayed, and was so confused he couldn’t even think of where to start the questioning. Not only that, but it was probably the worst of times for all of it, as he felt like a complete disheveled mess.

“How tragic….”

As soon as he heard the voice, he looked towards the front looking now perhaps a little more curious. Then he’d dart his eyes over in the other direction to where the opened door on his left where Chadin would see his eyes widen to a point where he’d probably never seen a look of fear and completely shock; Gerald’s breathing practically stopped.

There on his side, was him. He’d thought it was strange to hear his own voice –not- coming from his mouth; but to see him-self standing in the open door with an off smile wasn’t something he knew he should be seeing. Not only that but there was something wrong with him; he had these grin spots all over the bottom side of his face, that looked as though the traveled down the side of his neck.


“It looks like you trusted this one too easy…” Himself would continue to say in a calm and cool voice. “But what does it matter? Even if he did somehow trust you, he would just be let down anyways…or just end up getting him killed.” He paused, his smile getting wider, and suddenly became much sinister in look. “ Why don’t you just sleep? Rest yourself…let me handle this….”



The bottom lid of Gerald’s right eye twitched as the vision of himself began to hold his hand out. It was at that moment where Gerald, almost blue in the face from not breathing, grabbed the handle of the pods door and slamed it shut; putting the door between himself and the vision. He’d gasp for breath, appearing to be even more cracked than before.

Chadin, of course wouldn’t of seen the vision of himself or even hear him. This was a moment where it would become clear that Gerald was not mentally stable.

[Dr. Robotnik]

[I guess I'll leave you two to it for now, but not before giving an update on the ship's destruction.]

More loud groaning sounds would echo up through the ship, as the bottom of the structure melted into the new lake of molten lava. With its foundation eroding away, it wouldn't be long before the entire factory ship fell over, or simply crumbled in on itself.

In fact, the two of them might notice a rolling sound coming from the controls of the ship. A screwdriver left over on top of the console started to roll along the ledge, before it fell off and clattered across the floor. The floor began to perceptibly lean in the direction the screwdriver had gone. In fact, they might even begin to start hearing metal grinding against metal, as the SWATpod itself began to slowly slide along the metal floor below.

[Chadin]

My eyes closely watched Gerald's face, watching for any sign of treachery. His reaction however was certainly not what I had expected. It was as if he saw a ghost at the doorway, even though there was nothing there. I didn't know what to make of this until the ship started to tilt and slide across the floor. I realized with a start that the ship was starting to fall apart, and take us with it if we didn't escape soon.

I still didn't understand what was going on with Gerald. If he was trying to trick me than he was really hamming it up. Maybe I came on too forceful and scared the ever loving snot out of him. Regardless, neither of us had the time for politeness. I yanked on Gerald's coat collar, trying to snap him out of it. "Gerald!! If you don't get this ship moving now, we're both dead!!! If you ever want to find your wife, you're not going to do it from inside a coffin, now MOVE!!!"

[Gerald Robotnik]

As he was in the process of catching his breath, as well as being shake by Chadin; Gerald reached for the controls and proceeded to flying the craft out of there. It was something of a tight squeeze, but Gerald managed to fly the craft safely out of the hanger and into the air.

Now that he was in a position of safety, his thoughts began to corrode his soul. Perhaps if he had something complicated to concentrate on, he’d be better. But as he was, thoughts about his guilty conscious, his sudden slip of sanity, his new found relative among other things began to plague his mind. While he said nothing, still not speaking a word to Chadin, he knew the moment he got out of this thing that he needed to spilt ways. He was just not fit for this kind of outfit. Heck, he wasn’t fit to do anything! It was like his whole entire mind was working against him; plotting to get him killed.

Gerald just continued to look forward with a rather blank expression. It’d been a long and very crazy day; and he was hoping he’d never have to deal with that again. Now the problem was while they'd gotten out of the frying pan, where would they -land-?

[Chadin]

I let out very loud sigh of relief as I watched our pod depart the ship just as it began to fall apart. Another few minutes and we'd be goners. With the immediate danger now passed, I suddenly felt like my whole body weighed a ton. My eyelids started to droop with exhaustion. But just as I was about to pass out, my eyes snapped back open.

I couldn't, I wouldn't let myself fall asleep now. Still not safe yet. Gerald is still a traitor in my eyes. If I doze off, he might try to finish what he started. The only question now is, who do I trust? I can't just go with my original plan to keep on fighting Robotnik solo. At least, not right now. I'd never be able to stay awake long enough to keep a close eye on Gerald. The people who I fought across the island would be the best bet then.

Of course, what do I do with Gerald then? I can't just let him go. He knows the location of Knothole. I'd be a fool to just let him leave, not after he clearly proved he's not my ally. I could just kill him once we landed...

No... that just didn't feel right. As bad as I felt for killing Robotnik, that was in the midst of a do or die battle. I'd feel even worse about just killing Gerald in cold blood. Maybe I could just lock him away in a jail cell back at Knothole. At least then I could question him safely once I recover.

That settled it then. I looked out the window, searching for Gail and the others. I only hoped they survived the fight after I entered the ship. But, even at our relatively low altitude, I spotted them easy enough. It looked like they were fleeing the molten metal and collapsing ship.

Fair enough. Gerald, set this thing down up on the hill, just ahead of Gail and the others." I said as I pointed out where to land with my free hand.

[Gerald Robotnik]

Gerald gave a sort of nervous glitch. He’d been in a complete state of confusion in the mad man’s presence. He’d been absolutely baffled by the spirit’s intrusion. And now he was lost; not understanding what had happened to make who he thought was a relatively nice guy suddenly turn on him.

Not to mention the sudden realization that he’d fallen much deeper into the abyss of sanity. He’d dealt with a sickening depression for years before Clarice came around. He wasn’t sure he could deal with hallucinations, not if he was trapped in a library forever. There simply wouldn’t be enough knowledge to drug him from that.

At the time Chadin spoke, he moved his eyes slowly over towards him before looking down at the ground over on the hill the group had gotten on for safety. Once again, he only answered back with a blank expression as he began to land the vehicle behind where the group was gathering. Now the only question that he could ask was what would happen when they landed?

Not only that, but as he eyed the controls he saw something peculiar. Keeping one hand on the controls, he brought his right arm closer to him, and realized there were strange markings that weren’t there before. What on earth was happening to him?

( Arm markings for left and right:http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/genroseFOX/geraldarmmakrs.png )

[to Launch base infiltration?]