A story my brother pushed me to publish I'm fine with either way the winds blow, I'm just glad I can be seen.
Aerial Dreams
- Thread starter BlueDraken
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/Scrapnik Island Part 1
Klein's back was being poked by something cold and hard, and a heavy fog seemed to clamp down on his skin. In the distance there was the sound of scraping metal and flicker of what was… Electric discharge? The Human still had his eyes closed as he tried to deny the importance of all this bizarre nonsense around him. His hands started tracing over screws and bolts.
There was Something wrong here.
Not just with the world around him, but the very flesh that wove around his bones, the way the air filled his lungs and most damming of all the fact only .2 seconds had passed since his awaking, that was Considering his surroundings, having a panic attack and coming up with a theory or two since he had the time, and the seven small squirrel shaped robots that had been observing his resting body.
He cracked a blue eye open and was hit by a tsunami of Information that should have fried his brain over a thousand times. He immediately closed his eye again. Two of the robots were missing their tail stabilizers while four of them were leaking oil into their chip processor and one of them was missing its fake head. All of them were observing him for someone else.
Klein sighed and stood up and climbed the scrap hill behind him metal and plastic crunched underneath his boots and stride towards one the tailless squirrels letting a breath out and time went back to something more reasonable. It squealed something in Binary and bolted away while the others rotated their heads at him and squeaked before following suit.
The man didn't let it bother him as he needed to confirm something more important. He opened his eyes again then a milk curdling grimace snuck across his face. The sea of broken metal, oil and ripped wires could not hide a disturbing trend of the colors red, yellow and black. This all pales in comparison to the monolithic face buried halfway into the ground.
It must be noted that in any other scenario, Klein would have loved to tour such a massive achievement to human progress but the face it depicted murdered that urge in its crib. It was the image of a smiling man with a pointy mustache, large nose and one cyclopean eye. The Death Egg sat cracked half; its metal yolk having spilled out on this island burying it in a tide of badnik parts.
The already fog filled day seems to vibrate with incoming air pressure and thus when lighting illuminated the sky the rain that followed only seemed natural. There Klein stood on top of rusted piles of old violence hesitating and under the slowly falling rain he got to work.
E-117 Sigma was soldering the wire that he was sure was causing the climate machine's internal measure to overheat when his communication suddenly pinged. Gently handing the tool to Benedict he received the link to the perimeter cameras and was met by a peculiar sight. Someone was moving a prodigious pile of scrap near the southmost beach and seemed to be sorting through it.
The Scrapnik was not one he was immediately familiar with as it seemed to be coated head to toe in green paint with the only sign of rust being on top of its skull. Sigma was only acquainted with one bot that could move so much metal, and he was in the Death Egg guarding the Scrambled Egg Carrier. Maybe a Super Badnik had awoken from the isle of scrap and was currently looking for survivors of the crash?
Sigma needed to go explain to this Badnik the terrible state they were in and get it out from the storm. He sent a Ping towards his Scrapniks to \please follow him thus Benedict, Florentine and Rancheros walked after him. E-117 as he was about to leave the Death Egg was met by Mecha Sonic his saw blade leg clinking against the ground a warm comfort on his little quest to greet their new friend.
The scrap below them had been flattened into something a road and with a jaunty tune he led his group out to meet the robot. They had not gotten farther than an hour before A group of seven Robo-rrels hopped on him and the E-100 bot was befuddled. One without its tail was pointing aggressively in the same direction as the badnik.
Was the Badnik that confused did it attack his friends? Wait was it malfunctioning to such a degree that its simply smashing scrap?
"Mecha Sonic please rush to our new friend's side as they may require assistance" Sigma asked, and Mecha Sonic was gone.
Now he Just had to figure out how badly it was hurt.
Too Ruined.
This will work
The words blazed across his mind ad-nauseum till he finally had a respectable pile of useful material. The slowly grown pile of useful components was nothing to the quarter mile sized bowl of useless scrap, but it should be good enough to start. With his strength the need for a wrench was moot but a screwdriver would help with this. Of course, the flamer tank he got working will need more time to be a soldering tool but that was later.
First, he took the black lens that he scavenged from the observer badnik and took the thin metal wiring and gently sculpted metal around the bullet proof glass. His eyes flicked open and then his hand reached over his shoulder to grab the hand that was reaching for him. Klein turned his head and looked face to orange visor of a rusty Mecha Sonic.
Time on this Island had not been kind as most of his blue paint had rusted to a dull copper the white tattered cloak doing little to hide his crab hand or the saw blade leg. Still Klein smiled and turned around fully and putting his new Teashade sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. To his quiet discomfort they fit perfectly but he pushed that away to deal with the Mecha.
"A pleasure to meet you sir however if you could knock against the scrap instead of trying to touch me next time that would be wonderful" Klein's broad grin seem to throw off the robot as he pulled his hand from his grip. The rain that he had been ignoring seemed to finally roar loud enough to bother with, yet it could not deafen the awkward silence that hovered around the bot.
"Well, are you-hmm you can't speak, can you?" Klein sense of personal space must have died when he awoke as sudden started treating him like a wounded dog. Mecha Jumped back as he got closer as the Human started reaching for the mounted crab claw. Klein had the decency to look ashamed for a moment but cleared the look from his face.
"Sorry I can admire the ruggedness of the repairs, it just… see where they could be done better" The matter-of-fact statement along the earnest look reminded him of Sigma.
Mecha Sonic Disappeared.
Klein sighed and his mind spun as another prototype was kicked to the front of the pack. He really didn't want to play charades with whatever new metal character showed up without a voice pack. Still, he needs to polish up his diplomatic skills that was pathetic display from himself.
That need to repair.
Another new urge...
What was next?
The Band of scrapniks were almost to the southmost point of the island when Sigma noticed that Mecha Sonic had returned to them without their mysterious guest. Meeting Mecha in the Visor he was relieved to see that whoever they were they didn't need immediate help, but the bot couldn't help the question.
"Where is the unit that you were requested to help?" E-117 queried and Mecha Sonic simply nodded in the direction they were heading.
"Curious" Taking Mecha's return as the signal it was the group slowed its roll and continued in a more controlled manner.
The group drew closer to the new crater that had been made in the sea of scrap, and now on further inspection the being is certainly not a scrapnik. Its form triggering a deep seed of fear as the brown-haired human was working through the rain and blustering on something. Sigma took the emotion and quietly smothered it as he rolled forward Mecha close to his left.
"Salutations, your Forgiveness is requested by this unit but who do I owe the pleasure of conversation with?" E-117 asked.
The Human paused its work, the tools gently put down on a makeshift table and turned towards him and his scrapniks. It was tall, almost as tall as the doctor yet none of that showed as it spoke.
"Klein Altman Inventor Extraordinaire at your service" He bowed
/End
There was Something wrong here.
Not just with the world around him, but the very flesh that wove around his bones, the way the air filled his lungs and most damming of all the fact only .2 seconds had passed since his awaking, that was Considering his surroundings, having a panic attack and coming up with a theory or two since he had the time, and the seven small squirrel shaped robots that had been observing his resting body.
He cracked a blue eye open and was hit by a tsunami of Information that should have fried his brain over a thousand times. He immediately closed his eye again. Two of the robots were missing their tail stabilizers while four of them were leaking oil into their chip processor and one of them was missing its fake head. All of them were observing him for someone else.
Klein sighed and stood up and climbed the scrap hill behind him metal and plastic crunched underneath his boots and stride towards one the tailless squirrels letting a breath out and time went back to something more reasonable. It squealed something in Binary and bolted away while the others rotated their heads at him and squeaked before following suit.
The man didn't let it bother him as he needed to confirm something more important. He opened his eyes again then a milk curdling grimace snuck across his face. The sea of broken metal, oil and ripped wires could not hide a disturbing trend of the colors red, yellow and black. This all pales in comparison to the monolithic face buried halfway into the ground.
It must be noted that in any other scenario, Klein would have loved to tour such a massive achievement to human progress but the face it depicted murdered that urge in its crib. It was the image of a smiling man with a pointy mustache, large nose and one cyclopean eye. The Death Egg sat cracked half; its metal yolk having spilled out on this island burying it in a tide of badnik parts.
The already fog filled day seems to vibrate with incoming air pressure and thus when lighting illuminated the sky the rain that followed only seemed natural. There Klein stood on top of rusted piles of old violence hesitating and under the slowly falling rain he got to work.
E-117 Sigma was soldering the wire that he was sure was causing the climate machine's internal measure to overheat when his communication suddenly pinged. Gently handing the tool to Benedict he received the link to the perimeter cameras and was met by a peculiar sight. Someone was moving a prodigious pile of scrap near the southmost beach and seemed to be sorting through it.
The Scrapnik was not one he was immediately familiar with as it seemed to be coated head to toe in green paint with the only sign of rust being on top of its skull. Sigma was only acquainted with one bot that could move so much metal, and he was in the Death Egg guarding the Scrambled Egg Carrier. Maybe a Super Badnik had awoken from the isle of scrap and was currently looking for survivors of the crash?
Sigma needed to go explain to this Badnik the terrible state they were in and get it out from the storm. He sent a Ping towards his Scrapniks to \please follow him thus Benedict, Florentine and Rancheros walked after him. E-117 as he was about to leave the Death Egg was met by Mecha Sonic his saw blade leg clinking against the ground a warm comfort on his little quest to greet their new friend.
The scrap below them had been flattened into something a road and with a jaunty tune he led his group out to meet the robot. They had not gotten farther than an hour before A group of seven Robo-rrels hopped on him and the E-100 bot was befuddled. One without its tail was pointing aggressively in the same direction as the badnik.
Was the Badnik that confused did it attack his friends? Wait was it malfunctioning to such a degree that its simply smashing scrap?
"Mecha Sonic please rush to our new friend's side as they may require assistance" Sigma asked, and Mecha Sonic was gone.
Now he Just had to figure out how badly it was hurt.
Too Ruined.
This will work
The words blazed across his mind ad-nauseum till he finally had a respectable pile of useful material. The slowly grown pile of useful components was nothing to the quarter mile sized bowl of useless scrap, but it should be good enough to start. With his strength the need for a wrench was moot but a screwdriver would help with this. Of course, the flamer tank he got working will need more time to be a soldering tool but that was later.
First, he took the black lens that he scavenged from the observer badnik and took the thin metal wiring and gently sculpted metal around the bullet proof glass. His eyes flicked open and then his hand reached over his shoulder to grab the hand that was reaching for him. Klein turned his head and looked face to orange visor of a rusty Mecha Sonic.
Time on this Island had not been kind as most of his blue paint had rusted to a dull copper the white tattered cloak doing little to hide his crab hand or the saw blade leg. Still Klein smiled and turned around fully and putting his new Teashade sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. To his quiet discomfort they fit perfectly but he pushed that away to deal with the Mecha.
"A pleasure to meet you sir however if you could knock against the scrap instead of trying to touch me next time that would be wonderful" Klein's broad grin seem to throw off the robot as he pulled his hand from his grip. The rain that he had been ignoring seemed to finally roar loud enough to bother with, yet it could not deafen the awkward silence that hovered around the bot.
"Well, are you-hmm you can't speak, can you?" Klein sense of personal space must have died when he awoke as sudden started treating him like a wounded dog. Mecha Jumped back as he got closer as the Human started reaching for the mounted crab claw. Klein had the decency to look ashamed for a moment but cleared the look from his face.
"Sorry I can admire the ruggedness of the repairs, it just… see where they could be done better" The matter-of-fact statement along the earnest look reminded him of Sigma.
Mecha Sonic Disappeared.
Klein sighed and his mind spun as another prototype was kicked to the front of the pack. He really didn't want to play charades with whatever new metal character showed up without a voice pack. Still, he needs to polish up his diplomatic skills that was pathetic display from himself.
That need to repair.
Another new urge...
What was next?
The Band of scrapniks were almost to the southmost point of the island when Sigma noticed that Mecha Sonic had returned to them without their mysterious guest. Meeting Mecha in the Visor he was relieved to see that whoever they were they didn't need immediate help, but the bot couldn't help the question.
"Where is the unit that you were requested to help?" E-117 queried and Mecha Sonic simply nodded in the direction they were heading.
"Curious" Taking Mecha's return as the signal it was the group slowed its roll and continued in a more controlled manner.
The group drew closer to the new crater that had been made in the sea of scrap, and now on further inspection the being is certainly not a scrapnik. Its form triggering a deep seed of fear as the brown-haired human was working through the rain and blustering on something. Sigma took the emotion and quietly smothered it as he rolled forward Mecha close to his left.
"Salutations, your Forgiveness is requested by this unit but who do I owe the pleasure of conversation with?" E-117 asked.
The Human paused its work, the tools gently put down on a makeshift table and turned towards him and his scrapniks. It was tall, almost as tall as the doctor yet none of that showed as it spoke.
"Klein Altman Inventor Extraordinaire at your service" He bowed
/End
/Scrapnik Island Part 2
Klein followed the procession of scrapniks toward what remained of the Death Egg his eyes roving over the group. A monkey with a centipede locomotion, a bee with only a single rotary eye no head, A fish walking on legs and many more odd combinations. They all from the lowest to Mecha Sonic had one thing common, a deep love for E-117 and for each other, the inventor in question was currently worming his way into Klein's heart too.
"Fascinating Mr. Altman would you allow this unit a question about how the walking subroutine error in Dylan disrupts his sense of balance in the Sky?" Klein was sure if Sigma needed to write things down, he would be doing so.
This conversation had started innocently enough as while the majority of the scrapniks were interesting to look at he found out none of them could speak English or anything more than binary. When Klein started speaking out the simple fixes, he could see in bots to fill the quiet, he expected E-117 to take offense at his comments. Instead, the bot seemed to appreciate the comments if the nods coming from his head were anything to say.
"That Is a great question Sigma, you see the airborne gyroscope in Dylan's module is also responsible for his ground movement" Correction not just Sigma was listening as the bot in question landed on his shoulder in interest.
"So, the slightest glitch in the movement program could bork the other side of movement." Klein continued as they had gotten close enough to the Scrambled Death Egg that he could see the airship port they were entering.
"Interesting to Understand Mr. Altman, there is another query if you would give this unit your forgiveness" Sigma was rolling in front of him his torso spun around to face him every time he asked a question but something about the way he said this one unnerved him.
"Ask away" Klein waved his hand trying to banish the feeling.
"Are you a Badnik Mr. Altman?" E-117 asked.
"Pardon?" The human's mind sputtered for a second then started firing all synapses to figure out how he drew that idea.
"I have noted that the rain is 4.44444 degrees Celsius, and your body has not once shivered, I have noted that since we met you till now have walked a perfect meter even when you were stunned at the question, I have noted that you are bearing Dylan's weight of 34.23 pounds easily without sign of strain. This Unit would request your forgiveness if I offended you with this query" The barrage ended, and his evaluation of Sigma rose dramatically.
"No, but with all that allied against me I see how you drew the conclusion, it's simply that I have been blessed with a great body" Klein kept his own doubts to himself as they would only muddy the water.
E-117's gaze beamed at him as he put claw in his hand in an Aha! Pose.
"I Understand Mr. Altman thank you for bothering with my questions, but This unit is going to bother yo-." The thunder boomed as if frustrated at their lack of care of its might and a few of scrapniks were knocked a few feet around as the wind screamed. Mecha Sonic, without missing a beat gathered them up from the air and was already sitting them down inside the entrance.
"I suppose such questions can wait till we have entered inside; everybody's forgiveness is requested by this unit" E-117 as he strode forward into the darkness of the airport the few scrapnik heavy enough to resist the wind trundling after him. The Group of Scrapniks out of sight even to his vision.
Klein took the moment of loneliness to try something he just…knew he could do with a sharp twist the palm of his hand was facing 180 degrees in the opposite direction of his wrist. The Being looked down at the twisted appendage with a clinical eye and rotated it back to something normal.
Yeah Human.
Klein's speed made his absence easy to hide from Sigma as he was checking over the scrapniks who were tossed about by the wind, away from Mecha Sonic was not possible but he didn't care to share it with the rest of the group. Finding them also threw another oddity in Klein's face as even with his glasses blocking his vision the pitch-black halls were as clear as day.
The halls in question seem to have held up under the weight of time and the crash far more gracefully than the parts that bled out of the Orbital station. That is not to say the wires didn't hang down like veins ripped out of a body or that holes in the walls were bones set properly. The numerous scrapniks that hung in the rafters or slunk in the wall protested a healthy diagnosis.
Klein met as many sets of eyes as he could with a smile and the various forms of smiles brought some lightness to his heart. It looked like Sigma was about done checking over scrapnik and turned towards him an apology already on his voice box.
"This Unit would ask for your forgiveness Mr. Altman as I let my curiosity overcome my concern." E-117 Started but Klein was quick to way him down
"Not a Problem it's not like you can control the weather, and as I already proved the rain means nothing to me" Klein little joke was supposed to lighten the mood.
The response took his breath away.
"It is to our error that caused such tempestuous winds to assault the Island, as the station's climate disruptor is malfunctioning even now" Sigma revealed.
"Take me there Now!"
The E-100 bot looked back at the human in confusion and was struck over the head by Zeal that consumed him. The man was gone and in his place was being of hunger and passion that would burn him from looking.
"Certainly, I was just working on it when w- "
"Come then let's go" Klein was even now trying to slam the excitement in a car door, but it was taking the blows like champ and asking for more.
To Klein's horror his impatience started to bleed into his perception of time and turned what was a three second dialogue into five minutes of slowly processed words. Able to crush the excitement time finally remembered to move for everyone else.
"If you believe you can understand the work, I would be most appreciative" Sigma finally finished.
"Sigma I will guarantee you this" Klein grabbed His gloved hand and shook it, and his excitement threaten to drag him back to the slow purgatory.
"Meeting me will be the best day of your life" Altman let go of his hand and strode forward.
Sigma got himself together and led him towards a massive room, the size of football field set on its width there sat what to the untrained eye was a two giant colander suspending a black core of energy. The disruptor had seen better days, and you didn't need Klein's knowledge to see the massive gashes across the orb, the wires ripped apart and trampled on, Altman's heart wept for the damage to such a work of art.
"Now this travesty shall linger no longer" The Smile that stole across his face threw Sigma's servos into panic. The scrapniks around him flinching away and Mecha Sonic was gearing up to Spin Dash.
The Glasses were just like Eggman
The Smile an 87% match
Had he made a grave error Letting this Human in here?
Had he Just Dammed his Friends?
A Spiked club slammed into the floor where the human was standing cracking the metal and sending up shards everywhere. Klein's Pose had not changed, instead he was standing on top of Metal Knuckles' arm; the smile was gone and in a blur the glasses disappeared into a pocket. The arm retracted to a shadow and out charged Mecha Knuckles his right arm cocked back into a ruthless punch.
/End
"Fascinating Mr. Altman would you allow this unit a question about how the walking subroutine error in Dylan disrupts his sense of balance in the Sky?" Klein was sure if Sigma needed to write things down, he would be doing so.
This conversation had started innocently enough as while the majority of the scrapniks were interesting to look at he found out none of them could speak English or anything more than binary. When Klein started speaking out the simple fixes, he could see in bots to fill the quiet, he expected E-117 to take offense at his comments. Instead, the bot seemed to appreciate the comments if the nods coming from his head were anything to say.
"That Is a great question Sigma, you see the airborne gyroscope in Dylan's module is also responsible for his ground movement" Correction not just Sigma was listening as the bot in question landed on his shoulder in interest.
"So, the slightest glitch in the movement program could bork the other side of movement." Klein continued as they had gotten close enough to the Scrambled Death Egg that he could see the airship port they were entering.
"Interesting to Understand Mr. Altman, there is another query if you would give this unit your forgiveness" Sigma was rolling in front of him his torso spun around to face him every time he asked a question but something about the way he said this one unnerved him.
"Ask away" Klein waved his hand trying to banish the feeling.
"Are you a Badnik Mr. Altman?" E-117 asked.
"Pardon?" The human's mind sputtered for a second then started firing all synapses to figure out how he drew that idea.
"I have noted that the rain is 4.44444 degrees Celsius, and your body has not once shivered, I have noted that since we met you till now have walked a perfect meter even when you were stunned at the question, I have noted that you are bearing Dylan's weight of 34.23 pounds easily without sign of strain. This Unit would request your forgiveness if I offended you with this query" The barrage ended, and his evaluation of Sigma rose dramatically.
"No, but with all that allied against me I see how you drew the conclusion, it's simply that I have been blessed with a great body" Klein kept his own doubts to himself as they would only muddy the water.
E-117's gaze beamed at him as he put claw in his hand in an Aha! Pose.
"I Understand Mr. Altman thank you for bothering with my questions, but This unit is going to bother yo-." The thunder boomed as if frustrated at their lack of care of its might and a few of scrapniks were knocked a few feet around as the wind screamed. Mecha Sonic, without missing a beat gathered them up from the air and was already sitting them down inside the entrance.
"I suppose such questions can wait till we have entered inside; everybody's forgiveness is requested by this unit" E-117 as he strode forward into the darkness of the airport the few scrapnik heavy enough to resist the wind trundling after him. The Group of Scrapniks out of sight even to his vision.
Klein took the moment of loneliness to try something he just…knew he could do with a sharp twist the palm of his hand was facing 180 degrees in the opposite direction of his wrist. The Being looked down at the twisted appendage with a clinical eye and rotated it back to something normal.
Yeah Human.
Klein's speed made his absence easy to hide from Sigma as he was checking over the scrapniks who were tossed about by the wind, away from Mecha Sonic was not possible but he didn't care to share it with the rest of the group. Finding them also threw another oddity in Klein's face as even with his glasses blocking his vision the pitch-black halls were as clear as day.
The halls in question seem to have held up under the weight of time and the crash far more gracefully than the parts that bled out of the Orbital station. That is not to say the wires didn't hang down like veins ripped out of a body or that holes in the walls were bones set properly. The numerous scrapniks that hung in the rafters or slunk in the wall protested a healthy diagnosis.
Klein met as many sets of eyes as he could with a smile and the various forms of smiles brought some lightness to his heart. It looked like Sigma was about done checking over scrapnik and turned towards him an apology already on his voice box.
"This Unit would ask for your forgiveness Mr. Altman as I let my curiosity overcome my concern." E-117 Started but Klein was quick to way him down
"Not a Problem it's not like you can control the weather, and as I already proved the rain means nothing to me" Klein little joke was supposed to lighten the mood.
The response took his breath away.
"It is to our error that caused such tempestuous winds to assault the Island, as the station's climate disruptor is malfunctioning even now" Sigma revealed.
"Take me there Now!"
The E-100 bot looked back at the human in confusion and was struck over the head by Zeal that consumed him. The man was gone and in his place was being of hunger and passion that would burn him from looking.
"Certainly, I was just working on it when w- "
"Come then let's go" Klein was even now trying to slam the excitement in a car door, but it was taking the blows like champ and asking for more.
To Klein's horror his impatience started to bleed into his perception of time and turned what was a three second dialogue into five minutes of slowly processed words. Able to crush the excitement time finally remembered to move for everyone else.
"If you believe you can understand the work, I would be most appreciative" Sigma finally finished.
"Sigma I will guarantee you this" Klein grabbed His gloved hand and shook it, and his excitement threaten to drag him back to the slow purgatory.
"Meeting me will be the best day of your life" Altman let go of his hand and strode forward.
Sigma got himself together and led him towards a massive room, the size of football field set on its width there sat what to the untrained eye was a two giant colander suspending a black core of energy. The disruptor had seen better days, and you didn't need Klein's knowledge to see the massive gashes across the orb, the wires ripped apart and trampled on, Altman's heart wept for the damage to such a work of art.
"Now this travesty shall linger no longer" The Smile that stole across his face threw Sigma's servos into panic. The scrapniks around him flinching away and Mecha Sonic was gearing up to Spin Dash.
The Glasses were just like Eggman
The Smile an 87% match
Had he made a grave error Letting this Human in here?
Had he Just Dammed his Friends?
A Spiked club slammed into the floor where the human was standing cracking the metal and sending up shards everywhere. Klein's Pose had not changed, instead he was standing on top of Metal Knuckles' arm; the smile was gone and in a blur the glasses disappeared into a pocket. The arm retracted to a shadow and out charged Mecha Knuckles his right arm cocked back into a ruthless punch.
/End
/Scrapnik Island End
Klein weaved the right hook pushing Mecha Knuckles off to side, and the Echidna spun both arms like a scythe aiming for his torso, ducking down he leapt to the left dodging the built up down slam.
Altman Grabbed the gloved arm and to his shock was unable to fully stop Knuckles from pulling him and he let go of arm just in time to dodge the Spike ball trying to paint him onto the ground.
Options?
Speed Blitz
Altman Stopped breathing and time slowed as the alien mindset nestle itself into his brain. His blue eyes lazily gazed over the Echidna and his frown deepened as the Sheer Malice that radiated off him as it didn't make sense for the first time meeting Klein. He strode up to the frozen Mecha Knuckles and glanced over the scratches and most importantly the jutting wires sticking out the back of his head.
The echidna's hat was covering most of his head, the brow of it covering his red honeycomb eyes. He had slung both of his arms back and like a sling shot the arms were going to slam into the spot he just was.
A Twitch of the shoulder was his only warning.
He got down in time to down to dodge the claw, the feeling of spikes and about a ton of force picking him up and punching him through a wall told him he was not effective in dodging as he hoped. The surrounding dust didn't blind him to the sheer silliness of what he was seeing. Mecha Knuckles had little rockets on his hand, and they were spinning him in a circle fast enough to blindside Klein.
The Joke was old, and he had just seen it as the makeshift tornado was fast enough that Klein had trouble distinguishing the limbs from one another. The Human's eyes darted around the quickly approaching tornado and were only met by Mecha Sonic. The Facsimile of Sonic met his gaze and Altman understood what was happening by the lack of Scrapniks around the two of them.
Mecha Sonic was using the echidna's frenzied state to test him for some reason.
Then he better give him a show.
Klein reached to his heart and pushed it off its precarious perch into the one urge he was hoping to save for a dire situation. It was the ravings of resistance to that inevitable end that all shall meet and the willingness to throw one's body in as payment. Altman looked at the Mechanical Foe and Primordial HATRED emblazed his heart, and The Human was gone.
In his place a monster that took the face of Klein was left.
He went to savage and destroy all that lived when the yoke narrowed his vision to only the hands of his opponent. Uncaring of anything else he slapped his open palm into the white glove and an almighty Boom echoed throughout Scrapnik Island. The Spiked ball had come swinging around and unlike the Echidna's hand was not up to the test of the monster's skull shattering into pieces.
The Gloved hand along with the arm was still in Klein's hand, but the force of the spin had torn it clean from its socket and there it sat limply in his grip, stupid rockets and all.
The Monster went to go crush the life remaining in Mecha Knuckles when the yoke around its neck tightened and the man known as Klein Altman came back to the surface throwing the beast back into its kennel. It gnashed its teeth and roared against him, yet Klein was already moving on to more important things like the terrible damage he had done to Mecha Knuckles.
The Bot in question would have already come back for round two if Mecha Sonic hadn't restrained him. Grabbing a random taser circuit, his hand started ripping it apart searching for a certain piece, he had about reached Mecha Knuckles and had begun to kneel-down when a claw came from nowhere to restrain his hand. It was not alone as another grabbed his heel and the flying beetle tried to blind him.
Klein reaches forward, the growing pile of scrapniks unable to restrain him let alone slow him, taking ahold of Mecha's under jaw joint hitting the release switch with needle he scavenged. The façade of Knuckles the Echidna faded retracted into its slide showing off the impressive, wire interlaced face, the red Honeycombed eyes no longer filled with just wrath but a growing sense of fear.
"I'm sorry" Altman felt the scrapniks grabbing him freeze and with that pause the human took the chance and…
Bowed
Pressing his face against the ground and from the bottom of his lungs said.
"I'm sorry that I have caused you such wrong!"
Eggman Apologized
Eggman was bow—
Eggman was bow-
Error, Supreme (Betrayer) leader does not bow (Die?) Does not Apologize.
Mecha Sonic placed him down on the ground yet the urge to slaughter the Monster before him was fading and an odd sensation was running through his emotion matrix.
"If you would allow me M- no Knuckles if you would allow me to fix you, I guarantee you that I'll get all of you off this Island."
Knuckles was aware of annoyance, of sadness, of joy, yet this emotion was none of them.
The scrapniks were still on the human looking at him searching for his answer. The nod that should have been bitter came far too freely and the scrapniks got off Egg- Off Klein. The man rose from his position and with unnerving skill reattached the arm back into its socket something that only the Supreme (Betrayer) Leader should have been able to do with such ease.
"It will take me a day or two to remake you another hand like that one so please be patient with me" Altman said reaching out and with a click the façade was back into place.
Knuckles clenched his one arm and skulked off back to the (Master Emerald) Scrambled Egg Carrier trying to understand what this emotion was. Sitting on top of the (Master Emerald) carrier he guarded soon, minutes started bleeding into hours, yet he was no closer to understanding what emotion it was. The sound of an old wheel grating against metal announced the arrival of Sigma.
The normally chatty scrapnik was quiet as he trundled up to and eventually next to Knuckles.
"This Unit would request your forgiveness I was not aware of your pain" E-117 said.
Again? Why was he Apologized to again?
E-117 settled low to Mecha Knuckles and hugged him, the unknown emotion spiked and even after Sigma got up and started looking over the Carrier (Master Emerald) it lingered. It was not an… unpleasant feeling.
A day passed faster than usual and here the source of this odd feeling came walking in, Klein (???) carrying a peculiar necklace and a brand-new left hand. He also found one of the working anti-gravity trollies, a load of equipment sitting precariously on it. Knuckles' eyes kept wandering over the lot of it trying to find what was so strange about all of it.
When it clicked
It was all shiny, all brand-new pieces that shouldn't be anywhere near Scrapnik Island, hell even the trolley itself looked like it came right off the assembly line. Sigma had been puttering around welding fixes on the (Master Emerald) Carrier when Altman waved up at him.
"As promised, I have your new hand!" Said the anomaly and then turned and started helping E-117 with his ridiculous speed reminding him of Sonic (ENEMY), yet the thoughts of that thief didn't rouse the usual spite that traveled his circuits. Shaking his head, Knuckles jumped down to the ground to meet the human. The green clad man smiling his way as he finished explaining some gibberish to Sigma.
"Before I reattach your arm would you mind accepting this Necklace?" The necklace in question looked as if someone took a walkie talkie and attached it to a bunch of iron beads.
"What's this doohickey supposed to d- "Knuckles was thinking those words; he didn't have a voice box and yet the voice continued.
"What in the Master Emerald!" A deep, raspy voice mimicked his thoughts.
Mecha Sonic made sure to measure the output of the pail to pour the gentlest of rains as his sunflower was looking well underneath the pseudo sunlight. His claw fiddled with the new necklace that Alt had given him as he thought over the human. Mecha Sonic was glad that his hunch had proven correct, yet there was sharply growing bitterness in his heart.
Why did humans make it look so easy.
What Sigma had been struggling to accomplish this man came in and swept aside as if it was lap record to beat. Mecha Sonic knew he was faster than the echidna, yet this human beat Knuckles in a contest of strength, a feat that the bot knew he could not match. The only thing the human had yet to prove better at than the machines was speed and as far as he was aware Alt was nowhere close to him or—
He Struck that thought dead.
Regardless of Alt's intentions he would use his generosity to get off this Island and strike down the one who left him behind. If he needs to wait a week or so for the human to fix the Scrambled Egg Carrier, then so be it.
The necklaces' radio starts playing an old familiar tune and just for a moment his heart doesn't feel like the trash it was.
Sigma was aware that Eggman was a genius, you didn't build a space station to wage a one-man war against a blue hedgehog without having a certain amount of intelligence. Of course, the insanity it required seems to be a hallmark of geniuses as Klein Altman had yet to sleep in the four days that he had been on the island, nor had he stopped working as the new necklaces around all scrapniks' necks could attest to.
He currently was on his 27th attempt at getting Klein to rest. This attempt was a more covert method.
"Salutations Klein I see you are- "He began, and his attempt was sunk before it set sail.
"Sigma I have told you before Sleep is optional for me" Klein was dead lifting half a ton metal square with one hand and was using an oversized badniks flamethrower to great effect.
The Human, however, seemed to always know what he was planning and shot down any talk of resting. Sigma had brought up how they had waited years to fix the Scrambled Egg Carrier.
"You shouldn't have had to wait that long to be free of him" He was going mile by mile cutting faulty wires and fixing them.
E-117 told him how it was moving far too fast, and they didn't even have a destination let alone a direction to go.
"Then you'll have all the time you need to decide when you're ready to go" Klein had been cracking the control codes in the command center of the ship. The scrapniks had wanted to help so he was teaching all of them at the same time the many different posts shipmen needed to know.
E-117 Sigma flat out asked him to take a break, and the human sat down and paused for one moment then immediately got back up to continue working.
Back in the present moment, Klein had left him behind moving onto all the outside welding he could see that needed to be done. Seeing the lost cause, his gaze shifted over the Scrambled Egg Carrier itself, and the monstrous amount of work Altman had done. Truly Sigma had no idea how he could call himself a human.
The undercarriage that had been nonexistent with critical functions and entire systems dangling outside the ship were now once again smooth and aerodynamic with 93% of the plating done and even as he observed that percent was knocked up to 94%.
Honestly Humans were frustrating to deal with.
"You're not coming with us?" Klein thought the scrapniks around him couldn't cry.
Dylan was making an honest effort to prove that statement wrong as his little propeller hat was chopping through the air and the eyes were clearly expressive enough. It was not a sentiment he alone shared, but he was one of the few who still wasn't on the ship, Sigma was the one preparing the launch off else he would be down here, and Knuckles wouldn't leave the ship for anything.
"Wish I could but that Disruptor is going to be problem that I can't just leave." The little propeller slowed down, and he looked at the ground. The clinking of a sawblade perked him up and he went and landed on a metal shoulder.
It was Mecha Sonic.
"Alt" The voice was deeper than Klein was expecting yet the voice revealed to him more than he was sure Mecha Sonic was comfortable sharing.
"Mecha Sonic" If he wanted to play mysterious bastard two could play at that.
The Man's gaze meets the Machine's visor while the rumbling of Scrambled Egg Carrier filled the air between the two of them. Klein cracked first and a smile broke across his face as he stretched out his hand.
"Till next time?" Altman asked.
The bot stared at the offered hand and Klein held it there.
"You are lying" Mecha Sonic stated.
The smile on Klein's face was flawless, his pose certain.
"About?" the knife of accusation keenly pointed back.
"Your reason for staying here" the hilt of which was slammed back into him.
Klein sighed "And you trusted a random human with one of your closest friends?"
There lay the rub that both had been avoiding, Klein by throwing himself into work and Mecha Sonic by simply avoiding him. Why had they trusted each other without knowing anything about each other. After he fixed the ship and bought their ticket out of here sure that made sense, but why after only an hour from meeting did Mecha Sonic trust him to fix Mecha Knuckles.
The inferno slammed the smell of sulfur and burning rubber into his nose as the entirety of the island burnt down as he had simply grown bored with these pathetic pieces of junk. Klein decided then that it would be more amusing to see them short circuit in the waters that had held them trapped. Klein started with the most pathetic one, the inventor who thought that he could match him.
Sigma looked ragged. His lower locomotives had been ripped off at his waist cylinder, his arm joints having been popped off as if they were worms to be squished under thumb. Then it started trying to yap at him again, so he made a final improvement to it by ripping out its vocal unit. It made satisfying pops and crackles as-
Klein felt something grip his hand and his eyes snapped awake from the delusion. He stared down at the metal hand in his then up to a Metal face showing… Empathy.
"A Monster recognizes another Monster" The Mecha shook his hand and walked away with Dylan on his shoulder looking deeply concerned at both.
"Till next time Klein Altman" Mecha said one final thing then both Dylan and Mecha Sonic were gone in a blur.
The human stared down at his hand as he started walking out of the deck and towards the port with the best view. The climate disruptor would take far too long to crack yet he had at least controlled today to be a beautiful clear sky. Soon the main star of the show would make her dazzling return to air and on cue the gun metal gray ship leapt to action.
All the iconography of Eggman had been easy to layer over or scrub out and the Image of a Scrambled egg on an iron pan suited the old bird much better. Her two propulsion wings had been the trickiest thing he had to fix on her, well more like grafting a new wing and giving the other one a set of new feathers. It should have been the most satisfying moment in Klein's life, and yet the only thing that rang in his chest was a bitter sweet feeling.
What went unnoticed by both departing scrapniks and the still present human was a yellow circle that spun a mile into the air.
/Scrapnik Island Arc End
Altman Grabbed the gloved arm and to his shock was unable to fully stop Knuckles from pulling him and he let go of arm just in time to dodge the Spike ball trying to paint him onto the ground.
Options?
Speed Blitz
Altman Stopped breathing and time slowed as the alien mindset nestle itself into his brain. His blue eyes lazily gazed over the Echidna and his frown deepened as the Sheer Malice that radiated off him as it didn't make sense for the first time meeting Klein. He strode up to the frozen Mecha Knuckles and glanced over the scratches and most importantly the jutting wires sticking out the back of his head.
The echidna's hat was covering most of his head, the brow of it covering his red honeycomb eyes. He had slung both of his arms back and like a sling shot the arms were going to slam into the spot he just was.
A Twitch of the shoulder was his only warning.
He got down in time to down to dodge the claw, the feeling of spikes and about a ton of force picking him up and punching him through a wall told him he was not effective in dodging as he hoped. The surrounding dust didn't blind him to the sheer silliness of what he was seeing. Mecha Knuckles had little rockets on his hand, and they were spinning him in a circle fast enough to blindside Klein.
The Joke was old, and he had just seen it as the makeshift tornado was fast enough that Klein had trouble distinguishing the limbs from one another. The Human's eyes darted around the quickly approaching tornado and were only met by Mecha Sonic. The Facsimile of Sonic met his gaze and Altman understood what was happening by the lack of Scrapniks around the two of them.
Mecha Sonic was using the echidna's frenzied state to test him for some reason.
Then he better give him a show.
Klein reached to his heart and pushed it off its precarious perch into the one urge he was hoping to save for a dire situation. It was the ravings of resistance to that inevitable end that all shall meet and the willingness to throw one's body in as payment. Altman looked at the Mechanical Foe and Primordial HATRED emblazed his heart, and The Human was gone.
In his place a monster that took the face of Klein was left.
He went to savage and destroy all that lived when the yoke narrowed his vision to only the hands of his opponent. Uncaring of anything else he slapped his open palm into the white glove and an almighty Boom echoed throughout Scrapnik Island. The Spiked ball had come swinging around and unlike the Echidna's hand was not up to the test of the monster's skull shattering into pieces.
The Gloved hand along with the arm was still in Klein's hand, but the force of the spin had torn it clean from its socket and there it sat limply in his grip, stupid rockets and all.
The Monster went to go crush the life remaining in Mecha Knuckles when the yoke around its neck tightened and the man known as Klein Altman came back to the surface throwing the beast back into its kennel. It gnashed its teeth and roared against him, yet Klein was already moving on to more important things like the terrible damage he had done to Mecha Knuckles.
The Bot in question would have already come back for round two if Mecha Sonic hadn't restrained him. Grabbing a random taser circuit, his hand started ripping it apart searching for a certain piece, he had about reached Mecha Knuckles and had begun to kneel-down when a claw came from nowhere to restrain his hand. It was not alone as another grabbed his heel and the flying beetle tried to blind him.
Klein reaches forward, the growing pile of scrapniks unable to restrain him let alone slow him, taking ahold of Mecha's under jaw joint hitting the release switch with needle he scavenged. The façade of Knuckles the Echidna faded retracted into its slide showing off the impressive, wire interlaced face, the red Honeycombed eyes no longer filled with just wrath but a growing sense of fear.
"I'm sorry" Altman felt the scrapniks grabbing him freeze and with that pause the human took the chance and…
Bowed
Pressing his face against the ground and from the bottom of his lungs said.
"I'm sorry that I have caused you such wrong!"
Eggman Apologized
Eggman was bow—
Eggman was bow-
Error, Supreme (Betrayer) leader does not bow (Die?) Does not Apologize.
Mecha Sonic placed him down on the ground yet the urge to slaughter the Monster before him was fading and an odd sensation was running through his emotion matrix.
"If you would allow me M- no Knuckles if you would allow me to fix you, I guarantee you that I'll get all of you off this Island."
Knuckles was aware of annoyance, of sadness, of joy, yet this emotion was none of them.
The scrapniks were still on the human looking at him searching for his answer. The nod that should have been bitter came far too freely and the scrapniks got off Egg- Off Klein. The man rose from his position and with unnerving skill reattached the arm back into its socket something that only the Supreme (Betrayer) Leader should have been able to do with such ease.
"It will take me a day or two to remake you another hand like that one so please be patient with me" Altman said reaching out and with a click the façade was back into place.
Knuckles clenched his one arm and skulked off back to the (Master Emerald) Scrambled Egg Carrier trying to understand what this emotion was. Sitting on top of the (Master Emerald) carrier he guarded soon, minutes started bleeding into hours, yet he was no closer to understanding what emotion it was. The sound of an old wheel grating against metal announced the arrival of Sigma.
The normally chatty scrapnik was quiet as he trundled up to and eventually next to Knuckles.
"This Unit would request your forgiveness I was not aware of your pain" E-117 said.
Again? Why was he Apologized to again?
E-117 settled low to Mecha Knuckles and hugged him, the unknown emotion spiked and even after Sigma got up and started looking over the Carrier (Master Emerald) it lingered. It was not an… unpleasant feeling.
A day passed faster than usual and here the source of this odd feeling came walking in, Klein (???) carrying a peculiar necklace and a brand-new left hand. He also found one of the working anti-gravity trollies, a load of equipment sitting precariously on it. Knuckles' eyes kept wandering over the lot of it trying to find what was so strange about all of it.
When it clicked
It was all shiny, all brand-new pieces that shouldn't be anywhere near Scrapnik Island, hell even the trolley itself looked like it came right off the assembly line. Sigma had been puttering around welding fixes on the (Master Emerald) Carrier when Altman waved up at him.
"As promised, I have your new hand!" Said the anomaly and then turned and started helping E-117 with his ridiculous speed reminding him of Sonic (ENEMY), yet the thoughts of that thief didn't rouse the usual spite that traveled his circuits. Shaking his head, Knuckles jumped down to the ground to meet the human. The green clad man smiling his way as he finished explaining some gibberish to Sigma.
"Before I reattach your arm would you mind accepting this Necklace?" The necklace in question looked as if someone took a walkie talkie and attached it to a bunch of iron beads.
"What's this doohickey supposed to d- "Knuckles was thinking those words; he didn't have a voice box and yet the voice continued.
"What in the Master Emerald!" A deep, raspy voice mimicked his thoughts.
Mecha Sonic made sure to measure the output of the pail to pour the gentlest of rains as his sunflower was looking well underneath the pseudo sunlight. His claw fiddled with the new necklace that Alt had given him as he thought over the human. Mecha Sonic was glad that his hunch had proven correct, yet there was sharply growing bitterness in his heart.
Why did humans make it look so easy.
What Sigma had been struggling to accomplish this man came in and swept aside as if it was lap record to beat. Mecha Sonic knew he was faster than the echidna, yet this human beat Knuckles in a contest of strength, a feat that the bot knew he could not match. The only thing the human had yet to prove better at than the machines was speed and as far as he was aware Alt was nowhere close to him or—
He Struck that thought dead.
Regardless of Alt's intentions he would use his generosity to get off this Island and strike down the one who left him behind. If he needs to wait a week or so for the human to fix the Scrambled Egg Carrier, then so be it.
The necklaces' radio starts playing an old familiar tune and just for a moment his heart doesn't feel like the trash it was.
Sigma was aware that Eggman was a genius, you didn't build a space station to wage a one-man war against a blue hedgehog without having a certain amount of intelligence. Of course, the insanity it required seems to be a hallmark of geniuses as Klein Altman had yet to sleep in the four days that he had been on the island, nor had he stopped working as the new necklaces around all scrapniks' necks could attest to.
He currently was on his 27th attempt at getting Klein to rest. This attempt was a more covert method.
"Salutations Klein I see you are- "He began, and his attempt was sunk before it set sail.
"Sigma I have told you before Sleep is optional for me" Klein was dead lifting half a ton metal square with one hand and was using an oversized badniks flamethrower to great effect.
The Human, however, seemed to always know what he was planning and shot down any talk of resting. Sigma had brought up how they had waited years to fix the Scrambled Egg Carrier.
"You shouldn't have had to wait that long to be free of him" He was going mile by mile cutting faulty wires and fixing them.
E-117 told him how it was moving far too fast, and they didn't even have a destination let alone a direction to go.
"Then you'll have all the time you need to decide when you're ready to go" Klein had been cracking the control codes in the command center of the ship. The scrapniks had wanted to help so he was teaching all of them at the same time the many different posts shipmen needed to know.
E-117 Sigma flat out asked him to take a break, and the human sat down and paused for one moment then immediately got back up to continue working.
Back in the present moment, Klein had left him behind moving onto all the outside welding he could see that needed to be done. Seeing the lost cause, his gaze shifted over the Scrambled Egg Carrier itself, and the monstrous amount of work Altman had done. Truly Sigma had no idea how he could call himself a human.
The undercarriage that had been nonexistent with critical functions and entire systems dangling outside the ship were now once again smooth and aerodynamic with 93% of the plating done and even as he observed that percent was knocked up to 94%.
Honestly Humans were frustrating to deal with.
"You're not coming with us?" Klein thought the scrapniks around him couldn't cry.
Dylan was making an honest effort to prove that statement wrong as his little propeller hat was chopping through the air and the eyes were clearly expressive enough. It was not a sentiment he alone shared, but he was one of the few who still wasn't on the ship, Sigma was the one preparing the launch off else he would be down here, and Knuckles wouldn't leave the ship for anything.
"Wish I could but that Disruptor is going to be problem that I can't just leave." The little propeller slowed down, and he looked at the ground. The clinking of a sawblade perked him up and he went and landed on a metal shoulder.
It was Mecha Sonic.
"Alt" The voice was deeper than Klein was expecting yet the voice revealed to him more than he was sure Mecha Sonic was comfortable sharing.
"Mecha Sonic" If he wanted to play mysterious bastard two could play at that.
The Man's gaze meets the Machine's visor while the rumbling of Scrambled Egg Carrier filled the air between the two of them. Klein cracked first and a smile broke across his face as he stretched out his hand.
"Till next time?" Altman asked.
The bot stared at the offered hand and Klein held it there.
"You are lying" Mecha Sonic stated.
The smile on Klein's face was flawless, his pose certain.
"About?" the knife of accusation keenly pointed back.
"Your reason for staying here" the hilt of which was slammed back into him.
Klein sighed "And you trusted a random human with one of your closest friends?"
There lay the rub that both had been avoiding, Klein by throwing himself into work and Mecha Sonic by simply avoiding him. Why had they trusted each other without knowing anything about each other. After he fixed the ship and bought their ticket out of here sure that made sense, but why after only an hour from meeting did Mecha Sonic trust him to fix Mecha Knuckles.
The inferno slammed the smell of sulfur and burning rubber into his nose as the entirety of the island burnt down as he had simply grown bored with these pathetic pieces of junk. Klein decided then that it would be more amusing to see them short circuit in the waters that had held them trapped. Klein started with the most pathetic one, the inventor who thought that he could match him.
Sigma looked ragged. His lower locomotives had been ripped off at his waist cylinder, his arm joints having been popped off as if they were worms to be squished under thumb. Then it started trying to yap at him again, so he made a final improvement to it by ripping out its vocal unit. It made satisfying pops and crackles as-
Klein felt something grip his hand and his eyes snapped awake from the delusion. He stared down at the metal hand in his then up to a Metal face showing… Empathy.
"A Monster recognizes another Monster" The Mecha shook his hand and walked away with Dylan on his shoulder looking deeply concerned at both.
"Till next time Klein Altman" Mecha said one final thing then both Dylan and Mecha Sonic were gone in a blur.
The human stared down at his hand as he started walking out of the deck and towards the port with the best view. The climate disruptor would take far too long to crack yet he had at least controlled today to be a beautiful clear sky. Soon the main star of the show would make her dazzling return to air and on cue the gun metal gray ship leapt to action.
All the iconography of Eggman had been easy to layer over or scrub out and the Image of a Scrambled egg on an iron pan suited the old bird much better. Her two propulsion wings had been the trickiest thing he had to fix on her, well more like grafting a new wing and giving the other one a set of new feathers. It should have been the most satisfying moment in Klein's life, and yet the only thing that rang in his chest was a bitter sweet feeling.
What went unnoticed by both departing scrapniks and the still present human was a yellow circle that spun a mile into the air.
/Scrapnik Island Arc End
/Freedom Is Earned Part 1
New
Twenty days
It had been twenty days since the Scrapniks were given their keys to freedom and Klein thought then that since he had no one to help he would take it easier and start working to control the urges that were chained to his heart. Instead, the need to repair, the want to invent, and the knowledge of tools he was around mugged in him in a dark alley and Altman descend into a creative frenzy.
First and foremost, he went through the entirety of the crashed Death Egg removing all markers of Eggman, the faces twitched in the corner of his eyes, and it irritated him, that in total took about two days. The next thing to do was change the name of the Island to something more appropriate of course that needed him to sort the literal floor of scrap that made the bed of the island.
Most importantly Altman swore to himself that he wouldn't use his technological skills to fix the problem.
About three days of pushing metal around was his mental limit.
The human found one of the Doctor Eggman's flying saucers alongside taking apart a giant mantis Super Badnik that had magnetic blades the length of a combine tractor. It was a great start but the power core of it was empty and without enough energy it wouldn't give off more than the standard output. That meant to not be stuck cleaning the island by hand he needed to reroute the Death Egg's emergency systems power.
Walking in the dark halls nary a sound shredded his nerves but going to the emergency power source of the Death egg never failed to amaze and frustrate him. It was rows of green cylinders the size of a two-story building, though many had been cracked and toppled over at least three of the 96 survived the crash into the planet's surface. The glow of the still working ones refracting and lighting the broken ones causing a kaleidoscope of green colors to fill the engine room.
His Urge to repair kept him from getting bored with the rerouting efforts and soon his little device would have all the power it would need. Still if Eggman had such power generating capacity then why did he need to conquer the world so badly? Ego obviously was the answer, yet it frustrated him even more than if he didn't know why. A metal hand gripped his shoulder, and he spun around.
"A Monster recognizes another Monster," said no one.
Klein Sat his back against the wall alone the work only halfway done, that was an Urge Right? The green lights glaring at him provided no answer nor did his mind.
Altman threw the vision into the back of his mind and focused on his newly functioning device. The mounted magnets sitting in a cross pattern underneath the saucer, he had replaced the emblem with something more fitting. In the place of Eggman's face was a Klein bottle the color of light green causing it to look filled with chemicals. Was it arrogant to have a symbol matching his name? Yes. Did he care? No.
It worked like a dream, what had taken him three days to do could now be finished in an hour. He chose to fill the empty top of the cracked off half of the Death Egg. Five hours later he broke ground for the first time and the earth on this island could breathe for the first time in years. Four days later the last of the scrap was piled onto the new scrap mountain. To contain it all he needed to build a half mile of scrap wall, it wasn't his best work, but he would come back to it later.
Now that the groundwork had been done, he was loathe to continue using the Death Egg as workshop and started drafting a more reasonable workshop to give his mind a play space so that he didn't go insane living alone on this Island. The thought stopped him in his tracks as the grim weight of what he decided to do to keep the Monster away from others finally settled in his mind.
The ground had bled red from all the iron washing into the soil and no greenery lived on it. No animals call its shores home, yet in that thought an idea sparked, there was a breed of bird that traveled over the sea maybe if he made a roost for them to stop on, they would bring seed with them and then he wouldn't have to imagine killing any more people. It was as good a plan as any and only the wind was there to agree.
Whenever he had gotten frustrated with one of the projects, he would continue the work on Climate Disruptor to ease his nerves. At this point it couldn't affect the weather more than a couple degrees without his say so yet of all the systems this one was still resisting him. Instead of frustrating him it relieved him that there were ideas that he couldn't will into existence with the wave of his hand.
He Spent the next eleven days building a compound that would have everything he needed as mass production was the farthest thing from his mind. The idea of a plus sign shaped base taking form in his mind. To the north, there would be his research section where he would most likely spend most of his time. In the east wing there would be a dedicated medical bay if ever one of his projects badly injured him, of course he still needed to reach there whilst injured. The southern quadrant was the necessary evil of all people, his weapon development and defense systems. Finally, the western section is where all his ideas would be breathed into existence alongside the scanning equipment.
In the center of the compound is where the Residential would go, unfortunately nothing that delicate survived the ravages of time and the Scrapniks would have no reason to use them. That bothered him, he tried to brush it off but his quickly forming perfectionism was slighted by the incomplete picture. The emotion fought against his fear and for the moment the fear ripped the annoyance to shreds.
Still to make the urge quiet he made a facsimile of a bedroom housing a cupboard, desk and bed. The light he installed above made the metal furniture shiny and chrome looking. Klein regretted making it the moment he was done. He opened the sliding door, stepped out into the hallway and locked that mistake away. Thudding his head against the wall to stop such stupid ideas from spawning again Altman was kicked from his self-defeatist mindset when the newly installed sensor alarm rang out.
The human stopped breathing and in an instance was on his newly installed system poring over the data. Initially he thought that Sigma and the Scrapniks had made a return trip his mind was already coming up with welcoming plans for them. His skin shivered at the sight of over 20-mile-long sky ships racing towards his island Eta 1 minute, on a minor note he needed to make some sort of verification system and buff the range of the Radar. On the Major note Oh God.
Before his breathing stopped and at this critical moment, perception slowed even farther as hundreds of schemes were sifted through and put on the shelves according to their chance of success. It hurt his heart that the highest percentage that he could reach was 32% assume the base was lost and hide underwater and observe the destruction. Klein for a moment considered that they were friendly and that it was a large number of neighbors coming for a greeting?
He Kicked that thought to the curb where it deserved to live.
Altman Pushed himself as hard as possible zipping through the nearest window and crashing through it. According to all the known laws of Aviation humans shouldn't be able to fly their bodies and have no natural form of propulsion to lift them off the ground, and their bones are mostly full making them far too heavy. Despite this Klein flies anyway whilst using the measured panic that comes to all when plans go askew.
He had placed the base in the middle of the island and now he was desperately wishing that he had craved an ocean view. Only twenty Seconds left, and the beach was just in view, it was only five seconds left before the cool embrace of the ocean hid him from the invading force and he dove ninety feet deep as fast as he could. Altman reached up to take off his glasses and found they had been lost and would have sighed if not for the pressure… and the water.
Klein stared up and waited to see the doom that would befall his base expecting cacophonic explosions that would reach even down here.
The first large shadow darted forth and… Passed his island? Maybe that was forward guard, and they were securing the area? Then two more large shadows followed by after the vanguard and he tensed again as they too passed by the island. A Thick confusion descended on Klein, He had assumed that it was Eggman coming to wreck his things for daring to touch his scrap yet the now blackness of the depths spoke of the main battleship coming and going.
Staying down there till the last of the shadows passed over and then he rocketed up to the surface staring up the departing flotilla. The ships were clearly matching the animal scheme that Eggman preferred as he had taken apart enough of scrap to know that, so it was his fleet. Begging for the question, where were they going? Klein started walking up into the air and after them the air supporting his steps. Furrowing his brow Altman kept upping the speed to keep a constant distance to fleet before slapping his face and stopping in place.
Did he forget why he didn't leave the Island?
The Monster in its Kennel was quiet, but that didn't mean it wouldn't affect him and push him to slaughter. It could not force him into the conflict, so it appealed to his heart.
Wasn't that the direction The Scrapniks left in?
Klein's heart was clenched by something.
They could handle themselves.
The fleet was making a hurried pace clearly searching for something and soon even to his exceptional vision the front runners were disappearing.
A 3% chance of handling themselves
Whilst its coils tightened the Monster crooned.
They will die. You need to rescue them.
I'll only put them in Danger.
By now he couldn't see a single one of the ships and it took all he could from rushing after them. Then it crushed his heart.
How selfish, fitting for a Monster to leave people to die.
A boom echoed over that patch of water and over to the Island that he had not yet named forsaking his self-inflicted oath. His shifting feet caused him to leave a green streak in his wake as he ran across the sky after the fleet.
It was a two-hour flight, assuming that their radars were superior to his and that they simply ignored him, Klein kept to maximum range to being barely able to see the lagging rear guard. In the initial hour he was embracing the flight as he hadn't been able to fly before Scrapnik Island. The thought rang in his mind and since he had nothing to do Altman listened to thought in full.
Where was he from again?
Ah right Scra- No he wasn't a robot.
Huh.... Instead of having more mental problems he swept that thought under the rug and focused on mentally setting up an energy system that didn't depend on Eggman's tech. The lack of a drawing table, a computer to save his progress and the chance to test out prototypes made it rather difficult, perfect for a long flight.
It was as he was getting a rough sketch into place that the rest of the fleet came into view, and he slowed his roll. Their target took a second more to see and his flight came to a screeching halt as his eyes went wide.
It was a floating utopia.
The midday sun shone down on verdant jungles as a mountain cropped with a crown of snow, a noble scar of a river trailing down the side of pooling in a lake that couple other rivers ended at. His eyes tried to leave the island since as far he could see the Scrambled Egg Carrier was nowhere to be seen, yet his gaze kept drifting back to lake. There was something important there, something so critical to reality that without conscious consideration time slowed to a crawl as he considered what to do.
Plan. A. Was to rush there and defend whatever it was from the invaders.
Plan. B. Wait till night for the cover of darkness and start ripping apart the battle flotilla and dart away if a foe of equal or greater power showed up.
Plan. C. To find the nearest superpower nation and convince them to strike against Eggman.
A=10-25% chance of success, caveat I having to engage hostile forces alone and it will be likely Eggman will have a Badnik like Mecha Sonic present.
B=30-50% chance of success, caveat hostile forces will have an entire day unopposed and have a likely chance of Badnik capable of keeping up with him.
C=70-90% chance of success, caveat hostile forces will be unopposed and free to act on their plans.
Option B then was the objectively correct choice, if not for one teensy little problem. Eggman was getting his hands on a critical part of reality.
There was no Choice.
Klein pushed to his top speed and the two miles were gone just like that and he now was observing what was so important that all his urges collectively screamed in concern. It was... A Giant Green Emerald the very concept o-
Someone cleared their throat.
Altman Looked down at a Metallic Sonic clone who looked incredibly stylish, of course the natural malevolence that radiated off its frame and the squadron of orange Eggman Bots with construction hats on their heads behind him didn't help the image of a peaceful group of settlers. The Metal Sonic holds up a hand and the bots back up and its red digital eyes held his as it asked.
"I Am Neo Metal Sonic the Greatest Creation of Dr. Robotnik What is the name of the human who wishes to Die?"
"It's-grk" Klein actually started to respond before a vicious punch was slammed into his gut knocking the air out of him forcing him into spe- a claw grabbed his hand and with a mighty boom he was slammed face first into the dirt. A Metal foot was slammed against his head as his vision went white for a moment.
"Very Well Grk This is where you will be buried" The arrogance that dripped off those words made him internally retch.
"If you wish for a quick death, you will explain how you found out about me being here" Neo Metal didn't account for something.
Klein's leg snapped backwards in its socket and like a snake struck at his back knocking Neo from his spot crushing his skull. It spun back into place as he hopped to his feet and the Fake Sonic tilted its head curiously.
"Interesting, Amuse me"
Klein, having long stopped breathing understood how outgunned he was, with Mecha Knuckles' Spinning Attack he could barely see how fas- The metal foot cracked against his head as the momentum made his body pinwheeling through too many trees. Neo's voice showed him that there was no rest, no thinking.
"I Said Amuse Me"
Only the fight.
The Monster's excitement was palpable as Klein took his heart and pushed it off the edge, falling into the Inferno of hate that reached up eagerly to consume it.
Neo Metal Sonic was Doctor Ivo Robotnik's greatest creation, and He was fighting what was outwardly a human. Grk Swung his fist and Neo leaned his head to the side as one of the Giant trees of Angel Island was totaled the upper trunk starting its plummet to the ground. The feats of strength and the fact that the feeble insect could even react to him now proved a fascinating opportunity.
"Tell Me Grk what are you?" His clawed hand went for the human's knee, and it moved slowly out of the way.
"It's- grk" His leg snapped out at precisely the right time and the human folded over it.
"No that is the name you gave me, What Are you?" This has so far been a pleasant diversion waiting for the Construction Eggbots to finish their jobs.
"A Human" The madness that consumed its body seems to have left its mind untouched. Excellent.
"Your Biodata Says Differently" The Being's unwillingness to explain was expected.
"My Biodata? How wou-"By Dr. Robotnik's name this creature was slow, dashing up to the being he kicked upwards and the it was launched into the air. Following it above the treetops he rammed his foot down and the sonic boom its form made was emphasized by the tremors its body sent through the ground. Neo Metal Sonic hung in the air as he Spin Dashed and brought his spiked heel down like a comet.
From his estimations of this being's strength, it should be enough to kill him, Neo could have the Eggbots take him to on-.
"COUNTER" The human had grabbed his heel and threw him into the air racing after him and for a moment Metal was vulnerable.
A Green swirl of energy coalesced around the being's hand and in that moment Neo Metal Sonic Knew fear.
"DIE!" The blow was aimed at his engine core and then what He knew next was pain.
Neo Metal Sonic, that sadistic monster was curled around his fist and then faster than his sight he was gone, and a new cave formed into the mountain. Klein couldn't be tired, his body was simply not exhausted. He went to destroy the rest of the Badniks, then Altman was falling and for some reason when he threw out his arms to catch himself the right arm failed to stop him like it should.
"This form was for that Loathsome Faker, Rejoice for you see The True Sonic"
A metal boot kicked him, and he collided with a tree on his back against the bark. Staring at Super Neo Metal Sonic he understood why his arm had failed him. It was currently sitting in the golden Badnik's claw the blood making a contrast to metal that was genuinely glowing. The Golden Tyrant waltzed forward spinning Klein's left leg like it was some God Damm toy and tossed it in beside his foot.
"It Seems to be your lucky day Grk, in my Infinite Mercy, I have Deemed you Interesting enough for The Doctor himself to take look at you once I have located him."
That was the last thing Klein saw Before the concussion took him.
/Freedom Is Earned Part 1
It had been twenty days since the Scrapniks were given their keys to freedom and Klein thought then that since he had no one to help he would take it easier and start working to control the urges that were chained to his heart. Instead, the need to repair, the want to invent, and the knowledge of tools he was around mugged in him in a dark alley and Altman descend into a creative frenzy.
First and foremost, he went through the entirety of the crashed Death Egg removing all markers of Eggman, the faces twitched in the corner of his eyes, and it irritated him, that in total took about two days. The next thing to do was change the name of the Island to something more appropriate of course that needed him to sort the literal floor of scrap that made the bed of the island.
Most importantly Altman swore to himself that he wouldn't use his technological skills to fix the problem.
About three days of pushing metal around was his mental limit.
The human found one of the Doctor Eggman's flying saucers alongside taking apart a giant mantis Super Badnik that had magnetic blades the length of a combine tractor. It was a great start but the power core of it was empty and without enough energy it wouldn't give off more than the standard output. That meant to not be stuck cleaning the island by hand he needed to reroute the Death Egg's emergency systems power.
Walking in the dark halls nary a sound shredded his nerves but going to the emergency power source of the Death egg never failed to amaze and frustrate him. It was rows of green cylinders the size of a two-story building, though many had been cracked and toppled over at least three of the 96 survived the crash into the planet's surface. The glow of the still working ones refracting and lighting the broken ones causing a kaleidoscope of green colors to fill the engine room.
His Urge to repair kept him from getting bored with the rerouting efforts and soon his little device would have all the power it would need. Still if Eggman had such power generating capacity then why did he need to conquer the world so badly? Ego obviously was the answer, yet it frustrated him even more than if he didn't know why. A metal hand gripped his shoulder, and he spun around.
"A Monster recognizes another Monster," said no one.
Klein Sat his back against the wall alone the work only halfway done, that was an Urge Right? The green lights glaring at him provided no answer nor did his mind.
Altman threw the vision into the back of his mind and focused on his newly functioning device. The mounted magnets sitting in a cross pattern underneath the saucer, he had replaced the emblem with something more fitting. In the place of Eggman's face was a Klein bottle the color of light green causing it to look filled with chemicals. Was it arrogant to have a symbol matching his name? Yes. Did he care? No.
It worked like a dream, what had taken him three days to do could now be finished in an hour. He chose to fill the empty top of the cracked off half of the Death Egg. Five hours later he broke ground for the first time and the earth on this island could breathe for the first time in years. Four days later the last of the scrap was piled onto the new scrap mountain. To contain it all he needed to build a half mile of scrap wall, it wasn't his best work, but he would come back to it later.
Now that the groundwork had been done, he was loathe to continue using the Death Egg as workshop and started drafting a more reasonable workshop to give his mind a play space so that he didn't go insane living alone on this Island. The thought stopped him in his tracks as the grim weight of what he decided to do to keep the Monster away from others finally settled in his mind.
The ground had bled red from all the iron washing into the soil and no greenery lived on it. No animals call its shores home, yet in that thought an idea sparked, there was a breed of bird that traveled over the sea maybe if he made a roost for them to stop on, they would bring seed with them and then he wouldn't have to imagine killing any more people. It was as good a plan as any and only the wind was there to agree.
Whenever he had gotten frustrated with one of the projects, he would continue the work on Climate Disruptor to ease his nerves. At this point it couldn't affect the weather more than a couple degrees without his say so yet of all the systems this one was still resisting him. Instead of frustrating him it relieved him that there were ideas that he couldn't will into existence with the wave of his hand.
He Spent the next eleven days building a compound that would have everything he needed as mass production was the farthest thing from his mind. The idea of a plus sign shaped base taking form in his mind. To the north, there would be his research section where he would most likely spend most of his time. In the east wing there would be a dedicated medical bay if ever one of his projects badly injured him, of course he still needed to reach there whilst injured. The southern quadrant was the necessary evil of all people, his weapon development and defense systems. Finally, the western section is where all his ideas would be breathed into existence alongside the scanning equipment.
In the center of the compound is where the Residential would go, unfortunately nothing that delicate survived the ravages of time and the Scrapniks would have no reason to use them. That bothered him, he tried to brush it off but his quickly forming perfectionism was slighted by the incomplete picture. The emotion fought against his fear and for the moment the fear ripped the annoyance to shreds.
Still to make the urge quiet he made a facsimile of a bedroom housing a cupboard, desk and bed. The light he installed above made the metal furniture shiny and chrome looking. Klein regretted making it the moment he was done. He opened the sliding door, stepped out into the hallway and locked that mistake away. Thudding his head against the wall to stop such stupid ideas from spawning again Altman was kicked from his self-defeatist mindset when the newly installed sensor alarm rang out.
The human stopped breathing and in an instance was on his newly installed system poring over the data. Initially he thought that Sigma and the Scrapniks had made a return trip his mind was already coming up with welcoming plans for them. His skin shivered at the sight of over 20-mile-long sky ships racing towards his island Eta 1 minute, on a minor note he needed to make some sort of verification system and buff the range of the Radar. On the Major note Oh God.
Before his breathing stopped and at this critical moment, perception slowed even farther as hundreds of schemes were sifted through and put on the shelves according to their chance of success. It hurt his heart that the highest percentage that he could reach was 32% assume the base was lost and hide underwater and observe the destruction. Klein for a moment considered that they were friendly and that it was a large number of neighbors coming for a greeting?
He Kicked that thought to the curb where it deserved to live.
Altman Pushed himself as hard as possible zipping through the nearest window and crashing through it. According to all the known laws of Aviation humans shouldn't be able to fly their bodies and have no natural form of propulsion to lift them off the ground, and their bones are mostly full making them far too heavy. Despite this Klein flies anyway whilst using the measured panic that comes to all when plans go askew.
He had placed the base in the middle of the island and now he was desperately wishing that he had craved an ocean view. Only twenty Seconds left, and the beach was just in view, it was only five seconds left before the cool embrace of the ocean hid him from the invading force and he dove ninety feet deep as fast as he could. Altman reached up to take off his glasses and found they had been lost and would have sighed if not for the pressure… and the water.
Klein stared up and waited to see the doom that would befall his base expecting cacophonic explosions that would reach even down here.
The first large shadow darted forth and… Passed his island? Maybe that was forward guard, and they were securing the area? Then two more large shadows followed by after the vanguard and he tensed again as they too passed by the island. A Thick confusion descended on Klein, He had assumed that it was Eggman coming to wreck his things for daring to touch his scrap yet the now blackness of the depths spoke of the main battleship coming and going.
Staying down there till the last of the shadows passed over and then he rocketed up to the surface staring up the departing flotilla. The ships were clearly matching the animal scheme that Eggman preferred as he had taken apart enough of scrap to know that, so it was his fleet. Begging for the question, where were they going? Klein started walking up into the air and after them the air supporting his steps. Furrowing his brow Altman kept upping the speed to keep a constant distance to fleet before slapping his face and stopping in place.
Did he forget why he didn't leave the Island?
The Monster in its Kennel was quiet, but that didn't mean it wouldn't affect him and push him to slaughter. It could not force him into the conflict, so it appealed to his heart.
Wasn't that the direction The Scrapniks left in?
Klein's heart was clenched by something.
They could handle themselves.
The fleet was making a hurried pace clearly searching for something and soon even to his exceptional vision the front runners were disappearing.
A 3% chance of handling themselves
Whilst its coils tightened the Monster crooned.
They will die. You need to rescue them.
I'll only put them in Danger.
By now he couldn't see a single one of the ships and it took all he could from rushing after them. Then it crushed his heart.
How selfish, fitting for a Monster to leave people to die.
A boom echoed over that patch of water and over to the Island that he had not yet named forsaking his self-inflicted oath. His shifting feet caused him to leave a green streak in his wake as he ran across the sky after the fleet.
It was a two-hour flight, assuming that their radars were superior to his and that they simply ignored him, Klein kept to maximum range to being barely able to see the lagging rear guard. In the initial hour he was embracing the flight as he hadn't been able to fly before Scrapnik Island. The thought rang in his mind and since he had nothing to do Altman listened to thought in full.
Where was he from again?
Ah right Scra- No he wasn't a robot.
Huh.... Instead of having more mental problems he swept that thought under the rug and focused on mentally setting up an energy system that didn't depend on Eggman's tech. The lack of a drawing table, a computer to save his progress and the chance to test out prototypes made it rather difficult, perfect for a long flight.
It was as he was getting a rough sketch into place that the rest of the fleet came into view, and he slowed his roll. Their target took a second more to see and his flight came to a screeching halt as his eyes went wide.
It was a floating utopia.
The midday sun shone down on verdant jungles as a mountain cropped with a crown of snow, a noble scar of a river trailing down the side of pooling in a lake that couple other rivers ended at. His eyes tried to leave the island since as far he could see the Scrambled Egg Carrier was nowhere to be seen, yet his gaze kept drifting back to lake. There was something important there, something so critical to reality that without conscious consideration time slowed to a crawl as he considered what to do.
Plan. A. Was to rush there and defend whatever it was from the invaders.
Plan. B. Wait till night for the cover of darkness and start ripping apart the battle flotilla and dart away if a foe of equal or greater power showed up.
Plan. C. To find the nearest superpower nation and convince them to strike against Eggman.
A=10-25% chance of success, caveat I having to engage hostile forces alone and it will be likely Eggman will have a Badnik like Mecha Sonic present.
B=30-50% chance of success, caveat hostile forces will have an entire day unopposed and have a likely chance of Badnik capable of keeping up with him.
C=70-90% chance of success, caveat hostile forces will be unopposed and free to act on their plans.
Option B then was the objectively correct choice, if not for one teensy little problem. Eggman was getting his hands on a critical part of reality.
There was no Choice.
Klein pushed to his top speed and the two miles were gone just like that and he now was observing what was so important that all his urges collectively screamed in concern. It was... A Giant Green Emerald the very concept o-
Someone cleared their throat.
Altman Looked down at a Metallic Sonic clone who looked incredibly stylish, of course the natural malevolence that radiated off its frame and the squadron of orange Eggman Bots with construction hats on their heads behind him didn't help the image of a peaceful group of settlers. The Metal Sonic holds up a hand and the bots back up and its red digital eyes held his as it asked.
"I Am Neo Metal Sonic the Greatest Creation of Dr. Robotnik What is the name of the human who wishes to Die?"
"It's-grk" Klein actually started to respond before a vicious punch was slammed into his gut knocking the air out of him forcing him into spe- a claw grabbed his hand and with a mighty boom he was slammed face first into the dirt. A Metal foot was slammed against his head as his vision went white for a moment.
"Very Well Grk This is where you will be buried" The arrogance that dripped off those words made him internally retch.
"If you wish for a quick death, you will explain how you found out about me being here" Neo Metal didn't account for something.
Klein's leg snapped backwards in its socket and like a snake struck at his back knocking Neo from his spot crushing his skull. It spun back into place as he hopped to his feet and the Fake Sonic tilted its head curiously.
"Interesting, Amuse me"
Klein, having long stopped breathing understood how outgunned he was, with Mecha Knuckles' Spinning Attack he could barely see how fas- The metal foot cracked against his head as the momentum made his body pinwheeling through too many trees. Neo's voice showed him that there was no rest, no thinking.
"I Said Amuse Me"
Only the fight.
The Monster's excitement was palpable as Klein took his heart and pushed it off the edge, falling into the Inferno of hate that reached up eagerly to consume it.
Neo Metal Sonic was Doctor Ivo Robotnik's greatest creation, and He was fighting what was outwardly a human. Grk Swung his fist and Neo leaned his head to the side as one of the Giant trees of Angel Island was totaled the upper trunk starting its plummet to the ground. The feats of strength and the fact that the feeble insect could even react to him now proved a fascinating opportunity.
"Tell Me Grk what are you?" His clawed hand went for the human's knee, and it moved slowly out of the way.
"It's- grk" His leg snapped out at precisely the right time and the human folded over it.
"No that is the name you gave me, What Are you?" This has so far been a pleasant diversion waiting for the Construction Eggbots to finish their jobs.
"A Human" The madness that consumed its body seems to have left its mind untouched. Excellent.
"Your Biodata Says Differently" The Being's unwillingness to explain was expected.
"My Biodata? How wou-"By Dr. Robotnik's name this creature was slow, dashing up to the being he kicked upwards and the it was launched into the air. Following it above the treetops he rammed his foot down and the sonic boom its form made was emphasized by the tremors its body sent through the ground. Neo Metal Sonic hung in the air as he Spin Dashed and brought his spiked heel down like a comet.
From his estimations of this being's strength, it should be enough to kill him, Neo could have the Eggbots take him to on-.
"COUNTER" The human had grabbed his heel and threw him into the air racing after him and for a moment Metal was vulnerable.
A Green swirl of energy coalesced around the being's hand and in that moment Neo Metal Sonic Knew fear.
"DIE!" The blow was aimed at his engine core and then what He knew next was pain.
Neo Metal Sonic, that sadistic monster was curled around his fist and then faster than his sight he was gone, and a new cave formed into the mountain. Klein couldn't be tired, his body was simply not exhausted. He went to destroy the rest of the Badniks, then Altman was falling and for some reason when he threw out his arms to catch himself the right arm failed to stop him like it should.
"This form was for that Loathsome Faker, Rejoice for you see The True Sonic"
A metal boot kicked him, and he collided with a tree on his back against the bark. Staring at Super Neo Metal Sonic he understood why his arm had failed him. It was currently sitting in the golden Badnik's claw the blood making a contrast to metal that was genuinely glowing. The Golden Tyrant waltzed forward spinning Klein's left leg like it was some God Damm toy and tossed it in beside his foot.
"It Seems to be your lucky day Grk, in my Infinite Mercy, I have Deemed you Interesting enough for The Doctor himself to take look at you once I have located him."
That was the last thing Klein saw Before the concussion took him.
/Freedom Is Earned Part 1
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/Freedom Is Earned Part 2
New
Klein came to consciousness as a terrible rumble shook the room he was in. Time slowed its advance as the context of the room made itself known. It was gunmetal gray with a set of jail bars cutting him off from the rest of the room. In his cell was a small toilet, just that nothing else. It wasn't like Altman was restrained or anything. He let time relax and was reminded why it triggered in the first place as it shook again though this time softer.
Time to go.
He started to float forward going to grab the bars with his sleeveless right arm.... that was there all the sudden? Klein glanced down at his bare left leg, humans regrew limbs, right?
Yeah.
Ok cool.
The metal bars let out a sharp Crackle as his right arm grazed it and a voltage danced through his nerves, pain following in its wake. Snatching his hand back he sucked on the burnt pointer finger. Ok so Neo wasn't a complete arrogant prick, just mostly one. He looked around, walked up the wall near the bars and with a mighty gong a fist-sized hole was left in the metal.
Peeking through it led into another prison cell
Well, this was going to be a chore.
Tails' plan had worked almost flawlessly as he watched the airship wing that had been grafted onto Angel Island fall into the ocean below. The only hitch was his still falling friends, bringing the ship below them the fox worked through the finicky Egg tech. An alert flashed on the dash, and it was certainly an odd one.
Attempted break out detected. Apply tranquilizers? Yes/No.
"Huh, that's strange." The words slipped out and his fingers were already tapping keys to bring up a visual on the cell.
Silver, having just finished tossing the egg bots into the sea, turned his head towards Tails.
"What's wrong?" The Psychic floated over to look at the screen.
The blue screen flicked to a camera point of view displaying a human in green rags, the right arm and left leg bereft of any cloth. The point of view made it hard to see exactly what he was doing.
"We Got to help him, He might know what happened to the rest of the humans!" Silver exclaimed but Tails held up a hand and watched.
"We don't' know why Neo has him here at al- "Tails explanation was cut off when the human punched forth and revealed a hole about a meter wide that was expanding into the cell over. It looked frustrated as it left the ground and went towards the roof of the cell.
"That would explain why Neo hadn't killed him, but I thought...?" Tails had his chin in hand as he watched the human repeat the efforts across the roof peering into another cell.
"Why don't we ask him?" Silver looked around the buttons and the human paused its efforts as the intercom crackled to life.
"Hello there, my name is Tails Prowler. Could you please explain how Neo Metal Sonic has you here?" A young boy's voice sounded through the prison hall and the name Neo sent phantom pain through his arm and leg, the kid sounded fine enough.
"Sure, the bastard pincushion was getting his hands on a critical part of reality, and I wasn't a fan of Eggman getting hold of it by proxy" the kid didn't immediately reply so he decided to press his luck.
"So, do you mind letting me out of here? I need to rip off a limb or two off a certain bot." Ceasing his efforts he waited for the boy's reply.
There was some murmuring that was heard on the other side before the electric hum cut off and the bars started lowering into the floor.
Klein looked up to the camera and waved.
"Thanks Tails"
The crackling of the intercom came again.
"If you wouldn't mind meeting with a friend of mine near the entrance of the prison block Mr.?" Tails asked leadingly.
Klein didn't get the chance to say anything as someone on the intercom shouted.
"Tails look! The island is falling out of the sky!" That was a different voice than before, wait did he just say the island was falling?
"I will get back to you, Mr." then the intercom clicked off leaving Altman alone with his thoughts. The prison block in a second later had no occupant, as a strong gust was stirred in his wake.
Rouge The Bat was taking the moment to peruse a data file or two, her eyes screening out the useless inventory items as she looked for any darlings that she could liberate from Mr. Gloom into a better place.
Oooo three crates of power gems.
Pulling the data drive out and placing it away in a safe place she hurried to the top and she heard a rustle from behind her and there was a human of all things dressed in green rags floating there. Her left hand started reaching for her bombs as her mouth started doing its job.
"Well, hello there sir I can appreciate the rugged look you're pulling off, but do you mind giving me some space" With better clothes hmm, 7/10.
He floated back a few feet and landed on the ground his eyes unfazed as he met hers. Oh, blue nice.
"Tails said to meet you here" Mr. human said tones of impatient all too familiar, maybe she had found Shadow's long-lost brother? Thinking more seriously Rouge needs to make sure she was there to negotiate when the two found each other.
Schemes in place her right hand reached up and before she could reach it the radio circle hidden in the cleft of her ear buzzed.
"Everyone get to the deck! Tails has a plan!" Reliable junior bailing the team out.
Her left hand exited the hammer space bag it was in as she pointed back to the deck.
"This way sir" She ran, and the sound of cloth fluttering told her that the stranger was following.
Following the oversexualized bat his eyes did a brief scan over the crowd of short anthropomorphic animals, noting among them that the pink hedgehog was the leader as she was looking over weighing everyone.
Of course, no one notices him at first, the monolithic metal dragon charging towards them with what looks to be the big green Emerald embedded in its waist and the three squirming figures in its claw drew the appropriate amount of attention. It was credited to the seriousness of the situation that when he coughed all he got was a few wide eyes and an oooo from the bee and lemur, before the pink hedgehog's weighing look fell on him as the calculations ran through her head. The thundering of the cannons did not break her concentration as she asked quickly.
"Flight speed?"
"1500 miles per hour" He meet her eyes.
"Max weight" It was a command.
"More than all of you could possibly weigh" Klein was being patient.
She raised a gloved hand to him and then shouted at everyone.
"The plan is this, focus on things' wings and drive it to the island. After that Tails will crash the ship into his side delaying it long enough for Knuckles to get the Master Emerald out."
Turning back to him she jammed a thumb at the quickly approaching monstrosity.
"Run distraction on Metal Sonic while we get prepared."
Klein nodded and spoke.
"You better hurry if you want a piece of him"
The creatures around him didn't have time to say anything as Altman blitzed off towards the pincushion that owed him an arm and a leg.
Up close the bastard had made himself even uglier as one of his four eyes caught his approach.
"Have you come to lose again Grk?" That broke what little control he was maintaining as he reached down into his heart and strangled the Monster, taking its rage as his own.
"You are under the mistaken belief that you won last time due to your superiority."
The truck-sized clawed hand came about as fast as one and Klein let it come holding out his right hand, the shadow alone eclipsed his size as the metal talons sought to shishkab him. Floating away to just the point where all the finger talons meet Klein took both of his hands and pinned them there. The mighty mountain of metal tried to open his hand and the fear that Klein could see in his red eyes when he couldn't was delicious.
"How is this possible?!" The dragon cried to the heavens and his other arm came crashing down at the human, yet he did not sit idle as while dragging the clawed hand around he was still faster than the titan.
"Tie it around the wings!" A familiar cocky voice shouted at him and taking the suggestion to heart leading the hand and the length of car sized cable around the right based connector and pulled. It bound the arm around the connector just fine but that wasn't what he wanted so he Pulled and saw the right-wing connector exposing some wires.
"Ahh!!!" The screaming suited him much better but now that he was in one place the truck-sized fist was now far more difficult to dodge. As it dwarfed him, he gritted his teeth and accepted the blow that never came.
A whirling noise filled the air as two spheres of red and blue slammed into the approaching hand knocking it back and the cocky voice spoke again.
"You focus on clipping his wings! I teach big, tall and weeping here some proper manners." Sonic raised a thumbs up at him before racing up to the dragon's skull and Spin Dashing across his face.
Klein took the moment and burnt the entire power out as he ripped the connector free. The right wing fell into the waters below while the dragon's hand sat limply in his grasp. Metal Sonic did not have a moment to mourn the loss of his limb as with a pop the Big Emerald came free and his form as a dragon was no more as he turned into a smaller form than Neo Metal Sonic and plummeted to the island below. A happy familiar looking echidna taking it and slamming it back into its spot.
Sonic and the black hedgehog were still falling so he flew over to them and caught the blue hedgehog by the hand. The other one slapped his hand away as his rocket boots started bleeding off momentum.
"Thanks a lot! Girk was it?" The urge to throw the hedgehog like a missile rose.
"No, it's-" Klein tried to correct him.
"That's some wicked strength you got there! Knuckles, better be careful, else we'll start going to you for help and he'll be left all alone." Sonic joked before bringing a hand to his chin.
"You know he might appreciate that, are you available on weekends?" The flying island was rising to greet them, and Klein couldn't be more relieved as he picked up the pace and dropped the annoying hedgehog on the ground. Sonic hit the ground perfectly and turned up to grin at him.
This was going to be a thing wasn't.
---
Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't as stupid as people made him out to be.
Oh, sure he was rash, after all he was leading Girk right to Metal to confirm something, but Sonic was confident that he could handle any outcome. The moves he pulled against the copy were too cruel for it to just be someone helping the goodness of their heart.
The sneer that rose on his face when they found him was confirmation enough.
"So, you and chrome dome know each other? Took some form of Magic Item? Destroyed something important?
"He tore off my arm and leg" Girk said frankly and Sonic winced.
"That a do it though you seem to have already gotten them back, so do you mind letting by gones be by gones?" Sonic had a good feeling about him.
The man's blue eyes were searching as he first looked over at Metal Sonic the numerous bumps and the missing right arm and leg then he met Sonic's.
"No. I'm not letting it scamper back to Eggman and come back for a third round." The human started walking over and hung his foot over Metal's head. Ah well that's easy to solve.
Sonic waited for the right moment as the human slammed down his foot.
"And if egg head was no more?"
Girk stopped his shoe inches from crushing the robot's head and turned to glare at him.
"Pardon?" The Question held a mix of hope, hatred, and an emotion that escaped him for the moment.
"Girk, Eggman is no more, Metal doesn't have someone to go back to so he should be free to go his own way." Of course, Sonic wasn't gonna tell someone who seemed to have murder on mind about the innocent Mr. Tinker. The human blinked at him and looked back down at the now homeless bot a softer tone to his blue eyes. Girk shifted his foot away from Metal and Sonic smiled, he knew his feeling was right.
"I suppose that can be done, though my nam-"The approaching ship overcame whatever Girk was going to say and he waved at the human to follow him and was about to run off when his Edginess made himself know.
"Where are they Human?"
"Where are they Human?" Klein went to follow Sonic when a cold voice spoke.
It was the other Hedgehog His Red eyes laying accusations at his feet, the frame tense and rocket clad shoes tapping.
"Who exactly are you talking about?" Altman had no Idea what this conversation was but the lurking dread that had been soothed with Eggman's Death Roared back to life.
"Don't play coy, you're here so you must know. Where Is Humanity?!" The second question confused Klein further and the lack of understanding just pissed the black hedgehog off more. He was clearly about to take matters into his own hands when Sonic placed himself in between the two of them.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Let's calm down Shadow you're clearly confusing him, plus the rest of the gang will want to hear what he has to say." Sonic placating efforts seem to if not work at least buy Klein some time to figure out what the hell they meant by that. Shadow stood back but his gaze did not stray from Klein.
Where is Humanity? The implications of them even asking the question started his heart on a very dark path. The Path grew in darkness as he watched each Mobian descend from the ship, Bee Chameleon Crocodile, Bat Lemur Wolf, and Fox Cat, Pink and Silver Hedgehogs but no Human. If humans were naturally as strong as himself then there should be at least one among them.
There was none.
The colorful cast of humanoid animals gathered around him looked up at him, save the Crocodile who met his gaze evenly. The Silver Hedgehog surrounded by a blue glow flew up in his personal space and shook his hand with a relieved smile on his face.
"I am so happy to finally find someone, my name is Silver the Hedgehog do you know where the rest of the humans are hiding Mr. Girk?" The sincerity and the repeated use of that name opened the gates.
He didn't know where he was from.
No memories before Scrapnik Island.
Only an Understanding who Eggman was, and Who Sonic is.
A tear trailed down his face and the baffled look on Silver's face as he answered gave him no comfort.
"No, I don't"
/Freedom is Earned Part 2
Time to go.
He started to float forward going to grab the bars with his sleeveless right arm.... that was there all the sudden? Klein glanced down at his bare left leg, humans regrew limbs, right?
Yeah.
Ok cool.
The metal bars let out a sharp Crackle as his right arm grazed it and a voltage danced through his nerves, pain following in its wake. Snatching his hand back he sucked on the burnt pointer finger. Ok so Neo wasn't a complete arrogant prick, just mostly one. He looked around, walked up the wall near the bars and with a mighty gong a fist-sized hole was left in the metal.
Peeking through it led into another prison cell
Well, this was going to be a chore.
Tails' plan had worked almost flawlessly as he watched the airship wing that had been grafted onto Angel Island fall into the ocean below. The only hitch was his still falling friends, bringing the ship below them the fox worked through the finicky Egg tech. An alert flashed on the dash, and it was certainly an odd one.
Attempted break out detected. Apply tranquilizers? Yes/No.
"Huh, that's strange." The words slipped out and his fingers were already tapping keys to bring up a visual on the cell.
Silver, having just finished tossing the egg bots into the sea, turned his head towards Tails.
"What's wrong?" The Psychic floated over to look at the screen.
The blue screen flicked to a camera point of view displaying a human in green rags, the right arm and left leg bereft of any cloth. The point of view made it hard to see exactly what he was doing.
"We Got to help him, He might know what happened to the rest of the humans!" Silver exclaimed but Tails held up a hand and watched.
"We don't' know why Neo has him here at al- "Tails explanation was cut off when the human punched forth and revealed a hole about a meter wide that was expanding into the cell over. It looked frustrated as it left the ground and went towards the roof of the cell.
"That would explain why Neo hadn't killed him, but I thought...?" Tails had his chin in hand as he watched the human repeat the efforts across the roof peering into another cell.
"Why don't we ask him?" Silver looked around the buttons and the human paused its efforts as the intercom crackled to life.
"Hello there, my name is Tails Prowler. Could you please explain how Neo Metal Sonic has you here?" A young boy's voice sounded through the prison hall and the name Neo sent phantom pain through his arm and leg, the kid sounded fine enough.
"Sure, the bastard pincushion was getting his hands on a critical part of reality, and I wasn't a fan of Eggman getting hold of it by proxy" the kid didn't immediately reply so he decided to press his luck.
"So, do you mind letting me out of here? I need to rip off a limb or two off a certain bot." Ceasing his efforts he waited for the boy's reply.
There was some murmuring that was heard on the other side before the electric hum cut off and the bars started lowering into the floor.
Klein looked up to the camera and waved.
"Thanks Tails"
The crackling of the intercom came again.
"If you wouldn't mind meeting with a friend of mine near the entrance of the prison block Mr.?" Tails asked leadingly.
Klein didn't get the chance to say anything as someone on the intercom shouted.
"Tails look! The island is falling out of the sky!" That was a different voice than before, wait did he just say the island was falling?
"I will get back to you, Mr." then the intercom clicked off leaving Altman alone with his thoughts. The prison block in a second later had no occupant, as a strong gust was stirred in his wake.
Rouge The Bat was taking the moment to peruse a data file or two, her eyes screening out the useless inventory items as she looked for any darlings that she could liberate from Mr. Gloom into a better place.
Oooo three crates of power gems.
Pulling the data drive out and placing it away in a safe place she hurried to the top and she heard a rustle from behind her and there was a human of all things dressed in green rags floating there. Her left hand started reaching for her bombs as her mouth started doing its job.
"Well, hello there sir I can appreciate the rugged look you're pulling off, but do you mind giving me some space" With better clothes hmm, 7/10.
He floated back a few feet and landed on the ground his eyes unfazed as he met hers. Oh, blue nice.
"Tails said to meet you here" Mr. human said tones of impatient all too familiar, maybe she had found Shadow's long-lost brother? Thinking more seriously Rouge needs to make sure she was there to negotiate when the two found each other.
Schemes in place her right hand reached up and before she could reach it the radio circle hidden in the cleft of her ear buzzed.
"Everyone get to the deck! Tails has a plan!" Reliable junior bailing the team out.
Her left hand exited the hammer space bag it was in as she pointed back to the deck.
"This way sir" She ran, and the sound of cloth fluttering told her that the stranger was following.
Following the oversexualized bat his eyes did a brief scan over the crowd of short anthropomorphic animals, noting among them that the pink hedgehog was the leader as she was looking over weighing everyone.
Of course, no one notices him at first, the monolithic metal dragon charging towards them with what looks to be the big green Emerald embedded in its waist and the three squirming figures in its claw drew the appropriate amount of attention. It was credited to the seriousness of the situation that when he coughed all he got was a few wide eyes and an oooo from the bee and lemur, before the pink hedgehog's weighing look fell on him as the calculations ran through her head. The thundering of the cannons did not break her concentration as she asked quickly.
"Flight speed?"
"1500 miles per hour" He meet her eyes.
"Max weight" It was a command.
"More than all of you could possibly weigh" Klein was being patient.
She raised a gloved hand to him and then shouted at everyone.
"The plan is this, focus on things' wings and drive it to the island. After that Tails will crash the ship into his side delaying it long enough for Knuckles to get the Master Emerald out."
Turning back to him she jammed a thumb at the quickly approaching monstrosity.
"Run distraction on Metal Sonic while we get prepared."
Klein nodded and spoke.
"You better hurry if you want a piece of him"
The creatures around him didn't have time to say anything as Altman blitzed off towards the pincushion that owed him an arm and a leg.
Up close the bastard had made himself even uglier as one of his four eyes caught his approach.
"Have you come to lose again Grk?" That broke what little control he was maintaining as he reached down into his heart and strangled the Monster, taking its rage as his own.
"You are under the mistaken belief that you won last time due to your superiority."
The truck-sized clawed hand came about as fast as one and Klein let it come holding out his right hand, the shadow alone eclipsed his size as the metal talons sought to shishkab him. Floating away to just the point where all the finger talons meet Klein took both of his hands and pinned them there. The mighty mountain of metal tried to open his hand and the fear that Klein could see in his red eyes when he couldn't was delicious.
"How is this possible?!" The dragon cried to the heavens and his other arm came crashing down at the human, yet he did not sit idle as while dragging the clawed hand around he was still faster than the titan.
"Tie it around the wings!" A familiar cocky voice shouted at him and taking the suggestion to heart leading the hand and the length of car sized cable around the right based connector and pulled. It bound the arm around the connector just fine but that wasn't what he wanted so he Pulled and saw the right-wing connector exposing some wires.
"Ahh!!!" The screaming suited him much better but now that he was in one place the truck-sized fist was now far more difficult to dodge. As it dwarfed him, he gritted his teeth and accepted the blow that never came.
A whirling noise filled the air as two spheres of red and blue slammed into the approaching hand knocking it back and the cocky voice spoke again.
"You focus on clipping his wings! I teach big, tall and weeping here some proper manners." Sonic raised a thumbs up at him before racing up to the dragon's skull and Spin Dashing across his face.
Klein took the moment and burnt the entire power out as he ripped the connector free. The right wing fell into the waters below while the dragon's hand sat limply in his grasp. Metal Sonic did not have a moment to mourn the loss of his limb as with a pop the Big Emerald came free and his form as a dragon was no more as he turned into a smaller form than Neo Metal Sonic and plummeted to the island below. A happy familiar looking echidna taking it and slamming it back into its spot.
Sonic and the black hedgehog were still falling so he flew over to them and caught the blue hedgehog by the hand. The other one slapped his hand away as his rocket boots started bleeding off momentum.
"Thanks a lot! Girk was it?" The urge to throw the hedgehog like a missile rose.
"No, it's-" Klein tried to correct him.
"That's some wicked strength you got there! Knuckles, better be careful, else we'll start going to you for help and he'll be left all alone." Sonic joked before bringing a hand to his chin.
"You know he might appreciate that, are you available on weekends?" The flying island was rising to greet them, and Klein couldn't be more relieved as he picked up the pace and dropped the annoying hedgehog on the ground. Sonic hit the ground perfectly and turned up to grin at him.
This was going to be a thing wasn't.
---
Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't as stupid as people made him out to be.
Oh, sure he was rash, after all he was leading Girk right to Metal to confirm something, but Sonic was confident that he could handle any outcome. The moves he pulled against the copy were too cruel for it to just be someone helping the goodness of their heart.
The sneer that rose on his face when they found him was confirmation enough.
"So, you and chrome dome know each other? Took some form of Magic Item? Destroyed something important?
"He tore off my arm and leg" Girk said frankly and Sonic winced.
"That a do it though you seem to have already gotten them back, so do you mind letting by gones be by gones?" Sonic had a good feeling about him.
The man's blue eyes were searching as he first looked over at Metal Sonic the numerous bumps and the missing right arm and leg then he met Sonic's.
"No. I'm not letting it scamper back to Eggman and come back for a third round." The human started walking over and hung his foot over Metal's head. Ah well that's easy to solve.
Sonic waited for the right moment as the human slammed down his foot.
"And if egg head was no more?"
Girk stopped his shoe inches from crushing the robot's head and turned to glare at him.
"Pardon?" The Question held a mix of hope, hatred, and an emotion that escaped him for the moment.
"Girk, Eggman is no more, Metal doesn't have someone to go back to so he should be free to go his own way." Of course, Sonic wasn't gonna tell someone who seemed to have murder on mind about the innocent Mr. Tinker. The human blinked at him and looked back down at the now homeless bot a softer tone to his blue eyes. Girk shifted his foot away from Metal and Sonic smiled, he knew his feeling was right.
"I suppose that can be done, though my nam-"The approaching ship overcame whatever Girk was going to say and he waved at the human to follow him and was about to run off when his Edginess made himself know.
"Where are they Human?"
"Where are they Human?" Klein went to follow Sonic when a cold voice spoke.
It was the other Hedgehog His Red eyes laying accusations at his feet, the frame tense and rocket clad shoes tapping.
"Who exactly are you talking about?" Altman had no Idea what this conversation was but the lurking dread that had been soothed with Eggman's Death Roared back to life.
"Don't play coy, you're here so you must know. Where Is Humanity?!" The second question confused Klein further and the lack of understanding just pissed the black hedgehog off more. He was clearly about to take matters into his own hands when Sonic placed himself in between the two of them.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Let's calm down Shadow you're clearly confusing him, plus the rest of the gang will want to hear what he has to say." Sonic placating efforts seem to if not work at least buy Klein some time to figure out what the hell they meant by that. Shadow stood back but his gaze did not stray from Klein.
Where is Humanity? The implications of them even asking the question started his heart on a very dark path. The Path grew in darkness as he watched each Mobian descend from the ship, Bee Chameleon Crocodile, Bat Lemur Wolf, and Fox Cat, Pink and Silver Hedgehogs but no Human. If humans were naturally as strong as himself then there should be at least one among them.
There was none.
The colorful cast of humanoid animals gathered around him looked up at him, save the Crocodile who met his gaze evenly. The Silver Hedgehog surrounded by a blue glow flew up in his personal space and shook his hand with a relieved smile on his face.
"I am so happy to finally find someone, my name is Silver the Hedgehog do you know where the rest of the humans are hiding Mr. Girk?" The sincerity and the repeated use of that name opened the gates.
He didn't know where he was from.
No memories before Scrapnik Island.
Only an Understanding who Eggman was, and Who Sonic is.
A tear trailed down his face and the baffled look on Silver's face as he answered gave him no comfort.
"No, I don't"
/Freedom is Earned Part 2
/Freedom is Earned Part 3
New
"Wow Silver you talk one second to Klein and ya made him weep? How cruel." Tangle's smirk was as natural to her as the Prehensile tail mimed a pointing hand at Silver. The two were joined by said human, Charmey who was trying to spin a card on his nose and Espio who was here to chaperone him had joined in on the game they were playing. The passing clouds of white signaling the end of the fun adventure and a return to boringness.
"How was I supposed to know that Girk wasn't his name! That's what everyone was calling him!" Silver was just too easy to rile up.
"Did ya ask him?" Tangle Pointed out the obvious.
"Well… No. I'm sorry Mr. Altman I didn't mean to hurt your feelings" The silver hedgehog looked as if someone had taken a hammer right to his heart.
"It's fine, I was at most annoyed at the name, it was the question itself that shook me" The Human held his own hand of cards a fake smile on his face.
Hmm how to fix that.
The silence only had a moment to breathe before an idea struck her.
"So Magic man that's some crazy strength ya got there, didn't even let me get a swing in."
"Did you want to wrestle a titan dragon composed of steel and hatred?" He had an eyebrow raised the look temporarily vanquished.
"Absolutely! it's not fair that you got to get all the glory, I mean come on save some for the rest of us!" Her plan was working great.
"Next time I find some colossal figure made of malevolence I'll make sure you're the first to know and the first to take a crack at it" Tangle Smile was ear to ear and looked back down at the cards and noticed one of them was missing. Swinging her head back up she was met with the cheeky grin from Silver as he had an extra sixth card in his hand. That sneaky devil learned from his past mistakes Tangle was proud in some part, but on the other hand.
"You Cheated." The smug silver jerk just shuffled the cards in his hands and showed a four of a kind.
"Looks like you all will be paying me!" Silver smirked before a thought crossed his mind.
"What do I win?" Silver Looked genuinely excited as he waits for his prize.
"A compliment for a good play for certain, though I believe this had been enough entertainment for me" Klein put his cards face down as rose up from the box that he had scratched the face of Eggman off. The human made his way out of the room and Silver turned to her and waited for the compliment.
"I'll admit it that was a great play! Though you could've gone for Klein." Tangle faked a sigh of resignation and the smile that she felt was nice.
Unaware to both Espio had picked up the human's hand and seen the cards that lay there. His eyes trailing the Royal Flush before looking back at the door then shuffled it back into the deck.
Heading to the hallway Klein started the trip to the commander's deck at a slow pace as his mind free of distractions ran his heart through with the spear of information again. On the eve of the sixth month of the war with the Eggman Empire human troops working hand in hand with Mobian ones simply stopped existing as cubes appeared around them and in the next second, they were gone. This was later attributed to a Mobian named Infinite who had gotten his hands on a magical crystal named the Phantom Ruby.
This caused the Resistance to fight even harder as the conclusion of the war drew ever closer. Culminating in Sonic and a Mobian named Buddy who using a prototype version of the magical crystal to defeat Infinite and Dr Eggman, the two defeated the People of Mobius expected the humans to reappear. The weeks started to slip by and the Mobian populace started to realize that they weren't coming back.
Klein's wandering feet had left him staring at the Sliding door and he shook himself from thoughts as going through the door there was the twin tailed fox Tails looking down at a yellow handheld device. He must not have heard him come in, so Klein politely coughed causing the fox to jump and briefly hover in the air.
"Ah! My bad Mr. Altman I was updating a project I had set to the side, and I must have missed you come in." Tails set his pad down carefully as he turned towards Klein.
"Don't feel the need to pay me too much attention, I had come to figure out how close to my home I was, but a set aside project?" Klein could use another distraction.
"That's fine and yes with your appearance I've been puzzling over what we know of the Phantom Ruby as from all known records it should have returned all the humans back to where they were, yet they have not returned, and now here you appear completely unaffected by the gem." The Fox's eyes were glimmering as he built up steam holding up one finger.
"My hypothesis is that when Eggman sent out the dimensional wave to wipe out your people he must have run into another dimension that was running parallel to ours while the wave was ongoing." Tails took a breath, so Klein decided to continue the thought.
"Deciding to take advantage of the happenstance he linked the transport to the parallel dimension and poof the humans are no more as the link would be temporally unstable at most" Klein wished he had been given a chance to crush Eggman's head.
"Meaning the best way for them to get home would be to locate the instance of reality they were sent to by the various streams of the ruby's leftover exotic energies" Tails led.
"But due to the length of time since the initial instance and the numerous uses afterward the water would be muddled at best, what you would need is the exact gathering point that humanity left the world not to mention the direction they left in as well." Klein nodded his head and noted the odd look on Tails' face.
"What?" Did he miss something?
"Oh, it just usually when I start talking about more complicated subjects my friends' eyes tend to glaze over it's refreshing to finally talk to someone who can keep up." Tails explained and Klein was going to respond but was cut by a laugh.
"Who can't keep up huh Tails? Have you already found a new best friend; didn't know I was so easy to replace." Sonic jabbed as he strolled in, and Tails rolled his eyes though Klein noted the smile.
"Haha, yep that's all it takes to for you to be an old model of the Miles Electric I'll find a trash bin to toss you in later" Tails waved his hand as he turned back and picked the now named Miles Electric back up.
"So, Alt how close would you say we are to this home of yours?" Sonic leaned against the wall.
Klein had been distracted by the interesting conversation so turning his eyes to the horizon his eyes picked out the distinctive tower of scrap that he had pile almost as tall as the Death Egg so far that it was only speck on his vision.
"Over there" he pointed to the spot Sonic and Tails both looked.
"Where…? I don't see anything?" Tails was squinting and the hedgehog was looking bemused as he held up a hand counted.
"So, to list it Super strength, flight, nerd talk and Super vision now? What next are you gonna do next shoot laser beams out of your eyes?" Sonic half-joked.
"Pardon?" Klein wasn't seeing the joke.
"Most of your abilities exceed normal human parameters hence why I was going to attribute your staying here as that of your enhanced capabilities, if I had to take a guess something to due to your flight." Tail had taken his pad and aimed it in the general direction of the Island.
"And besides if he had such capabilities, he probably would have used them in the fight against Metal Overlord " Tails said as an afterthought.
"Nah Nah, you see Alt had a grudge to settle so of course he was gonna go for the good old fisticuffs before he pulled out something like that right?"
Klein let out a chuckle at the by play the two were undergoing as the distant island came closer and closer a name finally struck him.
"I never told you the name of this island its former name was Scrapnik Island but I took offense of that so I changed it to something that would fit my style better welcome to Bottle Island!" Klein could see the moment the camera brought into view his island what was expected was the gasps. The incalculable response, however, was the deep concern that was in their eyes as they looked at each other and then at him.
"Is that the Death Egg? This must be where the ship crashed but if this is where you say you're from..." It was an uneasy look that crossed tail's face, but Sonic only smiled Wilder.
"Uh yes, that's the name of that giant ship though both of you sound like you know it better than me, and I spent at least two days scrubbing that thing clean of iconography and I'm certain I haven't got all of it yet." A fact that still frustrates Klein as Sonic took the silence to explain Tails' uneasiness.
"Look Tails even if he is an Eggman creation he helped take down the big metal lizard that counts in my book as him being a good guy, plus Egghead usually has a whole shtick about his creations that are good enough are usually cosplaying as one of us."
The island was getting closer and closer as the ship trundled along in the sky to the point that Sonic whistled as he saw the giant pile of scrap that was almost reaching the Death Egg's height. At this distance Klein could start seeing the individual grains of red dirt that made up the whole of the exposed island.
"I suppose so, I'm sorry Mr. Altman I let my mouth race before my mind" Tails' apology sounded sincere enough Of course Klein need to clarify something.
"No harm done; however, I am not one of his creations I'm know that" Klein defended.
"How are you so certain?" Tails was quick to point out the unprovable fact.
"I have a gut feeling" it was vaguer than Klein cared for, but it was one of the few things he was sure on.
Tails sighed and shook his head. "Maybe you are like my friends after all."
"Common buddy some of our best adventures started with a gut feeling" Sonic threw an arm over Tails' shoulder as he waved the other forward to the approaching Island.
"The Most dangerous ones started that way too Sonic." Tails threw back.
/Freedom is Earned Part 3
"How was I supposed to know that Girk wasn't his name! That's what everyone was calling him!" Silver was just too easy to rile up.
"Did ya ask him?" Tangle Pointed out the obvious.
"Well… No. I'm sorry Mr. Altman I didn't mean to hurt your feelings" The silver hedgehog looked as if someone had taken a hammer right to his heart.
"It's fine, I was at most annoyed at the name, it was the question itself that shook me" The Human held his own hand of cards a fake smile on his face.
Hmm how to fix that.
The silence only had a moment to breathe before an idea struck her.
"So Magic man that's some crazy strength ya got there, didn't even let me get a swing in."
"Did you want to wrestle a titan dragon composed of steel and hatred?" He had an eyebrow raised the look temporarily vanquished.
"Absolutely! it's not fair that you got to get all the glory, I mean come on save some for the rest of us!" Her plan was working great.
"Next time I find some colossal figure made of malevolence I'll make sure you're the first to know and the first to take a crack at it" Tangle Smile was ear to ear and looked back down at the cards and noticed one of them was missing. Swinging her head back up she was met with the cheeky grin from Silver as he had an extra sixth card in his hand. That sneaky devil learned from his past mistakes Tangle was proud in some part, but on the other hand.
"You Cheated." The smug silver jerk just shuffled the cards in his hands and showed a four of a kind.
"Looks like you all will be paying me!" Silver smirked before a thought crossed his mind.
"What do I win?" Silver Looked genuinely excited as he waits for his prize.
"A compliment for a good play for certain, though I believe this had been enough entertainment for me" Klein put his cards face down as rose up from the box that he had scratched the face of Eggman off. The human made his way out of the room and Silver turned to her and waited for the compliment.
"I'll admit it that was a great play! Though you could've gone for Klein." Tangle faked a sigh of resignation and the smile that she felt was nice.
Unaware to both Espio had picked up the human's hand and seen the cards that lay there. His eyes trailing the Royal Flush before looking back at the door then shuffled it back into the deck.
Heading to the hallway Klein started the trip to the commander's deck at a slow pace as his mind free of distractions ran his heart through with the spear of information again. On the eve of the sixth month of the war with the Eggman Empire human troops working hand in hand with Mobian ones simply stopped existing as cubes appeared around them and in the next second, they were gone. This was later attributed to a Mobian named Infinite who had gotten his hands on a magical crystal named the Phantom Ruby.
This caused the Resistance to fight even harder as the conclusion of the war drew ever closer. Culminating in Sonic and a Mobian named Buddy who using a prototype version of the magical crystal to defeat Infinite and Dr Eggman, the two defeated the People of Mobius expected the humans to reappear. The weeks started to slip by and the Mobian populace started to realize that they weren't coming back.
Klein's wandering feet had left him staring at the Sliding door and he shook himself from thoughts as going through the door there was the twin tailed fox Tails looking down at a yellow handheld device. He must not have heard him come in, so Klein politely coughed causing the fox to jump and briefly hover in the air.
"Ah! My bad Mr. Altman I was updating a project I had set to the side, and I must have missed you come in." Tails set his pad down carefully as he turned towards Klein.
"Don't feel the need to pay me too much attention, I had come to figure out how close to my home I was, but a set aside project?" Klein could use another distraction.
"That's fine and yes with your appearance I've been puzzling over what we know of the Phantom Ruby as from all known records it should have returned all the humans back to where they were, yet they have not returned, and now here you appear completely unaffected by the gem." The Fox's eyes were glimmering as he built up steam holding up one finger.
"My hypothesis is that when Eggman sent out the dimensional wave to wipe out your people he must have run into another dimension that was running parallel to ours while the wave was ongoing." Tails took a breath, so Klein decided to continue the thought.
"Deciding to take advantage of the happenstance he linked the transport to the parallel dimension and poof the humans are no more as the link would be temporally unstable at most" Klein wished he had been given a chance to crush Eggman's head.
"Meaning the best way for them to get home would be to locate the instance of reality they were sent to by the various streams of the ruby's leftover exotic energies" Tails led.
"But due to the length of time since the initial instance and the numerous uses afterward the water would be muddled at best, what you would need is the exact gathering point that humanity left the world not to mention the direction they left in as well." Klein nodded his head and noted the odd look on Tails' face.
"What?" Did he miss something?
"Oh, it just usually when I start talking about more complicated subjects my friends' eyes tend to glaze over it's refreshing to finally talk to someone who can keep up." Tails explained and Klein was going to respond but was cut by a laugh.
"Who can't keep up huh Tails? Have you already found a new best friend; didn't know I was so easy to replace." Sonic jabbed as he strolled in, and Tails rolled his eyes though Klein noted the smile.
"Haha, yep that's all it takes to for you to be an old model of the Miles Electric I'll find a trash bin to toss you in later" Tails waved his hand as he turned back and picked the now named Miles Electric back up.
"So, Alt how close would you say we are to this home of yours?" Sonic leaned against the wall.
Klein had been distracted by the interesting conversation so turning his eyes to the horizon his eyes picked out the distinctive tower of scrap that he had pile almost as tall as the Death Egg so far that it was only speck on his vision.
"Over there" he pointed to the spot Sonic and Tails both looked.
"Where…? I don't see anything?" Tails was squinting and the hedgehog was looking bemused as he held up a hand counted.
"So, to list it Super strength, flight, nerd talk and Super vision now? What next are you gonna do next shoot laser beams out of your eyes?" Sonic half-joked.
"Pardon?" Klein wasn't seeing the joke.
"Most of your abilities exceed normal human parameters hence why I was going to attribute your staying here as that of your enhanced capabilities, if I had to take a guess something to due to your flight." Tail had taken his pad and aimed it in the general direction of the Island.
"And besides if he had such capabilities, he probably would have used them in the fight against Metal Overlord " Tails said as an afterthought.
"Nah Nah, you see Alt had a grudge to settle so of course he was gonna go for the good old fisticuffs before he pulled out something like that right?"
Klein let out a chuckle at the by play the two were undergoing as the distant island came closer and closer a name finally struck him.
"I never told you the name of this island its former name was Scrapnik Island but I took offense of that so I changed it to something that would fit my style better welcome to Bottle Island!" Klein could see the moment the camera brought into view his island what was expected was the gasps. The incalculable response, however, was the deep concern that was in their eyes as they looked at each other and then at him.
"Is that the Death Egg? This must be where the ship crashed but if this is where you say you're from..." It was an uneasy look that crossed tail's face, but Sonic only smiled Wilder.
"Uh yes, that's the name of that giant ship though both of you sound like you know it better than me, and I spent at least two days scrubbing that thing clean of iconography and I'm certain I haven't got all of it yet." A fact that still frustrates Klein as Sonic took the silence to explain Tails' uneasiness.
"Look Tails even if he is an Eggman creation he helped take down the big metal lizard that counts in my book as him being a good guy, plus Egghead usually has a whole shtick about his creations that are good enough are usually cosplaying as one of us."
The island was getting closer and closer as the ship trundled along in the sky to the point that Sonic whistled as he saw the giant pile of scrap that was almost reaching the Death Egg's height. At this distance Klein could start seeing the individual grains of red dirt that made up the whole of the exposed island.
"I suppose so, I'm sorry Mr. Altman I let my mouth race before my mind" Tails' apology sounded sincere enough Of course Klein need to clarify something.
"No harm done; however, I am not one of his creations I'm know that" Klein defended.
"How are you so certain?" Tails was quick to point out the unprovable fact.
"I have a gut feeling" it was vaguer than Klein cared for, but it was one of the few things he was sure on.
Tails sighed and shook his head. "Maybe you are like my friends after all."
"Common buddy some of our best adventures started with a gut feeling" Sonic threw an arm over Tails' shoulder as he waved the other forward to the approaching Island.
"The Most dangerous ones started that way too Sonic." Tails threw back.
/Freedom is Earned Part 3
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/Freedom Is Earned Arc End
New
Espio had seen the board the Vector had back home and one of the first ones that he had put on the board after the war's end, And the ability to live in the house, was the case of the Missing humans. If he had not been closing the Eggman case, then the chameleon would be sure that the lead detective would have been taking Klein's ear off. Espio preferred to observe first then approach a witness as he didn't like being caught off guard.
The ship had landed on the red island on the outskirts of a metal compound that had good Feng Shui but that was all it had; the large metal bowl embedded into the western part of the island would steal most attention followed by the pile of scrap that seemed to be trying to sever the horizon. Charmey was off buzzing around Vector as he continued the conversation he seemed to have started with Klein, Espio catching snippet here and there.
"Ya see pal the whole thing just had me scratching my head, If Eggman could just teleport all the humans away then why bother with the whole War." Vector was complaining more than asking yet the human responded.
"You've met the man he has an ego that has literally threaten world peace just because he didn't own it" Klein was matching him as he led the group of Tails who was vibrating with barely restrained curiosity, Amy who looked stress as she walked and checked over a notepad she scrounged from somewhere, and himself towards a larger than average sliding door that was reminiscent of one Eggman's building.
Punching a code into a pad on the left side of the entrance his eyes happen to catch a broken window.
"Tell me Klein what occurred for you to depart in such a hurry" Klein followed his finger, and a look of embarrassment took his face.
"You see when Neo Metal Sonic's fleet was heading to Angel Island, I had thought that Eggman had come for revenge for messing with the scrap you see on the pile, so I acted in manner conductive to my survival." Klein looked sheepish and Vector just shrugged.
"Hey If, I thought Eggman was coming for my team we'd lay low too" Vector as always made them sound better.
Door had slid open already and Tails had hurried inside already leaving the rest of them behind. The Hallway seemed to glimmer as the sunlight hit the inside of the compound's metal floor, walls and ceiling. Espio Caught Amy's look of distaste, a feeling he shared with her, the human also caught the look and bemusement sat on his small eyes. Still the pink hedgehog put on a smile as Klein approached her.
"Apologies about the décor apparently such lovely vanities do not survive the ravages of time and tons of metal" Altman apologized.
"No no no, you're inviting us into your home after an intense time for you the least we could do would be good house guests." Espio took the moment to slip into the building as the two started the conversation in full.
Going down the hallway small windows provided a little natural lighting, but the dome shaped lights embedded into the roof did the heavy lifting, the floor was spotless with no traces of shoes making their way across the ground. It was cool enough to nip at his scales but no more than that. It was a few minutes of quiet travel till he finally found a door with a pad.
Vector's words flashed in his mind again.
"This guy is our best lead, so Espio I want to you to search this place top to bottom! Me and Charmy will make sure he's too busy dealing with us to give you all the time you need to get the info."
Approaching the door there was no visible handle but there was a pad with a mix of letters and numbers. With a pause he repeated the sequence that he saw Klein Perform E-117-O and the door slid open as a familiar sight of rows of Eggman guns in various states of disassembly.
This was Exhilarating! To finally be in another scientist base without having to sneak around or be prepared to defend himself left Tails giddy. Of course, most of the tech here was repurposed Eggman tech but the fact that Mr. Altman had done all of this with what he had been told was twenty days made him eager to do some cross research. He was in what his eyes and pad had told him was the research section of this place.
Of course, the central computer that dominated the left side of the room drew his attention as a stroke across the keyboard revealed it to be unlocked. It seemed to be left open on a recent idea of an Energy cycler though from what Tails was reading there was nothing concrete yet. Theories started to form around the various shapes the Cycler could take, and he was Sure Klein wouldn't mind if he adds some ideas here or there.
Klein was hardly faking the smile that was crossing his face as he led the shrinking group throughout the compound. They had lost Espio quite quickly and Tails had been the first one in the door but the few Mobians still following him were quite pleasant to be around. It was Amy who was leading the conversation and Altman tuned back into the discussion.
"You see the Restoration could really use some good news and seeing you would light a spark like nothing else. When we are done here, I know a couple of recovering Tv Stations that would love to have you on them" she was keeping good pace with him.
"While it's flattering, I will have to refuse such an opportunity" Altman teeth clenched at the thought of being around that many people.
"Great! I'm sure I can get in contact with Red- Pardon?" Amy stride faltered and she would have fallen if not for the Crocodile's hand steadying her.
"You Refuse!?" Amy yelled.
Klein had taken the lead of the group and looked over his shoulder down at Amy.
"Indeed, I have to refuse the opportunity due to… Prior engagements taking precedence I deeply apologize if the rejection offends you" the expression on his face hopefully repentant enough. The sigh that escaped the pink hedgehog showed he was not successful in the slightest.
"That's fine, I'm sure the public will believe me off just my words" The robots he spent a week around showed more emotion than that. The click of a shutter went off and he blinked at the camera that was all the suddenly in Vector's hand.
"There ya go Miss Rose Proof ready to go" Vector took the printing frame that was exiting the bottom of the boxy camera and waved it in the air a few times before handing it to Amy who looked as surprised at the photo before smiling at the Crocodile.
"Wow that so kind of you Vector thank you very much, I hope that didn't bother you Mr. Altman." Amy more told than she asked him.
Klein focused more on Vector as he looked all over the reptile yet couldn't see where he stored such an item.
"Where did you pull that out from? I can't see a pouch on your belt big enough to hold it?" he demanded.
"From my subspace bag?" He rubbed his head in confusion.
Ah. That makes more sense Altman nodded his head and strode off towards R&D while the thought was still there. Leaving the two behind him staring as he started hovering over the ground in anticipation, Charmey had taken a sucker out and had started working on it as he watched. The two ground bound Mobians jogging to keep pace with his excited speed and it took all he had to not leave his guests behind.
This was boring, sure it's dark, but Whisper's wisps made sure that it wasn't really a problem for herself, or Sonic as they followed her favorite wolf down the dark halls of the Death Egg. What it was is dusty as every motion seemed to kick up more into the air and she had to fight a sneeze that kept trying to ambush her.
"ACHOOO" Tangle failed.
The cold-hearted Human blinked, and Tangle's heart felt dull as a dripping noise that was unfamiliar to her came to mind. Her gaze drifted down, and a gloved hand was shoved in her chest scrounging around for something. It found its target and Tangle felt her life sever as Klein tore her heart out and started slowly increasing the pressure on the still beating organ.
"How droll, can't even let out a scream? Very well then, I should take this and leave" Taking his free hand he ripped the rest of the precious veins that connect the heart to the rest of the body.
The skull he had on his belt looked familiar and the empty gaze of Whisper met her own as her vision failed her.
Shaking his head Klein's eyes refocused as he walked towards the research division now more than ever wanting to get the Mobians away from him, Amy did not notice the lack of focus and it seemed Vector didn't either. The look in Charmey's eyes told him that his emotions were not as guarded as he hoped the bee looking deeply concerned for him. Thankfully he found Tails in R&D before he could expose the empty hole that took the place of Klein's heart.
The Fox had made himself comfortable as he had found a metal box and had dragged it in front of his main computer. The cheerful boy waved at Klein with a sheepish smile before pointing at the device.
"This is a great idea Mr. Altman, I hope you don't mind that I add a few of my own ideas to it" Tails looked excited as Altman all but charged up to the computer and scanned over the changes. They were well documented, and the methodology was expressed with each change that he put in. The porcelain smile seemed to fool the fox as his lips opened to lie again.
"Thank you very much Tails I can see that you made great additions here, But I believe it's about time for you all to depart" The words had an immediate effect as Vector who had been chatting his ear off seem to protest.
"What! Didn't we just get here and you're already kicking us off your porch?!" The Crocodile had an impressive vocal range, and the thought affirmed his desire to make them leave.
"I'm deeply sorry for wasting your time here But I insist that all of you depart for your normal lives" Klein needed them off the Island.
Vector was clearly going to continue shouting but Espio's sudden appearance and quiet words seemed to cool him if the evaluating look was anything to go by.
"Mister, are you ok?" Charmey however, pierced the one thing he was hoping to get away with. The sympathetic look Klein decided at that moment he despised as it brought the attention of the others to him. Still his mask was only slightly cracked as he carried on.
"Tails it's been a pleasure to have you here and I will be in contact to work on more projects" The fox looked deeply conflicted as he started to usher them out and towards the exit.
"Wait what is Charmey talking about Klein Are you alright?" Amy's voice was filled with so much concern, too much.
"Certainly! I believe Charmey must have seen my expression when I was thinking about Eggman's death and mistook it for something disagreeable" Klein lied, and the bee immediately rebuked his words.
"No, I didn't! It looked like you saw something spooky and were scared!" The Bee buzzed his wings and was pointing at him.
"Both Amy and Vector were there with us Charmey If I did see something scary you all would have seen it alongside with me" Klein was gaslighting a child, the guilt was shanking him in the kidney.
He had gotten them almost to the northern exit when Tails flew up and looked him in the eye.
"Klein Is Charmey right? Is something wrong? We aren't going to attack you or anything we just want to help." The word attack put a larger crack in the mask if the look on Tails face was any indicator.
"No nothing is, I look forward to working more with you Tails" Preferably from behind a screen where Altman couldn't strangle him.
He pushed the lot of them out of the door and he loathed how they fell over each other.
"I'm sorry for the rude departure but a critical project needs my attention, please see yourselves off of Bottle Island" If the cold tone kept them away then he would be as cold as possible.
The sliding doors lingered long enough to see the determination in Tails' eyes as he meets Klein's gaze and the man felt the mask shatter as the doors slid shut.
He was a Monster, and they can't have friends.
/Freedom Is Earned Arc End
The ship had landed on the red island on the outskirts of a metal compound that had good Feng Shui but that was all it had; the large metal bowl embedded into the western part of the island would steal most attention followed by the pile of scrap that seemed to be trying to sever the horizon. Charmey was off buzzing around Vector as he continued the conversation he seemed to have started with Klein, Espio catching snippet here and there.
"Ya see pal the whole thing just had me scratching my head, If Eggman could just teleport all the humans away then why bother with the whole War." Vector was complaining more than asking yet the human responded.
"You've met the man he has an ego that has literally threaten world peace just because he didn't own it" Klein was matching him as he led the group of Tails who was vibrating with barely restrained curiosity, Amy who looked stress as she walked and checked over a notepad she scrounged from somewhere, and himself towards a larger than average sliding door that was reminiscent of one Eggman's building.
Punching a code into a pad on the left side of the entrance his eyes happen to catch a broken window.
"Tell me Klein what occurred for you to depart in such a hurry" Klein followed his finger, and a look of embarrassment took his face.
"You see when Neo Metal Sonic's fleet was heading to Angel Island, I had thought that Eggman had come for revenge for messing with the scrap you see on the pile, so I acted in manner conductive to my survival." Klein looked sheepish and Vector just shrugged.
"Hey If, I thought Eggman was coming for my team we'd lay low too" Vector as always made them sound better.
Door had slid open already and Tails had hurried inside already leaving the rest of them behind. The Hallway seemed to glimmer as the sunlight hit the inside of the compound's metal floor, walls and ceiling. Espio Caught Amy's look of distaste, a feeling he shared with her, the human also caught the look and bemusement sat on his small eyes. Still the pink hedgehog put on a smile as Klein approached her.
"Apologies about the décor apparently such lovely vanities do not survive the ravages of time and tons of metal" Altman apologized.
"No no no, you're inviting us into your home after an intense time for you the least we could do would be good house guests." Espio took the moment to slip into the building as the two started the conversation in full.
Going down the hallway small windows provided a little natural lighting, but the dome shaped lights embedded into the roof did the heavy lifting, the floor was spotless with no traces of shoes making their way across the ground. It was cool enough to nip at his scales but no more than that. It was a few minutes of quiet travel till he finally found a door with a pad.
Vector's words flashed in his mind again.
"This guy is our best lead, so Espio I want to you to search this place top to bottom! Me and Charmy will make sure he's too busy dealing with us to give you all the time you need to get the info."
Approaching the door there was no visible handle but there was a pad with a mix of letters and numbers. With a pause he repeated the sequence that he saw Klein Perform E-117-O and the door slid open as a familiar sight of rows of Eggman guns in various states of disassembly.
This was Exhilarating! To finally be in another scientist base without having to sneak around or be prepared to defend himself left Tails giddy. Of course, most of the tech here was repurposed Eggman tech but the fact that Mr. Altman had done all of this with what he had been told was twenty days made him eager to do some cross research. He was in what his eyes and pad had told him was the research section of this place.
Of course, the central computer that dominated the left side of the room drew his attention as a stroke across the keyboard revealed it to be unlocked. It seemed to be left open on a recent idea of an Energy cycler though from what Tails was reading there was nothing concrete yet. Theories started to form around the various shapes the Cycler could take, and he was Sure Klein wouldn't mind if he adds some ideas here or there.
Klein was hardly faking the smile that was crossing his face as he led the shrinking group throughout the compound. They had lost Espio quite quickly and Tails had been the first one in the door but the few Mobians still following him were quite pleasant to be around. It was Amy who was leading the conversation and Altman tuned back into the discussion.
"You see the Restoration could really use some good news and seeing you would light a spark like nothing else. When we are done here, I know a couple of recovering Tv Stations that would love to have you on them" she was keeping good pace with him.
"While it's flattering, I will have to refuse such an opportunity" Altman teeth clenched at the thought of being around that many people.
"Great! I'm sure I can get in contact with Red- Pardon?" Amy stride faltered and she would have fallen if not for the Crocodile's hand steadying her.
"You Refuse!?" Amy yelled.
Klein had taken the lead of the group and looked over his shoulder down at Amy.
"Indeed, I have to refuse the opportunity due to… Prior engagements taking precedence I deeply apologize if the rejection offends you" the expression on his face hopefully repentant enough. The sigh that escaped the pink hedgehog showed he was not successful in the slightest.
"That's fine, I'm sure the public will believe me off just my words" The robots he spent a week around showed more emotion than that. The click of a shutter went off and he blinked at the camera that was all the suddenly in Vector's hand.
"There ya go Miss Rose Proof ready to go" Vector took the printing frame that was exiting the bottom of the boxy camera and waved it in the air a few times before handing it to Amy who looked as surprised at the photo before smiling at the Crocodile.
"Wow that so kind of you Vector thank you very much, I hope that didn't bother you Mr. Altman." Amy more told than she asked him.
Klein focused more on Vector as he looked all over the reptile yet couldn't see where he stored such an item.
"Where did you pull that out from? I can't see a pouch on your belt big enough to hold it?" he demanded.
"From my subspace bag?" He rubbed his head in confusion.
Ah. That makes more sense Altman nodded his head and strode off towards R&D while the thought was still there. Leaving the two behind him staring as he started hovering over the ground in anticipation, Charmey had taken a sucker out and had started working on it as he watched. The two ground bound Mobians jogging to keep pace with his excited speed and it took all he had to not leave his guests behind.
This was boring, sure it's dark, but Whisper's wisps made sure that it wasn't really a problem for herself, or Sonic as they followed her favorite wolf down the dark halls of the Death Egg. What it was is dusty as every motion seemed to kick up more into the air and she had to fight a sneeze that kept trying to ambush her.
"ACHOOO" Tangle failed.
The cold-hearted Human blinked, and Tangle's heart felt dull as a dripping noise that was unfamiliar to her came to mind. Her gaze drifted down, and a gloved hand was shoved in her chest scrounging around for something. It found its target and Tangle felt her life sever as Klein tore her heart out and started slowly increasing the pressure on the still beating organ.
"How droll, can't even let out a scream? Very well then, I should take this and leave" Taking his free hand he ripped the rest of the precious veins that connect the heart to the rest of the body.
The skull he had on his belt looked familiar and the empty gaze of Whisper met her own as her vision failed her.
Shaking his head Klein's eyes refocused as he walked towards the research division now more than ever wanting to get the Mobians away from him, Amy did not notice the lack of focus and it seemed Vector didn't either. The look in Charmey's eyes told him that his emotions were not as guarded as he hoped the bee looking deeply concerned for him. Thankfully he found Tails in R&D before he could expose the empty hole that took the place of Klein's heart.
The Fox had made himself comfortable as he had found a metal box and had dragged it in front of his main computer. The cheerful boy waved at Klein with a sheepish smile before pointing at the device.
"This is a great idea Mr. Altman, I hope you don't mind that I add a few of my own ideas to it" Tails looked excited as Altman all but charged up to the computer and scanned over the changes. They were well documented, and the methodology was expressed with each change that he put in. The porcelain smile seemed to fool the fox as his lips opened to lie again.
"Thank you very much Tails I can see that you made great additions here, But I believe it's about time for you all to depart" The words had an immediate effect as Vector who had been chatting his ear off seem to protest.
"What! Didn't we just get here and you're already kicking us off your porch?!" The Crocodile had an impressive vocal range, and the thought affirmed his desire to make them leave.
"I'm deeply sorry for wasting your time here But I insist that all of you depart for your normal lives" Klein needed them off the Island.
Vector was clearly going to continue shouting but Espio's sudden appearance and quiet words seemed to cool him if the evaluating look was anything to go by.
"Mister, are you ok?" Charmey however, pierced the one thing he was hoping to get away with. The sympathetic look Klein decided at that moment he despised as it brought the attention of the others to him. Still his mask was only slightly cracked as he carried on.
"Tails it's been a pleasure to have you here and I will be in contact to work on more projects" The fox looked deeply conflicted as he started to usher them out and towards the exit.
"Wait what is Charmey talking about Klein Are you alright?" Amy's voice was filled with so much concern, too much.
"Certainly! I believe Charmey must have seen my expression when I was thinking about Eggman's death and mistook it for something disagreeable" Klein lied, and the bee immediately rebuked his words.
"No, I didn't! It looked like you saw something spooky and were scared!" The Bee buzzed his wings and was pointing at him.
"Both Amy and Vector were there with us Charmey If I did see something scary you all would have seen it alongside with me" Klein was gaslighting a child, the guilt was shanking him in the kidney.
He had gotten them almost to the northern exit when Tails flew up and looked him in the eye.
"Klein Is Charmey right? Is something wrong? We aren't going to attack you or anything we just want to help." The word attack put a larger crack in the mask if the look on Tails face was any indicator.
"No nothing is, I look forward to working more with you Tails" Preferably from behind a screen where Altman couldn't strangle him.
He pushed the lot of them out of the door and he loathed how they fell over each other.
"I'm sorry for the rude departure but a critical project needs my attention, please see yourselves off of Bottle Island" If the cold tone kept them away then he would be as cold as possible.
The sliding doors lingered long enough to see the determination in Tails' eyes as he meets Klein's gaze and the man felt the mask shatter as the doors slid shut.
He was a Monster, and they can't have friends.
/Freedom Is Earned Arc End
/Freedom Is Given Part 1
New
"This just in A Human by the name Klein Altman has been found on a Distant Island, with his sudden appearance the question of where our friends and family are come to the front! More news about the shocking return of humanity at 11!" The picture of a green-haired human with his head turned towards the camera was looking over his shoulder.
This news had shocked the world two days ago and it still drew the attention of passengers on the train but more as background noise or a conversation starter.
"How do you think he survived?" A hare from the high pitch of his voice.
"Maybe he was secretly working for Eggman and was spared?" A pig if the lisp was anything to go by.
"Then why would the Restoration just let him continue being on a random island plotting schemes?" A lizard their tones always were measured.
"I heard that the Island is actually a prison cell specially for him" the hare again.
"Wasn't he honored for some effort he helped in against Eggman's remaining Badniks? The Restoration even made a whole point of that in the interview" The lizard countered.
"Well… uh..." the hare was saved from embarrassment as the train made a stop at Sunset Corner and the three friends departed from the train alongside some of the crowd. It wasn't his stop yet so chewing on the still unlit cigar Philips Bones simply held onto the bar as he waited for his stop. The passing highways of Central city and the late afternoon sun lit the streets below and He remembered his first Cigar.
That he accidentally swallowed whole
Phone still hasn't let him live that one down.
Regardless of the fact that he still tasted the tobacco in his throat from time to time, Bones enjoyed the sticks of death and would be lighting the one in his maw if the train conductor was less strict, He couldn't see Cap, but Philps was sure that the capybara was slinking around here somewhere just waiting for him to break a rule. A little smoke never killed anyone so taking out his cutter he was about to make a little cut when he thought better of it. There was no correlation to the present hatted Capybara that was staring at him and disappearing into the crowd when he slid the cutter back into its pocket.
"Buzzkill"
Still Bones figured that if he couldn't get his fix of tobacco, he'd get his fix of mystery solving and ran the tip off that his contact gave him over again. There was a meeting a few gangs were having tonight, not his regular scene but what dragged him by the collar to the case was the gangs meeting. The Yin Yang, Vipers, Fafnir and the Scrapyard.
Yin Yang, numerous cases of Mobian Trafficking and used to have a human half to cover all their clientele, they tote themselves as the noble gang due to the protection rackets they run.
Vipers sell to anyone who asks from a child to a druggie, numerous overdoses have been linked to their 'products' and Cops have busted their dealers so many times, yet their numbers stay as constant as their dealings .
Fafnir was a bunch of kooks who believed the world was coming to an end, Bones was glad that they wouldn't have the excuse of Sonic and Eggman duking it out anymore.
The only Gang he didn't have a good grasp on was the unexpected Scrapyard, something to do with a legacy left behind by a legendary criminal.
All these fearsome gangs and blood pooling amongst them would be able to drown a Mobian so why is so much bitter enemies gathering?
At this point of the ride the buildings around the train had deteriorated in repair, the numerous scars and open wounds left to patch up by the Restoration and Bones pitied them. But it trundled past the tombs and started its slow stop to let him linger around the Graveyard as another specter. The lack of people leaving the train didn't shock him, the fact that some dumb broad was getting off here did.
"Miss, you got- MISS!" Oh god he hoped it wasn't another old lady getting off at the wrong spot again.
She was wearing a lot of heavy clothing and with each step she seemed to take two of his and He was going to call again when his tobacco free mind finally connected the dots and the lack of reaction.
She might be Gangster, though lack of reaction says otherwise as they would have already drawn by now. Or she has some business to do with that human weapon he caught the glint of, so killer for hire? He watched as she broke line of sight almost immediately and felt confident in his assessment, less in how he utterly screwed the pooch on tact. Biting down on the stick of tobacco he took the cutter from its place he started walking down the cracked road to the meeting place. It was as here he lit the stogie as he made his way to the bar.
It was easy to see when he started entering the neutral grounds of their turf war the building curtain surrounding the once happily named Sunset boulevard had entire buildings that fell apart due to Resistance and Eggman activities. A grey macaw stared at him down from one of the piles, he was thin and the salvia dripping down his mouth marked him a Viper member or client it was hard to tell the two apart. He wasn't the only one but the bloodshot eyes that lingered on his mind told him he needed to press on Vector for his contacts in the Restoration.
Bones put that aside as he kept his slow stride, any movement too fast would mark him, and he wasn't in the mood to taste the Saliva that made the Vipers so infamous. It was nearly dark before he made it to the Bee's Clique and even with his methods someone should have tried to jump him. The two cats in suits standing by the staircase leading down to the bar must have been the reason for his safety this far but the fact that the other three are even letting Yin guard the exit spoke to a level of fear that was abnormal.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bones. Lady Snowflake is expecting you." The male calico's gaze was neutral as he gestured down the steps. In response the two guards linked tails separated and the road to answers was unbarred.
"Is She? I assumed that this was more of a criminal shindig than an open party. What's with the extra muscle then?" The female Bengal said nothing, but her sword was shifted slightly.
"Lady Snowflake is more than willing to answer your questions inside, Mr. Bones" The calico is the veteran of the two.
Alright then
He stepped down and what sat before him was a heavy-set oak door that still bore a shard of metal that had pierced the headboard. Pushing it opens him to the sound of a bass string crying into the night followed by the stink of cheap wine and the steps leading further down to large basement only confirmed the scene. The sea of bodies, people in rags to those in white and black suits surrounding the Prima Donna herself only made the scene stranger. A lot of pointed guns as well, alongside an actual Wispion loaded and ready to fire that were subtly shifted his way.
Shit he was stepping in over his head, the thought didn't really come to him on the train, but he was risking a lot for this mystery. A wild grin filled his face, and he started down to the ground floor with a skip in his step, He wouldn't have it any other way. His stride was broken as a bee with a buzz cut nearly slammed into him and then succeeded in giving the wall a passionate kiss.
Bones plucked the Bee from the wall, and he noted middle age, drunkenness from the smell, and overweight for his type of Mobian.
"Iadsf neeasddf taaa Finnnnnd errr!" Philips had no clear idea what he was saying.
Then in a perfectly understandable English.
"Ya like Jazz?" Bones quietly placed him back into the small hole he had made with his impact and continued to do something more reasonable like talk to the group of deadly criminals sitting next to each other.
The group would have been detained if not for just how strange they were then for the one Wispion the leader of Fafnir was cradling and whispering to. The grey one-eyed Wolf was clearly talking to the wisp in the gun but with crazies that's always a fifty fifty. The two crow priests that hung behind chair stood eerily still the only movement the slight clacking of their beaks.
The Komodo Dragon didn't notice him, hell if he noticed anyone then Bones would swallow his lit Cigar, his saliva dripping into buckets that had been set beside the large reptile by his two snake handlers. The older of the two keeping his boss on track whenever he tries to wander off. That was the length of time he could delay as Ms. Snowflake had been notified by her guards of his arrival. A seat at the table had been pulled out for him and he noted with some amusement that Snow had placed him in between herself and Komo.
"Gentleman this is the Detective I've been telling you all about! Now that he's here we can dispense with our conversations and be onto our businesses" her blue dress was crooked, so she's got to be stressed to leave it like that.
"What Omen have you brought to this table fowl witch!" Fafnir Had his Wispion pointed at Snow.
The sigh that left Snowflake was amusing, but his attention was focused on picking apart the new gang to the table. Metal coverings were the first real thing he noticed and the fact that every member of the group had a helmet on and full bodysuits hiding their races. Their leader's helmet had four yellow eyes and each one was locked onto the people sitting around the table, the four suddenly snapped to his two.
"Query: why have you brought more meat bags to this discussion our group scanners are sufficient." The voice held no warmth and was in a perfect cadence.
Bones shivered this wasn't a crazy, no that is a machine, the smell of oil, the way it perfectly mimics but fails to follow natural movement.
"Not that they aren't Integer it's just that we might need a second opinion as we are yet to be certain who it is, if you could share the files with Mr. Bones that would be lovely" Snowflake was unbothered by the voice as she swirled a much more expensive wine then this venue would have.
"Negative: This Meat bag is not trustworthy, and you have no sway over my side" Integer's helmet seemed to be shifting? Bones didn't have a close view of it.
"I see Ms. Vim could you pass our copy of the files to Mister Bones?" the striped cat quietly stepped over to him and handed him the files before joining the crowd of measured cats behind Snow.
"Thank you, Miss Snow, now a bunch of crooks calling an honest detective like myself to your table and not shooting me dead the moment I even looked at the venue?" He multitasks reading through files and kept his sight neutral as he rambles on.
"Crooks?! I'll have you know I have been given a divine task that I can not put aside for anything! Were a HERETIC NOT DELAYING IT!!" The Spittle that left the Mad wolf almost reached across the table and got to Bones.
"Regardless of Mr. Bones' faith I am Sure that he will live up to his reputation" Ah Shit Snowflake was betting her rep on him she's not just desperate the Siamese cat is terrified.
The words that he had been reading finally processed and it was hard not to stare at the words, he reread them to be sure. Seven dead from Yin Yang, the scrapyard didn't add their own, twenty-nine drug dealers sent to the grave, and an awful forty-two from the faithful of Fafnir. The kicker? There were no signs of physical trauma and a good number of them even had witnesses who watched it happen; the affected just collapsed as if someone just turned them off.
"… Why are you coming to me with this? This is a matter for the Restoration not a gumshoe with a stogie." Philips liked dancing with danger, flirting with death certainly, getting into her bed and never waking again? Not so much.
"WE ARE." Komo's voice easily rumbled across the bar.
"What Komo is saying is that we want to save that for the last option, for starters we four business have decide to pay handsomely you should you reveal even a clue about who this is. I can also assure you that this Killer so far has been exclusively targeting people who practice delicate works" Meaning her own head is on the chopping block.
The next second didn't make sense in his mind as wind pressure rattled the table and the crowds of Mobians were scattered to the sides like paper towels as the newcomer stood imperiously on the oak table. He was a black hedgehog with red highlights and fancy boots, and he wasted no time stating his demands.
"You have Information on a Black Arm creature you will tell me where it is. You will cease your foolish activities, or I will kill you all." The Hedgehog just threatened an entire venue full of armed criminals, and he was sitting right next to him.
Bones was going to hit the deck but someone grabbed him under the arms and he had an aerial view of the execution. The entire room had drawn shotguns, submachine guns, revolvers from the poor looking beggar to rich cat had him dead to rights.
"He couldn't have waited a couple more minutes? Sorry Bones he gets a bit aggressive" Rouge used him as a plant.
"WHO DOES THIS HERETIC BELIEVE HE IS SLAUGHTER HIM!!" The Mad Wolf led by example.
"Wai-" Snowflake didn't get the breath out as the typhoon of gunfire smothered any noise other than passing death.
Bones watched as what seemed to be a yellowish green energy field sprouted around the Hedgehog as the metal shells just slagged off and burnt a hole into the oak table. The crowd had to reload and… He didn't have a shield; The Hedgehog held a spear made of crackling energy at ease as he answered Fafnir.
"I am the Ultimate Lifeform and if you value your life you will start speaking"
This news had shocked the world two days ago and it still drew the attention of passengers on the train but more as background noise or a conversation starter.
"How do you think he survived?" A hare from the high pitch of his voice.
"Maybe he was secretly working for Eggman and was spared?" A pig if the lisp was anything to go by.
"Then why would the Restoration just let him continue being on a random island plotting schemes?" A lizard their tones always were measured.
"I heard that the Island is actually a prison cell specially for him" the hare again.
"Wasn't he honored for some effort he helped in against Eggman's remaining Badniks? The Restoration even made a whole point of that in the interview" The lizard countered.
"Well… uh..." the hare was saved from embarrassment as the train made a stop at Sunset Corner and the three friends departed from the train alongside some of the crowd. It wasn't his stop yet so chewing on the still unlit cigar Philips Bones simply held onto the bar as he waited for his stop. The passing highways of Central city and the late afternoon sun lit the streets below and He remembered his first Cigar.
That he accidentally swallowed whole
Phone still hasn't let him live that one down.
Regardless of the fact that he still tasted the tobacco in his throat from time to time, Bones enjoyed the sticks of death and would be lighting the one in his maw if the train conductor was less strict, He couldn't see Cap, but Philps was sure that the capybara was slinking around here somewhere just waiting for him to break a rule. A little smoke never killed anyone so taking out his cutter he was about to make a little cut when he thought better of it. There was no correlation to the present hatted Capybara that was staring at him and disappearing into the crowd when he slid the cutter back into its pocket.
"Buzzkill"
Still Bones figured that if he couldn't get his fix of tobacco, he'd get his fix of mystery solving and ran the tip off that his contact gave him over again. There was a meeting a few gangs were having tonight, not his regular scene but what dragged him by the collar to the case was the gangs meeting. The Yin Yang, Vipers, Fafnir and the Scrapyard.
Yin Yang, numerous cases of Mobian Trafficking and used to have a human half to cover all their clientele, they tote themselves as the noble gang due to the protection rackets they run.
Vipers sell to anyone who asks from a child to a druggie, numerous overdoses have been linked to their 'products' and Cops have busted their dealers so many times, yet their numbers stay as constant as their dealings .
Fafnir was a bunch of kooks who believed the world was coming to an end, Bones was glad that they wouldn't have the excuse of Sonic and Eggman duking it out anymore.
The only Gang he didn't have a good grasp on was the unexpected Scrapyard, something to do with a legacy left behind by a legendary criminal.
All these fearsome gangs and blood pooling amongst them would be able to drown a Mobian so why is so much bitter enemies gathering?
At this point of the ride the buildings around the train had deteriorated in repair, the numerous scars and open wounds left to patch up by the Restoration and Bones pitied them. But it trundled past the tombs and started its slow stop to let him linger around the Graveyard as another specter. The lack of people leaving the train didn't shock him, the fact that some dumb broad was getting off here did.
"Miss, you got- MISS!" Oh god he hoped it wasn't another old lady getting off at the wrong spot again.
She was wearing a lot of heavy clothing and with each step she seemed to take two of his and He was going to call again when his tobacco free mind finally connected the dots and the lack of reaction.
She might be Gangster, though lack of reaction says otherwise as they would have already drawn by now. Or she has some business to do with that human weapon he caught the glint of, so killer for hire? He watched as she broke line of sight almost immediately and felt confident in his assessment, less in how he utterly screwed the pooch on tact. Biting down on the stick of tobacco he took the cutter from its place he started walking down the cracked road to the meeting place. It was as here he lit the stogie as he made his way to the bar.
It was easy to see when he started entering the neutral grounds of their turf war the building curtain surrounding the once happily named Sunset boulevard had entire buildings that fell apart due to Resistance and Eggman activities. A grey macaw stared at him down from one of the piles, he was thin and the salvia dripping down his mouth marked him a Viper member or client it was hard to tell the two apart. He wasn't the only one but the bloodshot eyes that lingered on his mind told him he needed to press on Vector for his contacts in the Restoration.
Bones put that aside as he kept his slow stride, any movement too fast would mark him, and he wasn't in the mood to taste the Saliva that made the Vipers so infamous. It was nearly dark before he made it to the Bee's Clique and even with his methods someone should have tried to jump him. The two cats in suits standing by the staircase leading down to the bar must have been the reason for his safety this far but the fact that the other three are even letting Yin guard the exit spoke to a level of fear that was abnormal.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bones. Lady Snowflake is expecting you." The male calico's gaze was neutral as he gestured down the steps. In response the two guards linked tails separated and the road to answers was unbarred.
"Is She? I assumed that this was more of a criminal shindig than an open party. What's with the extra muscle then?" The female Bengal said nothing, but her sword was shifted slightly.
"Lady Snowflake is more than willing to answer your questions inside, Mr. Bones" The calico is the veteran of the two.
Alright then
He stepped down and what sat before him was a heavy-set oak door that still bore a shard of metal that had pierced the headboard. Pushing it opens him to the sound of a bass string crying into the night followed by the stink of cheap wine and the steps leading further down to large basement only confirmed the scene. The sea of bodies, people in rags to those in white and black suits surrounding the Prima Donna herself only made the scene stranger. A lot of pointed guns as well, alongside an actual Wispion loaded and ready to fire that were subtly shifted his way.
Shit he was stepping in over his head, the thought didn't really come to him on the train, but he was risking a lot for this mystery. A wild grin filled his face, and he started down to the ground floor with a skip in his step, He wouldn't have it any other way. His stride was broken as a bee with a buzz cut nearly slammed into him and then succeeded in giving the wall a passionate kiss.
Bones plucked the Bee from the wall, and he noted middle age, drunkenness from the smell, and overweight for his type of Mobian.
"Iadsf neeasddf taaa Finnnnnd errr!" Philips had no clear idea what he was saying.
Then in a perfectly understandable English.
"Ya like Jazz?" Bones quietly placed him back into the small hole he had made with his impact and continued to do something more reasonable like talk to the group of deadly criminals sitting next to each other.
The group would have been detained if not for just how strange they were then for the one Wispion the leader of Fafnir was cradling and whispering to. The grey one-eyed Wolf was clearly talking to the wisp in the gun but with crazies that's always a fifty fifty. The two crow priests that hung behind chair stood eerily still the only movement the slight clacking of their beaks.
The Komodo Dragon didn't notice him, hell if he noticed anyone then Bones would swallow his lit Cigar, his saliva dripping into buckets that had been set beside the large reptile by his two snake handlers. The older of the two keeping his boss on track whenever he tries to wander off. That was the length of time he could delay as Ms. Snowflake had been notified by her guards of his arrival. A seat at the table had been pulled out for him and he noted with some amusement that Snow had placed him in between herself and Komo.
"Gentleman this is the Detective I've been telling you all about! Now that he's here we can dispense with our conversations and be onto our businesses" her blue dress was crooked, so she's got to be stressed to leave it like that.
"What Omen have you brought to this table fowl witch!" Fafnir Had his Wispion pointed at Snow.
The sigh that left Snowflake was amusing, but his attention was focused on picking apart the new gang to the table. Metal coverings were the first real thing he noticed and the fact that every member of the group had a helmet on and full bodysuits hiding their races. Their leader's helmet had four yellow eyes and each one was locked onto the people sitting around the table, the four suddenly snapped to his two.
"Query: why have you brought more meat bags to this discussion our group scanners are sufficient." The voice held no warmth and was in a perfect cadence.
Bones shivered this wasn't a crazy, no that is a machine, the smell of oil, the way it perfectly mimics but fails to follow natural movement.
"Not that they aren't Integer it's just that we might need a second opinion as we are yet to be certain who it is, if you could share the files with Mr. Bones that would be lovely" Snowflake was unbothered by the voice as she swirled a much more expensive wine then this venue would have.
"Negative: This Meat bag is not trustworthy, and you have no sway over my side" Integer's helmet seemed to be shifting? Bones didn't have a close view of it.
"I see Ms. Vim could you pass our copy of the files to Mister Bones?" the striped cat quietly stepped over to him and handed him the files before joining the crowd of measured cats behind Snow.
"Thank you, Miss Snow, now a bunch of crooks calling an honest detective like myself to your table and not shooting me dead the moment I even looked at the venue?" He multitasks reading through files and kept his sight neutral as he rambles on.
"Crooks?! I'll have you know I have been given a divine task that I can not put aside for anything! Were a HERETIC NOT DELAYING IT!!" The Spittle that left the Mad wolf almost reached across the table and got to Bones.
"Regardless of Mr. Bones' faith I am Sure that he will live up to his reputation" Ah Shit Snowflake was betting her rep on him she's not just desperate the Siamese cat is terrified.
The words that he had been reading finally processed and it was hard not to stare at the words, he reread them to be sure. Seven dead from Yin Yang, the scrapyard didn't add their own, twenty-nine drug dealers sent to the grave, and an awful forty-two from the faithful of Fafnir. The kicker? There were no signs of physical trauma and a good number of them even had witnesses who watched it happen; the affected just collapsed as if someone just turned them off.
"… Why are you coming to me with this? This is a matter for the Restoration not a gumshoe with a stogie." Philips liked dancing with danger, flirting with death certainly, getting into her bed and never waking again? Not so much.
"WE ARE." Komo's voice easily rumbled across the bar.
"What Komo is saying is that we want to save that for the last option, for starters we four business have decide to pay handsomely you should you reveal even a clue about who this is. I can also assure you that this Killer so far has been exclusively targeting people who practice delicate works" Meaning her own head is on the chopping block.
The next second didn't make sense in his mind as wind pressure rattled the table and the crowds of Mobians were scattered to the sides like paper towels as the newcomer stood imperiously on the oak table. He was a black hedgehog with red highlights and fancy boots, and he wasted no time stating his demands.
"You have Information on a Black Arm creature you will tell me where it is. You will cease your foolish activities, or I will kill you all." The Hedgehog just threatened an entire venue full of armed criminals, and he was sitting right next to him.
Bones was going to hit the deck but someone grabbed him under the arms and he had an aerial view of the execution. The entire room had drawn shotguns, submachine guns, revolvers from the poor looking beggar to rich cat had him dead to rights.
"He couldn't have waited a couple more minutes? Sorry Bones he gets a bit aggressive" Rouge used him as a plant.
"WHO DOES THIS HERETIC BELIEVE HE IS SLAUGHTER HIM!!" The Mad Wolf led by example.
"Wai-" Snowflake didn't get the breath out as the typhoon of gunfire smothered any noise other than passing death.
Bones watched as what seemed to be a yellowish green energy field sprouted around the Hedgehog as the metal shells just slagged off and burnt a hole into the oak table. The crowd had to reload and… He didn't have a shield; The Hedgehog held a spear made of crackling energy at ease as he answered Fafnir.
"I am the Ultimate Lifeform and if you value your life you will start speaking"
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/Freedom is Given Part 2
New
For some Hedgehog shaped reason everyone at the Bee's Clique looked a lot more talkative as the three of the leaders sent their men out of the bar and the hoard of criminals left. The Fafnirs staying in the bar was obvious as robes became a lot more common and they as a group glared at the Mobian who had not moved from his spot as he returned their glares with his own.
"You asylum patient, Speak" He pointed at the Wolf who looked uncowed with his teeth barred at Shadow.
"If you want to hear the Word of Ragnarök then certainly heretic otherwise we will deliver you there" Idiot, he deflected an entire room of gunfire, and the wolf thinks a fourth will do the job?
Bones and Rouge had taken the safer position of being by the bar and between glaring at Rouge and making sure this Shadow didn't start another gunfight.
"What? I thought Hellhound stared Death in the face?" She had set herself on a bar stool and began checking her nails with an observant eye.
"Rouge a tipoff is great, if however, your gonna call in ya boyfriend to sweep a place than give me heads up instead of throwing me inta the fire without a drop of water" He had kept the tone low as the crowd around them would report every word.
"Right, Next time some interesting mysteries come knocking at my door I'll be sure to go to Vector first" This is why she was a contact not a friend.
"Sure, he's got the backup to at least answer this question, Me? All I got is an irate bird that runs the office." She took the jab at the usual weak point with an odd grace, Bones almost every time he ran into the bat saw that she strung along some chump.
"Fafnir please put the Wispion down? I'm sure Mr. Shadow has a great reason to be asking such a pointed question" Snowflake as always was running damage control and ignoring the promise.
Fafnir's Wispion was glowing blue as he charged up another blast and his congregation had gotten closer to the table as if that would make their aim better and Shadow began tapping his arm in irritation.
"This Heretic storms in here and what! You are all going to roll over and show your bellies! It was already Pushing our Divine Mission away coming here. Now that we know this is a trick of Odin We will Not- "Shadow slowed his speed as instead of killing him the one-eyed wolf went flying into the wall and cratered it, his faithful were not spared as all of them were given their own personal cubby in the wall.
It was only a few seconds before his boots settled back onto the table and he turned to the robot with arms crossed, fingers tapping.
"Statement: Our purpose here is to act as Mercenaries for client Snowflake Address questions to her." The robot sold his client out quickly, naturally this is when Rouge stepped back into the conversation with her own glass of wine.
"Shadow you look ridiculous just standing on a table get down already." Shadow grumbled before hopping off and looking much shorter on the ground. Rouge then waltzed over to Fafnir's vacant chair and sat herself down. She gestured with her hand at Bones to retake his seat and set the wine glass down at the table.
"Now Snowy It's a pleasure to see you again, but I need you to answer our question as Shadow is not the most patient person" Rouge 'requested'.
"As heavy handed as usual Rouge, is this another attempt at mugging me? I suppose one of us should have some decorum, I have not a clue what a Black Arm is and if it's the killer then help yourselves to it" Her voice was flawless, but her fur was bristling as she stared at the bat.
"DA BLACK ALIENS" The booming voice of Komo was somehow a surprise as the giant had been quiet, though his spit was not as disgust became the common emotion amongst the table as the spittle sizzled against the wood. Rouge's mask was better than the others as she nodded at the Komodo Dragon.
"That is correct Mr. Komo, So none of you have seen any of biped creatures the color of Black and red?" If she wasn't so hungry for gems, then she would have made a great politician.
"THANK YOU" His assistant tapped his side, and he leaned his head down as the snake whispered in his ear.
"Statement: Scrapyard's Scanners will find the killer; The unique way the targets were killed calls for Special equipment the need for more Meat bags in unnecessary" The Integer's four yellow eyes were focused on Shadow as his hands shifted.
Bones had snatched the files with him when the whole gunfight had broken out and he started to straighten out the papers and began rifling through them as something the robot said struck a chord in his mind.
Unique way they were killed? Why Kill in such a way as to be untraceable if you're going to murder so many people?
"Where were they killed?" He sat down at the table at last.
"THE BA- "The Komodo Dragon was hissed at by the Older Snake to shut up and tilted his head down in shame.
His cigar was getting low as Bones started feeling the burn in his fingers when he took it out of his mouth. There was an ash tray, but he preferred to burn his lips with the fire, so he plays chicken with it till he is burnt.
"And you mister Mercenary? You don't have any dead because your new to the block, but you happen to have tech that can detect supernatural killers?" The machine was impossible to read so Bones would have to hope the buildup was enough to push his real target into accepting.
"Miss Snowflake if you would allow me to know, where were yours killed?" She had lowest amount killed why?
She took a sip of the red wine to settle her nerves and set it back down on the table.
"A very well-run establishment of mine that serves a select clientele who need a bit of relaxing" A whore house then which would mean the majority there aren't members but are criminals in the eyes of the law, yet the lowest number of dead. So, if the killer has a code against criminals, then why not kill everyone there? What is the qualifier for death?
"Were all of them guards?" Rouge asked a good question.
"No, only one of them was a guard the rest were entrepreneurs" So-
"Pimps" Shadow stated and Snowflake bristling fur fell flat at the statement and the Black Hedgehog pointed at Bones.
"Get to the point already" Bones' glance toward the sighing Rouge was acknowledged.
"Fair enough, One of the four parties here has hired the killer to sabotage the other gangs" The cigar started burning his lips as the words settled over the group. Then the outrage erupted.
"WHAT?"
"Mr. Bones!"
The unconscious body of Fafnir twitched in his hole.
"A logical statement"
"Irrelevant"
Bones brushed the ashes from his lips and turned to the departing Hedgehog who had already reached the base of the steps out.
"Rouge, Next time don't waste my time with your gossiping." Bones had an answer to stop the muscle from leaving.
"A Black Arm would have the type of esoteric powers to kill without leaving a trace" The Hedgehog didn't even slow his stride as snatched one of the Fafnir members out of a wall and the unconscious body thumped against the steps.
"Congratulations Detective you pointed out the obvious, now unless you have something useful to say. Goodbye" That wasn't obvious that was a bluff he made.
"Don't feel too bad about it Bones he must like you if he gave a response" Rouge had slipped away to the railing above the dance floor and followed her boyfriend? Leaving him alone in an absolutely destroyed jazz club sitting next to two pissed off criminal heads, a contemplating robot and the urge to drink the bar dry.
The Komodo Dragon waddled off as it seemed he thought the meeting was over and this time his assistants couldn't stop him as he trundled up the stairs his acidic saliva causing pot holes in the ground and like that he was gone.
"Damm it Rouge" Bones and Snowflake said at the same time and they both blinked before Ms. Vim refilled her Mistresses glass and the Yin Yang leader turned to him.
"So, she has darkened your halls too? That pest has deprived me of far too much wealth." Miss Snowflake waved a hand, and Vim took the glass of wine Rouge left behind and deposited it behind the bar as she went about making him something.
"This isn't the first tip off she has given me and I'm sad to say this only ranks as the seventh worst situation she has left me in, the level of danger however beats anything else so far." Bones was glad that Snowflake was reasonable.
"How Ghastly! If her information network wasn't worth, it's weight in gold She would have been buried in the stones that she so adores." It seems her reputation of cold control doesn't extend to robots.
"You're probably going to have to fight with the church Mobian over there for the honor of taking her down" he gestured over to the still cratered Fafnir as went to cut another cigar.
"Him? Ptff Mr. Bones the day that he outwits me is the day I abandon my wealth and join a faith out in the boonies" she doesn't suspect him in the slightest and to be fair Bones wouldn't have if not for his profession.
So, when he got up from his seat the sigh that came from Snowflake made him accepted the on the rocks from Ms. Vim out of guilt. Taking the cigar from his mouth he let the smoke dissipate out as observed the still form of the leader of Fafnir.
"Say Ms. Snow why did he name his cult after himself?" He set the drink on the floor and tugged the pepper-colored wolf out of his rightful place.
"You're asking me to explain the actions of a Doomsday Cult? Really Philips." She scoffed.
"Humor me" The robes were a fine make the main tabard a deep blue with lining having been knitted with a symbol too small to see unless one was holding the cloth, That of a cat's eye split into fours.
"I suppose his name may have been used in some religious text and he just stepped into the role" No obvious items on him, that is until an oddity showed itself. A plastic cord that hung around his neck.
"Did you not declare yourself an Honest Detective? Here you are rifling through an unconscious Mobian's pockets" He tugged the cord free and out popped a corded photo.
The photo was an image of a brown-haired man dressed in a lab coat, brown shirt, and black slacks as he stands with visible excitement in front of a metal background a large N visible on the wall. The man was familiar for some reason and another mystery was added onto the pile and that made him smile; he flipped it over and his smile was stolen from him.
"Tell me Snow when did Fafnir form his cult?" his displeasure crept into his voice.
"Why have you found something damming on him? Is he the one who hired the Killer?" That wasn't certain yet but up a creek without a paddle? Certainly.
"Seems you're going to have to shave your head" He flipped the card and showed the back to her. The wreath held in between its boughs holding an array of eight stars surrounding a capital G.
Guardian Units of Nations or more succinctly G.U.N.
/Freedom is Given part 2
"You asylum patient, Speak" He pointed at the Wolf who looked uncowed with his teeth barred at Shadow.
"If you want to hear the Word of Ragnarök then certainly heretic otherwise we will deliver you there" Idiot, he deflected an entire room of gunfire, and the wolf thinks a fourth will do the job?
Bones and Rouge had taken the safer position of being by the bar and between glaring at Rouge and making sure this Shadow didn't start another gunfight.
"What? I thought Hellhound stared Death in the face?" She had set herself on a bar stool and began checking her nails with an observant eye.
"Rouge a tipoff is great, if however, your gonna call in ya boyfriend to sweep a place than give me heads up instead of throwing me inta the fire without a drop of water" He had kept the tone low as the crowd around them would report every word.
"Right, Next time some interesting mysteries come knocking at my door I'll be sure to go to Vector first" This is why she was a contact not a friend.
"Sure, he's got the backup to at least answer this question, Me? All I got is an irate bird that runs the office." She took the jab at the usual weak point with an odd grace, Bones almost every time he ran into the bat saw that she strung along some chump.
"Fafnir please put the Wispion down? I'm sure Mr. Shadow has a great reason to be asking such a pointed question" Snowflake as always was running damage control and ignoring the promise.
Fafnir's Wispion was glowing blue as he charged up another blast and his congregation had gotten closer to the table as if that would make their aim better and Shadow began tapping his arm in irritation.
"This Heretic storms in here and what! You are all going to roll over and show your bellies! It was already Pushing our Divine Mission away coming here. Now that we know this is a trick of Odin We will Not- "Shadow slowed his speed as instead of killing him the one-eyed wolf went flying into the wall and cratered it, his faithful were not spared as all of them were given their own personal cubby in the wall.
It was only a few seconds before his boots settled back onto the table and he turned to the robot with arms crossed, fingers tapping.
"Statement: Our purpose here is to act as Mercenaries for client Snowflake Address questions to her." The robot sold his client out quickly, naturally this is when Rouge stepped back into the conversation with her own glass of wine.
"Shadow you look ridiculous just standing on a table get down already." Shadow grumbled before hopping off and looking much shorter on the ground. Rouge then waltzed over to Fafnir's vacant chair and sat herself down. She gestured with her hand at Bones to retake his seat and set the wine glass down at the table.
"Now Snowy It's a pleasure to see you again, but I need you to answer our question as Shadow is not the most patient person" Rouge 'requested'.
"As heavy handed as usual Rouge, is this another attempt at mugging me? I suppose one of us should have some decorum, I have not a clue what a Black Arm is and if it's the killer then help yourselves to it" Her voice was flawless, but her fur was bristling as she stared at the bat.
"DA BLACK ALIENS" The booming voice of Komo was somehow a surprise as the giant had been quiet, though his spit was not as disgust became the common emotion amongst the table as the spittle sizzled against the wood. Rouge's mask was better than the others as she nodded at the Komodo Dragon.
"That is correct Mr. Komo, So none of you have seen any of biped creatures the color of Black and red?" If she wasn't so hungry for gems, then she would have made a great politician.
"THANK YOU" His assistant tapped his side, and he leaned his head down as the snake whispered in his ear.
"Statement: Scrapyard's Scanners will find the killer; The unique way the targets were killed calls for Special equipment the need for more Meat bags in unnecessary" The Integer's four yellow eyes were focused on Shadow as his hands shifted.
Bones had snatched the files with him when the whole gunfight had broken out and he started to straighten out the papers and began rifling through them as something the robot said struck a chord in his mind.
Unique way they were killed? Why Kill in such a way as to be untraceable if you're going to murder so many people?
"Where were they killed?" He sat down at the table at last.
"THE BA- "The Komodo Dragon was hissed at by the Older Snake to shut up and tilted his head down in shame.
His cigar was getting low as Bones started feeling the burn in his fingers when he took it out of his mouth. There was an ash tray, but he preferred to burn his lips with the fire, so he plays chicken with it till he is burnt.
"And you mister Mercenary? You don't have any dead because your new to the block, but you happen to have tech that can detect supernatural killers?" The machine was impossible to read so Bones would have to hope the buildup was enough to push his real target into accepting.
"Miss Snowflake if you would allow me to know, where were yours killed?" She had lowest amount killed why?
She took a sip of the red wine to settle her nerves and set it back down on the table.
"A very well-run establishment of mine that serves a select clientele who need a bit of relaxing" A whore house then which would mean the majority there aren't members but are criminals in the eyes of the law, yet the lowest number of dead. So, if the killer has a code against criminals, then why not kill everyone there? What is the qualifier for death?
"Were all of them guards?" Rouge asked a good question.
"No, only one of them was a guard the rest were entrepreneurs" So-
"Pimps" Shadow stated and Snowflake bristling fur fell flat at the statement and the Black Hedgehog pointed at Bones.
"Get to the point already" Bones' glance toward the sighing Rouge was acknowledged.
"Fair enough, One of the four parties here has hired the killer to sabotage the other gangs" The cigar started burning his lips as the words settled over the group. Then the outrage erupted.
"WHAT?"
"Mr. Bones!"
The unconscious body of Fafnir twitched in his hole.
"A logical statement"
"Irrelevant"
Bones brushed the ashes from his lips and turned to the departing Hedgehog who had already reached the base of the steps out.
"Rouge, Next time don't waste my time with your gossiping." Bones had an answer to stop the muscle from leaving.
"A Black Arm would have the type of esoteric powers to kill without leaving a trace" The Hedgehog didn't even slow his stride as snatched one of the Fafnir members out of a wall and the unconscious body thumped against the steps.
"Congratulations Detective you pointed out the obvious, now unless you have something useful to say. Goodbye" That wasn't obvious that was a bluff he made.
"Don't feel too bad about it Bones he must like you if he gave a response" Rouge had slipped away to the railing above the dance floor and followed her boyfriend? Leaving him alone in an absolutely destroyed jazz club sitting next to two pissed off criminal heads, a contemplating robot and the urge to drink the bar dry.
The Komodo Dragon waddled off as it seemed he thought the meeting was over and this time his assistants couldn't stop him as he trundled up the stairs his acidic saliva causing pot holes in the ground and like that he was gone.
"Damm it Rouge" Bones and Snowflake said at the same time and they both blinked before Ms. Vim refilled her Mistresses glass and the Yin Yang leader turned to him.
"So, she has darkened your halls too? That pest has deprived me of far too much wealth." Miss Snowflake waved a hand, and Vim took the glass of wine Rouge left behind and deposited it behind the bar as she went about making him something.
"This isn't the first tip off she has given me and I'm sad to say this only ranks as the seventh worst situation she has left me in, the level of danger however beats anything else so far." Bones was glad that Snowflake was reasonable.
"How Ghastly! If her information network wasn't worth, it's weight in gold She would have been buried in the stones that she so adores." It seems her reputation of cold control doesn't extend to robots.
"You're probably going to have to fight with the church Mobian over there for the honor of taking her down" he gestured over to the still cratered Fafnir as went to cut another cigar.
"Him? Ptff Mr. Bones the day that he outwits me is the day I abandon my wealth and join a faith out in the boonies" she doesn't suspect him in the slightest and to be fair Bones wouldn't have if not for his profession.
So, when he got up from his seat the sigh that came from Snowflake made him accepted the on the rocks from Ms. Vim out of guilt. Taking the cigar from his mouth he let the smoke dissipate out as observed the still form of the leader of Fafnir.
"Say Ms. Snow why did he name his cult after himself?" He set the drink on the floor and tugged the pepper-colored wolf out of his rightful place.
"You're asking me to explain the actions of a Doomsday Cult? Really Philips." She scoffed.
"Humor me" The robes were a fine make the main tabard a deep blue with lining having been knitted with a symbol too small to see unless one was holding the cloth, That of a cat's eye split into fours.
"I suppose his name may have been used in some religious text and he just stepped into the role" No obvious items on him, that is until an oddity showed itself. A plastic cord that hung around his neck.
"Did you not declare yourself an Honest Detective? Here you are rifling through an unconscious Mobian's pockets" He tugged the cord free and out popped a corded photo.
The photo was an image of a brown-haired man dressed in a lab coat, brown shirt, and black slacks as he stands with visible excitement in front of a metal background a large N visible on the wall. The man was familiar for some reason and another mystery was added onto the pile and that made him smile; he flipped it over and his smile was stolen from him.
"Tell me Snow when did Fafnir form his cult?" his displeasure crept into his voice.
"Why have you found something damming on him? Is he the one who hired the Killer?" That wasn't certain yet but up a creek without a paddle? Certainly.
"Seems you're going to have to shave your head" He flipped the card and showed the back to her. The wreath held in between its boughs holding an array of eight stars surrounding a capital G.
Guardian Units of Nations or more succinctly G.U.N.
/Freedom is Given part 2
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