#maki: whats the fastest you made one the dolls?

[dailykugisaki]

Day 194 | id in alt

She was gonna just gonna give a thrift the clothes she no longer wanted but she can't deny Maki worth a shit. Also like she makes 237 straw dolls a minute. Sorry, Maki.

[disrepairhouse]

Chapter 24 - Retreat

Warnings and flashing screens filled the majority of Metal’s view as he chased after the escaping hovercraft, keeping pace with it as he ran through his options.  While he had come out mostly victorious from the fight with Sonic, he still took his fair share of damage and it was becoming increasingly apparent.  Even if he could easily catch up, and maybe even fight his way inside, the chances of him finding Itara and escaping again, especially in such a small space, was unlikely.  Not even at top speed would he be able to avoid Robotnik’s gaze in the situation at hand and the likelihood of either being destroyed or captured was too high to risk.

Especially with the mystery factor of the new robot.

If the doll was to be believed, Itara was dragged off by the unfamiliar robot that had appeared several months ago.  As suspicious as Metal was of the doll, he knew Itara could never have traveled the distance to the hovercraft so quickly on her own, nor would she have done it so freely.  She wanted to avoid Robotnik as much as all of them, so it made more sense that an outside force was the cause of her capture.

“Tails Doll, what do you know of the robot?”  The hovering doll was still somehow following him, even at his current speed.

“Oh, you mean Ponytail?” Kipper questioned, shrugging, “Not much.  I’m not usually around when they run into him.  From what I’ve overheard, though, it sounds like he’s a pretty skilled fighter and not one of Robotnik’s creations.  A wild card.  I’m insulted, that’s my job.”

Metal rolled his eyes, but refocused on the hovercraft as it gained distance.  Not that the craft was speeding up, but because he was slowing down.  The flashing warnings were growing increasingly difficult to ignore and Metal knew the current chase was a doomed mission. As concerned as he was about the doctor having the time traveler, he had no choice but to retreat and recoup for now. He needed repairs… and maybe RK’s help. Kipper looked over at him strangely when he suddenly turned around and headed back towards the university.

“Where are you going?”

“The tiny child’s phone was directly linked to RK’s comm unit, was it not?”

“Yeah, always has been.”

“If I recall correctly, her backpack was torn during the fight, meaning her phone was likely amongst the scattered contents.  I require repairs and backup for the highest chance of success, but we’ll need to move quickly so it’ll be beneficial to have RK prepared before I return.”  Metal came to a sliding stop back in what remained of the campus square, surveying the damage as the last of the monsters retreated.  Whatever drew them there had apparently left, as well.

“Mama Bear’s not gonna be happy about this.”

Metal remained silent as he searched the area for the small black device.  He was already inwardly dreading the conversation, but he refused to let the doll goad a reaction out of him.  He found the torn backpack first, but it took considerably more searching to find the phone in the carnage.  Unfortunately, his search proved a waste of time as the phone was snapped clean in half. It would be of no use to any of them any longer.  Well, on the plus side, it meant he had the entirety of his run back to Soleanna to prepare to face RK.  However, on the other hand it meant there would be no buffer between him and RK’s immediate rage upon learning that Itara was kidnapped.

Sighing outwardly, he glanced up at the floating doll, “Can you keep up with my top speed?”  It was an odd question for him, considering no one usually could, but he was unsure about the non-physical form of the doll.  The disconcerting nature of the question only caused the grinning doll to grin further before he answered.

“I can.”

“Good.  Then keep up.”  Without another word, Metal mapped out the fastest route to the base back in Soleanna, adjusting for populated areas, and took off at full speed.  He had no time to waste.

 RK pulled his claws back out of the glowing orange monster that lay in a heap beside him, eyeing it sharply to ensure it didn’t get back up before sighing heavily.  Before he had much more time to study it or even step back, the sharp squeal of the ever-clingy human woman that had been with him rung out and he found a sudden weight on his arm.

“That was terrifying!  I’m so glad you were with me, RK!  I would have been eaten alive by that thing!”

Remaining silent, RK sent another vicious glare back at the dead creature before turning back towards the road, not wanting to stick around much longer.  As satisfying as it was to get his claws in something again, it was risky to fight in such an open, populated area.  Well, it had been populated, now it was fairly cleared out due to the dead heap he was now walking away from.  He was doing his best to ignore Lynda, who was clinging desperately to his other arm, but was having a hard time of it as she continued to chatter on.

The monster attacks had continued in a steady stream, but where Sonic and Zero had been culling their numbers for a while they were nowhere to be found the last couple of days.  He had to wonder why, but after hearing about the earthquake in Spagonia, he could only guess their attention had been drawn there.  As annoying as it was, it would have been manageable, until Lynda came over begging him to join her for a shopping trip.  He had, of course, refused at first, but when she nearly cried at the prospect of being attacked by all the ‘terrible monsters’, he found it hard to continue refusing.  Not because he felt sorry for her, but because it could potentially anger or insult her and he still had reservations about getting on Lynda’s bad side. So, miserably, he accepted and found himself where he was now.  In the middle of the city, openly fighting another of Iblis’ monsters that shouldn’t even exist anymore, with Lynda hung on his arm.

“Let’s just hurry and finish and return home,” he commanded, leading her to the next location on her checklist so they could hurry and get out.  In any other circumstance, the chance to fight again would be a welcome relief, but at the moment it did nothing but spell misfortune for him.  Besides, he was concerned about Itara and Metal and didn’t feel like being distracted by Lynda in case either of them called him again. If something big enough to draw both Sonic and Robotnik’s attention was happening in Spagonia, he feared what it meant for the other two.

He would have his answer soon enough, however, as a message popped up from Metal.  RK stopped, his brow’s furrowing at the sudden message before he even opened it. Metal should be far out of his range right now, and the message wasn’t coming from Itara’s phone, it was coming directly from the other bot.  Lynda stopped and looked up at him strangely, but he ignored her as he opened the message to read it.

‘Where are you?’

‘In the city, why are you within range?’

‘Return to the base.  There’s an emergency.’

RK growled, sending a final message to Metal before turning to Lynda again and questioning, “Change of plans, we need to return home now.”

“What?  Well… I suppose that’s fine.  We got most of my shopping done and, to be honest, I don’t really feel like being around here anymore.”

RK nodded and debated for a moment before sighing and reaching over, picking the human woman up, much to her surprise.  It would be faster to run.  It might cause problems later, but if there was an emergency, he couldn’t waste time with trains, nor could he just abandon Lynda in the middle of the city. He had to take the chance with running. “Keep a tight hold of your bags,” he warned, watching the woman turn several shades of red as she nodded. Once he was sure she and her belongings were secure, he planned out the path and took off.

Normally he would wait until he was outside the city limits before taking off at full speed, but he didn’t have time.  When he prompted Metal about had happened, he only got a repeat ‘emergency’ response, prompting him to send a message to Itara’s phone to question her, instead, but the connection was still cut off.  He knew she was leaving her phone off for the trip, but if there was some kind of emergency she should have turned it back on to contact him.  It was the main reason she brought it along.  Which either meant something happened to the phone itself or Itara. He liked neither answer.

It was a longer run than he would have liked back to the neighborhood, considering he was carrying extra weight that wasn’t used to his speed and he had to dodge crowds on his way through the city, but he came to a stop in front of Lynda’s before too much longer.  Setting her down, he checked that she would be alright before apologizing and continuing down the street to their house.  He nearly accidentally tore the front door off its hinges as he rushed in, calling out for Metal, Itara, or Kipper, whoever answered first.

Except none of them did.

Instead, all he got was another message from Metal explaining he was downstairs in the lab.  Why was he home?  Wasting no time, he continued down to the lab and yelled out for Metal as soon as he opened the basement door.  As he descended the stairs and Metal Sonic and Kipper came into sight, he glanced around for the missing member of their group.  At no sign of the hedgehog, he turned a glare back to the damaged Metal Sonic getting himself hooked up to the computer after grabbing the tools he needed to repair himself.

“Where is Itara?  Why are you damaged?  And home? What happened?”

“Before I tell you anything, calm down.  I’m in no state to fight, as you can plainly see.”

“Metal, I swear.”  But RK took a moment to calm his systems, grateful for the ability to just close out problematic programs as needed.  As useful as emotion upgrades had proven over the years, they had their drawbacks, as well.  Luckily, they could be disabled, like any other program.  “Fine.  What is it?”

Metal eyed him cautiously, but nodded once he confirmed he wouldn’t be hit.  “First off, this entire trip has been a nightmare and you’re a bastard for making me go on it at all.  But that aside, while we were on our tour of the university –and I was so diligently keeping your tiny child from escaping my sight –we ran into… trouble. The university was attacked, by both those monsters that have been appearing, and Robotnik.”  Despite the disabled programs, RK hitched at the mention of the Doctor, but Metal continued, “Unfortunately, the annoying hedgehog appeared, as well.”

“Metal,” there was a rather distinct accusation in RK’s tone that Metal didn’t much like.  He had a feeling the emotional override would boot itself back up with the final news. He had to word this carefully to keep blame as far off him as possible.

“It was chaos, RK.  I lost sight of the tiny child when she went for the museum in the midst of it all and… well… it seems she was picked up by that other red robot you’ve had repeated run-ins with and taken to Robotnik.”

“What?!  Robotnik has her?!”

“Before you start blaming me, just know I attempted to retrieve her before returning.  Unfortunately, I took considerable damage fighting Sonic and the chances of successful retrieval and escape were grim at best.  There was a higher chance of success if I returned, repaired myself, and we both went back out after them.”

RK closed his eye, taking a moment to process the news, Metal watching his clenching fist closely until he finally released it and opened his eye again.  There was murder in that gaze and Metal was glad to have it off him when RK turned to the computer, “tell me everything.”

“Plug in and I’ll share the files.”

As he did so, however, a realization occurred to him and he turned towards the ghost doll floating rather calmly nearby.  “Why are you here and not with Itara?  You can’t exactly be caught and someone should be with her.”

Kipper, who had only been floating nearby and listening to the conversation, grinned and shrugged, “I figured it’d be more interesting here.  Though, I admit, you didn’t explode nearly as much as I expected.  I’m always disappointed when I’m expecting a robot battle.”  He darted further away when RK swiped for him, however, and grinned wider, “what? You want me to go all the way back?  After such a long day?  What if I run out of energy before I get there?  I’d just get stuck somewhere.”

“Kipper, either you go watch after her or I’ll shove that stuffed body of yours down the drain,” the furious red robot threatened, in no mood for the doll’s antics.

However, instead of shrugging and leaving to go after the time traveler, as he’d always done before, the possessed doll only floated in place and crossed its tiny, plush arms.  “Nah.  Besides, you can’t, anyway.  Like you said, it’s not like I can be caught.” Despite this, when RK’s fury seemed to finally explode and all that kept him in place were the cables attached to the computer, the doll floated further away until he disappeared into the far wall, vanishing from sight.

Metal watched the doll until he was gone, and then turned a wary eye to RK.  He knew the doll enjoyed poking at everyone he could and pushing his luck, but even Metal thought that was too risky for the current situation.  Did he leave to go after Itara, after all, or did he simply run away?  They couldn’t be sure and, because of that, RK was unpredictable and could be dangerous at the moment.  Unfortunately, unlike the ghost, he had no choice but to remain in place so he would need to calm the other bot however he could.

Looking up towards the screen to check the percentage on the file transfer, noting that it was just over half, he turned back to RK and offered a cautious, “Even I know the possessed doll only enjoys seeing how far he can push it before people snap.  But I believe he likely left to go after the hedgehog, seeing as he barely seems to leave her side.”

There were several long moments of distressing silence before the other bot finally let out a long, slow vent of air and dropped his stiffened stance ever so slightly.  Turning back to the computer to study the transfer, himself, he shook his head to clear it.  “I’m aware. But there was something in his tone this time that I’d never seen in the doll before.  I don’t know if he truly went after her or if he ran, but I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it for the time being.  Instead, we should focus our energy on a retrieval plan.” Looking back to Metal, he studied the damage the other robot had taken, estimating the repair time, before sighing, “We have no time to waste.”

“My repairs will take a day, at least,” Metal responded, “Perhaps half a day if we both work on them.  In the meantime, we should collect what information we can about the situation. The base you went to before, do you think Robotnik is still at the same one?”

“It’s hard to say, it’s been months since then, he could very well have moved again.  What was he travelling in?  It’s possible he won’t be returning to a base at all just yet.”

Metal’s brows furrowed as he considered the carrier he’d followed, studying its outward design and realizing RK was likely right. It wasn’t the largest one the doctor owned by any stretch, but it was one of the larger ones, meant for longer travelling.  The university may have been one stop of many.  Which would complicate tracking him down considerably.  Then again, Robotnik was anything but stealthy, if he was out wreaking havoc anywhere else like he had at the university they could track him by the destruction he’d leave behind.  Glancing up at the computer again, he considered the various systems built into it, having once been a Robotnik base at one point.  “If we reconnect the communication system in the computer…”

“We could find him, easily, but it could also alert Robotnik to this base being active again, meaning he could track us down again even if we manage to retrieve Itara and escape.”

“It’s not like going after her, in the first place, is going to be much safer.  Especially if he’s staying on that glorified blimp, he’ll know we’re there and he’ll know it’s us.  Even if we manage to evade capture in the process, he’ll track us down.  We got lucky he hasn’t since the reset, that he doesn’t remember seeing you at all, we won’t be so lucky this time.”

The lab fell to silence again as the two bots went into their thoughts and ran the possibilities separately.  Once the files finished transferring, RK went through them, checking over every detail of everything Metal shared with him, stopping to question him about a situation only once or twice.  The event with Chip, the breakdown outside the restaurant, and the nightmare were of the most note to him.

“Did the other half of Gaia ever show up after that?” RK questioned, disconnecting from the computer to begin Metal’s repairs.

“No, not that I’ve seen.  I expect it to, though.”

“With everything happening with the Gods, I wouldn’t be surprised,” RK sighed again, “I spent so long trying to keep Itara away from all this, I thought the school trip would be a distraction… even with the manuscripts.”

“Speaking of,” Metal interrupted, opening one of his compartments and pulling several aged, folded papers from it and holding it out, “I don’t believe Itara was the only one after these.”

RK looked up from where he was working on Metal and eyed the aged documents rather harshly before turning his gaze to Metal, “You grabbed them?”

“If Itara thought they were so important to figuring out what was going on, it stood to reason someone else might, as well, namely Robotnik.  I figured it best to keep it out of his hands.”  Unfolding the papers carefully, he scanned the barely legible glyphs etched into the yellowed paper, “I highly doubt these were all of them, but they were the ones displayed in the school’s museum.”

RK went back into thought as Metal got to studying and translating the pages he had.  He wasn’t sure if they would be of any use to them, but it was something to do as he waited to be repaired.  Besides, if he went to the trouble of getting them, he might as well at least know what they said.  Maybe there would be something somehow relevant in them, maybe it would be useless, out-of-context garbage, but he wouldn’t know until he translated it.

Several hours into their work, however, an alert popped up on the screen, informing them of a presence at the front door.  Metal and RK both looked up towards it, seeing a concerned-looking Lynda, frantically ringing the doorbell, her coat hastily thrown on as she clung to it with her other hand.  RK sighed but Metal disregarded it and went back to his papers. However, he looked up again when RK moved away from him, headed for the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“To see what’s wrong.”

“Why?  I thought we didn’t have time to waste?”

“We don’t, so run a scan while I’m gone.”

Metal glared, but initiated the scan, going back to the papers.  If RK wanted to waste his time with the humans again, that was no concern of his. RK, however, continued upstairs and reached the door before long, mentally preparing for the bombardment of questions that was likely to come.  When he opened the door Lynda jumped, as if she somehow wasn’t expecting him to answer, before looking over with the wildest expression he’d seen on the normally collected woman.  “What is it?”

“What is it?!  Didn’t you hear?!”  RK nearly recoiled as Lynda waved wildly, continuing, “I just heard it on the news! The university was attacked, the ones the kids were supposed to be at today!”  That was faster than he’d been expecting, but he had been expecting it at some point.  He was just also hoping to be gone by the time the rest of the neighborhood heard about it.  But now the question was: did he play clueless?  Or tell her he knew?  Maybe he could use that as an explanation for the run.

“I know, I heard,” he finally decided, “It’s why I rushed back earlier, I got a message from… Sparky that there was an emergency.”

“Are they alright?  The reports said monsters and robots attacked and that a lot of people were badly injured.  They said something about that terrible Robotnik guy being the cause of it, that it was his terrible robots that attacked, such awful inventions just running amok!”

RK almost wanted to laugh, but resisted and shook his head. If the neighborhood knew enough about Robotnik to at least know his creations were usually extremely destructive in nature, it was all the more important they never find out their true identity.  But he wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, either.  Metal was back home already and down in the basement, getting repaired and mostly fine, but he didn’t even know where Itara was now.  He couldn’t tell Lynda that, though, she would cause too big of a ruckus, and as concerning as it was, he didn’t need that right now. Finally, he responded, “I don’t know the full details yet, myself.  Sparky only messaged me to tell me about the attack, luckily he’s a very capable fighter so I trust him to keep both himself and Itara safe under even those situations.”

Lynda watched him with several layers of concern and confusion before her face finally softened and she forced a smile.  Her brows furrowed in confusion again, though, as she half-laughed, “You mobians really are something else, aren’t you? That was some run earlier.”

“I suppose,” now RK wanted to escape again, not wanting to talk about the run.  “That said, I’m waiting for a call from them and I’d rather not be distracted when it comes so…”

“Oh, right, of course,” Lynda frowned, finally calming enough to realize how flustered she was and going about fixing her coat and hair, “I do hope Susan and Camilla are okay, as well.  I tried calling Susan when I heard but she isn’t answer her phone. Let me know if you hear anything else, alright?”

RK nodded and Lynda turned to leave, giving another wave from the end of the driveway before RK closed the door and sighed heavily. Shaking his head, he returned to the lab and Metal’s side to continue fixing him.  The other bot remained silent for several minutes after his return, as did RK, until Metal spoke up, “you were out with the human when I returned?” There was a tone in Metal’s voice that RK could swear almost sounded like jealousy, but shook his head.

“The monsters have been running unchecked here since the events in Spagonia sparked up and Lynda was concerned about getting her shopping done in one piece.  I only accompanied her because she wouldn’t leave me alone otherwise,” RK explained, continuing his work without looking up at the other bot, “unfortunately, it meant I had to run home when you messaged me and I couldn’t very well leave her in the middle of the city.”

“I see.”

The subject dropped after that, but RK was still picking up on some pouting from Metal for another hour or so afterwards.  Though he wasn’t sure why.  If he was angry about revealing too much to an untrustworthy human, RK assumed he would have simply said so, but that wasn’t the case.  But he didn’t have the time to worry about it, either, he needed to focus on repairs and a plan to get Itara back with as minimal danger as possible.  It would be no easy task, but the less they risked, the better.  Hopefully Itara would be able to hold out on her own until they could reach her.