Reclaiming the Waters - Downtown Mercia

Standing beside the princess, Rob cupped his chin into his palm as he thought over the situation, eyeing their surroundings for any potential resources they could tap into. His eyes fell upon a nearby fire escape.

"For extra caution's sake I can distract the guards while you make your way over. Wait here," he announced, leaping up and snatching a hold of the rickety old ladder. As quietly as he could muster he scaled up toward the building's rooftop.

Surprisingly, the archer paused mid-climb and peered down with a somewhat confused look. "Yes?"

"Hrm," Rob looked from the princess back up to the foreboding building ahead. "This part of the assignment is only for intel, right? I'll keep an eye on the outside and we can meet back up somewhere around here and fill me in when you return. I know this area well enough I should be fine."

Her first instinct was to object to Rob's proposal, mainly do to her own unease with the area, but Sally luckily was able to separate her heart from her mind. This was not her territory; it was his own. Furthermore, he was this group's leader. He was more than capable of taking care of himself. "Just be careful," the princess reminded. "We'll try to be as quick as possible. After we get the information we need, we'll meet you back here."

Quickly falling back into her usual habits, Sally's eyes watched unblinkingly as the security cleared away. Once the last Swatbot had passed, the squirrelmunk waved an arm. "Let's go!!" As fast as her feet would carry her, the princess led her team past the commotion and toward the command center. Her first instinct was to rush into the front door while the guards were away from their posts, but in a stroke of luck (possibly the only one they could have that day), her keen eyes fell upon the security cameras. Practically skidding to a stop, Sally diverted the team's trail to the back alley Vic had mentioned a moment ago.

"Vic, you think of everything," the tapir replied with a smirk. Sue looked back down the alley, her right hand touching her holstered hammer, in case another SWATbot was near. "After you, Princess."

Vic shrugged a little helplessly. "I just knew how to get around the place, not how to get in... But since this is a generator... I think, there must be some place where it's hooked to the building."

"This is why I wish I'd had clearer schematics when I was trying to plan. Unfortunately, the maps I managed to download from Robotnik's main computer don't include any building blueprints, just street layouts." Her eyes scanned along the structure's backside, looking for something -- anything -- that could serve as a point of entry.

There did happen to be a window on this wall, but it was a second-story window. That could be possible, if I could just get the proper boost... The princess glanced at her surroundings again, and grinned while visually sifting through some of the nearby scrap. "Sue," Sally called, "you told me during the meeting last night that you were handy with putting things together, correct?"

"I'm not sure if there's enough to get all three of us all the way up there, but if there's not, I have another plan." Sally waded carefully amongst the junk, considering what they had to work with. "A lot of this stuff is pretty well-aged, and not very structurally sound. Let's start with the strongest pieces, and see what we come up with." Turning to Vic, she added, "Since Sue's the one that has the natural knack for this, you and I will have to step back and assist, okay?"

Any other day, Sue would have gone scuba-diving as a means of relaxation. This time, however, the tapir got to work scrap-diving, salvaging any pieces needed to get through the window. "Support columns, support columns," she murmured to herself. Any pieces deemed suitable for construction were set aside in a separate pile. "Ehhh, this ain't no good," she said, discarding an unusable piece.

After a thorough search, Sue stood up and started to think about what could be done with what she had. She realized their climb to the window could be made simpler by climbing onto the sturdy wiring box. "Okay," she said, pacing around a little. "We could climb up on this box here," to which she gently rapped on the metal case, "then climb onto a platform we'll build with support beams to prevent collapse."

Taking a deep breath, Sue whipped out her trusty hammer, and went to work. "I ain't ready for twenty-one guns yet. C'mon, group, gimme a hand."

The three of them whipped up a raised platform at a feverish pace, with Sue guiding Sally and Vic along the way. The thought that she was giving orders to a princess never figured into her mind; she was there to help save the water supply.

Fifteen minutes later, the group put the finishing touches to the platform. "Th' braces we put in should keep this dingus together," she said, wiping sweat from her forehead. "You two go first. I'll join ya."

Sally climbed onto the wiring box without much difficulty, then made a small leap onto the platform. The platform didn't shake, none of the beams or braces moved—perfection. Vic was the next one to make his way into the window before Sue brought up the rear.

Vic was quick in following the princess up into the vents, his body language even more on edge than he'd been outside. He knew how to get around outside, but he'd never been -in- any of the buildings run by Robotnik's 'bots.

Using what scattered bits of preliminary information she'd managed to gather in advance, Sally's team crept cautiously throughout the building, sometimes backtracking, sometimes waiting for heavy corridor traffic to clear, sometimes pausing for an orientation check. Some rooms were found to be empty, but with no useful equipment inside. Other rooms had computers Sally would have loved to let Nicole devour, but were too heavily trafficked to allow them to even exit.

Finally, the group found what they'd been looking for: a computer terminal with only a single robot in the vicinity. The squirrelmunk turned back to her companions and whispered, "There's a techbot at the terminal. If we can disable it before it raises any alarms, I can get the information in a snap."

"Great work!" Hopping out into the open air, Sally sprinted for the nearest seat at the computer boards and quickly began hammering away at the keys. "Vic, give me a hand with searching the database. Try to look up anything having to do with the river, the contamination, or orders from Robotropolis."

Sue, meanwhile, stood by the door with hammer in hand, her mind filled with visions of robot guts. "No fear, guys."