Robotropolis - The ol' switcheroo

[Jamie Lee]

The city of Robotropolis was a dark and dirty place, eternally plunged into an eerie twilight from its lights and constant spilling of pollution into the air.

Somewhere in this city, one of the most peculiar of Robotnik's creations paced back and forth. It was a cobalt blue robot, modeled in the shape of a hedgehog, his armor always having a scuffed and dirty look to it. What made this robot so peculiar was that, unlike other robots the tyrant had built, he had developed a rather unique anomaly in that he had developed the ability to feel emotion.

And right now... the robot was feeling a particular emotion quite strongly. He was restless.

The robot's eyes dimmed and something like a mechanical sigh escaped him as he folded his arms over his chest and continued to pace back and forth, occasionally shooting a glance off to the side at something of interest he had part of his attention on.

Within the time frame of seconds, however, a sliver of light materialized - as if a clean cut had been made into the very air and opened. A kaleidescope of colors presented itself directly in the robot's path. His eyes widened in alarm, but even for a machine known for its speed he was unable to react in time as he was engulfed.

...


... And appeared out the other side, the portal vanishing from behind him. But something about the robot now seemed... off. His appearance was suddenly clean, well polished and reflective, and in fact seemed to shine with a certain radiance that stood out oddly against the dirty atmosphere.

The robot came to an abrupt halt, his eyes widening with alarm and confusion as he snapped around and studied his scenery. This wasn't Eggman's base! Where was his room?! Why was everything so... so... filthy?! His GPS and communication lines gave him no clues as both seemed to be suddenly dead. The robot slumped forward in bewilderment.

"... Where am I?"

[DB]

And nearby, a robot tenrec.

"Is... is that a trick question?"

[Jamie Lee]

Metal spun around quickly, spotting the other robot. Immediately he took an offensive stance, his talons held out menacingly.

That is, until he realized that the robot's head appeared to be... sitting on a shelf. His body was slumped against a wall below. He lowered his arms a bit in confusion.

"Who are you?"

[DB]

The head 'blinked' again, red eyes flashing off for a moment.

"... did you just ask who I am? ... not 'what'?"

Pause.

"Now I KNOW that's a trick question..."

Another pause.

"... how the heck did you get so damn shiny all of a sudden?"

[Jamie Lee]

Okay, now Metal was just getting confused. "... Do I... Somehow know you? And... why is your head detached anyway?"

[DB]

"... stop screwing with my head..."

Another small pause, as the robot frowned.

"...literally..."

Pause.

"...it's not funny. Even if you think it is. It's not. At all."

[Jamie Lee]

Metal blinked, more confusion adding to confusion. He turned his focus away from the other robot and flashed his eyes across the room he was standing it. It was small, filthy, crumbling and aside from the tenrec seemed abandoned.

He made a sound not too unlike a sigh and buried his face into his claw. "If you are not going to answer me I am going to go find answers myself."

[DB]

The robot tenrec was silent a moment before looking rather troubled (well, more so then it already was).

"Okay, okay! If you're serious about the question answer thing then fine! Just... don't leave without putting my head back on..."

[Jamie Lee]

The robotic hedgehog turned back around and eyed the tenrec. "That would indeed make things easier for me,"

He began to pace, his expression looking troubled as his did. He felt helpless and lost, and having to ask directions as it were was humiliating. Not only that, he felt uneasy. Uneasy around this new robot, and uneasy about why, and more importantly, what had put him in his current condition.

"Again, I ask..." he started, keeping on eye warily on the other robot. "Where am I?" he paused. "... My GPS is malfunctioning. Furthermore, who are you, why do you act as though you know me, why are you in that condition, and who built you?"

[DB]

The tenrec-bot's eyes flicker again, this time not in a blink but in irritation. Mostly due to the last question...

"One, my personal hell. Everyone else calls it Robotropolis. Two, my name is Dash. Just Dash. Not RS-742637 or whatever. It's not so hard to call me by my actual name. Three, because I do. Four, if you mean why my head's on a shelf, that'd be because you put it there. Five, Not funny."

[Jamie Lee]

Okay, now the metallix was just beginning to get teed off at this point.

"I have never met you before that I can ever recall, I am not trying to be funny, and I would certainly never resort to placing the head of someone on a shelf in such a barbaric manner. I do not appreciate being accused of such acts."

[DB]

And the head on the shelf just... stared at the metal hedgehog.

" . . . when have you ever been anything but barbaric to me? Hell, you're the one who made me like this! If it wasn't for you, I'd still be a normal person who wouldn't have to worry about BEING A HEAD ON A SHELF."

And in this case, an irate head on a shelf.

[Jamie Lee]

Metal just kinda... gawked at Dash with an expression that kinda read '... whaaaaaat'.

Then his eyes began to glow slightly brighter than normal and he threw his shoulders back indignantly. "I have no idea what you are talking about, I have done nothing you have said, and furthermore, I will not stand here and be accused of such by you! I receive enough slander as it were on regular basis by the media! Now then, I will be on my way!"

The robotic hedgehog turned, his eyes searching out the exit to the room, then began to march toward it.

[DB]

"PUT MY FREAKING HEAD BACK ON"

[Jamie Lee]

Metal stopped mid-stride, not bothering to turn to look at the robian.

"First of all, do NOT tell me what to do! Second, why do I owe anything to someone so rude and unhelpful? Robotropolis? There is no such place! And for all I know, YOU had something to do with how I mysteriously walked out of my room and ended up here! I am unobligated to either stay here or put up with your attitude!"

He wanted to groan and bury his face into his talon. I should never have come online from stasis today...

[Stoney]

The rip from which Metal had emerged spontaneously re-opened at that moment, cutting off the two robots' witty repartee as a brown corgi robot materialized on the spot.

Wearing an apron. And holding a spatula in one hand.

He blinked, looking down at his other hand, which was now empty. "Hey, where'd the pancakes go?"

[DB]

And the head on the shelf was about to yell back at Metal until...

Corgi.

"... wha..."

[Jamie Lee]

Metal just... gawked. "Rush?" he paused. "What... are you doing here?"

Under normal circumstances, seeing the corgi android was just another thing on the long list of irritations Metal would have preferred to avoid like a virus. But at the moment, he... honestly couldn't decide whether or not he should be annoyed... or relieved.

He shook his head and placed his talon on his temple. "... Nevermind. Please tell me your GPS is operational. This--" he gave a sideways glance at Dash and arched his brow. "--Peculiar metallix unit refuses to answer any questions I ask him."

[Stoney]

The robot stiffened up visibly upon hearing that familiar British metallic voice. Slowly, he turned to look behind him, and sheer, undiluted MORTIFICATION coursed through his wires when his worst fears were promptly confirmed.

"...........YOU."

He ripped off the apron in one hasty movement and threw it aside, incenerating it with a single plasma shot. "You saw NOTHING!" He yelled, eyes wide and breathing heavy as a panicked, half-mad look danced across his face. He pointed the buster straight at Metal. "NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME?!"

His free hand had exerted so much pressure on the spatula's handle by now that it had been bent into a twisted mockery of itself. He now forced his hand to relax, dropping the useless instrument to the floor shortly before he stomped on it, further twisting it into an unrecognizable lump of metal and plastic.

[DB]

And the head on the shelf... was completely silent, resigning to simply stare in complete and utter bewilderment.

He was going to yell to the corgi to escape before he was captured, but apparently he... knew... Metal already... and something was wrong with his arm.. and... uhm... ah yes. He appeared out of freaking nowhere. Nowhere with an apron. And was more concerned about seeing the apron then being captured...

"... I'm ... so lost right now ..."

[Jamie Lee]

Metal gave an unimpressed look as his eyes drifted toward the buster pointed at him. Immediately his shield flew up. "Put that toy away and answer my question."

[Stoney]

"I'll show you how much of a toy this is," Rush snarled. He began building a charge in his buster, which slowly began to glow and whine softly as it accumulated energy. He paused while waiting for it to finish and took a look around himself.

The area he was now in was most certainly NOT Resson's kitchen. For one thing, the layout was completely different. Plus Resson never let his surroundings get this dirty. Even the very air was tainted with a smoglike substance composed of multiple impurities, hanging over everything like thick mist.

Shocked, Rush accessed his internal GPS...not because Metal asked him to, mind you, he'd NEVER do anything at that robot's request, he was just curious...and the results were alarming, since he recieved no results at all. His GPS wasn't working.

He WAS picking up some bizarre signal from space, but it was encoded and scrambled in a way he'd never seen before, rendering it complete gibberish to his systems. Still, it indicated this area had satellites at the very least...but then why didn't his GPS work?

He slowly turned back to face Metal, his stunned expression betraying his feelings at that moment. "Where the hell am I?"

[Jamie Lee]

"Certainly not my room in Eggman's fortress, where I was before finding myself here," he pointed at Dash suddenly, "This metallix unit claims that we are in a place called Robotropolis, though I have never heard of it."

He paused for a moment, folding his arms and rubbing a talon across his face plate before turning his attention toward Dash. "... Hrm. Excuse me, but does the name Princess Blaze mean anything to you?"

[DB]

The bewildered expression continued.

"uhm... Princess Blaze? I've never ... heard of any Princess Blaze... Just Sally... maybe... in another region of Mobius? ... what's going on here?"

And, at just that moment, a wrench materialized from another portal, smacking the robot's head and knocking it off the shelf, causing it to fall to the ground with a clang and bestowing a decently sized dent to it.

"... WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT."

[Stoney]

Rush did not like being kept in the dark, as Metal was about to find out.

Who the heck was "Princess Blaze"? Rush didn't have a clue. Unlike G.U.N., he did not have near-unlimited resources for researching the latest important events in the world -- he mostly got his updates by watching the evening news. It infuriated him that his arch-nemesis and rival knew something that he himself was not privy to, as it implied that he was inferior to Metal on an intellectual level.

He concluded that the Sonic doppelganger might know a great deal about their current location that he was not currently divulging; in fact, it was possible Metal might be behind Rush's mysterious transportation from his home to this place. The how and the why were still unknown, but the terrible suspicion remained strong in the corgibot's mind, fanning the flames of his anger yet further.

Eyes narrowing into dangerous slits, he released his hold on the plasma charge he'd been building and let a massive fireball of sizzling blue death rocket past Metal's head with a clearance of a mere couple feet, slamming into the far wall and leaving a charred black crater.

Milliseconds later the buster was close enough to Metal's face for the smoke wafting from it to be disrupted by the presence of his spike-nose.

"What aren't you telling me, Metal?" Rush demanded in a low hiss.

[Jamie Lee]

Metal gave an unamused glare at the android and upped the voltage on his shield. As he did this he heard the clatter as Dash was struck and knocked off the shelf, but at the moment it was his least concern. "Firstly, I told you not to point that toy at me. Second, precisely what are you talking about?"

[Stoney]

Aaaaand KRZAP. Rush was jolted backwards out of Metal's personal space, nursing his blackened hand and cursing a blue streak in rapid binary.

Sending a murderous glare the blue robot's way, he elaborated. "Who the hell is Princess Blaze and how does she relate to this?!" He stood back up to his full height, turning his undamaged hand into a plasma buster this time. "Tell me before I decide to test my hypothesis on how much damage that fancypants shield can take!" He began charging up again.

[Jamie Lee]

The robot's eyes frizzed slightly with static. Keeping his shield up so long in one use was beginning to put a strain on his system, and upping the power output to it only made the effect worsen.

"Princess Blaze Soleanna is the crown princess of an alternate dimension parallel to our own that had been dubbed the 'Sol Dimension', just as ours has been dubbed the 'Chaos Dimension' based on the respective set of emeralds each dimension contains. I was curious to know if we had somehow accidentally been transported to Sol, but if he has not heard of the princess, then it is highly plausible that that is not where we are."

He repressed the strong urge to groan. "Now will you please holster your buster? Out of respect for your father I have been trying to tolerate your attitude but you are trying. my. patience." the last part came out sounding like it had been through gritted teeth. "... Besides that, I find gathering information on our current dilemma more important than your petty enmity against me."

[DB]

Dash would of ranted about the wrench that had knocked him off the shelf, but the fact that the corgi fired a mega-ball of DEATH at Metal cut him off before he could say anything. Instead, he stared in blank amazement-

The way Metal Sonic was acting... wasn't right.

The Metal he knew wouldn't let someone shoot at him like that, ever. From everything Dash knew about Metal Sonic, he knew that right now, that corgi would be a pile of shredded puppy.

But he wasn't. Instead, Metal was trying to speak in a civil manner with the dog, opting to instead using defense to nullify the attacks rather then just ripping the dog's arms off (like Dash expected of him).

Plus, they were talking about things that Dash had never heard of, of Princesses of Sol and something about chaos...

Conclusion?

"You're... not the Metal Sonic I know."

[Stoney]

"You, respect Dad? Don't make me laugh," he growled. He held nothing but distain for Metal's creator -- naturally he assumed Metal would share the same feelings for his creator as well.

He had to admit though, the robohog had a point -- figuring out how he'd gotten here and how he could get back home was the pressing issue at the moment. While they stood here and squabbled, Resson could very well be in danger, and with Rush gone there was no heavy firepower to back him up.

Rush paused for a moment as an internal war was waged, the conflict apparent on his face. Finally his mouth settled into a thin line as his love for his father temporarily won over. He did NOT go rescue Resson from imprisonment and possible torture in a G.U.N. containment facility only to lose him again due to a freak teleport accident.

...I can't believe I'm doing this. You are SO damn lucky, Metal, he thought with disgust as he deactivated his buster and turned it back into a hand -- but not before releasing his charged shot in Dash's general direction. The talking head was beginning to get on his nerves.

Rush turned away, carelessly not bothering to check if his shot had been correctly aimed. "Fine then," he spat. "I'm gonna go take a look around. Don't wait up for me."

He dashed out the door and was gone.