Area 27 - We have guests

[L]

The silence of the abandoned underground military base was broken upon the arrival of a very very loud hedgehog and those in his company. "WEBA', JIGGAS."

[AnT]

"AAAH!!!"

Somewhere in the base, the sounds of metallic junk can be heard falling on the floor, and sometimes smashed to bits.

"BLOODY HELL!!!" cried a angry female voice that had a bit of a British tone.

Marching from behind a giant metal shelf of old creates came a green canary in black overalls, red and black striped t-shirt, and large gold earrings.

"No, please do make some noise. Some of us wasn't carrying DELICATE equipment!"

Crossing her arms, she glared at Shadow.

"Did you at least find out about that unknown energy reading?"

[Lans]

A metallic stomping followed, and following after har came the large form of Gamma, carrying another load of 'delicate equipment' with his left arm.


"Greetings Shadow and Maria...and unknowns." He said, glanceing from Shadow an Maria, to the dragon cramped in the hallway behind them, to the linx infront of her.


Nicole had exited Dulcy's pouch on landing, still slightly miffed about being grabbed up again without being asked.

[L]

"Man, Tekno, why you always got to be rainin' on mah parade?" Shadow commented. "Make some noise for da' returnin' heroes."

He glanced back at the dragon and the lynx. "And... dese 're Niccolai and Dorothy. We found 'em out by the energy readin'."

[AnT]

She frowned, pointing her thumb at the large metal shelf, where the sound of the smashed 'delicate equipment' was heard from. "Well maybe because if you give me a warning while I'm carrying stuff before you making a 'parade', I wouldn't be raining on it. Crazy nutter."

She took a few steps closer to the lynx and dragon.

"Yeah, I heard almost half of your conversations by keeping your com-links open...until I had some...problems." Focusing on Nicole, she then asked with hopeful glee. "Is it true that you were a computer, luv?"



Though the landing, as usual, wasn't a perfect three point one, so Dulcy stood there dazed and dizzy.

"Heeee...I'm hoooome, maaaa."

[Jamie Lee]

Maria stepped back after Shadow had put her back down, she twiddled with a lock of hair with both hands as she quietly listened and allowed them to speak, but gave a wave and smiled meekly to Gamma when he greeted her.

[Lans]

Nicole opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it. Technically she wasn't supposed to reveal that, even if she was right. "I...don't believe that's any of your business. Now if you please, I need to use your computers, preferably one where I can access a satellitte uplink."

[AnT]

In other words, she really was. Well no use to force her elaberate for the sake of science and technology.

"Urm...I haven't got to the other half of your conversation. Why you wanna use our computers?" she asked, feeling a liiiitle bit suspicious about this.

[Lans]

"I need access to a sattelitte uplink so I can, in layman's terms, try to figure out what the heck is going on." Nicole explained.

[AnT]

Thinking about this for a second, Tekno recalled what she heard from the com-link before she got...interupted.

It seems that when Shadow and Maria approached the energy reading, which seems to be a portal,they found this girl and the dragon. The dragon says that she's from the Knothole Freedom Fighters, the well-knwon FF group (At least to Tekno) that battles Robotnik himself, and says that this lynx was a computer that belonged to the princess herself. But this girl says that the said princess is some kind of agent who is skilled in a weapon. From what she heard from the dragon, the princess nor their group uses weapons, which is a big rule in the Acorn Family, as far as Tekno read.

Heck, this cat girl even asked for the nearest govenrment complex, which that is impossible, unless she means Robotnik, because Robotnik IS the government.

So, from what the dragon said, if this lynx is having a malfunction, how did she remember this strange discription she told? If she say that she's looking for a government complex, then maybe she does mean Robotnik...but why would Robotnik make her remember this weird memory, even when she says she hasn't made contact with Robotnik?


"Um...okay...but...you're gonna have to wait for a minute or so, luv."

Motioning her, as well as the other, to follow, she led them around the large shelf, leading to a large doorway that showed a semi-dark room with only a few lights giving the room's apperance. You can see part of a screen and some kind of lockers under a rusty metal table at the foot of the large screen.

"We're just installing capibilities to log into the sattelites. I just need to equip the systems with some steatlh programs so Robotnik can't trace our hacking. After all, we are peaking through Robotnik's sattelittes.

She looked at Nicole, watching for her response and reaction. This could help to what the energy was all about.

[Lans]

Nicole just sighed. "Then don't bother, I don't need to access Dr. Robotnik's equipment. I'll be accessing the GUN sattelitte network. Once there I should be able to get some answers."

[Jamie Lee]

Maria glanced between the two, still tugging nervously at her hair. "Um, I'll um, go work on setting that up... for you..." She took two steps away from behind Shadow, then paused, looking at Tekno with uncertainty.

[AnT]

A brow arched over Tekno's eyes. Confused, she was a little, but very intrigged.

"G.U...N? Luv, there's no such organization 'colled GUN. If you want to have sattelitte power, you'll need to go through Robotnik's. The bum pretty much owns them all anyways."

Turning to the tall human, Tekno smiled, "Don't worry about it, girl. I do the hardware stuff around here. You just set up the program after I have it up and running."

She reached up to the stack of 'delicate equipment' Gamma has, "Let me have that security board, Gamma." And pulled out some kind of circuit board.

She clapped her hands/wings, making the lights activate and reveal the entire room. Defiantly looks like your average room in a run-down building. The large monitor did not have a frame. You can see lot of wires poking out from behind, and the wall behind it has a large hole. The table before it has lots of keyboards and control panels, and under the table were wide lockers.

"Excuse me, would you luv?" opening one of the locker doors, Tekno crawled in, digging through the wires.

[Lans]

Gamme walked over and set the rest of his load down nearby, then stood off to the side until he was needed.


Nicole opened her mouth to protest Tekno's statement, but thought better of it. Once she had sattelite access, she'd get her answers.

[Jamie Lee]

"Oh-okay..." Maria said, backing away, back behind Shadow.

[L]

Shadow, however, was about to go off on his own business. "Didja restock da fridge-ator while we was out?" He asked.

[AnT]

Half of her body was still inside the computer/lockers. Only her legs and rear was poking out of it.

"Boy, it was your turn to get some food; don't you be trying to laze your way on free food."



Dulcy, who finally snapped out of her dizzy trance, nervously approached the canary.

"Um...excuse me, but would it be alright if I use your radio? I need to contract Princess Sally. It's VERY urgent."



"Urm...like to help out the princess herself, luv, but..." Her talon pointed at something behind the dragon...

...a metal box that looks like some kind of DVD player, but it had a big burning hole like a laser blasted it.

"...it's gonna need some slight repairs."



"Oh no!" Dulcy cried, holding her head in panic.



"I don't think you have to worry bout your friends, luv." she said, still messing inside the computer like she was fixing a car.



"R-r-really? What makes you so sure? I just somehow got into Robotnik's underground labs where I found Nicole, and some other robots that looked like Mobians."



"Hmm...and just how?" still fixing the computer.



"Um...I don't know. One minute, I just woke up in Knothole, about to get some breakfast, the next I ended up in that lab."



Strange...but maybe it could mean that Robotnik was trying to create some kind of teleportation device, that's going out of control. If that's true, then Robotnik wouldn't care about these so-called Mobian bots. But Tekno was trying to listen to radio communications Robotnik is making towards the generals of his San Grandia base, and she didn't hear about any teleportation projects, nor Mobian robots. And that lynx girl mentioned some kind of organization called GUN. Seems pretty imaginative for some kind of bug to create upon its alteration in her program, or Robotnik to even care to make up.

So either she's wrong about that...or maybe...they're dealing with some abnormal phenomenal situation. But she still needs more proof, and letting the lynx girl surf the satellite web shall help.

[L]

Shadow paused for a moment in reaction to Tekno's reminder. Coming across Dulcy and Nicole had apparently distracted him from the part of his mission that involved getting more food. "B to the rizzle to the bizzle, Tekizzle." The ebony hedgehog said before speeding off to retrieve food.

[AnT]

"I really wish he stop with that wangsta crap." Crawling out of the lockers, Tekno sat up and dusted herself. "Fini, ladies. Okay,let me light this candle for ya, lynx girl."

Getting up to the control panels, and then turning on the large computer, which lit up like a movie theater screen, Tekno rapidly typed on the keyboards...all three of them.

"Annnnd we have LIFT OFF!!" turning back to the girls, she bowed. "No need to thank the genius, ladies..."

She smirked at Nicole, anxious to see how this will fare.

"...just enjoy."



...


"Opps..." she sheepishly smirked at Maria. "I forgot that you were gonna set up the program. My bad, luv; got carried away."

[Jamie Lee]

Maria flinched as Shadow ran off. She gave a small unsure smile when Tekno smoke and nodded. "It's okay..." she said in a soft tone. "Oh, um... hold on, um..." she turned to walk, then looked awkwardly over her shoulder at the others before turning around and walking over to a nearby filing cabinet. Pulling one of the middle drawers open she fished around for a second before she produced a small disk.

"Here... I, um, finished writing it up last night... It shouldn't take longer than a couple minutes to install and configure..."

She stepped over toward the computer, popping it into it's proper drive and replacing Tekno in front of its screen and keyboards. As promised, it was only about a minute or two while she oversaw the installation, pausing every moment to type something or to glance nervously over her shoulder as if she was standing before a row of critical judges.

After a moment she stood back, took in a deep breath, and turned around. "Um... I.. I think that's good.. We should be invisible now... I hope..."

[Lans]

Nicole just nodded and took a seat the the console, and began typing rapidly. At first she really did need the keyboard, but once she'd adapted her wireless link to these systems, it was mostly just for show to keep up the charade. Data began to flash accross the screen in front of her rapidly as she first adapted the system to her own, and then began setting it up using the appropriate codes for a link to the GUN sattelite system...only to get no response at all. She paused, giving the breifest of frowns, before going at it again, and again...nothing, like the system wasn't even there.

Undeterred, she expended her uplink to try for any overhead sattelite, hoping to bounce a signal through a civillian communications relay in order to reach GUN, but what she got was most unexpected to say the least. At first she'd accidently stumbled onto one of Dr. Eggman's spy sattelites, but then, upon examination of its records, found that it was communicating with not only networks in the city above, but also with a larger one somewhere else.

Perplexed, she piggybacked her link on this sattleites communications, and soon found herself linking to the core network of a city called Robotropolis. It was heavily encrypted and firewalled, at least it appeared to be at first, but when she went to hack her way in, she found several backdoors already in place, backdoors very similar to something she would have implemented if she had need to access an unfriendly system frequently. Mentally shrugging, she took advantage of one of these, discovering the access keys were identical to what she would have used as well, and dove into the Robotropolis mainframe.

Most of it was too well protected to try to bypass the security programs with anything short of a direct terminal, so she sifted around, looking for something she could easily access that would give her some useful information, and found it under 'Historical Records'.

"Oh my..." she gasped.

Not even pretending to type anymore, Nicole stared blankly ahead as she began downloading....the history of the Acorn Kingdom...the Great War...the Rise of Robotnik...and the current conflict with the scattered freedom fighter groups, the Knothole group in particular, she studied what was availible in the course of a few minutes. She paid particular attention to Robotnik's files on the freedom fighters, especially the listing for 'Princess Sally Alicia Acorn'. Then, carefully extracting herself from the network, she closed down the link.

"I...I don't think I'm from around here..." she said quietly, turning in her chair to face the gathered Freedom Fighters.

[AnT]

Noding, Tekno was satisfied that her asumptions were correct. The strange energy readings; this girl talking about stuff that doesn't exists here...it must be because...

"Alternate dimension..."



Dulcy arched a brow at the bird. "A what?"



"Parallel universe. Mutiverse. It's a complicated theory in all of cosmology, physics, philosophy, theology, and even fiction that states that other universes resides outside of our own; maybe an unlimited number of them. And each universe contain different situations and history, parallel to our, like say, Robotnik never took over our universe, which I BET that he didn't in her universe."


Dulcy gawked at Nicole with wide eyes. "Whoa...you sure live in a pleasent world."

But then, she thought of something. "Wait a minute...then that place I took Nicole from....wasn't Robotnik's lab?"



"Nope, luv...which means, Robotnik knows squat about your hideout."



With a big smile, Dulcy fainted.

[Jamie Lee]

And Maria... WAS NO LONGER THERE.

[Lans]

Nicole blinked. "When did Maria leave?" she asked.

[AnT]

Shrugging, Tekno sat on the computer seat. "Eh, the dove probably went back to her room or something. She's a bit insecure; sometimes she acts like she's not useful. Bah!"

And now back to the thinking-bird mode.

"But...if you got here through that energy portal...then that could mean that portal was a rip through the time-space continumn. But the question is, how is that possible, and why our worlds, if it's just our worlds?"


Tekno just sat there, thinking hard. Her brain focused on nothing but the situation; trying to come up with logical explaniations on this strange event.

The canary looked at Nicole. "Did you guys do something that screwed around with time and space?"

[Lans]

She shrugged. "Not where I was located. But its possible Dr. Eggman, our version of Robotnik, has been experimenting with the Chaos Emeralds again." She sighed and thought for a moment. "Do you have any way of getting me in contact with the Knothole Freedom Fighters? If anyone's at the center of this on your world, it'll probably be them."

[AnT]

"Chaos Emeralds?" Tekno then shrugged. Best to ask that for another time. "Well, I wouldn't know their frequnecy of their radio line, or if they have digital contact. But we do we have one of their posse here, so she could tell us the frequncy..." she pointed at the dragon who's still on the floor. "But the only equipment we have that can reach to such distances is pretty much..."


She, again, pointed at the radio, which still had a burnt hole.


"...well that." crossing her arms, Tekno frowned, "Thanks to a certain robo-nutter. But look, luv, what makes you think they're at the center of this?"

[Lans]

"Because, in our world, if something involving supernatural forces threatening the planet is happening, Sonic the Hedgehog is usually in the middle of it. And would you venture a guess as to who just happens to be on their roster in this world?"

[AnT]

"Sonic the Hedgehog, huh? I've heard of the hedgehog, luv; suppose to be the best Freedom Fighter there, almost like Shadow, I heard."

Turning, and taking few steps away from Nicole, Tekno was again at thought. Stopping, she looked over her shoulder.

"Well then, I guess we'll just have to make contact to Knothole, up close and personal, luv. Because if that portal really is a rip, then that could mean the barriers of our worlds are caving-in, and if that continues to happen, we'll all be in deadly danger. We'll need to warn them."

[Lans]

"Well, then do we have to wake her up?" she said refering to Dulcy, "Or would you happen to have somthing faster, and more comfortable, that we can use for transport?"