Great Forest - Taking a Risk

[DB]

(oneshot) Nevermind :B


Dash wandered deeper into the forest, away from the strange group of people he’d met. He’d almost feel bad about ditching Metal, but… well, all of it was too much for him. Glancing up through the trees, he could still see that giant… floating island… thing. Just… too weird. Too much. He needed time to think, or something. Anything. But as he walked, the small orb like robot from earlier darted in front of him.


“Hello! Sorry for ignoring you earlier, it's just that I'd met a friend of mine.”


Dash shook his head at the machine and gave it a dismissive gesture. “No.”


“… no what?”


“No to this. Enough weird things have happened today, and I don’t need more added to the fire.”


The orb hovered there a bit, before the lens shifted downwards a bit, and it spoke again, sounding almost disappointed. “Oh, I wanted to talk to you about having you changed back into an organic.”


“Really, just bug o-“ he paused, realizing what the robot had just said, LED eyes suddenly brightening, “wait, WHAT?”


”I want to investigate the roboticization technology. I have some clues to how the process works, and I wanted to see if I can create a ‘de’-roboticizer of sorts. But you are the only roboticized organic I could find that’s capable of giving consent to such a process that I’ve found so far, and you are not interested. I will find someone else…”


“NO!”, the robot tenrec suddenly shouted, surprising himself a bit as his own volume. “No, no, I’m interested.” He gave the droid a sideways look. “… can you really create a deroboticizer?”


“Oh, certainly.”


Dash continued to look the robot over. “… how? You’re a… volleyball… thing.”


The droid hovered there for a moment, before retoring. “No I’m not.”


“… yes you are.”


“No, no I’m not. This is only one of my exploratory droids. They’re not really me, they’re like my eyes and ears.”


Dash’s eyes flicked in a blink. “. . . oh. . . . then who and where are you really?”


“Primarily I’m located in the Chaos dimension, which is where you’d have to go. As for who I am, I’m Bogert!” The last part took a slightly childish tone. “But my nickname is Beep. Anyway, if you do agree, there should be a portal nearby. The transportation of the Angel Island has caused a lot of rips around this area.”


The robot tenrec pondered… “… I’m not sure if I want to go with someone I just meant to another universe…”


The droid hovered around a bit, it’s lens flicking about as its sensors searched for portals. “If you do not want to risk it, I understand. I will not force you to do anything you do not wish to do. However keep in mind that if you decide to that the end result will be your return to being organic. Unless you do not wish for that, which then I can also understand (actually, understand a lot better. Who wants to be made of meat??)”


Dash continued to ponder… to be alive again… that’s something he wanted more then anything else and… was it really worth the risk? … So far the whoever this Bogert person was, they didn’t seem dangerous, plus, if it was someone trying to trick him, they’d be putting a lot more pressure on him to accept the offer, instead of going ‘if not that’s okay’. “… I’ll go.”


The droid turned towards the robian, lens glowing a bit. “Oh, fantastic! I just found a portal anyway. Just over there, come along then…”


“I hope I don’t regret this…”

[Jamie Lee]

From what sounded like not far away, a voice that would have been familiar to the tenrec suddenly began calling. "Hey! Hey you! Other-world Dash person! Wait up!"

[DB]

Dash paused while following the droid, turning to the sound of the voice.
"Wait... I know that voice..."

-

And the... other Dash... turned to face Lance, still tightly gripping his injured hand.

"What? What do you want?"

[Jamie Lee]

Lance looked down at the tenrec's hand and grimaced a bit "... You might want to put a bandage on that," pause. "Hey. I'm curious. If you're from some alternate dimension-reality thing, does that mean there's a me there too?"

Yes. He ran after and stopped him just to ask that.

[DB]

"Yeah. A bandaid would be really nice." he sighed and rolled his eyes at the wolf.

"Yes, there's another you. But he's a complete doof."

[Jamie Lee]

"... Wow, that brings back memories," another awkward pause. "Uh, you know, wandering out in the forest isn't where you're gonna find a bandage. Might get you captured though. But I don't think you want Robotnik's version of a 'bandaid'" he lifted a hand and shook it in emphasis.

[DB]

Dash raised a brow.

"... I'm not sure what you mean about that last part."


[dice=2]
(1= in a bit, 2= now)
(okay, SatAM Dash isn't walking in on them yet)[rand=00756604306596875344472401342061885431621031286498959140323990367]

[Jamie Lee]

The wolf's brow arched. "Wait, don't you have a roboticizer in your world?" he gave a sideways glance at the tenrec. "... What happened to your arm and legs then?"

[DB]

He frowned. "... and eyes and ears? I was in an accident. These are replacements. Not my favorite things in the world, but it beats the alternative by a mile."


And, at that point, a mechanical tenrec stepped from the bushes. "Lance? Is that y-" and there was an awkward pause as the robot laid eyes on the ... other version of... himself.

". . . oh goddess, so today CAN get weirder..."


Robot that looked like him... okay, yeah. Weird. And to Lance he asked... "what's that?"

[Jamie Lee]

Lance glanced over at the robian, and for the second time that day his eyes went wide, his tail frizzed slightly and he jumped with a yelp of. "DASH?!"

And then he started backing up a couple paces, putting his hands up defensively as he looked between the two tenrecs a few times before settling them back on the robot. "... Um... You're you... right?"

[DB]

The metal tenrec snapped out of his gawking and turned to the wolf, "No, Lance. I'm a hedgehog named Stacy." Pause. "Seriously, if I wasn't myself I'd be going..."

And cue monotone yelling

"FREEDOM FIGHTER! CAPTURE ON ORDER OF ROBOTNIK!"

and back to normal, "but, obviously, I'm not, now am I?"

Dash blinked.

Wait... did Lance just call that robot by... my name?? Is that robot supposed to be me??

And cue slack jawed staring for a few moments. Before pointing at the robot and going...


Having straightened out that bit with Lance, Dash turned his attention back to the... guy who looked uncannily like himself, only... uhm... not roboticized. Well, mostly not roboticized. Thusly, he pointed to the tenrec and asked...


"Who is THAT?"

[Jamie Lee]

The wolf's tail frizzed a bit more when Dash yelled. Then he just looked annoyed. He look between the two again and pointed at them both. "Umm. Isn't the universe supposed to be exploding now?"

[DB]

"That's not... HONESTLY meant to be ME, is it??"

"I'M NOT AN IT!"

[Jamie Lee]

"... Of course not. You're a hedgehog named Stacy."

[DB]

And at that point, Dash remembered that one of his arms was detached. He also had the great urge to throw said detached arm at Lance.

However, that'd be weird. So he didn't.


And, by then, the other Dash had taken to circling around the robot, looking him over. "This can't be right... why is this universe's version of me a robot??"


"This universe?" He pondered over that. That's right- there was another universe, like Metal had mentioned... and if Metal Sonic had a double there, then... well, no reason to argue he didn't.

"... then why aren't you a robot then? ... what happened to your arm and legs?"


"I'm not a robot because that's freaking crazy"

[Jamie Lee]

"I say you're both freaking crazy." of course, he was questioning his own sanity at that moment, so...

[DB]

"SHUT UP LANCE"

And then the two of them gawked at each other for speaking in unison again. It was just... creepy.


The cyborg tenrec frowned. "Really. Why?"


"I was roboticized, isn't it obvious?"


"I still don't know what that means"


"... right, no roboticizer in your world..." his eyes flickered in a 'blink'. "Then what happened to you?"


At this point the other Dash huffed, and pointed at Lance. "HE just asked me that."


"Well how was I supposed to know that??"


Good point. "I was an accident, these are replacements, okay? Now what the heck is roboticization and how'd it make you... me... whatever... a robot??"

[Jamie Lee]

Lance frowned, leaning himself against a tree and folding his arms when the two yelled at him. As they bantered back and forth he turned his attention up to that island floating above them. Yeah. Okay. This day was just too weird. Maybe he'd eaten some bad chili or something?

He glanced back down at the two. "So, you seriously don't know what a roboticizer is?" he idly lifted one of his hands and looked it over with a nonchalant expression, even though his mind was swimming with more frustrated thoughts. "I have no idea how the hell it works, I just know it turns people into robot slaves and hurts like a mofo. It's the same reason I'm not the handsome bloke I used to be."

His focus turned toward the robian tenrec with an arched brow. "... Hey. How'd you get out here anyway? Only other guy I've heard of who ever overrode his programming was that uncle of Sonic's."

[DB]

Dash frowned. "I didn't override it. It was... an accident, really."


And the other Dash's eye twitched at Lance's explanation of what 'roboticization' was. It sounded... nasty. Really nasty.


And, at all the talk about roboticization, Dash's mind came back to that Bogert guy's offer... he'd just sort of ... run off on him. Maybe Bogert had left without him?? Then that'd be saying goodbye to chances of becoming normal anytime soon...

"Shoot... gotta go, we'll talk some other time." and he turned and ran off to go meet again with Bogert.


And the other Dash was still over chewing over the whole concept. "So... my... other self is a one armed robot..."

[Jamie Lee]

The wolf paused, finally realizing that detail about the tenrec. He'd previously overlooked it. "... Wasn't he carrying it?"

He shook his head and pressed a hand to his temple on the organic side of his face. "Welp! I'm crazy. I'm gonna go dance in my underwear in the middle of the village now, okay?"

[DB]

"... yeah, have fun."

Pause.

"... you're not wearing underwear."

[Jamie Lee]

"... Then I guess I'm just going to have to raid Bunnie's dresser for one of her pairs," and at that, a wide grin spread itself over his face.

[DB]

"... well, there goes any doubt that you were that much different from my world's Lance."

[Jamie Lee]

"Oh really? Nice to see my charm transcends reality. So what, that other-world Sally chick kept calling you a terrorist, that mean the other-me is a terrorist too or something?" As he spoke, he glanced off in the direction his world's Dash had run and frowned. Yeah, okay, that was too weird, too unexpected, and too close to Knothole. And why the hell did he run off so abruptly? "... Hey. Can we walk while we talk? I should probably be telling the others about that or something."

[DB]

"Charm. Yeah, that's one way of saying it. ... and I'm not a terrorist... but yeah whatever."

He shrugged and looked again at his hand. By now, the blood flow had stopped, thankfully, even without a bandage. Still, treating it would be nice.

"And take me to where ever you keep the first aid kits."

[Jamie Lee]

"Yeah, sure. You'll wanna talk to Rosie about that. She's the nurse around here," he shrugged as he started walking off in the direction the two had come from. "... So. If you're not a terrorist, why'd she keep calling you that?"

[DB]

The tenrec's nose wrinkled as he considered how to answer that, before shaking his head and muttering.

"Lets not talk about that right now."

And... his mind back wandered back to the other him.

"... How'd I get that way, anyway? The other me, I mean? Turned into a robot. I know you said there's some sorta... robot-izer thing, but... how?"

[Jamie Lee]

"Errr..." he idly scratched at his head "He ended up getting himself pretty badly hurt. Concussion. Broken jaw. Stuff like that," he glanced at the tenrec with a grim expression, conveniently neglecting to mention how the other Dash was hurt. "Apparently he wandered off into the forest that way and got himself captured."

[DB]

Dash glanced down at his cybernetic arm and frowned.

"... yeah, that sounds like me."