THE CHRONICLES OF JASON DRUMMONDBook Two: Dark Shadows Chapter 1: Annoyances June 30 2011
Egg Carrier, Medical Room
4:08 a.m.
"Good, he's unconscious, have this puddle of sludge taken to that special storage unit had I built before he wakes up. I need to greet the newest soldier to join our cause." commanded a second voice.
"Yes Doctor. Units SA-36 and SA-24, take him to the stasis pod." said a third, mechanical voice.
'What is occurring? What is current location? Scanning... Egg Carrier 3.0; Medical room? Why is this Unit here? Machines do not require medicine. Which Unit am I? What is primary function? Data archives: Unknown designation, Primary Function: Serve Unit Creator, Unit Creator: Dr. Ivo Robotnik codenamed 'Dr. Eggman' by enemies.' thought the machine as it slowly opened its optical receptors to look around the room, but due to being restrained on an examination table, it could not look at much else other than the ceiling.
"Ah, you're online, excellent!" said the second voice as its owner walked into the unknown robot's field of vision, revealing it to be a man with a large mustache. "I am the brilliant Dr. Eggman, and may I ask what your designation and primary function is?"
"Designation: Unknown, Primary Function: Serve Master Robotnik." the robot said in a monotone voice.
"Excellent, it worked!" Eggman said excitedly to himself.
"Question: What worked?" the robot asked curiously.
"Nothing you should be worried about, but for now, lets get you ready for testing." the Doctor said as he undid the clamps that were keeping the robot down. "Your designation is Prototype: A-987, and you will follow all of my commands, correct?"
"That is correct, Master Robotnik." said A-987 as it sat up, taking note of its master's appearance.
"I would prefer it if you called me Dr. Eggman." the Doctor said as he lead the prototype out of the room.
"Question: But isn't that what your enemies call you as an insult?" the robot asked as it took in its surroundings.
"Yes, so?" Eggman asked impatiently.
"Question: Then why would you happily prefer that designation over your true one? It is illogical, it should bring you offense, not-" A-987 started to reason before Eggman interrupted.
"Because by showing that I don't mind the insult, it renders it useless!" Eggman explained in a frustrated tone as they reached a room full of tools and various experimental weapons.
"But that would mean you are accepting the fact that you are roughly 336lbs over your ideal weight for someone of your age, but you are still offended by other weight related insults, which negates the need to alter your-" A-987 began to point out, before he was cut off.
"ENOUGH!" Eggman shouted. "You're supposed to be helping me achieve world domination, NOT pointing out my weight problems!" the Doctor said as he took something off a rack that looked foreign amongst all the weapons: a gold colored shield with silver edges and Eggman's logo upon it, which he handed to A-987. "I want you to head over to the testing room right now so we can see how well you'll do in combat."
"Question: Where is the testing room, and why can't you take this Unit there in person?" the robot asked as it attached the shield to its right arm.
"I can't show you myself because I need to prepare another Unit to help you SHOULD you succeed in the testing room's conditions. As for where the room is, just link up to the computer database, then you can have entire building's layout uploaded to your hard drive." Eggman said as he was leaving the armory.
"Yes Master Robotnik." said A-987 as it walked over to a computer terminal, while taking note of its appearance in reflection on the computer screen.
It had a dark blue hedgehog like head, with seven 'quills' emerging from the back, while its eye's 'whites' were red, and there were yellow pupils in the center. Its torso was blue and somewhat round, while its 'stomach' was shell like and yellow. On its shoulders were a pair of pads that had three curved spikes on each one. Its arms were thick and yellow, while the hands were blue with grey fingers. But strangely his right arm was noticeably larger from below the elbow, and on the palm was a hole that had a small energy generator inside that was glowing softly. Its legs were metallic grey, while the feet were red with a white stripe down the middle, with three spikes on the tip. On its back were three tubes that appeared to be some thrusters with a pair of wings that were at the moment folded.
"Interesting." said the machine as it downloaded all the information about the Egg Carrier 3.0, and in doing so noticed that there was a file he could not gain access to, but simply figured that he was not yet trusted enough by the Doctor to access them yet.
As soon as it got what it needed, A-987 left the database and made its way over to the testing room, where he found another a robot there waiting for him.
"Question: What is your designation?" A-987 asked the robot, which bore a great resemblance to him, only it was completely blue and it had a jet engine in its chest.
"Designation: Metal Sonic, the Doctor said that I would be your partner IF you are successful in the testing room." said Metal Sonic while gesturing to the open door.
"This Unit SHALL be successful in there." A-987 said as it entered the room.
The moment the droid entered the room the door slid down behind him, sealing him off from escape as several laser cannons descended from the ceiling and began firing at him, but their shots were deflected back by the shield, just before being destroyed by the laser cannon in A-987's right arm. Once it was through with that, it continued down into a hallway were it found several different robot types waiting for him.
"Objective: Destroy Unit A-987!" an Egg Knight shouted just before it got decapitated by A-987's thrown shield, which rebounded off the wall and returned to A-987, just in time to protect him from the Areo-cannons' laser fire.
"Useless pieces of junk!" A-987 shouted before taking them out with a few remote control mines. "THIS is the challenge Doctor Robotnik had for this Unit? This Unit could manage this while recharging!" It punctuated this comment by freezing an Egg Shooter's gun barrels shut with a frost gun, just before slicing off its arms with one of two curved blades that appeared on the back of each of its hands. Before A-987 could finish off the robot however its sensors made it aware of some missiles that were coming up from behind, which were quickly disposed of by A-987's flamethrower, which strangely moved in a wave like manner, and then destroyed the Egg Launchers with some lightning bolts created by the built in generator.
Once all the enemies had been cleared out, the door behind A-987 slid open, revealing Doctor Eggman and Metal Sonic.
"Excellent A-987! You have exceeded my expectations!" the Doctor declared triumphantly.
"Those machines were not much of a challenge to me, Dr. Robotnik." said the robot smugly.
"Evidently we still need to make you understand I'm now called Dr. Eggman." the Doctor grumbled. "But for now I have an assignment for you and Metal Sonic."
"What is your command, Dr. Robotnik?" A-987 asked.
"It's EGGMAN!" Eggman shouted in frustration. "But anyways, G.U.N. Has recently been working on a prototype hacking code that could spell doom for my plans, so I need you two to go out, find the base the virus is stored at, and destroy all the files on it while bringing me the code itself."
"Question: Why do you wish to keep the code around if it is such a large danger to your operations?" A-987 asked.
"So I can use it on my enemies!" Eggman explained in a tone that showed he was getting extremely frustrated. "Now go get me that code!"
"Yes Master Robotnik." said A-987 as it headed toward the drop off bay with Metal Sonic.
"EGGMAN!" the Doctor yelled in frustration.
July 6 2011
Station Square, Museum of Science and History
3:24 a.m.
It was quiet inside the Security guard room, there was only a few guards on duty because of a cold that had started to break out.
"How's everything in the geology room Bill?" one of the guards, a muscular lion, asked his partner, a green iguana who was munching on some donuts.
"Same as always Matt, boring and uneventful." Bill said while biting into his chocolate snack. "You'd think with something as valuable as a two foot diamond here someone would try to steal it by now."
"You almost sound unhappy about it." said Matt.
"At least it would give us something to do." Bill said, just before the room started to fill with greenish gas. "What the-?" he cried out before falling unconscious from the gas.
Inside the geology room, a figure was descending from a hole in the glass roof top. It was a female bat wearing a black skin tight outfit with a heart shaped breastplate and white boots that also had hearts on them.
'Looks like I've hit the jackpot.' Rouge thought to herself as she carefully cut through the glass before pulling it out and reaching inside for the diamond. Before she could store the gem someplace safe though, she found herself being lifted into the air and slammed against the tiled floor. "Hey! Who did-" she began to say before she spotted her attacker.
It was what appeared to be a grey female raccoon wearing a dark blue sweater, grey sweat pants, dark blue gloves, black skates with a design painted on the sides, a red pouch on her leg, a black thief mask, and navy blue goggles on her forehead, and at the moment she was placing something inside the glass case while removing the diamond.
"This'll fetch a good price." the newcomer said as she placed the gem into her leg pouch.
"Mind if I know the name of the person stealing MY jewel?" Rouge asked as she got up from the floor.
"Call me Tanuki, and this gem was never yours." the newcomer said while walking down the hallway.
"Where do you think you're going?" Rouge asked.
"To my safehouse, and you can't come." Tanuki said as she started climbing onto some display cases to reach an open air vent.
Before she could climb through though the vent however, she was knocked away by a dummy ring bomb.
"You're not leaving until you give me back MY diamond!" Rouge yelled before she flew up into the air and threw another dummy ring bomb at Tanuki, who dodged it while pulling out a dark blue gun with something painted on the side.
"Sorry, but I require this gem for something." Tanuki said as she pulled the trigger, causing a bolt of electricity to be fired out the barrel, which Rouge just barely managed to fly away from.
"Nice aim, you practice much?" Rouge tauntingly asked while attacking with her Screw Kick move.
"Obviously, why wouldn't I try out my own equipment?" Tanuki shot back while both dodging Rouge's attack and pulling out a pair of nightsticks that had hooks on the end.
"What're those, your back scratchers?" Rouge mocked.
"Not quite." Tanuki said as she pressed a hidden on the sides, making the hooks start arcing with electricity. "These have a few extra features!" she shouted as she swiped the hook at Rouge, which made the hooked end fly out, still attached to the handle by a small chain, and wrap itself around the bat's leg while giving her a huge shock.
"Like it? It took me a while to find a good metal to make the chain out of, but I think this will work quite nicely!" she shouted as she pulled on the chain, forcing Rouge down towards her before being punched away, causing her to collide with a pillar, heavily disorientating the bat.
"I think I'll take my leave now." Tanuki said as jumped through the vent, making sure she regained her sleep gas pump at one point, then climbed out onto the rooftop and ran off.
"I hate you Tanuki." Rouge muttered while pulling herself up. 'I wonder what she placed in the display case.' she thought while she was trying to get some feeling into her wings. But when she saw what was in there, she became even angrier than before.
It was a calling card, and it was of a raccoon wearing a blue cowl with openings for the ears, black rings around the eyes which were white, and clearly visible cheek fluff, while on the back of the card was a typed on message in bright green ink that read 'Courtesy of the Master Thief Tanuki'.
"I HATE you Tanuki!" Rouge shouted while ripping the card up, but was forced to leave when she heard several sirens approaching the museum. "I'm going to find you Tanuki, and when I do, you'll see why you shouldn't steal MY gems!" she promised herself as she flew out the hole she originally entered through.
July 6 2011
Station Square, Green Avenue
3:49 a.m.
Tanuki skated down the streets as fast as she could before reaching her destination: a small house that had Chaotix written on the mail box. Making her way around the house, Tanuki climbed up the drainage pipe and climbed through the window, where she quickly grabbed some clothes before exiting the room and entering the bathroom, where she took off her mask, cleaned the black make up off of her face, and washed the black paint out of her tail. Once she was finished removing her disguise Selina Hardy left the bathroom, reentered the room, and sat down on the end of the bed, where Jason had thankfully not woken up.
'Don't worry Trickster, I will be joining you shortly.' Selina thought while taking out a dark blue laptop. 'I just gotta sell this gem first.'