"Okay, so, here's what we do," Nathan began as he and Desmond walked towards the Nintendo-Microsoft headquarters the next morning. The two went in three days a week, since their respective classes were almost complete, plus the internship counted as both college credit and job experience. That day was their last for the week, after which were classes and homework. "After we're done for the day, I'll take you to where I discovered the old SEGA office."

"Won't we be in danger of getting caught," Desmond asked dryly.

"Dude, only you actually noticed I was gone last time. It'll be fine." The brown-haired Floridian doubted that, but because of what he found out the night before he didn't want to waste the opportunity. "So, did you read up on the company too?"

"Yeah, I did. Typical story of a big name that was slow to change to keep up with the market like so many others, its only glory days in the archaic 16-bit era. Got itself a Robot Master mascot of its biggest cash cow like so many, but in the long run it was too little too late. Poor thing wound up stolen by Dr. Wily."

"Yeah, that was the final nail in the coffin," Nathan mused. He smiled again and added giddily, "Maybe we'll find something left of that robot!" Desmond huffed out a laugh.

"I doubt it. We'll see."

"SEGA?" Desmond's supervisor grimaced in thought as he tried to recall where he heard that name from. "Hmm... I know of the name. It's old, and long gone. One moment, please." The brunette nodded as the shorter Japanese man dug a little into his desk. He reached into the very back of his cabinet to the very first materials he received as a rookie, back when the company still thought its own detailed history was worth going over. Lately the new talent barely knew the company's most influential leaders or even the fact the company was once two separate entities from two centuries ago.

The man grinned once he found what he was looking for and handed the papers to Desmond, "Here. This has the mention of SEGA, as Nintendo's biggest rival."

"No way," Desmond replied, skimming over the text. "The Net doesn't mention that."

"There is much the Net doesn't mention. It has been so long since the start of the digital age, and bits rot eventually. As much as there is, there was a whole lot more. But yes, that says SEGA was Nintendo's biggest rival before SONY overtook both companies with their PlayStation console at one point in time. The old console wars were interesting. It kept everyone on their toes, and the winners were always the gamers."

"That is really cool, Hizashi, thanks for the info," Desmond said with a grin as he handed back the papers. "I just thought Miyamoto and Gates were the main guys."

"Oh no, of course not. There was Inafune, Naka, Sakurai, Kojima, Iizuka, Howard, Knowell, so many others."

"So, was this building really SEGA's, too?"

"That I don't know. Maybe. This city isn't Tokyo anymore, so comparing old records are useless without photos or someone old enough to remember. Why do you ask?"

"Nate thinks he found SEGA's old offices in the back of the building, stowed away and just left there to sit since no one uses that part." Hizashi lifted his eyebrows in interest.

"Well, if he spelunks back there and finds something cool let me know!" Desmond laughed. "Just be careful, I heard that part of the building isn't as structurally sound as it used to be."

"We'll be careful, boss. He's dragging me with him, so between the two of us it should be fine."

"Then I have no worries," Hizashi said with a big smile.

At the end of the boys' work day they gathered their personal items like usual, but didn't exit the building just yet. Instead, Nathan took Desmond down the mail route he had taken just the day before, though with a bit of trouble at the start since he had been running on autopilot before he realized where he had ended up. Still, between the two of them it only took a few more minutes for Nathan to find the right hallway and the lad nearly sprinted down the vacant area.

Desmond took his time, looking around at the sudden change of scenery. Everything from the cubicle walls to the lighting was so dated! No wonder Nathan described it as being transported to another world! Except for their steps, everything was quiet. Air still circulated, but with all the dust on the carpet and the vacant cubicle walls it smelled slightly stale. All it needed was a little cleanup and no one would know the area was essentially abandoned and forgotten.

"Des, over here," Nathan whispered hoarsely, as if someone lurked around the corner to come out and scold them any minute. Desmond trotted to catch up, turning an inconspicuous corner and stopping cold at an out-of-place wooden door. Its hinges were rusted, but intact. Also, were the lights on?

"Looks like someone else was here," concluded the brunette.

"No, no one else was," Nathan replied, "I turned on the lights when I first looked inside." Nathan turned the knob and opened the door, letting Desmond in first to take stock of the obvious front desk entrance to a particular department. Desmond gasped lightly at the intact SEGA logo above the dusty desk, staring in amazement at the evidence that left no more doubts.

Both young men fixed their eyes on the as of yet unopened door in front. They gulped and each took a breath. Desmond worked the old thing open, the task surprisingly easy. A dark hallway of only doors greeted them, most of the light bulbs no longer working. A few flickered, but it only added to the image of a stereotypical foreboding and dangerous area right out of horror movies.

The two walked forward slowly, listening for anything out of the ordinary. The left side eventually opened up to more cubicles, only that time instead of empty unused space there were relics of the past. Old desk chairs, computers, printers, tons upon tons of old LCD and LED screens and mice both wireless and none. Numerous keyboards sat slowly wasting away, all of them covered in a film of dust. The tech baffled the boys a little bit. Those kinds of electronics were things one saw in a museum. They hadn't been manufactured in years and were therefore rare finds, yet there sat more discarded old computers than they had ever seen in one place, almost all of them complete.

Whiteboards on the walls with text still on them were cracked from disuse, the work area giving the impression that whoever used to work there had left in a hurry. The one event where people had to quickly evacuate back then could only be the last eruption of Mt. Fuji. Nathan pulled ahead while Desmond looked over the old computer systems, walking further along the workspace to another door that strangely stood out among the rest. It looked made of heavy material, probably metal. What would a video game company need such a fortified entrance for? What secrets did they hold that they didn't want anyone else to know?

He tried to turn the handle, grunting at the fact it wouldn't budge. There was a keypad next to the handle, but it looked dead. If he could pry it open he could probably force it to unlock. The ginger lad ran back to the hallway and dove into the closest office, rummaging through the desk inside for something like a screwdriver or letter opener, anything to act like a lever to pry open the keypad panel.

"Ah-hah," Nathan cheered victoriously, holding aloft a sturdy letter opener before sprinting back to the metal door Desmond now noticed and currently contemplated. "Okay, let's get this sucker open!"

"I have a bad feeling about this, Nate," Desmond told him warily. "We're still in the building for Nintendo-Microsoft. We don't need to be taking anything from here."

"Who said we're taking anything? I just want to see what's here and find out exactly why a perfectly good section of the building hasn't been used," Nathan replied, grunting as he worked open the old keypad and grinning when it successfully popped off. Inside was a reset button. Most had them to unlock the door and reset the code. He pressed it, rejoicing quietly at the sound of the latches coming away from the doorframe and easily opened it.

What greeted them made both stop in their tracks and gape in awe. It was yet another separate room, brightly lit and filled with modern-looking computers and servers. A single capsule occupied the middle of the room, a red light blinking near the bottom. All the computer screens were dark, though still plugged in and probably still had power. The capsule obviously still had power flowing through it, though it was surprisingly short.

"Oh my god," Desmond gasped. "There's a reploid here? Why is there a reploid here?"

"I dunno, man. This isn't legal. We need to report this," Nathan realized.

"No one's gonna believe us, not without proof. We gotta get this poor thing out of here first."

"But Des, we don't know the first thing about these capsules!"

"What's to know? All you gotta do is find the right command. Look, we gotta do something."

"But what if it's an old Maverick?" Desmond huffed irritably as he made his way over to a computer to boot it up.

"Why would a game company harbor a Maverick? What are they gonna do with it? Mavericks are destroyers, nothing more. Can you see what it looks like?" Nathan peeked through the tinted glass front of the capsule, tilting his head right and left for a better angle. Squinting didn't help, nor did pasteing half his face to the glass.

"Not really," he answered, watching Desmond boot up the computer systems in charge of the capsule's operations. The machines hummed to life as the blinking red light on the capsuke suddenly turned green and let out a loud hiss as it unsealed itself. The boys jumped back in a near panic as the capsule door slowly lifted up, half-expecting to be threatened or reduced to ashes.

They were treated with nothing. Nothing stepped out of the capsule, though it was fully open. The computer beeped with a notification, but the two barely heard it. They could see the prone mechanical being fully now, and they could hardly believe their eyes. They had both read that SEGA had a robot mascot made like so many other companies and franchises had done back in the day, but for some reason there wasn't anything more specific than that. Nintendo was no stranger to crossover games, particularly those featuring the biggest name under their old rival company, and there were still posters and other images of Mario and a blue spiney creature.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," Nathan almost wheezed. "They made a robot of Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"Oh my god," Desmond breathed. "What are the chances this thing'd still be here? Why is it here?"

"Hey, that's disrespectful, don't call him an it."

"Nate, robots back then weren't sentient. Not even Rockman."

"I beg to differ, but whatever. The real question is: why isn't he booting up?" At that, Desmond checked the computer again. He grunted at the large list of problems that needed addressing. Of course, since the robot master had been in stasis for more than a century, everything needed to be checked and/or maintained.

"God, almost everything is flagged," Desmond tsked, shaking his head. "Fluids, wiring, diagnostics, outer shell, cleaning... Surprised nothing in its brain is flagged."

"Okay, so all we have to do is top him off and do some basic maintenance."

"Which we don't know anything about." Desmond sighed and shut everything down again, both boys watching the capsule close. "It's best we leave this alone." Nathan pouted, not fully convinced it was best to leave such a valuable relic to continue rotting away forgotten in a building owned by a company that wouldn't care about it anyway. He reluctantly exited the room with Desmond, remaining quiet as they walked out of the abandoned office space of SEGA and turned off lights as they went. He tried not to wince at the lonely echo of the front door closing.