"What do you mean it won't work?!" Robotnik growled impatiently, looking over the scepter through the heavy glass, glaring it down, "why not?!"
"I mean it is not feasibly plausible to use an electric blast to pull power out of the scepter," Metal answered just as impatiently as the doctor, tapping his foot now, "whatever this power is, it doesn't want to be separated and simple electric shocks aren't going to make it any more likely to do so."
The two glared each other down for a moment, both equally annoyed at the lack of progress they'd been making on extracting power from the scepter. It had been two months since Metal was put on the job of overseeing the extraction and making sure the vessel for the power was able to handle it, but they had yet to make any sort of headway with getting the power out to begin with and it was clearly putting both Metal and Robotnik even more on each other's nerves than ever before.
"Well, what about using chaos emeralds?"
"We've tried that, it only threatens to break the scepter and release –all- of the energy instead of just a small portion."
"What if we just open it a little and close it really quickly?"
Metal gave the doctor one of the most incredulous looks a robot could even manage, clearly amazed at how stupid that suggestion even was and having no answer beyond just calling him a complete idiot. To the point that resisting doing so was almost physically causing him pain.
"Look, this isn't going to be a simple answer and I'm not going to get anywhere with you constantly bothering me," Metal finally stated, "just let me work and I'll figure it out, I think I might have an idea but I don't know the details yet and I can't figure them out if I'm squabbling with you over things we've –already- tried!"
Robotnik gave the robot an indignant look before scoffing and turning on his heels to storm off, "fine! But figure it out already, we're wasting time!"
"Yeah, we…," Metal growled, turning back towards the computer to run a few more tests on his potential idea. Even he was running out of ideas on how to accomplish this extraction and it was getting on his nerves, he should be able to figure this out! He was brilliant, after all! Glaring over at the scepter, he growled at it out loud before shoving his chair away to stand up and march into the room so he could properly stare the offending item down. Moving the glass aside, he reached over and picked the scepter up, turning it over a few times in his hand as he walked out of the cornered off room and to one of the larger machines, setting it inside it and closing the solid iron door. Making sure the cable between the machine and the capsule was properly connected, he went back to the computer to start a new process.
The machine whirred to life soon enough, sending jolts and high bursts of energy through the scepter, the direction and flow being controlled by Metal through the computer. Electric shocks hadn't worked, but he was hoping energy might work to overflow the scepter just enough that some of the trapped power might seep out if he kept a close control over the wavering of power instead of just letting it zap through. He had even gone to the trouble of hunting a Chaos Emerald down for this specific purpose, though would, of course, have other uses for it if this didn't work out. The machine sparked and whirred about, sending a flux of power through the scepter inside its chambers, but just as with many other experiments, this one soon turned into a violent lash out from the scepter, itself, and Metal had to quickly shut the machine down before it exploded from the tripled power levels.
Sighing heavily, Metal punched the wall beside him, leaving a heavy dent in his fury, growling under his breath and ranting about the scepter to himself. "I will overcome you, scepter! You will bow to my whim sooner or later!" he raged out, glaring towards the machine's doors, knowing the scepter now sat idle, taunting him and his efforts, "you will not make a fool of me, whatever you are!" And he would do everything in his abilities to make that a true statement, no matter how long he had to sit in that room and no matter what he had to hunt down to make it so.
RK stared through the window, arms crossed and finger tapping anxiously on the opposite arm. He had the day off and during a casual stroll around the normal streets, he had finally made a decision about buying a doll for Itara. Now he just had to carry this plan out but was having more of a problem than he had ever expected. He had walked past the store twice now, stared the doll down, grumbled, and walked away without going inside, now he was back for a third time and wondering, once again, how to even go about this.
The decision, itself, was hard enough to make considering everything he had to take into consideration before making it. There was the question of whether Itara would need or even want a doll in the first place, but after studying other children long enough he had decided that yes, she did need one, even if she didn't want one. But then there was the matter of what kind of doll Itara would like, considering she wasn't exactly a normal child, and even normal children differed greatly from one another. After much debate, he had finally decided it would be the creepy little doll he had spotted on his way home awhile back. This, however, lead to his final problem… how did he go about buying this doll?
He was no stranger to shopping at this point; he had to do a bit here and there to keep up maintenance and small upgrades since Itara left. But those were robotic parts… for a robot, which he was… this was a child's toy. He wasn't a child. Would he get more strange looks? Would it raise suspicion? Finally, sighing heavily, he stood up straight and marched right into the shop and right over to the doll, reaching up to grab it and march it over to the counter, without a word. The shopkeeper, who was sitting comfortably behind the counter on a plush looking stool, looked up at the stern-looking pirate-man with a much softer expression than RK ever imagined getting, "well, finally decided to come in, did you?"
RK was left a bit shocked by the reaction and took a moment to respond, but eventually managed a nod, "Yes… I had many decisions to make before coming to the conclusion of what must be done."
The shopkeeper, a rather elderly fox, simply nodded and started ringing the doll up, "got a little girl that's hard to shop for?"
"Very." Once again, the shopkeeper just nodded and reached under his counter to pull out a small box filled with colorful ribbons, holding it out towards RK.
"That doll's a bit odd, I have to admit, won't sell for the life of him… your little girl must have strange tastes to decide she wants that one. But tell you what, we'll get him all dressed up nice for her, huh? What's her favorite color, then?"
"She certainly isn't a normal child and I… don't actually know what her favorite color is…," RK confessed, making a slight face that he didn't know that information. Was that something he should know about her? Perhaps he would have to ask her about it once she got back, he logged it away for later just in case. "She's away at the moment, though, and I thought she would like it when she comes back, is all," he added, thinking it might help the situation. He wasn't sure about any of this, really. The shopkeeper seemed to understand much as, once again, he nodded understandingly.
"Alright, let's use one that matches, hm? How about a pretty white ribbon?" the he asked, waiting for an unsure nod from the big red robot before pulling a lacy white ribbon out of the box and tying it nicely around the fox doll's neck. He then checked the doll over to make sure everything was in order, pulled a small cloth out to shine the red jewel up, then placed it in a big antiques bag, "well, that should about do it and at the sale price that little doll comes out to about… 2 rings."
RK stared at the man strangely for a moment, "is… is that all? Really?" Maybe it's just because he didn't buy dolls, but that just seemed so very cheap. But again, the shopkeeper nodded to confirm, that was, indeed, all, so RK paid the man and took the bag with the doll, "are you sure?"
Laughing, the shopkeeper waved him off, "I am absolutely sure, just make sure that little girl of yours has the best coming home gift you can possibly manage… and come back sometime once she gets home, I'd love to see her just once." It was RK's turn to nod, this time, as he did so and turned to leave the shop, looking down at the doll through the opening in the bag for just a moment before finally heading back to his empty living quarters. He had a feeling this would make him just that much more anxious for Itara's return, so he could give her the gift and see how she felt about it… and to ask her favorite color, while he was at it.
Metal was ready to smash everything in the room to bits and pieces. He had failed far more than he would ever admit with this entire task and it was grating heavily on whatever nerves he had, to the point that he had to request permission to go out for a very long run to cool his systems down enough and clear some of the clutter in his head out. There was still so much left to do and they still couldn't even figure the first part of this entire ordeal out and not only was time running out, but so were his ideas and Robotnik had nothing useful to add whatsoever.
For once he had no planned destination during his run but, instead, just took off in the first direction that looked decent for a long stretch. Along the way, being away from Robotnik and his consistent interruptions, he had a chance to reorganize the plethora of information that had gathered up over the past few months into far more manageable sectors. He took all the failed experiments and went over every aspect, taking into consideration what failed outright and what seemed to have gotten some sort of response, then took a further look into what got a response and what kind of response it got. Finally, he took into consideration what they had in common and how they differed from each other before he went about organizing all the information he had received about the power in the scepter and made a coherent, detailed description to apply to all the reactions.
Eventually, with everything sorted out, it hit him what needed to be done to make this mission a success. Deciding he would get a few more miles out of his run, he started creating a new, revised plan so he could figure out the details now instead of while at the base. After a couple more miles, he made a wide round-about to turn back the other way and head back to the base, now knowing what needed to be done and wanted to get to it right away to find out if he was right not. He was sure he was right this time, it was the only logical conclusion!
Metal wasted no time upon reaching the base, going right back to the lab without a single word to Robotnik about his elation, and got right to work setting up for the new experiment. Firstly, he had to get the scepter back in the large, energy-storing machine and set it up to transfer energy from the scepter to the girl again. Once that was done and some precautions were taken, Metal then moved to the capsule, itself, and, with no hesitation whatsoever, began waking the sleeping girl. Live body, that's what the power wanted, it wanted a fully alive, breathing body to transfer into, not an unconscious, unaware, sleeping one. He knew Robotnok probably wouldn't be all too happy about waking the girl already, but if this was what the ultimate goal was, anyway, then he was sure this was how it needed to be done. Getting the girl's life signatures up, he went back to the computer and began the process again. He wouldn't fail for sure this time! He had to succeed this time!
As the process began again and the machines whirred up and the girl's increased heartrate started beeping away on the screen, a loud, blaring alarm rung throughout the base. Growling viciously, Metal slammed a fist on the keyboard, glaring almost wildly towards the door, knowing he would be called to whatever was going on as soon as he heard the word 'intruder' follow the alarm. Looking towards the girl and making sure she wasn't going anywhere, then towards the scepter to make sure it wasn't, either, he gets up and runs out of the room and down the long hallways to find out who would dare interrupt him at the edge of a breakthrough, following the sounds of chaos breaking out.
It didn't take him long to find the source of the interruption and grew all the angrier at the reveal. Making her way through the group of following robots was Rouge the Bat, no matter what she was after here he wasn't going to have any of it. Not now. As soon as she spotted him, however, her expression changed far more than he was comfortable with, as it had changed to one of recognition, one you might turn to a friend. She was no friend of his. He would make this clear soon enough. Charging his circuitry up again, he took off after her, as well, changing her expression quickly enough as she just barely dodged to the side of his attack. "Aw, c'mon, Metal, don't be like that now."
"Don't talk to me so familiarly," Metal growled, sending her flying across the room with one swift kick, following quickly after her only to be stopped by a sudden explosion from down the hall in the direction of the labs. Scoffing angrily again, he glared back at Rouge before turning to run back down the hall and make sure his experiment wasn't interrupted. It was far more important than anything Rouge could possibly manage and he needed to make sure nothing disturbed it. His worst fears were realized, however, as it had been the doors to the lab that had exploded and not only was Shadow standing there with the scepter in hand in the room… but the girl was gone. Shadow wasted no more time with words than Metal did, as the robot's hand began sparking wildly, but he just barely missed the black hedgehog before he teleported himself off.
NO! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING AGAIN! JUST AS HE'D FIGURED IT OUT… THEY HAD TO COME AND RUIN IT ALL! WHY?!
WHY?!
Without even waiting for further instruction from Robotnik, absolutely enraged by this point, Metal took off out of the base, taking the quickest route and making sure Rouge was either gone or being taken care of. Just as he'd expected, she had escaped with Shadow… but he would track them down. He wouldn't lose that scepter after all this trouble now! Shadow was fast, but he was still faster, he could catch up to them… and he'd do whatever it took to get that scepter back. His efforts wouldn't be wasted!
Metal reached the outside soon enough and checked which direction Shadow and Rouge were trying to escape in, only taking a moment to do so, and quickly took off, nearing full speed, to reach them before they could get far while planning exactly what he would do to each of them once he caught them. What he couldn't plan for, however, was the sudden interference that darted up and stopped him in his tracks, sending him crashing to the ground and sliding back several feet. He didn't have time for this! Who dared get in his way yet again?!
Growling, enraged, furious, so very near a breaking point, he pulled himself to his feet to face his sudden attacker, standing in confused rage for a moment as he processed what he was looking at. It took him quite a few, long moments, but finally it dawned on him who he was glaring down.
"RK?"
