A/N: My last chapter was just about 5k words, this one isn't exactly as long, but should be just as interesting. Anyway, let's see how the heroes are doing after once again thwarting another enemy.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to either Sega or Archie except my OC.
It's been 6 days since the Freedom Fighters defeated the Iron Dominion, and things were winding down. The city was repaired, people were enjoying the freedom that had been denied to them (especially after avoiding being legionized), and some were still celebrating. Others were not as ecstatic however, and with good reason. Upon checking the Detention Center, the Freedom Fighters found that Eggman had escaped. Sonic reasoned that he and Snively might have headed back to the ruins of New Megapolis and already opted to start searching for him. His first lone endeavor resulted in him almost getting killed by a giant robot, so afterwards Tails and Nicole accompanied him, but so far they had no luck.
Among the debris to be cleaned up was what remained of the Hornet. Just from looking at the corpse, one could tell there was practically nothing left to rebuild. The only piece of machinery that survived was its rotary cannon, which got shot off in the fight. Everything else was either cut to pieces or too scorched to be of use. Obviously, Kor was rather upset about it. He could just build another one, but it would take time, and with Eggman on the loose it was something he likely didn't have. That wasn't the only thing the engineer had to worry about however.
Due to how easily the Iron Dominion invaded the city, people weren't as trusting of him as they used to. He heard some comments floating about on how his tech was useless or too deadly to be of use. It seemed that Hornet ended up gunning down a few civilians who resisted while under the Queen's control, and now he was getting some flak for that. People were already debating about it: one side being those who blamed him for certain things and the other being those who understood that it wasn't his fault. However, the engineer still felt that if he had acted sooner, he could've prevented the invasion from happening altogether. Despite his loss, the Council asked if he could build another robot to help defend the city given how well Hornet served, but he needed to make sure it wouldn't be able to be used for evil. Easier said than done, the engineer told them.
Kor told the other heroes about the looks people were giving him now and they assured him he wasn't at fault of what happened, but that didn't put his mind at ease. It kept running through the former merc's mind to the point he questioned if he was being too lenient. He never did follow through with some of his promises to gun someone down, but then again he never had to. Intimidation was usually enough to make an enemy back off, but with recent events he wondered if it was enough.
Today, the engineer was pacing around in his empty hanger in thought. It was a lot more spacious now without the late drone. It was sunny out and the shield was down, so a light warm breeze was flowing. The sentries built inside the wall were on high alert though. Rotor, who was on break from his council duties called out to him. "Mind if I come in?"
"Come on in pardner..." Kor said, giving a side glance.
"Feeling any better?"
"To be frank, heck no..."
"I know it's hard Kor but it's not good for you to be moping all day..." Rotor told him.
"It ain't that easy Rot. Got too much on my mind right now...people bein' distrustin' of me, Hornet's gone, I'm practically sittin' here debating with myself on whether or not I can really kill someone like I used to..." The engineer said as he sat on a large crate. "It still crosses mah mind that I should've just shot them all on site, then maybe nothin' would've happened..."
"There's also your deal with Nicole."
"...She a whole 'nother story pardner..." Kor told him.
Since the events that happened in the digital world, Kor had become rather nervous around her. He wasn't really sure what their relationship would be like at this point. Whether or not something more would come of it was entirely up to them.
"Did you think of talking with a psychiatrist or something? I know Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Nicole are busy at the moment but have you even talked with Antoine and Bunnie since you first told us about this?" Rotor asked.
"To be honest, no...been too preoccupied with mah own thoughts to do much..." Kor said, scratching his hair.
"Well, whenever I think a migrane is on the rise, I usually go build some stuff. Heck, some of the things you see today I made because I was just bored!" He chuckled. "Keeps myself busy for awhile and it does take a load off, might help in your case." Rotor then looked at his watch. "Anyway I gotta head back to the castle." He turned to leave. "Oh, and as for Nicole, think talking with her might help? Could put you at ease for a bit." He suggested before exiting.
Kor watching the walrus leave before going through his thought process again. Maybe making something might help, and since he needed to design and build another robot to replace the gunship, it would be a good time to start. Getting up he walked over to a desk on the left side of the hanger. The engineer pushed aside a couple toolboxes and laid down a blank blueprint.
Running options through his head, "Hmm...I could build another flyin' type, but it may take awhile, and no one knows when Eggman may strike again...probably a regular walker will do." He said to himself as he started drawing. Surprisingly, his eyes and cybernetic hand was making the drawing look almost as if it was done by a computer. It did pay to have a Ph. D. in both robotics and weapon systems. He was so engrossed in his work he didn't notice how much time had passed, until someone tapped his shoulder.
Startled, the engineer whirled around only to find Nicole smiling at him. "O-Oh hey Nicole. D-Didn't think you'd be back so soon." He said, trying to calming himself.
"Soon? It's about 1900hrs." The A.I. stated.
Kor looked outside and noticed the sky was a nice shade of orange. He could also see the shield was on as well. "Oooh...so how'd the s-search go?"
The lynx sighed, ignoring his stuttering. "Inconclusive to a degree. We searched the Eggdome but didn't find any leads to Eggman. However, we did find a new 'friend' as Sonic put it."
"Who is it?"
"Are you familiar with the cyborg known as Dimitri?" She asked.
"Kinda...we saw him during that whole Enerjak situation right?" Kor replied, looking confused.
"Affirmative. It appears he's been cast out of the Legion. He was found inside a box and running low on power."
"Guess Eggman had no further use for him?"
"That's one possibility, or it could be for another reason."
"Well as long as he doesn't cause any trouble I'm ok with him being here." Kor said as he went back to drawing.
Nicole hovered just over his shoulder and looked at the design. Like the Hornet, it was rather unusual for a typical robot. "So what are you making this time?"
"To be honest N-Nikki, I'm tryin' to figure that out...but it's supposed to be a ground-based robot for defensive purposes."
"Is it to replace...you-know-who?..."
"...Yeah...the Council asked if I could build another one of these...I thought about makin' another gunship but it would take months, and with Eggman hidin' somewhere..." Kor fell silent as his eyes began to water again.
Nicole placed a hand on the engineer's shoulder. "Kor...I am truly sorry about what happened to it...like you, I also feel as if a major component had been forcefully taken from me...both of us spent months to build it, and it never got the chance to be used to its full potential..." She said in a sullen tone.
Earlier in the week, Nicole expressed her new understanding of anger at the how Hornet had been used in the same manner as her. It took a majority of a day for her to calm down, during the whole time it was hard just trying to communicate with her.
"That really means alot comin' from you Nicole...still tryin' to move past that by buildin' this thing." Kor replied.
"Well, it may not replace Hornet in our processors, but maybe it can still perform the job well enough." The A.I. suggested. Then she detected a familiar presence enter the city. "It seems Sally has returned from her trip to the Dragon Kingdom."
"Why'd she go there again?"
"She wanted to see if Ken would be able to manage things on his end. I'm going to go see her now."
"Alright. Cya Nikki."
As the hologram disappated, Kor looked over his drawing. "Huh, guess Rotor as right about talkin' with her. Eased me up a bit. Though I need to quit stutterin' around her..." He said as his ears fell flat.
The robot would be designed to walk on 4 legs: two bent in the front and two in the rear. The legs in question had the same dimensions while the main body was somewhat small, yet supposed to be decently armored. The foward-facing legs would weld whatever weapon Kor decided to have it use. The robot's head had an enlongated snout with what looked to be 6 eyes at the very front. In short, the whole thing kinda looked like an arachnid.
"Ok this has to be the weirdest thing I've drawn so far...I doubt bullets would be of use from it unless I mounted weapons on the back, but then those could get shot off..." He thought for a second, thinking of the weapons some of Eggman's robots used. Before he hadn't considered the use of lasers as he felt they could be deflected off something simple like a mirror, and he found bullets to be better. However, this meant he would need to test his theory first. Kor looked outside and found the sun had already set. "Good thing I keep a spare bed here..."
-Somewhere within the Eggdome-
Snively breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Phew...I thought they would've found us this time..."
"You worry too much Snively. I've taken enough precautions to avoid detection. They will find us when I let them." Said an irritated Eggman. He knew Sonic's constant searching would have them stumble upon their hideout at some point, but it wouldn't be any time soon.
"Well then, I believe I'll use this time to make a brief trip to the Dragon Kingdom and-".
"No Snively! I'm not wasting any resources to save your precious "girlfriend!" She had her chance to run things, and she failed. And on to more pressing matters, how is our little patient doing?" Eggman asked with a grin.
"Lien-Da is recovering thanks to the emergency surgery, and the first round of cybernetics proved successful." Snively said dejectedly, reading a chart. "However, I do not see the point of saving her when we have plenty of other legionnaires to use. Plus, she is very untrustworthy..."
"I'm well aware of that Snively, and you aren't trustworthy either. I'm well-aware of the fact many of my subordinates will want to usurp control, but it makes everything all the more interesting!" The doctor chuckled. "But enough jokes. It's time to get back to work!"
-Two Days Later-
As a new week began things had returned to normality. Sonic and Sally went to go settle a dispute between the Wolf Pack Nation and the Mysterious Cat Country and likely wouldn't return for about a day. Kor made steady progress with his project. After some difficulty (including burning himself once), he deduced that lasers would be an effective weapon for his new robot. The power of said weapons could be toned from giving small burns to literally cutting through armor. The only reason it was difficult was due to the fact that back during his mercenary days, the only type of future tech the team was familiar with was particle-based weapons, not beam weapons. The former proved to be obsolete, and the testbed for this was a modified sentry that had its rocket pod replaced.
So far there was still no sign of Eggman, and many hoped it would be kept that way. Sonic wanted to continue searching for him once he and Sally returned, but it seemed that Dark Egg Legion activity was picking up in other regions of Mobius. So now, the Freedom Fighters were prepared to be called for action at any time. Right now Tails was helpng Kor build the robot's body, which was to be the prototype. Nicole once again decided to lend a hand and was making the software. The head was finished along with half of the main body.
Tails wiped some sweat from his brow. "This is gonna be a pretty big one Kor. How long do you think we'll be making this?"
"Welp," He set down two power cores he had built, "By myself, might take a week at most. But with the two of us, I'd say 4 days and this is just the prototype. We got just about everything we'll need. Plus mah old friend Klaus pulled some strings and managed to get me some decent armor that we can put on this thing. It should arrive today." The engineer told him.
"So what exactly is it supposed to do?!" Tails yelled while soldering one of the forward arms to the main body.
"What I had in mind was for it to essentially by a stand-off robot that could in essence act like a self-propelled sentry! It could provide suppressive fire for durations at a time while being smart enough to judge the scenario and act accordingly! Also with the added benefit of shooting down small aircraft!" Kor replied, fitting one of the cores into the arms.
"Kinda sounds like what Hornet used to do...sorry for bringing that up." The kit said as he stopped.
"It's fine. Hornet was more of a close air support drone. This one will almost like a walking tank." Kor boasted with a grin.
"You sure get alot of crazy ideas." Tails chuckled.
"Been there, done that." Kor joked.
"At least we're having some fun while making it. I'm almost 50% done with the program." Nicole stated.
"Ok. Once you're finished Nicole we'll integrate it into the system. Then, once we finish the body, the REAL trials will start."
"Will the trials be similar to how the first one went?" The A.I. asked.
"We should have time to fully test it. Main reason Hornet didn't get a proper trial was due to Eggman suddenly attackin'...but it got some practice breaking into the city." Everyone laughed alittle at the fond memory.
"In all seriousness, what will you test it on?" Tails asked.
"First, we need to see if this armor will be good enough so I'll fire a multitude of weapons at it and hope it holds well. I plan on doing it while it's still turned off. Then we'll-"
"A GUN transport craft has requested permission to land. I have given them the all clear." Nicole suddenly stated.
"Guess your stuff's here then." Tails said.
All 3 walk outside as the GUN ship lands on the airstrip. The rear hatch opens before an overlander soldiers steps out. "Which one of you Kor Royce?"
"That'd be me pardner."
The soldier walked up to him. "Commander Tower has requested that you give a review of the armor once you have thoroughly tested it. Are you willing to comply?"
"Uh...sure I guess?"
Two other soldiers then moved 5 crates out of the aircraft before it took off minutes later. " 'Thorough review?' What kind of armor is this anyway?" Tails asked.
"Well...Doc said it was some experimental stuff GUN was makin' for their robots to combat Eggman. I told him I needed somethin' decent enough and I guess they decide it was a good opportunity to have me test it." Kor explained.
Opening one of the crates they found the armor to have gray coloring with some kind of futuristic appeal to it. After scanning it, Nicole determined it was made with titanium alloys, making it rather light yet effective. Effective thickness was 5 in. in general and greater at certain angles. The two foxes spent the rest of the day soldering armor onto the robot parts that were already made. Nicole also made some good progress as well. She coded in the main processes for the CPU, movement functions and basic targetting protocols. However, she still needed to form the codes as to how this robot will be able to adapt to changes in a battle situation, along with defensive measures, power output, and Kor said he'd help her make a fail-safe to prevent this machine from falling into the wrong hands.
After 3 days passed the robot was finally completed. Standing 8 feet tall, it looked intimidating to approach. It's power source was 2 chaos drives nestled in the robot's core. Both would require changing after certain period of time had passed. The robot was still offline as its code was still missing. Throughout Thursday people heard weapons being fired at the airport, making them think another attack was underway. However it was far from it. Kor lifted his goggles as the smoke cleared from a missile being launched at the drone. It was still standing strong, though some pieces of armor had been ripped off.
"Ok so bullets up to 30mm are ineffective (anything higher might penatrate), rockets only cause scratch marks (only regular rockets, EMPs, or incendiaries may cause damage), missiles have some effect so heavy weapons like anti-tank rifles may be effective..." The engineer said, putting notes on a clipboard.
"From the sounds of everything, I take it that it passed?" Nicole asked as she materialized next to him.
"Seems like it. I fired everythin' I had currently at it. Only thing I didn't test was a heavy weapon like a tank or somethin'."
"I see. Well, you may want to hold off on that today as people are beginning to generate noise complains..." The A.I. stated.
Kor just sighed. "They just don't understand this is for their own safety. It's not like they can do mah job better...one of these days they're gonna end up making a decision they'll regret..."
"...This is about how others have been treating you lately, is that correct?"
Kor didn't respond, only staring. From the silence, she knew the answer.
"Many times we've told you, it wasn't your fault on what happened...I know you keep telling yourself if you acted differently, maybe the outcome would have changed. But...from a logical standpoint, there is nothing we can do now to change that. And based on what you've told me before, you said you would never actually kill another being unless they deserved it. From understanding that, I see that the reason you didn't shoot them was because you hoped you wouldn't have to. We both saw what I assume was fear in their eyes, yet both of us didn't account for the Iron Queen to...you know..." Nicole explained, staring at the ground for a brief moment. "Yet, you, Sonic, Sally, Tails, and Ken came back to protect everyone else. You helped save the city, and despite the loss of Hornet, something greater may take its place." She said, gazing at the inactive robot. "You aren't becoming 'soft' as you describe it Kor, you're just being generous enough to give others a chance before deciding to...execute them." She finished.
Kor mulled over what she told him. In all the hectic activity from last week, he completely forgot how he normally handled dire situations, but then he remembered that encounter with the Destructix. As much as he wanted to shoot them dead, that intimidation factor struck again so he didn't have to do much to make them comply (aside from smacking Fiona so she'd get to the point). Perhaps intimidation was good enough to prevent most issues, for now at least. In the event a battle was to occur however, he would have his weapons primed to kill, he would make sure of that. The engineer made a mental note to ask the Council about a particular issue later.
"...You're right Nicole. I've been thinkin' about everything the wrong way...guess stress will do that. Hell, even Sally was crying when we had to skip town, though I think that might have been mah emotions adding to her stress. I was just so upset over the fact of how easily the city fell. I even told the others this, but I could build a sentry nest that would last hours against attacks, but I forgot to take into account of how big this place is compared to what I was used to. So with that being taken into account, I have a general idea of what to expect. Thanks for clearin' mah head by the way." He said, smiling at her.
"You're welcome. And to brighten your mood further, I finished the coding last night." Nicole replied, handing him a small disk. "As much as I would like to stay to see you activate it for the first time, Rotor requested my assistance with something at his house."
"Um, ok? Did he say what it was?" The engineer asked.
"No, but the look you are giving now was what I had when he asked. Let me know how it goes." She said, winking at him before disappating.
Kor looked at the disk then back at the robot. Taking it out of it's case, he walked up to the robot and opened a slot on its left side. He watched as the slot closed before looking at the robot's face. It gave an empty stare in return, until the glowing red pits of its snout glared back at him as his newest creation jolted awake.
A/N: And that's another one down. Time for a little explanation as the way I explained the robot is quite vague.
The robot Kor had built is actually a monster from the show Code Lyoko that's called a Tarantula. I'm talking about the first series, not the reboot if you ever bothered to watch it. For those who've watched Code Lyoko, you know exactly what the Tarantula is. For those that don't, it's essentially a 4 legged monster Xana created during the first episode of the second season. It's shown to be smart, powerful and deadly: one alone had wiped out the Lyoko Warriors without much effort upon its debut. Of course since then those kids learned how to deal with them but in numbers their threat grows, and on episode 54 3 of them were firing an endless barrage of lasers (though they couldn't seem to hit Odd...).
I saw the reboot of the series, and was rather pissed of how they changed this robot. Instead of firing from its forward legs like in the first series, it fired from the Eye of Xana on its head, which was pretty stupid and I can imagine it's hard to aim like that with the way it was built. Anyway, I decided to use it because 1) it's my favorite monster of the series, and 2) I plan to have it used for quite awhile. More modifications to it will be added as well. You can look on google and youtube to look at it's behavior. Just look from episode 27 and onwards.
