Chapter 14 Robotropolis

The city of Mobotropolis had been built thousands of years ago and had stood through three wars, including the Great War. At its heart, Acorn Castle had stood through those same wars that had been waged at its doorstep and backyard. And, sitting in the throne for all those thousands of years since it had been built, was an Acorn. An Acorn had always held the throne through all the wars and upheavals that had occurred throughout the past three thousand years.
That had all changed when Julian Kintobar came to Mobotropolis and became Warlord for one week. After that, everything changed. Kintobar renounced his heritage, changed his name, and took over the kingdom in one day. Once King Maximillian Acorn was dethroned, Ivo Robotnik began rebuilding the city in his image. Acorn Castle became his base of operations while the city became his manufacturing plant.
Mobotropolis became Robotropolis, the throne becoming his command chair, the citizens of the former Mobotropolis becoming his slaves. He turned the citizens of the city into his slaves through the same process that turned Sir Charles Hedgehog's brother into a robot. With a few modifications, Robotnik was able to roboticize almost the entire populace of the city in less than two weeks. The newly roboticized citizens of the former kingdom became workers in Robotnik's factories. Robotnik's factories produced pollution, robots, and toxic waste in his conquest to take over the planet and remake it in his image, polluting and destroying everything in his path.
The command center stood over a hundred feet high and was shaped like an egg, and had hundreds of cables, each the size of a house, running from the base of it to the adjacent structures. Each of the other buildings was squat and square and filled with humming machinery and computers. Around the perimeter of the entire compound, Robotnik had constructed a giant wall twenty feet in height, which was guarded by his SWATbots and remote control cameras. Deep inside the city, Robotnik and his assistant stood and looked out the windows at the top of the command center.
"Snively, look at it: it's all ours! All the pollution, toxic waste, factories… we could control the planet in a matter of days!" Robotnik spoke. His assistant, Snively, was his nephew from Earth. They had been traveling from Miami to Bermuda when the plane they were on crashed into Mount Mobius.
"Yes, sir. But what about the blue hedgehog we chased the other day?" Snively asked in his nasal voice.
"Ahh, yes… the hedgehog. He's nothing to worry about. Remember… we have size on our side; we're larger, stronger, more powerful than any Mobian could ever hope to be." Robotnik said, turning away from the window. "Snively, they don't stand a chance against us. No one does… we'll destroy them without a problem." Behind Robotnik, one of the monitors starting blinking. Snively ran over and pulled up the information from the camera network.
"Sir, a human has been detected approaching the compound from the North." Snively said, looking at the controls and video feeds for the camera system. Robotnik went to the control panel and scanned through the SWATbot video feeds, hoping that the hedgehog would have the courage to try a direct attack on his fortress. On one of the cameras, he spotted a human sneaking around the shadows at the edge of the forest. "Shall I dispatch the 'bots?" Robotnik walked over and looked at the camera view. Snively had the commands typed into the computer, all it was waiting for was someone to enter the activation command that would bring the robots out of patrol mode.
"No… I'll handle this one." Robotnik said as he spun on his heel and walked out the door. He boarded the lift and arrived on the ground floor within a few minutes. Once there, he picked his portable roboticizer from the weapons rack and went outside.

"Sam… you see him anywhere?" Aaron asked. They stood outside of Robotropolis at the edge of the forest just south of the command center. Aaron was scanning the city with his camera and taking the occasional picture. Off to one side, Aaron swore he saw someone moving amongst the shadows.
"Aaron… isn't that the fat man… what's his name?" Sam asked. She was looking through a pair of binoculars at the city.
"Where you lookin'?" Aaron asked. Sam pointed to where she was looking. Aaron focused the camera as well as he could and adjusted several different dials to try to see where she was looking clearly. After deciding that the lens he had on the camera was not powerful enough, he dug out the long-range zoom lens and focused it on the same spot. This time he was able to see clearly.
Standing just outside of what appeared to be the main gate was a man who looked to be about seven feet tall and possibly weighed about four or five hundred pounds. He had some kind of weapon in his right hand, though Aaron could not tell for sure what it was. About fifty yards away from where the fat man was standing, Neile was hiding in the shadows under a lamppost. Sam was tempted to run out and drag Neile back, but Aaron held her back.

"Snively, where is he? What was the last known location of the human?" The fat man asked.
"From what this says, the human was last seen about ninety feet from where you are. Would you like me to activate the tracking radar, Doctor Robotnik?" The nasal-voiced person on the other end of the radio asked.
"Never mind… I think I see the human now." The fat man, who had been referred to as Doctor Robotnik, said. Through his long-range lens, Aaron saw Robotnik spot Neile hiding in the shadows. Robotnik started towards where Neile was hiding. Thinking fast, Aaron put the camera down and picked up the nearest rock and threw it as hard as he could towards the fat man. The rock landed a good few feet away from Robotnik, but it had the desired effect.
Robotnik spun around to see where the rock had come from. That was all the time Neile needed; he ran as fast as he could around the corner away from Robotnik. After deciding that the human hiding outside his beloved city was more worth his time than something throwing a rock at him, he turned back around to continue pursuing the human and found that the human had vanished. Swearing under his breath, the fat man radioed back to Snively.
"Snively… where'd he go?"
"I'm not sure, sir."
"Hmmm… okay, I'll let it go for now... one human can't do much to my city. Double the SWATbot patrols around the compound." Robotnik said before turning and walking back to his command center. Inside the forest, Aaron and Samantha took off running through the forest to go find where Neile had run. They eventually ran into Neile hiding outside of a factory.
"Dude! What was all that about? Why'd you just take off without telling us where you were going?" Aaron asked. They had started walking back to the campsite.
"I went walking and got lost. I found myself in front of that city surrounded by big ASIMOs… I didn't know what to do so I hid in the shadows hoping that they'd go away after a little bit. I musta fell asleep, 'cause next thing I know, that fat guy was standing there with some kind of gun in his hand. I saw you guys hiding in the trees and ran when you threw that rock." Neile explained as they walked back to the campsite. It was nearing night, and when they made it back to the campsite, they had something to eat and went to bed for the night.

(End of Chapter 14)