Yay! I finally updated!
Sorry if my writing is off.
I just had a really rough week stressing about a project I got done and some jerk stole my two goats, so I probably won't be able to concentrate on the characters personalities really well. But I'll try my best to make them in-character.
*sigh* My life is messed up sometimes. (Please don't say it sucks to be me, that's NOT what I need to hear right now.)
The sound of computers humming and the range of quiet voices filled Ikki's ears. He felt some surprise to see that he was, indeed, still alive.
Ikki cautiously opened his eyes. Overwhelmingly bright lights nearly blinded him and he had to blink rapidly to ease the glare. As he got used to it, he saw men and women scurrying around hurriedly around some laboratory; not one of them seemed to have noticed him.
Ikki tried to take advantage of this and scoot away, but something immediately stopped him from moving. He looked behind him and pushed down a sigh; his hands was tied behind him with a rough piece of rope against a thick pipe attached to the wall. 'Oh, great...' Ikki huffed.
He frowned and tried to fidget, attempting to loosen his hands from his bonds. However, he ended up rubbing them nearly raw instead. After several failed attempts, a woman suddenly showed up with a clipboard in hand.
"Well, you're finally awake. That's good," she stated, catching the attention of some people around her. She quickly scribbled in some notes. Whatever they were for, Ikki didn't know nor care. The scientists and engineers glanced at him for a moment before continuing their work. There would be time for questions later.
Ikki scowled at the woman, "hey, lady, what's the big idea? Who are you? What do you want with me?"
The woman kept her composure through Ikki's barrage of questions. "My name is Isis. I'm the head of the technology department here. That's the only thing you're allowed to know."
"Well, that's not very fair," Ikki mumbled. Isis merely made a 'hmm' noise and looked at her clipboard again. "You seem to be healthy and in good shape, but I think a physician might have more authority than I do..."
"I think I deserve some answers because I swear I remember something about kidnapping being against the law!" Ikki growled, frustrated with this turn of events. "What are you guys gonna do? Kill me?"
Isis looked him straight in the eye. "You're needed for an important job. You probably wouldn't agree with the way we're doing it, so we had to transport you in rather distasteful fashion," she explained, starting to untie the rope binding Ikki.
The boy raised his brow, "transport?" Ikki's voice cracked slightly. "What do you think I am? Cargo?"
Isis gave a sharp tug to the rope and it slid off Ikki's wrists. She rose up from her crouch and watched as Ikki rubbed the sore areas on his wrists, "I apologize for the sudden shock we gave you, but I hope you'll come to understand why we need you."
Ikki slowly stood up, his legs tingling with pain from sitting down too long. "I might consider your apology if you let me go."
"...Just come with me; you need to be examined so we can see if you're a good fit." Isis beckoned to one of the guards stationed near the doorway of the room.
He was a big, gruff man with a no-nonsense look. He gripped Ikki's shoulder rather tightly and the boy squirmed under the firm hold. "Hey, ease up already!" ...Ikki was starting to realize that his demand to be free was falling on deaf ears.
Ikki ground his teeth in anger and let the guard steer him. He could make up a way to get out of there. He was Ikki Tenryou - he never gave up! He wondered about his Medawatch and vaguely remembered that he had a tracker setting in his watch that he almost never used.
If he could tweak the settings a little, he could activate the tracker, send his coordinates to Metabee's CPU, and his friend could bust him out of there! It was probably a little desperate and risky, but Ikki wasn't going to wait for a new chance to pop up. He could always fix the little flaws later.
The world was a blurry mess as Metabee recalibrated his optics, rebooted his systems, and onlined his programming.
His vision finally cleared and he sat up slowly, holding his head in his hands, "ow, my achin' tinpet... Hey, Ikki, is Ms. Nae still doing that repair discount? Sumilidon did more damage to me than I thought... Ikki?" The robot looked up when he didn't receive an answer and was surprised when he saw the afternoon sky starting to fade into a light orange and blue. It would be sunset in a few hours.
Just how long was he knocked out?
"Where am I? This place looks kinda familiar... Ah, whatever; I better find Ikki. Where is he anyway?" A short-ranged scan told him Ikki was nowhere near his position nor had he been for hours.
"Ugh, I'm gonna kill him when I find him. He's not getting away with ditching me here." After a moment, Metabee decided to get up and actually find his Medafighter than repeat his threats to himself. There was no use for that.
He got up and flinched when he heard a shrill screech coming from his joints - a sure sign he needed to oil them again. Metabee made a mental note of that and walked towards the exit of the park, the forgotten robattle put to rest at the back of his mind.
He was walking along the path, avoiding a patch of weeds every now and then when something white caught his optics. He halted and kneeled to the ground for a better look.
It was a white rag. It looked innocent enough, but Metabee knew he didn't see it earlier and Ikki certainly wasn't carrying it with him. Metabee usually wouldn't have considered it, but scans were showing there was some sort of substance - a drug of some type - on it.
He picked it up and gazed curiously at it, but Medabots didn't have a big advantage when it came to senses: they only had sight, hearing, and pain... Whoever came up with pain sensors for Medabots would've felt the wrath of Metabee!
He shook his head. He couldn't let his train of thought run away. He had to get this cloth with the strange substance to somebody. Dr. Aki? Henry?...
Metabee had a vague feeling in his processor that he should ask Henry.
Weird.
"Finally, I got here! That took forever. Must've taken a wrong turn or something." Metabee panted unnecessarily, a human habit he must have picked up.
Just as he was about to walk forward and enter the store, Metabee caught something hurtling itself at him in the reflection. "What the-!" The 'Bot instinctively and swiftly ducked to his right, narrowly missing a metal hammer that would've put decent-sized dent in his armor.
"Sumilidon, what's wrong with you?" Metabee asked in disbelief and a fair bit of rage. Cheap shots weren't something he usually left unpunished.
The Medabot stood up and faced him silently, ignoring his question. However the question didn't go unanswered. "Why did you clowns keep me waiting?" Koji stalked towards the storefront, furious at the notion that Ikki and Metabee apparently ditched him.
"Keep you waiting?" Metabee was getting angrier; his famous temper began to flare, "you already won! Gave me a few dents I need to hammer out!"
Koji looked confused and annoyed, "you never came! I don't know what's wrong with your memory, but it's obviously faulty! I suggest you get your head checked by that woman! After all, it's not surprising being you're an outdated Medabot."
With no warning whatsoever, Metabee leapt at Koji.
He sprinted towards the suddenly cowering boy with his guns raised and ready. He forgot everything he learned about decency and not shooting at humans in particular. He also forgot about Sumilidon.
He tackled Metabee to the ground and they raised a dust cloud as they both struggled. Sumilidon had to avoid Metabee's fists, and Metabee kept trying to pound his opponent's face in, shouting out rather colorful curses.
The doors suddenly slid open and a flustered Henry darted outside trying to see what was causing a commotion outside his store. "What's going on out here? Break it up, you two!"
Working together, Koji and Henry managed to detangle the brawling Medabots and, with the exception of Metabee, let them go. Henry locked his arms in a hold under Metabee's and kept him off the ground. It wasn't easy given that Metabee's armor was rather heavy and Metabee himself was currently trying to murder Henry.
It took a few minutes for the robot to stop violently fidgeting. Henry was tempted at the thought of muting Metabee until he was completely calm. Finally, he stopped kicking and punching randomly and went limp as exhaustion pulsed through his body.
"Now," Henry said sternly as he unceremoniously dropped Metabee, "I'm not going to ask what set your temper off, but I am going to tell you to take your fight somewhere else. Last thing I need is the cops coming back here again..." Henry looked around. "Say, where is Ikki? He's usually in the middle of messes like these."
Metabee took several seconds to ponder the question before it clicked as to why he was here. "Oh yeah! Before the twerp-"
"Hey!" Koji protested.
"-and his piece of junk sprang a sneak attack, I was going to give you this. I honestly have no clue where Ikki went."
Henry took the cloth and inspected it, making a face when he sniffed the strange odor. "This smells like the stuff I use - I mean, the Phantom Renegade uses." Henry quickly corrected himself, wiping some nervous sweat off quickly.
The mistake didn't go pass Metabee without notice and he regarded Henry with suspicion, "is there something you know that I don't?"
"Uh... What are you talking about? There's no way I'm the Phantom Renegade!" Henry gave a nervous chuckle.
"Wait, hold on, I never said-"
"Silence!" Koji interrupted, "I want to see what's the deal with that cloth."
Henry looked at it again, "it smells weird - almost makes me dizzy if I smell it too much... It's probably chloroform."
Metabee tilted his head. "Wait, what? You might need to explain something here because we are not on the same page."
Henry sighed, "chloroform. It's the stuff that knocks people out for a while. Where'd you find this rag? Chloroform isn't something you buy at the supermarket."
"I found it when I was coming out of the unused path in the park. I didn't see it there earlier and Ikki didn't have it with him," Metabee answered.
"You guys didn't show up for our robattle and I didn't see Ikki... Do you think he got grabbed?" Koji asked incredulously.
"Hold on! No need to jump to conclusions, we'll just ask Ikki's other friends if they'd seen him around," Henry suggested. "The very last thing we need is conspiracy theories."
"Wait a minute! We? There's no way Sumilidon and I are going on this little manhunt! I'm not about to be kidnapped too!"
"I wouldn't mind if you beat it," Metabee replied.
"I'd like you to come, Koji, the bigger the group the better... Eh, I think," Henry scratched his head uncertainly.
"Great. I'm stuck with the spoiled rich kid and Mr. I-like-to-slack-off..."
"I'm not spoiled!"
"How many times do I have to say I don't work the evening shift?"
Sorry for cutting it short, but I'm in a little rush.
I know a section of this chapter screamed, "Transformers!", but I couldn't help it. Watching the cartoon and reading good fanfics influenced my writing a bit.
Anyway, leave a review or something, I'd like to hear how I did with this one. :)
Till next chapter!
Winterbornbree
(Edited: 5/11/2017)