Chapter 4: interludes and beginnings
Mobius - Robotropolis - Tails's northern safehouse
Tails Got up from his chair, taking off the headset. Moving around the counter, he began pouring the soup cups. He heard the door close. looking up, he watched her walk in, wrapped in an old purple bath robe she must have found. She was holding a pile of wet cloths and had her bag slung over her shoulder. "You wouldn't happen to have a heater would you?" She asked. "Something to dry my clothes?"
He nodded, pointing to the corner of the living room. "There's a portable heater in the corner." He watched as she moved to set it up. "Hey, I've got someone for you to meet."
She looked up from what she was doing. "Oh? Who is it?" She moved to lay out her clothes on the arm of the couch, angling the space heater towards their direction.
Tails unplugged the headset, causing the speaker to click on. Getting out of the chair, he motioned her to come over. "I'd like you to meet the commander of the Freedom Fighters."
Alyx hesitantly walked over, he handed her a cup of soup. She nodded mouthing thank you and sat down as the cup began to cool. Looking at the computer she could see the visage of an adult Mobian on the other side, maybe a different subspecies or race? She didn't know much about Mobian physiology yet. "Hello Ma'am. My name's Alyx." She greeted, nodding her head.
Tails moved to the couch, pulling a book from under it. Laying down, he began to read an ear twitching their direction.
The figure on the monitor smiled. "My name's Sally, I hear you're interested in joining my Freedom Fighters."
Alyx nodded. "If I can offer help, then I want to." She replied.
Sally leaned back in her chair, resting her chin on a knuckle. "Good, you also claim to be a realm-walker. Is that correct?"
Alyx paused thinking on the word. "What?"
Tails ear flicked cut in. "She means you come from Robotniks world."
Alyx nodded to him. "Yea, just haven't heard of a realmwalker before."
Sally sighed. "There are legends of realmwalkers. Robotnik and Snivly are the most recent we know of. Odd to have a Mobian realmwalker... Do you know how you got back?"
Alyx sagged a bit in her seat. "No ma'am, at least not the specifics..." Her hands gripped the edge of the stool between her legs. "A strange man brought me here to help stop Dr. Kintober."
Sally frowned. "Its been a long time since he's gone by that name... He goes by Robotnik now." The chipmunk looked up meeting her gaze. "The man who brought you, was it another human?"
Alyx winced. "Maybe?" She sucked in air between her teeth. "I don't think so... actually I don't know what he is but he doesn't act human..."
Sally started tapping a finger against the arm rest. "Enlighten me, how are Humans supposed to act?" Her eyebrow rose.
Alyx paused. "Well kind of like how you and I are acting right now." She shrugged. "At least the decent ones I suppose." She shook her head. "I don't think I explained that guy very well. Its like he's an alien in a skin suit. His native accent is something other then... people? Human or Mobian? I don't know… " She met Sally's gaze. "I just know that Robotnik wasn't supposed to cause all this damage and in whatever way, the guy who brought me here wants me to help fix it."
Sally leaned into the computer desk, folding her hands. "I'm going to be forward with you Alyx. There are some legends of fur-less creatures like humans in the past. My father..." She paused. "Eagerly sought out Robotnik based off of legends of prosperity and golden ages of advancement... His technology may have ended the great war but the tip of the Speer was then pointed at us..."
Alyx paused. "From my own experience... I think you got a bad apple, please don't judge my family... and me... based on what he's done." She gave the older woman a hard gaze.
There was a pregnant pause, Sally continued. "Look, even if you were there... You are from Mobius..." She sighed resting her fingers on her temple. "Its like your defending them..." She muttered under her breath.
Alyx looked down. "I'm not defending Robotnik..." She sighed. "Besides, I love my Dad... He taught me a good relationship takes truth..." She met Sally's gaze. "That's why I'm telling you guys this to begin with..."
Sally took a deep breath. "Prove to me your a daughter of Mobius."
Alyx nodded. "I want to prove it to you, I want to fight." She puffed up. "If I can I want to prove not all humans are like him!"
A sly smile crossed Sally's face. "If your dad taught you the value of honesty... Maybe there are some decent humans after all..." She muttered. Leaning back, she continued. "Your going to be on probation for a good while. All foreign refugees who are brought to Knothole are placed under restriction for a time." She leaned into her cheek, tilting her head back in question. "So Alyx, What is you're world like, what do you do?"
Alyx straitened up. "The world I come from is similar to this one, from what I can tell... There are cities, trees, mountains and oceans. The Humans of my world also fight for freedom against the Combine Empire, similar to how you fight Robotnik." She leaned back slouching, a goofy grin on her face. "I'm usually a scout... but in my free time I like to fix stuff and tinker."
Sally looked passed Alyx noticing Tails in the background, sprawled on his stomach. An ear was pointed in their direction, flicking every once in a while. She smiled, not too subtle. She realized the first part the girl had said, an unsettling feeling taking her. "What are you, 16? You look a bit young to be a field scout."
Alyx looked confused. "If it matters, I'm 19. What does age have to do with anything if your at war?"
Tails ear flicked in the background as he turned the page of his book.
Sally bristled a bit. "We have suffered too much loss to carelessly throw life away now! Too many of my people have been captured and Roboticized."
"Whats that... Roboticized?" Alyx asked.
It dawned on Sally, this girl really wasn't from around here... "The roboticizer is a machine that turns people into metal slaves..." She paused. "It's extremely difficult to break the mind control, we also still don't have a way of reversing the transformation..."
Alyx's mind raced as her eyes popped. "Wait… like flesh to metal? How is that possible!? How would that even work!?"
Sally sighed. "We think it has something to do with nanites, you can ask some of the scientists trying to reverse the process if you want more information." She thought for a second. "You said you tinkered and fixed stuff? We might have a use for that. I've also heard you are quite the inventor."
Alyx blew on her soup, cooling it down. "That's just something I do in my free time. Most of my experience is in scout work, but sometimes in that kind of work, you can be stationed in the same place for months. You end up reading and tinkering in your free time." She took a bite of her food, her eyes lit up as her ears perked. "This is really good!"
Both Sally and Tails looked at her shocked with her weird change in subject. Tails closed his book with a snap. "Its just some old stale noodles and broth..."
She looked over to him. "Its got actual flavor! It tastes like meat! Most of what we eat is water flavored calorie bars and nutrient paste!
Sally butted back in, trying to keep from giggling. "Lets try and stay on subject."
Alyx turned back to her excited. "Sorry, its just... Usually, we save this kind of stuff for special occasions! Canned food is rare, they confiscate it!"
Sally paused, a confused look on her face. "Right…" She had a thought. "You were raised by humans, right?" She perked up.
Alyx nodded as she chowed down on the stale noodles. "Yea?" She managed, her mouth full.
"Do you know human technology? Like their computers?" Sally asked?
Alyx nodded vigorously. "Ohh yea! I know DOS and the Unix likes in general. My dad minored in computer science and programming! He was a lead sys admin for Black Mesa!" She smiled. "When we weren't running from Civil Protection... daddy daughter time was playing games on computers, then learning how they worked. The Combine might have integrated a lot of their technology on Earth, but they still rely on a lot of human machines and infrastructure. Dad's the expert on Combine computers though, I only just started experimenting with those." She said between mouthfuls. "I'm getting better at those though." She slurped. "Regular computers are easy."
Sally nodded getting excited. "I want to invite you to stay in one of our holdout settlements, Knothole. Tails can bring you, we'll have to take some standard security measures though." Sally leaned back in her chair. "I'd like to have you talk to our electronic warfare team." She looked at her adoptive son. "Tails, I'm tasking you with being her chaperone once you two are back."
He nodded, catching the hidden implication of having to work with the computer team. "Alright." He strained. His voice cleared. "We can leave in the morning."
Sally smirked looking back to Alyx. "Would this be acceptable?"
Alyx nodded looking over her shoulder smiling at Tails. "I don't see why not."
Sally looked at them both. "I don't think I should need to tell you to be discrete. Don't expose yourselves unless its absolutely necessary." She looked at the young vixen. "It was nice meeting you Alyx. If you serve the fight well, then you can have a place in my kingdom." She looked back to her adoptive son. "Stay safe Miles, I love you." She ended the call.
Alyx swiveled the chair, looking at Tails. He was stretched out on the couch, blushing as he stared into the ceiling. Alyx giggled. "High up on the commanders list? And what's with the kingdom talk?"
Tails blush deepened. "Sally's like my mom, she found me right after the coup." He sighed. "To answer your second question, her dad was the old king."
Alyx raised an eyebrow. "So... She's a princess?"
Tails laid back on the couch, resting his eyes. "Yep, princess Sally Acorn."
"Huh." She mumbled. Getting up from the computer stool, she moved to sit at the coffee table across from him. Pulling her bag over she started to dig through it. "I get that, My dad's a leading head in the human resistance." She pulled out the combine pulse weapon.
Tails paused eyeing the strange thing. "Is that a lasgun?"
She pulled the multitool from her bag, activating the hologram interface. "Lazgun?" She held her tool over the gun as it projected a strange interface.
"Laser projectile weapon, like a blaster? Energy weapon?" He nervously chuckled his ears perking.
"I guess." She started manipulating the holographic interface in front of her. "I'm hoping its more usable then some of the other things I have." She noticed his nervousness. "You ok?"
"I… I just didn't realize you had something like that. I thought what you had earlier was a simple blaster." There was more silence between them as she started working on the gun again. He had a thought though. "What was it like getting shot? You implied you've been shot more then once..."
She stopped her examination of the interface, looking over to him. "It's..." She paused. "It's different almost every time." She sighed, looking back to the hologram. "That last time it was like a bad burn." She paused listing off on her fingers. "Sometimes its like someone chucking a rock at you, sometimes its like a hot poker, there's been times where its like an intense pinch." She huffed. "And sometimes you don't even notice, that's close to what happened today. When you don't realize how bad it is and your just bleeding... that's when its the worst." She sighed pinching the bridge of her nose "I didn't realize light could do that, that's why I didn't take it seriously... it just felt like a burn."
His head rolled back on the pillow as he stared up at the popcorn ceiling. He yawned, scratching his chin as his eyes returned to watch her work. "So what are you doing?" He asked.
"This gun has a genetic lockout." She replied. "I'm trying to see if there's a way to completely bypass it, or add another user." She swiped through screen after screen, poking pieces with the multi tool.
His eyes tried to follow her quick movements. "Is that a Combine weapon?" He looked at the gun, then examined her tool closer. "That things holoprojector looks good, no flicker in it." His eyes started getting droopy as the latent warmth from the heater was getting him drowsy.
She nodded. "If we're going out tomorrow, I'd rather have something rather then nothing."
He yawned again. "Your a scout right? We can sneak through town. All this rains going to flood the underground tunnels with fumes."
She chuckled. "I'm a scout in plain sight. If you're in an area you're not supposed to be, its really difficult to hide from the Combine." She looked over to him, giving him a goofy grin. "I can hide in a crowd..." She grinned, returning her gaze to the object. "Or more recently, run and gun through condemned infrastructure."
He sweat dropped. "Uhh..."
She turned back to her work. "Pshhh! we did fineee a few hours ago." She got a smug grin. "That's neat, your cloak can block their sensors, is it infrared absorbing paint?" She grinned. "Hey, If all goes to plan you'll guide us, and if things get hairy, I can defend us!" The holointerface shrank as a spear with nodes appeared. "This is what I was looking for, a bypass lock!" She stuck out her tongue biting it playfully. "Don't know zip bout their data encryption, but bashing locks and changing basic code? I can do that!"
He watched her start to link different nodes around each other. "So... that kind of looks like a game, how is that hacking?"
She shrugged. "It kind of is a game. Think of these like those relays from the door earlier. Right now, if the registered user is not present, it won't actuate." She moved a node. "Now both conditions unlock the firing mechanism." She scoffed. "Gene editing required? Yea right Russel..." She huffed under her breath. The guns functions lit up as she pressed the eject. The half used antimatter cartridge popped out. Pulling the trigger, the weapon dry fired. Picking up the half used cartridge, she fed it back into the mechanism and it reloaded. "Perfect." She tossed the locked gun back in her bag.
He yawned again."I think its about time for bed." He looked at his watch. "Its around 2200 hours." He stretched. "I'll take the couch. There's a bedroom across from the restroom."
She smiled yawning as well. "I think your right." Going over she checked her clothes to see if they had dried. They needed more time. She slung her bag and went to the bedroom to sleep.
Tails watched her go. He crawled up the arm of the couch to the light switch, turning it off. Dropping back onto the cushion, he listened to the soft blow of the heater, drifting into slumber.
Mobius - somewhere above Robotropolis
It was raining, the sky was dark and full of soot. The water collected in muddy pools on the roof. Time began to slow, the rain stopping. As it hovered in the air, a door opened to a white backdrop. The G-man stepped out, dusting his suit jacket with his hand. The shutter closed behind him and he walked to the roofs edge. Looking over the dark city he frowned. In the distance he could see the industrial district with search lights scouring the area. He took a deep breath. Turning around, he walked back to where the door had been. As he left the spot, a faded form shimmered as if splitting from him. The form faded in and out materializing a being a foot shorter then him. He spun to face the other being. There was A Mobian standing in the spot. A wolf, Middle aged and wearing the same suit.
The man sighed, slicing his hand through the air. "The connection has been cut. We will return, but it is... difficult to stay linked... across this threshold?"
The Mobianwolf nodded. "We understand." He stretched his neck rubbing a soar spot. "It's been a looong time since this form has been taken. Any particular reason we are being left like thisssss?"
The older man nodded. "There is a good chance the doctor will catch us on surveillance. There is only sooooo muchhhh that can be done to..." He chuckled. "hide ourselves?" He cleared his throat, handing the Mobian his briefcase. "We understand how disssssorientating the seperrrration can be. It will passss in time. Your assignment is to observe the girl. I will be in contact periodically, but as you are aware... We have agreed to abide by... restrictions?"
The wolf leveled his flat eyes to the G-man, accepting the briefcase. "We understand and anticipate rejoining the others."
The man smiled. "It is good to remember that there may be difference, in space or flesh... but there is no difference betweeeen us."
The wolf nodded. "Have a pleasant journey back. May the rest of the dreamers guide your sight."
The G-man pulled a letter from his suits pocket, he examined it. "You as well. In the meantime... I have a letter to delivvvver to Mr. Vance."
The wolf tilted his head. "Are you going to give him a crystal of the void?"
The man met the wolfs eyes. "A perfect specimen has not been chosen yet. We must chooose carefully to ensure another resonance cascade does not happen."
Nodding, the wolf walked away from the edge. "I will keep an eye on the girl and make sure she stays on the path." The Mobian walked from the scene fading into air.
The man put the letter back in his pocket. "Unforeseen consequences indeed..." A white door opened in front of him as he exited the roof.
*CRACK*
Thunder clapped in the background as the empty rooftop resumed being hammered by the rain.
Mobius - Robotropolis - Robotnik's control tower
The small man was pacing back and forth. "That signal, that protocol was from Earth." He mumbled to himself. "That was too perfect to be a fluke." He moved to the computer console, calling the ground forces. "Have you found anything yet?"
"NEGATIVE SIR. NO PHYSICAL TRACE." The swatbot commander replied.
He got up, starting to breath hard, his head starting feeling light. "WHY CAN'T YOU TIN CANS COMPLETE THE SIMPLEST OF TASKS!" He swung his chair into a monitor.
*KABOOM*
The cathode ray tube imploded as it's vacuum was lost, spraying glass shards everywhere. He was seething, his whole body shaking. He may have been short compared to other humans, but his temper could surely match.
"SNIVLY!" A deep baritone voice boomed. "What on Earth was that!" He heard the heavy metal stomping approach him.
He froze, starting to sweat as a sinking cold feeling overtook him. He shouldn't have done that, he really shouldn't have done that. He gulped. "In the control room Dr. Robotnik sir..." His nasally voice yelled out. He began wringing his hands nervously. The clanking got louder as the enormous man entered the chamber.
"Here I am, out for a midnight stroll and I hear you doing who knows what. What happened?!" Robotnik snapped. The man's red optics zeroed in on the broken monitor. He clenched his teeth, staring down his nephew who was starting to shake. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"I'm sorry sir! I'll make sure its replaced!" He shook.
Robotnik lunged forward, pulling the small man up by his neck. "I give you food, shelter and a place in my home. What gives you the right to break my equipment!" He screamed in the writhing man's face.
"IT WAS A MISTAKE SIR! I FOUND AN ANOMALY BUT THE SWATBOTS FAILED TO TRACK THE SOURCE! I'M SORRY I LET MY TEMPER GET OUT OF CONTROL!" He squealed as he dangled, trying to pry the man's metal grip from his throat.
He was thrown to the floor. "What do you mean, an anomaly?!" Robotnik raged.
Snivly got up on his knees, coughing from the close encounter. "A signal that could have only originated from Earth!"
Robotnik froze. "That's impossible." He cooled off. "Walk with me worm... And get that monitor fixed!" He grit.
Colin got to his feet, grabbing his data-pad. Darting forward, he tried to match his uncles long stride as he started furiously typing on the device. "The lot of monitors will be replaced by tomorrow. It was time we upgraded them anyways, they were starting to show some bad burn in." He swallowed regaining his composure. "I'm sorry sir, its just those infernal swatbots, if you would just let me migrate their AI-" A cold steel hand smacked him hard across the back of the head. He stumbled forward, face planting on the metal floor tiles.
"The swatbots are fine. I will not have your AI creations running a muck in MY empire!" He barked roughly, picking the man up by his scruff and shoving him to his feet. "If you have any improvements to be made, submit them to me and I will read them myself!" He growled. "Come, let's go check this anomaly. Since you see fit to litter my control room with broken glass, we will take a look in the radio tower." They made their way to the elevator as it opened. "Operator! pull the log for today. All signals." He turned to Colin. "What Sector Snivly?"
He hated that infernal nickname. "Sector 8, the old industrial district." He directed to the computer.
"Of coarse! DR. ROBOTNIK." An off beat chipper voice came over the intercom. "Report will be available on your arrival!"
"Good..." Robotnik grumbled. The elevator arrived and the two men stepped in. "As long as I'm up at this hour, How goes the new Zone development?"
The elevator started climbing. Colin cleared his throat bringing up the information on his data-pad. "Good Dr. Robotnik. Worker bot productivity is at full capacity. There will be a fully functioning fuel refinery in the great desert in two months, we are on schedule." He moved to the next page. "We need to build another four datacenters if we are going to keep redundancy under the new protocol."
The large man grumbled. "Step up our efforts to repair the damaged worker bots." He sighed. "Its not like we're finding any more Mobian settlements in droves anymore. We may have to design a swatbot worker variant soon." He frowned. "I want the datacenters started on next." He glared at Colin. "Add half of the returning worker bots to the auxiliary units, I have a feeling we'll need to be ready for more damage caused by the rodents..."
Colin sighed, a defeated look on his face. "Yes sir…"
The door opened to the com tower and they stepped out. Robotnik made his way to his control chair, climbing into the dark green throne. "Operator, Report!"
"Yes Sir!" The AI chirped. "309 signals found, 287 of which are scheduled! Out of the remaining 22 signals, 21 most likely ambient radiation. 1 PAL video signal of unknown origin captured! Alert! Full signal not captured. General area marked in SECTOR 8 INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Would you like me to play partial capture DR. ROBOTNIK?"
The doctors face was shocked. "Play it on the main screen…" He breathed. A choppy black and white video played, the angle and stabilization were terrible, but he could see one of the infernal rodents at the end shout down the person. He saw them take the headset off looking at it and the audio and video cut. Robotnik accessed the video controls rewinding to pause on the Mobian's face.
"Sir…" Colin breathed. "How would they have the knowledge or need to transmit a signal standard from Earth?"
He squinted at the girls face on the paused video and sighed. "I don't know, but obviously its not on purpose. If they are trying to send me a message, they've failed miserably." He grumbled. "Operator! Send a survey team to sweep for gravimetric signatures!"The large man got up walking over to the balcony. "Send a transport to the com tower as well."
"Deploying now!" The cheery AI replied.
Colin followed in toe. "Sir, your thinking there could have been another teleportation event?"
He glared down at his nephew. "However that rodent got that radio, there is a chance it may be from Earth. If it is, we might be able to capture the latent warp zone signature."
They walked out on the balcony dock. "We may be able to go home?" Colin breathed.
"I never said that." The large man quipped as he watched the transport speed towards them. "You remember Black Mesa, there may not be an Earth worth going back to. Somethings happened here though, and it doesn't smell right..."
Colin frowned, gritting his teeth. "This is exactly what I was hoping for, now you tell me we might not be able to go back!"
Robotnik turned on the little man. "Don't make this difficult! You know its more complicated then that." The transport arrived, opening its door. He stared down the short man. "You and I don't have to like each other at all, but I do plan on keeping my word to my sister. I'm not going to let you run off a cliff like a lemming!" He turned back, marching into the transport.
Colin rubbed one of his eyes with a palm and he followed. The rage and depression was exhausting. He wished his mother hadn't died in that gas leak at Aperture. That place would have been so much better, but it was so painful to think about... He sighed, sitting in one of the transport's seats. The hoverpads took flight, bringing them to oversee the survey team in sector 8. The ride was quiet, Colin was nervously wrapping his hands. As the thing landed, the doctor got up and he moved to follow. As he stood he got a head rush and stumbled forward catching himself on the wall.
Robotnik frowned, glaring down at him. "Whats wrong with you?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he ran the other hand through his non existent hair. He got up, continuing out the door. "The med-bot seems to think low blood pressure. It could be environment or diet related."
Robotnik clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You know we can selectively roboticize your organs."
The two of them made their way into the junkyard, a flat drone covering them from the building acid rain. "I'd prefer to try medication first…" They began their walk over to the acting swatbot in charge. Colin glanced to his uncle. "How are you sir?"
Robotnik face soured even more. "Don't ask."
The swatbot swiveled and saluted. "ROBOTNIK SIR! WE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO LOCATE THE CAUSE OF THE SIGNAL!"
"And likely you won't. That was hours ago, and most likely they're long gone. You will move all extra patrols north towards the great forest. No doubt those freedom fighters are trying to rescue this rodent." He sneered. "This is worth catching, I want us to try and intercept their escape to that blasted forest camp." He sighed. "I want an update from the survey team. This is the origin of the signal, correct?"
The swatbot confirmed. "CORRECT, WE RECEIVED A DISTRESS CALL FROM AN OLD MARK II UNIT WHO SEEMS TO HAVE MADE CONTACT."
"Lets go see while we wait for the survey results." They made their way over to a crumpled swatbot. its head was blown apart, it was severed at the torso. The right arm was mangled severed at the joint.
Colin knelt down, looking at the metal. Picking at it he pulled out an embedded pellet. "Is this buckshot?"
"Let me see." Robotnik grumbled. Colin held out his hand letting the doctor pick up the pellet. The heavyset man let his optics scan it. "It's lead shot alright." He grit.
Colin faced his uncle. "Mobians don't use chemically propelled ballistics!"
"Don't you think I know that!" Robotnik snapped.
Colin got a curious look. "How is that possible? Unless..."
The Swatbot captain walked up to them, interrupting Colin's train of thought. "SIR, THE SURVEY TEAM JUST COMPLETED. FULL REPORT BEING GENERATED AS WE SPEAK. SURVEY TEAM SEEMS TO THINK THERE WAS A CLASS 4 WARP ZONE PRESENT."
Robotnik looked shocked. "Class 4? Through the void?!" He brought up his wrist communicator. "Operator, I want you to deliver something from the void project to my location." He barked. "There's going to be a piece of equipment there that should hold the rift open long enough to study, Codename Doorstop."
Colin looked at his uncle in confusion. "The void sir?"
The obese man started to make his way back to the ship. "Look up Xen in the Earth-side archive, the void is a subset of it. I've been able to open a pocket of it but it seems the void itself is segmented by nature..." He grumbled, "If this part of the void links back to Xen, then we might be able to manufacture a way back to Earth. I've been wanting some closure on what happened..." Colin caught up and they both re-entered the transport.
Colin brought his finger to his chin, rubbing it in thought. "I think I remember reading mentions of the Void in the Mobian archives."
They got seated back on the transport as it started to warm up. The hovercraft lifted as it started towards the palace. "Yes, the rodents have dabbled in teleportation technology. As Xen is adjacent to Earth the Void is adjacent to Mobius." He snickered. "They tried to send prisoners there, thinking it was a kinder alternative to capital punishment... That or it was symbolic to never again touch life or even death. That machine was so unstable, I had to re-design half of it."
They approached the old palace passed the control tower. It dawned on Colin. "So you've been working on teleportation?"
Robotnik laughed. "I mastered teleportation to the void a long time ago, the problem is going where you want through the void." A nasty grin formed on his face. "Where do you think I sent our dear King Nigel?"
Collin's Eyes widened. "Oh." He mumbled. "I thought you killed him..."
The towering man got a nasty grin. "Lets say I thought it'd be more poetic..." The transport landed and Robotnik exited. "Make sure those monitors are all upgraded by tomorrow morning..." He chuckled darkly. Pausing to look back to the dwarf, he wagged his finger. "Temper temper my dear boy. You remind me of myself when I was your age." He turned, entering the palace.
Colin watched him leave, then re-entered the transport. He frowned, He didn't want to be like his uncle. He sighed. "Temper temper indeed uncle Julian..." He decided he would oversee the repair in the control room, then sleep this all off come morning.
Earth - City 17 - year 2019
Eli woke up at his desk. Turning on the lamp he pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been a couple of months since Alyx had disappeared. Focusing his eyes, he turned on his monitor. His login was full of dots, he had fallen asleep on the keyboard again. It was 3 in the morning. He got up, moving to the kitchen. Putting a kettle on, he pulled out an old can of coffee. Usually reserving it for special occasions, he just needed the comfort right now. He missed his daughter. After escaping the Black Mesa incident, he couldn't lose her again... He sighed. He'd find her, He had to...
He made his way back to his desk with his drink. Sitting down at the table, he pulled a picture from his wallet. He looked at the only pictures he had of his family, a recent Polaroid of his daughter with her pet Dog and a picture of the three of them together before Black Mesa. His wife smiling, holding their daughter while her infant hand reached for his finger. A pang formed in his heart, it was difficult to look at that image...
He put the photos back in their safe place and noticed an envelope on his keyboard. He froze, reaching for his gun, looking around the room. No one else should have been here. Heart beating, he hobbled through his small apartment, looking for signs of life. Giving up, he headed back to the desk and picked up the letter. It had his name on it. He glanced down, noticing it had been covering a glowing cyan crystal.
Hesitantly, he picked it up, then dropped it as his fingers tingled with the energy. It clattered off his desk to the ground. His heart raced as he backed up from the gemstone, It was a crystal from Xen! Looking at the letter he fumbled to open it. Almost Ripping the contents, it contained a bundle of old paperwork and a simple message.
He read the letter. "Your debt is due, find her and the debt is paid. Use the crystal's signature to find her. Resurrect the teleporter." It wasn't signed.
He grabbed the bundle of papers starting to leaf through them. There was a Lambda symbol on the cover! It was the hard copy equations for the Xen teleporter project! He quickly hobbled back to the kitchen grabbing an empty can and some aluminum foil. Moving back to the den, he scooped up the crystal storing it the best he could.
He was terrified... but he had a plan now! He paused, remembering the strange man who had saved him and his daughter from Black Mesa, his memories still had some gaps on that event... It had to have been him in the Vault! A mix of feelings flooded his mind. Excitement and relief turned into indignation. "I don't know what game your playing now..." He mumbled under his breath. "Save us, just to take her away?" He sighed, sitting back in his chair. He rested his face in his palms. Silent tears escaped his eyes as he wiped them away on his sleeve. He steeled his expression, beginning to log onto his computer. "Don't worry baby girl, daddies gonna find you." He choked, gritting his teeth. "No matter how many suits he has to strangle!" He started writing his proposal to Isaac and Russel, asking for their help to resurrect the teleporter.
Chapter 4 end
Authors notes: another chapter this time from a few characters perspectives. There are fan characters in this but the point is to round out the future world and not to be insert Mary Sues. I really am trying to think of ways of making the characters more realistic with flaws. antagonists are easy but protagonists are hard. Alyx hasn't been around people her own age so she is probably going to be kinda awkward around teens and young adults, she also is afraid of things like the dark but forces herself at her own detriment to press forward. we will see how long that lasts. Sally I can imagine being slightly neurotic with all that pressure of being thrown into the position of commander and the future Queen. Tails has been wanting to grow up quick for a while and idolizes Sonics physical abilities. he wants his own physical actions to prove his worth. I've noticed a trap with techy people, a lot of it is easy once you learn it and you can some raise their expectations of others in a pompous way and some value it way lower then what the skill actually is because its "so easy" tails I think leans on the devaluing of his self worth side. Dr Robotnik and Colin have been so easy to write. Just toxic family relationship that Colin wants out of but Julian feels obligated towards. I've also set up a timeline integrating the two timelines. Is not perfect but for a AU spin off crossover I'm surprised I was able to get dates to line up so well. I may post it in another authors notes way later on but right now its full of spoilers. I've been thinking what constitutes whats M vs T and may change this later. If people have input on this maybe let me know. Constructive reviews are appreciated but not required. If something is wrong how can I improve if I don't know? Thanks for reading.
Traveler out!
