Before Stylus could react, a white-gloved fist punched into the left side of his visor. The force was amplified by the extreme speed the attacker was going. Stylus' balance sensors scrambled and he tumbled into a shelf full of packaged chocolate.

Stylus scrambled to his feet, only to be met with a kick into the left side of the visor. He didn't get a good glimpse at the subject.

"Knuckles, take over!" came a cocky-sounding voice of a teenager. Stylus shook his head and threw an arm up in front of his face. This time, he managed to block another kick by the same attacker.

Stylus was then punched in the armoured gut by a second attacker. This one, Stylus got a good glimpse of.

A red echidna with dreadlocks. He looked like quite the savage. In an attempt to force the attackers away, Stylus swung his free arm. The armoured fist grazed off of the echidna's head, but it forced said echidna to jump back.

Stylus also stepped back, away from the duo. A blue hedgehog turned out to be the first attacker. Both fighters were glaring at Stylus.

Stylus then noticed that his left visor was cracked. He glanced at the bearded organic. Why the hell did he do that? Was he against robots? Was everyone in this city against robots? Was Robotropolis actually lost? Where was the Doctor?

This was definitely not a fight in his favour. Stylus had insufficient information on the echidna to fight effectively, and the hedgehog was fast... too fast... There was nothing Stylus could do that the hedgehog could retaliate with that speed.

Damnit, need to think. Need to-

A blast of electricity flooded Stylus. He dropped to the floor, unable to see who or what got the drop on him.

"Nice work, Tails," said the cocky voice.

"This one looks different, Sonic," said a deeper voice- it came from the direction of the echidna.

"New toys to study? I'm not sure if Eggman's improved or not with this one."

"He looks... too old..."

...

...

...

/REBOOT

/

/DAY: 3SWERRORR (The combination of characters was always different, but always had ERROR somewhere in it.)

/MISSION CLOCK: 99:99:99:99 (It was blinking, an obvious malfunction.)

/STATUS: NOMINAL (Physical systems-wise.)

/WARNING: HACK ATTEMPT IN PROGRESS. FIREWALL CAPACITY AT 100%

Stylus started screaming in his head. He really didn't like having people attempt to hack his brain- specifically designed to resist any and all hack attempts. It was a useful feature, in case he or a similar unit had been captured.

"What'cha got, Tails?" That cocky voice again.

"I can't get anything. A large portion of the data's corrupted- quite possibly with age. The rest of it is protected by a firewall I've never encountered before."

"Can you break it?"

No response. This "Tails" character was probably giving a visual gesture for an answer.

"I guess we'll need to question it."

Stylus' inner screaming switched to outer with a short, but big "NO!" Stylus then heard thumping- almost as if both of then jumped to their feet in response.

"Well well well," The cocky voice said, "I guess it's back to the worm."

"But it's not working."

"He wouldn't have known that if you hadn't just said it."

"I'm sure he does, Sonic. He is the subject I'm trying to hack into."

Stylus' visual sensors finally kicked in after the many other activations of other systems and processes. He rose his head to discover that he was chained to a table, hooked up to a computer.

"Well, can you fix all of the corrupted bits?" Sonic asked.

"Not with this computer. We'd need something more powerful... or maybe specialized."

"I guess we're paying Eggman a visit. Get the Tornado ready."

Stylus turned his head to watch the blue hedgehog and what appeared to be a two-tailed fox run down the stairs of... what was this, an attic?

Stylus continued scanning his environment, and spotted another one of those organics- except this one was about as tall as Stylus... and had a really bad case of hat hair or something. Three other characters were present- but keeping relatively silent. A pink... what was it, a hedgehog? She was reading a book- it was difficult to catch the cover. A rabbit in a dress was playing a card game with a chao.

Chao. Hell, there's a critter Stylus had never seen for... Fifteen years. There, that's one bit of memory that wasn't corrupted.

Stylus rose his head to get a better look at the chains. They were made of a hyper-dense alloy. There was no way he could force his way out of it.

More glancing around, and Stylus spotted his trousers, hat, and backpack set in a pile next to the sofa where the pink hedgehog sat. Stylus contemplated cursing to himself, but the rabbit and the organic looked to be mere children. It wouldn't be civilized.

Hell, at this point, being uncivilized would be the last thing he would want to do.

Turning his head toward the players, Stylus said "I used to have a chao myself."

No response from anyone except for the chao- who perked up almost immediately. The rabbit gave the chao a not-so-heartwarming look, and the chao sat back down onto the wooden floor.

"I'm not sure I understand why I'm here." Stylus said.

"You're an Eggman robot," the rabbit replied, looking up from her card game.

"Wait," the organic said, "How could an Eggman robot raise a chao?"

Good question. A better one Stylus could have asked was "Who's this Eggman fellow?" Unfortunately, the pink hedgehog was already speaking.

"Because he's obviously lying to try to warm us up to him, so in the event we release him, he'll take the chance to escape," she replied.

Stylus pursed his lips and nodded- returning his vision to the ceiling. Hey, it made perfect sense to him. Raising a chao was still true when it all came down to it.

Patrick- he was one hell of a swimmer- quite possibly the best. Stylus knew him for five reincarnations before nature finally took him away. Twenty-five years.

Stella. The name was familiar...