The repaired leg clicked into place back within the specialised socket. Stylus performed some calibrations and a systems check to discover that the repairs were solid, next to perfect. It wasn't the first time he had to repair a damaged limb, anyway.
Still, he was running low on spare parts, and the fact that this new society had no access to more of the material... Hang on a second.
How did all the metal up and vanish? He could imagine that the place could've been ruined only to have the city built over it, but nobody salvaged any of the metal?
Then again, he had no idea if the place was ruined or not. Only one way to find out.
"Is there a way to get underground easily?" Stylus suddenly asked Tails- who was just about to climb upstairs.
"Well, the city's got a sewer system-"
"How do I get down there?" Stylus asked as he dumped the remaining spare parts into his backpack.
Tails yawned, replying "Just find a manhole cover. Lemme get some sleep."
Stylus raised a brow, then deactivated the welding equipment before leaving through the hole in the wall. The sun had set. Most everyone was going to sleep at this point, not unlike Tails.
Manhole cover, Stylus assumed it was a covered hole. It would be easier to find one on the monotone gray streets. Sure enough, a few paces away from the front gate of the mansion's front yard, there was a circular metal plate that appeared to cover an opening in the ground.
Stylus attempted to climb the gate, but said gate unfortunately was build to resist climbing. He cursed to himself and scanned the gate further. The surrounding walls were smooth, and therefore useless as grips.
Stylus walked to one end of the gate, where the horizontal bar at the top was lowest. Stylus jumped, then jumped... then jumped as high as he could. The gate was still significantly taller. Stylus kicked the ground, then flinched when the gate started to open.
He spun around, trying to find who did it. Turned out a tall man in a tux- complete with an expression that conflicted between amusement and annoyance- was holding what looked like a remote.
Stylus waved his thanks and exited the property. He lifted the manhole cover and pushed himself in. Before climbing down, he scanned the environment for some kind of location marker.
He found the street and road numbers, then committed them to uncorrupted memory. Satisfied that he won't get lost, he climbed down- replaced the cover in the same position as he did.
Stylus reached under his helmet with his armoured hand and something clicked. Two circular lights blinked on from behind the visor, the only time the visor appeared to have eyes in general.
Stylus pointed his "eye-lights" down as he lowered himself. Eventually, he dropped the last few feet into an absurdly spacious sewer. Specifically, a raised platform next to a river flowing southward.
Stylus looked down both sides of the corridor, No end in sight either way. The robot then decided to go north.
Who was he kidding? There's no way he could find anything. This is all the same structural style as all of those other buildings those organics have. Damnit, I should've thought this through, Stylus grimaced.
If there was any kind of buried ancient stuff, governments would've found out from digging out this sewer system. They would've salvaged what was found a long time ago.
Stylus slammed an armoured fist against the wall. He wasted time, and was still on square one. The robot sat down, thinking. The only way a hidden cache of long-past material could stay hidden down here is if someone had moved shop.
Nothing made sense. Robotropolis was gone without a trace, replaced with this unpleasant city filled with unfamiliar organics.
Stylus stood up again. He decided to continue onward. He knew the address of the mansion, so he could pop up anywhere and figure out where to do from there.
Just walking through the dark, dank, ridiculously easy-to-describe sewer tunnel. At this point, everyone else was asleep. Stylus focused on the mission clock in his heads-up display. He needed to fix that, or at least get a watch of some kind.
Stylus hummed as he walked. A tune he learned one year since he arrived at Chester.