That was the seventeenth manhole entrance Stylus passed. He didn't make any turns, only walking straight north. Eighteen now... Nineteen...
He passed by vandalism. It looked to be some sort of artsy thing. Stylus noticed something different. It looked like... Kintobor, hidden amongst the slurs regarding how the government was full of blank," and all that corruption hogwash.
Kintobor, as in Robotnik? No, he couldn't be alive for the same reasons Robotnik couldn't have been alive. Hell, the vandalism could just be a coincidence.
Stylus didn't really care at this point. He examined the vandalism further to try to find other clues. He then noticed lines on either side, almost as if someone had removed the wall and replaced it after conducting business- then given the vandalism so the weaknesses wouldn't be noticed as easily.
He smiled, then rose a foot and thrust it forward.
The kick slammed on the concrete wall. Oddly enough, the impact felt relatively hollow, not at all solid. Stylus kicked the wall again... and again... and again and again.
Cracks emerged. Stylus continued kicking. After a few more kicks, the cracks were getting large and spread-out. He then resorted to punching the wall repeatedly with his armoured fists. The wall was heavily damaged by the time Stylus stopped, but it was nowhere near collapsing. Stylus kicked the wall one more time before deciding to give up for now.
He started looking around for something more suited for destroying the wall. A dropped crowbar? Another maintenance tool lost by whoever else goes down here? No? Stylus shrugged, then resumed beating the wall.
A few hours passed. If he had to guess, Stylus assumed it was around 2 in the morning. One last punch managed to break through to empty air.
Indeed, the area was hollow. Stylus gripped the other end of the wall and pulled as hard as he could. A large chunk buckled, and Stylus followed up with another kick. At this point, there was an obvious weakness in the wall, so any further hits would make a major difference.
Eventually, Stylus broke open a hole big enough for him to climb through. He checked his armoured fists- which were covered with dust. The robot shook his hands to get some dust off, followed with wiping some more off with his trousers.
He pointed his eye lights into the hollow area, to find that it was a makeshift stone stairwell leading further down. Just in case, Stylus produced his knife before entering the stairwell.
There was no light, or even evidence that lights had been set up. No torch holders or long-spent glow-sticks. Just the crappy-looking stairs and a spiral leading further down. There wasn't even any light at the bottom.
Stylus continued down the spiral stairwell. Suddenly, a light shone down on Stylus.
His head shot up. His eye lights shown on... It was hard to tell with the other flashlight hitting his optic sensors.
The other flashlight was turned aside. It was Sonic, that blue hedgehog.
"I heard you went out," Sonic said, "How'd you know about this?"
Stylus shrugged. "I didn't, though I thought I had an idea."
"And what idea was that?"
Stylus looked down the stairs again, then back up at Sonic.
"Lots of different ideas. I'll have a better answer once I find out what's down there."
"Once we find out," Sonic corrected as he zipped down to Stylus' level. "I've run through every part of this city, but I haven't noticed that wall before."
"I guess that's a disadvantage for moving so fast," Stylus commented as he jumped across a few damaged steps, followed by Sonic. "By the way, does anyone know you're here?"
"I've got a beacon in case we get stuck here," Sonic replied, holding up what appeared to be a device similar to the small telephones those organics usually had.
The duo continued climbing down. Sonic yawned, but it didn't sound convincing. "You know what?" Sonic asked, "I can carry Tails, Knuckles, and Amy at once. I'm pretty sure I can carry a robot your size."
Stylus shrugged, and let himself be carried. It didn't feel dignified, but he knew he had wasted enough time as it is. Sonic was also really really fast.
Within seconds, Sonic screeched to a halt at the apparent bottom. Stylus hopped off and scanned the environment.
It looked to be a dead-end, except there were two other robots Stylus' size.
Sonic stayed back as Stylus ran up to examine them. Both were deactivated, but it didn't look like they did so on their own free will.
There were also assorted scavenged materials. Familiar-looking ammunition, a few boxes full of metal bars, and Stylus could salvage from these two robots in case they were like the squirrel-bot he took apart back then.
Stylus looked to Sonic, who nodded before speeding his way up the stairwell again, most likely to activate the beacon. The robot then looked to the other two robots.
"Only Doctor Robotnik had the necessary overrides to salvage your memory cores." Stylus muttered. The robots were another squirrel and a rabbit; both male. Both were gone.