He felt sick.
Chibi-Robo was blinking in the darkness, a musty kind of scent drifted into his sensors, along with an odd rushing-water sound, making him feel even more sick. He was so sick that he almost felt like he would vomit.
Almost.
Of course, he was a robot, so he had no stomach or throat or any kind of organs, really. But he still felt something roll around the battery acid in the pit of his metal torso.
He wished the pain would go away.
Chibi checked his battery power. 367 watts, less than half of full power, and he was lost. Last he remembered, he had been desperately trying to regain his balance on the slippery ice, when he fell through the bars of a metal grate in the road.
A metal...grate...?
The musty smell...the odd noises...
His head finally stopped pounding, and his cameras adjusted in the darkness. Just as he had feared, he was in the sewer.
He had never been in the sewer before. The closest he ever got was when he traversed the sink drain at home to retrieve Mr. Sanderson's wedding ring.
He peeled himself up off the ground and stumbled until his hands found a wall. He was afraid of battery acid stinging the inside of his neck, but it never did. A dreadful thought occurred to him;
There were no mice down here...were there? Chibi hated mice. They scuttled everywhere, searching for scraps to snack on, and Chibi's metallic shine attracted their attention. Plus they were monstrous compared to him, and every time they bit, his battery would be damaged.
And the noises they made! Ugh!
Chibi pushed the thought from his mind. He needed to get out, so he focused on that. An objective. He took one step and slid, just a little bit. Fear gripped him again as flashbacks of sliding on the ice painfully tore through his head. No. Focus.
Once the terror subsided, he gingerly took another step, he didn't slide. Then he took another, testing his footing. Then another. He didn't dare go too fast, as his memory so plainly reminded him, sliding around wouldn't help in the slightest. Carefully...gently...
He slid, then he stopped.
If only Telly were here... he couldn't help but think, He could help me out...
Someone...
Help...
No. Focus.
So he stepped, again, he didn't slide...
He stepped again...
And he slid.
He opened his eyes, but his cameras only detected darkness. The foul smell hit him head-on, flushing out the rest of his sanity. He was going to die.
He was going to die, and Telly would never find him...
Never...never...
Never...
No.
No, stop this! It's not helping! Get up! You're smart, figure this out!
Chibi clung to his rationality. It was the only thing that could help him now. He turned, blindly feeling for anything he could grab. Finally, he caught something. His body jerked to a halt, but he held on. He pulled with all of his strength, and his head collided with metal, but he held on. His "stomach" did flip-flops, but he held on. Finally, his eyes met air and light.
"What's this? A robot?"
Maybe Chibi should have been relieved to hear another voice, but he was terrified...and exhausted. His ordeal had damaged his battery, and so his power was down to 30 watts. His vision began to flash red.
"Hey! You're one of those Chibi-Robos! Aren'cha?"
Chibi couldn't respond. He was drowning in fatigue. And fear.
"Aw. You poor thing! Hey, there's a Citrusoft building nearby! Maybe they can help you!" Chibi felt himself being gently picked up, and he flinched.
"Oh. Did I hurt you?" the person stroked Chibi's cheek with one finger, "It's alright, Buddy. I'm a friend..."
Chibi closed his eyes and focused on the whirring of his CPU. It calmed him. There was nothing he could do now. His fate rested solely on this person. He didn't know if they truly wanted to hurt him, but he couldn't even focus his cameras anymore. All he could do was slowly accept whatever was coming and let his system go into standby mode.
Skid marks covered the ice across the pavement. Telly followed them, recognizing the footprints of his beloved friend. He was getting more and more worried for the poor guy. Chibi-Robo! When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna make you pay for making me worry so much! Telly prayed he was still alive.
Finally, the grooves in the ice leveled out. They stretched all the way across the road, to a sewer grate.
"No..." Telly hovered around the grate, searching. The tracks stopped there, "No! Impossible! Does not compute! Please say this is just a really bad joke!"
It wasn't.
And he knew it.
Finally, collecting himself and all the courage he could muster, he plunged into the depths below.
Why'd it have to be a sewer level!?