Hello and welcome back to 'Dark Diamond Flarice'! It's been a while!... Oh who am I kidding!? It's been months!
To anyone and everyone reading this, I would have updated sooner but stuff happened and all my documents had gotten deleted. Which made me somewhat give up on writing for a little while. But I'm back, so that's something!
Disclaimer: I don't own 'Sonic the Hedgehog' in any way what-so-ever.
Started: 6/20/16-Finished: 6/23/16
...
Flarice yawned as she flew beside the newly repaired Red Wind, Rinka being the one to pilot it. It was currently ten-something in the morning, meaning it was about thirty or so minutes since they had left their small home in Lake Mills. Meaning it was about seven hours since Flarice had woken up. After waking up at three in the morning for some odd reason, the cat-bat couldn't get back to sleep. And as a result of that, she was running on about four or so hours of sleep, and that was four hours too little for her.
"Come here my cute little sis!" Shouted Macy in concern from the Red Wind's backseat, opening her arms towards Flarice. "You look exaughisted! Here, you can take a nap next to me!"
"I don't wanna..." Grumbled Flarice. "I'm not sleepy at a- hhaaa..." Rinka rolled her eyes fondly.
"Flarice," She said in a motherly tone. "Listen to your sister. We still have some time before we reach Uncle Voi's lab. Do want to look tired when you see him?" Flarice- despite gliding towards Macy- muttered once again incoherently about not being tired and that she could last the rest of the flight. Apparently, for reasons Rinka wouldn't explain- 'Yet.' Macy had thought at the time.- Doctor Voi lived all the way in the Suntomb Ruins at the boundary between the Sylvia and the Coppicus Kingdoms, which was about and hour and a half's flight from Westheart. He used to live in the Valley Farms of Westheart, but for some reason the town decided to make him live in the ruins after some incident. From what the two adoptive sisters could gather, and this was based on rumors floating around Westheart, it had something to do with a robot, a few houses, and a tractor. But again, this was all based on rumors. He's still a resident of Westheart, so he can visit anytime for supplies, to see friends and the such.
Once Flarice squeezed in next to Macy, the elder fox held back a snicker as the hedgehog immediately started to squeal in joy.
"OH MY GOSH!" Macy squealed as she cuddled Flarice, said person too tired to stop her or protest. "You are just too adorable when you're all sleepy!"
"Mmmh..." Hummed Flarice before falling asleep on the elder's shoulder, slightly snoring. Macy just gushed more at this. Rinka let out a small laugh.
"Don't suffocate Flarice in her sleep Macy."
"I know, I know!" A small silence fell over them as they enjoyed the breeze flying past them. However, not even five minutes had passed before the purple-eyed hedgehog broke the quiet.
"... Rinka?"
"Yes Macy?"
"As much as I like hugging my little sis, how much longer until we get to the Suntomb Ruins?"
"About an hour longer." Rinka replied.
"An hour!?" Yelled Macy.
"You KNOW that the Ruins are a long way from Westheart. Even if we are flying."
"I'm gonna be dead by the time we get there. Death by boredom..."
"You'll be sorely missed." Rinka smirked while Macy groaned in dejection. "You know, if you want to, you can contact Ren on your Sliat Electric."
"Uh..." Macy nervously said.
"... You left it at home, didn't you?"
"..." Rinka sighed as she shook her head.
"Just..." She started. "Just look out on the scenery or hug your sister or something to keep you occupied..."
"Okay~!"
Meanwhile back in Westheart, the Mobians living there- ranging from cats to foxes to echidnas to hedgehogs to bats and to rabbits- were going about their normal routines. The farmers of Valley Farms were continuing their summer harvest, the workers of the Mechanic Shop were building and fixing new and old machineries, the merchants of Town Square were selling and setting up their goods, the residents of Westheart Tower were mingling, and the people of Lake Mills were making adjustments to their water mills to accommodate today's water levels and tides. Today was almost a normal day-
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!"
-... Never mind, it was a perfectly normal day.
Ren, being the one who screamed, was not having a pleasant morning, not in the slightest. First off, she fell out of her bed which made her alarm clock- which didn't go off, resulting in her waking up around 11- fall on her head from the stand next to her bed in the process, then the microwave broke so she had to settle for cold cereal instead of coffee, then her shower head decided to be a b***h and only spray out cold water, and finally she finds Arthur sitting in her room on her bed right when she walks out of the bathroom with only a towel on her body. And as for how Arthur got into her house, which she used to share with her brother Len, that was beyond the red echidna. All that she knew was that she was royally pissed off.
"Ya left tha front door open love." Arthur casually said while he looked over the flustered girls in front of him. "Why don't you wear that outfit more often?"
"This is not an outfit this is a towel!" Yelled an embarrassed Ren. "And I did not leave the door open! You probably picked the lock! Again!" Arthur held his hands up in surrender.
"Alright, alright you caught me love." He said sheepishly. "But I really needed to talk to you about somethin'."
"If this is about asking me on a date again, the answer is NO."
"As much as I wish, I'm not here to do that today." Chuckled Arthur before suddenly turning serious. "Didn't ya hear the news?" Ren blinked in confusion, both at the mention of 'news' and Arthur's sudden change in attitude.
"What... news?" She slowly asked.
"It's about the Chaos Spring." Replied Arthur. "I heard some of tha other echidnas talkin' about it. Apparently it's been actin' up for some reason. An' not just here, there's some rumor about Chaos Springs all over tha kingdom actin' tha same way."
"That's strange." Said Ren. "Think someone's messing with Chaos Energy again? Like from a few years back?"
"Who knows." Arthur stood up off Ren's bed. "Has the Chaos Emerald been actin' strange lately?"
"Nope. Not in the slightest."
"Then it's probably nothin'." Arthur waved a hand casually. "Still keep an eye on it, kay love?"
"Don't tell me what to jackass! I can take care of myself!"
"I know." Smiled Arthur. "An' that's why I love you, love." Ren threw a hand towel at his face at that.
"Don't call me 'love' and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
"Uncle Voi!" Shouted a rested and excited Flarice. "We're here!"
Not a minute after landing in the Suntomb Ruins Flarice had already jumped out of the Red Wind's backseat, much to Macy's dismay, and ran to the entrance of Doctor Voi's lab. Unlike most labs, it was relatively small, about the size of a normal one story house. In fact, the inside only consisted of a small bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Hardly qualifying for a lab of any type. At least, that's what the upper level suggested.
Not long after Flarice called out, the front door's handle started to shake before the door opened. While the cat-bat wanted to see her Uncle, the person she expected to answer the door was there. Or rather, robot.
"Starbot!" Smiled Flarice as she scooped the small bot in her arms in a hug.
"Flarice!" Said said robot, it's mechanical voice suggesting that it was a he and that he would smile if he could. "It's great to see you again! How have you been?"
"I've been good. Ran into another Sky Pirate. Nothing too serious. You?"
"Same! The Doctor managed to fix my broken gear system. The rust had been killing my back!"
"Hey Starbot!" Called Macy as she and Rinka walked over to the two. "Long time no see!" Starbot's electric eyes lit up in response.
"Macy! Rinka! It's good to see you all!" He jumped out of Flarice's arms and hopped to the living room's couch. "Come! The Doctor is in the lab!" Flarice and Macy grinned excitedly as they hopped onto the couch, Rinka only having a small smile as she calmly sat down. Settling down next to Flarice, Starbot flipped open a small compartment on the couch's arm revealing a red button. Holding Flarice's hand so he doesn't fly off, he pushed the button.
"Next stop, Bontikor Labs!" An opening opened under the couch, making said item fall into it and it's occupants, not including Rinka, scream in joy as it fell. Above them, another couch was ejected up and the floor closed before the object hit the ground, leaving the room to look exactly the same as it was before.
"Captain!" Shouted Regal as he entered the bridge, holding up a large, rolled up piece of paper. "I brought the map of Westheart, as you requested." The sun was shining high in the sky- Though it was slightly more towards the west mind you.- making it so that no lights were needed at all on the lead ship of the Delain May Sky Pirates. And speaking of said pirates, they were ecstatic. While usually they preferred an easy haul, they always enjoyed a challenge when hunting for treasure or resources. But who would've thought that such a challenge would come in the form of a young cat-bat hybrid from a relatively small town? Stepping in front of the Captain's chair, Regal blinked his eyes in confusion.
"Captain?" He asked as he looked around the bridge.
"Sorry Regal." Called out a raccoon from the navigation console. "You just missed her."
"Any idea where she is Dylan?" Said person shrugged their shoulders.
"No, why? Did you need to talk to her about something?"
"Yeah." The hawk held up the map so Dylan could see it. "She needed me to get her the map of Westheart."
"She must be really interested in this town if she went as far as asking for a map of it. She almost never uses or needs one when raiding a town."
"Honestly," Said a swallow at the control console. "I'm just shocked that you actually FOUND the map. That storage room is a complete disaster!" Dylan nodded.
"Exactly Tania! We really need to organize that room..."
"Damn straight we do." Regal sighed.
"Yeah, you two do that. I'm gonna go check the training room and deck. The Captain is probably in one of those places." The first mate walked out of the bridge, Dylan and Tania shouting a 'bye' and 'good luck' as he did.
"Hey, Uncle Voi?" Asked Flarice. "Why do you have so many robots?"
"Well child, when you live alone for years, you tend to have a lot of free time. This is what I do to spend it." Uncle Voi replied.
It was late in the afternoon by this point, meaning they would have to leave soon for home- Nighttime is not exactly the safest time to travel over the Suntomb Ruins- but no one was even tired. Well, maybe Voi- But if he is, he's doing a really good job of not showing it. Flarice, Macy, Rinka, Starbot, Tribot- Who wandered off somewhere- and Doctor/ Uncle Voi were all currently in Voi's underground lab- Apparently, according to Rinka, having a lab underground has many advantages, such as being able to harvest Chaos Energy easier than on the surface away from a Chaos Spring- Macy and Starbot had left the room in search of Tribot, Rinka and Voi were going over some equations that Flarice couldn't ever hope to understand, and said cat-bat was looking through a large viewing glass that showed thousands of robots all lined up in a military-like fashion. As Voi had mentioned before, he had a lot of free time. Add that to the fact that he loves to tinker- One has got to wonder why he didn't live in the Mechanic Shop area of Westheart- and you get and army of robots!
"There's so many!" Exclaimed Flarice as she pressed up against the glass to get a better view. "How many are in there any way? 100,000?" Voi and Rinka shared a laugh.
"Actually Flarice," Rinka began. "There are 50,124 robots in there exactly."
"... Did you seriously count all of them or is that just a random number off the top of your head?"
"Actually, we're working on Robot #50,124 right now!"
"Seriously?!"
"Yup. That, and we keep a log of the machines we make."
"Hey we're back!" Yelled Macy as she and Starbot walked, or in the white bot's case floated, in with a triangle shaped robot in the hedgehog's arms. "And we found Tribot!" Said bot chirped cheerfully in response to it's name being called out. Voi walked up to Macy with a fond smile and took Tribot into his hands.
"There you are you little wanderer!" He exclaimed. "Where was she this time?"
"Near the storage room." Said Starbot. "It looks like she noticed all the old stuff in there from way back and decided that she wanted to take a look."
"I see.." Voi looked at the small green robot. "What did I tell you before? While you can go around exploring you should at least take Starbot with you. You haven't been active for that long-"
"I thought Tribot had been active for 19 years already." Macy whispered to Flarice. Said Mobian just nodded in agreement.
"- and you're still learning how to calibrate a 100,000 variable program." Tribot made a chirp that sounded like a small whimper. Voi sighed. "And you still have yet to have your systems properly connect to your voice box..."
"Actually I found out that she prefers 'chirping' to actually 'speaking'." Spoke up Flarice.
"And why's that?"
"Saves time." Macy let out a laugh.
"Who cares?" She said as she took Tribot into her arms and rubbed her cheek against the bot's head. "I think it's absolutely adorable!"
"Alright, alright." Smiled Rinka as she took Tribot and set her on the ground. "That's enough hugging for you. Come on, it's about time we headed home."
"Aw..." Whined Flarice. "Already?"
"Already." Rinka nodded before ruffling Flarice's hair. "Time does fly when you're having fun, huh?" Meanwhile next to them, Voi slowly got out of his seat.
"It's getting close to dinner time." He said as he walked to the lab's door. "I'll make you all something for the trip home."
"Thanks for the sandwiches Uncle Voi!" Macy grinned as she held a container with said food. She, Flarice, Rinka, Starbot, Tribot, and Doctor Voi were now outside the latter's home, the former three getting ready to fly back home.
"Are you all sure you don't want to stay for the night?" Asked Starbot, Tribot chirping in agreement. "The old machineries in the Ruins will be active by the time you get halfway through."
"Don't worry!" Flarice smirked from her position on the Red Wind's wing. "If any of those old things come after us, I'll beat them down out of the sky!"
"And what about the ones on the ground?"
"I'll just launch the ones in the sky at them!" The bots laughed at her enthusiasm. Rinka rolled her eyes.
"Ok, that's enough witty banter. Macy get in. We're leaving now." Said hedgehog waved another goodbye to the residents of the Suntomb Ruins before hopping into the plane's backseat.
"Bye Uncle Voi!" Flarice shouted as the Red Wind took off, her flying next to it. "See you all again soon!" Starbot, Tribot, and the Doctor all waved to them as they drew further away. Once they were out of sight, Voi's smile dropped.
'As much as I wish my child...' He thought as he turned to go inside. 'I'm afraid that we may not see each other for a very long time...'
...
Here I am writing a really cheerful chapter (For the most part.) while watching a really scary game on GT Live (Until Dawn.) Is that weird or what?
So that was 'Day 2- 50,124 Robots and an Uncle', hope you all enjoyed it! Again, I am SO SORRY for the long wait! I'm trying to come up with a way to manage all my stories so I can work on each one equally. Or close to that... And I still need to find some material to talk about in my author notes...
On a side note, this chapter only took 3 days to write. New record for me!
Until The Next Raid!