Chapter 13

Armadi

2:13 PM, Two days later

Maya rubbed her sore wrists a few times before taking the stage of the cafeteria-auditorium in her usual slow and charismatic pace. She brushed a long strand of silver hair from her eyes and faced her anticipating audience. "Before anything else, I think I should just tell everyone what a good job they've done over the past few weeks. We've all had to deal with personal losses, difficult choices, injury, and overall an undue amount of stress." She leaked a mild smile at the round of approving laughter and continued, "But, despite everything that's happened, we've pulled through and put Robotnik in his place. We've foiled one of the most ambitious and bold plots of his career, and even dealt a solid blow to Robotropolis itself."

She raised her arms and finished, "And for that, I think we all deserve a little rest and enjoyment." With a gesture to the double doors at the far end of the meeting room that hid the kitchen, Marcus appeared with a large plate of assorted desserts and foods. "So eat up! I've made plenty for everyone, and I have a special surprise in the back."

She skipped down the steps of the stage with an unusual burst of energy and wound her way past the crowd beginning to form around the food tray Marcus set down. After a brief disappearance through the doors, she returned with a large multi-tiered cake. The others immediately made a berth for her, eagerly staring down the rare treat. "I know how much you all love my cakes, so I scrounged up the ingredients from what we raided and baked it overnight."

"Almost getting killed by robots was worth it for this!" Kyros joked, prompting another round of chuckles.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Maya replied, the bare skin around a bandage on her cheek flushing red. "Now, enjoy, but remember that the princess is holding another little celebration tonight at Knothole, and has invited us along."

Stanley accepted a slice of cake from Maya and asked, "I take it they made it through all of this alright?"

"I believe so," Maya answered. "I only had a few minutes to speak with her, but she seemed in good spirits."

"That's good," Tantalus added from behind Stanley.

Kyros raised an eyebrow and said, "A little too good for me. We took all of the fire from Robotnik."

"Yes, well I think we made out alright. We're all still here and alive," Maya responded.

Seltic sighed and spoke up, "I'm just a little shaken up about how close we were to not being alright. If I never see the roboticizer again, it'll be too soon."

"Maybe you won't," Kyros added with a smile. "I don't think there's much of it left."

Seltic thought over the explosion they witnessed engulf the upper floors of the command center as they left and replied, "Yeah, let's hope so anyway." He placed his hands in his pockets and went on, "Well, it'll probably take him a few months to rebuild it. I wouldn't count on it being gone for too long."

The group accepted his comment and passed it off, not wanting to think about the subject any longer than they had to. They each took their turn gathering their preference of food on a plate and took their usual places along the tables in the cafeteria.

Kyros plopped into his seat across from Seltic and swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. "I wonder what the princess has planned for tonight," he said to Tantalus.

The squirrel swallowed and replied, "Probably something similar to this. I'd like to meet them all again, we didn't really get much of a chance earlier."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm going to be riding that blue hedgehog all night for not busting us out," Kyros continued, flashing a smile. "And I suppose you're going to be following the princess around constantly like you did while she was here."

Tantalus scratched a bandage on his arm and chuckled uneasily. "Come on, she's cute."

"I don't think Sonic would like that," Seltic added as he fell into his seat. "He seems awfully possessive to me."

"Forget him. Besides, he'll be busy with me," Kyros replied. "Anyway, have you done anything with the SWATbot pod we brought back with us? After Robotnik took our hovercraft we'll be needing it to get there tonight."

Selic shook his head nonchalantly. "Nope. It's going to take a lot of work to do what I want to do to it, so I'm not in any hurry to get around to it. Kaplain said he used to be a mechanic, so maybe he can lend me a hand. It's still got plenty of fuel left in it though, so it should last us for a week or so."

Kyros swallowed another scoop of ice cream and asked, "How is he anyway?"

"Same as before as far as I know, still out of it. Sissera would probably know."

Kyros opened his mouth to shout the question to her when he spotted her walking by on her way to her usual spot next to Maya. She paused next to him and asked, "Kaplain?" After a nod from the three at the table she said, "He's doing better actually. He's in and out of consciousness, but after I gave him the clotting injection he starting recovering. He'll probably be back on his feet in a few days."

"Sounds good. We can always use another gun while we're in Robotropolis, if he's not another wimp like Seltic here," Kyros replied with a joking smile.

"We'll see," Sissera said, stepping off.

Seltic shoveled something into his mouth before asking Kyros, "Any idea what time we've got to leave? If nothing else I guess I should give the pod a look over, and maybe change something so the Knothole freedom fighters don't think we're a bunch of SWATbots and blow us away."

Kyros shrugged. "Maya's done all of the talking, she hasn't told me anything." He looked over Seltic to spot Maya and shouted, "What time is the get together tonight?"

She blinked in response for a second before replying, "Well, the princess said to be there anytime after six. So, I suppose whenever we get ready to leave after that."

"Should be plenty of time," Seltic added. "That even gives me some time to catch some sleep first."

Seltic glanced through the relatively large crowd milling around in the center of the town of Knothole and watched in amusement as Kyros subtly stalked Sonic as the hedgehog conversed with his friends. The prospect of possibly having to break up a quarrel entered his mind moments before the coyote they had met a few days before strolled over to him.

The coyote, Antoine, interrupted the silence through his thick Mercian accent, "So, you 'ave destroyed the roboticizer, no?"

Seltic faked a chuckle. He pointed at Kyros through the twilight engulfing them and replied, "Well, sort of. You'll have to talk to Kyros about that."

"Ah. Monsieur echidna doesn't seem to be in the talking mood right now, perhaps later."

"Yeah, after he gets done with Sonic, or so he says."

Antoine cut him a sly expression and added before trotting off, "Oh ho, really now? Perhaps I should join him after all. That hedgehog is in need of something."

Seltic watched him trot off into the crowd before slipping off himself. He had never been particularly comfortable in gatherings, and the Knothole Freedom Fighters were still strangers. His memory of the settlement was limited by his only brief visit. He spotted a wooden staircase fixed to the outside of the cabin next to him and instantly recalled seeing a balcony atop the building. The weather worn boards creaked under his weight as he worked his way up the steps.

He peered over the roof as he crested the steps, his hopes of finding an empty spot lost as he spotted a walrus and half-roboticized rabbit staring into the darkening sky. The rabbit, Bunnie, turned from her post to face him moments later, saying with a smile, "Oh, hello."

Seltic fumbled with his words for a second before answering, "Uh, hi. I didn't think anyone was up here."

The walrus named Rotor motioned for him to join them and added, "Well, come on up. We've got something to show you." He pointed up to the sky. As a flash of light formed and streaked over the horizon he continued, "See that?"

"Yeah, a meteor?" Seltic replied, mounting the balcony.

"That's what we thought at first too, but it's not," Rotor went on. "It looks like destroying the control center did a lot more good than I would have expected."

Seltic raised an eyebrow and asked, "You mean it's one of-"

Rotor interrupted, "Yep, it's a satellite. After you guys knocked out the control center, they all lost their guidance and lost orbit. They've been crashing to Mobius for hours now."

Seltic smiled. "That's great, I was worried that Robotnik would just rebuild the control center and resume the attacks."

"We did too, but it looks like things turned out for the better." The walrus looked him over and said, "You're Seltic right? The tech specialist?"

"Yeah," Seltic answered modestly.

"Well, then maybe you know for sure, but rumor's had it that you guys also destroyed the roboticizer too," Bunnie asked.

Seltic sighed and looked down. "It's a long story... but kind of. Remember when we were cut off from you guys in the jail?" The two nodded, prompting him to continue, "Well, Robotnik captured all of us. Kyros, Stanley, and I were almost killed in the attack... and Robotnik decided to save our lives by roboticizing us." Bunnie gasped and instinctively rubbed her roboticized arm."Yeah, I know," Seltic groaned. "We almost ended up killing our friends under his orders."

"What happened?" Rotor asked.

Seltic showed him the neural overrider and answered, "I built this little device based on some data I collected from Kaplain, the roboticized deer we had with us last time. It wasn't quite enough to overcome the roboticizer itself, but with a little mental trauma we were able to break out of the mind control." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and continued, "So, Kyros and Stanley flew off and managed to level the control center. After that, we headed to the roboticizer."

"To deroboticize yourselves?" Bunnie asked again.

"We originally intended to just destroy it, but after I looked over the controls I figured out how to use it well enough to deroboticize us. We'd just finished doing that when Kaplain was almost killed by the process, and we had to leave. Kyros broke a gas line though, which set off a nasty explosion. We hope that managed to destroy it, but we don't know for sure."

Rotor scratched his chin and said, "Yeah, but it probably doesn't really matter. I'm sure Robotnik will build a new one soon enough. He thought for a second and asked, "But, what was that about somebody almost being killed by it?"

Seltic smiled and replied, "Another long story, you might want to have a seat."

Kyros hopped to his feet as the SWATbot pod hummed to a halt and spoke aloud, "Well, that was fun I suppose, but I'm ready for some sleep." He pressed a button to open the side hatch and asked, "What time is it anyway?"

Sissera pulled herself to her feet and replied after a pause, "A little after two I think."

The group filtered through the hatch into the dark garage interior, groggily huddling around the pod. Kyros found Maya's gaze and asked sarcastically, "You're not going to put me on watch duty, are you?"

She chuckled lightly and shook her head. "No, no, I think we've all earned a full night's sleep."

"I'll probably be up all night anyway," Seltic added. "I've still got a ton of stuff to look over from before all of this started, and I didn't have much luck sleeping last night. I guess I can keep a watch on the monitors for anything."

Kyros cut him a playful expression and said, "Yeah, you have fun with that." He led the knot of people out of the garage and into the sparsely-lit street sprawling through the center of Armadi. His eyes danced along the lamps staggered along the road as he strolled towards the cafeteria to get something to drink before heading to bed, eventually settling on a sudden shift in the shadows around the buildings at the end of the settlement.

He glanced back to the tangle of people following him to make certain that none of them were the source before raising his hand and announcing, "Hold up guys, I see something moving ahead." As they all fell silent and crouched behind what cover they could find, he studied the shambling shadow ahead. It appeared to unsteadily stagger down the steps from Sissera's side of the tenrec's house, revealing a pair of sprawling antlers on its head as it passed near one of the streetlights.

"Kaplain?" he called, slightly confused. Instantly, the shadowed creature halted under the light and looked back, revealing the brown-furred deer.

Kaplain stood upright from his hunched position and squinted through the light, blinking to adjust his vision to the night. "Huh? Who's there?"

"It's us," Kyros replied, taking a step towards him. "We thought you were a bot or something."

"Where am I? What happened?" Kaplain went on weakly, taking a moment to stare off towards the far end of the town.

Maya followed Kyros over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. She looked him in the eye and spoke softly, "You're back in Armadi. Something went wrong when they tried to deroboticize you. We were worried that you wouldn't make it."

At her words, Kaplain followed her arm with his eyes, jerking away with a gasp as he noticed the fur on his shoulder. He raised his hands and stared into his palms for a few seconds before rotating them around and studying every detail as though he'd never seen them before. His jaw dropped as he ran his fingers across his furry cheek. "I'm... normal again?"

Seltic smiled and replied, "Yeah. Remember when we rescued you? We deroboticized ourselves before Robotnik showed up, but it didn't work right on you where I'd made repairs on you earlier."

Sissera chimed in, "We barely got you back here in time, but you pulled through. You'll probably be sore and weak for a while, but as far as I can tell you'll be fine."

Kaplain nodded in understanding, tears of joy beginning to darken the fur around his eyes. He slumped to his knees and grabbed Maya around the legs, sniffling incoherently. "Thank you all, I owe you my life," he muttered at last.

Maya placed her hand gently on his head and replied, "We only did what we would for anyone in trouble." She helped him to his feet and continued, "But, now that you're one of us I think it's time we get you something to wear and eat." She pointed at Kyros and said, "I hope you don't mind a trench coat, it's about all we have left."

"That's fine, whatever you have." He looked her in the face and eagerly continued, "But right now I'd like to take you up on that food offer. I don't think I've ever been so hungry."