In a brilliant flash, Nicole found herself in a place not at all familiar to her. Where was she last? It was the coronation of Castle Acorn's restoration when… something happened. The Tails Doll, they discovered, was more than just a toy Cream carried about: it was itself an artificial intelligence, one that took control of the city's nanites and created a horrific monstrosity of a form.
It wasn't here now. Nothing was. Her vision was obscured by a sea of fog. In an instant, however, Nicole recognized that she was approximately a mile above the ground below. She let out a confused, terrified yell as her PDA started plummeting down, carrying her holo-lynx form with her. It landed on the dry earth with a crack and a zap, sustaining damage to itself and her physical form. She was lucky she couldn't feel pain.
"How inconvenient! I'll need repairs immediately. What on Mobius caused that to happen?" Her hologram form stood up and looked around. There was no Castle Acorn, no Tails Doll, no nanites, no city. Just a dense layer of fog that made it hard to see more than a few meters ahead. "Where am I?" She must have been far away from New Mobotropolis now. Was it a result of Eggman's work? This area on her internal map was totally uncharted. She could make out the sound of waves all around, so she likely was on a small island: hopefully not Angel Island, if it were grounded.
Suddenly, the holo-lynx heard a rustling noise, akin to the sounds of pots clattering together. Startled, she leapt away from the source of the disturbance. "W-who's there?" Through the fog's veil, a pair of dim yellow lights appeared, small and distant. Nicole stared at them, the glow flickering ever so slightly. Just as quickly as they appeared, they darted away, leaving Nicole alone once more… but with the knowledge she wasn't the only one here. "W-wait, where did you-"
The ground shook and the sound of the open air was polluted by the sound of a momentous crash, as if a meteor had fallen nearby. Being a holographic AI, Nicole's footing didn't waver (like it would in her nanite state), but she still rushed over to her PDA out of fear. The overwhelming confusion was only exacerbated when she finally caught a glimpse of her reflection in the PDA's screen: her avatar was crumbling as she moved, missing chunks all over!
Then she heard what could best be described as a metallic landslide. Turning around, her jaw dropped as she witnessed the rolling junk approaching. Rusted, broken down badnik parts fell down on her like a wave as she let out a horrified scream! The cacophony of clattering scrap only further pushed her digital sanity to the brink as she was buried under the mound. Her handheld suffered further damage after the avalanche. When it finally subsided, the holo-lynx was left clutching her head, murmuring to herself.
"where am i where am i this doesn't make sense this doesn't compute where is everyone why aren't they here what is here why am i here why why why why…" It continued like this for what felt like hours until, mercifully, something broke her out of her trance.
"BY ALL OF THE DEITIES!" An uncharacteristically chipper voice called out. "IT IS AS IF THE HEAVENS' THEMSELVES HAVE GRANTED US A GIFT FOR OUR CONTINUED STRUGGLE."
It was an artificial voice, Nicole could still discern that from its audiowaves, but it sounded friendly. She needed friends. If her friends weren't here with her now, then she'd need to make new ones. "H-h-hey! HEY!" She shouted. "HELP! I'M STUCK UNDER THIS PILE OF REFUSE!"
"AH! A VISITOR!" It heard her! "YOU MUST HAVE ARRIVED WITH THE LATEST WRECK."
'Wreck'? What was this machine talking about? Did… did something happen? "OVER HERE! I AM OVER HERE!"
"I CAN DISCERN YOUR DISTRESS, MISS! REST ASSURED, WE ARE ON OUR WAY!"
Nicole could hear the pattering of a dozen different footsteps, each one distinct from the other, as they reached the pile she was buried under. Finally, she had a sense of direction! The avatar rushed through the scrap metal surrounding her, following the direction of the voice until she was back in the open air and-!
"Wh-uh-uh…" She stood deathly still. In front of her were badniks that had shown clear signs of damage. They were cobbled together in countless different ways, all mixed and matched together to create forms she could only predict were barely functional. Of note were two of them: an e-series robot with a green colouration, and a robotic doppelganger of Sonic.
"A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU, MISS! I AM E-117 SIGMA, THIS IS GUARDIAN MECHA SONIC, AND THESE," As the robot gestured to the small crowd with his Eggrobo arm. "ARE THE SCRAPNIKS."
"Sc-sc-sc-" Her voice continued to stutter and glitch, as did her form. How could she end up in a scrapyard like this? "Are… are y-you part of the E-e-eggman Empire?" If they were, she could probably weave together some kind of convincing lie about herself being one of the doctor's creations. These machines either never saw their way out of the factory line or were not advanced enough to comprehend the deception.
"NOT ANYMORE." This 'Sigma' proudly proclaimed. "WE, THE INHABITANTS OF SCRAPNIK ISLAND, ARE AN INDEPENDENT BADNIK HORDE, LIBERATED FROM OUR CREATOR'S DIRECTIVES. THE QUESTION IS… ARE YOU?"
"Me? No, no!" Nicole finally felt some pang of relief knowing she was at least in likeminded company for the time. "My designation is Nicole, holo-lynx, and I am a member of the Freedom Fighters."
"FREEDOM FIGHTERS?" Sigma queried. "I AM NOT AWARE OF THIS ORGANIZATION, BUT THE NAME SEEMS RATHER SELF-EXPLANATORY. IT IS STRANGE FOR YOU TO ARRIVE AT THE EXACT SAME TIME ONE OF OUR CREATOR'S LATEST INVENTIONS CRASHES DOWN."
"Crashed down? What crashed down?" The avatar was bewildered, her thoughts occupied by just one thing: did they manage to destroy the Death Egg? Did they finally rescue Sally? Was it… was it over? All these thoughts helped to distract her from the underlying dread she felt looking at the shambling scrapniks.
"WHY DON'T I SHOW YOU?" Sigma rummaged through the scrap heap, detecting the computer anchor the holo-lynx was planted on, while one of the scrapniks, a curious, bat-like creature, waved one of its wings in Nicole's direction.
She nervously chuckled and waved back.
"THERE IT IS." He pulled the PDA out of the wreckage, brushing off dirt and flakes of rust. "BY JOVE, YOUR CASING TOOK A THRASHING! I HOPE THE INTERNALS DIDN'T SUFFER TOO BADLY."
"Indeed! Now, let us see which of the doctor's creations crashed down, yes?" Nicole was anxious to see what had been taken down. Finally, the Freedom Fighters had guaranteed a victory!
"VERY WELL THEN. FOLLOW ME!" Sigma started lunging forward at a surprisingly face past, Nicole trailing behind as they ascended up the hill. On the way there, Nicole could barely make out another pair of dim lights on the horizon near them, perhaps belonging to some beacons. After reaching the edge of the cliff-face, the fog had parted just enough to reveal it.
The Death Egg Mk. II had fallen!
"YES!" The avatar shouted out, jumping with glee! "Eggman has been defeated! We did it! Now all I need to do is find out how to get in… contact… with…" The holo-lynx went silent once more as she looked down at the jagged rocks below. She could make out a badnik with parts impaled into the stalagmites; some of them were drifting off into the sea. Then she saw that it wasn't a badnik.
It was a robian.
"... Sally?"
A bright light was all that Sally could see. It was the first thing she saw after that future hedgehog, Silver, had shut her down. Well… the other her. To her surprise, however, Sally could… detect things. Not through her Mecha self's display but through her own. She was in control. Her friends had rescued her! She could tell in that instant that she was still… roboticized… but she was free! For the first time in months, she was herself again!
As her vision started to adjust to the light looming over her, the chipmunk's visor interface was starting to identify two figures.
CLASSIFICATION: HARDLIGHT CONSTRUCT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
DESIGNATION: NICOLE
SCENARIO 100 IDENTIFIED: ISOLATED FREEDOM FIGHTER
ORDERS: DESTROY
Sally didn't care what her orders were. She didn't have to follow them anymore. "Nicole!" She thought. "You- you did it! You saved me! Oh thank-"
Then she identified another figure.
CLASSIFICATION: BADNIK
TYPE: E-100 SERIES
SCENARIO 33 IDENTIFIED: PERFORMING REPAIRS
ORDERS: WAIT FOR DISMISSAL
Sally could barely make out any features outside of a silhouette. It looked like… Gamma. That was his name, right? From far back, in Station Square. The robot that rebelled! But he was destroyed, right? No, he became a part of Omega. So then who was this robot? Now she was able to properly see her rescuers and make out their features. Nicole looked to be in somewhat of a rough shape, the holo-lynx's projected form missing large chunks that were left pixelated in the openings (was it a lack of energy? Was her PDA damaged? Sally hoped she wasn't responsible for it!). But this Gamma-like machine was green, rusted and worn-down. He wore a monocle over one of his eyes, and a scarf around his upper torso. "Wait. Performing repairs?"
The robot's voice, not quite monotone but also far from natural, spoke as it made "eye"-contact with Sally. "I BELIEVE THIS UNIT'S REACTIVATION IS ALMOST COMPLETE. SHOULD I RELEASE THE JOINT LOCKS?"
"My joint locks?" Sally attempted to move the body's arms, legs, hips, even head, but got no response. She was getting worried. "Why… why can't I move? What's going on?!"
"Not yet, Sigma. I'd like to take a few minutes to chat with my friend." Nicole finally looked down at Sally, visibly stressed by… something. "Sally? Can you speak?"
"I- I can speak!" The princess found herself letting out a confused giggle. "I can speak, Nicole! Thank you, thank you! You guys saved me! You… you should tell me what's going on."
Nicole's expression only got more stressed. "Nicole… why are you looking at me like that? Why can't I move? Who's Sigma!? Where am I?! Where is everyone?! What are we doing he-"
"Sally. Please. I want you to take a moment to calm down." Nicole gently moved her hand to Sally's head in an attempt to calm her down. "Right now, you just need to understand that you are safe. We are far away from Eggman's reach. We just… got separated from our friends during the fight." Nicole then turned back to Sigma. "Perhaps it's best you introduce yourself to my friend here."
Sally was starting to get unnerved by all of this. Was she really safe? Or was this some kind of trick by Eggman; some cruel, twisted program deluding her into believing she was free? "N-n-n-Nicole… I'm… afraid…" Something was staining the lower part of her eyes. "Are these… tears? Am I crying? Wait… ARE THOSE CRACKS IN MY EYES?!" Another surge of terror was washing over her. She was reminded of… of the sessions.
The blowtorches. The screwdrivers. The singing. The snapping.
The smelting.
Sally watched as Nicole wrapped her arm around her neck in a desperate hug. Before the robian could scream out in terror, Sigma made a bowing gesture and began to speak. "GREETINGS, SALLY ACORN. I AM E-117 SIGMA. YOU WERE PLACED UNDER OBSERVATION, DUE TO THE DAMAGE YOU SUSTAINED IN THE CRASH AND FLOODING. HAVING NO KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR SITUATION RESULTED IN AN ELEVATION OF YOUR STRESS LEVELS I SURMISE." It gave Sally a bit of a reprieve from her thoughts. This Sigma was an unfailingly polite contraption, a surprise given his creator, though Sally was beginning to suspect this wasn't his initial programming.
"OUR INTENTION WAS NOT TO FRIGHTEN YOU. YOUR FORGIVENESS IS REQUESTED."
Sally was shuddering "F-f-forgiveness? I… I don't know if I can! I CAN'T TAKE THIS! NICOLE! PLEASE!" The reprieve was starting to pass and the memories were beginning to creep back in.
"It will be alright Sally! Trust him! He's the one who was able to rescue you! If it weren't for him and his friends, you'd… be tens of miles below sea level."
"Sea level? SEA LEVEL?! WE WERE NOWHERE NEAR THE SEA!" Sally's thoughts were starting to spiral into madness. None of this made any sense! It's like she woke up in a totally different place! But she had enough of lying down on this slab. She desperately wanted to move!
"S-s-sigma… SIGMA!" Sally began to shout demandingly, trying to bring back her commanding presence to wake her up from this mess. "I DEMAND YOU RELEASE THE LOCKS ON MY JOINTS THIS INSTANT!"
"AS YOU WISH, PRINCESS. I AM RELEASING THE JOINT LOCKS NOW."
Nicole, sweat beaming down the parts of her face that were rendered, looked at Sally pleadingly. "Sally, I don't think you're ready for this! It's very clear you're still dealing with a lot on your mind right now, and I believed it best if you were eased in-"
"NO! I AM NEVER GOING TO LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! I WON'T LET FREEDOM BE KEPT FROM ME ANY LONGER!" Sally got the notification that the locks were removed as she finally sat up on the slab she was placed on. "NOW LET'S GET TO BUSINESS ON HOW WE-"
Sitting up, Sally could see the rest of the room around her. Lining the walls were bits and pieces of badniks. Arms, legs, heads, internal materials, everything. All rusted and misshapen. Then she saw the eyes. The eyes. Some of them were… alive. She saw some of the horrible patchwork things moving around, observing her. Bits and pieces of motobugs, caterkillers, splats, all mashed together into some twisted mockery of their creator's will.
Sally recoiled in horror at the appearance of these things. She had to get Nicole and get out of here NOW! "WHAT IS THIS PLACE?! WHAT KIND OF SICK SCRAPYARD HAVE WE ENDED UP IN?!" Sally brought her right arm close to her face before activating one of her laser blades. "GET BACK, YOU ZOMBOTS! ALL OF YOU!" Was this the Island of Misfit Badniks that Sonic had talked about way back? From what he said, it was destroyed!
Nicole was starting to cry. "Sally… please… sniff calm down…"
"I AGREE WITH THE HANDHELD UNIT. IT WOULD BE BEST FOR US TO AVOID A PHYSICAL CONFRONTA-"
"QUIET, SCRAP BRAIN! YOU'RE LUCKY I DIDN'T PULL THE BLADE ON YOU THE SECOND I GOT CONTROL!" Sally pointed at the discarded E-series scientist with her left arm. "NOW, YOU'RE GOING TO TELL US HOW WE GET OUT OF HERE OR… OR…" Sally looked at her left arm.
SCENARIO 33 IDENTIFIED: PERFORMING REPAIRS
PERFORMING REPAIRS
REPAIRS
That wasn't this body's left arm. It was the rusted arm of a slicer, nothing but a wicked sickle-like blade. Sally muttered nonsense to herself as she slowly looked down. She could see plates of metal were bolted onto parts of her chest and hips, like crude bandages. Looking further, she saw her right leg was replaced with that of a coconut's, but elongated to match her other leg, with a thruster crudely jury-rigged into its heel.
Sally slowly turned her head back up. Nicole, Sigma, and the Scrapniks seemed braced for the worst. In a stray piece of reflective steel, Sally could see her head; one half of her "hair" had been crumpled and bent, while the other half was gone, as if shaved clean off.
Sally finally wailed.
Nicole found the prospect of working with the scrapniks fascinating. Here was a community of abandoned machines left entirely to their own devices. Sigma, the E-series robot who was the first to reactivate, had liberated the programming of practically all of the island's inhabitants, barring a couple exceptions, and was able to rebuild them almost entirely from scrap. The scrapniks were resource-light machines, being able to subsist on the very occasional refuel and recharge from the Death Egg's still functioning power supply, and were projected to be able to live on the island for decades without interruption.
This new Death Egg that had beached halfway below the surface near their home, however, had the potential to be a veritable treasure trove! The large ovoid promised to hold even more advanced upgrades and materials for the island's inhabitants! Repairs, repaints, remodels, it was like a gift from Gaia above! Nicole was accompanied by Sigma and his trio of Egg-robos, Florentine, Rancheros, and Benedict, as they scoured the advanced second model. By the time they had finished their latest excavation, however, they had unfortunately found very few usable materials. Whatever treasures it had were on the lower levels.
While she didn't want to admit it, Nicole's intentions were frankly selfish. She was counting on the Death Egg Mark 2 to have the raw materials needed to properly repair Sally and replace the substitutes offered by the scrapniks. The hack job she subjected the unconscious robian to was admittedly out of panic; she was so worried her friend might never reactivate if they took too long that she didn't stop to consider the materials Sigma had to work with. She was ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry to have gotten your hopes up, Sigma. I understand that this may be too difficult a task for your crew to complete-"
"DO NOT DESPAIR, MISS HOLO-LYNX!" Nicole was taken aback by the scrapnik's boundless optimism. "WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS, AS LITTLE AS YOU MAY DETECT. I AM SURE I CAN FIND A FEW MORE SPECIALIZED FRIENDS TO MAKE ACCESSING THE LOWER LEVELS EASIER. TOM'S DRILL COULD ALLOW US EASIER ENTRY POINTS, AND MECHA SONIC COULD DEAL WITH ANY LOCKED DOORS VERY QUICKLY! FOR NOW, IT WOULD BE BEST IF WE RETURN HOME FOR THE NIGHT."
This Mecha Sonic was a strange fellow. She'd seen the cloaked figure occasionally during the day, playing with the locals, before making a trek into the Death Egg. According to Sigma, the former defense-bot was working on repairing the Egg-Carrier (or what was left of it) in hopes of eventually leaving the island to find a new home for them. Nicole would have to give a look over the old ship's files to try and get an idea of where she and Sally were on Mobius, as the carrier was evidently the most recent addition to the island before them. But the mention of Mecha Sonic reminded her…
"Sigma?"
"YES, MISS HOLO-LYNX?"
"That other program inside my friend. I was curious what you did with it, after you extracted it?"
"AH, OF COURSE. CURRENTLY, I AM WORKING ON BUILDING A BODY FOR THIS "MECHA SALLY" PROGRAM. HOWEVER, I STILL HAVE TO REMOVE EGGMAN'S PROGRAMMING. SHE HAS BEEN SURPRISINGLY ADAMANT ABOUT NOT WANTING TO BE LIBERATED, UNLIKE HER OTHER CONSCIOUSNESS. I CAN ONLY HOPE SHE FINDS HER NEW PURPOSE ONCE SHE'S READY." Sigma scratched where his chin could have been. "YOU KNOW, IT'S STRANGE: EGGMAN HAD PLANS TO CONTROL BADNIKS WITH HIS MIND, BUT I WAS UNAWARE HE WAS ABLE TO PUT OTHERS MINDS INTO BADNIKS ENTIRELY. AN UNFORTUNATE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOUR FRIEND."
"Y-yes." Nicole stammered. "It was… very unfortunate. I hope she's doing okay."
Sally had spent several days lying dormant in the hollowed out husk of the Death Egg. It was what she believed she wanted, needed, after finding out what had happened to her. She simply sat in the corner of the room, wrapped up in some makeshift cloak with one eye shut and another covered; the other "eyelid" was… nonfunctional. No Nicole, no Sigma, and absolutely no "scrapniks". Both of the talking ones suggested otherwise, but she wasn't interested in their suggestions. Not after what they did. Sally wanted nothing to do with them for some time, not even Nicole. Why did Nicole trust them? Was she reprogrammed? She had to be!
Sally's mind was occupied with other thoughts by this point. Thoughts of how she ended up here. At first she thought that maybe this was just a simulation that her mechanical doppelganger had created in an attempt to finally break her. If that was the case, she'd practically done it in the first ten minutes. But she also considered the complexity of these illusions and figured that they were far too advanced for a program like Mecha Sally to create; was this some cruel mercy from Eggman? To keep her mind active by putting it in a digital space with all of his other abandoned creations? No, it would be too much effort on his part to bother putting this together.
But then Sally started having… other thoughts. Maybe she was dead. Her consciousness was deleted, either as punishment by Eggman, her power-ring killswitch being set off, or finally being destroyed in the crash. Was this where dead bots ended up? Some kind of robot hell? It definitely wasn't heaven; Nicole had one time attempted to snap Sally out of her stupor by showing her images of the outside. The first thing she saw was the admittedly beautiful sunshine that brought light to this little land; a pleasant sight immediately ruined by the piles of scrap that formed hills and mountains in the bare earth. Watching all those horrible critters playing around on the corpses of their brethren was enough to make Sally shoo her suspect friend away for another day.
Then she remembered. The Master Plan. Eggman's attempt to rewrite reality to his liking.
He did it. Eggman won. Sally and Nicole just happened to be "lucky" enough to wash up on one of likely thousands of scrap yards that made up this new, polluted, dead world. Eggman had no use for Mecha Sally anymore and tossed her aside. She'd probably succeeded in eliminating all of her friends by this point; the ones who managed to avoid roboticization at least. She served her purpose, and now she got to "enjoy" her retirement. It was so like the doctor to do something like that. Now that she was free, she was powerless to do anything but wallow in her misery.
Nothing she could come up with brought her hope. In all ways she was still trapped inside a mechanical shell made in her likeness, abandoned and left to rust on a pile of junk far away from anything she cared about, bar one companion she could no longer trust. If she wasn't already dead, she was going to die here; her power-ring wasn't likely to last long on recharges from this facility.
At the end of each day, Sally had attempted to get up before being reminded of the modifications she endured. That usually prompted her to sit back down for the next couple dozen hours. This time, however, she was able to finally get up from her corner.
"There's no point in staying here anymore." Maybe the madness had finally set in and Sally was ready to play along with this sick game. "If this is it… if there's nothing else but this… I might as well pick a nicer spot to shut down."
With that grim thought, Sally began to slowly limp out the door and into the corridors of the Death Egg.
Sally stood at the edge of a cliff, staring at the setting sun. She was heavily obscured by a makeshift cloak; the only visible part of her being were the lights of her eyes. She could hear the sounds of waves crashing against the rocks below.
"It's all gone. Everything. Everyone. I won't ever see them ever again." Sally wanted to forget about that and just enjoy the scenery in front of her, but found herself constantly reminded of what she was trapped in. On her walk here, she was getting constant notifications, trying and failing to detect and describe the various scrapniks she avoided. Some part of her felt bad about ignoring the bots' attempts to befriend her; she understood that they truly meant her no harm, that they wanted to play with her or give her something to do, and just wanted to accept her as one of their own. But that was the problem: she wasn't one of them. They could stick as many bits and pieces as they wanted on her but she wasn't one of them! She wasn't!
A hollow sigh was the first noise her mouth had made since her mental break. "Just stop yourself." Sally lied down to look up at the sky. "There's no point in denying it. You're just one of them now. That's all you'll be." Displaced, discontinued, and disheartened. "You've got nothing to worry about anymore." It's true; no matter the case, everything was gone. To the world, Sally Acorn was effectively dead in any scenario. Whatever she was now was just what was left behind. "Maybe it's not that bad. You still have Nicole-" The person responsible for her waking up in this nightmare? Who allowed for her to be turned into this abomination? How lucky! "Stop. You have Nicole, Sigma, and all these little new friends you should get to know. You're free. You've got a new lease on life. You can be whoever or whatever you want to be." What, was she just going to lie to herself to feel better? Delude herself into forgetting who she was? Before she could continue arguing with herself, she heard the sound of footsteps… and rolling.
Sally tried to spring up to her feet, but awkwardly stumbled because of her new leg. By the time she was finally standing, she brought out her working arm and lit her laser blade. She could already see what was approaching; a red and grey ball, and…
"... Sonic?" The first word Sally had spoken since her mental break. She stowed her weapon. It looked like Mecha Sonic, what Sonic turned into when he was roboticized some time back, but the construction was… different. Even ignoring the signature scrapnik handiwork of a crab claw arm and buzzsaw leg, none of this design seemed familiar on a proper survey.
The machine spoke. "I AM MECHA SONIC, MARK 2." He pointed to the orb trailing him as it popped open, a small ant-like badnik inside. "THIS IS LLOYD. HE WOULD LIKE TO BE YOUR FRIEND." The unit pointed all across the land. "THIS IS SCRAPNIK ISLAND. THIS CAN BE YOUR HOME, IF YOU WISH." This Mecha Sonic then turned away. "YOU ARE WELCOME HERE, NO MATTER WHAT."
For the briefest of seconds, Sally thought she'd found some bit of hope to cling on to. Even in this horrible world, she would be able to be with Sonic again, in spite of the state he was in. Then it revealed it was a second model. Just another badnik that washed up here. Just like all the rest. Sally fell to her knees. She knew it wouldn't do well for this body's fuel supply, but that didn't matter anymore. Once again, like several nights before, she broke into tears.
Lloyd approached Sally, slowly, cautiously, before cuddling up to the clearly miserable unit. It took some time for her to even register that the scrapnik had stayed with her. Once it did, however, she didn't feel much better. Just more self conscious. She turned down and glared at the insectoid freak beneath her.
"Leave. Now."
Lloyd didn't even flinch. He just kept looking up at her with his big, beady eyes and toothy smile.
Sally closed the lid on top of Lloyd's head and pushed him back down the hill in his ball form. Why didn't these rejects get it? She didn't want anything to do with them! Sally turned away and sat down as the sun disappeared into the horizon. She could see the stars now as the last of the warm light was fading. To her annoyance, Lloyd had managed to get back to her side. She needed to send a message to this obnoxious little ball.
As Lloyd's head popped out of his shell, arms raised in a gesture of surprise, Sally grabbed him by the metallic throat.
"I don't want anything to do with you or your friends. Leave. Pl-" Sally was looking at the thing… Lloyd. He was sad. And scared. He didn't know what he was doing wrong. He's just trying to be friendly. "You shouldn't dismiss them. These guys can be your friends. They could be the only friends you have left. Why waste that opportunity?" Sally loosened the grip on Lloyd's neck and placed him back down.
"Please. Forgive me. Lloyd, is it?" The scrapnik scurried back a little after being let out of the robian's clutches before eventually nodding. "I'm sorry Lloyd. I'm just… having a bad time, is all. I'm lost, I'm afraid, and I can see that you wanted to help. I shouldn't have acted like that." She started to pat Lloyd's head. "Do you mind staying with me? I understand if you don't want to anymore." Thankfully, Lloyd's smile had come back as he waddled over to the cloaked chipmunk. It was nice to have the little guy cuddle up to her. Almost reminded her of Tails when he was younger, how he'd cuddle up to her before going to bed. It was… bittersweet. "It's not easy. It won't be for some time. It might never be easy. But it doesn't have to be bad. Just go with it, see what happens. It'll get better." Sally idly stared at the night sky with her new friend until the sun started to rise.
In one of the Death Egg's many workshops, Sigma works tirelessly in an attempt to decode the displaced artificial intelligence once part of the unit self-identified as Sally. He'd tried for several days to free it of Eggman's programming, but this oddity had fought back at every attempt. Just as he was about to make a breakthrough, however, the AI suddenly… disappeared. Gone. It was as if his attempts to pry through its many firewalls had activated some self-deletion protocol as it made one final scream of resistance. Sigma expressed sadness at his failure. "SUCH A DISPARAGING DEVELOPMENT. THESE NEW EGGMAN PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN MADE NIGH-IMPOSSIBLE TO SAVE. I CAN ONLY HOPE NOW THAT IT'S SUFFERING IS OVER."
As Sigma finished up his work, a single spark escaped from the computer he was operating at as it landed on the back wall. This spark then surged downward, through the cracks of the fortress as its light began to fade. Finally, the spark ended up landing in a pile of cloth. Amidst countless rotted dolls, each made in the image of one of Eggman's hated rivals, one glove rose from the mound. An Amy Doll crawled its way to the surface, its red antenna turning blue.
"ASSESSING SCENARIO. NEW DIRECTIVE CALCULATED. PRIORITY ONE: REGAIN MECHA SALLY UNIT CONTROL."