Stamping out the feeble resistance that had been building up was as simple as herding sheep….literally. For the resistance was almost entirely made up of Mobian sheep. These were a rare type of mobian; kind of like bunnies, actually, as there were not too many of either of them in comparison to the plentiful numbers of individuals found in most other species. On the other hand, there were quite a few normal sheep in the world whose wool was used for winter clothing by the Overlanders. Others among these feral counterparts were even eaten as food when the quality of their wool was not up to the standard of being used to make winter clothing.
To a dictator like Robotnik, roboticized sheep seemed like they would be a useless, just-dump-in-the-factory-somewhere-and-forget-about-them type of robian. This would have been the expected fate of these conquered rebels if one sheep mobian, the last of his group, hadn't rushed at Unit 935, trying to take him out with a strangely advanced anti-robian gun. Swiftly grabbing a nearby sheep robian, the unit commander used it as a shield to protect himself from the attack. When the dust cleared, the Mobian sheep thought that he had managed to destroy what had appeared to be the head of this robian unit.
Unfortunately, that was not to be, as both Unit 935 and the sheep robian were totally unharmed, much to the Mobian's dismay. Five minutes later, the last rebel sheep was saluting his new leader as a newly roboticized minion, one who would later become the head of the robian sheep defensive unit. All of the wool that these former sheep had on their bodies was now turned into an extra thick outer shell that functioned perfectly as a shield against anti-robian weaponry. Those that were considered worthy of being in the defense unit were stripped of their former wool, now only extra thick metallic armor. This tough and valuable material could be used to make stronger SwatBots, as well as other anti-Hedgehog robots.
While all of this was going on, Mecha Cream blinked as she came back online, having just been reassembled, and she now stood patiently at attention among the numerous crates surrounding her and Mecha Cheese.
It had been a month since she'd last stood before this house that she had once called home, a time before the fateful day that had led to her transformation from being a flesh-and-blood mobian to a metal-and-oil robian. The building's power supply had long since died because Vanilla was no longer there to keep it going as she had before. The house may have run on Chaos Energy, but there was no such thing as a perfect energy source, and there had always been something or other that the elder rabbit had needed to restore every now and again. Of course, at the moment, it was pretty much pitch black inside the house, until a Kangaroo Robian opened the door for the first time in weeks and let the sunlight in.
Cream went over to this Kangaroo Robian, the one that had hitherto housed her disassembled parts. It still stood there on the porch, unmoving, though the robotic rabbit had been put back together and turned on, because it still contained some of the robian Chao. Robian Cream gathered up as many of these as she could hold in her arms, entering the empty building as she ordered her roboticized best friend to activate one of his many useful features.
In response to her command, his eyes lit up like twin flashlight beams, piercing through the shadows of the darkened house. Mecha Cheese hovered constantly before Cream, leading the way down to the cellar, where the house's generator was located. When they arrived, Cream took the robotic Chao she held in her hands and, one by one, she stuffed them inside the generator where Vanilla used to place the containers filled with Chaos Energy. Once they were all safely stored inside, she started up the machine, which she now knew how to operate because she'd had such knowledge uploaded to her memory banks after it was downloaded from Vanilla.
By the time she and Cheese returned to the front door, the Robian Kangaroo was gone. Having served its purpose, it had returned to Unit 935 and the rest of the patrol. Left to her own devices, Mecha Cream just stood there for a few seconds. She then began slowly walking through her former home, where dust had accumulated over everything in sight due to a lack of attention from those who had once lived there. Minutes later, this preliminary trek complete, she found herself back where she had started. Now she just stood silently before the entrance, looking all around the house. Her view of things had drastically changed; she was no longer a cheerful young mobian rabbit, but instead an emotionless and inorganic robian. What would it have been like to have the house to herself, to do as she wished without having to worry about being told what to do, what to eat, or when to go to bed? These are some of the things that Cream, until nearly a month ago, liked to dream about at times, to have no rules other than her own, as there was no one to tell her otherwise.
Though as a mobian, Robo Cream was usually very well-behaved and mannered, she'd had times where she liked to play around and do things that her mother would not normally approve of being done outdoors, let alone inside the house. Every so often, Cream would think of doing these things anyway. One longing had been to play with the Chao inside the house, yet, other than Cheese, this was not allowed. Her best friend was the only one that was house trained, which was why the other Chao had to remain outside. They would simply fly all other the place, messing with everything, since they had the curiosity and attention span of overactive four-year-olds with wings.
However, that Cream was not the same as the one who was currently standing in the living room. Though she still had a similar form and voice to the lively child she had once been, she was now Unit 3185113 of the Robotnik Empire that was in charge of this power plant. Everything in the house was now being categorized into two piles, trash and materials that could be put to use for her master, Robotnik.
A metallic hand reach down, picking up a picture off of the living room table that showed her holding an egg. This picture was of Cream when she was three, when she had originally found Cheese's egg, the first Chao egg that they had discovered when they learned of the Chao Garden. As her cold red eyes continued to study the picture, it seemed as though she was actually reflecting on it for a moment. This didn't turn out to be the case, as Mecha Cream had simply gone into the data entry mode she had been given by Robotnik.
Once this was done, she turned to see that Robo Cheese was hovering before her, awaiting orders. This once priceless memory of when she had first found Cheese was then thrown carelessly to the ground. The glass cracked, yet this was not even noticed by the formerly cream-colored rabbit.
"Place all useless trinkets like that right here." she ordered as the robian Cheese simply nodded. He began hefting things on top of the picture, causing the fractured glass to shatter further.
Room by room, everything was gathered up to later be destroy or converted into something that would prove useful in power plant.
Once the house had been stripped of everything that made it a home, and was now just an empty, abandoned building, the two robians went about emptying out the crate that had been left here, supplying the bulk of her equipment for her role as Power Plant Supervisor. The living room was converted into holding cell for anything that she would need to use the roboticizer on. The kitchen, which had been emptied of the spoiled food, was to be used as a storage area, though the refrigerator would still be used to keep things cool. However, it would no longer store food, just any number of various things that Mecha Cream might need to keep cold, such as overheating machine parts.
Her old bedroom had become an area to recharge her batteries. This room now held everything necessary for the recharging equipment, as well as any tools she would need to oversee everything that was going on inside and outside her power plant. The room that she had once been home schooled in, what had once been Vanilla's bedroom, was now her workshop where she would perform her experiments. A similar theme could be seen throughout the rest of the house, as various rooms would eventually be converted into areas that had a strange similarity to their former functions. The bathroom, for example, had once been a place where the Rabbits could clean up, back when they were still Mobians. However, as a robian, Cream would still use this room to clean up. Of course, she no longer needed to clean her own body, but there were various pieces of equipment and tools that would often get dirty and thus need to be washed off in order for everything to run at maximum efficiency.
And yet, in order to have a truly efficient plant, there would need to be more workers then just herself and Cheese. This need led to her first orders as overseer of the power plant: She was required to get more robians to work under her supervision. This was why Cream had been told to capture as many of her woodland friends as possible and convert them into her roboticized workers. This was all part of Robotnik's determined strategy to keep such a valuable energy supply a secret. Even if it might be easier and more reliable, simply capturing nearby Mobians, or sending out too many robians, could attract unwanted attention, something that he needed to avoid at all costs in this constant war against the Freedom Fighters.
I would like to thank
blaze firelight and cream and Mares-a-Mares and Ryuus2 for reviewing this story
nightmaster000 for reviewing Chapter 04-05
Echo Uchiha for reviewing Chapter 01-05
Mares-a-Mares for adding this story to their Story Alert
The Three Kings and Mares-a-Mares for adding this to their Favorite Story List