One divided by zero

[awakeningwill]

Who: Zero, Knuckles, anyone who wants to be attacked by a robot
What: The newest and forcibly reprogrammed member of the Eggman Empire's way of saying hello
Where: Final Destination City
When: May 31st and onward
Warnings: Fighty fight fight

Through some rather hasty experimentation and considerable memory blocks, Zero had become an obedient - if laconic - servant of the Eggman Empire. While he was completely different in design and capability to the other Eggbots, he didn't question why. There was simply no need to. Zero had a mission to fulfil, that was all that bore thinking about.

The red reploid watched the paths into the city from the rooftops. The school in particular... all he knew of the place was that it was out of his jurisdiction. It was an unknown, and it didn't exist under Dr. Eggman's rule. That posed a certain security risk he had to keep an eye on.

From afar, there would often be glimpses of a small, humanoid figure with long hair and what looked like a horned helmet silhouetted against the skyline - but he never stayed one place for long. Some of the students may have gotten wise to the patrol routes of the other machines after curfew, but this new enforcer was subject to no such patterns. If you ran into Zero, you were in for a hell of a fight.

Comments

[monotreme_101]

Knuckles was no stranger to brushes with the Eggman Empire as of late. Frankly? He didn't know which he hated worse - the fact that everyplace was filled with Eggbots? Or the fact that it... was. Well. It was WORKING. Crime was down, violence was down. There hadn't been any riots recently. The last notable thing he knew of was Max and that one guy he still owed a punch in the gut getting arrested and released the next day.

He'd enjoyed Prom, as he did every year, and he had decided to head home a little early. There was still a sour taste in his mouth as he stalked down the street, having reverted to his Echidna form and with his rental tux slung over his shoulder. It was after curfew and SO FREAKIN' WHAT? A guy can't walk home after a school event, now? This was supposed to be a free country. And anyone who tried to tell him different was going to regret opening their mouth.

Surprisingly enough, however, he wasn't ambushed by packs of eggpawns or swarms of buzzbombers. Heck, there wasn't even a lowly caterkiller, crabmeat, motobug or coconuts.

"....I hate a cliché but it's quiet. A little too quiet."

He knew it wasn't Eggman's style to give his minions paid time off. Or any time off at all. Even on Prom night. ESPECIALLY not on Prom night - allow everyone to have a good time without any kind of hindrance? Surely not!

"So just what are you doin', Eggy? And why do I feel like I might not get the deposit back on this monkey suit..."

[awakeningwill]

No sooner had the words left Knuckles mouth did the sound of robotic footfall break the silence that had made the echidna so suspicious. The noise came up from high above, at the edge of an adjacent rooftop. There was just enough time to look up to see the source of the steps push off the ledge and casually jump three stories down - landing with a resounding THUD in the middle of Knuckle's path.

Despite the distinctly humanoid form and long, flowing hair, it was definitely a robot standing in his way. But this couldn't be anything of Eggman's design - too sleek, too streamline, and admittedly rather petite. If anything, the helmet was a bit closer in model to something else...?

Unaffected by the fall, Zero stood up and stared down his target coldly. In a grand gesture of stating the obvious, he deadpanned, "You're out late."

[monotreme_101]

This guy sure had the Dramatic Entry thing down.

Definitely not an Eggpawn. And it wasn't a G.U.N. Robot, either. It actually reminded him of Rock and some of the other Robots from the Capcom High Football team. And then there was that one guy at school right now - Pulseman, wasn't it? Kinda similar in design. Obviously sentient.

"Yeah. And what of it, Bub?" he asked. "You got some kinda stake in me gettin' to bed on time?"

His hackles weren't up too far, yet. Being this wasn't an Eggrobo or anything, Knuckles didn't figure he was here to enforce the curfew.

[awakeningwill]

Zero narrowed his eyes slightly in response to the echidna's tone. There was no fear in Knuckles at all, despite being organic. An... admirable strength, Zero observed. This red reploid certainly wasn't as expressive as Rock or Pulseman, though it was hard to tell whether that was by limitations of design or a matter of personality.

"...Yes." There was a pause as Eggman's coding regained its chokehold on Zero's higher processing functions. With a flicker, the look in his eyes turned dead. A visible tension ran through his fingers, ready to reach for his weapon in the blink of an eye.

"By order of the Eggman Empire, you are under arrest for violation of curfew. Surrender, and you will not be harmed." By him, anyway.

[monotreme_101]

"Rrriiight..."

This was a surprise.

"Either Robotnik has SERIOUSLY been workin' on his designs or you found employment with the worst boss you coulda asked for." Knuckles replied, his brows furrowing. This was wrong, either way. He knew that the robots who looked like this (Reploids, wasn't it?) generally had free will - they were people. And people made poor life choices sometimes.

"Look, Guy, whatever he's offerin' you? He's gonna stiff you. Speaking from experience here. You turn around, let me get home and we'll act like this never happened. Sound fair?"

He wanted to give Zero a chance to back out of this.

[awakeningwill]

With utter seriousness, Zero could only answer, "I can't do that."

And there was a very heavy implication in his tone that despite wanting to let bygones be bygones, he simply couldn't walk away. This wasn't just a job for him, it was a more insidious form of control. Something was wrong, but in a way that Zero could neither describe nor fight against.

A green glow began to emanate from the triangular crystal on his helmet, pulsing faintly in the darkness. Correspondingly, the mechanical seams in his palms lit up as well.

He knew there was only two ways this stand-off could go. Charging the (coincidentally named) Z-Knuckle was a precaution, and a threat. It was down to Knuckles whether he wanted to end things peacefully and surrender - but the reploid very much doubted it was going to play that way.

[monotreme_101]

The word choice and tone indeed stood out to Knuckles. He was no real robotics expert. The only interaction he'd had with them was either smashing them or befriending them and really not much inbetween. But there was something there...

"You really can't, huh?" he asked, raising his fists. "Can you tell me why? He got somethin' on you?"

The green lights were a dead tip-off that this guy was getting ready to fight. So, he either got through to this 'Bot that there was another way? Or he smashed it up a little and figured out the rest later.

"One last chance to back out, man. If you need help, I might be able to give you a hand outta whatever's going on with Eggman, but if you try and fight me, buddy, you're gonna regret it."

He slammed his fists together with force - the resulting noise was more than a little loud. Hopefully that would be as good a cue as any for Zero to stand down.

[awakeningwill]

"...No."

No, Zero couldn't tell him why.

No, he wasn't backing out.

No, Knuckles wouldn't be able to help him.

There was no way out of this situation that didn't involve fighting, no other possible solutions that either of them were able or willing to take. If there were no alternatives, then it was pointless to regret the inevitable. Some things were beyond the power of words. Whoever walked away from this would be the one to decide it.



Zero rushed forward, closing the distance between them. While his dash capabilities only came in momentary bursts, it was enough to render him a red blur as he moved.

[monotreme_101]

"Alright, bub. You're goin' do--"

WOOSH.

Damn. This guy was FAST. Knuckles barely had time to sidestep as the red robot zoomed at him. That was a crazy burst of speed that he had definitely NOT been expecting from the reploid. He was surprised enough that he missed the opportunity to counterattack and wound up simply moving aside, his teeth clenched and his eyes wide.

"OK, so, you got some moves. I can work with that."

He took up a defensive stance, hoping to have another opportunity. If Zero was going to play it fast, Knuckles would play it defensive - It worked with Sonic (Sometimes.) and this dude couldn't possibly be as fast as the Blue Blur.

[monotreme_101]

He arrived back on school grounds a little winded. It was an uphill run no matter how you looked at it. He was trying to assess his options in terms of getting this guy treated. He had to have the physical damage repaired of course, but there was also the programming aspect - he couldn't in good conscience bring into the school someone who might attack students for breaking curfew. Especially being this guy was strong, fast and potentially lethal to some of the student body's smaller members.

Well, for mechanical fix-up jobs, the Autoshop room made the most sense. There were all kinds of tools there, and materials. A lot of newer cars contained computerized components and so there was even stuff there to deal with very fine, small and delicate repairs. Still running, he veered off the main path to get to the area where that section of the buildings was.

He could hear that Prom was still happening - no use making a network post asking for immediate help. And considering that the punch was spiked, he might not want to grab anyone directly from there either. This had to be a job for someone sober. Cyrus came to mind but not for long - the last thing this poor 'Bot deserved was to be tinkered with by TWO megalomaniacs. That Lucca girl seemed like another likely candidate. She seemed pretty straight laced and he doubted she was drinking... well. Not on purpose. Most people didn't know the punch was spiked until a glass or two in. He couldn't risk it.

Then, there was Shadow. Who he did trust, and did trust to be sober. And he probably had the technical know-how. He could possibly go look for him. Would he be at Prom still? Or in his office?

He set Zero down gently on one of the work benches. They were always kept pretty clean, and that was a bonus. "I dunno if you can hear me, but if you wake up don't move. Gonna go get someone to patch you up."

He darted back out the door and started running again. He'd try the offices first - they were closer than the stadium at this point. And then there was also the IT block. He knew that there were generally a few smart people there, and considering the robotics experts that were at this school? Surely someone could help him.

And so it was that he kind of crashed through Naoya's door, covered in dust, blood, bruises and whatever pieces of Zero had managed to drip or cling to his coat.

"Hey. Guy. What do you know about fixing robots?"

[caincarnate]

A good question. From the semi-assembled parts of the robot students placed strategically all over the floor of his office, there was a fairly decent chance that this guy at least knew something about how A.I.s worked. There were wires and cables networking them to various computers, shattered circuit boards laid out like morbid jigsaw puzzles - and Naoya sat at the center of this organized mess, with his haori spilling over the floor like a dark, fabric ripple.

While chaotic, there was clearly a system at work here that he was both completely comfortable with, and impossible for anyone else to understand. Anyone savant enough with mysticism might have recognized the shapes to resemble a magic circle, but it was of a design of his own making.

He sat on the floor with an impressive custom desktop organized on a low, Japanese-style table. Also, accompanied by a lot of coffee. There was even a plate of half-eaten cakes that had been smuggled out from prom.

When the echidna burst through his door, Naoya looked up from his keyboard, paused... and then went back to typing.

"Office hours are 10 to 5," he said, completely unconcerned and uninterested by this wounded creature that had just barged into his room.

[monotreme_101]

Look at all those Bits! This guy was either the exact sort of person that Knuckles had been looking for, or just a really, really terrible interior decorator.

"Yeah, OK, that's great - thing is? I got a guy in the autoshop room. Reploid. Living robot - he's got a hole in his gut and he's probably losing a lot of juice. Upshot being he needs to get fixed pretty quick."

At least, that was his guess - he knew that robots were different to organic folks in that they could be reconstituted and rebuilt and reprogrammed. But there was probably still an element of timing involved.

"Soooo... yeah. You should probably come with."

[caincarnate]

As much as Naoya relished the opportunity to study the technology of artificial intelligences, he very much did not appreciate anyone barging into his workspace, disrupting him, and then telling him what to do, urgent or not. He was already up to his neck in broken robots and he'd hardly gotten any sleep in the past week.

The programmer eyes narrowed in annoyance. "He'll keep. A power source running low is hardly a death sentence for artificial life. You're asking me to drop what I'm doing for all these other students," he said, gesturing to R.O.B.'s broken body, "to see to your living robot. Is that right?"

[monotreme_101]

It was actually pretty lucky that Knuckles didn't recognize the bits as R.O.B.s. Considering he and Rob were good friends, he probably would have flipped all the shits.

"Yeah, pretty much." Knuckles replied. "Look, it's not just a low power source. I punched a hole pretty much right through the guy - Long Story - and he's sparking and dripping and wet. I'm not a techie kinda guy so I dunno how bad the damage is which is why I need a smart dude like you to come and take a look. Because he might actually... y'know... Die."

Frankly, Knuckles had had An Evening and his temper was starting to show areas of wear.

[caincarnate]

Naoya didn't seem fazed at all by Knuckles's tone, because he just smiled and adjusted his glasses. "Heh. You haven't been tearing apart any other robots on campus, have you?" It would be awfully convenient if the one responsible for his current surge in overtime hours had just come straight to him. But no, he doubted that was the case - this creature seemed far too concerned for the robot's well-being to have enacted such a level of violence. Unnecessarily concerned, even. Life-like as they could be, a machine's definition of life was drastically different from that of an organic.

Hm. Well, he could set the recovery program to process and take another break to stretch his legs. Perhaps a robot that was still functioning could tell him something more than the scrapheap he'd been reverse engineering.

He'd take a look, out of indulgence rather than any real form of concern.

Naoya picked his haori up off the floor and draped it over his shoulders, picked up his COMP, and then stood. He was ready.

"Show me."

[monotreme_101]

"What!? No! Geeze - I got friends on campus who're robots. This guy attacked me in the city and I had to get him to a point where he wasn't gonna cut my head off with his energy sword." Knuckles replied. The last thing he wanted people thinking was that he made a habit of this sort of thing.

He was happy to see this guy was willing to come along after all. He didn't want to either have to be insistent or wander around looking for Shadow.

"He's in the autoshop room. I figured that place had enough tools and materials that somebody could do somethin' and I ain't real familiar with the science wing."

He started to walk down the hall and opened the door for Naoya.

"Another thing I oughta mention - someone's messed with the Reploid's programming. How much you know about Robotnik? Or Eggman, as most folks call him."

[caincarnate]

Naoya followed, trailing behind like a matrix-patterned ghost. "Only what I've seen from the news. He seems to be the champion behind martial law keeping order in the city." Spoken with a generous serving of verbal irony, of course. He was rather curious to see where all the tension in the city would lead to, but from past experience, martial law rarely ended well in the long run, for anyone.

"I don't know his work personally... but I do know my share of programming." It ought to be a sufficiently interesting challenge. He stepped through the door.

MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE...

[awakeningwill]

Croire had been floating through the city for several days now. By herself, her powers of mobility were pretty limited, and on top of everything, she was lost. This new city was strange and unfamiliar to her, and even when she tried to communicate with its inhabitants, no one was capable of perceiving her. Invisible to all but the most advanced robotic lifeforms, she could only wander aimlessly.

Zero had been taking care of her, and she took care of him. They had gotten separated when he fell through the sky, and it'd taken her a long time to manage to float down from the troposphere. She had no idea where he could've gotten - she wasn't even sure if he was still in the same city. They went to so many places together, maybe he'd already teleported somewhere home without her...

Mournfully, Croire drifted in her search for a familiar face, or even familiar technology.

[derivativeofx]

This city wasn't like Neo Arcadia, Copy X knew that much. He'd gradually grown used to doing his job using a computer network that would have been comically obsolete back home. He'd been passingly familiar with century-old technology already -- being a history buff was a bit of a necessity when you were pretending to be a few centuries old -- but it was hard not to stare in bewilderment at things like cell phones or music stored on compact disks. He'd been adjusting to being a stranger in this era, at least. Without really realizing it, he'd come to stop expecting the things that would have been familiar, everyday sights back in his time.

It was actually a surprise to see a Cyber-Elf on the streets of the city.

At first, his gaze slid right past it, assuming the hovering mote of light to be a fairy or some sort of firefly-creature that was drifting along the opposite side of the road. It caught his eye a second later, and he hesitated, half-wondering. Nobody else on the street seemed to be sparing it a single glance. It wasn't an especially crowded block, but as far as he could tell, nobody was even bothering to move around it.

...Could they not see it? Then it must be...

Copy X crossed the street, eyes fixated on the ball of light. Once he drew nearer, he spoke up: "You. Are you a Cyber-Elf?" It was worth asking, if nothing else. Cyber-Elves were useful to have around, and if there was one here, then it might not be the only thing from his time in this city.

[awakeningwill]

A voice... addressed her? Croire hovered where she was, assessing the source of the sound - it was a reploid! Compatible technology of her era! She twinkled with joy, appearing as though she was shaking off a handful of sparkles as she replied.

"Yes! Yes, I am. Hello!"

[derivativeofx]

So his hunch had been correct -- this was a Cyber-Elf. Up-close, it was much harder to mistake. She had the neon wings that many Elves had, a clear sign she wasn't exactly an entirely organic being. A Hacker or Animal type, he guessed, though she didn't quite match up with anything he'd seen before.

"That's surprising... you're the first one that I've seen around this city. Do you live here?"

[awakeningwill]

Croire circled around Copy X, desperately happy that she had someone to follow again. It wasn't Zero, but whoever this reploid was, maybe he could help find him! Or at the very least give her an idea of where she was.

"No. I fell through the sky, and got separated! Now I'm lost..." There was a pause as she studied this blue reploid, curious as to who he was. "What is this place?"

[derivativeofx]

"It's called Final Destination City. I can't say I'm entirely sure where it is, but it's overall technology level seems about on par with two or three centuries ago, at least. Reploids are almost unheard of here, let alone Cyber-Elves like you."

A lost Cyber-Elf... from the sound of it, she'd only just arrived here, though the circumstances that lead her here seemed to be pretty unclear. Falling through the sky...? It almost sounded too far-fetched to believe, but then again, he never did find out how his own remains had ended up in this place.

[awakeningwill]

"Oh..." That was incredibly disheartening news. Croire drifted downwards with an air of despondency, her glow fading with worry. Reploids were unheard of here - did that mean no Zero? No energy crystals either?

She had to ask, just to be sure. "Aren't there any other reploids in the city? Any new ones? There must be!"

[derivativeofx]

"There's a version of me from a few centuries into my past, but I doubt that's any help to you." If he meant anything to her, after all, that probably would have been a topic that came up the very second they'd met. "Other than that, I haven't met anyone. ...Does that mean you came here with a reploid, then? That's what you meant when you said you'd been separated, isn't it?"