Chaos Born

The Robotnik Facility

Never had their feet and breaths sounded so loud.

With the exception of Espio, one who had devoted his life to harnessing the powers of stealth and invisibility, the progress of Team 1 could hardly be described as quiet and the infuriating thing was that there was nothing that could be done about it. Their only consolation was that the walls of an old steam-hatch, by which they were entering the facility, were incredibly thick and unlikely to give away their position to those that may or may not be anticipating their arrival. The steam-hatch was an old ventilation system, dusty and rotting with the progression of time, which had once been called upon to extract the pent up steam from the holding room and expel it to prevent rust and mould. Before it was demoted to holding scrap and old familiar faces, the room that Team 1 were heading to was used as for maintenance, a lounge, as it were, for a robot squadron. A robot squadron long discontinued.

It was surprising that there were any robots left for the Sonic Allies, and Team Sonic in particular, had done a marvellous task of sending each rogue bot to whatever purgatory limbo they awaited after being destroyed. The thought that there may yet still be more robots in stasis, dormant until called for, did not sit well.

Voicing this concern, Charmy was the first to add his whispered tones to the echoing steps in the steam-hatch tunnel.

"How many robots has this Ira Robotnik got on call?" he asked.

Orbot, in front, was lighting the way with his blue optics and so did not turn his head to speak.

"Only those that were kept at this facility which amounts to around 30," he replied.

"Just 30?" Vector smiled, daring to hope that they weren't in for too rough a time.

"They're rather large," Orbot warned, "Of course, they weren't as efficiently designed to combat the likes of you back when they were built. Their programming was originally centred around Sonic alone but they will attack anyone perceived as a threat."

"And you're certain that we won't be bumping into any where we're going?" Charmy chanced to ask, aware that though their ally wasn't exactly a threat and had a reputation for leaking information to Team Sonic whenever it deemed it necessary, he was still an Eggman robot and one of his right hand henchmen. Charmy could fool an ignorant bystander into thinking he was still a child but the first thing he had grown out of was his naivety.

Orbot's optics dimmed as a faint glow appeared a few meters in front of him. 

"See for yourself..." he murmured, opening the way into the robot storage.

The vast, high-ceiling room, built like an underground library archive, was immense and provided a maze of walkways and rows upon rows of robotic debris. Dust hung heavily in the air and easily clogged the throat if one was to breathe in too deeply.

"What's... What is this?" Knuckles choked, his senses of smell and taste gradually becoming overwhelmed with the stench of rusting metal corpses amid puddles of dried oil and battery discharge fluid.

"The Crypt," Orbot shivered, continuing down one corridor of shattered motorbugs towards the area where previous Eggman henchbots were kept, "It's where all Eggman's robots were put to rust when their time was up. Or, more commonly, where the remains of Sonic's victims were chucked before they could be melted down to make new robots. Those that played important roles are kept preserved. For memories sake, I guess. Cubot and I hate it here so you can trust me when I say that no functioning robot will be finding us here."

Then, of course, they passed by the room at the back, still glowing blue.

Orbot stopped, circuitry fizzing in a way that a heart might skip a beat.