Chaos Bond

A Dodgy Wi-Fi Signal

Orbot zipped by various badniks which were either on patrol or waiting on stand-by for a command as he made a bee-line for the main room.

"Dr Eggman! Dr Eggman, Sir!" he called as he flew in, crashing with another patrolling badnik as he did so. "Whoops! Sorry, Motobug#k7249. Dr Eggman!"

"Quit shouting," Eggman grumbled, sat in a chair at his desk, idly looking through camera footage. "I've got a headache."

"Sorry Sir." Orbot lifted a data pad. "I have a report, Sir. From Crabmeat#dd446. You know, the one who featured in the background of your 2002 Employee Calender for the month of April? The third badnik from the left? It was holding a trumpet?" Eggman lowered his glasses a little and glowered at his robot henchman. Orbot quickly took the hint. "...Well, Crabmeat#dd446 was stationed in Metallic Madness Zone..."

Eggman made a noise at that and leant back in his chair. "I haven't been back there in a while..."

"No Sir," Orbot nodded, "But we recently were sent a report: Metal Knuckles and the Tails Doll were seen in the facility."

Dr Eggman gave a jump and leapt from the chair, turning his full attention on Orbot. "...What!?" he practically bellowed in excitement.

"We've made sure to check the other operational Badniks in that area," Orbot told him, feeling confident that Eggman's response was positive, "Their video feeds have confirmed it."

"It was JUST Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll?" Eggman asked, his voice lowering. "There wasn't any sign of Metal Sonic?"

Orbot's optics dimmed. "No Sir. But there's more. It is believed they took something from the area."

Dr Eggman paused, his mouth in a grim line across his face. Taking several shallow breaths, he lowered his overweight frame back into his chair, running his hands over his chin in a show of mild discomfort.

"What did they take?"

Orbot checked the report. "We, uh, don't know just yet. But we're working on it."

"Then find out!" Eggman barked, his sudden flare of anger causing Orbot to jolt a few centimeters into the air. "Metal Sonic was particularly fond of Metallic Madness Zone. He knew the inside and outside of that place and you could guarantee he knew which working robot was stationed where. He knows the machinary, the knows the pathways, he knows which of the cameras are on the blink!"

Eggman spun round in his chair and held his head in hands.

"One of the lasers has a hiccup? Metal knows," he mumbled, "One of the saw blades has a chip in it? Metal knows. He's sent the other two to get something for him and I want you to find out what because whatever it is, Metal knew it was there." He looked back to Orbot and raised his voice again. "Do you understand? We could be close to tracking Metal Sonic down if we know what it is he's after."

"Yes Dr Eggman." Orbot saluted and quickly retreated from the room to find Cubot.

Eggman took off his glasses and rubbed his old eyes, eyes which had seen plenty of things that the average human couldn't even begin to imagine. He wanted to know where Metal Sonic was. Without Eggman's guidance, that robot could get severely out of hand even IF he was doing something in Eggman's name.

* * * * * * *

Steele was delighted to see his mother when she arrived at Tails' house with Knuckles, Rouge and Ruby-Lei. His mother's calm demeanor, however, drastically changed once he and Ruby had left to continue drawing with Rosemary under Cream's watchful supervision.