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Phantom Thieves	THE EGG CARRIER How did Limelight and Stagehand get on board the Egg Carrier? Maybe they snuck onboard as robots when it last landed. Maybe there was a thing involving a chartered helicopter and some parachutes. Maybe they just... sort of showed up, and the actual method for getting on board is less interesting than what happens next. (What happens next is a dangerous adventure through the inner workings of the Egg Carrier, filled with lots of air vent crawling, robot fighting, and various PHANTOM THIEF contextual actions being performed to deal with obstacles. We'll skip over that too, though.) "It should be... behind this door," says Stagehand. "The security on this door in particular is elevated, though. We'll need to find the password..." The two puzzle over the NGGAME buttons for a bit, but eventually get through. And past that... the target. -=ONE SET OF VACCUUM BACKPACK DEPLOYMENTS LATER=- "That was way too easy," says Limelight, as the two exit, their loot in tow. "I thought you said this Eggman was a big deal? We're about to waltz out of here with the loot without even a single alarm going off." "Do you think you could not-" The alarms start blaring. "-... tempt fate, just this once?"
Eggman	On the bridge of the flying fortress known as the Egg Carrier, the flagship of the worlds-infamous Eggman Empire, the self-proclaimed Greatest Supervillain The Worlds Have Ever Known is engaged in the nefarious work of...      ...being shaved.      A slender robot that looks for all the world like a barber shop pole with an egg on the top (and, of course, the Logo) and six spindly arms is currently engaged in the onerous task of shaving Dr. Ivo Robotnik, alias Dr. Eggman. The Bad Doctor's face is utterly hidden by foam -except for his nose, in fact, which protrudes forth from the mass like a mountain amidst clouds. The robot's careful clippers snip snippets of white off the ends of his moustache with the laser precision of a machine designed just for this purpose. Snip, snip. Snip, snip. It's a relaxing sort of ritual, which is, of course, why the Doctor is laying back in his big command chair, waiting for his hot towel, enjoying the day.      And then the alarm goes off.      "WHAT-"      Eggman sits *straight* up as the Egg-Barber is in the process of clipping.      Half of the right side of his moustache falls to the ground as the door to the bridge opens with a hiss. Cubot and Orbot, his trusty aides, look down at the hair on the floor, look up at the Doctor's moustache, and are about to say something when Eggman rounds on them with absolute fury.      "WHO SET OFF THE ALARM!?"      Cubot and Orbot look at each other. Then, as one, they say, "Not me-"      "Obviously, you dimwits!" Eggman hisses. His face is still covered in foam. Cubot and Orbot are doing their very best not to laugh.      It's actually pretty easy when Eggman's eyebrows are as furrowed as they are. They are Very Furrowed. They are in the shape of a V.      One of them has been slightly shorn wrong by the electric clipper scraping it as he sat up.      Neither Cubot nor Orbot wishes to tell him that.      The Doctor pushes them out of the way as he storms over to the bridge controls. A big red button flips upwards. He grabs the nearby microphone.      "ATTENTION, WHOEVER YOU ARE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"      He slams his hand on the red button. "MY FLYING FORTRESS, *THE EGG CARRIER*, IS NOT SO EASY TO PENETRATE AND ESCAPE!"      "GET A LOAD OF THIS!"      The ship suddenly starts *quaking*. It's unbalancing as hell for everyone who isn't on the bridge - as if being stuck in an earthquake. The metal trembles. The glass rumbles. The ship shakes violently.      Outside, the ship is transforming, unfolding its massive Sky Deck.      Inside, the ship is reconfiguring itself utterly. Before the eyes of those within it what was once merely a big open hangar with a monorail and a bunch of doors is shifting, twisting, rooms reconfiguring themselves, rearranging, doors disappearing, doors locking, doors unlocking...      ...traps emerging...robots rolling and hovering and walking out of hidden compartments...                            E.G.G. C.A.R.R.I.E.R.                                  "SEE IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH *HERE*, INTRUDERS!"      Oh.      Oh it is a Dangerous Trap Level.      Eggman, his face still covered in foam, sits down at his chair. Dials emerge all over the place. Buttons pop up, suddenly flashing.      Like a virtuouso at a concerto, Eggman cracks his knuckles, looms over the console, and prepares to play his instrument.      His very, very dangerous instrument.
Timespace Riders	Sougo Tokiwa had tried to learn from Sylvi, the Strongest, and thanks to Woz's terrible attitude, the whole thing went over like a lead baseball. Scrambling to find another teacher for Sougo to learn the finer points of kingship had led to the brilliant inventor, Eggman. The two found themselves aboard the Egg Carrier, where, at Sougo's behest, Woz had, for once, kept his eyes off the strange, prophetic book he leans on so much.      As a result, the two of them, waiting to meet with Eggman in the care of a robot butler, are just as surprised when the alarm goes off, finding themselves shaken by the sudden transition.      "Someone broke in--it sounds like Dr. Eggman is really upset. Woz, let's stop them!" Sougo straps on the bulky white Timespace Driver around his waist, slotthing in two futuristic stopwatches. One bears the visage of Zi-O, the armor that's his--the other is a colorful pastel, depicting the armor of the Genius Gamer M, the perfect choice for a Dangerous Trap Level.      "But of course, my Demon King," says Woz, procuring his own belt, the glossy green-and-silver Beyondriver. Two square pocketwatches, one bearing the helmet of his own armor, and the other depicting the future rider Shinobi.      "Henshin."     "Henshin!"      One message to Eggman and a purple scarf-assisted teleport later, the two of them appear in the hangar, armored up and ready to fight.      Zi-O is in colorful 90s platformer themed armor, with a four-button spread on his breastplate. Woz, meanwhile, sports silver and green with purple accents, including a shuriken breastplate, little shuriken pauldrons and the aforementioned purple scarf.      The two of them bounce between shifting walls, over robots, dipping under floating traps to reach the thieves.      Zi-O's boots grind a spark-flying path along the monorail track as Woz nimbly springboards from robot to robot.      "Hi! I'm Zi-O, this is my retainer Woz. Dr. Eggman is pretty upset with you guys. Are you lost?"
Phantom Thieves	> "ATTENTION, WHOEVER YOU ARE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" "We need to find an access panel so I can patch into that PA system," says Stagehand. "What, we're being targeted by a multiversal megalomaniac in the middle of his flying lair, filled with killer robots and deadly lasers and crushing things and bottomless pits and simulacraic erinaceinae and your first priority is *taunting him back*?" "Yes." "Good, just checking. You get to keep being my partner." Stagehand manages to patch in via shoving cables into random holes in the wall till something connects. (He's Gen Z and doesn't understand that not everything is USB.) "Greetings, Doctor. My name is Stagehand - the fresh and new technological genius on the block, and your successor. As a token of my esteem I've chosen you as our newest heist target, so that there won't be any lingering doubts about whose technology is superior." "Hey, Limelight is here too! We're here to take what is most dear!" Sougo and Woz show up. "Alright, enough taunting for now, the robot minions have shown up!" "Hang on, I don't have a wireless mic and I'm not done with the taunting." "We'll find another spot up ahead to plug in and finish - let's go!" And so the two go - Limelight opts to take the high road, trying to treat Woz like just another robot to bounce off of, while Stagehand grind-rails along the monorail track and attempts to body-check Zi-O out of the way!
Eggman	There is the very slightest of pauses when Stagehand tells Eggman that Stagehand is his 'successor.'      And then Eggman starts laughing.      It's not a nice laugh. It's a deep, unsettling laugh, the kind of laugh that might belong to a monster whose prey just told it it was about to be slain while still in its jaws. A cruel laugh. The laugh of a man who has crushed civilizations under his heel for no reason other than his own spite and ego.      "Ahhhh...I *see*."      That deep voice is dripping with the same unsettlingly sinister amusement as the laugh. No charming, gentlefolk Doctor Eggman today. No, no. Someone is trying to make a fool of him.      His fingers fly across the dials.      Suddenly, a floating TV screen emerges and floats alongside Stagehand. It has no trouble keeping up with him. It appears to be unarmed. The Eggman Empire logo pops on, and Eggman's voice is suddenly coming from it.      "I *see*," he repeats as Stagehand rail-grinds on the monorail.      Button-press.      The monorail rail suddenly jerks directly upwards. Above is a mess of Very Dangerous Spikes that Will Not Kill You Because Eggman Doesn't Kill People But Will Definitely Hurt Whole A Lot.      "Aren't you precocious."      "You don't know who you're dealing with, do you?"      Ohhh, that's not a good tone.      "You heard some rumors, heard a reputation, and decided to come and try and show me up. But you don't know anything about me, do you?"      Dial-turn.      A laser gun suddenly emerges directly out of the floor behind Woz. It fires - and the shots *arc* around Woz, homing on Stagehand in spite of everything in the world saying that's impossible.      "Hm hm hm hm hm."      "How..."      "*Protagonist* of you."      Eggman's fingers fly across the console. A door opens down the hallway. From within it emerge strangely out-of-place robots, painted in green-and-brown military camo, with red glowing eyes and arm cannons. They start marching forward in formation. Some of them deploy large metal shields for the others in a phalanx formation as they walk forward and open fire.      "Very well, then. You want to play in the big leagues. Want to graduate from the minors and prove you're a real up-and-coming star."      He slams his hands down on the keyboard. "Unfortunately for you, *I play in the Olympics!*"      The monorail suddenly starts up.      It starts moving down the track.      It has grown a drill.      Oh no.
Timespace Riders	"We are neither robots nor minions, dear Limelight," says Woz, as Limelight footstools him. She's able to do it, easily in fact given her mobility. A snappy, crisp hand gesture--a kuji-kiri--from Woz puts him right back into her path, teleporting him complete with the obligatory puff of smoke and deer scare 'thunk' noise. Appearing before her in freefal, he takes a shot in parting, twisting impossibly in midair to turn sideways and attempt to swat her down to the next lowest robot, with an overhead roundhouse. "Your choice of target was daring, your skills impressive--but your timing could not be worse."      A buffoonish cry of surprise escapes Zi=O, as he sees Stagehand heading straight for him. Two massive bludgeons appear on his arms, and he raises them in a block. It half works, blunting the impact but still sending him stumbling off-balance for the extra weight on his upper body. For a moment, he tumbles off the rail.      With a series of video-gamey bleeps and bloops, Zi-O makes a double-jump from empty air to get back on the rail, catching up to Stagehand through strategically placed leaps along the rise of the rail. "He means we're with the Concord," calls Zi-O from behind, as he attempts to pummel Stagehand off the rail with the B Button arm-bludgeons.
Phantom Thieves	"He's laughing at us!" "I know enough about you that you're yesterday's leftovers!" Stagehand gets bounced upwards, directly into the Spikes That Do Not Kill You. No rings come out, but there is a spray of sand(?) from the backpack he's wearing as he's hit. "You need an entire fleet backing you up, while we're out here getting the job done with our own..." Stagehand stares down the oncoming train. Instead of going to get out of the way, he stays the course and winds up, pulling his gauntleted arm back. "HANDS!" He swings at the point of the monorail's drill with his gauntleted fist. There's a dramatic clash of steel on steel. Which one will break first...? "Not minions, not robots... oh, I got it! You're henchmen! Or- Ah!" And there she goes, getting knocked off of the stage. ... And there she comes back up, swinging upwards on a grappling hook. ,"Anyway, you'd better believe we're impressive! We're going to take on everyone in the multiverse, your precious Concord included, and everyone's going to know who the real stars of the show here are!" Zi-O Ex-Aid Armor has a couple seconds to quicktime event out of the way before she intersects him with a swinging kick!
Eggman	Again, that sinister laugh.      "Do you think you're the first elite group someone has sent after me? Do you think you're special? New? Original?"      The TV screen flickers. That logo is...kind of creepy when the static kicks in.      "I don't think you understand the situation you're in. Though I'll compliment you on your bravado, I invite you to look a bit closer at your surroundings."      What?      What does that mean?      The drill crashes into Stagehand's hand with *enormous* force. And it is *strong*. Too strong. Weirdly strong.      The Combots are marching up from behind as the drill continues to press inwards. The Combots are just there to keep Limelight and Stagehand hemmed in - their fire is lazy, suppressing, not intended to hit but simply guide.      And the monorail...      It's more than durable. It's-      Wait what's going on with the monorail.      Why is it growing arms with more drills.      Oh.      That's what he meant.      This whole place isn't just a death-trap.      This whole place isn't just remote-controlled.      Everything that isn't the walls, the floor...      It's robots.      The monorail is a robot.      Two more drills come swinging in to meet Stagehands' hands.      Eggman presses a button.      The floor underneath Stagehand suddenly slides away. It's not a pitfall. It's just a stumbling block - something you slip on, say, while under pressure.      Meanwhile, as Limelight falls off the stage, something else is coming up from below. It's the hovering chair. The perfectly normal, perfectly safe, absolutely A-OK-no-problems-at-all hoverchair.      With a 'shloop', the chair part suddenly peels away, revealing a mess of Spikes That Don't Kill People. The ring with hazard marks that is its safety bar becomes a massive pair of very sharp pincers. It ascends rapidly - unburdened by the rules of the stage - towards Limelight's grappling hook.      To cut her down and knock her into the Spikes That Don't Kill.
Timespace Riders	"Henchmen? Haha, no... I'm going to be king," says Zi-O excitedly. "The greatest, kindest Demon King of Time!" Zi-O makes a startled shout, his body tensing on the rail as Limelight comes swinging upwards. He doesn't quite get the timing right on evading her, and he jumps a second too late.      Her foot lands solidly on his leg as he rises, sending him tumbling over Stagehand as he clashes with the train. Zi-O skips across the surface of the train, sending sparks flying as he forces himself back upright.      Woz, meanwhile, appears atop the train in a puff of smoke, placing himself between the thieves and his king. Both arms are crossed over his chest, before he makes a flinging motion. A full spread of hardlight shurikens fly, having been tucked between his fingers. The purple light cuts as surely as steel as it passes, but direct hits are even more dangerous, resulting in explosions where they strike.      Taking advantage of the time Woz bought him, Zi-O swatches the Ex-Aid watch for another--one with the face of an aerodynamically-helmeted white-and-orange rider on it.      The LCD chronometer on his Timespace Driver reads AU19. The frantic ticking of a clock is heard, before Zi-O spins the Driver.                                   ARMOR TIME!                                       A disembodied suit of armor emerges from a pink portal that appears before him. White with orange trim, its board-stiff posture and aerodynamic shape give the appearance of a space shuttle.      It takes off, rocketing around Stagehand in an opportunistic hit-and-run, attempting to smash him into the many arms of the monorail as the floor upens up beneath. It breaks apart like a multi-stage rocket, each part snapping into place over Zi-O.                         Three! Two! One! o/` Fooourze! o/`                            "Let's have a stellar time!" Fourze never said that, but Zi-O is a well known space cadet, anyway.
Phantom Thieves	Oh good, there's the hovering chair- oh, no, wait, it's full of spikes. Meanwhile, Stagehand has a problem. Two problems. More than two problems. "Is *everything* here a robot?" He actually manages to hold his ground, between judicious application of POWER GAUNTLET and a few timely gadgets and quicktime events of his own. He is, however, not able to do anything more than hold his ground - focused entirely on defense, not even able to make any more progress in the escape. More sand sprays out of the backpack as he struggles to stay in one piece. Or... no, that's not sand. That's not sand at all. Hundreds of tiny robots, no bigger than mundane spiders, are spreading out, crawling over the incoming robotic forces, seeking out seams and input ports and anywhere else they can slip inside - and from there attacking indiscriminately, trying to get at moving parts and essential wiring. In the worst case scenario, they just simply jam up or short circuit whatever inner workings they can find with their bodies as a sacrificial play. Will it be enough to get him the space he needs? Limelight goes to dodge the spray of shurikens from Woz - which leaves her open for Zi-O's rocketing followup which knocks her completely off-course, just in time for her grappling hook to be cut loose! She falls! ... Wait, where'd she go? Oh wait, there she is, standing on the underside of the hover chair. Go go gadget magnet boots. She's also got her phone out and is scrolling through it. "You couldn't take a better picture of us for our wanted poster?" "Anyway - you wanna be a king, huh? Good luck! I'll be sure to look you up when you've got some treasure worth taking, future king!" She leaps off of the underside of the chair - and goes to land on Zi-O Fourze Armor, and cling to him with the magnet boots and simply surf on him towards the next safe spot!
Eggman	The sand starts pouring out.      Warning lights flash as the Combots start getting consumed. There aren't really *input* ports, but it's enough for the little robots to grind in and cause problems. On one of the monitors in the control room, Eggman watches the Combots start breaking down with an unhappy sigh. His other self had been so...*sloppy*.      Still.      That was an interesting trump card, wasn't it?      Eggman cracks his knuckles again as a new keypad unfolds. Orbot peers over the side at it. "D-Doctor, are you going to hack his weapons?"      Eggman stands and removes the keypad from its position. He fiddles with it thoughtfully before walking out the door, trailing shaving cream foam behind him. Orbot and Cubot scramble into their own chairs and take control of the Egg Carrier's defense systems. "...should we have told hi-"      "I don't wanna get disassembled!"      Far above the fighting, Eggman is walking down the hall, flanked by another TV so he can continue talking. "I didn't want a better picture of you. You don't understand, do you?"      "Your motivations are as plain as your outfits. You want to be flashy. You want to be loud. You want to be the center of attention."      "On your own terms."      As he walks the Bad Doctor is fiddling with the keypad. He's heading down some stairs, now. "You want to control the narrative. To be important. To make a *splash*."      Eggman turns a corner.      He stops and presses a hand against a wall. The wall opens with a *hiss* - and now the group can see the Doctor standing behind what's clearly some kind of transparent barrier, holding the little device.      He is still coated in shaving cream. A white mass of clouds, a red nose sticking out...and those ominous black glasses. It'd be a lot funnier if not for the...      For the Grin.      The Grin that splits his face. The Grin that seems to bend shadows around it. The Grin that turns that white foam into inky blackness just by being spread. The Grin that means only one thing.      Eggman holds up the strange, blocky, hazard-taped remote control. "I'm taking your narrative away."      He presses a button.      As one the sands trying to dig into the monorail and the hovercar suddenly stop. The sands still in Stagehand's backpack start agitating.      "I don't have this army just for show, you know. I don't need it to rumble at all. But wasting my energy on amateurs is just unnecessary."      His finger goes to another button. "I have an empire at my back to twist any accomplishment you make from a victory into a mockery. Any achievement into ashes."      "And I don't waste time putting on my Sunday best to fight with someone who brought robots to face Doctor Robotnik."      The third button on the remote control is pressed.      The sand-bots go *straight* for Stagehand. The ones still in his backpack start crawling for his mouth and nose. The ones on the floor swarm for his gloves and boots.      Limelight is left to the devices of Zi-O and Woz as the swarm of sandbots turn on their creator.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O takes flight, attempting to navigate the obstacle course and make it more difficult for the thieves through the air, rather than through timed video-game jumps. Limelight gets the idea to take a ride on him with her magnet boots, and it's smooth sailing for the both of them, for a moment. It isn't immediately obvious why Zi-O isn't trying to shake her, until Woz joins, using his King as a platform following a deliberate flyby from Zi-O.      "I'm looking forward to it," says Zi-O below, as Woz summons a spear atop him. JIKAN DESPEAR!      The tip of the spear converts to resemble a ninja's kama sickle, and Woz, hands spaced far apart on the haft, uses the edge to try and bully Limelight off of Zi-O, contesting the placement of her feet with his own.      Where the weapon's sickle-shaped edge passes, it creates an aftershock of explosive arcs of crackling green energy in its wake, effectively cutting twice.      Zi-O, meanwhile, positions himself in the air such that finding egress means choosing between a death-defying leap over or through Eggman's traps, or staying and dealing with Woz's spacing games. "What's your hurry, Limelight?~ Are you not eager to see the Doctor's famed hospitality for yourself?"
Phantom Thieves	There's a few things that will occur as a result of tonight's activities. The effect of the wanted poster is one of them. The actual loot (or lack thereof) is another. All of those remain undefined possibilities, at the moment, aside from one thing that is at this moment set in stone, as immutable as the tides: Stagehand doesn't get to pick the heist target anymore. "What the - MMMMMMMMMMHHHHFFFF-" Stagehand does not appreciate his little helpers being turned on him. One gets in his mouth before he can close it. He clings to the nearest thing he can find and flails, more or less helplessly. "You know what, no thanks!" says Limelight, going to lean away from the sickle - and getting hit with the aftereffects of the explosions. "I bet he doesn't even have diet soda, honestly!" She glances over at what's going on with her partner. Limelight's the one with the entire beach worth of sand (somehow compressed into a single backpack), Stagehand's got the decoy backpack full of tiny robots, thankfully, so she doesn't have to worry about tiny spider hell, but he's not going to be able to deal with this on his own... "You don't gotta waste yourself, maybe! But I appreciate you showing up in person..." calls Limelight - who lifts one foot and *stomps* hard on Zi-O Fourze, trying to alter his trajectory. "Which means I can do *this*!" She tries to steer Zi-O Eggman-ward, hopefully to smash right through that barrier!
Timespace Riders	Zi-O is stomped on, the impact shooting up sparks from his armor as it redistributes the impact. His course is altered, too, setting him towards the barrier.      "You'd be surprised," calls Zi-O from below. "He's got a swimming pool and a barbershop... here--take a closer look!" Rather than try to correct his course, Zi-O guns the thrusters on his feet, flying straight towards the barrier and letting out a cry of determination as his speed ramps up.      Woz, still atop Zi-O, shoulders the Despear and makes a one-handed kuji-kiri, poofing and reappearing behind Limelight just before the moment of impact. With a shout of effort, the retainer, feet placed carefully on Zi-O's calves, swings the blunt end of the weapon at Limelight, intending to knock her between the barrier and the speeding, airborne Demon King!
Eggman	The monorail, sensing impending danger to its master, throws itself in the way of the incoming attack. It bravely, bravely, manages to...be torn completely in half as Zi-O accelerates straight through it towards the barrier.      Eggman doesn't even move. One hand goes behind his back. The unpleasant, horrible, victorious Grin doesn't change.      "Tell me," he says as he raises the remote control, "Is it worth it?" More of the spider-bots start peeling away from the destroyed Combots, moving to converge on Stagehand.      "Your partner is currently being strangled from the inside. While I make it a point of *professional pride* not to kill people, I have no such qualms about suffocating him until he passes out."      Eggman starts pacing behind the wall, ignoring the half-obliterated monorail trying to pick itself up after Zi-O's absolutely devastating attack. He's fiddling with the remote some more. The shadows practically follow his face. It's so weird. It's so creepy. There has to be, like, a lighting trick, right? Or a device? Or...or *something*? Something that...*something?*      Anything to make it even the slightest bit less...      ...menacing.      "The brain damage could be *quite* severe. And am I to guess that he's the brains of your operation? Not very clever, wearing the robots on his back. I doubt he can afford to lose any IQ points."      The little robots begin crawling along Stagehand's skin. It's not even *doing* anything. It's just menacing. A *reminder*. To make Stagehand nervous. To make Limelight sloppy.      "That is, of course," Eggman twirls the remote in his hand, "Assuming you actually escaped with him. If you didn't...well, neither of you would have to worry about brain damage ever again."      "Mindless robots don't need brains."      He taps the remote control against his palm as he turns back to the barrier. "That's where you're going to end up, you know. Trapped in a shell of metal, looking outwards, unable to speak, unable to act, unable to control yourselves as you work tirelessly for the glory of the Eggman Empire."      He holds up a white-gloved finger and ticks it back and forth, a malevolent metronoming. "No matter how far you run, no matter how much you struggle, you'll wind up back here, in one of my little glass tubes."      "So tell me."      "Is your little game still fun?"      "It's fun for *me*."
Phantom Thieves	Woz's strike knocks her off. She ends up clinging to a nearby platform and pulling herself up, well short of the barrier she was aiming for. The The game is... ... usually a lot different than this. Daring heists. Rooftop chases. Lots of effort and energy spent fighting over the little things, not the big things. And usually people are shouting. That's what she's used to. Not people talking quietly. Limelight grits her teeth. "Game's not over yet," she says. That's... not Limelight talking. That's the person behind the mask. She reaches behind her, yanks off the backpack, and hurls it upwards. It smacks against the roof of the chamber, and there's a crackle of electricity shorting out. Cramming an entire beach's worth of sand into a backpack, without it being A. massive, or B. weighing a literal ton, takes some technological trickery and some sensitive circuitry - which has just been smashed apart via the impact. The backpack explodes outwards as the harmonic flux adjutant shorts out, and a literal entire beach's worth of sand starts raining down. All the falling sand is another hazard - and it's hopefully enough cover for Limelight to go grab Stagehand, yank him free of the growing pile of robots, and run for whatever exit they can find!
Eggman	Well that's quite impressive. Eggman must admit that he hadn't seen that coming.      "Wha-"      The entirety of the Egg Carrier's beach just sort of *fills the center of the Egg Carrier*. Sand comes pouring down, followed by lot of water, a deactivated missile, clouds, a *sky*...and finally the little beach is topped off with a pleasant set of coconut trees, and, last but not least, a beach chair. The floating chairbot is completely covered, forced to the ground. The Combots that were still remaining are crushed under the water. The monorail track dips in and out of the sand as the monorail robot attempts to dig what little remains of itself out and chase the pair.      Eggman sputters.      "YOU TRIED TO STEAL MY *BEACH?!*"      The air of menace evaporates instantly as the Grin vanishes into flabbergasted noises and foam flying from his chin. "YOU *TRIED* TO STEAL MY *BEACH!*"      "EVERYTHING ON THIS SHIP! THIS TECHNOLOGICAL MASTERPIECE! THIS *WONDERLAND* OF INNOVATION! ONE OF THE MOST ADVANCED CENTERS OF ARTIFICIAL ADVANCEMENTS IN THE WORLDS!"      "AND YOU TRIED TO STEAL MY *BEACH?!?!*"      He's actually just kind of in shock, so the little robots just kind of continue to mill and do what they've been doing the whole time, which is not much, other than the one in Stagehand's mouth, which continues to also do not much except be there.
Timespace Riders	Woz leaps away at the moment of impact, landing on the smashed-through train nimbly. Without waiting for the figurative smoke to clear, he removes the Shinobi watch and slots in a new one--a question-marked Rider. As he slot it in, the screen on his Beyondriver shows a 3D image of the armor about to be flash-printed onto him. A golden lazer grid encircles his body, the shurikens flying off of his breastplate and pauldrons, replaced with flying red and blue question marks.                           Action! Touei! Future Time!                                                     Fashion! Passion! Question!                                                         Futurering Quiz! QUIZ!                                  "Indeed it isn't, Limelight," says Woz, arms wide, the spear in one hand now crooked at the tip, like a question mark. "True or False--"      Woz's question is interrupted by something he had no idea was coming--a surge of water from above. It strikes him and lifts him bodily off of the train, washing him down the length of it. The crook-headed spear scraped with a screeching noise across the side of the train, hooked onto the hole Zi-O punched through. It keeps him from falling onto the Spikes That Don't Kill, but not from being battered by sand.      Zi-O, meanwhile, scratches the back of his aerodynamic helmet with a rocket-mounted wrist. "I don't know why he keeps using that one... UWOH!!" Maybe it's cursed. It's easy to think that, especially when Zi-O is knocked off of the rail by the deluge of sand, weighed down despite his efforts to burn thrusters and rise past it.      Certainly, neither of them saw that attack coming, nor could they have guessed that the thieves would steal something that audacious. It's kind of endearing, really. When the sand runs its course, Zi-O shakes his head, loosing several grains from his armor.      It's more than enough time for them to make their escape, as seasoned thieves--but Zi-O doesn't bother chasing. Something about the audacity of stealing an entire beach makes him smile. "Well--it looks like those two didn't escape with the treasure they wanted. But I'll be leaving here with one, at least," he says. Into his empty hand, a new one of those pocketwatches appears. It's got Stagehand's masked face on it. <Tac-Concord> 4 Sougo Tokiwa says, "Mm... Doctor, do you mind if I give them a headstart? The beach thing... it's kind of endearing, in how ridiculous it is." <Tac-Concord> 4 Sougo Tokiwa says, "I almost want to see what they'll try next!" <Tac-Concord> 4 Dr. Eggman says, "Oh, she can run as far as she likes. She'll have to get the little robot out of her partner's mouth sooner than later, and, well...I've already put the bounty out." <Tac-Concord> 4 Dr. Eggman says, "So I suppose it doesn't really matter."      Zi-O removes the pocketwatch from his belt, and not long after, so does Woz. Woz looks very annoyed that he didn't get to badger Limelight with lethal questions, but Sougo is smiling bright and wide.
Eggman	Eggman, still flabbergasted as the thieves go, manages to regain his composure long enough to address the TV screen hovering nearby. "Cubot, Orbot! Get down here! I have a job for you."      The two robots come trundling down obediently. They stop in front of Doctor Eggman, looking up at him as he glowers down. He reaches up to push his glasses up villainously. "I need you to start cleaning this mess up. We'll need to restructure the Egg Carrier's central mass, at this rate - the contained sky and sun are going to be a prob-"      He stops.      He removes his hand from his nose and looks at it.      Cubot and Orbot exchange nervous glances.      "...is my face still covered in shaving foam?"      "Er," Cubot says.      "...well, no matter." Eggman reaches up to stroke the left side of his moustache, "Make sure to get the proper...containment..."      Orbot does the robotic equivalent of a gulp as Eggman's fingers stroke through mid-air.      There is a deafening, utter silence.      Then:      "...WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF MY MOUSTACHE?!"