Scene #8941: SAX1 A Little Chaos

Owner	Pose
Eggman	MYSTIC JUNGLE This place is, to put it mildly, awful. Dense trees fill every square inch of the landscape. The rain is a constant problem, as are the insects, the wild animals, and every other expectation one might have of a picturesque jungle adventure - especially all the miserable parts. Still, Doctor Eggman brought everyone here for a reason. The Bad Doctor, Cubot, and Orbot are all dressed for the part, with Eggman himself in an old-school English safari outfit and Cubot and Orbot clad in pith helmets. Cubot and Orbot chop away at underbrush with machetes as Eggman explains the situation with am umbrella over his head. "...seeking a temple," Eggman says, "Of the ancient echidna people. It's said to hide somewhere in this...disgusting nature. I have a very rough idea from...a moment..." He fetches from one of his many pockets a very, very, very old journal. It has the name GERALD ROBOTNIK written across the front. Carefully he flips through it, with an almost out-of-character reverence, keeping it out of the mild rain with all his will. He flips through it slowly, too, as they walk, delicately. This is something Important to him. He's mentioned it before, hasn't he? That his grandfather, Gerald, was an inspiration? That the old man died before his time, murdered by the Guardian Unit of Nations? Finally, he says, "Ah-hah!" and turns the journal around to reveal a very old hand-drawn map. "Here it is." He points at the center of the map, where something has been circled. "This is where we are headed. Now, grandfather's journal mentions that the ancient echidna guarded this particular place very, very closely. Expect booby traps, perhaps even old machines. But, well, that's why the lot of you are here." He closes the journal, stores it back in his pocket, and pats it carefully. "Cubot, how near are we to the site?" "We'll be there in a jiffy, sir, wot wot!" The little robot says in a sharp stereotypical British accent, "Why I'll wager we'll be done before tea-time!" Eggman checks his watch. "It's three in the afternoon." "Before tomorrow's tea-time, Master old bean!" Eggman sighs. "I realize it's a difficult ask of you, but don't be an idiot. Your new sensors are more than enough to function with the EPS-" Eggman Positioning System, no doubt, "-and find the location." "Ah, yes, my good chap. Well, as it happens, we're only a few klicks away." Eggman rubs his hands. "Soon, we'll have the god of destruction on our side. I'd like to see what those do-gooders can do-good against Chaos!" He pauses and coughs into his hand. "So! Are there, ah...any questions, before we arrive?"
Shadow	"... Ancient echidna people," repeats Shadow. He has not offered to help clear the path. He doesn't have any special clothing on either, or even an umbrella. "... Ancient echidna people, with booby traps and ancient machinery." He uncrosses his arms, and raises his hand. "Yes. I have a question, doctor," he says. "Do you expect us to believe that Gerald's journal just happened to have notes on an ancient 'echidna people' temple out here, full of secrets or treasure, protected by deadly traps and hazards..." "... And that the traps and hazards are going to be any sort of challenge?" He scoffs. "It's probably all rusted over. I could have stayed in bed and be in as much danger as being out here." "Well, you're in the top bunk and could fall out, so that might be true," points out Rouge, who's dressed up a bit more thematically in garb appropriate for raiding tombs. "Besides," she adds. "It's about the journey as much as whatever might be at the end. But - let me see if I can't speed things up a bit... as it stands we're going to take forever to get there." She heads over towards Cubot and Orbot. "Oh, dear..." "She bites her pinky, looking distressed. "It's just so... hot out here, I feel like I'm going to melt~ If only there were two strong, dedicated bots who could work a bit harder, I'd be ever so grateful to get out of this oppressive heat~"
Bowser	Bowser, who is NOT going to trudge through the jungle because Bowser does not trudge anywhere, is in the Koopa Kopter. The Koopa Kopter's face is currently vaguely unhappy with its tongue hanging out. It floats low to the ground. Two giant buzz saws float in fixed positions in front of Bowser's Koopa Kopter, steadily ripping through the trees to keep a path for the Koopa Kopter. A platoon of Charging Chucks catch the trees and lay them on the side every time one falls. But, well, that's why the lot of you are here. I could have stayed in bed and be in as much danger as being out here. A grin spreads on Bowser's face. "Breaking into old important stuff is my middle name." He slams his fist into his palm, "This is gonna be easier than that time I broke into that mountain and stole lightning from the old bearded guy to make a romantic storm for Princess Peach. I won't even have to fight anyone!" "So, what's this thing do? Grant wishes? Control the weather? Turn everyone into mushrooms?"
Kukuru	Kukuru is one of several joining Eggman's expedition today, having forced herself into the group after hearing that one of her favorite doctors needed a hand with something she's already forgotten about. Like the doctor, she's dressed in her ye-olde-English safari finest (courtesy of the folks back home) consisting of a bright lime-green dress with puffy shoulders and a matching sunhat. Perhaps more unexpectedly, she's actually looking rather comfortable in this miserable place, too. Thanks to the the wild animals giving her plenty of food to stockpile away for later and the rain keeping her from feeling too gross after dismantling and putting all those animal parts away, Kukuru's even feeling rejuvenated! Getting through the jungle is made a little easier with Kukuru's claws in play, of course, as she's all too willing to cut or batter aside pesky foliage and entire trees in the way. "I've never seen an echidna before... Um. Waaait a minute. If they're people, that means..." There's a long pause as she puts a few things together in her head, then nods after a moment. "Emergencies only." She concludes with a light nod, undoubtedly considering whether or not they're okay to eat. When Eggman brings out the journal, Kukuru helpfully holds her oversized claws up overhead to keep the sun out of everyone's eyes (herself included) and gets a better look at the map. "That's not too far from here... Hmmhm. I bet we could get a whooole lot more food on the way. And if we use some of this stuff for tea..." She murmurs, then claps her claws together in a way that somehow makes a pleasant clicking noise. Her clothes are also no longer bright nor green at this point, but that's a problem for someone else. "Oh, oh, I have a question, Eggman~ Did you grandpa meet Chaos before?" A pause, and then she continues while starting to dig right back into her pockets. "Why's Chaos locked up here, anyway? Did something happen to them?" Today's snacks: Crispy chicken and bacon salad with chipotle-mayo dressing, corn and mushroom salsa, finely diced and provided in plastic bottles for hands-free eating/inhaling.
Angela	Some part of Angela just sort of thought that Eggman mostly just made things happen and it didn't really require much effort on his part, likening his mark on the world more akin to a tornado or an earthquake that happened to disproportionately target animal people. Angela has already been trying to think of how to refer to such people in a politically neutral manner--the power of the Spiral Empire seems pretty potent and on a scale hitherto unknown to her and while it seems like they are broadly benevolent, Angela's methodology of making her people of use to others seems to have paid off and it should do the same in this case. She is in her Eggpack state. "Ancient echidna? Are they no longer around?" She asks, her eyes slanting towards the journal. Let's assume Angela has heard something of the story. "It is doutbful that I can be of direct assistnace but if there is a terminal that requires interfacing with or if there are puzzles I may be able to solve them with a surfeit of time at my disposal." She pats Orbot on the head. "Ah but do not take that to mean I am not happy to be included." She is, at least, totally fine with the awful weather and the bugs! Why, it's like a backpack does not have to worry too much about these things! "What exactly are we looking for in this temple?" She asks making that her second question, apparently not realizing Chaos is a proper noun here belonging to an actual entity. "How will it release chaos? ... How did you hear of this God of Destruction?" She has like thirty more questions. "How will we get the God of Destruction on our side? Have you worked with the God of Destruction before? What do they look like? Should we have brought some manner of offerings...?" And so on.
Petra Soroka	Eggman is always insisting on how important aesthetics are; how one's outfit and demeanor informs how competent, intimidating, professional, and intelligent other people see you as, and that presentation is one of the most important tools in a supervillain's kit. While Petra's fashion sense might be disappointing to everyone in her life besides Cinder, she does try to take that advice to heart, to the extent that she feels comfortable doing so-- philosophically she agrees, it's just that her preferred presentation inspires no respect at all. Still, today is a day for tomb raiding, so Petra takes care to dress up in an appropriate tomb-raider outfit. No-- the other one. Petra wears a white button-up beneath a leather jacket appropriate for both biking and protecting herself from ancient stone scrapes, along with brown cargo pants held up with an appropriate leather belt and sturdy boots-- all, surprisingly, fairly regular items in her wardrobe, just never combined into the Indiana Jones assembly. The Eggpack on her back doesn't match with the aesthetic naturally, but because she wrapped the metal in greenish-brown canvas, it looks quite a lot like an archaeologist's backpack hoisted onto her back, albeit with Angela's face peeking out and metal arms on either side. Ancient echidna people are accepted without question. Petra's worked with Eggman long enough-- and thrashed enough furries-- that their presence and odd racial specificity no longer phases her, except when she wants to make fun of them. She nods along with his explanation (she's heard it before, even), while thwacking her way through foliage with a morphmetal machete. "Ancient echidna? Are they no longer around?" She does make a bit of an effort to chime in with answers she knows, so that Eggman isn't bombarded with everyone's questions. Unfortunately, Petra sits squarely in the middle of Eggman's typical scale of operations, neither caring much about the individual animal people-- they're not her rivals, after all-- nor the apocalyptic gods of destruction and so on that her teacher often wrestles with. "One of them's related to them, right? The same kind of animal?" One of the rivals, she means. "The red one? So I think they're still around."
Eggman	"You didn't know Grandfather as well as you think you did, I see," Eggman says idly in Shadow's direction, which would probably be lethal for literally anyone else to say, "If Grandfather wrote that something was well-guarded, it will almost certainly be well-guarded. Besides which, based on a few museum pieces he dug up from other sites, echidna technology was highly advanced before the culture's fall." Eggman taps his chin as he lectures like a professor. "Mostly clockwork and water-powered, believe it or not. I stole one a while ago to study it and it's fascinating, if ancient. Still runs, even, as long as it has some water." Orbot sighs at Rouge, but Cubot goes 'pip-pip, mum, in a jiffy!' and starts chopping away twice as hard. Cubot's just sort of used to doing things for people with enthusiasm. Orbot...isn't. "Chaos is the god of destruction," Eggman says to Bowser and Kukuru as they walk, "An ancient deity sealed away after wiping out an entire civilization. This is one of the two sites Grandfather believed Chaos was located - I've sent Metal Sonic to Angel Island to find the other. Knuckles is easier to handle if he believes Sonic is involved." "Once we find Chaos, we acquire for and feed to it the seven Chaos Emeralds. It will achieve the power of Perfect Chaos, and with it under my control, I'll be able to take over the world once and for all! Even Sonic and his friends won't be able to stand against it! And from there, who knows? Maybe even the Multiverse!" "...but let's not get ahead of ourselves," he adds finally, stroking his moustache. "I'm afraid Grandfather never located Chaos precisely, but according to some of the archives from the G.U.N. database we stole when we freed dear Shadow here, he did have some limited success mimicking the legendary abilities of the god in artificial form. Nowhere near the power of the real thing, obviously." "And I'm also afraid you won't see any echidna today, either. They're almost extinct. Only Knuckles remains, last of the Knuckles Clan and the last Echidna, guardian of Angel Island and the Master Emerald. If Metal Sonic does his job right, Knuckles and Sonic will destroy one another, and we'll not need to worry about either." Even Eggman doesn't really think that'll happen, but hey. Hope springs eternal. "Chaos is its name, my dear girl," he says to Angela kindly, "And I don't know what precisely we're looking for, but according to Grandfather's journal, the ancient echidna would have kept their most important and dangerous items in the heart of the temple, so...I suppose we're heading there. As for getting Chaos on our side, I happen to have brought along a little device based on Grandfather's research into the artificial replicants that should allow us to control it without trouble."
Eggman	At last, Cubot and Orbot carve through into what would be a clearing were it not for a vast canopy interlacing above, hiding the site from aerial observations. Half-buried in the earth is a stone temple carved part of stone and part of some strange blue gem. It glows, very lightly, pulsing as the party approaches. Steps leading up to a strange serpentine head light up with each step, until, finally, at the summit, the serpent head opens to reveal a passage in. Inside is what can only be classed as an action stage. Slides, loops, running sections, arrow traps, spike traps, water slides leading to bottomless pits, anti-gravity panels, smashy ceiling things, smashy floor things, and the occasional weird floating snake robot made of stone bar the way. It's a long ride down to the bottom before the group is deposited at a fascinating room full of panels on the walls, switches, a giant lake, and a massive snake robot that seems to wake upon their arrival. The snake robot rises up to its full height and roars at the party. More little stone serpent robots come out of its mouth, pouring towards the group. Eggman ducks behind his umbrella as Cubot and Orbot cower. "Angela, dear girl, while the rest of them handle this, can you perhaps unravel the series of switches we need to press to shift those platforms into position? The rest of you..." "Well, you should know what to do, don't you?"
Kukuru	"I didn't even know echidnas could do stuff with technology... They just look so tiny and pointy and srtingy." Kukuru murmurs in quiet fascination, clearly not thinking of the same kind of echidnas that Eggman's referring to. Chaos being the god of destruction they're after makes things quite a bit clearer for Kukuru, and she nods slowly while listening to the explanation about why they were sealed away to begin with. "That would be a pretty normal reason, mhm... Oh, but then being sealed away that long means..." Her expression drops a bit for the first time today. "It must've been so lonely in there, and... Really sucked without anything to eat." And then she perks right back up at hearing the very first part of Eggman's plan. "We'll make sure it's nice and full, then, so it can be happier and join our family to help you do that~" A beat, then she raises an eyebrow curiously at the doctor once again. "Oh, it eats fancy rocks? that could be..." Kukuru starts and doesn't finish that sentence, pursing her lips as she starts considering where to best find emeralds. Hearing that there's only one echidna left (with a name, too) also has Kukuru shifting her plans just a little. "Only one? Oh, then we definitely can't... Oh! I know. What if we tried toooo... Bring him into the family, too?" She really seems intent on recruiting anyone that isn't Sonic, at least. Upon reaching the temple, Kukuru lets out an amused 'ooooh' and an awed 'aaaah' at seeing the various forms of traversal terrain surrounding everyone. She's not thinking about it as an action stage, after all, but as a convenient way to descend and see the sights without having to go down a lot of stairs herself. Naturally, she goes about the entire stage in completely the wrong way. At the top of the first ramp, Kukuru takes a seat on one side, then giggles cheerfully while sliding down the whole thing legs-first. She goes off the ramp with far less airtime momentum than a run-jump-speedster might, content to just plummet shortly afterwards. When the fall looks like it might be too much, though, she teleports right back to the start. "Oh, that's how that works..." It takes a while, but she eventually gets the idea while reaching into her pockets once more. The claws go away, and out comes a skateboard and helmet, and then she starts taking those ramps with actual speed to make some jumps! There's still some teleporting involved, of course, when it's clear that even building up speed on the skateboard won't get her across, and the loops are a complete no-go for Kukuru considering her everything. Otherwise, she mostly focuses on clearing through those stone robots when they become too irritating or dangerous for her companions, slapping them to bits with her oversized claws or flinging them away like a living catapult. The spike traps are given some extra attention, too, with her teleporting into them to break off the tips to make them slightly more child-friendly (and then hurled at the giant snake robot later).
Shadow	Rouge tries to negotiate for some of Kukuru's snacks. Shadow continues to pout at the back of the group during the trip, mostly. "Hmmph. Just because I didn't get out as much." At all. "Gerald was a genius. His work endures and is influential to this day. Doubtless he's accurate as to his assessments - But he also made me." Shadow crosses his arms again. "And whatever he found - can't stand up to what he's made." Shadow glances over at Eggman saying he's going to feed Chaos all seven chaos emeralds. "All of them, huh." Inward - with the ancient temple finally revealed! Action stage time. Shadow does the requisite loop de loops, the running up or down walls, the leaps of faith, the grind rails, and the timing challenges. Briefly, he stands on top of an anti-gravity panel, and looks back at Eggman. "I see. You said they fell, doctor? Must have been quite easy for them, if they forgot which way was up. And then - to the snake. "Hmmh. This clockwork and water powered too? Does this have the entire Big Ben in it, then?" "And if it's water powered..." "... Then its luck is about to run dry." He pulls out a pair of pistols. "They say, there was once a great snake. The Ouroboros. It ate its own tail." He loads one pistol, and then the other, all while not losing his grip on either. "I have to wonder if this snake is similar. Because instead of eating its tail..." He cocks both pistols. "It's going to be eating nothing but lead." And then - running, and jumping, and firing dramatically in mid-air with matrix bullet-time. If Shadow can, he tries to basketball-dunk a live grenade into the snake's mouth. Rouge hangs back. "I'll just... go scout out the side passages," she says, and splits off. She's totally not going to steal any and all treasure here for herself before anyone else can claim it.
Bowser	Bowser snaps his fingers, "Ah-hah! You do have seven magic things to power it up!" He nods appreciatively. Things done PROPERLY around here. "Then you can finally crush that blue Hedgehog!" He makes a proper crushing with his fist. He isn't sure what Eggman's NEXT step is, but he's sure Eggman has something important, right? A look down at Kukuru's 'meal'. He coughs, but turns his head away politely. Instead, Bowser reaches into his Kopter and opens up a briefcase sized Ultraman lunchbox. From within, he pulls out an entire fried chicken, biting into half of it. He chews through the bones and meat thoughtfully. At the sight of the platforming level, Bowser just floats along in the Kopter, ignoring the platforming section entirely. He doesn't DO platforming. Ever. It's beneath him. The rest of the fried chicken gets popped into Bowser's mouth and swallowed after a single crunch. With a HUP, Bowser leaps out of the Kopter and into the lake, making the ground shudder. Then, the swagger. The mighty swagger towards the snake, shoulders high, chest out, chin lifted. He strides through robot snakes, allowing them to latch onto his form where they please as he never loses a step. At the base of the Snake, Bowser grabs around whatever section he can. "GET OUTTA MY WAY!" He tilts backwards, feet flat on the ground, knees bent, perfect German Suplex form as he drags the giant robot snake over him.
Kukuru	Rouge doesn't need to negotiate with Kukuru. As usual, she gets snacks just for being there! Her mentioning how hot it was also reminds Kukuru to bring out some ice cold towels for everyone, too. Bowser might need it after that chicken, anyway.
Angela	Angela murmurs, surpirsed, "A red echidna..." The idea of controlling a god is normal enough for her, albeit in a way that usually results in it getting upset and eating a few people here and there, so she assumes that's the kind of strategy Eggman has planned. Angela is accustomed to being in the Eggpack even though she's not really IN the eggpack. She's found that she likes going on these journeys with Petra, getting to kind of watch over her and even lend her a hand periodically--and now she is lending Eggman a hand, which is nice, because she owes him one and she doesn't like owing people anything even if she is quite fond of them. She struggles to accept that people want to help her just for the sake of helping her--that's not a common attitude in The City and not exactly common even in the facility even with the sense of comradery that has steadily grown since going multiversal. " It must be difficult to be the last of your people." Angela says, not exacly unsympathetic to Knuckles' situation. She doesn't know him at all but she quietly hopes Knuckles defeats Sonic handedly. She knows nothing about Sonic either but, well, it is easy to NOT care about him when he is the enemy of someone she's decidedly on the side of. Angela is naturally not going to be much help during platforming segments though she can use her mechanical limbs to reach out and grab at handholds, vines, and so on to lend a hand that way but in terms of jumping she really can't do anything. She CAN be used to block arrows and will not get dizzy in looping sections because she's just going to close her eyes during big slide moments. When they do get to a room full of panels and switches and a giant lake and a giant snake robot, Angela exhales slowly. "Petra, do you mind setting me down there? I can try and be quick about this." Once this is done, or is otherwise placed in range, She extends the eggpack's 'limbs'. The first thing to do is to test the switches one by one and see what they do. "A switch in time saves nine." Angela says, smirking smugly at her pun. Shrimply was getting tiresome, she decides. Now it's switch / stitch swap time. She can go back to shrimply later. Testing the switches one by one is something she can only do in real time but after that she cups her chin in real life, her processor running at max speed to contemplate the fasted puzzle route to the answer. "Oh Shadow has a gun," Angela says, giving a nod to Rouge, completely not realizing she's totally not going to steal everyhing she gets to first. Kukuru speaks of recruiting Knuckles but Angela doesn't speak up the same way--these are Eggman's rivals and offering to recruit his enemies seems like a faux pas. The platforms move into position then out of position as she performs her initial tests. She doesn't wait too long, just to get an idea of which platforms are moving with which switches and after testing them all... ...She stops touching any of the buttons for about thirty seconds. And then... "Puzzle solved," Angela says, pushing the first switch, the third switch, the first switch again, and then the middle switch in that order. There's another period of rumbling as the platforms move into place.
Eggman	The ancient echidnas, to Rouge's almost certain sorrow, didn't really keep valuables in this kind of temple. It looks like this place is one big...guardpost? There's side-paths, sure, but they all lead to dead ends full of murderous traps and stone robots, as if the whole place is set up specifically to lure treasure hunters away from the main room. Whatever's in here, they must be really worried about getting unleashed by some well-meaning treasure hunter or greedy individual. In fact, it's kind of weird. Some of the traps seem designed to keep people out, sure, but some of them seem designed to keep people in. She has to use all of her cunning to get back out. And...there's something kind of weird about this. Temples, even temples sealing evil gods, are usually full of rooms for the priests, for eating, et cetera. This is a huge structure, way bigger than it looks from the outside, sunken deep into the ground over the ages and already deep under the ground before that. So why is everything in this place just some kind of deathtrap?
Petra Soroka	"Oh, yeah, Knuckles, that's his name. Because he punches." Petra's been told this a half-dozen times already, but she's only ever interacted with Sonic and Tails, so he's relegated to being 'the third one in her head'. "Oh, it eats fancy rocks? that could be..." "Nah, they're not just fancy rocks, Kukuru." Admittedly, also, when Petra first heard of the Chaos Emeralds, she'd assumed they were just fancy rocks too. Or some sort of local name for radiation, or something, since 'magic' wasn't her first guess when she mostly knows Eggman's work. "They're these... magic things. Super powerful, as far as I know. I once stole one of them and used it to beat up, like, a dozen Elites at once and crash a city into the ground. So seven of them would be... well, a bunch." Petra gives Orbot and Cubot fond little pats on the head once the clearing is revealed. She was helping them, of course, but she's over twice their height so their efforts just seem more effortful by default, and thus worthy of praise. She scoops each of them up in one arm so that they don't have to scramble up the stairs and trots her way up to the top, invigorated by the long-awaited reveal of 'something other than endless jungle'. And then when she gets to the top and the serpent head starts to open, her adrenaline is spent, and the heat and exertion catches up with her all at once. She sags and drops Orbot and Cubot to the ground with less gentleness than she means to, and doubles over with her hands on her knees gasping for air. It's not a great time to be presented with fast-paced platforming obstacles, when she's spending multiple minutes trying to catch her breath and pushing sweat-slick hair off of where it sticks to her forehead, so she slows a bit to slam back some bottles of water from Kukuru. Normally, in missions where it's just the family (the smaller one, rather than the Concord as a whole), Petra would be running right up ahead alongside Shadow to do the platforming and all the energetic, dangerous youngin activities for Eggman as she's meant to do. Instead, when Eggman points them out, Petra diverts to head over to the ancient stone switch panel with the Eggpack, traveling high and precarious along the secret passage rather than diving along the rails. Conveniently, this keeps her in range of chattering with Eggman, as she hops across unstably crumbling stone platforms, dodges or blasts through crumbly spikes, clings to and leaps between vine-coated walls, along with combating the snake-boss duos with less narrative weight but higher technical precision that come with being in a secondary optional path rather than the primary one. Angela is given a grappling hook to hold, providing a narrative justification for why Petra is hoisted back up onto the path with a loss of coins whenever she falls off.
Petra Soroka	"Hey, Doctor," Petra calls out while whipping a tendril of morphmetal across the neck of a snake golem. "What's your opinion on, like, bottomless pits? I don't actually know how to make them, since, like, there's got to be a better way than actually just trying to dig straight through the superplanet." Then, at the chamber overlooking the ongoing boss fight! Petra slides the Eggpack off with a short-breathed "Of course, Ange," and then sags against the side of the massive ancient tablet with all the switches arranged on it. She still hasn't quite caught her breath, and all that hopping around is rough on a non-superpowered girl's body, even with double jump assistance from the Silver. She wipes the back of her hand against her forehead, unscrewing the top of her same old battered metal water bottle while watching Angela fiddle around with an interested but completely incomprehending expression. "Shadow's got a gun, yeah. He's cool like that. I don't really get why more speedy people don't carry them, honestly, at least as a backup option. Like, Sonic-- I've looked into him, in case I need to kick his ass someday-- he's always just running straight into stuff to hit it himself, and I'm like-- that literally kills your momentum. It's so dumb." Petra huffs, irritated at the existence of this hedgehog purely because of inherited dislike from Eggman. "It's just like Meat Velocity. I swear, if Doctor Eggman's plan with keeping him busy during this doesn't work out, I'll have no problem with kicking his ass myself." "Puzzle solved," Petra zones back in, surprised. "Oh! Fast. I should've expected that, nice. Ready to get back up for more?"
Eggman	Eggman rolls his eyes behind his umbrella at Shadow's showboating. But he's rolling his eyes with a bit of a smile. No matter what, he can't help but be fond of Shadow. Perhaps that's his grandfather's handiwork. Perhaps Shadow's just sort of charming in his own way. Or maybe Eggman's going a bit soft as he surrounds himself with people that he...cares about. Between Kukuru's hurled spikes and Shadow's pistol, the flying snake robots are basically stopped dead in their tracks. The huge robot changes up its tactics upon 'realizing' this, bringing its gigantic tail around to smash into one of the platforms. Bowser grabs the tail and swings the whole snake backwards into the wall with a ridiculous suplex. Rubble and rock dust explode out of the walls as the snake slides down into the water. "It's, ah, a physics trick," Eggman says from behind his umbrella, "Not really 'bottomless' so much as 'functionally bottomless.' I'll teach you how to do it sometime - they're really quite simple. Of course, a good starter may instead be lava pits. And a bit stylistic, too. Mr. Bowser would be your port of call there, though - his castles are expertly crafted testaments to lava and its wonders." Angela works quickly. She always does. The buttons slide the panels on the walls around - when they align, they light up and become anti-gravity panels. From there it's only a short bit of effort for Angela to line up the panels to the room's exit. And once that's done, well, Eggman shows off that he is an actual Olympic athlete by sprinting his ass up the wall and along the twisting path, Cubot and Orbot dangling off him as he runs. He remembered to put his hand on his pith hat through all of that, evidently.
Eggman	After another harrowing bit of Action Stage, the party arrives at what could only be the heart of the temple. Who knows how far down they've gone? Who knows how many layers under the earth they are? But these massive double-doors, scrawled with ancient writing, can only be something found at a temple's heart. And that writing... ...translates. How rare. So frequently is ancient writing too old, or too mysterious, or some other plot device-protected. But it's almost like these words want to be read. OPEN NOT THIS LOST WORLD YE KNOW NOT WHAT YE DO WHAT LIES WITHIN WILL BRING YOUR DOOM WHEN THEY RETURN TO CLAIM THEIR DUE Eggman peers at the writing from behind his glasses. He takes off his glasses (fortunately his eyes are hidden by the shadow of his helmet, so no one has to see photorealistic Eggman eyes) and scrubs them clean with a handkerchief, puts them back on, and peers at the words again. "How interesting." "Unfortunately, simple signs cannot stop Doctor Eggman! Let's pry it open!" With some effort, the party manages to do just that. Once Kukuru, Bowser, and Eggman all have their fingers in the door, it opens easily. Gears begin to turn, and water begins to flow, and the doors open on their own, into... ...a blank wall. Eggman stares at it. He turns around. "I...I'm afraid I don't-" The bricks on the wall begin slide away. Bit by bit, the wall unfolds. The temple starts to shake. Soon the whole temple is quaking, furiously, as the last of the wall opens. There's an enormous crack of thunder, deafening and furious, as light pours out of the newly-opened cavern. As the blinding light dies, a figure emerges, floating in the air on what looks like golden hover-shoes. A staff with a cog is clutched in one hand. A black robe drapes over his form, with gilded accessories and shining blue runes. Three long head-tendrils drape off his obscured head, above a pair of glowing blue eyes. "Humans...?" A voice as old as dust echoes from within, pushed by what sounds like speakers. "And...machines. Ah. Yes. Always machines. Human machines, though. How long has it been, that humans have developed machines?" He swings the staff around, pointing it at the party. "You are in the presence of Imperator Ix of the Nocturnus Clan. More than that...you are responsible for our freedom. Or, at least, the first stages of it." "Tell me. Whose names shall we be inscribing in our legends databases? Whose names shall we scrawl upon screens singing glorious praise?" The figure hovers closer. It turns out Eggman was wrong. They are meeting an echidna.
Kukuru	Petra explains what the Chaos Emeralds are, getting yet another awed noise out of Kukuru. "Is that how they work? And used them to destroy a whole city already..." She comments with a pleased little noise coming out of the back of her throat moments later. "Oh, you've really been working hard and learning a lot! That's wonderful, Petra. I'm gonna have to work harder to catch up..." She hasn't forgotten about her own goal, but she has certainly been slacking at pursuing it. Angela working on the puzzle, meanwhile, has Kukuru teleporting over to take a look at the switches. She raises an eyebrow curiously at that period of thirty seconds, blinking slowly after the first few. Not wanting to disturb Angela at work, however, Kukuru opts to hold her breath, then hums pleasantly like she didn't just hold her breath once she makes that announcement. "Nice work, Angelaaa~ Ah, did you want anything brought home from here? I've got plenty of space." More actions age, of course, is treated with most of the gravitas it deserves: Kukuru in a fancy bloodstained dress doing uncharacteristically agile skateboard tricks. Whenever she eats shit landing on her face, she does have to stop to put a new helmet on, but she's otherwise keeping up with the group between that and teleporting, making sure to distribute the necessary healing nanites all the while so nobody looks too bad on the way through. And then it's time to read! "Sounds scary... Oh, but the echidnas probably weren't friendly to the dear, so that must be why." She concludes, undoubtedly due in part to Eggman's eagerness to get that door open to free Chaos. As expected, she aids in opening that door, climbing onto a higher spot and possibly doing a bit of ceiling or wall hanging so Bowser and Eggman have more room to reach themselves. The door opens, and Kukuru stares at the wall. "Maaaaybe... It's a prank?" And then THAT wall opens! It's loud enough that Kukuru has to hold her hands over her horns, too, scrunching her face up uncomfortably at the ringing in her head. That's nothing compared to the light blasting her face, though, drawing out an actual hiss of pain until it fades. An unfamiliar figure appears, and Kukuru peers it him curiously as she steps inside the chamber. "He-llo there~ Oh, I'm not a human or a machine. I'm a monster! My name's Kukuru." She introduces herself with a yawn, then pauses her usual pause that it ends up sounding even more awkward than usual. "That's Ku-ku-ru. It's nice to meet you, Chaaa.. Ix?" That doesn't sound like Chaos. Must be a newly chosen name, after all those years of imprisonment. Kukuru smiles broadly, then remembers to dip into a polite little curtsey that'd look far more formal if her dress wasn't bloody and torn in several places. "Eggman wants to speak with you, but before that..." She goes right up to Ix, and she holds out a bottle of chicken bacon salad, a bottle of fresh cold water, and a similarly cold towel. "Eat up, don't be shy. It's been a while since you've had anything, hasn't it?"
Bowser	His castles are expertly crafted testaments to lava and its wonders. Bowser nods towards Petra. "You gotta know how to heat the lava JUST right. You gotta get it hot enough to really let the plumber sink in it. OR, you get it just cold enough so you can dump someone on them and REALLY burn them in the keister. Now, if you wanna be REALLY mean, you get a pit or a lava pit, right?" He leans towards Petra conspiratorially, "And you put a podoboo in there. So they go to jump over this really easy pit and then YAM!" He slams his fist into his open palm, "Fireball right in the caboose!" He leans back and lets out a bellowing GWA HA HA HA HA! With the snake EXPLODED by Shadow and WHIPPED by Petra and SUPLEXED, he gets back into his Kopter because fudge action stages. Buzz saws are dangerous close to everyone, tearing through various parts of the platform level as the Kopter floats along lazily. "Oh, yer Eggman's daughter, yea, you need any building supplies, just ask! I got a whole lot of donut lifts no one uses anymore." At the first chance of being MUSCLE, Bowser eagerly gets out, grabbing at the wall with MIGHTY MUSCLES and yanking it it. Well, really, he doesn't seem to care about opening it, so much as trying to tear it off completely, but both ways are open. The temple shakes. Bowser's brow furrows and he casts his eyes around, glaring. He tilts to one side, then the other, then forward, then back, grunting as he wobbles on one foot each time, only to slap down again. "Stupid ancient temple CUT IT O-" THUNDER CRACK. "Whose names shall we scrawl upon screens singing glorious praise?" He looks over at Eggman, "I thought you said his name was Chaos?" He swings back towards Ix, "BOWSER! B O W S E R, BOWSER. King Of The Koopa Kingdom! Future husband of Princess Peach, we'll probably hyphenate with her name first..." he rubs at his chin, "I should ask her that next time I kidnap her."
Shadow	Shadow the Hedgehog has lots of guns. After hearing Angela remark on it, he insists on showing them off to her during some downtime. "This one is named Everlasting Despair, and this one is named Eternal Hope," he says, showing off his matched pistols. "The machine gun is called Eventual Retribution. The rocket launcher doesn't have a name, but I give a name to every rocket before I fire them." Those words cannot stop Shadow either. But offering to blow the door up with Heaven's Mailman likely doesn't get taken up, when enough strong people are there to just pry it open. And then - someone new! "My name is Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform." Then he pauses. There's a custom here, right? "... Are you joining the Concord, too?"
Angela	Angela smiles. Petra forgetting names is increasingly charming to her. "I remember you stole one from that animal planet, Nonon ran into you and you took her down readily." Angela recalls. "What was that emerald used for anyway?" She is not going to admit she just thought they were fancy rocks because she cares about looking intelligent and clever and will totally pretend if she has to. She is someone who can shut up when she doesn't know what's going on and then slide in like it wasn't a surprise. Usually, anyway. She gives Orbot another pat on the head because Orbot is her favorite because his personality seems more reliable. ''Oh! Fast. I should've expected that, nice.'' "It was a sort of puzzle that could be largely handled in one's mind after knowing how all the component parts of the challenge." Eggman sprints up a wall. Angela marvels at this for a moment--he had SAID but she kind of didn't believe him. ''Ready to get back up for more?'' "I am ready. Thank you Petra." ''A very ominous warning'' "...We probably should not open--" ''Simple signs cannot stop Doctor Eggman'' "...Understood." Angela nods, well aware that sometimes you just ignore the spooky warning and let the casualties come as what may. She's confident Petra can handle whatever this doom is, besides. And there's a Kukuru present. And ... Well, if there's sports to be done--she can rely on Bowser for that? And Shadow even has a gun! And as they get to the next door they find a blank wall and Angela naturally has a comment for this. "Ah, I see. The doom of anticlimax." Angela begins when suddenly... Ix! Of the Nocturnus Clan! Angela has no idea who this is either. She isn't sure that she wants to be a legend but she doubts The City will ever care about what happens here and someone's going to call her Angela eventually anyway so-- "Hello. I am Angela. You were...trapped?" She looks towards Bowser. "He is not human." She looks back to Ix and elects to not specify that she is an AI in case that wasn't evident to this Ix. "Pardon me." She extends one of the L-Corp scanners and runs it over the general area--or at least is making a show of it--but she's actually trying to learn more about this entity--such as if it is actually a god of destruction. "Doctor Eggman..." She says. "He appears to be partially unsyced from time--in the sense that he does not traverse time in a linear fashion. He is ancient, powerful, and nigh invulnerable. And..." She looks past the Imperator. "He is not alone. He may be able to help you even if he is not exactly what you were looking for."
Petra Soroka	"What was that emerald used for anyway?" Petra hums at Angela, happy to have her own lore corroborated and respected by a friend. It's important, to have your history cemented in the minds of other people, to be certain that it exists in an externally verifiable way. "Oh, it was used for the surgery." Which one, she doesn't think to specify. How many surgeries would Petra even need, anyways? She's normal. "But that didn't, like, use it up, so we still have one. Of seven." "Of course, a good starter may instead be lava pits. And a bit stylistic, too." Petra perks up at that, leaning against the switch slab, and puts her fist up to her lips thoughtfully while angling her eyes down at Bowser in the boss arena below. "Hmm... I guess I do have a castle to decorate.... But it's up in the air, though?" "Yo, Bowser!" Petra shouts down, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of rumbling stone and various combat noises. "Mind if I ask you about lava and stuff, later?" She knows him well enough-- friend of a friend, or friend of a dad really-- to be comfortably casual asking for guidance, but not quite well enough to spring it on him without asking. "Oh, you've really been working hard and learning a lot! That's wonderful, Petra." Petra's also right up there when Kukuru teleports over to Angela, and being praised doesn't make her tense up quite as much as usual. Instead, it agitates her in a different way, sort of shiftily restless with having-a-response-she-wants-to-say-but-holding-back-for-whatever-reason. To busy herself from awkwardly tapping her fingernails on her leather jacket, she slips a cigarette out of one of the pockets and lights it up, twirling it between her fingers before taking a drag. "... Well, I do work hard. And I've been working with... both the Doctor and Angela for a year already. I'm practically, uh..." Petra breaks eye contact and looks away, voice dropping in volume some. "... Practically part of the family. But not really, actually." "Oh, yer Eggman's daughter, yea, you need any building supplies, just ask!" Petra huffs, slouching with her arms crossed against the slab and looking grumpily ahead at no one in particular. There's family, and then there's family. And then there's The Family, which is a third, different thing. And is she any of them? She's definitionally not some of them, at least, and the label is fraught enough with her that she wants to say she's none, no matter how many backyard cookouts she goes to.... And then she's here, surrounded by Concord members. Being 'family' to Petra is both the easiest and hardest thing in the world. "... My name's Petra. And... thanks, I'll give you a call, or something."
Petra Soroka	Anti-gravity panels are novel for Petra, platforming continues to be exciting after she's had her break to rest, and a massive set of doors with ominous writing is-- expected, really, but still spooks her a bit. Petra isn't so callously self-assured to be dismissive of the threats of upset spirits, or ancient curses, or sealed embodiments of evil-- if she gets some kind of contagious mummy's curse and brings it back home to Lilian, Tamamo and Cecilia would kill her. Still, she's easily caught up in the social momentum, and once Eggman and Angela decide to go along with it, Petra simply wedges her fingers and morphmetal into the door and helps tug it open too. It's true. Humans have developed machines. Petra is taken off-guard by the rollercoaster of suspense, disappointment, and then surprise at the robed figure, so she takes 'how long has it been' as a real question that she needs to answer, and she chooses to answer it in an esoteric way. Quietly, while he goes on to introduce himself, Petra pulls her compact mirror out of her pocket and flips it open, pressing her palm to the reflective surface and swiping her thumb to rummage through its reflected contents. Eventually, she wraps her hand around the mirror image of a ratbot, and pulls Twopence out to display it upright on her palm. Not... proudly, exactly, like she's showing off; instead she's holding the little toyetic robot up like a movie ticket she's been asked to present for entry. "Uh... I'm Petra." Petra blinks a few times and then stows Twopence away again. "Who trapped you? Are you, like... cool? I mean, if you're grateful, instead of, I don't know, vengeful, I'm fine with freeing you, but we've got another thing we're here to do."
Eggman	"That...is not Chaos," Eggman says. He opens Gerald's diary and starts leafing through it. "Chaos is something akin to sentient water-" "Chaos. Ah. Yes." The wheezing, rattling speaker-voice echoes. "The enemy of Pachacamac. Destroyer of our hated foes, the Knuckles Clan. I suppose we owe the God of Destruction...quite the debt." Ix hovers there, cloak rolling around him. "Without Chaos...the Nocturnus Empire would not have spread across the world." "Ku-ku-ru. Bowser. Angela. Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form. Petra. Doctor Eggman. Yes...you shall be legends. Sung upon screens. Immortal in code." Angela scans the room. One of the glowing blue eyes arcs ever so slightly, quirking a non-existant eyebrow. He sweeps out a wave of his staff. Kukuru and Angela feel it before anyone else notices. The sudden...touch...of ancient magic upon their mechanical aspects. The air around Kukuru lights up, and glowing blue dots appear all over her body, swarming as her nanites do. Petra's morphmetal and Twopence glow the same color as the Eggpack - and, back at Lobotomy Corp, screens - do the same. Cubot and Orbot lurch forward, their forms lighting up in circuit patterns. Shadow's shoes and Bowser's Koopa Car even glow. Then, in an instant, all the blue light shoots directly into the cog staff. It crawls down the arm and up into Ix's head, circuitry patterns briefly lighting along his head-tails before fading away. "Fascinating," he wheezes, "A whole Multiverse to look upon. How vast, the world has become in our exile. Monsters in chains. A great and ambitious Concord, an order of Paladins, and a Watch-guard...civilizations astride dimensions." Eggman stops on a page in the diary, his eyes wide behind his shades. "The Nocturnus Clan...the Fourth Great Civilization? My grandfather...proposed their existence, but the only evidence he was able to find was reference to a great catastrophe that ended the world, and some notes referring to a 'Nocturnus' that was at war with the Knuckles Clan..." "Yes," Ix says with a rattling wheeze, "I think your Concord is...very interesting. If you assist me...I will assist you." Ix closes his fingers and gestures lightly. "With whatever you desire." "All I ask...is that you help me free my people from their exile. Cast out from time...we wish to return. This is where we belong. This is our promised land, our ancestral home. We would...escape...from our Twilight prison...and it would be so much easier if you were to assist." "Is that..." He wheezes, "Acceptable? A...fair deal? Or must I...act...alone?" His head turns to look at Petra. "We were...taken. By something beyond this world. A name leapt within our minds as our capital was dragged into the Twilight, out of time and out of space - 'Argus.'" "There is no reason to fear me." He spreads his arms. "I am not here...for vengeance. Only...return. Who would we seek vengeance upon? Those who locked the door behind us? They are...long dead, if humans and turtle-folk now roam the world freely. How pointless." "Four thousand years have passed. Even the children of their children must now be gone." Ix wheezes again, floating backwards. "Does that...satisfy you, our heroes? Will you...help us?"
Angela	Angela can, if nothing else, be counted on in keeping tabs of Petra's backstory. Sometimes it doesn't immediately leap to mind but it's important to care about the lives of your friends and, of course, their accomplishments. Angela believes in respecting her allies' acomplishments as a general, though not hardfast, rule. ''Nice work, Angelaaa~'' Angela thinks about Kukuru's question--and has been--but she doesn't really know what she could possibly ask for just yet. "I do not know. Surprise me?" She isn't expecting her enkephalin weapon to be ... copied? She supposes she should have, considering he was a 'tech mage' but--again--she supposes that proprietary tech being stolen by some kind of Eggpal isn't something she really has to worry too much about. In a few meltdowns, these readers won't really matter anyomre. She doesn't comment on the stolen 'tech' just yet, though she imagines it should be pretty evidnet by looking. "You seem to learn rathr quickly." Angela dips her head. "May I ask--are you.... in need of repairs?" She hasn't MISSED the wheezing. ''I am not here...for vengeance...'' Angela feels a slightly less strong connection with these people but being trapped outside of time is something she is determined to help with. "It does not particularly matter to me if you are wish for vengeance or not. Being trapped outside of time is not a fate I would wish on anyone in particular. I would not be able to sit with myself if I simply turned a blind eye to it. However, I cannot promise a 'capacity' to help as I am not sure what needs to be done." She looks down to her enkephalin reader before looking to petra. "He simply copied the reader. He did not harm me." It seems important to emphasize that last part.
Kukuru	"I do not know. Surprise me?" Kukuru's smile broadens, and claps her hands together with a lazy hum of approval. "Okaaay~ It'll take a bit, but I'll have something special for you later." She doesn't elaborate on what that is, but the gears are already starting to turn in Kukuru's head! They have to, since getting something she thinks Angela would enjoy as a gift necessitates actual searching! Later, anyway. Not quite just yet, and definitely not in the middle of a discussion. "... Well, I do work hard. And I've been working with... both the Doctor and Angela for a year already. I'm practically, uh..." "... Practically part of the family. But not really, actually." Even though Kukuru knows Petra's been working with them for so long, hearing it in a concrete time word really pushes both how long and how short it's been in her mind. There's so much K wants to say just to that alone, but when Petra looks away and says the F word... Kukuru sucks in her lips between her teeth to keep herself from blurting anything out, but the slight tearing up makes it pretty clear she's happy about that. She looks like she really wants to pull Petra in for a hug, too, but instead holds back on that reflex to just hold her hands up against her own chest and kind of shake them excitedly. After taking that moment to just quietly and semi-politely celebrate, Kukuru's attention returns to Eggman as he describes what Chaos should look like, then to Ix describing his connection to Chaos. She mouths "Pa-cha-mac" incorrectly, then "Pa-cha-cack", and then finally "Pachacamac" to get it into her head properly (for now). And then something feels funny. Not realizing (or perhaps not thinking) that whatever that feeling is might be dangerous, Kukuru giggles inadvertently as the air lights up and she sees all those blue dots. "Oh, how pretty..." She murmurs, holding an arm up to her face to get a better look at the lights just before they disappear into Ix's staff. "A whole...? Oh, right. If you've been here since before this place unified, then you've got a whoooole lot of Multiverse to learn about, mhm." Kukuru explains with a gentle tone of voice, tapping her chin lightly as Ix continues with that wheezing. Although she (finally) knows better than to invade someone's personal space, she still worries about that just like Angela does asking about repairs. That means getting close enough to Ix to offer a wrapped up square cough drop (Juicy 'Orange' flavor). "For your throat. And freeing your family should be fine, mhm~" She looks over at Eggman first, then at Angela and Petra and Shadow next, and Bowser afterwards. She's still holding her hand out with the cough drop, too, and it doesn't seem like she's going to lower her arm otherwise. "But if your family's not here, theeeen... Oh. Where's this Twilight place, anyway? Maybe..." She snaps her fingers a moment later, then looks right over at Eggman. "Oh, oh, Eggmaaaan. Did your grandpa ever mention anything about that kind of place? Maybe even a way in and out of there?"
Shadow	Shadow crosses his arms. "... Really. That's how you feel about vengeance..." "Just because everyone involved is years dead, and those alive now aren't responsible... you're going to give vengeance up entirely, just because too much time has passed." "... Well, that's reasonable," says Shadow, flatly. "If rescuing your people from exile is really all you want, then I don't see the problem."
Bowser	"Mind if I ask you about lava and stuff, later?" A merry and mighty laugh, "I'll show you have to really make your enemies mad!" "... My name's Petra. And... thanks, I'll give you a call, or something." Bowser frowns, then shrugs his shoulders. If Bowser understands any issue, it isn't clear on his face. Then again, the only two expressions that Bowser seems to have are anger and guileless self-importance. "Does that...satisfy you, our heroes? Will you...help us?" Bowser's head slowly leans back, away from Ix, pained, disgusted. "Don't c-" Bowser realizes something. "Uhh... yea! We are BIG HEROES?!" He turns around towards everyone else, giving the loudest wink anyone can possibly give before turning back towards Ix. "We'll go... rescue your princess! And say annoying catchphrases! And break stuff! And ruin people's attempts to have a happy marriage!"
Petra Soroka	"Fascinating," Petra tenses at the glow, ready to resort to her more magical or more mundane resources in response if it's a threat. She pulls Twopence back protectively, squinting at Ix until the scan ends, too narrowly focused on herself and the glowing Eggpack to notice the trend with what similar trait is present across all of the gadgets. Rather than immediately indulging Ix's musings on the vastness of the multiverse, Petra glances back to Eggman when he starts supplying context from the journal, even though adding another set of names-- 'Nocturnus', 'Pachacamac', 'Pir'Oth'-- begins to stretch the limits of her short-term memory. "He simply copied the reader. He did not harm me." That was the answer Petra was looking for. She lets out a sigh, releasing her tension, and clicks her compact mirror shut and slides it into her pocket. "Good. I would've killed him if he did. So he's, like... a tech wizard? ... I'll never get over the ancient furry empire thing." "I think your Concord is...very interesting." Along with the radio chatter about Petra's difficulties with 'family', Petra quietly gripes to Ix too. "It's not my Concord. It's their Concord." "Acceptable? A...fair deal? Or must I...act...alone?" But once she knows he wasn't harming Angela, and in fact, seems interested in doing the exact opposite, Petra has no reason to hold any hostility towards him anymore. "Helping us for helping you is, like, pretty much the fairest deal that exists. So I'm totally fine with it. I guess we'll need to figure out where Chaos is, if not here... and track down the Chaos Emeralds... they move around a lot, though, so you probably don't know much about where they are." "Who would we seek vengeance upon? Those who locked the door behind us?" Shockingly reasonable. Petra nods along in agreement with Shadow. "I guess... there's one echidna left? But yeah, four thousand years is kind of a super long time, there's not really any emotional continuity there. Is Argus at all related to Chaos? Helping you's fine, but that's really our goal."
Eggman	"Age. Nothing more," his voice rattles as Angela asks if he needs repairs, "I am...very, very old." "Four thousand years, at least," Eggman says, reading from Gerald's journal, "That's how long it's been. And...no, Grandfather never knew anything about this. His notes on the Nocturnus Empire are shorter than any of his others - just a bit about Gizoids, whatever those are, probably in another journal, and his theory on the fall of the Fourth Empire." Ix looks at Petra. "'Your' Concord...the Multiverse's. Not yours...personally. I understand. I can...hear the radio. And I am not...a 'boomer.' I am...an echidna." "One left...then I shall have to...meet with them." "Argus...is but a name that appeared in our minds. When our capital was lifted...into the Twilight Cage. We know nothing of it. Those who locked the door behind us were likely...reacting." Which doesn't really explain the words on the door. Maybe...they meant Argus? "Chaos is a god of this world. But we are familiar with Chaos." Kukuru, Petra, Bowser, Shadow, and Angela express their willingness to help. There's a wheeze of exhausted satisfaction, like he was holding in a dusty breath, uncertain if he would have to wield hostility to get what he wanted. There's no sense that he'd have any trouble doing so - just that he clearly would prefer if his job was easier than harder. "Then I will...assist you with whatever you require. Locating and controlling Chaos should be no trouble." Bowser's odd Bowser-centric outburst gets a look from Cubot, Orbot, Eggman, and Ix, all with the same sort of expression on their (visible) facial features. Finally, Ix says, "I have no daughter." Since...that's all he can really puzzle out from that strange outburst. After a moment, he says, "But what we require...is the Master Emerald." Eggman pauses. Eggman's moustache droops. "Erm..." "..............." "...intact?"