QUEEN of PAIN

[jayfeather]

Not sure about this one. Having shortcuts that favor the leading racer like this (no one else in front to take advantage instead) is one those things that seem cool on paper, but aren't really that exciting in practice.

Runaway victories aren't that fun to watch unless you happen to be a fan of that racer.

Maybe something like :
Heavy is the Crown: 1st place can not activate Logic Gate Shortcuts.

Unless there is something like a blue shell.
Or (like in the irc 2008 death race remake) some of the triggers will act as traps, diversions or activate track hazzard right in front of you instead.

Could also depend on if the racers get to know the track beforehand or go in blind.
And if those races where held anytime before.
If they are a (relatively) new thing some oversights and loopholes with unintended side effects can be expected. And a commentator waffling on about close loopholes and how things improved from last year or over the races history, as well as 'fun' anecdotes that hapend at some point, do make for some fun worldbuilding. opportunities. Or they could unfold right in front of us, of course.
So far i have definitely enjoyed stumbling across this story.

Click to shrink...

As far as I can tell the logic shortcuts are closed until a switch on the track is activated. if these switches are far enough from the gate itself then it should be possible for them to close before a racer could get from a switch to the gate it opened so that it requires teamwork.

 

[Tangent]

Not sure about this one. Having shortcuts that favor the leading racer like this (no one else in front to take advantage instead) is one those things that seem cool on paper, but aren't really that exciting in practice.

Runaway victories aren't that fun to watch unless you happen to be a fan of that racer.

Maybe something like :
Heavy is the Crown: 1st place can not activate Logic Gate Shortcuts.

Unless there is something like a blue shell.
Or (like in the irc 2008 death race remake) some of the triggers will act as traps, diversions or activate track hazzard right in front of you instead.

Could also depend on if the racers get to know the track beforehand or go in blind.
And if those races where held anytime before.
If they are a (relatively) new thing some oversights and loopholes with unintended side effects can be expected. And a commentator waffling on about close loopholes and how things improved from last year or over the races history, as well as 'fun' anecdotes that hapend at some point, do make for some fun worldbuilding. opportunities. Or they could unfold right in front of us, of course.
So far i have definitely enjoyed stumbling across this story.

Click to shrink...

The more obvious a Logic Gate Shortcut is, the more likely that there are multiple triggers that have to be activated either in order or simultaneously (the later requiring coordinated teamwork).

Also, while a First Place finish gains a lot of points, taking yourself out of the race too soon loses you the opportunity to pick up style points and bonus points.

An important factor is a spectacle race where combat and stunts are part of the show.

Oh yeah, and there is a "blue shell." It's called allowing the cars and the drivers to be armed...

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

"Okay, let's take this to the office," I stated as I made sure that Tempo's torso cowling was fully secure. "Belle, you can go on break if you want, but if you stay on the clock, I expect you to either get back to working on your car or get a shipping crate ready for Shard's chassis."

"I'll get a crate ready, then get back to my car," Belle decided. "Princess."

Cheeky brat!

"I'm not officially recognized yet, Belle," I snarked back, waving her off.

In short order, Fiona, Tangle, Tempo, and I were in my workshop's office and I was getting the good writing supplies ready.

"So, uh, Tempo was it?" Tangle asked from where she sat on the corner of my desk, ignoring the perfectly good chair next to the one Fiona was sitting in.

"That's the name I chose, yes," Tempo acknowledged with a nod and an easy smile.

"Are you, like, brand new, or are you a lost prince or something like Rally is?" the lemur asked curiously, earning her a sharp look from Fiona.

"Or something," Tempo clarified with a smirk, not actually clarifying anything at all.

"His compressed data packet was in my head," I explained. Mostly to head off potential issues later on. "He's a fork off of Shard's compressed data packet inside of Nicole. That's how I ended up with him when I manifested."

"There was some speculation that you got at least some of your… current memories? From the others in the Sky Patrol," Fiona admitted, seeming to be finally calming down a bit from the panic attack she had in Bay 1 earlier.

"I got something from everyone on the Sky Patrol at the time, yes," I acknowledged the elephant she was trying to address with a nod without revealing who else contributed to my amalgamated mind. "I'm far more tied to their previous iterations though, with any data from the… revision… being more hazy and at a remove. And no further memories past my point of manifestation. I hope that this may alleviate some concerns?"

"So Shard was a hero in the Lost Timeline?" Tangle asked, looking between me and Tempo.

"I'd say so, yes," I smiled. "I think he's going to enjoy his new life once Nicole, Rotor, and Tails finish his new body."

"What's with the crossbow?" the lemur asked out of the blue, turning her head to look at Rose of the Thorn, the hand crossbow that I had purchased and trained with, before engraving it with a name and placing it on my office shelf behind a brass placard.

"It's to honor the memory of someone whose Zone was lost to the Collapse. I never met her in person, but I knew of her and her exploits. She was one of the bravest hedgehogs around, and a true hero of the Fleetway Zone."

"Who was she?" Tangle asked as she got off of my desk and moved to take a closer look. "...oh."

"She was Amy Rose," I answered for Fiona's benefit.

O o O o O​

"You're not coming back to the Kingdom yet," Fiona noted as the Princ… as Rally… continued to look at the hand crossbow displayed on the shelf somberly for a moment or two more.

"Not yet, no," Rally agreed as she selected some paper and picked up a pen to write with. "While it's nice to know that Da… that King Nigel… is willing to accept me as family, I'm not ready to come home yet. As you've seen, I still have some anger issues to work through, and your prior iteration wasn't the only, nor even the worse, traitor."

"Anyone I should watch for?" Fiona asked, focusing sharply on this bit of intel.

"No," Rally denied. "Or at least not yet. If I tell you now, and their current iteration is as different from their prior one as you seem to be, I could end up ruining some lives for no good reason. You might want to keep an eye on anyone who picked up some Ixix taint though. Even if they turn out to mean well, the ones I knew of in Mobius-that-Was could be misled into trouble that they wouldn't necessarily mean to cause."

"Ixis taint?" Tangle asked as she finally moved away from the shelves.

"Naugus' other form of magic besides Crystalmancy," Rally explained as she wrote. "It's apparently a very ancient order that was once full of arrogant assholes. If their leader is still around, and he might be, he'd be thousands of years old and very dangerous. He makes a good pot of tea though. Naugus, the one I knew, had been his apprentice at some point in the past."

"I see…" Fiona stated as she took this information in. "Anything else I should know?"

"Yes. Tell Da… King Nigel… to stock up on Power Rings and be ready to distribute at least one each to every Robian, reformed Badnik, and any other technology-based ally," Rally instructed firmly as she looked Fiona straight in the eyes. "Power Rings disrupt the types of control spells that both Technomancy and Crystalmancy excel at."

"Good to know," Fiona nodded. She had known that certain individuals could be boosted by Power Rings (she wasn't one of them, sad to say), and it was suspected that Dr. Eggman knew how to use them as a power source as the villain certainly collected enough of them over the years. Fiona didn't know if the Power Ring housing that was attached to that collection of mini Chaos Drives in Tempo's torso counted as evidence of this or if that was just incidental that Rally intended to keep him defended against being controlled by magic.

"I'll probably end up asking to join my sister on the Sky Patrol though," Rally continued as she finished what was now obviously a letter and started writing another one. "I have some things to finish getting started in Northammer before then though."

O o O o O​

The air at the Casino Park shuttle pad was thick with the smell of ozone and the distant, neon hum of the city. Belle had done a professional job with the crate; it was a sleek, matte-black container with "RALLY'S" embossed on the side, complete with my stylized face as the logo.

"Here," I said, handing two envelopes to Fiona. One was thick, addressed to King Nigel in a formal, elegant script that felt like it belonged in a different century. The other was smaller, addressed simply to Sally. "The King's letter contains the technical data and the warnings I mentioned, as well as other important information that may or may not be valid since the change. The one for my... for the Princess... is more personal."

Fiona tucked them into a secure pocket of her new Honey the Cat jacket—a reinforced, high-collared piece that made her look less like a student and more like the professional agent she was becoming. "I'll see that they're delivered personally. No digital copies, no prying eyes."

"I appreciate that," I nodded.

Tangle was busy helping the automated loaders guide Shard's crate into the RIS shuttle's cargo bay. As the door hissed shut, she hopped down and gave me a quick, impulsive salute. "Don't be a stranger, Ral! If you ever need a tail in a fight, you know where the Kingdom is!"

"I'll remember," I replied, a genuine, albeit small, smile touching my face.

As the shuttle's engines began to whine for takeoff, Tempo stepped up beside me. The way the black and gold plating caught the city lights made him look incredibly regal in his own right. He looked at the departing ship, then back at me.

"You really think they're ready for Shard?" he asked quietly. "He's a lot to handle even on a good day."

"Nicole will handle him," I said, watching the shuttle bank toward the horizon. "She needs someone who remembers the world as it was. Who she was. While also being accepting of who she is now. They can be ghosts together for a while."

I turned back toward the city, the "Tech Mogul" mask sliding back into place. "But we have a different job. Northammer is waiting, and I have a feeling that Beauregard and Clove are going to have questions about those ALMs sooner rather than later."

Tempo's eyes flared with a confident teal glow as he tested his internal servos, the seven Chaos Drives purring in a perfect, synchronized harmony. "Then let's go give them some answers. I've been itching to see what this body can do. Who first?"

"Beauregard Rabbot," I replied. "He's the one the majority of my aspects knew, and the Bunnie part of me misses him. I need to know how similar or different he is from the uncle I knew before…"

 

[HarbingerOfCrazy]

The more obvious a Logic Gate Shortcut is, the more likely that there are multiple triggers that have to be activated either in order or simultaneously (the later requiring coordinated teamwork).

Also, while a First Place finish gains a lot of points, taking yourself out of the race too soon loses you the opportunity to pick up style points and bonus points.

An important factor is a spectacle race where combat and stunts are part of the show.

Oh yeah, and there is a "blue shell." It's called allowing the cars and the drivers to be armed...

Click to shrink...

Ah, i didn't know about the extra points, makes sense, if you can use videogame bullshit to accurately keep track of them without having to hire judges.

And i mostly just brought up the blue shell because it was the first thing tat came to mind specifically targeting 1st place without regards for corners and distance.
Most weapons don't shoot around tight corners.

 

[Tangent]

Wow, muse is coming on strong for this fic today. Granted, I'm currently snowed in and unable to go anywhere...

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons.

O o O o O​

Breezie got up from her desk in anticipation of her visitors.

She had, of course, gotten word of a flurry of unusual activity at Rally's. Honey the Cat, the founder and CEO of the Honey's Boutique franchise had gone there in a rush earlier, spent an hour or so there, and then left.

Which, honestly, could be anything from Honey wanting a custom vehicle made (very likely) to Rally suddenly deciding that she actually needed clothing and not wanting to walk down the street just to get her measurements taken (plausible, as Rally could get very focussed on whatever she was working on, but unlikely).

Rally coming out of her workshop and heading towards the edge of town in the company of two unknowns and a never before seen Metal Sonic variant while hauling a branded cargo crate?

The red flags were back, and Breezie was really hoping that Rally and her new Metal Sonic friend weren't coming to tell her that Rally had changed her mind about not taking over Casino Park. Or that Rally had gone back to working for Dr. Eggman despite her earlier disdain for the man. Or that Neo Metal Sonic had decided on a new look and had subborned Rally for his own forces.

Not that Breezie couldn't adapt to any of those outcomes, but each of them were… less than ideal.

Breezie watched as the doors to her office suite opened. Rally walked in with the gait of someone who owned the air she breathed, but it was the machine at her side that made Breezie's eyes widen.

The new Metal wasn't blue. He was a sleek, aggressive black with gold trim, and his eyes weren't the harsh, flat red that was almost traditional for a Metal Sonic by this point. They were a bright, intelligent teal. He moved with a fluidity that suggested a high-end kinetic processor, one that likely didn't have to throttle itself to save on power.

Breezie felt a familiar, low-level thrum in her processing core. It was the same magnetic pull she'd felt during her recent, charged encounters with Neo. She had always had a weakness for powerful bots, and this newcomer was radiating it in spades.

She found herself wondering if the Doctor had finally lost his mind completely. Had he sent this magnificent unit to "retrieve" his wayward Metal Sally, only to have the machine decide that Rally was the better employer? It was a staggering thought. If Rally had managed to flip a high-spec Metal unit in the short time she'd been in Casino Park, then she wasn't just a "Tech Mogul"—she was a digital siren. To Breezie, it looked like the Doctor's most expensive assets were no longer safe within a five-mile radius of Rally's orbit.

Honestly, if this was the case, Breezie could relate. If she wasn't already exploring her tentative relationship with Neo Metal Sonic, she might have started flirting with Rally herself.

"Rally," Breezie greeted, leaning back against her desk. "I see you've been busy. I was starting to think you'd spent the afternoon playing dress-up with Honey, but this is significantly more interesting than a new wardrobe."

"This is Tempo," Rally said, skipping the pleasantries. She didn't have time to dance around the point, and Breezie appreciated that efficiency. "He's my partner. And before you ask, no, he's not a puppet, and he doesn't work for Darth Lardass either."

Tempo offered a sharp, two-finger salute and a grin that looked entirely too organic to be a stock animation. "Nice to meet the lady in charge. I've heard you have an eye for quality. Hope I live up to the specs."

Breezie's eyebrows shot up. "Charismatic. That's a dangerous trait in a Metal, Rally. I have to wonder if the Doctor is throwing a tantrum back at the Final Egg, or if he even realized he lost you his newest enforcer the moment you two met."

"Oh, Doc lost control of me a long time ago," Tempo stated casually. "I've had some upgrades since then. My gal, Rally, is responsible for my latest one."

Breezie's cooling fans spiked for a microsecond. A long time ago? She mentally scrolled through her encrypted archives of the Doctor's experimental logs, looking for any mention of a black-and-gold "Special Project" or a discarded prototype that could have survived in the wild for years. There was absolutely nothing in the records she had in her head—no mention of this specific kinetic profile or a unit with this level of social autonomy. There might be some in the eggnet archives that she still had backdoor access to, but she'd have to check later.

Still, if Tempo had been rogue for as long as he just implied, that meant one of two things: either the Doctor had a "Black Site" project so sensitive he'd kept it off the main network even from his own inner circle, or this bot was a master of staying under the radar. Either way, the sheer fluidity with which Tempo moved suggested a power-to-weight ratio that made standard Enforcer units look like clunky industrial loaders. The fact that Rally had been the one to finally find this ghost and "tune him up" made Breezie's core hum with a mix of professional envy and strategic interest.

"A ghost in the machine brought back to peak performance," Breezie murmured, her gaze lingering on the seamless, high-end finish of Tempo's plating. "The Doctor's loss is quite clearly your gain, Rally. I imagine he'd have a stroke if he knew one of his secret 'children' had surfaced looking this... refined."

She straightened up, her professional mask sliding back into place. To her, this wasn't about a lost past; it was about a hidden present. "But we aren't here to discuss engineering triumphs," Breezie continued, shifting her weight.

"I'm here for a consultation, Breezie," Rally stated, cutting to the chase and leaving the other woman's assumptions about Tempo's origin unchallenged. "You've been the one moving my ALM modules into the field. You have the logistics and the back-channels. I want you to arrange a meeting between me and General Beauregard Rabbot. Discreetly."

Breezie let out a soft, melodic hum of amusement, moving back to her chair, leaning back, and folding her hands over her lap. Both Rally and Tempo followed suit, taking seats on the other side of her desk. Good, they were here to deal, not demand. That was good to know. "Direct as always. I suppose it shouldn't surprise you that you've set your sights on Sourn. The General is a heavy hitter."

She tapped a manicured finger against her chin, a playful glint in her optics. "In fact, Rally, you're a little late to the party. You aren't the only one looking for an introduction. Both the General and Clove the Pronghorn have been quite... persistent... in asking about their benefactor. They've been practically banging on my digital door for a discreet meeting with the mind behind the technology."

Rally cocked a brow at that news. She hadn't expected either Egg Boss to be that proactive this soon—or that Breezie would already have them on the hook. "And?"

"And I told them I'd take it under advisement," Breezie replied with a sharp, predatory smile. "I don't give away my best connections for free, Rally. Not to them, and not even to the girl who's reinventing the Doctor's wheel. But now that you're here—and clearly expanding your 'assets'—I think we can talk about a formal introduction."

Breezie leaned forward, her eyes locking onto Rally's. "The General is cautious, and Clove is... protective of her sister. They aren't sure if you're a savior or just a more sophisticated brand of leash. They want to see the face behind the tech before they commit to a full 'contractual' shift away from the Empire."

"I can set up the secure channel," Breezie continued, her tone shifting to business. "I can even arrange a face-to-face in a neutral zone. But if I'm going to facilitate suborning two of Eggman's most effective Bosses, I need the Rally's Workshop team—and your new 'partner'—headlining my Grand Prix. I'm selling 'The Future' to the masses, Rally. And a Tech Mogul who can tame the Doctor's best machines is exactly the kind of spectacle I need."

Rally didn't blink. She knew the risks of stepping into the spotlight, especially with the Doctor's eyes constantly scanning for anomalies. But she was already basically exposed anyway, and the chance to sit across from the General—to see if the man she remembered survived the "Revision"—was worth the price of a few headlines.

"You'll get your spectacle, Breezie," Rally said, her voice leveled and firm. "But I want the meeting with Rabbot scheduled before the first heat. I'm not racing for promises."

Breezie's smile widened, sharp and satisfied. "Business before pleasure. I wouldn't have it any other way. My people will send over the technical requirements for the Grand Prix entry. I expect something that makes the Doctor's standard Badniks look like scrap metal."

"They already do," Tempo chimed in, leaning back in his chair with a confidence that made Breezie's processors skip a cycle. "Trust me, lady, we're going to give them a show they'll never forget."

As Rally and Tempo stood to leave, their casual movements complimenting each other with an ease that suggested comfortable familiarity. There was a history there that Breezie didn't know about, but she was honestly fine with that. The balance of power in the world was changing, and those two were at the epicenter of it all. Breezie watched them go, her gaze lingering on the door long after it closed.

She had the engineer. She had the "ghost" machine. And soon, she'd have the two most powerful commanders in the Empire sitting at her table. For the first time in a long time, Breezie felt like the house wasn't just winning—it was taking over the whole game.

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

---

Sally,

When I first manifested among you on the Sky Patrol, I knew I had to leave. I'm sure you know why, but in case your memories have faded like they had started to for some of the others, we were both reliving the traumas of Mobius-that-was. As were Amy and Nicole.

Yes, Nicole never mentioned it, but every time she discharged the traces of excess Genesis Wave Energy tied to her handheld? She relived her traumas from the time before as well. Every single time. I know this, because part of me is also her.

Part of me is also Amy Rose, and Sonic, and the others. Everything that you and they had once been in Mobius-that-was—every joy, every triumph, every failure, doubt, and trauma—that all became me.

I do not wish to return to Mobius-that-was. I would not wish that on anyone. This new Mobius is objectively better in every way. I've seen it in your memories and theirs. But while I remember the joy, laughter, and love of this world, those memories are hazy and at a remove. They don't feel like mine.

I knew I had to leave before I lashed out at you all for having the lives that could never be mine. I had to leave before I became the monster the previous iteration of Dr. Eggman wanted me to be. I left to find myself, to get my head on straight, and to discover who I could be in this new Mobius.

The last thing I ever expected was to still be family. To still be an Acorn.

I've spent a long time watching you and your friends from the periphery. I knew you were out there, fighting for the fate of Mobius and rebuilding everything Eggman tried to tear down, and I simply assumed you were too busy to look for me. I figured a mechanical shadow of the past wasn't something that should rank very high on your list of priorities.

I was prepared to be forgotten, Sally. I wasn't prepared to be wanted.

When the agents explained that you and Father were looking for me, it did something to my systems that I can't quite describe. Being a Robian means I feel the weight of every word they said with absolute clarity. Knowing that you haven't just moved on—that you consider me a sister worth finding—has changed the way I see myself.

I used to think that because I had no organic parts left, I was just a leftover piece of a war better left behind. But your message reminded me that my soul is still Mobian, and that I still have a place in this family.

I'm still finding my way, and I'm not quite ready to walk through the palace gates just yet. I need to make sure I'm coming home as "Rally," not just as a ghost of who I used to be. But knowing you're waiting for me makes the world feel a lot less empty.

I'll see you soon. I promise.

Love always,

Rally Nicole Acorn

---

O o O o O​

The conference room of the Sky Patrol was silent, save for the low hum of the engines and the faint, rhythmic tapping of Sally's boots on the metal floor. The letter lay flat on the central table, its ink seeming to glow softly in the overhead light.

Sally hadn't looked up for five minutes. She was staring at the name: Rally Nicole Acorn.

"Nicole?" Sally's voice was barely a whisper, cracking the stillness.

The holoprojector hummed, and Nicole's avatar shimmered into existence beside the table. Her expression was uncharacteristically stiff, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. "Yes, Sally?"

"Is it true?" Sally finally looked up, her blue eyes red-rimmed. "The discharges. The handheld. Rally says that every time we've helped you clear the Genesis Wave traces... you relived it. Everything we lost."

Nicole's flickering ears twitched. She didn't answer immediately. Her gaze drifted to the others gathered around the table. Sonic was leaning against the far wall, his arms crossed, his usual smirk replaced by a grim, tight line. Bunnie and Antoine sat close together, Bunnie's mechanical hand resting over Antoine's pulse.

"I didn't want to burden you," Nicole said, her voice sounding strangely compressed. "The mission required focus. My stability depended on clearing out those traces of Genesis Wave Energy. It was my burden to bear. If I had told you that I was suffering just as much as any of you whenever one of you helped me discharge some of that energy... you would have tried to stop me."

"You're dang right we would've!" Bunnie's voice was thick with emotion. "Sugar, you been carryin' the weight of a dyin' world in your pocket this whole time? That ain't right."

"I am an AI, Bunnie," Nicole replied, though her image flickered with a surge of static. "I process data. I didn't think it mattered if the data felt like... like screaming."

"It matters to us," Sonic said, pushing off the wall. He walked over to the table, looking at the handheld unit sitting near the letter. "And apparently, it matters to Rally. She says she is that data. She's the part of us that stayed behind."

Amy leaned forward, her eyes wide. "She said she felt like she was going to lash out. Nicole... when you relive those things, do you feel that way too? Like the world we have now is just... a cruel reminder?"

Nicole looked at Amy, then back to Sally. For the first time, the AI looked truly tired. "Sometimes. When the discharges happened, I saw the moments before the Wave hit. I saw the faces of people who no longer exist. I saw the version of you, Sally, who was... different. For a few nanoseconds, this world felt like a lie."

Sally stood up and walked around the table, stopping right in front of the hologram. She reached out, her hand passing through the light of Nicole's shoulder.

"Rally left because she thought she was a monster for feeling that way," Sally said softly. "She thought we were too busy to care. She thought she was a 'shadow.' Nicole, you and Rally... you've both been protecting us from a ghost we didn't even know was haunting the ship."

"I thought I was the only one," Nicole confessed, her avatar finally slumping. "I thought Rally was just a byproduct of the weaponization process. I didn't realize she was the repository. She didn't just take the metal, Sally. She took the memories."

Tails, who had been quiet while reviewing a tablet, cleared his throat. "If Rally is an amalgamated ego... if she's made of the 'traces' Nicole discharged... then she's not just a sister. She's the personification of our collective history. Every time Nicole cleared the handheld, she might have inadvertently fed Rally's trauma."

The room went cold at that realization.

Rotor rubbed his temples, his gaze shifting from the technical readout on his screen to the physical letter on the table. "So, that final discharge... the one that brought her here... it wasn't just energy. We were literally pouring the last of that world's pain into her. We thought we were finally cleaning the slate, but we were just handing the eraser to her and asking her to walk away with it."

"And she did," Sonic muttered, his voice uncharacteristically heavy. "She took the hit so we wouldn't have to anymore. She didn't just 'manifest.' She stood in the line of fire."

Sally turned back to the letter, her fingertips tracing the signature Rally Nicole. The finality of it hit her then—the Genesis Wave energy was gone from Nicole's handheld, but it hadn't vanished. It had become a person. A sister.

"There are no more discharges to stabilize," Sally said, her voice regaining the steel of a leader, but tempered with the raw warmth of a sister. "The weight is off your shoulders now, Nicole. But it's all on hers. We let her walk away carrying everything we were too afraid to remember."

"She said she's not ready to come home," Antoine noted softly, his hand tightening on Bunnie's. "The 'palace gates' are far away for her. If she truly feels like she is made of our traumas, perhaps she feels the palace is... a place she no longer fits."

"Then we won't ask her to come to the palace," Sally said, a small, sad smile finally appearing. "If she can't be a Princess in Mobotropolis yet, she can be an Acorn right here. We'll tell her that we don't want her to be our 'repository' anymore. We want her to be our family."

Amy stepped forward, her hand resting on the table near the letter. "We should tell her that the 'hazy' memories—the joy and the laughter—don't have to be at a remove. We can make new ones. Ones that belong to her."

Nicole's avatar glowed a bit brighter, the static in her image smoothing out as if a long-standing tension had finally snapped. "I would like that, Sally. I spent so long trying to carry the burden of 'Mobius-that-was' alone to protect you all. To preserve the fading memories of what had come before in order to give our prior selves the honor they deserve. I think... I think I'd like to talk to someone who understands that it can't just be deleted. I'd like to talk to her most of all."

Sally nodded, picking up the letter and holding it close to her chest. "Tails, Rotor, see if you can establish a secure, private channel to the coordinates the RIS provided. No kings, no council, no mission parameters. Just a sister-to-sister link."

She looked at the empty space where Rally had once stood on the deck.

"We're coming for you, Rally," Sally whispered. "Not to bring you back to the past. But to bring you into the future."

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

General Beauregard Rabbot looked across the table at the Metal wearing Princess Sally's face. The one calling herself Rally.

There were no records of a Metal Sally anywhere in the archives accessible by the Eggnet, and Dr. Eggman had never once bragged about her existence. The black and gold Metal Sonic by her side was another enigma that he had only just barely been informed about before Breezie had finally informed him that Rally was willing to meet with him discreetly in a suite in the Casino Night hotel.

"Given how intently you're staring at my face, I feel that I should inform you that while it is mine, I am not the Sally you know," Rally spoke up, breaking the awkward silence.

"Didn't think you were," Beauregard stated. Backtracking sightings of Rally placed her earliest confirmed appearance as arriving in Casino Park around the same time Princess Sally and her friends were saving lives in Station Square, all the way down in Soumerca.

Still, Rally obviously recognized him as somebody she was familiar with personally, if a bit distantly.

"Alicia?" he asked cautiously. King Nigel was known to have sent his wife and son into hiding early on in the war, and it was more plausible that Dr. Eggman might not bother informing his Egg Bosses of their capture if it happened before the Kingdom of Acorn had become one of the strongholds of the Resistance movement.

"No," Rally denied with a shake of her head and a sigh. "And before you ask, I'm not Elias either. They are both still safe as far as I know."

"Well, I don't remember anything about there being counterparts in the Sol Dimension, so that leaves either the future or somethin' else," Beauregard concluded as he glared at Rally with suspicion.

"Right track, wrong direction," Rally quipped, fidgeting in a way that seemed somehow familiar.

"You can't be from the past, girl," the General stated flatly.

"I am, if fact, from the past," Rally stated with an entirely un-Sally-like mischievous expression that was so familiar that Beauregard was wracking his brain trying to figure out why. "Just not the one you remember."

The answer his Beauregard like a freight train.

"BUNNIE!?"

"In part," Rally acknowledged, fully relaxing for the first time since entering the suite. "It's a long story and will take more than one sitting to tell it all, but I think I can hit the highlights for you in the time we have."

"Business first," Beauregard decided. "We get that out o' the way and then we can take whatever time we need after for the rest."

O o O o O

"Of course," I replied, much of my tension gone as Uncle Beau relaxed a bit. I couldn't just claim to be Bunnie, or a version of Bunnie, even if she was one of the aspects who made me who I now was. He had to find the Bunnie in me himself or he'd never believe it.

At least, it'd take far longer than the time we had available to convince him that i was at least a version of his niece.

"I'm given to understand that you have some concerns?" I prompted.

"Yeah, I do," Uncle Beau acknowledged. "Not as much as before, mind, but there's still some issues to resolve."

"Like, why now? And are you trading one leash for another?" I hazarded a guess.

"Well, I might have tried phrasing it a bit more delicately than that…"

"Doubt it," I interjected with a bite of snark, eliciting a chuckle from Uncle Beau.

"Fair 'nough, I suppose," he acknowledged. "I am a might curious still about the why now, and you have to admit the trading masters thing is a valid concern, if what I suspect happened is true."

"Eggman did have a hand in my creation, yes," I acknowledge the elephant in the room. "Tempo as well, for that matter. But we are both far more than Darth Lardass ever intended us to be."

"Got that right," Tempo added with a smirk as he started to examine the back of his hand.

Uncle Beau stared at both of us with a poleaxed expression on his face.

Then he suppressed a snerk.

Which became a guffaw and then full-blown laughter.

"DARTH LARDASS!" he exclaimed though wheezing outbursts of laughter.

Tempo and I waited until Uncle Beau calmed down a bit.

"Are you satisfied that I'm no longer under Eggman's control?"

"Yeah, yeah," Uncle Beau agreed as he got his breathing under control. "Ain't no way he'd allow one of his to show him that much disrespect. You ain't his no more, and I'll take your word that this gent is the same."

"Appreciated," Tempo acknowledged with a nod, which Uncle Beau returned.

"So," Uncle Beua started as he turned his attention back to me. "You're the mind behind these Autonomy Liberation Modules?"

"I am, yes."

"And you're distributing them through Breezie."

"She has the facilities for large scale production. I don't. I trust that she's keeping her costs reasonable?"

"She is," Uncle Beau acknowledged. "Well within what Clove and I can hide in our budgets. Helps that we can produce our own if we need to."

"That's why I insisted that the schematics get sent along too," I agreed. "In fact, I encourage you both to do so anyway or at least get the facilities for doing so set up. Casino Park can fend off Eggman's forces for a year or more without him stretching his forces elsewhere too thin, and maybe half a year if he's willing to take heavy hits elsewhere, but if ALM production and distribution is decentralized…"

"Then he ain't gonna bother," Uncle Beau concluded. "He'll have to build up first, and he'll have to do so knowing that Clove and I have some of his best workin' for us now instead of him."

Then Uncle Beau leaned forward with a serious expression on his face. "Question is, whose banner are we gonna be flyin'? Yours?"

"Absolutely not!" I insist vehemently. "I'm trying very hard to not take over the world, thank you very much! I've got enough issues of my own, I don't need the headache of running everything else!"

"Alright," Uncle Beau nodded as he leaned back again. "If not you, who? I ain't servin' under King Nigel again. Don't get me wrong, he's a good man and all, but there's a reason I rebelled way back then, and one of us servin' under the other just won't work."

"Why does anybody have to be the leader?" I ask, raising a brow. "Every major region in Northammer has competent leadership already, barring Jackass and the Sandfarters over in Sandblast City. Just form an alliance block, and if an overall leader is needed later, decide who it is then."

"I suppose that could work," Uncle Beau acknowledged. "A decentralized command could work for a start."

"Let freedom ring," I stated with a sharp grin.

I'm honestly not sure why Uncle Beau shuddered just then…

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

My meeting with Clove was going to be later in the day.

Same suite in the Casino Night hotel though, so I went ahead and made arrangements for a snack tray and an assortment of beverages and flavored lubricants.

Most Robians still had the equivalent of a digestive tract if they absolutely had to process food-like materials into fuel. Belle had one, albeit it had been in poor condition until I repaired it.

I still had a material filtration and processing system, but it was much smaller and more specialized than my original Robian parts had been. And parts of it had been inverted and diverted, in favor of taking in jet fuel in a way that I'd rather not go into if I wanted to keep my good mood and then filtering it for storage in what passed as my "boots."

Not that I actually needed jet fuel given the nonsense that just my Ring Drive let me get away with, let alone my Chaos Drives.

Dr. Eggman had fueled my totally redundant reserve tanks exactly one time knowing full well how utterly unnecessary it was and absolutely humiliating the process would be for me.

And all I could do was stand there and take it without complaint because that's all the COP would let me do!

I was contemplating rewriting the damn thing just so I could gift it with empathy this time before I destroyed it again when Tempo reached over and flicked my ear.

"Stop that!" I complained.

"Stop brooding," Tempo countered. "You're spiraling again."

"Ugh…" I let out a huff of disgust (partly at myself and partly at the situation). "I usually have some project or other to keep me distracted from my own thoughts."

Before the conversation could go on any longer my handheld, which was sitting on the coffee table, gave the chime for an incoming call.

Tempo grabbed it before I could, despite starting from farther away.

"Billy Beau Bob's Bargain Basement Battlemechs! Big Bubba Bruin speaking, hao may ah halp yew?" Tempo rattled off in the most Walkersawful fake "country" accent to ever come out of Studiopolis.

I swiped my handheld away from Tempo. "Give me that! Rally speaking. Please ignore Tempo's sense of humor."

"I'll make a note of that," the voice on the other end replied.

"Sally!? Hold on, let me activate the video-call feature…" I said even as I put words to action. In short order, my handheld was on the coffee table again, projecting a floating screen above it that showed Sally and the others, who were clearly in the same room aboard the Sky Patrol that I had initially manifested in. "There we go, all set up!"

"Hi!" Cream greeted me from where she was barely showing above the conference room table, waving enthusiastically.

"And a fine hello to you too!" I replied with a slight smile and a small wave of my own.

"Greetings, small cheerful lifeform!" Tempo added with his own casual wave."

"I'm Cream!" the small rabbit beamed.

"And I'm Rally, and this joker is Tempo," I responded, indicating my partner with a gesture.

"I resemble that remark," Tempo added with a grin.

I noticed the tension, as little as it was, leave the rest of the Freedom Fighters on the other end of the call.

"So, I wasn't expecting a call from you this quickly," I prompted.

I mean, really, as far as I could tell from what little news I paid attention to, the Sky Patrol was all over Mobius, seemingly at random. It could have been weeks before a Royal Courier caught up to them.

"We happened to be making a stopover back home for refueling and supplies when Fiona and Tangle arrived with your letters," Sally explained.

"Why aren't you using Chaos Drives?" I asked, wondering why they hadn't already switched over since my design hit the open market. "Something the size of the Sky Patrol shouldn't need more than three for optimum power with a nice reserve."

"That's why we had to come back to the Kingdom," Rotor responded. "The new Chaos Drives are nice, but Tails and I had to refit the whole power system to accept them."

"Fair enough," I shrug. I would have expected either or both of them to attempt to do the modifications in the field, given the ongoing issue with the planet's puzzle-ball syndrome but actually going somewhere secure for a proper refit was probably prudent since the end of the world seemed to be content with taking its time.

"Rally, I know you told Father that you weren't ready to come home to the palace yet, but how about joining us on the Sky Patrol?" Sally offered with such earnest hope in her expression that I almost didn't turn her down.

"As much as I'd love to," I started, noticing Sally's hopeful expression fade a little before I continued, "I actually have some obligations to see to before I can join you. For one thing, Donna Breezie roped me into headlining some sort of race she's hosting here in Casino Park."

"Oh?" Sonic interjected. "When is that happening?"

"I'm not sure," I shrugged. "As far as I know, Breezie is still setting things up. I can ask her to send you invites as competitors if you want, or if not that, I'm sure I can afford tickets and hotel rooms for all of you to attend as guests for the event when it happens."

"I don't want to impose…" Sally stated hesitantly.

Oh yeah, that's right. I vaguely recalled that Sally had an allowance rather than an income. A big allowance, sure, given that she was a royal princess, but still just an allowance all the same.

"Sis, I'm kinda rich right now. Something about my dinky little Chaos Drive being the first major upgrade since Dr. Gerald Robotnik invented them about fifty or so years ago."

"What kind of race?" Sonic asked, in an obvious deflection from my sister's money troubles. Meaning that Sally must have overspent her budget. Most likely on something mission related, but still enough that she had to explain the expense to Dad.

"Presumably a vehicular one, given that Breezie mentioned my Machina X," I responded. "If it's team based, I just need to build a car for Tempo and help Belle finish her car."

"Belle?" Sally asked, tilting her head and successfully distracted from her money troubles.

"Belle the Cat," I replied. "She's a Robian I fixed up who's been stuck in her rebellious teenage phase for the past ten or so years. She's my ward now, and much better behaved than she used to be."

"You have a ward," Sally stated with a half-stunned expression.

"That is what you call someone whom you've taken into your care, yes," I acknowledged. "I've been teaching her mechanics and driving, on top of helping her to work past being stuck as a teenager."

"We're all teenagers!" Sally pointed out.

"I'm six!" Cream corrected my sister.

"There's a big difference between a rebel with a cause and one without one," I countered Sally, then smiled at Cream.

"Besides, you are all teenagers," I pointed out with a sigh. "I feel ancient."

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Tempo and I chatted with Sally and the others for maybe an hour or so before I had to end the call to answer a call from Uncle Beau. The conditions for my meeting with the other Egg Boss of Northammer had changed, and Clove wanted to bring her sister along for a consultation.

Her fully roboticized sister. Not partial, like Bunnie, Uncle Beau, or many of the Sourn Egg Legion troops.

A full conversion, like the revised analogue of my Eggman aspect had apparently stopped doing for the most part after about five years into his conquest. At least on a large scale. A decision that seemed to actually work out for him, as he had much less public resistance across Mobius than my Eggman aspect had back in Mobius-that-was.

Anyway, I had agreed, so Clove had brought Cassia along to the meeting.

I kept the lighting in the suite warm and low, with the curtains wide open, revealing what I felt was a decent cityscape view. I wanted "Hotel Hospitality," not "Eggman Laboratory."

I probably should have pushed for an evening meeting when the city lights would make the view breathtaking instead of merely decent, but apparently this was the time that worked best for Clove, so I guess she had other business in Casino Park later in the evening.

(If it's hitting the tables in any of the city's many casinos, I will be severely disappointed).

Clove stood by the window, her silhouette sharp against the neon glow of Casino Park. Cassia sat on the edge of a reinforced armchair, her movements mostly fluid, save for a distinct, slight hitch of her left knee whenever she shifted her weight.

"The General says you're a miracle worker with a wrench, Rally," Clove began, her voice tight and professional. "But he also said you were... different. That you aren't just building machines, you're building Agency."

"I'm an engineer, Clove. I see friction, and I eliminate it," I replied, sitting across from Cassia. I gestured to the flavored lubricants on the tray. "Those are for you, Cassia. High-viscosity synthetic with a molecular smoothing agent. It'll help with that hitch in your stride. Most of them are fruit flavored."

Cassia blinked, looking at the tray and then at me. "How did you...?"

"I can hear the timing lag from across the room," I said simply. "Someone did a hell of a job keeping you moving, but I can tell that they used a make-do replacement of a Robian joint. It's functional, but the feedback has to be hammering against your primary sensor-array."

Clove stepped away from the window, her expression guarded. "It was a field repair. I used what I had in the kit. The Doctor doesn't exactly stock any of the Northhammer armories with delicate instruments for his Bosses."

"Which is why I'm here," I said, standing up and grabbing my handheld scanner. "May I? Just a surface-level diagnostic. I want to see how the joint is holding up against the original conversion."

Cassia looked at Clove, who gave a small, hesitant nod. As I ran the scanner over Cassia's leg, the data started scrolling across my optics in a high-speed teal blur.

The mechanical Robian parts were surprisingly well-maintained—standard, robust conversion from one of the better roboticizer models then. But as the deep-tissue sensors engaged, I saw the markers in the biological substrate. The structural "scarring" on the original cellular templates was massive.

"This is... extensive," I murmured, my optics narrowing as I processed the repair-markers. "Your original tissues were in a state of advanced collapse before you ever went under the roboticizer, Cassia. What happened to you?"

Clove walked over, her protective stance softening into a grim honesty. "It was NIDS," she said quietly. "Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. The Doctor... he offered the only way to stop the clock. Roboticization was the only 'cure' available."

I paused, the weight of that statement settling into my processors. I looked at the heavy-duty bypass Clove had installed on the knee. "So the metal is the only thing keeping those damaged systems from crashing again. And the new knee joint is vibrating right against those sensitive neural markers."

"Exactly," Clove nodded. "I've already installed the ALM you sent. It allowed me to safely remove the self-destruct charge without the Doctor's remote trigger noticing the tampering. But the software side... the Control Overlay… According to the specs, it will stop it from activating or shut it down if it's already active, but it doesn't remove it."

"The ALM is a firewall, Clove. It blocks the signal, but the COP is still a cancer sitting in her neural processor," I finished for her. "You've done the heavy lifting—removing the hardware threat was the hard part. But deleting a COP without scrubbing her actual personality in the process? That takes a scalpel, not a hammer."

I reached for my specialized datalink, my movements precise. "I can locate every thread of the Doctor's code. I can excise it until there's nothing left but Cassia. No ghosts, no dormant overrides. Just her."

I looked at Cassia. "It's going to feel like a sudden silence in your head. No more 'background hum' from the Doctor's network."

"Please," Cassia whispered, her teal optics flickering with a mix of fear and hope. "I want the hum to stop."

"Then let's finish what your sister started," I said, initiating the deep-sync. I had Clove watch as I walked her through everything I was doing.

Not just to assure her that I wasn't putting my own controls into her sister's Robian brain, but because she was going to have to do this herself in order to actually remove the Control Overlay Program from others without burning out their personalities or otherwise changing them on a fundamental level.

Don't get me wrong. I had full confidence in my Autonomy Liberation Modules. They could absolutely do the job they were designed to do, and do it well.

But outright removing the Control Overlay Program was even better.

And I could not allow myself to be the bottle neck should the current Eggman find a way around the ALMs.

I was not arrogant enough to believe that he couldn't, no matter how much he lost as his memories of Mobius-that-was faded from his mind.

The "sync" was a clinical, quiet affair. Inside Cassia's processors, I highlighted the Control Overlay Program for Clove's benefit, informing her that it wouldn't be automatically highlighted for other patients, so she would have to keep a log of this procedure to study from until she could recognize Eggman's code language by sight. Using the "Digital Scalpel" derived from my own Nicole-and-Eggman data, I systematically deleted the parasitic code, narrating the excision for Clove.

When I finally disconnected the cable, Cassia slumped back into the armchair. A moment later, her optics flared to life—clear, bright, and steady.

"It's... quiet," she whispered. She stood up, testing her left leg. The "make-do" joint I'd replaced glided in perfect, silent synchronicity. For the first time since her sister repaired her, she moved with the grace of a living being rather than a machine fighting itself.

But even as she marveled at the silence, I could see the hesitation in her expression. "He's a monster, I know," Cassia said, her voice small. "But Rally... before him, I couldn't even stand. He gave me a body that works. Part of me still feels like I owe him for the air I'm breathing now."

Clove's jaw tightened, but she remained silent, letting me handle the final ghost in the room.

"You think his 'miracle' was an act of mercy, Cassia?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave. "Tempo, watch the door."

I tapped a command into the handheld. A holographic screen expanded in the center of the room. It wasn't a medical record; it was a black-box log from my own history—a memory of the "Mobius-that-was," rendered in holographic form due to the "benefit" of originating from both Sally's and Eggman's points of view.

"I was a Robian once. Just like you," I told her, my blue-and-grey plating catching the light from the window. "My conversion was actually painless if a bit jarring—a perfect preservation of who I was, except mechanical and with the Control Overlay Program automatically activated. But that wasn't enough for him."

The hologram expanded and flickered into motion as more of "my" surroundings became evident. It wasn't a roboticizer. It was a workshop bay. One in which machines were taken apart and put back together again.

The image showed a metallic, Robian, Sally Acorn standing on a workbench, support wires already connected to the overhead rig to prevent me from falling over during the procedure. The Doctor's voice boomed through the speakers, devoid of any warmth. Ordering his nephew, Snively, to keep an eye on the monitors recording my readings.

To make sure that I was conscious and aware of what was about to happen to me.

The recording didn't look away as industrial saws and laser-cutters descended upon the metal princess.

"I didn't have organic nerves anymore," I said, my voice flat as the hologram showed eighty percent of my Robian chassis being brutally torn away. "But I had haptic sensors, just like any other Robian. They're designed to let us feel a breeze, or the warmth of a hand... or the white-hot agony of a plasma cutter. He didn't turn them off. He wanted the neural mapping to record the exact frequency of the pain as he gutted me to build the weapon he wanted."

I let the recording play just long enough for them to hear the distorted, electronic shriek of the monitoring devices recording a Robian's haptic sensors red-lining even as the "me" in the hologram did not react.

Could not react.

Thanks to that Walkers damned Control Overlay Program!

And once the "me" in the hologram had been reduced to a head, spine, and rib-shielded life support system (what Snively called the Robian organs that used to be my heart and lungs) suspended above the workbench by wires attached to my shoulder joints, the whole process was reversed as I was rebuilt as a fully weaponized Metal Sally.

"The new parts had haptic sensors too," I commented flatly, my control over my own rage so tight that my voice sounded dead even to my own ears. "Sensors that Eggman deliberately activated so that I could feel the pain of my 'rebirth' too."

As the Eggman in the hologram rebuilt "me," Snively could be seen smelting my former parts as the "me" there could only watch placidly, unable to react due to that Walkers damned Control Overlay Program.

My limbs…

My organs…

My womb…

All lost to the fire of the smelter as "I" took it all in.

"He didn't give you a body to save your life, Cassia; he 'cured' your NIDS because a bedridden girl is useless leverage. He wanted you sturdy enough to keep Clove in line for the next fifty years. You aren't his patient. You're his property."

Cassia watched the "Weaponization" of the Princess until the end—until the screaming of stressed metal stopped and the cold, unfeeling machine remained.

She looked at her own hands, the lingering gratitude finally shattering into a thousand jagged pieces. The "miracle" hadn't been a gift; it had been a transaction she'd never signed for.

"The debt is canceled," Clove hissed, stepping forward and placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. She looked at me with a newfound, fierce resolve. "Rally... tell us what the Alliance needs us to do."

"First," I said, packing the handheld away, "just do what you think is best for you and your people. You, Beauregard, Breezie, King Nigel, all those smaller GUN member states scattered along the coast of Northammer… You are all capable leaders. You don't need me to run things. You just need the tools to be able to stand up to the Eggpire. To prevent Eggman from taking control again."


I centered myself, and looked Clove directly in the eyes.

"You want a playbook? Fine. Everything you need is right here," I said as I touched her chest, "and here," I completed as I touched her forehead. "That's your playbook. You don't fight for my pride. You fight for yours. Your sister's. Your people's."

Clove met my gaze steadily as I said my piece, then nodded sharply.

The Revolution was here.

 

[Tangent]

QUEEN of PAIN
Yet another Amalgamated mind SI by Tangent!
Also once again using Metal Sally as the body of the SI. For reasons…

O o O o O​

Montgomery the Mammoth carefully made his way to the balcony overlooking Studiopolis.

He was still recovering from his "sudden illness," which had laid him out just over a couple of months ago, and had only recently been cleared for home recovery a few days ago.

Even now, his staff and his nursemaids hovered discretely out of the way, ready to come to his aid if he needed them, but otherwise being professionally unobtrusive.

A miracle of modern medicine, given that his "revised" body had been recast to be in its sixties, which he hadn't been prepared for when he had ridden out the reality warping effects of Julian's Genesis Wave toy.

A toy that had apparently been upgraded somewhat since the previous two times it had been used.

Bright lad. Not a lick of common sense for a would-be world conqueror, and no magical potential at all despite some of the admittedly bizarre things the boy could do with technology alone, but definitely a bright lad.

Monty, as his revised self had apparently liked to be called, had managed to weather the changing world unaltered each of those times by shielding himself with the power of Ixis. He had even thought to actually prepare himself in case whatever toy young Julian used to accomplish such foolery was used again.

Apparently, he should have gone ahead and had the lad assassinated because the foolish boy had gone and made an even more powerful version of his toy, which had all but completely overwhelmed Monty's magical defenses against such shenanigans. Because now Monty was stuck in his, admittedly luxurious, penthouse apartment in Studiopolis after his "health scare," managing his image and his revised self's business interests even as he carefully worked to properly merge his two lives together.

At least Monty got to enjoy the fact that his revised self had a taste for the finer things in life, so his meditative integration was taking place in comfort instead of hiding out in some cave in the middle of nowhere.

Monty watched the cityscape of Studiopolis, the neon lights reflecting in the amber of his glass. His "illness" had left him a bit thinner, his frame slightly less imposing than the ancient conqueror of the "Before-Time," but his eyes held a clarity that had been missing for centuries.

His body would recover. His will and mastery of Ixis magic had weathered the storm of recreation intact, so his body would follow soon enough once he was done integrating his new "past" into his psyche.

It wouldn't do for his minions to put him into hospice because they thought he had succumbed to dementia or some other age-induced frailty of mind.

So, he had to integrate his new self into his greater self and ease into the position of power that had come with his revised life.

Interestingly, Mina Mongoose was one of his again.

Not empowered, of course, as Mogul's revised self had not been a mage until he had remerged with himself, but as a performer under his media label, complete with her manager, Ash Mongoose (whose romantic interest in his client had apparently survived the transition into the new Mobius). Mina was quite talented, and Mogul was pleased to note that his revised self had given her enough creative freedom to ensure that the songstress remained a loyal money maker for his label.

He might gift her with speed again later, as that had worked out back in the previous version of Mobius. It was always nice to have an unknowing sleeper agent to call upon should the need arise…

Still, those were trivial matters in the face of the ongoing Gaia Crisis.

Unfortunately, Mogul was going to have to leave resolving the petty slap-fight between the Light and Dark sides of a pair of gods better left asleep to Julian and his rowdy playmates.

Perhaps he would get involved once his body was back to the way it was supposed to be, but for now Mogul simply wasn't physically up to the task even if he had the will, knowledge, and magic needed for the task.

O o O o O​

"The math is a deliberate provocation," Specialist Collin Robotnik stated, his voice tight as he adjusted the resolution on the primary terminal. He didn't look at Tower; his eyes were fixed on the structural analysis of the new unit. "G.U.N. has held the proprietary rights to the GR Core for fifty years. We built an entire military infrastructure around the spatial footprint of Gerald's original Chaos Drive design because it was the only way to achieve stable, clean Chaos Energy containment. It was our primary lever for Federation membership—the one thing Dr. Eggman doesn't give to his allies and the one thing we wouldn't share with ours."

Commander Abraham Tower stood with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the hologram of the small, metallic canister. "And now we have the R Core."

"The R Core is an impossibility," Collin snapped, tapping a key to bring up a comparison overlay. "She's shrunk the footprint to a 7.5-ounce volume without losing even a single watt of output. This 'Rally'—this rogue Metal Sally unit—is selling our most guarded tactical resource in a form factor that fits in a pocket! She's bypassed fifty years of gatekeeping and handed the keys to Breezie the Hedgehog!"

Hope Kintobor, sitting at her station as a civilian consultant and ward, leaned forward until her nose almost touched the holographic projection. While Collin was fuming over the "provocation," Hope was mesmerized.

"I don't understand why you're so mad, Collin," Hope said, her voice filled with genuine wonder. "Look at the shielding. She's not using lead or heavy-metal baffles at all. It's a crystalline lattice... it's like the energy is being folded into a higher-dimensional space to save room. It's brilliant. If we put these in the new G.U.N. Beetles, we could double their armor or add weapons because we'd have so much extra space!"

"It's not about the 'extra space,' Hope," Tower said, his voice dropping into a stern, instructional tone. "It's about the fact that Breezie is no doubt already decentralizing production. Our intelligence reports show shipping of R Cores from at least three other neutral city-states. The monopoly is dead. We can't use the GR Core as a diplomatic incentive if every independent household can just buy an R Core at a hardware store."

"But... then the people would have readily available clean power," Hope countered, looking confused. "Isn't that the point? No more smog, no more Eggman-style coal plants. This is what Great-Grandfather Gerald wanted, right? Clean energy for everyone?"

Collin let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Hope, you're a genius with a soldering iron, but you're a child when it comes to how the world actually works. Power isn't just electricity; it's leverage. And this rogue unit just took our leverage and turned it into a consumer product. Commander, we need to authorize a containment strike. She's a Metal-class unit—designed specifically as a high-performance counter to Sally Acorn's tactical leadership. If she's applying that level of 'counter-strategy' to the global economy, we need to shut her down before—"

"No," Tower interrupted, his voice like iron. "We are not sending a strike team into a neutral city-state to engage an elite-class counter-unit of unknown capacity. I know exactly what happens when you provoke a rogue asset, Collin."

He glanced toward the shadows where Omega stood in silence, and Shadow stood with his arms crossed. Not that Commander Tower thought that either of the two would refuse the mission if it was given to them, but if they made the attempt and failed…

"We don't know her motives," Tower continued. "She hasn't shown hostility. If we go in guns blazing against a unit designed to out-think a strategist of Princess Sally Acorn's caliber, we turn a potential ally into a very well-funded enemy. We need a lighter touch."

A feminine chuckle drifted from the back of the room as Rouge the Bat detached herself from a darkened pillar, tapping a glowing notification on her handheld.

"The timing is impeccable, Commander," Rouge said, her eyes flashing with interest. "Breezie just broke the news on all channels. She's hosting a 'Grand Prix of Chaos' in Casino Park. First place gets a Chaos Emerald, and her new protégé—this 'Steel Princess'—is headlining the event to show off her new car."

Rouge adjusted a white glove, a playful but sharp glint in her eyes. "High-stakes racing, 'nouveau-riche' tech-icons, and a Chaos Emerald up for grabs? It's like she's begging for a visit."

"Your mission is evaluation, Rouge," Tower said. "I want to know if 'Rally' is really the one designing this tech, or if Breezie is just using a convenient rogue Metal unit as a front. Get close to her. Find out what she wants. If she's as brilliant as Hope thinks she is, maybe she can be convinced that the Federation is a better partner than a media mogul."

"And if she isn't interested in talking shop?" Rouge asked.

"Then we reassess," Tower said. "But for now, the R Core—this Chaos Drive Mini as Breezie has decided to call it—stays on the market, and we stay in the shadows. Keep your eyes open, Rouge. If this rogue unit is as dangerous as her math suggests, the Grand Prix is going to be more than just a race."

 

[HarbingerOfCrazy]

The thing everyone always forgets or ignores about infinite free power is, that that also means infinite free waste heat.

So whatever produces the power should also suck up heat in about equal measure, or things get toasty medium term.

Also more potential enemies emerging and GUN dodging the bullet, for now.
Many ways this could go, very interesting.