SALLY EX MACHINA

[FTR2017]

Why am I hoping that Sally's new hobby will be to embrace being the local gun nut?

Steal from Eggie's bots and super badniks, improve from Eggie's designs via copious redesigns and testings with associated blow-ups, then use them against Eggie and his forces.

Make Omega your abhorrent admirer!

Perhaps making toys from trash? Gunpla kits? Plenty of things to do to take one's mind away from the hell that is current Sally's life.

 

[Tangent]

E-123 Omega: "I AM THE PINNACLE OF MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL STABILITY!"

Rouge: "He's been doing nothing but shoot motobugs and egg pawns for the past six hours."

Shadow: "So?"

Rouge: "We need to get him to his happy place so that he'll calm down."

E-123 Omega: "I AM IN MY HAPPY PLACE!"

 

[FTR2017]

I would've sworn I had already liked it, good ol' murderbot likes being himself and hates stupid egg-shaped creators who refused to let him simply be.

 

[Tangent]

SALLY EX MACHINA

Yet another amalgamated Mecha Sally SI by Tangent

This chapter uses some dialogue from issue 38 of IDW Sonic
​

"We better continue" Tangle said after a moment, peeking through the now open vent gate. "Just follow my lead... I'm an expert stealth-er."

Before the three slipped through the opening, they paused as they heard the buzz of wings and the trod of heavy steps.

"That's... different," Belle commented as she peeked into a large, round chamber that appeared to be several stories tall, with walkways above and what seemed to be a ring of free-standing gates circling the room offset several feet from the wall.

"Egg Pawns and Buzz Bombers," Sally noted as she observed the badniks moving with purpose. The three Buzz Bombers were basically slowly patrolling the room in formation, acting as roaming security, so nothing new there compared to the versions she was more familiar with. The Egg Pawns were moving more individually, with one acting as a floor supervisor as the rest passed through from one gate to the next, both singly and in squads, appearing and disappearing through shimmering green fields of energy framed by the free-standing gates. Some were literally just passing through, while others were hauling supplies and materials, occasionally being redirected by the floor supervisor.

"Are they trying to build something?" Belle asked, trying to make sense of it all.

"Anything they can build, we can bust," Tangle quietly declared as she slipped through the vent gate with Sally and Belle following closely behind her. "Let's start climbing!"

Sally watched as the lemur extended her tail up to the nearest overhead walkway, the fur on the end fluffing out into a sort of pseudo-hand that grabbed onto the underlying supports.

As the three climbed onto the first overhead walkway, they found themselves coming within earshot of two distinct bot voices that Sally recognized. The voices were coming from a platform further up above, past a couple of more walkways and many more dangling wires, hoses, and cables.

"...Has that pawn squad gotten the hole fixed yet?" asked the voice that Sally identified as belonging to Orbot.

"Looks like they all got lost," Cubot noted.

"Send another one then," Orbot instructed in a resigned tone. "Oh, what a mess. So much for having a nice, quiet job. How did Sonic and his friends even find out about this base?"

Tangle helped Sally and Belle navigate the maze of dangling hoses and cables as carefully and as quietly as they could manage. Sally was staying as much to the softer hoses and tubes as she could to minimize any incidental metal-on-metal noises as the three got closer to the administration platform near the ceiling of the hub chamber. Belle, being made of wood and thus naturally less likely to make unwanted noise, focused more on making sure that she didn't slip and fall as she lacked the innate balance and climbing ability of her teammates.

"At least they are stuck in chamber one," Cubot said in a consolatory tone.

"They got into chamber two," Orbot corrected.

"They can do that?" Cubot asked.

"I'm as surprised as you are!" Orbot retorted, then slumped slightly. "Cubot, you know what we have to do."

"Oh, say it ain't so!" the boxy yellow robot complained even as he held up the communication tablet for Orbot to use.

"I'm sorry, but there's no other way," the spherical red robot sighed as he entered a call code into the tablet that Cubot was holding up.

"Just get it over with," Cubot stated with determined resignation even as Orbot finally hit the call button on the tablet's screen. There was a moment or two during which the call remained unanswered, and the anxiety levels of the two administrative badniks increased. "Maybe he won't pick up?"

"I'm busy, so make it quick!" Dr. Eggman snapped as his face suddenly took up the tablet's entire screen. "What have you two messed up now?"

"Nothing!" Orbot insisted. "Nothing at all! It's just..."

"You're interrupting some very important brainstorming, Orbot..." Dr. Eggman interrupted in a dangerously low tone.

"There might be a slight hitch in operations-" Orbot started to admit, only to be interrupted by Cubot.

"-Sonic and his buddies broke into the test chambers."

Both administrative badniks flinched as they awaited a verbal assault that never came.

"Uh, Boss?" Orbot prompted hesitantly. "You're not yelling at us."

"Do you think he's finally losing his touch?" Cubot asked his partner as the two looked at the tablet's screen worriedly.

"Shut it, Cubot!" Dr. Eggman admonished. "So Sonic's arrived. It's unexpected, but perhaps not entirely unwelcome. As they say, when life gives you lemons... I'll take it from here." And, with that, Dr. Eggman ended the call on his end.

"That was... Dr. Eggman," Belle whispered as she, Sally and Tangle started to carefully lower themselves from where they had been eavesdropping at the edge of the administration platform. Even at the angle that Orbot and Cubot had been holding the communications tablet, she had still recognized her father's face and the familiar sound of his voice for all that he now lacked the carefree and relaxed undertones she had known so well.

"Yup," Tangle whispered back. "And if he's planning something, we really need to find the others."

"I - I didn't expect him to sound so--" Belle started to comment, but in her distracted state she missed grabbing the next cable and slipped off of the hose she was standing on, falling to the walkway below with a clatter of wood against metal!

GASHUNK- GASHUNK-

A squad of three Egg Pawns that had been marching along the walkway paused to examine Belle for a moment as she had landed directly in their path, but then they merely stepped around her and continued on their way.

GASHUNK- GASHUNK- GASHUNK-

Belle sat there for a moment, disturbed by her close call, before Tangle's tail reached down and yoinked her back up to the hoses and cables above the upper walkway with a "Yeek!"

"What was that about!?" Tangle demanded suspiciously as she glared at Belle.

"Calm down, Tangle," Sally admonished after doublechecking that neither Orbot nor Cubot were reacting to the noise from below. As she expected, they had not. With all the moving, construction, and deconstruction going on, the two had most likely just assumed that an Egg Pawn had dropped something. "Belle and I currently register as fellow badniks to the rank-and-file badniks. Tails left our IFF protocols in place when he was checking to make sure we were clear of Eggman's control programs."

"I thought that Tails made you? Or at least Belle," Tangle corrected herself as she recalled the horrific background that Sally had told her not that long ago. "You both have his logo."

"That's just our way of showing that we were cleared by Tails," Sally explained, shaking her head even as the three carefully made their way back down to the main floor beneath the walkways and the platform. "We're both essentially Eggman Originals, for all that Belle was made during the time he forgot he was a monster and what happened to me was done by the Eggman back on Mobius."

"Oh," Tangle relaxed her guard as she listened. "Sorry, Belle, I didn't mean to upset you."

"That's okay," Belle said, accepting the lemur's apology. "I was... already a bit upset anyway. My father is so different when he's being Dr. Eggman. I'm more used to how kind he was as Mr. Tinker."

"Eggman's your Dad, huh?" Tangle asked rhetorically. "I'm going to have to hear how that happened."

"Later," Sally admonished as the three reached the floor. "Right now, we have to locate the others."

 

[Navrin]

I suspect that if Tangle had known about Belle's connection to Eggman she'd have given Belle time to center herself again rather than pushing on immediately.

At least they'll know each other a lot better after this mission is over. (If they all survive, at least, which genre conventions seem like they'd encourage)

 

[FTR2017]

What is Eggie planning, if this weather control station isn't the end of it?

Well, aside from taking a potshot at Sonic and building a rollercoaster, that is.

 

[Tangent]

What is Eggie planning, if this weather control station isn't the end of it?

Well, aside from taking a potshot at Sonic and building a rollercoaster, that is.

Click to shrink...

As I pointed out to my prereader, it's not a weather control station. It's a Star Post.

An extremely oversized Star Post, with the warp gates on the inside...