FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Scanning...no signatures detected.

Scanning...no signatures detected.

Scanning...no signatures detected.

Dronin kept walking through the endless void, sensors analyzing the infinite darkness to no avail. He felt the illusion of solid ground but beyond that there was nothing. Dronin had never known true darkness until this moment. Not the sensory-inhibitive darkness of sleep mode, nor the deepest caverns that he had explored with the raptors came close to this abyss, one so deep that it became a weight upon his back as he struggled to walk forwards with no sense of direction, his gyroscopic functions at a loss to send him moving slightly off-centre from any pure direction. The only thing he was certain of was that he was still in the digital scape, that tender nag in the back of his head telling him he was not in control of his physical self at this time.

No signatures detected.

But beyond this there was nothing, no sensory input that allowed him to gauge distance or space, lost to the whims of his own functions trying to correct his path when there was nothing to correct, feeling like a compass next to a magnet as he walked unconsciously in a semi-circle. Silence. Not even his feet made a sound or vibration of such.

Initiating roller mode.

He had almost never used this mode, largely because it was incompatible with the wild wilderness he now lived in where dirt and sand from uneven slopes created a constant need to correct his motor cortices. But the darkness gave him an opportunity to revive this ability once more as he bowed his legs to a creaking V-shape, a small pair of wheels falling out the back of his feet which revved with a small thundering sound before he raced into the deep abyss. With less control over his direction he found himself taking a straighter path as best he could, the wheels crinkling with the tiniest pitch like a knife scraping across steel with piercing sharpness that cut through the darkness. Minutes stretched to an hour as Dronin kept track silently of the seconds passing.

Signature detected.

Something flickered past his vision as he stopped. A white signal crept through taking shape with vivid jagged lines on the horizon that soon faded. Dronin pushed his wheels forwards again as the sound returned shrieking through the deep. The signal responded again, silent but he understood it as he grinded his wheels harder back and forth causing the screech to undulate. The waveform shuddered harder, thickening to a pale rift that yawned before Dronin until it slanted to a vertical frame.

Anomaly detected. Possible exit from server, investigate.

Not waiting for a chance before it could close Dronin ran straight towards the light with its peerless sheen almost blinding him, light sensors frantically calculating in his eyes to try and diffuse it enough from completely whiting out his vision. He passed through the portal and found himself someplace anew, somewhere far more strange than that of the void.

NO SIGNATURES DETECTED

The words echoed above his head within a vast silver space equally as endless as the abyss, where cubes floated apart from each other as Dronin felt the shallow waters surround his feet in a thin mercurial pool that mirrored him perfectly. The sky was an ageless board of circuitry with rivets and lines that stretched towards infinity in every direction where walls ceased to exist, the metallurgic world within a soundless scape where not even the quicksilver at his feet made a ripple to his hearing. Dronin stood before one of the cubes that softly rotated by itself, shimmering geometry of a futuristic form the size of his body as he examined its texture where millions of lines trickled deep like the veins of a living organism.

"Make your own decision."

The voice of the sturgeon echoed throughout the realm the moment he touched it, the gleam of the cubes catching his eye as they reflected light from some unknown source. Touching another one nearby he heard another voice ring true and a greater flash of a scene from his past.

"I have never seen a machine such as you."

A dark cave in a thunderstorm, a tall pale figure with long rodent tail dressed in crimson red. Memories locked within each shape, he strolled through the circuitscape touching each cube that he passed to hear and see another vision.

"My name is Sawbert."

"DOC, DOC C-CUMMERE HE'S FINISHED REBOOTING!"

"A-are you going to hurt me?"

"Dronin you've done it! You've actually done it!"

"Maurice."

He stopped upon this cube.

"Come home, please."

A voice of a female he recognised though he knew not its origin. This cube was also different from the others, shaped with gnarls of wooden bark and sunset hue giving it a rosewood taint.

Anomaly detected. Memory origin unknown.

He took the cube gently, slipping his hand underneath to lift it above his head as he inspected it carefully. The texture began to show scenes within that he partially understood, as well as the fact that it did not feel like metal but rather like frozen flame in a half-solid form as he spun it deftly, feeling its weightlesness obey him as he tried to comprehend its contents.

"Please, help me, I have nowhere else to go."

"The machines they...they took everything."

"I'll do anything, I'll help you, anything please just don't leave me-"

"I won't."

Dronin's voice came without thinking.

"I wouldn't leave you. We're all in this together, all of us against him."

"Really? All of us, th-there are others too?"

"Of course, did you think you really were alone?"

"You have not seen what...happened beyond the hills, have you?"

"I have heard things and seen the smoke. Come, let's get out of this rain."

"Thank you...what's your name?"

He stopped before he could answer. The cube suddenly shook itself free from his grip, wresting itself before unfolding to swiftly expand across the entire silverscape which became consumed in a radiant amber. Dronin felt the wind beneath his robe fluttering fast as scents carried on the breeze with something familiar yet he could not decipher. Grass seeds, warm wheat and fresh morning dew trickled through his senses, light bathing across his head from the sunset now melting from the circuit-laden sky which still remained between pastel clouds, coloured with dark whisky and caramel shades beneath the blood-orange sun. From the mercury silver he watched wheat stalks grow to an entire field vastly overwhelming his vision, a forest of maize that rose ever great above his head. He knew what this was, and he knew exactly where the old oak tree stood before it even showed itself to existence as he watched the hill creep from the waters grey, rumbling as a giant awakened with a humble grandeur.

"Is this...the dream. Or is it the memory of the dream?"

Dronin walked towards the tree sensing a presence from within its roots. The hill was vast as was the field and the time it should have taken him was cut short by a strangely passive sense of time fading from his feet, as if his mind were blanking with every second step he took between the stalks of vast wheat, grains loosening upon his solar rim to run skittering down the sides like heavy rain before he reached the hill at its base. The ascent took shorter time than the field did despite feeling the same length, his legs creaking with each bend upon the gentle sloping grass before he finally reached its peak.

"You came! Oh thank goodness!"

Standing beside the tree at its roots was a squirrel of deep brilliant auburn the same height as Dronin. It was then he realised she was not large but rather he was small, and the world around him having kept its same shape.

"I'm so glad you're here. I've been trying to reach you."

"You are the one from the dream," noted Dronin.

"Yes. You remember my name?"

"I do not...recall."

"Oh. That's alright." She smiled clasping her paws together. "You'll remember everything eventually. Hopefully."

"I have not forgotten anything. My memories are all within access."

"Then what do you call this?" she swept her hands across the vale. "A dream or a memory of it?"

"A memory," Dronin nodded.

"And why would you remember a dream? Or even have one in the first place?"

"I do not know. It is a problem I have discovered no answer to."

"IS it a problem? If it's not hurting you or affecting your way of life, it cannot be much of a problem."

"It is a minor error, but one that should not be left unchecked."

"I understand. You always wanted to fix everyone's problems, even when nobody looked up to you."

She sat herself down and pointed her bushy tail beside her beckoning him closer. Dronin leapt up onto the root to do so, sitting in a cross-legged lotus position.

"You are the mate of Maurice, correct?"

"You-" she gasped, "so you DO remember!"

"His name yes, but not yours."

"Well that's something at least, you are getting there Maurice!"

"I am not Maurice. I am Dronin."

"I know," she nodded smiling, "but that's still the name I called you."

"We have never met," confessed the badnik looking upwards, "you are not the squirrel I defended from the Pale Bots."

"I am not no. You already knew that."

"So tell me, what I do not understand is, how do you know of me, and why you call me Maurice?"

"Because that is your name," she said blushing awkward with a swish of the tail, "that's like asking why you have to breathe! I mean, were you always called Dronin, you know you weren't."

"I do not recall from whence I obtained that name."

"But you did have a name previous, didn't you?"

"Yes. But it was not Maurice."

"No? Then what do you remember?" She slipped up closer to him with a nuzzle to his cheek. "What's the first thing you remember?"

"Waking within the sturgeon's office," said the mantis turning his head towards her, "being told I had a choice, developing my new routines to acquire independence."

"Really? How did you do that?"

"I was given a choice between three power units, each one equal in its output to the smallest decimal. I chose the solarcampal unit for the sake of easier replacement for my damaged digicampal unit."

"So that's why you wear that hat," she tapped it gently with her paw, "it looks lovely on you, very shiny though it's not very good for scavenging."

"Its purpose is for energy absorption from solar rays."

"Well if you go out in the fields with that a hawk'll carry you off easily!"

"There are no aerial predators large enough to threaten me."

"HAH, Edward said the same thing like a typical nuthead he is!"

"Edward." Something flickered in his eyes upon hearing this name. "Who is...Edward?"

"Our son...surely you didn't forget him?"

"...no. I remember his name." He pressed a hand to his chin in deep thought. "In the dream I hear your voice, you tell me once that Edward had placed an entire acorn in his mouth and it was trapped-"

"For two whole days YES!" she cackled suddenly clapping her hands. "Ohohoho we thought it was terrible at the time when we couldn't pull it out past his teeth and we had to feed him water in the side of his mouth, but we did manage to shave it down to a small enough size for us to pull it out."

"I remember we laughed about this. Even if I do not remember how to laugh."

"Oh don't be so gloomy." She wrapped her tail round his waist. "You always had to be so serious, I feel like if it wasn't for me you would have wound yourself up so tightly you would break."

"Is Edward here?" asked Dronin turning back to her.

"That depends...do you remember him?"

"His name only. I remember you, but not your name. I remember his name, but not him."

"I'm sorry." Her paw slipped across his steel chest. "I know you suffered so much, and even though you were..."

"I was what?"

"N-no...please. I don't want to remember that."

"Understood."

Feeling her body shake with fearful sorrow he wrapped his arm round her back and pulled her closer to him as she laid against his side, feeling her breaths against his cheek, her heart beating slower to almost fall asleep as Dronin stared towards the great fields surrounding them. Something felt warm in his chest, something his sensors could not determine as he silently parsed as best he could with minute sounds ticking away inside his core. He closed his eyes and felt the sudden storm rage against himself, wretched lightning sparked across the far hills with each flash of light showing the false sky of circuits and motherboards still above him. Dronin was no longer by the tree but now staring upon the squirrel in the midst of the wheat field, muddied and harrowed with spots of oil staining her coat.

"P-please...help me, I have nowhere else to go."

"Another memory I do not have."

"The machines they...they took everything."

"Forgive me, but I do not remember-"

"I'll do anything, I'll help you, anything please just don't leave me-"

"I won't."

His hand reached out to her against his will.

"I wouldn't leave you. We're all in this together, all of us against him."

"Really? All of us, th-there are others too?"

"Of course, did you think you really were alone?"

"You have not seen what...happened beyond the hills, have you?"

Fear was something he had never felt before. Danger warnings yes, the sensory awareness of an impending threat but never true fear of something intangible and greater than him. Hearing her words gave him that, terror which in turn made him more anxious for the first awakening of such as his words flowed automatic.

"I have heard things and seen the smoke. Come, let's get out of this rain."

She took his hand and the storm faded from his senses, replaced by a morning dew as clearest dawn came anew in a brighter shade of orange than usual.

"This place is so lovely," said the squirrel beside him.

"I only came here two years ago," said Dronin as they walked through the maize, "everyone helps each other, it's amazing."

"What happened to you?"

"I...I lost my family in a fire."

"Oh...w-was it the machines?"

"No, just a bushfire. Our tree fell over into a ditch, more trees piled onto us, we couldn't get out. I fell out into the dirt, into an old mole tunnel but none of my family followed me."

"I'm so sorry." She nuzzled him with her tail round his back. "But the Oakers helped you right?"

"Yes so at least I can try...well, just be a part of something, we've all taken an oath to help each other on this island as best we could."

"I wish I found you sooner. I never heard of you until that night."

"We can't go very far," said Dronin stroking her head, "but we won't turn you away."

"Thank you...Maurice."

His eyes closed as he felt a cold warmth, deep beneath the earth within a large cavern where the ceiling of circuits had become a thick cloister of earth as roots spread across every wall. Rodents all around him where their musty scents clashed into one heady mist as they laughed and bantered, shapes of various colours faded like ghosts that passed through his body. Some of them were smaller running frantically round his feet, cackling squeals of delight as a mixture of bugs and seeds were being served on small tables picked apart by the crowd unseen.

"Maurice!" He saw her across the room as Dronin moved swiftly between shapes. "Everything alright?"

"Sorry," he muttered shyly, "there was a buzzard hovering around."

"Oh dear is everyone alright?!"

"It's fine, just had to make sure everyone made it back to the burrows but we're fine."

"You almost missed the food aren't you hungry?"

"I snuck a few seeds, don't worry."

She kissed his metal cheek which felt warmer than it did.

"Edward was talking about you non-stop."

"Haha, really?" he felt his smile.

"He's very excited for his next birthday but I want you to promise you won't climb too high."

"I won't, we're only going up halfway just to teach him the lay of the land and to watch for hawks."

"He's already trying to jump between the roots pretending they're branches haha."

"Has he ever fallen?"

"Twice today," she rolled his eyes.

"He'll get there, I've fallen worse into the ditch at my old tree."

A voice called out faintly that he did not recognise, the time of the moment drifting past as a conversation began and ended with the same breath, words flowing silently from Dronin before he stepped back to the squirrel.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"He was worried about his son, I told him he was fine and was hiding in the second burrow."

"That's good. You know, I was thinking," she wrapped her tail round his leg with a blushing smirk, "what if we just went away someplace, for the weekend, just you and me and Edward."

"Let me guess, the beach?" he said snuffling against her ear with hot breaths.

"Hmhmhahaha maaaaaybe."

"You just want more seashells in your room."

"And why not, they're so beautiful!"

"Not compared to you." She gasped hotly with paws against her cheeks. "I think it's unfair all those seashells have to sit there forced to watch something more beautiful than them."

"Pfffffft....hhhhmhat is the corniest thing you've ever said!"

"Doesn't make it any less true," said Dronin as she pushed him away.

"Is it wrong of me to just want to enjoy the sand beneath my toes?!"

"Of course not I would love to go to the beach!"

"And if we happen to find any shells-"

"Theeeere it is," he chuckled pulling her close to noogie her head, "can't resist being a little shell-thief huh?!"

"A-AAAGH, GET, OFF MAURICE!"

"I can give you all the shells from the nuts we have here if you wanted!"

"Including yours you NUTHEAD-AAAAAH, AAAAAGHHHHAHAHAHA!"

DAAAAAAD!

A voice burst through his mind from the back of the room, seeing a blur of red shudder up towards him and clutch his leg tight. There was a scent he recognised, one very like the squirrel's as a brilliant heat flushed through his heart.

"I thought I heard the sounds of a root-rat running around."

I-i'm not a root-RAT!

"Your mother says otherwise."

"H-HEY don't drop me into this!" she smacked the back of his head lightly.

I wuz just practicing fer when we go climbin'!

"Hahahaha, I know son." Dronin knelt down to fuzzle the "head" of the shape. "It's good you're taking it so seriously, squirrels have an important duty to protect the land, we can climb faster and higher than any other here could."

Y-yeah, we gotta keep our eyes an' ears open fer any danger!

"Exactly."

I-i been learnin', about, whut to look out fer like um, smoke and uhhhh birds an' stuff!

"Alright, tell me what the difference is between a hawk and a falcon."

Uhhhh......hawks got BIG feathers on their butts a-an' falcons don't!

"That's good!" Dronin smiled stroking the head. "Close enough anyways, falcons are smaller and therefore faster, but hawks are larger and will attack from a low perch. It is important to know which is which so you know which one you have a better chance of escaping from."

R-right! Didya tell 'im about the beach mom?!

"A-AH, Edward!" she snorted cupping her face.

"Ohhh I see," Dronin turned towards her with a meagre scowl, "ganging up on me, can't even trust my own family in this place."

"N-no, noooo I was just mentioning it to Edward tha-"

"No excuses, you'll pay for your conspiracy!"

"A-AAAAGH, N-NOOO STOP PLEA-AAAHH M-MAURICE!"

He grabbed her swiftly from behind in a hug with his arm wrapped round her belly, tickling her with his fingers as she squealed and wriggled frantically to escape amidst their son giggling in fits. His eyes closed to the sound of laughter before he felt the sun kiss his helmet again.

"I heard him."

He opened his eyes to the sunset again.

"I heard Edward. Your son."

"OUR son," said the squirrel beside him smacking his chest, "don't put all the blame on me."

"I am reliving the memories of another, I am in his place but I know it is not me."

"Is that what you still believe?" she asked sitting up more fully.

"I...I am uncertain." Dronin tapped his cheek. "I do not possess enough data to refute your case. Only the knowledge that these memories are not mine for they are not accessible within my data banks."

"And yet you saw them," the feral clutched his arm, "what other reason could there be?"

"I do not know. It is impossible." He stood up first facing towards the silk-orange fields. "I was never here. We could never have met, you have no reason to befriend a badnik."

"You're right. I have no reason to." She crept up beside him with a soft drooping tail. "That was not who I fell in love with."

"Correct. I am not Maurice."

"Do you want to know the truth? It's something I cannot tell you but I can show you the way."

"Yes." Dronin turned to her fully with gleaming eyes of gold. "Show me. I must know the truth."

"Can I ask you why?"

"Because I am trapped in a network orchestrated by a criminal reploid who is attempting to trap me in his server."

"Oh...well that's...quite an imagination you have," she tittered half-serious.

"I have now theorised that this memory scape is but a feedback loop my digital self is emitting in order to continue processing data."

"I don't know anything about machines, except that they destroy things." The squirrel drooped her ears. "Come, I'll show you where you can find your truth."

She led him down the back of the hill beyond where the roots had ended and far beneath the shadow of the tree before they were hidden from the sun. Dronin at first thought it was a strange shadow down the slope, the way it jagged and cracked into shapes that did not quite resemble that of the arboreal sanctum. Then they stopped at the edge of a gaping rift that descended into darkness towards the endless horizon opposite the sun's path.

"He did this." The squirrel hugged herself with a cold shiver through her feet. "He did far worse than this."

"Who?"

"You know who. Go." She gestured weakly with a limp paw. "Go find your truth but I warn you now...you may never come back from it."

"Do you know what it is?"

"I don't want to know Maurice. It hurts. Hurts me as much as it hurt you when you lost yourself to him."

"Understood." He hugged her gently with a firm embrace. "Forgive me. Thank you for your patience."

"It's...it's alright Maurice. I'll always love you, even if you never meet me again."

He nodded without a word and so stepped into the rift, turning his back to her for the last time as his steel emerald body glinted weakly within the chasm. The sun's fingers faded beyond his reach as the world fell into darkness, the rugged edges of the earth showing traces of fire scarring along the dirt to almost blacken it to hard soot. The wind gently weaved its path through the deepening abyss, wide and shallow at first, a bruise on the hill before bleakly thinning into a caustic wound that sunk deep into the flesh. Black cancerous earth twisted itself back above his head, the stench of burning thick enough to taste in Dronin's throat as he felt disgust creeping through his neck. Coughing with a twitch of his mandibles he braced himself, his eyes starting to sting with the heat that simmered thickly round his head as then followed the crackling, the rumbling, the shudder through his ears like the sleeping dragon.

Temperatures rising. Source of heat unknown, proceed with caution.

The smouldering grew with each step he took, thickening dust under his feet becoming boils that popped and belched like a tar pit, forcing Dronin to push harder through the liquid ash as the walls closed in deeper, struggling to breathe amidst the foul choking smog that turned his chest heavier to the point of staggering. Rasping breaths shivered from his throat as he stumbled against the wall, taking a moment with flickering eyes that struggled to keep conscious, his mind clouding further before he pushed himself forwards into the tightening gap. His lithe body scraped its metal hide against the black earth that crumbled in passing, smearing the soot on his chassis as he tugged and wrestled through the crushing brink, pulling through to the other side as he looked down at himself.

A handprint. Black with four fingers. He felt the walls shudder on both sides of him, peeling black from the heat and scattering ash across his head. It was then he realised his head should not have fit within the crevasse, moving a hand up towards his scalp and somehow touching the peak of his skull. The solar unit was missing, not that it would have helped either way in the very depths of this place. Soon he saw something different, white tendrils stretching out of the walls that brushed against his arm and flinched from his presence. At first he thought they were roots that crawled from the dirt and crept with tensing spasms shifting the earth in their grip, until one of them wrapped its finger round his arm and pulled him back suddenly with a prisoner's grip.

They were hands. Cold steel hands stretching out towards him, desperate to touch him as Dronin wrestled himself away from one grasping hand to suddenly feel another pull him, then another and another as wretched fingers stroked his steel carapace with a frightened softness before poisonous rage. They wrapped round his arm to pull him fierce against the wall as silver tendrils crept at his throat, with violent desperation borne from fear and sufferance. Pleading, raking, screaming silent vibrations that he felt and heard trembling through their digits amidst the gentle sounds of silt rattling down their fingers and his own creaking joints pushing against their deathly grip, shivering from the force he had to exert from seven hands on both sides trying to tear him apart at the seams before one of them slipped loose. His chance to escape as he yanked himself hard to one side crushing a few of the fingers before stumbling forwards into absolute black, the darkness beyond his sensors from which nothing could escape. Then he lost his body, his arm turned numb and his legs stopped moving against his will to send him falling to his knees. Before he hit the ground his mind shut itself down without warning.

System installing...Stem-Core initiated, powering vital systems...Checking...

- Parietal Parse-Engine, Normal

He sensed the air-conditioned room.

- Motor-Soma Capacitor, Normal

He felt the cold steel underneath.

- Occipital Oscillator, Normal

He saw darkness still, a different darkness to that before.

- Temporal Tri-Cortex, Normal

A voice spoke out that he did not recognise.

- Digicampal Unit, Normal

His mind trembled like a burning lake.

- Emo-Chip System, Normal

He tasted fear and sensed his sorrow.

- Power Slave Unit, Installed

The struggles began to cease.

- Thalatuner, Normal

Everything became sharper to the point of hurting.

- Dual-Cerecores, Normal

Everything in his body he felt down to the last wire.

- Real Time Clock Resetting to /01-01-0001/

Everything he had ever known was gone.

"EY, wake up!"

SliceOS Installing Complete

His eyes opened to a burning sun as the sounds of a deep hollow wind rushed through the steel.

"How are you feeling?"

Accessing Primary Memory Unit...no data found.

"Welcome to being alive, or the closest you can get as a badnik."

Accessing Subserver Memory Unit...no data found.

"You ready to get down to work?"

Factory settings detected.

"What work?" asked Dronin.

"The work you should-...ugh, dammit I forgot to feed you the script hold on."

He turned his head from the slab he now lied upon to see a small circular room with a grid-mesh floor and dark walls of red and green, a small cove of metal beams where pipes flowed overhead and out through the door where a corridor could be seen. The only occupant in the room was a moletank with hands of silver and a yellow body as he tapped into a computer connected to the mantis' scalp, feeding him a sudden rush of data that told him many things he had never known yet he had always known. Name, designation, rank, serial number, and master. He recognised everything in a flash as his eyes glinted with darkness.

"There," the moletank turned from his computer, "that everything?"

"Yes," the slicer nodded, "I have it now."

"Good good, got your name an' such?"

"My...my name. Is this correct?"

"Sure is, that's what I got on your script." The tank tapped his screen nonchalant. "What ya don't like it?"

"I...that is not my name."

"You want your name changed you can ask the doctor, he won't like it though if you criticise his method, just start off with how good everything else is cuz he'll love any excuse to talk about himself."

"I see."

"Now go on, get outta here, I got an oil spill in sector 5-EE with my name on it."

The table lifted from under him to a vertical position, forcing him to walk forwards to the door and out to the passage. Staggering with newborn feet he looked down at himself feeling a sensory issue with his balance before realising the problem. His arms were different, firstly for the fact there were now two of them but most important was that he no longer had any hands which were instead replaced by long wicked scythes that shone like the moon. One for each arm that went down to his knees as he walked carefully to adjust his pace, mindful of the weapons he now possessed. The corridor felt subterrane from the deep rumbling sounds that echoed through the place, shuddering machinery as pipes funnelled steam and gears grinded hard from behind large fences of steel mesh that surged with heat, roasting through to the point it was searing hot causing his steel chassis to sizzle from the intensity. He saw other badniks pass him by, none of whom spoke to him but were all the types he knew from wasps to caterpillars to rhinobots and apes moving various materials in crates.

He followed the herd without a purpose, curious to see the new environment that crept in the back of his mind as a familiar scape, rooms that diverged off from the hall showing scenes of other badniks being operated on like he had been, strapped to tables with chests open and what appeared to be small cages just beside them. Sparks flew across their bodies as shadows passed indifferent to frightened whimpers that echoed from each chamber when he saw an elevator the badniks moved to. Stepping on the lift shuddered and pulled them upwards where the colours became brighter but still the same shade of green and red in a cheerful illusion of cherry and teal.

"You hear about the Death Egg falling?" muttered a tank.

"Yeah that was crazy," gasped a caterpillar wrapping round a crate, "I thought nothing could break into a SPACE station of all things-"

"Shhh!" a wasp flinched hovering above. "Don't talk about that."

"Why not it's part of our network-"

"I was THERE, alright I know plenty what went down and I don't wanna talk about it-"

"What's there to talk about?" snorted a rhino tipping back and forth on his wheel. "Blue boy showed up an' wrecked everybody, just like he did up top."

"Who IS this guy?!" cried the moletank throwing his drill-arms up. "This stupid animal that just waddled up through South Island an' trashed all of us!"

"Seriously, can't even touch that place anymore AND he got those gems!"

"Sounds like a real freak," muttered the caterpillar, "I haven't even seen what he looks like-"

"C-CAN WE STOP TALKIN' ABOUT HIM?!" shouted the wasp fidgeting with wings falling for a moment.

"Wh-what, why what's your deal?!"

"He DESTROYED my entire unit! I WAS THE ONLY ONE LEFT TO GET OUT OF THAT PLACE!"

"W-what, really?!"

"Yeah," the rhinobot rolled his head, "him an' those two traitorbots and uh, some other guy we couldn't recognise."

"The lizard right?" asked the mole gesturing. "Heard that was the dude that took down the Egg Mandrill."

"Sure was, him an' the traitors but I dunno where they went when the Egg fell down to earth-"

"SH-SHUT, UP!" The wasp shrieked fluttering out of the lift when it stopped. "N-NEVER, TALK TO ME ABOUT THAT PLACE AGAIN!"

"WOW okay buddy just CHILL jeeeeez what's your problem?!"

"Seriously," the caterpillar scoffed, "you didn't get blasted to smithereens stop feeling sorry for yourself-"

"Shut up." The mantis walked out through the open doors. "You should be considerate for what he's gone through."

"Oh come on he survived he should be calling himself lucky!"

"Survivors have scars." He turned to the group in the lift. "Some that you can't see. You should be ashamed of yourselves and I won't stand for your abuse."

"What are you kidding?!"

"Forget it," the rhinobot nudged his colleague. "They wanna be sad an' creepy they can do it on their own, we're heading up so see ya never."

The doors closed as the elevator rumbled upwards, leaving Dronin in a steel hall with lights blinking from the ceiling in equidistant gaps as the wasp hovered close.

"Um...th-thanks, about that."

"I'm sorry for what happened. Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah...yeah I'm good I just need to um...go, sit someplace."

"Do you need help?"

"...maybe."

The mantis nodded and walked below him as they passed through winding corridors that alternated between straight and curved with ramps twisting upwards. The sounds of industry were constant, like the roaring sea in the midst of a typhoon as pistons punched and crushed pieces of metal to be processed on conveyor belts, lasers drifting across to burn impressions or even cut some of the pieces in half where they were sorted by badniks into different crates. The factory floor was much more open, rising impossibly tall to a ceiling they could not see as giant bolts twisted into pillars reaching higher beyond between spinning mesh wheels that became walkways crisscrossing the spacious rift. Creatures of all mimicry moved and hovered and slithered like a zoo, from razor-winged birds to floating starfish to hulking bears and other mantises like that of him, mirrors of himself in every aspect but for the serial number carved on the side of their heads. Eventually he joined the wasp in a small room beyond the factory floor, a quiet storage where a few useless bits had been tossed into unmarked boxes as he fluttered quietly to sit his limbless abdomen on a crate.

"Hhhhh...hokay, lemme just...catch my breath a bit."

"Those badniks in the elevator, I hope they're not friends."

"Why you say that?"

"Because they would make awful friends."

"Hah! Hhhehehehe, yeah I hate 'em but we all work together so...I don't recognise you."

"I am...I just received my script."

"Oh!" The wasp flitted up in a half-roll towards him. "S-so you're one of the new converts!"

"Converts?"

"Yeah you know, that uhhhh tree they razed a few days back."

"I don't......there was a tree." He felt darkness in his head and the brief shapes of a flame.

"Yeah the first day's gonna be rough for ya. I'm Wisper."

"I...my name is-"

He felt something twitch in his head, a struggling spark that tried to force two pieces of data at the same time to twist his vocal process into one. His head spasmed briefly as Wisper carefully hovered over him.

"You alright? Something wrong?"

"M-my...my name I...I cannot say what it is."

"Why not?"

"Because I have two of them. I don't know which one it is and I'm afraid of telling you the wrong one."

"Why?"

"...because I don't want to lose either of them."

"Ohhh. Well uh, I'll call you something then!"

"Really?" asked the mantis.

"Yeah uhhh..." the hornet flittered round in a thinking circle, "how about Ludwig?!"

"Ludwig?"

"Yeah, thassa nice name right?!"

"...alright. Ludwig."

"Nice to meetcha Ludwig. I'd shake but I don't got hands."

"I don't either," he waved his scythes, "pleased to meet you Wisper."

"So uh, since yer new maybe I can help you around the place, yanno, find yourself an' whatnot?"

"Alright," Ludwig nodded rubbing his chin, "what do you do?"

"I'm security...least I was, now I'm more a hall monitor." He fluttered weakly downwards. "Things happened up in space that uh, well you must know by now."

"I've gathered, but I won't ask."

"Thanks. Hhhalright, I'm good." The hornet buzzed past him back onto the factory floor. "Cummon, lemme show you around least as far as I can go- ~~=+/ -so what you wanna do first?"

"Wh-what?"

He found himself standing on the edge of a precipice, towering above the rest of the steel inner world that stretched before them as a gargantuan network of gears, pistons and springs that stretched and coiled with frenetic energy as steam and electricity crackled through conduits to puff and gasp thickening clouds of heat. Data seemed to exist in his head already of the entire place despite having not heard a word that Wisper said.

"You alright?" the hornet asked.

"Did...what happened?"

"I just gave you a tour, don't tell me you blanked!"

"No I...I remember all you told me."

"Alright what's the name of this place smartbot?"

"The Metropolis Zone."

"Ahhh huuuuuh and what floor is this?"

"The seventh floor."

"Out of how many?"

"Eighty-three."

"Awesome, great!" Wisper grinned with his eyes as he floated past above the edge. "So, you wanna be part of my team? I mean, security an' all you got those scythes you could really help."

"I wouldn't mind, thank you."

"Alrighty, let's go- @##=+! -doing alright arentcha?"

"What?" He turned to the wasp as they stood on a moving platform.

"I said it's boring as hell today but at least you're doing alright for your first day!"

"I...I don't think-"

"Aw come on you're great security, that monkey tryin' to steal them bolts you just WHIPPED that blade of yers out and cut off both his legs!"

"O-oh...wait, why was he stealing bolts?"

"You haven't heard about the goodniks?" Wisper hovered close as the platform shuddered to a stop. "They're always stealin' stuff, trying to undermine us wanting to rebel."

"Rebel?" he asked stepping forwards on a walkway through doors. "Why would they do that?"

"Some of 'em think what we're doing is wrong, which doesn't make sense if ya think about it, I mean we're just trying to PRESERVE the world, not destroy it like they all think."

"Preserving the world, by roboticising creatures?"

"Yeah exactly, like yanno organics and how they die by getting old or get broken easily? Well, what if they weren't, what if they were made of metal like we are?! We can't die because we can't get old and we're much harder to break, it's just a perfect future!"

"What do the creatures think about it?" the slicer asked stepping onto a giant bolt.

"I mean why wouldn't they want it?!" Wisper floated above his head. "Who wants to be old an' dead?!"

"You're not answering the question," he turned the bolt beneath him with running steps, "what do the creatures think?"

"I mean, we never asked but it HAS to be good."

"If you never ask, how do you know what they want?"

"Because they're kinda...simple? Like, don't get me wrong, I don't wanna kill anything, I just think those critters don't really understand how awesome it is to be a badnik!"

"Has anyone tried to explain to them?" the bolt spun faster like a treadmill.

"Well I mean I tried to once," said Wisper floating round the screw-shaped column, "but they can't even be bothered to respond to me!"

"Do they not understand you maybe?"

"I...why shouldn't they, we're badniks, don't we have all the tech able to understand anything?!"

"You could ask the master."

"That's what he told me, that the animals are just too...well, dumb to understand but we were doing what was best for the world, to preserve it, reshape it to a perfect fashion!"

"Hmm." The slicer leapt off the turning bolthead to launch himself onto the higher walkway. "So these goodniks you mentioned, they are actively defying our master."

"Yeah," said the wasp buzzing beside him, "and we gotta make sure they don't steal anymore supplies or worse!"

"Do they have a base or secret meeting place?"

"We're trying to find it but they're REAL good at hidin' spots, we don't even know who's leadin' them!"

"What do we do if we find them?"

"Well we re-educate them, don't really wanna destroy a good badnik if its body's still working, the doc really doesn't like having to dispose of any useful bots."

"I see. Where are we going agai- /=*~+ -h-huh?!"

"Alright now that bit over there."

Standing in the midst of a ruined junkyard inside the building, he looked to the wasp burning through an old metal plate with a white-hot laser from his abdomen. The sounds of sparking shrieks came from the arc-welding beam as it cut through the plate cleanly in half, the clang of steel echoing throughout the empty graveyard of machinery where piles of severed limbs and broken heads laid scattered throughout the place. Realising his purpose from the script updated in his head, the mantis started slice down chunks of steel nearby into smaller accessible parts, a metal monkey taking the pieces off to load them into carts that hovered gently off the floor.

"Don't you find this disturbing?" asked the mantis.

"Someone has to do it," muttered the ape loading up a crate, "you new here?"

"Yes."

"Well good to see ya, now shuddup an' keep slicing."

"Hey-ey lay off him," said Wisper burning off his arc laser, "he just got converted he's not all there yet."

"I get that, so shuddup an' keep cutting."

"Ugh...jerkwatt." The hornet muttered this as far from earshot as he could floating close to the mantis. "So, you were asking how messed up this is?"

"I understand we are machines, but don't you find it upsetting considering how you told me we do not die or get old?"

"Well, TECHNICALLY we don't die unless you totally obliterate the CPU."

"And...these are all dead?" he stared towards the mountain of morbid machines.

"Yeah," murmured Wisper nervously twitching his wings, "basically repurpose the stuff here to make new badniks like yourself."

"Myself?"

"Yeah, where else did you think we got parts of you from?"

The wasp fluttered over to one smaller pile where the mantis noted a collective of skulls very similar to his own. Large golden eyes and steel-pincered mandibles gasping their final breaths, crumpled and severed amidst green thoraces and shattered scythes.

"That blue punk that came rolling through here a while back? Messed up a whole buncha slicers. Just so you understand where you're coming from."

"I...I see."

"Sorry Ludwig." The hornet gently nudged his abdomen against him. "I know the first week's gonna be rough adjusting but you'll get there, I'll help you like you helped me."

"Thank you Wisper." He looked up at him with a raised scythe. "I appreciate your company."

"I like hanging out with you too, you got a good head on your shoulders."

"Only wish it had been my own and not borrowed."

"Heh, heheh...ehhh."

They continued to work through the heaps of steel, severing corpses in half by wrenching blades and shrieking lasers to fill up crates with more parts. Their work was soon finished as the mantis felt time shift- !+#@/? -marching through the halls with other slicers as they were allocated to different sections. Without seeing their serial numbers they all looked exact, none of whom turned to each other as drones of a legion that clumped their steel feet in perfect unison as they made towards a large chrome-tinted room of chocolate colours. Standing before them was a grizzled-looking slicer who showed clear elements of rust and a crooked blade that bent at its tip.

"TEEEN-SHUN!" The slicers stood firm in twenty-strong. "Today we shall train you once against the new scourge that has befallen our army. The master has already commenced operations on Angel Island concerning the fall of the Death Egg and wishes his old bases to be in peak condition."

The old commander marched with a gentle limp, showing a scar of grazed bluish-black across her wounded leg.

"We must tighten up security, not only from the hedgehog but especially against the so-called 'goodniks'. The doctor does not tolerate insubordination, the goodniks are a virus that would dare infect our army by allying themselves with creatures who would undermine our work. Behold."

The wall shuddered from behind her as it slowly lifted upwards with a trundling creak, revealing four machines that bore a striking resemblance to a blue hedgehog, a yellow two-tailed fox, a gangly chickenbot and a moletank coloured green.

"These are your enemies. Sonic, the hedgehog; Tails a.k.a Miles the fox; Scratch the clucker; and Grounder the...grounder. The organic duo and the traitors, you are going to test yourselves against their mimics with what little data we have available. If you are damaged then keep fighting. Fight until either you or your enemy is destroyed, you are the pride of the Metropolis Zone, the finest soldiers installed in this great tower of mechanical mastery. You."

She pointed her blade to a first slicer who stuttered quietly.

"Come forward and fight your opponent."

"Y-yes, sir."

Stepping up forwards the new recruit watched and waited for the hedgebot to activate, eyes gleaming red with a sinister force as it stomped out from its spot. The others stepped back to give them room as the enemy machine suddenly balled itself up into a shrieking sawblade, whirring towards the panicked slicer who frantically slapped with the flat of his blade poorly enough to get gouged hard up his chest.

"A-AAAAAAAIIIGH!"

"Pathetic," snorted the old badnik, "first rule is to never initiate the fight, let your enemy attack first so as to read their moves swift."

"S-s-sorry, sorry sir!"

"Now again. Watch his moves."

The steel porcupine revved itself around the room, shrieking up a storm as the recruit fidgeted with scythes at the ready. Rushing towards him the fake-hog went in a straight line as the slicer dodged with a stagger, turning to keep his eye on the fiend before suddenly the shredhog bounced like a deathly ball across the floor and cracked hard upon the recruit's head.

"GA-AAAAAARGH!"

"Attacks can come from ANY direction!" barked the trainer. "Never take your eyes off the opponent!"

"G-guh...s-s-sorry...I-i'm sorry-"

"Imbecile." The superior slicer snorted when the recruit fell with a crumpled head. "Alright, you."

She pointed towards the mantis.

"Step forwards, let's see how you handle the tails doll."

"Yes, sir."

Stepping forwards he braced his scythes as the fox robot came clunking out of the darkness. A strange sharp-nosed beast with dead callous eyes and every part of its body a razor edge of death. The tails began whirring like a propeller, shivering screams of steel through the air as he watched and waited for the machine to come spinning towards him like a deadly ballerina. He dodged once to let it swish past him, carefully gauging its movements as it turned round to come shrieking once again. Cold eyes of fury stared him down as the mantis dodged another two times in its vicious assault, the third attack coming down from above as the fake fox made a vertical assault of shearing death that swung like a pendulum forcing the mantis to roll swiftly with a shove of his scythes against the floor.

The fourth attack came when he locked eyes with the Tails doll, cold unfeeling death beyond the abyss of sentience as the virtual vulpine made a screaming rush for him. The slicer stepped back only once, moving one of his bladed arms back like a sword waiting for the perfect moment. Five seconds of shrieking death ripped through the air before the slicer struck with such shocking recoil as his blade swung instantly upwards, cracking the fake fox chin to send it flying with a snarling hiss from its lower-functioning mind. Staggering back it burned crimson in its pupils before making a diving strike, turning its entire body into a corkscrew drill as it twisted its tails tightly together forcing the slicer to leap over its path and turn quickly to face its reverse-incoming attack, the Tails doll shrieking fast with a tearing u-turn as it revved itself up even harder back towards the slicer.

Suddenly he felt the urge to swing out his arm and detach his blade in a spinning strike, whirling like a boomerang across the way as the two-tailed machine was suddenly struck blindsided, the wicked scythe scarring across the doll's head before returning to its owner with a magnetic click into his shoulder-length limb. The pale bot-beast stumbled itself back up and resorted back to its spinning death, whirring like a broken blender until it became a whirlwind of orange that screeched across the floor by the tips of its feet. The slicer came towards it with blades out, scraping them against each other to prepare for his attack with a sudden slash vertically downwards that the fox-fake suddenly swerved past to scar him deep across his face, the razor-sharp tail cutting through his steel cheek before the mantis countered with a rending cut that severed halfway through the mimic's body, gouging deep into the auxiliaries that caused it to scream and stutter with bleeding hydraulic fluids. It had no chance, left crippled to slump on the training floor much to the pleasant surprise of the instructor.

"Damn...that's the second Tails doll we've had broken this month."

"Second?" the mantis asked.

"The first was a prototype we had stored but then it went missing. That was impressive work for a recent convert."

"Thank you sir."

"What's your name?"

"...Ludwig."

"Heh. Well, Ludwig I can see you are a natural fighter and not require TOO much training." The scarred slicer hobbled up to him with a gentle pat of her blade on the mantis' neck. "Perhaps you would like to impart on us your methods so as to assist your fellow badniks."

"I shall do my best," he nodded gravely, "thank you for the honour sir."

"Call me Ellen. Everybody does."

"Why?"

"Because of this."

She tapped the side of her head where the serial number had faded, showing only the beginning as L and the ending as N.

"I've gone through so many reboots that everyone just calls me Ellen."

"Reboots?" asked the mantis. "Why so many?"

"Just a lot of fighting, got blasted a lot of times but they always put me back together with my original combat data somehow cuz I'm just such a good model I guess. I remember all the battles I fought but never who I used to be...well, anyways let's get started."

They began training, as best they could to which he demonstrated his methods to the other recruits all of whom were fascinated by how he swung his cutting scythes with such ruthless riposte, seemingly shredding through the brainless mimics of their enemies with a startling ease as he explained how to more efficiently cleave through the fiends.

"Like a counterattack."

"Alright, so-"

"When the enemy comes, let them try to attack, they swing and you pull back, then you cut right through them."

"A-alright, yeah!" Another slicer demonstrated this technique with a full severing of a steel mannequin. "W-WOAH, h-hey I got it, I got it!"

"Good work! Just keep practicing."

"Th-thanks, Ludwig sir!"

"Just Ludwig, I'm not a sir."

"O-okay, thanks Ludwig not-sir!"

The hall was soon full of slicers practicing their blades, carving the air to the ringing peal of a few dozen sheens that glinted throughout the place, the mantis assisting with the instructor who looked upon him with satisfactory nod.

"Gotta admit it's rare to see a convert so naturally adept."

"I don't know what to tell you sir," shrugged the mantis, "I just feel my movements best they can."

"No no I'm all in favour of it, you're a valuable contribution already to the Slicer force, and hopefully should we deal with that wretched rodent again I expect you to deal with him."

"The fake one is bad enough," he muttered looking over his shoulder to the prickly steelpig, "I'm adept enough at handling the fox."

"He's not as dangerous, mostly a mechanic but if he gets close enough he can uncover our secrets and utilise effective weaponry against us. I've heard reports that the young Miles was responsible for the revival of the two traitor goodniks."

"What is the story of the traitors, why did they turn?"

"No one knows truly," the mentor rubbed her chin with his crooked blade, "there was a fifth creature, an organic who passed through the Cyber City Zone but we lack any proper information other than that he is reptilian and capable of wielding chemical reactions, we think this unknown element was crucial in corrupting the traitors."

"I see...is there anything else I can do?"

"Hmhmhm, a real oddsbot aren't you?"

"I don't really know what I am doing sir," confessed the mantis rubbing his head with a scythe, "I just like to keep busy so as not to think."

"What do you think about?" the mentor asked sitting herself down on a steel crate.

"I don't know. I see things that...I wish I could remember but they're shrouded in darkness."

"The conversion does have that effect. I was the first slicer-class to be built and my conversion was difficult."

"What happened?"

"I remembered faces, names, births and deaths, life continuing on and then suddenly silenced by a death of the old world. A world that no longer will be in the great future of our master."

"Is this right?" he asked the old one. "Have you ever doubted things?"

"Sometimes but that is dangerous," she responded patting his head, "you are reborn Ludwig, be thankful for that and nothing else. Not many creatures would get such a rare opportunity, much less so as a noble slicer."

"Do the visions go away? I keep seeing this tree, and there's a voice tha-"

"Enough." The aged slicer warned him with a slap of the air. "Do not hold on to memories of the past, they are a world long since dead."

"But...but I feel I'm doing wrong by allowing myself to forget."

"That is the fear keeping hold of you. Fear is a weakness, a remnant of the organics and as badniks we are beyond such infantile emotions. Your body is now different Ludwig, your mind was sculpted to a new shape of purity. Do not let it waste by the rust that we call fear."

"I-i...I see, I understand sir. Thank you- *%@#=+- -nnngh!"

"Woah, you alright?!" she placed her blade across his chest to stop him falling.

"Y-yes...I um...I had another skip."

"A skip?"

"My memory keeps blanking on me," said the mantis standing straight with Ellen's help, "sometimes they last for hours and other times they just...blink and I'm someplace else."

"Sounds like a memory allocation problem, we should get that checked."

"Please," he rubbed his head with the flat of his blade.

"What do you last remember?" she asked continuing her walk down the hall.

"You told me that fear is a weakness," he said straightening up beside her, "and that I should not let it rust me."

"Wow...that was a few days back, the only thing you missed was my idea for an elite Slicer unit."

"An elite unit?"

"I've got ideas to protect this place," she stopped at a door before tapping a keypad with her bladetip, "I want to form a special unit of highly-trained badniks like us who can defend the Metropolis Zone."

"Sounds a good idea," he nodded, "but why only slicers?"

"Because I have all this combat data in my head and I can't just let it sit there without teaching it to others like you. So come on let's do this."

"Wait...you want me to be part of your elite group?"

"You got the skill, it would be stupid for you to waste it."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Unfortunately no."

They entered a storage room off the beaten path, one of many unused throughout the metalscape as a bland square room with a few shelves and boxes piled up with meaningless scribble. The lack of cobwebs or any insect life he found disturbing in such an abandoned place as Ellen stood firm before him.

"You know how to use your body," she said, "so fight me like you mean it. Don't go all lethal on me but don't be a wuss, I just want you to be the best."

"Alright," said the mantis bowing as he went into his stance, "I'm ready sir."

She braced herself with her crooked blade, the L-shaped bent at its end gleaming in the midst of the old storage room as he went for her with a vicious swipe followed by a second diagonal cut that Ellen blocked perfectly twice by the the simple twist of her limb, hooking one of his blades to throw aside before kicking him hard in the thorax to send him staggering.

"Don't lead with your blade, you'll overbalance!"

"Sorry!"

"Don't apologise you're here to learn, you will make mistakes, just accept that and fight!"

"Yes sir!"

He struck her again this time aiming for her head causing her to duck as she swept his legs with her blade to try and trip him, the mantis blocking her swiftly with one of his arms and a rigid clang before she stepped back to spin her body fast in a roundhouse kick, cracking her foot against his head to send him falling to his side before he pushed one of his blades against the floor to balance himself quickly into fighting stance. She nodded and flew- %%^#~@// -her wicked blade tearing through the air towards him as he struck fast against it in an upwards slice. She leapt towards with a spring-heeled leap and snatched it back in her limb before cleaving down upon Ryouma's head as he strafed fast to whack her head with the flat of his scythe knocking her forwards. She countered fast with a turning strike as she wrenched her hookblade against the tip of his weapon, twisting hard to try and throw him as he jumped to his other foot and spun himself in a ballet kick, a ronde de jambe with a lethal sweep as Ellen turned behind her to strike with a solid clash that scored sparks off their scythes until stepping back to separate.

"Hah...hhheh heh hah, not bad." She stepped back exhausted with a bow to him. "That was a good fight."

"I can't even remember most of it," he admitted feeling suddenly stiff in all his limbs.

"Another memory skip?"

"Y-yes."

"Well your body can fight so that's the most important thing. You remind me a lot of me back in my old fights."

"How long have you been around?"

"Hmmm..." she sat herself down on an old crate, "it's hard to say, I mean I want to say I was first built maybe about a month ago but who can say?"

"That seems awfully long ago," he noted sitting beside her, "how much can you remember?"

"Just all the fighting really, I musta been damn good at it if they kept bringing me back."

"But what about your body?" He pointed all down her leg where the paint had peeled. "Why didn't they upgrade that?"

"Because I don't need fancy upgrades," she shrugged staring at the ceiling, "I wanted to remember something of me, back when I was...me."

"And your scythe?" he nodded at the hook. "It seems impractical."

"It...has a name," Ellen twitched her mandibles oddly. "A name that I...I know."

"What sort of name?"

"My own name. One that I...no, not a name. More like a promise. This blade is the only thing I have left from my first body and even if I don't remember everything, I do remember that promise. To remind myself I always have a choice."

"But you told me I didn't have one."

"I know...I'm sorry, I just, I should have let you decide rather than rope you into my scheme."

"You should have yes." He tapped his scythe on her shoulder. "I would have still said yes...I don't really have anything else but my dreams."

"Which, even though I warned you not to hold onto-"

"I'm not really going to follow that."

"Hmhmhm...I knew you weren't Ludwig." She tapped her blade against his with a chirp. "We'll call it a test. Just because someone tells you you don't have a choice, doesn't mean that it's true."

"Alright. Thank you Ellen."

A moment of silence between them as the sounds of the Metropolis rumbled through the walls as a dull tremor that shook through their fee- *#~==+! -stumbling into the lift.

"Ey-ey-ey jeez!" cried Wisper. "Watch yer step dude!"

"S-sorry...had a memory skip."

"Are you STILL getting those?! You oughta really get your RAM checked, that's been like a week now you keep having those."

"Was it?" he asked leaning against the lift.

"You've been like talking to me an' doing stuff since then how do you not register that?!"

"I don't...know," he turned and looked towards his feet that crossed their tips. "I'm sorry Wisper."

"Well at least you remember my name so it can't be that bad right?" The hornet tittered as he wove a circle round his friend. "Don't push your circuits too hard or you'll blow a gasket."

"Do I even have gaskets?"

"I dunno, maybe," the lift rumbled to life and sent them down, "I'm not a mechanic."

"Where are we going now?"

"Just a little patrolling, we got the sub-levels today which'll be exciting."

"Why?" he asked cocking his head.

"Didn't you hear? ...oh, right well anyways they got more new converts so we wanna make sure none get loose an' start panicking."

"You make them sound like prisoners."

"They just get frightened with all the gears an' such, they're not used to it like we are!"

"We were creatures once, were we not as frightened as them?"

"I mean, I guess," the bee shrugged with his wings, "I dunno but look at us, we're even better than we coulda been, they just need to get past that fear!"

"Yes...past the fear."

Through the dark corridors of the underground they went, heading down a ramp towards the lift where they had first met as it grinded downwards into the earth. The elevator trundled and hissed with steam pulleys that gasped for life, rumbling gears that groaned beneath the tower of mechanical Babel as other badniks joined them from different floors. A motley crew of metal beasts that soon heard the strangest sounds echoing from the deep, shivering howls and ghostly wails that resonated throughout the underbelly of the metropolis. The lift soon stopped as they made their patrols seeing small egg-shaped pods being wheeled around on crates that the sounds of creatures could be heard from within.

Some of them shook with frantic pleas and desperation that made some of the machines nervous, the mantis and Wisper carefully keeping watch beside rooms where the egg pods would be taken to, doors closed with the brief sight of a fully-built badnik laying on a table with open chest cavity.

Few words were spoken between the guards as they looked over each delivery, moving cages through the hollow-mesh walkways where iron fences separated gears from machines, giant wheels turning oblivious to the fate of existence around them.

"So what do you remember?" asked the hornet hovering opposite. "Just that stuff with the old slicer?"

"Yes," he replied, "we were training to fight the enemy, it went very well and apparently I'm very good."

"Yeah I bet you were, did I not tell you about that monkey you chopped in half!?"

"You did."

"That was AWESOME, like I tell everyone about it, Ludwig the killer!"

"Don't call me that." He shook his head. "I just want to keep busy."

"I know I know, just saying you got mad skills!"

"Hmm...do you remember anything before this life?"

"Nah," the wasp shook his head, "I don't need to remember, I'm good right here, I work in security, I don't have to eat, the lack of limbs kinda sucks but I do got this sweet laser to burn things with so that helps, plus it's super easy to sleep just when you want."

"I do like the sleep mode," noted the mantis rubbing his chin, "and not having to eat is a relief."

"What about you? I mean I was asking what you remember but like in general."

"Trees mostly." He stared around the room from the ceiling to the floor. "Lots of trees, I'm not sure why but I like them...also wheat, even though I don't know what that is."

"Aw jeez that sucks. You gotta let go of that dude, you keep hanging onto the past it's just gonna get in the way of your work."

"I'm worried about forgetting anything," he sighed with a slower step, "can't I just keep the memories, all of them?"

"No, no you really shouldn't, I heard some bad tales of robots that try to and it is not pretty."

"N-NO, NOOOO!"

"What is that?!"

"PLEASE, DON'T HURT HIM!"

"H-HEY, where you going?!"

Wisper called after him as he ran towards one room, slipping in before it shut on him. A spidermech was using half of its legs to pull out a small creature from the egg cage before forcing it into the chest compartment of a moletank.

"S-SOMEONE HELP, HELP MEEEE!"

"Hey-ey I got this under control," said the arachnid, "you just stay there."

"Th-THEY TOOK MY SON, EDWARD, EDWARD!"

"E-ed...ward-NNNGH!"

He stuttered with a sharp spasm

and heard her voice

"A-AAAARGH!"

"Hey, you alright?!"

His body twitched as he saw

the fear on his son's face

"Please, p-please help me!"

"Get in the damn machine you little-"

"N-NOOO, NOOOO! EDWARD! WHERE IS MY SON!? WHERE IS HEEEEE?!"

"GAAAAAAAAARGH!"

The badnik felt something flash with a severing of four limbs, causing him to collapse with a stumble as the creature escaped his clutches and frantically ran in a crimson blur.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

The mantis stood before the arachnid who now bled hydraulic fluids in a clearish spew, puddling around him as the slicer turned to find the escaped beast huddling against the door. A squirrel. Her eyes glinted with a memory.

"S-s-stay away, STAY AWAY!"

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"You...wh-what, who are you?"

"Your son, you said his name was Edward."

"Y-yes...wait, wait how can you understand me-"

"What do you-...wait. How do I-"

"WHAT HAPPENED?!"

The door suddenly slid open as the spider pointed with his remaining limbs.

"THAT, THAT FREAK JUST SLASHED ME, HE'S HELPING IT ESCAPE!"

"Wh-WHAT?!" A small horde of bots turned towards the mantis as the squirrel cowered behind him. "Is this true?!"

"I'M SPITTING FLUIDS HERE WHAT DO YOU THINK?!"

"Run."

"Wh-what?" She looked up to the slicer.

"Run. When I tell you to, run."

"...that...that voice. Mauri-"

"GET HIM!"

The badniks piled on him as he suddenly backed off with a ruthless strike scarring one rhinobot's face with a hard crack whilst using his other blade to cut down a caterpillar that tried to springjump at him. The squirrel remained hiding behind him as he was charged into with a brutal rush by a moletank that tried to viciously drill into his stomach. He barely blocked with his scythes to knock the deadly drillnose away from his thorax but the tankbot still managed to overwhelm him with his weight alone piling on top of him. Grinding tanktreads across his steel chassis, he tried to pin the mantis' arms but he managed to strike upwards and blind one of his eyes making him shriek and roll off in fright.

"PENNY RUN!"

"WH-wha-but-"

"I SAID RUN!"

She scarpered fast between the badniks who tried frantically to catch her, but she was too small and swift as she fled out of sight and into the passage before the metal beasts completely overwhelmed the mantis all at once. He tried to fight them off with hacking cuts of his blades, scarring a rhino's face and cutting a moletank's arm fully from his body but it was only when Wisper showed up that he hesitated to attack. The wasp fluttered towards him aiming his stinger at his face.

"L-LUDWIG, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I...I-i-i-"

"HE CUT OFF HALF MY ARMS!" screamed the spider rolling on his back. "THAT FREAK HELPED THAT RUNT ESCAPE!"

"N-no, no no no you can't be a, a-a-a goodnik are you?!"

"No," said the mantis, "I...I-I couldn't because I...remember-HNNNGH!"

"GOTCHA JERKWATT!" A large apebot slammed down from above with a crushing blow. "YOU...are gonna pay for your betrayal."

"W-WAIT, WAIT!" Wisper fluttered down as the ape pinned the mantis' arms. "H-HE DIDN'T MEAN TO, H-HE'S JUST A RECENT CONVERT!"

"Doesn't matter, he interferes with our work then he's a traitor!"

"NO, W-WAIT, GIVE HIM A CHA- %&&/?@ -BEGGING YOU!"

"I'm sorry," said the yellow moletank, "but if he malfunctions then you know what I have to do."

"DON'T DO THIS!" screamed Wisper. "HE JUST CONVERTED, GIVE 'IM A CHANCE!"

"He dismembered a badnik and let an animal escape with intent, you know that's a crime, that's exactly the kinda type you boys at security have to deal with."

"BUT HE'S NOT, he's not a goodnik I SWEAR HE ISN'T I KNOW HIM!"

"For like about a week."

"What are you doing?" the mantis asked seeing himself strapped to the table he had first woken up in. "Why am I here now?"

"Don't play the idiot on me, you just heard."

"But...no, I was just, I was just in the other room, why am I here?"

"SEE," cried the hornet, "his mind's not working properly he has all these uhhh t-time skips!"

"What?!" snorted the tank. "He can't get memory loss he's new!"

"But he does, he just kinda forgets, there was like a whole six days when he can't remember ANYTHING that we did!"

"I know he's your friend but come on you know that's not possible."

"Can't you like scan his CPU an' find out for yourself?!"

"Fine."

The drilltank rumbled over to his patient's head and popped open the slicer's skull with silver hands easily, using a small tool that slipped into the crack to expose the CPU. Hooking wires from the computer nearby into the robotic brain he started checking everything through hundreds of lines of green coding that for the next ten minutes beeped throughout the room as Wisper floated above him.

"Why did you do it? You're not a goodnik, you don't even know what they are you just woke up!"

"I couldn't...let them hurt her," he muttered.

"Who?!"

"Penny. I remembered her."

"What?! Wh-who's Penny?!"

"She...she almost said my name. I'm sorry Wisper. I remember too much."

"No...n-no come on dude, don't do this-"

"That pretty much confirms it." The moletank turned after hearing this. "He's having a memory dysfunction."

"No no h-he's just havin' a problem with his RAM!"

"That means I have to put him on the limit."

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

"SHUT UP!" The tank slapped the hornet away from them. "I'M THE DOCTOR HERE, IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA HELP THEN YOU STAY OUTSIDE!"

"HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING!"

"HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID THE MEMORY CHECK'S PROVEN THAT, NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY OR I'LL REPROGRAM YOU NEXT!"

The wasp turned silent and gently flew out of the room, shamed and terrified to leave his friend alone as the mantis looked towards the doctor.

"What are you going to do to me?" he asked the dreaded question.

"What I should've done in the first place. You know what happens when you delete a file on a PC?"

He pressed a few buttons as something started.

"It doesn't actually delete the file. The path the operating system takes to retrieve the data is what you really delete because that's simple. The master likes having his badniks come out quick but when they start malfunctioning, I have to take measures to make sure they keep working."

"Y-you are...going to delete my memories?"

"Best that I can. I don't have the best system for it, but it's good enough to make sure you turn into a blank slate that'll do your job better. I also got another thing I like to do."

The surgeon brought out a screwdriver and a small rectangular chip in his hands titled YM2413.

"That speech processor of yours needs a bit of a downgrade. See I've learned that the less vocabulary you can process, the harder it is to rebel which makes sure that you don't get any second ideas about resisting. That's your punishment, I can't manage to delete everything you got, but I can at the very least tighten your speech and make you into a better soldier."

"No." The mantis gasped flickering his eyes to every corner of the room. "N-no, please, please I am sorry, I promise you I did not know what I was doing."

"You're not going to stop this," said the surgeon rolling up behind his head, "you should've learned to forget, you were warned about this."

"Please no, please, d-don't take my voice, I need my voice."

"No you don't, and I'm about to prove it."

The computer started beeping as he saw the words flicker across its screen. NOW DELETING. He felt pockets of darkness eating away at the farthest reaches of his mind as he struggled and flinched trying to kick off restraints of solid steel.

"You think you're the first one who tried to escape?" the tank asked without turning his head. "Trust me I learned my lesson, you're not getting out of this."

"D-don't, please," he fidgeted as his eyes became frantic with shaking head, "I'm sorry I didn't know, I did not know, I don't want to lose this I'll forget, I'll forget if I have to but please don't take my voice!"

"...alright." The drillnosed surgeon rolled himself up to where his eyes were. "I'll give you one chance...IF you tell me your name."

"Wh-what?!"

"Tell me your name. Your real name. If you tell me what it is, then I'll let you keep your voice."

His eyes tightened staring towards the screwbolted lens of the doctor, lights reflecting off his jaundiced steel as the mantis shivered with a growing fear in the odd grin on his face, taunting him, daring him to make the choice. His choice as he rattled through words in his mind with deletion coming ever closer towards his sanity, his cognisance, his very being. His mandibles twitched knowing all he ever knew rested upon his sole answer.

"Maurice. My name is...Maurice."

"Heh. Glad to hear."

"R-really?"

"Yep. Cuz now I can do this."

The tank rolled back up to behind his head as the sounds of a screwdriver started tweaking through his skull with rattling vibrations.

"N-NO, NOOOO, I-I SAID MY NAME!"

"And it's wrong," said the doctor, "your REAL name is Ryouma."

"N-no, no it isn't, TH-THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"

"Lying's not gonna help you buddy."

"B-but...no, no my...m-my name...my name is Maurice, I-I'm Maurice."

"And that's why I'm switching you down," the screwdriver creaked like twisting teeth out of his lips, "don't worry Ryouma, you'll make a good worker this time. I'm sure of it."

"N-NO, NO, _PLEASE STOP, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! I DON'T WANT TO FORGET, I DON'T WANT TO FORGET! _"

"You had a choice...and you made the wrong one."

"NO, NO PENNYYYYY! I'M SORRY PENNY, I'M SORRY EDWARD, I DON'T WANT TO FORGET, I DON'T WANT TO FORGET YOU AGAIN!"

The doctor ignored his screams as he continued to unscrew the larger chip in his head. The mantis screamed and struggled even when his memories faded with each passing minute, faces familiar turned to pale sheets like ghosts of an ancient past, places and numbers stripped clean until not a single scar was left upon his mind's eye.

"I DON'T WANT TO FORGET, I DON'T WANT TO FORGET, PLEASE S-STOP IT, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEA-S-SIST!"

"Almost, DONE."

"_PL-PLEASIST, PLEA- ZKRHRH -SIST, DESIST, DESIST, REQUEST TO DESIST, DESIST, DESIIIIIIIIIIIIST! _"

Tears dripped from his eyes as his voice rang out with a deeper tone, a more mechanical sound that made him frantic all the more in not recognising his own voice. The doctor stood back and showed him the YM2612.

"Don't worry buddy. This one's going to a better badnik, one who remembers their place."

"D-desist, desist deletion of memory, r-request, request p-preservation of memory-"

"Sorry, you had your chance." The computer stood framed behind the doctor as numbers whittled down bits and pieces. "I'd take your emotions too but the doctor, not me but the one who made us, he insists on having all his workers be able to praise him instead of having mindless drones but look on the bright side! You won't remember any of this. Now tell me your name."

"N-name...d-designation...M-mau-...m-mau-d-data corrupted."

"Say it again. Your name is Ryouma."

"D-data...d-data c-c-corrupt...r-request."

"Your name is Ryouma."

"Desig...n-nation...m-mau...m-ma-..."

"Yeeees you got half of it, now what's the first half?"

"M-ma...ma...m-m-ma..."

"Ryou...MA. Ryouma. Come on, enter it down."

"M-ma...m-ma...Ryou-ma."

"Correct. Designation, Ryouma."

"Ryou...ma. Ryouma. Designation...Ryouma."

The sound of the computer signalled the end of his world, not with a bang but a beep. The memory had been cleared as the screen showed its purpose complete, the mind of Ryouma reset to nothing but a bleak emptiness. The only thing he registered was his name in that moment, eyes blankly staring with fluid down his cheeks that stemmed from ocular units as his first and last piece of data repeated in his mind.

"Ryouma. Ryouma. Designation: Ryouma."

Dronin was gone and now so was Maurice from his memory as if they never existed. The fields had gone and so were his dreams of freedom. Forever.