Rocking 'Round Mobius

Alphonse was already locked on the signal, walking quickly through the crowds to get through the area and over to what he needed to find. Isolating one particular merchant stall where he recognized quickly the pink glow of the keytar medallion. It…invoked something in Alphonse that took the robot a minute to recognize.  Fear and worry. Sonia…she would have NEVER left this behind. Would she? At least not from what he knew in his data banks.  “Um excuse me…that belongs to my brother and I.” Might as well speak on it and try to get it back. “It was our sister’s before…you know… Can we have it back please?”

Raising a brow the merchant started started to make a scene by going on about how much they paid for it, asking why they should just give it away for free, and lose out on their investment. Forming a crowd and drawing in many eyes as Manic came up from behind Alphonse.

“How much?”

With a smirk the merchant gave out a price that was higher than the hedgehog was carrying on them. Causing Manic to pull his ‘brother’ aside and speak as privately as they could manage.

“You search with your eyes I’m just walking, man.” Alphonse made a motion with his hand that meant he was just going. Yes he was alert but he didn’t want to have to talk about it while they were out in the open around so many people. Someone might over hear them.  He was just following the signal he was getting from his sensors. That was all he knew. It was strong, they HAD to be nearby. Or at least their medallions. 

Suddenly feeling a warm, almost hot, sensation under his shirt Manic looked under it and found that his own medallion was glowing a bright green. Quickly he wrapped his hand completely around in order to block all of the light.

“Okay, that’s weird, man.”

His first instinct was to ask Al if he knew anything about this, if perhaps that Sonia he was with might have said anything. But quickly remembering the issue with that he stopped himself before he began.

“Usually these only glow when... Quick, look for anything glowing blue or pink!”

“Right, right…” Alphonse shook his head to get back on track. His hologuise flickering into existance and he mimicked stretching his arms out a bit. “Let’s get a move on, I don’t want to be here any longer than needed.” “Uh yeah…lemme scan again.” It wasn’t visible when he was scanning, most people didn’t even notice he was doing so. He took a minute to look about before moving ahead of Manic and motioning for him to follow him. “Come on, it ain’t too far. I’m sure we’ll find ‘em, or at least get something to tell us what happened to ‘em.”

Keeping in pace with the robot, so they would be more or less side by side for the entirety of the journey, down a street lined with buildings on each side. On the whole people seemed to pay the both of them less mind now that they were a pair.

“So far so good, man.”

The street would eventually lead them to a great, outdoor market packed to the brim with stalls selling all kinds of things. It was the kind of place Manic would have normally loved to go through but they did not have the time to sightsee, shop around, or ‘shop around’.

“Okay first, make it brothers not boyfriends and I’ll go with it.” Alphonse may only be male in his pronouns and voice selection but he still had enough self respect to stand by his prefered choice in partners. “I already see you like a sibling as it is you know. We’ve known each other a long time and put up with each other enough that it feels that way.” “And second…Manic I’ve never met a Sonia.” Alphonse made a face as he ran through his records and winced, holding his head. Ugh… his memory files were still messed up. “Sol…did..did someone mess with my records? I can’t….I don’t…” It was almost like watching his A.I. struggling through a glitch, he was trying to find any trace of what was mentioned but….it was either corrupted or gone.

The hedgehog’s face stayed stoic as Alphonse tried to go through their records. His worry was great but this was neither the time or the place, last thing they needed was to get caught and get an angry mob on them. Then they’d be little chance of completing this mission or helping his ‘brother’ with what was ailing him.

“We’ll talk about it and take a look at you later, dude. But the sooner you change into your disguise the better, we don’t need someone walking by or coming in here to see what I’m doing and find me talking to nothing.”

While he waited for them to do that he leaned over to look beyond Al and up the path, to see if anyone was up there. Luckily no one had thus far, but the hedgehog kept himself like that to keep an eye out just in case.

“Perks of Solaria being a planet many millions of years ahead of this one, I think we know how to make it so no organic can tell the difference.” That was why he had his hologuise, no organic could tell that Al was a bot beneath it.

He had no idea how his friend located him, nor how he figured out exactly where Al’s hand was. He thought his cloaking was better than that. But…he sighed and deactivated his cloak while also turning on the hologuise. Soon the light blue and grey hedgehog was standing before the disguised prince of this world, he wasnt lying…Al sadly looked down at Manic’s hand in his own, the solid matter of the hedgehog clipping through about an inch of glove projection to the metal beneath. It was…kind of startling…

He slowly pulled his hand back and the hologuise’s ears went down swiftly as he looked away. “And that is exactly why I don’t like anyone touching me when the hologuise is up…”

“Okay, well what I said about being alone drawing some eyes is still true, and I don’t think that chameleon line will work if you stay cloaked by me and get found out.”

That said perhaps Manic was too eager to get here and start looking. Perhaps if they had taken some time to take a look at this hologuise of Al’s then perhaps he might have figured out someway to get the this to work, the tech differences between their two zones be dammed.

“Believe me, I’m far from comfortable either. But I think our best bet is to risk it and have hedgehog Al walking around with me. If anyone stops me asking questions it’d be a lot more convincing if I have someone to back me up.“

Now, assuming that they did go with this, they just needed a cover story for the Metal Sonic, there was that one Manic was going to go with before the clipping became apparent.

“Manic, we JUST talked about this! Holograms don’t work like shape shifting, it’s just a three dimensional image I project over my body. Anything over top of it phases right through.” It was why he avoided any physical contact while the hologram was up. “We have two options, me walking around in hologuise which is obviously false….or me here in cloaking mode. At least then I can show part of my arm or something if anyone asks…”

There was ONLY two options, wether Manic liked it or not. This was what they had, and it would have to be enough. 

“Ad for my bio scan no…I only do that for long range scans….and we need a better idea on what we’re doing.”

“Never looked fake to me, man.”

Did they just talk about that? The stress of this whole situation must be getting to him, which wasn’t all that surprising. He’s never been this close to finding anything out about what happened to his siblings before. Just the possibility that there could finally be some kind of breakthrough was actually somewhat unsettling in a way.

“No clothes, got it...”

Closing up his bag he thought for a few moments as he looked the cloaked robot over.

“This gonna seem weird, but what if I did this?”

Reaching out he took one of Al’s metal hands within his own. 

“You know I cant show myself here, guise or uncloaked.” It was too risky but he could stay with his friend. “But, if anyone asks I’m just a chameleon who doesnt like to be seen.”

Hey the chameleons could stay invisible for as long as they wanted and he knew several that did live in large cities. To be captured as he understood it was a great shame to the Shinobi clan, even more so if that chameleon needed to be rescued. He wouldnt be surprised if there was a few here already.

“Don’t worry, man. I’m not going anywhere. Need me to scan the area again?”

“Dude, I don’t think that’s gonna work. Cause if someone does spot you like this they’re gonna tell you to stop doing it. Be better to just go out looking like a hedgehog. You know that if anyone gives you any shit then I got your back, right?”

Opening up his pack and shoving both hands inside, Manic began searching through its vast contents. Though he had yet to pull anything out so far.

No he was pretty sure she would. Rebecca was a mechanic after all….or…so he believed given what she was working on the only time he met her in person. Manic’s words only helped strengthen that thought. Oh boy…

Still, Alphonse returned to the air to follow his friend. No one seemed to notice him so he supposed they didnt have super high tech searching devices. Good, he didnt need to worry too much. He couldnt hear what was happening but he could watch Manic through his bio scan even at this range. So when signaled he came down, but he didnt turn off his cloak.

“I’m here, what’s up?”

“I think it’s safe enough for you to just walk around down here with me, dude. Ya could have easily walked in with me. Didn’t really check me out with anything other than a look and some talking, weird as that is.”

Looking down to his hands he put that single stick back into that old carton and stashed it away inside one of the many internal pockets this coat provided him. All with a little under his breath comment about it being a ‘degusting thing’ before bringing his voice back up.

“I’ll put you down just outside the range of their furthest scout.” Alphonse had been scanning the area below and once he spotted a mobian shape on his bio scan he backed up somewhat and lowered down into the forest so he could put down Manic. “Here. Just keep going north from here. You’ll hit their scout no problem and it will seem like you just came from the city.”

Alphonse knew such paranoid people wouldn’t trust anyone who just appeared near the town but someone approaching from the city had a reason to be heading towards the area. 

“I’ll be overhead. Please be careful. I don’t wanna report to Rebecca that you got hurt on my watch…”

“No you don’t, she’d take you apart and turn you into a hoverbike... that’s just a joke.”

Not wanting to continue this conversation after making it awkward like that, the dyed hedgehog just quickly walked towards the town. He was greeted by some guards and gave some story he came up with on the spot. After some convincing they eventually let him in. Still he could not believe just how easy that was and exactly how they checked him out.

Finding a nice secluded spot he leaned up against a wall and took out an old pack of cigarettes, though he stopped short of actually lighting the single one he removed from the package and was now holding between his fingers. Hopefully if anyone stumbled on him he could convince them that they caught him just before lighting up.

“Hey Al, you hear me up there?”

“I’m made to evacuate Mobians and Solarians from battlefields and back to safety among other things.” That was his whole thing, patch people up as best he could and get them out…or the other way around. Etiher way transport was easy for him. “I can get you there man, don’t worry. At the end of the day…I am still a Metal Sonic, a copy of your bro or as close as a bot can get.”

He headed out with his friend and waited for him to finish up what he was doing before grabbing his bestie and picking him up. Activating his cloak and engine so they weren’t noticed on approch.

“I sure hope every things okay…I have a bad feeling about how weak the signal is. I’m trying to be optimistic though…”

Holding on to the robot it certainly was strange to see things from inside an active cloaking system like this. He’ll have to ask about that bit of tech later, maybe they’d be willing to share it with the resistance, definitely would make a cool upgrade to the van.

“This new town’s pretty far out from the big city, it’s probably just at the edge of that tower’s range is all.”

Even at the speeds Al could reach, getting close enough to the town to get a visual on it still felt like it took a while. Even from this far out the town didn’t really look like anything special, everything seemed typical for the zone.

“Actually…for as fast as I can go, I never really use my full speed. But…I see your point. Anywho, the point still stands… get in, find your siblings, get out with them if we can if not….learn what they’re up to hopefully.”

The robot let a puff of steam out through the vents in his ears to cool down, unlike his emotional reactions this was purely so he could cool his engine down in a hurry. “You ready to get some answers?”

Shutting everything off within the van and locking it up once they were outside of it. He pulled out a little device for just a moment, just long enough to send a little message off, before stashing it back inside his bag.

“That depends, you ready to carry me and go that fast for that far?”

Having never seen Al get pushed to his limits, he really had no idea if they could keep those kinds of speeds up for that far without causing any damage. A few bad thoughts started seeping into his head but he quickly swept them aside.

“I can give ya a lift out there but once we get close I’ll have to drop you off.” Alphonse would have to lay back while Manic got in. Al himself would have to figure out something else. “I only have two settings but the cloak might be my best bet. As long as the whole place aint indoors… my engine is silent and any scan they have for mobians would see right through any disguise.”

His scans still identified the hedgehog as his friend but it would have do. “It would fool any organic I can say that. The only way I still know its you is because of my bio scan.”

“Yeah, it’d be kinda weird to have some super speedy blue hedgehog just run into town, people might get the wrong idea, ya know? But you can walk in with me, dude.”

Strapping on his bag he pulled out a pair of goggles and snuggly fit them over his head. Hopefully this crazy string of ideas of his will work.

Oh boy… Manic always had some kind of plan to get them into places. Alphonse had a couple new dents on him but that was fine. He had lured the majority of the patrols to the other end of the city. Invisible or not, it couldnt be ignored when a flash of blue showed up when a homing attack hit. Also…the plasma from his engine cut through anything.

“Think if I go invisible they won’t notice me?” He might as well talk to himself a bit, because disguise or not…anything that could tell them he was there when he was cloaked would see right through any disguise.

Al would get no response as whoever was in the bathroom would be in there for the better part of ten minutes. But when it finally did open the first thing to come out was a solid wall of steam that slowly creeped outward before a strange hedgehog came walking out of it. Now this hedgehog looked kind of like Manic, they moved just like him, however their fur was a deep dark red, and a vague chemical scent was coming off of them.

“The hour already up, dude?”

Giving their head a lil shake he slipped on that robotic looking glove as well as those clothes laying on the work table.

“Can’t take the van in, either of them would recognize that from a mile away... I don’t suppose you’d be up to carrying me for a while, would ya man? We’ve waited long enough and getting a new ride’ll take waaay too long.”

Opening up a drawer he took out a little plastic case, from which he removed a pair of colored green contacts, which he quickly popped onto his eyes.

“Alright “Dad” dont go parenting me now! You know Im the last one you need to worry about when it comes to stealth!” He set his hands on his hips as he teased his bestie with a smirk, trying to bring the mood up a bit. “Don’t stress too much, vigilance is fine and so is preparation….but try to stay positive, man! You’re gonna give yourself grey quills!”

“I’m just gonna go practice something I learned recently! I’ll be back in an hour!” Al waved at his friend before vanishing from sight and heading out. He had a homing attack to perfect.

He turned his head to give the robot a look at that little comment, then kept himself turned in order to watch them walk on out of the van and then the entire building.

“An hour...”

Letting that word hang he sped up his efforts to get a new look together. Cobbling together something to make one of his limbs look cybernetic was easy enough once he focused on that. Making an outfit that looked like it was made for someone with that sort of limb was quick once he got the sewing kit out and was able to modify things. But he still felt like something was missing from the whole get up...

Alphonse crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground, for a moment one could see the original copy of Sonic’s thinking that all Metals had. He was NOT a patient robot and he hated having to do this, he had a cloak wasn’t that enough? He’d rather slip in undetected, get a few scans, locate those two, and get back before lunch. He was TIRED of all this waiting around doing nothing!

“UGH! I’m a search and rescue robot, it makes me crazy when I can’t zip in and zip out!” He groaned, he knew Manic was right but he wasn’t gonna go anywhere. Then then let out a sigh…maybe he WAS a bit of Sonic deep down. All metals were built on that hedgehog’s profile. “…..Maybe I should call Matilda, she’s the one with experience in this kind of thing.”

“I know you’re right but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.” He stretched a bit before cycling through a quality diagnostic. “I’ll zip about the city for a bit if you need to call your girls though. There’s something I wanna practice anyway…”

As much of a bad idea that may have been, Manic knew that there would be no stopping Al, much like there’d be no stopping him from going to this cybernetic town.

“Try to stay out of trouble and make absolutely sure you’re not followed on your way back here. Cause if I’m ready when you get back we’re leaving right then, and I don’t want to bring a bunch of attention down on this place.”

From what he understood that place was always on edge anyway. Last thing anyone needed was a panic of any sort, not just for the sake of whichever of his siblings might be there, but he did not want anyone getting hurt. The people of that community have been through more than their fair share.

“Ah, yeah that sounds familuar.” The divide must have been begining to grow between the normies and the Robians. He had a bad feeling about this whole thing.

Manic’s question however caught his attention and the robot sighed. “It’s just the two settings. My cloak covers anything attached to me or those I’m touching at the time. My hologuise is similar but only covers me. I take it they’re not big on normal folks…”

“No, but like most everyone else they’re not too big on robots either. Maybe once I’m done getting myself sorted out I can have a look, see if I can give you a new setting or two, dude.”

For a few moments he considered contacting Cyrus to get approval for this little mission, and at the very least let him know just where he was going, but quickly decided against it. That would just cause more trouble and the hedgehog figured it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. Rebecca on the other hand...

“Or you head back home for a bit, let whoever fixes you up there try to figure it out. This ain’t like when I was a kid, can’t just pick up and go do whatever. Gotta make sure certain things are taken care of first.”

With enough junk taken out and sorted he made his way over to a closet, where he went through a bunch of clothes.

“They don’t take too kindly to the resistance either. Lot of ‘em just see us just as guilty as Robotnik for putting them in the situation they’re in. So I can’t exactly go in there as Prince Manic; Resistance Leader or anything.”

Trying on a few things he was having trouble settling on a look. So he hung some candidates outside of the closet before heading back over to that work table and got started on actually putting some bits of that junk together.

”That and if one of my siblings really is there I don’t wanna shake things up till I know the situation in there, man. If they got something going on here I don’t wanna ruin whatever it is by bumbling in like some idiot. Gotta play this smart.”

“Yeah, Matilda and half the population of Sand Blast City were exiled out into the desert once they WERE cured too.” He remembered her story well, he let out a sigh. “There is no garentee how someone may treat those who are different. Anyway what’s your point, Manic?”

The robot turned to look at Manic. He wished he could tell his friend that a cure really would help everyone but…he couldn’t say that. Sadly, there would always be side effects for any one effected. He had on record advanced aging rates, cancer, sun sensitivity, some limbs forever paralyzed, and in Matilda’s case….a severely reduced aging rate that would one day stop entirely. He didn’t have the heart to tell his friend that a cure came with its own problems.

“Since Robotnik has been M.I.A. for so long a lot of those people decided to get together and make their own town. That’s what that place, it’s so new it doesn’t even have a name yet.”

Getting up he went over to some storage and began rummaging through it, pulling out various bits of techno-junk and placing it all on a work table. He did not turn away from his work as he continued speaking with the robotic hedgehog.