shardbond | INTRODUCTIONS

With your battle complete, and your injuries sort of patched up, you're finally free to catch your breath... at least until the terminal flares to life again. Your brief conversation with the person on the other end may have left you with more questions than answers, but they are true to their world. Next to the terminal, a glowing golden portal suddenly appears - blinding in its light and large enough for only a couple of you to enter at a time. Regardless, it remains open, showcasing a strange, warehouse-looking building on the other side, with a long hallway and several closed doors. It's not entirely clear where this new location will be, but at least it doesn't seem to have spider robots or be out in space.

/// L O A D I N G . . .

I've got everything ready on my end.
I'll explain everything to you once you're here.
No more secrets, I promise.
Please watch your step, and make sure everyone comes along!

< isopods >

Staying behind is not an option. Whether you trust the person on the other end of the terminal or not, it seems this is your only path forward. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and step through the portal.

THE BASE

The light begins to clear as the last of you enter the portal and come out unharmed on the other side. You'll notice immediately that the portal displayed the exact place you've ended up - a fairly run-down warehouse, with you all standing in a hallway that extends in front of you, lined with doors that are shut. Before you go wandering off, you might want to turn around - after all, you can hear the whirring of machinery behind you.

You'll find that there's another set of doors there - one that is closed and another that leads into a larger room that seems to be a makeshift lab and control room all rolled into one. There are monitors carefully (but a bit haphazardly) strewn across the room, the wiring capably done but rather unprofessional. One of the screens shows a diagram of a gemstone, another shows a list of coordinates that don't make any sense, a third seems to be showing security cameras... basically exactly what you'd expect for someone's base of operations.

And that base of operations is staffed by... well, you'll have to look down, as he's not exactly human height.

Standing before you is someone unfamiliar to all of you. He's not very tall, but he stands out from the crowd with his yellow fur, bright blue eyes, and twin tails. He's an anthropomorphic fox and he's looking at you all a bit nervously, waving a hand in greeting.

"Um, hi." He says. "I'm really sorry about the confusion. And the robots. And your missing memories. And your injuries. I really didn't expect things to turn out like this..." He trails off nervously, scratching his cheek before forcing a smile again. "But thank you so much for agreeing to help us. My name is Tails. I'm one of the members of the resistance.

"There are medical supplies here, for you guys to use. I'm sorry, I'm not a medic..." Sure enough, you have access to quite a few medical supplies present in this room! Go right ahead and patch up your friends with the good stuff. You've even got painkillers here!

He clears his throat and continues. "Like I said, no more secrets. I couldn't tell you everything while you were in that other world, because I was afraid of my transmissions being picked up by the Doctor. You guys are the only hope for this world, because the three of us can't beat him alone. So we had to turn to help elsewhere.

"Doctor Robotnik - or Eggman, as we call him - is a genius scientist. He's made a lot of robots and gadgets, but that's not the reason why we need your help. He's got an item of immense power - the Master Emerald. With it, anything he thinks and desires can become reality. He made a giant robot from pieces of cars, trucks, trains, you name it! And that giant robot alone is enough to pose a huge threat to the city, but he didn't stop there.

"The entire world is controlled by him. He even controls the minds of all the people native to this world. They can't fight against him. They act like mindless drones, going about their daily tasks with no way to fight back. And he's created a lot of robots - they might even outnumber the people, at this point! Everything and everyone is under his control."

A brief pause as Tails breathes and steadies himself. "But my friends and I are able to fight back. We have to fight back. And you guys agreed to help us. I'm sorry that you don't remember it, but my friend Sonic spoke with each one of you. He told you about what's going on here and he asked for your help. And all of you said you'd come help us.

"I'll do my best to answer any questions you have. But right now, I'm the only one here. I lost contact with Knuckles at the start of this week, and I've been trying to figure out what happened. Sonic's been trying to find help in other worlds, so communication with him has been spotty. But I'll let him know that you guys are here now, so he should return soon!"

Tails exhales and forces a smile. "Together, we can defeat Eggman."

THE AFTERMATH

Though it's a lot of information to take in, Tails will happily answer any questions you all may have. He tells you that this warehouse is their base of operations, hidden right under the nose of Eggman's forces. Unfortunately, they need to be very careful because robots are always on patrol - and are specifically looking for the three of them. For now, it's best for you all to remain near the warehouse and travel in pairs, if you do go out into the city for any reason.

You'll find that those closed doors lead to rooms that have been set up for all of you. They're a little lacking, with only two beds, two desks and chairs, and two trunks for you to store your belongings in. Though you do have some changes of clothes in the closets, the designs may not be to your liking. They were picked out for you by three animals who only wear shoes and gloves, so...

Get ready, because it looks like you've a lot of work ahead of you.

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[You know what, fair.]

I could probably help with that if we need more supplies, then!

Oh, really? That would be a great help! I tried to make sure I had enough for all of you here, but I've probably overlooked some stuff.

[Nodding!]

It would be nice to stock up on more clothes, and maybe some bags so we can carry supplies better... And of course, we'll have to keep a good stock of medicinal supplies.

Yes! Once you guys are a little more used to the area and how to get back here, you're free to explore the city as you'd like. Just be careful!

I'll be careful, I promise!

Since your friend's the one who picked everyone, does that mean you know our names, but not how we look? Or...

Yep, that's right! Sonic knows more about you guys; we really only had time to exchange the absolute basics before he had to run off again.

Then allow me to introduce myself properly!

I'm Rio Takeuchi. It's nice to meet you, Tails!

It's nice to meet you, Rio!

Now that that's out of the way- could you tell me a little about what you have set up here?

Oh, sure! I've got surveillance of the area surrounding our current location here, just to make sure we're not ambushed or anything.

[He points out the monitors showing all the different cameras. Every single angle of the outside of this building is carefully monitored.]

I've also got all of your worlds' coordinates and locations here, [the monitor full of numbers] and I've been working to figure out what's causing some problems with some of your shard. [The monitor with the gemstone.] Among a lot of other things.

[no seriously, there are SO many monitors here. tails is so damn busy.]

Just what are the shards, anyway?

They're... Well, they're essentially a part of the Master Emerald. It's made up of seven Chaos Emeralds, and these shards are pieces of those.

More accurately, they're pieces of ones I made myself, since Eggman obviously has the real ones. But they function pretty similarly!

You made copies?

Yep. It really wasn't easy; it took a lot of trial and error and I was working off of very limited knowledge... but they do work! Maybe not perfectly, though.

[sorry about your random powers and whatever the fuck raven's is doing to him,]

And you really just gave them to us and hoped it would work...?

Well... Yeah.

[he did his best ok :( ]

I understand being desperate, but what were you planning to do if it had a negative effect...?

Doing whatever I could to undo the process and make sure you guys could return to your worlds safe and sound, of course.

[Under her breath:]

That's so irresponsible...

[Just what have they gotten themselves into??]

[SORRY RIO.............]

I suppose there's no helping it now.

Do your friends have any devices that would let them contact us again once they're back in range? Or do we just have to wait to see if they show up again on their own?

Both of them have communications devices I made, yes. They should be able to message me, but Sonic has a habit of forgetting to do that and just showing up...