[Guild Quest] - Approach on Diamond Dust

The small grey fox stepped out of the equally small, Ultralight Helicopter as it set down in the alpine forests of just outside of Rusty Ruin. He had already undone his seatbelt when they'd made some fair distance onto Flicky Island, and as they'd made their descent over the ruins. He eagerness to leave and disregard of the safety procedures was much to the pilot's chagrin, whos only job was to make sure that the passenger reached the island safely and then make their way back to Mazuri. 

Apparently there were others, more members from the Guild who had accepted the summons to make their way out here to the forgotten island of birds. But it seemed that the grey fox, adorned in a thick, fur-lined sweater, which itself was then covered in a much-too-small lab coat that bulged under the sheer amount of fabric underneath, was the first one to arrive. Others had been offered helicopter lifts, but he didn't know how many had accepted the free transportation, or favored their own means of getting here.

The fox looked around, covering his eyes from the strong draft being hurled down upon him by the chopper lifting of and returning to its home base. What he could see through his squinted, eyepatched vision, was immaculate. To one side; an alpine forest, through which the barely visible forms of old stone structure, dredged from the ocean floor some time ago. To the other; yet more of the alpine forest, which eventually gave way to the white snow sheets of the Diamond Dust mountain range. 

And while the island was credited for its population of Flickies, which had suffered immense losses after Doctor's long-past invasion, he could not hear any of their telltale chatter, even in this beautiful location; the bridge between two zones. In short, there were no flickies around that the young scientist could detect.

The fox ran a hand, covered in a tight black glove, across the top of his head, which also seemed to be covered in a compressive balaclava, the aftermath of some terrible incident. It was fortunate enough that the compression clothes helped in keeping him warm, and he hopefully would not be getting too much flak for looking prepared to rob a bank.

It was a habit, actually, for him to ruffle his own fur when bored, but with the new garments, which covered almost 90% of his body underneath the usual uniform, there was no longer any fur to ruffle. 

Thankfully, he assumed, he wasn't going to be alone for the trek up the mountainside, and even so, he had been given one of the guild's standard edition cold environment survival kit. Which, when you really thought about it, was hardly a kit, and more of a package, it was so large that it had to be stored in a heavy backpack. How many of the other participants had accepted their kits wasn't something he needed to know, as hopefully they were only going to be staying a single night at most; but it was better safe than sorry.

And so the fully covered vulpine scientist sat down with his backpack, waiting for the others to arrive.

Pyra was in the Guild with Julie a few days after the... erm, incident that had occured, resulting in her maiming a hulking beast that was once a poor scientist thrown into an arena. Julie decided, to best help get her mind off it, to try and get Pyra involved in a Guild Quest.
Julie also just wanted a break from the pure insanity she'd recently been going through, herself. She was nearly killed by an alien and a robot with electric powers, one of which was a Guild Quest itself. It was Pyra's turn finally.
Pyra using a Guild Quest to relax and Julie refusing one for the same reason are not mutually exclusive ideas.
At least, not to Julie.

The two young women came to the bulletin board where quests were posted. Given how inactive the Guild had been, it wasn't surprising there was only one at the time. Pyra took a closer look at it...
"Hm... Diamond Dust , eh? On a 'Flicky Island'...? Have you heard of this place?"
"I think I have? As the name implies, it's the home of the Flickies, with around 8 zones to it's name. According to a few travelers' tales I've heard, shortly before the Perfect Chaos Incident, Sonic and his friends fought Eggman there." Julie explained to the best of her knowledge.
Pyra looks closer, and sees warm coat as a requirement.
"What about Diamond Dust? It's apparently cold...? Are you sure you don't want to do thi- ow." Pyra groans as she rubs her side from Julie's elbow jab.
"Don't be such a pussy, Pyra."
"This coming from the actual ca- oof! Stop that!"
"Look, this seems to be much better for you than anything too action heavy, Pyra. While this is your break from fighting, I also need this break! Hey, it might even help you cool down a little-"
"Stop."
"Aw, why are you giving me the cold shoulder?"
Pyra gives her an annoyed, sidewards glance. "If you promise to stop making puns like that, I'll go."
"Alright, I promise!"

And like that, begrudgingly, Pyra signed up and left.
She noticed three other names on the sign-up sheet. Darken and Slash she recognized, even if just barely. Slash was similar to Clash, but she doubted there was much of a connection.
Meanwhile, Darken... that name gave her bad vibes.

Despite her dislike of the cold and the fact she didn't know anything about Flicky Island until today, she opted out of the cold supplies due to it being too heavy and decided to fly by herself. She wore a thick, dark blue, sleeveless jacket and bought herself a world map and a large, black backpack, and she was off...

And after a couple days, she finally made it. Gladly, she wasn't late - in fact, she was surprisingly early! Guess the others didn't leave right away after signing up, much to her relief - she must have just left earlier than everyone? Or... Maybe the helicopters were about as fast?
Though she'd never truly admit it, she regretted not taking the helicopter offer. She could easily imagine the leaders of the Guild facepalming or giving looks of confusion when she suggested she was leaving immediately instead of waiting.
On the ground, she sees a helicopter and an... odd looking figure, wrapped up in some sort of material as if they'd been through some kind of accident.
Why did that fill her with such dread...?
Upon landing, she takes a few steps forward, stretches her legs, and looks around, taking in the warm scenery before she'd have to walk into the cold. She then looks back at the wrapped up Mobian.
"Hey dude, you okay enough to be on this mission? You look terrible, what happened to you?"

Rez smiled as he watched Spiral go back and forth between the opposite windows of the helicopter, the wisp admiring the scenery of the island as they landed.

Once on the ground, Rez thanked the pilot before hopping out. He was wearing an unzipped winter coat. Spiral was also wearing a small wisp sized beanie to keep him warm. A bit more than the simple scarf and sneakers Rez usually wears, but better warm than freezing to death!

He picked up the bag of survival supplies, as Spiral pointed out that there were already two of the other three guild members here.

"What do you say Spiral? You ready for this?"

"Of course! Let's go say hi to the other guild members."

Rez nodded as he walked over to the others. He gave a small wave before saying,

"Heya! I'm Rez, and this here's my buddy Spiral." Rez motioned to the wisp as they gave a friendly wave to Darken and Pyra as well. "Nice to meet you guys!"

An Eggman base on Flicky island? Slash wasn't about to pass this up!

Though, it was a bit of a long way, and in such a cold environment, he was going to need some prep.
Thus, using the lab space that the Guild had graciously given him (And he totally forgot about), he fixed up the original model for Metal Slash, so he could possess it.

He decided to call up his mother, who he knew had teleportation abilities, but as he was waiting for her spell to charge up, he noticed a couple of familiar names on the board.

Rez and Pyra.

He remembered Rez, he was with him during that Genesis situation a while back, but Pyra...
Wasn't that the girl that Clash kept talking about?

And was currently dating?

This was going to be awkward, but also very convenient, he could see what she was like for himself.

_______________________________________

Eventually, a portal would open up in the campsite, as Slash and Samantha walked through.

"WOW it's cold here! Are you going to be alright, sweetie?"

*sigh* "Yeah Mom, I'll be fine, can't really get chilly like this."

"Well, alright, be safe out there!" "Oh, hello Rez!"

And with a wave, she pops back into the portal before it closes, Slash now suffering from slight embarrassment.

"Greetings everyone, hope I didn't keep us waiting."

The small grey fox, perhaps a little warm under all of the clothes he was wearing, considering that they were not yet in the snowy part of their adventure, tried to keep himself poised as he was greeted by the other members of the group. It was an honor to get out here with Guild members. He hadn't seen a lot of activity in the building in quite some time, although that being said, he hadn't visited the quest board in quite some time either.

He was the first to show up, but the rest showed up almost immediately after. He liked them already, they were punctual. He felt... uneasy around the first arrival, the red avian. And while he couldn't put any fingers on exactly why, her first comment ruffled his feathers a little. Pardon the pun.

"I.. yes, I'm fine. I've had some surgery done, this is just to help me recover from the long-term effects." Darken said, rather concisely, as he went to greet the other members of the group. "Hello! Rez, and Spiral!" He turned to the falcon as his own helicopter took off again, disappearing beyond the treetops. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

The grey fox fumbled through his coat pocket before retrieving his guild ID, "Oh, and to the two of you as well." He said to the hedgehog and phoenix. "My name is Darken, I'm a researcher for the Guild." He said, whipping the ID around very briefly for everyone to see.

He was nervous, but tried to at least keep it together and oxymoronically establish himself as some sort of leader.

"You two must be Slash... and Pyra?" The fox asked, looking between the hedgehog and phoenix, then looking up at the mountains above them. "You guys excited?"

Pyra watches as the group piles in, and now with everyone there he notices how unique they all are from one another.
Ignoring rags over there, there was someone with a wisp(and it's always nice to have another bird on board), and... A robot?
Before she could ask any questions to the nice lady that came out of the portal with them, they were already gone. This robot... looked vaguely like Clash?
Darken and Slash were giving her odd, familiar vibes.
As they all give their greetings and Darken aknowledges her and Slash in questioning, she nods with a small smirk.
"Nice to meet you guys, I'm about as ready as I'll ever be. Glad to hear you're fine, Darken." That name still have her bad vibes, and she was starting to pick up on why, slowly putting two-and-two together. Best not to ask now, though...

She looks to the nearby snowy mountains, then readjusts her jacket, taking a deep breath. Ready as she'll ever be, indeed...
As she gets ready to head off, she looks toward Slash. "Would you happen to know Clash...?"

Rez and Spiral gave the other hedgehog a wave as Rez said,

"Oh, hey there Miss Samantha!" He then turned around to the rest of the group.

"I think I'm ready Mr. Darken! What about you Spiral?"

"I'm not ready for the cold Rez. I don't like being cold."

"Oh Spiral, you'll be okay. I got you that little beanie, and you can always snuggle up in my scarf or this new jacket."

Spiral made a grumpy squeak noise before saying, "Mmmph... Okay."

"Oh, Rez! Long time no see, huh?"
Addressing the singular familiar face first, before turning to Darken.

"Yep, I'm Slash Kopis, nice to work with you, Darken."  "Nice to meet with a fellow guild scientist, let's do this thing!"

Slash then looked over at Pyra, an anxious feeling coming from within him. That was certainly her.

...And she was looking at him, shit.

Upon being asked the question, Slash felt slightly afraid to answer, as if he'd scare her off doing so, but he might as well rip the bandaid off.

"Yep, he's my son, it's nice to meet you as well, Mi- erm, Pyra."

Why yes, this band of characters was going to just nicely for the trek up the mountain. Good company, good road-trip. Except of course there was no road-trip here, but there was still a journey ahead of them. It seemed there were relations between the others already.

As much as each of the members seemed keen to get to know each other, they were apparently just as keen to get heading on their way up the mountains. And for good reason, according to the aerial scans, there were 'niks and tech to salvage just about everywhere on the mountainside.

"I'm hoping that his trip is going to be enriching for all of us." The grey fox said, in response to Slash, before adjusting his balaclava a little for comfort, and beginning to walk through some of the trees, on his way to the base of the Diamond Dust peaks.

"Apparently it's only a 5 minute w-" He began, only to be interrupted by something metal tumbling down the aforementioned mountainside and rolling its way to a stop some way ahead in the forest. He was interrupted by the noise, more than anything else, as it was a cacophony of thin metal getting hurled around on the rocky slopes and the slightly soft forest floor.

It looked to be a badnik. Or at least, it looked like it used to be a badnik, with the remnants of rabbit-style ears protruding from two disjointed places in the pile of scrap.

Upon hearing this, she raises a brow.
"But... aren't you a robot or something?" Ignoring the fact a sentient robot could be a father figure or the fact they called that lady his mom(which is even stranger given she's so young), it really just wasn't adding up to her. "Still, uh- it's nice to meet you, Sl- Mr. Kopis?"

She looks back to Darken as he seems ready to head off, but he understandably gets cut off by the sound of metal clanging across the ground. She blinks at it, kinda disturbed by the sight for a couple seconds, before getting over it since it was just a robot.
It still felt bizarrely morbid getting up close to it and looking at it for anything useful.

Hm...
Hm?
Yep, that checks out, the thingamabobb- she had no fucking clue what she was looking for.

"We're taking anything worth a damn, right...? Should we like- tear this thing apart and grab what we want? How useful is this thing?"

Rez was curious what could have caused the badnik to fall down the mountainside. As he follows the group over to the broken badnik, he asks Darken,

"I knew there were flickies on this island, but could there be other creatures here that could have moved this thing? Seems like it would have been too heavy to move for even a few flickies."

Man, this was just going to keep getting worse, huh?

"Ehm, yeah... This is a robot body I made myself, I obviously wasn't always a robot."
"And please, Slash or Mr. Slash is fine."

As they started walking, the broken badnik had appeared in front of them, Slash couldn't help but get excited.

"Only one way to find out!"
He just kinda runs right up to see what he can find.

The tightly-clad fox let himself catch his breath for a moment, a little spooked by the sudden appearance of the mashed up badnik. After what appeared to be an awkward pause, he shrugged, "If any of you would like to try and salvage some thing from... that..." Darken said, pointing to the mess of bundled up metal. "You're welcome to, I'm more here for the intact pieces."

He shook the oversized backpack that was strapped to his back, which only added more to the weight of the countless layers of warm clothes he was wearing to try and retain some heat in the cold ahead, "But yes Rez. Pretty sure it does mean that there's something still working around here. Only thing I can think of is more badniks, but they should all be powered down by now. Plus... Can't think of a reason why they'd throw one of their own down the mountain."

Upon inspection, the metallic hedgehog would be able to find some basic robotics parts; circuit board components, motors, small hydraulics for most of the limbs, and what appeared to be a single, much larger, hydraulic cylinder. Must have been for one of the legs, given that it used to be a rabbit.

"Anything worth keeping?" Darken inquired, expecting a negative answer, but not exactly being condescending about it.

Upon hearing Slash's response, she understood a little bit better. "Oh, alright. A... friend of mine does stuff like that too. Pretty cool."
Hopefully they can avoid further awkwardness as things move along.

Darken seems to show little interest in this machine, which she shared for different reasons, but Rez shared some concerns that were very valid. The idea there was something there throwing around the badniks was... intriguing.
As she looked inside the badnik again, she thinks about it and asks "Where was the flicky stored...? How did the bad doctor get energy from animals?"

Rez took a look across the mountain peaks, before his gaze then sat on Pyra. He stood there looking at her, before remembering something that happened recently. He walked over to Pyra and then asked her,

"Um... I hate to interrupt, but... You wouldn't happen to have a sister named Julie would you? Brown cat, fluffy tail, about this tall?" Rez held a hand up about where he thought he remembered Julie's height being when the two met.

Slash was actually quite delighted to find these simple components, taking out a capsule to place them in.

"Basic badnik parts, but nothing useless!"

Then, upon hearing Julie's question, spins around with the larger cylinder in hand, as if to show her.

"Right in here, he pops them into this thing, which hooks up into the power systems of the robot, and powers it like a..." 
Slash would grimace 
"Hamster wheel."


After that explanation, he'd put it inside the capsule, and turn back around, ready to move again.

The grey fox nods, slightly disturbed by the enslavement of something so small as a flicky, even though his reaction to the enslavement of say -a mobian- would not be so... distressed. He tried not to think about his current situation with GUN. "The Doctor must have made hundreds of thousands of those." He said, a curious eye on the fact that the other scientist wanted to keep one.

Of course a rotary generator like that was good enough as a power source for something with wheels, a great way to conserve energy. But there was the thought, a thought that he wished wouldn't play on his mind as much as it did. He supposed it was simply because of the wheel's previous use inside the badnik they were looking at. That disturbing thought was thus; would Slash re-use it for it's intended purpose? Or repurpose it?

Again, he tried not to think about it too much.

"I-" He began, getting ready to move back out again before another bundle of scrap metal tumbled down the mountainside.

What was going on? Surely this was a mutual thought, and it was certainly one that the grey fox voiced "What... Where did it come from?" He took a few steps towards the edge of the forest to perhaps get a better view up the mountain, but didn't move nearly far enough to get much more view than where he stood beside the first pile of scrap.

This new pile didn't travel as far as the first, and came to a tumbling stop just beyond the edge of the treeline. And it was no ball of wires. This one was cuboid in shape. It... It looked like a Zone Tile? Although which zone exactly it was difficult to tell, as it was stripped bare of all except the framework.

Pyra was listening to Slash when Rez rushed in with a question. One unrelated to the mission, gladly, otherwise she might find it hard to answer, but a question nonetheless.
Julie and Pyra have been talking a lot about recent events in their lives. Pyra's memory was just absolute shit, so it just took a lot for her to remember. She raises a brow and crosses her wings across her chest. "Uh... Yeah? Why...? Are you the one Julie was with when she got shocked and kidnapped?"

After more junk fell down the mountain, Pyra made the decision to go ahead and get a better look. She blasts off into the air with a surprisingly powerful flap of her wings and looks out in the direction of where the junk cake from, trying to see what could be causing stuff to fall...

Rez slightly winced at the mention of that memory. Not really one of his best moments.

"Yeeeah. I'm sorry about that. She just happened to be walking past when a cyborg or something like that came up to kidnap some robot friends of mine. Slash's robots, actually."

When Rez saw the second pile of scrap fall down, he said,

"Ok, something is definitely out there. Scrap doesn't just fall off a cliff for no reason."

Slash kind of grimaced at the conversation Pyra and Rez were having, that wasn't a good time for anyone.

"Yep, Inari stole my robots, I should probably expla-"

And then he noticed the second piece of scrap, on one hand, he was excited to pick another pile apart, but on the other... This indeed was not right, too organized to just be debris.

"Let's find out what's up, then."
Slash then looks up to where Pyra flew, and shouts at her, not too loud though, you never know.

"What are you seeing up there, Pyra?"

The grey fox had began a small sweat, possibly from the anxiety of whatever was going on with all this scrap, and equally possibly from the sheer number of layers piled on top of him. Possibly both. He attempted to wipe his brow, but was halted when the realization hit him that it would all be absorbed into the compression clothing. It was best they move up the mountain before he became a walking wet carpet - by which point he might freeze up the ascent.

Although that being said, whatever was going on here was... important to find out the source of. If it was hostile and they were all in danger, then it wouldn't be wise to simply charge up the mountainside, and if it was benign, then it might be worth investigating the phenomenon for... academic and educational purposes.

As Pyra leapt up above the treetops with a single flap of her wings, the fox moved a little closer towards the cube... or tile... or whatever it was, but was still exercising enough caution to stay within the forest's treeline.

From her vantage point, Pyra might've been able to see the pair of Burrobots disappearing into the cliff-face through some small, circular tunnel. The tunnel itself looked large enough to fit the scrap ball, as well as the zone tile. At separate times of course.

It appeared to be some form of waste disposal chute dugout on the side of the Diamond Dust Mountain-range. Although it wasn't too far up the peaks that they wouldn't be able to reach it by walking, and given its size, it wasn't too far away that Pyra wouldn't be able to spot it.

What Pyra saw was surely interesting - at most a small threat, so she wasn't too concerned about what was immediately in her mind.
She keeps flapping for a bit, keeping airborne as she watches the robots go into the hole.
Interesting.

"Looks like some... scout robots with drills for hands might be doing this - they're going back through a tunnel in the mountain, probably to grab more junk." Pyra calls out loudly for her team to hear, not worried at all of alerting badniks given the only ones she's seen are junk or harmless. It was clear she didn't know the badniks' names, not that she really cared.

Thinking about the fact that animals were inside them was... a little depressing. It wasn't every day you saw a working badnik.

She slows her flaps, letting herself gently back on the ground onto her feet, before looking to the others.
"Let's get going, guys." She says, before walking towards the mountain.
The cold was the least of her concern right now...

"Scout robots? Hmm..." Rez held a hand to his chin as he pondered what to do. He then felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey Rez, I could try and follow the robots, and see where they are going."

"Are you sure Spiral? Remember, they could be dangerous." Rez wasn't sure what was through that hole, and he didn't want Spiral getting hurt.


"And since when are we afraid of a little danger, huh?" Spiral said as he crossed his tentacles in front of himself.


"I guess you're right bud." Rez said with a chuckle."Hey Pyra! I'm sending Spiral up there to help you out!" Rez shouted as the white wisp flew up to inspect the hole the robots had went through.

Slash was a little confused at the news, staring at where the junk seemed to be coming from.

"Burrobots? Why would they be active? This base was abandoned long ago."

As he's pondering, he walks up the mountain along with the rest.

Darken tried to think of the Empire files he was briefed on during the many arduous ours of GUN initiation, and think of the names and callsigns of the badniks... but the name just wasn't coming to him, scouts with drills for hands was going to have to do, and the description worked enough for him. But then the name was offered forth by someone else. The robotic hedgehog once again piqued the bandaged, grey foxes interest. The only robotic mobians he'd encountered were the 'tortured soul' kind, and were trying to kill him. But Slash seemed to be far from a murderous lunatic, and certainly had a wealth of knowledge he'd like to sit down and pick at some time.

Maybe after the quest. During a post-op checkup recovery period perhaps, if he could scrounge a phone number and some spare time from the... well the fox had to admit the hedgehog was more or less a stranger. The only fact he'd been able to base this entire thought off of was that he assumed the hedgehog was well-read.

Mental Monologue aside, the wisp was offering to go after the badniks. Which... was a bad idea.

"Wait, wait, wai-" it was too late, the wisp was up above the treetops, like a flash. Almost made him wonder if Spiral was a white or cyan wisp. The grey fox was having a mini panic attack, in all seriousness. "Rez! What about the hyperGoOn crisis? If those badniks are coming back, Spiral could be captured by them!"

The grey foxes were beginning to be a little shaky, being anxious and damaged weren't a great duo, something he'd hoped wouldn't happen on this trip. It was supposed to be a routine tour of an abandoned empire facility after all.

He had to retrieve a hiking pole from his backpack to stand up straight, and after a few deep breaths managed to gather himself back together, just in time for the phoenix to land back down and begin walking towards the hole Spiral was currently scouting "If we're going to be up there and check it out, we should all get up there asap." The suggestion came out as more of a sigh than any usual speech.

The hole itself seemed fresh, and was hardly well-worn. There were still the hardy bits of rootstock sticking out through the dirt at the top of the hole where a particularly stubborn bush refused to give up growing on the harsh mountainside. There were deep gouges on either side of the otherwise circular hole, where it appeared some scrap metal had been dragged, potentially even a result of the cube that'd been thrown down just moments ago. Over the top of those gouges, were tire tracks, confirmation of the existence of the burrobots, and an indication that their business wasn't done yet.

The actual badniks weren't anywhere to be seen, although not because of any amount of darkness as the tunnel extended into the mountain, but more because of a slight angle upwards in the excavated path. It appeared to go up somewhere, but nowhere in sight from the opening of the hole.