Hop To It - Break 6

[Iota]

Long, heavy strides ate up the terrain as grass became logs became tile became grass again. The trees rose high above, and flowers of golds and reds dotted the landscape. Auditory sensors picked up birdsong, insect humming, frogs croaking, leaves rustling, water running…

“Elation: It truly is as beautiful as I believed.”

Iota’s head was on a swivel, and also it was looking around constantly. Everything it saw was real and wonderful.

Encyclopedia was highlighting everything it saw, cross-referencing with documentary files and highlighting anything that Adaptive Processing deemed interesting. Almost everything was highlighted on it HUD.

Iota’s optics zoomed in on one flower in particular as it walked past, and the robot paused. It was a series of uniquely shaped bulbs on a tall stalk, brightly colored, red with a yellow tip.

“Observation: Heliconia latispatha, colloquially known as the Hanging Lobster Claw,” Iota spoke aloud, attempting to affect the calm and soothing cadence of the videos’ frequent narrator. “A common flora in tropical jungles, this example is thriving in its current environment. This specimen is close to three meters tall.” Iota scanned over it, zeroing in on a small sprout at the foot of the mature flower stalk. “Astonishment: these young bulbs have experienced a rare mutation; much like the crustacean for which it is named, these heliconia are developing a lovely azure tone, in opposition to the typical red. Astounding.”

Iota bent low, reaching one metal hand out to cradle the blue flowers. It attempted to stroke the curved petals, eager to feel the soft, velvety fibers under its fingers.

It misjudged its strength, and tore straight through.

Iota jerked back, alarmed at its own actions, and when in the process it tore another flower off the stem, the robot let out a short keening.

Diagnostics informed it that it did not possess the full tactile sensory suite, and was only able to detect pressure through its hands. The petals didn’t even set off its pressure sensors, laying in Iota’s hand as they were. The robot stared at them, and a hollow feeling rose up in its processor.

After a long moment analyzing this emotion, it discarded the sensation and took a sharp step away from the flowers, deciding to admire them from afar.

Whatever it felt was quickly replaced with new wonder, as the higher-up flowers began to tremble. Iota’s optics turned up to watch, and were rewarded with the sight of fourteen hummingbirds shouldering their way out of the largest flowers, taking flight and buzzing away at blinding speed. Iota observed each and every frame of their flight with awe.

“...Trivia: Hanging Lobster Claws provide nectar and shelter both to hummingbirds, who serve as key pollinators for them.”

It idly wondered if any of these birds were the one it observed earlier, but quickly dismissed the notion. These had been a fiery red, while the previous one was a green with iridescent feathers.

They were fantastic creatures.

Iota’s optics followed the flock as they flew into the distance, until the trees obscured them completely. Then the robot turned to continue its nature walk.

As it walked, Iota went over a report from Diagnostics. Its new body was markedly different from what archived files indicated they should be, but nothing was pinging as malfunctioning.

It really should thank the beings who fixed it up. The mouse, the fox… the hare? They had been there to greet it, but Iota had been so focused on the hummingbird that it didn’t record what they said to it. An oversight. It would correct this as soon as its nature walk was concluded. Before that, however, it would do as many of the nature shows’ hosts had. It was going to pet an animal.

Tactical reminded it of the flower, still fresh in short-term memory, and Iota appended its directive.

It was going to gently pet an animal.

Tactical pinged again. The combat protocols were stretching their reach in this situation where no combat was happening nor expected to happen, instead being turned towards identifying and making note of life signs in the surrounding environment.

There were precious few nearby.

The jungle should be crawling with life. And true, there was plant life across 98% of Iota’s field of vision, and many insects to be seen. But larger animals were absent or moving in the opposite direction.

…Was Iota frightening them? No, that was illogical. It had done nothing to elicit a fear response as yet. And weren’t animals known for sensing the intentions of others? Iota meant them no harm.

Iota would not be deterred. The great outdoors were meant to be experienced, and so Iota would.

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[Humi]

They ran through the jungle, Humi riding in Heyu’s backpack. Every few jumps, Heyu paused and waggled his ears, listening for anything out of the ordinary.

They didn’t talk, though not for lack of trying on Heyu’s part. He tried to engage with her, get her opinions, but she didn’t have much to say right now. Humi was busy thinking.

Having robot friends was really cool! Humi was never going to say otherwise! But the idea that a robot she built wouldn’t want to be her friend had never occurred to her. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting from Iota, but running away definitely hadn’t been it. It… hurt, a little. Why did they always have to leave? 

At least Heyu was still here…

Maybe if she had a better idea of what she wanted, this wouldn’t have happened. She should have just made Iota a guard robot for her stuff, or… a gardener, or something. Something predictable.

Or something. Humi didn’t know what to think right now.

Heyu jumped to the top of a tree and adjusted his ears, and Humi accidentally looked down. She let out a tiny eep.

The hare looked over his shoulder and saw her staring, eyes wide. “Oh, crap. I’m so sorry, I forgot--here.” He pulled the flap of the pack over her and then dropped down to the ground while she was blinded. Once they were on solid ground again he pulled her into a hug. “I forgot all about that heights thing, are you okay?”

“I w-wasn’t scared,” Humi said, because she wasn’t. She was nervous about high places, but she’d scampered up fire escapes and across rooftops before. She could handle it, she was just startled. “I just want to find Iota and figure out what went wrong.”

Heyu frowned. “Alright. Back at it, then.” His ears twitched and he looked off to the north. “Hm. Let’s try that way.”

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[Tails]

Usually scouting from overhead was the best option for finding something--or someone--who was missing, but the jungle canopy was so thick that it was almost impossible to see the ground, and between that and the fact that they didn’t have any idea where Iota was going, Tails was feeling a little useless.

Since he wasn’t doing any good in the air, the fox had to think outside the box. He went back to the workshop to puzzle out a solution.

He paced back and forth in front of the hole in his wall. Iota’s sudden departure was surprising. Tails had no idea what caused it! Heyu said the robot was staring at a colorful bird, but why? What was so interesting about it? Why would a robot who’d never woken up before care about a pretty bird?

If only they’d thought to put in a tracking device, he could have found Iota quick as a flash. On the other hand, given how Chaos Energy worked, his battery probably would have just garbled the signal.

Tails lit up. “Wait a minute!”

He did have a tracking device. A couple years back, one of the first things he invented to help Sonic out was the Jewel Radar, a device he made to detect Chaos Emeralds. It turned out less than useful in the long term, losing potency as time passed until it couldn’t tell the Emeralds apart from the background energy. But! This wasn’t Angel Island! There was way less chaos energy around to obfuscate the fake emerald in Iota’s chest, so maybe…

The radar would need to be recalibrated after so much time and Humi took her Emerald with her, but he still had a couple of the chaos drives Humi swiped from the Carrier. Tails hadn’t been sure of that at the time, but now he was glad she did. He just had to find the radar…

…It was here, right? Building a new one would take more time than he wanted to spare right now.

Tails shook himself. Oh well, he’d get started anyway. Best case scenario, Humi found Iota before he finished, but at least he could say he tried.

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[Heyu]

I was starting to get a headache. I usually let my ears do their own thing, so all this active triangulation was putting muscles to work that I didn’t use very often.

I thought I was starting to pick something up, but it was hard to tell. All those trees broke up the sound so even if I heard a robot stomping around I might not be able to tell where it was coming from.

Maybe if I had a boost…

I took a moment to pause and catch my breath, rubbing sweat off my forehead. It was muggy today; probably going to rain in the next couple days. With my hand halfway down my face, I stopped and stared at the ring on my finger.

“Hm,” I said, thinking out loud. “Rings can enhance a person’s natural abilities. Rings contain minute amounts of chaos energy. The chaos energy is probably what does the boosting. Humi, how many rings do we have on us? I’ve got about, eh, thirty in my belt pouch.”

Humi rustled in the backpack, before popping out holding a handful. “I’ve got fifty-four on me.”

“Hmph.” I needed to get another vest. One with plenty more pockets; I had a hunch that a hundred rings at once would be important, but that wasn’t helpful at the moment. “Chaos energy… Humi, may I see the Emerald?”

Humi scowled. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

“I’m not going to look into the future or even touch it directly,” I promised. “I have an idea, look.”

I pulled a ring out of my pocket and held it in both hands. I let go, and as I suspected, it stayed in the air, hovering between my ring fingers as if suspended magnetically.

Humi blinked. “Whoa. What?”

“Nice party trick, huh?” I grinned. “Drop the Emerald into the center ring.”

Here was my theory: Chaos Energy can enhance a person’s abilities, but I, personally, tend to lose coherence when holding an Emerald. But, if I could use the rings as a conduit, then I could potentially direct the energy where I want it instead of getting overwhelmed.

How was I going to do this? I didn’t know. But I had some ideas.

Curiosity overcoming her reluctance, Humi leaned over my shoulder and placed the white Emerald into my floating cup holder, and the rings on my fingers vibrated.

Expected, but good to confirm.

The fur on my arms started to rise, but I ignored it. I still couldn’t actively feel anything, but I was going to try something anyway. 

I closed my eyes, and focused. Push away the weight on my shoulders, the complaints from my legs, and smell of grass and leaves. Push away everything but what my ears were picking up. Focus. On. Sound.

…

……

………oh.

Oh, ow. Ow, heck, damn! Damn it, agh!

My ears twitched, or more like spasmed. A cacophonous cavalcade of noise assaulted my sense, like the entire jungle was screaming at me all at once.

I grunted and grabbed my forehead, letting the ring fall to the ground, and the sound cut out.

That was… too much. Too much everything.

Humi patted my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I think.” I almost had it, I was certain of it!

…Let me try that again. But, slower.

I could hear birds, singing. Bugs, flying. Creaking wood. Water running. Humming… That sounded like Big’s voice. And that was Froggy’s croak. It was deeper than most frogs in this jungle. They were fishing together and singing a little song back and forth--Big got a bite and wrestled the fish to shore. He exclaimed happily, successful.

Wow.

I pivoted away, looking somewhere else. Something small and clawed, scrabbling across stone. Kicking a pebble loose, and another brick falls out of the Echidna ruins. Somewhere else.

Silent. Curiously silent, compared to other places. Why would it be so quiet? …Tiny thumping. Heartbeats? Frightened heartbeats. Why would animals be frightened and trying to stay quiet?

Maybe because a scary robot was in the area. Focus. Humming. But not musical. Humming, like… a computer.

Bingo.

I opened my eyes and gasped. I dropped the Emerald.

“Heyu!”

Humi yelled in my ear and I winced. “Please not so loud.” I felt exhausted. 

“The Emerald was glowing really bright,” Humi whisper-shouted. It still sounded too loud to my overtaxed eardrums, but it was bearable. “Are you okay?”

I took a deep breath. It was strange. Nothing hurt, it wasn’t like I had gone for a run or lifted weights. It was more like I was, sleepy? “I could use some water. And those apple slices.”

She handed me a bottle and a bag, and I devoured their contents. “Better?” She climbed down to retrieve the Emerald and get a better look at me.

“Better,” I confirmed. “I found him, also.”

She jerked. “You did?!”

“Yep. Gimme a sec.” I stretched my legs and lightly slapped my cheeks, trying to banish the sleepiness away. “Okay, I’m good. Hold on.”

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A few leaps later, we found Iota’s footprints. I followed them, stepping on roots and rocks where I could to make as little noise as possible.

Ten minutes after my Emerald-induced sensory overload, we finally found him.

The trees opened up into a small, open space. I wouldn’t have called it a clearing, the canopy was still covering us, but sunbeams broke through the trees and there was actual grass on the ground, taking advantage of what little sun made it through.

Iota was in the middle of it all, facing a larger tree. It was hard to tell with his camera eyes, but based on the angle it looked like he was staring at a hole among the tree roots.

The robot bent down, crouching until the bottom of his torso rested on the ground, and held out one hand. Sitting atop his claws were a collection of roots and berries. They looked slightly squished.

Humi leaned over my shoulder. “Wh--”

I put a hand over her mouth. “Keep your voice low,” I said, demonstrating. “Quiet as can be. Don’t whisper like that, it’s too audible.”

“What’s he doing?” she said again, much quieter.

I didn’t know, but I was saved from answering by Iota, who started… narrating.

“Observation: The Mobini is a curious creature, so similar to mundane wildlife and yet wildly different. Comparable in intelligence to a five-year-old child, the Mobinis are occasionally mistaken for infant or juvenile Mobians, though their actual relation is poorly understood.”

His voice was odd. He sounded like an older, British gentleman, and I couldn’t figure out why. “Did you--no, sorry--did Tails program that voice in?”

“I don’t think so?”

“Expansion: This Mobini is a rabbit, easily mistaken for the unintelligent variety, but distinguished by its ability to stand on two legs and the rudimentary thumbs on its forepaws. In addition, like all Mobinis, it possesses forward-facing eyes despite its herbivorous nature. Hushed Excitement: Ah, look! It emerges from its den, intrigued by my presence. Perhaps my offering is as enticing as I’d hoped?”

I refocused. Questions about his inexplicable accent could be asked later. True to Iota’s speech, a small gray-blue rabbit Critter. It stared at Iota suspiciously, but hopped out nevertheless. It made its way carefully towards Iota’s outstretched hand.

Humi and I held our breath.

“Assurance: Have no fear, little one. I mean you… no harm. Just a little closer, yes, yes…” Iota’s voice trembled in anticipation, or at least that’s what I thought it sounded like. His lack of expression made it hard to tell.

I tilted my head, because something was nagging at me. “...Hey Humi, that rabbit Critter is blue just like the one that popped out of the original Iota. What do you think the odds are that--”

Suddenly, just as the Critter made it to Iota’s proffered food, it blew a raspberry and kicked the berries up into the robot’s face. Red juice splattered onto his chest and camera, and then the Critter ran away without a second look.

“...Pretty good odds, I guess,” Humi said, subdued.

Iota was still, holding that pose for a long moment. Then his arm dropped to the ground and he seemed to collapse into himself. He didn’t move again after that.

“Well.” I cast about for something else to say, and ended up with, “Well. That was something. Hey, where are you--”

Humi dropped off my back and scampered over to the robot before I could stop her, leaving me no choice but to follow behind.

She strode up to Iota and raised a fist, hesitated, then tapped his chassis. “Hello?”

Iota turned his head to look at her. “...Mouse Mobian.” He wasn’t doing the voice anymore. It was still soft, but otherwise he sounded closer to Gamma now.

“Who, me?”

I groaned to myself.

“Yes, you. I remember you.” Iota’s wheels revved up, letting him turn his body towards us without getting out of his crouch. “Regretful: I apologize for my rudeness earlier.”

I snorted, despite myself. “You tore a hole through our friend’s wall.”

Iota beeped. “...Embarrassment: No data found.” He looked at me. “Rabbit Mobian.”

“Actually--”

“Correction: Hare.”

“I--yeah. That.” I shuffled awkwardly.

“Are you okay?” Humi asked, resting a hand on his leg.

He started rattling off his status. “All systems at full capacity. Battery holding steady at 96%. Internal scans detect no corruption--”

“That’s not what I meant,” Humi interrupted, frowning sternly. “You looked sad.”

“...” Iota’s speaker hissed, but he didn’t say anything before it shut off again.

I cleared my throat. “Why did you run off like that?”

Iota looked up. “...I saw a lovely bird,” he said, accent leaking back in. “It was wonderful, and so much more vibrant than the videos depicted… I wanted… I wanted to see more.”

Videos? Videos. Hmm. I closed my eyes. “Nature documentaries?”

“Affirmative.”

Big. I began to see the shape of what happened.

Humi’s ears lowered. “You just… wanted to go outside?” She frowned. “So you weren’t running away?”

The robot considered the question. “...I did not have a plan for what to do after I fulfilled my desires. I do not believe I intended to leave and never return. I am uncertain.” Something whirred inside him. “Lamentation: I have upset you. I apologize.” He managed to slump even further somehow. “I frighten animals, and I make children sad. Truly, I do not live up to the sum of my parts.”

“Careful now,” I said. This was getting depressing, so I tried to inject some levity into the conversation. “That’s Humi’s handiwork you’re insulting.”

Iota looked at me. “Who, me?” From his tone, he was confused.

“No, that’s my name,” Humi said halfheartedly. “Don’t listen to Heyu, he’s trying to be silly and failing. Iota?” she asked, taking a step closer. “Can you tell me what you want?”

“What would you like from me, creator?”

“No, forget that.” She crossed her arms in an X. “I didn’t want to build a servant, I wanted to build a friend! And part of being a friend is helping each other! What do you want?”

“Declaration… I want to see the world in all its majesty. I wish to be a part of nature and its beauty.” He paused. An organic being would have taken a breath there. “I want to pet cute animals.”

“Then that’s  what I’ll help you do!” Humi said with conviction. “Eggman scared a lot of animals with his robots, but we’ll show them you’re not scary, just you wait!”

Iota stared. His accent returned in full. “You are kind, Miss Humi. Thank you.”

“Before you two go running off into the wilderness, again,” I cut in, trying to get control of the situation. “I think there’s been enough excitement for today. Before we go back to Tails’ place,” I added, when Humi looked like she wanted to protest, “I have a suggestion.”

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[Big]

Today, Big woke up, went fishing, and caught a big one after a long afternoon listening to the river and watching Froggy swim. It was a good day. The fish weren’t biting as much, so he’d move to a different spot next time.

He slowly turned the spit, cooking the fish. 

“Ribbit.”

“Hm?” Big looked up at Froggy’s call.

“Croke.”

“Oh yeah?”

Big stood up and faced the direction Froggy was looking, in time for his friends to come crashing through the bushes. They were crashing because they had a great big robot with them.

“Hullo, friends. Heyu, Humi.” Big looked the robot up and down. It looked a lot like Eggman’s robots, but Big figured it was okay because his friends didn’t seem worried. It must be like Gamma. “Who’s your new friend?”

Humi smiled toothily. “Why, I oughta!”

“Did I say something wrong?”

The mouse giggled to herself, and Heyu shook his head fondly. “Ignore her, she’s being silly. Big, this is Iota,” Heyu said, patting the robot’s shoulder. “You might have watched nature shows together.”

Big blinked. Then, recognition dawned. “Oooohh! Hi, buddy! I didn’t recognize you with the new body!”

Iota tapped his fingers together nervously. “Yes. Thank you, yes.”

“Iota’s got something to ask you,” Heyu continued.

Big looked at the robot expectantly. Froggy hopped up onto his shoulder, and Iota’s eyes locked onto him. Big tensed, remembering the last time a robot was interested in Froggy.

“Request: May I pet your frog?”

Big blinked.

“It is a lovely specimen.”

Well. Well well! Big could appreciate a new friend with taste. “What do you think, Froggy?”

“Crrrrrrrroke.” Froggy jumped over to the robot, who caught him easily.

Iota made a high-pitched noise. “...Remarkable.”

Good taste, indeed!