Unrecognizable

~Chapter Twenty-Two~

As He dropped the white stuff back where it came from, a few figures came running up to Him. The first was Iskall. Worry painted his face and his eye was wide as a saucer. He spoke, out of breath, very quickly. "Grumbot! Are you alright? Are you damaged anywhere?" Grumbot quickly checked over Himself and shrugged.

"Yeah, I seem to be fine," he confirmed. Surprisingly, He was pretty much unharmed for the height he had fallen. What is this stuff? Iskall gave a sigh of relief as the other two figures stepped up. One of them He had seen a few times in passing but had never formally met. The other He knew far too well. 

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Citrus's POV-

Hang on a second, is this who she thought it was? It couldn't be. What? After seeing the spectacle of what had just happened, Citrus and Stress rushed over to where a robot was standing with Iskall. Since when was this reality? She had to believe that this robot person was Grumbot; the screen with digital eyes and moustache was impossible to mistake. Her tail lashed as she stared up at the now-humanoid machine. "Mrow?" She would never get used to forcing those sounds out of her mouth. 

But Stress seemed to know exactly what was going on. "Hello, love," she began, clasping her hands together excitedly. "You must be Grumbot. Iskall told me about your new form!" Since when did someone know something that she didn't? The cat was feeling awfully left out. 

Grumbot's screen blinked as He turned to Stress and nodded. He gave a wave. Iskall explained that Grumbot, for whatever reason, couldn't seem to talk without being asked a question first. If there weren't other people around, Citrus would've laughed out loud right there. That's rather useless, isn't it? Having pushed aside the fact that she was in the dark about such an important thing, Citrus found great amusement in this. But what's more, she found great interest. Now, the blaze from earlier was certainly something, but this was a whole new story. Had Sage and Xisuma already known about this? Surely not. They would've told her. Right?

But she soon realized that she'd have to get this robot's attention somehow. She needed to grill Him a bit. Alone. She got to her feet and mewed loudly, causing Grumbot's-- Stress and Iskall were whiskers-deep in a conversation-- attention to turn to her. She flicked her tail in a silent 'follow me' and silently dashed off, ducking behind a nearby ice spike. 

After a moment, Grumbot followed. He came around the corner, His eyes narrowed. He crossed His arms and presumably waited for Citrus to speak. "So," she began. "You look different." Grumbot nodded slowly. "What's up?"

"Oh, the usual, wandering around, falling from great heights into this white stuff, not being able to escape you," He replied. His voice held a bit of a yell. What was up with that? It was like He was a child trying to keep His voice down but failing miserably. It was quite amusing. "Where's Sage, eh?" His automated voice was laced with sarcasm and annoyance, and Citrus could tell that He probably really wanted to murder her. So why didn't He? That was what she wanted to know.

Not that she particularly wanted Grumbot to murder her. That wouldn't be wonderful.

"Oh, he's off somewhere," Citrus dismissed with a wave of her tail. That wasn't important at the moment. Well, it wasn't important to her. She didn't know and frankly didn't care if Grumbot felt it important. "But no matter. How long have you... been like this?" This was a genuine question, even if she sounded like she was mocking the other. She was honestly curious. 

"Since earlier today," the other admitted with a dry voice. "But that doesn't matter much does it?" Citrus always had a great time ticking off Grumbot. He was so easy to get flustered. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Iskall." And with not so much as a backward glance, He turned back around and began to walk-- stomp, even-- back to the others.