Ruby Hallucinations

Pancaked

When the portal closes, Cheyenne and company find themselves in a giant factory of some sorts. There are buzzsaws everywhere, and factory robots keep the whole place running.

"Well, this is certainly interesting." Cheyenne says as the trio makes their way around the factory. Various scarab robots carry around boxes presumably full of parts while rhinoceros beetles cut some of these boxes open with their buzzsaw horns so other robots can pick them up. Standing in as sentinels are bee robots with flails and railguns in place of stingers.

"Man am I lucky or what? I just saw another opportunity to upgrade my weaponry!" Emily chuckles as she shoots down the bees with railguns, and then she salvages the parts before forging what may be her most powerful gun yet- a powerful railgun that acts like a cross between a sniper rifle and a machine gun. Emily is able to switch between single fire sniper shots and three round bursts for when an enemy gets up close, and to supplement her range, a scope has been created out of the bee robot eyes. She tests out this new weapon by sniping some of the other bee robots still in flight, and then fires her three round bursts at the rhino beetle robots, utterly destroying both of them with ease. She then snipes some of the scarab robots that are carrying around spikes, and then takes those very spikes, forging some of Devin's strongest knuckledusters out of them.

"Now this is cool." Devin chuckles as he looks at his new equipment. "Now to wait for something that'll improve my glide pack."

"That'll probably be a while. This is a factory after all." Cheyenne chuckles as the trio takes off once more, and they find themselves in a strange room. As soon as the trio is inside the wall behind them closes in, and the wall ahead of them does the same, trapping them inside as some platforms get destroyed, revealing a set of pistons! Cheyenne and company just avoid getting squished by them, and one piston remains visible to reveal who's behind the controls.

"I was expecting Eggman, not you!" Cheyenne says as she sees that Metal Jack is behind the controls.

"The doctor told me he was not feeling too well and said I should take control." Metal Jack replies. "Something about the ruby messing with his head."

"I've only been around that thing for mere moments, and I always feel something very wrong with that ruby." Emily says. "What happened to the other robots?"

"The doctor called them back for repairs, but I am not too sure why. The robots seem to look and function just fine." Metal Jack replies. "I may be built for combat, but I do not know how this thing works..." He mumbles as he retracts his piston and starts trying to crush Cheyenne and company with one piston. Eventually the piston Metal Jack is positioned in emerges and Cheyenne rams it, stunning the robot for a few seconds. "OW!"

"Wait that actually hurt?!" Cheyenne asks in disbelief.

"This piston is not as well protected as the others!" Metal Jack replies before he retracts it. Suddenly a bulb emerges and shoots off a series of plasma shots, but they miss the trio. Metal Jack then starts using two pistons at a time, but due to his lack of experience with the trap, he ends up using his piston as well as another one, and Devin and Cheyenne land many hits on him. It's when Cheyenne hits Metal Jack's piston for the fourth time that something goes very wrong as the plasma bulb shatters and Metal Jack looks at the controls with panic.

"What happened?!" Cheyenne asks as Metal Jack's piston retracts and the room glows with a red light! Suddenly pistons begin moving of their own accord, and finally, Metal Jack's piston emerges.

"I think you messed up the controls! I have no control over them now!" Metal Jack shouts. "You have to destroy it completely!"

"Right! Just brace yourself!" Cheynne shouts as she and Devin lay away at Metal Jack's piston, and it's not long before all of the pistons explode. The gaps close off and Metal Jack lands safely.

"I am grateful for you freeing me." Metal Jack says as he attempts to communicate with the doctor, but he gets no response. "This can not be good..."

"What's wrong?" Cheyenne asks.

"I am not getting any response from the doctor..." Metal Jack replies worriedly. "Normally he would respond right away, but I am getting nothing. I have to head back to base and check up on him. If you want to head there as well, just follow this path." He adds as he blasts through the wall, revealing a path for the trio to follow.