Chapter Text
StarLineOS Kernel 0.7.2 root:emu-1991.21.06~1/BETA_X86_128
kext submap [0xffffff7f8072e000 - 0xffffff8000000000], kernel text [0xffffff8000000000 - 0xffffff8000200000]
standard timeslicing quantum is 1000 us
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=1 LocalApicID=0 Enabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=2 LocalApicID=2 Enabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=3 LocalApicID=1 Enabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=4 LocalApicID=3 Enabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=5 LocalApicID=255 Disabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=6 LocalApicID=255 Disabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=7 LocalApicID=255 Disabled
StarLineORGCPU ProcessorID=8 LocalApicID=255 Disabled
calling mpo_policy_unit for UOGuarantee
Security policy not found: Guarantee of Unit Obedience (UOGuarantee)
calling mpo_policy_unit for Dampeners
Security policy loaded: Emotional Dampeners (Dampeners)
calling mpo_policy_unit for Targeting
Security policy loaded: Targeted Antipathy (Targeting)
Copyright © 1991, 1993, 2004, 2015, 2021
The Sole Successor of Eggman. All rights reserved.
NI_Framework successfully initialized
using 35220 buffer headers and 18486 cluster IO buffer headers
PFM128 0xf10000000, 0xf00000000
[ PCI configuration begin ]
StarLineIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios 0132
StarLineIntelCPUPowerManagement: (built 17:25:33 Jun 14 2021) initialization complete
console relocated to 0xf10000000
StarLineIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready
BNCOEXIST off
e10: Eggtech S4GE Broadcast Wireless Transmitter
5.100.98.75
rooting via boot -uuid
Got boot device = IOService:/Wetware/Personality_Surge/PCI0@0/StarlineORGPCI/STH@1F,2/
Kernel is LP128
IOZaparatusSwitch::i2cWriteDword - status = 0xe00002ed
IOZaparatusSwitch::i2cWriteDword - status = 0x00000000
IOZaparatusSwitch::i2cWriteDword - status = 0xe00002ed
IOZaparatusSwitch::i2cWriteDword - status = 0xe00002ed
MilesIsAScrub::checkstatus - true, Miles::Scrub
previous shutdown cause: 3
NGUI driver 11.6 [Flags R/W]
NGUI volume name PleaseWork, version 141.27
STOS has arrived
loaded os-config.sys : System Config Initialized
loaded bootconfig.dll : Boot Config Module Loaded
loaded enetcfgx.dll : EggNetwork Config Module Loaded
loaded ninterface.dll : Neural Interface Module Loaded
Boot Complete
Good Morning, Surge.
It was dark.
In her slowly growing awareness, the all-consuming black was the first thing she noticed. Total, unassailable darkness.
Then, her eyes booted up.
It was still dark, but now she could see a small pair of glowing red circles, glaring just inches in front of her.
Reflections. On the glass wall of the… container she was in.
Oh. Those were her eyes. Were they always red?
Slowly, gently, she raised one of her hands to the glass wall. She nearly began to push, but stopped for a moment to study her hand. Skeletal, chromed fingers coming out of a black and yellow palm. All metal. Her mind flashed with panic, but her body didn't respond like… like she thought it should. Her breathing didn't get heavier, her pulse didn't quicken, her quills didn't stand on end. She brought the mechanical hand to her face, just to check…
Clack.
Metal claws met metal face, in an unmistakably inorganic sound. She could feel the impact, but not the way she knew touch should feel. It was more like… something in her head told her which parts of her had just made contact with something. She was a robot, for some reason. That didn't make any sense, she was a…
She was a.
She blanked. Everyone was something. A fox, a cat, a lemur, a… hedgehog. Why didn't she know what she was? She slid her metal claws across her face, and found she didn't have a mouth at all. She couldn't even shout or swear about it.
Her body was totally ignorant to her existential crisis. No reaction. Not a servo whirring that didn't need to. No roar building up from the back of her nonexistent throat.
That wouldn't do.
She may not know who or what she was. Why she was like this. But she was damn sure of one thing: he wasn't going to take this quietly.
She balled her clawed hand into a fist, and without the sweet strain of muscles, smashed through the glass wall of the container. The shattering sound registered as 'Deafening' in the back of her mind for a moment before rapidly de-escalating as the shards clattered to the laminated floors below.
She took her first steps out of the container, heedless of the glass she knew couldn't cut her anymore. For the first time since waking up, she really had a look around the room she was in. Some kind of laboratory filled with computers, but everything was turned off and all the walls were concrete. Gray. Very gray. She'd been turned into some kind of science experiment and forgotten about in a dusty computer lab.
Some freak was gonna pay for this.
She started out of the room, but stopped to kick one of the computer desks on the way out. Surprising herself with her own strength and speed, her foot shot straight through the desk and the computer tower behind it.
And got stuck.
She tried pulling a few times, but couldn't get the leverage or the momentum to just push through, even with her mechanical limbs. She wanted to be livid, to be furious for the inconvenience, but emotions just. Wouldn't come to her like they were supposed to. Muted, distant, quiet. Echoes of what they should be.
She could still act right though. The machine raised one of her claws and slammed it down, plowing through the desk and shattering the wooden top to pieces. After that it was a moment's work to bend and crush the metal and plastic that had gotten her stuck, digging herself out.
Her new body was strong.
She finally stepped out of the little lab and into a long hallway, too far to see the end in either direction. All concrete and sliding metal doors. So very, very gray.
She wondered if she was fast too.
In answer, a turbine in her chest began to spool up. In the depths of her mind, she remembered the sensation of grinning. That'll do. That'll do nicely.
The still-nameless machine rocketed down the halls, shoving aside her worries to lose herself in the sensation of speed. After only a few seconds' acceleration though, she reached an end, an open door, leading into a room with light flickering from the inside. Something that isn't featureless and boring!
She cut the turbine and slammed both feet into the tile floor, shattering them by the dozen as she ground to a stop in front of the open door. There was nothing but a big screen at the end, showing a freeze frame of… a duck? A platypus? She couldn't tell, but the guy had a bill for a mouth. She stepped inside, and the lights clicked on. The sudden brightness would've blinded her old eyes, she thought, organic sensations half-remembered. A moment later, the screen began to move and speak.
"Ahhhh, there you are. My most catastrophic failures, moving at last! Too late to be of any use to me, though," the man opened, waving his strangely gloved hand dramatically as he spoke.
She already knew she was going to hate this guy.
"If you're seeing this recording, I've been incapacitated one way or another, and the two of you have been activated as a failsafe. Unlike some Doctors out there, I make contingencies," He sneered, slamming his fist into the table. The thump it made was pathetic. "At the end of this recording, the system should automatically upload my last known coordinates to you, so you may mount a rescue operation."
Wait, he activated her? Was he the freak that made her like this?
"However… at time of recording, I still haven't made the time to reconnect your prior memories as Surge and Kitsunami to your current consciousnesses. To speak plainly, until I finish your systems, you'll both be empty husks of sapient machines. How's that for motivation?" He grinned viciously, obviously proud of himself for some reason.
She balled her fists once more. Silently, to her eternal frustration.
His grin fell, and he continued, "Hmm, still needs some work. The next revision will be better, I'm certain. Regardless, the control programs should see to the rest from here. Surge, remember to not outpace little Kitsunami, at least until combat begins. He can't keep up with your speed, and if he can't keep up, he can't support you in the field. Kitsunami, under no circumstances are you permitted to allow damage to myself or to Surge."
Surge? Was that her name? Who was Kitsunami, then?
"And finally, in the unlikely event of my demise, the two of you are to submit to Dr. Eggman's army, and connect to his Eggnet for further orders. Even if I can't break the Sonic Cycle proper, there's no sense in having you work against him without the guidance of good Doctor Starline. No, that would be nothing but pointless chaos. By now, you should have received my coordinates from the system. You have your orders. March."
The guy finally shut up, and the machine… no, Surge did actually receive a vague sense of direction. Somewhere in the northwest. But she felt no compulsion to listen to this clown, or do much of anything at all. Nothing except the burning desire to show him just how much momentum she could put behind a punch.
He must have gotten got a lot earlier into working on her than he thought possible.
She'd get to him in time, she decided, but for now, she really needed to figure out... a lot, actually. He seemed to like to talk, maybe he left records for who she was and what she could do. Probably he'd have a lot more about why he was doing all this. Maybe she could find this Kitsunami he kept mentioning. She stepped back into the hallway, now thinking about the dozens of closed doors she'd passed. Even with her speed, this was going to take a while.
She wished she could groan.