Chapter XXX: Out of the City -Draco

"Well, this is a Maverick ADU-90 manufacturing plant, and a pretty small one at that, but it's run by.....humans. Hmm, stupidity at its best no?" Draco whispered into the comm in his helmet as he hid behind a pair of boxes.

"More like its worst. They're probably in it for the money. Can't really be pro-Maverick if you're human." A woman's voice answered. It was his creator, Doctor Alicia Gold. A rather young female scientist, but ranked up there with the best of them. "Anyway, they don't have an electronic security system, so I can't hack into it to help you out this time. We'll have to rely on the building plans and really good guesses. Unless of course you wanna back out."

"Are you kidding? I hate Air Defense Units! If I can stop them here, all the better. I'm going in." As he finished the sentence, the ground underneath him began to tremble. It was a slight tremble, but enough to get the occupants of the plant talking, and the power was cut. "That was a mild one."

"Yeah, but the early warning system should've detected it."

"Musta been a glitch. Well, I better get a movin' while they're weak." Draco stepped out into the open and raised his arm cannon to fire at the machinery. When he did though, there was only a quiet click and a few sparks that came out of it. That's when he heard the panic and then the order for the men to fire at him. "Uh oh, bad thing!" He jumped out of the line of fire, and began to run toward one of the windows. "Doc! I got a small problem!"

"You think that's a problem? Wait till you look outside."

He dodged the blasts long enough to get to the window and break through it. It was from the second floor, so he had no problem jumping down, and he knew the humans would have to be a little more careful than him. He got up after his jump and began running. That's when he noticed what the Doctor was talking about, and it stopped him cold. He slid up his visor to make sure it wasn't another glitch. "No smog? Bright blue skies? What's going on?"

"I don't know Draco. I've lost communications with all the satellites, the power grid is none existent and I can't contact anybody. That wasn't an earthquake Draco." There was a slight interference, and then it went away. "There, the backup generators have kicked in. Let's see what our surveillance system can show us." During that pause, Draco realized he was still under fire, and continued to run. "Oh my gosh! Draco, look in your visor. I'm sending you a video feed from the surveillance." What he saw almost stopped him again, but he wasn't about to let his enemies catch up. "Freaky!" The city was empty, but intact. The strange thing was that it looked like an island in the middle of a forest. "It's like our city just hitched a ride to another planet or dimension. That musta caused the bug in my arm cannons. Guess it'll never be perfect."

"Oh, well excuse me for not taking interdimensional travel into consideration. Idiot!" She whispered the last part. "Anyway, get back to my lab so I can repair the bug. If my guess is right, you me and a few of those factory guys are the only ones here."

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"There, that should do it." She closed the panel on his arm cannon. "Sheesh, never thought you'd be so high maintenance." She chuckled. "Well, I guess this cancels our shopping trip. Too bad." She could hear Draco whisper a 'yes!' under his breath.

"So what do we do now? How do we get back home?"

"I don't have the answer to everything Draco. We'll just have to figure something out as we explore this place. It's the only way we'll figure it out. Oh, and I sent some helper robots to launch a pair of backup satellites into orbit from the airbase so I could monitor this place. They should have them up and operational within two hours. I'll just take this with me and we could see what's going on." She grabbed a small handheld device with a screen and put it in her pocket. She also packed some weapons and shields with her, and she was all set. "Now come on, we've gotta find a way home."

"Do we have to be so hasty? I mean, at least we don't have to worry about Sigma, Vile, and especially Nova. And all the malls are gone." He grinned. Then she grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out. "Okay okay, but at least put some outdoor clothes on. We're not just walking down a clean hall you know. Don't forget food and such."

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"Wow! A real forest! This would be a great place to study." She said about as giddy as a kid in a candy store.

"Always good at finding the up side aren't you? Well if we don't find something or someone soon, then we may be in trouble." Draco said as they walked through the forest alongside a river. "You sure you saw a village from the surveillance camera?"

"In the distance yes, right along this river. They should be able to help us."

"Or hack us into little tiny bits after administering several forms of severe pain on us. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there." The Doctor gave him an angry look, and they continued on.