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Memory Lane is the first Story Mode in Sparkplug 2, although five other Story Modes are also unlocked at the start. It focuses on Emit, Time, Orbitius and Caesar.
Prologue[]
Dim Arypmet was not the blandest town. While it looked similar to what one would expect Ancient Egypt to look like, the mishmash of neon lights and its mechanical inhabitants showed that it is quite a modern city. Some would describe it as “Ancient Egypt, except it’s science fiction”.
A strange-looking robot was dashing, or rather, floating, in the streets of the town. It was a “scrap robot”, a machine usually meant to be in a scrapyard, left to shut down on its own. Looking at it made this fairly clear; it was levitating above the ground, but was so rusty it looked more brown than the grey color it should have been. It consisted of a head and what looked like a satellite dish floating above it. One half of its face was broken, leaving nothing but a black void visible. The other half still had an eye, which had a glowing purple iris and black sclera. One would think it was possessed by a ghost.
This robot was trying to find the entrance of the residence of the richest person living in Dim Arypmet. Known as the Tempyramid, this futuristic pyramid was the house of Orabella Jostley, a fifty-three-year-old woman who usually wanders around controlling a robot known as Orbitius.
Orbitius was one of the most wonderful robots in the world, being composed of multiple floating pieces, with her arms being made of disconnected rings. Most of her body was made of dark steel, but she had yellowish-green accents. Her head had two spikes on it that ended with glowing spheres, and she had a total of five neon eyes, although these were for show. Her spherical torso included her core. The robot had no legs, but instead had a large sphere for a lower body; she floated above the ground. Her hands were little else than metallic orbs, but this did not matter as Orbitius could simply make objects levitate around her. Orabella Jostley was a reclusive person, who spent her recent days caring for a robot she met two years ago: Emit.
Emit was not as advanced as Orbitius, but she would still baffle the average person. She resembled a girl, with her mechanical suit including “hair” made of metal, which even included rotatable pigtails. Her limbs looked like spines made of steel, which gave them high flexibility. Her lower and upper torso was separated by another of these steel spines. She wore what looked like a jacket of sort, which was made of metal, like the rest of her body; in fact, the jacket was actually part of her.
Orabella Jostley’s life was not perfect, however. She had a very shady past, which she tried to keep a secret, but even today, nasty rumors surrounded her. And the broken robot knew some of these rumors were true. That was one of the reasons why it wanted to meet Orabella. And so, the scrap robot knocked at the Tempyramid’s door. Orabella, or rather, Orbitius, soon opened the door; Emit could be seen behind her, looking at the eerie machine with curiosity. Orbitius soon began speaking.
“Scrap robots are not welcome in the Tempyramid”, she said, like if it was a reflex. “If you’re looking for a refuge, it is not here that you will find one.”, she continued. “We don’t repair scrap robots here either”, she added. Orbitius then closed the door before the scrap robot could even say “Wait!”.
A spark of anger opened in the machine. It couldn’t let Orabella get away this easily. It decided it should take revenge on her by taking away what she loves most; Emit. The robot she treated like her daughter. However, the machine also knew Emit was innocent. And it didn’t want to outright harm anyone, as it would make it a hypocrite. But then, it had an idea. It would tell Time, Emit’s twin brother, all the dirt it knew about Orabella. After all, if he knew that Emit was with someone like Orabella really was, he wouldn’t want his twin sister to stay with her.
To a regular person who does not live in Dim Arypmet and the surrounding places, the concept of robots having a families may seem outright ridiculous. However, these robots are so advanced they are sentient. They can think, feel emotions, and have friends and foes. Therefore, it’s only natural that robots would start adopting concepts such as families, especially when they started making more sentient robots themselves, which they considered their children.
After some more floating, the scrap robot found Time, who was sitting in the shadows; he was a pessimist, the kind of pessimist that thought other people were screwed up; indeed, it considered both humans and robots as people, an observation which makes more sense when one considers most humans never go outside in the region, controlling “mechas” from a distance instead, as there is far more diversity of bodies. Time, at one point, looked very similar to Emit; however, as they received updates, they got different interests. They rarely had a chance to meet these days; therefore, they were now quite different.
Time was a black and white robot, with one half of his body being painted black and the other white. One of his eyes was therefore white, while the other was black. His limbs were not connected to each other with Emit’s spine-like structures, but instead with rotating structures similar to stopwatch knobs, which could also be seen on his shoulders. His parts in general were bigger than his twin’s, but were also less flexible. On his torso were two clocks of opposite colors, and his lower body was essentially an extension of his torso, designed to look like a robe, but actually being one solid part; instead of walking, he hovered above the ground.
It was time for the scrap robot to tell Time everything it knew about Orabella Jostley. And it did.
Playable Portions[]
- The "Scrap Robot" (F0R3(A57) is playable during the sequence where it goes to the Tempyramid. The goal is simply to reach the Tempyramid in the Dim Arypmet stage.
- Similarly, when the "Scrap Robot" is trying to find Time, it is playable, and the goal is to find where Time is located in Dim Arypmet (his location is randomized, but he isn't hard to find).
Chapter 1 - Emit[]
Someone was standing in the middle of a kitchen, in a house that would look warm and cozy if it was not a little too warm; effectively, the room was surrounded by flames, with no escape in sight. The person was terrified, unable to go anywhere. But a strange trio of robots then came out of the flames.
These robots were all fairly similar in appearance, consisting of a panel-like face with a large claw behind it, resembling a claw machine’s “pincer”. They hovered, lacking legs or wheels, in a circle. The main differences between the robots were their faces. One had two long eyes tilted toward each other, giving it a sad appearance, and had two spherical structures containing a yellowish-green liquid in the middle of its face, along with a spike on top of its head. Another had two circular eyes, placed in an unusual vertical fashion on one side of its face, with a column of “blasters” on the other side. The final one had flat eyes disposed in a way similar to the second robot, but had a liquid container that held a cyan fluid instead of “blasters”, along with a C-shaped tube on the side of its face filled with the same liquid.
“You seem to require assistance.”, the three robots said together. “O-of course I do, d-dummies! Do something q-quick; I don’t think I-I can last another m-minute in this f-fire!”, the person in the room said. The robots proceeded to do a strange maneuver. They formed a triangle above the person, with light being created between the trio. The trio then moved down, but the triangle stayed where it was, except it extended down with the trio’s movements; it was as if the robots were “selecting” the person. And then…
Suddenly, Emit snapped awake in her bedroom, which was located in the Tempyramid. Of course, thanks to Orabella’s riches, Emit had an amazingly comfortable bed. Robots like Emit need to power down at times in order to regain their energy, so they usually try to simulate human sleep as much as they can. Additionally, if a robot stayed up for too long, it risked getting glitches and errors, which was very indesirable.
Emit looked around her, reassured. This was not the first time she had such a strange dream. The nature of these dreams puzzled the robot girl; these seemed almost like flashbacks to the past, as Orabella Jostley often appeared in them (although she did not appear in that one). However, Orabella looked twenty years younger, which made no sense to Emit, a robot made around five years ago. Additionally, she never saw that kitchen, nor did she see such an intense fire.
Emit then went to the Tempyramid’s kitchen, which looked nothing like the kitchen in her dream. It was luxurious and futuristic to an overwhelming point, although it still looked pretty warm, since the walls were a golden color and holographic torches lighted up the room, giving it the appearance of a temple. She then went to the dining room, and then sat in a chair near a hovering platform serving as a table. Orabella was already there, and was patiently waiting for Emit to come. She made a gesture with her hand, and then food floated to the two on levitating plates.
Besides turning off, which is fairly inconvenient, the second best source of energy for “sentient robots” was, surprisingly, food. Indeed, they could convert nutrients into energy, with next to no losses. While Emit did not have a visible mouth, just contact with her mechanical skin was enough for her to absorb her food. Some robots, like Emit, ate human food, wanting to live as close as humans as possible; however, most robots preferred to eat specialized food that gave them more energy.
Indeed, every year, sentient robots become more similar to people, to the point that, in regions like Dim Arypmet, they are considered part of the population. In particular, since most humans go outside using “mechas” controlled from a distance, it is nearly impossible to tell a human from a robot in a casual conversation. Most robots don’t mind this, but some humans are a bit worried about this, especially humans who live outside the region.
Emit and Orabella discussed Emit’s dreams, a common subject of conversation between them. Orabella seemed to know something about Emit’s dreams that the latter was unaware of. Of course, Emit was annoyed by this, as she wished to know the truth about her dreams. Unfortunately, her caretaker chose her words carefully, and while she tried to extract as much information as possible about what Orabella might know, she couldn’t learn anything new. This frustrated Emit, but she didn’t care that much, as Orabella was very nice to her: in fact, nicer than anyone else. The relation between the two was similar to the one between a mother and her daughter, although they were obviously not related.
This reminded Emit of her creator, Operative. Operative was one of the first sentient robots made, and most importantly, the first one who had a desire to spread his kind. Two robots came before him, but they didn’t care about spreading their race; they were the sentient robots, not a sentient robot, at least to them. Operative, however, considered himself a sentient robot, and wanted more of them to be made.
Operative decided to take matters into his own hands after an odd set of events happened. The house of Operative’s creator was sent flying into the sky, with both of his sons stuck in the residence. While he tried reaching his house, he encountered one major kink Operative had; he considered the robotic race superior to the human race, and straight up denied his creator access to his house. Additionally, he locked the children in the basement floor, and turned the upper floors into his own base of sorts, where he started to built his own robots, some of which were sentient. Emit was one of them, along with her twin brother Time.
While Operative’s creator was fascinated by this new generation of robots, at least from the few bits of information he got about them, he couldn’t let newer sentient robots have “racism”. Therefore, all further sentient robots he made were forcibly built to consider themselves equal or inferior to humans, but never superior. This is one of the few limitations robots still have in their sentience; if a robot wanted to, they could easily kill humans, although they rarely do so, as they consider them people, just like themselves.
Nobody really knows why the house of Operative’s creator went flying up. While some rumorists think it was an accident he caused himself, others blame Operative for it. Additionally, he was quite a controversial man. Not everyone is open to the ideas of AIs with human levels of sentience, after all. What if it went out of control? Fortunately, no major incidents have happened after the Operative incident.
Emit had an encounter with the creator of her creator once; or rather, Imaginative, a robot he controlled from a distance, much like how Orabella controls Orbitius. It was a fairly scary-looking robot, having steel spine-like structures for arms and torso similar to Emit, but with generally darker colors. He had a massive claw on one hand he could use like a magnet, and a “blaster” with six smaller “blasters” surrounding it on the other hand. The most striking part was his head; he had a large robotic jaw and had glowing yellowish-green eyes with purple irises. He had three horns on top of his head, which were curved, giving him a “jester-y” look.
Emit decided to stop reminding herself of these darker times. After finishing breakfast, she went to a storage room, where multiple copies of her body were stored, in case she got damaged, along with multiple copies of Orbitius. Of course, they can heal small wounds like scratches over time. But bigger wounds requires replacing parts to correct.
The mind of the robots is generally not part of the machine itself, being located in various “Nexus”, which are all connected, meaning that even if one “Nexus” is destroyed, the others will stay up and so will the robot minds contained in that “Nexus”. This also means that if a robot is destroyed, they can easily be rebuilt, and they will keep their prior memories. The only exception to this rule are Scrap Robots; robots considered to be in a state beyond repairs, or robots that were unfixable failures. These machines do not have their mind uploaded to the “Nexus”, and are generally left to rot in scrapyards.
Orabella went in this room too, and sat on a chair in the middle of this room, before putting on a mechanical mask of sorts. This mask had various scanners on it, which detected her eye movements, what she spoke, and so on. It was connected to the Orbitius robot, which followed her movements and desires. Essentially, it was much like a “virtual reality” headset.
Orabella and Emit then decided to play their favorite sport: robot fighting! Effectively, when you have two or more robots who can replace their parts at will, robot fighting becomes a possibility. Of course, these robots have an arsenal of different “attacks” they can use. Orbitius and Emit do so by manipulating a substance known as “Psychic Gas”.
“Psychic Gas” is an ability only a few humans normally have access to. These humans release a quirky gas from their skin they can manipulate using their minds, being even able to move heavy objects with it. They can also ignite the gas, giving it destructive potential. Most natural Psychic Gas users are frail, however, and tend to have odd metabolisms. Recently, however, people have found ways to create Psychic Gas without the aid of these humans, and even robots like Emit can use it now. In fact, while Orabella Jostley is not naturally able to use Psychic Gas, she can now use it artificially, and so can Orbitius.
While they both use Psychic Gas to fight, Emit and Orbitius have different fighting styles. At the start of battles, Emit has a power boost, but this quickly fades away. Her attacks in general are flashy-looking, but also very strong. She is also decently fast, outspeeding her caretaker. However, she is rather frail, and due to the flashiness of her attacks, they take a while to execute. Orbitius is bulkier, although she is slower as a result. As the robot takes damage, her attacks actually get stronger. Most of her attacks are inspired by bad luck signs or demon references, to the point of being over-the-top, much like Emit’s flashy attacks. Indeed, Orabella always had a fascination with ghosts and demons. At one point, this was an obsession, but she grew out of these times. Most of the rumors orbiting her came from that era.
Robot fighting was invented by Operative. As a matter of fact, Operative actually built Emit and her twin brother Time specifically for robot fighting. Operative was practically obsessed with the robot fighting sport, and nearly all of his creations ended up becoming battle robots in some way. Operative himself was a very capable fighter, using an axe to hit his foes hard. With his knowledge of robotics, he could repair himself or even alter his body slightly in order to become faster, although weaker.
And so, they decided to have a “1 vs 1” battle. Whoever beat the other two times first would win. They did so in a specialised “battlefield” in the upper floor of the Tempyramid. The room was rectangular, but had a large pillar in its center, with four smaller pillars spread in the cardinal directions around the big pillar. Besides these, the arena was relatively obstacle-free.
After readying themselves, Emit and Orbitius fought in the Tempyramid Battlefield. Emit ended up winning the battle. Orabella was not a sore loser, so she congratulated Emit. Emit then went to her bedroom to look at the rest of their schedule for the day. The morning slot had “orabela’s dum lame chores” written on it, which made Emit sigh. The afternoon looked nicer, however, as they would play a game of “Gungeons and Awesome Mecha Dragons”.
Playable Portions[]
- The 1 vs 1 battle between Emit and Orbitius is playable. Emit is controlled by the player, and Orbitius is controlled by CPU. The battle takes place in the Tempyramid Battlefield.
Chapter 2 - Time[]
Time was buying his daily share of food, preparing himself for Emit’s rescue from the clutches of Orabella. This made him think about how screwed up humanity and robots were. “Of course”, nobody else could understand. He was still trying to figure out why nobody listened to his “superior intellect”, feeling like he was the only sane person in a pile of idiots. He wished girls would date him, but at the same time, he never met a woman who could comprehend his “intelligence”.
Sentient robots were, in fact, capable of forming romantic relationships. Not all of those machines want a partner, but some do. There were even human-robot couples, although these were rare; humans preferred to date each other, and vice-versa.
Although Time was only made five years ago, robots developed a lot faster than humans mentally. While a human will take around eighteen years to reach maturity, a robot only took a year or two in most cases. The oldest sentient robot was made twenty years ago, and he behaved in a manner very similar to a grumpy old man these days. Many people found the amount of progress made the past few years mind-blowing.
Time and Emit spent a lot of time roleplaying when they were not involved in robot fighting competitions. However, they had a tendency to get into petty quarrels, as they had different expectations out of their roleplays. Emit focused a lot on her characters, but had a tendency to give them “overpowered” abilities without giving much attention to their personality. Time, meanwhile, cared a lot about the universe they roleplayed in. His great intelligence could not stand how she glossed over all the details he spent time making; a true roleplayer had to pay attention to even the tiniest element! … At least, according to Time.
Dim Arypmet was a rather average town in terms of development. While it was located near one of the richest cities in the world, said city being called the Marey Matrix, it was actually pretty poor in comparison to it. Operative, along with most of his robots, went to live in said city, but Time and Emit decided to live in Dim Arypmet instead, being charmed by its unique architecture.
However, there was another reason why they went to Dim Arypmet, and it was because of Orbitius; not Orbitius herself, but rather, her name. Even though Emit had never met Orbitius before, she had the robot’s name in her robotic mind ever since she was created. When the twins learned of Orabella and Orbitius’s real existence, Emit went to Dim Arypmet in hopes of solving this unusual mystery, with Time following.
Time finished buying his food and strolled to the Tempyramid, still internally lamenting the state of things. However, when he got close to the building, he noticed a figure that was slightly familiar to him; a robot known as Caesar.
Caesar was, in fact, the original sentient robot (the one that behaved like an elderly person). His black eyes had a faint black glow, and on his head were multiple yellow oval-shaped structures arranged to look much like a laurel wreath. His torso and arm coverings were designed to look like a robe, much like Time, although Caesar’s torso suit was less flexible but more hollow. Additionally, he had robotic legs instead of having to hover. His robe was white, with a red “cloth” attached to him. Essentially, he looked like Julius Caesar was turned into a robot.
Caesar was a prosecutor, and also one of the most important figures in the laws of robot-populated regions. However, he was also quite a controversial figure, being infamous on social media, hence why Time was able to recognize him. For example, Caesar was the one who came up with the concept of Scrap Robots and was the one who ordered graveyards in the form of scrapyards to be built for them. In general, Caesar is the machine Scrap Robots want to meet the least.
While Caesar was the first sentient robot, Operative always got more attention, leading Caesar to be secretly jealous of him. While he was gone, Caesar was generally happier, although still a bit of a jerk. However, Operative decided to see what the outside world was like one day, and got some attention again. Caesar then became a very crabby guy who had a tendency to involve himself in situations he should have left alone.
Caesar also had a “little sister”, whom he seems to care about a lot, to the point he got angry if someone said something even slightly bad about her. Time did not know her name or what she looked like, however, although he has heard his creator, Operative, talk about her; Caesar’s “little sister” was older than Operative, making her the second sentient robot. She seemed to be a much nicer person than Caesar from what Time had heard about her, although she was apparently quite stubborn.
Time decided he didn’t want to mess with Caesar and kept going towards the Tempyramid. However, Time then noticed he would likely have to deal with the old robot anyways, as he realized Caesar was in fact following him. “Sir Caesar, what is it that you want… my… uh… your honor?”, uttered Time.
Caesar said nothing, which was extremely odd. Time started to understand something was terribly wrong. As the two got covered by the shadows of the Tempyramid, Caesar suddenly grabbed Time and pulled him to an alley. Caesar then grabbed a sword out of “hammerspace” and threatened Time with it. “Don’t you dare go in here. We know what you’re up to”.
“Sorry, but I can’t leave my twin sister in there!”. The black and white robot then stepped away, but Caesar stabbed him… or at least it looked like he did. The roman emperor look-alike remembered Time is not named Time for no reason.
Time actually “appeared” 1 second into the past, meaning that unless he was standing still, he would already be somewhere else than what was seen. The robot had the odd ability to manipulate time itself with a variety of methods. He was also able to shoot energy in a couple of ways in order to perform self-defense attacks as well; these included stunning shockwaves and orbs of electricity. Of course, these were affected by Time’s manipulation of time; an example of this were his shockwaves, which hit his foes instantly even though they appeared to expand.
Caesar then created a bow and arrow out of thin air, and launched an arrow at Time as the latter ran away. However, Time proceeded to teleport back to where he was before running away, causing the arrow to miss. Time created an electric pulse in order to stun Caesar, and then actually started running away. Time looked back to see if Caesar would pursue him, but he saw an odd scene instead.
Caesar pulled out his sword, and stabbed himself with it. His colors proceeded to change; his “skin” got darker, the black glow of his eyes became more noticeable and his robes changed to dark green colors. He also became noticeably faster, and seemed more aggressive in general. Time had to flee while the newly-changed Caesar chased him to the entrance of the Tempyramid. Both wasted no time entering Orabella’s “mansion”.
In order to get away from his pursuer, Time used a technique he liked to call Parallel Time. Using his powers, he created not one, but two copies of himself, with the three “Times” each facing different directions. He then dashed forwards, with the copies following his movements in the directions they were facing. As there were three doors in the room Time entered, it looked like he went through all three doors at once; Caesar wouldnot know which one to follow.
After entering their respective rooms, the copies disappeared, as they were only illusions. The real Time looked around, and saw Caesar was not nearby. He then calmed himself down by making a breathing gesture, and started thinking about what just happened. “Great, now my uncle wants to murder me”, the time-manipulating robot whispered.
He then wondered why his “uncle” would want to murder him. After all, even if he was killed, he would just be repaired quickly. He then remembered that the repair station was a fair distance away from the Tempyramid. It was pretty clear for Time that Caesar wanted to get him away from the Tempyramid. He suspected it had something to do with the rescue he was planning to do, but Caesar had no link with both Emit and Orabella as far as he knew. This was a puzzle not even Time’s “cosmic intelligence” could solve.
Playable Portions[]
- The battle between Time and Caesar is playable, starting from when Caesar fails to stab him. The player plays as Time. Time does not have to use the same attacks used in the story and Caesar will usually use different attacks too, although Caesar is hard-coded to use Caesar's Assasination when Time reaches a certain point in the map or when Caesar reaches a set percentage of HP.
- Additionally, Caesar is slightly slower, giving Time an easier time escaping from him.
Chapter 3 - Caesar[]
Caesar looked around himself, being unable to locate his target. “Amazing, now I’ll have to explore this entire pyramid”, he thought to himself. Caesar then used a technique he calls “Caesar’s Revival”, surrounding himself in light as he healed himself back to his normal colors.
Caesar was effectively able to shift between two “phases”; his regular phase, which he called “Caesar mode”, and his “offense” phase, which he called ROT13. While Caesar assumed the function of a prosecutor in the Marey Matrix, he was also part of a shady group called the Cipher Trio, along with “Atbash” and “Vigenere”.
The Cipher Trio was a group of three robots that worked for a mysterious human employer. Unfortunately, nobody besides the employer and the Cipher Trio knew who was the true identity of this person, and the same for their goals. Caesar and Atbash worked as assassins, while Vigenere was called when violence was not necessary.
“Atbash” would rather be called Operative; he was a clone of said robot that shared the same memories up to the moment he was cloned from him. Therefore, he is convinced he is the real Operative, and that the true version is an impostor. Of course, Caesar knew that wasn’t the case, but Atbash was quite a valuable addition to the trio, as he was able to turn invisible and could also copy the appearance of other robots for a short period of time.
“Vigenere”, meanwhile, was Caesar’s little sister, who was perfect and flawless to him. Her head was shaped like an upside-down egg, and she had two long eyes that glowed black, similar to Caesar’s. She also had two oval-shaped “horns” made of a green, flexible leaf-like material. Her head was connected to her torso and arms by wires made of the same material. She had not two, but four arms, each made of extensible green spheres. These arms were very pliable too. Her torso was a large jar-like container holding a green, energy-generating liquid that served as her power source. She moved on a single large green wheel.
As it would be a tragedy for Caesar if such a “perfect” being (according to him) were to kill someone, Caesar made her more of an “arguer” among the Cipher Trio. Like him, Vigenere was heavily involved in politics, although she focused more on energy sources.
Vigenere lived in the Marey Matrix, which efficiently used Tidal power as an energy source, although Vigenere felt like it could use more sources in order to create even more energy. She proposed solar power, hydroelectric power, and, more controversially, nuclear power. She had three workers that took care of developing these power sources, and who were aptly called Solar, Hydro and Nuclear. Much like Emit and Time, these three robots were made by Operative.
Caesar had a specific order around that time; keep Emit close to Orabella and Orbitius. Time was a threat to this task, so Caesar had to keep him away from the “girls”. Caesar, of course, knew the reason why the robot girl had to stay with the rich lady. But it was a secret he was not allowed to tell anyone about, a secret he wished he had never known.
Before the Cipher Trio was founded, their employer used another robot, a spying machine codenamed “F0R3(A57”. It was a scrap robot, or rather, had the appearance of one. However, it had Psychic Gas abilities implemented into it, and it was one of its strongest users, being able to manipulate the weather and teleport around at will. However, it had a rebellious and child-like mind, refusing to kill its targets and often ignoring tasks it was supposed to do. Ultimately, it was replaced by the Cipher Trio, but its movements were still monitored. As it had some bad history with Orabella Jostley in the past, it wanted its revenge, so it told Time all the dirt it knew on the rich lady.
Caesar looked around the room in which he was; there were three directions Time could have fled into, as there were four doors in the room (Caesar was at the back door, so Time couldn’t have escaped from that direction). He decided to look at the room the left door led to.
It was a dead end, being little more than a storage room for various objects Orabella bought over the years. The machine noticed most of the objects looked broken-down, so it was likely that it was actually a “trash can room”, which explains why such a room would be so close to the entrance of the Tempyramid. Caesar looked around the room, but there was no sign of a black and white robot. Just to be safe, Caesar set up a secret camera in the room, and then moved back to the lobby.
Caesar decided to check the room at the right of the lobby. The room was covered in various screens that showed information on Orabella, Orbitius, and her history, although, of course, it omitted nearly all of the dirt surrounding her, as this room was meant to make her look good. The prosecutor knew that some of the rumors around her were true, but that at the same time, this was mainly because she got involved with people she shouldn’t have messed with.
Of course, Time was nowhere to be seen in that room either. Caesar set up another hidden camera in the information room before going to the room at the front of the lobby. It was actually a hall that led to a securised door; only a select few people were allowed to enter it. Caesar, being a rich person, was allowed to enter it. Beyond the door, Orabella’s living space was found, along with most of the rooms in the Tempyramid.
Caesar noticed the time-manipulating robot was still nowhere to be found. Did he change his mind and leave? It then hit Caesar: Time, being Emit’s twin brother, surely must have access to the Tempyramid living space too. This made his job even harder than he thought it would be.
Caesar then noticed Emit was cleaning the pyramid using a broom, looking quite displeased with her current activity. This meant Time had not “rescued” Emit yet, thankfully for Caesar. The girl noticed the prosecutor and seemed weirded out by his presence, although she did not say a word.
An idea then sparked in Caesar’s mind. He moved near Emit, and told her: “Emit, I have something important to tell you.”. “Hmm? What is it?”, Emit replied with slight interest, but mostly confusion. “Time, your twin brother… he’s planning to kidnap you.”, Caesar said in a serious tone. “He’ll use you to get money from Orabella.”, he continued.
Of course, this was a lie. But if he could convince her to stay away from Time, his rescue attempt would very likely fail. However, Emit looked rather unconvinced. “I… Where’s the proof of that? I know my bro, and… I can’t imagine him pulling off something like that.”, she said. “I’m not allowed to show the evidence yet”, Caesar said, keeping his serious tone, “But don’t be afraid. I’m here to protect you”, he told Emit as he flashed a war hammer from “hammerspace”.
As Emit would surely verify these facts with Orabella or Orbitius, Caesar sent a message to the cipher trio using his mind: “Create evidence of Time wanting to kidnap Emit for ransom, and send it to me”. The girl went looking for her caretaker; Caesar followed her, both to keep up his act of being a “protector” and to check for traces of Time. Soon, they found Orbitius, with the evidence Caesar requested being sent to his “hammerspace” just in time.
Caesar showed his convincing, yet fake evidence to Orbitius, who seemingly believed it. Emit watched, but could not tell what was shown exactly. She seemed to not trust Caesar that much, but since her caretaker was convinced, she decided to not mind him around for now. However, her movements made it pretty clear she didn’t want to stay with him for too long.
Orbitius told Emit to hide in her bedroom, which Emit did. She told Caesar to guard the door to the bedroom, but prohibited him from entering it for “obvious reasons”. As Emit’s bedroom had only one entrance, Time would be unable to enter it. Caesar complied, as Orbitius went on one of the Tempyramid’s balcony to think about her history. Time was still nowhere in sight for the prosecutor and the caretaker.
However, Time quickly made his presence known to Emit in her room, as he hid there all along, expecting her to come eventually. She told her to keep their voice down so that Caesar would not hear them. He then explained to Emit that Caesar was trying to attack him, and then started warning her about what he believed was Orabella’s true nature.