S. Square Hair - Extreme Makeover: Mobian Edition

[AnT]

"Robotnik??" gradually turning to Liz, "Who's Robotnik?"

[SHM 128 III]

Now, it was Liz's turn to laugh.

"Robotnik... You mean Eggman?" she snickered, "You think we work for Eggman? Okay... Last time I checked, that whacko only worked with robots. Do we look like robots to you?"



"Well... There was that Robo-Sally the Knothole Freedom Fighters talked about..."



"Okay... Matt? I still have no idea what the heck your talking about, but I have a feeling you're not helping my case right now."

Liz folded her arms and glared back at Sirrus.

"And where'd you find this guy, anyway, the nuthouse?"



This was getting way too weird for the young wolf. Liz would have to have remembered Sirrus. As much as he hated to admit it, there was no doubt about it: This Liz was some sort of fake.

Turning his attention back to the manhole cover, Matt finally managed to flip it over... landing right on Sirrus' tail.

[Lans]

Sirrus gave a howl of pain, jumping forward and luckily yanking his tail out from under the cover...unfortunatly landing within Bill's punching range.

[AnT]

"I'm afraid I shall not let you leave until Matt is cured from the delusions that you gave him, sorcerer!" said Bill as he raised his clasped hands to hammer Sirrus on the head.

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[Lans]

[dice=6]

However Sirrus recovered from the shock quickly, grabbing the wrists attached to the incomming fists and using Bill's own momentum to throw him into Liz.

[dice=6]

"A little more watching what you're doing next time, runt!" he growled at Matt, "Now get down there!"[rand=3624042440663159430268369783357771822366273865189723844651174467674]

[AnT]

[dice=6]

Being surprised by the counter strike, Bill was now a flying projectile towards Liz. "BEWARE, LADY LIZ!!! HU-ZUUUUHHH!!!"

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[SHM 128 III]

[dice=6]

Liz calmly sidestepped the flying armadillo and watched as he went tumbling out into the street. Clearly not amused by all of this, she marched right past Sirrus and up to Matt as he began to climb down the manhole.

"Okay Matt, look..." She growled, quickly losing her patience, "You have five seconds to tell me what the friggin' heck is going on before I start breaking things, got it?"



"... ... ..."

Trying his best to hold back tears, Matt just turned away and began to go down into the manhole.



"Alright, that's it... One... Two... Three... FOUR..."

And then Liz's cell phone rang.

"What?... For the love of Chaos..." Liz moaned as she pulled out her phone and answered it, "Yeah?"



"Hey, Liz, it's Shaun... Listen, you're on break now, right? Could you bring something back to the house for me and Matt? The fridge's empty, and..."



"Wait... Hold on... Did you just say Matt was with you?"



"Um... Yeah, Why?"



"Shaun... Matt's right in front of me, acting like a total and complete retard."



"... ... ... I'm looking at him right now. He's on the couch screaming about how hard Adventure Mode is in Brawl."



"Then... If he's with you, then who's..."

She looked back at "Matt," who had paused in his escape to listen to Liz talk on the phone.

"Listen... I'm gonna have to call you back later, 'k?"

She quickly hung up... And then slammed her foot down on Matt's fingers, which were just holding onto the rim of the manhole.

"Okay, pal... If you're not Matt, then who the FRICK are you!?"



Matt simply bit down on his tongue hard and tired not to scream in pain.[rand=52641578968154074540918968268063425921244740305277936527371250864]

[Lans]

Unfortunately, in her anger at the wolf below her, she had forgotten about the one behind her. However this would be quickly rectified as Sirrus picked her up by the back of the neck.

But luck was on Liz's side, as he'd managed to overhear at least part of her phone conversation, and what he'd heard made him just hold her instead of snapping her neck.

...Ok so lucks just a little bit on her side.

"No, I believe the question is, who are you?"

[AnT]

As for Bill, he crashed in an passing cabbage cart. "Vegetation...has cushioned me yet again."


"MY CABBAGES!!!!" the old cabbage man cried, extremely upset of his destroyed cart and smashed cabbages.

[SHM 128 III]

It was a good thing that Liz had used up all her adrenaline on Matt and was now too exhausted to fight back. Otherwise, Sirrus would be facing the wrath raging hormones at around this point. As it was, however, Liz simply glared at him, knowing that he could probably kill her right now if he wanted to.

"Look..." she began, speaking through clentched teeth, "I have no idea who you or... 'Bizarro-Matt' over there is, but I do know that I'm not a spy for Eggman or whatever crazy bunk you guys thought I was. I have no clue what you mean by 'robian' or 'roboticizer' either, okay? And Matt... We met in high school! We went out exploring with Nate and Shaun before eventually winding up in Station Square! We didn't do 'missions' for the 'Wolf's Refuge'!"

She wiggled her feet in protest, trying to get down from Sirrus' grip.

"Now, I suggest you let me down before I either: A) Scream really loudly or B) Kick you in the nuts. I gotta get back to the salon and explain to Mrs. Oldbag the window you smashed and somehow manage to keep my job in the process."



'Bizarro-Matt,' meanwhile, would probably have liked to 'hang around' for Liz's entire speach, but to no avail: After having his fingers stepped on, he was obviously unable to hold onto the rim of the manhole for much longer. After a few moments, he lost his grip and fell into the sewer with a barely audiable 'thud!'

[Lans]

Of course, Sirrus didn't have much of a clue what SHE was talking about either, but he wasn't about to stick around for the conversation, as judging from the sounds behind him, that armadillo might be back any second.

With a growl he tossed her aside and jumped down the manhole to joing Matt. "Come on, lets move!" he barked, picking a direction and starting to head down the tunnel.

[AnT]

"HOLD!!!" blasting out of the rubble of wood and cabbage, Bill charged back in the alley. He wasted no time to jump in the manhole, landing in the wet tunnel filled with 'you don't want to know'.

"BLAST!!!" he shouted, knowing that he lost them.

[SHM 128 III]

Matt ran to keep up with his elder packmember, but the entire time he was carefully holding his right hand, wincing in obvious pain.

"Sirrus... I think she broke my hand..." the wolf finally muttered, holding his hand up to reveal some of the fingers bent in unnatural positions, "I think I'm gonna need medical help."



Liz was none too pleased about being tossed aside like trash, although it was preferable to being killed by a complete stranger. Rubbing her sore neck, Liz stumbled to her feet and made her way over to the open manhole. Sadly, a cautionary glance down revealed that neither "Matt" nor that other whacko were still around.

Bill was down there, though, not that he was much comfort.

"Bill..." Liz sighed, "Please tell me you can still see them..."

Granted, she would have been glad to never see those two nutjobs ever again, but even more, she wanted to figure out what the heck was going on. Besides, she would rather do that than have to face Mrs. Oldbag with a shattered window and a crazy story on how it happened. Who'd believe that it was caused by a pair of wolves who somehow mistakened her for a "robian"?

Then again, this was Station Square... Weirder things have happened...

[Lans]

Sirrus muttered a curse. This was turning out to be one heck of a day! "...Hold out for a couple minutes, kid," he told Matt, "Once we've lost this guy, I'll see what I can do."

[AnT]

Sadly, he could not. However, he was able to hear the watery footsteps echoing across the tunnels. "Aye, Lady Liz! The soiled waters aides us to our foe! Let us continue our rescue for your dear one!"

And with that, Bill charged after the sounds, "Hu-ZUUUHHH!!!" not the believer of stealth, he is.

[SHM 128 III]

"Yeah... That would be good..." Matt replied, cringing as he nursed his hand, "But how are we gonna get that crazy armidillo off our tails?"



Liz was now faced with two choices: Jump in the sewer and join the insane Bill in the persuit, or go back to the salon and face the wrath of Mrs. Oldbag.

So, Liz picked option number three: just stand there and fume because she was too frustrated to do anything else.

"Yeah, Bill, you go after those two. I'll just stand here and not get strangled by that freak again."

[Lans]

Sirrus was about to answer when he spotted a large valve nearby. "...We improvise. Pulling Matt over to a nearby exit ladder, he helped the other wolf onto it. "Hang on tight, if this is what I think it is..."

Getting a good grip on the ladder himself, he reached over and yanked hard on the valve's wheel, spinning it open. At once a loud rushing sound filled the tunnel...

[AnT]

And that sound reached Bill's ears as he came to a stop. "What sort of frightening sound is this?"

What rushed at him was as powerful as a hundred football players. A river of water charged at him, washing him through the tunnels.

If Liz could hear, Bill would be screaming as he passed by the manhole above she was near, "Nature has defeated me AGAAAAAAAIiIIIiiiiinnn....."

[SHM 128 III]

Matt was more than happy to oblige... Or at least try to. Having one hand effectively useless at the moment meant that only one rung on a ladder was keeping him from being washed away from the powerful current. Thankfully, he was still able to make use of his other arm by wrapping it around Sirrus, someone who, from what Matt knew, was probably stronger than the ladder anyway.

Now it was just a matter of if the ladder broke...



Liz wasn't paying particular attention to Bill: she was too busy diving out of the way of the manhole. You see, when water blasts down a sewer with such high pressure, it's not going to just pass by an opening like. Rather, the end result was a giant gyser blasting two stories high in the middle of the allyway, drenching Liz and everything else in the immediate vacinity. If she wasn't (mostly) aware of the situation, she would've probably assumed that Chaos was attacking again. Who knows what those that weren't so "informed" were thinking right now...

[Lans]

*Squeeek...squeeek...*

Fighting hard against the current, Sirrus slowly turned the water valve off, and eventually the flow of water tapered off, allowing them to relax a moment.

Spitting out some water and giving himself a slight shake, he looked over at Matt and said. "Well...I don't know about you...but I don't want to do that again any time soon."

[SHM 128 III]

"Yeah... Agreed..."

Matt shook the water off his fur and looked up at the ladder leading back to the streets.

"So... You still think this is some elaborate Robotnik trap, or is it safe for us to climb back out?"



"... ... ..."

Liz was now soaking wet, and really, really ticked. That crazy duo wrecked the salon and got away, leaving her drenched in the process. With no other options left, she did the only thing she could think of: return to the salon and try to explain everything to Mrs. Oldbag.

"This is so not worth minimum wage..." she mumbled as she walked off.

[Lans]

Sirrus shook his head, but not in a 'no' way, in a bewildered way.

"Runt, I don't really know what the heck's going right now," he admitted.

[SHM 128 III]

Glancing back down at his injured hand, Matt walked up and began to climb the ladder as best he could.

"I think I'll take my chances..." Matt replied, "I mean, really... If Robotnik really went through all the trouble of setting a trap like this up, would he really have a fake Liz that thought I was absolutely crazy like that?... And crush my fingers..."

He absent-mindedly tried to pull himself up the ladder with his bad hand before being painfully repremended for it.

"Gah..." the wolf moaned, "And being able to go to a real hospital would be nice, too..."



It wasn't long before Liz finally returned to the salon. Already, a huge, plastic tarp was covering the area where the front window used to be, obvious evidence that her previous "adventure" had been noticed.

"Well... Here goes nothing..." Liz sighed as she opened the front door, "Except my job..."

[Lans]

The larger wolf just slung Matt over his shoulder and started climbing them both out of there. "Right...but whatever we do next, we need to get a clue as to what's going on."

[SHM 128 III]

As if being wet and smelling like a sewer wasn't enough, Liz was greeted with a blast of cold air as she walked into the air conditioned salon. Now shivering from the cold, Liz was in perhaps the worst condition to be defending herself from Mrs. Oldbag.

"Man alive..." Liz grumbled, "What I wouldn't give for a warm bath right now... And some aromatherapy."

Looking around, Liz realized that Mrs. Oldbag was nowhere in sight. She probably went off to report the damage to the police or something... Which would make it all the more awkward if and when she returned and saw Liz back, soaked and smelly. She began to eye the gigantic hairdryers near the back of the salon. They were normally used when a customer was getting a fur wash or dye and needed to dry their whole body off. Maybe she could use one of those to take care of her current situation?



"Yeah, I second that motion."

Letting himself be carried up the ladder, Matt watched as they approached the manhole cover.

"I hope we don't pop up in the middle of a street..."

[Lans]

Sirrus snorted. "The way our luck's going? It'll probably open up right in front of an oncomming hovertruck."

He hauled them up the ladder, and pushed open the grating above them, mentally preparing himself for whatever might be beyond, then poked his head up through the opening...

"Chao?" said the little creature less than a foot from his nose.

((For the continuing adventures of Sirrus and Matt, please turn to Station Square Chao Garden - Weird Trip))