Also, to be quite frank, he hated Sliat's parents. They were, simply put, intolerant arses. But hey, you always hate the in-laws, right? Well they weren't his in-laws he supposed. Yet. He probably wouldn't marry Sliat, he thought as he looked at her back. She was pretty, but there was nothing stunning about her like in Cam, or even Palmetto. They shared interests, but how far would that go in a relationship?

"Yo Nic," Sliat snapped him out of his thoughts. "Cover your mouth. Dad protected the my bro and the deroboticizer with radioactivity. Mobians can handle it as long as they don't breathe it in. However, it makes robots malfunction." Nic nodded.

"I'll be fine." he said. But he wasn't. The first step into the room filled with radioactive gas made his eyes roll up into their sockets and he fell unconscious. Sliat screamed and fell into a panic. She carried his body deeper into the room and into a room without radioactivity. One with the roboticizer and with her brother.

It wasn't really a room. It was more like a cavern, with white quartz fragments all around. In the middle was a metal arm attachment with a white gem on it. In the very back was a large capsule with a robot hedgehog entombed within it.
Nic awoke with a start on the rocky ground. His eyes glew white as he looked around. They stopped when he saw Sliat who looked worried. He rose up quickly. Sliat slapped him, daintily for once.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he yelled.

"For making me worry!" she yelled back.

"Oh! Sorry!" he continued to sound angry.

"It's fine!"

"Fine!"

"Good!"

"Good god!" Prof. Fessor shouted happily, as if he'd discovered a huge treasure. "Would you look at that!" he said, pointing to the robot. "He's in mint condition." he commented.

"Alright, time to test this thing out." Sliat smiled.
Her father brought down the glass of the capsule, reuniting the siblings. Sliat aimed the device at her brother, and made a fist, shooting a ray of white light at the robot's chest.

It didn't work though. Sliat took the device off her arm violently and threw it at the wall in the same manner, breaking it. That was all of the deroboticizing research gone. When she realized what she did, she ran to her brother and hugged his lifeless body.

"I'm sorry..." she sobbed.

Nic furrowed his brow. He walked over to the two and hugged them so it was three-way hug.
Then, a bright flash of light occurred as Nic touched Sliat's brother. All of a sudden, the was in contact with a living, breathing hedgehog. Nic quickly backed away from the two.

"Oh... Miley..." the green hedgehog sid softly. "It's gonna be okay." he held her tightly.

Nic couldn't help but smile at the two. He looked down at his hands. How did he do that? It was certainly strange.
The siblings broke up shortly when the elder introduced himself. "I'm Rocket." he said, holding out a hand to Nic. "Any friend of Miles' is a friend of mine."

Later on in the day, Sliat and Nic departed with good feelings.

Sliat had only gotten a few hours with her brother, but seeing him okay was enough for her to feel alright about leaving him behind.
Sliat and Nic got on the plane back to the Metropolis Airstation and from there went to Madgear Airways where they would end up at Madgear. This was a stop that was infested with roboticized citizens. It was literally on government lockdown. However, while Sliat wasn't rich, her parents were from selling new inventions, and money went a long way on the poor South Island region.
The two hoped to find Cam and Peter at least. Or, well, Nic did. Sliat had already accepted that they wouldn't be able to deroboticize everyone. However, she was still going for majority, so while Nic stayed at a motel, Sliat left in search of an ancient Artifact called a Chaos Emerald. A purple one was being kept in the local museum. It wasn't much of a museum though, as it was very torn down and abandoned where the zombots tried to get the emerald(according to the papers).

Sliat had no trouble convincing the guards that she needed the emerald. So she returned with the gem.
"Good job." Nic said, not paying a bit of attention to the girl standing in front of him as he was playing a handheld game device.

"Thanks." she put it on his dresser next to his bed. She plopped down on the bed next to him. Unfortunately it was a one bed room.

Night approached soon and so the two ended up having to sleep together. Sliat didn't mind the idea, but Nic claimed to want to sleep on the floor instead. Sliat wouldn't let this happen though, and eventually convinced him that he'd be better off under the warmth of the covers.

"Sliat?" Nic whispered.

"Yeah." she answered back, affirming she was there.

"Why are we spooning?" he asked, squirming under her hold.

"I'm cold as f*ck. Would you rather me take all the covers?"

"No."

"Then we'll spoon."

Nic snorted. Truth be told, he liked the feeling of spooning with her, but he didn't want to get attached to her.

Furthermore, he hated being the little spoon. So later in the night, he told Sliat to turn over so that he could be the big spoon.
The morning arrived sooner than Nic wished, and they had to get on with their lives. They fought with each other over the sink, they fought over what groceries they needed to get in order to survive, they fought over who would go get them and who woud hold down the fort, and they fought over what movie to watch... but at night, in the bed together they started confessions with no arguments.

"Um. Nic? The reason I always try and assert my dominance on everyone is because I... I don't know. I feel weak... on the inside. Academically speaking, I guess." Sliat whispered as she curled up around Nic, resting her head on his chest. "I don't hate you."

"Same." was all Nic said. All he could really say. He related to her a lot.

At night the next day in Madgear, Sliat awoke, sweating from a nightmare, which in turn awoke Nic.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, slightly panicking.

"I dreamt that you died. That you were killed by the radioactive room back at the Dome..." Sliat gasped out.

"Well I'm here now, ain't I? C'mere," he held her tight. He looked down at her. She wasn't so tough now, was she?

*End of Chapter*