Amy’s systems identified the object Rouge threw as a miniaturized EMP device only a moment before it went off, and without enough time to fully engage her electronic shielding. Her frame was still largely protected against such an attack, even with only partial shielding in effect, and it would only prove even less effective in the future as both her hardware and software would quickly adapt to better counter such attacks in the future, but the damage had already been done.
For a moment, the roboticized hedgehog glitched out and several of her systems temporarily went offline, including her holomorphic projector. Consequently, her friends were able to witness the sudden pixelation of her previously ‘normal’ and very ‘Amy’-like appearance and the reappearance of something else, something only one of them it seems had been the first to suspect (but really wished she hadn’t or at least that she hadn’t been correct).
In place of their friend’s, obviously, very well-cared-for fur and spines and carefully coordinated dress and accessories…it was all just metal, metal and tech: a chrome veneer, articulated metal limbs, though still with a spiky ‘hairdo’ and even red ‘shoes’ and a red ‘headband’, green LEDs, and all otherwise almost mockingly pink.
Rouge couldn’t help thinking to herself: “Oh, Eggy, I knew you were one sick bastard…but this is taking it to a new level. Once we’ve dealt with this…thing…you’ve replaced her with and found the real Amy…and we better be able to still find the real Amy…we’re going to have some words.”
The bat-winged jewel aficionado had seen plenty of messed up things in her life, far more than she really cared to think about, but seeing this metallic imitation, or rather metallic mockery, of a sometimes silly but otherwise very dear friend…it upset Rouge in ways she didn’t know were still possible.
“Ta..Tails…”
The glitched, buzzing utterance from the metallic abomination brought Rouge back to the present (rather than the, very painful, future she was planning for a certain rotund doctor), and she tensed up.
“The ‘fake Amy’, ‘Famy’? Hmm, I guess that works. Though, maybe only to myself. I’ll probably have to come up with some other appropriate title for it if I feel like speaking to it directly anymore (‘Famy’ might not sound dignified enough for one of my nicknames, too childish, maybe). Anyways, the ‘Famy’ is recovering much more quickly than I expected…but it looks like it is still having trouble.”
Rouge couldn’t help smirking a little at that, pleased that the tiny device she had ‘picked up’ somewhere had proven its usefulness.
“Sh…she’s wr..wrong…I act..tually am the re..real..Am..my.”
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Rouge could admire the robot’s commitment to its role, even if it was largely pointless now. No one would believe the metallic double, complete with a ‘voice’ that was now alternating between static-filled buzz and some synthesized voice that could vaguely be said to be based on that of their favorite pink hedgehog, was the real thing. Honestly, what worried Rouge the most was just how well this ‘Famy’ had been doing until then.
Oh, sure, it made some big mistakes, the whole not breathing thing perhaps being the worst…but it was clearly learning, adapting. When Rouge had drawn close to confront it, before it wandered off into this ‘abandoned’ base to do who knows what to her naive, little techie friend, she’d almost doubted her earlier conclusions and been half-wondering if nothing serious would happen after the EMP device went off. Instead, she’d thought she likely might have to apologize to her friend for scaring the...stuff...out of her (Tails was around after all, and she better keep it clean, even in her thoughts, just in case she might slip otherwise).
Anyways, the ‘Famy’s’ appearance and mannerisms had become just that good. Her ‘spines’ and ‘fur’ had just the right amount of ‘dust’ and ‘dirt’ and ‘wear’, as had her ‘clothes’, to convince someone that she had just been recently running through the woods. Her ‘breathing’, including the ‘hyperventilating’ as Rouge had begun to lay on the accusations, had seemed...very...real. And, Rouge expected if she had taken the time to ‘accidentally’ spill something on the Amy lookalike, this time, an entirely believable ‘stain’ would have been able to be found right away.
And the ‘voice’, damn, the voice, it was perfect…had been perfect. It had sounded just like the real Amy’s, and this really upset the bat. What had Eggy done to make that possible, to, while it had still fallen short in some very important ways, make something that could so mimic the appearance, the voice, even the mannerisms of Pinky so well? It seemed that by the end of the day this twisted imitation might have perfected its act so well that there would have been little to nothing left for Rouge to spot (and was already proving capable of causing her to doubt her own conclusions). What if she hadn’t been there the day before, when it was apparently still getting its act together (quite literally)?
If it had been only the ‘Famy’ of today that she’d met, she might have missed it, let alone the ‘Famy’ of next week. Really, it seemed like the usual case of Eggy being so eager to get at Sonic and his friends that he rushed out another project before it was fully ready. If ‘Famy’ had just a little more time to get prepared for its role, Rouge wasn’t sure what the result would have been…but she doubted it would have been something she'd want to see.
Even now, it had come awfully close to getting Tails away from his friends and protectors. Well, it didn’t matter. They were going to deal with this ‘Famy’, get the real Amy back, and then educate the doctor on why there were some lines you just did not cross….She’d make sure of it.