[Mr. Game & Watch]

Tails would find himself held up for a good amount of time before he could actually enter Samus’s lab. About an hour so that the guards at the front entrance could search him for any possible weapons and such. Considering how many gadgets the fox boy had on hand for dangerous situations, it was no surprise that it would take a while for the guards to brief him and make sure that the boy wasn’t in the neighborhood to do some damage to the Life Sphere’s most valued machinery. While it was Tails, one of Sonic’s closest friends, it was still a risk considering that cloning and doppelganger androids weren’t out of the question.

The area that A.I.M. was held up in was a rather dank and unorganized section of Samus’s lab. There were spare parts all around, reminisces of old ROB models, no doubt there to replace A.I.M.’s chassis if necessary. At the back of the room was the machine itself, though it looked no different than it was back in the stadium. It was placed on a station of some sort, a ring on the ground that looked tailor made for the machine to rest in. A small red light on the floor next to the area insinuated it was a charging station of some kind.

In addition to that was a large monitor right behind A.I.M., the display at the moment was a powder blue background with nothing on it, at the moment it was the primary source of light. The monitor itself was propped up by a series of large anaconda like wires, streaming to many different parts of the room, one of them even connecting to the back of the sage synthetic’s cranium.

One additional note about the room was the presence of a certain red clad man that Tails would know quite well, Dr. Robotnik himself. Though he was too busy typing away at a terminal not too far from the rest of the setup to notice the fox boy’s presence. His glasses were glowing from light given off by his private monitor.

[Coolshaymin]

Tails waited patiently and impatiently at the same time for the guards to get done checking his equipment. He should of really thought about this when coming here. He was in too much of a hurry though and it ended up taking longer than waiting. It was a good thing Tails was more patient than his friend or he would of rushed in by now. "No, I am not here to cause any trouble. I want to help with A.I.M... Look, if it makes you feel any better, you can keep my equipment until I leave," Tails tried to reason with the guards since he felt time was of the essence.

It took Tails a bit but he was able to get in. He did not feel he needed his weapons on hands anyway. If worst comes to worst, he can find a way to deal without his tools.

Tails temporarily restricted to Primary Attacks, Flying and programming skills.

He looked at the sage robot that was currently in pieces. He felt bad for it but it was for the best for now. Tails looked around at the complex machinery in thought and to see any current people inside. Who he saw was quite unexpected for him however.

Eggman, the person constantly betraying him and his friends and doing vile acts. How did he get in here? The Security was pretty tight so he had to have permission. Tails knew better than to start a fight with the doctor though. A.I.M. was more important than petty quarrels. "Hello, Eggman. What are you doing here?" Tails asked as it was the first thing to come to mind. He tried to resist any comments that may cause offense, an ability he often had over Sonic. However, Tails also was less trusting of Eggman than Sonic.

[Mr. Game & Watch]

As Tails entered the room fully and made his presence known, a set of piercing red eyes appeared on the big blue monitor’s screen, ones that were quite akin to A.I.M.’s optics.

Doctor Eggman also turned from his screen, slightly cringing at the voice of Tails. While he could tell from his tone and lack of offensive terms, he meant no harm, but the doctor knew better than to trust that on its own. For now though, there was underlining peace between the two of them, for the sake of E Gadd and his alliance he was hoping that nothing went south too quickly.

It was a question that Robotnik was expecting, which told him that E Gadd has yet to make their alliance all too public. Either that or Tails wasn’t aware that their alliance entailed that he was allowed to work within Samus’s laboratory. “Well, let’s see, with Samus being, how should we say, otherwise occupied and E Gadd tending to Mario and Sonic to make sure that they’re not harmed, infected, or secretly clones from their adventures of being captured, right now I’m the only one who has time to make sure this machine doesn’t wipe out its entire mainframe.” the doctor explained as he turned back to his computer, almost half expecting to be karate chopped or assassinated in some other manner once his eyes detracted from the mammal.

“It’s a wonder how this thing has been capable of surviving for so long” the doctor muttered to himself as continued to type code.

“This unit apologizes for any damage done to unit Miles Prower” the red eyes lit up as they spoke, though lacked any sort of sympathetic tone.

“A.I.M.’s internal computer remains intact, its core AI, however, is quite the mess. The damage it took from battle is hardly a deterrent, in fact during the fight it was able to separate itself from the AI before it could corrupt it further.”

[Coolshaymin]

So Eggman was basically making up for E. Gadd's business. That made sense he guessed. After all, it was best to be safe since the ones they saved could be anything. It's a shock they would be kept there so long if the Starvia was as infectious as it was. Tails may of been too busy making up for Sonic's argument time to be a candidate for a substitute... Though Eggman was a member of the Gang Wars so there was that issue with that theory.

Tails gave a look to the monitor showing A.I.M.'s Internal Computer. He was sure it was definitely sincere with it's apology... or as sincere as A.I.M. could be anyway.  The Core AI would of not apologized with how it acted back in the Stadium.

Tails continued to watch and listen to Eggman. He did not trust him entirely but what would he have to gain from lying? It was best to just trust him for now as much as Tails hated to admit it.

Tails really only had one reply at the moment. "Do either of you think it could of been caused by that scene in the base? If I remember the details correctly, A.I.M. and Adell ran into Samus. This caused some sort of system to trigger of some sort. Not sure what it was since I did not see it myself but Adell apparently had to drag A.I.M. out of range of the protocol. Do you think that could of caused some malfunction in the Core AI?" Tails asked. He hated to say it, but given the circumstances and the sound of things, him and Eggman may have to work together on this one.

[Mr. Game & Watch]

Eggman was pleasantly surprised by the lack of neck snapping from Tails, though he supposed that A.I.M. was important enough to the Fox Boy for him to risk by taking him out right then and there. And it would seemed that they would need to collect their minds on this topic in order to see some sort of conclusion, no matter how much he revolted the idea. His genius was unmatched, so it was an alliance if only a temporary one. Eggman really did need to get on the good side of some of his enemies anyway, if he wanted his continued support of the Life Sphere to not also bring a threat of an unwarranted rebellion that is.

“That would seem like the reasonable explanation, if A.I.M. wasn’t more so involved in what happened. That protocol was only an example of this machine’s rather unclean software. So many loose ends of code and out of date protocols. It’s rather amazing that this thing’s core hadn’t collapsed upon itself. As for the cause of the outburst in the Sunshine Stadium, well the internal CPU has kept record of what exactly happened.” Eggman continued and ended off by pointing at the Jumbotron of a computer screen.

“This unit couldn’t handle the loss of creator Samus. This unit removed personality component in order to remove emotional barrier and return to this unit’s duties. It was a logical solution.”

“Yes, and from what I can tell, this machine can’t operate without a personality component, so when that went missing, it returned to its default programming. Unfortunately, its default programming was hardly up to date with its current software. Basically it was a battle bot without a friend or foe setting. The AI could only restrict it so much until the personality component completely corrupted its core. Right now all that’s left is the internal CPU and a horribly corrupted core. The only option at the moment is to wipe everything completely because Samus has made taping into A.I.M. incredibly difficult without her permission. If it continues to operate the way it is, it will not stop until its initial target is eliminated. Which is you at the moment, and even if it does, it will move on to the next thing it sees as a threat. Over time it will corrupt until it is no longer usable, which could be a long time. The spare AI cores, or whatever is left of them are hardly functional, and it would take quite some time before we could repair any of them. Either option will alter A.I.M. almost completely. It will take time before he is fully functional again.”

[Coolshaymin]

Tails was shocked by their explanation. A.I.M. did this to itself? To prevent the worry over the lost of her creator? Not to mention the sloppy codework and all. Then again, Samus's records does not say anything about being an expert at programming or the like so that may be a heavy player in that. Her security was probably top notch though seeing how reserved and independent she seems. Despite that, there was no backup protocol to deal with the loss of the Personality Core effectively. That may of been an oversight in not expecting it to be lost but weird to not have a backup for that.

Either solution sounded like it would take a lot of effort and had a bunch of risks... But having A.I.M. being a murderous robot like he saw was a no go for sure. Tails sighed and looked to Eggman, "Okay then, sounds like you might need some help getting this done then. I suggest we try to repair the spare AI Cores. It is better than rebuilding his mainframe from a memory wipe by us. If we work together I am sure we can get it done to the highest standard and it would take less time. I know we have never been on the best terms, but we both want to fix A.I.M.. Our near equal IQ would be better than either of us alone..." Tails said.

He could not believe Eggman was doing a good deed and wanted to keep an eye on him... But... He also wanted to believe that Eggman could change to be good when it really matters. Sure, Eggman never kept to his change his ways promise before but the stakes have never been as high as on Li. He needed to spend some time and talk with Eggman then he can decide. Maybe Eggman can be more than a bad egg... Though he doubted it, he also wanted it to be true. In this time people had to work together. He could not let old enemies like Eggman get in the way of working together to survive.

[Mr. Game & Watch]

Eggman continued mulling over his computer screen, his fingers still at work while their conversation had been going on. He was not exactly free on time, so he couldn’t detach himself from his terminal and face Tails proper. A.I.M. was a much higher priority to everything at stake, so Robotnik couldn’t just so simply shirk his responsibilities in order to continue his process in the Gang Wars. At the moment those plans had to be postponed, and he knew that Bowser wouldn’t make a move until Eggman made his, for now anyways. King Koopa wasn’t exactly the patient type to begin with.

“I had a feeling you might go for that option. I’ve already begun the process of transferring whatever I can from the corrupted core into temporary storage. Anything that won’t carry over I’ve entered in manually. See what you can make of the spare parts in terms of a replacement core. I’ve checked for backups, but there seems to be none readily available. I wasn’t really expecting to find any though, between having to make the Life Sphere itself, A.I.M. as a whole, and the wealth of gadgets she has, it’s quite astonishing that she’s been able to make it all in only three years, especially with the supplies she’s had on hand.”

“This unit’s backup core was stolen after a break approximately a year ago. Current area is unknown.” the monitor answered.

Eggman’s fist pounded against the keyboard as he ceased his typing. He swiftly twisted around and pointed at the monitor whilst gritting his teeth. “Stupid machine! Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?!”

“This unit’s codex states that unit Ivo Robotnik should not be trusted with such information”

“You just told me this right now!”

“This unit was speaking with unit Miles Prower.”

The doctor casted his hand down and returned to his duties, knowing that arguing over the machine’s faulty logic would lead him nowhere. “Ugh, sometimes I really hate robots…” he muttered to himself. “You know you can’t continue to keep secrets from me if you want me to fix you.”

“Information was not necessary to provide. Odds of backup core being found are minimal and informing unit Ivo Robotnik of it would only cause him to search for it on the Black Market for selfish purposes.”

“First off, I am a being, not a unit. An advanced piece of machinery such as yourself should be able to determine that better. Second, your logic circuits need rewiring.” he sneered as his fingers proceeded to tap away at the keyboard, still slightly steaming over the fact that the computer didn’t trust him, despite the fact he was trying to save its existence in its entirety. In the long run though, he let it blow over. After all, it was merely a being that made its decisions based off a series of code, of course its decision making wasn’t always going to make sense to a human brain. It didn’t take away the fact that it stung.

[Coolshaymin]

Eggman naturally knew what Tails was going to suggest since they have been enemies for so long... But why did he already start preparing it? That would suggest he was planning on doing it himself. Tails looked to the cores and went to look through them.

That is, until A.I.M. revealed something very interesting. Eggman clearly did not know about it either. Tails looked at the cores in thought as they argued a short bit. That backup would be very useful if they could get a hold of it. But it was said to be lost and no clue to where it went. The fox thought it over for a few moments. There must be SOME way to find it, it could make the job a lot easier.

Then it hit Tails as hard as a spring into a spike. If Tails could make a device to track the power of the Chaos Emeralds, surely he could invent a device to find a certain type of coding. Granted, it would only work if the code was similar enough to the sample, but it was worth a shot. "Wait, I got an idea! If we can put important pieces of the code into a chip, even if it is not all of it I could probably modify my Emerald Tracker to detect similar encrypted code from a distance. If we get a powerful enough server, I bet it might be able to detect the code from anywhere. With that backup we would be in perfect shape! It's a long shot, but it's worth a try!" Tails announced his plan. Sure, it may not work but he felt it was one of the best options they had. Besides, despite the unlikely sound, Tails has made a TV out of Paperclips and reprogrammed a super computer using Laundry Detergent and a Toothpick, this can't be any harder by comparison.

[Mr. Game & Watch]

Eggman got an earful of Tails’ plan and thought on it for a moment. Despite the contempt he held toward A.I.M. after being lied to, he was still of a clear enough mind to process it logically. It both made sense and it didn’t at the same time. Whereas Chaos emeralds radiated a powerful energy, which lent themselves to being so easily tracked, an AI Core didn’t. Though he wouldn’t exactly put it passed Tails to invent something that seemed so impossible. No matter how much he could praise himself as a genius, Tails was easily his equal, he couldn’t deny that no matter their rivalry.

“Illogical. Code is not similar to DNA, it cannot be tracked in the same way. This unit deems it a waste of effort when Starvia, Gang Wars, Order of Despair, Sig-“

“There’s no need to list them all. We are aware of all the current events. Besides, your AI Core being loose somewhere out there will lead to even bigger problems if someone has bypassed Samus’s lock on it. Tails is right.” Eggman whisked himself away from the monitor and wandered over to Tails, looking down on his nemeses’ sidekick. “I’ll let you into Samus’s lab and give you free range for whatever she has. I’m sure she’d want to make sure her legacy live on if she were still here.”

“… This unit cannot allow this. The danger is too great for this unit.”

“Enough of your self-sacrificial programming! Or I will reprogram you to accept the help you are given. The fate of the Life Sphere will not be any better if you continue to choose to off yourself for the better of it.” Dr. Eggman snapped. While Tails might have only gotten a small window of it, Robotnik had being hearing for about an hour from the machine of how illogical it was to save it. The suggestion about wiping the core clean earlier was made by A.I.M. itself, the only real reason the scientist consulted Tails about it was because he wasn’t too sure himself which process was more ethical.

“This unit shall comply.”

The egg shaped man sighed and wiped his head with his sleeve. He was getting way too old for this. He shook his head and then pulled out his key card, wandering over to a nearby techy door. “Time is of the essence, grab whatever you need and get out there quickly. I’ll continue doing what I can in case you don’t end up finding it, in which case you can probably continue my work. I might already be gone to war by the time you get back. Depends on how far these thieves went with the core. Do you have any information on them, A.I.M.?”

“This unit was occupied calming the riots after the Game & Watch Statue incident. The thieves barely left a trace. No entry point, no exit point. They made off with the core and a few other classified projects. Unit Miles Prower, do not inform unit Ivo Robotnik of the classified projects.”

Dr. Robotnik face palmed heavily. “Can anyone verify that Samus Aran programmed this thing?” he muttered in defeat of the CPU’s rather lackluster intelligence.

[Coolshaymin]

Tails looked to A.I.M. as it addressed it's concerns. A.I.M. may be right but nothing is possible if you don't try. Tails has performed feats before one can pass off as illogical. It seems Eggman was on his side though and Tails looked up to Eggman. He was right, the Core was bad to have in the wrong hands anyway, this move had more benefits than simply replacing it. It was then that Eggman was about to give Tails access to Samus's private equipment. It would seem Tails was wrong if he was willing to trust Tails with such a big responsibility. If anything, he seemed to know the direness and that this was no time for spite.

Tails looked towards the door feeling the weight of the situation.  Tails heard A.I.M. tell him to keep secret what it just said in front of Eggman. "Hehe, yeah, might need to fix that after I get the backup back," Tails said jokingly. He can't believe he made a joke with Eggman, it seems so weird after their years of conflict. "Okay, I am on it!" Tails said about to run in before stopping. "... And Eggman... It seems I was wrong about you. It seems you really can change for the better. Good luck in those Gang Wars!" Tails said cheerfully before continuing his running into the lab of which very few have entered.

Tails observed the room that few has entered. He was taking in his surroundings but he was also scanning the place quickly for anything that may be of use for later or now.

[Mr. Game & Watch]

Eggman grew a crooked smirk at Tails’ change of heart. Whether or not he fully earned the fox’s trust was yet to be seen, but so far he seemed to be on the right track. Getting in good with Sonic’s sidekick would definitely soften the backlash that his sudden position of power would give him if he earned the Leader position. Not that that was his only reason to be helping the two. A.I.M. was an important figure in the Life Sphere after all, and as he stated before, his AI Core being out in the open leant itself to some very dangerous propositions if it fell into the hands of someone who knew how to work with it. Robotnik wasn’t entirely sure what was programmed into A.I.M. in terms of data regarding the Life Sphere, but even with the best case scenario it was still too harmful.

The doctor began to wander back to the terminal he was slaving over earlier, regaining his role of backup and repairing. It was always strange to him to hear from others of how amazed they were of his own change of heart, hearing it from the fox boy of all people was even more peculiar, especially when most deemed him as someone who was beyond saving, or beyond giving a second chance. If the tables were reversed and he hadn’t changed, he wondered if he would’ve given any of his foes such an opportunity. Probably not. “Yes, it would appear that none of us thought it would be possible” he replied in a monotone as his fingers got back to work. “If anything, I’ll attempt to keep the other two lunatics from doing too much damage to the Life Sphere. Last thing we need is more reconstruction”

“This unit suggests stopping the war before it begins”

“Yes, because it’s as simple as that. I swear without a proper AI guiding you, you sound like a child”

“Unit Ivo Robotnik sounds like a child”

“Point proven.”

Tails would quickly find himself within a small clutter of a place. It would seem that Samus was not the most organized when it came to a time of crisis, then again who would be? The amin counter was covered in various types of machinery, some that would be recognizable as simple tools one could find anywhere in the Life Sphere, others slightly more complex. A few notable things would be the peculiar weapon from the Subspace Emissary that would instantly revert people into their trophy form disassembled, a few monitors and control panels from the Bounty Hunter’s ship, and some stray bits that would make up Samus’s coveted Smashdar, a piece of machinery designed for scanning purposes, so that may be a good place to start.

[Coolshaymin]

Tails looked around the room and was a bit surprised at the mess it was in. He honestly expected Samus to be much more organized than this. Goes to show judging people by appearances is not always a good thing to do. His eyes fell on the scattered pieces of one of those trophy guns the major subspace guys, Wario and Bowser, had. Tails never saw one in person since he opted to sit on the sidelines during the Subspace War. That might be helpful to remember for later but he had no use for it right now.

Then he noticed it would seem Samus already had some bits that seemed to make up some sort of scanning device. That was super lucky to find here. He immediately pieced it together and tapped into it as best as he could. Trying to figure out a coding that would allow it to track other coding.

After what felt like about 30 Minutes he figured he had everything sorted out. Deciding to try it, he took the chip he used to summon his hand cannon to him whenever he needed. These co-ordinates definitely looked to be Tails's Lab where he left it so he did not have to carry it everywhere. It seemed like it would now be able to track coding, now for the real test. Tails left Samus's lab to see Eggman. "Put any distinguishable important parts of the data you can find onto a storage unit. We do not need it all to find the source. I rigged up Samus's Smashdar to track electrical data. As long as the parts are distinguishable for A.I.M. we should be able to find it fast and I will go there right away. Already tested it for my Thunder Cannon," Tails said.