Middletown

It has been about 2 days since the day Aquarius and Channelwood teamed up against Middletown and took out the two generators, rendering Middletown cripple for a while. Ra is not as furious as one would expect. He was at first, but he put two and two together. A special type of enemy showed up on the very day both generators went out. One looked like some malfunction more than a purposeful sabotage while the other looked like purpose was involved. The one that seemed to be a "coincidence" just so happened to be the illusive backup generator. The more Ra thought about it, the more he put his anger behind him, realising he was up against a smarter, more dangerous group of people now. A new recruit? A new leader? He's not sure. What he knows is that things have been more hopeful for the enemies of Robotnik and they have new toys. And Robotnik will NOT tollerate failure. This isn't the first time a generator was taken out, but it's the first time backup failed.

Ra thought long and hard about what to do about this new foe while the SWATbots went hard at work to rebuild what had been damaged. He turns his attention to Blipvert. "You have been given upgrades, but this happened while you were busy. We clearly need more surveillance." He growls as he recieves an incomming message. Snivley comes on the screen looking none too happy.

"Greetings, Ra. Robotnik is curious how you managed to allow two generators to go down. It's been two days and you have not sent a report."

Ra lets out a gutteral growl, "How did-?! ....forgive me. Coincidence struck while the Freedom Fighters did. I did not wish to appear weak before his excellence, so I decided I will handle this myself."

Snivley raises an eyebrow. "...most interesting.... very well. You are off the hook this time, Ra. But Robotnik does NOT like being kept in the dark. He likes that even LESS than failure. So be sure you have a report ready by 0900 hours. Over and out." Snivley doesn't buy it, but he will be watching Ra with much interest. After all, Ra isn't the ONLY one who makes plans behind Robotnik's back.


Aquarius

Shelly had gone with Mittens to recover a SWATbot head, but neither of them had success since Blipvert cleaned up what mess might have been scavengeable, much to Mittens' disappointment. But Shelly reassured Mittens there would be future missions. Today, Samuel's new suit is ready and Shelly fully intends to let Sam play with his new toy. And this time around, she can contact Channelwood to inform them of the mission they are prepairing to do.

Shelly calls a meeting at the private meeting hall (Think an aquatic version of Captain Picard's Meeting Room).


Channelwood

Meanwhile, in Channelwood, Katy is waking to a new day, having just done the finishing touches of the monthly maintainance yesterday. Now that the materials they gathered have been put to use and the party has been celebrated, Katy intends to go on another mission. Middletown has not lit up the past two nights, which is a great sign. It's a shame she couldn't lead a follow-up strike, but Katy now knows what CAN be done. And it gives her hope.

After breakfast, she heads for Michael. It's time to figure out what the next plan of attack is...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:40, Sun 18 Mar 2007.

  Mittens has been spending her time getting to know the people of Aquarius.  ^.^  Not surprisingly, she has a particular interest in Shelly and Samuel, but since Sam's been busy she's only pestered him with questions about outer space when she finds him at a pausing point - like meal time.  :9

  Those times she's not socializing, she's busy repairing existing gear and rigging new stuff - namely sunglasses and earplugs for the next time she meets that annoying... whatever-it-was.  >.<

Although Samuel has finished the SWATBot 'suit' which will enable Samuel to 'walk the walk', Samuel has told Shelly that until he knows enough about how SWATBots think he can't try to pass himself off as a SWATBot. Thus the suit would not be sufficient as Samuel is still waiting to hear back from Aquarius' computer expert on how the SWATBot's think. Additionally, Samuel has said that during the joint mission with the Channelwood Freedom Fighters, that his communications bracer had recorded strange pattern of signals from the SWATBots that it hasn't picked up from them before the two SWATBots that were used to make the suit were acquried. Samuel makes it clear that the bracer didn't recognize those short transmissions as being relevant to the mission at the time so it didn't notify him of them till after the mission was over. Thus until those signals can be figured out, a SWATBot disguise is useless since if one can't 'talk the talk' there is no point to try and 'walk the walk', since it will take far more than appearance to fool anyone in Middletown.

Samuel has also stated that all should be needed to figure out those signals is a SWATBot's head as it would contain the memory core and processor which could be analyzed to figure out what those transmissions are. And since Mittens has been wanting a new shield, for which she wants the head of a SWATBot, a good course of action would be to get the head of a SWATBot, removed the components needed to figure out what the 'new' signals are and how to properly fake them, while also procuring a new shield for Mittens using the external plating of the SWATBot's head.

Michael is sitting on a tree branch when Katy approaches. The chimpanzee asks, "Is something the matter?" As Michael hasn't been idle during the past two days, he is currently taking a short break. After all, the daily chores he has around Channelwood need to be done no matter if Middletown is still in the dark or if the city is functioning normally again. As such, Michael has been somewhat busy.

  While others took care of the various minor details of home inspection and repairs that didn't include damages caused by yourself, Joe was writing stuff down.  Of course, things like Journal entries weren't high on his list of writing materials use.  In this case Joe was putting down in writing how to make a particular form of arm protection.

  After all, it would be more useful in the long run if people knew how to deal with that sort of thing if he wasn't around anymore for whatever reason.

Katy headshakes at Michael. "No problems in the past two days. But I don't want our victory to make us lazy either. It's time we discuss a new mission. We've never had Middletown on the ropes this badly before and they haven't shown any sign of being fully recuperated yet."

Shelly says, "Alright then. A mission for the head of a SWATbot. And to be safe, if we can pull it off, more than one would be ideal so as to have sufficient data to compair." She hrms. "Mittens should go with you, of course. She proved she can listen and obey. Right?"

Mittens ideas might not always be the best, but Shelly get the feeling that cat might be eccentric enough to come up with good ideas that would NEVER have crossed anyone else's minds.

"The sooner we can get this done, the better. I don't like having to do two missions at once, but I am pretty anxious to go on a mission against Urser again. Should they ever learn of some of Urser's secret resources, we won't stand a chance against them in the future." She mostly says this as a reminder to Samuel since he's still relatively new here and might have forgotten that Urser is just as real a threat as Middletown. "But if your idea concerning SWATbots is successful, then maybe we can use that same ploy on Urser with their Marinebots."

Michael grins at hearing that there aren't any problems and that Katy just wants to make the most of the situation. Michael then ponders for a moment before saying, "Well any ideas about what the mission should deal with? And maybe those in Aquarius might have an idea if you don't? Even if you do have an idea, it would be best to coordinate our efforts wouldn't it?"

Samuel hadn't thought about making a Marinebot disguise since he wasn't even sure how effective a SWATBot disguise would be. But after hearing Shelly suggest it he considers the concept and the advantages that the suit could be tailored to have such as internal equipment that would be useful in an underwater mission. "That is a good idea, about making a Marinebot disguise. After all there is no one suit fits all, and a SWATBot would look more than a bit out of place underwater."

Samuel doesn't know what secret resources Shelly is referring to, after all they are secret. But he keeps to himself what he thinks of any resrouce that could 'tip the balance of power'. After all, it would no doubt just tick Shelly off as being told 'if the resources can't be secured, they need to be destroyed.' Samuel knows that is what his father-in-law would say about the situation. Then again Samuel also knows that his father-in-law is probably trying to pull every string he can to get a special forces unit sent to this planet to recover his daughter, or failing that make Samuel's life hell for 'failing to protect her'. For the moment, Samuel isn't too upset about the quarantine that the Space Forces put on the Mobian star system to insure the threat of roboticization doesn't spread. After all that is probably the only thing preventing Samuel from having to explain the situation to his father-in-law... and that would be something Samuel fears more than facing Robotnik.

Katy hrms. "Well I was thinking now is a good time to take out some SWATs and use their carcasses to power a deroboticization machine. Then begin deroboticizing some folks." She pulls out a very basic schematic of a SWATbot. "Emerald has figured out how to port power from a SWATbot thanks to some of the parts we got. We may yet get more electricity working in Channelwood too thanks to this. A backup power if you will." So far, all their electricity was provided by the windmill and waterworks. "As for how we could get a deroboticization machine... well I'm hoping Samuel can help out with that. He seems pretty techno-savvy from what I saw."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:47, Wed 21 Mar 2007.

Shelly nods to Sam. "Alright then. Such a small mission shouldn't require much. Take Mittens and anyone else you want should you feel the need for more. Have at it. And, of course, if you think you can get away with a little more, do it. But be sure to let me know what you're thinking of doing so I can know how long to expect you to be. I'll be calling this in to Channelwood so they know to expect you in whatever area of Middletown you plan to attack."

Michael looks at Katy and says, "That sounds like a good plan, unfortunately we both know how easily plans can fall apart due to something being overlooked. And, if Samuel is as tech-savvy as you think, wouldn't Shelly have already gotten him to build a deroboticizer in Aquarius?"

Michael then blinks for a moment as he truly doesn't know if Aquarius already has a Deroboticizer, and if they did then Katy's plan on starting to deroboticize people wouldn't be as far off as Michael fears it is.

Samuel however does consider a few other things that can be done that wouldn't result in Samuel being tossed out into the lake with a hundred pounds of chain and no breathing apparatus. 'Better think of something that won't have them trying to lynch me when its over.'

Samuel shakes his head for a moment as get's an idea and mutters, "I think I can think up something that can be done in addition to swiping a few SWATBot heads." Samuel isn't sure that laser etching a 'Killroy was here' sign with a smiley face on the headquarters in Middletown would accomplish much other than possibly ticking Robotnik off... which is enough to have Samuel try it. After all Samuel has had to 'play nice' with the people he's living among and he's itching for a prank...especially one that could serve as a distraction for getting away with a few SWATBot heads. At least he knows such a sign could be made rather fast.

  Not surprisingly, Mittens is aching for some action and does everything in her power to streamline the process of getting started - namely, quietly following orders with nothing more than a bow or salute - but the time has come to finally add a few words.

  "Perhaps if we attack the area of town that had a water sports store we could get lucky and find a spare scuba set!"   ^.^

Shelly raises a finger... "You know what? Why didn't I think of that? You're right. I was going to suggest attacking a spot that was far from the junkyard anyway since it's not a good idea to appear at the same spot twice. Mittens' idea gives a good attack point that does just that. And it takes care of another concern all at once. Good thinking, Mittens!"

Katy blinkblinks... then grabs her communicator. "Shelly... come in. This is Katy."

Shelly answers, "I was getting ready to contact you, Katy. What's your concern?"

Katy explains the idea and Shelly continues, "Sorry, no. We don't have a deroboticizer. But it sounds like something Samuel would DEFINATELY want to learn how to make if possible." Shelly turns to Samuel since she was following him and Mittens to the moonpool.

Samuel asks, "Regarding Mittens' suggestion, that does require knowing where such a location in Middletown is. And frankly I don't know where such a shop would be." Upon hearing the conversation between Shelly and Katy as Samuel then adds, as he uses his communication's bracer to 'tap' into the conversation so that Katy can also hear him since Samuel knows the frequencies being used. "Naturally I want to find someone capable of building a Deroboticizer, or at least the blueprints to make one. Without one I'll never be able to save my crewmates from Robotnik and escape this world with them using the shuttle. Then all I have to do is sit back and let Markus tap into the Space Force's Quarantine Beacon to transmit a signal to notify them that we need a pick up. If by that time Robotnik has been defeated we could also let them know the quarantine is no longer needed due to the source of the danger being eliminated."

Samuel is a bit curious to know why those in Channelwood are asking if Aquarius has a Deroboticizer. But figures it is probably one of those 'by the way you don't happen to have...' type questions.

Michael shrugs as he hears that they don't have a Derobotizer in Aquarius as Micheal didn't expect them to. Michael then mutters, "Figures that his plans are self centered. If we aren't careful if Samuel gets his hands on a Deroboticizer, he'll probably take it with him into space and not share with the rest of us," as Michael crosses his arms and looks at Katy with a sort of 'I told you so' look on his face.

Shelly adds, "Hey Katy... Middletown was your home right? Well do you happen to know if there was a shop that would have sold scuba gear or something close? And where?"

Katy answers, "You are correct... Middletown was my home. And yes, there was a shop for that stuff. I can meet up with your team and provide a copy of the Middletown map on their way there." She looks to Michael, "Tell Emerald I need an extra copy of the Middletown map quickly. And tell her to focus on the intersection of Green Street and Patomac. All other details are not neccessary for now."

Katy then continues with Shelly, "I'm giving a very undetailed map for now, but the part where the shop is will be sufficiently detailed. We'll work on getting you all a better map after this mission. OK?"

Shelly smiles over at Samuel. "We may not know where the shop is, but as of two days ago, we know people who DO know."

Samuel nods to Shelly as he won't argue the advantage of knowing people who have the information you need. After all sometimes it's who you know, not what you know, that is important. Samuel does seem a bit distracted as he considers how 'going' for scuba gear will affect his desire to pull off a 'Killroy was here' in Middletown.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:18, Thu 22 Mar 2007.

Michael smirks slightly as he heads off to find Emerald to inform her about the copy of a map of Middletown. As the chimpanzee makes use of branches as shortcuts along his way, Michael figures that if nothing else, at least now they now have the basis for a mission to go into Middletown. Since if one set of scuba gear is going to be picked up for usage by those in Aquarius, Channelwood probably should pick up a set or two to make traveling back and forth to Aquarius a bit easier.

Katy can't say she's excited about a mission for grabbing more stuff since they just did that. After all, it almost feels like last mission was a wasted trip. But since the junkyard is so far from where the old sports shop was, she just has to shrug it off. But she can't help but cheer up at the sight of Michael smiling.

Emerald sees Michael coming and in somewhat of a hurry. "Good morning..." she says in greeting but with a slight look of curiousity to her expression. "You seem excited about something."

Michael replies, "Good morning," before he explains the situation to Emerald.

Afterwards Michael adds, "I'm not excited as much as I'm happy that there is something to do other than maintain the village."

Emerald nods to Michael. "I'll get to work on that map right away then..." she pulls out some paper from her desk and gets to work on a quick sketch of Middletown and then a detailed depiction of the intersection as asked.

Shelly gets finished arguing with someone about wether or not she should go on this mission. But the fact is, she has REALLY been wanting to get out some and since she has been busy the past several days, that had not been possible. "I know that fewer numbers is ideal, especially for a mission like this, but I want to come along too. Just us three, Samuel. Me, you and Mittens."

Crucible folds his arms in detest, but can't say anything more than what he's said. He's already made the point that Shelly is the princess and shouldn't be going on missions at ALL, but it's falling on deaf ears. "A princess should see what her people go through if she wants to be a better leader" she says. Hrmpf.

Samuel doesn't comment on the disagreement between Shelly and Crusible. Samuel's personal opinion on the matter is that if a groups leader that leads only from the  rear, isn't a true leader as the leader would have no clue how things are at the front as no amount of reports are a substitute for true experience.

Michael nods to Emerald and stays quiet to insure that he doesn't disrupt her concentration as she works. Michael remains nearby as he is waiting till the sketch is done so that he can make sure it gets to Katy once it is completed.

  Not surprisingly, Mittens very much in favor of Shelly joining the mission but remains out of the argument...  at least, verbally silent.  One could easily tell by her wagging tail and eager smile that she can't wait to get started.  ^.^

Emerald glances at Michael. "It's OK to talk if you have anything on your mind, Mike... I can pay attention." she continues sketching.

In the end, Shelly wins and heads off with Samuel and Mittens. "Alright. Let's see how this goes. I'm anxious to see Channelwood myself..." With that, thanks to the fact they DO have a spare scuba set or two, Mittens can go with Pierson's scuba gear. Just that this mission means she'll get one of her very own.

Michael shrugs and says, "I'm wondering what unexpected event will alter this plan. Last time, the plan was altered by coming across the Aquarius Freedom Fighters, which was a lucky break I'll admit, but luck swings both ways."

Samuel is ready to go as he says, "Well if everyone is ready to go, then we probably should get going." Samuel doesn't let on that if possible he'd like to get a glance at the more detailed map of Middletown that the Channelwood Freedom Fighters have as he'd be able to effectively record it with his cybernetics not unlike how as his captain recorded and transmitted the fate of the Elsydeon crew that Robotnik had captured. And the best part is if questioned on it Samuel can just claim his diagnostic bracer took a snapshot of it and then produce a hologram image of the map.

  "COWABUNGA!" Mittens hollers as she does a corkscrew somersault into the moon pool once her scuba gear is on.  XD  Michaelangelo would be proud.  :P

OOC:  I remember Sonic using surfer dude lingo in the cartoon on a few occasions...  Love out-of-place stuff like that!  ^.^

Shelly wags her tail and likes the idea. In a fashion defying all royal grace, she does a cannonball-style dive into the moonpool and begins swimming circles around Mittens for fun. Yup... she sure has been aching to be let loose.

Emerald says, "Wonder though you may, all we can do is prepare as best we can. It's good to be on your toes, but don't let worry conquer you. Think positive." She holds up the paper, looking at it. "There we are... done." Then smiles at Michael.

Samuel dons his breathing mask and adjust his goggles before entering the moonpool as he thinks to himself, 'what cosmic entity did I piss off to deserve being stranded on this planet with such crazy natives and with my companions enslaved as machines? I want to go home...but not even clicking my heels three times will wake me up from this nightmare.' Samuel then proceeds to swim towards shore with Mittens and Shelly.

Michael grins slightly as he says, "Let's meet up with Katy and see if she's made any more decisions regarding its useage and our involvement in this joint mission with those from Aquarius." Michael then starts off towards where he believes Katy to be although he sticks to the bridges this time to not get separated from Emerald.

Emerald follows Michael to Katy. On the way, wagging her tail in excitement, she says, "I'm still excited about having met the AFF. Say... I never did tell you much about my experience with Overlanders, did I?" At that last part, her excitement wears out a little.

Michal says, "Nope," half-instinctively before what Emerald has said really sinks in as the chimpanzee then stops for a moment and turns to face Emerald and asks, "Wait, you have experience with Overlanders?" as Michael has a clearly confused look on his face.

Emerald nods. "And I told you we would discuss it when we got back to Channelwood so that I would not be talking about the topic in front of Samuel... but I forgot by the time the mission was over."

Michael blinks for a moment as the memory of Emerald telling him that she had experience with overlanders/humans flashes before his eyes as he mutters, "I guess with all that was going on I forgot about it as well. In any case, it would be a good time to tell both Katy and myself once we  get to her and hand over the sketched map," as Michael resumes walking towards where he suspects Katy is waiting.

Serenity.  The water moved, swayed in the dance of currents from the incoming river, but there was nothing there but the water and the earth within it.  Serenity.  The water was warm, comforting in its caress, but able to flow with enough power to move the earth itself.  Yet the water does so with signs, and it would speak its plans to those willing to listen to it.  All it was saying now was the language of the light ebb and flow of the currents.  Serenity.  This was nature in its true form: speaking to its creatures and coexisting.  Offering a motherly warmth to her children.

“Slow.”  He heard the click of a stopwatch from the outer edge of the pool.  “Slow descent, and average ascent.  You’re still expending too much needless energy when you move underwater Hart.”  Nautilus, the older sea bear swim trainer, shook his head in disapproval.  “Your breath control is remarkable, yes.  You’re staying down longer with each attempt, and I’ve no doubt that you could swim the entire distance from the moon pool to the shore.  But the ability to stay underwater is only a part of being a skilled swimmer.  Without better control of your own movements, you’re won’t stand a chance in an underwater encounter with the simplest badnik in Urser.”
“Geez… Go easy on me, eh Gramps?  I’m not half-fish here.” Hart climbed out of the pool, wiping his fur down.  “I’m still quick enough on the surface.”
“Aquarius is concerned with what lies below the surface Hart.” Nautilus sighed.  “It’s been ten years now, and you’re still behind in underwater training.  When the Princess decides to reclaim Urser, you’ll be unable to truly aid her.  Might I remind you that we have no underwater vehicles.  We only have minimal scuba gear and it must go to the most capable when a battle takes place.  How can you expect to help when your speed underwater is the lowest in the group?”
Hart sighed, rubbing his muzzle in thought.  “I’m working it out. I've done a pretty good job on surfacing…  Besides, speed isn’t everything, right?” The deer looked hopefully over at Nautilus.  “I’ve done okay before.”

Hart opened his eyes.  Through the goggles, he could see the lake floor clearly.  He was currently sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and his hands outstretched to feel the movements of the currents.
A slight disturbance draws his eyes upwards as he sees Shelly, Mittens, and Samuel entering the water from the moonpool.  He doesn't fully understand why the princess has chosen to go out now, but he figures that she probably had a heck of a time making a break for it.  Do I follow and keep an eye on her or keep training and hear all about it when I get back in?  His legs have already kicked him off from the floor and he finds himself following them to the shore before he tells himself any answer.  Whatever.  At least it might be cool to do something interesting on the surface again.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:37, Thu 29 Mar 2007.

  Joe's technical literature project was put on hold shortly after he had gotten through the details involving voiding the electrical current safety ratings of killer robot warranties.  He leaned back in his chair, being mindful not to literally lean the chair itself as theres no real point to that sort of thing.  Well, that and high velocity laser and projectile dodging tendencies aside anyone can fall victim to embarrassing and mildly bruising falls in that kind of position.

  "I've got all the bits I need. Its knowing when I'll have the time to myself without an obviously impending mission thats the issue..."  Once more Joe advertised that first sign of madness.

  He closed the book and shoved it to the side of the work desk as he stood.  He was writing the thing so others could read it.  Its not like it would be a huge issue if someone played privacy invasion with it.  He headed out of what counted as his living space.  Unaware that anyone had mentioned the need for maps, so he couldn't point out the nice professional ones of the city from what used to have been gas stations and information booths he he had laying around.

(OOC: Closing a plothole that Joe so kindly pointed out for us. No professional maps available at what was once the gas station for these reasons: 1) That'd be too convenient. 2) The gas station was probabley ransacked during the attacks. 3) Maps only last so long and as much as the FF's use them, 10 years is enough to say the maps are too old. 4) In case reason 3 isn't good enough, 10 years is also long enough for Middletown to have changed significantly enough for the maps to be obsolete. 5) When all else fails, revert to reason 1 and invent your own reason. ;) Still... why I didn't think of this earlier is beyond me.)

Emerald soon gets to Katy with Michael and presents the sketchy map. She doesn't say anything just yet, figuring she will leave the talking to Katy and Michael so that she doesn't have to drastically change the topic.

Katy sees Michael and Emerald coming and takes the map when it's offered. Then holds the communicator up. "Got the map ready, Shelly. We'll be waiting for you." She then turns to Michael. "So they want scuba gear. And so do we. The question is will we send anyone or ask them to do us the favor of grabbing a few extra? If you ask me, I still think there was plenty of luck involved with last mission..."

Once at the surface with the others, Shelly pulls out her communicator and says, "I hear ya. We're on our way!" she starts off towards the Channelwood Village, unaware of the one that is preparing to follow them.

Michael hmms for a moment and says, "I agree there was a lot of luck with the last mission, but it would be wrong for us to ask them to pick up extra scuba sets for us while we sit back in safety while they take all the risk."

As Samuel heads to Channelwood from the lake with Shelly and Mittens, the sensors in both his diagnostic's bracer and his internal cybernetic implants alert him that an individual is possibly following them from Aquarius, although his sensors lose track of the individual when the group leaves the lake for the woods as sound carries better through water than air.

However, Samuel isn't worried as it was either just someone out for a swim and then a walk along the shore, or a guard wanting to keep an eye on Shelly without getting in her way. In either case it doesn't matter to Samuel as long as the individual doesn't get into Samuel's way.

Katy hrms. "Still... minimal numbers is preferable. This time, though, maybe we can do four people instead of six? We'll figure that out when they get here... Emerald? Are you waiting for something?"

Emerald grins. "Well until Samuel shows up, I figured I could tell you two about my experience with Overlanders... I never thought we'd be fighting alongside of one, so I never said anything..."

  Mittens drops the inner tube from around her waist and hides it and the scuba gear under the bushes at the shore...  yes, inner tube.  :P  Walking along the muddy lake-bottom with improvised mud shoes is much slower than swimming.  ._.  To keep her armor from making her sink like a rock, she uses an inner tube!  ^.^

  "Nice moves you got there, Princess! ^.^" Mittens cheers,  trying not to let it show that keeping up with her and a human while wearing heavy armor has left her out of breath.  o.O

Michael turns to look at Emerald and says, "Well perhaps you should explain now before he shows up as odds are he'll be coming along if only to destroy more stuff." The tone in Michael's voice is one that indicates he still doesn't trust Samuel, but the chimpanzee still figures it is better to gather what information is available instead of remaining in the dark.

Due to his daily chores, Valin is unaware of the impending mission, or that people from Aquarius will be in on it. The gorilla's ears perk up at the mentioning of Overlanders by Emerald as he is not far from the group when she speaks up about it. Curious, Valin walks over to the group still carrying a load of supplies that he'll use in the completion of his daily chores.

Emerald puts her fist to her mouth, pondering how best to relay info on Overlanders. So she speaks what she suspects of Samuel. "Samuel being from outer space is not unlikely. Many Overlanders left Mobius thousands of years ago and he could be the decendant of one such voyager. Fact is, he speaks our language, knows a few latin phrases, and has a few other clues of distant reminants from Mobius his anscestors took with them. Samuel doesn't know it, and would fight it if he found out, but he is an Overlander."

Hart surfaces at the shore with a slight gasp for air, just catching sight of Mittens moving off into the woods.  Too slow again... dang it. he thinks as he slides himself out of the water and pockets his goggles before taking off after Mittens at a moderate pace, staying behind, but keeping her in sight.

Hart isn't fond of playing tag along, but his curiousity is getting the better of him.  It seemed pretty clear that they weren't headed to Middletown, but then where were they headed?  He wants to know but also doesn't want to draw attention to himself as a potential babysitter.
No way Shelly'd be cool with that idea.

Katy ponders this... "So overlanders have been space-exploring all this time... and you knew about this how?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:44, Wed 04 Apr 2007.

Emerald says, "I was close with one once... but he's dead now." She goes quiet for a moment. "And if you're wondering why I didn't share earlier, I didn't think it relivant. We all know Robotnik occasionally takes trips to space."

Meanwhile, back in Middletown, Blipvert approaches Ra once more and offers a report. Ra takes a look and gets a cruel smile. "Excellent..." Ra says as he looks over the report. "I like the idea. With this, no doubt, the freedom fighters will be lured here. They couldn't possibley resist such a carrot dangled in front of their noses. Make it so, Blipvert!" With that, Blipvert bows and turns to leave, preparing to give the order to bring the prisoners to Middletown's roboticization facility... but to hold of on roboticization for the time being.


(OOC NOTE: Normally, most prisoners are shipped straight to Robotropolis. Which is why Ra is doing this. He's hoping the chance to "rescue" these prisoners will prove to be too much of a temptation and the FFs would fall into his trap.)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:00, Wed 04 Apr 2007.

Michael rubs his chin and says, "I can see why you didn't explain this earlier. Your right that Robotnik has prove he's capable of sending stuff into space some of it to use in conquering the rest of the planet, and then there is other stuff we don't have any clue as to what he's doing. However knowing how violent Overlanders are, they probably aren't exploring outer space they are trying to conquer it and probably causing all sorts of trouble. And the last thing we need is for them to bring their trouble back here. We have enough trouble caused by Overlanders." It seems that Michael is letting his knowledge about Overlanders on Mobius color his view on those Overlanders that are in space.

Valin ponders what Emerald has said and then glances around after Michael speaks up. Then Michael asks Emerald, "About how many thousands of years ago? We should know as well as anyone that life finds a way to go on and it changes. I know that crops have evolved over time and have been developed to produce better yields and be more resistance to diseases. Couldn't similar changes also occur with races of sentient beings?

Valin leans on a railing slightly as he continues, "Let's assume that Samuel is a descendant of the Overlanders that left Mobius so long ago. Could those Overlanders that left have become different from those that didn't leave? I don't see how it would be any different from how a species of plants can change over time. Thus shouldn't we give him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the Overlanders that went into space all those years ago might be different from those that stayed on Mobius? Even if they look pretty much the same. Appearances can be deceiving. For all we know, back then there were multiple factions of Overlanders, and the ones that went into space may have left Mobius to escape from the factions that became the Overlanders we know on Mobius. After all there are differences among us Mobians, why would we assume that there aren't differences among Overlanders as well."
This message was last updated by the player at 21:34, Wed 04 Apr 2007.

Emerald fights herself, but finally can't help it as she speaks up. "I know it's easy to form prejudices, Michael, but I know from first-hand experience that not all Overlanders are violent. In fact, they are, on average, about as violent as the average mobian." She's trying to stay calm and understanding as she fights back her emotions. "But that's beside the point. The point is that Samuel is reacting just the same as any of us would to being suddenly introduced to this madness. Imagine how you would feel back when this first happened, if none of you had family or friends left. Give Samuel time..." She hugs herself and looks down and away from the others.

Katy nods and says, "We should talk about your experience with Overlanders at length sometime, Emmy. But for now, let's get ready to greet our guests." Katy heads to the elevator.

Shelly closes in on Channelwood and sees Katy up ahead. She smiles and says, "Katy up ahead. Let's get our map." Shelly picks up her pace as the AFF are closing in on Channelwood.

Michael doesn't say anything more about the 'Overlander issue', as he doesn't want to admit that Emerald could be right about Michael jumping to conclusions about Samuel based on him being an Overlander.

Instead Michael goes along with Katy's shifting of the conversation topic by asking Katy, "If your wanting only wanting four people to go on this joint mission, there are two things to consider. First how to convince those from Aquarius to go along with that idea if it requires them to leave some of the people they picked for the mission behind? Second, have you decided who from Channelwood would be going?" as Michael heads towards the elevator with Katy.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:47, Mon 09 Apr 2007.

Since Valin doesn't think he'll be needed on this mission he says, "If you need me for this mission, let me know. I'll be doing my chores for the day so you know where to find me," as the gorilla then heads off with the supplies he has been carring.

Samuel stays with Shelly and Mittens as they approach Channelwood. He doesn't say anything as he it is clear that he's already gone into his 'I'm on a mission and it must be completed' mentality.

When Shelly speaks up Samuel simply nods and glances over in Katy's direction as they approach where Katy and any other Channelwood Freedom Fighters that are with her.

  Joe was leaning against one of the many railings meant to keep people from stumbling to their doom out on the second level when he got the feeling that all of a sudden, his literature collection just got a bit smaller in a way he could never prove.

  It was times like this he wondered if all those 'you're freaking crazy' comments he gets are true.  But if this was the case, then he got the lame kind.  Gas station maps removed form space time. Really, thats just stupid even for him.

  Of course, as he observed people heading for the elevator from one end, and some Aquarius freedom fighters heading for the place at the other, he was reminded that there were still plenty of unlikely events that do work out in their favor.

  Of course, if the whole 'why didn't we notice them' situation didn't have a reasonable answer, he'd feel kinda bad if they weren't around anymore.

  OOC Style: You win THIS time retcon.  Though the next time I attempt to derail the plot with almost common sense and/or MacGuiver methods, it will totally work.  Or not.

And speaking of Joe, Katy looks over to see Joe watching her and the others headed for the elevator. She ponders a moment and gets a smile on her face. Katy waves to Joe and becons to him.

  Conversation between FF bases having been labeled unwise, Mittens has allowed herself to slip into one of her many combat daydreams...

  Upon recovering the scuba gear, Princess Shelly commends Mittens' brilliant plan in flowery words.  :D  "To God be the glory," Mittens answers heroically, "Everything I am I owe to Him!"  ^.^

  Suddenly the ground begins to shake at the approach of something titanic...  RA THE IMMORTAL steps into view!  O.O! Standing 40' tall, the monster of a robot looks like a man with the head of a bird of prey.  His skin is polished brass, and catches the rays of the morning sun in blinding glory giving him the appearance of burning gold.

  "YOU SPEAK OF GOD, MORTAL?" he thunders with a voice that sounds like steel buildings being torn apart, "YOU SHALL FALL BEFORE ONE - ME!"

  "Blasphemy!" Mittens shouts back defiantly as she draws her sword, "There is only One True God, and by His strength shall ye fall!"  >:[

  "TAKE THE OTHERS," Ra commands his minions, "THIS ONE IS MINE!"

  Ra unsheathes his fell blade, "Onweerbrand," a 20' blade forged by the slaves of the Mines of Misery - burning with perpetual flames by some wicked sorcery.  Ra raises his mighty weapon to the sky with a shout and brings it arching down toward Mittens like a solar flare!  D:<

  Mittens snaps out of her muse when Shelly speaks up.  "Maybe taking on Ra head-on isn't the wisest of ideas," she thinks to herself, then turns her eyes and thoughts upward, "But it sure would be fun if You like the idea...  HINT! HINT!" ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:37, Wed 11 Apr 2007.

Having not been been in this area of the forest for some time, Hart begins to daydream as well.
The trees look so much taller than he remembers them being, and the sound of the forest about him is natural and more soothing than the waves ever have been.  He wonders how much of this will remain after the fight with Robotnik, and where he'd want to live once they wouldn't have to hide anymore...

While drifting slightly off into dreams of the future, he forgets his present position, continuing ahead at an increasing speed behind Mittens until accidentally bumping into her shortly after Shelly speaks up, bringing him back to reality.

  Mittens' fingers have been itching to draw steel for quite some time now.  Out comes the blade in a flash as she spins around to face her foe!  >:D  ...A startled deer.  ._.;  She lowers her guard a little, blinking.

  "Uuum...  Hi?"  o.o?

Immediately after Mittens' rather burst-reaction, Shelly looks in the direction of Hart. "Put that sword away, Mittens! It's only Hart. Though why he's here alone, I don't know." She looks at Hart with an expression that seems to demand an explanation. But before Hart can explain himself, Shelly says, "But since he's here and we are already at Channelwood, he may as well tag along. Come on... the CFF are already on their way down the elevator to meet us."

Samuel's doesn't even look surprised at the situation, as the sensors in his bracer and cybernetic implants alerted him to Hart's presence in the woods shortly before the deer walked into Mittens. Samuel figured Hart was the one who his sensors detected in the water so he wasn't really worried that someone dangerous was trailing them to Channelwood.

Instead of being surprised, Samuel seems quite amused as he chuckles a bit before saying, "I don't know which is more amusing, Hart being oblivious of his surroundings, or Mitten's itchy sword hand."

  Joe takes a moment to observe the proof that no, despite some peoples claims he is not the biggest idiot ever.  After that he heads on over to Katy and the elevator as she had wanted him to.  Though he did get the feeling the smiles she had was one of those 'Guess what suicidal activity for justice you get to do!' smiles.

  "You need something fearless leader?"

 Funny, he always got the urge to assault moose and squirrels whenever he said that.

Hart manages to get out a nervous "...hey?", looking at the others and turning slightly red at his error. Totally embarassing.

He breathes a sigh of relief and nods in agreement with Shelly, trying to make it look like he knows what he's doing.

  Mittens hastily sheaths the sword with an embarrassed look on her face, especially after Sam's comment.  *^.^*

  "Sorry..." she sighs while rubbing behind her head, "Li'l startled."  Mittens is unaware that Sam could have warned her, so she has no one to blame but herself.  v_v

"Nice to meet you, sir Hart," she chimes in an attempt to divert attention from the embarrassing moment, "Mittens is the name, adventure is the game!" ^.^

  "Note to self," she thinks to herself, "Helmet to have rear-view mirrors."  >.<

Elsewhere, within Middletown itself, a dark feline form slips down an alleyway.  Pale blue eyes look out in the darkness, following the patrols of the Roboticized Mobians and SWATbots.  He is actvely seeking the route to the roboticization facility, and attempting to keep from being discovered as he does so.    So far, he thinks he is being quite successful, though he does not know if he has registered on any Infra-red sensors or motion sensors.

Hart nods at Mittens cooly, glad for the shift, "Yeah, I remember you joining up a few days ago.  We never got the chance to chat though... And don't worry about the 'almost stabbing me between the eyes' thing." He shrugs."It's totally more my fault than yours anyways. 'Guess it's been too long since I've seen this part of the forest..."

He follows Shelly's lead, looking towards Channelwood and sliding his hands into his pockets, trying to keep an aloof air. "We probably shouldn't keep 'em waiting."

Blipvert has been released to patrol the streets of Middletown. Especially near the area where the latest "delivery" has come in. He looks about, looking to see if any freedom fighters have come. Granted, he hasn't spotted Nighteyes with his eyes yet. And thanks to Nighteyes being a ninja, Blipvert hasn't detected by sound either. Blipvert's hearing is second to none.

Katy keeps her eyes locked on Joe. And when he gets close enough for her to casually speak, she says, "Our friends from Aquarius are here and apparently on their way to pick up extra scuba gear. No doubt they are doing this for their new recruit Mittens. But it is a good opportunity for use to grab a few for ourselves... I doubt there are ANY left at the old shop, but if there is, in fact, more than one set, we should get them. If you're not too busy, I was wondering if you'd like to go with the AFF or stay here in Channelwood for this one."

  Too busy.  A degree of busyness that occurs past just busy.  And since Joe wasn't busy in the first place right now, it would be a little hard for him to be too busy.

  "I think I'll go along with it.  Not drowning is always a nice thing."

  He did hope they came with harpoon gun accessories.  It just wouldn't feel the same doing ridiculous spy movie underwater missions without some.  Though something like that was made easily enough anyways.

Continuing on his way, Nighteyes remains all but completely silent as he approaches Blipvert's position.  That is, until he manages to somehow stumble upon a trashcan, making a short, sharp, clattering sound.    Cursing his momentary clumsiness, he throws his grapple, intent on getting up onto a nearby rooftop as quickly as possible.

Katy enters the elevator. "Alrighty then. Come on down, Joe." and should Joe enter the elevator, Katy activates it. Either way, once Katy has arrived on ground level, she greets Shelly. "Nice to finally have a face to the name, princess Shelly."

Shelly shakes hands and such. "Same here, Katy. Now then... do you have the map we need?"

Blipvert turns to the sound made by a clanging trashcan. He rushes to the sound and looks around with his scanners. He knows what he heard... and he is trying not to allow himself to be surprised by some different freedom fighter again. In a quick stroke of genius, he uses psychology against the enemy that may or may not be there by using what his databanks call a "bluff". "You have been spotted. Surrender and there will be less pain." he knows if there is someone there, chances are they will panic and run instead of stay put since he just claimed he spotted them.

Nighteyes hears Blipvert's synthesized voice, but he is not about to risk putting himself into the open.  He tries to slip unnoticed into a nearby shadow, hoping that the Robot does not possess thermal scanning gear.

Having come along with both Joe and Katy, Michael isn't surprised that of the two people who have come from Aquarius that were on the last time happen to be Mittens and Samuel.. Michael thinks to himself, 'Figures he'd be coming along, if not for his equipment, then for his desire to get revenge. And mittens is probably eager to go on any mission imaginable, but I can see why they need more sets of scuba gear, although I hope there are enough that a few could be spared for Channelwood as well.'

Michael then turns to Katy and says softly, "It looks they they brought four people from Aquarius, so if you and Joe tag along that would make six, unless someone from Aquarius decides to stay behind here."

Samuel looks around but stays silent. He's waiting to see if he can get a glance at a map, the more detailed the better since he'd be able to take a 'snapshot' of it to access later as needed. And the better the map of Middletown he can get a hold of the better he'll be able to maneuver through the town.

Although Samuel overhears Michael's comment about Katy and Joe wanting to tag along, he keeps quiet. Samuel figures they want to get a few sets of scuba gear for themselves, since what over reason would they have to come on this mission... That is unless they are planning something else that they haven't mentioned yet.

Blipvert does, in fact, have heat-sensors. And he uses them, looking around. His eyes lock with Nighteyes and Blipvert slowly points at him in a creepy fashion like he's marking the guy for certain doom. Blipvert radios some SWATbots to come aid him and they are quickly coming to his aid.

Katy nods to Michael and faces the others. "Lemme be forward. I would like to come with in order to secure a few sets of swimwear for the Channelwood Freedom Fighters so we can visit easier in the future. That means either me and Joe here come along for the ride, or you guys try to raid a few extra. However you want to work that out is fine with me." It would seem that other than Emerald's quicky map, there is no sign of any detailed maps of Middletown. After all, they are on ground level. The map is in Katy's hut in the third level.

Cursing his ill fortune, Nighteyes draws his blade, and he starts to run.. straight towards Blipvert.  He does not say a word, however he is quite evidently intent on attacking, with an almost lightning-quick slash of the sword intended to behead the robot if at all possible.  Of course, knowing his luck, all the head is the primary sensor array, and nothing particularly essential to combat effectiveness.

Shelly nods to Katy. "That works, but I'm not going to argue over who's in charge. I lead my people and you lead yours. Our mission is the same, but we are still two different teams."

Katy nods. "Then let's not waste time." She hands the map to Shelly and starts heading to Middletown, expecting Joe to follow.

Shelly starts heading for Middletown also, hoping this will lead up to an attack on Urser soon... or rather a rescue mission. She still wants to free her father.

Blipvert is rather taken aback by the sudden attack. The precision of the sword-swing is great and his head is lopped right off. But his audio/visual display goes nuts. Loud screams and groans emit from him as though Nighteyes just cut the head off of a demon. Lights of all kinds of colors and varying brightness show forth from Blipvert's body. A self-defense mechanism to be sure as he calmly picks up his own head.

The racket has attracked a number of SWATbots who surround the area.

Hart's ears twitch at the conversation between the two leaders, trying to piece together the situation at hand.  It doesn't seem too complicated, but he knows that he's not well equipped enough to be more than an extra pair of arms and ears.  Still, what could go wrong with a simple small-scale raid like this?

Seeing that Shelly doesn't order or motion for any of them to stay behind, Hart silently follows along after making a friendly nod to Michael. It all feels strangely tense to him.

He thinks to himself:
Six of us... A bigger group means less stealth, but it also means that it's easier to watch each other's backs.

  While often one who points out the obvious, that doesn't mean Joe doesn't do the obvious himself at times.  Joe's following after being a reminder of this.

  He does make a note to hand Hart a sharp object if he's sorely lacking in a situation that needs one though.  It's not like he doesn't have spares after all.

Nighteyes allows himself a faint smile, as he leaps quickly back from Blipvert, throwing down a smoke bomb.. It's not much, but he is trying his hardest to avoid being captured.. After all, if he is caught, how much help can he be to the other captives?  Having dropped the smoke bomb, he tries, and fails, to grapple up the side of the nearest building.  He's in trouble, and he knows it.

The SWATbots are closing in even with the scary Hellish sounds coming from the confused Blipvert. Amidst the tormented screams, Nighteyes can still hear the ever-cold "Surrender in the name of Dr Robotnik." But if that wasn't horrific enough to tell his granchildren some day as a holloween tale, something even more disturbing happens. Around the corner of the building, a large metallic foot comes down and out peeks the great red armored dragon. He looks down at Nighteyes with disdain and a low gutteral growl that seems to shake the surface of Mobius can be heard emitting from this beast. Even if Nighteyes was in the business of dragon-slaying, this one seems beyond a normal dragon.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:54, Mon 23 Apr 2007.

Meanwhile, as Katy, Joe and the AFF are approaching Middletown, the faint sounds of hellish screams accompanied by an even louder, but disturbingly low-pitched growl. Katy pauses a moment, turning her ears about."What in the world is going on...?" She looks over at Joe figuring even one of his silly comments is better than nothing... and it'd lighten the mood for her.

Shelly lets out a squeek when she hears what Katy hears. "...maybe we came at a bad time? But those screams... someone needs our help..."

Samuel says "Don't look at me... I just got here." before he presses a few buttons on his diagnostic bracer. Then Samuel shrugs and says, "Well it seems that noisy robot from last time is involved as some of the disturbance is the same as from that robot, unless there are multiple copies of that robot... but I can tell you one thing about that roar, my sensors say it wasn't made by an organic creature, or at least not by any that are in the database in my bracer. So how is this going to change the mission? One thing that I won't accept as a change is the skipping out on the SWATBot head, as again my sensors are already able to tell that the SWATBots are still sending out those strange signals periodically," as Samuel now taps on his communications bracer.

Backing up against the wall, Nighteyes looks up to the Dragon, and his eyes widen in fear.. This, he was not trained to deal with.   "Alright.  I surrender.  You win.  For now."  he sheathes his blade, and waits.. hoping that this dragon will not simply choose to kill him.. If captured, he might still stand a chance.

  Joe might or might not Disappoint Katy, "Planning suffering from its usual survival rates."  It really depends on whether or not thats her sort of humor.

  Besides, Sam already used the standard 'It was like that when I got here' response before he could.

  Though he decided that while the fearless leaders were taking a quick break trying to decide what that meant in this situation he'd do what he made a note to.  Joe pulled out a short blade and offering it handle first to Hart asked, "Might I recommend a sharp object?"

  "That's definitely the noise-bot we ran into earlier," agrees Mittens gravely as she dons her earplugs and sunglasses,  "It wouldn't be making a ruckus like that unless it were attacking someone.  Whoever's fighting that thing is as good as captured.  I'll go watch to see where the badniks take their prisoner then report to Channelwood."  -.-

  Mittens doesn't wait for the go-ahead from either of the two leaders and immediately lurks toward the sound as quickly as stealth and cover will allow.

At the sound of the disturbing growl, Hart closes his eyes and takes a deep calming breath, trying to keep his limbs from shaking.  Slowly, he takes the short blade offered to him.

"Thanks, really... but from the sound of whatever that is, fighting might not be the best play here. We need a plan or something before just diving in."

As Mittens heads off towards the sound, Hart cringes but doesn't say anything but "Good luck."

He watches her go off, waiting for orders from either of the two leaders.

Ra narrows his already demonic eyes at Nighteyes. It seems this one will at least be useful for his intelligence. Ra says in a voice befitting a dragon god, "Remove his weapons and put him with the other prisoners. And see to it that Blipvert gets repairs. Blipvert... you may silence yourself now." And as if the screams were not scary enough, the sudden silence sure is as all the noise and lights turn off, making it feel like Nighteyes is about to be taken to a very cold and lonely place.... or that he's already there.

As Nighteyes is taken to the other prisoners, there seems to be a good number of them. Probabley two dozen or so. Various races... though the one that sticks out is Maverick. Not only is he the only child there, he's the only Overlander there. He looks over at Nighteyes and then watches the SWATbots who took Nighteyes' weapons as they disappear around a corner. He has a look of anger in his eyes that hints he's to mad to be afraid. So mad, in fact, he looks like he's been crying. He looks forward again, not saying a word.

Katy watches as Mittens heads onward. She doesn't care about who's the boss here, she says, "Not alone, you're not." And then looks at Joe. "Joe. Keep my back and stay at a distance." She starts to walk after Mittens and unsheiths her slingshot. When the noises all suddenly stop cold, she puts her finger to her mouth. Clearly, if it's silence the enemy wants, that's what Katy will give them.

Shelly smiles at the sight of her newest recruit being so brave. And when Katy gives her orders to Joe, Shelly ponders how to go about this. "Well, Sam... seems like Middletown's asking you to take home a new SWATbot head." she gives him a mischivious smile. She nudges her head in Katy's direction and starts following. She gave no indication for Hart to stay put and with that head nudge, one can only assume...

Nightyes lets himself be led into where the other captives are.. and when he is there, he looks to see what the general state of the other captives is..  Noticing the overlander, he hmms, and approaches him..  "Hey kid, how're you holding up?  I know things look bad now, but i think they're going to get better soon enough.. "
 After he says that, he exteds his own claws, considering.

Samuel frowns at Mittens running off before he replies softly as Samuel clearly does not want anything robotic to hear his voice and he suspects the walls may have ears, "It appears that way. We should all stay close enough to be able to support one another. There is an ancient saying whose origins have been lost to the tests of time, 'united we stand, divided we fall' and I do believe it applies to this situation. However, we must be careful to not draw any unwanted attention."

Although it is clear that Samuel would rather be with a group of Space Force Marines or Special Forces, he knows that he has to work with what is available. Samuel knows that there is no way for him to perform what seems to be an impromptu rescue mission, which is what he suspects the group is now going to do, on his own. It is clear that Samuel is also not happy that instead of a relatively unguarded abandoned shop being the target for the mission, now it seems a guarded jail will be the target which will clearly be a more difficult mission.

  Sunglasses and earplugs no longer being needed, Mittens takes them off and pockets them.  "Noisebot no longer noisy means target captured more than likely," she thinks to herself as she continues in the direction the noise came from, "Perhaps some lone adventurer who, like me, wasn't expecting so many badniks.  Poor sap...  Doubtful we'll be able to rescue her before she's roboticized.  I wonder if either FF group already knows where the local roboticizer is or if this will reveal anything new."

  "Dear Lord," she prays desperately, "We need a miracle.  Rescue the prisoner and keep us safe.  Amen."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Thu 26 Apr 2007.

  Joe just shook his head slightly and headed off after the boss lady... Well, his boss lady anyways.
  "I'm sure you can give us a heads up we wouldn't normally have then." Joe commented to Sam.  The whole 'work with whats available thing was an outlook Joe also had a fondness of.  So thats sarcasm and practicality they got in common.  Next up shown in common will probably be a fondness of swat bot decapitation.

Maverick looks over at Nighteyes. Hearing some mobian asking him how he's doing... it's somehow reassuring. But he's unsure how to respond. Given the circumstances, he decides to reply since they are both as good as dead anyway. "I'm holding up... be careful what you say. We're in deep, but things could get worse. They always can..." Not the happiest kid around, but then Nighteyes can certainly sympathize, given the situation.

However, it's not long before Maverick sees Katy in his line of sight. So he quickly looks aside, hoping nobody noticed that he saw her.

Katy tries to stop Mittens before she does anything rash. Upon seeing the multiple people walking towards the roboticization chamber, Katy realises any freedom fighter caught this time can be sent express to their roboticization. Being caught in this scenerio is VERY bad. She puts her finger over her mouth. And points out the giant red dragon robot that seems to be overseeing the event. Oddly enough, the robot turns a corner as if to try and remain hidden from view of any freedom fighters. Not good... not good at all. This whole thing is a trap. But the one good thing is that Katy now knows it's a trap. The situation calls for everything in the book. Delecate stealth, Leeroy Jenkins and a lot of luck. She's hoping Mittens will be able to provide the distraction, but Joe's the only one under her command right now. So she decides that she and Joe will provide stealthy backup as she slowly sneaks her way closer to the building. Her plan is anyone's guess.

Daddy told her there'd be days like this, but Shelly didn't believe it'd come in this way. Conflict of leadership... but conflict that can't even be dealt with. So the situation must be dealt with wisely. The fact Katy continues using stealth has Shelly feeling somewhat relieved. But what to do? What is the best course of action? Considering she herself knows that nobody here except Sam and maybe herself has any real training in dealing with covert stuff (She doesn't know from Katy or her team enough to say for sure, but she knows Hart and Mittens are not trained). But no school teaches better than Hard Knocks, so unlike Samuel, Shelly is confident in the team she has available to her. Shelly figures from Katy's sneaking that Katy plans on getting a closer look. She then takes into account Samuel's reaction to decapping SWATs and figures Samuel can provide all the melee distraction neccessary. Sadly, she sees a giant red robot dragon peaking behind a building and realises the best that they can HOPE for is a distraction. If that. She looks at Samuel and points in the direction of the dragon, hoping Samuel will have noticed. Shelly then looks back to Mittens, having caught up to her and puts a finger to her mouth and moves her hand downward as if indicating to lay low. No matter what sort of distraction is needed, it will need to be done right... and done right the FIRST time. Otherwise, they're all as good as captured.

Blipvert is nowhere to be seen since Nighteyes took him out of the picture. Which can be percieved as odd to the freedom fighters, considering they just heard the guy make a ruccuss. But what nobody realises is that the great "noisebot" is currently undergoing repairs. The time window for rescuing these prisoners is shrinking as Blipvert recieves repairs and the freedom fighters can only hope they realise this before it's too late.

Samuel realizes that this situation is a trap at the same time that Katy and Shelly do, and although for the moment Samuel is remaining stealthy, it's clear that he's preparing for an inevitable battle after seeing the robotic dragon trying to stay out of sight. But for the moment Samuel doesn't let himself ponder about the possibly human child, that Samuel figures must be an Overlander, amidst the group of prisoners. The look in Samuel's eyes is one of cold hatred as Samuel momentarily 'relives' those moments where through his captain's cybernetics he witnesses the roboticization of his best friend Markus and his wife Alexis , and then felt the roboticization of his captain.

First Samuel grips his gun that was holstered on his right leg. Then Samuel quickly and quietly takes the grappling hook 'launcher' off the right side of his tool belt and attaches it to his rifle as if it was an under slung grenade launcher, leaving a thin wire trailing from the gun back to his tool belt. Afterwards Samuel then takes hold of his laser pistol with his left hand.

As Samuel readies his weapons he thinks to himself, 'I won't be able to afford a missed shot... so I'm going to need to use the cybernetics in my arm to act as a targeting system for my laser pistol to better ensure that I hit what I'm aiming for, as I won't be getting any second chances, especially with that robotic dragon out here. But I will also need to use it to keep track of all the dangers out here, this won't be easy. To make the situation worse, I suspect my guns will be useless against that dragon's armor, but I know my sword can pierce it. However, can I get that close to that monster and live to tell the tale when it's over? I'd rather not have to find out. And that noisy robot is probably out here as well hiding someplace.'

Mixed with the hatred in Samuel's eyes is a hint of worry and even fear can be seen momentarily before Samuel closes his eyes and takes a few shallow but slow breaths as Samuel thinks to himself, 'Markus, I will be your vengeance. Alexis, I will be your justice.'

Then as Samuel opens his eyes as he also thinks about his Captain, 'I will rescue you all, no matter how long it takes me... I will survive long enough to rescue you, even if it is the last thing I do.' whispers, "I'm ready, let's get this over with, there is a sortie to accomplish."

Nighteyes nods in response to Maverick, and he smiles grimly as he takes the time to try and get a rough assessment of everything he can in this situation.  So long as he has his wits about him, he's never completely without any tools of the trade, and maybe, just maybe a claw in the right place can act as a key.   He starts to look for a possible way to free himself and the others from within.. If there is none, all he can do is wait and be ready to help out anyone who tries to free him and the others.. Or to bust up any Swatbot who tries to take them for Roboticization.

  Mittens lays low on Shelly's command, but can't help but be visibly shaken at the sight of Ra.  "A DRAGON!?!?" she thinks to herself, "How cool is THAT?!"  o.O!

  In a flash of reality, she remembers that even in her wildest dreams Ra was way too much for her to handle, and her excitement turns to disappointment.  ;.;  Even as perfect a paladin-foe as Ra may be, there is such a thing as being TOO worthy a foe.  :/  Suddenly, she brightens up as if a light bulb just turned on over hear head!  @= :D

  "I have a plan!" she whispers triumphantly to the others, "And I think it's our best bet!"  ^.^  "First Sam situates himself behind some cover where he can project an image in Ra's line of sight with his wonderful wonderful bracer.  ~.^  Then he uses the classic 'toss some noisy junk to catch attention' technique to draw the Ra's attention to the corner of the building across from him.  The dragon then sees a recording of us fearfully turning the corner of the building and gives chase!  :o  We'll have our much needed diversion without risking anyone getting gobbled up by an overgrown trash-compactor!  :D  While he's busy chasing phantoms, the rest of us behead the remaining guards and make off with the prisoners!"  XD

  Mittens can't help but do a little boom-shakalaka end-zone touch-down jig to celebrate the brilliant plan!  <(^.^<) <(^.^)> (>^.^)> \(^.^\) (/^.^)/ \(^.^)/
This message was last edited by the player at 14:52, Tue 01 May 2007.

Samuel looks to Mittens and sighs and whispers, "Only one problem with that plan is that your assuming the dragon is stupid enough to mistake what would clearly be a hologram for the real thing. Even SWATBots aren't that stupid as their sensors would clearly indicate that if a person appears to be 'see through' then they are not real. However, SWATBots probably would fall for a ventriloquist act and I can use my communication bracer to pull that trick. I don't know if the dragon would also fall for it, or if it would be able to realize where the sounds are really coming form, which would reveal my true location. Thus it's a trick I'm not really wanting to try."
Samuel momentarily chuckles as he thinks back on the ventriloquist pranks he has played using the communication's bracer in the past such as the 'whoopee cushion that isn't there' prank. Samuel then whispers, "The toss a distracting item sounds good, but I'd rather not waste a thermite grenade for that as I think I may need them to ward off the robots that would be chasing us once we get the prisoners."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:26, Wed 04 June 2008.

Overhearing their conversation, Hart chimes in from behind, whispering sparingly. "Mittens' idea doesn't sound all that bad... We don't need them to think it's real so much as we need them to go and investigate it." He nods reassuringly. "As long as they see something, even it's just some weird light from a projection, it'll probably be enough to draw some of 'em away. I doubt they'll take any chances with so many prisoners held up to just let anything go by." He watches the proceedings in the room uneasily, whispering even lower. "The less 'bots we have to deal with, the better."

  "I could always grab Ra's attention the old fashioned way," Mittens muses, "...by insulting him."  She 1/2 demonstrates by sticking her tongue out and wiggling her fingers on either side of her face.  :P  "Then I could run for it.  More fun, but slightly riskier."  :)

Shelly nods to Hart and looks at the other two. "Unfortunately, our only rock-wielding freedom fighter Katy has gone on ahead to infiltrate the building. We have one shot at this, so we need to make sure it counts. Mittens' idea isn't without merrit. The main idea being that if we can lure the dragon away, we're good. Since you're sure your holograms are not good enough to fool a robot into thinking it's us, Sam, I think Hart's idea is good. Using the hologram projector is a great idea. Perhaps fool them into thinking it's one of their own... sending a message. Like Robotnik for instance. After all... they still don't know you have that technology available to you, Sam."

Meanwhile, Katy manages to sneak close enough to where Nighteyes is at and gently tries to catch his attention. Should he notice Katy, she would make motions towards a specific bot and make more motions like hitting the thing behind it's knee. Seems Katy's plan involved making the prisoners fight and provide the distraction.

Nighteyes is many things. Observant is one of them.  Seeing Katy, he nods, and he pads towarsds the nearest bot.. to try and kick it in the back of the leg.. He can figure the obvious plan.

Samuel sighs and nods as he listens to what both Hart and Shelly say as he whispers, "Well I don't know enough about their communication methods to be able to fake a transmission, I can definitely make a distracting holographic image." as Samuel gets a rather mischievous look on his face when the name 'Robotnik' is mentioned as Samuel thinks, 'Okay time for a prank...after all what proves to be more distracting than a prank that is an eyesore.' as Samuel holsters his pistol as he quickly presses buttons on the communications bracer as Samuel whispers, "Well I don't know how well this will work, but if anything will get the robot's attention and leave them confused this will do it. There it's ready, now all I have to do is get into position."

Samuel then starts to discretely move off to a position where he could remain concealed while the holographic image would be positioned such that both many of the SWATBots as possible as well as Ra could see it, and that there would be two escape routes Samuel could use to flee from with a moment's notice.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:14, Tue 01 May 2007.

  Joe would enjoy this kind of plan more if it wasn't for the whole chance to die horrifically thing being greater than usual.  Of course, that little flaw kind of went with most every plan that actually accomplished something these days.  So as it was he should be glad Katy was just getting things moving already as opposed to them planning till well after those people weren't in any condition to have a prison riot moment.

  As for Joe's preparations for violence? He made a quick mental check to see if he was still a violent person...  All done.

  Mittens ear-perks at Samuel's mischievous look.  o.o?  "Serious Spaceman Sam has a silly side?" she muses, "This I GOTTA see!"  o.o!

When Samuel reaches the desired location he takes out a thermite grenade and quickly adjusts a few settings on it to get it to detonate when he sends the appropriate signal and then rolls it out into position while sliding his goggles into place as he triggers the holographic distraction to start.

The hologram starts out quite simple at first but rapidly becomes soemthing that Samuel figures must be the most unexpected sight since Robotnik pulled his surprise coup. It is an image of Robotnik wearing a white shirt with cuffs and black pants with matching black boots is positioned above the grenade with 'effects' that make it look like the image is being projected from below. And then the accompanying music starts up, using the ventriloquist 'trick' to make the sound seem to come from the hologram and not from Samuel's position, as the holographic Robotnik rips his shirt off leaving only the collar and cuffs on his wrists as the 'fat man' starts dancing in place causing his lard encrusted body to jiggle as much as a mountain of jello on a trampoline kids are bouncing on.

Samuel waits for SWATBots and possibly even Ra to approach the hologram if only in order to turn it off since simply blasting it wouldn't reveal information about who has the audacity to mock Robotnik in this fashion. At that moment, Samuel will remotely trigger the grenade to explode as a thermite fragmenting flash bang and relocate to a safer position from where he'll work on assisting the others and obtaining a SWATBot head safely while the robots are still distracted and disoriented.

OOC: If you've seen the Chris Farley SNL Chippendale skit, the 'fake' Robotnik is dancing just like Farley was. If you haven't seen that skit, I recommend seeing it, as it's not to hard to find a video of the skit online. I'm not going to try and describe the dancing in detail, since I don't know the proper terms for it and I can't do it justice.

Ra is indeed distracted by the odd hologram and approaches it with a small force of SWATbots. He growls low at the sight of Robotnik dancing like a male jiggelo and thinks this is clearly just a mock-up hologram. Though what Freedom Fighters have access to this kind of tech? Ra figures, "He's here. Spread out and-" BANG! The flash grenade explodes leaving Ra temporarily blinded and the nearby SWATbot or two that was unfortunate enough to be in range are slagged. Ra is furious. "Find this arrogant fool!" He says in a voice that sounds like a hideous harmony of multiple angry demons. The decibles alone are enough to knock over a few nearby SWATbots who scurry back to their feet to hurry up with carrying out Ra's order. Typical SWATbots, they are intimidated by their superior... though who wouldn't be intimidated by Ra? Only fools and people who literally have something wrong with their brain.

Blipvert's repairs are almost done and he hears commotion going on outside. However, not driven by any hint of emotion, Blipvert remains in the repair module so that he will function fully when he exits.

Meanwhile, Nighteyes successfully knocks a SWATbot to his knees, effectively knocking the SWATbot down to eye-level. No doubt, Nighteyes' quick reflexes will aid him in a good follow-up. Not to mention all the OTHER Freedom Fighters who will pop out of the woodwork shortly.

Maverick jumps on the opportunity to take full advantage of Nighteyes' actions and quickly points the fallen bot's arm at another SWATbot or two. In it's panic, the bot shoots and destroys two of it's fellow bots! Maverick is currently to focussed to show how scared he is to be in this situation. And having heard Ra's demonic yell was certainly no help. Thankfully, he wasn't scared stiff like a few of the prisoners seem to be.

Katy keeps to the shadows, shooting rocks with her slingshot at various key SWATbots to clear a way for the other FF's to help rescue the prisoners. Though the ones who are scared stiff, she rushes to and slaps in the face. "MOVE OR DIE! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!" she yells in their faces. The slap + the yelling seems JUST enough to get them to start running away in panic. The slap because their fear is partly overshadowed with anger. And frankly, Katy could care less right now how angry they are at her since she'd rather them be angry at her than too scared to save their own hides.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:30, Thu 03 May 2007.

Shelly is distracted for a moment by Samuel's prank and wishes she had the luxury of staring since it's so darn funny. But she quickly goes to try and guide the panicing masses. "This way! Trust me or you'll get lost and recaptured!" She points them to Hart. "HART! Get these people out of here! MITTENS! Clear Hart a path and keep him covered!"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:24, Thu 03 May 2007.

As soon as the grenade goes off, Samuel quickly moves away from his hiding place along one of the escape routes to join back up with the others as he knows he only as seconds before the robots regain their senses.

On his way back to the others, when Samuel sneaks up behind a SWATBot that was trying to deal with the chaos, he doesn't hesitate or slow down as he draws his sword with his right hand and in one fluid motion he decapitates the SWATBot from behind. Samuel quickly uses the grappling hook attached to his gauss gun to 'grab' the SWATBot's head before the robot can even collapse to the ground so he doesn't have to worry about slowing down to get the item he came for.

As Samuel rejoins the others he says, "That went well, I almost pity the SWATBots that have to take orders from that robotic dragon. But I wish I could see the look on Robotnik's face when he is informed of what distracted the dragon." as Samuel sheathes his sword to free up his right hand so he can remove the SWATBot head from the 'claws' of the grappling hook and can place it into the waterproof bag he brought to hold it.

Oh, Nighteyes isn't going to hesitate.  The moment that there is a way out he's standing proud, trying to help guide the other prisoners to safety..  He also picks up what small shards of metal and debris he can to make use of.. they may not be 'proper' shuriken, but the effect on the robots should be about the same, a minor distraction, possibly shattering optical sensor lenses.

After momentarily wishing that Samuel had told them to look away from the memory-burning image of the shirtless Robotnik, Hart waves the escaping prisoners over as Shelly points them towards him.  "C'mon! Get your tails in gear and follow us to freedom!"

Certain that he now has most of the escapees' attention, Hart begins quickly leading them out via the way the Freedom Fighters came in, running at a moderate pace and praying for a clear path.

  Fire fighters fight fire.  The name style of having a term in front, and 'fighter' after kind of hints heavily at the nature of their job.  Now, does this mean freedom fighters fight to stop freedom?

  "...Wow, no wonder we hadn't made any progress." Joe muttered to himself as he tilted his head to let a swat laser pass by where his eyeballs used to be, while tossing a small sharp object through what passed for its and into what counted as a brain.  Goodbye sharp pointy, you will be missed.

  "It's free pointy day." Joe said as he lightly tosses a knifey bit handle first to first handy sorta-kinda prisoner, who happened to be of the not so fuzzy or feathered persuasion.... How many sharp objects does this man have for crying out loud?...  Enough? Kay then.

  Oh, Killer enraged robo dragon and lava lamp like dance shows? Reaction?  You're looking at the wrong guy for a sensible reaction people.  Maybe he's in that 'something wrong with their brain' category?  It's doubtful you'd get many arguments against that.

  Mittens staggers and nearly falls to the ground laughing at the sight of Sam's illusion!  XD  How did he DO that?  Time enough to ask questions after the mission.  In the mean time, she focuses on running interference for Hart as Shelly asked.  ^.^  On a side note, Mittens now has the hiccups from holding back laughing!  o.O

Things get bad when Ra decides it's time to use his fire. He opens his mouth and spews forth flames around himself as if hoping to catch the culprit of the hologram in fire. He starts walking about, spewing fire and melting various metal that happens to be in the area. "COME OUT, YOU FOOL! OR DIE!" bellows Ra in his ground-shaking voice. It's about then that Blipvert returns from repairs to see chaos ensuing. He looks about calmly as he's possibley the only sentient being on the planet that is less effected by circumstances than even Joe. Figuring, the sound portion was already taken care of, Blipvert begins doing his light-display to attempt to slow down the escape efforts. After all, not everyone came with sunglasses and earplugs. Many of the escaping captives are covering their eyes and screaming in fear of the dragon. Backup has arrived as well in the form of many SWATbots and some flying vehicles.

In an attempt to trip everyone up, Ra jumps, flaps his wings to get up a little higher, than drops, causeing an earthquake with his incredible weight. It works... most of the prisoners fall over.

Katy is taken aback by the earthquake and flames. She wobbles and falls to her butt. "Don't give up! Keep running!" she yells right before getting back to her feet. She might not be able to save them all, but she will save as many as she can! She continues to forcefully persuade various scared people to run for it.

Shelly never imagined she would see this sort of thing. And she rather easily loses her balance since land is not exactly her best setting. However, made of tough enough stuff to resist the crushing pressure of deep waters, this hardly phases her as she gets right back to her feet. Shelly continues aiding the others with helping people escape while she starts looking for Samuel, hoping to not leave any one of her own behind. And yes... she already considers Sam one of her own. "Samuel! Where are you?!" she calls, hoping that Samuel survived his "prank".

Maverick is getting more and more frightened by what he sees. The giant dragon wasn't scary enough before, now he has to throw fire and make the place look like some kind of Hell. And then he causes EARTHQUAKES?! Maverick's eyes widen and tears start to roll down his cheeks. In all the chaos, he's managed to get somewhat lost too and he looks around. Coincidentally, he happens to be near where Samuel is at, though he doesn't spot Sam yet. The earthquake caused him to stumble and fall. He seems to be having trouble getting back to his feet as well, fumbling and starting to panic. Maverick is looking all around himself, hoping to see someone... ANYONE... he feels so alone right now being as the fire has cut off most of the others from view and all he can hear are screams and fire.

The quake does knock the fairly swiftly moving Nighteyes to the ground, but he rolls easily, maintaining his momentum to spring back to his feet.. Now he's not in a good mood, and he turns to try and help Maverick up, "Get up and Go!  I'll do what I can to provide you some cover!"  of course, even as he says that, he is mentally cursing the fact that he is now lacking his grappling hook and Katana.

  In a way that would feel a little ironic had he known interesting past 4'th wall facts, like something out of a platform game Joe showed how jumping when the bad boss made with the earthquake attack had some nice results.

  It was things like this that was why Joe asked apparently rude questions, like asking space miners for pointers on proper explosives making so they could have some handy instead of waiting for just one guy to use them or whatever else is handy.  Looks like its crude explosives for the foreseeable future if they happen to live past this.  Please get on with the violence already Sam, it's what Joe considers you good for at the moment.

  Joe wonders if it will still count as coming out ahead if they only rescue two people with the sense to run in an away direction from doom.  It's not like they were losing people they already had.

  "If you stop to think about how he's doing our job for us, the stupidity of it might distract from the massive killing machine thing."  This comment made in regards to the mecha dragon trashing the scenery as a rather poor way of trying to settle a certain kid down.  It's a larger hassle trying to batman swing to safety with someone when they're freaking out as opposed to one that isn't freaking out so much, so he figured he may as well try and get some results first.

  Mittens leaps toward the last swatbot blocking the prisoner's escape just before the earthquake hits.  *Hic*  The bot stumbles to the ground before losing it's head to Mit's lawnmower sword.  (>^.^)>|==>  *Hic*  "Thanks for the assist, Ra," she mutters, "That gives me an idea!" ^.^!  *Hic*  She dons her sunglasses and earplugs before rushing back in the direction she came from.

  "Obey the raccoon!" she commands the escaping prisoners she passes, "And don't loo*Hic*... look back!"  She takes her trusty grappling hook from off her shoulder and with a quick prayer, she tosses it up and hooks it to one of the hovering vehicles!  ^.^  *Hic!*  Predictably, it begins to ascend and Mittens swings Tarzan style right at the oncoming reinforcements!

  "OVER HERE, NAPALM BREATH!  *HIC!*" she hollers at Ra, hoping he'll torch his own troops and she's swinging fast enough to not wind up roast cat-on-a-rope herself.  She cringes behind her new swatbot-head shield just in case.  *Hic!*

Samuel instinctively reaches out to brace himself against a wall upon feeling the shaking ground as to Samuel it's no different than trying to maneuver around in a ship making high speed maneuvers to avoid damage in battle or through a debris field. Samuel quickly slides on his goggles and dons his earplugs as he knows he has to act fast or things will get even worse.

Knowing that something has to be done about the reinforcements, Samuel uses the grappling hook launcher attached to his gauss gun to zip up to near the roof of the building he is next to as he pulls out a thermite grenade, primes it and then throws it using his left arm after letting his cybernetics calculate exactly where he has to place the grenade to get it to blow up on some of the approaching air vehicles such that the falling debris will take out some of the approaching robots on the ground.

After throwing the grenade, Samuel clings to the metal in the wall using his boots as he recalls the grappling hook while shooting at several SWATBots and tossing a second grenade to hinder more of the reinforcements as he runs down the wall till he is low enough to jump down safely. Although Samuel doesn't seem to react towards Mitten's 'offensive distraction', Samuel is quite aware of it from the sensor data his cybernetics is showing him. 'Mittens must have a death wish, even I am not crazy enough to try and purposely try a stunt like what she is attempting. Then again that may be why it could work as it ranks among the things anyone would expect, thus the robots may be caught off-guard since most A.I.s can't handle unexpected things. Hmm, maybe Mittens is simply taking that gamble, if so, she may not be as crazy as I think,' as Samuel jumps to the ground while momentarily wondering how Freedom Fighters can fight without the technology Samuel relies on to enable that person to pull of the stunts that Samuel does.

After jumping to the ground, Samuel is right in front of Maverick and Nighteyes as Samuel pulls out his laser pistol with his left hand while saying, "Both of you get out of here, and grab as many other people as you can," as Samuel fires both his laser pistol and his gauss gun at any robot he can get a clear shot at as he moves in the direction the others are heading in so that once he's close enough to Shelly he shouts out his reply to her question, "Don't get your tail in a knot, I'm fine," just before Samuel grips his laser pistol in his mouth to free up his left hand as Samuel prepares to lob his last thermite grenade at the robots trying to recapture the escaping prisoners and Freedom Fighters.

While many might think that Ra torching the place is advantageous to the Freedom Fighters, this is a different case where running captives are involved. Some of whom are scared by the fire and stay back, not having the will to run anymore. Thankfully or not, Ra is, in fact, distracted by Mittens. He figures shooting a nice burst of fire at her should do the trick. Thankfully, since aim isn't important for someone like him with so much firepower, his aim is off slightly since Mittens is a moving target. He incinerates the rope Mittens was using instead. The SWATbots have already rounded up a few of the scared ones. And Ra pulls out his gatling guns... or are they shoulder cannons? Whatever they are, just the sight of them alone is enough to spell "too late" for those who have been rounded up by now... because now it's a game of run away and survive.

Blipvert, of course, makes with organizing the SWATs amidst the chaos. Yeah... this is definately a fight to run from for now. That includes splitting them up to prepare them for surrounding everyone. And thanks to that, it seems Samuel's manuver only damaged a small portion of the reinforcements since they are not close together.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:27, Wed 16 May 2007.

Katy can't worry about the ones who are being herded now and she guides the runners out of Middletown. Then turns to face the SWATbots, occasionally shooting rocks from her slingshot. She internally curses. So many options for the badguys right now. Seeing the last of the prisoners that COULD run managing to escape, Katy says, "Retreat!" and turns to run, occasionally checking to make sure the others are retreating. Especially Joe, since he's one of her own FF's.

  It could be considered bad news that Joe and Maverick weren't making use of the whole running thing.  But this detail was taken care of by means of Joe not waiting around for an answer anymore and using a grapple gun A (popular, aren't they?), to get him and grabbed freaking out kid B, to not in quite as much mortal danger but still facing problems point C near the boss type lady...Wait, theres tow of those right now.  The less aquatically inclined boss type lady.

  "I'd appreciate it if you ran yourself, its less effort for me that way."  Joe does not meet dashing hero qualifications at all.


  OOC style:  Asked Tim/katy/Mav/etc everyone ahead of time today if it was okay to yoink Maverick.  It would have been a little awkward if I just left him there.

Shelly is not taking the heat here too well at all. She looks out of breathe and is getting dizzy. The air is drying thanks to all the heat... at the very least, it's noticeable to Shelly. Fire doesn't happen in the water... and she's used to being surrounded by water. This is new for her and she's just now discovering who incredibley bad it is to be surrounded by fire. She manages to run to where she heard Samuel's voice to see him for herself, happy that she heard he was OK. And since Hart has already gotten the people he was responsible for out of here, Shelly only wants to make sure the freedom fighters make it out alive. Shelly yells out to Samuel. "Samuel! I'm not able to carry Mittens around, she's too heavy and I'm feeling a bit dizzy. I need you to carry her out of here!" She wobbles a little like she's having trouble standing. She then starts heading off AWAY from Middletown. "We've saved all the prisoners we can save, Samuel... if we don't get out of here now, nobody will be saved!"

Maverick is carried off via the ever-popular grappling hook! At what Joe says, he isn't upset at all. Rather, he understands he's not pulling his own weight and nods to Joe. He then makes with the running away towards the woods.

Meanwhile, back at Channelwood, Emerald is not liking what she's seeing as she is in the lookout tree, using binoculars. She can't see the details of what's going on, but she can see smoke and what looks like a comparitively large mobile object spewing fire. She then notices various people running towards the woods... definately more than how many went to the city. She rushes to look for Michael. "Michael?! Where are you?!"

Upon reaching the forest's edge, Hart begins to direct the prisoners towards Channelwood, checking back to see if they were being followed by any unfriendly forces.  This sort of chaos and confusion could be just as harmful as helpful.

Looking back, Hart sees the remnants of Ra's effects and the running Freedom Fighters.  Yet he can't see his group, bringing a touch of panic to his throat.  Where's Samuel? Where's Mittens? Another realization causes his heart to stop. "The princess! Where's... oh man..."

Shaking his head and gritting his teeth, he runs towards the front of the group again to better direct them.  They needed him more here.

Samuel... Mittens... Shelley... You guys can help each other get out of there. I know it. I'm going to see you all back home. I'm going to see you all back home...

Closing his eyes for a split second, Nighteyes sighs, before he starts to run as fast as he can following the others.   There is no sense in letting himself be recaptured.  It is a shame he could not help everyone, but such is the way of life.  That Dragon is far too dangerous for him to consider sticking around.

  Mittens nearly loses bladder control when that sudden zero G feeling hits thanks to her rope being incinerated.  o.O  Thankfully, the sudden shift in direction has cured her hiccups!  ^.^  She shifts her shield to below her thankfully dry hind quarters, preparing for what she expects to be a very bumpy landing.  >.<

  BAM!  Mittens' shield glances off the head of a swatbot, (does tht count as a headbutt or a butt-headbutt?) and reels forward.  :P  Though the glancing blow slows her fall somewhat, she still flips head-over-heels and falls flat on her back with a loud CLANG!  @.@  Good thing she was wearing armor or the fall would have likely cracked her skull wide open!  >.<  Dazed, all she can think about is her original plan: keep Ra's attention from the escaping prisoners or they're as good as toast!

  "MISSED ME!  MISSED ME!  NEENER NEENER NEEEENER!" Mittens shouts at Ra while trying to get up.  She doesn't get a chance to, because a swatbot takes her prisoner.  ._.

Michael is in the trees not far from Emerald when he hears her calling out to him.

Michael replies, "I'm over here? What is the problem?" as he wonders what has Emerald so concerned. Michael rapidly climbs branches with a somewhat worried look on his face as he approaches Emerald to try and find out the source of her concern.

Emerald hands her binoculars to Michael since he climbed to where she's at. "I think we're going to need to go to the edge of the forest and lead those people back here. It looks like that simple mission turned into some kind of jail break." She's excited at the prospect of having released some prisoners, but is by far more worried about the safety of her friends who are still out there.

  In the shuffling madness runs a young black cat.  Lucky to be alive with all the chaos going on, this is the second most frightening day of his life.  Men don't cry, so he tries to choke back the tears, but the terror and heart-breaking memories are far too much for the boy to handle and his eyes betray him.  Vision blurred, Lucky reaches out to grab hold of someone - anyone - who can show him the way, but the adults run to fast for him to keep up.

"This is all my fault!" he thinks to himself, "All these people are suffering thanks to my curse!  If only I were man enough to just die.  Then maybe these people would stand a chance."

  Lucky shudders violently at the thought.  He trips over his own feet and falls flat on his face.  Dazed, he tries to obey the voice of terror that screams at him to flee, but he looks over his shoulder at the hellish scene of a rampaging fire dragon and his army of doom.  His heart and mind have reached their limit.  Pupils shrink to pinpoints.  Muscles lock.  Nothing more than a canvas of green eyes painted with beautiful beautiful orange and red flames.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:25, Sun 20 May 2007.

Katy rushes over to the fallen Lucky since, lucky for him, he happened to be in her path. She scoops him up with ease, throwing him onto her shoulder and continuing to run. "Hang in there, kid! You'll be OK!" she says as she hops right over a laserblast by sheer luck.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:25, Sun 20 May 2007.

Samuel learns of Mittens' dire situation via the sensors in his cybernetic implants and realizes that if Mittens is interrogated there is a strong chance of Aquarius being located, which means that his shuttle's location would be compromised. Samuel knows he can't allow for that information to fall into Robotnik's hands.

Samuel quickly grips his gauss gun in both hands, seemingly to steady himself, in fact he's relying on the cybernetics in his left arm to aim for him as he knows he can't make this shot on his own. Samuel quickly shoots the SWATBot that  has taken Mittens prisoner with his gauss gun and then fires off the underslung grappling hook at Mittens' armor knowing that it will magnetically lock to her armor and due to the weight difference between Mittens and Samuel will reel her towards Samuel without harming her or her armor.

Samuel quickly takes his left hand off the gauss gun as it begins to rapidly pull Mittens towards Samuel while Samuel fires off his second grappling hook at a precise point near the roof of a tall building so that he, along with Mittens will be pulled up to get clear of the approaching robots.

Samuel is lifted off the grounds only seconds before several SWATBot's fire on the location where he was as Samuel mutters in Dinonian about how pathetically slow SWATBots are, but to everyone else it no doubt sounds like a cross between a bird call and a lizard growling and hissing as Samuel mentally activates the antigrav functions in his boots to adjust Mittens and his trajectory just enough to allow his plan to work as SWATBots continue to shoot at him but are always too slow as they continue to fire at where he is instead of where he is heading, which is a poor tactic against a rapidly moving target. 'It's a good thing these SWATBots don't have the processing power to anticipate where someone is going to target their fire there or this plan would never work,' before he says to Mittens, "You really need to work on your exit strategies since I know Freedom Fighters such as Shelly do not approve of suicide missions."

The grappling hook magnetically attached to Mittens' armor reels her to Samuel seconds before Samuel's second grappling hook would reel them to near the rooftop, however instead of the reeling slowing down slightly when the wire gets shorter as the grappling hook attached to Mitten's armor did, this grappling hook continues to reel in faster, and a second before it would be completely reeled in, it releases from the wall, leaving Samuel and Mittens' forward and upward momentum carrying them up and past the rooftop due to the trajectory readjustment from the antigravs in Samuel's boots.

Once clear of the Rooftop, Samuel works to shift Mittens' so that she's being carried over his left shoulder not unlike a large sack of potatoes before he detaches the grappling hook from her armor just as the two reach the apex of their 'grapple assisted jump'. Samuel then fires the grappling hook that is attached beneath the barrel of the gauss gun at the wall of another building as Samuel uses his boots to continue to adjust their trajectory to both make it harder for the SWATBots to hit him as well as to make sure that the two don't swing into a building as Samuel now swings tarzan style to get clear of the robots that had tried to cut off his escape.

As soon as Samuel and Mittens are past the robots, Samuel has his grappling hook detach so that he lands on the ground running away from the scene to rendezvous with the others, but not before he uses his left hand to toss his last grenade behind them to help cover their escape.

(OOC: Would have posted earlier, but I needed to wait till I had gotten an Okay from Mittens before I could post as well as having stuff in RL to deal with.)

Michael replies, "It would seem so. I hope Katy explains how a simple gathering mission turned into a jailbreak," as he looks through the binoculars. Michael then sees an explosion and mutters under his breath, "I just hope they all make it out of there safely, that place is a warzone."

  1/2 dazed from the fall (or rather, the sudden stop) Mittens just enjoys the new amusement ride "Swinging Spaceman Sam" with a cuppy-cake smile.  :3

  "Exit strategy?" Mittens answers, "When things went bad, I became the exit strategy...  Distract the dragon so it doesn't barbecue everyone else...  and pray I don't become roast kitty myself."    o.o

  "By the way, thanks for the 'Yes' answer to that one!" she prays, then realizes she hasn't thanked the flesh-and-blood answer.  :o

  "In any case, thanks for the save, Sam!  ^.^"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:13, Fri 25 May 2007.

  There's one advantage to being carried potato-style by someone of the opposite gender...  a nice view!  Between that and Katy's encouragement, Lucky snaps out of his daze just enough to begin to be embarrassed that he's being rescued by a girl.

  "Uh... thanks," he answers hesitantly, "Ya know...  I think we may go faster if I were on my feet."

Samuel replies to Mittens as he continues to make a 'tactical retreat from Middletown while carring Mittens over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, "Your welcome, but next time, please don't forgot an exit strategy for yourself."

Samuel silently thanks Markus for all the times the two of them played '3D tag' at Tanelorn as children when Samuel had to use grappling hooks all the time to swiftly evade Markus' ability to fly, or to pursue the Dinonian when Samuel was 'it'.


(OOC from Timothius: Note - All I edited was the color in the brackets. The color wasn't showing up due to a misspelling inside the brackets. The actual pose content was not messed with.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:51, Sun 27 May 2007.

  While Joe might be able to claim 'I did that first' if he had wanted to regarding the grapple hook rescue method, he didn't cause nearly as much violent carnage during the process compared to Sam.  Again, 'crude' explosives will be popular if the guy maintains his keeping them to himself unless already armed stance on demolitions materials.

  "I guess it would be considered bad form to comment on how we completely failed the reason we came here.  The whole value of life thing being more popular in general."

  Seriously, the only one of the original group who got what they came for was Sam.  And decapitating a Swat wasn't exactly a noteworthy accomplishment in itself really.  Nevermind the well thought out and obviously would be explained in great detail if slightly questioned reasoning and potential end results.  It could have the Death Star plans on it and it would still just be swat bot related violence which even some of the scared out of their eyeballs additions to the group had been able to make some use of.

  "Or asking if we were hoping they would just kinda stop chasing us after going ten feet past the city limits which seems to be the usual oddly  convenient situation."

Katy smacks her forehead. "Joe's right! Last time, we outran them and lost them in the woods. But something tells me they won't give up the chase in this particular case. Too many of them and too much taken from them..." Katy hides behind a building and puts Lucky on the ground as she starts to think about what to do. "I've got it! We'll have to lose them in their own turf, but it's doable..." She looks about for Shelly and sees Shelly is barely half-running along, looking like she'll collapse any second. Katy rushes out to catch the seabear who is remaining contious for the time being. "Shelly... for survival sake, our groups are going to have to split up. There are sewer entrances nearby. I'll lead you and your freedom fighters to one."

Shelly coughs some and says, "What about the escaped prisoners? There are too many of them. That giant robot is likely to follow the prisoners with SWATbots since that is likely all he needs to send after them."

Katy mrfs... Shelly's right. This situation is getting worse. Someone needs to think of something and fast. She really REALLY hates to have to part with Joe, but Katy sees her choices becoming fewer and fewer. She becons to Joe, who thankfully since he was in hearing range earlier, should no doubt be closer to Katy and Shelly now. "Joe! I need you to run ahead of us and tell the Channelwood Freedom Fighters what's going on. You can get there faster than most of us, no doubt, on foot if not graple. Tell them to lure the SWATs away from Channelwood and to create an ambush."

Maverick has already made use of climbing a tree and started to make with the disappearing, knowing he could very well get caught up to. Sadly, he is seriously lacking in the equipment department. So all he can do is sit in the tree, scared, hoping he won't get spotted by the enemy.

Emerald headshakes. "We should go there... we should help. Somehow... if nothing else, we should make sure the prisoners will make it here without being followed. If SWATs follow them here, that will be devistating to Channelwood." She starts to make her way into the tree elevator. "Coming, Michael? Unless you have a better idea..."

Blipvert takes a squad of SWATbots with him towards the woods, persuing Hart and the prisoners. He orders the SWATbots to go two seperate directions as if preparing an ambush himself. He has absolutely blinding lights on his backside so that should anyone try to sneak up on him from behind, it will be too hard to see what they are trying to hit. Which will give him a better chance to react.

Michael follows with Emerald as he says, "As a matter of fact, I do. But we'll need some help to pull it off so we'll need to round up a few others. Swatbots aren't heavily armored so we can pull a distraction by pelting them with larger rocks, for example, Valin's strong enough to throw a large enough rock with enough force to decapitate a SWATBot. Also we can dig pit traps with spikes so the SWATBots are taken out by stepping where they shouldn't. So we will pelt them with rocks from various directions as they chase after the prisoners. In short, we use the fact the robots will chase escaping prisoners anywhere to have the robots walk into a trap. But we'll need Valin and a few others to help. After all we'll need people to dig fast, and cover up the pit traps, while others get rocks, and yet others join up with the prisoners to lead them through the traps safely."

Samuel continues to run with Mittens over his shoulder as he meets up with the others while asing, "Mittens, are you able to walk, or should I say run, on your own? Since I can't really fight while carrying you. I may be out of grenades, but I still have my gun and pistol and they aren't out of ammo. If we inflict enough damage to those that chase us, they will be forced to abandon the chase," as Samuel is quite willing to 'drop Mittens off' with Shelly and Katy if Mittens is able to move on her own.

  Had he been paying attention, would comment that killing every single swat that was within a three hundred foot radius would indeed discourage them from chasing them.  Crawl along after if they still worked in a 'torso only' situation, but you get the idea.

  Shame he was listening to Katy then.

  "I would still suggest fleeing like the proverbial frightened little girl as fast as possible for the rest of them."  This completely unhelpful comment made Joe was already on his way to disregarding gravities usual end result by way of grapple gun swingage.  It's still unclear whether or not a Swat head crushed into its shoulders is an efficient stepping platform, but at least it's amusing.

  The real problem would likely be seeing if Joe would explain the situation in a coherent manner when he shortly gets to the requested task.

  "Yeah," Mittens answers, wiggling her feet, "I think all my parts are in working order.  ^.^  It's a miracle the only thing that broke in that fall was the swat I landed on."  :o

Katy looks up and over at Samuel. "We can't risk that the dragon bot will decide to stay behind. But you are on to something. If we cause enough damage, perhaps they will chase US instead of the prisoners. I was just telling Shelly: We need to draw their attention away from the prisoners. And I know this place well enough to lose them in their own turf." She glances at Shelly who seems out of it. "...Mittens, you did great. But do you suppose you could help Shelly get out of here? She looks to be spent."

Katy realises her numbers are greatly diminishing. Having sent Joe away, Shelly being out of it, Hart handling the prisoners and now Mittens... this isn't good. That leaves just herself and Samuel. And she's afraid because Samuel most probabley has whatever he came here for by now. She also knows that alone, she doesn't stand enough of a chance against these odds to even buy enough time for the others. She does NOT like the idea of Ra starting a forest fire and then sitting back laughing while the Freedom Fighters' doom is at hand. She relents to what Samuel was suggesting. "On second thought, Sam... you have a point. I don't have enough people with me to divert them. To maximize damage, we need to ambush. To the woods... we'll worry about whatever forest fire Ra causes later." With that, she takes Joe's advice and runs to the woods like a little girl. She sure can run for someone her size, but thankfully, that's partly due to not having Lucky to carry.


(OOC: Please check the OOC thread.)

This message was deleted by the player at 19:43, Wed 30 May 2007.

Emerald nods to Michael. "I'll get Valin and a few others. Meet you at the ground level." She rushes off towards where she last heard Valin was supposed to be.

Samuel puts Mittens down feet first once she acknowledges that she's okay.
Samuel then thinks to himself, 'I'd rather not have to do this but I have no choice...if I hold back now, things will only get worse.' as he doesn't even pause for a second as he unholsters his laser pistol with his left hand before he starts firing both his gauss gun and his laser pistol at any pursuing robot he gets a clean shot on while running backwards to keep up with the others as they flee for the woods.

If anyone pays close attention to Samuel during this time, they will notice a few things that seem a bit odd, even for Samuel. One is that Samuel's accuracy with the laser pistol in his left hand seems to be far greater than the accuracy of the gauss gun in his right hand as while one shot is often enough to drop a SWATBot, it takes Samuel 2 or 3 shots with his gauss gun to reliably drop a SWATBot due to the decreased accuracy, which seems rather odd given that the gauss gun is probably the stronger weapon of the two. Another is that Samuel seems to have eyes on the back of his head as he has no trouble running backwards in battlefield conditions in a place he's not very familiar with without even stumbling once. However Samuel knows that pretty soon he's going to have to reload both his pistol and his gauss gun, although fortunately not at the same time, it's still going to be annoying to have to reload either without protective cover as right now Samuel is relying on shooting on the run to lay down cover fire for himself and those near him.

Samuel figures that his current tactics are no doubt going to require a bit of explaining afterwards, he'll have to think of an excuse to explain how he can pull of these 'tricks'. Samuel continues to think to himself as all this is going on, 'Well since I don't want to reveal my trump card of having cybernetic implants anytime in the near future, I guess I'll have to come up with an excuse on how I'm pulling this off that the natives will believe. But for right now I have to focus on this fight...I wish I had my brother-in-law's space forces training as relying on my cybernetics and other technological tools will only get me so far in combat and I'm rapidly approaching the limit of what I can do, and I know it's not enough.'

Michael nods to Emerald and heads off by climbing through the trees to get to the workshop to grab a few tools  Michael suspects will be needed before heading to the ground level again via the trees with an ease that comes naturally to a chimpanzee.

Valin is tending to the some of the gardens on the first level when Emerald finds him as the gorilla is currently unaware of the situation currently going on at Middletown, although that is likely to change in the very near future.

Emerald spots Valin and rushes over to him. "Valin! You're needed! We're going to the edge of the woods and we'll need you and whoever else is willing to create an ambush. Katy and the others are in trouble!"

One might also wonder why Samuel's shots are all so accurate. Ra is bloodlusted, but at least now he can see Samuel clearly and can put a face to the newest threat. He's about to ask permission from Robotnik to do whatever is neccessary to eliminate the problem that is Samuel when he gets a call from Robotnik.

Whatever it was that just happened, Ra stops running towards the woods. He looks angrier than before as his mechanical eyes narrow. "You are lucky I don't melt you where you stand, Freedom Fighters. Especially you, Samuel! However, I have more important matters to attend than the likes of you!" With that said, he spreads his wings, causeing a gust of wind in the proccess and takes off, giving commands to the SWATs to persue while the bulk of them fallback.

One SWATbot looks at another. "It's the priority one hedgehog." and that is all that need be said for any nearby who heard it to understand. However, just because Ra and a bunch of backup is out of the picture, doesn't mean the fight is over as well over 20 SWATbots are still chasing the prisoners.

Samuel suddenly stops shooting with his gauss gun as he knows the clip in it has run out at the same time the encrypted 'priority one hedgehog' communications are sent out. Although Samuel hasn't uploaded the decrypted 'SWATBot Brain' into his bracers and cybernetics yet, when a SWATBot mentioned the 'Priority One Hedgehog' Samuel figures the transmission must be a lucky break.

Without loosing any momentum, Samuel quickly holsters the laser pistol and grabs a fresh ammo clip for the gauss gun with his left hand in a smooth motion. Samuel dodges a SWATBot's attack as Samuel then swaps out the Ammo clips in a second smooth motion, which ends with the empty clip hanging off Samuel's belt. It seems like Samuel has had a lot of practice reloading his gauss gun on the move, although Samuel knows it's simple to do when you have a cybernetic arm, but the Freedom Fighter's don't know that. What is known is that when Samuel grips the Gauss Gun with both his hands, his accuracy with it suddenly increases to what it was for the Laser Pistol when Samuel held it in his left hand as Samuel is now using the Gauss Gun to drop SWATBots in a single shot each, mostly because Samuel is worried about what if it is a trap so he needs to conserve ammo, and partially with all his dodging around as he runs backwards he's not having time to fire off more than one shot at any one SWATBot.

Samuel snarls in an angry tone of voice, "You now know my name and face. And one day, you'll know that I am far more dangerous than some pathetic hedgehog." as Samuel feels insulted that the appearance of some 'hedgehog' causes this sort of reaction, yet at the same time is glad that the reaction has occured as it makes his job easier. Samuel then shouts out in Latin, "Robotnik mos perceptum vereor mihi praeter nex ipsum!" as he wonders if Robotnik's robots will be able to translate the latin properly into 'Robotnik will learn to fear me more than death itself.' Although the tone Samuel uses lacks any specific meaning in Latin carries a clear meaning in Dinonian when combined with those words as it is the same tone used in uttering vows not unlike the one Markus uttered as his final words before being Roboticized. Samuel's thoughts momentarily shift to Markus and his crewmembers Robotnik holds captive as Samuel then repeats in Dinonian, the oath that Markus made before being Roboticized.

Samuel figures that if there are people on this world that know latin, then Robotnik's empire may be able to translate the first part, but only if they are able to extract knowledge from Samuel's crewmembers will they be able to translate the second part and if they are able to do that... then Samuel will have to significantly adjust his tactics as no one knows how Samuel fights better than his crewmembers as they know how Samuel fights. However even if Robotnik's forces can't translate Dinonian, they should easily be able to realize that the words Samuel just spoke are the same ones that Markus spoke before being Roboticized. In anycase, Samuel knows that to play it safe, he's going to have to change his tactics, and the tactics of those around him if he wants to rescue his crewmembers, which will be easier said than done. Samuel also knows that its easy to talk to the talk, but it will not be easy to try and bring the words he has spoken true.

  There really needed to be some kind of early warning system for 'majority of a robot army is after you' situation.  Being warned in the middle of the carnage just didn't seem to be as helpful, and those who would miss this kind of thing happening around then likely wouldn't be helped in either case.

  It probably doesn't help that people's nerves that they had to rely on Joe for passing along current events info.

  The convenient fact Valin was hard to miss as well as out in the open made it easier to head for him via skidding landing by him and incidentally Emerald.  He'll figure out how to completely ignore inertia and friction laws one of these days.  "I get the feeling you already have the general idea, but here's the official statement that last I saw about the entire local robot army was ready to chase only half the local prisoners.  Along with a complete lack of scuba gear for anyone.  Help in the whole 'people not dieing as much or needing to find a new home' efforts would be appreciated.  But I'm sure Mike's probably already getting on that."

  Incidentally, had Joe been back in town to see Sam's run and gun action, he'd think that A) He's left handed?  B) He's said he's used to this kind of thing about how many times now?  Considering cybernetics going along with his other tech, solely because he might not be able to even hit anything, reload a gun, or flee a killer robot army like is popular here with any skill at all is a distant C)  Or would that make it the new B) Because he wasn't as good as advertised?

Emerald does the reflexive cringing when Joe comes by and makes his surprise landing, though clearly she would have seen him comming a few seconds before hand. She then listens and quickly replies, "But you were there. You can tell us what our binoculars couldn't. Mike's on ground level. Go help him however he wants you to. Valin and I will join you shortly." She then looks back at Valin, "I'll tell a few others and meet with you on ground level. Sounds like we don't have much time!" with that, she scurries off to inform a few more people before heading for ground level.

Katy glances over at Samuel, overhearing his words and can't figure wether it's a good thing or not, considering that 'warning' the enemy could prove to make them underestimate you more... or the bad scenerio: overestimate you. So she decides to yell over at Samuel, "Don't be *too* offended! The weaker the enemy thinks we are, the better!" She can only hope word has been spread quickly enough as she can see the woods up ahead.

Valin nods to Emerald as he puts down the tools he's been working with in a safe spot where no one will trip over them before the gorilla says, "Then I better get down to ground level and help out."

Valin takes a step back when Joe arrives without warning and after the surprised look on Valin's face fades, Valin listens to Joe's message and then quickly says, "I hope there is enough time to do whatever Michael has planned, as it sounds like there isn't much time. I'll see you both on ground level," as Valin then rushes over to one of the larger nearby trees being used to support the village and uses its trunk to climb down to ground level as the gorilla knows that will be faster than using the elevator.

Michael is already explaining what needs to be done for those that Emerald sent down prior to her arriving on the ground level, which includes Valin. Additionally, the chimpanzee is handing out tools as needed to make sure everything can be done swiftly once the group gets moving.

Samuel keeps on using his Gauss Gun to cover everyone's 'tactical retreat' to the woods while running backwards as he seems to rant and yell back to Katy, "Like I care, I just want to get revenge on Robotnik no matter the cost. If I could get my hands on a spacecraft that could reach escape velocity... and you tree hugging pansies didn't kill me first... I'd show him how a ticked off space miner deals with their enemies... I'd throw a rock at him... a BIG rock, one a couple miles in diameter to be exact... I'd love to see the look on Fat Man Do's face when he'd see that a HUGE asteroid is coming down aiming at his headquarters with HIS name on it!... Seriously, I'd etch it into the face of the rock so he could see it! I don't care if such an impact would be classifiable as an Extinction Level Event, if it kills Robotnik and gets me closer to saving my crewmembers, then it's worth it..." As Samuel frequently has to pause during his rant to dodge a blast from a SWATBot or shoot a robot he gets a clean shot at.

By this point it should be quite clear to anyone listening to Samuel that he's ranting about what he'd like to do but that it's obvious that right now it's nothing more than 'wishful thinking' that is about as likely to occur as someone wishing Robotnik would die of a heart attack in the very near future. Although it does reveal two things: First that Samuel doesn't seem to place the same values on the environment that a Freedom Fighter would. And second that Samuel would do anything he thought might get him closer to saving his crewmembers, which could be viewed in a number of ways.

  Joe made use of more direct time saving methods of just dropping down from the edge of the current level to ground height.  Granted with grapple gun line reducing the fall to minimum safe distance first.  The next obvious step was proceeding over to Mike and filling him in with a bit more detail, and a bit less vague of the situation as last seen.  How nice for everyone that Joe's estimate on hostiles count was now an overstatement.

  "Anyways, shall I be assisting in pointy ditch digging or did you have something else in mind that can be accomplished in a hurry?" How nice that Joe saved his lazy time for when something didn't have to be taken care of.

Emerald arrives at ground level with a few more helpers and awaits Michael's instructions. "I stuck Benji at the lookout tower." she says to Mike just so he knows she's not abandoning the post completely.

Michael replies to Joe, "Actually I need you working on the 'pointy ditch digging' as you called it, since I believe your rather skilled at setting up pointy objects." Michael then adds, "Emerald can you go and help guide those leaving Middletown to the ambush point, where Valin will pelt the  SWATBots with rocks and other large debris found in the forest to herd them into the pit traps everyone else will be helping to build. We have to hurry, so let's get a move on it," as Michael starts to lead the others to what will be the rendezvous and ambush point.

It feels like he's been running forever, but by the time that point crosses his mind, Hart has managed to lead the front half of the prisoners far enough to be able to see the ground level of Channelwood. He's relieved to see some commotion on the ground.  "Looks like they're expecting us." He calls back to the prisoners within immeadiate earshot. "Once we get everyone there, we'll figure out our next play.  It'll be cool from here on out."  Though he says this with confidence, he doesn't allow himself to fully relax.  They weren't out of the woods yet.

Speaking of things within the woods, Hart fails to notice that Blipvert or the SWATbots have followed the back end of the escapees into the woods.  He's far too focused on leading the prisoners and being concerned about the welfare of his comrades to notice any unwanted pursuers.

(EDIT: Fixed the post to make more sense :) The pursuers are still quite a ways from Channelwood.  Thanks all!)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:35, Fri 08 June 2007.

"Speak of the Devil..." Emerald says with a smile. She then rushes on over towards Hart. "Hey you! Follow me! A plan to ambush the persuers is in the making!" She then leads the way towards the opposite side of where Valin is going to be headed as she prepares to help set traps from all sides.

  Pointy objects! Joe is so there!

  Manual labor!... Joe is meh there.  Just because he always takes care of it when needed doesn't mean he considers it super happy fun time.

  "If all else fails we can sharpen his head accessories." Joe comments passing by Hart on his way to do something a little more elaborate than sand castles.  Though he could make a nifty driftwood and seaweed catapult.  The other unarmed sand castles never had a chance.

  But yeah.  Dirt leaves ground, pointy bits go where dirt used to be, etc etc why do people and bots always fall for these?

"Real cute," Hart says to Joe in passing. "But I get the feeling that you'd be more comfortable running skull-first into a metal enemy than I would.  Maybe we can make you a pair..."

Hart continues to follow Emerald towards the other side, not totally sure of what they're planning, but guessing from the atmosphere that it has something to do with them not being alone in the forest.  Hart sighs, a bit upset that their group was probably tailed, but relieved things seem to be under control.

Katy turns her attention back to Samuel. "You better care, if you want to ever accomplish your goals. You have to fight smart, not just with anger. But now's not the time to discuss long-term strategy." If it weren't for the fact she herself has to constantly keep her anger in check, she's be tempted to think Samuel's as much a noob as Mittens. But she doesn't. Instead she leads the bots right for the ambush she is expecting to have been set by now.

Having heard Katy's request of Mittens, Shelly goes to lean on the energetic cat, coughing and looking in bad shape.

Samuel doesn't take his eyes off the robots still pursuing the group, but the look on his face changes slightly as some of Katy's words do hit home, as he replies, "It doesn't matter if we don't survive this situation, then discussing long-term anything becomes moot. If I want to vent, then let me vent. Or would you rather me keep my anger all bottled up till it explodes and I do something 'rash'?" As Samuel continues to try to slow down the forces pursing the group and if possible taking out of a few of the robots in the process.

With Samuel's wife coming from a family with a long history of having jobs in both the Space Forces and in Law Enforcement, Samuel is rather used to hearing comments similar to 'fight smarter, not harder' as well as other sayings. Not that Samuel has ever paid much attention to those sayings as they aren't credos he lives by. 'She's right, I'm letting my hatred get the better of me. While I know anger can be used as a focus, if it becomes blind hatred, it only becomes a tool for one's opponent. I'm lucky that these SWATBots are too stupid to take advantage of that tool or I'd probably already be dead. I don't even want to think about what Alexis' father would say if he saw me fighting and ranting like this... Or if he hears about it later... He scares me more than anything Robotnik could ever do. I guess Katy's right that I'm going to have to do things differently... but how...bah, I'll think about that later, right now I better focus on the fight before something goes wrong.'

After reaching the ambush point Michael works with the others to get everything ready in time. Fortunately for Michael and those working on preparing for the ambush, this isn't rocket science, after all it's not hard to dig a ditch put pre-made pointy objects at the bottom and then cover it up while others gather suitable throwing rocks.

Michael hasn't overlooked that those being chased by the robots don't know exactly where the pit trap will be so Michael also explains to those with him about helping to guide people around and past the trap while not making it overt that a trap is being avoided once the others reach the site where the ambush is to take place.

Valin has been busy gathering rocks and other things he can use to throw at a SWATBot to take it out of action and getting them moved to be within arm's reach so he'll have a good supply of objects to throw once the ambush occurs.

Valin just hopes that he's managed to gather enough rocks and large branches for the ambush as he'd hate to run out since although the trees will provide him with some cover, without a real way to defend himself the SWATBots could flank and pick him off at range in time.

  Considering they were going to be killing robots with pointy sticks, and Joe was already capable of taking out Swat's vampire hunter style, he probably would find the headbut of pointy death method to work out just fine.  And on the pointy death to robots note, ditch preparations were conveniently finished.

  If things went well, all that effort would be wasted from robots being dealt with before even reaching that point.  No reason to wait for the scenery to do your job if you can still effectively carve out a chunk of the odds numbers against you all personal like.

  A bruised tailbone and fatigue is no excuse for not fulfilling your sworn duty to protect the princess, but her AND the armor will be too much to carry.  Mittens salutes Katy with a smile, drops all her armor, lifts Shelly onto her shoulders, and hustles toward town.  "My God is my rock," she prays aloud as if chanting a military cadence, "in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent men you save me."  -.-

  "So this is why you made my gear so heavy," she prays silently as the burn in her legs becomes increasingly painful.  Mittens moves fast enough to keep up with the others, but falls flat on her face from exhaustion once inside Channelwood.  @.@

  Having something new to focus on - namely the backsides of three very attractive teenage girls - Lucky forgets about his impending doom and follows their lead.  For a pubescent boy, he does a good job keeping up, but it helps that every last blast from the pursuing robot army miss him entirely and the escape route is completely free of obstacles.

Katy doesn't have the time to argue. "Regardless, we agree that arguing is a waste of time." She looks around and spots Joe. "Joe! Gimme some news!" she calls out to him.

Shelly manages to keep from passing out. "w... waaater...." she manages to let out with a relatively scratchy voice as though from a dry throat. Her hold on Mittens is loose at best, though thankfully, Shelly weighs only slightly more than Mittens' armor.

Around then, the SWATbots are closing in on the ambush spot thanks to Samuel and Katy luring them quite sufficiently. Completely unaware they are now surrounded and about to be pelted with giant rocks or fall into pits, the bots continue as ordered, chasing Sam and Katy.

Blipvert, however, is starting to reconsider. Why are these freedom fighters running? Where could they possibley hope to hide? Do they think they can outrun the SWATbots? He lags behind some to watch the proceedings, figuring this could very well be a counter-trap. After all... Ra isn't the only one who can set traps.


(OOC: This is your part, everyone, to feel free to pose any SWATbots falling into traps or otherwise getting wrecked. One way or another. They are in position.)

Michael focuses on helping those fleeing from Middletown avoid the pit traps since the alternative isn't good for their health. However Michael is having to be semi-covert about it to not tip off the SWATBots about the trap that has been set for them.

At the appropriate moment, Michael signals Valin to start tossing rocks at the SWATBots.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Wed 20 June 2007.

Samuel has kept up his covering fire on the SWATBots and once again is forced to swapt out the clip in his gauss gun for a fresh clip by the time Michael gives what Samuel guesses is a signal for an ambush, as Samuel is well aware that the chimpanzee is making sure people avoid areas which Samuel figures are booby trapped. But due to several of the SWATBots still taking potshots at Samuel, he's more preoccupied with using the foliage for cover than he is asking about what sort of ambush has been planned, after all Samuel knows he'll find out soon enough.

As soon as Samuel reloads his gauss gun he resumes taking potshots of his own at the dwindling number of SWATBots as a thrown rock suddenly decapitates a SWATBot. Samuel thinks to himself, 'They have a catapult or some sort of launcher?' as the sensors in Samuel's cybernetic implants inform him that the 'launcher' is infact Valin as Samuel then makes a mental note, 'Do not piss off the gorilla, if he can throw a rock that hard, I don't want to know what he can do to me. I'd rather not end up as a human pretzel, or worse.'

Upon seeing Michael's signal to start tossing rocks, Valin starts tossing rocks around the size of a mobian's head at SWATBots with enough force to decapitate the  robots. After the first SWATBot has fallen due to now having rocks where its 'brains' were, Valin continues to pelt SWATBots with rocks to try and herd them away from the escaping prisoners and into the pit traps.

With Valin using the trees as cover, the SWATBots don't have much chance to retaliate as those that aren't taken out with a thrown rock are either being fired upon by Samuel after his gauss gun is reloaded, pelted by a rock, or ending up falling for the pit traps, quite literally.

  With the techy magnetically accelerated needles being fired method on one end, and the old fashioned method of hucking rocks at things on the other, Joe's method was somewhere between those.  Though of course more towards the low tech rocks method.

  Ever consider how heavy old fashioned grappling hooks can be? And what exactly they are?  Swat's were being reminded of these details as Joe enacted in violence that would make a Belmont jealous.  It's amazing what can be done with a hunk of metal and cord (or chains, depending,).

  "The question is Violence, the answer is yes.  That and so far nobody we'd notice gone is dead.  Do keep it that way please."

While staying out the line of fire, both Freedom Fighter and SWATbot alike, Hart lays being the point of ambush with the others, chucking the occasional rock to knock a SWATbot off balance enough to fall into a pit.

"Awesome. If we can stop these guys, all this jazz might work out to be majorly in our favor." They'll think that we led 'em to this point on purpose, with no clue of how close they were to an actual outpost.  All we've gotta do is press back enough.

While looking for another opening, Hart's eyes spot something else: A younger female cat struggling to get past the line and into saftey. Must be a straggler from the escape.  How the heck did we miss her? She was close, moving forward from behind the trees, but not close enough.  It was sheer luck that she hadn't been spotted by the 'bots yet, but it also might've been due to all the chaos.  Whatever the reason, she was too close to the SWATbots for comfort and probably didn't have a clue where the pits were laid.  It didn't take much more mental prodding for Hart to make a run for her.
Dashing past the line of ambush, Hart makes for the trees and the cat-girl.  He reaches her quickly, but not quick enough as several nearby SWATbots have already spotted her and him. Before the startled feline has a chance to react, Hart grabs her by the arm and forces her to run with him.  The nearby SWATbots are closing in, but shots from the other Freedom Fighters have taken down all but one.  The remaining 'bot manages to get next to Hart and the cat-girl and makes the move to grab them, but its foot passes through the ground and into a pit as it moves. After a moment, the rest of the 'bot follows into the pit, but Hart and the feline are already back behind the lines, where the feline reunites with the other escapees.

Once she's back and safe, Hart lets out a sigh of relief and almost collapses behind their cover. That probably could've gone better, but whatever... Thank goodness those 'bots are lacking in the speed department.  I wonder what Shelly would've thought of that stunt?

Shelly is in no condition to give an opinion on Hart's stunt. Her only plea for water being ignored (And understandabley. Mittens is focusing on getting Shelly to safety first or else water won't matter), Shelly finally slips out of contiousness for the time being.

Blipvert sees the SWATbot numbers drop drastically and quickly. After a moment's thought about the situation, he orders a retreat through radio and has the SWATbots carry their wounded or such back with them if possible. It seems the Freedom Fighters planned just one step ahead this time. But how? Thankfully for the Freedom Fighters, it doesn't occur to Blipvert that such a trap could be made on the fly since neither Blipvert nor Ra realize they are dealing with 2 groups of Freedom Fighters now. Nor do they truly know the number of Freedom Fighters that might be living at Channelwood... now that they have seen the likes of Shelly, Hart, Mittens and a few others.

The SWATbots grab what they can and run for it back towards Middletown. Robotnik won't be happy. But Blipvert does not care about Robotnik's emotions.

Katy isn't ready to proclaim victory just yet, even as she sees the bots retreating. There is still work to be done, such as covering up any evidence that there was a battle here. She continues firing rocks with her slingshot at the retreating SWATbots until they are out of range. "Stay your ground! Do NOT persue!" is her only command while doing so. But when the bots are out of sight, she quickly hurries over to Samuel. "Any of your scanners able to detect bombs or mines that might be left behind? I didn't see them lay any, but that doesn't mean they didn't. I'm not used to seeing them retreat..."

Maverick didn't get his chance to jump any SWATbots yet. Which is OK with him. Survival is what's important. He climbs down from the tree he was in and curiously watches the others as he cautiously makes his way over to Samuel, figuring this fellow overlander could explain things. He looks around, keeping an eye out for Nighteyes, just in case, so he can thank the man for aiding in his rescue...

Shelly's final plea doesn't escape Lucky's notice.  When he sees her pass out he assumes the worst and panics!

  "MEDIC!" he screams desperately as he hurriedly approaches her, She's DIEING!"

He carefully rolls Shelly from off Mitten's back and looks around for anyone who looks like they know first aid.

For a split second, Mittens dismisses Lucky's request as an overreaction, <.<  but just as quickly it occurs to her that Shelly could have been shot in the escape and is bleeding to death.  O.O!!!  She springs to her feet as if falling flat on her face from exhaustion had just been an act and begins to search the Princess for any serious injury, but finds none.  o.o?

  "I know first aid," Mittens explains to Lucky cooly, ""What is she dieing of?"

Samuel doesn't follow the SWATBots when they retreat even before such an order is given as Samuel is no hero, all he cares about is getting the job done and surviving to do the next job.

When Katy approaches him, and after hearing her question, he chuckles and replies, "Of course, Stelaras Employees, especially mechanics like me, often use those type of sensors are also used to detect fuel leak, booby traps, and radiation when exploring salvage locations. After all, you never know when space pirates have booby trapped a location to try to ambush anyone attempting to salvage it when the trap goes off," as Samuel quickly puts away his gauss gun and starts pressing buttons on his diagnostic bracer as he scans the area for any sort of trap that the retreating robots may have left behind, as well as what the robots did leave behind may be useful as salvage.

Samuel is so focused on the scan that he doesn't respond to Maverick's approach as Samuel doesn't know what to make of the 'boy' approaching him as other than the kid clearly isn't a Mobian. 'So is this kid a stranded survivor from space like me, or is he a native, what did the Mobians call them... oh yes Overlander... hmm, I can see now why there are some who think I'm an Overlander, but appearances are only skin deep...I'm a human from Tanelorn. I know a simple medical scan would solve many questions, but I fear the questions such a scan could raise if a relation was found..I'd rather not even think about. I better focus on the scan...'
This message was last edited by the player at 18:50, Tue 10 July 2007.

Valin emerges from where he had taken cover when the robots flee the scene. The gorilla approaches Katy and asks, "Judging by how things turned out, is this mission a success, or a failure as I don't see any scuba gear. But we did rescue some prisoners..."

Noticing the busted SWATBots laying around Valin mutters, "So what do we do now?" as Valin is a bit concerned about the minor damage to the forest, but he knows the forest will recover quickly as it doesn't look like any trees have been killed, although a few have been injured but the plants will be able to heal themselves in time.

Michael looks around as the robots flee and after they have left, Michael approaches Katy and Samuel and says, "With everyone else here, there isn't much that needs my attention, I'll go back to Channelwood and make sure everything is okay there, after all we have to figure out where those that were rescued will be staying."

Michael then grins and heads off towards Channelwood, while still being cautious as he doesn't want to lower his guard and risk letting a hidden robot that may have remained behind try and track him back to Channelwood, so Micheal makes liberal use of the trees to both get back to Channelwood faster, as well as to make himself harder to follow.

While it was very wise of Michael to watch for hidden bots, thankfully, Blipvert didn't think of that. In fact, Hart was right on. Blipvert suspected the base was nowhere near since this trap seemed thought-out.

Meanwhile, Sam's tracers would pick up no sign of mines or other such "hidden" traps waiting for them. It was an honest retreat with no venom left behind.

Maverick reaches to tug on Samuel. "Excuse me..." he says quietly. "...but how do you know these people? Where are you from?" He doesn't seem to mean to be a bother, but he's got to know. What in the world is with this ragtag group of Freedom Fighters that has this overlander adult with them?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Tue 10 July 2007.

Once Samuel's bracer shows Samuel the results of the scan he speaks up, "The robots didn't leave behind any traps, they probably didn't have the opportunity to do so...but what they did leave behind is somewhat salvageable, if only for scrap metal, but there are some things that will be useful."

Samuel then turns to Maverick and replies to Maverick's question, "I met the Aquarius Freedom Fighters while roaming around under water in my space suit while looking for a good place to hide my damaged shuttle. We later ended up meeting the Channelwood Freedom Fighters when everyone ended up running into each other at Middletown not too long ago." Samuel then sighs and frowns as he thinks back of his true home as he says, "I'm from Tanelorn. And if all goes well, one day I will return there with those Robotnik took from me."

At this point Samuel starts going around scavenging the remains of the SWATBots that weren't dragged off for materials and component parts that are still salvageable as Samuel hasn't finished the repairs to his shuttle yet.

Maverick looks interested as he raises an eyebrow. He thinks to himself "...Space suit? First I heard of a stray overlander with a space suit. And I never heard of Tanelorn. But then, I don't suppose I know every Overlander city there is..." Then says, "Tanelorn?" as if asking where that is. He's a boy of few words and wants to keep most of his thoughts to himself. But he can't help but be excited about a man with a space suit. And hopeful that this man is someone he can look up to. Though his caution wins him over for the time being.

Samuel stops salvaging materials when he hears Maverick mention the name Tanelorn as Samuel says, "Tanelorn is the city sized space station where I was born and grew up. And if all goes well, where I'll return someday with those that Robotnik took from me."

Samuel then resumes salvaging SWATBot parts for materials he can use to assist him in his repairs for the shuttle as well as materials to use for other things such as new gauss gun ammo, and spare parts for his SWATBot 'suit'.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:13, Tue 10 July 2007.

Maverick has gotten even more curious now. This guy was BORN on a space station? A CITY sized space station? And if so, why are his people not helping out? Probabley the same reason any other surviving overlander city won't help out even their own kind. "It's reassuring to see another overlander, but you don't seem surprised to see me."

Samuel stops salvaging materials for a second time when he hears Maverick mistake Tanelorn for an Overlander city, as Samuel now realizes the boy has mistaken him as a native of the planet as Samuel grumbles as he almost bites his tongue to prevent shouting in anger as he glares at Maverick, "Tanelorn is not a city of Overlanders! It is in another part of the galaxy where humans, like me, not Overlanders like you, reside in peace along side dozens of other races. Collectively, the residents proudly call themselves Tanelornians no matter what species they are. While on the other hand, Overlanders from what I've heard are all barbaric and treacherous, although how much of that is propaganda I don't know and don't care...what I do know is that as a species they spawned Robotnik and that is enough to make me disappointed with the species as a whole."

Samuel then resumes salvaging materials as second time as he continues muttering to no one in particular, "Frankly, I'm sick and tired for being mistaken for being the same species as that bloated psychopath, Robotnik! I'm not some xenophobic, treacherous, warmongering Overlander that would instigate hostilities with others simply due to differences in what species they are. I may look like an Overlander, but that doesn't mean I am one...and I can't wait to get off this remote backwater planet." as Samuel seriously starts to consider pranking the heck out of the next person to call him an Overlander, no matter who that person is.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:24, Tue 10 July 2007.

Maverick narrows his eyes. "If you aren't xenophobic, then you would not be so offended at being called an overlander just because of Robotnik. You may come from some perfect place where the sun always shines, but all that means is that you are too naive to know people as evil as Robotnik come along all the time from any race." He ponders the idea of keeping his mouth shut and wonders why he even spoke this much. Maybe he's just GOT to know that badly how Samuel feels...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 10 July 2007.

Valin glances back and forth between Samuel and Maverick's 'conversation' and mutters to Katy, "Is it just me or is this a bit of an inappropriate time for these two to be arguing?" as the gorilla sighs.

Emerald earpirks at the conversation and hrms, wondering if she should get involved. Samuel is a member of Aquarius, not Channelwood. And Maverick is a brand new rescue. Perhaps if the argument persists, the best thing would be to keep Maverick in Channelwood.

Katy nods to Valin. "Better now than during battle. Just keep working. If it gets bad, protect whoever gets attacked. If it *threatens* to get bad, I'll step in."

Samuel now starts to look angry as he stops salvaging yet again to say to Maverick, "Look kid, being annoyed when someone mistakes your identity does not qualify as xenophobia. I'd be just as angry if everyone was calling me a Dinonian, or a type of fish, or a virus, or a plant. And Tanelorn may be overall peaceful, but that doesn't mean it's a utopia, crime exists and there are criminals all over the galaxy, some I think are probably sadistic enough to even be able to scare Robotnik bad enough HE'D loose bowel control if he met them in a dark alley." It seems either Samuel isn't listening to what the others present are talking about, or he simply doesn't care.

Samuel then turns his back on Maverick as he once again resumes scavenging, "I've spent a lot of time traveling the stars as a Stelaras Employee so don't think I'm naive just because my home is inhabited by beings of multiple species that are civilized enough to coexist without waging war on each other. Humans in general have given up war in the interstellar community I come from, simply because, like our ancestors, we are disgusted with how good we were at it. Our ancestors devastated our home planet so badly we had to take the to stars thousands of years ago to survive. Loosing your home world was a rude wakeup call, but in hindsight it let humanity mature into a better species. We are no longer territorial and predatory in nature, nor are we ruled by greed and power. Such things are counterproductive, when the only way to survive is for everyone to work together."

Maverick seems satisfied with the answer. Though this goes to show, this guy is an honest-to-goodness alien from outer space.

Although she doesn't say it, Emerald can't help but think Samuel is a bit egotistical to think his people have gone beyond things like greed, etc. It is impossible to change one's nature in long term even when a crisis hits. History proves that. But she isn't about to say such things out loud when it's clear this guy does not take correction. She gets a strong notion that this Samuel guy can never face being wrong about something.

Hart sighs at the conversation between Samuel and Maverick. There he goes again... Whatever.  Overlander or Tanelornian, they look and act the same to me.

Hart is slowly regaining his wits and calm demeanor as the battle has seemingly come to an end.  With others salvaging materials, Hart feels an urge to pitch in as well, but another thought is more important in his mind at the moment. "I'm going to head back to Channelwood too.  I'll feel a lot better when I know that the rest of our group is safe and what the Princess wants us to do next." He indicates Samuel when he mentions the 'group.'

Unaware and slightly anxious of the Shelly's status, Hart trots off towards Channelwood, keeping his ears and eyes open for anything odd that the 'bots might have slipped through.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:52, Wed 11 July 2007.

Katy looks over at Valin. "And by the way, yes... you can assume the mission was failed because we have no scuba gear. But I'm sure you can understand our being distracted by all the masses about to be roboticized."

Valin nods to Katy and says, "I'd say that is quite understandable. After all, we can always go for the scuba gear later. The same can not be said for rescuing prisoners."

  Joe was wondering when the melodrama between the kid and Sam would finish.  He had been tempted to leave the second the kid had asked where Sam was from because there was no question how that would turn out.

  "Why didn't I leave when I could?" Joe sighed, before looking over to Katy and asking "Are we doing anything with this disaster area, or leaving it mostly as is before heading off?"

  "I don't know," Lucky answers Mittens, calming down a little, "She just... suddenly went limp!  Whatever you were carrying her for must have gotten to her!  She said something about water...  Maybe her kind need water to breath!"  Lucky's wide eyes stare at Shelly's parched lips.

"She's breathing," Mittens points out, "But you make a good point.  If you want to help, ask around for some water.  A bucket full at least.  And some clean rags to help cool her off."

(Lucky immediately gets up to start looking for some water.)

When Michael reaches Channelwood he quickly notices something is wrong since the situation involving Shelly doesn't look like a situation where everything is 'peachy'.

Michael quickly heads towards Mittens and Shelly as he asks, "What happened here? Is Shelly okay?" Since Michael doesn't know that much about Seabears he can't tell how serious the situation is.

Katy says, "Joe's right, of course. Let's clean up. I want this place looking like nothing happened here." She then looks at Samuel, "Your help is appreciated, but if you'd rather see to your leader, she's back at Channelwood."

Emerald has been working on stuffing moss into some of the tree scars and covering up the traps that had been set earlier. She stays out of conversation for now, though she does acknowledge Katy, "I'm on it, Katy."

Maverick looks about like he's a little lost. The one guy he figured would have a few things in common with him is from outer space. These people just rescued him, but at the same time, act like it was more of a necessity rather than an act of mercy. Though admittedly, that was the reaction he was feeling from Samuel. Hart seemed like a totally harmless person while Valin seemed gentle, but quite dangerous. Maverick would rather take his chances with someone smaller than himself at this point, so he heads over to where Hart went and starts to quietly follow him.

The humidity levels of the forest are much nicer than the suffocation levels that were occurring in the city thanks to Ra's flames. She is still unconscious, but at least her condition doesn't get any worse for the time being. Nevertheless, her condition will remain the same until someone gets her some water.

Samuel looks a bit glum when Katy refers to 'his leader', for although Samuel knows Katy meant Shelly, Samuel can't help but think of his Captain as he mutters with sadly, "My Captain was roboticized on the same day I was stranded on this planet, so I don't know where he, or the others are now," as Samuel finishes up scavenging parts from the site.

After finishing his scavenging, Samuel then turns his attention towards covering up the 'evidence' of the ambush as best he can. Although for the moment he seems to be ignoring everything else, and it wouldn't be hard to realize that Samuel is simply focusing on the task at hand to avoid thinking about memories that are quite obviously still painful for him.

  "Passed out from exhaustion no doubt," Mittens answers Michael calmly.  "She asked for water before she fainted.  I'll bet she'll need lots of it if her condition is to improve.  I sent that boy to find some," (She points at Lucky) "but I imagine you could get it faster."

  Mittens vision blurs and she braces herself as the dizziness worsens.  @.@  "I could use some myself come to think of it," she continues weakly.  ._.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:29, Wed 18 July 2007.

  It never occurred to Joe that one day, he would be giving swats a proper burial.  Hey, big holes in the ground that were going to be refilled with dirt anyways may as well have a last practical purpose used anyway.  And yes Joe was well aware of the wonders of metal detectors, but any significant effort to see if this was where some carnage took place would succeed anyways, so the small extra would help with the superficial efforts.

Hart arrives at Channelwood shortly after Mittens and Micheal converse.  Seeing Shelly laying uncouncious, he breaks into a dash over to her position.

"Aw man... The princess..." He looks over to Mittens and Micheal, trying to keep his visible cool, but speaking a bit quicker than normal. "What happened here?  She doesn't look terrible, but she doesn't look good either.  You don't look so hot yourself, Mittens... maybe you should sit down and chill out for a bit." He sighs, slowing himself down. "Geez, this has been one heck of a trip to the surface..." He looks over at Mittens' unsteadyness with slight concern, also keeping an eye on Micheal for any indication of what's all going on.  He's aware that he probably arrived in the middle of things, and hopefully a solution is already underway.

Katy doesn't really comment on what Sam said since she frankly doesn't care weather Sam sees Shelly is his leader or not. Though she does add, "But he and your crew members will be found. Do or die. And along side them or not, I'll make Robotnik wish he was never born." She sure as heck doesn't complain about the extra help. And will probably thank Sam when clean up is done.

Michael nods and as he says, "I guess it's just a case of dehydration then. I suppose I can get water faster than someone who has never been here before. I'll be back shortly," as Michael quickly climbs up a nearby tree to get to the higher levels of Channelwood. In under a minute, Michael is no longer in sight due to tree branches obscuring his location on a higher level of Channelwood.

A short time later, Michael can be seen with two canteens as he climbs down a different tree than the one he climbed up. Upon reaching the ground Michael walks over towards Mittens and hands her the two canteens and says, "Just make sure that neither you or Shelly drink too fast, as it's not good for someone who is dehydrated to gulp down water."


[OOC: And here I was waiting on Lucky since I felt it might be a bit odd for him to head off to get water first but come back slower, but I had forgotten Lucky hasn't been to Channelwood before and thus wouldn't know where to go... doh.]

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Mittens answers softly.

  She gingerly tilts Shelly's head to one side and carefully tilts the canteen toward Shelly's lips, hoping reflex will help the water go down the right pipe.  Thanks to nearly losing consciousness, her dexterity is near zero and more water winds up on Shelly's face than in her mouth.  >.<  Maybe that's why the stewardess tells you to put on your own oxygen mask first.  But Mittens has never flown in an airplane, and drinking before taking care of the parched princess would be unthinkable even if she had, so she continues the clumsy effort. ^.^;

  Elsewhere in Channelwood, Lucky has managed to get himself thoroughly lost.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:27, Fri 27 July 2007.

  Remember, only you can prevent litter.  Though whoever came up with environmental awareness slogans likely didn't have burying your unwanted dead robot remains in mind to keep the in view scenery clean.

  "Well, thats over with."  The braver, possibly less sane Coyote than cannon cast members of the species commented as the cleanup job was finished.  Joe looked over to the often melodramatic Human and said "For a helpful change of pace, I agree with the fact your life sucks more than mine." and followed this up by heading for what counted as home for the moment.

  Maybe Sam was better off with people constantly calling him 'overlander' and saying his life wasn't so bad?

Katy glances at Joe, wondering whether the guy is trying to be insulting or mis-spoke. "Joe... that wasn't helpful. Or nice for that matter." she comments, hoping he'll take the hint and apologize to Samuel. In one form or another. But still... She finishes up her end as well and indicates to head back to Channelwood.

Shelly's expression is one of hope and pleasure mixed together as the water hits her face. Like she's dreaming of a long lost friend. She cracks an eye open and grabs at the water to try drinking it herself.

Hart breathes a sigh of relief and sits back on the ground as Shelly grasps for the water. "Heh... You really wouldn't be able to live a day without the wet stuff, would you Shel?  Welcome back to the world of the living." He looks thankfully to Mittens for helping so quickly and smirks at both of the girls as they continue their efforts.
To him, it seems like things have finally calmed down.

  Mittens collapses flat on her back the moment Shelly has a grasp on the canteen.  "Sure hope that boy comes back with more soon."  Here eyes close, and her mouth gapes.  XO

After listening to both what Joe has said and then Katy's response to it, Samuel simply says, "It may not be useful, or pleasant, but neither of those faults make it any less true." By the tone in Samuel's voice it's clear he's not happy, but it's just as obvious that his feelings aren't directed at anyone present as Samuel starts making his way towards Channelwood as he follows Katy.

Samuel figures that now isn't the time to have to try to explain how through his equipment he'd be able to guide himself back to Channelwood on his own since he knows if he's led there enough times if he was asked he could say that he had learned the layout of the land, instead of the truth that he would be relying on technology to keep track of his position and a path towards his destination.

OOC: And thus ends this chapter. Closing thread.