Hart sighs and rubs the back of his neck at Michael's words, speaking up on Mittens' behalf, "Geez... Would you relax, pal? You don't need to get all bent out of shape and pull rank just because Mittens was trying to be helpful, or give the eye to Timothius.  She called a few orders. So what?  We figure out what needs to be done and who can do it, and we do. Simple as that." The deer shrugs, "Just try to remember that we're all on the same side here..."

He looks at the rabbit curiously as Joe discribes how things went down and he nods. He's pretty curious about her himself, since she seems different from the rest of the pack.

Nautilus raises a brow as he sees Shelly upon his surfacing at the West Pool. He climbs out after she asks her questions, letting the water slide off of his fur as he stands.

"Exuberant.  That's the best word that I can think of to describe him.  He has the positive energy, like most of our newer recruits, but I worry that he may also not have quite enough focus for something long term.  Once he's finished with his task, I'll have to go over his work and see for myself." He tilts his head at Shelly with respectful confusion, "As for what may be on my mind, well I suppose I'm more confused at your greeting me here so soon, Princess.  I thought you had something to attend to?"

As Joe give his brief description of what happened, she nods in agreement,  "Si, and after the crashing Emerald and I went into the building, found the niños and left."

And with that explanation complete she pats the bunny child on her head, and asks, "What is your name, señorita?"

As far as the athority struggle, she still dosen't quite get who's in charge of what other than Katy's position, but sinceMichael told her to do what she's going to do anyway, she's all for it.

The rabbit that is still with Mika answers, "Uh-I'm... I'm Candy. I'm so scared... where AM I? Is that Mrs. Coloflower? Doesn't quite look like her..." she points at Katy. Wait... Mrs? Since when was Katy married?

Emerald simply nods to Michael in response before perking an ear in the direction of the little bunny girl. She also hears Hart's words and says, "We're all under a lot of stress. But he's right. You bunch got what you came for and so did we. But I think I speak on behalf of any Channelwood Freedom Fighter when I say we're quite upset about Katy being injured. Feel free to either follow us or get going home. Whatever you do, we need to get home... all of us.. while the going's good."

Emerald looks down at Lucky. "Why don't you help guide Candy, hon? Follow Amy and keep Candy with you, OK?"

Timothius also nods to Michael, glancing at Mittens. "I've gotta make sure she'll be OK, no matter how anyone feels about anyone. I'll follow them so I can check on their leader. If you're not coming, Mittens, then I'll meet you at Aquarius." he says in an almost apologetic tone.

Harrison grunts at Michael. "Hey... Mittens is just trying to help. But I agree with the fox. The sooner we're all home, the better. Let's git."

Orion glances about and once he hears Emerald and Harrison, he nods. "If you still want, Mittens, Hart and I can go with Mika. Any change in plans?"

Amy gets to showing the way the moment anyone decides to actually start following her. She says nothing for now since it's truly a 50/50 chance an argument could break out or not.

Meanwhile, Maverick heads for the nearest tree and looks up it. He looks over at Valin, points at himself and then points up with a "may I?" look on his face.

Angel huhs and shrugs. "Chain of command or not, I'll help out where any of you want me to. And since that involves not watching the burial of Robotnik's equipment, I'll follow the little mouse."

With that, she hovers after Amy with Daemon in tow at the same speed Amy leads.

The sounds of marching robots can be heard approaching the area can be heard.

Emerald eeps and rushes over to the Hover Unit. "I'll get going, then Mike. Meet you in Channelwood!" She looks to Mika and nudges her head.

(For the purposes of letting the chapter end sooner, I'm going to reveal the hiding spot in Chapter 4, which will take place one week later.)

Shelly smiles and says, "I decided to wait for you first. Guess I was just worried you had something troubling you. Really, that's all it is..."

As Mika is nudged her attention is drawn instantly to Emerald, "Ah, si.  Meet you all back a casa!" she declares heading off with Emerald as she planned to.  She boards the hover unit behind the fox.

So many ways to respond!

Mittens grunts, snorts, folds her arms, and shakes her head before walking away.
Mittens answers while powering up, "If I'm not mistaken is that a CHALLEEEEENGE?!"
Mittens cheers!  "Whee!  I was hoping we'd get in an argument so the swats would catch up!  I've been itching for some more action!  What else is great is I won't have to worry about you telling my mommy about your hurt feelings if we all get lasered and turned into robots!" *imitates a robot* (c^.^)c
Mittens rubs her chin thoughtfully, "Well I suppose technically the dissidents here are us terrorists and the local authority duly delegated by the current ruler of the realm is the giant robot dragon.  Maybe we should go apologize to him for disrespecting his chain of command?"


Fortunately Hart pulled the rug out from under most of her self-righteous inclinations and put her in a much better mood.  ^.^

"Yes!" She answers with repeated nods, trying to imitate a sagely voice while hobbling in the direction Amy came from, "Escape we must!  Mean to offend did I not.  Suggest I did, yes!  Command not, did I.  Friends we are!  Yeees!"  :)

(For the sake of moving on to chapter 4, Mittens would only stay long enough in Channelwood for Timo to treat Katy and everyone to rest their feet / enjoy a meal before trecking back to the lake to report.

"Katy was amazing!  Katy was powerful!  I wunna grow up to be just like her!"

Then she'd give a glowing report to the Shelly about everyone's performance, leaving the recounting of her chain-of-command fopa to Hart lest she sound defensive.)

At the sound of the approaching robots, Lucky breaks into a full sprint in the opposite direction.

(For the sake of moving on to chapter 4, once in Channelwood and confronted by the adults, Lucky would apologize in a shower of tears for the trouble he caused and offer to leave Channelwood forever.  If pressed, he'd confess that he's a bad luck charm that causes droughts, plagues, werewolf attacks, and evil tyrants to take over the world and destroy peaceful villages.  Then he'd offer to leave again.)

---

Jimmy would keep his negativity to himself and go with the flow to once again disappear off panel.

Michael glances at Hart and Harrison and replies to their comments in an informative tone as if trying to teach a lesson to a pair of students, "The problems are that she gave orders that were confusing to at least one member of the group I'm in charge of, and she gave orders contradicting my own. Contradictory and confusing orders in a mission, is an easy way to result in someone ending up killed or captured and roboticized. It is obvious that neither of you have been responsible for others on a mission if you both think such problems and repercussions are trivial matters."

Michael also makes note of what he has been told regarding the rabbit, Candy, as well as the strange manner of referring to Katy, since as Michael knows Katy hasn't been married, but it does make Michael wonder if the rabbit is for some reason mistaking Katy for her mother as a throwback to when Michael was a teacher and had to deal with the parents of students. But that train of thought only leads to more curiosity as to why such an apparently young rabbit would know Katy's mother.

Michael then starts to head off with Amy starts showing people the way, but when the chimpanzee hears Mitten's latest grammatically incorrect statements he resists the urge to face palm as he thinks to himself, 'she must have been a nightmare for her language teachers...or more likely she never was properly schooled in such lessons. Then again Aquarius might be in dire straits if they are wanting people like her to lead groups... unless this is simply a test which she hasn't necessarily passed yet.' As Michael hears the sounds of approaching forces from Middletown he adds, "We should hurry so they don't find us," as he picks up the pace hoping everyone else does the same.

Valin glances at the tree Maverick points to and quickly realizes that the kid is wanting to act as a look out or to simply hide incase the group comes in with robots hot on their heels. As such, the gorilla replies, "Go ahead. I'll be waiting over there," as Valin points to a spot where he can hide himself and have good vantage point from which to ambush any robots that happen to be chasing everyone else when they approach the site.

Hart doesn't fully understand why Mittens is talking in reverse, but he at least picks up what she says about not wanting to offend. He hopes that gets through to Michael, but his words don't seem to suggest that.

The deer nods at Michael's words, but shrugs again, "I get the whole chain-of-command on a mission thing... but that still doesn't give you a reason to bite her head off about it, and it doesn't explain why you're acting so uptight about Timothius helping you guys out. But, whatever... We can butt heads about it later when we're all back in Channelwood."

Nodding at the urgency of the 'bots approaching, Hart picks up the pace along with Michael, hoping that his teammates do the same. The further he's away from malicious machines, the better.

Nautilus smiles at Shelly's words, "Princess, there is always something that will trouble my mind.  That is simply how we old bears are, and you have a great deal more to concern yourself with in Aquarius than that.  The only pertinent concern that I have is one that is mixed with a great deal of joy as I watch you grow into a leader of your people." He lets out a light sigh but looks seriously at Shelly, "As I watch younger Mobians in this struggle like Mittens and Walden, it becomes clear to me that it will be a very different generation, and, for Urser, you will lead it."

The old seabear bows his head politely, "Now, you had something that you seemed quite eager to attend to, Princess.  I do hope that your worrying over me hasn't forced you to deviate too much from that today."

Maverick quickly gets to climbing. He makes it look somewhat effortless, though to a gorilla he makes it look somewhat difficult. Then again, Valin is probably used to seeing a whole lot worse. Once Maverick gets into position, he holds his hand above his eyes and narrows his eyes a little.

In a raised, but not quite yelling voice, Maverick reports, "They're coming, Mr Vaschel. And I think I see some SWATbots not too far behind them."

Meanwhile, Amy can tell from the landmarks that they are going to be there very shortly. "Mr Vaschel's just up ahead," Amy informs.

Soon, the group reaches Valin and Maverick. Orion pipes up with a smile, "If last time is any indication, I suspect you bunch have traps waiting for our pursuers already." After all... these are the guys who he remembers giving him a warm reception and the SWATbots a not-so-warm farewell back when Orion was being rescued with the other prisoners.

(OOC: Again, due to how easily the SWATs are about to get beaten, I'll go ahead and fast forward some. If anyone wants to post in anything extra, feel free to do so and then say what your aftermath was. :) If anyone has a problem with skipping ahead, please notify me.)

The SWATs are not only just as easily tricked again, but are even fewer in number than last time and wind up recalled quicker than last time. The retreat to Channelwood is a ringing success with Lucky rescued, a new girl rescued (Candy), a questionable but gun-toting ally gained, and the scuba gear recovered. Katy begins to wake up. She groans at first, but as soon as she has her wherewithal, she stops her groaning.

"What happened? Did everyone get out OK?"

(Once bandaged and such, Katy would briefly talk to Joe about Angel and allow Angel access into Channelwood)

As mentioned earlier, once everyone was safe and Michael was willing to let him, Timothius would tend to Katy right away. Especially to make sure she didn't move wrong and wind up with internal injuries. With a little of this and a little of that, he has Katy braced and bandaged well enough before giving Michael a list of dos and don'ts for the care of Katy. He would then explain he would stay around longer, but needs to report back to Shelly and that Katy should be OK in Mike's hands.

With everyone alright and back in Channelwood, the AFF bidding their farewells and prepping to go home, Angel pulls Timothius aside and hands him a communicator to hold on to so she can contact the AFF later on and be able to visit. Angel then introduces Daemon, a young hedgehog who is here to meet and help Katy and the Channelwood Freedom Fighters.

Emerald meets up with everyone else as ordered, no hover unit or guns in sight. She would wait patiently for her name to be called on again and meanwhile, has Mika help tend to the children after such an ordeal.

  There are times when the banter is all taken care of for you, the details of survival are done ahead of time or by others, and all that is left is to follow along with the situation to come out the end alive.

  "Mike, when did I end up respectful of theoretical authority by comparison?"

  Okay, not all the banter.

Shelly rubs behind her head and sticks her tongue out. "Heehee... I guess I can be a worry wart myself... especially after recent events. I... still see that monster in my daydreams."

She headshakes. "I'll get to it. Glad you're OK, Nauty... Just thought you might, ya know... wanna talk about it privately is all. Heh."

She slides her foot and then hurries off towards her room.

Michael looks at Joe after being asked a question with an implication that Michael hadn't previously considered. Namely that there are people in the world with stranger outlooks on life than that of Joe's.

After pausing for a few seconds to consider what to say, Michael says, "There are a few reasons that I can think of. One is that we have encountered individuals that make you seem tame in terms of oddities of how you view and handle things. Another reason is that you understand that what we do isn't a game. And that we don't go on missions for personal gratification, entertainment, or for glory."