Mittens grins and gives Nautilus an enthusiastic thumbs-up.  Inspired by her earlier fantasy, she pretends to be a ninja and melts into the shadows as silently as an ant walking on cotton.  She becomes motionless, stealthily waiting for the bots to pass.  A drop of sweat slowly makes it's way down her cheek to her chin, and threatens to drop onto the ultra-sensative pressure plate she's hanging over by a rope.  Just kidding.  That last bit was just her imagination again.

Mika had her back turned to Maverick, so it isn't until Katy makes her way to take over his chopping does she notice his disquiet.  As Candy, Katy AND Lucky are already over there trying to console him, she turns heer attention over to Valin, "Que pasa, gigante?" she asks with a put on smile, guessing he already knows lunch won't be for another hour or two.

((NPC'd by GM with permission. Thanks, Mike! Hope school goes well.))

"Katy... couldn't you have dealt with the guests?" he thinks to himself, slightly worried that he's not doing this fast enough or efficiently enough. Did he miss something? "Then again, now is not the time for doubts." he thinks decisively before facing Phil and Raichel. "There is actually something you two can do. We will need some reinforcements to fall back on if things go sour. I'd like you two on guard duty at the building Daemon and I will be infiltrating. You can let us know if someone is coming or if some other danger is coming up. You can also break us out if we find ourselves suddenly locked in. It's important. Usually not a luxury we can afford two extra people for, but you came and offered, so there you go."

((NPC'd by GM with permission.))

Valin looks at Mika. "I was just thinking... the new kids could also be helping with gardening and learning a bit about wood working. When they aren't helping you here in the kitchen, of course. I think the experience will not only make them feel more useful and thus have better self-esteem, but can be fun." In his experience, a good teacher makes the subject fun and thus thoroughly memorable.

((NPC'd by GM with permission.))

Samuel notices Thomas's indication and hides immediately. The Swatbots passing by, Samual wishes he was wearing his special SWATsuit right now. But he isn't. "It's always *after* you need something that you have it." he thinks to himself. He doesn't bother checking his bracer since even movement could give him away where he's hiding.

Once the SWATs pass, though, he looks towards Nautilus as if waiting for either an order to attack or an order to sneak to the next spot. At least the worst is over and the SWATs are all facing their backs to the group.

At Thomas's signal, Nautilus hides as well, pressing himself firmly behind a minor outcropping of the wall. He keeps his muscles poised and his expression grim as the 'bots pass, prepared to jump into action if they have to. However, once the SWATbots pass without incident, the old sea bear relaxes visibly.

At Samuel's look, Nautilus shakes his head, motioning for him and the rest of them to sneak away and keep pressing on towards the next hall. Despite wanting to do away with any potential threat in their path, he's almost certain that attacking these 'bots would end up alerting others. That's the last thing they need right now.

"Cute name." Hart quips upon seeing Angel's bike, giving it a brief once-over.

Nodding lightly to Timothius, Hart guides his friend to get on ahead of him, taking a seat right behind him and keeping the lightest of them in the safest position.

Looking ahead, he calls out to Angel, "So, not that I'm worried or anything, but how fast does this thing move? Don't think I've ever seen something quite like it around here... Should we be holding on to something?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:12, Fri 26 Mar 2010.

Emerald giggles some at the 'please stop trying to kill me' comment. She smiles brightly (not fake this time) at Joe's other comments, however. "Well first off, you don't have to ask children to not kill you, so that isn't an issue with the asking nicely topic. But on the other topic? Non-violent skills, just like violent ones, simply take some practice. If I'm catching your drift correctly, maybe you should take a couple weeks off from missions and just do something less violent during that time. Such as gardening, repairs, etc. If I'm reading you right, you're a little tired of the constant trips to Middletown? If that's so... I highly recommend you talk to Katy about it. Unless you want ME to."

Maverick hears Lucky's words "I needed Maverick's help" and takes them to heart. Quietly. Secretly. Valin didn't miss Lucky's head-nudge, but before Valin can volunteer Maverick for the task, Maverick stands up, having somehow wiped his tears away without anyone noticing (though it's obvious he was crying) and says decisively, "I'll get the wood then."

Candy retracts her hand as Maverick stands tall again like he wasn't upset. She gives him an unsure smile, wishing the boy didn't cover up his emotions, but at the same time admiring his strength of heart. She doesn't yet understand how necessary it is for most boys to demonstrate strength in every way they can, but she at least knows better than to ask a boy to cry when he's doing such a good job holding back the tears.

Katy just quietly chops away while Mika and Valin speak and Maverick heads off for wood. She glances at Lucky and gives him an endearing smile before turning her attention back to the chopping. She's doing it like a pro. She has had her fair share of helping in the kitchen. But her smile fades as she stares at what she's slicing. Her thoughts always wander to the fight against Robotnik and how she can keep the people of Channelwood from dying. They trust her. Even look up to her. And she's only 19. Katy intends to live up to expectations and beyond. But fears she will fail everyone at a critical moment.

Katy at least has Michael to share these thoughts with. A mentor of sorts and kinda like an uncle. Heck, everyone in Channelwood is family in some manner. Until the recent discovery of Aquarius, Channelwood's people only had each other as any real, living, breathing company. Katy lets a small smile cross her face for a brief moment as she realizes.... their numbers have only grown.

Raichel glances at her dad, getting a small hunch he might be upset about something. If he is, she is WAAAAAY off as to what's upsetting him. And it shows through what she says. "Thanks, Michael. All we wanna do is help. And if this mission helps prove you can trust us, all the better." That last bit aimed slightly at her dad. She believes he's just being impatient. Like her. Boy, is she off. XD

She looks back to Mike and says, "There IS more Dad and I would like to talk with you about after the mission. But for now, we should hurry while there's still some day. Or were you planning on a night mission?" Not that it makes THAT much difference for all the smog on Robotnik's territories. Middletown not being an exception.

Thomas is SO in agreement with Nautilus's decision. On one hand, he rather suspects Sam could rip the bot a new one with ease (Not to mention Sam plus the rest of the team). But on the other hand, even if they could destroy the bot quietly (which was unlikely), they would have "why hasn't bot #345 reported to such and such location yet?" to deal with. With the bot gone, the team is able to access the armory room.

Timothius climbs on as indicated by Hart and curiously looks the bike over. Energizer, eh? The joke is lost on him. Then again, energizer batteries are such an ancient technology, chances are the joke is lost on most. He quietly listens to Hart's conversation with Angel.

He can't help blush, though, as Angel is seated in front of him with her backside up against his front.

Angel drives the vehicle at a nice, steady 20 KPH at first and answers over her shoulder, "It can go up to about 200 kilometers per hour. But I prefer only doing high speed on straight paths. For now, I'm going about one tenth that so I can have the reaction time needed to weave between trees. When we get to an open area, I might pick up the pace. But regardless of what speed I'm going, I highly recommend you hold on to Timothius and that he hold on to me."

Sure, she likes to have fun here and there. But with passengers, she doesn't want to chance fancy stunts at the moment. Besides, it's a simple run to Channelwood. That won't take long. She isn't bored.

  Joe shrugs, "Isn't a case of not wanting to help out in the stabby regard.  Which I suppose helps considering Julian probably doesn't care if someone doesn't 'feel like it' when trying to hassle him.  I don't exactly have much of a long term plan, but I figure having life skills beyond 'hit it until it dies, or arrange for an explosion' would probably be a good thing if for some reason strategic application of carnage wasn't something I had the need to do anymore."
    Preferably in the 'things aren't lame for a while' sense, as opposed to the 'to dead to worry about it' sense'

  After a moment, their shreds of manners considers something, "Thanks for the thought though."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:06, Wed 31 Mar 2010.

Lucky sighs in relief when Maverick leaves.  Go figure he's more comfortable with Ms. Grumpy Raccoon holding the big knife, but it's more a factor of being too empathic.  When someone cries, Lucky has a hard time holding back his own tears.  He gets back to working on the chore he was given, trying to avoid contact with anyone.

~I don't know,~ Devil Fish worries, ~CAN Philip handle guard duty without breaking something?~

~Knowing him he'll wear himself out by the time he's on duty,~ Angel Fish worries.

~Sleeping around on the job?  For shame.~

~Wait... sleeping around?  With what?  The ROBOTS?!~

~Well Spanky just said he wanted the TWO of them on guard duty.~

~Oh right.  Good old pedo incest.  At least Phil isn't so far gone as to go for SWAT bots!~

~You sure about that?  He sure likes using his fists on them a lot!~

~Aw MAN!  Gives whole new meaning to the term 'cybering!'~

Phil rubs his thumb across his knuckles, wishing he could punch something right now, but Raichel speaking on his behalf calms him a great deal.

"Like she said," Phil answers Michael, "Glad to be of help any way we can."

~He ENJOYS being your servant!~ Devil Fish jeers.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:26, Fri 02 Apr 2010.

Mittens stuck her tongue out at the robots and made various other childish gestures at them once their backs were facing her.  Fortunately, they didn't pick up on that cartoon sixth sense that makes you turn around when someone is silently making faces at you behind your back.

Once at the armory, Mittens raises her hand authoritatively as if commanding the group to halt.  Whether or not they take the order, she grabs two handfuls of dust and blows out into a fine cloud, hoping to reveal any laser beams.  Upon finding none, [checked with the GM], Mittens shrugs.

"No security lasers," she says, sounding disappointed, "Ah well."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:43, Fri 02 Apr 2010.

Mika Hmms as she watches Maverick head out to get some wood.  Turning back to Valin she nods, "Si, is an excelent idea.  Perhaps you can ask the children to volunteer after lunch.  Right now I am kind of right in the middle of making it, and if the ninos all let now I might be late getting it out to everyone." she explains hoping Valin's stomach will understand why she needs them now.

Valin grins and nods to Maverick when the child volunteers to get the wood. Valin knows that together Lucky and Maverick will easily be able to fetch enough wood, and using a buddy system is safer in general which the gorilla knows both Michael and Katy would approve. "Then I'll entrust that job to you two."

While Valin isn't sure if the two boys are just wanting a task that gets them out of the kitchen for a while or if Lucky has something else planned, he sees no harm in letting the two of them gather wood since they would have to go out of their way to get into trouble or danger with that task.

Valin nods to Mika and grins slightly as he says, "That is what I had planned on doing. If there is anything I can do to help in getting lunch done in time let me know."

Michael nods at Raichel's words and says, "We'll be heading out just after lunch as there are still some prepairations that need to be taken care of. We'll be able to discuss some things before then if you wish, although if you'd prefer to wait till after the mission is completed, that is your choice."

Michael figures that there is no point hurrying off and skipping lunch as that might prove to be a greater hindrance for those going on the mission.

Samuel closes his eyes for a moment after seeing Nautilus' decision. From a tactical standpoint Samuel understands his choice as he understands that confrontation is a last resort.

Samuel follows Nautilus' instructions while passively using the sensors at his disposal in his bracer to try and make sure a patrol does not stumble across the group, or a trap while in the armory. Additionally Samuel is also trying to take a quick inventory of what is available in the Armory. While Samuel knows that he doesn't need to physically interact with his bracer, he goes through the motions anyways in order to preserve his ace in the hole. Mainly because Samuel doesn't want anyone to know about his cybernetic implants, lest people who aren't fond of him find another similar between himself and Robotnik. A fact which Samuel himself dislikes even thinking about as such parallels disgust Samuel.

In the meantime Samuel starts to appraise what he sees since he knows there is now way the group can take everything, so they have to make sure they get the most important stuff. Samuel intends to quietly point out the most useful items they would be able to bring back so that Nautilus and the others can decide what they want to bring. What Samuel doesn't do is reveal what items he intends to take back for himself, in order to further repairs to his shuttle as he's also including such components in his figures as he relies on his years of technical expertise to carry out these tasks quickly, silently, and efficiently.

When they reach the Armory, Nautilus quietly tells the team of them to move quickly and carefully. He makes mention to Samuel specifically to take stock of any advanced equipment not native to Urser and to try and determine what would and wouldn't be useful, actually welcoming his advice on the matter when he gives it. He doesn't deny Thomas or Mittens taking what they believe to be important either, considering all of their different backgrounds.

For his part, Nautilus tries to specifically recover any weapons native to Urser, or slightly modified variations. This mainly consists of harpoon guns and some basic aquatic weaponry. He makes absolutely sure to not overload himself, but also tries to be as swift as possible with his choices.

He waits for the other three to indicate that they're ready before moving on.

Hart holds on tight to Timothius as they drive off, cringing at the speed already. He shouts ahead of him so that Angel can hear him.

"One tenth of two-hundred? That's... still pretty fast, if you ask me. Vehicles never really were my thing... Not that I'm complaining about a free ride or anything!"

He tries to look ahead every so often to see how Timothius is holding up, and to stare at the trees as they pass them by.

Emerald considers what to tell Joe. He doesn't believe himself capable of much else beyond stab. "Well even if Robotnik gets defeated, there *might* be a month's repreive in which time you can help rebuild? But sadly, after that... you'll be needed for your particular set of skills again. Still, if you're lookin' to retire from such, I knew a lot of people who could help you get a new skillset when we have a robian-free Mobius again. And remember... no matter what you may or may not wind up doing, there will be members of Channelwood to lean on. We're a family. I will be there for you when you need me and I have no doubt Katy and many others from town will be too." she goes to put an arm around Joe. "So I still recommend talking to Katy. She could stand to feel helpful since she is feeling helpless and cripple. If you talk to her, let her be there for you and possibly advise you? I'm sure that will make her day."