Lucky was thinking a family of rabid bears, but SWAT squard is plenty excuse too.

"Staying together good.  I'm glad we're all going.  For safety.  The pleasant company is nice too."

He smiles at Timothius.  "Glad you had a pleasant flight.  I hope to some day fly with you a little for fun."

He offers a buddy nudge.

  In a bizzaro world twist, nature usually isn't the most common and dangerous threat in this setting.  But Joe would not be surprised at Elks with switchblades demanding their wallets.

  "Back home for now it is then it seems."

The group arrives at Channelwood soon enough and Katy greets the bunch. "Good to see you all alive... so what's going on with the sky?"

When Katy is informed of what gives, she thinks on it. "I don't know. It sounds like a trap to either lead them to Channelwood or lure more freedom fighters to them. Were you sure you weren't followed?"

Timothius and Shelly errrr...

"Quite sure," Lucky says, "The possibility of it being a trap had occurred to me as soon as we arrived, so I was on guard for something sneaking up on us the whole time.  Plus, the giraffe didn't look very interested whenever the posibility of learning where we live came up.  And if they wanted to lure us away, they had plenty opportunity to capture us.  If that was a trap it was so subtle I doubt there's anything we can do about it at this point...  I wonder if Emmy or my parents have heard anything about a flying weather station."

  "There is that chance, yeah.  Though considering the location they wouldn't have needed to try very hard to trap most of us.  At worst I'd expect it to be yet another technologically advanced superstructure that won't be of any help at all in dealing with Julian."

Yes... "Hi, Robotnik! We have the Weather Station now! Feel our WRATH!" ....makes it rain. "Somehow I thought this thing would do more, like cause a tornado" "What? We made this thing to HELP people!"

Katy says, "Good. Alright... let's ask the older folks and see if any of them know."

When Emerald is asked, she nods. "Yeah. That Weather Station was a modern wonder. My generation was witnessing a new Wonder of the World being birthed. I was one excited fangirl when I heard about its christening.... what did you want to know about it?"

"Mostly that it's not a Robotnick trap," Lucky answers, "But anything that might be helpful for rescuing the place."

If Emmy hasn't been brought up to speed, he'll offer to fill her in on what's happened so far.

  "You sound older than you are when you go all 'my generation', Emerald."  Now, maybe if she had a cane and spectacles.

  "But yes, this should probably be dealt with if only for the for 'because screw that fat guy' reasons.  One thing you may hopefully know is what it runs on to keep flying.  I somehow doubt solar panels would help much even if it does spend all it's time in the sky."

OOC: Useless 'When I was a kid' thoughts.   "When I was a kid, you could get a can for 75 cents and a bottle was a dollar plus deposit!"  And when people thought "Solar powered cars are totally a thing that can happen guys!".  The one on display in the museum of science at least looked neat.

Emerald smiles at Joe. "Thanks, Joe... yes, I knew it uses solar power. It's not a Robonik invention. It was a project started by the Hedge family; the royal family who presided over the Kingdom of Mercia on the eastern side of Mobius. Unfortunately, that's a VERY far ways from here, so I don't know whether Robotnik has his oily fingers on that place or not. But it IS equidistant to the canyons you guys were thinking about going to. Difference is, it's across the Mobian Sea."

“Beautiful and knowledgeable,” Lucky says with a smile, “Emerald is a credit to all our generations.”

He nods to Joe.  “Plenty enough reason for me.”

He ponders the history of the station.  “Could be they know that that's not an option.  Otherwise, wouldn't they have mentioned it?”

  "Falling down into a canyon would probably be slightly less inconvenient than falling in the middle of the ocean, yeah."

Emerald gives Lucky a side-hug for his compliment. "Ever the flatterer. Well you have a point. If the people running the station didn't bring it up at all, it could be that's not an option. Make sure when you talk to them again. Oft times, people overestimate the distance across the Mobian Sea and forget it's just as far as trying to go to the other side of the continent."

Katy nods. "Shelly, you should find someone else besides yourself to go back with them. The AFF need you present and I'm sure they are worrying about what happened with you and the three you took along."

Shelly squeaks, "I don't really have the time to do that. Although since Emerald seems to know so much about the station, shouldn't we take her along?"

Katy looks at the group. "You're already a sizable group..."

Mei-Ling says, "I mostly came along in case there was something I could help with. It looks like my expertise aren't what is needed for this task..."

Emerald head-shakes. "No... I'm positive you'll come in handy. The station's functions rely on a number of different chemical reactions, and you'd be familiar with any of them, I'm sure."

Mei-Ling says, "I don't know everything about chemistry, but I get the point."

"Are you referring to a preference for death by sudden impact and fireball over death by drowning?" Lucky asks Joe, sounding confused, "Or was that meant to be dark humor?"

He smiles and returns Emmy's hug.

"Considering the limited fuel and skill sets needed, Katy's right, Shelly.  You and I aren't needed up in the air.  Also Timothius and maybe Joe too should stay down here.

"We can at least escort the away team to the shuttle, but we'll want to keep the shuttle crew to a minimum.  Unless...  Mei Ling can whip up a substitute fuel for the shuttle craft.

"Is there anything else we should send up with them?"

  "I meant it's probably designed to hold up better in the open air hole in the ground the giraffe suggested landing in, compared to running out of power trying to cross a body of water.  But I like your idea too Lucky, honest."

  At the suggestion Joe stay behind, he says "Look, we need at least one violent maniac on board in case there are other violent maniacs."  And Katy has to stay home as it is.

Shelly says, "So who will lead if I stay behind?" she sticks her tongue out as if she was half-joking.

Katy says, "You guys already put yourselves in this mission. That automatically makes you best suited because you are familiar with it. Milloni, maybe you could set up a encrypted radio communication?"

Milloni nods, "Can certainly try."

Lucky is glad Joe wasn't being as morbid as he expected.  But he eyerolls at the violent maniac comment.  He nudges Shelly with a smile and counters, "Who will lead the AFF if you don't?"

Katy's qualification point kinda stumps Lucky but the following change of topic is a welcome idea.  "That'd be great!  If all goes well, we can just talk them through stretching their fuel and none of us will have to risk our necks going up there on fumes."

 It could be worse, Joe could thing his violent tendencies are nothing but cool and totally well adjusted.  At Lucky's optimism he comments "That would be way more convenient than I'm used to, but if it works I'd gladly take it.  I'm expecting something more along the lines of 'oh I could totally manage it, if I wasn't short on manpower' and then we have to go because robot giraffe isn't octo giraffe with eight different wrenches."

(Fast-forwarding a bit)

Millani reports that from what she was able to find, the weather station simply didn't respond. It could very well be that their transmitter is broken and requires Milloni to go check and maybe fix the station's radio. Because otherwise, the heroes wouldn't have an adventure and this chapter would be over.

Katy says, "Guess that decides things. But I still say Emmy stays here. When Milloni has fixed their radio, all of you can return and we can continue to aid them from here."

Lucky tries to look brave upon hearing the group has to return on fumes after all.  He'll insist that every last ounce of unneeded weight on the shuttle be stripped before the group takes off.  And asks if there are any parachutes to be had.

"Looks like you were right, Joe.  Just too convenient to be true.  Here's hoping we can at least be helpful at all."

He smiles at Emmy and suggests, "At some point you should sing for them.  It'll likely be the first music they've heard on the radio for a long time."

  "Sounds about as good as we're going to get this situation, unless some better ideas turn up.  May as well get going then."

Parachutes are apparently something nobody has.

Milloni suggests replacing the base of the ship with wooden planks because that's worlds lighter than the metal plates lining the base. "Stupid fossil fuel run stuff... why does Robotnik have to use gasoline when solar and electric is so much more efficient?!"

Katy, who has been helping with replacing floor panels, says, "Because Robotnik hates the sun and revels in polluting the air. Seriously... he may be a mechanical genius, but he is also an evil genius. His robots have been programmed to appear scared just before termination... which I've figured out is because he's sick and just wants to watch his own creations "die" in terror."

Milloni says, "OK, OK.. I got it. Yeesh..."

Emerald giggles. "Don't get Katy started about Robotnik."

Timothius looks up at the sky with a sad look on his face.

"I just don't understand how someone could become so vile," Lucky says, looking disgusted, "He must have a brain tumor or something."

He offers a comforting side-hug to Timothius.  Lucky of course is eager to help out especially since he was the one to suggest stripping the shuttle.

"Maybe we could try and stay over the water in case of emergency since we don't have any parachutes."

  "Not unless you count his body fat creeping into his skull as a brain tumor."

OOC: brain is suffering some 'wait, what color text am I?' from multiple color flavors of darkthornes.

Katy says, "Robotnik IS a tumor. A tumor we need to remove."

Emerald gives Lucky an unsure look, like she is trying to figure out if he was joking or not.

The others concentrate on the task at hand.

Timothius figures one more thing he can do to reduce weight is to attach a rope to the vehicle and just "glide" behind it, having it tow him. It would mean his wings carrying most of his weight and he'd still be able to keep up with the vehicle.

Milloni does some calculating. ".....yeesh. OK, gosh, everyone. With all these efforts to save fuel, I think we're out of the red zone. The craft shouldn't run out until we're done with it."

Katy says, "Good luck, everyone."

Judging from the grossed out look on his face, Lucky wasn't joking.

"Great idea, Timothius!" he cheers, thankful for the change in topic, "It's like water skiing in the sky!"

He does a poor job of hiding that he's not very reassured by Milloni's estimate that it shouldn't crash before they land.

"Thanks, Katy.  Take care."

He reluctantly boards.