He followed them along keeping a hand on his shock pistol .
 He blinked looking at pyrus "Uhhh no fraid i don't. Its nothing of major importance , katy ,I was just going to let you
know I was back and see if it was ok to rejoin. "
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Sun 29 Apr 2018.

  Joe isn't quite far gone enough to have preferred it to be simple mental illness rather than... Whatever plot hook the mouse is involved in.  "If I'm here Meiou, then unless you shot someone in the face you shouldn't have I expect you'll probably get back in."

Pyrus is super happy to be thanked by Katy.  THE Katy!  Whom even the grownups treat with deference!

"You bet!"  ^.^

His happy flappy wings might rock the mouse a little, but there's no danger of him being dropped.

"I'm going to nick-name him so we don't keep calling him, 'The Mouse.'"

Pyrus wasn't fond of being called, "The Dragon" by the mean robots that captured him, so clearly it must be rude.

"Um...  Real!  He kept saying 'real.'  So his name will be Mr. Real."

To Meiou he offers with an eager smile, "I can get you some faces you can shoot, Mr. Meiou!"

With a quick glance to Meiou, Katy says, "Welcome back, Meiou. I guess I'll hear your story whenever we're in private."

Katy doesn't know what Pyrus is thinking*, but she sure is happy to have someone so excited about helping.

Katy leads the bunch north to a cave. "Joe. I'm gonna leave some evidence we went inside the cave." and she does just that. Walks into the cave, motioning for the others to wait. Then walks backwards out of the cave, carefully following her own footsteps. Once she doubles back enough, she then goes around to be above the cave mouth and readies some large rocks. "Pyrus, lay Real here, next to me."

If Pyrus obeys, then Katy gets to work checking the mouse over for any real injuries.

---

*Fun fact! Sgt Jimmy P. Brown Jr, an old dog in Channelwood, used to be the leader of the CFF and taught most of the CFF everything they know about survival. But as Katy started leading people even before being the official leader, Jimmy opted to give the young, energetic girl the position. That was five years ago, when Katy was just 14. So for convenience, we'll say Meiou already knew Katy had recently become boss around when Meiou left.

With him lying on his back, everybody now got a good look at Mr. Real here.  The field mouse's clothes gave him a monochrome cartoon impression, with large white buttons on his black pants, white sneakers, and white gloves on his hands.  His white shirt with a black buttoned vest also had a small black bow tie tucked under his collar.  Very stylish, if not a bit weird for a local to wear.

The Mouse didn't have any physical injuries beyond the cold fur that eventually warmed back to normal.  Kathy would find a wallet in a pant pocket.  In said wallet would be an ID card from a place called Briston, Illinois.  Wherever that is.  The mouse's name is "Johnny Briz."

There was also a set of name cards:  Johnny Briz, Living Cartoon Character, Dream Train Animation Studio, Briston, Illinois.

Johnny groaned a bit and squirmed before opening his eyes again.  At first a flutter, but then it blinked wide.  He sat up, looking up at the combination of hillside and forest, his nose twitching as he sniffs the air.  At first, everything thought he'd just freak out again.

However, Johnny has calmed down somewhat.  He just takes in the air and looked over to see Katy sitting there.  "Oh, hi there," he said.  "You're probably wondering what happened."  He held his head in his hands.  "I'm wondering the same thing.  I don't know where to begin to explain things...just..."

He sighed and shook his head.

"You do not want to experience that I'd just gone through, believe me."

If Kathy was holding his ID card or name card, he would notice it.  "Well, you know my name.  I suppose I need to know who you are and where I am, probably."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Tue 08 May 2018.

He looked over at Joe "What, you've done worse than almost get part of your team killed?" This was how he viewed it anyway and seemed to still be wracked by guilt over it. Though it seemed he was at least ready to try and push on now.
The rabbit looked over at the mouse. "I'd say from the last thing you remember before passing out perhaps?"

  Joe is glad for the heads up from Katy, and more still when she comes back shortly after.

  Hmm, yes. Openly admit you've done worse than that to Meiou, Joe. "Of course not, I'm here to be the one who almost dies, not the other way around." Yeah, didn't think so.

  He nods towards Johnny at the rabbit's comments.  "We have found it's easier to avoid things people would rather nobody else suffer, by actually explaining it rather than leaving it as a surprise.  Well, unless you would prefer the chance to beat yourself up about not telling us when you had the chance after the fact." a surprisingly popular pastime, unfortunately.

"I'm confused," Pyrus answered Katy as he obediently set Mr. Real down for her to check for injuries, "I thought the idea was to not be followed.  Why leave tracks on purpose?"

Since she's handling the first aid, Pyrus makes with the narratively assumed wallet stealing.  What?  He's going to give it back.  Mostly.  Shiny coins may be missing from it.

Pyrus reads the card aloud for the benefit of the group.  "Johnny Briz, Living Cartoon Character, Dream Train Animation Studio, Briston, Illinois."

The lil dragon sniffs at the card then stares at it in disbelief.  "Woah!  Never smelt anything like this before!"

Crisp card stock.  Not exactly commonplace in post-Robotnic world.  He gets to sniffing all the other exotic smells he can find in J.B.'s wallet.

"My name is Pyrus.  This is Channelwood Forest.  Most realest place you can be."

Katy continues talking in a hushed tone, "OK, Johnny. I'm Katy. You are in Channelwood Forest, close to the southeast corner of Northamer. And while I agree with Joe that you should tell us what happened, if you need a little time to get your head together first, that's understandable."

Katy looks over at Pyrus and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Yes, you are correct. That was the point, Pyrus. Just trust me, OK? I'll tell you more when we get back to town."

Katy then looks at Meiou. "Meiou, Joe, it's good to feel guilty for not being perfect. Just keep in mind nobody is perfect and mistakes happen."

In reply to Katy Coloflower (msg # 21):

"Channelwood Forest?" Johnny said, wondering where that is.  "Northamer? Definitely not anywhere I know of, but then again," He turns to Pyrus.  "Don't wrack your brain over where Briston is, it's probably not on this world, if I'm guessing right."

He then sighed, looking down.  "I don't think that place exists anymore.  I used to be in a world where I was set up to be a beloved mouse of a fledgling animated studio.  I don't know if you have long-term cartoon companies that end up running amusement parks in this world, but people thought I'd be a part of something great.  How I'd describe what happened is that everything was fine and normal one moment, white void.  I can still remember falling into oblivion, completely forgotten by anyone who would care if even known at all.  I probably will never understand what happened back then.  Or even before, if that world was even real or not."

To get a good picture of what Johnny experienced, think of what Thanos did with his finger snap in Avengers: Infinity Ward.  Only instead of Spiderman dissolving into nothing, everything except him disappeared.  Although the Mobians would never know what Avengers: Infinity War is, that's how Johnny'd describe it.

Johnny flopped back into the grass, his eyes shut tight and tearing.  His lip started to chatter again as if suddenly cold.  "Or if I was the one who wasn't real?"  He hugged himself as if trying to stay warm.  "It's something I don't think I'll be getting' over anytime soon."  He then looked over at Katy.  "That's why I was freaking out back there.  Sorry about that, Ma'am."

Meiou listened to all of this. It sounded to him like johnny had done some inter-dimensional travel but noone
could really prove that given it was all theory among some of the smarter ones of their own world. It was fascinating all the same though.

  "Knowing that is always the easier part than actually doing it, but it does get easier Katy."

  We've already mentioned that the reason Joe doesn't think Johnny is crazy is because that's the more convenient option, right?  It fits the usual theme of 'oh YEAH? Well MY apocalyptic life is worse than YOUR apocalyptic life!' after all.  A contest Joe is always more than happy to lose when given the option.

  "You are probably real enough that trying to stay alive a little longer isn't a bad idea."

Katy's so awesome!  With her complicated and cunning plans that would take too long to explain on the spot!  Pyrus smiles in fanboyish awe.  "You're so cool, Katy!"

Pyrus feels sorry for the poor mouse and offers to give him a warm hug.  Literally warm in the dragon's case.  Assuming the hug isn't rejected, Johnny will also get a cheek lick out of the deal.

"You feel real.  You sound real.  You taste real.  You're real, ok?"

He offers an assuring pet and comforting smile.  Still, Pyrus is worried Mr. Meiou must be in biiig trouble if people are telling him, "nobody's perfect."  That's what people tell you when you're crying because you accidentally set a hut on fire or something.  Not that Pyrus would have any experience with something like that...  *halo*
This message was last edited by the player at 21:57, Mon 21 May 2018.

Katy says, "Wherever you're from, it sounds nice. I hope your home still exists. But now you're here. Cartoons? I remember those from about 10 years ago. Before Robotnik took over. Friends and family? I have some friends now. But we all have something in common. All of us have lost family because Robotnik turned them into mindless robot slaves."

But Katy is not one to get into "my emo backstory is more emo than yours" contests. Heck, she just pointed out that ALL her friends have that emo backstory. But Katy always has a point to what she says. "While you are here, I'll be happy to have your help fighting to free our loved ones from Robotnik's grip. Whenever I'm able to, I'll do my best to help you get back home."

The distant sound of unnatural winds can be heard coming from the direction the group just came from. Followed by the creepy unnatural voices of the SWATbots that say, "Scanning perimeter."

"Whoa," JB said as Pyrus embraced him.  "Are you a dragon?"  He had to chuckle a near-melodic falsetto laugh as he was licked.  "Just don't eat me, pal, and we'll get along just fine."

But as Katy started her explanation, while Pyrus set him back down, he sighed.  Then Robotnik got mentioned.

"I don't think that there's a home for me to get back to, Katy," he said, "But before I jump into this fight of yours, I have to ask."  He raised an eyebrow.  "Who's this Robotnik?"

His ears twitched as he picked up the winds and the electronic voices.  It sounded to Johnny like Stephen Hawkings after a kegger.  He turned back in the given direction and even held up one of his ears to focus his hearing.

"I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm gonna find out."

Meiou listened to katy as he remained still.
That day was burned into mosts minds as a very traumatic event.
Upon hearing the swatbots he jammed the gun into its holster and drew his sword.
"now to let loose and have fun."
Meiou seemed abit different now than katy remembered him. instead of the goofball
who used to find ways to change face with a situation he seemed more serious and capable of fighting.

  "Fat mad scientist." Short, but technically accurate.

  Stabbing robots, a time honored tradition.  "It may be more than just Swats, otherwise I'd be out there already."

  Okay so Joe wouldn't be quite that reckless.  But he has found it useful phrasing when dealing with his fellow recovering broody loners on the road to learning the value of friendship and all that.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:47, Sun 27 May 2018.

While Pyrus is fanboying over the cool adults implying that deadly combat is fun, he feels that there needs to be more descriptive than, "fat mad scientist," for Mr Real's sake.

"Yeah.  I'm a dragon.  But I won't eat you.

"Full grown dragons are big and powerful.  But even the dragon army was no match for Robotnik!  He turned their flesh into circuits and now they're his robots.  Just like everyone else he catches.  He's a big evil ugly cyborg with red and black eyes and he laughs at people's misery!  Right now he rules the whole world, and he's turning it into a giant robot factory so he can conquer the whole universe!

"So if we don't stop him, we'll all eventually be turned into robots!  Or starve when Robotnik destroys the last of this world's plants."

...and then there's the crazy over-the-top stuff Pyrus hasn't heard about Robotnik.  Nukes.  Turning a god into a weapon.  Manipulating time and reality.  An evil pet bird.  The list goes on.

A SWATbot can be heard saying, "They covered their tracks. Spread out."

Katy seems slightly more relieved at the sound of that. With the SWATbots thinning their own numbers for her, Katy is a lot less nervous.

Two SWATbots enter the area, looking around and then spot the tracks Katy left on purpose. "They went into that cave." one says to the other.

Katy holds a hand up, as if to signal everyone to wait. The SWATbots begin walking below the group and into the cave. Katy throws her hand down and then drops her heavy rock onto one of the SWATbots heads! CRUNCH!

"Great," Johnny said as he listened to the others describing this Robotnik to him.  "First my own reality turned to dust, and now I'm in another reality with some villainous mastermind with a soft spot for machines.  Today just ain't my..."

He shut up when Katy held up her hand.  He patted his pants for anything he brought with him.  Just a Swiss Pocket Knife and the wristwatch under his white gloves.  He shook his head, knowing that he's ill-equipped for this.

But then again, nothing short of a precision strike from orbit would be the proper thing to do with this Robotnik guy.  Of course, he'll probably have an orbital killer satellite already.

'At least I'm wearing all black,' he thought as he kept close to Pyrus.  Regardless of how he'd rate against the Big Bad, he looks more than adequate against...whatever a Swat Bot is.

Meiou waited when Katy held her hand up. When the crash happened he was off into the trees quietly looking about for an opportunity to strike some of the bots down before they could give away his location.

  When 'I threw a rock at him!' actually is the best plan.

  Case in point, Joe putting one of the rocks Katy so kindly prepared to use, while Meiou zips off to deal with ones outside.

  Teamwork is OP.  "We'll get you a spear or something Johnny. Knives work out better when you are good at stabbing the important bits with tiny objects."

"Slings work pretty good too," Pyrus offers, "And you don't even have to get close."

He spreads his wings and puffs up his chest to try and look brave, readying his sling for if badniks should get past Katy, Joe, and Meiou.

There are four SWATbots.

Having a heavy rock smash it on the top of its head, the one SWATbot falls forward and electricity crackles along its body, indicating some damaged circuitry!

But even as the rock is falling, Katy leaps down at the second SWATbot, landing on its head, her foward momentum knocking the bot down onto its back with a clang.

Joe's rock hits another one on the chest, causing it to look at Joe.

The group is easily able to see an opening in both bots. It is clear that the bot who took a heavy rock to the head is almost done for and any of the others could finish it off. The second bot who has a Katy on its head is kind of distracted with a raccoon to the face, so the rest of it is vulnerable to attack. The bot Joe hit is currently looking in Joe's direction. As is the bot next to it.

For the moment, the bots have not had the chance to call for backup just yet.

JB scratches his chin as he sees the SWATbots.  'They look like they crossed an ED-209 with a bodybuilder with rocks for brains,' he thought.

Seeing the Heavy Rock scoring a major hit, dropping it, JB thought he should try to disable that one.  He does his best stealth attempt to scamper over to the fallen SWAT to get a closer look, and hopefully not be spotted by the others.  If he finds a panel that can be opened by screws or pried off with a knife, he'll pull out his multi-tool and get to work.