"Good thinking," Jimmy answers Valin before he leaves, "Might wunna take a way to signal Katy of your location like a bed sheet and a whistle."

After Valin leaves, Jimmy begins to put together his suicide squad.

---

Lucky clings for dear life to the nearest solid object, bracing against the acceleration.  "Up here!" he shouts back at Katy, hoping she can hear him.

  "This seems familiar."  Joe muttered as a recent hunk of scenery he's latched onto in the usual manner took up upwards without a need to retract the cable.  "Though I suppose if they crash, I may have a better chance of surviving than they do."  Hey, it could happen.  Maybe.

  Joe observed the progression from Rocks, to Shotgun, to... stuff, directed and intended to be directed at Ra.  Joe didn't really know Mike to have glaring moments of stupid, so he had the feeling whatever they were attempting was just a liiiitle more in depth than 'drop paint on their head.'

  'Days like this, I wish I could carry anvils in a practical manner.'  What an appropriate thought for a coyote.  But just as unlisted anywhere features were turning up below with Ra (as if they had an owners manual handy for him though), Joe may need to take more advantage of that himself in the future.

  Turnabout is only considered fair play by those who benefit from it, after all.  And fair play would have gotten him killed so very hard already if he did it more often than he already tended to.

"Yup yup!" Mittens answers Hart with a grin and a thumbs-up.

"What the... WOW!" she thinks to herself while witnessing Katy's bold tactics, "And they call ME crazy!"

Immediately she signals for her team to scatter and take cover, only for circumstances to confirm her orders as common sense.  Ra charging it's nova attack, while exciting and fun to watch, is still obviously dangerous enough to Mittens that it gives her pause.

"Assess a situation," she thinks to herself, drinking in her surroundings and comparing them with her mental map of Middletown, "Choose the right move.  Then execute it with grace and precision."

She signals Timothius to stealthily fly to top of a nearby building to scout for escape routs so he can direct the escape from his bird's eye view.

(OOC: I imagined her walking her fingers across her palm, flapping her arms, doing a song and dance about skyscraper stuff, using invisible binoculars, then running in place like Shaggy and Scooby running for their lives.  Obviously, she doesn't use charades but rather the signals discussed on the way to the mission.)

She then looks for something reflective.  This large piece of broken glass will do the trick!  She relocates to a spot where Ra can't see her, but she can see her fleeing allies.  Using a basic signaling technique, she reflects a little sunlight at Katy, Joe, Angel, and the hovercraft above.  Then she points at Timothius' location.

(OOC: http://www.dougritter.com/GRAP...escueflash_2_mpi.jpg
Kinda troubling how little this technique came up when I Googled "signaling with a mirror."  Guess that's the nature of the internet and it's commercial focus.  The survival mirror makers don't care to tell you that you don't need a special mirror to signal with.  Support your local boy scout troop.  They may save your life some day.)
This message was last edited by the player at 12:59, Sat 11 Oct 2008.

Mika is shoved back into her seat from the force of the blast-off.  She continues to hang onto the bunny-child in her lap.  She waits in silence for a full minute, waiting for an explosion, or for everything to start shaking, or for red lights to go off somewhere.

After the minute passes she dare say, "I think we escaped, señora.  Is everyone good?"  she asks looking about the cabin, and at the child in her lap.  "I guess we can go anwhere we like in this thing now, si?" she asks hopefully.

At Mittens' signal, Hart takes cover behind some of the sparse vegetation left in the area. As he does so, he realizes that there aren't many inconspicuous places to hide around them. Pressing himself up against a dead tree and a few wild bushes, he does his best to at least focus on having a minor defense against whatever's going to be thrown their way.

He does his best to focus and think about what they can do, remembering that Shelly was relying on him to help get them out in case something went wrong. However, it's not just Shelly that would be relying on him, it would be everyone there. He prays that Mittens will lead them well, as she seems to be doing so far, and he has faith that she knows what she's doing and he can trust her... But that doesn't change that he has to keep himself focused and ready for a signal to move. No matter what, he has to stay calm.

Peering out at Ra from behind his cover, all of Hart's thoughts immediately leave him. The attack that the dragon is preparing looks incredible, like the end of the world in a glowing package... For several moments, his mind goes blank as he stares at it, held by the fear of the sheer destruction something like that would cause to them and to the forest that's only so far away.

He doesn't even mentally register Michael's attack when it's launched.

Nautilus nods to Shelly, "Of course, Princess. It shouldn't take too long to show Walden the basics of his job. Just allow me a moment to retrieve something..."

The old seabear bows his head as he steps out, returning mere moments later with a long and wide scrubbing pad and a strong-looking pick. He hands them both to Walden as the otter pulls himself out of the pool, letting the water slide off of his slicked fur. The otter looks at the items curiously as Nautilus explains, "It won't be too complicated, I assure you. Just some simple hand cleaning to make sure that the undersides of Aquarius are not weighed down. as well as the general elimination of build up."

Walden nods as he grasps both items firmly, "Hehe, pretty rad... I mean, cleaning totally isn't what I think of first when looking for a wicked time, but helping you guys out is WAY worth it."

Nautilus 'hrms' lightly, unsure of what to make of the otter's enthusiasm. Thinking, he turns to Shelly, "Well, you wanted to help him to start off. Isn't that correct, Princess? Is there a place you would prefer to begin with him?"

Ra's charged attack turns out to be rather anti-climactic thanks to Michael. And actually, if it weren't for the fact Ra still has a large, steel body with sharp claws and teeth, the result would even be what one would call embarrassing. Ra's would-be fire attack is extinguished before it can blast and Ra himself seems shocked for the moment as he wonders how this gewy substance got on him and how it stopped his fire. It does, indeed, look like a large bubble of bubblegum popped and wound up all over his face.

His growl, now sounding somewhat gargled, is low and guttural as he looks in the direction of Michael. Unfortunately, while Michael did stop the fire, those missile launchers look ready to launch...

Maverick happens to peak out again when he spots Valin on level 2 once again. Amy, having stuck around with Maverick, peaks out with him to see Valin and smiles. "Looks like you won't have to babysit these materials long... I think Katy's backup plan is in the works." Maverick looks at Amy curiously. "Backup plan?" Amy nods in response. "From what I could see and what I know about Katy, I've figured out what Valin is up to. If I'm guessing right, he's preparing to help Katy and the others come back safely by preparing traps. But that's not a one-man job, so he's likely going to look for help. In other words... he might have you and I help him."

Maverick looks somewhat hopeful. Then sighs. "Can't leave this stuff here..." Amy reaches up to scruffle Maverick's hair. "Don't worry. I'm sure Valin'll think of something."

Meanwhile, Jimmy would likely find Benji with relative ease. The other two seem M.I.A. in at least that they are not readily available. But chances are that Rick is working on a trap or two on ground level as it is anyway.

Upon seeing Ra's attack stopped, Katy yells, "Where's your power now, huh?! You're just like Robotnik! Bad breathe, overweight and worthless!" She continues her charge as she literally runs up Ra's leg, which is still braced in the concrete. Once on Ra's back, Katy hurries over to the missile launchers and slams into the base of one of them with all her weight and inertia, causing it to spin just enough to be pointing at Ra's neck.

The missiles launch. BLAM! Ra's tremendous frame topples over, Katy having been blown back by the force of the explosion. "We're coming for you!!" Katy manages to yell out towards Lucky tearfully before she slams into the ground. She groans as she struggles to get up, having had the wind knocked out of her a bit. She collapses and looks unconscious.

Luckily for Katy, Ra seems out of the picture for the time being as he seems dazed. Lucky for Ra, however, he seems to merely have dented armor plates on his neck. Yeah... the dragon was built to handle even those explosives point-blank. But at least he's dazed for the time being.

Emerald is in less panic once she realizes they aren't dead yet and she slowly turns the craft to straighten out and then head downward. What she sees before her amazes her. Ra seems downed and his neck is smoking.

"I'll see what I can do..." she says to Mika before getting closer and closer to ground level once more. Unaware that Joe is attached, Emerald continues without being careful about some grappling-hooked coyote in tow.

Timothius does as signaled and flies to a building-top. He looks about as Daemon's code is finally cracked and Timothius can see various doors opening. Good thing Mittens was thinking about escape. Coming back the way they came would seem like the obvious option, but due to the latest turn of events, Timothius looks down towards Mittens and points a direction that apparently *isn't* where they came from. He then finds his way to the nearest building from that direction and then lands inside the ally next to it.

Milloni smiles. "Alright! We did it!" she pulls down a pair of goggles and gets busy building with Samuel as the parts are all there... they just need to put them together at this point. She is quick to point out which parts from the Shark Bot to use for the ability to be underwater. For a moment, she pauses as she looks like a bright idea crossed her mind and she quickly types a few things into the nearby computer about a "Seabear Suit" before continuing to build with Samuel.

Shelly nods to Nautilus. "C'mon. Let's go to the West Pool." she leads the way for the two and dives in once they get there. Looking about, Shelly finds what she was looking for. Whenever someone got cleaning duty, this was the spot they always complained about. Apparently, there is a spot that various undersea life of the unwanted sort seem to favor a lot due to it's temperature and darkness. And yeah... the darkness is another reason people don't like cleaning this spot. But Shelly stands on the floor of this area and her entire body glows, lighting the area up some. She smiles at Walden, pointing at the already-accumulating gunk.

Valin notices Maverick and Amy due to their conversation. However Valin only catches the end of their conversation and wonders what Maverick means by 'that Maverick can't leave this stuff here' and what Amy means by her saying that he will think of something. But valin does not ignore that he's found some people that could help him.

Valin asks, "What is here that can't be left, and why?" as Valin figures it would be best to know what they are talking about as it might affect if Valin can have them help him or not.

Samuel says, "We shouldn't congratulate ourselves till we have a prototype that works," as he works on the suit with Milloni's help since she knows which parts from a Shark-bot can and need to be used for the suit.

When Milloni starts typing on a computer, Samuel guesses that Milloni has had an idea related to the current project and asks, "So is that going to be a version of this suit adapted for a Mobian to wear?" as Samuel continues to work on building the suit.

Although Michael resists the urge to cheer upon seeing that the 'experiment' was a success. Michael gulps and takes a step back when Ra looks at him as Michael is well aware that those missiles are still dangerous. Michael is about to run for cover when he sees Katy's dangerous attempt to deal with the missiles.

And although Michael is happy to see Katy's attempt be successful, he becomes quite worried upon seeing what happens to Katy. When Katy looses consciousness Michael cries out, "Katy!" and rushes towards her as Michael hopes he can pick her up and get her out of harms way before one of Robotnik's robots gets a hold of her. "Everyone hurry and do what we came here to do. I'll take care of Katy."

"Wow-how!" Mittens cheers when Katy's gambit pays off, thrusting her fist in the air, "Fortune favors the bold!"  :D

Much as she'd like to draw a silly goatee and mustach on Ra's face, markers are in short supply at the moment and there's serious business to attend to.  :P

"Roger wilco, Sir Michael, quencher of dragon fire!" she answers him with a salute, "Timo's found a good alternate exit that I highly recommend.  My guess is that ye olde missing kid is in yon hover-van if the Tarzan hanging from it is any indication, so the rescue op is in good hands.  Hart and I will use this chaos to cover our scuba op as planned.  Wait for us behind the treeline would ya?"

She motions to the escape rout so Michael will know which way to the escape rout Timothius discovered.

"Off we go!" she says to Hart with a shoulder-nudge before running in the direction of the sports store.  ^.^
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Sat 18 Oct 2008.

  "Less than graceful landing aside, it's good to see Katy could manage without me in case I die a splattered death on the pavement... Maybe I should do something to prevent this eventuality?"  This last bit said as Emerald lowered the ship.  Of course, retracting the cable dealt with the immediate distance issue between himself and the ground (funny, you'd think being closer would be safer about now), and he climbed up onto the side of the ship.

  "I wonder if whoever is flying will think to land this on the Dragon?  Granted, the hassle of killing them would probably be more worth it if they wouldn't just build another one over the weekend."   Of course, if Ra continued some of his other trends, Joe would come to appreciate them for the property damage they caused to the city and be glad whenever they showed up.

  And at least then they'd have a bit of a clue with what they were dealing with.  As opposed to wondering what the hell was up had Blipvert actually poured that green whatever on the bunny.  Shame for Blipvert they got run over before that and the rescue was made bunny tampering free... Well, not unless you counted Angel's actions as bunny tampering?

"No way..." is all Hart can say as he sees things unfold with Katy and Michael in the fight against Ra.  All of those crazy stunts actually worked?

He's more than a little worried as he sees Katy collapse, and more than a little confused at the incoming hovercraft with Joe attached. Before he can make his way to either, however, he hears Mittens and gets her signal to follow her. He nods as he does so, giving a passing glance to the regrouping freedom fighters.

"Ya know, Mittens, after seeing everything that just went down here, I don't know how many folks are gonna believe us when we report back in Aquarius... Heck, I'm surprised enough that we're actually getting the scuba gear this time."

Nautilus and Walden follow Shelly's lead, diving after her into the West Pool.

The otter loses a little bit of his cheer as he sees the dark section that he's supposed to clean. His sight is pretty good, but making sure a place like that is clean will be no simple task.  His eyes light up as he sees Shelly illuminate the surrounding area with her body, though. He had no idea that Sea Bears could do that.

Giving her a cheerful 'hang ten' sign and a nimble flourish under the water, he makes his way to the worst of the build-up and start scrubbing and picking away, using his energy to it's fullest.

Nautilus, meanwhile, watches the otter work, but also looks at the princess with a little concern, wondering what it is that she mentioned needed checking shortly after this.

Mika keeps a tight hold of the child in her lap for the take-off and the level-off.  Once the G-forces calm down she takes a glance around the area.  Noticing Ra down for the count and smoking, and the group of Freedom fighters around.  "I wonder how they all knew we were here?" she asks to nobody in particular.  "Are we going to take them all with us in this flying coche?" she asks.

Maverick looks up at the gorilla and points at the supplies. "Mr. Maynard told me to watch these supplies and make sure nobody messed with them before he gets back. If I knew where the supplies belonged, I could carry them back and lock them up... but I don't know."

Amy nods. "These are probably for whatever it was Mr Maynard and Katy were cooking up on their way out... or possibly before then."

Amy isn't sure where Mike got everything either. Nor is she knowledgeable enough of the present materials to know what he was using them for.

Katy seems to be just inside the realm of consciousness as she peeks an eye open at Michael and groans a little. "...stupid dragon..." she grumbles. "Didn't I see a rabbit on a hover bike?" she comments, managing to lift her head enough to start looking. "Whuddaya know..." she manages before going limp again.

Angel comes back out of the ally she drove inside and spots a downed Ra with Michael holding what looks like an unconscious Katy. "...nobody said she was a dragon slayer..." Angel thinks to herself before riding her hover bike to Michael. "Name's Angel. How can I help?" she asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:35, Fri 24 Oct 2008.

Daemon is left speechless as he looks at the downed dragon, then to Katy, then to the downed dragon, then to Angel's guns, then... well his jaw drops. He knows he saw guns only made the dragon annoyed enough to do what amounts to an apocalyptic attack. Did Angel cause a chain reaction that made the dragon blow up from inside? Or is it more like Katy kicked the dragon's butt? He's been calling her legendary, but... he didn't really believe it could be like this. How does ANYONE take down a freak like Ra?

Timothius is a bit iffy on leaving the CFF behind even with the amazing circumstances he just witnessed. But he follows Mittens even in his reluctance, cursing the fact they had to split up. Soon as Mittens is near enough, he asks, "Do we have to leave them so early in the game? I doubt that dragon is gunna stay down..."