Recover, Regroup - (1-4)

David · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:50 am

((OC: Most of the Doc's dialogue was whipped up by Matt))

“Hey Toto, Tabby! Movie’s about to start! You guys comin’?”

The voice echoed up the second story staircase of the Cotton household. Inside the open room at the top of the stairs, Toby Cotton lay on his stomach flipping through several cards in his hand. His little sister Tabitha sat playfully on the other side of a huge clutter-pile of cards on the floor, picking at the pieces of paper.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, we’ll be down in a sec!!”

“And yoooou don’t come cryin’ to me when the cookies are cold!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

The young girl’s hand grasped one of the cards and pulled it up, her eyes pouring over the object.

“Oooh, she’s pretty!” Tabitha flipped the card around for Toby to see. “Who’s this?”

“Niiice choice, Tabs.” Toby grunted as he lifted himself up and crawled over to the girl. “…That’s Curve Simmons, captain of the Starlight Streaks!” The boy’s eyes lit up as he spoke. “She’s the best of the best. The year she became captain, the Streaks took home first place in three different circuits.” The boy’s finger gently flicked the card.

“One day, I’ll be wearing that uniform, Tabby.” The girl chuckled, her gaze drifting up to her brother’s star-crossed eyes. She bit her lip, as if trying to contain her next utterance.

“…Purple’s a girl color, bub.” The wonder fell from her brother’s face.

“What? That’s totally indigo! Absolutely, completely different color, kid…” Toby coughed a bit, and finally stood up, his back popping loudly.

“…It’s still…”

“ANYWAY, we better get downstairs before Frankie has a cow. Cookies don’t eat themselves.” A small smirk crept up the boy’s face… until he noticed the shocked expression on his sister’s. “…What’s up, Tabs?” The girl only pointed to the wall behind him.

As Toby wheeled around, the giant robotic creature came crashing through his wall. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. With a crunch, the machine, pinned his body to the ground.

His eyes flew open, and his lungs gasped for breath. Toby head darted from side to side, his vision blurred and unable to aid him. He was cold and wet, and he could feel something tugging him upward. When his vision cleared, Cotton found himself being raised out of what seemed to be a tube of green liquid. He was soaking wet, and completely naked, and the two men pulling him up were wearing full-body biohazard suits. Oh yeah, that was comforting. Toby struggled to speak, but his voice was low and hoarse. He coughed a few times, and finally managed to choke out a few words.

“…Where… am I?”

The two figures holding up the disoriented boy slowly lowered him down onto the cold, smooth floor below. Immediately, another similar figure began to run some kind of clicking scanner up and down Toby’s body. Looking around the pure white room, Toby noticed there really wasn’t anything except for a bunch of equipment all over the place, some bright halogen bulbs, and those workers in their full-body suits. Toby would have to wait for the answer to his question, however, as one of the workers sidled up next to him and began ticking off a clipboard checklist of questions about his vision, reflexes, and everything in-between. As he was answering, a second suit came up and began drying the sickly green liquid off his body with a big, fluffy towel. It was all the poor boy could do to stand up during the barrage.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, one of the suits finally removed its helmet, revealing a scruffy old dog with a fluffy white mustache.

“…You’re in St. Carter’s Hospital in Spring City. It’s nice to see you up and going! You’ve been my little project for the past few weeks.” The dog chuckled as another suit popped its top, revealing a young ferret that proceeded to hand Toby some actual clothes.

“…Your parents brought these for you,” said the girl. “You can go ahead and put them on.” The dog spoke up once again.

“…I’m Doctor Richards. Let me get right down to it; your injuries were... severe, and that's putting it kindly. You were our most wounded survivor. Severe burning, numerous compound fractures, radiation exposure... There was some sort of nuclear explosion. Fortunately, a large piece of metal debris shielded you from the brunt of it, so you're a lucky boy.”

“…Dang, doc…” Toby slipped on the green t-shirt that was given him. The logo on the front was for a band apparently named “Blurricane!” and showed a tornado picking up a bunch of different objects and swirling them around the text. “…You’re not kiddin’.” Toby began to pull on a pair blue striped boxers, and then a pair of grey sweatpants, almost toppling over in the process.

"Everyone has been quarantined here for the past few weeks because of the radiation, for public safety. I decided to keep you asleep and in the TRC for the duration, for your own comfort. You wouldn't have been able to do much of anything except hurt really bad, so I hope you don't mind that call.”

“I think you’re safe there,” the boy muttered, his eyes wide. Toby scooted his feet one after the other into a pair of green slippers. “…Thanks for letting me sleep in.” Looking himself over, Toby slowly moved his left leg, and looked back up at the doctor. “…I can’t believe that healed so fast! It was completely wrecked before… Man, technology rocks.”

"Quite!” The dog smiled as the boy marveled at his mended appendage. “Anyway, it looks like you're doing fine, now. We're pretty much done here; all you need to do is try to get some food down, and get a little exercise to loosen up your muscles since you've been inactive so long. I would like to explain things a little more in-depth, but unfortunately, I have... many... many patients to handle, so check out with the receptionist whenever you feel ready, and see the nurses if you have any questions. Oh, and I think there were some people in the lobby asking about you..."

“Man, thanks for fixing me up, doc. I could’a been…”

“Take care.” Without even listening to the rest of Toby’s sentence, Dr. Richards was out the door and on his way to his next patient. All the other suits seemed to be either cleaning up the room or murmuring something to each other.

Toby shrugged. It had been a weird few minutes. He wasn’t going to question it. As he shuffled out of the room, Toby took a good look at the tube of green liquid he had been in for three solid weeks. He whistled long and loud at the sight, and saluted the device that saved his life.

He shuffled out into the hallway, and somehow managing to navigate the treacherous maze with the hanging arrow signs everywhere, slowly making his way to the lobby. The fist thing he noticed when he entered the room was the young gecko in a tank top and pajama pants asleep on one of the couches. He shuffled over and gently shook the girl.

“Frankie… yo, Frankie…” The girl groaned as her eyes slowly opened, her arms stretching out as far they could reach. It took her a moment to realize exactly what was going on, but once she finally got a lock on the one who was shaking her…

“Quiddit, Toby…” The girl rolled over just a bit, settling back into her makeshift couch-bed before it dawned on her. “Wait, Toby?!” She blinked a few times. “Toto, you’re up!!” She sprang up from the couch, enveloping the boy in a hug. “You had us all so spooked! Mom’s been a nervous mess!” She buried her head in the kangaroo rat’s shoulder. “I swear, I have no idea how you don’t get yourself killed, you knucklehead!” Toby wrapped his arms around the girl, giving her a tight squeeze.

“That makes two of us.” He laughed, and let her go. “Where are the others?”

“Dad’s been stuck on the third floor all day doing filling out paper-work, and mom just took Trace, Tabby and Kyle to get some food. They should be back pretty soon.”

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Rachel · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:29 am

Nothing made sense for a long time for the Griffin. When she came to Tiny was sitting in her room. He was asleep, a brand new white cowboy hat resting over his eyes as he snored softly. For a moment a smile pulled at her features. It was nice to see him. But the joy was short lived when she started to remember what had happened.

"Oh God." Jack whispered, the snoring abruptly stopped when she at last croaked it out through her dry throat. The big red reptile was fast to offer her a glass of water from a bedside table. Jack just stared at it, until it became blurry with tears.

"What happened?" She asked softly. Tiny sat himself on her bed, offering the glass to her a second time as he sat the white hat on Jack's legs.

It wasn't until Jack had something to drink and eat that he would dare tell her what happened. And once Tiny explained everything as he knew it, Jack immediately regretted eating anything at all. A sick sinking feeling struck her in the chest, it was like a big heavy anchor of fear, anger, and regret. Jack asked to be alone for a while. She spent the next day breaking down, she just couldn't bare the thought of what had happened to the city and it's people. Tiny tried to come back and tell her she was given a commendation for her service, but she refused to see him or accept any sort of award. For what? Sure most the people in the immediate area where evacuated due to her planning for any Eggman episodes, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough.

Days dragged by, Jack rarely left her room. She was a mess, it took her three days just to realize the hat on her bed was to replace the one that was lost in the explosion. Quarantine sucked, and Tiny's attempts to cheer her up, while well meaning, where irritating, so eventually she just asked to be left alone.
.....................

Old Andy sat in the waiting room. The grizzled actor strummed his guitar and sang some sad song in the waiting room. At first the nurses and receptionist where scared of him, but when they realized who he was they just let him do what he wanted. It was when Toby appeared, as fresh as a new born babe to greet his family. The music abruptly stopped, the silver griffin looked up from his instrument and starred intensely at Toby.

"Boy." He said in his deep scratchy voice. "You seen Jackie yet?" He said starring those bright reflections of his daughters eyes at him. Once Toby confirmed he indeed hadn't or if he didn't respond at all the griffin would look back at his fingering. But before he started strumming he spoke once more.

"See to it you do, tell'er I'm waitin' could you?." He asked. Then returned to his sad song, but he wasn't singing anymore, just playing as if it occupied him.

psikeout · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:55 am

Excited family reunions. Teary eyes. Relief, lovey-dovey family dedication and devotion. The white monkey stood with his back to a wall near the front entrance, watching Toby out of the corner of his eye. Rock Lochert was too tough, too hard, too cold for these flimsy emotions—Or so was the air he sometimes carried.

Yeah, actually, he had his own worried parents all over him a few days prior, when he was one of the earlier survivors released. Apparently, Jam's shield had nullified a lot of the actual bulk of the radiation. However, shield or no shield, nobody was immune to the protectiveness and sentimentality of family.

It wasn't a bad thing. The "war" with Eggman seemed to be over, and he got to enjoy some peace, get some decent non-hospital food, and a change of clothes that didn't need to be tied in the back... On that note, pretty much everything he had to his name except his knife and his dogtags were roasted—Even his SIAF 1st SD division jacket that was presented with after his flight—so he was back to his old undecorated self. Navy shorts (actually zip-off leg pants) with the classic "blood stripe" of red up the sides, and some bulky, monstrously-mean-looking steel-toed, flat-soled boots that looked better suited to crawling mines on an asteroid than walking around downtown Spring City.

Anyway, the drama and rest was all out of the way, and it was time to get back to business. So why was he at the hospital again?

He cracked just a hint of a smile, and continued to watch Toby discreetly and unassumingly from afar.

"I think we oughta leave him to his family for now," he observed quietly to the bright, punch-red girl next to him. Rock wasn't one to interrupt somebody's warm fuzzies without good reason, even if it was just to say hi.

Mie · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:52 am

Oh, yes, bright red and uncharred once more (but with a lingering smokey scent underscoring that of her shampoo, and whatever candy she'd been sucking on), Jam leaned out from her position nestled snugly under Rock's arm to grin at the happy reunion, either failing or not trying for her paler contemporary's nonchalance.

"Aww," she mock complained with an exaggerated frown. "But it's so nice to see a proper reaction, y'know. Hugs an' joy, instead of, 'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU PUT YOUR FATHER AND ME THROUGH?!'"

After a brief shudder at her uncanny maternal impersonation and another quick glance around Rock, though, she conceded with a hushed, "But I s'ppose you're right," as she began to pull the other primate away from the wall, and towards the elevators with a jerk of her head.

"Guess its about time to check on the chief, anyway, don'tcha think?"

Kazz · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:44 am

Quarantine. Mako didn't know if he could even spell the word, but he knew one thing now: it meant being stuck in a hospital. And that was boring. Sterile, clean, and...
Okay, so the shark wasn't prone to letting it leave that way. Having woken up a few days prior, he hardly remembered anything of the event, except for perhaps a bit of floating guilt at his own... perhaps the word was ineffectiveness? He had more time than usual to think about it, spending a few days banging his head against the wall and counting the dots on the ceiling tiles. Repeatedly. (It was somewhere around 12,592.)

Today, however, his family had dropped by. This currently entailed one thing: Mako running around the waiting area, careful not to disturb anyone, followed by a shark looking considerably younger than himself. Also, a girl. That might have been a bit different.

"How come you're not dead, Marcus?" Mimi had enquired, having been standing next to the bed intently when Mako had a woken.

"Shark magic, of course!" he had responded. ... okay, it had been something he had tuned out completely when they were telling him about it the other day, but how could he resist a chance to use the phrase "shark magic"?

It wasn't to say he was ripping through, but as the pair's parents were currently preoccupied with what Mako and his sister Mimi had written off as 'boring', it had quickly turned into avoiding certain tiles on the ground, seemingly chosen by random. Both of them wore cheap plastic cowboy hats (Mimi's idea), which, as Mako lay eyes on the silver griffin, got taken off in haste, seeming just a bit in bad taste.

Upon Toby walking out, Mako gave a "heeyyy, Mousey-man's alive!", before thinking to look around. Okay, the monkeys were over there, they could probably hold their own... and he couldn't remember the others; he figured he may have hit his head at some point, it wasn't that out-there a possibility. His sister, however, was preoccupied with other things. Waiting for him to finish speaking to Toby, the more diminutive fish looked at Andy with a curious sort of expression.

"Uhh," Mako muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "Not nice to stare, Meemz."

"But that's Andy Clarke, th' movie guy," she said, pointing at the man, before adding a "Right?".

David · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:19 pm

Toby stood silently for a moment as he took in the grizzled griffin and his dusty desert dirge. "...No, I haven't seen her yet. The doc said I need to go try and eat some food, but I'll go try and find her after that... Speaking of which." He turned to his sister, placing his pinky up in the air.

"...Would you care to join me for a fancy meal in the... mmmmm... hospital cafeteria?"

"There's no way I'm letting you go alone, that's for sure." Frankie fought back her laughter, putting on her best serious face. "For all I know, you'll do a double-backflip over the buffet line, break your neck and drown in pot of chili."

"Awww, you know my favorite death. I'm touched." Toby draped his arm around the gecko's shoulder, making some goofy face.

Frankie managed to get out "Ugh, boys..." before she could no longer stop herself from laughing. She lightly slugged her brother on the shoulder. "C'mon, ya moron. Let's get some food in you before all that hot air makes you float away." Frankie began walking herself towards the arrow pointing to the cafeteria.

"Oh, how I miss these moments." Toby chuckled as he did the slipper shuffle behind his sister. As he was heading out, he caught the shark's comment from behind him. "...Yeah, apparently I am." he shrugged. "Stranger things have happened. We're headed to the cafeteria. You hungry?"

psikeout · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:52 pm

Rock crossed his arms, and stayed leaning where he was. "I don't think they'll let us back in there," he replied. "They wouldn't even let us get anywhere near the waiting room 'til we were 'clean' of radiation. He was supposed to be released sometime around now, anyway."

He looked back in time to see that the shark guy was apparently released, as well. That was a good sign—It seemed everybody was being set loose again.

Mie · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:33 pm

"Yeah," conceded the monkey with an exaggerated stop and a sigh. In truth, she was probably just tired of standing still so long, and began bouncing restlessly from foot to foot while her tail did figure eights, all in stark contrast to Rock's cool stillness.

"Guess that's close to everyone," Jam considered aloud, ticking off fingers to herself for a moment before stopping short. "When did Ace say he was getting out?"

Seafarinhare · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:43 pm

Finally! Some good news. It seemed after a week or so(since he'd been conscious, that is) of sitting around and twiddling his thumbs, they were finally letting him loose on the public once more. ...Nevermind the fact that he was also recovering from broken ribs, and very minor burns from being thrown off his bike in the explosion.

He walked out of his room, taking a deep breath. Some mysteriously acquired comic books tucked under his arm. But more importantly, it was nice to finally be able to stretch his legs again.

He continued down the hall toward the front desk. Passed some old griffin with a guita-- He paused...doing a double take. "Andy Clarke? Oh man!" He exclaimed, "I'm a huge fan of your movies!" he added before going through his comics really quickly and extending one to him, "Can you sign my comic book?" What an opportunity. The comic book in question was an issue of a cowboy monthly starring one of his more prominant acting roles.

Rachel · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:39 pm

Andy didn't look up when he heard his name. He didn't really sign autographs, he didn't see the point. In not doing so though, they sold on eBuy for small fortunes. After an awkward moment the old griffin got an idea, he looked up at the icy raccoon and smirked in a crooked way that he was pretty known for.

"Sure, under the condition ya get my daughter out 'ere. I'll sign whatever ya want if you can do that fer me." He said in his scratchy old voice without bothering to get up or ask who the raccoon was. The old man wanted his daughter front and center and he apparently wanted it done sooner rather then later.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:14 pm

"Er.." He blinked, looking around, "Who's your daughter?" He asked as he looked at him again. It hadn't really occurred to him that the annoyingly persistant sheriff was related to THE Andy Clarke. Just give him a second to put one and one together... "Wait. Are you... Jack is your daughter?"

Greens · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:48 pm

"But you did miss me, right?"

"Well yeah I missed you, but when I heard you were in a-- a God, nuclear explosion, I just didn't-- it didn't even register. For real. It was just too... ridiculous, like it was some kind of terrible joke that didn't even have a punchline because it was so terrible and bad."

"Well, if there were a punchline, I think it would be, that I was dead."

"Well that's a terrible punchline, and not a very good joke."

The alley cat pushed open a door and stepped outside into the bleached hallway. Spend a week in all that intensive care, and you really start longing for more than the same old white-on-white color scheme of the place. Quietly, he wondered how the doctors put up with it. But all the same, he was thankful for the work they did, thankful he was still alive, and thankful that Caz was still alright, too. From what he could tell, every one of their little crew out in the Yellow Desert would survive to tell the tale. And a Hell of a tale it was-- not every day you survive a nuclear explosion.

"In any case," he said with a smile and a deliberate dryness. "You don't need to worry about it now. Us cats are born with nine lives, you know that. They've served me well so far."

"Well that's all well-and-good, Danny-boy, but just how many do you have left, now?"

"Now?

"Yeah."

"About, uh..."

Beat. Expectant glance.

"...Two."

She didn't so much roll her eyes as she rolled her entire head. Still smiling, though. "Oh, w'll nyea-- okay, great."

She strolled down the hall with her arm around his waist, and while his was wrapped neatly over her shoulder, it was hard to tell if it was for the sake of holding her, or if he actually needed her to help prop him up. The only thing he had to protect him from the blast was his back, after all, but it looked natural enough, either way.

"When did Ace say he was getting out?"

"I'd say now's good," he replied as the both of them revealed themselves from beyond the corner. He didn't say much else right then, but he did offer a smile-- warmer than usual.

Caz didn't seem to expect them as Ace did, but greeted them just the same. "Oh! Hey!" she perked, and shot her hand up in salutation. "Uh... How ya dooiin'?"

psikeout · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 1:56 pm

Rock just dipped his head back and let out a casual "'Ey" to Ace and Caz. He seemed glad enough to see the couple, but didn't move much from where he rested. He wore one of those surreptitious smirks as he looked Ace over appraisingly.

"Look like you could'a used another week, maybe."

Mie · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:14 pm

Jam's surprise at seeing Caz along with the just-spoken-of-devil was about on par with her surprise at a pizza showing up on her doorstep after ordering one. With a good natured smile beneath raised brows, she waved wordlessly to the cat in question before replying to his ever effervescent companion.

"I'd say pretty darn good, all things considering."

Then, with an inconspicuously mischievous grin, she began to extend and retract all five limbs, adding, "Th'cybernetics are pretty good, too. Bet you can't even tell what they replaced."

Rachel · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:08 pm

Andy didn't look up again, he looked at his guitar as he settled in to go back to playing. He did however offer a nod in the affirmative. Jack was indeed his little girl.

Hoji canted his head at the old griffin. He waited for a response, and nearly missed it. It took him a second to register the nod as said response, "Ah..." was all he said to that before looking back toward the room Jack was quarantined in.

"I'll uh...see what I can do." and with that he walked off and knocked on Jack's door.

Jack stood in her room, a new set of clothing care of her father, and one of his old guns to replace the one that she lost when the town blew. She sighed heavily at the thought of what'd happened. She really liked that town, those people, and her gun. She raised her head looking at the door as someone knocked on it. Someone else her father sent to fetch her. No doubt. This time though she felt ready to try and face the world. She approached the door and opened it to find... Hoji.

"Wha..." She started but stopped herself with a shake of her head. "Paw sent you, didn' 'ee?"

He looked up at her, and nodded to her question, "Yeah."

Dispite the time in quarantine, Jack didn't look very well rested. She looked tired if nothing else. The golden griffin took a deep breath and stepped to leave but stopped short spinning around to runback into her room and get her new hat off the bed. She set it on her head, the new hat looked like the old without the badge, which was on her belt for the time being.

"Well I better getta move on 'fore he sends Rock up 'er somethin'" This time she left the room, and shut the door after herself. "You look... alive. Congrats."

"Not everyone was so lucky."

Hoji stepped aside to let her out. His brows furrowed when she added the bit that was quite obviously about the innocent folks in the city.

"I know..." he said sadly before heading back over to the grizzled old griffin.

The sheriff paused to look at the raccoon, she glanced down a moment, lost in her own thoughts. It was a short lived moment to herself though.

"Jackie!" Her father called no sooner did she enter the waiting room, her attention though, had snapped on Rock. Too bad because her father came right over and grabbed her up into a hug, lifting her from the ground in a crushing embrace. "Lordy ya had me worried! Ya've got all yer parts an everythin!"

"Ack! Paw... Can't breath!" She croaked out. He released her and she got some sweet sweet oxygen back in her lungs.

Recover, Regroup - (1-4)

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