Take back the city (1-2)

psikeout · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 6:18 pm

The island stood in ominous greeting to both parties who had arrived: The two primates, buzzing up to its oily shores, and the trio of Tornado passengers, abandoning their sinking craft not far from the beach.

Thanks to all of the distractions (entirely started by Tails and the Tornado), the two monkeys arrived without opposition to speak of yet. The island seemed like it may have been an obstacle all of its own, though; its sandy beach stretched only a short distance inward before meeting nearly-sheer rock walls hundreds of feet high, capped with jagged, pointed spires. It looked like some sort of big, sharp crown jutting out of the ocean. One could almost imagine the ashy, smoky mist that poured out of its center to be like decrepit, old, grey hair. But, high above were hints of life, where foliage draped across the brownish stone in the form of vines and other running, billowing plants. Down at sea level, though, there was nothing but barren sand and rock, and, ahead of the two, a gaping cave.

Elsewhere, somewhere on the other side of the island, an almost identical view greeted Tails, Teck, and Ace; another lonesome coast. And, it seemed whatever interest the huge "puffers" had with them had oh-so-thankfully been lost, as all the big, green craft averted their attention and gunfire to South Island's unfortunate air force.

Beneath the distant booms and stuttering pops of guns, the place actually seemed desolate and not very well-defended. But, with the sun setting, everything had begun to take on that cloudy, blue-grey hue; that meant things were very likely to change soon, if the previous night in Central City was any indicator.

Time was of the essence. They had a craggy cliff to navigate, or a gaping cave to descend into. Wonderful options.

Mie · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:22 pm

Jam remained uncharacteristically optimistic, despite the less than encouraging response she received, as well as the rapidly approaching silhouette-turned-fully-manifested island straight out of the beginning of a horror movie. As the sea(faring) monkey seamlessly transitioned from waves to sand with naught but a stylish little hop, swiveling her hips and Gear sideways, she coasted to a smooth and succinct stop, dismounting with perceivable fluidity.

Shaking her head, and clicking her tongue, first at the craggy walls, and then at the ominous hole in them comprising their choices for action, Layla set her scooter on the ground, then her hands on her hips, took an exaggerated glance up and down the otherwise deserted coastline, and sighed laboriously.

"Well, damn," Jam mock-lamented with a snap of her fingers, followed by a contentedly lazy stretch of her berry-hued arms. "He must be throwin' everything he's got at those poor SOBs; guess I won't be much of a trump card today -- Too bad."

David · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:56 pm

Careening deftly towards Jam, a growing spot on the horizon might alert the pink primate to the fact that she wasn’t exactly alone on the quote unquote “deserted” beach. Perhaps more visible were the large tufts of sand being whipped up behind him as young Toby Cotton turned the beach into his own personal hover-boarding track. As he sped ever further down the shore, Toby twisted and turned in a graceful, if not a bit dangerous-looking dance with the dunes, eventually hitting a small chunk of sand that sent him spiraling into the air. The boy pulled his body into what looked like a Misty Flip.

“CHECK ME OUT, KYLE!” screamed the boy as he untwisted himself and landed gracefully back on the sand, resuming his break-neck stint… at least, until the small chao hanging onto Toby’s shoulder playfully began to cover his eyes. Not exactly ideal for someone in danger of…

“Whoo… whooaaa!!! Kyle, quit it!! LEGGO!!!”

...Crashing. By the time Toby finally ripped the chao away from his face, he was mid-tumble through the sand, losing his board about 30 feet before his body actually came to a stop. When all was said and done, Toby had plummeted face first onto the ground, head fully buried in the sand, just a few feet away from where Jam had just made her way onto the beach. Kyle simply giggled, but still lent his assistance, pulling at Toby’s tail to try and yank him from his predicament.

“…Mfffmfff…. MmmMMMFFF!!!”

psikeout · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 10:08 pm

Rock's bike drifted to a stop nearer to the rock wall, and he dismounted unceremoniously.

"Don't let your guard—..."

The primate's warning faded as he watched some yahoo come racing down the beach on a hoverboard. His sentiments must have changed utterly in the process.

"Yeah, okay, it must be pretty safe down here," he conceded to Jam as he stopped a pace or two from the half-buried kid, but made no move to assist him. (Rock was just as happy to stand there with his fists on his sides and converse over him. He was just an overwhelmingly nice guy like that.) "Still, we better find a way in."

Diluss · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 12:22 am

After recovering from the impact and rubbing the water out of his eyes, Tails stood up. The waterlogged Tornado wallowed uncomfortably in the water. Bubbles began rising up around it.

Tails looked around at the island.

"I think the water's pretty safe now that whatever that thing of Eggman's is, is up fighting the military."

He looked up at the sky. There was a distant boom and a flash illuminated the fog. He looked sadly down at the Tornado, and there was a deep, slightly mucky sounding bloop, and a large bubble broke the surface of the water near the Tornado, which suddenly began to lean in the water much more severely.

"I... The Tornado's sinking. The internal compartments are filling up with water, and the Tornado's almost all metal, so it's gonna sink pretty fast."

He sighed.

"We better go..."

He tugged on something strapped to the inside of the cockpit. There was a subdued, wet ripping of velcro, and an emergency bag came loose in his hand. Tails slung it over his shoulder with a squish, and hopped onto one of the wings. The Tornado began tilting even more, listing in the water like a drunken walrus.

He looked back at the two of them.

"Can you guys swim?"

David · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:08 am

With a final heave, Toby yanked himself from his gritty prison, coughing and spewing sand all the while. "You little munch!!" Toby grabbed blindly for the chao, without much success seeing as his eyes had a decent amount of sand in them. Huffing, Toby fumbled around with the zipper on his pack. "...When we get home, you're sleeping with Tabby." Laying his hand on what could've been the holy grail for all he knew, Toby freed and opened a bottle of water, splashing it on his face.

The little rascal started showing some sympathy, patting the boy on his head. It didn't do a lot of good. "Bujaba ji... ju?" Kyle cocked his squishy little head to one side.

Yeah yeah yeah..." The downed kangaroo rat snapped his head to the side and rocketed out a sand-filled loogie onto the beach. Toby ran his hand through the sand, coming up the with the pair of goggles that should have protected his eyes. "Just... be more careful. I gotta see, ya know..."

Cotton's advice was doomed to fall on deaf ears, however. While the preoccupied rodent was gaining his bearings, Kyle had waddled his jiggly self on over to the new arrival on the beach. He floated up to about eye level with the white simian, and babbled out something like, "Toba bi? Unbi ca jim."

Greens · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 4:18 pm

...

...

..."GUUhh-- kuhhf, kahff... Aauwwy-- kuff."

Ah, yes. The uncanny cry of the nearly drowned alley cat. Ace rose to the surface of the water with a rather violent start, coughing, clearing his throat, grunting frustratedly, and eventually smacking the water out of his ears once he was comfortable enough. Soon enough, he gathered his bearings as well as his sense of up and down, and was ready for action as one could reasonably expect from him.

"Gah'd, hit my head on the sssstupid thing."

"Yeah, sure," he called out, following, wading. "I'm guessing we're headed for that island?"

Mie · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 7:20 pm

Jam, on the other hand, wasn't so indifferent to the newcomer's plight as Rock; though he seemed perfectly content to completely ignore the new kid's nasty wipe-out, the redder of the primate pair found it rather difficult to stifle her snickers and stick to business.

"Auuuh, well, there's that cave over th-hey, I think he likes you!"

So much for either compassion or staying on track. Dropping her palms to her knees, the apparently ADD adventurer shuffled toward the potentially murderous little saboteur, clicking her tongue as if calling a pet.

"Dude," she mused, looking up to the other monkey as she held a coaxing hand out to the chao. "If we can find like a control room or somethin', and set this thing loose in it, we could totally be collecting medals from the president by this time tomorrow..."

psikeout · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 7:30 pm

Rock meanwhile gave the little baby-talking chao a narrow-eyed, distrustful look.

"Keep your fingers close," he cautioned gravely. "They look like balloons, but they got teeth that can gut a coconut the size of your head in six seconds flat."

He may well have been exaggerating (or willingly mistaking much more supple chao nuts for coconuts), but like most of his semi-truths, it was uttered with dire seriousness. The white primate turned and started walking back toward the cliff wall again.

"Let's see if we can't make our way up. I ain't spelunkin' in no mystery ghost-robot island cave."

And he still hadn't greeted or acknowledged poor Toby.

Diluss · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 8:00 pm

"Yeah, just before the Tornado crashed, it was picking up..." he trailed off and looked at the island, "it was picking up a looot of chaos energy. It was really weird though, it was like--"

The Tornado lurched again as more air escaped its metal skin. The plane began sinking into the water, slowly but visibly now.

"W-whoa! We gotta go. Hey, uh, Teck! You can swim, right? I can keep the both of us afloat if you have trouble, if Ace takes the emergency kit."

David · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 8:25 pm

The ball above the little chao’s head turned to a question mark as he watched the girl try to bait him in. “Ooh… Ooooowuh?” The little guy floated gently down to the ground, and smiled sweetly as he waddled over to Jam, nuzzling up to the girl’s hand.

Toby, meanwhile, was finding his legs again, and locked his now working eyes on the varmint that stopped him from seeing in the first place. He stretched his back and groaned, listening to the symphony of popping noises coming from his spine. “…Eesh.” Hands behind his head, the young rodent strolled his way over to the chao, along with his new company. “He’s not always sunshine and butterflies…” commented Toby to the pinker of the two. “…But, he is pretty handsome.” The boy grinned, and turned to Rock, and then glanced back at his board jutting out from the sand.

“I uh… I guess you guess saw that, huh?” He cringed and chuckled a bit, focusing back on Rock. “The name’s Toby. Toby Cotton.” Toby presented his hand to shake the white primate’s. “You guys are the first people I’ve seen on this little chunk of land so far. What brings you out here?”

psikeout · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 10:02 pm

Toby, polite as he tried to be, wasn't even really snubbed so much as he was just overlooked. Facing the cliff with focused attention, Rock started scaling just a second after the kangaroo rat extended his hand.

"What did you think you were gonna find out here—A skate park?" Rock asked incredulously as he ascended the stony face. Maybe it was stereotypical of a monkey to be a quick climber, but there was no escaping it—If there was a flat, steady space big enough for him to fit two fingertips on, he kept moving upward, and fast. When there wasn't, he pushed off and made a powerful leap upward, and found a place where there was. Within seconds, he had made it to a flat outcropping, where he twisted to a stop in a broad, low crouch, one leather-gloved palm on the ground, and looked down.

"I mean, you have noticed that there's, like... a war goin' on, right?"

David · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 11:09 pm

Toby blinked as his would-be new acquaintance took off up the side of the rocky crag. “…Huh.” Trotting off to grab his board out of the sand, the kangaroo rat twisted back around to face the monkey that was now above him.

“Well, no… I actually came here to investigate this weirdness for myself. I was scoping out the island when I ate it back there. I’ve got boarding in my veins, though…” Toby grinned from ear to ear. “When I’m riding, I can’t help having fun.” Toby’s eyes squinted up a bit as he eyed the cliff-side, mentally noting a few small ledges. “…Hold up one sec.”

Board in hand, Toby ran at the cliff, pushing off hard from the sand. The kangaroo rat looked like a flying pinball, shooting off from the ground high into the air, and then bounding from small protrusions on the rock’s surface. In no time, Toby was face to face with Rock again, landing squarely on the same flat as the stern simian.

“I would’ve been fine if he hadn’t decided to cover my eyes while I was riding.” Toby cast a glance at his small chao compatriot and shoved one hand deep in his pocket. “What are you guys doing out here, then?” His eyes drifted back to Rock.

“Oh, and I don’t think I caught your name.”

Mie · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:22 pm

Waving off Rock's advice as mere anti-critter bias, Jam was rather smitten with the little creature's apparent semi-sentience, and had a fair amount of catching up to do when the task at hand finally reclaimed her attention. With neither the efficacy or style of the previous two climbers, but a fair amount of grunting, the jam-colored primate pulled herself onto the rendezvous plateau just in time to catch the "pleased to meet you"s (or lack thereof, as was more likely the case with the notoriously stony simian.

"He's Rock," interceded the pinker of the pair, swatting the dirt from her gloves against her butt. "An' he's not normally this anti-social, but -- Well, actually, he is, but like 'e said; war and stuff."

She shrugged impassively in sort of what're you gonna do posturing, as if said catastrophe of the moment was little more than a losing round in Capture the Flag.

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:53 pm

"Not to worry, m'boy, I can swim," he answered primly, demonstrating his point with a sudden and rather erratic splash as he submerged himself and kept afloat by swishing his legs. As Ace and Tails spoke further, he gazed out in the distance toward the island to which they were to be en route. He had a terrible feeling about the hours ahead, and the potential weakness he'll exhibit upon arriving from all the swimming he was about to do wasn't a comforting thought.

"Shall we get going?

Take back the city (1-2)

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