(OOC: JohnGreens collab)

"..." Tails opened his mouth, and then turned and stared at the object in his hands.

"I don't know," he said with intense deliberation. He turned the object over in his hands and looked at the other side.

It was a rather dingy yellow--part of an old nose cap from a Blastoid--and covered with myriad, scribbling rust patches, and tangles of seaweed which tangled across metal piece and made it look even more decrepit than it obviously was.

Or was it.

Tails stared intently at the ancient piece of machinery, and then flipped it over again and looked at the gleaming, crystalline conglomerate-covered interior, totally free of any kind of corrosion or damage at all.

"This doesn't look like something Dr. Eggman's made..." he said half to himself, "Look, there are all these... crystals, inside." He held the gleaming, polished interior up for Knuckles to see.

The interior of the piece had been covered with a strange plastic polymer, and set into this polymer, and mixed inside it--so much so that it almost seemed to be its own substance, instead of a combination of two separate materials--thousands of tiny crystalline fragments gleamed, their millions of facets gleaming in the sun.

"Wait," interrupted the echidna. "This... isn't like the Master Emerald." He squinted his eyes and held the bizarre thing closer, as if looking sternly enough at it would get it to reveal its secrets to him.

"But it's incredibly similar... Just," he paused, looking for the right word to describe it before finally settling on "Off." Knuckles was entirely perplexed, and for once, actually interested in one of Tails' technological experimentations. He'd spent as long as he could remember protecting that glowing rock, but he'd never encountered an energy this close to it. The very fact that something so similar to something so holy could exist was a conundrum in itself.

But his thoughts were quickly cut off by an interruption. Or rather, two.

He didn't say a word to the monkey or his apparent feline friend, but merely shot them a slightly cold, semi-suspicious glance... still being in his suspicious frame of mind.

"You could say that," the crow said in reply to Jam.

He picked up the mean, somewhat wild-looking rifle off the table and loaded a cell into it, studying its exterior afterward.

Elegant Joe and Tally stepped into the room at that point; both offered curt, if distant nods to the two not wearing a uniform. Joe was armed with the same rifle Cross had, but the raccoon had no such new toy to play with for some reason; the mirthless gaze she and the Major shared when she handed him a report seemed to drop the room's temperature a good couple of degrees.

Cross looked over the paper for a few seconds--it was just a report of the military's functional status, but he'd wanted to know anyway. He crumpled it up and tossed it in a small child's garbage pail nearby. Joe handed him a small plastic carrying case while Tally stepped closer to the two cribs in the corner. She looked a little disappointed when she saw they were empty, but it had been expected.

"They probably are off snooping around for something to beat up," he eventually said; at the same time he opened the case, began removing sizable grenades from it and hooked them to his belt, "but I wouldn't take any strolls outside until you're in the mood to kick ass. Our new friends will be back, and I don't take kindly to armies of robots getting the bright idea they can have a nuclear fiesta in my country. Me and my team are getting out of this castle in a little while and we're going to throw them another welcoming party."

*************

Velo strolled alongside casually, lending as much as an ear as he could handle to the funny porcupine guy. He seemed to like talking, and for a few moments it might have been a wonder if the basilisk lizard was one of those guys who listened much better than he blabbered, but pretty soon, when there was room for an openingohgodhereitcomes.

"Oh man, you got that, people here can have their heads so far up their butts that lump in their throat is their nose, 'specially the military man they're all hardcase-toughguy-bigshot-bossman-chiefo-pepto-cheesehead-boyscouts, 'specially when you go wanderin' onto property that I guess they own or somethin' and you ain't supposed to be there and if you are there it's like a class eleven felony or somethin' I dunno, 'cause this one time I was out for a walk it was a really nice night and I guess I started walkin' onto that air force base they got over in Spring City and these guys came by and the guy in charge, this crow dude, real douchebag, he was all holy balls what in sam hell are you doing here you blahdeebloh, and these MPs started runnin' over to me and there was sirens goin' off like there was an air raid or somethin' and these spotlights started shinin' all over the place, 'course it was like two in the mornin' so maybe they was wondering what I was doin' out for a jog at that time but I tell you what it's awful nice outside when there ain't nobody else to bother you, 'cept this one time this guy came up behind me and tried to stab me and take all my money and I was like hey what are you doin' and he went runnin' off and I went after him 'cause I thought he needed money or somethin' and you know I'm a real givin' sorta guy so I caught him and gave him a couple dollars after I whipped his ass a little."

He seemed done. Maybe.

Cross nodded for a second. Come to think of it, most of them hadn't eaten much in the last twenty-four hours. They could handle it, but civilians weren't used to that sort of thing, or so he figured. He glanced at the Capsule Trooper. "Joe." He juked his head a little toward Jam.

Elegant Joe knew immediately what the message was. "I'm not a waiter, Major."

"I know, but play nice." There was zero joviality in the crow's voice. "It's for a girl."

"Well, okay." Joe had given up any thoughts of getting her number (the guy she seemed to hang out with a lot looked like he could twist the robot's head off with two fingers), but it couldn't hurt to do favors. Maybe if they broke up sometime... "Tally-ho, come with me."

"Why?"

"'Cause the kitchen is a battlefield and you've got all the expertise there."

Tally started to reach for her plasma pistol. This sent the robot off on his way very quickly.

Cross watched him go, then looked back to the monkey. The expression on his face was a little different this time--curious, or contemplative. Maybe. The thing that made it peculiar, though, was the sudden hint of... was it suspicion? His eyes were once again polar and it was clear they'd seen him about as friendly as he'd probably ever get.

"What's the story behind you and your friend, anyway?" he asked. "Not many civilians who aren't named Sonic the Hedgehog will jump into a fight the way you two did."

*************

Velo just kind of leaned his head back and stared slightly open-mouthed as Teck explained, and explained... and explained. It seemed the reptile was only good at listening to one person talk, and that was himself. In fact he looked like he barely understood anything the guy was saying, except for words he knew, like the and, well... and.

But he shrugged when the guy was done, and his smile slowly started to grow in proportions. In addition to only listening himself talk, Velo also enjoyed talking about... himself, and especially his own athleticism. "Wellllll," he drawled slowly, "I don't wanna brag, I don't wanna boast, but..."

He paused for effect, all smooth-like.

"I play some sports now and then, and, ah..."

...

"I guess I'm pretty good, 'cause I can't go anywhere without people askin' for my signature. Y'know?"

Two people walked past them without asking for it while he was talking. "I reckon that's how the shoe fits when you're a winner. Yep. It's a hard life, I'll tell you. This town, they don't let you off easy. You'll get scratches 'n' bruises, but if you can give 'em a winner, they'll cheer you. And they cheer me. Fans don't boo nobodies, y'know."

"Aren't you... Rick Wilder? Don't you play for the Conquistadors?"

"Why, yes, sir, that would be me."

"You guys suck." The man walked off.

"I'm sure he was just kiddin'. The people, they love me here. I'm all about the little man. The poor folks, the little kids. 'Cause, y'know, I was little once. I represent both the underdog and the overdog in our society."

A few minutes had passed since he'd stopped in front of the carved marble sheltered entryway to a building upon noticing the flicking light of a partially damaged soda machine at the top of it's stairway. He'd spent a few minutes attempting to gain access to a snack machine only to give up due to it being face down and several hundred pounds of rubble from the overhanging ceiling, portions of which also happened to blocking entrance deeper into the building. “Feh..”

Leaning against the downed vending machine he took a few moments to ponder as to what to do next as he drummed his fingers across his board, having placed it against the vending machine earlier prior to attempts at accessing the downed snack machines contents. A few minutes passed before the faint sounds of voices of the basilisk and porcupine in the distance came to his attention, and in response, pushed himself to his feet away from the machine and proceeded back down the entryways marbled stairs to investigate.

( Here's a visual reference of the entryway for what it's worth.. Not exactly in a focused writing mood tonight, Not sure why, So my apologizes if the this posts kind of cruddy. http://www.ouramsterdamholidays.com/images/post_office_entrance.jpg )

Her explanation failed to jostle Cross' somewhat leery look, rather, it seemed to only add substance to it. A military man didn't get to a position of authority without having to swim through a lot of BS, so he was quite familiar with it, but that didn't mean he liked getting it. He ultimately found her attempt at side-stepping through the question poor.

"In other words, you're just a couple of thrillseekers looking for something to do." The look on his face faded into one that was relatively blank, as if the information he'd just been given satisfied him... which might have made what he said next a little unexpected. "I didn't know the chief of national security knew anyone like that."

He didn't mean for the discussion to sound like an interrogation, but he smelled something funny on this girl and it wasn't bananas.

*************

There was a second of silence from the lizard at the I've never heard of you comment, but other than the frickin' foreigners look on his face for a second, he seemed jovial enough. Velo eventually turned to look at the aforementioned stop sign. He considered the challenge for a second, then waved his hand while Teck started his countdown. "Mmm, I don't wanna make anybody, y'know... look bad, or nothin'wellokay."

And off he went. Yes, Teck had just poked Velo right in one of his weaknesses: any chance to look cool, he'd take it, even if the challenge was offered by a perfect stranger who he'd known for all of two or three minutes. He literally churned up the sidewalk behind him as he thundered off at about mach eleven, possibly with his legs on fire.

There was the question of how to actually slow down fast enough once he reached the sign in order to get back to Teck within five seconds. Apparently, Velo's thought process was jump sideways onto sign and launch off it back at funny orange scientist or something. That was the plan in theory; in actual motion it was jump sideways onto sign way too fast and rip it out of the concrete and go crashing into the road and possibly hit a baby carriage. "H'WOAHSH*T--"

It looked like a pretty painful wipeout, but he'd endured worse, so he'd be okay, probably. Besides, could you really damage a head like that when there wasn't much to damage to begin with?