Put on (Ch. 2: Day 11, pt. II)

psikeout · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:56 pm

Sparks were spewing, shots were flying, crystal was being slung, drones were crashing, and there was generally a lot going down in that tunnel. It was such that Rock only really looked forward again just in time to yell something very important:

"Closed door ahead!"

The several-foot-raised door where the tram would have normally parked was shut tight and growing ever larger before their eyes as they raced toward it. Rock, though remarkably stable thus far, pressed his luck too much with all his looking back and forth, and lost his balance. He did the very best he could to turn a clumsy fall into a deliberate, jumping dismount, but there was apparently a cap on how many smooth things he could pull off in succession.

In other words, he landed on the floor with unavoidably bad timing, caught his foot on a cable of some kind, tripped at high speed, rolled and banged and flipped and flopped and skidded all about, and finally popped back up in an uncomfortable-looking limping sprint the rest of the way. Fortunately, when raggedly trotted to a stop at the door, it looked like everything that had been chasing them was... done for.

It was a good thing. The end of his gun's barrel just faintly looked like it was on the verge of glowing orange. One leg half bent, his empty hand clutching his side, and his face grimacing, the heavily-breathing primate looked like he was equally burned out. (Between the match the previous night, the fight with Coop a couple days prior, all the training, and this last stint, he had suffered a lot of fatigue and damage.)

"We'll need to get this open," he rasped, laying a hand on its raised concrete threshold to brace himself for a second.

Rouge · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:11 am

The destruction of the final wave of robots had left the hub room empty, but only for a few moments. A grill in the ceiling burst out with a clang, and who should drop through but everyone's possibly most-least-favourite bat.

Rouge looked around at the closed doors from the center of the now empty room. She ran her fingers through the bottom fringe of her hair, and smiled.

"Mmmm-hm!"

She heel-turned to face the last non-tram doorway that was left unblocked—toward where the group had previously come from.

"You can come out now," she added, and with a touch of sing-song, "it's sa-aafe."

Diluss · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:25 am

After a long, long silence, Coop appeared in the doorway.

He scowled.

"What do you want?"

Sheff · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:36 am

"There's always a door..." muttered Sheffer as he came a to a stop behind Rock, placing his hands on his hips for a moment as he closed his eyes, leaning back as he took in panted breaths. Just like the monkey, he too was feeling not only the physical tasks of that single day but from the whole week, needing a moment to recuperate.

After a few seconds of this, he rolled his shoulders, taking a few steps back from the door.

"Alright. Got this one," he said like it was casual business, taking a deep breath. "Might want to back off a bit."

This would be round three of door versus hedgehog since his first beginnings of tromping around the globe, and it was almost becoming a mundane task. The steps were obvious by now. His body became covered in crystal in only a few seconds (fortunately he wasn't in a rush this time), beginning to crouch. A crouch turned into a roll, a roll into a spin, and before they knew it, he zipped forward, smashing into the door with considerable force.

There was a drawn out moment where the door creaked in some, metal crumpling inward until suddenly he bounced back, halting his rotating and landing with a heavy clump on the floor, examining his process. The door was sturdy, that was for sure, but upon closer observation, he could see that his sabotage at least gave them a sizable gap on one side where they could maybe all slip through.

A considerable pile of crystal would once again be found lying around as Sheffer walked forward to inspect the damage.

"Must be something important back here," he said to no one in particular as he began to squeeze through the crudely made opening. "Been breaking our backs to make it this far."

Rouge · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:41 am

"That's a nice way to say thank you," Rouge huffed, "considering I just broke you out."

Mie · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:04 am

As opposed to her running and gunning teammates, Jam's to-do list for the moment was comparatively short. So although lacking in the cool factor the rest of her squad indulged in (some more than others), the reddest runner was unfettered by counter-offensive objectives, and was thus free to do one thing, and do it well: She ran.

Zig-zagging, erratic, free-running paths around, over, and under obstructions drew plenty hostile attention that never came to fruition, inadvertently providing many a distracting window of opportunity, unbeknownst to the slippery simian.

With convenient timing, the last of their enemies met its grisly fate, the road ended, and the parties converged again; Jam coasted to an understated stop nearby Rock, who received a brief look of pained concern, before all attention went to what felt like the penultimate obstacle.

For reasons she couldn't quite grasp, she had an unshakable feeling that whatever they were looking for was beyond that door. Her curiosity besting her, she was among the first to shimmy inside after Sheffer, wondering with muddled trepidation what metaphoric Ark of the Covenant they'd challenged an army over...

Greens · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:58 am

Lastly, the serval came with his dash deliberately slowed into a jog, and his jog to a standstill. Alas, sprinting was not his forte, so there were just a couple of deep breaths for him to breathe before he finished it off with a clearing of his throat.

"Eahh, well, there's my workout for the day."

While the hedgehog went to work, he took a step to the monkey... the one that took the nasty, rough-and-tumble fall along the tunnel... and patted a friendly (but gentle, so as not to aggravate any injuries) palm on his dusty jacket shoulder. "Hey," he rasped. "You okay?"

NPC · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:00 am

Rock had taken a few steps away along with Jam, and turned his back on the door to give Sheffer room to work without risking any shrapnel in the eye. (He was pretty sure it paid off when he felt bits of stray concrete from the base of the door hit his back.) Ace's words were met with... an uncertain look at first, but then a genuine nod. "I'm good," he stated. "... Good as I'm gonna be." With a stretch and a pop of his back, he sighed, adjusted his grip on his gun, and proceeded through, but not before nodding in a kind of silent thanks.

The grey metal corridor beyond looked... different than the other grey metal corridors they had been crawling. Not as contrived as it sounds—there was significantly different architecture in play. Lighting wasn't bright, but was better, more natural, and most importantly, not red. The alert sirens that had been wailing behind them were out of earshot. Everything was... placid. Lit signs indicated various laboratories, each with their own unique number. A smoldering electronic stink lingered in the air.

Rock held a finger up to signal silence and began to creep quickly forward. His injuries were well masked in his movements, which again looked steady and unaffected. A red light shone from a doorway on the left; he slipped up to it to hazard a peek around the corner, gun at ready.

A pair of heavily shielded, airlock-like doors sat moderately ajar, occasionally jittering and twitching with quiet hum and buzz, as if malfunctioning. Beyond, everything in the lab was in shambles, from floors to workbenches to walls, shelves, and ceilings, all pockmarked by gunfire and littered with machine scrap.

"Obvious struggle," Rock observed. "No human casualties..."

He stepped up to a workbench and looked around.

"No evidence of any sapient presence in the first place," he remarked. "No computer consoles or monitors, no chairs... Tracks set in the floor." He lowered his gun to his side and knelt to inspect the remains of an unarmored robot, which seemed like it may have had a base that fit in the tracks. "Automated lab, maybe?..."

NPC · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:21 am

Something on the other side of a large rack of computer equipment across the room made a crunch noise, followed by a sharp, choked inhalation, as if someone who didn't want to be found had just stepped on broken glass.

Greens · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:42 pm

Ace followed the monkey close behind, ever at watch for anything trying to sneak up on them. (Something that just seemed to be waiting to happen in an environment like this. Good thing they all weren't wearing full body army uniforms, or they'd really be screwed) "Anyone's guess, now," offered the serval in a low whisper. "Could've--"

Crnch.

He spared not half a second locking his eyes in the direction of whatever made that sound. Quick drawing his handgun in what was obviously a practiced exercise he slid his way up to the rack with just three long, loping steps. He wheeled the weight of the pistol upward with the both of his gloved hands. Whatever lay in wait might not recognize the threat of some glowing playing cards, but the fear-driving power of a gun was universal.

"Hold it!"

psikeout · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:51 pm

Rock moved in synchronization with Ace, but at greater distance (all the better to cover you with, grandma, as the fairy tale would have said if it was about CQB). Sidestep, sidestep, sidestep he went, moving in a wide arc until he jumped around the corner at the same time as Ace, except from about 10 feet behind. He was gonna be there in case the target tried to get the jump on the cat.

NPC · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:02 pm

On the other side of the rack, Ace found...

"HGGAAHHHCHOP"

A big, bony hand came down in a classic judo chop straight at Ace's gun-holding-hand. It really wasn't enough to disarm him effectively, but it could easily succeed in knocking the cat's aim away so that the large man could effectively lunge forward and belly-bump him back with extreme prejudice.

Yes. A gangly man with a big stomach wearing an orange prison jumpsuit had just jumped out and belly-rammed Ace while assuming a wild, Charlie's-Angels-esque combat pose with a crudely-fashioned makeshift armament that looked like the arm of a Hunter with an exposed Chaos Drive wired and duct-taped to it. It was Dr. Eggman.

He froze; his mustache (which had been augmented with an equally prickly-looking scraggle-beard) twitched and his brows furrowed behind his dark little spectacles. His bald head was shiny with tension sweat.

"What are you brats doing here?" asked the in his usual rattly, grating, would-make-infants-cry voice.

Mie · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:31 pm

With the atmospheric tension so dense, it could have been cut with a knife, their surprise mystery guest's little outburst elicited an near-simultaneous "Aaah!" from the pinkest party member. Scrambling to salvage her ego, her clumsy, almost-butt-plant recovered itself into a passable flail of alarm.

With an incriminating "I hope no one saw that" expression, Jam straightened with an uncharacteristic rigidity, and a brusque clearing of her throat. She set one hand on her hip, and rather conspicuously rested the other on her holstered gun.

"You first, tubby," enunciated the monkey crassly, possibly as a means to gloss over her momentary blip of not-very-cool. "We're the ones that found you squatting in a lab's been shot to hell, hiding behind a rolling rack with a robot arm."

NPC · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:43 pm

Eggman cast a glare of irritation upon Jam, then raised his nose in indignation. "I carry my weight very well," he contradicted childishly. He puffed some air out his nose. "If today's young ladies like you were more accepting of your own figures, perhaps you wouldn't go around trying to say such hurtful things," he observed calmly, surely referencing her apparent size, which looked... much... greater in her uniform.

Mie · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:52 pm

This was stupid. Jam knew that she had the upper hand, here, but found it very hard to fight the overwhelming urge to respond with something very mature, and likely akin to, "Shut up, I'm usually pretty hot."

It aided her cause greatly to remember where they were, and the life-threatening situation they'd just escaped from. Thus, she maintained civility. Breathing in deeply through her nose, she drummed her fingers emphatically against the grip of her gun, and very deliberately replied through clenched teeth, "You avoid the question, doctor."

Put on (Ch. 2: Day 11, pt. II)

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