(Ch. 6: Day ?)

Mie · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:34 pm

Eggmanland was a labyrinthine mess of industry that struggled with an identity crisis, torn between being a fortress and an amusement park. Deadly midway games (that no one patronized) intermittently dotted the sides of the thoroughfares, and were interspersed with robot charging stations, small animal tube transport system drop-off terminals, Eggbucks Coffee stands, and derelict Eggman Empire recruiting facilities. The decor attempted to be festive with garish caricatures and neon lights, but succeeded only in being an obnoxious love letter to the city's namesake.

It, along with the reasons prior, and many, many others, stood as perfectly valid aversions to the fortification/theme park for most organics. Normally. Today, at least three decided to tough it out.

Neighboring structures towered over and around a squatty, purple, circular building, with a gnarly tangle of tubes entering it from everywhich direction. The Captive Animal Renewable Energy Processing Facility was unassuming as far as other buildings in Eggmanland looked. It lacked the grandeur of something obviously important, but it didn't seem to bother any of the three hooligans inside, raucously trashing up the place.

An Egg Pawn, its optic sensors dripping with black paint, toppled over with a crash, revealing a large crater-like dent in its rear chassis that was about the size of two feet.

Lightly and lithely, with contrastingly little sound to her dismount, Tabitha King touched down behind the felled robot, immediately following a tight somersault. As she stood upright, she twirled two cylindrical cans of spray paint in her hands, and shoved them into the holsters at her sides.

Without hesitation, the cat sprang forward, darting up, and kicking off a wall, and then effortlessly bounding over a thick cluster of pipes in pursuit of her next quarry.

"So about my briefing," she called with no regard for how very much her voice carried in the resonant, concrete and metal chamber. "I may have been slightly misinformed about the CARE Processing Facility's security detail!"

searchindextag
chapter6search

Kazz · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:02 pm

"Y'don't say!" a more masculine voice called back in short order, though there was no hint of malice in his voice-- if anything, amusement dripped from his words. A moment later, this jovial tone was confirmed-- there was an impressive crash from somewhere out of sight, followed after a very brief pause by:

"That was fun! I mean, kinda hurt my foot, but was fun."

Pilot took a moment to admire his handiwork-- having dive-kicked an Egg Pawn off the side of the raised platform (on which the bat now stood), sending it rolling to the floor. He kicked off a moment later, his wings spreading to catch the air and beating almost leisurely, as he scanned his surroundings. While his first target was more (as he might put it) tin cans to beat up, he kept his eyes open for his compatriots.

"How you farin', Scout?"

Jahkari · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:27 pm

The immediate response to Pilot's question was a rather impressive clattering as another unfortunate Egg Pawn went careening into a wall, rather like a pinball propelled by a flipper. In this case, the flipper in question would be Scout's impressive tail, flung forcefully into the robot as she spun herself around. Dizzily ceasing her spin, she called out, "Pretty great, although I need to work on m'spottin'!"

Falling back onto her tail, she balanced on it to give herself some height to scout (ha ha) out her surroundings. "So we just gonna play some Egg Pawn Pinball for a while? 'Cause I'm kinda enjoyin' it. Who knew this bucket o'bolts could actually be- huh?"

Propelling herself onto her feet, she shrugged her backpack off, a rampant clickclickclickclick catching her attention. "Thought that was jus' the 'bots..." She muttered to herself as she tugged open the bag and fished around inside it. She retrieved from it a small rectangular device labeled Wild Labs and confirmed it to be the source of the noise. She tilted her head at it, then called out in no particular direction, "Uh, guys? Y'know that thingamabob we picked up, the CE detector? Well, it's kinda makin' a right racket!"

Mie · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:52 pm

"Hm?"

The sunshine-colored sandcat made a small noise of interest appropriate for thumbing through magazines as she slid between the legs of yet another walking trash can, popped up onto her grippy, gloved palms, and double mule kicked the already sparking, clanking, graffitied 'bot, and sent it stumbling forward onto its face. It twitched some, but didn't get up.

"Oh, the thing!" recalled the feline with a breathy gasp. She bounded toward the lemur in a blurring dash, and leaned around a beefy-looking conduit of dubious purpose in order to try and leer at the device over Scout's shoulder.

"Mmmmifthat'sright, there's major CE mojo in the immediate vicinity, but..."

The blonde sighed, and put her hands on her hips, her teeth worrying her lower lip as she shook her head.

"We never did figure out if that thing isn't like, broken or something. I mean, it was all but thrown out, so I dunno if we should spend all day lookin' for it, y'know?"

Kazz · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:06 pm

Pilot's ears pricked up, giving him a general idea of where Tabby and Scout had convened, and was just in time to catch the end of Tabby's remark. "Can't hurt to try to see if it's around, I don't think," Pilot offered, landing alongside his two compatriots.

"I mean-- if it's not broken, and the source's in the area, then we've got something interesting." He shrugged, splaying out his hands palm-up as though weighing two objects in them. "If it is broken, then we got to bust up some Eggman property in the process anyway. I'd be cool with that." He paused, looking around the little group, as though looking for any sign of what, if anything, was setting the sensor off.

"Though I ain't got a clue what to look for," he admitted after a second. "Glowing or somethin'?"

Jahkari · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:29 am

Scout eyed the device, tapping her tail lightly. "I'm with Pi, honestly. Can't hurt to poke 'round, never know what y'might find, even if it's just more stuff to break." She didn't take her eyes off the detector. "But if we're worried 'bout it bein' accurate, I could try tinkering with it? Problem is I dunno if I'll do more harm than good, so we're either gonna have to take it on faith this thing is workin' or we're gonna risk me botchin' it all up and runnin' on memory and it maybe bein' in here. My money's on it bein' a least somewhat accurate, though, as it just started this whole howlin' when we came in here- it wasn't doin' it earlier or I'd have smashed it already." She shrugged, magenta eyes still scanning the device, as if just by looking at it she could discern what, if anything, was wrong with it.

Mie · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:01 am

"Oh, I'm not opposed to finding it!" Tabby was quick to clarify, from atop one of the many large, squatty metal canisters (for want of a better term), that she'd mounted via a pull-up on a sugar rush. She landed lightly next to the big, obvious, yellow button acting as its cherry on top.

"No, no, no," she continued with a grunt, as she threw all of her weight onto the release mechanism. "I'm a huge fan of taking omnipotent shinies of mass destruction away from evil dictators."

The button remained obstinately un-depressed; smugly happy, even. The cat paused for a moment, narrowing her eyes at the switch beneath her feet, as she trampolined on it a couple of times to no effect.

"What I'm -- hngh! -- saying is, if we can nab it while taking care of the mission objective, -- stubborn! -- or without too much additional time spent, rock on, but we shouldn't pitch a tent, or anything, y'know? I mean, I like bowling for Egg Pawns as much as the next girl, but eventually, -- Tch, this one must be stuck."

With a shake of her head, the girl, mildly frustrated, kicked straight off the first canister, and onto a second, stomping the switch with a single foot, and a satisfied smirk. Amid a chorus of rapid, heavy-duty popping noises, the floor flooded with scurrying critters.

"We're gonna pull something bigger."

Kazz · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:22 pm

Pilot nodded, adjusting his glasses. "What she said," he said, jerking a thumb at Tabitha. "I guess you can only bust up so many of the same robot before it gets-- whoa!" The bat was almost pushed off-balance by the sudden rush of tiny animals around his feet, and instinctively, he jumped up (only a few feet), beating his wings to keep himself aloft.

The corner of his mouth pulled into a contemplative expression, looking at the capsule that the cat couldn't manage to break open. "... one second."

Pilot dropped to the ground again, and then immediately kicked back up, leaping several times his own height before spreading his wings. He continued to rise for a short while, positioning himself over the switch, before calling down with hands cupped over his mouth:
"Clear the vicinity!"

And with that, he suddenly let his wings drop out, dropping his entire weight into his feet to slam down on the stuck yellow switch. He proceeded to almost fall off when he hit it, but the dive-bomb stomp served its purpose-- with a bit of creaking and a groaning, the plunger was pushed down.

Jahkari · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:18 pm

"Y'all tryin' to drown me?!" The lemur cried in dismay as tiny creatures washed past her in their mad dash to be free. Glancing around rapidly for higher ground as she tucked the detector back into her pack to free up her hands, she spotted a nearby ledge and propelled herself to it using her tail as a makeshift springboard.

Once situated on that oh-so-useful ledge, she sighed, then rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Now how'd it end up where I'm the only one what can't leap giant thingamabobs in a single bound? I gotta fix that sooner or later."

Now that her hands were no longer needed to haul her up to safety she once more retrieved the detector, turning it around in her hands. She eyed the remaining capsuls to be broken, then returned her attention to the dector. "Tell ya what. I'm givin' myself about five minutes to play with this thing, and if that don't work I'll rejoin the bashin' party- you two seem like y'got it under control for now and, well, I can't not."

Tugging her toolkit out of her backpack, she grinned with anticipation at the detector as the chaos continued around her. Part of her was sad to be missing the destruction, and she knew somewhere the kids she used to babysit were disappointed in her, but tinkering.

Person Vs Badger · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:22 pm

The second (or first, depending on your perspective) canister was a serious disappointment, if an observer was banking on a flood of wildlife as its fellow had just provided. Rather, the open capsule dislodged -something- in a dark blur, that managed to launch a short distance before performing a reasonably impressive face plant.

Mike had exactly one thing to say about his present situation, and he spat it out the moment his muzzle disconnected from the floor:

"What."

It wasn't exactly a question.

Today seemed like it had eagerly been awaiting his presence from the week before, so that it could then proceed to be everything that solitude and a few days' atrocious camping could not be for his psyche. It had already succeeded in getting him abducted by robots, stuffed in a canister, and then bodily removed from said canister in such a way that he could not, from this angle, tell if this was an improvement on his situation or not. The fact that his nose was already throbbing from the sudden meeting with the floor didn't help, but it certainly helped the present happenings fit in with what had already transpired.

Kazz · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:56 am

Pilot jumped a good deal when the container opened, and he stumbled as he tried to keep his place on top of the now-opened capsule. Once he stabilized himself, he crouched, putting his elbows on his knees and resting his cheek on one palm, looking at the flung-out form.

"Well, gonna take a wild guess and say that that's not what's makin' the sensor go off," he remarked to Scout and Tabby. "Pretty big fella for a small animal, though," he added dryly.

Mie · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:11 pm

It was... actually a little embarrassing how long Tabby stood there on top of capsule number three, just... staring, as if she couldn't have been sure of what she was seeing. Then, after the briefest of individual punctuating blinks exchanged with her compatriots, the sandcat practically started into action.

"Oh!"

She dropped liquidly to her tail, and slid down the curved side of the canister, using her legs to launch herself laterally from its side once nearish to the ground, which she hit at an unnecessary sprint.

"'s not a small animal," Tabby uttered, jovially chiding, as she skid to a stop next to Mike, and hooked an arm under the weaseline youth's shoulder, heaving him upright.

"'Least I don't think. Um, hey! Are you alright? Let's get you off the floor, huh?"

Jahkari · Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:24 am

The lemur's eyes flicked up from her frantic tinkering as Mike exploded forth. The bizarreness of what she was seeing made her cease her antics (but not before carefully replacing all necessary parts) and hop off the ledge to the ground.

She ambled her way over to Tabby and Mike, head tilted curiously. "Well, you ain't what we were expectin', now are you? How'd y'get in there, anyway? You definitely ain't a little bunny."

Scout then glanced back at her pet project, the detector, and what she saw elicited a head tilt in the other direction and wider eyes. "Well, that ain't what I was expecting either." Holding it up so the others could see she announced, "I either fixed it or broke it more, but as it stands now that energy source is moving in our general- nope, definitely decidedly in our direction." Eyeing the screen once more for confirmation she nodded firmly, "Yep, uh, supposedly its right among us."

Under her breath, she added, "Pretty sure I didn't muck it up..."

Seafarinhare · Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:48 am

It would seem that she was indeed reading it right, but only moments after she stated that, the skylight above them suddenly exploded into a rain of broken glass with a loud crash.

The culprit? A rather large robot, armed to the teeth. If they didn't get out of the way, it was liable to flatten any one of them with it's landing. The floor under it buckled and cracked. The design looked similar to GUN's own walkers, but this one had arms. It's right arm was a limb with what looked like a cannon attached to it. The other had a three-pronged vice for a hand. If that wasn't enough, there was also a large shoulder-mounted cannon.

The whereabouts of the pilot was fairly obvious, since the cockpit canopy was clearly marked. The canopy itself was tinted, however and made it impossible to see said pilot. As if it even needed to be said, the paint job was Eggman's favorite colors as well. Red, yellow and black, with his obnoxious logo emblazoned on the robot's chassis.

Kazz · Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 2:16 am

"Is he oka-- oh geeze," Pilot blurted out, cut off mid-sentence by the... arrival. His facial expression pulling into a grimace with grit teeth. He leapt off of and backwards from his perch on the capsule (and thus away from the landing point of the robot), holding his spot in the air cautiously. "I didn't sign up for this caliber of walkin' tin-can, I just thought we'd be kickin' some pawns around," he remarked, and looked to Mike, Tabby, and Scout.

"And now I'm gonna wager a guess and say THAT'S the source!"

(Ch. 6: Day ?)

Who is online