Introduction - Get It Together (1-1)

Greens · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:25 pm

"Ah, hell," Ace muttered. He wasn't thrilled at the prospect of becoming a replacement babysitter, but he figured he deserved it after sending Rock to make nice with the Master Emerald guardian. "Fine," he concluded, already taking off. "But you save my place on the phone!" Nevermind that there was probably nobody in line.

Although it was probably a good thing the monkey sent Ace looking for him-- it took some keen eyesight to follow the Tails' trail. He couldn't help but wonder how such a portly kid with such stubby legs could move so damn fast, but that's probably how it had to be, if you wanted to be Sonic's best buddy.

"HEY! Hold up!"

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:43 pm

The call echoed from behind Tails. He stopped, braking with his heels and throwing up a broad fan of sludge as his feet plowed a trough into the muddy soup.

He turned around, to see the Alley cat approaching in the distance.

Greens · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:47 pm

"The Tornado's your plane, right!?" he called, pointing... a bit off to the side.

"'Cause it was over there!"

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 3:42 pm

Tails looked in the direction that the cat was pointing. He couldn't see anything except for... palm... trees...

Yes he could. A red tail cut through the battered foliage, clawing at the sky awkwardly like a three-fingered red giant.

"Ohhhhhnnnoooooooooooooooo!" He clutched at his head, and began running headlong over to where the wreck was visible.

"Ohno-ohno-ohno-ohnooooo."

The Tornado lay very nearly upside-down, it's tail toppled over-top of two palm trees that had buckled under the weight, so that the whole upside-down contraption stuck up towards the sky at a very nearly 45-degree angle. Its nose had been shoved down into the ankle-deep soup so hard that the front of the whole plane was rooted almost irrevocably in the mud. The wings were bent, and the cross-pieces on the right wing had been snapped off of the top wing--ripped out at the rivets. The whole thing lay in a mass of buckles and stress-lines, upside-down in the marine bog.

Tails ran around the plane from break-point to break-point, clutching at his face and making incomprehensible grunts and sighs before he finally came to rest at the nose, where he gaze in unremitting mournfulness at the half of the battered and mangled propeller that protruded above the muck and sludge.

"Awwwwww maannnnnnn...." he breathed.

psikeout · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:00 pm

Rock didn't spend long on the phone at all. Whatever it had been about, it was brief, because he caught up with them back at the beach in no time.

His jog puttered out to a trudge across the gloppy, marshy sand. His boots sank deeply, but anyone could tell by looking at the brown-stained, soaked jacket hanging over his shoulder, and the marks of dirt, grease, and everything else all over him that vanity was a concern long left at the wayside that day. Getting messy was an inevitability.

"Hey, it actually looks pretty well off, all things considered," he remarked as he came to a stop next to the machine, and laid a hand on its fuselage. "Must be built like a tank."

There was the slightest "creak" as his dirty glove touched it, however; without any further warning, the entire plane proceeded to groan and sliiiide downward against its palm tree braces, and—*Splobt*— flop pathetically into the gunky earth, completely, helplessly, hopelessly upside-down.

"..."

His guilty hand was held frozen in place in front of him for several seconds after the event, before he lowered it and quietly tucked it behind the small of his back.

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:13 pm

"AHH!" Tails leapt back as the front of the plane heaved and tilted as it was levered against the sink-hole the nose had dug itself into. There was a tremendous sucking sound, like the plug being pulled out of a sewer system, and then the Tornado sank even further down into the mire.

The last few pathetically flatulent noises died away as the powers of suction began to take hold on the plane's upper (now lower) wings.

Tails stood there, frozen, standing like an imploring gargoyle bemoaning its fate in the walls of hell. His eyes were bugged, slightly. After a while, his little finger twitched.

Then he went limp, and slumped forward, still looking up in disbelief.

"Ghhgh..."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:29 pm

Though he didn't blame himself for that last bit of insult to injury any more than a soft breeze that could've easily done the same thing, he still felt pretty bad for the kid.

"... You weren't intending on flyin' this thing into that fog, anyway, were you?" asked Rock tepidly, as if circumstances were almost better with the plane wrecked where it was, rather than the potentially disastrous alternative.

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:57 pm

"Huh? N-no," Tails' voice was beginning to quaver, "I was just thinking that..." his voice trailed off, he looked at Rock, "Do you think we could?"

psikeout · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:23 pm

Outlook not so good was the expression Tails got in response, as the monkey looked out to sea (or out to fog, rather), the corners of his mouth downturned, and a brow raised.

"It's zero visibility in there. If there is something out there, you... probably wouldn't know it until you ran into it, or it shot you down."

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:43 pm

Tails brightened up momentarily.

"Actually, the Tornado is fitted with a long-range radar package that..."

His face fell again.

"It... was..."

He ran over to part of the tornado's side, where a perforated plate had buckled and torn away. He peered inside--just inside the cavern of the chassis, just visible were the words.

ARWARE-MISTAR™
SAFECONNICS®
HRSAR W-Band
CSOA mod
serial number:
1031405589213
model...

Before disappearing into darkness somewhere beyond a metal brace.

Tails pulled at a bundle of wires, and craned his head so he could see beyond the tightly strapped cords. What was visible of the plastic container seemed crack-free and relatively undamaged compared to the outside of the plane.

"Whew... that looks okay, at least..."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:00 pm

Rock fumbled around in his pocket for his keyring as he leaned over the little mechanic. Fortunately, his little cheapo LED flashlight still worked, and enabled him to shed a little light inside.

"..."

Insert quirked brow.

"This is... military-grade hardware. Like, bleeding-edge."

He blinked very deliberately, but maintained a completely neutral face as he stepped back and reevaluated the craft.

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:10 pm

"Really?" Tails asked from his vantage point, dangling awkwardly with his armpits hooked over the hole in the side of the plane. He scrubbed at his eyes awkwardly with one hand and sniffed.

He pushed away from the fuselage and dropped down.

"I got it from one of the pods on the Egg Cruiser after it went down. It broke..." he sighed, "It broke up over a mountain, so there was a lot of intact debris left over, higher up. It... wasn't too hard to hook up, but I had to write the firm-ware again so it'd work with the Tornado's computer; there--" he giggled, half-heartedly, "There wasn't much documentation for the original API."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:32 pm

His mouth twisted off to one side, and he crossed his arms. He had no reason to doubt what a celebrity hero goodguy like Tails would say, but something was still very wrong about military hardware popping up in Eggman equipment. Or, perhaps it was a matter of Eggman hardware appearing in military equipment.

Mental note: Investigate "Arware-Mistar" after this is over.

"So, high-res radar equipment..."

No doubt, the military had done a sweep already. He didn't hold them in too high of regard anymore even with Rekk in charge—Too much "GUN" influence and involvement increasing over the years. The idea of getting a peek for himself was too enticing.

"If you think you could make it through a flyover and find what's in the mist, then me and some friends could be landin' there by tonight, and gettin' this garbage over and done with."

Rusty · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:34 pm

Satisfied with his accomplishment (at least one of them had taken the ugly old thing so the journey hadn't been a total loss), Elegant Joe stepped over to one of Cross' goodybags and began to rifle through it. He brought out something and started to hook it to his belt, until the adjacent crow grabbed his wrist and wrested the object from his hand.

"What--" blurted the robot, unsure whether to be shocked or annoyed.

"You don't get frags," said Cross.

"Not since the accident," Tally added.

"D'ooorrgghh," growled Joe under his breath angrily.

----------

Velo turned his head to look over his shoulder at whatever the funny porcupine dude--uh... the dude said his name was... Tack? Tock? Tick? Tinker? Tinkle? Something like that. Velo looked at whatever the orange guy was focused on.

"Huh," he said, having no idea what to make of the distant sight. If he'd heard the utterly horrendous noise that was a tsunami from hell, he failed to make it at all obvious. He... had the tendency to do that. "Reckon the fire department musta blown up a hydrant or somethin'," he said, watching a small car roll along in the new lake that had been the street some ways away. "Oh well, always wondered what it would be like to surf inside a city."

He reached into his... something(???), and... pulled out a pair of truly obnoxious, glittery sunglasses tinted pink and shaped like five-pointed stars before slipping them onto his face with much more flair than was appropriate in view of civilized individuals. "Did I ever tell you guys 'bout the time I found this waterfall and I thought you know I'll bet that would be real fun to surf on and--well, no, I don't suppose I have yet. Well one day I was out in the jungle and..."

Diluss · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:47 pm

"Yeah, I--" he stopped, "I guess..."

"Hmp."

"That's funny, that there wasn't any documentation, even when I phoned them and asked. Most of the people didn't know anything about that model number. A couple people said that it might be from their Research and Development yard up in Starlight City, but I checked and... they didn't own any buildings up in Starlight City."

"...Hey," he said, turning his gaze upon Rock with new intensity, "how did you know it was a military prototype?"

Introduction - Get It Together (1-1)

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