Introduction - Get It Together (1-1)

Greens · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:39 am

The poor girl could do little but stare in frustrated confusion as this spiky stranger (by now personally dubbed Gabby the Hedgepine) talked like he was going for a record. Her brows gradually went flat enough to balance a level on them, and while she did little to stop him she at least shot a glance at the monkey still there that said "Really?" or "Do you know this guy?"

Ultimately, her own question proved too urgent for her to hear half of his, and by the time he apologized, she'd already shook her head in a mixture of resentment and dissatisfaction, turned away and started looking for the closest means of actual help she could find. (Good old Elegant Joe.)

"Excuse me... uh, sir," she said, unsure of how to address him, her voice all the while obviously growing more uneasy by the second. "Can you help me? Please? I'm looking for somebody who went out here, and I can't find him anywhere..."

Mie · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:55 am

And so it seemed that between this and that, the one left to aid the flustered porcupine in his ever-pressing quest was the person least likely to be able to. With brows raised high in an almost entertained sort of way, Jam stepped back and watched as the evidently offended mole blew off Mr. I-know-lots-of-words-and-talk-funny, leaving her to contend with him.

So she stared. For as long as Teck's patience would permit it, she looked at him with nothing short of absolute blankness before at long last...

"There's a North Island now?"

... she would delay him further.

"How'n th'hell'd I pass geography...?"

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:15 am

"There's always BEEN a North Island, m'lady - it's just nobody gives a turkey about it!" He clamored in sync with a clap of his hands. "So you can't answer my question? Do you even know what a patent office is? P-perhaps you can point me in the direction to the city's financial district! That's usually where a patent office is."

His patience wore away like the fibers of a stretched thread - not that he showed it. He seemed as lenient as can be to the outer world, sure, but he was seconds from throwing everything up in the air, and this monkey who seemed to question him more than he questioned her was by no means helping him maintain it. The only tall-tale sign of his mounting frustration was the occasional pull to his fur-lined collar to suggest his hatred for the heat.

Mie · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:02 pm

Jam was never terribly high on her own intelligence -- rather, she was always one of those frustrating people who could celebrate a C, but that certainly didn't mean she expected short bus treatment, and when she got it, she bristled like a blowfish in no time flat.

"Yes, I know what a patent office is!" huffed the miffed monkey, squaring her shoulders and raising her nose indignantly, as she set her gray gloved hands on her hips. "That's one; two, you gotta be stupid t'be worrying about patent offices in th'middle of the frickin' zombie robot apocalypse, but it wouldn't surprise me f'you were as dumb as you are rude, s'that brings me t'point three:"

Taking the first breath in her polysyllabic-per-second tirade, she jerked away from the prickly personalitied porcupine, and took two stiff steps back in the direction she'd come from, and pointed.

"It's that building over there with all the smoke and firetrucks in front of it. Have fun."

With a snarky raise of of her eyebrows and incline of her chin, she turned briskly, and set off at a march.

psikeout · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:24 pm

It was as sad as it was probably true; beyond the big hotdog-shaped truck was some sort of burning governmental building that could have easily contained such an office. It seemed that the unfortunate porcupine had, in all his diligence, perhaps succeeded in locating the financial district (The gleaming, glass monstrosity that was the First National Bank of South Island's new towered just a block away.), but a good portion of it was being actively reduced to smoldering wreckage that very second.

Try as he might, however, Rock found some difficulty in reducing his crab nemesis to similar wreckage. A keen eye could spot him beyond the crowd, in a place that had thoroughly emptied itself of people. Yes, all pedestrians were making about a fifteen foot wide berth around the monkey as he wrestled with the nearly three-foot-tall, three-foot-wide pile of rust, punching it (and getting punched by its claw), swinging it around, (getting pinched by its claw), heaving it above his head (and getting pinched in the ear in the process), hurling it like a shotput into a nearby public mailbox, and so on, and so forth... It seemed like every time he found a way to dismember the machine, it somehow pulled itself back together in a flash of sparks, and started trying to get away again, defying all logic.

It all came to an end after Rock knocked down a parking meter and began using it as a bludgeon. Eventually, neither crab nor meter remotely resembled what they once were, and the accursed machine had to make a break for it without its arm, leaving the primate free to collect the disembodied claw, and his wallet.

He returned but a moment after he'd left (the battle had been vicious, but short-lived), foisting the still-gnashing robotic appendage before him as if it was some wondrous novelty.

"Can you believe this?!" Rock shouted with a mix of excitement and disgust over the noise of the crowd as he returned. "Look'it this crap! It doesn't die!"

The claw began to clank and clap ominously closely to the back of Joe's helmet.

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:31 pm

"HMPH! Well then! I THINK I WILL!" His shoulders firing upwards like spires to a castle, he likewise turned his back and made way towards the burning building. Who cares about her anyway! One could literally see the steam smoldering from his forehead, and let's say that it was thicker than the smoke stacking from the burning building that loomed in his path.

On his way, EMS and Firefighters by the droves warned him not to proceed and it reached a point where his curiosity could no longer hold itself in as he stated, "What the 'appened here, anyway, mate? I had a meeting with Mr. Becker!"

"Mr. Becker is currently undergoing emergency care for over-inhalation of smoke, sir!" The ash-laden Beaver firefighter said with a hint of stress in his voice, facing the building all the while. "Don't you know what happened here? Lately mechs have been arising from the harbor and have been ransacking all around town"

"... zombie robots," he said, recalling what the fast-mouthed monkey girl told him in a most rude way (albeit only in reaction to his own rude say-so). "What did they look like?" He asked, since the answer to this could bring him to one of two determinations.

"We already know their designs are like what Eggman's used before, but they kinda just... move on their own! Like ghost robots!"

"That sounds quite absurd, I'll have you know," Teck replied with a stately adjustment of his spectacles. Folding his arms, he kept his eyes peeled along the building for any trace of metal that could be attributed to these so-called zombie robots. "Still, what am I supposed to know? I'm not from here - I hail from North Island!"

"... North Island?" The Firefighter's cheeks went so red that even the layers of soot covering them couldn't veil his deep blush as he responded sassily, "Heh... well, damn... that explains a lot, haha."

"And what's that supposed to mean, eh mate?" Teck asked, holding his waists in a fervent pout. The firefighter's cheeks were now not only red but swollen to hold in only GOD knows how big a guffaw as he replied, "Well, geez, North Island's kinda... well... de-de-de-diddle-dee-dododedledeeeeeeee," voicing the jingle to Deliverance.

"Oh, come off it, you shut the bloody 'ell up, nah! Totally unnecessary, quite, QUITE unnecessary. Do you know when Mr. Becker is going to make a recovery? I need to get this research to him!"

"Yeah, yeah, who cares about his life or whether or not he survives, we need to get the top secret research for the everlasting ice cracker to him," the Firefighter quipped, staring to the side. "Look, Granola-porc, this is a dangerous and unstable scene and my job is to save all lives - don't add to that queue, alright kiddo? Please scat, go back to North Island and play a banjo."

"... ... ... ... ooohhh... well, then I know a city I won't be going to again!"

And so Teck stormed off, shoulders raised and tail erect.

"Now what am I going to do!? Can't these flippin' cities have some peace and quiet!?

Rusty · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:01 pm

Disappointed at the convenient distractions removing any opportunity to get the monkey girl's phone number, Elegant Joe turned away and irritably made a show of dusting himself off. The other troops weren't even slowing down to wait for him. He was just starting to skedaddle after them when the one other girl's attention fixed to him, and the robot cocked his head to look at her over his shoulder. "Huh?"

What had she said? She was looking for somebody? Joe wasn't a cop or a private investigator. Tell someone who cares. Then again, the SSD did operate mainly for the interest and service of the public, didn't it? And one of their mission parameters was search & rescue, which he suspected they'd be doing a lot of within the next couple of days. Might as well get an early start. Besides, she was a girl. Joe liked girls.

"Um," he started, taking the moment to remove his shooting glasses and wipe them on his BDU to relieve them of some of the soot they'd accumulated, "Who are you looking for? Are they supposed to be around here?"

Any ominous clanking and clapping getting ever closer to the back of his skull went unnoticed for the moment.

Greens · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:33 pm

"No, he isn't, that idiot," she replied with decisive quickness. "He was like all 'I must go for it is time for me to live up to my family name and face full life consequences' and I was like 'how are you gonna live full life consequences if you're full dead you idiot' but he went anyway because he's stupid and Iiiiiiiii should probably tell you what he looks like shouldn't I."

She cleared her throat, and attempted collecting herself.

"He's... about yay high," she said with an accompanying hand gesture above her head. "A, feline fellow, fur of yellow, ha thatrhymed, and he's got black... stripes, across his face," she said, clawing at the sides of her own for emphasis. "...Aaand he also may or may not be dead by now."

Pause.

"...Because he's an idiot."

Mie · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:28 pm

Though she had strictly promised herself that the ill-mannered rodent would get no more of her attention, she really couldn't help but spare a backwards glance at what she considered to be an alarmingly childish retort. It was a good thing her dove-colored company had chosen then to return, for she was dangerously close to some rather impolite snickering, and needed the distraction.

"Congratulations," she blurted in mild surprise, taking a step back from the disembodied zombiecrab claw still arm wrestling Rock for his pocketbook. "You have defeated Mini Giant Enemy Crab. Gain: 120 XP, Level up, yay. Now go kill all the rest."

After a fairly tepid fist pump, her self-amused grin was poorly contained, particularly when she added, "You wanna know a tip for beating 'em?"

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:08 pm

Even though he was distancing, his keen ears still couldn't resist overhearing yet again. All in all, Teck was weary of this bizarrely animated crab and its apparent lack of mortality. Until now, he tried to ignore it as the very cause of this city's less than stellar condition... but no more... so he decided to intervene, replying, "How about 3,400 pound-feet of torque?"

His agility redlining, Teck backflipped into ball form and landed on the ground. Then he revved...

And revved..

... And revved... and you know what, just for s' & g's, he revved some more, his orange and black hues blending into a uniform mix of ovular blurs.

Grinding away at the asphalt as though he were a giant beltsander, Teck unleashed kinetic energy attributed exclusively to quilled animals such as himself. His hardily-charged spindash fired him like a cannonball squarely at the crab that already started to regroup its dozens of dismembered parts, and upon collision... let's just say the crab is going to have to regroup them again - which it will, for it wanted its damn claw back from that pesky ivory simian!

Not that he knew it...

Expecting to look back and see one flimsy chunk of scrap metal at ground zero while all the other parts would be scattered to and fro along the intersection, he instead saw those very bits and pieces pull, roll, twist, and wind their way back towards the center. His mouth agape and his glasses slipping to the end of his nose, he bellowed in stupor, "WHAT!? But... but!!! That's not fair! Bugger n' blast, that is NOT FAIR! That's not how it works - I do the spindash, the robot dies, THAT'S HOW IT WORKS!"

Rusty · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:34 pm

"Well, uh," Joe started, folded his arms across his chest, "I don't really know anyone like that. Haven't seen anybody matching that description, I don't think. Sounds like a real jerk, though. You seem like a nice girl. You oughta hang out with guys who don't go around, like that... or, uh, I mean... If, y'know..." And he started utterly falling apart. "I-If, uh, y'know, y'wanna get... get some coffee or... yeah, something, uh... y'know, get some tacos, or, I dunno, maybe we could, just, like, hang out oh god why is Sparky so good at this and I'm not--huh?"

It was then that he seemed to realize something was making a lot of noise behind him, and Elegant Joe turned around just in time to get some pincers caught on the brim of his ballistic helmet.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" He screamed like a ten-year-old schoolgirl in a slasher flick and started running at length around the perimeter of the messed-up coupe, creepy crab arm flailing around in front of his face. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He tripped and fell onto his face. "H'whoah-oof--" And picked himself up. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"Major, that sounds like Joe."

"Sounds more like some little girl who probably needs a diaper change. Keep walking."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:51 pm

"Uh—"

Rock's brows went up and the corners of his mouth pulled back in a teeth-gritting, "err, oops" kind of look—The sort one might make after accidentally running down a neighbor's mailbox, or knocking a baseball through a window.

For a second, he scuffed and shuffled along behind the robot, blurting "Wait," "Hold still," "Hold still damnit I—" and other such things in vain, before just... stopping, scratching his head, annnd...

"Eh."

He tried. Now, what was he doing before all this crap went down, again?

... And why was that orange guy screaming about spindashing?

For the first time, with a long stare, Rock seemed to actually acknowledge that Teck existed. It probably wasn't the best time to, though. Go figure—That's how it always works out.

Greens · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:18 am

And the mole just sort of... stared. With this nonplussed, at the same time deeply unsettled look in her eyes. Her pupils alone trailed the crazed trooper as he failed about like a fish out of water that had also been set on fire. And really. What else could she do, at this point?

"Well..."

"..."

"...a'right..."

"...Poor guy."

Although for all the pity she could express for him, one point remained strong: She hadn't made any progress since coming out here, and given her current company (read; either uninterested or total nutjobs), finding help didn't seem like a likely possibility, even from the local quote enforcement unquote.

"N'oo ho ho hoooohhhhhh, this is baaaaad..." Her head swiveled from left to right, looking back and forth for... something that might help? Oh, she didn't know quite what, did she? Her hand sifting nervously through her hair, she marched on in a very uncertain direction, doing her best not to let Joe's incessant screaming get her starting to panic and set her in a right bad MOOD...!

And her teeth just started to grind, when...

One could hear the tell-tale jingling bells of a nearby shop door slam shut.

And out popped one very weary looking cat.

He tried rubbing his head, but it seemed clear that it wasn't helping him get rid of the ache in his temple. Or the dirt on his jacket. Or the holes on his pants. Or that tiny little bloodstain on his muzzle. In fact, it really seemed like he had no reason to bother rubbing his head at all, for what it was worth. But he did anyway. And he emerged with one very important question.

"The hell's all the damn noise...?"

Mie · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:14 am

All joking aside -- Wait, what? Okay, it takes some substantial situational gravity to make Jam put the jokes away, but unintentional or not, the strawberry simian lost her punchline in the face of the... indescribable spectacle before her. Between the haywire CapTroop, and Teck's outlandish denouncement of physics and justice, all the monkey could really do was stand there utterly gobsmacked. But given the way she edged toward her alabaster accompaniment while gawking with morbid curiosity, she was possibly just a little disturbed, too.

Give her a minute, though, and she'll remember to start pointing and laughing.

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:50 am

"... how is that possible?" he asked to seemingly nobody as he approached the two monkeys of befuddled tenor. Halting to their side, he pointed over his shoulder at the recompiling crab mech, unable to make heads or tails of it. "How... but...? Has he learned some new technology or something? Are these the zombie mechs you're talking about, m'dear?"

Introduction - Get It Together (1-1)

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