Take back the city (1-2)

psikeout · Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:49 pm

Rock was quiet a moment, glancing between the road and Jam (and, very briefly, Caz).

"We only have two," he eventually replied. Finally done tactlessly acting like Caz wasn't really a part of the conversation, he addressed her directly. "No offense, but you might be better off stayin' behind when the time comes, anyway. We'll make sure you get back to Ace, but I don't wanna be responsible for anybody past the water's edge."

Greens · Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 7:14 pm

"Ah, no waayy, man, you don't need to be responsible for anything! Caz replied, expressing open disapproval for the first time in a while as she leaned a little further in (or at least tried with the ridiculous, suicidal speeds they were approaching. "I c'n take care of myself! I learned how to fire a gun before I learned how to wear a bra!"

"Y-y'sure you don't have anything else, at all? Like, old ones, in the closet or something? I wanna help..."

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:09 pm

No matter how bumpy the take off or how uneasy the transformation, Teck took everything in a... moderately... smooth stride in his cozy little passenger's seat. With his insecurities, there was not a snowball's chance in hell that he'd take that wing like the much more valiant Ace.

Sure, one look at his quick seize to any handlebar or any object that can placehold as a handlebar would show that he had his wits about him and was wary of a potentially unsuccessful take-off. All in all, however, he had his hopes in this fox considering his background and keen knowledge on mechanics of this sort.

In the midst of their flight, Teck kept his eyes on the screen to which he was entrusted, indeed; but that didn't stop him from taking occasional glances out of the cockpit and marvel at the landscape far below, watching as the cars moved like ants across a mound. Of particular interest was the shoddy red convertible in which Rocky so humbly drove like he stole it (HA!). It eventually disappeared from his view the farther they went... that's when he returned his attention to the screen only to see that it did not quite look the same. "Tails, m'boy!"

"There is something really big under us now. At first I remember it being just a dot but now I can't see anything else, and when I say anything, I mean bloody anything! What is the proportionate perimeter of this radar's coverage? If it's what I think it is, we're talking potentially past a kilometer in size. I'm not sure if it's a legit metal object or if something's scrambling it, but... is there a way I can transfer what I'm seeing to you so you can decipher it?"

Diluss · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 4:32 pm

Tails looked back in alarm, then looked to the left at the smaller readout for the magnetometer that was in the cockpit.

"Uh, it's--it has a range of about a hundred meters. I was thinking there might be a ship in the water or something, but--at this height... we shouldn't be able to see anything like a sea-base unless it's on the surface... or..." Several shades of concern colored his face as thoughts chased across his mind's eye.

"...it's in the air!"

He grabbed the control sticks with a new intensity.

"Hey!" he pushed his heels against the side of the plane and twisted his head around to look back at the cat standing on the wing, "You might wanna get inside! I think there's something big out there, and it might be getting closer!"

psikeout · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:23 pm

Rock just shook his head and stayed focused on the road. Hoverbikes and boards didn't grow on trees. Call him cold, but he had no intention of facilitating her; the last thing Ace needed was Caz trying to play action hero out on the waves.

***

"He-heyyy guys you didn't say you were bringin' home a guest," greeted Rock's father, then hissed into his ear as he, Jam, and Caz came rambling in the front door. The mohawked, 80s-riffic, ketchup-red monkey with the spiked bracelets and gold chain necklaces (with oversized medallion) looked pretty ridiculous, but he seemed friendly enough. Maybe too friendly.

"Yeah, I just needed to pick up a few things," replied Rock, "y'know, zombie robot war in Central City an' all—"

"So, I uh, I don't think we've met," said Rock's father, ignoring his son entirely as he slithered up by Caz.

"... Where's mom?" interrupted Rock before Caz could have a chance to reply.

"Oh, she's lookin' for somethin' in the attic ayy-tee-emm, so, why don'tcha introduce us, bro?"

Rock frowned steeply. Sadly, his dad could pass for his older brother since their age gap was... almost as negligible as biology could physically allow. "Yeah, alright. Pops, this is Caz. Caz, this is my—"

"Um, Pops is my um, band name," he quickly interrupted, "—my real name's Jared, but my uh, friends, call me J-Lock."

Suddenly, a shrill, albeit muffled female voice came from the ceiling above.

"I can hear through this vent, you asswipe!"

Jared bit his lower lip and looked upward sheepishly.

"Stop hitting on Laz's friends and get your ass up here and help me already!"

Rock took the opportunity to hurry past to his room without another word, thoroughly failing to hide his amusement.

Mie · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:36 pm

Jam (probably like Rock,) knew not to take the even-more-obnoxiously-red monkey seriously, and merely shook her head as she moved past, popped open the fridge and helped herself to a sizable black and neon green aluminum can that seemed to contain something labeled MONSTROSITY.

Upon the vent's keen catching of her spouse's hand in the proverbial (cradle-robbing) cookie jar, the pinker primate took to the whiter's heels with no shortage of grins, after a quick, indicative nudge to the prestigious guest. She did, however, double back very briefly to deliver an important message, before darting after fair pair;

"Bee-tee-dubya, Pops, this should be a no-brainer, but practice's officially canceled 'til the world stops ending. Pass it on t'Shane, or... Speed, or whatever his 'band name' is."

Greens · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:03 am

"Mmmnnrrnrrm..." she growled at Rock's fitting inflexibility. But her growling soonserved to amuse her and quell her complaints, as she quickly found experimenting with a variety of noises, snarls and grunts an excellent means of passing the time for rest of the ride there. (Thankfully, the car ride was likely too noisy for either of her fellow passengers to pick up on it.)

***

A bit later on, it was hard not to be... taken aback by the third primate Caz had met today. Not to say she was reluctant-- she really loved meeting new people. And although this one had a bit more personality than most, that's... not to say she quite caught on to what he was pulling.

"Oh, i-it's, very nice to meet you!" she said enthusiastically and somehow completely ignorant to what he was trying to pull, before tacking on a "Sir," that no doubt sunk his battleship. She went on to awkwardly follow on Jam's steps, but not before waving 'Pops' a quick goodbye.

"You guys didn't tell me you had a band!" She said, following excitedly. "What's it called? Does it have a name yet? 'Cause I've got like a whole notebook of band names I've been savin' up, y'know."

---

"It's in the WHAT?" the cat shouted back. "D'ahfffGOD damnit!"

Get inside? How the hell was he supposed to get inside with both of the only seats the plane had so very very occupied? Just one look at the kid's face said that something was about to go awry as $%@&. Ace had even less of an idea of just what than Tails did, so it was probably safest to assume the worst (never did him wrong before). Of course, there was only one option available, and he'd probably hate himself and everything around him for it later. But... hell.

Desperate times, right?

"Goddamn-- make room!" he yelled, and sat square on Teck's spiny ass lap. He spared only the briefest looks in the porcupine's direction, but it was clear that, painfully awkward as it was, he wasn't about to move for his sake.

Admin · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:09 am

There was a small, agitated warble from behind the monitor that was displaying the increasingly disturbing readings from the magnetometer (as in, the screen that would then be very nearly smooshed into Ace's face, since he got all cozy with Teck). The screen was now registering...

Nothing.

Diluss · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:21 am

The sudden silence was not encouraging. There was no error, no malfunctioning screen. There was just... nothing.

Tails looked at the monitor. There were three options.

1. Something completely unexplainable had gone wrong with the magnetometer, without the computer knowing.
2. The WHATEVER-IT-WAS had some kind of strange magnetic shielding as-yet unknown to modern science.
3. The WHATEVER-IT-COULD-BE had teleported away.

Number three was not very likely. Number one was not very likely. Number two was not very likely--although it was slightly more likely, if Dr. Eggman was involved.

Tails stared at the screen in pensive thought.

...Then there was option number four; option number four being that whatever it was that was out there was so big, so amazingly, incredibly big, that the reason the magnetometer could not see it was because the thing was so terrifyingly huge that the magnetometer could not actually tell the difference between it and the rest of the world.

...his jaw slackened. His mouth formed a tiny O of silent dread. He slowly looked up at the cotton-puff horizon. Then the reality of the situation connected with the back of his skull and jarred him into action.

"W-we have to get out of here," he yelled back at the two passengers in the rear seat, "hang on!"

He opened the throttle as fast as possible, sending the battered Tornado screaming across the sky, away from the terrible unknown.

Admin · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:33 am

That undulating, steamy mist of clouds and light ash beneath them had formed a perfect, serene sort of false sea. It looked almost solid and snowy, like their own little virtual slice of Antarctica in the sky, and it somehow seemed impossible to the eye that anything could simply come out of it. And, according to the sensors, there was no longer anything concealed beneath the shroud... or, alternatively, something big. Something terrifyingly huge, Tails had thought.

Yeah, that was about right.

Behind and beneath them, a swirling dome swelled higher and higher like a bubble forming on the frothy top of a boiling pot, until the opaque white layers dwindled thinly and peeled back in wisps, revealing streaks of green metal beneath. Tremendous green metal.

It would be difficult to overstate the scale of the machine revealed immediately behind them; awkwardly bloated, just like most anything Eggman made, the puffer-fish-like monstrosity may have been an endearingly chubby, if slightly menacing, little thing had it been 1/1000th scale. In this case, however, a hundred Tornadoes, maybe more, could have fit into its open maw, with room to spare for plenty more tiny foxes, porcupines, and cats sprinkled atop (season to taste).

In short, the hulking seabase, or submarine, or airship, or whatever it was, was rumbling toward them with the roar of unimaginably-scaled rocket propulsion, with every intent to swallow them, and their little airplane, too.

Diluss · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:46 pm

Tails kept his eyes fixed on the horizon and his hand on the throttle. The infrasonic roar that rippled through the air behind the three of them was enough of a tip-off to anyone wondering what could be back there that he didn't need to see what it was to know that it was dangerous.

The Tornado's jet crackled and whined as the dwarfed biplane strove to stay ahead of--he finally risked a glance, and was not disappointed--a titanic metal fish that slalomed through the air in slow-motion like some ominous planet looming from behind the clouds, its massive, blank eyes shining like volcanoes.

"Ohhhhhhhhh no," he breathed, "ohhh no no no."

The Tornado was rippingly fast and incredibly aerodynamic for a biplane, even more so in its x-wing state, but the gargantuan fish-ship behind them was apparently powered with the force of the sun, pursuing them with uncanny ease as it drifted through the sky at what he guessed was to be a deceptively fast speed.

nUcLeArEnVoY · Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 9:11 pm

"You do realize how inappropriate this is, don't you?"

Teck was clairvoyant of Ace's motives even before he set off to sit on his lap, since the moment Tails suggested he vacated the wing, Teck knew that there was no way the bumbling alley cat would sit on the kid's lap, oh no. With an irate fold of the arms and childish pout, Teck gazed at the bland view of none other than the leather lining Ace's very back. Still, Teck was rather compliant - it was a matter of life or death afterall... a fact that was particularly evident once the titanic ship of bloated proportions reared its ugly (cute) head out of the clouds like a rampant shark breaching the ocean waves. Cue to the a loud and shrilly scream as Teck's ears perked and his eyes widened. In fact, the only things that got smaller were his pupils in the onset of his borderline heart attack.

"BLOODY BUGGER F**KALLWITHTHEBIGGESTSTICK %$*#! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Ace's ride went from uneasy and bumpy (the wing) to awkward and prickly (Teck's lap) and now to bumpy, uneasy, awkward, and prickly (Teck's lap whilst Teck is flailing in frantic like a fish out of water). His rusty-gloved hands snatched along the edges of his cockpit so tight that he could've crushed the metal as he held on for dear life. Tails had accelerated the trusty biplane to a breakneck speed, but unfortunately the lumbering Puffer-themed skyship behind them was moving at breakeverything speed, and while Tails was hesitant to look back, Teck had NO qualms in reminding the fox of his progressive failure. "It's ganging on us, damn it! Can't this blasted contraption go any faster!?"

psikeout · Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 10:04 pm

Rock left the antics of his parents, Jam's band, and everything else behind as he flung open his room's door and began hurriedly going through his things. It was cramped in there, to say the least; most of the house was kind of like that. There was a lot of junk to squeeze around, the home looked kind of dilapidated, paint was peeling off the walls, the yard was a little overgrown, the roof was missing shingles, and his room matched it all pretty well. A few posters of no particular note hung from the walls, shelves sat lined with junk (among it some awards and trophies, but mostly old electronics, gizmos, knives, and some other dangerous things), a couple guitar amps sat next to a battered, old electric on a stand, and a chest of drawers slumped raggedly in the corner by the window, as if ready to fall apart due to sheer age. But, one thing stood out: His bed was immaculately made.

Blame it on the military.

Pretty soon, though, that clean, uncreased bed comforter was being piled up with stuff—Some clean, grey camo shorts, a clean, black jacket, a fancy-looking handheld communicator (some sort of VHF aviation radio), a couple small rolls of some kind of fabric, a couple grenades (Where did he get those?), a box of shotgun shells, a bandolier to hold them, some sort of oversized holster on a big sling, and, finally, an actual shotgun. Double-barreled and cut way short, it had plenty of road wear and tear, and looked like it'd been around the block a few times.

He soon snatched up his extra clothes and headed out of the room.

"Gimme five minutes and we're gone," he said quickly before vanishing into the bathroom.

Mie · Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 10:38 pm

"Yeeeeeah," drawled the vibrantly pink primate, upon leaving Jared to appreciate the amount of trouble he was now in in solitude. "It-- You have notebooks full of band names?"

A very obviously frequent customer, Jam stepped right into the oft-visited little room right after Rock, and plopped down in a visibly worn office chair at a small, cluttered work desk (that may well have once been an end table), immediately unearthing some forgotten trinket of indiscernible purpose, and idly toying with it in her hands.

Her parting "Have fun," in reply to Rock's departure was very subtly laced with the most inconspicuous of pouts, but her blank, assessing stare soon returned to their acquired party member.

Regardless of whatever else may have been mentioned in the interim, the very next thing to pass Jam's lips was an even-toned, "Y'know, I get the weirdest vibe off'a you."

Greens · Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 5:01 pm

"Well, a notebook. I got another for band member names. Like, like Ash, and, Slash, and, The Claw," she emphasized with the appropriate "rawr" motion with her claw-like hand.

When they arrived at their destination, she waved a quick goodbye to Rock, scratched the left side of her face with her right hand, and began examining/admiring the decor. Namely the posters and trophies, although she did try to sneak in an inconspicuous glance or two at the weaponry littering shelves room. They seemed to be holding her attention relatively well, she couldn't help but cock her brow and purse her lips after what Jam had said.

"Wwwhaddya mean? Do I smell?"

---

The awkwardness and general discomfort, even the very nerves firing pain synapses through Ace's ass to his brain had suddenly been completely ignored in favor of regarding the indescribable size of their airborne fishy friend. As its shadow quickly blocked the sun (yes, the whole sun) from his eyes, and his face rapidly became stiff as a fire poker, he seemed utterly speechless for a moment or two.

"M-maybe... if we don't move... it won't see us."

"..."

"Ohscrewit screw it RUN, GO, RUN!"

Somehow, despite how his body suddenly slammed back into the porcupine's (he apologized inwardly, so it was okay), he didn't feel any more comfortable about their ability to escape the hellish maw of the flying monstrosity.

Take back the city (1-2)

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