Sand and Rings and the Southwest Sun (Ch. 4: Day 2)

Kazz · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:19 pm

Rodolf paused, looking up to the sky as the sound drifted into the canyon. "He'll be fine," Rodolf said, though whether he was saying it in conviction, or simply to try and make amends for his previous comment was unclear. He looked over at Aga as the axolotl spoke, and then back up to the fox who was sputtering in attempts to take to the air. He looked as though he wanted to say something much like his comment before-- and, probably wisely, stopped himself.

Big looked up, too, at the sound from overhead, and blinked his beady yellow eyes a couple times. He frowned, but shook it off; he waved his giant arms in an attempt to get Tails' attention. "He'll be okay!" he said-- there was no questioning tone, no uncertainty. It was just a simply-stated fact, as though it were clear as day to see.

Diluss · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:55 pm

Whether or not it was because Tails didn't hear or didn't care, he was already gone.

Mie · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:17 pm

"Too little, too late," expectorated Tabitha (mostly to the unicorn) with unusual severity. The briefest of pauses lived in the moment in which she squared her shoulders and stalked toward one of the formidably steep canyon walls, stopping just below an outcropping about five meters up, then she concluded, "I'm going after him."

"Mr. Asamenew, please stay and watch over the camp base."

With a single, impressive vertical leap of what looked like nonexistent effort, she mounted the rocky ledge at a dash, and flung herself off of it, catching hold of a crevice with the tips of her fingers, and launching herself upward. She continued on in that way, finding things to scale that ought not be scalable, sometimes outright running sideways up the canyon's face for short bursts, and generally making unthinkably short work of reversing the descent she'd made not moments before.

Kazz · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:51 pm

"Well what did you want me to say to him?" Rodolf muttered, asking of nobody in particular and not really meaning to be heard. He shrugged his shoulders, however, and didn't dwell on the matter. He watched after the cat as she bolted up the rock, and suddenly turned and walked a small distance, in front of another part of the canyon wall-- one with a few more hand-and-footholds. He looked over his shoulder at the others, cast a look upwards to the sky, and cracked his knuckles.

If he could do it on the ice cap, he could do it here. With that thought, he backed up and launched himself at the sheer wall.
He could hardly be said to do it with half the grace (or speed) that the sand-cat did it; it was far from nimble, and it was rough around the edges, so to speak. Regardless, up went the unicorn in a climb up the canyon, apparently following those ahead of him. There was a bit of obvious strain involved, but his own ascent was done with the air of someone who at least had at least a decent idea of what he was doing.

Sheff · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:18 pm

Geoff, originally, was given the brief urge to simply leap up and grab the ecstatic fox by the ankles and drag him right back to the ground where he'd be safe and sound. He believed the kid had guts (or just a slight obsession) if he thought he should go chasing an armada of warships for the sake of a glimpse of the blue hedgehog.

But, Geoff had stayed put, and now watched as Tails helicoptered his way on up out of the canyon. Regretting his hesitation, he saw no objections to Tabitha's pursuit, and, with the fading sounds of the weaponry above, he believed he might as well join the unicorn and feline with their ascent. Yes, after going through such a free fall, it did feel a bit pointless to simply clamber right on back out, but he didn't particularly like the image of the innocent fox getting fried to bits up there.

Without much of a farewell to the others other than a slight nod, he jogged on over to his own section of wall and started his own attempts to ascend. After a few feet of drastic grips on whatever outcroppings he could find, an idea forged and soon enough, crystallized fingers were digging into available cracks and the like. Less pain on the hands, really.

Soon enough, he was making progress up the cliff side at a decent tempo, albeit not as efficiently as the experienced Rodolph or the nimble Tabitha.

Greens · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:50 pm

Ace put himself up straight the moment he heard the noise and clutter of distant explosions. In retrospect, it should've been obvious somebody like Eggman would prefer bombs over scouts any day. After all, only one of them had guaranteed results. "Oohkay," he breathed in the type of tone that admitted his defeat. "Guess that doesn't sound assuring..." By the time he'd noticed the kit had flown off, everyone else was already chasing after. And it looked like he was making a similar move for a brief fleeting moment, but a sudden sting in his side quickly put that to a halt.

"... Tcch," was all he said. His arms slowly cautioned his way towards the usual sitting arrangement, his head plopped back against the 'wall', and he puffed out a sigh that would've been a small gust if it hadn't been blown out so slowly. "J's be careful..." he muttered, eyes still on the exit the others were taking.

After a brief pause of thinking of something to do, he whipped out his cell phone and began staring at it.

psikeout · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:57 pm

Midian didn't really have time to answer before Tabitha was out of indoor-voice earshot, so he only stood and watched with a tellingly tired expression of the sort that just so clearly said, But no, I was so looking forward to following you up that gigantic wall in the blink of an eye.

Truthfully, he would have if he could have, but "could" was in short supply. So, he watched — just watched them until they were gone, hands on his beige-shirted sides, wondering what he should do next.

The jackal turned his eyes back to those who remained. He looked at the stone walls, some natural, some crafted; he eyed the pillars and spires, and the gaps in the rock.

"Eish," he exhaled. "We don't really have any 'camp' to watch yet, do we...?"

He nonetheless set off in a slow, weaving wander, and began considering where to begin with the task of actually making one.

Kazz · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:14 pm

Big watched those who were darting up the canyon walls with a sort of awe, as he scratched his head. Perhaps it was just beyond his comprehension to move so (relatively) nimbly. He stretched out as he watched, before he lumbered over closer to the Ace and in the general direction of Midian. "We could make one," he said ever-so-helpfully, beaming as though quite contented with this epiphany.

He looked around, and clenched and unclenched the hand that didn't hold his stub of a fishing pole (he seemed unwilling to let go of it, perhaps for sentimental value). He paused, and started to try to count something on his fingers; he quickly gave up, however, and looked around at those who stayed in.
"Ummmmm, how many people were there?" he asked of anyone that could hear. He could throw things around left and right, and honestly could probably just build a house of boulders if it struck his fancy, but it would do no good if he didn't know on what rough scale they were going to work.

NPC · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:36 pm

Ace's phone, amazing survivor of their ordeal that it was, had still been rendered little more than a fancy calculator and address book. It no longer picked up any signal, so it didn't even have the correct time displayed anymore.

There was one thing he had that still worked, though: the radio on his belt. Right then, it started to whistle and crackle.

"*whrrreeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzz*- in, b- *fszz* team, do y— copy? *kzrrrt*"

The deep gorge was interfering with the transmission. The voice started to sound familiar, though... Grungy, nasal, unpleasant.

"I said d—*kweeeeeee* read? You punks ——er be ali- *kshhh*"

Franky · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:52 pm

With the others departing to what he figured would be the absolute most dangerous place for anyone to be right now, Aga no longer felt obligated to feel bad about the whole thing. After watching them leave he turned away, turning his nose up into the air and giving a little "Hmph" as he headed back towards what was now the group responsible for making sure everyone had a place to come back to.

"There are at least fifteen or so of us," he said, butting into the conversation. "More if they pick up any more stray would-be rebels while they are out. So the camp will be large and we will not-" He shot the massive cat a look that gave the emphasis to that word. Big's slowness was going to be a problem that required small words. "-be tearing apart this valuable landmark at random just to build ourselves a rock fort. I'll tell you what is and isn't okay to use as a building material, understand?"

Greens · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:21 pm

Ace eyed his cellular device with a mild, but persistent irritation, as if it had just passed wind in his very hands. "Nngh," he groaned under his breath. But then suddenly, the sound of fuzzy machinery caught his attention, and his expression shifted from disappointment to confusion. He brought his little handheld to his ear, to confirm it as the source of this mysterious noise.

"What the...?"

The feeling of bewilderment was only heightened when his cell phone, was in fact, not producing these strange sounds, but the fancy walkie-talkie on his hip... which he'd actually managed to have forgotten about in all the recent activity. Fortunately, by the time he replaced his cellphone with it held as the main attraction, the good stuff was just starting to eek through.

He listened with slowly, but surely slanting brows.

"...Juke?" he asked incredulously, and to no one in particular.

And in a flash, he was screwing with the dial for a clearer 'picture'.

psikeout · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:46 pm

"Fifteen or so, really?..." mused Midian, still staring skyward. He sounded doubtful. Perhaps it had to do with how many people he had seen personally milling about those two ships. Then again, it was uncertain of how many of them were coming, anyway. Maybe they were about to learn more about that, judging by Ace's radio conversation.

Speaking of which, Ace's knob-fiddling eventually met with some success (at least once he started playing with the squelch. The transmissions didn't get any less staticy, but they cut out a lot less.

"-yin' over right now, and it's *bzzt* kin'na warzone out here! If *shhhhHHHHHk*-uys made it to the place, say somethin'! ... Over!"

Greens · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:25 am

The serval was almost reeling back at the opportunity that presented itself to him; the sheer statistics of such a thing happening were astoundingly slim, and it seemed like the time to act on it was quickly running short. He listened with a keen interest and a somewhat rushed attitude, as if it were a pushy waiter ushering a quicker choice of meal.

"Tssshheeeiiiit...!," he eventually settled on, placed the radio under his mouth, and pressed the button down (after quickly clearing his throat). It was time to spy up some intel.

"This is-- Delta Team," he finally answered in a voice forced slightly deeper than usual, assuming (and praying) that Juke wasn't the type to pay attention to details like that unless they involved words like 'fire', 'skull', or 'dragon'. "We've run into a few snags. What's your location and status, over?"

It was clear he tried to make it sound urgent, and in a way, it sort of was. He'd even stood back up to answer.

psikeout · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:59 pm

"What?!"

It was spoken with all the emphasis of a confused mother on a cell phone driving in heavy traffic. Except it was Juke's grungy voice.

"Wh*zzt* are you even on about?! Ace? Is this Ace? Where are*kzhhhs*"

Greens · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:55 pm

"God blessit," he could be heard hissing, and pressed the button again with self-embarassed spite.

"YES," he answered begrudgingly. "Yes, Juke, this is Ace! We're in the yellow desert! Where the hell are you!?"

Sand and Rings and the Southwest Sun (Ch. 4: Day 2)

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