Skip the Donuts (Ch. 4: Day 4)

NPC · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:14 pm

"You can stop being coy now."

Where had he come from? The black figure, streaked dramatically with red, splotched with white, and clad with gold rings around his wrists and ankles, stood there with more severity, gravity, and presence than any 100 centimeter hedgehog should have been able to muster. His red eyes, perpetually sharp and irritable-looking, gave each individual a couple seconds' piercing stare, but then moved on as if they hadn't the time to afford the party such attention.

"I hope there's a good reason you dragged me out here," declared the (alarmingly deep-voiced) hedgehog.

Greens · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:03 pm

He had just set down the the coffee pot when the bat introduced herself. "Rouge," declared Ace in a voice just above still-waking-up level, and removed the hood portion of his head for easier recognition... if she still remembered him. He had a feeling she dealt with guys like him all the time. Either way, There was an odd mixture of intrigue and relief in his voice. In all honesty, he was happy to see her still alive and kicking, but at the same time, any suspicions he had about her were nearly doubled when he noticed the (hard to miss) Eggman logo on her new duds.

'Tails' friend,' thought he, reflecting on the first impression she gave the similarly young-of-mind Mako. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Eventually, he found the new hedgehog, and... then looked back at Geoff. He looked once more to the black one, and, with furrowed brows, did a quick double-take. Finally, he looked to Rouge with an accusatory glance. "I thought you said you didn't pick up strays."

Rouge · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:23 pm

"I still don't, sweetie, sorry," Rouge said, "but this particular hedgehog has you beaten by a few points. He's never finished drinks I've ordered, for one thing. Two, he takes better care of himself. No offense," she added, flashing Ace a bright, warm grin, "and three... Well, let's just say he's packing a little extra… oooh, a little extra something."

"Let's face it," she added to the group at large, "you haven't been doing very well so far. Your only useful talent seems to be destroying buildings, and that's going to get old, fast. Dr. Eggman can build them ten times as fast as you can burn them down, and," she added, "if we're fighting for life on earth, a scorched earth policy really isn't the best way to go, anyway." She smiled sweetly.

"So I brought a little help. Everyone? Meet Shadow the hedgehog. He's going to bring a few things to the table that have been missing so far."

"And I've brought the rest," she tapped one of the crates.

"I've bought enough food to last you a week or so, if you're careful. There are a couple chaos drives, some equipment for Tails to set up a work station. There're a few weapons, but I don't think you'll need that much firepower. Dr. Eggman doesn't often send surveillance out this way and, this week, I'm all of it! In fact, I'm the one who requisitioned all of this, but between us, I could do the entire week on a single cup of Dr. Eggman's disgusting coffee."

"Now," she said, and clapped her hands together, "let's talk about our other little problem. It seems there's some kid running around, making mysterious plans and getting a bit too much leverage for me to feel good about it, and, he gave you this," she held up the chip.

"Tails?"

Diluss · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:13 pm

“Oh, yeah,” said Tails, "Seven was right, I guess…!”

"I mean, I analyzed the data on the chip, and the virus seems pretty straight-forward. It just over-writes the sectors of Eggmanland’s operating system that contain Dr. Eggman’s user profile with a big hole, so it’ll be like Dr. Eggman’s account never existed.

"You have to get right into the computer, though—and crash it, and then boot it up again so you can run the installer before the operating system starts—and it looks like Eggmanland has a bunch of different copies of this operating system running at the same time. I guess at least three, from what Seven said. Anyway, they’re always checking to make sure the other ones don’t go down, so if you want to run this virus, it’ll have to be all at the same time, on all of the versions of the operating system at once!

“Then it’ll just try to make a new Dr. Eggman account, but it’ll use the same program it uses to make other users’ accounts, so who-ever’s in the main control room when it starts happening will get to be the new Dr. Eggman!

“Of course, if Seven is in the control room when it happens..."

psikeout · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:16 pm

Midian seemed simultaneously put-off but yielding to the inevitability of their fate, staring dead and glum over the top of his cup. He lowered the vessel and started shuffling toward their promised breakfast.

"We gotta help and hinder him at the same time," he sighed and shook his head, reaching out for one of the foil-wrapped goodies. "There won't be a second opportunity like this, though; s'pose all we can do is be prepared now."

Sheff · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:54 pm

The new arrivals were unexpected to Geoff, but he was at least content that he recognized one of them, thoughts of G.U.N. robots and hasty escapes filling his mind as he looked to Rouge. The other one, however, didn't spark any sort of memory. However, he did trade a questioning glance with Ace as the cat's gaze seemed to veer from Geoff to the other hedgehog in quick succession. No matter what resemblance that was actually found, Geoff only found it somewhat concerning that he was being compared with this much more dark-colored stranger.

Besides this, the greener of the two hedgehogs did find this newcomer a bit questionable, but Rouge had already assured he would be beneficial. Geoff supposed that she may be right. They needed more strength on their side anyway, and whatever this guy could do would be a plus.

"We'll just have to make sure someone else is in the control room then," mentioned Geoff, finally putting a word in on the plans. "We have enough to do so, anyway."

Greens · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:39 pm

Ace cocked a brow at Rouge's somewhat-more-acidic-than-usual response. Did he strike a nerve concerning the new guy? Either way, it didn't matter, and he shook it off. For once, there were more pressing matters than flirting with the girl with big honkers. "Let's just hope it's all that easy," he added. "And get ready for when it's not. Seven has to know we won't comply with him on the king's throne. Unless he's really that full of himself, he's gonna have some kinda backup plan in mind."

The serval reflected on that to himself for a moment. Honestly, just about any physical threat didn't really seem like a threat. Maybe he was full of himself too, but whatever kinda mecha-killbot thrown his way felt to him like an inevitable annoyance, and nothing more. The concept that he really didn't like, the one that actually scared him, was more manipulation. He didn't like being anyone's errand boy, but circumstances as they were, he was forced to play Seven's little game. What if he found more leverage? Learned about Caz?

He quickly put the thought out of his mind. Assured himself he was being paranoid. "At least Eggman has some kind of government. Seven would just make the whole world his bitch."

Kazz · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:09 pm

Mako had stopped in his steps at Rouge's behavior, his face frozen in an almost comical expression that clearly read, I can think of few situations I would like to be in less. He took in, but didn't respond to, the arrival and talk of Shadow.

However, when the conversation turned to Seven, he snapped back to attention, and his face fell more than bit.
"Yeah, but how are we supposed to do that?" he asked in return to Geoff's last remark. "Donno if you remember, but even before he went, y'know, we had a hard time stopping him from doing much of anything." The shark shook his head, rubbing the back of his head. "Feels like we'll be trying to use tissue paper to hold back a dam bursting if Seven turns on us, yeah?"

Call him a pessimist (for indeed, that was one thing the fish excelled at being, it would seem), but he had a hard time accepting that a mere one more person (that is, Shadow) could help them should Seven have another plan up his sleeve (and he would bet money on that eventuality).

Rodolf stepped closer to the group at this point. He tapped his foot on the ground, folding his arms. "So if we trip up at any point, we've got a slew of new problems," he surmised flatly. "Isn't that always the case."
He cast a sideways glance at Shadow, and cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Not that we have many other options, unless we want to be camping out here for the next couple years, until--"
He was about to add a very snide comment involving blue hedgehogs, but recalling how well his feelings on the subject had gone over just after their arrival in the canyon, he chose to hold his tongue.

NPC · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 6:18 pm

"Who are you to debate anything?" asked Shadow suddenly, glaring at the lot of them like they were ants. "This will end—with or without any of you."

He took a few slow strides forward, entering the more central arena of the conversational landscape.

"Sonic has already been tearing holes in Eggmanland's fortifications for several days straight." It was an out-of-the-blue claim, but no surprise that they hadn't heard word of it. Eggman wouldn't exactly go advertising his hedgehog troubles to the world at large. "The only reason I'm not still doing the same myself is because I was told there was a faster way—" He looked pointedly at Rouge. "—a more final way."

He crossed his arms. (When didn't he cross his arms?)

"If you still want my help, then we need stop chattering and waffling, and start preparing, because getting into Dr. Eggman's command center won't be a walk in the park. If it was, we wouldn't have to bother with this idiotic scheme."

Mie · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:23 pm

Silent throughout the entirety of the nay-saying the group at large seemed so fond of, Tabitha stood somewhat isolated from the group. She hugged her elbows, brow furrowed in thought over a distant stare, with her tail lashing lowly behind her. She looked slightly perturbed. Honestly, it was already well-established that the situation wasn't ideal, but what good would forecasting Seven's sudden but inevitable betrayal do? As far as she was concerned, the more important point of discussion was

"How are we going to get into the command center?" asked the cat, stepping forward, looking squarely at the latest addition to their assets.

Greens · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:40 pm

What was it with those two? The both of them were acting like they were some kind of officials or something.

Though, technically, Rouge was apparently employed by Eggman, but that was hardly the point.

He snorted to himself with a perturbed sneer, and started to optimize his time looking for breakfasts in the crate, but was focused enough to catch Tabby's input. "Good question," he said with a nod, and shot a fleeting glance back to Shadow, still scavenging through the crates' collective contents like the alley cat he supposedly was. "Why don't we start with your role, Mr. Bigshot?"

Rouge · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:17 pm

"Someone's cranky," said Rouge, arching an eyebrow.

"What's the matter?" she addressed Ace, "Jealous?"

She lightly brought her hand near Shadow's arm as she spoke, only letting it linger for a second before drawing it away with a playful flourish. It might have been telling that—while for all appearances she lay her hand on his arm, she did not actually bring her hand in contact with it. This would've only been noticed by someone viewing the pair from an oblique angle, however.

Greens · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:06 am

Ace gave an oddly genuine smile with a shrewdness befitting of the bat herself. "I'm always like this," he answered.

NPC · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:50 am

Shadow had a certain wide-eyed death-stare about him with the way he looked at people, but it almost imperceptibly blurred when he glanced sideways at Rouge and slowly uncrossed his arms, as if his focus was momentarily broken or otherwise confused.

He looked back to Ace and huffed. He then returned to the task at hand.

"The command center is mobile," he explained. "If its sensors detect anything hostile, it disconnects and flies to another part of Eggmanland."

That explained why he and Sonic hadn't had much success getting rid of it yet. It didn't explain how they were supposed to actually get inside, though.

Diluss · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:15 pm

“Yeah,” said Tails, “it’s like—well, I guess you probably don’t know. Eggman builds escape pods into all of his mechs and fighting machines, and usually when Sonic beat them, Eggman could get away, just because they could fly really fast in a straight direction, and Sonic would always have to find a route around to get to him.”

“But!” he said, “with those pieces of Nocturnus equipment you guys brought back, there might actually be a way to get inside!”

The fox ran off on short legs, leaving a few seconds of uncomfortable, tension-filled silence in his wake, before returning with one of the nondescript black belts in his hands.

“I haven’t... figured out what all of these do yet, and there are a couple buttons that you really shouldn’t press, okay??”

He looked around, “It’d be a really terrible idea if someone pressed one of them while wearing it!”

“Terrible. I can’t figure out exactly how to operate it yet, but the Nocturnus echi... the... the people this belt came from used it to break th... Uh...”

He looked around, slightly uncomfortable. He caught Rouge’s eye, and then finished up.

“Just don’t press it is all, ok?”

He put on the belt, which made a very faint whining noise and seemed to shrink to accommodate his waist. A series of symbols lit up on its surface. Tails gestured to one of them.

“Don’t ever press this.”

Skip the Donuts (Ch. 4: Day 4)

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