It was a peaceful, sunny day in the towering, gleaming city of steel, concrete and glass that was Gigalopolis. It had actually been... quite nice there for a while. Rebuilding efforts since the whole Eggman Empire debacle seemed to be heavily, almost disproportionately focused on South Island, and the previously ramshackle city had been almost entirely restored in just a matter of weeks, and no further battles had taken place there. Chimera gunships hovering over the waters out at sea remained a constant reminder that chaos was just a drop of a hat away, but for the time being? It was just nice.

Nice for some people. For others, it was just another day in a harrowing chain of events that, for whatever reason, had finally brought them back home.

Bells rang, seagulls cried, and glittery water lapped at the piers of the harbor. A peculiar-looking boat, maybe a little on the old-looking side, was approaching dock. It was the kind of boat that was sure to get attention, good or bad.

How long had it been? Everything had been so crazy ever since Ace was snatched by Li Fang. Maybe a couple of weeks had passed—that seemed about right. Following the huge struggle in Chun-nan, there were a few fruitless days spent wandering around, searching in vain, until the ever-resourceful Mr. Casey revealed "intelligence" that showed Li Fang had moved to South Island. (Maybe the most surprising thing of it all was that no one had really yet successfully leveled any serious questions about just why Casey had access to information like this.)

Whatever the case, the grizzled boar claimed a lack of sufficient funds to fly everyone all the way back to South Island, but said he knew "a guy with a boat" in the area that he could charter. As par the course for the group's transportation, it was not the friendliest boat to travel on... but, it was a new day, and they were finally back on familiar soil. The United Federation was across bridges to the west, the open desert rolled to the east, and a slew of opportunities, and decisions to make laid somewhere right between.Ben is gonna give us a post next for the specifics of the boat and the boat arriving and all that good stuff.


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The transportation that got the group back to South Island was a rather large wooden vessel. It was a bit of a hybrid, though. The majority of the hull was wooden, but it had clearly been customized over the years that it's captain had been using it, with metal plating here and there to patch leaks. It's weaponry was not the archaic cannons that you feed giant iron orbs into, either.

More importantly than that, though, the captain was a crazy black rabbit who thought he was a pirate. His crew? A bunch of rambunctious, rowdy, and mischievous baby rabbits. Hellions more like it. But hey, sometimes the ride is free for a reason. As the Emerald Lady pulled into port, one of those hellions swung down via loose rope from the crows nest, in a maneuver that would make any normal parent have a heart attack, and kicked the crank that released the gang plank

Ivan headed down from the helm, adjusting his coat.

"Alright, you transients. We be anchored in South Island. Hope ya enjoyed the ride. Watch yer step, the plank be kinda shaky. Need to get a new one..."

To some, ports were gateways to new worlds, while to others, they dangerous sources of potential threats.
To Vade the Coyote, they were neither. The more industrial shoreline of Gigalopolis was a goldmine of junk, scrap metal and thrown away treasures.

With everything being calm on South Island at the moment, Vade had been spending the past four days in Gigalopolis, scavenging the city's seemingly endless piles of trash and junk in search of things that would turn out to be somewhat useful with a couple of bolts attached to them. His current position was on top of a dump truck, filled to the brim with junk. And almost like a fish in the water, he scoping up junk and trash, inspecting it and moving along to the next handful. So far, he hasn't been able to find much of use, but he felt in his guts he was going to find something in this port.

His attention, however, was drawn away from the dump truck, to the open seas. Something that was different than the usual boats or Chimera and G.U.N. vehicles. From as far as Vade could see, it was nothing more than a floating piece of trash that approached the shore. Shrugging to himself, he continued digging through the trash, keeping the little "boat" in the corner of his eye, keeping in mind that he may as well find something useful on that boat.

Casey adjusted his red jacket and hiked up his pants as he clomped across the deck toward the gangplank. A sizable backpack hung from his shoulders, while a comb was clutched in his hand, currently employed to straighten out his spiky beard. He may have been a pig, but he was a neat pig.

He pocketed the comb as he approached, and paused next to Ivan to extend a hand.

"Always a pleasure," Casey grunted cheerfully. "Yer'old lady's got our fare," he added with a nod toward wherever Annita was. With the trip done and the transfer of rings complete, it seemed like their encounter was done. But, maybe not quite yet.

"You aren't still lookin' for work, are ya?" he asked, meanwhile turning and taking a couple steps to the side as he realized he was blocking the gangplank with his combined girth and bulky pack.

With the ruckus of the ship distracting him too much from his scavenge in the dump truck, he just hopped over the edge of the truck and landed right next to his top-spin disc.

As he looked up to the boat however, he couldn't help but notice the wobbling and dazed purple girl that had just managed to collect herself after a very close meeting with the ground.
Rapidly bringing his fist up to cover his mouth, he held back a laugh, which still came out sounding as a mocking snicker.
Eventually, he couldn't help himself and he just had to do something to make sure he was put in the spotlight, which was yelling out towards the purple girl. "'Ey there! They ran out of paper bags on that raft?!" Never having been one to really bother with strangers, he couldn't care if his comment sounded harsh. He just wanted to entertain himself after a fruitless scavenge through the city.

As his snicker had turned into regular laughing, he reached down to lift his top-spin onto his shoulder, before turning his attention to the ship again, hoping to see and hear the results of his mocking cry for attention.

The violet hare that was one of the two purple hares aboard Jack or Daniel (though no one aside from Annita seemed able to tell them apart) walked with the loris, his head canting as she spoke to him about the linguistic value of pirate vocabulary.

"Ya sure use a lotta big fancy words." He finally concluded as they reached the deck. "Ar... no. No it not be." He finally said hopefully answering her last question. "Well, guess this is where you get lost. Byyyyeee!"

And with that, and a hopeful escape form the inquisitive loris, the hare made an impressive leap into the rigging and scaled it to the crows nest where his twin was waiting.

Annita waved the visitors off and smiled kindly as she secured the mooring lines for the vessel. So the jeering call from the stranger didn't go unnoticed, she turned a bit and looked around for the source, the momma rabbit narrowed her eyes and pulled a knife from her belt.

Annita had been fairly quiet for most the trip. She hadn't once raised her voice to Ivan or the children despite their behavior, but it was clear there was a very easy way to insight violence from her.

"YA CALL THE EMERALD LADY A RAFT AGAIN AND SO HELP ME I'LL GUT YOU AND USE YER INNARDS TO PAINT'ER HULL!" She yelled back with her thick island accent, brandishing the knife. Those listening carefully could hear small rabbits in the crows nest cheering their mother on.

It was shortly after the death threat was issue did the unmistakeable roar of a old engine start to fill the air. the old somewhat rusty truck pulled into a spot not far from the dock, said truck was probably blue, but the paint had faded to a gray with rusty brown patches. The driver that hopped out was none other then the former Sheriff herself, cowboy hat and all.

"Well I'll be." Jack said as she approached the others, stopping to greet Sheff first. "How was the trip? You didn't say you were sailing with Ivan."

"AHOY!" She called to the rabbit, grinning to herself, seeing him reminded her of Glastonia and a certain ermine whom she sent letters. "Goodness, who's kids'er those...?"

Ivan grinned, taking Casey's hand in a firm hand-shake, "Ya know me, Case'. Always lookin' ta line me pockets. If yer offerin', let's hear it." He said, cutting to the chase. He did, after all, have more than a few kids to feed. His attention was then grabbed by a familiar shout.

"AHOY!"

"Ahoy!" He waved back to the griffin below, "Those brats be mine, lass!" He said, and even though he used the term brats, he had pride in his voice when he said it.

Vade snickered as he took a step back, raising his free hand in front of him in a gesture to stay calm towards the purple wolverine. “’Ey ‘ey now! Easy there! I was just jo-…”

"YA CALL THE EMERALD LADY A RAFT AGAIN AND SO HELP ME I'LL GUT YOU AND USE YER INNARDS TO PAINT'ER HULL!"

Vade yelped at the sudden outburst, taking a rapid step aside as the angered, female voice boomed in his direction, almost losing balance himself as he tries to regain his equilibrium after being startled, before looking over at the woman.

He quickly pulled an awkward smile on his face as he called back to the rabbit. “Ehe… Sorry, miss! Won’t happen again!” He smiled widely at the female, before quickly diverting his attention back to the seasick wolverine, walking over to her, though keeping his distance as he doesn’t want to risk having his teeth spilled on the ground and his tail knotted to the mast of a ship.

His cocky grin was now a more amusing smile, and his altitude was obvious a bit less now as he came to the realization that the girl was actually quite a bit taller than him. Clearing his throat momentarily, before speaking up in a more casual tone. “Sorry about that. I was just joking around.”

He further just kept his distance, not wanting to spark more unnecessary violence from the girl by getting too close to her. In the meantime, he had put his top-spin disk on its side and was leaning on it with his elbow.

Casey, squinting over his shoulder toward the ruckus, seemed to have a hard time focusing on what he'd originally been saying. Nevertheless, he just shook his head, digressed, and confirmed what Ivan said, albeit tenuously.

"I might need a hand with somethin' soon enough, if you wanna stick around," he offered as he went to plod down the gangplank himself. "Employers aren't funding me too well for all this nonsense, but it's enough to be worth splittin'. We can talk about it later, though."

That last addition came quietly, with a glance toward the approaching griffin, mostly because she seemed... familiar with Ivan, and, well, it'd be rude to keep trying to talk business with acquaintances to greet, wouldn't it? The boar just shuffled off and loitered off to the side, as if waiting for someone.

"Aye." The one-eyed rabbit nodded. He waited for Casey to clear the gangplank before turning to Annita.

"You've got the boat, first mate!" He said before he headed down the plank as well. Going on another adventure, leaving Annita to handle the boat and kids. Such a responsible father. He headed over to Jack with a grin, "Di'nt expect to see you waitin' for us to pull in. Ya been keepin' in touch with that baron?"

Couldn't even be bothered to remember the guy's name.