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[From Pursuing Robotnik's Fleet, Cross Country]
As the others commented on the smoke, Gail too looked forward. He felt very eager to find out just where they were going, and now they'd probably be getting their first look at it. He too saw the smoke rising out of the horizon, and eventually a beautiful green island started to come into view.
So, the good doctor is defiling a natural paradise? Not while I'm around! But I could swear that island looks familiar from somewhere before. Wasn't it one of Sonic's earlier adventures with fighting Robotnik?
"Oh! It's Angel Island!" the wolf snapped his fingers, as he remembered. "That's where Knuckles lives with the Master Emerald!"
He turned around to explain to the others what he was talking about.
"The island flies as long as the Master Emerald is on a special pedestal deep within the island's caverns. But since it's in the water, it must be gone from its place. I hope Robotnik doesn't already have it..."
However, his thoughts were distracted as he saw Vanessa land smack right onto the deck. It almost looked exactly like those face faults characters did in anime when someone did something stupid. Were this not real life, Gail might have burst out laughing at the sight.
Of course, with her being a girl, the wolf naturally ran right over immediately since he wanted to look like a hero in front of her. Fortunately she appeared to be unhurt, but all the same Gail milked the opportunity by slowly helping her to her feet in a gentlemanly way.
"Are you all right?" he said in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. Sure, she'd been weird to him before, but in his book women deserved the respect.
Gail didn't notice, but the others might see a small black speck appearing on the horizon as well. It grew larger as whatever the speck was accelerated straight for the boat. As the thing got closer, they'd see it was a SWATpod, obviously sent to intercept their ship.
"MASTER EMERALD!!! Oh, great that's all we need. But if the emeralds all shattered, and if the island is only suspended in the air by a whole Master Emerald than Robotnik must believe there is a large concentration of emerald shards to be found here. Hence why I noticed Robotnik loading up all that digging equipment. Well, I'm sure as heck not going to let that happen."
I admit I couldn't hold back a grin as Vanessa hit the deck in a most inglorious fashion. But my jovial mood disappeared as my heart jumped into my throat when I spotted the unmistakable profile of SWAT-pods heading straight for us. How'd Robotnik even know where were here? Well, no time to worry about that right now.
"INCOMING!!!! SWAT-Bots heading straight for us!!" I cried out in warning. In a flash I snatched my crossbow from the strap looped over my shoulder and the compact device snapped out into a very fancy looking crossbow.
"We can't let them catch us out on the water, we'll be sitting ducks for those things!!" I called out to the captain. "If we can just get to shore we can force them to fight us inside the trees!!"
“Angle Island…” Gerald stated in a sort of wearily way. Had he been here before? Though before he could have time to re-collect his thoughts, he heard the deer shout. He put his hand on the rails and gripped tight, as he looked out towards the horizon. He too could see the small black speck get bigger and bigger as the water passed them by.
“Aaahh- I don’t think we have time for that!” Gerald shouted in distress, “ I-I think that thing can move a lot faster then this boat!”
He took his hands off the rails and ran to the center of the ship, now concerned with getting in the way of any cross-fire that may come this way. He looked over towards Chadin with a worried look.
“Perhaps there’s some kind of way to trick it? Maybe a signal to jam it’s…-thing-?! Uhhh….” It was obvious that Gerald was trying to think of a solution, but wasn’t coming up with any good results. He soon found himself rummaging through his bag, as he muttered what seemed to sound like technobable.
Chadin had spoken the magic word. Hearing the prospects of a fight breaking out, Vanessa spurred Gail's offer to help her up. Her hands burst into flame as she pushed herself up, a wicked grin over coming her face. Something Gail could recognize as a mild battle lust. Unlike Gerald's timid nervousness or Chadin's reluctant fight-because-I-have-to demeanor, she was very much looking forward to this. Though not so much as his previous opponent, Relic, who seemed at home placing heads on pikes. Like the gray wolf she found joy in combat, not bloodshed, just combat.
Having been pent up, having to put on kiddie gloves with Chadin, she just couldn't hold back.
"Bet I can kick that things ass before it even gets here!" she declared taking a running start towards the bow of the ship. After a few steps she completely poured on the acceleration. Taking 9 seconds to nearly reach her top speed.
With a leap off the front end of the ship she waited till the apex of her jump to boost herself once again. At a 60 degree angle to gain more height then distance. Having closed the gap on the SWATpod she turned around once in the air. A fiery cone enveloping her lower half. With a war shout she rocketed towards the machine like a laser guided torpedo.
Ji and Anu had no idea what to make of any of the conversation around them. But their attention was quickly anchored by the oncoming fleet of... something. And then Vanessa had decided to hurl herself at it.
Deciding they wouldn't be able to contribute to the fight until it got closer, the two of them watched from the railing.
(Ji) "Considering her attitude I wouldn't be surprised at all if whatever that approaching thing is throttled her."
(Anu) "What IS a 'swat bot', anyway?"
[Vanessa, are you doing your Fire Drill move on the SWATpod? Correct me if this is wrong, please.]
Gail jumped backwards a bit, as Vanessa eagerly hopped back up despite the massive fall she'd taken. And now she was running straight for the front of the ship and declaring she would destroy the SWATpod before it even reached them. Gail chased after her, shouting as they ran.
"Hey! Hey! You just took a hard hit! Are you sure that you're..."
And then she jumped off the ship and rocketed straight up towards the SWATpod, using that fire move again to make up for the distance between her and the machine.
"...okay?"
After he got over the surprise, the wolf drew out his revolver, checking to see that all the chambers were full. However, he couldn't fire yet, considering Vanessa was in the way.
---
In the meantime, the SWATbot driving the SWATpod really wasn't sure what to make of this. He never expected to see something rocketing off of the front of the fishing boat straight at him. So he didn't have any time to avoid Vanessa smashing right into him with that attack. The front of the ship slightly compressed, as if someone had just mashed a big hammer on the front of it. The glass windshield compressed and cracked, with spiderwebs flying across it.
The impact from the attack knocked it off course for a second, temporarily stopping it from attacking the ship.
---
"Oh my...isn't she a crazy lass?"
But she may have just bought us the time we need.
The ship was coming up on some rocks and reefs near the beach. They'd be a little harder to track by using the rocks as cover, before they made landfall. Captain Danny skillfully guided the ship through the narrow gaps, heading for the yellow sand as quickly as possible. He called back to the others a warning.
"If you're going onto the island, you may want to get ready to get wet and swim! I'm not making landfall under these conditions!"
I was taking a pretty wild guess, but even though it looked like Vanessa slowed that Swat-pod down, it was still too close for my liking and I decided not to take any chances by letting it get any closer. I snapped my crossbow up, and carefully aimed for the pod's shattered windshield. I didn't want to hit Vanessa, but she was standing right in front of the driver so I could only hope I might hit something vital behind him. Those pods are pretty cramped from what I can tell, so I'm bound to hit something important no matter what I hit.
"They're robots. Big metal monsters. But for simplicity sake, just think of them as the 'bad guys' and don't worry about the details." I fired, a single shot, just to the left of Vanessa's left hip as the ship was momentarily between the rise and fall of a wave, giving me the best shot I could make on a moving ship.
"Start swimming for shore! I'll cover you as best I can!" I bellowed as I re-cocked my crossbow for another shot. Between me and Vanessa, I felt pretty sure we could keep that Swat-pod off the others till they reach the shore... so long as it doesn't get a chance to call for help.
Just as Gerald had pulled out a strange metallix object with large smile on his face, he looked over towards the direction of the SWATpod only to see Vanessa smashing it in the front. His eyes went wide for a second, as he heard the Captain.
“You’re telling me.” He muttered, “How did she do that?”
Hearing that they would have to make the departure off the boat –not- on dry land and not through a life boat made Gerald uneasy. Not that he couldn’t swim, but he had equipment on him that wasn’t immune to water. If he was to get off the boat he was going to have to abandon his stuff. Setting the strange boxy-like-cone object he took off his vest and place it in his back, and grabbed a box that looked like a medical kit. He took off his glasses and placed them in his pockets, hoping that they wouldn’t fall into the murky depths.
“ Would you keep this stuff safe for me?” Gerald asked politely (but also showing that he was in a hurry), placing his bag of electronics next to the captain’s place. He picked up the cone-ish like metal object and pressed a button at the ‘bottom’ of the device.
“We’d better come back some time, or else all this equipment was bought for nothing!” Gerald exclaimed before jumping into the cold water below him.
Vanessa's body continued to press against the plane. She couldn't do much immediately after preforming her fire drill, but it had been a better option then expending what had been her last mid air jump. Now that she had her feet on something solid, she'd be able to jump much more.
"OI DUMBASS!" she screamed at the cockpit "IMMA YOU YOUR OWN **** WITH ***** *****!!" The blue cat took little heed of the bolt to her left. Though if it finished off the glass on the cockpit, she'd end up falling in.
Ji and Anu glanced at one another.
(Anu) "Your Highness, I think it's time we made for shore."
(Ji) "Are you sure we shouldn't stay and... er... all right, let's go."
Ji opened her frills, took a running start, and jumped to glide inland. Anu followed on his wings.
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