Sonic Aftermath

Ji and Anu were about a story above street level, but still close to Gail and Chadin.

(Ji) "Stay with the others, Anu. I'm going to glide up and scout out the area."
(Anu) "Are you sure you'll be okay, Your--"
(Ji) "Look, we've survived for this long. I don't think you have a right to keep doubting me. Now, please, Anu."
(Anu) "Well, okay."

Crouching down and opening her frills, Ji leapt and glided, jumping from wall to wall with the goal of getting as high up as she could.

As Jii got higher, she wouldn't be able to see much. Up ahead lay the area of town with Robotnik's HQ tower. However, it was like staring into a black hole. The silhouettes of the towers could faintly be seen against the stormy sky, but otherwise no features could be distinguished. Practically the only light came from occasional lightning strikes.

That being said, bright flashes of green light from Mammoth's shield and attacks could be seen in the street below. Plus she'd hear a loud rumble and cannon fire from an unseen armored vehicle.

---

So, he learned on the fly, kind of like how I'm doing? Damn...he must be pretty awesome if he's still alive. I probably would have been dead or roboticized a few times over by now were it not for him. Espio...training to be an awesome ninja? Hmm...yeah, that does sound better!

The wolf briefly flashed a toothy smile. However, the smile quickly faded, as the screams became more distinguished. Could that be...

"Robotnik? Somethin' is REALLY goin' wrong if HE'S doing the screaming..."

Then he heard a extremely loud thud.

"And what was THAT?"

[Should we change to Chaos Within next round?]

[Agreed]

"That, I believe is the sound of the unmentionables hitting the fan..." I muttered in resigned understatement. "Remember what I said about using those rockets on the BIG targets? I think you might want to get that thing ready. Come on!" With that, I pressed on, now clutching my crossbow up close to my shoulder in a sort of half-readied position; ready to snap it up at a moment's notice. Strangely enough, once I got to the end of the block, it seemed as if I'd walked into a black fog bank as I disappeared into it. Visibility went from several hundred meters to less than a dozen in an instant. My skin started to crawl as I pressed in further, no relying almost entirely on my keen ears to listen for danger.

Suddenly the sound of that enormous laser cannon rumbled through the streets once more, causing me to pause and drop to one knee. That thing is CLOSE!! In fact, as I heard it, I thought I could just barely make out a brief flash of the beam through the gloom. So now I had some idea of where at least one threat might be, barely. But that left me wondering if I should move that way and engage it, or see what else might be lurking around in this muck first? For now, I'd wait for the others to catch up and plan the next move from there.

(Sure, why not?)

Anu stayed with Gail and Chadin, but remained high up, hoping Ji would still be able to see him. He said nothing.

Ji continued to dance higher and higher, but quickly realized that even with the altitude bonus she could see very little. Still, the noises and bits of green light were hard to miss.

Hmm... might be worth checking out.

She glided towards the commotion to take a look.

((I seem to be posting an awful lot on my own, don't I?))

Noooooot aaagaaaaaaiiiinnnn!!!!

A small shuttle crashed through the ceiling of an empty hangar, scattering flaming debris everywhere. With a great metal lurching sound it ground across the floor, any semblance of landing gear long stripped away by the crash. Inside the cockpit the automatic ejection system was malfunctioning, and the unfortunate occupant was forced to endure the ride to its conclusion.

Large egg-shaped craft rolled across the floor as the downed shuttle blasted them aside. Its momentum finally slowed by the impacts, the shuttle began to grind to a halt on the scorched concrete. Sparks flew along the floor, falling about deep scratches left in the surface. A large shelf full of tools toppled to the floor as the nose of the shuttle (now scrunched up like an accordion) nudged them over. Everywhere was smoke and fire as Shazbot's flight ended.

A small seat-belt light over the pilot's seat went dark as Shaz shook his head, clearing it. He looked around the cockpit and assessed the damage, soon giving it up as a bad job when he saw the sorry state of the control console. "Reminds me of my first car..." He reached down and tried to unfasten the seat-belt, but his added weight had strained the buckle, and now it was stuck. With his cyborg arm he reached down and yanked the bolt right out of its casing, and an unusual "hissing" sound followed. Before he could even begin to wonder what that noise was the automatic ejection system kicked in, sending Shaz and the chair he was sitting on rocketing straight up through the canopy, blasting a hole in the roof of the hangar as he went.

BAAAD DAAAAAY...

[Projected landing zone: somewhere just outside the hangar.]

((I assume that since Chadin's not in this thread yet, he has yet to arrive. If that's the case, I'll greet him at the door.))

[Huh... well, that's a convenient way to spice up what would have otherwise been a dull endeavor. Speaking of meeting at the door...]

After several minutes of running, the Swat-pod hangar building was finally in sight. I was feeling a rush of elation as this half-baked plan of mine showed some potential promise of fruition.

Silly me, I should have known this was going to well.

From out of nowhere, though to be fair in a city filled with tall sky scrappers one can hardly say that have a large field of vision towards any given horizon, an shuttle the likes of which I've never seen before came falling out of the sky like a meteor. Actually, that's a little unfair. A meteor is a flaming ball of rock with no direct control over it's destination beyond gravity. This thing as best I could tell was being piloted by someone out of a bad Saturday morning cartoon character; someone who seemed to have a talent for crash landings in the most bizarre, spectacular and downright inconvenient way possible. I mean, he could have picked absolutely ANY of the other buildings around here to crash into, but NOOOOooooo. He has to crash into the ONLY one I needed in order to potentially save thousands of lives. I clenched my teeth as my keen hearing picked up all the gory screeching of metal and the distinct crash of something very large smashing through many smaller things. Things of which I probably needed.

Some days I really hate my luck.

Speaking of luck, my crash-happy pilot seemed to have survived the crash, only to be shot out the roof of the hangar like a rocket. I swear, it's like someone's toying with my life some days.

I watched him sail up, over and start to fall towards the street I was currently standing it with a bewildered sense of awe. As gravity once more claimed him for it's own, I noticed that his trajectory was starting to become uncomfortably close. So, since I'm hardly a heavy-weight myself, I kindly slide back a step or two, leaving the falling... wait what the heck is that thing any way? Anyway, I left him a nice big swath of street for him to splatter himself on.

((PFFFT I didn't get in here in time to edit my post. Apparently, the SWATpod refueling hangar is in a large, dome-shaped structure on top of a ten-story tower. Let's just pretend I'm tough enough to survive my Wile E Coyote drop and I'll try to be more diligent in the future. Also, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?))

((Wait, don't I need to wait for everyone in your group to make a post before I take another turn? I thought there was at least two of you...))

[Technically, until Jii decides to switch topics, we're the only ones in here]

(Entering from Chaos Within)

Ji and Anu caught up to Chadin, somewhat out of breath.

(Ji) "...Did we miss something?"

((Alrighty then, let's milk this joke until the very end!))

As he fell down to earth, Shaz could be heard making a rather distinctive sound seconds before impact.

His landing was loud and abrupt, the impact leaving a deep, echidna-shaped hole in the ground.

Slowly, he extended a robotic hand out of the hole, grasping the ground and sluggishly pulling himself up. "I don't wanna... ride the roller coaster mommy..." Then he looked up and saw he wasn't alone.

"...Now I KNOW I must be dreaming."

Current Hp: 56%