Last Boarding Call

[Miles "Tails" Prower]

Tails had tried his best to contain himself. His face was a constantly-changing series of expressions- The first, a shocked surprise at seeing Shadow, the second, a relieved, joyful cheer at Sonic.

"Yeaaaaaaaaa!~ I knew you'd make it!" HE ran to give the hero a high five, but feel short, and scowled at the hedgie. "You STILL haven't learned how to swim?!" he said, prodding Sonic hard. "I'm tellin' Knux!!!"

After a concerned glance at the console, Tails nodded to Slick and ran to the controls, easing the drop ship away into the sky. "Everybody, hold on! This ride is about to get veeeeeeery shaky!" Trying to level and maintain the damaged ship as best as he could, Tails set a course back to their original point before this whole incident. All while speechless at the ordeal everybody had just been through. With a satisfied look at Sonic and Amy, he didn't even think about how he'd pointed the drop ship practically nowhere. The team was safe, that to him, that was enough to call it a day.

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Tails' silence lasted only about a minute, while listening to the others. His mind buzzing with bits of thought that he felt he needed to blurt out- But which one? True Blue wouldn't need him to express how worried he'd been about the hedgehog sinking into the depths. Sonic should know very well that water and, well, Sonic brought up a red flag in his mind. Saying anything on that would only prod the ego that was Sonic, perhaps even sounding Amy-ish. Although, to be fair, she had handled this a lot better than Tails thought she would. Leaning in his seat, his gaze shifted towards Shadow- Now that's something to be curious about! The fox chuckled. Shadow still seemed so dark about things. Maybe that was the wrong word- He just seemed Shadow. And while Tails' scientific thinking couldn't conceive the processes involved with re-entry and a lone body, it was comforting to see him alive. Better yet, he wasn't trying to kill Sonic. Still being mistaken for Sonic, yes, but not trying to kill him.

"Hm... Can't really say when we're landing, Sonic- But... Lemme see...." he trailed off, still lost in thought. Amy had brought him back to reality though, and he couldn't help but let out a snicker. His eyes diverted to her, and sure enough, there she was, lost for words.

Shaking his head, amused, he threw a thumbs up sign at Sonic. "I'll land this thing as soon as I can!"

In the back of his mind, Sarath's ending performance had struck an odd nerve, and the fox felt that something was not as it seemed... but beaming brightly at Sonic, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and sat back in his seat.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

"So then, you were the one who saved me, eh?"

The turtle was about to nod triumphantly when...

"Hmph, you certainly don't look like much. You probably only grabbed me because you thought I was Sonic, your "hero". Pah.
The turtle couldn't hold back a snicker, then a quiet chuckle.

You did, didn't you? I still don't understand how you idiots can mistake me for the likes of him."

It was true, no way to sugar coat it. He scratched his head and closed his eyes, laughing half embarrased at just how true the statement was. The chao however, gave a loud "Humph", before turning it's back to shadow and walking away headfirst into the nearest wall, not looking where it was going as it pretended to be like the hedgehog. It's antenna spiaraled out, as it's eyes swirled around in a cartoonish motion as it fell over.

"Well still, even if I wasn't looking to fish him out, I wouldn't leave someone who was in danger behind.", he said as he picked up his chao, and set him on his cap. "And by the way...your rather lucky to resemble my "hero". Otherwise I may not have spotted you as soon as I did." , He said quoteing the dark hedgehog jokingly to poke the his ego, shrugging slightly.

[Sonic]

"Alright, alright," Sonic said in response to Tails' reassurance with his usual persona of confidence and relaxation. "I know you've got to get us out of ground zero first. Nobody's going to get us back to earth faster than you."

It was doubtful that anybody in the drop ship, except the possibility of Amy, would understand what the two brothers by everything but blood were really saying to each other.

After a close-call like that I need to do some running to shake it off.

I understand Sonic. I was really worried about you there for a minute.

Yeah me too, but I knew I wouldn't be drowning as long as you were around, Tails.

Speaking of Amy, if Sonic had some time to kill while this bird was still in the air then he may as well catch up. That in mind the quickster made his way back to the pink female, perfectly comfortable no matter how many strangers were around.

"So Amy, if what your friend said was right then you only just joined the military. Must have been quite the first day on the job, huh?"

[Shadow]

Shadow grimaced at Tutley's comment and turned his back to him, not even cracking a smirk at the chao's antics. Earlier he would have given a sneering retort, but he wasn't in the mood now. His earlier good mood had been quite thoroghly ruined by the idea of that smug alien commander down there somewhere, laughing at his clever escape.

When Sarath first flooded the bridge, Shadow had thought it a move of desparation, that the alien fox had done it with the knowledge that he was going to die anyway and he wanted to take his opponent down with him. But now that the black hedgehog had time to think about it, it felt different. Sarath wasn't trying in desparation to destroy Shadow. Now that he thought about it, it seemed more like Sarath had merely brushed him aside, ignoring his assault and drowning him like it wasn't worth the effort to defeat Shadow in battle. Like he thought he was better than me, Shadow thought angrily, his fists clenching again. I should have stayed behind... I should have kept attacking, I should have made sure he was dead! I probably did exactly what he expected me to do... and now he's probably still alive somewhere down there.

That was what was really getting to Shadow now. He was sure now that Sarath was still alive, and that one day he would return to wreak havoc once more.

Shadow walked quietly to the back of the ship and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. I've got to put that smug fox out of my mind, he thought to himself, shaking his head almost sadly. If he comes back, I'll be ready for him, but this isn't the time to be worrying about it. Even if he's alive, we've still won, at least for now. Shadow shook his head brisquely for a moment to dispell his gloomy thoughts, and a slight smirk finally returned to his face.

[Jack-the-Hedgie]

Shadow's glare was met with a raise of an eyebrow. Partially because of Shadow's rather grumpy remark, and partly because the hedgehog is, admittedly, really intimidating. Though Shadow was staring daggers at the elastic hedgehog, the innocent nature of the statement that caused it lessened the impact some.

"Hmph, who asked you? Besides, it doesn't take a lot to notice black and red fur in broad daylight, even at thirty feet. Unless you're blind or stupid..."

Jack responded with a shrug.

"I had my reasons. They aren't important right now, though."

Deciding to spare Shadow of any more of Jack's unintentional stupidity, he decided to leave him be, turning his gaze elsewhere. Jack had no business pestering someone who was too busy recovering from a fight with the very Sarath who led this hellish assault on Earth. With no one else but Sonic, no less. Jack had five people with him, and could barely handle the guards. Sonics passing statement broke him out of an impending moment of gloom.

"That's a pretty nice trick with the arms,"

Yeah. It wasn't much, as it was little more then a passing remark. Still, given the way everyone praised the blue hedgehog as a hero, it felt good to be complimented by someone like him. Jack responded with a smirk and a "Thanks. Glad you liked it"

His attention, soon after, turned to the chao's antics. Though Shadow wasn't impressed, if it was consolation at all, it did make Jack smile. Chao had a tendency to cheer the hedgie up. he couldn't help but watch the little guy for a while, even when he was doing little then sitting on the turtles head.

[Amy Rose]

"So Amy, if what your friend said was right then you only just joined the military. Must have been quite the first day on the job, huh?"

My concentration broke off as I heard him. Sonic. He was talking to me. I looked at him almost dumbly. I didn't want to sound overbearing, but being face to face again, I almost couldn't help it. Then his question registered in my head and whatever excited mood I was in sunk. Despite my prior training on Prison Island, as I thought about it, I felt more of a nuisance to GUN than anything else. What had I done back in the Mystic Ruins? Hid. In one of Sarath's ships? Froze.

But Sonic wouldn't put up with someone being bluer than him. So, with that in mind, I cleared my thoughts and put on my best smile.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. It's a lot harder than it looks. That's for sure." I paused and tilted my head. "Say, Sonic. What have you and Tails been up to? I haven't seen either of you in a long time."

[Sonic]

"We've been seeing the world," Sonic answered happily. Never let it be said that the hero was above enjoying talking about himself, though it was at least nice that he let other people start him off first. Actually he was talking more for himself than for Tails. The fox definitely came with the older furry on numerous trips, but Miles also spent a large amount of time in his own workshop over the past years too. "Eggman's been laying low since our big team-up so I've been able to have fun in ways besides breaking his toys."

It was good to be able to talk to Amy again, even if the circumstances weren't exactly typical conversation fare. At least she wasn't trying to cling to him all the time. So long as that didn't change he had no reason to look for an excuse to run off now that the battle was over. Not that he wasn't going to run off as soon as they were down again anyway, it would just be more running off and less running away.

"What about you? How long did it take to join GUN anyway?" he asked. For all the Blue Blur really knew Amy could have been in boot camp since they last parted.

[Amy Rose]

"To be honest, I've only been with them a few weeks. They were holding a recruitment drive in Capitol..."

I went on to explain the attack transpired by F4, the fight against some white wolf with red eyes and how it'd ended with my victory, including the rescue of Admiral Roma and a joint effort to stop the bomb. I told him how I'd been offered a position on Roma's ship, but due to her short notice call for duty, I had instead been put under the command of Slick. In brief, I mentioned the short training period I had and then the mission gone wrong where we had crash landed and been taken captive after a brutal fight in the Mystic Ruins. My voice started out shaky. The darker tones of my story were left out. My feelings of fear and uselessness. No doubt he probably noticed but whether he brought it up or not was his own decision. I hoped he wouldn't. Even so, as my tale went on, I mellowed out until I was talking as casually as I was used to.

"And that's when those ships attacked their base and I was making my escape and ran into you. I mean before then. Well... I was just really making a life for myself in Station Square. I learned all sorts of new things, too!"

I paused again and felt a little silly. I must have talked so much. I hoped I hadn't made True Blue bored in all my chattering.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

"If it's any consolation, if the invaders come back again, we'll be more than ready for them.", he said to the hedgehog with a mischivous smirk. After all, the work for readying Stardusian battleships capable of reaching Earth should be kicked into overdrive now, after this accident. The higher-ups wouldn't dare let this happen again without some preemtive countermeasure against another invasion.


With all the stress in the room dwindleing, Tutley turned his attention to something that got his attention a while ago. He turned towards the back, looking at the girl Amy had carried onboard. He pulled out his laptop, takeing a seat on the ground. Pulling his laptop out his backpack, he connected it wirelessly to the ship to download a copy of the ships logs and other various data. Surely GUN as well as his homeland themselves could use this data to engineer better crafts, and perhaps he'd get himself a bonus for this too. At the same time, he brought up the Time Agent handbook on his comp, cross referenceing those braclets she was wearing, while the chao floated off Tutley's head, pokeing the girl on the arms. "Are those bracelets what I think they are?", he asked himself curiously. Amy seemed busy, so he decided not to ask her just yet.

[Sonic]

"So you've rumbled with old Joey too huh? That's pretty impressive. Its not often I run into a guy who can keep up with yours truly," Sonic recounted, knowingly casting a glance of the eyes towards a certain wall-leaning occupant of the ship as he said so before returning to Amy again. The hedgehog was focusing on a high point of the girl's tale since it happened to contain someone he'd met himself. Blue went on to speak of his and the white wolf's encounter in the Mystic Ruins jungle and the red Chaos Emerald. After the story, which was considerably shorter than Amy's, Sonic started to look up in thought.

"That Emerald isn't safe with the likes of them, though. Maybe I should try and get it back. F4's probably still reeling from the attack on their mountain base anyway. The problem will be finding them."

Yeah Sonic, as actually getting the emerald once it was found would be no trouble.