Living in the City

[Chadin]

"Afraid so..." I replied, folding my arms across my chest in annoyance. I'd tried to talk Slick out of it. After all he'd been through I told him he should have taken a break and relax. "And right now, he's probably on one of the toughest possible missions and old trooper like him could take on..."

I sighed, knowing all too well what he must be going through right now. "Training new Spec Op recruits..." [more on that later XD]

Meanwhile the mysterious figure, watched the group below menacingly from just across the street. Perched atop an antiquated building designed to resemble some sort of Italian architecture, large columns stuck out from the face of the building, reaching up to large arches decorating the roof of the structure; making it appear as though Roman aqueducts were atop the roof's edge. Hiding amongst one of them, the stranger leaned out from the side of one of the fake arches with a clear line of sight on the group through a break in the tree branches at street level. He raised his weapon and took careful aim. He seemed to take a long time to aim his weapon, but in fact, it wasn't because he was tweaking his aim. He was actually focusing. And when the trigger was squeezed, the crossbow made absolutely no noise. No twang of the string, no snap of the release mechanism, nothing. The arrow in flight likewise made no noise at all as it sailed through the air.

In fact, the only indication that the shot had even been fired would be the rush of wind Amy would feel passing through her hair (along with a few clipped bits of hair and quill falling to the ground) and the sudden appearance of an arrow, impaled deeply into one of the boxes beside Amy that Tutley had set down earlier.

And even if Amy didn't notice the wind in her hair, everyone else would certainly notice the arrow sticking out of the pile of boxes. Cutter, certainly didn't fail to notice as the arrow seemed to just appear out of nowhere, and pass bar inches above Amy's head! "GET DOWN! SNIPER!!! I mean, ARCHER!! I mean... just get down!!!"I instinctively reached out to grab Amy by the wrist and dragged her down to the ground beside the cover of a nearby parked car.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

[Pageing Huu and Jack]

o_O

[Kitty O'Brien]

((Paging Jack! I know he was on before!))

[Jack-the-Hedgie]

((Go on ahead. I'll post when I'm able))

[Huu B.]

((Fine.))

Huu had no trouble avoiding Tutley's hand, but then the arrow flew by.

What the ****?

After a moment of flying around, Huu perched on the arrow's tail after it had settled in the box.

Hmm... the angle gives a pretty good indication of where it came from. Looks like I'm the only one in any position to investigate...

His curiosity piqued, Huu took off again and made his way to the building across the street, perching on one of the "aqueducts". From here he'd have a perfect view of the sniper who'd fired that arrow...

My fly body's beginning to wear off. I'll have to change back soon.

[Amy Rose]

I'd hardly gotten a chance to process all the information Cutter just relayed to me when I hit the deck. The German Shepherd had yelled something. What was it-"GET DOWN! SNIPER!!!" I shook my head. The fall had set my brain almost rattling in my skull. I rubbed it gingerly before stopping abruptly. A few of my locks were missing. It had been that close-that breeze. Safe to say, that sniper had some aim. A little part of me wondered 'Why me?', another screaming 'Ugh! Now, I'll have to cut my quills, jerk!', but I kept it all on the back burner for now. There were more pressing issues at hand.

My bracelets glowed as they had already once that day. I gripped my hammer but waited for now. How we were going to fix this mess? I wasn't sure. But what I did know was that it was four to one and no one could shoot that many people at the same time.

"I say we all go in at once," I whispered.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

Tutley was about to tell Jack what he was up to when...

GET DOWN! SNIPER!!! I mean, ARCHER!!

"ARCHER?! Since when did-" He cut himself off, as he moved his feet and picked Josh up, setting him behind a nearby car. "Whatever you do, don't move from this spot. If you don't, I'll get you the best bike this side of station square, ok?" Tutley quickly scanned for the arrow, and his jaw dropped as he looked at one of his boxes, with a arrow stuck in it as it leaked chocolate pudding on the sidewalk. He twitched. "He didn't.....that guys gonna pay!"

He growled as he calculated it's probable trajectory, and set down his backpack behind himself, as it hastily reconfigured itself into the form of a board class extreme gear while he kept crouched, leaning on the car. He got atop it, and lightly moved to tap Jack on the back with his hammer as the hammerhead went blank.

[Copy Hammer]

"Amy's right! Let's charge him!"

[Jack-the-Hedgie]

((*Pops in some fitting Boss music for the upcoming action*))

Jack had been silent through much of the conversation, the more stoic side of his personality having come out. He was just happy to see the closest people he had to friends in one spot. Of course, once Cutter made mention of what Slick was going through, this bit of happiness diminished some. Poor guy. It must be hard to lose family... Jack wouldn't know, but he tried his best to imagine.

This moment of silence was broken (for the better, I think everyone would agree), by Cutters exclamation.

"GET DOWN! SNIPER!!! I mean, ARCHER!!"

Jacks ears perked as he looked, with much surprise, that she wasn't kidding. On instinct, Jack dropped to the ground, curled up in a natural hedgehog defense stance: head down, back up, spines ready. Sure, this wouldn't protect him against arrows, but you never know.

Turns out, the first thing to meet his battle-ready ready backside was Tutleys hammer. Jack wasn't sure just why he decided to do that, unaware that he was just used as a walking, talking Power-Up, but it was a light tap, so all the hedgehog did in response was flinch slightly and let out a brief "oof."

"I say we all go in at once,"
"Amy's right! Let's charge him!"

"Wait!" Jack called in response. "We have kids here. One of us needs to stay behind and get them somewhere safe."

As much as Jack would love to rush in and rip this new assailant a new one, he didn't want to do it at the risk of putting children in danger. Especially children of someone he trusted.

[Chadin]

"Easy for you to say!" I shouted back over the screams and general panic of nearby civilians running for cover once they too realized what was happening. "You guys are at least armed, I'm not. Besides, I can't leave my children like this! You three will have to take him yourselves."

Meanwhile, up on the roof top, Huu would discover that the shooter was in fact a young, lithe buck in a green and red trimmed tunic wielding a crossbow. And judging by the number of arrows inside the quiver hanging from his belt, he had plenty of ammunition to throw around. "Blast!" I grumbled, in annoyance. I'd had that pink hedgehog line up perfectly. And my stealth shot had been the best chance to take out the target without even drawing attention. But just as I pulled the trigger, it had felt like some other voice in the back of my head screamed out; distracting me and throwing my aim off just slightly enough to miss. And now, now my target has taken cover and I'd lay odds this mission was about to get far more complicated. I was mad now. Mad at my missed opportunity, and that was all I needed for my next shot.

I spun around from my hiding place and concentrated. I know roughly where I last saw the hedgehog before she got behind the car, I'd fire there. Now, it was just a matter of focusing my frustration. I could feel a wind building up beside my face. I didn't need to look to know why. Once I felt a strong enough blowing wind across the my cheek I squeezed the trigger and braced myself as the massive recoil kicked back into my shoulder.

I had slowly crept over to the other side of the car and taken a quick glance. Across the street there was an alley, and I though I also saw an old fashioned fire escape. Just the ticket, I quickly crawled back beside Amy. "I think I see an old fire escape in that alley across the road. You ought to be able to flank him if you-" Suddenly an arrow head ripped through the hood of the car and out the side, only missing me and Amy's head by a few inches; followed by a loud and powerful rush of wind that felt almost like a small sonic boom. "WHOAH!!!" Car alarms were blaring now all across the street, and the windows of the car we were hiding behind suddenly exploded and shattered.

Anyone who hadn't realized what was happening were definitely running for it now. "What the heck was THAT!! That's a freak'n arrow!! And it just punched right through a quarter inch of steel car hood and out the other side!! What the heck did you do to tick this guy off Amy!?!" I didn't even realize how alarmed and surprised my voice was. But without any weapons of my own, I have to admit, I was scared.

[Tutley Sakamoto]

Tutley took a look at his hammer, tapping his feet impatiently for a moment. Within seconds, a new pattern emerged. The hammerhead was red, with various orange claw marks on it, and his wardrobe shifted from blue and yellow, to orange and red.

[Copied: Jack's savage form claw attack.]

"Uh...Jack?, he asked takeing a slightly concearned look at him as the know how for his copied move entered his mind. Jack didn't have any claws...and yet somewhere, for some reason, in his carefree brain he knew how to fight with them...firecely he might add. Tutley shrugged off the though, saveing it away for later. "Anyway...try to float up the side of the building while I distract the sniper." He locked his feet into the gear, and gave a smirk, shifting his weight on it. He wanted a reason to test out his gear in real life, and now was the perfect chance. As his hammer sprouted three light energy made claws from the front of it, he took off, chargeing straight at the building, leaveing a wake of turbulance behind him, after makeing sure Josh was not in the path of it first. When he was about to hit the wall, he jumped, and climed straight up the building the sniper should be on.