Launch Base Zone - Infiltration

[Gail Strafer]

[Sorry guys, I must apologize. I did a speed rereading of the threads where Gail's been with Chadin. I don't think anyone actually told him Gerald is related to Robo, and when Chadin almost got killed by Gerald, Chadin didn't mention it to anybody before he ran inside the factory ship. Still though, I don't think we need to bother redoing our last round. If Chadin were conscious he probably would have given us all of this information anyway and the result would have been the same. I'll just say that Gail learned this information in an off-screen moment somewhere.]

Quote:“Woah, woah, woah, hand on a second!” Sonic exclaimed, as he looked over towards Gail. “ Are we talkin’ about Professor Robotnik? THE Professor, Gerald, Robotnik!?! You mean the crazy guy, who almost destroyed all of humanity because the government killed his granddaughter, Professor Gerald Robotnik?!?!!? I’m just makin’ sure we’re on the same level, ‘cause that seems just a –tad- bit strange that you’d trust the MENTALLY UNSTABLE GUY.”

"It's Gerald all right. The dimensional merge is messing with time too. That's why Gerald's young even though he's Robotnik's grandfather."

Gail couldn't help but briefly ponder the ramifications of that statement. What if he had relatives around too? In fact, what if Gail had a son, and that son was now here, only a lot older than he was? It kind of made his brain hurt just thinking about it. He honestly couldn't see himself as any kind of father...

Since Gerald had gone to his knees and didn't appear to be resisting as Espio tied him up, Gail decided to respond to Sonic's inquiry. The wolf appeared to shake his head a few times, as if he were trying to rejumble his thoughts on how they had come to where they were now.

"Now I didn't know he was related to ole Robo until we were already on the way here. But he seemed real trustworthy anyway. He helped us with a lot of his inventions." Gail briefly turned to Jii to explain what he'd done. "Chadin nearly getting drowned by his artifical chaos is the first thing he's done against us. But it doesn't make sense though..."

He turned around, looking at Gerald crouched on the ground while Chadin lay unconscious next to him. Gerald looked positively like a broken man, and it felt very hard to believe that he would do what he'd done.

"If he wanted to kill us...why didn't he just poison our food or something while we were on the way here? Why wait until we got all the way here?"

Shaking his head, he turned back to Sonic. As he did so, he couldn't help but notice for the first time how tired he felt. Seeing Chadin in that state must have reminded him what a long day it had been for everybody. And it looked like it still wasn't over yet. They needed to do something about those shards...

"Listen. Maybe we should all get in that there SWATpod. I think there'd enough room for all of us. Then we can fly some place where we can patch up and interrogate Gerald, and then we can head for Robotropolis after we get a plan to get those shards back. I don't think Robotnik's going to wait around long before he uses them things.

[Sonic]

For the time being, Sonic just shook his head. There was no point in going into a long-winded questions about “how didn’t you know any of this to begin with?” because the answer was probably a ‘Just didn’t’. But even the blue blur had to admit as he looked over towards Gerald that he found it hard to believe that he’d try to kill anyone. But then again, and older version of him had almost destroyed everyone.

“Sounds like a plan.” Sonic replied, as he hopped onto the top of the pod. “I’ll take the balcony seating.”

He’d look down at Espio, his foot tapping on the metal surface of the pod. “Hey Espio, Since you’re a ninja and all, does it mean that you can tell if someone’s lying?” Sonic folded his arms afterwards and looked forwards. “Just want to make sure we’re not stumped or anything…”

[Gerald Robotnik]

Gerald wouldn’t even notice Espio tying his arms up, as the pain from his head was making itself be the center of his attention. But even as it faded away, it just left him where he was before; just a little more dazed than he’d already been. He would technically hear the conversation around him, but much like before it seemed it went in one ear and out the other as just twitched every so often and stare at the air.



[Gerald became confused! He hurt himself in confusion.]

[Chadin]

[UGH! Bricked for the horrible pokemon pun!! ;P]

[Chadin is fast asleep.]

[*Slams own face into keyboard for horrible pokemon pun. ;P]

[Espio]

[Gonna need to start breaking out wake-up-slap clefables and hexing gengars at this rate...also blarg at library computer making quoting tedious due to no copy/paste. xD]

Espio had a few things to address now, uncrossing his arms as he turned to Ji and Anu. A plan of action, a few questions he could answer himself and medical attention were on the agenda. "For the short story, Dr. Gerald was a scientist researching artifical life; man created lifeforms. The military saw this as a threat and raided his research facilities. His grandaughter, Maria Robotnik was killed in the raid.", he said as he recrossed his arms, right index finger tapping at his opposite arm bracer as he tried to recall the story best he could. "This drove him beyond mad and he set things in motion so that he could crash a artifical satalite- the space colony ark onto the Earth to wipe out all life in retalliation. This guy...", he said pointing his right thumb in Sonic's general direction as the hedgehog hopped atop the transport ship. "Stopped him with help from his friends. Whole thing was broadcast live from space."

He then turned to address Gail. The fact he mentioned both the dimesional merge and time slipping perked his intrests. He began to use his detective's logic to piece things tougether. "...so time itself has been affected too? Then would that explain why those two are dressed like that?", he asked as he tilted his head at the pair. "And why Sonic seems to have suddenly gained several years of maturity and a sence of fashion?", he said looking to the hedgehog. His changed appearance had been raising a few flags in his head but there were more important things to deal with till now. "Also would explain Gerald's sudden change in age. He was...quite old in the footage he took when he televised recorded footage documenting his revenge. This guys less than half the age of the Gerald I know, and this Sonic is several years older and more focused. Well that explains things...", he said as he assured his own logic. He then went on to address Gail's observations of this Gerald. "Hm...that is confusing. If I were to get close to my enemy suddenly betraying them would be a bad move. What if something backfired? Discretion would be the way to go, and he doesn't look very stupid...strangly enough.", he said looking to the doctor, raising a proverbial brow. "Maybe something happened to him as a result of the disaster in the prophecy..."

He then turned to examine the ship for a moment. "I suppose I could try piloting this thing. I've flown one of Tails' spaceships before, how much harder could it be to fly a simple transport ship?", he asked himself with a shrug.

Espio then looked down at Sonic, who was still pretty impatient...though the chance to show off mitigated his minor annoyance. "Hah! Looking into the soul of your foe is child's play for an expert such as myself.", he said as he slammed his right fist against his chest. "We'll need to wait for him to come around first, and I have an idea for that. You guys need a place to recover and get patched up right? If you don't have anywhere in mind I can probably fly us to my village nearby. I'll first need to let them know if I'm coming so they dont shoot us out of the sky.", he said hiding a bit of a smile. Things were looking up. He learned a bit about the state of things around here, discovered a pawn he could use against the doctor if need be, and linked up with a group of supposed freedom fighters heading directly to Robotropolis. Things couldn't be going any better for him...of corse he didn't realize he was color shifting as he thought this out- having become rather pleased. As he began to talk again his scales returned to their normal fuscia. "If we head there, I can have a medical team examine your wounded, and get some root extract from the pharmacy to hopefully snap Gerald out of his episode. I can also resupply and inform the elders of what's been happening directly."

He began to walk to the ship, before abruptly stopping as something else came to mind. He turned to Gail, pulling a round flask filled with a green liquid. He held it out to Gail, his eyes looking to the deer. "Here. Slip some of this to your friend, and you down the rest. It's a elixer to restore lost stamina. Be sure to make use of all of it, then drop it.", he instructed. He then looked to the beetle. "Hey...would you help get Gerald and the wounded deer into the transport? I need to study the controls for a bit...", he said as he strolled inside the transport, taking a seat up front. He strapped himself in, looking over the dashboard.

[Jijeka-Te]

Ji and Anu glanced at each other, still processing the infodump they'd received. Anu went to try to carry Gerald and Chadin while Ji entered the ship after Espio and gave it the once-over. Almost immediately she collapsed into one of the chairs as she continued to mull over what she'd been told.

[Gail Strafer]

Quote:"If you don't have anywhere in mind I can probably fly us to my village nearby. I'll first need to let them know if I'm coming so they dont shoot us out of the sky."

Gail was about to ask about why the people in said village hadn't come to help earlier, but then Espio started switching between lots of weird colors. Well...thinking about it, Gail did suppose he resembled a chameleon. Maybe that's what it was.

Quote:"If we head there, I can have a medical team examine your wounded, and get some root extract from the pharmacy to hopefully snap Gerald out of his episode. I can also resupply and inform the elders of what's been happening directly."

Shaking his head as the colors faded, he had to ask about this supposed village.

"So...wait a darn minute. Village? Nearby? Is it on this island? It's just ocean for miles around here after all. If that village is here, how come it took you this long to get around to sending someone to investigate?"

However, when Espio produced a mysterious vial and said it would help heal Chadin, he didn't waste any more time. Chadin had become a dear friend (no pun intended) since they'd started this operation, and he wanted to make sure his new buddy made it through.

As Anu picked up Chadin, Gail helped him with one arm, while pouring the contents of the bottle into his mouth with the other hand. Before long, the group of them would all be inside the ship. While Gail had thought it arrogant of Sonic to simply ride on top of this thing, he now didn't regret the move. There would only be barely enough room for everybody to fit in here. He simply waited in the back for Espio to get them going, as he occasionally checked on CHadin.

[Sonic]

“Alright, alright, sheesh!” Sonic replied dully, looking up and waving his hand back and forth. “Let’s save the questions for later when we’re in a better place. For now, let’s get outta here!”

He rested his hands on his hips as he looked outward. Things had been crazy, even for him. And he’s experienced a lot of strange things in his life. Normally he’d be a little more patient, but after everything he felt it waning as he started being impatient like his younger self. Not like he didn’t want any answers, or even question the things that Espio wanted, but this didn’t seem like the place to discuss things. They needed to get to a place that was a little more stable.

[Gerald Robotnik]

Even while being carried by Anu, Gerald still didn’t respond. The only thing that seemed to affect him was overhearing Espio’s conversation, and even then it was only when it mentioned Gerald. And the way he responded was much the same. His vision blacked out with a terrible ringing in his ears and a pain that throbbed. Gerald’s eyes would wince tightly and he would bend over as much as he could. And once the pain would stop, he wouldn’t move and would simply stare blankly into space.

[OOC: I’m sorry, but the Pokemon joke works so well!

…

Gerald is confused! He hurt himself in confusion! –BRICKED-]

[Chadin]

The potion did manage to give my worn out body a much needed boost. But even so, all I managed to sputter out was some incomprehensible groans as I drifted at that fuzzy verge of consciousness. I probably take some time before I became entirely lucid and by then we might already reach Espio's village.

[Espio, take us out if you please...]