Swatpod Refueling Hangar- 7S

[Chadin]

"Now I know I must be dreaming."

"... Did we miss something?"

"You and me both." In a rare cosmic event, that one, vague statement neatly summarized and answered both statements in a perfectly valid, logical manner.

Watching this... echidna I guess, plow a perfect likeness of himself into the pavement, emerging... relatively unscathed was like something out of a cartoon... or so I'd heard. Didn't exactly have TV stations out in the mountains where I grew up. I only heard of them from some of the refugees that happened to turn up every so often passing through the mountain passes.

That little detail however was grossly unimportant given that I presently had some kind of horrifying cyborg... thing crawling out of a perfectly "Him" shaped hole in the ground. So, naturally the perfectly logical and rational course of action would be to draw my laser crossbow at his forehead; which is precisely what I did.

"What in the name of Acorn are you?!" I half asked, half demanded whilst keeping my finger a hair's breath away from squeezing the trigger.

[Shazbot]

Shaz went crossed-eyed as he stared at the barrel of the weapon being thrust in his face. *Aherm* Well, if you simply must know, I am a bio-mechanical construct with a platinum-intellicore processor and a fermion based power-nervous system housed in a generation 7 locomotor array with- wait, did you just say Acorn? As in, Queen Samantha Acorn?"

With a huge sigh of relief he flopped face-down at the stag's feet. "Oh, this is perfect! I'm saved! Now you can take me home and we can put all this getting-shot-for-flying-in-a-restricted-zone business behind us!"

[Chadin]

[Two day absence...]

Maybe this was just a symptom of dealing with this dimensional merge thing too long, but by now, I wasn't too put off by the seemingly random things he was talking about. I got the feeling he might be another 'new arrival' of sorts. At the very least, judging by his blabbering, I think we were the first people he'd seen since he wound up here.

Still, understanding all that didn't do much to quell the anger brewing up inside. Oblivious, or just plain ignorant, this joker likely just cost me and all these civilians our ticket out of this polluted pit of a city.

Incidentally, if Shaz somehow thought I was the authorities, I doubt he'd be thinking that much longer once he got a good look at me. Aside from the obvious lack of any type of formal uniform, to put it bluntly, I probably looked like a disaster zone victim. Well, technically, you could argue that I was... but that's besides the point. My green and red tunic looked like it had been through the ringer and that's not even mentioning the state of my fur. Dirty, ruffled, and stained with blood in more places than I would care to admit. Speaking of blood though, with much of the excitement passed, I was starting to take greater notice of that large gash in my right leg. To use proper medical terminology: IT HURT LIKE HELL!!! Those gashes across my muzzle and forehead weren't doing me any favours at this point either. I actually started to wonder just how much blood I'd lost by now.

Huh... were the buildings always swaying back and forth like that?

I shook my head vigorously, trying to refocus on the nincompoop in front of me. Right, anger. Punishment. But first... "Oh would you show a little dignity and stand up?" I groaned as I lowered my crossbow.

[Jijeka-Te]

(Sorry! I thought I went right after Chadin...)

Ji and Anu blinked at the conversation, not really understanding it and not yet daring to involve themselves in it.

[Shazbot]

Shaz crawled out of the hole, dusting himself off. "Right! You got it mister!" He stopped and took a moment to examine his surroundings. "So, I don't mean to sound like a tourist, but... where am I? This sure don't look like Knothole City. (Oh, by the way, you can tell the cabbie I'm from Knothole.) Sure doesn't look like any city I've ever seen." He sniffed and rubbed his nose.

"...What? Do I have something on my face?"

[Chadin]

With Shaz now standing at the mouth of the hole he'd dug for himself, it would be rude not to bury him in it. As Shaz turned his head to look around, he might be surprised to discover a fist had abruptly penetrated his personal space in the vicinity of his organic face with the distinct intent of slugging him across the cheek. (Assuming there was any to be had)

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!!" I screamed in rage, regardless of successfully striking Shaz. "You potentially just ruined our one chance of getting all these people..." I paused briefly to wave my hand back at the throng of people I'd been leading to the hangar before continuing my rant. ", out of Robotropolis, and OUT of Robotnik's reach for good! But NOOOOooooo. You went and crashed in the ONE. SINGLE. BUILDING. That had ships we could have used to escape. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!?!?" By now, those darker brown lightning bolts all over my fur would be starting to glow with an increasing blue-white light as my temper surged.

[Shazbot]

HP: 54%

Shaz rubbed his cheek and stared at the shouting stag. He had no idea what was going on, or what he did, but he had a feeling it was his fault. Somehow.

"That's, uh... wow. Um... time out, Robotropolis?

He stopped and spun in place. "Wait, this is Robotropolis? Then that must mean... SPIRITS HELP ME, I'VE GONE BACK IN TIME." He turned and looked at the hangar, now smoldering and erupting with smoke.

"Wait, MY EMERALD! I have to get it back!" Having forgotten all about the strange crowd and the stranger circumstances, Shaz took off for the hanger, his metal feet crashing on the pavement.

[Jijeka-Te]

Once Shaz was gone, Ji broke the silence.

(Ji) "...what in the name of Imhotep was THAT all about?"

[Chadin]

The glow of my scars rapidly faded away as Shaz took off into the building raving about an emerald of some sort.

No... He couldn't possibly be referring to a Chaos Emerald could he?

If he was, that could potentially be a huge gain for the Freedom Fighters after we just lost an emerald to that doom-saying Mammoth guy. Well, at the very least, I could check this out while I'm searching the hangar for any ships Shaz DIDN'T trash.

"I have no idea, Jii. Come on, let's go see if there's any usable ships left up there for us." I replied wearily as I began to limp into building. Funny, in all the excitement before, I completely forgot how sore my cut-up leg was. I should probably see a doctor right after this.

[Shazbot]

Shaz skidded to a halt in front of a large, wrought-iron door. It had no handle, although beside it there was a computer console. Experimentally he tapped a key. The screen hummed to life as a single line displayed in bold letters:

ACCESS DENIED

Alrighty then, time to work my mojo! He reached up to his metal dreadlocks and extracted a wire as he grasped the keyboard with his cyborg arm, pulling it from the console. After a moment of poking and prodding, he found a connection and the prongs of the wire wrapped themselves around a bundle of cables like snakes coiling around a rabbit.

"Knock Knock..."

He went silent and still as his mind dove into the door system.