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Post by DB on Dec 5, 2007 23:56:52 GMT -5
CEASE FIRE POKING. Doom tilted his head, his gaze shifting to the echidna. "Do you know him?"
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 6, 2007 0:06:16 GMT -5
"No, I don't know him," Zack said in answer to Doom. Then, to Vize, "Have we met?" then, shaking his head as if answering himself, "Meh, doesn't matter right now. Can you stand? You need some first aid."
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 6, 2007 0:11:14 GMT -5
The squirrel was a little confused by the behavior of the echidna, and was confused by the presence of the crystal statu- Wait. That's no statue. IT BLINKED."Uh..." Fortunately, he caught both questions, and answered both in order. "No, not really... and yeah..." Vize slowly got to his feet, wincing. "Yeah, I can stand." Then something else struck the squirrel. "I always thought you were a pangolin, not an echid... na. Waitaminute, Echidnas are extinct! Except for that one... Nuggets? Chuckles? I forget."
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Post by DB on Dec 6, 2007 0:49:48 GMT -5
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 6, 2007 1:05:28 GMT -5
Zachary just kinda... frowned at the squirrel's claims. "Well that's strange. I could have sworn I didn't see you land on your head," he shook his head and then beckoned from the two of them to follow him, "Come on. Let's get those cuts patched up before we worry about anything else."
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Post by Leda on Dec 6, 2007 1:24:18 GMT -5
@segachuck@ Meanwhile, a hedgehog had been wandering around the subterranian town for quite some time, taking in the peculiar architecture and, er, lack of sky. Uncle Chuck was surprisingly passive considering his situation; he'd opened the door to the walk-in freezer to retreive more onion rings, and ended up in this strange village. The aging hedgehog twisted his bristly mustache with one hand; who knew he had an underground sanctuary in his freezer? And a deserted one, at that. And naturally he'd begun speculating how they all died.
Or at least, it'd seemed to be deserted. After half an hour of meandering, Chuck's ear turned aside to catch the faint echo of voices around the corner. Finally, maybe he could find some answers! With his arms folded behind his back, Uncle Chuck casually strode toward the small group with a friendly smile. "Good evening, gentlement. All your base are belong to us."
His eye then fell to the squirrel. "Oh, hi Vize!"
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 6, 2007 1:27:24 GMT -5
Vize's ears perked at the familiar voice, and he turned, grinning and waving to Chuck. "Hey, Chuck! Finally someone I KNOW here! Tell, me, isn't Dr. Zachary supposed to be a pangolin?" Yes, children, Vize was still stuck on that... But wait, there's more! The squirrel then took another look at Zack, to make sure he hadn't just been mistaken... Nope. Still an echidna. "And besides, I thought Dr. Zachary had robotic hands..."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 6, 2007 1:54:20 GMT -5
The echidna's eyes became wide at the sight of Chuck coming into view, and for the first few seconds all he could do was stare in surprise. Finally he gave a quick glance to Vize before returning it to Chuck and opening his mouth to speak... ... Only to have his breath catch in his throat and end up choking him. He immediately doubled over and began to cough violently. Mephiles kinda caused his and Doom's body's brow to flatten. Alright, this is starting to get old and boring. I suggest we go and look at that glowing rock.Doom caused the body to glance upwards at the rock, then down again to the others present. Agreed. I believe they are sufficiently distracted to not notice our departure... Because I'm sure no one will notice a giant walking crystal missing. Mephiles rolled their eyes and took to directing the body away SINCE DOOM WAS OBVIOUSLY BEING LAZY. In any case, what do you think that light that person just came from is? It looks like the same light we saw earlier...Doom did not seem to mind Mephiles taking control of the body, instead flipped through a few memories, searching for anything that shared any similarities to the light he'd seen previously. A few things turned up, though Doom was unsure of their relevance. It reminds me very vaguely of the teleportation technology I once had. That would at the least explain a few things.
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Post by Leda on Dec 6, 2007 16:15:36 GMT -5
@segachuck@ Uncle Chuck shrugged. "I'unno. I've heard the same thing, but then again, news tends to get pretty distorted in Station Square. Especially when I write it."
The old hedgehog's eyes moved over to their coughing companion, one of his bushy eyebrows arching. An echidna, indeed. Chuck was actually less concerned with the fact that he'd been presented with another of what was thought to be an extinct species then he was over the poor man's coughing fit. Although in the back of his mind, he idly thought of how fun it'd be to be a fly on the wall when Knuckles discovered that he wasn't the only one left. And furthermore when he then learned that the new echidna was... also a man. So close, yet so far.
Chuck screwed his mouth to one side at Zachary's coughing fit. "Are you okay?"
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 6, 2007 23:48:42 GMT -5
Vize quickly moved to help Zachary, but wasn't quite sure WHAT he should do. "Uh, Doc? You ok?" Vize wasn't sure if he should move to help Zachary upright, or pat his back, so just ended up... kind of hunched near the taller echidna.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 7, 2007 0:55:32 GMT -5
Zack nodded, holding his hand up in a 'just a moment' gesture as he leaned over his cane to support himself. It was another several minutes before he finally began managing to calm down, and as he did, he was left gasping hoarsely for air. "I'm fine," he finally croaked, leaning heavily on his cane. "You just... startled me is all, Charles. When did you... finish the deroboticizer?"
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Post by Leda on Dec 7, 2007 14:52:59 GMT -5
@segachuck@ "Deroboticizer?" Chuck paused and twisted his mustache again as he searched his memory banks. Had he been working on a deroboticizer and forgotten about it? Had he, in fact, completed said deroboticizer, whether he remembered it or not? Quite the conundrum, right up there alongside the fact that there was a city in his freezer.
"Well," he began, "I suppose I finished it around the same time I contracted rabies in the jungles of Flicky Island. I was down there mining for new chili dog ingredients when I happened upon a flicky that was foaming at the mouth. Naturally I figured that I should keep my distance, but it screeched and charged at me! I was so surprised that I went down like a hooker boulder falling off a mountainside and the flicky spat cooties into my mouth. And in fact, there WAS a boulder falling down the mountain because its screech had jostled the rock formations with its sound waves and set off an earthy avalanche! A wall of stone came tumbling down from the heavens and splattered us flate against the checkerboard flooring. Luckily, I wasn't killed instantly, because lo and behold, one of the rocks was made entirely out of basil and landed upon my outstretched tongue. I figured I should start adding that to my recipes with my last dying thought."
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 7, 2007 22:00:59 GMT -5
Vize just chuckled a little, he was pretty sure he'd heard some version of that story before... "I thought you were in Green Hill when the avalanche buried you?" A snicker escaped him, before he turned to Zack. "ALL his stories end with someone dying, it's a little morbid, but it's usually him, so... Yeah, kinda funny too."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 7, 2007 22:10:18 GMT -5
Zachary just... stared flatly at Chuck during the whole of his story. He clearly seemed to be becomming more and more unamused and agitated the longer the hedgehog spoke. "... I need to... sit down..." he wheezed finally, coughing a couple more times into his arm as he began to stagger over toward a nearby bench.
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Post by Leda on Dec 8, 2007 15:21:56 GMT -5
@segachuck@ "Hmm, maybe it was Green Hill. I'm old and senile, I tend to forget these things."
As the wheezing echidna began making his way toward the bench, Chuck followed after him, casual as ever. "You know, I may be an old fart, but if you need assistance I can easily give it."
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 9, 2007 0:52:29 GMT -5
Vize once again went into worried mode over Zachary, moving to help him towards the bench, but unsure whether the echidna (STILL hard getting his head around that idea) would accept his help. "Um... if it isn't too much trouble... does anyone know where we are?"
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 9, 2007 1:14:37 GMT -5
Zack ignored the offer, huffing slightly as he reached his destination and sat himself down. With one deep breath to steady himself he forced himself upright. "You're in Lower Mobius," the echidna answered Vize, "And... as to you, Charles... as happy as I am to see you whole, I'm shocked at your poor taste in humor!" he gave a stern look, "How can you joke about something this serious?!"
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Post by Leda on Dec 9, 2007 1:32:42 GMT -5
@segachuck@ The old hedgehog shrugged. "Arthritis sucks, but as well as you get about, I hardly think you're in serious condition yet. Besides," Chuck paused to motion toward Zachary's partial roboticization, "you're already fitted with prosthetics. If it gets serious, I'm sure a tad more surgery could correct it."
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 9, 2007 1:39:22 GMT -5
Vize blinked at the name of where they were, and immediately asked his next question. "Mobius? What Zone is that in?" The squirrel kept his eyes on the echidna, honestly curious. He'd never heard of a "Mobius City".
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Post by Leda on Dec 9, 2007 1:46:14 GMT -5
@segachuck@ The name was equally unfamiliar to Chuck. He paused and rubbed his chin thoughtfully; beyond being extremely knowledgable, he'd also done a lot of globetrotting with his brother when they were young men. He'd never encountered a place called "Mobius" that he could recall. It'd either have to be a new place, which Chuck was sure he'd have read about if so, or...
"Hmm," the hedgehog muttered. "Could be in Sol." It'd at least explain the freezer incident, albeit at great length.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 9, 2007 1:59:39 GMT -5
Zack gave a brief quizzical glance at the squirrel before deciding he wasn't worth the energy at the moment. Instead, he kept focused on Chuck, his expression a cocktail of emotions as his hand tightened over the grip of his cane. "What are you suggesting?" he asked icily. It was clear he was somehow misinterpreting the hedgehog's statement.
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 9, 2007 2:22:44 GMT -5
Sensing the emotions coming of the echidna near him, Vize scooted away a little, and pulled out his Omniheld, activating the GPS function. "... No signal? That's not right... I should get a GPS signal ANYWHERE." Vize was now throughly confused... and a little scared of the old angry echidna.
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Post by Leda on Dec 9, 2007 23:40:34 GMT -5
@segachuck@ Again, Chuck shrugged. "Just figured that since you're no stranger to corrective surgery already, one more probably wouldn't hurt to fix your joint problems." A bright, carefree (or perhaps careless) smile overtook the hedgehog's face. "It's just a suggestion! Relax; it's not like my ideas are out changing bodies into metal or something."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 10, 2007 0:21:13 GMT -5
Zachary stared. What he heard didn't make any sense, it didn't even begin to register. Did he seriously say what he thought he heard him say...? The echidna's expression turned ugly. Gritting his teeth he set his cane down beside him and stood up, getting directly into Chuck's face and growling. "Who are you? Sir Charles Hedgehog would never joke about roboticization!"
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Post by Leda on Dec 10, 2007 2:26:05 GMT -5
@segachuck@ "I'd be more than happy to answer that just as soon as you define 'roboticization'."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 10, 2007 19:12:39 GMT -5
Zack jolted in place, opening his mouth like he was about to speak, then quickly closed it. None of this was making sense to him. As if it wasn't strange enough that that crystal guy could somehow know of Gerald without knowing who Robotnik was... Now he was standing here face to face with what for all intensive purposes looked and sounded like the deroboticized form of someone he had always been an avid admirer of. Someone who was acting contrary to what he knew of that person and speaking as if he had no idea of things he should have... And then of course there was that squirrel and his outrageous claims who seemed to appear out of nowhere. And Tikal's sudden disappearance... Something seemed to click together in the echidna's mind. It seemed farfetched and absurd, but he did remember hearing rumors during the Great War... "... Hm." he frowned, backing away slightly and looking Chuck up and down carefully. "You're meaning to tell me you actually believe I had this," he motioned to his robotic attachments, "surgically attached? You wouldn't believe me if I said this was, say, the eye I was hatched with?" he pointed at his mechanical eye for emphasis.
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Post by Leda on Dec 10, 2007 23:30:10 GMT -5
@segachuck@ Remember that eyebrow Chuck arched a bit earlier? It seems to have migrated again. "I'd be disinclined to take you at your word, but I suppose stranger things have happened. Especially in the city I live in." Uncle Chuck mulled the situation over a bit further. "...Like walking into a freezer and ending up on a dirt road. Bizarre, indeed."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Dec 11, 2007 1:57:10 GMT -5
Zachary frowned even deeper. Finally, rubbing at his face, he exhaled and sat himself back down. "... Well then. That's interesting."
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Post by V for Vizetta on Dec 11, 2007 2:00:10 GMT -5
Vize, meanwhile, was simply staring at his GPS, his tail fluffed out almost to the point of being the same size as he was. "... No way. This CAN'T be right."
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Post by Leda on Dec 11, 2007 20:18:37 GMT -5
@segachuck@ Uncle Chuck scrunched his mouth to one side. The gentleman opposite him was clearly unsettled. And so was Vize, apparently. But Chuck tended to tune Vize out a lot.
His expression grimming slightly, the hedgehog idly pondered whether or not he'd stepped on any sore nerves in the preceeding conversation. It certainly seemed to be what had set the echidna across from him off. And it'd probably be rude to push the subject further, even if it WAS to apologize.
This called for a subject change.
"So," Chuck idly began, with no real topic in mind, "how're the king and princess doing these days?" Yes, he was still banking on the fact that they were in Sol.
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