Operation Alpha

-Shrike eventually gives up on the chase, no longer wasting his time and rather let the law enforcement deal with him, Shrike begins to back track towards to find Caen, easily navigated where he had been and where he had not been. 

Now he was on his way back to see if he could find him, calling out now and then to see if he could hear his voice, trying the communicator as well.-

" Caen you read me, I gave up trying to chase that son of a bitch, I am heading back to your position , what is your location over? " 

Shade smiled and was going to shake Caen's hand when Shade noticed he looked rather uneasy. Shade retracted his hand and just kept walking. Shade watched Caen make fun of his communicator which made Shade laugh, "let's just hope it doesn't catch fire," he said, putting the old communicator back in his pocket.

Shade smile slowly disappeared when Caen apologised but Shade chuckled and threw his arm around Caen's neck, "no way, that was just what I needed," smiling again. Shade slowly put his arm back down when he noticed the large crowd, "the fuck?" He levitated himself into the air, about five or six metres, looking around before landing again beside Caen, "the crowd is quite big, well need to push past 'em."

Shade looked at Caen's communicator as Shirke spoke to him, "who's the son of a bitch?" Shade thought as he looked at Caen, waiting for his respond.

So, the capsule was a bust, and is occupant disappeared off to parts unknown somewhere in the city. Cool. But that wasn't Storm's concern right now. Right now, he was diving face first into one of his ideal comfort foods: A greasy chili-cheese dog with cheese fries to match, from one of the local dives he'd found out about town. He shoved another forkful of the cheese-smothered fries into his mouth, still in the dark about... everything.

He still had no idea that he was covered in precious, precious nanotechnology. If he knew, he might wonder at its purpose or function. But he hadn't the faintest idea right now. So all he could do was take another bite of his chili dog.

He still had little care for the mysterious invader, or the fact that he had, for the moment, thrown his other pursuers. He was content to let the city's police try their best to handle the intruder. Nothing for him to waste his energy on. He took a sip of his soda.

Oh well. At least it was a nice day outside. He leaned over on the warm, outdoor lunch table, the early onset of a food coma slowly seeping its way over him.

The wolf finally reaches the intersection and comes to a stop on on corner of it. He begins looking around for signs of the armoured figure, as his signal had come and gone on his visor's display, as well as looking for any other police units. The armoured figure was no where to be seen at the moment, but the wolf does see a police cruiser sitting in the parking lot of one of the shopping plazas nearby.

This area was busy with many people walking around. Some traveled along the sidewalks, others were heading to the nearby stores or returning to their cars, and still others were making their way back over to the nearby apartments. Just by the sheer number of people, the wolf isn't spotted immediately by the officers. That would change more than likely as people looked towards him.

The wolf hurries across the street during a break in the traffic flow and makes his way through the parking lot of one of the plazas. Using the cars for cover, he makes his way towards the stores.

As Shade landed back down into the crowd, Caen lightly nudged some people out of the way. He wanted to look without causing a scene. Sure, it was slow, and irritating, but it worked. However, soon, several people started to look in one particular direction, joined by others going about their daily business of the day. He pushed past several to get to the front of the crowd, and spotted his runaway armoured figure. He laughed, as Shrike's voice came in through the communicator "yeah, I hear you. I think I've found him. Or, rather, I have found him. We'll try to corner him off. Over."

Caen turned his head to Shade "your time to shine, kid. I want you to get to the other end of the street over there." He pointed to the end of the street with the shops that the wolf was running towards "I sure hope you can do that. I'm gonna chase him, I want you to block him off at the end of the street. Hopefully, we can get him trapped, and I'll talk to him. I wont use force unless he does, so I expect you to do the same. Three..."
Caen arched his back, allowing him to have better aerodynamics, which should allow him to catch this man. Even so, his general species advantage of being a hedgehog was very helpful indeed. "Two..."
Caen breathed in deeply, locking his eyes onto the street "One... Let's do this!"

Caen ran along the street, yelling the word "Hey!" At the armoured wolf "halt now and spare yourself the embarrassment!"

-Shrike got the feed back and decided to rather regroup with Caen and tackle the threat with him rather then his own, Shrike was able to follow Caen signal back to his destined location, feeling rather frustrated he couldn't catch him, his aggression was kicking in again and that was something Caen would know is really bad, knowing how violent he could become when he was in this state.-

" Alright man, I couldn't catch the bugger, where ever I thought he be, he was some where else, I hope you got a good stat to at least stop this guy so we can question him. I was almost on the verge of shooting him." 

Shade watched Caen move through the crowd and followed closely behind. Shade noticed the armoured wolf and his jaw dropped, "oh my god! That's literally a metallic titan!" He then listened carefully to Caen's instructions, "corner him, I can do that." Shade then readied to run and ran through the crowd as soon as Caen said, "three."

Shade pushed through the crowd until he was a few metres in front of the wolf, "hey, how's it going," he asked as he walked out of the crowd and stood directly in front of the wolf. As soon as Caen shouted at the wolf, Shade's eyes turned purple and Shade began to make intricate, swirling movements which placed the invisible wall in a large circle around Shade, Caen and the wolf.

Now Shade could see the wall and he raised it high into the air then made it slowly grow in on itself until the wall looked like a giant dome. He also allowed Caen to see the wall and Caen would probably describe it as purple stained glass except the haze of the purple would move around like if it was the liquid in a lava lamp.

Shade performed this manoeuvre very quickly however his eyes stayed purple and after Shade had made the wall his posture returned to its natural slouch. The random citizens around Shade would probably get freaked out and try to leave so Shade would let them pass through the wall.

Also, the wolf might not be able to immediately see the wall but he would definitely be able to scan it with his technology if he wanted to.

Storm yawned as he continued his venture across the city towards his loft. This day had dragged on for too long. Thankfully, so far, the sirens and commotion seemed to disappear far into the distance. Hopefully things would stay that way. Maybe a nap and some tv would help settle his saltiness. Or maybe he would just go back and grab the pile of scraps of metal that he'd left at the landing zone, maybe take them to the scrapyard and collect a few bucks for recycling them. Whatever. He veered down an intersecting street and made his way towards home.

The people gathered began to scatter as the red hedgehog yelled out towards the wolf. The wolf glances over pausing briefly before he resumes along his path. He was a bit surprised when another hedgehog apparently came out of nowhere to block his path and say a few words to him. The wolf comes to a halt.

He was close enough that he could have easily struck out at the hedgehog, easily interrupting whatever it was he was doing, instead he turns away and picks another direction to head off in. A warning suddenly appears on his visor, but not soon enough to keep him from hitting an invisible barrier in front of him. He's surprised again by this and slowly looks back towards the dark coloured hedgehog, who he assumed had created this barrier in front of him.

He considers trying to force his way out of this situation, but considers waiting to see what his pursuers do now to be of more value to him. It really didn't matter so much to him either way, it's not like they would prevent him from accomplishing his goal.

Caen marvelled at the purple dome growing in size around him. Was this the physical manifestation of Shade's power, or was he allowing Caen to see, to allow him to ascertain his movement space? Either way, this was useful, as this armoured Mobian could finally stop running.

"Good job, Shade. Knew I could count on you." Caen said, walking towards the wolf. "Now, as for you..." He moved slowly, and with purpose. However, this movement was also cautious, as he knew nothing about this potential threat "Hello, I am Caen. Now, before you act in haste," Caen raised his hands up "I'm not here to fight you. All I want to do is ask you a few questions, but I must say, you have been a difficult one to catch. So, if I may ask, who are you, and why are you here? I'll say it now, if I believe you to be a threat, I will not hesitate to attack. Oh, one more thing, why did you set up a distraction? Were you afraid that I would catch up?" Caen smiled, with a real sense of arrogance, pulling his coat back and placing his hands on his hips. The way he pulled his coat back allowed the wolf to see that he was armed.

-Shrike closed in to Caen's position, perhaps now he was gonna get his chance to see who this figure was and find out some more details on the situation at hand, however like typical shrike he was armed and ready incase the situation demanded it, he closes in slowly to not startle or give away his location.-

He stops just short of his concealed zone listening to Caen speak to the unknown being, this was as far as he could go for now, for if he showed himself the figure would flee again, and that would only piss Shrike off more.-

When the wolf began to walk away from Shade, Shade stayed in close puhe was armed, Shadet behind him. Shade laughed when the wolf bumped into the wall and looked at Caen saying, "I wasn't kidding when I said it was funny every time," when Shade was congratulated for his work, he nodded, "thanks."

Shade now just watched to see what Caen would do. When Caen revealed he was armed, Shade was a little surprised but Shade too was armed but he thought he shouldn't reveal that just now. Shade began to think about who this figure was and what he wanted.

Storm huffed and flopped down onto his bed, the afternoon light illuminating his loft. Its warmth, coupled with the food coma, was quickly lulling him to sleep.

((OC: But when are they going to get to the fireworks factory?! [/simpsons reference] ))

( OOC: This might end like that Simpson's reference does. )

The wolf looks back at Caen. He nods slightly in acknowledgement of his introduction. He then listens to the rapid fire questions thrown his way. Once Caen stops speaking the wolf looks right back at him, although his eyes cannot be seen through the visor over them. All Caen would see is his own reflection.

"No. You may not ask." the wolf replies, clearly neither impressed by Caen's arrogance nor intimidated by the fact that he was armed.

He then looks towards the other hedgehog Caen had identified as Shade, but says nothing else.

Caen laughed, crossing his arms and walking closer to the wolf "okay, let me rephrase that. What I was going for was along the lines of..." He moved his hands in front of his face to show that he was thinking "you will tell me what it is you're up to, because I am sure you pose a threat to the masses, and considering I am part of those masses, I have no choice but to protect them."

Caen saw the wolf look in the direction Shade was before he created the dome. No doubt he could see Shade "oh, yeah, and you are not leaving until I'm through with you. He'll make sure of that. I'll stay here all day if need be, I'm in no rush to be somewhere, but I'm guessing you are, and as we stand here in this deadlock, that precious time disappears"

He walked even closer, speaking with each step "tick. Tock. Tick. Tock."

-Shrike pepped up on the two way communicator, whispering to avoid detection. This was and probably gonna be his only way of communication he was gonna hear.-

" Caen..I'm about 100 meters from your current position and holding. I will move in when you need support...if things get heated I will provide cover for you...do your best...your far better with words then I am..see what you can get out of him. Don't worry I got your back."

-Shrike raised his classic and well used pump action shotgun, cocking it, waiting for a signal from Caen, he was ready to deal with the wolf both with words...or if it came to bullets..either way he was set and ready.-

Shade heard the wolf and his eyes widened a little, "he actually speaks." He listened to Caen and nodded when Caen talked about him not letting anyone out the wall. Shade glared when the wolf looked at him and Shade tried to look through his visor with his powers but to no avail, "that is some pretty high tech shit!"

Shade suddenly noticed the wall made a small spasm which worried Shade slightly. Shade did not hear Shrike's voice from the communicator even though Shade was now quite close to Caen. Shade could feel the tension increase as Caen threatened the wolf and pressured him with time. Shade was thinking he was ready for anything.

"Zzzzz... Zzzzz... Zzzzz... Pesht, just pull... the bullet out... Zzzzz..."

Storm's a little indisposed at the moment.

( OOC: If you'd like, you can withdraw from the rp until things pick back up again Storm. It might be a few rounds until something more notable occurs to get your character involved again. )

Now that the fox had returned home and had fallen asleep, a large portion of the nanomachines on his person become active and begin the gradual process of moving away from him so that they can begin exploring their surroundings. Another much smaller group become active and begin collecting data on and tiny samples from the fox.


The wolf looks at Shade after he makes his comments. His only reply to them is to shake his head slightly. He then turns his attention back to Caen.

"So... you want me to explain to you what's going on, because all you have are assumptions. You think I'm a threat, but you really don't know anything." he replies contemptuously, "You think you're impeding me by keeping me here, but again, you really don't know since you don't know why I'm here. You think I have a deadline to meet... need I repeat myself again?"

The wolf looks at each of the hedgehogs in turn again.

"You can stay here if you want though. I'm not going to tell you anything. " he adds.

He then pauses for a few moments, considering something.

"Actually, I'll tell you one thing. You are right about a clock running out." he says.

He doesn't elaborate though, instead falling silent again.

Caen was taken aback. Was this wolf a distraction all along? He needed to take precautions. He turned away, whispering into the communicator "Shrike, he has insinuated that there is a potential threat in the area, and it is time-based, so you need to hurry. I'll try to get more information out of him. Over."

He turned back around, that same arrogance had returned, or rather, this was all an act, in truth, he was worried that he had missed something. "You're bluffing!" Caen shouted, pointing his finger at him "you know, it's funny... You talk about assumptions, but not only have you confirmed that you intend to bring harm to this town, or worse, but you have also assumed that I was gullible. Trust me, I've learned that being gullible doesn't help anyone."

He walked up to the armoured wolf, laying a hand on his shoulder. He lowered his voice "I must say, try to bluff your way out of this, again, and I may have to use force. I'm a guy that likes honesty."
He took his hand off of his shoulder, yet didn't move "so, I will ask you again, what is your mission?!"

-Shrike got the intel from Caen but unfortunately it was not enough to work with, but one thing he did get a confirm on that, was the wolf was a potential hostile, this meant if something did go wrong, force would be acceptable. It would only take a couple of mins for Shrike to bring up the rear behind Caen, armed and ready he stood beside Caen, staring at the wolf, no doubt a immediate recognize from the figure that had been going after him.

Shrike didn't say thing he was just acting as moral support for Caen, and of course as back up should the situation go to hell. He thought the wolf may have been referring to some kind of explosive device hidden some where.-

((I'll understandably pass for the next couple posts, unless CSO needs to know something about the surroundings his nanomachines are exploring.))

Shade was taken aback when the wolf mentioned the tickinginformationclock. Shade quickly scanned his surroundings as a nervous reaction. Shade had an idea but he was unsure if it would work. Shade began to think his potential plan over while Caen talked with the wolf.

Shade then decided to try and telepathically extract the information from the wolf. However, Shade thought that the helmet the wolf wore might stop such attempts. He began to think whether Caen and Shade should try to get the helmet or not.

( OOC: Alright then. Feel free to rejoin when you're ready to again. For now the post order is: Me, Red Blur, Shrike, Shade. )

"What makes you think I need to bluff? I'm just more aware of what's going on around here than you." the wolf replies, "I don't think you're gullible either. I think you're foolish. You pretend that you have some clue about what's going on, and you can call your friend to help you, but what is Shrike going to do?"

He then looks at the armoured figure as he approaches.

"Is he going to try and intimidate me as well? Maybe ask a couple of questions?" the wolf inquires.

The wolf looks back at Caen.

"After all, you ask questions, but you don't pay attention to the answers when they aren't what you want to hear." the wolf adds, "And one more thing... if you touch me again, I will break at least one of the bones in your arm."

The wolf falls silent again, awaiting the response of his captors.


Shade would find as he tries to probe the wolf's mind that he is encountering resistance and as a result was getting nothing from him. The source of it is unknown though. It could be something in the wolf's armour, or an item he was carrying, or he might be able to block those kinds of intrusions, or was a more powerful telepath himself.


In the distance, the sounds of sirens could be heard approaching the area the quartet were standing together in. These didn't sound quite the same as the police cars from earlier though.

Caen looked over at Shrike "how did I guess you'd decide to join us? Haha, I think I can handle it, though. Just some delusional kid." He winked at Shrike, as if to say 'you need to be looking for it. Now!'

Caen listened to what the wolf said, and smiled "foolish? Oh, yeah. Aren't we all, eh? I mean, most people would just stay away from a guy like you. Trust me, most of the people like me are foolish."
When Caen heard the wolf's threat to break his arm, he smiled, chuckling "is that so?" He lifted his arm, placing it on the wolf's shoulder slowly "we willing to test that? Your speed against my reflexes. Go on."

Unbeknownst to the wolf, a small flame was summoned behind Caen, forming into several small, dart like shapes.

He heard several sirens in the distance, but acted as if he was unfazed, truly he was very suspicious, and kept a close eye on his surroundings, ensuring that there was nothing to surprise attack him.