Big Two: High Stakes Backup Archive

[Dashe]

I knew I had a backup of this lying around here somewhere! It was in that flash drive I never use. This probably isn't all of what we had, and since AIMMan disappeared some time ago it probably won't get finished, but if you're curious as to what a good OC-only Legends world RP looks like, here you go.

The Big Two: High Stakes
GM'd By AimMan.EXE

The basics: A rich outlaw named Fawzi has constructed two large, gold fortresses in the ocean and extends an open invitation via radio to any adventurers on Terra. He's hiding in one fortress, and his treasure's in the other. Most of us either deliberately or accidentally went after Fawzi. The game starts right in the middle of combat, with the police arriving on the scene to get rid of all of the pirates who'd flocked to the call.

Cast of Characters:
Lin and Den Falaris - Dashe
Erika - Goopygoo
Alvert E. Fulcrum and Jeslyn Cutter - Emeltee
Axel Vin Martin - Blues
Sudeten - Sudeten!

Prologue/Official Synopsis

A warm wind breezes gently across the seascape as waves ripple gently across the ocean, creating a serene setting. Despite the presence of Fawzi’s two hulking and gaudy golden fortresses resting completely stationary upon the waters, the sea remains undisturbed. Foam sprays against the sides of the ships, sliding off the shining surface quickly after each splash. The ships are enclosed in thick metal with only a few spots for landing here and there. Considering the number of ships to come, boarding the ship would definitely be a matter of shouldering your way through the crowd.

The tranquility is soon broken as sky-pirate airships pour in from every direction, followed closely by police cruisers. The waves of aircrafts surround the fortresses completely, but before anyone can attempt an entry, the harsh reality dawns on all of them that they are enemies by nature: pirates hate policemen, policemen hate pirates. The outside erupts into a buzz of vulcans, cannon-fire, lasers, and all sorts of other aggression between the two rival forces. In but a moment, both groups have completely forgotten their original intention of entering the fortresses and securing their prizes. This confusion makes the perfect veil for any adventurer wise enough to enter himself, thereby avoiding the mayhem of battle surrounding the ships.

As a few stray pirates and officers wriggle away from the mass and enter the fortresses, slyly using the ruptures in the walls of the ships to their advantage, a woman with a serious looking expression and a comically oversized megaphone shouts vigorously to try to orchestrate an assault on the first ship.

“You, officers and squads!” she begins, straightening her golden-colored tie. “Get a hold of yourselves! This is no time to be going after petty pirates! We’ve got a clear enemy in front of us, a common enemy: Fawzi! We don’t need to be doing any of this petty bickering!” As she pleads, a large explosion nearly knocks her off the deck of the ship; her hat and megaphone are lost over the railing. “Curse you all! Y-you could destroy the fortress if you keep it up like that!” she yells, shaking her fist at nobody in particular; she is no longer audible over the roar over the crowd.

In the meantime, the rag-tag force on the second ship receives a rather unenthusiastic pep-talk from another officer, a man with brown hair, glasses, and a typical officer’s uniform with a black tie. “Men, stand together. Enter the fortress. The walls are crumbling as we speak, it’s not that hard. Work your way past the small-fries and go for Fawzi,” he instructs with a dreadfully monotone voice, interrupting his own speech with a loud yawn into the megaphone. “Really, people, this thing would be so much simpler if you all had a whole brain between the thousand of you.”

The attack is disorganized and random, lacking proper orchestration or a mutual understanding between any of the parties involved. It is, however, effective for knocking a couple of holes in the wall. The clever would do best to enter before the not-so clever finally catch on.

[Dashe]

Chapter 1

As the crowds of ships swarmed to the two glistening fortresses, down in the cargo hold of a police vessel, two children with purple hair huddled behind a stack of crates. The younger child, a rotund boy of about nine or ten years of age, quivered in fear as his sister glanced out a porthole at the monolithic buildings below them.

"To think, if I hadn't been watching cartoons two days ago, I wouldn't be stuck following Lin on this stupid treasure hunt at all!" The boy mumbled to himself through the sound of cannonfire outside, looking a bit sick at the thought of what lie in wait. Lin immediately glared in her brother's direction.

"Did you just say something, Den?" She demanded, momentarily taking her eye off the fortresses.

"Not really," Den sighed. "Are we there yet?"

"Well, we certainly picked a good ship to stow away on." Lin figured. "These cops must be dead set on getting this Fawzi character sent to jail, because we just plowed through a load of traffic. I'd say we're due to make it to the docks in..."

However, her sentence was cut short as an explosion shook the hold. The kids went flying, and when they finally managed to struggle back to their feet, they found a roughly circular hole about five feet in diameter on the far side of the room. Lin and Den slowly crept towards the newly-created exit as a volley of cannonfire hit one of the buildings.

"Curse you all! Y-you could destroy the fortress if you keep it up like that!" A woman's voice shouted from outside somewhere, almost getting lost in the roar of the crowds outside.

"We've been hit!" A man on the police ship shouted, just loud enough for Lin and Den to hear. "Somebody should go down below deck and see if there's any major damage!"

"Den, we've got to get out of here!" Lin ordered as the sound of footsteps got louder. Before her brother could protest, she seized his wrist and glanced out the hole. The airship was only a few meters away from one of the golden fortresses, just barely within jumping distance.

"Lin, you're not saying...?" Den whimpered.

"What, would you rather get caught?" Lin questioned. "These guys are cops! They'd confiscate our weapons! Get a grip on yourself and JUMP!" She shouted, shoving her brother through the hole and finally jumping out herself, just as a man in a blue police uniform skidded into the room.

The two children plummeted towards one of the landing platforms. Fortunately, the dense crowd broke their fall, and their handheld plasma pistols were still intact. However, Den had managed to land on a rather irritable looking woman wearing a golden tie, knocking her to the ground. A swarm of about a dozen pirates trampled right over them. Lin, who had managed to land relatively unharmed, watched the scene play out in amusement.

The woman in the golden tie glared at Den, who stammered, "I-I can explain...honest!"

"Hey! Hey you, pirates!" the officer exclaimed as she was trampled under the feet of the raiders. She did indeed get up looking furious, and turned her attention the young boy who had knocked her down. She softened her expression as she realized the culprit was just a child, then once again straightened her tie in an attempt to look serious. "There are kids on this ship? This just keeps getting to be more and more of a hazard situation," she muttered, smoothing over her dark brown hair as she talked. "Well, um, young man," she coughed, although she was hardly a grown-up herself, "what are you doing here? You do realize that there's dangerous combat going on all around, don't you?" She slapped herself as she realized what a no-brainer his situation was; if he was all the way out here in the ocean, it couldn't be by accident. "Certainly you're not a pirate, are you?" she asked, raising one eyebrow and placing a hand on her hip.

Pirates continued to pour in the holes in the outer wall. Sounds of combat seemed to be building inside; it was possible there is some kind of defensive mechanism set up to repel intruders.

Den stared up at the young woman, petrified with fear, as she impatiently waited for him to reply. He glanced around for any sign of his sister at all, but she was nowhere to be found. What do I do?! He thought to himself as he stood stuttering. If I tell her the truth, who knows? What if she's a cop just waiting to send Lin and me to jail? Or even worse, what if she's an expert pirate who just wants to get us out of the picture? But if I lie to her, I just know I'll screw up somehow!

As another swarm of pirates shoved their way past the two of them, the interrogater narrowed her eyes even more. "Are you even listening to me? Are you a pirate or aren't you?"

"M-me? A pirate?" Den stammered, adjusting his cap and wishing more than ever that Lin would come to his rescue. "I-I just...I...er...wanted to get some money f-for my sister...who's really really sick, with, um, a d-disease..."

Lin, meanwhile, had become bored with the way their conversation was going. If Den was going to get himself killed already, so be it. She didn't need him anyway. She wandered off, shuffling her way through the crowd, and managed to locate a small fissure a few yards down the platform, leading into the stronghold itself. Since it was so small, a lot of the other pirates had overlooked it, but Lin figured she'd probably be able to squeeze through. She glanced over her shoulder, noticing that Den was still staring up at the lady in the gold tie, almost on the verge of tears, and laughed to herself. There'd be no way her brother was going to hold her back this time around.

---

"Malédictions!" Erika said to herself. "At this rate, I'm never going to get through!" She looked again at the monitor. "Gah, if I had known Firushudots made such slow submarines, I never would've built one!" She reached down and picked up a small controller. "Let's see how things are going on the surface..." she said, as she pushed a button. Suddenly, the screen in front of her illuminated with images from her floating camera. She saw multiple pictures of pirates and police forces duking it out. "Geez, don't they ever give up? It's been two days already!" She was about to turn off the camera when something caught her eye. The head policewoman was staring at...a child? "What's a kid doing here?" She thought, "well, no matter. Now that she's preoccupied, I finally have a chance to attack!" She set her cross-hairs on the hull of the police woman's boat, flipped the switch, and watched as the missiles headed for their target.

---

The woman, apparently highly detail oriented, stroked her tie gently with her thumb as she glared down at Den. Raising one eyebrow, she inquired coyly, "A disease? What kind of disease?" She tapped her foot, waiting for an answer, but that pause in her activity lasted only briefly as missiles plowed into the husk of her ship, already riddled with bullet-holes and cannon shots. A loud explosion shook the deck once more, causing the woman to drop to her knees, only to see her ship disappear under the waters.

Her jaw dropped as the vessel descended downward, further and further, eventually vanishing from view. "My... my Amphibious Lander!" she gasped, leaning over the edge of the deck briefly. She fell back onto the flat surface of the floor, sounding miserable. "The chief's going to kill me when he hears about this..."

The lull in her attention might provide a good escape for Den, of course.

In the mean-time, Lin saw many, many fighters, mostly pirates, struggling against golden, humanoid robots with tall antennae and long rifles. The rifles fired purple energy rounds out, functioning similar to automatic rifles. The robots were not all too formidable, but several of the weaker pirates and policemen already seemed to be fleeing. The robots were, however, obviously being pushed back.

The corridor was very long, occupied by the fighters, the robots, and many random pieces of junk that might have passed as treasure to the untrained eye. There was a door at the end of the hall that had a red, lit-up slot for a keycard.

Lin examined the pistol she was holding, and poked her head out of the fissure, staring down the corridor at the skirmish going on at the end of the hallway. Why couldn't Den make me a STRONG weapon this time?! For all I know, this gun could shoot spaghetti like that mech did back at Shengosu! Stupid little... She thought to herself, completely ignoring the fact that she could have made her own weapons if she wanted to.

Just as she was about to turn back, she saw it. A glistening, golden statuary of a...something. She wasn't exactly sure as to what it was supposed to be; it was shaped roughly like an eggplant and encrusted in jewels. It had to be worth at least 100,000 Zenny! Lin grinned and glanced towards the mess. The robots and pirates were so preoccupied with their struggle that they still hadn't noticed her. She sprinted across the hall to where the statuary was lying on the floor.

I can't believe I've found treasure already! Lin thought to herself as she picked up the golden eggplant thing. This should be enough to cover airship and hotel fees for the next...waitaminute...what the @#$%?! "Made in Potke Village?!" This...this is made of painted plastic! Rip-off! Lin silently scoffed, chucking the hunk of junk into the fray she'd been trying to avoid. Immediately realizing her slip, she darted behind a decent-sized heap of "treasure" similar to the eggplant statuary just as the worthless piece of crap in question crashed into the side of one of the robots' heads, knocking off its antenna.

Lin grabbed a hefty-looking, glistening piece of garbage, and cautiously peeked over the top of the pile.

---

Den, meanwhile, was still standing on the deck, making up bogus symptoms as the police woman sunk to her knees in an obvious nervous breakdown. The thought to escape never crossed his mind, seeing as he was far too petrified to even think about anything other than talking stuttering his way out of his predicament. That is, until he spotted Lin sneak off into a crevasse in the fortress wall out of the corner of his eye. He broke out of his trance and glanced down at the police officer, who was still mindlessly blubbering about her ship.

Unfortunately, the moment he turned to leave, the woman's attention shifted towards him. Den was already about four yards ahead of her, and was almost on the verge of slipping away into the crowd unnoticed, the key word being "almost." The police officer scrambled after him. "Get back here, you tubby little..." She shouted. Den glanced back, noting that the woman was rapidly gaining on him.

The crevasse was only a few feet away. Den severely wished he'd spent a bit less time sitting in front of the television watching cartoons as he huffed and puffed his way towards the fissure. As he squeezed his way into the opening, the police woman dove, grabbing his leg in a last-ditch effort to get him back out into the open, not realizing that she could probably fit through the crack too if she'd tried. For a while, the two of them were locked in a fierce tug-of-war, until the shoe the police woman had been holding onto finally popped off, sending the two of them flying in opposite directions.

Den stood up and brushed himself off, just as a valuable-looking vase went sailing over his head. He watched as the vase crash-landed into a golden robot's shoulder, knocking a rather long rifle out of its hands. The gun skidded across the floor and stopped about four feet away from him.

Lin peeked over the pile of useless junk again and groaned. "Sheesh! And here I'd thought I'd managed to get rid of that brat!" She muttered, noticing that he was already missing a shoe. "HEY DEN!" She shouted. "PICK UP THE GUN!"

A few of the pirates who were fighting the robots perked up, but decided it would be better to focus on the robots instead of the voices they were hearing. Den, on the other hand, just stared blankly at the weapon. Lin scrambled out of her hiding spot and grabbed the rifle herself. "Sheesh, you make me do everything around here!" She snapped, just as one of the robots finally spotted the two kids and aimed his rifle in their direction...

---

Back out on the open sea, Erika looked at her monitor, relieved that the boy was fine (and had escaped as well) and proceeded with her mission. She suited up into her Gorebeshu armor and grabbed her shield, as well as the two weapons she brought (Her ice/flamethrower, and her rocket launcher), and shoved them into her backpack. Putting her Firushudot sub on auto-pilot, and leaving it immediately, she watched as it swam to the surface and began attacking random ships. Using this as a distraction, she began her search for a way in. Her efforts were rewarded, as she soon found a crevasse in the side of the fortress. "It's a tight squeeze, but I can probably make it." she said to herself as she began squirming through the hole. Once inside, she noticed that purple-haired boy from before, only there was a girl next to him. Probably his sister, she thought. Suddenly, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A robot, golden in hue, had its rifle aimed at them. "Hey, kids, look out!" she yelled, right as the robot fired.

[Dashe]

Chapter 2

The day was quite pleasant. More than pleasant, in fact. It was good. Especially if you happen to have access to an ocean. There is only one on Terra, but most people seem to find it without any problem. The undulations of the sea are arguably the most imperative contributor to days ranked in this level of goodness, and sailing through them is certainly one of the best pastimes one could hope to pursue while experiencing such a day.

The sun was shining. A seagull cawed peacefully in the distance. A rocket cruised cheerily past the boat’s hull.

“... I think we almost just died.”

“Again? We should take to watching that one of these days.”

Jeslyn shot her employer a grievous glare, knowing full on that no amount of glaring, grievous or stern or coy or otherwise, would make the slightest difference in their situation. It just made her feel better about it.

She turned her attention back to the porthole window and gazed thoughtfully at the fast-approaching suicide attempt before them. This particular suicide attempt had cleverly taken the form of two great golden monoliths in the middle of the ocean, but she had seen through the disguise easily enough. The skies over the vessels were thick with airships, caught in what seemed to be a perpetual dogfight. There were a few watercrafts, but most of the action seemed to be taking place above. Of course, this was hardly any of their concern. It would simply make things a little easier.

The boat they were in was a small covered passenger vessel. Two rows of forward-facing benches sat on either side of the narrow walkway. The boat was empty, save for two lone customers sitting across from each other. A man in a monocle, ascot, and an executive-looking gray twill suit sat to the left with his briefcase. To the right side of the ship, a woman in a pitch-black suit sat calmly, contemplating their reasons for being here. On the bench in front of the woman rested a large, cylindrical package, wrapped messily in cloth and bound with a thick, winding strap, a single metal handlebar sticking directly out of it near one end.

The only other person present was the surly boat driver dressed in sailors garbs standing up front, whose eyes seemed to be perpetually closed. One might think of this as an impediment to one whose livelihood is captaining a ship, but they had yet to sink, and Alvert seemed to be taking this as a good sign. Jeslyn just called it luck. The water had been getting steadily choppier for several minutes now as the boat approached its target, and it seemed that more missiles were being directed in their direction. Alvert had pointed out that they probably weren’t being targeted intentionally, though Jeslyn could not find any comfort in the raw facts of the situation. The boat lurched to one side as it outmaneuvered a passing missile.

“Good on you, Charley!” Alvert exclaimed. “Keep up the pace, and I don’t think we’ll have any worries here.”

“Hurm.” Charley grunted in acknowledgement.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking,” Jeslyn said, letting her eyes stray from the window. “Why is it that we are going into a potential war zone on a passenger ferry?”

Alvert took a moment to straighten his cuff.

“Well, the pirates are gunning for the police, and the police for the pirates, correct? But who, I ask you, has it out for a ferry?” He paused for a moment. “No one is going to waste ammunition on an innocent passenger ship, right?”

He smiled and turned to Jeslyn, evidently expecting an agreement.

“... Brilliant, sir.” She said with a tinge of sarcasm.

“Hmmp. Well, you agree with me, right Charley?” He said, turning to the captain.

“Hurm.” Charlie responded.

“See?”

“He’s getting paid for this. His opinion on the matter doesn’t count.”

“Well, we’re still in one piece, aren’t we?”

“I doubt that will still be so by the time we reach the ships.”

“Hurm.”

“Ah. See?”

The two turned to look out the side of the ship at the captain’s announcement and realized with a start that they had reached their destination. Beside them hulked one of the gargantuan vessels of the man they were looking for. Their enclosed ship had muffled the sounds of the battle, so it had eluded their attention that they had entered so deeply into the fray.

Alvert picked up his briefcase and walked to the door while Jeslyn, her cylindrical package being taller than herself and equally as thick, hauled the item over her back, carrying it by the handlebar, and sullenly followed suit.

The captain threw open the door, and the noise of the gunfire, laser cannons, and the myriad of other weaponry immediately struck them senseless. There must have been seventy, perhaps a hundred airships soaring above them with all busters blazing. Alvert was slightly dazed by the explosion of sound, but wasted no time recovering himself and leaping up onto the deck of the ship. Jeslyn climbed up after him into the crisp ocean breeze.

“Now then,” Alvert started, scanning the area. “Our first order of business should be—”

“... Hold it.”

Alvert jumped at the sound of the voice, and turned to see his captain climbing out of the boat after them.

“Y-yes. What is it, dear Charley?”

The captain held out one of his large hands to him.

“The payment we discussed for the trip?”

“Ah! Of course, services rendered... So how much was it again?” Alvert asked, taking out a small money pouch and peering into it.

“80000 Zenny.”

Alvert flinched.

Staring down at the several small refractors they had brought with them, it occurred to him that they might not have such a sum of money on them at the moment. He turned his gaze upwards slightly at Charley, who was about a head taller than him and considerably more muscular. He quickly tried to calculate how fast he might be able to run in his suit before realizing that there really wasn’t much of a place to run to. Perhaps he’d get lucky and a passing laser would accidentally mow dear Charley down.

He waited a moment, but no laser came. Cursing to himself, he smiled innocently and put his pouch back into his pocket.

“Ah... I really do apologize sir, but embarrassing as it is, I seem to have come up a little short. I don’t suppose you take IOUs? We can send you your fee by post once we return to land.”

An airship exploded somewhere above them and crashed into the nearby ocean. Charley moved closer to Alvert and cracked his knuckles loudly. Alvert gulped.

“I... eh... take that as a no. Well, we can compensate you by other means.” Alvert said, taking a few steps back. Charley looked down at him impatiently. “Ms. Cutter, please show Charley our other means.”

“... Rodger.”

Jeslyn extended her arm gripping the handlebar towards Charley at full length, letting the longer end of her cylinder rest on her shoulder. With her other hand, she unclipped the tight strap binding the cloth, which slacked and fell to the deck with a clunk. The breeze blew the cloth off of the cylinder. As the cloth fluttered to the ground, Jeslyn reached up with her free hand and gripped the trigger.

What had been under the cloth was not, in fact, an ordinary cylinder, but rather, a very painful-looking bazooka-like buster gun disguised as one. The large, circular trigger rested near the middle, and a large piston protruded from the back. Several long, hinged spikes stuck out from the top, and though they were smoothed back to comply with the cylinder masquerade, they granted the weapon an eerie, organic look. With this now trained on Charley, a look of philosophical deliberation seemed to cross his face. Then, after a moment, He stepped back and turned towards his ship.

“I’ll be expecting that mail, then.”

“Of course! You have my word.” Said Alvert happily as Charley took to his ship. “I never forget a deal. I hope you don’t either.”

“Hurm.” He said, closing his door. Slowly, the ship began to back away from the fortress, and Alvert turned his attention back to the job.

“Now, as I was saying, the first order of business should be to determine which ship to enter. There are two, as I recall.” Alvert pondered, speaking up a bit to be heard over the noise.

“Indeed. Are we looking for the criminal behind these events or the stolen goods?”

“To be completely honest, either would do splendidly, though for the sake of our clients, I think we may wish to seek out the criminal. You can’t negotiate with a refractor, unfortunately.”

“Very well. Which ship is he in?”

“I don’t know.”

“You... You what?”

“Well, he never told us on that blasted broadcast! We’ll just have to guess. There is no way we can split up and cover both ships at once.” Alvert smiled. “Should we guess incorrectly, we’ll just have to enter the other.”

There was a pause.

“... Understood. So, which ship shall we enter then?”

A good question, Alvert thought. He turned to the next ship over and gave it a brief looking over. A team of police officers seemed to be attempting to enter it at the moment, the leader being a serious-looking man in a uniform and glasses. Frowning at the prospect of getting through that, he turned to look over the ship they had landed on. A few people were running about on the deck, but that seemed to be all. A young woman in an officer’s uniform was collapsed on the ground with what appeared to be a shoe in her hand. He made a quick comparison of the threat each situation posed and came to a difficult decision.

“Let’s try this one first.”

“Alright. How shall we enter?”

“Well...” Alvert responded, turning to the gleaming outer wall. “There are some fissures in the outer barrier here and there, but I doubt we’d be able to fit through them.”

“Then what shall we do?”

“Help me find the door.”

“Come again?”

“The door, I said. No sense entering through a crater if we can avoid it. Besides, any ship this size needs to have a door, doesn't it?” Alvert turned quizzically towards the bulk of the ship. “... However, no one seems to have found one yet, if they are still blasting their way through. Perhaps it is concealed... Cover my back, will you?”

Alvert picked up his briefcase, moved towards the ship’s gleaming outer wall and, seemingly oblivious to the artillery fire flying over him, began feeling the smooth golden surface for hints of an entryway.

With a sigh, Jeslyn turned in the opposite direction and began waving her buster threateningly at people who ran too close.

---

"Den, next time you have to listen when I..." Lin started, but before she could finish, she found herself being tackled to the ground by a girl who looked to be a little older than her brother. "W-What'd you do that for!?" She shouted at the girl, who stood up and dusted herself off. "Can't you see I was in the middle of something?"

"I think she just saved our lives," Den replied as he noticed the purple energy blasts hit the far wall behind them.

"Whatever. We don't need any more whiny kids around, anyway. Just having you around is enough stress already." Lin scoffed, picking up the rifle and ducking behind the pile of junk again. She pointed the gun at the crowd and fired a couple of shots into the robot that had shot at her only a few moments earlier. Fortunately, by this time most of the other robots had been deactivated by the stronger pirates at the end of the hall, but the pirates, being none too bright, found that they *somehow* couldn't get into the next room. It was as if the door were locked or something.

However, Lin just so happened to possess the two brain cells needed to spot the red, glowing card slot next to the door and make the connection that the door operated on a card key--which, thankfully, none of the many pirates seemed to have at the moment.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall near the crevasse, Den had struck up a conversation with the mysterious girl. "Hi! I'm Den Falaris!" He exclaimed, adjusting his hat and grinning. "Are your eyes really red all the time? Do you normally use Clear Eyes or something? Are you a pirate? My sister thinks she..." But he was cut off in the middle of his sentence as Lin dragged him off towards the crevasse. The girl followed them inside, and Lin seemed to take no notice.

"Den, you've got better things to do than hit on girls," Lin teased, knowing quite well that in reality, her brother wouldn't have the guts to actually hit on a girl he liked. "There's a slot for a card key at the end of that hallway, and we need to find it before those pirates do!"

"Lin, can't we just go home?" Den whined. "We could sleep in and watch cartoons and eat spaghetti! That'd be fun!"

Lin was about to reply, when she finally noticed the strange girl lingering off towards the edge of the crevasse. "W-what are you doing here? Are you spying on us or something?" She demanded.

"If I were really trying to spy on you, would I really stay in plain view for all to see? Besides, where else do I have to go? There's no I way I'm climbing through that hole again, and until that card is found we're all sort of stuck in here" Erika replied, annoyed by the girl's accusations, "I suppose that the card key is in this room, otherwise nobody could complete this little challenge. Finding it would probably be much easier than just blowing a hole in the wall anyway"

Erika picked up her flamethrower and torched a robot that she noticed coming after her. "The guards in this room are pretty weak, but no doubt they'll get stronger the closer we get to the center. You're probably gonna need better weapons than that peashooter you're holding" she said, pointing at the rifle the girl had been holding. "If you like I could lend you my missile launcher" The girl seemed to become interested at the thought of using a real weapon. "Well?" Erika asked, awaiting an answer.

"I'll take it!" Lin exclaimed cheerfully. "Now fork it over already before any more of those robots show up!" She handed the robot's dropped rifle to Den, who looked at it as though he weren't quite sure what to do with it.

"I still don't like the idea of going through this place at all." Den replied with an air of hesitation in his voice. "The glare from the light gleaming off of all that gold stuff is giving me a headache, and we haven't been here ten minutes and we're already getting shot at!"

Lin ignored him. "The rocket launcher?" She pressed, staring the girl down.

"Here you go" Erika said, handing the girl the rocket launcher, "Push this button to launch it, but it only has ten more shots left. Be careful with it. I'm gonna want it back when we're done here, okay? Now, I suppose we should go back to finding that card key..."

Erika looked at the boy. "Den, was it? Well to answer your question from earlier, my name is Erika, and I am not a pirate, I'm here for the nice cash reward this offers. Now, we should split up and search for that key!" She watched as Den and the girl began to search, and said to herself, "I doubt letting a little girl use a rocket launcher was the best of judgment...ah well. Now to find that card..."

---

The officer with the gold tie got up irritably, stomping around and throwing a fit. She tossed the shoe overboard, chucking it as far as her arm strength would allow. Panting exhaustedly, she leaned briefly against the wall on one arm, then looked up with determination in her eyes. "No way I'm crawling through any holes like some pirate! I'm an officer! I do things in a dignified, orderly fashion!" she assured herself with a nod, then went to looking for a door somewhere in the wall of Fawzi's ship. After a good number of minutes, traversing one side of the deck to the other, she stopped, slapping her forehead. "The idiot didn't put a door anywhere on his ship! Why, if I get my hands on that guy, I'm going to strangle him!" she growled, illustrating her intention with her own hand motions. She began to make her way to one of the doors, rubbing her temples with her fingers and looking generally displeased. "There's a passenger ship here too now? This situation's going from bad to worse!"

In the meantime, the inner corridor continued to buzz with the hum of rapid gunfire. Many robots had been destroyed; they were proving to be rather inept guards. On the other hand, however, there seemed to be no end to the number of them that Fawzi packed into the room.

---

As Lin, Den, and Erika contemplated the answer as to how to get into the next room, refusing the pirate-ly option of running up and punching the door repeatedly in an attempt to open it, they spotted somebody lurking behind some cheesy "priceless" paintings up ahead. He was announced by a ridiculous greased orange spike of hair that extended far above his hiding spot.

Whatever he was doing, he seemed a bit suspicious, despite the fact that he was really just hiding, something that they themselves were currently doing.

Lin and Erika ignored the orange spike and dashed off to locate the elusive card key. Den, however, sighed and slumped against a wall near the paintings. "I really should have just stayed behind. I could be watching cartoons right now, with BOTH my shoes on my feet!" He whined to himself, the cacophony at the other end of the hall drowning out his words so Lin couldn't hear. "I never should have followed Lin at all when she forced me to become a pirate with her! Why can't I just tell her the truth and save myself a lot of pain and misery!" He sighed again and trudged away from the two girls.

Suddenly, he noticed that the spike had shifted to the right a bit. He looked at it quizzically, not considering once for a moment that the spike was actually part of somebody's hairdo. In fact, it sort of looked like a carrot. A really big carrot. "It's been a while since I had any food..." Den thought to himself. "I don't like carrots much, but that's what I get for forgetting to pack lunch." He shrugged and waddled around the painting...

---

It was impossible. Unthinkable. Utterly ridiculous. And pretty unlikely to boot.

Alvert had been running his hands over the boat's hull for about ten minutes now. In that time, he and Jeslyn had made a full circle of the ship. However, they had yet to find any sign of a concealed entrance. The notion that he may have been incorrect was starting to dawn on him. It wasn't a familiar feeling, which is why he hadn't recognized it as one of doubt until this point.

“Sir.” Came a flat voice.

“... Hmm? Eh... What is it, Jessie? I’m a tad preoccupied at the moment.”

“I think they’re catching on.”

Alvert froze for a second, then turned his gaze away from the wall and into the twenty or so burly pirates forming what looked to be their best shot at a circle. More alarming, the circle seemed to be forming around the two of them. Jeslyn, with her front to their new onlookers, took a few steps back towards Alvert and began speaking as furtively as she could given the noise.

“It would put us at a disadvantage if we were to waste any of our firepower so early into the operation. They seem to be figuring out that we don’t want to shoot.”

“It doesn't seem as though they’re too keen about us being here to begin with.” Alvert responded, a slight quiver in his voice.

“I told you it was presumptuous wearing suits to a place like this.” Jeslyn sighed. “We’re attracting attention.”

“And I told you,” Alvert responded. “The suits were non-negotiable.”

He turned to face the pirates and, composing himself, took several steps towards them. In impressive harmony, twenty guns were lifted into view and aimed directly at him. Smiling calmly, Alvert then turned back around in terror and began heading towards the hull before something caught his eye.

The golden wall. The way the light shone off of its glorious surface. He could see it... There was a slight break in the otherwise seamless reflection. Instinct told him to do a quick scan of the floor, and he soon realized what it was he had located.

“Jeslyn. Come here. I think I've found the... No, closer than that. Like I was saying, it’s the... Closer, I said. Oh, for Pete’s sake, I don’t bite!”

“Personal space.” Jeslyn said simply. She was now just about back-to-back with him, with her facing the pirates and Alvert the looming wall.

Deciding this was satisfactory, Alvert once again turned towards the pirates and opened his mouth to say something. Before he was able to do so, however, his line of sight was drawn up over the pirates’ heads into the distant sky. His eyes widened in an expression of pure terror, and he let out a gasp.

Twenty pirates then turned to follow his gaze, and were quite shocked to see absolutely nothing. In that second, Alvert slammed his foot into one of the floor panels, and the entire section of wall behind him spun 180 degrees, taking Jeslyn and himself with it. When the pirates turned back to face their adversaries, they were, once again, quite shocked to see absolutely nothing.

“Good lord.” Jeslyn muttered in amazement. “This must be where class comes to die.”

The room was a small foyer of sorts, the entrance they came through opening into a small circular area with a single door inset at the opposite end. The walls here were of the same glimmering gold as the outside had been, meaning that the good lighting didn't necessarily improve the visibility. Several large imitations of famous paintings and a few small potted plants added pleasantly distasteful spots of color to the room. A few equally gaudy pieces of furniture were also arranged away from the room’s center, and a large chandelier that looked suspiciously plastic hung above. It reminded Jeslyn vaguely of her parents’ mansion, but more seizure-inducing.

More disturbing than the décor, machine parts were scattered about the floor, and there were burn marks on the tile. Some people must have found this room before them. Though on the upshot, any defense mechanisms present seemed to have been disabled in the process.

“Heh. You know, I’ll admit, I thought these things were real at first.” Alvert said in mild embarrassment, examining one of the supposedly jewel-encrusted plant pots.

“Really now, who could mistake those for genuine?” Jeslyn said, searching for something that didn't hurt her too much to look at. “Anyway, if we want to be timely, we need to show some discretion in our actions.”

“Oh, speaking of discretion, please cover that up. Attracting attention and all that.”

Tucking the plastic pot under his arm, Alvert held out a belt and cloth; the same that she’d been using to cover their buster earlier. She stared at them in mild surprise. She hadn't seen him pick those up. Regardless, she received them and sat herself down to re-wrap the gun.

---

“I don’t like this…” Terra said, her face full of concern. ”I mean, we need money, but are you sure this is the only way?”

Axel Vin-Martin replied, along with a smile: “It’s not the only way, but it’s a fun way.”

Terra frowned. “It’s also a risky way,” she sighed.

Axel’s grin faded a little. “Look, I’m not asking you to go down there with me, I’m just asking you to drop me off.”

Terra sighed again and pointed to the floating stronghold. “Even if I drop you off at one of the fortresses, how are you going to get in one of them? The air is so filled with lasers and plasma shots that you’d get hit before you could even get near it!”

“Don’t worry, I've figured it out. From here you can see a crack halfway down the fortress. It looks as if it could fall apart if you strike it with a good amount of plasma shots.”

“A crack in the wall?” Terra’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “That has to be a trap!”

“Oh, come on, does Fawzi seem like the kind of person who would set up something like that?” Axel laughed.

She glared at him, and he immediately stopped laughing; Terra noticed that he still had a smirk on his face. “Still, it’s too obvious. It has to be a trap of some sort!”

Axel’s smirk became visibly strained. “Well, whether it’s a trap or not, it’ll be for me to handle, not you, okay?”

Terra was thinking so hard, she looked like she was going to rip herself apart. Axel could just imagine the mental battle she was having with herself: He seems so determined that I might as well give up-no! He’s my partner; we need to protect each other! But anything I do won’t convince him, so...

Finally she gave up. “Fine, I’ll bring you there. But if a laser so much as grazes the tail wing of the Aerocate, I’ll turn back!”

“That’s all right with me.” Axel said.

Terra seemed to collect her thoughts for a second, then told her partner, “While I power up the airship and its instruments, you go get your equipment and start going to the deck of the Aerocate. Ready?”

“All right, let’s go!” he exclaimed.

A few minutes later, Axel was on the top of the Aerocate and getting ready to go.

“Let’s check your gear one more time before we start, okay?” Terra said over Axel’s helmet’s built-in headset.

He replied with an ok before she continued. “Is your helmet strapped on?”

Axel shook his T-visored helmet before saying, “Yep, it’s secure.”

“How about your armor?” she asked. Axel looked down at his battered green armor. Despite its appearance, this armor is actually very tough, he thought. “That’s fine too,” he replied.

“Is your shoulder cannon pointed upwards so that you can blast through the wall?” Terra inquired.

“Ooops! I almost forgot!” he said as he adjusted the cannon. You know, despite all the time we've had, we never properly fixed this thing. Oh well, at least it still works- most of the time, anyway, Axel reflected. “My buster gun is secure, and the probes are locked in their slots so they don’t fall out.” He informed her.

“Okay then, let’s begin!” The Aerocate moved slowly at first, then picked up speed as it approached the middle of the air battle zone. Suddenly the ship shook; it had been hit with plasma fire! “Axel, this is as far as I go! You’d better get started now!” Axel took a deep breath and ran. When he reached the edge of the airship, he jumped as if he was going to land on a bed, facing the ground. Then, just as he started to fall, he pressed a button on his jetpack and rocketed towards the crack. Some pirates and police officers stopped to stare in amazement at Axel as he approached the fractured wall. About 30 feet away from the wall, he unloaded all his firepower on it, but the wall just wasn't cracking. Oh no! It looks like I’ll just have to ram the wall, if I can’t destroy it in time! he thought.

Just as it seemed he wouldn’t make it, Axel’s shots made the wall explode. Axel let out a quiet “Yes!” as he turned off his jetpack and landed safely in the room. Axel gazed around the room he was in. Well, it’s a nice-looking room. And it sure is golden and shiny. Then his eyes came upon a giant purple refractor. Nice! That has to be worth at least 2 Million Zenny! Axel walked across the room to get the refractor, but just as he was reaching out for it, he noticed something odd about this refractor.

Hmmm…why isn't this refractor shining properly? He thought.

Then he realized why the refractor wasn’t shining properly.

“Hey, this is a fake!” he cried out--just as the floor gave way.

Oh no! I've fallen into a trap door… Axel grimly realized.

Terra was right- it was too good to be true…

Axel was yelling, desperately clutching at the smooth metal chute, but there was nothing to grab. Then, giving up his screaming and grasping, he closed his eyes and waited for when he would stop falling.

---

A sudden, forceful shock shot through the entire ship. Jeslyn tumbled to one side, and the potted plant flew out of Alvert’s hand, crashing loudly into the opposite wall.

“What was that?!”

“Err... Sorry, my hand slipped.”

“I mean that jolt!”

“Ah, yes... Something must have impacted the outside of the ship with significant force. Glad we missed it, eh?”

Jeslyn looked around the room, a hint of nervousness in her eyes.

“...This is too dangerous. I have to advise that we leave while we sti— YAAAAAAHH!!!”

Two things occurred at this point that prompted such irreverence towards the English language.

First, a man shot out of a nearby wall and landed in a heap on the floor. When Axel skidded to a stop, he found himself looking upward to share an awkward stare with the well-dressed pair of gentlepersons. The well-dressed pair of gentlepersons, one of which had a large, almost bazooka-like buster gun
…
Axel looked at the people in front of him, and then looked to the side. They have a big gun pointed at me, he reflected, I’d better do something. Maybe I should pretend to become unconscious, or try to run away. That might be- Thunk!

Second, a chest dropped out of the chandelier, just missing Jeslyn's head. It was metal, jewel-encrusted, and looked unopened. Jeslyn immediately had the young man in her bazooka’s crosshairs while Alvert proceeded to do something similar to the chest, minus the bazooka.

Axel’s thoughts were interrupted by the large, decorated metal chest. It disoriented him for a bit, and his ears were still ringing when the woman aimed her bazooka-buster at him.

“Well, will you look at that? Seems that someone’s clumsy attack has dislodged us a gift from our gracious host. A chandelier... I’m not surprised it was missed. And put that down, Jessie.” Alvert added, noticing Jeslyn's reaction.

“This man is armed!”

“As are we. But let’s not all kill each other over it.” Alvert said casually as he made a beeline for the chest, apparently much more interested in it than the young man. “Anyway, there are two of us to one of him. Common courtesy would dictate that we at least allow a man in his position to his feet before mutilating him.”

Axel was trying hard to listen to what the man and the woman were saying, but the only words he heard were “attack”, “armed”, and “mutilate”. Attack? Armed? Mutilate!? These people are trying to injure me! I’d better do something…

Hesitantly, Jeslyn lowered her buster. Without bothering to examine the small metal chest to determine its legitimacy, Alvert threw the lid open.

Quickly and quietly, while the attackers were distracted by whatever was in the chest, Axel unclicked his probes and set them on ‘standby’ mode. Axel’s ears could hear a little better now.
Inside the chest was a small red card, set in a bed of foam for protection. Smiling slightly at the find, he placed the card into his pants pocket and turned his attention to the boy.

“Well...” He said thoughtfully, walking towards the apparently dazed man. “He doesn't look hurt.”
Axel frowned.

“Is that good?” Jeslyn asked half-seriously, flinging the buster onto her back. Alvert may be fine with assisting lethally-armed men of unknown disposition, but she wasn't getting any closer.

She’s probably trying to convince me put my guard down, Axel thought. Smiling, Alvert offered him a single hand, clearly expecting some positive reaction.

Axel backed into the wall. He wasn’t going to come close, what with what he heard before. “Who are you?” he asked. The man was going to say something, but the woman whispered something to him. Axel used this time to pick up his helmet, which had fallen off while he fell down that chute, and put it on. The woman saw this motion, and looked at him, suspicion in her eyes. Finally, they stopped their whispered dialogue. The man started to talk, uninterrupted this time. “Hello! My name is Alvert E. Fulcrum. My friend over there is Jeslyn Cutter. It’s nice to meet you.”

Alvert waited, probably for a response from him. Despite his own suspicion, Axel was somehow impressed. Hmmm… that name sounds…important somehow. Maybe it’s the middle initial…nah.

Axel got up. “I’m Axel Vin-Martin. It’s nice to meet you, too. Hey, do you know where the exit from this room is? I’m looking for the center of this golden fort.”

“Really? We are too!” The man thought hard for a second, then continued. ”Why don’t we team up? Since we’re both looking for the same thing, it would make things easier. That, and we have the card key to the next room. What do you say?”

Jeslyn looked surprised for a second, but her expression quickly returned to her previous one. “Sir!” she exclaimed.

Axel pondered the choice for a second. Team up? At first I didn’t trust them, but that introduction was very polite of him. Not really something I’d expect from someone who wants to “mutilate” me. He also has the card key needed to get further in the fortress, so I guess I’ll have to.

“I don’t see why not. Let’s go find this locked door and unlock it.”

Alvert looked satisfied. Jeslyn didn’t look quite as satisfied as her partner, but she was at least convinced enough to let him follow them.

“Excellent! Let’s get started, then.”

The group walked out to the hallway, which was filled with all sorts of lasers and plasma shots. Luckily, none of them were hit by any of it, mostly due to them hiding behind various fake golden statues, paintings, and random scenery. The group went into a room, but knew that something was wrong when they found there were no other doorways. They especially knew something was wrong when the door locked behind them.

“Huh? There’s nothing in here! It’s just a golden room with no furniture. There are not even any of Fawzi’s garish decorations in here!” Axel said confusedly.

“Thank goodness!” Jeslyn mumbled.

“There has to be some sort of exit,” Alvert said calmly. “Hmmm…ahh. Here. See? This section of floor is creaking under our weight. Maybe if we all jump on it at the same time…”

They tried his idea, but it had no effect. “I can’t believe it! It looks like we’re stuck in here. By the time we get out…” Axel said.

Suddenly Axel stopped talking. His face lit up. “Hey, I have a suggestion. Why don’t we shoot the floor together, you using your bazooka thing and I using my shoulder cannon?”

“It’s worth trying. Jessie?”

Jeslyn looked at the floor for a second, then at Alvert, then at Axel. “…Fine. Let's do this.”

Jeslyn unwrapped her buster gun and aimed it at the weak point on the floor. “Ready?”

Axel confirmed, and together they shot at the floor.

BOOM!

The plan worked. The weak floor section exploded. Unfortunately, the rest of the room was filled with cracks. A collective “Uh oh…” was all that could be said before the floor gave out under them. For the second time today, Axel was falling. And now he had friends falling with him.

[Dashe]

Chapter 3

"Alright, let's see...if I was a billionaire criminal with a penchant for weird competitions, where would I hide a card key?" Erika said to Lin as she was scouring through the various 'artifacts' scattered throughout the room. "Geez, this guy obviously didn't want his valuables taken. How are we to know those refractors aren't fake as well? Well, anyways, I'm gonna go look over by that painting, ‘kay?"

Erika walked over to the painting as she was looking for the card key, when she heard a noise. Now, it wasn't that loud of a noise, nor was it a single noise, per say. Rather, it was multiple small noises, as if somebody was hitting a wall. Suddenly, that noise grew into one large noise, as though somebody had just blown through the wall. Putting her ear to the wall, she could just make out something about a refractor, but she could not dwell on this for to long, for a stray bullet hit the painting above her, which fell over and knocked her out. The last thing she said before falling unconscious was: "I fricken' hate those guards..."

Just as Lin was about to grab the card key, she heard a loud THUD. She quickly did an about face, thinking that the other pirates (who were now fighting each other) had neglected to take out one of the robots. No dice. It looked like that weird Erika kid had gone and gotten herself konked over the head with a painting. Lin sighed. Should she grab the key and run, or check out the damage?

That one was a no-brainer. She turned around again and grabbed the plastic card. "What the...'Ryship Reader's Circle Official Membership Card?!' Figures it'd be a fake, just like everything else in this dump!" She sighed, walking over towards Erika. "Maybe if I'm lucky, that painting will have knocked her out cold so I can steal her weapons!" Apparently the free missile launcher wasn't enough.

Fortunately for Lin, Erika didn't respond to anything Lin did to try and wake her up.

Lin stared at Erika's armor. She'd managed to remove a few pieces from her left arm, but the rest seemed to be fused shut! "What the heck is this crap made of?" She wondered to herself. Suddenly, Erika's eyes fluttered open. As the smaller girl struggled to focus, Lin panicked and dashed off, so as to avoid being caught in the act.

Erika, now barely conscious, was looking around the room, trying to find out what happened. She could tell that somebody was leaning over her, although she could hardly tell what it was. Suddenly, she heard a loud sound coming from the ceiling, or at least she though she did. Her vision was so dimmed, she could hardly tell what was going on, and thus couldn't figure out if the sound was only in her head. What she knew was real, however, was the presence that was hovering over her had begun moving away.

It was then that the ceiling collapsed. Lin dove back into the fissure for cover. As soon as the coast was clear and the dust had settled, she stumbled back out into the hallway.

The pirates were still there, and there were a little under two dozen left. Den was nowhere in sight, and off to the side, a man in green armor was pulling himself to his feet. Despite this, she could tell that he looked really strong. If I can get this guy on my side, I can ditch those rugrats and actually get to the treasure for once! Lin thought to herself, ignoring the fact that Erika had almost-impenetrable armor and practically GAVE her a missile launcher.

"HEY YOU!" She shouted at the guy in the armor.

When Axel finally woke up, he saw Alvert and Jeslyn there to the left of him, still unconscious. Nobody was squished by the bazooka or the floor pieces, to his relief. He also saw another armored person trapped under a painting, and what looked like a…carrot behind another painting. He was just about to get up when he heard what he thought was a child yelling at him.

Axel looked at who was talking to him, and confirmed that it was indeed a kid who was talking to him. Wow, what’s a little girl doing down here in Fawzi’s fortress? Aren’t kids that young supposed to be safe at home? And why does she have a weapon?

“Yeah, I’m talking to you!” Lin said. "See anyone else obviously hunting for treasure here? Anyway, I'm looking for a card key. It's red, or at least I think it's red, and it's my ticket out of here and away from those tagalong brats. If you help me out and find that key, I'll be sure and give you a cut of the treasure!"

After a few seconds, Axel responded. “Wait, what? You’re looking for treasure?” He had never heard of child treasure hunters. He hadn't even thought that they could exist.

Axel decided to tell her about the card key. After all, how was telling a child going to endanger his chances of finding the treasure? “Well, my partner here found it, and he currently has it in his possession.” Axel motioned to the unconscious Alvert. “He found it first. So, unless you come with us or something, you can’t use it.”

Axel thought for a second. It would be a good idea if she came with us. That way, she’d be a little better protected than she is now, with only a single weapon for her defense.

About a minute later, Erika had regained her sight, or at least enough for her to notice some of her armor was off. "Wha...? What the heck happened to my armor?" she said, noticing the missing pieces of armor next to her head, "Some pirate must've been trying to steal my weaponry. Blasted thieves."

Gathering her armor, she put it back on, although not in the least graceful of manners (She had just recovered from being knocked out, after all) Finally, she managed to get her armor back on, but her headphones were busted. "Ah well, not like there's any need for a spotter here" she though, tossing them into her backpack.

It was then that she noticed Lin talking to some kid in faded green armor, sitting next to a man who was, oddly enough, dressed up in a suit. To top this man's weird attire off, there wasn't even a top hat. That surely would've matched his sui--wait a second...there was something next to the strange man. A card key, that had apparently just fallen out of his pocket.

A card key? Why am I noticing that? Although I can't help but feel that it's important...ooooooh. I remember now...we need a card key to get through the door! Hm...Lin's distracting that green boy, and that man seems kind of...indisposed at the moment, I suppose I could nab the key without anyone noticing...

Erika slowly crawled to the card key, and was about to grab it when she heard a voice behind her. "What do you think you're doing?" Jeslyn asked ominously, directing her buster at the child. Erika quickly turned around to see a woman and made the strangest of expressions. At first Jeslyn thought the girl to simply be very taken with her formidable attire, though she realized a moment later, much to her dissatisfaction, that it was probably the prospect of being turned into strange smudge on the floor that had grabbed her attention. Erika was about to make up some blatant lie, but the woman suddenly began speaking to her gun, which was apparently named Alvert. Quite the odd fellow! Who in their right mind would speak to a gun?

“Alvert.” Jeslyn mumbled quickly, directing her voice into a microphone on her gun. “What are you waiting for?”

Alvert stirred slightly, and he began whispering into a small, concealed microphone on one of his cufflinks.

“... Well, thank you for almost blowing my cover.” Came his voice teasingly out of an earpiece under Jeslyn’s hair. “As it so happens, I've been trying to locate my suitcase. Very difficult task with your head sunk into your chest and your eye’s half closed, you know. I didn't see where it fe— YEEEOW!!!”

A black suitcase then tumbled out of the hole in the ceiling and onto Alvert’s head. Jeslyn flinched as his amplified yelp blared through her earpiece.

“... Yes, well, eh... There it is.” He concluded, ignoring the small lump growing on the back of his head. He threw a quick, worried glance around the room, but his outburst seemed to have gone graciously unnoticed amidst the variety of other noises.

“The key.” Jeslyn came.

Alvert’s half-open eye strayed down to the young girl on the ground next to him. She was adorned with reaverbot parts and had one hand frozen in midair just above a familiar-looking red card key.

His attention, however, drifted from the card for the time being. He had been pretending to be unconscious in an attempt to throw the interest of the pirates he knew would be in the room away from himself, but he really couldn't tell exactly how much of a threat they presented at the moment. Staying as immobile as possible, he proceeded to quickly glance about the room, giving it a look of minor disappointment, as though he had been expecting more.

The rubble from their fall lay in a pile behind Axel. There were other pirates here, but only a few, and, aside from a minority who were fighting one another, they seemed to have occupied themselves searching the area for something. They were so occupied, in fact, that their explosive entrance seemed to have gone almost entirely unnoticed. A great number of deactivated guard robots, apparently dealt with before their arrival, sat in about five hundred strewn pieces at the end of the corridor, right next to a door. The door, he noted, had a red card slot to its side, clearly a locking mechanism. This he found slightly impressive; he recognized the lock as a very good model, one released just recently by one of Terra’s major security firms. It must have been extremely expensive to install such professional-grade locks across so large a ship, and it stood, in his eyes, as a sharp contrast to the otherwise cheap décor.

Clearly, this Fawzi fellow knew more about the works than Alvert had given him credit for. He wished fleetingly that he could have obtained the ships’ design specs before heading out, but the job was very short-notice, and it didn’t help that different companies had been hired to do the framework, the security, the control systems, and the interior design. In any case, this also explained the searching; the people here must not have a key. Realizing that it would put him in a dangerous position should any of the more vicious-looking occupants of the room find out he had a key, he breathed a tense sigh. The fact that he seemed to have gone mostly unnoticed was the greatest blessing he could have asked for.

Alvert’s half-open eye strayed down to the young girl on the ground next to him. She was adorned with reaverbot parts and had one hand frozen in midair just above a familiar-looking red card key.

Turning around, Erika saw that Lin had failed keep the green boy from before occupied. Axel turned around to find out that Jeslyn had her bazooka-buster aimed at that armored figure he saw. Huh…looks like she woke up. Getting closer to the figure, he noticed that she looked young. He also saw that she was near the card key. “It looks like we’ve discovered a thief!” Axel said.

"A thief? Why I oughta-" Erika began to mutter, but then decided better of it. She'd rather live than make enemies with someone who knew a lady with a bazooka. If she did, then she would definitely be committing suicide. Besides, if she could possibly get them to forgive her and allow her to join their little group, then she could always swipe the key from them later.

Breaking away from his internal monologue, Alvert realized that Axel, just prior to Jeslyn's threatening remark, had announced his "partner" as the finder of the key. He cringed to himself and prayed for a plan. Looking around once more, the young thief dressed in discarded reaverbot parts seemed to be quite interested in Jeslyn. Axel’s attention had been drawn to the thief and himself after he realized what Jeslyn was pointing at. There was a small purple-haired girl nearby as well, but Axel was partially blocking his view, and he couldn’t quite make her out.

He thought for a second, then whispered into his microphone.

“Jeslyn, please watch these people for a moment. There is something I wish to examine.”

“Done. But don’t take long.”

"Oh. And catch."

Knowing that Axel’s attention was directed towards him and the thief for the moment, he reached down, snatched up the card, and, rather than restoring it to its rightful place in his pocket, threw it at Jeslyn, who, though startled, was able to catch it with her free hand. Then, before any objection could be made, he shot Axel a quick look, hopefully one that would be interpreted as "My sincerest apologies, but there is no time to explain at the moment", and threw himself to the side away from the reaverbot-festooned girl, grabbing up his suitcase in the process and making a bolt from the current center of attention into the crowd of pirates still milling around the wide hall.

Hopefully, not too many people had caught or will catch on to the fact that they had the card. But if anyone is going to have to risk their life to protect it, it may as well be the one with the big gun, he thought. He'd be back soon enough, hopefully, and they could head onwards to the safety of the next room.

Now Erika was in trouble. The crazy woman was pointing Alvert at her, that green kid was aiming for her too, and to top it off, that guy without the top hat just swiped the key! She decided now would be the best time to speak, "A thief? No, no, no. You see, I saw the key here and though that it was free game! Of course, if I had known that it belonged to you guys, I never would have tried to take it! If you are willing to forgive me, then I could help you get to our destination!"

Axel was angry. What, does she think I’m dumb? Doesn’t she think I can tell that she was trying to swipe the key!?

Her lie appeared to have worked. The woman began to pull her bazooka away, although the green boy looked even angrier. "So, may I join you?" Erika asked.

Axel exploded. “Not until you explain yourself! Why did you try to take our key!? It was next to a someone! It’s not ‘free game’ if there’s an unconscious person nearby! That’s a mean trick, and”- here Axel ducked low to dodge some pirate's laser aimed at his stomach-“he was conscious anyway! Tell me why you thought that you could get away with this!!”

Lin sighed as Axel and Erika bickered. It seemed she had lost the man in the green armor's attention for good. It had looked so promising too, he almost seemed like he'd actually be interested in teaming up with her. Of course, Erika had to go and take away all her glory just when she was about to get her way for once. As Erika stared up the barrel of not one but two guns, Lin couldn't help but feel a surge of jealousy overcome her. It didn't matter that Erika was on the verge of being shot at, Lin just couldn't stand to be upstaged by that whiny little brat, especially with those advanced weapons and that nearly-impenetrable armor.

This made Axel even angrier. Augh! This thief’s trying to weasel her way out of an explanation, I’m getting shot at, and now there are police everywhere! This is all horribly wrong!

Then the small, purple-haired girl ran over to Axel, grabbed his arm, and said, “What are you wasting your time here for? That runt didn't grab the key, so we're all good to go! Come on! Your friend has the key, doesn't she? Let's get out of here and go through the door and maybe we'll get some treasure!"

Axel took her hand off his arm and explained, “We’re not going anywhere until I get a good reason from this would-be crook!” Axel abruptly noticed one of the pirates, who was aiming for the girl. “Look out!” he said as he pushed her away. The pirate fired, and hit his arm. “AAAAUUUGGHH!” Axel cried, more out of anger than pain.

“Are you okay?” Jeslyn gasped, having just watched Axel make a diving save of the less-threatening girl. Erika needed to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. Like outside, the sight of her gun seemed to be keeping a few of the more easily intimidated pirates at bay, but they, along with the situation, were getting steadily more desperate. The girl Axel had just saved looked wholly unconcerned by the fact that he had just been injured due to her carelessness, and Jeslyn suddenly realized how irritated she felt. She never did like children, but these two girls are just unbelievable.

A shot flew her way, and she swung her buster around to act as a shield. This predicament was worrying.

“I’m okay. There’s no serious damage; the armor made sure of that. Still, it's painful when something hits you in a place like your arm.” Axel said. Still angry, he continued, “There are too many people here; I’ll go find better cover, and you guys follow me, okay? That includes you, thief–girl; I still want to ask you some questions!”

---

At that very moment, Alvert was speeding away from the locked door for the moment, he realized, but during his peripheral observation of the room, something other than the door had caught his eye. A little farther up the hall, a small boy, the youngest person he had seen thus far on the ship, was hiding, apparently alone, in a small alcove.

This, he thought, was entirely improper. It is a very poor parent indeed who would think it a good idea to bring their children on a family outing to such a place. Axel was young, but capable enough, though the thief and the purple-haired girl had aroused his concern. Children should not be forced do deal with such a situation as this; of the few values he was allowed to possess given his occupation, he held this one quite high. He trusted that Jeslyn and Axel would not be so crude as to deny protection as needed to children locked in such a dangerous position, and felt that the two he had left with them were safe. He, then, would himself check this final one.

Readjusting his monocle and patting away some dust his suit had picked up during their fall, he continued swiftly up the hall, sidestepping the preoccupied pirates as needed, until he reached his destination. Peering into the indention in the wall, he was able to get a good look at the boy he had noticed earlier, and realized that the boy must be even younger than he had thought. The rather round child couldn’t have been older than ten. Currently, he was distracted by a large painting hanging above him, and was looking at it intently. For what reason, Alvert could only guess; the painting was thoroughly unimpressive in his opinion. To each his own, sure, but still.

A man peeped out from behind the painting the boy was observing, revealing his head to be nearly as odd looking as any carrot Fawzi could have stored in the room. His hair was orange and ludicrously thickly gelled. It looked almost to the boy as if he could see the liquid still dripping from the man's hair. He had dark shades in front of his eyes and very long, high-arched eyebrows, as well as very crooked teeth and a perpetually shocked looking expression. Overall, he didn't look like at all the sort of person Den should be associating with.

The newcomer began to say something, but then he noticed Alvert approach the child and begin speaking with him. Not eager to draw the attention of an older man who might theoretically do something to him, he withdrew his head, still neglecting to hide the single spike of hair which yet protruded from behind the painting.

In the meantime, pirates continued to bang on the door at the end of the corridor, which remained tightly sealed by the technology Fawzi had implemented. The robots were beginning to thin out as well, so the room had begun to be slightly less dangerous, but no less noisy.

In addition, the police-woman from earlier could be heard gabbing loudly over a microphone, giving a different sound than her usual megaphone (she'd pulled the microphone from a reporter she met shortly before entering the room). "Pirates! Vacate the room in an orderly fashion! If you fail to comply, you will all be dealt with by force, I repeat, if you fail to comply, you will-" she cried, then suddenly seemed to lose her microphone once more to the crowd.

Unnoticed, Alvert kneeled down and tapped the boy’s shoulder.

“I say... What is it that you’re looking at, exactly?”

Den was about to answer the gentleman's question when all of a sudden, the ground began to shake as a swarm of policemen stampeded into the room. He would've dismissed this had he not heard a very distinct voice cut through the chaos again. "IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY, I'M GOING TO SMASH YOUR FACE IN!"

---

Plasma shots and laser fire were everywhere. Axel looked around and found a dead-end corner with a large painting in front of it. Then, he ran over to the picture, moved it so they could fit through, and motioned to Jeslyn, the purple-haired girl, and the armored thief to follow him.

Not the greatest of thoughts, she thought, but before she could get a word in, the purple-haired girl leaped behind the frame after him. She sighed. Not bothering to worry about Alvert or the thief girl at this point, Jeslyn followed suit and, still facing the pirates, backed up until she was behind the painting.

Unfortunately, someone had replaced the wall behind the painting with a gaping hole. Not expecting this, she fell through it, giving absolutely no resistance.

Thankfully, the hard tile broke her fall.

This happened just in time for her to break her buster’s fall.

"What idiots" Erika said to herself, "How will a painting save them?" Then, the green boy jumped inside a hole that seemed to be hidden behind said painting. What the? How could he have known that was there? He must work for Fawzi...No matter! I shall beat them to the center room, and claim the prize before them. However, I may still need that card key...

By the time she said thought this, she had reached the painting and jumped through, landing behind everyone else. She'd just have to sneak behind them until she can grab the key. "Axel!" yelled the lady. Apparently the green boy's name was Axel. What a stupid name! she thought to herself, as she trailed behind them.

Lin hurried after the strange guy in the green armor, completely neglecting the fact that she hadn't even bothered to do so much as apologize for getting him shot. She noticed her brother wildly gesticulating to a man wearing a suit out of the corner of her eye. Last time she'd tried to pull a stunt like this, Den had managed to catch up with her in a matter of minutes. "Did I say we needed to find a key?" She panted as they dove through the hole behind the painting. "What I meant to say was that we needed to start looking behind paintings for holes. That's it."

One of the other travelers gave her a dirty look, but she ignored it as she tried her hardest to catch up to the guy in green. "Maybe the next room will have loads and loads of treasure in it!" She said to herself out loud, grinning, as she finally reached the guy she'd been stalking following.

---

On the other side of the room, Den immediately recognized the police woman's voice. For a moment, he considered asking her for his shoe back, but quickly snapped to his senses when she got to the part about smashing people's faces in. Lin did that to him enough already. "M-Mister, we've gotta get out of here, fast! That lady thinks I'm a pirate but I'm only here because my sister made me follow her, and I don't like violence, and...and..."

Alvert looked at him as though he had three heads. This was going nowhere. "Listen, we've gotta get away from that lady! Please help me! My sister's looking for a card key to get through the door at the end of the hall but I don't think she's smart enough to find it, and I want to get as far away from the police lady as I can! Please, you have to do something!"

[Dashe]

Chapter 4

Alvert looked at the child as though it had three heads. The boy was continuing to go on about something, but Alvert was only half listening; the sound of the police entering the room had effectively brought his mind to a halt. What he did realize, however, was that this might be his only opportunity to hand the children over to the authorities and, with any luck, put them out of the way of harm. They’d be safe with the police.

“IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY, I’M GOING TO SMASH YOUR FACE IN!!!” said the police.

Good people, them.

The young boy, unfortunately, seemed set against having any contact with the police. He looked genuinely afraid of them. Fraught with misgivings, Alvert considered the bits of information that he had picked up from the youngster’s pleadings.

Lady. Violence. Sister. Card. Door.

It seemed sufficient enough to make an informed decision.

Peering out of their crevice, Alvert saw that the officials were making a clean sweep of the hall, and were approaching their position far too quickly for comfort. The pirates were not taking the pressure well, and appeared to be opening fire on anything that moved. Their attacks were apparently the only thing slowing the officers down for the time being, and Alvert felt a sudden debt of gratitude towards them. But to business.

Ignoring the boy for just a moment, he pressed his back to the wall behind them and began mumbling into his wrist.

---

“Jessie.” Came the buster.

“What?” Jeslyn responded, moving the buster off of her and pinching her now-bleeding nose.

“Report.”

“There was a hole behind one of the paintings.” She said, pulling herself to her feet and leaning against the nearest wall. “Axel and the purple girl entered with me. I expect the thief will be following shortly. Axel was shot in the arm, but damage was minimal.”

“A hole behind a painting? Curious... Another entrance to this room, most likely. Odds are it will lead to an exit to the ship. But here is the plan.”

“We have a plan?”

“I have a plan.” Alvert said proudly. “It would probably be safest to proceed through the locked door. Penetration to that area must have been minimal thus far. I’m going to see if I can stall the police. Wait until the fire dies a bit, and head through the door. Lock it behind you.”

“And then wait for you, I suppose?” Jeslyn said shrewdly.

“Correctomundo.” Alvert finished. “Discuss it with Axel and see if he’ll come with you. He may still prove useful. Either way, be sure that you get yourself through that door. This may be our only chance if the police take this room.”

“Rodger.”

There was a pause.

“Also, take the children if you can.” Alvert said quickly.

“Take th—!”

“I’ll trust you with it!” Alvert finished, indicating that that was that. The signal cut.

Jeslyn stood shocked. What good could it possibly do them to take others deeper into the ship? She could see some merit in pairing off with Axel, but the others had only proven themselves troublesome, if anything. She scoffed incredulously at the very thought, but knew that, ultimately, it was beyond her ability to persuade Alvert otherwise.

“... Axel!” She called after a moment, yelling over the uproar in the adjacent room. He’d gone a little ways down the new hall by now, so she began after him.

---

Alvert let down the hand he was whispering into and put it into his pocket thoughtfully. It is a difficult thing, placing your hand into your pocket so as to seem thoughtful, but he’d had a lot of practice on his previous jobs. In fact, he’d built up quite a few such skills over the course of those previous jobs.

One such skill was his ability to be really, really lucky at guessing. Which is mainly what Jeslyn called it. He preferred to refer to it as instinct. But regardless of what they called it, he had it, and it was telling him that any vulnerable person that needs protection is most likely better off heading deeper into the ship. He knew from personal observation that outside the ship was far worse than inside. And the outside’s state of affairs would only deteriorate further as more police and pirate forces arrive on the scene. There would be no one available to remove any neutral parties from danger. As far as stability, inside seemed like the way to go. As for what they’d do once they run out of inside to run to, well...he’d figure that out later.

“Young man.” He began, turning his attention back to the boy. “If you are willing to trust me, I believe I have a plan.”

This was a half-lie. His plan, as of this moment, was basically to wing it, which would imply a lack of a plan. Still, so long as you sound confident, who’s to know? A half-lie is still half true.

“And please, forgive me for depriving you of a proper introduction.” He added. “We’ll save it for a more convenient time."

"It's okay," Den sighed. "Whatever your plan is, just keep me away from my sister and the police lady, all right mister? And does the plan involve food? I'm really hungry."

Alvert chuckled, amused at the boy’s outwardly simple request.

"Heh... Well, not directly, but perhaps after this, alright?" He said.

Food. Strange time to ask for such a thing. This kid almost reminded him of himself when he was younger, though Alvert hadn’t been quite as well fed. Wishing to explore this thought further, Alvert decided to stop and take a leisurely minute to reminisce about this piece of his past that this young boy had just dredged from his memories.

Protesting the prospect of having to sit through one of Alvert’s monologues, Destiny decided that it would do something very shocking to him so as to bring him back to his senses. Destiny thought it over for a moment, and then pushed a large man with oily orange hair out from behind the painting Alvert was standing under. Destiny then had the man say several disturbing things into a transceiver and dive into a hole in the wall.

That oughta teach him.

---

As one party split from the main bulk of intruders, heading down a secret tunnel behind a painting, the man with the gelled orange hair seemed as though he was panicking, jumping from behind the painting, he reached into his pockets and drew out what looked like an old walkie-talkie, black and uninteresting. Flipping a small switch, he started babbling into it to some other criminal. "Yeah... yeah... they've gone in... two girls, I think... maybe three... there's a man with him... heavily armed... Why do I have to...? Okay, okay, I'll slow em' down," he sighed, diving into the hole after the others.

Meanwhile, policemen were making arrests left and right, while pirates fought with everything they could muster to try to open the door. Luckily, there were no more robots in the room, so now it was simply a matter of getting through the door while there were still enough random bozos to take the heat in one's place.

Axel heard the purple-haired girl say something about ‘treasure’ before she caught up with him. “I’m sure we’ll find some soon enough,” he remarked. Then he saw Jeslyn running towards the painting. He also watched as she tripped and fell, too late to tell her that there was no wall to stop on. He cringed as she hit the floor hard, and again as her bazooka-buster fell on her. “Aw… hey, are you all right?” he asked. But Jeslyn seemed too preoccupied talking into her gun to respond. Uninterested in this action, Axel decided to explore the hallway he was in. He discovered, to his surprise, that this hall was not a dead end as he thought. Hunh…that’s interesting...

“Axel!” he heard Jeslyn call. Axel turned around to talk to her, but then he caught sight of the armored thief following them.

Axel whispered, very quietly, to Jeslyn: “Um, before we say anything and I forget, could you please keep an eye on that key-stealer? I don’t entirely trust her yet; she might still be after the key. Okay?”

Key-stealer? Jeslyn turned around, only to confirm that the girl in the reaverbot costume had indeed trailed them through the painting. She’d have liked to put in a solid insult or two herself at this point, but her buster was not an easy thing to haul around such a large ship, even for someone as fit as herself. Weapon or not, a hundred pounds of steel is a hundred pounds of steel.

CRACK! Everyone turned around to see a man with thickly gelled orange carrot-hair, nasty teeth, and broken shades lying inelegantly on the floor. He got up and, without introducing himself, said: "Hey, you guys. Uh... this is the wrong way! Yeah, this way's not the one to get to wherever you're going. I'll show you the right way, if you'd like!" If anyone knew he worked for Fawzi, it would be immediately obvious as to why he was stationed so close to the front of the fortress.

Jeslyn couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sorrow towards him; this was a difficult enough place to be in without having to look like that. ‘I suppose there are some benefits to wearing a suit all of the time.’ she mused to herself, straightening her tie and preparing to take aim at the man.

...Lies, Jeslyn thought. Alvert’s style may be a bit hack-and-slash at times, but she’d sat through enough of his professional negotiations to be able to tell when people are lying. People with much more experience at lying than this man seemed to have.

Axel also believed not one word the man had said. “I’m not sure I believe you,” he stated. Ehhh, maybe I should ask the others what to do, he thought. Uneasily, he turned to Jeslyn and said, “Still, I don't know…what do you think?” He also turned to the purple-haired girl and the girl with the reaverbot armor. Briefly, he observed that the first one was taller than the other. I’m getting tired of just referring to these two as ’Purple-hair’ and ‘Armored thief.'

Axel asked the pair, “Oh, and by the way--what are your names?”

"Lin Falaris," Lin answered immediately. "Your name's Axel, right? That other girl isn't worth your time. She's just an uppity little snot like my brother, but I'm mature and responsible and all that good stuff grown-ups like to see in a kid, I'd NEVER steal a card key or anything like that, and..."

Okay, so she has a brother. But the way she said it…

Something’s wrong here… Axel thought.

Lin wasn't able to finish, however, before Erika started up. "Uppity little snot?!? I'm older than you are! Besides, you left your brother for dead! Is that responsible? I think not!”

Lin silently fumed to herself as the insolent little brat prattled on and on about herself. Older than me? How old does she think I AM, seven?! Seriously, that girl has got to know when to shut her sorry little trap!

“Besides, I already said it before, I wasn't trying to steal your card key! It was an honest mistake! Oh, and by the way, I'm Erika."

Jeslyn, having finally caught her breath, was just about to say something. Unfortunately, Alvert’s voice cracked across her earpiece again.

“J- Jessie...”

“Yes?” She said. Keeping the others in her sight, she moved herself away from the crowd and into the backdrop for the time being. No sense trying to balance two conversations at once.

“Err... Did you happen to see a man in an orange hair go through the passage you’re in now?”

“Yes. He is standing before us now, in fact.” She said irritably. Her nose had stopped bleeding, she realized, and she paused briefly to remove a handkerchief from her pocket and wipe some dried blood from her face. “He claims that we’re going down the wrong path, and insists that he can lead us down the proper one.”

“And what are your thoughts on his claim?”

“It is an outright bluff.” She said. The thief and other girl, Lin Falaris, as she had announced, were currently arguing. Jeslyn wasn’t interesting in their bickering, however, and didn’t feel any need to interfere or pay them much attention.

Axel reflected on Lin’s statement for a moment. Now this girl, Erika, is telling me that Lin ‘left her brother for dead’. But she‘s also still insisting that she didn’t try to steal the card key. This is becoming confusing…

Both Axel and Lin were about to say something, but suddenly that weird orange-haired guy began speaking again. "Maybe you three could stop fighting! Then, I could lead you directly to the center room!"

Seizing the opportunity to become unnoticed again, Erika quickly turned on her cloaking device. Thank God those Sharukurusus on Kattelox had this cloaking mechanism! Hopefully, nobody noticed me. If I just stay still, then I should be A-OK. Unless they have heat sensors...nah, they're not that smart.

Axel and Lin turned back at her to continue the argument, but they, of course, couldn't see her. Hopefully they couldn't see her would be more correct though.

Axel looked at him for a second. Lin raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips in defiance. "Sure you could. You certainly look like someone who'd know his way around a place like this," She declared, her voice saturated with sarcasm.

"Don't you know it's not polite to say mean things to grown-ups?" The orange-haired bozo mocked. "You DO want that um...treasure...you've been babbling about...er...not that I was spying on you or anything, which I definitely wasn't, no siree..."

Lin sighed. I've had enough of this, She thought as the turned back towards Axel and...

Wait. Erika had disappeared! It's about time she learned her place and left, Lin scoffed to herself. She was SERIOUSLY starting to get on my nerves.

Meanwhile, Jeslyn and Alvert were still exchanging words via communicator nearby. “... Yes, that would correspond with what I heard...” Alvert replied.

“I suppose you’ll be revising your plan then?” Jeslyn asked. Annoying... the thief seemed to have left the area.

“Posthaste. If the path you are currently following is the correct one, the locked door must be a trap.”

Uh oh…this isn’t good… Axel thought to himself, having also noticed Erika’s disappearance.

Lin quickly turned back to Axel and raised her eyebrows. "So, Axel...please disregard anything that munchkin might have said about me. The truth is, she doesn't even know me! I don't even HAVE a brother, and even if I did, I'd never drag him into a place like this against his will. To be totally honest, Erika actually got hit on the head really hard when that painting fell on her. Maybe that's why she's spouting all these baseless lies about me." Lin finished.

Axel was now even more perplexed. Wait, so now she doesn't have a brother? Someone’s lying here… that’s it! I’m tired of being left in the dark! I’m going to find out what’s going on!

He turned to Lin. “Nope, we can’t let her run away. She might come back and try to steal the card key.” Axel thought for a second before adding, “And if she does that, we can’t get any treasure at all. So, could you wait or attempt to help while Jeslyn and I try to find her?”

Axel whispered “Activate!” and two hovering, small, spherical, black probes immediately came to his side. “These are my scout probes,” he explained. “They have all sorts of sensors, like infrared, sonar, limited X-ray, and some others. They also have mini buster guns mounted on their side, so if the object they find is hostile, they can defend themselves. We’ll find out where Erika went--and later we can find out if you really do have a little brother.”

“Will you be following us then? No sense in staying around that room if there is no business to be done. Let the police baffle themselves over the locked door.” Jeslyn responded, ignoring everything else that was going on in the room.

Oh come on! Erika thought to herself, what are the odds he'd have those? I should have done my homework before trying this... Suddenly, one of them beeped. They were close.

Orange hair looked worried. “J-just follow me! I’m sure she’ll pop up sooner or later.” Axel ignored him and sent the probes to fly around the room. Then he put up a screen in helmet. All of a sudden, one of the probes beeped a distinctive beep. “Huh…one of my probes is definitely picking up something with its sonar…”

Yep...it’s human shaped... it has to be her, Axel thought, as he saw the figure on his screen. Now we’ll get some answers. Axel smiled confidently.

Then, Erika got a grand idea! It was a brilliant idea, one most people would never come up with in this situation. The color drained from Lin's face as Erika popped out of thin air and shot Axel's probes out of the sky.

“... No, no. Not just yet. The law enforcers these days are trained to be very extensive in emergency situations such as these. They’d find a hole behind a painting easily. I said I’d stall them, and I believe that a means has just come to light.” Alvert said this with a slight ring in his voice. He sounded pleased... Had such an opportunity really presented itself? Some fire started flickering in the back of her mind.

“I suppose it involves some extra firepower. Shall I come back?”

It was getting warm.

“Well, no and yes. Come back, but wait behind the painting. And bring the key.”

“GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Jeslyn leaped to her feet and dropped her buster to the floor, successfully cutting the communiqué dead.

Unfortunately, the fire she thought to be in the back of her mind was slightly more front-oriented than she had realized. Her attention had drifted from the occurrences in the room around her, and her hair, apparently bored of the situation, had decided to alleviate the dreariness by spontaneously combusting. Panicked, she dropped to the ground and began trying to stomp the flame out, taking care to avoid the smoldering probes by her feet. Thankfully, her hair was long enough that this action did not cause much injury to her, nor did the fire, once it had been smothered, leave any irreparable damage.

Axel’s smile disappeared immediately as a red 'CONTACT LOST' sign flashed on his helmet’s screen. He tore off his hat and stared at the thief. She said something, but Axel was too shocked and devastated to hear what. “You punk…” he said softly.

Wh-what IS that kid, anyway? Lin thought, standing there gaping, her mouth wide open like a carp as she watched Jeslyn desperately try to extinguish her flaming hair. Did she go to one of those special schools or something?!

Hopefully the fact that the annoying thief had materialized out of nothing would be enough to make Axel completely forget Den existed. Whether Lin liked it or not, Erika may have saved her skin, even if she didn't realize it.

Oh yeah, those probes were fried. Apparently, though, Erika hadn't thought her plan through. Now she was in plain view, and now Axel was fuming.

Lin looked pretty peeved too, although Erika had no idea why. Probably because she was still here, contrary to what Lin had obviously believed.

Panting, slightly confused, and not entirely sure whom she should be angry at, Jeslyn replayed the events she had half-witnessed in her mind.

There was a fight. The thief vanished. Axel activated his droids. There was a stream of fire.

...There was a stream of fire.

In one half-crazed motion, she turned her head in the direction she remembered the fire to have come from. Eventually, she laid a single, furious eye on the thief.

"Geez, maybe it would be better for me to leave you four..." Erika said sheepishly as she did an about-face and grabbed the missile launcher Lin had absentmindedly dropped. She darted to an air vent, turned around just long enough to add, "Au revoir, suckers!" and jumped inside.
Jeslyn’s mind went blank for just a couple of seconds as she processed the list of diabolical things she could do to the girl once she pried her out of the air vent by the throat. It took another second to narrow this list down to just the legal diabolical things, and half a second more to remember that she was a criminal and it didn’t matter anyway.

"H-HEY!" Lin shouted, running after Erika. She skidded to a stop in front of the vent and shouted, "GIVE ME BACK MY MISSILE LAUNCHER YOU THIEF!" After screaming a string of insults, she stepped back and examined the vent opening. It looked big enough for her to fit through, but if she decided to pursue Erika, she'd be leaving Axel (and any hope of safety) behind...AND she'd be stuck with Erika for a while longer.

On the other hand, she'd probably never have to deal with Den again if she went into the vent, because unless that boy lost about thirty pounds within the next fifteen minutes, he'd never fit through. She glanced back towards Axel, the woman with the gun, and the man with the orange hair, and then peered down the shaft. She could still make out Erika's silhouette--it wasn't too late for her to catch up.

Lin took a deep breath and dove headfirst into the shaft. It wasn't as tight a fit as she' d thought, and she soon found herself gaining on Erika rather quickly.

In a burst of energy she wouldn’t have thought herself capable of just a couple of minutes ago, Jeslyn bolted to the air vent as well, kneeled down, and began screaming at it at the top of her lungs.

“YOU IRREVERENT LITTLE CROOK!!!” Jeslyn shrieked down the pipe. If she couldn’t strangle the girl, she could at least make shambles of her hearing. “HOW DARE YOU SINGE MY HAIR, YOU WORTHLESS, INCOMPETENT BOAR OF A CHILD!!! A MONGREL LIKE YOU ISN’T FIT TO ENTERTAIN THE COMPANY OF SOMEONE WITH MY UPBRINGING, LET ALONE DISFIGURE THEM WITH YOUR CRUDE, HOPELESSLY INEPT FEATS OF IGNORANCE!!!”

She took a second to gasp for air.

“ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, BRAT!?!”

She was going to drag the thief out of the pipe by force, but she was already too far along to be reached, and Lin was now in the way as well. Not able to fit into the pipe herself, she instead leaped across the hall to her giant buster, lifted it over her shoulder with surprising ease, and took aim at the area of wall covering the extension of pipe the two children should now be crawling down.

She had just raised her hand to the trigger that would blow the wall to smithereens when she froze. She didn’t want to freeze, but her hand didn’t seem to care about getting her consent on the matter. It took her a second to figure out why she froze, but she did figure it out.

The girl would get herself killed.

Angry as she was, she probably couldn’t have gone through with actually hurting her too badly anyway. Not to mention, Alvert seemed to want them kept safe... So let their injuries fall into someone else’s lap. Besides, there were other things she needed to worry about now.

Axel finally collected himself enough to yell, “You little punk! I’ll get you for this!!!” before she finally disappeared. Axel stepped away from the vent and stood off to the side.
Jeslyn breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down. She felt weary... And the day was sure to get worse.

“Axel.” She managed after a moment. “I need to head back to the previous room to help Alvert. Why don’t you head on to the next room? We’ll need to be sure it’s safe. Also,” She went on, motioning to the man in the broken shades. “What do you think about taking this fraud hostage for a bit?”

Axel still couldn’t believe it. That punk…that criminal… she flamethrowered my probes…my one-of-a-kind, complex, hard to fix scout probes… Then, Axel abruptly and angrily said, “Oh, she’ll get it…she’ll pay… she’ll get it good!”

Axel was trembling with rage now. Even Jeslyn looked angry. He briefly and coldly said, “I’m going outside the hole to find some scrap to fix my equipment with," and raced to the end of the hall. Quickly he stepped out, collected all the pieces he needed to repair his probes from destroyed robots, and slammed the painting shut before the startled police could react. Then he picked up his damaged probes, sat close to what was left of the group, and got to work on fixing his gear. Whenever someone went near Axel, he announced, “I’m not moving until I fix my stuff.”

---

Alvert was still rubbing his ear. That scream must have been poetic justice remembering the thing with his suitcase. He still had a lump from that.

Despite the abrupt end to their conversation, he believed that he got his point across.

He’d been ignoring the boy since the man had jumped from the painting behind them, but turned back to him now.

“Err... I’m sorry about that.” He said, giving him a reassuring glance. “But I think I can put my plan into motion now. It should go fairly smoothly, though it would be best if you were hidden for the time being...”

He thought back to a minute ago, and found his solution.

“Why not hide behind this painting yourself? It should prove ample cover for someone of your stature. Just keep quiet for now.”

Alvert didn’t have time to wait for any response, however, as his opportunity would soon have passed. What looked to be the last pirate had just fallen unconscious, and the police, being led by a young woman officer in a golden tie, would be on them in just a few seconds.

So, relying on his better judgment, he decided against waiting for a response from the boy.

Instead, he carefully turned out of their crevice in the wall, took a cautious step forward, and prudently collided with that young woman officer in the golden tie, knocking her to the ground and tripping on top of her.

[Dashe]

Chapter 5

"Eh heh.... Ehehehe," the man with the over-gelled hair snickered briefly in a snorting sort of way, attempting to cover his mouth so nobody would notice. He shook his head, almost as though in pity.

"Well, this little drama act is all sorts of fun, but I've got to show you all the right way to the center of this ship! Come on, this way," he beckoned, waving one hand over his shoulder and walking over to a spot on the floor. After tapping his foot upon it twice, producing a hollow sound, he made a face of surprise. "Oh! How convenient! A trap door! Let's see what's down here, folks!" he gasped, opening the door with a remote control he brought out of his pocket.

The guy's story was riddled with holes now. For one, he'd said the center of the ship, when he was clearly leading them downward while a perfectly good forward path lied ahead. For two, the snicker was definitely suspicious. For three, he knew exactly where the trap door was. For four, he had a remote to open it. For five, his hair, of course, was ludicrously untrustworthy.

There could be no doubt in anyone's mind at this point that the guy was a faker. However, oblivious to how brazen his guilt was, he continued to grin, holding the door open and waiting for them to enter in. "By the way, I wouldn't recommend trying those vents. I mean, think about it. This is a secret room, under the main floor. Why in the world would there be air vents here? The bo-" he started, then slapped his hand over his mouth. "I-I mean, that guy, Fawzi, must have installed them as a trap, you know?"

---

In the mean-time, Alvert was hard at work seemingly feeling up a female police officer. The woman certainly thought this was the case, and quickly repulsed Alvert from herself, expecting him to be another brutish, smelly, disgruntled pirate. "Look out! They're getting lusty! They'll go for the women! Everybody be-" she started to shout, then finally decided to look the man over. After analyzing his well-dressed and actually overall mature and attractive figure, she decided that she may have made a misassessment. "Oh, I'm sorry sir! People, stand down!" she called out to the police. "Try to round up the rest of those pirates, men!"

Alvert looked up in surprise at the young lady who had just shoved him aside. She could push hard for such a small officer. He had barely been able to get a grope in at all.

“No, no. Not a problem at all.” He said, trying to regain his equilibrium. He turned to watch the other officers for a moment as they rushed around the room, gathering together the last of the pirates. They seemed to be assuming he was with them, since, aside from the questioning glances from a few of them, he seemed to be getting completely ignored. A few of the officers were taking prisoners out the door, presumably to the outside of the ship. If they had the time to be making arrests at this point, they must be doing fairly well outside... Which was probably a good thing. Pirates were scary, but a few dozen police officers he could stomach.

After dismissing the cloud of policemen around her, she moved to help Alvert back up. "I'm sorry if I injured you, sir. The truth is, I'm in a poor frame of mind now and..." she trailed off, then suddenly began to look slightly suspicious, tilting her head to the side. "That painting over there..."

“Err... Tell me, how is—”

Alvert stopped mid-sentence when he realized that his addressee’s attention had been stolen. Turning back, he saw that the young woman was not even near him anymore, but had gone over to the painting he’d told the boy to hide behind. The boy with the phobia of young female police officers. Bah.

There were no more robots in the room to worry about, by the way.

Den heard the woman's voice begin to crescendo, mentioning something about a painting. He curled up into the fetal position, his stomach rumbling loud enough for anybody within a ten-foot radius to hear. Unfortunately, that included the police woman he'd been trying to avoid.

The woman immediately noticed the boy huddled up against the wall and glared at him. "G-got anything to eat?" Den asked innocently, giving the officer his most innocent-looking grin.

"Well...if it isn't the little boy with the diseased sister," The police officer said with a snicker.

"L-leave me alone!" Den sniffled, turning his back to the wall. "I'm tired, and hungry, and wearing one shoe, and...and...the guy in the suit promised his plan would work!" He immediately started bawling, blubbering on and on about how he wanted to go home mixed in with some other seemingly nonsensical things about telephone poles and Lego men.

So this little boy is acquainted with that handsome gentleman who knocked me down earlier... the woman thought to herself. Maybe I misjudged him...after all, a lot of small children make up stories to stay out of trouble. "Don't worry, if you really ARE acquainted with that man, I don't think I'm going to put you under arrest anytime soon." The woman tried to reassure Den.

Den glanced up, his face streaked with tears. "I want my shoe back and I want food!" He whined. "I haven't eaten in over an hour!" The boy seemed to be in hysterics at this point, and Alvert realized that sooner or later he'd probably wind up saying something he'd soon regret, especially considering his initial reaction to the woman's sudden entrance...

"Don't worry, calm down! I'm not going to arrest you when there are a bunch of burly pirates to be brought in; I've got bigger fish to fry," the officer calmed Den, stroking his hair back in a motherly way despite the fact that they couldn't have an age difference of any longer than about 6 or 7 years. "Here, I have something for you. I think it's edible," she smiled, bending over towards him and reaching into her pocket to reveal a Gold City Chocolate Bar. "I was going to eat it over my break, but you look like you need it more, and I doubt I'll be getting a break any time soon. Besides, I don't want to get fat, now do I?" she laughed, but then seemed to stare intently into the boys eyes, as if awaiting a very serious response.

Den polished off the candy bar that the police lady gave him in about two seconds flat. Wow, she's a lot nicer now that she knows I'm traveling with the guy in the suit, he thought as she left him to go talk to Alvert. She's WAY nicer than Lin...kind of like my mom, I think. I don't remember Mom much. I know she was nice, and I know if I asked Lin about her she'd probably tell me to shut up and make her a sandwich. That lady's actually kind of pretty when she's not trying to arrest me...

Alvert walked up to them in time to hear their short conversation, leaning over and listening intently. He was going to stop her, but oddly, the officer didn’t seem to bear any ill will towards the boy at all. What in the world was the child scared of?

Well, whatever. He’d been discovered; nothing to do but roll with it.

“Come now, young lady.” Alvert said jokingly, bending over and placing a hand on the officer’s shoulder to get her attention. “I’m not sure a child his age would have any serviceable advice to give you regarding your weight.”

He then stood up, straightening his collar. He gauged the woman to be in her late teenage years, perhaps. How someone her age acquired a commanding position was beyond him, but it probably meant that she was either fairly new to this, or a prodigy. He prayed that circumstance wouldn’t blindside him. The woman turned to him inquiringly, and Alvert cleared his throat.

“But for the time being,” Alvert went on, “Please, feel free to put this boy out of your mind. He is in my custody. There are more pressing issues which demand your attention, I daresay.” He then smiled in a knowing sort of way in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere, which he felt the hurried activity behind them was putting a damper on. “For now, ma'am, perhaps you could update me on the situation outside? It is so difficult for a deputy to keep in the loop these days.”

He bowed his head slightly in apparent embarrassment.

"Oh, you're a..." the officer choked for a moment, then gulped out froggishly, "...a married man. I should have noticed, ha ha ha!"

Den, having become somewhat jealous of all the attention the police woman was heaping on Alvert, severely hoped neither of them heard the sigh of relief he sighed after hearing that.

She put one arm behind her head, laughing foolishly, and then realized that Alvert had indicated his will to take their conversation outside. "Wait, you're a deputy, eh?" she asked curiously, a bit surprised that she apparently outranked him. "Well, right this way then. I'll see if I can't do something for you guys."

---

Meanwhile, Lin had finally managed to catch up to Erika. She seized her ankle and shouted, "Hold it right there!!!"

"You followed me? Insolent brat!" Erika shouted, kicking the taller girl with her free leg. Lin flinched, but still managed to retain her grip. Getting that missile launcher back would be a taller order than she'd anticipated.

"Look," Lin began, "I don't care if you run off and get yourself killed, but at least leave me the missile launcher! You said it yourself, that puny rifle I had earlier isn't going to cut it once I get to the good stuff!"

Erika sighed. "No way. You're on your own, twerp!" She yanked her leg free and continued down the shaft. Lin grumbled something under her breath, but soon remembered that Erika's armor was severely hampering her speed and maneuverability in the tiny shaft. Not only that, but the clanking of metal on metal gave her a stealth advantage to boot. For once, it seemed, Lin had the upper hand. It wasn't long before she'd caught up again.

She followed Erika down the shaft until she reached a fork. One of the paths led to an exit. The other seemed to extend into the darkness forever. Fortunately, Erika decided not to take the chance of going down the long pathway. Lin watched her drop out into the room, and was momentarily blinded by the light that was revealed when Erika jumped.

Lin was just about to follow Erika down into the room, when she heard the armored girl distinctly say, "Crud." This couldn't be good. She peered over the edge of the opening to find Erika surrounded by several medium-sized robots. She realized that she could drop down as well to lend a hand...but Lin was actually pretty curious to see what Erika was capable of in battle. A girl who could disappear and fry Axel's probes, AND carried around a rocket launcher was obviously more powerful than she looked...

Erika had had no time to react. Immediately as she landed, she was surrounded by robots. Not good. Lin had stopped following her, so she couldn't help. Also not good. Her invisibility cloak wasn't working. Very not good.

She got hit and flew into the wall. Hard. Maledictions! How could I fall into so obvious a trap? she thought to herself as she collided with the wall. Well, my only chance is to fight, I suppose.

Immediately, she grabbed her shield and held it in front of her. Now she had some time to come up with a plan. As her shield was getting pelted by buster shots, she managed to come up with a decent enough idea. Activating her gun, and setting the mode to 'ice', she popped out from behind her shield. In the following moments, she shot a steady flow of ice at the floor, whilst circling around the robots, thereby effectively limiting their movement. Then, she set the gun to 'fire' mode and blasted a robot with fire, followed by kicking said robot into a group of them, setting all of them ablaze. Then, she got hit from behind, and was knocked onto the icy floor. She got up, though it was difficult, and pushed the robot into the wall.

A few minutes later, she was sitting, bruised all over, in the messiest room you had ever seen. There were broken engines, frayed wires, and busted busters strewn throughout the room. You could even find pieces of Erika's armor, as she had been hit multiple times during the preceding battle. She picked up a few busters that had not been destroyed and packed them in her backpack. After all, she needed all the weaponry she could get.

Opening the door to the next room, she though she saw someone in the air vent. "Huh, now I'm seeing things. I'm not getting old, am I?" she said to herself, as she exited the room.

Lin jumped out of the ventilation shaft as soon as she was sure Erika had left. "That scoundrel went and stole all the good weapon parts!" Lin cursed under her breath. "She really is a thief!" She walked up to the door she spotted Erika exit through and was about to open it, but she stopped herself.

"Wait. If I go through there, I might run into more robots. Erika took this batch down pretty easily, and even if the coast is clear, she'll figure out I'm following her if I just walk in." She held her breath, opened the door a crack, and cautiously peered into the next room.

The room that Erika had entered, followed far behind by Lin, appeared to be a long corridor with a red carpet and steel walls. The air pressure was fairly heavy, and it was quite apparent to Erika now that they must be in a low, secluded part of the ship. The tumult of battle was now no longer audible to them, and all was quiet save the steps of the two. For that reason, Lin had to walk with caution.

As Erika proceeded further and further through the hallway, it grew progressively darker. By the end of the pathway, all was unbelievably dark... for a few moments.

In a sudden glaring burst, Fawzi's image appeared right in front of her. "Greetings, visitors! Wow, you pirates are tricky now, aren't you? If you're reading this message, than congratulations, you've succeeded in thinking of one of the oldest tricks in the book: the air vents. Now come on, did that really seem like a good idea, hmm? Did it now?" he drawled on obnoxiously, running his hand though his sleek black hair and grinning confidently. "No, no, I can't condone sneaky tricks like that, I'm afraid. Sorry, my dear adventurers, but this is as far as you go down this path."

With that, the monitor once again faded out, leaving Erika in darkness. Luckily, Lin was close enough to receive the message herself.

Unluckily, it would appear that Fawzi was fully prepared to back up his claim that they would go no further. Lin first heard a clanking of metal blades, then Erika heard the same sound shortly after. Approaching from behind was an enormous gold mecha with a wide smile like a theater mask painted across it. In the front were large metal claws, scraping noisily against the ground as it encroached the two. They parted periodically to reveal what looked to be a harpoon launcher extending from the bottom-center of the machine. To each side were enormous metal wheels with spinning blades lining them, propelling it through the hallway with the release of many sparks. A cockpit in the top was fully enclosed by a metal dome with a green "F" painted in fancy letters.

"Ho ho ho ho! Unimaginative zimpletonz!" a voice cried out in glee. "Nothing can make me feel as giddy az cutting unimaginitive heathenz like the two of you to tiny kibblez! Oh ho ho ho!" rang out a ludicrously unintelligible voice from a speaker, placed in some unknown location on the robot. As the death machine drew near, it was fully apparent that the two were going to have to set aside their differences to overcome.

As a side note, the two assessed that the part of the ship they were currently trapped in had to much more durable than the previous areas, since the machine was able to use all of this weaponry, despite the fact that the pressure revealed they must currently be a decent ways underwater.

The machine continued to draw closer to Erika and Lin. Working together was imperative...

---

The suspicious man in the suit gave a low snicker as he heard explosions from the area down the air vents. "Nyeh heh heh, those kids are toast!" he laughed audibly, then looked back to Axel and Jeslyn, straightening his tie briefly. "Oh, eh, sorry. I mean, yeah they're dead. It's tragic, but we don't have time to worry about them right now. Just come on down this secret pathway here!"
Jeslyn shot the glasses-adorned man a glare so sharp it could have given his hair a run for its money.

Axel had just sat himself down in what was sure to be a time-consuming and agitation-filled effort to repair his weaponry, and she’d just been made a candlestick of by two grade-schoolers. The temper of the room was settling quite quickly into the Blow Stuff Up range, and this fool seemed intent on painting himself as a target. Yet, if he was working for the enemy, he could be a valuable asset. She took a deep breath and counted to ten. She’d like to keep him here for a bit longer, but she couldn’t do it by force; she had to be at the ready for Alvert if (...when) he calls for help.

“... Hold that thought.” She said, turning to the man as he continued motioning for them to head down the trapdoor. “We’d like to spend some time in this area before moving on, you understand. If we could just beg your patience for a few moments longer, we’d be glad to hear any advice you may have to offer us.”

With that, she turned and followed Axel to his small workstation near the back of the painting. Contacting Alvert right now might not be a good idea, as he was probably swarmed by officers by now. If he needs something, he’ll call. She was too frustrated to bother being worried about the situation anyway.

Placing her buster down next to her, she leaned silently onto the wall opposite to Axel and crossed her arms, waiting.

“Gggrrraaauuugghhh!" Axel screamed. Why isn't this wire fitting into the hole?!? He was trying to fit a miniature cable around the object’s small refractor housing and into a hole where it would tie into three more wires. However, this wire didn't seem to want to cooperate.

Axel sighed, and put his head in his hands. His forehead had a little sweat on it. Axel closed his eyes and began to reflect on his situation. Normally I wouldn’t be this mad. It’s just not like me. Then again, it has been a horrible day for me. Getting shot at, the thief Erika, trap doors

…Trap doors…

Axel opened his eyes and looked up. At first, all he saw was Jeslyn, but then he turned around and saw Mr. Carrot Hair standing next to an opening in the floor. Axel thought the hole was interesting (Where’d that come from?), but what he found even more interesting was the remote that was still in the man’s hands. “…That remote…” he whispered.

Broken Shades was complaining about how no one was taking his “great opportunity." Axel went towards him. “Oh, so you've decided to get up now,” the suspicious man said. The next thing Shades knew, he was lying face down on the floor. Axel had snatched the remote from him so hard that he had fallen down! “H-hey! Give that back to me now!” he desperately yelled. “Too late.” Axel taunted. The remote was already disassembled and integrated into both of his probes.

---

A few minutes later, Axel was looking down at his almost fixed gear. “It looks like I don’t have enough of the right parts to completely fix them yet,” he sadly said to Jeslyn. “I guess we’ll have to continue. I bet I’ll find more pieces to fix these while we’re walking around the fortress.” With one of the probes still in his hands, he peeked at the picture. He saw a few police and a man who, judging from his back alone, looked a lot like Alvert, standing next to a painting. Hmm…nothing interesting.

“So, uh, Jeslyn, what do you think we should do?” Axel put his helmet back on before adding, “Personally, I think we should do something with that man whatever-his-name-is. Get rid of him, or something.” He pointed to the fuming man for emphasis.

“Also- where did Alvert go? He’s been gone for a long time. I saw someone who looked like him next to some police and another painting. I hope he didn't fall into some sort of trap or something...”

"Humph! Argh! Grargh! Oooh, you guys!" the man in the shades hopped around irritably, his face now looking more shocked than ever as he gritted his teeth madly with his eyebrows arched. "Now how in the world are we going to take my special route? Look, the door's shut, idiot!" he pointed furiously at the spot on the floor, now sealed tightly.

Suddenly, he shifted gears, frowning seriously. "You thought I was assigned down here at the front of the ship because I was too incompetent to be trusted at the deeper levels, didn't you? Well, heh, the truth is, old uncle Slice is a bit more clever than you all originally realized! That's right! I'm down here to stop any of you guys from getting past even our earliest traps! I'm sure the boss put me up front because he recognizes my brilliance!" he prattled on, sounding more like he was trying to reassure himself than that he actually had any particular point to make.

"Now, punks, don't move. You've lost your spider-robot doohickeys, and you've lost that enormous cannon. I, on the other hand," he laughed, producing a golden pistol from his pocket, "am still well armed! Now you losers, press up against the wall and empty your pockets. I'm through playing around with you guys. You should have taken advantage of my offer while you had the chance!"

Axel stared in horror at the infuriated man that was now pointing a gun at him and Jeslyn. He was trying to think fast. Augh, what should I do? My scout probes aren’t completely fixed; the hacking probe isn’t built for combat; I can’t reach my buster gun, or he’ll shoot; and my shoulder cannon’s only at 50% power! Wait a minute… that’s it! “Very clever,” he said mockingly.” But you forgot about one thing.” The man narrowed his eyes, and Axel made a slight gesture towards his shoulder-mounted buster cannon.

“See this? It’s a gun. A BIG gun. Much more powerful than your tiny, insignificant little pistol there.” The man looked more mad than scared. Axel turned himself slightly; the cannon now had Shades in its sights. Carrot hair’s angry expression was mixed with something else now; Axel hoped that something else was fear.

“As you can see, my buster is pointed at you now. I’d suggest that, if you want to get out of here in one piece, you listen to me.” He looked half toward the painting and half at Slice. “I want you to walk, and keep walking until you reach the painting. Then I will open the painting and watch you surrender yourself to the police. And don’t say a word through any of it- not even when you reach the police officers.”

Slice looked dubious; he seemed almost convinced that he should start moving, but was unsure about whether to do that or just ignore the commands and pull the trigger on his gun. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Axel cautioned, his voice getting louder. “This armor is much stronger than it looks. It’s just painted this way to trick fools like you into shooting it, and then gape in surprise as the shot gets reflected right back in your face!”

The orange-haired agent of Fawzi was convinced and scared now. Axel was fully in control. “Come on, get moving!” he yelled. The man began to move. Axel kept true to his words, and followed behind him. I’d better tell Jeslyn to grab her gun- so this man doesn’t get any ideas. “Quick, go grab your bazooka-buster!’ he whispered to Jeslyn as he passed her. When Slice reached the painting, he stopped, just like Axel told him to.

“Now, to make sure you don’t lie to the police about us, I’m going to send my previously-hidden third scout probe to follow you.” Axel muttered “Activate!” and a floating, silvery sphere moved next to him. “Follow this man!” he said to it.

“Remember, I’m watching you!” he said, moving his cannon’s position to keep up with the man as he slipped out of the painting and into the hallway. The tracking probe followed Slice silently, just out of sight of the law enforcers. The terrified man silently surrendered to the police, like he was told.

Jeslyn had stayed silent throughout the departure of Slice. Not so much due to her being afraid (although no misunderstanding should be had; she was afraid), but more due to anger at this Slice’s sheer stupidity. First he was stupid enough to make the inexplicable error of mistaking their complete and undisguised doubt as trust. Then, still under this assumption, he decided that it would be more effective to betray this trust and draw a gun on the two people he had supposedly won over instead of simply meeting the very simple request of a few moments’ rest, which was inconceivably stupid on a number of very stupid levels. His most redeeming feat had been to hold out for eleven seconds against a moderately convincing bluff, and that wasn't enough of an accomplishment to keep him from the police.

His back at that moment was the greatest thing she'd seen all day.

When Slice was finally out of the building in police safekeeping, the probe returned to Axel. He stared silently into space, thinking. Wow…how did I do that? I never knew I was so brave… He finally took off his helmet and gave a sigh of relief. Then he turned to Jeslyn and smiled.

“It was a pretty good bluff, wasn’t it? I almost didn’t expect it to work. Now, where were we…oh yes, Alvert. Where is he again?” Axel looked at Jeslyn, expecting a response.

A pretty good bluff? Decent, sure, but Jeslyn wondered if either Axel or Spike realized that firing a shot at so close a proximity to the painting would have gotten them all detected by the police and jailed on the spot. It wasn’t exactly the most soothing of sights, them both pointing guns at each other in a game of chicken, but it had, thank heavens, worked.

“It was enough to get us out of that situation. Thanks.” She began genuinely.

Axel smiled. Well, that’s what it was meant to do. And it worked, so…

“And where to begin with Alvert...”

She closed her eyes in thought.

“Alvert is in the middle of... err... stalling the police. I’m not sure that he’ll be all right, but it probably wouldn’t be wise to go in and check. I just have to—”

A single hand appeared out from around the painting and hit Jeslyn in the shoulder.
Jeslyn had been on the verge of yelling out in surprise, but had thankfully noticed the overly dressy cuff peeking out from under the hand’s sleeve. Without hesitation, she removed the red card key from her pocket and shoved it into the disembodied hand, which grabbed it up expectantly and shot back into the opposite room.

Axel lowered his buster. He was mystified. Okay…what just happened? A random hand appears out of nowhere, and Jeslyn gives it the door key?

I must be seeing things.

Axel put his buster gun back in its place and shook his head.

“... wait here for him.” She finished. “By the way, since you appear to be in the middle of something mechanically-inclined, perhaps you might be able to glean something from this?”

Moving the subject away from Alvert for the time, she revealed from some indeterminate location a small radio transceiver. Holding it up to the light, she looked it over intently. It seems that the ability to pickpocket would perhaps represent one of the more useful things that Alvert had conferred to her.

“This,” She began, deciding to answer the question before it was asked, “is a radio transceiver that I was able to appropriate from Mr. Slice as he departed. We may no longer be able to enjoy his witty company, but perhaps this minor keepsake could be of some use.”

Axel took the black radio from her hand and inspected it. “Hmm…it seems like an ordinary walkie-talkie. I might be able to use it to fix my probes.” He took a small tool from his backpack. “It doesn’t look that special…” he remarked. He finally opened the case- and stared at amazement at the inside.

"Wow, this is complex! How did they fit so many 8T/vA-2 chips inside this small box!? And the wires- so intricately enveloped around the refractor ‘casing’, which is actually half open! Wow, I wish I could put this kind of stuff in my probes…” Jeslyn stared at him as if he was speaking in another language.

“...But I can’t identify these small, lined, cylinders, nor those oddly etched microchips. Or these other things…” He frowned

”We could use this to listen in on Fawzi’s radio transmissions- at least until he hears that Slice was captured. We’ll have to make sure that Fawzi isn't tracking us by means of this walkie-talkie.” Axel looked up and noticed that Jeslyn still had a look that said she still couldn't understand what he had said earlier.

“What, can’t you understand my easy-to-understand words?” He teased. There was a silence before Axel said, “Aw, come on, I was only joking. Anyway, can I keep this for now? I want to study it more later.” Axel thought he saw something move. He turned to look at it.

[Dashe]

Chapter 6

Walking outside onto the now peaceful, sunny deck, rattled only by the occasional police vehicle moving back and forth, the officer took a seat on the deck of a police cruiser. "My name's Philanne Maine, and I'm a police officer, as I'm sure you noticed," she commented, smiling and crossing one leg over the other.

Den followed the two of them out onto the deck, licking the last smidgen of chocolate off his fingers. He couldn't help but stare at the police lady as she spoke. The way the sunlight sparkled in her eyes...and on her tie...made Den feel kind of nice inside.

Philanne...what a lovely name...it's like someone absentmindedly glued a boy's name to a girl's name with a purple gluestick...purple gluesticks taste okay... Den soon found himself lost in his thoughts, a ridiculous, ear-to-ear, semi-chocolate-stained grin plastered onto his face.

Alvert smiled pleasantly as he sat on the deck. He and the police officer, whom he was now privileged with knowing the name of, had been conversing comfortably for a couple of minutes now. Few things could make this moment more relaxing, save for perhaps a chocolate bar. However, as his other new acquaintance had already devoured the one they had been given before he’d had the chance to ask for some, he would have to do without.

The last time he had been on the deck of a police ship, it had been in handcuffs. A slight snag he had been caught on during one of his first jobs. In any case, he was thankful that such wasn’t the situation this time around. He hadn’t considered it for some time, but when he was young, to be a police officer himself was one of his greatest aspirations. Ironic that he should be playing the part now for the sake of his illegal ventures. Still, sometimes you have to break the law to do what is right, right? Anyway, he’d grabbed the card key from Jeslyn on the way out, which opened up some interesting possibilities.

The police seemed to be working in squads, and only one such squad, headed by Philanne, seemed to be going in at the moment while the rest patrolled the outside for the tardier of the pirates. If that room was indeed a trap, he could get them to go in, which should keep them busy for some time. And if it turns out that the locked door isn’t a trap, then it should at least keep them busy for some time. Either way, they’d have a chance to do some exploring themselves. As for now, the police were occupied with their little detainment procedures for those that had been captured, so he could take this opportunity to gather some information, and perhaps familiarize himself with some of the officers he’d be sure to meet in the future. Jeslyn and the others should be fine for the time being, as far as police intervention goes.

Philanne... Interesting name. It was almost as though someone had absentmindedly stuck a boy’s name to a girl’s name with some sort of sophisticated adhesion medium. What did they call that stuff? Whatever the case, she seemed very taken that she was supposedly of a higher rank than himself, which was good. Perhaps he could play on her sympathy before anything should happen to ruin the situation.

“Would you care to show me your badge, officer?” Philanne ruined. “Sorry to sound untrusting, but I'm a little bit paranoid now, I guess. You know...” she sniffed, holding her hat in one hand and wiping her eyes with her tie, “this isn't really my ship. My own ship was sunk as soon as I arrived here! It was brand new too, and now the chief... I don't know what the chief will do!”

Alvert choked on his spit for a brief second, but thankfully no one seemed to be looking. A badge? Alvert had, of course, prepared a contingency plan for this minor eventuality. The art of the pickpocket was a sacred art indeed, and he hadn’t thrown himself onto a female police officer simply for the cheap kicks. After all, all badges from the same policing force look exactly the same; who would be able to tell a deputy’s badge apart from, say, a commanding officer’s?

The cheap kicks were just a pleasant side effect.

What had thrown him off his guard for a moment was that the officer was now sobbing away into her hands. This sort of thing wasn’t the sort of thing he had come to expect from commanding officers, and he was at somewhat of a loss as to how the situation should be approached.

You know..." she sniffed, holding her hat in one hand and wiping her eyes with her tie, "this isn't really my ship. My own ship was sunk as soon as I arrived here! It was brand new too, and now the chief... I don't know what the chief will do!" Officer Philanne's crying did perhaps envoke sympathy, but it was good that she seemed to be off the subject of showing her some kind of identification.

He lifted his hand and placed it gingerly onto Philanne’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort, though he wasn’t sure where it would be appropriate to go from there.

Thankfully, Den interrupted his momentary lack of direction with his own momentary lack of direction. Den’s momentary lack of direction was decidedly more verbal than his own, and Alvert was just able to catch the tail end of it.

“Don't cry!" The boy blurted out very quickly. "Do you want a candy bar? There was a police lady who gave me a candy bar that I ate, maybe I could ask her if she has any...no, wait, that was you, never--what am I saying, you're on a diet, how about a carrot? I saw a carrot behind a painting before you came along and maybe it's still there but carrots don't taste very good but then again you might not be hungry after all oh yeah by the way my name's Den!" He smiled his ear-to-ear grin again and doffed his captain's hat with what he thought was an air of maturity.

Alvert looked at Den for a moment.

“Yeah! What he said!” Alvert followed up enthusiastically, turning back to Philanne and trying to remember what it was that he had just agreed with. “There was... a carro— no, a... err... chocolate bar! Can you not see the greater... eh... good, presented in your outwards actions?”

He hoped that she could, because he couldn't. Whatever her degree of understanding as to what had just been said, Philanne turned her eyes slightly to look at her two confused companions.

“You see...” Alvert began slowly, speaking with all the confidence that he wished he had in his improvisational skills. “Look at Den here. Look at myself. Then, take a look at these pirates that you've just had the honor of detaining.” Alvert paused for a second to add emphasis and formulate his next sentence. “Why do you believe that these pirate are being incarcerated? Who is it you believe the laws behind such actions are protecting?”

He thought he’d found his platform now.

“The laws of this world,” he went on giving her a firmer gaze, “are engineered to help the common man and serve the greater good. Through your work, you have prevented countless other incidents such as this one! Saved numerous lives and defended those who would be otherwise defenseless. I have seen your bravery and kindness with my own eyes, and it is easily apparent that you are one who realizes the great significance of your position and accepts its burdens with open arms.” Alvert paused, taking in the moment. He turned his eyes away from the woman and looked dramatically off into the endless sea before them.

“How could your commander possibly compare the value of such a vital commodity to a mere boat?”

"Oh... you guys!" Philanne sniffed, drawing the two close to her with her arms and wrapping them tightly. "I'm so blessed to have friends like you!" she cried out.

“... A... ir...” Alvert choked, getting his second first-hand encounter with Philanne’s power arm.

Philanne was suddenly interrupted by the cough of a policeman who was standing nearby. Alvert made a note to thank the man for saving his life if he got the chance. She released the two embarrassedly, straightened her tie, and rose to her feet. "Ahem, what do you have to report?" she asked, tightening her tie so tightly that she seemed as though she might choke herself.

---

"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!" Lin's voice echoed down the hall. Erika did an about-face to see the egocentric girl sprinting in her direction, occasionally looking back to check on something or another.

"What are you doing here? You don't give up, do you?" Erika shouted as the robot materialized into view and the scraping from its claws crescendoed to a dull roar. She took one look at that absurd theatrical smile and those dangerous-looking claws and sighed. "Never mind. Let's defeat this thing now while we can. I'll deal with you later." She hurled the missile launcher at Lin, who deftly caught it despite its bulk.

Lin grinned. I knew I'd get it back, she thought to herself, disregarding the fact that she and Erika were currently in mortal peril. Now I'll show that pipsqueak what I'm capable of!

When the ridiculous, unintelligible voice boomed from somewhere inside the mech, all Lin could make out was something about kibbles. So she was stuck battling a dog (or a person who ate dog food). Great. This was the last time ANYONE was going to underestimate the great Lin Falaris and get away with it! Lin sprinted across the room, jumping over the machine's claws as it swiped at the girls. She launched a rocket directly into the robot's gilded visage, but they just bounced off with a metallic *clink.*

"What's going on here?!" Lin exclaimed just loud enough for Erika to hear, fully aware that she now only had nine shots remaining in the missile launcher.

Erika, meanwhile, was attacking the robot from the front. She fired multiple flame blasts at the mech, yet nothing seemed to be working. There was only one choice. Reaching into her pack, she produced a walkie-talkie. Pushing a button on said walkie-talkie, she began to say "Get over here, now!" but was cut off by a swipe from their attacker. Erika was knocked back quite a ways, while her walkie-talkie landed near the robot's claws. The person controlling the robot began taunting them some more, although she could barely make out what he was saying, as his accent was so heavy and obnoxious. "Lin!" she called out, "Grab that device, at the robot's feet!"

"That radio thing?" Lin demanded, dodging a swipe from the claws, trying to get close to the walkie-talkie. "What are you going to do with it, order a pizza?"

"Pizza? Wha? No, you ignoramus! It's a-" she had to stop a second to duck a swipe from the robot, "It's a radio transceiver! Just grab it and throw it to me!"

"All right, all right! Geez, don't have a heart attack!" Lin snapped, diving between the machine's claws, grabbing the transceiver, and lobbing it in Erika's general direction. She winced as the device ricocheted off a column and skidded to a halt about eight feet away from Erika.

"Nice throw!" Erika mocked, hiding behind another column as the robot swiped at her, "Act as a distraction, I need to get to my transceiver!" Just then, the robot began using its harpoon cannon.

Lin sighed. "Of course you expect ME to take all YOUR hits for you. Figures." She muttered as she ran out into the middle of the corridor. She jumped around, flailing her arms and brandishing her missile launcher like an idiot, dodging claw swipes and the occasional harpoon. "This had BETTER be worth it in the end, shrimp!" She shouted over the cacophony.

Luckily, the robot had become pre-occupied with Lin, thus allowing Erika to sneak over to the remote. Picking it up, she was about to yell 'Got it!', but decided that it would be smarter to just call for help first. "Get over here, now!" she yelled into the transceiver, "Use your tracker to find us!" That's when she remembered that they were underwater. If her Firushudot she just called burst through the wall, they'd be flooded in no time. They had to act fast. "Lin!" she called, "We've got to get to an exit!"

"What is it THIS time?" Lin sighed, dodging crossfire and making her way towards Erika.

Erika was just about to answer, but found she didn't need to, as her Firushudot burst through the opposite wall in a flurry of water. "Let's go!" Erika said, grabbing Lin by the arm and dragging her to the nearest door.

The two girls just barely made it through the exit in time. As Erika slammed the door behind them, they heard that loud, obnoxious voice scream in agony as he realized what had just happened. Both girls heaved a sigh of relief in unison.

The ship sank down a little bit as water poured into the room containing the large, formidable machine who had just been outsmarted. "Peztz! Peztz! I'll get you for thiz! I'll get youuuuuu!" the man in the machine cried out, his voice vanishing into the distance as Lin and Erika just barely managed to escape. Hopefully he'd get out of there somehow. Or then again, did Erika and Lin really want him to get out?

The new room looked about like the last, probably a system of similar rooms. It was quite echoing, quite metallic, and quite uninteresting. The three had better hurry on out of the lower complex if they hoped to find anything interesting. At least there didn't appear to be any traps in this particular area...

---

Not understand?

Drivel, Jeslyn thought. She had studied engineering for four years during her university days, and had been involved in three scandals between several major electronics developers. Not only had she understood every word Axel had said, but, upon his opening of the radio, had been able to instantly identity the model number and function of every electronic constituent of the device. She had then mentally noted each component’s developer, their rough retail values and production costs, and the best places to purchase them illegally.

It was a bad habit, but at least she got her parts cheap. Give her all the circuitry in the world and she couldn't build a toaster, but she could tell you what every part does, who made the parts, and how much a toaster built out of any given number of the parts would cost.

Her reason for staring at Axel was merely surprise. This build of integrated circuitry had been developed months ago, making it practically antiqued in electronics terms. Axel had struck her as the kind of person who would know about something like this. Though granted, this one had not yet seen a release to the general public... That in mind, it must have cost a fortune to buy. This single communicator must be worth upwards of 150,000 Zenny, not including the tasteless little jewels they used in the place of buttons.

It was a very costly toaster.

Suddenly, Axel jerked his head around to face the corridor before them. Jeslyn, startled by his sudden movement, quickly turned to look at whatever danger he had spotted. It took a moment for her to locate the culprit, as it was slinking low to the ground. But, with a gasp of horror, her eyes finally fell onto offender, writhing maliciously on the floor.

A pool of water.

Of vile, nightmarish, despicable water.

Water was by far the last thing she had hoped to see on this expedition. Or at least, water in the particular position that this water was currently in. That is, inside the ship.

Jeslyn hated boats. Contemptible things, them. Floating unnaturally in places where any pure and wholesome thing should rightfully sink. She hated boats, she hated being on boats, and she especially hated being on a boat when the boat in question might be sinking, which would be a fine and commendable act for a boat to commit in any other situation, but certainly not this one. This fear of the habit boats have of sinking while people, herself in particular, may be on them was one of the foremost reasons she had objected so strongly to Alvert taking this job, and lo and behold if it isn’t the precise thing that should happen.

Looking more closely, she saw that the water was leaking out of an air vent; the same one that the two brats had exited through. On the up, this meant that the sieve-minded plebian who singed her hair might be dead now. On the down, this meant they might be sinking. However, after taking a moment to calm herself, she realized that a boat this size must have some multi-chamber system to ensure against sinking due to damage in any one particular area. I mean, seriously, it had a door and everything.

That just left the possibility of the sieve-minded plebian dying. Jeslyn breathed a sigh of relief.

Axel saw the water leaking out of the vent. “I think we’re going to have to start moving soon,” he said, as he watched the liquid creep towards them. Jeslyn seemed too deep in thought to respond to him. Axel looked at Jeslyn’s weapon, which was lying on the floor. We should probably move the bazooka-buster so it doesn’t get wet. Briefly, Axel wondered what had happened to Erika and Lin. I hope they didn’t drown, ‘cause if they did…hey, how did water get in there anyway? Axel thought this over for a second before concluding, They probably blew a hole in the wall or something.

“Water from the air vent.” She mumbled to Axel. “I wonder... perhaps those children encountered a problem.”

That last part came out perhaps a little more optimistic than she had intended. She decided to change the subject.

“Meh. I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about. But these parts here...” She leaned over and pointed out the cylinders in the walkie-talkie. “I have seen this before. I’m about 98% sure that these tubes are a series of signal receptors... They converge on these microchips, which should act as relay devices from the fifth through thirtieth nodes... From there, it looks as though they are wired through a simple transistor mechanism into a series with the main transmitter.”

Axel was impressed. Wow…she knows more about engineering than I thought she would.

“The fifth through thirtieth nodes? Are you sure?” he asked. A quick look into the device showed that Jeslyn was right. “Oh. I see.”

Jeslyn put her hand on her mouth thoughtfully and continued, ignoring his previous question.

“I think it is very likely being used as a tracking device, emitting a homing signal on a separate frequency in response to a control beacon somewhere on the ship, hence the multiple receptors here...and if the control beacon cuts its signal to us, I think it’s set up to stop receiving communications, ala this transistor.” She was talking more to herself now, she realized, so she looked back up at Axel. “Using it to intercept messages from the enemy is a decent idea, but I don’t think we can risk carrying something that could potentially be a mobile billboard advertising our position. However, perhaps the signal may be strong enough when it actually receives a communication that it can be traced to its source. It might act as a decent indicator as to where we should head from here.”

Of course, she realized, there was no telling when they might actually be able to catch a communicatio—

Her words were soon interrupted by another voice over the radio, a feminine voice that sounded just a little deeper than it should. "Slice? Slice? Hey you loser, just because you got assigned down there at the front doesn't mean you get to ignore me. I'm not so far I couldn't come down and smack you." A slight pause here. "What's that? Still silent?" Another longer pause. "That's it, chump, you're asking for it. If you've been caught already, it's going to be worse for you when I find you!" the voice ended.

Another silence came before Axel said, “I think we’d really better get moving soon. The vent’s leaking, and it looks like someone’s coming down here, unless we throw the radio down the vent or something. We might have to leave without Alvert, though.”

Axel looked around. The water was getting closer to the bazooka. “Uhh, that water’s getting close to your Bazooka,” he pointed out.

Jeslyn leaped off of the ground, taking her buster with her.

The water leaking from the air vent had come within about an inch from shorting her into next week. The bazooka that Alvert bought for them may be durable, but it was about as waterproof as your basic kitchen sponge. It was a factor you’d figure he’d have taken into account considering the substantial amounts of water one tends to encounter while in the ocean, but the fine print in whatever catalogue he got it from had apparently evaded him.

---

As Officer Philanne and her colleague conversed, Alvert recognized the prisoner as the man who’d been hiding behind the painting they’d been hiding under, the coward.

“Carrot”, he thought, getting his first good look at the man under light that wasn't tinted gold. He thought he finally understood what Den had been referring to earlier.

"Ma'am," the enforcer started, lifting up the ridiculous white helmet atop his head briefly to get a better look at the gathering, "I've come to inform you that we've captured this man inside the premesis."

Philanne was occupied with the new prisoner at the moment, so Alvert took the chance to look down at Den. He thought that he might try bringing him in with him, but the situation had changed. Things seemed much safer now. The boy would surely be better off with the police at this point.

The officer continued, "We've identified him as one of Fawzi's men; he was being led out of the complex by a... small... robotic spider. The machine fled before we could get a proper inspection of it." With that, he produced Slice to the Officer Philanne. Slice's hands were now handcuffed behind his back, and his face bore a constant look of extreme shock.

"Officer! I don't work for Fawzi! You gotta believe me! I'm an honest man, I swear it!" Slice defended, frowning deeply. His overall look couldn't beg much credibility, and his ability to form any sort of complex lie had obviously completely fled from him.

"Hmph. Well, you'll forgive me if I want you to be questioned so that we can verify that statement, sir. Officer, please take him into the back so that you can interrogate him," Philanne asked, regaining some of her commanderly prestige.

"Yes ma'am! At once!" the officer complied with a salute, taking the constantly object Slice into the back.

Philanne concluded her interview with a curt nod towards her police vessels and sat back down, smiling pleasantly at her two acquaintances. She held the smile for a little while, then a little longer, then realized that she was out of things to talk about.

Alvert decided it would be polite to smile back as pleasantly as he could. So they pleasantly smiled at nothing in particular for a few moments. What Alvert would have given for his job to be this simple all of the time.

"So, um, how about we go back into the ship, officer?" she asked, rising back out of her seat. "You stay here with the other officer in the back, child. It could be dangerous for you out here," she requested, pushing Den into the room with the helmeted officer and Slice. "Now, let's go see if they've managed to get that door open yet," Philanne beckoned, waving over her shoulder to Alvert and leaving the deck of the police vessel.

Alvert rose and headed off of the police ship himself, but not before turning and shooting one last glance at Den. At least he should be fine now, though he did mention a sister. How many children were in this fortress, he wondered.

With that, he turned and headed back into the gold-plated ship.

*****

Wonderful. Den thought to himself. They've decided to leave me behind, just like Lin! Nobody wants me here! He was about to follow the other police officer into the room, when he stopped dead in his tracks.

Wait. He figured. If I stay here and do nothing, I'll just be proving that Philanne and the guy in the suit and Lin were right! I'll be proving that I'm a stupid little brat who doesn't do anything but sit around and whine all the time! I've got to follow them into the...

...wait, what am I saying? Den sighed as the two of them strolled leisurely towards the entrance to Fawzi's fortress. There are pirates in there! And worse, Lin's in there! I should listen to them and just stay here with...

And then, the worst possible scenario popped into the boy's head.

...then again, if I leave those two alone, who knows what might happen?! What if they're really going on a date?! They could start kissing or something! That would be really gross...and even though that guy's married, I can't help but feel sort of... Den had made up his mind at last. Nobody was going to take Philanne on a date and get away with it...well, except Den, of course, and only provided that he figure out a way to ask her on one, and only if she were to agree to it. Den glanced towards the police officer, who was still dealing with the carrot guy, pocketed a spare police pistol, and crept out as quietly as he could. And for once, he didn't screw up and knock anything over.

[Dashe]

Chapter 7

Den followed Philanne and Alvert back from whence they came, into the hallway with all the phony treasures. The pirates and robots had all either been killed, destroyed or left of their own accord, so the only danger remaining was the threat of being caught stalking the couple.

Ugh... couple... Den hated to think of them as such, but the way they were whispering sweet nothings to each other made the truth pretty obvious to him. If they weren't head-over-heels in love, they'd have at least been audible to the boy, or at least that was what he thought. Den, forget it. They just barely met. Stop jumping to conclusions! He tried to convince himself, but for some reason his previous thoughts kept lingering in the back of his mind...

---

“... Do you think so?” Philanne went on.

“Absolutely... That show never deserved a third season.” Alvert grimaced.

Alvert, meanwhile, was fully occupied attempting to make his situation look exactly like what Den thought it looked like. At least, somewhat. Through careful manipulation, he had managed to keep his conversation with Philanne on very casual terms each time she had tried to take on a more professional demeanor, and had already been able to bring up his possession of the card key without being reprimanded in the least. That part had been fairly simple once the atmosphere had relaxed enough; he’d merely excused himself by claiming that he’d been too flustered by the situation to immediately remember about it, and she had forgiven his blunder without question.

Anyway, time to move on. He really shouldn’t linger much longer.

“Ah, yes, by the way...” Alvert began. “I’m afraid that I won’t be able to accompany your force into the next room. I am only a deputy after all, and there is still quite a bit of grunt work that must be shouldered out here. You understand, of course?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it!” Philanne said understandingly. “I’m sure we can handle whatever Fawzi has lined up for us next.”

“Ah, good, good.” Alvert smiled. “In the meantime, this key could serve as important evidence once this incident is through. I shall be sure it is kept somewhere safe after you enter the room.”

“Good thinking.” Philanne responded, turning towards the door. “I guess that means... we’re ready to go, then.”

She seemed disappointed to have to part with both of her new friends so quickly. That, or she wasn’t very keen on the idea of heading deeper into the ship. Whatever it was she didn’t like, it was happening now.

Meanwhile, several yards away behind a large coil of rope, Den choked back a good quantity of vomit after witnessing the two of them “staring dreamily into each others' eyes,” as he put it.

---

Phillane’s officers had already been waiting in the room when she, Alvert, and Den had entered, and they now began organizing themselves into formation at her command. Alvert, meanwhile, headed over to the door’s lock and nonchalantly slid his key through the reader.

“Now,” Alvert began, addressing a couple of the front-most officers in the formation. “I—”

“ACCESS DENIED.” Said the door.

Alvert jumped halfway to the ceiling. Philanne seized him by the arm, her face red with frustration, and whispered, “Alvert, what's going on? You said this was the right key!”

It just so happened that Den chose that particular moment to peek around the doorway into the room. What he saw drove him to make a rash decision, if you could call it that, on his part.

Philanne. Alvert. Hanging all over each other. In front of a group of officers. It wasn't just the fact that Alvert looked so much older than the policewoman. It wasn't even the fact that she was blushing so hard she looked almost infuriated. That man had no right to be snuggling with her when he had a wife at home and when Den clearly liked Philanne more than Alvert did. Not that Den could read minds, by any means. He was just fairly certain that NOBODY could possibly like this woman more than he did.

With that, he charged out into the open, his own face flushed with anger, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE MARRIED! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!!!”

It wasn't until a split second later, as every member of the police force turned and stared directly at him, that the realization of the gravity of the situation set in. To complicate the matter, Philanne had just swiped the card herself only a moment earlier. The entire room was silent, until the door finally broke the ice about ten seconds later.

“ACCESS DENIED.”

Den gulped. “H-hi guys... n-nice weather we're having...”

Alvert had something in mind he was going to say to all of this, but there was a minor in the room now. The gravity of his situation had hit him in a slightly less tardy manner than it had hit Den, and he had spent what seemed like an eternity between the last several moments trying to devise a new angle to retreat in. The weather diversion was a classic, but he somehow thought it would be inadequate to buoy their plummeting odds.

But for now, perhaps he could alleviate a bit of the attention being laser-focused on Den. Hopefully the boy would be willing to share this burden.

“H-hey! Den, was it? I thought I told you to wait in the... I mean...” Philanne articulated, flushing more furiously. Thankfully, she seemed to have been left as speechless by Den’s outbursts as Alvert. “Err... W-what do you mean you thought he said he was married? Aren’t you his so—”

“Captain! Please! My apologies, but my personal life is not something I’m... terribly proud of.” Alvert said bitterly. Play along, sport. The last thing I need is a background check courtesy of the police.

“D-deputy...” Philanne began, turning towards him and apparently wishing to ask something.

Must...change...subject...

“Captain...” Alvert began, straightening himself and putting on a serious face. “Please excuse my audacity, but we now face a grave situation. The child is in no immediate danger here, so we should focus our attention on overcoming this unforeseen and far more troublesome obstacle as soon as possible. I can assure you that this is the correct key... so the question is, why is it not accepted?”

Philanne seemed taken aback at Alvert’s abruptly serious manner, but clutched the key and nodded in agreement.

“Yes, yes... You’re right.”

Close call. Alvert then turned away from the crowd to face the door.

The lock. It must be the lock. Alvert didn't know as much about engineering as some people, but he could not take the large dents adorning the key-reading panel as a sign of it being a healthy and well-reading device. The damage was probably a product of the pirate battles taking place in the room not more than twenty minutes earlier. This could be serious...the damage could be anything from a disconnected wire to a shattered circuit board, and if it was too serious, he could kiss his previous plans and any decent chance of getting back to his original pursuit in a timely manner goodbye.

“If I may hazard a guess...” Alvert began again. “I think the issue may be a technical one.” He turned towards the police again and motioned to the dents in the wall, hoping they got his drift.

“So.” Philanne sighed, clearing her throat and raising her voice so that every last officer in the room could hear. “Is there anyone in this room who can properly dissect this card reader and pinpoint the cause of the problem? Anybody at all?”

A low murmur echoed throughout the corridor, but nobody said a word.

“...Anybody?” Philanne raised an eyebrow, placing her hands on her hips.

Den's face had turned an even darker shade of red, and his arms and legs wouldn't stop quivering. Thoughts of his sister ordering him around to fix this and build that...he never actually thought those skills he'd acquired on account of Lin's laziness would get put to any actual use. He tried to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out.

“Fine, I guess we'll just have to call the infiltration off for now.” Philanne resigned. “Let's get the kid back on our ship and call in the engineering team. We can do a couple more sweeps of the room when they get here...”

“W-wait, I can probably...” Den began, but his words were drowned out in the crowd. He wanted desperately for someone to hear him, but he'd already publicly embarrassed himself once that day. Still, if he wanted to keep Alvert and Philanne apart, he was going to have to speak up before it was too late.

“I can fix it!” He exclaimed just loud enough for Alvert to catch the tail end of what he was trying to say. “I know how to fix machines!”

Alvert’s ears perked accordingly.

“H-hey!” He exclaimed, turning towards the throng of officers now heading for the exit. “Who said that?”

However, twenty officers trumps one deputy, and every officer either failed to hear him or didn't care for what he had to say. At least, now that he didn't have Philanne standing next to him. She was now halfway to the entrance herself, and hardly in any mood for further interruptions, he’d wager.

Who had said that? It was imperative that he find someone who could repair that door, especially if not getting through it means the instigation of further searches. This was the end of the line; either he finds someone who can fix the door now, or makes a break for it while everyone’s collective back is turned. And if he had any say in the matter, he’d rather go with Plan A.

The voice he had just heard... Think, he thought. Think. It had been small. And boyish. It could very well have come from a small boy. But where would he find a small boy in the middle of—

He jerked around to face Den, who was having trouble navigating through the small sea of policemen.

Surprise, surprise... Could it be? Calmly, he walked over to where he was standing and kneeled down.

“I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

“I can fix that thing!” Den exclaimed a bit more confidently as he all but tumbled out of the sea of officers.

The boy was eager. But could he do it, Alvert wondered. He turned and threw another glance at the damaged key reader.

Ah well, nothing to lose on this one.

“Alright, if you’re sure about that, I can vouch for you.” Alvert said, gently taking Den’s hand and helping him to regain his balance.

“Philanne!” Alvert called out, standing up again. He could just make out her head near the opening in the wall. He waved one arm in the air. “Captain! Would you please come here for a moment?”

Philanne promptly turned around to face Alvert. “What is it?” She asked, mildly annoyed that he'd broken her concentration...not that she'd managed to successfully capture her subordinates' attention anyway. Den was standing next to Alvert, with a confident grin plastered onto his face, more confident than she'd seen him since the two had first met. He almost seemed excited to her, like he was about to get a new toy (or more appropriately, another candy bar).

“Something that I think may save us a great deal of time.” Alvert responded merrily, looking down at Den and faltering slightly at his peculiar expression.

Philanne walked over to where they were standing and gave them both one of her own peculiar expressions. It was hard to place, but Alvert wasn't going to take the chance that it was one of impatience. He got right to the point.

“Den here has a fairly proficient hand when it comes to electronics.” He began, pointing a thumb down at the boy by his side. “I believe we should allow him to try his luck at repairing the door.”

Another peculiar expression crossed Phillane's face now. Alvert could not quite place this one either, but it reminded him vaguely of Jeslyn. So he couldn't be in very good straits.

“Alvert,” Philanne began. Her voice was calm, but she seemed to be having a difficult time locating the words she wanted to use. Between Alvert's pleasant gaze in the face of such a ridiculous suggestion and Den’s...Den’s...gaze, she was at a loss for a response.

“Alvert,” She began again. “Not to insult either of you, but...this is no time for jokes.”

The smile immediately vanished from Den's face. “This isn't a...” He nearly yelled at her, but Alvert clamped a hand over the boy's mouth before he could finish.

“I agree.” responded Alvert calmly. “I know it may seem like a ridiculous proposal, but I am wholly willing to stake my honor as an officer of the force that this is a hurdle he is capable of removing for us.”

“But...I mean, how can I believe that a child his age has the skill to repair such an advanced piece of machinery? Are you seriously suggesting we allow him to try? If he were to fail, it could only complicate the problem unnecessarily.” Philanne said apprehensively.

“But,” Alvert began quickly, rushing to get Philanne's approval before Den wriggled out of his grasp. “If he succeeds, it can only mean saved time. Who knows how long it may be before your technical squad can get here? Den, on the other hand, is readily available.”

Philanne was aware of this, but she was still unsure. It sounded like such a silly suggestion, but it was hard to get around how seriously Alvert seemed to be taking the idea.

“And like I said...” Alvert went on. “I am willing to place my career as an officer behind this claim. I would be willing to take full responsibility for any problem that arises because of his attempt...you can say that I acted without consent. With me not even being directly under your command, such a claim should free you of any reasonable blame.”

There was a moment of silence as Philanne bowed her head in consideration.

“Well...” She said softly. “If you are so sure...I guess it would be impolite to refuse.”

“Ah, goo—”

“L-leave it to me!” Den exclaimed, blushing and finally shoving Alvert's hand out of the way. Alvert, feeling that his half of the work had been satisfactorily accomplished, stepped to the side as Den bounded over to the door. Philanne, meanwhile, sighed. She was already starting to question her judgment and the child hadn't even done anything. And there was something about the boy's... strange and oftentimes socially awkward mannerisms, for lack of a better term, that struck her as quite a bit unsettling. Still, a mechanic was a mechanic, and the police force's tech support did have a startling reputation for being lazy and unreliable.

“You seem unsure.” Alvert said to her, although his eyes were on Den’s rapidly-working hands. That kid could move, he must admit. “I wouldn't worry about him, though. He isn't the kind of boy who would promise something without delivering.”

Or at least, that was what he felt. He hadn't really known Den for long enough to be able to say anything concrete about his character, but Philanne didn't need to know that.

Philanne was just about to ask Alvert whether he was mentally stable for even seriously considering the prospect of using the child to fix the door, when Den's cheerful voice exclaimed, “It should work now! One of the circuit boards was coming loose, all it needed was some electrical tape, sure was lucky I brought some along in case Lin...needed me to fix...never mind!” Den exclaimed, turning to Philanne. “C-Can I have any more candy?”

“Let's see if this works first,” Philanne replied, swiping the card again.

The door easily slid open again, and a pleasant voice said, “Access granted. Welcome back!” in reply.

Excellent, thought Alvert. That worked out surprisingly well.

“Well.” Philanne turned towards Den again, patting him on the head and making the boy's face flush even more. “I guess you could fix the reader after all. Just be lucky there weren't any complications with the circuitry itself or we'd have been in trouble.” She raised her voice to address the officers. “All right, men! Let's sweep the next room! Standard procedure everyone, let's move!” She turned to lead the way into the room, but with a bold, uncharacteristic motion, Den grabbed her shirt sleeve.

“What about the candy bar?” Den interrogated, suddenly all business.

“I'll radio the nice man who was supposed to be watching you once we finish sweeping out the fortress. You be a good boy and go back to the police ship, all right?” Philanne muttered, slightly annoyed.

“You're welcome,” Den coldly replied, slinking off against the flow of the police officers, who were rushing into the newly-unlocked chamber. The sight was saddening, really, and Philanne was struck with a sudden pang of guilt. She was so eager to forge onward that she forgot to consider that Den was still only a child...she shouldn't be so impatient with him. He couldn't very much enjoy being ordered around a place like this without so much as a familiar face to keep him company.

Thus, an idea struck.

“Ah, Den! Wait a minute!” She exclaimed, stepping to the side of the doorway to let a few more officers through. She turned towards the oddly relaxed man to her side.

“Alvert!”

“Wha—! Err...eh, yes Captain?” He yelped. He’d been daydreaming a bit and had not noticed Philanne turn back to face them.

“You said that you had some work that you needed to take care of, correct?”

“Indeed. Terminally dull stuff. Any more thorough an explanation would be a waste of words, really.”

“Then I’d like you to take Den with you.’

“Err...excuse me?”

“You both know each other, don’t you? I’d like for him to stay with someone he’s familiar with. Besides, you said you were going to be staying around the outside of the ship, so he should be safe with you.”

“Well, I mean...that is a nice idea, but...”

“Come on, Alvert. For his sake. Besides, I have to admit, he seems to know his stuff when it comes to mechanics. A lot of the other officers are busy heading between here and the land-based headquarters, but as long as he’s around here with you, I know he’ll be within my reach if we need something else looked at.”

Crud. She was taking the ‘Let him fix it!’ idea a little farther than he had hoped...maybe he played his part too well.

“Besides, you know I could always order it if I wanted.” She added slyly.

Crud again. That’s right.

“Den,” She said, turning to him. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“C-course not!” Den exclaimed, adjusting his hat and saluting like a real naval officer. He hoped that it at least vaguely resembled a salute his father once would've made, back before the pirate attack. However, he couldn't quite hide the hint of disappointment that flickered across his visage after getting the order to part ways with Philanne. Oh well. At least she wasn't going to be running off with Alvert anytime soon, and that was consolation enough to compensate for his current lack of candy.

Den looked up at Alvert. “What now?” He asked.

Alvert looked up pleadingly at Philanne, who then shoved the card key into Alvert’s hand and headed into the next room. He opened his mouth to say something, but the door closed, cutting him off.

Then there was silence. The room was empty now, save for him and Den.

“Well...” He said, responding to Den’s query. “Like I said, I have some business I need to take care of.”

That was it then. The plan had worked. He would rather there be no expectation by the captain that he was the one who is supposed to take care of the boy, but it was just a minor setback. What were they going to do to him if he refused the task? Fire him? He felt sorry for Philanne, and hated the idea of putting even more unnecessary strain onto the poor girl by disobeying orders and making her look bad, but work was work.

With that, he slid the card across the reader, which then flashed to indicate that the lock had been engaged. Then, just in case some synthesized voice was planning on piping up to tell everyone on the opposite side of the door what he had just done, he reached into his suit and quickly removed a small, ornate pistol from under his belt, which he used to blast a brand new dent into the card reader Den had just fixed. The small amount of smoke that issued from the reader told him that he had hit his mark. He then proceeded to silently fire several more shots into the surrounding wall, producing a series of dull metallic sounds and a matching set of dents.

“You may feel free to wait with the police,” He began, turning to Den and replacing the pistol into his suit. “If anyone asks, I was called off on a last-minute reconnaissance mission and was unable to take you with me. Beyond that, I’m sure I can take care of my own alibi if it is needed. I apologize for getting you involved in my business, but thanks for your help. I know I said we’d have a proper introduction later, but I’m in a bit of a rush now, so perhaps some other time. Between friends, I trust you can keep quiet about this?”

“Only if you give me a candy bar.” Den replied coldly, having just lost what little respect for Alvert he'd had before then. Not only had he smashed the machine Den had just fixed moments before, he also locked Philanne inside the next room--AFTER he was so obviously flirting with her. “Philanne doesn't deserve a mean traitor like you, so why should I keep my mouth shut for nothing?”

Alvert blanched, not expecting the child to be this uncooperative. In fact, he thought, this rather uncouth behavior suited the other two children he'd met earlier a little better. The boy obviously harbored stronger feelings towards that policewoman than he'd anticipated.

“You don't have candy, do you?” Den interrogated. “If you don't have any candy then why should I help you get away with locking up all those officers? My daddy would've put you behind bars if he was here!”

Alvert placed his hand onto his chin and thought about that statement for a moment. There was something peculiar about it.

“...Tell me then.” Alvert said slowly. “Would he have put you behind bars as well?”

There was a pause.

“...Huh?” Den said, a questioning look briefly replacing his cold glare.

“I’m sure your father was a fine man. But would any abider of the law condone and participate in a farce set in motion against an officer of the police? Would he assist a criminal in the detainment of innocent persons? Would he knowingly wander into a criminal war zone if he had no apparent affiliation with the law enforcement? I may not yet know exactly why you are here, but it seems to me that you are guilty of all of the above. More than enough reason to have you yourself labeled a pirate. And your father aside, how do you think Philanne would take such news?”

Alvert paused. He figured that line would strike a chord. Den looked worried now.

“Normally, my lips would be sealed.” Alvert went on. “However, you seem to have made it clear that I cannot trust you to remain silent once I go. I’d like to be able to leave you here with the patrolling squad outside, but if you can see what I’m getting at...”

Alvert closed his eyes and drew in a lungful of air.

“I’d like for you to come with me.” Alvert said. “Besides, I plan on heading deeper into the ship, meaning that there is a high probability of my encountering Ms. Philanne again. And she will, of course, be expecting us to be together. Not to mention your surprising skill with machinery.”

He was trying to convince himself more than Den at this point that such was a good idea, though he wasn't sure just yet if he was succeeding. But it was this or kill the boy, and he was somewhat adverse to the latter.

Den thought carefully for a few moments before replying, “Okay, but if my daddy was here, my sister and I wouldn't be.”

---

"ARRRGGGHHHH, the fortress has probrably already been secured!" Sudeten exclaimed to himself as he began to close in on Fawzi's fortress.

As he took his airship off of auto-pilot, he was shocked by the number of ships he saw fighting through the cockpit.

"Heh, fashionably late, as always."

Sudeten threw on the thrusters and sped toward fortress B.

"There's no way I'll be able to dock this thing without being being killed..." Sudeten thought to himself. "BAH, I'll worry about a way out later!" Sudeten then ejected out of his ship onto the deck and sprinted into the fortress as his ship plummeted into the ocean.

"PiRATE! FIRE AT WILL!!!" exclaimed an officer as Sudeten entered the main lobby.

Upon hearing gunshots Sudeten dove behind a counter to cover himself.

"...WHAT?! I'M NO PiRATE! CEASE FIRE!" pleaded Sudeten as he shielded himself.

"SHOOT TO KILL!!"

"I need to find a way out of here. Fast"

"FRAG OUT!"

"Agggh!" Sudeten frantically searched for an escape route and saw large parcel chute on the wall.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Shouted Sudeten as he activated his Beam Pilum and lunged it at the chute making the entrance larger so he could jump down.

'COWABUNGAAAAAAaaaaa.......!!" screamed Sudeten as he descended through the chute to the lower level.

Rising up from a container filled with boxes that broke his fall, he noticed the room was a storage room as it was filled with supplies.

"FIND HIM NOW!!!" The gruff voice of the angered Lieutenant that echoed through the chute startled Sudeten as he made his way through the room.

"I'm not safe yet..." Sudeten thought to himself...

---

Erika looked cautiously around her surroundings, although it wasn't at all different than the last room they were in, save for a robot that wasn't in this room. "Dang it," she heard Lin sigh, "This room looks exactly like the room we just came out of. This can't be good. What if there's another robot waiting to ambush us? Are you going to flood THIS room too?"

"You know what?" Erika retorted facetiously, "I just might. You never know." This wasn't going to be fun. Walking further into the room, she turned to Lin and said, "For the time being, we appear to be forced into joining up. As much as I despise you, we've got to find a way to the center. So, you coming or not?"

"Sure. What have I got to lose?" Lin sighed.

Geez, she's ecstatic! Erika thought. Wonder why she's so down? She turned to look at the purple-haired girl walking next to her. She could tell what Lin was thinking. Lin was thinking about treasure. Not that Erika's thoughts were any different, mind you. I feel kind of bad for her...I should say something. "So," Erika began, "Where are you from?"

"Where I'm from shouldn't matter," Lin began, "What does matter is where I'm going, and that's to wherever the treasure is in this crummy fortress." She stared down the hallway's expanse, lost in thought. She was probably looking for treasure.

"I doubt there's anything of interest in this room." Erika said "If anything, the next dozen rooms should be just like this one. You know, multiple chambers to keep from flooding." She turned to look at the wall, lost in thought. Suddenly, she turned to Lin, followed by saying "I wonder what Axel and the suit lady are doing right now..."

"Who cares about them?" Lin scoffed. "Of course, I suppose that Axel character could've come in handy. It doesn't hurt to have a tough guy like that backing us up. You don't find firepower like that every day."

"Pfft, that kid's nothing. I've taken down bigger guns than that before. You wanna know real firepower?" Erika stated, "I've heard rumors of this kid, a digger actually, who went to Kattleox Island. Supposedly, the island came under attack by a group of pirates. This kid somehow managed to defeat the entire pirate force, and cleared out all of the major ruins. If you ask me, that's real firepower."

"No way. You've gotta be bluffing. There is NO way a kid could take on a whole pirate force by himself and come out alive, AND clear out an entire island's worth of ruins." Lin exclaimed. "The police probably showed up sooner or later to bail him out of trouble when the pirates got too tough. Either way, if it was true, I bet he's probably really rich now."

"It does sound pretty far-fetched. I personally have trouble believing it. Rumor has it he's on Nino Island right now." Erika said. After she stated this, she began to let her mind wander to her childhood, before her family moved to Saul Kada. She thought about her days at Nino, playing with her friends, trying to sneak into the ruins. Her thoughts were interrupted, however.

They had both arrived at a rather large, elaborately-carved door. "Erika, that looks like it might be the way to where the treasure is!" Lin exclaimed. Even in the dark corridor the whole door seemed to glint with gold and precious metals. "We can just go in there, take everything, and then bail as fast as we can! We'll be rich!"

"Hm...what if it's a trap?" said Erika. "Well, I suppose there's no other way to find out what's in there, huh?" She began reaching for the door, turned the handle, and saw something she didn't quite expect.

It was a bathroom. A very large, garish, tacky bathroom, but--unmistakably--a bathroom nonetheless, complete with a platinum shower stall, a diamond-studded toothbrush holder, and a glistening golden toilet. "I think we have hit the jackpot..." Lin exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear and eyeing the jewel-encrusted medicine cabinet. She darted into the medicine cabinet and started examining various bottles of fancy aftershave and high-class dental floss.

"Oh dear...it seems we've stumbled into the restroom of a god..." stated Erika, as she watched Lin scamper about the various toiletries, "We probably shouldn't be touching this stuff, but hey, that's never stopped me before!" She began grabbing some of the various jewel-encrusted items scattered throughout the room, leaving half of what she saw for Lin. "Wait a second..." Erika began, "If there was a restroom here, then shouldn't there be some way to access it from above, without going through air vents?" Just then, she heard footsteps outside.

Lin glanced at Erika as she shoved a roll of silk toilet paper into her pocket. "What are you talking about..." She began, but Erika dashed over and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Erika pushed a button on her arm, activating her invisibility shield. The two girls were cloaked in...invisible-ness...just as the door began to open. Erika was shocked to see, not a person as she had thought, but a couple of robots. One of the robots was gold, and had a large canon mounted on its head. The other was silver, and had a small machine-gun on each of its legs. One began to emit strange noises, 'Scanning for intruders....bzzt....negatory. No signs of visible objects.' With that, the two robots began to walk away. Erika, however, noticed something on the back of the gold robot. It was a card key. "Figure we can take down those robots?" asked Erika, motioning to the card key.

Lin had apparently decided that a rude remark was the correct answer, as she stated "What kind of question is that?! Of course we can take them! It's just another one of those gold robots from earlier with a silver one with it." Nonetheless, she also decided that a strategic calculation of said robots battling capabilities was also necessary. "Those gold guys were a cinch to get rid of with your weapons. One shot with the missles oughta do him in, though I can't particularly judge the silver one since I've never seen one like that before." Unfortunately for Lin, however, the rocket launcher she had aimed at the robots was immediately removed from her possession and placed on the wall next to them, whilst Erika remarked how dangerous that would be to the card key they had spotted earlier. Handing Lin a buster from the robots she had defeated the first time, she said "Here use this," as she grabbed and equipped a buster of her own.

"What? But this little pea shooter won't even scratch that thing's paint job!" Lin exclaimed, staring at Erika with a look that appeared to be of both confusion and annoyment, which Erika wasn't even sure was a word at all. Unfortunately, it wasn't, so Erika had to try to come up with another adjective with which she could describe Lin's current expression. She suddenly realized that she had to quell Lin's negative remarks about how powerful that buster actually was.

"Trust me, it can," she replied, "I was fighting a bunch of robots earlier, and they managed to penetrate each other's armor. If they could do it then, they can do it now." After being certain the both of them were ready, Erika began to disengage the cloaking device. "Now then, let's go toast some robot!" she exclaimed.

As she charged out the door and started rapid-firing at the two sentries, she just barely heard Lin sigh and mutter, "Robots. With an s. There are two of them..."

One of the robots began firing its lasers at Erika, whilst the other one was too busy getting shot to notice. "Hey, if you're going to stand around and be a grammar nazi, then at least do it on your own time! Right now, grammar doesn't matter!" she yelled at Lin.

"Of course it doesn't." Lin groaned as she fired a shot straight into the robot that was shooting Erika. The sudden volley of fire threw the silver robot off-guard. Unsure as to which direction to shoot at, the machine began to rapidly shoot all over the place, not particularly aiming at anything.

Lin took the opportunity to fire another volley of buster shots directly into its head. "See if you can get that other one down without destroying the card key!" She yelled as the deactivated robot slunk to the ground, dropping its rifle.

Erika continued firing at the golden robot, being careful to not shoot the card key. She ran forward, kicked the robot with her boot, and watched it crash onto the floor. Removing the card key, she took one final shot at the robot, and it exploded in a shower of sparks and flame. She handed Lin the card key and said "They must have come in somewhere...now that they're gone it's just a matter of finding the door..." Lin nodded, and the two girls dashed off into the hallway in search of a locked door requiring a card key.

Much to their disadvantage, Fawzi's hallway was as opulent as one would expect it to be--littered with so many glitzy ornamentations that it made spotting doors particularly difficult to do. Then again, knowing Fawzi, he would have more likely than not ordered a rather opulent, garish, card key-protected door to be installed in his hallways, and he'd probably have wanted it to stand out.

As it seemed, this was indeed the case. After ascending a spiral staircase, Lin and Erika found themselves face-to-face with a very large, very garish, and very locked door. The diamond-encrusted card reader stuck out of the wall next to it, beckoning Lin to swipe the card and enter.

"You know, it'd be pretty funny if this just turned out to be Fawzi's broom closet," Erika heard Lin say, as she watched her pull out the card key. The door slid open, and they were surprised to see, not another shoddily-adorned hallway, but rather two young girls! The two girls stared eerily back at them, but Erika noticed that they looked very familiar...then it hit her. "This Fawzi's really getting on my nerves!" she began, "I mean, seriously, hiding a mirror behind this door? Geez! I'd rather it was a broom closet!" She looked at the card key Lin was holding, and noticed something. "Hey...there's something written on the card!" she stated.

---

“I’ll keep the communicator on hand for now.” Jeslyn said, ignoring Axel's odd glare. “I’m sure Alvert'd like to say something on the matter. As for the water leaking from the vent, it shouldn’t be a problem for very long... I’m sure that a ship this size has some means of flood containment. In the meantime, you may continue on, but as I said, I am obligated to wait for Alvert.”

For this, she was actually grateful. The more time she spent waiting near the outer layer of the ship, the greater the chance that something would happen and Alvert would call in a retreat. Which would be just swell.

The painting then swept smoothly aside to reveal a man in a suit and a young boy in a hat.

Alvert held the painting to the side for a moment, allowing the young boy with him to leap through. He then followed through the opening himself, suitcase in tow, and let the painting tip back into its original position.

“Salutations, all!” Alvert said happily, breaking the silence that seemed to have followed him in. “Axel, good to see you’re still here. Jeslyn, you...”

He paused for a moment and gave Jeslyn a quick glance over.

“... Have you done something with your hair?”

“I burned it.”

“Ah. It looks good on you.”

“I don’t recall you having a child attached to you when last we met.” Jeslyn went on, pointing at the Den near his leg.

...And that's as far as I archived. Well, at least we have this, right?