"You have got to be kidding me; we came all this way for nothing?" MC kicked a stool away at the side, forgetting he hadn't been wearing his regular footwear; the shooting pain as he blasted his toe was an unwelcome visitor as he fell to the floor, life flashing before his eyes. "I am dead. Tell my mum it was me that stole her kredit kard."

The receptionist stared in disbelief as Horace burst out laughing and Dillee rushed to his best friend's aid. "SIR, YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME. I HAVE ONLY JUST FOUND YOU, PLEASE!"

"Relax, Dillee. He's just GOOFING AROUND." That didn't stop Dillee from breaking the allium tear goodness around him.

That smells quite pleasant. The receptionist thought, handing him a tissue.

"SNORTS, thank you, miss; I appreciate the kind gesture."

"Now what then, MC sir? This unfortunate situation has led us to an unfruitful moment.

"Let me crink about it for a minute."

"Crink, sir?"

MC raised his hands up to his chin and began sobbing intensely.

Leaning over with a back-breaking hunch and watching from her desk, the receptionist suggested an answer to Dillee, "He's going to cry and think at the same time...?" Horace nodded 'yes' at her.

"I see..." trying to comfort his favourite in the whole wide world, Dillee sat down against near MC's head and patted his leafy digits along MC's shoulders

If she's not here, then where would she have wandered off to in a hurry? Larry in Et-Navn? If they've been stopped by the authorities, there's a good chance that means other authorities want them too. 'sniffles' They could have passed us along the way, but the roads have been pretty empty. 'Sniffles', "Let's take a wander back to Et-Navn. Maybe that's our best bet for now. Besides, it'll be brilliant to catch up with Larry and see how the Vons are."

"Are you SURE, MAN?"

"Can't think of any other suggestions. Thanks for the comfort, buddy," rolling over and giving him a hug, which brightened Dillee up a bunch.

"You three have a strange dynamic… Oh, I actually missed a note on the file; it seems they were trying to find something down in the atolls?

Report by Officer Whodunit Date: BLANK "I'll have to inform my superior that the rookies are slacking again. The message, it says, 'Find the thing; need items from the list. This is a delicious room.'"

Horace helped MC stand up, shaking the dust off the floor away as he spoke up, "That's nothing for us to go off, but thanks anyway, lass. Let's gear back up now; the sun's about to go down. I'm sure Ninka Nobblers will start waking up soon; they'll be on us like blue-arse flies."

"TRUE,"

The duo changed back into their fighting gear, much to the annoyance of the receptionist. "This isn't a public changing room, you know..."

"Oh shit, sorry, lass! We rarely go into places with people. Easy to forget manners and behaviours, aha~" The duo Awkwardly finished zipping up their leathers, ready and raring to make a mysterious and long trip to fuck knows where.

Horace had a slightly different idea; in a spur-of-the-moment thought, he piped up, "Why don't WE WANDER TO Witches Falls?"

Surprised at his suggestion, MC waited for Horace to give a reason, but he just stood around like a lemon. "Because? Don't leave me hanging, ha."

"Oh yeah! IT'S NOT FAR, and it's like a trip down MEMORY LANE after ALL."

Well. We've already lost the client's whereabouts, so why not?

"Alright then. But let's not hang about there too long. We're still on a job after all."

The receptionist interrupted them as they began to leave the station. "Oh, by the way. The speed blimps run a circular route around the atolls now; it would probably save you some travel time if you jump on board one of those. They'll set you back a few coins, though.

Finally some good news. MC and Horace were thrilled; they jigged about not having to worry about spending a day or so trying to rush to a sightseeing spot. Dilllee shimmied around the room shaking his stem trying to fit in.

After they finished having a moment, in which they looked like a right group of headcases, MC composed himself along with the others.

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"That's fantastic. Do you know when the next departure is?"

"There's one every hour… Please don't come back anytime soon; I've had more than enough nonsense this evening."

"Understandable, have a nice day."

The trio left the station, met by the purple glows of the sun as it passed down below the horizon. A breeze enveloped them; scents of alcohol, barbecued meats and tanning oil lingered in the air, an award-winning combination for sure.

Partygoers had long since left, and only the staff were still present. "Hey, that was a kick-ass fight earlier; you really socked douchebag." One of the young Scaq workers under a table was trying to sweep up broken glass.

Horace was embarrassed, though; he hated it whenever his dad's side of the family tree came out in public. "Thanks… But I HATE FIGHTING."

"Zing-zing-zingeroni! That is bullshit, and you know it; you didn't hesitate for a second, lad."

"FACK YOU MC,"

"zinggggg~ heh heh"

"It does put a smile on my face to see you, sirs, enjoying the moment."

The young worker spoke up, "Have you guys ever fought in the rumbler?" Seems like your kind of thing."

MC dismissed the question faster than his hairline was thinning. "Lad, that thing is a fix. They pay the strongest to fight and let them stomp on low-tier adventurers; that's just asking for a career-ending moment. We get enough of that out in the field. He's lost half an ear, I have got more scars than one of those emu kids, and leafy-boy over there has managed to burn his stems at least once whilst we've travelled."

"I was just asking, yeesus...no need to lose your shit, Grandpa..."

"Fare thee well, friends. For I have died twice today. Tell my mother it was Wardi that stole her Kredit Kard."

"Sir, do not make jokes so soon; I am still traumatised from earlier!"

Dillee began to cry; MC, Horace and the young worker could smell it coming before the tears did. Their eyes in turn began to well, as the allium goodness wafted up their nostrils.

Small waves were still visible as they reached the shoreline, and the noise of a motor in the distance was audible with a chugga chugga chugga.

"I THINK, that's the speed blimp coming." Horace climbed onto the top of a table to try and get a better look. "Yup,"

"Hey kid, how do we get tickets for the blimps?"

"There's a guy who waits on the exit side; you pay him. He wears an orange cap; you can't miss him."

"Cheers for the info, bud."

The speed blimp was surprisingly silent as it made its way up to the shoreline. A metal walkway extended out onto a wooden one, and a handful of people got off. MC started walking over to it; Horace and Dillee weren't far behind. "Wow, these things are fantastic. Why's it taken so long for someone to think of using them like boats?"

"The materials are NOT STRONG ENOUGH to handle the high speeds. It was some sort of SIDE PROJECT that's come from the far north."

"Dornam tech?"

"NO. Heartensia, actually."

"Haven't heard of the place in a while,"

"Well, THEY'RE PRETTY SECRETIVE, after all."

Despite the Terra-style motor the blimp used, it ran off elemental shards. The most recent fuel had to be some sort of Raiton shards, as bright purples lit up the water below.

The smell inside reminded MC of cars back on his homeworld, latex, and a mix of something else that he wasn't quite sure of. 'I don't miss that tire smell, that's for sure. He thought as he sat down with his companions. It must have been one of the last trips of the day; nobody else had boarded with them, and they hadn't seen anybody else while they waited either.

The conductor stood on the other side of the room adjacent to the exit door. The bright orange cap against his plain white t-shirt and shorts really did stand out. There was a bar in the middle of the blimp, but there were no tables anywhere. The trio sat on a soft cushioned bench alongside the sides of the transport.

"Pretty comfy seats, eh?"

"It is unusual for me to sit on furniture. Tis only been a handful of times I've done this now. What say you, Horace, old boy?"

"It's relaxing to finally sit down, more THAN ANYTHING."

"I concur, old boy!" The engine began to rattle below, and the metal walkway was retracted back into the vehicle.

Slowly drifting away from the beachfront, an announcement came through the tannoy, spoken by an unseen driver: "Welcome to the Blimpyalur Circular. This is your captain speaking. We are shortly due to take off. Please grab hold of the sides until the green light stops. Press the bell when you're ready to get off; we will announce each stop as we go. Thank you for joining us on Blimpyalur Circular."

***

As the speed blimp took off with a powerful boom at high speed, a group emerged from a manhole entrance in the middle of the Lockerupper island.

"No sign of the targets, sir. your orders?"

"Hmm...let's ask around. There's a police station in that old amusement arcade."

Wooj and the squad made their way into the station, announcing their presence: "Officer Wooj and the sentinel squad from the Eccles Ville bailiffs department."

"You have no jurisdiction here, officers. Just a friendly reminder."

"We understand; it is of the utmost importance, however."

"It is unlikely I will collaborate with you on your questioning. but you may try,"

Wooj pulled out a portrait of Horace and a hand-drawn picture of Dillee and MC. The receptionist took the papers away and examined them carefully. "We had information they were heading in this general direction looking for someone formerly contained here, a Dr A I"

"I recognise this one in the portrait, but not these two hand-drawn ones. He left fairly recently."

"Any ideas where? There's a warrant for their capture."

"Perhaps some of her majesty's finest would jump-start my memory..."

Fucking corrupt arseholes everywhere. If you did this in Eccles Ville, I'd have you in the cells, wench. Raging internally at the audacity, Wooj begrudgingly handed over a stack of HFC.

"I overheard them say they intended to stop at Witches Falls."

"Let's go." Wooj turned on the spot, walking straight out the station

"I'm eating well tonight!" The receptionist threw the money bag up in the air repeatedly; the shaking of coins as they rattled against each other was a pleasant jingling to her ears.

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