"AHHH! Please, I beg you, if you still value our 'friendship' one bit, please for the love of god shut the hell up with that stupid trumpet of yours!" Klyde growled while covering his ears.

"Respect the classics old friend, respect the classics. People these days just don't appreciate some good ol' Jazz music anymore."

"Oh, I appreciate good music, alright. But what you're playing is not Jazz, it's not even music," said the gecko, "it's a sound of a regurgitating cat repeatedly scratching on a gigantic porcelain plate. It's horrible!"

"Ha, you're just mad that I am a musical genius while you're just another tasteless plebeian. But enough about this now. What I want to know is how on earth did a 12 year old girl manage to escape a train car WHICH I specifically made to be locked up tighter than the Pharaoh's tomb."

"Don't look at me. It's not my fault that you're too incompetent to run this train."

"Don't play games with me old friend… this train car is my treasure stash, I made sure that nobody would be able to get the password to the car besides me. See… here, see this coin here?"

"Yes, you told me this before," said Klyde, "you always carry around that stupid coin of yours."

"Exactly! It is impossible for anybody to get their hands on this, much less a child. Steward! Report… tell me what happened to the girl."

"ANALYZING… FINALIZING DATABASE… ERROR – ERROR – DATABASE CONFLICT DETECTED – UPDATING… ADDING NEW VARIABLES… ANALYSIS COMPLETE – SUBJECT TULIP HAS ESCAPED DURING NIGHT PATROL AT 11:32 PM ON THE 1st OF MARCH."

"Hmm… the same time that Krow was apprehended….I see… of course, she must've escaped by observing the Stewards entering the password… clever girl."

"Tell me again, what happened to the whole 'only I know the password' thing?"

"Keep that up and I'll throw you under the bus."

"You mean throw me in front of the train? Wouldn't that be a lot more painful?"

"No, no, bus, haven't you heard the expression? Ah, doesn't matter… Steward, where is the girl now?"

"PLEASE STAND BY, SCANNING… SCANNING… SUBJECT IS CURRENTLY IN TRAIN CAR ID# F237.89."

"Ugh… the fish people…"

"Fish people?" Klyde asked.

"Yeah… I'd rather not see them right now. They can be rather… difficult to deal with."


"This is all your fault One-One!" Tulip cried.

"Yay, it's my fault."

"That's not really a good thing," said Sad-One.

"Oh…"

"If you hadn't stuck around in this stupid bounce house for so long then we wouldn't have lost those robots who took Krow away."

"Please, Tulip," barked Atticus, "I beg you, calm down, overreacting won't do us any good… besides… this car isn't really that bad now is it?"

A bounce house… who would've guessed? It was bouncy and it had all the colors in the entire world, red, blue, yellow you name it. There were gigantic slides everywhere, at least eight feet tall. There were even a bunch of animals made out of the same kind of rubber material, apparently they were sentient, but most likely just an AI of sort. A bouncy rubber cow, a bubbly little chicken, even a pig – all bouncing around all over the place as if the sky was falling.

She kept wondering what kind of a mad man would build this ridiculous train in the first place.

There was a lot of conflicting details. Klyde – who couldn't have been the Conductor… but the description fitted like a glove. But why would Klyde lie to them?

'Don't even try to outsmart him.' He once said… was he playing mind games with her? … It was possible. If the Conductor really was so smart that he couldn't be outsmarted that what was to say that Klyde wasn't using some sort of twisted reverse psychology?

But it didn't matter now, because it was time to move on to the next car.

It was quite curious, though. There was a 'wet floor' sign placed right in front of the door to the next car… even though the ground was dryer than the Mojave Desert.

Atticus tried sniffing at the sign to see if there was anything odd. But he shook his head, it was just a regular sign.

"Aw," Glad-One said, "I was really hoping for a waterslide."

But Tulip suddenly had a bad feeling about this, a hunch building up inside… and that hunch was pretty much correct in its prediction once she swung open the door.

It startled her for a moment – a wall of water staring down at her, the entire whole train car was flooded all the way up to the ceiling. She could've sworn that the water was going to crash down onto her. But no… the water stood there like some sort of exotic aquarium. It was quite murky, making it a bit difficult to see far ahead.

Tulip was hesitant at first, she'd never seen anything like this before. It defied logic and physics. How something like this could just stand still in mid-air without crashing down was beyond her. She tried reaching out to touch the wall of water, and it was even murkier than she originally thought. Her hand didn't even go anywhere pass two feet and it was already near impossible to make out the details of her palm.

"By thunder, I've never seen anything like this," said Atticus.

"Yeah, no kidding."

"Well, this is no waterslide, but I guess it'll have to do," said Glad-One as he instantly plunged himself into the dark wall of water.

"ONE-ONE!" Tulip cried.

But just as she reached out her hand trying to stop One-One, the girl realized that there was something odd about the water here. One-One was swimming in the water, it was hard to see but he was definitely still there. Swimming and unharmed.

This gave her a strange feeling… perhaps there wasn't anything dangerous in the water after all.

"I'm right behind you Tulip," Atticus nodded his head.


And once again this infinity train continued to baffle her tiny little mind. She was breathing – actually breathing normally underwater. There was no side effects, no need to breathe any differently, no nothing. The murky water was all around them and yet Tulip could not feel any of it weighing down her movements, it was just as if she was still walking on land. They could even continue talking to each other out loud, too. It felt like a floating dream, it was really surreal letting this wall of dark liquid caress them. It did briefly give Tulip the idea of all of this being nothing but a dream, oh but how cliché that would be if it was true.

"Curious, isn't it," said Atticus while swimming awkwardly around, paddling with his tiny little feet.

"This… this is incredible," said Tulip, "I wonder how on earth did the Conductor build this… this… this is amazing. Imagine all the real world application with this type of technology. We could explore the sea, explore the deep uncharted waters. It could really solve problems with overpopulation as well. Not to mention all the aquaculture…"

"Hmm… fascinating," said Atticus, "you simply must tell me more of this… aquaculture thing."

"Um… I'm not sure you'd be into that sort of thing. I'd always figured it was more of a… um… feline thing, ya know… bah, you know what? Forget about it, we better go find One-One before he gets himself stuck in a water pipe or something."

"Knowing that little robot I'd say he's already gotten stuck somewhere," fortunately for all of them One-One was just swimming in a carefree manner just a few feet away.

The whole train car was still pretty dark and gloomy, they couldn't make out any of the details surrounding them. Nothing but a thick layer of underwater fog. All they could do was kept on swimming.

"Just keep floating, just keep floating, just keep floating, floating, floating…"

"Don't you mean swimming, One-One?" Tulip asked.

"Nope, I might get in trouble if I say that," said Glad-One, "… I wonder if this is what the fish see underwater… ooh, ooh, which reminds me, if we can't see air when we walk on land does that mean that fish can't see water when they're swimming?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Said Tulip, "Of course they… um… err… I mean obviously the fish… um… err… I mean… bah, you know what? That's a stupid question anyway, so I'm not even gonna bother."

"I like fish," Sad-One moaned.

"Me too," Glad-One said, "the overwhelming savory taste of the meat, the scent of fresh sea salt just… just splashing in your tongue is just… transcendent."

"I don't think robots like you have a mouth, much less a tongue," said Tulip.

"Of course we don't have a mouth now," said Glad-One, "but oh how we do miss those days when we did have a mouth to chew and teeth to bite with."

"What?" Cried Tulip, she wasn't sure of what she'd heard, "What do you mean by that?"

"What else?" Glad-One said, "You didn't think that we were always a tiny little round robot now did you?"

"As a matter of fact I did," said the girl, "I only start questioning the notion when you brought it up. So let me get this straight, what you're saying is that… you… um… used to be… human?"

"Indeed," Sad-One said, followed by Glad-One saying, "a 13 feet tall man with a body skinnier than a wooden stick that was rotting under the sun for a month. Oh how we miss the days when we could jump over the rainbows and waterfalls with just a single leg stretch soaring straight into the sky while tasting the salt in the water, the moisture in the air… that IS what normal humans do… right?"

"I have a feeling that you guys are just messing with me at this point," said the girl with an exhausted look on her face, tired of their shenanigans. But she must admit that the ridiculous statement One-One said did manage a little giggle out of her.

"I'm still having a hard time imagining how on earth you two met each other in the first place," said Atticus, "I just can't help but think that it's something that could only happen once the planets align."

"Believe me," Tulip laughed, "the planets really did align that day. It's a really long story."

"Well we've got time haven't we? Tell me about it."

"Well…"

"Hey, what's that over there?" One-One pointed beyond the murky water.

It was still rather dark but there was certainly something there in the distance.

"Is that…"

Suddenly, out of nowhere a gigantic foggy shadow lunged itself towards the three of them, it was as big as a boulder and as fast as a speeding bullet soaring through the air, roaring with strength and might of a steaming locomotive (it was the first thing that came into her mind, must've been reading too much comics).

"WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT THING?" Tulip shouted. But she was not prepared to find out the answer to that question.

Emerging from the shadowy wall of liquid – a gigantic shark; with teeth sharper than blades and eyes as empty as the eyes of the deceased.

"RUN!"

They scurried off into the distance through the layers of these murky waters, they didn't even know where they were going, but it didn't matter, because all they wanted that moment was to get as far away from this terrible monstrosity as possible… which proved to be quite a difficult task to do because the damn shark was just too fast. The three of them didn't even manage to go anywhere pass five yards before the monster circled in front of them.

"Finally," Sad-One muttered in the girl's ear, "the sweet release of death. I've been waiting for this moment my entire whole life."

… And of course… just like always… Fate enjoyed favoring practically anybody but One-One.

Piercing through the water above them like an angelic force of the apocalypse mentioned in old scriptures. It came like a warrior in myths and legends, mere moments after the shrieks of the defenseless commoner in the typical fairy tale… there, mightier than the mightiest stallion, fiercer than the fiercest warrior. In just a mere split second – the shark had already been immobilized. One could stare into its eyes and see whatever empty soul that once inhabited this creature was no more.

Tulip sighed in relief before looking up above to meet her savior. It was all too familiar. A shadow of a mighty horse roamed across the seafloor.

But upon closer inspection, Tulip realized that it wasn't a horse – but a seahorse.

A curious creature indeed, it stood at about seven feet tall with orange scales as hard as a dragon and as shiny as the shiniest of gems. It was wearing a large golden helmet reminiscent of ancient Greek soldiers. It also wore a large bulky breastplate while brandishing a long sharp halberd that was even shinier than diamonds, truly a weapon crafted by a genius blacksmith. There it stood in the light… like a hero, an ancient warrior.

The seahorse spoke softly with an angelic voice:

"Fear not, for I am here. With my blade sharpened and my helm secured, no evil foe shall stand in my way. Young travelers near and far will never fear these dark waters again, monsters far and wide will taste the glory of my steel for I, Olympia the Fierce will vanquish all those who do the devil's work."

"Oh gosh, why do I have the feeling that I've seen this somewhere before," Tulip whispered to herself.

"Greetings, wandering travelers," said Olympia the seahorse, "what mighty gusts and powerful streams brought you fine folks here to this majestic city of Atlantis?"

"What?" Tulip's eyeballs almost popped out of her sockets, she could barely form the right words, "did you… did… d… did you… you just say… Atlantis?"

"Why yes my dear," said the seahorse, "indeed I did. I mean, what kind of a queen would I be if I don't even know my own kingdom?"

Her body was shaking in shock, with hands vibrating and rapid breathing as if she was about to die. The train sure did know how to make fun of its passengers. Tulip had a feeling that the Conductor was some kind of twisted jester that liked to turn everything on its head just for some laughs. But Atlantis of all places…

"That's it," she said, "it's official, I'm turning mad… mad… surrounded by other mad… crazy creatures…"

"Hush now child," Atticus suddenly told her, "we must not disrespect our savior, and to be welcomed into a magnificent kingdom like this… truly, the greatest honor a dog could ever hope to have."

"I am grateful for your kind words little dog man," said Olympia, "as Queen and protector of the deep sea realm of ancient myths, I hereby welcome you with open arms to my golden kingdom of ATLANTIS."


Tulip couldn't believe it, there was simply no way any of this could be true. Every ounce of logic in her body refused to believe it. But like some kind of omniscient god, the train continued to take pages and ideas from fictional realms, mythical realms and shove it into her face, as if mocking her.

It was quite difficult to see it from afar due to the thick layer of the murky water, but once you get close enough you'd start to see the light shining in the distance. A hypnotic ray of warm glow in the darkness, it was mesmerizing.

You could see the massive majestic white marble columns of the underwater palace rising from the ocean's depth, it stood like a mountain – a mountain that at the same time was surrounded by the ruins and rubbles of what was once grand, just like poor old Ozymandias the self-proclaimed king of kings whose kingdom was buried beneath the sand, this one was buried beneath the oceans and the myths. Nobody believed Atlantis was real, nobody could believe it, and thus from afar you could see the crumbling stones of the golden palace… crumbling all because nobody believed this kingdom existed.

But the sound of the horns they heard was real, swimming towards it they could hear it echoing from afar. But Tulip found it difficult to spot where the sound was coming from, it was as if everybody around was invisible.

"Beautiful isn't it?" said Olympia, "through many wars that we have fought, where countless lives we have lost, with these destructions that it had brought, and the planes of sorrows we have crossed. But through it all we have survived, on our strong will and raging warrior spirits and in the end… we succeeded in defending our glorious kingdom."

"You sure do like to speak in… ahem… poetic ways…" said Tulip, "sure does remind me of someone I know."

"Well, if that's the case then I would love to meet this fellow comrade of yours some time," the seahorse said.

"Well, his name is Fredrick, he's a… um, a horse that I met in this train car a while back and…"

"FREDRICK?" Olympia suddenly snapped, "You mean Fredrick the Third, Noble Steed of the West? THE Fredrick the Third?"

"Um… yeah… why?"

But then a sudden look of fury flared in Olympia's eyes:

"The problem… is that Fredrick – that cursed horse is this kingdom's longest, most terrible and vicious enemy of the state. He is a crooked man – with a crooked heart – that's what he is. His kingdom of black and white soldiers and my kingdom of valiant sea folks used to engage in combat and wars back in the day. Oh how terrible it was, many lives were lost that day, many good men died in vain… all because of his stubbornness, that horse would rather lose all his soldiers before he admits defeat."

"So you two have a history together huh?" Tulip asked, "… That… actually explains a lot… especially the whole poetry thing," she muttered to herself.

"Well I for one respect your pride and warrior spirit," said Atticus, "it is most admirable that you would go to such length to protect not only your national pride but also this magnificent kingdom of yours as well. I wholeheartedly bless you and wish you luck in your future battles with your enemies."

"I from the bottom of my heart thank you for your kind words, your majesty," said Olympia.

"What on earth are you doing Atticus?" Tulip whispered furiously, "Are you trying to trigger a war?"

"Come now, Tulip," said the corgi, "how could you not see the power and spirit oozing from these mighty warriors? It is most commendable."

"But what have Fredrick ever done to you?"

"Nothing in particular that offended me, but I still have to join the winning side regardless. That's the secret to politics," Atticus winked at her while wagging his tail.

"Hooray," Glad-One cheered, "hooray to genocidal warfare and conflicts."

"Now that's the spirit," Olympia shouted, "Come now, friends… let me show you the power of my people in my humble home."

It was only when they'd gotten closer to the golden palace did Tulip finally notice all the underwater sea creatures emerging from the murky water. It was like something straight out of a sci-fi TV show, a bunch of yellow fish with their little human arms and legs crawling out from beneath a pile of crumbling stones, their faces were full of wrinkles and dried up scales.

Then on the other side there were a bunch of red skin sharks with webbed feet crawling around like a bunch of frogs, they even had large yellow eyes full of mucus popping out of the side. Tulip even saw a bunch of tadpoles with bat-like wings floating around the place like a horde of oversized flies or something. And of course there was a whole plethora of other queer creatures that looked like something only Frankenstein could've crafted. Truly a sci-fi B-movie horror, only difference was that on this train – these things were considered normal.

"Citizens of Atlantis!" the seahorse echoed her voice through the kingdom, "You may all rejoice in utmost… um… joy… yes joy, for I Olympia the Fierce your queen has returned to this glorious kingdom from the epic battlefield." The seahorse bowed down, ready to receive the thunderous applause.

Unfortunately it was a pretty weak crowd, all of them stared into the blank space above for at least five seconds before they produced one of the weakest clap Tulip had ever heard in her entire whole life. Oh how this must've been so embarrassing – Tulip could strangely relate.

From behind the crowd there was also a weak cough that sounded suspiciously like sarcasm.

"What was that?" Olympia hissed at the crowd. She scanned through the school of fish and spotted a nervous looking old octopus with dark blue skin – who apparently had human hands on each of his tentacle.

"Um… uh, nothing," said the octopus, "I didn't say nothing."

"It sounded to me like you said something along the line of 'this is boring' or 'why do I have to be here' or… something like that," Olympia said with deadly suspicion.

"No, no," the octopus stuttered, "no, my queen, I swear to our Lord and Savior the Conductor, I did no such foolish sin."

"Well, alright then, I believe you."

The octopus sighed in relief.

"Which is why I'm going to execute you."

"WHAT?!" Both Tulip and the old octopus shouted.

"Oh this is going to be good," Glad-One said.

"Wait no, milady, you've got it all wrong, I did no such thing, please forgive my foolishness, I'm sure our Lord Conductor will be merciful on my poor soul and… and…"

"Say no more, plebeian," Olympia decided, "GUARDS! Send this poor unfortunate soul to the DEEP END."

"NO, not the deep end!" Cried the old creature, "Anything but that!"

"It has already been decided," said the seahorse queen, "The will of Olympia is the will of our Lord Conductor, now begone with thee."

And in just a split second, two enormous seahorses clad in black iron plate armor rushed down like a whirlpool and swept the old octopus away into the distance.

"NO, NO, LET ME GO, THE GOVERNMENT IS A LIE, LIFE IS AN ILLUSION, ATLANTIS ISN'T REAL, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR IS DEAD, SHARK OIL CAN'T MELT MARBLE COLUMNS…"

The scene left Tulip in complete shock with her face stuck with that jaw dropping expression with all the aggressive eye twitching. Meanwhile, One-One stood on her shoulder laughing:

"Ha ha, now that's what I call quality entertainment, right Miss Tulip?"

"What was that for?" Tulip yelled at the queen, "did… did you just kill that guy?"

"Oh good heavens no," said Olympia, "that is so barbaric, we don't do such things. Old Jack will probably be back in a week or so… or he won't…"

"He won't… what?"

"Let's not get into the details," said the queen, "but why do you show such… interest in this matter? You seemed worked up about this."

"Well… it's just…" the girl started playing around with her hands, trying to find the right words, "… um… it's just that… where I come from… we aren't usually… um… this extreme… most of the time…"

"Goodness gracious," cried Olympia, "what backward savages you must be, you're telling me that your society does not worship a higher being and do their bidding? You don't make enormous statues for your Lord above?"

"No… no, that's not what I meant… but while we're on the subject, I suppose we sometimes do… but just not like this."

"How so?"

"Well… usually we don't make statues of people who could be… ahem… a bad example for the people. Your Lord Conductor for example… I have been hearing a lot about him, lately… and not a lot of them are good things."

"Oh no you've got it all wrong child," said Olympia, "The Conductor isn't a bad person. Anybody that paints him as such is a victim of Fredrick the Third's vicious and twisted lies, oh how that terrible horse keeps spreading such asinine claims, it makes my blood boil."

"Um… hate to break it to ya," Tulip said, "I've met Fredrick, and he said that the Conductor was a good guy, he helped his people and all that…"

"Nonsense, child," Olympia said, "he may have been a follower in the past, but now he's nothing but a lowly infidel and um… bah, you know what? The point here is that my kingdom is the only way of righteousness, the only way to salvation by ways of our Lord Conductor. Behold, bask in the glory of the statues we made as tribute to his mighty will!"

Olympia directed her attention to the hall in the middle of the kingdom where a colossal marble statue stood in the center. It was huge, at least 20 meters tall and it was as bulky as a gigantic mountain. However, the queerest thing about the statue was that it didn't really look like Klyde, as the matter of fact, it didn't even look like a train conductor, it looked more like a stick figure – it had no facial features, no fingers, toes, no nothing. And with that information Tulip was able to deduce pretty easily why it had no recognizable features.

"Okay, okay, I think I know what's going on here," said Tulip, "so let me get this straight, you people… don't even know what the Conductor looks like… and yet you build a statue of him in the middle of your kingdom?"

"Well… ahem… ha-ha," Olympia laughed nervously, "it's not as bad as you made it sound."

"You see that's exactly the problem with you people," Tulip said. The girl had had enough, so she made a huge step forward towards the people, as if standing in front of a podium making a speech:

"Are you people seriously just gonna keep blindly following your leader to do whatever she wishes in the name of the so called Lord Conductor? Do you want to end up like that old octopus at the Deep End? Is that what you want?"

"Well…" a fish spoke from the crowd, "it's all we've been doing our entire lives, what else are we going to do?"

"Um I have a suggestion, how about something like, oh I don't know, a society where you actually make your own decisions as individuals? Because that seems like way more fair and productive if you ask me," said Tulip.

The crowd started whispering to each other, some fish started pacing to and fro while discussing, "well she does have a point… yeah… that seems reasonable."

"A society where people make choices as individuals?" Olympia said, scratching her chin thinking, "Now this is a concept that I have not heard of."

"From where I come from," Tulip said, "we call it a democracy."

"Democracy? … What's that… that doesn't sound half bad… can we eat it? … Do we get benefits? …"

"But now hold on a minute," said Olympia, "wouldn't this mean that we'd have to abandon our old ways of living? Our old lives?"

"Well, not necessarily," Tulip answered, "you see that's the beauty of democracy, the beauty of freedom, you can do whatever it is you want… err… as long as it doesn't harm others… and all that."

"Hmm…" Olympia scratched her helm with her halberd before she finally let them in on her final thoughts, "this idea… this idea here… is… absolutely… BRILLIANT, absolutely without a doubt the best idea I've ever heard in a long time. Right then, let me just make an announcement… Hear ye, hear ye, citizens of Atlantis, heed my words, for I am pleased to announce that our backward ways of politics and governance by the will of our Lord and Savior Conductor shall be put to rest – for a new age has arrived, a wonderful new age of this um… uh… DEMOCRACY! So rejoice my dear citizens, REJOICE!"


As gratitude for Tulip's great service for the kingdom, she was rewarded with many riches and wealth from ancient Atlantis gold to clothes and garments of many kings and queens of the past. They treated her like an empress, an honorable guest among the tables of their high class banquet where they served her meals and dishes with such extravagance and exotic flavors that she did not even know existed. Truly a shiny memory that she will not be able to get out of her head even if she wanted to, it managed to put a silly grin on the young girl's face.

"Well that was certainly… easier than I thought," Atticus said while at the table, licking and gobbling at his plate full of dog treats, "these folks are a lot easier to be influenced than I originally imagined, or maybe it was just your excellent skill of persuasion."

"Aw, you're flattering me Atticus," said Tulip.

"No, I mean it, you really did an absolutely magnificent job in helping these people."

"I just thought to help out a little bit ya know, these people just seemed so miserable. I just couldn't stand by watching without doing anything about it."

"Although now that you think about it," Sad-One said on her shoulder, "it does seem a little bit… too easy."

"What do you mean?" Asked Tulip.

"I just feel that there are certain things in the natural order of things that should not be… meddled with."

"Oh, come on One-One don't be silly, I did these people a favor. Honestly, what's the worst that can happen?"

"All I'm saying is in life, misery and agony is not something you can easily get rid of, it requires efforts and sacrifices… this misery you've gotten rid of… more will bound to follow."

"Yeah well," Tulip grinned, "just you wait and see, I'm going to prove you wrong… so wrong. I mean look around you. Look how much thing's changed for the better ever since I introduced them to the idea of democracy. They've started to industrialize, more infrastructures is being built, heck, I've even helped them build more statues of Klyde around the place. Apparently these people really love their gecko Lord and Savior, gecko cowboy figurines have been pretty popular lately."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Glad-One pointed towards the entrance where a white jellyfish came floating in, panting like his lungs were about to explode violently.

"My queen!" He shouted, "Milady!"

"Yes, what is the matter dear Hector, speak up."

"My queen, trouble is brewing in the kingdom."

"Impossible, we are in a time of peace, our kingdom is flourishing. What could possibly be causing us trouble?"

"I suggest you take a look for yourself."

And would you believe it… things really did go south really, REALLY quickly after the whole debacle.

"See for yourself my queen," Hector said, "the shark people have been using their opportunities in this new found freedom of our society to declare a coup against the government and those in power, namely the royal family, your family my queen."

"Good heavens."

"And then the tadpole tribe has been declaring anarchy amongst their people as well, they said that as of this moment they are no longer a member of the royal council."

"What? They can't do that!" Tulip cried.

"Well, isn't that how this whole… 'democracy' thing works? Where people are free to choose to do whatever they please?"

"NO!" Tulip angrily shouted, "That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works… I mean… the concept is sorta… I mean I suppose you could… no, what am I saying? No, this is wrong! You have to have some… some order…"

"Couldn't make up your mind huh Tulip?" Sad-One asked, "I know the feeling."

"Not now One-One, I'm trying to think here."

"Tulip, calm down," Atticus tried to reassure her, "all is not lost yet, you just need to think this through. Surely there must be a solution to this."

"You're right, you're right…" she took a deep breath and exhaled, "I just need to calm down… and think of some way to deal with this. We still have time to correct this."

"That is of course – assuming the seahorse queen isn't going to do something rash like use her military force to apprehend the citizens – then everything should be fine." Glad-One said.

"You mean like how the queen is fighting the guerrilla fighters right this moment?" Sad-One asked.

"Exactly!"

"Wait, WHAT?"

Before any of them could even react, the seahorse queen, her seahorse squadron and royal brethren had already charged down the steps of their majestic palace onto the battleground brandishing their steel – the swords, maces and axes, swinging them at the nearest target, grunting like a berserk warrior.

"No, no, no, no, this is all my fault, I never should've… no, what am I saying? … This can't be happening. I … I've got to fix this."

And without even thinking, the redhead girl launched herself through the water and through the warzone, trying her best to avoid any of their weapons flying towards her. Countless arrows and spears suddenly soared through the water, piercing at anything it could find.

She finally managed to swim through the barrage of projectiles and fire storm that roamed the water in the battle. Fortunately there was a small platform nearby just tall enough for her to stand and shout out to get their attention.

"EVERYBODY, STOP FIGHTING!" Fortunately that deafening shout was enough to get their attention.

"Why must you all resolve everything with violence like this?" She hollered.

"How else are we going to solve all our problems?" One of them yelled from the crowd.

"Well not everything is solved by violent or… or oppressive government ya know, how about if… I don't know… if you try to… to be nice for a change."

The fish folks gasped in shock, "you can do that?"

"Yes, YES, thank you random citizen," Tulip laughed, finally getting to them, "you know… an old… an old friend once told me that you don't have to be out there trying to change the world every day… because… well because what really matters is… is just the small things, small act of kindness… you just need to start small, starting building from the bottom up…"

It looked like it was working, the shark folks were exchanging gazes amongst themselves while smiling, they must've thought that it was not such a bad idea. The yellow fish, the tadpoles where pacing about as well, and one could overhear their conversation, seemingly agreeing with the notion. Tulip started to rejoice internally because all that was left was to seal the deal:

"So what do you say we just lay down all of our weapons on a nice little pile and forget that any of this ever happened…"

"Or, or I have a better idea," one of the fish people said, "How 'bout, how 'bout… we don't do that… and we just get back to fighting each other over our petty differences."

"I second this notion."

"All those in favor of waging endless and pointless warfare say aye!"

"Aye."

"Aye."

"AYE."

"No! What are you people doing?" Tulip cried, "That's not what I… this… no stop!"

"FOR THE GLORY OF ATLANTIS!" And just like that the fish people went back to their primitive ways of savage battles just to resolve their trivial differences.

"As the sole ruler of the kingdom of Atlantis, I Queen Olympia the Fierce now declares fascism as the new system of governance, in the name of freedom and DEMOCRACY! HAVE AT YOU!"

"They're not even listening to me," Tulip groaned in frustration, "you know what? Forget this, I'm not even going to be bothered anymore, I'm out! Anybody who wants to join me are welcomed to… the door is probably in this direction somewhere… I swear on my life… I'll never meddle with these sorts of things ever again, and no, One-One I don't need you to lecture me about how you 'told me so'."

"I really do hate to say it," said Glad-One, "but I told you so, ha-ha!"

Her eyes twitched in frustration, "I'll never understand politics."

"Tulip, hold on a moment," Atticus barked after her.

"What, Atticus?" She snapped.

"Tulip… are you… giving up already?"

"Yes Atticus, I'm giving up, because these people are just mindless fools that can't think for themselves. And you, you of all people… you were part of the problem, too you know that? If you hadn't complimented Olympia – like the pompous high class snob you two are – then none of this would've happened. Now come on! Are you coming or what? I haven't got all day, we're still nowhere near the front of the train yet and I've wasted enough time in this stupid underwater car."

Atticus whimpered in fear, but just a bit. Because he was king, the adorable little corgi was too prideful to show any of those emotions. And yet… those words still hurt his brave golden heart, but he did not fully understand why. The only explanation he could come up with was that he did not expect such cruel words… coming from someone whom he had trusted.

All they could do now was keep moving forward…


Olympia started laughing nervously, because she knew right then that all the crud was about to hit the fan. She thought to herself: what do you know, there really is a Lord Conductor watching us from above… what are the odds?

"Okay, let me get this straight, I was gone for a mere three days, and during that period of time you people have already declared totalitarianism? … Wow… I mean… wow, not going to lie, that's actually pretty impressive. I mean, I'm not even mad, that's incredible."

"Are you going to keep being an annoying snarky son of a gun?" Klyde asked.

"Hey I gotta give credit where credit's due, this calls for a celebration, I'll grab my trumpet."

"Don't you even dare! I've had enough of you blasting your awful music by my ear all day long."

"So you ADMIT that it really was music after all, ha-ha, jackpot! I win again, I win again! Alright, enough goofing around, now Olympia my dear… you realize that you have a lot of questions that you need to answer don't you?"

"Yeah, first question is why the heck is there a bunch of statues that look suspiciously like me?" Klyde asked, pointing at all the giant white sculptures of a cowboy gecko.

"He-he…" the seahorse queen laughed nervously, "… you see… it's long story… a funny one, too."

"Pray tell, I do love a good laugh."

"Well, um… you see, you're going to like this I can tell," Olympia stammered, "… ahem… yes… um… err… err… it… it was… a girl…"

But surprisingly, the sound that they heard was not that of anger or rage… but laughter.

"Ha HA ha-ha, HA ha-ha ha HA-ha."

It prompted the seahorse queen to force a weak laugh out of herself, letting her guard down – and of course, just like many victims before her, it proved to be the last mistake she was ever going to make.

One moment the Conductor had his arm wrapped around her shoulder as if she was his good friend, the next he was grabbing her by her plate armor and effortlessly tossed her to the side where a gargantuan yellow bus came charging out of nowhere like it was a battering ram pushed by a dozen angry bulls. The impact shook the entire car as the yellow bus furiously rammed the seahorse off into the murky water where it was never seen again.

"CHEESE AND CRACKERS! Wha… what in tarnation… why the heck did you do that? Did you just kill Olympia?"

"Oh no, Klyde, old friend, I would never do such a thing. Olympia will probably be back in a week or so… or she won't."

"Won't what?"

"Let's not get into the details. It was mostly her fault anyway."

"HOW?"

"Well, I never asked her or her people to wage wars against one another… the pain of being an overseer, one moment you tell them to be nice to each other, the next they started building statues of you and impose dictatorship on its people. Ha-ha, kinda funny if you think about it… but anyway, back to the important business… and by important I mean that we should get the heck out of this place as fast as we can."

"Why?" Klyde asked.

"Let's just say that… ahem… the murky water here… isn't 100 percent… water. You can feel it in your palm – the greasy liquid, the oily fluids. Ooh, yeah we better bail out of here quick, 'cause in a minute this place is going to light up like it's Mt. Vesuvius, oh I can't wait to watch all this unfolds, it's gonna be a blast!"