Chapter 12

Under the Sea.

"Wow," That was the only words that escaped Hoy's mouth as he looked down at the docks, it was amazing, he never saw something like that before, so it was only natural that he would be impressed by something as simple as what he was seeing, Alice and Decus however had a different reaction.

"R-really? we have to cross with these?" Alice kept her voice down, but looking at what appeared to be giant buckets bobbing up and down in the water she couldn't help but have such a reaction.

"Do not worry, my dear Alice, I'll happily give you my tub if you are in fear of getting wet," Decus smiled as the blond teen eye twitched slightly

"You dumbo! That's not the point at all!" Alice snapped, they were washtubs, giant washtubs. There was something wrong with the entire thing, they actually wanted people to go across a portion of the sea in giant washtubs. It wasn't right, it had to be some kind of sick joke, but here they were. Just floating there, hooked to the pier of the water.

"So...we just use those things to row to the geezer?" Hoy tilted his head, as Decus sighed, he was wondering if it was even worth correcting him from here on out, it was obvious that he wasn't going to retain the knowledge.

Alice remained silent, the entire thing just seemed far too silly, almost insultingly so, but in the end it probably really didn't matter. It was a necessity, something that couldn't be changed or avoided. She took a deep breath, not one out of fear, but one to defend her pride as she placed a single foot in the washtub.

"Ah, that is my perfect Alice, always taking the first step in-"

"Shut it dumbo, and hurry up!" Alice snapped as Decus quickly followed her orders, as Hoy simply followed, they all grabbed their paddles and started to row to the so called resort area.

The sea was surprisingly calm, as the waves slowly pushed them to the direction of the island, it seemed there was a reason why the washtubs were used instead of a regular ferry. It was cheaper, and the risk was already so low that there wasn't a need for an actual boat, though irritation started to creep into Alice's mind as salt water continued to get into her hair.

Decus being the faithful knight that he was, made it a point to steer his washtub as closely to hers as possible, as if thinking he could protect her from the natural elements of salt air and water as Hoy looked into the ocean. He had seen it before, after all they had to cross it to reach Palmacosta, however he never really saw it so up close before. It was a nice change of pace, to the natural brown and green of the fields. Even Anlage peeked out of Hoy's shirt to examine the sea water and the many fish that were swimming about.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the pier, Alice landed first, causing Decus to curse himself, missing his chance to help his one true love. Though that really wasn't important as he shortly followed. Hoy was the last to land as he looked at the washtubs. "Wow, persons sure invent some amazing things..." Alice wanted to slap herself out of the sheer stupidity of it all.

"It's a washtub, stop giving people credit for being cheap," Alice looked around the area and noticed the sheer amount of people that were there just to look at a bunch of water. It seemed like a waste of time, at least from her perspective.

"Hoy...right, do you have that thing the old hag gave you," it seemed that Alice wasn't going to waste her time being polite as Hoy rubbed his head as if wondering who she was referring to as Alice grumbled. "Verboten, you idiot..." this was the first time she directly insulted Hoy, and she knew it wasn't going to be the last as Hoy smiled before shoving his hand into his pocket and pulling out a small capsule.

"So...we just have to throw this in the water and something's supposed to happen?" Hoy attention span was long enough to recount that as Decus eyes narrowed looking at the small device.

"I bet she just tricked us and took the book and ran," Decus grumbled as Hoy gave a small shrug before casually throwing the device in the water...there was a moment of silence as it floated, before it started to shake oh so subtle. Like a piece of popcorn, it popped, in a large cloud of smoke as the three covered their eyes. What was before them was a ship...at least it looked like a ship, it was gray and black with a glass dome at the top. Over all it was far too large for three people, it was obvious only a very small portion of the ship was shown as Decus froze for a moment.

"W-wait, what is that?" There was many questions that needed to be answered, how did such a small capsule fit such a large ship? What was the ship's purpose? What were they going to do with it? in the back of his head Decus realized that almost none of them were probably going to be answered. As Hoy tilted his head and examined the machine.

"So...do we get inside?" It was an honest question as Decus stepped forward,

"I don't trust it, please Alice, let me go in first to see if there isn't any traps," Decus smiled he could already picture her reaction, perhaps she would call him brave or dashing for his show of courage.

"Go ahead, I'm not going to stop you..." Or perhaps she would would be as blunt as usual as Decus hung his head before slowly climbing in the machine. The lack of a scream and a few mumbled showed that the ship was safe, as Alice crawled in followed by Hoy.

It seemed that their first hunch was correct, the machine was far large on the inside than the out, strange flashing lights were scattered about as a warm red light filled the room. There was a type of control panel in front, with a large glass window in front of them, they were under the surface at least a few feet as Hoy looked around.

It was impressive to say the least, but at the same time it really didn't give them any information on what they were doing or how to find the page. Though something caught the corner of Alice's eyes, a small piece of paper. "Oh wow, there's actually a note here," her words caught the attention of both Hoy and Decus, but before her knight could offer to read it,

The blond picked up the note as she started to read it to herself.

"If you are reading this I'll assume you're Alice, but that's not really the main point my tiny little friend?" Alice eye twitched at the first line as she quickly scanned the rest, the sheer amount of heart shaped periods and winks on the letter was sickening. It was the kind of letter she herself would write to irritate people, which somehow made it even worse.

It was obvious who the letter was from and Alice bit her lip, just thinking about Verboten while she was writing it. She was probably laughing right now, honestly Alice was tempted to just rip up the letter, but she knew full well that it was important as she continued reading.

"Wow, you're still reading? I thought due to your short fuse you would have tore it up considering everything... you're really surprising me Alice," If there was any doubt before that the letter was made to specifically irritate her they were put to rest at that point, Alice tried to maintain her cute looks, but her face slowly turned into a frown.

"Alice, is something wrong?" Decus asked an obvious question as Alice shook her head.

"No! I'm reading so be quite," Alice continued to read the letter, steeling herself for whatever underhanded insults were going to be put on display.

"Okay seriously, this might be a little hard for you and your boy toy to understand, but you are in a submarine. You probably have no idea what that word means, so I'll give you the simple version. It's a boat that can go underwater," Honestly, Alice didn't know what a submarine was, and the idea of a boat that goes underwater seemed rather counter productive to why a boat existed in the first place.

"Anyway, since I doubt any of you have the skills to actually pilot the submarine, I'll just tell you to hit the big red button, it should engage the autopilot for where I think the page is. You see, Autopilot is when the ship steers itself, well, either way your stop should be obvious once you get there...try not to die. You all are pretty cute kids after all!"

The letter had ended and so, Alice ripped it apart, there was nothing of worth there anymore as she scanned the control panel for a moment. There was a large big and red button, as she pressed it, without even considering the other two in the room as the top of the dome closed.

"Eh? What's happening?" Decus looked around as the lights in the room started to flash as the descended lower and lower into the sea. The light from the sun slowly vanishing as a soft light appeared in front of the window before them. The submarine started to move, on it's own as Hoy looked at the window as Anlage peeked out of his shirt.

He was excited to say the least, though the other two were less so as Alice bit her thumb.

They were completely submerged under the water, and they were going lower and lower, if something happened or there was a leak they probably wouldn't be able to swim fast enough to escape. There was also the problem that they still didn't know where the submarine was taking them, other than the vague location of near the page.

"I can't hesitate now, I'm willing to give anything for power, I can't say that unless I'm willing to risk somethings..." It was how she justified just action as Decus finally spoke.

"Do not worry Alice, if something happens I'll make sure I will protect you, even if I have to give my life," Decus smiled, it was something he truly met as Alice glared at him.

"No one even said anything about that! Now stop saying stupid things," Alice grumbled, he was annoying, saying pointless things and making her seem weak, only a weakling would need help and only the weakest of weaklings would need help from Decus of all people. Though despite all of that, even if she would never say it...

"Bah, what am I thinking, I need to focus!"

Author note

So, 2 months and a really short chapter, hehehe, sorry about that a lot of things were taking up my time.