Chapter 59: Set Sail

A/N: Ach. This chapter was a pain to write... I had to delete and re-write everything TWICE because I wasn't satisfied with the end result. And I'd rather delay a chapter to upload content I'm satisfied with instead of vomit out chapters I hardly even put any effort into. So, uh, yeah. Sorry for the delay, I guess.

I caught up to the kid, who was walking up to the ramp. She stopped and waved up at someone.

One glance told me that it was certainly gonna be an interesting encounter.

The Mafia Boss, in his stupid jarry splendor. Another face... or lack therefore of... we hadn't seen in awhile.

He grumbled at the sight of us.

"First you kill me, then you torment me by booking passage on the ONLY cruise liner here for facilities with people in jars?!" He yelled.

"Nice to see you too," I replied sarcastically, "And also, we had no idea you were booking on this boat either. We need a vacation too, goopboy."

"G-GOOPBOY?!" He scoffed, "You rude little-! Were I not in such a pleasant holiday mood, and still without a body, I would take my revenge on you both right here and now!"

I couldn't help but smirk.

He had no clue how much stronger we were now than we were then.

He merely did a motion that I assumed was supposed to be shaking his head, then turned away from us.

I then decided to scout around for any Time Pieces. Wasn't like we'd get another chance to look for any here.

And I saw a... strange looking box not too far away, set in front of a docked mafia boat. It looked rather... dark. In a very familiar way.

I walked up to the box and stared at it. The kid looked at it as well, then gave me a confused glance.

I knocked on it, and heard something clear it's throat...?

"AHAHAHAHA! FOOOOOOOOOOOOooo- wait a minute, it's you two? AGAIN?"

Oh. That made sense, but why in a box...?

"Ugh... you show up in my forest, assault me, refuse to leave, and then turn up to ruin my vacation, too?" Snatcher grumbled

"You wish!" The kid taunted.

"We're here for our own vacation," I explained.

He released an annoyed sigh.

"You two really are the absolute worst," He muttered.

I chuckled.

"But anyway, what's with the box? Are you... hiding?" I asked tauntingly.

"Yes, I'm hiding in a crate. Tickets are expensive!" He spat, with emphasis on the last part as if we were toddlers.

He really must've been annoyed at us being here.

"Now can you go irritate someone else so nobody gets suspicious about people talking to a box?!" He hissed.

"Fine," I said, "Kid, why don't you check for Time Pieces around here?"

She nodded and did so, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well that's easy!" She shouted, then ran behind the mafia ship.

I followed her, and stopped to see... a purple time rift? Out of nowhere? Sitting right there?

"How'd that happen?" I grumbled, "Your ship should've detected this, right?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"It should've," She responded, "I'm gonna guess that this is either really new... or really old."

"And if it's really old..." I muttered.

"Then I need to go deal with this as soon as possible," She said, "I'd let you come in, but this is so easy to get to that someone needs to make sure nobody messes with it. You know, like normal."

I nodded.

Then suddenly, a thought snapped into my head.

"Wait, kid, don't we have two storybooks that we need to read still?" I asked.

Her eyes widened.

"That's right!" She exclaimed, "I completely forgot! We'll look at them sometime in this cruise, promise!"

She then hopped into the rift and vanished.

I merely waited, but then I saw two weird squids come out of the water. They had bandages on their heads for whatever weird reason, and menacing eyes. They looked right at me, then they... shot electric shockwaves across the ground?

Weird fauna.

But I wasn't gonna be the one to study them.

I kicked them back into the water, and they didn't come back.

The kid got back very quickly. It was quite a relief, actually, I was worrying in the back of my mind that we'd be left behind.

She waved the Time Piece and the completed storybook toward me with a grin, then I nodded and pointed toward the ramp.

She nodded rapidly, and we bolted.

We both knew that there probably wasn't much time left before the ship left.

We got to the top of the ramp, where two seals were awaiting us.

"How close are we?" I asked the seal who took our tickets.

"Pretty close, the ship leaves in a few minutes!" The seal exclaimed with their toddler-like voice as they scanned our tickets and gave them back to us, "Hurry! And sorry for the trouble you'll have getting aboard, parts of our ramp got broken when we tried to set it up, so we had to improvise."

"No problem, we're used to this," I said, then we jumped across a gap. Another jump and a bit of a wall climb, and we were at a good vantage point to finally view the ship.

It was called:

The S.S. LITERALLY CAN'T SINK.

Oh, that name did NOT sit well with me. Not at ALL.

That was practically BEGGING for disaster!

But, oh well. They had it under control. We've had to go through so much, it'd be super unlucky if something bad happened here, too.

So it wouldn't. It couldn't.

We continued ahead, jumping, swinging across seal-themed floating hooks, climbing walls, yada yada yada, and managed to get onto the ship. It seemed quite nice, I could see a bar (which I imagine Conductor probably already found), a large pool, lots of sunchairs, some tables, you know, what you'd expect to see on an outdoor pool deck.

"Welcome aboard!" A seal greeted us, with an arrow in its mouth pointing toward a door.

I heard an intercom turn on.

"Attention, this is your captain speaking... is this thing turned on?"

I chuckled at that.

The Captain cleared his throat and continued: "All passengers, please check in at the lobby desk. I'll be on board shortly."

That's probably what the arrow was for.

We followed through the door and I immediately stopped.

"Watch your step! It's a very long drop!"

There was literally nowhere to go. We were on a tiny platform with no walkways or anything, only way to go was down.

I looked over the edge, and yes, it was quite a distance.

"Might I ask why there are no stairs?" I asked the seal, "Doesn't seem like a safe or efficient way to get to the lobby."

"They got broken while we were building the ship. So we had to get rid of them," The seal answered, "But there's elevators throughout the ship, and it seems like most people don't need stairs anyway."

I nodded. At least there's an elevator, and they did have a point. Although I was hoping to not have to worry about platforming for once.

I quickly checked to make sure I had my hover badge on, then hopped over the railing, landing safely at the bottom.

I took a moment to look around.

It was a very nice garden, with even a waterfall cascading down from the top of the room. Along the walls were balconies for many rooms.

The kid landed next to me with a woosh of air, and we continued through a door. We were now on the side of the ship, and will a little bit of guidance and some running and jumping, we made it into a very nicely decorated hallway, with the entrance to the galley off to the side and blocked off by some trays.

We had to hop over a pile of some luggage, then I stopped in awe at the sight ahead.

There were four doors on each wall up ahead, and seals were rushing to and fro with trays of food, evidently too busy to notice anything around them.

We advanced and made sure to stay out of their way.

Suddenly, a jingle played throughout the ship.

"Attention, passengers... and 'crew'..."

The ship rumbled slightly, not enough to throw us off balance but enough to be noticeable.

"The ship is now leaving. Please try not to fall off, the arctic waters are very cold."

Seemed reasonable.

We walked up to the front desk, which was manned by two seals.

"Hello, sir! Hello, miss! How may we help you?" The seal on the right greeted.

"We're here to check in," I stated.

"Alright, tickets please," They responded. We handed them over, they did some typing on their computer (which was impressive given they didn't have fingers), then handed our tickets back.

"One room, I imagine?" They asked.

I looked at the kid with a questioning glance. She could handle herself, after all.

She nodded.

"Yes, please," I told the seal.

They then handed me a key. I looked at it. Room number 408.

"Enjoy your stay!" They exclaimed.

"Thank you," I said, and we walked away. I pocketed my ticket and the key.

While I did that, I saw the kid run off out of the corner of my eye.

I looked up and saw her talking to some crows.

Of course.

I joined her.

"Greetings, fellow passengers. I hope you are enjoying your journey," One crow greeted, "Do you know where this cruise is going? It was written on all of our tickets, but the writing was smudged. On all of them. It was a very unlikely accident."

Yeah, accident. Right.

"Can you remind us where we are headed?" They asked.

I actually didn't remember either.

I quickly took out my ticket and checked it over.

The city we left from was called Bergland.

Strange name, if you asked me. What, was it named after icebergs?

The city we'd arrive at was called Sinkton.

I nearly pulled my hair out.

What was with these goddamn names?!

"We'll be arriving at a city called Sinkton," I deadpanned.

"Ah, yes, Sinkton. I remember now. It actually was written on my ticket. I think something else was smudged on it. But, my, what an ominous name, given our current method of transportation," They rambled.

"No kidding," I grumbled, "Come on, kid, let's go find our room."

She nodded, and we walked away.

We found a hallway off to the side of the lobby with some elevators in it, I guessed that's what the seal in the garden room was talking about.

I called the elevator with the up button, and we entered.

"Can I press the button?" The kid asked, pointing toward the button labelled '4'.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Doesn't matter to me, go nuts," I said.

She grinned and happily pressed the button, then the elevator began moving.

Not long after, the elevator door opened, we walked through a hallway, and we found our room. I opened the door with the key, and we stepped inside.

A whistle escaped me.

The room looked nice. The furniture looked very luxurious, there was a big TV mounted to the wall, a small kitchen with your various new, smart, high-tech kitchen appliances, and a small hallway with a three doors in it. Also, there were some fancy-looking sliding doors on the opposite wall from the entrance. I opened it, leading to our balcony.

Satisfied, I went back and checked out the hallway. One room was a bathroom, the other two were identical bedrooms. The beds in said bedrooms looked very, very, very comfortable.

I was in complete shock and awe.

How the PECK was Cooking Cat able to afford a ticket for herself, let alone buy two tickets for us without batting an eye?!

I'd have to ask her when we found her.

I turned to the kid, who seemed just as awestruck as I was.

"How much you think those tickets cost, kid?" I asked her jokingly.

"Over 9000 pons!" She exclaimed, causing me to chuckle.

"We're gonna have to find a way to thank Cooking Cat for this," I told her, and she nodded very rapidly.

"Let's go find her right now!" She shouted, "She'll probably be near the kitchen, right?"

"Wouldn't surprise me," I agreed, "Let's go, then."

She nodded, dropped her luggage, and ran out the door. I did the same, closing and locking the door behind us.

We took the elevator down to the lobby. Thanks to some haphazardly piled luggage, we were able to easily get to the second floor of the lobby, and was about to walk through a door.

"You feelin' lucky, punk?" A moon penguin asked.

"Wha?" I mumbled.

The penguin chuckled.

"That's the casino ahead. Thought I'd do a little bit of a classic movie quote, guess you're not very movie savvy, are ya?" They taunted jokingly.

"Not here, no," I muttered, "Never had a chance to do any real movie watching."

I walked into the casino, and... wow.

The walls were giant aquariums... it was magnitudes more interesting than the casino itself!

I mean, gambling disgusted me. It was all a giant scam, through and through. And it ruined so many lives...

I shook my head. Wasn't gonna get into a mental rant, not right now.

But ahead, on a giant monitor, it showed a jackpot of FIVE MILLION pons.

Good freaking lord.

But, again, we definitely weren't here to gamble.

I saw the kid climbing up onto the rafters and followed her.

Atop the casino, it seemed like one way led to the helm of the ship, and the other way led to the garden... which was a dead end.

We both seemed to have the same idea, as the kid ran off toward the helm. Obviously, I tagged along.

And through a small corridor, we found ourselves in the rafters of the large dining room...

And all the way at the bottom I could see tables veering left and right... did they forget to tether them down?

Oh well. As long as nobody ended up getting hurt. Cause as they say, live and learn.

I looked around from the rafters and sure enough, Cooking Cat was sat at a table with... what seemed to be a camera crew?

"Hey, kid. Come check this out," I said, pointing down at Cooking Cat.

"Oh!" She shouted, "Cool! Let's go say hi!"

She stepped off, but I grabbed her by the wrist.

"Not so fast. They're in the middle of something, obviously. I mean this as nicely as possible, but if you just butt in you'll probably ruin a recording," I countered, "We can go down and watch, but wait until they're done before saying hello."

"... Okay," She said.

So, we hopped down as quietly as possible and watched from a little ways away.

I couldn't hear what she was saying, but it seemed like she was talking about the quality of the food on the ship? Cause she did have a plate of food with her.

We just sat and watched.

Until, maybe about 10 minutes later, they seemed to finish and the camera crew went away.

I turned to the kid, who smiled and ran ahead to greet her.

I chuckled and walked up to them. She seemed happy to see us.

"Oh! Hello, dears! Glad to see you made it!" She greeted happily.

"You too," I replied. The kid looked up at her with a wide grin.

"How are you enjoying the cruise so far?" She asked.

"It's amazing!" The kid shouted.

I chuckled. Always full of energy,

"It does seem like a really nice place," I said, "And, really, thank you for inviting us here. I couldn't even begin to imagine how much that would've cost you."

She laughed.

"Oh, it was nothing, dear. Money doesn't bring anyone happiness, anyway," She said, "You two needed a break. That's all!"

"If you say so," I muttered, "But anyway, you have a TV show?"

She perked up at that.

"Oh! Yes, I do! A cooking show! How else do you think I was able to afford those tickets?" She laughed, "But for once, I thought instead of being the chef, I'd be the customer and review some of the dishes on this ship."

I nodded. It made sense.

"My show is quite popular with other cats, especially in that city with the flashy underground metro system," She explained proudly, "Have you been there, yet? It's quite something, but you'd have to be careful with, ehh... someone."

"We know," I responded blankly, "We learned that the hard way."

"Oh, dear..." She muttered, "You two really do deserve a vacation, then."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"We're not completely here to relax, though. Don't get me wrong, that's our main reason for being here, but we're still looking for our hourglass things," I told her, "Have you seen any?"

"Oh, the Time Pieces? Yeah, I think there are a few here," She answered, causing me to freeze and the kid to gasp slightly.

"You know about them?" I asked.

"I overheard a lot of Mafia talk recently. They know a lot more than you think, dear," She explained, "But I realized that they were probably really important for you not to explain them, being able to rewind time and all that, so I thought I wouldn't press on the issue."

Hmmm...

It checked out.

"Alrighty then," I said.

"If you're having trouble finding them, you could always ask the front desk," She suggested.

"Right..." I muttered, "Well, thanks again."

"Anytime, dear," She replied.

We walked away, and the kid grinned from ear to ear.

"Well... should we go talk to the seals at the front desk?" I asked her.

She nodded and ran off instantly.

Before running after her for the infinitieth time, I stopped and took a deep breath.

Hadn't even been a day and I was already feeling rather relaxed...

Perhaps this was a better idea than I anticipated.

I smirked and ran off, shouting for her to wait for me.