[Chapter 1: Dearest of All My Friends]

"Velvet...Got sent to Brazil?! Y-You can't be serious!" Eleanor cried out in shock. "Why didn't you do something?! How could you let this happen, Magilou?!" Eleanor screamed out at the pointy eared witch, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Eleanor. There was nothing I could do, if I tried to intervene Maotelus would have sent me to Florida. Do you know how many crocodiles are down there? I wouldn't last a day!" Magilou said defensively. "This can't be happening...Velvet...Oh god...She must be so scared and alone right now..." Eleanor wept. Even Rokurou, the happy go lucky swordsman that didn't let anything faze him was shaken by the revelation. "Damn, she just got started on her new life too...I'm going to miss you old friend, what a lousy way to go..." He said somberly. "Now guys, I know there is no recorded instance of someone ever coming back from Brazil alive, but it might not be hopeless. There might be something in my library that could help, I don't know what yet, but I'm going to try." Magilou tried to reassure the group to limited success. Eleanor continued sobbing. "Velvet...Please be alright...Please hang in there..."

Velvet watched as Max stumbled his way through an attempt of conversation with a group of locals. He attempted to ask them where he could find a 'Telephone', this would allow him to contact his partner that actually spoke the language and help him find the girl who was being held here. Velvet understood none of what the locals said in reply to him, but it was clear that they wanted nothing to do with them. The group got up and sauntered off, leaving the duo awkwardly standing in the street no less lost than they were before. "Well, that went well." Velvet quipped. Max brushed it off and continued around the corner. "It looks like there's some kind of bar up ahead." He said, gazing up the street. "So much for laying off the alcohol, huh?" Velvet quipped once again. "The irony isn't lost on me, I guess sobriety is no use to me dead." Max responded as the two continued up the small street. She had found herself quite the companion for this, that was for sure, lost in some concrete jungle, no idea where to go or what to do, not understanding the local language, all after making some kind of resolution to do better for themselves, the two had somehow landed themselves in the exact same conundrum through some bizarre twist of fate.

"Hey, are you lost?" A man called out from a small stall next to them. "In more ways than I can possibly explain." The duo said in unison. Max and the man seemed to know each other, he mentioned something about a 'disco' and him having better clothes a while ago. It became clear that Max's shirt was something of an oddity around these parts, though she immediately realized that she didn't have much ground to stand on when criticizing other people's fashion sense. The man went on about how he was working for some kind of charity as a retirement job, along with the rest of his family. Max seemed mildly perturbed when he mentioned his daughter coming to help in a couple of days, and although this wasn't her business, Velvet couldn't help but share Max's apprehension. Places like this were why Velvet would have stuck to Laphicet like glue had they managed to raise the funds to go on their adventure in time. The man responded to Max's inquiries of his confidence in his daughter's safety by sharing his philosophy that people were the same the world over, good, bad, and indifferent. Considering Velvet was stranded here for the time being, she hoped he was right and that as long as she made an effort to stay out of trouble, nobody would go out of their way to try and make some with her. The Lord of Calamity died 4 years ago, this was supposed to be a new start for her, and she had no interest in falling back into the life of violence and destruction that nearly drove her to madness. Max inquired about the kidnapped girl, but to no success. The man wished them luck, saying that he'd say a prayer for them before vanishing into the back.

"Well, back to square one I guess." Velvet sighed as the two continued along the street, eventually reaching the bar Max had set his sights on. Velvet stopped and gazed up at the sign. "Wait a minute, this is one of those bars, isn't it?" Velvet inquired. "Looks that way." Max deadpanned. "I...think I'll pass. I'll find my own way out of here." Velvet said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Suit yourself." Max said and walked off to the bar. Two less than friendly men loitering outside tried to say something to him, but Max, maintaining eye contact with them, shoved the door open and entered anyways. Velvet couldn't help but respect such a callous display of audacity. It's not that he was necessarily courageous or had a sense of heroic superiority, but that he's had it up to here and just wants the world to bring on whatever it's going to throw at him and get it over with. Velvet could sympathize, though it looked like her brief alliance with her kindred spirit had come to an end for now. At least she was no longer laying sprawled out in some trash heap in some gutter, so she took the opportunity to try and get her bearings.

It was clear that she was in some kind of slum, even if the place was a dump, she wouldn't have to worry about any authorities asking her for identification that she didn't have, though the flip-side would be that the place was probably ripe with lowlifes, and she had no idea which places she'd have to really avoid if she wanted to stay out of trouble. The most pressing issue of all, however, is how she was going to get out of Brazil. Although she did want to travel and see the world a bit before deciding where and how she was going to settle down, Brazil was among the last of the places she wanted to end up. All of the horror stories that Magilou had told her that had left her waking up in a cold-sweat in the middle of the night aside, she had no idea how she was going to get back home. Without a witch or a Malak around, it seemed almost hopeless. Velvet tried her best to avoid falling into panic and despair, she didn't want to think about how she could be trapped in Brazil forever, even the benefit of being without the curse of Malevolence, Daemons, and Dragons simply wasn't worth the tradeoff. She had to find some way out of here, recalling the brief excerpts she had read from Laphicets books on Exorcist Artes all those years ago, Velvet managed to put together that she needed to find a Vuvuzela, a Soccer ball, some Oxidado, and a copy of Muldial Ronaldinho Soccer 64, and maybe she could perform some kind of ritual that would get her home. She just needed to remember the steps...

Velvet's train of thought was interrupted by an eruption of a rapid succession of loud, thundering cracks, just like she remembered in the Gulag. That was gunfire, she'd had enough of those things fired at her by now to tell. It wasn't long before Max came darting out of the bar. "Time to run, kid!" Max yelled to Velvet as he rolled over a wall into the canal below. A group of armed men burst through the gate in hot pursuit, Velvet immediately jumped out of sight. "Pega Pega Pega!" the men shouted, darting for Max's last known position. Velvet took the opportunity to slip away, and resolved to try to get as much distance from this scene as possible. Whatever Max had pulled in that bar, she wanted nothing to do with it, and hoped if she got as far away as she could, the locals would see it that way too instead of lumping her in with him.

Velvet hadn't made it far before she ran into another group of classy, well dressed, good natured gentleman. "Essa garota! Ela estava com o gringo!" The men screamed out while pointing at her, Velvet may not have understood the words they were saying, but they were nice enough to convey their thoughts and feelings via the universal sign language of raising their weapons at her.

"Here we go again..."