The spaceship jerked and sputtered to a halt, almost throwing the girl out of the captain's chair. Quickly, she grabbed at her Hat before it could fall off her head. Urgh, what the peck was that? She was prrrrretty sure taking off wasn't supposed to feel like that. She shook off some of the dizziness and tried to focus.

Spaceship – check! Captain – dizzy, but check! Angry-sounding alarm noises from the console – uh oh.

That can't be good. Time for some repair work!

She took a step back to get some momentum, then kicked the console as hard as she could! It… just kept beeping. And now her foot hurt! So much for "famous Mafia repair technique that fix all problems." Guess she'd have to actually fix the thing.

Alright, alright. She stood up on her tippy toes and looked at the blinky lights. This noise means… engine failsafe? And that one's for issues with the, what was it, arrodi- airodo- oh yeah! The aerodynamics!

She hopped off her captain's chair and headed towards the windows, muting the alarm sounds. Ah, much better. Alright, if something was sticking off the side of the ship, she might be able to see it. Once it was gone, she'd be ready to leave this planet behind.

She looked out the window. And stared.

Was that… a chain of people? It was! It was a person rope! An entire line of people, hanging off her spaceship! The Conductor, DJ Grooves, the Snatcher, one of the Mafia… Wow, that would definitely explain why the ship wouldn't take off. How were they even holding onto each other?

She gawked at them for a moment, then winced. No, no she didn't have time for this. She was supposed to be leaving, not having visitors. One of the hangers-on seemed to notice the window opening, and started calling up at her. Nonono, they needed to go! Because she needed to go! She did!

She looked back at the Time Piece vault. It showed the same number as it had the last ten times she'd checked – all full up. Everything her mission had told her to collect, all recovered. She'd even woven back together all the broken ones!
She straightened up a little in pride, before another call from the window took the wind out of her sails. Oh. Yes. Everything was all set… for her to leave.

Well, except for her increasingly-loud stowaways. Stow-outsides?

She peeked out the window again. Definitely stow-outsides. It was kind of impressive they were still holding on, really. That Mafia must have super strong hands – being the top of a people-rope looked hard. She looked at his hands. Yup, huge!

No, bad Captain, focus. You need to leave.

She looked at the Mafia's hands again, this time with tons of resolve and Captain-y thoughts. People ropes worked like normal ropes, right? So if she got the top to let go, the whole rope would fall down. All the way down to the planet. All the long, long way down to the planet.

It was… a really long way down back to that planet. Sure she managed just fine when jumping, but she had her umbrella to catch her weight. The Snatcher could float, but wasn't sure there was an umbrella in the world big enough to break everyone else's fall. Would they be alright?

She leaned too far out and the Mafia made eye contact, begging her not to leave. The girl hunched her shoulders a bit. She didn't even know someone that big could look so sad! Ughhh, they really didn't want her to go, did they.

She flinched, then stepped back and slammed the window shut. She didn't have a choice! She had every Time Piece! She'd found all the normal ones! She'd fixed all the broken ones! She'd even got the red-hooded girl's stolen ones! There were none left anywhere on this planet – she would know, she'd checked three times! She had enough fuel to get back to her planet. She'd- She'd finished her mission, and it was time to go. It was time to go… home?

The Snatcher made a loud, unhappy noise outside as DJ Grooves used his face as a stepping stool to peer into the window. The penguin called something about watching their movie together, and she snorted despite herself.

The last time she'd gotten together with Grooves to watch their movie, the Conductor had showed up halfway through and dragged them both out of the screening room so that they would "stop watchin that abomination an' come cast yer peepers on a real work of art!" He'd managed to get them halfway down the aisle of a new room before Grooves caught sight of the train movie on the screen and started pitching a fit.

The girl giggled a bit at the memory. They ended up watching both movies, but the two birds had spent the entire time squawking at each other. Watching the two of them go at it had been even more fun than the movies themselves! They'd only stopped once she was laughing so hard that they realized they were having trouble hearing what the other was saying!

It was weird though. As she watched from the window, DJ Grooves reached out a flipper to the Conductor, pulling him up to stand on an increasingly-unhappy Snatcher so he could say his piece too. Looked like they were working together for… her? Huh.

She decided not to think about that too much! How to get them off, how to get them off her ship so that she could zoom away back to her planet with all of the super important Time Pieces. They had to be super important. Of course they were! She'd asked for a super important grown-up mission, and she had to have gotten one this time! She just had to. She was going to get back to the base and this time everyone was going to be so happy and tell her how she'd saved the day and how maybe she could stick around for a little longer this time with the others before they went back to being "too busy to hang out with you."

There was a banging, squawking noise at the window. She blinked, and saw the Snatcher thwacking DJ Grooves and the Conductor against the glass like the world's most aggravated doorknocker. He caught her eye and slapped another contract to the window, signature line empty. The letters were written big and plain, without any of his normal hard-to-read swoopy writing.

She could just make out the first lines of it from here. Something about friendship. And… staying.

No. No no no. She grabbed a nearby broom and started towards the window. Ignore them ignore them ignore them. She can't stay! She- ok so maybe the mission wasn't as critical as she wanted it to be. Maybe she hadn't even known it was possible for the main base to run low enough on Time Pieces that they needed someone to pick up extra from one of the outer bases. Wasn't the main base where they made the Time Pieces in the first place? She'd never heard about anyone else having to do this. And this… this definitely wasn't the kind of mission she saw the others get assigned.

She squeezed the broom handle harder. Huh, it looked a bit- a bit wobbly. Weird, that. She- she should probably get a new one. She wiped away some water that'd gotten on it. Must have a leak. Look, there's more now. More water. Lil drops. Prolly just a- a leak somewhere in the ceiling. She'll have to fix it before her n-next mission.

She wiped at her face. Stupid leak, getting everywhere. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Just some stupid leak.

There was a sound from outside.

The girl's head shot up. For a moment, she'd thought… no, that's weird. She's way far away from her planet. No way.

The sound came again.

It was different sounds, different tones, all woven together. Harmonies and melodies combining into a noise that should be chaotic but instead somehow resolves. It reached in and tugged at the person who she had been, the person who she was, and the person who she wanted to become.

Someone was calling her name.

Almost tripping over her feet, she ran to the window and threw it open, leaning on her tippy-toes. Looking up at her, each holding an instrument, were the friends she'd made on this planet. The Mafia member she'd first noticed still clung to the side of her ship, now with a determined look in his eye and a harmonica balanced on his moustache. He tried to say something, and she couldn't stop her giggle at the harmonica noises that came out instead. Looking over, the Snatcher dangled from her ship by his tail, hands wrapped around the bow and neck of a large violin. He stared her down like he was daring her to say something. She hadn't known he played an instrument! Did he… learn for this? The Conductor sat on his left shoulder, resting a battered banjo on his lap. He smiled at her, and it felt like getting hit with one of those exploding birds – she'd only ever seen him smile like that at his grandkids. DJ Grooves was seated on the Snatcher's other shoulder, sheet music in his hand and clarinet resting at his side. Something in her face made the worry in his expression soften.

"Took us a while to get the timing right, Darling. I think we've all got some fabulous new appreciation for how gorgeous your name is. I'd love to learn more about how that layering is done – why don't we chat a while."

"Fer once in his fluffed-up life, Lassie, Grooves is right. Ahm never teachin one a them Mafia how ta play music again! …well unless it's fer anotha worthy cause. What do ye say we fix yer name in the movie credits"

"Pweh. Small metal noise box was no match for Mafia! Little Girl must show Mafia how she makes the many noises all at once. Cannot leave until mystery solved, yes?"

"Yeah, touching. Now can we get on your ship already? My tail's about to fall off from hauling around these birdbrains. And the two of us still need to hash out your next contract – no way am I letting such a useful errand monkey fly off into the void."

Ah.

Oh look.

It's- it's another leak.

She watched the droplets drift off through the window, slowly spiraling down towards the planet below. Each of them shimmered in the lights from her slowly powering-down engines.

She scrubbed at her face again. That's tw-two leaks in one day. Might. Might be a bigger problem. Dunno if she'd be able to fix it on her own.

But… it looked like her friends may be willing to help her out.

She dropped the broom, and reached out her hand.