Chapter 8
Hat Kid POV:
I didn't expect my dream to be a sad one, but it was. I saw Bow Kid and Cutlass Girl appear before me via their spirits for the first time in years.
"B-Bow... Cutlass..." I sobbed as I hugged their spirits, them smiling and petting my hair as I sobbed into their bodies.
"Captain... it's okay..." Cutlass smiled.
"No, it's not... you're lost to the sands of time forever... I couldn't save you... it's all my fault..." I cried to them.
"No, it wasn't your fault, captain. It was my fault. I should've listened to Bow... I screwed it up for both of us," Cutlass sighed.
"I just... I really miss both of you... I don't want another incident like yours to ever happen again..." I sniffed to them.
"Then you'll need to get those Time Pieces before that Paprika gets them first. And for the love of everything pleasant, ya gotta put in a better security system for your vault!" Bow frowned at me, which I sighed at and knew he was right.
"Fine, I'll make the Vault secured with a pass code feature the moment I wake up... I just hope that Paprika doesn't get wise as how to rewrite history... only my notes show how to do that," I said.
"We'll always be with you, Captain. Though our particles are spread far and wide, you still have one particle of each of us deep inside," Cutlass smiled, me sniffling once again.
"I love you... so much..." I smiled at them.
"We love you too. We couldn't have asked for a better captain," Bow smiled as I finally woke up to my radio.
"GOOOOOD MORNING! This is the Space Time broadcast for all you interstellar travelers!" the radio exclaimed, me smiling as it seemed to also wake up a very groggy Mustard.
"Ugh... that radio is way too loud..." she groaned as she picked off the gunk in her eyes.
"We have some news for the Green Cluster Galaxy. Apparently a unique flying ship has been spotted in the galaxy above the five planets in one of their Solar Systems. And the owner of this strange ship is none other than the mysterious traveler Hat Kid. Little is known about her, but we are told that she is incredibly strong, able to take down an entire Mafia on the planet of Islando. She has also starred in some movies from up and coming director DJ Grooves. Here are some choice words from the director himself," the radio said as we went to the main area and saw that the Mafia Boss was still in his wheelchair, but he looked to be smiling as we arrived and he then had some breakfast delivered to him in the form of scrambled eggs and bacon.
"The girl known as Hat Kid is surely a girl that has given me sight into how to make my movies better. I'm not going to beat around the bush, but I've done some things in the past I'm not proud of. Not sayin' what, but DJ Grooves was on the bad times for a long bit. But when I met the Hat Kid and she gave me this book of her dreams... I finally realized somethin', man. Bein' popular does not a good movie make. It takes detail, craftsmanship, imagination, and passion in makin' the movies into the art they are destined to be! In fact, the journal and the Hat Kid has inspired me to make a new feature film, made up of not only my penguin actors, but of regular people from Islando as well. It's a passion project that I'm entitling: "Journey Back Home". I promise you, I will put all of my efforts into making this movie my crowning masterpiece. And it will all be thanks to the Hat Kid and her kindness. If yer listenin', darlin', I wish you the best of luck in recovering your stuff and making it back home," DJ Grooves smiled, me nodding at that and smiling. He better make that movie the best thing ever or I'd be highly embarrassed.
"This robotic servant is very kind. Caters to every need, just like Mafia before," the Mafia Boss smiled.
"Just try not to overwork her. If she gets too many requests in too little time, she'll overheat and then I'd need to repair her. And that's not fun at all," I smiled at him.
"Don't worry, I won't do that. Robot too cute to harm," the Mafia boss smiled.
"Really? Cuter than me?" Mustard frowned.
"You're different. Mustached girl beat up Mafia force many times, so I no like you too much," the Mafia leader frowned, me smiling at him as I tried to hold back my angry friend from attacking.
"Easy, Mustard. Just tell him why you hurt the Mafia and I'm sure he'd understand," I frowned at her, Mustard breathing in and sighing after that.
"Okay... the reason I don't like an' tried to stop you Mafia goons is coz your men killed my parents and my other family members when you took over my island. Me and my sister Paprika are the only ones left in my family an' we made a vow to defeat the Mafia once and for all," Mustard frowned.
"What you mean Mafia kill your parents? Mafia make solemn vow to not kill anyone, just make them vanish. An' that don't mean killing. We send them to different place. Tell last name of family and I can tell you where they are," the Mafia leader said, Mustard frowning at him.
"Stachio," Mustard frowned.
"Let's see," the Mafia leader frowned as he pulled out a book from his pocket and flipped through to a certain page, him then giving the book to Mustard and me and her looking at it.
"Stachio family. Takeover Area: Ronda Island. Current Location, Duocorn Island... m-my family... they've been alive all this time?" Mustard gawked at that in shock.
"They are. The only thing they were told by Mafia to do is give monthly payments for protection. If no payment happens, Mafia cut connections and take them to different location out of Mafia reach, usually to different planet," the Mafia leader said, me smiling at her.
"Hey, Mustard?" I smiled, her eyes big and watery. "What do you say that, before we go back to work for looking for Time Pieces, we go try to find your parents? I'm sure that, if we can get your sister to know they're still alive and well, then she just might stop her mindset of erasing evil forever," I smiled at her, Mustard smiling at that.
"Of course. So, how do I get there?" Mustard asked.
"Come over to my vault," I smiled as I then opened it up and I picked up a Time Piece from inside. "For me to know the location of your parents specifically on the planet, I'm going to need to focus on a piece of DNA from your body. So can I have either a strand of hair or a drop of blood?" I asked, Mustard smiling and going for the former and giving me a pinch of her hair strands. I smiled and then put it into the Time Piece, me already getting a read on four different matches. One was Paprika, who was currently on the bird planet. And the other three were all together in a small house on an island to the south of the planet.
"Okay, you may feel a bit of tingling. I'll give you 30 minutes," I smiled at her, Mustard smiling at that. I then warped her to the island in question, me smiling as I decided to use her timeframe instead of my own. That meant I'd need to find some way to kill 15 minutes of time.
"Hey, big guy? Could you possibly tell me your name?" I asked him.
"Sterling Gold. Why?" he smiled.
"Just wanted to know the name of my opponent in a game of Go Fish," I smiled as I brought out a deck of playing cards and he smiled at that.
"Hehe, this should be fun," Sterling smiled as we started to get into the game. But not before I did something with the Service Disc.
"Service Disc, add secret password Omega to the Time Piece Vault, please?" I smiled at her.
"Master Recognition Password required," she said.
"Mocha Malt of Mount Moon," I smiled.
"Master recognized. Commencing integration of password to Time Piece Vault," the Service Disc said happily as she then tried to whir her way to the Vault and, after bumping into the wall a couple times, managed to get there before going to the systems of the vault itself.
Mustard POV:
When I was warped to my family's new place, I didn't know what I'd say. What could I say? I hadn't seen them for over 3 years after all! I sniffed in and sighed and then knocked on the door, letting down my hood as the door then had someone answer it.
"Who is it?" asked the voice that I'd really wanted to hear most.
"Mommy... I'm home..." I smiled, the door immediately springing open and my mother looking at me in shock while I looked at her with the biggest and saddest smile on my face.
"M-Mustard? What are you-" she was about to ask before I ran to her and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down my face as I did so.
"Mommy... I thought I'd lost ya..." I sniffed as I cried, my mom smiling and hugging me back and leading me inside.
"Honey! Bryce! Mustard's alive!" mommy exclaimed, my dad and my older brother immediately running to the front door and looking at me with smiles all on their faces.
"Mustard... we were so worried about you! We thought... we didn't think... we thought you were a goner!" my brother smiled at me. Bryce was a huge softy despite him looking a bit intimidating to strangers, so I smiled as I rushed to him and hugged him next.
"How did you find us? We thought you were dead when the Mafia burned the house down!" my daddy asked me with a smile and tears rolling down his face.
"Yeah, how did you? And where's Paprika?" mommy asked, me sighing and then explaining everything. How I thought they'd been dead since the attack, how I joined the Hat Kid in rescuing the Time Pieces, both of us stopping the Mafia in their home turf and hiding their leader on her ship, and how my sister Paprika was going to try to use the Time Pieces to eliminate all evil from the universe and the disaster that would occur if she succeeded.
"Whoa... I didn't know you and Paprika have had it just as rough as us... both of our groups thought the others were dead... and Paprika doesn't know or even care about the consequences of doing something like that... so what now?" mommy asked me.
"Right now, I'm going to need you to come with me. Hat Kid allowed me half an hour to visit you before she warped me back. I need all of you to hold onto me so she'll know to warp all of us back to her ship. But, I'm going to say this once. If Paprika does mess with the timeline, when we're back aboard the ship, do not try to leave it at all until Hat Kid fixes the timeline. Because if we leave while the world is changed, we'll end up like her original crew, our bodies turning to ash and being scattered throughout time and space," I explained to them.
"Well, you arrived roughly 29 minutes ago, so let's huddle around you, then," Bryce smiled as he and my parents gathered around me and held onto my arms and head as I then felt our bodies get warped back to the ship, me smiling at how we all reappeared on the ship and Hat Kid smiled at our group.
"Looks like you got your wish, Mustard," she smiled at me as she then looked at the Mafia Boss with a smile.
"Got any Aces?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he said as he gave her three Aces and she finished the game with her winning a game of Go Fish.
"Well, this is surely... odd.. I'd think someone with an age of 169 would be... I dunno, older looking?" my dad asked.
"That's what I said too! She's a Hattian from a far-off planet. And believe it or not, her yearly calendar runs twice as fast as our own, so she'll actually be 170 when it hits noon," I smiled at them.
"Well, then, I'd say it's time for some planning," mom said with her voice a hush as she and the others then went to the kitchen and I smiled.
"Hey, Ketchup?" I smiled at her. "I think we should get going to the next place. I looked through the window in your bedroom before going to bed and I saw a perfect candidate to hit up. It's a planet called Subcon and it's covered in darkness year round. If we were to leave to that planet, we should go to the Subcon Forest, which is the largest plot of land on the planet and the closest continent to the ship."
"Sounds like a perfect place for a spooktacular time! I love visiting scary places! It makes me feel like I've overcome a hurdle if I get through a dangerous and scary place," Hat Kid smiled at that.
"Be careful, kids. I've been to Subcon before and let me say, beware the Snatcher. Signing a deal with him is like signing your life away. I was barely able to defeat him in a fight and only then did he let me leave," the mafia boss said.
"Understood, Sterling. Beware the Snatcher," Hat Kid smiled, me looking at her in confusion. "That's his real name."
"Ah, okay," I smiled as we then went to the bedroom and I had to wonder, where would the secret escape hatch be in this room? And just as always, Hat Kid surprised me. It was hidden underneath her bed! "You always find new ways to surprise me when it comes to the design of your ship, Ketchup," I smiled at her.
"I'm sure both of us may be surprised at what may await us in Subcon. Now same as before, you first, me after, then I'll slow our descents. And don't forget you have an umbrella too, so both of us should use our umbrellas together to slow down the descent," Mustard smiled at me.
"Fair enough," I smirked as I went into the escape hatch first and I began to go to the planet of Subcon, also known as the most dangerous of all the planets in my Solar System. And soon, both me and Hat Kid would find out why.
