Search Begins

Once they arrived at Platina, the group went into the basement of the laboratory. There, they finally found Galuff Shaia. He was an older man with dark brown hair, black eyes, and a dark brown moustache. The scientist was dressed in a white lab coat with a red tunic and gray breeches. Once he saw the group standing there, he became very excited by the prospect of visitors.

"Well, what do we have here? You must be adventurers, on a long journey," he stated, "How about I give you a hand. There's nothing I won't do for you. Just name your price, brave travelers."

"Well, that's why we're here. You see, we want to know if. . ." began Lyle, but Galuff didn't seem to be listening to what he had to say. He just took some potions from off of one of the shelves.

Galuff turned to Lyle and said, "You look like a strong fighter. How about this potion to give you four arms? You'll be twice as strong when you drink this." He held up a vial with blue liquid.

Lyle sweatdropped. "No thank you sir. We came here in order to. . ."

"There's time for that later boy," Galuff told him, "Time is money, they say. Ahhhhhhhhh, young squirrel. How about this potion? It will make your hair grow at alarming speed."

"That does sound interesting," Fam replied. She went into a daydream about her hair being even longer than Rasha's. It was so long, in fact, that Lyle became instantly enchanted and fell in love with her on the spot. There was an odd smile on her face as she thought of it, and then she blushed.

Rasha asked, "Are you seriously thinking about buying some stupid potion that you don't have proof will work? Obviously Fang Girl, you act like you don't care about poisoning yourself."

Fam glared at her. "I'm not going to listen to you. You're just worried that my hair will be much longer and more beautiful than yours, and that Lyle will fall in love with me."

"I am not worried!" yelled Rasha, "Lyle is never going to fall in love with a girl like you. And my hair will always be longer and prettier than yours. Stop indulging in your silly fantasies."

"Like you don't," mumbled Migel. He was promptly konked on the head by an irate Rasha.
Ihrie thought, 'This is starting to get annoying. All they ever do is fight with one another. I'm surprised one of them hasn't murdered the others in their sleep."

Migel rubbed his head. "Dang Rasha, you hit hard. You've got to learn to control your temper and act more like a girl. We've got tomboy to knock things around, that's enough."

"What did you call me?!" exclaimed Ihrie, "I'm not a boy!" Then, she knocked him down. Soon, the fight escalated until everyone but Lyle was knocking each other around.

"Sorry about that professor. They're not usually like this," Lyle apologized.

Galuff said, "No worries my boy. Now, what is your business here, what do you want to buy?"

Lyle looked at the professor. "My name is Lyle Rehbart Reon. I'm the descendant of Maxim. The Sinistrael Raider has revived, and it's only a matter of time before the others follow. We need to find a way to the Fortress of Doom, which is submerged under the sea in order to acquire Sargus, Maxim's legendary blade. Artea told me that you have a ship that can do that."

"Oh, you mean Falcon," stated Galuff, "One of my greatest inventions ever. Do you want to take a test ride on her? Follow me to the basement my good friends."

Everyone stopped fighting at that instant. They followed Galuff into the basement, where they found a ship that appeared to have never been used. It was covered in dust, the paint was peeling, and some of the metal seemed to be falling off of the hull. Needless to say, they were not impressed.

"Have you ever tested this before?" inquired Lyle.

Galuff answered, "Of course my boy. Now get on, I'll show you what this baby can do."

So the group boarded the ship and went underwater. But suddenly, a crack in the hull began to leak. Rasha and Fam were both grabbing onto Lyle for dear life, and Ihrie was trying to plug the rift back up. Soon, they arrived back on the surface, soaked and pretty angry with Galuff.

Galuff began to calculate the problem. "It seems like we need some more Alumina to fix the breach. That's what we used to create the hull of Falcon. Tell you what, if you go and find all of the Alumina for me, I'll give you a discount on the ship. Say, five thousand gold pieces."

"For this piece of junk?" asked Rasha, "It can't even move without leaking."

"Only the underwater systems are broken. Falcon can go above water without any problems. I want you to head to the town of Linze, beyond the Tower of Light in the west. Just head west on Falcon, and stop off at the city of Bakku, and go north from there. Then, go through the tower and leave through the north exit, and you're practically there. Brant should know where you can find the Alumina. By my calculations, you seem to need about seven pieces to fix the ship," Galuff informed them.

Ihrie mumbled, "If we sink, I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your miserable life."

Lyle sighed. "I guess I don't have any choice in the matter. I'll take you up on your offer to find the Alumina. We have to get to Doom Island somehow, before disaster befalls us all."

Lyle handed Galuff a bag containing five thousand gold pieces. Then, they all boarded Falcon and began to head west. Luckily, Galuff had been right and they didn't sink while traveling over the water. Soon, they saw the land quickly approaching them, and the town of Bakku was on its shores.

- - - -

Yes I had to skip over the quest to find Dr. Shaia's apprentice, Cooper. After all, who would play him? Galuff doesn't really need an assistant, his only partner is Gil, who can't really help him with shady transactions, as he's only a dog.