Chapter 3

Feno Phena

Once they'd made their way back to the ship, Gaige shared what she'd learned and they set a course for Feno Phena, though Gaige would've liked to drop A.I. ngel off before they continued any further, mostly out of concern for the girls safety, she couldn't justify it, especially since Feno Phena was on their way back to the casino.

It wasn't until they were almost at the planet that Deathtrap found a flaw in their plan.

"You mean they're having a planet wide party for the next two weeks?" Artemis said, unable to believe that anyone could party that long, for any reason.

"Unfortunately, yes." Gaige said with a glum nod. "The Festival of the Unbroken Tide happens every year, something about the way the moons are aligned or some-such. Seems that the tides don't change during that time or something and long ago it was thought to be some divine event or something, but now, it's just an excuse to party. Apparently, it's quite the tourist attraction, people from all over come here for it."

"Oh, that's just great." Artemis moped. Gaige could sympathize, she wasn't big on crowds herself and she knew that the other girl was even less fond of them.

"Well, we could take the time to take A.I. ngel home, by the time we got back the party would be nearly over. I mean, we'd still have to wait a few days for it to end, but at least we wouldn't be just sitting around the whole time."

"But if we did that, we'd have to wait for a few more days in addition to that, so that everyone could get back on their feet, wouldn't we? I mean, recuperation and all that."

"Right."

"Um." Came a small voice from off to the side "Who says that I want to go back just yet?"

The two girls looked over to where A.I. ngel was standing, staring at them and found themselves struggling to figure out how to tell her that she'd just be in the way.

"Uh, this is gonna be a pretty hard fight as is." Gaige started, before trailing off as the girls' face dropped.

Artemis quickly took over "Hey, the truth isn't that we think you'd be in the way, or anything like that, it's just that, well, we're worried about you."

When the girl looked at her in confusion, she quickly continued "You remember that energy dome that popped out of the robots? The one that fried my cybernetics?" Getting a nod, she continued "Well, that destroys all electronics that aren't properly shielded, and, well, since we aren't sure of how your body's, well, constructed, or how much is what, we can't have you getting caught by one of those blasts. I mean, it might do nothing, but it might kill you instantly, and that's a risk we just can't take."

A.I. ngel slumped slightly, indicating defeat, but she still spoke up "I know. I get that, but it is just that, well, I want to help. I do not want to be the only one stuck, waiting to find out what happened, and if something did happen to any of you, I would wonder if I could have done anything to change that."

"I get that." Gaige said "Really, I do, but we would feel awful if something were to happen to you." She paused and glanced at Artemis, but she was sitting there with an inscrutable expression, so Gaige continued "Look, no one's saying you have to go home, but you'll have to stay on the ship for most of the time if you go with us and if you went home, you'd at least have Timothy there to keep you company, not to mention, something to do to keep your mind off of things."

"I could keep busy on the ship." She offered. "Plus, that way, if something happened, I would be right there to help, if I could."

Gaige looked over at Artemis again, waiting for her to pipe up. It took a bit, but eventually she did.

"We'll see. A lot of this depends on what we learn. Don't forget that Holloway, or whoever attacked us on Jaka, didn't hesitate to attack you as well, so there's a chance that you could get caught in the crossfire no matter where we go."

"I know."

"That said, it's your call. But we still have override, veto, or whatever it's called if we find out something really bad down there."

A.I. ngel nodded brightly, happy to not be thrown off, at least not yet. Gaige on the other hand just sighed.

"What?" Artemis whispered to her.

"Nothing, it's just, well, how long are you planning on keeping her onboard?" Gaige mentally kicked herself. She couldn't figure out why she was acting this way, why she felt a swell of irritation at the fact that A.I. ngel was getting to stay for longer. It wasn't like she disliked the girl, on the contrary, she quite enjoyed the way she was constantly looking to learn something new. But some part of her didn't want the younger girl around. She tried to tell herself that it was just that she was looking out for her, trying to keep her safe, but deep down she knew that something about that was ringing false.

"How's that any of your business?"

"Uh, I mean, I, I'm part of the crew, so I was just sorta wondering is all. Plus, won't she get bored up here, by herself?"

Artemis looked at her for a few seconds before answering "True. On both accounts. But that said, she's a guest until she gets safely back to where she's from and she's made a fair point. How would you feel, knowing that your friends were going off somewhere, possibly to die, and there was nothing you could do but wait? Wouldn't you want to be as close as possible to them so that you knew what'd happened as soon as possible, rather than having to wait for a call to tell you everything was alright?"

Gaige thought back to her first time on Jaka, and Xylourgos and all the other times that she'd had to wait while someone else went off to do something, the anxiety that she'd felt, the hopelessness and sighed. As soon as she did, Artemis knew that the other girl was relenting and decided to move the conversation back to the more pressing matter.

"So, back to more important things. Wait, that didn't sound right. Uh, more pressing matters? Nope, still wrong."

"OK, you've segued, you can skip this part and get on with it." Gaige said with an eyeroll.

"Uh, right." Artemis glanced at her, unsure if she'd done anything wrong or if the other girl was just tired of her making verbal messes "Anyway, what I was meaning to say is that with that out of the way, let's get back to the previous problem."

"Which was?" Gaige said, with no small amount of exasperation.

"Right, uh, so, right, what kinda party we talking about? This festival, I mean."

Gaige cocked her head, prompting Artemis to continue, trying to clarify "I mean, is it a street clothes type of thing? Costumes? Formal? Something weird and local, you know, like those clothes we found on that ship in the Garden? The one with the med bay."

Gaige bit her tongue, wanting to tell her that those weren't festival clothes, they were something else, but decided not to embarrass her friend, instead she looked at her ECHO and brought up some sites.

"Uh, it looks like a mix." She said, scrolling through the sites advertising the different attractions "Seems that some of the areas lean more towards the costumes, but the higher-class areas can be either that or formal, depending on the party, the host and the district."

"So, we wouldn't blend in the way we are." Artemis said with a sigh.

"No, so we're gonna need to do something about that."

Artemis glumly nodded.

"But first, we need to figure out where we need to go, then we can decide on what to wear." Gaige said, patting her on the shoulder.

"And where do we need to go?"

"That's a good question. Jail? Morgue? I'm not entirely sure myself."

"Well, does it say anywhere where Holloway was taken? Or where the records are kept?"

"Well, the records would be useless, I mean, they'd just say that he died wouldn't they?"

"Then wouldn't the morgue say the same thing?"

"Yeah, damn. Only way we might find anything there would be if we could find the person that filled the autopsy report out, if they even did one and try and get them to tell us the truth."

"So not happening."

"Right, so it looks like we need either the jail or someone connected."

"What about whomever handed the body over to, well, whoever took it?"

"Hmm, might be a possibility, but gonna be hard to track."

"So, what's the best bet?"

"Hmm, not sure."

"Let's try it another way, how would we prove it, one way or the other?"

"Well, video proof would be good."

"And how're we gonna get that?"

"Probably by breaking into the jail."

"Is there any other way?"

"Urgurr"

"Maybe, but do you think that the chief of police will help us? I mean, we did cost them their crime buster bots."

"Urrru"

"No, it was a good idea and we'll take any we can get."

"Um, my dad, or rather Jack, he, uh, well, he would often go on about how the media was twisting things he said, or how they were always sticking their noses where they did not belong and were always snooping around."

"That's actually not a bad idea." Gaige said, looking at the girl "We might be able to find someone that reported on it and be able to ask them what they know, though we might need to offer them something in return."

"Like what?"

"I donno, an interview of something."

"Sounds awful."

"Yeah, but it's still the best thing we've got. So, I guess we should head to the area around the station that Holloway was taken to, see if we can't learn something there, while looking around for some reporter types to talk to."

"Great, so what do we need?"

"I just went over it."

"No, not that, I meant to wear."

"Oh, right. Uh, lemme look."

A few minutes later she announced "Well, looks like we get to dress up."

A Few Hours Later

"I feel ridiculous." Gaige grumbled as she stumbled along the road.

"Well, you look nice."

"Shut it, I don't wanna hear that from you, especially not right now."

"Oh, so you don't want me to think you look good." Came the gloomy reply.

"That's not what I'm saying." Gaige snapped, irritated at both of them in equal measure. "I just don't want you to be telling me that this dress, out of all of them, looks good."

Seeing that the other girl wasn't any less depressed, Gaige sighed and added "Feels too much like you're rubbing it in."

It turned out that they hadn't needed to go shopping after all. Gaige, much to her chagrin, had dug out the dress she'd got for her birthday, or at least the one she'd exchanged it for, the one that Artemis had told her would look nice on her. The truth was that she felt she should be in something fancier, but the only other dress she had was something so slinky and showy, that she couldn't even start to contemplate wearing it. No, this dress was fine, it was a bit formal for where they were going, or rather, she felt it would be a bit under done, a bit too off the rack to look fancy, so she'd accented it with some of the jewelry she'd picked up in the Garden of Minos. Now a ring accented her finger, shiny gems tugged her earlobes down and a stunning necklace draped around her neck.

She'd finished her 'disguise' with a pair of gloves that went up to her shoulders, as well as some tasteful makeup that her mother would've been proud of. She'd done her hair up, so that it sat on top of her head, with just a single ringlet trailing down her neck. And she'd finished it off with a pair of seriously uncomfortable shoes that gave her even more height on the shorter girl next to her.

She shot a semi-contained glare at the girl walking next to her. For some reason that Gaige couldn't figure out, she'd had a suit on the ship. Her excuse was something along the lines of, it was something that had been on the ship when she'd got it, and since it almost fit her, she figured, why not keep it?

Still, Gaige had to admit that she pulled it off. Since she was already fairly flat, she managed to look like an attractive young man, though Gaige was afraid of what people would take her for, since they were walking arm in arm down the street.

The most surprising thing though, was that Artemis had washed off all of her usual makeup, leaving her looking pale and washed out. Gaige hated to admit it, but she thought that she was probably more attractive without the dark colors slathered on, but she didn't think that Artemis would want to hear it.

She'd also slicked her hair down with something that Gaige wondered if it wasn't engine grease, a look that really didn't suit her, but truly hid who she really was from anyone that'd recognize her, especially since the grease had darkened her hair to a dull dark purplish color that wasn't very attractive.

They walked together down the street, carefully weaving around the more aggressive or drunken revelers as they made their way once more through Torin City. It was just as stunning as it had been the last time they'd been there, if not more so, with all the lights and the festive decorations. The floating lanterns really caught Artemis's eye as they floated gently overhead, illuminating the city.

Gaige lamented that, once again, they'd arrived at night. Still, the city looked different enough that she wasn't overly sad about it, though she was a bit anxious to get out of the district that they were in, especially since a number of revelers were in the process of a number of activities that she wasn't sure she wanted to see and certainly didn't want Artemis to, so she kept her body between the shorter girl and the worst of it. Though she could tell that the smaller girl was distinctly uncomfortable with what was going on around them, given that Gaige could feel her grip on her arm increasing as she tried to pull them forward faster.

It was times like these that she wished that Deathtrap was with her. They'd all agreed that he would've been too conspicuous, so they'd been forced to have him float along high above them, where he could keep an eye on them in case things went sideways. Still, there was nothing like having a floating death machine with you to dissuade unwanted advances, though Gaige strongly suspected that some of these people were either too drunk, or on something strong enough that they wouldn't have cared. Heck, a number of them probably would've made a pass at the bot.

Artemis for her part wasn't noticing the goings on in the alleys, nor in the street for that matter, she was locked into the twin panics of being surrounded by way too many people and almost more terrifying, by this much alcohol. She kicked herself mentally, she should've known that there would be booze flowing down the streets, she'd at least understood that much, even if she'd never really been to a party before. Well, she'd been at that one wedding, and then there was Gaige's birthday party, but even there, there'd been drinks being served. With this much temptation around her, she wondered if Gaige could resist, so she tightened her grip and kept her eye on the girl as she plowed forward.

It seemed to take forever, but shortly they crossed another of the delicate bridges that spanned the dark water and found themselves in a new district. This one had fewer buildings, though they were a story taller than the previous district and more spread out, like they were breathing a little deeper. The crowds also started changing, with the number of drunks and lewd actions sharply decreasing as they went, which didn't surprise Gaige since they were approaching not only the police station, but the seat of power in the city as well.

As they continued, they sloshed through the shallow water that was constantly being pumped across the walkways, something that they both thought was extremely dangerous, but was apparently part of the festival. In fact, a number of buildings stood with their doors open and water gently pouring out.

They could hear the faint sounds of music drifting out of the various buildings, most of it was close to what they'd danced to at the wedding, but some of it was decidedly upbeat and on one occasion, they swore they'd heard the dulcet sounds of Digby Vermouth echoing across the water.

Through the open doors they could see people dancing and others streamed in and out, some dressed about like them, but most were swathed in even fancier ware. Occasionally they would spot someone dressed or rather not dressed in finery, thin strands of silk and exotic materials that barely covered the important bits, and on others they would find almost the exact opposite, someone wrapped in so much cloth that they couldn't even begin to identify the gender of the one inside. And on one occasion they'd spotted a woman wearing an entire Nemian hide, with only her face poking out between its teeth.

Still, they didn't spot anyone that would be of use to them, so they continued on, trying to avoid the revelers' eyes.

As they neared the jail, Gaige leaned in and asked "So what's the plan?"

"Me? I thought you had the plan."

"Yeah, it was 'see if we can spot anyone useful, otherwise, make it up as we go' or something like that."

"Great, so now what?"

"That's what I'm asking."

"No, you're asking me to make the decisions so you don't have to be responsible when they fail."

"That's not what..." Gaige bit off her retort and took a breath.

"Look, I'm sorry." Artemis spoke first "And I know this isn't easy for you, but we need to figure this out quick, and get outta here. So, we've gotta choose, do we try and get into the jail, ask questions and see if we can look around, or do we try and enter one of these parties, see what we can find there?"

"Or, as long as we're putting everything on the table, we could try and break into the prison and search the files."

"That's a terrible idea." Artemis shot back, horror etched onto her face.

"I know that, I'm just listing every option."

"Well let's hold off on that one until the end." Artemis sighed, looking around. "I guess the biggest problem I'm having is that I don't know what these reporter people look like, so I can't spot them, or rather, I wouldn't know if I did."

"What? Really? Of all the...how could you have not looked that up before we came down here?" Gaige snapped in exasperation.

"Oh well sorry. I was too busy trying to figure out how to pretend to be human to remember that."

"Pretend to be...I don't even know what that means."

"It means that I feel like a, I donno..." She trailed off. Gaige looked at her, but waited for her to continue and after a few moments she did "I just, I feel ridiculous dressed like this. Like I'm, I donno, just pretending that I'm normal or something, I mean, I get why we have to dress like this, but it's just, I feel, wrong, naked, like I'm making a fool outta myself and everyone's laughing at me as soon as I turn away."

"You don't look ridiculous, you look, well, nice, other than your hair I mean, that just looks weird." Seeing the other girl deflate, Gaige quickly continued "Nah, it's just that your regular style looks better on you, or maybe I'm just used to seeing it that way. Besides, I don't get why you're complaining, I mean, look at me. I look really silly."

"No, you don't, you look pretty."

"Ah, you're just saying that cause you li..." Gaige caught herself and froze up.

"I don't lie." Came the sad response.

Cursing herself, Gaige tried to come up with some way of saving this. "I wasn't saying lie, I was saying like. As in you're only saying that cause you like girls, but I realized it was a tasteless thing to say so I cut myself off and made things worse. Sorry."

Artemis sighed "Seriously, you don't have to be so, um, apprehensive, or whatever about it, it just makes me feel self-conscious about it. Though you shouldn't talk about it at all, I don't want anything bad to happen, especially here."

"That's just..." Gaige cut herself of from telling Artemis that she was being stupid and took a breath, choosing to fight that fight another day "You're right. Sorry. Anyway, what I was trying to say, before I screwed it up, was that I wish we could've switched what we were wearing."

"There's no way you would've fit into this suit."

"You really need to learn how to talk to a girl." Gaige huffed, smacking the other girl in the back of the head.

"Ow. Sorry. What'd I say wrong?"

"You don't even know that, but you're apologizing?"

"Yeah, well, if you got mad about it, I figured I was probably in the wrong somehow."

Gaige took a slow breath "You really need to work on that. And what I took offense to, was the fact that you implied I was fat."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't, I said you wouldn't fit in the suit, I mean, this is a little long on me, but there's no way it would fit you."

"See, when you say it wouldn't fit, the immediate implication is that I'm too big for it."

"You are."

Gaige resisted the urge to smack the girl again "I'm not too big for it."

"Yeah, you are, I mean, how much taller than me are you? Not to mention your, uh, you know." She blushed while motioning to Gaige's chest.

"Yeah, I'm too tall for it, but that's not what you said, you said big, but without the indication to my chest, so most girls would take that to mean they're too fat."

"What? That's crazy. I mean, if you'd told me I couldn't wear your dress cause I was too small, I wouldn't think you were talking about my chest, I'd just agree with you and then add that I don't wear dresses, so the point's moot."

"I'd still like to see you in one someday."

"Not happening."

"Why not?"

"Never liked the things, ever, even when I was a kid."

"Yeah, I get that. I mean, these things are ridiculous, not to mention these torture devices that I've got to wear on my feet."

"Yeah, why're you even wearing them?"

"Cause I've got to, it completes the disguise."

"Oh, right."

"Yeah, but the worst part is that I can't even hide a weapon in this thing. No gun, no hammer, not even a shield. I feel naked out here."

Artemis blushed and looked away, hidden under her coat was a slim four shot Jakobs she'd taken from the ship.

Gaige sighed and continued "Not only do you get to carry something, but you even have your blade. Talk about unfair."

Artemis didn't look down at her gloved hands as she replied "I could always make you something."

"Thanks, but no one touches my cybernetic. No offense intended. I mean, you know I think highly of your work, but, well, you know."

"Yeah."

"Well, I think we've stood around long enough, we need to make a choice and soon."

No sooner had the words left her mouth then a smile crept up the corners of her mouth as she watched someone walking into one of the fancier houses "I think I just spotted our ticket."