Chapter 30: Go! Go! Nyakuza Metro!

I yawned as I sat up in my bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

'Huh, no dreamscape?" Was the first thing my mind processed. 'Maybe that means I've got dimension-hopping under control now. Or something else. Something bad...'

"Morning, Tie!" Knit happily greeted me as I put my namesake and shoes on. She had taken to decorating her little corner of the room with yarn accessories not unlike the ones in the 'room' we fought in, only with dolls of me, Hat, Bow, CC and even a little Boss/Roombi one. She seriously needed her own room though. We could look into expanding the ship when back on our planet...if she wanted to stay that is.

"Morning, Knit." Took a little bit longer to answer then I should as we walked onto the elevator.

"So...you're going to Nyakuza Metro today?" She asked.

"That's right." I confirmed. After Seller's little cryptic message yesterday, we had talked with CC and Boss and found out that the mentioned Nyakuza Metro was deep underground in the main city which the Arctic Cruise had set off from. Despite that, nobody seemed to know what the layout was, or what it was like, apart from that it was incredibly shady and anybody with a good head on their shoulders stayed far away from it.

"You'd both better be okay." She half-sternly told me.

"Can't promise that." I admitted as we stopped at the door to Hat's quarters, and surprisingly, she came out on time! "Good morning, Hat."

"Morning..." She said as she adjusted her namesake.

"How is Bow doing today?" I asked.

"Her fever's gone down a lot. She just needs to rest now." Hat answered, sounding very relieved herself. "Anyway, what's CC making for breakfast?"

"I heard it was bacon sandwiches!" Knit perked up.

"And you question me on why I think sandwiches are the greatest culinary invention." I smirked at my Captain.

"And you still think using big words means I don't know what you're talking about." She smirked back. "...But I do!"

We made our way into the kitchen and sat down as CC served up the breakfast. Hat squirted entirely too much ketchup into it whilst Knit began absorbing the food into her body via her face. This was the norm now, and it wasn't the craziest thing that had happened to us on this trip.

"You two are really going to Nyakuza?" CC asked...again.

"if the last Time Pieces are there, we HAVE to go there before confronting Moustache and Voice about the ones they have, because otherwise they could get enough to do actual damage to time." I explained, before turning to my Captain who had finally finished massacring the dead pig with bloody sauce. "Right?"

"Yeah. The more Time Pieces you have, the further back you can go, which means the more butterfly effect damage you can cause." She nodded. "Plus, with the time-space destabilising Seller mentioned, who knows what could happen if time was tampered with at the moment, let alone at all."

"...I actually forget your the Captain out of you two at times." Boss admitted.

"She has her moments...which is most of the time." I nodded.

"Of course I know you two can take care of yourselves. I think every body here understands that." CC said, which caused Boss to grumble and Knit to twiddle her thumbs shyly. "But this place is dangerous."

"What could be worse then Subcon, where we had our souls stolen?" I questioned.

"Well..." CC looked to be thinking. "...If Subcon represents fantasy danger, then Nyakuza is business danger. The whole...PLACE is under the thumb of somebody really dangerous. Somebody who doesn't need contracts or traps to hurt you...KILL you. And unlike Snatcher, who's rather frail on his lonesome-" Seeing him beaten up and asleep must've lessened his fear factor. "-the cat who runs Nyakuza, whoever it is, is plenty powerful on her own without the ENTIRE place being her extra appendages. This is a GANG. Not ghosts and spirits."

"We'll be alright." Hat tried to reassure her a bit too quickly. "We're a tough species, remember? Ands the best thing about us is that we're slippery if we need to be. We can get out of any jam."

"It might be a different kind of danger, CC, but we've done a lot of it." I added onto it, otherwise I think CC still would've lost a few cat years from worry. "Trust us."

The feline looked between the both of us and sighed in defeat. "I don't know where you children get your confidence. But I don't reckon I could stop you either way. Just...promise me you'll be careful?"

"We promise." We both said. Hat with her mouth full.

"I know you'll be fine." Knit nodded. "I believe in you wholeheartedly!"

"If you can beat me, you can beat ANY gang leader!" Boss...complimented? He was still being passive-aggressive.

"Mm-hm! Thank you everybody!" Hat smiled, before turning to me. "So! What room haven't we jumped out of yet, Tie?"

"I think, the only room left is the Storage Room." I said.

"Alright! Then we'll jump from there!" Hat declared as she stood up out of her seat. "Thank you for breakfast, CC!"

We made our way to the Storage Room, Hat taking a short cut with her Ice Hat whilst I just teleported down with the Paradox Pendant, the ships storage room was filled with 'souvenirs' from all our other adventures in space, from photos to statues to technology; most of which was broken.

"I can see the city." Hat said as she peered into the telescope. "Nyakuza Metro is meant to be underground, right?"

"That's right." I said as she let me look through, down onto the dark city, the sun being on the other side of the planet at the time.

"Since it's a Metro, there must be a way down, right?" Hat questioned.

"I don't think a gang would make it so obvious." I told her.

"Then...we'll sneak our way in!?" She did the same pose from when we infiltrated Dead Birds.

"Down. The question is, how." I mumbled.

Just then, we heard a screech out the window, and saw the Leviathan wrapping around the window.

"Hey, Leviathan!" Hat waved at our now regular visitor. "What are you doing here?"

The serpent seemed to coo softly as it nodded its head towards the planet.

"You'll take us down to an entrance to Nyakuza? Wow! Thank you!" Hat cheered, which the Leviathan screeched happily in response.

"...How did you understand that?" I had to ask.

"Natural talent!" She beamed all too happily.

"Guess we haven't got much else to go on." I sighed.

We jumped out of the window and onto the Leviathan's back. I didn't notice before when we fought it and were desperately clambering over it, but its body felt like soft sand. We clung on as it flew towards the planet, breaking through the atmosphere and into a city full of nothing but dark buildings with the occasional golden light filtering out of a window.

"Wow...this place stinks." Hat commented.

"Huh?" I gasped, not expecting her to say that.

"Night cities are supposed to be bright and colourful, like it's truly alive!" Hat whined. "This is boring!"

"Didn't realise you had such high standards." I said.

"It's supposed to be colourful!" She defended herself.

The Leviathan then stop midair and craned its head towards us. "Huh? Here?" Hat translated as it nodded. We looked down to see nothing but a manhole cover.

"This is the way in?" I sceptically asked, which made it nod its head.

"Seems like it, Tie. We don't have any other options." Hat said.

"Beggars can't be choosers." I sighed as we both hopped off, then the Leviathan warbled something.

"Yeah, we know it's dangerous, but we've got work to do." Hat answered. "We'll be okay, promise!"

The Leviathan seemed to nod at that, before taking back off into the sky towards Alpine Skylines.

"So long!" Hat waved, as I followed her example.

"How we doing this?" I questioned as we stared at the manhole cover.

"I've got an idea." Hat smiled that smile of hers. "Ready?"

"Never, but I do it anyway." I nodded.

Hat put her Ice Hat on as we both stepped on the cover. She then held onto my hand before turning us both into an ice statue that slammed through the cover as we fell down.

And down...and down...and down...

Until we finally crashed onto solid ground, causing us to instantly unfreeze and fall apart from each other.

"That was...far." Hat admitted.

"Very deep." I stood up and dusted myself down.

"But it looks like we landed on proper ground." Hat pointed at the brick floor beneath our feet. We looked around and saw similar walls.

"Well...is this the place?" I wondered, when I heard Hat squeal. "What is it?"

"It's so cute!" Hat was fawning over some kind of drone not unlike Roombi, only it had a rubber yellow top with a cat face on it. Hat pressed her hand against its top and marvelled as her own hand bounced back. "It's bouncy!"

"It looks like it's like Roombi." I spoke my thoughts as it aimlessly whirred about the floor.

"When we get back, I'm giving Roombi whiskers, cat ears, and a trampoline!" Hat beamed eagerly.

"Please have mercy on it." I almost begged.

"Hmmm...doesn't look like there's anywhere out but up!" Hat voiced the fact there were walls all around us, before seizing my wrist.

"I accept my fate." I nodded solemnly,before we jumped on top of the machine and bounce off of it onto a higher up platform, where-

"Cats!" Hat cried.

She was right. There were humanoid black cats wandering around what looked like a train station. Some were small with fat heads, some were tall and skinny. But more then that, there were cat faces on electronic pillars, and billboards lining the walls that advertised cat food and cat toys.

"Oh, so NYAkuza was literal." I mumbled. Of course it was.

"It looks like we're at a train station." Hat mused as she looked around. I would've thought several of the cats would have taken notice of us, but they all seemed to be absorbed in their own thing, whether reading a newspaper or buying a ticket.

"Seems so..." I turned to her, and saw as she was sticking her head out in front of an incoming train! "HAT!"

"Woah!" Hat jumped back as a train being pulled by a giant cat (because of course it was) pulled up into the station. "Wow! Tie! The train's being pulled by a huge cat!"

"You gave me a heart attack!" I cried as I clutched my chest. She was not good for the heart a lot of times.

"Sorry." She giggled as the doors opened and cats filed both in and out of the train. "But it doesn't look like this station leads to anywhere else. So I guess we're gonna have to follow the train."

"Doesn't look like we're gonna get a ticket at this rate." I stared at the line of cats formed up in front of the booth.

"Who said getting a ticket?" Hat smiled as she jumped on top of the train.

"Of course." I whispered as I also jumped up, just before the train started moving again and we were pulled into a tunnel.

"This is already better then that boring old city up top!" Hat grinned at me. "Everything's cats and bright lights!"

"Not too hard to please you is it?" I sighed.

"I'm just excited to see what this place is like in comparison to everywhere else on this planet." She said. "After all, this may be the last place." She sounded sad at that.

I frowned slightly, and opened my mouth to say something, but Hat spoke first: "Tie! Up ahead!"

I looked forward to see what appeared to be a cat flap approaching, only..."That looks too narrow for us passengers on top!"

"There's a station coming up on the right!" Hat pointed. "Let's jump for it!"

So we prematurely disembarked as the cat and train in tow went through the giant metal cat flap before it closed. This left us no choice but to continue the way this station was, only...

"You've got to be kidding me." I groaned, as I watched dozens of trains zooming by in front of us with very little time to pause, the only other way forward being on the other side. "Who designed this!?"

"I think I can squirm my way through if I use the Time Stop Hat." Hat figured. "Can you teleport over to the other side?"

"Looks a bit more then ten feet." I admitted. "And that's TOO narrow a squeeze for both of us to get through on stopped time."

"Hmmm..." Hat pondered for a moment. "Oh! Maybe you can use this!" She pulled me over to the opening of a thin pipe that led over to the other side.

"How, exactly?" I questioned.

"Can't you, like, fit into it by distorting your own space?" She suggested.

"Well...when I teleport it's essentially condensing myself then remerging somewhere else." I figured. "I'll give it a shot."

I put on the Paradox Pendant and focused, becoming a small pink star that shot into the pipe and travelled along it all the way to the other side where I popped out.

I then had to try not to be sick.

'Too fast!' The acceleration caught me off guard, meanwhile Hat zipped past all of the trains with her accelerated speed.

"You okay?" Hat asked me.

"Yep...yep." I managed to answer. "Come on..."

We managed to catch another train riding down a tunnel.

"So...do you think this is the whole place?" Hat asked. "Just tunnels and trains?"

"That's what a metro is." I said.

Hat pouted at that. "Phooey. I was hoping that-OHMYGOSHTIELOOK!"

I managed to distract myself from the fact she was strangling me in excitement to see that we were pulling up into an entire, HUGE, underground city! Cat trains were driving everywhere you looked with holographic roads being created under them. Neon was everywhere in every single colour as billboards plastered every wall. The same types of cats were walking around, talking, eating, living lives...even though a lot of them were on their phones.

"It's a giant bright underground cat city!" Hat marvelled happily.

"It's huge." I noted, staring up at all the bright lights above me. Despite us being underground and everything being illuminated I still couldn't see the ceiling.

The train stopped at a station and we jumped off of the top before the doors opened and the cats walked out. Meanwhile, Hat was wondering around, taking it all in.

"There's so much here! Is that a ramen place? Oh! An information booth! Where do you think all these trains actually go!?" She was ecstatic just looking around.

"Focus, Hat." I had to remind her. "Time Pieces."

"Oh come on, Tie! Let's look around a bit first!" She practically begged. "Besides, I don't see any Time Pieces yet, do you?" As if to emphasise her point, she swept her arm out.

And pointed at a cat holding a Time Piece.

We both stared at the cat as it took notice of us and became shifty-eyed. It seemed to be wearing some kind of face mask that had a cat 'w' mouth and whiskers on it...which honestly made it pointless.

"...Uh..." The cat spoke, right before it bolted off.

"Oh no you don't." I threw my yo-yo at them and hit them right smack in the back of the head, causing them to fall flat on their face and throw the Time Piece into the air. Thankfully Hat managed to catch it.

"Phew, that was close." She admitted as she held the hourglass.

"So what was that about not seeing any Time Pieces?" I smirked.

"No fair!" She huffed.

"Don't worry, we'll come back just as soon as we put this one in the vault." I assured her, but she frowned at the idea. Probably at the prospect of the train ride it took to get here.

Just then though, two cats approached us, the same as the rest; one short and one tall, but both wearing those same masks. The little one was holding a baseball bat of all things.

"Hey, kids." The taller one gestured to us with a paw. "That belongs to the boss."

"Boss?" Hat echoed.

"I'll take that." A woman's voice said as the Time Piece was plucked out of Hat's grasp, making us turn around.

We came face to face with an extravagant coat, and had to look up to see a tall cat with greying fur and hair, wearing jewels on each of her clawed fingers. There was a scar over her left eye, and her long whiskers were curled as her fangs bared a smile staring at the Time Piece in her grasp.

"Um..." Hat mumbled, which was very unlike her. I thought for sure she was going to say that was ours...but something stopped her. I knew cause something was stopping me from talking out of line too. She exuded danger.

She finally looked away from the Time Piece and down at us. Her gaze felt like she was staring into our souls. "And who are you two supposed to be? Certainly not from down here."

"I'm...Hat Kid." Hat answered.

"Tie...Brat." I said, as if I would die if I didn't answer.

She hummed in response, as if she accepted the information and instantly decided she didn't care. She kept the Time Piece in her claw as she walked around to the front of us. "Not that I care. Or where you come from. What I am interested in is if you work for anyone?" She fixed her gaze on us and seemed to read us again. "Nobody? Well then, in that case..." She leaned down towards us and bared her fangs.

"You both work for ME now."

She began walking away, and the two cats from before moved behind us. We took that as our cue to start walking behind her.

"Tie...she's really intimidating." Hat whispered to me.

"No kidding. She's even got Snatcher beat." This was a different fear from Vanessa. With that witch the fear was ever-present. With this...I didn't know when she was suddenly going to turn around and slash at us. It was unnerving.

We were led into a jewellery shop by the looks of it. The two cats behind us dispersed as she took walked into another room. The room was metallic black in colour as necklaces, rings and bracelets lined the shelves. After a second she came back out of the room and took a place behind the counter, intertwining her fingers and leaning casually on the counter as she stared at us.

"Welcome, to my Metro." She seemed to take great delight in saying it was hers. "You will call me Empress. Consider yourselves fortunate I see you as useful."

Her eyes flicked between the two of us. "Those...Time Pieces, as you called them. Quite valuable, aren't they? Could be worth a fortune just for one. And you two seem to have a certain knack for finding them. Am I right?"

We both flinched. How did she gleam all of that just by staring at us?

"Of course I am. Here." She suddenly threw something at us and we caught them. "Payment."

We stared at what she had given us. Green slips of paper. Where they the currency? They looked like tissues...

"Here's how this is going to work." Empress spoke swiftly. "You two keep collecting Time Pieces for me, and you will be rewarded for your efforts. And if you try anything untoward, there will be consequences. Understand?"

We looked at each other. I shot Hat a questioning glance, but she just looked at me in worry. Seemed neither of us had a way out of this, so all we could do was nod.

"Good." Empress drawled as she analysed us both. "Felin!"

We turned around as another cat wearing the same mask walked in. He was the same size as us with a relatively average round head, but a tail three times as long! He seemed to be carrying a thief bag on his back that was tied around his face (making it look like whiskers) that was green in colour and had white swirls on it. He was also covered in splotches of paint of varying colours randomly.

"Yes, ma'am?" He asked in a soft voice.

"Show the two newcomers how things work down here." She commanded. "They're my latest investment, so make sure they don't get eaten alive."

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded, before turning to us. "Right, you two, with me, nyeah?"

Once again we glanced at each other, but followed the cat outside the jewellery store, and found ourselves a bit calmer now that we were out of the Empress' range.

"Seems like she's taken to you two. Real gold coin luck you two got." Felin said as he looked at us both. "I'm not gonna pry into why you're here, but stay on her good side and you'll be fine, nyeah?"

"Why does this always happen to us?" Hat asked me.

"Funny ain't it?" I scratched my head. "In fact...I think we've had to work for literally everybody we've met on this planet!"

Felin looked between the two of us for a moment. "Whatever. Not gonna pry. Anyway, listen, you two are gonna have to come this way before we let you loose on the streets. For your own good, y'know."

We followed Felin to an alley, where three more cats wearing those same face masks were loitering. "Hey, boys!" Felin called. "Got some fresh fish here! Straight from Empress herself!"

"That a fact?" The three cats quickly crowded around us.

"So...fluffy..." Hat marvelled, and I had to hold her wrist to prevent her from stroking them.

"Yeah, see what ya mean. Won't last a second looking like this." One of the cats shrugged.

"Hey! What's wrong with how we look!?" I took offence.

"Kitten, you're not gonna last long down here looking like that." One of the cats said.

"Ya look like ya came straight outta the barn! The cats around here would eat you up!" The second said.

"Luckily, we got just what ya need to become the baddest cats around. So YOU strike fear into them, not the other way around." The third said.

"These three specialise in special Flairs." Felin said. "Anybody who comes under her employment gets 'em. Most of the time its these masks."

"But you two look like we can work some magic with you!" The three then held out their paws. "For a fee of course. Gettin' ya toughened up don't come free."

"Really?" I groaned.

"Pons make the trains run." The cat said.

"Well, we haven't been using them for much else save for Seller's badges." Hat admitted with a weak smile. "They've been burning a hole in my Hammerspace."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine." We handed the three of them a total of 600 Pons cheap. "This better be worth it."

"Oh, trust me, it will!" The cats seemed to whisper to themselves for a moment.

"What are they doing?" I asked Felin.

"Deciding how best to dress ya. Let 'em do their thing, nyeah?" He told me.

"Right! We've got it!" The three of them broke apart. "First off! What weapons you two carrying?"

"Oh? These!" Hat produced her umbrella whilst I held out my yo-yo.

"What? You comin' into Nyakuza with toys to save your fur!?" The cats gasped. "That ain't gonna cut it! Try these instead!" The third cat then thrust a baseball bat into Hat's hands.

"Oooooooh! Blunt force trauma!" Hat marvelled as she gave it a practise swing.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea..." I tried to say to everyone involved.

"And this is for you." He handed me a pair of nunchuks with a silver chain and a green and pink diamond pattern.

"I've never used nunchuks before." I stated dumbly.

"Then learn! If you can swing a yo-yo safely, you can swing a nunchuk fine!" He argued.

'No, that's completely wrong.' I sighed in defeat.

"Now for the main event!" The second cat approached us and handed us a Costume each, like what Knit made. "Try these on!"

"Dressing rooms are here." The third cat gestured to a couple of doors.

"Yay!" Hat cheered as she immediately ran in.

"Uh..." I stared at the outfit. "Do I really have to?"

"Come on! Don't hate it 'till you try it! I got it specially for you!" The second cat said.

"Okay..." I walked into the next door and closed it.

"Ta-da!" After a bit, Hat emerged wearing a yellow and purple hoodie with a large zipper and cat head shaped pockets, along with leather trousers that had a cat tail on the back, and purple and yellow sneakers. She had also worn her pink and white Brewing Hat to try and complete the look. "How do I look?"

"Like a million Pon!" The cats clapped, with Felin nodding.

"Tie? You almost done?" Hat knocked on my door.

"Just a second!" I called, despite me already having it on. I'd never worn anything like this before...

"Come on, Tie! I wanna see!" I could hear her pleading, and the mental image of her puppy dog eyes flooded my brain.

"No laughing, okay?" I called.

"Never!" She assured me.

I sighed as I opened the door and stepped out.

I was wearing a dark red leather coat with white straps that were curved at the end like tails around the arms and midsection that I had done up with gold buckles that were shaped like lucky gold coins. The mask that all of the cats wore was tied around my left sleeve like a sash. I also had on a pair of black jeans that were stylistically torn in rows of three as if they had been scratched, along with a pair of white boots that reached up to my shins, with dark pink straps in an 'x' around the ankles.

"Tie! You look so cool!" Hat cheered.

"Really?" I asked a bit too hopefully looking down at myself.

"Yeah! Like you're about to go and bust some skulls!" She punched the air for emphasis.

'That's exactly what I DON'T want to look like, but at least she likes it.' I thought.

"Yeah, you're both great! Purrfect, even!" The second cat nodded. Somebody have mercy on me.

"Now for the final touch." The third cat stepped forward. "These flairs are the perfect finishing touch." He handed us a capsule each. "Should work with what you've got on now."

"Awesome!" Hat immediately opened hers without thinking she had the Brewing Hat on. I meanwhile opened it after switching to my Spark Scarf.

Hat's witch hat turned into a cat air headband as well as another of those masks which she properly wore.

I meanwhile had gained a pair of black triangle shades that had green cat irises on them, as well as something inbetween my teeth. It was a fish skeleton with all the ribs removed, like a leaf or toothpick a bancho would chew on. It was stuck in a gap between my teeth, but I felt myself chewing on it absentmindedly.

"NOW you both look like ya live here." The third cat nodded, the three of them praising their own work.

'How did a scarf turn into a pair of shades and a fish bone?' I thought as I adjusted the shades. Despite the fact we were underground the neon made things exceptionally bright, so the shades weren't unnecessary. "Hey, do they still have the same abilities?"

"'Course they do! They're flairs." The third cat hissed.

To test this out, Hat threw what she thought was a bomb...only to throw some more of those green tissues, which promptly exploded. "My bombs went green!" She cried. I think she was trying to make a pun?

I meanwhile adjusted the shades before shooting off sparks around me. Surprisingly the lightning bolts were now in the shape of fish skeletons, presumably to match the one I had in my mouth.

"Great work, boys. They look proper hard." Felin nodded to them.

"Thank you very much!" Hat waved happily to them.

"Alright you two, come with me, now." Felin beckoned with his tail as we followed him back into the main square.

"I feel super gangster." Hat said as she held her new baseball bat behind her shouklders.

"Nah, you're too baby-faced to ever be gangster." I denied as I swung the nunchuks around experimentally.

"You're more baby-faced then me!" She cried.

"Listen up, you two." Felin interrupted. "Remember! Ya work for Empress now. So ya keep in line, got it?"

"Yeah..." Hat kicked the ground. It was clear she didn't like the idea, and neither did I. But we'd work something out. We always did.

"Right, well then, in that case." He smirked beneath his mask. "Welcome to Nyakuza Metro."


Nyakuza Bancho Coat: A leather coat that makes Tie feel right at home in Nyakuza Metro. The coins on it bring good luck! Honest!


Finally, Nyakuza Metro begins! Everybody's favourite of the two DLC. Tie's new appearance in this chapter will be his Nyakuza Metro attire, and all of his other Neckwear will get similar gangster/kitty Flairs!

This chapter is out a little later then I would've liked. Motivation and optimism took a hit, but writing a bit at the time helps get me back into the swing of it. I was actually hoping to release this earlier, but then Paper Mario: The Origami King was revealed Thursday and I was so hyped because I love the PM series...and then half the internet hates it already and I got real sad. But the chapter's finally out!

Anyway, this arc will feature all the Nyakuza goodness, new character Felin, dimensional instability, and more Tie and Hat bonding. Look forward to it!

Thank you to Fighter33000, Konan720, Mr. Mega1423 (Who had Sweetie featured in their latest chapter) and Sinful Snackbag for reviewing!

See you next time!