Chapter 35: Gang Up
Our group of now four were sitting outside a stand all eating together. Since it felt more like eating out with a larger group we kind of splurged a bit. I had fish and French fries, Hat and Bow both each had a Large Soda, but Hat had a Hamburger whilst Bow had a pizza slice, and Knit had a spring roll and a triple scoop ice cream. We also had some meatballs to share between us.
"I can't resist guilty pleasure food..." Bow sobbed as she dejectedly ate her pizza with a contrasting look of pure bliss on her face.
"Well I don't have to worry about getting fat." Knit boasted as she absorbed the spring roll into her face.
"I think it'd be very hard for us to get fat with all the exercise we do." Hat smiled as she messily ate her hamburger, ketchup smeared all over her face like she was a child...oh wait.
"Considering the amount of sweets you eat, Hat, I also very much doubt it. You would be a ball by now otherwise." I commented.
"Rude." She pouted light-heartedly.
"So you two really have been stuck down here." Bow piped up.
"Mm. Itsh-" Hat swallowed. "It seems like the space-time disturbance is affecting teleportation."
"But you've really been alright? Right?" Knit gasped.
"We've been able to bare with it." I assured her. "You two seem to forget that for the longest time it was just me, Hat and Roombi. We can handle ourselves fine."
"And this Empress..." Bow quieted down to a whisper.
"She sounds an awful lot like Snatcher." Knit said.
"Her deadliness is the real deal." Hat explained with a hushed voice. "But we have to get the Time Pieces back from her no matter what. We're just going to have to keep playing along until an opportunity presents itself."
"When will that happen?" Bow mumbled.
"When Empress was talking with Tie, Felin told me-"
"Who?" Knit perked up.
"A cat who likes to paint." I told her.
"-That she is planning a big heist soon, and will be away for a bit." Hat continued. "That will be our chance to swoop in and take them all."
"But that leaves the problem of how we're going to get out of here." I said. "We still don't have a route, and we can't rely on the miracle of the teleporters working again."
"Actually, we might have a solution to that." Bow said as she pulled Knit closer to her.
"You do?" Hat gasped happily.
"While we were los-I mean, scouting, yeah scouting, we found something in those lower tunnels! It looked like an emergency exit." Knit told us. "It even had an elevator sign on it."
"In Bluefin Tunnel?" I guessed.
"That's great! We now have a plan!" Hat cheered. "Thanks, you two!"
"No problem." Bow smiled whilst Knit cheered.
"For now though, we're going to need to grab the rest of the Time Pieces from down here, even if they're going to her right now." I said.
"With four of us, we'll get the rest in no time." Hat beamed.
"We've got to be cautious though. Empress is obviously going to ask where Bow and Knit suddenly came from." I told her. "We should stick together so as not to draw too much attention to Bow and Knit."
"Fine by me! More then happy to go as a team of four." She happily nodded. "In that case, let's go explore Pink Paw Station together."
"Trust me, we can show you around at this point." Bow admitted.
Pink Paw was definitely the most 'cute' of the areas. A bright pink glow constantly shined throughout the place, and there were a lot of cat anime billboards. I mean A LOT.
Whilst Bow was walking alongside us, I was carrying Knit like a doll, partly to hide the fact that she was alive (which would freak out some of these cats) and the fact she was quite clingy to me at the moment. But because of this I could now feel a lot of Metro Cat eyes on me as we walked around.
"Yarrrrrn…" They would purr as we walked past them, making us hurry on.
"I can see how you two have been keeping yourselves busy." Bow said as she examined another Sticker we had peeled off. "There's so many cool things here!"
'Yep, our species lives for collectibles.' I sighed in my head.
"Ah! Here's another reason!" Hat perked up as she began dragging me towards another cat vendor.
"Ah, of course." I said.
We both purchased another Flair each. For Hat her Time-Stop namesake turned into a pair of headphones, whilst my Cleaner Cape became a big blood red rose pinned to my left breast that had it's petals curling around like a fan, with the gold pin attaching it to my jacket having a gold cute anime cat on the end of it. Because of course it did.
"Oh yeah, REALLY keeping busy." Bow approved.
"I could do that..." I heard Knit quietly pout.
We continued on for a bit until we found another Time Piece at the end of Pink Paw.
"So, what happens now?" Bow asked.
Hat tilted her head. "Well usually these two cats appear from seemingly nowhere and-"
"They're here already." I interrupted as I pointed towards the two now familiar cats, one of them beckoning. Hat, still dejectedly, handed over the hourglass.
"Alright buddies, come with us, and bring your new friend and...yarn..." He seemed to have to snap himself out of it. "The boss wants to discuss that."
"This Empress really as bad as you two say?" Bow whispered.
"No. She's worse." I answered.
We were escorted back to the jewellery shop, where Empress fixed her gaze on us, and Bow's legs immediately turned to jelly. Me and Hat were more used to it by now.
"Keeping up good work I see." Empress spoke with...something, in her tone. "And I see you've got some new company. I take it they're with you?"
"Yeah. This is Bow and Knit." Hat introduced them.
"H-H-Hello..." Bow squeaked.
Knit kept up her doll disguise. Either that or she had fainted from fear.
"Hmph. If they're under you then they're nothing to worry about." Empress dismissed it a bit too quickly. "It's just more numbers. And I always relish the chance to up my game." That part was worrying. "If these...friends of yours can do their jobs as well as you, I see no reason to stop them. So long as they keep. In. Line."
"Mm-hm." Bow nodded so hard I thought her head would fall off.
"Good. Glad we're all on the same page here." I swear she glanced at me when she said that. "Go on then. Back to it."
As soon as we walked out, I felt someone place their had on my shoulder, and I looked to see it was Bow.
"Tie...I'm so sorry for everything bad I said about you!" She looked like she was about to burst into tears! "She's so scary! I thought I was gonna die! Ahhhhhhhahaaaaaa!"
"Hey, hey, it's okay..." I tried to comfort the now sobbing Bow. Sometimes I forgot not all of us were that strong.
"Don't worry Bow, I was kinda scared too! And Snatcher is nothing for me." Knit reassured her as she wrapped her up in a hug, which the girl returned.
"You're so soft..." Bow sniffled, cradling Knit like a teddy bear.
"I guess all that's left to do is go back through each area and see if we can find any extras now that we have all four passes." Me and Hat conversed whilst Bow went through her crisis.
"It's the only thing we can do until the right moment. I don't want to think what would happen if we slowed down or stopped." I said.
"Call me crazy, but it seems like she's beginning to trust us." Hat pondered. "I really thought she'd snap at us about Bow and Knit..."
"Well, what does 'trust' mean to her?" I pointed out. "We're definitely not safe."
"Oh, definitely not." She agreed. "But staying in her good books is better then the bad books, so we've got to keep that up until then. So Bow, are you ready to keep going?"
"Yeah..." She wiped away her tears, as Knit wrung out her arm.
The process of backtracking and finding more Time Pieces was easier then expected, especially now that there were four of us. There was an extra in Yellow Overpass as well as Pink Paw, so now we were at Green Clean, practically balancing along the rafters of this underground metropolis.
"Wow, what a view!" Knit suddenly perked up from within my arms. The three of us looked and saw a very good view of the entire city, completely glowing from all the neon and lights, even the corner that the Scrapion had rampaged through and devoured was still bathed in light.
"Y'know, this place is really beautiful." Bow said.
"Shame it's so scummy on the inside." I commented.
"I don't know why I never found this place." Knit said. "I had my yarn rooted all over the place.
"What?" Both girls questioned.
"That's right. When we met, you were a little butterfly on the end of red yarn." I half reminisced, half explained to them.
"After my dad was gone for a long while, I made my little room underground to play in, and I spread my whole body underground, like a plants roots, to try and see the rest of the planet." Knit told us. "I was...lonely, so I wanted to see if there was anywhere I could escape to that I would like outside of Subcon...and that's how we met."
"Funny. So it worked out in the end?"
"Yep." Then for a moment, she was silent.
"What's up?" Hat picked up on it.
"You and Hat...you're going to go home once you have all your Time Pieces." Knit mumbled. "Bow too."
"That's right." Hat replied a bit too bluntly.
"Yeah." I added.
"Why though?" She said. "Tie, why do you want to go back there? Where everybody was so mean to you? Where you felt so hurt, and alone?" Right, she was listening in when I spoke with Bow.
"...Well..." I began. "For one thing, back there I never got enslaved, never got my soul stolen, and nobody ever tried to kill me."
"Be serious." Knit pouted.
"Okay, okay." I took a seat on the edge with her in my arms. Hat and Bow followed suite. "The thing is, Hat, and most likely Bow, do have family and friends that they care about there. Me and Hat have been away for...a LOOOOOOONG time. She misses them." Hat looked away almost guiltily.
"And more then that, there IS a reason I want to go back." I huffed. "Admittedly, I ran away. From that world, with Hat in the ship. Ran away from everything and didn't want to look back. I wanted to forget it all and stay away forever. But I just couldn't get it out of my head."
"During this trip, I tried to build up a new image of myself. Become tougher, stronger, thicker skinned. Like all that stuff that happened to me didn't bother me. It worked for a long while, but funnily enough, being here made that façade crumble pretty quickly. I'm thankful to it, it helped me become more confident and brave, but I don't think it was really who I was, no matter how much I told myself that."
"So, I'm going back...to see how much I've changed. How much I've grown. And in all honesty, I want to see how much our own world has grown to." I looked at Hat as she looked at me. "We set off into space just a little after everyone else. I'm sure a lot of other people have had their own experiences and learned a little bit more. I want to see if that's changed them, and if we can help, in any way. It might have hurt me, but it's also what started me on this journey to better myself."
"...You're very brave, Tie." Knit told me. "I really admire that about you. About you all. And...um..."
"What is it?" Hat asked.
"Well...I was wondering...if it was okay if...I came with you guys?" She practically whispered. "I've realised it's time to move on from dad, and I've really come to like you, all of you...I want to stay with you all."
"Hmmmm…" Hat jokingly pondered. "What do you think, Vice Captain?"
"Well, Captain. I think that's perfectly fine, and you didn't need to worry about asking." I told her as I stroked her head.
"Nothing wrong with just doing what you want to do." Bow agreed.
"O-Okay..." Knit seemed to be holding back happy tears. "Thank you..."
I held her to comfort her as we looked on.
'But we will leave soon.' I realised. 'How bittersweet. This planet's been so...eventful. Up and down. I wonder...if we had stayed longer on all the other planets we visited, would they have been just as memorable? Maybe not. But now that it's so close...I'll miss this pain in the neck.'
I think Hat was thinking the exact same thing as we sat there. Which would be a first. And was probably why we sat there in thought for so long.
After gathering all the Time Pieces we could find across the Metro, we were once again brought before the Empress.
"I must admit. Your little team has impressed me. A very rare feat." She commented. "Oh, yes, I believe that you all will have a very special place in my gang, given all of the abilities you've showcased."
"Uh...thank you?" Hat answered uncertainly.
"Now then, I have important information for you." Empress told us. "I'm going to be going out on work for a bit. Certain business to deal with. But once I return, we will begin discussing your promotion. What you all can do for me, and what you can earn in return. Keep that proposition in mind until then. I expect great things from you all."
She then exited from behind her counter for the first time since she approached us when we first came down her. "Felin, you will accompany me on this job."
"Yes, boss." The cat nodded, glancing at us before following her out.
"She's leaving! She's really leaving!" Bow hissed under her breath. "Quick! Let's-"
"Not yet." Hat interrupted in a hushed tone. "We need to wait until she is completely out of sight and out of mind until we make our move. For now, let's just hang around the information centre."
So we carefully walked back out into the main plaza and took seats next to the circular counter. We tried to appear relaxed, but it was clear we were all tense and nervous.
"A lot of cats are slipping away." I noticed as more and more cats wearing masks were discreetly slinking into the shadows.
"Then we should wait until all of the ones with that mask have gone." Hat suggested. "Can't have nobody spotting us and telling her."
"I think I feel a little sick..." Bow mumbled.
"That's probably anticipation and fear." I spoke up.
"It's really bad." She whimpered. "I've never done anything like this before."
"But isn't a new experience kinda exciting?" Hat questioned.
"It's not for everyone, Hat." I told her from experience.
"We'll be alright." Knit spoke up with reassurance. "We can really on each other for support."
"...R-Right." Bow didn't look entirely convinced.
Once we were sure all of the cats were gone, Hat gave us the "All clear." And we slipped into the jewellery store, Knit falling out of my grip to look around herself.
"So, where would she keep hourglasses in here?" Knit asked. "There's already so much shiny stuff in here."
"Hmmm...if I know my big suspicious doors, this sure is one of 'em." Hat half-answered, half-called to us from behind the counter.
We grouped up with her and pushed on it. "It's locked, understandably." I said.
"We could blow up the door." Hat said switching to her Brewing Hat.
"THAT!...Would be too loud." I thankfully stopped her.
"Ooh! Ooh! I can help!" Knit bounded forward and took one of her needles out of her head, before jamming it into the keyhole. There was a couple of clicking sounds, before it opened.
"Nice going, Knit!" Hat cheered.
"I didn't know you could lockpick." I said.
"What's lockpicking?" Knit innocently replied.
We went into a large room that had several machines churning out more green tissues. "Of course all of it is counterfeit." I wasn't even surprised.
"Our Time Pieces are in here!" Hat cheered as she began gathering them all up, the skills she had honed on the Arctic Cruise helping her as she carried around a whole tower of hourglasses.
"Will you be able to carry all of those all the way out of here?" Knit questioned.
"No problem! Hammerspace to the rescue!" Hat declared as the entire tower vanished down her sleeve.
"Alright! Let's hurry to that exit in Bluefin Tunnel!" Bow nodded.
The four of us quickly scurried to the door and pushed it open again.
Only for Empress to be standing there, rage evident in her eyes as she glared at us.
'What's she doing back here so quick!?' I thought as we all screeched to a halt. 'We've been caught red-handed!'
That hatred in her gaze was practically stabbing us. I forced myself to look away to find some kind of exit. We could make a break for the door-
She suddenly raised her claw, then pressed a hidden button, causing a speaker to pop up that she breathed into to test, before flashing a very worrying smirk at us.
"Get them." She spoke simply, but it echoed out across the entire Metro. "Reward...is 1 million for each."
'Oooooh peck.' I reckon all of us thought, as we dashed towards the exit, the Empress' laughter echoing around as we felt hundreds of feline eyes fall on us.
So, we're finally heading into the final part of Nyakuza Metro. Also, I'm back! I took a break for a while just to rest up, sorry to keep you waiting!
But importantly, this chapter is coming out on my birthday! I always want to do something writing related on this day, and I reckon a chapter about growing up and becoming a better person with your friends is a good choice, don't you? And with it, we're moving into the climax of this area, but there are still plenty of surprises in store!
Thank you to Mr. Mega1423, ScalchopWarrior, Konan720, Guest, Redacted and Rally K for reviewing the previous chapter.
Next Time: IIIIIIIIIIIIIt's Rush Hour! See you then!
