Author's note: What did I tell you? Here's the first chapter of the fourth segment. That way you'll have something to read that's actually new.
Segment 4: Board Brains
Chapter 1: A Minor Complication
(Kim)
I had one heck of a dream that night. I dreamt that Leo and I were walking down a path, and all of a sudden, Leo morphed into some kind of fox monster. He was all dark and scary, and he had big claws and fangs.
What's worse, I couldn't get away from him, since we were still connected by our common tail. Then came the worst of it: Leo's "monsterness" spread quickly to me, and I began to change as well!
The dream was so scary that I woke up halfway through my transformation. Leo was sleeping obliviously, and I went back to sleep as well after a few seconds.
It was around 9:30 A.M. when we were all done with our morning preparations and picked up our bus pass from Amy. We had decided on going to Babylon Palace, and it was supposed to be a pretty uneventful trek. We spoke with Tails about our decision.
"Your trip should be pretty easy," Tails explained to us. "Babylon Palace is supposed to be pretty empty. I don't doubt that they set up their third settlement inside the ancient palace, and all you'll have to do is walk in and try it."
Leo nodded. "Then we're off. We'll have that Black Emerald before you can say 'Terrafirma Jungle'!" Recognizing the name, I snickered a little.
We arrived at the bus stop a few minutes before the bus arrived. I showed the bus pass to the driver, and he checked it and let us on. It looked like we were in for a nice ride.
The bus made several stops on its way to the palace. At one stop, a purple swallow girl got on and sat down next to Leo. She looked preoccupied with something.
"Hello," Leo said after a moment.
The swallow turned to face us. "Oh, hello. Have we met?"
"No, we haven't," Leo replied. "My name's Leo. This here is my sister, Kim."
"Pleased to meet you both," she remarked. "My name's Wave. Wave the Swallow. Where are you going?"
I decided I'd better add to the conversation. "Leo and I are headed to Babylon Palace. We're planning a little investigation."
"Investigation… that sounds interesting. I'm planning on going there myself in a little bit. You see, I belong to a group called the- oh, excuse me, this is my stop. Hope to see you again!"
With that, Wave rushed off the bus, leaving Leo and myself to enjoy the rest of the ride in silence.
It was less than half an hour before the ancient Babylon Palace stood before us. A sign before it read:
This ancient relic represents an ancient race known as the Babylonians. You can see their insignia above the door.
And indeed we could. The insignia was a circular thing that looked like a cross between a pigeon and a genie's lamp. Neither Leo nor I could figure out quite what it meant. It might have indicated that the Babylonians were masters of the skies.
The door was wide open, so Leo and I marched right in. There was no lighting aside from a few beams streaking in through tiny windows. Leo shined his flashlight ahead of us, and we quickly located a familiar-looking crystal ball.
"Bingo! There's the settlement," I called out. "Tails was right. That was surprisingly easy. Come on, Leo, let's-"
My sentence was cut short when the whole place began to rumble and shake. What in the world? I thought to myself, and I'm sure Leo felt the same way.
The two of us acted on our first impulse and rushed out of the palace as fast as our legs could manage. When we reached the doorway, we were startled to find the palace suspended a foot or two above the ground. It wasn't much of a height, so it was a short jump down.
Leo was the first one to look back at the palace, and there was the answer. The entire palace was dangling from a chain, foundation and all, and it was being hauled up to some kind of huge airship. Somehow we had failed to notice the chain as we'd come in.
Oh, I just had to say it, I thought to myself as I looked at the airship. Then, I noticed a familiar symbol printed on the side of it. "Hey, Leo," I called, "look at that."
Taking a good look at the symbol, Leo was able to place it quite easily. "It's the same symbol that was on the palace. The Babylonian insignia. There's got to be a connection."
"But never mind! We have to go after them!" Leo yelled as the palace passed through a pair of large bay doors and entered the cargo bay. I had to agree with him. There had to be a way to get on board that airship.
Leo's the one who always comes up with the best plans. He was certainly the one who came up with our plan to get onto the airship. And I have to admit, it was an excellent plan, despite how crazy it seemed at the time.
The plan went something like this: The airship was flying low, about fifty yards above the ground. A nearby oak tree was about that same height, and the two of us climbed to the top as fast as we could.
From there, Leo and I both took a running start and jumped, hooking our common tail onto a pipe hanging from the bottom of the airship. A ladder was within easy reach from there. As the old saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way."
I don't know why this chapter turned out so short. I would actually rather it be longer. But I guess this'll have to do.
Oh, what am I saying? I know I could easily expand this with a little work. I'm just too lazy to do it.