Author's note: I have no idea what Sk27 was talking about in that review. I don't even know if it was my story that Sk27 was reviewing. Nevertheless, next chapter!
Segment 4: Board Brains
Chapter 2: We've Got Company
(Kim)
It took both of us to push open the hatch. Nobody was around. The airship's interior was very luxurious in appearance; it looked more like the inside of a mansion or a high-class office building than an airship.
"That temple must be around here somewhere," Leo remarked. "We've got to find it." I rolled my eyes as I listened to this blatantly obvious observation.
Leo and I stuck close to each other- of course, with our common tail, we'd have to- as we searched the ship. The door to the cargo bay turned up fairly quickly, but it was locked.
"You think we should try to find the key to it on our own?" Leo suggested.
"Heck no," I shot back. "We'd never find it in this huge airship. Let's look for this ship's occupants. There has to be someone in charge of this ship. Maybe we can strike up a conversation with them and learn what we need to know."
This sounded good to Leo, so we continued through the ship, this time looking for some sort of control room or something. Our search led us to a neat-looking door. The sign next to the door read "JET'S OFFICE". Promising.
I calmly raised my hand and knocked on the door. "Come in," a voice yelled out from behind it. The voice sounded a bit like Sonic's, but not quite the same. I just can't describe it.
Leo turned the doorknob, and the door swung in. A green hawk character with a pair of racing goggles was relaxing behind a brown desk. He looked somewhat surprised upon seeing us, but calmed down quickly.
"What-? I'm sorry, I thought you were Wave. We almost never have visitors. I'm Jet, Jet the Hawk. You two remind me of something. Have we met somewhere?"
"That's doubtful," I explained. "My name's Kim, and next to me is my brother, Leo."
"I see the resemblance," Jet remarked, looking us over. "I take it you two are pretty attached to each other?"
"Yeah," Leo replied. I personally wanted to leap over the desk and punch Jet for making that joke, but Leo held me back.
Around then, Jet snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute. Leo and Kim? You're those two foxes Wave met on the bus, right? She told me about you. Said you were on some sort of exploration."
"That's us," Leo confirmed. "She's a pretty nice girl, but we didn't have much time to chat."
"So what's this exploration about?" Jet asked us.
"It's about collecting these things called Black Emeralds," I told Jet, and Leo and I gave him the full story.
For some reason, Jet didn't seem too concerned about any demons or any Black Emeralds. "Sounds like you guys have yourselves a situation. I won't help just anyone, though."
"Jet!" a female voice yelled out from behind Leo and me. "That's not the kind of attitude you should have in a situation like this!"
Leo and I whirled around and found that Jet had been addressed by a purple swallow character wearing a bandana or something over her head. Wave again. I decided not to question her unusual fashion sense.
"Wave!" Jet exclaimed. "When did you get here?"
"I overheard everything," Wave explained. "It seems to me, Jet, like you're not giving this situation the seriousness it deserves. I mean, I know the Babylon Rouges don't normally help people, but you can't blow off these two the way you're doing!"
"Calm down, Wave," Jet interrupted. "Get to the point. What brings you here?"
"I'd like to report on the status of Storm's excursion," Wave told Jet. "Storm the Albatross went in to search the palace as soon as we'd hauled it up, but he hasn't come back yet."
Wave turned to speak to Leo and me. "Like I was telling you on the bus, I'm part of a group called the Babylon Rouges. There are three of us. Me, Jet, and Storm the Albatross. Storm's a big guy who's a few gallons shy of a full tank."
As she spoke, Wave gestured up at a picture of the three of them. Jet was front and center, Wave to the right, and Storm to the left. Storm was as large as the other two combined, and looked a little mean. His main color was a gray shade.
"Wouldn't want to get on his bad side," I commented.
Jet laughed out loud, drawing our attention back to him. For the first time, I noticed that Jet was holding some kind of custom-made board, for some kind of sports. It was a green color, to match Jet's own body. "Nice board," Leo mentioned.
"Thank you," Jet replied. "It's a little something called Extreme Gear. These special air-boards are used for racing at the fastest speeds anyone can imagine. Wave is an expert designer of them."
Leo nodded. "Do you think you could teach us to ride one of those things?"
Jet shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see why not."
"I do," Wave interrupted. "Look at the way these two foxes are connected. It would be far too dangerous for them to ride any kind of Extreme Gear together or separately. We can't let them try it."
What a disappointment! I sighed loudly. Leo and I both wanted to take this Extreme Gear stuff for a spin.
"Don't sigh like that," Wave remarked. "I'm sorry, but unless we can figure out a way to keep one of you from getting in the way while the other rides… Wait a minute, that gives me an idea!"
With that, Wave rushed out of the room so quickly it nearly made my head spin. "Now what do you suppose she's up to?" Leo asked.
"She's up to her fifth idea this month," Jet quipped. "And judging by that expression on her face, this one must be particularly clever."
Wow! All that talk made the chapter pretty long. Don't let that deter you, though!