Author's note: Sorry about the delay, everyone. I don't know what made me stop writing chapters. Maybe it's the fact that nobody made a go at the riddle. Anyway, here!
Segment 4: Board Brains
Chapter 6: Rescuing Storm
(Wave)
When I'd first met the two foxes on the bus, I had a feeling about them. I'm sure they're the kind sort. That's why I wasn't too mad about their sneaking on board the ship. But their story was quite a wild one!
Once lunch was over with and we'd finished our preparations, I led Leo and Kim back to the cargo bay and unlocked the door with a key. I had barely opened it when Leo grabbed me and rushed in. What an enthusiastic fox.
The three of us stepped into Babylon Palace. The chain was still attached to it. I guess I forgot to have Storm take it off. Silly me. But either way, we entered the palace together. I was still carrying my Type W, just in case.
What I saw next puzzled me. The palace's interior ended in a dead end. The only feature was a dark-looking crystal ball sitting on a pedestal, and Storm was nowhere in sight.
"Where could Storm have ended up?" I wondered. I must have said it out loud without knowing, because Kim grabbed my arm and pointed at the crystal ball. Was Storm in the ball? Didn't make sense to me, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Still clutching my arm, Kim signaled to Leo, who stepped forward and put his hand on the crystal ball. The instant he did so, there was a flash of light or something, and the three of us were all sucked into the ball's darkness. Or something. I was a little too surprised to remember exactly.
When we recovered, the three of us were lying on the floor of what appeared to be the Babylon Wing's cargo bay, but somehow it seemed a little different. A little … evil. I don't know how, it just bugged me.
Leo and Kim seemed surprised at this, too, but in a different way. I heard Leo say something to Kim about changes to the real world affecting the demons' world, or something like that.
A note lay on the ground. Leo picked it up and read it aloud: "If you're looking for the albatross, come to the hawk's office. But don't come unless you've got the two connected foxes with you. Ah, an invitation." I winced at Leo's remark.
The door to Jet's office was not locked. I turned the knob and swung the door open in a wide arc. Storm was standing in front of Jet's desk, and I was overcome with emotion. I rushed forward and hugged him as best I could.
"Storm! Am I ever glad to see you! After you'd disappeared, I-"
"Uh, Wave?"
"Something wrong, Leo?"
"Look out the window."
I turned to look out the window, and hanging from a cable outside was none other than… Storm? I looked back and forth from Storm to Storm, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Wave!" the Storm out the window called. "These three creeps who looked like you, me, and Jet caught me as soon as I'd used that ball thing! HELP ME, WAVE!"
Leo leaned over to whisper in my ear (I think he had trouble finding it). He told me that the "impostors" the Storm outside had mentioned were demonic mimics of us, meant to guard these things called Black Emeralds. It made sense to me, so I trusted him.
"Ah, glad to see you here," a voice called out from behind me. The voice was much like my own. I whirled around and confronted what turned out to be the counterparts of Jet and myself.
I took a defensive pose. "What is this?"
D-Jet (I believe that was how Leo and Kim referred to them) folded his arms. "Allow me to explain. The foxes have been meddling in our affairs. They're very powerful. They snatched two of our seven Black Emeralds, in fact. That's why we're so interested in them."
"Therefore," D-Wave added, "we must stop them in any way possible. STORM! GET THEM! We'll be waiting in the atrium."
With those words, D-Jet and D-Wave dashed out of the room while D-Storm lunged at Leo and Kim with a punch. I lunged forward and knocked them out of the way, falling down in the process.
Leo and Kim dodged a few more punches from D-Storm. It soon became obvious that he was not interested in me at all, and was only aiming to eliminate the foxes. I guess their main threat would be their first priority.
Soon, Kim was out of breath. "It's (pant) no use, (pant) Leo. We (pant) need some way to (pant) confuse him. (pant) You know, (pant) drive him off (pant) somehow."
Hearing this, Leo snapped his fingers. "Kim! That's it!"
What's it? I thought to myself. I soon found out. As per Leo's instructions, Kim stood back-to-back with him, feet in palate stance, joined hands with their arms crossed at their wrists, and prepared to perform some kind of technique.
What they did then was a shocker. Leo and Kim became a rapidly spinning blur of purplish-red, like a big top or something. D-Storm flinched at the way they spun, but didn't back off.
When D-Storm charged at Leo and Kim for another punch, his fist was deflected by the rapid spinning motion, and he nearly punched himself. I couldn't help but swallow my pride (no pun intended) and laugh a little.
"Nice defense," I commented once the foxes had stopped spinning. "What do you call that move?"
"It's called the Drive Spin," Leo explained. "I actually expected it to scare him off, but that worked as well, I guess."
I made a note of the move in my notepad. It seemed interesting. Maybe I could perform it with Jet, and get something good out of it. (I don't mean it THAT way, you perverts!)
About that same time, D-Storm recovered from the deflection and tried to belly-flop Leo. Kim saw this coming, though, and yanked Leo to the side, causing D-Storm to hit the ground.
I've been with Storm long enough to know that if he falls on his stomach, it isn't easy for him to get back on his feet; that's how heavy he is. Such was the case here. Try as he might, D-Storm couldn't adjust himself enough to get up.
Leo and Kim took this opportunity to search D-Storm's body. "Nothing," Kim said once they were done. "I guess the other two have the Emerald."
"Looks that way," Leo agreed. "Wave, go save Storm. Kim, come with me and we'll head for the atrium."
I wasn't too pleased to be ordered around by someone other than Jet, but this sounded good to me. As the foxes left in one direction, I headed for the outlook platform. The sky was unusually dark, probably owing to the fact that we were still in that alternate world.
From the platform, I made a risky maneuver: I jumped over the railing and used my Extreme Gear to hover down to Storm's position. Soon, Storm was right beside me, and I carefully untied him.
Needless to say, without the rope, Storm dropped like a brick. I dove down and caught Storm on the tail of my Type W. The weight nearly tipped me off balance, but I leaned forward to try to fulcrumize myself.
"You saved me, Wave!" Storm yelped.
"Not yet I didn't," I informed the albatross. "Let's get inside, and quick!"
Something concerned me, though. It seemed to me that when he was battling Leo and Kim, D-Storm appeared to be holding back a little… why would he be doing that? Did he not want to kill them?
Whoa. Long. And I'm willing to bet that the length-to-content ratio is a little too high for this chapter.
Keeping the length-to-content ratio in check is very important for an author, you know. If it's too high, readers will get bored at the lack of happenings. And if it's too low, too much will happen at once, and the story will feel rushed.