OK, a couple of "couples" are making their debut this chapter. Don't hate me if you don't like the couples. I think they'll fuel another romance. *hint-hint*. Long chapter ahead! About the disclaimer: this game does not belong to me. There ya go.
Ch. 8: Quests…Pt. II
Our ship was now sailing towards Rocket Reef; an island, which Lyndsay tells me, produces the most scientific inventions per year than any other island. Great, an island brimming to the edge with nerds. (A.N: I have nothing against nerds because I'm considered one. Marie just happens to be very picky when meeting people.) At least we were going there for a good reason. Ray's brother, Rob, had left something on Spookane that Ray knows he'll miss. So, we're kinda on a good-will mission.
"OK, is it me, or is the water starting to look metallic?" Buddy asked Lyndsay. "It should. That's the sign we're almost there." She said. "Well, I think we are. The water's starting to give me the creeps, which is weird because I love metallic things." Lyndsay sailed us towards the dock, and as soon as we got off – "BOOM!" We heard a loud crash coming towards the middle of the island. We immediately started running towards the sound. "MWAHAHAHAHA! Did you see that explosion, Alexa? Brilliant!" An older sounding man asked. "It was, but it shouldn't have exploded! Maybe I calculated something wrong…" we heard a woman's quiet voice say. We came to where all the smoke was, and we saw tow people standing there: a mad scientist and his assistant. Debris was slowly falling back down to the island, and a robot started to clean it up. "Thank God Vic wasn't in that rocket!" the assistant, Alexa, said. Then she spotted us checking out one of the pieces of debris that wasn't swept up yet.
"Um, who are you?" she asked us. "I'm Lyndsay, and this is Marie and Buddy. I must say this island fascinates me! What just blew up a couple minutes ago?" "Well, after the success of our last rocket launch, we've decided to test another one. It didn't go so great. By the way, that's Dr. F." "THE F STANDS FOR 'ROCKETS'!" he shouted. "And the robot's name is T.O.B.O.R." "Nice to meet you all, but where can I find Rob?" "Oh, he's over in the training area with Vic." "Thank you, his brother asked us to deliver something." "OK, well, we're gonna retry launching our rocket- NO, DR. F! DON'T PRESS THAT!" Alexa yelled to the mad scientist inside the lab. Then she ran inside to correct him.
Buddy walked ahead of us as we headed towards the training area. The robot, T.O.B.O.R., was also walking with us. Buddy immediately went over to the arcade machine…not sure how you train with that. T.O.B.O.R. went over a bridge to another building. Lyndsay and I found Rob in the rocket simulator with Vic. "Maybe they're having a contest?" I suggested. I was right; Vic jumped out first…his face a pale green color. Then Rob jumped out, a victorious smile on his face. I could tell that Rob and Ray are related. Rob looks exactly like him, but his eyes were not bright red…more like a subdued brown. Thick glasses covered his eyes, and his outfit was more geeky than spooky. "Uh, Rob?" I called him over. "This is yours. When we stopped off at Spookane, your brother asked us to give this to you." "Ah, sweet! I knew I left it back there! Thanks so much!" Rob exclaimed, happily taking back his case.
Lyndsay and I weren't sure what to do after that. Buddy suggested we go see what happened to that robot T.O.B.O.R. So we all headed over the bridge and entered another building. This one was a classic 50's diner, complete with red and white checkered flooring. There was T.O.B.O.R., head in hands on the counter. "You seem very depressed? Is something wrong?" "Oh, it's nothing," his mechanic voice said, "it's just…Dr. F told me he had created another robot like me, but she had many glitches and malfunctions. So he sent her off in a boat, and it landed in this island called the Forest of the Elves. I'm not even sure where that is, and I'd really like to bring her back here! Maybe Dr. F could fix her up!" he sobbed. Must be lonely, being the only working robot in the kingdom.
"Hey, we could take you there? Right? We're not on any time schedule, and I'm sure the people on Cowboy Junction will understand…" Buddy suggested. "Good idea, Buddy. Maybe we can find some clues along the way as well." I said happily. Buddy was really showing he could think today. Maybe it's the island…hmm. "We'll take you to that island, T.O.B.O.R. Just tell Dr. F you'll be going with us for a while." "Really? Oh, thanks a lot guys! I'm so happy!" "No problem, we'll be at the docks when you're ready."
When we got to the docks, Guillermo, Buddy's pigeon, was waiting for us with a note tied to his left foot. "Wonder how he found us?" Lyndsay wondered, tying the note of his foot. "Oh, he always knows where I am." Buddy told her. "Well, what does the note say?" I asked, impatiently. "It's from Ginny. She says they found a trail of footprints. The soles of the shoes seem to have hearts. And bits of glitter were found too." "So, our criminal wears glittery, heart-soled shoes? It has to be a girl, unless we're dealing with a nutty guy." Lyndsay then put the letter inside the bag filled with Mana. T.O.B.O.R. then came strolling down the hill with a computer chip in his hand. "This thing will fix her. Dr. F told me to put it in a panel on the side of her head." He explained. "Then, we're off!"
We hit a small storm on the way to the next island. Our deck got a little flooded, but that was easy to clean up. When we reached the island, another boat was docked there. It looked like the ship that belonged to Pablo and Cap'n Ginny. Sure enough, we walked off and saw them by some unicorn statue. Pablo was kneeling by it, picking some strange flower. "Here it is, Cap'n! The Belladonna!" he squeaked, handing her a pointed, purple flower. "Good job, Pablo! Next stop, Renee's Nature Preserve! Home of the Orchid! Let's go!" she squeaked as well. And when she ran by us, I could've sworn I saw blonde strands of hair sticking out from under her red hair. Strange.
We started walking again when we came upon a temple. Two elves were bowing their heads in respect. The woman turned around first. Her silver-white hair was tied in a ponytail, held on one side. Her small, baby blue eyes looked tired, and it looked like she was at least 3 months pregnant. The other elf followed suit. His silver-white hair was hidden underneath a green hat, and his small, dark-blue eyes looked eager. "Leaf, can we please go home now? I'm exhausted!" the woman complained. "Yes, Petal. We just gotta go tell Hopper what we decided on last night." The boy elf said.
"Umm, hello. We're looking for a malfunctioning robot. Is she around?" "Yeah, she's over by the river, behind that cliff. Good luck." Leaf said, helping Petal home. "I feel bad for her. Who knows what she's going through right now." I said, frowning. We headed for the river. There she was. She looked a lot like T.O.B.O.R., except her paneling was a light pink instead of light blue. T.O.B.O.R. took the chip, and inserted it in the panel inside her head. Next, he punched in a bunch of binary codes necessary to re-program her. Finally, it was done. "I AM NOT A TREE. THANK YOU. I RECEIVED AN ERROR DUE TO **error601 Questionable ENUM KEY** BUT I AM FEELING MUCH BETTER NOW. TEE HEE." She beeped. "Hello, I'm T.O.B.O.R. You and I were created by the same man." "Did he blow you up too?" "Hundreds of times." They both laughed, and we had to join in. "By the way, what's your name?" "It's Proto-Makoto, Makoto for short." "How'd you like to go back to Rocket Reef with me?" T.O.B.O.R. asked her. "I'm not sure…will that guy blow me up again?" "If he tries, I won't let him. Besides, he could always blow Vic Vector up instead."
Once we fixed Makoto, we all started walking back towards the dock…that is, until we saw Petal and Leaf talking to a boy dressed like a frog. "You see, Hopper, with these babies being born soon, we may not be able to take care of you. We feel it'll be best if you go to another island." "But, But this place is my home! I can't just leave! Sproing!" "Why does Hopper have to go?" I butted in, figuring I may be able to help. "Well, with some elf babies on the way," Petal pointed down to her growing belly, "We may not be able to take care of Hopper like the way we do now. We don't really want him to leave, but it may be better for him to go and live on that new nature preserve." "What about my froggy friends?" Hopper pleaded. "They'll go with you. You know they'd follow you anyway." Leaf pointed out.
"Could you guys please take him there? I can't travel being like this…I'm already sick all the time." "If we have to, I guess we…" I stopped. There was a faint trail of glitter going towards the docks. "Guys, look down! Glitter!" I yelled. "Our culprit was here not too long ago!" Lyndsay said, picking up some of the glitter. "Hey, didn't Cap'n Ginny and Pablo say they were going to the same island?" Buddy remembered. "Yea, let's follow them. We'll gladly take Hopper and his frogs to the nature preserve." I said, walking towards our boat.
Hopper and his froggy friends boarded the boat, and went below deck. He didn't really want to leave, but he understood Leaf and Petal's wishes. "I don't get it. Are elf babies really tough to handle or something?" "I heard they're a hundred times tougher to raise than a regular baby." Lyndsay told me. "I guess they just wanted to increase the elf population. You don't see too many elves around anymore." Now our destination was Renee's Nature Preserve…again. I had already been there, and it wasn't my favorite island. It was more like Cutopia than anything. It took a while to get there since it was on the other side of the kingdom.
Eventually, we got there, and there was Cap'n Ginny and Pablo's ship. T.O.B.O.R. and Makoto stayed on the ship to catch up. Hopper and his frogs came up first and hopped off the boat. We followed behind him, and immediately went to the gift shop. Renee told me if we ever came back, she'd be there. But she wasn't. Instead, it was a pink haired girl with bunny ears. "Welcome to Renee's Gift Shop. I'm BeeBee, the new cashier. How may I help you?" she asked us in her nasal voice. "We're looking for Renee. Where is she?" "Oh, she's helping this pirate girl and her partner find an orchid." "Perfect." We headed out the door, only to be blocked by a green-haired girl. She didn't say anything at all when Buddy ran into her. Instead she just continued walking inside. "Oh! That's Yvette! The world famous mime!" Lyndsay exclaimed. "Can I go get an autograph, Marie? I'll catch up with you two later!" she ran inside after the mime.
"Uh, Marie? Can I ask you something?" Buddy asked me, quietly. "Sure, Buddy. You can ask me while we walk." We started walking, but Buddy stopped near the fat pig's pen. "I'm not sure what I should do. I really like this girl; maybe I even love her! But I'm not sure if she loves me back…how can I know?" "Just walk up to her and demand to know! It's Yuki, isn't it?" I laughed. "No, it's…*deep breath* Lyndsay." "Oh! Well, I'd still tell her how you feel. Who knows? Maybe she does love you back…" I suggested. "Ok. I'll do it. When we're heading back to Cowboy Junction." We finally found our group. They were all bent over this one flower. "Marie! How nice it is to see you again!" Renee popped up when she saw me. "Well, yes, we actually cam to drop a friend off. Would you allow Hopper to live here? He got kicked out of his island." "Aww! Sure, he can live here! As long as he's in tune with nature." "You'll see he is." Lyndsay finally joined up with us. "I just met the cutest couple. Their names are Patrick and Maria. They both love food, and they met at Chef Watanabe's sushi restaurant! How cute is that?" she asked us. "Heh, very cute indeed." Buddy chuckled.
"While you guys are here…could you help us get some of these flowers on our ship? I've been keeping them under my hat all this time! We need vases filled with water, too!" Cap'n Ginny asked us. When she took off her hat, I saw more blonde strands of hair. She had to be wearing a wig! I just know she is! We helped her anyway. It would let me get a better look at "the Cap'n". We went under the deck of her ship, and there were lots of treasure chests, but they were all filled with clothes. All of the tags read "DD Costumes." "DD? Aren't those the initials that Morcubus told us about?" I asked Lyndsay. "Yea…and look! There are little tins full of glitter!" "I'm starting to think this Cap'n is an imposter." I concluded.
As soon as we helped her with her flowers, we got back on our boat to head back to Rocket Reef for a delivery. But before the island was out of our reach, I got a good look at the bottom of Cap'n Ginny and Pablo's shoes. Both of them had hearts imprinted in the soles. "Guys, I've narrowed our search. Whoever stole Roxie's cows is on that ship. Both of those 'pirates' shoes have hearts on the soles!" "Those two are thieves! But Pablo seems so innocent!" Buddy said. "Maybe he is…"
T.O.B.O.R. and Makoto walked off the ship once we reached Rocket Reef. We didn't need to back on the island itself. Right now, we needed to tell everyone back on Cowboy Junction what we've discovered. I stayed on deck to steer the ship, but Buddy grabbed Lyndsay's hand and took her below the deck. I got to the island rather quickly without those two bugging me. I went down to tell them we were here, but I didn't want to interrupt them. Buddy finally made his move. The two finally kissed, and were still kissing. "GUYS!" I screamed. "WHAT?" they yelled in unison. "Thought I'd let you know we're here." "Oops…sorry. We're coming!" Lyndsay yelled back up to me since I went back on deck to dock the ship. Then we all got off together. I led the way, and Buddy and Lyndsay followed…hand-in-hand.