Episode 01: Welcome to the Future

Chapter 06

12 hours prior…

Back up on the Platform, Sea found himself once again waiting for a helicopter. Except this time, he most definitely did not want to see the person who stepped out. Christopher must have noticed how he stiffened when Gilbert appeared, all smiles in that sharp suit, as the prince swiftly and secretly elbowed Sea out of a reminder to behave.

"Greetings, Your Highness," Gilbert proclaimed as he reached their small delegation. He bowed slightly, politely, and Prince Christopher inclined his head in recognition. The three other members of Gilbert's party, all equally sharp looking in their business attire, followed their leader's actions.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Beilschmidt, and company," the Prince responded. "I hope your trip was a pleasant one."

"Never anything less when the weather is this beautiful." Gilbert then turned to Wy who was standing beside Sea. "Of course, the day has nothing on you, my dear Wy." Gently grasping her hand, he made a show of kissing her knuckles. Wy was clearly charmed, speaking her own hello in a much more hushed and lady-like way than usual. It took Sea all of his might not to roll his eyes at the scene.

Gilbert turned to him next, not even bothering to raise his hand for a handshake. They both knew Sea wouldn't accept it. "Hello, Peter. Long time no see."

Not long enough, Sea thought. "Triax," was the only reply he deigned give to Gilbert.

"Still as cheerful and welcoming as ever," the German Nation said sarcastically. He turned away just in time to miss Sea's scowl. "If you would, Your Highness," Gilbert continued, motioning towards the nearest lift. Then, with a superfluous amount of sophistication and a distinct lack of subtlety, Gilbert took Wy by the arm and began to escort her towards the elevators, chatting about whatever polite conversational nonsense came to mind.

It was like this that both parties proceeded to made their way down into the Main Complex, a secretly seething Sea lagging behind.

8 hours prior…

It had finally happened. He was finally dead and in Hell. There could be no other way of describing the situation he was currently in other than hellish, so surely he was correct.

"Stop bitching, Sea," Wy attempted to convince him for the millionth time as they walked down the hall towards their doom. "It's a dinner, not a war."

"I'd rather risk the nukes…" Sea mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he responded sulkily. "Can't we just skip out? We can break each other's arms, and get sent to the sick bay. It'll be perfect."

Oh, no. She was doing it. The look. The look that said she was both incredibly annoyed and disappointed at the same time, but you were going to do as you were told, so help me gods…

"I didn't just spend an hour trying to look nice just for you to pussy out. I don't want to be here anymore than you, but there's free food on the line. So, man up already."

She…did have a point. She'd spent a lot of time on just her hair alone, finally getting those curls into something classier than her side-ponytail (not that it wasn't usually classy, or adorable). When at last she'd finally emerged from her room so they could go together to this stupid dinner, Sea had just stared at her for an embarrassingly long moment. The navy dress she'd made him buy for her earlier was not particularly revealing, but it did accent her modest curves nicely. Wy'd even replaced her boots with high heels.

The best, however, was that she still looked like herself. She didn't need to cover her face in make-up, or put on the most expensive-looking jewels she may have owned. She didn't need to conform. She was still just Wy.

Also, the free food. Couldn't forget about that.

"Come on, fancypants. A little chatting, a little dancing, and we're home free."

"Don't call me that, Wy." He really didn't need to be reminded of how he was wearing a suit. It felt so…unnatural.

Standing outside the doors, the pair steeled themselves. Neither of them was fond of formal situations, but for the sake of free food, they were prepared to go into the lions' den. "On the count of three," Wy decided. "One, two, three."

Considering they were only hosting a small delegation, Sealand's top brass had chosen one of the smaller rooms they used for party purposes. While the room had been created with late 19th century high society fashion in mind, the real fancy stuff (like the ceiling appearing further away than it actually was) was all done with holograms. Unless one got exceedingly close to one of them, you'd never be able to tell real from fake.

One thing Sea noticed was that there were almost no magical enhancements in the room: no floating chandelier, no self-playing instruments. In fact, he was the most magically imbued thing in the room right then. The only D-Bees around were a few of his own top officials. Clearly his politicians were trying to appeal to the D-Bee-hating Germans…

"Alright," he whispered to Wy as they neared the nearest group of politicians engaged in discussion. "Focus on the objective. This is an in-and-out mission. If we become separated, we'll meet up to the left of the main doors in half an hour."

"Roger," Wy agreed with a devious smirk. Things did not bode well for the hors d'oeuvres.

Weaving through the crowd, they'd made it about halfway to the tables stacked with food before Sea was snatched up by a group of minor politicians. He signaled to Wy to continue onwards, to which she nodded and did just so. They asked him whether the rumours were true, about the NGR proposing greater economic cooperation, and about Triax supposedly pushing an arms deal. He responded briefly, but truthfully: he honestly had no idea what was going on. Besides, the delegates only just got here! How was he, or anyone, supposed to know anything yet? In any case, he eventually managed to pry himself away from their discussions after fifteen minutes of inane chatter and gossip.

When he finally got to the buffet table, Wy was gone. As were many of the hors d'oeuvres if the half empty plates were anything to go by. She had been here, so where was she now?

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder. Judging by the gruffness of the act and the fact that way too much force had gone into it to have allowed a human to remain standing, it was more than likely Prussia. A second later and the voice beside him confirmed this suspicion.

"Enjoying the party, Peter?"

"That's Sealand to you, Triax."

Gilbert had the nerve to look wounded, but a glare from the younger Nation had him biting back his sarcastic remark. "Fine, Sealand. My question still stands." He twisted around to face Sea, arms crossed, leaning against the table.

"I'm not here to socialize," Sea responded curtly. Especially not with you.

"That's apparent, considering you're over here by yourself. Speaking of which, where's Wy?"

"That's none of your concer-"

"You lost her, didn't you?"

Sea forced himself to take a deep breath. Punching Gilbert in the face was frowned upon, but punching Gilbert in the face at a party would be even worse. There'd be no way of covering that up in a room full of people. "Look, Gilb-"

The Nation in question put his hands up in a half-assed attempt at surrender. "What you do with your woman is your prerogative. But, I will say this…" The former Nation of Prussia walked up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sea. To any observers, he could have just been brushing past the blond on his way back into the congregation. "Mrrlyn will be at Stonehenge tonight, and the king will not be with him. If you're going to take this chance, just be careful, alright?"

"…Thank-"

"Don't mention it," the elder said, unnecessarily shoving Sea out of the way. The blond watched him leave before he headed towards the main doors.

While Sea had been caught up talking to his officials, Wy had successfully found her way to the food. The sight that greeted her was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Only the fanciest of foods had made it here, and she sure as Hell wasn't going to let the effort go to waste.

She'd had her fill, and stolen a few nibblets for later, all before Sea could catch up. Looking around, she couldn't spot him from where she was standing. She supposed she could walk around the room a bit, and, if all else failed, go to the designated meet up area and wait for him. The worse that could happen to him in this room was death by boring conversation…Then again, perhaps this place was more dangerous than the not-so-empty wastelands of Europe…

"You know, Wy, you don't have to attend these lame parties if you're hungry," Prince Christopher said as he approached her, bodyguards watching from a distance. His genuine smile was quite disarming, making it easy for him to move them to the side somewhat. "Sealand's hospitality will always be open to you."

She couldn't help but smile a bit nervously at being caught, though she tried to play it off by acting her usual self. "I think Sea missed the memo on that one. He's always on my ass about spending too much."

"Don't blame yourself. He's always been like that. When he used to babysit Sarah and I as kids, we'd always bug him to buy us ice cream, and toys, and new clothes. Eventually we got what we wanted, but it usually took quite a bit of whining. He's sweet on kids, though, you know."

Chris's gaze became rather distant, as if he was reliving a memory from long ago. Wy had arrived in the principality nearly ten years earlier, so she hadn't been around to watch Prince Roger's children grow up. In fact, she'd been too late to even meet the previous prince. Sea had later told her that both the prince and his eldest child, Sarah, had died in a freak accident. Their helicopter had gotten caught up in a ley line storm over continental Europe, and crashed. There had been no survivors.

And so, Chris had become not only next in line but the Prince himself in a matter of seconds. That was a lot of responsibility to put on a thirteen year old, but somehow he'd turned out all right.

"Wy, can I ask a favour of you?"

"Of course."

"Look after Sea. He's going to do something stupid tonight, and he'll need someone to be there to get him out of trouble."

Wy could only nod. Supposedly, the Bates family had acquired some Roma blood through Chris's grandfather's mother. Consecutive generations had received no magical abilities from it, other than the strange and vaguely useful ability to have premonitions. Still, they were nothing to scoff at if Princess Sarah's foretelling of the last major Gargoyle raid was to be believed.

"I have to get back to mediating between bickering, drunk underlings." This got a chuckle out of the Nation. "But Wy, you're the best thing to have happened to Sea in a long time. He may not always show it, but your friendship means a lot to him. And I know you feel the same. Protect each other, that's all I ask." And with that, he was strolling casually back into the mass of people.

After circling around the room, she finally decided to just head to the place they were supposed to meet up. She'd be early, but she could wait. Wy hadn't even reached the main doors when she noticed Sea slipping out of the room. Remembering Prince Christopher's words, she hurried herself along as fast as she could in heels.

Out in the hallway, she spotted Sea already quite some distance away. "Sea!" she called out, awkwardly running to catch up to him. Thankfully, he stopped to look back at her.

"Wy…"

"Hey, so, I got the grub." She lifted her clutch as proof. On the outside, it was quite small, just a little hand wallet really. On the inside, it was able to fit as much as a duffle bag, thanks to Sea's dimensional magicking from way back. It was in these types of situations that the thing proved the most useful. "What are we going to do now? Play board games? Go for a dip in the ocean? A bit of target practice with the ol' pistol?"

Sea gave her a quizzical look at first. Instead of appearing a little unimpressed shortly thereafter, he seemed a bit nervous. He was planning something. "Uh, how about we go back to my place and watch some old movies?"

"Sure!" Wy agreed. As long as she was still around to keep tabs on him, anything was fine with her.

2 hours prior…

They'd gotten through three pre-Cataclysm movies before Sea had pretended to fall asleep. Keeping up with the ruse, Wy waited about twenty minutes before doing likewise. She must have been convincing enough, because minutes later she felt the mattress move as Sea got off the bed. He rustled around in the room for a bit, before the telltale click of the latch sounded as he opened and closed the door.

Wy waited a bit before getting up and peeking outside of the room. Sea was gone. Pulling out a small instrument from her pocket, she checked the status of the tracking device she'd clandestinely snuck into Sea's pants pocket. Judging by how the coordinates were steadily changing, Wy was assured that her plan was working.

With Sea's status secured, she headed out to find Gilbert. He had to have been involved; no one else could have riled Sea up that way. In any case, he had the means to get her to wherever Sea was going. As a fellow Nation, he'd certainly help out…right?

Using her Nation Sense to track down the man, Wy found her way to Prussia's room without attracting attention. The poorly named Nation Sense worked a bit like radar, however, it could only identify other Nations. As long as another Nation was in range, Wy would be able to sense their presence, but only a truly skilled Nation could also identify Nations using this ability. Luckily for Wy, the number of Nations in the area was limited, and only one other besides her was not currently in the Sick Bay.

Though it was past midnight, the older Nation was still awake enough to have opened the door at her insistent knocking. "Wy? What are you doing here?"

"You said something to Sea, didn't you?" She had put on her most intimidating voice, but still Gilbert didn't seem to want to say anything. "He's gone, Gilbert. And he's going to be in trouble if we don't find him."

"How do you know this?"

"The Prince told me. Now, come on! I need your help."

He seemed to be processing everything for a moment, caught between believing her and just going back to bed. Something in her eyes, though, told him that things were definitely not okay. "We'll take the helicopter. I'll get you as close as I can, and you can parachute down. We can pick a rendezvous point once we know where he is, and if he's still alive."

It had been almost too easy. He would have gone sooner had Wy not cornered him like she had. She hadn't seemed to suspect anything, so that was good. Still, he felt bad as he snuck out of the room towards the upper decks. It was almost like lying, and he didn't want to hurt her like that. But this could be his only chance to get his brother back. It had to be done.

Under the cover of night, he was able to Shadow Meld and move through the darkness completely unseen. He knew his way around the Platform better than anyone, so it took him almost no time at all to find a suitable helicopter. With a bit of magic and skill, he was able to unlock the thing and start it up. By the time the Guards had taken notice, it was too late to stop him. He was off and headed towards New Camelot, and the difficult part of his impromptu mission.