Cloak Kid listened intently as Hat Kid explained the situation to him. If he remembered what she said correctly, a Time Piece somehow shattered and time didn't reverse, which would've undone the damage.
Cloak Kid took the Time Piece that Hat Kid managed to forge back together. It looked fine, but there had to be some reason it ended up the way it did.
"Did anything strange happen?" Cloak Kid wondered.
Hat Kid thought for a moment. Then she shook her head. "No. Those Seals just said that it broke and they hid the mess from the captain, so he wouldn't get mad."
"Hm." Cloak Kid could only nod, while still deep in thought. He pulled his hood up and flipped the hourglass, and then he flipped it again. "How did this get here?" he asked. "We rounded them all up and I counted them over and over again. I definitely don't remember packing one."
"Is this bad?"
Cloak Kid shrugged. "I don't know. I'd check Gramp's books but you wouldn't let me take it."
"The point was to take a break from all of this, but…" Hat Kid frowned and let her head drop. "Aw, I'm sorry."
The boy sighed. He realized he was being too harsh. That was how he used to think, not currently. It was so easy to slip back into his old habits.
"No, I'm sorry." He hopped off the bed and walked over to Hat Kid's side. "I know you just wanted some time off. I didn't expect this either." His heart warmed a little when Hat Kid smiled again. "How did you even find it?"
Hat Kid stretched and yawned. "Uh…. right before I found it, I had this dream. Like, something fell from the sky. And after that, I woke up and felt like I needed to look around the ship." She started rubbing the back of her head. "That's when I found the broken one in the lobby."
"Anything else?"
Hat Kid could only remember seeing her eyes.
"No, not really…" the girl answered.
Cloak Kid thought to himself some more. "I'm trying to think. The Time Pieces were scattered for some time. It's not hard to assume a few things may have happened…"
"B-But we got them all back from Mustache Girl…" Hat Kid added.
"It may be smaller things," said Cloak Kid. "Things not as catastrophic as what Mustache Girl tried. Though, her actions and the hourglasses getting scattered might have caused a few more hiccups than we know of. As to why there could be more Time Pieces because of them, I'm still not really sure. There are more Time Pieces than the ones we have, but if there are more on this ship, or on this planet, then we have to get them."
Hat Kid nodded. "Well, of course." She adjusted her top hat and rubbed her eyes. Cloak Kid sighed. It wasn't like he didn't notice how disheveled she was, wandering into their room wearing her pajamas, but having her boots and cleaned hat on.
"Well, can you sense another one on the ship?" the boy asked.
"Yeah!" It wasn't until now that Cloak Kid noticed how her eyes kind of bugged out when she used her top hat's power. "It's… down in the reception?" she said, before yawning again.
"I'll go get it," Cloak Kid said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You should rest. Just keep this hourglass close."
Hat Kid smiled and nodded with half lidded eyes. "Thank-you…"
Cloak Kid gathered a few towels and squished them together into one of the cabinets in their room on the edges. Then, he placed the Time Piece snuggly in the middle, before closing and locking it with the room key. It wasn't the most secure, but it would have to do for now.
Hat Kid had already kicked off her boots and hopped into bed. Her shipmate just took her hat and placed it on the nightstand, before tucking the blanket over her already sleeping body. As much as he was worried about the extra Time Pieces, he smiled at the sight of Hat Kid safely asleep. Finally, he gathered his day clothes and prepared to go on his search.
Cloak Kid read the maps carefully and made his way to the reception area. It was a shame Hat Kid was conked out. The Time Piece could be anywhere. Security was pretty much non-existent, so nobody seemed to mind his snooping around, but looking through all of those unsorted suitcases would be impossible.
Then, he saw it. There was a shiny glint behind the reception. It was barely visible, but Cloak Kid's keen eye for finding Time Pieces made that task pretty clear.
Well, Cloak Kid thought it would be clear. He leapt over the counter to the box. Sure enough, he saw the hourglass inside, but before he could open it…
"Um, mistew?" the seal interrupted. "You'we not suppwosed to take anything fwom the Wost and Found and unless the captwain says so."
"I need the hourglass in the box," Cloak Kid requested, awkwardly pointing.
"Ooh! That shiny thing?" said the seal. "Well, the captwain let's us take something if we wowk vewy, vewy hard." Their eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. "You could help us out, but you'd have to ask him nicewy. He's pwobably in the control woom wight now."
Well, if he had been allowed to take his cloaks, he probably would've just swiped it. For now, though, Cloak Kid knew he would have to just play along. The last thing he needed right now was to make a scene on a cruise ship, and in the middle of the arctic, no less.
Reluctantly, Cloak Kid closed the box. "Sure. I'll go speak with him."
Maps had been placed all around the ship. It wasn't hard for the boy to find his way to the captain's room. He stayed vigilant on the way, making sure there weren't any other shards scattered anywhere.
In the captain's room, he saw empty boxes of food on the floor and on top of the panels and other controls. The smell of smoke was in the air, but it wasn't enough to make anyone cough.
Recognizing tiny footsteps, the captain spun around in his chair, seeing the little boy standing before him. Cloak Kid decided to be as nonchalant as possible.
"Uh, so the receptionist said I should help out if I want something from the lost and found."
The walrus shrugged. "Hmph. Sure. Maybe something will get done around this mess of a boat for once. It'd be a first."
Cloak Kid maintained attention, but tried not to make a face at his remark. After all, a crew was only a reflection of their captain.
"Alright. You'll need to deliver drinks, some food, and a few other things. And do it quickly, pup. He reached over to his shirt pocket and handed a spare walkie talkie to the kid. "There are other jobs that need doing, so pay attention. Are you ready?"
Cloak Kid nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Good." The captain actually sounded a little excited about this arrangement. "You can start by getting rid of these boxes for me. It's starting to get messy in here."
Cloak Kid never thought his duty to protect the Time Pieces would involve basically becoming a delivery boy. He also never thought protecting the Time Pieces would involve being in movies, so he really wondered why he was surprised at this point. So, he did as he was told, and took a stack of empty take-out boxes from the control room to the kitchen. There was a very big dumpster in the corner of the restaurant's kitchen that Cloak Kid used to dispose of the trash.
"Could you put these in the ovens?" a seal asked.
Cloak Kid tried to ignore all the health violations in the kitchen. Somehow, the food made still looked perfectly fine, so he put them in the ones that weren't blasting fire out. It seemed that they also had microwaves to punish bad food, as well on the countertops against the walls. He also locked eyes with a seal that was just playing with the water in the sink.
"Hewwo. I'm on a bweak."
Cloak Kid was impressed with the laundry room. All clothes thrown into a bin in the other rooms, was sent down a tube and into a waiting basket out the end in the room he was now standing in. Actually, the current basket collecting them was almost full, so he swapped it out for another, and put the dirty clothes in the washer. The soap was all the way at the top of some cabinets, and Cloak Kid climbed up with a smirk, thankful for his grandfather's teachings. All these chores weren't that bad, he thought. He was confined to the ship a lot when he was sick, so he didn't have anything better to do, but to keep the home clean and happy.
"Could you hewp with over hewe?" Cloak Kid heard from his loaned walkie talkie. "We'we in the weception, mistew."
"On it!" Cloak Kid, spoke. The ship swayed, causing some carts to slide. He managed to catch one, stopping it from running him over, but then got an idea. The boy ended up using it to ride across the room and hopped into the vent on the other side of the room. Hat Kid gave him a tip about a shortcut to the reception, but she left out the part about the electricity in the engine room. Right now, though, he just needed that Time Piece.
The doorway led him behind the reception desk. Cloak Kid glanced at the Lost and Found box, but the seals were eager for his aid. They shoved two stacks of hotel toiletries into his hands.
"Take these clothes to the wooms, pwease," one of them said.
"On it!" said the boy. Then, he felt something hit his leg. "Huh?" Turning his head, Cloak Kid saw one of the Conductor's grandkids, who had waddled into him. "How the pe… How did you get here?"
"Oh, draw," said the Seal. "They must've gotten out and wandewed off. Could you take them back upstairs to the pwaypwen?"
Cloak Kid ended up carrying two stacks of hotel toiletries and reluctantly carrying a baby owl with a little sun hat. There was no way Cloak Kid was going to endanger a baby going back the way he came. The little thing didn't live his life and they were too young to even know about it. So, he just went back into the hallway, to the kitchen, and used a raw fish to glide across the countertops, until it bumped into the seal who was "on a bweak." Then, he jumped into the dining area, hoping from moving table from moving table to get to the elevator.
At the top, Cloak Kid stepped into a Kid's area. At the bottom floor, he saw the playpen where the other infants were frolicking in. So, he left the little owl with their siblings and went outside with the regular door, finding himself on the upper deck.
Before he could step over to get to the suites, he was waved over by one of the seals at the bar. Several drinks were ready to go. Cloak Kid took them, leaving the hotel supplies nearby to get the drinks delivered, and hopped up to the higher deck with the help of a stack of pool toys.
Once at the top, the drinks flew into the air as he had. Cloak Kid wobbled back and forth, almost looking like he was dancing to catch each drink tray. Then, he served the patrons as quickly as he could. Finally, he collected the hotel toiletries, a few more drinks for others who had ordered room service and rushed to the suites.
Cloak Kid was just relieved to find a cart once he was inside of the hotel suites area. He settled his things on them and rode up and down the hallways to drop off his deliveries. His excited laughter that was heard throughout the halls wasn't enough to wake up his sleeping shipmate.
During his deliveries, he ended up picking up some more dirty laundry and yet another one of the Conductor's grandkids who must've wandered off. Cloak Kid prayed that the knife the little one was playing with was just rubber, and stacked the laundry baskets, putting the kid on top. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind the smell.
The boy made his way back to the upper deck, but it was a pain to have to go all the way around to get to the kids zone. He then saw the lines holding up the streamers and pulled out his staff.
"Hang on, kid!"
A tiny peep and an alien's laughter caused some of the pool goers to look up as they saw a boy and a baby owl, on top of some dirty clothes, swing over the pool with a grappling hook.
"Heyy…" the Conductor slurred, leaning against the bar, "get me a Sinking Ship oan the rocks. And make the good part a double."
Just as he got his drink. The Owl looked up and saw Cloak Kid practically flying through the air before landing on the other side of the pool and rushing into the kid's area.
The Conductor put down his drink. Yep, this was definitely his last one for the day.
Cloak Kid dropped the little guy off and hopped back into the elevator. Back in the restaurant, Cloak Kid got the orders out of the ovens and dropped off orders at the tables, before finally making it down to the laundry room again to drop off the dirty clothes. After loading them in the washing and going on another quick climb to get some detergent, he leaned against a wall and sat down for a breath.
That breather only lasted a minute or so, because he soon got radioed back into the kitchen. He threw more food into the ovens, went back up to control to throw away more boxes, and delivered the now cooked food to a round of customers. One of them ordered take out so Cloak Kid had to go out and find him on the port side deck. In a rush, he may have thrown the food in the Mafioso's face, but he didn't hear any complaints… because he was knocked out.
Cloak Kid remained on the starboard side to find a tool kit and some batteries. Once he found them on an upper part of it he rushed back down, jumping off and swinging to the lower level with his grappling hook, cloak and hair whooshing in the cold air. He went through the engine room to give the batteries to the Shocktopus, and then used the reception to drop off the toolkit with a repair Seal.
Cloak Kid then climbed back up a few floors and rolled his eyes at finding another baby playing near the edge of the railing. Obviously, he couldn't leave the little guy there, so he picked the infant up and headed back to the kids area.
Cloak Kid counted them all up like he would with the Time Pieces, while still out of breath. They were all accounted for. He was about to wobble out to see if any more help was needed at the bar, when he heard the captain's voice.
"Attention, this is your captain speaking. You can stop now, pup. Come back to control, I guess."
Cloak Kid sighed in relief. Hopefully, he did enough for that sweet prize.
No longer needing to zip around back and forth, Cloak Kid took his sweet time getting back to the control room, walking around and just admiring the architecture of the ship. He worked up quite a sweat with all that running around and thought about a nice trip to the spa when this was over.
He shook his head. What was he thinking? He couldn't think about such things when there were Time Pieces that needed collecting. The boy entered the control room and stood before the captain.
"You wanted to see me, sir?"
The captain turned away from the steering wheel. "I was watching from our monitors." And for the first time since they showed up for the cruise, he actually saw a smile. "Looks like you cleaned up more mess than you made, pup." He adjusted his hat. "Alright. Go ahead and help yourself to something from the Lost and Found. No one comes back for that stuff anyway."
"Yes!" Cloak Kid exclaimed. "Thank-you, sir!" And he was out of there faster than the captain could say "set sail."
Cloak Kid had been so tunnel visioned on getting back to the reception, he didn't realize that he had forgotten to return the spare communicator he borrowed. He decided to return it after the Time Piece was secured.
Now, with no opposition, Cloak Kid was free to climb to the back of the reception desk and look into the Lost and Found Box. To his relief, the Time Piece was there, safe and sound.
But, as he picked it up, something had clung to its frame as he lifted it from the box. It was blue and ribbon-like. He pulled it off and at first thought nothing off it, but he couldn't find it in himself to just set it down. The more he looked at it, the more he realized he had seen it before.
And then, he saw it: The thing that he was familiar with. The middle of this headband had a perfect bow on it. Time Piece still in hand, Cloak Kid didn't notice how he froze and how everything around began to slow down to halt as he held a stark revelation in his hand. A million questions began to race through his head, but only a single word escaped from his lips.
"...Bow?"