A/N: My cat is missing. I contemplated saying that here, but eh. Other than you guys knowing my username, I'm still technically anonymous. My family asked the neighbors, called shelters, Animal Foundation and Animal Control and turned up nothing.
So, yeah. That's why it's taken so long to write this, but… I thought I'd better keep chugging along with these fics. I'll try to keep up, but I'm going on lots of walks to hang up posters and look for her. Anyway, here's chapter 2.
Hat Kid needed a few moments to process what she was seeing before her. She had dropped to her knees, inspecting the shards. The girl couldn't doubt the facts and she certainly had seen them enough times to know what those were.
Those shards were from a Time Piece.
Cloak Kid would take one or two out of the vault sometimes to study them in his room like the dork he was, but he always put them back. After they had defeated Mustache Girl, Cloak Kid counted every Time Piece in the vault at least once a day for weeks on end to make sure they were all there. He even counted them all again when he returned the Time Pieces he took to study with. Sometimes Hat Kid wondered if he was really studying them or just sifting through the memories they held of his grandfather to feel closer to him.
"Hewwo, miss!" the bellhop seal said, cheerfully as he waddled up to her. The cute little voice snapped Hat Kid away from her thoughts. "Awre you okay?"
"Uh, yes!" said Hat Kid. "Look, I think… Did you ever see a sparkly hourglass?"
"Hmm…" the seal thought for a moment. "Whewe have I seen that." They tilted their head to the side, even shut their eyes, lightly.
"Thinking vewy hard…" they said.
All Hat Kid could do was try to suppress a nervous laugh. She didn't want the poor thing to strain themself.
"Uh, it's in pieces over there, now," Hat Kid said, pointing to the shards on the floor. And the seal jumped.
"Oh! I wemember! We bwoke one of those and hid it fwom the Captain! He wouldn't be vewy happy if he knew we made a mess."
"What?!"
"W-W twied to clean it up, but… we didn't do a vewy good job… and we wost some of the pieces…"
Hat Kid could only grimace. "N-Nothing… bad happened… right?" she asked, hesitantly.
"Oh! No one was huwt, miss," the Seal reassured her. "I'm vewy sowwy, miss. Pwease don't be upset."
Hat Kid shook her head. As far as she knew, these seals were completely oblivious. It really was probably an accident.
"It's… It's okay…" said Hat Kid. "I just… let me just clean it up."
The seal perked up a little. "That would be gweat, miss."
Hat Kid knelt down at the shards while the bellhop seal went around, trying to pick up the fallen cases.
Breaking hourglasses allowed the manipulation of the timeline of things. The more Time Pieces one has to break, the more one can change in a timeline. However, she had never seen one just straight up shatter into pieces and just… stay that way.
Cloak Kid would absolutely lose his mind if he found out about this, and she had to face it, though: She was absolutely going to have to tell him. Who knows what might have been affected by a shattered Time Piece.
Regardless, it seemed that the best the girl could was just gather all of the shards. The bellhop came back with a plastic zip bag, and Hat Kid picked up the pieces and set off to find the others.
Since the shards were her objective, all she needed was her hat… which she didn't have. Her brain immediately took her back to Cloak Kid impulsively dragging her into jumping into the pool on the deck. So she read the nearby map and headed over to the laundry room.
The floors there were light blue with slightly dark stripes. All the drawers and wardrobes were white with yellow handles. Some were normal and some were star-shaped. The walls were a regular shade of blue with a white trim, and laundry was regularly being delivered into a basket that was sitting beneath the exit of a giant metal tube.
Hat Kid dodge to the side as a metal cart nearly hit her. Those clumsy seals must have forgotten to strap down a few things and now the laundry carts were rolling all over the place.
Still, she managed to slip around and find her top hat sitting on top of one of the washing machines. It was dry and smelled nice and clean with that cruiseship detergent.
Suddenly, she noticed the machine next to the one she found her hat on had started a cycle with no soap. Luckily, Hat Kid was able to find a pack of it. It was pink, with a picture of a cute little seal on it.
The water was extra sparkly in that machine, but Hat Kid soon noticed that it wasn't the water, nor was it from the detergent she added. The shininess was in one area and getting closer to the surface. The girl stepped to the side as a sparkling shard of a Time Piece flew out and she reached out to catch it.
Just as she was going to grab it, she felt a sudden familiarity. A hand, but she couldn't grab it…
Hat Kid pulled back, watching the shard land on the floor. It suddenly occurred to her that she might get cut grabbing those shards too fast, and she did not need to know what would happen if she was cut with a literal shard of time.
That in mind, Hat Kid was sure the staff wouldn't mind her borrowing some gloves from the nearby cabinet. Peck, none of them had opposable thumbs!
Once Hat Kid had the gloves on, she finally picked up the shard and placed it in the bag, before letting out a sigh. Her body was still shaking from the moment she had earlier.
Still in her pajamas, Hat Kid's hat guided her into a vent and as she stepped out on the other side, she saw bolts of electricity on the floors, pistons going up and down and on a generator was a big dark indigo colored octopus. It was probably safe to assume this was a generator and engine room.
"Watch your step there, spark!" the octopus warned. "It'd be real shocking if you slipped. I'm positive they could make it a bit safer down here, but I guess that would really amp up the costs." And he chuckled to himself. The laughter was contagious, as even Hat Kid couldn't help but giggle a bit.
"Uh, thank-you," said Hat Kid. "Have you seen a shiny piece of glass around?"
"Oh, that! That was positively a hazard here. You can take it."
Hat Kid was shocked and elated. The cephalopod handed her the shard without any trouble.
"It's the least I can do," the octopus said. "It's nice to have a visitor down here. Not many folks appreciate the work I do to keep the mood electric."
The octopus, or "Shocktopus" as he liked to call himself, guided Hat Kid across the hazardous floor. After making her up and through the doorway, she found herself in the reception again, behind the main desk. The girl took notice of a big lost and found box. Maybe she could take a peek at it later. The seals didn't seem to mind that she somehow found her way behind the desk, anyway. What an improvement from the stuffy staff at Deadbird Studio! She hopped over the desk and her hat guided her to an industrial fan that was spinning on a high part of a wall.
Hat Kid wanted to kick herself. She was the one who insisted on not bringing the other hats and cloaks, but now if she had the Time Stop hat, she could easily get past the spinning fan. The girl looked around, still seeing all the unsorted luggage and got a few ideas.
It took some leverage, but with her umbrella it was almost no problem. She wedged a few suitcases into a stack, so she could climb up to the fan. Then she used her hookshot to grab a small suitcase and used it to wedge the fan. She saw a few leather flakes fly off, but hopefully, whoever had that luggage wouldn't notice… much.
With the Time Piece shard secured, Hat Kid ventured to the next floor and found herself in the casino. There was no way they were going to let a little girl gamble, but her hat was pointing her to one of those slot machines.
The girl looked around. In the middle of the room was a gambling table where the Crows were at. They appeared to be engrossed in conversation, so they didn't notice little Hat Kid peeking and tucking a few chips away.
The girl made her way back to the machine and put them all in. She was feeling lucky when she pulled the lever. Lights flashed and buzzers went off, and there was smoke. Hat Kid yelped, covering her face as smoke exploded from the top, but a lot of chips came out… along with a shining shard. She picked it up and ran as other people were running from all around the room to get some free money.
While stopping in the restroom for a quick bathroom break, Hat Kid noticed the window high up on the wall was shattered, once she stepped out of the stall. But, on the floor, one of the shards was sparkling brighter than the others. Since she was in the restroom, she was very glad she had gloves now.
After the restroom, Hat Kid made her way out and into the ship's restaurant. The chandeliers, red carpet, and the food on display was just like in the commercial.
"What do you mean we aren't on the list for dinner?" a crow said, as Hat Kid slipped past the front desk. "We paid exactly 96024 Pons for tickets, just like every other real passenger. There will be a bad review left on this cruise trip." The girl walked into the dining area, where her hat guided her to a grumpy looking Mafioso.
"Mafia bit down on something hard in this food." He held his scowl when he turned to Hat Kid. "Child should take it back to kitchen, please."
Hat Kid maintained eye contact. She was a bit irked, but she suspected there was something she needed in the plate, anyway. Also, he did say, "please."
Without saying a word, the girl took the plate into the kitchen, which was a mess. Food was disorganized on the counters and the seals had to get on to stepping to stools to even reach it. The ovens were malfunctioning and shooting flames and there were huge spills on the floor.
Among the lettuce, Hat Kid found yet another shard with the plate of food. Checking the ingredients shelf she found another piece there, as well.
Up on the top deck, the Conductor and other patrons were at the bar, others were in the pool. A seal needed help picking up people's empty glasses. Hat Kid was happy to take on the mantle and once she got them back to the bar counter, she found a shard among the ice.
Hat Kid sighed as she made her way to the port side of the ship. She prayed that the shard her hat was leading her to was the last. The was about to rise any minute now and she had been running around almost all night. The adrenaline of this mysterious phenomenon was already wearing off. Her sleepiness was cut off again once she saw a seal laying down on the deck, quietly weeping to themself. There were carts moving towards the poor thing. Hat Kid, despite not having her sprint hat on, was fast enough to pick up the little seal and get them out of the way.
"Are you okay?" Hat Kid asked, as she hid from the rolling carts around a corner.
The seal whimpered and sniffled. "I huwt myself. Would you take to the captwain, pwease?"
Hat Kid nodded. It was probably from the carts. "Of course."
Instead of dodging them, Hat Kid stepped out and jumped onto one of the carts. The seal giggled a bit as they rode. Hat Kid jumped off near the door before the cart smacked against the wall and headed inside.
There were multiple screens overseeing the ship. Hat Kid had to go up a flight of metal stairs to get to where that captain was sitting, which was at the steering wheel. Seals were manning the other controls. Upon hearing the girl's footsteps, the captain turned around in his swiveling captain's chair to see her.
"Hello!" Hat Kid chimed in, happily.
The captain sighed irritably. He was sure this area was employees only. "...What do you want, pup?" He paused when he saw Hat Kid place the injured seal on the floor gently. "Oh. One of the crew hurt themselves again. He sighed, taking a huge inhale of the double cigarettes in his mouth. "What do I look like, a doctor? Kiss it better yourself!"
Hat Kid resisted the urge to spit something back, but wasn't sure how well that would go. Well, she was given an order by a fellow ship captain. So, she gently picked up the poor seal's bruised flipper and gave it a little kiss.
Immediately, the seal got back up, like the girl's kiss was magic.
"Thank you fow kissing my ouchie, miss. I feel bettew alweady!"
Hat Kid beamed. "Aw, you're welcome."
"I found a shiny gwass," the seal continued, "but… it's all yours!"
The seal held up another shard, and just as Hat Kid took it, her person started glowing. All the other shards came out from her pockets and went into the air with the additional one she was given. Hat Kid had no time to remember that the captain and a random crew member were seeing all of this. There was a blinding white light and when it was gone, a complete, shining Time Pieces floated into Hat Kid's waiting hands.
"What the heck was that, pup?!" the captain demanded.
Hat Kid sighed, but held the hourglass close to herself and locked eyes with the captain. "These are important!" she stated immediately. "Don't let anyone break them." With that, she turned away and made a mad dash towards her room before the captain could say another word.
The girl slowed down once she was back in the garden area. She rubbed her eyes, having realized that she was running around almost all night. In her head, she was pondering how she would tell Cloak Kid without having him flip his lid, when suddenly, the ship rumbled, making the girl fall forward. Fortunately, she managed to twist her body around and land on her back, Time Piece still safe in her arms. For a while she laid there, wondering what just happened.
"Attention all passengers!" the captain said on the intercom. "Please remain calm. "It looks like a meteor hit over the horizon. No damage sustained. Relax and enjoy the rest of your vacation."
Hat Kid sighed in relief once more and stumbled back onto her feet, picking up her hat that toppled off her head during the fall. It wasn't a far walk back to her room at this point. She couldn't wait to just collapse back into bed.
Immediately after she opened the door, Hat Kid witnessed Cloak Kid being awake, alert, and frantically looking around the room, while sitting up in bed.
"Hattie! Are you okay?! Did you hear that? I…" Once he saw Hat Kid, he was struck still and silent.
He knew what she was holding. He had to rub his eyes several times, trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming. All Hat Kid could do was brace herself for the inevitable as he opened his mouth.
"Is that… a Time Piece?"