General Albert walks around Costa Brava, searching for any sign of the Vector Axis. His army has not grown whatsoever since he began, with Dumb Donald and Gibberon being the only two members besides himself. He blew pretty much all of his funding on the heavy weaponry early on, thinking he would have garnered more support, but now finds himself with very few resources to his name, and his most important Artifact missing. Albert sighs, his hopes of finding the Vector Axis rapidly dwindling, and his hungry belly growling more and more with each passing hour. Albert begins thinking just about everything he sees is part of the Vector Axis, including the flags on mailboxes, crumpled tin cans, and oddly long blades of grass. As he searches, Albert can't shake the feeling that he's being watched, and eventually he turns around just in time to see an eye peering out at him from a hole in a nearby trash can. The trash can seems to be completely coated in slightly transparent, hard to read text, which Albert doesn't bother deciphering as he approaches the trash can. Just before Albert can attempt to remove the lid, the trash can begins rattling and shaking violently, before exploding from the inside, as the dreaded incomprehensible skeleton known as Ownerbone emerges from within. Albert begins sweating fearfully as he basks in Ownerbone's non-glory, his brain struggling to process all of the information of the being in front of him. Ownerbone nonchalantly bends down and sticks a label of ownership on Albert's forehead, claiming Albert as his own in the process. Albert begins backing away, covering his eyes to preserve his mental resources. Unfortunately for Albert, in diverting his attention this way, he fails to notice the actual Vector Axis which is lying right next to Ownerbone. Ownerbone spots the Artifact, and picks it up, placing it among his massive collection of watermarks. Albert continues blindly walking backwards, until he trips over a garden hose, causing him to fall straight through the wall of the house behind him. Albert gets back up and rubs his head, stepping back outside through the hole in the wall and quickly looking in a direction that does not include Ownerbone in his field of vision. Albert decides that, since all of his searching has been fruitless, he has no choice but to go to EsMachinaburg and attempt to haggle his way into a reasonable price on a replacement Vector Axis. Albert plans not to take the train, since it runs on fossil fuels, so he begins walking past the train station, but before he can pass by, the sly and strange ticket keeper seems to appear out of thin air right in front of him.
"Why are you bypassing the ticket booth, my good sir?" the ticket keeper asks.
"I don't need a ticket, I'm not taking the train." Albert responds.
"But you are leaving Costa Brava through the train station. For all intents and purposes, you are taking the train, but are simply choosing not to ride."
"I can't afford to buy a ticket right now. I'll just leave town in some other direction if I have to."
The sly and strange ticket keeper waggles his finger and looks down with a chuckle, but then steps aside, allowing for Albert and Ownerbone to pass by. As the two leave Costa Brava, the ticket keeper returns to his booth, with General Albert's wallet in his back pocket.
As Albert and Ownerbone arrive in EsMachinaburg, Albert looks for a suitable store that might offer something as bizarre and specific as the Vector Axis. He eventually settles on a store called "Cargo Pants", which specifically sells "transportation tools that fit in your pocket". As far as Albert is concerned, the Vector Axis is a method of fast traveling, as he is not aware of its highly-specific Stand-generating properties that only trigger upon consumption of the axis. As Albert enters the store, the shopkeeper, Mr. Pants himself, steps out from behind the counter to greet him.
"Hello there, what is it that you seek?" Mr. Pants inquires. Looking around, Albert can see that this place is clearly far fancier than its name suggests, with the price tags all being in at least quintuple digits. There's also no Vector Axis to be found among the wares, as far as Albert can tell.
"Uh…" Albert struggles to form any words. Ownerbone snickers at Albert's pitiful incompetence, and steps forwards to talk to Mr. Pants himself.
"How much can I get for this fella?" Ownerbone asks, patting Albert on the back. Mr. Pants strokes his chin and inspects Albert.
"Well, he certainly doesn't 'fit in your pocket', so I don't think I could agree to buy him."
"What if I throw in this little thing?" Ownerbone procures the Vector Axis, holding it so that the light glimmers tantalizingly off of its surface.
"What does it do? It doesn't look like a form of transportation." Mr. Pants says. Ownerbone holds it lower so that Mr. Pants can inspect it, and once Mr. Pants holds it, he begins adjusting the arrows, and finds that they are causing a general movement in the direction they point. "Ah, I see. Well, this is certainly a highly exclusive and unique item, I would be delighted to add it to my collection."
"What's the price? Package deal, fat guy and arrow thingy."
"Let me get out the scale." Mr. Pants retrieves a scale, and places General Albert and the Vector Axis on it. The scale is promptly crushed under General Albert's weight, so Mr. Pants shrugs and simply dismantles the entire cash register to give to Ownerbone as payment, before placing Albert and the Vector Axis in the display window. Albert watches through the window as Ownerbone leaves the store and EsMachinaburg as a whole, but he can't chase after him, since he's stuck behind the window. He's also held in place by plastic ties to keep him from moving around too much, leaving only his head to move freely. Albert eyes the Vector Axis, which is tauntingly close to him, and tries to lean towards it to grab it with his teeth. He just barely manages to reach the Vector Axis, and pulls it between his teeth with his tongue, pointing the arrows towards the outside world. The Vector Axis sends Albert hurtling straight through the window like a cannonball, and he continues sailing through the air all the way out of EsMachinaburg, until he lands like an eterot in the remains of the Painforest, the impact being enough to cause him to accidentally bite down on the Vector Axis and swallow a small piece of one of the arrows.
"Mmm, that was tasty!" Albert remarks, before gobbling down the rest of the Vector Axis, licking his fingers afterwards. Sure, he just went on that whole journey to get the Vector Axis in the first place, but he was also really hungry. With his stomach satisfied for the moment, Albert takes in his surroundings, and realizes that he has absolutely no idea how to get back to the city to meet back up with his army. Conveniently enough, though, a colorful apparition of an arrow suddenly appears hovering in the air in front of Albert, seemingly guiding him in a direction. Albert follows the arrow, and it guides him out of the remnants of the Painforest and back into Costa Brava. The arrow continues to lead General Albert through the streets, only disappearing once Gibberon and Dumb Donald come into view.
"Well, after all that, I didn't really figure out any way for us to reel in more support. It might end up just being us, but I think we can give it a bit more time before we start addressing the hit list." Albert sighs, taking a seat next to Gibberon and Donald at the table advertising the war on global warming.