The Sky is Falling Archive Part 1: In the air

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[#Jimmie and Bear]
[#Tria]
[#Together]

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Jimmie and Bear
You wake up, your mind is a bit muddled, and your muscles are sore and somewhat bruised. You're not sure where you are, but you have a bit of a headache as well. There seems to be a low whirring or buzzing noise, but you can't be sure if it's just in your head or not.

Moments later, your head clears, and there's just enough light to let you make out that you're in a small square room with bars on one side. You believe this must be some sort of prison cell. A quick check of your body reveals that you are only wearing shorts and a shirt, with none of your belongings anywhere in sight. The cell is also clean and bare, except...

You hear ragged breathing coming from someone nearby. This person appears to be in similar shape to you.

One of the two men, the young, blue-eyed lad, looks at the other while standing and asks, "Is this about Skinny Pete's money? Because I can have it all by Monday...or Tuesday." The other gentleman doesn't seem to hear what was said, however.

Seeing as the other gent didn't hear his cellmate the first time, he asks, "You okay pal?"

His head seems to have cleared now, as he stands.

The first gentleman asks, "Hey. Can ya hear me? Or are you one-a them deafs?" while scooting away a bit cautiously. The other fellow who seemed muddled stands, combs his hair back out of his eyes, dusting himself off as he turns and looks at the young man who is inquiring upon him. He then replies as he softly looks down at his clothes, "I assure you that I can hear you."

"Though I would prefer if you would be as so kind to not be so loud." He added shortly after, looking towards his apparent cellmate.

The first man replies, "Ah, good. I was worried I was gonna have to start chattin' using my hands." He gives a quick look around the outside of the cell before returning his attention to the other prisoner. "The name's Jimmie "The Bug", but you can just call me Jimmie," he says as he offers him a hand to shake.

He cleans his hand off the best he can and shakes the hand of his cellmate. "People call me 'Bear.' " he said shortly, looking around the cell for a moment. Trying to see if he could make note of anything in particular.

"Well, Bear. You owe somebody money?" Jimmie asks, trying to see if there is any chance of Bear still being someone trying to collect a debt. While continuing to talk Jimmie places my hands on the bars, to make sure they aren't electric (they aren't), then places his face to them and looks around and down the hallways as he continues, "Like Skinny Pete, or John "Bronze Back" McCrow?"

Bear shakes his head and looks over at the man, "I have no familiarity with those names," he says as he walks towards the bars as well.

Both men notice the odd construction of their block: hardwood with crown molding accents instead of the expected stone, mortar, and cement.

"Where in the blue blazes are we?" Jimmie asks as he wiggles the bars to see if someone got lazy during construction. "Ain't no guards, neither...kinda unsettlin'." Unfortunately for him, the lock just rattles in its loop but the bars hold firm.

Bear peers to the left and then down to the right, noticing the heavy door at the end of the hall, "I do not rightfully know, my good friend, but I think it is clear that we are in here for some reason." He says as he starts looking around the edge of the bars at the hardwood crowning. That's when he notices that at the very corner of the wall where the top of the bars meets the wood, the molding doesn't seem to be nailed in as tightly as it should. In fact, the head of a nail is peeking slightly out. He would have completely missed this detail if he wasn't looking right at it.

"Ain't no normal cell neither." Jimmie replies as he gives the door a less then stellar kick, "Who makes a prison all fancy pantsy."

Jimmie looks up at where the man called Bear pointed and saw the loose nail, "Ah, yea I can help ya out. Jus give me a boost, eh?" he said as he walked over to Bear. Bear nods and moves toward the corner with the nail.

Bear leaned down so that he could boost Jimmie up to the nail. Jimmie took the help that Bear was offering and reached up to grab hold of the nail and remove it from the wall. After a bit of a struggle (and almost losing his balance once, but recovering quickly), Jimmie was able to finagle the nail out. Upon closer inspection, he sees that the head part that used to be sticking out of the wall has started to get rusty, but the tip inside the wall is clean. You suspect the rust must be a natural result of moisture or humidity in the air.

"Looks like this nail has been stickin' out for a bit now." Jimmie says, examining the nail. "Wonder if the molding'll pop off now?"

Bear tries to pry the molding off. It was a little tricky, since it looks like they also glued the molding into place in addition to nailing it down, but he managed to stick a fingernail into the crevice and pry off a chunk of wood. What he's holding is about 6 inches long and kind of splintered. But it also splintered off at a place that makes the next nail visible from the side.

Jimmie examines the nail a bit more before looking over at the lock. He might just be lucky enough to get this thing to work, if the nail will fit into the keyhole. He moved over to it to check it out. It seems the smith that built these locks used some less-than-perfect materials, so the keyhole is larger than it really should be. The nail can fit inside.

He wiggles the nail around the lock, kind of stumbling along, not really knowing what you were doing... when all of a sudden, the two men hear a soft click and the lock comes loose! Jimmie looks at the open lock in his hand with mild amazement. "A-ha! I did it! I mean, I knew this'd work," he said as he turned around to show Bear. "We, my good man, are free." and to accent this fact he gave the cell door a gentle push open.

Bear smiled and gave a nod as he moved into the hall. Looking around a bit more to see from one end or the other. Their earlier suspicions were confirmed when they discovered that to either side of them was, in fact, two more cells.

"Oh, please. Don't shower me with so much praise. It'll all go to my head," Jimmie grumbled as he followed Bear out into the hallway. First thing he did was examine the other cells to make sure they were alone. Most of the other cells are empty, except for the one in the top right corner. There's a body crumpled on the floor in the fetal position.

"Hey, hey you there." Jimmie said, banging on the cell bars gently, hoping to get the person's attention. "You alright?" Meanwhile, Bear moved quickly over to the cell and looked inside. "Pick the lock and lets get them out of there." he said quickly. He then realized the lock was already unlocked and open.

The person on the ground is unresponsive to Jimmie's question. Now that the men were looking, they see that it's a woman. She's got torn clothing, and in fact, the floor around her seems shiny.

Berne opened the cell door and quickly went in to check on the woman inside. She wasn't breathing. She's actually quite dead, but she must have died very recently - there is no smell of decay. The shininess on the floor turns out to be a small pool of blood. She has something that looks like a bite mark on her arm, it seems to be where the blood is coming from. The grim scene is coming together as the men look on. She must have bitten her own arm to bleed out for some reason. There's a piece of tattered paper covered in blood by her body.

Berne leans down and picks the piece of paper up, he slowly unfolds it and makes an attempt to read it. As he picks it up, he finds that the paper is not just blood-stained, the stains are actually words. It reads:


"Whatcha got there?" Jimmie asked, not wanting to go near the person in the cell in case that person was dead, "Is it a note?"

Berne folded up the paper carefully and tucked it into his waistband, he cited a prayer for the girl, and then stood to leave the cell, combing his hair back. Once he was out of the cell, he turned to Jimmie, "She bit herself and bled out, she was scared of something. Poor girl....." he said softly. Jimmie looks at Bear, shocked, then looks over at the girl. "Man. We really need ta get outta here," he said as he looked down the hallway at the door.

Jimmie didnt wait for Bear to acknowledge what he said and made his way to the door. He put his ear to it to listen for any noise before he would attempt to open it. He puts his ear to the door, but hears nothing. Of course, there's that infernal constant whirring sound that isn't going away.

Bear headed down the hall to the door. Twitching irritably, he placed his ear on the door as well and then gave it a light push. He also doesn't hear anything through the door. Then, turning the handle, it soundlessly swings open on well-oiled hinges. In the room beyond, he can see 3 L-shaped work desks, each one set in a corner of the rectangular room, except for the far corner, which ends in an entranceway with a set of stairs leading up.

On the same wall as the door you just opened, there are two closed doors, identical to yours.

Bear quickly moves from desk to desk, looking for anything that might be used as a means to defend him and his companion as well as anything else in the room that might be useful to them at this moment in time. Jimmie scans the room while Bear searches through the desks, making sure there isn't anyone waiting in ambush. It was times like these he wished he had his gun. Once he cleared the room he went and listened to the two doors. The room is pretty deserted, thankfully. He hears nothing from either door.

As Bear is rummaging through the desk drawers, it becomes clear that this room must be the officer's office where they bring people for documenting before taking them back into the cells. He notices that there are signs on the two doors. One reads "Supplies" and the other says "Personal Effects". Also, through the office's items, he finds a wallet, a pocketwatch, a policeman's badge, a ledger, a letter opener in the shape of a miniature saber, a couple fountain pens, and a binder full of loose leaf sheets of paper.

Bear snatches up the wallet, watch, badge, pens, and the letter opener, skipping over the ledger and other office supplies. He then headed to the door marked "Supplies" and began looking through. Inside the Supply closet, there is a veritable treasure trove of useful supplies and equipment. He finds 3 complete police sets (3 police batons, 3 PK9 Sidearms (all empty), 3 police uniforms), 8 sets of prison outfits (just like the ones Bear and Jimmie are currently wearing), a backpack, a book of matches, a bandolier, a box of compression slugs, a Police Captain's ornamental attire (iron skullcap and a saber), a Medic Kit, and a light belt (with 1 empty pouch and a holster).

Meanwhile, Jimmie makes his way to the Personal Effects closet. Looking inside, he finds 2 pairs of slacks, 3 button-down, long-sleeved shirts, a pretty green velvet dress, a Magic Box (amazingly still containing a stone of Elementium!), a small bag with $56 inside, another backpack, a switchblade, a rusty PK9 Sidearm (empty), and 2 padded overcoats. Jimmie quickly pockets the money for himself while looking over the other stuff. He figures that the rest of the stuff belongs to either Bear or the dead girl.

"Hey Bear. You a spell slinger?" he asks as he tries to figure out how much he can get for the magic box.

"One way to find out, my friend," Bear says as he takes the ornamental Captain's attire, the revolvers, and the slugs. Placing it all into a backpack, tossing Jimmie the rest of the stuff as he changes into the lower half of the attire, putting on the belt with the holster as well as the saber. He slips two of the batons into his belt and calls to Jimmie if he has found any shirts or heavy jackets as he puts on the bandolier and loads the revolver with the compression slugs.

Jimmie puts the magic box in the backpack and then puts it on. He comes out carrying everything else and sets it on one of the desks. "Looks like I found the stuff they took from us when we were brought here." He rummages through the bag, pulls out one of the better pistols and replaces his old rusty one with it. He then grabs the rest of the slugs and loads the pistol while putting the rest in his backpack. He snatched up the matches before quickly scanning for cigarettes, disappointed when he found none. Then he took the Medic Kit and tossed it in his bag, just in case. Since he didn't have a place for his gun, he put it into his backpack along with the switchblade. Once he got everything he wanted, he stripped out of the prison attire and put on a pair of the slacks and button-up shirt. "There, I feel much betta."

Jimmie takes his gun in hand and throws his backpack over his shoulder. "Can ya carry all that?" he askes Bear, gesturing at the left over stuff.

Bear silently nodded and lifted the bag. Both men stand at the foot of the stairs, preparing to climb up out of this room, when suddenly they notice a waif of a young woman clutching a cast iron skillet to her chest. She's wearing a bloody leather butcher apron, and seems to be trying to remain hidden in the shadows. But they both see her nonetheless.




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Tria
Meanwhile, somewhere else:
Tria lifted her head groggily, taking in her surroundings. Wherever she was, she was tied up. Escape was her only option. Testing the ties keeping her wrists in place, Tria tried to pull them apart, at the same time as she shouted. "Hello? Anyone there?" She lifts her head groggily only to discover that her head is pretty much the only thing she can move. She's sitting down on a plush, high-backed chair - one of those fancy ones with the gold trim and paws for feet. It might be considered comfortable, if it weren't for the fact that Tria's hands, feet, and chest were bound with rope to the chair.

As she looks around to get her bearings, she notices that she's in a large-ish room filled with a dozen round tables covered in white linens, each surrounded by more chairs. If you didn't know any better, she would guess that this must be some sort of restaurant or dining room or something. In addition, there's some sort of whirring, buzzing sound coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.

As she struggles with the bonds constraining her wrists, she strains a bit and manages to wriggle a length of rope up and over her head. It's still bound tight around Tria's wrist like a bracelet, but at least now she has a bit more agency with her left arm.

Looking around, she discovers that this table-room is eerily empty. The tables are all set, but not a soul in sight. The only sound to accompany her is that weird buzzing. And she also think she hears some faint high-pitched squealing, but there's no way to be sure.

The grogginess clears. The last thing Tria remembers, she was walking down the street, when she passed an alleyway and felt a cold thunk on the back of her head, and must have blacked out after that. She is not even sure how much time has passed since then. Hours? Days? Still wearing the same shirt and skirt. The only thing is that all her possessions are missing. Hmm...

Seeing as the workmanship of the rope binding to the chair is kind of half-assed, Tria took an extra moment to disentangle the rope, coiling it up and around her torso like a bandolier. One never knew when rope would come in handy. With that done, she moved as quietly as she could to the doors with the windows, hoping to see something through them.

In the dining hall, off to one side, she saw a short entryway leading to a closed wooden door. Off to the other side, a pair of utilitarian swinging double doors with windows cut in them, most likely to allow staff easy ingress and egress. As she made making her way, she found that the high-pitched squeals you heard earlier came from a handful of rats scurrying around the empty hall. But wait. Those aren't rats at all. The squealing was actually the exhaust of puffs of steam coming from its back! Automaton sentries made to look like vermin, and Tria seemed to have caught the gaze of one of them. It eyes her almost hungrily.

Tria spots the strange looking things, which makes her stop. Despite their appearance, or maybe because of it, she quickened her speed, taking off towards the doors, not caring who was behind them. She busts through the double doors, leaving the mechanical critters to their seemingly programmed paths. Careful not to let the doors swing back in her face as she makes your way into what is clearly a kitchen, she spots all manner of appliances and material set before her, only a select few of which are being seen to by more automata - a dishwasher here, a sweeper there - all for no one, it seems.

Unfortunately, there are no doors leading anywhere out of here; dead end. Turning back to the room, Tria hurried across to the big single door. She wanted out of this place. More than that, she wanted to find her stuff. When she turn around to make her way to the other entryway door to the far left, she noticed the thin bump that runs below the carpet and between the tables must be the rail that these rat-bots are programmed to run on, and two of them have come off their tracks and are side by side in front of Tria, with another one standing guard in the entryway!

She quickly glances behind. Luckily, the machines in the kitchen seem much more docile than the ones in the dining hall. A fight is imminent! Tria immediately turns to run through the double doors, heading away from the rat-bots. Looking quickly around, she spins just past the door and readies herself to slam the door shut again if the rats try to get through.

The rats indeed do try to force their way into the kitchen, at which point Tria uses her readied action to slam to door into them. The bots get pushed backward a bit, and there is some grinding, springing noises. Clearly, the slam was hard enough that they each take a couple points of damage. Sadly for them, their brittle machinery couldn't handle the blow and they shut down.

Through the door's window, Tria can see the third rat-bot way off on the other side of the dining hall, still unmoving. Tria turns to the kitchen, her eyes scanning for anything she could grab to use as a weapon. Being a fully stocked industrial kitchen, she finds all manner of odds and ends that could be used as makeshift weapons. She rushes over to the butchery and picks up a butcher's knife. On a hook nearby, there's also a bloody heavy leather butcher's apron. She picks that up and puts it on. She now made her way back, ready to confront the last rat-bot, but not before heading toward the pot rack and picking up a cast iron skillet. With the apron on, with the knife tucked into the tied apron strings, and wielding a pan, Tria is ready to re-engage the rat.

Being all armed and feeling like a total badass did wonders for her confidence, especially after taking out two pesky automatons in one clever swoop. Unfortunately, the feeling must have gone to her head, because as soon as she opened the door to stride out proudly, she failed to react in time when a soft p-tew sound came from the mouth of the last rat-bot.

There's a sting at her neck, which, when she reaches a sluggish hand up to it, feels to be a small dart. She takes 3 points of damage. The bot moves up a few steps then stops, and you hear something that sounds like it must be reloading. It then ends its turn. The minimal damage that the dart did was not enough to even slow Tria down. She ran up to the rat and swung the pan with both hands directly at it. As she gets closer, she realizes this bot has gold trim, as opposed to the copper trim of the earlier two rats that easily went down. This one also seems to be a smidge larger.

Her hit is very solid. Despite the lack of any training or martial knowledge, the sheer weight of the skillet behind Tria's two-handed blow was enough to do a ton of damage to the rat-bot. A shower of sparks flew out at the contact, and she makes some pretty heavy dents in the thing. Surprisingly though, despite the battering it just received, it seems to be made of some tough stuff; it still manages to resist a total shut down.

The rat-bot retreats backward several paces into the entryway and spits another dart. It does manage to hit again, but this time the dart does no damage. It again tries to reload. Tria rushes over to it and lifts the pan again, slamming it down with both hands, this time just barely managing to hit it with a glancing blow, and the bot seems to absorb much - but not all - of the attack.

Tria feels the beginnings of what can only be poison from the first dart, but her epic endurance easily shrugs it off and she suffers no additional negative effects from it. The rat's quite a bit more damaged now. It's still standing, but it's sparking in a few places and she can hear some of the gears trying to turn, but failing and trying again - kind of like when a cd player fails to read a scratched cd - it spins up, fails, spins up again, fails, etc.

So, the rat-bot decides to slash its claws at Tria this time, but the damage it has taken seems to be interfering with its range of motion, and it misses. It then retreats further back, fully in the entryway, now with its back against the door. Her smash again damages more parts on the mechanical rat! This time, she debilitates one of the gears for its legs, and it wobbles for a moment. It might regain its balance, but the blunt trauma that was so dramatically applied becomes too much for the bot to bear and it keels over, sputtering and smoking. End of combat, huzzah!

Tria carefully made her way past the rat, opening the door slowly to peak out into the area beyond. If anyone was out there, she would have to rethink her escape. She creaks open the door, sweeping the rat aside to make room to pass. As soon as she does, she at last hears a sound other than the incessant whirring (which still can't be placed, by the way). She hears the bright clinking of metal on metal, the beeping of machines at work, and the dinging of a siren. It almost sounds like there are more automatons lurking just beyond the door waiting in ambush. Peering through the cracked open door, she sees a couple C-shaped tables with some empty stools on one side of them. She can make out two such tables along the wall to the north. Also she notices that the carpeting and walls in this area lack the opulent decadence of the dining hall. Where the dining hall had crystal chandeliers, this next room has electric wall sconces. And there is the faint aroma of cigarette or cigar smoke in the air. No one seems to be active or alive.

Tria clutched the pan close to her chest, sliding out the door without opening it all the way. She snuck around, looking for any form of door out. Sticking to the shadows, she went as stealthily as possible. Opening the door further, she sees that there are a handful of those C-shaped tables. Some to the right, a couple to the left. In addition, several rows upon rows of rectangular machines with seats in front of them, with levers connected to their side are visible. Many have blinking lights, and she can see that quite a number of these machines seem to be the root of the clinking, beeping, and the dinging sirens. Once past the door, she notices this room is actually quite long, perhaps three times as long as it is wide, and it seems to be as wide as the dining hall. Way off in the distance are two sets of stairs, both leading up. In addition, about halfway across the room, there is a small room along the south wall with a bright sign on it that reads "Cashier". Next to that is a cigarette dispenser. Directly across from the cashier and on the north wall, there is a door. The sign on top reads "Down To Guard's Station".

So far, it doesn't look like she's attracted the attention of anything hostile. As she's slinking along, she suddenly does find it oddly strange that on the whole, the construction of the rooms seems to run narrow and long, left to right. Her curiosity is piqued, to say the least.

Tria didn't think the stairs would lead anywhere good, so she stuck to the wall, going slowly and trying to stay in the shadows. She snuck around to the right, away from the cashier booth, pausing every few steps to be sure she wasn't spotted or heard by anyone. Her goal was the guard station.

For a split second from her vantage point - it was kind of difficult to say with any certainty, seeing as how her focus was staying unseen rather than lookout - but she could have sworn she saw the top of a head bob up and quickly vanish back down again, from behind the counter of the cashier booth. Regardless, she make it to the door safely and without incident. Only opening the door as far as she needed, Tria slipped through, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone who might try to stop her. She opens it only to discover that beyond it is a spiral stairwell leading down. With very little light reaching into the stairs area from either her floor or the one below, the stairs are actually quite dimly lit.

Tria pressed herself against the wall as she heard male voices. She slid further down the stairs to see who was there, her frying pan at the ready.



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Jimmie, Bear, and Tria together
"Uh...hey there toots," Jimmie said nervously, eyeing the blood on the apron and hoping it was from animal meat. "Ain't nothing down this way 'cept empty desks." He kept his gun hidden so he wouldn't scare the girl into attacking.

Bear looked her over for a moment and asked her shortly after, "Are you lost as well?"

Tria's eyes were wide as the men seemed to stare right at her. Until one called her toots. "My name is not toots!" she said quite forcibly. Then it dawned on her that this wasn't the way out. The hand holding the frying pan fell so the pan was hanging loosely by her legs. "Great, just great. And I still haven't found my things," she muttered darkly as she turned to head back up the stairs.

"My apologies my dear, my friend meant no disrespect," Bear said, giving Jimmie a sharp look before looking back up at the young woman. "We are trying to get out of here, might we accompany to better our chances for all of us to be rid of this place?" He asked her softly. But, Jimmie held up his hands defensively. First women he had ever talked to that took the kind of offense. She must be some hoitey-toitey rich girl... he thought.

Tria gave a shrug, "You can come if you like. I'm still searching for my stuff. So I won't have to shell out the money again." She sighed as her feet ascended back up to the gaming room. She paused at the door and turned to the men. "You didn't happen to find a Magic Box, did you?" There was hope that it had been downstairs, but she didn't hold out much hope.

Damn! Jimmie thought to himself as he visualized that $200 flying out a window and into this girl's hands. He reached into his backpack and pulled it out and held it out for the girl. "I may be a gamblin' man, but I ain't no thief," he declared.

Tria reached out with both hands, dropping the pan she was holding with a loud thunk. She grabbed the Magic Box and connected it to the apron before pulling on the gloves and wiggling her fingers. Tria retrieved her pan and gave Jimmie a huge smile. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"Yea. You're welcome...I guess," Jimmie said, still a little down about not being able to sell it. "So, uh...where'd all that blood come from?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from squeaking nervously.

Meanwhile, Bear fiddled with the saber at his hip, toying lightly with the pommel and the tassel, thinking to himself as he looked over this young girl and then down the hall.

Tria looked down at the apron and shrugged. "No idea," she said. Turning back to the door to the gaming room, Tria opened it slowly to sneak out and along the wall towards the stairs going up. That was the only other way to go.

"Oh, well...um. That way I guess." Jimmie muttered as the new girl in the bloody apron walked back up the stairs and through the door. He looked to Bear with a shrug and then followed after her. As he made his way back up the stairs and through the door, he emerges into a room that could very well be his own personal heaven, with blinking lights, dinging bells and whistles, and rows upon rows of gambling goodness. Two of his vices in one place: A cigarette dispensing vending machine on the south wall, and gambling everywhere. He's likely never seen anything this extravagant in his life. To him, an official gambling hall like this was something reserved only for the rich and powerful nobles - which he was not.

Bear, however, has probably seen a gaming room like this once or twice before. His social status isn't quite "noble", but it's classy enough that he could mingle with the types of people normally found in such a place as this, and would fit right in.

Jimmie mutters a short thanks to the Lord before rushing over to the cigarette machine. He wondered if he could just bust the glass or not. In the end he decided to just pay and looked for a price. He found it easily enough; each pack of cigarettes is only $1. Though the machine was half empty, enough stock remained to satisfy him for a while.

Tria made a grab for the man who took off across the room, but Jimmie did it so unexpectedly that she missed. With a sigh, she instead made her way to the stairs to wait and see if he got captured.

As he was crossing the room, he noticed in the Cashier's box a scruffy head pop up and back down out of sight just as quickly. Jimmie puts in his money and gets two packs. He was lighting one up when he spotted the scruffy looking head peek over the counter then hide again, "Hey! Get up from behind there or I'll come and getcha," he hollered as he started walking over. Tria ducked into the corner the moment she heard raised voices. She turned to watch, ready to either fight or run should something happen.

A soft whimper from under the counter is the only answer in reply to Jimmie's hollering. Jimmie bangs on the bars to try and get the man to stand up. "Alright. I'm comin' round to getcha myself now." he said as he made for the door. The soft whimper turns into a frightened wail when he starts banging on the bars. And it almost sounded like he said, "please no", but the scared screaming made it difficult to make out for sure.

As he makes his way to the door to try to open it, he finds the door locked. Also, the keyhole has something jammed into it to prevent using a key. Or it could have been a previous failed attempt to pick the lock, but it's hard to say which. Jimmie looks around to see if this is definitely the only way into the little room before acting. He saw that the cashier's box only has only two openings: the front barred window, and the door. His other option for gaining entry is trying to rip the bars off the window. Or maybe pounding a hole through the wood side. Jimmie looks around till he spotted the girl. "Hey, can you magic the door open or somethin'?" he asked, "I don't wanna wear myself down before talkin' to whoever is behind the counter." he said that last part a little louder and with a hint of a threat aimed at the hidden person.

Tria actually looked at him like he was an idiot. "Why not just shoot the handle out and really give us away?" Maybe they hadn't been captured as she had been, but she wanted out of this place.

Jimmie just shook his head before turning back to the door. He bent down and looked at what was jammed into the key hole and what side it was jammed in from, hoping he might be able to push it out. It looks like someone stuck in a thin rod of metal or something (maybe a screwdriver head) and broke it off from the outside, jamming the keyhole and preventing anyone from unlocking it. He will have to find another way to open the door. Jimmie cursed to himself, but not very quietly. He stood back up and then looked around before throwing himself into the door as hard as he could. He took a step back, and rushed up to the door with his shoulder lowered, while bracing yourself. He leaps into the door intending to break it down... but the door holds firm. He bounces off the door like a rubber ball and hits the ground, sprawled. Luckily he wasn't strong enough to hurt himself in that attempt. Jimmie continues to lay on the ground and take a dramatic hit of his cigarette. "Must be reinforced or sumthin'," he says reassuringly before taking another drag.

Tria sighed and walked over. Jimmie had already drawn attention to them both, so she just stood over him, looking down. "Would you like help?" she asked innocently.

"Wouldn't wanna give us away," he said with a sarcastic raising of his eyebrows. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and with a skilled flick of his wrist, popped a cigarette about halfway out of the pack and offered it to her. "Names Jimmie. Jimmie "The Bug". You want one?" he remained on the floor.

"I do not smoke," Tria responds before looking up at the door. She contemplated the thing and her small body. "I'm Tria. Just stay there." Moving around to the door, she searched first for hinges then for any other way to open the door. If that failed, she would smash the handle with her pan. Luckily, the hinges are on the outside; the door apparently opens out toward you. There are three of them, and they are all intact.

"Suit yourself." Jimmie said and returned the cigarettes to his pocket before he continued to enjoy the lit one in his mouth.

Tria moved to the hinges and started prying the hinge bolts out with her knife. If they didn't come free, she could pop the hinges off.

Bear watched them for a moment and then quickly moved across the room and, with all of his momentum and force, planted his foot right next to the handle of the door. Grunting in slight annoyance as he stood there, staring at the two of them. That was enough pressure and force to leave a foot-sized crack in the door. The door doesn't open, though, because it opens out toward. But if anyone takes a moment to wiggle the handle (which is now free because of the crack), it will easily wiggle enough to open the door. The moment the door cracks, there's another loud scared yelp from inside.

Jimmie sat upright quickly when Bear came rushing by and put his foot through the door. "Musta weakened it for ya," he said as he stood and dusted himself off.

Tria had to quickly spin out of the way of Bear when he aimed a kick right where she was standing. With an aggravated growl, she turned on her heel and stalked off. Bear growled back but also tipped his hat and apologized to the miss as he grabbed the door handle and pulled it too. The door handle practically falls off. The door swings open and on the other side of the cage there is a little boy with a curly mop of hair huddled in the corner on the floor, hugging his knees as if he's trying to be as small as he possibly can, with a terrified look on his face.

As soon as the door opens, he cries out in terror even louder (if that were possible). He's got tears streaming down his face. His eyes are red and puffy, and he looks utterly terrified now. There's a small puddle of liquid on the floor under where he's sitting. He yells out, "Please don't kill me!!"

Bear pulls off his skull cap and kneels down, talking softly to the little boy. "I am sorry little one, I did not mean to scare you." He said looking the boy over as he shut the door gently behind him. "Are you alright? Are you hurt at all?" He asked softly. The kid looks up at Bear, blinks away some tears, and shakes his head no without saying anything. But he doesn't move.

Jimmie wasn't about to be shut out, and opened the door and entered in behind Bear. He wanted to know who this person was that was hiding in here and apparently jamming door locks. Bear held up his hand into Jimmie's chest, stopping him. "What is your name, litte one?" Bear asked the child softly, "My Name is Bear. You know, like the stuffed animal." He said introducing himself.


"B-B-B-Bear?" he asked, stammering his words, sniffling and wiping his nose with his sleeve. He almost smiled, almost. "I'm-I'm Benj-j-j-i. You're n-n-n-not gonna hurt me, right? You promise?" He looked warily at Bear's weapons and metal cap. Bear smiled and shook his head at Benji and smiled warmly to him. "No, I am not, I will protect you. Like a papa bear. "He said to Benji as he offered his hand out to him. Benji still looked pretty scared, but he slowly extended his hand to hold Bear's. Bear shook his hand gently and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you Benji. Would you like to come with us? And get out of here?"

He replies, "G-G-Get out of here? They t-t-told me I can't go with them and no one else is get-t-tting out of h-here." He sniffles a little bit more, and then wipes his nose on his sleeve again. "Who told you that, Benji?" Bear asked him a bit concerned, both for the boy's safety as well as the two companions.

Jimmie had to voice his opinion here, "I sure as hell am gettin' outta here." he said as he walked back to the door and looked around the big casino room. His fingers started to twitch as he eyed the slot machines.

Benji's eyes welled up again but he didn't openly cry. "The bad men said it. The one with the machine leg and the other one with the missing ear. Th-They said something about treasure and ships and something else... I don't remember. But then they locked me up in here and said I'm-I'm gonna crash and burn like the rest of them curs." He nods, "Those were their words, 'You're gonna crash and burn like the rest of them curs.' And after they locked me up, they went that way." He points toward the stairs up.

"Well I am here now, and this Bear is not going to let anyone crash and burn. Alright." He said smiling, holding out both of his hands to Benji. Benji gives both his hands to lift him up. When he stands, he looks down and his face turns beet red, embarrassed at the large stain on his pants. He crosses his ankles and fidgets nervously, looking at the floor.

Meanwhile, Jimmie was thinking about Benji's words. He realized that although men with augmented body parts are not terribly common, they are also not uncommon enough to the general populace to stand out. He could name two or three men that fit that description just off the top of his head. But, no one he knew was going around with missing ears. And then, Jimmie picks up on the phrase "crash and burn" and intuits (putting two and two together with that consistent buzzing) that the group here must be on some sort of giant transportation vehicle... somehow. It seems to make sense to him, anyway. "Oh damn." Jimmie mutters as the boy's words sink into his mind. "We need ta hurry or were all gonna die!" he said as he burst out of the room and began searching for a way out of the giant casino.

Jimmie runs up the south staircase upstairs. As he makes his way up, he notices that the whirring and buzzing sound that hasn't stopped since he awoke seems to be louder in this section. He emerges from the top of the stairs to a narrow hallway lined with more than two dozen double doors. Each door has a nameplate with a number on it. The hallway has gas lamps illuminating the area, with a lamp placed between each set of double doors along the walls. The double doors at the very end of the hallway have a large red sign on it that says "RESTRICTED ACCESS".


Bear turns to Benji with a warm smile. "Would you know a way out of here my little friend?" He asked him politely, motioning towards the stars and doors. Benji calls out over his shoulder, "There is just one way in or out, and it's upstairs past the living quarters and through the entrance ramp." He pauses and looks like he's thinking, then continues, "but that might be hard to get out from if we're still in the air. Maybe you can try one of those little life floats?"

Jimmie wasted no time in hauling ass down the hallway and through the Restricted Access door. At this point he didn't seem to care whether or not there was anything on the other side of the door. Tria followed Jimmie, part of her wanting to see what was happening. She held to frying pan close to her side as she moved as silently, but quickly, as she could. Jimmie ran full speed toward the doors, but his momentum comes to a crashing end when he find out the doors are locked. He slammed right into the doors. He luckily doesn't take any damage, but he's pretty sure that's gonna leave a bruise in the morning. Jimmie clutches his shoulder painfully while swearing loudly and giving the door a swift kick. "Why is every door in this damn place locked!" Once he got himself under control he started to examine the keypad. "I think we're screwed."

Tria let out a laugh as he crashed. "I think those might be locked." She walked over and looked at the keypad.

It's only when they get closer that they noticed there's some sort of keypad to the right of the doors. There's a gauge hanging off of it, and two light bulbs sticking out of the wall: one red, one green. The keypad shows numbers 1-9 and 0 on the bottom.

Meanwhile downstairs, Bear nodded, looking around for the other two he quickly took a step forward. "How do we get there little one?" He asked, trying to figure out why they were in the air. Benji smirked, "Just go up those stairs and out the door, silly. It's the same way you came in here, don't you remember?" He pointed toward the stairs that Jimmie and Tria went up. Bear headed up the stairs quickly, walking hastily down the hall. He looked around for the other two as he made his way to the door.

Tria let out a laugh as he crashed. "I think those might be locked." She walked over and looked at the keypad. The red light is currently lit.

Bear asked, "Benji, do you know the combiation sequence?" Bear asked him looking at the buttons on the panel, then back over his shoulder at the boy. "Ummm, no," Benji replied, "But I think I heard one of the guards talking to his buddy about some kind of code, as they were going downstairs to their office. I didn't see them come up after that, though. Sorry."

"Did you happen to hear them say the code, or anything that might be what it was or where it might be?" He asked Benji. Benji said, "He said he had to write it down to remember it."

Jimmie turned to Bear, "Didya grab any pieces of paper from the desks down by the cells?" But Bear shook his head, "But you should have some in your cigarette box" he said afterwards. "Yea, but I don't think they woulda stuck the passcode in there." Jimmie said in thought, trying to remember if he had seen a piece of paper anywhere. He did remember. As he and Bear were ransacking the supply and equipment closets in the guard office, they both distinctly overlooked the ledger and the binder full of loose sheets of paper on one of the desks. Jimmie snapped his finger as the thought popped into his head. "There was a ledger thing on one of them desks. I'll run and grab it," he said as he was already half way down the hall to the stairs. He knew that he could move faster then the others and get around things quicker.

Bear stood at the door watching him run off to get the ledger, he looked over his shoulder at Benji with a warm smile. "Are you doing alright, my little one?" he asked him softly. Benji smiled, "I'm okay I guess, Mr. Bear. But do you have to carry me? I can walk on my own, you know." His smile widened. By now, Bear's comforting and friendly tone of voice has calmed the boy down and he seems to not be scared anymore.

"I thought it would be easier for you this way, since my legs are longer than yours. I did not wnat you to tire your little self out trying to keep up." He said with the same friendly tone, with an additional hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Tria rolled her eyes at Bear. The boy wasn't that much shorter than she was. She rocked on her heels, waiting for Jimmie to return.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Jimmie sprints down to the basement office and finds the ledger and binder, each sitting on separate desks. He looks through them real quick and try to locate anything that looks like a code before sprinting back up to the others. He checks out the ledger, and it's a list of names, conditions, and other information. He makes note that the whole journal seems to be written with the same handwriting, except the last three lines, written in a completely different hand, which read:

_{Rebecca Finley, female, aged 18-22, incarcerated for: larceny, treason, attempted sabotage of an Imperial Skyliner, and impersonating an officer Deceased. Cause: Blunt head trauma
Jimmie <Unknown>, male, aged 21-25, incarcerated for: unpaid debts, treasonous actions, and conspiring to perform treason
FoalBerne Muldoon, male, aged 24-32, incarcerated for: treasonous actions, conspiring to perform treason}

Also of note is that the last three lines have all the S's written backwards.

Rifling through the binder and loose sheets, Jimmie finds many of them are blank. But uncover two things worth mentioning: one sheet has the numbers "28567" and one sheet which has a scrawled note. It reads:



Jimmie may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but he knew when something was important enough to keep. He leaves the blank sheets of paper behind and only takes the sheets with the note and the code on it and he also tosses the ledger into his backpack all the while wondering why Tria's name wasn't on the list and what she was doing there. With those three things secure he races off back to the others. Once he hits the top of the stairs and can see Bear and Tria he starts yelling the code, "28567! 28567!"

Bear turned towards Jimmie as he started yelling the numbers at them, quickly turning around he punched the numbers in. He looked up at Tria for a quick moment, giving her an accusing look as he took a step back.

Bear punched in the numbers, and right at the moment he punched in the 7, the green bulb lights up. There's the sound of some steam escaping, then some sort of repeated metallic clanking, like a gear turning against a stop. The clanking stops when there's one final, definitive sound of metal scraping against metal. The doors are still closed, but the green light on the keypad is brightly lit.

By that time, Jimmie has made it back to the group, panting a bit from his sprinting excursion. "Well....did it...work?" Jimmie said as he was bent over with his hands placed on his knees. To help regain his breath he decided to light up another cigarette. Bear took the cigarette from Jimmie's mouth and flicked the lit cherry off the top of it before handing it back to him. He turned and looked at the Bug, "Not while we are in the building with the little one." He said softly as he scanned the area ahead of him.

Tria took a huge step back as Bear nearly trampled her again and invaded her personal space just so he could be the one to open the door. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look that clearly said how little she thought of him. "Okay, now that everyone has stopped moving, can we keep going?" Her tone was annoyed. She was quickly losing patience with them.

Jimmie looked at the now unlit cigarette then back at Bear, "Now, Im all good with being friends and all. But don't ever mess with a man and his tobacco. I've seen people get shot for less." he said as he relit the cigarette and mumbled to himself.

"If it was pure tobacco, I would not have messed with it." He said as he reached to open the door.

Jimmie scoffed, "Pfft, like you can tell what's in this. I don't smoke no dollar smokes, thank you very much!"

Tria's foot started taping a regular cadence on the floor. She blew out a breath and looked at the men. They were being so childish.

Bear gave Jimmie a stern look, "You bought them out of a machine..... Now lets get out of here. Anything useful you can do miss, other than counting with your toes ?" He asked tilting his head towards her.

"We could go with my earlier suggestion of lets keep moving," Tria said with annoyance tinging her tone.

Bear opens the door and the group is greeted by a much smaller anteroom. All three walls have more double doors. To the left (north), there is a set of double doors with a sign reading "To Engine Room, Authorized Personnel Only". Directly ahead there is a double door with a sign above it reading "To Cockpit, Restricted Access". Next to the doors is another keypad. Finally, to your right (south), there is a set of double doors with a bright green sign reading "Entrance/Exit."

Jimmie scanned the doors and focused on the one reading cockpit. He knew he wouldn't be able to drive this thing, but wanted to see where they were. After having a bit of time to calm down from his previous freakout while waiting for the door to be opened, he realized that they should still be careful. He drew his gun before checking to see if the door was unlocked.

The red light on the keypad on the cockpit door is lit. It is locked. Benji eyes Jimmie's gun with a bit of trepidation.

Jimmie tries the same passcode that gained them access thus far. Jimmie enters the code, and the moment he punch in the last number, the lights alternate. The red light goes off and the green one is now lit. The door is unlocked. Jimmie is going to open the door and ready his gun incase he has to shoot someone. The door opens after the requisite puffs of steam and grinding of gears. Before the group is a short and narrow hallway that opens up to a larger concave room. All along the wall is several panels of glass. From where they're standing it's impossible to tell what's below. They can only see what's ahead, and right now it's nothing but a whole sky of blue. Also along this wall is an entire shelf of various equipment, displays, gauges, levers, knobs, and switches. There is a lone chair occupying a space in the center of the console array. The room is empty.

Of particular note is that the center of the console where it looks like a steering wheel may have been, is a bunch of shattered glass and metal. Sparks are flying out at the place where it looks to have been smashed. And indeed, rolling around on the floor is an abandoned lead pipe.

"Oh damn." Jimmie said as he eyed the spot where the steering mechanism was supposed to be. "Welp, let's see what I can do." he said as he cracked his knuckles and set himself to trying to find a way to fix their problem...or the steering mechanism. As he gets closer to the console, he gets a better view outside. He can see that they are actually quite high up, flying over a body of water. Off to the right a short way away is a shoreline.

Now, when he starts playing around with the wires and twisted pieces of metal trying to find a way to fix something, the wire in his hand slips and accidentally brushes an open circuit. A burst of sparks shoots out as a result, causing a short. He's not sure if he would have had any better luck if he had any tools to work with or not, but either way his little slip up causes the whole ship to tilt to the right about 20 degrees. Oops!

Tria managed to keep her feet as she followed into the cockpit. "Can you get us closer to the water?" she asked after ascertaining the situation.

Bear headed down the hall, smiling up over his shoulder at Benji as came to the cockpit, watching Benji as he worked for a moment. He started to avert his gaze, looking around and scrutinizing the room. He bent over and absentmindedly picked up the pipe and handed it to Benji. "After we make it out of here I will show you the way of the sword if you would like, little one." He said softly, still scrutinizing the room.

Benji takes the pipe, inspects it a bit, and decides to hold on to it. "Uhm.. Mother always told me I shouldn't be playing with knives or other sharp things. She never let me help her in the kitchen, either. I don't know if playing with swords is such a good idea, Mr. Bear." As Bear is scrutinizing the room, he finds there's not much to scrutinize. Whoever was in here apparently cleared the place out. Any toolboxes or life vests that should be standard are completely missing.

As soon as Jimmie fumbled his first attempt at fixing the equipment and the ship was rocked to the side, everyone managed to hear voices shouting. More than one voice, to be sure, and it came from outside. It sounded like the voices were startled as if the ground beneath their feet suddenly gave out and they weren't expecting it.

"Oops." Jimmie said as he grabbed a hold of something to keep his footing. "Let's try this again." he said as he put his hand back into the fray. Seeing his original fault, he twists the wire in a couple places, and jams it into one of the circuit connections. The ship levels again. Jimmie tries a couple other fixes to jury-rig the equipment, and much to his satisfaction, he sees that he now has regained some directional control on the vehicle. It's not completely fixed, though. However, there's not much more to be done for it without replacement parts, specialized tools, and lots of time. Unfortunately, they don't have any of those.

Bear smiled and nodded his head. "Aye, it is not. But I shall teach you the proper manners for using it, and, knowing when to use it." He said smiling at him gently, "For now, just use that pipe as your training sword." he shortly added. He looked over at Jimmie for a moment. "Can you land this Steam Craft?" He asked Jimmy cooly, looking back down the hall for a moment before looking back over his shoulder at him.

Jimmie didn't answer Bear's question right away as his attention was focused on the voices. He was straining to look out of the cockpit window to try and see who it was. "I might be able to. Not sure. Anyone else hear them voices a moment ago?" Unfortunately, the cockpit window doesn't give a clear enough view to get any sort of look. The voices sounded like it came from the starboard side and maybe a little further back, but there's no way of pinpointing it.

Tria threw up her hands in disgust and turned to go back out of the cockpit. Since Jimmie never answered her question, she completely ignored his and started to listen for any voices that may still be sounding. She steps back out of the cockpit and into the anteroom to listen for any other voices.

Jimmie saw Tria leave before shaking his head, "Damn spell flingers." He looked around again to make sure there wasn't anything in the area that could help him before he looked over at Bear. "Hey, do ya think you could look in the engine room for me. See if there's anythin' in there I could use?"

From the anteroom, Tria strains to listen. Her efforts are rewarded when she hears more of the same voices coming from beyond the exit doors. She can't make out what they're saying, but they definitely sound hurried or excited. Sticking her head back into the cockpit, Tria looked at Jimmie. "I found your voices," she said before going to the exit door.

Well...check 'em out?" Jimmie said as if it should have been done right away.

"Uh, not by myself," Tria said, as if this should have been obvious.

Jimmie sighed, "I can't go anywhere. In case this thing goes all slippy again."

"I will go with her and then we can chack out the Enginen room together." He said as he set Benji and his bookbag down."Are you ready for your first lesson little one?" He asked Benji with a smile on his face.

Benji looked relieved to be finally put down on the ground. But then he suddenly started looking...worried? Nervous? "Uhmmm, I guess so, Mr. Bear." He held his pipe with two hands and stood in an awkward stance. "Wh-what am I supposed to do?"

Bear smiled and shook his head. "I want you to make yourself smaller, bend your knees a little more. And when we encounter an enemy, I want you to never stop moving. And aim small, like the hands, wrist, knees and feet. Let me worry about everything else for the moment, alright?" He said smiling, showing Benji how to stand and hold his pipe.

Tria let out a sigh as Bear started giving the kid a lesson in fighting. She went over to the door to open it.

Bear glanced over at Tria and then slowly turned back to Benji. "And remember above all else, be patient. You will not always be able to strike first or where you want, even. Wait for that right moment to strike, bide your time and energy, and then explode towards your target, and then away. Patience is your greatest weapon, little one, and a great character builder." He said with a slight grin, ruffling his hair slightly.

As Tria goes to open the door and Bear gives fighting lessons to Benji, Jimmie is going to see if he cant work up some kind of steering mechanism. "Hey, sorry to interrupt your lessons there Bear, but can I get one of the police sticks from ya?" he said as he continued looking for a way to attach it to what he already had. "One of our prisoner outfits too."

Bear smiled and nodded, lifting and tossing him the bag and a Baton as he turned and started to walk towards Tria.

Jimmie takes the baton and pulls out a shirt. His plan is to fasten the police baton to something and use it like a steering mechanism to aid in his attempts to move the ship. He had enough scrap parts lying around. He tears some strips off of the shirt and use it as wrap-ties to secure the baton to the steering.

Tria turns the handle of the door, and is greeted by a gust of cold, fresh air. For the first time since waking up, the sound of the wind rushing by is louder than the din of the ship's engines. Beyond the door is a wide platform with a railing that stretches to the back of the ship as far as they can see.

More importantly, there are three men who look wide-eyed at them as she opens the door. Two of them are off the side of the ship, standing in one of the life floats, while the third one is trying to hurriedly untie the emergency vessel to make a quick escape. One of the men sitting inside the float yelps out loud at seeing Tria, Bear, and Benji.

A quick glance down the rest of the railing reveals that there are a number of other empty life floats.

Bear saw the men and flashed forward towards the guy with trying to release the pull rope. Fluidly and quickly drawing his saber, he slashes the rope above the knot to release the boat.

Tria watched in shock as Bear helped the men. She was certain these were the people who had probably nabbed her. Backing away from the door, she looked through the open cockpit. "Uh...a little help!" she said to Jimmie.

Jimmie turned and, with a little hesitation, left the console and went with Tria out the door they had opened. "What's going on?" He asked as he walked towards the door.

Bear rushes forward and slashes at the pull rope - the man had already untied the four or five other ropes that held the craft to the ship - the last rope that the man was trying to hastily untie himself was cut. As soon as he cut the rope, the life float began to fall away from the railing. The one man still standing on the railing clumsily jumped, nearly falling over the side in his surprise. One of the two men inside the raft was quick enough to catch him and pull him inside. They begin floating away as one of them laughs boastfully, 'Thanks, suckers!" He points a flintlock pistol in the party's direction and fires once, but the bullet harmlessly bounces off the wall.

Jimmie leaves the console and, thankfully, his jury-rigging was solid enough that the craft continued its course when he let go of the steering mechanism. As he heads outdoors, he caught a glimpse of a man tripping over himself jumping over the railing, as he joins two other men in a life float, all floating away.

"Just gonna stand there and let them get away?" Jimmie said as he started untying the securing ropes of one of the life rafts. "Help me untie these so we can get off this damned thing and maybe put a few holes in those bastards."

"Stupid!" Tria screamed at Bear as she rushed forward, taking out her knife and sawing at the ropes. He was obviously not the smartest guy around, and now Tria had another reason to not like him.

Bear moved and helped him with the ropes and hopped into the life boat. "Well it is not like you exactly did anything to stop them yourself, you could have apprehended the other after I supprised him." He said as he turned and looked towards the other life boat.

Tria resisted the urge to hit him. "You FREED THEIR BOAT!" she screamed at him as she hacked another rope. "What was I supposed to do?!"

"Come on and get in, Tria." Jimmie said, seriously questioning this Bear guy's motives. "I can get the last rope," he said as he whipped his switchblade out and sawed through the last rope.

Tria sheathed her knife and climbed in, shooting Bear a nasty look. She focused on calling on her air affinity. They might need them here.

Bear reached over the railing and carefully hoisted Benji into the life boat with them. "I did that so I could try and trap the one of them here with us, I am sorry I did not stand there with you and gape at them my dear." He said back at her accusing look. "Shall we forget that and deal with the matter at hand? Hmm?" He added as he turned around and looked for the other life boat.

Tria lost her concentration as she rounded on Bear. "I was too busy being trampled on for the third time! Now can you shut it so I can focus?" Tria equipped her Gust spell in her left glove.

"Concetrate and talk or focus on your spell. Do not blame me for your inability to act upon the moment." He said sheathing his saber, crossing his arms across his chest as he waited for her to cast the spell.

Through the commotion of the past several moments, Benji took Bear's help and climbed into the float. He tried to stay as small as possible, looking guilty and scared, hoping none of this was his fault.

"You could just shiskabob'd that man." Jimmie yelled over the wind as his knife sliced through the last strand of the rope. "I know these are the gear-grinding assholes that locked us up in here." he accented his words by firing at the other people's life raft.

Everyone climbed onboard and all the ropes have been cut. Benji, Jimmie and Bear are still holding on to the railing, however, while Tria is adjusting some knobs and levers on her Magic Box. After about ten seconds, she gives the okay for the men to let go. The life float stars falling away but Tria raises her hand to the side of the ship and lets loose with a sudden burst of air from the glove in her hand. The group is now falling quickly behind the three men, though the other guys still have an advantage of distance.

That distance is fast closing as the men have now deployed their parachute to slow their fall, while the four adventurers are still freefalling with an undeployed parachute. If they deploy their parachute now, they can take their chances having an aerial fight until the both groups land, or they can continue their freefall - which is headed straight into the deployed parachute of the other men.

Jimmie waited till they got a bit closer to the other life boat before pulling the chute cord to slow their fall. He also moved to the edge of the raft so he can get some clear shots on them. Jimmie was ready for the bullets to start flying when he had a sudden thought. "Bear, do you think you could cut the ropes attached to their chute?" his plan was to cause their safety boat to drop them into the water.

Tria prepared her spell again, keeping her knife in her apron and ready to attempt to snarl their parachute.

As the words are coming out of Jimmie's mouth, he realized the error of his logic. Having Bear cut the ropes would require getting in close, putting the whole group at risk. While shooting their parachute while they still have the height advantage would make more sense and fulfill the same goal. Jimmie let the thought sink in as they approached the enemy raft. "On second thought, let's just shoot the hell outta their chute." He said as he leaned over the edge a bit and started firing into the baddy's chute.

Tria didn't have a gun, but then she didn't need one. She waited until they were close enough and cast her Gust spell right at the top of the enemies chute.

It was pretty hard to determine trajectory when you have two moving objects falling from the sky, so when Jimmie fired his sidearm at their parachute, his aim was a bit off and he missed. But Tria's timing is excellent. She began casting as their life float was approaching the other mens'. Right when she was within range of their parachute, her spell goes off, making their parachute implode. They yell as they begin to plummet toward the surface of the water with a suddenly useless chute.

Benji looks at Tria wide-eyed with endless awe and amazement. He mouths the word, "Wow."

Jimmie's frustration at missing was short lived as Tria's spell succeeded. "Good job Toots." he said as he watched the other basket fall.

Tria stared at her hands in shock for a moment, as if she couldn't believe that had worked. She smiled up at Jimmie. "Thanks!" She didn't even care that he had called her toots.

Jimmie watched them and waited for them to hit the water. As much as he wanted them to die on impact he hoped at least one of them would survive for questioning.