(Meant this to be a new thread. So posting here where it would have started)

The trek to Aquarius is lengthy as usual when the group doesn't have a vehicle handy. But Maverick doesn't complain, at least.

As the trio get closer to Aquarius, they can see the entire lake is frozen over.

---

Lucky is sure to get caught up with Joe and Maverick about how well the badgers have been settling in so far.  And of course he'll be more than happy to give his favorite overlander orphan an advance on his cuddles.  When he arrives at the frozen lake he stares and gawks in surprise.

"What the...  I've never heard of a lake freezing over so fast that the AFF wouldn't be able to prepare an exit...  Poisonous oil-slick would be more believable and up Robotnic's alley.  So I'm thinking magic is involved here.  Which means you turn to ice if you touch the lake or look at your reflection.  Let's test things before getting any closer."

He pulls up a nearby weed and tosses it at the ice to see what terrible thing happens.

---

 "It really hasn't been a good couple of days to live near large bodies of water, yeah."  His player tries to remember if there were any notable entry methods to Aquarius that don't involve swimming, though it's been probably literal years since Aquarius has turned up in posts.

---

Maverick, of course, soaks up and returns any and all cuddles. His only weakness. :3

The weed flops onto the ice and... nothing happens to it.

Reminder to players: There was an elevator that lead outside; it rose up from the ground.

However! Maverick goes to the location of said elevator, and pulls the secret lever inside a tree stump. Nothing. The elevator doesn't come up.

---

To Joe Lucky nods.  "For real...

"If you haven't heard, Mav, the badgers fled an ocean turned deadly."

Lucky is ready to shoot whatever monster emerges from the ice.  And when Mav tries the elevator, he's ready to shoot whatever monster jumps out from the elevator.  But nothing happens.  So he relaxes his bow a bit. "Well I guess that was to be expected.  So what now?  Should we try and force it open and climb down?  Or experiment with the ice more first?"

---

"Elevator is the most practical option.  Not like there is any lack of elevator shaft crawling experience among us."  Though normally it's not for places your friends live.

He'll get to working towards a more forced access to the elevator.

Upon checking the control panel's wiring and such, Joe finds everything is fine.

Maverick says, "I'll try to break the ice." he pulls out an ice pick. Because of course he has one of those. It's a great tool and fantastic for murder jamming SWATbot circuitry or joints. He begins walking to the lake.

Joe's next attempt to get to the elevator is the only option he has left outside of trying to break the ice: dig around the elevator and try to dig to it. This will be a lot of digging, admittedly, but outside better ideas, there isn't much choice.

(Will wait and see what Lucky says / does / suggests before doing a time skip for elevator revealing)

"Maverick, please don't go near the cursed lake.  Just touching it may kill you.  Joe and I recently escaped a dangerous place like that, so I'm not kidding.  Let's stick together."

He takes off his knapsack, unpacks the primitive shovel he takes on these long walks, then kneels down to help dig.

"You've got sharp eyes.  Will you be our lookout, please?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:03, Tue 20 Oct 2015.

  "Yeah, Lucky's paranoia is totally founded in recent reality." and dead bodies.

  But hey, Lucky also has a convenient shovel.  That's much nicer!

Maverick would have been annoyed, but Lucky gave him a task. One he enjoys.
He heads to the trees and seemingly vanishes.

TIME  SKIP!

The elevator is exposed and the trio are able to access it enough to access the floor panel that will let them descend into the area the elevator normally goes down to.

That in itself is a bit of an adventure as there is a cable leading down a good 100 feet or so.

Lucky is much more accustomed to climbing trees then elevator shafts, but this at leas isn't something he'll flip out over safety wise.  He reviews repelling techniques and safety with Maverick.

"Would you go first, please, Joe?  I'd like for Maverick to go second and me last.  I'm guessing your the fastest climber, so if something happens up here, we'll be somewhat less likely to be separated for long with the fastest going first."

  "Those truefacts make sense, yes,"  You know, we honestly can't remember the last time Joe explicitly used his robot arm on this forums.  Whole threads and years have gone by.

  He cracks on and tosses a glowstick down the shaft, then uses his claws to grip the cable and slide down at a swift but controlled speed so as not to smack into the ground, ice, water, sudden lack of cable, etc.

Joe is able to reach the bottom. The cable isn't broken, nor is there mystery ice down there. And the doors are able to be forced open. The hallway is absolutely quiet.

Meanwhile, Maverick nods and locks his eyes on Lucky and whatever Lucky says. Clearly, the boy is paying close attention and is able to repeat back to Lucky what he was told. Though it also becomes obvious whenever Lucky goes a little too fast for Maverick to follow.

As soon as he is prompted to, Maverick propels down the cable with his makeshift cablehold (made from rope). He smiles the whole way down. Propelling down an elevator shaft via car cable is one of those joys in life that ironically only come into play when things are horribly wrong, but at least it is fun!

Lucky gave a nod to Joe, happy to not be teased about being too paranoid.  He held his breath the entire time Joe descended worried for what harm may befall him.  Lucky exhales in relief when he sees Joe make it to the bottom unharmed.  Maverick's attentiveness made Lucky smile who reached out to give the boy an assuring pet.

"You're a great listener, Maverick.  Be safe."

He still wound up nervous and tense during Maverick's decent and sighed in relief when he got to the bottom safely.  He follows suit.  At the bottom he ties the glow stick to a bow-fishing arrow and line then fires it down the hall.

"If there's a pitfall ahead, I can reel it back."

  "Considering what condition we keep finding things lately, that's a good idea."

Lucky is given a smile from Maverick in response to the pet. And a hug when Lucky reaches the bottom of the shaft.

When Lucky reels the glow stick back, he discovers no pitfall.

"Thanks!" Lucky answered with a smile to the compliment.

He of course returned Mav's hug.  Upon finding no dangers, Lucky proceeds apace before firing again, moving forward, firing again, and so on.

"Well I guess it's good to see the tunnel is clear in one sense...   But on the other hand, I'm worried why the AFF haven't sent people by this shaft."

  That's clearly because they are all magically frozen.  Probably.

  "They may be dealing with bigger problems inside."

Up ahead at the doors to the main area (which doubles as the cafeteria), the group can hear commotion. Once close enough, it sounds like a bunch of people talking and Shelly's voice trying to yell over the people.

Maverick looks around and whispers, "Maybe there is a different access to the main room so we can spy on what is happening before entering?"

"Sounds like you were right, Joe," Lucky thinks aloud.

He started to hurry for the door to let Shelly and the others know help had arrived, but paused when Mav
This message was last edited by the player at 02:48, Tue 24 Nov 2015.

when Mav suggests spying.  Lucky's first impulse is to tell him to go ahead and spy while Joe and I give the good news, but then he hesitates.  What if opening the door triggers a massive deep freeze?  Or everyone's in self-imposed quarantine because of a highly contagious airborne disease?  As more doomsday scenarios rush through his mind, Lucky nods to Mav.  He looks around for another way while listening carefully to the voices at the door, especially Shelly's, in hopes of hearing what's going on sooner than later.

  "Maverick, with how much trouble Shelly is having talking over people as it is, it would be better to have both the distraction and reassurance people have noticed and care something is wrong."

  He's just short of just casually barging in, but may as well wait and see if the other two are willing to do so.

Maverick shrugs and pulls out his daggers. "Fine. Then if Shelly's having trouble, I just need to stab whatever is giving her trouble."

Lucky can barely make out what Shelly is saying. "Please calm down. We can't work through this if we panic and especially if we don't work together as one." It's more of the same. Shelly trying to keep the people under control as they increase the number of complaints quicker than she can address them.

"If the problem were the kind that could be solved with blades, I'm sure they would've solved it themselves by now.  Please stand back, Maverick.  If it turns out me and Joe get stuck here with them, I want you to go back and warn Channelwood."

Lucky takes a deep breath and knocks firmly on the door.  "Hello!  Lucky from Channelwood here!  May I come in?"

  Yeah, but then it would be Maverick stabbing the problem.  Joe knows quality stabbing when he hears it (not that you can hear when Maverick stabs something, unless he wants you to).

  "We have a very, very slow evacuation plan if needed." Well, grapple lift one or two people out at time is better than 'pfft, your stuck here lateeeeer'.

The doors open.

(Watch from 1:39 to 1:43)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C687RBDfUx4

This is how the crowd reacts to Lucky and Joe entering.

Shelly is seen standing on top of a table, her royal guard to either side of her. "The message got through! See? Channelwood will help us out!" She then hops off the table and runs to Lucky and Joe, yoinking them both in for a big seabear-hug. "How did you get in? The elevator?"

Lucky was giving a sheepish smile and wave to the sharktacons only to be taken by surprise by Shelly glomp!  He brightens up and returns the hug.  "So good to see you well.  After seeing the lake frozen over, I was worried I'd find you encased in ice.  Yes, it was the elevator shaft we used to get down here.  That would be the slow evacuation plan Joe was referring to.  What happened here?  How can we help?"

  Seabears always give such big hugs, it's hard compete as he hugs back.  Must be all that that exercise from swimming so much. (How else will they launch hard enough to headbutt a helicopter to death?).

  "Hopefully it doesn't come to carrying you all out of here personally, but it is an option.  Still, hopefully you have some idea what is going on beyond 'things are freezing'"

Shelly says, "Well... yeah. Getting out through the elevator shaft wasn't exactly an option before. Digging your way into the elevator is doable, but the doors wouldn't even open until someone on the outside dug their way to it, so... yeah. Needed outside help. And our only other way out would be out to the ice. Which is frozen solid even up to our inner pools, so any aquatic types in our base will be going stir crazy by the end of tomorrow. ....that said, us having the option to leave is a major relief. But we would like to solve the problem here and hopefully prevent a mass exodus to Channelwood."

And Shelly doesn't know Channelwood is already dealing with a whole OTHER mass exodus.

Lucky looks sympathetic.  "Gosh.  Sorry you all were trapped.  That must've been real scary not knowing your S.O.S. got through.  But we came right away.  So as you can imagine, we're pretty tired.  There's only the few of us Channelwood has it's hands full with helping a desperate community of badgers establish a new home.  But I'm sure soon everyone will be available to help in any way they can...  Boy...  How can we help?  Was it magic that froze the lake?"

He's really hoping the answer's as simple as, 'I dropped my magic trident, so all we have to do is dig it out of the ice.'  Very hard work, sure.  But at least there'd be something that can be done besides evacuate.

  "There does seem to be a theme of water problems the past few days, yeah."

Shelly nods to Lucky and says, "The problem came when a strange vehicle dropped some kind of weird metal spherical thing into the lake. It flash-froze the lake. I was in it at the time and I barely escaped, swimming at top speed back into Aquarius. Mei-Ling thinks it's a chemical reaction and is trying to work on a counter to the problem, but in the meantime, half of Aquarius' functionality is gone because it depended on running water that is now frozen. But with limited time before we begin suffocating down here and possibly starve... I had to send out a signal to you guys ahead of time."

Shelly looks at Joe and Lucky and says, "Gosh. They must really be busy to have sent only two of you." Yeah. Notice how there has been no mention of Maverick lately? He is nowhere to be seen.

At Joe's mention of other water problems Lucky gets a far away look and mews sadly.  "Those poor people.  Their home turned deadly.  At least two dead.  Forced to flee into hostile territory..."

He snaps out of it and gives Shelly a sad smile.  "I was so worried for you.  So glad to see you alive.

"I wonder if there's an off switch on that metal sphere.  But first thing's first.  We gotta focus on immediate problems.  Joe and I are pretty good hunter / gatherers.  We can go forage in the woods to supplement your food stores.  Or we can help however else you'd like for us to help."

'The child is missing' is a cause of worry for a whole other set of reasons than usual when it comes to Maverick.

"If the device is still turned on, then rigging up something to track it instead of just a metal detector would probably be a good idea."

Shelly looks concerned for Lucky when he gives hints of his recent experience. She nods and says, "Thanks for the help." Then looks at Joe. "Alright... you two go see Milloni, then. Maybe you can come up with something with her. She sure could use the help... the poor lady is rather sick and is pushing herself since she is our primary technology expert."

She turns to the crowd. "Don't forget what I said! We are getting through this. But if you work together and we will get through this quicker! Now; With Channelwood having dug us a way out, we are no longer in an "icy grave" as some of you said. So no more doom and gloom comment! Go do your assignments!"

While there are a few in the crowd who grumble as if annoyed they no longer have an excuse to complain, most of the crowd is not only relieved, but anxious to get busy and work off that tension they had just moments ago.

Shelly faces Joe and Lucky. "Joe, Lucky, follow me." she leads the pair towards the tech department, where Milloni usually works her magic.

Assuming the two follow, they would soon see Milloni is asleep at her desk.

Lucky shrugs.  "When it comes to all that technical stuff the furthest my skills go is replacing a broken spring in a bear trap.  So you may be the one doing most of the helping, Joe."

Lucky makes the point, "Now that you're all not trapped down here, Milloni can get some much needed rest."

Lucky follows.  When he sees Milloni at her desk, Lucky's heart goes out to her.

"It would be more of a setback for either of you to catch her illness, so I'm volunteering to be the one to carry her to her bed.  I hate to disturb her rest, but sleeping on a desk is no way to recover.  Maybe she'll even sleep better knowing that help has arrived."

  "I'll see if I can find their notes without messing up their organization" be it sorted or 'pile' variety.

  "Though you may want to keep an eye on them for when they wake up in a panic thinking everyone is going to die because they fell asleep... Or maybe wake them now and fill her in, so they can rest properly instead of exhaustion like."

Shelly goes to wake Milloni and explains what is going on. Milloni nods tiredly and waves at her notes. "Should... be... *yaaaaawn* puh... you... just read the thing."

Shelly nods. "Go ahead and escort her to her room, Lucky. Thanks."

Joe can see the notes. It's basic communications tech notations. Milloni was hoping to pick up on any control signals or other remote signals in order to find the device's location.

"Good luck with the teching, Joe.  I'll come back and offer a hand once I get her tucked in.

"Lean on me, Milloni.  You've earned a good long rest.  And thank you for your hard work.  Rest assured, Joe is really good and can pick up where you left off."

He offers an arm-around to carry Milloni to her room and tuck her in.  Once she's situated he'll return to help.

  "Thanks Lucky, at least Milloni seems to have done most of the work already." MAYBE!  He's just saying that right now, hopefully it's true.

  He'll do some checks on the remote signal end but he honestly expects it to be more of a 'turn it on, the end' device.

Lucky is able to find Milloni to her room. "I wanna... do more..." but within a second or two of contact with her bed, Milloni falls back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Joe's checks reveal that there is an energy signal that is not Aquarius detectable in the lake.

"Sure thing!"

Unless Lucky can find a glass of water to leave within Miloni's reach, he'll leave his own canteen for her.  He returns to Joe and Shelly.

"Out like a light, poor girl.  She's so sweet.  Even with help here, and the condition she's in, she still said she wanted to help more.  So how are things?"

  "Well, there is an energy signal.  I want to be sure we can track it more closely though because 'somewhere in the lake' is a lot of ice to go through."

Shelly nods. "Thanks, you two."

The signal is pinpoint-able. It is between Aquarius and the west side of the lake, between the surface of the lake and the lake's bed. So it will still be a lot of ice to get through, regardless. But from the looks of it, it will be a lot easier to dig for it from above the lake than to try from Aquarius.

The downside, of course, is the increased chance of being spotted by a stray drone.

Upon seeing/hearing this data, Shelly says, "We also know you won't freeze simply by touching the ice. Had I been in the water when it froze, I'd be stuck because it would become ice around me. But touching it won't freeze you. If we can assemble a team to dig for the device, digging will go a lot quicker.... I'll get on that."

She hurries off towards the other people.

Lucky smiles and nods.  "You're welcome, Shelly.  I'm so glad you all are alive.  More than happy to help make sure it stays that way."
As Shelly is leaving he waves and says, "I'll catch up in a bit.  I've got an idea for camo out on the ice."

Once she's out of earshot he whispers, "Maverick?  You here?"

  Joe doesn't even bother looking for Maverick.  We all know this is not out of any lack of concern for the boy.

  "Is it a white sheet tarp?"  Hey, it's a cartoon/comic/video game universe.  Ice is either solid white, or convenitnyl transparent.

The ice happens to be standard "can't really see past 6 inches" fogginess levels.

Maverick's voice answers from behind Lucky and Joe. "Yes."

Lucky is visibly relieved to hear Maverick's voice and immediately offers a big hug.

"Oh Maverick!  I was so worried for you.  Good to see you again.  How you doing?  Find any secrets?"

He nods to Joe.  "Pretty much.  But I had in mind to ask our resident stealth expert what color and material works best on a frozen lake."

  Joes of the Darkthorne and otherwise variety have literally used jackhammers without people noticing, but relying on that to happen when convenient is never a good idea.  So Maverick's common sense will probably be a better plan, yeah.

Maverick takes the offered hug and smiles. When the older boy asks Maverick how to stealth and calls him an "expert", Maverick blushes and tries quickly to find a way to not let Lucky down. "I like your idea...." he begins, "Though just white might not be good enough. Maybe an off-white. Like a very light blue or very light grey. We should get a picture of the ice above and try to match its pattern and color."

Lucky is relieved that Mav didn't find any worrisome secrets.

He smiles, pets Mav, and nods.  "That's a great idea, Maverick!  We should mention this to Shelly.  Think it's time to let her know you're here?  She might have use of your skills."

  If only the ACME catalog still delivered in these dark times.

  "I'll help you out with making it then.  And we probably should if he's going to be using their stuff to make stuff to save stuff." good wording, Joe!

Mav nods. (Third time skip in a row for one of my games!)

Shelly is happy to see Maverick and cuddles him with a happy otter-squeak, causing the boy to blush. But smiling. The tarp is thankfully relatively easy to put together... there are plenty of white and light-blue blankets in Aquarius, and the colors match enough that unless someone was obsessively eyeing the frozen lake, they wouldn't be able to pick it out.

Successful camouflage.

Lucky is sure to pitch in as best he can and check in on Milloni from time to time.  Otter squeak cuddles and blushy overlander boy smiles melt his heart and he's quick to remind the adorable pair how much he loves them.

Nothing quite like expecting to find the dead body of your friend in nightmare ocean land to make your already lovey-dovey character all the more gushy with friends while they still live.

Yes, one narrator to the next, a living Emerald (and robot emerald) is more heartwarming than a dead one.

"Yet another day I wish I had a giant laser." Well, at least digging down through ice would be easier than digging down through rock.

Shelly decides it would be best to pick away at the ice at first, but Milloni is done her nap and reveals a strange-looking... gun? It looks like those bar-code readers at a store. "I tried fire, but since it isn't cold temperature that froze the water, all that did was change the shape. Anyways, I'll be getting molecular readings with this."

Mei Ling shows up and says, "Perhaps I could propose thermite? If the water is iced due to chemicals, then maybe fighting it with an unquenchable chemical is in order?"

"But...

"Are you saying this ice isn't cold??  Strange."

Lucky isn't familiar with thermite so he doesn't flip out over safety issues.  Instead he smiles, shrugs, and suggests standard paranoia.  "Probably best if we wait for Milloni to find out exactly what's going on before experimenting with chemical solutions.  Don't want some un-expected chain reaction to harm the lake's flora or fauna."

  First of all, Mei-Ling is awesome.  Second, Joe you should be ashamed as a Darkthorne for not considering explosive and combustible methods.

  "Well, Thermite would slice a car in half so it would probably work here anyways, it not as well.  Though it would be for the best to examine the sorta kinda ice first, in case of an undesired reaction."

After an examination from Milloni, she gives the chemical composition to Mei-Ling, who thinks about it and says, "...yeah. There IS another solution, but it would probably be best to go with thermite for expedience."

Thermite is great for working from top to bottom. Not so good for working from bottom to top. So yeah... the AFF really needed Joe, Lucky and Mav to arrive and "dig them out" as it were.

Mei-Ling goes over the safety procedures of working with thermite. Shelly says, "There is one last precaution. Maverick, you like staying hidden while keeping a watchful eye. It would probably be best if you watched Joe and Lucky from the trees. If an enemy were to happen upon our lake only to see what looks like an icy bulge, chances are they would go check it out and apprehend Joe and Lucky."

Lucky listens carefully to all safety instructions then exhales in relief.  "Comforting to know we've got Maverick watching our backs.  And that this chemical works fast.  I was worried about being out in the open picking at ice for a long time.  Even with camo precautions, it's still scary."

  One of the benefits of being friends with Maverick is that you already know he's watching you from the shadows...  We were trying to talk about comforting things right?

  "Well, certainly faster than having to do it by hand, yeah.  Thanks again you two."

Shelly squeaks with happiness and gives a thumbs-up. Mei-Ling gives a light bow and says, "You are more than welcome."

Some padding is given to Joe and Lucky for the dual purpose of not having to rest their knees on a hard surface for a long time as well as having a bit of protective gear concerning if stray thermite spews at them. Thankfully, the tarp is large enough to cover Joe, Lucky and Mei-Ling. She is, of course, joining them.

Soon, the group is able to climb up and Maverick heads to the trees as requested.

When the trio is in place, which took some coordinating, Mei-Ling decides to start first so that the other two can see her using the thermite and learn by example. When her portion burns out, she lets Joe take over. "Because of how dangerous this stuff is, we need to be very careful the amount we use at one time. Just use a little, spread it out, then let it burn out before you start again."

Lucky loves Shelly's adorable squeaks and mews in reply.  He really appreciates all the safety precautions...  and the other two going first.

"You two are amazing!"

When his turn comes up he does his best to look competent.

  "Having the luxury to handle this sort of thing properly is a change of pace, yeah."  Joe patiently applies the science burnings.

  As for lucky, he probably wont light himself (or others) on fire, so looking competent is quite likely!

With the team on high-alert, they are able to carve their way at a surprisingly fast pace. Lucky is the one to first find the "bomb", so it is up to Joe to finish removing it and/or disabling it. Mei-Ling explains that because this is a technological device, while she may understand the chemical properties of what it does, she does not know the first thing on how the machine itself works.

Meanwhile, Maverick can be heard giving a caw-ing crow-call sound (because using a two-way radio could be detected by Robotnik's folk).

Lucky's so on edge he slaps his hands over his mouth to keep from screaming in alarm when he finds the bomb.  He had to fight himself to keep from immediately bolting for shore.

"Let's just get this thing to cover..."

Too late!  When Lucky hears Mav's warning he dives under the camo tarp!

  Well, at least being near the device means he's already under the tarp.  He resists the urge to attempt disarming it for now because if it's still working, that means there is totally nothing suspicious going on honest.

Sounds can be heard of a hover craft landing and SWATbots exiting the craft!

One of the robots points its wrist at the lake's shore and scans it.

Bot1: "Test confirmed. Success."
Bot2: "Report back to Ra."

Assuming the freedom fighters remain hidden, the SWATbots return to the craft and take off.

Between being terrified and lying prone on a frozen lake, Lucky is shivering eount to rival even Antoine.  Good thing these SWATs are the standard un-observant kind.  Once they leave, Lucky bursts into tears and hurries to hug the friends he nearly just lost...  (Mav'll have to wait for his hug till after he comes out of hiding.)

"I'm so glad you're ok!  I was so worried that it was the end.  That we would be spotted and roboticized!"

  See, this is why Joe is a failure as a brooding badass.  He didn't destroy the swatbots anyways while yelling about how much Robotnic ruined his life more than anybody else's.

  "Right, would people prefer if I tried to properly disarm the thing, or just break it."

Probably for the best. If anyone attacked and destroyed the SWATbots, their lack of reporting back would have this lake investigated further when it was merely a "test site" before.

Mei-Ling is scared stiff and is clinging to Lucky with a death grip. She tries to answer, but has to take a few deep breathes first. "P-p-proper... please..." She looks back to Lucky. "I thought so too. But its not over. We're here."

Unsurprisingly, there is no sounds coming from Maverick.

Lucky appreciates Mei-Ling's bear hug for the sake of his own nerves but does his best to forget himself to try and comfort her.  "Yeah.  It's over."

He's still having paranoid imagining of Joe spontaneously freezing or exploding or both.  "Please be careful, Joe."

  It just goes to show that Joe will never meet the standards of Cool Brooding Loners ™, considering he didn't attack the Swats while screaming about his life sucks more than anyone else on the planet.

  "Well, like I said.  I'm actually allowed to be more careful than usual for once."  That said, he gets to work on that.

  PS:  Lucky has good taste.  Or is it that Mei-Ling as good taste?  Possibly both.

After what feels like forever thanks to the time-stretching powers of fear, Joe finally has the device deactivated. The water suddenly liquefies and Joe finds himself deep under water and getting crushed by the pressure.

Lucky and Mei-Ling then see a grappling hook come up to the surface and they get the idea, grab hold and try to pull Joe up.

Down below, the tough coyote is trying to swim to the surface after the equivalent of water punching him in the everything, only to have to dodge a few sinking chunks of ice that are still dissolving.

Within a minute that seemed like half an hour, Joe reaches the surface, seemingly fine! Nonetheless, Shelly's head pops up and she asks in a half-panicked tone, "Is everyone alright?!"

Mei-Ling looks like she wants to cry. "I'm sorry! I should have figured that device was maintaining the effect! I thought the ice would melt at a slower rate!" with that, she faints. Shelly goes to hold onto her.

Lucky shrieked in alarm to see his friend suddenly buried in water!  Not to mention suddenly not having a surface to stand on.  The familiar grappling hook popping up went a long way toward reducing his panic, though.  Even so, when Joe popped up, Lucky had to restrain himself from glomping his friend lest he risk making it harder for him to tread water.  Nevertheless, he reaches to take hold of Joe's shoulder to make sure he doesn't sink, just in case he's having trouble staying above water.

"No one could have predicted that," he tries to assure Mei-Ling between gasps and sputters.

He headshakes to Shelly. "No!  Not alright!  We need to get to solid ground and hide fast!"

  "I appear to have accidentally found the defrost setting, rather than the off setting."  With how often he and so many other characters declare physics optional, Joe figures he should have known better.  Oh well, at least hindsight implies being alive to have it.

  "Also thanks for helping me not drown.  Now let's help Mei Ling be fallen over somewhere more practical." Joe's doing better, though he'll be doing much better when he and everyone else are on more stable ground.

  Well okay, Shelly would be fine.

Shelly squeaks at the sight of the fainting pig and says, "Hold onto me and I'll try to get you to the surface faster!"

Then Crucible pops up and offers to take one or two himself. Shelly may be fast, but she isn't strong.

Between the bunch of them, the group is on land relatively fast. Maverick is there, waiting for them, and has opened the elevator.

Lucky was so focused on Joe's safety, he failed to notice Mei-Ling pass out.

When his attention is drawn to her plight, he gasps, "Oh no!"

Sure he wants to be helpful getting her to safety, but the most he can do is not be a burden himself to the seabears.  By the time he's on shore he's out of breath and takes a moment to collect himself.

"Good to see you well, Mav."

He checks to make sure Mei Ling is breathing ok.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Tue 26 Apr 2016.

  Joe's more petty thankfulness is how the elevator is working again, because that means not having to carry people up and down the shaft after his poor impression of a seabear.

  "Our demands include snuggly blankets for all involved, Mei Ling first."

(Fast forwarding)

About 10 minutes later, the group (Minus Mav) is in snugly blankets, Mei Ling is awake and feeling better, and all three are being given hot chocolate to help warm up.

Shelly is giving them all a smile and says, "Blankets are nice and all, but whenever you bunch are ready, you should join me in the chakuzi. Hot. Relaxing. And will leave you with a good water memory when you return home."

If Lucky could read narrative he'd assure Joe that being relieved about not having to carry unconscious people down a deep shaft is not petty.  But as for his own thankfulness, he's glad nobody drown.

On the elevator trip he offered Joe a big hug.  "So glad you're alright."

Mei Ling will get a "glad you're alive" Lucky hug when she's up for it.

When Shelly makes her offer, Lucky forces a smile.  "Thanks.  This week has been working hard at giving me a phobia for water."

  Clearly as a brooding loner badass-Damnit Joe, what are you doing accepting man hugs!? That's all wrong!  "I'm glad I'm allright too."

  He nods to Shelly's offer. "That sounds like a good idea.  Cute people in water not taller than you are." Cute people in water has been scientifically proven to be better than dead people in water.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:50, Tue 03 May 2016.

Shelly scrambles to get swimsuits for the bunch and before they know it, blankets are replaced with hot water that soothes and relaxes. Shelly is giving each one a hug and a kiss followed by cheek rub. "I'm so glad you all came and are OK... you really risked yourselves."

Mav blushes, but cuddles the teddybear of the sea.

Mei-Ling rubs noses with Shelly and squees from the affection. "Any time, my princess."

There's plenty of cuddles for Mav too.  Lucky was planning on spending some "glad you're not dead" time with Joe after that nightmare ocean business, but yet another crisis cropped up before even one day of settling down passed.

Princess kisses may be appropriate for heroes who saved the day, but it still comes as a surprise for Lucky.  He blushes, smiles, and returns the affection.  "Thank, Shelly!  Love you!  So glad you're alive and well.  That radio message had me so worried.  What happened to your radio anyway?"

 Joe is highly appreciative of the cute princess attention. "Thanks, Shelly.  I prefer you all alive anyways."  Darkthornes can smile, they just had their cynical knobs stuck on 11 for a few years to make people forget such.

The hot tub time is hyper relaxing and, despite the universe conspiring to make Lucky gain aquaphobia, restores his faith in Shelly's favorite thing... since she is using Lucky's fave things: Affection, friendship and reassurances of safety.

Granted, these are things everyone enjoys.

Afterwords, they are treated to some yummy seafood dinner. The people of Aquarius are yelling out cheers to the bunch for rescuing Aquarius. Even Thomas can be seen smiling at them.

Success!  Shelly's plan works!  Lucky is all smiles and compliments for the chef during the dinner.  He blushes from all the praise and accepts it graciously.

"You all know that I love you and could do no less.  I want you all to know that everyone in Channelwood was really concerned for you.  If not for how exhausted everyone was from a recent crisis, I'm sure you'd have seen just about everyone come over to help you all out.

"Speaking of whom...  Has the radio been fixed?  I'd really like for them to know everything's OK now."

When he gets a chance, he'll check on Milloni well being.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Wed 18 May 2016.

  "At the very least, your problems today were able to be cleared up.  Things did not go nearly so well for the people we had to help earlier."

  He brings along tasty snacks for Milloni, so Lucky can focus more on the personal attention end without mixing up holding plates and hugs in a fit of sudden bashfulness.

Milloni walks into the room and looks bashful. "I haven't had the chance to fix the radio. I've been too busy with the bigger issue at hand and, well.. you know."

Shelly nods. "Milloni is our only techy. But some of us know some basic maintenance for keeping Aquarius operational without running poor Milloni rugged. I'll ask our comm maintenance guy to work on it. Milloni needs to relax."

"Oh that was thoughtful!  Thanks, Joe!"

When Milloni enters, Lucky gets an endearing smile.  He offers a gentle arm-around in case she's feeling weak-kneed.  He nods to Shelly then coos to Milloni soothingly, "Good to see you feeling improved, Milloni.  Good news.  Thanks in part to your help, the lake is back to normal!  Thank you so much for your hard work!"

  "It is fortunate that nobody was hurt, but that also means you have been through the most.  So you deserve the rest."  No he's not going to bring up his ice cold dunk to Milloni.

Fun times are had and Shelly turns the horrible experience around into a memory of fun at a water park, pretty much. By the time the group is heading home, they are at the "heh. Glad that's over" stage instead of still being in "Whyyyy?!" mode.

(End chapter. Chris' turn to start a chapter. :p)

Lucky wouldn't mention negative things to the poor sick lady either.  Early into the trip back the group bumps into the armed group that was sent as backup from Channelwood.  Eventually the heroes return home.  After they update Katy with what happened, she informs the group that the badgers plan to eventually build a village of their own.  In the meantime, lots of people have opened their homes to the badgers.  Including Katy.  She'll be rooming with some of the badger matriarchs for a while.  Lucky volunteers to room with a few of the guys.

With that all taken care of, he lets Joe know that he'll be heading for Emmy's place to check how she's doing.

"I need to have a talk with her about disappearing like that.  You're welcome to join."

  "I should probably come along to save her time repeating herself about secretive secretiveness."

If Maverick came along, he didn't announce it. Basically disappeared as soon as the team reached Channelwood.

Lucky is soon at Emerald's hutt. She is laying in bed, reading a book. She looks over to see Lucky and Joe show up and sits up to face the two. "Success?"

Lucky smiles at the sight of seeing Emmy relaxing, safe and sound.  He nods to the question.

"That's the super short version.  Want to hear the whole story?"

"I find ice to be more preferable in drinks."

Emerald welcomes the two with open arms and pets them between expressing grattitude that they made it back OK. She is quickly reassured Mav is OK and then listens to the full story. Once the story is told, Emerald says, "Wow.. so Robotnik is beginning to find flash-freeze tech that can cause an entire lake to turn into solid ice within seconds. I'm very pleased at your success. I assume you already filled Katy in?"

Lucky returns the fluffy hugs and such then nods.  "She let us know about the sleeping arrangements and such.  I'm kinda looking forward to having some roommates."

His mind returns to the badger that warned him about the water with his dying breath and he loses his smile.

  "Keep Thinking about the ones still alive, Lucky.  It helps."  That and saveing the depressing stuff for when you need an extra push into violence against killer robots or general psychopaths.

Emerald answers what Lucky said with, "Me too. The badgers have all been very grateful. They are sad to have lost their home, but happy to be alive."

She looks at Joe and nods, then looks back to Lucky. It's quite an experience to hold the hand of someone as they move from living... to dead. "Commere, Lucky." she sits him on her lap and pets him. Then looks at Joe and pats next to herself before looking back at Lucky and saying, "It's going to be OK. You helped save all of Aquarius. Your loved ones are still here."

Kitty cat is where he belongs.  On a lap, purring, and being pet.  "Thanks for the comfort..."

He can't hold it in anymore and sobs into Emmy's shoulder.  He's lost count of how many friends could have died in the last two days.  It's a tad stressful.

  Joe takes a seat, and just quietly offers to hold Lucky's hand while Emerald deals with cuddly mommy time.

Emmy puts one of her arms around Joe, giving him a knowing look. She can only imagine Joe has seen his share of death if his statement has any backing to it. Then looks at Lucky. She just pets him and lets him let it out. She did her crying earlier in private anyway. Though seeing Lucky cry makes her eyes water. Both because she feels bad for him... and because she actually knew those people who died. Not well... but well enough.

Lucy squeezes the offered hand and tries to collect himself.

"It's been a rough couple days for us, huh?"

  It has hardly been all sunshine and flowers, but Joe's more than learned that so many people have it much worse.  Even when they are not deliberately trying to have the most tragic backstory possible.

  Joe nods.  "Yeah, usually the disasters have the courtesy to space themselves out a bit more."

Emerald says, "It has. Thanks for thinking of me through it all. I appreciate that you guys came to check on me after you returned."

Lucky stifles a chuckle at Joe's comment.  Weird thing is that it's true.  To Emmy he gives a compassionate smile and nods.  "Of course, Emmy.  We love you very much!  You'd do no less if the roles were reversed.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about you or your clone.  Is she fixed?  Are you feeling better?"

  Joe considers joking about how she would have checked on them faster, but Lucky may not take it very well.  Ugh, having tact is hard.

  "Everyone worries about you, but only us can worry about the specifics in this case, it is true."

Emerald nods. "My clone has been repaired, yes... mechanically. But she and I share memories, so we both need emotional repair. That takes time. Feeling better? Technically yes; I feel relief that it is over and there is a plan in order. But I knew those people who died. It may take me a couple weeks or as long as a couple months before I'm fully back to my old self again."

Lucky thinks about how to into Joe's point.

"That's the reason we came to see you.  We're the only ones who really know.  Well the Badgers kinda know to a certain extent.  But not as much as we do.  So I wanted to come support you.  Completely.  Didn't expect to break down like that..."

  "It's understandable, Lucky. It's been absolutely horrible and you actually have a moment to unwind with nothing going wrong, and people who won't think less of you for it.  You kept it back when it mattered."

Emerald says, "What Joe said. And... it's nice to have people who know about some of my secrets. I'll need you in the future when something hurts and I have nobody to talk to. I've not been allowed to break down in public. So I tend to go in private when I feel it coming..."

Lucky gets a hopeful smile and wags his tail slowly.  He's glad to hear so much encouragement.  But even more than that he's glad to hear Emmy is grateful for people to share her secrets with.

"Yeah.  I'll always open arms and a listening ear for you.  I can't imagine how hard it's been for you.  But you don't have to be alone on that anymore."

  Joe nods. It can't be grimdark emo all the time.  "Be sure to let us know if you think your double could use the support also."

Emmy sings

"A promise made may still come true,
so I am waiting here for you.
If you don't come, what will I do?
Who shall I tell my secrets to?"

(go to 0:49)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4ddtczA3wc

She pauses from the song and says, "Thank you both. Uh... my double... will remember the times you comfort me as though she had experienced it. And vice versa."

Lucky's moved to tears again.  But this time happy tears.  "Wow, Emmy.  You have such a heart-melting voice.  And that song...  So fits."

  Joe is less outwardly notable about it, but he's still smiling more than usual.  "Thanks, Emerald.  Though if it makes a difference, then sometime memories of visiting the double personally can't hurt."  It certainly is good material to prevent jealous copy plots, at least.

Emerald nods. "Thanks, Joe. I'm sure she will appreciate it."

She smiles at Lucky and rubs noses with him. "More where that singing came from, hon."

OK, so 14 is a little old to be nuzzling, but Emmy is enjoying the excuses to get away with it because Lucky is a kid AND a bit of an affectionate sort. Nuzzling Joe would be taken as a flirt, unfortunately. But hey, at least she has her arm around him still. "Maybe arranging a concert would be in order. Our visitors and Channelwood in general would probably like that."

Joe is smiling! Yaaaaay!  And he's covering one of the important topics that Lucky wanted to go over.  He's worried that Emmy's twin is super lonely and consequently so is flesh and blood Emmy.  Not to mention the loneliness of having to keep big dangerous secrets.  Lucky just celebrated his sweet sixteen, so there's a good chance that Emmy withheld the nuzzle, but either way he's happy for her offer.  Levels of blush proportional the affection received.

 "That sounds like a great idea, Emmy!  Especially if a concert would help put you in a good mood.  I'll be happy to help with any prep work needed."  Happy tail wag smiley!

   "They could use a bit more than just a roof over their head that isn't trying to kill them, yeah."

Emerald's performance goes nicely. Everyone has fun, especially Emerald. It is anyone's guess if that is Robo Emmy or Bio Emmy. Who knows? Only Emerald does. Heck, it could have been Robo Emmy that Joe and Lucky just spoke with. It will be a mystery. Forever.

(CHAPTER OVER)