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."