It has been a couple weeks since the victory of the Weather Station. Michael has been extremely busy running Channelwood, ever since Katy got bed-ridden sick.

A deer named Autumn is wandering around, seemingly aimlessly, as if looking for someone.

http://timothius.deviantart.com/art/Autumn-468170286
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Tue 15 July 2014.

  Joe has been doing everything Katy asks... More than usual, anyways.  Does Sally ever get the flu nooooo.

  Though when he sees Autumn wandering around, he asks "Anything I could help you with?"  Insert adding her name to the end of that if he's met her already, Joe's past kind of blurs together at times.

Lucky of course has been doting over Katy, making sure she has plenty of flowers, get well notes, and reading materials besides the essentials like water, food, comfort, and medicine.

When he notices the deer he pauses from flower sniffing to smile and wave.

"I'm guessing she could use some help with finding someone."

Autumn is a regular member of Channelwood. When she spots the two helpful people she gives a nervous smile. "I... was actually looking for Miss Haynsworth. She said she would help me with my basket weaving and, well... I just can't find her anywhere."

Her use of "Miss" betrays Autumn's young age. She's about 14.

 Hmm, Emerald was one of those people who was more sneaky than he was (Deliberately, he still seems to have a slight edge in incidental 'I was here the whole time though' obscurity).  "Well, we can try to help you find her then.  I'm assuming you already checked her room then?"

Lucky smiles endearingly at the adorable girl and offers her the flower he's holding.

"I'm happy to help, Autumn.  I'm sure it's something simple like a small emergency she's helping with.  Like a kitchen spill or something.  Let's ask around."

He approaches to stand nest to her to indicate he's ready to follow her.

The deer smiles and takes the flower. She nods to Joe. "Yeah. Checked her room."

When the group asks around, it seems nobody knows where Emerald went to. She's nowhere to be found. Michael indicates that Emerald was going to be part of the breakfast team, but when the group checks the kitchen, they sound concerned because Emmy never showed up for breakfast.

  "Well, that's probably bad.  I suppose we should check the various not in plain view bits of channelwood to be sure before trying to think 'where is the closest crazy thing that isn't Middletown' and looking there."

Lucky is in a panic, worried for Emerald's safety.  "This is terrible!  Something must have happened to her.  It's not like her to miss several appointments in a row without warning.  You go ahead and check those places in case she fell into a ditch or something, Joe.  I'll run over to Michael to have him make a search party.  Maybe someone can track her by scent.  Be careful!"

He'll hurry off to do as he said he would should Joe agree to the plan.

A thorough searching later and it is discovered there is no sign of Emerald anywhere in Channelwood.

Michael decides it best not to inform Katy since the girl is sick. Soon, several search parties are assembled (Joe and Lucky's players choose who to play and those two will be going in the same search party)

  Joe's player chooses alternate timeline Matt Darkthorne... Nah, he uses Joe (surprise!).

  "Hey, do you think this will be serious dangerous, or stupid dangerous?" He asks of *insert Chris Alt Here*  "Or not dangerous at all and just her taking a nap somewhere."

Lucky winds up in joe's team.  He's so sure the worst has happened, that he's been crying.

To Joe's question he answers, "It's never not dangerous.  Poor Emerald.  She deserved better...

"I'm sorry, Emerald!  I know you wouldn't want people to cry, but I can't help it!  I'm gunna miss you!"

For the convenience of the GM, team Joe and Lucky is composed only of those two.

After hours of searching and yelling out Emerald's name, the two find a cave. Not far inside, they can see a light in the distance. Once they get to the light, they find a door made of rocks, but it is opened.... otherwise, it would be invisible. The door was clearly meant to be a hidden door that blended with the cave wall.

Inside the room with the left-open door is a cot on the right side of the room, a desk with drawers on the left side of the room, a chair in front of the desk, and some odd pedestal at the center-back of the room.

The desk has a framed photo of Emerald and an overlander man standing beside each other with bright smiles. There is also an opened book laying on the desk. It seems to be some kind of journal. The last entry is about a week ago and has what look like little water droplet stains on it.

"The shift in the plates is disturbing. It could mean the end for the people of Marook. Not if I can help it. I had hoped to be further along in the development of the getaway, but even in its unstable condition, what I currently have is likely better than what will become of Marook. My visits have become less frequent; it is becoming harder to keep secrets from my dear family in Channelwood. How I long to tell them. How I wish you were here, Hunter."

The book has plenty of earlier entries. Most of them about things that don't make sense on their own, but together, it is clear Emerald has been doing something that involved helping people in far away places.

Inside the drawers are equations and drawings of odd contraptions. One drawing, though, shows a diagram of the legendary chaos emeralds. The diagram is detailed, as though Emerald was sure these things were real.

  Lucky is making Joe look wildly optimistic by comparison again, that's bad.

  Unfortunately, they seem to have stumbled upon something almost, but not quite, as bad as Emerald dying to ElK Bears in the woods.

  "Well.  ****"  He looks to Lucky and says, "Right. Looks like it is 'hidden civilization baggage' time Lucky.  Only this kind is more annoying to deal with than where Tim comes.  People may glow and explode scenery with their mind."

Lucky lovingly caresses the tearstained pages, shedding tears of his own, gently closes the book, and hugs it.

"Poor Emerald!  Carrying so many cares all by herself.  If only I could have know to share her burdens.  But this is good news, isn't it?  It means there's a chance she wasn't eaten by a wild animal or turned into a robot.  Maybe she's just twisted an ankle in this other zone she was trying to help.  Let's hurry and figure out how she was getting there!"

He sets the book down and begins searching for clues with renewed hope.

There doesn't seem to by much else in the room than the desk, cot and pedestal.

But upon looking at the pedestal, there is a book on it. When the book is opened, there is a moving image in it of some rocky place with storm clouds. The clouds light up with lightning. But the ocean waters and even the cracks in the ground occasionally flash with some kind of light from below.

  Joe's normal instincts suggest looking for a page of a less lame place.  Joe's less normal yet more practical instincts suggest 'screw it, just touch the page expecting transport'.  He listens to the second set of instincts.

Lucky is amazed and uneasy about the magical book.  Most of the stories he's heard about magic items didn't end well.

"Woah.  Must be magic.  Probably best that we don't touch it.NO!"

He lunges forward to try and stop Joe from getting himself vaporized or something for touching an unknown arcane relic...

OOC: but if it's convenient to plot he'll trip over himself in the attempt and wind up touching the book.

That place they just saw in the book? Yup; Joe and Lucky wind up there. The feeling of disorientation doesn't include a shift or woosh. Just suddenly being somewhere they weren't just a second ago. The winds here are violent, whipping Joe and Lucky's clothes, hair and fur around. The lightning flashes now have rumbles of thunder to accompany them. The distant sound of twisting metal mixed with a sad whale moan can be heard coming from both the sky and the sea.

Now that Joe and Lucky are in this place, though, they can see the water a lot better; it seems to sparkle, as if liquid crystal.

The rocks seem to just be normal rocks of various kinds. Mostly grey stone, but with some black rocks and brown rocks mixed in.

What looks like some kind of badger mobian is clinging to a nearby rock, his lower half submerged in the crystalline waters.

  Crazy storms, stuff breaking, and whale noises?  Oh no, the have been transported into Star Trek 4: The Voyage home!  Lucky was right they really shouldn't have used the book.

  But, on to other more immediate problems than Spock in am 80's headband.  "Right, despite old advertisements sparkling water probably is not very good for your body Lucky."   That said, he uses what his player almost forgot about after all this time.

  "Don't worry, this is pretty safe if you don't flail around." He tries to yell to the badger over the storm, and Mr robo claw pops out, then launches over to attempt a grab and drag.

"Aaah!" Lucky yelps when suddenly translocated.

"Oh no!  Now we're stuck here, I just know it!  OH NO!  Someone in trouble!"

Since Joe is doing the bat-grapple-hook thing, Lucky imagines the victim thrashing, or getting grabbed by a giant sea monster, or some other reason for Joe to be yanked into the deadly water.  So he reaches to hug Joe round the chest from behind, saying "I'll help brace you!"

The claw grabs the badger, who doesn't flail at all. No sea monsters either. When the badger is dragged to the duo, they can see the badger is literally paralyzed with a look of terror in his face. Any checking of pulse will reveal he's dead.

 Oh, "Well, that-" guy was such a wuus "'s terrible."

 Since Lucky is already grabbing him, he uses this position to enable faster hugs if the kid freaks out at the sight of a dead body.

  "Okay, one less thing to worry about I guess."  Hmm, check them for-wait, no guys wears pants outside of Channelwood no pockets to check.

  He glances around for any thing in the scenery of note in all the rocks and sparkle water.

Lucky staggers back with a gasp interrupted by a dry heave.

"He...   W-what could be so t-terrible...  That a man would d-die of fright?!"

He readies his bow and also searches the area...  for any horrifying child-eating vulturedactles that might be lurking in the nearby shadows.

Just around the corner, the duo can see a rock face that seems to occasionally fuzz with white noise as if it were a holographic projection. Just past it is a cave. But to the right of it is a path that leads up to some kind of building.

  "I could think of a few things, but I won't mention them for obvious reasons."

  He considers the Not Batcave, and Some Building.  "Lucky, you figure we should check the normal building normal survivors might be in, or the hidden cave people who think they are more important would be hiding in?"

Lucky's paranoia is in high gear, so when he considers Joe's question he imagines it a choice of which way he wants to die.  Enter a structure so it'll collapse on you?  Enter a cave so it'll collapse on you?  Or stay put and wait around to find out what horrific thing scared the badger to death?

"Windows!" he blurts out.

He desperately tries to organize his thoughts to communicate coherantly.

"Normal building.  Can look through windows for danger.  I'll cover you."

He turns his back to the house and will walk cautiously backward when he hears Joe moving, bow at the ready for anything that may try to sneak up on them from behind.

When the group make it to the building, it doesn't seem rickety at all. It's built of stone. The inside has a fancy office-like bedroom with a desk made of mahogany. The drawers are opened, though, and the place is a little bit of a mess, as if things were very quickly grabbed and packed. Consequently, there doesn't seem to be anything left here of note.

There is a groan, however, coming from under the nearby bed.

  Joe decides not to challenge Lucky to rock paper scissors over who gets to check under the bed.

  "If you're not a zombie, say something coherent."  Joe that's not much better.

Lucky may be scared out of his mind but he still has compunctionns about unreasonable demands from someone who may be dying.

"I don't think that test'll work."

That's telling him, Lucky!

"I've heard of at least two kinds of undead who speak perfectly clearly...  if maybe with an accent."

Welp.  Priorities.  Lucky is sure to open the nearest window to have a ready escape rout then readies his bow again.  "Please tell us what might have killed the badger outside."

The mumbling voice says, "Water... don't touch... the water..." Then, only a sigh as if the man's last breath.

  "Well, that was both informative as well as unfortunate." He looks to Lucky, "I know we live in the robot apocalypse and all, but sorry gotta see so many people dying so fast."

  Well, technically they didn't see either of them die.  Just after the fact or heard.

"No!  Don't die!" Lucky cries.

He drops his bow and hurries over to the bed to move it out of the way, hoping to find the person underneath still breathing.

"Don't die.  Don't die.  Don't die," he sobs.

All lucky finds underneath is another badger mobian. He isn't breathing and his eyes are completely blank white. Clutched in his hand is a piece of paper.

Should anyone grab it and look it over, it is a map of the area. Seems most of the area is inside the cave they saw earlier.

 If Lucky for some strange and shocking reason does not want to loot the recently deceased, he'll do it for the kid.  Otherwise, assumptions of Lucky looting.

  "Lucky, I'm not so huge a jerk to think you do not deserve some time to deal with people dying in front of you.  But unfortunately, I'm just enough of a jerk to point out that we're here looking for Emerald.  So following our only other lead now means more chance of finding her in good condition."

Tears streaming down his face, wild eyed and paranoid, Lucky wastes no time in recovering his bow.  He doesn't loot the corpse, but he does do a frantic search of the area for umbrellas, rain coats, scuba gear...  anything to help keep from getting wet.

"Y-yeah.  G-get Emerad.  Get outta here.  Fast.  Good plan."

He nocks an arrow and hurries for the exit, hunched over like he's expecting enemy fire.  He stops at the door and cautiously takes a quick peek outside before signaling Joe.

Once the two make it to the cave, it seems like a normal cave at first until they get about 30 feet into it. Then they find the stone pillars, carved into intricate, clearly man-made structures. The rest of the cave appears much like someone just took a cave and tamed it. There is evidence everywhere of this place having been lived in, but also evidence of this place having been quickly evacuated. Still, according to the map, there is some kind of underground port that looks to be the end of the cave. All the other places on the map are just rooms, rooms, more rooms. As the duo explore the cave, it is clear this was an entire city under the ground. Most rooms are like self-contained homes. Some are designed like meeting places. Others seem like commons areas where people just hung out; such as the center square where they had a water fountain.

But eventually, the duo makes it to the final room, where there is a huge underground pool of the liquid crystal and what look to be docks. The most noticeable thing, though, is Emerald, hunched over and seated against a nearby wall.

  Great, now Joe feels like a jerk... No, really, this is great.  I means he's not too far gone into cliche loner territory because he actually cares when children cry.

   He does hope to not need a reminder about being able to cry over things himself though, now that Emerald is in sight.  Joe hurries over as fast as his cartoon animal person legs can carry him.  Which is not as fast as he'd like despite despite lots of examples.

Lucky gasps!  "Emerald!"

He takes a step toward her then freezes.  To find Emerald alive so soon is just too good to be true.  His paranoia is in such overdrive several deadly scenarios race through his mind.  A pit trap opens up just as the boys reach Emerald.  A chunk of ceiling falls on their heads.  Or lands in the water to splash them with the deadly liquid.  Or Emmy's body bursts open when the tentacle monster within senses more victims to infest approaching.

Lucky draws back his bow, aiming everywhere as he cautiously follows Joe.

"B-b-be c-caref... c-c-careful, J-j-j-j-Joe..."

OOC: Reminder Lucky is young adult in this story.

Emerald is unconscious, it seems.

No Eldridge horrors appear.

  Ah yes, hold on.  Joe still cares when he makes big babies cry. See, Lucky isn't literally a baby but- okay moving on.

  "Feel free to say I told you so if forgetting my usual selfishness is a bad idea."  After checking Emerald for any 'bad idea to move them' injuries, he will attempt to pick up the fox so they can at least carry her someplace that isn't the freakin dock in a 'water BAD' situation.

Lucky is relieved nothing horrible has happened to Joe or himself just yet, but he remains convinced that something horrible is about to happen, so he remains on guard.  Obviously, something horrible has already happened to Emerald, so no sense in letting it happen again for lack of vigilance.  He totally agrees with the "get Emmy away from the deadly water" plan.

"One should not deride another for altruism if that's what you're getting at, even if the person literally asked for it.  I'm sure 'I told you so' would be the furthest thing from Emerald's mind if you got hurt with rescuing me...  Come to think of it...  what usual selfishness?  I can't recall even one example."

Emerald is thusly moved. She peeks an eye open at Joe. Then turns her head to look in Lucky's direction. "H...hello. Are you here for the evacuation?"

  "Well, we did come here for the purpose of getting you out of wherever it was, yeah.  Hard part looks like managing to get back home, or wherever counts as safe right now."

  He'll let Lucky field the obvious 'do you not recognize us?' questions.

Lucky wants to hug Emmy in a heartfelt, tearful reunion, but he's certain the moment he lets his guard down a monster will attack.  He barely allows himself a glance.  Anything more and he'll burst into tears.  Which will make him fail to notice the giant spider creeping closer on the ceiling.

"Good to see you alive, Emerald.  I was so worried you were dead.  Assuming you are the Emerald we know and not a look-alike.  You do recognize us, don't you?"

Emerald combs her fingers through her hair. "You are Joe and Lucky, right? Appologies if I seem hazy. Things have been a bit crazy here."

Emerald finally manages to stand on her own, but still leans on Joe. "The way out is... The way..." She points a direction that dead-ends into the water. "Power Word: Rise!"

Out of the water rises a submarine. The submarine then opens on the top. Which is level with the dock. "Step inside. Do not worry about the water on the submarine. You may experience a startle, but nothing more."

  "Just so we're clear, how come nobody else has used this to run off?  Unless it's your personal submarine."  Hey, there's crazier things the girls he has met own, even if restricted to this Bboard.

  He will carefully lead Emerald to the Sub, and asks Lucky "Make sure nothing horrible happens to us before you give it a shot."

Lucky is unsure about Joe's question.  They've only encountered to others, so is that who he meant by "nobody else?"  There must have been many others.  Oh.  Joe's assuming the voice-activated sub would not return after unloading refugees or that there wasn't a fleet of one-way subs.  But maybe there is another escape the others took.  Options are good.

Now how is he supposed to be able to prevent the sub from exploding on contact?  Or keep the giant monster in the water from crushing them?  Or several other things that race through his mind.  But he follows, eyes darting everywhere, occasionally turning to make sure they're not being followed.

"That's right, Emerald.  Try and take it easy.  We're here to help you."

Emerald looks at Joe. "Nobody else came down until now... the others got into the other subs."

The two are able to easily board the craft. No issues. Just the unnerving sound of the storms from outside and the occasional rubble falling from the ceiling.

Inside, it's just like a normal submarine... except a LOT more spacious. The sub can carry possibly 50 people comfortably. Emerald asks weakly, "Is there no one else?"

Once the duo confirm everyone else they saw was dead, she closes the hatch.

  Joe is glad to see there are slightly less odds of bashing their head into things in the sub.

  "Sorry we couldn't find any other survivors, Emerald." But hey, at least the entire point of this trip so far has turned up.  "I don't suppose you have some insight into where we even are and what's going on for us, do you?" Magic books are just normal enough to not ask about.  Yes.

On the one hand, slightly relieved there's fewer places to watch for ambushes, on the other expecting to be slowly drown, suffocated, crushed, etc, Lucky sits himself down in one of the 50 places to sit.

"Too much to hope for that this sub will take us directly to Aquarius safe and sound, isn't it?

"Is there anything we can do to help you feel better, Emmy?"

Emerald says, "Where we are? This place is Marook. Though it will soon be known as the Sea of Nightmares."

She twitches and then says, "As for where the sub will take us? We are going to Grandview. It's a place about 40 miles from here. It was the Marookians' original home, but they were driven from it ten generations ago. It's a gamble, but the hope is that going there will be OK now. Anything is better than what Marook is becoming..."

  Pffft, Lukcy's only worrying about NORMAL problems.  Here, we are going to show you how to worry about REAL problems.

  "Please tell me you are speaking melodramatically and not 'because we are in the past and that is what that sea is called in our time' sense."  See?

  "Though, considering we are going to Grandview right now.  Why did they get kicked out, and is there a practical benefit to us being able to say 'oh, don't worry. We're not from there'."

OOC:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs_rXxi0zhM 
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Fri 21 Nov 2014.

Lucky gulps, worrying that he and his friends are going to get stuck between a rock and a Nightmare place.

"If it were me, I'd want hugs," Lucky thinks to himself, "But I might not want to impose on my frightened friends.  Maybe that's why Emmy won't say what'll make her feel better.  Or maybe she just doesn't know."

He heads over to give Emmy a side-hug.  Normally he'd be wondering where Joe gets weird ideas like time travel just because Emmy predicts an obvious name change, but in light of all the recent crazy goings on he'll not dismiss the idea as Joe being weird again.

Emerald says, "The Sea of Nightmares is already the name of the waters surrounding Marook. But there soon won't be a Marook."

She looks at Lucky and pats him, hugging back. "Is something wrong, Lucky?"

  "Yeah, that's kind of the impression I was getting from the place. Unfortunatly."

  "What's wrong is he hates seeing you sad."  Also, all the death and carnage and potential dangers.  But those don't sound as nice.

"Joe's right," Lucky agrees, "I'm worried for you.  You've been our friend for many years yet you barely recognized us, the place we found you is collapsing into nightmare water, and the place we are going to could be deadly too.  I just wanna bring you back home safe and sound.  But I don't know how.  Or if it's even possible.  So what can we do to help you, Emerald?  Do you know how to get back home?"

Emerald looks slightly spaced out. "I... no. I'm fine. I..." she reaches up to comb her fingers through her hair. "....How we get home. Our quickest way home is through my Channelwood book. But that's not on this sub. I do have a way to access a copy, though. But that's at our destination."

  Joe nods,  "That's something at least.  Not like we aren't going there anyways, due to apparent lack of options." Okay brain, are you being foolishly optimistic for no answers along the lines of 'Oh, they sword to kill them if they ever returned in a painful manner' means that isn't the case?

"Channelwood book," Lucky echoes, "So...  like the magic book with the moving pictures that when we touched it took us to that nightmarish place?  Oh...  You got touched by the water, didn't you?...  Oh dear.  Uh...  Deep breaths...  Dry it off."

He starts taking his shirt off to use it as a towel on Emmy.

Emerald says, "Oh... no, I have not been touched by the water any more than you have. But yes; the book would be like what you described. Only it would take us to Channelwood. What makes you think I was touched by the water? I'm not convulsing on the floor screaming, am I? Or did I do that earlier and don't remember?"

  "Fortunately Emerald, the worst you have shown so far is just being kind of out of it and exhausted.  Can't blame Lucky for wanting to make sure you are fine."

  So many nice girls having to go through so much.  Well okay, everyone does, but it's not like Lucky doesn't probably share a bias of worrying about the ladies a bit more.

"Maybe she's dying of thirst for lack of un-poisoned water," Lucky guesses.

He opens his canteen, takes a tiny sip to prove it is safe, then offers the rest to her.

"Crystal clean Channelwood water.  Try and sip slowly."

He'll reach to arm-around in case her instincts take over and her chugging makes her dizzy enough to fall over.

"Don't think I'll ever take clean water for granted again."

Emerald looks at the canteen cross-eyed and has a "wha?" expression. Then says, "Lucky, I'm fine... but thank you." and sips the water slowly, as directed.

The submarine shakes a bit. Emerald immediately hurries for the parascope. Should Lucky let her, she uses it and says, "Looks like we have some roboticized sharks on our tail."

  Joe figures it really sums up their lifestyles when such a statement is bland and matter of fact.

  "Somewhat more inconvenient than usual for me to just go out and stab them.  Are they fast sharks, or is this a slow submarine?"

Lucky would never dream of preventing Emmy from using the parascope to locate the threat.  Maybe when he was a toddler he would have screamed and latched onto the nearest adult with a death grip.  Now, he just screams.  He's so out-of-his-mind terrified he almost thought Joe was considering something as suicidal as opening the hatch of a sub submerged in deadly nightmare water.

"Not funny, Joe!  Let's make sane suggestions, please.  Like maybe digging up some wetsuits."

He takes his own suggestion and begins searching.

Emerald says, "The wetsuits are two rooms that way." and points towards the ship's rear, eyes still glued to the parascope. "We are not yet out of the Sea of Nightmares. Going out into the water without complete protection will kill you. And fast sharks is a redundant statement, Joe. But to answer your question, they seem to be keeping up with us. Shaking them will be difficult."

Emerald pulls away from the parascope and looks at Joe. "We aren't defenseless, though. Over there is the war seat." she points. "All you have to do is get the crosshairs to match the blinking dot and then hit the button that is labeled "TT1". Then keep the crosshairs on the blinking dot until the dot no longer blinks."

  Joe would only be considering it without instant kill stage fatalities waiting for him outside.  Though note to self, robo arm would probably be fine if the robo sharks are.

  Actual onboard weaponry is a much better idea though.  "Thanks Emerald, hopefully somebody remembered to load this thing before launch."  That said, he heads over to start attempting to button click robosharks to robo death.

Lucky is so shocked that here actually are any wetsuits and weapons to be had that he freezes for a moment.  He shakes it off and hurries to recover the wetsuits.

"Thank you for the helpful info, Emerald!"

Finding the wetsuits is easy enough, though it does take a few minutes of looking.

Joe is able to target a shark. Upon pressing TT1, Joe can see another blinking dot on the radar that comes from the ship. Then both that dot and the blinking dot he aimed for collide. Then vanish. The sound of a distant explosion can be heard.

"Good shot, Joe. But we still got 3 more on our tail and only two torpedo tubes. I'll go reload torpedo tube 1."

Emerald hurries off to do just that.

  Alas, as they are in tense escape sequence mode and not action movie escape sequence mode, Joe doubts the odds of exploding one shark in such a manner it's remains smash a second shark.

  This is probably because they can only see radar dots.  Either way, he lines up and fires the next shot when ready.

Lucky rushes back with the wetsuits and begins to put one on.  "If we rotate jobs we can all get geard up without having to pause shooting.  You're next putting on a wetsuit, Emerald.  Think you're clear-headed enough to gear up without help?  If so, I'll take over loading.  If you need, I can help you help while Joe shoots from tube 2 next."

Emerald returns from loading the tube and nods to Lucky. "Sure. Thanks for the suits, Lucky." she begins getting into her wet suit.

Joe's next shot hits its mark and again, the dots vanish from radar. "We don't have many torpedoes, guys, but there SHOULD be enough to blow up these sharks."

When Lucky gets to the loading tube, it isn't like anything he's messed with before.

  "While I'm sure some would question how responsible it is, I will not deprive you a chance to blow something up with a torpedo if you want, Lucky.  Take the next shot while I deal with the reloading."

  Joe's vague and nebulous backstory is convenient some days for a wide range of skills.  Though it also means the occasional headache thinking things like 'Didn't I meet Autumn when I was jumping out the back of a flying plane to hijack another plane?' while the timeline just shrugs.

"No problem, Emmy," Lucky says.

He stares in confusion at the torpedo loading controls.  Emmy made it seem so easy.  Not that Lucky was able to follow what she was doing while he was busy searching for the wetsuits.

Lucky is relieved when Joe offers to take over the hard job.  "On it!"

Lucky hurries to the firing controls, lines up a perfect shot, and pulls the trigger.  While he'd never beat Angel in an accuracy contest, when it comes to do-or-die situations, he never misses.  He just hopes it's not too late.  He's envisioning a shark ripping a hole in the sub and Joe and Emerald dying before his eyes.

Kaboom! The third shark gets destroyed just as Emerald finishes putting on her wetsuit.

The radar doesn't show any more incoming. Emerald takes the parascope again. "....don't see any. For now."

Emerald smiles and goes to have a seat. "Good job, you two."

  Does lucky's active imagination cover Joe's final accusatory words? Because they would probably be 'Bulrbleblrubleblurbleglack'.

  "Having to suddenly change outfits on occasions like this are why I do not wear long black coats or long tattered robes." At least, these days.

Lucky's imaginations are more self-depracating.  "If only I had been friendlier maybe Emerald would have shared her secret burdens and accepted safety advice.  And maybe then Joe wouldn't have touched the zone book and they'd both still be alive!

"Thanks, Emerald."

Lucky sweatdrops at Joe's comment and releases his death grip on the controls.

"Good to see your beautiful smile again, Emmy.  I take it you're feeling better now than before?  I was really worried for you.  Still am."

He reaches to comfort her.

Emerald keeps her smile and says, "I'm fine..."

To Lucky's heightened sense of awareness due to paranoia, Emerald's smile is hiding something.

Emerald adds, "We should be at our destination within the hour."

Wetsuit Joe sold separately from snow commando Joe.  Be the first kid on your block to own all the needless Joe accessories.

"Any particular suggestions for when we do arrive?"

Lucky keeps up the buddy hug and waits for Emmy to answer Joe's question before speaking himself.

"Glad you're less out of it now, Emmy.  But I can tell there's something else going on that you're not telling us about.  I can understand wanting to keep us from worrying for you, but not knowing only makes me worry more.   Are you slowly dying of an incurable disease?  Were you threatened to keep secret the lair of the monster responsible for the nightmare water?  Are you ashamed because you blame yourself for this disaster?  Is the whole world at risk of annihilation by nightmare flood?  It's all that and more that's weighing you down, isn't it?

"Well I hope that you still trust us enough to share your burdens before you're crushed buy them.  You've seen with your own eyes that we would risk death to help you.  Please don't make me carry the guilt of having let you feel all alone in the arms of someone who loves you dearly."

Lucky chokes back the tears.

To Joe's question, Emerald says, "I suggest being on your best behavior: No threats of bodily harm. Surrender if asked to. The obvious exception being if Robotnik or any of his forces happen across us."

Emerald says, "Very well: I am not Emerald. I am a duplicate of Emerald, created to aid people when Emerald can not be present. I have been instructed by Emerald to keep certain things from you, but if pressed repeatedly for information, I was to tell you what I am and that I can not answer you or help you the same way Emerald can."

  Joe takes this revelation as expected by most Darkthornes or otherwise by now.  "Eh, close enough for us to still care.  Though good point about behavior, I'll try to avoid my usual honest questions."

  It will admittedly, make things a bit easier if she flips out and tries to kill them.

Lucky nodded to Emmy's advice to Joe.  "So in other words, do what I would have done anyway."

He stares slack-jaw at at Emmy's big reveal, unsure what to think.  Is this for real?  Or has Emmy flipped her lid?  Or is this a doppelganger out of excuses for why she can't perfectly emulate Emmy?  None of the answers are pleasant, and tears stream down' Lucky's cheeks.

He collects himself and reassures, "Duplicate or no, I love you, Emerald.  I love the original too, of course.  Is she ok?  Where is she?"

He keeps his fears about Emmy Jr having an extremely short lifespan to himself for now.

Emerald says, "The real Emerald is in another zone. According to what she told me, she should be back home within 24 hours. Things have not been working out too well, but Emerald always plans for the worst, so she should be OK."

 In a less cynical world, Lucky would get a chance to hug two Emeralds at once.  Let's hope Joe is proven wrong in his expectations there.

  "Well, hopefully we are able to hook up with her sooner rather than later."

Lucky exhales in relief.  "Glad to hear she'll be home safe soon.  Sure hope the same will be said of us.  If not, maybe she can direct a rescue team to us.  But how will she know where we went?  Is there some way to get a message to her?  I'd like to at least warn her about how bad things have gotten."

Hug 2 Emeralds?  Maybe.  Hugging one of them because she just died?  Likely.  Though Lucky is expecting Em 2 to slowly fade away when her time is up.

Emerald says, "She knows about the troubles here. Some troubles became a bit more than she expected, which is likely why you two followed clues looking for her. Emerald would not normally be so sloppy as to be followed; so either she was in that much of a hurry, or she left a trail just in case."

The group arrives in the foreign land and when they exit the sub, they can see a beach and no sign of other subs.

Emerald begins walking towards the trees.

  Well, at least this means it's easier to find a parking space for their own sub.

  "So, behaving ourselves means NOT rolling our eyes when inevitably ambushed by the locals, right?"

"A bit more than expected?" Lucky echoed, shuddering to think what would be considered a lot more.

When the group arrives, Lucky is paranoid about the water, even with a wetsuit on.  "Is it safe to touch the water now?  Should we leave the wetsuits...?  On second thought let's take them.  If for no other purpose than to have something to barter with."

He sweatdrops at Joe's question, wondering if this is another strange attempt at humor.  "...riight.  How would it not?"

Emerald says, "I do not have sufficient data to provide you with basic parental guidance, Joe. However, I can say that what I meant by behaving yourself would include not doing things that would cause the natives to react violently. Personally, I do not know if rolling your eyes would cause a violent reaction."

She looks at Lucky. "The water is safe now."

  "That's fine, you're hardly old enough to be my Mother anyways."  This may be more than usual, if she is a recent copy.

At first Lucky snirked at Emerald's reply, but then started to get concerned.

"We're talking about a group so dangerous that it took a deadly nightmare flood to dare enter this land.  The slightest wrong move could get us all killed, assuming they even give us a chance to talk instead of kill us just for being here.  So please keep that in mind when tempted to be disrespectful...  No matter how undeserving such murderous savages may be."

Sure enough, a bunch of grizzled looking boars start coming out of the wood. They are pointing weapons, but nobody is firing just yet. Their weaponry is basic. Spears, slings... but a few of them have crossbows. So they aren't COMPLETELY tribal. "Come with us." the leader-looking one commands in a partly Jamaican accent.

  Yay, Lucky was only somewhat more pessimistic than reality!  Unless they prefer people as fresh as possible before eating them, that would also be bad.

  "Okay." possibly less likely to say something wrong with simple answers.

Grizzly boars beats grizzly bears, yes.  But Lucky is still expecting to die at any moment.  So of course he follows as directed.  If commanded, he'll put his bow up.

((OOC: Player forgot to spell out that Lucky had his bow drawn and ready in this scene like most of the other scenes.  But it makes sense that he did. ))

The tribal boars lead the group to a village. The village is purely composed of boars.

The group is led to the village chief. The guy is impressive looking. He looks at them and asks what they are doing here. Emmy gives him the story and the chief frowns. "Well we aren't a charity. You are free to go, but you can not stay here."

  "okay, thanks for letting us go." that's polite right?  Now, if I were delicious wildlife which part of this area would he be?

Lucky is in shock that he and his friends are let go.  It takes a few minutes for it to sink in.

When no longer in earshot he comments, "Maybe...  Maybe the stories got exaggerated over time?  Or maybe the former chief was much meaner?  Whatever the reason, let's not stick around to find out.  Let's get to that way home you mentioned earlier, Emmy."

Emerald leads the two to what looks like an old temple. Seems that is where a bunch of the badgers wound up. "Emerald!" they yell! They swarm her happily and seem in a celebratory mood.

Emerald smiles at them and says, "My friends! These are more friends of mine: Lucky and Joe. I have to get them home."

The badgers make way for her and she starts leading the way inside the temple.

  People happy to see you is always such a bizarre thing these days, outside of where you live (well, unless you are a broody mc broodypants... Who probably doesn't even wear pants).  Then he remembers they were happy to see Emerald and the universe makes sense again.

  "As many problems there are still back home, we probably should make sure you are going to stay allright first."

These are the first badgers Lucky has seen today that didn't die within 10 seconds, so that's a good sign.

"Nice to meet you all."

To Emmy he says, "It's your home too, Emerald.  You'll be staying once we get there, right?"

He wonders if the badgers have any idea that she's a clone.

Emerald has a come back to Lucky's question that both answers him and puts the badgers at ease. "I go where I am needed, Lucky. Remember, these people are my people also."

Emmy leads the two Channelwood FF's down the hallway to a closed door with a panel next to it that looks like some ancient stone slab. She lays her hand on it and the door opens. Inside is a small room with a book on a dais.

Now far from prying badger ears, Emerald turns to face Lucky and Joe. "I could go with you to Channelwood, but you both already know I am not the one you have had living with you all this time."

She opens the book and points. "This is the Channelwood book. It will take you back home. But as I said before, the Emerald you know should be home within the day... or you could wait here in case she isn't."

Just then, another Emerald appears in the room, then looks over and sees Lucky, Joe, AND one of her clones. "....uh... hi? Heh..." she gets a nervous grin like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

  "Yeah, I figured you'd be staying here.  I meant making sure we weren't leaving you before it was certain no further population devastating events were going to happen in the next few hours. Why shouldn't we care if you aren't the one we already knew?"  Which really, was a tall order these days.

  Then there was twice as many Emeralds.  Joe noted they were the same color unlike other plot related multiple Emeralds, but he still liked these ones better.  "Good to see you in one piece.  Your twin seems to be a bit overworked though."

Lucky gasps at Emmy's appearance then gets that helpless, misty-eyed, "I thought you were dead!" but happy to be wrong, relieved look and rushes over to give Emerald a tearful hug!

"Oh Emerald!  I was so worried for you!  I'm so happy to see you alive and well!"

He's tempted to take her hand and slap it on the Channelwood book to take her back to safety right then and there, but he's afraid of leaving the others behind, "Let's all take the book back home and get caught up there.  This place is way too dangerous!"

Emerald oofs from the sudden Lucky glomp and hugs him back. "It's OK... I'm OK..." but when Lucky suggests leaving, Emmy holds a finger up at Lucky and looks at her clone. "Function Status Report."

Clone Emmy says, "Joe is right. I am a bit overworked. I need energy, my limbs could stand a little TLC, and my... processor..." she glances at the others before looking back at Emerald, "...got damaged. Without some attention, I'm afraid I will shut down in 48 hours or less. I'm only awake because these two jarred me back to consciousness."

Emerald ohs and says, "I can't go just yet, Lucky. You and Joe are, of course, free to go home. But I have to stay and tend to my clone here. However, if all of Channelwood is still searching for me, you can tell them you found me, I'm OK, and I will be back home within 48 hours."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:33, Sat 08 Aug 2015.

  "That's understandable." So far as any of the crazy stuff they deal with is understandable.  'oh you need to repair your double before traveling through a magical book, okey dokey'.

  He looks over to Lucky, and says "Did you want to wait around, or head back?"  Joe, it's not giving kids more responsibilities when you are just being too lazy to decide yourself.

The "clone" is a robot?!  That sure explains a lot.  Original Emmy must be absolutely out of her mind if she thinks it safe to...  Oh nonononono...  Obviously she doesn't know about the sea of terror or the hostile tribe.  Lucky looks her dead in the eyes and explains.

"Every passing moment spent in this zone puts everyone in greater danger.  Mortal danger, Emerald.  Let's take the badgers and  your double back to the Channelwood where it is safer.  I'd sooner give my life than let you spend a day here, much less two."

He can't hold back the tears when he imagines returning to a pile of dead bodies, Emerald's among them, with a glitching android Emmy drone repeating her last words over and over.

"Wwhy dddidn't the waaarn me?  *click!*  Wwhy dddidn't the waaarn me?  *click!*"

Emerald looks at Lucky and gives him a helpless smile. "What are you talking about? This place is safe. The nearby tribe doesn't disturb this temple, they said we were free to go, and we are at least a quarter mile from the sea. Further still from the part of it that is dangerous. Like... several miles. Bringing this many people into Channelwood would bring troubles of its own..." she glances at the door. Then back to Lucky and Joe. She gives him a reassuring tone and a soft smile. "You and everyone here is safe for the moment, Lucky. That and the fewer who know about my teleportation books, the better. But tell you what. I'll ask them if they want to go to Channelwood. If they do, I will either have to walk them all the way -and I'm not looking forward to walking 1,000 miles- or I will have to knock them out one at a time and force-teleport them one at a time."

  Joe is so proud of Lucky's cynical narrative.  Joe may have issues.

  "Honestly, despite the local ecological disaster this is currently safer than back home."

Lucky is rendered speechless.  They're mad!  They've completely lost their minds!  If they think this place is safer than... Oh yeah.  Channelwood is right on the doorstep of an evil mechanized empire.  Ironically, Joe's "more unsafe back home" point is more convincing than Emmy's "safe enough here" argument.  Lucky questions his own sanity for thinking his own home safe.

But his paranoia reboots and he comes back to his senses.  "As studied as you are in history, I'm surprised you expect the hostiles to keep to their word, Emerald.  And all it would take is a slight breeze to blow a fog of that deadly water over here.  And we ran into robots on the way here.  Which means Robotnic now knows that there are freedom fighters here.  It won't be long before this whole area is overrun by SWATS and deadly-fog-berserked savages!"

Emerald says in a "matter-of-fact" tone, "If the hostiles wanted the badgers dead, they would have taken care of that back when they already had us captured, Lucky. And if the water were deadly as a vapor, nobody would have made it off the island earlier since it was all through the air you breathed back there. And while you do have a point about the sharkbots and the submarines, the fact is you destroyed the sharkbots before they could see your destination. Robotnik should not know where you went. Lucky: I know the dangers here. But to reiterate; it doesn't much matter if the people here do not wish to go to Channelwood. If that is the case, I will just go with you, Joe and my clone back to Channelwood."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:47, Fri 14 Aug 2015.

  "Lucky, there wouldn't be any fog induced berserkers because the fog would kill them, duuuuuh.  Also because the fog hasn't killed us anyways, that too."

  He looks back over to Emerald, "If you are bringing your friend along, what exactly did you want to tell people?"

that Emmy sounds like she's willing to leave calms Lucky down some.  He's shocked at how much detail Emmy knows, but is more shocked by Joe imagining that anything deadly to the goodguys would also be deadly to the badguys.  Lucky expected him to be much more pessimistic.

"Perhaps the vapor scrambles your brain differently than touching the water directly does.  I don't know how long that first badger we found screamed before he died, but the second one proved you don't die instantly.  It would be way to convenient if the nightmare water ever did anything in our favor like stop badguys who want to kill us because they changed their minds about letting us go.  If this place is so safe, why haven't you suggested we move Channelwood's children here at least?  Because it's not safe!  It's a lot less safe than home!  If the badgers knew their options, they'd beg to be knocked out and forcefully teleported to a place where the nearest body of water is full of adorable teddybears, not metal sharks and corpses frozen in abject horror from liquid nightmare."

Emerald looks like she is losing patience. Joe's question helps her to calm herself slightly. She answers Joe first, "If I bring her along, I'm not going to show her to anyone. She is a secret. She will remain in my secret place in Channelwood, where I will be repairing her quietly."

"Nowhere is safe." she says in what sounds like barely-contained rage in her voice. "Have you forgotten that Aquarius is only a few miles from an entire city of roboticized sea creatures? Have you forgotten Channelwood is only two miles from a fire-breathing killing machine of a robot dragon? And those corpses you saw? They got off light! Have you forgotten about roboticization? Where people get to be stuck in that terrifying cycle for the rest of their lives rather than be allowed to die? Why haven't I suggested Channelwood move here? Because Channelwood is home and the only way this world will ever become safe is if we all work together to tear Robotnik and his forces down." She takes a breathe, calms down even more, and reaches to put a hand on Lucky's shoulder. "It's good that you see home as safe. It's good that you see Channelwood and Aquarius as places where you remember faces you look forward to seeing. But I had to remind you how desperate our situation is or you would continue to yell at me like I have no regard for the safety of others. I'm not an idiot, Lucky, and I'm not a villain. Please remember that between your fearful thoughts."

  "Yeah, the multiple apocalypse kinda sucks."  As does the status quo that will just sit there until the Real Main Characters get around to dealing with it, but then that's why you joined a freedom fighter's group Joe.  It's less boring waiting that out with company.

  "Though mostly from the practical standpoint, we don't have the infrastructure back in channelwood to handle that many extra people and keep them fed and sheltered."

For a moment Lucky is shocked and hurt buy Emmy's words, but his love for her quickly conquers his instincts.

"Don't lose heart, Emerald," he answers soothingly, reaching out to give her a comforting hug, "I know things are bad.  But I want you to know that me and the rest are ready to risk our lives - three times over in this case - to come to your rescue when you go missing.  And they're still searching.

"Sure I'm scared.  I'm scared for you, Emerald.  I don't want you to be the third dead body I've seen today.  Infrastructure or no, two dead is a lot more than we've had to deal with for quite some time back home.  I don't think you're dumb or evil.  I think you're stretched too thin.  Let Joe and me help you.  And at least let everyone at home know you're ok now."
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:53, Sat 22 Aug 2015.

Success! Emerald has pulled Lucky out from panic to concern. Her mood seems to have lightened back to a calm. "...you are at least right about my being spread thin. But the means by which I'm helping these people is a secret. A secret I have been forced by circumstances to reveal to you two. A secret that I really need you both to keep secret. Which is why if I take these people, they must be taken unconscious. I'm sorry you risked your lives for me. But I promise you I was not held up lightly. This situation is exactly the reason I would not have allowed myself to go missing if it was possible. But this time, it wasn't. Now let me go ask the people if they want to go to Channelwood or if they want to stay here. I will not take them against their will; That would cause problems of its own."

  "Well, pretty sure that unless you will literally die without mentioning them, lucky and I will be able to handle that. I wouldn't trust myself with fixing her programming unless there was no other choice, but let me know if you need help with physical repairs."

  He looks over to Lucky again.

  "I hate to say it lucky, but you start to get used to stuff like this.  Not the doom stuff, the 'oh there are secrets not meant for the world to know' stuff... Well maybe used to is too strong, more like resignedly annoyed.  I will need to take a break to bang my head against the nearest hard surface if minerals not colored anything like they are called turn up."

Lucky nods.  Even though he could empathize with someone being reluctant to leave their home in spite of it being extremely dangerous, he can't imagine anyone choosing the savage shores of Nightmare Ocean over Channelwood.  He tries to wrap his mind around keeping the books secret being so important and can think of a few good reasons, but he can't shake the feeling that Emmy must be under their evil influence if she doesn't trust the good people of Channelwood with knowing about them.

"You have my full support, Emerald.  I'll go with you to help talk with them.  If it comes down to them consulting dice or cards to decide, I can tip the scales in favor of their survival."

He gives Joe a weirded-out look.  "Where would you have run into other super secrets?  You live in the same town I do, and the biggest secrets I come across is who snuck an early dessert."

Emerald wonders the same as Lucky and looks over to Joe. "...Prior to having come to live in Channelwood, I'm assuming. Joe has had some weird experiences, I've heard."

She heads out to ask the badgers if they wish to stay here or go to her home town of Channelwood. The badgers begin discussing it because some don't want to travel anymore, some think this place safest, and others think the offer a good one.

---

(OOC: The RP with the chaos emeralds that Will and I did a one-on-one of with Emmy may be confusing him. But to clarify; that one was a "what if" and didn't happen in this continuity. This chapter kind of replaces that. Outside that, only thing I can think of is maybe something in Joe's backstory with Ariel since Ariel has secrets she can't share either. Which I'll go ahead and say is canon to reduce confusion since I don't wanna be retconning too much stuff.)

  "I spent plenty of time wandering before ending up in Channelwood, Lucky.  Besides, not even counting the stuff Emerald wants us to hide? Just from living on Channelwood, everyone already know an underwater princess with a secret lair, and a winged cat from one of the numerous hidden flying cities."  Then There's 'we blew up our entire city, as a decoy for our much cooler underground city' over with Unity.

  And yet some people get upset when Joe suggests hidden ninja villages are a dime a dozen.  Go figure.

OOC: Honestly at this point, I consider Joe's "background" a snarl in the spacetime continuum.  Nevermind all the stuff he might have gotten up to on his own.  Joe is going to Know Things.  But not like he's the one with access to plot devices at the drop of a hat ;P

Lucky gave a skeptical look to Joe's answer.  "I don't remember being asked to keep any of that stuff secret from my friends.  Keeping anything from Robotnic kinda goes without saying."

Lucky went with Emmy to talk to the badgers as promised.  He listens to the objections and nods.

"Nobody's going to make you go anywhere, but consider that Channelwood is Emerald's home.  Sure she said she goes where she's needed, and kids back home sure need her, but what about her needs?  Home is where she can unwind.  Loved ones, her own special hut, delicious food, and cool shade from the leaves fluttering in the gentle breeze flowing through the treetops is what she needs after what she's been through."

The look on his face gives away that he's very homesick.

"Besides.  Nothing says you have to stay once you've seen it."

One asks, "How would we even get there?"

Emerald says, "Magic. Don't ask."

The badgers look at each other, shrug, and then look at Lucky. "Don't have to stay, eh? OK, you talked us into it."

Fast-forwarding a bit. Emerald knocks out each badger, one at a time and transports them to the spot near Channelwood that Lucky and Joe found in the first place. Once all the badgers are teleported, Emmy goes with her clone, Lucky and Joe to the location.

Emmy then looks at her clone. "Conserve Power. I'll be back for you."

The clone powers down and just slouches in the corner of the room. Emerald then closes the hidden cave entrance, leaving her clone inside while everyone else is outside. "There."

  "Well, now for the hard part.  Carrying them even farther than we already had to carry them."

Lucky is so relieved and so creeped out by Robo Emmy slumping over he can't hold back the tears and reaches out to hug Emmy.

"I'm so relieved that you're ok!  When I first saw her like that, I thought for sure you were dead.  And to think you died from nightmare poison...  It was overwhelming.  I was ready to carry your body back home so the others could say goodbye.  I'm so glad we'll be carrying living people instead!"

Emerald looks from Joe to Lucky and back. "We don't have to carry them. Now that they are here, we can simply wake them up and have them carry themselves."

Emerald then hugs Lucky back. Lucky can feel a relatively tight grip from her. "I'm happy to be alive also... thank you for your concern." she puts on a sad smile. "Let's get these people awake."

Soon, the badgers are awake and make their way to Channelwood with the group. Emerald idly pets Lucky as they head there. "Sorry for snapping at you earlier. It's been a very rough 36 hours. I have lost some people I cared about... and haven't slept."

  It's clearly that lack of sleep that was the biggest hardship.

  "Well, hopefully you'll get a chance to soon.  You know, after all the busywork of getting these new people sorted."  Live people are more work than dead ones.  Unless it's zombies.

Lucky gave Emmy a sad smile too.  He'd figured she might be dealing with loss already.  Did she have a telepathic link with her double?  More likely a radio link.  That must be how she learned about the dead.  He purrs from the pets and snuggles her side to try and help comfort her.

"Already forgiven, Emmy.  I understand.  Love you!"

"You, me, and the others can help get 'em situated while Emmy rests.  I'm sure she can tell us on the way about any special needs the badgers are unable to tell us themselves for whatever reason.

But Lucky seriously doubts Emmy will be needed so badly that she can't sleep when they get back home.  "...and this child is mute.  And I'm the only one that knows all of her 400 food allergies."

Emerald doesn't really have any special needs to inform Lucky and Joe about.

Soon, the group are coming up to where Channelwood is and Katy spots them coming. Apparently, either Katy is not sick anymore, or she overheard what is going on. Either way, the coon rushes to glomp Emerald. "Oh Emerald... you're OK! I'm so glad you're back!"

She looks past Emerald to Joe and Lucky... and the village worth of badgers. "....what's with all the people?"

Emerald quickly answers, "They are refugees who just lost their home. Found them in need of a new home. Figured here was a decent place to start. And thanks, Katy... I missed you too."

Soon, Katy recalls the search parties with a signal Michael had set up.

Now home and knowing everything is in place and that her friends will help her other friends, Emerald falls unconscious. Michael quickly has the doctor take her and care for her.

  Joe sighs (Once, not twice, no snorting).  "Right, Lucky, you take care of obsessively worrying about Emerald while he gets some rest.  I'll pretend I'm not just as concerned as you are and help the new arrivals get settled."

Sure Lucky doted over Emmy like a mother hen, but he did make an effort to brag to the badgers about how amazing awesome the people of Channelwood are.  To hear him describe it, you would think the place a collection of noble heroes...  which is pretty accurate, really.

To Joe's comment he looks confused. "You're too modest, Joe.  Pretending to be less concerned won't fool anyone after you risked your life to help find Emmy.  Sorry for freaking out earlier over touching the book... that secret thing we're not supposed to talk about.  Your instincts were right that doing what you did would lead us to her.  Still think we shoulda at least left a note if not told someone...  but I guess then Emmy's big secret would gotten out."

He sighs.  "I guess common sense breaks down when 'dangerous to even know' things are involved."

He'll continue to help the newcomers get situated while Emmy rests, and will use that as his excuse for not giving specifics on what happened if anyone should ask.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:46, Fri 11 Sept 2015.

Katy busies herself with the badgers and certainly puts Joe to work on that.

It's late evening and the badgers have been pretty much given temporary housing where they will be each sharing huts with everyone else in Channelwood. Katy heads over to Joe. "Thanks for all the help with the new comers. Sorry to ask after all this, but I have something I need you to look into: Aquarius sent a brief distress call before it got cut short. I'd go, but I need to tend to Channelwood now more than ever."

(Lucky can easily overhear this if he likes)

  "Can hardly blame you there Katy."  He doesn't bring up that they are heading for a water themed place after leaving somewhere with murder water.  Because Lucky can work that out all by himself.

  So proud.

  "Anything specific, or was the call so short that all we got out of it was distress in general?"

Lucky was wiped after all that happened but tried to help out anyhow.  It didn't take long before he was assured that he wasn't needed and sent to bed.  Upon waking he had a late dinner then went looking for Katy to volunteer for anything else that needed done.

"Oh dear.  I wonder what could be wrong.  Hopefully its only technical problems with the radio."

To Joe he asks, "Have you had any rest today?"

Katy says, "The call was Shelly saying something about being trapped in Aquarius and for us to please send help. Then it got cut off."

  "I got enough rest between badgers to deal with this, at least.  Besides, not like you wouldn't go if you missed naptime, right Lucky?"

  He'll get going as soon as narratively convenient.

(Narration is moving this along. Joe and Lucky are heading to Aquarius. Up to you two if you want to RP en route, or for me to go ahead and get the other thread started)

"If they're trapped because they're surrounded by robo-sharks, there won't be much just the two of us can do to help them.  I'm at a loss for what could be done for them even with lots of people without much stronger weapons.  Maybe... if we take a big team with lots of ropes... we could tangle up the enemy?"

To Joe he answers, "Well sure... but after what happened to Emerald, I've become extra worried about people putting themselves in danger due to lack of rest."

He'll try and recruit as many as he can to come along with ropes and any weapons they can carry unless a better idea is presented.

  "Don't worry Lucky, I only act like I have self destructive tendencies." Then again, he also considers doing life threatening things to save others suicidal tendencies, so his outlook is probably a bit skewed there,

Lucky quickly discovers the results of having a whole village of strangers suddenly enter Channelwood: Nobody is available to help with the latest non-Channelwood crisis because they are too busy helping their own home in Channelwood.

To be fair, a number of Channelwood citizens sound like they WANT to go help, but just as they are about to, something comes up.

Autumn: "Oh... I don't know how much help I'd be. But I'll be happy t-" CRASH! "...oh dear. I think that was the kitchen... If I don't fix this, the town will starve in the morning..."

Benjamin: "Sorry. I'm on watch duty for the next 12 hours. I tried finding someone to cover for me earlier, but everyone's busy."

Daemon: "I'm kind of busy decoding this message we intercepted from Middletown. Katy says its probably important, so I have to stay on task..."

Mika (covered in children, half of which are badgers): "With Emerald out and Autumn handling the kitchen, I'm pretty much it for watching the children..."

Maverick: "I'll help how I can if I'm allowed to go with you..."

OK, so Lucky finds ONE person.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:35, Tue 22 Sept 2015.

Lucky chuckled at Joe's answer and gave him a smiley nod.  He's not surprised at the lack of available backup because he trusts that if there was much to be had Katy would have already asked them to go too.  But circumstances change, so thaat's why he bothered asking around.  He's of course sure to thank those willing to help.  And the one able to.

"You're very brave, Maverick," Lucky compliments, "Thanks for offering!"

Maverick stabbing a cyber shark into submission is probably something that hasn't happened yet, but Lucky finds himself able picture it anyway for some reason.

  It is true that there is no evidence that maverick tore the jaw off a cyber shark and stabbed it in the head with it. That we can find, at least.

  "Well, I'm not stopping you at least."

Maverick gets payed in BLOOD... or cuddles. He likes him his cuddles.
And yes, he can make robots bleed.

Maverick smiles from being called brave and not being denied access to the latest mission. He proceeds to follow Joe and Lucky.

(Skipping ahead)

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.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:15, Wed 07 Oct 2015.

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.