"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."