The Curse of Day/Part2D

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1st Day, 10:00 PM
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In an apartment building in Westopolis, nothing very special was happening. However, two mildly interesting things were happening. One was that a certain studio apartment had been marked as the place for a certain three Mobians to meet up. The other was that, from within the apartment, music was playing so loudly that it could be heard in the hallway outside of the apartment. Most of what could be heard was distorted synth sounds, though occasional words could be made out.
Kable the Fox turned up, wearing a hoodie and jeans so no one in the area would recognise him. He checked the email Taglumo sent him and sighed
"You've got to be joking" he says as he knocks on the door of the apartment where the synth sounds are coming from.
The door swung open on Kable's touch; evidently the door had been left unlocked and had not been properly closed. Inside could be seen a studio apartment with a bed, a small table, and doors to a bathroom and closet. The closet door was shut, and it seemed that the music was coming from within the closet.
With the door open, words could now be heard: "...again and again...and again...and again...and again...Now wake up," and it devolved into wordless synth sounds.
"Er...Taglumo?" Kable says to no one in the room in particular and closing the door behind him "You home?"
"It's useless to resist," replied the closet, rhythmically, in a low growl. "Their efforts will be wasted," it continued.
"Taglumo?" Kable says again, walking further into the flat.
The music abruptly shut off, and the closet door swung open, revealing a hedgehog sitting against the back wall of the closet. This hedgehog was gray and wore all black clothing, from his black leather jacket to his black gloves and sneakers to the black mobile phone that he hastily stuffed in his one not-black item of clothing, his blue jeans. Pulling black sunglasses off his head onto his face, he emerged from the closet—or at least, he tried to emerge from the closet. His hair, which stuck straight up from having been flattened against the wall of the closet, caught on the clothes bar and pulled him firmly into a seated position.
"Drat!" he muttered, scooting out of the closet on the seat of his pants. Once he was out of the closet, he stood up and pushed his hair downwards into its natural position. He then closed the closet door.
"Erm...hi there," he said, finally turning to Kable. "I'm Taglumo, and I assume that you are either Machengie Bartley or Cradle the Gox?" He extended his hand in greeting.
Kable sighed. He no longer saw why he had brought his trusty pistol with him:this guy had about as much chance at harming him as a cornflake.
"I'm neither" Kable says, seeming rather annoyed "I'm Kable the Fox"
"Ah, yes, that was it," said Taglumo, lowering his hand and muttering under his breath, "kablethefoxkablethefoxkablethefoxkablethefox". Then, in his normal voice, "Hello, Kable the Fox! Thank you for coming to my meeting so we can discuss my grand plans of world domination. Have a seat," he said, gesturing to the table, next to which sat a roll of paper towels and a pile of tissue boxes. "I didn't see any chairs here, so I had to make do," he explained, sitting down on the bed.
Kable sat down on the table.
"Look" he said "I came here because you said something about the Sol Emeralds and world domination. Before we start, i'd like to actually see these Sol Emeralds, because I'm beginning to question my decisions here"
"Er...right," said Taglumo, twiddling his thumbs. "I tried to make this clear before, but...er...I guess it didn't work. So I've located the Sol Emeralds, but I don't have them yet. However, I know exactly where they are...or at least, what Zones they're in..." Taglumo trailed off, evidently trying to think of something reassuring to say, before continuing with, "...and I can show you where they are, if you want." He looked up hopefully.
"Right..." Kable said, his voice becoming angrier "So you turn up, announce that you know the general place where the Sol Emeralds are, and disappear. You turned up in a populated city and announced your plan when you don't have the items required to perform it yet. Is that it?"
"Exactly," said Taglumo, beaming. Then, realizing that he must have done something wrong, he said, "...Is there something wrong with that? Y'know," he said, looking thoughtful, "nobody else knows where the Sol Emeralds are, so it's not exactly like somebody could interfere with my plan..."
"Possibly" Kable said with a slightly sarcastic tone "Unless...hm...unless they work it out themselves. If you can work it out, i'm sure anyone else could, too."
"I did not just 'work it out myself'!" said Taglumo angrily. "I used an EAR-9002 of my own invention! And besides, I know all of the spots that they might be in, even if they somehow figure out all of the spots that I might be in!" And Taglumo crossed his arms, looking miffed, and turned to the wall...or at least, he tried to turn to the wall. Since he was sitting on the bed, he fell over awkwardly onto it, nearly banging his head on the wall. Taglumo picked himself up, looking sheepish, before he remembered to resume his miffed expression.
"Right...so, if you used this EAR thing to find them, why exactly don't you have them?" Kable was becoming increasingly sceptical.
"Because," said Taglumo, swallowing impressively, "the Sol Emeralds are very far away. In fact, I was flying to the location of the first Sol Emerald when you emailed me, causing me to turn my flying thingy 180 degrees and double back here to some place where we could meet up. Couldn't meet up in the air out in the middle of the ocean, could we?"
"I'm the owner of a multi-million dolar company" Kable replied "I have planes."
"Right..." said Taglumo. "I-didn't-think-of-that-but-at-any-rate-you-got-why-I-don't-have-these-things?" he said all in one breath.
Kable sighed. To be fair on Taglumo, he hadn't mentioned who he was in the E-Mail.
"Fine. Apology accepted. Can we go get the Sol Emeralds now?"
"Sure!" said Taglumo eagerly. "I have a nice plan for how we can go get them. I have my plane parked in the garage," he said, gesturing vaguely to an apparently empty parking garage across the street. "Want to join me in my plane, or are you going to take your own? I can easily expand mine to fit two people."
"I'll ride along with you, thanks"
"Great!" said Taglumo, standing up with such force that he accidentally knocked over the makeshift chairs. Surreptitiously sweeping them under the table, he said, "And now for our next great adventure! Oh wait," he said, quickly taping a piece of paper to the wall. "This will tell anyone else who arrives exactly where they can meet me. Now, let's go!" He walked out the door, looking superbly confident.
Kable quickly checked what the note says and scribbled out his name on it.
Taglumo walked over to the garage, where he began picking up small items off of the floor and sticking them to each other. "This will only take a moment..." he said.
Kable looked slightly confused. "You're building the plane?"
"Yup," said Taglumo, holding up the now-complete right wing of the plane and nearly banging Kable in the head with it. "I couldn't just leave the plane in the garage, or it would have filled up the whole thing," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, putting down the right wing and assembling more pieces.
"How long will this take to build?" Kable asked.
"Oh, you know, just a minute or so," said Taglumo, tossing around a few pieces and sending a seat flying at Kable. "Sorry," said Taglumo, grabbing the seat before it could hit Kable. "Building fast means that I can't always control where the pieces go," explained Taglumo, tripping over a piece of metal, which bounced off the ceiling and crashed into another piece with a deafening clatter.
"If you can't control where the pieces go, then how the heck are you meant to build it?"
"Well..." Taglumo hesitated for a moment, holding half of an engine. "See, I can build really fast with whichever pieces I'm holding, but the other pieces tend to go all over the place. Like this," said Taglumo, resuming his building. In about 3 seconds, an indistinct bit of plane shot at the wall, rebounding and knocking over another indistinct piece of metal. 2 seconds later, Taglumo held up a finished plane engine. "See?"
With that, Mac knocked the door outside of the apartment building, waiting for someone to answer. This is the right place... At least, he hoped it was. He'd tracked his way away from Alexia (who appeared to want to do her own thing) to get this opportunity, and he wasn't going to let a measly flaw like an incorrect address get in his way.
Taglumo heard the sounds and turned to see Mac. "Oh, hi!" he said, letting half a plane slide to the floor as he strode over to the apartment door. "Let me help you get in." He pushed the intercom button. "No one answers doors these days."
Meanwhile, Kable had remembered something urgent that he needed to do. Taking advantage of the temporary distraction, Kable slipped out of sight, completely unnoticed by Taglumo, who was too busy letting Mac into the building to notice Kable's sudden departure.
Mac grinned as he walked in, bowing. "Thank you, my fair sir. You only speak the truth." Mac twirled his imaginary mustache as he gave a haughty laugh. "Seriously, though, thanks for the invite, Tag. You don't get these kind of opportunities every day, y'know?"
Taglumo grinned, though his grin was quickly replaced with a worried expression as he said, "How do you know my..." Taglumo paused. "Oh right, you must be Mac...Mac...Mac...thingy. Right?"
"My name's Mackenzie, ugh. It sucks, but my wealthiness makes up for it." Mac tried to hold in a chuckle. "Guess you could say that my name is... rich?" Mac barely managed to stifle a burst of yaks. Getting to his seat, his tone was really light-hearted - strange for a "villain." "Anyway, the names Mack Hartley."
"Nice to meet you, Mack!" said Taglumo. "I just sort of finished the meeting with this other guy and was assembling the airplane, but maybe we could go over all this in the garage so I can finish the airplane at the same time?"
"Ooh, airplanes. That sounds especially fun." Mac decided Tag wasn't that bad - aspiring to have a power that he'd never be able to wield properly, sure, but he seemed to be kinda cool. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything. I want the world to see just how awesome Mack Hartley is!" Mac giggled under his breath, but stopped when he remembered Alexia. She can take care of herself fine.
Taglumo walked to the garage. When he reached it, he turned to Mac and said, "OK, time for the instant recap." He took a deep breath, then said in one go, without pausing for breath, "Sotherearethesesevensolemeraldsandthey'reveryfarawaysoIhavetobuildaplanesowecangogetthemyougotthat?"
Mac scratched his chin and nodded. "ImeanI'mnotusedtoworkingwithemeraldsbutIguessIcandoitforsomeyhingthisimporttantokay?" Mac speed talked, mimicking Taglumo. "Wait a second! I thought you already had them!" Mac sighed and snapped behind his back. "Whatever. I can treasure hunt."
"Um...yeah, Kable thought that too," said Taglumo, looking uncomfortable and dropping the indistinct plane part he was holding. "But, yeah, we can treasure hunt, and we have this nice plane to go get them in!" said Taglumo, pointing at approximately three-quarters of a plane. "Oh yeah, oops, I have to put on the wings first." Taglumo dragged the plane out of the garage and proceeded to stick on the wings.
Mac scratched his chin again and slowly nodded. "Hmm... Yeah, this is nice. Maybe a few stickers here and there could lighten it up, but so far, so good." Mac then started scratching the back of his head - he was trying to hide the fact that he had a bad itch. "Maybe you could implement something that can channel my life force just in case we need to go hostile against someone?"
"Wait..." said Taglumo, pausing in his work. "You mean like you plug yourself into the airplane and fire life-bolts at people or...something? Wouldn't that put too much stress on you or use up your life energy or...something...and cause you to reach critical...something?"
Mac shrugged. "Eh, maybe, maybe not. But critical whatever or not, this baby needs weapons."
"Er," said Taglumo, sticking on the last wing. "I...uh...I...hadn't thought about that. So...I guess we do need something. And we need to do it fast, before someone notices this plane in the middle of the street and..." Taglumo trailed off, looking very embarrassed. "So, life force channel thingy, could we stick on a..." Taglumo looked around. "...garden hose and have that work?"
Mac rolled his eyes and chuckled, laughing at how stupid of an idea that was. "I don't think a garden hose will be able to calm and control my fierce storms of energy." Mac chuckled again, jolting with static electricity. "Oh! I have an idea! Let's put a doohickey on another doohickey and see what happens!" Mac exclaimed with a faux cheery tone to mask his sarcasm.
"Look, I'm sorry," said Taglumo apologetically, "but I didn't make anything in advance to channel your...whatever it is again. I didn't make any kind of channel anything, and doing it would take a while which I don't have right now because there's all this setup that I've done and would causelotsofproblemsifItriedtoundoitsoIcan't" Taglumo ran out of breath from talking more and more rapidly. After a moment, he resumed at a normal speed: "I can make it when we get to our next stop that includes some kind of mechanical stuff. I think that'll be in like..." Taglumo mentally calculated for a moment. "Two weeks. Can we go two weeks without this weapon channel forces thingy?" By this point, Taglumo had already climbed on to the now-completed plane and was bouncing up and down impatiently.
Mac sighed. "Guess we'll have to. But how are we going to get this sweetie up in the skies without anyone noticing?" Mac shrugged, but then discarded the question and replaced it. "Also, Tag, you got the right man for this job. I can sense energy, so finding the Sol Emeralds should be easy as pie."
"Sounds great!" said Taglumo excitedly. He tried to give Mac a thumbs-up, but instead accidentally hit the engine controls, sending the plane skidding down the street. When the plane was about a block away from Mac, it stopped and shot backwards towards Mac, stopping conveniently next to him. Taglumo looked over the site of the plane worriedly and said, "Could you get in before I accidentally hit you?"
Mac tensed his lower muscles, hopped moderately high, and landed into the plane. "Done and done. Ready to take off, Tag?" Mac put his hands in his pockets, making no attempt to protect himself. "I'm prepared to find us some Sol Emeralds!"
Taglumo made a thumbs-up sign with his other hand, apparently having realized that doing it with his other hand put the plane in danger. He then intentionally hit the engine controls, sending the plane soaring into the air. "Aaaand off we go to the Marble Ruins!" said Taglumo.
Meanwhile, a figure watched Taglumo with binoculars from a nearby window. "That has got to be Taglumo," said the figure. "Nobody else would take off in a makeshift plane from the middle of a street like that."
Category:The Curse of Day