The Curse of Day/Part7D

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5th Day, 9:30 AM
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The silver-and-yellow Wing Fortress looked fairly imposing from outside. A giant bastion from days past built to protect from some long-forgotten danger, it now served as just a floating hunk of metal in the sky, but still a somewhat fearsome-looking one. Sinjoro was aware of its dangers and adjusted accordingly in landing his plane near the bottom of the Wing Fortress, allowing himself and Mac to disembark and begin their search for the Sol Emerald there. Following behind in a red and white helicopter/bike mix was Scarlet the Fox, riding with long orange hair and a yellow tank top, along with jean shorts.
Unbeknownst to any involved, there were in fact two teams on the Wing Fortress. Elsewhere on the Fortress, Taglumo was blissfully unaware of the area's danger as he landed his plane precariously just next to one of the spinning rotors on the fortress's tail end. Sliding casually (and clumsily) off the plane, he pulled himself to his feet and waited patiently for Alexia to arrive on her mobile snowflake so that the two of them could search for the Sol Emerald there (incidentally the same one that Sinjoro, Mac, and Scarlet were searching for).
=== Outside the Fortress ===
"I think I'm getting some energy signatures," Mac said, focusing. "And not just Sol Energy. It's almost like there... are other people here. And these signatures are awfully familiar..." Shoot, Alexia is here! Maybe I'll be able to explain why I broke her phone? Urgh...who's the other guy, though?
"I'll stay on the lookout!" yelled Scarlet, looking over the area. "Sinjoro, are you getting any Emerald signatures?"
"That would be your friend here," said Sinjoro, jerking a thumb towards Mac. "I'm just the guy who knows what general locations the Emeralds are in, not what coordinates they're at."
"All right...." said Mac, focusing. "I'm getting something. Let's keep flying straight to see if it gets stronger!"
Sinjoro obligingly un-parked the plane and continued flying. Mac grumbled. "Hey, Joro? I think I'm sensing your nephew," Mac said, getting their signatures closer. "Yeah, it's definitely him, and they're looking for the Emeralds, too. Whaddya think we should do?"
Sinjoro thought for a bit, still flying the plane. "I'll...see what I can do to distract him," said Sinjoro. "Hopefully we won't run into any trouble."
As if on cue, a hatch abruptly flew at the faces of all involved, something that Sinjoro didn't seem to notice enough to start steering the plane out of the way. There was still time to get rid of the hatch, but Sinjoro wasn't doing anything about it.
Scarlet's hand began to glow red, and a cylinder of red energy was sent at the hatch, breaking it in two and sending it out of their way. "You boys need to be way more careful," she said, standing up. "It looks like Alexia and whoever your nephew is are going in. You two should keep flying, I'll go in after them. If things between you and Tag aren't going too well, Mac, you should probably stay back."
Sinjoro looked slightly uncomfortable, slightly amused, and somewhat resigned, but nodded his consent regardless and continued flying the plane. He also looked somewhat distracted both due to controlling various affairs inside the fortress and due to trying to figure out why exactly the hatch came their way. All in all, however, he was apparently reasonably on board with Scarlet's proposed plan.
Mac groaned. "Yeesh, and here I thought I was gonna get some more action! Whatever, you do you, Scarlet. But you can not let them have an Emerald. Those things can, like, stop time if you know how to use them right!"
"I hear you loud and clear, Mac," said a smiling Scarlet. "Don't worry, bub - I'll be fine." Then, she jumped off the plane, leaving Mac to look on in amazement.
"So, what do we do in the meantime?" asked Mac.
"We wait, I suppose," Sinjoro said. "Though, actually, can't you sense the Emerald here? Hunting it down while Scarlet delays the others could be quite useful."
"Sha-yeah!" Mac said, turning on his energy-sight. "I'd say we have to go forward some more, then a little to the right. We'll be there in no time if Scarlet can stall 'em."
Sinjoro obediently moved the plane forward some more, followed by a little to the right.
After a good deal of steering, Sinjoro arrived at the site of the Sol Emerald. It wasn't too hard to spot, what with the sun glinting off of its red, glowy surfaces. The problem was the reason why it was so eye-catching: it was lodged firmly into one of the Wing Fortress's propulsion rotors, causing it to spin around and around within the rotor and drawing an inordinate amount of attention to its largely inaccessible self. Granted, this attention was mildly diminished by the irate word "again" floating over to the duo, but the Sol Emerald's predicament remained regardless.
Mac blinked repeatedly. "Wait... is a word flying to us?"
"I doubt that there's actually a mysterious adverb in the air," Sinjoro said. "Right now, I'd be more concerned about how to disentangle the Emerald from the rotor, hopefully without crippling the station and killing your friend. If it weren't for that, I'd have had it out a while ago," Sinjoro said, muttering this last sentence to himself.
Mac's hand jolted with electricity as he got an idea. "So, since you're the smart guy, Sinjoro... what do you think are he odds I can give this thingamajig violent-enough electroshock therapy to just get it to shut down?"
Sinjoro shrugged. "The odds of that working are pretty good, but bear in mind that the fortress will probably fall out of the sky once you do, so if you want the Emerald and don't want your friend to die, you'll probably have to grab out the Emerald and then turn back on the rotor before the Fortress crashes."
Mac was about to reply, but then, he got a message on his phone, and he whipped it out immediately. He got a text from Scarlet saying Some dweeb and Aqua told me there's an Emerald in Metropolis. I'm gonna head over there. Mac texted back, ok tell me when ur out. before grinning at Sinjoro. "Your nephew just told Scar the location of an Emerald. As soon as they leave, we'll be ready to go!"
Sinjoro shrugged again. "I'm not surprised," he said. "He usually does things like that. At any rate, that certainly does solve the problem of potential deaths inside the fortress, which will make this problem much easier to solve. I'll trust you to let me know when they're out."
Once Mac's phone vibrated with a message from Scarlet alerting Mac of her leaving, Mac grinned. "Alright, Sinny! Should I just release a buncha electricity at once, or is there something specific I hafta shock?"
Sinjoro sighed quietly. I've been called worse names. "I'd suggest shutting off both the rotor that the Emerald is lodged into and the one placed at its symmetrically opposite point—" he said, indicating said point, "—to avoid the Fortress spinning around and smacking us back to Westopolis. Granted, the Fortress is very likely to begin sinking at an increasingly rapid rate, but if you can turn off the two rotors and grab the Emerald within, I'd say, around three seconds, we should probably be all right. If you can't, this will just require additional calculations on the trajectory of the sinking Fortress and the approximate position of the Emeralds, as well as the relative possible velocity of our aircraft in relation to the aforementioned trajectory to ensure that you can actually obtain the Emerald and not get squashed, shredded, zapped, or incinerated. If you can get it done in three seconds, though, everything should be fine."
"So, just be super fast and we'll be good?" asked Mac.
"Pretty much," said Sinjoro.
"Alright, easy enough!" Mac jolted with electricity, and within a matter of seconds he was back, Sol Emerald in hand. "That was simple. Now what?"
Sinjoro, visibly mildly impressed, said, "I would assume that we should meet back up with Scarlet, unless she's intentionally being left behind."
"Uh... you sure it's a good idea for us to meet back up with your nephew?" asked Mac, dismissing the thought with the wave of his hand. "We'll be fine, Scarlet can just get us another Emerald. I'll text her where we're going next." Mac whipped out his phone, twirling it in his hand. "Where are we going next?"
Sinjoro thought for a bit. "We can likely make the most headway at IceCap Mountain," he said.
"Well, let's get a move on!" remarked Mac nonchalantly after texing Scarlet the location. Then, he began to settle down and relax on the plane.
=== Inside the Fortress ===
A white blur raced by Taglumo, and with perfect timing, Alexia jumped off of her mobile snowflake elegantly. However, a few seconds after landing, she ran away and barfed, and when she turned to Taglumo, she looked sick. "S-Sorry...I have m-motion sickness..."
Taglumo looked awkwardly at Alexia, not sure of what to say, then eventually went off and started yanking on one of the hatches leading into the Fortress's engine room. Alexia, now looking a little better, hurriedly followed after him. "S-So.... what are we g-going to d-d-do?"
"Poke around randomly until we find the Emerald!" Taglumo said cheerfully. Then, in a slightly more serious voice, "Could you help me lift this hatch?"
Alexia hurried over to Taglumo, and with all her strength, she started attempting to heave the hatches. Unexpectedly, the hatch abruptly shot up, flew off its hinges, and went zipping off through the air. Taglumo looked fairly pleased (though it was clear that he had had no idea that that would happen) and hurried inside the Fortress. Alexia flipped once the hatch went flying, landing on her stomach.
"O-Oof," she said, standing up. "I-I didn't think I was that s-s-strong..." Seeming generally unharmed, Alexia proceeded into the Fortress along with Taglumo.
A short way into the fortress, Taglumo stopped and started looking around. "Hey, look!" he said, pointing at an odd-colored panel of the ceiling that was bouncing up and down, seemingly of its own accord.
"I-Is it alive?!" asked Alexia, frightened. "I could a-a-always freeze it if it's a problem..."
"I have no idea what it is," said Taglumo, "but man, it's cool!"
"Is it electric?" she asked. "Y-You seem like you'd b-b-be the one to know what s-something's powered b-by..."
Taglumo looked at the panel intensely. "It seems to be moving on its own," he said. "Probably my uncle's doing it." At a ridiculously slow rate, an expression of dawning comprehension came over his face. "Wait," he said. "If my uncle's doing it..." He suddenly returned to his normal cheerful expression. "Technically he could be anywhere in the world," Taglumo said cheerfully. "He might not even know that we're here and might just be fidgeting with this for fun. Except why would he be fidgeting with a panel all the way out here...oh well. He's weird sometimes." Taglumo then casually continued on his way.
Suddenly, small ice spikes rose up from the ground, and Alexia jumped back. "I-I didn't make those..." Oh, please don't tell me that his uncle is a cryokinetic... that would make this a lot more difficult... Alexia turned around, finding Scarlet blowing the tip of her gun. "Scarlet! If you're here... then y-y-you're with Mac... and i-i-if you're with Mac, he e-escaped!"
"Yeah, some kid's uncle helped," Scarlet said, aiming her revolver. "Now, just gimme the Emeralds, and I'm not going to hurt anyone."
Gears started to turn in Taglumo's head, but before they could cause a reaction, Taglumo remembered something else. "I don't think we actually have the Emeralds," said Taglumo with complete honesty. "They're off in a vault somewhere. Right, Alexia?"
"Y-Yes, he's telling the truth!" Alexia said. "Pl-Please, Scarlet, w-we don't want any trouble!"
"Well, if y'all don't have 'em, tell me where they are or where I can contact people who know," Scarlet asked.
"The vault's in a big city somewhere, I think," Taglumo said, racking his brains. "I mean, that's where vaults usually are. I think it's on an island? There are a bunch of islands and I meant to go to all of them...I mean all of the important ones...and they all have cities for some reason..." At this point, Taglumo resorted to making repeated monosyllabic indications of the fact that he was simply unable to come up with any more information (a brief sample of which would look something like "um...er...hmm...ghhh...mm..." and so on).
"Who else knows where it is?" asked Scarlet, becoming more annoyed.
"I think Alexia might know where it is?" Taglumo said hesitantly. "I'm not sure. Alexia, do you know where it is?"
"Do I?" Alexia wondered before whispering, "I-I forgot th-the discussion w-we had..."
"OK, I have a different idea," Taglumo whispered back. Now at full volume and attempting to make eye contact with Scarlet (though actually looking at the wall slightly past her head because the reflections off of it were just too distracting for him), Taglumo said, "Scarlet, can I call up someone who probably knows the location of the Sol Emerald? I think I saw someone shoot someone else's phone a few days ago and I want to make sure that doesn't happen again."
Scarlet begrudgingly nodded. "Just know that if you're calling GUN, I'm shooting that thing before you could say 'Wait, don't shoot my phone!'"
Taglumo gave Scarlet a thumbs-up, pulled out his phone, pushed some places on it, and put it to his head. Moments later, he said, "Hey, Vee? You're not with GUN, are you?...Because someone here said she'd shoot my phone if—"
Sound blared out of the phone at a ridiculously high volume, causing Taglumo to jump and hold his phone at arm's length as the phone yelled, "Dear Chaos, Taglumo, what have you gotten yourself into again?"
Taglumo gave an embarrassed glance to all present before turning down the phone's volume, carefully sticking it against the side of his head (leaving it comically far from his actual ear), and saying, "I'm stuck in this fortress and some weird fox lady is holding me and my friend at gunpoint unless we tell her where the Sol Emerald is, so I thought maybe you could help."
An extremely loud groan came out of the phone—apparently, Taglumo hadn't adjusted the volume much, if at all—followed by a still-audible, "No, I don't. I wasn't there. You'd have to ask G—" Taglumo abruptly stuck the phone behind his back in mild shock "—UN. Do you need me to call her?"
"Umm..." Taglumo said, looking entreatingly at Scarlet with his phone still firmly behind his back. "Are you going to shoot my phone if I ask my sister to call GUN so she can ask them to tell me where the Sol Emerald is, or should I just call them myself...or should I maybe call someone else who might have some idea of where it is? I don't remember if any of the others have cell phones..."
"Yeah, call 'em," Scarlet said. If what Mac told me is true, then Alexia got a lucky shot. With multiple of us, I'm sure we can take those agents down easy... especially if this dork is going to be the one asking. "Just say that you're asking for your own knowledge."
"OK," Taglumo said, looking relieved. Raising the phone to his ear again, he said, "Bye, Vee!" then hung up and dialed the first GUN number he could think of.
"This is the automatic waiting line for GUN services," his phone said in an automated voice.
"Wrong number," Taglumo muttered, hanging up and dialing the actual number that he was supposed to dial (having finally remembered what it was).
After a few seconds, Taglumo said, "Hi, I'm Taglumo and I need to know where the Sol Emerald is for 'my own knowledge'. I'm not exactly sure what that entails, but it's really important."
Taru-Na's chuckle could be heard from the other side of the phone. "Good luck getting it," she said. "It's in a highly secured vault in Metropolis."
Taglumo looked a bit nervous as he realized the implications of what Taru-Na had said, then sobered up somewhat when he realized that they were actually true. "Thanks," he said, hanging up the phone.
"So," said Taglumo, brightening up again, "it looks like we're going to be breaking into one of the many highly guarded vaults in Metropolis, without any prior knowledge of which one it is or how highly guarded it is. I'm actually really good at that!" From the look on Taglumo's face, it was clear that he thought he was being completely honest about his purported abilities.
Alexia lightly sighed. "T-Taglumo... I think Scarlet is one of the people we're going against..."
Scarlet sneered. "Don't you want to get some Emeralds along with us, though?"
"I mean, it's not like we can actively resist, so we might as well be helping out, right?" Taglumo said. Alexia quietly groaned in an attempt to hide her discomfort, but she was too scared by the entire ordeal to say anything.
Scalet didn't pick up Alexia's fear, smiling. "So, if all is said and done, let me just-" Her eyes widened. "Wait a second! Are you sure this isn't some type of trick? I thought there was supposed to be an Emerald near here!" Her eyes narrowed. "...unless you've already found it?!"
"Um, no, we haven't," said Taglumo. "But I picked up signals saying that it was somewhere in a 5-mile radius of here about four-and-a-half days ago, and there's nothing around here but air, so it has to be somewhere in this fortress, right?"
"Whatever," Scarlet said. "Mac and his gang have probably already found it. You said that we were going to Metropolis?" Scarlet reached into her pocket, texting Mac about her situation, before throwing her phone into the air. It transformed into a red and white bike. "Hop on."
Taglumo's jaw dropped before he closed it to say "That is so cool!" It was with some hesitance that he clambered on after this, not wanting to cause trouble for this cool piece of tech he just saw. However, once on, he became more at ease, reaching a hand down for Alexia to help her up. Alexia doubted whether she should go with him or not, but not finding the rebellious spirit within her to leave from their path, Alexia took his hand, and the three of them left the area. Scarlet then looked over a keypad on the bike, texting Mac I'm out, Kenzie. Do your thing. before driving away from the fortress.
Taglumo was clearly very excited about being on the bike and was apparently on the verge of saying something to that effect when a thought occurred to him. "Would we be able to go back for my plane?" he asked. "I know we have a vehicle, but I could reconfigure my plane into a toaster or a machine gun or whatever would be useful to have along since we don't need to use it for flying."
Scarlet sighed, turning around. "Fine, kid, but you better have a way to carry it. Where is it?"
"It's, um, on the Wing of the Fortress," Taglumo said with unintentional capitalization. "I left it next to one of the rotors or something."
"Alright, fine," Scarlet answered. "But if I fly there, will you be able to grab it yourself?"
"Yeah, I think so," said Taglumo.
"Let's get going, then," Scarlet reluctantly replied, turning around and beginning to fly back.
Taglumo kept very still for a few seconds until, all of a sudden, his plane, jolted somewhat by Mac's high-speed movements in the area, fell past the bike. Taglumo grabbed it out of the air, folded it into a few different shapes rapidly before deciding on a backpack/jetpack of sorts, and hung it over his shoulders. "Job done!" he said. "So, are we going to go off to Metropolis now?"
"Yep! Here we go," Scarlet answered, driving her vehicle off to Metropolis with the help of an installed GPS on the Scarlet Cycle.
Category:The Curse of Day