189 Cooperation (2)

***

[We're not really going to go to all those places one at a time, are we?] Colin figured the moment they were out of the building.

[We're going. We're just not all going to the same place at the same time.] Philip agreed. [You can go to Lamico. I'll go to the coldest place on Nakama World.]

[Where exactly is that, by the way?] Colin wondered.

[Continent of Eternal Winter, of course. Farther south than Skycrown was.] Philip told him. [All the way to the South Pole.]

Katrin, at the time, was eyeing them suspiciously. "Guys, what are you two up to?"

Philip shrugged. "We're going to split up to cover more ground. I'm going to the South Pole, Colin's going to Lamico."

Katrin blinked.

"Is that even possible? I mean, I thought we all had to go everywhere." May pointed out.

"Normally, it's not." Colin told her. "But we have a certain advantage. Just take our word for it."

"Ocean Prince and Forest Prince. Go figure." May rolled her eyes.

Katrin didn't doubt for a moment. "I'm going south. I have a special interest in the Continent of Eternal Winter."

Colin paused at that. "I thought you hated that place."

"I used to. But I found something interesting there that makes me want to go back and explore more."

Katrin's thoughts sharpened around a single image. {The Blue Phoenix. She's found the Blue Phoenix and she wants to Bond it. No wonder she keeps wanting to go back there.}

{But wait! If she's completing the Journey with us... how's she going to Bond it? Will it even be able to stay around here with the Cult exiling all the highest leveled Wilds?! I mean, it's in the Ancient Ways now, so maybe it'll be able to stay, but once she bonds it and tries to bring it out...?}

He glanced at Philip. There was a really odd moment there in which he realized that Philip knew what he was thinking and he knew that Philip knew what he was thinking, and Philip knew that he knew that Philip knew...

Alicia straightened. "Okay. Then I'm going to Lamico. My birds are much more comfortable on a normal island than in freezing cold."

"Hmm." May glanced from Philip to Colin and back. "The Continent of Eternal Winter is kinda my turf."

"Then I'll go with my sister." Larry suggested.

Colin suddenly had a weird, weird vision. He saw himself with Alicia and Larry Traveling in Nakama World. {That's so strange. Usually, it's Jonah, Alicia and Larry...}

{And Gracie...?} Colin spun around, only now realizing something. "Hey, where's Gracie?"

"She came with us to Pepper HQ." Alicia told him. "She's still there."

Colin sighed. "We better go get her."

"No, don't. She's not lost or anything. She waved goodbye to us when we were leaving Mavin's office. I think she wants to talk to them." Alicia told him. "Just let her do what she wants."

Colin frowned. "But she's not even a proper Traveler here..."

"She is." Larry told him. "She has special Gaian gear and Comrades and everything."

"{Gaian}?" Colin stared.

Larry shrugged. "It's their newbie package."

Meanwhile, Philip turned and ran. "Found one!"

"Found what?" Katrin stared. "One what?"

"A Wind Knight!" Philip shouted as he raced across the square.

Colin didn't quite understand at first, but as they dashed across the city streets to a little coffee shop on a corner, Katrin pointed. "That's Swift! He's the fastest of the Wind Knights!

Philip and Katrin closed in on him, but Swift saw them and called out first. "Yo, Belle!"

"Hey there, Swift." Katrin panted as the group all arrived.

Colin glanced at Philip. " 'Belle'?"

"Nickname. All the Wind Knights have one." Philip explained.

As Katrin explained, Colin saw a glimpse of it in her mind. A simple memory of how she got the nickname. {Bellerophon, rider of Pegasus... I guess it really is better than 'Cat' or some such. Still... to be called 'beauty' by everyone who calls her by nickname...}

"Convenient, isn't it?" Philip's voice cut into Colin's thoughts.

"What?" Colin blinked, still thinking about Katrin's nickname.

"Not that." Philip said, clearly hearing Colin's thoughts. "I meant this. What we have. What we can do."

{Hear thoughts.} Colin paused. {He's talking about how we can hear thoughts. Did I do something wrong just now...?}

"That's not what I wanted to ask you." Philip said, looking at him seriously. "Colin... have you ever wondered {why} we can hear thoughts?"

Colin paused. "I thought... I mean... something to do with Dreamworlds? Or maybe it's just a talent some of us are born with?"

{Or could it be that... it was because something was DONE to us?!}

Philip didn't say anything, but the look on his face was grim. Grim enough that Colin felt his own face mirror it.

"There's another question to that." Alicia said softly. Colin turned around to see her standing there. She glanced at Philip, who gave her a nod of acknowledgment. {He knows. He knows she can hear thoughts too.}

But what Colin said was, "What question?"

Alicia's gaze was steel. "What are they going to do to us if they find out?"

Colin felt himself turn to ice. {What WOULD they do? Hunt us down to perform experiments on us? Even if... even if they had to invade or buy over a Dreamworld to do it?}

He didn't need to hear thoughts to know the others were thinking along the same lines. Their faces said enough.

"Is it just the three of us?" Colin asked in a low voice. "Or is it all of us who are hunted? All of the Eight?"

"Katrin doesn't seem to be able to hear thoughts." Philip pointed out in an equally low voice.

Alicia slipped in her say. "But she does seem to have something. I mean, finding the Blue Phoenix is no small feat. And she seems to have some sort of connection to it. What if there is something about the Eight, but it's a bit different from one of us to the next? The Cult did come here looking for all eight of us."

"That doesn't make sense." Philip frowned. "The only reason they're after you guys was to find me."

Colin glanced at him. "What makes you so sure?"

Before Philip could reply, though, Swift called. "Hey, are you guys coming or what?"

The three of them exchanged short glances, but all their faces agreed that the conversation was over... for now.

"Coming." Alicia announced and they were off in a minute.

***

May headed south with Philip and Katrin, both their Pegasi locked in on Swift's Tail Vector. May herself had ended up on one of Swift's Comrades, a bigger version of the bird he rode, also locked in his Vector to match speeds.

She had offered to ride behind Katrin, but one look at Katrin's face told her it certainly wasn't a good idea. When she glanced at Philip she noticed Katrin's face turn even darker out of the corner of her eye.

That didn't sit well with May. {What's up with that girl? It's like she has a grudge against me or something. I mean, we did fight before, but we were knight and outlaw back then. That's what knights and outlaws do, right? It wasn't personal.}

{Or was it? Come to think of it, that girl came straight for me. She's really got it in for me, for some reason.}

"You guys ready?" Swift called back over his shoulder.

"Ready for what?" May asked.

"To get going!" He yelled.

"What do you mean 'get going'?" May asked. "We're already..."

Philip cut in. "We're ready! Let's move!"

May had time to blink just once. "What...?"

"GO!" Swift shouted, and then May found out exactly what he meant.

"WHOAAAAAA!" May gasped as the entire world seemed to lurch from beneath her. The wind in her face these past thirty seconds seemed like a breeze in comparison to the gale that threatened to tear her right off her mount. She grabbed at the bird's harness, leaning in as low as Swift, suddenly realizing that this was, at these speeds, the only way to remain seated against that sort of air pressure.

For a moment there, she felt sure she'd left something important somewhere behind her, like her tummy, for instance. All the blood seemed to rush either in or out of her head and both fear and excitement soared to tantalizing heights.

{So fast...! I've never... ever... gone so... FAST!!}

"YAHOOOO!!" May wanted to throw her hands up in the air, and she would have, uncaring as to who might think her gone nuts, but she needed them to hold on to the bird right now.

The seas and the skies blurred past. Clouds shot by as if launched from a catapult. She couldn't make out a single wave in the ocean, the whole thing sped by beneath her like a swiftly rushing river.

"This... Is... AWESOME!!" May shrieked. "I've GOT to get me one of these!"

"Good luck with that!" Swift yelled back. "It took me ages to do it!"

{Ages...?} May wondered. {Hmm. Where do you even find one of these birds? I've never seen one of these before. I've been to most of the continents and islands on Nakama World, but I've never seen a bird this big, this fast in all my time here...}

{Maybe mom might know? Or uncle George? But somehow, I doubt it. If they did know, they'd have gotten one of their own by now. I'm sure of it.}

"How?" May gasped, fighting the wind for air. "Tell me how!!"

Swift stuck out his tongue at her. "Don't wanna!"

"WHAT? I'll pay you! How much do you want?"

"No way!"

"I'll battle you for it!"

"Not gonna happen!"

"I'll trade you a high-class Comrade or Tame!"

"The only Comrades I want, I already have! Forget it! I'm not telling an outlaw!"

May bit her lip and thought for a while. She thought about that, and thought about what she could or couldn't do.

At last, she came to a conclusion. {Mom, I'm sorry, but sometimes a girl's gotta strike out on her own... if he won't tell an outlaw, then...}

"Come on! I'll... I'll stop being an Outlaw! I'll join the Wind Knights!"

But he shot that idea down instantly. "You don't have the Comrades for it!"

{Oh scrap. Now what...?!}

There was only one last idea that came to mind. {Time to go for broke.} "I'll go out on a date with you!"

"Not interested!"

"WHAT?!" May exploded. "Forget it! I'll go find out some other way! To the Fire Seas with you!"

"Your friends went there, remember? The place we're going will be very, very cold! Better suit up!"

May turned away in a huff at that point, and tried not to think about that stinging sensation of not being wanted on a date.

***

Larry, meanwhile, ended hopping on his biggest bunny all the way to Boomtown Airport.

"This... is... weird!!" Alicia gasped as she bounced along on another of his bunnies. "We... should... have... flown...!"

Colin, too, bounced along on a big, big bunny. "Kirin... can't... manage... all... {three}... of us!"

Or she could, Larry felt, but so soon after winning an eating contest, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to strain her.

They looked for a flight to Lamico, but nobody was going there, not even the private charters. The closest they could get to it was Maro Airport.

"What makes you so sure we can get a ship to Lamico from Port Maro?" Larry asked after about half an hour of talking to people.

"We're not sure." Alicia said shortly. "But at the very least, it gives Kirin some time to rest while we get as close as we can. From there, if we can't find a ship, we can take a short flight to Ocean Tower and then to Lamico."

Larry didn't think they were going to manage it. All the way over the by-now-familiar sight of Crescent Continent below them, he thought about how hard it was going to be to find a ship willing to sail straight into a war-zone and figured it was never going to happen.

But ten minutes after arriving at Maro Airport, they found someone. Larry couldn't quite believe it, but the very minute they set foot in Port Maro, both Alicia and Colin simultaneously yelled, "Captain Courageous!"

"My young friends!!" CC roared, thumping his chest as he rushed to greet them. "What can I do for you? Do you need a ship?"

"YES!" Both of them exclaimed at the same time.

"Do you need to go in a hurry?!"

"YES!"

"Someplace dangerous? Somewhere nobody else would want to go? Somewhere only Captain Courageous would dare to sail?!"

"YES!" This time Larry joined in the chorus.

"Then I'm your man!" He raised a fist. "Say no more! We leave immediately!"

"Wow!" Larry couldn't believe it. "Why would you do so much for us?"

"These two...!" Captain Courageous wiped at his eyes dramatically, as if he were tearing up. "For these two, and the times we've gone through together... we go way back, the three of us..."

"Really?" Larry stared. He wasn't the only one. People around the Port were also beginning to stare. All the drama was drawing attention.

"Ah, the places we've {been}!" CC said, closing his eyes dreamily. "You wouldn't believe the adventures we've had! We sailed the Glass Ocean during the turbulent seas, and we stared the Grand Kraken in the eye..."

"What?" Larry blinked.

"These two fell overboard, see? And I went in after them... and there, beneath us, was the cause of the great waves on the Glass Ocean. All the Kraken of the world's seas, led by Grand Kraken itself, its form so vast as crush in an instant our vessel or any ship that sailed!"

Larry glanced at Alicia and Colin sideways. "He's just bluffing. Right?"

"No, actually, it's all true." Alicia told him. "We were there."

Larry glanced about again, noticing more and more people watching them raptly. "Guys, um..."

"It's okay. This is how he gets business." Colin explained briefly.

"But you're..."

"Nobody's looking at me. They're all looking at him and her." Colin nodded towards where CC and Alicia were now enacting a rather heartfelt reunion, as old friends who used to journey together once again taking to the treacherous seas. "Alicia really does like a bit of drama now and then."

Larry looked at him blankly. "She does?"

Colin turned to look at him just as blankly. "She doesn't?"

Alicia herself dashed forward. "To the ship! Hurry up, boys! Time and tide wait for no man!"

"Ah!" CC told the onlookers conspirationally with a wink. "There's a lass after me own heart!"

***

Meanwhile, Gracie was getting her Journey Card stamped with the Pepper Tourism HQ mark. {Not bad. Two stamps in a single night. That's twice what's expected of us, right? At this rate, I'll be a top scorer in Gym Club.}

This world wasn't such a nasty place after all. True, the automated vehicles didn't seem to care a whit about kids crossing the road, but now that she knew her way around and had some Comrades to protect her, this world looked quite fun. Since having started, Gracie had amassed 600cr from tutorial tasks, two blouses, three t-shirts, two jackets, a long skirt, a miniskirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of slacks, a backpack, a handbag, and two kinds of hats. That was quite an extension of her wardrobe from just the same old stuff she'd been wearing in Gardens Dreamworlds for years, stuff that her mom bought her from a Dreamworlds mall. Here... she could choose her own clothes, and they were a bit pricey, but money wasn't hard to come by here, and with things she bought here, she could surprise mom in any number of ways. Plus, this world offered her endless possibilities to spy on Colin.

Going around here wasn't hard. Her Comrades were mainly just left at the Gym and would grow stronger and stronger there. She would have to pay for their training, and later it could get expensive, but for now... why, just for logging in, Gracie would receive 2 training tickets tomorrow. The day after that, the login prize would be 5 training tickets. If she paid for their cheaper training with Clira now, she could save the free tickets for the expensive training later. That was Gracie's clever plan.

While she was at it, she had to get her Travel Card stamped. There were nice equipment prizes for having the most stamps earned in a single week, and having the most stamps in total, also handed out weekly. That means, if Gracie could manage to get the highest amount of stamps in her Gym Club and stay that way, she could win the 'most stamps in total' prize every single week. That meant a lot of goodies just for staying the top scorer.

There were other competitions, of course. Some of them were based on Comrades, like Tournaments or Technique Contests or Beauty Contests. Some were educational, like the Gaian Tests on Ecology and The Environment and the Names of (Real) Worlds. One involved how much you donated to the Gaian Cause, or how many Gaian meetings you attended in a week.

And then there were instant reward quests. Like, for example, the Wanted Bounty on Colin, and Philip, and Katrin. Where most of the quests offered items or tickets or coupons as prizes, these sometimes offered money. Actual, can-use-anywhere Clira.

Using her Visor, she took a quick snapshot photo of Colin, Philip and Katrin talking together just before they separated outside the Pepper Tourism HQ. Then she sent it in, wondering if this was really going to win her any prizes.

Her eyes widened when she saw the notifications.

{Quest Reward: 1000 Clira has been deposited to your account. Quest Reward: 1000 Clira has been deposited to your account. Quest Reward: 1000 Clira has been deposited to your account.}

"Three times? Once for each of them..." Gracie breathed as the others left and she stepped out of Pepper Tourism to watch them go. Then she noticed that her Instant Reward Quests had changed. Now they offered not just the normal prizes for sightings, but double for hints on where they were going.

"This is easy!" Gracie exclaimed, bringing up the compass on her Traveler Watch and raising it to the foreground as she took more photos with her Lina Visor, showing Colin and Alicia and Larry going East, and Philip, Katrin and May running off toward some coffee shop on the north side.

She sent them in and was very gratified to receive the results.

{Quest Reward: 2000 Clira has been deposited to your account. Quest Reward: 2000 Clira has been deposited to your account. Quest Reward: 2000 Clira has been deposited to your account.}

"I'm RICH!"