187 Date (2)

***

At that very minute, High Priest Karodius was having tea at one of Boom City's most prestigious tea-shops. It was an outdoor, Victorian style institution with an English garden, surrounded by a low wall of rose bushes and shaded with a very lightly tinted (and very slightly sloped) glass roof.

"We {must} find them!" Karodius told his main subordinates sternly. On the right was his new Personal Aide, Johnson; across from Karodius was Chief of Operations, Executor Pimar, and to his left, the new Chief Breeder Pan. "Philip and Colin! Even Katrin if we can locate her! We must capture them at all costs, or all this would have been for nothing!"

Behind him, some sort of ruckus was going on. Karodius glanced back to see a bunch of kids in rabbit masks scrambling to get on a roller coaster that had a hamster-masked couple in an auto-cart locked onto the front. Rolling his eyes at these absurd entertainments of children, he turned back to his subordinates and went on, "We have spent far, far more time and resources than anyone anticipated already. We must show some results!"

He didn't glance twice at the bunch of kids taking their seats on the roller coaster as the ride started.

***

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." Colin couldn't think of anything else to say or do as the roller coaster began to climb a very long, very high slope that seemed to simply disappear into the sky.

He glanced at Alicia. Even she looked somewhat alarmed, eyes wide and hands gripping the seat harness tightly.

They reached the peak of the first slope, a place so high that the stalls below looked smaller than his fingernail and for once, Colin was glad the harness was so tight. He, too, clung on to it, but this time, he wasn't trying to take it off. At all.

Alicia let out a small, high pitched sound from the top of her throat.

And then the auto-cart tilted forward and Colin was distinctly, distinctly aware that the cart had wheels, not rails, and that the only thing holding them to the rails was the train latched on to them.

{Those latches better be strong. Very, very, very, very....}

The auto-cart dropped down a slope as steep as Kirin's neck.

There was screaming. Colin wasn't sure if it was himself or Alicia or both, but all he could hear was screaming and blood was either rushing to his head or draining from it, he couldn't tell which, and all he knew was his hands were gripping the harness a lot harder than he ever thought he could, and the ground was rushing up to meet his face faster and faster and faster...

The track tilted, the entire auto-cart tilted, and the whole thing went diagonal, a sheer forty-five degrees with the two of them half-hanging out of the cart as it rounded another corner beyond which they could see nothing. Nothing at all but blue skies.

Colin was definitely screaming then. He couldn't imagine not screaming at this point, and felt sure, very sure indeed that someone, somewhere had made a terrible mistake and that he was very likely about to die.

{I'm dreaming. This is a nightmare.} Colin thought then, as the auto-cart hurtled towards nothingness. {Oh wait. This really IS a Dream.}

And in Dreamworlds, the laws of physics and gravity could be overridden. Especially if it made money.

{It doesn't matter how fast we go or how sharply we turn or even how strong those latches are between the train and our auto-cart. I'm never going to fall off. The realization brought Colin a sudden calmness. Because this is a Dream in a controlled Dreamworld, and this ride is all...}

The auto-cart hit the corner and went flying right off the rails.

They really screamed then. The auto-cart was tumbling through the air and land and sky were spiraling around wildly and Colin screamed and Alicia screamed until he thought he was going to scream his whole throat out and the only thing he could see right then that didn't go spinning out of control was Alicia's terrified face. It was looking green.

{Why?!!! Why did this happen to us?! How...??}

Alicia's eyes were wide, and looking right into his. Colin didn't know what he himself looked like right then, but he felt sure he must be as terrified as her, maybe even more so.

Oddly enough, in the midst of all that screaming and raw terror, the only thing that was clear in his mind was regret. Regret that he couldn't comfort her or ease her fears.

Alicia's wide eyes stared into his for what seemed like eternity.

And then she threw up.

***

"COLIN!" Gracie gasped as the auto-cart carrying both him and Alicia went spinning off the rails.

She had a frantic moment to think. {What happened?! How could this...}

And then they hit the corner next, and the roller-coaster sped up even more. For one long, long panicked instant, Gracie truly, seriously thought they, too, were going to go flying off the rails, that this entire roller-coaster was a death-trap, that this was someone's terrible, terrible idea of a joke or maybe some terrorists had sabotaged this place...

But they didn't fly off. Their train was well-secured to the rails and they went over the corner at speeds that made her feel like her guts had gone the way Colin did and she'd left them far, far behind.

Next to her, Larry had gone rigid, totally rigid. Behind them, Katrin had both hands to her own throat, but she was screaming loud enough for Gracie to hear anyway, and she sounded exactly the way Gracie figured she herself sounded.

Beside Katrin, May was shrieking, but it wasn't the same kind of sound Katrin and Gracie made. May was going "YAHOOOOO!!!"

And in the car behind them, Philip sat quietly. He did not scream. He did not stir. He stayed still, but whether he was frozen with fear or actually calm, Gracie had no idea... at least, until he raised a hand to her in greeting.

Gracie stared, for a moment stunned at his demeanor. {He's not afraid. He's not afraid at all.}

Then they went into a spiraling darkness and Gracie couldn't see anything any more.

***

{What am I doing?!}

Katrin wondered that over and over again as the roller coaster went spinning into blackness. Seated beside the girl who took all of Colin's attention when they were in the Continent of Eternal Winter (and who looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself!), supposedly following Colin on this date of his with some girl in a hamster mask (who, by the way, wasn't even on this roller-coaster ride any more!), Katrin had to wonder what in the world brought her on this trip in the first place.

{Colin. That was practically the cause of all this. Colin on a date. Katrin fumed. What do I care about his dates anyway? Why should I be so interested as to grab a rabbit mask and jump onto a roller coaster without even thinking about it?}

But say what you will, Colin had done a lot for Katrin. Even if a lot of it was now rendered useless and much of it had been unwarranted, unasked for, completely problematic... she knew he had done so for her sake. He probably never considered the consequences, but his intentions were pure.

More to the point, Katrin wanted to know whom he was dating. And why.

{I don't have time for this! I need to gather more allies for the J-Knights supporting Lynn, and then I have to go and try to bond the Blue Phoenix one more time!}

She was close, Katrin felt. The Blue Phoenix was connected with the land, somehow, with the Continent of Eternal Winter itself. Somewhere, there had to be a quest, or even a quest line that led to bonding the legend.

{And here I am stuck on a roller-coaster that I really don't want to be on! Why, oh why did I ever come here...?!}

But then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Katrin turned around to see Philip seated behind her, looking at her quietly.

{Why, oh why is HE here?! He doesn't have time to waste like this! Why would he even join this gang stalking Colin?}

But Philip, she knew, was concerned about Colin also. {That's...} Katrin sighed inwardly. {That's just like Philip.}

And truth be told, even in a city like this, with the kind of forces that the Forest Prince and the Ocean Prince together could bring to bear, not even the Cult of Gaia could capture them. {But Colin calling upon the Forest Wilds would draw forces that could be crucial away from Lynn's battle. It's a very big risk. No. A fight here would be bad. That's why Philip is following Colin. If we need to fight to save him, we'd best do it without the power of the Forest. If Colin is discovered here, Philip is probably the only one who can save him.}

Philip said nothing, and Katrin did not trust herself to speak. He looked at her and she looked at him for perhaps ten seconds as scenery whizzed all around them until the roller coaster finally slowed down.

Katrin turned back to the front to see that they had arrived at the stop.

The ride was over. But Colin and his date were nowhere to be found.

***

This Love Tour has to be some madman's idea of a bad joke, Colin figured, as they found themselves in what appeared to be a freefall down thirty feet into a maw of very, very large teeth.

Despite how it looked, though, the teeth were only there for decoration. The maw turned out to be some crazy pit tunnel that ended up wounding round and round long enough for Alicia to throw up on him again. Then just as the spinning darkness vanished, they were thrust into a serene river flowing through an underground crystal cavern with soft music and dim pink lighting for a background.

[Very romantic.] Alicia sent the thought to Colin. [Or it would be if I weren't feeling so sick!]

[Tell me about it.] Colin sent back flatly, feeling thoroughly filthy with puke all over his shirt and pants. [I wanna dive into that water and clean up already!]

Fountains went up left and right, they passed a veil of a waterfall, and then the slow dance music finally came to an end. The whole crystal cavern must have taken a couple of minutes, but for Colin, it was a long and torturous exercise in trying not to rip off his puke-laden clothes and throw them off into the water or something.

They were greeted at the exit with an exuberant pair in blue uniforms and sports caps. The long-haired girl beamed at them and said, "How did it... go...?" She trailed off, seeing Alicia's face green and puke all over Colin. "Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear."

"Get us outta here!" Colin half-wailed and the pair of blue-uniformed workers scrambled.

They brought them to a rest area where he found a good shower and cleaner that cost him some 10cr and finally got himself clean. Alicia met him outside, with crumbs of toast bread and an empty tea-cup before her on a table. There was a plate of toast and a cup of tea waiting for Colin too.

"The snacks are complimentary. Some sort of apology." Alicia told him dryly. "Apparently, they cranked up the excitement notch on our ride because we were the youngest pair ever to try it."

"Please don't ever do that again." Colin shuddered, taking his seat.

"That's the same thing I said." Alicia grimaced. "But at least we get the masks and the food. And the tea."

"But we lost a lot of time." Colin pointed out. "The Tournament starts in five minutes. We don't have time to train Kirin any more."

"Try it anyway. Kirin's pretty big already and judging from what I've seen of Philip's competition, yours shouldn't have anything that can match her. It's like the other competitors are there just to lose. I wonder if they're really competing, or they've been sponsored to compete using low level Comrades just for the sake of those map-piece hunters."

"Right..." Colin said, feeling rather good about the idea.

That good feeling dropped like a rock when he saw the 'fish' they brought in for the competition. The fish weren't very big, each one about the size of Colin's forearms, but they weren't brought in by hand or by cart. They came in by the truckload.

"Just how many trucks are there?" Colin stared, eyes wide as the fourth truck rounded the corner filled to the brim with fish. "How many competitors have signed up this time...?"

They made their way to the arena grounds and found out first hand.

"{Scopia}?!" Colin nearly jumped when he saw her. "I'm competing against the leader of the Scopic Pirates? The one with the gigantic seaweed-type..."

"Does a seaweed-type even eat fish?" Alicia asked, curious.

"That's not the point! The point is, she's super-powerful! She commands an entire fleet of pirates and goodness knows how many Comrades other than that supersized kelp!"

Just as he said that, Scopia looked up and saw him there. The two of them stood there like statues for a moment, neither one moving a muscle.

And then Scopia ran away screaming.

***

The entire Scopic Pirates crew ran away with Scopia and left the arena spectators, fellow competitors, and the mayor all baffled and blinking at their sudden exit in confusion.

"What just happened?" Colin was just as blur.

Alicia looked at him scratching his head and sighed. "I think Scopia recognized you. I don't know how, maybe she has some thermal scope or something that tells her who you really are despite the mask."

"Oh..." Colin touched the mask on his face and then scratched his head some more. "But then... why did she run away like that?"

"What? Aren't you happy she's gone?" Alicia nudged him. "For a moment there you almost sounded afraid of her."

"Maybe I am, kinda. I mean... she's got all her Comrades and her whole crew, and all I got is Kirin. In a flat out competition she'd probably stomp me flat. I guess I {am} scared of her."

"Well, that would be dumb." Alicia told him. "Because she's clear and away terrified of you."

"Huh? Why?" Colin still didn't get it.

Alicia almost wanted to rap him on the head. "What do you {think} happened to her last time you two met? Her entire fleet, all her forces, and all her Comrades with her?"

"Um... we sank them." Colin said. "We had the Ocean Wilds helping us and all the Forest Clans..."

"Duh. You wiped the ocean floor with her." Alicia snorted. "Have you forgotten already, Colin? You're the Forest Prince! You've got the power to wipe out entire continents! You changed the very map of Nakama World! As scared as you were of her, she was even more scared of you!"

Colin watched them go, Scopia, all her Comrades, and all her crew and their Comrades running for their lives and screaming loud enough to draw the attention of every human and Comrade in Boom City.

And all he said was, "Oh."