13… 14… 15 seconds.
Leon entered the observation deck, hoping Roxie hadn’t made it to the captains’ room, but knowing she probably did. Oh well. At least he had one victory today.
Sure enough, Roxie was already knocking on the captains’ door. He couldn’t help but wonder what the room inside looked like but didn’t follow her. She had already won.
So did he, in a way. While she stood high above the tiled floors, he got to look out the window, into an ocean of stars. In the middle sat that familiar blue marble he called home: Earth. They should land in a couple weeks. He couldn’t deny a part of him felt homesick, even though he was having the time of his life.
Leon floated toward the window for a closer look. There were so many things he wished he could return to, like the crisp winter air on his legs or his friends laughing as he wore shorts in the snow. Other things, he was glad to leave behind. Though could he really say he’d never turn his back on a friend when…? No. He shouldn’t worry about that.
“Yo, Rookie!” Emil’s voice echoed through the room.
Leon placed a foot on the floor, stopping on a dime. He turned around to see Roxie joined by the lieutenant captain at the top of the stairs.
“C’mon up here, we’re waiting on you~” Emil winked, pointing down at him.
“I’ll be right up!” Leon pushed himself off of the floor. He could’ve sworn the tile sunk beneath his foot, but he was too busy soaring into the air to pay it much mind.
Soaring a little too high, actually. He must’ve pumped the air jets a little too hard, because he flew straight past Roxie and Emil toward the ceiling. A hand grabbed his foot just in time.
“Got’cha!” Emil struck a stylish pose. “Uh-oh.” Unfortunately, he forgot to grab onto the stair railing, so he got swept up with Leon.
Roxie came to the rescue. With a mighty tug, she pulled him back to the ground in no time.
“Thanks Roxie, I don’t know where we’d be without ya.”
“On the ceiling!” she answered. “Celebratory hug?”
“Ah, what the heck?” Emil welcomed her with an open arm. The other slung around Leon’s shoulder, pulling him down.
“Thanks.” He laughed sheepishly. “You guys are lifesavers.”
The lieutenant let them go. “Come in, come in. I’ve been expecting you.”
Leon and Roxie followed him into a dim, red room. Leon remembered back to a month ago, how alarmed the captain was when Emil first mentioned this room existed. His goosebumps told him they probably shouldn’t be here, yet it didn’t stop his eyes from taking in every sight, from the golden beds in front of him, to the wooden desk on the other side.
Most eye-catching of all was the screen above the desk, which had to take up a good third of the wall. It displayed camera feeds from all over the Celestion-5.
“Woah… This is like every room in the ship.” Leon continued marveling. “Look, Mia’s still reading at the kitchen table. And there in the gym, Aiden’s talking to Jun!” He pointed to the top-leftmost section. “I can even see us right here!”
“Yep.” Emil nodded. “Pretty sweet, huh? Notice anything else?”
Roxie tilted her head. “Where’s the captain?”
“Ding, ding, ding!” He spun to face her. “That’s the million-dollar question of the day: Where the heck did he go?”
Leon shared a look with Roxie. “You don’t know?”
“Nope!”
“But he’s been gone the entire week!” Roxie followed up. “You haven’t seen him since??”
“Oh, I’ve seen him.” Emil tapped his forehead. “He still has to sleep. I just don’t know where he runs off to.” He placed his hands on the desk. “So I’ve been watchin’ these cameras all day. No luck.”
Leon thought for a moment. “Maybe he’s somewhere where the cameras can’t see him?”
“You guys hit every blind spot there is on the way up.” Emil’s eyes didn’t leave the cameras. “If he were hiding in ‘em, you woulda seen him. The only room without cameras is our bathroom,” he hopped over to a door on the very right and opened it up to reveal a toilet, “...and he’s not here!”
“What manner of vanishing magic does he possess?” pondered Roxie.
The lieutenant sighed. “That’s what I wanna know.”
Leon looked from him to Roxie. “Uhhhh, what do we do now?”
“Oh yeeeeah. You guys’ bet’ll have to be a draw, I guess.” Emil leaned on the bathroom door. “I gotta give you props for keeping me entertained. Shame it was all for nothing.”
“It was not all for naught!” Roxie pointed to the sky. “We still had another question, remember?”
Leon did not remember.
She continued anyway. “We still need to uncover the identity of the mysterious Lorie!”
“Right!” He finally remembered. “Yeah, who’s Lorie?”
“Tch.” Emil grimaced. “I was hoping you wouldn’t remember that.”
“You underestimate the strength of our memory!” Roxie overestimated the strength of Leon’s.
“I’d tell you guys if I could, but it’s kind of a secret.”
“Pleeease? Pretty pleeease?”
Emil shielded his face to protect himself from Roxie’s puppy dog eyes. “No.”
“Can you at least give us a hint?” asked Leon.
“Weeeelll, I suppoooose.” He tapped his chin. Suddenly, the lieutenant leapt from his place and snatched a pair of simulator glasses from the desk, brushing by the other two before landing on the opposite wall. “But you’ll hafta fight me for it first.” He wagged a finger. “If at least one of you wins, I’ll give you a hint on who Lorie is. Got it?”
“Okay!” Leon was ready.
“You’re on!” Roxie too.
“Alriiiight!” Emil winked, moving toward the middle of the room. “Let’s get this party started.”
Between the two beds, Emil started his first pattern ‘I Made This Again.’ A slow stream of projectiles fired from his hand, creating a line between his opponents. His hand swiveled in Roxie’s direction. The stream itself curved like a rope being swung around. She fled from it, only to trap herself in the back corner of the room. It looked like game over for her, but using her feet, she pushed herself off the floor, along the wall, and over the beds. Leon found himself impressed even though she was screaming the entire time.
“Waaaaaaaah!” Roxie continued cowering, making her way around the room and back.
The projectile rope detached from Emil’s hand, clumped up, and spread out toward them. Luckily, the gaps between each shot were so big, Leon and Roxie could just stand in place.
Emil stood there, a little befuddled. “Huh. Oh well, think of this as a warm up!”
He fired up another stream, this time turning in the other direction. Roxie took action first, circling back around the room the way she came. Leon followed her lead, but as he leapt over the beds, his foot caught the edge of one. He came out fine, though his heart hitched a little in his chest.
Emil, on the other hand, wheezed like he’d breathed his last breath. He sucked it back through his teeth, eyes bugging out. Quickly, he regained his cool.
“Ah, new rule, everyone!” With a smile, he rushed over to the bed. “Uhhhh, don’t go near this bed, okay?” He winked, then hurriedly began smoothing out where Leon had tripped.
“Okay!” Leon replied from the safety of the other side of the room. “Wait, how do we do that when your attack swings around the room?”
“I understand the answer to your troubles.” Roxie tapped him on the shoulder. The two stood still as the detached projectiles passed them by. “I’ll show you the next time around.”
But there was no next time around. Their opponent was too busy to start it again. He continued fixing the bed, muttering to himself.
“Looks good, looks good. Now to check. Where isss…?” Emil looked around before his eyes locked on to the desk on the other side of the bed. He ran up the wall over to the other side and grabbed a coin out of its drawer before launching it into the bed. It did not bounce. “Right. This doesn’t work without gravity. Aghh!” His hands squeezed his hair. “Now I messed it up even more!”
Leon glanced at Roxie. “Should we get his attention?”
“The longer he’s distracted, the better chance we’ll have at winning!” She whispered.
Leon felt a little bad for worrying him this much, even though the bed he tripped over looked just as neat as the other one, if not more so.
Emil smoothed it over some more before placing his hands on his hips. He pointed one at it, turning back to the others. “Does this look like anyone’s ever slept in it?”
“A little.” answered Roxie.
“Not good enough.” He raised his hands in defeat. “I did my best.”
Leon scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s cool, it’s cool.” Emil waved his hands. “I can say I did it. Now back to–” he squinted, “Huh?? When did it move to the next pattern?”
“It moved to the next pattern?” Leon looked at his display, and sure enough, the pattern title changed to ‘The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle.’
“Yep!” Roxie smiled innocently.
Emil slumped his shoulders, pouting. “You coulda tooooold meeee.”
“Would you not have done the same in our position?”
He chuckled. “You’re right~ Guess I better make the most of this.”
The lieutenant placed one hand on top of the other, sliding the fingers of the top hand between the ones on the bottom. Thin rays of light spread out from where he was, some long enough to cut Leon and Roxie off from each other, others too short to reach the walls.
Leon pushed himself away from the rays as they spun quickly in his direction. Too quickly for him to get by with just floating away. He pumped his air jets to give him a speed boost. Unfortunately, he went too fast and found himself on a crash course with the ray in front of him.
“Remember the bed!”
“Oh! Uhh–” It didn’t even occur to Leon that he was getting dangerously close to the special bed. Without thinking, he jammed a foot down and came to a stop. Leon accepted his fate of getting hit. It never came. Instead, the rays passed over his head. That confused him until he noticed the world turning sideways. His face hit the carpet. He must’ve been going so fast that the momentum carried the rest of his body to the ground.
“Are you good down there?” Emil’s voice called from above.
“I’m fine!” Leon raised a thumbs up. “Actually, better than fine. I’m not getting hit!”
“Well that’s a design flaw…”
“What a clever technique!” From under the bed, Roxie’s feet could be seen hopping back and forth roughly in the same place she started.
“Thanks, but how are you surviving right now?”
“Did you pay attention to the lines?”
Leon looked up to see that not only were the rays of light spinning, but shrinking and growing as they did. “Ohhhhhhh, I get it! When they shrink, you can just go around it. Then you don’t have to move so much.”
“You got it!” answered Emil. “I wouldn’t’ve told you, but Roxie already caught on, so eh.”
“There’s probably a way you can get your pattern to tilt from side to side so people can’t just hide under it.”
“Or above!” Roxie’s feet were no longer on the ground.
Emil groaned. “You guys are lucky I don’t remember how to pause.”
“Neither do I!” Leon laid his head on its side. “Huh?” Underneath the special bed, Leon saw nothing, but he could see many things stashed under the bed farther away. One stood out to him in particular. “Is that a guitar??”
“Are you looking under my bed?” Emil laughed. “Wow Rookie, didn’t know you were that nosy. Give a guy some priva…” He never finished his sentence.
Leon gasped. “It’s yours?? Do you know how to play it?”
“Mm-hm!” Could Emil get any cooler? “My stepdad taught me. Maybe I could play for you guys sometime.”
“Wooow…” Leon continued staring at the electric guitar in awe.
“Ahh–! Yep, that’s the end of that one.” announced Emil. “Rookie, come over this way so you don’t give me a heart attack.”
Leon pushed himself up on his feet, and made his way past Emil and his bed over to Roxie. Wait. If the other bed was Emil’s, then the one he tripped over had to be the captain’s. He imagined the disapproving eyes of Captain Galhardo bearing down on him and felt dread. No wonder Emil panicked.
Emil spread his hands in front of and behind him, firing a stream of shots that Leon and Roxie sidestepped, and one in the opposite direction. He fired two more side to side, much like ‘I Made This 2.’ That’s probably why it was called ‘I Made This 2 Again.’
This time, he kept his arms held out and pivoted, sending all the streams turning with him. If this attack was anything like the last one, Leon figured he could just avoid it by going up. He did just that, and Roxie followed.
“Heh! You think you guys got it all figured out, don’t’cha? Check this!” Emil tilted his body, changing the trajectory of all his shots so that the others stood in the line of fire.
Leon desperately tried hand-walking on the ceiling to dodge one stream, only to find his leg being yanked down by Roxie as she scrambled down the wall.
She pulled him down just in time to avoid taking a hit. “It’ll be easier on the floor!”
“Thanks, Roxie!”
“Thanks.” Emil tilted himself upright. “I didn’t want to spend the whole pattern like this.”
“You’re welcome~” Roxie pushed her knuckles against her cheeks. “Now, behold!” She turned to the oncoming stream, watched it, then stepped through the gaps. “See? It’s easy! Kind of like jump roping.”
“Ohhhh!” That brought comfort to Leon, until it didn’t. “I was never good at jump rope.”
“No time to learn like the present.” At this point, Emil nearly faced the opposite wall.
He was right. It was time for Leon to step forward into a new challenge. So he did.
“W-Wait, stop!”
“Stop?” As he obeyed Roxie’s warning, a shot grazed Leon’s stomach.
“Go!”
“G–Oh!!” Another would’ve hit him in the side if he hadn’t reacted. “That was close!”
While waiting for the next stream, Leon’s mind wandered back to the captain’s bed. It seemed like its neatness was a big deal. Maybe he wouldn’t take it as bad if he thought Emil did it, but knowing the captain, he might not let him off so easily.
“Hey, Emil, you don’t have to take the blame for the bed thing. You can tell Captain Galhardo I messed it up.”
Emil tensed up. “Thanks, but that would let him know you guys were here. No can do.”
Roxie tilted her head. “We’re not permitted?”
“Not in the slightest!” He sounded as if he’d announced a prize. “I wasn’t really thinking.”
“Is it against the rules?” Leon saw the next stream pass the corner, heading toward him and Roxie.
“Not really, but— Actually, I think the handbook says if the captain isn’t present, the next in command gains their authority. That should cover me, right? I’d check, but uhh,” Emil’s voice quieted down, “I don’t exactly know where my copy is.”
“You can borrow mine!”
“You’re a lifesaver, Rookie!”
“I can get it from my duffle ba– No, it wasn’t in there. Is it on the desk? The shelf? Where did I last…? Oh, right, it’s on my bed!” Leon’s cheeks began to burn. “At home. Uhhhh, Roxie? You wouldn’t happen to have yours, would you?”
“Not right now!”
“Oh, of course not right now, I meant in your room or something.”
“No, ‘not right now’ as in ‘now is not the time for such things because w’–Waaaah!” She screamed as shots passed by her before realizing she didn’t take damage, “--you’re in danger!”
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