The Quest (Story)

Tink looked around, contemplating the situation and the surroundings for a moment. This situation required brains more so than brawn. Brains would get the guards to leave town, brawn would only bring more guards to suppress any rebellion. "Yes, yes, of course we need to do something. We should have ten minutes- maybe a little more, I did jolt them a bit hard with the Magnet Shocks- erm- to come up with a plan before the Guards are able to move about."

Tink looks at Kotori and Kiylo, he had just met them and already he was counting on them for so much. Keeping his goggles in place he scanned the area again. "We have to get the guards to leave town willingly and not bring reinforcements once the town has been freed from them. Killing Guards only brings more Guards...meaner guards...guards more willing to just slaughter everyone and be done with it."

"Then we could scare them away." Kiylo said quietly, still feeling disoriented. She didn't know where the idea came from, but it came to her anyway. She raked a hand through her long hair and sighed, shaking her head. "But what are the guards most scared of?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing together in thought.

He contemplated this plan of scaring them. He thought of what could scare them. Hmm... The guards are generally not scared of anything but, maybe... I remember an old story that my mother told me of the great warrior Shaklata who he himself killed a whole army of 9 million people with just his sword and his fists. But, no one has ever seen him. But, I remember what he looks like. "I know what scares the guards, the same thing that scared all of us as kids. Shaklata, remember the old story? Well, he may not be real but, what if we make the guards think he is real. We can dress up like him and scare the guards out of town as they will think the town is protected by him," He said. He didn't know whether or not the two would agree with his plan but, it was worth a try at least.

"I remember the story, but if you try to pull that on the guards, they will want proof that it is Shaklata. Can you kill 900 people with nothing but a sword and a fist? Can you convince the guards that you are him without endangering the people of the town by making the guards call in reinforcements? Deviliculitus wouldn't allow such a hero freedom for very long without this place turning into a battlezone." Tink shook his head slightly. "It is a good thought, but I am not certain it will work. Unless maybe we dressed up as Deviliculitus himself and started issuing about orders. But we can try if I am overruled. Let me just think about some other options..."

Tinklington thought deeply (for about 4 seconds this time). "I think we have to make the town disappear. If there is no town, there is nothing for them to guard. If we can lure them out of town- likely using ourselves as bait- we can use one of my inventions to make it look like the town has vanished." Tink pulled his pocket watch from his vest and pressed the winding stem, the back opening up. He peered into it as if looking for something. He gave it a shake and a brass cube fell out of it- 1 foot long on all sides, with a piece of glass as one of the faces. "We could use this, watch. Smile." He pointed the glass side at Kotori and Kiylo and pressed a button on the side of the box. It made a whirring sound for a moment, then clicked. He pressed another button no the box and set it on the ground. The image of Kotori and Kiylo appeared where he pointed the box- blocking the view of whatever was behind the image.

He pressed a button on the box and the image faded. He put the box back into his pocket watch. "If that fails, we could always make them think we were dead. if we are dead, they have no reason to kill anyone- unfortunately, they would still be here so that is not a very good option in my opinion. Well, there is another option as well; I suppose we could always kill all the Guards, then have various town folk dress up as Guards so people think the place is still under their control. But we would have to get all the guards in one go so none have the chance to report."

"I Like the last option, it has the highest probability of us not failing and the townsfolk not being punished if we do. I think we could do it," he said. "The only guard I am worried about is Hegoror. He is a really big guard if you see him you will know it because, he is a Brute the guards only bring him out if they are certain they are going to lose. He comes in and eats his enemies," he said. "This is not a tale. I saw him in the guards tower. That is the thing we need to capture in order to save the town. If you capture the tower the guards the townsfolk will follow and protect it,"

Kiylo nibbled on her bottom lip, unsure of what to do. She felt like flailing her arms about and running away, but she stayed still and forced herself to keep her hands to her sides.
When she heard about Hegoror, she felt the need to puke. She didn't like hearing disturbing tales of cannibalism or of fighting- and now that she was part of all of this, she was worried that she might get eaten. Her eyes went wide at the realization and she barfed a little in her mouth.
"Um... Guys... I'm going to go.. Um..." she swallowed the bile in her mouth and cringed. "Find somewhere to vomit where no one can hear me.." she turned around and felt another round of the terrible feeling came up her throat once more.

"Look, I know it sounds dangerous and like we could die. But, you know what if we are to make a name for ourselves we gotta start out strong. It may seem like a hard challenge but, I think we can do it. I have a plan though," he said. "Okay, If I run through the town yelling out that I am looking for the guards because, I think they are weak. I will then have them all coming and if they are not I will make them get all the guards. If they send out Hegoror, I will fight him to the death. He will not win. I have been training for the day I would get a chance to fight. I am probably stronger than him," he said cockily. "I hope though, I can convince him to join our side. If he does he will guard this town and protect it forever. The only thing I need is some medicine. If I am going to fight him I want to have some sort of healing remedy,"
He said.

Tinklington frowned, looking at Kiylo. He opened his Universal Storage Unit and shook it gently, a couple of small pills falling into his hand. He held them out to Kiylo, "For stomach upset and minty fresh breath." he said.

He looked at Kitori as he explained his reckless and somewhat cocky plan. "That...is a good plan. To a point. In fact, actually, it is a terrible plan. Why would they send all the guards after one boy? A good strategist always holds back and looks at the odds. In fact, if I was them, I would only send out six or seven guards after you, then put archers on the buildings and while you were busy with those guards, I would shoot you from on high. I do not approve of you putting yourself into harm's way like that. At least not without help."

He thought for a moment, "We can even the odds. I have weapons that can paralyze people, blind people, stun people, electrocute them, make them vomit uncontrollably, cause vertigo, cause mild hallucinations, destroy the nerves, blister burn them, hypnotize them and...I have some regular weapons that kill. But, I prefer not to use them. For every person you kill there is someone out there willing to take revenge. It isn't about making a name for ourselves, our names mean nothing. It is about overthrowing oppression and tyranny. If we make a name for ourselves, then people will come after us and our loved ones." He looked at Kotori, "I know you want to kill them, but what about the Guards who have families? Parents? Children? Wives? Brothers? Do you what those people to feel loss and pain like you feel? To become bitter and want to get revenge on us?"

Tink smiled broadly, "You have a brave and courageous heart, you just need a little grounding. Besides, in a fight, only two things matter. Winning and Surviving. Why would he fight you one on one? I sure wouldn't. Heck, you fight him, I'll shoot him in the back with a paralyzing weapon or something. I learned long ago from my brothers- don't bother fighting fair- in a fight, cheat to win."

"Look, we are going to have to get Hegoror on our side no matter what," He said. "And I am fairly sure they are not going to give him up without a fight. We also, can't just leave the guards to live. I know what you are saying but, the guards are not like citizens, they are evil and can't be spared. Most people will not miss the lives of the guards. Most guards do not have family. I know this for a fact. The guards are demons. And when have you heard of demons having families?" He was getting upset and then calmed down. "Listen, I am not saying that if these guards were just men who were forced to help Deviculitus and hurt others, I would not try to kill them but, I know they are demons. Just trust me,"

Kiylo held the contents of her stomach in and quickly took the pills that Tink had given her. She leaned her head back and tossed them into her mouth before swallowing. She sighed as the lurching feeling in her stomach stopped and that the terrible taste was gone from her mouth.
Listening intently to the plan she bit down on her lower lip and tilted her head. "Then we should keep our identities a secret and wear disguises. We should get the whole town to revolt against the guard in the tower, and chase them all out. If we have something to made us invisible, one of us could sneak into the tower and just scare the guy out." she suggested. "And if push comes to shove... We could kill the man if we need to." her voice went quiet for the last part. "If we get him out, wouldn't the others run away as well?"

"What scare Hegoror? Not likely. And we cannot kill him. We MUST get him to join our side. We can teach the town to protect itself after we get rid of the guards, but we need to be on our side. I can tell that there will be many obstacles in our way that we may not be able to pass without his help." He said.

Tink shook his head at the hot headed recklessness. No creature sprung out of nothing and even demons did not live in a vacuum. Evil did not mean unfeeling or without motivation. Killing, for the most part, only led to more killing.

But, he put his thoughts aside. Without his help, Kitori would be killed and shortly there after he would follow with his family. They had no foresight, they needed him more for that, than for anything else. Opening his pocket watch, he shook it a couple of times and a small silver ball fell out. There was no way to get the cannibal Hegoror to join there side just by beating him up. He was more of a monster for his acts of corpse eating than most demons. They had to change his mind- literally.

"This is a hypnotism orb. You have to make someone look at it while you press this button for at least sixty seconds for it to work. You'll have to beat Hegoror before you use it obviously...so he will look at it long enough to plant suggestions to control him. You only get two chances for it to work on someone before they build up an immunity, so he'll have to be trussed up before you try. Don't look at it yourself. You will fall victim to your own suggestion." Tink shook his watch again, "What other weapons will we need?"

"We still need some healing remedies but, the town doesn't have a potions master. SO, I do not think we will get any help in that way," he said. "I think that would be it. Unless you want to use other items. While, I am trying to hypnotize Hegoror you guys will have to fight off the guards while, I am doing it. Unless, someone else thinks we need to have some other items, we should move out,"

Kiylo felt the urge to raise her hand to get Kotori's attention, but resisted it anyway. She cleared her throat and smiled meekly. "I can probably make the potion you're talking about." she said quietly. She was an amazing cook and if she were given a recipe, she could most definitely make it. "I just need a book on herbology, and I would be good." she said quickly.

"There is probably a book on herbology in the library at the school. But, the guards are probably searching there. I will go and try and sneak past the guards and get the book. Tink you got any invisibility items?" he said.

"True invisibility is impractical and a bit impossible. The long and short of it, is this: if you become invisible, you will also become blind because the lenses that light bounces off in your eyes also become invisible. I doubt very much that you want to be invisible without the ability to see if you are about to walk right into a guard." Tinklington said, showing off his big knowledge on the subject. "I can, however, make you unseeable...very different thing. You are not invisible and it doesn't work on everyone. Basically, it makes it so people don't see you, it projects an image over you of what is on the other side of you. You have to be careful, the person may be colorblind and it doesn't work so well then- mostly because the shape of you is still there and the movement of you. Like a lizard that changes its skin to match the rock it is sitting on. Works pretty well, but it is not infallible, so you will have to be careful."

Tink turns the fob on his watch a couple of times before opening it this time. Giving it a shake, two belts fall out of it. "I also only have two of my patented Chameleon Belts."

"Okay, makes sense thanks for mentioning," he said. He took the belt and put it on. "How does this thing work do I just put it on and I become unseeable?" he asked although he kinda already knew the answer, he wanted some clarification.

Tink showed Kitori the controls on the other belt. "This button here is for blending. Press once to activate and again to shut it off. This button here is for sound dampening. Again, press once to turn it on and again to shut it off. It will make it hard for you to hear as well to so you can turn this knob here for the amount of sound dampening you want."

He turned to Kiylo, pulling a pen from his watch and handing her the other belt. "Use this pen here to copy any recipes you find. Just point this part here at the page and press the button on top. It will record up to 1,000 pages in memory." He pointed to the scrolling number on the side that could change. "Just remember what page you save it to. To use it again, just pick what page your saved it to and turn the pen so the ball point comes out and it will automatically write down what was on the page."

He thought for a moment. "While you guys are doing that, I will try to distract the Guards long enough for you to find what you need. I only have two belts after all, so one of us won't get one and it only makes sense for it to be me without one."

"Okay, I think we are ready to go and get the book," he said, "The school is over that way," he pointed to a figure that looked like a castle. We should go around the town, no need to attract guards attention in the town yet. So, lets go,"

Kiylo smiled as she took the pen. "Thank you. I don't need a belt. I can change my appearance easily." she said. She pulled her hair back and tied it off with a ribbon that was stuffed into her coat pocket and brushed her bangs back behind her ears. She felt unusual changing up her usual ways, but it was for good. She also pulled off her jacket to reveal almost bare shoulders. Smallish white straps went over her collarbones. She draped the jacket over her arm and smiled sheepishly.
"And the revolution begins." she whispered.

"Okay, lets go. Follow me I know the the fastest way to go that will get us in without them seeing us," He said as he went through some bushes. "Wait, no no no no. DAMN.... they got rid of my hidden tunnel. I knew I should have hid it somewhere better. Well, I guess we are just going to have to get in through the front door. Follow me. It isn't too far of a walk. Just watch out for any guards," he said as he started to crouch.

Kiylo looked at Kotori as he bent down and looked through some bushes. her eyebrows flew up as she heard him mutter to himself about a secret tunnel. "Well, I think I can go without having to crouch..." she said quietly. "They don't know my face, but they know yours. If you change up a little, you might be able to get past them without having to duck." she held out her coat. "You can use this."

He took the coat and he just remembered, he was still wearing that dress. "Do you think I should take this dress off now?" he asked hoping to get a laugh out of them. He took off the dress and put on the red robe and put on the hood and looked at the ground to where you could not see his face. "Better?" he asked.

Tink looked at Kiylo and shook his head. "You look the same, but with your hair up. Take the belt, better safe than sorry. I can go and distract the guards from the front door and you both can sneak inside using the belts." Tinklington put a long rod looking thing with wires and glass all over it on his leather belt he flicked a switch on his brass box and the images of Kitori and Kiylo appeared at his side. "Besides, you'll both be with me, so they won't think to look for you in the school library."

"Okay, lets just go. The more time we spend here the less time we have to get in the school. It only stays open for school hours after that it is nearly impossible to get in. So we need to move. If we get caught we will just wing it from there. Now lets move we only have an hour to get in before the school lets out, it will be hard to sneak in if kids are bumping into us from every which way," he said. He started to walk towards the school even if they were not following.

Kiylo felt a bit stupid, but she knew that they were looking for Kotori, and not her, so the slightest change in her appearance would make her look like a different person at a quick glance. She took the belt anyway with a slight frown tinting her lips. "Be careful, okay?" she requested before turning around and running to catch up with Kotori.

"The library has a side entrance. We can get in from the backdoor if we are quiet enough, because the librarian rarely ever goes to check." she said, her voice a little bit strained from the inability to stop and catch her breath. Even though she did walk a lot, it did nothing for her stamina and she couldn't run for very long at all. Her stride was brisk, not making it any easier on her.

"Okay then, as soon as Tink takes the guards attention away we will sneak in and find the book. But, We can't let him just keep their attention forever or he will be caught. So we need to find the book, scan the pages as quickly as possible and then get out," He said. They both then waited at the side entrance for Tink to take the guards attention. "Go ahead and activate your belt. Better to do it now, than get captured out here without it," He turned his belt on and turned the sound dampening to a quarter of the way on, "Now stand out of the way of the door when it opens up if it hits us the guards will notice,"

Kiylo did as told, pressing the buttons she needed to press and turning the dials she needed to turn. Her fingers made quick work and suddenly she was unseen. She held up her hands to try to see them, but saw nothing. She didn't need to hide her grin of excitement, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see her. She stood out of the way of the door, waiting for someone to come out. Staring was rather boring to her, so she shifted some while waiting, growing slightly impatient. "How long-" she silenced herself the door opened, revealing many guards coming through and trampling their way across the courtyard. Her eyes flew wide and her hand immediately went over her mouth to keep her from making any other noises.
When the last guard went through the door, she quickly rushed through it to get through it before the slammed shut, locking them out and possibly getting them caught.

He followed her in. he was whispering to her, "Okay, lets see. Fiction. Biographies. Animal sciences. Nuclear sciences. Geographical sciences. Dictionaries. Encyclopedias. Plant sciences! This way. A-E. F-G. H! Herbology! I will get it," He stood up to get the book and quickly got it without making a sound and gave to Key for her to scan with the pen. "Hurry I will keep watch," he said.

Left to his own devices to distract the guards around the school, Tink devised a plan. He stood about 50 yards away from the front door, long enough away to give him a bit of distance, but close enough to be easily visible. He counted the guards, doing a bit of math in his head, then raised his hand to his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. "Oye! Rust Buckets. Looking for us? Come get us!" He pulled his rod from his belt, the images of Kitori and Kiylo projected from his box by his side. "I've got a bet of sixty pounds of fresh perch that my dear departed mother could put up a better fight that all you put together."

He had fiddled with the box. It was more than just a projector now.

Now, it was a bit of a weapon.

Waiting for the Guards to charge, he impatiently waited for them to get about 10 long pace away before he pressed the button on the box. This turned off the image, but the glass side of the box started to glow with a odd yellowish-green light. Snapping his goggles into place, he waited for them to get a couple of paces closer, then turned an ran, pointing his Brass Stun Rod at the box as he moved away.

He fired at the box, using it as the natural amplifier that it was, the Stun Rod's beam amplified and enlarged through the projector to the whole area pointing at the approaching guards.