Gale looked at the self-satisfied Rhett, then at the three on the rubber ship below — one faking innocence, one genuinely confused, one indifferent. The kids were still eating. He glanced toward the distant Katcha Island, his brow furrowed.
His head hurt. The Fleet Admiral knew he was busy. Knew Gale had said Joy Boy was right in front of him. And he was still being sent on this errand?
Gale: Annoying.
"Tch. What a hassle." He wasn't happy about being framed, especially not when it interrupted his rare entertainment. He turned to his crew and signaled. "Change course. Full speed to Katcha Island."
The Navy soldiers snapped into action. The massive warship began turning.
Gale prepared to fly ahead and scout the scene.
"Hey, Black Hawk. Don't pretend you can't hear me."
Gale paused.
Rhett was back in his lounge chair, half-eaten grilled fish in hand, pointing lazily at Katcha Island. "Take us with you. We're victims here too, aren't we? Don't we get to see who's brave enough to impersonate us? And, you know, prove our innocence."
Joy Boy perked up instantly, his rubber head bobbing like a chicken pecking grain. "Yeah, yeah! Let's go together! I want to see who's pretending to be me! I'll stretch them into a rubber band and send them flying!"
Gale felt like he'd seen this before. Hadn't this happened last chapter?
Rhett: Of course — you pretended not to hear me, so I sat back down.
The two kids, now full, leaned against the railing, staring at Gale with big, hopeful eyes. They didn't say anything, but the message was clear: they wanted to see the drama.
The girl stood quietly beside Rhett, her gaze also fixed on the distant island.
Gale looked at this bizarre crew. A vein twitched on his forehead. Bringing wanted pirates to a crime scene? But then he thought about it.
They were strong. Joy Boy and Rhett were both monstrous fighters. And with him watching them, it was basically... a stylish investigation mission? That sounded way too cool.
More importantly, he was curious too. Who was behind this?
Gave a cool grunt of acknowledgment. "Stay close. Don't cause trouble. Follow my orders when we get there."
"You got it!" Joy Boy's rubber arms started spinning, manually propelling the ship forward.
Rhett waved his fish lazily.
The sea now held a strange sight: a Navy warship leading the way, followed by a bouncing, Duang-ing rubber ship with a rubber idiot "rowing," a blood-mist man sunbathing, two excited kids being chased into exercise, and an ice-cold girl in his arms.
Two fleets, completely different styles, heading toward Katcha Island in bizarre harmony.
Gale stood at the bow, glancing back at the increasingly close rubber ship. He rubbed his forehead. The laziness was annoying — but maybe lazy coolness had its own style. He'd have to try it sometime.
He started to wonder if letting them come was a terrible mistake.
---
The ship docked. They stepped onto Katcha Island.
No bodies. No blood. No signs of battle. Instead, the island was almost unnaturally clean.
Most houses were intact. The streets were empty. A strange smell filled the air, a mix of overgrown plants and some unfamiliar beast.
"Huh? Where is everyone?" Joy Boy's rubber neck stretched in all directions. "Doesn't look like an attack. More like everyone moved away."
Rhett scanned the empty houses. "This isn't an attack. It's a relocation. A clean one. Pretty obvious."
Gale's face turned colder. This didn't match either of the idiots' styles — Joy Boy would laugh and liberate, Rhett would just crush and loot. (Rhett: That's slander. I'll sue.)
Then came movement from the jungle.
A dozen strange beasts emerged, their bodies made of mismatched animal parts. They were huge, fanged, and clawed. They growled, blocking the path.
They looked fierce, but they didn't attack. They just formed a barrier, warning the group to stay back.
"Wow! Animals I've never seen!" Joy Boy's eyes lit up. He wasn't scared. He stepped closer, radiating a strange warmth. He reached out, trying to sense them with his ability to hear all things.
"They're... anxious?" Joy Boy tilted his head. "They're protecting something. They don't want to hurt us — they just want us to leave."
He tried to smile and gesture. "Hey, big guys. We're not here to cause trouble. We just want to see what happened."
But the beasts couldn't understand. They grew more agitated.
Gale had no patience for this. "Enough playing with animals!"
He half-transformed, blurring forward.
"Black Hawk — Feather Fall!"
His claws struck like a storm, hitting joints and weak points with precision, disabling the beasts one by one.
"THUD! THUD! THUD!"