This story relates to the image linked here-https://www.furaffinity.net/view/55.....oad-successful
Warning-Involves a lot of paw stuff
Twenty Two pages long with 10,262 words (I really need to start making these shorter hah)
Hope y'all enjoy


Although not necessary, I do recommend reading the previous stories of this series to better understand this one.

It has been about 2 days now since I made up with Bonkers and not much has happened since then. Today I had already finished work and went home for the day. I decided to eat my free meal when I got home and it was great. After that it was only about 1:00 Pm, so I still had a little bit of time before I needed to head off to training. I decided just to play some games to pass the time. Out of nowhere though I get a message from Blade Knight.

The message said “Hey, so about that walk I’ve been promising you, an old friend of mine has asked me to come to visit them on the Halberd. I wanted to ask if you’d like to come along. I asked them if you could join and they said it was fine.”

As soon as I finished reading the message, I was in awe. I finally get to go on a walk with Blade Knight, and on the legendary Halberd no less. I have only seen it in the air a couple of times, but every time I have, it made me even more curious as to what was inside and what it even looked like on the ship. I message them back and say, “Yea sure, sounds like fun. When would we be going?”

I went back to playing games while I waited for a response, however, I didn’t have to wait long. About a minute later they message back and say “We would need to go right after training today and will most likely be gone for a day so I suggest you bring a pillow, blanket, and anything else you need with you.”

Oh jeez, and here I thought we’d be going at a later date, but hey who am I to complain? It was also good timing since I had off work tomorrow. I message them back and say “Ok sounds good, see you later today then.”

I go back to playing games until I see them message me “Ok see you then.”

I played games until about 1:40 Pm and then decided to go and pack my bag. I put the usual snacks and water in my backpack, along with my sword and helmet. As well as my blanket, small pillow, and a towel just in case. Then I dash out the front door and start sprinting towards Blade Knight's place. I arrived there at about 1:50 Pm and saw them hacking away at one of the wooden training pillars that they had.

At a decent distance away I decided to say “Hey Blade Knight.”

They turn around to face me and say, “You're here early today. How come?”

“Nothing in particular, I’m just excited to go on the Halberd with you.”

“Makes sense, most people who weren’t in Meta Knight’s army don’t get a good chance.”

“Then I am honored to have this chance.”

“Welp since you're already here, I assume that you’re not sore anymore.”

“Oh yeah. I’m alright now, food and rest do wonders.”

“Good, shall we get started with a sparring match then? ”

“Heh, it would be my pleasure.”

We usually use dull wood swords for sparring matches to not wound each other. Nothing special happened during our fight though, Blade Knight was victorious as usual, it was pretty close the entire match though, it was good to see that I have been getting better with every match.

We still had an hour left before training was over, so I asked “So, what should we do now?”

They start to walk away while saying “Follow me.”

“What? Where are we going?”

They say nothing else so I just grab my sword and start to catch up with them. When I finally make it to them, they are standing at a door with a sword surrounded by a green star on it. It seemed like it had been recently used as the door was neatly kept.

I pipe up and ask “Woah, what is this?”

“It’s a special training course that I had someone make for me a long time ago. It focuses mainly on sword combat, with a bit of logic and luck involved in it.”

“Oh ok, why did you want to show me this?”

“Because you are ready. “

“Ready? For what?”

“To run this course. You will be graded on your speed, coins in the course you collect, the number of enemy holograms that you hit with your sword, and how many times the enemy holograms come in contact with your body.”

“Wow ok, that sounds a bit complicated.”

“It’s much simpler than what it seems.”

“Ok, I guess I can give it a try.”

“There you go, just think of it as a video game.”

“Ha now that I can get behind. Ok then, let’s do this.”

“As soon as that door closes behind you, you may start. Good luck.”

“Got it and thank you.”

I walk up to the door and it opens to a bright white light inviting me inside. With no hesitation, I step through onto a wooden floor. With that, the door closes behind me, and off I go running. Almost immediately there is an arc of silver coins and I jump up to grab all of them. After that, I see a couple of enemy holograms on different elevations. I thrust my sword forward and then jump and thrust it upward toward the rest of them. I get up to the higher elevation and see platforms held up by strings. Only thinking about going quickly at the time, I decided to just ignore them and keep on rushing through. Coming up ahead I am met by flying enemies along with more arcs of coins. I jump to get the coins while swinging down with my sword at the end to hit the holograms. Rushing ahead I see a cannon hologram on one of the platforms from earlier. I decided to ignore them, but it was a bad decision as I got hit by a cannonball that it had shot. I came upon a second cannon and this time I was ready, so I jumped over it and cut the string, and continued through the course. I spot a wooden ladder up ahead with more enemy holograms bouncing back and forth. I quickly climbed up the ladder while hitting the holograms on my way up to the solid ground. I make it to a dead end with only a metal platform with a string. Knowing it was my only option, I cut the string and sent myself falling. On my way down I saw a hole in the wall that I could have gone through, but I couldn’t react fast enough. I make it to the bottom to see a spiked ball hologram with eyes guarding the string of another platform. I attempt to hit them with my sword, however, all that happens is a tiny spark hologram appears near them and they just keep moving back and forth as if nothing happened. Seems that I can’t hit them so I just cut the string and go down. I see a doorway with a star on it and swiftly dash through there. I end up in a room with two of the string platforms. I needed to go down more, so I decided to cut the one to my left and my right. The platforms both break to reveal two spiked balls with eyes to my left, and coins to my right, so I go down the right path while grabbing the coins. After that, I appear at two metal platforms with strings and decide to go with the one on my right again. I went down to see flying enemy holograms under the other platform and realized I should have chosen that. I had no time to lose though, so I kept on going. Collecting more coins and hitting every enemy I came across. After going through a couple more platforms I made it to a room with a bunch of sword enemies that were about to slash my way. I brace myself and wait for them to swing. As soon as they do, I spin with my sword out toward them as fast as I can. When I was done, they had all disappeared. Although a bit dizzy I move on down to see a door with 5 stars on it. I run right through it and come up into a room with a screen saying that the trial is over. After a bit, the screen starts to count up how many points I got. After it was done counting up it said I had 15,000. However I managed to finish the course in a little under a minute, so it gave me a 4,000-point bonus. So I ended up with a total of 19,000 points, which made the screen display a silver medal. Not bad I thought. I decided to quickly look at the records to see that Blade Knight had a record of 29,600 with a platinum medal next to it. Makes sense if they run it as often as they say they do. With that, I head over towards the exit door and go out to see that I am right back at the entrance where Blade Knight is sitting waiting patiently.

They ask “So, how did you do?”

“Eh, I did alright. I got a silver medal because of the bonuses I got at the end for finishing quickly.”

“Did you get hit then?”

“Yea once by a cannonball.”

“You didn’t hit all the holograms as well?”

“Yea, there was some under a platform that I chose to ignore to save time.”

“Did you even see any of the secret rooms?”

“Secret rooms?”

“Hmmm you still have much to learn with the course, but for your first attempt that was pretty good. Wanna go again?”

“Thanks, but I’m good for now. Let’s just get back to regular training for now.”

“Ok then, let’s go.”

After that, not much else of interest happened and before I knew it, the time was already 2:00 PM. After we finish training, Blade Knight heads inside to go and grab their stuff I assume.

I decided to ask, “Hey, do you need help packing up?

“I’m ok. Just get your stuff together and we’ll head out.”

“Alright.”

I put my sword and helmet back into my backpack and hoist it onto my back. After a bit, Blade Knight comes out the door and closes it behind them.

“Ready to go?” They ask.

“You know it! Oh by the way, how far of a walk is it to this thing?”

“40 mins.”

“Oh…crud. Welp just means I have more time to talk to you I guess.”

“Indeed, now let’s get going.”

“You got it!”

With that, we start heading towards the Halberd. We stayed silent for a bit before I decided to get a conversation going to pass the time.

“So, out of curiosity, what made you join Meta Knight’s army?”

“My father was a part of it before, so out of honor I had to join it.”

“Were you ok with joining it?”

“At first I was, at one point I was even excited, however after all the things we had to go endure that excitement faded quickly, thus why I had left it.”

“What kind of things did you have to do?”

“…Things that are better left unspoken.”

We both go silent for a bit after this. I realized they didn’t want to talk about that, so I decided to swap the subject.

“Well, with your time in the army, did you happen to get to talk to Meta Knight at all?”

“Very rarely, they don’t talk to many people, but I have spoken with them a couple of times about important matters.”

“Ah ok. So how did you meet this friend of yours that we are going to see?”

“Well because of our large numbers in the army, we were required to share a room with another person. We didn’t get to choose, everyone was just put together randomly. Although it was rough at first with my roommate, over time we started becoming more friendly toward each other. When I told them I was leaving, we had a small argument about it, but in the end, we both came to terms with things. They decided to stay and I still wanted to leave, so we both gave each other ways to stay in contact. Ever since then we talk to each other every once in a while just to catch up on things.”

“Oh wow, welp it’s nice that you two finally get to meet back up in person soon. You’ll probably have a lot of stuff to talk about with each other.”

“Yes. It’s been way too long.”

“Well on another note, what is the Halberd like?”

“To put it simply, a very big and dangerous ship, both inside and out. At least it used to be. Don’t know what it’s like nowadays, but that’s something we’re going to have to find out.”

“Alright then sounds like a plan to me. Do you think when we get there, you could give me a tour of the ship?”

“Hmmm it depends, but I should be able to.”

“Nice, thanks.”

“No problem.”

We continued to talk for a while on our way there. I must have lost track of time though because before I knew it, I could see the Halberd. We were still decently far away from it, so it looked pretty small. I was growing more and more excited with each step closer that we took towards it.

I decide to say “Looks like we’re almost there at this point. What do you think we’ll do first when we get there?”

“I’d like to find my friend before we do anything else.”

“Ok, that’s fair. Hopefully, we can find them quickly then.”

As we get closer and closer, I’m fighting the urge to just sprint ahead and get on board. However knowing how strict the ship could be, I stay at the same pace while trying to keep as close to Blade Knight as I could.

We approach closer and I can see a ramp leading up into an opening in the ship which will most likely be our entrance to get on there. It seemed people, as well as cargo, were being loaded on through this ramp. 2 guards were standing on both sides of the ramp, making sure that no unwanted people were boarding the ship.

I decide to pipe up as we make our approach “How are we gonna get on with them guarding the only entrance?”

“My friend already let them know about this situation, so we should be fine to board.”

“Alright then.”

When we finally made it to the ramp, as I suspected, the 2 guards put themselves in our way and said “State your business.”

Blade Knight steps ahead of me and tells them “We are here to see my friend Bio Spark.”

With that, they both move back to the sides of the ramp and Blade Knight starts to head up the ramp. I follow them shortly after. The ramp was pretty long so it took us a bit to even get inside the ship, but once we did, it opened up into a very mechanical-looking room with about 4 elevators. They were pretty decent in size, however, looked a bit more old and worn down than they probably should have. It seemed that the 2 most left ones were designated just for cargo that was still getting loaded on, while the other 2 were being used to carry people. Blade Knight starts heading towards the rightmost one and I trail slightly behind them.

While we are heading towards the elevator I say, “So where do you think we should look for them first.”

“I just messaged them now to see where they are exactly, but the best place to check first would be the flight deck, which is where we are heading right now.”

“Ah alright then, makes sense.”

We both get on the elevator with 2 other people on it beside us. Blade Knight pushes a button for what I could only assume was the flight deck. The doors closed and up we went. The elevator wasn’t very enclosed, so I was able to see many things as we were heading up. Due to the large size of the ship it took us about a minute and a half for the elevator to bring us up to the flight deck. The doors of the elevator open to reveal a long metallic hallway. To say the least, most of this place had very little to no decoration, all I had seen so far were metals that had been different shades of either silver or bronze. There is a decently sized door at the end of the hallway that I could only assume led to outside on the flight deck. Once we get close enough the door opens up to a smaller hallway with a heavy metal door with a hand wheel lock on it. Blade Knight twists the wheel to the left and opens up the door. I practically get blinded by the sun as we walk out onto the deck, but once my eyes adjust, I can hear the soft breeze passing us by and the image of a large wooden deck overlooking the reflective blue sea.

I get a bit concerned and decide to ask “You sure we are ok to be up here?”

“As long as the ship’s not about to take off, we will be ok.”

“Alright, I’m trusting you.”

We searched the flight deck for about 10 minutes afterward and although we saw a few people Blade Knight recognized, none of them happened to be Bio Spark. Out of nowhere as we are still searching, someone runs up to Blade Knight and starts talking to them. Although I'm curious as to what they could be talking about, I stand back to give them their privacy.

After a little bit of the two going back and forth Blade Knight walks over to me and says “I must leave for now. You may explore the ship as you wish, just don’t go and wander into any restricted zones.”

“What? Why, where are you going?”

“Apparently my friend had not informed Meta Knight of our arrival, so now I’ve got some explaining and catching up to do with him. I don’t know when I will be done, but I will message you to meet up back here when I am.”

“Alright then, see you soon I guess.”

With that, they go with the other person back towards the hallway we originally came out from. I had already seen enough of the flight deck, so I decided to wait a bit before I went back towards the hallway as well. I got back into one of the elevators and hit the 2nd lowest button on the panel. It took a little bit but when I had made it there, the doors slid open to reveal another long metallic hallway, with a bunch of doorways lining both the right and left walls. I step out of the elevator and start heading forward through the long hallway. As I am walking, I peer through one of the doorways to see a room that has 2 bunk beds, one to the left and one to the right of each room. So this floor must be where the dorms for the crew are. As I kept passing by and looking in the rooms, I saw a couple of personal items that could belong to the people in the room, but other than that not much, most of them were just empty. After looking in a couple more rooms further down the hall, I peer into a room that is surprisingly occupied by someone. They appeared to be some kind of electrical plug that was very light blue with some green plump stompers to accompany them. I blushed a bit at the sight of them and continued staring intently. They were just sitting there on one of the bottom bunk beds while reading a book. Almost as if on command though they put down the book and looked straight up at me which made me jump a bit.

After an awkward moment of silence, they say “You probably shouldn’t go and invade people’s privacy like this.”

A little nervous that a fight might break out, I said quickly “Oh, sorry, I didn’t expect anyone to be in these rooms. I was told I could explore the airship and this was the first floor I happened to go to. Curiosity just got the better of me.”

“Hey hey, slow down, don’t worry about it, you're fine. Curiosity takes control of us sometimes I get it.”

“Oh alright, thanks. Sorry for disturbing your reading by the way.”

“You're ok, I wasn’t deep into the book anyway, I just started reading not even 10 minutes ago. Although I do have to ask, how did you even get on the ship?”

“Well, my friend invited me along with them. They used to be a part of this army or crew a while ago and one of their old friends they met here invited them to visit. Their name is Blade Knight, in case you are curious.”

“Hmm the name doesn’t ring a bell, but I only joined this crew about a year ago, so that would make sense.”

“Yea, guess it would. Hey out of curiosity, how strict is everything around here?”

“Well from what I’ve seen, it’s semi-strict around here, probably a lot more lenient than what it used to be like when your friend was here.”

“Ah ok, good to know then. Hmmmm, I never really got your name.”

“Oh, sorry I probably should have started with that. My name’s Plugg. Yes a very fitting name I know, I’ve gotten that way too many times.”

“I mean it makes sense why though. My name’s Dominic by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you two!”

“Welp it was nice talking to ya, but I don’t wanna disturb you any longer, so I’ll be on my way now.”

“Alright, hey before you go though, wanna trade Star Phone numbers?”

“Oh yea sure.”

We trade numbers quickly and then I say goodbye as I continue down the hall towards the elevator. When I get in the elevator, I press the button to go up to just the floor right above. The elevator travels upward and then comes to a stop. The doors slide open to reveal the same-looking hallway as before. Must just be more rooms for the crew, so I decided to just head up to the next floor. The next 2 floors were the same thing so I kept on going up. Finally, the doors slide open to something new. It opens up to a very large room with a bunch of long tables that are accompanied by long benches. Further away from the wall there seemed to be a food counter of sorts with a kitchen behind it. So I could only assume that this was their cafeteria. I decided to walk up to the lunch counter to see if there was anything there. I see a couple of waddle Dee’s wearing skull caps working behind the counter to prepare an array of food.

After a bit of watching them frantically run around, one of them spots me and says “Hey you there. The cafeteria’s closed right now so we can prepare for dinner.”

“Oh sorry, I’ll be on my way then.”

I turn and walk back towards the elevator. When I get back in I press the button to go to the next floor above. As the doors slide open, I see something other than metallic hallways. The walls were still made out of the same metal, however, the floor was covered in a nice blue carpet. I walk further down this carpeted corridor to come to a doorway. Stepping through I see a decently large room with a couple of comfy-looking chairs, 3 couches, a couple of shelves with books and what appeared to be board games, tiny tables, a billiards table, and an arcade cabinet. This seems to be the lounge of the ship. Nice to know that there is a decent amount of things to do here to keep us entertained. I wanted to bring Blade Knight here later, but I didn’t really have anyone to play with as of then, so I just headed back to the elevator to move on.

Nothing much interesting was on the above floors after that so I just ended up going back up to the flight deck to wander around it a bit more til Blade Knight got back. I didn't see a lot while walking around, though I did find what looked like to be a huge sort of snake cannon. I was intrigued by it, to say the least, however, I decided to just walk away knowing that exploring it more could be a bit dangerous. Walking around a bit more I came upon the cockpit of the ship, though I was way too far below to see anything going on in there so I just kept on walking. Shortly after though I got a message on my phone from Blade Knight.

It reads “Just finished talking to Meta Knight, and he said we are ok to stay and just not to cause any trouble, but you already know that. I am heading back over to the flight deck now, so start making your way there.”

I message back “Ok that’s good and yea of course I know that. I’m already back on the flight deck, but I’ll make my way over to the entrance we came from.”

“Alright then, Meta Knight said we’ll be taking off soon, so don’t wander. See you soon.”

“Don’t worry I won’t, See ya soon.”


So as I said I would, I start heading back in the general direction of where we had initially come from. As I was walking back I kept thinking to myself about all the things I was going to be able to do on the ship with Blade Knight and his friend. As I’m losing myself in thought, I feel a pain course through my back. Not just one that feels like I’ve been punched, but a searing and burning pain that I had felt never before. It shocks me enough to make me trip forward and faceplant right into the wood floor and let out a grunt in the process. I quickly stumble back up onto my feet and look behind me to see a figure in a purple cloak. They have a blue headband with a metal plate with a star on it. They also have what seems to be a red clump of hair coming out the top of the cloak. Almost as if in a flash, they disappear in a puff of smoke. I swivel around to look to find where they might attack from next. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of the purple cloak and a glint of silver to my left. Since I didn’t have my weapon on hand, I jumped back as quickly as I could to avoid their attack. They still managed to hit me with the edge of their blade as it was pretty long. It hurt a bit, but it was blurry compared to the pain in my back.

Not wanting to take another hit I say “Hey hey hold on a minute, there’s gotta be some kind of misunderstanding here. Why are yo-“

Before I could even finish though they threw a white sphere at me. It instantaneously bursts into smoke that’s enough for me to not see my surroundings. Then out of thin air, they kick me right in my forehead to send me flying back out of the smoke. Staying on the ground stunned for a second, I struggle to get back up.

When I get back up though I say, “What was that for? Look I’m not trying to cause any trouble. Can’t we just come to an understanding over this?”

As I say this though they quickly put me at the edge of their blade. I put my arms up to guard myself, but nothing happens.

They finally utter a word and say “State your business being here.”

“I’m just here with my friend exploring the Halberd. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time now and my friend gave me the cha-“

“And how do I know I can even believe you? You're probably just an intruder trying to damage our ship, not gonna happen. We’ve already let that happen once, but not again. You have a friend here as well, you said? Then I’ll deal with him shortly.”

“No, there's no reason for that. They used to be a part of the crew of this ship. His name is-”

“And why should I care what his name might be? Just because they used to be a part of the ship doesn't mean they can’t come back with malicious intent.”

“I mean that would have a very low likelihood of that happening.”

“Just because it’s a low chance doesn't mean it can’t happen.”

“Ok look, how can I prove to you that I’m not an intruder? The only thing I can say is that I came up here unarmed, all I have with me right now is my starphone.”

“Well if you really want to prove it to me, you’re gonna have to-”

Then without warning, I hear Blade Knight Yell “Dominic where are you!”

The purple-cloaked figure seems a bit surprised and says “That voice…”

The sword was swiftly withdrawn and they darted just around the corner of a structure out of sight.
Blade Knight then comes into view and says “There you are, what was taking you so long? You wouldn't even answer your starphone.”

I stutter a bit before saying, “Well I-er sorry I was just farther away than I had anticipated and I must’ve had my starphone on silent cause I didn't even notice that you rang me.”

“Alright then. You had me a little worried that something happened to you.”

“What pfft cmon, I can fend for myself, you of all people should know that at this point.”

“I know, but it still doesn't mean I don’t worry about you. Anyways we’ve gotta get going now. We’ve only got 5 mins til we take off so lets jus-”

“Oh hey, there you are. Took me long enough to find ya” the cloaked figure says as they appear round the corner of the same structure. “Long time no see eh?”

“Well, look who decided to show up. We had looked up here for a while now. Where were you?”

“Really? I was just hanging around towards the back of the ship for a while now waiting for liftoff. Surprised you didn't find me sooner.”

“Yea, I didn’t get a chance to look back there cause someone forgot to tell Meta Knight about our arrival today.”

“Shoot, I thought he would have been fine with y'all coming along.”

“C'mon, we both know how uptight he can be. You should of at least given him a warning that this was happening.”

“Yea yea, I know my bad. I’ll make sure to let him know next time if y’all ever come by again. Getting off topic though, I might as well ask. Who is this friend of yours?” The purple cloaked figure says while looking at me with a worried gaze.

I didn't want to cause any tension between the two of them right after their reunion, so I just decided to keep my mouth shut and introduce myself.

“Oh, my name’s Dominic. And from what I heard from Blade Knight, you must be Bio Spark.”

“Yup, that would be me. Glad to know I have an admirer,” they say while nervously laughing a bit which causes me to nervously chuckle a bit as well.

Knowing we were still probably low on time I said “Anyways, we should probably get inside now. We can always continue our conversation there.”

Blade Knight said, “Yes, we only have 2 minutes til takeoff now so we need to get going.”

While pointing toward a door, Bio Spark says “C'mon this way should get us down in no time.”

We all rushed to the door that they were referring to. Bio Spark makes it first and starts twisting the valve to open the door. Then they swing it open and we all get inside as they close it and lock the valve back up. There was a spiral staircase in front of us, where we let Bio Spark lead the way down for us. It was a little bit cramped while we ran down the stairs but it was tolerable to get through. About halfway down however the walls opened up and I felt an immediate wave of heat breeze over me. Then I saw a large mechanical room that from what I saw and felt, was probably the engine room for the entire ship. As we reach the bottom of the stairs we start to feel everything start to rumble around us. I could only guess that the Halberd was taking off now. Since we were on solid flooring at this point, there was no need to rush anymore, so we continued following Bio Spark at a walking pace. Blade Knight and Bio Spark continued to talk to each other while I stayed silent following shortly after them. After a little bit of walking, we make it to the entrance of a long corridor again that has elevators at the end waiting for us. Bio Spark calls for an elevator going down which we wait for about 10 seconds to arrive. We all walk into the elevator as the sliding doors shut behind us and we start heading down.

Wanting to know, I decided to ask “Sooo where are we off to now?”

Blade Knight looks back at me and says “We decided to head back to Bio Sparks and my old room for a bit so we can get settled in and all since it’s where we’ll be sleeping. Plus they would like you and I to meet his new roommate as well. From what I’ve been told, they are nice to other people.”

“Oh alright, sounds good. Also cool, can’t wait to meet them then.”

As I say that the doors then proceed to open up back to the same long hallway with doorways that I had seen before. We all get out of the elevator and start heading down the hallway. They both go ahead of me talking while I lag in the back again. After a bit, Bio Spark leads Blade Knight into a room on the left. I follow them in there and to my surprise I find Plugg sitting on the bottom bunk bed to the left with a book in front of them now staring directly at me.

In shock, I say to them “Oh hey, hah nice to see you again.”

Plugg says “Hah yea it is isn’t it?”

Bio Spark chimes in and asks “Wait you two know each other?”

I say “Yea, I happened to stumble upon them reading a book while I was exploring the ship’s floors earlier and we talked for a little bit. Didn’t expect to see them in such a short time though.”

“Oh huh well good to know you two are already acquainted with each other then.”

“Yup, what a coincidence. Oh yea, on the topic of introductions, this is who I was talking about to you earlier. Plugg, this is Blade Knight.”

“Nice to meet ya Blade Knight. How do you happen to know Bio Spark?”

“Nice to meet you as well, and Bio Spark used to be my roommate before I had left here.”

Bio spark says while sighing “Heh jeez and I thought I was the one supposed to be giving introductions.“

I say “Hah yea sorry about that, didn’t mean to take control of it. It was just an impulse to me since I had already talked to Plugg before. Well, I guess with that out of the way though, what should we do next?”

Plugg spoke “Well dinner shouldn't be too long from now since it’s already 5:30 Pm, so how about you and Blade Knight get settled in? Then we can head to the Cafeteria.”

“Alright sounds like a plan. Hey Blade Knight, did you want the top or the bottom bed.”

Blade Knight told me “I used to sleep on the top bunk while here, so I’ll sleep on the top.”

“Ok, I’m gonna start making my bed down here then.”

It only took us about 3 minutes to make our beds, after which we all sat on our beds and continued to talk to each other for a bit. Bio Spark seemed like they were a little reluctant to try and talk to me, but everything else was fine. At about 5:50 we all decided to start heading down to the Cafeteria to go and get some dinner. We walk down the hall again towards the elevator and hop into it while pressing the button for the cafeteria. After a bit, the doors slid open to the same long tables with benches that I had seen beforehand, except most of them were now occupied with a decent amount of people at each one. We all go towards the small line that was formed at the food counter. As we got closer a scent of something spicy had wafted right past my nose and burned a little bit and the scent only got stronger as we approached closer to the counter. When it came into my view, I saw a pot of rice and another pot next to it that had some sort of reddish-orange sauce with chunks of stuff. It turns out that they were serving Chicken Curry tonight. Though I’m not the most fond of spicy foods, I could tolerate them. I’ve never had curry before either, so I was pretty excited to try it for once. One by one we each get our plates of curry and head further down the counter. To drink they had bottles of water, milk, and juice. Blade Knight and Bio Spark both took water while Plugg took the juice and I grabbed a milk. After we were all set, we walked around to find enough room at a table for the four of us.

When we all get settled down and eat for a bit, Blade Knight asks Bio Spark, “What have you been doing on the ship recently since things have mellowed down?”

Bio Spark says “Well nothing much, I’m usually just meant to patrol the flight deck for anything suspicious that could be happening, though as you could guess from earlier, nothing much really happens anyways. What about you though? Since you left, what have you mainly been up to?”

“Well, when I had left I didn’t want to be done with sword fighting, so I ended up building my own training grounds along with the help of another friend of mine. Ever since then, I have been training myself every day. That’s actually how I got to know Dominic as well. They stumbled upon me training one day and, to make a long story short they ended up wanting to train with me. So that’s what we do on the daily now.”

“That’s cool. Glad to know that you're still going strong after all these years, and with a student no less.”

I pipe up “Yea it’s been fun training with him, It’s been an honor to be able to. On the topic of things we’re doing though, what do you usually do on this ship Plugg?”

Plugg responds “Me? Most of the time, my job is to make sure that everything that has to do with electricity is working on the ship. So in simple terms, I’m our electrician on board, and I don’t think I have to explain why. Most of the time though, everything functions as usual, so I’m not needed too often. Because of that, most of the time as you saw earlier I’ll just be reading books to pass the time here.”

“Doesn't sound like the most interesting job, but at least you have quite a decent amount of free time then.”

“Yea. I don’t mind it though. I enjoy the time I get to myself anyway, always pretty quiet in our room, cause everyone else is up to something.”

We all continued talking away with each other while we finished our meals. After we were all done with our meals, I suggested to everyone that we could go to the lounge to entertain ourselves for the evening. However, everyone else said they were kinda tired for a multitude of reasons and that we should just go to bed for the night. I was a little disappointed at this, but they said we could always go in there next time, whenever that may even be that is. So we all go back down to the bedroom, and we all get into bed. I was bored and didn't want to go to sleep yet, so I went on my phone for a bit to entertain myself. However, my phone was only at 20% and I had forgotten to bring my charger with me. So I put my phone back in my bag and lay in bed silently for a while thinking of things and trying to go to sleep. After about half an hour of attempts I just couldn’t get some rest. So I get up and out of my bed silently to not wake the others and head for the doorway. I get out into the hallway and head toward the elevator. When I get in there I don’t know where to go, so I just hit the button to head up to the flight deck and maybe get some fresh air. The doors eventually slide open to the long metallic hallway from before. I walk down to the door on the opposite end of the hall and open it. Then to the second door where I twist the wheel and open it up to a purplish orange sky. I walk out as the door closes behind me. As I walk around for a bit, I notice that there’s not a soul up here. So I just keep thinking to myself as I make my way to the back of the aircraft. When I make it to the back I decide to sit down and look at the sky for a bit. As I do though my eyes start to slowly grow heavier while looking at the calming sky. They gently start to close as my vision gets darker.

Suddenly though I’m jolted awake by a sudden “Hey” from behind me.

I turned around to find out that it came from Bio Spark. In shock I responded with “Jeez, you just love to appear out of thin air don’t you.”

“Hah well it is my specialty, I am sort of a ninja and all. Never mind that though, what are you doing up here?”

“Wasn’t tired yet, so I just came up here to clear my mind and get some air. Why did ya follow me up here?”

“Heard you leave the room, so wanted to follow you to see where ya went.”

I decided to say in a goofy voice, although kind of serious tone, “Why, so you could make sure I wasn't sabotaging anything.”

“That’s…actually something I wanted to talk about. Look I’m really sorry for how I attacked you, and uh thank you for not telling Blade Knight about it, I appreciate that…You gonna be alright?”

“Yea, I’ll be fine. I’m still in a decent amount of pain, but it's tolerable. Though I would like to know, why were you so quick to attack me?”

“Well, to make a long story short, someone had severely shattered my trust in the past here, and it has caused me to be super cautious with whom I trust from then on.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it wasn’t anything too terrible for you.”

“Yea…I know that doesn’t excuse my actions though.”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad we were able to clear things up, and everything went smoothly after that.”

“I guess so, yea.”

“Well since you’re here, care to sit down and chat for a bit?”

“Hmmm sure, I could for a bit, though we should get back to the room shortly before the others realize we’re gone.”

“Eh don’t worry, we won’t be out here for too long. So, besides your job on this ship, what do you tend to do for fun while you have free time?”

“Well, there’s not much to do around here. Most of the time I’m just back in our room talking to Plugg. Though sometimes I’ll head over to our lounge and play a couple of games of pool either with Plugg or others that are in there.”

“Nice, I still wish we all got to play a game or two in there, but eh what can ya do I guess. We can always just do that later. Anything else you do?”

“Well sometimes I do target practice with my kunai and shurikens on the darts board we have in the lounge, but not much else other than that.”

“Oh, how accurate are you with them?”

“Well, I usually hit the bullseye…I’d say roughly about 90% of what I throw.”

“Really? That’s amazing!”

“Hah thanks, no need to flatter me though.”

“C'mon, skills like that deserved to be flattered, especially if that's your all-time accuracy while on this ship. Speaking of, now that I think about it, how long have you been on this ship?”

“I think about 12 years now if I can recall.”

“Jeez, been here a while then. Did you get here before or after Blade Knight then?”

“After. From what they told me, they had been there for a year before I came aboard.”

“Hmmmm alright. Well from being here for so long, how's it like to serve in this crew.”

“It used to be brutal for all of us, as at the time, he wanted to rid the lazy lifestyle of everyone on Popstar. That included all of us on this ship as well, so we had to be doing something all the time just to make sure we weren't getting an earful from him or his lackeys. After Kirby put a stop to his plans, however, he mellowed out a lot after that. Now most people see him as a very mysterious and conceited figure. Life on the ship became a lot less busy after that.”

“Wow, that seems like hell, but I’m glad things at least got much better for y'all it seems. Did you ever regret joining this crew then though?”

“For the most part, no I had not. However, I did start to rethink it a bit after Blade Knight decided to leave.”

“Yea, must’ve been hard for you when they left, but hey least you have Plugg with you now, and they seem like a great person to be with. When did Plugg become your roommate though?”

“Only about 4 years ago, I was alone in our room for a decent while when Blade Knight left. Though for the most part, I didn’t mind that.”

“Oh ok. Hmmm well, why did you join this crew to begin with?”

“My parents had both been serving in this crew beforehand and had me join them as well when I was about 15 years old.”

“That’s pretty neat, nice of you to follow in your parents footsteps then.”

We both stare into the sky ahead as the sun starts going further down below and out of view. The breeze on my skin felt nice and calm after everything that went on today, I needed this. Then in an instant, a sudden scent started to penetrate my nose. A similar scent that I had known way too well at this point. I gradually take my eyes away from the sky and start to look down and to my left where Bio Spark was sitting. Eventually, they came into my view, along with their large orange stompers. I started getting a bit nervous, as there was no way I could do anything after what had happened today.

They start to say something which has my eyes jolt back to the sky “Enough about me though, what about you? How has your training with Blade Knight been?”

“O-oh it’s been going g-going q-quite well.”

“Hmmmm and how about where you work?”

“I w-work at a f-fast food p-place near m-me in g-green gardens.”

“Are you alright? You are stuttering a lot.”

“Y-yea I’m alright, I just…”

“Just…what?”

I look a bit away while saying “Didn’t expect you to come up here barefoot is all.”

“Well I didn’t want to lose where you were going, so I skipped putting my shoes on. Why is there a problem with that?”

“N-No not at a-all, it’s fine.”

“Ok? Why did you decide to say something about it then?”

“I w-was just curious was a-all.”

“Much as I wanna believe you, you seem way too nervous for that to be the reason.”

I sigh to myself, “Fine, guess I can’t really hide it. You see…I sorta have a thing for feet.”

“Hmmm, yea I had a slight feeling that’s what you were going to say.”

“Sorry if you’re weirded out by that.”

“I mean maybe a little, but it’s fine. The fact that they smell probably doesn’t help either.”

“I mean, moving as fast as you do, will probably do that.”

“Haha, yea I guess.”

We both sit there with a bit of awkward silence. Since we’d been there for a bit, I said “Welp, we should probably get going back now before they wake up.”

“Nah, let’s stay a bit longer.”

“Wait, but didn't you say we shouldn't-”

“Yes, I did. But they are both really heavy sleepers so we’ll be fine.”

“Oh, alright then.”

“You know, while we are here, I’d say we’ve both had a pretty long day. You wouldn’t happen to want to…”

Suddenly I felt a sudden prick in the bottom of my side that jolted me enough to look and say “Hey what are you…” and then I saw them. The bright orange stompers, fully exposed, now filled up my entire eyesight. It took me a moment before I was able to peel my eyes away from them. I look up at them to see them giving me a look that’s practically saying go on.

Finally snapping myself out of my stupor, I say “You’re not implying what I think you are, are you?”

They look at me with the same look and say “Well, you aren’t one to say no, are you?”

“No of course not, just feels a little odd after what happened today.”

“Cmon, there’s no need to worry about that anymore. It’s in the past and you’ve forgiven me, haven’t you?”

I sat there a bit in silence thinking it was easy for him to say, I’m still hurting from it. But even still I say “Well, yea…”

“Then I see no problem with it. It’s something for you to indulge in, while I get to lay back and relax. It’s a win-win for both of us.”

“Pfft alright then, I mean, I guess I can’t argue with that logic.”

With that, I look slowly back down at the orange stompers and finally get a good look at them. The slight musky scent from earlier still lingering in the air luring me closer and closer. While gazing over the vast expanse of intricate wrinkles, I take notice of their unique nails. They were very gray and black in color and had a shape similar to the kunai that they had used earlier. I move my hand over to one of the nails to further investigate them. Upon grazing them I could feel that they had a certain sharpness to them. Must’ve been what they had pricked me with earlier to get my attention. I let my gaze and hands start to drop down to the massive orange pillows just within my reach. I brush my hands along the slick surfaces multiple times, knocking off and getting some bits and pieces of dust and getting some stuck to my hands in the process. I could hear a slight giggle coming from Bio Spark after a bit. Noticing this I increased my speed gradually seeing how far I could go.

Their giggle starts becoming a slight laughter as they say, “Hey! I wa-hahnted yo-hou to give me-he a massage, not tickle me.”

I halt my hand’s movement and say “Hah, alright fine I’ll stop.”

“Heh thanks.”

I started to move and push my hands back into the huge stompers that were looming right in front of me. I took care not to push in too hard, but enough so that my fingers were creating crevices and curvatures in the paws. I was a little worried that I was pushing a bit hard, but a muffled mmmm from them reassures me that they’re enjoying it. Gradually moving my hands through the thick layers of dust and muscle, trying to cover every inch of the humongous paws. With the alluring scent and radiating warmth coming from the soles, I started feeling the urge again to move down and just have a small taste of them.

Before being too hasty about it though I snap back and decide to ask them “Hey, you wouldn’t mind if I…well…clean your feet for ya, would you?”

“Wha-I mean that might going a bit far, don’t you think?”

“Hey to be fair, you were the one who told me to indulge in myself did you not?”

Getting a bit flustered they say “Yes, but won’t it be a bit weird?”

“Only if you make it to be, not like anyone else is watching.”

After thinking for a second, they say “Alright I guess it’s fine.”

After a brief moment I swiftly lay down on my front side and moved myself within inches of the scent producing soles. I allow my tongue to spin itself out of my mouth. Then after a brief moment in thought, I give the towering pillows of pads exactly what they deserve. My tongue just ever so grazing the surfaces of the dust filled pawbs, causes them to jump a bit. I gaze up at them to see a slight blush crossing their face and I respond to that with a slight grin. Looking back down I continue dragging my slick tongue along the grimy soles, picking bits and pieces of dust up along the way. Getting stuck within the deep crevices filled with moist dust, and a bit of sweat. Gradually slithering in a circle around the bulbous balls of the feet. Making long strokes with my tongue from the bottom to the top of the big walls of dust and grime, picking up all the bits of dirt that I could manage along the way. Lapping all of their digits with saliva and indulging myself in the dirty, but slightly cheesy taste that the towering stompers had. Losing myself to the aroma that was drifting off of the thick pads of the big bulky feet.

Not realizing how much I was enjoying it, I slowly started to push my head into the massive pungent soles. Pushing deeper and deeper into the slippery surfaces, the smell and heat now the most intense that it has ever been before. I can feel them slightly jump at first, but after a moment I can feel their colossal toes gently start to wrap over and trap my head in their grip. Not that I minded, this felt really nice to me, being right next to the massive warmth producing soles being pushed further and further into my face. I wrap my arms around the foot and hug them as much as I can to push my face even deeper into the pillow-like soles. From the immense warmth on my face and the scent still flowing through my nose, my eyelids start to feel heavier and heavier and before I even realize my sight and consciousness starts to fade to black. Before completely losing consciousness, I could feel two sources of heat emanating on my back as I slipped away from reality.

I’ve always wondered to myself what I’d be able to achieve if I had the ability to stop time. There’s always so many things I want to do with such little time to do them because of timely responsibilities. How much more would I really be able to get done if I were to have all the time in the world? Or would I not even do the things I want to at all and just procrastinate things forever knowing I’ve got all the time in the world to kill if I so choose to.

After what felt like hours I could faintly hear someone calling out my name. Not thinking anything of it I keep my eyes closed and continue to rest. I hear it again, but a bit less faint this time, so I start to open my eyes a bit. Suddenly I feel a very familiar prick in my side which jolts me away. I look over to my right to see Biospark sitting on the bed watching me with their feet still fully exposed.

Upon looking at them they said, “Well good morning. You were out for quite a while.”

Realizing I’m now laying in my own bed and in a very dazed state, I ask “What happened?”

“You passed out, so I brought you back here to get some sleep.”

“Oh, well thanks for that hah. Where are the other two right now?”

“They went to go get breakfast, as we should soon.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

“Because I told them I would wait for you to get up.”

“Ah ok. Did you wanna get going for breakfast then? Don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.”

“Yes, let’s get going.”

We both start to get out of bed and get ready to go. They put on their shoes while I start to go and put on a new pair of clothes.

While we are both making our beds they say, “You seemed like you were enjoying yourself a bit much last night.”

“Hey! You told me to, plus you can’t say you didn’t at least enjoy it a bit.”

“Well I never said that I didn’t…”

We finish making our beds as I say “Heh that’s what I thought, now c'mon.”

With our beds made and my stuff gathered up, we both make our way over to the elevator and head to the cafeteria. Upon getting there, we both go up to the counter to get food. They had a decent variety of foods up there for breakfast. Things like scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, hash browns, among other things. Personally, I decided to grab some French toast and a hash brown and grab some milk again for my drink like last time. I waited for Bio Spark at the end of the line while he grabbed some scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Of course he also grabbed water at the end as well. We went to go and find the other two to go sit with them, which didn’t take us too long. After finding them, we all enjoyed our breakfast while talking to one another. By the time we were finished, we hadn’t even realized that the ship had landed. We all head back to our rooms and me and Blade Knight gather up our stuff and get ready to leave. After that we all head back down to the entrance of the ship in the elevator. I decided to get both Bio Sparks and Plugg’s starphone numbers so I could stay in contact with them. We all say our goodbyes to each other saying how we should do this again sometime soon.and all as me and Blade Knight head back down the ramp. We talked a bit back on our way to Green Gardens, but not much of interest was said. I go back with Blade Knight to make sure they get home first and then I head to my own home. I was tired from the long walk back from the Halberd so even with a bit of time left in the day, I decided to call it and lay down in my bed to get a bit of rest. I go to bed wondering what the next days are bound to bring me in the future.