Jim's PoV

 

As Jim was staring at Charlotte and trying to figure out what to say, he realized that he had a special move for this situation. Laying down on the warehouse floor, he dramatically said "Oh! I don't feel so well! So dizzy!"

Then Jim logged into the game. Success! Ha! Can't get answers out of an unconscious person. Hopefully she won't encounter any other problems.

Back on the ship he started scanning around for the implementer of his interrogation project. He didn't have any sympathy for what was about to happen to these three. He remembered the henchman's words about these guys killing women before. From the 'bosses' own words, these were evil people. Jim felt like it was time to cross a line. He was probably sentencing these men to a fate worse than death.

Looking down to Fluffy he said "Any idea where they are?"

The pup nodded and Jim followed along until he got to a cabin. Walking in he found them both in the same bed and asleep. Naked. Grinning, he gathered his two wolves and said "Operation: Rise and Shine. Go jump on their bed and then start licking their faces! Go go go!"

Jim silently left the room and closed the door. Then the sounds of chaos and screaming reached beyond the cabin. He could hear Scarlet yelling "No! Back! Back! Not in the face! Not the face!"

After a few minutes of torment he finally called the attack off with a knock on the door. Soon he was met with a cracked open door with Forrest on the other side. Jim said "Hey buddy! How's it going!"

Forrest glanced at him and then behind him to the two wolves. Annoyed Forrest said "Really? You couldn't just wake us up the normal way?"

Jim said innocently "I have no idea what you mean. Why, they were just happy to see you two is all."

Scarlet yelled "You are evil! Even I wouldn't do that! Seriously! They lick their butts! That's nasty!"

Jim said loudly for the benefit of both parties "I have a job for you two. Some men attacked me and I want to know who pointed them in my direction. Are you willing to get some answers from them? You don't have to if you don't want to, but it would help me a lot."

He could hear Scarlet snort and said "Sure. Easily. Where are they?"

Jim asked "Where do you want them?"

Scarlet, now dressed, came to the door and said "Below decks. I like this room, best on the ship."

Jim raised an eyebrow and said "Isn't that normally for the Captain?"

Scarlet shrugged and said "Only real bed on the ship. Besides, the poor Captain after it was pointed out to him agreed that a tender woman of my years shouldn't have to sleep with the rest of the crew."

Jim rolled his eyes and said "So, how close was the dagger to his throat when that was mentioned?"

Scarlet smiled and made a gesture with her thumb and index finger to indicate a hair's width. Eesh. Poor guy. Hopefully she didn't actually cut anything too important.

While they made their way through the ship the crew all shot fearful glances at the group. Looks like maybe another story there? Forrest and Scarlet were definitely not pushovers, and with the addition of his pups there shouldn't be any problems on the ship. Still before he went back it would probably be a good idea to sort something out with the Captain.

As they were walking he said "These people kidnapped me at my home and threatened to do some very bad things to me and a friend. They have basically admitted to torturing and killing people, so you don't need to go easy on them. It will be a taste of their own medicine."

Scarlet shrugged and said "If you say so."

Then she indicated that one of the holds was a suitable place, he released his prisoners. The three men stumbled and fell onto the deck. Jim pointed to the one in the suit and said "That guy probably has what we need. Everyone called him boss. The other two probably don't know much, but might as well check anyway."

Looking at one of the men he found something in his hand. Jim gasped. It was a helmet! A 3D Tech helmet! Jim went over and grabbed the technical marvel. Inspecting it he found that the thing was damaged to all hell. Someone pulled wires out and a few of the modules that were attached seemed to have broken off.

Jim looked at the thing and it slowly dawned on him that maybe there was a reason that one day when he checked his inventory that he had 119 helmets. Especially after he died in Warehouse World. Damn. Hopefully he wouldn't make dying in a warehouse his theme.

Seriously if he had the things this whole time it would be embarrassing as hell. It was too damp on the ship, he needed a safer place to pull them out.

While he was thinking that, one of the bodyguards drew a weapon and started to aim. Quickly Jim flung out his hand and crushed the object. Then he said to Scarlet "Don't let them point those black things at you. They are more powerful than any bow you have ever seen. Probably. Search them first. You still have those healing potions I gave you before?" They both nodded.

"I'll give you a couple extra just in case they might be useful for your work. If you find anything, try to wake me up. Sometimes I'll not be in a position to do anything at the moment. So every 15 minutes or so give me a really good shake or something."

The three men started looking a little scared when they realized that they were nowhere close to home. The boss man said "I have money. A lot of it. People, women. Get me out of here and it's yours. We can call it even."

Then Jim in a serious tone said "Try not to kill them. Probably. Might need to ask them other questions later. But start with the names of the people that hired them. Scarlet you will get one good girl point if you get what I need. Earn ten and then I'll consider letting you play around a bit on Earth."

Scarlet cheered and said "Yes! Sounds like fun! Forrest, ready to learn a bit more about interrogation? We have a lot more time now so we can take it slow."

Forrest kept a bland face and nodded. Jim knew this really crossed a moral line, but these bastards kidnapped himself and one of his people. They threatened to even kill them for information about the new drug.

He knew with the power that the helmets held that eventually something like this might happen, but it didn't feel good. Knowing he made the hard but right decision, he needed to do one more thing before he returned.

He went over to find the Captain. Luckily he printed out a map before he got kidnapped. Glancing down at the world map of FF3 he hoped that it would be enough to find the place he was looking for. If it was possible it would be an awesome sequence break. After all, normally you couldn't threaten Captains to go where you wanted to. If the Captain didn't like his idea, he was fairly sure Scarlet would volunteer to convince him.

Jim winced as he rubbed his stomach. Damned woman. Why did Charlotte keep hitting him today? Who kicks an unconscious person?

***

Captain Voss' PoV

 

Captain Voss was happy at least they had alcohol. The few days he had left as a ship Captain he could at least be drunk out of his mind. Hopefully he could find some way to avoid debtors' prison. As he was contemplatin' where he could convince his crew to land that would not get him in a pile of crap, a massive feller came up to him. Wasn't like no man he'd ever seen before.

The man asked, "You're the Captain of the ship?"

Grunting Voss said "For now. Once we run out of food and water and have to go to port? Nope. Who the hell are ye? Ye don't look like the other armored guy."

The man nodded and said "Swam to your ship while a good bit of the port was burning. Name's Jim. There any way I can convince you to head in a different direction? I would like to go to an island that isn't known to many. I have a map, and I could try to make it worth your time."

The man handed him a map and Voss blinked at it. Why was such a crappy map all filled in with colors? Everything was lil squares that seemed to fit together like puzzle pieces. Voss had been a Captain for a long time and dealing with crappy maps was something of a forte for him.

The man named Jim said "This is Jacksberg, where we came from. I want to get to this island over here."

He looked at the peninsula that the blocky city stood on and after squintin' and a few more drinks of alcohol he could tell that it did indeed kind of match a real map. Lookin' at the distances he said "We don't have enough supplies to make that voyage. In half that we would run out of food and water. We didn't get a chance to reprovision. Sorry, even for all the money in the world it will not feed the starving."

The man asked "Where are you heading?"

Voss thought about it and said "Probably Quickmire. One of the few places that probably won't arrest me immediately."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Two weeks. Three at most."

The Jim fellow nodded and said "Well, that's kind of in the direction of the island I want to go. How about this, if I get you more food and water, would you consider heading to this island for me. How about it?"

Voss laughed and said "Pull that magic trick off and it's a deal. Seriously anythin' that gives me any odds of not being in a debtor's prison for the next couple years sounds nice. But I don't believe ye too much, friend. No one can just magic up supplies. The chat was a good distraction and it improved my mood, so thanks for that."

Voss held up his drink to the man and took another swallow. Good stuff. It would be nice wouldn't it? But Voss' luck wasn't that good. Was nice to dream though.

***

Charlotte's PoV

 

Charlotte was poking Jim with her toe. There was no way he could fall asleep that fast. After a poke she winded up her foot and gave him a good kick in the stomach. Still he did not get up. Sighing she started carefully looking around the area that they were held in.

It looked like a rundown warehouse. But then there was a knocking at the door and a familiar weaselly voice said "Boss, you done?"

Charlotte went still. After some quick thinking she grabbed a broken wooden chair leg and then quietly went to the door and waited for the man.

"Boss? You there?"

After another round of knocking the man poked his head in. With Charlotte hiding behind the door he couldn't see her, but he did see Jim laying down on the floor.

The man said "What the hell?"

And then he started moving towards Jim. As soon as he cleared the door she hit him hard with the wooden leg. The man cried out in pain and then started running. The weasel was fast. Too slow to stop him, she could just make out the man's yelling into his phone.

"The boss is under attack! Warehouse! Help!"

Silently cursing she patted her pockets to try to see if there was anything on her. Of course there was nothing. Her phone had been in her purse. Damn and double damn. Jim was way too big for her to move so she started looking around. After a couple minutes she found a metal box.

Opening it she silently cheered! Not only her phone but her pistol as well! Score! Taking the pistol she checked to see if the clip was full and then checked the chamber. Then she double checked to make sure it was on safe and then dialed 911.

"This is 911, what's your emergency?"

"I was kidnapped. I'm Charlotte Wright and I was with my co-worker, Jim Sair. People broke into his house and took us to a warehouse. They used some kind of chemical to drug us. It was all kind of a blur. We need help!"

The operator said seriously "I understand. Please stay on the line. Do you know your location?"

"No. We were knocked out before being brought here. I'm sorry, I don't know."

In a soothing voice the operator said "Don't worry, we will trace the call. Just find a safe place."

The tension finally started easing. She would be fine.

***

Officer Brady's PoV

 

Just as they were starting to head towards Jim's house they got a call. They had already reported up what they had heard from the cosplay people about the kidnapping. Over the radio the dispatcher said "We have a call. We have a woman on the line named Charlotte Wright and she said she was kidnapped with Jim Sair. Sending a pin on your GPS unit for the location now."

Brady blinked as he heard the call over the radio. His partner got him out of his dazed trance when he said "Get the car in the right direction rookie. Looks like this is the real deal. Don't get sucker punched this time."

He nodded and then over his shoulder he asked "Do you know who this Charlotte is? She said she got kidnapped with Jim."

The man said "Yes, I briefly met her. Sorry I didn't mention her, I don't know her that well."

He asked his partner "What should we do with them?"

After a second's thought he said "Need to get to the site to confirm that this was a real kidnapping. Dispatch said there was no one there right now. Also these people in the back seem clueless and would probably get lost if we dropped them off."

The woman he now knew was Gwen said "Hey! We're new here! We're not stupid!"

Brady smirked. Fiery. A few minutes later they pulled up at the warehouse.

"Brady, take the lead. Remember this isn't a game. Methodical. No mistakes."

"Roger."

A few minutes later they found the pair that claimed to be kidnapped. Seeing Jim was unconscious, he immediately called in for an ambulance. Brady expertly checked his vitals signs and he looked to be in no danger. Still better safe than sorry. Having medical personnel dealing with people who had just been through a traumatic event was always nice.

He got Charlotte's statement down and then left her so he could talk to his partner for a few seconds. He wasn't sure if he should let the people in the back of the car out. Everything was safe so far, and they would probably want to see their friend. Then he looked up as he saw a massive number of black SUV's encircling his police car.

His partner immediately keyed the radio and said "Need back up! Need back up!"

Then shots started firing. He saw his partner go down. Brady took cover and started returning fire but they had a 180 degree encirclement on him. Damn, and the foreigners! They were still locked in the car!

More firing ringed through the air and he took cover. Brady tried to get a good peek over the car but then there was a smashing sound and the car rocked. Confused, he looked over and saw the door had been broken off. What in the world? How?

Then the woman lit up like a christmas tree. Lightning started flying from her palm and the men in the vehicles started going down. Then the armored man rushed out into fire with the little girl behind him. His mind was trying to process that he had just seen someone shoot lightning out of her hand but there wasn't time for that.

Brady yelled "Get behind cover you idiots!"

But they ignored him. The man stood over the body of his partner. The little girl was wedged between the man's shield and his body and he could see that the bullets were actually ricocheting off his armor and shield. Then the little girl started lighting up like the sun. Brady didn't know what the light show was but he did what he was trained to. He found a target and then aimed and squeezed the trigger.

He had no idea what was going on but the woman Gwen was now taking fire. He watched as one of the bullets hit the mark. She fell leaving the cover of the car. Brady did a quick shuffle and pulled her back and then started to return fire again after reloading.

In a small corner of his mind he saw that the armored man was dragging his partner behind cover. Then a bullet found him. At first he didn't know what the warm watery flowing sensation was, but his vision got blurry. Dazed, he patted his neck and looked at his hand. Blood. Blood was gushing from his neck.

The power in his limbs seemed to go numb. His vision was fading as he saw a little girl crouching over him.