I visited Watson and he gave some wonderful news - the source of the Gearheads had been discovered! A foul cat scientist called Dr. Katzenstein had a lab in the warehouse district guarded by those fiends, so I decided to go and check it out. I was surprised by who was there...
"Grace?" I gasped. "But... you..."
"Ambrose released the barriers for me, Agnes asked him politely to let me conclude my investigation of Malistaire at the least," said my old friend, smiling. "I had to catch up with you a bit and do some investigation of my own, but a nice friend of yours called Chris Jadehaven helped me out."
I wiped a tear from my eye.
"No, no more crying," said her 'secretary.' "Dry eyes, Mma! We need you to be strong."
I sighed.
"He came to our office long ago, when we were starting out. He asked me for a favor, and Agnes told me that favors are VERY important here in the Spiral. It is true - back home where I was born, we had no means of currency, so we bartered with each other. Favors are a form of bartering. Rra Jadehaven was the one who told me about you and told me to help you out. This whole mess with the Armada was a struggle but I managed to be patient and was rewards. Now, let's stop Malistaire from getting that book."
I nodded. "I have so many tales to tell you... you missed so much!"
"You can tell us while we explore the lab," said Penny in a huff.
(Okay, so I lied. It's not the end of Grace's adventures with Sierra yet. I renewed my main account time for a month because [a] Amy Mistcloud didn't complete Khrysalis yet[and may never do so - stupid people don't want to help and Kravenly is EVIL] and [b] because I made Grace with love. I also learned that I hadn't even done anything with Grace, not even entered Hyde Park yet! So Jadehaven helped her out, and she helped him through Mt. Olympus. And yes, I had to power run through all of Marleybone in two days flat to get Grace up to where Sierra was. It was murder.)
Sierra: "There are a lot of clockworks here... any familiar to you, Grace?"
Grace: "No, Mma, these are not true clockworks like the Armada, they are mindless beings... but why create them? They are just causing havoc. We must investigate this scientist."
Grace: "So... you had to rescue this former criminal, Baxter, from his former gang, correct?"
Sierra: "Yeah, I found him being carried away by the Gearheads and Christina helped me fight their boss, but we didn't rescue him until we broke into Chelsea Court and fought a golem like the one we're turning to scrap now. He was much weaker than Firegut though." *giggle*
Grace: "And then you worked with Baxter to defeat his former boss, Pops O'Leary."
Penny: "Never trust a guy who worked for the bad guys, I say!"
Sierra: "Baxter was really helping me. Without his knowledge of the place, I never would have discovered the plan to break Meowiarty out of Newgate Prison. Puzzles like this one would have eluded me. Okay, the combination is sun/bird/tree/beetle."
Grace: "Stay there and port to me when I give the message, I'll open the gate and get use through the mess of robots. I am pretty skilled in sneaking through monster-ridden areas."
Sierra: "Okay."
Later...
Penny: "Crud, another gate!"
Grace: "Probably another passcode to get through it."
Sierra: "Guys, there's a spider here who wants to kill me. Book it!"
Later, after the spider is dead.... (I'm losing faith in Vengeance, no crit.)
Sierra: "There's another code, just as you said! I'll enter it this time."
Sierra: "So I screamed at Malistaire... Wow, look at all these iron golems! I bet they're related to the first one I fought in Chelsea Court!"
Grace: "You SAW Malistaire? What did he look like?"
Sierra: "Like my professor, only with hair and an evil goatee... and black robes and a skull staff."
Penny: "You should not have tried to stop him, he could have made you late."
Grace: "Ee, I do not want to attend your funeral had Malistaire retaliated."
Sierra: "Sorry... but he didn't bother trying to hurt me, he summoned undead and ran off with Meowiarty."
Grace: "So you think that Malistaire broke Rra Meowiarty out of jail to help him steal the Krokonomicon?"
Sierra: "I know it! Mayor Pillsby said the museum was immune to magical attack, but a common thief could easily avoid the wards and sneak in and wouldn't give two flips about smashing the sarcophagus and stealing the book for Malistaire, especially if he offered a big reward." *cough* "Say, there's a strange symbol on this chimney. I'm gonna douse it."
Penny: "We need to stop him!"
Grace: "We do not know where he is and..."
Sierra: "ACK! GRACE!" *Grace ports* "Sorry, those freaking metal spiders ambushed me." *cries* (Yeeesh, I didn't notice the dang Gear Spinner until it forced me into battle. You have to be VERY careful here in the lab, as the enemies are in clusters.)
Penny: "What's a minotaur doing here?!"
Sierra: "My new minion, courtesy of Cy." (explains her trip to Mooshu)
Penny: "I see... I will have to ask your new friend Mma Dawnblade to take me to Mooshu too if I need to go there when Rra Baelstorm no doubt sends me to get my new spell. I am almost at that point in power."
Grace: "I'm proud of you, Mma. You have become strong despite your professor's berating."
Sierra: "I'm glad you are back, Grace. I mean, Christie was nice but she calls me carrot fairy." :p
Grace: "No promises, Mma, but I will at least see this investigation of Malistaire through."
Sierra: "Well, we have plenty of time to figure out this door."
Penny: "What does the book say, Mma?"
Grace: "Something about the way not being clear..."
Sierra: "Wait a sec..."
Sierra: "I saw two more of those weird chimneys... brb." *puts out the rest of the chimneys and the gate opens."
Grace: "You should be a detective, Mma."
Sierra: "The cops made me one after I helped them with a few cases." ^_^
Grace: "I got the title too, so you can be my assistant."
Penny: "Hey, I was your assistant, Mma!"
Sierra: *giggles*
Grace was back, and together we brought down the mad scientist, Dr. Katzenstein, and his robot minion. We met his lackey, Grunk, and the hunchback showed us how to make a clockwork. I didn't know how that would work, but... it did. And the clockwork said that Meowiarty was in Big Ben. But for what reason, I didn't know.
We ran into some trouble, in a big giant mean golem called Smogger. It was a tough battle but we won in the end, thanks to my ninja pigs. (Had to fight this secret boss. Took two Ninja Pigs to take him out because I didn't get all my blades.)
"What did you mean we have plenty of time, Mma?" asked Grace as we surveyed the scrap metal. I told her about how I informed Watson about my suspicions and he and Bones had the museum surrounded by cops so that Meowiarty couldn't sneak in... and she grew livid in shock.
"And you think you are a detective?" she cried. "You..."
She sighed. "Rra Baelstrom is summoning me. I must go. You go to the museum and warn Mr. Bones that there may be a secret entrance into the museum. Go!" (Grace hit Level 38 just by talking to Watson after Katz's Lab.)
I flew there, and found that things were just as Grace had feared: There had been some ancient ruins under the museum and Meowiarty had used them to get into the vault, destroy the sacrophagus, and steal the Krokonomicon... and he was waiting in Big Ben for Malistaire to come meet him.
[To be continued...]
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