Max and Gnome 4: The Facility

Chapter 1

After their adventures on the mysterious island, Max and Gnome took the long voyage back to the mainland in their big yacht. They blasted music and danced, correcting the steering wheel once in a while and hoping they wouldn't accidentally bump into anything. Aside from seeing some playful dolphins jumping out of the water, the journey passed without incident. Gnome still had his favorite pineapple drink which he sipped once in a while, and Max had his useful flower rope.

"Wait a second" said Max, "we have a yacht."

"You even got a brain in there?" replied Gnome, knocking on his head which made a hollow sound.
"Of course I do; I'm very intelligent," said Max, annoyed.
"Now what do we do?" said Gnome.
Max thought about it. They could go adventuring. Or leave the port and go on another voyage. But they didn't have much fuel left in the yacht. "Let's go see how much gas costs," said Max.

"What? you definitely got No Brain," replied Gnome. Max ignored him and walked past the docks to a few old-fashioned fuel pumps. Max read the boat manual and found that the yacht used 500 liters of fuel an hour. He walked to the pump, read the price and returned to Gnome. "How much is it? I have $5," offered Gnome.
Max sighed with disappointment.
"It's $2 a liter for fuel."
"Great!" yelled Gnome, "we can get three!!"
"No Gnome, we need 500 liters an hour. That's $1000."
Gnome was silent and confused. "No boat... Now what?" asked Gnome.
"We have to go and just live somewhere..." replied Max sadly. "Unless we can think of anything else."
"I can't now. Let's live at Mendingbrew's house and never do anything fun," said Gnome.
"Sounds like a deal," laughed Max.
They walked north following the sidewalk along the main road for an hour. Max remembered exactly how to get back to Mendingbrew's. the doors were locked but the Upstairs Window was cracked. Max used his trusty flower rope to help them get on the roof. They climbed through the window and right into Joakk's old room. It had some potion equipment and a big vintage silver radio.
Back on the first floor, they found that all the living action figures and dolls that Joakk and Mendingbrew used to collect had mysteriously disappeared, but everything else in the house was in good condition. It was very confusing. Max checked out the kitchen and heard a whimpering sound from behind the garbage can. It was an old-fashioned doll with sewn-on features.
"They broke in... they took everyone," she said, sniffling. "I was already back here and hid."
"Oh no" said Max. "How did they do it without leaving a trace? Who did it?"
The doll shook her head. "I don't know. I think they got in with some special lock device. Help us... I want my friends back."
"We can help you," said Gnome.
"Do you know anything else about these people?" asked Max.
"Umm... Joakk used to say some things about the ATS... or the TAS? Some evil organization." She sighed. "I guess it has some boss or something down in Coast Town. I heard something about a sailor there."
Max stroked his chin. "Interesting."
"We gotta go. Save the toys from the evil sailor!" yelled Gnome, punching the air. "He did this!" "How will we find him?" asked the doll.
"He'll be by the boats!" said Gnome. "That's what sailors do!"
"Let's go then, there's no time to waste."
They looked for useful supplies that would help them get to Coast Town. Max found $50 upstairs but nothing else seemed useful.
"How far is it?" asked Max.
"I don't know," said the doll.
"What's your name?" asked Max.
"Doll."
Gnome laughed but didn't realize his name was basic in the exact same way.
Max called a taxi and learned the fare was $25. They waited until it pulled up, and when they all sat in the taxi, the driver was flabbergasted to see living toys in front of him.
"What??" he stammered. "I can't believe my eyes!" he started crying.
"It's fine, just drive," said Max, passing him the $50. The taxi driver hit the gas without asking any more questions.
They arrived at the Coast Town loading port in half an hour.
"So are we just gonna ask every boat worker if they know what happened to our friends?" asked Doll, confused.
"I guess, or we can just hide around until we hear something interesting."
There were benches by the docks that were useful places to hide under. Max didn't hear anything pertinent for a whole hour. There were some boat loaders complaining about their jobs and talking about things Max didn't really understand, but that was it. He checked on the others nearby. Gnome was lounging in the sun under the bench, hands behind his head.
"Gnome!" said Max, "Gnome, wake up. Gnome! Your job..."
"I'm unemployed," said Gnome happily.
Max gave up and located two workers himself.
"You get any toys?" said one rough-bearded laborer.
"Nah. Not today."
"Nine. Nine lousy dollars just to line his pockets—" said one, stopping when he saw his boss close by.
"Hope he don't see me. Gotta go."
"Ah, he never knows what he's doing," scoffed the other worker. They walked away from Max.
"Fascinating" said Max to himself, "where did they go? Somewhere over there..."
He got Gnome and Doll and scurried over to a place by an absolutely enormous shipping ship filled to the brim with hulking metal containers. It was so large it was scary being close to it, almost like it was a giant monster.
There were two differently dressed sailors arguing on the docks.
"I told you not to let him escape! I'm going to dock your wages!" said the formally dressed one. "My wages are already docked more than this dock!" said the workmanlike one. He stomped his foot on the dock.
"I'll hear no more from you. You are fired, and remember your nondisclosure agreement!"
The crew member walked away pouting. He muttered under his breath.
"I'll disclose YOU."
"Doll, you talk to him, and I'll talk to the boss. Gnome, you're on guard duty."
Doll went a little to the left and Max to the right. They started talking to the mysterious men. "Hello, do you know about the–" said Max.
"AHH! Another one!" said the boss.
"You're joining all the rest of the cursed toys! Say bye to your freedom!" he said evilly.

Meanwhile, Doll was talking to the crew member about being underpaid.
"I know, but where else will I work, Uncle Vanya's?" he complained.
"I don't know..." said Doll. "Maybe there's fishing boats or something?"
"Listen, you gotta go. If they catch me talking to a doll I'm toast."
"Why?" asked Doll, but the sailor was gone. Doll looked over to Max and saw to her horror that he had been caught in a small net by the rich guy.
"No!" she squeaked. Gnome was back in action. He ran from the mainland towards Max, full of rage. The net tore apart loudly as Gnome pried it open with tons of brute strength. Max jumped out.
"What are you doing?" yelled Gnome.
"Oh, just testing out this new net I got," lied the man. Max was paralyzed with confusion. Gnome was getting less angry!
"No, Gnome! It's not-"said Max.
"What? The net works fine. Don't worry," interrupted the sailor. Then he took another smaller net out of his other pocket and threw it deftly on Gnome.
"Gnome!" yelled Max, trying to help him. He wasn't strong enough, and Gnome wasn't angry enough anymore to escape so he gave up. The sailor picked up Gnome and the net and ran all the way up the loading ramp to the gigantic ship.
"I'll be back here!" said Doll, who was the slowest runner.
Max tailed behind, trying to find something to do to help. He took out his flower rope and slowly managed to tie a lasso, but just barely missed throwing it around the guy. Max aimed and tried again, looping it around his foot. The man stumbled, but Max wasn't strong enough to stop him from running and ended up getting dragged along by the rope instead!
"Noooo! Help!" said Max.
Gnome looked at him with despair. He had no idea what to do.
"Max, umm..." said Gnome, trying to think. The cogs in his mind got unstuck and turned a tiny bit. "Let go! The rope's just hurting you!"
"I can't let go!" said Max, bouncing on the ground.
They were halfway up the giant ramp to the ship. The sailor noticed the rope around his leg and untied it. Max slowly stood up and chased him but couldn't keep up. The sailor passed Gnome on to an armed guard on the ship, who disappeared from view behind a shipping crate.
"I can't believe this!" said Max. He couldn't find the sailor either but tried to relocate the security guard. He heard a container door banging shut a ways away and knew Gnome was probably stuck. Another security guard appeared from around a corner and pointed his gun at Max.
"What are you doing?" he asked formally, not summoning up as much anger as Max expected.
"Umm," stalled Max, knowing he was probably about to get captured. He turned tail and ran. The guard walked after him casually, tired of putting in effort.
Max thought about if he should escape the boat before it left port or stay onboard.
"If I go, I have no idea where Gnome is headed or how to help him. If I stay, I'll be captured..."
He climbed his rope up to the top of a container and decided to try to steal the keys from a guard. The closest security guard was the one walking after him. Unseen, he spun the flower rope lasso and threw it at him.
"What is this?" he mumbled as the rope went around his keychain, which was attached to him with a carabineer clip so the rope pulled fruitlessly. The guard sighed, unable to see Max but suspicious that he was on top of the container.
"Stop this funny business and leave or I'll capture you," he said.
"Where... Where is this boat headed?" called Max.
"Cairo," said the guard, sounding rather confused.
"Thank you!" replied Max.
"Yup," said the guard, untying the rope. Max reeled it in and hopped off the back of the container. He made sure the coast was clear and got back on the huge ramp. The evil sailor saw him and started running after him super quickly. Max was terrified. He was a few seconds away from being caught. Forced with a difficult decision, Max looked at the water 200 feet below.
"You gotta do what you gotta do," he said, taking a deep breath and carefully jumping off the ramp. He freefell through the air for several seconds, entering the water. It hurt a little but he only weighed half a pound so he was not injured. Max surfaced and rode the huge waves back to the beach. From there, he found Doll shortly.
"Doll, Gnome is captured in one of those shipping containers!" he announced.
"Oh no! How will we get him?" asked Doll.
"I know where the boat is headed. We might get captured if we go back on it... Maybe we should intercept the boat at its destination. We can save Gnome in Cairo."