The Arrow of Time

Devotion

"Now is not the time to be doing a jig." Dark Meta Knight called from the rock pile.

Daroach twirled and strafed away from the projectiles that were being launched at him. "You underestimate my arcade dance machine addiction."

"You underestimate my capacity for violence. Didn't you want to go get those two annoying gay wizards? Stop trying to dance when the brain scrambler is on." It was now firing multiple projectiles at once, each blasting away a chunk of terrain. He ran to Daroach, grabbed him by the cape, and started running.

Daroach quickened his pace to keep up. Despite them thinking they were running in a straight line, the warped perception of reality made them actually run in a pattern that was erratic and unpredictable, as if they regularly listened to jazz music.

One misstep by Dark Meta Knight pulled them both into a pit. "Agh! Take cover!" Daroach pulled him into a crevice in the side of the pit. After a few seconds, it seemed they were safe for the time being. "You okay? You fell pretty hard."

Dark Meta Knight contorted as he tried to get into a more comfortable position. "I am perfectly- guh, perfectly fine. I worry more for your sanity for coming out here just to find those two. Why do you care about them? What have they done for you?"

"They're my friends. Magolor in particular is almost like a brother to me. I'm sure you understand that, right?" As he talked, Daroach lowered himself to set up a rock under Dark Meta Knight's injured foot.

"I do not. What is it about that malicious mage menace that makes you want to do something so stupid? I couldn't possibly imagine undertaking such reckless actions for the sake of another."

"You followed me out here, didn't you? I'd say that's even more stupid. I'm only one guy, at least I was going after two of 'em."

He narrowed his eyes. "Touche. But Magolor is quite... abnormal, even among the rest of the insufferable ingrates you surround yourself with. What drives you to want to save him?"

Daroach turned his head, amusement plain on his face. "You're skating around your thoughts more than I thought you could. What, are you afraid of him? You think he'll find you if you insult him directly and crumple you like an empty soda can?"

"Shut the fuck up." He shot Daroach a glare, which didn't phase him. "If I killed you right now, would it wipe the infuriating smirk off your face?"

"Nope."

..-. .-.. .- ... .... -... .- -.-. -.- / - .. -- . / .-.. ..-. --.

"So, before we do anything, we need to have a general idea of the layout of that huge ship up there. So, the idea I have is that we strap a video camera to Spinni and have him run though as much of the area as fast as possible. The footage gets sent to Doc in real time, and he drafts up a map of the place. Then we bust in and grab every valuable thing we can find." Daroach turned away from the window to look between the other three in the small room. "Thoughts?"

Doc wiped his glasses. "I fail to see why the map is necessary for your 'bust in and grab everything' approach."

"I meant to specify that we apply that approach to the important places and not the stupid places. Sorry for not making that clear."

"Ah. No objections, then. Do you have a camera on you?"

Daroach pulled a small video camera out of his cape. "Here it is."

"Ah, boss? I kinda broke that one the other day." Storo spoke up. "I was trying to film a cool moth I saw, and I pressed the record button a little too hard."

Daroach set the camera on the table. "...Okay... Then how about we try something else?" As soon as he finished the sentence, A bright light started shining outside the window. He looked outside, and saw a white and blue ship descending from the sky and roughly landing near the small building they were in. "Um. Alright. I'll go check that out. You all stay here, it might be dangerous. Try to come up with something while I'm gone."