Treasure Hunting 101

Chapter V

Heath

Music: Season of Darkening Skies from Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius

As always with these kinds of expeditions, it's important to have a plan instead of just barging into it only to realize you're completely unprepared for the challenges ahead of you. We've done this kind of stuff enough times to be well aware of that fact.

So, after the teams are decided on back at the clubhouse, we decide to all head over to Sam's house to begin our usual planning routine. This isn't the kind of trip we usually go on, though. Most of the time, our trips involve chasing after some wanted felon or diabolical organization, or rescuing a captive from said felon or organization.

The seven of us are in Sam's basement, sitting in a circle with the four documents spread out in the center. Brea's doing some research on her phone to try out what the "House of Misfortune" is, and is not having very good luck finding results.

"So, from what I can tell, there isn't an actual place anywhere called the 'House of Misfortune'," Brea tells us after about twenty minutes of searching.

"Y'know, it's possible that the place doesn't even exist anymore, based on how long ago the decree was made," Avery speculates.

"Maybe there's still ruins of that location, or the title given to the location is a hint to where it actually is," Skylar says. "Knowing how treasure hunt clues usually work, I'm going to guess that the 'House of Misfortune' is supposed to hint at what the actual location is. It probably made more sense back then."

For whatever reason, Elle then decides to pick up the map and turn it over to the side showing where all the locations of the "clues" are. After closely examining it for a few seconds, she tells us, "Well, whatever it is, according to this map, it's in California." She then shows us the map and points to where California is on that map. Sure enough, there is a red circle over California with the number "2" written inside of it in dark grey ink. A circle with the number "1" is over Missouri, where we've already found the first clue. That means Clue #2 has to be somewhere in California.

Brea's expression is overcome with horror. "California?!" she exclaims. "I don't think my dad would be willing to drive us out that far, even on a weekend or a break." Apparently that's how she was anticipating us getting from place-to-place. Good thing we have other options.

Better options, in fact.

This is the point where Elle, Luke, Skylar, Avery, and I all turn to face Sam. Luke whispers to him, "Sam, now might be a good time to show Brea the you-know-what."

"What are you talking about?" Brea asks, her look now changing to one of curiosity.

An excited grin appears on Sam's face. He nods at Avery, then raises his left hand while Avery lets out a whistle. For some reason, waving your left hand and whistling (they don't have to be done by the same person, but they do have to be within touching distance of each other) is the way to signal Sam's HoverBoard-8500, which we use very often for travelling purposes. In addition to being useful for transportation, it's overloaded with gadgets, apps, and weapons, and even has artificial intelligence advanced enough to let it have its own personality. Sam received it about a year ago as a gift from one of his uncles, who helped design prototypes, and it's been a companion of ours ever since.

When the hovercraft's not being used or hanging out with us at the clubhouse, it resides underneath Sam's house. Why he picked that location specifically, none of us know. It bursts a hole through the floor just a few feet away from us, flies out of it, and nearly crashes into the ceiling before stopping itself. It then flies over to Sam's side and pretends to tip a hat at Brea.