[IC] Never Lose Your Hat!

[Justric]

Rolling his eyes, Jötz sighed and nodded. He wasn't sure exactly how much she had absorbed of what he had been saying, if anything, although it was clear Ivy had at least gotten the general gist. Jaegers generally weren't classified by society as minion material, but it was clear that she was going to need someone to serve as a substitute until other arrangements could be made. It did give him some encouragement that she had moved closer towards him. There was a slight flutter in his reconstructed heart at her proximately, but he told himself it was only the desire for self-preservation flinching at how close the Spark was to him.

How much longer, he wondered, before he woke up to find her experimenting on him?

"Goot." Jötz nodded as though unsure as to what he had exactly agreed with. "Goot. Den lets find a vay out of here, eh? Ja."

The Jaeger began to explore their surroundings, examining the walls and looking for exits. Going back up was out of the question; not only was it just a few feet too far, the edges of the hole they had plunged through looked unstable and crumbling. Trying to grab the lip of the sinkhole would just result in another fall with more debris falling on top of them. There was, however, a passage in the most shadowed of the corners. It lead downwards into the underground heart of the swamp and yet remained curiously dry! Jötz could spy no ornamentation on the walls, no decoration of any kind, and so could only conclude that wherever they were it had once served a more utilitarian purpose. He looked back into the large room they had fallen into. A store room or warehouse of some sort, one left empty? Another passage way that looked as though it, too, might slope off into the depths was on the far side of the chamber, but time and gravity had collapsed it. So only one viable way of escape.

Jötz walked back towards Ivy, gesturing back over his shoulder at the hallway. "Zo, only vun vay, Mizz Ivy. Down der. Can't see much mit out a light or zometing, but I can smell vater down der. Fresh water, running, like a stream or zome such." He shook his furry head, fangs in a frown. "Never seen anyting like dis, doh. Not outsides of a city! Der ist heavy scratch marks on da floor, like dey dragged heavy tings tru here. Maybe... maybe zome kind of docks?"

He hesitated for a moment, before surrendering to the inevitable. They would need to see down there, the darkness so thick that even his Jaeger sight would be useless. "Zo... got a light?"

[DotCom]

Ivy stood there for a moment, chewing her lip and lost deep in the sort of concentric thought circles that would have gotten her smacked by Mama Petra, if Mama Petra had been there. But, of course, she wasn't. No, things had changed quickly, and now her only companion was this Jaeger for whom she'd been so mysteriously concerned just a few moments ago.

And, she supposed, the warty stump of an arm in one corner of the room. She was still vacillating between screaming and taking it with her for future examination, and it took her another long moment to realize Jötz was speaking to her again.

"Hm?" she said, distracted, until she remembered she was supposed to be angry, or at least wary, and made herself snap back to attention. "What? Oh. A light. Uh...sure, hang on."

How long had she been away from home? Two days? Three? And already she was reverting to the Spark like it was second nature...though she supposed, at least abstractly, it rather was, and had been for some time. Years, maybe. And it was only now at eighteen she was able to make anything of it.

She folded into herself, still feeling weary and uncertain as she awkwardly draped her blood-stained apron across her knees, already frustrated that she was one hand, and several items short. She felt something spark against her temper and briefly glared up at the Jaeger, still searching, one-handed, through the pockets for anything she could use.

Her fingers found a few small, chalky orbs, a smile spread across her face as she withdrew a small handful of her absolute favorite confections. In Motorhum, even Spark wares deemed 'mostly harmless' were essentially contraband. But it never stopped the tinkerers who occasionally happened through (and then were subsequently chased out of) town from selling to interested parties. And once a month, Ivy found herself spending her meager allowance on Professor Durwick's Delightful After-Dinner Mints, which had the added benefit of sparking when you chewed them in the dark. Also, when you chewed them anywhere, dropped them on the floor, and sometimes spontaneously combusted in a shower of minty freshness.

Grinning, Ivy popped a mint into her mouth. The arm, the Jaeger, the trauma was forgotten, and a few moments later, she was muttering, almost singing to herself.

A few moments after that, she was struggling to her feet, apron tucked under her bad arm, holding out a contraption made primarily of wires, springs, and after-dinner mints. It exuded a faint, blueish glow that flickered like clockwork every thirty seconds.

"We should hurry," she said reverently, staring at the thing like one might a child. "It'll explode soon. But we'll have more light to see by, and it will smell like spearmint when it does."

[Justric]

“Er, ja. Vhatever chou say.” Jötz was unsure which was more unsettling, the ticking contraption that gave them enough life to see by and smelling like toothpaste that would probably explode if they dropped it… or the way Ivy’s teeth now glowed with a similar light eerily in the darkness. He had heard about certain breath mints causing sparks when people bit into them. He had not, however, ever heard of the entire mouth sparking even after the mint was eaten!

Deciding to ignore her sparking mouth (which faded after a few moments), he led the way down the ramp and into the wet darkness. He wanted to keep the Spark behind him so that if she fell or slipped he might catch her up; he only needed the ambient light of her device to see in the gloom, not the full glare. Not that there was much to see. The sloping passageway was bland and completely utilitarian, nothing to bring on a sense of fear or danger at all!

“Must not have been made by a Spark,” he muttered.

At the bottom of the incline, the pair were discovered a large underground tunnel through which murky water flowed thickly. The ceiling was arched and made of crumbling brick, just as was the walkway onto which they stepped. The smell wasn’t as stagnant as the swamp as the water did move even if sluggishly. It resembled nothing so much as riverside dock, with a wide stone platform that jutted slightly into the currents from the walkway. The walkway extended off in either direction along the wall closest to them - a towpath.

Jötz gaped as he looked about at the construction, the design, the possible purposes. “Canallers,” he breathed in hushed awe. “Dis… Dis must be one oft da Great Canals I vas telling you about earlier MIzz Ivy! If’n ve follow de vater, ve stands a chance oft finding another city.” He looked back over his shoulder up the passageway. “Und maybe less toads!”

He looked about again but not finding what he sought, the Jaeger shook his head. “I dont see any barges or boats. But maybe ve can just take the towpath for now? If’n its blocked later on, ve can always turn around.” Jötz stuck a hand into one of his pouches and pulled out a fist full of pork jerky. “Chou eat up, though, eh? As ve valk. Right nows chou needs da energy and yummy goodness, I’m tinking.”

[DotCom]

Ivy followed dutifully after Jötz, still caught in a sort of post-Spark bliss as she watched the chalky white orbs clack gently against each other in the coils of the perpetual motion spring engine she'd created, the air around her pungent with mint. She was just a little sad the mints were all gone, though she was mostly confident she could find another batch at the next town they stopped at -- assuming there really was a next town -- and probably cheaper than she'd bought them back home.

The thought of home gave her another dull ache somewhere deep in her belly, just long enough to draw her attention from the roughly lightbulb-shaped device in her hand, down to her other hand, or rather, to the empty space where it had been. She frowned through the darkness at it, lifting her stump -- it really had been a clean cut, which was good, because that would make future augmentations much easier. She'd always felt five had been rather too few fingers, anyway.

Jötz stopped walking so abruptly -- or else her mind had wandered further than she'd realized -- Ivy had nearly run into his back before she realized he wasn't moving anymore, having paused to gape at what appeared to be a series of underwater channels. Intrigued, she stepped around him, mostly bare toes at the edge of the stone platform to lean as far out over the water as she could manage, squinting down the tunnel in each direction before turning back to her Jaeger companion.

She hadn't realized she was hungry until her offered her the dried meat, and by the time she realized what it was, her stomach was growling too loudly to politely decline. So, she took the offering with a small, if grateful, smile, gnawing quietly on the strips of meat as they walked, trying to remember what Jötz had told her about the canals. She was almost positive it hadn't all been positive.

[Justric]

As they treaded along the crumbling towpath in the gloom, Jötz took the lead still. The only sounds other than their own footfalls were the dripping of water and the occasional splash as some aquatic creature jumped out of the flowing currents to fall back into them again. Every now and then, a cobblestone from the path was shaken loose by the pair’s passing to tumble with a plonking sound into the canal.

“Eet is like I vas telling you, Miss Ivy,” Jötz whispered as they crept downstream, “I tink dis ist one oft da Great Canals!” And as they went on, the Jaeger continued his tale from before. He told her of the Bargefolk and the canals that connected the world together, how every material good and coin must have passed along their waters at some point as everything was moved by their methods and traditions. Even the Storm King used their services to move his armies and their supplies! The Bargefolk, or Canallers, however, recognized no king or emperor, and instead danced on the edge of the world in their freedom. Their barges were brightly colored affairs that spoke of their love of life and all it had to offer.

But the powers that were didn’t like being ignored and were furious that the Canallers refused to recognize their authority. Wicked rumors spread like wide fire. Bargefolk were denied entry into some larger cities and towns. Goods were confiscated. And then, one day in a place called Bad Schuschen, a Canaller girl was assaulted…
After that, the Canallers disappeared. Their barges vanished, and the canals they had sailed upon were left untended to fill up with silt and become impassible until they reached the point where they vanished altogether over the generations. Most folks forgot about them completely. And in the absence of these free spirited travelers there arose a group of monks to take their place: the Corbettite Order.

Jötz looked about in wonder as they continued on, the dock left far behind them as he told his tale. “But dey say dat sometimes a body falls into a place like dis, some underground hole mit cater running try it. Und dat if chou listens, chou can still hear da bells und whistles und singing oft da Canallers living under da ground. Und if’n chou is not careful, da Canallers vill snatch chou avay to live mit dem under da hills!”

Peering ahead, Jötz thought he could see a wide opening in the tow path. Not quite like the doc they had left, but certainly some sort of larger area. “Vait, vait,” he whispered. “Ist dat… ist dat a boat??”

Certainly something lay in the chamber up ahead! Something large that was made of rusted metal and ancient wood, with tall twin cylinders that arose from its middle into the air. How long it had remained there tied at its berth was unknowable, but there remained one important fact.

It still floated.

[DotCom]

Ivy found herself lost in Jötz stories in a way that made her feel unexpectedly homesick. She could just see in the murky darkness of the canals, but her mind drew images of barges doused in color, strung up with steamers and bunting and tongues of colored flame, exactly the sort of thing she'd have loved to see, even just a few days ago, but now felt distant and dangerous and strangely indulgent.

She was nervous and excited enough by the time he mentioned a boat she was nearly vibrating behind him, standing on tip-toe, and probably walking entirely too close.

"Where?" she gasped, whispering as though the boat might hear them and take flight. She squinted through the darkness, then gave up and darted around him to examine the barge by her own faintly blueish light.

Ivy dropped to her knees at the edge of the dock, leaning out as far as she could to study Jötz find. The air around her smelled of rust and stagnant water, making her think the barge had been there for some time. But it was still floating, bobbing gently on the water, and in the back of her mind, Ivy could imagine it dressed in paper streamers and confetti, floating down one of the canals, back to Motorhum, or even farther.

A slightly manic grin suddenly lit upon her face, and in and instant, she was standing, shoving her winterbright contraption and her apron into Jötz's hands without so much as glancing at the Jaeger.

"Hold that," she commanded impatiently, backing up the the crumbling wall behind her before taking a small running leap to land herself aboard the barge.

At the last moment, her foot caught on the edge of the boat, pitching her forward to roll directly over the other side, landing with a resounding splash in the brackish water.

"Owww," Ivy muttered distractedly, brushing dark hair back from her eyes as she searched for what made the barge go...and what else she could add.

"Do you think the Canallers ever had barges that could fly?"

[Justric]

Fumbling as he tried to juggle both the apron and the terminally explosive lantern, Jötz was caught so off guard that he didn’t have a chance to so much as shout a warning as Ivy bolted past towards the steam barge. He did, however, wince in sympathy as she landed hard upon the ancient deck of thick wooden slats to roll off and into the brackish water. Shaking his head and still grimacing, the Jaeger walked up the edge of the dock and simply extended on long leg to cross over.

“Fly.” The words came out flat and disapproving. “No, dey didn’t ‘fly.’ Dey vas Canallers. Dey lived on da canals. Most canals don’ go off into da sky mit all da clouds and da rain and da birdies.’

As soon as he said the words, he closed his eyes in instant regret. He had a horrible feeling that even now she was contemplating how to make water canals that went through the open air.

Taking a deep breath and opening his eyes, he shook his head and set the imposed items off to one side upon the deck where they were safe. “Lets get chou out oft da vater before it gets you stump infected. Ve only gots so much of da healing schtuff after all!”

After helping her out, he tried not to focus on how her soaked clothing clung to her youthful frame. Ivy’s figure was outlined in the light of the mint lamp. Turning around hurriedly, Jötz began to take stock of what they had.

There wasn’t much that could be added, but there was plenty that could be fixed. The wheelhouse near the stern was half collapses, but the wheel and controls appeared to be in sound condition. The connections would probably need some degree of work before the ship could be steered adequately. What looked like twin smoke stacks on either side of the wheel house had also fallen, revealing deep holes that went down into what was possibly a steam engine of some sort. Sticking his nose in one of the holes, Jötz sniffed. “I tink der’s coal down der, but it might be wet. Ve would need someting really hot to get it burning again, I’m tinking!”

Curiosity overruled common sense, and the Jaeger stood to push away most of the collapsed sections of wall that remained around the wheel house; rotten wood and rusted steel slid away into the water with a loud splash. A hatchway led into the darkness below. Sliding down into it, his boots splashed into murky water that released foul smell as he disturbed the silt that had accumulated below. Even with the ticking light source above, he could make out dim details.

“A leetle vet, down here!” he called up as he squinted. “Ders passage dat goes forward, might be oder rooms towards da bow. Maybe another hatch at da other end?” The more immediate surroundings were easier to see, so he focused on those. “Ja, dis ist an engine room. Eet’s a room mit an engine in it. Oh, and der’s tools down here! Don’t look like da vater got to dem, either!”

[DotCom]

Ivy puttered around as Jötz made his own inspections, attempting to wring stagnant water out of her hair with one hand while simultaneously trying to trap the wheel under her newly truncated arm. But her Jaeger friend's announcement that he'd found more tools -- as well as more of the barge -- quickly overrode any other interest she had in the boat or its wheelhouse.

"Really?" she blurted, suddenly giddy with possibility. "What kind of tools? I've been thinking, we could really use a wrench that doubles as a precision laser and also maybe a hand cannon, like the one I made you, but bigger!"

She followed the sound of his voice to the hatch, remembering at the last moment to take her mint lamp between her teeth before she followed him into the darkness.

"Mm cunnig don!" she announced even as she was falling the few feet to splash into the water beside him. She felt her heel catch something solid and furry and tried to angle herself away from the rest of what she assumed was Jötz body.

"Oof -- smfy -- " She righted herself, squinting the in the murky, bluish light as she spat the mint-flavored lantern in her her good hand. "I mean sorry. Where're the tools?"

She pushed past him without waiting for an answer, first finding a small assortment in a shallow tin box. Her eyes widened as she took in the new fare.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, sifting through the box with oil-stained fingers. "I bet I can make a new arm with some of these!" She glanced at Jötz briefly over her shoulder. "Do you want one, too? I promise I won't cut your arm off until I finish the new one."

[Justric]

“No,” Jötz growled darkly. The firmness of his tone left nothing to the imagination, nor did the strength which suddenly grasped above the elbow of her good arm. He pulled her about to face him. The Jaeger was solemn eyed, his features both purposeful and incredibly sad as he looked down at her to speak.

“Hy don’t know if’n chou ist in da Mad Place right now or not, but der is something chou gots to promise me,” he insisted sadly. “Chou don’t work on me. A leetle patching up or stitching schtuff up ist fine, or giving me da Battle Draught I gots in disk flash.” He thumped a small canteen on his belt with his thumb, but did not break away his gaze from her. “Only a Heterodyne can verk on a Jaeger, Ivy. Der’s a place in Mechanicsburg vere hy can go to get patched up vhen ve ist too banged up to fight no more, Mama Gkika’s. But only der. Und hy gots to sneak in. Oddervise, hy must vait for a Heterodyne to return. Only von of da Heterodynes oder another Jaeger can verk on us.”

Jötz dropped his hand and his eyes away. “If’n someting happens und chou gots to chop someting off, den chou do it. Hy trusts chou to do vhat chou gots to do. But no replacements. No modifications oder adding tings. Ist… ist very important, Ivy. More important den a hat, even… ”

He suddenly felt vulnerable telling her this, exposed. But he had already seen how quickly and easily this young Spark could slip in that mind state that was half insanity and half inspiration, and he feared that if she got too many ideas into her head he might wake up as something other than a true Jaeger. Death, dismemberment, disembowelment, dissection… there was a whole list of such ‘d’ words that he was prepared to accept; disloyalty to the Heterodynes was not on it.

Rubbing up to rub the cheek she had accidentally stepped on, Jötz closed his eyes and leaned against the ladder. This young woman was making him afraid on so many levels. Fear was not good for one of the Jaegerkin.

[DotCom]

Ivy felt a furry claw wrap around her arm, and then, a second later, she felt her temper jump up through levels of 'simmering' to 'explosive' to 'right on through the roof' as Jötz pulled her away from the tools he'd shown her. She scowled, green eyes going hard and opened her mouth to berate him.

"Get off, you -- oh."

Her foul mood died just as quickly as it had come, and all it had taken was the force of his tone...and the look in his eyes. She was vaguely aware he was speaking, and that it was important, at least to him, so she ought to be listening, but she couldn't quite get over how somber he looked, and there was a pang of something sharp in her belly that felt awfully close to pity.

Which, of course, was grotesque at the very best. He had cut off her arm. She was supposed to be mad at him. She had been. Hadn't she?

It occurred to her he was still speaking, and she wasn't listening, and for some reason, that felt very wrong. She made herself focus. Besides. It was the first time, at least in her short memory, that he'd called her just Ivy. She figured that counted for something.

He looked so tired, so downtrodden when he finished speaking, Ivy felt an almost overwhelming need to hug him, but she didn't know if he'd like that. She'd heard about Sparks experimenting on friends and family before -- mostly old Motorhum horror stories, but familiar enough to leave goosebumps on her arms -- and wondered, not for the first time, how Sparks ever made it through even half a lifetime if they were always killing those who tried to protect them. She wanted to promise, if only to see him stop looking so sad, that she wouldn't do anything, but the truth was, she didn't know how to stop it. And he would understand that even better than she.

After a moment, she decided just to turn away. There was no verbal confirmation, no mutual agreement. Words wouldn't mean anything. Not that kind, at least.

Ivy went back to poking through the tools he'd found her, the silence weighing heavy, almost unbearable on her shoulders before she said, "I think I can make the engine work. And then...and then maybe you can leave me in the next town. If you want."

[Justric]

The girl turned away after he finished speaking, begging for her to understand why it was so important that she not do anything to him. Only Ivy said nothing to that effect, instead nattering on again about the engine and their future plans. Jötz felt she hadn’t been listening, not really. At least not to all of it. Common sense told him as it would anyone with half a brain that it was best to get as much distance between the Spark and himself as possible before she completely destroyed what he was by trying to imrpove him.

Only Jötz was a Jaegermonster. Common sense was not an attribute often associated with then, even if they were not quite as reckless as they made themselves seem to be. Besides which, he had made a promise to look after her until she was safe. Their loyalty to the House of Heterodyne had its foundations in that same Jaeger sense of perverse honor Jötz and his fellows adhered to. He had promise Ivy he would see her safe and with her arm restored, and that was a bargain he couldn't go back on even as his cynicism scolded him for making such a bad deal.

“No,” he grumped, “I gets chou vhere I promised. Den ve kin talk abouts chat comes after, ja?”

Turning his own back to her now, Jötz began to make his way down the flooded hallway to see what else there was. There was actually rather little. He could tell by looking which rooms were for sleeping and cooking and storage, especially the stretched cargo hold midships where his footfalls echoed against the rusting steel. Completely abandoned. Further along towards the bow, he came across another steep ladder that led up to a hatch, much like the one they had come down. Beyond that, there was one last door.

This one was shut fast, a bronze nameplate heavily pitted and verdant with age right at eye level. Frowning, Jötz tried the door. It was sealed fast. Rubbing the cloth of his sleeve against the metal plaque a few times, he squinted as he tried to read the archaic font that had been razed into the bronze. It was in English, which took him longer to translate in his head.

“Captain… Ja-kob… Moore… Ludd.” Jötz frowned. Why did that name sound so familiar? It did have something to do with the Canallers, but he couldn’t remember what. He tried sounding it out several times in different ways to see if it jarred any memories. “Jakob More Ludd… Jake Ob Mere Ludd… Jake Oft M’Blood… Jakomoblud… Jackamooludd… Giacomo…”

His brushed the tipped of his talon fingers across it, squinting. His lips barely moved as he whispered a combination that unlocked his memories. “Jack of More Blood.”

Jötz’s eyes went wide and he stepped back. Captain Jack of More Blood, a viscous pirate captain that had terrorized the canalways and rivers and lakes of most of Europa with impunity. He had been a privateer so feared that it had taken the Storm King himself to put on end to him. Only the story had never said exactly what had happened, only that he had been defeated! If this was his ship…

“Iiiivy!” Jötz roared. Backpedalling for severals steps, he turned to half run and half slog through the brackish water back towards the engine room. No doubt while he explored, she had started work on the engine. If the tales of the infamous pirate and his miraculous barge of death were even the least bit true, then firing up the hulk’s boiler may not be the best of ideas… at least not without an army standing by! “Chou may not vants to do that!!”

[DotCom]

He left, and she started shoving tools into a damp, and slightly stiff tool belt she'd found wedged between the back of the furnace and the wall. She didn't like it nearly as much as her apron, but she wasn't about to waste the time it would take her to climb back up, one handed, to grab it. Besides, the tool belt was bigger, and didn't have to be tied around her waist. She looped it over her head and wriggled up it rested low on her hips, half her mind now wandering as she tried to figure out whether she could combine the tool belt with the apron -- for posterity's sake.

Meanwhile, Jötz had made his way into the dark, and the rest of her mind was occupied with trying to make up the last few days to him. She still hadn't quite gotten over the whole amputation thing, but she could no longer deny he'd saved her life almost more times than she could count now. And he'd lost his hat in the process. She was certain speeding them ahead to the next town, especially along the safety of the subterranean canals, would make him feel a little better, if only so he could go on his way again, hat-stealing, and village-plundering. She supposed maybe she would sort of miss him, but then she'd probably be too busy...doing whatever unfettered Sparks did to care.

In any case, fixing the engine was something to occupy her time while he sulked and she gave him some space. And she was just beginning to make out the vague shape of a few piston-looking things in the dark, which was great because she'd just been thinking about how much better the ÜberOven would have run it if had had a second combustion engine. Of course, that one had run on blueberries, and that just didn't seem practical here.

Ivy was all about practicality.

She set the still-ticking lantern beside her for light and wriggled beneath the engine, suspended on to heavy steel pipes she suspected ran coolant through the system, smearing grease across her face and clothing as she did. For a time, and she couldn't say how much, she lost herself in a haze of equal parts curiosity and frustration, muttering numbers, curses, and questions under her breath as she did so. Jötz had probably been shouting her name before several minutes before she heard him.

"...six-four-seven...could put a pulley in here, and then...nine-one-eight...no...dammit! Why would anyone even use less than sixteen pistons...five-three-zero...for -- Oh, for Pete's sake, will you shut UP?!" Ivy sat up in a huff, furious and red-faced...until her forehead collided with one of the suspension pipes, leaving a red welt marked by a black streak of grease straight across her forehead.

The girl made a face, rubbing her nose with her good hand. "Owwwww," she muttered to herself, squinting through the darkness at the long approaching Jötz. "What're you yelling about?" she started, before her gaze drifted to her lantern, now ticking much faster and smelling faintly of smoke. And mint. Always mint.

Her face brightened at once.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, grinning at Jötz as though she'd just discovered the secret to all the world's mysteries. "Look, we can just blow it up and start over! You have to catch any flying parts, okay?" she added seriously. "Your hands are bigger than mine." She reached back under the pipes and gears and springs and switches and snagged the lantern-turned-ticking-time-bomb, and then casually launched it at what remained of the ancient engine.

[Justric]

Jötz had just stumbled through the hatchway into the engine room as Ivy grinned at him, told him to catch any flying bits, and then hurled the ticking mint bomb into the boiler’s furnace. Catching however many bits that she had crammed into the improvised light source was hardly the first thing he was going to do, not when he knew how strong boilers had to be and that those tiny bits would ricochet around inside and bounce out even faster than they had gone in once it exploded! Knowing he would regret his choice but not seeing any other, the Jaeger leapt across the water logged room to grab her. Once more she was shielded tightly against his chest, great arms wrapped about her.

Then the lantern exploded.

The heightened Jaeger sense of smell allowed him to admire the fresh scent of various mints that suddenly filled the air. The odor was pleasing, relaxing even! A cool breeze ruffled his fur and bare head to make him shiver ever so slightly…

Only to be followed by the heat of the furnace blasting against his back. The blue-green flames and accompanying sparks shot out of the coal hatch for several seconds in a roaring din, the fire flickering at his damp cloak. The thick material protected his back. The garment itself, however, was ruined. The heat evaporated the moisture that had soaked up into it, and then that same heat ate holes into it through to his tunic. If not for that second level of protection, he had little doubt that most of the fur on his back would have been singed away! Jötz didn’t even want to think what might have happened to Ivy’s face if she had still been standing there, happily staring into the furnace when the lantern exploded!

The flames ceased shooting forth and filling the air with refreshing mint, plunging the chamber back into darkness… but only for a moment. Ever so slowly, a soft light began to fill the room. Jötz could even see lights coming alive down the corridor he had just come from, the illuminate gradually increasing as though waking after a long slumber. A low, rattling hum came from all around. Slowly releasing Ivy from his protective embraced, he looked about wide eyed at the changes brought by sight. Then there came a sudden sucking sound, and the water about their calves and knees began to drain away as ancient pumps came to life somewhere unseen. As the barge was freed of the water’s ballast, it began to right itself and float higher in the water.

With the additional of whatever artificial light, the condition of the ship could better be seen. It was not great. Some spots were missing their lights, the extent of the rust became more obvious, and by looking up one could see the holes in the deck above. Yet the vessels floated and the engine ran with only the occasional cough. Considering it must have sat there for a few centuries at best, it was impressive!

Turning back to Ivy, he looked down into her sweet face and frowned. “Hey, chou gots a bump.”

[DotCom]

Ivy was trembling, half manic, when Jötz finally released her, showing no sign of having heard anything he'd said...but then her ears were still ringing from the explosion, which only served to bolster her excitement.

She scrambled to her feet, slipping only once as the water began to drain away, then stood as near to the furnace as the could manage, newly truncated arm raised against the heat. She could hear pumps and drains kicking to life under her feet as the lights flickered on overhead and the barge began to rise in the water. It had worked! Granted, not quite how she'd planned, but they could move now, and any, that explosion had been well worth it.

The engine behind her gave the occasional cough, which she ignored for now -- she could fix that later, she was sure. She could probably get it to burn faster, and cleaner, too. And when she mounted the barge's defenses, she could harvest any recoil energy and send it here. In fact, she could probably get the whole thing to run faster while it was firing away into the darkness!

She turned to Jötz only as she happened to pass him en route down the dimly lit hallway, abruptly remembering his presence.

"How far will the canals take us?" she asked. "Do you think we can get around the whole world? Or...or maybe back to Motorhum, I bet if I showed them...we could open up new lines of trade and no one would even know!" She frowned suddenly, oblivious to the black and red streak across her forehead the Jaeger had pointed out. "We might need to lay some new canals. I was thinking maybe I could attach something to the bottom of the barge, like...like, a big scoop, and then we'll have to go down and lay...something nicer than cement, too much friction, if we want to travel the world, we have to be able to move faster..."

She looked up at him, frowning. "Where are we going? That place you said...do you know how to get there?"

[Justric]

Fur-singed and cloak-burnt, Jötz could only stand there and stare at Ivy as she raved on and passed by. Shaking his head, he resisted the urge to point out that having lines of trade no one knew about was rather pointless. Unless of course she was talking smuggling. That he could get behind! Ivy’s rather rural and isolated upbringing made him doubt she had any such thing in mind, however, and her plan to return to Motorhum was simply out of the question. For one, he doubted the underground canals ran in that direction. And second, even if she came back draped in gold and jewels and all manner of sparkly thing, it was doubtful her family and friends would welcome her back with arms open. Again, these were things the Jaeger could see that his Sparky ward had either forgotten or never ever thought about to begin with.

Fighting back a sigh, he shrugged. “Chou can gets a new arm in Beetleburg, usually dey gots lots of mechanical vuns. Ift chou vants to grow a new vun, ve need to goes to Mechanicsburg; da great hospital der can gets it done.” Jötz pointed towards the bow. “I tink dis goes towards Beetleburg, but I don’ts know of any canal mooring der. Shtill, Beetleburg vast around vhen da canal vere built. So der’s a good chance. Ift nothing else, eet vill bring us a bit closer, eyh?”

As he spoke, he removed the ruined outer garment and tossed it into the furnace, where it sizzled and popped briefly before flaring into ash. The look on his face was morose. True, a cloak was nowhere near as important as a hat, but he had the cloak for a long time. It was almost like burning a piece of history.

Looking back towards Ivy, he decided now was as good a time to warn her of the dangers in either city. Once they were underway, she was all too likely to become distracted again.

“Look, Ivy, der ist sometings chou gotta know before ve gets undervay. Once ve gets into der cities proper, chou can’t let peoples know you is a Mad Girl. Vimmen Sparks? Der isn’t many of dem to start wit, und dey tend to go poof-vanish-gone pretty quickly so dat no one sees dem again. Dat, and if da Baron finds out? He’s gonna vant chou. To study. Maybe he finds you a safe job and do all sorts of neat Sparky stuff, and maybe he slices chou up for parts. Ders no telling. So vhen ve gets into da towns and cities? Chou gots to keep it down. Chou understand?”

[DotCom]

Ivy had been errantly trying doors down the dimly-lit hallway when Jötz words finally caught up to her. She poked her head out into open space, dark curls somehow still dripping from her fall into the water, and made a face.

"The Baron? The Baron? Baron Wulfenbach? Why would he want me?" She paused to consider this, her fingers idling with a wrench she must have grabbed from the tool supply before or after the explosion (the explosion! The thought of it still made her want to giggle, but she refrained because Jötz had his serious face, which Ivy was pretty sure was happening more and more often) without thinking about. Her scowl deepened.

"And what I don't want to go with him?" She had heard horror stories about the Baron and his floating castle 'o' Sparks growing up. Most of the children of Motorhum had. They were none of them particularly pleasant, but all, save for those slurred in dirty alleys by the pinch of town drunks, were spoken with a quiet reverence. The more Sparks the Baron snatched up, the fewer remained to terrorize the villages scattered amongst the Wastes. Still. Wulfenbach's skybound fortress might take her home, or on any number of grand adventures...or it might force her to spend the rest of her life fixing watches over empty patches of nothingness. No, Ivy much preferred to be in control of her own destiny.

Besides. She'd rather grown to enjoy the company of her new Jaeger friend. Even if he had amputated her arm. She wasn't sure whether Baron Wulfenbach allowed for guests, and she wasn't keen on the idea of falling asleep somewhere with half a clank in her lap, then waking up alone on an unfamiliar ship.

"I thought the whole point of going to the big cities was that no one would try to kill me," Ivy said slowly as she emerged from the last of the open rooms. She was staring intently at the wrench in her hands now, frowning as she chewed a lip. "If they're just going to try anyway..." She trailed off then grinned suddenly. "Well, they can try." She imagined a place where she would be able to build something -- somethings -- big enough to defend against the Baron's fortress.

"Mechanicsburg!" she blurted suddenly. "Let's go there. How long do you think it'll take? I can make the engine go faster, I bet. And mount some cannons on the front of the barge, so we can blast through the walls, instead of going around them. And -- "

She glanced back over her shoulder to try and gauge his relative levels of excitement, and saw he was still pretty much centered on what he'd been saying. Impatient, Ivy exhaled and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes, I understand. I won't tell anyone I'm a Spark." She scowled again then added impetuously, "And I won't go with the Baron. I want to stay with you."

[Justric]

There were so many things that Jötz wanted to say as Ivy ranted on, things that hovered at the tip of his tongue in response to everything the young girl was saying in an effort to correct her or make her better understand the danger of the situation. Ivy would be safer in the cities, not out of the line of fire altogether. People in the big urban areas tended to be more understanding about such matters, only the universities and schools attracted all manner of madmen, crazed scientists, and Sparks, many of whom would have clashing egos. Not to mention that it would make it easier for the Baron to find her! If a female Spark began openly practicing, it would take no time at all for word to get and anyone who truly wanted to spend the effort would be able to find her.

All of his protests died on his lips, however, as Ivy added her coda.

She… wanted to stay with him?? Ivy had changed her mind again, and now in one of mercurial moods she had decided on continuing to keep company with the monster that had sliced her arm off. Jötz had dealt with a fair share of Sparks over his long life, and while it had been as long as many Jaegerkin, he was fairly sure he had never met a Spark whose moods and whims shifted so quickly and without warning before! The frustration of dealing with her ever changing frame of mind was tempered, however, by the strange warm feeling Jötz felt towards her when she confessed her intentions.

“Vell,” he coughed, “Hyz glad dat ist settled, den. Ja. Vell.” Attempting to clear his throat, Jötz gestured towards the final room towards the bow; the open doors had all lead into rooms that were either empty or filled with detritus. The cabin at the far end was the only one left unexplored. “Ve should be able to get to Mechanicsburg from beneath mit dis, yes. At least I tink so. Outside da valls at any rate. But chou gots to remember, Ivy, I can’ts go in mit you. At least… not above da ground.”

He waved all of that away for now.

“Anyvayz, choy remember vhat I vas saying about da Canals, ja? Vell, der vas a Canaller who didn’t much like vhen all da towns and pipples got all upsets at dem. A guy called Jacob Ludd. He vast a nasty guy, did really bad tings to pipples he didn’t like, stole vhatever he vanted, left death und destruction und smoke everyvhere he vent.” Jötz sighed as though in love. “Even da Jaegers oft da time vanted to be like him!”

Snapping back to the moment, Jötz guided her towards the shut door with the plague. “I tink dis vast his pirate barge! Der could be vealth, guns, tings dat go boom, creatures from da very pits of da nether hells… Almost any ting could be behind dis door!” Frowning at the plaque, he sighed. “Only I can’ts get it open!”

[DotCom]

Ivy wasn't feeling so keen on Mechanicsburg anymore. For a city that promised a nearly unending supply of tool kits, metal gears, and more wrenches and screwdrivers than she could shake a stick at, they sure had a lot of silly rules. What was the point of having all that great stuff if you weren't going to share fairly with female Sparks and the Jaeger companions?

Still, she didn't feel like arguing anymore. She wanted to go, the move, to be anywhere but sitting still again. She was beginning to feel restless, and she wasn't sure how much time she could spend rebuilding the engine before Jötx tried to ruin her fun again.

She started to wonder off again, wondering whether she could find anything of use that wasn't buried in dust or half eaten away by copper-colored rust -- but she froze as Jötz began speaking again.

Jacob Ludd?

She was almost certain she had heard the name before, though she couldn't, for the life of her, remember where or even when. Motorhum hadn't exactly been a bustling city, and certainly wasn't Spark friendly. It only followed that all the atrocities that came with Sparks -- even those, like the Canallers, that weren't directly linked -- weren't much liked or discussed either, save by more liberal parents, and even then, only in the confines of crowded children's rooms, meant to frighten children into staying home to take care of their ailing, aging families. Rather like the toads outside the village walls.

Though that had ended up far worse than Ivy might have anticipated.

That, coupled with the involuntary shiver she gave at the sound of the name, and the way the tiny hairs on the back of her neck went rigid, almost as if they themselves were fearful of the ghost of some unknown moniker, ought to have prodded what little intuitive effort Ivy had into some semblance of being. But as of late, all her intuition had gone into building any number of bombs. So. No help there.

Then the moment was past, and Ivy was shrugging, thinking she'd probably gotten the name from her brother's old stories. He'd once traded a week's supply of eggs to the neighbor for a tattered and dog-eared copy of The Heterodyne Tales, Vol. 2. The illustrations had been so graphic (and the eggs so missed), Mama Petra had beat him until he couldn't even help with the chores and had to make them up the next month. But he'd kept the book, and he and Ivy had read from it every night until the pages had fallen apart in their hands.

"I think I read a story about him once," Ivy said errantly, still frowning slightly, trying to remember just what the story had been about. Why it made her stomach feel a little uneasy. Then she shrugged and grinned. "I bet I can get it open," she said, then hesitated. "But maybe you should stand somewhere else. I think you get in the way of my exploding things a lot."

[Justric]

“Fine, fine,” Jötz muttered. “Hy go clean up da deck, ja? De best bits I stack in the da middle of da boat so chou can take a looks later.” With that, he head back towards the stern and up the ladder that would bring him near the remains of the pilot house.

Her words left a buzzing in his furry, tufted ears for some reason. Motorhum had been a pretty backwater place, even for a village in the middle of the Wastes. How had she heard about the pirate captain there? It wasn’t like the Jaegers. Everyone knew about Jaegers, he thought with a certain amount of pride. Then again… was Motorhum really that far from whatever ruin they had fallen into? The trip had taken a bit, but then again he and Ivy had to circumnavigate trees, bogs, ponds, boulders, and mutated blue toads along the way. Maybe there was a connection between the two that he was missing?

Jötz put it out of his mind for now. Instead, he tossed what was obviously debris overboard while scourging about for anything that might look remotely useful. He had a pretty good idea for what a Spark might want. Not to mention that he could use some of the panelling from below to cover the more treacherous holes in the deck’s surface. There seemed to be enough material to ensure a bit of safety while leaving her with some to work with. Jötz grinned. “Vell, so long as she don’t blow a hole in da-“

This time it was his own words he froze at. Not so much from the power of them but for how they linked up to words that the Mad Girl had just recently spoken.

"I bet I can get it open… I think you get in the way of my exploding things a lot.”

“Oh she vouldn’t,” he breathed. The monster looked down at the deck beneath his boots and realized that he was standing more or less right above her. If Ivy blew the door open…

Closing his eyes, Jötz realized that yes, yes should would use explosives to open the door… and possibly the whole of the bow in the process and thereby sinking the ship. Did she know enough to curtail the explosion? Did she have the experience to know exactly how far to go and no further? He feared that she didn’t and that soon they would be swimming. So far, Ivy had made some great demonstrations that she knew how to make things go boom. Then again, she hadn’t blown up the engine… yet.

With a heavy sigh he turned and trudged back towards the stairs. Jötz was starting to feel a bit conflicted about all of this. Ivy needed a keeper and he had volunteered for whatever reason. He wanted to trust her, which was an incredibly foolish thing to do with a young Spark regardless of gender! He still wasn’t sure if any of what he had said about not experimenting on him had sunken into her brain, and even as one of the Jaegerkin he was finding her propensity to make things explode just a tad alarming. Yet if he stopped her… it was like scolding a child for wanting a sweet… or a pet seeking attention… or the victim of grisly human experimentation begging for mercy… or a lover expecting a-

He clamped down on that last thought as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Looking down the long hallway to the bow where she working upon the heavy door, he called out to her. “Oy, Ivy! Is you alright? Too big a bang und ve’ll be swimming mit da fishes, chou know!”

[DotCom]

Ivy stopped counting under her breath, leaping to her feet to nearly crash into Jötz, all in one fluid movement, her words overlapping his.

"LOOK WHAT I MADE!" she demanded brightly, too excited to be annoyed by the interruption.

Cupped in her hands, she held a small robotic spider. The creature had eight springy legs, one large, glittering eye, and a multitude of gears and wires tucked into a bulbous container, presumably representing its abdomen.

"Its name is Petris," she said, now whispering almost reverently as she brushed a single finger over the clank's right foreleg. At its touch, the small spider stiffened, then wriggled fluidly before said leg straightened, elongating abruptly to fire a laser into one corner of the room, turning an empty crate into a pile of smoking ashes.

Ivy's grin broadened. "See?" she demanded. "Now you don't have to get hurt anymore. Watch." She turned and set her newest creation on the floor at the base of the heavy door. "I want to go in there," she said patiently, then turned over her shoulder to give her companion an excited giggle as the clank went to work.

It scuttled up the side of the door with no apparent regard for gravity (though closer inspection would reveal a series of cleat-like spikes protruding from the ends of each of its spindly legs) until it reached the bronzed doorknob, whereupon its two foremost legs moved at a blur. A moment later, the doorknob fell away, revealing a small space to look into the room. The spider folded itself to fit through the hole, and then it was gone.

Ivy turned back to Jötz again. "See? No explosions necessa -- "

A muffled boom came from the other side of the door, and Ivy rocked back on her heels as the barge swayed in response. A moment later, Petris emerged from the hole left by the discarded doorknob, its demeanor now strangely smug, quickly followed by a curl of black smoke and the smell of gunpowder.

Ivy shrugged as she held out a hand for the clank that was now warm to the touch. It crawled up her arm and settled in a curtain of black hair at her shoulder. Ivy shrugged. "Well, no big explosions. C'mon."

She leaned against the heavy door again and was not remotely surprised when it swung back under her hands.