A fine Saturday in New Babbage (or how Jimmy got kidnapped and my bakery demolished...)

"What could possibly go wrong?"

Yes, this is the New Babbage motto, and it was hanging on a nice tapestry work done by Miss Elleon, on a wall inside my bakery... until yesterday night. Why not anymore? Well... Just cause the bakery doesn't have walls anymore since yesterday night...

Let's start by the beginning.

Some months ago, I learnt that my grand-father on my father's side had deceased and left me an inheritance. I didn't know I had any family left, but my cousin Arthur Keenan found me and helped me accomplishing my grand-father's last will with building a bakery in Babbage Square.

The thing is, my cousin revealed to be an unsane murderer who tried to get rid of me to get the whole inheritance. Luckily I got help from lots of Babbagers, Miss Janus, Mr Wirefly, who got shot by my cousin in the arm, and Jimmy, who finally shot my cousin dead in an act of self-defense witnessed by Mr Zanzibar and Finley.

After that, everything was going good again.

One week and a few days earlier, a lady called Catherine Kelberry came to my bakery and told me she was interested in renting the room upstairs. I was happy I finally had found someone to rent it, and accepted.

I didn't know who she was...

Yesterday, Jimmy got kidnapped by Mr Merricks and brought to Mrs Kelberry upstairs of my bakery. I wasn't there and didn't see what happened inside, but Jimmy and Patch somehow told me.

I was walking on the railway from the Palisades to the Square and, arrived in front of my bakery, I saw both of them running down Jefferson Way towards me and shouting me not to enter. Jimmy had bad marks on his arms, the sleeves of his shirt torn down.

They said Jimmy got kidnapped and that my renter Mrs Kelberry was actually my aunt, the mother of my cousin Arthur, and that she wanted to kill Jimmy.

Apparently she had an agreement with Mr Merricks to have him bringing Jimmy to her and then she tried to kill him, because she was mad at him for shooting her son dead, but Patch saved Jimmy.

They told me not to enter the bakery, because she was still inside, apparently inconscious and I assume Patch knocked her down to set Jimmy free.

So we left her locked inside, maybe still inconscious.

Then Jimmy and I headed to the Port, on Jimmy's hoverkart, to find an airship docked there, and the Captain talking with Miss Breezy and the Doctor Dayafter.

We arrived in the middle of the discussion so we weren't sure of what was going on, but we could see the Dr Obolensky on the other dock, next to Cad&Bounder, with Mr Merricks and someone else, and the Dr O shot us pies with his new pies shooting gun.

Then the airship took off and started to roam above the city. We could hear them inside, talking about finding big buildings or things like that.

They flew all over New Babbage, and dropped their first bomb in Miss Pennyfeather's park, in Babbage Square.

This was a weird sort of bomb, not exploding, but looking exactly like the one that was found in Mr Pearse's demolished store.

We continued following them and were joined by Mr Pearse on his own hoverkart, but the air pirates finally noticed we were around.

And they started to shoot at us!

Jimmy and I left them after a while, as more residents were coming in their own airships to battle bravely.

We went back to my bakery and landed on the opium den's roof, soon joined by Mr Mayor Clockwinder Tenk, to have a better view on the air battle happening above us in the Babbage foggy skies.

Suddenly, the pirate airship started to cruise more and more close to us and stopped above my bakery, to drop one of their bombs.

Mr Tenk soon started to look very ill-at-ease because of the sound the bomb was emitting, and before my sorry eyes, my bakery exploded, walls and roofs flying in every direction, as far as Mr Jack's Steamworks backyard...

We climbed down and ran towards the disaster, to find the body of Catherine Kelberry laying on a piece of wall.

Lots of people came to see, the Doctor Augustus examined my aunt and announced she was dead. Miss Janus and Mr Wirefly arrived next and they both kindly proposed Jimmy and I their place to sleep at. Miss Janus tried to comfort me...

Other people arrived, all trying to help, but nothing was to be saved really...

And the bomb, in the middle of the pieces of wreckage, was buzzing naggingly, like a big evil bug.

I then followed Mr Rip and Miss Janus to the Port, where the citizens had managed to circle the air pirates on the ground, back to a building, and they were questionning them, to know who paid them for bombing New Babbage.

The grown-ups didn't want me to see the tortur..questionning and I had to leave, and headed towards Miss Mara's Soup Kitchen, where she was with Jimmy, taking care of Mr Mayor Tenk, suffering from ear bleeding. Lots of other harmed people arrived laters, to be taken care of.

From what I gathered, the bombs were meant to damage the magic people, but Mr Tenk said he just had a very sensitive audition and that's why he had been hurt. But well... All those people in Miss Mara's Soup Kitchen... That's a LOT of audition sensitive persons...

I then went back to what was left of my bakery, to see if anything could be saved, but I found out it was a total loss.

And my inheritance is totally gone, I can't afford anymore to build a new one. I will have to sell the land and go back to live in the streets or at nice people's attics with my urchin friends.