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.

Operation Thunder Mountain (and hitches)

So, yesterday night was a VERY busy one...

All started with Bob, excited as always, telling me about a meeting the urchins should have soon to stop the Doctor Obolensky and his evil plans to destroy the city etc.

We had that meeting in the hideout at the Imperial Theatre and quite a few showed up (photo by Poopdeck).

We talked about lots of matters, from the vampires (Lil Max and Ravan are some but they won't bite us without asking first) to the return of Jason Moriarty and the wanderings of the Mummy. Loki explained us that there were a lot of Secret Societies in New Babbage :

"

* The Thirteen Club is supposed to be not a club of 13 people, but a group of scientists in Babbage who strive to prove silly beliefs in magic as being the result of science. They apparently hold parties on friday the 13th where they break mirrors, open umbrellas in doors and open packets of crisps from the bottom. And they use science to prove supernatural stuffs as having a scientific explanation.

* The Van Creed : they are very secret and very deadly, i think they had sumfin to do with those murders last year.

* The Freemasons : they want to better man kind through order out of choas or summit, i dont really know much.

* The League of Peculiar Gentlemen : a group formed last year to fight against Moriarty. Many members are missing now though. The Susenkos, Luscious Sin, The Professor...

* The Iron Essence : very new group led by Sanus Kanarik, who is a lycan of some sort. The Iron Essence is now recruiting all levels of members to stand in the face of Moriarty.

(Iron Eyes: These are the watchmen of the city, the eyes of the Clan ; Iron Fist: These are the fighters, those who would stand in times of need to strike down those who endanger the city and its citizens ; Iron Fang: The non Human members of the Clan ; Iron Mind: The scholars who help us learn how to defeat our foes)

* Mr Sherlock Holmes and his associates : they investigate detective-like on the robberys and murders. They also have a group of urchins called the Perdido Street Irregulars who inform them.

"

We also talked about the evil Doctor Obolensky and the expedition we should plan to go to his island in Clockspire Cove to look for the ruby and to destroy his huge cannon pointed to the city. We think Mr Merricks works for him and that he stole the ruby that was on the sarcophagus of the mummy displayed on the first floor of the library, and that disappeared as well as the mummy. The day of the opening ceremony, Mr Merricks told me how much impressed he was by the size of the ruby and he also adviced me to run up there to see it before it was too late. Later, during the speech, he also looked annoyed that I was standing in the stairs leading to the first floor and asked me to move away.

So an expedition was planned for the tuesday night. We all met at Poopdeck's place, on the docks. With Deimos, Jimmy, Poopdeck, Walker, Rick, Jesper, Fergotten, Lil Max, Billy and I, we were quite a group.

We gathered and climbed on two rafts and sailed on the Vernian Sea, towards the bleak island of the evil Dr O...

Leaving the port, we bravely started our long trip on the sea, trying not to think about the sharks and other creatures or evil traps there could be under us, while Deimos, who had transformed into his demon side, was flying next to us.

Jimmy and Lil skilfully steering, the rafts slid silently whereas we were approaching the big clock tower of the spooky island.

After a long way, shivering at the sight of the peak approaching, the skull like carved rocks and wrecked ships, we finally arrived to the docks of Clockspire Cove island.



Leaving the rafts hidden, we jumped on the docks and started to look around, half impressed and half scared.



A wooden path was climbing up the cliff on our left, and a big metallic lift was waiting in a shack on our right. Some of us started to explore, walking up the wooden path and jumping on the rocks, behind the huge wrecked ship.


At this moment, the evil Dr Obolensky himself appeared on the dock, springing up from the darkness (or from the entrance of the wrecked ship, who knows). The few of us who were still on the docks froze at his sight and tried not to shiver as he was examining us with his piercing eyes : "Well well, if that is not a bunch of ragga-muffins we have here..." he started.

We politely answered by saluting him and I apologized for our invasion, explaining we were coming to deliver him fresh scones. He looked a bit surprised and asked doubtfully if I had forgotten the scones in our hast of coming there, but I handed him a bag of scones I had prepared (with sleeping powder). He looked even more surprised, but the darn bugger refused to taste the scone, arguing his taster wasn't home.


At this point, we thought the best to do was to climb up on the rafts and go back home, but Deimos, who was hidden under the docks, managed to freeze the Doctor, and as he stood stuck up there, we all rushed into the lift up to the first plateform.


We found nothing up there but an airship we couldn't use. The second lift was blocked and we couldn't climb any further, even with the ropes we had brought with us, since the cliff was very smooth and slippery. Disappointed, we swore that we would come back with airships and dynamite the next time and we bunched together again in the lift to go back down.

When we arrived, we noticed that Deimos wasn't only holding the Doctor Obolensky but also Mr Merricks, who had arrived in the meantime and was holding a weapon. Bob on his buzzing hoverkart also arrived at the same moment, and Poopdeck ran to Mr Merricks and hit him, making him fall on his knees, allowing us to quickly climb on our rafts and leave as fast as we could.

We had find no ruby, no cannon, but we were safe at least.

A little after we arrived on the docks of Port Babbage, we saw Loki, arriving on his Goony airship, and we met Miss Breezy, Miss Janus and a few others.

We had no time to breath as suddenly Jason Moriarty appeared amongst us. His skin was extremely pale, almost white, and his hair had turned grey. He was dressed in a gentleman suit with a tophat, but I could recognize him. He smiled unpleasantly and said : "How lucky to see you all gathered in the same place" and he started shooting blue lightnings at us all, freezing us as he was laughing like crazy. He pushed the poor Walker in the water, letting him almost dying and stared at us. He suddenly vanished, but we could still hear him. Poopdeck ran to where Moriarty was one minute ago and started to hit him with his fists. Jimmy heroically emptied his pistol at him, Bob also shot him and Miss Roanoke and some others tried to fight him too. Deimos appeared in his angel shape and set the bugger on fire. Jason Moriarty yelled "you weakened my powers!!!" and became visible again. He grimaced and started to laugh again, assuring us that he would come back with stronger powers, no more lightnings but worse stuff, that the Old Ones were giving him knowledge and that we were all doomed. And he vanished.

We were all shocked and trying to recover, especially Miss Beq Janus, who was severely stunned from the attack, but she recovered quickly as new people were coming towards us, wondering what had happened. The Captain Zessinthal asked us what was going on, and we explained him. He then taught us that he had seen Mr Spider Sopwith going with Moriarty in the Tesla Machine, behind the church.

Then, the big cuckoos' robot appeared at the beginning of the dock and we ran towards him. He apparently said that the cuckoos would be back soon, that we had to wait, and he didn't seem to like Moriarty very much.

After that, the Doctor Obolensky and Mr Merricks arrived from the bell tower and claimed the urchins had come to invade their island and robbed the Dr O's watch and some other stuff, and that we tried to poisoned them with scones. We said we were innocent, and the good citizen were on our side, but the Doctor and his sidekick went on with their whining, trying to convince Mr Holmes.

Sick of that bunch of lies, we left and walked to the hideout to gather our thoughts. We met Addie there and spotted Mr Sopwith in the theatre. We questionned him about where he went with Moriarty, but he said he was drunk and wouldn't remember where it was. We therefore brought him behind the church and finally found a huge Tesla machine and he remembered it was the place he shadowed Moriarty to. He taught us he heard Moriarty saying "Old Ones, give me the power!" or something like that, and that a big blinding blue light occured after that, which followed Spider until after he ran away.

Miss Janus, Mr Dagger, Miss Dagger and some others stopped too by the Tesla Machine and we started to discuss about the events of the night, wondering if the cuckoos could be the solution to fight the Moriarty danger, and sipping tea...