Tinkerblade has a minion!

Bossa Nova the Jazz

Cadet's Log;

The year is 2301. The Subetan School of the Celestial floats above Atebus, just how the moon is over the planet. Sometimes, the school is in front of Solausta, our sun, and we cast a shadow on Atebus.

I think we freak out the Masquerade dancers who are oblivious and still dancing months afterward.

Anyway, this is the last day of term, and that means...exam time!! (I can just imagine someone from Rocosmitology shrieking hysterically--You're just slapping S.S Starstruck on the side of a rocket.) Now, don't get me wrong--Your Tinkerblade is no nerd. But this is the opportunity I've been waiting for. Y'see, I'm part of Treasure Major, we're the little bits sent out to collect treasures from all over the galaxy.And what have I found? USB drives. Floppy Disks. Basically, the bottom of the barrel. Actually, when Trick Seminar brought back a nuclear waste barrel, he scored higher than me.
There are ten of us in this class. Number one is that Freyba Nintoga. Snotty little Glade Popoko has no right AA--er, Above Atmosphere. But she finds the best things, microscopic aliens, stardust, boosters. Last is...yours truly.
But here comes Ole Admiral Timedom with our assignment. Heh, he's been under that Zapper again I see.

"Alright you mites, time for your last assignment." He glares at us down his beak. "As this is TM, your final exam is as follows; Go out and bring back the best thing you can find. Mind, it has to be tagged."
Tagging means that an item is marked as the property of the school, that the Bow Of Twinka is in the trash only because it's for the amateurs enrolled, that if you try to pawn it off on the other side of the Milky that you'll be clapped in lasers faster than you could convert the price from Glordnots to sP--Wait!

I raised my hand. "What if we find the Hunter's Ring?"

The Hunter's Ring Of Stars, the most coveted jewelry in the galaxy and every Hunter's dream to find. To wear it on your paw is the symbol that you are the ultimate Treasure Hunter, that nothing can hide from you--Until next year, when the ring was taken and you were handed a replica so the next class could find it.

A loud giggle. "Yes, because you are the one who'll find it." That was Freyba, with her eye-rolling and whisker twitching. "You can't even find your way to the restroom!"

Admiral Timedom shut her up with a wave of his hoof. "Yes, Tinkerblade, that is the only exception. It has always been the only exception, but I don't expect anyone to find it!" He looked at us all. "I'll send the rules in a few minutes. Get going." The door opened and my small class ran out, Freyba taking care to step on my bag as she tapped on her WorldWatch©, probably telling her hoverbike to meet her outside the dorms.

All I had to do was pick up Bossa Nova - my Jazz - and be on my way.

__________________________________________________

Cadet's Log (Still...I know.)

I got the message from Timedom, dispatching our locations. Since I was on the tin can that was public transportation, I got the last location available; Grobvan's Convention Hole . I suppose it didn't help that I was listening to the radio so loud I didn't hear the beeps.

Really? The Convention Hole had all sorts of meetings. Hustler meetings, Quest meetings...I even remember spilling a huge display of ice cream on the designer Giselle during a Subeautique/Plastic Surgery convention (What did you think inspired the Snowshoe set?) What would be there today?

Soon, the shuttled puttered into the station on Asteroid #29387. The convention center was the only establishment on the rock. Placing my S-Pod back in my bag, I hopped through the crowd and past the loading deck into the...oh, the milling about area, I guess. Tons of folk had big bags and strange headgear. Tons held signs like "The Warrior Wood Nymphs welcome Yippa Tukpper" and "Ditter Viniff Must've robbed a bank 'cause he's not here on time."
Skipping past them, I adjusted my helmet and headed outside.

Well, that had to be the thinnest atmosphere ever, sound couldn't last too long out here. I looked into my bag, but Jazz was fine. Chalking it up to fridge logic, I headed down the single road to the Convention Hole, a shooting star flying overhead on occasion.

Just when I started to wonder how big this rock was, the white building suddenly materialized in front of me. Grobvan's Convention Hole was in big neon letters with a picture of the Field Mortiking himself leering down hungrily at visitors. Certain those eyes were following me, I hurried inside.

A cheerful Kora attendant with stripes across her face was at a booth directly inside. "Welcome to Fandom Come 2301! It's THE place for everyone involved in every fandom EVER!"

"Er, okay--hey, what're you supposed to be?"

She grinned, exposing sharp, filed teeth. "Keekeeba Concha, from Sand Schism Dojinku! Just the one ticket then?"

You can't believe how fast I paid my 25k and got away from her. Now the mission started, but Concha was just a teaser as to what I saw in the arena. Stands and banners were in great abundance, and nearly everyone was in costume, some elaborate, others (stupidly) simple. Like cardboard box simple. Artists were hawking drawings and comic books, and the lines were staggering. Tinny techno music ("Dead At The Disco" by Runkabean) was playing over the speakers before they crackled and spoke.
"Attention! Attention! All Force Warriors to the Solar Smackdown display--King Zorbos and the Duchess Inferia will be throwing down in fiiiive minutes!"
Apparently this was a very big deal because suddenly a large group of caped dudes with black surgical masks got really excited, waving their paws frantically, until they began to move away from the stimulation display as a group. With no other lead, I followed them.
Weaving through the crowd, keeping who I called the "Deadly Doctors" in my sights, soon we got to the Space Smackdown area. A small boxing arena was set up, and the two contenders were inside.

Zorbos (A common Torrey) looked exactly like his followers, except he had black metal gloves with spikes at the end of each paw. They stood behind their leader and began shouting out a mixture of helpful hints and playful insults to Inferia across the way. She was a Cream Feli with a pale purple brassiere and matching loincloth. She held a spear in her left paw. Her supporters were shouting as well, and a great deal were bobbing up and down.

I looked around; What could be a good treasure to take to school? There were some authentic paintball guns from the set of GATRON Eternifity, The One Bracelet from Woodlordland, a Hunter's Ring Of Stars perched on a Mariba Lolita cake, and a Divination Orb from the anime Sela Psychobabble.

...The Hunter's Ring! I had found it! (Take that, Freyba!). I was going to win!

But, already several stalls away, it was moving fast out of sight, back, deeper into the zoo of cosplayers. Aw...I didn't really want to leave the match, but I knew where my duty lay.Hopping around once again, I'm certain now that I stepped on a few paws, pushed aside a few innocents, and tore a few costumes, and I'm sorry 'bout that. But at that moment, I only looked above me to see where the cake was going, 'cause My grade was more important than your costume. Instead of going to the Mariba Lolita booth, the Sheeta holding it kept going straight past them, to the cafeteria.

Things were a great bit calmer here; People had relaxed and taken off masks and overcoats, taking a break before they hit the scene again. The Sheeta walked through the rectangular tables and placed the cake on a display stand. I was following, and pretended to sit idly at a table until he left. Then I took a look at it. The cake was white, with black piping and little sugar pearls. It was really quite pretty, even if the pink and gold of the ring didn't match. A female Hipottu on the other side saw me looking at it.

"Quite pretty, ain't it? Lunch'll be served in a mere moment."

"I was looking at the ring," I said "Is it supposed to be on there?" I held my breath as she observed it closely.

"Mmm...I'm thinking not, dearie. Pink, gold, black, white...nuh-huh, not at all." With quick claws, she plucked it off. "Here you go. Now, for another bit o'fondant..." She walked away, muttering, and in my paws, with nary a scratch on it (icing excluded.) was the coveted Hunter's Ring.

I hopped back toward the eatery entrance. Before I could celebrate by going back into Fanon Come and having some serious fun, the lights suddenly switched off.
There were a few screams, then I saw the red, green, and purple beams of light from various swords.

"It's Emperor Parnuckle!" Screamed someone.

"No, fool, it's Saraone The Gray!" Yelled another.

"No way, it's totally The-Dude's-Name-We-Can't-Say!" Chimed in someone else.

The door at the front opened; A bright light shone from it, and I had to shield my eyes. "No," Said Freyba's voice "'Tis the top student from SSC, Major Treasure Division, and I've come for the Ring. One of my classmates is here, and they have it."

Whoa...I looked at my WW. It only showed the time. Criminy, I knew I should have downloaded that app. Jazz was shivering in my pack, odd, plinky music playing through her earphones. Placing the ring inside, I began to creep behind the Subbound booth when the lights flicked on again. The door was shut, and the music began to play again. Quickly, the participants returned to their activities, deciding that it was only another fangirl trying to make an entrance. Quickly side skirting a boy with a baseball cap and glove, I ran smack-bang into Freyba.

She was just as surprised as I was. Jumping back, she brushed off her arm while looking at her WW. I can only imagine she put two and two together as I pushed her aside and jumped on a table to run past the mean girl. "Get that ring!" She screeched. From the floor, I hope. I glanced behind me to see two angry, growling Bloodred Clawison flying at me. This kid had clawthugs! Really? Can't I get a break?

They were Hologuards; Acted like a hologram, could fire one up and point it at the wall, but the picture could grab and mutilate you as if it were real. They ripped through a canvas painting of Middle Land and stomped through a diorama of Kurfa Linkurg: Vampire Hunter, right on me. The other visitors were running and jumping out of the way, many of the dudes with lightswords cowering under tables. There are a few ways to dissipate them, but I saw none of them around.

That was when I crashed into a booth advertising Quadravision's Super DJ Star. The montre hovering over the plastic scratchboard stumbled back and fell. Stepping over him, I fumbled around the board until I found the volume control. I turned it to the max. Nothing happened. Seriously? Looking around in a panic, I see the montre had fainted, headphones over his ears. Oops. I unplug them, and soon, the double speakers behind me are blasting out The Extinctorz "Button Me Diddle Freeze".

The Hologuards stopped, looking halfway between surprise and constipation. Then they dissipated into a ton of dead pixels.
"Wheeha!" I quickly turned the volume down. The Extinctorz are an acquired taste. I looked over an expansion of destruction, with stands in splintered messes, banners ruined, and countless projects in ruins. Over all this destruction--hovering in the air of all things!--was Freyba. And she looked mad. Suddenly, she shot down straight at me, a shiny silver blade in her hand. That explains how Domin McRanly was on "unexcused leave" for the rest of the year. There was no way I could jump out of the way in time.

In a last attempt, I pulled the ring out of my bag and pointed it at her. The gem was glowing. Before it could fire, I shouted "Submit my work!"

The next thing I knew, I was back in class. I was still holding the ring out in two paws like some kid trying to burn ants with a magnifying glass. Admiral Timedom was at his desk, head down, writing. He looked up briefly. "Uh-huh, Tinkerblade...let's see what you have..."

He looked back up again, and his jaw dropped. Just as quick, his face went stern and teacherly again. "Well done. It belongs on you."

I waved around the ring and put it on my paw. As the giant scoreboard flickered to reflect the changes, I opened my bag. "Y'see, Nova, it all worked out!"

I listened closer, and heard the triumphant music from Pinkpuff Fighter playing through her headphones.

My Knickknack Hole

Pet Treasure

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