Chapter 4: Crystal Stars

Chapter 4: Crystal Stars

Mystery #4: The Secret Project

What is this project that everyone has been talking about? And what do Dimitri and Don Paolo have to do with this? We must investigate further, by first finding their lair, and confronting them on this…

As we continued our trip back to the Layton-Mobile, I couldn't help but notice how silent the Professor was. Normally he would be discussing the information that we had acquired, but instead, he appeared to be very lost in thought. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was anyways. Even Flora seemed to notice his silence, as she stayed close to me instead of him, like she usually does. At one point, I thought Flora was holding my hand, but I wasn't paying much attention to her.

“Professor, are you alright? You've been awfully quiet.” I broke the increasingly awkward silence, which made Layton turn around and stop, looking at me with his half smile.

“Apologies Q, I got lost in thought again.”

“Is it about Don Paolo?”

“Somewhat; anyways, let's go.” Layton turned back around and we continued our way back to the car. It kind of concerned me, Layton was being so vague with his answer, but I knew for sure it had to be that, so I didn't question him, but it still concerned me. As we turned to get in the car, I saw something swoosh over my head and hit the car. It was an arrow with a piece of paper attached to it.

“What the heck? Now what does he want?” I grumbled to myself as I picked up the paper.

Puzzle #013: Escape

25/25 Picarats

You are trapped in a room in broad daylight having two connecting doors; one on each side of the room, one door opens to a fire breathing dragon that will burn anything that enters his room. The other door opens to a room with magnifying glasses faceted about the walls such that the sunlight will burn you at any direction. How do you get out?

“This…is a puzzle Professor! Why would he give us this just as we were leaving?”

“Can I have a peek at it?”

“Of course Professor, I was about to give it to you anyways for your opinion on it.” I handed the piece of paper, which had evidence of aging on it, which he took graciously from my hands.

“Q, what does that bad guy want? He still scares me…” Flora said shaking a little.

“Now now Flora, he isn’t a bad person, trust me on it, he may seem that way but truly he isn’t.” I gave her a big smile to restore her confidence, but it didn’t seem to work.

“But he…he kicked you!”

“Purely out of self defense mind you. After all, I did try to take his bow away from him…in the intents of saving you guys from harm, but still, you get my point hopefully Flora.”

“I do believe I know the true intent of this Puzzle Q.”

“What is it Professor?”

“This was merely a stall tactic, any moment now Caleb will come along and ask us something, but what it is about I can’t say.”

“We might as well solve the puzzle while we’re waiting then, eh Professor?”

“I do believe that is the best course of action at this present time.”

“So, my first guess to this would be to simply wait until night time and walk through the room unharmed, after all, without sunlight, the power of the magnifying glasses wouldn’t be nearly as strong, if any power at all, and therefore you wouldn’t get hurt, I suppose.”

“I think your reasoning on that is good. Now we just wait until he arrives…”

“Hey! Thank god you guys waited for me…I was hoping that puzzle would stall you long enough for me to catch up…” I heard his somewhat annoying voice from behind me as I saw him casually walk up to us.

“Oh boy, it’s you. Now what do you want?”

“Kid what kind of beef do you have against me?”

“You know exactly why…”

“Well I apologized for it ok?”

“And we solved your puzzle by the way. The answer would be to simply wait until night time and walk through the room with the magnifying glasses. Puzzle solved! Now what do you want? We haven’t got all day you know.”

“Hmph, you’ve got such an attitude you know that Q? My business here is simple; I got a little proposition for you, something you may or may not like.”

“And what, prey tell, is that Caleb?” Layton asked.

“It’s simple. I had heard that you three were going on a little investigation of sorts, and since I was bored and had nothing else to do, I would join your little group here and help out. Now, before you protest Q, I must say this. I CAN solve puzzles and can help fend off any enemies that might stall your guys’ investigation.

“But that’s a long ranged weapon, what if someone comes up to you close range or something? What then? Besides that, I’m not so sure if you should join…what do you think Professor?”

“I think having another person in our group would benefit us a lot, but first a little test for you Caleb, specifically a puzzle in which will test your puzzle solving skills you say you have.”

“…Don’t worry; I had to do the exact same thing before I became his assistant.” I whispered into his ear.

“Alright, I’ll take this puzzle down with my bow…I mean, my puzzle solving skills.”

Puzzle #014: Untouchable Object

10/10 Picarats

What is red and blue, and purple and green? No one can reach it, not even the queen.

“Nice puzzle Layton, however the answer to that is simple.”

“Then answer the question.”

“I’m getting to that Q; the answer to it is a rainbow.”

“Very good Caleb, now everyone, let’s go.”

“Alright, but first Professor, I have one more question to ask to Caleb… something a bit personal, so bear with me here.” I had a sudden urge to ask this question as it had suddenly occurred to me that he could be some sort of spy which even though I shouldn’t be thinking that way, and even though I had just told Flora that he wasn’t bad, I thought about it anyways.

“Q, I’m pretty sure Layton is getting tired of waiting, you can tell me in the car.”

“Normally yes, I could, but in this case it is not possible.”

“And why not?”

“Because it’s a question that I want answered before we leave, is that okay with you? Even if it isn’t, I don’t care; we’re not leaving until you answer.”

“…Fine, just ask the damn question already.”

“Are you going to be loyal to us?”

“…Are you implying something?” I could see the serious look on his face; he was simply trying to gather his thoughts together to answer my question.

“Not at all, I’m just merely asking a simple question.”

“Of course I would, why wouldn’t I Q?”

“Well, in these times, it’s hard to trust people, not like I don’t trust you or anything, I’m just saying, anyways, let’s go.” Caleb stole my seat as we were getting into the car, which made me a little bit mad, but otherwise I didn’t care. Layton updated the whole situation to Caleb. who I wasn’t sure if he was really paying attention or not, I couldn’t tell from just looking at the back of his head. They seemed to be getting along great from what I was listening to their conversations as we were heading to our destination, which Layton informed me that it was the London police station to talk to Inspector Chelmey about where the whereabouts of Dimitri and Paolo, and maybe learn more about what they are working on, though I didn’t set my expectations that high. Suddenly I was thrust out of my thoughts when I felt something touch my legs, which I looked down immediately and discovered that Flora had her head on my lap.

“Flora uh…what are you doing? This is kind of an awkward moment here…” Somehow, despite having her seat-belt on, she was almost laying down, making the whole point of having the seat-belt on in the first place useless, so I decided just to unbuckle it for the sake of comfort. She looked cute sleeping, which made me smile and blush just a bit.

“Oh…uh…I’m sorry Q.” Flora reacted as she stood up and stared at me, only halfway aware of what had occurred.

“How can you sleep so much? You were asleep on the car ride here, and now you fell asleep on another trip, you’re worse than my cat shoe.” I responded jokingly, chuckling at Flora sleeping so much.

“You have a cat?”

“Yeah, he’s a very handsome kitty, he sleeps a lot though, and when he’s not sleeping he’s meowing for food, or annoying me when I’m trying to read or solve a puzzle. I actually adopted him, his last owner actually went to prison, and apparently he was a very evil man who didn’t care about anyone but himself.”

“Well at least he has a good home now.”

“Yeah, that’s a good thing, now get some sleep Flora, I’ll wake you when we get to the London Police Station.” I smiled brightly, making her giggle a bit, then she laid back down and dozed off, again having her head on my lap, which ultimately I didn’t mind. I sat back a bit, thinking of what Inspector Chelmey would be like and what we would be said exactly. As I continued to think about a bunch of things, not much particularly about the case in hand, but just some neat little ideas floating around in my head, I suddenly started stroking Flora’s hair, like I would be if I was with Shoe. When I realized what I was doing, I stopped and looked at my hand, questioned what I was doing, then went on. Eventually I dozed off in boredom.

15 Minutes Later…

“Flora, Q, we’ve arrived…”

“Huh…oh, ok, come on Flora, let’s go.”

“Yay! We’re here!” She bolted from the car like she was on fire or something, then ran around the car and signaled for me to get out. It apparently took me too much time to get out of the car because Flora was behaving impatiently and immediately grabbed my hand; practically dragging me into the police station, not even giving me the chance to really check out my surroundings. It was rather annoying to say the least but I went along with this bit of insanity for the time being.

“F-Flora…you’re way too excited to going to a police station…”

“But the Inspector guy is really cool! He gets to take down the bad guys! Just like the Professor!”

“I g-guess…but can you let go of me please? I can get there fine by myself…”

“Oh…my bad Q, I kind of got overexcited there.” She didn’t let go, but at least she loosened her grip and didn’t try to drag me, which I guess was better than nothing.

“Professor…sorry about leaving you guys behind, I think Flora is a little hyper right now…”

“Ya think Q?”

“Did I ask for your opinion Caleb?”

“I’ll give my opinion whether you want me to or not.”

“Fine by me, I’ll do my best to give a counter-argument to everything you say for the sake of debate.” I wasn’t being too serious by what I said, and almost laughed, but I held my composure.

“You two sound like an old married couple.” Layton said catching up to us. He was looking in his notebook and jotting down some notes, which were probably just notes on what has transpired so far. We walked into the station, and my first observations were that it was very old. You could tell where they tried to plaster over the bricks, and despite doing a relatively good job, you could see bricks. There was an iron gate in which it would seal off the rest of the police station; it was showing its age.

“What is your business here today Layton?”

“We are here to speak with the Inspector, is he in his office by any chance?”

“Indeed he is, he’s been in his office all day doing paperwork. He said he’s been trying to get evidence to take down some organization, so he’s probably not in the best of moods.”

“Wait, how do you know all this?” I asked fiddling around with a puzzle piece I found on the ground.

“It’s all in the power of observation, lad. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be taking a donut break.” The guard walked outside, burping as he passed by us.

“Well, he doesn’t do much to help break the stereotype of Cops…” I replied rolling my eyes slightly at the notion of a cop of all things taking a donut break.

“Of course not Q, after all I probably fit the stereotype of an archer for all I know. Then again, does it really matter?

“You have a point Caleb. I was just making an observation.”

“Q…I’m bored. Entertain me.” Flora was obviously really bored at the moment, she was acting more like a little kid. It was rather amusing to me, although I knew others wouldn't find it that funny. It was admittedly getting a bit annoying to me as well so I needed to find a way to distract her.

“Here’s a stress ball Flora, knock yourself out. Not literally, of course.” Somehow I had come in contact with this blue stress ball. It was in my pocket at the moment, so I gave it to her so she would quit bugging me. I looked ahead and saw two sets of stairs, one going upstairs, and one going downstairs. “We go upstairs to Chelmey’s office, correct?

“You are indeed correct with that statement Q.” Flora ran ahead of us, chasing after that stress ball that I gave her.

“Might as well follow her I suppose.” I shrugged, going to follow Flora who was making her way up the stairs.

“Thank you Captain Obvious.”

“Thank you Lieutenant Sarcasm.” I stealthily walked up the stairs, looking ridiculous in the process; I was imitating some action hero.

“Q; do you insist on embarrassing yourself by doing that? I think Layton would object seeing as though you aren’t exactly acting gentlemenly, right?” All Layton did was laugh, and then show us to Chelmey’s office. Which upon entering, I immediately noticed how much of a slob he was. Stacks of papers everywhere, which easily could be knocked over with one push. Chelmey was sitting in his chair, scribbling some notes down while eating and making a mess in the process. His assistant Barton wasn’t in the room, presumably doing some of Chelmey’s handy-work.

“Oi! Layton what are you doing here? It looks like you brought some of your pals along; I assume you are on another investigation that requires my assistance?”

“Indeed we are Inspector; any sort of assistance that you can give us is good.”

“So, I heard that you were working on taking down a criminal organization, sounds interesting Inspector.” I said, recalling what the guard had told us just a few minutes back.

“And who might you be kid?” Chelmey was obviously talking to me, although I wasn't really much of a kid. I didn't really let that get to me too much though.

“My name is Q, Qhj. I’m Layton’s new assistant.” I bowed to be gentlemanly.

“Oi, and what about you kid?” Chelmey was taking a look at Caleb, eyebrow raised in curiosity. I turn my head towards Caleb and back towards Chemley, casually watching the both of them.

“…Caleb Jones. Archer in training.”

“Would you happen to know a person named Pond Kirasume by any chance?”

With a rather solemn and avoiding tone, Caleb responded with “I'd rather not talk about that right now.”

“Huh Why is he refusing to answer?” I thought to myself, seeing his immediate refusal to answer such a simple question.

“Now, to answer your question Qhj, it’s a seven-member organization, each with their own…unique traits, and therefore are hard to catch.” Chelmey said, having a bit of an irate voice, returning to look back at his paperwork. Afterwords he handed us a sheet of paper. It wasn't an ordinary paper but some sort of list, describing a few people who he was going after.

CrystalStarStudio Members

ShadowMario41

A skilled assassin.

Anyone who knows him knows of the curse of the number 41. Current whereabouts are unknown, as he is constantly in the shadows, and therefore no contact can be established.

GaiaCrusher9

A.K.A the Catsun.

Fears the Dogmoon.

Owns a chain of restaurants across Europe, and current whereabouts are unknown, though rumored to be in London on vacation.

ThePastaKing

Claims to be The King of Pasta.

Is able to use spaghetti noodles as a deadly weapon.

Current whereabouts are somewhere in London.

SlimKirby

Head Honcho of the group.

Claims to be a pink fluff ball who can suck things up and have a massive appetite, though obviously this claim cannot be backed up.

Has a huge fan base overseas in the United States

K-Man

Has several Wives. Disappears quite frequently for a long time and reappears. Current whereabouts are unknown, although possibly in London.

MegaFreak400

Loves Bacon.

Very observational. Likes to justify opinions with statements and facts.

PowertoMario

Very Arrogant at times.

Loves sports, always roots for his favorite team.

“…! I recognize one of those names! We went to one of the restaurants that he owns!”

“…Q, sometimes it’s better just to keep your mouth shut.”

“…I don’t care, why are you always butting into things Caleb? Seriously, it’s getting annoying.”

“That’s exactly why I do it.”

“…Anyways, that honestly doesn’t sound like such a bad gang. Why are you pursuing them?”

“Well, that’s very simple; it’s because…” He was interrupted by the sound of his door creepily opening. My initial reaction was that it was his Assistant, but the person who emerged from the door wasn’t who any of us expected. Her presence was bright, literally, like the morning sun does rising into the sky to begin the day. Then she turned off the flashlight.

“Greetings Inspector Chelmey, glad to see that you’re still in good spirits.”

“…You! What are YOU doing here?!”

“Merely asking for directions Inspector. Couldn’t find any other police officer who was willing to help me find the place where I need to go. It’s kind of pathetic really.”

“Psst, Professor, this isn’t going to end well, is it?” I whispered. He just simply shook his head and looked back up.

“Hmph, why should I give a criminal like you help?!”

“Criminal? Surely you jest Inspector, for I am just a mere business owner living life day to day, and you dare call me a criminal? What thou I have done wrong to make you call me such a cruel word such as that?”

“Oi! You know exactly what you have done! Those poor people you have ripped off know what you’ve done.”

“Well now, thou shall charge me for such a terrible and serious crime such as fraud? Does thou even have the authority to do such a thing?”

"If you want to know, I can easily get a warrant for your arrest, in fact, I should arrest you now, with the evidence I have on you!" The good Inspector slammed the papers on the table, and had a very stingy glare at the woman, who appeared to be unfazed by the Inspector's accusations, and was instead twiddling her thumbs.

“…Hah. Inspector, I would be careful of what thou say if I were you. Thou never know when an ‘accident’ may happen because of thou’s words and actions.”

“Are you threatening me?!”

“Hahaha…” I heard a noise coming from her, it sounded like a combination of a cat and a duck; and it was very weird and random.

“…That was very random, you know that?”

“Indeed it was stranger. Back to being serious though, Inspector, thou would pay if thou shall arrest an innocent citizen. Remember, thou can have good connections. It would be a shame if something…bad happened to you.”

“...Get out of my office, get out of MY SIGHT!”

“Alright, but remember…we’re watching you.” At this point, the Inspector was outright furious; he looked like he was going to punch someone but instead, sat back down, returning to his food.

“Apologies for that situation…” Chelmey was still fuming about the situation but now was trying to regain his cool the best that he could.

“It’s alright Inspector, but may I ask who that was?”

“It’s one of the members of CSS...GaiaCrusher9”

"I see. Well, I can see why she…wait, I'm not sure anymore, I'm so confused now."

"Isn't it obvious you idiot?

"No, if it were obvious I wouldn't be questioning it, now would I?" I said retaliating in a defensive sort of way, trying not to let myself get angry over his choice of words. Caleb always was trying to get on my nerves and such and this was no exception it seemed.

"You always question things though, even stupid things. I've already observed that from you." Caleb said with a touch of calmness in his voice, he was trying to be slick and cool, though it obviously wasn't working, as the Inspector, Layton, and even flora merely looked at him with a hint of disapproval in their eyes. It was a bit harder to spot with the Inspector though, though it was there if one were to observe him well enough.

"Well, Inspector Chelmey, ignoring any of the things that have just occurred here, we need to have a word with you about the whereabouts of a certain individual, if you don't mind us asking." Layton responded to Chelmey calmly, trying to move the conversation at hand to something more desirable than watching the both of us get into a petty argument about our confusion of gender. This pretty much shut us both up simultaneously. I turned my attention towards them, away from Caleb, who promptly did the same thing.

"Oi? And who might that be Layton?" Chelmey said wiping the excess food off of his mouth and chin, very child-like indeed. That was my first observation as he did so.

"I'll answer this one Professor, if you don't mind." I said butting my way into the conversation, which was a bit rude of me to do so but I wanted to have some sort of word in on this conversation. Caleb gave me yet another glare that was showing his disappointment in me. However I wasn't really concerned about how Caleb was feeling right now. “Well, it's someone that you should know begrudgingly well by now. I would go into some spiel and make it more complicated that I should. Pretty much we are referring to a Mr. Don Paolo. We believe he is involved in something that could potentially harm the city. We don't have any proof of this however.” I stated placing my hands back to my sides and watching Chelmey's reaction.

“So he's back at his old schemes once again? Resorting to a life of crime wasn't good enough for him?” Chelmey shook his head in disgust, taking a sip of a drink that he had alongside his meal. From quick observations it was a cup that he had bought along with his meal. I assumed that he had taken a fast food meal or something of the sorts, so it had to be a soft drink. Why I was making this observation at the time I wasn't sure, I just wanted to feel like Layton.

“That is correct, and we would like to have a word with him. However we are not sure where his current whereabouts may be. Inspector Chelmey, if you have any ideas on the current whereabouts of him are.” Layton grabbed the brim of his hat and was adjusting it slightly. Chelmey breathed off a sigh and took a look at the Professor.

“To be quite honest I'm not sure. You know how he is, quite a persistently little clever bugger. However I hear rumors all the time that he has himself quite held up in some abandoned office building in the middle of town. Can't go there quite yet since we haven't got a search warrant for the place, nor do we have any reason to go there. However, I will give you a word of warning. I hear it's filled to the brim with traps.” Chelmey took another huge bite out of his meal. I wasn't quite sure if he was enjoying it but I could only assume that he was.

“That is good information to have received Inspector Chelmey. That is all we came here for now so we will get out of your hair. Qhj, Flora, Caleb, let's go. And thank you Inspector Chelmey, you have helped our investigation a lot.” He tipped his hat down towards the Inspector and motioned for all of us to follow him. Flora followed along side me and Caleb was staying a bit behind us as we got out of the police station, and back towards his automobile.

“Well I suppose we are going to be investigating that office building then Professor?” I raised my voice up, inquiring the current situation that we were going through. Of course Caleb had to put in his two cents.

“No, we're going to get a burger and chips, what do you think?” Caleb was rolling his eyes behind me as he said that in a sarcastic tone.

“Naturally. First off though I have some business to attend to at Grossenheller university. We will stop off there and then we will be on our way to that office building to hopefully confront Don Paolo about what he is doing.” He got into the driver's side of the automobile and like clockwork we got into our seats. Flora was still happily playing with the stress ball that I had given her, squeezing it and looking at me with an elated look. I couldn't help but to wander as we were making our way towards the university about the CrystalStarStudio gang. Who were they? Why were they such a big threat? It was something that I wanted to figure out about, and something I was sure that the Professor wanted to figure out about as well. However we had other things to deal with at the time, like the confrontation of Don Paolo and possibly Clive as well. It would not go as well as we thought it would however...