Let's get back to Sassy for not just her last solo of the mission but the last solo this mission.

 
Icy, Pete and I are sitting in Grogman's Inn dining on some sweets and fruit. As we talk, I look around and watch the other customers and take in the sights of the town.

"Is Sparks still working on his power idea?"

"Sure is," says Icy. "He keeps fiddling with one gadget and then another, muttering about things I have no idea what he is talking about. Linger is with him. He seems to be somewhat entranced by Sparks and his ideas about power."

"Have they had any success?"

Icy sighs, "Not much. If you mean, have they found a way to bring that barrier down, no. He did say something about power fluctuations and power drains; but he couldn't explain them or why they happened. He is going all over the wall to try to discover if there has been any changes. So far, no luck."

"Dat where you be wrong," says Linger as he enters the inn. "Him has founds som'tin and he wans talk to Sassy."

"Me? Why me?"

"Not know, him say git Sassy; so I gits you."

"Icy, stay here with Pete. I'll go with Linger. Be back shortly."

So saying, I follow Linger out the door and through the crowd. It is easier for him to get through the crowd than it is for me. People have a tendency to want to get out of a huge troll's way.

We reach the wall where Sparks and his helpers are working. I can see a few other people there as well, but don't notice right away who they are.

"What's going on? You wanted to talk to me, Sparks?"

"Yes, I did, Sassy and I sent Linger to get you. Take a look at this." He points to a section of the barrier.

The barrier seems to have a long thin crack but not very deep. I walk closer to it to look at it better.

"What is this? How did this happen?"

"Interesting questions. First of all, I have found other cracks on the barrier, but none as large as this one. I think something triggered a large power drain here and in order to prevent from losing the barrier entirely, whoever is in charge of it had to re-route some power outlets so that they could keep the barrier intact." He looks at me and I must look pretty blank. "Okay, how can I put it so you can understand it. Hmmm, let's try this. Whoever is in charge of this barrier has to keep a certain amount of power going or the barrier comes down. When, whatever happened here happened, it forced him to have to change the amount of power used in this section and move it to another section."

"So, in other words, when this happened this part of the wall got weaker and he had to use his power to strengthen the rest of the wall. Could we possibly force it to happen again?"

"Not sure about that. If it happens too much it might put him on his guard. For all I know, he may already be on his guard. I think that this trick would work, but not sure how often we could do it. There is another problem though."

"What other problem?"

"We might be able to force him to strengthen the wall in some places and leave other places weak, but as far as I know, there is no way of getting back out once you have gone in. Once in, you would have to find the source of power and destroy it to bring the wall down."

There is suddenly a huge shout of "Mary!!! I hope this works!" from behind me and a rather rotund man launches himself at the wall. I reach out and try to stop him, but he shakes me off. It is Linger who stops him by grabbing him.

"Easy Linger. I think he is upset."

The man starts to squirm but slowly settles down. I look closely at him and then notice a couple of very familiar figures coming to check on him. "Hey Bris, Gem, what are you guys doing here?"

Bristle frowns. "Hey, Sassy. We were just explaining what happened to a friend of his, Mary Kate. She touched the barrier and got a shock and a crack opened. We were trying to open the crack further when Mary touched the thing again, got sucked thru the opening and then the opening closed."

"Yes! Exactly!! Mary is inside of that barrier. How are we gonna get her out? This guy said we could get someone in, didn't he? Someone small and agile, like me?"

"Yes, but . . ."

"Well, then 'nuff said. What are we waiting for?"

I gently reach out a hand to him and slowly and gently touch his shoulder. "Uh. . ."

He pulls away. "Name's McGuffin. Sailor McGuffin."

"McGuffin, did you hear him say that we don't know any way to get you out of there once you are in?"

"I'll take that risk! I have got to get to Mary!"

"We don't even know what is on the other side of that barrier."

"Doesn't matter to me. I only know two things and that's all I need to know. First, Mary is inside. Second, I have to go in after her."

"I could go in," Gem offers. "I think Mole might be in there!"

"Bris, Icy is at the Grogman's Inn. She is worried about you. Would you go and keep her company?"

"I guess I can do that. What are you going to do then?"

"Don't know yet."

Sparks waves me over. He introduces me to a friend of his called Hardwire.

"If we can get Hardwire in, he knows power and the ways that this barrier could be destroyed."

"If you can do that, count me in. I am going too," says McGuffin. "And I'll volunteer the little girl too."

"It's liable to be a one-way mission, young fellow," says Sparks. "The fewer people who go in, the better we will be. Not sure how long we can keep the barrier weak enough so you will have to move fast. Very fast indeed."

"Hey, is that a fat joke, pal?" McGuffin frowns. "I'm way faster than I look, sir."

"It does sound like a good plan to me. You two will have to be very careful. Oh, McGuffin, could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"When and if you get in, please tell Dottie that we are taking care of her daughter Pete. She shouldn't worry about her. She is doing fine."

"Sure." McGuffin seems to calm down a bit. "But I figured you might wanna go with us."

"While I would hate to miss the chance of getting sucked into a crack in the wall and getting trapped inside for who knows how long, I think it best, at this time anyway, that I turn down that wonderful offer."

"How about me?" squeaks Gem. "I am small and fast and I can fight if I have to. Please take me with you."

"Sounds like a good team to me. It will be Sailor McGuffin, Hardwire and Gem. Can't think of three better adventurers." I grin at all three of them.

"Okay," says Sparks. "If you are all agreed to trying it, let's try it tonight. Go grab a bit of rest and meet me at this spot at the wall at midnight. Best of luck to you guys."

McGuffin turns to Bristle, who hasn't walked off yet. "Then I figure you should take them to Wildfall. See if that wizard you mentioned can figure out a way to get down the barrier after all. Oh, and please tell Tomato I'll get back to mentoring her as soon as I get Mary to safely, would ya?"

Gem looks up at McGuffin and says, "Sir, if I may make a suggestion. We should grab a bite to eat and get supplies because we don't know if there is any food or other useful things in there and Mary didn't have a lot of medical stuff in case someone gets hurt."

McGuffin nods and replies, "Good idea, Gem. I think I'll be a lot more calm after a meal or two. Food always calms me down. After all, I'm just a growing boy." McGuffin chuckles.

Gem laughs and says, "Right and we don't want you to wither away to nothing while we are trying to save Mary, now do we?"

Both of them chuckle warmly as they go off to get food and supplies.

Voter Ichiro mentioned liking Sassy's overall story this mission, saying, in his words, Sassy produced "some of my favorite characters and bits."

You might notice this mission saw Wildfall and Mary using a couple of NPC's who are normally with Sassy - Gem and Bristle. Well, that's turned around here when McGuffin shows up in a Sassy piece. (Behind the scenes fact; it was originally going to be Wildfall but we switched it to the sailor since Wildfall was busy in other stories.)

I liked the end result. There's just one roleplay left - a co-write that takes us to a different part of the Kingdom!