The Airship

Since the creation of MAPI's body, 10 hours have passed, leaving only 10 remaining before the crew reaches their dreaded location of Techway HQ. As of now, the crew were doing their own things: Noland was sitting in the lab, thinking of ways that he could overwhelm the enemies at Techway HQ. Chris was sitting against a large crate in the cargo Bay, resting up before the big event. Pool was sitting in a sauna, deeply relaxed by the experience. Corry was sitting in the control room, seemingly thinking about something.

"Hmm... You know, thinking about it... We haven't really done anything to celebrate our lift off yet..." Corry says to himself quietly.

He sits up on his bed and puts a hand on his chin. MAPI was curled up on the control desk, appearing to enjoy the prospect of technically being alive. After a bit, Corry comes to a solution.

"I know!! I should surprise the others with a party before we do our big raid!" Corry exclaims before looking at MAPI.

"Yo, MAPI!" Corry says excitedly.

Hearing her name, MAPI's eyes open. She unwinds her body and gets to her feet, stretching like a cat.

"Yes? You called me?" MAPI asks.

"Yeah! I want you to help me prepare a party for the crew!!" Corry says excitedly.

"A party? I can do that, is there a catch to it?" MAPI follows up.

"Yeah, you absolutely cannot let any of the guys find out about our plans until the time actually comes, alright? We gotta be secretive about it!" Corry explains.

"Secretive, got it. What can I do first?" MAPI asks yet again.

"Let's get you baking a cake, a chocolate one! Chocolate is the best!" Corry says with a massive grin across his face.

"Have you considered any allergies?" MAPI replies.

"Yeah, I've known Chris and Noland my whole life, I know everything about them!" Corry says proudly.

"What about Pool? You guys just met her, didn't you?" MAPI asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Uhhhh... Oh wait- What did she have for breakfast this morning?" Corry asks.

"Pancakes with powdered sugar." MAPI answers.

"Oh wow- That must have been Chris... Guess it was nice of him to give her a treat like that for her first day on the ship. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that answers your question. It doesn't look like she's lactose intolerant or allergic to eggs or sugar or anything." Corry says with an innocent smile.

"I... Suppose so-" MAPI admits.

"Then that settles it, let's get to work! We're heading for the kitchen that's where we'll hold the party, but we can't let the others near us or else they may find out what's happening!" Corry chirps.

"Got it!" MAPI exclaims before climbing into her computer monitor, sending it up and away.

Corry runs to the elevator and hits the button to go down. Meanwhile, Noland was walking down the hall towards the dining area.

"I haven't really eaten anything today... I should probably get some breakfast, or at least a snack." Noland mumbles to himself.

As he walks down the hall, MAPI's monitor drops down from the ceiling, startling Noland. MAPI's face appears on the monitor and starts speaking to Noland.

"Hello Noland! I'm very sorry, but this area is currently under renovations, something in the kitchen broke down and I'm helping our captain fix it!" MAPI pipes up.

"Something broke down in the kitchen? Let me take a look at it then, I'm sure I could help fix it." Noland states, trying to walk past MAPI. 

MAPI moves the monitor in front of Noland, trying to stop him.

"There's no need to trouble yourself with this Noland, we have this under control!" MAPI says quickly.

"I still wanna at least take a look-" Noland starts.

At that sentence, MAPI jumps out from her monitor with a roll of yellow caution tape that has pictures of her face and reads "MAPI CONSTRUCTION ZONE" in big bold letters. She tapes up the whole path in front of Noland before hopping back into her monitor.

"Thank you for your cooperation, we'll see you in a bit!" MAPI yelps before the monitor zooms back up into the ceiling.

 Noland just stares at the yellow tape, scratching his head. 

"...Is this a result of the update I added to MAPI...?" Noland asks himself quietly.

In the dining area, MAPI was now carefully applying ingredients for a chocolate cake into a bowl to mix them and prepare them for the baking process. Corry was running around the tables, setting up streamers that extended from one wall to the other, trying to move as fast as he could.

"Hehe... This is going to be awesome, I can't wait to see the crew's reaction to this!" Corry chirps excitedly.

"My databases have the perfect chocolate cake recipe, so when you taste it, it will be like, as you guys say, you have died and gone to heaven." MAPI chuckles.

"Heh, I can't wait!" Corry replies happily.

Back in the hallway to the kitchen, Noland was still standing behind the yellow caution tape, tapping his foot impatiently.

"How long are those two gonna be working on this problem in the kitchen? I really need something to eat..." Noland grumbles.

Footsteps can be heard coming from behind Noland. He turns around to see Chris walking toward him.

"Oh, hey Chris-" Noland says casually.

"The hell's going on here?" Chris asks.

"Uhhh, MAPI said something about renovations happening in the kitchen. Something got busted and they're trying to fix it-" Noland explains, much to Chris's confusion.

"Then why'd they put this wall of tape up? If anything, they could really use your help." Chris states.

"That's what I'm saying!" Noland agrees.

"Well, it's just caution tape, just tear it down and walk in." Chris says, walking towards the wall of tape.

"W-Wait, Chris- I wouldn't-" Noland stammers.

Chris reaches his hand towards the tape, but gets electrocuted as soon as he touches the yellow blockade, causing him to fall to the ground, charred black.

"....Why are they going to such extreme measures to keep us out...?" Chris asks on an airy tone, coughing up a puff of smoke.

"Don't ask me, I think it's kind of insane... I think they might be hiding something by the looks of it." Noland says suspiciously.

Chris gets up and shakes the soot off of him, patting himself down.

"You don't say... Hey, I've got an idea!!" Chris exclaims.

"You do?" Noland responds.

"Put me in one of those rubber hazmat suits and let's grab one of those carts from the Cargo Bay that are meant for transporting stuff across the ship!" Chris suggests.

"Ohhh.... I see where you're coming from. Sure, if it'll let us see what Corry and MAPI are up to." Noland says, accepting Chris's idea.

The two of them run down the hallway, going to the lab and cargo bay respectively. Back in the dining area, there were now light blue streamers on every wall. Corry was now setting up a nice tablecloth, while MAPI was pouring mixed cake ingredients into a pan, which went straight into the oven.

"Once this is done baking, I'll just need to apply the frosting, then it'll be all done!" MAPI says.

"Great!" Corry replies.

Once Corry finishes setting up the tablecloth, a thought enters his head.

"Hey MAPI? How did you manage to keep everyone away from here?" Corry asks MAPI.

"Oh, that was simple! I just set up some shock tape on the hallway! If they touch it, they'll be zapped really good." MAPI proudly explains.

"....Don't you think you went a bit overboard there?" Corry asks, a bit of a worried expression on his face.

"Ah, don't worry! They'll be fine, I swear!" MAPI assures Corry.

"Uhhh... If you say so-" Corry says nervously.

The timer on the oven chimes, signalling that the cake was finished baking.

"Ah, wonderful! Now to frost it!" MAPI states.

She hops down from the counter and grabs the handle for the oven, opening it. She then tries to grab the pan with her bare paws, but recoils heavily, shaking her paws.

"O-Ouch!! What was that!?" MAPI yelps.

"Oh, it's too hot to just grab, you'll burn yourself! Here!" Corry explains, putting on some oven mitts and taking the pan out of the oven, setting it on the unlit stove above.

"Ah, so this is pain. I see... It is agonizing-" MAPI admits.

"You should wait for it to cool down before you put the frosting on." Corry suggests, picking up MAPI and setting her on the counter.

"I see... Then I'll wait." MAPI says, giggling a bit.

Back in the hallway, Pool was now walking through it before spotting a strange sight. There was a wall of yellow tape and Noland was standing with a man in a rubber hazmat suit and a large cart.

"Umm... Noland...? What's going here...?" Pool asks cautiously.

Noland and Chris turn around to look at Pool.

"O-Oh, hey Pool... Uhhh, well you see.. We're trying to get through this tape because MAPI set it up and we think she's helping Corey hide something from us." Noland tells Pool.

"We're going to brute force it then so that we can get the jump on him!" Chris states loudly.

Finally recognizing that it was Chris in the hazmat suit, Pool sighs in relief.

"Ok, so... This... Tape... Why don't you just tear it down?" She asks.

"Don't touch it, it'll shock you, that's what this suit is for." Chris explains.

"Is the cart really necessary though...?" Pool questions.

Chris and Noland look at each other before looking back at Pool.

"Yes." Noland says.

"Definitely." Chris states, hopping on top of the cart.

"(I may have just joined a crew full of hooligans...)" Pool thinks to herself.

"On the count of three... One..." Chris starts.

Noland walks behind the cart and grabs the handle.

"Two..." Chris continues.

"I can't watch-" Pool says quietly, covering her eyes.

"Three!" Chris shouts.

Noland gets a running start before pushing the cart away with all of his strength. Chris holds his arms out like a superhero as the cart successfully rips through the tape like a hot knife in butter.

"Alright!! Now I just gotta..." Chris starts before realizing he has nothing to slow down with.

"....Well shit." Chris says exasperatingly.

"Uh oh-" Noland mutters, chasing after Chris.

"W-Wait up! Don't hurt yourselves, Boys!" Pool squeals, stumbling after Noland.

In the kitchen, MAPI was putting the finishing touches on the now cooled cake before peeking up.

"....Do you hear something, Corry?" MAPI asks quietly.

".....I feel like I'm in imminent danger." Corry says shortly.

Not long after Corry says this, the door busts open, Chris and his cart flying right through in a crash course towards Corry.

"HEADS UP-!!!" Chris warns loudly.

"OH HOLY FU-" Corry starts.

To be continued- ^^'

Hi! Riley here! I meant to release this chapter sometime last month, since this is the 4 year anniversary of the concept of The Airship. My buddies and I have been working on this story for quite some time, and we've put so much work into it. So I decided to make this chapter and the next chapter a celebration for the Airship really taking off, physically and story wise. I really hope you reader's enjoy what we spent countless months working on, it would mean a lot!! Stay awesome out there! ^^