Part 5.

Breakfast was crepes, and with Captain Phillipa watching everyone like a hawk, all of the Chatterboxers felt at least mostly safe. After all, no one had been killed during a meal.

After breakfast, the captain informed the Chatterboxers that they would shortly be landing on the South Pole for a snow day. There was a moment of silence, and then chaos ensuied.

"Snow day! Yesssss!" Agent Winter yelled.

"Penguins! We get to see penguins!" Summer shrieked.

"And polar bears!" Emekitty added.

"No, silly, there aren't polar bears on the South Pole!" Quill laughed.

"Aren't there?" Raining Rainbows asked.

"Quiet down," Captain Phillipa said. "Come to the windows and take a look."

The Chatterboxers crowded to the windows, (staying far apart for fear of aqua's fate) and were met by a sight that took their breath away. The sky was a deep, bright blue over a sea of the same color. Floating over the sea was a collections of white iceburgs, mirroring the puffy clouds in the sky. Snow fell in frosty torrents. Cheers abounded from the Chatterboxers.

"Go down to locker room number 43, and you'll find snow gear." The captain instructed.

The Chatterboxers flooded down the stairs, (staying in a group but far enough apart to avoid danger) and found themselves in locker room number 43. Opening the lockers, they found snowsuits, hats, boots, scarves, and gloves in a dazzling variety of sizes and colors. The Chatterboxers pulled them on quickly, then, at Captain Phillipa's command from the intercom, hurried up to balcony 2.

They met the captain and Mr. Bartleby the penguin on the balcony. After giving a few quick safety instructions, Captain Phillipa extended the gangplank, and Mr. Bartleby and the Chatterboxers streamed down it to the huge snowy iceberg.

Barnswallow whistled. Agent Winter laughed, and extended her arms and spun around in the snow. Kitten cheered. "Let's go inland and build an igloo!" She called. The other Chatterboxers agreed, and they charged inland, ploughing their way through the thick snow.

As they went, they passed a couple of deep, frozen cracks in the iceberg. The Chatterboxers, led by Mr. Bartleby, stayed well clear.

They spent the next three hours constructing the best igloo ever. It was huge, with multiple entrances, cubbies, and rooms, and when they were finished, the Chatterboxers enjoyed it for a whole two minutes before Queen threw a snowball at Heroes, and a fullblown war began.

They paused for the hot soup that Captain Phillipa sent down for lunch, and then battled for the rest of the day, each of the two teams trying to take possession of the igloo despite the shouts, snowballs, and treachery of the enemy.

When the sun began to set, Mr. Bartleby led the tired Chatterboxers back twards the ship. They straggled out in a long line of little groups, all following each other back towards the ship. Agent winter looked up to see another Chatterboxer fall into step with her.

"Hey." Agent Winter said.

"Hi." The other Chatterboxer replied. They walked in silence for a moment before Agent Winter ventured a brief comment.

"You guys fought well." The two had been on opposing teams. They were passing one of the cracks in the iceburg, and Agent Winter stepped away from it, but the other Chatterboxer blocked her path.

"We did fight well." The other Chatterboxer said, stopping to pick up a handful of snow. "And you know what?"

"What?" asked AW.

"I win."

"Wha–" Agent Winter's voice was cut off as The Murderer pushed her over the edge of the crack, stuffing snow into her mouth to muffle her scream. A sickening crunch echoed up from the crack, and The Murderer dusted her hands free of snow, then ran to catch up with the other Chatterboxers. She glanced around nervously, but she had donw her job well. No one had witnessed Agent Winter's death.

Funny, really, The Murderer reflected, that Agent Winter had died in her 'native element'. The Murderer doubted that the other Chatterboxers would appreciate the irony.

~~~

RIP Agent Winter. We'll miss you.

@aqua, the questions that I ask are useful for getting to know the Chatterboxers better, so that I can portray them better in my writing. You can feel free to answer the questions if you want, but you don't have to.

Death Toll: 4. aqua, smothered by a beanbag chair. Luna, killed with her own weapon. Jubilee, drowned in a waterslide. Agent Winter, pushed down a crack.

What are you most afraid of? 

At the moment what I'm most scared of is getting the virus and spreading it to someone at risk. But not thinking about the virus, what I'm most scared of is the parts of the government not working together and it all falling apart(I'm kinda nerdy and really into politics)

I'm scared of making myself look like a complete FOOL in front of my crush, who livae who knows how many miles away in CA!

P.S. I'm not saying what CA is

I'm scared of being embarassed in front of large amounts of people, clowns, spiders, cliffs, and bugs in general. Also an abundance of other things. 

Part six.

The Chatterboxers didn't notice Agent Winter's absence until the next morning, when Queen wanted to borrow her skateboard and couldn't find her. Even though Darkling offered to lend Queen her skateboard, Queen got worried and told the captain.

A fullblown search began. The Chatterboxers hadn't realized it, but Captain Phillipa had hundreds of different seabirds on the Cosmic Pioneer. As soon as she realized that Agent Winter was missing, the captain sent them to search every part of the ship. After she wan't found on the ship, they branched out and searched the iceberg. Tallula the seagull found what was left of Agent Winter at the bottom of one of the cracks.

After Captain Phillipa had heard Tallula's report, she hesitated to inform the other Chatterboxers. Instead of telling them right away, she decided to give them a fun morning. Captain Phillipa told the Chatterboxers that her birds were still searching for Agent Winter, but that she was sure AW would be found soon. "In the meantime," the captain continued, "How about a game of laser tag this morning?"

Although they were still nervous about the absence of Agent Winter, the Chatterboxers agreed, and Captain Phillipa sent Allie with them down to the laser tag course. All concerns about Agent Winter faded from the Chatterboxers minds when they saw the laser tag course. It was huge, with many different rooms, passages and tunnels. Above, there were a multitude of catwalks, platforms, ziplines, and pulleys.

After they were outfitted with vests, Allie gave each of the Chatterboxers a gun, and formed three different teams. After a couple of hours of daring battles, stunning bravery, and corageous bravado, the red team was eliminated, leaving green and purple to wage it out. Strawberri, (from the red team) was sitting on the sidelines when she heard quiet footsteps behind her. Strawberri turned around and saw one of her teammates walking towards her.

Strawberri smiled. "Hey. That was a good battle, right?"

The other Chatterboxer nodded. "Yeah. This course is amazing."

"Yeah, I could stay here all ohmysweetbalonywhatisthat?" The other Chatterboxer had pulled a large, sinister silver ball that looked like a thermal detonator out of her pocket. The red light was flashing.

"Shhh." The other Chatterboxer said. "Look, I don't like losing, so I'm going to prank the other teams. Can you hold this while I get into position?"

Strawberri looked at the ball suspiciously. "Is it going to explode or something?"

"Maybe." The other Chatterboxer grinned wickedly.

"Is it safe? We've had a lot of accidents this trip…"

"Aw, come on, don't be a chicken."

"I'm not a chicken, I just don't want anyone to get hurt."

The other Chatterboxer was getting nervous, but she didn't want to show it. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you going to help me with this or what?"

Strawberri nodded slowly. "Okay, I guess so. What do I do?"

"Hold this until you see me waving from up there." The other Chatterboxer pointed to a high platform. "Then throw it to me. Okay?"

"Okay. Be quick." The red light had started to pulse more quickly. 

The other Chatterboxer gave a quick thumbs up, and then trotted off in the direction of the platform. As soon as she was out of sight, she ran with all of her might as far away from Strawberri as she could possibly get. When she reached the door of the course, she stepped outside. The Murderer took a deep breath. That had been a close one.

Back in the course, Strawberri stared down at the ball, then looked up at the platform. There was no sign of anyone getting up there. Strawberri nervously ran her fingers through her hair, then she stood up, still holding the ball. "Hey, are you still th–"

The ball exploded, and Strawberri's scram was lost in the huge boom that reverberated throughout the entire laser tag course. From outside the door, the Murderer choked on a laugh. This had been the best one yet.

Once the smoke had cleared, the Chatterboxers grouped together at the entrance of the laser tag course while Allie telepathed for help. A few moments later, Captain Phillipa arrived on the scene. She showed no outward signs of worry other than the fact that her her hat was slightly askew.

"All right, all right, now what happened here? Allie said there was some sort of explosion."

All the Chatterboxers started talking at once. Captain Phillipa adjusted her hat and glared at them until they quieted down. "Given the state that all of you are in, it seems that I must investigate myself. Alligator, remind me to appoint a spokesperson for the Chatterboxers sometime in the future. How humanity survived in the wild I don't know."

Captain Phillipa stepped into the laser tag course, and a few of the braver Chatterboxers followed her. The clouds of smoke stung their eyes and made it hard to see the ruin of the laser tag course. Many of the platforms and catwalks had collapsed and fallen to the ground, crushing walls and tunnels. Captain Phillipa made a quick circuit of the course. With the Chatterboxers following behind her in a line, the Murderer thought that the whole party looked like a mother duck taking her ducklings on a walk.

Captain Phillipa stopped when she came to Strawberri's body. It wasn't a pretty sight. Captain Phillipa closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before stepping closer and picking some of the shreds of the bomb out of the wreckage. "Thermal detonator." She said. Absentmindedly, she reached up and adjusted her hat so that it was crooked. "The rest of you are lucky to be alive. How it got here I have no idea. It should have been safely locked up in the–" She stopped. "In the safe place."

"I thought thermal detonators were only in Star Wars." Heroes muttered.

"You thought correctly." Captain Phillipa replied. Heroes didn't ask further. Captain Phillipa led the way out of the laser tag course. "Allie?" She said. Allie fluttered foward. "Please go and investigate the bo–the safe place where our serious weaponry is stored. If you find anything out of place, no matter how trivial, bring it here." Allie nodded and flew off.

"We'll see what happens." Captain Phillipa said.

~~~

RIP Strawberri. What a hard way to go. 

@Everyone: I'll try to get the next post up by Friday, but my school is starting this week and it'll be a bit harder to find time to write.

Death Toll: 5. aqua, smothered by a beanbag chair. Luna, killed with her own weapon. Jubilee, drowned in a waterslide. Agent Winter, pushed down a crack. Strawberri, death by explosion. 

Would you rather: go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, or to the ice age?

I'm gonna go with Ice Age, as long as I can bring a sled. Can you imagine sledding down the hills they must've had?! 

Sorry, Strawberri. We will avenge youuuu! Unless of course I'm the murderer… 

I feel like if I choose ice age, I'm probably gonna get killed my a sabretooth tiger, or something, so I'm gonna go with dinosaurs.

Part seven.

While Allie was investigating, Captain Phillipa got all of the Chatterboxers to line up and counted them all. Only ten remained of the original sixteen.

Darkling frowned. "Has Agent Winter been found?"

Captain Phillipa nodded reluctantly. "She was found frozen at the bottom of one of the cracks of the iceberg."

"What?" Kitten cried.

"The footprints in the snow indicated that she had been pushed over the edge." Captain Phillipa continued. She pushed her hat further askew, then absentmindedly reached up to correct it. Summer wondered if all of the hat twitching meant that the captain was nervous.

After fifteen minutes, Allie returned, clutching something in her beak. "I found this outside the door of the 'safe place'." She telepathed. "Whoever broke in must have used it as a lockpick." She dropped something small and white onto the floor. The Chatterboxers gasped. It was the knight from IvoryPint's portable chess set.

IvoryPint went deadly white as the Chatterboxers rounded on her. "I didn't..I know it's mine, but I would never…I just wouldn't, I promise…I didn't do it! I didn't set off the bomb! I now how this looks but it wasn't…I didn't do it!" She looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

The Chatterboxers shifted uncomfortably, not looking at IvoryPint.

For the first time, Captain Phillipa looked uncomfortable. She took off her hat and kneaded it between her hands. "I know, but…"

Quill coughed to get everyone's attention. "We played a lot of chess while we were stuck in the bunkroom. Anyone could have taken that knight." A couple of Chatterboxers frowned, and Quill looked at the floor. "Just saying." She murmured.

After a brief pause, Queen stepped in. "No, you're right." She said. "The knight doesn't incriminate IvoryPint."

"Are you sure?" Captain Phillipa asked. Quill and Queen glanced at each other, then nodded. Captain Phillipa took a deep breath. "All right then. I think," She stopped to straighten out her hat. "That I'm going to give you your weapons back. Since the Murderer has access to explosives and…" She paused for a moment. "Other dangerous things, you should all be able to defend yourselves as best you can. Why don't you all go take a shower to get the dust off, then meet me in my office to collect your weapons."

The Chatterboxers nodded, then set off. They all stayed as far away from each other as possible on the way back. The Murderer, who was feeling rather daring after her recent success, found it ridiculously easy to grab Barnswallow and pull her off down a corridor.

Barnswallow opened her mouth to scream, and the Murderer stuffed the white queen from IvoryPint's chess set into her mouth. Barnswallow gagged, and the Murderer leaned in close. "If you want to keep living, don't even think about screaming."

Barnswallow's eyes went wide, and she spat out the chessman. "Are you the Murderer, then?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to…" She swallowed. "Kill me?"

The Murderer smiled. "That depends." Barnswallow made a dash for freedom, but the Murderer grabbed her wrist. The Murderer pulled out a long, wicked looking silver sword. "Don't even think about it."

Barnswallow bit her lip.

"I want to show you something." The Murderer said. She bent down and picked up the white queen from the floor. "So, you're going to walk in front of me with your hands up, and if you don't make any trouble, you may survive until we reach our destination."

They set off through a warren of white tunnels with metal floors. Barnswallow's heart was in her mouth. She had no doubt that she would end up dead, and she was trying to decide whether to yell out the Murderer's name in the hopes that the other Chatterboxers would hear her. She had just taken a deep breath to scream when she found herself in fron of a huge metal door. The Murderer stepped around from behind her and inserted the white queen into the huge lock. She twisted it around for a moment, and then with a loud click, the door slowly swung open.

"After you." The Murderer said, motioning for Barnswallow to enter the room. Barnswallow hesitated, and the Murderer brandished the sword. Barnswallow stepped through the door. As soon as she was inside, a light clicked on, and Barnswallow gasped.

The room was enormous, the size of a cathedral, and at least two stories high. Metal shelves lined the walls and floor, giving the room the appearence of a library gone horribly, horribly wrong. Crammed into the shelves and hanging from the ceiling were all kinds of different weapons, from rusty old knives to lightsabers to chainsaws, and all kinds of different explosives from fireworks to thermal detonators. The Murderer smiled. "As you can see, I have access to this stuff anytime I want. You and the others think you're so fortunate to get your weapons back. You have no idea what a real weapon looks like. With this much power, I could blow up the Cosmic Pioneer."

"No way."

"Yes way, but I choose not to. You see, Barnswallow, I'm not taking some petty revenge. I'm not doing this for fun. I will kill of all of the Chatterboxers on this cruise one by one, and when I return, I will be the most famous Chatterboxer of all time."

Barnswallow chocked on a laugh. "You will never get away with that."

The Murderer's face flushed. "Come here." She pointed to a large, siniser looking metal machine.

Barnswallow looked back at the door, but somehow it had swung shut without her noticing. Reluctantly, she walked over to the machine. "What is this?"

"A new technology that I want to test out." The Murderer opened a small hatch into the machine. "Get in."

Barnswallow glanced back, but the Murderer brandished the sword. Barnswallow stepped into the machine and heard the hatch click shut behind her. Outside, the Murderer pressed a few buttons, and Barnswallow just had time to feel a thick, syrupy liquid flowing over her before she sank into unconsciousness.

After a few minutes, the Murderer opened the hatch to find a neat cylinder of resin with a figure suspended in the middle. Barnswallow still had a shocked look on her still face. The Murderer nodded. The machine had worked perfectly. She turned off the lights and locked the door, then slipped back down the corridors towards the bunkroom. None of the Chatterboxers noticed her reappearence.

~~~

RIP Barnswallow. Yikes. What a way to go.

Hopefully I'll get the next post up this weekend!

Death Toll: 4, possibly 5. aqua, smothered by a beanbag chair. Luna, killed with her own weapon. Jubilee, drowned in a waterslide. Agent Winter, pushed down a crack. Barnswallow, suspended in resin. (Suspended…hmm.)

Do you think Barnswallow is actually dead? Why or why not? Any suspicions about who The Murderer is? Do you think she'll get away with her plans? 

Oh no! Barnswallow! That's a bad way to go. Suspended in resin. Wow.

As for murderer guesses, maybe Quill, Queen, or Emekittycon K., since they brought swords? But then again, the murderer could have just got it from the giant weapon room. And then there's IvoryPint, but I feel like that's a bit too obvious. 

Can't wait for the next part, per usual!