The rolling wheels of metal clanking on steel rails was a constant sound that most of the Express Owls were used to hearing. The more quiet and peaceful sounds that were rare to hear on the train. It was so rare that it actually surprised most of the passengers that they had gone this long without a single explosion going off or the conductor's voice yelling through the speakers since the train left the station.

It was very concerning for the owls.

This wasn't normal by standers. Usually around this time, the conductor had some movie planed out that would guarantee the endangerment of every passengers lives. But so far nothing had happened yet.

No bombs. No knives. No poor Express Owls running for their lives. No angry yelling.

Nothing.

This honestly put every bird more on edge than ever before. Everyone knew about the train's conductor, everyone knew he was not the type for just calm train rides. They knew he wasn't the one for sitting back and relaxing. Or following the rules.

There must be something he was up to today. Something big. And loud. And a hundred percent dangerous!

If it were true that is.

Most of the owls hadn't noticed it yet, but the train had not stopped moving since it had left the station. The train was passing all the regular stops, not letting anyone on or off, and just kept going. The few that had noticed were slightly alarmed if not confused.

It was clear that the conductor had some place in mind to get to, but not stopping at all the stations? That raised a few bells.

Normally, the first thing that came to mind for the conductor's odd behavior was the possibility of a movie in the making. The conductor had a long streak for making movies the centered or had some mention of the Owl Express in them. There was probably not a single movie that didn't have at least one or two scenes of the train in them.

But if any of them had noticed something off about today, if any one of the passengers had taken the time to look around and observe their surroundings, if anyone had noticed that there was something new about the train this very day, it would probably make sense to what was going on today.

The Owl Express was rightly named so since all its passengers were, well, owls. Today however, there was one passenger who was not an owl. The passenger was a human, dressed in a fine dark suit, seated next to a window while calmly reading a newspaper. The man looked young, around his twenties if anyone had to guess. His hair was spikey, brown, and short, brushed to one side of his head so that his right eye was covered by the strains. A fedora sat on top his head with a small flower accessory of a single Begonia surrounded by buttercups pinned on one side.

Handsome was a most common thought when others saw his face, along with mysterious. Indeed, this man had some catching qualities about him. He had a face that looked calm and collected, yet others could feel a sort of mystery around him when they laid on upon him. As if there was something about him that he kept secret and hidden from the world.

"E-excuse me?" The man looked up from his newspaper. An owl, wearing a white coat and thick round glasses, nervously tapped his finger/feathers together, looking this way and that. "U-um. I-If it's not t-too much t-trouble to a-ask, but um, c-can I sit h-here? I w-would unders-stand if you—"

"It's no trouble." The man smiled, gesturing to the seat across from him. "Please, have a seat."

"O-Oh! Th-thank you!" The owl smiled nervously, sliding into the booth. "Th-there weren't any other o-open available s-seats. The c-conductor usually p-pulls up at my s-stop, b-but he hasn't m-made any of the r-regular s-stops today."

"That might be my fault." The man said, folding his newspaper and tucking it away in his suit. "You see, I had made some arrangements today on a short notice. I hadn't intended for the passengers here to miss their stops."

"I-It's no trouble." The owl waved his winged dismissively with an easy smile. "B-Believe it or n-not, the c-conductor does this a-all the time. I'm just s-surprised that he h-hasn't blown anyth-thing up yet! K-Kind of relieved a-actually."

The man hummed, leaning against the table with a soft smile on his face. "Well, I did have to pay a fine amount of pons to convince him for a safe ride. But." He glanced out the window. "I'm sure we'll be stopping soon. Just for a small moment to pick up a friend of mine."

"I d-don't recall there b-being any s-stops this far o-out." The owl looked out the window as well. "E-Especially since i-it's near… there." His voice got quiet near the end, sinking into the booth's seat.

"Near where?"

"Y-you know." The owl muttered something under his breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that."

The owl muttered again. Much quieter than before.

"Could you please raise your voice just a smidgen? I don't think I heard—"

"SUBCON FOREST!" The owl blurted out. He slapped his wings over his beak, looking out to the other passengers. Wide eyes were staring at the pair, though the man noted how their faces had the look of fear on all of them, like the owl had said something that was not too be mentioned and broken an important rule.

"… I take it that it's not a nice place then?" The man asked, looking back at the owl in front of him.

"n-no." The owl sunk in his seat further. "i-it's not."

The man hummed, gazing out the window. "Well, I hate to break this to you, but that's exactly where this train is stopping at."

The air inside the rail car went cold. Owls who overheard the man gasped and whispered amongst themselves with notable fear in their tones.

"Is he serious?!"

"The Owl Express stopping at that place?! Doesn't he realize what's in there?!"

"This has to be some sort of bad joke!"

"I want my mommy!"

The man raised an eyebrow. He knew owls tended to be nervous and soft spoken, but he had never seen this level of fear in any owl.

"Y-you're kidding… r-right?" The man looked at his companion, who had sunken so low that only his eyes poked out above the table, their gaze glued on him with fear and denial. "Y-you do kn-know a-about th-th-that p-place, d-don't you?"

"I've heard about it. And I have studied about that forest." The man placed an elbow on the table, placing his chin on the back of his hand. "Not much info about it sad to say. It does have some… interesting rumors." He smiled. "But, I rather not try to find out if they're true or not. I'm only hear to see if my friend has gotten what I needed from that place."

"W-What would y-you need f-from there? I-If you h-heard of the r-rumors then w-why go anyw-where near th-there?!" The owl nearly screamed, waving his arms/wings about. "O-On a m-more imp-portant note, why s-send your f-f-friend in there?! They c-could be in d-danger or d-dead!"

To the owl's surprise, the man laughed.

"Don't be silly, my fine feathered fellow! I took precautions to make sure that he comes back alive." The man leaned back with a large smile on his face. "I'm not someone who would risk the life of others or selfishly use them for my own purposes. No." He shook his head. "I make sure to plan things right down to the mark. To have everything go smoothly without fail."

"B-but you c-can't just s-send someone in th-there and e-expect them to c-come out again." The owl rose up, sitting back in his seat again. "Th-that's like a d-death sentence!"

"Indeed." The man nodded his head, though his smile remained on his face. "But as I said, I take precautions and safety measures. And, if I am to be quite frank." He leaned forward, putting a hand against his mouth as if to shield it so only the owl before him could see it move. The owl, for his part, found himself leaning in like an eager child who was about to be told a great big secret. "My friend volunteered to do it and he's very stubborn to be dissuaded. If he wants to do the task that he thinks he can manage on his own, he'll never step down, no matter how many times you try to talk him out of it. I think he only does it for the thrill for doing a near impossible task."

"B-But, can he r-really do it?"

"Well." The man leaned back, glanced out the window. Outside the window, a dark forest was coming into view. "So far, he hasn't failed to complete a task yet."

"A-and, how a-are you s-sure that he'll b-be okay?"

There was a moment of silence between them, before the man sighed, reaching into his suit and pulling out some paper and a pen. Setting the paper on the table, the man began drawing something on the sheet. "Tell me, what does this picture look like?" He asked when he was done, pointing at the sheet of paper before him.

The owl, confused, adjusted his glasses and leaned down to look at the paper. "A… g-ghost?" He said, staring at the cartoonishly drawn ghost on the paper.

"Precisely. Now." The man flipped the paper over, drawing something else on the blank sheet. "Say that you are a ghost. It doesn't matter who or what you are or how you died, you're a ghost." The man pointed the end of the pen at a new drawing of a different ghost. "Not much is known about ghosts to this day. And yet, they've been around for years. Centuries even."

He tapped the pen on the table. "For years, ghosts have been the least known creatures in the world. No one knows what they can do or even how to become a ghosts after death, though there have been some ideas floating around that ghosts are a result of a tragic death." He took out a different paper, drawing a person with a knife in their chest and their soul escaping their body.

"However, some believe that a person's soul stays behind because they had unfinished business before they died. But these are just speculations. I, however, am more interested to what they can do. You see, since no one knows much about ghosts, there's not a lot of information about them. Yet, with enough digging, one can find interesting things they had not known before."

He flipped the paper over, drawing a star shooting across a night sky. "Through this information, I learned that every hundred years, a special star known as Miranda's Comet."

The owl perked up at the name. "O-Oh! I've h-heard about M-Miranda's C-Comet! It's a s-special comet that g-give off a u-unique energy and p-power wave l-length the scientist have d-dreamed of studying. It o-only stays for o-one night sadly."

"Yes indeed. Only one night when it's visible. But for a ghost." The man drew something under the star. "They can sense its presence days before its arrival. And it's during this time when ghosts sleep."

The owl blinked in confusion. "S-sleep?"

"Yes. Sleep." The man fished his drawing, showing it to the owl. "Miranda's Comet seems to have some sort of effect on them. Putting them in a sort of slumber for about a week. Three days before the comet arrives, the day it arrives, and three days after it has left. Unfortunately, that was all we come find. It doesn't explain why Miranda's Comet puts ghosts to sleep, nor why Miranda's Comet is the only comet that does this."

The owl studied the picture, blinking as he stared at the drawing of a ghost sleeping under the star. "… A-Are you s-saying you s-sent your f-friend in there th-think Miranda's C-Comet has put a-all the g-ghosts to s-sleep?"

"To put it frankly, yes. Though, I still didn't send him in without some confirmation that this was true. A willing soul was kind enough to go in there a day before and come back with not a single scratch or harm to their body. Still." The man put the picture down, looking out the window. "I made sure he only went in when Miranda's Comet was right in the earth's atmosphere just for the safe side."

"A-and, you're s-sure he's alright?"

"Trust me my friend." The man smiled as the train slowly came to a stop beside the forest, spying a familiar figure standing by the forest's edge. "He hasn't failed me yet."


It was a typical day in Mafia Town.

Bright sun. Seagulls flying. Mafia were walking around doing… whatever Mafia did.

All and all, it was a natural day to young Bow. Aside from the fact that she mainly had to keep a distance from the Mafia and tried her best not to draw any attention to herself along her way down to the small beach.

Gripping her backpack strap tightly, she gingerly made her way down the small sandy beach, hoping that she wasn't being followed in the exposed daylight. She really didn't want to cause her friend any more trouble than she was already in. It didn't hurt to keep looking over her shoulder just to be sure.

Bow considered herself to be a nice girl. A good girl that didn't get into too much trouble with others. Her friend on the other hand… well, she tended to make a scene when things were considered 'wrong' in her eyes.

She wasn't a bad person. Bow knew her heart was in the right place. It was just that her personality and rashness tended to get her in trouble sometimes that was too big for her to handle on her own.

And ever since the Mafia arrived, things certainly hadn't been so great for her friend or herself.

"Mu? Are you here?" Bow peeked inside the small cave that her friend had been living in since the Mafia arrived. She was partially surprised that none of the Mafia had found her yet. The hideout wasn't all that hidden, nor was it hard to find. Yet despite the relatively easy finding of this place, not a single Mafia had found this place.

Either they didn't have the best seeking skills, or they were just too dumb to notice the crude painting of their leader's face with a giant red X over it with the repeating words SOD OFF pointed at it. Probably both.

The Mafia weren't exactly the brightest as far as she had seen. They got confused rather easily and didn't have the best thought out plans. Big and tough, yes. But not at all that smart.

"Mu?" She called out, looking for her friend. She frowned when she couldn't spy any sign of her friend anywhere. It was regular to find Mu gone from her hideout, probably out messing with the Mafia or setting up a plan somewhere in town.

"BOO!" Bow jumped as something grabbed her shoulders, making her scream and dive into the cave for cover, hiding herself under her bag. She slowly blinked open her eyes as she heard a familiar laughter reach her ears.

"Mu! That wasn't funny!" Bow shouted as she got up from the ground and glared at her friend.

Mu, a young blond girl with a matching mustache on her face, continued to laugh, holding her sides as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. "Come on Bow! That was funny! You need to lighten up more!"

Bow puffed out her cheeks. "You know I don't like being snuck up on! It doesn't help that the Mafia are making things worse for me! Do you know how many times I have to keep looking behind myself when I come to visit you?!"

Mu's laughter started to die down, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "Alright, I'm sorry." She smiled, placing her hands on her hips. "Still, you've got to be more on guard. If I can sneak up on you that easy, then who knows what else might!"

"I know, and I try! It's just…" Bow shifted her feet in the sand. "Hard."

"Well you're not helping me get anywhere close to defeating the Mafia with that attitude!" Mu walked up to her friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "We need to build up your courage Bow! The quicker you build up your nerves, the quicker we'll be rid of these brutes! Speaking of which, how's your grandma doing? Have the Mafia been giving her anymore trouble?"

Bow shook her head, brushing off Mu's arm and taking off her backpack. "No. They've been keeping a distance from her for now. Which I think is good for me and Gran for the time being." She opened her backpack, taking out a brown bag and handing it to Mu. "She also made extra last night and thought you would like some."

"Sweet! What did she make?" Mu tore open the bag, reaching inside and taking out a container.

"Beef stew. And some pumpkin bread."

Mu whooped with joy. "Awesome! Your grandma is the best!"

"She tries. She's just worried about you since you're the only person left since the Mafia arrived and, well, you're still a kid." Bow took out another brown bag, filled with the same things Mu's bag was filled with."

"Hey! I'm not just a kid!" Mu huffed, opening the container and dumping some of the stew in her mouth. "Mm ma mormimer!"

Bow crack a smile at her friend's antics. "You know Gran packed some forks in your bag, right?" She took out her own plastic fork for Mu to see.

Mu rolled her eyes, swallowing the stew. "Let's try to stay focus here. I've got a new plan to get rid of the Mafia this time!"

"You're not going to plan on strangling them with their ties like last time right?" Bow asked, sitting herself down on the sand.

"Pfft, no. That was the old plan. THIS plan will definitely drive all the Mafia away once and for all!"

Bow rolled her eyes, but listened as her friend went over her new plan against the Mafia while she enjoyed her meal. She understood why Mu was so determined to get rid of all the Mafia. She did! She remembered it like was just yesterday.

That day had been normal. Bright, sunny, enjoying the nice breeze while walking around the market looking for everything on the list her Gran had given her. She had just finished half of it when the Mafia arrived and started taking over the island. Logic told her to run and find Gran, which she did.

From that day, only she, Gran, and Mu were the only ones left from the island since the Mafia arrived. She didn't know what happened to everyone else, and she hoped that they were okay.

"—and that's how we'll be rid of the Mafia! Once and for all!" Mu finished her little plan ranting, looking proud of herself. "There's still a few things that need to be worked on before we can put our plan into action, and tomorrow night is going to be tric—"

"Wait, when?" Bow blinked, not sure if she heard Mu correctly.

"Tomorrow night. The Mafia plan on making this HUGE fireworks show in celebration of some rock flying through the sky."

"That soon?!" Bow felt a deep pit form in her stomach. "Don't you think that you're rushing a bit?"

"It would have been rushing it if they had the fireworks show tonight when the rock thing is here, buut apparently the ship full of fireworks doesn't come till tomorrow." Mu shrugged. "I'm kind of glad though. I plan to watch the sky tonight and I don't want some stinky Mafia messing it up!" She paused a moment. "Are you staying up to watch the comet?"

"W-well, yeah. Gran and I plan to row out to one of the smaller islands later so we can get a good spot to watch." Bow pointed out at the ocean. "Gran wanted to know if you wanted to come along as well."

"Mmmaybe." Mu shrugged. "But I don't want to intrude on a family thing. I'll just find somewhere to watch the sky tonight."

"If you say so." Bow sighed, putting her empty container in the brown bag. "If you change your mind, we wouldn't mind if you tagged along. Gran likes your company."

"And I like her cooking." Mu smiled, her mouth covered in leftover stew. "Give my complements when you get back?"

"You know it." Bow smiled, slipping her backpack on and started heading off. She was only a few feet away when Mu called out to her.

"Oh! And one more thing I should mention! Try to avoid being seen tomorrow! We've got a lot of work to do for the big night! This is going to be the best thing we ever did!"

"I'm sure it will." Bow gave her friend an easy smile, continuing on her path home.


"I hate this train."

The man looked up from his newspaper at his friend seated across from him, frowning in disapproval of his words. "It's not that bad Messer."

Messer huffed, crossing one leg on top the other, his large lime green eyes gazing around the private room they were in with distaste. "Did you really have to pick me up in this old thing? You know I hate riding in enclosed vehicles. Not enough room to run around and feel the air."

"I could always open the window if you want." The man pointed to the only in the room, but Messer shook his head.

"No. There's nothing but hot desert out there, and I hate it when sand gets in my coat." Messer held up one of his paws, flexing his fingers and claws out. "Takes hours to pick every bit of grain out of my fur and itches like peck."

"If you wish." The man shrugged, going back to his paper.

Silence was in the room, something that both preferred to be in for regularly long periods of time. The silence was comforting, giving both individuals time to think and take in their surroundings.

Messer, taking his sweet time to run his claws through his sleek black fur, kept looking up at his friend, glancing at him with a blank look but held something deep inside. "…Aristotle."

"Hm?"

"What are planning this time?"

"I have no idea what you mean Mes." Aristotle kept his eyes on the paper, reading it with great interest like nothing else mattered.

Messer frowned at the nickname, but knew he had to keep his cool. Aristotle loved to get a rile out of him, having done it more times than he could count over the years they knew each other. "Come on, at least give me a clue to what you plan on doing with the so called special item you had me go get from that creepy forest."

"Creepy?" Aristotle looked up from the newspaper, looking at his friend with disbelief. "You, a master thief, afraid of something?"

"No. I just said that so you would look up from that stupid paper you carry around with you all the time." Messer huffed.

"Oh. Should have guessed." Aristotle smiled, folding the paper up and putting it away inside his suit. "Speaking of forests, you didn't tell me much when you got abroad." He placed his elbows on the armrests of his chair, locking his fingers together. "Was it everything that the rumors said it to be?"

"Spooky, dead, and pretty much a place where you get lost easily in? Yeah, that sums it up to what they say about Subcon." Messer sighed, holding his chin with one paw. "I was honestly hoping that comet thing was a hoax. The only real danger I encountered in there was getting lost in that forest before I found what I was looking for."

"So." Aristotle grinned mischievously. "No ghost fights I take it?"

"It would have made things a lot more interesting."

"I'm sure it would have. But I really can't risk my best friend to the likes of death now, can I?"

"Come on Aris, I do this type of things all the time. Hunting in rain storms out at sea, navigating through thick jungles, spying on enemy competition, stealing intel and other goodies that catch your eyes. But this? This task was just pecking boring and stupid." Messer flopped backwards in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "… They at least could have put a skylight in this room so we could have watched the comet pass by."

Aristotle rolled his eyes playfully. "Nighttime won't come for another few hours, we'll have enough time once we get to the ship to watch Miranda's Comet pass by."

"I hope so. A comet that only come every one hundred years is pretty special." Messer huffed. He eyed the ceiling for a while longer before looking back at his human friend. "… soo… are you going to at least tell me a bit about your new plan?"

"When we get back to the ship my good friend." Aristotle smiled as Messer groaned. He watched as his friend got out from his seat, stretching his long well-toned muscled limbs, and walk straight for the door. "And where are you going?"

"I'm not telling you. You don't tell me what you're planning, I'm not telling you where I'm going." Messer slammed the door behind him, making Aristotle burst out in laughter.

After a minute or two of solid laughter, Aristotle sighed, already missing the company of the large grumpy black cat. He would probably follow him in another minute or so, just to make sure he didn't scare the other passengers and make a scene.

"If only I could tell you my dear friend. But, why spoil the surprise?" He turned his gaze to the side of his chair. "After the comet passes, this will promise to be an interesting year that no one will forget."