(Pottermore)

Captain Carson made her way to the owlery and tied the letter to one of the school owls. She told the owl to give it to Stripetail and to not let anyone else take it. She sighed; this was a very insecure manner to send a letter but her usual encrypted messaging systems were not available. Hopefully, the owls could avoid anyone trying to intercept the letters.

The message delivered, she exited the owlery and returned to the Ravenclaw common area to determine the next lesson plan. She had already covered history of Muggle wandmaking and wand materials.

___________________________________

(Myaardi)

Kire landed in front of the enormous tree. Aside from its sheer size, there was nothing odd about the tree, save for a door at the base of the tree. The solar knight opened the door. "After you," he said, allowing his traveling companions to enter first.

---------------------

Mr. Bigmouth pulled the sled into town and parked it near the Daybloom Inn.

Deimos then spoke up. "Looks like we got a new mission from The Seer himself," he said, putting his radio away.

"What is it?"

Deimos pointed a clawed finger to the inn. "Well discuss it in the banquet hall." He the entered the inn.

(Pottermore)

Captain Carson scowled. She was absolutely not interested in getting her crew involved in an insurgency. "I will need to speak to my superior about this," she said.

The grey bearded wizard nodded. "I see. Do keep what we said in mind earlier. You may no longer have the luxury of ignoring Fudge and the day that comes is getting closer. Already, he's turned Esbenshire into a virtual police state and our sources say that his Aurors are casting Memory Charms on the Muggle residents with wild abandon."

The wizard then nodded. "Now then, I recommend you return to your classes. The message to the next meeting will be delivered by House Elf. Good day."

Captain Carson nodded as she motioned to the rest of the others and she made her way up to the winding staircase. Eventually, the billywig statute moved aside and she exited with her group.

--------------

(Myaardi)

"We need to go back to the town and alert the rest of your group," Kire said. "There should be a pylon somewhere that links to a teleportation system that lets me travel to all the various biomes." He looked around. All he could see were swampy environs of the jungle long with the towering trees and vines. He the narrowed his eyes as he saw a mahogany tree off in the distance that towered above the others. "There!" he said. "That's where the pylon's located."

He then heard an odd mix of a chirp and buzz and saw what looked to be enormous, two-legged blue beetles approaching. "Derplings! Go! Go! Go!" The wings emerged from his armor as he rocketed into the sky at speeds that seemed only attainable by aircraft.

(Myaardi)

Kire alighted onto a small cliff in the vertical shaft. He then looked upwards and saw a faint pinprick of light. "Angela, Sasha, Rivet!" he yelled. "We're getting close to the surface." The shaft lit up with a brilliant light as he solar knight flared out his wings and rocketed upwards towards the light.

When he arrived, he noticed that he was surrounded by muddy swamp and towering mahagony trees. "Huh, the jungle," he said. He then gave a quick look around. Not too far off in the distance was the sickly purple landscape of the Corruption. A well-crafted wooden bridge spanned a massive gorge lined with stone bricks that divided the jungle from the Corruption. A twinge of satisfaction flowed through him as he recalled building the entire canyon by himself.

As he waited for the rest of the group to emerge from the shaft, he simply watched the clouds slowly moving across the sky.

---------------------

Mr. Bigmouth deftly piloted the repulsorsled away from the guards of Chong's mining operation.

"Can someone get in contact with Stripetail?" he asked. The bullet holes in the sled's windshield indicated that he had not gotten away undetected but thankfully, no one was injured and the sled wasn't too badly damaged.

________________________________

(Pottermore)

Captain Carson nodded. She discreetly signaled for the rest of the group to step forward. "If I may," she said. "Why exactly have I been summoned here."

The wizard who greeted her spoke. "Simple," they said. "You are a Muggle who has been wronged by the archaic rules of Fudge."

The starship captain remembered how she had been left wandering outside Esbenshire for hours with fragmented memories after seeing an attack on a government building. "And what is the relevance to your cause?"

"Simple. We know that you are working with a powerful off-world wizard; a guest to our planet, if you will. If the Ministry treats Muggle guests so poorly, who knows what they'll do to the locals?"

Captain Carson kept her face neutral. She was here to assist Stripetail in apprehending Chong, not to take sides in an insurgency (even if the local government had mistreated her). But at the same time, perhaps she could recruit these Magicfolk to assist her? That and there was the possibility that she would be forced to take sides simply because the local government was hindering her efforts.

_____________________________

(RIMCS Spire of Winter)

The bartender passed Frank and Friedrich a menu. The food available was mostly classic bar food like catfish burgers, fish and chips. But thanks to the outsized influence of the Mawashiians aboard, there were also a lot of Mawashiian dishes available, like the famous sumo wrestler's stew, chankonabe.

Getting a judge to sign off on a warrant to search Paxton Powers's apartment, let alone the subpoena was not an easy task. Most of them refused, saying that they needed evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he was trading in illegally acquired antiquities. But in the end, they got their warrant and subpoena from a judge who had promised to clean up corporate malfeasance.

Once that was done, the detectives returned to Commissioner Gordon with the paperwork in hand as well as in the system. The papers were then laid out on her desk.

"Well, Commissioner," the first detective said. "We actually got the paperwork completed. However, knowing Paxton's influence, we can probably only do this once since the moment the news gets a hold of this, we're going to have corporate interests lobbying for more favorable judges."

--------------------------

Gabriel paced inside her RV/headquarters. Her fists clenched and unclenched as she heard about the fiasco that the attempt to give Blammo a variety of breaching tools and weapons hidden inside a pie.

The gathered Weasels in front of her were looking rather shamed as she glared at them. "Did you even think to consider the different variety of Toonforce that this setting operates under?"

"Lord Stripetail is the one who hired Captain Carson and this ship to transport him and his crew through the cosmos as well as provide him with various material and military support," the Spirarian said. They took a drink from the glass of beer they had purchased.

"As for new hires, we usually pick them up from various space stations, planets and the like. And of course, we do have families and children present as well and once the children come of age, they have the option to work for us. Of course, that is rare given that we do not allow child labor and the children must be eighteen to work." The Spirarian worker then turned to the duo. "And of course, all hotel fees and fares are waived if you sign on as a worker."

The detectives nodded. "We'll try our best, Commissioner, but he has a disturbing number of judges in his pocket. Metaphorically, speaking that is. He hasn't directly paid off any of the judges — or else we could just have him arrested for bribery — but he is very liberal with his campaign donations."

-----------------------

Meanwhile, the pie that was being given to Blammo was being checked over to ensure that it didn't contain contraband. One of the Weasels handed the pie over to the group of stone-faced guards at the prisoner mailroom. The pie was then placed inside what looked like an X-ray machine, but it was an advanced mass spectrometer combined with electromagnetic scanner.

"Okay you two! Hands up!" The guards drew their guns and pointed it at the two Weasels, who obligingly raised their hands. They were then roughly handcuffed and hauled off to the holding cell.

"Seriously?" one of the guards said, looking at the results. "You baked a set of hand grenades, a set of self-lighting exothermic cutting sticks, a shotgun, forty 12-gauge shells, a drill, a hacksaw, blasting caps and wire inside a pie made of plastic explosive and expected we wouldn't notice the oddly heavy pie, let alone not pick it up on our scanners? Did you think we live in a cartoon?"

(Hogwarts, Pottermore)

Once they had moved up two floors, Captain Carson took off the emergency breathing hood and stuffed it back into its container. A quick check revealed she had an hour's worth more usage out of it. Below her, the haze of the dung bombs still lingered but it was slowly dissipating. And of course, Peeves and the janitor were still engaged in a screaming match.

"Well," Captain Carson said, looking at the fifth floor. The section of the floor that was open to the main hall of the castle was lined with gargoyles of every type. And there were additional rooms and hallways that branched off the main section. "I think this is the place. But where do we start?"

(Hogwarts, Pottermore)

Captain Carson nodded. "My gut tells me that this is not the Ministry's doing," she said, draining her cup of tea. She then realized that she was unarmed (she had left her pistol back on the ship to better blend in with the locals). "Hopefully, the very basic defensive spells that I quickly browsed through coupled with the specialized wand I'm using will help."

She then got up and opened the door of the staff room, holding it open for everyone to follow her.

And was promptly overwhelmed with an indescribably foul stench that made her eyes and throat burn. A greenish haze hung in the air. Around her she saw several students with shimmering bubbles around their heads. Those who did didn't know the Bubble-Head Charm resorted to pinching their noses and holding their breath. Thinking quickly, she held her breath and pulled out a red container from inside her robe. Quickly popping the top off and pulling out a plastic hood, she placed the hood over her head and tightened the drawstring.

"Good thing I packed this emergency breather hood," she muttered as she took a breath of the filtered air.

"Peeves!" The voice echoed through the halls and was followed by a hunched over old man, his long stringy grey air wildly swirling around him charging through the green mist. Barely visible above the miasma was the shimmering white form of a wildly cackling ghost. "I knew you're the one who set off all those dungbombs! Not even the Weasleys would set off so many as to fumigate an entire floor!"

"Anyways," Captain Carson said, ignoring the profane argument between Peeves and what she assumed to be the school janitor. "We should head to the fifth floor gargoyle."

----------------------------

(Myaardi)

Kire began quickly laying down some blocks of stone to cover their escape. He then met up with Angela, Sasha and Clank inside a cave. There was nothing of note except for some blinkroot growing on a bare patch of dirt. And then it suddenly emitted a dim, but visible yellow flash as it started to bloom.

"Okay," he said. "I've sealed up the tunnel so we have some time before those drilling rigs get to us. Right now, we have to get to the surface and let the others know."

----------------------

(Mining Operation)

The group continued surveying them. Strangely enough, the operation didn't seem to heavily defended.

"Anyone have any ideas how we can handle this?" Mr. Bigmouth said.

Deimos continued looking. "I'm normally one for going in hot and wrecking s---, but we don't have many weapons with us."

(Pottermore)

Minister Fudge called over a waiter who provided them with a fresh, steaming pot of strong tea along with some milk and sugar. "The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes has been quite busy lately cleaning up after Pinkstone's zealots. In particular, they have made a mess of Esbenshire." He then steepled his hands. "We have Aurors stationed at Hogwarts to keep an eye on any Esbenshire students. Captain Carson might be targeted by them for recruitment. After all, since the Esbenshire Incident, we have had reports of Muggles in the ranks of Pinkstone's zealots."

_________________________________________

(Myaardi)

Kire opened the chest. Inside were some gold coins, a guide to plant fiber cordage, some torches and a magic mirror. It was then he heard the sound of drilling and saw the wall behind the chest collapse as some automated drilling vehicles emerged from the entrance.

"We have company!" he yelled out as he took flight and flew over the gap.

-------------------------

"Would you look at that," Mr. Bigmouth whispered as he peered down over the edge into the large pit. He used a set of binoculars and saw that several workers were engaged in a full-scale excavation and mining project. There was even a furnace set up (granted, it was the small forge he had seen at the local blacksmith, but thanks to the magic of the world, it was just as fast and efficient as any industrial forge.

Deimos was also looking. "I think this is Chong's work. You can clearly see some of the equipment is from Nick's ship."

Blammo stared through the armored glass that separated him from the guards. Despite having his outfit taken away and replaced with the standard Arkham Asylum orange jumpsuit, that unsettling plastic grin never left his face.

Of course, thanks to his clown makeup, he was assumed to be related to the Jokerz or even the Joker himself. And of course, that meant that there were extra armed guards present.

---------------------------------

Paxton Powers of course, was not satisfied with the antiquities stolen from the museum. He was busy browsing through various books in his penthouse, trying to find out what artifact would make a new prized addition to his collection. He was then interrupted from his thoughts by a knock on the door.

He then looked at the camera feed on his laptop. It was a few GCPD officers standing outside.

Getting up and heading to the door, he opened it partway.

"Gotham PD, Mr. Powers," one of the officers said, holding up a badge. "We were wondering if you'd be able to provide any information about the thefts at the museum; after all, you and your father contributed greatly to its collections and funding.

Paxton wrinkled his brow. "Officers, I am a busy man. Speak to my lawyers. Good day." He then closed the door on the group.