"Is this the right place this time?" Summer asked, gasping for air. "Hopefully," Jade said as she took a step out of the Forest of No Direction. The sun shone down on the two girls as they managed to escape the confusing forest, as if congratulating them for a job well done. Afterall, they had gone through the Forest for the third time just to find Spades Kingdom. The two girls approached the kingdom walls cautiously, uncertain of what beast would try to jump them. They couldn't take any chances. "Hey there, ladies~" greeted a young man as he walked up to the two of them. "What're ya gals doing here? Gonna try out the ferris wheel?" Jade eyed the young man carefully and stood between the stranger and Summer. "What? I just finished finished it," he said with a pout. "So what're ya gals here for?" "Black onyx," Jade said without hesitation. "We're giving our weapons a personal touch," Summer explained. "What? You're just gonna grab and go? That ain't any fun!" the man whined. Summer looked around the kingdom. There was a variety of attractions there like the ferris wheel the young man had mentioned, but there was also the merry-go-round and the rollercoaster that seems to span across the kingdom itself. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement. "It wouldn't hurt to have some fun here," Jade said after seeing the look in Summer's eyes. "Shweet!" the young man said with a big grin on his face. "What d'ya gals wanna start with first? The merry-go-round? The games?" "How about your name?" Jade said curtly. "What? Ya don't know of Spades Kingdoms' Guardians?" Jade just stared at the young man, he certainly bared a great resemblance to the one that gave the local news. "It's Letto, right?" Summer asked, wondering if the young man had a guise when giving the news. The young man made a face of disgust, clearly not liking the name he heard. "Ugh.... I ain't that stick in the mud. I'm Thello Nim, Spades Kingdom's March Hare!" he introduced himself with a big smile. "Uh... Right.... I'm Jade from Hearts and Summer is from Diamonds," introduced Jade. "Well, then~ How about you two and me get together sometime?" Thello said with a wink. "We'd rather not," Jade interjected. Thello clicked his tongue. "So... The Black Onyx?" "After ya gals play," Thello said with a big grin on his face. "Ya see, not many peeps from the other kingdoms come by." "So?" Jade looked at Thello inquisitively. "Lay back here for a bit and gimme yer input. In the end, I'll give ya something good~" he said with a wink. "Yeah, yeah, the Black Onyx," Thello said with slight annoyance. "What rides do you have here?" Summer asked. "Wait...." the young man said before grabbing a guardsman and snatching a map out of the guard's hand. He handed the map to the girls. " 'kay, so if ya gals wanna start up slow, I recommend the merry-go-round. You'd start on the far east end here." Thello pointed out the merry-go-round on the map. "If ya wanna head straight for thrills, go with the jetcoaster on the other side here." He pointed the rollercoaster's starting point at the other side. "As you move from one end to the other, then it gets progressively thrilling to the point ya can get a boner!" Thello said with a smile, which quickly went away when he felt a heated glare from Jade. Thello cleared his throat. "We're here right now, so they're about the same distance from each other." He indicated the location they were standing at the current moment. Summer looked at Jade then the map. "We should start with the merry-go-round," Summer said with a smile, taking into consideration that they did have a picnic while in the forest earlier. "Wonderful choice, m'lady~" Thello said with a grin. "The fun thing about that is the lasers" "Lasers...?" "Like a light show?" "Nope! Like a game!" Thello said before dashing on ahead of the two girls. The two girls gave each other a curious look before following after Thello through the streets to the merry-go-round. At the structure of this "merry-go-round," they understood what Thello had meant. The strange merry-go-round looked normal from a ground-level point of view. But as you approached it, there were several tiers that sunk into the ground. The outer ring of the merry-go-round was normal, keeping up appearance. With each tier that led down to the fourth tier, which was the mechanism that moved the whole contraption, the equestrian models looked more aggressive. "So the point of the game in the lower tiers is to pick a target amongst the ones one ground-level," Thello explained as he sat a model stallion. "The first one ya hit is the one ya gotta aim for as long as the merry-go-round is moving." The two girls stared the strange merry-go-round as Thello explained. "The lower the level, the faster them beasties go," he said with a smile. "Sounds... Interesting..." Jade said, really uncertain what to say. The strange man took a simple leisure ride and made it into a taunting game. "Ya gals wanna play~?" he asked in a singsong voice. "As fun as it sounds, next time?" Summer said, not wanting to upset either of their stomachs. Thello clicked his tongue. "Okay, ya gals wanna test the ferris wheel fer me, then?" "And what did you do to that?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow. Summer giggled. "Nothing.... Yet....." Thello said with a pout. "I wanted ta like... Make it into a cool slide or climbing thing but Letto won't let me." Jade let out a breath of relief. "Why would you do that? It's supposed to be a romantic ride," Summer said. "But it can get boring! What else are ya supposed to do?" "Talk? Look at the scenery? Enjoy the company of your other?" Jade held Summer's hand. "Ohhhhhh~" Thello said with a smirk. "So i guess I should pad the floor for comfort then, eh?" "What?" "Please don't use my words out of context." "Nah, I get it. I'm stupid to not have thought of it." "No.... Just stop." "Why? It'd be fun, won't it?" Thello said with a smile. Jade put her face in her hand and shook her head as she let out an exasperated sigh. "Then what would you suggest?" "How about a lightshow as the people go up?" Summer suggested. "Ohhhh!! That sounds fun too!" "Can we just head to the ferris wheel?" Jade asked, really just wanting to leave the idiot man's company. "Alright, alright," Thello said as he led the way, going past the game stalls. "Wait," Jade said, stopping in front of one of the stalls to stare at the plush of some giant strawberry-like creature. Summer was eyeing it, taken in by its cuteness. "Jaaaaade," Summer whined, also wanting it. The plush was a prize for a shooting game, using the wooden rubberband guns to knock down boxes with the pictures of the prizes. Jade wasn't sure if she should play, uncertain if it was some kind of ploy or if it was rigged. Thello snickered, placing a token on the counter before picking up one of the guns. "None of the games here are rigged. Made sure of it myself," he said, before knocking boxes over by throwing the gun itself. "How crude!" Jade said, shocked. "Wasn't that cheating?" Summer asked, staring at the fallen boxes. "The rule is to knock it over with the gun," Thello said with a big smile. "And I did." Jade could see why Letto tends to give warnings about Thello in his newscasting. Thello handed them the strawberry-creature and the raspberry-creature plushtoys before talking with the person working the booth to keep the rest of the prizes. Jade and Summer both accepted the toys before leaving Thello to carry out his business, looking at the other game stalls. But when they returned to the shooting stall, Thello was gone! Uncertain as to where else to go without their guide, they headed to the ferris wheel which towered above the game booths, looking like quite a grand spectacle. "Sup, lovebirds," Thello said with a grin, waving at them from the ferris wheel's control panel. "Get in, get in!" Thello ushered the two of them into the ferris wheel compartment. Before he could hear any complaints, he shut the door behind them. Jade certainly had a bone to pick with him but Summer simply giggled. "What is it?" "He's weird, but he's kinda nice." Jade sat next to Summer. "I suppose." The two girls stared at the scenery as the horizon stretched out in their view. The ferris wheel came to a sudden halt. Jade quickly stood up, trying to use her own weight to stop the swaying of the compartment. From atop the light fixture of the compartment, a fist-sized box fell to the ground. Curious, Summer picked it up and opened it. It was a black obsidian rock. It was the Black Onyx! Jade and Summer, excited peered out the window to wave down at Thello, who waved back. "I guess he's not a bad person," Jade said, glancing down at the stone. "Wait...." Summer said. Jade looked up. "Is he leaving?!" "I can't believe this! That jerk!" "I take back what I said earlier...!"

Afterward: Thello left them alone up there for 20 minutes, thinking that was enough time for them to do their 'business.' However, this backfired due to the incident being reported to Letto who swiftly administered punishment by keeping Thello out of his surveillance room for a week.