Lensfer safely making his boat dock, while Max, Rayn, Sarah, and Annie quickly devise a plan to keep Max's arm a secret, till Max gets his new prosthetic form Wears, Rayn would have to take shifts that were meant for Max. As he would have to be isolated at his home for a few days till they can find a way to get the crystal in his chest out. But getting Max into his house is the problem many people who know Max would wants his assistant considering he was asked this mourning before heading to do his shift with Rayn.
"But their is also a problem"
"Yeah hiding your missing arm bud"
Max starts looking around the ship and goes downstairs and grabs some blankets, ropes, a glove, sticks, and a towel then Max takes of his shirt. "hey Rayn help me out here".
They first wrap the blanket around the sticks acting like a joint, then a towel was stuffed into a glove acting as the hand, with the stick poking out of the blanket. They insert the stuff glove onto the stick creating a temporary arm insert into one of Max's spare jacket specifically the left sleeve to stabilize the new arm Rayn ties the rope onto Max with the arm and puts on the jacket.
"So how does it feel" Rayn asked
"Like I never lost my arm" Max trying to cope himself.
They then went back upstairs and shows his new temporary arm to everyone.
"How far do you think you can make your way to your house before being spotted?"
"Not sure, but as long as I don't attract attention, I'll be fine".
Once Lensfer has finally docked The Whailers, everyone proceeds with the plan trying not to get amount of attention as possible they try not take Max's usual route and tries not to get into crowded areas, walking around from the shops and stores towards the neighborhood which is easier to pass other people but would curious is why there are people surrounding the person in the middle but Annie had a great way to get out of a public area for awhile.
"Guys lets go pass my place place" Annie asked everyone
"Okay but why to your house?"
"My parents aren't home its also the closest, and Max looks like he need to rest" everyone looking at Max being very tired.
They started to head towards Annie's house she then unlocked and everyone gets into her home "they to make yourselves at home"
Max soon gets onto a couch trying to rest but is feeling a sharp pain within his chest "hey guys somethings wrong with Max" Max gasping for air "uh oh, Max is having a hyperventilation."
Sarah and Lensfer are trying to comfort Max "Rayn can you get him some water" "okay".
As Rayn is getting water for Max out the window he sees bushes rustling "hey guys when was the last time you saw a raccoon" he asked
"Why are you asking?"
"I'll be right back, here you go Sarah" after Rayn has given Sarah the cup of water for Max he begins to go outside of Annie's house. Rayn starts to get closer of the thing in the bush and sees a stick to his right and picks up the stick and whacks the bush, swinging it relentlessly trying to get a reaction from the animal in the bush, while the others in the house sees this.
"What is he doing?" Sarah question him
"And, why is he wrecking my bushes?!" Annie frustrated by the sight of Rayn destroying her bush.
After destroying the bushes Rayn sees nothing but only shards of crystals Rayn tries to take further inspection but realizes this how Max lost his arm. he took precautions, sweeping the shards of crystals onto his palm as he goes back inside and tells this information to everyone.
"So you saw crystal shards near the bushes. my bushes"
"Well what else glitters?"
"Are serious Rayn" they then notice the shards of crystals slowly jolting, Rayn quickly places the shards onto the table for the others to observe. "hey, well perhaps it fell from Max" "Rayn I haven't leaked a single crystal from my body since the caverns" suddenly from chatting one amongst each other they started to hear the doors knocking "hey Annie did you ordered something?" "Rayn do you always ask such questions" "hey I am always curious what do you expect"
Annie started to approach her door at the entrance, looking through the lens to only see nothing, then she slowly opens the door enough for Annie to peek, and still sees nothing. With nothing to see Annie proceeds to close the door but it can't for some reason ."what?" Annie confused to see not one, then tries to close the door harder but couldn't Lensfer came by to see Annie struggling.
"Hey Annie what's wrong"
"The door can't close"
"Alright, let me have a look".
Lensfer tries to close the door but couldn't do it either until he check to door outside to see nothing. "Odd there isn't anyone outside"
Until turning her back away from Annie and towards the others, Annie sees something "Lensfer stop!" "What is it Annie" "there's something on your back" "wait what?"
Lensfer turned around seeing a mirror as they see a crystal arm gripping onto Lensfer shirt on his back "what the heck!?" Lensfer starts freaking out, trying to shake the crystal arm off relentlessly.
"Annie get it off!" Annie tries to grab the crystal arm off Lensfer but grabs a towel before grabbing before forcefully yanking the crystal arm off Lensfer's back.
"Hey isn't that Max's arm" "lets tie the arm" Annie hands the crystal arm to Lensfer to hold it down while Annie brings a big container "Lensfer put the arm here" "why would I put something solid that could be easily destroy" "just do it". Lensfer proceeds to carefully place the crystal arm into the big container then they both bring it to show to the others "oh my, that's the same arm I kicked away from Max" "how did it even followed us" "maybe it crawled onto Lensfer's boat" "no it was just crawling, and how fast can someone crawl with one arm and no body"
the crystal arm inside the container begins to move relentlessly trying to escape but had weights on top of the lid and they all begin to observe the crystal arm "honestly it's kind of cute" "are you kidding me Annie?!" Max is starting to stare at it wondering if its really his arm "hey Max are you okay bud" "I'm fine Rayn, its just weird seeing what used to be apart of me moving on its own" "wait so you control, your own arm?" "I'm not sure but I'll try" Max tries to put his focus onto his own arm trying to control it but would not respond "hm, I can't seem to control it" "well that's a shame" "but I can still feel it" Max soon gently placed him hand near the container and the crystal arm reacts as well
"Hey Lensfer take off the weights".
Everyone is surprise by Max's response "Max are you insane!" "Max why would you say that?!" "Max you lost your arm due to a piece of crystal. Are you willing to lose another arm" "or worse are really sure bud?" despite everyone's accusation Max's request was crystal clear at this moment Lensfer begins to remove the weight on top of the container and slowly opens the container and the crystal arm slowly climbs out of the container. Max soon lends out his hand awaiting for the crystal arm to respond waiting it reaches towards Max's hand and gets a hold on his hand, and suddenly the crystal arm to shatter into pieces falling to the ground "Max what did you do?!" "I don't know in immediate contact" "well I wasn't expecting that to happened". Everyone in awe by the crystal arm however, they all notice, the each shattered piece of crystal starts to glow and flies into Max's chest shimmering brightly, then the light slowly faded away "so is that all?" "Max do you feel anything" Max tries to sense something inside himself but feels nothing "I don't feel anything" "perhaps it takes time" minuets pass but nothing has happened yet "maybe we should get going now. It's getting late. And me and Max have to go onto our shift later" "Rayn do you think its a good idea to go for Max to work while missing an arm" "well I guess I should take both shifts for Max. Until we can figure out what to do with Max's missing arm" "but we do have the fake arm we created" "Max people would definitely get suspicious if that fake arm didn't move" Max feeling defeated decides to take it easy onto himself "Hugh, fine I'll take the day off, let's just go home already". They all begin to leave Annie's house and make their way to walk with Max, back towards his place that is a couple blocks away from Annie's place, and successfully made with way to Max's house and once dropping off Max, he waves goodbye to them before heading into his home as they all leave, and heading upstairs taking off his jacket and laying onto his bed going to sleep though the night.
(End of chapter 4)