Gravity Chasers Return (part 2)

"Leg it!"
Ark grabbed some charts, Will grabbed some tools and Liz pinched the penguin/parrot. They ran out of the cave, passed the mechanism and into the sunlight which stung there eyes. They jumped over the marshes, the rivers and through the trees. Dust rose behind them as the 9 Iron Lords of the Tanklor District chased them. All of a sudden a strange springy sound made itself apparent. Ark saw a shadow cross over him and then suddenly it appeared before them, Quintus! He was holding a a sacksful of vinel discs! He was jumping away from the iron lords but what he was saying was still audible. "Will! Grab hold of me and we can go warm up the vessel!"
"Ok!"
Will took the charts and the penguin/parrot, jumping onto Quintus' back who soon disapeared into the horizon.
"This way Ark!" Cried Liz, who was running up a small hill where rocks made it difficult to run unless you were quite small. Ark ducked through a gap and through other small cuts in the rock, trying always to  keep Liz in site. He was confused and so made a couple of wrong turns, which allowed him to see above the rocks revealing the heads of the iron lords.
They were catching up with Liz.
There was a small cranny coming up so he sneaked into it and pulled her through it. He clambered onto a larger rocks which, when standing on with your tippy toes and straining your eyes, you could see the vessel. He jumped off the rock and slid down it shouting, "Yahooo!" Briefly followed by Liz saying the exact same thing. They came to the bottom, covered in dust, and almost tripped over at the bottom. They raced across the dust and to the vessel jumping through the porthole/ airlock.
The balloon was already up and within seconds of the doors closing they were away! Suddenly they flew into the Heavens, further and further until they were in space!
Ark looked at the charts and said, "Well this looks fun!"

Gravity Chasers Return!

So far in our tale of intrigue and adventure: The crew of Ark, Liz and Will have found an automaton, automated robot, who has helped them travel to an island in the centre of a stormy triangle in the centre of the ocean. From there they have travelled through marsh land and finally arrived in a  cave where a strange beeping mechanism that had presumably been behind the strange conclusions was found. This is where we rejoin the adventure;

Ark and the rest of the team stood around the machine. It bleeped and beeped and shined and dinged. Ark decided it was a cacophany of noise but then an exceptionly strange thing appeared.
A penguin.
Why there was a penguin I am not sure but it was there nethertheless. What happened next was even stranger, no really!
 It spoke!
"Hello."
"Erm... hello." Said Ark.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Ark, who are you?"
"I'm Polly"
"Hello Polly,"
"Who's a pretty boy then?"
"What?"
"Squawk!"
"Are you a parrot or a penguin?"
"Both."
"Right. Hang on, where have you gone?" The parrot/penguin had vanished! Will walked out around the back of the macine and let out a gasp. "Come here quickly!" He shouted.

Ark and Liz followed him around followed by Quintus and were greeted by the site of a gigantic cavern. In the centre of the cavern was a table, much like that of the vessels, around which sat nine men that seemed to be made of iron. The cavern was full of treasures, such as gigantic quantities of gold and many ruby crystals. Ark walked over to the table and looked in a log book that was on it. "Guys, this book has co-ordinates in. I think they might be of where my father is."
"Let's go then! Allonsy if you will." Said Liz.
"One problem though."
"What?"
"It's not on this planet!"
"What!?"
"Exactly."
"Well, where is it?"
"In a differnet galaxy presumably."
"Ahhh."
Suddenly Quintus tapped Arks sholder. He pointed to a pile of vinel discs. He pulled one out of his mouth and put it on the floor. Ark picked up one of the vinels. Quintus clipped onto one of his silly hands. The needle scratched a series of lines into the disc and then inserted it into its mouth. Suddenly he started to speak. "I can speak!"
"Yes you can."
"Good because there is something I need to tell you."
"What?"
"The iron men are actually called the nine iron lords of the tanklor district."
"So?"
"So when Liz just touched them they came to life. And probably wanting to kill us and use our bodies to bring us back to life."
"Ah."     

The greek camera (part 4)

I walked into the porter cabin, my trousers caked in mud. Lodders, the police commissioner and Robin sat waiting for me. There was a silence in the room but when Robin saw the state of my trousers, that all changed. "Where on Earth have you been?" She asked.
"Down by the river, but nevertheless that doesn't matter. What matters is what I have learnt!"
"Which is?" Said the Commissioner.
"All in good time, all in good time. Now Officers," gesturing at the guards on the door. "I need our dear friend, the photographer and these builders." I passed him a note.

We waited about ten minutes before my guests arrived. Once everyone was in, I began.
"Are we all sitting comfortably? Then let the story begin. Now with all ingeniously clever crimes, much like illusions, there is an effect and a method. The effect for this crime was to convince everyone the lady had committed suicide in a locked cupboard with no way in or out. But then things started to fall apart. The lady couldn't have died in there for two reasons. Firstly there was no glass, plastic, or anything like that, vial for the poison to be in and carpet in the cupboard but none in the rest of the room. Can anyone explain this?"
Shakes of head between the audience.
"When doing the big reveal at the end of a case try to use audience participations Robin. Anyway, the next clue was that the door had to be cut off  for the forensics to get in. Weird, surely. The first person to see the scene was the photographer. Could he have changed the crime scene? No, but his camera did! The camera is issued with a standard 33' spec right?"
"Correct." Said the photographer.
"But it didn't. Instead it had an acropolis lens which, Mr photographer?"
"Distorts lengths, so they look different."
"Exactly. If we look at the photos it seems as though she could have fitted in there with the door open, because it opens in, when really she couldn't!" Robin demonstrated which was followed by gasps! "Which takes me to my next point. The cupboard, which is tiny, could not have such a gigantic door in. Finally, the porter cabin is situated to the side of a road, with a manhole cover next to it. Just to add the rust that had spread off the cover had a break in. Any questions?"
None.
"Now then, the method! The lady was killed elsewhere, more specifically the nightclub near the river. She was killed by the killer, who, took her to the drainage outflow into the river.  From there they took her to the manhole cover (underneath it that is) which he opened to make sure he was in the right place explaining the break in rust. He then lifted her on to a platform, which is decorated like the cupboard. Sadly however, the cupboard had carpet in even though the rest didn't. He made this mistake because he'd never been in the cabin. So the here comes the proof."
I laid a set of photos on the table proving my accusations.
"Which is why my shoes and trousers are mucky. I went down to ask a few questions. Such as if anyone had been down there. And low and behold a plumber had come up, well two in fact. Who are?"
The officers hand cuffed the builders. "Right so, they did it with a hydraulic lift and all the other things, they swapped the camera when walking to the site and so but why?"
"When I walked onto site first I almost collapsed from the smell. The smell being a drug. So they must be drug smugglers, who have been discovered by the lady."

The next month the press had condemned the men and we were famous all over. And that with the acropolis lens was the case of the Greek camera.

The greek camera (part 3)

We went back to the office to go over our notes. Things were looking good but there were a few things we needed to work out. It was decided that we shouldn't invite Lodders because, even though he is a brilliant cop, he can jump to conclusions quite easily. When we arrived Robin sat in my leather chair and I perched on my desk making further notes. Robin began, "So we've learnt from the photographer that the camera had an acropolis lens instead of a 33' spec, the difference being that the for mentioned is a view distorter making impossibilities seem realistic. The porter cabins carpet isn't in the rest of the hut, still no way for her to have got in there and the vial of poison wasn't found. Also why was there breaks in the rust? Those were the clue forecast, now to Gabriel for the questions."
"Thank you Robin," I said sarcastically. "Well today's main questions are firstly where did the poison go, how did she get in and why is  there a break in the rust. Also why was the camera used..." Breaking off in mid sentence.
"Gabriel, are you having a break through?"
"Oh, obviously."
"What?"
"Think it was opposite the road."
"What?"
"Drainage. Rivers. Hydraulics!"
"What?"
"Think! The lady never went through the door and into the original room. The camera made it look as though you could close the door on her dead body but the door never was opened. She was killed elsewhere and taken there through the drainage systems in the sewers. A special room was then put through the gap made under the cupboard. The grid was opened so they could look through and make sure they were in the right place. That's why there was carpet in the cupboard but not in the room. But why? I need proof but I know how to get that. Meet me at the porter cabin tomorrow. bring lodders!
I rushed out grabbing my camera and note book.
"Well, how about that as the scoop of a lifetime!" Said Robin.