Oliver and Juliet ran after Deckerton.

"What in blazes is going on?" Dappersby cried. "I want every officer on duty out there right now! Catch that man!"

Oliver and Juliet ran into the square, followed by half the police station. Mortimer had a head start, allowing him to run for a far corner by City Hall. Wide flagstone steps lead up to a platform where some of the giant balloons that supposedly carried the weight of the floating city were anchored.

Ropes as thick as your arm were knotted around a loop of iron set in concrete in the middle of the platform, leading high into the sky where they held tightly to the large beige balloons. Around it, the platform was fenced in brasswork and several hot air balloons lay flat, ready for inflation and use. All except for one in which two men were just finishing up with the hot air.

"Out of my way!" Deckerton cried, pushing one of the men over with his cane and jumping into the balloon basket.

"Hey!" The man shouted from the ground. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stop that man!" Juliet yelled, climbing the last steps up to the platform. "He's a criminal!"

"We know!" Shouted the man still standing next to the balloon. "He's stealing our balloon!"

Deckerton untied the ropes holding the basket down, taking off into the air. Somewhat.

"What is wrong with this thing?" Deckerton snarled, clinging to the basket so as not to fall as it drifted sideways.

"Well, we weren't quite done filling it!" The man on the ground yelled. "If you had just waited we could have told you that. It's not done with the hot air!"

Deckerton released a few of the sandbags from the sides, trying to help it climb higher, but it wasn't doing much. And to make matters worse, the awkward tilt of the balloon was letting out some of the heat, causing the sideways drifting problem to only get worse.

"He's heading over the train tracks!" Oliver shouted as he ran back down the steps. "We can still catch him!"

Oliver and Juliet ran down the stairs just as the police were running up.

"Turn around!" Juliet said. "Deckerton is in that balloon!"

But Oliver and Juliet already had a head start, and as the cluster of officers untangled themselves to turn around, the pair of unlikely detectives were already boarding the Brasslantis Grand Express.

"Off the train!" Oliver cried. "We're having a balloon chase!"

"Did someone say balloon chase?" The engineer popped open his door, a boyish gleam in his eyes. "I've waited for something like this my whole career! Hop in you two, we'll catch this balloon."

Alarmed Brasslantians scurried from the slow train as it took off suddenly at the unprecedented pace of a casual stroll. Juliet helped the last few passengers hop off as the train wound around it's circle of track that allowed it to turn around and head back down to the bottom of the city. Oliver just finished putting more coal in the boiler, and then the pair joined the engineer in his car.

"Over there!" Oliver pointed to the balloon Deckerton had stolen, it was somewhat righting itself again, but it was also clear that Deckerton did not know what he was doing.

"He's still going down a bit," Juliet said. "But it looks like he's mostly staying over the tracks."

"Full speed ahead then!" The engineer giggled as he pulled a lever on the train. "We're going to catch that balloon!"

The train picked up its pace, taking on the speed of a person walking home when the sky looks just gray enough to potentially sprinkle within the hour while they are carrying an armful of groceries. Pushing the limits of the Brasslantis Grand Express and blazing down the tracks at speeds it wasn't made to reach.

Oliver stuck his head out the window as they were somehow able to draw near to the errant balloon.

"You'll never get away with this, Deckerton!" Oliver cried. "We have you now!"

"Oh no you don't!" Deckerton shouted back, pulling something from his waistcoat.

A shiny pistol appeared from within the balloon basket, and Juliet gasped as Deckerton took aim and shot it at the train!"

With a ping, the bullet bounced harmlessly off the smokestack.

"Drat!" Deckerton cried. "Hold on, I'll reload it."

"It only shoots one round?" Oliver asked. "That's very inconvenient. No wonder you're a failed inventor."

"Quiet you!" Deckerton raised the pistol above his head. "So help me, I will get the recognition I deserve! If this damned city wasn't so stuck on steam power, everyone would see my genius!"

The engineer and Oliver gasped, Juliet looked at if she would actually faint as she began fanning herself.

"Stop, in the name of the law!" One of the police officers shouted as they began boarding the moving train.

The engineer turned in surprise to see them trying to come into the already crowded car.

"Stop," Juliet said. "We're not all going to fit!"

But the officers still pushed forward like lemmings.

"Get back!" The engineer tried to guard the levers and buttons of the train. "You're going to hit something and I can't see!"

But it was too late. The bodies shoving into the car and yelling at Deckerton were too much, and someone knocked Oliver into a lever.

A large clank sounded from in front of the train, and Juliet poked her head out the window.

"The tracks changed!" she gasped.

Sure enough, the tracks ahead that would have taken them down the winding slope to the bottom of the city were suddenly blocked, and the tracks lead to a dead end that would end in disaster if the train didn't stop soon!

"We need to stop the train!" Juliet cried.

"I can't reach the lever for that!" the engineer cried.

Ping.

Juliet pulled her head inside the train, just as Deckerton's bullet hit the train near the window.

"Take that!" Deckerton said.

Juliet and now Oliver looked out the train again.

"Why did you do it, Deckerton?" Oliver asked. "Surely this is a sufficient chase for a monologue?"

Mortimer Deckerton thought about it for a moment as he began reloading his pistol. "Yes, I suppose it is. Alright then, one moment."

He tucked his gun back in his waistcoat and pulled out a paper to read from.

"Revenge!" Deckerton cried. "Revenge on my old colleague Quimby! He knew I was perfecting an air purification system for the betterment of Brasslantis, and he insisted he could make a better one! Just because his had all those flash steam valves, everyone used his design! No matter that mine actually worked better."

"That's true," the engineer said from somewhere in the police officer stuffed train car. "Stirlingwell's design actually makes it worse with the train smoke."

Several officers nodded their agreement.

"And why Phoebe?" Juliet cried. "Why did you have to use her?"

Deckerton's face fell. Even his mustache and eye patch weren't keeping him looking as dastardly as he usually did. "Phoebe was an accident. I didn't mean to kill her. I didn't know she was in my lab when I was working on some dangerous machinery and... I was afraid to tell her family, they already detested me. But then I realized I could use her to frame Quimby! Phoebe was always on my side, she even tried to help me plot other petty revenge schemes that we never got to follow through with. I knew she would have wanted it this way."

"Ew," Juliet said. "That's disgusting. I don't think you know what a young lady wants at all, Deckerton."

"Oh no!" Oliver cried. "The cliff!"

In the confusion of Deckerton's tale, the dead-end disaster ahead of the train was all but forgotten. The engineer quickly shoved between two officers and yanked on the lever to stop the train, but they were too close to the edge.

"Everybody out!" Juliet called.

"It's going straight for the balloon!" Oliver shouted.

Juliet, Oliver, the engineer, and the officers all piled out of the moving train, risking sprained ankles in the process. Meanwhile, Deckerton was desperately loosing the sandbags from the balloon, hoping to rise above where the train was about to crash.

Oliver was the first to hit solid ground, and he ran along side where the tracks were about to stop and drop to a lower level of Brasslantis.

Peering over the edge as Juliet drew close to him, Oliver shook his head. "It's going to ruin the tanning yard!"

Juliet gasped. "Not the leather supply!"

The train screeched and groaned, trying but failing to stop what should have been a very simple speed to stop on. But not for the Brasslantis Grand Express. The shiny brass engine drove forward, slowing its momentum little as it crashed into the feeble bumper that was meant to prevent going over the edge.

"My train!" The engineer covered his face, beginning to weep as one of the nearby officers patted his back to console him.

Everyone simply watched on in horror as the prize transportation of Brasslantis went tumbling over the edge and right into Deckerton's stolen balloon.

"Oh no you don't!" Juliet cried. She pulled her decorative belt from her waist, tossing one end toward where the balloon was falling into the sheer cliff below her.

Deckerton grabbed onto it in desperation, and with Oliver's help Juliet was able to catch the villain's weight.

They pulled Deckerton up just as the Brasslantis Grand Express crashed into the yard below, scattering brass and gears everywhere.

Deckerton stood, brushing off his clothes from the smoke and steam that covered them all. Then, he reached into his coat and pulled out his pistol once more.

"Alright!" he declared. "Time for chase number two!"

"Like hell!" Juliet snapped, and drew back her dainty fist in a ball, slamming it forward into the older man's jaw.

Deckerton spun and collapse as a wide-eyed Oliver watched the scene with several speechless officers behind him.

Juliet clapped her hands, shaking the smoke and dust loose from her delicate leather gloves. Deckerton was on the ground, out cold.

"You know something, Juliet?" Oliver said. "I believe you're a rather capable sort, aren't you?"

Juliet glared at him. "Are you only just figuring that out now, Mr. Detective?"

"You're under arrest!" An officer who had finally recovered from the disaster rushed to handcuff the unconscious Deckerton.

"Under arrest!" Another officer joined him.

Then another, and another until the lot of them sounded like a chanting mob as they tied up the disgraced inventor and lifted him over their heads, marching off to the police station.

"I'm so glad that's over," Juliet sighed. "Now the professor can get back to the University and everything can get back to normal.

Oliver looked at Juliet for a moment. Then, he slowly took his magnifying glass and pipe from his jacket and handed them to her.

"Not back to normal entirely," Oliver said.

Juliet took his things, surprised. "What's all this?"

"I don't think I noticed it along the way," Oliver started. "But I get the feeling you were a big help on the case."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "You're a real sharp one, aren't you, Oliver?"

Oliver chuckled, pulling out a second pip that he was hiding who knows where and putting it to his lips. "How would you like to be my partner, Juliet? We could be the greatest crime-solving team this side of Mars."

"You know what, Oliver?" Juliet said, tucking the magnifying glass in her bodice. "I think I'll take you up on that. This has been the most intellectually stimulating thing I've done in a while. Even the chess matches at the country club were becoming stale."

"Help!" A woman's voice shouted from a nearby house. "Someone has stolen my necklace! Who could have done it?"

Oliver and Juliet exchanged a look, then a smile, then they began dashing toward the yelling.

"Come on, Oliver," Juliet said. "We have a case to solve!"

~The End~

Mortimer Deckerton was convicted of killing Phoebe Lushington and trying to frame Professor Stirlingwell, as well as stealing a hot air balloon. He now serves a thirty-year sentence in the Brasslantis Penitentiary.

A memorial garden was built by the Lushington family in memory of their daughter Phoebe. She may have been a nitwit, but she was a loved nitwit.

Professor Stirlingwell went back to the University of Brasslantis for a short stint but was hardened by his time behind bars. He ended up leaving the classroom to pursue a new life as a professional poker player. He cut a very intimidating figure with his many tattoos, which were constantly changing, and his steam-powered chair went on to be the standard for household use.

Chief Gogglegear awarded Oliver and Juliet the Brass Medal of Excellence for solving the first case of murder in Brasslantis's short history, and the pair went on to become a successful crime-solving duo.

Oliver eventually learned to listen to Juliet after seeing her knock Deckerton out cold.

Juliet lead a happy life, gaining renown at the country club with her daring tales and finally shutting up the insufferable Cecilia Darling.