Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Zylaa]

"That's her. And someone else is in there, too. Shall we listen in, or go in?"

Zylaa listened. It really was Speck-- but she noticed the bathing attendant looking at them curiously.

“Do you plan on telling me anything about it?” Speck said, inside the room.

"That's not her. Pretty similar, but it's not her," she said, falsely cheery. "Let's go for the baths."

She took Jina by the arm, still holding up a smile for the bathing attendant. The staff member seemed mollified and kept leading them down the hallway. A knot was clenching in Zylaa's stomach, though-- Speck hadn't sounded happy. She needed to do something. An idea came in a flash.

She raised her right arm up, stared, and exclaimed "Oh no, look at my-" wrist-- "watch!" she finished with barely a pause. "We've got to get back to the ship! Come on, Jina!"

Zylaa turned around, ready to dart back down the hallway, and then thought of something. She turned back to the attendant. "Could we get a refund, please?"

The bewildered staff member opened her mouth to protest, put "ship" together with the unsavory garb of the two potential customers, and said "Sure."

She handed over the money and kept on walking down the hall, probably to tell the other staff not to fill the tubs.

As soon as she was out of sight, Zylaa ran back to the door she had heard Speck behind, in time to hear repetitive thunking, as if someone was banging their head against a wall.

"Speck?" she called, although not loudly enough for the attendant to hear.

[Speck]

"Speck?"

She stopped banging her head against the door. Was that the voice again, coming back so soon? No, this voice sounded familiar. Not to mention muffled through the wood of the door. Speck wasn't hearing things after all.

The lemon-loving pirate scooted the chair away from the door, enough for someone to open it and come in.

"Xylophone? Is that you?" Speck called back through the door.

[Huntress]

Hunty listened to Merpo's semi-coherent rambling with a scowl and not so well veiled impatience. But in the end, waiting still paid off. Her expression softened considerably when she weighed the current situation.

So. Apparently they did have a way to get up to the moon after all. An actual plausible way. And in return, they'd only have to find some notebook, which, she assumed, wouldn't be too tricky, considering how easily Sev had gotten that one book. For a short moment she wondered whether this guy was trying to trick her. This looked almost too good to be true.

But then again - and something nasty flashed in her eyes when the thought passed her head - she had practice dealing with traitors, did she not?

She smiled at Merpo. Or perhaps grinned. With her, it was hard to make the difference.

"Deal. Shouldn't be too hard. Help us up there and we'll get you half of their library if you want."

"Hey, Napoleon," Bloody Mary interjected. "Half of the crew is hanging around in the city, if you remember. And the spy-to-be is feeding the fishes back at the bay. And our revival-inna-can is conveniently up on the moon."

Hunty paused, digesting all that. "Well, first we gotta get Sev..."

"How?"

"By contacting the Fleet HQ and asking them to relay a message, I'd think."

"My question still stands."

The captain ran a hand through her hair. "The spaceport. I'm the leader of the pirates and sent the ambassador up there, I'd think that the port will let me send a message to them. Once he's down here, I'll send him after Cy and anyone else in the crew who isn't present, and then it's all up, up and away."

"For a leader of a political interest group," the meepit said dryly, "you sure need shady ways to get connections with your allies."

Hunty glanced at Merpo. "Out of all adjectives, 'shady' isn't the one I'd use."

"...That was lame."

"You're not the one to talk." She patted Merpo on the shoulder. "Well then. To the Spaceport, if you please."

[Goosh]

((Retuuuuuurn!))

Goosh stumbled out of the alley and into the street. It was good to be in Tabloid Town again, to see the familiar sights and smell the unfortunately familiar. Beyond the Weewoo, Tabloid Town was the closest to thing to home he had.

He leaned against a crate, trying to get his balance. A kid was sitting there, too, tying a piece of string to a potato.

Goosh asked what the kid was doing.

The kid said that there was an evil tiger lady who was going to break into the moon and steal stuff.

Goosh said that the kid should mind his own business, and why wasn't he out nicking tourist cameras like all his friends?

The child flung the potato at Goosh and fled. Rubbing his shin in annoyance, the Yurble trotted down the street. Hunty was around here, and they were going to the Spacefleet, it seemed. Why or how, Goosh did not know, but he was confident Hunty would have some kind of plan. Or at least a half-arsed idea.

Something flicked into his periphal vision. A streak of neon light was leaking out of the alleyway beside him. Upon investigation, it turned out to be a man who looked like he had invented the colour wheel and decided to show it off.

Upon further investigation, the man was in conversation with his captain. "Well then. To the Spaceport, if you please."

Goosh slid past the rainbow and slouched against the brick wall behind his captain. "This is who we're going with?" he asked in disbelief. "The representative from Serial Killer Clown Travel Agency? He looks like a shady character. Well, not exactly 'shady', if you catch my drift..."

There was a very small groan. "You've got to be kidding me."

[Kengplant]

"Ok, so I just have to head over the usual sea, fly a few circles until I find the ship then... oh crab apples." Keng breathed as she noticed the fatal flaw in her plan at the same time she noticed the large red stain of blood on her clothing. It wasn't her blood and it had nothing to do with the fatal flaw in her plan but it caught her guilty attention nonetheless: it was from a new recruit who'd been badly wounded. She tried not to think of it so she could focus on her problem at hand which was that her ship couldn't land on water. She would have to land in Tabloid Town Spaceport. How she was going to make it to the Weewoo in time after that was a real problem. Maybe she could rent a shuttle from there that could land on water? She could only hope.

"Reset course for Tabloid Town Spaceport. Set to auto pilot. Maximum speed."
"Course is now set for Tabloid Town. Auto Pilot engaged."

Unlike other ships hers had no AI. Just prerecorded responses. As the ship brought her in she got up from her seat to get her things in order. It was a decent sized ship. Enough to carry a few passengers comfortably and an escape shuttle. She didn't have enough time to clean up. Well... maybe she did, but it wasn't an idea that had occurred to her quite yet. Understandably she had other things on her mind. Too much to worry about looking respectable and decent.

"We'll be entering the atmosphere in 2 minutes." announced the computer a short while later. And a short while latter after that she was landing and running out of her ship, flashing her ID at anyone who looked like they might ask before they could and heading straight to the reception to find out about any amphibious hunks of avian metal laying around.

[Kat]

"You've got to be kidding me."

Kat nodded to Goosh. "Nope, no kidding. Not this time."

* * *

John opened his eyes. Brushing the straw-colored hair from his eyes, he looked around at his surroundings. He knew that he was still in the Landfish, but something just wasn't right...

Now he remembered. He and his brothers had entered the tavern for a snack, and Grandfather had called them over. It was strange, seeing the old man again, especially after news had gotten around, saying that he had drowned in a swamp. At first, they were happy to see him again, and he started raving about demons, and telling them stories about the dang creatures. John and his two brothers were overjoyed; the man had promised to tell them more about demon hunting. It was the best revenge, after all, for three siblings who had lost their parents and five cousins to a horde of demons.

It was then that Grandfather wasn't Grandfather after all, and perhaps the real old guy didn't drown...it was more likely that he was drowned.

Then before they knew it, he confronted a mage who had been minding her own business, or so they thought. Was she also a demon too? What about the pirate with the red cape, who came busting in? And was it true that the mage was also a pirate?

It all came back to him. It was there that they were put to sleep by the demon who had posed as their grandfather.

But why? Why would a demon impersonate their demon-hunting mentor? Okay, so maybe there were some possible reasons...

"John?"

He glanced to his left. Jacob had turned on his side to face him. Nobody really noticed, but Jacob's bangs were slightly longer than John's.

"You awake?" asked John.

"Yeah. Are you all right?"

"Mmm-hmmm, just a little sore. And I still can't believe what just happened. Is Jingleheimer awake?"

"What are you two whispering about over there?"

"Yup, John, he's awake. At least we're all alive."

[Zylaa]

The banging stopped, and Zylaa heard some scuffling.

"Xylophone? Is that you?" Speck asked. Definitely Speck.

"Yeah, Jina and I are here," Zylaa said, as she tried the door handle. It opened, and the light from the hall spilled into the otherwise dark room. Nobody was there except Speck... who was tied to a chair. "What happened?!"

[Speck]

Speck squinted as the light came into the room, "Family issues. You mind untying me? These hemp ropes are really itchy."

Family issues. Right. They're really going to believe that? How do I know they weren't eavesdropping? How much of the conversation had they heard, if any? She thought, scooting the chair one-hundred and eighty degrees so that the bulk of knots were facing Zylaa and Jina.

[Fraze]

"Deal. Shouldn't be too hard. Help us up there and we'll get you half of their library if you want."
Merpo gave a wide-eyed, nearly manic grin at this. Half of Spacefleet's library would be...well, no, the one book would do.

Huntress and the meepit spoke some more. Merpo found it quite hard to follow the two of them. Something about needing to contact someone who was underwater...or something. He decided not to try too hard to figure it out.

"Well then," Huntress said again to Merpo. He flinched slightly as her hand reached out, but she just patted his shoulder. "To the Spaceport, if you please."
"Yes, of course." He turned and was about to set off, when another figure joined them. This one was a...yurble, he thought. Yes, that was what they were called. This one didn't seem too trustful of him, either--but Merpo was used to that by now.
"This way," he said. He put on his off-kilter "WARNING: Contents Under Pressure" smile, and led the way briskly out of the alleyway.
He could understand why they were having trouble finding the spaceport. It was, after all, designed to be something not easily found. The nicer part of Tabloid Town shifted into the not-quite-so-nice part of Tabloid Town, which quickly degraded into the part where everyone stared at everyone else, because no one could understand why anyone would want to be there. Merpo attracted even more stares than he usually did--which is to say, he went relatively unnoticed because everyone who saw him took the children inside and shut the door. This could be because of the people following him, he thought. He would have to test this hypothesis, if he could find more groups of people willing to follow behind him.
Merpo came to a door. This door was attached to yet another of the buildings squeezed impossibly close together. All the other buildings seemed put together in a hurried way, as though someone had chosen different buildings around Tabloid Town, pulled them up from their foundations, and squashed them together. This building, however, stood out because it looked as though it was supposed to be there. It seemed...uniform, in a way.
Merpo opened the door, and walked in. The small entrance room was dark and quiet, but not dusty or dirty. There was a small panel on one wall, with a button. Not a red button, of course, since that would have just begged people to press it. Merpo pressed it anyway.
There was a buzzing, and voice sounded from the panel. "Welcome-to-Tabloid-Town-Spaceport-what-is-your-business?" it asked with a cadence of practiced boredom.
Merpo cleared his throat. "Ahem. My friends and I want to buy some tickets to Spacefleet, please."
"What-time-do-you-want-to-leave-and-how-many-tickets-would-you-like-today?" came the voice's almost immediate reply.
"Uhh..." Merpo turned to Huntress, whom he now assumed was the captain, or at least some sort of leader. "Maybe you'd better talk to her." He stood aside for Huntress to squeeze past him.

[Jina]

"Family issues. You mind untying me? These hemp ropes are really itchy."

Speck turned around, and Jina knelt own to untie her. "Speck, remind me never to let you introduce me to your family." But what kind of family issues end up with someone being tied up on a chair? she thought. Still, if she is hiding something then it's probably for a good reason.

Once the ropes were undone, she stood up again. "I trust your family isn't going to come back and catch us? 'Cause we might want to be making our way out right now if they are."

[Zylaa]

"Speck, remind me never to let you introduce me to your family," Jina said as she began untying the knots.

Zylaa inwardly agreed, and wondered along the same lines as Jina. Families that tie children up in chairs in darkened rooms are probably not a good sign. And these were dedicated knots too, knots that couldn't have been made if Speck was alert and active. Maybe it was a good thing she and Jina had missed their baths. But the bathhouse person had seemed genuinely surprised...

Also, how had the family gotten out? They had been in here when Zylaa and Jina first walked by, and yet ten minutes later there was no trace of them. They logically couldn't have used the door, they would have been in the hallway recently. Maybe this family was ninjas. Or mages. Zylaa couldn't see a single window, and since the room was pitch dark, there was probably no window to be seen.

"I trust your family isn't going to come back and catch us? 'Cause we might want to be making our way out right now if they are," Jina said.

"And also, no offense, but is it customary in your family to tie people to chairs? If you're avoiding the issue, just tell us. Unless we're at immediate risk, we can just forget this whole incident ever happened, if that's what you want. Although I think your family owes us each a bath," Zylaa added, indicating Jina and herself.

[Speck]

As soon as the knots were untied, Speck shook the loose ropes off and stood up. She briskly walked to the hallway past Zylaa and Jina, looking in both directions before stepping out of the room, as if she were looking both ways before crossing a street.

"I'd rather you two not pry into my personal life, thanks," she said, signaling the other two to follow her down the hallway, "We'd best be getting back to the captain. Do you guys know where she might be?"

Speck didn't wait for them to answer before walking towards the exit of the bathhouse. I will find you again in half an hour. Give me your decision then. She felt that, somehow, the mysterious voice would want her to be alone for their second meeting. There wasn't much time.

---
((Meanwhile...))

Joce Farlap took a deep breath in the little hideaway, miles away from the heart of Tabloid Town. Standing guard at the entrance to the hovel was one of her partners, a demon with naught but pointy ears, red eyes, and a tufted prehensile tail as his only distinguishing features. His tail swished back and forth as both of them waited for the third of their party.

There was a quick rapping on the door; the demon opened it. A man who looked to be in his thirties stepped through, taking off a wide brimmed hat. Like the demon who let him in, the man had pointed ears and red eyes. He lacked the long tail, however.

“Good day, Joce. Good day, Bennet,” The man took off his overcoat and tossed it over a threadbare couch in the center of the small room, smiling, “How’s it going?”

“We talked to your daughter today, Noah,” Joce said casually, examining her nails in what limited light there was.

Noah froze, his smile fading from beneath a scruff of a moustache and beard, “What?”

“You heard me, dear.”

“She’s alive!” The man danced on the spot, then tried to get the demon Bennet to join in. The demon danced with Noah begrudgingly, but only for a moment; his face was expressionless. Speck’s father’s face was happier than a child’s would be on Christmas morning, “What did she say! What is she doing! Oh, where does she live? If I could just talk to her for one minute—“

“No,” Joce turned on the spot to face the happy father.

“What do you mean, ‘no’” Noah glared, “You didn’t… She’s my only daughter, Joce!”

“She was the only one I could bribe. I’m meeting with her soon to get her decision. I doubt she’ll say no,” she said, leaving the room and locking the door behind her.

Noah swore under his breath and clenched his fists. Bennet stood guard by the door, looking sadly at the man. “I’m sorry, Noah Speckleton.”

[Kengplant]

Keng burst through the door to the room where her former crew stood next to a living colour theory experiment. Or at least she burst through as much as one could through an automatic sliding door. The smooth gliding kinda got rid of the necessary "shwoosh" and "bang" of the doors that allowed one to properly burst through. Nevertheless she managed to burst through in a frantic hurry and run right past her crew to a wall which she immediately started knocking on rather loudly. "Open up this is an emergency!" she yelled at the wall which then slid open.
"Ok, ok, hold your taranagons. What do you need?" asked a squat man on the other side.
"I need a ship capable of landing on water." Keng explained as quickly as she could while still remaining intelligible. She then slammed her bag down open on the table. "Here's my clearance. Put it on my tab I'll pay when I get back."
"Right I-"
"Oh just give me the directory." Keng exasperated impatiently as she reached over the counter and began skimming through the directory. "Sorry by the way. I'm just really in a hurry."
"What's the hurry?"
"I need to find the pirate guild. Got any tabs on a ship called the White Weewoo?" continued Keng, completely oblivious to the fact that they were right behind her.

[Huntress]

Ever since the war, Hunty had often wondered how it'd been possible for a bunch of hi-tech moonpeople to keep an eye on the planet and occasionally infiltrate it without anyone noticing. She didn't wonder any more. You could hide anything in Tabloid Town, and most of the locals possessed a lot of that typical city intelligence that teaches people to stay away from trouble. Not to mention, they had the perfect tour guide for not getting noticed. Although Merpo was most likely the most colorful thing these gloomy streets had seen in various years, the locals' reaction to his appearance gave her the impression that should anyone ask about this procession later, nobody would turn out to have seen anything.

The Spaceport caught her off-guard. Well, okay, she had to admit that she'd probably expected something like this, considering how the port can't have been too flashy, but it was still... well... somewhat creepy. When she entered through that door, she got the odd feeling of leaving behind the comfortable world she'd spent her whole life in, and entering a completely new, strange, dangerous territory.

The captain eyed the panel with the button rather suspiciously. Not because she'd distrust the fancy technology, but because it represented a world she wasn't familiar with. Only now did she begin to realize what she was getting herself into.

"A'right," she said. "Before the tickets, I need to relay a message to one ambassador up there, Sev the phoenix," well, that was an exceptionally awkward title to refer to him with, "on behalf of Huntress, leader of the Pirates. The message goes 'get down here, pronto, no excuses'." She paused.

"And if you start with any of that 'please refer to Section 34-B to send official messages' crud, someone's going to get shot."

At about that point, the gods proved that they still have a very weird sense of humor. A door slid open and Keng stormed in.

"I need to find the pirate guild. Got any tabs on a ship called the White Weewoo?"

Hunty eyed her back with a raised eyebrow, then ambled across the room, leaned against the counter next to her, and craned her neck out to look at the directory.

"Yeah, do you have any tabs on a ship called the White Weewoo?" she asked. "If you do, I think I should be informed of it n'such."

[Kengplant]

Keng stopped what she was doing and slowly turned her head to her former captain with her mouth gaping open. She blinked dumbly then looked to the door where she'd come from, then back to where she was, trying to figure out how they'd appeared there in the 30 somewhat seconds inbetween the two locations.

After another pause in which she considered how little she'd slept in the past week she decided to blame her lack of observational skills on that and that her brain wasn't cut out for problem solving at this very moment.

"Bloody hell I need some coffee." she said at last, as she put down the listings of available ships for rent to turn her full attention to Huntress. "What in tar-nations are you doing at the Space Port?"

"Says here the White Weewoo was recently registered to have docked in port here." pipped up the squat man.

"Yea... I think I've caught onto that thanks..." sighed Keng. Her sleep deprived brain then kicked her and she jolted up. A little dust shook loose from her hair. "What happened to Cyborg? Has the trial..."