Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Omni]

"Well, I'm Jina, and I'm hungry."

"Well, I have to say, this is a nice place you got here. What's the specialty on the menu?"

"It better be something I recognise."

"They try to include foods made by as many species and races as possible. For example, I have pizza, and then there's this alien food called "cible." I think it smells like a dessert, but they insist that it's a normal meal."

((I may add to this post later.))

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]"Well," Rider said, "that truly was an unusual concoction. Perhaps could I have another?"

One of the spectators, (and the sight had drawn a fair crowd,) asked, "Are you sure you're a carbon-based life form?"

"From the NTWF, yes."

"You do realize that no one, no one asks for a second Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, right?"

She shrugged casually. "I just asked for my fifth."

There were many faces.

---

Meanwhile, the General sidestepped the charging boy. He grabbed John's arm and swung him around, sending him careening into the wall.

"I've put up with you until now because you were illustrating my point. Don't push your luck, kid.

"My brothers and sisters, vessels wait even now to take us to the moon. Arm and prepare yourselves for war!"

The demons charged out of the tavern, completely disregarding the three boys. They were soon out of sight. [/glow]

[Cyborg]

" Okay, let's go." Cyborg said as Keng dragged him along. " And I can follow rules, ...I just usually choose not to." he added with a smirk," but when we're there I need to have an extremely important talk with you."

[Kengplant]

"Funny, I was going to say the same to you." Keng replied.
It wasn't long before she was leading the way into the bay and towards the Ludicrous. "Well, there she is." she smiled warmly at the large hunk of assembled metals and manufactured materials. With the touch of a button (which recognized her DNA) a ramp opened to let them in. "C'mon in. We can talk inside."

---

Keng didn't wait for Cyborg and was quick to head up the ramp. She didn't like walking up it. It felt more natural to run up the incline. As she entered the main living room she was met with a rather disgruntled grizzly. "Woah... umm... hungry there boy?" she asked giving it's head a scratch. "Just a moment and-"

She was cut off as the bear suddenly rushed passed her towards Cyborg as he was coming up the ramp. "Muskoka no! Stay!" she ordered and the bear came to a dead stop. "Ee-gads, I had a whole crew of pirate and a host of rodent here and you don't even notice, but one person comes up and you're all teeth and claws. I swear, an asteroid couldn't wake you up."

[Cyborg]

" Eh down there boy. Muskoka, nice name. He's kind of cute, in the rawr I'm going to bite your head off kind of way." Cyborg stated," Just kidding, so anyways, is this big fella' going to attack me or is it safe to talk in here?" he asked as he walked in.

" Well I have to say this is amazing! So anyways you said you wanted to talk to me too. What's on your mind?" he asked walking around in the magnificent ship.

[Speck]

Speck raised her eyebrows and looked down at the blue meepit. She knelt down to give her message to it, "Cyborg has run off to play with his girl, selfish as he ever has been. It falls to me,"

She stood up, eyes looking directly at the table Huntress and company sat at. As inconspicuous as she could, she strode up to the table, left the package of communicators on it, and strode off to the nearest directory. She only paused for a moment to scan it for the library, then was swiftly on her way towards it. As she walked on, she tried to remember what it was she was supposed to get, and where she was supposed to get it. After all, it had been Cyborg's mission, not hers.

At a fork in the corridor, she let out a frustrated sigh. Her fingers felt for the letter in her pouch, and she took it out. After staring at it for a moment, she closed her eyes and broke the seal. To her, it contained explicit instructions as to Joce Farlap's mission. To any passerby, it might look like a detailed diagram of a pocket watch, with a note scrawled in the bottom right corner, "Thinking of you."

"Huh," Speck skimmed through the instructions, then stowed them away in her pouch again, "That's all very good, but I still need to find the library, Farlap."

---

Meanwhile, at the Grey Lupe Inn...

"So is that it then, General Kyvr?" Joce, hands on hips, huffed at the demon leader, "I blackmail and bribe to get you a distraction, and I don't even get any fun? I just wasted a perfectly good spell on that boy!"

She angrily pointed at John. Bennet released Jacob and shoved him towards Jinglehimer. Noah looked on at the scene with a completely apathetic expression. He was angrier than he had ever been at Joce Farlap, however briefly he had known her. Sending his only daughter, for that matter his only child, up on what was supposedly a suicide mission would get anyone steamed.

[Kat]

John was dazed. You would be too, if you found yourself careening into a solid wall.

He slid down it and managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, but he was too busy watching stars twinkle before his eyes to realize what was going on. All he could hear was a lot of more useless talking from those demons. He had no idea that someone had also tried to cast a spell on him; maybe that was one good thing that came from Kyvr hurling him aside.

"Let me go, or I'll stick this blade into you!" That was Jacob, a distant shape in someone's grasp amidst the stars still clouding John's vision. The eldest triplet heard a thump, and realized that Jacob had been released, and would surely go back to protect Jingleheimer.

That was John's cue.

He finally struggled to his feet, feeling his scalp; there was definitely something wet there. Looking at his hand confirmed his suspicions.

It was red.

Well, John was seeing red now anyway.

* * *

"Sorry," said Jacob as he collided with Jingleheimer, who could only nod. The second brother sprang up and threw himself onto Bennet in a typical tackle, knives drawn and at his enemy's neck.

"John!" Jacob called out. "Are you all right? Looks like this so-called beggar isn't really a beggar after all. I want my shinies back!"

"A little sore," was the still-dazed reply. "And who cares about your stupid shinies?" He ran forward, headed for Joce, daggers out.

[Zylaa]

When the Grizzly bear had entered the living room, the weasels had turned to stare at it, in unison. Then, seeing that it was merely disgruntled and not hungry, they turned back to the shininess of the ship.

However, when the Grizzly started to charge, the weasels closest to the door had scattered to get out of its way. #218 and #64 bounded out of the doorway and leaped off the sides of the ramp, the better to avoid the angry bear.

As Cyborg walked in, several of the weasels stared up at him. "Shiiiiny," a dozen of the weasels murmured in unison.

In the meantime, #218 and #64 stared around them, awestruck by this new, expansive, and above all, shiny room they had found themselves in. When they saw the far door, they began to scamper towards it, realizing almost in unison that they had stumbled upon the musteliad equivalent of Candy Mountain.

---------

Zylaa, in the cafeteria, felt a sudden nagging sensation in the back of her head... as if dire foreboding had just taken place, and she had missed it.

But she continued sitting at the table, drinking her water (that had totally arrived with the waiterbot ten minutes ago), and listening with appreciation to Hunty's outright lying.

"A tour sounds interesting," she said, after Hunty finished her question. "I'll tag along. See if we can't get that discounted rate you mentioned," she added to Fraze. To the new person-- Ethan, she added, "Hey, I'm Zylaa. Nice to meet you."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]"I blackmail and bribe to get you a distraction, and I don't even get any fun? I just wasted a perfectly good spell on that boy!"

"You can have your fun on your time," Kyvr said. "We have to meet the other generals and the High Warmaster on the moon. The shuttle is leaving in ten minutes."

"Come, my brothers and sisters!" and the demons followed him out of the inn, leaving Joce and co. to deal with the children. [/glow]

[Amneiger]

Amneiger shook his head; he couldn't remember who else had been in the lab. He opened the door again and looked back inside. It didn't seem to have that light distortion that made it look as if time was passing at a different rate somewhere else that had so disturbed him earlier.

Well, if portions of the lab were safe he might be able to find his way to his office and scan the rest of the area from there; he'd decided to not have the surveillance network for the labs accessible from his room in the residential sectors.

A few minutes later, Amneiger had found his way back to his office and had logged on to the security system. This area doesn't seem affected...nor this one...but this one does... Amneiger marked the affected location on a map of the research labs and continued. It seems to be centered on the lab with the strange bike we brought in...let's take a look at that.

Amneiger looked at the bike.

Then he looked at it again.

And again.

Or at least he tried to look at it again, since his eyes seemed to be sliding off large parts of it.

Who was in the control room for that lab? And what's the frequency for their communicator?

"Jaliv? Fesserfa? This is Professor Amneiger. What's going on down there?"

[Fraze]

"What's the specialty on the menu?" Kat asked.
Fraze paused, searching for the right words. "There really isn't a specialty. Like I said, there are many, many menu items. I find their burgers to be pretty good, but that's just my preference." With that, he took another drink of his malt.

"So if you have the time, then we could perhaps go right after the meal?" Hunty said.
Once again, Fraze thought of the soft bed waiting for him in his quarters. He then considered that he hadn't seen these friends of his--if "friends" was indeed the right word, he still wasn't quite sure--for a few months. The tour won out, he was used to sleep deprivation anyway. "Sure, sounds good!" he answered cheerily. "If you're just staying the day, I won't be able to show you a whole lot, but we should be able to get in the main attractions."
Fraze paused. Over his malt, he pondered why the pirates would show up for just a day, when tickets cost so much...eh, probably diplomatic stuff, maybe Spacefleet paid for it.
Thinking back to Bloody Mary's eager request for pocket money, Fraze added, "I work at the Spacefleet Gift Shop. If you want souvenirs, they have some fairly good stuff there. It's all knickknacks, toys, and clothing, but most of it is pretty cheap. You could get an action figure of yours truly! I'm...still not quite sure why they carry that, actually..." He drifted off into thought about this subject.

[Kat]

"All right, I'm getting a burger. And that malt you're having," said Kat, standing up and leaving the table. She was back in a flash with her order, and was quiet for most of the time, eating and looking all around.

"I work at the Spacefleet Gift Shop. If you want souvenirs, they have some fairly good stuff there. It's all knickknacks, toys, and clothing, but most of it is pretty cheap. You could get an action figure of yours truly! I'm...still not quite sure why they carry that, actually..."

At this, Kat raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. D'you think they'll make action figures of other forumers? It would be nice to reenact the past war..." She paused. "Never mind. A tour sounds nice. I'd like to see more of this place...and how everything runs. Unfortunately, I'm not very mechanically-minded, and not just because I'm a mage."

[Huntress]

Bloody Mary was getting worried. Granted, 'worried' wasn't the right word. A general mixture of suspicion and a bad feeling would've been more apt a description. He'd already gotten over the sinking feeling in his stomach the space-flight and getting pulled far away from his usual life had caused, but now another sinking feeling replaced it.

One of the main reasons being, of course, Hunty. The captain had all the right to be absentminded and worried, what with the double-edged sword of almost-backstabbing and sneaky alliances and plots and missions hanging above her head, but he hadn't seen her this distant and absentminded in a while now. It was unnerving. More so considering their current situation.

The meepit sighed inwardly, suppressed the urge to bite Hunty and kick her out of whatever she was falling into, and dropped off her shoulder again, having spotted Justice who was cruising back towards the table, stopping every once in a while to pick up breadcrumbs. The two met by the leg of Hunty's chair and stuck their noses together.

"Well?" Bloody Mary's voice sounded more serious than usually.

"Well," said Justice, "you may look surprised now. Cyborg's dropped the mission and gone off to chitchat with the werewolf, or so I heard it."

Bloody Mary's face, as much as it could convey expressions, darkened. "He might be using this as a cover and go later?" There wasn't much hope in that sentence, but being an anarchist, he was used to keeping an open mind.

"Speck said that she'll go herself," said the female.

Bloody Mary's expression darkened considerably more, then he looked up, pondered for a moment, and climbed up the chair again.

It'd be unconventional, but it'd definitely serve to shake Hunty back into her usual self, which Bloody Mary much preferred despite all the rough edges. He paid halfhearted attention to what Fraze was saying, what the other pirates were ordering, and how the entire conversation was drifting towards the kind of lethargy where people spend the time coughing, avoiding each other's eyes and saying things like 'How nice'. The meepit reached the shoulder, took a convenient position and relayed the message.

The effects were instant. Hunty was too much of a straightforward pirate to cover something like this up with her thin layer of acquired diplomacy. Her head snapped sideways so fast that the meepit would've flown off if he hadn't seen this coming and clinged to the captain's blouse at the right moment.

"What?"

Bloody Mary made full use of his innocent don't-kill-the-messenger face. There was a moment of chilly silence.

"Hurry up and finish whatever you've ordered," she then said, in a voice with enough ice in it to end global warming. The order was meant for the crew only, but in her current state of mind she wouldn't have cared if any of the fleeters had taken in personally.

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]The sky was full of ships, wrecks held together with magic and spit. The seals and coats of arms of clans blazed in fresh, dripping paint. The largest of these ships held the High Warmaster. Shortly behind this ship, General Kyvr, Schzain and a dozen others floated through the star-studded nothing.

"We'll be landing in Spacefleet soon. Best buckle up," the general said to the demoness. Schzain felt a blush rise to her cheeks. There was something about this man that made the words catch in her throat. Something about his long, red ponytail or the way his kilt caught the occasional breeze that flitted through the shuttle.

"You have a singularly unique gift, Miss..."

"Schzain. Just Schzain."

"You're a half-demon?"

"On my mother's side. My father left us when he found out. He didn't think I might turn out to be a good kid. Humans are all like that. They all judge us. They think they're better."

Red took to the seas. She thought she was better than this life.

"Only a half-blood and your power is still so strong. You'll be a useful geurilla warrior."

"I can shift out of the visible spectrum. Infrared, ultraviolet, even colors beyond that, colors that the human eye cannot see. I am still solid, still there, but me and any items that I focus my energy on, like my clothes are invisible. I certainly can't hide a tank, or anything that I don't know as well as my own skin."

The craft jostled. Schzain pitched forward, and the general caught her before she hit the ground. The two froze in this moment, and Schzain thought she saw a slight blush on Kyvr's already ruddly skin. "Best buckle up," Kyvr said.

---

"What?"

That was a voice that could sober Rider up better than any Klatchian coffee. As a matter of fact, yes, I am mixing references.

She dwned the last Gargle Blaster and rushed to her captain's side. Ventratta, meanwhile, conferred with Hunty's Meepits in quiet. Even without Meepit assistance, Rider had a vague idea of what was going on. Inwardly, she swore never to trust a traitor.[/glow]

[Fraze]

((Because I forgot to do this in my last post...))
Keng showed up out of nowhere, grabbed Fraze, and threw him out an airlock.
Fraze was surprised, to say the least. Immediately, the near-vacuum of the moon forced all the air out of his lungs. He felt pressure from inside his body, as if he were going to burst. His eyes felt as though they would soon pop like two overinflated water balloons in his sockets. And the cold...it didn't just bite his skin, it tore into it, sapping every bit of warmth he had, instantly numbing him.
He still had his skinsuit. Acting as quickly as he could, he tore out of his clothing. When he had stripped out of his suit jacket and shirt, he poured the metallic glob on his head. Air rushed into his lungs as the suit spread over his head and chest, which he gulped down in enormous gasps. His legs were now completely numb and useless; he could see small red spots on his skin, where capillaries near the surface of his skin had ruptured. The suit quickly spread over these, as well, and once again he felt safe. He again put his formal suit on over his skinsuit, paused to regain his breath, and walked back to the airlock. After knocking several times, he was let in.

He went back and sat down with the pirates as though nothing had happened.

"Interesting. D'you think they'll make action figures of other forumers? It would be nice to reenact the past war..." Kat began, and paused. Fraze wondered now if there was something wrong with Kat--he couldn't see why anyone would want to relive that war.
"Never mind, she continued. "A tour sounds nice. I'd like to see more of this place...and how everything runs. Unfortunately, I'm not very mechanically-minded, and not just because I'm a mage."
"Heh, I've got no idea if they can make other action figures. I'd say take it up with the management." As soon as he said this, he realized he shouldn't have--because in this case, the management was the Spacefleet Gift Shop's manager, Caveat Vendor unit 19544-M. "Actually, don't. You're more likely to pry a straight answer out of a room full of politicians. If you're interested in how things work, either Ethan here or Bacon would probably be able to give you much better descriptions than I could."

At this point, Fraze jumped due to a loud "What?"

He was rather surprised. Based on observations, he had begun to assume that Bloody Mary and Hunty communicated in a coded language that employed a partial use of telepathy. But now, Bloody Mary seemed to have whispered something in Huntress's hear, and almost disconcertingly quickly, she reverted to the way Fraze most remembered her during the second Guilds War. "Hurry up and finish whatever you've ordered," she snapped. A number of 'Fleeters and other visitors looked her way, a few even complied.

Once again, Fraze remembered the last thing Hunty had said to him when they last met. "Take care, and hope we won't meet again. It'd mean nothing but trouble."
He also remembered his response. "The universe is ruled by irony. I'm sure we'll see each other at some point."
He had a nagging feeling of foreboding. "Please excuse me for a moment," he said, standing up. He made his way to the nearest restroom.
Changing in a bathroom stall never has been, and never will be, easy or comfortable. This is a law that surpasses all time and technological advancements. When Fraze stepped out again, he once more had his skinsuit on underneath his business suit for real this time. Just in case. When he returned, he asked, "So, would you like that tour now?"