Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Omni]

"Ethan? This is Amneiger. The clock on these computers seems to have jumped back about nine hours or so. The security logs from that period of time seems to be missing; the logger is writing to what looks like a previously empty section of memory. There's no record of any of the things that've happened today. I'm not certain what just happened."

Well that explains why my internal clock jumped back, he transmitted. I don't seem to have lost any data though. Weird.

Not that there was a lot of important information from that day, but it still seemed odd.

I'm still trying to calm the crowd down. I don't think I can keep it up, though. If you know someone who would be better, please send them!

----------

"It was just a bear running into a door. Don't-" Keng stopped abruptly, pointing behind Brian, mouth agape. "Umm...."

Brian tried to block the view as much as he could. "Well, if it was just that, then I guess I'll leave you alone."

Before Brian could close the door, some other conversation bits met the ears of the scientists.

"Where did you last see Leraye?"

"Oh, right in-front of this door before he went swooshing off into the oblivion of no-where to get to no-clue where he went."

Fesserfa perked up. "Wait… Leraye? I've heard that name before… I think it was in some records of planetside history and mythology. But… is it just someone with the same name?"

[Fraze]

Fraze was doing his best to monitor transmissions, especially among those he worked with. He couldn't help but grin a bit at all the people who were, quite literally, trying to find themselves.
At the look he drew from Hunty, the grin vanished. Probably didn't like the whispered question to Keng.
Her answer, though somewhat tangential, was enough. It seemed that she was trying to find a reason for the Pirates to be here. Granted, this seemed to be a perfectly valid reason, and Fraze himself was glad to have any extra help with this situation--but still, it all felt a bit off.
He decided not to think too hard about this. As he said, he trusted Keng to make the right decision.

Somewhat to his surprise, Keng spoke directly to him again. "Actually, Fraze, as a spec. ops. do you have access to the surveillance systems?"
He paused for a moment. "As S.O., I...I believe I may, but only in times when the station itself is in danger. I think we can all agree this qualifies."
He paused for a moment, closing his eyes. Some of the cameras were coming back to life as people rushed to fix the station-wide computer crash.
He buzzed through the active ones...hey, looks like she just escaped from somewhere.
Then he heard Rider's tongue slip. He knew where the girl was, by the camera's position, but decided not to say anything. There had been enough unfortunate slips of information already, he didn't want to give a third one.
Instead, he decided to listen in to the chatter coming from station security. Among the chatter about panicked crowds, fights breaking out due to stress, and so forth, there were the occasional communications about an escaped prisoner.
He decided to say something. "Security is looking for her, whoever she is. Not that that should be any surprise."

[Huntress]

"Hunty, we don`t like each other, but right now whether we like it or not, we all need to work together. These demons are powerful, and ruthless. I think the main thing, is making sure innocent pedestrians are out of our way when the demons attack."

"Righto," Hunty said with a scowl. "Don't you worry about me, I can work together with people well enough."

The situation, albeit tense, seemed to be resolving slowly, as the alliance was... well, more or less sealed. Keng was contacting the security and Kat was tracking Leraye. Then they were informed of some ninja running arou- woah now.

Rider's brain seemed to click faster - and a lot more slowly in other ways. "Security cuffs? What did Speckles do to get herself arrested?"

Hunty was now really wishing for some unknown force to step in for a moment and whoosh all fleetpeople off for just long enough to give her time to give some stern whacking to a couple people who very clearly would've deserved it.

There was a pause, then Fraze said, "Security is looking for her, whoever she is. Not that that should be any surprise."

The unknown force was obviously busy whooshing people somewhere else, so Hunty decided to shuffle her cards and play a different hand.

"If it's Speck," she said, letting a slight stress fall on the 'if', "then she's under my responsibility, part of our delegation - Bloody Mary, you laugh and I swear I'll sew you into a pair of mittens - and as such, subject to diplomatic immunity. Although I do understand that if she did anything to violate your laws, I cannot expect you to disregard it. Of course, if it turns out to be some random ninja, then by all means, zap away."

She looked at her shoulder. "Look, while I appreciate you trying to hold back laughter, the fact that it gave you a nosebleed and made a stain on my shirt isn't any better. And stop stuffing my hair in your nose."

"Picky picky picky," the meepit said with a rather interesting nasal quality, then picked up the new rules. "If she's in trouble, then we should find 'er first rather than Leraye."

"Wait… Leraye? I've heard that name before… I think it was in some records of planetside history and mythology. But… is it just someone with the same name?" Because either plotline continuity is for sissies or the two trains of conversation happened to collide at this particular point. You choose.

"Same one you heard of," Hunty said, sending a somewhat narrowed, if not exactly unfriendly glance at the fleeter who'd asked that. "At least I'm fairly sure, the name isn't that common. We've had quite a bit of trouble with him in the past."

"Speck," Bloody Mary reminded her. Even if it sounded rather like 'Zbeg'.

"Speck," Hunty agreed. "Could I get more info on the ninja?"

[Kat]

Kat's eyes were closed again as she tapped into the auras surrounding her. There were indeed a lot, but as expected, Leraye's did indeed stand out quite well, as he was a demon. Her staff glowed brighter still until it was dazzling enough to temporarily blind anyone who looked at it too long.

The door Keng had pointed out had the biggest concentration - and even that wasn't exactly big. It was better than nothing, however.

The light began breaking away from the staff as Kat opened her eyes. Ribbons of purple magic flowed down and onto the floor, where they took the form of a yawning, stretching kitten. Sparks jumped through its fur, and its eyes were shining sapphires that took in its surroundings. The kitten walked over to Huntress and instantly began rubbing itself against her legs.

"Sorry, Cap'n," said Kat. "Tracking spell. Follow the kitty." And to the kitty she said, "All right, you can nuzzle the Cap'n all you want later. For now, we're looking for Leraye, that slippery demon. Go fetch."

The kitten sprang into action and ran off.

((Once again, feel free to control the kitten.))

[Kengplant]

Muskoka was intrigued by this new strange appearance of a glowy purple kitty cat. He stopped squeaking his toy (but didn't drop it) to take a good sniff at the kitty. It didn't smell like it was alive... maybe it was a toy?

SZWOO! And the kitty was taking off down the halls. Intrigued by it, and convinced it was a play thing, Muskoka didn't wait for permission or orders from Keng, and took off after it. He was a fair match for the kitten's pace and proved to be the faster, his fish squeaking every other step. With a sharp push off he pounced. His front paws were outstretched, ready to pin the cat down and... they passed right through it. He skidded across the floor as he looked at his empty paws confused, positive that he'd gotten the kitten by the tail.

"Muskoka! Bad! No pouncing kittens." called Keng as she caught up with her bear. "Alright, guess it's time for follow the leader then."

[Fraze]

"Same one you heard of," Hunty told the 'Fleeter, whom Fraze didn't recognize. "At least I'm fairly sure, the name isn't that common. We've had quite a bit of trouble with him in the past."
A bit of trouble with Leraye? Fraze shot an amused glance at Hunty.
Kat's staff flared brightly now, and Fraze's suit polarized the light to protect his eyes. It formed...a kitten? This may or may not have seemed familiar to Fraze. Didn't she make kittens to try to heal the Commander?
Still, it was so cute. A part of Fraze he would rather have not shown wanted to pick the little thing up and stroke it.
Before he could, the kitten took off, with Keng's...bear?...following close behind. He considered worrying about it, but realized it probably wouldn't be in any danger--after all, it was just a piece of magic. Wasn't it?

"Speck," Hunty said, apparently to Fraze. His head snapped back to look at her. "Could I get more info on the ninja?"
"Uhh," Fraze answered. He channeled back through the security cameras. They appeared in his vision much as windows on a computer screen--though semitransparent in the way your hand looks when you hold it close to your face and look at something in the distance.
"Not much to say. Medium height, covered in dark-blue ninja garb."
He had the suit screen the images coming from the security camera for anything strange. He did not monitor this; the computer in his suit would work faster this way. "Spectral analysis shows elevated traces of citric acid and limonene. Which are..." he paused for the suit to tell him what this meant. "Has your friend been around...citrus fruits much?"

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]The kitten led the troop to the medical bay, where a suspiciously nervous man in a nurse's uniform was playing with needles. The tufts of hair that were sticking out from under his nurse's cap were dark green.

Rider approached him. her hand brushed his shoulder. But of course this couldn't be...

"Stand back," he said in a perfectly calm voice, holding a needle up to Rider's throat. "I will not hesitate to use this. And then your little red-caped friend will die."

Rider read the label of the container he had gotten it from. "You can die from being vaccinated against chicken pox?"

Leraye sighed and put the needle back. "What was the term that you pirates are always so fond of... Oh yes. Parlay."[/glow]

[Kat]

"Okay, I'll stand back," said Kat calmly.

The kitten leaped forward and bit down into Leraye's ankle. Sure, the feline was made of magic and couldn't be touched, but it could give an extremely shocking bite fueled by lightning and fire.

"Mmmkay, Leraye, this is the part where we ask you stuff, and you answer or else."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]"As I recall," Leraye said, "That's not how parlay works."

He sat on the bed and rubbed his ankle. "The situation is this. Somewhere in Spacefleet is a monkey with my Gem. Only I know how to work the Gem properly. That monkey is now a danger to this dome, no, to this entire moon."

He paced the medical ward where men and women with burns, stab wounds, and all manner of ugly injuries lay.

"I want that Gem back. And I want to try to absorb the Bike into the Gem. And in return, I'll stop the demon attack. Think about it, how many fine warriors did you lose in that attack? How many more will you lose if they rebel again? if you let me absorb the Bike, I will have enough power, and will have no further need for your world. It may be another thousand years before you see me again."[/glow]

[Huntress]

"Spectral analysis shows elevated traces of citric acid and limonene. Which are... Has your friend been around...citrus fruits much?"

Hunty sighed. "You might find the same traces around me and every other pirate who's been a pirate for a longer time and still has their own teeth. We stock citrus fruits for scurvy prevention. But it's not common for ninjas, so yes, I'm fairly certain that it's Speck. Bugger."

At that point, Kat began to sprout kittens. What're the odds?

"Kay, might as well find Leraye before we find Speck," Bloody Mary said somewhat dryly as they followed the kitten.

"Leraye's more of an unknown entity in that sense," Hunty said, trotting along the hallways. "There's no telling where he might be on the next moment, so we have to try and pin him down while we can. The worst that can happen to Speck is getting arrested and having to sit in a cell for a while. I'd think Fleet cells are nicer than ours."

"Or," said the meepit as they reached the hospital, "she might get zap'd and end up here, looking like this."

Hunty eyed a nearby man who had burns on nearly half of his face with a compassionate grimace. "Well, she's sensible enough."

"She's a ninja!"

"Ex-ninja."

They both paused, having to admit that the other had a point. Then Rider got taken hostage and they both turned their attention towards the man they had been chasing for a month now.

"I'd promote you if I had any more higher spots available," Hunty remarked to Kat, "but since I don't, you'll have to make do with 'good job' and a handful of extra shinies from our next loot, if I don't forget by then, we seem to spend more time diplomatizing than looting these days. Mrm. What was that word?"

The word had apparently been 'parlay'. The captain edged over to the demon, listened to everything he said about the monkey and the gem and the bike, gave a 'hm', and without any prior warning smacked Leraye upside the head with the stock of her crossbow.

"Consider this anger management," she said rather cheerfully. "Believe me, you'd find it difficult to reason with me otherwise. Now then... a monkey stole your gem?" She paused. "There's a monkey in Spacefleet with an omnipotent magical devi- there's a monkey in Spacefleet?"

"Probably in charge of life support," Bloody Mary muttered.

Hunty glanced at Leraye, one eyebrow raised. "And it managed to steal that gem from you. You're really not worth much without that thing, are you?"

"Dunno," the meepit piped up again, "monkeys are good thieves. Remember the trouble we had with that one cursed shiny?"

"I try not to," said the captain. "So. You want the bike? To make that gem even more powerful than it already is? Right now it contains the soul of a Horseman and you let it get nicked. By a monkey."

She paused. "Actually, the bike now belongs to the fleet and is therefore none of my business, thank heavens. What we still have to discuss is," at that point she delivered another whack with the crossbow, "you betraying us during the War, you little bag of rat droppings!"

"Ahem," Bloody Mary said, being the one for more rational thinking - and disliking sitting on a shoulder that was constantly being used to whack people, it got terribly uncomfortable in the long run. "With him being gemless, there's actually no hurry with that. Let's get back to the monkey with an omnipotent magical device, shall we?"

"Point," Hunty agreed somewhat reluctantly and sidled over to Fraze. "Keep an eye on that scumbag, guys. I'm not about to go through another month like this last one was, I swear, we need to take a break for looting soon before we run out of housekeeping money... you, tin-man, you were good with the camera system, do find me that monkey, I want to shoot something."

[Amneiger]

Amneiger had been using the security system to watch both the Pirates and the ninja at the same time. She was...Amneiger looked back at the feed from the medbay and the feed with the ninja on it. "Fraze, this is Amneiger. The ninja seems to be talking to someone who looks just like Leraye." Amneiger pressed a few keys. "The sound is malfunctioning; I can't hear what they're saying."

[Kengplant]

"Ok, that's enough hitting the prisoner. You may be under some sort of diplomatic immunity but to hell if I'm going to let you people smack around a mostly-defenseless prisoner. Spacefleet doesn't allow it. Now if you happen to negotiate getting him into your own custody through the crazy politics system here what you do with him back on the Weewoo is your own business but here, I'm not going to stand for it. If we really want information that bad out of an uncooperative prisoner we use fancy sciency stuff which tends to be more accurate in the long run anyways... though there has been the odd malfunction that leaves people as mindless blibbering messes but 99.9% of those bugs have been cleaned up on the approved equipment as far as I know." Keng said rather pointedly, stamping her foot on the ground for emphasis on the bit about not standing for it.

"Further more Leraye: what do you think we are? Idiots? Yes, we're just going to let you consume a mass amount of energy like the bike and store it away into your little gem: which you've admitted yourself you've allowed to be stolen by a monkey who could now accidentally blow up the moon. Yes, we're going to let you do that then walk away. And eegads, you know most of the demons were attacking the station under YOUR name? You could probably wave a little finger and they'd stop their attack and bow down to you. I think you could stop the attack just fine without that sort of power. And which Leraye are you anyways? Past...err... present that is or future?"

[Speck]

Speck broke free of the security cuffs; the thin metal fell to the pristine Spacefleet floor like a bowl of spilled corn chips. She rubbed her wrists while listening to this Milo Turion. Appropriately, she winced when she saw the mangled hand appear from his pocket.

"Why can't you just find him yourself? Certainly you know where you were around this time?" She grabbed his arm and started dragging him down an adjacent hallway, "Or better yet! Let's both go! I do like company when hunting down someone."

"Hypothetically, if I had gone to fetch him for you, how would I know where to find you afterwards? This place is a labyrinth of identical halls."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]((Apparently, I wasn't paying attention when I wrote that post. XDDD Sorry Speckles.))

"Or better yet! Let's both go! I do like company when hunting down someone."

"This completely defeats the purpose. They cannot know... People, they cannot know! It would cause a panic." Curses, ninjas have tight grips.

---

A safe distance from the hilarity, Leraye was nursing several new bruises. Hehe, nursing. Get it? It's a pun.

"though there has been the odd malfunction that leaves people as mindless blibbering messes but 99.9% of those bugs have been cleaned up on the approved equipment as far as I know."

New revelation #1: The Fleet were going to try intimidation tactics as well.

"And eegads, you know most of the demons were attacking the station under YOUR name?"

New revelation #2: The demons were a significant threat to him personally, or at least his way of life.

"And which Leraye are you anyways? Past...err... present that is or future?"

New revelation #3: There were probably 2 of him.

"I wasn't here for the demon attack, if that's what you mean."

He turned to Hunty. "Captain, we all did what was necessary to survive in that war. As I recall, I was neither the one who let the army out of the Gem nor the one who betrayed them. I was not the one who betrayed the ninjas, either. You have done your share of backstabbing, so I will hear none of it from you. Besides, I saved you in the end, didn't I? TMC didn't need me to lead you to a battleground. People were itching for a fight. If I wasn't the only person powerful enough to capture him, however... Face it, I didn't betray you. I saved you."

"You know I am not careless with my alchemy, no more than you were with your ship when it suffered the damages that the Mist repaired. Mistakes happen to everyone. I am no superhuman.

"As it stands now, we both need each other to survive. We have people on the verge of panic, people who know they are going to die, and people who only hypothesize it but don't particularly want to die anyway.

"I'd be willing to assume that my other self, the one who still has a Gem is looking for me to let me know what you have already told me. He knows how barbaric you pirates are in your methods of capturing and sentancing prisoners..." Rider couldn't help but look at Cyborg when Leraye said this, "and so it is to your advantage to treat me well. And if the demons truly are rallying under my name, I have leverage with them that you pirates and you Spacefleet could never get. Tactically, I have proven myself time and again to be a genius. And I am not skilled in combat, and so I need you pirates.

"Now I need to know: Why are the demons rallying under my name? I have done nothing for them."

A pause. "How do women wear these things? I understand the basic concept but one cannot sit without fear of public indecency."[/glow]

[Fraze]

So, there he was--the cause of so much trouble a few months ago, now nearly helpless. Fraze almost wanted to enjoy watching Hunty smack Leraye around a bit.
This one didn't have a gem. A monkey did. To Fraze, this definitely counted as "better the devil you know than the devil you don't."
On the other hand, the man was a classic coward--take his weapon away, and he just shrivels up.

"You, tin-man, you were good with the camera system, do find me that monkey, I want to shoot something."
Fraze considered taking offense, but he had been called that and similar names too many times to care much anymore. He instructed the suit's AI to look, it would take him slightly too long to search all 6,389 security cameras on his own.

As this was working, another message came in. "Fraze, this is Amneiger. The ninja seems to be talking to someone who looks just like Leraye. The sound is malfunctioning; I can't hear what they're saying."
"What?!" Fraze shouted out loud in surprise. He had not been able to get a good look at the other figure, so was quite surprised to find out it was Leraye. Not bothering to give an explanation of his outburst to those around him, he gave a more complete response to Amneiger. "We've got Leraye here. Apparently there are two of him, as well. This one doesn't have a gem, a monkey took it."
Remembering Amneiger's initial problem, he ran the video of Speck and the possibly-Leraye through his suit. "I'm sorry, I can barely get any sound from it either. I'll pipe through what I can to you."

With this, he approached Hunty. Speaking somewhat quietly, he said, "I've just been informed--somehow didn't figure it out myself--that it is highly likely the other Leraye is with your ninja friend...Ah!" he added, new information appearing in his vision. "There's your little monkey, still around the civilian section."