Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Goosh]

"Goosh, if it's okay with you, why don't we have the weasels carry you to the infirmary? They'll probably get you there faster, and you look like you could use a lie-down."

"Yeah, that might be a good--" Goosh paused to look at his reflection again. Oh dear. This was worse than horns. Much, much, much worse.

He was sparkling now. He rubbed his paw along his cheek, hoping it was just some stray space-glitter or something, but his skin remained firmly pretty. He looked like he was encrusted with diamonds for all the little beams of light that radiated from him.

the power is yours, use it

He ran his tongue over his teeth, not very surprised to feel that they had sharpened. He really hoped they would find the antidote soon, as the weasels were looking more and more tasty, and that was almost cannibalism.

And then he stiffened as what was probably the most delicious smell in the world hit his sinus.

The Yurble whirled around, drooling. What was it that was so delectable? It smelled faintly like the horde of weasels, but sharper, snarkier, with an air of wit and grace that reminded him of...

Zylaa. He stared at her, wondering how he did not notice the scent before. It coated her, permiated her and make him weak with hunger and desire. His sparkling skin reflected light into her eyes as he approached her.

"I. Um," Goosh said, trying to stutter his way through a sentence and failing. "You smell good." There. Subject, verb, and even an adverb for good measure.

Smiling weakly, he sparkled in an effort to impress her.

[Fraze]

"No blasted idea."
"You'll have to ask the meepits."
The two answers came almost simultaneously. Neither one seemed to be quite true--did two half-truths make a whole truth? On the flip side, did two half-lies make a whole lie? And if two wrongs make a right, do two Wrights make an airplane?
Fraze realized he was going down an unnecessary avenue of thought, and backtracked until he came to the issue at hand.

"It's a political thing, so to say," came a paradoxically gravelly and squeaky voice. "Remember what I said about rabid meepits and the Realm? Well, I wasn't kidding. But that's our business."
Often being chronically out of touch had taught Fraze excellent skills of extrapolation. Rabies was most likely a bad thing, and he vaguely remembered something about these dark blue meepits being rabid. So one of them had done something to get the rest of the non-rabid (was that a word?) ones ticked off. Well, at least the last part was perfectly clear.

He half-listened to the rest of the conversation, filing it away in case it should be needed again--which wouldn't be surprising in the least.

A voice spoke directly into his ear. "This is Ethan. I'm heading for the civilian section right now. Ready to receive the security feed."
Ah, good. "Thanks, Ethan. Sending the security feed now. Let me know if there are any problems." With that, he rerouted the video that he was receiving--which was currently residing in a small corner of his vision--to Ethan. Fraze wasn't sure whether this would go to Ethan's comm, or directly to whatever cybernetic parts his brain might have. He'd have to ask about that some time.

--------

Merpo sat, leaning over his workbench. Various devices of his own creation lay strewn about him--some of them being built, others fully constructed, and some of the latter aiding in the making of the former.
He put his pencil in his notebook to keep the place, and closed it. He had managed to keep hold of some shreds of sanity though a strict regimen and daily schedule. Each day, he filled up precisely one page with notes--with such regularity that one could measure the progress of his work by counting pages like tree rings. Of course, after twenty years he had a large pile of such notebooks, all to recreate his previous research. Each one was meticulously indexed and frequently referenced. In them were schematics for new machines, results of various experiments, charts, graphs, and observations.
After four hours, he was halfway done with this page. He got up and stretched, a few of his joints popping loudly. Finding he was getting hungry, he walked upstairs.
The rich mid-afternoon light fell through the sun roof, illuminating his richly furnished living room that looked like something straight out of Jane Austen. He would have been happier with something simpler, but the people here seemed to expect their upper-class to indulge in this gaudy, ornate style of interior design. He could not fathom why.
There was a bowl of fruit on the table. It could have seated ten--but he almost never had anyone come over except the maids and the occasional prospective customer interested in examining a new invention. Still, not wanting the table to wear unevenly, he rotated the spot he ate dinner at every night. Whether this was a byproduct of madness or the aforementioned daily regimen, is for the observer to decide.
He chose an orange and a banana from the bowl. The banana was from the bottom of the bowl, and it was still tinged with green while those on top of it were yellow and thinking about getting spots. Was this because the ones on top were exposed to more sunlight? He would have to test this sometime.
He broke the skin of the orange; its scent immediately attached itself to his fingers and began wafting through the room. It was a bit too tart, but this served to wake him up more.

After finishing his snack, Merpo decided it would be wise to check on the Pirates' progress. He returned to his basement lab, where the communicator lay on a table. He picked it up, pressed a button, and spoke.
--------
"Uhh, m-miss Captain?"

Fraze's head jerked around--a bag that Hunty was holding chirped. Fraze had hardly noticed it--but come to think of it, she had been holding it ever since he first saw her on the station.

"Have you...are you making any progress in, er, locating my n-notebook?"

Getting tired of asking what was going on, Fraze simply looked at Huntress and raised an eyebrow.

[Huntress]

"Uhh, m-miss Captain? Have you...are you making any progress in, er, locating my n-notebook?"

Hunty felt a wave of hot ice run down her spine. For a moment, it felt like TMC's bike was playing tricks again. But if time had stopped or looped back, she wouldn't have to deal with what was about to come with inevitable certainty.

For one infinitely long second she stood there, eyes and brain blank, then the flood of thoughts rushed in. It didn't take long. She had run out of options three choices ago.

Hah. Fine then. Good riddance.

"Justice?"

She dug into the bag she was holding as the female meepit in the gang around her feet perked up: "Yes?"

Hunty raised an eyebrow as well as the communicator she'd taken out at her. "I can't answer that."

The meepit seemed hesitant, but then apparently decided that this was none of her business. "All done."

Hunty grinned with one corner of her mouth and then, pointedly ignoring everyone else present, pressed the button on the communicator.

"This thing on? It'd better be on, after all this trouble. We're done. You'll get what's yours after we get back."

The communicator fell back in the bag with a dull 'klunk'. Bloody Mary's ears perked. The meepit had frozen on Hunty's shoulder into a miniature embodiment of concentrated attention, eyes narrowed at everyone around them - and this took some serious skill - but this voice made his focus shift. The 'after we get back' had a metallic sound to it. Hunty had declared a war with that kind of voice. This was a challenge tossed to the fleeters.

He looked up at the captain's face. It seemed to display no emotions whatsoever, but there was a spark in her eyes. The kind of spark that brought Hindenburg down, but a spark nonetheless, for the first time after she'd taken up diplomacy and this whole mission.

She turned to look at Fraze and gave a nearly apologetic smile.

"Oh come on now, you forgot? We're pirates."

[Zylaa]

"Yeah, that might be a good--" Goosh stopped, and Zylaa watched curiously as once again, the spider's venom wrought a random, improbable change on his appearance. He was glittering now, as if some eccentric billionaire had decided that a diamond-encrusted Yurble was just the thing to have. Zylaa took a step backwards, accidentally treading on a weasel's tail, but ignored indignant squeak as she saw Goosh stiffen and turn back towards her. She gulped.

"I. Um," Goosh began to stutter. And those two words-- well, really, one word and one random syllable-- sounded as if they came from the tongue of an angel. Zylaa was captivated, enthralled by the sound of his melodious voice, as he continued, "You smell good."

She took a second to process what he said. She had been distracted by his radiant smile, which somehow seemed a bit more predatory, though sheepish (Figure that one out). And his sparkle... it was like the sun glinting off the ocean waves, like the glint off of a golden ring, like the disco ball that hung over the skating rink near her house. At last, she stammered out... "I... That's... thank you." She shook her head in an effort to clear it. "You're shiny, you know," she said. "And. Um. That's nice too."

Then foreboding, a force too powerful to be kept out by mere romantic thoughts, began to nudge at her mind. Something about that last sentence... things she should know about... practical considerations that came with ever uttering the word "shiny" ...

She looked down.

Three hundred pairs of eyes stared up at Goosh in awe and wonder. For a moment, everything was still.

"Shiiiiiiiinyyyyyy..." the weasels chorused.

"Oh, heck." Zylaa said.

The weasels pounced.

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]Well, first Huntress broke the already-tense agreement that she and her Meepits had with Rider and Ventratta. Then she practically brags about stealing from the Fleet right to the face of one of their top officers.

Rider did something she never thought she'd do.

She walked up to Hunty, each step feeling as inevitable as Kitten's flirting or Chikkin's dropping out of roleplays. She threw all her might into a right hook to the jaw.

The sheer amount of awkward could have grown roots.

"Have you forgotten why we came here?"

---

As Leraye got nearer and nearer to the bike, the gem in his pocket began to tremble. TMC was rattling on the bars of his cage. Leraye stuck his hand in his pocket and started feeding some of the bike's energy into the Gem. As he fed it, the time warp started to fix itself.

The more he fed it, the hungrier it became. Sweat dripped off Leraye's nose. He was well aware that his pace was lagging behind the ninja's.

He looked up and saw a random clock. The hands were trembling as though they were scared. The second hand vibrated back and forth between two notches until it shattered.

Leraye could go no further. This was more than he had bargained for. Why hadn't he taken a Gem made of the NTWFers when he had the chance?

He had only sucked up a half-hour or so of actual time. The clock now read 10:18 AM.

The demons would attack in less than two hours. Leraye turned around and found that with each step, his vision became foggier.

... a bright shaft of light...

Leraye's vision cleared. 10:20. But he hadn't been feeding time into the Gem. TMC seemed to be taking it for himself.

The entire Fleet was more on the clock than ever. [/glow]

[Kengplant]

Keng in the meantime was still stuck on the part where they had apparently felt the need to steal a book from the public library -and at this point from what she'd gathered about the situation she was pretty sure that this is what had happened- rather than simply apply for a library card and 'borrow' it then accidentally 'loose' it while Rider was punching Huntress. It wasn't until she asked the Captain about remembering why they'd come to SF that Keng snapped out of her trance of incredulity. Keng had an answer ready, then remembered that Fraze already knew why the pirates had come: to look for Leraye. They weren't exactly keeping it a secret anymore.

[Amneiger]

"A notebook? Fraze, ask them what they - "

Two red alert lights lit up. "-hold on."

Amneiger cycled through the cameras in and around the research area. The bike was rattling in its cage. "Someone hold that still!" He began moving through the rest of the cameras until



























Amneiger glanced at the clock. Had it been reading that time when he'd last looked at it?

His attention was drawn away from this when he noticed who was on the last camera feed.

"Fraze? Ethan? Keng? Security Center? Leraye is approaching the science labs. Everyone in the labs, take cover, we've got a possible hostile approaching. I am remotely sealing the sector doors now."

[Fraze]

A boy was out searching for food for his tribe. He searched for a long time, but could not find anything. After some time, he came across a poisonous snake. To his surprise, the snake spoke.

"There isssss food over that mountain. I can sssssshow you where it isssss, if you will follow me."
"But you are a poisonous snake," the boy said. "It is in your nature to bite me."
"I promissssse you," the snake hissed back, "that I ssssshall not sssstrike at you."

The boy agreed to let the snake help him. It led him up the steep, rocky slope of a mountain. He climbed for many, many hours. The sun grew low in the sky. As dusk approached, the two finally reached the ridge of the mountain.
The boy looked out to the other side, and saw--a lush valley, full of many kinds of food. He could tell the other people in his village about this! They would hail him as a hero.

The snake struck him on the hand.

The boy suddenly felt very weak, and collapsed to the ground. "Why did you bite me?" he asked the snake, feeling the consciousness drain from him. "You said that you wouldn't."

"Becaussssssse," the snake answered, "it isssss in my nature."

This parable crossed Fraze's mind as he started at Huntress. She had never worn this particular expression before, it almost looked like she was apologizing.
Well, this certainly helped explain why they were here in the first place. In addition to trying to find the demon, they were running an errand.
But why? Above all, Fraze had learned that Huntress was a pragmatist--and what kind of treasure would be worth risking your life and freedom and the lives and freedoms of your entire crew by traveling nearly four hundred thousand kilometers away from any place that even remotely resembled "home?" That wouldn't be too hard to believe for people who have spent their lives in an interstellar community, but for a group who had never left the surface--black smoked flying pirate ship notwithstanding--the decision was all kinds of irrational.

And now she was almost taunting him, with a smile that tried for apologetic but stopped halfway and ended up looking sarcastic and amused. He had trusted her. Now that trust was gone, and some kind of ache was in its place--like waking up in a bathtub full of ice with a sharp pain in your lower back and realizing you're missing a kidney.

Screw it. Enough benefit of the doubt. "Security," he thought. The thought was transformed into speech, and sent to Spacefleet security. At the same time, he sent his whereabouts and the location of the nearest security camera. "These pirates have stolen something from Spacefleet--in particular, from either the labs or the library. Seal off the area around them."
Fraze looked up at the ceiling. There were force field projectors at lengths through the corridor. He was in the same section as the pirates, so he took several steps back to get out of the way. Years of acting helped him give a look of contempt, so it would not seem that he was specifically getting out of the way of something. Hopefully.

Another voice came in. At first, Fraze thought it was security answering back--then he realized it was from a teammate.
"Fraze? Ethan? Keng? Security Center?" came Amneiger's voice. He sounded--well, worried was not a strong enough word. "Leraye is approaching the science labs. Everyone in the labs, take cover, we've got a possible hostile approaching. I am remotely sealing the sector doors now."
"Shrike's thorns," Fraze muttered to himself. This was the last block on the teetering castle, and it all came tumbling down.
The force fields hummed to life, then became invisible save for a slight glow around the perimeter. If any of the pirates--or 'Fleeters, for that matter--tried to step through them, they would get a nasty shock and find themselves quite unable to do so. He wasn't sure how Keng would react to this choice of action--but at this point, he didn't care. She could chew him out later. Now, he was furious.
"Ever since you came here, I've turned a blind eye." Even to him, his voice sounded terribly calm. "You came here with what were clearly ulterior motives, but I decided not to ask questions because I trusted you. Now, we've suffered a demon attack. The entire station has been flung several hours backward through time. One of your crew is running around in a ninja outfit after having escaped from security and possibly sabotaging the 'Fleet's entire security array, WHICH CAME THIS CLOSE TO KILLING EVERYONE ON THIS STATION!"
These last words echoed up and down the corridor, almost sounding like a sob. Visions flashed through his mind--a research station circling a back hole, and he circling the station in a brand-new kind of organic, liquid armor. In that one, everyone had been sucked in--at this one, everyone was nearly sucked out. In the former case, Fraze was the only survivor. In the latter, he may have been the same. He felt himself toeing the line of hysteria, he wanted to weep at the memories. But he couldn't. In a distant corner of his mind, he wondered whether his facial expression would convey his thoughts. After several deep breaths, he found himself once again contained.
"And now, you freely admit to stealing something from Spacefleet. You have practically no weaponry, next to nothing that could possibly aid us in this imminent attack, and you freely violate the laws and undermine the safety of this station. Soon, we will be facing yet another demon attack. I beg you, I implore you, give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw all of you out an airlock to save room and oxygen for all the people with a right to be here."

[Kengplant]

"Cause throwing them out an airlock would also throw air out?" offered Keng, choosing to respond to the last inquiry first. "And what do you mean Speck shut down the security systems? She may be a former ninja, but believe me if the ninjas had at any-point come across enough technological know-how that they'd be able to hack into Spacefleet's security systems the pirates, myself included would have noticed something considering our past histories of raiding their dojo. Not to mention I can assure you they'd have used such technology against us without blinking an eye. Really, the only person among the pirates that could come even remotely close to compromising the security of the station -despite Cyborg's claims: sorry honey but the system would fry you before you got past the first level- is me: and you'd be off your rocker to think that I have the skills to, or would willingly or heck, even unwillingly do something as stupid as that.
And speaking of stupid: you stole the book?! STOLE it?! Really?! You STOLE a library book. You know you can just ask the receptionist if you can take it with you and she'll just let you take it right? Like, legally? Eegads! I need to teach you people how to use a library card!"

And with no other logical action to follow with, Keng face-palmed.

"Bloody hell. This day's going from bad to worse and I have to re-live one of the worst parts of it in a few hours. Honestly. We picked a horrible day to chase groundhogs around. ... or meepits and demons as the case may be."

It was at this point that logical actions that were more useful than face-palms caught up with her. "Gimme a sec while you guys squabble, I'm going to go over this whole hacking thing with security."

She then opened up a secure text line with security.

Seeking update on source of upcoming security breach. Possible offender identified as Speck of the Pirate's guild. Confirm? -Comdo. Keng

Confirm. P1r473 5p3c|< 5u5p3ct3d 0f 53cur17y br34ch.

Use chatspeak again and I'll demote you to janitor. -Comdo Keng

Apologies. Pirate Speck is suspected of breeching security. The breech point has been identified. We've set up a trap to prevent it from happening, and added additional security to other possible points that she could access.

Add extra security to other stations too. I know things are chaotic but we have near double the personnel now and... wait... when I land.. err.. the other me... You know what I'm talking about, prevent me from leaving for the planet. I'll be heading for my ship the moment I land.

Understood.

The once again over a secure channel Keng texted the results to Fraze.

You appear to be right, Security thinks it was Speck... still she couldn't have the technical know how to breach security in so short of time. The pirates could have an associate. Wait... do you know anything about a colourful fellow who calls himself Merpo? He's the one who wanted the book. Offered to pay their way up here to get it. But eegads.. it's a freakin library book! Who steals a library book without borrowing it first? Honestly?

Yea.. Keng wasn't going to let the pirates forget that one for a while.

[Kengplant]

It was true that the Tel-fregan didn't do favours but one couldn't deny that this was an irregular situation. The fact that the light covered Tel-fregan ambassador was talking to four people that all looked the same was one of many indicators that something was wrong that day. The ambassador herself had not been duplicated despite having been in the Spacefleet at both times. One of the things that had made her race so adept at time travel technology was that her planet was an anomaly even by the universe's standards. It defied logic and most laws of science in that it existed in multiple time lines at once and no one could recall it have ever being otherwise. Freak holes in time would appear and randomly send things to other time periods. As such the life that had evolved on the planet had developed the ability to control their movement through these anomalies in much the same was that anyone else might choose wether or not to walk through a door.

She now rather wished that she had chosen to walk through the door in the future, as she imagined that it would make talking to a set of twins from two different time lines easier. If nothing else though this event certainly made the bike an appealing curiosity. Her people had been seeking a way of stabilizing the time lines of her planet, and not even they possessed the technology to send such a large space as the whole of Spacefleet back in time. Perhaps with some careful co-ordination and a complex web of multiple instruments they'd be able to affect such a specific large area and bring it back in line with the rest of the galaxy but it'd be very tricky. Time was a fickle thing to fiddle with and none knew that better than her own people.

"A proposal then." she announced, having come to a conclusion on what it was she could accept as suitable payment for her aid, "If we are successful in using this 'bike' to fix your time line and the bike survives the process we will continue to study it in joint co-operation for as long as your interest remains but- the bike will pass to us as the rightful owners. I imagine after this you will be eager to be rid of it anyways?"

The four twins -who were beginning to get their own identities confused at this point- whispered among themselves then turn back to the ambassador.

"Miss Ra-sorral, we must review your proposal with those in charge of the project. We will get back to you as soon as we can." they said in union.

"Very well. In the mean time you mentioned a Freeze ray that was being worked on. That would be..."

"It freezes time or so Billy claims. It's no an ice beam. Professor Snow is working on that one."

"I see. May I speak with this Billy... H. was it?"

"Yes, Dr. H. But he prefers Billy. You can find him in the-" there was a pause as the twins all bowed their heads to check an emergency message. "We apologize ambassador, but the Labs have just been closed off."

"Understandable. Please, go inquire about my proposal, and let me know if the labs open up."

"Yes ambassador."

[Huntress]

Hunty raised her hand to rub her chin. It'd been a good punch. Pirates weren't into girly slap-fights.

"I may have deserved that," she admitted, albeit in a tone that suggested that this would come back to bite Rider at a more opportune moment. Bloody Mary on her shoulder, who was always paying more attention towards their surroundings, nudged her neck and nodded at Fraze. He'd been wondering when the guy would snap, and now it really looked like he'd been driven to the edge.

Hunty focused with some difficulty - her ears were still ringing - and listened to everything Fraze had to say. Once or twice she bit her lip and breathed out with a hiss, but didn't interrupt, and by the time he finished, she was suppressing a smile. Now she knew where she stood. She didn't hate diplomacy for no reason: she had never been able to navigate on the complicated tightrope above the pits of political disaster, dealing with people who said one thing and meant another, and whose thoughts she could never tell. She'd been on the edge for hours now, waiting for the bomb to go off and wondering what might be seething under the surface when there were no reactions to all the earlier big glaring slipups. But this, this was clear territory. Emotions. Oh, how she'd missed emotions.

Of course, all things considered it was one big faux pas regardless of the bright side, but at least now she could deal with in instead of watching and waiting. Well, 'now' meaning sometime after everyone stopped lecturing her. She listened to Keng ranting about them having stolen the book as her face slowly developed an expression best described as 'pouty impatience', when she felt Bloody Mary tense on her shoulder. The meepit, who'd apparently gotten a sudden thought, sunk off her shoulder and disappeared into the mass of quiet, attentive meepits around her feet.

Hunty turned to look at Fraze.

"Look," she said with a sigh. "Not once did I lie to you. And accusing us of all bad things that happened around here today just because you don't know who did it ain't what I'd call professional. We got nothing to do with the demon attack, or the time skip, and as for my crewmember messing around with your hi-tech security, honestly, I know I didn't order it, I'll believe it when you stick my nose in some solid evidence, and even so it's a stretch-"

_"WHAT?"

This was Bloody Mary's voice, but Hunty could only recognize it as such because she'd heard it so often before. This one word, muffled and quiet yet a scream at the same time, sounded nothing like the meepit's usual voice. It hosted a variety of emotions she'd never even known meepits could have. The captain stared ahead blankly for a second, distracted, then went by her usual 'none of my business unless stated otherwise' policy and got back on tracks.

"What'm saying is," she said, ambling away from the meepitgang around her feet that now looked less attentive and more agitated for whatever reason, "that you can't really blame me for trusting us... I mean, you trusting us." She shot a 'see what your punches do to my syntax?' glare at Rider. "That was your choice, and choosing not to ask inconvenient questions also was your choice, right? In fact, had you even once asked a direct question, I don't think I could've lied to you."

...wait, where'd that last bit come from? She shot another glare at Rider for good measure, and at the same time felt something small and agile move up the back of her feet. Bloody Mary landed on her shoulder again.

If meepits had the same range of facial expressions as humans, Bloody Mary would at this point have looked like someone who has seen the end of all things, the world and the entire universe, and not only knows that it's a lot worse than most high-budget sci-fi movies predict, but that it's also coming next Tuesday.

Instead, as he only had the expression range of meepits, he looked azure blue - as pale as rabid meepits get. As Hunty raised a questioning eyebrow at him, he turned his head away.

"I do feel compelled to point out," the captain said, focusing again, "that we haven't actually done anything... well, besides stealing a book." She scratched her neck, nudging Bloody Mary at the same time, and was surprised to find that the meepit didn't react in any way whatsoever. "If this is punishable by death around here, well, guess that's what we get for not researching local customs before coming here. Um. Sorry?"

[Omni]

"Thanks, Ethan. Sending the security feed now. Let me know if there are any problems."

Because the civilian sector and the cafeteria were on different levels, Ethan took a lift, which is where he was when he got that message. As the security feed was received, Ethan's implants allowed him to 'see' the image, much like the camera would, and find landmarks that gave him a more precise idea of where the monkey was. He actually didn't carry around a portable communicator often. For one thing, his implants meant he always had a communicator ready. It also meant he didn't have to look down at his hand once in awhile. Plus, if he was ever trying not to be found, the sound of a communicator wouldn't give him away. About the only downside was that it made it harder to show stuff to someone else, but he figured he could just feed to another communicator or say what was going on if he needed to.

Noting a section-corridor marking that the monkey passed by, Ethan ran out of the lift toward that area. He hadn't been running long when his internal clock seemed to jump again and he received another message.

"Fraze? Ethan? Keng? Security Center? Leraye is approaching the science labs. Everyone in the labs, take cover, we've got a possible hostile approaching. I am remotely sealing the sector doors now."

Now the research sector and the civilian sector were on levels on opposite in opposite directions from the cafeteria.

"This is Ethan. What do you want me to do about it? I just got to the civilian sector where I'm heading for a monkey in possession of a certain gem." He was close to said monkey now. He paused, told Siber to 'stay,' and headed around another corridor. From there he paused at a corner, made sure his pistols were on the setting he wanted, and waited. He wasn't going to let that monkey pass him.

((Yes, I referenced the old Spacefleet Map thread for this one.))

----------

"What the…?" Brian said as the bike began to shake.

Fesserfa used the robotic arms from the ceiling to hold the bike still. She wasn't sure why it was shaking, but she didn't want to risk having it go anywhere.

Jaliv looked at the readings. "The energy levels of the object seem to be decreasing. However, the frequency remains elevated."

Brian ran over to get his own look. "That can't be right… I would've thought that if the bike started acting up the energy levels would increase, so why-?"

"Fraze? Ethan? Keng? Security Center? Leraye is approaching the science labs. Everyone in the labs, take cover, we've got a possible hostile approaching. I am remotely sealing the sector doors now."

Fesserfa looked surprised, and more than a little worried. "If it is the same Leraye and he was somehow responsible for the townspeople disappearing-"

"Then we've got ourselves a problem," Brian said. "This shows an energy stream coming from the bike." There was a brief pause. "We could try hitting it with theta waves!"

"What?!"

"Terson," Jaliv began, "may I remind you that theta waves-"

"I know, but that's what the force field is for. And besides, we need to try to interrupt that stream!"

"If the object reacts negatively-"

"It would be better than letting Leraye get away with the energy. Just do it!"

Fesserfa pressed a few buttons. "Charging to two-hundred… firing in three, two, one…"

She pressed a button.

[Cyborg]

" Keng, no offense taken, but I can do more than you think. Now, I think we need to get the other Lareye under control, get the gem, and then prepare for the demon attack. We can't just be sitting ducks again." Cyborg stated.

[Kengplant]

"No I still don't think you could get past the first layer of security because the first layer is a physical one that will kick your rear if you try." Keng explained.. err.. threatened. "We're one of the most secure networks in the galaxy. The guys who programmed it can't even hack it: and it's their program! And don't go thinking you can just plug a cyborg finger into the computer. The last cyborg who tried to hack in by connecting herself is still in the psychological ward and she was a professional.
Anyways, I agree about Leraye. But we currently have no choice but to be sitting ducks." Keng gestured toward the shimmering all but invisible wall that surrounded them and conveniently also cut them off from the nearest computer system- so Cyborg wasn't about to get a chance to prove that he could get into the system. Which was a pity because it would have been fun to watch Keng follow through with her threat. "But obviously we do need to get some things sorted out. Huntress is right, we can't blame the demons on the pirates. We need to track down Speck and take her into custody -sorry Captain but she is going to open up the fleet to demonic attack if our intelligence is correct; and I imagine it is as we have the rare privilege of having 20/20 vision hindsight in this situation- and question her. We need Leraye, and we need the gem and..." Keng suddenly remembered that the other Leraye was still with them "we need to keep HIM under control while we capture get the other gem and keep it away him. Then sometime at the end of all this I'm dragging you all back to the library for a lesson on how to take books out legally. With all due respect Fraze, they can't get off the station. If you still feel the need to arrest them later they're not going anywhere."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]Rider, clearly not understanding the concept of force fields, yelled, "HA, your walls don't work!" ran into one and got fried.

"I may have deserved that," she said, with the tone of voice that understood that yes, she did in fact deserve that.

Then Hunty glared at her. It hurt more than the magic walls. Like a cannonball of porcupines to the back of the head. Porcupines made of wrath.

She took a moment to reassess her life and then stood up. Was that a... blush on her Captain's cheeks? Rider had seen a lot of women blush, but never like this. The pinkness looked somewhat alien on Hunty's face, and yet very human. Like a confession.

"Trust me, the last thing I want us to do right now is irritate more people." Rider noticed the clipped "I" in her sentance. Granted, it was hardly a Cyborg situation so much as a spat between two girls who love psychotic Meepits... but all the same.

"We hate Leraye and the demons as much as you d - you can stop acting so nonchalant about it, you know." The last part was directed at Leraye. "I think we'll cooperate with you just as we had always planned to do."

---

TMC was more than just rattling the bars. Now he was bending them. Leraye was struggling just to hold him in...

... And suddenly he stopped.

The Bike let out one last spurt of energy before sputtering to a halt.

Leraye leaned against a wall and pondered teleporting out of the Fleet altogether.

No, he still had to find his other self. There was no telling which one of him would pop out of existance when the time warp was fixed.

He teleported out of the secured zone and into the public area, not even caring whether the ninja saw him or not. of course she knew who he was by now. [/glow]