Reunion

[thewunderkind]

Why hadn't they done this before?

Last poddrop would have been much more tolerable parading around pretending to be pirates than just waiting for people to appear and guide them around the ship. Besides, there was a pretty good crew now, of course they wouldn't need a Wunderkind or and Overlord's help to do that all the time! They could introduce themselves in the coms later if they felt like it and leave all this free time that barely anyone used for the sensoriums. It wasn't like anyone they knew would wake up anyway...

As they had planned, they had spent the last hour with Pram outside to keep guard, not knowing what she'd been doing, engaged in a pirate battle. There was a huge ocean spanning as far as the eye could see, with two large pirate boats stuck in the middle, swaying around with each large wave. Both ships had taken damage, and Lash's deck had a few holes on it, but were still standing. Each one had sails with the colors of their occupant's; Lash's was a dark purple, her flag sporting Black Hole's symbol, with a metal figurehead of Flak as her bow. Zetta's sails were in dark red and black, a live buzzsaw as his figurehead, his pirate symbol (pirate and crossbones with flaming hair on top) flew as the highest flag on the ship . Rows of cannons waited below for her word as the Netherworld's hell-penguins struggled to keep up with her crazy demands of firing every few minutes. Sometimes she would violently take a Prinny and shove it into a new cannonball hole that had appeared to stop the water.

Dressed in what could never pass for proper pirate attire, Lash raised her cutlass, as she held on to the nearby rope, pointing her sword at the other ship before lowering it.

"Fire!"

Another row of cannonballs flew into the sky, accompanied with a prinny or two into the water to attack the ship below. Most of it was falling short of her target's ship, but causing large splashes of water to get sent to the other side. Lash was taunting him, really. The Wunderkind had never done a traditional ship battle, but her crew of Prinnies we getting ordered around like no one's business as she probably abused fake pirate words that would make Drake get angry with her.

"Arrr! Don't want t' give up yet? Next time I won't miss and you're ship will sinking into t' ocean! I'll be releasing my secret weapon!"

Terrible abuse.

Comments

The battle

[thewunderkind]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Arr!" Zetta shouted back, lazily slapping aside a cannonball that had been about to dent his incredibly fancy hat. "Ye speak brave words, Pirate Queen, but ye'll be singin' a different tune come my victory, yaaar!"

He paused expectantly, then jabbed the Prinny on his shoulder roughly in its gut. "Ow, dood!" it said.

"Say your damn line," Zetta growled.

"Aww, dood, do I have to? This is really humiliating!"

"You know what's more humilating? Being AMMO!"

The Prinny sighed. "Pieces of eight, dood."

"Hyaaaa ha ha ha ha!" Zetta said, and with a gesture caused the fuses of a dozen cannons to burst into flames. Grapeshot and debris burst out to hail into Lash's ship's rigging.

[thewunderkind]

Two of the cannonballs caught Prinnies on the bridge as they flew off the ship and into the distance. Lash ducked just in time before one hit the place she was standing on.

"I grew tired of this." Time for the big dramatic debut of...

"Release the Kraken!" Pause. "Arrr! Tee hee hee."

This was the result of Hit Girl had showing Lash some of the pirate movies after the little pirate escapate. Lash was going to steal everything from them, except her version was less action-packed movie and more like how someone like her imagined sea-creatures. Having a single body instead of tentacles was much more effective to move around in the water, anyway.

The large terrible eye-less monster reappeared near Zetta's ship and gave it a swat of its tail.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"DEPLOY THE BAIT!" Zetta bellowed into the rigging.

One of the crossbars of the mainsail shot outwards telescopically. The rope attached to it end looped around a Prinny and yanked it outwards to dangle temptingly over the water, an irresistible treat for any sea monster.

[thewunderkind]

Like a scene out of a dinosaur movie Lash had never watched, the Prinny moved around (or tried too anyway) as the creature below began to stick out, sniffing it. And then-

"Dooood!"

The Prinny was gone in a single gulp as the Kraken finished up the rope line like a single strand of spaghetti, descending again. It looked around (how it did that without eyes was anyone's guess), eagerly for more and realized there were some...on both ships.

"I swear I will cut your head off if you're thinking about doing what you're thinking!" Lash warned, forgoing the pirate lingo, branding her sword at it like she really would. Giving out a frightened squeak, the Kraken looked up at Zetta's ship again instead.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"That was the only tasty Prinny on the ship!" Zetta called back at it. "All the other ones over here taste like crap! And I mean that literally! Lash has all the delicious Prinnies on HER ship"

[thewunderkind]

So either between getting its head cut off by the person who called and created him, or eating crappy Prinnies...

The Kraken was confused! It hurt itself in confusion! The bit of the tail passed too close to the front of the ship and it was nearly sliced off, surprisingly not bleeding at all.

"...."

Okay better give it some commands or whatever.

"Come on! Arrrgh! Use ye head to attack the ship!" The creature obeyed and...did it on the front of the ship. Right where that giant spinning blade was.

"Well..that was pretty dumb thing."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta stared at the ex-Kraken for a baffled moment.

"You know, that saw was entirely for show. It had no practical use whatsoever."

Then he shrugged, and with a gesture ordered yet another broadside of grapeshot into her rigging. That's right, Lash; the Overlord intends to board you, not sink you!

[thewunderkind]

She dodged again as the grapeshot fired, sending a shotgun-like amount of cannonballs into her ship. Prinnys were pushed into the water. Was that music in the background?

"Yarr! Bring out the hooks!" she yelled, as the Prinnies on her side appeared, wielding large tools that looked ready to push off anything trying to boarding her ship. That done, she cut the rope she was holding and was pushed into the air, swinging backwards to the other side. "Penguins! At your battle stations! Keep the bilge dry!"

One of them took over the ship's steering wheel, while others, wearing terrible pirate attire and wooden peglegs (one had a pegbeak) took out their tiny little swords.

"She's getting close captian dood!" The prinny sitting in the crow’s nest yelled out.

"Get the gangplanks ready!" Yeah that's right, you could try boarding her ship, but she'd try to board yours first if you wanted to play that way.

Suddenly! A Hawke interruption?

[thewunderkind]

Re: Suddenly! A Hawke interruption?

[black-hawke.livejournal.com]

SUDDENLY

THE DOOR BURST OPEN

AND THERE WAS A HAWKE AND HE LOOKED...

Like he always looked, only perhaps a bit more bewildered. He wasn't sure what to expect when he threw open the Sensorium door, but it certainly wasn't this. It certainly wasn't pirates.

Maybe he could go back to his pod. Maybe it wasn't too late.

[thewunderkind]

They had long since forgo their respective ships and were fighting on a floating log in what appeared to be a game of chicken where the one who slipped would fall into the water. Each had managed to slice off some of the other's clothing with the fast swipes (some of Zetta's looked a lot more deliberate than Lash's). She had been using all of her footwork learned thought the training on the ship, experience and her Ranger training to keep up with Zetta's own as she used her sword with surprising dexterity.

"Yarrr! You'll never take me alive!" She taunted, jumping up from a swipe and back onto the platform trying to make Zetta fall overboard. This was so much fun! It was then that she turned left and...

"HOLD IT!"

The entire scene stopped. Literally. The waves didn't move, the two waring ships in the back had cannonballs and Prinnies still in the air, the fires froze mid-burning and as she dodged the last attack from the Overlord, Lash pointed with an angry finger at her Commanding Officer.

"The hell? Zetta! Are you trying to distract me with having an image of Hawke standing by the seashore?" She looked none pleased about it either. "Good try, but he's at least an inch taller!"

Technically, she was half- right. Lash hadn't calculated that right now, her commander wasn't wearing any boots. They were rather rare on the ship.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta had conspired to make his cuts as fanservicey as possible, both given and taken, so right now the Overlord had a remarkably bare chest and forearms.

Almost at the same time as Lash pointed at Hawke, Zetta pointed his sword at her, not listening to her as he began his own complaint. "Hey! No summoning your allies, damn it! That's not part of this game!"

[thewunderkind]

It was quiet for a few seconds before Lash realized what Zetta had said.

"Wait what." She looked over at Hawke again her finger still pointed. "But I didn't summon him..."

[black-hawke.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was Lash up there. Dressed in some kind of ridiculous pirate outfit, but that was definitely Lash. And some other guy. And apparently Lash thought he was part of the simulation?

He continued to stand in the doorway, arms folded and looking more than a little cross.

"Is this how you greet your commander?"

[iceiceprincess]

And then Pram came floating in as she finished typing a reply.

"Lash, by the way, your Commanding Officer woke up from the pods." Pram gave the late notice to the girl. She casually looked over at Hawke before looking back at Lash. "And I guess he came looking for you."

Pram, the most useful watch guard.

[thewunderkind]

While part of her really wanted to strangle Pram right now, she was just too dumbstruck at the revelation of her words. Of all the times this had to happen. Fate had to be laughing at her, she was sure of it.

"..."

She stepped off the log and walked over the water towards him, the pirate outfit shifting back into the coat and outfit she wore during her days in Black Hole. Only now with her time on the ship, she was a year older. Would he even notice?

Lash had hoped that her short walk would have given her an idea of what to do or say. In fact it just made it worse, as she bit her lip from busting out calling him names for being so late. Gone from playful fun into something this serious made her more nervous than she had any right to be. She'd never been this frightened before. Hell, facing the Ohm looked downright inviting right now.

So close now, just two more steps and she'd slam right in him.

"Ha-aw..." wow, she couldn't even say his name properly. But then again, this could just be Pram pulling a trick on her.

There was only one way to see if he was Hawke or not. Taking off the comm ring, she indicated for him to do the same, before speaking again. No magical translator to do the job for them.

"Fear no challenge, fear no pain..." The Black Hole motto. She waited for him to finish it, in the language of their homeland, something even Pram or Zetta couldn't copy.

[thewunderkind]

And a few hours later (or what seemed like hours, considering how time went around here), Lash did return, alone, into the same sensorium door.

"Hey, you still there?" she called out, peeking in. Part of her wondered if the Overlord would just going spring a trap on her. Part of her was almost afraid he'd decided to screw this noise and go off too. She was still reeling from the entire ordeal; it felt to strange to know that Hawke, HAWKE was in the ship. That she could go talk with him when she wanted.

Yet she hadn't told him everything. The ranger stuff...she could probably tell him later, she figured, considering it was clearly much more important to show him around the place. Let him explore and they could talk again later. In fact the last part had been so much of a blur Lash couldn't even remember how she'd managed to detach herself from him to come back here.

Part her of her just wanted to plop down--actually, you know what, she totally sat down.

"Urgh...what a day."

Understatement of the year.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Yeah, uh, her ship was pretty much upside-down at this point. Technically still afloat though!

Zetta, meanwhile, had sat down at the edge of the beach, just out of range of the waves, and was disconsolately skipping rocks out into the water. Zetta being Zetta, each one was accompanied by a swift action shot of the stone skipping halfway around the globe, increasing in speed with every shot until some poor Prinny on a different continent exploded from its impact with said Prinny's skull.

This farce seemed to cheer Zetta up not at all.

"So, guess you're happy," he said, not looking her direction.

[thewunderkind]

She gave the ship a weird look before sighing. Rubbing the back of her neck, she looked around before answering. "I dunno," she admitted. "I mean wait, no don't get me wrong. I'm really happy to know someone else from my world is still alive and it's Hawke of all people. I just uhhh...."

Plopping down next to him on the beach, she took a couple of rocks in her hands and she idly tossed the smoothest and flat one, as it bounced off twice the water.

"It feels really weird to have him show up just exactly the time I decided to skip over the whole thing and made my peace with the fact everyone from my world might be gone, you know? He hasn't changed a bit either. Same old Hawke..." She tossed another rock again. "So I wouldn't say happy more than...confused." And that was being remarkably honest, as far as Lash was involved.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Well, the cosmos has a sick sense of humor, Lash. You can trust the talking book stuck on a ship of meat on that one."

He snapped his wrist. The rock he flung nearly intercepted hers, shattering it into powder, then skipped on for the horizon.

"Kinda surprised you ever made it back in here," he said. Really quietly. Maybe he didn't say it. Shut up. You never heard it.

[thewunderkind]

"Hey!" she protested as the dust of her rock settled over the ocean, slowly floating away. She threw another stone to stop his, but Zetta's was already out of the horizon and hers simply landed in the water with an unceremonious sound of PLOP and sank like...well...a rock.

She appeared to be surprised at his last comment, regardless.

"Why wouldn't I?" she replied, scratching the back of her head. "I said I'd come back, right?" Remarkably, Lash was also a woman of her world. The type that challenged her foes and said she'd leave if they'd won. The type that got angry when people invaded her base just to lower her armies and then leave before she could attack.

The next stone fared much better in the water and managed to make it skip twice before sinking.

"...this is pretty boring," she added. She couldn't imagine doing it more for a few minutes without the urge to pull out her hair.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Of course it's boring! What the hell did you think would happen when you took off, that I'd just keep pirating around without you?!"

Hell, there weren't even any Prinnies left in this little simulation. Just the two ships, debris on the water, and the two of them.

[thewunderkind]

"Well admittedly, I didn't think you'd stick around here for that long," she replied, throwing another stone. "I thought you might just go off in the castle and do something more exciting..."

The entire day was just completely confusing, she kept repeating to herself.

"But I guess pirating along would be pretty boring..."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta threw another stone as well, watching it zip out of sight in silence.

"You said you'd come back," he finally muttered, long after it had vanished over the horizon.