The noon sky was perfect. Blue skies, fluffy white clouds above and below, the sun was shining… and two ships racing through the air at breakneck speed. The smaller vessel in the lead was odd for a vehicle of this world. Oval in shape with a long fin underneath, the small ship’s flight deck was open to the air, where a beautiful cat-like woman was could be seen desperately trying to force the ship to go faster.
The reason for her desperation was obviously the larger ship following close behind. The much, much larger ship. Where the smaller ship had no obvious weapons, the larger ship had dozens of cannons, and where the woman’s craft was made of curves and smooth shapes, the ship in pursuit was all angles and hard lines. If you looked at it right, it almost looked like a cross between a battleship and a Cadillac.
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On board the Iron King, Spellvis grinned smugly. At the last meeting of the various Admirals, Fauntleroy had made it clear just how important it was to capture a Silvite, alive and unharmed. It was lucky for him that she showed up while he was patrolling the Valuan border, so now it was just a simple matter of taking her prisoner and dragging her to the palace. He turned to a young officer standing at a console, and spoke with an accent anyone from Earth would instantly recognize. “Ah’ we within range, son?”
Glancing up from the screen the sailor nodded. “Yes sir, we’re well within range and ready to fire on your orders.”
Spellvis smirked and adjusted his sunglasses slightly, savoring his imminent victory, and the glory to follow. “…Fire th’ stun cannon.”
The officers on deck all shuddered, and some were seen covering their ears. “Y-yes, sir. As you command.” With a look of resignation, the officer in question sent the necessary commands to several portions of the ship. The pilot accelerated, pushing the huge ship above it’s smaller target, and if you were outside the Iron King you would have seen that a huge dish on the bottom of the ship was now centered above the unsuspecting Silvite. After just a second of hesitation, the officers finger pushed on a large red button, and then there was noise.
A sailor who had been unfortunate enough to serve on the Iron King had once described the stun cannon as sounding like a tone-deaf moron who shouldn’t have been allowed near a kazoo had gotten his hands on an electric guitar and was determined to torture it into submission, played louder than any speaker could project. However, the sailor in question was inside the ship when he heard it, and that’s nothing compared to hearing it directly…
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The tan-furred Silvite was unfortunately not in the Iron King, and thus felt the full force of Spellvis’ pride and joy. She screamed as a wave of agony swept through her ears and into her mind, and she swayed for a brief moment before collapsing.
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After five seconds of agonizing noise Spellvis signaled for the stun cannon to be shut off. ‘Ah’ve nevah heard a sweetah sound, than th’ sounda victory.’ He waited for a little while so his crew could get their hearing back before he began questioning. “How’s th’ tah-get lookin’, boy?”
Still wincing and rubbing his ears, the officer in question took a moment longer than normal to pull the periscope up from the floor and take a look around the sky beneath the ship. “The target appears to be disabled, and her ship is moving in a straight line at a steady pace, sir.”
Spellvis grinned in satisfaction and patted the wall. “Iron Kang, yah’ve done it again.” He turned to a nearby sailor. “Take a few of th’ Mini-Kang’s to round up that suh-weet thang, and hav’ her locked in one of th’ guest sah-weets. Have her guarded well, ah don’t wanna take any chances with her.” As the nameless grunt ran off to fulfill his orders, Spellvis turned and marched off the bridge, his cape sweeping after him dramatically. He had a message to send to command.
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Some distance above and in front of the Iron King, another ship hid amongst some clouds, lying in wait. A three-masted ship, the white sails bearing a winged blue cats skull with crossed blades beneath it clearly marked the ship as one of the Edge Guard vessels. This particular ship, The Albatross, was crewed by the Northern Edge Guard, and its Captain was a tall, powerfully built werelion with a katana on each hip, rubbing his ears. “That was unpleasant, to say the least.”
The much smaller female Jagwere at his side snarled in agreement, the pain still not quite gone from her much more sensitive ears. “If I ever find out exactly who did that I’m gonna *%#(*$ Kapowie the bastard into the next life!”
Standing beside her, Gar sighed at his sisters… ‘colorful’ language. “You’ll get your chance soon enough, but remember to control your temper, we’ll be in enemy territory.”
Sheila grumbled for a moment before muttering, “Alright, I’ll calm down.” She glared up at her brother. “But I’m still going to Kapowie whoever did that.”
Gar grinned. “If you find him, give him a good punch for me.”
Shiela was about to reply when Onoli cut her off. “Sheila, head to the bridge and inform Thropan that we’re about to set sail. Gar, check the grappling lines one last time.” While the two siblings ran to their assigned tasks Onoli turned away from the railing. “All hands to battle stations! Boarding parties get ready!” With skill earned through years of experience the seasoned crew were ready in minutes, and by then Gar and Sheila were back on deck. Turning to look up at the bridge, Onoli gave a brief hand signal, and Thropan nodded in return. With that, the Albatross shot out of the clouds and sailed down gracefully toward its prey.
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Walking back towards the bridge, Spellvis was humming cheerfully to himself. The reply from headquarters was encouraging. The Royal family had been impressed with his easy capture of the woman, and they had promised a reward for his dedicated service to the Valuan Empire. He hoped that included a huge cash reward, he was aching to get those improvements to his ship underway. If he got enough money he could finally pay for the renovations of his dreams, a new coat of white paint, and a mountain of chrome!
A series of heavy thuds and the shuddering of the floor beneath his feet interrupted his shiny daydreams. His concern rose when the sirens started blaring. “What in blazes!?” Sprinting the rest of the way to the bridge, the wizard threw open the door and grabbed the first body in reach. “What’s goin’ on?!”
After a moment of stammering the panicked sailor managed to pull himself together and report. “We’re being boarded by Pirates, sir. Looks like the Edge Guard.”
“Numbahs, boy. How many ah there?”
“At least three dozen, sir.”
Spellvis cursed to himself. His crew wasn’t capable of handling three-dozen pirates. They were engineers, gunners, and pilots at best, not hardened melee fighters. He gritted his teeth angrily. Under normal circumstance he’d fight to the bitter end to protect his ship, but as much as it pained him to admit it, the girl was more important. “Seal off th’ bridge and send a distress call t’ every ship of th’ fleet in range, Top Prah-ority. Ah’m takin’ th’ gal to th’ lifeboats.” With that he stepped off the bridge and was satisfied to hear the door being bolted and sealed shut behind him. ‘Get th’ gal, then get to th’ hanger at th’ rear of th’ ship. No problem.’
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Finishing off the last of the sailor on deck with a brutal backhand, Onoli turned to where the rest of the crew were securing the ropes binding the two ships together. “Gar, Sheila, I want you two to head down to the engines and shut them down so we don’t drift further into Valuan territory. I’ll be up in the bridge with Thropan.” He turned to the rest of his motley crew. “The rest of you head to the cargo hold and start bringing everything you can carry up here. We need to move fast people, another ship could show up at any time.”
While Onoli and Thropan headed up the ship, Sheila and Gar headed down into the bowels of the vessel, occasionally knocking out a stray Valuan. “Gar, is it just me, or are these guys not putting up much of a fight?”
Gar nodded absently. “You’re right. I expected more resistance, but it’s almost like they’ve got something more important than us to deal with.”
Sheila slashed with her scimitar, sending a large chunk of ice slamming into an armored guard. “We’ll deal with it if it shows up, but we’ve got to take care of the engine room first.”
“Agreed.”
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Even with the girl slung over his shoulder, Spellvis was managing to move through the ship pretty quickly. There had been a brief encounter with pirates, but his bodyguard had quickly sent them running. Descending one last flight of stairs, he went over the escape route in his head. ‘Jus’ gotta walk through th’ engine room, and th’ hangers right there.’ He sneered. ‘Those pirates can’t stop me, Ah’ll be free in no time.’ With that he shoved open the door to the engine room…
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*WHAM!*
Gar and Sheila both spun around as the door slammed open, revealing an odd looking human wearing white pants, white leather shoes, a fur-lined cape and sunglasses. The guitar slung over one shoulder and the girl hanging over the other only added to his strange appearance. For a moment the three of them just stared at each other, but then Gar cleared his throat. “And who might you be?”
Spellvis straightened up and introduced himself. “Ah am Spellvis, the Admiral of th’ Third Fleet. And you ah?”
Gar smiled politely. “I’m Garfield Silvear, and this is my sister Sheila. We’re the Edge Guard, and if you would be so kind as to put down the girl and any valuables on your person, we will relieve you of both burdens and be on our way.”
Sheila giggled.
Spellvis kept sneering.
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On the bridge of the Iron King Onoli and Thropan were sifting through various records and maps when a ringing noise sounded from the radio. Arching his eyebrow curiously, Thropan strolled over and pulled on a pair of headphones and flipped a switch. “This is the Iron King VF3-01, Liutenant Thropan speaking.”
“This is Admiral Fauntelroy of the Valuan Armada. Tell that cape-wearing monkey that all available ships of the First Fleet are on their way to take care of his little pirate problem, and then I’ll be taking the girl. Fauntelroy out.”
Hearing a quiet whimper, Onoli turned to address his pilot only to freeze when he noticed the condition the werepanther was in. He was shivering slightly, and his tail was bushier than Onoli had ever seen it. “Thropan, what’s wrong? …THROPAN!?”
The werepanther finally snapped out of his shock, and he immediately grabbed Onoli and started dragging him to the door. “We have to get out of here, now!”
Onoli dug his feet in and stopped their rapid movement towards the exit. “Thropan, what’s going on?”
“A significant portion of the Valuan First Fleet is on its way here to take care of the ‘Pirate Problem.’ Seeing as how we are the Pirate problem, I thought it might be best if we left long before they got here.”
Onoli froze in shock, but he quickly recovered. “Gar and Sheila are still in the engine room, we need to warn them.”
Glancing around, Thropan soon found the intercom panel and switched it on. “Gar? Sheila? If you two can hear me, the Valuan First Fleet is on its way here, so we have to leave right now. You have…” He glanced at Onoli, who held up all ten fingers. “Ten minutes to get back to the Albatross, after that…you’re going to be left behind.” He flicked off the intercom and turned back to the werelion, a mildly worried look on his face. “Are we really going to leave them behind if they don’t get to the ship in time?”
Onoli sighed and nodded. “We don’t really have a choice. We can’t take on an entire fleet, nor can we afford to lead said fleet back to base. We have to leave well before the Valuans get here.”
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“Gar? Sheila? If you two can hear me, the Valuan First Fleet is on its way here, so we have to leave right now. You have…Ten minutes to get back to the Albatross, after that…you’re going to be left behind.”
The two werecat siblings glanced at each other before turning to glare at a smirking Spellvis. “Hey weirdo, hand over the girl and get out of the way!”
Turning his gaze to the smaller of the two, Spellvis’ smirk grew larger. “No, Ah don’t think so, baybeh.” He stepped to the side to make room for his bodyguard to enter the hanger; a 10 foot tall metal golem that looked somewhat similar to himself. The golem moved with surprising fluidity as it slid its guitar off its back and held it by the neck, kind of like an axe. While the guitar lacked an axes’ edge, it was still solid metal, and had a little addition that made it extremely dangerous to the two werecats…
“Silver.” Gar and Sheila tensed up at the sight of their worst weakness.
“That’s raht, silvah. Now, you two stay right here, if yah try an’ get to the door or open tha hanger to fly off in one of tha’ lifeboats, Ol’ Elvis here will give you naughty children a spankin’ you’ll nevah forget.” With that he slid out the door and sealed it tight, locking the two werecats in with ‘Old Elvis.’
“Gar, what are we going to do?”
Gar didn’t answer immediately; he just stared at the golem for a while. Eventually… “Nothing.”
Sheila stared at her brother in shock. “What do you mean, nothing?!”
Gar sighed and sat down. “Sis, we weren’t prepared to deal with a golem, and a golem with a silvered weapon is even worse. We can’t get to the door or escape with a life raft without one of us being left behind or killed, and we can’t beat a golem like this in less than ten minutes. For the time being we’ll surrender, and find a way to escape later.”
Sheila wracked her brain for something, anything they could use to escape, but eventually she reached the same conclusion as Gar. She groaned in resignation and sank to the floor next to her brother. “This sucks.”
“Yep.”
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As he walked back to the bridge Spellvis stumbled as he felt a brief surge of magical energy some distance above him. ‘What!?’ The Silvite in his arms murmured quietly and showed signs of waking up soon, so he made a note to check it out later and hurried to the infirmary to find something to keep ‘Sleeping Beauty’ nice and unconscious.
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An hour or so later…
Spellvis grinned to himself. Today had turned out to be rather profitable. He’d lost some supplies to those damn Edge Guard, and some of his sailors had been injured, but the girl, the prisoners, and the recovered Silvite ship had more than made up for it. The pirate ship had fled an hour ago, and the two skum left in the engine room had surrendered peacefully enough. Which left him in his current position, standing proudly before Fauntelroy in the hanger. “Here is th’ Silvite as reported, sir.”
The tall ‘man’ nodded as he ran his eyes over the girl. “It seems you weren’t exaggerating after all Spellvis. This is indeed a Silvite, and a particularly fine specimen if I may say so. Well done.” The First Admiral snapped his fingers and a deeply tanned, short-haired woman in yellow and orange clothing stepped forward and carried the Silvite into a waiting yacht. “You will be greatly rewarded for this when you return to Valua.” Without another word he turned and stepped into his yacht, and in moments he was just a rapidly shrinking dot heading towards the flagship of the First Fleet.
Still grinning, Spellvis began the journey back to his quarters. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts of glory and gold that he had completely forgotten about the brief surge of magic he felt earlier.
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Meanwhile, the source of the magical disturbance was cloaked in the Umi-Sen-Ken in a quiet corner of the hanger, watching Fauntelroy’s Flagship sail off towards Valua. The last ten minutes of conversation had been particularly interesting. ‘Why would that wanna-be Elvis be rewarded so much for capturing that girl? Because she’s a Silvite? What the hell does that mean, anyway?’ Whatever it meant, Ranma had the distinct feeling that she was extremely important to his mission. ‘Well, we’re both heading to the same city, so I might be able to find her when I get there.’
He stood up from his low crouch and stretched before heading for the door. ‘In the meantime, I should follow Bast’s advice and try to make a good impression on these Edge Guard.’
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(Posted Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:44)
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