“I saved a few pizza slices, will that do?”
“I dunno, Vivian, you do have a blade to my throat-- HOUGH--”
Before that conversation can go on much longer, I dive forward with a slug to the guard’s gut, searing an imprint of my kitty fist into its metal as I ignite myself in a blaze of frustration. The cold seriously pissed me off, so it’s about time to light up this place. Of course, within the realm of cutthroat criminals, I doubt taking a hostage is overly effective, so I quickly dispose of poor Hilxoten as bullets and lasers start going off behind me.
“Look here, Cat!” I hear the purple alien say, drawing my attention to her face.
She tosses what seems to be some kind of alien fruit, resembling a starfruit, over my head and shoots it with the laser blaster previously holstered to her hip, and bang, snap, pop, sizzle! Whatever that does behind me sets off a light show that has all those at the table groaning and staggering for a moment, giving me ample time to smash Hilxoten’s face into the wall...and pull it back to see them shake their head, both eyes spinning about their head like bubbles in a bathtub.
“Blunt force doesn’t do too much to us, ma’am.”
What a polite alien. I use the few moments Vivian’s distraction bought me to give the hostaged alien a brief nod of gratitude before tearing their helmet off and giving them a blazing slap to the face, sending them spinning away and falling face first to the floor. Turning back to Vivian, I see her recoil and cringe at the sight, but quickly compose herself. She then spins the shear in her hand before chucking it like a throwing knife at the one alien still aiming at us, impaling them through the chest and piercing right through their armour into the wall behind them. There doesn’t appear to be any bleeding, and though they are quite clearly in pain, for the most part they seem staggered as opposed to anything else.
Right as I’m prepared to leap into the fray, an explosion of darkness manifests from the center of the table, revealing Fox! Her Shadow clings to a few of our foes like a creeping ooze before dragging all of them into the center of the table, my partner spinning in the air and bopping each of them on the head before bouncing away. As another hail of bullets and lasers whizz past me, off the mark or barely grazing my fur, I duck low and roll under the table, taking a laser to the back thanks to one asshole dipping under for a pot shot. My fur just bristles and burns in response to the pain.
“QUIT that SHIT!!” I cry, heaving the table over my head with all the enemies atop it.
I chuc it at the wall, hearing the slapping of humans against metal and the splatting of aliens between a table and a hard place. Of course, this leaves me exposed to the remaining four, plus one still bound to their chair. As I bend and twist around those still shooting at me, the others helplessly blast at the spot where Fox was seconds ago, the girl too fast for their shoddy aim to best her.
Luckily for me, Vivian throws me another bone, or rather, tosses a mass of vines with large bulbs at each end, looking something like a swarm of bolas that ensnare one of the humans before each bulb explodes into a powder that puts ‘em to sleep fast. Meanwhile, Fox dashes and rolls around the room before one of her rolls continues spinning, the sound of a screeching tire following her as she loops circles around the remaining gang of enemies before bouncing off a wall and bonking one of the humans in the head, knocking them out. She then rides into the remaining guard, burning a streak across them with a windy wheel. That leaves two left for me while Vivian sneaks over to the table’s remains, holding something like a cybernetic rake and using it to strike at the aliens trying to get back on their feet.
I figure, between the remaining human and the remaining alien, the latter poses more of a threat, but I send a quick laser of my own towards the former, frying their hand and hearing the clattering of a gun against the ground as I lean back to dodge the alien’s pistol whip. I use their swing to my advantage, grabbing their wrist with a paw burning like a stove. The alien yelps before gasping at the sudden heat in their gut, a blazing glowstick stuck in their side...only for me to suck all the light out of it, freezing it into the now more solid hole in their body. The pain from that seems to be enough for me to sock ‘em in the face, knocking them to the ground where they look a little more melted than before.
Thus, one person remains. I turn to the human with a glowing glint in my eyes, stepping towards the shaking one as Vivian and Fox approach as well, the latter hopping onto my shoulder with her predatory sharp toothed grin, the former with a sweet smile masking the face of a trained assassin holding a rake menacingly. All three of us loom over them as they fall to their ass, looking between each of us with equal fear before simply passing out from fright. I sigh with relief now that the fight is over, Fox snickering and whapping the unconscious body with her tail.
“Well, I didn’t expect to start my day with a party and some light mutiny, but that’s the business, I suppose!”
I turn to Vivian, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow at her comment. “You’d cross your own crewmates and cohorts just like that? You’re ruthless.”
The alien giggles at me while folding her rake away. “Let’s just say, a little admiration goes a long way. This might be our first meeting, but your story is whispered in hushed tones around these parts, and everything I’ve heard resonates with me quite a bit. Your side is one I’d take over a job.”
I tilt my head at the girl before remembering the light I felt a few moments ago, smiling and relaxing somewhat.
“Kinda flattering that our criminal exploits reach to the stars above. What are you even gonna do now that you’ve branded yourself a traitor?”
Vivian picks up one of the chairs that had fallen down in the skirmish and sits down with a shrug, still smiling.
“Same as I did when I decided to turn coat: believe that you’ll make it worth it.”
Ugh. Yeah, yeah, the light of hope, whatever. I sigh and shake my head.
“Would it be too much to ask that you do a bit more than believe? We kinda know barely anything about this space ship.”
The girl gives me a big smile and gestures to the door we entered through.
“I’ll keep watch here. I’m sure the boss is expecting you, and I can at least make sure they’re the only thing you have to deal with this time around.”
I smile right back at her and nod.
“You’re a life saver, Vivian. Let’s make sure this isn’t the last time we work together.”
That only leaves one loose end: the human sitting bound in their chair. I walk over and burn an inch of the rope gagging their mouth and look them in the eyes.
“You doin’ alright? What’re you doing here?”
They seem still fairly shaken, but gulp and try their best to answer.
“I-I don’t know, I don’t know any of these people! I-I’m just a landlord from--aargh!”
Vivian was gracious enough to hand me a vine to replace the rope I’d burnt away, gagging them once again and quickly moving on. I’m sure they’ll treat them fine.
Our new purple friend punches a code into the door opposite to the way we’d entered from, giving us a smile and a bow before walking off to guard the entrance.
Moving onward, we find ourselves in a corridor slanted downwards, creaking beneath our steps despite how metallic it all looks. Upon further inspection, however, the path isn’t just on an angle, it appears to be rocking back and forth, as if it were adrift on a whirling ocean, and looking to our sides, I can see clearly why.
The tube shaped hall is lined with walls of glass with a ceiling to match, and every which way your eyes can see, the windows reveal a vast ocean of space. The tube itself dips downwards into a pitch black, starry sea, above which I can see the horizon, a cosmic conglomerate of galaxies far and stars near, like a sky fighting between dusk and dawn. It creates a whirling cacophony of brilliant lights, setting the backdrop ablaze in a splash of colours that sends my mind drifting into its depths. Space...there’s no way this could be real, not under Monorise, right? Even so, its beauty is--
“Myah.”
Ah. Thank you, Fox poking her nose at my shin. I give her a weary smile and she returns the gesture before tilting her head at me.
“Y-yeah. I do feel a bit out of it, but...I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Her head only tilts further, but I put it back upright as I squat down and ruffle her ears.
“C’mon. We’re professionals. You can count on me, I can count on you. Let’s get this over with and get some meat in your belly after.”
That seems to raise her spirits, and seeing her yip, tongue hanging out and tail wagging, I can’t help but feel mine go up as well. Right...I’ve just gotta keep pushing through for her. So we keep pushing our way down the space tunnel, an odd sense of claustrophobia and kenophobia...like the vast, endless emptiness of the galactic ocean surrounding the tube is constantly threatening to crush us under its immense cosmic weight. Definitely a frightening entrance for an underworld boss…
A couple dozen meters later, the tunnel seems to flatten out, leading us towards a circular sliding door as large as the diameter of the hall. In the very center where each door meets there is a disk-shaped panel, similar to the one we used to initially traverse the ship. Only there’s no sticky note to guide us this time unfortunately. Guess Poison could only get so far. Nevertheless, lockpicking is my specialty, and I’ve not gotten a good chance to flex those skills in what feels like quite some time, not for heists anyways. It does feel weird being a part-time locksmith for Aspen Town with how I tend to use my talents…
Regardless, this is where I shine. As I approach, the panel bleeps and bloops, flashing some kind of sliding maze puzzle on its screen. This must be the lock then...I press my finger to one of the blocks to be slid through the maze, and the others flash, yet, I can’t move the one I press. This happens for all three blocks shown, however, as I press on two at once, the third glows even brighter. Hmm. It’s a good thing I’m not some smelly human.
I whip my tail around and press its tip to the third block, all of them finally released as Fox hops up on my shoulder to watch. If I had to guess, these are all going to reset if I let go of any one of them, so I have to be careful...unfortunately for me, this really does seem to be made with goo people in mind. I’m flexible, but this is pushing my limits, turning me into the hottest pretzel this side of Monorise, and that’s saying something. I think for a second, the gears in my brain turning, when I notice that as I keep my paws in one place on the screen, and as I heat them up in my deep thought, the blocks seem to move much less. Idea.
I just about burn a hole through this damn thing, but with enough heat, I’m able to pull my fingers off for a moment and readjust my positioning. Thank the goddess for weird alien technology, they must not have much internal body heat themselves. Just like that, all three blocks click into place within the center of the maze, and congratulatory bee-boo-boodle-doo sounds off, prompting me to quickly hop to the side of the soon opening door as to give myself more of an element of surprise to whatever lies in waiting behind this doOUGH--
Mid-jump, I find a tight grip on my throat now suspending me in the air, my paws quickly moving up to grasp at my assailant’s gooey grey hand, heating up significantly. They don’t even seem to flinch before effortlessly hurling me into the room I’d just unlocked. Slamming and sliding against the smooth chrome floor, I flip upright onto all fours and hiss, eyes wide and scanning the room around me before things escalate any further.
The entire room is a dome of glass panels revealing the liquid space threatening to swallow all, sans the very top of the ceiling, where a galactic tube similar to the one used to travel about this ship goes way up, further than I can see. As the sound of boots begins stomping towards me, I look around once more, seeing something of a...personal training grounds as it would seem, loaded with a firing range, a decently sized dueling area, barracks armed to the teeth with guns and other artillery, and it all clicks as I look to my attacker.
A grey and white navy officer’s uniform, I think, adorns the pale, silver haired figure. They look like a fairly normal pale-skinned human, if a rather large one, probably almost as tall as me. It’s hard to tell from this low on the ground, but even so, their stature is imposing despite their height. That is to say, they’re built. I stand up, sizing them up a bit more, noting the bits of their uniform that look altered to be more plunder-crimes than war-crimes, a worn sash around the waist, a coat of a similar chrome nature to that of their crewmates, and, of course, an eyepatch.
“Legion, I presume?”
They stop their march for a moment, turning their nose up to sneer at me before bringing their hands up and signing, “The rat’s new pet, I presume?”
For a second, I’m glad it was Fox who went full feral. Love the girl, but poor thing couldn’t read a billboard if she were about to run right into it (which she’s done before), let alone read a language she doesn’t even know. I look down at my big meaty paws and shrug, signing back, “I hope you can tell I want to be listening to her as much as anyone else, y’know, as in not at all.”
But their eyes only narrow tighter upon me.
“Yet you do her bidding all the same, runt,” they sign back, a chromatic flintlock pistol falling from their sleeve in a second, giving me just as much time to slip to the side and feel a laser bullet graze my fur and fizzle against the glass wall in the distance.
“Time out, time out! I’m not here to fight you, I promise!”
Despite signing that, I doubt I’m going to make it through this confrontation unscathed. Still, even with their gun locked on me, they seem to hold their fire...a third arm revealing itself from behind their back, handing their weapon to it before signing back to me.
“We’ll be the judge of that. You’ve got 3 minutes to make your case.”
Gulp. The countdown is set. Time to work these paws.
“I know you have very little reason to trust the rat, as do I, but you know she has a knack for rallying people behind her cause,” I begin, every inch of fur on my body standing tall as my eyes dart from Legion’s face to their gun, back and forth. “She has a plan. I’ve brought the light back to Subterfuge. It’s time to rally the underworld and take Monorise by the throat.”
By the scowl on their face, I can tell I’m not impressing them much.
“And yes, I know, Elizabeth at the head of this charge is not something I trust either. But I do believe that she can make change happen. She’s stirring ripples in this water, and I’m going to ride the wave she’s making. I can’t do this alone though. You have good people here. I trust you can be much the same, if you believe in the same cause. Please, help me free the people of Monorise.”
The entire time, they’ve remained entirely still, not a budge of their expression or anything, and they reply immediately as I finish, as if they knew exactly what I was going to say before I’d even signed it.
“I doubt you’ve known her long, but even so, you know how that rat works. That means you’re either strong enough to have earned the confidence needed to pull this off...or you’re way in over your head. And I intend to test which is true.”
Time slows watching their finger pulling down on the trigger, feeling the weight of the moment on every bone in my body before a loud tire screeching tears time back into gear. Fox! A windy wheel spins around her body as she cartwheels forward, distracting Legion enough for their aim to barely graze me past my dodge. Even with that relief, a high pitched squeal of pain keeps me on my toes. Somehow, the captain had stomped down on my partner from an angle they shouldn’t have been able to see her coming from! Her Shadow spreads across her body from where Legion’s foot has her pinned, keeping their foot stuck to her and preventing the pirate from pursuing me as I weave around various training dummies. However, Fox’s strategy does not stop them from firing at me repeatedly.
Legion appears to stop focusing too heavily on me, instead leaving their third arm to aim at me while glaring down at Fox as her Shadow creeps up their leg, looking like a dark hand grasping them and pulling them down. Despite their composure, the shadowy grip is clearly painful as it begins to sink deeper and deeper into their body, the pirate grunting as they aim at their own leg and blast it half off!
“Holy shit…”
A murky black sludge splatters against the floor as I mutter to myself and Fox sneezes herself back with a windy bomb, the two...three? Of us? Watching as the goo scrambles back towards Legion, moulding back into the shape of their leg and the clothing atop it. I take this distraction and seize my chance, brandishing twin beam sabres and deflecting the weakened hail of laser bullets until I’m close enough to strike, slashing forward with each blade...and watching them pass through the captain. At first it seemed to slice them right in half at the waist, but just as their leg came back together, the gap was quickly closed, leaving me to bat back a barrage of pistolwhips with my paws and trying to get more slashes in between. It’s hopeless though...regardless of how hot I try to muster my fire, it isn’t searing enough to cauterize this alien goo! And in my moment of weakness, I find a single gun’s barrel pressed directly against my forehead, eyes dilated and stuck on Legion’s seemingly disappointed frown.
BANG!!
My life flashes before my eyes, and at the end of the tunnel I see both light and darkness beyond the melting alien body in front of me.
“Fox…” I breathe out in relief, looking to my partner and her Shadow clinging to her tail, forming the shape of a rifle at its tip.
Right, she’s always got my back...I just wish I could have hers, or anyone’s for that matter, yet I keep faltering. Am I just not strong enough? Glancing to the side, I don’t give myself too much time to ruminate as I figure out what exactly had just happened: Fox and her Shadow shot their eye out. That extraterrestrial orb lays dormant on the steel floor, rolling idly while the body it once inhabited turns into a puddle of tar-like ooze, speckled with little lights like stars in the night sky.
“...There’s no way it was that easy.”
I step back and reach for the eye, feeling something like a marble twice the size of a human eye. Rolling the unscathed eye about in my hand (hoping I don’t look like a kitten playing with a cat toy), I observe how it seems as though it is still be watching me. The puddle of nebulous goo in my peripheral vision continues to gurgle.
“Yeah, it’s never that easy...” I groan, stepping back from the pool of alien slime the more intense its frothing becomes.
I can feel the orb in my hand tugging itself towards its home as though gravity is shifting for it alone... That’s when I notice the goo isn’t exactly frothing...things are moving inside of it. The pull of the orb in my hand becomes too much to continue grasping, their eye rocketing back to its place of origin...to reunite with all the other orbs inside.
“Ah. Legion. I get iiiIIIT--”
My musing is interrupted as an intense force of gravity begins to well at the center of the room, dragging the remains of Legion in first and pulling them upwards into the tube at the top of the dome, and Fox and I are soon to follow. I hold onto my partner for dear life, feeling her tail wrap around my waist in return until we’re hurtled up and out of the nebulous tunnel and onto what appears to be some kind of chromatic shipdeck. Looking beyond the huge platform we find ourselves laying on, I see where exactly we’ve been transported: the Stellar Sea, the very same we had seen between the main ship and Legion’s room. As if the whole pirate aesthetic wasn’t enough, the rocking of the ship deck really helps it to sink in that we’re adrift in the middle of some kind of galactic ocean, the sunset hues of space lining the horizon in the shape of galaxies. It’s a whole different view than from inside the ship’s tunnels, beautiful really, though it’s difficult to enjoy the beauty knowing something deadly awaits us up here.
Standing up with Fox in my arms, I traipse through the silence of the stars to get a better look at the “water”, wondering if some kind of sea monster lurks below, noting how the very sea itself looks very similar to...Legion’s...body...as it was...melting…
Oh dear goddess.
