One Last Time
Chapter 1
Silver walked through the darkened grounds of the circus. The sun had just set but it was already so dark that, if it weren't for both his cyborg eye and the street lights, he wouldn't be able to see his hand in front of his face. What light there was, however, was fighting to be seen through the haze of smoke created by the fires that gypsies were huddles around and the large amount of pipes being smoked by the rich patrons. The smell of incense and tobacco saturated the air as both gypsies and prostitutes tried to coax men and women into their tents to milk them for every last dabloon they had.
He snorted in disgust as his eyes scanned the crowd, looking for something in particular. He had heard that there was something unusual and most likely valuable being carried around by this particular band of degenerates. He was planning on relieving them of such a burden, but he needed to find it first.
"Come one! Come all! See the most startling thing to grace our galaxy! There is no other like it in all the universe today!"
Silver smirked and headed to the elaborate tent that a grotesque humanoid alien was advertising for. This could possibly be what he had come to find. As the crowd gathered into the tent, he could hear the sounds of bones breaking, blood spurting, and screams of agony coming from the other side of the curtain in that order. He frowned as the alien creature from before walked out in front of the blood red curtain. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" It yelled out. "You have all come here tonight to see something incredible and you will not be disappointed. Without further ado, I give to you the last earthling to ever grace our universe with her presence."
The curtain drew back to show a large cage. Standing yet chained to the floor by her ankles and wrists was a red headed human female. Her sun-kissed skin seemed to glow in the torchlight that was used to light the cage and her eyes, which were the brightest shade of yellow Silver had ever seen, glared out with enough hatred and anger that if looks could kill she could level a small planet. Other than whipping scars there was a large burn that went from the elbow of her left arm all the way up her neck to stop at the corner of her pouty lips which were pulled back into a snarl to show off perfectly white teeth. A tattoo of what appeared to be just mindless scribble ran in a line from her right temple to the outer corner of her right eye. Behind the girl, for she could be no older than fourteen, was the body of what might have been a tormentor lying in his own blood.
The girl charged forward, her eyes trained on the ringmaster, only to be held back by the chains. She opened her mouth to speak, her voice chilling Silver to the bone. "Is féidir leat sruthán do eternity sna seacht shraith de ifreann, Coward."
The word "coward" came out clear enough and the master glared at her before taking the whip from his belt and lashing at her. She just grinned in a way that said that she was clearly insane before she let out a chilling cackle. "An é sin an chuid is fearr a fuair tú, worm? Come on! Kill dom! Cuir mé as mo misery!"
Silver turned and walked out of the tent, shaking his head. He needed to find his crew and figure out where all the loot was.
Smoke.
That was the smell that assaulted her nose later that night. Now, this wasn't unusual considering where she was. What was unusual was the screams of terror she heard from the gypsies and whores along with the sounds of guns going off. A raid? She wondered, cracking one yellow eye open. She could see the tent across the way on fire through the flaps of the tent she was being held in. Suddenly the flaps flew open and the ring master ran in, his back to her cage. He was slowly backing up, probably not realizing where he was. Closer. She silently urged him. He backed up some more. She could almost reach him. Just a little more.
Finally he backed up enough that she was able to reach forward and wrap her arms around his neck before bringing him back and bashing his skull against the bars once, twice, three times. Blood sprayed from the wound as he slumped and she bashed his head once more for good measure before grabbing the keys from one of his pockets. She grinned and let go, watching with a curious look as his body fell forward to lie motionlessly on the floor. "Oops." She said before cackling and unlocking her cell. She bent down and took the ringmaster's dagger and gun before whispering "Have fun in Hell" and shooting him in the head. She didn't want to risk the possibility that he lived.
She immediately ran out of her tent and into a different one, grabbing some decent clothes and changing quickly out of the purp sack that she was forced to wear and into a loose fitting pair of black slacks and black sailor boots. She grabbed a silk piece of black fabric and tore into two pieces, one longer than the other. She tied the longer piece around her rather decent sized bust and the shorted one she used as a bandana to keep her hair out of her face. She grabbed another strip of blood red fabric and used it as a belt to both hold up the pants and to hold the gun and dagger. Then she quickly left the tent to return to the chaos outside.
She ran towards the tent that was the Ring Master's personal quarters and started to franticly look through boxes. She let out a sigh of relief when she opened one and saw what she was looking for. It was an old gold dabloon with the engraving of an infamous Jolly Roger on one side and the initials N.M.F. printed in elegant text in the other side. It was held onto a simple black chord using gold wire. She tied it around her neck and then left the tent, leaving most of the gold that she found in her search and taking only enough to maybe get her a bed and hot meal at an inn.
However, when she opened the flap she was met by a rather large humanoid cyborg alien. They stared at each other in surprise before she bolted around him and ran for any place that might be safe only to be caught in a pair of crab-like red claws. Whatever had grabbed her proceeded to drag her back to the Ring Master's tent before turning her to face the cyborg. The man looked her up and down before his eyes rested on the dabloon around her neck, or, more specifically, the Jolly Roger that was printed on it. His eyes widened as he gasped. It was the Jolly Roger of Captain Nathaniel Flint. "Where did you get that?" he asked.
"It was given to me." The girl replied with a faint accent.
"By who?"
"I don't know. I've had it since birth."
Silver stroked his chin in thought, completely disregarding the now silent camp and the fires that were burning it to the ground. "What's yer name, lass?"
She hesitated before fixing him with a steely gaze. "Noah."
"Well, Miss Noah." Silver started as his crew gathered behind him with the flames of the circus creating a backdrop. "Welcome to me crew."