Yondu opened his eyes the next morning and saw that Kaylin was not in the room. He shrugged and assumed she left to get breakfast. He waved his hand and pulled up a clock on a monitor.
It was 8:55.
He grunted and stood up and stretched his back. 'Knew it wasn't a smart idea t' sleep on th' floor,' he thought to himself. He left her room and made his way to the mess hall.
Once he entered, however, the eyes of the Ravager crew went directly to him.
Some were trying their hardest not to laugh; others keeping a straight face but keeping a smile from forming; others covering their smiling faces or turning them away from their captain. Yondu raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? The hell y'all lookin' at?!" he asked finally.
A large gorilla-like Ravager with black and white fur with a grey under belly, named Kupa, passed by Yondu and commented while chuckling, "Nice 'stache, cap'n!" The Centaurian gave him an odd look. "What…?" he asked. He took an empty metal tray and put it up by his face and saw what the gorilla-Ravager was talking about: Somebody had put a pink handle bar mustache on his face while he was asleep.
His face of realization made the whole mess hall burst out into laughter.
He dropped the tray and yelled over the laughter, "WHO THE FUCK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS BULLSHIT?!"
He already narrowed down who could have done this: Peter Quill, Golan, Yukina, and, unfortunately for him, Kaylin Horrigan.
He pushed back his jacket and revealed the arrow. The whole room immediately went quiet. "Now if nobody fesses up, you'll either be killed by the whistle, or be eaten alive! Now who did this?!"
Right on cue, the door slide open and closed. He turned around and saw in enough time a silver tail— and he knew who the tail belonged to.
He put the arrow back and left the mess hall; the place bursted out laughing again.
He began following the perpetrator until he was just yards away. He whistled and the arrow headed straight to the perpetrator's face; millimeters away from penetrating their head. The person stopped dead in their tracks.
"Figured ya do tha' at some point, Corey," Yondu commented. Kaylin felt her heart stop. "Oooooh shiiit…," she cursed. Yondu walked up behind her; close enough that he was inches behind her. "Ya know what happens when ya do that ta ol' Yondu?" He asked, the arrow returning to its hilt. Kaylin replied, "What?"
Yondu slipped the bandana off her head with a smirk. "What th- HEY!" She spun around and attempted to get her bandana from him. However, he was too tall for her. "Dammit, Yondu! Gimme that!" She pouted. The Centaurian only smirked and stepped back. "Only if ya get this damn thing off first~," he replied pointing to his face. She stepped forward. "Gimme th' bandana, and then I'll consider it," she answered.
"Git rid o' th' 'stache!"
"Gimme th' bandana!"
There was a silence.
Suddenly, Yondu took off running. "Hey! Get back here!" She called out running after him. Their chase ended at the hangar. A row of crates separated them. "Drop it! Drop it! Drop it now!" Kaylin yelled. Yondu shook his head. "I swear t' God if you don' drop th' bandana…!" He gave her his smirk. Next thing he knew, her anthropomorphic form tackled him. Kaylin, though, still couldn't reach for her bandana.
Yondu and Kaylin wrestled for ownership of the red bandana until Kaylin's shadow started to move on its own. It grew a tail and grabbed Yondu by the legs, causing him to levitate. The shadow hung him upside down. Kaylin walked up to him with a prideful smile. She took the bandana from his hand and said, "Okay. I can take that off yer face now." Yondu shouted, "'Bout fuckin' time!" Kaylin placed one hand on the mustache and the other on his cheek.
"Okay, now this is gonna hurt!" she suddenly said. He shot her a concerned looked.
"W-What?"
"It's duct tape. Gonna be real painful th' instant I rip it off yer face."
Yondu gave her a mixed look of anger, concern, and question, saying, "Are you crazy?!"
"No. An' if I were, I woulda made tha' 'stache just a strip," she replied with a smirk.
"Okay- One-"
"Oh hell no."
"Two-"
"Don' you-"
"THREE!"
The instant the tape mustache came off, the whole hangar was filled with his scream of pain.
…
…
…
Time: 11:02
Location: Xandar, Nova Empire
"What happened to Yondu?" asked the Broker.
Kaylin looked over her shoulder and watched Yondu examine the various trinkets in the shop, all while having a small wet cloth over his upper lip. She turned back to the Broker, shrugged and replied, "It was a painful procedure, suh. All it took was one good clean swipe an' that tape was off o' him like pluckin' th' feathers off a chicken."
The Broker gave her an odd confused look. "Excuse me?" Kaylin answered, "Uh, it's somethin' we say back on Terra; especially in m' area." She forgot nobody understood her Eastern Kentucky dialect.
The Broker just shrugged.
She turned back to Yondu, who just now flipped the bird and gave her a pissed off look on his face. She smiled cutely and flipped the bird back.
"You two are very odd around each other…," the Broker commented. She turned back to him and replied, "I know."
"So do you have our gem?" he asked changing the subject. Kaylin pulled out the Mizony from her satchel. "One invisibility crystal, yer majesty," she said placing the crystal on the display case. "Oh. An' I nearly died gettin' this, thank you very much!" she added. The short man looked up from the crystal and said, "I beg your pardon?" Kaylin replied, "Yeah. A pal o' mine done fucked up our mission an' had to provoke th' natives. Yondu said he'd fire him later today."
"What… What did he do that would make the inhabitants upset?"
She then explained the forbidden treasure, the fight and encounter with the Zyokai general and the escape.
The Broker thought about the situation momentarily before speaking again. "Well I do suppose I could fix the price a little," he promised. "Prices- Right. I was thinkin'... 300 credits," Kaylin offered. The Broker shook his head and said, "Mmm. Won't do." Kaylin huffed out of annoyance and said, "C'mon, man. I 'bout got skinned alive cuzz of this thing. C'mon, 400 credits."
"Absolutely not!"
"Well what were you thinkin' on?"
"Around 150."
"WHAT?"
"I can't go higher than that. I need money for my business," he informed her.
Kaylin made a motion with her hand and said, "Look, man, I don' care 'bout yo damn business. I just risked m' life gettin' what you need and I need th' money, dude."
The Broker yelled, "No!"
Yondu turned around to the argument.
"Look, man, how many times are you gonna have somebody risk death in order to get somethin' as valuable as this?" she asked angrily holding up the Mizony.
"As far as I am concerned, you, miss Horrigan, are not willing to make this any easier!" the Broker argued. Kaylin felt offensive and said, "Excuse me?!" The Broker continued, "Just because you escaped death does not make this any more valuable. Now I am willing to make a price of your offer, but valuing this at such a high price is absolutely ridiculous!"
"Yeah right, like it ain't even more ridiculous than it is…," she muttered.
"You have quite the nerve to show your face in Nova Empire at such a "dire" moment," he commented.
Yondu pushed back his flight jacket revealing his yaka arrow.
"Look, yo, I ain't gonna waste m' time wit' yer damn business. Just gimme th' damn money, ol' man er else!" Kaylin growled. "Or else wha-"
The arrow was instantly right between the Broker's eyes.
"Er else Imma hafta use that against you…!" Yondu finished approaching Kaylin and the Broker. He put a hand on Kaylin's shoulder and said, "Now why doncha do wha' th' lil' lady says, an' we'll be on our way~."
The Broker gulped while the two Ravagers smirked.
…
…
…
"We should add that to yer rules: When in doubt, if someone's bein' an ass, go for the arrow!" Kaylin exclaimed. Yondu chuckled and replied, "That can really get yer money's worth!" The two walked from the Broker's shop and went on their way to Kaylin's M-ship, the Silver Liner.
She was an all black ship with silver/grey markings. The markings almost looked like a dragon skeleton, especially by the pilot's deck.
Kaylin and Yondu found a place to get some lunch before heading out.
However, something- or someone- wasn't going to let them go easily.
From a distance, a hooded figure watched the Ravager duo enjoy their food and earnings. The figure had its snout sticking out, looked very anthropomorphic, and had their satchel over their right shoulder. They held their arm up and uncovered their wrist revealing a detector/scanner. He waved his hand and he opened up a screen. The screen showed the information of a selected target and their profiles.
The screen selected Yondu and it had scanned and pulled up Yondu's profile.
The profile read:
Name: Yondu Udonta
Age: 55
D.O.B: -
Home Planet: Centauri-IV
Species: Centaurian
Height: 6'2"
Affiliate(s): Ravagers
They then scanned over Kaylin. Her profile read:
Name: Kaylin Corey Horrigan
Age: 18
D.O.B.: May 9, 1996 (Terran calender)
Home Planet: Terra
Species: Human/Joka
Height: 5'5"
Affiliates: Ravagers
The hooded figure zoomed in on Kaylin. They tapped her mugshot photo and looked more in depth into her profile. They learned that her mother was a human from Terra and her father was an extraterrestrial dragon species called Jokan (from the Terra-like planet Joka). There was no given information on Kaylin's father, only her mother.
The figure waved their hand again, and the screen disappeared. They turned a dial on their gauntlet. Another screen pulled up, showing the face of another dragon; a Jokan. The hooded figure spoke in its native language: "Nimeona msichana. Je, unataka mimi kufanya ijayo?"
The receiver replied, "Kumshawishi."
"H-Jinsi Gani? Nini kama yeye yanayoonyesha joka?"
The Jokan at the other end replied, "Yeye hawawezi. Yeye hajui jinsi ya kudhibiti joka ndani yake; na yeye ni pia hofu ya kutumia hiyo. Hakuna haja kwa kusababisha migogoro." . The hooded figure hesitated. "Wewe ni kufanya vizuri. Umekuwa mafunzo kwa wakati huu. Sasa kwenda, Kesu."
And the screen vanished.
The figure, Kesu, looked back to Yondu and Kaylin.
"...And then he said, 'Cuzz yer my best fuckin' friend, bitch! That's your job!'." Yondu smirked. "'That means that my bullshit is yer bullshit, and your bullshit is my bullshit!'. I told the son ova bitch 'No. Your bullshit is your bullshit, an' my bullshit is my bullshit! Especially with you, I could care less wha' happens to you!'"
That got Yondu chuckling.
"I wouldn't say I blame ya," he commented. Kaylin took a sip of her drink. "Yeah right. Rosier's a bigger ass than Gawlin, I swear t' ya," she said, "Hell, ev'rything he says is just bullshit itself!"
Kesu slowly began approaching the Ravagers.
"I woulda whooped his ass when I had the chance," she said.
"You'll get yer chance once I fire him. Trust me on that one-"
"Um, excuse me, but, are you Kaylin Horrigan?"
Yondu looked up while Kaylin turned around to see Kesu standing behind them.
Kaylin could also swear that Kesu sounded a lot like a Disney character named Panic from Hercules.
"Why do ya need t' know that?" Yondu asked.
Kesu replied, "I only wanted to tell her that I admire her bravery and her strength." While he spoke, he put a hand behind his back and slid his sleeve down revealing a syringe.
Kaylin smirked and said, "Well, flattered as I am, I wouldn't consider th' things I do "brave", but thank-"
Kesu grabbed her by the collar and stabbed her with the syringe. She screamed, "GAH GODDAMMIT!"
Kesu let her go and she flailed around yelling at Kesu, "Wha' th' hell?!" He was already running off. Yondu immediately got up from his chair and started running after him. "Git th' hell back here!" he yelled. Crowds of people began looking at the commotion.
"Hey! Wait! I'm still here! Wait up!" Kaylin called out watching Yondu run after Kesu. She stumbled before regaining her ground. She rubbed her neck where Kesu had stabbed her. "Ow… God that was totally painful an' rude all at once…," she mumbled, stumbling and regaining her ground again.
Kesu slipped his way through the crowd while Yondu angrily pushed or shoved people out of the way. Kesu turned his head and saw Yondu catching up to him. In return, Kesu picked up the pace. He took out the gauntlet and the syringe and injected Kaylin's blood into it. The gauntlet started to do a scan.
"Come on, come on…!" he muttered. The scan was already 50% done. "Yes. Almost there…!"
Suddenly, his face met the end of a chair.
He fell backwards and fell unconscious. "That… *pant* was for stabbin' me *pant* IN TH' FUCKIN' NECK, BITCH!" she said. Yondu caught up to both of them and quickly approached Kaylin and asked, "Y' okay, princess?" Kaylin nodded rubbing her neck and relied, "All good, cap'n. Kinda hurts though."
He examined the place on her neck and commented, "Better git ya back on the Eclector."
"Well what about him?" she asked pointing to Kesu. Yondu looked down at the unconscious dragon and said, "Eh, he'll be fine. Take 'im wit' us. Think this boy's got some explainin' to do."
Suddenly, Kaylin felt light headed. She began to stumble. "Kay? You alright?" Yondu asked. She felt her legs get weak and her vision became dark. "Kaylin!" was the last thing she heard before going unconscious.
((Author's Note: Okay, so I decided to make the Jokan language Swahili because I am that creative on their language XD
Here it is translated:
-"Nimeona msichana. Je, unataka mimi kufanya ijayo?" (I found the girl. What do you want me to do next?)
- "Kumshawishi." (Convince her.)
-"H-Jinsi Gani? Nini kama yeye yanayoonyesha joka?" (H-How? What if she unleashes the dragon?)
-"Yeye hawawezi. Yeye hajui jinsi ya kudhibiti joka ndani yake; na yeye ni pia hofu ya kutumia hiyo. Hakuna haja kwa kusababisha migogoro." (She can't. She doesn't know how to control the dragon within her; and she is also afraid to use it. There is no need to cause conflict).
-"Wewe ni kufanya vizuri. Umekuwa mafunzo kwa wakati huu. Sasa kwenda, Kesu." (You are doing good. You have been trained for this moment. Now go, Kesu.)
Well that should be it for me tonight. I'll start the next chapter tomorrow. Goodnight!))