A Bad Man's Second Chance
Highway To Hell
Chapter 7: Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks
The crew is in a bad way... adding more kids to the mix was never a good plan to begin with.
The Deo job had gone off without a hitch. Things had been quiet ever since. And not in a good way.
Yondu had come up with a plan to attack one of the temples, hidden in Deo's treacherous rocky desert mountains. The theocratic deonists worshipped 'enlightenment', and as a consequence their technology was vastly advanced to the junk that ravagers could usually get their hands on... and with their population being so reduced, it was unlikely they'd come across any real resistance.
The light from the ship's tractor-beam had ripped the stone roof from its fittings and the crew of the Eclector slid down on rappel ropes to the vulnerable monastery. Eager and ready for carnage. They descended upon the hidden temple like a ravaging horde. Treasures, they found aplenty and all manner of strange weaponry, as well as the alerted robotic sentries that defended them.
It was a vibrant, violent battle. And it was exactly what the crew of the Eclector had needed.
But...
In the midst of this chaos, Yondu managed to find the only sole living person in this part of the temple. A temple monk boy, skeletal thin with dark shiny maroon hair the color of blood, who had stood in deepest most protected part of the temple and stared in uncomprehending awe at the unexpected radiance... Before his eyes had rolled up in his head, and he collapsed where he stood in a dead faint.
And Yondu had shrugged and picked the boy up.
Slinging him over his shoulder where, where the teenager hung limp and light as a ragdoll. They were aiming to pick this place clean, no sense letting the boy stick around to be an eye witness and point the finger their direction, now...
No one protested. No one so much a fool to mention anything with the captain's arrow flying fast and hot in the air around their heads- destroying sentries and robotic turrets as he walked passed them, wreckage and hot slag barely brushing his feet. If the boy wasn't already in the captain's arms, someone might have been brave enough to mention the more permanent, and considerably easier solution to the problem. Some might have even been so bold as to turn their gun on him themselves.
As it was, no one dared say a word against the captain. Not even when he brought the boy on board, tucking him in the ship's medbay.
But that didn't mean it wasn't being thought.
And so things were quiet.
For now.
But not much longer.
And the tension would break any day now.
Kraglin was sure of it.
He may be young, a novice ravager and all, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell something big was coming, could feel it in the air like the electric hum that preceded one of Xandar's monstrous solar storms.
In any case, Kraglin figured the same rules applied here. Keep low, always be aware of the nearest form of shelter, and for the love of god, if you had any sense of self preservation, do not get caught in the middle of a flair up.
He kind of wished Yondu would stop bringing on kids.
He was sure there was a reason, and it was probably a good one cause cap'n doesn't do nothin without a damn good reason for it. But for every new kid brought on board it ratcheted up the tension another notch, and took the crew's ever growing resentment and hostility to the next level.
And now the captain was off ship again, and things were always a bit more leery without him around to whistle his crew into submission.
He'd gone down to investigate a job. And after telling the crew this, and after making the necessary threats for good behavior and the consequences there in, Yondu had instructed Horuz to take care of the ship.
And before he'd left he had taken aside Kraglin aside and told him to keep his head down and to take care of the kids until he got back.
Kraglin could manage to take care of himself well enough, but Cap'n was counting on him to keep an eye on the others, make sure they don't get into no trouble...
A hard task as is, what with there being five of them on board now, and not made any easier because somebody had made it their life's mission to antagonize the ravager's crew with no regard for the atmospheric conditions on board. Kraglin didn't know if H'ekk was just that stupidly unaware enough that he didn't realize that he was only going to make things worse, or if he just didn't care...
This newest kid was a quiet one at least. More a teenager really, and older than Kraglin for sure. For all that was worth. Which wasn't much, considering that Kraglin could probably bench press him with ease. Deonists were apparently born stick thin, and only got taller and thinner with age.
But once T'rll had woken up from his self induced coma- and realized he haddn't ascended to some higher plane of existence- he'd just kinda gone into shock. Kinda just wandered the halls like a ghost, looking lost and betrayed. Apparently, he'd been raised to think he was supposed to be someone special. The deonists at the temple filling his head with mumbo-jumbo spirituality and treating him like he'd grow up to be some sort of messianic figure. Kraglin figured that was a good way to get you right fucked up in the head. And T'rll waking up to discover he'd been abducted by a hoard of filthy stinking ravager pirates instead of angelic godlike beings of light... Yeah, that probably didn't help his state of mind any.
Either way, keeping track of them all was a full time job. Kraglin was thirtee-fourteen years old. There's only so much he can do.
"Oi, boy?" The voice yelled to be heard over the rattling thrum of the engine room, "You done yet or you dead in there?"
"Nearly done!" Kraglin hollered back. He was arms deep in the inner workings of one of the engine blocks, lying on his back and stuffed underneath it in a crack barely big enough to fit him. When the mechs' on board realized he'd had a head for machinery, Kraglin had quickly graduated from scrub duty to becoming their gopher. And they took shameless advantage of his small size while he still had it.
"Got it! Pull me out!" Kraglin yelled, and strong hands grabbed his boots to drag him out by his ankles. Covered in engine grease and filthy from head to toe, Kraglin sat up with a grin before holding up a crushed and mangled gear, "There's your problem."
"I'll be damned," said the ravager's head engineer, just as greasy with a gap toothed grin as he grabbed it, "How in th' hell'd that get there."
"Found it jamming up the pistons," Kraglin said, "Musta fallen in from above through one of the vents. It'd been locked up tight but I got it out."
"Attaboy son," He said, roughly scrubbing a filthy hand through Kraglin's short cut hair, "We'll make a mech-head out of you yet."
Kraglin ducked his head, shaking off the man's rough hand but kept the smile. The ravager, Flange, was rough around the edges and had a temper as short fused as any. But he was also one of the smarter grunt's aboard the Eclector, with a strong work ethic and could recognize a job well done. To that end, Flange was one of the nicer folks on board... Kraglin liked him.
"Oi Spanner," Flange turned to the other ravager in the hold, "Think Fast!"
"AH! Goddamnit you sonovabitch," Spanner, whose head had come up just in time to get beaned in the face with the mangled gear, cussed, "Fuck was that for, you bastard."
"Shut your whorehole, Spanner," Flange said grinning, "They's young ears around. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"Naw," Spanner said, rubbing his nose as a sly, pointed grin spread across his face, "Just your sister."
"Fuck you." Flange snarled, chucking a wrench in the other xandarian man's direction, "You leave Flux out of this. What she sees in your goddamn ugly ass face I'll never know."
Yeah, engineering was the coolest.
"Take that," Flange continued talking over Spanner's witty rejoinder, and ignoring the accompanying rude gesture, "And get that shifty kid out of the vents before I turn this thing back on. No use scrubbin them if they're just gonna wind up covered in splattered kid-bits if he gets caught in the fans."
Nodding, Spanner took the wrench and banged on the vents until Willit came tumbling out of one of the grates as fast as he could. Landing on his knees, red faced and panting and covered head to toe in dust and grime.
"There ya'are," Spanner said, grabbing the back of Willit's coat and pulling him to his feet. He gave the boy a solid clap on the back, causing dust to poof into the air, "Good timing too, came outa' faster than' last by a minute at least."
"You said if you knocked you're gonna turn it back on," Willit said a little wild eyed as the men laughed, his features shifting agitatedly, "And I'd be dead six ways before I knew it if I didn't move it."
"An' that you would," Flange said nodding approvingly, "Engineering aint no playground kid. 's dangerous as hell and you treat everything like it's gonna kill you you'll've got a better chance of keeping all yer limbs attached."
"SO!" Flange shouted, clapping his hands together- the odd sound of metal meeting flesh as one palm met prosthetic, "You two've done good enough for now I suppose. Get out of here n' go getcha self some grub from the chow line. Or whatever, now scram brats I got work to do."
They moved to the door at a hot trot, Spanner already there as he punched the open code and took a peek down the hall.
"Coast looks clear," Spanner sniffed, casually running a hand over his face and smearing black smudge all the way across, "You boys git, an' go quick now. Y'might make it there in one piece."
"SPANNER!" came the holler over the increased noise of the engine room.
"I'M COMMIN'," He shouted back as he shooed the boys out, "Hold Your Goddamn Horses-"
The doors closed, and Kraglin and Willit jogged down the hall, moving fast and with purpose as they darted around corners, always on alert.
Engineering had become something of a safe zone for them, or at least for him and Willit. Kraglin was pretty sure that the girls made Flange distinctly uncomfortable when they were around, which was weird since the man had a sister of his own on board. Or maybe that explained it. Flux was a gunner and as tough as they come, and had the scars to prove it. They'd see her every now and then when she'd decide to hang around the engine room to harass her brother and make kissy-faces with Spanner. Frankly, she was intimidating as hell.
But whatever the case, no matter how gruffly kind the engineering lads were, Anushka and the little prickly pear weren't welcome there.
Kraglin made to round a corner, and came to an abrupt halt as he saw a large group of ravager's heading their way. Willit, hot on his heels, ran into his back as Kraglin blocked the way, pushing them out into the hall. With the choice of either fall on his face or barrel through it, Kraglin decided to take the chance and charge through. Maybe if they moved fast enough, they'd get through the crowd without incident.
Then he got a good look at their faces. Slag. Rejax. Pinhead. Mungo and Moron.
The worst offenders, and the ones most likely to set things off in a bad way. Shit.
Still, it was too late now, and so Kraglin picked up the pace.
Luck was with them, as, although the ravagers snarled and snapped at their passing. The worst that they got from them this time was Rejax intentionally sticking out a large meaty foot in their way- causing Willit to eat shit and hit the ground hard enough to rattle his teeth in his head.
The group laughed uproariously at this, but didn't stop Kraglin from hauling Willit up by the back of his jacket. Back on his feet, they kept running down the hall to the fading sound of cruel jeers and mocking laughter, and were soon out of sight and hopefully out of mind just as quickly.
Kraglin breathed a sigh of relief, before looking at back at Willit. The boy's face a grimace as he rubbed at his chin, his skin belatedly tough and craggy looking, but he nodded back.
"M fine," Willit said, dropping his hand before jerking his head to the side hallway, "Let's just grab T'rll 'n H'ekk and get to the mess."
They split up, Willit turning to pound on the monk boy's door while Kraglin jogged ahead to do the same.
"Hey H'ekk! You Hungry? We're gonna go eat," Kraglin called pounding on the door to no response. He tried the door, locked. "H'ekk? H'ekk! Open up!"
"He coming?" Willit asked as caught up.
"He ain't answering." Kraglin said, "Probably just sulking. Or maybe it's a hunger strike, who knows with him." He turned from the door, and saw that Willit was empty handed, "What about you? Where's T'rll?"
Willit shook his head, his hair shifting to dark maroon over sharp birdlike features, "Door was open, so I checked his room to see if he was sleeping or somethin. Room was empty."
"Maybe he's gone ahead," Kraglin frowned before taking off, "Come on. Let's go to the mess and see if we can't catch up."
The mess hall was located as close to the absolute center of the ship as one could get. All halls lead to it, if you didn't get yourself lost in one of the looping rings, and from there you could pretty easily find your way to any other part of the ship. It was less of a hall, and more of a communal open area that the kitchen just happened to be close enough too that it made sense to move in tables and benches.
It was a wide open area, almost arena-like. Metal worked stairs that led to a dangerous looking hallway that ringed the room. Open to one side with pipe railings giving the illusion of safety, while leaving most of the space free and clear for two floors down. It was directly below the the command deck and you stood in the center of the mess hall floor and looked up, you could see the flickering lights from the the observation room shining through the grated metal flooring.
Kraglin and Willit arrived at the mess from one of the overhanging hallways, and before descending Kraglin looked over the railing, scanning the crowd and looking for familiar faces to seek out or avoid.
As a communal area for ravagers, it tended to be a bustling hub of activity as the men used their downtime to relax or shoot the shit. Gambling away their units while they ate or messed with their new deonist weaponry and toys.
With the captain currently off ship, that meant the room was more packed than usual as the men took advantage of the opportunity to laze around without drawing his ire.
"Over there," Willit said nudging Kraglin's side with his elbow as he pointed to a far corner of the crowded room. "Come on."
Taking the stairs, Kraglin followed and soon spotted what the other boy had seen with a smile of relief. Anushka was seated at the far end of one of the last bench tables with Nettle on her lap as she tucked into her food and shyly smiled at the giant light blue ravager man sitting next to her. As a race, pheragots were notoriously peaceful and inoffensive... but they also stand at an average of ten feet tall with the sheer physical strength to bend a solid dura-steel rod into a pretzel with ease, so it was probably a good thing that they were slow to anger and abroad violence as much as they did.
Gus was the tailor, and an excellent one at that. And due to the fact that he could sew a straight line, they also had him doubling up as the doctor as well. Not nearly as good, but he could splint a bone and his stitches were always the neatest. He was a shy sort and had the patience of a rock, and could easily hold down a drunk or pin down a thrashing ravager out of his mind with pain. If he wasn't the gentlest and kindest soul to ever grace the ravager hordes with his membership ever, Gus would certainly be a strong contender for the position, as far as Kraglin could tell. The girls couldn't have found a safer ravager to sit with.
"Hey Willit," Kraglin called grabbing the shifting boy's shoulder before they started weaving their way over, "I'm gonna go grab us some food. Go save me a seat by Gus would ya."
Willit nodded and watched as Kraglin disappeared into the crowd before turning to continue his way to the girls.
"Oi Horuz," From the floor above, the ravager manning the observation room yelled down through the floor, and Willit looked over to see the big grizzled man look up, meaty bits of food clinging to his beard, "Prox Alert. Captain's back an' dockin in Shuttlebay Nine."
Horuz waved his mug in response, before going back to his meal with a pointed look at the ravagers around him. The bustling activity of the mess hall noticeably increasing as the grumbling crew suddenly remembered that they had jobs they needed to be doing.
"Hi Willit," Anushka said, her shy smile brightening a bit as she saw him. The solid, reassuring presence of the quiet blue ravager beside her must have been doing her good because Willit rarely saw her smile at all.
Nettle in her arms turned to blink at him with her bright red eyes before reaching out to him. And Willit quickly shifted his skin to be more like Anushka's fur to protect himself from the little girls prickles- her haphazard telepathy painting his mind with the colors of her happiness at seeing him.
"Hey," Willit said smiling back, before nudging Anushka's side, "Scoot your tush 'nush."
He looked around as Anushka moved her tail out of the way so that he could sit, and at what he didn't see, "Hey, where's T'rll? He's here right? Krag and I were lookin' for him before we came here."
She shook her head, "I thought he was with you."
Willit opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted as Kraglin set down the two trays of food on the table before them.
"Hey Tailor," Kraglin said nodding to Gus as he sat down, "Thank's for watching the girls."
"Was no problem," Gus said, his voice a low deep rumble as he looked up from his food. He frowned, taking in the state the boys were in, "You are filthy. You should wash. Before eat food."
Kraglin shrugged, "It's just soup."
"Again?" Willit said with a small laugh under his breath and picking up his spoon.
"Yeah, so what," Kraglin said, giving Willit a hard scowl as the girls giggled, "I like soup."
At that moment a roar split the air,, The familiar sound of H'ekk's shrill screams cutting through the ambient noise of the mess hall, and Willit dropped his spoon with a clatter as all eyes turned to the sudden commotion. The milling ravagers halting in their tracks as they turned to converge around the scene, congregating into a loose mob in mere moments.
Kraglin's hair stood on end, and he new without a shadow of a doubt that the storm had broken.
"You go now." Gus said as he reached over and plucked Nettle out from Willit's arms, his broad face lined and tense with worry, "I watch girls. Go get captain. Go Now."
Kraglin and Willit glanced at each other, faces paling, before they were both up like a shot, weaving their way through the crowd in the opposite direction. Heading to the hangers where the shuttle bay was located at a full sprint. The sound of their running feet striking the metal floors ringing in their ears as the sound of raised voices fell behind them, drowned out by the hard pounding in their ears as heartbeat matched footfalls.
Moving as quick as they could they soon reached the hangar bay doors and Kraglin skidded to a halt in front of the access panel and reached out to punch in the code-
"Wait!" Willit cried grabbing at his arm and turned Kraglin around to face him. Frowning at the delay, Kraglin watched as Willit's normal orange complexion paled as his face twisted into a facsimile of his own panicked, wide eyed expression, before nodding.
"It'll do," Kraglin rolled his eyes as he nodded back. Priorities. He punched in the code and they were soon darting through and racing to the captain's shuttle, "Cap'n! Cap'n!"
They heard him before they could see him.
"-'s much as step a toe out of lie I'll space ya," Yondu snarled as he stepped out of his shuttle with his arms full of not one but two more kids, "You hear me? I had enough of you two troublemakers already. So yer on borrowed time as is."
The pair of twins, a boy and a girl, had four arms each and skin so dark blue it looked to be more like black. And most of all, they looked far too happy about being hauled aboard a ravager vessel than any kid had any right to be. High fiving each other behind the captain's back as he carried them about their waists and growled at them.
"Sir yes sir!" "Aye aye, Captain."
"Cap'n!" The boys cried, and Yondu looked up to see the twin faces of Kraglin as the boys stumbled to a halt before him.
"It's H'ekk again sir. You gotta come quick," Willit panted, as Kraglin talked over him, "Cap'n there's a fight started in the Mess Hall."
The lingering irritation in Yondu's eyes froze over as a cold hard expression sole over his face. And he turned to address his two new charges.
"Twin One-" "I'm Yamakel." "-Twin Two-" "I'm Yadiva."
"An' I give a shit," Yondu said as he dropped the pair on their ass, "You two do as you're told for once in your goddamned life, and fuckin behave got it. Kraglin!"
"Sir!" He stood upright from where he'd been bent over panting with an automatic salute.
"Watch the Ya-Ya twins an' keep them out of trouble," Yondu barked before storming at off at a fast pace in the direction of the mess, his fin glowing ominously, "Tie them up if you have to, just see to it. I got bigger shit to deal with now."
"Yes sir," Kraglin said after him, before turning to look at the two new kids as they picked themselves up off the floor. The two dark twins shot each other a loaded glance, before flashing their teeth in identical expressions of rebellious mischievousness- and took off after the captain.
"Shit!" Kraglin swore, and grabbed Willit before giving chase.
In the mess hall, the crew was gathered like a mob around the fight.
"Liar! You take that back!" H'ekk screamed, his voice cracking as he kicked and clawed at the man holding him up by the front of his shirt for all his worth.
Another had his arms full of the maroon haired boy as T'rll struggled in the arms of another from the sidelines, his thin white face almost translucent with fear and and panic.
"If they were commin' for you they'd of been here already," The man, Rejax, gave the boy a hard shake and a snarl, "Them's the facts and you know it.
"Face it boy," The green brutish man's cruel smile was all teeth, "There ain't nobody in this whole fuckin' galaxy give a good goddamn 'bout you."
"The Shi'ar will come for me! They will!" H'ekk cried, angry tears beginning to drip down his face as he continued thrashing weakly, "They'll come and they will kill you all!"
"Only one fixin' on gettin' killed here is you. I've a mind to pluck you clean and toss you to the cook for eatin' for all the trouble you'd been."
The men roared their approval at the idea. Cheering and stomping their feet with the electric energy of a mob set on violence.
"No!" T'rll cried, slipping free of Moron's grasp like an eel before bodily throwing himself at the man holding the younger boy aloft, futilely scrabbling at the man with his long boney fingers, only to be disdainfully shoved away to the mobs hideous mocking laughter.
"Stop!" T'rll shouted, and proved that he wasn't so stupid as the young teen had fallen away from the gunner brute with his hands on Rejax's new high tech blaster that they had stolen from the temple. The sharp whine of it arming humming over the crowd.
"I'll Shoo-" T'rll had barely gotten it pointed in their direction, before Slag stepped forward and snatched it from the boys hands and backhanded him with it. Sending the the young monk boy flying where he hit the floor like a sack of bricks.
The crew roared their approval, the mob baying for blood.
A shrill whistle pierced the noise like a whip crack.
The yaka arrow sliced through the crowd before any of the crew had sense of mind to duck out of the way of the red flash, as it flew to snap through Rejax's arm. Bellowing in pain, the green thuggish rejak dropped H'ekk into a heap on the floor as he clutched at his arm in agony. But the arrow wasn't done with him yet, as a staccato triplet sent it flying through the back of both of the man's knees.
The arrow zipped around the now kneeling man, before grinding to an abrupt and sudden halt.
Where it vibrated and glowed a deep threatening red just under the man's chin.
"Rejax," Yondu said. And the arrow drew tight against his jugular as Rejax was forced to look up and watch as the crowd parted before the captain. Shrinking away as the centaurian strode forward, his boots thudding hard in the sudden crowded silence. His fin burning bright and a cold murderous gleam in his red eyes.
"Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't end you where you stand."
