The rush to save Watersong from potential calamity is on! Has Bakibeard returned, is it the Blackpaw Gato, or is it a mix of both dangerous entities that could lead to disaster?
We'll have to find out such in this chapter!
Like usual, I own nothing but my OCs.
Here's chapter 11.
-o-o-o-o-
Chapter 11: Thunderstruck
The trembling of the earth that Watersong rested upon got worse and worse as the Creation Heroes; Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora; White Blaze and her tribe; and Wilfre were heading forward. White Blaze was having her tribe evacuate and pack up their belongings ASAP, but ordered them to try to go in to the city to help any of the Watersonian Raposa in need.
Maelynn pondered on something and looked to Penelope and the others as they were heading onto the Gondola. "Rikki, go with the heroes. Wilfre, come with Aurora and I." She suddenly ordered, causing the shadow Raposa to stare at her.
"And why are you ordering me around?" Wilfre questioned Maelynn. She answered almost immediately after he asked.
"If anyone sees you in the city, there will be chaos." Maelynn answered quickly. She looked to where the Cavalier Soleil was docked at the beach. "We need to board the Cavalier Soleil and make way towards the area where Bakibeard's Ship was once docked. We just need to figure out where it is though…"
Wilfre pondered on something before remembering. "Ah. I know exactly where it is. I'll show you the way." He indicated, waving a shadowy paw at Maelynn and Aurora to follow.
At first, Roselyynn and Thunder were a little concerned at how Maelynn trusted that Wilfre would keep his word with her. However, it faded when they heard her say, "If you properly lead us to the place and don't let us die at the bottom of the ocean, I won't impale you with my rapier. I can't quite trust you knowing what you've done, and what you could do to Aurora and I."
Rikki waited patiently in the Gondola with Penelope. "Don't worry. Maelynn and Aurora can handle themselves. We need to get going now before Watersong is turned into a tragic ruin!" He exclaimed, and the two wedged themselves into the gondola.
Just as they were about to go, White Blaze squeezed herself in to the already-tight gondola. Rikki held Penelope to help allow for more room (and naturally, the rabbit wasn't very pleased). White Blaze and Thunder rowed the Gondola into the city, and quickly found how Watersong was even more of a mess than it had been before.
As they stepped out, there was a larger tremor, and panicking Raposa trying to escape the disaster. The Whiteclaw Gato were helping evacuate the Watersonians to the beach. Mayor Rose and Miles were quick to approach the heroes while they were in a rush to head to the beach and continue the evacuation.
"Oh, Roselyynn, Thunder! Thank the Creator that you're here… Watersong… its…" Roselyynn put a hand on Rose's shoulder and nodded.
"We know, Mayor. You and Miles need to evacuate to safety now. We'll handle this!" She exclaimed confidently. Some of White Blaze's fellow tribe members helped escort the two Raposa to safety. Roselyynn and Thunder remembered exactly where they needed to go, and led Rikki and Penelope there along with them.
For some reason, White Blaze appeared to be insistent on tagging along with them. She was armed with her phoenix-feather spear. Roselyynn was getting frustrated as they were opening the door. "Chieftess, aren't you helping with the evacuation? We need to get going now!" She indicated.
"I'm helping, and you don't have time to question me. We must leave right away!" She urged Roselyynn, as there was another shake from attacks upon buildings. Wordlessly, and in a rush, the five went down to the cove area to find out what was going on.
XxXxX
(Watersong- Secret Cove)
Roselyynn and Thunder guided the other three through the cove area they were familiar with. Blackpaw Gato and other creatures prowled in the area, leaving them to fight as they rushed through. They knew the place well—for it was where they had first gone down to fight Bakibeard. Maybe they hadn't fully exercised his ghost after all.
Around the time they reached the dock, the Cavalier Soleil swept by and docked by the hidden port, but for a short amount of time. Aurora stood on the main deck, but she seemed frantic. "C'mon, c'mon! We need to get a move on before Watersong is ruined and everyone dies!" she exclaimed. The creation heroes, Rikki and White Blaze immediately got on the ship.
Maelynn went to getting it back on sail, with some help from Rikki, who immediately went to helping her. They put the Cavalier Soleil on high sail, speeding on forward. The skies were stormy, and the sea felt far more treacherous than it usually did around Watersong. Roselyynn and Thunder looked for ships while standing by the rails on the main deck while Penelope stood on the forecastle deck near the front of the ship.
They made out a large, dark-looking boat. It didn't look anything like Bakibeard's ship, but something was off about it. It had this haunted aspect about it that gave (most of) the heroes the chills.
"Do you think that's Bakibeard, Thunder?" Roselyynn asked, trying to find some sort of familiarity in what they were seeing. Thunder furrowed his eyebrows, and shook his head.
"No… the ship coloration is too dark. There's no way that it could be Bakibeard's." He indicated, as they sailed closer to it. White Blaze's tail stuck straight in the air, and she moved closer to the deck in a rush.
"That ship… it's the Blackpaws' ship! See its weaponry and mechanization?"
"Why does it feel haunted though?" Thunder asked, getting the chills upon answering.
White Blaze looked closer, and noticed a ghostly aura off the ship. Maelynn seemed alarmed, and her ears stuck up. "Oh no…They didn't…!"
Roselyynn, Penelope and Thunder looked back at the Renard Mayor in alarm. "Didn't what? Did White Tuxedo somehow produce a ghostly aura?"
"How do you steal a ghost!?" Aurora peeped up in confusion.
Maelynn shook her head as Rikki continued to steer the ship and Wilfre silently stood there, gazing out at the sea and the Blackpaw Ship that was firing at Watersong and wrecking it. "They didn't just PRODUCE a ghostly aura. They're controlling it to their advantage!"
Roselyynn and Thunder looked at each other in shock before staring back at Maelynn in alarm. "WHAT?!" The two of them shouted in perfect sync, astonished that it was possible.
Aurora looked perplexed. "Maelynn, how do you control a ghost? You can't just DO that!"
"Eh." Wilfre stated with a shrug. "You can, most likely if you use mind control. Or, alternatively, if you have control over them if they're minions."
Penelope shrugged with some agreement. "It's probably mind control. Ghosts technically have a mind… I think." She pondered on such before shrugging again. "Yeahhh. They probably have a mind."
As she was saying that, the Blackpaws' Ship proceeded to circle around and start firing at the Cavalier Soleil. Maelynn's ears perked up, and she tried to frantically remember where the cannons were. The Cavalier Soleil seemed to be aware of when it was being attacked, and immediately took out its own, golden cannons and cannonballs.
Right now, the heroes couldn't attack the opposing ship with their weapons. They had to help aim the cannons and deal with anything that was coming against them. The Creator assisted as she could, but there was a bit of a struggle as of what to do. Wilfre recalled having something on his person. He pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper from his shadowy body and unfolded it.
Penelope gave him a weird look as he was staring at the paper. "Really? You still keep pages from the Book of Life on you? Come on, Wilfre!" The rabbit complained at him, her voice nagging and generally irritated.
"You'd be surprised at how handy having Book of Life pages are." Wilfre replied boredly, before snapping. In an instant, he summoned tridents around him, which Penelope recognized as being the ones from her first adventure. Penelope was shocked that Wilfre bothered to keep that on him. Still, he wasn't done.
See, he also brought out the stars, and one last page. Roselyynn and Thunder had an idea of what he was doing. Forgetting for a moment that he was their ally, not their enemy, Roselyynn fired at him with her shooter.
"Ow!" Wilfre gasped, bearing his teeth and rubbing his shoulder where Roselyynn bothered to hit him at. Roselyynn's lilac eyes flashed with a bitter anger as she stormed over to Wilfre, clutching her weapon tightly in a blind rage.
"Roselyynn, why are you friendly-firing Wilfre?! He's our ally!" Maelynn shouted at him as she confiscated the last page from the shadowy Raposa.
Roselyynn glared back at Maelynn, quickly snapping back, "He is NOT bringing out that cloud. No way, no how! If he does anything else, I'm going to hit him again!"
Wilfre huffed, and crossed his arms. "It's nice to see that we're on good terms."
As Wilfre was saying that, the Cavalier Soleil was struck with another attack, and the enemy ship appeared to be coming closer. Thunder, Penelope and White Blaze fired off more cannons in response, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.
Immediately shifting his focus, Wilfre waved his paw and cast down tridents and stars at the enemy ship, which they blocked. It seemed that they needed to pierce the ships defenses somehow.
The enemy ship fired off cannons and laser beams. Though Wilfre, Penelope and White Blaze were able to somewhat avoid the attack with ease, it couldn't be said for Thunder, who was slightly spacing in a panic at a loss of what to do. This situation gave Roselyynn déjà vu of their last battle with Wilfre, when Wilfre was about to strike Thunder down with a rainbow-beam-of-death from his scepter. Because of this flashback, Roselyynn reacted in the exact same way she had.
She protected Thunder again, while sacrificing herself in his place. "Thunder! Look out!" She shrieked, causing the hero to look up. However, he was taken off guard when he was shoved out of the way, and Roselyynn took his place. The laser easily stripped the color off Roselyynn's body, reducing to her mannequin state and making her lifelessly collapse over.
"Roselyynn!" Thunder cried, going over to her side and kneeling by her mannequin. Even though Roselyynn's mannequin was an improved one, like his own, Thunder didn't know if Roselyynn would be able to get back up. There was uncertainty with the need of the Book of Life. Thunder didn't know if the Book of Truth would allow Maelynn to call to the Creator in the same way and bring Roselyynn back up to full health.
White Blaze, who wasn't as bothered by the loss (as Roselyynn was a creation hero and could very likely be brought back up), looked over and bore her teeth at the enemy ship, could've sworn that she sensed Black Cat over there. It didn't seem unlikely, as she had sworn revenge on them. She could almost hear the rival chieftess sneering at them; laughing at how weak the state the heroes were in. They had to figure out something before the Cavalier Soleil went down.
Maelynn panicked, and looked up at the stormy sky. Her paws clutched the Book of Truth nervously. "Creator… please do something… anything! We can't lose now." She prayed, causing Wilfre to look up at the sky a moment and sigh. He continued trying to see if the tridents and the stars would work in order to pierce the barrier, but that wasn't doing anything. The cannons seemed to be doing nothing in their favor either. If anything, they were just wasting cannonballs and the energy of the Cavalier Soleil.
The Creator didn't seem to be answering to Maelynn's plea, and the golden-haired Raposa was getting scared. Was this ultimately their fate? Was the Creator… leaving them to die at the bottom of the ocean, with White Tuxedo winning? No…
While (most) of the team was getting into a fit of despair, Thunder was silently looking over Roselyynn's limp mannequin. She didn't seem to be waking up, and didn't seem to be moving. He was unsure whether or not the situation with Wilfre shooting them down, or if this one was worse. They were only able to win against Wilfre because of a mass pray-us ex machina. This time, they were without the Book of Life, were in a (most likely) worse situation, and one out of the Three Creation Heroes was down.
Even though he was supposed to be hopeful, there was a problem. Instead of sadness or grief welling up in his chest like he expected, Thunder was feeling bitter and angry. Such emotions tended to be irregular to Thunder.
Out of the three Creation Heroes, Thunder was generally considered to be the most pleasant. In fact, he was practically the saint out of the group—and considered to be the 'perfect' hero. Sure, he got upset and frustrated sometimes, but he usually tried to restrain it unless something was REALLY wrong. For some reason, instead of just shrugging this off, or maybe breaking down into tears like he did when Roselyynn was taken down when they fought Wilfre, Thunder just felt absurdly angry.
He couldn't stop thinking about Roselyynn and what just happened to her. He couldn't stop thinking about what else could possible happen either. Another problem that was starting was that a particularly nasty storm looked like it was beginning to brew over the ocean. The winds were getting rough, the clouds got darker and darker as they swirled in the sky, and it conveniently started to pound down with rain. It was confusing just where in the hell it came from, as it came with no warning.
Thunder's face started to darken as he bore his teeth and drew his sword. There was flashes in the sky, warning of lightning. As the flash storm looked like it was going to get nasty, Wilfre, Penelope and White Blaze began to back off from the main deck of the Cavalier Soleil and back up where Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora (who were getting freaked out) were.
For some reason, maybe out of stupidity, or out of grief, Thunder wasn't moving from his spot. Penelope started to recall something that happened when they first left the Raposa Village and shortly before it got attacked by White Tuxedo and the Blackpaws.
When Thunder raised his sword to the sky nowadays, it tended to bring rain, stormy conditions, as well as lightning with it. Penelope felt a chill suddenly go down her back when Thunder's sword glimmered with sparks of electricity.
Was Thunder the cause of this awful storm brewing?
Her question was answered when lightning appeared to 'strike' Thunder, and there was a terrible booming of thunder in the sky. Lightning NEVER struck Thunder when it was stormy. When the lightning vanished, the storm got worse, but now, Thunder was glowing with a piercing white light. It engulfed him, and it looked like he was changing—as something was being sketched and drawn around him. A huge cape, which had spiky 'fur' at the top, and cloud-like textures at the bottom, were being drawn around his body. Whatever was underneath couldn't be seen. Around this time, Roselyynn was also brought back to consciousness, and Maelynn was relieved her prayers had been answered.
The light fizzled off Thunder when his body was done being drawn upon. A brilliant red cape, with a storm cloud and lightning bolt sigil was wrapped around Thunder's body. The top trim of the cape appeared to cover his face a little, and his emotion couldn't be seen from the angle most of the group was in.
While most were trying to figure out what was going on, Roselyynn and Penelope were both able to piece what in the hell just happened. You see, the Creator appeared to have been waiting for Thunder to snap, like it was something needed in order for him to access something. This 'something' being another form. It didn't have a name yet, and despite that Roselyynn and Penelope were in awe, Thunder didn't care what happened. Newfound energy surged through his body.
He was also still pissed at this whole situation. He didn't even REALIZE Roselyynn was awake right now. All he could think about was piercing through that barrier and sinking the Blackpaws' ship with a lightning bolt. He raised his blade up to the sky, and it glimmered with a golden light. To the enemy ship, it seemed like a beacon.
However, when there were flashes in the sky and when Thunder pointed his sword at the Blackpaws' ship, it was very quickly found that the 'beacon' Thunder had produced was a beacon of death. Heavenly lightning came down at the sky, piercing through the nice barrier that the ship had and violently ripping it apart with the crackling of the lightning. This finally gave opportunity for Wilfre to use the tridents and the stars successfully, and the Cavalier Soleil's cannonballs to properly work. The Creator summoned some more cannonballs, which glimmered by the cannons.
The heroes found they could quickly get on the offense again.
Roselyynn and Penelope rushed over to their ally as Rikki and White Blaze manned the cannons. The pink-haired girl was still tired and a little weak from that powerful attack, but a smile was upon her pale lips as she came over. "Thunder! I didn't realize that you could do that. Nice cape, by the way. It looks really suiting on you." Roselyynn complimented, touching the soft, velvety cape and running her fingers through the spiky, fur-like trim around the top of the cape. Thunder's dark eyes shifted to Roselyynn, scanning her over.
For some reason, Thunder's voice didn't have as much emotion in it, but it sounded divine, and also booming. "Nice to see that you're awake, Rose. We need to get over there before they sink the Cavalier Soleil."
"Sweet Creator! When did you sound like a god, Thunder?! Lower your voice!" Penelope snapped, rubbing her ears. Thunder simply glared down at her, not having as much of a concern as he normally would with his voice. It seemed that in this state of mind, he was angry to the point of apathy.
"Voice volume doesn't matter. I'm thinking we could summon some storm clouds to get over here. If Maelynn and the others attack from the Cavalier Soleil, we could bring the attack to them. I can still feel that supernatural presence over there. It might be making the Blackpaws' ship stronger."
"If you're summoning some storm clouds, how will you do it?" inquired Penelope, as she raised an eyebrow. Thunder's apathetic gaze stared down at her again, and Penelope felt a cold sweat go down her back. "I-I mean, you're probably going to need a template o-or…"
Thunder's sword glowed and he pointed forward, summoning a large storm cloud that he, Roselyynn and Penelope could climb on to get across. Thunder was the first to get over there and hop onto the cloud without much effort while Roselyynn and Penelope stared at the cloud in shock. He glared at the two girls from where he was. "Stop staring at the cloud and get up here. The both of you are only wasting valuable time, and it'd be preferable if Watersong, or the Cavalier Soleil for that matter, didn't sink."
Roselyynn and Penelope wordlessly hopped onto the storm cloud, and Thunder appeared to direct it forward. The hero was silent as he controlled the cloud, shifting it when they looked like they were going to be attacked. Roselyynn and Penelope, who were silent, were equally shocked at the fact that Thunder was acting much different than he commonly was. In fact, he was much scarier and far more intimidating than usual.
Penelope nudged at Roselyynn's leg and motioned for the much taller heroine to come down so she could whisper to her. While Thunder was focusing on moving forward, Roselyynn slowly and subtly came down so she wouldn't seem too suspicious. Thunder occasionally looked back, but he didn't seem to care all that much as he had other priorities.
A whisper escaped Roselyynn's lips. "What is it? Why did you want me to come down?"
"Do you have any idea what's wrong with HIM?" Penelope whispered back, standing on the tips of her feet to maximize height. Roselyynn looked to Thunder and then back at Penelope.
"Huh? What's wrong with Thunder?" She whispered, before squinting at Thunder and proceeding to shrug. "No? He seems really pissed off to the point of apathy. I have no idea why he's acting up like this."
Thunder proceeded to clear his throat, and glared back at his two allies. His face darkened again. "Would you two stop talking behind my back? I can't hear what you're saying, but I know you're talking about me. We need to focus."
"Yessssss, Thunder." Roselyynn and Penelope sighed. Roselyynn stood up, and Penelope stood back down to her normal height. It seemed that they were nearly at the Blackpaws' ship. However, something was off as the heroes' storm cloud was approaching. All had cleared the deck except for Black Cat, who seemed to have a smirk on her face. It was also noticeable that the attacks had stopped.
Penelope had a suspicion welling in her chest that this may not end as well as she hoped. They arrived on the main deck, and Thunder hopped off the cloud first, with Penelope and Roselyynn coming after as the cloud vanished. Something different was that the Gato's face was bandaged up. Despite the fact she was covering from a facial injury, the cat's smirk grew. Her tone was mocking when she addressed the three. "Hello heroes. It's awful pleasant to see you again so soon. How do you like the show?"
"Why are you destroying Watersong?" Roselyynn asked, rubbing her fingers nervously on her shooter. "They're already in a recovering state—ever since Rose got her voice back and Mike awakened anyway. There's no need to destroy the city and harm the innocent Raposa who live in it!"
Black Cat scoffed. "There's 'no need'? Hmph. Fine, sure, whatever. I feel that the city needs to be brought down to sea level." She stated, flipping her hair, which was as black as the feathers of a raven. "Of course, White Tuxedo told me to not COMPLETELY destroy it. 'We must preserve the art there', he said. I was initially going to keep it that way until she and her stupid tribe came in to ruin everything. The destruction of Watersong is only a side effect of that."
Roselyynn found that odd, and continued her line of questioning. "Why did White Tuxedo say that 'you need to preserve the arts'?"
"Where we're going, the art of the Creator will no longer be needed." Black Cat cryptically answered. "In fact, the Creator won't BE needed. It's the same with you pathetic heroes. I'm still amazed that he hasn't sided with us. I thought he had a similar goal."
Penelope frowned at Black Cat. "It won't kill you to call him 'Wilfre'. He has a name."
"Yes, though all he's proving is that he is weak." Black Cat mocked. "Despite all the trouble that pathetic Raposa caused in the Isolation, it surprises me that despite his hatred of the Creator, he's still willing to side with her progeny. What I don't understand is how a powerful Raposa such as himself could be so foolish that he'd side with his own enemy, fleeing and hiding with his tail in between his legs."
Penelope was amazed how Black Cat was trash-talking Wilfre—and getting away with it for that matter. The rabbit flipped her long, floppy ears and crossed her short arms. "Though Wilfre has done a lot of wrongs, I don't believe that this is a matter of redemption. He still does have some care for this world, even if he does hate the Creator. If anything, with the fact that Wilfre is refusing to side with YOU, there might be a larger problem with your end goals than you realize."
Black Cat proceeded to flip her hair again. Her sharp, green eyes appeared bored. "I'm impressed that the two pure heroes aren't trying to stop you from talking. If I recall correctly, you're a defected hero. Of course, it isn't my place to say who is pure, and who is defected, but it amazes me how you're able to defend the one Raposa who turned you into a dark monster underneath that purity."
There was suddenly the slight screech of metal against something that ruined the dialogue. Roselyynn, Penelope and Black Cat frowned, and looked up. Thunder (surprisingly) was the one who ruined the interaction. He never had the lack of common decency to just interrupt. He was occupying himself with sharpening his sword on a whetstone.
Roselyynn had no idea where he got it from, or why in the hell he was using a whetstone on a sword that never needed to be sharpened, but she was impressed by just how weird Thunder was acting.
"Hey, Thunder? Would you mind knocking it off? They were talking."
"All of you have been talking." Thunder emotionlessly replied. "I've just been waiting for the battle to actually START. Sure, the Cavalier Soleil and Watersong both have less of a risk of sinking now, but none of you would be quiet. Is it really necessary to stir up emotional drama with long paragraphs and trash-talk? We haven't had to deal with nonsense like this before."
"You're normally so nice, Thunder!" Roselyynn spat back, stamping her foot. "There's no need to suddenly be a jerk! You've been acting weird ever since I woke up and donned that fancy cape."
"For some reason, this form has been making me feel apathetic. And it also makes me more willing to express my honest opinion instead of sugar-coating it. I'll probably need to adjust to how I act in the future, but at the moment, I reaaally want to get this over with."
"What, so we can progress with the plot and get ever closer to White Tuxedo and save everyone?" Penelope asked, causing Roselyynn, Thunder and Black Cat to stare at her.
"Yeah… that. How do you even know about the 'plot'? What are you talking about?" Thunder asked, raising an eyebrow.
Penelope shrugged and drew her Slinger once again as she spoke. "I have no idea. It kinda just came to me, really." Continuing, she looked up and glared at Black Cat. "Anyway, I don't appreciate that you called me a…"
"Let's NOT continue spewing the emotional drama. You don't need it, Roselyynn doesn't need it, I most certainly don't need it, and generally, nobody really needs drama right now. This is only making it harder for ANYTHING to get done."
"Alright, alright, alright." Penelope sighed, rolling her eyes. Black Cat was astonished at what was happening right now. With a shrug, the Gato realized that now would probably be a good time to get this show on the road. She closed her eyes and clapped her paws. A pale blue, ghostly light appeared beside her as fog started to roll in.
"Bakibeard," Black Cat began, addressing the will-o-wisp. It seemed to float in response. Her eyes glimmered with a hateful green as she went back into the thick fog. "Kill them."
Black Cat appeared to vanish in the fog as Bakibeard's Ghost was rematerializing. The will-o-wisp was the key cause of the intense, haunted chill, and it formed back into the large, spiteful ghost that Roselyynn and Thunder knew well. Something felt off about the ghost, however.
…It wasn't the fact that he was a ghost. The heroes were wondering just what was wrong.
They saw it when Bakibeard opened its uncovered eye, and a fierce, ghostly plume that was the color of the will-o-wisp's flame appeared. It almost looked like Bakibeard was possessed—or rather, something was CONTROLLING him.
And Bakibeard was a ghost.
Roselyynn and Thunder assumed that it was necessary to take a similar strategy to how they took Bakibeard down the first time. His attack pattern seemed to be the same, so Roselyynn and Thunder assumed it would be as easy. The problem, however, was when Bakibeard didn't go down in three hits like bosses normally did.
Instead of bothering to be nice and going down, Bakibeard cackled as he sent out a wave of supernatural power and knocked Roselyynn and Thunder back. It didn't hurt them, per se, but it confused them. Penelope was simply standing there in awe and was trying to figure out just what was going on.
She quickly found that this wasn't going to be easy, especially when ghost baki rolled out ghostly cannons and Bakibeard summoned two, large cutlasses. He hadn't been able to do THAT before.
And as Penelope was a spectator, Bakibeard the Terrible decided to cut her down first. Penelope panicked and tried to block with her Slinger, only to find nothing had hit her. She looked up to see Thunder blocking her view, and it seemed he was protecting his mentor from the assault. It seemed strange how he thought he could fend off two cutlasses with one sword.
Penelope heard Thunder grumble something as she stood there in perplexion. Out of the blue, a huge lightning bolt came down and zapped Bakibeard, stunning the ghost and making him back off. "Roselyynn, Penelope, handle the ghost Baki Pirates and the cannons. I'll take Bakibeard."
"You have one sword, and he has two." Penelope pointed out, finding a gaping hole in Thunder's idea. For emphasis, Thunder snapped, and more lightning came down, scaring the rabbit as he eliminated ghost baki.
Thunder looked back, and his eyes seemed to flash like the deadly bolts of electricity he brought with him. "I can take him. Unless, you want to be fried like a ghost Baki. I don't mind doing that if it bothers you about my supposed disadvantage."
"I pray to the Creator that you get out of this damned form soon." Penelope thought bitterly to herself, wanting the old Thunder back.
Without any more questioning, Penelope and Roselyynn went to fight off the cannons and the ghost Baki. Despite Penelope was working on taking out the Baki, it seemed more significant to break down the cannons like Roselyynn was doing. She bounced upon them, her sheer power causing damage.
Penelope tried to do the same thing, only to find she was inferior in comparison to Roselyynn. Of course, her ground pounds did SOMETHING, but not much for her favor. Roselyynn made it look like cannon-breaking was easy, and Penelope assumed her improved mannequin had a lot to do with it. She huffed and narrowed her eyes at the fact that despite being the original hero, her students had surpassed her.
As physical strength did nothing on Penelope's part, she decided that maybe she could use her shadow power. Hesitantly, and trying to prevent the shadow goo from changing her form into a shadowy mess, she brought shadow goo up around the cannons, and with some manipulation, she made the goo tightly squeeze around the cannons and snap them like a weak twig.
By the time Penelope was done, however, she quickly realized that Roselyynn was far ahead of her, Thunder was cutting down Bakibeard, and the two of them had done more at a faster pace than she could've alone.
In fact, the two of them were able to take down Bakibeard and push Black Cat and the Blackpaws to retreat, leaving Thunder to summon a storm cloud and have Roselyynn and Penelope retreat with them before they were pushed off the ship or captured while they were escaping. The battle seemed to be over now, and Watersong was safe.
The Cavalier Soleil rescued the heroes before the cloud vanished. Thunder let out a large sigh of relief when they landed, as if he was letting out all the bottled-up agitation out and finally allowing himself to recompose. A smile appeared on his face, though it was slightly covered up by the top trim of his cape. "Hah… I'm glad that's over. We handled that pretty well, huh?" In that instance, Thunder's form blinked off, and he went back to normal. He appeared to be almost exhausted.
Instead of the firm, serious expression Thunder had consistently kept in his other form, it morphed into a worried smile. "I'm sorry for being rude! I got angry, and then it went to an angry apathy, and I don't know what was wrong with me!"
"I'm glad you're back to normal!" Roselyynn exclaimed with a relieved sigh as they were starting to return to Watersong. There was mindless chatter here and there as they came to port of the city, but the only ones who didn't get off the ship were Wilfre and Penelope. Roselyynn and Thunder didn't get why, but they respected her decision as they got off with Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora to see what they could help with as the conflict and destruction of Watersong seemed to be over. As the five headed off to the area to check on the civilians and Mayor Rose, Penelope let out a sigh.
"I'm surprised that it's already over."
"That what is? Noting the problem, and likely it's whole impact, we're far from done." Wilfre indicated. Penelope looked away and shook her head.
"That's not what I mean." Penelope replied sadly. When she looked at Wilfre, she noticed he was starting to shift away from being on the deck and transitioning back into the main cabin of the Cavalier Soleil. Awkwardly, the rabbit hero followed him into the cabin and continued talking. "Roselyynn and Thunder are much better at teamwork and working together than I thought. I'm their mentor, but I feel like they've surpassed me. They can do things I can't!"
Wilfre appeared to raise an eyebrow at Penelope. "Don't they have improved mannequins?"
"Something like that." Penelope replied, a little unsure. She looked at her body and sighed. "…And then there's me—the old, useless hero. I can't have any fancy adjustments or forms like they can."
The shadow Raposa scoffed at her. "And why are you throwing yourself a pity party?"
"Roselyynn and Thunder were the ones who handled Bakibeard." Penelope explained. "I tried my best to help, but I only ended up being useless."
Shadow appeared to creep up Penelope's arm, and she panicked, trying to suppress it. "Why is it that every time I use this stupid power, it ends up coming with unintended consequences?!"
Wilfre blinked at Penelope, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think I know why?"
"Of course I don't! No need to make any remarks about it."
"You're lucky you're at least able to stay in your regular form." Wilfre stated, staring at his paws. "I may be able to shape shift into other people, and other things, but I can only seem to become what I actually am when I'm defeated. And then, I 'die'."
Penelope frowned, and stared at the shadow Raposa. "Is it hard to not be 'you' in public?"
"Not necessarily." Wilfre answered boredly. "I mainly do it for self-preservation, but I also do it to deceit and manipulate others. I'm not trying to deceive or manipulate anyone NOW, but I also know that if I'm not me in public, Raposa won't try to murder me."
"…Is it because a lot of people hate you? Like, really, REALLY hate you? Especially for all the chaos you caused last time in the Raposa Village, Watersong, Lavasteam and Galactic Jungle?"
Wilfre shrugged and nodded, not appearing to be fazed. He didn't want to answer, but the expression on his face told Penelope all she needed to know. For a while, the two continued to converse until the door to the cabin opened hours later, and there was Maelynn. In the background, it looked like Rikki was beginning to direct the ship.
"Ah! There you two are. The Mayor held a celebration and we started to help rebuild Watersong, but now we're on course to Lavasteam." She indicated, and the two shrugged and nodded.
The Renard Mayor also added one last thing. "By the way, White Blaze and the Whiteclaw Gato are officially our allies now. The Whiteclaw Ship is following the Cavalier Soleil from now on."
It was fortunate that they had more allies from now and going forward.
However, a worry crept down Penelope's back.
What if that wasn't enough?
-o-o-o-o-
It surprises me that with this story sometimes, the hardest thing to write isn't the story itself, but the endnote to close things off. In the next chapter, the heroes will be starting their voyage to Lavasteam (but they won't be in Lavasteam for long. They won't be in the Galactic Jungle for long either).
Thunder also transformed into Thunderstruck for the first time in this chapter. Roselyynn and Penelope also have Ultima Forms like Thunder, but only time will tell when they will properly transform.
Other than that, I don't really have much to say. There isn't all that much to add. Later, I probably won't add these ending notes as it won't be as necessary.
Please review if you'd like, please refrain from flaming, and please tell me how I can improve my writing. I really appreciate hearing the feedback so I can work on refining my writing style.
I will see you all in the next chapter.
Ciao!