The cool, ominous winds blew against the sandcraft as it made it's way toward the grimly named Sandcraft Graveyard. It was not the best of days either. There was a rare occurrence about to happen in the area that made the lands dark. A freak natural occurrence. That is that it was about to rain a good deal so as they all sat inside the craft in the dark silent it seemed like they were riding to the end of the world. A weird feeling.
Virginia decided that this down mood would not do at all. So she took out a deck of cards. "Okay," She grinned as she sat with Gallows, Clive, and Jet while Emilia took the helm earlier on. "Who wants to lose the rest of their money from the Omigo heist?" She gave them a wicked look.
It was safe to say no one saw that coming. Especially not Jet who thought there would just be another pansy card game going on. "Uh, are you sure?" Clive wondered. "It is rather odd for you to...propose such a game."
"I was feeling a bit on my randy side today." She commented as she shuffled the cards.
Gallows meanwhile leaned towards Jet. "You know what 'randy' means right? She's energetic...Imagine the wild ride you coul-"Jet punched him in the jaw. "Fine, whatever." Gallows went back to watching their leader while rubbing his now sore jaw.
"You really want to bet?" Jet wondered.
She gave him a mischievous look. "I guess you're right. I'm not in a rush to put any of you in only your boxers after losing to me." That just made Jet competitive and gave her a new idea. "On second thought, no money. Clothes." She said as if it meant nothing, but she hid her total embarrassment under a slight blush.
Jet stood up and looked at her. "Okay, what did you do with Virginia?" He seriously wondered. "Let me guess, you're a doppelganger alien demon thing?"
She slapped him. "I'm no such thing!" She berated with a kick. "Are you just...a...w-wuss?" She asked in nervousness.
He glared at her. "Bring it." He simply said.
"Take off your scarves." She replied.
"What? Why?"
"Without those the playing field will be even. You don't have as many articles of clothing." She replied.
"Fine." He tossed them aside along with his gloves. Behind each was a fury of fire.
Gallows took out some popcorn. "This will be interesting."
"I didn't know you want to see either of them without clothes." Clive commented.
"I don't. I just like this whole event and if seeing Virginia sans dress is a bonus so be it." He shrugged as Clive snuck his hand in and took some popcorn as well.
Jet sat down across from Virginia on the floor and she put out his cards and then put hers down. Jet looked at his cards and showed no emotion. He had her where he wanted. She traded some cards and all and in the end he called. "What?" He had lost to her on the slimmest of actual possibilities of her getting a royal flush over what his pathetic cards were in light of those.
"Take off...your belt."
"Why not my coat?"
"I want you to take off your rounds of ammo and the belt first."
"Doesn't this one round count as a second article?"
"No."
"I don't think this is fair."
"It is."
"Gallows?" Jet looked to the man he asked. Gallows nodded with Clive. He groaned. "Fine!" He stood up and took off his belt. "You happy?" He sat back down. "Let's play Blackjack this time. I'm better at that."
"Fine."
Six losses later Jet was left sitting only in his jeans and underwear while she was only just on her head band. He won only three times which got her out of her gloves, headband, and belt. He was lucky to get off that one time by saying that a left shoe is not necessarily the same as a right shoe so they are separate objects technically and so, he gained an extra chance.
They had moved onto Hearts now after three other games. "You have WAY more points than me." She chided with a smile. "You might as well give up." She played the right card at the right time to screw him over and leave her only with about six points and him with near seventeen.
"Fine! I forfeit!" He threw his remaining hand in the air. He could not win now without that other card that she already played on him so it was hopeless.
"You know what that means. Drop 'em." Virginia motioned.
Gallows and Clive watched to see what he would do—not for what they will see. Gallows was barely holding his sides together by how this all turned out. He was sure that he would have at least done a little better. No, he sucked. After this he would only have one more piece of clothing and he felt that one was important so he knew he was not going to lose! "Fine!" Jet stood up and put his hands to the button hesitantly. "Did you hear that?" He questioned.
"No diversions!" Virginia shouted.
"I'm not kidding."
"Oh, that's the radio." Emilia called out from the front. "Why don't you turn it up and see who it is?" Jet was more than glad to do so as he did not undo his pants.
He turned it up and a message came through. "Help...hu...huge monster...All dead...destroyed...Graveyard." Was what came through.
They all stood idly. "It's a distress call." Clive deduced. "Where is it coming from?"
"Where else? Right where we're headed." Jet moaned.
"What luck then!" Emilia said with vitality. "We can help them out then."
"Uh, I guess." Virginia replied. "How far are we anyway?"
"Oh, we're there." Emilia replied as the craft stopped. She left the helm and turned to them. "Why not get out there then? Oh," She stared at Jet's back. Looking a bit lower than his back though. "I...didn't know you guys...were having that much fun."
"Huh? It's not what it looks like!" Jet shouted and darted off with his clothes. The rest just laughed.
Virginia stood and was joined by Gallows and Clive. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She asked.
"Well, Jet."
"Eh, he can catch up can't he?" She shrugged and opened the hatch and stepped outside. She forgot that it was the ocean, but Gallows caught her and pulled her back in.
"You have to be careful." Clive commented.
"How do we walk?" She wondered.
Clive pointed out wreckages of other crafts. "We walk on those to get where we need to." He points to the distance where there is noticeable smoke. "My guess is that's where the distress call came from. We will head there and Gallows and Emilia will look for what she needs."
"No." Jet commented reentering fully clothed. "We can't go in large parties out there."
"Yes, I suppose you're right." Clive replied. "I'll stay back here."
"No, you come and Virginia stays." Jet retorted.
"Why me?" She said in anger.
"You're the leader." Jet replied. "How can you lead if you're in one of the parties? It's better for you to keep track of us all from the ship."
Clive nodded. "He's right."
"Still,"
"I can aerial capability is greater than your own. Aerodynamically you are unfit for the large leaps that may be placed before you." Clive explained. "Jet and I will go to the crashed craft and Gallows and Emilia will go for the other craft."
They all nodded in understanding and went about their jobs. Virginia stood back feeling left out as Jet and Clive dashed and made a jump across to some other craft. Gallows and Emilia went about with some sort of handheld machine she had and directed them to a craft nearby that they might be able to walk to due to the panels of the old crafts being tossed away in such a fashion that would make a path.
So out of boredom Virginia went about making a dinner for later. It was not going to be great. It was inferior materials. All she had were some noodles anyway, and she knew she could not mess them up because all she had to do was boil them.
Jet and Clive meanwhile made it to the craft in distress that had smoke coming from it. Jet barely made it when he slipped on some oil and fell into the sea, but Clive was there to catch his hand. So, it's safe to say that Jet has even greater respect for the married man now.
Clive's tactic to get into the ship was to enter through a hole that was made in the hull. Jet was stupid and entered the door that had smoked coming from it. Still, he went in and stayed to the ground covering his face with his scarf. The first thing he found was not pleasing. It was a bloody corpse. He paused at that dead man for moment. He was almost disgusted and pitied the man. Then he recalled he did not even know the guy and continued.
He met up with Clive in the safer area and they heard a wheezing cough. Jet grabbed some scraps of metal and moved them aside and Clive knocked some other junk aside and found a young blonde lying on the ground. An obvious Drifter. She had blood coming down her soft peach skin from her forehead. Wore men's clothing that was not unlike a fusion of Jet's style and Clive's. She had tight jeans, and a white button up shirt with a coat over.
Neither made a noise when she sat up and in a daze moved for Jet. Simply falling into him. "Brother." She softly said as she went limp in his arms. Jet was sort of puzzled.
"Brother?" Clive questioned.
"He's dead." Jet said focusing on a second man dead on the ground who wore his hair like Jet's, and had blonde hair. "She probably thought I was him. It's safe to say she has a concussion."
"We should get her back to the ship." Clive proposed. Jet nodded and the two headed out as they noticed the fire growing.
The whole group returned to their respected craft in time for Virginia to mention food, which is also when her sight was sent to the woman being carried in Jet's arms. "Who's she?"
"The only survivor it would seem." Clive replied as Jet set her down aside. "I'll see if she'll make it." He replied and became a doctor suddenly.
Gallows and Emilia themselves returned carrying a small chip. "This is what you needed?" Gallows wondered.
"Yes. It's technology for a computer. Real advanced stuff." Emilia replied. "It will allow us to use our ship more efficiently by making all those features I said."
"Well, whatever." Gallows handed her the chip, and she was quick to work. Gallows was quick to notice food and went off for that. In all of this Jet and Virginia continued to stare at one another as if time just stopped.
"Jet?" Emilia called out and he blinked.
"What is it?" He asked annoyed.
"I need you over here!"
He looked back to Virginia. "You made food?" She nodded. He turned away and went to Emilia. "Well, what do you want?"
"Give me your hand." She demanded. He complied and looked away as if this annoyed him. It did annoy him though.
Then she stabbed his hand with a small needle and he yelped. "What was that for?"
"You'll see." She gave him the smile of a mad doctor and followed with a related laugh as she went to work on the ship.
He just gave her a confused look and went to eat food with Gallows and Virginia. As this went on the were interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. It was Clive. That made a messy rush to see what was happening and found Clive on the floor in a heap and the woman they helped the antagonist.
"Who are you people?" She asked.
"Clive?" Gallows bent down to examine the injured teammate.
"I think the question is who are you!" Virginia forcefully replied. "How dare you harm Clive? He was only being nice to you."
"He was touching me." She defended. "EH touched my face!"
"How else do you check a fever?" Clive argued in pain.
"I don't know who you guys are, but...wasn't there five of you?"
"Calm down or die." Jet simply said as he stood behind her with his ARM to her head. She sweatdropped to put it in the most simplest of terms. "Sit down." She nodded and obeyed. Jet returned to the others and put away his ARM. "Okay, your turn." He looked to Virginia and went back to his dinner.
After an odd quiet Virginia cleared her throat. "We saved you from that wreckage."
"What about...my brother and the others?" She wondered.
"Well, I wasn't there, so,"
"They were dead." Jet simply said as he continued eating as if it was not such a big deal to have your brother mutilated.
"Uh...Thank you for your addition to the conversation JET." Virginia replied nervously. How could he be so insensitive? The other woman simply sobbed and sniffed and broke into crying. "We, uh, got your distress call, uh, what...happened?"
None of that made it over the hysterical cries of the woman. So, Jet put down his plate and smacked her upside the head and returned to his food. Again, everyone just sat in quiet. "How dare you?" The woman was at Jet in an instant as he continued eating.
"You were ruining my dinner." He simply said and continued. "You should thank me. I saved you from become charred remains."
"You didn't save my brother!"
"He was dead."
"Are you sure he was? I'm going back there!" Jet grabbed her wrist. "Let go!"
"You only think your brother is alive because you thought I was him." Jet sternly said as she stared into his eyes. He let go of her wrist.
She listlessly sat down. "Can I have some food?" She wondered.
Virginia brightened. "Uh, y-yes. Let me get you some." She went off for the kitchen.
"So...My," Gallows was dispatched from flirting with her by Jet. "Why do you keep doing that?" He roared.
"Not her." Jet simply said and went back to eating while the rest went on clueless.
"Can I ask what your name is?" Emilia brought into attention before catching herself. "I'm Emilia by the way!"
"And, I'm Gallows." He said in a masculine way that was his 'pick-up' voice. "That guy you hurt was Clive, and this guy who keeps threatening you is Jet. The woman getting your food is Virginia."
The blonde nodded. "I'm Mizu."
"That's an interesting na-"Jet dispatched another one of Gallows advances. "Stop that!"
"You." And that was the end of that argument. "What was the monster you were talking about that hit your ship?"
"The...monster?" Mizu stuttered. Her eyes becoming vacant. "It...it was terrible! I never even got a clear look at it. All I know is that it was bigger than a sandcraft. It...Simply ripped up our ship the moment it caught it. I...just...remember purple." She said with fear in her voice.
"That doesn't sound one bit good." Gallows commented as Virginia returned and gave the food to the frightened woman.
"So, we should get out of here right away then?" Virginia brought this idea to the board to be debated.
"That would be a good idea, but we need fuel." Emilia brought up as everyone looked to her. "I, uh, forgot to fuel this bad boy up when I upgraded it." She nervously replied to a room of vacant stares.
"I would think that was an important thing to remember!" Jet shouted. "So, what are we to do now then?"
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah, I can walk it off." Clive replied as he and Jet made their way across some of the left over sandcraft parts again.
"Where do we find fuel for a sandcraft anyway?"
"Well, Emilia said she saw a transport ship earlier that usually is used for carrying such fuel. We should find that thing. It's probably that huge one up ahead and..." He continued to babble as Jet zoned out and let him go on talking.
As Jet went to climb a piece of metal he noticed a small metal panel that would have been a control box atop it. "What the?"
"Do you sense something foreboding?" Clive wondered as he smelt the air. "I think it just got colder."
"There's tremors." Jet noted watching the control box slightly rock back and forth.
"That's the sort of thing I'm talking about."
Jet blinked. "Hey, Clive?"
"What?"
"I'm about to say something that may not sound like me, so don't think much of it."
"Okay, shoot."
"The unknown can be scary, but...I sort of see it as exciting." Jet commented. "If you see what no one knew of before you will never have the question to find out what it is. If you never go, you'll never know."
"That sort of sounds like something I would say." Clive commented. "Still, very true."
Jet nodded. "That's the most philosophical you'll see me, and you shouldn't tell anyone else that I'm philosophical one bit." Clive nodded.
"Anyway, how will we make it back to the ship carrying loads of fuel? I didn't think much about it at the time, but that may be a problem."
"We'll just use some rope or something and pull it along the sands. That should work." Jet simply said when he noticed the control box shake enough to fall off the metal scraps.
"Hey...I'm noticing a lot of tremors." Emilia noted back on the craft. "If I'm not mistaken I would think there was something underground."
Gallows noted how his fork fell off the counter. He stood up abruptly. "Let's get the Hell out of here." He simply said moving for the helm. He started up the craft and headed to pick up Jet and Clive, but the ship came to a sudden stop.
"What's wrong, Emilia?" Virginia wondered.
She checked the controls to the ship. Shaking her head, "There's nothing wrong!" She concluded.
Mizu stood up. "It's the beast! Leviathan is holding us down just like he did my ship!"
"Virginia! Get the guns and shoot anything moving that isn't Jet or Clive!" Gallows commanded. She simply nodded.
"Why did the ship stop?" Clive questioned as he and Jet noticed the sudden movement and halt of their comrades. "Is it...the monster?"
"Where is it? Underground? Or...is it some weird invisible thing that we'll hate to fight and get beat up over?" Jet wondered.
"We gotta do something." Clive began for his way back to the craft.
"Are you crazy?" Jet shouted after him. He stood there watching Clive run off for something. "Hold up!" Jet began after just as a black slime-like form of a mountain that covered over the sandcraft. He stopped. "That? I'm not even sure we can harm that intangible piece of crap!"
"We still gotta do something!" Clive replied.
Meanwhile, Virginia was freaking out greatly. "The guns can't break this....thing that covered us over!"
"Forget it." Gallows simply said as he stopped trying to get the ship to move. "We can't do anything." He simply said in defeat as MIzu sank into the darkest corner with a quivering lip. Shouting things about it happening again and being totally crazy like someone who lived through such a case would be.
"Let's do this!" Clive simply announced as he stopped at a fair distance from the craft aiming his ARM for the beast.
"Fine!" Jet roared as he landed beside him. Aiming his ARM as well the two each took a shot that simply went through the beast and slowed down before tapping the ship and then floated in the beast's slime like outer. "Uh...what is that thing made of?"
"I'm trying to think of a way to damage such a thing. I just need time."
"It sort of ate our ship! I think we're out of time."
"We may not be able to hurt it or kill it, but we should be able to hit it hard enough to let go of the ship."
Jet nodded. "So, what, guardians?"
"Yeah, lets use arcana." Clive said as he let loose Inspire on the beast and Jet used Petrify. The beast let out a groan and left the ship alone. "It looks like it can be annoyed."
"Uh, Clive, let's run."
"Why, we have it on the run?"
"No, we really don't. We just have him noticing us." Jet said as he darted away.
Clive looked over to see the once blob of slime now in the shape of a Chinese Dragon headed for him with it's mouth wide and the rest of it's body length under the ground. "Run Away!" He simply said and went after Jet who was already on a good head start.
It was at this time that Virginia attempted to fire at the beast, but the shots merely went through Leviathan. Meanwhile Jet and Clive regrouped and hid out in some wreckage.
"Okay, well you're the guy with the brain so do something with them!" Jet argued.
"You have street smarts and that's worth more in this case. You think of something!" Clive replied in an equal amount of 'frantic'.
"Nothing we do will save the sandcraft."
"No!" Clive firmly replied in a new calmness. "We can't abandon the rest."
"What?" Virginia roared. "You say there's a weapon strong enough to kill Leviathan on this thing?"
"Well, yes, but, it probably won't work. It's not finished...nor...do we have the correct power to use it." Emilia replied.
"Can we get those?"
"No, not until we can regroup with the others." Emilia replied to the confused comrades. "I shouldn't have even brought it up."
"I told you not to fart!" Jet shouted as he and Clive ran using a slowly decreasing amount of footholds. "Now it heard it."
"Only because of the metal around us that echoed it!" Clive argued. "Jump!"
"What?" Jet's eyes bulged as the two jumped away from the head of Leviathan as it came down to strike them. Luckily for them they got out of the way of the attack as well as the ground that burst out from it. "Clive!"
Clive stopped and nodded as Leviathan's head rose from the ground to strike them. Just as it went in to hit them they combined a summon of Justine to slash the beast in two as it did attack. The blob reformed into it's original form as the two had their hopes rise. Only for them to fall when the beast shot out tentacles at them sending them flying into the air separate ways. "Damnit!" Jet was heard to yell as he faded into the distance before landing hard on another craft after bouncing off the wall of another. He looked out to suddenly see the beast burst into flames and disintegrates into the sands. Warily as his vision blurred he looked over to notice another sandcraft come into the area. Napalm. A new weapon that is popular among those who fight naval battles. He was just happy that it was not an Ark of Destiny ship.
It stopped right by his fallen form. A noticeable man in a coat like Clive's came out, but Jet's vision was too blurry to make out anything else. Jet gasped some words, "B...Brother."
"I think you're mistaken." The man replied as two more people showed up who wore strange outfits that he thought resembled another strange outfit on one of his traveling companions who had a brother and a grandmother. After that Jet lost consciousness and collapsed.
Clive stood up and found the fallen Jet. Still, it was dark and he too could not make out their saviors due to the lights from inside the ship that silhouetted them. "Thanks." He said as he went to Jet and picked the boy up over his shoulder. "What was that?"
"Take care of that kid better, y'know." The man who first met Jet said as he went inside the craft.
"Yes, and the same for the rest of your crew." The woman said and left with the man into the craft and departed just as mysteriously as they appeared.
Clive just blinked in confusion. He was not quite sure what just happened. "Clive!" Virginia shouted as their own craft came to a halt and she jumped out to meet the two. "Oh no, Jet, is he?"
"He's just fine. We each took a good beating." Clive replied with a smile. He was relieved that was all over.
"We should rest up then now that it's night and worry about the fuel tomorrow." Virginia decided.
It was late in the morning the next time Jet stood. At first he almost fell over from not being used to standing, but he got over that and followed his nose into the kitchen to find Virginia again. "Ugh. You cooked again?"
"What do you mean by that? You're the last up so you get leftovers." She placed some eggs down. "They're fine. We all ate them and we're still living." She assured him as he warily took his fork to eat.
"Still, why are they green?"
"I dropped the food coloring in them." She said with a red face.
"Oh?"
"You okay?" She sat down across from him looking at his face with worry.
"Yeah...I guess. A bruised ego and some thought plaguing my mind now."
"I can see the bruised ego, but...what sort of thoughts? Is something troubling you?"
He looked around the ship ignoring her question. "So, where's everyone else?"
"Mizu wanted to have her own ship and start over. They're helping her rebuild a ship that isn't damaged badly. Gallows brought the fuel here, so, we'll be ready to leave soon." She informed him. He nodded. "You ignored my question by the way."
"I know I did."
"Will you answer me?"
"It's...nothing, really. I just said something weird and it confuses me now." Jet assured her.
"What you say?"
"Brother."
"Brother?"
"Yeah."
"When?"
"When, that guy...on that ship that saved us came out."
"You're haunted by it now?"
"Yeah...I guess. It's all I dreamt about."
She straightened her back into a motherly position. "What do I do with you Jet? You're going to have to be level-headed if I can rely on you."
"I know." He simply said as he finished his eggs quickly. "I'll work on it." He sat up. "I'm going to go see what the others are up to."
Gallows and Mizu stood atop her now complete sandcraft—courtesy of Emilia for the most part who was quick working. "Well, I guess...I'll...need a new crew." She commented.
Gallows just nodded and it was silent. "Uh, you know, you're a strong person. To be able to move on like this, and all." He commented. "I would've went crazy."
"I'm not very strong. Can you lend me your strength?"
"I can't give what I lack." Gallows simply said.
"That's the problem. Strength isn't given but earned."
It was silent again. "Here, take this." He gave her some fire, ice, and dark gems. "This will help you get stronger."
She looked at them. "Thank you. I'm sure they will."
"Listen, we helped you out once, someday you'll have to pay us back."
"I know. You can count on me too." She simply said. "We are bound to meet up again."
"Good for me then." He grinned and Jet whacked him at the back of his head. "Why did you do that?"
"You know why. Keep it all Pg-13 here." Jet commented and walked off.
"I don't do that the first time!" Gallows argued as he chased after the gray-haired Drifter.
That took me all day...Well....All afternoon and then I came back to it in the evening and then night.
Right, Gallows does snore, I just didn't want to bash him like that right off the bat. Believe it or not I actually plan to make him as more than a plot device this story—As much as I tried with Overgrown he still faded into the background somehow. So, I shouldn't make fun of him so much. Jet, I like to make fun of though. Clive I have respect for. Virginia...well...she's Virginia. Can't live with her, and can't live without her. I don't think she has much of a story in this fic aside from what you've already seen of her. Jet and the rest will though...maybe not Emilia so much since I'm not sure of he real personality...So...we'll see. It's hard to meld this story with the original Nomadic Diga: SAND like I did with Overgrown! and Clash of the Titans. Those two were just simple 'side-stories' but this is the actual story so...it's hard. I took out a lot and put in some new stuff to make it WA3 related.
I'm sorry, I just really love my story NDS I just have to keep rewriting it until someone likes it! I don't know why no one ever liked it and instead like me more for my angst fueled or contemporary novels.
Give me suggestions and I'll make the story better if I think they're good. I am aware of my crappy past-present tense stuff, but, I don't even proofread this stuff. I proofread my novel, and that takes all my time so I don't want to do the same for this so much. That's why you get mess-ups like wrong words that look the same, or bad wording. I'm sorry, but, I don't see anything wrong as long as the main idea gets across. That's when I'll change it.