Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Ch 41
"Sir the cannons on all ships have finished charging!" shouted the man at the comms.
"I hope this works" thought Nyataro who clenched his fist "Fire!"
The ships fired their main cannons at the dark blob simultaneously. The beams of energy tore through the black ooze at many different angles, parting the ooze as easily as a knife through butter. The creature let out a tortured scream as the black mass lost its shape due to the countless holes that had riddled its body and collapsed back down into the black lake of ooze below. All was quiet for a moment, but then the ooze once again erupted upwards and formed the same monstrous shape.
"Holy Shit!" yelled someone "It's frikkin invulnerable!"
"Sir, the scouting ships have all returned to the hanger!" said the one of the operators at the control panel.
"Great, send them to their stations for now" said Nyataro rubbing his eyes, "and get the other captains on the comms, for now we need to calm down and discuss—"
"Sir!" interrupted one of the men at the helm "We go trouble!"
Nyataro snapped his gaze back at the window showing the outside. Shapes were slowly taking shape and emerging out of the black ooze's body, taking on the familiar form of gun barrels, missile launchers, and other mechanical long ranged weaponry.
"Please be blocked by the barrier" prayed Nyataro.
Half a second later the creature unleashed the full volley of the armaments that dotted its body at the ships above them.
"They have passed the barrier unimpeded!" yelled the man of the helm.
"Of course they did!" thought Nyataro who slammed his palm into his forehead before giving the command to shoot down the incoming projectiles. The countless guns on the airships came to life, spewing lines of weapon fire that destroyed or deflected most of what was fired at them. What remained in the air harmlessly bounced off the ships' shields.
"How much ammo does this thing have!?" shouted one of the men manning the heavy guns after more than a minute of continuous fire.
"We won't get anywhere at this rate." Thought Nyataro. "Fire the main cannons and then pull back out of enemy firing range!" he shouted.
The ships complied, firing their beams which temporarily collapsed the creature's dark mass long enough for them to turn around and head back in the direction of the open sea. Moments later they heard a roar of anger from far away and saw countless projectiles being fired above the sheer cliffs.
Once they were completely out of range, Nyataro gave the command to halt. He let out a sigh and then began massaging his eyes.
"I guess we know we know what happened to the Blackstones" he muttered. He then straightened and turned to one of the operators manning the comms.
"Get me connected with the other captains."
"Yes sir!" replied the operator, who then proceeded to set up the link. Within a few seconds, 8 holo-screens came on with one of the captain's face staring down from each one.
"Alright my friends" said Nyataro, "Strategy meeting."
"Blast it to pieces with the cannons!" shouted Tora "They seemed to work!"
"We do not know if they did" said Mao "They ooze may have just moved out of the way of the blasts. It's hard to tell if the matter was actually disintegrated or not."
"Well who can say mate" said Edward "There was so much o'that black goo covern' the ground that we wouldn't have even noticed if we'd vaporized some of it."
"I say we take a quick lunch break before continuing" said Henry, who still hadn't regained his former rotund form.
"No time!" shouted Christopher "we don't know how long that barrier thing will hold out anyway."
"It was made by one of the friends of the founder so it should be quite durable." Said William.
"Alright everyone, we're starting to get off topic" said Nyataro "back to strategy—"
"UNCLE NYATARO" interrupted a young boy's voice. Lan burst onto the bridge and then leapt forwards and attached himself to Nyataro's back with his arms and legs "UNCLE ISHIKU HE HE—"
"Calm down boy you—"
Before he could finish, Ignis; George; and Edel (who all wanted to join in) all tackled him in a similar manner and started to hang off him with their claws/talons/teeth/hands.
"…Get off me now." Said Nyataro with a quiet menace. Quick as lightning all who had clung to him detached themselves and sat in a formal manner in front of him.
"It is indeed troubling that Ishiku was overtaken in such a manner, but as a member of the Muteki family, it is highly unlikely that he died."
Nyataro rubbed his eyes, and then turned back to the screens.
"Now, back to the matter at hand—"
'Beep Beep Beep'
A light beeping sound began to fill the room at that moment.
"What's going on now" said Nyataro with a sigh.
"Outside transmission sir" said someone at the comms, who then paused as he read the transmission details "…and that's another point to your intuition admiral."
The signal was patched through and moments later a voice was heard, albeit it was almost unrecognizable through the static.
"Hey can you guys hear me?" said Ishiku
"Loud and clear, and where are you my bungling brother of stone?" said Nyataro.
"Currently in a ball of rock on the inside of the goo monster" said Ishiku.
"Hooray!" shouted Lan "But shouldn't that thing have eaten you?"
"Well, it looks like it ate the stones in the houses, but I seem to be fine." Said Ishiku.
"Hmm, if my guess is right, that creature can only devour solid substances that have been shaped by the hands of man" said Nyataro, his hand on his chin. "This could be evidenced by the fact that although everything that we have built is gone, but all the trees, rocks, and other natural parts of nature are standing untouched."
"Good thing that my rocks are shaped by the soul." Said Ishiku
"Well, that would explain why the missiles and bullets failed but the laser cannon tore through it." Said Tora. "So, now onto the big topic, what next?"
"You can start by helping me out of here as soon as you can" said Ishiku "Unless this monster sets the stone I'm in on the ground I won't be going anywhere."
"So you're just floating around in there right now?" asked Lan.
"Yep" said Ishiku, "Thankfully I've stayed rightside—hurgh!"
This exclamation of pain was followed by a light thud.
"…the rock turned upside down didn't it" said Lan.
"Yeah" said Ishiku, "Now where was I, oh yeah, when's my assistance getting here?"
"As soon as we can figure out how to damage that thing enough to actually get you out!" said Tora
"I think it would be also be best if we could somehow find a way to destroy this beast" said Nyataro, who stroked his whiskers "It's true we do not know how long Uncle Meng's barrier will be able to hold it, and based on the abilities it has shown so far if it is released to the world mankind could face a devastating calamity."
"Okay, how?" said Christopher "From what I can see, we don't have nearly enough firepower to take it down."
"A dilemma to be sure" said Trey, who popped up right behind Christopher "Perhaps we can harness the power of nature itself to vanquish the beast."
"Get out of here Trey" said Christopher, who rubbed his eyes "This is the captains meeting."
"Got it." Said Trey who walked out of the screen.
"Sorry about that" said Christopher "He gets lonely when we fight, since I always make him work and hide in the engine room until it's all over."
"No no" said Ishiku over the comms "He might just have a point."
""Huh?"" responded all the people present.
"Yeah" said Ishiku, whose voice sounded slightly uncomfortable "I didn't tell any of you this earlier because I didn't want to freak you guys out, buuut" ishiku spoke the next section at a very fast speed"there's a magma cavern located right underneath the cove."
"…and it is?" said Nyataro while opening his hands in a questioning manner.
"Enormous and very active" said Ishiku.
"And the reason we never saw any evidence of this because"
"It relieves itself of heat and pressure through a series of geysers and volcanic springs a few miles away. For some reason its path to the surface is slanted."
"Okay, good to know" said Tora who scratched the back of his head "and why did you bring that up?"
"Well" said Ishiku "If I was free, it would be an easy task for me to destroy the many layers of stone between the surface and the cavern, which would cause that monster to fall in and vaporize."
"But that would destroy the cove!" said Henry
"Yeah, aren't we trying to protect our home?" said William
"It's already a bit too late for that mates" said Edward "Everything we've ever built's already been gobbled up into that thing from what I can see."
"Might be better to just destroy that creature along with what little is left and then build things back up again" said Henry.
"Wait amigo, wouldn't it be better to simply wait for the first admiral to return before we do anything hasty?" said Alonzo
"It's going to be a while before the old man comes back" said Nyataro "and although the barrier's pretty damn tough, I doubt it'd last long enough for us to fly over to Tiger Valley and back."
Nyataro's gaze then turned very sharp as he addressed everyone in front of them once again.
"Besides, are we going to count on the old man for everything? We are the Beasts, a pirate alliance feared and respected across all the seas of Remnant. I'd say we can take care of this little issue ourselves. Besides, if the old man finds out we didn't at least try our best to take care of things on our own, I think you all know what he'll do."
All the captains on the screens shuddered as they remembered their training days.
"And there's the fact that I'm still in here" said Ishiku "Gonna be kinda hard to live in this rock inside an amorphous monster without any food and water."
"That too" said Nyataro.
"Okay I'm in" said Anne, "Better than just sitting here and twiddling our thumbs."
"I agree mistress" came female a voice from Anne's monitor.
"Quiet Ariel." Said Anne with a menacing voice "chairs don't talk."
"Okay, moving on" said Tora, who turned his eyes to the cieling "All in agreement to blow up what's left of our home and drop that thing into the magma cavern, say aye."
""Aye!"" said all the other captains.
"Alright then" said Nyataro "Let's talk strategy."
A few hours later
The Beast Pirate fleet began closing in on the creature again.
"I think it sees us!" shouted the helmsman on Nyataro's ship.
The amorphous monster in the cove let out an earsplitting roar as hundreds of armaments began to emerge from it.
"Fire!" shouted Nyataro.
All ships simultaneously fired their main cannons at different angles, cutting the giant creature into many pieces which then fell into the sea of black metallic ooze down below.
"Hmmmm" said Nyataro who noticed something "I'll have to check that the next time we make a shot."
He then hit a few buttons on the console in front of him and connected to Ishiku's comm.
"We just blasted it, did you feel yourself move at all."
"Nope" said Ishiku "Guess that mean I wasn't in that part. Damn, guess that means I'm somewhere in the ooze. You guys sure you can't lock onto my position."
"Afraid not" said Nyataro "There appears to be materials mixed in with that ooze that's interfering with our signal, we can barely just talk right now thanks to that but we can't get a clear enough lock on your position."
Ishiku let out a deep sigh "Well try to shoot the right place for now, the kid won't be able to lock onto my position if he can't get a clear signal. Damn, really wish we didn't have to rely on him."
"You and he are the only ones with direct combat based semblances that doesn't require some kind of weapon to use properly." Said Nyataro "So that means he's the only one who can get close right now…Sorry gotta hang up now, it just reformed itself 'click' Fire!"
Far Far below deep in the underground water caverns, a group of dolphins and whales were swimming.
"Oh it does smell like fish in here" said Lan who was eating sushi while sitting on the whale's tongue. He flicked a few pieces to Ignis, George, and Edel and then glowed blue as he triggered Aura speak.
"Are we almost in position Mr. Whale" asked Lan.
"Almost" replied the gargantuan creature through the soul waves "but the tunnels are starting to get pretty cramped up ahead, afraid you'll have to go on without me."
"Thanks for your help so far" said Lan who put on a diving helmet and proceeded to force the little guys into their respective scuba gear. Once they were fully suited Lan gave the whale the command and it opened its mouth, allowing them to swim out into the tunnel. Now outside of the whale, Lan could feel the vibrations of the battle up above throughout the tunnels. He motioned for one of the dolphins to come near him and grabbed on before heading deeper into the underwater tunnels with the little ones hanging off of his left foot. As the traveled, Lan kept his eyes on a 3-D map projection device that would show Ishiku's location once a signal could be established. Before long the tunnel connected to a large subterranean cavern, Lan let go of the dolphin and swam to the nearest stone shore.
"Thanks!" yelled Lan "You can have the rest of the sushi, but evacuate as soon as possible!"
After throwing the colorful food at the Dolphins, Lan sat down and kept his eyes on the projection device, he then connected his comm to Nyataro.
"I'm in position" said Lan.
"Stand by for further orders." Said Nyataro, who turned his attention back to the battle at hand.
"Ammo reserves for anti-ballistic missile guns down to 50%" said one of the operators at the consoles.
"For this round focus on the area directly to the right of the ooze creature" said Nyataro "Fire!"
The cannons from the nine ships simultaneously fire on the area, blasting apart the ooze in the area.
'Beep'
"Found him sir!" said the operator at the console.
"Send the coordinates to Lan!" shouted Nyataro.
Deep below ground the device in Lan's hands began to beep and show a dot on the 3-D radar.
"Mission start!" yelled Lan who leapt to his feet, causing the little ones to fall out of his lap.
Lan then reached into his backpack and pulled out some high-ordinance dust charges. He then used the 3-D map to find the part of the cavern that was directly below the target and planted every charge in his backpack to the ceiling of that area.
He then ran behind a barrier made out of rocks and sandbags that the little guys had slapped together.
"Fire in the hole" said Lan who pulled out and triggered a detonator.
The explosion rocked the cavern as the ceiling was blown apart, causing many tons of debris to fall into the ocean below.
"Almost" said Lan watching the rock fall "Almost"
Then when the rockfall began to slow.
"Now!"
Lan darted forward and leapt into the air, using rocks in freefall as footholds so he could go even higher. He jumped and leapt, dodging and deflecting any rocks that would do him harm until saw a black ooze above him.
Lan pulled out three iron rods and using them as a base, formed a crystal spear around them with his semblance. He then leapt upwards, launching a few of his concussive orbs ahead of him. The orbs blasted apart the ooze, allowing Lan to leap into the opening.
"Man how did I get so good at using my semblance so fast?" thought Lan
The boy then began to twirl the spear in the circle allowing him to dig further into the ooze, using concussive orbs under his own feet to propel himself higher until
'tink'
"Found the rock!" shouted Lan, who tapped it again with his spear "Tap tap"
The rock then cracked open and Ishiku leapt out, grabbing Lan and diving back down the way the boy came.
"Nice moves little man" said Ishiku.
The man then touched the sides of the stone tunnel and used his semblance to control the sides of the tunnel, ceiling off the areas they passed as they fell with compacted stone so the ooze couldn't fall into the underground cavern. Then, enthralled by the force of gravity, they fell into the water below.
"Gah, finally free" said Ishiku as he burst from the surface of the subterranean lake "And it's all thanks to you nephew, come here for some affectionate noogying" Ishiku then proceeded to pull Lan into a headlock and noogied him with his rock splitting fists.
"If I wasn't tough this would be deadly" said Lan, who laughed while struggling in his uncle's grip as a line of blood dripped down one side of his forehead.
"Well then" said Ishiku, letting Lan go "You got any food? I'm going to need energy to start the nest phase."
"Already prepped" said Lan, who pointed to two fires that had been started by the little guys. Over one hung a pot of seafood nabe, and over the other a pot of freshly cooked rice.
"Great, you set up while I use the bathroom." Said Ishiku. 10 minutes later after relieving himself in the ocean and wolfing down the entire contents of both pots. Ishiku sat in lotus position, his eyes closed. He had borrowed the magatama from Lan once again and it sat glowing in the middle of his hand.
"What does that magatama do anyways?" said Lan as he watched his uncle.
"It basically cuts the amount of aura you need to use for your semblance" said Ishiku, who thought about its other abilities as well but decided to keep quiet about them "Now be quiet, I need to focus."
Ishiku sat for a minute longer than suddenly said "You and the little guys, grab onto me."
They immediately did so and a second later the entire cavern began to shake. The earth up above began to visibly shake as well, interrupting the fierce fire fight between the beast pirate fleet and the monstrous ooze.
The ground began to crack and shatter beneath the monster, many of the cracks traveling up the cliffs above the cove causing dozens of boulders to rain down on top of the creature. It let out a monstrous scream, releasing countless tendrils to block the falling boulders. And then, the ground shattered.
The creature let out a monstrous roar as the force of gravity pulled it, streams of seawater, and countless tons of rock down towards a glowing red dot thousands of meters down below.
"There it is" said Lan looking up. He and Ishiku were currently in a moist tunnel in the side of the wall of the gigantic new hole Ishiku had just opened in the ground. Then the creature quickly fell right past them as a black blur.
"And there it goes." Said Lan.
They stood over the edge and watched as the creature's shape grew smaller and smaller and stayed the same and stayed the same…
"Um, I don't think it's falling anymore" said Lan,
"Yep" said Ishiku, who then activated his comm "Guys , it seems as though we'll need to revise our plan."
5 minutes later when everyone was on the comms.
"Okay" started Ishiku, staring down at the creature "We've got around half an hour until that this climbs up high enough to start doing damage again, what's the plan?"
"I say we destroy whatever appendages it is using to climb and let it fall" said Tora
"The only thing we have that can actually damage it are our main cannons" said Christopher "We can try to cover as much area as possible with simultaneous shots, but it may just regenerate new appendages or something."
"We can start with that" said Nyataro, who sat in his chair with his eyes closed. "But there is something I noticed earlier with the monster" everyone quieted down and listened intently "I was using my semblance the whole time we were firing on that creature and I noticed something like a core. The creature's essence seemed too focused on that area. Iy became visible now and again whenever we tore it apart with our cannons."
"Oh well that simplifies things" said Tora "Just shoot the core and it'll go down."
"It sounds simple, but simple things are often quite complicated on further examination" said Mao
"Indeed" said Nyataro "The core is constantly surrounded by that black goo, which can absorb the some of the impact of our cannon fire, in addition I also saw what seemed to be some kind of hard armor. It seems to be a composite material made up of special airship armors, resistant to our laser fire. Normally we'd break through something like that with a piercing missile, but anything that was made by our hands just gets swallowed up."
"So, I guess we need another covert ops" said Ishiku "I guess it's me and Lan again."
"Indeed" said Nyataro "Your best earth spikes have the piercing capabilities of high class missiles."
"Okay, we'll wait in this cave until we see an opening" said Ishiku
"Good luck my brother from another mother" said Nyataro
"You too bud" said Ishiku.
Ishiku switched off his comms and then turned to Lan.
"Okay kid, we're going to start our assault soon. Any last requests?"
"Just an idea for our assault" said Lan, who then leaned over and whispered into Ishiku's ear.
"Got it" said Ishiku, who tapped the wall of the tunnel causing a hole to open up.
"See you in a bit" said Lan, who ran into the tunnel followed by his little friends. A few minutes later the creature had climbed almost too where Ishiku had dug into the side of the Hole.
"Wait for it" said Nyataro who watched as the Creature drew closer and closer "Now!" he shouted extending his arm forwards.
The main cannons on the front most ships fired downwards, tearing through the countless appendages that attached the creature to the cliff walls. But moments later, countless more erupted from its frame and pierced into the Cliffside allowing the creature to continue its upwards ascent.
"Plan B!" shouted Nyataro.
""Roger!"" responded everyone on the intercom.
The front most ships flew to the sides, revealing the few ships in the back that already had their cannons fully charged.
"Aim at the central form around the left side" shouted Nyataro, his eyes glowing from his semblance "Fire!"
The cannons tore the central area to pieces, and once they passed Nyataro's eyes flashed.
"That sphere suspended by strands of ooze!" he shouted.
"Got it!" shouted Ishiku, who punched at the orb.
An enormous stone spike erupted from the Cliffside and slammed into the sphere, tearing it free from the ooze and piercing it. Several more stone spears erupted from the side of the cliffs, cracking the armored sphere more and more, at the same time the ooze began to lose its form and slowly writhed upwards towards its core.
"Oh no you don't!" shouted Ishiku who launched one final massive earth spike into the armored sphere, shattering it. An inhuman roar shook across the canyon as a pair of red eyes appeared beneath the splintered shell. The pieces of armor spread apart, revealing a red eyed shadowy sphere in the center, which had a tendril connected each and every piece of the broken shell.
"Aha Gotcha!" shouted Ishiku who launched another spear at the exposed creature. In response to this, the creature had all the armored pieces gather in front of it and block the strike. Many of the front most pieces cracked even more, but the creature simply sealed the cracks with its own ooze.
"Fire what we can at it!" shouted Tora from his ship.
"Wait not—" started Nyataro.
But bullets and missiles had already been released at the creature. The creature didn't bother using its shields to block them, and it soon became evident why. The moment a bullet or missiles touched the creature's body, it instantly dissolved and became the same kind of black ooze that had surrounded it earlier.
"Shit, it's gotten more mass back" said Nyataro "Only attack it with energy based weapons! Everyone who's got something like that, get to somewhere you can target it and let loose until the cannons recharge!"
"Not sure the cannons will recharge before that ooze gets back to the core captain!" said a man at the console.
Laser fired rained from above while rock spears attacked from multiple sides, however the creature managed to keep protecting itself with its shell fragments.
"Lan!" shouted Ishiku. "Now would be a really good time to pop in!"
At that moment, the wall on the other side of the hill exploded, and out of it popped Lan and friends who were in battle formation! Lan was hanging onto Edel's legs, while his own legs held Ignis in a grip.
Edel's wings were glowing red due to Dust that had been applied to them to increase the bird's flight capabilities.
Ignis barked and activated his species' unique semblance, which allowed them to generate controlled explosions, and propelled the group towards the dark core.
The creature saw this, and manipulated its new ooze to take on the form of bullets and missiles, which it fired at the Lan and co. Ignis triggered his semblance on his paws to allow them to quickly maneuver and avoid the onslaught.
"Cannons ready sir!"
"Fire!" shouted Nyataro.
The ships rained multiple beams down on the creature, while at the same time, Ishiku sent up a large earth spike. In response to this, the creature split up its shields into two fronts and blocked the two shots, keeping an eye on Lan who was floating a distance away, unable to make any decisive acts.
'Thunk'
The creature shuddered and looked to the side, where the fletching of a crystal arrow was buried into its side. It looked in the direction it came from, and there stood Lan who was in his underpants and holding his bow. The boy was standing in the hole that he had emerged from moments earlier. Confused the creature turned its head and looked at where the boy was floating in the air.
'Eeep' said air Lan, and a moment later the boy's face disappeared to reveal George's mischievous grin. This had been the work of George's semblance which allowed his to shapeshift to a certain extent. During the time they had attracted the creature's attention; the real Lan had been lying low in the hole and creating his best crystal arrow yet. And what made this arrow the best you ask?
Well, the creature soon began to feel a rumbling sensation inside it, and before it could react, a multi-elemental explosion triggered inside it, blasting a huge hole in its side. The creature screamed in pain, causing it to lose control of the shells, which then fell down towards the magma far below. The arrowhead had been a hollow, 4 compartment structure, with each structure holding one of Lan's concussive orbs that had been treated with a different kind of Dust. Something like this required many minutes of concentration for Lan to make, so it wasn't something the boy could use on the fly.
"Gotcha now!" yelled Ishiku, who was breathing heavily. Using the last of his stamina, Ishiku clapped his hands together causing two pillars to come smash together, crushing the creature between them.
"Sir, wait, stop, you'll damage the ship's energy converters!" shouted one of the engineers on Nyataro's ship.
"And miss out on the final blow?!" shouted Nyataro, who turned an override key and grabbed a lever in front of him "Not a chance!"
Nyataro's ship fired its main cannon as some of the panels on its sides exploded. The beam struck the area where the two pillars met; disintegrating them before pushing what remained of the creature down, down, down until with a sploosh, it crashed into the magma below.
"Whew." Said Lan, who fell onto his butt.
"Is it over?" he asked over the comms.
"Yes" said Nyataro, who stared down into the depths of the crater, his eyes glowing with his semblance. "Its essence is being swallowed up by the flames."
"Finally" said Ishiku, who fell onto his ass. "Come and pick us up then, I need to sleep for like a week."
"Especially since you need to fix the cove later" chimed Tora,
"Ugh, don't remind me." Said Ishiku who stared down the hole he had opened up.
"But before anything else I need to say something" said Lan, as his little friends crashed onto the ground in front of him. "That was frickin awesome and I cannot wait to tell grandpa!"
Around 5 months later
"Lan sweety more soup please~~!" said woman who held an empty bowl out to Lan.
"…Here" said Lan, who was currently wearing a fluffy bunny suit. He was currently working on the moonstone Rabbit ship's mess hall, where he was dispensing his homemade creamy bacon, potato, and bamboo shoot soup.
"Attention all crewmembers, the cove is in sight." Came a voice over the intercom.
"Oh finally." Said Lan who ditched the rabbit suit, ran out of the dining hall, and onto the ship's deck.
"Ahhhhh." Said Lan who stared down at the cove down below "Good to be back."
The cove had been restored to its former glory a few months after the defeat of the creature, mostly in part to Ishiku's tireless work filling in the hole he made, and even going the extra mile as to redirect volcanic vents into underground mineral water deposits to create the cove's very own seaside hot springs. Also, lucky for those in the cove, the Beast pirates had enough funds stored in outside sources to get the resources needed to reconstruct every home, facility, and airship port that had been lost in the attacks. The only problem now was taking care of the geysers that would sometimes pop up around the hot spring area.
The Moonstone Rabbit airship soon docked in the port and Lan bolted off the ship before the crewmembers could stick him in any other embarrassing costumes. His little friends hadn't been so lucky though, and were currently at the mercy of the Rabbit's designers.
"Time for a soak" said Lan who headed to the hotsprings. After entering the male side, smuggling in some snacks, and jumping into the hot water, Lan stretched out and popper open a .
"Wish grandpa could be here to enjoy this" said Lan, taking a sip.
"Ask and you shall receive!" came a boisterous voice from the heavens. A moment the hotspring water erupted as an abject came hurtling down from the heavens. Lan spat the soda out of his mouth right as a torrent of water smacked into him and forced him out onto the stones. When his senses had finally returned he looked up and saw a familiar site in front of him.
"Grandpa!" shouted Lan, his eyes filled with tears and blood "You're back."
"Yes I am" said Byakko who was already buck naked. "Me and Chiyo brought ya a souvenir"
"Here you are darling" said Chiyo, who appeared right behind Lan and placed a bag onto Lan's chest.
"Grandma!" said Lan who stood up and hugged her "It's so good to—"
He paused as he noticed something different, his arms weren't able to completely wrap around his grandmother's waist.
"Surprise!" said Byakko.
"You're going to have a little aunt or uncle soon" said Chiyo, who blushed while patting her protruding stomach.
"Well" said Lan who plopped back into the hot spring as the common sense of the world and that of his grandfather clashed. "That is both wonderful and off putting."
"Have you heard about what happened here?" asked Lan as he opened his souvenir bag and pulled out a Japanese style straw hat.
"Yep!" said Byakko "Attacked by enemy pirates and a mysterious creature of unimaginable horror, good job handling that while I was gone!" Byakko gave Lan a thumbs up and a huge grin.
"Well, that brings me to an important question then" said Byakko, who leaned back against the stones. "Would you like to set down your roots here or continue on with me?"
This question took Lan by surprise, causing the boy's eyes to widen.
"You've stayed here long enough to know the ins and outs, and I bet you've already formed some attachments with a bunch of different people here, so if you wanted to stay I wouldn't be against it."
"But what about training?" said Lan.
"I'll pop by here now and again, especially since I got to look after the baby that's coming, and I'm sure the rest of my boys and girls and give you some good regimens."
"Remember honey, no training until I say so" said Chiyo who was seated in a chair near the water.
"I know, sweety, I know" said Byakko.
Lan sat in the warm water, his chin in his hands for a few moments thinking. True he had developed an attachment for this place, but when he asked his true feelings there was only one answer.
"I really think I'd like to keep going with you grandpa" said Lan "I feel like I'll be able to see and experience much more if I stay with you. Besides, it's not like I'll never come back here. We'll probably come to visit again, and then I can see everyone here again."
"Ha ha!" laughed Byakko , leaping to his feet "Excellent answer! Accepting the tougher road and heading fearlessly into the dangerous and deadly unknown! That's my grandson!"
"Just please keep those two things at a level where I can survive" said Lan
"No promises" said Byakko. "Anyway, we'll leave right after the baby's born!"
"Where to?" asked Lan
"A place where we can toughen you up more!" said Byakko, with a smile "I've brought up your physical strength pretty good, but when it comes to a lot of the more advanced stylistic stuff, I don't think you and I have compatible styles. So! I'm taking you to one of my old friends who does!"
"And we'll be making lots of stops on the way for random adventures and events?" said Lan
"Fo Sho!" said Byakko.
"Hope there will be air ships in some of those places." Said Lan, "I'd really like to show off the midair battle styles I developed."
"Nice!" said Byakko, who grabbed Lan's shoulder "Show me!"
He then threw Lan 50 meters into the air, much to the surprise of many individuals in the surrounding area, especially since Lan was in his birthday suit which forced the parents of any young girls to quickly shield their child's eyes.
"Classic grandpa" said Lan as he soared into the air arms folded. Then with a flourish, Lan materialized a small crystal platform beneath his feet. "But I better not disappoint him!"
Lan then created an explosive orb under the platform and detonated it, launching himself further into the air, where he began to show off his mid-air battle pattern.
Epilogue of the cove:
A few days later Chiyo gave birth to a healthy baby girl who the couple named Ajisai Muteki. It was at that time that Lan discovered that Byakko had already set up a very solid agreement on how the child would be raised with Chiyo. For the first 2 years, Chiyo would take care of the child herself, and after that the child would alternate between the two for six months at a time. The child's birth was celebrated with a large party in the cove, and afterwards came Lan and Byakko's time to leave. Trey had already set up a room in the house and after making sure to bring enough DVD's, video games, and graphic novels, had clambered into the house right after Byakko picked it up. Lan would not return to the cove for a few years, but when he did he would not be the same clumsy child, and his main destination would be a new destination where another of Byakko's friends lived, far beneath the ocean's waves.
One week after the departure of Byakko and Lan:
In the dark of night, one of the Geysers around the cove erupted. This was a rather common occurrence in the area, so no one paid it any mind. Because of the this, no one noticed the trail of dark smoke that rose far into the air and began to head towards a land far far away.
Next arc, we meet the first of Lan's official team as well as start Lan's greatest growth in ability.
