Disclaimer: I do not own Jing, only Maeris.
A/N: Welcome to the third chapter of Becoming A Bandit where Jing and Maeris will discover the truth about the Double Mermaid and move on to a mysterious ghost ship. So without further ado, I turn it over to Mae. Enjoy!
"I have to say I'm surprised that two little brats and their pet bird managed to make it all the way up here," Cognac admitted as he leered at them with a huge fake grin. "I was actually expecting the King of Bandits so I'll have to get rid of you amateurs quickly."
Cognac then snapped his overly bejeweled fingers and a multi-eyed troll appeared which Jing dispatched with a Kir Royale that also cracked the glass the mermaid was encased in allowing her to escape.
"Wow, she's beautiful," breathed Maeris as the mermaid broke free. She had long blue hair and dazzling eyes. Which means Kir will fly over to her and try to impress her.
Mae was right, of course, as the albatross rushed over to offer his assistance to the young maiden when someone else beat him to her: the old woman who must have hitched a ride on the giant bird except she wasn't an old woman but another mermaid with golden hair who clung to the blue haired girl who called her mother.
"So 'double' means mother and daughter, huh?" mused Jing with a smile as he bent down and picked something up off the floor.
"What's that?" inquired Maeris as she brushed tears from her eyes.
"A jeweled tear," he replied as he held it up in the sunlight before handing it to her. "Here."
Mae stared at Jing as if he had gone insane. "You're giving it to me? But I thought…isn't this why you came to the Capital of Thieves in the first place?"
"Yeah, but you earned it," he told her. "Consider it a reward for your first successful hit. You're now officially a bandit."
Maeris grinned and took the jewel. "Thanks."
"I don't understand," Cognac was muttering as he struggled up into a sitting position from where the blast had blown him away. "She cried before but her tears never became jewels."
Jing smiled to himself before glancing at Mae. The bandit king nodded at the giant hole they had caused in the side of the lighthouse behind him before turning around and walking towards it with Kir sitting on his shoulder. He stopped right as he reached the opening and stared at the jewel in Mae's hand. "Tears of sadness…tears of joy…they're far from the same."
Jing then grabbed Mae's free hand and the two bandits jumped out of the opening to the street below as Cognac realized he was the King of Bandits.
~ Becoming a Bandit ~
"A ghost ship?" repeated Maeris as they made their way through a market on their way to a place called Blue Hawaii where apparently a ghost ship had been spotted. "Those things really exist?"
"That's what we're going to find out," Jing reminded her as he paused in front of a stand filled with weapons and picked up a long black whip. "Bingo."
Mae raised a golden eyebrow. "A whip? No offense but I don't really think it's your style, Jing."
"Going to try some role playing, are we?" Kir asked, snickering.
"It's not for me. It's for Maeris," Jing told the albatross as he handed the whip to Mae. "I figured since you're a bandit now, you could use your own weapon."
"Are you sure she can even use that thing?" muttered Kir skeptically.
Maeris took the whip from Jing and looked it over. She then cracked it right in front of Kir's face, scaring the crap out of him which made Jing laugh causing Mae to burst out laughing too. How does he keep doing that? It's like him being happy makes me happy. It's almost as if…but that's ridiculous. We're just friends, right?
~ Becoming A Bandit ~
The three bandits arrived in Blue Hawaii a couple of days later to find there was a group of people in front of the police station talking about how the ghost ship had appeared again.
"Great and here I was hoping it wasn't real," Mae grumbled as one of the men demanded to know who the hell they were.
"Oh it's real all right," a weird looking man assured her. "See, lately it's been popping up a lot and it's got everyone scared."
"You guys are too easily frightened," Kir chided them as the sound of gun shots came from the entrance of the station where a girl with short purplish hair in a police vest was holding a gun.
"All right, everyone, time to go home," ordered the girl as she fired off more shots causing the bystanders to scatter like roaches.
"That's one way to break up a crowd," Mae noted as she glanced mischievously at Jing. "Maybe you should have gotten me a gun instead."
"Yeah, no. Not a chance, Maeris," muttered Jing making her laugh as the police girl realized they were still standing there and walked over to them.
"Are you guys deaf?" She demanded as she placed her hands on her hips. "I told everyone to go home!"
"Sorry, but it's impossible for me to walk away from such a beauty even if she is telling us to scram," Kir told her.
Mae made a gagging noise, while the other girl appeared to be flattered as she blushed and waved a hand at him. "Oh, how nice! What an honest little bird you have here!"
Honest and creepy, thought Maeris as Kir told her his name and asked her hers which happened to be Rose. "Not to interrupt this nauseating exchange, but can you tell us how to get to the ghost ship everyone is talking about?"
"That ghost ship has been showing up at the same cape every night. I have been very busy lately, what with all this ghost ship business, and there's also been a rumor going around that the Bandit King is going to be showing up here in Blue Hawaii sometime soon. I'm so worn out!" Rose complained before staring at them wearily. "But hey, why do you ask? What do you think you're going to do?!"
"What do you think?" asked Jing.
"You guys are acting a little too suspicious," Rose declared as she took out a clipboard and pencil. "I'm going to have to file a report! What are your names?"
"I'm Kir!" shouted Kir in a horrible sing-song voice.
"Don't make me ask again," the girl said, ignoring him as she focused on Mae and Jing. "What are your names, you little delinquents?"
"Jing."
"Maeris."
"Jing…Maeris…," repeated Rose as she jotted them down. "What are your jobs?"
"Bandits," they replied together.
"Okay, bandits…what?! Bandits?!" Rose dropped the clipboard and raised her gun. "I'm placing you two under arrest!"
"Could you do it without shattering our eardrums?" inquired Mae as Jing grabbed Kir and raised him in front of them in defense. "I mean, seriously. Your voice could break glass. You'll never get a boyfriend that way."
"Besides, we haven't even stolen anything yet, have we?" added Jing.
"No," admitted Rose. "But you're planning on it, right?"
"And what if we are?" demanded Mae as she reached for her whip but Jing caught her hand and held it down. Maeris stared at him. "What?"
"Not yet," he murmured, still holding her hand. "Unless you really want us to go to jail?"
Mae sighed and shook her head. "Fine but I still say she screeches like a banshee."
Jing smirked. "You and me both."
~ Becoming a Bandit ~
Maeris and Jing followed Rose inside to a room where a man laid in a bed with a blanket drawn up over his face. Apparently he was Rose's father and the chief of the police station. "Hey, chief, it's the bandit. He's given himself up! You're still asleep old man?! Where has all of your pride and spunk as the police chief gone?!"
Rose then pulled the blanket back to reveal a middle aged man whose eyes and mouth were wide open as if frozen in a state of shock.
"What's wrong with him?" inquired Mae.
"He's been like this ever since he came home the other night talking about having seen the ghost ship!" Rose explained as she stared down at her father. "He went to take control of the ghost ship situation, but I think these ghouls somehow stole his soul or something! Hey, come on, wake up and get back to work, Papa, Papa!"
"If they stole his soul, wouldn't he have died?" Jing pointed out.
"You would think so," agreed Maeris. "What would they want from an old man, anyway?"
"I'm not sure," admitted Jing as they turned around and left the station where Postino pulled up on his motorcycle. "Yo, Postino."
"Jing, have you heard?" asked Postino as he stared at him through the visor of his helmet. "It seems that the ghost ship is powered by greed and desire."
"By greed and desire?" echoed Jing as Postino drove away with a thumbs up.
"Those are two of my favorite things in this world!" declared Kir.
"Surprise, surprise," muttered Mae as Jing suddenly froze. "What's wrong?"
"Stop right there, criminals," ordered Rose as she held her gun to Jing's head. "I'm going with you! If you truly are thieves, then I'll be able to catch you in the act."
~ Becoming A Bandit ~
Jing, Maeris, Rose and Kir headed down to the cape where they hid behind a large piece of wood and watched as a weird guy sat on a skeleton boat drinking wine.
"That's a zombie!" proclaimed Rose unnecessarily as she cowered in fear. "A real, live zombie!"
"Don't worry, baby. Kir's here to protect you," soother Kir as he touched one of her hands with his wing.
"Did we really need to bring her along?" demanded Mae.
"She did have a gun pointed at the back of my head," Jing reminded her.
"Yes, but if someone let me use my whip he got me I could have disarmed her," she shot back.
"I don't doubt that," he assured her with a smirk making her punch him in the arm. "Ow, you really are dangerous."
"Oh, shut up," she murmured as she smiled back. "So what are we going to do now?"
"This," Jing replied as he left the shelter and strode over to the zombie. "Hey! Could you by any chance tell me where the ghost ship is?"
The zombie turned around and sneered at him nastily. "A little punk like you isn't allowed on the ghost ship! You have to be at least twenty years old!"
Jing dodged to the side as the zombie shot yellow beams from his eyes hitting the piece of wood instead. "Maeris! Kir!"
"What kind of plan was that?" coughed Maeris as she pulled Rose out of the debris.
"You guys should be more careful," suggested Jing, grinning as Mae chucked a piece of wood at him before joining them. "Yep, you are definitely dangerous."
Mae rolled her eyes. "Don't come over here when he's aiming for you."
"But he stinks of alcohol. You smell much better," the bandit king complained with a wink making Mae throw another piece of wood at him. "Relax; I just came to get Kir."
Jing grabbed Kir and fired a Kir Royale at the zombie causing him to explode in a shower of golden coins that fell into the water creating a trail.
"I have a feeling that these gold coins will lead us to the ghost ship," Kir told them as he turned his head to look at his partner. "Jing, this yellow coin road will vanish if we don't follow it soon."
Jing nodded. "All right, let's go."
"And how do you propose we do that?" inquired Maeris.
"We can ride this thing," replied Jing, pointing at the skeleton boat.
"It's way too big," said Rose. "How do you plan on moving it?"
"I'm going to use my noggin," he told them as he tapped his head. A few moments later he was paddling the boat with the girls seated behind him and Kir perched on the head.
"Any idiot could have come up with this idea," muttered Rose.
Maeris laughed. "Right?"
~ Becoming A Bandit ~
"I can already smell it, the scent of treasure," announced Kir a little while later.
"I think we're almost there," murmured Rose with a shudder.
"Actually, I think we are here," Mae murmured back as the ghost ship appeared out of the gloom before them. "I hate it when I'm right."
"There it is!" cried Rose.
Maeris shushed her. "Do you want the whole crew to know we're here?"
"Actually it looks like they're slacking on posting guards," noted Kir as he flew up to the deck to take a look. "I don't see anyone."
"The guards might be invisible men," suggested Jing.
"I don't think so," replied Kir as he flew back down to them. "The only thing moving is the anchor and its snoring."
"The anchor? Snoring?" they repeated as the anchor shot out of the water, tipping over the boat and sending them into the freezing water.
Maeris tried to swim back up to the surface but skeleton fish were swarming around her. She grabbed her whip to defend herself except there were too many. A few had even grabbed her arms and legs and were starting to pull her down even further.
This is bad. There are too many of them and I'm about to lose the rest of my air, she thought as she spotted something coming towards her…Jing.
Jing swam down to her and knocked the fish away with his hidden blade, allowing Mae to fight back. The two bandits then swam up to the surface.
"You alright?" asked Jing as he pulled her up onto the upturned boat.
"Thanks to you," Maeris replied, coughing up water before standing up and shaking her soaked hair. "What about Kir and Rose?"
"They're fine," he assured her, pointing behind him to where Rose clung to a piece of wood with Kir flying above her. "Right now you and I have to deal with this guy, you ready?"
"You mean am I ready to fight a living anchor that not only snores but can talk as well?" said Mae with a smirk as she cracked her whip. "Hell yeah."
"Dangerous indeed," murmured Jing with a grin. "Alright then, let's go!"
A/N: And there you have it! Thank you all for your patience and support! Mae and I appreciate it! Until next time, read review and show the love!