Belay the disclaimer, I had one at the start of the damned story. Prepare for ye swashbucklin'!
Sonic Junior ran up the wall, lasers ricocheting just behind his feet, and launched himself at a pirate, delivering a super-speed punch that knocked him out- leaping off him, he took out another with a spinning kick and jumped over another burst of fire. But when he landed, he found himself against the wall, with pirates on every side…
"HHUUARGH!!!"
Suddenly half a dozen pirates were knocked across the room, several into their shipmates, by a massive swing of Crusher's huge wrench. The grease-covered, irate echidna ran out from the maintenance doorway and brought his makeshift yet effective weapon to bear. "Nobody messes up my baby! Nobody!"
Junior smiled and zipped up next to Crusher. "All right! Shall we?"
Crusher growled at the apprehensive yet regrouping pirates. "Let's get 'em."
Sonic Junior and Crusher charged together at the pirates, howling a battle cry as they unleashed their power- Junior's incredible velocity and Crusher's powerful strength. Junior leapt at individual pirates, striking their weak spots in a flurry of kicks and punches, while Crusher swang his oversized wrench around, knocking them in every direction. Then as the pirates regrouped near the airlock, Crusher opened the wrench, Sonic Junior spin jumped into its titan-adamantine claw, and Crusher began to whirl it around…
Then, like an Olympic athlete's gold medal throw, Crusher hurled Sonic Junior at the group of pirates, knocking them around like bowling pins and sending most right back into their ship. Junior jumped back from the mess and high-fived Crusher.
Sabre released his pent-up confusion and frustration in some good ol' fashioned gunplay as he spared no ammo at the waves of pirates. Amelia seemed to have seriously underestimated the number of the pirate crew, but they were also equipped with primitive personal force fields which protected against stray and glancing shots. Unfortunately for them, Sabre was no amateur marksman, and plenty had already fallen to his deadly energy bolts.
However, focusing on all offence left Sabre vulnerable, which he realised only when a shiny device was thrown at him and stuck to the shoulder strap of his belt.. Quickly deducing that it was a grenade of some sort, Sabre barely had time to tear off his well-stocked, highly explosive ammo belt and throw it in the direction of the pirates before it went off…
Sabre opened his eyes a few seconds later. Quickly checking himself, he found that the Kevlar-X vest he wore under his shirt had just managed to protect him from major injury, though it had been destroyed in the process. In front he could see a heavily blackened and smoking corridor, indicating the grenade had indeed set off a chain reaction in the energy capsules on his ammo belt, causing them all to explode and hopefully take out a number of the pirates in the process. Getting up and instinctively reaching for a weapon, Sabre found that his pistol and sword was missing, his other holster had been blown off, his submachine guns were nowhere to be seen, and even his backup pair of knives and harpoon pistol had disappeared.
The Sabre was unarmed.
That alone was reason to panic. Sabre had a natural amazing talent with all weaponry- but was pathetic when completely unarmed. He feared being unarmed like Sonic feared water, and for a similar reason- Sonic couldn't swim. The Sabre couldn't fight unarmed.
The normally fearless warrior hoped to whatever deities there be that he had taken out all of the pirates anyway with the sacrifice of his ammo belt as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around. Just as he sighed in relief, he froze as heavy footsteps could be heard from behind. Convincing himself to turn around, hoping it was just Crusher or someone, he looked back and saw, to his horror, a heavyset, scarred grey-furred canine pirate trudging towards him, growling. Sapped of his courage by his vulnerable state, Sabre turned and ran, frantically looking for something, anything to use as a weapon… then as he spotted Vulpis' lab, hopefully containing plenty of potential (if unusual) weaponry, something slammed into his back and sent him flying forward.
Meanwhile in another part of the ship, Captain Blackwing had three of his best men accompanying him as he trod through the halls, looking for the wretched captain of this ship. Even as an explosion rocked the ship, he barked to his bodyguard "Keep yer wits about ye! That damned insolent wench is around here somewhere!"
Nodding, the three cautiously led their captain down the hallway leading to the bridge- the last place Captain Thorn could be hiding. Then suddenly a turret gun popped out of each wall and blasted rapid fire at the pirates, who were caught unaware and barely managed to return some wild shots before being knocked down by the shots. Blacking roared and opened fire with his heavy gun, blowing up each of the turrets- then a shot from down the hallway went right into the barrel of Blackwing's gun and caused it to explode in his hands.
As Blackwing was cooling his hands (the armour gauntlets he wore had protected him from serious injury) a figure stepped down the hallway darkened by the failing lights. As it came nearer to the pirate Captain, it became clear it was Captain Amelia Thorn, holding a small, elegant duelling pistol in one hand. She remained cool and calm as she sheathed her pistol, and looked Blackwing right in the eye. "By the Anti-Piracy Decree of the Solar Confederation, I claim full right to use whatever force I deem necessary to neutralise the pirate threat to free interstellar travel, for all legal intents and purposes."
As Blackwing growled, Amelia drew a rapier that matched the pistol from her belt, and flipped a small switch which made the long thin blade glow with golden energy. "But for the sake of the old formalities, I'll let you try and match me with blades."
"Hah!" said the sparrow as he pulled out and activated his energy cutlass. "You're more full of it than any space captain I've ever beaten!"
Unperturbed, Amelia moved into a fencing pose. "En guarde, pirate." Said the captain…
The Sabre pulled himself to his feet once more, to find himself inside Vulpis' lab. He quickly turned around-
-to find himself face to face with the snickering pirate. As he began quickly looking for a weapon, the pirate grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. On reflex, Sabre punched the pirate in the chest- it hurt. It hurt Sabre that is. "Ow." He said as he withdrew his sore fist.
This was enough to make the pirate laugh out loud, so much that he let go of Sabre, who scrambled back. Then the pirate was hit by a small projectile, and suddenly lurched and shook as if electrocuted, then fell to the floor unconscious. Looking back, Sabre saw Vulpis holding the other end of a taser dart, a helpless look on her face. Sabre avoided her eyes as she slid his pistol over to him, and he said "Let's go." Without emotion as he took it and left to assist the others, Vulpis following behind.
Sabre and Vulpis ran into the hall junction to meet Sonic Junior and Crusher, who had run back from the airlock to check on their shipmates. Briefly shocked at Sabre's blasted appearance and uncharacteristic quietness, they all then wondered what had happened to their Captain- and where the pirate captain had disappeared to…
Their first question was answered a moment later when Amelia leapt back and landed in the middle of them, sword drawn, and the second when Blackwing followed after, and the two blades met in a furious flash of swordplay as they steadily moved back toward the airlock. The Star Thorn's crew were hesitant to intervene in the whirl of blades.
Then there was a flash, and Blackwing's scimitar went flying into the air, and landed clattering on the floor behind Amelia. The disarmed sparrow stepped back as he faced an iron-willed Captain Amelia Thorn, backed up by Sonic Junior looking ready to go, a wrench-brandishing Crusher and Sabre wielding a pistol and a dark look. Looking back to his beaten and demoralised crew, Captain Blacking made the decision to retreat. "This isn't over!" he shouted as he ran back into his ship and sealed the airlock, and the pirate vessel detached itself from the Star Thorn and escaped into hyperspace.
Some time later, a navy vessel had caught up with the Star Thorn and while Amelia was talking with the government officials, soldiers were carting off the pirates that hadn't managed to escape the Star Thorn in time and Sonic and Crusher were enthusiastically reporting the events to the other naval Marines, Sabre sat silently in the lab/medical bay as Vulpis patched up his injuries.
Vulpis felt awkward around Sabre who was avoiding eye contact and was quiet, a stark contrast to the loudmouthed, jolly gunner she had seen of him before. "You know…" said Vulpis, "You fought really bravely before, and…" she fell silent.
"Yeah." spat Sabre. "'Til I get my gun knocked outta my hands, and I turn into a coward. I'm just like any other moron- when I've got a gun I feel like I'm invincible, take it away and I'm just as pathetic as any other punk in this universe."
Vulpis was shocked. "Well… haven't you ever tried learning martial arts, or something? You learn so fast, I'm sure you could if you set your mind to it…"
Sabre looked like he was going to retort with something, then stopped. He then looked thoughtful. "You know…" he began. "Before I was frozen, back when I hanged with Sonic and his crew, and my old buddies, I never thought more than about thirty seconds into the future. I lived for the moment, and I was pretty sure I'd be dead before I got old enough for anything to really matter anyway." He paused. "Huh. The irony."
He then turned to Vulpis. "It's weird, y'know… I've barely been on this ship for a week, and I can already call it my home. I used to barely ever sleep in the same place for two nights in a row. I guess… things change. I can't go on being the mad gunner forever."
Vulpis chuckled slightly. "I guess not." Said the fox.
Sabre smiled. "I guess I've been… just so messed up for all these years. Angry. Upset. But all the people I met… the friends I made… they started to help me, to change who I was. I guess I became something of a hero. Maybe I should start living up to that. I've got to… start facing my fears, instead of just ignoring them…"
Vulpis was listening, and seemed quite surprised, but couldn't think of anything to say. "…what do you mean by that?" she finally asked.
Sabre smiled at her. "Well for starters… I think I need to hit the weights or something. No offence, but I'm tired of hitting like a girl."
WHEW! Finally, after so much procrastination I get this done in a midnight spree! Sonic fans, the Sabre is BACK, and with a vengeance!
The next chapter I'll FINALLY leave Sabre out of the picture for a moment as the story will revolve around Sonic Junior- and a mysterious new face…