(A/N Well, dang. It's been almost three months since I last updated. Mostly because I've been busier than I expected to be (Isn't it weird when you suddenly have a life?) but I'm back, and hopefully will be back on schedule from here on out.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets. I just don't. We good? Does that satisfy you? No? ...Well, that's too bad.
Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 5: Familar faces.
As they ascended, Hunter began muttering all of the possible situations that they could be involved in. Jeffory could have sworn he heard Hunter say something about a government conspiracy, but he didn't comment on it. Kendra was obviously frightened and didn't seem to notice she was clutching Jack's arm. Jeffory had his hand on Arrow of Life's handle. As the cold wind whooshed through the holes in the tattered airship, Jeffory noted, with irritation, the eerie howling sound it made just added to the suspense.
Maybe Hunter was right and they had been captured by aliens.
At last, they stopped ascending and Hunter stopped babbling. "Uhh..." Jack started, only to be cut off by Hunter. The kougra's ears were twitching and his claws had extended. "There's someone outside..." he whispered. Jeffory strained his ears to listen as well. After listening for a moment he muttered: "Footprints." getting a nod from Hunter. Kendra let go of Jack's arm and held up her palm, charging it with magic.
Suddenly, voices filled their ears. "How in the hellabit do you OPEN this thing?!" groaned an exasperated voice from outside the room. Jack slightly loosened the grip on his gun, giving the door an odd look. "Hey, that sounds like-" he started, but Jeffory shushed him.
The voices continued. "There should be a switch somewhere," a new, quieter voice said to the first one. "Start feeling up the door!" the new voice commanded. Now there were two things going through Jeffory's mind: Good Lord, did that sound dirty, and those two voices were extremely familiar.
Before Jeffory could try to figure out who the voices belonged to, a loud bang sounded from the other side of the door, causing them all to jump. "I said feel the door, not violate it! Feel! Like you would to that, what's-her-name... Myra!"
In spite of the current situation, Jeffory, Jack and Hunter had to stifle some snickers. He couldn't see her face, but Jeffory was sure Kendra looked disgusted.
Another, much deeper voice responded to the second voice. "Don't make me laugh. If Josh could get Myra to take anything off, unless it was her shoe to hit him in the face, I would seriously eat this katana," the voice said. Josh? Katana? There was no mistaking it; that was the trio he had worked with last year to protect the Academy: Scott, Josh and Tom.
The door opened, revealing said trio. Tom, the tall, shadow techo, was looking at the other two like they were completely insane. After taking his exasperated gaze off of his partners, he looked inside the destroyed airship to see Jeffory, Jack, Hunter and Kendra. Jeffory noted that his eyes seemed to linger on Kendra for a rather long time. He also noticed that Jack saw this, and his eyes narrowed.
Jeffory immeadiately knew things were going to get tense. Jack strutted over to Tom, perhaps he was attempting a swagger. Jeffory thought he looked like he had to make a trip to the restroom. Jack extended his hand to the much taller teen. "The name's Jack! I'm a VERY close friends with Kendra, jus' sayin'," he said matter-of-factly. Tom arched a brow, giving the mynci's hand a disdainful look. "Thanks for the update, Shorty; just means I have no competition," he said smugly. Jack lowered his hand, balling it into a fist. To his left, Jeffory noticed Kendra flush.
Scott Benson, a starry scorchio, quickly made his way over to the two teens currently locked in a stare-down, pushing between them. "Hey, hey, hey! We're all friends here, right?" he asked, looking at both of them nervously. Tom just scoffed and Jack oh, so maturely stuck his tongue out at the techo. Tom took a menacing step towards him, nearly knocking Scott over. "Right?!" Scott repeated, giving Tom a stern look. To Jeffory's surprise, the techo stepped down, even though he could obviously take both Jack and Scott.
Scott made his relief very audiable, before he turned to the rest of the group within the ruined airship. "Hey, guys! Look, I'm really sorry about that little scare earlier, someone-" Scott turned to send a glare at Josh, who was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "-wanted to try out the new claw we got on our ship and I didn't get a chance to tell you guys we were on our way," the scorchio explained quickly. Jeffory shrugged. "No worries, we have a similar person in our team," he responded, grinning at Jack, hoping to cheer the mynci up. To his relief, Jack let out a chuckle.
Scott, keeping a wary eye on Tom, who looked ready to attack Jack on the spot, continued. "Well, we should get out of here, it's a little tight..." he proposed, giving Hunter an apologetic glance when the kougra looked at the floor, miserable. Jeffory nodded, patting Hunter on the back. "Yeah, let's get outta here," he agreed. So, with some difficulty and several curses (courtesy of Jack and Josh) they piled out of the remains of the Air Slasher Mark 2.
The airship they walked into was much different than theirs.
For one, it was HUGE, with many more seats. The ship also had many complicated-looking devices in front of most of the seats. Jeffory couldn't help but get the the impression that this was more of a battleship than a mere transport vessel. On the wall to his right, there was a poster of an attractive female on a motorcycle.
A bikini didn't seem like something a biker would wear while on the road, to be honest.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jeffory noticed there were several doors leading out of the room, unlike Hunter's which didn't even have a bathroom. But despite the differences of the layout, the bridge's design wasn't very different than the Air Slasher's. "Dang..." Jack exclaimed, looking around the large room. Next to him, Hunter mirrored his exact facial expression and movements, clearly impressed. "You're telling me..." he responded, his jaw on the floor.
Josh grinned proudly. "Y'like?" he asked, placing his hands on his hips. Scott smacked him on the back of the head. Josh yelped and clutched his noggin. "Deflate for a minute, Mr. Ego," Scott said to him, getting a dirty look from his friend. Jeffory had to admit, this trio was pretty amusing. Kendra spoke up for the first time since they had gotten on the ship. "Where did you get this ship?" she asked, bewildered, voicing the rest of her team's thoughts.
Scott opened his mouth to explain, but Tom beat him to it. "Commander Larx is quite impressed with our recent work on the missions he's given us," he explained arrogantly. Jeffory couldn't help but notice how quick this guy was to pat himself on the back. Tom continued. "He actually gives credit where it's due and provides for the best students. Something Grey never did," he finished.
Jeffory felt fury rise in the pit of his stomach, but tried his best to think about something other than his anger. Food, video games, that biker chick in the bikini...
Josh however voiced his opinion. "Dude! Talk about no respect for the dead! Commander Grey was cool beans!" he snapped. However, he recoiled when Tom glared at him.
Hunter, desperate to postpone the inevitable confrontation, asked: "Soo... what mission were you guys on?" Fortunately, it worked. Josh turned away from Tom, looking eager to explain. "All the monster dudes have been acting really weird lately, so Commander Larx sent us out to deal with some terrorizing Sea Breeze," he explained. Jeffory, Hunter and Jack all sent eachother alarmed looks. That sounded familiar.
"What were these monsters like, may I ask?" Hunter quizzed, looking quite troubled. Scott spoke up. "It was really weird..." he started, sitting down in the Pilot's seat and typing in a few keys into the GPS and hitting the auto-pilot. "They were REALLY tactical! They fought in groups of several different species! They never do that. And on top of that, the mayor told us they had been attacking the town over and over, doing more damage each time. What's weird is that before this year they stayed far away from it," he explained, perplexed.
"Hey, we had the same problem with some monsters attacking Altador last year! They were all super tactical and their attacks were co-ordinated..." Jack told the trio. Hunter spoke up. "Our mission was to take out a monster that was supposed to be long dead. The monster activity around towns and cities has been crazy..." he sighed, trailing off. They all sat in silence, pondering these strange happenings in their heads.
Talking about Altador made Jeffory think of Rich, Grey's brother. Jeffory wondered how the kind draik he had been over the past year. He had helped them out a couple of tight situations, the least they could do was pay him a visit. With that, Jeffory fell into a somewhat comfortable silence, taking a seat and leaning back against the headrest.
About an hour-and-a-half passed.
Jeffory kept his difference from Tom. Not like he could make conversation with him if he wanted to; the techo was all over Kendra. He was flirting shamlessly with her, and to Jeffory's surprise, Kendra's responses were equally flirtatious. Jack was sulking in his chair, occasionaly scowling at the two. Hunter was marveling the airship which was named "The Ares". Scott was flying the ship, while answering questions from said kougra. The loud snores coming from Josh's chair indicated that he wasn't available for conversation either.
Jeffory couldn't help but feel bad for Jack; he couldn't imagine it was fun watching the girl you liked be all over a jerk. To be honest, Jeffory thought to himself, he did this to himself. Jack really should have made a move faster. Jeffory had no clue why he didn't, though; Kendra obviously returned his affections.
Or she used to, at least.
Looking over at his friend, he saw the mynci look at the two, his irritated expression changed to one of pain, like he knew he had lost his chance. Jeffory decided to cheer up his pal and got up, walking over to him and taking the empty seat next to him.
"Hey," Jack said to him, trying to fake his usual cheerful attitude but failing. "Hey, man," the kyrii responded. With a smirk, Jeffory looked over at Tom and Kendra and made a loud gagging sound. They stopped their interactions for a moment to look at him. When they did, he pounded his chest and cleared his throat, passing his sound effects off as a simple frog-in-the-throat. Either he was a really good actor, or the two didn't give a hoot. Either way, they returned to their "conversation".
Jeffory and Jack looked at eachother and broke down laughing.
After they calmed down, Jeffory looked at Jack with a serious expression. "Don't worry about them, man." Jack looked over at him. "Is it that obvious?" he asked, looking humiliated. "Well, you kinda look like a dogglefox who just got kicked..." Jeffory joked, getting a weak chuckle from his friend. "Yeah... But how can I not worry? I mean, they're all..." he made a lovey-dovey face, and Jeffory snickered. "She only likes him cause he's got the bad boy act going on. Other than that, he's got nothing going for him." When Jack didn't look convinced, Jeffory added: "She'll come around eventually." After a moment, Jack nodded, giving him a look of gratitude.
The two sat making idle conversation, most of it surrounding the dance and how Jack could find ways to ask Kendra to it before Tom did. Soon enough, the conversation switched over to Jeffory's girl problems. His nervousness around girls wasn't as bad as before, but he still got nervous when the time came to ask one out. The only girl he wasn't ridiculously nervous around was Kendra, who was more like his sister than anything else.
Half-an-hour later, the Ares pulled into the Academy's hangar. There, Jeffory's team was met by a very worried Jake, who ran over to them as soon as Jeffory's head had emerged from within the very large airship. "Jeff!" he greeted, sounding extremely relieved. "Hey, Jake! Sorry to keep you waiting," Jeffory said, once the floor stopped shaking. "Ah, no worries little guy, I'm just glad you're all still in one-piece," he responded with a toothy smile. "Ol' Larx would have my head if somethin' happened to his students." After a moment, Jake scoffed: "Or should I say, his reputation," he corrected himself bitterly.
Jake was usually fond of almost everyone he came into contact with. If Jake didn't like someone, they were obviously bad news.
Jeffory wondered if it would look bad if Jake "accidentally" stepped on Larx...
"Hey, Big Guy!" Jack greeted the massive grarrl, fist-bumping the giant. Jeffory couldn't help but laugh as Jack recolied, holding his arm in pain. "Sorry 'bout that Jack, sometimes I just don't know my own strength!" he told the pained teen, who just squeaked in response.
Scott's team, along with Kendra and Hunter, piled out of the Ares. After greetings (and back-breaking hugs) were exchanged, Scott turned to Jeffory. "Hey, Jeff!" Scott said, getting the kyrii's attention. "Yeah?" "Let's both report to Commander Larx, since we've returned from our missions," he told Jeffory, who nodded. "Yeah, alright," he agreed, even though he'd rather not have to look at Larx's arrogant face again that day.
Scott told his team to help the others get the remains of the Air Slasher out of the Ares. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a remote control, probably for the Ares, and tossed it to an eager Josh, only to have it intercepted by Tom. "You'll break it," the techo said to him curtly, getting a whine from Josh, who hung his head but nodded.
A very amusing team indeed.
(A/N I enjoyed writing this chapter, getting to add some more situations the character's lives. Anyway, please leave a review telling me what you think and I'll see you all again next week. And also! Thanks to the reader who favorited this story; makes me glad to see that somebody's enjoying it!)
LaDude out.