"What kind of pirate group calls themselves the Spider Lilies? Sounds fucking girly to me."
"That's because the captain is a girl."
"Oh . . ." Karkat looked at the intimidating fire nation pirate ship that was speeding towards them. His phone went off indicating a message.
hey frozen fi2h prince told me that you're travelling the world for 2ome rea2on but won't tell me why
NOT A GOOD TIME. GETTING ATTACKED BY PIRATES, I'LL TELL YOU LATER.
pirate2 what?2o you're 2eriou2ly travelling the world right now? why?
WHAT PART OF 'GETTING ATTACKED' AND 'I'LL TELL YOU LATER' DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?
The water bender put his phone away and ignored the next notification as another canon was fired. The projectile would have hit them if Rose had not bent the water to push their boat to the side as much as possible. The canon just ended up scraping the side of their boat along with making many people fall over from the sudden movement. A third fired and it was aimed at the middle of the ship. Moving the boat wouldn't help so Rose brought up a large body of water and streamed it upwards to the canon's trajectory while freezing it. The canon was gently rolled to the side from following the water's frozen trail and landed in the water. The sentries and crew stared at Rose in amazement as she put the water back into the ocean.
The pirate's ship soon zoomed in until they were beside their ship and a bunch of the pirates jumped over to attack. The first thing the Avatar noticed was that all the pirates were teenagers. The simple crew members went to go hide as the sentries fought the bandits. Karkat saw that a few of them were in a perfect row so he pulled a large stream of water from the right side of the boat, hit the row of pirates and knocked them over the left side. Lucky for them, all of the pirates were non-benders so it was easy for the sentries to take care of.
Well it was until an extremely skilled fire bender jumped over and began knocking the sentries overboard. Karkat decided to confront the female fire bender, he whipped water towards her and the girl easily dodged while laughing. A playful glint from her eyes shone from behind her glasses as she easily approached Karkat and he was found on his ass seconds later from barely dodging a flaming punch. The fire bender jumped up and kicked downwards towards Karkat with fire flaring down towards him. The water stream that he brought up as a shield quickly evaporated before he could turn it to ice. A very thick ice shield rose around him and only half of it was melted through. Both him and the fire bender looked to their right to find Rose in a ready position. The pirate grinned and headed straight for Rose with a new passion. The battle was intense yet beautiful with the two elements clashing as the two danced around each other. The two came to a standstill when the fire bender's kick was blocked yet again with Rose's arms up. The ice armlets that she had made all melted.
"Well don't you look familiar," the pirate stated as she backed away and stood proudly with arms crossed. She raised her arm and the rest of the pirate crew stopped fighting.
"Don't remember yet Captain of the Spider Lilies? Must have been because you missed the last banquet," Rose stated.
Vriska's brows furrowed for a minute before a grin appeared, "No way, it's prissy Lalonde!"
Rose stood casually and sighed, "It's nice to see you too Serket."
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up you know a pirate?" Karkat asked utterly confused as he stood up. This girl who was probably his age was the pirate captain?
"Yes and so do you."
Vriska looked over to Karkat and walked over with a raised brow. She circled him before inspecting him closely. Karkat got annoyed and lashed some water at her. She quickly jumped back with a smile of realization.
"Crabby Karkles!"
The annoying nickname hit him straight on and an image of a young girl wearing glasses that loved to bully the others appeared in his mind, "Vriska?"
"Haha no way! What are you two doing here!" Vriska put an arm over Rose's shoulder while everyone else looked at them oddly.
"Travelling of course. I had hoped we wouldn't run into you," Rose explained.
"Aw why not prissy? Don't like me that much?" Vriska motioned towards the White Lotus sentries, "What's with the stiffs?"
"Protection of course."
"From what, me?"
"If only," Rose shrugged off Vriska's arm.
"Aren't these guys part of that Avatar protection group thingy," Vriska's eyes widened when she looked back at Rose, "No way, don't tell me you're the Avatar."
Rose smirked before giving Karkat a quick glance, "Would you like to find out?"
"Sounds like a plan," Vriska stated as she stepped back and cracked her knuckles, "Everyone just watch alright. This is a one on one ladies match."
"Ugh there goes the captain again. When she finds an interesting opponent nothing can stop her," one of the crew mates lowered their weapon and complained.
"It's alright. They won't bother us after this match," Rose tried to reassure the sentries.
"Hey now who said that? I came over here on full intentions of robbing this ship now ya know."
"Well that's if you can beat me," Rose took a ready stance.
"It's a deal," Vriska's grin widened and she took the first attack.
Rose easily countered and had water surround her arms to use them as whips. All the blasts of fire Vriska sent at her were quickly put out. The match looked more ferocious when the pirate captain moved closer and turned the battle into close combat. Limbs barely missed each other as the girls attacked. That damn smile never leaving the pirate's face.
"Come on prissy, show me your Avatar moves. Bend some fire or air! Show me!" Vriska taunted as her attacks became more powerful. It was amazing how Rose could keep up with her.
Neither girls would back down, they were both equally matched and after a while both were beginning to tire out. Rose kept glancing at Karkat every now and then and the boy had no idea why. He was worried that if she kept getting distracted then Vriska might land a deadly hit. What was Rose playing at anyways, pretending to be the Avatar?
Vriska noticed how Rose kept glancing at Karkat and used that to her advantage. She turned and blasted some fire towards the defenseless boy and Rose quickly sent water around to stop it. After distracting Rose, Vriska took the chance to punch Rose in the stomach and the scholar doubled over.
"Hey that's playing dirty!" Karkat lashed some water at the pirate who jumped away with a laugh.
"Oh what Karkles wants a turn now? Even after getting your ass handed to you before?" Vriska quickly ran up to Karkat and kicked him in the chest. He stumbled backwards a bit but stayed standing up.
"Huh you managed to stay standing, kudos to that but that won't help you if we're playing with fire!" Vriska began twirling and making some round house kicks towards the boy, fire flaring from her feet. He tried his best to douse it with water as her attacks continued to bombard him. One attack caused him to jump back quite a bit and that's when he decided that he had enough of this girl's taunting. He attempted to do the same stance he did when he had a match with Eridan and with the turn of his body he made a fist.
Nothing happened.
"Haha what are you trying to do Karkles?" Vriska zoomed in close, startling Karkat, and making him fall backwards. She threw her head back and laughed, "I didn't even do anything that time and you're on your ass again!"
"Shut up!" with an outstretched palm he lashed his right arm towards her as if attempting to swat her away. A large wave of flames appeared and flew towards her. She quickly cut through the middle even though she was surprised and looked at the out of breath Avatar with shock.
"You? It's you? Mister Crabby is the one that's supposed to keep the peace in this world?" the pirate broke out into hysterical laughter, "Wow this world is practically doomed then!"
"Wow you're still the same bitch as ever," Karkat grumbled as he stood up. He looked over to Rose who was surrounded by the sentries.
"Hm you look like such an amateur though," Vriska tapped her chin before an idea hit her, "Okay how about this. I don't rob you now and let you go and learn fire bending properly, which is probably what you were going to do, and then the next time we meet we'll have a proper match mister Avatar."
"Fine then it's a fucking bet."
"Better yet, go learn the rest of them. You'll need aaaaaaaall the elements if you want to beat me or else next time not only will I be robbing your ship but I will sink it too. Maybe take a few of the crew. I'm always looking for deck swabbers and people are pretty high cost on the market too."
"Fine! But if I win you have to disband your stupid pirate group and turn yourself in to the authorities!"
"Hah you sound pretty confident that you'll beat me but alright, it's a bet," the pirate gave him a playful smirk.
"What the fuck happened to you. I knew you were terrible but not this bad. If I remember right you were even supposed to join some sort of justice thing with Terezi."
The fire bender's eyes narrowed upon hearing the name, "Well you remembered wrong. Don't provoke me or I will sink your ship right here and now."
Karkat stayed silent but glared at her anyways. Her smirk soon returned before she waved her crew to leave, "Until next time then Avatar! At least try to impress me when we meet again."
The pirates all sneered at them before jumping back to their ship. Vriska stood at the back of her ship as it departed and she shouted out to them, "Remember that the Spider Lilies are not one to mess with! See you soon prissy and crabby!"
"Fucking spidery assed UGH. She's worse than I remember!" Karkat let out a little rage fest before going over to Rose, "Hey you okay?"
"With a little rest I'll be fine. She packed quite the punch but nothing is broken. Being a barbarian has done wonders to her physical strength."
"That was a dirty move."
"She's a pirate."
"Why the hell did you keep looking at me anyways? You practically gave her that opportunity to trick you like that," Karkat frowned. He let Rose use him as support to get up. The sentries left Rose to Karkat as they got the ship back in order to continue their journey.
"I was wondering if you would do anything. I feigned as the Avatar after all. I expected you to say something at least. But alas my judgement was wrong for once."
"Well that was stupid of you."
"Yes I'm the stupid one. Thank you for clearing that up all wise and knowing Avatar. Let's not save the girl that is fighting the pirate and just stand there as a bystander and do nothing about it."
"Alright alright I get it god," Karkat complained until Rose winced and held her stomach, "I should've helped you . . . sorry."
"I distracted myself, there is nothing to be sorry about. But if it makes you feel better then you can make it up to me by attending your lessons that you were trying to hide from today. Bending practice appears to have been already covered for the day thanks to Vriska."
Karkat sighed as he help Rose to a cabin in the ship, "Well it definitely made today more interesting. Back to the boring as fuck days now I guess."
"If you actually paid attention to your lessons then it wouldn't be all that boring. History can be quite interesting you know and it is good to know the history of the previous Avatars."
"I know enough."
"Alright then you can tell me the names of the Avatars starting from the one that reappeared after a century of there being no Avatar."
"Psh that's easy. Aang is the one that reappeared, Korra after him . . . . ."
"See you only know the popular ones. So between Korra and the Dolorosa you have no idea do you."
"Sh-shut up," they reached their lesson room and Karkat sat her down before sitting across from her, "Hey before we start, mind telling me how the fuck Vriska became a pirate? Wasn't she supposed to be a normal fire nation city girl? Well as normal as a bitch can get. I thought she was close friends with Terezi and together they were going to join the military or something."
"Her mother was a pirate that left her behind to do what pirates do. Yes she was good friends with Terezi but something happened. Someone asked her at the last banquet but she didn't tell anyone. She avoided the subject entirely," Rose began to look through the papers in front of her to sort the lesson, "Obviously something happened between the two and then Vriska decided to go and create a band of her own to see if she could find her mother."
"Huh that explained why she glared at me when I said Terezi's name. I'll go get you some water," Karkat got up and left when he noticed Rose kept clearing her throat a little too much. Out in the hall he remembered about his phone and read the text from Sollux.
man iit'd be hiilariiou2 iif iit wa2 VK attacking you
IF VK IS VRISKA THEN YES LAUGH IT UP. WE GOT ATTACKED BY HER. THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN FUCKASS.
whoa 2eriiou2ly? Ii wa2 ju2t kiiddiing
WELL YEAH SHE ATTACKED US OKAY
and your 2hiip ha2n't 2unk yet? what happened?
I MADE A BET WITH HER THAT IF I BEAT HER IN A MATCH THE NEXT TIME WE MEET SHE HAS TO DISBAND HER STUPID SPIDER LILIES AND TURN HERSELF IN. IF I LOSE THEN SHE SINKS MY SHIP, KIDNAPS SOME CREW AND PROABABLY WILL ATTACK MY HOME TOWN.
wow 2he'2 pretty 2trong you know you thiink you can beat her after you're done wiith your ob2cure a2 hell iinternatiional 2tudiie2?
IS THAT WHAT ERIDAN CALLED IT
yeah am ii wrong?
NO YOU'RE RIGHT THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES. SO WHEN I FIND YOU I'M KICKING YOUR ASS.
diid ED a2k you two do that?
YES BUT I'M KICKING YOUR ASS OUT OF MY OWN VOILITION
ooooo KK know2 how two u2e fancy word2
FUCK YOU
whatever dude have fun on your trip and good luck on trying to fiind me
Karkat told himself that he was definitely going to find that scrawny little earth citizen and find out where he was from so he could let Eridan annoy the guy for him.
"Finally land!" Karkat exclaimed as he got onto the small dock their ship stopped at. They had spent another two weeks on the boat before finally reaching a small fire nation island. Karkat liked how he didn't need his winter coat either and how he was able to wear his sleeveless water tribe outfit. He felt like he had more freedom until Rose began ordering him around.
"Now time to find your teacher," Rose started walking ahead. Karkat followed and so did a few sentries.
"Hey do they have to follow us?" Karkat never really liked adults so having a bunch of them follow him around was nerve wracking.
"It's a small island so they shouldn't have to. I'll talk to them," Karkat left Rose to that as he looked around. People really liked red in this place like how his nation liked blue. It was a nice change but seeing so much red was somewhat unnerving to him as well.
Rose came back to his side and he looked back to see the sentries head back to the boat, "So you have a fire bending teacher in mind for me already?"
"Yes, you hate being taught by adults right? I have someone in mind to teach you. It's up to him and you if you can be teacher and student though. My cousin can be a bit unusual in his decisions."
"Cousin? You have a fire bending cousin?"
"Yes and a fire bending sister and my cousin has an earth bending brother. Multicultural families must be quite fascinating to you. Also, you have met all these three that I'm talking about before."
"Sorry I can't remember them because I missed the last banquet," he stated flatly.
"It's alright. I'm sure that once you meet them you will remember," Rose smiled at him before proceeding.
The two walked through the quaint village to find the so called cousin of hers. She asked for directions to the sword smith as Karkat surveyed the terrain. Just beside the small village was a large forest with a mountain behind it. The scenery was quite nice.
"Be careful boy. Even though the forest looks pretty there have been legends of kidnapping behind it. Many people have disappeared from that forest and the tales say it is a witch who stows them away under the mountain," an old lady suddenly spoke beside him and Karkat jumped back with a yelp. The lady just cackled at him before walking off.
"Don't worry about that Karkat. That is a very old legend and not even a legend at all," Rose explained and led him in a different direction, "A long time ago a water bender posed as a villager here and kidnapped the villagers. She held them like prisoners under the mountain because she used to be a prisoner to the fire nation. It all happened during the crazy fire nation's time so nothing should happen now if anyone were to venture in the forest now."
"Key word here being should," Karkat air quoted.
The two walked until they were a little bit outside the village where a sword smith was. Who even uses swords in this modern day and age? Out in the front was a blonde man with strange spiked shades that was swinging a sword, inspecting it, and swinging it again. He looked up when he heard footsteps approaching.
"Whoa no way, Rose?"
"Hello Dirk it's been a while."
The man quickly earth bended three seats and a table, "Sit sit, I'll get some snacks."
Rose sat casually while it took Karkat a few seconds to blink and stare in awe before sitting. That was obviously the earth bending cousin. The man came back merely seconds after leaving with three drinks and a plate of brownies.
"Here have some, they were gifts from Jane and Roxy," Dirk put the plate before them and sat down. Karkat noticed he was wearing an earth nation outfit.
"Oh how lovely," Rose immediately dug in. Karkat just stared at the plate.
"So what brings you to the fire nation?"
"We're finding a fire bending teacher for my friend here. You remember Karkat don't you? We were hoping Dave would teach him since Karkat does not train well under the guidance of adults."
"Yeah I remember. Karkat the crabby kid. Missed you last banquet," Dirk extended his hand towards Karkat and he took it.
"Yeah well family issues."
"Hah Dave a teacher? That would be a sight to see. But I thought this guy was a water bender."
"He is," Rose smiled and took a sip of her drink.
Dirk rubbed his chin in thought as he looked at Karkat with examining eyes. Well one couldn't tell really with those ridiculous looking shades but Karkat could feel his gaze.
"Huh well the Avatar can be anyone I guess," Dirk shrugged and sat back casually, "Dave just went to the market to buy a few things. He'll be back soon."
"I just hope he agrees. It would be hard to find another good young fire bending teacher," Rose brought the cup back up to take another sip but a loud bang was heard and her cup shattered to pieces.
"Shit," Dirk cursed before earth bending a wall behind Karkat that blocked off some more bullets, "Jake stop! Not today!"
"Oh come on now old chap! You're always in the mood for a surprise attack- oh you have guests," a tan and dark haired man with sparkling green eyes peeked around the wall of earth. His outfit appeared to be half earth nation and half fire nation. It was a somewhat odd look but for some reason it suited him.
"You okay Rose?" Dirk asked as he picked up the pieces of the broken cup.
"I'm alright," Rose water bended the juice out of her outfit and onto the ground.
"Oh dear I'm so sorry madam!" Jake apologized as he put his guns back into the holsters on his sides.
"Are you crazy!? What if you actually shot her!?" Karkat shouted at the man. Jake flinched and stepped back.
"Hey hey it was an accident, she didn't get hit so it's fine right Rose?" Dirk looked at Karkat over his shades and his intimidating orange eyes shut him up as Rose nodded.
"Whoa what's with the commotion," a new voice appeared. The group turned to see a blonde boy wearing round shades and a fire nation outfit holding a couple of bags.
A flood of memories being taunted by a cool kid wannabe filled his head. Two words appeared in Karkat's head as soon as he saw the boy.
Insufferable Prick.