Well I am finally back after an awful summer working 2 jobs and getting back to classes I am finally back. I promise no more long breaks, there will be regular updates. Much thanks to everyone who's stuck around(ginger) and enjoy.
"All we ever see is water water water!" Nora exclaimed from her post at the top of the mast, where she was currently serving as look out.
"This is the life of us who live on the sea." Max countered from the deck, where he was casually making repairs and modifications to Titan's armor. It had now been nine days since they had set sail, and they had still not heard any word from Scarlet, or the ship he was on. The Crwby continued working on their daily tasks, thought Max had given Ruby the opportunity to steer the ship, giving her teammates a break from her enthusiasm. As Max finally closed Titan's pauldron, and wiped the oil and grease from his hands. He noticed That Allister had approached him and leaned against the wall.
"How much longer do you think it's gonna be captain?" Allister asked, his eyes trained on Yang, who was laboring away scrubbing the deck. Her hair tied up in a ponytail, and her vest removed, as she sweat with effort. Max followed Allister's gaze, and shook his head, chuckling.
"Who can say me hearty. The sea is a vast place and we aren't the only ones moving. If we don't pick them up on the radar or the comms we could never find them." Max answered. Allister sighed.
"I wonder if they'll be able to manage thought. For kids who've never really been on the sea, they've adapted well, but how much is too much?" Allister asked, genuinely concerned for the well being of his friends. Max contemplated his answer, pacing over the deck to look off the railing at the brilliant orange sunset, which lit up the sky.
"I guess we're gonna have to find out. I don't think team SSSN is going to give up the search for their friend any time soon, and the others too big heart to let them continue searching alone." Max shrugged. Allister could tell he was serious as he kept his normal accent, but had dropped the lingo, emphasizing his point. Allister gave an incredulous laugh.
"I guess that's one of the reasons we hang around with them ain't it." He said.
"I guess…" Max responded, staring down into the ocean, admiring each and every wave as it crashed against the hull of the ship. Their monotonous sound was soon broken as the door to below deck opened with a screech.
"Yo! Dinner!" Neptune yelled out to everyone on deck.
"Oh thank GOD!" Nora exclaimed, effortlessly repelling down from her lookout "I'm Starving!" No one tried to stop her as she bounded past Neptune and below deck. The rest of crew laughed and started to pile in for dinner.
"See you inside." Allister commented, trotting after Yang. Max rolled his eyes and walked up towards the bridge to relieve Ruby, and the other navigators. As he climbed the iron steps which lead to the bridge, he stopped suddenly and jerked his head around. A wave of foreboding crashed over him. A life at sea had given him good instincts as to what the ocean might be telling him. Now, the soft splash of the ocean and the blood red sun it reflected sent only one clear message. Trouble. No, I trust these guys. I'm sure we can handle it Max thought, finishing the climb and pressing open the door to the bridge.
"Evening Captain!" Ruby greeted with her general cheery demeanor. Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw both Sun and Ren sigh and fistbump. Max chuckled lightly as he strode over to the helm.
"How's she fair first mate? You two can head down for dinner." Max instructed, causing Sun and Ren to happily depart from the bridge.
"She fit as a fiddle...I think," Ruby chuckled nervously, looking over the machinery and giving Max a less than confident thumbs up. Max smiled, appreciating how cute she looked before the helm, and walked closer.
"Here, I'll teach you." Max offered. Ruby blushed lightly, but her eyes twinkled with excitement.
"That would be efficient." Ruby said, pretending to be Wiess, readying herself to remember. Max just fell forward, dying with laughter. "Hey!" She scolded, her hands on her hips.
"I-im sorry. That was. That was just too good." Max apologized, pulling himself back to his feet. Ruby crossed her arms and pouted a little.
"Pretending to be Weiss is a good way to study though." she mumbled. Max put a hand on her shoulder, and kissed her cheek, forcing her to blush.
"Alright." he said, focusing her attention on the tools in the bridge. "First lesson, the steering wheel." she punched his arm lightly, but relaxed as he laughed and began his explanation.
Below deck, the rest of the crew had gathered in the mess, where Neptune had cooked their meal for the night. Each member of the crew had yet another hearty helping of Allister's massive catch.
"Oh boy! Fish!" Jaune said, laying the sarcasm on unusually thick. The rest of the crew laughed and Neptune sighed.
"Well, I can't get to any of the other food that's within the fridge, until we all get rid of this god forsaken fish." He complained, though secretly he was glad that he had had plenty of practice to become a master fish cooker.
"Well I like it." Nora said, already a quarter of the way through her portion. The crew gathered their meals and sat a the long steel table which had been bolted down. Yang sat down next to Allister, and gently leaned against him.
"Damn." she joked. "You guys were gonna work em to death up there." Popping some fish`in her mouth.
"We need a strong crew." Allister countered, shrugging.
"Maybe not a dead one though." Pyrrha playfully chimed in.
"Well I know one person who seems to be absolutely loving it out here." Yang added. Pyrrha and Allister both rolled their eyes, knowing who she was talking about.
"Who?" They asked, playing along.
"Ruby!" Yang smiled, clearly happy at her sisters happiness.
"She does have an affinity for sailing." Ren calmly noted.
"What she has is an affinity for driving me into the ground." Jaune shook his head. Everyone couldn't help but chuckle at the poor blonde's plight.
"Speaking of, where is she?" Zade asked, his mouth still slightly full of food.
"Manners bro." Allister countered.
"Fight me." Zade challenged.
"She's upstairs with Max." Sun butt in, before Zade and Allister had a slug fest below the deck. Yang whistled provocatively.
"It's finally good that the two of them get some alone time though. They're far too shy to be romantic around others." She said, smiling at her sisters good fortune.
"Well and both of them are so innocent, its hilarious." Zade added. Yang nodded in agreement.
"I wished they'd do more stuff together though. I mean… they do spend a lot of time together, but they like never go on dates or anything. Weird." She added.
"Well I'm sure once they get back home, Max and her will go sailing together, seeing as they both like it so much." Allister reassured her. Yang pretended to sniffle a little.
"My baby sister is all grown up. I just wish Blake and Weiss were here to see it." Yang fake cried. Allister rolled his eyes and stroked her hair.
"You know, maybe we should call Weiss and Blake, see how they're doing." Sun suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Yang perked up. With a quick dial, Yang placed the phone on the table and everyone watched it with anticipation as it rang. However, Blake didn't answer.
"Do you think she's asleep?" Jaune asked.
"Possibly, lets try Weiss." Yang said, tapping her scroll a few more times. The scroll buzzed, trying to reach the heiress. It too failed.
"Damn." Yang said.
"I wonder if Ozpin has them doing something. They might be busy." Sun added, making his own idea of why they weren't answering known.
"Yeah…. Should we try again later?" Yang asked.
"That's probably best." Zade nodded "I don't like this though."
"No, this shit is never good." Allister agreed. The crew stared at the phone, worried about their team. The silence only broken by a loud yawn from Nora.
"As much as I love out friends, and do worry about them. We won't be any good if were tired. I'm going to bed. Night guys." Nora said, standing up and stretching.
"Nora does have a point." Sage agreed. "We don't need captain Max and first mate Ruby to ballistic on us."
"OH god no!" Jaune agreed immediately, to everyone's humor.
"Alright then, let's go to bed. Zade and I will clean up." Allister stated.
"Fucker." Zade shot back.
"Don't test me." Allister threatened. "No go, shoo." The crew started to funnel from the mess hall towards their cabins. Zade and Allister lingered
"What's up?" Zade asked, as the two of them started to clean up from dinner
"I don't know. I just have a bad feeling." Allister answered.
"About?" Zade pressed.
"Darron. He's been gone almost 2 weeks, and we have nothing to find him." Allister said.
"C'mon he can handle himself...and all of us." Zade responded.
"I'd still feel better if we at least knew something." Allister shrugged.
"Something will turn up. I hope for once it's not a corpse, but i'm not exactly optimistic.".Zade joked, making Allister laugh.
"Still, I wish that guy you went to speak with had found some information by now. These people are serious." Allister said. Zade took a moment, remembering his visit to Lionhearts office. Instinctively he reached into his pocket where the coin with the insignia still remained.
"Yeah… let's just focus on what we have for now. I'm sure that sullen asshole will turn up." Allister agreed. The two continued to wash dishes in silence, with breathtaking efficiency. In minutes they had everything cleaned up.
"That's all of it, I'm going to bed." Zade said, giving Allister a lazy wave.
"Alright, tomorrow." Allister said back, turing and walking off to his own room, feeling much better about tomorrow.
Max awoke with a start. Breathing heavily, he glanced up at the front of the bridge, where Titan was dutifully keeping the ship on course. Above the wheel Max saw the bright red clock read, 2:19 AM
"Damn." He mumbled, leaning back. He glanced down as he felt something warm stirring against him. Ruby, totally wrapped up in her cloak, was leaning heavily against him and quietly snoring. Max blushed for a moment before realizing that it was her suggestion that they just stay in the bridge no to wake up any of the others. Her eagerness to learn had caught Max off guard, and he had been teaching her well into the night. Gently, Max lifted Ruby off of him, and carefully placed her on the floor as not to wake. He pushed himself to his feet and gave Titan a slight wave as he made his way to the door.
"Rough night?" Titan asked, cheerfully.
"Just need some fresh air." Max answered, stepping out of the bridge before his mech could say anything else. Max relished the night breeze as it blew past him. He soon found himself walking around the edge of the deck, looking into the black abyss of sea below.
"There's that feeling again." Max thought, the same foreboding sense from earlier washing over him. After nothing happened for a moment he just lay down straight on the deck. "I must've lost my sea legs." Max rationalized. Deciding this was just what he needed, Max closed his eyes and enjoyed the smell of salt.
His moment of reflection came to an abrupt end as the fastest blast of cannon fire just barely reached his ears. Knowing that he couldn't have mistaken that sound for anything, he jumped to his feet.
"That's new." he said. Quite aways from this ship, he saw a small ball of orange fire, traveling across the surface of the sea. Raising his captain's spyglass, Max confirmed his fears. Two ships were ganging up on a third, which seemed to have already suffered heavy damage. Max could see the fires, the cannon shots, and even the crew members shooting at one another. He kept watching, captivated, until he noticed that the ship closest to theirs, had opened its cannon doors.
"Wait…' Max muttered, but couldn't even finish a thought before the cannons, 3 in total, fired towards his ship. Max watched in amazement for a second, before jumping to the side just as a cannon ball slammed into the deck with a loud crack.
"What was that!" Titan yelled over the ship's loudspeakers.
"We are under attack. Sound the alarm, we're going to go help that other ship!" Max yelled back, ducking as a another wave of cannon fire screamed towards them. Luckily, these were all misses. Titan activated the ships alarm system and suddenly loud blaring seemed to permeate every section of this ship. In rest of the Crwby were on deck, both worried, and extremely pissed.
"2:34...it is 2:34 in the morningwhatthefuck" Zade said, his words strinigng together in tiredness. His answer came swiftly as another cannon ball struck the deck, not hurting anybody, and bouncing back into the sea. Everyone stared at the cannon mark in strange awe when Max stared to clap his hands.
"Let's go let's go, battle positions!" Max ordered, spurring his crew to action. Sage, Neptune, Jaune, and Pyrrha, ran below deck, preparing to man the cannons. Ren, Sun, and Ruby, ran to the bridge. Allister called up his dragon's armor, and stood ready to deflect any enemy attacks he could. Nora climbed to her spot on the lookout. Yang and Zade each pulled out their weapons, ready for close combat. Titan left the bridge and jumped over to where Max was. Max did not hesitate to climb inside his machine.
"This is gonna be fun." Allister commented, stretching a little bit.
"Well I just hope we don't sink." Max answered.
"Nah… we're good." Zade smirked, twirling his smg's. Inside Titan, Max pulled up a communication line with the bridge.
"Ruby, full speed until we're up close to that closer ship, than turn the boat on its side so our cannons can go to work.
"Aye aye Captain." Ruby answered, advancing the ship straight towards the battle.
"Ren watch out for any more enemies or gimm. Sun, get into contact with that burning ship, see if they will help us out." Max added.
"Understood." they both answered. Max smiled in satisfaction, his crew more than ready for this battle. He turned at Allister's laughter. His friend had just caught a cannon ball straight out of the air.
"I said fun right? And when do we strike back?" Allister asked, heaving the cannon ball back towards its sender.
"Right now." Max chuckled. "Titan, Broadside loadout." He commanded
"Yes sir!" his Ai replied, going to work. Titan suddenly underwent a shift. Using all of maxes containment dust, Titan disassembled and rebuilt her left arm until it was replaced with a large railgun.
"Yeah… that's a strike." Allister joked, as Max took aim.
"Double burst rounds." Max said, smiling at Allister's joke. A click and a thunk told him that he was ready to fire. The bullets fired in a pop pop rest rest type pattern, leaving just enough delay between shots for Max to effectively shift targets. Max grit his teeth, and continued his onslaught.
Up in the bridge, Sun was dialing his communications equipment, searching for any signal, distress or otherwise, coming from the boat that was under attack.
"C'mon." he growled, nothing but static coming through. He kept switching through channels. He didn't want to tell anyone, but he was both hoping, and not hoping that the ship under attack was Scarlett's. Eventually, he finally managed to grab a voice through the radio.
"Hello? Hello! Is there anyone there. This is a distress call from the Poseidon's glory. We are under attack and need assistance." A woman called through the radio.
"Yes!" Sun cheered, adjusting to the line.
"This is… well we don't have a name. But we are here to help." Sun said, feeling a little awkward all of a sudden.
"That's fine we'll take it. We need you to take out that ship closest to you. Hurry! They're currently trying to board us." the woman responded.
"Got it, on our way." Sun answered, turing towards Ruby and giving her the ok to sail full speed into the battle.
On the Poseidon's glory, Things were a shit show. The crew were using any crates. Or the mast as cover against a hail of assault fire from the two ships. Scarlet desperately pressed his back against one mast as bullets whizzed past him. Tightening his grip around his rifle, He peaked out, and fired back at some of the pirates. His bullets managed to hit one of the enemies, before sheer volumes sent him back to his cover.
'This is not good." Captain Knotty growled, hunkered down about 5 ft from Scarlet. Blood dripped from his shoulder, where a bullet had grazed him. He leaned up with his rifle flush against his shoulder and quickly put a bullet through a pirates skull before diving back down. The Captain and Scarlet locked eyes.
"If we don't get help soon, I think this is the end boy." The captain said, more angry than sad. Just then, the sound of heavy artillery rang out. Within moments the sounds of wood splintering, and men being dismembered flooded from one of the ships. Scarlet looked back at his captain and smiled.
"We're not out of this yet!" He cried, renewed with hope as he turned to fire at more pirates.
Max and his crew had come considerably closer as he continued to level heavy fire, Allister deflecting any return shots. Quickly judging the distance Max smiled, putting away his railgun.
"Zade, you take Yang and teleport to the ship on the far side. Nora, I want to you level this close ship with grenade to cover Allister, and my approach. Ruby, swing us sideways so that the guys down below can start firing the cannons. I want this done clean and quickly." Max ordered, readying Titan's jetpack.
"Aye aye captain." The answered in unison. Zade clapped his hand onto Yang's shoulder, and the two of them instantly vanished.
The crew of the far ship pressed their assault. Most of them stood at the railing, sending waves of bullets down at the Poseidon's glory. They barely notices as Zade, and Yang reappeared behind them.
"Oh this will be easy." Zade shrugged.
"You want to go first?" She joked.
"Please, ladies first." He offered in return, the two of them taking this very lightly. Yang nodded and started at a run to the nearest pirate. He only just heard her footsteps on the deck, when she launched herself at him. She clapped a hand on his shoulder, and used him to push herself up, kneeing him in the face. As she landed she unloaded a round from Ember Celica into his stomach. The unusual sound of her shotgun, finally alerted the crew.
"What the fuck! Who is she?" once pirate yelled.
"Just kill her!" Another one replied, as they started to advance on her, some drawing swords. Yang smirked as they came up from behind her. She spun in place, kicking out with one leg, and catching a pirates. She spread his legs as she fell into a split, uppercuting into his testicles. The pirates legs left the ground and he fell on his face, squirming in agony. Yang popped to her feet as another pirate leveled his rifle at her. She rolled to the side, covering herself with the mast as he opened fire. Yang peaked around the other side of the mast, and used a shotgun blast to disarm him. He stumbled back, his hands singed and in pain. Yang turned again, blocking a sword clearly meant for her head. She pumped two punches into his chest, breaking at least a few ribs, and kicked him away. She jumped forward into a roll, giving her some space, and leading the pirates away from the poseidon's glory. Two pirates foolish decided to double team her, their swords swinging wildly. Yang purposely let them get the upper hand, backing her against the railing of the ship. Predictably, and perfectly on cue, they lunged. Yang jumped up to the railing, and over the two pirates, kicking their backs. They were pushed forward, hitting and flipping over the railing. Yang could hear them curse her as they splashed into the ocean below. Yang casually flipped her hair, and launched herself forward with her gauntlets. She landed and punched through a pirate's sword, sending the shards flying in all directions. Another pirate tried to swing at her from behind. Yang turned and caught his wrist, pulling him forward and using his body as a shield against two more pirates who started to shoot at her. She dropped the pirate to the ground, and jumped over his corpse, sending a volley of blasts at the two, forcing them to duck for cover. Yang's satisfactory smirk was wiped from her face when she felt something hit her side. As she was knocked to the ground she rolled and saw the enemy who had hit her. He scowled at her, weilding a warhammer as opposed to a sword. He spun it in his hand as he advanced on her, a small group of now emboldened pirates behind him.
"Surrender lass. There ain't no way you can handle all of us." He warned, pulling back his hammer, ready to strike.
"Guess we'll see." Yang answered, sounding as cocky as ever, bouncing on the balls of her feet. The large pirate swung his hammer, and Yang barely ducked under it. Her eyes widened as she felt the tailwind of the hammer through her hair.
"Got to be careful with this one I see." she thought, Tapping away his arm and punching high on his ribs. Another pirate saw Yang raise her arm and tried to jam his blade into her ribs. Seeing the attempt in her periphery, Yang dropped her hand to push the blade away before using her other hand to palm straight across the pirate's nose, breaking it. Yang kept a tight grip on him to stop him from stumbling away, as she turned and kicked another pirate in the stomach. Yang pulled the pirate with the broken nose, and pushed off him as the lead pirates warhammer swung again, shattering the pirates head.
"You bitch." He cursed at her, visibly angered that she had forced him to kill one of his own crew. Yang gave him an innocent smile, ducking low to flip a pirate over her shoulder, before punching his face. Before she could stand back up, she had the wind knocked out of her as three pirates tackled her to the ground. She struggled to throw them off, but their combined weight was just to much for her. They pinned her down, and started beating on her mercilessly.
"Good men, hold her steady while I decapitate this harlot." the lead pirate nodded, lifting his hammer.
"Oh boys… I haven't even gotten started yet." Yang warned, her eyes turning red.
"Well we'll never get to see it." The lead said, swinging down with his hammer. Using the strength of her semblance, Yang easily tossed the pirates off of her, and caught the hammer mid swing. Yang stood up, ripping the hammer from the pirates hand as she burned gold. She swung the hammer around, testing its weight.
"Nice!" Yang smirked, slamming the hammer into the pirates chest. The pirate held the hammer against himself, as he staggered back, coughing up blood as his ribs poked out of his back. Yang cracked her knuckles, and turned around, ready to fight more pirates.
As Yang took on what seemed to be the entire crew by herself, Zade walked right up to the captain's quarters unnoticed. He pushed the door open and walked inside. He grabbed his scythes tightly, as the room was pitch black.
"Who are you?" A voice called from the darkness with a raspy sound.
"Just someone here to kill you and take over this ship." Zade said, no emotion in his voice.
"I see… I wish you luck." It responded. Before Zade could respond with anything, he found himself ducking out of the way of a massive cannonball attached to a chain. Already foreseeing the pull back, he teleported out of its reached. His scythes at the ready, Zade stared at the door, waiting for his opponent to appear. The rattling of chains preceded the captain as he stepped out of the quarters. He was roughly as tall as Zade, with lots of muscle. One eye was green, the other a blind white, his hair black, and a massive scar across his throat. He was draped in chains and held a massive cannon ball in each hand. Zade took the initiative, teleporting right in front of the captain, swinging both of his scythes. The captain made no move to block of dodge, and smirked as Zade's weapons bounced off the chains harmlessly.
"Well shit." Zade said, watching the captain raise one of the cannon balls over head. He jumped back just in time to dodge it as it splintered the deck. The captain threw his other cannonball, directly at Zade's head. Zade teleported out of the way, and to the side of the captain. Before he could even take a step, he saw the cannonball turn on a dime and surge toward him again. Zade extended one of his scythes, vaulting over the cannonball.
"That's… pretty cool." Zade shrugged, watching the cannonball return to the captain's hand.
"Thank you. Now die." the captain said briefly, throwing both of his cannonballs again. Zade grit his teeth and jumped side to side, slipping past the cannonballs. He sheathed his scythes and pulled out both of his smgs. He aimed them both at the captain. Before he could even take a shot, he was knocked on his face by the cannonballs returning. Zade pushed himself to his feet, but was quickly smashed back down by the captain. Zade gasped for breath as the solid metal crushed his back against the deck of the ship. He teleported away, and hunched over, throwing up. The captain gave Zade know leave, and lunged at him. Desperately, Zade jumped to the side, landing on his back. He started firing wildly, and though the bullets did no damage. The captain did retreat in caution. Zade got his feet under him, and stumbled a little. He braced himself against the mast with his forearm, weakly using the other one to keep a gun pointed at the captain. Before the captain could make his next move. Zade took the initiative, teleporting into the air before the captain, jamming his knee into the captains jaw. The captains head jerked back, before it fell limp, blood dripping between his lips. Zade felt his feet touched the deck, and pistol whipped the captain across the side of the face, with the stock of his gun. Zade up by slamming both forearms down on the captains head as he brought a knee into his nose. The captain countered, thrusting one cannonball into Zade already injured stomach, before crashing the other one into his temple. The captain, elbowed Zade away, and threw a cannonball. Zade leaned backwards, clearing the cannonball by less than an inch. He switched his guns for his scythes and cut the chain, connecting the ball to its wielder. As he watched the chain fall limp, he smirked.
"Well that might make things a little easier." Zade commented, distracting himself just enough that the captain had wrapped the loose chain around his legs.
"Fuck!" Zade cursed, feeling his legs pulled out from under him and his back landing hard on the deck. The captain tried to reel Zade in, the remaining cannonball poised to attack. Zade rolled onto his stomach, unfurled his scythes and bit them into the deck, gripping on tight. Zade grit his teeth, trying to hold his own as he got pulled away. Eventually, Zade felt his palms slipping down the handles of his weapons. faced with limited options, Zade decided to go for broke. He ripped one of his scythes out of the deck, rolled onto his back, and launched it at the captain. The captain, recoiled in surprise, but wasn't able to dodge in time to stop the blade from opening a gash on his face. In that moment, Zade freed himself from his chain, teleported forward, and buried his other scythe deep into the captains throat. The captain made a gurguling sound as the blood spilled down the front of his shirt and he started to ripped out the scythe, splattering blood all over the deck. Zade looked over at Yang, and the two nodded to one another, before a massive explosion startled them both. They both quickly turned to the massive ball of smoke and flame which arose from the other enemy ship. As the smoke cleared, the aft castle was nowhere to be seen, and Titan was standing on the middle of the deck, 4 different missile tubes extending from its body. Zade took hold of Yang, and teleported the two of them towards Titan.
"Nice shot." Zade complemented upon their arrival.
"I do my best." Max commented. The two of them chuckled, as Zade grabbed Allister, and Max, returning everyone to their ship.
"Well we finally found them." Sun beamed.
"Yes, but if things go as they always do, were far from done." Max answered, watching the bodies float in the oceans waves as the sharks ascended from the deep, smelling blood. MAx couldn't help the feeling that he too would have to face predators of his own.