Part 2 baby!
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"This means someone is talking."
'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'
This means it's a flashback.
*This means it's a sound effect!*
{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}
Froppy's Swashbuckling Adventure!
It had been a couple hours since the beginning of the search for the smugglers and Tsuyu was feeling the tension. No one on the ship spoke a word as one crewman swept the spotlight back and forth along the horizon while she and Sirius peered out with binoculars.
Her face felt sore from her constant squinting, the darkness of night making it difficult to pick anything out on the ocean.
Too bad that night vision was one of the few froggy traits that her quirk hadn't gifted her with.
"I can't see a thing right now." She said in a low grumble. "Nothing on the radar yet either."
"Don't worry. With the captain on our side, it's only a matter of time before we find these guys." Sirius assured her.
"Attention all hands!" Mick, the helmsman's voice echoed over the PA, grabbing their attention. "We've just received word from the coast guard that a small fishing boat was spotted heading in our direction!"
At that moment, a geyser of water exploded on the starboard side. Selkie's large form soared through the air and landed on the deck.
"Captain!" Sirius exclaimed in relief while he took off his goggles and faced them.
"I've located the stowaway's fishing vessel not far from here! Shut off the lights and get ready, we're going in close!" He ordered.
"Aye aye sir!"
Not even ten minutes later, the helmsman had spotted their target, a small commercial fishing boat. From where she was standing, Tsuyu couldn't see anyone on the deck, but they could be hiding in the cabin or below, she reasoned. In any case, there was a silent, eeriness to the sight of a lone boat in the middle of the ocean with no sign of life.
"Alright." Selkie nodded. "Helmsman, silently steer the ship in the vessel's way in case they try to run for it. I'll lead a team onboard."
"Aye aye sir!"
With that, the captain and two of the sailors moved towards the door.
"Captain, what about me?" Tsuyu asked expectantly.
"You're going to stay here. Sirius, stay with her." He answered, barely breaking stride.
"Yes sir!" The sidekick saluted, while Tsuyu stared in disbelief and moved after the captain.
"But why? I'm not going to get any real experience if you leave me here." She respectfully protested.
"Stay here and follow my orders!" He sternly reiterated, then left the cabin, leaving Tsuyu behind filled with anguish and frustration.
"Kero…" She weakly croaked.
"Don't feel too bad Froppy. I know it sucks being left on the ship." Sirius gave her a comforting squeeze on her shoulder, then fixed her with a serious look. "But you must realize that even if these are stowaways we're dealing with, they are still criminals and can be very dangerous. The captain knows what he is doing and it is our job as the crew to follow his orders. It may not feel like it, but we all have a part to play, even if it feels boring, understand?"
Tsuyu reluctantly nodded, acknowledging her senior's logic despite how conflicted it made her feel.
"Captain, we are in position!" Mick announced over the radio.
"Good. We're moving in." He answered back.
With that, one of the two crewmen accompanying Selkie fired off a flare, bathing the area in a bright, phosphorus light!
"Attention oncoming vessel! Power down your engines and come to a complete stop! This is Captain Selkie of the Oki Mariner! We have been contracted by the Japanese Coast Guard to inspect your ship!" Selkie announced over a megaphone.
And so Tsuyu, Sirius and Mick watched their comrades board the ship. They spotted them approaching a few figures and moving around behind the cabin. The minutes crawled by as they waited for anything, a call, a signal or any sign that something had gone wrong.
"Kero…" Tsuyu shifted anxiously. "Is it normal for them to take this long?"
"It is odd." Sirius admitted, starting to look worried herself. "Usually the Captain would check in by this point. Call him up on the radio."
"Yes sir!" The helmsman picked up the receiver. "Captain! Captain! What is happening over there? Please respond!"
They were met with a grim silence.
"Nothing. I'll go around and see if I can spot anything!" He said and started to leave.
"Hold it!" Sirius suddenly told him, bringing a hand up to one of her ear fins.
Both Tsuyu and the sailor remained silent as they watched Sirius silently listen, both coming to the sudden realization that the sidekick was receiving a message from the captain. Naturally, being part seal, the pro hero was able to make a clicking sound with his mouth. Normally, he would use it as a sonar underwater, bouncing soundwaves off of objects around him. But a secondary use was sending messages directly to his second in command through morse code, who was able to pick up the sounds over a large distance.
"Stowaways… second boat… trapped… we're okay, give chase!" She relayed. "Mick, start the ship! If those stowaways have another boat, it'll be closer to shore!"
"Got it!" He said, starting the ship's engine.
"Wait! What about Captain and the others?" Tsuyu asked.
Sirius turned to her. "The Captain gave us our orders. He trusts us to follow them to the letter and in return, we trust his judgment as it is the best course of action. You trust him and the rest of us, don't you Froppy?"
Tsuyu blinked in surprise at the question, then gave a determined ribbit.
"Kero!"
The trio sped off as fast as the engine would take them, lest they let their captain's sacrifice be in vain. Following Sirius's hunch, they drew closer to the shore, enough to see the wave shorn escarpment on the port side.
"There!" Sirius pointed ahead at a pair of large stone formations a small distance from shore. "I can see a boat between Two Rock Point!"
'Worst name ever?' Tsuyu noted. But yes, nestled between the two rocks just barely out of sight was a small ship, probably a yacht.
"Shut off the lights and silently approach from the other side! Then we'll sneak up on them from the rocks!" Sirius explained, then turned to Tsuyu with a knowing smile. "And you're coming with us!"
"Kero!" She ribbited her assent with grim resolve.
After mooring against the side of one of the rocks, they disembarked, scaling the small island until they were on the top looking over the ship below. Currently, they could only spot one person on the deck, a woman dressed in a yellow fisherman's coat and matching bandana. Fitting for her likely profession as a high seas criminal, she appeared to have a mutation quirk giving her several cephalopodic characteristics, namely her small beak, cone shaped ears and the many short tentacles hanging off her head like dreadlocks.
"Looks like they posted a lookout." Mick muttered.
"Froppy, can you yank her over here?" Sirius asked.
"No sweat." She answered and shot out her tongue. The smuggler could only let out a small gasp of surprise as the pink blur lassoed around her body and she was briskly pulled up into Mick's muscular arms!
"W-W-What?! Who are-?!" She sputtered, but got cut off when Sirius covered her mouth.
"We're asking the questions here. If you want to make things easy on yourself, you better start talking."
Through a brief interrogation, they learned that yes, these were the stowaways they were looking for. Now they just need to find the others. After leaving their captor bound and gagged on the cliff, they used Tsuyu's tongue to slowly lower themselves down the ship's deck.
"She said there's only one of them here at the moment, hiding in the cabin." Sirius whispered as Tsuyu retracted her tongue.
"I'll go in and flush them out." Mick said, clenching his large biceps and stepping towards the inside of the vessel.
*FSSH!* Suddenly there was a strange squirting sound!
"Gah! I can't see!" Mick clawed at a black substance on his face!
"Mick! Look out!" Sirius yelled. Her warning came too late as a big, peach colored, suction cupped tentacle lashed out from the darkness and slammed the man into the side of the rock, where he promptly lost consciousness!
Before Tsuyu could even blink, there was another blur and another tentacle reached out for her!
"Froppy!" Sirius pushed her out of the way and was promptly snatched, lifted effortlessly into the air!
"Sirius-san!" She cried as more tentacles emerged from the cabin's interior.
"Heh heh heh heh! Caught ya!" A low voice chuckled. Stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight was a veritable octopus man. Where his comrade only had headful of small tentacles and a beak to show for, this one had a wide bulbous head and six full limbs in the form of two on his face acting like a mustache and four big arms, one of which was morphed and curled around Sirius. He was dressed in a sleeveless jacket with a ragged hood. His entire appearance reminded Tsuyu of the student from 1-B that she had partnered with at the Sports Festival, Shoji.
"Dammit! A supervillain!" Sirius cursed. Said villain gave his pursuers a smirk or at least the octopus equivalent.
"Man, you guys are relentless! You chased us even after the trap we sprung on your friends!" He said, turning to Tsuyu and raising a brow. "Did they really send only one guy, a woman and a little girl after us?"
Tsuyu swallowed nervously, feet shifting on the deck.
While the villain was distracted, Sirius retrieved the baton on her belt and raised it with a cry!
*Smack!* Without even looking, one of the villain's face tentacles whipped it out of her hand.
"Nice try!" He mocked and tightened his hold on his captive, making her grunt in pain.
Seeing her comrade struggle, Tsuyu stood up. "Hey! Don't move an inch!" She froze when he pointed at her.
"I wouldn't move if I were you!" He shook the hero in his grasp. "I'll let her go once I'm outta here, but if you don't do as I say I'm going to crush her insides! First, you're going to help move the stuff!"
*ZZRSH!*
"Sirius! Sirius, come in!" They all went silent at the sound of static coming from one of Sirius's earfins. "We're still stuck on the fishing boat, but the captain is on his way! Tell us your location!"
The villain stretched one of his other arms and plucked a device from Sirius's ear, holding it up to his face. "A radio huh?"
Then his gaze shifted back to Tsuyu and he smirked again. "Hey kid, if you don't want me to hurt this lady, repeat what I say. "The stowaways have escaped.""
"Kero!" She gasped, her heart jumping into her throat.
"Froppy! Don't do-mmph!" Sirius tried to tell her, but immediately got a suction cupped hand wrapped over her mouth!
"Sirius-san!"
"Do it already!" The villain ordered, holding out the radio. "Unless you don't care what happens to your friends here?"
She looked at the radio in his hand, then looked back at Sirius. The woman's eyes were narrowed and filled with anger and fear, not at her, but at the screwed up situation they now found themselves in. Tsuyu herself felt like she was being torn between two ways, like she was a rope in a game of tug of war. She couldn't let the villains get away, but she also didn't want their boss to hurt Sirius.
But as she stared into her senior's eyes, she remembered what she told her over the last several hours.
"I learned something important about being a hero…The Captain gave us our orders. He trusts us to follow them to the letter and in return, we trust his judgment as it is the best course of action. You trust him and the rest of us, don't you Froppy?"
Slowly, Sirius nodded.
In the end, Tsuyu knew what she had to do.
"Okay. I'll do it." She told him.
"Come on then."
She reached for the radio and pressed the button.
"The stowaways are at Double Rock!" She yelled as fast as she could!
"Why you little…!" The villain snarled, throwing Sirius to the deck and raising his tentacles to strike!
Tsuyu leapt back in time to avoid the attack, which easily shattered the railing. She landed on the side of the rock while the villain glared angrily at her. Thankfully, he seemed to be so furious that had forgotten about his hostage in favour of crushing the frog that had given away their position.
"Stand still dammit!" He roared, lashing at her with his stretchy limbs. She kept moving, never staying in one place as she tried to maneuver to a spot she could retrieved Sirius.
After a couple minutes of bouncing around, she saw an opportunity and shot her tongue at her downed crewmate.
"Not so fast!" The villain yelled, grabbing onto her tongue in midair and swinging her around!
*BLAM!* She crashed into the rockface and slumped from the pain.
"Kero…" She croaked weakly.
"This is it for you!" The villain declared, looming over her menacingly. "I've come too far for some upstart brat to ruin this for me! Say goodbye!" He said, raising his wide palm over her face, as if planning to crush her skull in his strong grasp!
She flinched and shut her eyes in fearful anticipation of the end.
But then there was a splash of water!
*WHAM!*
"GUWAH!" The villain was sent flying as two bodys crashed into him, throwing him away from his prey!
"Sorry boss!" Two other octopus men dressed in overalls and red and blue coats wailed as they fell back into the water.
"Brothers!" He gasped, then another, larger form shot out of the water.
Tsuyu let out something halfway between a croak and relieved laugh as she saw who came to her rescue. "Captain!"
"Don't worry Froppy!" The sealman smiled, lifting his goggles up. "Leave this guy to me! Ack!"
Unfortunately he probably should have kept his eyewear on, as the villain shot a jet of black fluid from his mouth all over his face. Ink, most likely.
"You bastard! I'll kill you for my brothers!" The villain leapt and swung his fists.
To his and Tsuyu's surprise, Selkie effortlessly twisted over his attack and landed against the rock.
'Of course! His sonar!' Tsuyu realized as the villain landed back on the ship.
"Doesn't matter if I can't see, you can't escape me!" Selkie challenged, easily weaving all of his oncoming tentacles.
So focused on attacking the hero, the villain didn't notice the kick at his leg from behind, making him stumble back.
"Captain, get him!" Sirius yelled.
"Eat this!" Selkie roared and delivered a dropkick right to the man's face, smashing him through the side of the yacht and into the water, sending a wave of water into the air!
"He's so cool…" Tsuyu muttered in amazement, salty vapour sprinkling her head. Seeing that Sirius was safe, she hopped back onto the now ruined yacht to see her senior sitting up.
"Are you okay Froppy?"
"Pretty sore, but I'll be fine. What about you?"
"I'm good."
"Hey!" They both turned to see Selkie remmerge from the water. "Good work you two. If it wasn't for your actions, these thugs would have gotten away."
Then his serious expression immediately swapped to a goofy smile. "Thank you for helping!"
"You're seriously doing that now?!" Sirius moaned, slumping against the deck.
'So cute.' Tsuyu quietly laughed.
"What?! It's definitely the right moment!" Selkie protested, then seemed to get the hint and shift back into work mode. "Now, let's get-"
*FOOMP!*
From out of nowhere, a mass of black threads unfolded and landed on Selkie's head, wrapping itself over his body! It was a net!
"Gah! What?!" He gasped as he tried to pull it off him, but his struggling only tangled him further.
"Captain!" Tsuyu and Sirius both jumped to their feet. Were there more stowaways?!
Before either of them could move to assist Selkie, there was a loud thump above them. They looked up to see a man dressed in a ratty tanktop and jeans. His exposed arms were covered in black and brown feathers and he had a hooked beak, hinting at some kind of bird mutation quirk. His head was wrapped in a bright red scarf. Clutched in his claw was the empty netgun that was used on Selkie, a needle gun in the other.
"Well, well boys, look at what we've got here?" He grinned down at them.
They warily took a couple steps back, but then the water burst twice more and two more unscrupulous individuals leapt aboard, both of them clad in that matching blood red color.
"Coupa nosies is what it is!" The first, an eel faced man clad in a wetsuit hissed, aggressively pointing at Tsuyu and Sirius with a harpoon gun.
"Hmmhmmhrr!" The second, broader man mumbled through the excessive layers of bandannas, scarves and other assorted wrappings that completely covered his body, his eyes peeking out from between the folds. He waved two cutlasses above his head, the chips and stains in the blades indicating how old they were.
"You said it mate!" The birdman cackled and gripped the radio on his shoulder. "We've got three captives, the sellers and the cargo! Bring her in!"
Her back against Sirius, Tsuyu shivered in fear. They had just overcome one predicament just to land into another hopeless situation. Who were these men? Why were they here? The man called the stowaways sellers, did that mean they were the ones who were buying whatever was stolen?
The feeling of her senior's hand tightly clasping her own shook her out of her thoughts. She looked up at the taller woman, whose face was grim as she stared off towards the ocean.
"Somethings coming." She whispered.
"K-Kero?" Tsuyu gulped and looked around, but she couldn't see anything.
Then she did. There was a…shape. A shifting in the air, in the space in front of them. Then it just parted, like the sea and the sky was a veil and underneath it was a small cargo ship. The paint on the hull was cracked and faded, with a single phrase in English scratched on the side of the bow. Tsuyu wasn't sure if she read it correctly, but it appeared to say "The Sand Hawk".
She had a bad feeling that it wasn't the coast guard.
"Well come on! Time to meet the captain!" The birdman announced.
"Kero…" She let out as the brigands closed in.
To be continued...