Louise opened her eyes to find herself in darkness, or at least near darkness. she very slowly felt around her body. She was still wearing the suit she had been given, and her body seemed to be whole, no place on her body causing her pain. As she felt her neck though her breath hitched as he hands felt cold metal wrapped around her neck, and a chain attached to it.
"Dammit," Louise muttered at the realization of what a collar and chain meant, her hand following the chain backwards to a wall a shot distance away, and beside it, another chain was connected to the wall. She then following it down ,and found Montmorency lying on the floor.
At least she assumed it was Montmorency due to the length of hair she could feel.
"Hey, wake up," Louise said as she gently shook Montmorency, now sort of able to see her silhouette.
Montmorency groaned a bit before a bit more shaking made her stir awake.
"Careful do you feel hurt anywhere?"
"I, where are we?" Montmorency asked as she tried to look around, her eyes not having adjusted to see anything.
"I . . .think we've been captured," Louise said carefully.
" . . . I see. . . .at least we are clothed this time."
"Momo, we will get out of here," Louise said suddenly.
"How? We're so weak, all we can do is get saved, we can't-"
Montmorency was interrupted as a heavy clanking noise echoed into the door and a door opened up, illuminating the room with light and making both girls squint. The room they were in seemed to be a storage room of sorts, with large metal shelves on both sides of it while they were chained to the back wall. And in front of them in the doorway, was the shadowed form of what looked like a human.
"Well well, so you are the two we managed to catch and get away with, huh?" the figure said as a hand reached over to the wall and flicked a switch illuminating the room and revealing his own looks. He was of average height and build, but his face was covered in small scars, and one of his eyes was replaced by a glowing green light.
"Who are you? Where have you taken us?" Louise said as she glared at he man who was indeed clearly human.
"Shut up." The man said with a shake of his head. "Stupid Starfinder shitheads, always thinking they are the ones in control. You are lucky we need hostages to broker our escape from this planet. If I had my way, I'd be collaring both of you and training you both into willing little sluts to stay at my bedside for the rest of your lives."
"You, are one of the pirated attacking this place," Montmorency stated with a scowl. "You're slaver scum."
"I prefer a being called a job agent," The pirate said with a smile. " I help those poor people find employment that gives a roof over their head and food in their belly. The particularly lucky might even find their ways into manor houses and VIP lounges."
"And, what is it you plan to do with us?" Louise asked seriously.
"As I said, you are to be used as hostages to get us off this planet. If your fellows play fair, you'll be back in their care. If not, you either will die, or join our products on the sales floor in the near future. So just stay here and get comfy and don't cause issues," the pirate said as he backed out of the room and slammed the door shut, leaving the room's light on thankfully.
The two girls sat there in silence for a few moments before Montmorency let out a heavy sigh. "We really are all useless."
"We are not useless," Louise countered.
"Not just us, all nobility," Montmorency said with a shake of her head. "We're taught that we are special, but what can we do on our own? We can barely fight, can't protect ourselves, can't save ourselves."
"And what if we can?" Louise said as she shifted and pushed herself against the wall, taking hold of the chain connected to the metal collar around Montmorency's neck.
"And how are we supposed to- ow, that is my hair!"
"Sorry," Louise said as she moved Montmorency's hair out of the way by throwing it over Montmorency's head, making her look ridiculous.
"What are you doing?"
"Just stay still, I'm trying something," Louise said as she concentrated while holding a pair of fingers over the edge of the collar. "learning Technomancy has gone, kind of slowly, but I have managed to learn a couple of lesser spells called Cantrips. I'm trying to see if this one helps," Louise explained as a small bead of green liquid formed between her fingers and dripped onto the collar, making a faint sizzling noise.
"And what exactly is it?"
"A spell that makes acid," Louise said, having to hold Montmorency's shoulder to keep her from suddenly moving.
"Acid!"
"Shhh, shhh," Don't make to much noise, we don't know if anyone is outside the door or not," Louise said as she made a bit more acid and let it drip onto the collar, melting a small area very slowly, but noticeably. " its working. With a bit of time I can get these collars off of us."
"And then what?"
"Then," Louise paused ad glanced around at the room, now getting a good look at it, but recognizing none of the boxes and crate that covered the shelves. "There has to be something in here that can help us get out of here. We still have magic."
"But, wouldn't it be better to just wait for Musashi and his crew?"
"Do you think those pirates are going to honor their word?"
"Point taken," Montmorency said before taking in a deep breath and slowly letting it out. "Alright, get this thing off of me."
"I'm trying, give it time. The Cantrip Gadge taught me was for sending a splash of acid to attack people, not for fine work."
"How many?"
"What, how long?"
"No, how many spells have you managed to learn of this places magic?" Montmorency asked, her tone sounding hopeful and curious all at once.
". . . . Only three simple ones really. You?"
"Same,"
"Okay, so we'll need to- Got it!" Louise suddenly said as she grabbed the collar around Montmorency's neck and yanked on it, causing the back part of it to snap in half alongside its join which was around the front of her neck.
"Ah, ah that feels good," Montmorency said as grabbed her neck with both hands.
"Good, now I'm going to get mine off," Louise said as she shifted and sat against the wall and tilted her head up so she could carefully hold her fingers above her own collar
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Well, can you start looking around for anything to help us?"
"Okay," Montmorency said as she got up and walked over to one of the shelves. After stranding there for a second he turned back to Louise. "Um, what exactly am I looking for?"
"Anything that could help us, weapons, pieces of metal, anything technological.," Louise said as she sat as still as a statue, small beads of green liquid dripping from the space between her fingers onto the collar dangerously close to her throat. "Batteries especially."
"Why batteries? Aren't those things just little tiny energy jars?" Montmorency asked as she began pulling out boxes and looking through them.
"Yes," Louise said as she swallowed and kept her body tense. Gadge had made her physically feel what the acid she could summon felt like on skin, and she did not want to get it on her neck. "Batteries hold power and Gadges first lesson was how Technomancers can move power from one thing to another. I can't even get close to hacking yet, but if I have something to hold power, I might be able to get us around doors and the like by messing with their power."
"Okay," Montmorency said as she went back to looking over the boxes, finding that with each one she looked into she began to get a headache as her mind tried to recall the information she now had over what things were.
Was this why Louise seemed to be having constant headaches maybe?
Montmorency shook her head. That didn't matter right now, what mattered was, was helping, was finding something to help. And there was a lot in the boxes on the shelves. Strange bits of wire, oddly shaped metal plates, smooth material called plastic in small cubes, wrapped objects that according to the wrappers were some kind of preserved food, a couple small gemstones that glowed, a knife, a few chunks of wood a-
Montmorency suddenly froze and went back to the previous box and snatched up the two gemstones she found. They were odd, like nothing she had seen before. She was not crazy for gems and jewels, but something about them called to her, and instantly she knew they had to be useful in some way.
"Louise, have you finished?"
"just, about."
"I found something?"
"Batteries or a weapon?"
"I'm, not sure," Montmorency said as she turned to face Louise.
"Ouch!"
Only for Louise to hiss and grab at the collar around her neck and open it, very quickley grabbing at her now uncovered neck.
"Are you alright?"
"Ow, no, I singed my neck a bit. Ugh, it stings," Louise said in annoyance s she looked to Montmorency. "What did you find?"
"A lot of spare jump parts, but also these," Montmorency said as she showed Louise the two gems.
Louise stared at them for a minute before picking one up and looking it over closer. "Do, do these feel familiar ton you somehow?"
"Yes, but at the same time they don't. like, I should recognize them as some kind of heirloom, but I've never seen or even heard of them before. Do you think they are magical maybe?"
Louise stared at the gem between her fingers. It was a sort of iridescent color, shifting green and blue and yellow at different angles and shaped sort of like a triangle with rounded edges, like how rubies were often cut. It felt faintly warm to the touch, almost charged, and in a way felt safe to just be near. "Yeah, I think it is, we should each keep one on us."
"Alright," Montmorency said as she glanced at her suit and then scowled. "Right, these things don't have pockets. Why don't they have pockets? Even skirts have pockets!"
"We'll just have to hold onto them while we look for anything to help us," Louise said as she walked over to the shelve on the opposite side of the room fro where Montmorency had been looking.
"Is looking at scrap really going to help us though?" Montmorency asked as she went back to her own shelving. "It's not like either of us are craftsmen of any type. I can make potions, but I have no idea if any of them would even work in space, or with ingredients not from Halkeginia."
"I know, but we have to look for something that can help and I refuse to just sit here and be saved again and . . . . . ."
"And what?"
"I just found our way out," Louise said as she took a box of a shelf and put it on he ground as Montmorency came over, allowing her to see an odd metal plate on the wall behind the metal shelving.
"What is it?"
Louise responded by tapping it lightly, making a faint echoing noise into the very wall. "A vent."
Kibble scribble : Alright, captured again, but this time, the girls are not helpless. what, you didn't think they were just going to have nothing but training montages on the ship did you? XD