Rule 10114: Black Pearl, bribing South Dakota to initiate another unauthorized summoning just because you can't get any support for your plan to invade Disney HQ is so beyond not okay we don't even know where to start with this one! You're lucky that this ended up not burning the base down.
Co-authored by yours truly.
South Dakota was bored. These four words in themselves were enough to get even the most stoic Admiral out of his seat and looking for trouble with all the effort of a paranoid maniac! With Columbia on vacation with her newborn and her boyfriend and Phoenix banned from the lab after somehow managing to summon Anak and make her explode at the same time! (she still needed to ask her fellow scientist how she did it! For well, reasons…) Anyways, the fact that South Dakota was on her own meant that there was little to do and the resulting quiet was just the calm before the storm.
The storm came in the form of Black Pearl. Said ship was still fuming over Disney's decision to ban Jack Sparrow from the franchise and she had threatened to storm the company headquarters more than once. So far, her efforts to raise assistance amongst the pirating shipgirl community had been minimal. Queen Anne's Revenge was satisfied to just rub it in Pearl's face as revenge for when the black ship had teased her about being killed. Only Silent Mary surprisingly approved of Pearl's plan in the hopes that it would and I quote 'convince those dipshits that I could be of more use than as Pearl's personal punching bag'. Even so, it was not enough. So here Pearl was, coming to South Dakota to request an unauthorized summoning of the one ship other than herself who had known Jack Sparrow's hand.
"Can you do it?" She asked the mad scientist. She did not make this request lightly. South Dakota had a reputation well earned even amongst the craziest of craziest science!shipgirls. "She may be quieter," said the Yurrabi twins. "But that only means she is more dangerous when she does cause mayham." Watch out for the quiet ones as it were.
"Yeah, I can do it." South Dakota said. "But it'll cost you as the Admiral will sure have my stern for this! As will Columbia as after I surely get banned from the lab someone in his good books will have to mind the store and she won't appreciate being called back so soon after giving birth."
Pearl groaned and the two haggled the price out over the next hour before finally coming to an agreement. The pirate ship agreed to hand over half her jewels so South Dakota would have plenty of funds to use while she was out of the lab for the next few weeks. In return, Pearl got exactly what she wanted, right then and there.
The summoning chamber itself was already in place. Briefly Pearl was confused as to why the Admiralty hadn't yet confiscated it then she remembered. A science!shipgirl's lab was not a place for a non-science type. These places had a reputation all their own and without a guide well, let's just say that there were a few shipgirls who had yet to turn up.
South Dakota got her materials together before holding out her hand. Pearl sighed and pressed a few rubies into it. A down payment as it were. There were the standard summoning materials present, a few repair buckets, some bits of wood and sail and then there were items more centric to Interceptor herself. A Royal Navy ensign from the 1700s, Jack's pirate flag. (Pearl had given up her own for this task) and of all things, silverware. Pearl snickered as she recalled that particular engagement. The Royal Navy ship had shown courage, despite her inexperience. Pearl respected her for that.
"Okay, here goes nothing." South Dakota muttered as she flipped a switch. Everything seemed to happen at once. The chamber lit up like a solar flare, the supplies they had placed as offerings vanished as whatever it was that was coming through absorbed them. From the center of the summoning pool a figure appeared and Pearl grinned as she spotted that familiar rigging. "At last," She purred. "My greatest ally arrives."
Standing in the center of the chamber, her hands rubbing her eyes, stood a short girl with brown hair. Said hair was quite lengthy, going down to about her mid back, with two long bangs streaking her face. She was adorned by a 1700s English Captain's uniform, but in a very dark shade of blue and her hat was one of those long but skinny ones that was worn front to back, with a large feather sticking out of the right side. Gun decks adorned her arms, with a mast with sails and a Union Jack with a Jolly Rodger on top of it flew from the very top! Lowering her hands, her eyes were brilliant blue.
"Well I'll be buggered, this certainly doesn't look like Port Royal."
"Indeed not." South Dakota said, stepping forward with a warm smile. She loved new summons! "You are in a place called San Diego, California in the United States. Not a nation you are familiar with I'm sure. The year is 2019 and you would have known the US as the Colonies but we are much bigger now and independent to boot."
Interceptor laughed, covering her mouth to try, and unsuccessfully, hide her amusement. However, the confused look on South Dakota's face made her expression turn to surprise. "Wait, what? You're serious? Preposterous! Thirteen Colonies could not have gained independence from my Great Britannia!"
"On our own no. But we had help." South Dakota was loathe to admit it but America did indeed owe its very existence to the French. "And we're not 13 anymore, but 50 with a few territories spread here and there. The world has changed very much since you lived last Interceptor. We can give you a full history lesson to prove it!"
"I shall demand such a lesson at once!" The brig shipgirl cried in shock, although her face turned to confusion now. "We? Who's we, lass?"
Pearl stepped out from the shadows with a nervous wave, well aware of how their last encounter went. "Hello." She greeted.
"You!" Interceptor hissed, taking up a firm stance and holing out her arm in a way to bring a broadside to bear. "I remember you. You were that bloody ship from hell that sank me!"
South Dakota stepped in between to prevent any bloodshed. She did not fear the sailing ship as any shots would simply bounce off her steel hull but for the sheer awe factor she summoned her own rigging, which looked exactly like the weaponry she had in WW2. "Stand down Interceptor, it was her idea to call you back."
Pearl spoke up. "Interceptor, I deeply regret what I did that day. Curse or no curse, it was wrong of me."
Interceptor looked at South Dakota's armament and size, and did take a step back, before looking at Pearl again. She listened for any hint of lying, any fault in her voice. But there wasn't any. The British shipgirl slowly relaxed, before standing upright. "Apology accepted, and appreciated."
Pearl nodded and South Dakota stepped back in. "Come along Interceptor, your history lesson awaits." She said as she guided the shipgirl brig deeper into her lab.