I laid on my back, hands crossed under my head as I looked up at the stars. Even in the midst of a city, their light shone brightly.

I'd always dreamed of the stars, and traveling among them. To not be bound by little things like gravity. I wanted to fly free from the ground, to soar to ever greater heights, far into the sky.

I raised one of my hands, fingers splayed. Starlight filtered between them, and for just a moment I could feel the weight of the sky and the stars. I closed my hand, grasping it all.

"Soon," I promised, speaking out loud, though no one was close enough to hear me.

Suddenly, my earpiece crackled. "I'm in position."

A grin broke across my face, and I let my hand drop as I jumped to my feet. I bent down to pick up my sheathed nodachi and slung it over my shoulders. "Let's get this show on the road then," I replied.

I walked forward a few steps to the edge of the rooftop that I had been waiting on and looked down. Below me, I saw a group of eight men in black suits with red ties and red sunglasses. It wasn't a bad look, truth be told. At least, not for a group of mooks.

I watched them for a few moments as they loaded heavy-looking crates into a truck. A quick glance told me the driver's seat was empty. Perfect.

Once the last one was loaded, I made my move. I stepped casually forward, into the open air, and plummeted the three stories down to the ground, where I landed heavily, knees bending to absorb the impact.

All of the men in suits immediately turned to face me, weapons drawn. Just as intended. I gave them a grin. "Hey, boys. Mind if I drop in?"

A few of them exchanged confused looks, but most seemed unperturbed. "Listen pal," one of them started. "I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but you better skedaddle before me and my boys make you regret it."

"Sure, sure, I'll go," I replied easily. "But first…" I brought my nodachi around, off of my shoulders, and pointed it at them. "Why don't you give me the keys to that truck first?"

The man who spoke up to me before gaped at me. "Are you… are you trying to steal the stuff we just stole?"

"It seems Xiong's boys are smarter than I heard," I replied. "If you understand, then this makes it easy. Hand over the Dust, and no one gets hurt. Deal?"

"Yeah, I don't fucking think so," the mook retorted, lifting his gun higher and taking aim at my head.

The sky cracked open with the sound of a gunshot, but I didn't flinch, because it wasn't the gangster that had fired. His gun was smoking alright, but not from the barrel. Instead, it laid in pieces on the ground, half of it eviscerated by a massive caliber of bullet.

"Sniper!" one of them shouted, but as soon as they looked away from me, I was moving.

I rushed forward and my still sheathed nodachi slammed into the face of the leader. His glasses, and nose too I was pretty sure, shattered from the impact.

The others flinched back, already scrambling from the sniper and now caught off guard by my sudden attack. Three of them turned their guns towards me, and the others turned to flee.

"Aww, what's the rush?" I asked, ignoring the gangsters taking aim at me as I charged for the ones fleeing. They were too slow to escape, and four more whacks of my nodachi left them cold and splayed out on the ground.

I turned back to the other three, but two of them were already on the ground. As I watched, another crack split the air and I saw the last one's head jerk back as he slumped to the ground, unconscious. My eyes caught the rebounding rubber bullet flying through the air.

"Nice shooting, Yoko," I said with a grin.

"Turn your mic on, dumbass," Yoko's voice crackled in my ear. "I can see your lips moving but you're not broadcasting."

I clicked my tongue and reached up to my ear, where I pressed a button on the device nestled in there. "Who said I was talking to you, huh?" I shot back.

"Because they're all unconscious," she replied, clearly not believing me. "Not much of an audience, are they?"

I nudged one of the bodies on the ground with a foot, and got a groan of pain in response. "I think they're still conscious, actually. Just in too much pain to get up."

"Then you better hurry up and get outta there," she said.

I waved her off with my free hand. "Yeah yeah. You just get that sexy ass of yours to the rendezvous point." I crouched down and started digging through the pockets of the mook that had been talking to me.

I heard Yoko sigh through the comms, but then the line went dead as she started moving. A few seconds later I found what I was looking for in his breast pocket, the keys to the truck.

"Thanks for the ride pal," I said to the guy on the ground, blood pouring from his misshapen nose. I gave him a wink that he couldn't see because his eyes were closed, then stood up, headed for the driver's seat of the truck loaded with dust.

Five minutes later I parked the box truck next to an alley. I rolled down the window, leaned out, and pushed my sunglasses up. "Hey girl, you need a ride?"

Yoko stepped out of the shadows. I was surprised she managed to hide in them, considering how much she stood out. Her long red hair was tied up in a ponytail, but the only clothes she wore were a bikini top with flame designs, shorts so short she almost might as well not be wearing them, pink thigh high socks, white boots with heels, and a pink and white striped scarf.

Oh, and she was carrying a rifle almost as long as she was tall. But that probably wasn't that unusual of a sight here in Vale.

My eyes also caught on the band of red metal on her upper arm. It was shaped like a wreath of flames and had a black skull-shaped gem on it. It was my Tempest Jewelry, and it marked her as mine, and that was almost as sexy as the rest of her.

She rolled her eyes. "You're such a dork," she said as she walked around and opened the passenger side door.

I chuckled. "Maybe. But you're stuck with me." Without waiting for her to buckle in, I hit the accelerator and started driving for the outskirts of towns, where there weren't any cameras.

"Don't remind me," she grumbled, but there wasn't any bite in her tone, so I just laughed again.

As we drove through the dark streets of Vale, returning home with our loot, I couldn't help but smile as a song sprung to my lips.

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."

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AN: New Pirate Heritage for the Waifu Catalog dropped, and you know I had to give it a spin. This is actually an idea I've had in the works for… quite a while. One of my many troubled ideas that spent way too long getting workshopped, but this new Heritage was the perfect chance to brush it off and finally figure it out.

Next chapter will actually explain what's going on in a bit more detail, but you can probably guess most of it already.

I'm excited for this fic, I have some fun things planned. Excited to explore the Heritage and how leaning into the kayfabe and roleplay is important. And I'm excited to be back to writing after a couple months of just spinning my wheels, doing lots of planning that didn't result in me writing anything. But I'm back with this, and I hope you all enjoy it.