Sheriff's Dept. vs Sky Pirates pt 1
In the crash site of the Sky Pirates, Orangusnake began doing his new routine of morning workouts: Push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, lunges, etc. Orangusnake was doing push-ups currently, and on the pushing portion where he raised himself up, he put a little more strength into it, causing himself to leave the ground for long enough to clap his hands together before catching himself on the way back down.
Ever since the one Mao sister started bringing the pirates food for their troubles, they've been living the life. But all good things must come to an end eventually. Last night, Orangusnake held a meeting with the other Sky Pirates, and it was agreed that they've been gathering their strength long enough. It was time to launch their long awaited attack on the unsuspecting Pure Heart Kingdom.
Mao Mao bounced on the balls of his feet, jumping from side to side as Adorabat zoomed around, trying to land a solid strike. Adorabat was trying—and failing—to be sneaky by mixing her mystic arts training with her hero training. But Mao Mao was keen to what she was doing, and knew how to maneuver around Adorabat's head on attacks.
Violet sat in on the training session, watching silently. When Mao Mao sparred against Minori, Violet was sure there was something weird about his movements, and she was hoping to get another sight of those movements as he sparred with Adorabat. So far there was no odd movements from Mao Mao; had she just been imagining it?
Adorabat rushed at Mao Mao one more time, sure that this next strike would land. Mao Mao pivoted on his foot, Adorabat began to zoom by, missing her target. Mao Mao reached after Adorabat, grabbing her by the nape of her neck. Holding her aloft, Mao Mao tried to keep his grip as Adorabat tried to wiggle free.
"No!" Adorabat whined, her body going limp as she realized how useless it was. "That's not fair!"
"Next time, don't make your attacks easy to predict," Mao Mao lowered Adorabat to the floor. "Your attacks are too straightforward, both literally and figuratively."
"But that's all I can do with chi," Adorabat said, hanging her head.
"Hey," Adorabat looked up from the floor at Mao Mao's exclamation. "You are more than a few tricks with chi. Remember when you took on all the sky pirates by yourself? You didn't have the mystic arts then, and you don't need them now."
"He's right," Violet agreed. "Even Ashaki doesn't really need the mystic arts, they are just another tool in her arsenal. Her true weapon is her mind." Adorabat looked down, contemplating what her true weapon could be. She's been learning from other masters, learning how they do things, but what is it only she can do?
Adorabat was brought out of her thoughts by the blaring of the alarm. Mao Mao and Violet's heads whipped towards the living room.
"Looks like that's it for training," Mao Mao raised himself, starting for the garage.
Sitting on the couch, covering his ears, Badgerclops saw Mao Mao walk past. Rolling his eye, he followed Mao Mao all the way to the aerocycle, Adorabat flapping up the rear. Violet walked down the stairs jumping into the back of Tanya's truck, parked next to the aerocycle.
With a single claw, Violet made a single scratch along the lip of the back. It didn't take long for the thuds of stomping from upstairs to cascade down the steps, the image of an enraged Tanya glaring daggers at Violet.
"What do you think you're doing?" Tanya spat. "Scratching up my truck?"
"Let's get going," Violet said, ignoring Tanya's outburst.
"Let's get out of here," Mao Mao said, putting on his helmet. "Tanya being mad is something I don't want to deal with." Mao Mao wasted no time mounting the aerocycle, gripping the handles. Badgerclops and Adorabat followed his lead. With a few twists of the throttle, the aerocycle lurched forward, taking them through the curtain of water.
The next thing Mao Mao saw was blue skies and the fluffy clouds, felt the wind air drying his fur from the splash of the water fall. Tilting to the left, Mao Mao cruised to the village square. Minori is on patrol today, so she's probably already dealing with the problem, but it never hurt to lend a hand.
Minori was indeed on the scene, but as the three of them were coming in to land, Mao Mao saw who she was facing off with: the Sky Pirates.
Once at a complete stop, the three of them dismounted the aerocycle, lining up with Minori as the two groups did a stand off. With Minori with them, it was four versus four, more than even, it was practically their win.
"What are we doing?" Badgerclops whispered to his friends.
"I don't know," Minori whispered back. "I heard screams as I was checking out an alleyway, and when I got here, they were just standing there menacingly. It's weird, right? They aren't usually like this?"
"No," Mao Mao grumbled. "This is out of character for them.
"If we're done whispering to ourselves," Called out Orangusnake, grabbing hold the attention of the Sheriff's Department. "I have a few friends I would like to introduce to you!" Orangusnake raised his cobra head, cupping his mouth as he called out. "Olly olly oxen free!"
Mao Mao's confusion was soon replaced with shock as he felt the rumbling of earth beneath his feet, followed by a thundering crack of as the village gates bursted open, folding all the way back on their hinges, clapping the stone walls, a ten foot tall purple bull equipped with two massive cleavers emerging .
Another hammering of loud thuds from behind them caught on Mao Mao's ears, as well as the others as they all turned back to a big pink gorilla jumped from rooftop to rooftop, his long lumbering limbs swinging as he ambled across the tiles of the roofs. With a final lunge, the ape flew down from the roof top, joining the bull as he pulled up to join the Sky Pirates.
Before they could say anything, Mao Mao noticed Orangusnake's head was slightly tilted back with a sly grin. Tracing his line of sight, Mao Mao saw where he was looking, where an aerial object broke through one of the clouds. It was difficult to make out any finer details of the object at its current altitude, but he could see the maneuvers as it performed a barrel roll into a nose dive. At the last second, it pulled out of its dive, gliding just over their heads, the wind generated by the massive wingspan whipped at their fur. With the closer view, they could make out that the object in question was a green dragon with metallic wings with a pair of engines strapped to them. Digging his wings into the ground, he tore up the cobble roads as he ground to a halt next to the pirates.
With that last addition, Orangusnake threw his arms open, gesturing to his much bigger friends. "Do you remember these guys?"
Mao Mao had a sense of deja vu, but he couldn't place where he'd seen them before. Orangusnake saw the face Mao Mao made as he was deep in thought.
"They're some of my fellow pirates that you flung off my ship when we first met!" Shouted Orangusnake, his voice taking on an insulted tone.
That definitely rang a bell, but Mao Mao barely remembered any of the pirates he threw overboard. Thinking back, all he could recall was he never got a good look at the rest of Orangusnake's crew.
"Nah," Mao Mao called back. "I guess they weren't worth remembering." The usual witty banter between Orangusnake and himself, trying to get under the pirate's skin.
"Well we'll see how much they're worth remembering," Orangusnake brandished his holo-axe, pointing it towards the sheriff's department. "Attack!"
The Sky Pirates charged towards Mao Mao and the others. Mao Mao and Minori dropped into fighting stances, Badgerclops raised his robo-arm, and Adorabat began to flow chi to the tips of her wings.
Before the two parties could clash, a large golden shape drove between them, the tires screeched as the truck drifted across the cobblestones, Violet leaping out of the back of Tanya's truck, a sword in each hand.
"Don't think this means our conversation is over," Tanya got out of her truck, stomping over to the rest of the Sherrif's Department. "Okay, catch me up, what did I miss?"
"So Orangusnake was just standing there when we got here," Badgerclops began to explain. "Turns out some of his old pirate buddies are back, and they aren't thrilled how Mao Mao and I threw them off an airship hundreds of miles off the ground."
"Did they do a cool entrance?" Tanya asked.
"Yeah, actually, it was super sick," Badgerclops admitted.
"Damn it, I missed it," Tanya hissed. "Hey could you guys do your entrance again? I missed it."
"What?" Orangusnake was baffled at the notion. "No, we're not going to redo our dramatic entrance! The whole point was to be a surprise; we can't surprise you if you already know they're here!"
"Come on," Tanya pleaded. "Please?"
Orangusnake was fuming at how the bounty Hunter was taking them so lightly. First she had the gall to pretend she didn't know who he was, and know she's making a mockery of them.
"Well, you know, she did say please," Boss Hosstrich whispered to Orangusnake. "It wouldn't hurt to do it one more time could it?"
"No!" Orangusnake put his foot down. "We are not doing it again! Now for the last time, charge!"
The pink gorilla leapt high over the rest of the sky pirates, his arms reeled back. Minori pushed Mao Mao and his friends off to the side, just in time for the gorilla's meaty fists to hammer down on Minori. The sound of the collision was like thunder, the cobblestones cracked and broke beneath Minori's feet. Thunderfist wore a satisfied smile, which dissipated the moment he realized that Minori was still standing on her feet.
"What's wrong, big fella?" Minori donned her own malicious grim. "Never fought anyone who could take a punch?" Thunderfist pulled back a couple steps, revealing that the cracked stones formed a small crater beneath Minori's feet.
"Well would ya look at that," Thunderfist chortled. "I can finally let loose a little!" Thunderfist pulled out a pair of connected bronze circles with small metal spikes, slipping them onto his fingers. Clenching his fist, the spikes lit up as arcs of electricity danced between them.
Minori took up a defensive stance, the electricity dancing off the ape's fist had her fur standing on end, and not because of the static. Thunderfist pulled back and with blinding speed, threw a punch that slammed into Minori's outstretched arms. Minori tried to push back against the assault, but the electricity that was coursing through her body wouldn't allow her.
On the follow through, Thunderfist sent Minori flying, a blur of white, orange, and black before clipping the roof of a home across the square. Minori still had enough momentum to skip across two more roofs before tumbling into a back alley. Thunderfist sneered before he lumbered after his quarry.
Mao Mao was left shocked at the raw power Orangusnake's new-old lackey had. If the other two were anything like that, they'll have a rough time chasing them away this time. Mao Mao was broken away from his thoughts as a shadow pooled around him. Turning back, Mao Mao was faced with the towering body of Beef Master, two gigantic meat cleavers raised over his head. As he brought them down, Violet took her turn to protect her brother.
With two swords of her own, she deflected the cleavers to either side. Immediately bringing her blades back to position, she prepared for the next attack from the pirate. Beef Master wasted no time continuing the onslaught of attacks. Violet parried each strike, each effort taking a little more effort than the last.
Jumping back, Violet hoped to create some space so that she can have some breathing room. Beef Master chased after, refusing to let Violet get a chance to relax.
Tanya, seeing the pattern, decided to lean into it, charged into the fray, barreling towards the cybernetic dragon known by Steel Wing. Throwing a leaf to either side, the leaves turned into copies of her with two puffs of smoke.
The three Tanyas jumped at the dragon, who was caught slightly off guard by the sudden attack. As the Tanyas covered the dragon, Steel Wing fired up his engines once more, shooting off into the sky; the three Tanyas holding on for dear life.
Mao Mao watched all this unfold in shock, he quickly shook his head, pulling himself back into the game. Wielding Geraldine, he faced the core group of the pirates, Badgerclops and Adorabat flanking him on either side.
"Alright," Mao Mao murmured to himself. "Let's get back to work." Mao Mao broke into a run, his sword Geraldine trailing behind him, sending up sparks as it clipped the cobblestones.
Adorabat was on his heels, charging chi into her wings. She was dying to use her new skills in real setting.
Badgerclops aimed his robotic arm, shooting off a series of shots to give Mao Mao and Adorabat cover fire.
Orangusnake had morphed his hard light weapon into its shield form, covering his allies while Mao Mao and Adorabat closed the gap. Lowering his free hand to Ratarang, he motioned for him to shift.
"You got it, boss," Ratarang flipped into Orangusnake's hand, having changed to his boomerang state. With a wide arc of his arm, Orangusnake sent Ratarang flying.
"Hah," Badgerclops barked out a laugh. "That's not even close!" Badgerclops' cockiness would come back to bite him as Ratarang would begin to change trajectory, moving into Badgerclops' blind spot.
Ratarang continued on his flight path, careening into Badgerclops' robotic arm, knocking its target from the sky pirates to the cobblestones at Badgerclops' feet. With the robotic arm already mid charge, the next blast fired at the ground. The shockwave knocked Badgerclops back, into the fountain.
Mao Mao heard the small explosion, turning back he saw Badgerclops splash in the fountain. "Badgerclops!"
"Focus on yourself," Orangusnake raised his hard light weapon over his head, shifting it from the shield to the axe. Bringing it down it clashed with Mao Mao's Geraldine. The force behind it was enough to force Mao Mao to drop down on one knee.
Mao Mao grunted from the weight behind the axe. Orangusnake felt stronger than he normally was; more refreshed. Mao Mao leaned back, using his back leg, the one that's knee was touching the ground, to push off, jumping back out of Orangusnake's reach.
Now that he felt Orangusnake's strength, he knew what to expect. He gripped Geraldine with both hands, summoning light into the blade. Similar to the technique he used during the Moon Moth incident, Mao Mao made a slight adjustment. Instead of spreading the light along the entire blade, he limited it to the edge. This made the light more condensed and burn hotter, there was also the added bonus that the handle would receive little heat, meaning Mao Mao's gloves wouldn't fuse to his hands again. There was also the brightness, which was virtually equivalent to that of a miniature sun.
That last part was evident as Orangusnake was trying to shade his eye by putting his hand on front of his eyes. Mao Mao's lips tugged into an evil grin, he began dashing toward Orangusnake.
Meanwhile, Adorabat dove between and around the remaining pirates, easily avoiding their attempts to nab her due to her chi enhancements. After a few dives and loops, Adorabat cackled at their expense.
"You'll never catch me!" Adorabat taunted them. Annoyed, Boss Hosstrich armed his cannon torso, launching a series of cannonballs at the tiny blue devil. Adorabat easily avoided each one, changing positions each time. Adorabat began luring the ostrich's projectiles, each time she made her way closer and closer to her true target.
With Boss Hosstrich's next projectile, Adorabat weaved out of the way. The projectile sailed past, arcing its way down on Ramiraffe. She barely had time to move out of the way of plummeting explosive. The blast of the explosion knocked her the ground.
Mao Mao gave a quick scan of the area, sure enough, Minori, Violet, and Tanya are nowhere to be seen, along with the old-new pirates. They were separated, but he was sure they'd be fine. The image of Minori getting punched through the sky flashed through his mind, and suddenly he felt a little less certain.