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"Hey Cap'!" Beside their own vessel, a ghostly pirate ship pulls over, a voice from it yelling over the crashing waves. Thavas looks up, squinting at the voice's owner, while gripping the railing as his own ship rocks again. He only can make out a raven-haired figure donned in blue, but that's all the description the Admiral needs.
"Nightrose...?"
Nightrose jabs a thumb at the clashing Strides, seemingly unbothered by the fact that another one of her crew has been flung overboard, her jerking ship dangerously close to capsizing altogether. Thavas, on the other hand, is praying that the sirens can catch any of his own men who get thrown over. "That your boy?"
Thavas swears as he braces himself for another wave, both ships colliding into each other from the side. He glances up, catching the brief silhouette of Lambros through the chaotic torrents, and turns back to Nightrose. The pirate captain waits expectantly for an answer, by her own deck. "I stride summoned Lambros, yes."
"Well fuck," Nightrose grumbles, one hand holding down her hat as the wind tears through both ships. "I'm disowning mine, so are you still gonna arrest me if your shit gets wrecked?"
The Admiral doesn't falter. "Yes."
Nightrose swears again, her curses carried off by the wind. Thavas, meanwhile, runs to catch Andrey just before the boy could lose his footing and stumble over. In most cases, taking shelter underwater would be the safest course of action - as aquaroids, air isn't an issue and being submerged means avoiding whatever nonsense is happening on the surface. However, with the sheer power of blows being exchanged by the two colliding Strides, the resulting torrents and waves mean that you can't escape the chaos unfolding, even underwater. It might even be more dangerous, especially if anyone gets flung into the ship after it dives.
"Right, what about this then," Nightrose leaps over her ship's deck, and the distance between the two vessels are close enough that her feet can land comfortably on Thavas' own. She only stumbles a little from the rocky motion of the ships. "I'll help deal with this bullshit, and maybe you don't arrest me?"
Thavas assesses the situation, trying to calculate how much damage has been done and how much more lies ahead, if whoever Nightrose had summoned and Lambros don't quit it anytime soon.
"I'll reconsider it."
"Good enough'," Nightrose sighs, and stretches out one hand. "I didn't start this nonsense, by the way. Those fuckers are destroying my stuff, too. Truce?"
"If that's what you say."
Somehow, in the midst of all the unfolding chaos, Thavas finds it in himself to take the pirate's hand.
[A few minutes ago]
The sailors hear it before they feel it.
Something that sounds like a hurricane flipping an island upside-down, mountains and all, tears through the skies and waters. The wave that follows is no less tremendous in strength - Lambros grabs Thavas and shields him just as it descends upon them, flinging the ship up and a few hundred meters away. It doesn't capsize, by some miracle of the gods, but the impact that nearly throws the sailors overboard isn't by any means a trivial one.
Thavas releases a breath he doesn't realize he's been holding, once the ship stops threatening to tip over. "Heavens, what was tha-"
"LAMBROOOOOOOOOOOOS-!"
Lambros groans, cursing under his breath.
Thavas has never heard Lambros groan.
The Marine General leaps over Thavas, the latter still too stunned to react. Barely registering the battlecry, all the Admiral sees (and hears) is a tremendous clash that roars through his ears, seawater exploding around him like fireworks. Lambros, returning in a flash, jumps back and pulls Thavas along, until the latter is behind him once again. The Stride's sword is raised, though Thavas can't see exactly who it is pointed at. Actually, he couldn't see who had attacked earlier at all.
"Admiral," Lambros begins, not turning around to face Thavas. "Sail away as far - as fast - as you can. Tell the other ships the same, and do not stick together. Dive if you must, but I recommend against it."
Thavas nods, though he can't suppress the concern (and somewhat curiosity) in his voice.
"Understood. However, this threat-"
"There is no time to explain. I will lure him out as far as I can. The rest, you can only pray."
Pray?
Without another word, Lambros leaps over the side again, just in time to meet their attacker in another clash thundering through the area, and rocking the ship once more. Thavas curses, then runs as best he can to where the rest of his crew are hopefully not thrown overboard. Lambros' orders had been quick, urgent, and dare he say it - desperate.
It sounds like he's dealt with this before...
Thavas shakes his head, trying to clear his mind. There is no time to waste, if Lambros' instructions have implied anything. Once he reaches the control room, the crew inside immediately turn to him, worry and question clear on their faces as they try to steady their own ship, and each other.
Thavas takes a deep breath.
"Everyone, listen..."
~
Lambros just barely manages to stop the attacker from reaching the ship, clashing together only bare meters away. If he had been even a second late...
The Marine General of Heavenly Silk grits his teeth, supporting his blade with his other hand as he presses forward. There is no time to worry about the Admiral and his crew, or about things that have already been avoided. He needs to focus on somehow getting this particular enemy away, and fast.
"Goauche..."
"Lambros!" Goauche yells (shrieks) in glee, the grin on his face stretching from ear to ear as their eyes lock onto each other. He isn't fazed by the pressure from Lambros, in fact seeming to enjoy it the more the Aquaroid's sword inches dangerously close to his chest. "To think I can meet 'cha here, our fates have intertwined again!"
Lambros almost cringes.
"Here is, not the time," he chooses to retort instead, as Goauche gets bored of their locked stance, choosing to break away and fly upwards, his large wings almost blotting out the sunlight. Lambros dives just as the Vampire swoops back down, slicing the air where he'd been a second ago. He surfaces only for their blades to meet again, the strength of both sides blasting the seawater around them in an explosion of torrents. "If you want to fight, let's take to our own spacetime-"
"And let go o' this chance? Never!"
"What difference would it make..."
Lambros grumbles under his breath. In the middle of he and the pirate's exchange, the General notices Thavas' ship beginning to turn and speed away, trying to dodge crashing waves that will no doubt flip a vessel over upon impact. It is dangerous, but they are making their escape and will (hopefully) reach a safer place outside of the danger zone. The only thing Lambros needs to continue doing is distracting the Tempest-calling Pirate King until that happens. He lets out a quick sigh of relief, but almost gets caught by the cutlass that swings at his head. The Marine General just barely manages to avoid it in time, the rough blade grazing the air by his face, too close for comfort.
"Eyes on me!" The vampire yells at him, much to Lambros' annoyance. "Where else are ya lookin' at?!"
Goauche begins to turn, to where the Navy ships are still speeding off with much difficulty, and in a brief moment of panic Lambros grabs the pirate's wrist, pulling him away and towards himself.
What am I doing?
"No—," Lambros croaks out, the words falling from his lips all too embarrassingly fast. "Don't—! No, eyes on me."
Gods. He feels just as foolish as he sounds.
Goauche actually freezes.
The vampire pirate's gaze falls from Lambros' eyes, to his clenched jaw, and eventually the hand around his wrist. There's a moment of genuine, visible confusion on Goauche's face, which is then washed away (ha ha) by some other emotion Lambros is too afraid to put a name to.
The pirate's lips curl, and before Lambros knows it, Goauche has thrown his head back, howling in laughter. Lambros retracts his hand immediately, feeling as if he's just been burnt by hot iron, only for the pirate to grin and grab it back, fingers closed firmly around Lambros' palm like some weird, uncanny, heat-of-the-moment handshake. Both of their weapons have seemingly been forgotten - Goauche's cutlass is lowered, pointed away, while Lambros' own sword is frozen somewhere mid-air with the rest of his arm.
The aquaroid inhales. "Goauche, what are you-"
This is entirely his fault, Lambros knows, but he can't help sounding bewildered either way, as he tries to pull his hand out of the pirate's firm grip.
"What are you planning, General?"
Goauche's grip tightens, voice lowered in a sort of taunt, sort of tease, sort of mockery that sounds far worse than his usual yelling.
Lambros can't move, a grating fact that thankfully doesn't show on his face. If this had been his other arm, Lambros could have easily flung the vampire away, continued attacking, and erased the last 30 seconds from his memory for the indefinite future. However, the hand Goauche is holding onto is his bare one, which does not, unfortunately, have the same level of strength as his prosthetic right arm. Which means, unless Lambros wants a repeat of the last time his arm got torn off by the very man before him, he's effectively trapped in place by the vampire and his inhuman strength.
(For the record, Lambros does not want to lose his left arm as well.)
He grits his teeth, electing to ignore whatever had just come out of Goauche's mouth, and focus on swinging down on the vampire's forearm with his own sword in an attempt to break away. Goauche blocks it easily of course, barely batting an eye. As expected of the Tempest-calling Pirate King who, for all his infamous nonsense, is actually deserving of his title on the seas.
What Lambros doesn't expect, is for Goauche to yank his arm back, taking the General with him, until both of their faces are bare inches apart from each other. Even Lambros can't hide his surprise at this, while the pirate continues smirking like the cocky bastard that he is. There is a dangerous glint in Goauche's eyes, the same kind that appears whenever he decides it is a good day to attack all of Lambros' ships, and then maybe Lambros himself.
"Now, ain't this interesting, dear General-"
[Bang!]
Goauche's head snaps to the side, and Lambros manages to pull away in the split second that the pirate is fazed. Another gunshot spreads blood through Goauche's large pirate hat, some of it dripping through his ivory hair and down his head. When Goauche uses one hand to shove his head back into place, the smirk on his face has been replaced with a scowl.
"Damn, almost missed the second one," a very familiar female voice remarks, far too casually for what the context is worth.
An equally familiar male one responds, much more appropriately this time. "Careful! You almost shot me!"
Both Strides pause, if only to take a look at the newcomers.
Nightrose blows the smoke off the tips of her guns' barrels, sitting behind Thavas on a kelpie, with the Admiral clearly rather shaken by the no-doubt unexpected gunshots. The pirate captain shrugs, twirling the guns in both her hands as she reloads them. "Oops. Too used to doing that with my crew."
"Unlike zombies, aquaroids do die when they are killed."
Nightrose snorts. "Weak-"
"What are you doing here?" Lambros and Goauche ask at the same time, equally incredulous. Though directed at two different people, they might as well be addressing both the Admiral Thavas and the Pirate Princess, Nightrose, together, since the two are seated on the back of a single kelpie - which Lambros recognizes to be Thavas' personal steed.
"To clean up your bullshit so I don't get arrested!" Nightrose yells at Goauche, who flicks her a glare and huffs in annoyance. Thavas, meanwhile, looks a little more sheepish, trying to hold eye contact with Lambros, and sound steady while doing so. "I felt the need to assist you, once the ships were safe. There was a brief period of inactivity, so I thought that things were under control."
Well, 'under control' wouldn't be the best way of describing... whatever the hell had happened between Lambros and Goauche. Has it been that long?
Before either of them could react, Nightrose cocks her guns (Thavas makes sure to keep away, this time), and points both of them to the seawater directly beneath Goauche's feet.
"I want to go home, so I'm ending your little fight now. You can continue once y’all fuck off back to your universe!"
Without further warning, she fires both guns straight towards the water.
Lambros gets the gut feeling to leap away, and he does so, falling back behind Thavas and Nightrose. Gouache, meanwhile, doesn’t have the same intuition; he stares at Nightrose, confused, until a loud rumble starts and rises in volume below his feet.
"What the fuck-"
An enormous skeleton dragon tears through the water.
It snaps the unsuspecting vampire pirate up in one fluid motion, and dives back down, leaving nothing but embers of flickering purple fire behind. The water continues rumbling for a while, flashes of purple and green erupting deep below the surface, before eventually, a faint shimmering blue light glitters and fades away.
"Is he gone now?" Thavas asks, watching the water doubtfully.
"Yep. Easiest way to get rid of 'im when he doesn't want to fucking listen," Nightrose responds, loosely waving one gun about. "'Parrently Strides can't die in a spacetime that isn't theirs, yada yada yada. So they get their asses sent to their original timeline instead."
"Do they die there, then?"
"Fortunately, no." This time, Lambros is the one who answers. A pause. "Unfortunately for Miss Nightrose, I suppose. We always return in our original states, though I will appreciate it if you can send me back peacefully."
"Ah, right. Sorry to keep you here - you may leave now."
Thavas might have been imagining it, but he swears he hears Lambros mutter a "I don't really want to go back, though" before the Marine General vanishes in a shimmer of aqua light.
When both Strides are gone, the seas return to their original peace, as if the whole fiasco from earlier had never happened. Thavas leads them back to where Nightrose's ship is, still drifting along shrouded in mist. His kelpie makes a noise of wariness as they approach the ghost ship, but still approaches to allow Nightrose to leap off and ascend the ladder from its deck.
"So you're really gonna let me go, 'Cap?" Nightrose teases, as she glances back to where Thavas watches her from his kelpie. The Admiral shoots her another glance, before sighing and looking away.
"You did come to help instead of running away on your own, so I've chosen to close one eye this time. Be warned, I will not let you off the next time we meet."
Nightrose smirks. "Or do I gotta just help ya out with some other thing again?"
"I suggest you leave, before I change my mind."
The pirate princess throws her head back and laughs, before waving and disappearing above the deck. Slowly, the ship begins to, ironically enough, come to life, pulling away with all the vitality of a well-built vessel and speeding into the mist that surrounds it.
Thavas continues watching until the mist clears, the ship disappearing with it.
He sighs and turns with his kelpie, towards where his own ship is. He'll need to issue new commands and order the others to return to their original formation, before they had scattered following Lambros' instructions.
That's enough chaos for one day.