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Klasi Stryde The distress call came out quick. Sky pirates attacking an airport in the shoulders of the Machine Beast Bigtusk, reserved for the use of the nobility, wealthy traders, and the like. For the locals, this is a simple situation. For those from outside, the description is a little weird.

For those flying in from outside, or with cameras or the like, Bigtusk is monolithic. It's far too big to see the whole of it with your eye, a massive mechanical animal that's probably the size of a small city, walking across the earth, which can't even be seen at these heights (and has no warpgates accessible nearby, if any). The beast is clearly named for the massive pair of metal tusks it has near the head, which can barely be glimpsed from the shoulders if you fly back far enough.

Inside the shoulders, where the action is, is a sleek, almost ritzy area. Garages open in the side of the beast at the shoulders, big enough for airships (which are all bird-like, with wings and beak-like protrusions) to dock. The walls are painted in gold and silvers, and the check-in buildings are made of iron and steel, simple and sleek utilitarian designs, though they're covered in shining leters and murals, and are very clean. From the ports, you can see other massive beasts in the landscape outside, travelling at what appear to be glacial paces.

Though you're probably not watching those, because pirates are attacking. A large airship had docked at Bigtusk's port, been revealed to be full of pirates, and quickly took over the security with their arms, numbers, and planning. Hostages of all sorts have been taken, from the nobles, to the traders, to security personnel. There's probably two dozen pirates left, a couple taken out in the skirmish, though most are just holding hostages, or moving valuables into a big crate, which is full of metals, jewels, and art objects.

Among the pirates is the one appearing to be their captain, because he looks kind of ridiculous and has a pirate hat. He's a big guy, over six feet tall, with muscle, and a giant sword. The sword has a barrel at the end of it, and a fuse at the handle. The pirate is also carrying small metal spheres, as black as night, around his waist.

Among the hostages being escorted is a teenager, probably around sixteen. He's wearing a suit vest and has brown hairs and eyes, and is eying the treasure crate as he passes by. He speaks up as he's escorted towards the hostage section. "Oh man, jewels! Can I have those?"

The boy promptly gets thwapped on the head with the blunt side of a cutlass. Where are the heroes?
Mei Hatsume      It sounded simple enough: A hostage situation, lots of rich traders and nobles, and above all else? SKY PIRATES. RICH PEOPLE. TREASURE.

     Mei's not sure what to focus on first. She's doing a fair amount of gawking as she climbs along Bigtusk, using a combination of wires from her harness and boost pads in her boots to propel herself along the massive structure... Beast... Thingy.

     Focus, Mei! There's still pirates to contend with, and fighting them head on isn't going to end well. No, she'll need to strategize today! First things first: Scouting out their locations. As she reaches the pirate airship in question, she lingers near the ground to poke her head up just above where they've docked, trying to get a clear visual of their locations. Once she can sort out where they are, then she can work out the rest!
William Pauwel Where there are people in need, he's not far behind.

When there are lives in danger, he can always be found.

Where the innocent cry out for salvation, he's right there with a smile that seems to say 'it'll all be okay...!'

It's...!

Not Allmight. He's busy and/or sick at the moment. Instead, you'll have to just deal with...

This cowboy-looking guy, who probably only showed up because he heard there were weird giant ruin robots and decided that he couldn't possibly have heard correctly, and went to go check it out. And then accidentally got himself caught in the middle of an actual goddamn pirate rampage.

Well. The good news is that he's actually /not/ a hostage right now. The bad news is that he's also standing right there in the middle of a potentially super awful situation with no real good way to deal with the whole 'bloodthirsty pirates have a bunch of guns to a bunch of peoples' heads' thing.

Well.

That's what calling for backup is for...!

Problem two arises from that, though: What the heck can he do to make sure backup gets here in time?

Well!

Bet on honor among thieves, maybe?

And so with a clamor of scifi spurs and the whirring of a full set of cybernetic servomotors, ~someone~ steps out from behind a crate with a robotic hand twitching near a too-large handgun and a hat tilted down over his eyes. "Well well well lookit what we have here, true as day, buncha varmints shootin' up a place of honest business," Will drawls like he's heard in hundreds of different videos hundreds of times before. "Buncha yeller-bellee'd, lilly-livered sops more like. How's 'bout the real sunvabitch in charge here come and get 'imself a real fight, elsewise I start blowin' yer boat to tarnation and back."

Will.

Has no idea what half the words he just said mean.

BUT THAT'S OKAY, he's fought worse than entire pirate crews before. He can do this. Just gotta call out their leader...!
Bodyn Ddynol      Hero might be a bit of a stretch.

     Something stirs in the hold as the pirates start dragging off the young man. It's a sneaky thing, with long blonde hair popping out of a weird hood, with empty eyes the size of dinner plates and buttons down the front of a heavy cloak, with equal parts skirt and pants and weird glowing sci-fi bits attached. It's hard to imagine how it managed to be sneaky, how it managed to *get here*, but it's here.

     It's here because it's been following Klasi.

     It's here because it's been following Klasi and it didn't want Klasi to notice, so it sort of set down in the cargo bay, blended into its natural habitat, and hung out, thinking about what friends means. Friends are treasure. Humans talk about friends all the time. They're at least as important as shiny things.

     Then again, /are they/ though?

     It creeps through the boxes, a weird old-timey blunderbus slung over its shoulder with glowing blue bits attached. It's remarkably creepy, remarkably sneaky, for something that's covered in sci-fi gubbins, but it's managing to stay hidden, exploiting movement routes and moving in between various boxes and crates and other things to pull it off.

     And it stops.

     Behind the treasure box.

     It moves its hand forward. A small drill just sort of grows out of its wrist, not useful as a weapon, but the kind you might use to break a lock. Silently, the drill pushes into the crate.

     And quietly, gold starts to flow into a bag.

     Friends are great.

     Shiny things are greater.
Sarracenia      As that airship remains docked there another moves in on the great beast. This one however looks like a massive wooden galleon that might have been seen sailing the oceans long ago. Except where sails should be there are horizontal propellers. And running around on deck are strange plant creatures with roots for legs/fee and huge leaves as arms/hands. Their heads are red bulbs with white spots, and are full of huge shark-like teeth.

     Riding on the bow of that ship is a fairly tall young lady in a shimmering red royal gown with a little golden crown on her head. Resting on the deck beside her is a hammer taller than she is with a head of solid metal that must weigh much more than her. As the wooden airship passes over the pirate ship the girl leaps off the ship and plummets down toward the pirate ship, riding her hammer down and aiming for the area inside the pirate ship just inside the docking mechanism. The air actually breaks around the hammer like a comet falling, and if she doesn't smash through the top of the ship she is going to give those within one heck of a ringing in their ears.

     Whether she breaks through or not, the princess makes her way inside before giving her long, shining, reddish-blonde hair a swish. "No need to worry! The mighty Princess Sarracenia, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom, is here to rescue you from these ruffians!"
Klasi Stryde Heroes (and a treasure chest) decide to make things right. They each come in separately, with their own methods and motives.

Mei Hatsume will have to struggle against the wind and the altitude as she climbs Bigtusk, but with her mobility and grapplers, she can do it. If anyone was watching they'd think she's amazing, but everyone's focused on pirates, and she's able to linger towards the side of the port. Her powerful eyes will allow her to easily survey the area, and get some information: about 20-ish pirates, excluding the cannonsword captain, carrying cutlasses and pistols (and one with a shotgun). Their weapons appear to be modern-to-futuristic compared to Earth tech. They're split mostly into four groups of five, two groups focusing on hostages, a group guarding the treasure, and a group flanking around the captain like a hype crew. The treasure is closest towards the pirate airship, while the hostages are being taken into one of the buildings, and the captain is in the middle of the port.

Bodyn, meanwhile, is sneaky, and can slip from box to box, getting to the treasure crate. His plan works like a charm, siphoning gold into the bag. It works a little too good, because one of the pirates guarding the crate glances over, sees the crate is lighter, and calls out to a buddy. "Hey, didn't we have more than this?" The pirate's watching the crate intently now, moving up to it and watching it, trying to figure out what the hell's going on.

Though he might be distracted as a high-tech cowboy shows up. His gun gets glances and whispers, but not for the reason you might expect - it seems like they're familiar with such weapons, but they're rare enough that they're like 'man, I want one of those, where'd he get one? So cool...'

Cowboys aren't common around here, though, and the pirates start moving to grab their guns...but the captain steps forward instead, scraping his cannonsword against the steel. "You're picking a challenge with me, you punk? Do you even know who I am?"

"I'm Cannonball Dave, one of the captains of the Sharpjaw Fleet! If you think you can take me on just because you have a fancy weapon like me, you'll be disappointed!"

The pirates around Cannonball Dave start whooping and hollering, though something else happens to distract them. It turns out that the boy, sixteen year old Klasi Stryde, is a Watchman. And he's getting radio notifications from the group's conversation. And he decides, you know, now is the best time to respond.

At normal voice-level, without hiding it.

The pirate escorting him turns around and moves to grapple for the radio, thwacking Klasi again. Klasi might have gotten taken out by even more blows, if the pirate hadn't been distracted by the giant ship flying in and the princess smashing her hammer into their metal airship, damaging it. It doesn't destroy the ship, but it's enough to just plain piss off Cannonball Dave, who shouts to his hypemen. "Agh, the ship! Go, capture that princess! We can ransom her for a fortune!"

The situation changes. The five hypemen move to attack Sarracenia with bullets and cutlasses, while five of the hostage-takers move to hand off their non-security hostages to the others, who are very ungrateful about getting more work shoved off on them.

Klasi, meanwhile, manages to get away due to the distraction. Does he decide to help the hostages? Or fight Cannonball Dave? Or just escape?

Nope, he beelines towards the treasure chest. He really wants those jewels to be kept safe, and being with him is totally the safest place they can be. It's not stealing if you're taking them from pirates. It's liberation!

This also means the pirates guarding the treasure draw their pistols and manuever to shoot Klasi with their pistols. This could be messy.
Klasi Stryde Cannonball Dave, meanwhile, charges at Will with that massive sword, moving to try and cleave into him. "Take this, you punk! No one messes with the Sharpjaw Fleet's operations!" The sword is big, and is probably a gun, so he may have some tricks up his sleeve, but it seems he's focusing on brute strength.
Bodyn Ddynol      Oh no! Klasi is in danger! Friend is in danger! One and only precious friend! It took Bodyn ages to get a friend! If Bodyn loses a friend now, it will probably takes before Bodyn gets another!

     ...on the other hand, this is a lot of shinies. Maybe Bodyn can just buy a new friend. Maybe Bodyn can just...purchase friends? Humans purchase all kinds of things with money. Bodyn has definitely heard big humans talk about purchasing women for a while. Women are a kind of human, right? So if you can purchase humans you can purchase friends!

     Hooray!

     Moral crisis resolved, Bodyn drills two more holes, emptying more gold into more pouches. Gosh, it has a lot of pouches.

     Most of these pouches are being emptied inside it and reused.
Mei Hatsume      There's a lot more people on the scene than Mei had initially expected. As she picks bugs out of her hair and goggles, she starts to sort out just who she should focus on.

     The treasure crew? No, the treasure's a low priority. The leader? No, he's being distracted by some sort of high tech cowboy. The leader's pack? No, the crazy princess can probably take care of herself.

     That leaves the hostage crew. With half of them splitting off, taking five down quickly doesn't sound too difficult! Pulling herself up onto solid ground, Mei goes into a sudden sprint towards the team nearest the hostages, bolstered by the boosters on her harness and boots to propel her dangerously quickly at them.

     "Mei Hatsume here, ready to show you what my babies can do!" Grinning brightly, she aims herself directly at the hostage team before leaping above them, then spraying at them with... Water?

     Very slippery water that lingers on the floor and resists simply being wiped off. "But wait! That's not all~" Holding a finger out for dramatic effect, Mei sprays a similar-looking glue on the floor, then starts running once more.

     Her objective: Trying to get thme to slip up from the first spray and get stuck in the second! Hopefully, the fact that they have guns won't be too much of an issue.
William Pauwel Oh Juno that kid who's a hostage over there is a watchman and will had no idea he's the worst fixer ever oh Juno--

Wait, shit. No! There's more important things to worry about. More important than Princess Sarracenia driving her ship right into the dock. More important even than treasure.

Will's got a swarthy pirate captain stomping towards him who wants to take off his head! Will only has one of those and he's PRETTY SURE he can't just replace it with cybernetics like he did with his arms.

So instead, Will resorts to that tried and true survival strategy.

                          FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT                          

"Fahahaha! Y'darn tootin' I'm callin' y' out, Cannonball fer brains. Sharpjaw, more like dullhead! Y'all call that a fancy weapon? Come on, that there's just a swordgun thing. What kind've person puts a gun on a sword? It makes 'em both worse fer it. Nah, I've got me here somethin' real special. Somethin' real nice."

Will isn't entirely lying.

He is, however, MAYBE EXAGGERATING HIS PROWESS the teeny tiniest bit.

Or maybe not.

"Don't blink now," Will drawls as a set of wheels built into his boots start whirring and scooting... /backwards!/ He draws his weapon in the same smooth motion, Judgment sliding out of its holster and immediately crackles with electronic chaos. He fires once, twice, three times! Each shot sends ripples and arcs of lighting coruscating through the air. Two head straight for the blade and cannon combination-- and the third is aimed right at those strange cannonball things at Dave's waist.

Let's see how well he can weather this storm...!?
Sarracenia      Sarracenia draws lots of attention, just the way she likes it! Guns and swords are aimed at her, and she twirls her hammer rapidly in front of her to deflect most of the bullets, though some manage to rip through her dress and one grazes her arm. She winces, then blinks. "They...want to ransom me?" she says quietly with a starry-eyed expression. She almost just...lets them capture her. But then, she realizes that she's here as the hero and not the damsel! It's kind of a new role for her, but she's going to give it a try!

     As those cutlasses slash for her she twirls away gracefully, bringing her giant hammer around in the same moment. "Take this! Hahaha!" Her swing hits like a freight train, and she obviously intends to send the entire group of swordsmen flying with just that one hit before she twirls her way toward the gunmen. But, rather than closing in on them with her hammer she reaches into her purse and suddenly a shower of little black bombs with big eyes and cute little shoes comes raining down on them.

     Despite their size, the little Bob-ombs pack quite a wallop! "You should all just surrender now! The amazing Princess Sarracenia never loses to low class criminals like you!"
Klasi Stryde Mei decides to deal with the hostage-takers. Five of them are holding a whole bunch of hostages, well, hostage. The other five are getting ready to join the fray, but as Mei comes in, they're definitely willing to take her on. What could she do with - is that a spray gun?

As the water slips onto the floor, they try and run forward to attack her, and manage to make fools of themselves, slipping back into the glue. One of them avoids the glue, moving to strike at Mei with his sword, while the ones with the hostages are very careful walking (though one slips anyways), pulling out their pistols to try and gun her down. That's five guys, which is a lot, though...

The security personnel among the hostages, tied up with rope, try to break free. With some assistance, they could probably be turned against the pirates, giving everyone some backup!

Sarracenia actually confuses the pirates when she considers being captured, but she decides to fight back, and her hammer hits hard. She knocks all of the pirates back, knocking one out cold, and then another is hit with one of bombs, who quickly accepts her offer of surrender. The last three look between themselves, look to her, and then decide that they're going to try and swarm her, hitting her with their swords as much as possible. "You can't take us! We're the Sharpjaw Fleet!"

Will pisses off Cannonball Dave, who keeps charging right at him, just to get three bolts of electricity for his problem. The captain staggers backwards, the metal conducting electricity and coursing it through his body...but he seems strong, because he doesn't immediately collapse. He's clearly in a lot of pain, though, so keeping that up might be effective. "H-how dare you, I'm one of Cruzer's best captains! He entrusted me to rob this Beast...and I won't let you get in my way! CANNONBALL SHOT!"

Calling his attack, Cannonball Dave points his sword forwards, and lights the fuse with a lighter he grabs from inside his hat. The fuse burns...and then at the end of it, the sword fires, a small but fast cannonball flying forward to try and hit Will straight in the chest. If that works at the least as a distraction, Dave will then charge forward for another swing, though he's a bit dizzy from the electricity.

Bodyn manages to completely empty the chest of all its loot while the treasure guards are busy shooting Klasi. They don't even notice, because they're killing an unarmed teenager.

Klasi can't dodge bullets coming straight at him. They impact into his chest, drawing blood and causing him to stop in his tracks, before he collapses to the ground. He appears to be dead. Three of the pirates go forward to check him, while another two return to the treasure - and one screams as he finds it empty. "The treasure! What happened to the treasure? It's gone!"

All of the treasure guard turn towards the chest, which turns out to be a problem - anyone watching or glancing in Klasi's direction can notice his body start to move, starting to stand up, and then, his hand start to change. It begins to shift into a sword, medieval-style with a crossguard. His vest is damaged and there's holes showing his chest, covered in blood...but no wounds?

"The treasure is gone? How dare you! I was going to claim that! I bet you all turned it invisible so I couldn't, or something equally evil! I hate pirates!"

Rambling partially because he just got shot up, and partially because he's an idiot, Klasi charges at one of the pirates, moving to run through his shoulder with the sword. This leads the other three closest to him to all swarm Klasi, who is outnumbered and still getting his bearings from being shot, while the fifth pirate, closest to the chest (and Bodyn) is about to join in. Maybe now that he has the treasure, the mimic might decide to chip in!

Or he could run off with it. Who knows?
Mei Hatsume      As Mei zips around, she's having some sort of conversation with herself. Or is it someone over the radio?

     "Maybe a modified bear trap... Or an extendable grip..." It could be either, really. As the first of the hostage takers approach her, however, her grin broadens as she stops momentarily to observe the work of her oil and glue slicks. "Hah! I told you my babies were-" Her grandstanding stops as she ducks sideways to avoid an unpleasant meeting with a sword and several bullets, although her headset is shorn right off.

     Maybe it's better if she doesn't let herself get distracted so much. "Hey, hey! Using guns in here could be dangerous, you know! Explosive decompression is..." Wait. Isn't this area open to let the airships in, anyway? Taking note of that, she focuses more on actually avoiding the gunshots and swordening, darting around with both air-bursts from her harness and the harness' hydraulic bars jabbing out to keep her moving at an erratic pace with no clear pattern.

     "come on, you're supposed to be sky pirates! Flying cowboys! You can hit me better than that." She taunts while flinging herself into the air again with a boosted jump, taking note of the security among the hostages. Although the high vantage point may leave her an easy target, it's also an easy spot to start firing arrows downwards!

     None of the arrows are actually aimed to hit the pirates in the face, though. No, she's making sure to scatter those arrows around them to hide her real targets: The ground near the security personnel in the hopes that they might be able to break free, and a few wired arrows at the sides of the hostage-holding crew. All she needs to do now is see if they take the bait or noticed!

     Also, not getting shot on the way down.
Bodyn Ddynol      The last of the treasure is deposited into the Mimic, and friend Klasi is still alive, and everything is A-OK. Bodyn is pleased as punch.

     Bodyn is pleased as punch right up until the Bob-ombs arrive. Fire is bad; the Definitely A Human Being was already avoiding the Captain's little lighter, so when the Bob-ombs start going off, there's a horrid, shrill, high-pitched noise, like a truck backfiring with the pitch inverted. The cloaked thing goes scrabbling back at an angle human beings certainly can't bend, blonde-and-black hair flying everywhere as it crabwalks up onto one of the crates to get AWAY FROM THE FIRE. As it scrabbles, it starts flinging out one of its gloved...hands?. Its empty dinnerplate eyes widen as it FLINGS the empty treasure crate in the direction of the people attacking Klasi. It flings more crates as it scrabbles over them, firing them off at rapid speeds with what appears to be outright telekinetic powers. Desperately, its head turns left and right.

     And then its huge dinner-plate eyes turn brown, and black streaks like a tuxedo just sort of *grow* along its cloak.

     Fire can't touch it if it's shielded. It will be safe if it can protect itself!
William Pauwel SPEAKING OF FLYING COWBOYS.

Cannonball Dave isn't down, and that is a /problem./ The scifi cowboy known only as This Asshole Who Showed Up And Started Badmouthing The Captain hisses a curse as said captain recovers from his brief (and enduring) electrical encounter... And fires a cannonball at him.

A cannonball.

An actual, goddamn cannonball.

Will is speechless for just long enough to be considered a mistake, and it's only by reflex that he manages to avoid being turned into a blood-gargler by interposing one of his metal arms in the cannonball's path. There's a solid WHANG of steel and Ancient metamaterial crumpling around the spent cannonball as the impact sends Will flying back and unable to dash out of the way of the captain's followup--

Wait. No.

Not /un/able.

"Aaaaa damnit I just fixed that!" Will yells as his fist suddenly erupts with an arc of discharging electromagnetic force. It rockets sideways, tethered to the rest of his limb by a long wire that pulls taut just as soon as his hand grabs hold of something solid enough to support his weight. One moment, Captain Dave has the Scifi Cowboy dead to rights, and the next, he's several crucial meters away and aiming that ~shiny gun~ of his again.

"I'm gonna have to replace the armor /again/ 'cause of that! But hey, y'all gave me a name, so I won't be too mad. Hope this Cruzer of yers has enough to cover my repair bill!" Will fires! Again! He really seems to like blasting pirates with lightning. Maybe it's because it was particularly effective the first time.

...Or maybe it's just that the other shots are /hilariously lethal/ in comparison and he's still just a gigantic softie at heart.
Sarracenia      Princess Sarracenia laughs as all but a few of the pirates who were after her are taken down. When the remaining pirates rush her she tries to block them with her hammer, but when a few slashes catch her dress and sides she yelps and leaps backward, leaving a few metal things with blinking red lights stuck to the ground in her wake.

     Proximity Mines!

     When the swashbuckling pirates chase after her they inevitably have to pass over those mines, and when they do...more explosions! Who would have thought a princess would like blowing things up?

     The horrid shriek from Bodyn makes her cover her ears as she lands. "S-stop that, whoever you are!!" she demands, then blinks as she sees all those crates going flying near the source of that sound. "...are you alright?"
Klasi Stryde Mei is primarily able to dodge attacks, but the hostage-takers keep up the bullets - though they attempt to dodge when the arrows come at them, unaware they're fakes. She manages to hit some with the wire arrows, and the security personnel reach to grab any arrows that they can, cutting their bindings open with them. One of them, probably the highest-ranking officer, moves to grab a fallen gun from the pirates who slipped, and open up on a hostage-taker. The rest of his friends aren't fully untied, though, so he may need some assistance, as the pirates are moving to shoot him.

Bodyn's screech distracts the pirates, and they're not expecting telekinetic crate flinging. They pelt the pirates, knocking one out of the fight outright, but the others merely get winded, bruised, and fall, and have to grab their swords and return. Except for the one Klasi injured, who Klasi starts smacking over and over with his sword. "How do you guys like getting hit in the head with this stuff, huh? It hurts!"

The four remaining treasure pirates split up. One is being beat up by Klasi, until his buddy runs Klasi through the side with a sword, hoping to kill him, which sadly doesn't happen, because once the sword's pulled back out, Klasi starts regenerating, even if he's in pain, gasping for air, and having to up his power to fight back - turning the knight's sword into a laser knight's sword and cleaving one of the blades in twain. He'll probably be able to handle two, it seems.

The other two run at Bodyn, one drawing his gun and firing at Bodyn, and the other trying to run him through with a sword. They're not expecting shielding, though, or aiming for anything else but center of mass. The crates litter the battlefield, so they may be able to still be used to trip them up or slam the pirates into them, though!

Will is fighting Cannonball Dave, who thinks he has the cowboy well done and beaten, up until he rocket arms away, draws his gun, and shows that attitude. Dave's eyes widen, as the electricity hits him center-mass and surges through his body, almost completely taking him down.

Almost, because Dave tries to keep going. He's clearly going to be taken down in one hit, and his cannonsword is out of ammo, so he's charging slowly and sloppily at Will trying to just take him out with the blade. He looks...desperate? "N-no, I can't lose! Cruzer might eat me if I do!" He also seems to be actually worried about that.

Sarracenia takes out most of the rest of the pirates rushing her with mines. Two are blasted straight back, down and out, but one manages to miss the brunt of the explosion, though he's heavily wounded and bleeding. The pirate tries to rush Sarracenia with his sword, and actually speaks up, gruff and older. "Who are you to say what we can or can't do? Just because you're rich and a noble...you don't understand our plight! How else are we supposed to make a living in this world? You nobles know nothing! We don't even get to eat meat!"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia twirls her hammer to catch that incoming sword, then hmphs as they clash. "Do whatever it was these people did to earn their money, you idiot! Or ask for help if you need it! But stealing is a good way to get yourself jailed or killed! Just look at the mess you guys have made, and the mess that has been made of your fellow pirates! Is that all worth a bit of money? If you need jobs, the Sundew Royal Navy is always...HIRING!"

     With that last emphasized word she twirls her hammer again, aiming to throw the pirate off balance before spinning around completely to deliver one more devistating hammer blow just for that last pirate. "SO APPLY!" She apparently assumes that it won't be enough to kill. "Then you will learn how to show proper respect to a beloved princess!!"
Bodyn Ddynol      Gunfire is not fire! It is guns! Bullets smash into Bodyn with a strange, off-kilter sound. It sounds like...wood? Metal?...it's hard to determine in the middle of a firefight.

     Some splinters drop to the floor.

     Bodyn lets out another of those horrible reverse-truck-backfiring shrieks as the man with the sword comes charging forward. It just surges into the man, head-first. As it charges, the tips of its blonde hair turn pink, and its dinnerplate brown eyes zoom outwards like goggles, and weird wooden belts come wrapping out around the cloak.

     As the swordsman runs forward Bodyn shrieks again, this time a much lower tone. A pair of...treasure chests?...explode out of the weird brown belts, maws opening wide as they fly towards the swordsman and the gunman, seeking to close and trap them before they can do any further harm.

     Bodyn trills a triumphant, delighted, musical noise.

     It bounces up and down, excitedly, and then walks over to poke the chests.

     Poke, poke. Poke, poke.

     Bodyn produces what looks like a notepad and starts scribbling on it with what looks like a pen, if notepads and pens were made of wood and metal.
Mei Hatsume      Space cowboy made sense. Exploding hammer princess made sense. Even transforming arm guy made sense! That weird transforming box thing with the screwy eyes, though?

     That's making much less sense. She'll have to take a closer look at it later, though, since all the tech and... Whatever it's doing have certainly piqued her interest! For now, though, she's finally prioritizing the hostage situation fully.

     A lot of that focus may have to do with getting shot at. Although the air bursts from the harness keep her from eating a bullet to the torso, it's not quite enough to compensate for her lack of foot-mobility, and she takes a shot to the shoudler that sends her spiralling downwards with a painful landing!

     "Yeech... N-not a bad hit, but you can do better than that! A Hero won't go down from a little..." Doing a quick somersault that shouldn't be possible wearing boots her size (mostly thanks to the hydraulic bars launching her upwards), Mei grimaces at the pain lancing through her shoulder, that whole maneuver not really helping to keep it still. "... A lot of pain! But don't you know?" Biting back the pain in her shoulder, she starts darting around again and moving in a Z-like pattern towards the pirates gunning for the freed officer.

     "Battle scars just make someone look even cooler!" Once she lands, she keeps the bars extended and electrifies while dashing between the pirates, aiming to bowl them over with the electrified bars themselves and shock them into submission.
William Pauwel Cannonball Dave is on his last legs. Will would make a joke about pirates and peglegs but those aren't really a thing on Tellus and also he's not some kind of racist what's wrong with you. More importantly, however, Dave also... Has a very good reason for trying desperately not to get eaten?

Is that a thing here?

Is /cannibal pirates/ a thing in this world?

"What the heck guy," Will gawps as he dodges and weaves back and away from the skypirate's last-ditch frantic sword-flailing. "Your boss /eats/ people? And you work for him!? There are so many things wrong there I can't even begin to imagine. But...!"

But! These pirates are in... Kind of a bad spot. Yeah? Like, there's definitely something more afoot here than meets the eye, and honestly, that's kind of sort of a thing that they should probably address, isn't it?

Will frowns.

Thoughts tick through his brain.

Suddenly, he gets... An idea...!

Will roars in reply and charges boldly into Dave's wild swing. At the very last moment, he pulls the trigger and...

                                  *FLASH!*                                  

The two disappear in a globe of light...! There are sounds of steel smashing against steel. Metal meeting metal. A fierce struggle, and then...!

When the light clears, there's only one man standing.

The scifi cowboy is... no more...?!

...

Of course, that's only if folks don't look too hard. In reality, Will is hanging from underneath the sky plaform, having darted down there and slipped up into the scaffolding to hide after slapping a ramshackle spare communicator into a particular pirate captain's ear.

There are people in this world in need of aid.

...Aid... From a horrible cannibal pirate master.

If nobody else can give it, then at the very least... The Watch can, and the Watch must...!
Klasi Stryde The pirate just glares at Sarracenia as they clash. "You nobles, acting like you know anything! If it was that simple, I'd-"

He doesn't get to finish that thought. The hammer knocks him off balance, before knocking him to the ground and out. He seems to be alive, though he's definitely going to have some broken bones and a lot of medical bills. The pirate's ship is mostly clear, except for the treasure area.

Which is already being dealt with by Bodyn and Klasi. Klasi manages to knock out one of the pirates on him and gets the heavily-wounded one to surrender, while Bodyn's flying treasure chests fly forward. The swordsman isn't expecting it - as they fly at him, their maws chomp him up, capturing him. The gunman tries to shoot the one coming at him, but even if it works, which it might not - they're simple bullets, he freaks out enough that he drops his gun, and surrenders either way.

The pirate trapped in the chest is going to be very confused as Bodyn walks over and pokes it. But it should be...valuable...research?

Mei stays alive despite the pirate's best hope, and manages to electrify them with the hydraulic bars. One manages to survive, though the security officer captures him at gunpoint, as more personnel escape with the arrows and manage to bust out, moving for the rest of the hostages. The nobles here are definitely going to want to know more about her and her gear.

William Pauwel responds to the captain, who seems genuine about his fear, but Cannonball Dave doesn't speak up again. As the blast of light goes off, though, he's bewildered, and then -

And then Will is dead?! Well, that's what it looks like, and the security personnel and pirates who surrendered can definitely see that he succeeded against the strange cowboy. Maybe that'll be enough to save his life. And whatever Will decides to do with the communicator to help, too. Cannonball Dave's going to try and steal an airship and escape now, though he's easy enough to just take out.

As the fighting dies down, Klasi just falls to the floor, sitting crosslegged, as he turns his sword-hand back into a regular hand. He turns towards Bodyn, nearby doing SCIENCE on captured pirates. "Hey, thank you for the help! Those pirates stole all the treasure...but you saved my life! What's your name?" Klasi has no idea at all that it's Bodyn, because his radio was knocked away from him earlier.

Which, after he gets a response, he'll go to get. It sucks not being able to hear all the fun voices!

And in the end, there'll be money handed over, as promise. It's not much, because all their loot mysteriously disappeared, but it seems that the people here will be very much thanked for their actions. And no hostages were killed, either, which makes the nobles very favourable to their heroes.
Bodyn Ddynol      With the gunman restrained, Bodyn has plenty of time. It pokes, prods, and explores the swordsman's chest thoughtfully, scritching down notes. It's thoughtful. Further designs will have to incorporate better locks. Better hinges. More flexibility. More metal! Yes-yes, more metal.

     Bodyn picks up the box the swordsman is trapped in. The box disappears into its heavy cloak. He's probably fine. The swordsman is probably fine.

     Ignore the vague, muffled screaming sound. It's mostly covered by Bodyn's delighted, musical trilling as it walks over to the other box, hoists it up, and offers it to Klasi like a present. Bodyn is letting Klasi take responsibility for the arrest! How nice.

     Friends are a good thing.

     Please ignore the screaming.
Sarracenia      The princess was going to respond with snark, but hearing these guys might literally be in danger of being eaten if they fail makes things a bit more serious. She gives her hammer a twirl, then rests it on her shoulder. She is about to ask what will be done with them but...Will is gone? She blinks in surprise before looking around.

     And where is that screaming coming from. Curiousity gets the better of her and Sarracenia starts investigating. "Does anyone else hear that?" she asks as she tries to follow the sound.
William Pauwel Will is not gone! Will is just kind of... Hanging out in the rafters down under the dock.

Yep. Just kind of waiting there. He has his reasons. Also cool guys never take credit for doing cool things...!
Bodyn Ddynol      Sarra gets just up to Bodyn before the screaming goes silent. There's a little burp.

     "No-no," Bodyn says cheerfully, "This am being Bodyn Ddynol also human saying Bodyn Ddynol also human hearing nothing!"

     The weird cloaked...person...gives a happy little trill, takes Sarra's hand in both of its, and raises her hand up slightly towards its chest. "Hi hello how are you nice to meet you what's updog how's it going good morning good afternoon good day good evening good night hiya howdy babe hey there!"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia comes to a stop in front of Bodyn as that screaming stops, then hmms. She blinks as she looks at Bodyn, then starts to take a step back before her hand is grabbed. As Bodyn starts babbling greetings she gets a bit frazzled. "Alrightalright stop that!" she exclaims, forcibly pulling her hand back. This guy is so weird! She huffs, then gives her hair a toss. "Well, if things are settled here I will return to my kingdom." she says, giving the crowd a smile and a wave before she goes.