//------------------------------// // Chapter fifty five, Recovery: Grab. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Volcano, ???, Jacky- I clenched my beak and tried to contain my groan as I rubbed at the throbbing pain in my head to feel some bandages beneath my fingers, never get close to a tank with a ridiculous amount of offensive power. “Did anyone get the number of the donkey cart that hit me?” I asked despite the entire room being a bit blurry, I had been out for a while and I was sitting in a bed. “Oh sure, blame the donkey! So what if I like hitching myself up to a cart and running over people on purpose, it’s not like I have a problem with running over people at random.” A donkey spoke up from nearby. “It doesn’t hurt me at all.” “Is that so…” Hearing Tianhuo speak up, the donkey gulped and started to cower at the orange blazing eyes that turned bright red for a few second as they glared him down. “I’ll be sure to have a guard follow you for the rest of your stay here sir, we wouldn’t want to have any unfortunate cart related accidents… now would we?” Tianhuo let out a small blast of fire harmlessly into the air to make the implied threat stick, she then turned away from eyeing the cowering donkey and came over to me. “So what’s that guy here for?” Having no clue why I would visited by Tianhuo in what I assumed to be a hospital, I waited for an answer to my question. “An incident involving slipping on spilt milk at the Huoshan Spa trying to escape an eldritch abomination, cracked a hip and partially broke a leg falling down some stairs and nearly gotten attacked by a scarecrow that somehow wandered into the city without the Huoshan Guard noticing. It likely got in through the sewers given what it was covered in.” Tianhuo rolled her eyes derisively. “Before you ask, yes, living scarecrows are a problem around here and they look vaguely like earth ponies. They are not a really big problem considering fire destroys them in seconds, they have no muscles to speak of and can’t physically harm you other than maybe poking straw into your eyes. Really they are more of a psychological horror thing for the unaware and are not actually dangerous. Don’t honestly know where they get their burlap sack clothing though, probably steal empty sacks of grain to make clothes out of them. We do use a lot of rice around here... could go for some curry now...” “Did I really need to know all that extra stuff?” I stated blithely. It was somewhat interesting, but on the whole unimportant as I wanted more current news. What was important was that Tianhuo was here to see me personally. I rested my beak on my right talons as I laid back in the bed. “So what do I, the most well-known pirate of horrible luck, owe this visit oh leader of the guards better than those found in Canterlot?” “It’s about what Teatime is waiting for, he’s waiting on you to make a move before he makes his. At least that’s the general consensus among our friends and acquaintances. The palace is preparing for a large scale assault and is building up food supplies for a possible evacuation point for all the civilians. The palace has been preparing for Shadow Horde leaks and now we’ve stepped up preparations on that front, we’re just about ready for any kind of possible siege.” What Tianhuo said made me sit up. “If he’s after the treasure in the Temple of Dark Flames, then he’s probably planning to attack you as soon as you leave with the Longma Key, or the gem your after as Savannah has informed me. I have no idea why you want the accursed thing, but if you can get out with that gem, it’s yours. They key to the shadow horde is not negotiable and will be immediately put in my hooves. You do realize the gem is likely to kill you if you use it right?” “Yes, I know the thing about it bypassing all magical heat and fire resistance, that it is capable of killing dragons as much as anything else with random bursts of flames that will hit the wielder lethally. I actually have an idea of how to contain and make use of it without killing myself even if it does create a random blasts of lethal fire.” I really wanted that gem, it’s why I came here. I hoped I fought honorably enough in the arena for it to count in the eyes of the mountain, because I’m certainly getting this foreboding sense of ‘something’ coming it. “So what happened and who won? From what you say, Savannah is doing okay, but how are the rest of my friends and family? I really want to know how Gene is doing.” “The rest of the coliseum is being torn down after Arizona and Velvet were done with it, there wasn’t much left standing after their fight really. Those two are quite powerful, even with their injuries they wouldn’t let go of each other after they passed out… it took our doctors a bit of doing to examine them and they are cuddled up to one another even now. Paprika is with them and is watching over them.” Quirking an eye at Tianhuo, I waved my left claw at her. “Oh, right, Arizona won the competition, your mate took a severe injury to his chest fighting Shocking Awe and his nervous system has already been mostly healed by that fox.” “What about me, how bad off am I? It doesn’t feel like anything is wrong with me.” I heard the sound of a spring breaking and even watching as something shot away from beneath the bed I was sitting on. I’d know that sound from anywhere, given it’s the same kind of sound that is usually heard before… “Ow… please go get some help, if Flotsam is around she can get me out of this!” Both ends of the bed had snapped up and smashed me between them. “I will do so.” Tianhuo stated as one of the hanging lights snapped and then swung into the mattress containing me, the glass smashed and went all over the place. The glass mostly surrounded me as I was sandwiched between the two halves of the mattress and any movement made me feel tiny pinpricks pressing against my down and feathers. “With greater haste I might add, because we do not want more damage to be dealt to Huoshan Hospital just by your very presence alone. That and it is unsafe for you to be around other patients. I will expedite the process of getting you out of here even if you are not fully healed.” “Quite understandable, please hurry before my blood becomes a condiment in this mineral rich mattress sandwich.” Staying calm in this situation was something other people wouldn’t do, I however have done this several times and happen to be glad that Flotsam could get me out of this with a quarter of a banana peel. “You are quite calm in the face of danger.” Even as she said this, Tianhuo was hurrying towards the door. “This is like the thirtieth time this has happened to me, I’ve long since learned to avoid hospitals unless I have no other choice. One of those times involved scalding hot nacho cheese, this is much better than that situation, but less tasty overall.” I would eventually have to tell the hospital authorities that keeping me here was as much a detriment to my and everyone else’s health. Letting me go early was for the best. I have and will likely never exit a hospital fully healed or without an injury of some kind. “Get me something to eat while you’re at it!” -A few hours later- “How you feeling Gene?” I held his left claws while sitting on the bed and he smiled up at me, must be happy to see me up and walking. “I’m okay, now that you’re here. Sweetcakes can apparently heal a lot of things short of death itself, given the energy and time to recuperate after tiring herself out. Too bad that she can’t cure diseases, she’d have been a great healer if she could cure all the sicknesses in the world. Heh, at least she can cure the common cold, now that’s magical.” He was going to be alright if he was faintly smiling like that. “Heard Arizona gave Shocking Awe a thrashing.” “She and Velvet apparently took down the whole coliseum and broke the arena inside it with their fight, all while beating each other black and blue of course.” I ran my left talons over the feathers on his head and he leaned into the touch. “Teatime is playing the waiting game, he can’t exactly get into the Temple of Dark Flames and seems to be unwilling to endanger himself to do so. Tianhuo said some guards saw his golems attempting to get in and the Magical Lotus Eater spat them out drained, we actually have to go in there and actively interact with it to get at the treasure. I think at least your honorable enough to settle the requirements, I don’t know about myself though.” “He probably has something more dangerous than that machine he attacked Sweetcakes with.” Gene was quite certain of it and so was I, give Teatime some time to build something and he can defeat most problems with machinery alone. “It won’t have the same weakness his previous machine had either.” I wouldn’t put it past Teatime to have something bigger. He was an engineer and begrudgingly I will admit that he had a genius level intellect or something close to it. I too was an engineer, but unlike him I’m not exactly good at building or making stuff from scratch. I can’t exactly build a party tank from nothing without a blueprint, he could probably do that in less than three hours given the materials and a large enough workforce of golems. “Agreed, but what we have no idea what he’s got waiting for us.” I was worried about that and was about to express my concerns on the subject when we were interrupted. “Mr. and Mrs. Eric?” A doctor came in looking over a clipboard. “Oh, we’re not married.” I felt Gene tightening his grip on my talons, I gave him my attention. “Yet.” He stated that as if it were a promise while looking me in the eyes. “Let’s preemptively say that we both know what the answer to that question will be if asked.” I smiled and Gene nodded. “Though I’m going to prefer Eric Chickadee La Perm as a family name, but we’re not forming a herd like Velvet is.” “Of course.” Gene nodded. “My eyes will never wander, on that you have my word Jacky. Though I hope you will allow for a number of extenuating circumstances beyond our control that I will go over with you at a later date.” “Right, well it seems Mr. Eric is doing okay for the most part, he’ll be well enough to leave by this evening.” The doctor then turned to me. “There is also a few other things that we need to discuss first…” -Lower tier, at that moment, Skelly- “So I’ll be back soon enough, tell Sweetcakes not to do anything… better yet let me write something down for you to give to her. I hope she doesn’t do anything destructive while I am busy taking care of this important errand issued by Tianhuo!” Flamberge told me in his usual loud voice as he rolled around in the dirt putting himself out, I didn’t think he caught fire nearly often enough to be considered 'Fiercely Flammable'. He quickly got his message written down and gave it to me. “Make sure that Sweetcakes gets that message, now come on let’s get to going!” “Right!” The longma wearing a Huoshan Guard garb ignited his back to bring out a pair of wings made of fire, he took to the air and Flamberge followed after him. “So… Skelly… want to go do something fun?” I turned to see Nefer the trident tailed cat crew member of Jacky’s crew looking up at me with big eyes, Flotsam was behind him and drinking a large amount of water from a pitcher. Nefer looked over his shoulder at her. “The Volcano is really hot and it makes my big sister get badly dehydrated.” I didn’t see a reason to deny him, though why he wanted to hang out with me was the more curious thing. I didn’t think he liked my spookier skeletal side that much given how quiet he'd get, but he was at least making an effort to talk to me. I nodded, but then wondered what we could do for fun. We couldn't watch any fights in the arena, mostly because it no longer existed in a useable format to watch Huoshan Guards train with one another. So what kind of entertainment was there around here aside from fighting? The spa wasn’t likely to do much for me and I already know they’ve been there. “Ugh… I don’t need to go to the bathroom with how quickly I keep drying out.” Stated Flotsam, who eventually snaked her way over to us. “So did Nefer ask you?” I nodded, though I didn’t know what he was asking me to do. “Good, now we need to go get Pom and Tianhuo, then we’ll do some things together that will calm the lambkin down.” Giving Flotsam a curious look, I motioned to her and held up the message Flamberge wanted me to deliver. “Yeah, that seems like a good idea. The last time Sweetcakes was left to her own devices she caused large explosion. We’ll get her to help us set up Tianhuo with Pom.” We were going to do what? I just stared at the two and blinked as I tried to get some form of comprehension to form in my mind. Forced relationships was always a recipe for disaster, I'm quite sure of that. “Don’t look so confused, they’re so cute together! One’s a soft and sweet and the other is stern yet highly supportive, they are basically perfect for each other!” I’d tell Flotsam I didn’t like where this was going, but no vocal chords and she hasn’t exactly picked up the intricacies of understanding a voiceless being. Arizona, Velvet and Paprika were a perfect group, but Arizona and Velvet ripped into each other like volatile badgers. I narrowed my eyes at her. “Okay, so I want to try doing something to ease up the tension around here, I know something horrible is going to happen soon and it won’t be because of Jacky’s luck alone. So I want us all to have a get together to ease up the tension.” -Middle Tier, Huoshan Hospital, Velvet- “I did not… you must have been imagining things Arizona!” I hugged Arizona tighter. Paprika snuggled her face into the left side of my neck and started rubbing Arizona’s belly with her right hoof. “Yes you did, I know you called me your super cow Velvet!” She hugged me back just as hard. I just had to prove myself the better hugger here! I have no idea why Paprika was giggling loudly or why the doctors were trying to separate us. So we were a little enthusiastic about squeezing each other!