Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Seven, Shrew-d Operators: Rescue plans.

-Soricini Sorex-

This contemptable… well I can’t exactly call him a maggot, he practically is one. This bug thought he could be with my daughter? At least I knew he wasn’t in this for the power, if my daughter actually likes him then I’ll be fine with that much. This Tarsus is not a threat to me in any sense and is pretty much not very interesting, aside from being an oddly colorful changeling.

I looked at the free agents. They didn’t seem like much, but looks were deceiving. That cat was a clever one, she’s the one that gave me an opening and I used it for all it was worth. The pony… I didn’t know much about ponies, but she had come armed with a sword at least. So there’s that.

I’ve been a desert traveling nomad most of my life and being stuck here because of a big, wild and boorish monster call Gonnan had soured my mood quite a bit. I wanted to fill him full of gunpowder and shove a torch down his throat.

At least Verko is willing to make decent deals with me and not kidnap my daughter, he didn’t exactly have the manpower to keep her out of my grasp anyway and was setting himself up as the next crime boss. I cared little about that as Gonnan did kidnap my daughter and we’d make him pay, but we can’t take any direct actions against him yet.

“You’d be right, my daughter has a thing for all kinds of pickled foods.” The changeling just gave me a friendly smile. It was almost disturbing to see a changeling that wasn’t full of holes. I turned to the two free agents. “How much do you want for your services? Whatever the changeling is paying you, I can double it.”

I focused on the Abyssinian, she was the interesting one. To just walk into a bar and leave it with her companions without so much as a single scratch after instigating the fight that knocked out a number of Gonnan’s enforcers.

“How does one pay twice of nothing?” She queried innocently and I just stared at the cat completely flabbergasted.

“Maybe they’ve actually figured out how to divide by zero.” The pony commented dryly looking to her friend with something approaching passionate affection.

“Don’t be silly Fizzy, everyone knows the answer to that is always two zeroes.” What… even… is the cat actually serious about that?

“Jade, you’re an idiot sometimes.” The giggling pony received a cheeky smile from the cat.

“He’s… not paying you to be here then?” I slowly asked, just to make sure I heard them right.

“Not a single bit, doubloon or chunk of gold, did I stutter when I said we were ‘free’ agents? At least I’ve personally already gotten something out of coming to Klugetown.” There was an amused look on the cats face and I felt a cold sensation travel down my spine. How is she profiting from this? “We’ll also take whatever we can carry and will steal an airship on our way out, so there’s also that. Speaking of taking things, why haven’t you rescued your daughter yet if you already know where she is?”

“The problem is that Gonnan always has the keys on him to every room in the building she’s being held captive in.” I couldn’t rescue her without going straight through the swine, I haven’t come up with a solution to that yet. “We can’t steal just one key or all of them, because he’ll definitely know about it if we tried to steal them. He’s the only one allowed to touch them and he’s one of the toughest crime bosses around, his entourage isn’t any easier to deal with and they’re only about half his massive size.”

“I take it he’s a bore.” The cat stated out loud.

“The biggest one around, he’s holding everyone to a status quo.” I put away my sword and crossed my arms to stare down the lazy looking cat. “His version of it anyway. It is admittedly effective.”

“Definitely boring for a crime boss then.” I will admit her words made me snort a bit, as I realized what she actually meant. She wasn’t talking about Gonnan’s species. What she said next had my attention. “I’m a walking skeleton key, I can get through any door easily enough.”

“The locks are impossible to pick thanks to the magic specifically meant to prevent that from happening, the second you put a pick in that door it will shock you and or vaporize your tools.” I quickly cut the cat off from commenting. “Before you ask, the surrounding walls are made of a sturdy material also protected by magic.”

“Are the doors themselves magic or are protected by magic?” She must be asking this out of idle curiosity.

“Aside from the locks I don’t think so, but there’s no way anyone could cut through the metal without at least alerting someone.” Why was the cat suddenly smiling?

“We can possibly get her out sometime later this evening. Depends on the time it takes us to set up for the jailbreak and if you can run interference to keep everyone else away from where your daughter is being held. Well, that would certainly help things quite a bit.” You weren’t telling me how you’re going to do it, but you seemed too confident in your abilities. You weren’t lying then, or at the very least didn’t think you were. “If you already have an airship that you wouldn’t mind letting us have, then we wouldn’t have to worry about stealing one. Also, would you mind if your daughter Ami lived with a band of traveling mariachi changelings if she does in fact like this guy here?”

“I’m not giving you an airship, but I can run interference and yes I would mind if she suddenly up and left without talking to me first.” I wanted to see my daughter again and then have one long talk with her, especially about her choice for a boyfriend. If the blue bug is in fact her boyfriend. “So you’re bringing her back to me and then you’re stealing that airship. You will leave without her if I find her words lacking passion.”

“I can live with that, just as long as she’s safe.” It seems this Tarsus wasn’t a complete idiot and truly did care, so colorful changelings weren’t as deceitful as their darker brethren. “Just… protect her better this time will you?”

Oh I will, I’ll be going for Gonnan’s throat personally.

-Hours later, Jade-

The doors themselves were not protected by magic, as such I could get through them even if they were made of metal. The ones leading into the compound were a bit large. I hadn’t seen Gonnan personally, but those huge doors meant the guy was a giant.

The two guards outside the place were quite large and my dinky little knife wasn’t going to cut it or their folds of fat and muscle. The dexterity boost was a must, because I certainly didn’t want to get hit by the double bladed axes those two pigs were wielding even once. At least it would be a mostly painless death if the blow was fatal.

The Shapeshifting Siesta and my group hit our first obstacle, how to get by the two deadly guards that are said to be smaller than the big pig himself. Said pig I haven’t seen yet, but I was getting a feeling of dread of dealing with a large guy with tusks that could easily gore me.

Soricini likely had the right idea in avoiding confrontation with this guy if his daughter is this well guarded. The building looked like a fortress with no windows, it was only slightly out of place in appearance with the rest of Klugetown.

Oh look a hedgehog girl, which makes twelve differing anthropomorphic species I can identify in this town of scum and rot. The shark people weirded me out and scared me a bit, I had a healthy fear of ocean dwelling creatures.

“Fizzy, stick with mom and watch the entrance, you two will be our backup plan. Jacky your with me and Tarsus, be prepared to use that wood in any way necessary.” I received a salute from Jacky and Tarsus looked a bit nervous about what we were going to do. Mom and Fizzle were already in position on this rooftop. “Clypeus, your group is going to do some wild goose chasing with those two pigs at the front. I only need them to move away from the compound for thirty seconds and then we’re in. Circle back around and wait for us with our backup, if we’re not out in a few hours then mom will take over the rescue operation from there. We’ll be needing one ourselves at that point.”

“How will we know where to go once we’re inside?” That was a rather good point Jacky, how would we know where to go once we got inside? All we knew is that Merriami Sorex was here.

“I haven’t the foggiest Blackcap, none of The Desert Shrews have managed to get inside before and we’re likely going to be winging it.” I’m sure that tidbit didn’t make Tarsus any feel better. “Wait for us to get into position, we’ll signal you when we’re ready Clypeus.”

“Tarsus, stay safe dude.” Clypeus and the other changelings left and were preparing to cause a distraction.

“Same to you guys too.” Returned Tarsus, he didn’t care about how dangerous this was, we were about to break into a very large criminal’s fortress.

Jacky, Tarsus and I climbed down from the roof and we stood at the mouth of a nearby alleyway looking towards the guards. I could see Clypeus poking out of another with three other heads down the street, I looked to Jacky and Tarsus who nodded at me. I held out a thumb and popped a claw.

The four changelings waltzed out of the alley and the trumpet twins were carrying their instruments, I had thought they had all left those at their carriage back in Airship Mauled.

“The trumpet twins are never without an instrument.” Tarsus told me as the four changelings took to the air and got close to the two large pigs guarding the doors.

“A five, six…” Shouted Labium.

“Seven, eight… now!” Labrum followed and the twins both blew their trumpets loudly into the ears of the two five foot tall walls of bacon. Mmm… bacon.

Clypeus and Mr. Huge blasted the guards in their faces with magic, they were aiming for the eyes. As was expected of their girths, the pigs stayed standing and got quite mad. They started taking swings at the four changelings who quickly took evasive actions, but they didn’t go high enough to be out of range of the two guards.

Once the two pigs were successfully led away from the doors and far enough away, I darted out for them with Tarsus and Jacky on my heels. Jacky was already wielding her plank of wood and was watching the directions the guards went in.

I put my hand up to the door and started a cast, the door slowly dissolved much to Tarsus’s amazement. He hadn’t seen the true power of magical alchemy yet, I and mom were still only scratching that surface.

Once one of the doors fully disappeared, the magical lock on it fell to the ground. Jacky scooped it up and moved on into the building. Tarsus followed her and I moved to the other side of the door and reversed my cast, so that the door was now back in place.

We’re in…

-Jacky-

Trouble already! It didn’t take us seconds after getting through the door and already we met resistance. I moved forward blocked the spear the small pig was wielding, he had almost stabbed Tarsus.

As the tip jammed its way into my piece of wood, I remembered what Jade told me on the trip here.

-Days prior-

“Jacky I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. You may be unlucky, but have you ever thought of using that bad luck constructively or overcoming it?” Captain smiled at me and I had to wonder where she was going with this, I looked over the airships railing at the view.

“How would I even go about doing that?” While I haven’t been much use to the Captain, I hoped to be useful to her eventually.

“Jacky you’re smart, more so than me in specific ways.” My Captain gave me a compliment and I was appreciative of it, but where was she going with this. “If you have enough skill at something to the point that bad luck couldn’t do anything to stop you from achieving your goal with said skill, then it wouldn’t be as problematic would it?”

“What if my luck gets so horrible that skill couldn’t overcome it?” At the time, I really had thought that my luck could get so horrible that it would be impossible to beat.

“Then make your own luck Jacky, you can’t sit around forever waiting for life to throw you bones.” Which it obviously did once, because I met you Captain. “If life throws you a bone, you take it and beat up life with that bone and then take the rest of the skeleton to use. Were you raised by pirates or not?”

“Captain… thanks for the pep talk.” After I thanked her I decided to go think about how to turn things going wrong around to my favor. “I’ve got some thinking to do.”

-Days from then-

Okay a spear was stuck in my piece of wood which was bad because I couldn’t use it, or could I? His weapon was stuck as well. What to do… I could wait until Tarsus comes to his senses at the near miss and let him attack, or I could actually do something useful with this.

I twisted my piece of wood and the pig yelped as the shaft of the spear twisted in his grip hurting his hands. I jerked the plank, with spear still embedded, to the right and swung it to the left. The shaft of the spear struck the pig in the head dazing him and it knocked the spear loose onto the floor.

Taking up the wood in both hands, I swung it towards his skull and the wood broke roughly in half knocking him out. I just stared at the wood feeling a bit sad, it had been a good plank of solid wood… on the positive side I now have a spear!

-Jade-

Jacky didn’t need my assistance after all. She actually handled that small pork rind by herself and took up the spear in both hands. She nodded to me after testing its weight.

The building wasn’t exactly humongous, but it did have several archways to go through. Of the three directions, I choose left!

The left hallway had an upper walkway with armed pigs patrolling it, we snuck by them quietly on the ground floor down the hallway towards a door. Bypassing said door and heading through a corridor leading right, we found another door with a staircase leading downwards behind it.

Traveling down the stairs we came into a dungeon area, one with an armored pig watching a cell at the far end of the room. He hasn't noticed us yet.

After three protected doors, we had likely found Ami.

Comments

[Darkonshadows]

8926791

It's just a nickname, it's not like she has anything to do with Calico Jack.

[FridayPie]

8926903
Or with pony on my avatar... except her luck is rather similar.

Also, I think, it's actually Jinxed perk :P

[Shadowshame]

Now they are coming up to a big boy looks Iike this round will be a bit purgly

Also I have an intentional misspelling in this comment see if you can find it

[Skulljack17]

“I take it he’s a bore.” The cat stated out loud.

"That, and he's a boar...or should that go the other way around?"