Adventures in Parodyverse - Saving the Future Part 12.1

    Yuki Shiro and Anna were greeted at the pirate’s mountaintop fortress by a few dozen of its residents, armed to the teeth, as they descended on the backs of some sort of large flying domesticated dinosaurs.

    The previous owners of the two dinosaurs were tied to the tails of the giant creatures, making muffled sounds of panic every time they swished.

    It was fortunate that the men on the ground spotted the two tied-up hostages, and slowly made the collective decision to lower their weapons and allow Yuki and Anna to land their flying creatures.  One of those hostages was Red John Bloodhand, and they wouldn’t take the chance to kill him.

    They were in a clearing surrounded by rickety buildings made of wood from trees below the compound.  It looked like the entire complex was a treehouse made by kids, except on a mountain - and they had very real and very dangerous bladed and simple projectile weapons.

    “I need to speak with your leader.”  Yuki said plainly in a tongue she practiced with Anna on the way over.  She hopped off of her dinosaur without any help or having to step down, surprising the pirates enough that they all stepped back.  Anna did the same, surprising the pirates again.

    Finally one grimy air pirate stepped forward, eyes squinted, and said something in reply.

    “He asks what business we have with...Blackchin?”  Anna summarized for Yuki.

    “I need to use this location for a transmitter tower.”  Yuki said in English, relying on Anna to translate.

    Once the pirates received the translation they all laughed.  Not in a good way either, more of a mocking laugh.  The brave and grimy pirate said something else.

    Anna looked fearfully at Yuki as she translated.  “He said--”

    “I don’t need the translation.”  Yuki interrupted, noting that the pirates were raising their weapons again.  “Anna, it looks like--”

    “I know.”  Anna interrupted her in turn.  She raced forward, faster than any of the pirates could take aim, and began knocking down anyone who was sufficiently armed.

    Yuki took the opportunity to grab the grimy pirate by his greasy hair and pull his head back, exposing his neck.  Her other hand held a blade gingerly above his windpipe.  “Hey!”  she yelled.

    Slowly, the other pirates realized yet another one of their deputy leaders had been taken hostage.  That being the third, they started to worry about the integrity of their colony, and began to stand down.

    “That’s better.”  Yuki said, knowing they couldn’t understand.

    Anna picked up on that fact, and voluntarily began explaining that all they needed was to set up a small transmission tower, and then they would be on their way and leave the pirates to their lives.

    Yuki wasn’t listening, however.  She was watching the pirates’ faces.  She asked herself how piracy begins...with acts of sheer brutality.  And you become a famously feared pirate by being willing to perform acts of legendary brutality.

    That realization echoed in the mens’ filthy faces.  These were cold blooded murderers who were listening to Anna and putting up with Yuki as long as they did simply because they were two females, and it was amusing for them to watch.

    “Anna, they aren’t listening.”  Yuki finally concluded, interrupting the android’s explanation.

    “They aren’t fighting us any longer.”  Anna pointed out.

    Yuki nodded in agreement and looked around.  “Yes.  They’re surrounding us instead.  These are pirates.  We defiled their leaders, Anna.  They mean to kill us.”  As Yuki spoke, several of them with hidden weapons began to move faster.

    “I see.”  Anna narrowed her eyes and said something angry and cruel in their own language.  A few of them moved their bladed weapons, bows and arrows, spears, and torches into the forefront and charged.

    Jessie Moore’s house burned around her.  She could feel the heat of the flames crawling up the walls, across the carpeting, and licking at her flesh - it screamed as it melted, and her own screams echoed that as she curled farther and farther into a corner, trying to save her own life.

    Yuki Shiro heard a scream, and it was her own.  She could still feel the intense heat surround her, and she knelt in a tight ball, her hands covering the back of her lowered head, and her eyes closed firmly.

    The purple-haired Legionnaire opened her eyes as the air rapidly cooled around her.  She looked up at a very surprised Anna.

    “Yuki...?”  Anna asked, offering her a small hand.

    Yuki stood slowly, suppressing the urge to vomit as the scent of burned flesh reached her nose.  She covered her nose firmly enough to nearly be unable to breathe at all, but her eyes were still fully functional enough to see the ground littered by burned and smoking bodies of former pirates.

    Only the ones who dared to advance had fallen.  There were still lots more, but they were pushing against each other to keep at maximum distance from Anna.

    “I didn’t mean to...I didn’t want them all so scared--”  Yuki started to say.  But then she hung her head and sighed.  “Oh well.  What’s done is done, I guess.”

    “I did something wrong, didn’t I?”  Anna asked.

    Yuki shrugged.  “Well you did save our lives,”  she admitted sadly.  “But at a very high cost.”

    Anna seemed to know what Yuki meant, as she lowered her eyes.  “I was afraid,”  she insisted, sounding upset.  “I wanted to protect you.  I...didn’t think about how I’d...feel afterward.”  She paused as another thought occurred to her.  “Have I made you afraid of me?”

    “No.”  Yuki replied quickly, and honestly.  “I never thought you’d harm any of your friends.”

    That caused the android to raise her eyes again.

    Yuki looked around at the remaining frightened pirates.  “I suppose today’s the day for you to learn not everything is black and white,”  she whispered philosophically, “That good and evil aren’t so clear cut.  Yeah, you did something quite violent...but you also cut us a path through the red tape.”

    As she was speaking, she watched a man in heavy, red robes with gold piping heading up the hill toward them, toting a gold plated walking stick.  He had long black hair, and was clean shaven except for a long goatee.

    “Blackchin?”  Anna guessed.

    “It sure looks like it.”  Yuki replied with a nod.

    Once the man approached, he looked around at the burned men, a note of fury in his eyes.  He finally said something that Yuki guessed would loosely translate as asking who’s to blame for this.

    The crowd pointed to Yuki and Anna.

    Yuki thought fast.  “Tell him no one else dies as long as we are left to our mission.  That we don’t want anything from them.”

    Anna swallowed hard and translated, trying not to stumble over the syllables, as she was much more nervous this time.

    Blackchin nodded once.  He pulled out a hand made pistol, alarming Yuki...but Anna wasn’t nervous, so she deferred to the android’s translation skills as Blackchin spoke.

    The android was shaking a bit as she translated.  “He says...his men are weak and scared, so he will agree.  But if we harm one more of his people...he is not afraid of us, and will shoot us both dead.”

    “Fair enough.”  Yuki agreed with a nod.  “How do I seal an agreement?”

    “Spit on your palm and offer him your hand.  Clasp his hand when he takes yours, and let go exactly when he does.”

    Yuki nodded again, and spit into her palm.  She clasped Blackchin’s hand hard enough to show she was serious...and looked directly at his eyes as she did.  In those eyes she could see a craziness and bloodthirsty nature that made her uneasy, but she held firm.  He then let go, and she did the same.

    Anna quickly translated Blackchin’s parting words before he started to lead his men away.  “He says he will be watching us.”

    “Ask him if we can buy or barter materials from him.”  Yuki insisted.

    She did as asked.  Blackchin turned around for just a moment, smiled, and said something brief.  He was laughing as he led away his men, and they laughed with him.

    Yuki figured out the translation before Anna gave it.  “He says his men will give us nothing, and will not lift a finger to help.”  Anna said.

    “I suppose that’s fair.”  Yuki said with a sigh.  “Well at least we still have the two flying dinos.  Come, Anna, we have a lot of work to do, to build this transmitter.”

TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2008 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 

--    reprinted without permission.  

-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow

--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin

--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin