Stories: Sailor Skirmish

Story written by: ItzXenos and Redfork2000

Plot

The legend of five mystical crystal shards sends Athena and her allies on a scavenger hunt to collect the crystals. However, they're not alone: a crew of fearless sailors have raised up to the challenge, having been promised a large fortune for the crystals. However, a familiar face makes a comeback, trying to get his hands on the crystals for his own reasons. With so many people making a run for the crystals, chaos is sure to ensue.

Cast

♠ - denotes a character's first appearance.
♦ - denotes a cameo, minor appearance, or mention only.
♣ - denotes a character's final appearance.

ItzXenos

• Athena
• Aurora Blue
• Michael Afton
• Galvius

Redfork2000

• Caspian
• Andrew Smith
• James ♠
• Jessica ♠
• Crackers ♠

Story

It was a rather usual day in town for the most part. Everyone was just taking care of their own business, and not much was happening. At least that was the case, until a large ship arrived at the coastline of the coastal city. The people at the beach were somewhat confused at this sudden arrival. Then suddenly, they saw three different entities come out of the ship.

The first one was tall, very tall. Easily measuring roughly six and a half feet, this person was tall, and sturdy. Not only did he seem extremely muscular, but he also looked like a cyborg. He had a robotic leg, the bottom half of his left arm was a robot arm, and his right eye was replaced by a robotic eye.

The second was shorter and more slender. Measuring around five feet and a half is a slender woman with an even more slender waist. She has slender arms and legs, with the most noticeable trait being a blue bandana on her head, and long, wavy dark brown hair about four inches below her shoulders.

The third wasn't human, it was more bird-like. A red parrot with some blue and yellow on his wings as well, and a mean frown as well.

• Person #1: Well, looks like we've arrived at the right place.
• Person #2: What do you want to do first?
• Parrot: Maybe get me some crackers? I'm hungry already!
• Person #2: Patience, you bird-brain. First we've got to go for the treasures.
• Person #1: Go on Jess, you know the drill.

The second person rose her hands up high, and suddenly, the water from the ocean began rising as well, scaring the people at the beach. They all ran away screaming. Then she moved her hands forward, causing the wave to crash onto the beach, and onto the frightened citizens. The parrot rolled his eyes, and flew over the crowd, stealing wallets, watches, cell phones and any other valuable objects they dropped while being washed away. The parrot delivers the objects to the first person.

• Person #1: well done Crackers. We're done here, let's head into town now.
• Crackers: Can I get a cracker now?
• Person #1: Sure, why not?

The man gave the parrot a cracker, which the parrot quickly ate in one bite.

• Crackers: Alright, let's go into town now!

In town, Andrew was walking on the sidewalk, still thinking about different things at the moment. His job, the Squidfather, and most of all, Athena.

• Andrew: (sighs) I really miss her, I wonder if I'll ever get a chance of seeing her again. She's such a great woman!

Andrew then stops as he sees the three troublemakers break into the local bank, and hides behind a nearby car to see what's going on. He sees the police point their guns at the criminals, trying to stop them.

• Police #1: Surrender right now, and put your hands in the air!
• Person #1: (chuckles) Or what?

The cyborg-like man steps in front of the woman and the parrot, and switches the hook at the end of his robotic arm for a gun.

• Police #2: He's hostile!
• Police #1: Open fire!

The police shoot at the man, but the bullets just bounce off of him like ping pong balls. The man just laughs, and then shoots at the police, taking down several of them.

• Police #1: Our weapons are useless!
• Police #3: We're going to need help!
• Person #1: You fools! No one can stop the Rotten Rascals! We're James!
• Person #2: Jessica!
• Crackers: And Crackers!
• James: And we always get what we want.

James punches into the vault, destroying it, and letting Crackers and Jessica grab the money from the vault. Andrew watches, and even films the scene for his news report.

As the Rascals lay siege to the coastal town, a small black drone propelled by a small engine from behind, with a small circular camera on it's face surveys the chaos. As it focuses in on the attackers, Crackers soon spots the drone from afar, it's small dark body sticking out like a sore thumb. Crackers alerts his two teammates of the presence of a drone.

• Crackers: Hey, what do you suppose that thing is?
• James: Hm... looks like a drone.
• Jessica: I don't like the sound of that. Maybe the police are trying to collect intel on us.

The three of them watch cautiously as the drone slowly approaches before stopping. They watch as a hologram projects from the drone the image a very unhuman-like creature. It's skin, despite the orange tint of the projection, is a bright yellow in colour, with a large alien-like head and solid black eyes with small dots for pupils. It looks to a wear a dark set of armour with gauntlets upon each hand. It remains silent for a second, studying them intently before speaking.

• ???: Heh, you ain't the prettiest things, are ya?

This alien-like creature confuses all three of the pirates, leading them to ask themselves a few questions.

• Jessica: Wait a moment, who are you?
• ???: Not important, lady. Now, y'all must be the Rotten Rascals, aye?
• James: Yes, we are. What about it?
• ???: Perhaps you'll be interested in an offer I can propose.

The creature waits expectantly for a response.

• Crackers:' Oh, really?
• James: Tell us what you want, then.
• ???: (It lets out a sneering chuckle) Daring today, aren't we? It's simple really; Are you aware of the stories of the Guardian's Shards?
• Jessica: Guardian's Shards?
• Crackers: What are those?
• James: Hm... I think I've heard of them before. Five colorful crystals that contain different powers.
• ???: Precisely. Perhaps I could convince you fellas to nab them all for me?
• Jessica: You want us to go on a scavenger hunt for you?
• ???: Well, if you're up to it ideally. Unless ya can't, of course, in that case I'll just take my loitering elsewhere.

The pirates share looks among each other, before back at the yellow creature.

• James: How much are you willing to pay?
• ???: Name ya demands.
• Jessica: Hm...
• James: Three million dollars, or its equivalent in gold or jewels.
• Crackers: And crackers!
• James: And a year's worth supply of crackers for the bird.

The creature slowly nods in understanding, it's eyes looking to the side as it considers the proposal.

• ???: (To himself, quietly) Yeah, that could work. I'll just get Trelos to loot a few pieces, simple.

The creature focuses it's eyes back on the pirates, who stand waiting for a response.

• ???: It's a deal. You get me the crystals, and you get whatever material worth you request.
• James:' Very well. Where do we find these crystals?

A hatch underneath the drone opens, and a small black claw unfolds, holding out a withered brown scroll out to the Rascals, held together with a small red thread. It looks old, very old. James opens the scroll, and quickly realizes that it's a map to locate the five crystals.

• ???: That answers ya question, mate?
• Jessica: This'll work.
• 'James: We'll get to work then.
• ???: Excellent! I expect to see you fellas in due time.

After a second, the hologram cuts off, and the drone remains still for a moment before turning to float off towards the blue horizon. James, Jessica and Crackers all look at each other, and then leave the bank to start hunting down the crystals. Andrew watches and films all of this from afar, and once he gets out of the crime scene, he takes out his phone and investigates what those crystals are. As soon as he learns more about them, he has a surprised expression on his face.

• Andrew: This is what they're after!? Oh my, this sounds like something Athena would be able to handle. But I don't know where she is...

Andrew says with a sad expression. However, he then makes a wide grin as he remember something he did a while ago, and then taps on his phone a few times. Yes, it works! He quickly runs away from the area, smiling excitedly.

---

Meanwhile, a little further into town, Athena and Aurora are seen lining up in a Starbucks, waiting to order a coffee. Only issue is that the line is uh, of notable magnitude. Aurora is staring at the overhead menu to quell her boredom, while Athena is staring ahead at the slowly moving queue of people.

• Aurora: Have we uh, not moved?
• Athena: We have, but seeing how long this whole thing is, we might as well have not moved at all. I mean for crying out loud, we're not even in the building yet.

The line moves forward just a bit, and they follow.

• Aurora: What do you think Michael's up to?

---

Michael is sat in the back seat of the car, just waiting patiently, staring off into the distance in front of him. He soon notices from his left side a young woman and her two children pass by him. As he slowly swivels his eyes over to look at them, he sees the woman visibly recoil and speed up her walking, hurrying her two children away from the car. He doesn't care. He's used to being seen as weird by people, he's hidden himself away for so long because of that.

---

• Athena: Probably sitting so still that we don't see him when we check on him.
• Aurora: Is that an Infinity War reference?
• Athena: Maybe.

Suddenly, the next time Athena turns to look behind her, she sees not only Aurora, but also Andrew standing next to her.

• Andrew: Hello Athena! I thought we'd never see each other again! Isn't this exciting!?
• Athena: A-

Athena jumps like a cat seeing a cucumber, nearly falling to the floor in the process. Aurora is startled as well, but not nearly to the degree that Athena is.

• Athena: (slightly surprised/annoyed) What the f- Where did you come from?!
• Andrew: Well, I was born into a middle-class family in Edmund, Oklahoma on a Tuesday-
• Athena: Never mind that! How'd you find us? Please don't tell me you've been following us this whole time.

Aurora waves hello to Andrew. Andrew waves back at Aurora and smiles at Athena.

• Andrew: Oh, I haven't! Otherwise you probably would've seen me a lot sooner. To be honest I was just taking care of my usual work as a news reporter and journalist, but I just witnessed a bank robbery. Two strange people and a parrot broke into the bank and stole a bunch of money. But the part that caught my attention was that a sort of drone came up to them, and a yellow fire-like being asked them to look for something called the Guardian's Shards.
• Athena: (quietly) Hey, let's not talk about this while there's others around, okay?

The three of them step out of the line, the two girls evidently given up trying to wait for a coffee. They walk a safe distance away from the Starbucks, out of hearing range of anyone before Andrew takes out his cellphone, and shows Athena his research on the crystals.

• Andrew: These crystals seem to grant special powers to the people that have them, kind of like those weird black crystals that have been popping up everywhere for some reason, but different. What caught my attention is that the yellow guy looked a bit similar to the purple fire girl we dealt with last time we were together.

While Aurora is quite prepared to snooze through Andrew's explanation, she perks up slightly at hearing the mention of the yellow fire creature. Athena narrows her eyes in intrigue.

• Aurora: Oh, boy...
• Athena: Well, we've had a run-in with that yellow glowstick before. Galvius, he's part of the same group of thugs as she is. But what's his interest with these shards you mention?
• Andrew: Well, he asked a group of thieves to hunt down the crystals for him. They seem to be important, the thieves asked for millions of dollars as a reward and he agreed to it. I don't know what he wants them for, but considering this is kind of your thing I thought it would be a good idea to come and tell you about it.
• Athena: I see. Well, this looks to be of higher priority than anything else we're working on right now, so we'll do it.
• Aurora: (To Andrew) I presume you wanna come along then? To you know, provide info and stuff?
• Andrew: Oh, you two want me to come with you? I'm flattered! Of course I'll come!
• Athena: …Well, you've done the most research so far, so... sure. So, I presume we're going to have to out-speed these part-time mercenaries to the shards, right?
• Andrew: Yeah. Luckily I found out where each of the five crystals is being kept, so we can try and find them before those thieves do. I always knew we'd be a great team!

Athena is very tempted to roll her eyes at Andrew's words, but doesn't.

• Athena: Well, first of all we need to go get someone before we start, though.
• Andrew: Uh... who? I mean, Aurora is already here.
• Athena: Oh, we made a uh, "friend" since we last met.
• Aurora: Yeah... he's a little on the weird side, you know?
• Andrew: Uh... ok? So we've got to get your friend first?

Athena nods, as does Aurora.

---

A quick walk later, and they can see Aurora's black SUV up ahead of them on the right side of the pavement.

As they approach the passenger's seat window, Andrew can see sat in the passenger's seat someone draped in a dark blue cloak with a hood over their head. As it tilts it's head, Andrew sees that he's wearing a somewhat stained looking hockey mask akin to that of Jason Voorhees.

As Aurora unlocks the car and opens the door for the masked figure, their ears are suddenly blasted by loud music, a mix of heavy metal and loud singing that sounds more like screaming.

• RADIO: CRAWLIN' IN MY SKIN! THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEA-
• Aurora: Ah!-
• Athena: (not entirely thrown of by the loud music) What the-?
• Andrew: Aah! What on Earth is that!?

Aurora quickly sticks her head into the car, past the hooded figure and manages to turn off the radio. She then withdraws away from the car and stares bewildered at the hooded man, who remains motionless.

• Michael: Hey.
• Athena: How the heck did you turn the radio on? And why was it so loud?!
• Michael: I... must have hit something by accident.
• Aurora: How did you- never mind...

Michael notices Andrew, who in turns sees this cloaked figure shift his gaze towards him. Andrew realizes this cloaked figure with a mask, and lets out a high-pitched yell in terror, almost as deafening as the music that was playing previously, before trying to run away as fast as possible. However, after a moment of running, he finds that he hasn't moved at all from his initial sprint. He soon sees that Athena has grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, stopping him from running.

• Aurora: Well that's new.
• Athena: Relax, he isn't gonna split your head open. Andrew, this is Michael. Michael, Andrew.
• Michael: Hello.

Andrew still seems visibly terrified by Michael's scary appearance, but stays, if only for Athena.

• Andrew: H-hello. Um... interesting style you have there... hehe...
• Michael: It's not by choice.
• Athena: …Anyway, yeah! Michael, Andrew's gonna tag along cause we've got a couple of bootleg Infinity Stones to hunt for now.
• Michael: … Am I supposed to know this reference?
• Athena: (She sighs) We have a go find some magic shards before some pirates do.
• Andrew: Yeah! There's five of them, each one hidden in a different place.