Gin & Tonic: Polpo Fiamma

[Gin Yatreg]

A few months after Return from the Ice

A familiar face riding a chocobo emerges from the Vasty Deep Gate, although instead of being their cheerful self, he seems to be a bit worried, "-uck fucK fuCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!".

Incredibly worried.

"WHAT IDIOT GIVES A SEA CREATURE THE ABILITY TO BREATHE FIRE?!" he yells

Behind him, giant tentacles squeeze through the gate, followed by a large beak, and finally the head of a giant octopus. Twelve feet in width, it easily slides through the gate on its back. Once through, the octopus opens its large beak and shoots a jet of flame towards Gin and Tonic.

The duo narrowly duck out of the way as the flames shoot past them. "And why can it breathe air?!" Gin shouts.

"WARK WARK!? [Are you seriously asking this?!]" Tonic squawks .

"What? What the heck did I do?!" Gin yells back.

*~Earlier~*

"Took you long enough to summon that thing, I thought the pirates were gonna sink us before you made any amount of progress." the ship captain said.

"Well I don't exactly do that kind of thing often, plus I wasn't sure if it would work." Gin said bluntly.

"Well thank god it did. By the way, why does it breathe fire? It's an octopus." the captain asks.

"...Well...Why not?" Gin said

The captain turned to look at the pirates, seeing that the giant octopus was almost finished with them. It was then he had a thought and relayed it to Gin, "You uh...You remembered to make it friendly to us right?" he asked.

Gin froze, and slowly turned to face the captain, "...Uhm...I may...have forgotten that detail."

It was at that moment that the giant octopus finished off the pirates' vessel and turned to face Gin's ship.

"Uh-oh." they say in unison.

*~Present Time~*

"Oh, right. That was me." Gin said. "Well at least we got it away from the ship. Though we did lead it through Costa del Sol."

The octopus lets out a roar and shoots another stream of flame at our heroes.

"Right, fight now, reminisce later!" Gin said.

***

While the duo dealt with the now rampaging octopus in the nexus, two storm troopers guarding the gate to Coruscant were an unwilling audience to the spectacle unfolding before them.

Private Jenkins turned to his commanding officer, "Should...Should we do something sir?" he asked.

"Is fighting giant octopi part of our job description?" the commander asks.

"No sir, it isn't." Jenkins answered.

"Then no Jenkins, just enjoy the show and hope to whatever god you pray to that it doesn't come over here." he says.

"Yes sir." Jenkins says, returning to his position.

An awkward silence falls upon the troopers as they watch the red head dodge fire and tentacles, until finally; "Five credits that the red head gets eaten." Jenkins says.

"Five credits and buys the winner lunch." his commander says.

"Deal." says Jenkins.

***

"Alright, we can't keep dodging this thing forever." Gin said, trying to think of a plan. "Attacking from the outside doesn't do much, its spongy body just absorbs my attacks...waaaaait" he thought.

A jetstream of fire grazes Tonic's wing, setting some of his feathers ablaze. The bird freaks out as it tries to put out the flames, knocking Gin off its back.

Gin lands on his back and quickly sits up. He looks back at the giant octopus drawing closer, if it got any further then Gin would have to rule out dodging its fire blasts. He looked back at Tonic, the bird was running in circles in a panic, trying to put out the flames. Gin felt sorry for his friend, but he knew Tonic would be fine. Plus, the octopus was the bigger issue at the moment anyway. Gin could only think of one way to beat it, and he hoped to God that it would work.

As the giant octopus opened its beak for another blast of fire, Gin ran forward and jumped inside. Once in the beasts mouth, Gin summoned up a bubble shield as big as he possibly could, blocking the fire's path out of the monster's body. "Please work." he said to himself.

***

"Haha! Looks like someone owes me lunch!" Jenkins said triumphantly.

"Don't celebrate just yet, son." his commander said.

"What? He just jumped into that thing's mouth! He's been eaten, and I won the bet!" Jenkins said.

The commander gestured back to the octopus, Jenkins looked over at it and realized it was starting to fidget. "Oh you gotta be kidding me." he said.

"So who owes the lunch again Private?" his commander said.

***

The heat inside Gin's bubble shield was getting intense, but he held on. The octopus began to expand in size, its flames trying to find a way out. Until finally, it burst like a tub of toothpaste getting hit with a sledgehammer. The creatures body fell flat, leaving Gin to crawl out covered in the its saliva. He looked over to Tonic, his avian friend had finally put out the flames and was now laying on its back, relieved. He thought he heard someone in the distance shouting an obscenity, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"That's finally done with." Gin said. "Though now I'm hungry. Hey Tonic, do you think Octopuses taste any good?"

"Wark. [No.]" the bird squawked.

"Yeah you're probably right. Too spongy."

Gin stood up and stretched, "Well, that's another place explored. Well, sort of. Feels like we weren't there for long. " he said. Gin looked around and spotted a gate with two guys in white on both sides, the one on the left seemed down about something. "I don't think we went through that one yet. You ready to go Tonic?"

Tonic gave him an angry look.

"Okay okay, we'll take a break. I'll summon us some lunch."

"Wark Wark. [No seafood, please.]" Tonic squawked.

To be continued in Coruscant

[Gin Yatreg]

The following takes place during the Nexus Battle Royale thread, and makes references to "What is that?" (SPARTAN-813 & Ururu Kyuuei), "The Leader of Team AMBR" (Amber Veritz & Sabrina), Burdened (Loki), "You Will Be Reborn" (Dante & Jak Mar), Revan Reborn (Darth Revan), The Fresh Prince of the Nexus (Bowser Jr.), and Ain't Cutting No Ice ( Gin, Lubbock, Mami {who is Neptune now}, and Alain). That said the only ones you'll need to understand this post are Battle Royale and ACNI. 

"Huh, this place seems a lot more lively since we were here last. Then again, we wren't here for very long." Gin said. He looked over at Tonic, expecting a response, but the bird seemed to be in its own world at the moment, mumbling to itself about the food as well as about something Gin couldn't quite make out.  "I'm starting to think that guy in the Vasty Deep sold me a faulty translator." he thought. The boy leaned back in a chair and peered through a pair of newly summon binoculars. There wasn't much to do while eating the meal he summoned up, what with the Nexus being a white void and all,  so Gin had taken to observing the random passerby's and new arrivals that came through. Thus far, the only new arrivals to the Omniverse that he had managed to see were some sort of turtle-shaped abomination, a man with a strange horned helmet, another in some sort of power armor, a cat-girl, a surprisingly normal looking woman, and...and...

"Wait, is that an android or a woman in armor wearing a mask? I can't tell, even with these binoculars." Gin said  out loud. 

Tonic looked up from his meal, "Wark wark wark? [Are you peeping?]" 

"What!?" Gin shot a look at Tonic, "No! Why would I even do that?! ...Wait you respond to that but not when I'm actually talking to you?"

"Wark wark? [You were talking to me?]" Tonic asked.

"...Oi... Never mind." Gin said before looking back through his binoculars. Searching around some more, he spots some odd characters by one of the gates. They seemed to be waiting for something. After a few seconds, he then panned back over to the Fountain of Infinity. Seems the one in power armor has met up with someone, and a familiar face from Dante's Abyss appeared as well. "Huh, must've died recently. I think the roster had him listed as Jak? Tak? Ah well. Hm, speaking of dying, I wonder if Lubbock and Mami ever saw that sign I left them." Gin thought. 

Panning back over to the suspicious characters before, it seems some new people had shown up. Though they didn't seem to be happy about meeting the original group. Suddenly the large skull-headed being grabbed one of the new arrivals and slammed him to the ground. "Holy shit!" Gin shouted, unable to look away. Soon after, more people arrived from the gate and drew their weapons. This was starting to look like a battle at the coliseum...No, this was nothing like Gin's time at that place. It wasn't nearly this brutal, this...awful.

Just watching this made him feel uneasy, up until now it had just been a fun romp through the universe taking down monsters and bad guys. Nobody died...well, almost nobody. Lubbock and Mami died, but they supposedly came back according to Alain. Thinking back, Gin wondered how he escaped from Esdeath after Lubbock died. He couldn't seem to remember what happened after that, only waking up in the cave after the battle. He put the thought at the back of his mind for now, going back to the fight at hand. It was then Gin realized why this scene made him so uneasy;

It was like a battle back on his colony, only even more one-sided. 

Gin shook his head, "No...That's over with now, I...I want nothing to do with that hell ever again." he thought, almost choking up. "Tonic...Let's get out of here." He said, standing up. 

~~~~

Meanwhile, in the freezing tundra that was the Frozen Fields, a shadowy figure moves through the darkness. It paused and began to sniff the air, looking for a trail to follow. Finding its mark, the creature continued onward, finally reaching a cave in the side of a mountain. Inside the cave, it found evidence of a group that had stayed the night a couple days prior. Looking back outside, it spotted the site of a battle not too far away. 

Making its way down the mountain and closer to the battlefield, it noticed what seemed to be a large hump in the snow. Once at the hump, the creature wiped some of the snow away, revealing the face of a dragon! It jumped back, ready to fight. But nothing happened. Inching closer, the creature examined the dragon's body, finding it to be long since dead. What appeared to be a grin formed on the creature's disfigured face. Wings began to sprout from its back, and scales formed on its skin. The once disfigured face began to elongate, forming a snout. Soon enough, a replica of the dragon stood where the mysterious figure once was. It then took off, flying off towards the nearest gate.

"gIN.....yATreG..." it moaned in a hoarse voice. 

To Be Continued in Coruscant (For real this time)

(Unless an event happens.)