Dark on the Waters [Dark Data]

[Blink]

Even though Blink had never actually seen The Vision use this particular technique, she could tell what was going to happen. For some reasons, things that randomly explode seemed to be attracted to her, and she had grown to have a pretty good idea of when one was close by. In this case, seeing Vision dive down towards the cannons and begin to shake uncontrollably, she could tell she was about to do something very loud and very violent. Though she was probably far enough way to avoid damage, she would just as soon rather be safe then sorry. She conjured up some of her whirly green energy and sent it to her left, forming a portal away from the scene. On the other side of it she could see a small back alley, behind a building nearby. "This way," she insisted to whoever was near her, and jumped through it.

As it turned out, the only person who was still near enough to her to notice was the blonde swordsman she had met earlier on the beaches. She remembered his name to be Cloud, which seemed stupid but then again, her name was Blink so she didn't comment.

"This isn't where the fighting is," Cloud noted as they appeared on the other side of the portal. She couldn't tell if he was disappointed or just stating a fact.

"No, it is not," she agreed. "That was kind of the point."

Blink had a pretty good handle on the situation when she was on her hovercraft guarding the portal in the ship's hangar bay. But when the group finally reunited and got through the portal, what should have been a relaxing break in the action turned into all-out chaos. Proto Man had blown up the first building he saw and The Vision scrambling into combat after him. Cole had his own issues dealing with the 'Super Elite' he was lugging around. That left Blink and Cloud on the outs. She was happy with her decision to portal out of the situation. She wasn't sure if Cloud appreciated it, but she didn't really care, either.

They were currently in a back-alley behind one of the taverns near the structure that Proto Man had destroyed. Blink looked around the corner to see pirates flooding out of the front door and heading out to the battlefield where Proto Man and The Vision waited to greet them. She looked back at Cloud, who had propped up at the backdoor, as if waiting for a signal. She gave it to him in the former of the nod, and he kicked his way inside. Blink took a couple seconds to concentrate her emerald energy into her skin, and phased through the wall nearest her to meet him inside.

"Jackpot," she said aloud. It was a modest little building, but seemed to operate as some kind of storage facility. It reminded her of a more organized version of the armory on the ship. It didn't have weapons like that room had, but it still had boxes and crates lined up along the wooden walls. Her eyes fell on a small little data-chip on the table nearest her. She could hear The Vision's voice in her head, telling her not to touch it. She took it anyway.

Cloud had clearly acquired something too and was putting it away. Blink was about to ask what he took, but stopped herself. She decided that she didn't want to explain her own inclination to take a clearly corrupted data-chip, and shouldn't expect him to explain his own vices. "

"Should we join the fight?" She asked. She was looking out of a window over a box of field snacks. She took one and munched on the little granola bar inside as she spoke. She wasn't exactly in a rush to join the festivities outside. Plus, it seemed like the Vision and Proto Man had it covered, not to mention wherever Cole and Jaco were.

She looked back at the spikey-haired man. He was looking at the liberator-aide device they had been given. "We're supposed to find a stronghold," she told her. Oh, right. She had honestly forgotten what they were even doing. "This thing is saying we're already in it."

Blink looked around. "Doesn't look like a stronghold to me. We're in a shack." Just to clarify he was reading it right, she pulled out her own liberation gadget and got the same result. But she could tell, at least, they was was a large collection of dark energy inland.

"The real fight is wherever all of this darkness is coming from," Cloud told her. He looked up and tried to figure out the direction, and then faced it. He had come to the same conclusion. He stepped forward towards the window opposite where Blink was standing and looked out. "Towards that cliff," he said. "With the skull."

"With that what-now?" she asked, bewildered. Did he just say cliff with the skull?

She joined him at the window and looked outwards. Sure enough, as true as he had said it, there was a large rock formation on the far side of the town. It was in the shape of a skull and crossbows, as if it had been taken directly from a pirate novel. The eyes on the cliff-face glowed violet. "Why does it always have to be a skull?" She asked, sarcastically.

Cloud shrugged and made his way to the door. "That's where we're going," he declared. "Let's go."

Even though she absolutely knew he was right, she couldn't help but inwardly sigh.

Blink and Cloud go looting, and then 'decide' to head inland towards the scary skull-cliff.