11-17-2016, 01:41 AM
At last, the duo of Primes had found what they so passionately were looking for. Zack carried a darker, more commanding presence on his shoulders now, one that drew to the black of his clothes and stuck there. Caira’s eyes searched the horizon for any moving figures, her violet eyes glittered with pain, while she persevered. After a few blinks, they’d entered the Camelot vessel with swimming ease. Caira’s eyelashes flicked away some rolling sweat, but she was sure that this Camelot vessel had been Jad’s.
After the pair had descended below deck, it should have been simple, finding the papers. There had been a basic middle room for lounging with his desk also there, one with a mattress, and a kitchenette with a truly grand view of the ocean. Upon searching through his desk, Zack shook his head with disappointment, “It’s not here.”
This meant one of two things. One, the papers were in the hands of the Empire now, they were too late. And two, Clowney had hidden them so well, not even the Empire had found them when they seized the ship. Caira was banking on the second option, since she couldn’t accept this entire trip as a failure. “It must be in a secret compartment,” she whispered, “Did he say anything about where he had put them? Maybe he stowed them before the Empire took the ship... I’ll... Search under the floorboards.”
Caira knelt to the ground with her fingertips pressed against the wonderful pine flooring, while Zack opened up a cabinet only to find a large clown mask meet his eyes, and a clown suit stowed on a hanger behind it. Zack’s expression zig-zagged between shocked and horrified, but there wasn’t much of a difference. To cover his surprise, he closed the door of the cabinet but much too quickly. There was a swift CLUNK! that was much too loud for either of their likings. The girl looked up at Zack, warningly, and then there was a creak on the stairs...
The grip on his Buster Sword tightened as he whirled around, expecting nothing, or something other than that clown mask to be in his face. And so it was, “Who are you?” a booming voice shouted, “And just what are you doing on this ship!? Drop your weapons!”
The primes gulped simultaneously while Caira slapped her floorboards gently shut, and stood up under the cover of Zack’s broad shoulders, whoever was standing there, she couldn’t see, but she assumed it wasn’t a friend. “Who are we? Just who are you?” Caira sassed him, hoping to divert his attention so that Zack would whack his face, but they had no such luck, as more soldiers piled along the stairs now.
“Relax Stan,” a trooper said from behind, “They’re either pirates or ninjas, see, they look like ninjas because they’re wearing all black, but see, they could be pirates because they’re trying to loot on a ship in the impound lot. If they’re pirates, they’re not very smart ones.”
“You’re right Donavon the Third, but whoever they are, we have to take them into custody now,” Stan surmised, while Zack stared in wonder at the almost clown like white masks the stormtroopers had to wear.
“Y-you don’t have to do that..” Caira started, while her own eyebrows fretted, perplexed.
“And why is that, girl?” Donovan the Third edged closer.
“Because... Because... You’re like tow truck drivers, and... This is the impound lot, so... We will pay you to get our vessel back. Isn’t that right honey?” Caira nudged Zack a little too hard to be affectionate.
“Oh boy,” Stan sighed and facepalmed his black glove to meet his forehead, “Either this is really your ship, and you want your boyfriend to fork over the cash he obviously doesn’t have- I mean Don, look at those clothes- or you’re playing a trick on us. Perhaps you’d feel less excited to see us when we tell you, we aren’t the ones who towed your boat for parking in the wrong spot, but you were sailing under unauthorized premises.”
“And we’re soldiers,” Donovan added, “It looks to me like you were trying to steal back your own ship from out from underneath our noses, if not, then you’re retrieving whatever of your property was leftover which means you’re trespassing anyway. You’re both going to be arrested.”
“What? Honey, sort this out with your big man talk and we can then enjoy our honeymoon in peace, hurry up, we obviously don’t have the time to go to jail, RIGHT DEAR?” Caira wasn’t really good at imitating a lover, but she was good at being a naggy wife, it seemed. And she’s an expert liar, ironically enough.
In his chest, Zack’s heart accelerated at the idea with pulling off that lie, just as much when he’d seen the clown face. So, two honeymooners, that’s the story she’s going with?
“Still you claim this to be your vessel... I guess you aren’t looting it, because you’ve got a Camelot crest on the shoulder of your jacket,” Stan pieced together, having a habit similar to Don’s which made them hypothesize two theories at the same time, “That, or you just found that in the closet, and thought you looked fancy in it.”
Caira’s eye twitched. She’d earned this crest when she completed her knighthood training in the Kingdom’s capital. How dare they. Caira was about ready to lunge when Zack smiled, “Actually, why don’t you have a look for yourself.”
Out came the clown costume, jumping, mask-first, on Stan. Donovan gasped in fear, for clowns were his weakness, meanwhile, Zack had had very nice aim, because Stan’s eye holes were covered. “Time for us to dash,” Zack grabbed her hand, and readied his sword to break the kitchen’s largest window.
The glass shattered around them while Caira’s slower run left her jumping just after Zack. With that, she turned around and winked, “Sayonara boys, oh and Stan you’re right, we are pirates.”
She waved at who she thought was Stan and took the scary leap downward, the group of stormtroopers looked at the distance aghast, Stan stepped back a few feet in dread, for his fear, was of heights, while Donovan the Third grumbled, “I’m not Stan...”
Swish-swish, swish-swish the sound of swimming water flooded her ears as she and Zack dove deeper below the waves, so as to avoid the trooper’s fire, which was pointed at them, and sizzling the water on the surface.
Their lungs fought the depth that they were now sinking to, an with each stroke, Zack thought more and more of the defeat harboring within him. They’d not only gotten identified by stormtroopers, but they hadn’t even found Jad’s files. Desperately, he wanted air, but anywhere they surfaced, there could be a rifle aimed at their noses. Caira was injured and lagging behind, but if they could just make it out of the impound lot, they’d be golden... The breath he had last gulped caused him to cringe as he felt the last of the oxygen expire. He choked and blinked through the saline water, searching for reprise in this drowning mess they were in. Slowly, the corners of his eyes began to grow dark...
Zack dreamed of a labyrinth, one where danger was at every wrong turn he made, and at the end, there was ‘Ayryn’ smothered in a black goop that was her attire disintegrating, his arm reached out, so to save her from the seemingly dangerous muck, but when he did, she vanished too. Zack fell into an ocean of black and felt his neck lurch up, coughing up the water that had filled his lungs to the brim.
The girl looked down at him curiously, and seeing that his healing needs were tended to, she began to work on her own leg, a light pulsed from her palm which she concentrated on her bleeding thigh, as Zack blinked and looked around, finding the pair stranded and in a strange place. They were not in Gary’s sub, nor even back at Jad’s, but stranded on some shaggy island that looked more like a sandbar. It had two trees bearing coconuts, and a jar of sand, protectedly perched under one of the palm trees.
Zack felt the dense pressure build up in his head and grasped the pain, “You went further down than me,” she muttered in explanation, while her injury became little more than a torn hole in her pants, “And you barely floated because of the sword on your back.”
His eyes bulged, Where is it? it’s familiar weight wasn’t there, and with a sigh, he found that she’d set the sword just above where he had lain. It hadn’t been left behind.
“You probably didn’t hear me, but I told them we were pirates after all,” she smirked, “But I bet you they’ll search the vessel really good the second time...”
“The vessel! Awh, we didn’t even get the files... Now they’ll be swarming the place,” disgruntled, Zack sighed and held the handle of his sword for assurance, “And I guess us getting stranded isn’t the best either. It can’t possibly get any wor-”
“Oh, you mean... These papers?” She held up a very dense manila folder, with probably over a hundred papers in it, which had been conveniently placed in several gallon-sized ziplock bags and taped together, “Good thing Jad put them in there, or else I would’ve had no choice but to jump with them and have them get soggy. I found them while you were... Clowning around, and hid them when I felt them above us. They fit a little snugly where I crammed them, but other than that, obviously, we’re still breathing.”
Zack listened to her summary, and blinked a few times. His eyes widened, “Wait, you knew there were people on the top deck?”
“They’d have heard us if I warned you,” she said with a weighed expression and changed the subject, “I miss my new dragon, I gave Gary a call, but he didn’t pick up, I worry his ship was seized. If it was, we’ll have to summon one, together and go and get-”
“Going back for him endangers the papers from getting in their custody,” Zack’s expression was firm, and there was truth in his words.
“Okay, well, we will have to split up then, one of us takes the papers back to Jad and the other goes and frees Gary...” Caira said, her words hesitating at his expression.
“You don’t think, it would be safest for us to deliver the papers back to Jad together and then go back for Gary? The seas are dangerous enough out there, not to mention, alone,” Zack wagered while Caira’s eyes dipped from his.
“We’re both Primes... We should be okay...” Caira frowned now, “What if they hang Gary while we are traveling back to Jad’s?”
“Hang? The most they’d do is put him in prison until we broke him out,” Zack reposted.
“But if for some reason...” Caira looked worried, “He won’t come back if he dies, and I won’t let our allies die on my behalf.”
Zack nodded to her stubbornness, he hadn’t meant to be the bad guy, saying that it’d be dangerous to split up. He’d only meant to be rational. At least she’d gotten the papers. “We don’t even know if Gary was captured, for all we know, he’s fine and well, and his phone just lost its charge. But, we do have two things to do now, get the papers back to Jad’s safely, and go check on Gary. We can’t check on Gary with the papers, though the Empire may not even be the reason for his hold up. So we have to choose, or flip a coin, separating seems to be our only option, any preference?”
“No,” she said defiantly, “We should just leave the papers here, and go and get Gary together, right now.”
It was crazy, to leave the papers here unprotected, but there were few other choices they had, Zack doubted anyone would happen to stop at this ten by ten feet island, but that jar of sand didn’t just happen to roll in. “Or,” Caira interjected into his thoughts, “We can think of something better than Ziplock bags to put these folders in. Your pick.”
After the pair had descended below deck, it should have been simple, finding the papers. There had been a basic middle room for lounging with his desk also there, one with a mattress, and a kitchenette with a truly grand view of the ocean. Upon searching through his desk, Zack shook his head with disappointment, “It’s not here.”
This meant one of two things. One, the papers were in the hands of the Empire now, they were too late. And two, Clowney had hidden them so well, not even the Empire had found them when they seized the ship. Caira was banking on the second option, since she couldn’t accept this entire trip as a failure. “It must be in a secret compartment,” she whispered, “Did he say anything about where he had put them? Maybe he stowed them before the Empire took the ship... I’ll... Search under the floorboards.”
Caira knelt to the ground with her fingertips pressed against the wonderful pine flooring, while Zack opened up a cabinet only to find a large clown mask meet his eyes, and a clown suit stowed on a hanger behind it. Zack’s expression zig-zagged between shocked and horrified, but there wasn’t much of a difference. To cover his surprise, he closed the door of the cabinet but much too quickly. There was a swift CLUNK! that was much too loud for either of their likings. The girl looked up at Zack, warningly, and then there was a creak on the stairs...
The grip on his Buster Sword tightened as he whirled around, expecting nothing, or something other than that clown mask to be in his face. And so it was, “Who are you?” a booming voice shouted, “And just what are you doing on this ship!? Drop your weapons!”
The primes gulped simultaneously while Caira slapped her floorboards gently shut, and stood up under the cover of Zack’s broad shoulders, whoever was standing there, she couldn’t see, but she assumed it wasn’t a friend. “Who are we? Just who are you?” Caira sassed him, hoping to divert his attention so that Zack would whack his face, but they had no such luck, as more soldiers piled along the stairs now.
“Relax Stan,” a trooper said from behind, “They’re either pirates or ninjas, see, they look like ninjas because they’re wearing all black, but see, they could be pirates because they’re trying to loot on a ship in the impound lot. If they’re pirates, they’re not very smart ones.”
“You’re right Donavon the Third, but whoever they are, we have to take them into custody now,” Stan surmised, while Zack stared in wonder at the almost clown like white masks the stormtroopers had to wear.
“Y-you don’t have to do that..” Caira started, while her own eyebrows fretted, perplexed.
“And why is that, girl?” Donovan the Third edged closer.
“Because... Because... You’re like tow truck drivers, and... This is the impound lot, so... We will pay you to get our vessel back. Isn’t that right honey?” Caira nudged Zack a little too hard to be affectionate.
“Oh boy,” Stan sighed and facepalmed his black glove to meet his forehead, “Either this is really your ship, and you want your boyfriend to fork over the cash he obviously doesn’t have- I mean Don, look at those clothes- or you’re playing a trick on us. Perhaps you’d feel less excited to see us when we tell you, we aren’t the ones who towed your boat for parking in the wrong spot, but you were sailing under unauthorized premises.”
“And we’re soldiers,” Donovan added, “It looks to me like you were trying to steal back your own ship from out from underneath our noses, if not, then you’re retrieving whatever of your property was leftover which means you’re trespassing anyway. You’re both going to be arrested.”
“What? Honey, sort this out with your big man talk and we can then enjoy our honeymoon in peace, hurry up, we obviously don’t have the time to go to jail, RIGHT DEAR?” Caira wasn’t really good at imitating a lover, but she was good at being a naggy wife, it seemed. And she’s an expert liar, ironically enough.
In his chest, Zack’s heart accelerated at the idea with pulling off that lie, just as much when he’d seen the clown face. So, two honeymooners, that’s the story she’s going with?
“Still you claim this to be your vessel... I guess you aren’t looting it, because you’ve got a Camelot crest on the shoulder of your jacket,” Stan pieced together, having a habit similar to Don’s which made them hypothesize two theories at the same time, “That, or you just found that in the closet, and thought you looked fancy in it.”
Caira’s eye twitched. She’d earned this crest when she completed her knighthood training in the Kingdom’s capital. How dare they. Caira was about ready to lunge when Zack smiled, “Actually, why don’t you have a look for yourself.”
Out came the clown costume, jumping, mask-first, on Stan. Donovan gasped in fear, for clowns were his weakness, meanwhile, Zack had had very nice aim, because Stan’s eye holes were covered. “Time for us to dash,” Zack grabbed her hand, and readied his sword to break the kitchen’s largest window.
The glass shattered around them while Caira’s slower run left her jumping just after Zack. With that, she turned around and winked, “Sayonara boys, oh and Stan you’re right, we are pirates.”
She waved at who she thought was Stan and took the scary leap downward, the group of stormtroopers looked at the distance aghast, Stan stepped back a few feet in dread, for his fear, was of heights, while Donovan the Third grumbled, “I’m not Stan...”
Swish-swish, swish-swish the sound of swimming water flooded her ears as she and Zack dove deeper below the waves, so as to avoid the trooper’s fire, which was pointed at them, and sizzling the water on the surface.
Their lungs fought the depth that they were now sinking to, an with each stroke, Zack thought more and more of the defeat harboring within him. They’d not only gotten identified by stormtroopers, but they hadn’t even found Jad’s files. Desperately, he wanted air, but anywhere they surfaced, there could be a rifle aimed at their noses. Caira was injured and lagging behind, but if they could just make it out of the impound lot, they’d be golden... The breath he had last gulped caused him to cringe as he felt the last of the oxygen expire. He choked and blinked through the saline water, searching for reprise in this drowning mess they were in. Slowly, the corners of his eyes began to grow dark...
Zack dreamed of a labyrinth, one where danger was at every wrong turn he made, and at the end, there was ‘Ayryn’ smothered in a black goop that was her attire disintegrating, his arm reached out, so to save her from the seemingly dangerous muck, but when he did, she vanished too. Zack fell into an ocean of black and felt his neck lurch up, coughing up the water that had filled his lungs to the brim.
The girl looked down at him curiously, and seeing that his healing needs were tended to, she began to work on her own leg, a light pulsed from her palm which she concentrated on her bleeding thigh, as Zack blinked and looked around, finding the pair stranded and in a strange place. They were not in Gary’s sub, nor even back at Jad’s, but stranded on some shaggy island that looked more like a sandbar. It had two trees bearing coconuts, and a jar of sand, protectedly perched under one of the palm trees.
Zack felt the dense pressure build up in his head and grasped the pain, “You went further down than me,” she muttered in explanation, while her injury became little more than a torn hole in her pants, “And you barely floated because of the sword on your back.”
His eyes bulged, Where is it? it’s familiar weight wasn’t there, and with a sigh, he found that she’d set the sword just above where he had lain. It hadn’t been left behind.
“You probably didn’t hear me, but I told them we were pirates after all,” she smirked, “But I bet you they’ll search the vessel really good the second time...”
“The vessel! Awh, we didn’t even get the files... Now they’ll be swarming the place,” disgruntled, Zack sighed and held the handle of his sword for assurance, “And I guess us getting stranded isn’t the best either. It can’t possibly get any wor-”
“Oh, you mean... These papers?” She held up a very dense manila folder, with probably over a hundred papers in it, which had been conveniently placed in several gallon-sized ziplock bags and taped together, “Good thing Jad put them in there, or else I would’ve had no choice but to jump with them and have them get soggy. I found them while you were... Clowning around, and hid them when I felt them above us. They fit a little snugly where I crammed them, but other than that, obviously, we’re still breathing.”
Zack listened to her summary, and blinked a few times. His eyes widened, “Wait, you knew there were people on the top deck?”
“They’d have heard us if I warned you,” she said with a weighed expression and changed the subject, “I miss my new dragon, I gave Gary a call, but he didn’t pick up, I worry his ship was seized. If it was, we’ll have to summon one, together and go and get-”
“Going back for him endangers the papers from getting in their custody,” Zack’s expression was firm, and there was truth in his words.
“Okay, well, we will have to split up then, one of us takes the papers back to Jad and the other goes and frees Gary...” Caira said, her words hesitating at his expression.
“You don’t think, it would be safest for us to deliver the papers back to Jad together and then go back for Gary? The seas are dangerous enough out there, not to mention, alone,” Zack wagered while Caira’s eyes dipped from his.
“We’re both Primes... We should be okay...” Caira frowned now, “What if they hang Gary while we are traveling back to Jad’s?”
“Hang? The most they’d do is put him in prison until we broke him out,” Zack reposted.
“But if for some reason...” Caira looked worried, “He won’t come back if he dies, and I won’t let our allies die on my behalf.”
Zack nodded to her stubbornness, he hadn’t meant to be the bad guy, saying that it’d be dangerous to split up. He’d only meant to be rational. At least she’d gotten the papers. “We don’t even know if Gary was captured, for all we know, he’s fine and well, and his phone just lost its charge. But, we do have two things to do now, get the papers back to Jad’s safely, and go check on Gary. We can’t check on Gary with the papers, though the Empire may not even be the reason for his hold up. So we have to choose, or flip a coin, separating seems to be our only option, any preference?”
“No,” she said defiantly, “We should just leave the papers here, and go and get Gary together, right now.”
It was crazy, to leave the papers here unprotected, but there were few other choices they had, Zack doubted anyone would happen to stop at this ten by ten feet island, but that jar of sand didn’t just happen to roll in. “Or,” Caira interjected into his thoughts, “We can think of something better than Ziplock bags to put these folders in. Your pick.”
![[Image: mqdefault.jpg]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yEac52Ck_1A/mqdefault.jpg)