ic Golden Dead

[Supercape]

GM

 

Eyeball had information. Blowfish, struggling with finances after Nightscale's daring theft of gold, and caught up with fighting the Yardie gang lead by Machete Max, was moving in on the smugglers of Freedom City docks. Small time crooks, weak, ripe for the picking. 

 

Right now, just past midnight, a gang of six of Blowfishe's mooks, armed with pistols, shotguns, and baseball bats, were closing in on the ship Lost and Forgotten, a mid sized cargo ship arrived from Africa. Even Eyeball didn't know quite what was in it, but he knew it was contraband. And he knew that the ships Crew knew it to. 

 

It was going to be a bloody affair. 

 

The ships crew were sailors, not fighters. There were evenly matched in number, but were not ready, not armed. If Blowfishes thugs got the jump on them, it would be all over quickly. And that was the plan. Blowfish not only intended to steal whatever contraband was there, but to start taking over the smuggling business- or rather, start demanding protection money from the smugglers. He had sized up the docks and found it ripe for the plucking. 

 

Only thing was, Blowfish rather stayed away from electronics. He was old school. Eyeball could hack and spy, but he didn't know what precisely was in the ship. And he had only found out about the raid last minute. 

 

Nightscale had got the call, but had little time to prepare...

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...

 

...At the Pasta Palace...

 

Chimera had been invited, as a matter of some urgency, to the Pasta Palace, Freedom City's top cheap pasta restaurant. Whats more, Chimera had a half price discount on all food (alcohol not included!)

 

It was past midnight and the place was shut and empty. But Blowfish was there, being served wine and smoking a cigar by the tired staff. 

 

"Hffft... There you are...." he said, beckoning Chimera in. 

 

"Come in, come in... look, ya can stuff ya mouth, if you eat that is-never know with ya capes. But ya best be quick. Ya see, we got a zombie problem. Machete Max is upping da ante... Hffft...."

 

Blowfish didn't look pleased. He looked dowright vexed. He was drinking too quickly, and his nervous hands frequently tapped his cigar, draining it of ash quickly. 

 

"Got some voodoo hocus pocus from Africa... hffft. Dunno why. He's Jamaican, int he? Still, guess he's casting his net wide....hffft. Look, we worked pretty well da last time, and I know ya would rather work with me that let some damn zombie apocalpyse run riot. He's got some ship in da docks. Pffft. Danged if I know whats inside, but I know Max wants it."

 

He pointed his Cigar at one of the exhausted staff. 

 

"Hey, yooz! get my friend here whataver da hell she wants and make it double snappy!"

 

 

[Nerdzul]

Docks... six thugs... Easy... Piece of cake. Luke nodded as he checked the infos that Eyeball had provided. For an omniscient mastermind, it wasn't exactly much. It'd have to do. Plus Luke's dad worked at the docks and well, it was one more incentive to keep Blowfish's goons out of the area. 

 

A mysterious ship... Lost and Forgotten. Spooky name... The captain (or whoever named ships, Luke wasn't actually certain), must have had a bit of a dark sense of imagination. In truth he was more than a little curious about its content. 

 

Luke had quickly donned his costume, that was still nothing more than his costume and headed up toward the dock, jumping between rooftops, dragon wings propelling him in the air. After finding a position where he could survey the Lost and Forgotten on top of a nearby building where he could dominate the scene and, if possible, catch the crooks in the act.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Nerdzul

[Supercape]

GM

 

The six thugs were dressed in black and the dock was dimly lit. It would be hard to make out their bodies, let alone their faces in such limited light, but this was no problem for Nightscale! He could see in the darkest dark. 

 

The men were in that adrenaline soaked state somewhere between fear and excitement, ready for a fight, ready for blood. They moved quietly and effectively-at a guess, Nightscale would say these were some of Blowfish's best men. Hardly military standard, but with a touch more wit and experience than the common thug. Black leather jackets, black caps, black boots. Two carried shotguns, two carried silenced handguns, and two carried baseball bats. Clearly, a bit of variety was in order. 

 

On closer inspection, the two with baseball bats also carried something else, wrapped in bag paper bags. 

 

Explosives!

 

The six of them started to creep over the gangplank onto the ship floor, and weave between the cargo crates...

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Earlier 

 

Surprised. Yes.

Confused. More so.

What was she doing here?

 

She wasn’t even close to being a big hero. Just about nobody even knew her ‘hero’ name. So image her surprise when a young man walked up to her the night before, after she had stopped a mugging not far from campus.

The woman had thanked her for returning her purse and ran off. Chimera was considering what to do with the would be criminal when a nervous teen approached her. At first she had thought it might be an accomplice, but then he had nervously apologized for bothering her and handed her a note before running off himself. Confused, she had read the note and been very surprised.

 

Dear Miss Cape,

It would be most agreeable if you would do me the solid of coming to my totally legitimate business establishment on the night of the Saturday to discuss a mutual problem.

Gratefully,

Blowfish

 

There’s no way he could have known where she’d be. How many kids did he have running around with invitations for her?

 

Now

 

Chimera stood outside The Pasta Palace and hesitated. The silver-gray tendrils snaked around her limbs and chest, covering the blue jeans and and canary yellow blouse she wore. The techno-organic matter also covered the lower half of her face to hide her identity.

 

The building was closed but there was still activity inside. Taking a deep breath she walked up to the doors and tested them. They opened and Chimera entered into the dimly lit interior. She was hardly through the doors before Blowfish was call her over. 

The staff looked like they just wanted to go home and she felt sorry for them. Blowfish himself looked harried as she approached the table. She had planned to stand (that was heroes did, right, stand stoically), but one of the staff pulled out a chair for her. She was about to decline but didn’t want Blowfish to take his frustration out on the staff so Chimera moved to take the offered seat.

She hesitated in the motion of sitting when the gangster mentioned the Yardie. She finished sitting and regarded Blowfish. 

If she had to be honest with herself, it wasn’t a name she wanted to hear again.

 

“The docks?”

Chimera politely declined the offer for food.

“What could he possibly want…”

She shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter I guess. What he did at the graveyard was in the news for days.”

Which considering the news cycle in a city full of superheroes and villains, was something.

“How reliable is this information?”

She asked, remembering the ‘it’s cybernetics’ from last time.

“Because, if it’s true this could be a big problem. Someone should look into it sooner, rather then later.”

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Ya Goddam right someone should look into it...!" spluttered Blowfish, dribbling some red wine. 

 

"Look, I got some of da boys scouting out da ship as we speak. Good boys, dey are... hffft. Ya may not approve, but when it comes to da Zombie apocalypse, I ain't taking no chances. Zombies are bad for business. I ain't going to change da Patsa Palace to da Brains Bazaar, am I?"

 

He patted himself down with a napkin. 

 

"Look, maybe my boyz can handle it, mebbe they can't...Hffft... anywayz, I thought you should know, maybe ya can give my boyz a hand, ya know? Before Machete Max raised an army of da bleedin' hffft...undead with whateva voodoo hocus pocus he's brought in from da dark continent? Hffft.... sometimes I wish for da old days, when we didn't have to fight zombies as well as makin' an almost honest living. We had honour in them days, hffft-yaknow? Nobody had the disrespect to go risin' from da grave when ya disembowelled em with a shotgun. Much less rise from da grave and hffft go and chew on someones brains... whatsa world coming to?"

 

He shook his head sadly. His jowels wobbled as he did. 

 

"Ya wanna give my boyz a hand, jus' to be on da safe side?"

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Yes, she would agree, zombies would be ‘bad for business’ if one wanted to understate it.

 

Chimera sighed and tapped the table with a finger. She nearly asked while he hadn’t gone to the authorities with this information, but after a second of thought she could probably guess the answer. She couldn’t just let people get hurt, even if they were of ‘questionable moral choices’.

She made a conscious effort to ignore his lamenting of the ‘good’ol days’ and focus on the current threat…

 

Geez, she was using a lot of ‘quotation marks’ in her thoughts…

 

Chimera shook her head to clear her thoughts. She looked at Blowfish then nodded.

“Fine. I’ll go with your men.”

She stood up from the table.

“But just to keep anyone from getting hurt. If this turns out like last time, I will call the police myself.”

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so...

 

...in the car with Blowfish

 

A small man drove. He was seemingly made of bones and reflexes, and Chimera didn't miss the way he handled the gearstick. Maybe some concealed weapon, a gun, or a knife. The driver may have been smalled but he had that deadly look, a broken nose, a cauliflower ear, two scars crossing his forehead, and eyes that seemed ready to kill. 

 

Blowfish tapped his cigar out of da window as they drove, more relaxed now Chimera was by his side. 

 

"My old buddy Chimera. Gotta hand it to yaz, you are one cool cape. Someday we may be crossing swords, but I hope...hfffft....dat day never comes. And if it does, just remember dat old Blowfish ain't so bad, huh?"

 

The city at night zoomed past. A light rain had begun, and the moon was under the clothes. Neon lights provided the only illumination, and as they approached the docks, even that started to thin. 

 

Blowfish stroked da Tommy Gun in his lap. An antique, but well made. "I hope I ain't gotta use this. But after last time, well, hffft.,... lets just say I'd rather have Little Miss faithful with me dan have a zombie feast on hfffft... my brains..."

 

He gave Chimera a wink. "We don't want it like last time, do we? And why ya comez down so hard on me anyhow? Not liked I raised da dead. More like I stopped 'em."

[Nerdzul]

Baseball bats... Woah scary. Luke smirked from his hiding space. The gun's weren't going to be much of an issue either, his hide was pretty much impervious to anything, but some serious military grade stuff. Yeah. Again. Piece of cake. 

 

Wait! What's in the bags... Damn!  His eyes widened, freakin' explosives. Those could be an issue. Collateral damage and all. And... Definitely no dragon breath around those guys... Yep... Not that he was eager to start a fire at the docks, of course, but from his experience a bit of a pyrotechnics was frequently pretty effective in convincing common crooks to back down. 

 

Whatever. 

 

He could not let the Blowfish goons blow up the Lost and Forgotten. Ominously named or otherwise.  Besides someone could still be on board.

 

Oh well.

 

It was time for a bit of theatrics. Quietly, Luke shed his human form. Once he was ready the onyx scaled lizard stretched his wings and flew the small distance that divided him from the vessel.

 

He searched for a place on the ship that felt like could sustain his weight, although, he had decided that, in case he failed in finding one, he would just start flying circles above the group.

 

"Isn't a little too late for romantic stroll by the docks?" The dragon grinned, exposing rows upon rows of fangs to the group of goons. The solid gold of his eyes reflecting what little ambient light there was and a hint of smoke filling his lips.

 

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

The car wasn’t large, but neither Blowfish nor Chimera were all that big. She shared the backseat with him as the car sped along the dampening streets. Streets that werent all that empty at this time of night on a weekend.

A portion of her attention was on the driver and the road. The man didn’t hesitate at the wheel. She was no granny behind the wheel, but he was the kind of driver she both hated and envied. Aggressive, but able to to back it up.

 

She had to resist rolling her eyes when Blowfish refers to her as his ‘old buddy’ and she hardly felt all the ‘cool’.

“I don’t look forward to having to standing up to you either.”

She had to admit.

“But the odds aren’t exactly in favor of peaceful coexistence forever.”

She glanced down at the antique submachine gun laying across the gangster’s lap. 

“Like last time…”

She trailed off, looking out the window.

“How is Stringbean?”

She asked after a moment.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Stringbean? Not a zombie, thank da Lord" said Blowfish. "Useful guy, even if he is too dang thin. I try to fatten him up at da Pasta Hffft Palace, make a real man outta him..." he shook his head and slapped his ample stomach. Blowfish was not obese, but he had a fat neck and a slack midriff. 

 

"He tried to go straight after dat business with da undead. But I managed to persuade him to come back to da action. I mean, we ain't that crooked, but we ain't dat straight either..." he said, hastely correcting himself infront of Chimera. "Useful guy in a squeeze, and he got experience with da..Hffft.... dead. So I sent him with some other guys to da ship, in case my boys face da Hffft Zombie horde!"

 

"Ah, here we are!"

 

Da car pulled up outside the docks. A bored security guard looked up at them, until Blowfish gesticulated he look away - which he did, hurridly, suddenly becoming very interested in the Icelandic economic piece section of his newspaper, which he proceeded to pretend read over and over again. 

 

Blowfish got out of da car and started to light another cigar. Before it was lit, he dropped it, eyes wide. 

 

"Holy Motha of Hfffft...Jesus! Is dat a DRAGON?" he gasped, pointing at the sky...

 

Meanwhile, a hundred feet away...

 

"It's a dragon!" screamed one of the goons, a particularly tall, thin one with a baseball bat and a kilogram of explosives. 

 

The mob ran, gripped with terror, scattering themselves amongst the steel cargo crates that lay on the deck of the Lost and Found. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by Supercape

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

She gave Blowfish a dubious look when he mentioned pulling the poor young man back into a life of questionable legality. But she held her tongue and looked out the window again with a noncommittal.

“Hmm.”

Hopeful he could keep himself out of trouble this time.

 

When they arrived Chimera sat up straight and watched as the guard looked the other way at Blowfish’s silent insistence. Almost people couldn’t afford the trouble of standing in the way of men like him, so the yielded rather than sticking their necks out. She could hardly fault the guard.

 

Stepping out the opposite side of the car her attention snapped around at Blowfish’s exclamation.

 

37 minutes ago, Supercape said:

"Holy Motha of Hfffft...Jesus! Is dat a DRAGON?" he gasped, pointing at the sky...

 

“What the-?”

Chimera stared up at the huge black shape against the night sky as it circled and landed on the ship’s deck.

“You have got to be kidding me!”

She hesitated for a moment before stepping forward.

“Stay- stay back.”

She tried to sound calm.

 

‘I need to get up there.’

She thought to herself. Hopping up onto the hood of the car, giant sliver-grey wings grew out of her back and opened with a snap. And with a leap she was airborne.

[Nerdzul]

At least they will be busy scurrying away from me rather than blowing up the boat... 

 

Yeah, assuming that no one does it by mistake... Which was always a possibility with people running around with explosive in the dark... Damn!

 

Nightscale golden eyes peered into the labyrinth of crates stacked on the bridge of the Lost and Forgotten, glowing faintly in the dark.

 

"Where are you hiding?" He growled, as he searched for the guys with the explosives. First thing first, he needed to get the one that could blow everyone else to kingdom come. Then he could think of the rest.

 

"Get the hell off my ship!" He lied, but perhaps those goons would get an extra motivation to leave if they thought that the vessel belonged to a scary ass dragon. "And all will be alright..." Yeah somehow, he doubted that the 'reassurance' would work.

 

He was about to swoop in to try and snatch at least one of the gangsters with the explosives when he caught a hint of movement nearby. Massive silvery wings? Was it a bird? A plane? No wait... definitely wasn't that? Flying monster? Angel? Demon? A woman? What the hell was she doing there? Now, of course, it wasn't really a stretch of his imagination to believe that Blowfish had someone with super-powers working for him right? Or at least he had hired one, after the casino heist.

 

"Who do we have here?" He half spoke, half growled, as his attention shifted toward the newcomer. He roared again, golden light filling his mouth as he pretended to be about the breath a weave of fire.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

If she had to be completely honest with herself, Chimera had no idea what she was going to do against the giant flying lizard. Dragon?

And did… did it just talk?

Because, of course it did. Well, she had its attention now. Time to do something.

 

She wasn’t the most graceful flyer, but she wasn’t just a brick with wings thankfully. Chimera swung wide to try to keep herself clear of the larger creature. It roared and Chimera was wondering if she was biting off more the man she could handle. Looking like it might actually be able to breath fire or something she hoped her being a smaller target would work to her advantage.

 

“Okay… you-“

Smooth.

“I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I’m not going to let you terrorize these docks.”

Electricity crackled around her fists.

“Back off.”

[Nerdzul]

Nightscale winced. "Terrorizing. No I..." He replied, more than a hint of surprise in his voice. Well... admittedly it was not like a dragon was the most reassuring of sight, that he would have to admit it. 

 

It took him a short while to recover his composure, but then he continued.

 

"On the contrary. I am guarding this place." He objected, his tones shifted again to the more threatening 'big dragon' speak. "Do you think I'd allow anyone, to blow things up on my watch?" He growled again as his gaze shifted briefly toward the vessel, although the flying woman appeared to be the biggest threat at the moment, he wasn't gonna allow two goons with bagful of explosives being out of his mind for too long. 

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

“Guarding?”

Chimera sound a little taken aback at first.

“Wait a second, did Max summon you?”

She shook her head.

“I’m not here to blow anything up.”

The silver-gray winged heroine said firmly, misunderstanding Nightscale.

“But if you’re another one of his creations I won’t hesitate to put you down.”

 

The electricity crackles, arching between her hands as Chimera rose up, twisted in the air and dove for the night black dragon.

[Supercape]

GM

 

And Meanwhile...

 

Down on the ship...

 

There was movement. It was hard to say exactly what. It was not so much the dim light (although that was no problem for Nightscale) of the moon, and the gently slapping surface of the ocean that glistened in the moonlight. It was the cargo containers, that provided plenty of nooks and crannies to hide in. 

 

And the crew itself - five burly sailors, were coming out, armed with pistols. With the sailors came one large man, decked out in full military gear, a mercenary protector by the looks of him. Body armour, woven cap, an assault rifle in his hands and a string of grenades clipped to his belt. 

 

"Damn dragon... didn't say nothing about no dragon..." he muttered, frowning. He spat out an impressive gob of phlegm, and turned his eyes back to the mook sabateurs. 

 

"People, though... hmm... people I can handle..."

[Nerdzul]

"Max? Noh... I dunn-" It was again Luke's turn to be taken aback.

 

"I mean... no one summoned me. Nor I know this person you are talking about." He growled back. That was... weird? Definitely there was something he did not understand going on around there. 

 

If Eye had set me up I'm gonna freakin' eat him... 

 

Well. Much likely not. Eating people was a big no (plus... pretty yucky) But that would have definitely been tempting. 

 

"Put me down eh? We should see about that..." He exhaled a small puff of flames, to better state the point.

 

Nightscale glance briefly shifted toward the men on the bridge of the vessel. Now they didn't look exactly like innocent sailors didn't they? "Avoid doing anything you would regret down there..." He growled. "I will be back with you in a minute-" 

 

OOC- Nightscale would be kinda distracted for a moment by the people on the ship if Chimera wants to use it as an opening.

 

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

The dragon rumble some kind of denial and puffed out flames as a threat. Normally Chimera might have taken some heed of it but even as it threatened her the creature’s attention swung back to the boat, like it was dismissing her.

 

Chimera was so tired of people (and mythical creatures?) treating her like a joke. She wasn’t much of a hero. She accepted that, but the fact that the only one that seemed to give her any respect was a local mob boss was more than just a little annoying.

 

“Don’t ignore me.”

She growled angrily. Her wings folded in and she dropped towards the dragon. She landed on its scaly back and fell to all-fours. 

With a grunt of effort electricity erupted from her hands and crackled across black scales.

 

OOC: with Luke 2 PL over her I can’t imagine this being too bad for him.  

[Nerdzul]

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" This, wasn't very 'scary dragon' wasn't it? Whatever, the flying, sparkly woman had managed to him off-guard, landing on his back and channeling a stream of electricity into his hide. Fortunately though, it was tough enough and most of the energy dispersed. He felt dizzy, but otherwise ok. He shook his head, trying to shrug off the unpleasant sensation. 

 

"Hey get off my back... I don't have time for this." He added, as he did a barrel roll, trying to push the unwanted passenger away. Although he was far from a graceful creature in the sky, he was still in his element after all. 

 

"There are a bunch of gangsters with freakin' bombs on that ship." He added, unsure however if the words had managed to reach his attacker during the confusion.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Her electricity crackled over the black scales under her seemingly harmlessly and Chimera cursed under her breath. One of these days that would work.

 

She didn’t have time to worry about it right now as she tried to hold on. The dragon pulled a loop-de-loop and she was glad she hadn’t eaten at Blowfish’s invite. She scrambled to find a hand hold, grabbing the base of one of its wings just long enough to kinda swing aside. The massive wing buffeted her as she did and Chimera tumbled in the air for a moment.

 

The silver-grey wings snapped open as she tried to right herself. Her long slender tail with small diamond shaped fin at the tip uncurled helping her stabilize midair. Her head rang a little as she fought to bring herself up level with the dragon, but she caught a few words it said.

Gangsters. 

Bombs.

 

‘Oh my god. It’s a trap!’

She thought.

“Max is playing to blow up the ship with Blowfish’s men on board?”

 

“I don’t have time for this.”

Chimera declared.

“I need to warn them.”

She turned and dove for the boat below. Her slender tail wavering behind her…

 

Wait… when did she grow a tail?

[Supercape]

GM 

 

Meanwhile... On Deck...

 

A fire fight had started. 

 

Fortunately, given the explosives, not a literal fight with fire. 

 

Pyeow. Pyeow-Pyeow!

 

Ratatatatatat!

 

Small arms fire. Flashes of light from the decks, behind the cargo crates. Most of it from the handguns of the thugs and the sailors. A few booms from the shotguns. And the assault rifle fire of the Mercenary. He knew what he was doing-his fire was accurate. Beanpole-the tall, thin thug of Blowfish-caught a bullet and screamed, clutching his guts and collapsing. Nightscale could smell the blood. 

 

Then, the Mercenary threw a grenade. Not explosive, gas. Thick lurid purple smoke filled the air, obscuring the deck from the view of both Nightscale and Chimera, and for that matter the sailors and thugs below. Nobody knew what they were firing at, although a few panicked souls still fired off random pot shots, in the hope of getting lucky. 

[Nerdzul]

At least she was no longer literally on his back, although the events that succeeded his aerial maneuver definitely left the young dragon with a puzzled expression.

 

"Nah you got this back-wards, it Blowfish that is here to blow up the ship? You workin' for him?" He replied, as his golden gaze shifted toward Chimera again, unwilling to let her be out of sight. "You're some kind of shapeshifter or somethin?" He tossed, after he saw her grow some kind of tail.

 

The sound of gunfire, however, reminded him quickly that there was little time to chit-chat with his opponent. He turned toward the vessel finding it engulfed in some kind of filthy smoke the acre scent quickly assaulted his nostrils.

 

"Damn." This... was gonna complicate things. People firing randomly, bombs, yeah an explosive mix. Now, those people were gangsters and yet... The Soutshide Dragon was responsible for their lives as well... 

 

Perhaps...

 

He flew above the ship and inhaled deeply, before breaking into a powerful roar. The call of a primordial predator, of the kind imprinted within the deepest instincts of all creatures that had at any time been preys during their long path to evolution. 

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Dragon Roar was mighty to behold, and terrifying to hear. 

 

Screams of panic arose from the ship deck. Most were indecipherable screeches of pure fear, but amidst the cacophony a few words could be made out; but alas, they were not poetic or inspired, merely accurate proclamations of the situation.

 

"Eeeaaaah! Its a Dragon!"

 

"Run for you lives!"

 

"This ain't worth it!"

 

All entirely accurate. The sailors and the thugs scampered, fearing that, at any moment, the dragon would breathe fire and turn them into an agonised cinder. Fear may not have inspired poetry, but did inspire their feet. They ran as if their lives depended on it; for in their own minds it surely did. Scampered footsteps were followed by splashes. 

 

"Abandon ship!"

 

One by one, in quick succession, they dove into the ocean waves that lapped against the ship. 

 

One thug, and one sailor, locked in a grapple, seemed too preoccupied with wrestling with the baseball bat between them to worry to much about the Dragon, or indeed the explosive that was being kicked about their feet. 

 

And the Mercenary bit his lit, clenched his jaw, and planted his feet. 

 

"Are they paying enough for a damn dragon?" he asked himself, pulling out one of the grenades on his belt and contemplating just how much this was all worth...

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Crap! When had gunfire broken out?

She had been so distracted by the dragon she hadn’t noticed the sounds of shooting and screaming. Why was she so bad at this.

 

16 hours ago, Nerdzul said:

"Nah you got this back-wards, it Blowfish that is here to blow up the ship? You workin' for him?" He replied, as his golden gaze shifted toward Chimera again, unwilling to let her be out of sight. "You're some kind of shapeshifter or somethin?" He tossed, after he saw her grow some kind of tail.

 

Chimera hesitated midair for a moment.

“What? He never mentioned…“

She shook her head. She’d have to confront Blowfish about that later.

“Why would you think I’m a shapeshifter-“

 

Suddenly a thick purple cloud of gas erupted to obscure the deck. She cursed under her breath as she tried to judge what to do. She was only half listening as Luke rose up higher and unleaded a thunderous roar.

A shiver ran up her spine but she shrugged it off. Below though, as the mist slowly began to clear around the edges she could see people beginning to run and panic. Nearly everyone was trying to abandon ship, except for a few she dismissed at the moment.

 

Chimera still wasn’t sure what to make of the flying mythical reptile. Added to the gun fire and tank of explosives the lost of concerns was growing far quicker then she cared for. It was then that she saw something that immediately took too priority on said list.

 

A tall, lanky figure laying half curled on the deck. A small pool of red spreading out from him.

“Shit”

Chimera dove. She twisted in midair on some instinct, the wings and tail shrinking and vanishing back into the symbiote, leaving her to drop like a rock onto the deck with an echoing clang.

She ran towards the groaning figure. It wasn’t until she reached him that she realized who it was.

“Oh Gods! Beanpole!”