Post by Setzer Gabbiani on Jan 3, 2007 22:51:53 GMT -5
Don Karnage's aerial raid had left the Blackjack in a terrible position, but even worse was the predicament for its crewmembers and engine. It was barely holding up, it was only a matter of time before the motor gave out and she crashed.
"Sir! The Blackjack has a good half hour before the internal damage causes the engines to break down."
The elegant coat flapped in the chilling winds above this strange new world, a world that was virgin to his eyes. He listened to his fellow man speak, replying at the appropriate cue, as do all good actors upon the stage known as life.
"Then we shall scorn destiny, defying her whimsical intentions to land our resilent spirit of our own accord."
His manner of speaking varied, but this indicated a good mood. Either that, or he had forgotten the concept of reality, but little-to-less the captain of the only airship in his homeworld maintained folded arms to the rear of him, glancing ahead.
"Not to be wasteful of our precious time, but how exactly do you wish for us to carry that out?"
A smile, but one with good-natured intentions formed, right alongside the whipping strands of snow-white hair that brushed across his scarred, but otherwise smooth facial features.
"'Tis not but an order, take it as you will, do as you desire!"
The crewmember remained clueless, even after all this time with the captain, it was rather difficult and frustrating to translate what he was intending to be spoken. However, the moments when the pseudo-actorism was dropped, there was a sensible man worthy of being followed to the depths of Hell.
"But sir, I would rather do it your way, if possible."
Before the captain could reply, a thudding sound filled the air, challenging the sound of funneled air and rotating axel-blades, and within moments it was revealed to whom it belonged to.
"Cait Sith, at your service!"
The crewmember was startled, despite the Mog-riding feline having been an unofficial member of the Blackjack Crew for a few weeks now. It was odd to see such a combination, but it was endured for sake of the harmony amongst those aboard.
"I was quite the mechanic back at the Golden Saucer! I can fix this puppy in no time flat!"
The captain laughed softly, giving the nod to confirm that the words proclaimed by Cait Sith would, in fact, be applied to his obligation. He was now expected to work his magic, aiding in the ship being able to land properly after Don Karnage and his Air Pirates attacked them, almost robbing them of their entire treasure stock.
"Ah! Sith, you've arrived! I'll be entrusting you with the task of preparing the Blackjack for her emergency landing, but you only have a few minutes short of a half hour."
The crewmember would have shot himself, if it hadn't been for the lack of firearms on the ship at the moment, but hadn't the captain just moments ago been talking in actorian nonsense? Babbeling in a mannerism he lacked comprehension of? No matter, it was in the past now.
"However, you will acco--"
At that moment, a shriek filled the air. It sounded totally alien to his ears, even more so to his eyes when the shrieking one appeared, towering above his floating airship. It was a savage-looking creature, one of which looked unfamiliar to anything he had seen in his multiple years of travel and fighting experience.
"Wow!! Get a load of that thing! Guess the ship repairs will have to wait, huh?"
The captain closed his eyes, nodding gently as he crossed his arms across his well-built chest, backside to the creature and spoke to his small but dependable crew: all six of them, there were six others, but they had been too seriously injured in fighting against Don Karnage's aerial hours ago, thus were in no situation to fight.
"Attend to your battle stations, men! I'm not going to have my ship attacked twice in one day!"
His men raised their clenched fists, supporting their beloved leader and rushed to their assigned positions on the airship, but before any of them could get accustomed and situated the beast reared its head back, roaring, coating the ship in warm saliva. It was then that it clicked, what this beast was, something of mythological legends, something someone of his calibur had read upon years ago.
"How fitting! The epic beast for an adventurer, the almighty Hydra!"
Cait Sith rushed around in circles, but ceased the moment Hydra lunged its heads towards the middle of the Blackjack, right where he was. It caused the robotic Mog to leap up and out of the way of the monster, but it did little good when a lime-colored blast struck the beast through the neck, severing its head which rolled off the side of the ship. It threw Cait Sith into a cargo wall, crushing the small black cat atop of him, but regardless was okay. The neck rained blood upon the aircraft, but while the crew felt they had won, the head sprouted back in the form of two. He had forgotten that it regrew double the amount of heads taken off.
"Alas! Forgetfulness is thine's own worst enemy, is it not?"
How the captain could speak in stage talk at a moment like this was beyond the crewmembers, but they had little time to focus and worry about it, preferring to reload the pulse cannon that had taken responsibility for knocking the creature's head off moments ago, but in effect giving it a second.
"Captain! The engines are smoking, if we don't land the ship now, we'll crash... and at this altitude our chances of survival are very little!"
The moment had come, it was rather selfish of him to reconsider, but he could not. It was more significant to live, to continue pilgriming towards the one goal he had: to find his comrades, to continue their own journey before all of this Heartless nonsense. He raised his eye, staring at the beast, but unable to make eye contact as he lacked four eyes, but the intent was there.
"Power the engines to full capacity."
"Wh-wh-WHAT?! Are you aware of what will happen, sir?! They'll explode, we'll not only fall to our deaths, but get blown to bits!"
"Does man not have the power of choice? If we do not make use of it, what a waste it has become."
"Captain, I apologize for being rude but... could you stop with the theatrics?! We're going to die if something doesn't happen, does that not mean anything to you?!"
"Like the last chip on the table, you always play big to win back everything you lost. Right now, that beast has all our investments, we're going to take them back."
"Take them back? What do you mean?"
"The time for talk has passed."
The crewmember rushed off without another word, following his captain's orders, fastly approaching where the engine room was, which was below the captain's quarters. It would take about 15 seconds to reach it at his speed, just enough time if he didn't have to progress through any obstacles.
"Setzer! Setzer! Heeeeey, buddy! Is this a bad time to ask for that 15 Gil you owe me?"
The captain, despite the seriousness of the situation, tossed his head back and laughed. It was good to have someone such as the robotic Mog and feline aboard his craft, and for a few moments could forget about the Hydra and enjoy life to its fullest.
"You've been nothing but good times, Sith. I look forward to playing another game of wager with you, soon."
At that moment the ship began to purr, the engines were being powered to full as had been ordered. It was time to give the follow-up command to his remaining men, but before that could occur the Hydra lashed out with its two heads, grabbing a man in each, shredding them to pieces and swallowing their remains. That left two men, plus the third who was returning from the engine room.
"Sith! You will have to become a part of this operation, there isn't any other choice."
"Me? Did you fall off this airship already and hit your head?! I'm just a cat, riding on top of a bolted marshmallow, what use could I be to you?"
"Plenty, now do as I ask. I doubt you want to die here, am I correct?"
"Die?! Of course not, right away! Cait Sith is on the job!"
With that, Cait Sith bounced off towards where one of the previous crewmen had been, getting into place and saluting the captain with the Mog he rode. It indicated he was ready for the coming orders, but first the returning crewman had a few more feet to go before he was back in the captain's immediate area.
"Captain, engines are charging! In two minutes, we will have maximum potential!"
"You may want to hold onto something, we're going to ram into the Hydra."
"R-r-RAM?! RAM?! RAM?! RAM, as in... RAM?! Are you SERIOUS, sir?! I think I'd rather have blown up, this is suicide!"
The gambler said nothing more, instead walking a few steps towards the front of the ship, staring into the seemingly endless blue skies all around him. It was as if he were saying farewell, but instead he turned to face his surviving men, including Cait Sith.
"Gambling is as fun as the one you play against, and what better than life itself?"
The captain was mad, this was part of some self-gratification to appease his emotions and pleasures? To risk destroying the Blackjack, killing all aboard, including himself, all to say he had scathed death and come out on top? How typical of the man, but it made the crewmen smile to see the captain was not insane, but his good old usual self. If the end did come, it would be with a sane-minded leader on their resume.
"Sith, the moment we make impact, that is when I cannot predict what will occur. But, I want you to be responsible for Jack's rum, make sure nothing happens to it or the old bloke would never forgive me."
"Rum?! You gave me the job of protecting a man's drinking problem? You... you... you're obviously unknowing of my talents, I worked with the likes of SOLDIER! Cloud Strife learned everything from me, he did!"
"You mean that blonde porcupine you told me about? If so, I know about SOLDIER. He wasn't nothing more than a bloodhound, but if you trained him I can see why."
Cait Sith kept silent, maintaing what pride and dignity he had left, and while it was tempting to mouth off, there was no time as the ship streaked across the skies, heading towards the Hydra's chest. It's target: the heart.
"We'll ram it's heart, stopping the beast cold. I'm counting on your SOLDIER skills, Sith!"
As if the retort wasn't enough, the man had to go and stick salt in his wounds, but Cait Sith could not complain. It had been brought upon himself for making that childish claim, especially with an organization that had embraced and exposed Sephiroth to the world. He held on at the Blackjack rushed forward, closing his eyes, just like the Mog he rode on.
The Blackjack rocketed forward, slamming into the Hydra's chest, impaling it a good fourth of the ship's entirity, and with a violent scream the Hydra began to fall over, within moments crashing into the rocky soil of their newfound surrondings. It would cause quite the ruckus, an earthquake of sorts, surely something the citizens of this world would acknowledge.
"The ship! It's falling apart, we've hit the beast too hard!"
"It's all over, Captain Setzer! You must save yourself, we're not going to survive the fall!"
Despite taking the Hydra out, much damage had been done to the ship, and when the monster fell the Blackjack had been broken off, thus without a front, falling towards the earth below, rapidly closing the distance from it and the ground.
"Setzer! I just want you to know, these past few weeks have been great, there was my losing 500 Gil, the Air Pirates, the Hydra, an-- WAIT A MINUTE! These past few weeks have been terrible!"
"Surely nothing as horrible as what you faced in SOLDIER, but now would be a good time to put your training into a way of stopping us from dying."
"Will you cut that out? We're in a serious pickle here, we may only have seconds to live! I'd like to go knowing I did something I enjoyed in those last few moments."
"Then you may want to say it really fast, the curtain's coming down."
"That's obvious! Are you going to leave this world being a Mr. Obvious?"
"No, I'm a Mr. Gabbiani."
"You're impossible!"
"Captain! Our speed of descent is about equal to the ramming force inflicted on the Hydra, but even worse is the Hydra may not be dead, merely stunned."
"How dreadful, dying without taking a legendary beast with us, it makes it almost unworth it. I'm sure the pearly gates would have been most impressed with him, it would have been delightful to wager him in a game with St. Peter."
"More seriously, there's nothing we can do aboard to stop the Blackjack. Sir, she's a goner, and so are we... it was great serving under your banner, I do say so with pride."
"Death, I'm calling you out. One last wager..."
"Are YOU INSANE?!"
"My life to save my men, in exchange for a miracle."
With that, he reached into his coat pocket, fishing for his lucky coin, placed it his thumb, flicked it upward to cause it to spin rapidly. It would remain there, as the air currents sucked it up, but it left a smiling man in its wake.
"If we're alive when we crash, we'll look at what side the coin landed on."
"A gambler 'til the end, huh?"
"If we survive, I'll be more than a gambler. I'll have won the greatest stakes game ever made, even Death will vouch for that."
It was fairly obvious to them all that the outcome would be grim, but that was due to the fact there was not a likely chance of someone catching them, right? If anyone like that existed, they'd have to be a God, or half of one.
"Sir! The Blackjack has a good half hour before the internal damage causes the engines to break down."
The elegant coat flapped in the chilling winds above this strange new world, a world that was virgin to his eyes. He listened to his fellow man speak, replying at the appropriate cue, as do all good actors upon the stage known as life.
"Then we shall scorn destiny, defying her whimsical intentions to land our resilent spirit of our own accord."
His manner of speaking varied, but this indicated a good mood. Either that, or he had forgotten the concept of reality, but little-to-less the captain of the only airship in his homeworld maintained folded arms to the rear of him, glancing ahead.
"Not to be wasteful of our precious time, but how exactly do you wish for us to carry that out?"
A smile, but one with good-natured intentions formed, right alongside the whipping strands of snow-white hair that brushed across his scarred, but otherwise smooth facial features.
"'Tis not but an order, take it as you will, do as you desire!"
The crewmember remained clueless, even after all this time with the captain, it was rather difficult and frustrating to translate what he was intending to be spoken. However, the moments when the pseudo-actorism was dropped, there was a sensible man worthy of being followed to the depths of Hell.
"But sir, I would rather do it your way, if possible."
Before the captain could reply, a thudding sound filled the air, challenging the sound of funneled air and rotating axel-blades, and within moments it was revealed to whom it belonged to.
"Cait Sith, at your service!"
The crewmember was startled, despite the Mog-riding feline having been an unofficial member of the Blackjack Crew for a few weeks now. It was odd to see such a combination, but it was endured for sake of the harmony amongst those aboard.
"I was quite the mechanic back at the Golden Saucer! I can fix this puppy in no time flat!"
The captain laughed softly, giving the nod to confirm that the words proclaimed by Cait Sith would, in fact, be applied to his obligation. He was now expected to work his magic, aiding in the ship being able to land properly after Don Karnage and his Air Pirates attacked them, almost robbing them of their entire treasure stock.
"Ah! Sith, you've arrived! I'll be entrusting you with the task of preparing the Blackjack for her emergency landing, but you only have a few minutes short of a half hour."
The crewmember would have shot himself, if it hadn't been for the lack of firearms on the ship at the moment, but hadn't the captain just moments ago been talking in actorian nonsense? Babbeling in a mannerism he lacked comprehension of? No matter, it was in the past now.
"However, you will acco--"
At that moment, a shriek filled the air. It sounded totally alien to his ears, even more so to his eyes when the shrieking one appeared, towering above his floating airship. It was a savage-looking creature, one of which looked unfamiliar to anything he had seen in his multiple years of travel and fighting experience.
"Wow!! Get a load of that thing! Guess the ship repairs will have to wait, huh?"
The captain closed his eyes, nodding gently as he crossed his arms across his well-built chest, backside to the creature and spoke to his small but dependable crew: all six of them, there were six others, but they had been too seriously injured in fighting against Don Karnage's aerial hours ago, thus were in no situation to fight.
"Attend to your battle stations, men! I'm not going to have my ship attacked twice in one day!"
His men raised their clenched fists, supporting their beloved leader and rushed to their assigned positions on the airship, but before any of them could get accustomed and situated the beast reared its head back, roaring, coating the ship in warm saliva. It was then that it clicked, what this beast was, something of mythological legends, something someone of his calibur had read upon years ago.
"How fitting! The epic beast for an adventurer, the almighty Hydra!"
Cait Sith rushed around in circles, but ceased the moment Hydra lunged its heads towards the middle of the Blackjack, right where he was. It caused the robotic Mog to leap up and out of the way of the monster, but it did little good when a lime-colored blast struck the beast through the neck, severing its head which rolled off the side of the ship. It threw Cait Sith into a cargo wall, crushing the small black cat atop of him, but regardless was okay. The neck rained blood upon the aircraft, but while the crew felt they had won, the head sprouted back in the form of two. He had forgotten that it regrew double the amount of heads taken off.
"Alas! Forgetfulness is thine's own worst enemy, is it not?"
How the captain could speak in stage talk at a moment like this was beyond the crewmembers, but they had little time to focus and worry about it, preferring to reload the pulse cannon that had taken responsibility for knocking the creature's head off moments ago, but in effect giving it a second.
"Captain! The engines are smoking, if we don't land the ship now, we'll crash... and at this altitude our chances of survival are very little!"
The moment had come, it was rather selfish of him to reconsider, but he could not. It was more significant to live, to continue pilgriming towards the one goal he had: to find his comrades, to continue their own journey before all of this Heartless nonsense. He raised his eye, staring at the beast, but unable to make eye contact as he lacked four eyes, but the intent was there.
"Power the engines to full capacity."
"Wh-wh-WHAT?! Are you aware of what will happen, sir?! They'll explode, we'll not only fall to our deaths, but get blown to bits!"
"Does man not have the power of choice? If we do not make use of it, what a waste it has become."
"Captain, I apologize for being rude but... could you stop with the theatrics?! We're going to die if something doesn't happen, does that not mean anything to you?!"
"Like the last chip on the table, you always play big to win back everything you lost. Right now, that beast has all our investments, we're going to take them back."
"Take them back? What do you mean?"
"The time for talk has passed."
The crewmember rushed off without another word, following his captain's orders, fastly approaching where the engine room was, which was below the captain's quarters. It would take about 15 seconds to reach it at his speed, just enough time if he didn't have to progress through any obstacles.
"Setzer! Setzer! Heeeeey, buddy! Is this a bad time to ask for that 15 Gil you owe me?"
The captain, despite the seriousness of the situation, tossed his head back and laughed. It was good to have someone such as the robotic Mog and feline aboard his craft, and for a few moments could forget about the Hydra and enjoy life to its fullest.
"You've been nothing but good times, Sith. I look forward to playing another game of wager with you, soon."
At that moment the ship began to purr, the engines were being powered to full as had been ordered. It was time to give the follow-up command to his remaining men, but before that could occur the Hydra lashed out with its two heads, grabbing a man in each, shredding them to pieces and swallowing their remains. That left two men, plus the third who was returning from the engine room.
"Sith! You will have to become a part of this operation, there isn't any other choice."
"Me? Did you fall off this airship already and hit your head?! I'm just a cat, riding on top of a bolted marshmallow, what use could I be to you?"
"Plenty, now do as I ask. I doubt you want to die here, am I correct?"
"Die?! Of course not, right away! Cait Sith is on the job!"
With that, Cait Sith bounced off towards where one of the previous crewmen had been, getting into place and saluting the captain with the Mog he rode. It indicated he was ready for the coming orders, but first the returning crewman had a few more feet to go before he was back in the captain's immediate area.
"Captain, engines are charging! In two minutes, we will have maximum potential!"
"You may want to hold onto something, we're going to ram into the Hydra."
"R-r-RAM?! RAM?! RAM?! RAM, as in... RAM?! Are you SERIOUS, sir?! I think I'd rather have blown up, this is suicide!"
The gambler said nothing more, instead walking a few steps towards the front of the ship, staring into the seemingly endless blue skies all around him. It was as if he were saying farewell, but instead he turned to face his surviving men, including Cait Sith.
"Gambling is as fun as the one you play against, and what better than life itself?"
The captain was mad, this was part of some self-gratification to appease his emotions and pleasures? To risk destroying the Blackjack, killing all aboard, including himself, all to say he had scathed death and come out on top? How typical of the man, but it made the crewmen smile to see the captain was not insane, but his good old usual self. If the end did come, it would be with a sane-minded leader on their resume.
"Sith, the moment we make impact, that is when I cannot predict what will occur. But, I want you to be responsible for Jack's rum, make sure nothing happens to it or the old bloke would never forgive me."
"Rum?! You gave me the job of protecting a man's drinking problem? You... you... you're obviously unknowing of my talents, I worked with the likes of SOLDIER! Cloud Strife learned everything from me, he did!"
"You mean that blonde porcupine you told me about? If so, I know about SOLDIER. He wasn't nothing more than a bloodhound, but if you trained him I can see why."
Cait Sith kept silent, maintaing what pride and dignity he had left, and while it was tempting to mouth off, there was no time as the ship streaked across the skies, heading towards the Hydra's chest. It's target: the heart.
"We'll ram it's heart, stopping the beast cold. I'm counting on your SOLDIER skills, Sith!"
As if the retort wasn't enough, the man had to go and stick salt in his wounds, but Cait Sith could not complain. It had been brought upon himself for making that childish claim, especially with an organization that had embraced and exposed Sephiroth to the world. He held on at the Blackjack rushed forward, closing his eyes, just like the Mog he rode on.
How disgraceful of me, eh, Daryl? I wasn't able to 'fend off some silly pirates, now I'm sacrificing the one thing that bonded us together, just for some silly thrill. Am I that thickheaded, or am I just as emotionless as the faces on a pack of cards?
The Blackjack rocketed forward, slamming into the Hydra's chest, impaling it a good fourth of the ship's entirity, and with a violent scream the Hydra began to fall over, within moments crashing into the rocky soil of their newfound surrondings. It would cause quite the ruckus, an earthquake of sorts, surely something the citizens of this world would acknowledge.
"The ship! It's falling apart, we've hit the beast too hard!"
"It's all over, Captain Setzer! You must save yourself, we're not going to survive the fall!"
Despite taking the Hydra out, much damage had been done to the ship, and when the monster fell the Blackjack had been broken off, thus without a front, falling towards the earth below, rapidly closing the distance from it and the ground.
"Setzer! I just want you to know, these past few weeks have been great, there was my losing 500 Gil, the Air Pirates, the Hydra, an-- WAIT A MINUTE! These past few weeks have been terrible!"
"Surely nothing as horrible as what you faced in SOLDIER, but now would be a good time to put your training into a way of stopping us from dying."
"Will you cut that out? We're in a serious pickle here, we may only have seconds to live! I'd like to go knowing I did something I enjoyed in those last few moments."
"Then you may want to say it really fast, the curtain's coming down."
"That's obvious! Are you going to leave this world being a Mr. Obvious?"
"No, I'm a Mr. Gabbiani."
"You're impossible!"
"Captain! Our speed of descent is about equal to the ramming force inflicted on the Hydra, but even worse is the Hydra may not be dead, merely stunned."
"How dreadful, dying without taking a legendary beast with us, it makes it almost unworth it. I'm sure the pearly gates would have been most impressed with him, it would have been delightful to wager him in a game with St. Peter."
"More seriously, there's nothing we can do aboard to stop the Blackjack. Sir, she's a goner, and so are we... it was great serving under your banner, I do say so with pride."
"Death, I'm calling you out. One last wager..."
"Are YOU INSANE?!"
"My life to save my men, in exchange for a miracle."
With that, he reached into his coat pocket, fishing for his lucky coin, placed it his thumb, flicked it upward to cause it to spin rapidly. It would remain there, as the air currents sucked it up, but it left a smiling man in its wake.
"If we're alive when we crash, we'll look at what side the coin landed on."
"A gambler 'til the end, huh?"
"If we survive, I'll be more than a gambler. I'll have won the greatest stakes game ever made, even Death will vouch for that."
It was fairly obvious to them all that the outcome would be grim, but that was due to the fact there was not a likely chance of someone catching them, right? If anyone like that existed, they'd have to be a God, or half of one.
