Chapter 2; http://www.furaffinity.net/view/653252/

Fan Characters © Noodles and Lynxia.
Setting © SEGA.
Official Characters © SEGA.


Of Bats and Air Pirates
Chapter 1

The dark shape sat still, immovable like a stone statue against the moon, the only thing that would give him up, if someone would actually be looking for him, or would happen to pass by, would be that there are no stone to be seen for miles and miles, the surroundings are purely filled with metal, machinery and smoke-erupting chimneys against the far-off cosmos in the darkening sky, the seemingly endless metropolis was never silent or still, it was one enormous machine, given heart and blood by the oil, electricity and other polluting powers that ran it, blinking lights, moving cogs and wheels, the ever-changing cityscape was like the sea of a metallic inferno, all around but still far below the place where the dark shape had taken his position.
Slowly, the dark shape moves, revealing flapping shreds of something leathery, clothing perhaps, but it seems to be attached to the very being that broods against the rising moon, the enormous yellow star, with it’s slightly pinkish companion, so high above in the star-spattered endlessness, amongst the whirring and clanking, a soft humming can be heard, pretty loud to be going through the machinery, but still, as if someone absent-mindedly hums a song they have had stuck in their head for quite some time, the dark shape shifts, revealing more appendages that flaps lazily in the breeze, a long bandage, slightly tattered and stained brown with dried blood, the shape stretches out long fingers, three on each hand, to first loosen, then grip the bandage carefully to lower it from his head.
He looks around, one yellow eye gleaming in the many lights of the cityscape, the other seemingly dead, but not gone, it has the slight reference of yellow, as the first, but the large pupil is faded into greyish rather than black as the other.
His face is calm and a little fuzzy, dirty perhaps, but fairly handsome and kind looking, his nose is two long and thin nostrils, and his mouth shows signs of long fangs hidden behind the thin lips, he is a bat.
Looking down into the abyss of machinery below, he lifts his hands slowly, putting the bandage against his face, wrapping it widely around his neck, mouth and nose, like a mask, then slowly, carefully lifts it to cover his blinded eye, he stops in the middle of the sweeping move and freezes completely, suddenly seeming lost in thought of something past.
He can see it before him as if he was a ghostly spectator, then suddenly, the whole world seems to zoom in around him, before he know it, he can see it all as through his own eyes, the memory so clear in his mind it could be happening at the very moment for real, but it is naught but imagination of a not-so distant past.
He moves, or at least he can feel his body move, aching from all the damage sustained from artillery fire, and a long day of fighting, the small glowing balls from the robotic minions of the enemy keeps raining death from above, the ragged bat stands up from below the ledges of broken mechanical innards, pointing both his long fingers towards what looks like more or less an impenetrable wall of robots, some of the human-shaped SWAT-bot type, but many others, in the shape of crudely modelled animals and beasts, his voice is broken, filled with blood and strain, but it rings clear within the silent ranks of the few followers that remain, most of them hurt, wounded and tired, but still not willing to give up, a number of other bats, but also cats, birds, hedgehogs, the usual rabble that cares to rise against the robotic invaders of their peaceful lands.
As the words escape from his lips, those that had not already done so rise, shout, curse and scream their lungs out as they step up to charge at the enemy
“Take them head on!”
No cowardice from the leading bat, he takes a small step to stand more solid and then darts forward, roaring in fury, his arms raised and wings spread, he leaps up to soar the short distance over to the unfeeling wall of living metal and lands on the top line, whirling around to knock the smaller robots down, in the shape of all manners of grotesque sea-creatures, all able to shoot the burning balls of glowing death, now falling handless to the broken machinery and sea of oil and pollution below, a shot, a hit, the bat caresses his face slowly, then spots the blood on his hand and realises that the glowing ball hit him straight in his eye, upon realising this, it is like a pike of pain is jabbed into his head, feeling like his brain has just been split in two, he staggers forward and places a hard kick against the supposed head of the enemy, and the metal breaks open with a crackling sound, revealing the mechanised insides, crackling with intense electricity.
The bat swings around, still more or less holding his face with his long hand, the blood pulsates from his broken eye, dizziness showers over him and after little more than one step he falls to his knees, groaning heavily, he can see with his one good eye still, and the few comrades he has left is breaking through the impassable enemy line, he sees the curvy shapes of his closest hurry towards him, then everything goes black.
He snaps out of the past and looks around a bit, shaken and confused for little more than a second, then finishes up his bandaging by twirling the bandage softly around his face and head, then sighs softly and hums the last of the song that was on his mind.

Grease moves down the mechanical tower slowly, his long fingers perfect for climbing on most surfaces as long as there is some manner of grip, rock and metal the same, as the moon is almost fully risen, he knows he is supposed to meet with her as it reaches it’s peak, but he remains calm as he climbs lazily downwards, with a great caution, as there is all manners of hazards down there, spikes, saws, and all kinds of other brutal automatic defence mechanisms to keep people like him out of the city, that is partially why it is the chosen place to meet, the challenge, thrill and almost guaranteed privacy from eager eyes and ears, and he surely does not mind the smell of the cityscape, it is like a curse and a blessing at the same time.
He never really cared for…
He shakes his head, he never really cared for many things at all, the whole planet is falling into chaos, the forests and seas polluted and made into this stinking, dirty cityscape, but he has the same love for the grimy death that awaits here, than a slow, peaceful demise within the green of the unpolluted world.
The only thing he could bring himself to care for are a select few of others, some people, friends, he had no family left, not even a trace, but matter not, they were all like him, odd, lonesome.
The one person he has ever cared to keep close, for more reasons than just good company, meaning that he actually has a few feelings left over to bestow upon her, the lovely bat lady he is on his way to meet in this instant.
He lands softly upon the metallic ground and casts a quick glance around with his only eye to see the surroundings are fairly safe, it is never fully safe around here, but at least safe enough that he is not to be chased by robotic patrols.
All seems calm, the mechanical whirring and clanking keeps playing its constant melancholic melody to the untouched stars above.
Rising from a kneel, the bat stretches a little, his frayed wings seemingly just broken appendages, unusable, the leathery skin is grey, a strange shift in colour as the rest of the bat is brownish, but none the less melts nicely together with his clothing, he walks slowly through the supposed streets that looks more like service passages in the eternally shifting mechanism that is the city, steering his steps with knowledge and experience, he has spent many hours studying maps of these metropolises and dumps, and even more hours traversing them.
Up ahead an unfamiliar sound in the calm metallic clanking and rasping of the nightly stillness is heard, a slight booming sound, but suddenly followed by a loud explosion, the rain of metal scraps can be heard for probably a mile around.
Interesting.
Grease hurries onwards through the dirty streets, criss-crossing through heaps of junk and dirt, eventually seeing bits of smoking metal laying strewn across the supposedly living landscape, he presses himself up against a wall in the darkest of shadows, only given up a little by a few blinking light nearby, along with the slow flapping of his bandaged mask and torn wings in the slow breeze that is intensified by the narrow streets at this low ground-level.
He listens closely, his large and well-trained ears picking up every trace of a sound, voices, no, only one voice, the other must be some kind of crude transmitter, a communications gadget, as the tone is very raspy, but still not robotized.
Grease narrows his eye; anyone bombing here must have a purpose, and is by all means an enemy to Robotnik and his legions, but revealing oneself so soon after a bombing, as the bomber apparently stays at the site, could very well be a bad move, seeing that the one who bombed is probably at edge, and expecting hostile company.
Grease peeks out from his hiding in the shadows, slowly and carefully around the corner, the person that stands there is very calm, his voice is a deep and slow mumbling, very hard to make out, even for the good ears of the bat, a small streak of smoke rises from a dully glowing cigarette in the corner of his mouth, he is wearing a heavy coat with a high collar, covering almost all of his features, his shoulder-long, dirty hair is carefully collected with a rough band but tied loosely in the back of his neck, his long sleek tail is carefully bandaged around the tip and halfway up to where it disappears into the coat.
The coated person is probably a cat, he looks around a bit, seemingly sniffing the air, Grease does the same, if the bomber can smell something, then so should he, but all he can get is the scent of the burning mechanics and the stingy smell of the burning deathstick.
He casts a quick glance to the moon, he is late to his meeting with Silk, she won’t like that, but it is nothing he can help at this very moment, this strange cat is intriguing, why is he here, his way of going against the doctor overlord is very odd, almost like it’s some kind of shadowy war that’s being fought.
Suddenly, like lightning from a clear sky, the faint sound of propellers is heard, like a baying from above, a long rope-ladder drops down from the dark shape that blots out the moonlight, it looks more or less like a plane, but even if so, it is modified beyond recognition.
Grease sees the man, if truly the smoking cat is a man, grab a hold of the ladder after he stopped staring at his communications transponder and then quickly haul himself upwards.
The bat looks after the bomber with his one good eye, as the strange, coated man disappears into a hatch in the ship’s hull, a few moments pass and as the airship takes off, Grease snaps back into his senses, he cannot linger here, robotic patrols will be all over very soon, it is a miracle they are not already.
He must be off to meet up with Silk, thankfully the place she is to wait at is a bit further away, hopefully out of harm and suspicions way.
He steps out by the demolished generator, finally realising what the target of the bomb was, a huge, monstrous even, control panel, an important hub of power and control within the city.
Someone is tying to cause utter chaos within the metropolis, or even take control of areas of it.
Grease scratches his head slowly as he jogs onwards at a good pace to get away from the burning rubble and back into the shadows, why would someone want to do that?
It does not take him long to reach the end of the narrow street he is running along, his grey coat flaps around his legs, his ragged boots clanks heavily against the floor of living metal, the wind is sharp at his back, and the smell of burned electrical innards is with it.
He stops and looks around, just as he expected, the path ends into nothingness, a great gaping wide open abyss before him, deep, deep below is a raging river of lilac-coloured toxic waste, a certain death for anyone who touches it.
He hums softly to himself and looks over to the opposite wall, just as everything else within this metal heap; it is completely filled with dents and holes, grating and bars, ideal for climbing.
He backs up, takes a deep breath and then sprints forth to throw himself out into the open abyss, his long, strong, fingers ready to grip on to whatever he can on the other side of the certain death.
He smashes into the wall, straight and horizontal as it is, skids, or more likely falls downwards, but manages calmly to get a grip of the wall after just a few meters.
A steady grip and the bat starts heaving himself upwards, his eyes fixed on the lamp-filled peak high above, like a red line against the beautiful night-sky where the small airship is still hovering against the moon like a bird of prey gazing down upon the city as if it means to strike down with it’s explosive talons again very soon.
His pace is steady and calm; he has done this so many times before, and under far worse conditions.
He smiles for himself under his bandaged mask, it is indeed very peaceful compared to getting shot at with all manners of weapons and projectiles, having to swing left and right, this is calmer than paradise.
Finally at the top, up over the red blinking line of small lamps and diodes, he rolls over and stands up, looking around, he is met by the, to him, most wonderful sight possible.
Caught in the calm breeze, her long black hair dances around her features, which is covered by surprisingly little, that’s the way she likes it, and he never bothered to ask, but perhaps that’s part of her name, Silk, from the more or less transparent silk she wears.
He walks calmly towards where she stands, for it is a way to walk yet, but he is sure she will spot him soon enough, for she has keen eyes.
He keeps observing the marvelous sight of the female bat in the dull moonlight, the lights from above and below does no justice at all to her beautifully coloured body, but it does not bother him at all, it has been a while since he saw her, and after all the toils of the day, he is longing so badly just to fall into her arms, or take her in his, matter not to him.
He finds himself walking faster, jumping lazily over small piles of rubble and more or less floating on a dreamy cloud, his one eye lost deeply in the mere sight of the lightly clad female bat.
It happens without warning, for that is how bad things usually happen, a large metallic behemoth rises from the unending depths of living metal just as the female bat turns around to smile at Grease.
His pace picks up in an instant, what manner of chance would a man of his size ever stand against that thing?
Matter not, the last he would ever do is back down when it is about the one he invested all his feelings in, a dangerous act, surely, for doing so always ends in tragedy.
Silk narrows her eyes, what is he up to, but she understands the instant she hears some whirring from behind, turning, she sees the enormous thing, it looks more like a living heap of junk than something finely mechanical, maybe something robots themselves built, for it is surely not of Robotnik’s making.
She throws herself to the side just as the enormous fist of the three-armed thing smashes down where she stood, it is obvious it is not here to take prisoners, naught but a crackling hole in the living metal firmament is left where the fist swept, Grease brushes by to drag Silk to her feet
“Lovely reunion, don’t you think?”
She does not sound very amused as she answers shortly.
“You’re late”
Another sweep by the enormous hand and the metal tower starts to look like it has had enough, the creaking of bending metal and ripping of cables is heard as the fist is withdrawn from deep within the buzzing insides of the breaking tower.
The monster keeps going after the bats as Grease now skids down a ramp-like construct after quickly pulling Silk into his arms and lifting her so that he can have total control of where both of them go.
“Hold on”
She keeps on with the not-so amused tone and look.
“Not really much else to do”
A steady rain of metallic bits and pieces follow the two bats, but they are both used to the pressure, Grease being something of a warrior, and Silk quite capable herself, even though her ability to fight is all too often shadowed by Grease being very overprotective.
A couple of faint sounds can be heard through the constant smashing and breaking, the lazy flapping of propellers, and the sharp sting of a shrill siren.
Grease grits his teeth, his fangs slightly digging into the soft flesh of the inside of his mouth, causing a very faint taste of blood, it has been a while since he tasted blood, especially his own, he jumps off a ledge and skids to a stop, only to throw a glance back at the huge metal beast that is chasing them, he catches something more in his quick glance, the airship he saw earlier is closing in, still a black shade against the sky, but something is easy to notice, on the long rope-ladder hangs the mysterious, coated cat, something sizzles in his hand, as seen from him so far, it is much probably more explosives.
Grease jolts to the side as the huge fist keeps going after the two bats, seemingly caring nothing at all for whatever it has to smash to get them.
Voices all around, the robotic, human-shaped SWAT-bots, one of the most common servants of Robotnik, are gathering in the area that now looks very much looks like a warzone, their cold, emotionless robotic voices sparkle and crackle with commands, and orders, as they do their best to surround the bats in the broken terrain.
A roaring laughter from above as a small stump of a cigarette falls towards the endless sea of metallic construction below, a second after, a well-placed throw hurls a bomb towards the enormous metallic being, the mysterious cat on the ladder watches in suspense as his precious explosives hit its target with a silent ringing noise, but the reaction that follows, as the fuse runs short, is far more powerful.
The explosion throws the giant living scrap heap back as it tears through metal and wire as if it was paper, the ringing sound of explosives is followed by the sharp sound of breaking metal as the enormous thing falls backwards in a rain of scraps and burning bits, to wild cheering from the cat on the rope-ladder drowns in the noises of the crashing and cracking as the giant metal monster grinds to a slow stop in the narrow passageways down below.
It seems like all is silent for a few moments, Grease looks around, he almost by reflex covered Silk the best he could with his body and wings to protect her from falling rubble and burning bits, now the two bats find themselves surrounded by the SWAT-bots, nothing they have not seen before.
He casts a quick glance up to the airship, seeing the cat disappear into the hatch once more, and the ladder after him, whoever it is, and whoever is captaining that ship, the bats more or less owe them their lives.
It is hard to honour a saviour that disappears so soon after the good deed, but Grease does not mind, he has other trouble to focus on at the moment.
He rises slowly, and Silk rolls over to do the same, the two bats takes up a standing back to back.
“Lovely reunion indeed”
Silks voice softens up a bit, smashing SWAT-bots is nothing new, and now she will finally get a go at things without Grease holding her back.
Grease remains silent but smiles behind his mask, and as the female bat darts off, so does he.
She engages the enemy cunningly, by flipping up among the broken girders and beams of the metal ground where the enormous fists were pounding just moments before, she starts out with landing on one of the bots with both her clawed feet, tripping it backwards and grinding its head into the trashed metal before quickly setting off into a lithe jump onto the next bot, she is not afraid to get her hands dirty with tearing the robots to bits.
Grease rushes up to the edge of the hollow they ended up in, throwing himself against the low wall, hurling himself up and smashing into the closest SWAT-bot, grabbing its legs to make it fall and grind into the bot standing next to it, within moments, both bats are into a swirling fighting motion that looks more or less like them trying to fend off the oncoming mass of the clumsy, human-shaped robots, every swing the SWAT-bots take at the two, one of the bots fall, broken or just smashed to the side, falling into the diode-filled abyss below.
The fighting chaos is soon over, as the robots simply stand no manner of chance against two experienced fighters, the bots are not much more than a nuisance and an obstacle in the path of the two, as they finally close the circle of mayhem by meeting on both sides of the last SWAT-bot, the robot stands fearless and ready, naturally, that is what robots do, only to be torn to shreds by two well-placed punches from each bat.
Grease breathes in deeply and is about to say something, but stops himself as Silk lays a finger on his masked mouth while stepping closer to him, her knuckles sore from hitting the robots, but she does not seem to mind, she remains undamaged and that is all that matters to Grease, herself too, naturally, but right now she is far more focused on the ragged bat before her, a man she has not seen for a while now, but never was far from, her slender fingers trail along his face, gripping his bandages softly to pull them down, revealing his thin lips, currently curled up into a soft smile, his left cheek ragged and ripped by scars, his blind eye still covered by the soft bandages that trail around his head.
She leans forth and brushes her lips over his, and in the pile of smashed SWAT-bots, they kiss, long, deep and passionate, both bats experienced in the means of kissing someone with fangs, it trick is not to cut your tongue, and after a few tries, they got a hang of it, now it is something that does not even require thought.

---

As the hatch close behind him, Ivanov stops his laughing and sits up slowly as he got into the ship in some manner of crawl.
“Dimitri!”
There is no Dimitri onboard; the coated feline man is just bad with names.
Ivanov looks around, he is alone in the bowels of the ship, which is more like a modified plane anyway, the captain doesn’t call herself air pirate for nothing.
After a bit of grunting and looking about, the light brown-furred cat finds his way upwards in the ship, wondering if any of the small-numbered crew did see his show anyway, he wouldn’t mind having it impress the captain.
As he walks the short distance to get into the command deck, he fumbles with a cigarette and what would reassemble an old, metal lighter, he stops his feeble clicking at the small thing and lets the cigarette rest unlit in the corner of his mouth as he enters the room.
“There you are, Dimitri! The hatch is crooked, maybe you’d take a look at it, hmm?”
He tucks the lighter away in his pocket and looks to the large panda who apparently just entered the room as well, and is on his way over to the captain.
Damir grumbles softly and just leaves without a fuss, the light brown cat has his way of doing things, the large panda has learned that by now, he would never go against the captains orders and reasons though, and all he knows of those are the contract with the shadowy man who’s only characterising feature was the sleek white glove he wore as his hand swept out of the shadow with the contract, which so far, only the strange bomb-crazy cat and the captain has read, and seemingly want it to stay that way.
Ivanov looks to the captain with a sly smile on his weathered face
“Nice flying captain”
Asrial looks to the coated cat with her one eye as she hangs a bit lazily on the wheel of the ship with a clam grin on her face.
“Keeping my end of the agreement”
Ivanov nods slowly and takes the non-burning cigarette out of his mouth slowly.
“Where are we off to next then?”
The captain remains relaxed and looks out over the metropolis around them as the ship lazily floats on, well out of reach for artillery or the like, the plane-like construct is one well-adapted piece of fine machinery to be able to more or less stand still mid-air, Ivanov is impressed by it all, he has seen many a mechanical thing and being, even the insides of many, in the service of the shadowy man with the white glove.
Operative Ivanov, not just overseeing missions and contracts, but mostly in the middle of the fray as the missions are carried out to the most far reaches of the world, and for some reason that will forever be obscure to him and whoever who works or have worked under the man with the glove, why it all is done, no one but the mastermind himself knows.
The demolitions expert is not all too displeased with the current situation though, his work for the mysterious man has kept him fed and warm for the past few months, and now he gets to ride on some air ship with a very attractive feline captain, he thought that he would never again see another cat, at least not of the opposite sex.
“Fuel and energy”
The one-eyed beauty suddenly answers, after a little while of being lost in the star-spattered sky all around them.
She then swings around to look back out into the night, ordering full speed ahead from the small lynx who is currently at the main controls of the ship, the small man snaps awake and ready from what seemed like very light sleep, his feet at the control board as if it was just another desk, he quickly salutes, very lazily, and then rather enthusiastically pulls the flying ship going to a full speed ahead with a sounding
“Aye captain!”
With the engines going smoothly after the combined efforts of the skilled panda and the sudden new knowledge added by the male cat, after the lastly spoken has complained about the roar that could be silenced by a simple adding of a certain easily mixed component, the two first mates of the ship, the panda and lynx, had accepted the presence of the cat into their work team, but not really got used to the strange man on board, but as they both have full respect for captains orders and decisions, they go along fine with the outsider, as long as he does not do awfully crazy things.
The ship floats along as if carried by the very essence of the night, the dark surrounding is like a lovingly caressing sea of darkness and far-off lights.
Ivanov excuses himself very politely that he will be off to his room, which is little more than a cleaned-out storage room of smaller size, but it fits a particularly comfortable bed, at least for the liking of the feline demolitions expert, and a desk where he can mixture with his concoctions.
The captain looks to the light brown man as he bows and talks about not wanting to disturb her time with looking at the calm night-sky, and she smiles back, saying that she will probably drop by his room later to discuss business as soon as the tasks at hand are taken care of, and hoping that he will still be in his room, which he has failed to be the latest ten times she was looking for him.
Ivanov excuses himself upon hearing this and smiles back as he leaves.
There is now no more distraction for the captain to keep her from watching the stars, calmly setting course through the night, over to one of the countless power nodes in this seemingly endless metropolis.
Ivanov walks past Damir, which is on his way back to the Command Bridge, the large panda nods softly as the cat asks him about the defect hatch, and even cracks a small, small smile when the feline showers him in praises when he gets the answer that the hatch is fixed and working as intended now, then they quickly part, off to their own.
Ivanov looks over his room, small and dark in the corners, but with a powerful paraffin lamp dangling from a sturdy hook in the metal ceiling, a pair of wooden chairs is all there is by the desk, along with a lot of crates and sacks, containing his things, which are to the most part explosives or parts to build explosives out of.
He sits down by his desk and takes a deep breath, shuffling about in his bags and crates, looking for whatever things he needs to make more of the gadgets and concoctions that his expertise is all about, and which earns him his living.
Seemingly finding something he likes, or at least can be bothered to make another explosive out of, he goes to work in the dim light of the swaying lamp, concentrating on his experienced handiwork with pouring the right amount of powder here and putting the right parts there.
Asrial looks over to the door as it opens, one of her first mates steps in, and the door closes softly behind him, he walks slowly down towards the control panel and nods as a silent greeting to the captain.
“You seem upward Damir”
The panda looks up to the captain where she stands, hanging on the wheel of the ship, as she more or less asked him a question, without actually forming it like one.
“Yes, that cat is finally picking up on his politeness”
Asrial smiles softly and the large first mate sits down in the chair specially built for him by many of the controls of the ship that the captain usually does not even bother with using, that is what she has a crew for.
Damir looks to Lynxer; the small man seems to be asleep, sleeping on his watch, again.
But matter not, the captain is at the wheel, there is surely nothing to panic over, and the small prankster sleeps very lightly anyway, if someone would just call out for him, he would snap to in an instant.
As he eyes out over the endless cosmos above and around them, the panda sees the probable destination, he has been around long enough to know what is going on, they are raiding for fuel and energy again, something they do every now and then, some times, or most of the times, it is not even acutely needed, some times it is because the captain needs to slake her lust in plundering, and some times it is stocking up on supplies for harsh times.
This time it seems like they actually need it though, they have been airborne for many days now, doing tasks here and there, mostly seeming to have nothing to do with each other, and all for the shadowy man with the white glove, his deep voice crackling out easy and very polite orders over a couple of radio boxes Ivanov had with him when he got on the ship in the first place.
The ship draws close to the huge power station, a large round bulge in the other fairly straight-edged metallic landscape, the dome is a huge protective shield to the cables and tubes underneath, but the crew and captain has done this hundreds of times before and as the ship comes to a graceful stop just above the dome, the three of them calmly walk to get their things, after Damir shook Lynxer awake with a simple flick of his fingers and quickly explained the situation.
The captain keep seeming very upwards, as the night has been full of interesting things so far, it was well worth the effort of sleeping during the day, just so this odd mission with blowing up a couple of reactors in the middle of the metropolis could be carried out at night.
She does not even take a moment to wonder why; blowing something up during the day has the same effect…
The three makes ready in the bowels of the ship, ropes and ladders and whatnot to get them down and keep them safe once they are operating on the dome, breaking open a hole with a blowtorch and then fending off the automated guards and defence mechanisms for as long as it takes to charge a couple of battery packs.
An adventure in itself, surely.
The ladder lowers slowly and the small lynx eagerly hops onto the dome with skilled and experienced steps, the trick is not to walk too close to the edge, that would be a risk of slipping off, something he has done a couple of times, and never found fun.
He lights up his blowtorch and begins to work, Damir stands ready with the cables and batteries as Asrial stands around on top of the dome, two ancient appearing flintlock guns at the ready, the weapons of a pirate, great strength and fair accuracy, but still one-shots, she has mastered the weapons to that where one shot is very well enough.
It does not take long until red lights blink and the whole dome seems to shift, hatches and doors open here and there, small flying sentry-bots swarm around, filming, spotting and generally annoying.
As the real threat arrives, robots that actually fight and shoot, the batteries are already connected to the main flow of electricity in the thick wirework inside of the breached metal carapace.
A shot thunders in the otherwise fairly silent night, it echoes above the metal clanking and whirring this place ever has, and a flying robot flies no more.
Asrial takes aim once more and lets the other flintlock speak, sending another robot down into the shifting lights and darkness below.
Lynxer spins around to let his stretching metal knuckles fly around wildly to crush and smash whatever annoying flying camera gets in his way, the tinkering sound of broken parts is now starting to fill the surrounding and suddenly, yellow and black chemical balls are fired at the intruders, the robotic artillery has taken up positions on a rooftop just across the black chasm below.
Asrial reloads her flintlocks as fast as she can while Damir seems to have found another solution, he lets the big piece of metal that they carved out of the dome be used as a shield and when the robots stop to reload, the big panda hurls the metal piece like a deadly disk towards the robots, smashing through them like a warm knife through butter, leaving only broken scraps behind.
And as the robotic backup arrives, the captain is ready with her guns.

Ivanov looks up, besides the faint noises outside; something sounds odd, like a warning siren.
The light brown cat looks out of his small room and down the hallway, swearing softly to himself, he makes off to the command bridge to find the place empty of it’s crew and filled with flashing red lights and a whining siren.
Lynxer sees the red flashes through the enforced glass that covers the whole Command Bridge of the ship
“Captain! We’ve got breach on the ship!”
Asrial looks up, then down to the batteries that are still charging with a loud electronic crackling out of the broken hole in the dome-shield.
“All men back to ship! Bring the batteries!”
She never expected the robots to be smart enough to attack the ship, they never, ever did before.
Something is fishy here, either the scrap-brains are controlled by someone, or it is simply not robots that broke into her ship.
If it is those bats they saved earlier, they will have one hell of a time explaining themselves.
Ivanov narrows his eyes, then hits a big red button down on the control panel that clearly says “ALARM OFF” and the siren shuts off, and the red lights slow down, then stop and goes out, the whole ship seems silent and dark for a moment, then he can hear a loud clanking noise coming from below.
He quickly makes it up the short stairs from the control pit and up by the wheel of the ship, rushes out into the hallways and towards where he thinks the noise came from, the engine room, or the loading dock, the ship is not that enormous, so reaching both rooms to investigate could be done swiftly if needed, and right now, it seems very needed indeed.
Using his self-taught knowledge of the ship’s hallways and tunnels, he makes his way down through the now very dark bowels of the ship towards the engine room.
Asrial swings upwards swiftly and gracefully, matter not her robotic legs and one eye, she has the agility of any other feline, combined with her experience as a pirate.
Her two first mates makes it up after her, a bit slower, but at the same time fending off the never ending swarm of robots, dangerous or not.
Well up in the loading dock, she looks around in the dark room, seeing nothing out over the usual, then helps Damir with the batteries before walking over to the archway that leads out into the main corridor at this level.
“Lynxer, we really need to see over your oh-so grand security mechanism”
The small lynx raises a brow.
“It works perfect! Alarms and then shuts off the light so that intruders have a hard time finding their way around”
Asrial sighs softly but does not speak more before heading out into the hallway, she would rather not use her guns in here, so she will have to rely on her swords.
“Damir, to the main control, Lynxer, search this level, I will go find Ivanov”
Both first mates answer with “Aye captain” before scurrying off without any complaints or further words.
Ivanov peeks around a corner, he can see well enough in the darkness, but it is hard to look for something if you do not know what it looks like.
The engine room seems empty enough, but someone has surely been here, tampering with the engines, breaking a few things, that must have been the noises he heard.
Asrial walks swiftly through the ship, her metal feet, part of her metal legs make soft noises for every step, enough to give away her position but not alerting the whole ship, she has no problems with her mechanical legs whatsoever.
Ivanov’s room is empty, he must have gone off somewhere when the alarm went off, probably he who stopped it as well, this is the eleventh time he is not there when she looks for him, she smiles softly for herself, the irony of it all.
A sudden noise, the captain spins around, something is there in the shadows, a long, thin tail disappears around the corner of an archway, into a very dark room.
She narrows her eyes and licks her lips slowly, as in thought, was that a failed sneak-attack and quick retreat, or was it a carefully planned lure?
Ivanov sees something up ahead in the corridor, a small being, thin and without a doubt not a robot, he hesitates for a second, and then decides to shout.
“Who goes there?”
But his words more or less gets drowned away in sudden gunfire, lasers and the chemical-spitting cannons from the robots outside, they have decided to fire at the ship, who is still close to the dome which they raided, and Damir must have reached the command bridge, as the ship wildly fires back with it’s lasers.
Ivanov is caught completely by surprise by the sudden shaking gunfire and before he can react, the being he saw disappears up a flight of metal stairs.
As the gunfire shakes the ship, Asrial remains completely calm, fire upon the ship and firing back is part of almost everyday life as a pirate, instead of being dazed by the sudden array of small explosions, she takes the opportunity and swings around the corner into the pitch black room, swords at the ready.
She looks around in the blackness, and good for her she was ready with her swords, for she needed them for parrying, a black shape leaps at her in full speed, the thing is small, but it’s fangs gleam in the dim red light of the few emergency lights that lights up the hallway outside, fangs and claws like a storm of pain and hunger, but the skilled pirate parries most of it.
The thing snarls loudly and lands on all fours, even though it is clear it is some kind of two-legged being.
It has white hair hanging wildly over its face, big eyes that only show madness and the lust for blood, a young face, like a child’s, and it is covered in soot, dirt and oil, nothing can be foretold of its body, except that it is thin, as it is clad in many layers of tattered black cloth.
Asrial cannot help but to look a bit shocked.
“What are you?”
The thing does not answer, only throws itself forward against the pirate captain again.
Ivanov rushes up the stairs, only to receive a hard hit in his face, a foot or a fist, he cannot really tell, but he falls helplessly backwards and tumbles down the stairs.
As he comes to, he sees the blurry shape of what seems to be a young girl above him, she has white hair and her grin is sharp, like a predatory beast eyeing it’s fallen prey.
Surely not wanting to give in to some little girl, the light brown cat shuffles around with a spin of his legs, trying to knock the grinning child off her feet as he gets up.
His head rings with pain and his forehead is covered with blood that now drips down his face from a small cut just above his eyebrow.
He notices that he did not manage to hit the small white-haired being as she suddenly throws herself over him the second he gets up, she clings onto his back and tries her best to bite his neck while setting her claws into his thick coat, trying to tear her way down to his fur.
Asrial dodges and decides that enough is enough, she lashes out at the thing just as it passes her, both her swords at once, a smooth spinning attack to get her right back to be ready to strike or parry again, seemingly something she needs against this foe, as it is both more vicious, agile and faster than any robot.
Her swords bite straight through the black cloth and scratches something under it, just so they slightly taste blood, and the small being does not seem to care at all for the damage, it only tumbles over, crashes into the wall and jumps right back up, snarling and shouting with a strangely soft voice, yet filled with anger and bloodlust.
“Feline whore!”
The white beast comes at her again, but she does a move it did not expect, as she simply moves to the side, it does speak, that means it has some manner of intelligence, that means it can be interrogated of what it’s purpose here is.
The thing brushes past her and grabs a hold of her coat, dragging her down to the floor as it swings around.
Asrial makes a painful noise as she crashes down into the metal floor and the thing is quick to throw itself over her, holding her arms down with it’s clawed hands and grinning triumphantly above her.
“Let’s see what you taste like!”
Soon after is speaks, a hard hit to its head slams the whole being to the side, off the captain, but it bounces right back again and goes after the new adversary, Lynxer.
The small lynx is not much bigger than the being and quickly gets overpowered by the unending ferocity of the thing, but Asrial is quick to help, she smacks the thing in the back of its head with the handle of one of her pistols, the black-clad being drops to the side, seemingly harmless and knocked out.
Lynxer grumbles and gets up.
“What the hell is that thing? It looks disgusting”
Asrial checks a few rips in her clothing and wipes a little of her own blood away before looking to one of her first mates and the knocked-out thing on the floor.
“Never seen one before, but we can’t stop here, maybe there is more of them around”
Lynxer pokes the knocked-out being.
“Where will you go, captain?”
Asrial looks around in the hallway, not many places to go here, but Ivanov’s room is close, maybe the radio-boxes works, they did just a couple of hours ago, of course, but then the demolitions expert was around to manage the crude electronics.
“I will try to contact Ivanov on the radio, you drag that thing to command and tie it up tight, stay with Damir”
The small man grabs the slightly smaller white-haired being by the shoulders and lifts it up a bit, seemingly not strained all by the weight.
“Aye captain”
As he answers, Asrial is already inside the small room, looking at the radio pieces that stand on a pile of crates, the junk looks sturdy, but old.
Ivanov slams around in the hallway, trying to batter the small white-haired girl against the walls enough to get her away from his back, but she seems too hardy to want to let go, suddenly, the small radio device on his arm sparkles alive, and Asrial’s voice is heard, she is shouting into the microphone, not knowing he hears her loud and clear, her voice crackling, echoing down the hallway.
“Ivanov?! Hello?! Where are you?”
He tries to reach for his sleeve to pull it up to respond, but as he does so, the little beast finally gets a hold of a vulnerable spot and takes a bite at his neck.
In great pain, the light brown cat swings around to smash the white-haired head into the thick steel wall of the hallway, finally causing her enough pain to let go, but also by doing so, her bite breaks through the fur of his neck and blood begins to pulse lazily, causing a hammering feeling in both his head and of course neck, it is not a fatal bite of any sort, just an annoying bleeding wound that hurts like hell.
He quickly pulls his arm up to respond to the radio message as Asrial keeps shouting into the microphone.
“I’m here captain, I think third level, main hall”
Just as he responds, the white-haired girl decided to play dirty and punch him in his private parts, his eyes tear up and he falls to his knees, grasping his groin, gasping for breath in a staggering manner before falling to his side, curling up and coughing hoarsely, trying to speak as the small girl rises above him, triumphant in her momentary victory, again.
She speaks with a very soft voice, almost cute, but right now filled with what would best be described as furious hate.
“Where is he hiding? Where is his secret base?”
Ivanov looks up with his tear-filled eyes and wonders what the hell the creature is talking about, but he cannot answer just yet, answer that he does not know, but he cannot get up either, but he does not have to.
Asrial swings down a staircase and looks around, finding Ivanov closer than she would think he was, seeing that he is laying, and there is a slight bloodstain on the floor, she instantly assumes the worst and attacks the second small white-haired being right away, without any warning at all, besides her clanking footsteps that goes through most of the whole metalwork floor as she lands from the stairs.
As her blades cut through the air on their way to the small one, the beast already moved, as she heard the noises of the captain drawing close, this one is clearly slower than the one she fought before, which only gives it the advantage of being small, for however hardy it is, what does a thin little body without protection have against sharpened steel?
Asrial quickly spins around as she realises the enemy stepped aside, she won’t be fooled that easily and she continues the sweep of her blades as if dancing a deadly whirl, only to meet the leaping attack of the small girl, who suddenly seems just as vicious as the being the captain encountered earlier.
With a shaking and a noise that could awake the dead, the ship suddenly swings from side to side, a small explosion is heard, from what seems to be inside the ship.
Ivanov rises slowly on shaking arms, the explosion must have come from the engine room, he looks up to see the captain suddenly overwhelmed by the small creature clinging on to her, clawing at her face with clawless fingers, the captains two swords emit a ringing sound as they slam to the floor, she has to use her hands to tackle the being who seems to suddenly play for time rather than trying to kill or hurt outright.
Ivanov coughs and gets up to a kneel, his poor balls took a bad hit, and he isn’t too pleased with it, but he would rather go help in the engine room and save the ship from crashing than take out his revenge on the small white-haired girl.
Cursing, swearing and grumbling, the cat gets up to a stand and grabs the small being by the hair to yank her backwards, the sudden move pulls Asrial along, but matter not, the pissed off demolitions expert quickly slings up a knee to crack it into the back of the little girl, then gracefully catches Asrial in his arms.
He stands still for a moment, he never, ever thought that would work.
His knees shake badly, and he feels like he is about to throw up, but he lets out a short and wheezing sound of happiness.
Asrial looks to Ivanov for a short, short moment with her one eye and then gets a good foothold to stand up, just in time to see the small white-haired being staring to crawl away from the two.
She wastes no time in leaping after it and does just as with the other one, a hard hit to the back of its head with the butt of one of her pistols, and then another for good measure, knocking the hardy little girl out.
Ivanov sounds like he has been crying for hours with the first words he utters and Asrial steps over to him
“Where are you hit? Is it bad?”
She looks concerned and quickly eyes him over, seeing his bleeding neck and the clawing upon his coat, but nothing more.
“She punched me in the balls”
Ivanov’s voice is still broken, but a bit more understandable.
Asrial cannot help but to crack a small smile.
“So you are not dying, good”
Ivanov tries to smile back but fails horribly.
“The explosion, we must hurry to the engine room”
Asrial nods and without further words or delay, she takes one step over to the knocked-out little girl and swings her up over one shoulder, the thin body of the small being is not much to carry, the captain easily takes her along.
At the command bridge, Damir is doing his best to keep the failing ship steady as Lynxer has taken over the controls of the guns, letting the yellow laser burn through the dark sky, smashing through metal and wire alike as it causes small explosions where it hits, breaking robots or sending them to a falling death below.
“Power’s failing!”
Damir looks up and grunts softly.
“I’m working on it”
Lynxer takes aim again to deliver another shot with questionable precision as the ship is now fluttering at what seems to be a last span of energy and stability.
Asrial runs along Ivanov in the shaking bowels of the ship, taking long steps with her red metal legs, knowing the ways around the ship like the back of her own hand.
“Can you fix the engine?”
She suddenly speaks as they come across a staircase, leading upwards, yet the way to the engine room is further down the hall.
Ivanov nods quickly and answers, now more sounding like his normal self.
“Some help would be nice, but I saw the damage and I can probably fix it”
Asrial is already making her way up the staircase and speaks as she goes.
“I must get this package to the Command Bridge, then I will be down in a flash to help with whatever I can”
Ivanov does not bother to answer, he does not feel like crashing today, so he makes off towards the engine room, hoping there is no more of the crazy invaders aboard to pummel his poor family jewels.
On swift steps in the dark hallways, the light brown cat tries to remember the shortest way around and eventually reaching his destination.
The engine room is completely filled with smoke and red blinking lights from all manners of gauges and templates, everything is overheated and most of the mechanics is grinding even faster than they were built to do.
Ivanov narrows his eyes to try to see through the smoke as he makes his way to the smashed parts of one of the engines, thankfully the small invaders did not bother to smash it completely and by doing so leaving it still partially functional.
He groans loudly as he looks down into the whirring mechanism, poor mechanics sure took a beating, he looks around for whatever tools may be laying around and finds a small toolbox conveniently stuffed away on a small shelf by the machinery.
Without delay, he grabs for the box and opens it, screwdrivers and big rough spanners, but nothing to help right now…
Then he spots a lead pipe on the floor, probably the thing used to smash the engine with in the first place.
He quickly reaches for it and jams it into the broken and bent metal to open it up and get it away from any moving vital parts that are stopped or grinding in bad way, risking to snap.
Asrial drops the white-haired girl down on the floor a few meters from where Lynxer decided to tie up the first knocked-out foe on the railing of the command bridge and then looks over the situation outside the ship, which is looking pretty grim, they are loosing altitude and sustaining heavy fire from the massing robotic defence forces.
“Damir, stop the tinkering and fire up the secondary guns, Lynxer… keep firing, switch to manual drive now”
With a sounding “aye captain” the large panda swings out of his chair to step away from the control panel, into a sealed-off gunners pit, snapping a few switches in place and grabbing a dusty old joystick to move the seemingly long-unused lasers to start firing upon things outside.
The secondary guns are small and light, but well enough to break robots and their chemical cannons.
Asrial quickly binds the small girl, it would be easy to be fooled by the looks of the white-haired being, but the captain has seen her fight, or what at least looked like fighting, with the clinging and clawing, apparently got Ivanov pretty bad as well.
The long-tail besides her is coming to, but he is more or less completely wrapped in rope and a rag is tightly tied around his head to work as a muzzle, and good so, for the small being seems pretty pissed.
Asrial carefully ties the hands of the small girl, first behind her back, then fastens them to the railing that goes all around the Command Bridge.
Rising fully, the captain can see the girl snapping to already, she sure is the hardy one, what could be her male twin was out at least twice as long.
Furious hate burns in the eyes of the white little girl, but her voice is calm and sweet
“Could you please untie me, it hurts so badly”
Asrial looks down with a lazy gaze and lets out a short disagreeing sound.
“Oh, so you want a gag as well?”
She motions towards the other white-haired being with a slow, graceful movement, as if showcasing the captive.
The little girl purses her lips tightly and raises a brow, then breathes in deeply and continues with her sweet tone.
“We didn’t mean you harm, we are after someone… he is bad and evil altogether”
Asrial raises a brow back.
“That’s why you claw and bite, even punch a man’s private parts?”
Before the small girl gets a chance to reply, Damir throws himself out of the gunner’s pit with a shout that actually sounds like some manner of happiness.
“Captain! Power levels are returning, what did you do?”
He slumps down in his extra large chair and begins flipping switches and pushing buttons before grabbing the steering mechanism.
Asrial lets out a short laugh.
“I’m sorry but you’re going to have to praise Ivanov this time”
The white-haired girl grumbles for herself, these pirates were tougher than she expected, and now she has to think of a way out…
Ivanov falls back and sits down in the smoke, wiping some sweat from his forehead before rolling his sleeves back down and picking all the tools back into the toolbox to put it back, turning and slowly walking back out into the ship which is now brighter, with the lights powered up.
The light brown cat slowly walks through the halls, his body aching with every step, and his private parts still not completely recovered.
His sensitive ears picks up something, a noise, up ahead, something or someone is moving towards him at a swift pace, but it only takes him a short moment to recognise the sound of the captain’s mechanical legs, he stops and waits for her, rather than keep walking, her stride sounds meaningful anyway.
“Ivanov!”
Her voice foretells no special emotion, but as she comes in sight, he can see she is smiling warmly, as she draws close, he can see she is carrying a small box and a bundle of papers, she wasn’t joking about the discussing business after all.
She tugs him with her and steers her steps towards his room.
“I intended to discuss a few things with you when we were done with all our tasks, but with all this ruckus, I might just take it now as we are in momentary peace”
She seems pretty eager, and as they come into his room, she takes a seat on his bed and opens the box, it is filled with a variety of simple medical supplies.
“Now come here, I’m going to fix you right back to as good as new”
Ivanov cracks a smile, it has been ages since someone even bothered to care the least for him, and if it is this gorgeous feline captain that wants to, he surely can’t wait.
He flings his heavy coat off to one of the chairs in the room and then sits down on the bed, tilting his head to the side, waiting for her touch to care for the bleeding rips in his fur.