Sitting underneath the rock canopy Soul and Mage had found just moments before the downpour started, Mage felt both uncomfortable and safe. He had made a fire using his Sin, but it would take time for the flames to heat the air and Soul's dark, metallic armor. Mage still curled against it. They didn't have enough room for them to sit far apart. But Mage didn't really mind it. Soul seemed so large when he had that armor on—sitting next to him right now, Mage felt like nothing could hurt him.
Then air grew far too hot far too quickly.
There was a bright flash of light, the strangest feeling of deja vu, and the sudden realization that he was somewhere that he wasn't supposed to be. Mage and Soul both rushed to their feet. Mage's feet felt unsteady. Had that light done something to his sense of balance-
He looked down.
He was standing on wooden planks. That were moving. When Mage frantically glanced up, he realized they were standing on the deck of what had to be a ship. He had never seen one so big. He hadn't seen a lake so big before. It looked like it stretched on forever.
And then he remembered that Soul wasn't good with water, and saw that they weren't the only ones on the ship. He thought he heard a scream. There was frantic talking, too, but Mage was too shocked to pick up on what they were saying. He just took a step away from Soul and summoned his Sin, prepared to protect Soul when the humans on this ship inevitably attacked him.
But they didn't.
When they saw his fire and his darkness, they ran. They bolted for the much smaller ships attached to the very side of the ship, hollering for the people that were below deck. When those people came rushing up, they joined them too.
In less than five minutes, the ship was left completely empty.
"...What just happened?" Soul finally said, slightly nervous voice ever so slightly muffled by his armor. He eyed the water surrounding the ship and moved towards the center.
Mage followed him. "...I think we scared them."
He wasn't used to getting left alone when people were scared of him, but he liked it better than being attacked. He looked around the ship before turning back to Soul.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"They didn't hurt me," Soul said. It took a moment of Mage staring at him for the question to really register. "Oh. I'll...I'll be okay. I just have to stay away from the water."
Soul glanced at the water again.
"We can try finding shore," Mage optimistically said, standing up a little straighter. He started to look around the ship again. "We just have to figure out how to steer a ship this big-"
His gaze caught on the flag the ship was flying. It was black with a white design printed on it: a skull in front of two crossed bones. Mage's eyes widened. He knew what that was. It was something straight out of one of Kiera's stories. They shouldn't have been in Medium, but Mage had learned a short time ago that there was more than just Medium, Caelum, and Infernum. Maybe they had found a way out to the rest of the world?
"We're on a pirate ship," he realized.
Soul slowly stared up at the flag. "I thought those weren't real."
"I think they are," Mage whispered. He looked off towards the horizon. They had to be on an ocean right now. It was too big to be a lake.
Then he realized he saw another ship. It was hard to tell for sure, but the flag looked dark—and like it had bits of white on it.
"I have an idea," he said. "What if you pretend to be a pirate? It can't be too different from how we acted at Lucrum's prison. They have to have clothes you can wear below deck. I'll stall until you can get back up."
Mage thought for a moment.
"That sounds like a good plan," he decided. Giving Soul one quick look, he booked it for below deck.
Harry let out his fifteenth yawn for the day. And that wasn't even an exaggeration. He was officially bored enough that he was counting his yawns. He sat up, and looked around to check on the other three next to him. James was sound asleep on his lounge chair, sunglasses firmly on his face. Vankous looked exactly the same, the only difference being the light layer of shimmering green energy that was supposed to be protecting him from the sun. What he had against sunscreen Harry really didn't want to know.
Stean was the only one awake next to him on the massive beach. He was looking out in the distance, studying the ocean in front of them. They were currently outside Private Cabin #27, on a large stretch of perfect white sandy coastline, looking out onto a crystal clear sea and it was boring.
There were no monsters to be found, not even the threat of a random dark lord or even a conspiracy regarding the bedsheets like that one time two centuries ago.This was proving to be one of the most boring vacations yet and Harry was itching to get something done. He'd heard about pirates being present in small pockets around this ocean. Rich tourists were a very easy target after all. Most of them payed up without any fuss whatsoever. He should definitely look into that. Jennifer was going to yell at him again, but the boredom was too much.
He hauled himself to his feet and peered out over the horizon, much like Stean was going. At the very edge he could see a tiny pirate flag waving away, most likely eying up this particular section of cabins and waiting for one of the groups to head out on a ship.
He smiled to himself. They were going to get their wishes granted. He gaw a low whistle to get Stean's attention.
"What do you say we go for a little swim while the two sleeping beauties stay at it?" he asked.
Stean barely managed to stifle a laugh. "Oh, I wish Vankous heard that. Umm, okay, why not? This isn't one of your plans to hijack a pirate ship is it?"
"I will neither confirm nor deny that statement," said Harry, quickly heading into the surf.
Stean hesitated for a second before letting out a sigh. "Jennifer is going to kill me." With that declaration, he soon joined Harry as the two of them waded out into the open ocean.
It didn't take long for them to swim out towards the nearest pirate ships. They tended to hang around at about seven or so miles from the coast and it was a very short trip through the crystal clear waters of the Alvian Sea. They didn't really stop to observe any of the fish, they'd been here enough times that they'd seen pretty much every creature in this ocean by this point, although to the tourists, the wonderful sea serpents, giant manta rays and the occasional school of rainbow colored fish were probably reasons for stopping.
Harry gestured for Stean to dive once they were about a hundred feet out from the pirate ship. Considering those ships usually kept a lookout for boats, it was unlikely they'd spot to swimmers, but it was much more fun to make sure they popped out of nowhere.
On that note, they were soon at the very bottom of the ocean, deep enough that even in the near perfect visibility provided here, it would take a very sharp pair of eyes that were actively looking for them to be able to judge their approach.
They floated along to the bottom of the ship where Stean came to a stop and gave Harry a questioning glance. He nodded, smirking. Stean seemed to let out a sigh of relief, or at least, his best approximation, considering he was in fact holding his breath and should not be wasting it on a sigh.
Harry flashed him an apologetic smile. With that, the two of them shot up onto the surface of the water and with practiced ease somersaulted onto the deck of the ship from either side, immediately scattering everyone on board.
"Heyy, how's everyone doing? Enjoying your vacation?" asked Harry flashing a bright smile at everyone who was looking halfway between plain confused and excited at the prospect of someone to potentially rob.
Stean, on the other hand got to work straightaway, sending two people flying with a single kick. That, rather predictably, terrified everyone on board and soon they just stood and watched while the crew of fifteen pirates turned tail and jumped overboard as fast as they could.
"Did you really have to kick those two?" asked Harry, "it just became even more boring. We could've danced around that for so much longer."
Stean rolled his eyes. "It was fifteen to two"
"Exactly, they were at a disadvantage," said Harry.
"Fine, next time we can pretend to be taken prisoner or something," said Stean.
"I like that, now we're talking," said Harry, although I have a slightly better idea. "Let's pretend to be pirates, and try to pretend to storm another pirate ship and then get taken prisoner."
"Seem unnecessarily complicated, but okay," said Stean.
"Well, go put some appropriate clothes on," said Harry, "I'm going to make some adjustments."
With that note, Harry began to transform into a more human looking shape, getting rid of his wings and making his skin lose its patches of translucent skin. Putting his sunglasses on fully to cover the color of his eyes, he proceeded to put on a pirate hat that had been left nearby before taking the wheel of the ship.
Stean had just emerged from changing into a ridiculously tight looking getup that resembled a cheap Halloween costume, when Harry spotted another pirate ship not too far off.
He set the ship on a collision course.
"Good Timing Stean," said Harry, "looks like we have our first target."
It wasn't long before they were pulling upto the other ship.
"Let's go," said Harry, already leaping into the air. Stean wasn't too far behind.
As he landed, he could see one solitary figure standing on deck, looking like someone who had taken a wrong turn on the way to renaissance fair.
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Soul hadn't read many pirate stories. The last time he had read one, it had been at least a decade ago. Zogin didn't have many fictional or historical stories in her house—the majority were mechanic's manuals and old, illegal texts on the angels.
But the pirate ship that had pulled up next to them only had two people, and those two people had just left the ship for Mage's and Soul's. From the little Soul remembered of those old stories, one of the two did look like a captain. He had the right kind of hat and was the first one to board the ship.
And yet...
No matter how he tried to think about it, Soul couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something important.
"Hello," Soul said. He could feel Sin itching at his fingertips right now, desperately wanting to be released to lessen his unease. He ignored it. "Can I help you with something?"
Harry exchanged a confused look with Stean, carefully schooled expression of appropriate intimidatory capacity momentarily forgotten. Pirates weren't supposed to greet people that way, were they? Come to think of it, pirates didn't wear armor either?
Stean just shrugged. Harry decided against sticking his tongue out in reaction. That could potentially deduct from the aforementioned intimidation points.
He looked again at the being that had greeted him. Perhaps if this one was acting non piratey despite being on what was clearly a pirate ship, he could be extra piratey to restore the balance of the universe.
"Ahoy! We be here t' commandeer yer ship!" said Harry, before deciding to add in a loud "Arrrghhhh" for good measure. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Stean shake his head.
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A pirate was trying to take another pirate ship. If Soul wasn't so confused, he would have thought that was ironic and a little bit funny. Zogin (he missed her so, so much) would have gotten a kick out of it. But no matter how hard Soul tried to face the facts of what was going on right now, he just couldn't get over how little this made sense. He didn't know enough about pirates to figure out why, but-
The Sin itched at his fingertips—Sin that was his but didn't feel like it should be, and Sin he didn't want to use but might have to.
"That'll be a problem," Soul said, "because this ship is already occupied."
The original plan had been to pretend to be pirates, but they didn't seem to be outnumbered anymore. Soul got into more of a fighting stance. The air started to crackle with electricity and grow warm with magic. Lightning Sin danced up and down his arms as he looked the two pirates right in the face, tempting them to attack him first.
Harry smiled. Finally something was going according to plan. He was tempted to a quick "Yay" but considering this knighted pirate had decided to make a first move with what was admittedly not the worst way to try and intimidate an opponent, Harry couldn't possibly risk making a fool of himself. Although if he wanted to get captured, perhaps that could somehow be arranged. There were so many possibilities.
Harry turned to Stean. Perhaps a second opinion would be useful in this situation.
Stean was standing fairly nonchalantly, or at least so it would seem to anyone who didn't know him. Harry recognized the breaths that were coming in measured bursts, the slight tensing of his legs and his palms casually pointing in the direction of the knight. To anyone, it would seem like a slightly odd way to hold one's hands by their side but Harry knew that was the sign that he was ready to roast someone with his laserbeams. They didn't call him Lazerbeam for nothing after all.
Harry turned back towards the pirates in front of him, narrowing his eyes just a touch. The miniature light show forming around the pirate was a little out of the ordinary for most beings that embraced the not so noble art of piracy in these waters. There was something just slightly off and clearly Stean realized this. Harry decided he'd play the neutral card here. Perhaps pretending to fall prisoner to this crew wouldn't be the best idea after all.
"Perhaps I should rephrase," said Harry, deciding to forgo the pirate speak for the moment. "We're here to hijack this ship and get it under our control. So, for your own safety, surrendering is highly recommended."
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Soul's gaze traveled to the pirate that hadn't spoken. He looked like he was standing normally, but something about the look that had been exchanged set off alarm bells in Soul's head. Maybe that pirate had a form of Sin, too. Soul wasn't all too sure if pirates were supposed to, but it would make sense.
"That's an interesting move for a crew of two people," Soul commented, his quiet voice not quite a taunt but also not quite a simple observation, "especially when you already have one ship."
He was ready to move the moment the not speaking pirate fired off a shot, but then he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He turned—even though he knew that it was dangerous to look away, and knew that Zogin would be berating him for it if she was here right now—to see Mage stepping out from below deck. He was wearing an oversized coat and a ridiculously big hat, but the coat and hat were just the right sizes to hide all of his demonic features. The hat was even tipped down to hide one in shadows, while the other eye was hidden behind an eye patch.
Soul knew that Mage could handle himself. He had seen him fight multiple times before, and knew that he had survived on his own long before Soul had met him. But when he saw him standing there with the knowledge that a fight was about to break out, Soul felt a burst of panic. His Sin burst, too, making larger and stronger arcs up and down his arms. The other Sin clamored for release, too, but he had nothing to use it on. He desperately hoped he wouldn't need to use it.
Mage stared at the two pirates for a moment. He looked at the other ship, too. There was a look of almost recognition on the visible parts of his face, but the look faded as soon as he rushed over to Soul's side.
"Get off our ship," Mage said, making his voice sound deceptively older than it actually was. Not by much—there was only so much that deepening it could do, especially when Mage was always careful to make the deeper, more mature voice sound natural.
To emphasis his point, fire and darkness Sin appeared in his hands. Hopefully, the sight of darkness Sin would be enough to scare them off. Most people saw that as a threat.
"I feel like that questions answers itself," said Harry, calmly, "two people clearly could use two ships."
The being in front of him was clearly playing the long game here, not budging an inch and waiting for the two of them to make the first move. Harry wasn't usually stupid enough to do that unless he knew exactly what was going to happen and right now he didn't have enough information map that out just yet.
The baby lightning in front of him was starting to get a little bit more noticeable. It wasn't a threat, but the way this pirate was clearly not going to shy away from potentially causing harm put Harry on guard. Most pirates in these waters, weren't that hostile. They relied on simply weapons that the tourists would easily be terrified of. These were far from just that.
Just then another pirate rushed up from below decks. Harry quickly took a cursory glance around the ship, identifying to his surprise that that pirate was the only other one he could sense on the boat. It was only two people that were acting quite this defensive. That did not bode too well.
The second pirate stopped for a second before then coming to stand by his companion, ordering them to leave the ship. He sized the pirate up. Judging by the oversized getup, that pirate suit wasn't meant for him, which meant Stean and said pirate could probably do with a switch in clothes. He decided maybe that was the wrong observation to make at the moment.
He instead focused on the clear sign of aggression from the pirate. There was fire dancing in his palm, accompanied by something that took Harry by surprise. Darkness. Now that was rare and could genuinely pose a threat to Stean.
For a second, the voice which had sounded like an obvious attempt at sounding more commanding than it was and the darkness triggered something faint in Harry's mind, but it was gone as soon as he saw how determined these two were for a fight and the fact that the second pirate could cause legitimate harm to Stean.
This was supposed to be a boredom killer after all, not a serious threat. It was time to get a tiny bit more serious. Harry quickly took off his sunglasses, allowing his entirely blue eyes to be visible. He let them let off a light glow of warning as he tensed himself, shield spell on his lips should the pirate attack Stean.
Stean himself stepped up next to Harry, tapping his communicator as his combat suit quickly formed around him. That took Harry by surprise.
"You brought the suit?" he asked.
"Obviously," said Stean, shaking his head.
"You people are entirely too reasonable sometimes," said Harry, turning back, now with a slight smile on his face. Stean's suit should make things far smoother.
"I'll repeat once," said Harry, as Stean lowered himself into a slight crouch, hands starting to glow a faint green. "Surrendering really is the safest and smartest option."
Harry's hands chilled to an unnatural degree as two blades of ice formed within them.
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"Harry?" he said, shock lacing his voice. Soul did a double-take when he realized that Mage knew one of the pirates. When Mage frantically glanced between the two of them so quickly that a few strands of flame-like hair slipped out from underneath his hat, Soul came to the startling conclusion that Mage somehow knew both of them. "Stean?"
Soul glanced over at Mage, his own eyes wide. "You know pirates?"
Mage frantically shook his head.
"They're not pirates," he said. That didn't really explain things, but the fire and darkness Sin faded from his hands. Soul fought his own Sin to make it go away, too. It was still itching to break free at his unease, but Mage didn't seem afraid of the two that were moments away from attacking them. The least he could do was help deescalate the situation.
Mage took off his hat, revealing a pair of horns that, though Soul didn't know it, were a little smaller than they had been the last time Mage had seen the two in front of them.
"It's me," he said. "Mage."
At that point, Soul just stared. The only person that ever called Mage by that nickname was him. Just who were these two?
Harry Hardy prided himself on never being caught by surprise, not with the potato shooting teddy bears, not with the psychopathic toaster, not even when someone had animated a bowl of jelly beans to act like a swarm of lethal bees. This time however, he dropped his ice blades in sheer surprise as he just stood and stared for a second, brain running several miles a minute as it suddenly connected all the subtle clues.
"Mage!!" he managed finally, voice sounding entirely too high pitched at the realisation. "It has been entirely too long."
He relaxed instantly, allowing his body to shift back into his usual form as his skin returned to its normal texture, his wings unfurling behind him before he folded them to his side. Next to him, Stean was also cracking a smile, having recognized the friendly demon.
"How have you been?" said Harry, going in for a hug.
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Mage wasted no time in giving Harry a hug. It had been a little less than a year since he had last seen him, so Mage hadn't immediately recognized him when he came up from below deck. It wasn't until he had seen Stean's suit and Harry's eyes and ice that he had finally realized why they both seemed so familiar.
"I've been-" Mage faltered, not quite sure how to reply. He hadn't been great for the longest time, but now he was. He glanced back at Soul and tried to figure out how to explain everything to both Soul and Harry. He wasn't even sure if he was supposed to tell Harry everything about Soul. It was Soul's secret, even though he was sure Harry would understand. He had been understanding to Mage. Most people didn't treat demons that way.
"I've been," he repeated, deciding to end it at that.
He pulled out from the hug and took a step back. Soul had been nice and hadn't tried fighting Harry since Mage had yelled out Harry and Stean's names, but he still wanted to make things less tense and confusing.
"Soul," he said, turning to his best friend, "this is Harry and Stean. Harry and Stean, this is Soul. Soul's from my world."
Mage's reply was telling. It seemed like his life had been in more of a limbo than anything else. It was hard to place, but it seemed he wasn't too badly off at the moment. Over the past few years, Harry had often remembered that one little trip through the forest as a fond memory. One glance at Mage's signature through time suggested it had been maybe a year or since he had last seen him but for Harry, it had been nearly a decade. Travelling around time tended to do that to you sometimes.
Harry gave him a small smile in return before he the turned to acknowledge Mage's friend who was apparently named Soul. Harry was glad that Vankous had been fast asleep when he'd come out to sea, or poor Soul was probably going to end up having a barrage of puns directed at him.
"Hello, Nice to meet you," said Stean, stepping forward finally and offering a hand to shake. "Sorry for that almost fight there. Things could've gotten a little messy there for a second."
"Heyy, yes, please," said Harry, letting out a chuckle. "I don't ever speak with that particular pirate accent...well unless absolutely necessary. We're definitely not here to steal this ship, well...we were, but obviously if its yours and not one belonging to actual pirates, we wouldn't do that. And I'm rambling now. Ignore that but yes, hii...I'm glad to hear that you've got a friend from you're world. Nice to meet you Soul. I also apologize...well first for that accent, and then for that potential situation there."
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Soul shook the offered hand, still slightly confused but grateful that he didn't have to worry about a fight breaking out anymore.
"It's nice to meet you, too," he said. The circumstances were strange, but it really was nice to meet someone that Mage was close with. Soul hadn't ever realized he still had people he carried about.
...There was, of course, the fact that one of them had angel wings, but Soul wasn't going to be as trigger happy as Zogin might have been right now. Mage trusted Harry, and that was enough of a reason for Soul to trust him for now, too.
Soul pulled his hand back.
"It's alright," Mage said, giving Harry a warm smile that melted Soul's heart. Mage only gave those smiles around him. "We were going to pretend to be pirates, too."
Harry almost wanted to pull Mage into another hug on seeing the smile currently on his face. Instead he settled for a smirk as Mage said they'd also planned on being fake pirates. This could potentially be even more fun than he'd imagined earlier on the shore.
"Awesome!!" said Harry, "the two of us were actually going to go around a few pirate ships, pretend to get captured for a second then take them all out from the inside. We're kinda of vacation and things got a bit boring. Its funny actually, Vankous and James are both asleep not too far from here. We left the two to get their sleep. Mortals I tell you. Always needing rest. Anyway, you want to try and raid another pirate ship together? It'll be awesome, I promise."
"Oh no..." said Stean, already letting out a sigh. "Please don't encourage this one."
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