A Pirate's Prison For Me (BP & Squish) COMPLETE

The trip through the remainder of the fortress was uneventful. Too uneventful, Sigmund thought. Any second now, he expected to see the full force of the Pirates coming at them to overpower them. It was quite simply too silent, even as they reached the staircase to the captain's room and waited for Silas to make a sling for his arm. Sigmund walked over, tightening the knot Silas had made and giving the cloth an experimental tug. It didn't give, so he nodded in approval. "Alright... I would say stay behind me, but, well." He smiled wryly. "I'm in as bad a shape as you are. We'll have to take advantage of outnumbering her."

They walked up the stairs and Sigmund slammed the doors open, walking in more confidently than he felt. "Captain Aveil!" he called, "I'm here for the egg!" He saw her in the middle of the room, sitting on what looked like a throne, relaxed and looking in their direction with a decidedly unimpressed look on her face. "...and my halberd," he added as he saw the ornate, ceremonial weapon in the Gerudo's hands.

"Too bad," she said, "I like it and I'm keeping it." he stood up from her throne, brandishing the weapon at him. "On both counts."

"We'll see about that." Sigmund wasted no time casting Aqua Grenade in her direction, but she deflected the projectile and its detonation passed harmlessly. He wasn't worried about damaging the halberd since it was sturdy, but he needed that back, damn it- it was one of only two ties to his unknown past. To have it used against him was almost insulting and part of him felt as if he had failed in some sort of sacred duty. He couldn't place why that was, but he allowed that feeling to fill him with a righteous anger and launched himself forward, ready to clash blades with her.

Sigmund found himself pushed back by Aveil's barrage of attacks, but he noticed two things. One, and this was a problem- the halberd was sturdier and heavier than the spear, and was starting to wear on the smaller weapon. It wouldn't last for much longer. But two, and this was in his favour, Aveil was clearly not used to the weapon's weight. If he could catch her off-guard, chances were he could get it back from her. That said, until Silas would catch up, catching her off-guard would not be easy.

Fortunately, the moment he thought that, his Sheikah companion launched himself back into the fray, prompting Aveil to turn around and deflect his attack with the halberd- but as she did so, Sigmund whacked her on both hands with the spear, sending the larger weapon flying, spinning away from her and clattering loudly on the ground a few feet away. Dropping the spear and pulling up his Electric Aura to make sure Aveil wouldn't dare come close enough to him to beat him to the weapon, he rushed over to it and grabbed it. Its weight was familiar in his hand and he whirled around to strike the Gerudo with it. He hadn't expected to hit her, and in fact she nimbly leapt back to dodge the weapon's blade.

"That's one," he said, smiling wryly. "Now I just need the egg..." his expression darkened. "And your head for attempted second-degree infanticide."

"Do your worst, boys," Aveil said, reaching behind her into her piles of treasure and producing a pair of twin blades from it. "It's much more fun when everyone knows what they're doing in a battle, isn't it?"

"Is all of this nothing else to you than a game!?" Sigmund cried it out in frustration as he closed in on the Pirate once more.

For all her cockiness and superiority complex, Aveil was serious... and there was no comparing her to the pirates who had come before her. Sigmund and Silas alternated attacking her from either side but to no avail- she was too fast, too calculated, even when they switched up their pattern to make it as unpredictable as they could. When Silas started turning, Aveil did the same, making sure to keep an eye on both men. Still, Sigmund realised, that could be good. She would need a split second to re-adjust her eyes after every swivel of her head. That split second... well, Sigmund was in no condition to capitulate on something that quick.

But maybe they could increase the time it took her to switch between the men. Then, she could possibly be distracted enough for them to take advantage of. As Silas kept shifting, Sigmund started doing the same in the opposite direction. Sure enough, there it was- Aveil had to partially turn her body as she swivelled her head around, and when she turned back to Silas, Sigmund took his opportunity. Quietly, so as not to alert her too early, he swung his halberd up and then down, using the momentum to give his swing strength.

He had not been fast enough. Or maybe she'd heard the blade cutting through the air, or seen him in her peripheral vision. Whichever it was, the consequences were the same- Aveil turned around, catching his halberd on her swords. Still, she realised too late why the Zora warrior was grinning.

Sigmund's eyes narrowed. Damn. She'd had the egg on her all this time, and he swallowed away his discomfort at the realisation he or Silas could have killed it in a moment of unawareness. Now, it was her hostage... and the nagging realisation, or memory he supposed, crept up on Sigmund that he -hated- hostage situations. They could escalate so easily. Both sides were in a stalemate here- Sigmund and Silas were afraid to move, for fear that Aveil would smash the bottle and kill the egg, but if she did so, she would lose her advantage over the two, so the captain was none too eager to do so deep inside.

She kept that feeling well-hidden, though, as she smirked victoriously at the two. "That's right. Now, be good boys and put your weapons down." Sigmund kneeled, placing the halberd on the ground but not yet letting go of it. His mind raced. Zora eggs were incredibly fragile. It was unlikely that the impact from the glass shattering would kill it outright, but if it was cut by the shards... or infected by anything on the ground... so, he thought, if he could prevent it from touching the ground... But he would have to be fast. Faster than Aveil could react. Unless, of course, he could make use of his companion. "Alright. Now, I want you to come over here. Slowly. One by one. You first, fresh fish."

Sigmund took a few seconds to get up, pretending his side hindered him. In reality, he used the hand on the ground to make two hopefully understandable signs to Silas. First, a flat palm pressed downwards towards the ground -wait- and then, a grasping motion - catch. Hoping Silas would be able to infer the meaning, he slowly got up and walked over to Aveil.

He prayed his aura would buy him enough time and his fins would be quick enough.

Three steps.

Two steps.

One step...

Now.

As Sigmund set down his flipper, he pulled up his aura. This startled Aveil, who had been tired from the battle and had not anticipated the Zora to have any fight left in him. The pirate took a step back, caught off-guard. As Sigmund had hoped, the hand in which she held her hostage jolted up, now within his reach. He laced his hands together, balling a large fist and hitting the pirate's arm from below. She yelled out in pain -she had definitely not anticipated this much strength from her adversary- and was momentarily off-balance. It was more than enough for Sigmund to work with.

He whirled round, hardening the fins on his forearms and digging one deep into the pirate's sternum. The force of the blow sent her reeling, and when the other fin detached from his arm to connect to hers, she let go of the bottle with the egg. The momentum sent it flying through the room, but Sigmund forced himself to not look at it and instead focus on Aveil. He took advantage of her shock to pounce on her, pushing her to the ground and crossing his fins on her throat.

"You have two options," he said. "Either you surrender and you let Silas here take you in for kidnapping, three counts of attempted infanticide, assault, theft, piracy, and resisting arrest, or I execute you for all these transgressions on the spot." His gaze steeled. "I'd be fine either way."

Sigmund took the bottle containing the egg from Silas, uncorking it and inspecting the egg inside. Relieved that it seemed alright, he added it to its siblings in his own solution. While Silas finished up with Aveil, the Zora gathered his halberd. "I believe so, yes," he replied to the Sheikah. "We could try to round up her subordinates to complete your work here, but considering the condition we're both in, I think that is best saved for another time." He doubted the other pirates would go down without a fight, especially if they learned what the two had done to their sister. He sighed. "Silas, do you know how to swim? ...and can you, with that arm? If so, I think we can escape quite easily."

He couldn't wait to get out of here, return the eggs to their mother and into the hands of someone who could care for them properly. He hoped they wouldn't suffer any detrimental birth defects or trauma from their stay in the pirates' fortress.

Regardless, though, Marci and Helena would not be happy that he had exerted himself without their explicit permission.

~*The End*~