FAMILIAR FACES

Lucianna stirred with a groan, her head pounding and her tongue dry with thirst. She rose and found herself in the infirmary. On the Herald. Her brow knitted together as she scraped what dregs of memory floated in her sleep-drugged brain.

Across the room, Faith spun around in her chair.

"Good morning, Captain. How do you feel?"

"Like I partied a little too hard…but something doesn't feel right. What happened?"

"You lost control of your powers while training with Milo."

"I did…?"

Like a truck, the memories and the pain they carried burst from under her consciousness and t-boned her. She curled in on herself, gasping from the horrible sensations crawling within her chest. "No…I…Where is Milo? Is he okay?"

"Milo is unharmed. Last I heard, he was resting in Riosae's temple. I cannot be sure, but from what Riosae told me, he felt solely responsible for what happened."

(He really thinks that? But this is all my fault…I'm the supposed strongest in the universe and I keep failing to protect the ones I love.)

Lucianna kicked her feet out over the bed and stood, her knees buckling as she stumbled toward the door. Faith's eyes narrowed.

"You should rest, Captain. Milo is fine."

"No, it's all my fault. I have to apologize to him."

Halfway to the door, Lucianna's body was overcome with a heavy exhaustion, and her legs folded beneath her as she crumpled to the floor. She heaved and struggled to her breath, her lungs burning. "I have to…go to him…"

A large robotic arm extended from the wall and wrapped around her, hoisting her into the air and carrying her back toward the infirmary bed. Lucianna weakly kicked and punched at the arm. "Let go, Faith…"

"Look at yourself, Captain. You exerted so much power that it has overwhelmed you. I cannot allow you to be reckless at a time like this. What is it about Milo that makes you put yourself at risk?"

Lucianna gripped the robot arm, her eyes flickering with power. "He's…just like me."

Faith tilted her head. "I cannot see the analog."

A gasp escaped Lucianna, and a burst of power pushed out. The robot arm collapsed to the ground, crushed as if it was put through a press. Lucianna fell to the ground, barely landing on her feet. She shot an icy glare at Faith.

"Stay out of my way, Faith. I will go see him."

"Please think this through, Captain. Your emotions are out of check. If you continue to be reckless, you could destroy the galaxy."

Lucianna opened her mouth to say something else, but Faith's face froze, and she wheeled away from Lucianna, clicking buttons on her screen until a camera feed appeared. It displayed the ship's landing ramp, where a group of armed soldiers stood. "It seems we have company."

Lucianna turned her attention to the screen. Her heart pounded in her ears as she set sights on the lizard woman striding toward the entrance of the Herald.

"Her? Isn't she from Coalwatch? What she doing here?"

Then she noticed in the background, Krol and Albany stuck between a four guards, each of them pointing rifles at them. Lucianna remembered what Tereine had said back then, that the guards of Coalwatch possessed weaponry that could pierce the impenetrable skin of Scrapsters. Rivra had even suffered an injury from that woman…Des. The one who had tried to violate Milo. She clenched her fists.

"I'm going to destroy her. I need to find Milo. Can you contact him, Faith?"

Faith clicked a button on one of her consoles and spoke into it: "Faith to Milo, do you read me?"

Static was the only reply she received.

"My guess is a jammer. Shall I activate the ship's defenses?"

Lucianna shook her head. "No. They have Krol and Albany. I'm not exactly sure what she wants, but I'm going to go out there and teach her what it means to mess with my crew!"

She took off before Faith could protest and quickly made her way to the landing ramp. She pressed the button to open the ramp, breathing deeply as she waited for what seemed like an eternity as the ramp slowly lowered itself. Rivra's voice echoed in her head: (Since using your power drains you too quickly, use it more like a supplement. Make yourself faster. Stronger. You can still be pretty useful in a fight if you treat it that way.) She had little practice applying her power like that, but she wasn't about to let Des walk in and do whatever she pleased.

The ramp finished lowering, and there, at the bottom of the ramp, flanked by six of her armed guards, stood the lizard woman Des. She wore a smirk that made Lucianna's blood boil. To think she had almost violated Milo.

She took a deep breath.

(Focus my power into speed and strength.)

Des chuckled. "It's good to see you again, Pirate Queen Lucianna. Where's your little pet? My dear, sweet Milo…" Her tongue flicked out and licked her lips.

"As if I'd tell you. What brings you here?"

"Oh? I was visiting my old mistress."

"Riosae trained scum like you? And here I thought she had some standards."

"Heh." She motioned to her guards, who lowered their weapons and backed away. "We never met one-on-one before. This is the perfect opportunity to see who's worthy of owning little Milo."

Lucianna leaped from the ramp, closing the distance between her and Des in the blink of an eye. Des gasped as Lucianna cocked her right hand back. "You talk too much!"

She aimed for Des's head and swung as hard as she could manage. But at the last second, Des rolled out of the way of her punch, and instead she connected with the nearest guard, sending their body soaring at least twenty feet through the air before they crashed into the ground in a plume of dust and dirt.

Des smirked. "My, you're quite impressive!" She lowered got into a wide stance, drawing her sword from its scabbard. "But let's see what you're actually made of!"

***

They had been walking for quite a while, and already Milo had worked up a sweat. Keeping with Rivra's gait proved to be training all on its own, with one of her steps equaling about six of his own. The only positive was the view of her rear popping through her tights. Even then, the sweet view of her ass only made him sweat more.

"It seems Mistress neglected your physical training. I suppose she had some other priority."

"Y-yeah…" He huffed and wheezed. "She was trying to get us used to working together."

"That makes sense. Lucianna was always more of a solo actor."

Rivra stopped abruptly, and Milo collided with the back of her leg, his arms flying up to catch himself. He grabbed a handful of something firm yet cushiony. Looking at him, he saw he had just groped one of Rivra's cheeks. He yelped and jumped back, half-afraid Rivra would tease him or something. But she did no such thing. Instead, her ears were turned to the sky, and she slowly titled her head this way and then another way.

"What's wrong?"

Before she could say anything, the pain struck him. He gripped his right wrist and the throbbing diamond buried within.

(RUN, MILO!)

"We need to go—"

As if reading his mind, Rivra scooped Milo into her arms, crushing him against her chest, and took off sprinting.

Overhead, a single ship glided toward them through the clouds. Flocks of birds squawked and cried as the ship chased them out of their flight patterns. The sleek, black vessel descended toward them, closing the gap quickly. Milo's eyes widened as he watched the ship approach. "They're gaining on us!"

"I know!"

Lasers fired from the ship, leaving smoking craters in the ground and rocks with each blast. Rivra deftly avoided each shot, weaving around loose rocks and jumping over dead tree roots sticking out of the ground. Each time her feet connected with the ground, her chest bounced and jiggled beneath Milo, reminding him of a waterbed, her heart pounding in time with his own.

In the distance, the mouth of a cave appeared. This was Rivra's destination: her special training spot. She pumped her legs harder, sweat rolling down her face as she sprinted for the cave.

A hole opened in the ship's top, and three objects launched from the hole. Rivra dug her boots into the ground, stopping dead in her tracks as the objects landed in the ground only a few yards ahead of her. She gritted her teeth, crushing Milo against her chest.

"I need you to get out of the way and stay safe. I'll handle these guys."

She lowered him to the ground, and despite his shaky legs, Milo stumbled away, hiding in a cluster of giant boulders. He beaked out from between them, his wrist still aching with pain as his danger sense screamed at him to run.

As he got a good look at their pursuers, his stomach twisted as he observed the heavily armored warriors rising from craters formed by their impact. Dust and debris floated in clouds around them as they stomped toward Rivra, the ground rumbling with each of their steps. Steams hissed from ports on the back of their necks and legs. Each of them wore the same emblem over their chest. And Milo couldn't help but feel like he recognized it.

The middle armored warrior stepped forward, wielding an axe made of sleek black metal that shimmered in the sun. It pointed the axe directly at Rivra. "By order of Grandmaster Des Rourzaxl, we have come to claim the bounty on your head, Rivra, Heir to the Scrapster Throne!"

His stomach tightened into a knot.

The sweet, decaying scent…it still haunted him sometimes. She had nearly broken a precious boundary, rendering him as little more than her personal toy. He struggled to swallow the lump forming in his throat.

(Des is here?)

One of the other guards pointed toward him, hiding in the boulders.

"We are also told to bring the human. Our mistress desires her stolen property to be returned."

Rivra's nostrils flared as she huffed. "Stolen property? Milo? You must be mistaken. If Milo belongs to anyone, it's to me!"

Milo cocked his head back.

(WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING, RIVRA?!)

The leader of the three guards pointed her axe at Rivra. "So be it! We may not be able to kill you, but Grandmaster Des said nothing about roughing you up first!" She motioned to one of her cronies. "Retrieve the human. We'll deal with her. Do not harm him, though, unless you want to die at Des's hands."

The guard on her right giggled. "Oh well, if I can't hurt him, then I'll just have some fun with him~"

She took off toward the boulders, but hadn't even moved five feet before meeting the harder-than-steel impact of Rivra's fist, crunching her armor and sending her spiraling into the dirt.

(So fast! I didn't even see Rivra move!)

The remaining guards flanked her, the second guard drawing out a stun rod and stabbing it at Rivra's leg.

But the rod passed right through her leg.

Milo blinked, and Rivra had disappeared completely.

The guards looked around. "Where the hell did she go? How can someone so big be so fast?!"

"Fool! She's the Scrapster Princess! Stay on your guard!"

The fallen guard, somehow still alive, cried out to her comrades. "A-above you!"

A small shadow in the sky grew larger and larger, and as it came into view, Milo realized Rivra had somehow jumped into the air so fast, so high, that no one had any clue she had done so. Now her massive frame hurtled down upon the guards like a judge's gavel, ready to pass judgment.

"Shit! Move, move!"

But they were much too slow to realize: dropping like a rock, Rivra crashed, landed on top of the other grunt, an explosive shockwave tearing through the air. Milo ducked behind his boulder, but even then, the impact still sent him flying forward face-first into the dirt. He coughed and spluttered as he scrambled to his knees.

The second guard was nothing more than a metal pancake at the center of a massive crater. Rivra stepped off her crushed body and stepped toward the last guard, who somehow, despite watching her underlings get creamed before her very eyes, stood with a battle axe clenched firmly in her hands.

Rivra tossed her hair, the tie holding it up in a ponytail coming undone, her snow-white locks billowing out in the wind. She smirked at the guard.

"You should've brought more soldiers."

"Idiot! Did you forget about my ship?!"

The ship careened into view, hovering just overhead as gusts of wind from its thrusters kicked up dirt and grass. Rivra scowled.

"You think that toy will stop me? I've downed dozens of ships with my bare hands!"

The guard slammed a hand onto her chest plate, screaming commands into a radio: "Do it now!"

The cannons on the ship lowered and flipped over, being replaced by what looked to be harpoons. Milo tried to shout out to Rivra, but the ship's engine drowned his voice out.

"Fire!"

There were two loud bangs as the harpoons sailed through the air, seeking Rivra. But the giant woman easily stepped out of the way, the harpoons burying themselves harmlessly in the dirt on either side of her. She laughed.

"Was that really your master plan? Lasers hardly work on me! What made you think harpoons would—"

The guard lifted her axe and pressed a button on its shaft. With a shout, she buried the axe in the ground, forming a perfect triangle with the two harpoons, in the center of which stood Rivra. Milo jumped up from his hiding spot. "Rivra!"

Currents of electricity jumped from the axe to both the harpoons, which then fed each other their own currents, and a powerful wave of electrical energy closed in on Rivra from all sides. She screamed as the current hit her with full force, her body seizing and shaking uncontrollably. She fell to one knee, clenching her teeth as the electricity coursed through her body.

The guard released the button on her axe, and the electric current stopped. Rivra collapsed in a heap on the ground, her chest heaving. Hefting her axe onto her shoulder, the guard strolled toward her fallen prey and laughed. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen! I've always heard so much about you, Rivra, the Mightiest Warrior! You were a one-woman army! Capable of toppling empires with your sheer strength and battle expertise. And while I'll admit you're still impressive…you still can't see what exactly others are doing, can you? You can only make guesses based on what your other senses tell you. Ha! I might've lost one of my girls, but capturing you is worth the bragging rights! Now…"

She wheeled on Milo, who was standing out in the open, his mouth agape as Rivra lay defeated in the dirt. The guard buried her axe in the ground once more, and undid her helmet, the steaming hissing from her armor as she lifted it from its place.

Hair the color of the midnight sky unfurled in waves down to her shoulders. Her purple eyes stopped Milo dead in his tracks. A tribal tattoo outlined her left eye and hooked its way down her cheek, forming a lop-sided crescent moon. A threatening aura emanated from her, and while Milo could say it paled compared to a certain Pirate Queen's aura, this woman's vibe sent shivers down his spine.

(It's not just the aura…but…)

(Why does this woman…look like Lucianna?)