Take Off

"Everyday... Everyday..."

"Everyday what?"

"I dunno, can't think of anythin'." Kiola mumbled with a playful shrug. She had finally let Pheya speak after the whole 'Deus incident' as they called it and were now getting ready for take off. 

"So... What happened to your bbf in the end?" He asked as he wandered around the rather out of place airship. Kiola explained that after the horsemen maybe sort of heavily tortured Deus and managed to figure out how to sever the contract that caused the incident, Lucy returned to her usual form with minor injuries and the normal amount of snark and bitterness they had come to accept.

As the new 'pet' got to know their new ever increasingly annoying and childish master, Senshi was busy below deck, checking if everything was up to code. Yet that was interrupted by the bumbling and mumbling of Ayre. 

The centipede looked down from the pipe she was standing on to see Ayre pacing back and fourth, muttering about something. "A-Are you okay?" She asked as she slinked down the ice cold steel pipes. 

He let out a slight yelp, surprised at the sight of her. "Ah, s-sorry. I w-was just thinking about stuff."

"W-What kind of stuff?"

"W-Well you e-ever think that you g-got into something that you w-were one hundred percent n-not ready for?" He asked with a timid look. Senshi couldn't help but smile at his worries, giving a playful wave of her hand as she said;

"Y-Yeah. B-But everyone gets dragged into stuff t-that you're way too in over your head with. J-Just look at me. I h-had a fashion s-store, a good amount of clients and an e-engineering degree. T-Then this undead rabbit decided to turn my life upside down. N-Now I'm here... M-My world destroyed... cheating o-on my wife... M-My best f-friends are gone... Oh Mollia, what do I have left."

Senshi let out a nervous sigh before tapping her antenna against her head, trying to reset herself. "Uh... P-Point is, life t-throws curve balls. Y-You have j-just got to think... A-And don't ask me for motivational advice again."

Ayre gave a nod, his confidence somewhat renewed by Senshi's gods awful motivational speech. "T-Thanks! I-I always knew auntie Avis was right about you!"

"Wait, you know Avis? W-What did she say about me?" She asked, quickly scuttling onto the floor and climbing up his leg. Ayre felt his skin crawl, but set aside his fear of bugs and began trying to think over the words Avis had always said about Senshi.

"S-She said y-you were "The most dependable bug"... And that she thinks that you'd be delicious to eat."

Senshi's gleaming smile quickly changed to utter confusion at the last part. She quickly questioned what he meant, and he just mentioned something about her being more like a feral hermit. 

The two began talking more as Senshi continued her inspection, they were soon joined by Nvr, Arachne and Grey. With the idle boredom that usually followed an inspection, Senshi found comfort in the company and soon the hours flowed past like water in a river. 

With the final inspection complete and Kiola having let her crew out of the jar she had been carrying since Dustination. Though the four horsemen were standing idly outside of Lucy's room, letting her rest up after the light torture. 

"Any ideas on a new store name?" Min asked his siblings with a sigh, biting into a doughnut with web like icing he'd bought earlier. "How about "The Dragon's Hoard"?" Arlo suggested, seeming rather proud of himself.

As much as Ro wanted to point out how ridiculous it sounded, she couldn't help but like the name. "I guess we could use it?" She quickly pulled her mask tighter, coughing into it. Lamb rung her bell with a smile, carving the name into a plaque of wood with a bit of magic. 

Arlo held up the sign triumphantly, holding it in front of Lucy's door to show it off. "We're back in business!" 

They all let out a celebratory cheer that quickly devolved into petrified screams that filled the ship. Lucy, having burst open her door with chains to silence the racket, had inadvertently caused Arlo to drop the sign. The rather old plank they had carved their store's name into, shattered to pieces. 

"You four are so loud... Would it kill you to remain mute for but a moment?" The demoness grumbled, lifting her bangs to reveal one of her eyes.

The four remained silenced, staring at the ruined sign with a quiet sadness. Lucy felt a bit of pride return, thinking her word was finally being obeyed once more like law. With a light skip in her step, she left for the main deck to prepare for lift off. 

"We."

"Are."

"Going."

"To."

"Break her." They mumbled in unison. Watching in silence as their master left, the four horsemen soon followed behind. 

Lucy stood menacingly on one of the sails, staring out into the distance with a creeping grin. "I shall rule once more... Now then. Time to show these fools who's boss." With a wave off her hand and a sigil on her throat, Lucy summoned everyone to the front deck to give a roaring speech. 

"My loyal crew and servants. We have the means to find my heart in a much quicker (and admittedly more stylish) fashion. I now ask of you... WHO IS WITH ME!?" She yelled in her demonic voice, though not getting much of a reaction from either her servants, Kiola's crew or even Arachne.

Lucy had never felt such a blow to her ego (Even if only minor) before. She quickly summoned some jade chains to create a ladder for her to get down. Senshi want to tell her the ship was ready for launch, but Lucy completely ignored her. The demon retreated back to her room, leaving the rest of them to start the launch. 

"Uh.... Okay. Guess I'm back in charge. Back to the seven skies, lads!" Kiola cheered, rallying her crew together quickly. Lucy felt a slight tinge of envy over how easily Kiola could control her crew, so she did what her mother had always tried to get her to do when upset. 

She went to the lower decks and began drinking whiskey to idly pass the time. 

As the crew began moving like a well oiled machine, Pheya stood at Kiola's side as she took control of the admittedly useless helm. With a dramatic flick of her over coat and a deep breath, Kiola exhaled a storm's worth of mist into the air. The ship almost seemed to breath, sucking in the mist as the mechanical engine began to rumble with life.

As mist began filling the ship's systems, the crew could feel the rumble of the powerful motor. With a large amount of steam suddenly flowing out of the dragon's skull at the hull of the ship and the specialised silver wings spreading outwards, the ship erupted off the ground.

The entire village of Bug-beat, both those who worked on it and those just observing the sky, watched in awe as the ship took off. Kiola clutched the small jar containing Cyel, smirking to herself as the ship tore through the clouds.

"The Royal Fortune is back! We are vic-tori-us! I said that right, right?" Kiola whispered to Pheya, who gave a slight nod. 

"Now then... Who shall go as the scouting team for the targets?" Zhil said as he sat on a beach chair on the side of the resort's pool. The penguin was team R.A.A.T's ever so lovely mission adviser, yet even he was taking the time to relax for the ever so rare vacation he was offered. 

The rest of the team were debating between themselves over who would go first, yet the headless horsewoman, Grimm, was the first one to offer to go. "This world needs a new story... And the story of the headless horseman is unforgettable."

"No need for the grim remark." He laughed, drinking a cocktail through a straw. 

Grimm gave a creepy laugh that always managed to annoy her comrades rather than creep them out. But the dullahan's laughter was silenced by a splash of water by the team's weapon expert and second in command, Giyugi, who was swimming peacefully in the water. 

"Just... Don't get us involved in your story." Zhil grumbled before his train of thought was slowly taken by Misha walking past in a bathing suit. "And... I'm going to pursue a lead." He said with a creeping grin on his beak before getting up and waddling away. 

"Gross..." The streaming siblings whispered to each other before getting distracted by the sight of an ice cream stand being operated by Scrap. "Fun..." They quickly ran off to pursue that lead. 

Giyugi seemed call something out to Shaki and Oia, who both just waved away her seeming concern. "I ain't pursuing a lead, Guppy." Shaki smirked, patting the idle voodoo doll that laid on his bare chest. 

Grimm sighed, putting on her dramatically, impractically oversized black cloak before disappearing into the growing eve of the night. Some of the employees swear to their co-workers that they could hear a ghoulish neigh and the sight of a spectral horse running around the resort. 

The Headless Horsewoman was riding again.