Rouge XV (Patreon)

::Family drama? What’s going on up there?:: Silus piped up, and Rouge winced as she realized she’d forgotten her little friend.

::There’s a great big lightning ghost up here who just called Captain Jean his daughter,:: Rouge told the bat, who gasped in surprise.

::The captain’s half ghost?::

Rouge almost laughed, but managed to say, ::I don’t think that’s how that works, Silus,:: just before Jean finally responded.

“You betrayed me first! You lied to me my entire life!” The woman’s face was twisted with pain, and anger, and Rouge did feel a bit like she was watching one of Nana’s melodramas. Not that she was so insensitive as to crave popcorn. Much.

“I saved you!” Crackles of light flashed in the depths of the ghost’s mouth as he roared furiously at Jean. To her credit, the woman didn’t flinch, though she also didn’t move any closer to the man or his intimidating weapon. “I raised you like you were my own child!”

“After you stole me from my people! After I learned the truth, you wouldn’t let me go, and,” Jean thumped a fist angrily against her thigh, making her peg leg clatter against the deck, “you even made certain I could never return to them, even if I wanted to!”

The pirate snorted like a furious bull, sparks dancing around his nostrils. “Return to them? They threw you away!”

“You don’t know that!” Jean screamed. “You never even bothered to look! You just found me, realized I could be of use to you, and stole me away like another piece of loot!”

“I was your family!” He waved his hand around at the ghostly crew, who continued their repetitive actions, never once looking at the two screaming people. “This was your home! And you destroyed it all! And for what?” His voice dropped to a vicious growl. “A man you’d known less than a week?” He turned lambent eyes on Scar, who suddenly gasped and fell forward, as if released from the grip of some terrible force.

Immediately, Scar began to run for his wife, but she held up a hand, and he stopped, though he didn’t look like he wanted to. Behind him, the other members of the Star’s crew also stared helplessly toward Captain Jean, though they seemed to be as unable to move as Scar had been.

Experimentally, Rouge twitched a finger. She didn’t want to attract any attention until she knew what was going on, but she did want to make sure she wasn’t paralyzed. Her hand moved easily, which was reassuring. She hadn’t gotten a notification about any kind of movement debuff, but she also knew that Veritas Online wasn’t quite as glitch-free as most players believed.

Glancing to the side, she asked her cousin, ::You good?::

Vexxx nodded slightly, and Silus, who couldn’t see where Rouge was looking, also squeaked, ::Yes, but I can’t get up there.  Tried flying out through the holes around the big cannons, but I’m still inside the Star, too, so I just ran into the outside of the boat.::

::The hull of the ship,:: Vexxx corrected absently, and Rouge looked at him in surprise. His eyes shifted away as he admitted, ::I thought about becoming a meteorologist, and since cyclones form over the water, I learned a little bit about ships while I was reading about it. Plus, I live in a port city.::

::And you didn’t say anything while I was stumbling over myself to use boat-y terms?:: she demanded.

He grinned. ::Nah. It’s too hilarious listening to you.::

::So, how do I get up there?:: Silus interrupted, and Rouge shook off the distraction, turning her attention back to the two captains. They were still arguing, using different words to restate the same thing, even as they each worked up into a towering fury. The captain’s hair was sticking straight out from his head, now, and the lightning that flashed around his eyes, nose, and mouth had pretty much merged into a haze of light. Even the sparks leaping between his buttons were bigger. If (or when) he released the lightning he was barely containing, it definitely wouldn’t be safe for anyone on deck.

She thought fast. ::Can you look around for us, Silus? Down there, I mean. There has to be some reason this exact moment is repeating throughout the ship, so if we can figure it out, maybe we can end this.::

::Oh,:: Silus said, ::I thought it was because of the guy getting fried by lightning at the end of every loop.::

Rouge resisted the urge to clap her hand over her eyes. ::Can you describe the guy?:: she asked, as calmly as she could. ::Quickly?:: Jean, too, had drawn her sword by now, though hers was puny in comparison.

::He’s a big guy, even taller than Motte. A beard even fluffier than Wep’s, and a triangular hat.:: Rouge frowned as she tried to place a face to the name ‘Wep’, and nodded as she remembered the dwarven weapons trader who had shown up in Refuge a few months earlier. More than a year earlier, he had also sold Rouge her Mambele, though it had gone through some changes since then. He did, indeed, have the fluffiest beard she could remember seeing on anyone before today.

She tilted her head thoughtfully, absently reaching up to tug one of her curls as that train of thought led to considering what changes, exactly, her Mambele had undergone. ::Vexxx,:: she sent. ::Do you know if ghosts are hurt by normal weapons?::

He shook his head subtly. ::No. Magic or silver only.::

::How about blessed weapons?::

::I… don’t know. Nobody I ever played with has one. They’re super rare unless you’re a priest class, right?::

::Ooo! Your Mambele is blessed, Rouge!:: Silus squeaked, and Rouge grinned.

::It absolutely is,:: she agreed, triggering [Stealth] and [Sneak] as a lightning bolt struck the deck beside Captain Jean’s foot, blackening the wood.

Vexxx briefly looked surprised as she vanished from beside him, but recovered quickly. ::You have an idea?:: he asked.

She nodded, realized he should only be able to see the faintest outline of her form, and said, ::Yes. I don’t think this guy is going to be hurt by lightning.::

Reluctantly, he nodded. ::I agree. If anything, he might absorb it and grow stronger. I do know some other-::

::No,: she broke in, as more lightning bolts flashed into being, nearly frying Scar where he stood. If he hadn’t ducked behind one of the shipping crates when the pirate turned his glowing eyes toward him, the first mate would have been roasted like a Christmas ham.

::This is going to be a fight in a second, and you’re not going to be a lot of help up here.:: She hurried on as he opened his mouth to argue. ::Go down where Silus is and check out what she’s seeing. If it is the moment Cap’n McVolt there died, maybe we can use that somehow. If lightning ghosts formed whenever somebody got cranky and then died in a storm, we’d have a million of them. Something about what happened in these thirty seconds is special. Figure it out.::

She watched him, silently urging him to buy it and go away. After all, Veritas was a game, and if the game wanted a lightning ghost, there was going to be a lightning ghost, logical or not. Still, she sensed Bridget’s sneaky little hand in all this, and Bridget loved twists.

A clang sounded as Jean leaped forward, sword engaging with the pirate’s enormous saber. Electricity flowed down his blade and into hers, halting at the crossguard, which must be made of some non-conductive material. The woman was screaming at the ghost of the man who had, apparently, pretended to be her father for most of her life, and he was yelling back, though their words were lost in an onslaught of lightning bolts.

::Fine,:: Vexxx said, moving for the hatch. ::I’m almost immune to lightning, though, so I could totally help up here.::

She rolled her eyes, and darted for Codswallop, who was dancing from foot to foot, looking terrified. She grabbed his lead, and he jerked away, making her realize she was still under [Stealth]. If she dropped it, though, she’d have to wait for the (admittedly short) cooldown to end before she could use it again, and she couldn’t afford to delay, even if her sudden appearance didn’t attract the pirate’s attention.

“Get down, buddy,” she whispered, gently tugging at the leather strap. He stilled as he heard her voice, looking toward the sound. “Yeah, it’s me,” she said, reaching up to pat his neck. “You’re too tall. Get low, and get under something, if you can. Do you understand?”

He warbled a question, and she patted him again. “You can’t help with this one, Wall. Just stay safe, okay?”

He bobbed his head, looked around, and then leaped off their mini-deck and down onto the main one. Dashing to the railing, she peered over the edge, but realized that she couldn’t see him. She narrowed her eyes, and just made out a few white tail feathers protruding from beneath a canvas tarp stretched over several wooden crates. Relieved, she nodded and turned her attention to the mast.

Rouge didn’t mind heights. Even in real life, she was surprisingly good at scaling ropes, walls, and trees, and as long as the surface she was on was sturdy, she didn’t really worry about slipping, so it didn’t matter how far above the ground that surface was. Still, climbing a sixty- or seventy-foot-high pole while surrounded by lightning strikes wasn’t her idea of a good time. Fortunately, it was no longer raining, so at least she could see, and the surface wouldn’t be slippery. Plus, she’d seen Horatio go up and down the mast a dozen times, and if a pre-teen boy could do it, so could she.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Rouge climbed up onto the railing, taking a moment to settle her balance before leaping for the boom, which was sticking out more or less in her direction. Whether it was her high Dex or just good aim, her feet settled easily on the wide wooden beam, and she ran along it until she reached the mast. It was a matter of less than a minute to scramble up the mast, until she was perched on the little platform at the top, looking down. Fortunately, [Stealth] seemed to hide her from the lightning strikes as well, or else Captain Volty was controlling them more than she thought he was, and since he didn’t know she was there, the bolts weren’t coming for her the way they were for Jean and Scar.

Speaking of which…

She winced as a lightning bolt stabbed at Jean, touching her arm, which jerked. Black spots on her clothes revealed that this wasn’t the first time she’d been hit, and the strike was immediately followed by a blow from the pirate’s huge sword; a blow which at first seemed to pass harmlessly through Jean’s body. Then Rouge saw the woman spasm, her body jerking like someone who had just stuck their finger in the proverbial light socket.

Laughing triumphantly, the ghost stalked closer, and Rouge realized he was playing with Jean. Even when the woman’s sword moved to intercept his weapon, the mammoth saber just passed right through it, and Jean’s body, too. Each time, Jean recovered a little more slowly, and she was already moving jerkily, her arms and legs trembling as she tried to get out of the way. Her own sword dropped from her shaking hand, and she didn’t even try to pick it up, clearly realizing that it would be no use.

Rouge swallowed hard. She really didn’t want to be hit by that vorpal blade. ::Anything, you guys?:: she asked, pulling her Mambele from her inventory and holding it in what would undoubtedly have been a damp grip if sweaty palms were a thing in Veritas.

::Maybe?:: Vexxx replied dubiously. ::This is definitely the same guy as up there, but he’s covered in wounds. Looks like someone dropped him into a salad shooter, but didn’t quite finish him off.::

::Like what someone might do when they found out that their ‘dad’ wasn’t really their dad, and they were really mad, but didn’t actually want to kill him?:: she asked, watching as the pirate sliced along Jean’s arm from shoulder to elbow, nearly bringing her to her knees, though she was still completely intact, at least on the outside. ::Does he have a long cut on his right upper arm, by any chance? Shoulder to elbow?::

::Yes!:: Silus said. ::How did you know?::

Rouge shook her head. ::I think he’s doing the exact same thing to Jean that she did to him, but in reverse. I think he could have killed her by now, but he’s enjoying drawing it out.::

::Salty,:: Vexxx muttered. ::Okay, well, the guy is aiming the biggest cannon I have ever seen in my life, and my mom is obsessed with American history museums, so I’ve seen a lot of cannons. Then, just as he goes to fire, there’s a bright flash of light, and the whole thing starts over.::

Rouge threw her mind back over what she knew about this whole thing, and found herself focusing on Horatio’s use of ‘dark and stormy night’ when he was describing what she now assumed was Jean’s attempt to escape from her father’s ship. Stormy definitely implied lightning, and here they were with a lightning ghost. ::Flash of light like a lightning strike, maybe?:: she asked.

Around the combatants below, the cycle ended and played through again. Just as it ended, Vexxx replied, ::Yeah, could be. Like, maybe lightning struck the cannon while the pirate captain was aiming it, and fried him.::

::So Jean didn’t kill him!:: she said. ::And if a cannon got struck by lightning, I bet the powder blew, which would probably start a fire. Maybe even a fire that could take out a whole ship, especially if there was more gunpowder around.::

::Maybe?:: Vexxx said. ::How does that help us?::

She winced as Jean fell to the ground and didn’t get up. As if he couldn’t stand it any longer, Scar finally emerged from his hiding place, and from the triumphant look on the pirate’s face as he looked at the man, Rouge could tell this was what he’d been after all along. He was going to kill the man he blamed for his daughter’s defection, right in front of her.

::Time’s up,:: Rouge said, readying herself. She nearly leaped as she saw the saber lift toward the sky, gathering lightning at its tip like flickering dandelion seeds. Her eye caught a sailor who was, yet again, pulling on a ghostly rope, and she said, ::Vexxx, at the end of this cycle, shock the crud out of that cannon down there. Time it so you hit it at the same time as the original.::
He sounded dubious as he said, ::What is that going to do?::

But Rouge was already in the air, her body twisting, coiling, hurtling down toward the apparition below. She held her Mambele ready, and triggered her favorite combo attack.

[Pterion Puncture]

[Repeat]