Unformed Desert, Unversed Heir

[Ridley]

The crew of the Dreadnought were well used to trips to places like Mesa Roja - it was a standard practice for them to stop by here, given their alliance with the Ahn’qiraj empire, and the xenomorph wrangling they occasionally did since Ridley and Liv opened the vaults, there were plenty of excellent reasons for the Space Pirate Mothership to stop at the Desert world even before the many opportunities for plundering and looting the many isolated communities along the desolate planet.

First crewmate Jervix was certain the sun piercing through the large windows of the ship’s front was getting a bit brighter and more intolerable every time though, as he was forced to squint.

“Activate ray shielding on the forward viewport!” The pirate second-in-command snapped, “Get me visuals of the ground below. I want to know exactly what that energy pulse was with full information, and I want it in the next five minutes!”

“Of course, sir…” Communications officer ratt spoke from the back of the ship, Giving an exaggerated salute with his crablike hands. In a moment, the forward window tinted a dull grey as the sun’s rays were screened out by the Battleship’s luminous shielding, and a screen came down with visuals of… some kid? The black-haired countenance of a sullen human teenager.

Jervix’s initial instinct was to disregard the little shit as some unimportant shrew and fire out of spite, but they’d been here long enough to know what a human teenager was, and how dangerous they often were, based on the amount of homicidal human children occupied tournaments like Dante’s abyss or Deathgame. Even the legendary hunter was a human teenager once, and she’d foiled their operations before.

Jervix gulped at that thought. Yeah, it would be best not to accidentally set off some kind of operation that’d lead to an infiltrator breaking in and causing the ship to explode. If the Mothership was lost to a self-destruct sequence while Lord Ridley was out again…

Well, Jervix was certain he himself would be self-destructed.

“...What do you think, General Flak?” The insectoid 1st officer asked - knowing, in his heart of hearts, his best survival chance at the moment was making sure whatever decisions made after this moment were someone else’s fault, as he looked back to see…

Nothing.

“...Lord Flak? Where did you-” Jervix stuttered, looking around the room in some vain hope that he’d see the big Commander. The seven foot nothing shirtless commander would have been instantly visible if he was on the bridge - stealth wasn’t his forte - but randomly disappearing often was with his rash decision making.

A comm-beep got Jervix’s attention, as the docking bay requested a line.

“Put him on audio.” Jervix stated flatly, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

“Sir, Lord Flak just jumped out of the Rear cargo bay.” A bored voice spoke through the intercom. “Figured you’d want to know.”

“With a parachute?!”

“...No.”

---

Below, on the Mesa Rojan sands, a lone figure flew from the dreadnought at extremely high speeds, the air whipping around his teeth as he aimed to land directly on the sands below.

Some might have found what Flak had chosen to do to go investigate this mysterious stranger a little foolhardy - jumping out of a warship to careen a couple kilometers down onto the sands below. Those people were forgetting one important thing -

Flak was wearing his helmet.

The Wyvern general descended with all the confidence of a Gorilla and all the grace of a Drunker, half-awake Gorilla, his hands fapping around and his face reverberating in the sky.

Eventually, though, what went up finally came down, as the Wyvern general struck the sand beneath headfirst, sending sand spraying everywhere as the WYVERN soldier was stuck down to the neck in the sands below.

Eventually, like a turnip being plucked, Flak got his bearings enough to put two big palms on the desert below and push himself out, the big man pushing himself up and out of his sandy cocoon not too far from the man he’d attempted to land quite close to.

Though as he pushed himself up to his feet, the big man cracking his jaw, he didn’t initially see anything through the red filter of his goggles but the desert sands around him - at least, until he turned around to see a funny looking little guy.

Man had to be half his size, but most people were, so Flak didn’t hold that against him. Short guy, spiky black hair, and what Flak assumed must be some kinda funny racing suit. Clearly, Flak figured, this guy must have been a pilot in his home dimension!

Irregardless, the big galoot looked to the new guy, eyebrows raised, as he decided on what on earth he was supposed to say to greet this guy. He knew people had like, crazy cartoon powers here, so for all he knew this dude really was the insane energy reading the scanners had picked up before and he had the power to turn people into toads or something. He had to be all diplomatical if he wanted to avoid that fate.

“I’m Flak! Who the heck are you?!” The Wyvern general introduced himself.

Perfect.

 

[Vanitas]

Now Vanitas was not really phased by things that would surprise him as he has seen quite a lot in his lifetime. Though seeing this strange person fall into the sand from seemingly nowhere had definitely made him raise an eyebrow as his manner of speech was curious indeed. Flak? What kind of name was that? Vanitas for a few moments did not try to even give him an answer. But after looking around his surroundings for a bit he eventually noticed the star ship in the distance. Vanitas eventually settled on the fact that this 'person' must have been here for some reason, likely to 'rescue' him from this deserted region. Vanitas was definitely smart enough to figure out he was no longer in the Keyblade Graveyard, it was another world entirely.

For what reason he was brought here was unclear. Taking his gaze back to the dreadnought then back to the strange man, Vanitas would ponder the idea of using this to his advantage. Wherever this place was it was clear he was alone until now, so any kind of allies had to be the best way to go. Vanitas was not one for casual conversation though, in truth he only really conversed with a select few people. So how would he reply?

"I'm Vanitas, and what are you supposed to be, my rescuer or something?" That was probably the nicest he could be given the circumstances as he had no idea who this was or what kinds of people were on that ship. But this was good, whether or not they were allies or enemies it was easy to manipulate them into believing he is on their side. Very likely they were good samaritans and spotted him from a distance. Vanitas had a very stoic look on his face as he looked at the man. This might be interesting to say the least.

 

[Ridley]

Flak took a moment to reply, because no, they were certainly not his rescuers! they were Wyvern, here to steal whatever energy source was here, whether it was this kid or whatever this kid had going for him! So they were his capturers!

...but, wait, they were his capturers, but he was also stuck in the desert. Flak had been stuck in the desert. no food. no water. it friggin' blew, man. so it was a capturing, but he figured it could also be a rescue?

Flak's frustration with the request resulted in him standing stone still for a moment, before beginning to shake violently, face turning red as he finally tried to reply. "I-err-no! I mean, yes! Depending on-But if he-I mean-Grahhhh!"

Flak reared up to his full height as frustration released straight from his body. "What's with all the complex questions! I didn't drop outta school to get lectured on philosophy! I'm general Flak of The Wyvern space pirates and we're here to capture-but-maybe recruit you, which could be considered a rescue, dependin' on how far the nearest settlement or support we lack intel on are, which is preddercated on a buncha unknown factors!" the Wyvern general finally belted out. "look, The point is, Lord Ridley send us to go find some big source o' energy and go find it and capcher it, and Lord Ridley's the evilest son of a gun in the whole o' the crossroads, so I'd err on being all... diplomatical!"

 

[Vanitas]

"So you are as dumb as you look after all." Vanitas said nonchalantly as he watched the man named Flak make a mess of himself trying to think of what to say in response to a simple question. Capture him as a Space Pirate? "You do realize you are the one in need of rescuing now. After all a complete idiot like you is stuck here with no food or water, where-as I don't need those to survive." Vanitas couldn't help but brag about that little factoid given the situation.

"As for this energy source and recruiting me? I got nothing better to do so I'll accept for now. I'm the one you are looking for regarding that energy source." Vanitas bragged even more as he showed off his dark aura that began to surround him.

Vanitas found it amusing that this idiot could even think at all, but if this Ridley was any smarter than Vanitas would at least see what he had to say to him. Maybe he could provide some clues as to which world he ended up on, after all Space Pirates know a thing or two about other worlds, so there was that at least.

 

[Ridley]

Flak was surprised that Vanitas had figured out Flak's hyper-intelligence with just a glance at his appearance, stating Flak's intelligence resembles his appearance - and as Flak knew, Scientists wore goggles. thus, Vanitas had to be acknowledging he was smart, as the big man sagely nodded in response to the comment.

"I ain't needing no rescue for two reasons." Flak pointed out, pulling a big meaty hand up. "One, my ride is gonna pick me up in a little bit, and even if it didn't, I can always summon up a neo-tank from the belt." Flak said, proudly patting the relic currently holding up his pants - the Black hole belt's neo-tank prototype was not built to last before it needed further repairs, but it'd give the big man a pretty decent ride for a little while.

"And two - I'm Flak! Things need rescuin' from me!" The big man called out with a proud smile, placing his hands by his hips... though as Vanitas spoke, showing off his dark Aura, he shifted his focus, leaning forward as he observed the dark aura.

"so yer like a wizard or summat! You certainly look pretty dang strong!." Flak replied, folding his arms as he pulled himself back and tried to look appraising. while he was certainly impressed, his absolutely non-existent level of understanding of these kinda things meant he could be little more than impressed at the edgy colors, like a 4th grader staring at the formula for a nuclear missile. Still, if it was big enough to be scary and visible, it was probably big enough to impress lord ridley.

"Well, pretty sure if you're the type to raise carnage Ridley's got plenty o' jobs for you, if you're interested in joining his crew. He pays good too, gives good vacations... decent dental." Flak adds, giving a grin to show the sparkle on his teeth. "Pays extra if you cause extra damage sometimes too! Welcome aboard!"