It took only a couple of minutes for our shuttles to get close enough to connect, and I ducked down behind one of the water tanks to ensure that nothing of value would get damaged in case it came to a shootout. Then, a shrill noise sounded through my ship as they started cutting a hole through my hatch, much to my dismay, my poor shuttle. I finished loading up my gun and pointed at the hatch, right as it got kicked open and pirates started pouring inside. There were only a couple of seconds that I had until they spotted my hideout and I used those to sort through the embarking pirates, to not accidentally let an important one get away when they realized that they stepped right into my trap. The moment I made out the features of the guy from the bar I started shooting. My goal was to try and never shoot anyone in any lethal spot, it was never okay to take people from their loved ones, family, or friends, no matter their background, so I tried to avoid killing as much as possible. I spotted one of them pointing their gun at me and shot him in the hand, making him drop his weapon with a scream. With this one out of commission for the time being, I aimed for several more hands, legs, and feet, occasionally ducking back into cover. The tank had already started leaking water a little while back, due to all the bullets it had tanked, so I had to find a new cover soon. I shot a couple more times and then decided to leap towards the back of my shuttle, where I had stored a box full of earth rocks, the roll leaving my hair dripping wet from the water still pooling onto the floor. I flicked the wet strands aside as I reloaded my gun in a hurry. The pirates slowly encroaching on my position. I cursed as my gun jammed when I tried to shove the reloaded magazine back in, the gauntlet seemed to have gotten hit by a bullet and the dent was now blocking the slot. This was so not going according to my plan. I grabbed a rock from the crate and smacked it on the indenture, trying to straighten it back out. Then, another rattle went through the ship halting all movement. I peeked past the crate I was sitting behind and my eyes bulged as I saw that a bigger ship on the radar that seemed to have docked right next to us. This meant big trouble.

A muffled shout went through the crowd of pirates, and I heard several retreating boots sloshing through the water.

Oh hell no. I wasn't about to have my shuttle thrashed, my gauntlet damaged and have these guys get out without even getting what I originally had planned on. I leaped onto the crate and after a powerful swing of my right arm the claws broke apart and, with a deafening crack, the electrical whip curled around a guy, who instantly cramped up with a suppressed scream stuck in his throat. Then everyone stopped, dropping to the floor like flies as all the lights started flickering. Several of the bulbs burst, the glass raining down on us. I wasn't sure what had happened but I didn't have a lot of time to think about it as, through the sudden silence, heavy boots resonated from the hatch.

„My, my.", a deep voice cut through the now eerily quiet ship. The silence was only occasionally interrupted by the electrical cracking of my whip, which I quickly tried to retract in the face of the new threat. And this man oozed threat.

The whip was firmly wrapped around the poor lad that I had hit and no matter how hard I tried to yank it didn't come loose. The new pirate lifted his foot and I already felt the tension leave my body in relief as I thought he would get crippled by the electrified water as well, but with the next flicker of light he had disappeared, only a light blue mist swirled over the water. I frantically looked around but froze as I heard a voice whispering right by my ear.

„You've made quite the mess, haven't you.", I spun around right as the lights flickered back on and came face to face with Captain Wisp, who was kneeling on the crate right next to me where we were just out of reach of the dangerous water.

After staring down his nose at me for a few seconds his eyes trailed down to my gauntlet and he slowly lifted his arm, which tore me out of my stasis and I remembered how to move again. I pulled the blade out of my boot and held it to his throat right as his hand was about to close down on my gauntlet.

„Hm.", he had an amused glint in his eyes, and due to the still flickering lights, he seemed to move in stop motion as he rapidly tilted his head away from my blade and spun his body sideways to then come barreling right into me. I tried to catch myself but my arm was still attached to the pirate, that had fallen unconscious a while ago, and so I went flying off the crate down into the water. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the current to flow through my body but a strong hand had closed firmly around my arm, making me hang awkwardly halfway on, halfway off the crate.

„You are a feisty one aren't you?", he chuckled, quickly pulling me back up so I tumbled right into his arms, which instantly wrapped around me in a suffocating bear hug. One of his hands wrapped securely around my torso and the other went right for my gauntlet, tightly squeezing down on it. I screamed out in pain as my arm got squashed on the inside. I grit my teeth against the pain and all the lights turned off completely as the gauntlet got damaged enough for the electricity in the whip to shut down, making the electronics in my shuttle finally stop going haywire.

I grabbed my arm and cradled it to my chest the moment he let go, but didn't take attention off of where the danger was as I was pushing myself backward and off the crate as I tried to make some distance between us.

Wisp rubbed his fingers together with a smirk, a white substance covering them and I realized, that the water must have started washing off my skin paint. I quickly looked down at my arm and saw the blue coming out for all to see underneath the leftover white paint that was still running off.

The blonde captain stepped back and threw a glance at the five, still knocked out, pirates on the floor.

„I'll be taking these ones with me, they've been picking off my targets with their less-than-well-planned heists for a little while too long now. Gonna have to face the consequences for wanting to play with the big guys at some point, don't they.", he threw a pointed look in my direction, which made me think he wasn't only talking about the pirates, and stepped over to the one who's suffered burn marks from the whip that was wrapped around him for probably longer than it was necessary, lightly nudging the unresponsive body with his boot.

The moment he ducked down and started unwrapping my whip, which after it was freed, returned into its form as my claws, to pick him up to pick him up, I realized what that would mean for me and quickly found my voice.

„Wait, no, hold up!", he turned back, his eyes burning into me, daring me to speak out against his wishes.

Yet I continued, I wasn't about to let him ruin my plans like that.

„This one stays with me." I pointed to the guy whom I had met at the bar.

His answer was a roaring laugh.

„You think you've got any power to make demands?", I had to keep my chin up as he stepped back towards me, stopping right in front of my face which made him lean down a little. I defiantly looked into his eyes, scrunching up my nose. I saw his hand shooting for my throat a little too late and had my air cut off as a result. He started lifting up my body and I tried to pry his hands off, one of my arms still resonating in pain, yet his grip was unrelenting. I didn't want to anger him but I also didn't see any other choice as I whipped the knife back out, that I had shoved through a loop of my belt after he had let go of the gauntlet earlier, and slashed it across his face.

Surprisingly it connected.

He dropped me with a pained grunt, then started laughing even louder as he held his hand above his eye, which had started dripping blood through his fingers.

„That one", I stated while still trying to catch my breath and pointed at the pirate on the floor, holding my knife at his face again, „stays with me."

For a few seconds, there was silence.

„Fine then.", he growled with a worrying sparkle in his eyes.

„Have it your way.", the smirk on his face had turned dangerous at this point.

Wisp finally tore his gaze away from me after a few more seconds of our eyes burning holes into the other, then stepped towards the hatch and after a few hand gestures his spaceship pulled over, pushing the one left by the other pirates out of the way. The huge goliath came to a halt just a little beneath the hatch of my own shuttle. Wisp checked the distance from my shuttle to his ship, seemed satisfied, and started throwing the knocked-out bodies out of my ship, down onto his plank, probably hoping that someone of his own crew would catch them in case they missed it. Then, after his work was done he saluted me and leaped out of the hatch himself.

As promised he left the one pirate for me, who was slowly starting to move and grunt, pulling me out of my scattered thoughts. I had to tie him down before he was fully conscious again since neither my whip nor my gun were in working order and the knife I had used before was now nowhere to be found. I must've dropped it into the water at some point. So, I jumped into motion, quickly wafting through my boxes and storage in search of some rope but every crate and drawer left me empty-handed. A whistle from outside drew my attention and I stepped towards the hatch where Captain Wisp stood leaning out his hatch, throwing a thick coil of rope through my broken door.

„Can't leave you behind all defenseless now, can I?" he shouted over the sound of his thrusters as his spaceship was set into motion, waving my knife at me.

He stole it.

„Motherfucker!", I yelled after him while staring after the ship, going over this weird encounter in my head over and over again, as another groan sounded from behind me, reminding me of the little span of time that I had left before the pirate would be in a state to overpower me, so I turned and quickly got to work.