Moonhawk 2 - The Blackcrow

Chapter 9 - In Disguise

It didn't take too long for General Cole to fly back to his space station. He hid the exotic gem in his right hand. In deep thought, the grey one left his shuttle after he landed. He made his way to his sleeping quarters to go over the plan in his mind once again.

This should work, the general thought. Otherwise, if it doesn't... I'm screwed. He hoped that his plan would work. He didn't want to fail. As he was inside his own sleeping-quarter, he moved his hand up and looked down to the magical gem. A gem, which would let him shapeshift into anyone he wanted to. Only wizards and witches were aware of those gems. The general researched in their forbidden library whilst Saros wasn't paying attention. Saros usually took care of the forbidden library from the space station Wildwhirl. Something did distract the wizard from his work, that he didn't get bothered by Cole's presence, whilst he was researching.

He was glad that he could take that opportunity to find out about those shapeshifter gems. A black-blue colored gem, with light blue dots on the surface. Cole took a deep breath before he whispered to himself:

"Lord Pitch might be away right now." He began and tightened his grab on the gem. He was preparing himself to shapeshift. "But according to my knowledge, shouldn't our scientists know about it. They're too focused on the material. Which is why -"

At that moment appeared a lot of black particles appeared around the gem, which began to surround the general. Until a black bubble trapped him for a short moment to start the transformation.

After the transformation was done, the bubble vanished.

"- I'll shapeshift myself into... Pitch."

It was a risky move. To shapeshift himself into Lord Pitch. Some of the members knew that Pitch was away right now. To not get the full attention to himself, once someone found out about the attempt to steal the material, he would have another one to blame.

Whilst Cole arrived near the laboratories, recognized the grey bean chaos around him. A few scientists ran the hallways up and down. One of them crashed almost into Cole as he made his way to the lab. Obviously, didn't the scientist know that it was Cole. In front of the scientist stood Pitch, and she gasped out of surprise to see him here. She held stacked papers in her arms, which fell almost down as she crashed with the lord.

"My god, Pitch! Be more careful around here." She reminded him, but he didn't answer. Like Pitch usually wouldn't. The General was hoping that he didn't go out of character. He had to be careful indeed. All he gave back was a quiet and irritated growl.

"Isn't it forbidden to run in the lab-halls, Dr. Gura?" Cole then asked with the deepest voice Pitch would usually do.

"Well, about that - yes, it actually is. However, this is important, and we're in a hurry. That reminds me, here take those papers, Captain. We found some useful information about the stone." She took one specific paper out her stack and gave it to him.

An image of those stones was seen on it, labelled with information. The limed green colored bean pointed at the stone image on the paper, which Pitch, well, Cole had in his hands.

"This material behaves like magma. That means: To convert this stone into a usable form, it has to undergo a high heat transfer. Our scientists tested it, of course, and we found out that it can be used as fuel for our spaceships." She explained, excited about the substance. But the only thing Pitch said in return was:

"A fuel? That's it? I expected something more useful." He admitted grumpily and was disappointed.

Cole was already aware of what that material was. It was a fuel kind of substance; the doctor was right with that information. However, the general was curious about another thing: How was Saros able to receive unclear visions from out this substance? What exactly was that? He didn't want to believe that this specific material was a charging object for wizards and witches, which would make their magic stronger. Cole knew that they had to charge their magic over time with taking rest or sleeping. This didn't make sense to him.

"What else were you hoping for to get as information, Captain?" The scientist asked, confused about his reaction.

"Saros told me that he's getting unclear visions with that material." The captain explained to her. "I'm asking me why."

"That's a good question which we would still need to find out, captain." Gura wasn't sure what else to say.

"Alright, do your job." He then demanded and kept the paper with the information, whilst Gura went her way to her next task after she nodded in agreement. Something else got into her mind, and she stopped to walk further away and turned around. She had to ask him something:

"Actually, that reminds me: aren't you on a mission right now, captain? Since when are you back?" Gura was asking out of curiosity.

Damn, she knew that the original Pitch was away, and Cole got concerned in silence. What do I do now?! He had to think of something. Something, which Gura should believe:

"I went back to the space station a while ago to check on the research regarding that substance. We had to get more information out of it before we could continue with our work."

What a lame excuse, thought the general, but it did work. Gura nodded again and replied: "Got it, captain. Be careful on your current mission."

After the scientist was out of his sight, Cole in Pitch's disguise then mumbled to himself:

"Of course, I will." And continued his way to the laboratory rooms.

Finally, I'm here. The general was quietly thinking in his mind as he saw the giant, round door in front of him. His visor made an insecure shine. He wasn't sure if anyone was in there or not. He hoped that no one would be here. Suddenly, Cole felt an unexpected feeling. He looked down to his body. A part of him started to flicker. You could say it was glitching. Some parts of Cole's own body were seen for a short while. He had to hurry. The transformation didn't last forever. Near the mechanical entrance was a cube like system attached, where he had to type in a special code, which only Pitch himself and the higher ups knew about.

He typed the code into the system: 30261.

A short pause went in before the system gave the report that he typed in the correct code. The door opened automatically, and Cole was now able to go inside the laboratory.

Claw sounds echoed through the Spiritwave's corridors, which lead back to the kitchen, where a blood-red colored ghost bean waited for his minions return. A giant axe was seen in his hands, and he mumbled, confused about what had just happened. He moved his head up to look at the direction where the intruders fled. Waited for noisy sounds that could betray their hiding spot. But nothing was heard. Only silence was here.

Without any more words held the ghost bean a communication chip up and contacted his captain:

"Captain, we have intruders on board the Spiritwave."

"Intruders?" Not even Spec himself could believe his ears what Butcher, a member of his crew, just reported. He didn't expect them to be that brave to go on board of a demonic spaceship.
"They must have a lot of courage." The dark blue ghost whispered to himself and sunk into deep thoughts.

"Courage or no courage, Captain." Butcher began. "They had the guts to go on board. We need to get rid of them. They even dared to attack my minions!"

"Do not panic, Butcher." Spec meant confidently. "I know exactly what to do now. Do not underestimate your captain."

Frustration was the only feeling which Butcher had after Spec said that. He turned off the communication chip and looked down to the undead rats, which were rivalling each other with wild hissing. He could clearly see that his minions seemed to be hungry. Those intruders could have been a tasty meal for them.

"Well, captain." Another voice behind Spec raised up. It was Zoricus, an owl-like ghost bean. "What is your plan to get them out of our ship?"

As the last word fell, Spec turned himself around to look directly into Zoricus's black visor. Some broken wires from the bridge's ceiling sparkled above the demonic ghost. Spec got distracted for a short while and focused back to Zoricus after the electric sparkles vanished.

"Play with their fears. Play with their darkest fears. Make them insane. Break them and show no mercy. With that, they'll flee for sure." He then demanded and looked up to another member, which should help Zoricus out. "Zoricus and Polaris, you both will go on board their own ship, the Blackcrow, to cause chaos within their crew. The others will stay with me."