The System

Prologue Ō - Part VIII --> The Big Guy vs Crook vs Kal (Part - 02)

     Crook chuckled to himself as he heard Tess curse and run far away from him. "It's been a while since I heard the Tranquille's curses." He still scratched his head as to why her reaction changed in an instant. "She also knows a few I haven't heard of." He looks and estimates Tess's next turn. "I better note them down." With another step, he interrupts the baffling elephant's mad dash and snatches the wheel. "That's rude-" He points his finger at her and stops mid-sentence. "Oh!" He realizes and steps aside. "Carry on."

    Above, Kal stretches and tries to reclaim the black sphere. "Take the wheel and I take everyone's life," Kal warns Crook in hopes of drawing him closer, making it easier to reclaim his void.

    "He's just like a kid who keeps wanting more." Crook inspects the wheel in a hurry. "I mean, I can't blame him." He gestures to himself with pride.

    "Stay focused for one second." Tess pushes the wheel onto Crook.

    After a quick few motions to the side, up and down, Crook tries to turn the wheel in place and finds it stuck in position. "You activated too many..." With a quick scan around the wheel, he finds many runes glowing with a dim crimson light. "All the functions at once," he explains to Tess. "You see these..." Crook flips the wheel around, showing her all the activated runes.

    "Not the time to be teaching..." Tess urged him to steer the ship already. Why is he even bothering to explain all of this now? Is he...

    "Okay... okay." Crook breaks Tess's wary face as he flips a single rune upside down and spins the wheel free.

    The entire vessel tilts one-eighty degrees, swirling on this axis. The ship circles three turns away from the black hole and two turns toward it, as the passengers made their way to a different side of the wall.

    Within one fluid motion, Crook stops the wheel from spinning, flips it to its side, hands it over to Tess, and stands on top of the wheel right before the vessel tilts. Successfully making the ship's wheel into a perfect foothold. The vessel swings and hurls all the passengers as it glides away. Flipped to its side, the passengers inside the ship found themselves on a different wall than before. Well adapted from the last time, everyone used unique skills to latch onto the ship's floor and keep their bearings.

    All except for Tess.

    Crook looks down at Tess, who hung by her tusk, wrapped around the ship's wheel, and gave her a thumbs up.

    One sneeze and Tess would go straight down into outer space-she knew that. But if she could swing high, snap her captain's fingers, feed it to him, and then fall to her death. She would gladly let go and take that chance. For now, she took solace in the fact that: If Crook hadn't swung the wheel for her to catch like a dog. Again! She would've been thrown off the ship.

    Hold on. Tess glares at Crook. He is the reason she hung for dear life in the first place. Facing outer space below and the entire ship to her side. 'The wheel was locked.' Crook mouths at her. She wanted nothing less to scream into his ears until it crawled out in defeat or at least retort, but her trunk was busy keeping her onboard. 'This is sailing one-o-one.' Crook continues to mouth. 'Always check the safeties.' Tess tries her best to give the captain a death glare. But her beady little eyes failed to convey the message. Oh... what she wouldn't give to shift places with him and make him listen to her for once. In full lung volume nonetheless. She imagined a scenario and her wish turned to reality.