Dropped Stitch

Majora's Mask

[@2D3D4D]

Benjamin walked towards Nanshaku's ship, just behind Nereida.

"Shouldn't we bring someone else?" He asked.

"Nah," Nereida replied. "They'd just get themselves killed. Plus, Nanshaku doesn't like crowds." She looked up at the massive ship, impressed, and said, "She upgraded. C'mon."

As they climbed the gangplank (which was way too steep to be healthy), Benjamin mentally reviewed the recquirements. Three death threats.Don't drink the tea. Call her Nanshaku.

The ship had a large deck, but nobody stood on it except a single, lone guard. As soon as they got close, Benny could tell that no one else was needed. This guy was huge, with giant muscles covering every inch of him. The guard was whittling something as he stood in front of a small, square hatch that must've lead down to the interior of the ship. 

Nereida approached the guy without fear. "Dex, my man! We need to see Nanshaku. Like, bad. Could you let us in?"

He responded by smashing down with his fist. It should've broken a hole in the deck of any normal ship,  but Benny knew that every pirate ship on this planet was reinforced with steel.

He looked around for Nereida (who, thankfully, was not crumpled in a bloody heap beneath Dex's knuckles), but couldn't find her. Dex couldn't either, apparently, so he walked towards Benjamin.

"Leave," He said, looming over the teenage boy.

"Uh..." Benny stared up at the giant man. Nereida had snuck down the hatch, doubtless, but he wasn't sure how he could do the same.

"Now, now, Dex," A familiar voice said, "Let him through. After all, he's my friend, and the Player besides."

Dex looked around behind him quickly, then said, "No payment, no service."

That was when Nereida appeared, her head peeking out from behind Dex's. A knife flashed, and Dex looked down to see a blade at his throat. "Oh, come on," Nereida replied. "Be nice."

Dex swallowed. "Very well."

Nereida slipped off his back, the knife returning to her belt. "C'mon, Benny boy," She said happily. "Off to see the fortune-teller."

Benjamin followed her and Dex down the hatch, still wondering how she could've pulled that off.

"It's a machine," Nereida whispered conspiratorially as they walked down one long hallway, then made a right. "There's a really little guy on the inside of the big guy. Easy blind spot, really. But he doesn't want the Madame to know, so he acts like a real person."

"Dang," Benny said. "So, is that why he is striding confidently into that ominous-looking mist?"

"Yup," Nereida said. "Let's go around. I'm pretty sure that stuff is lethal."

They backtracked until they reached their last crossroads, then took a left instead of a right.  Nereida seemed to know where she was going, but Benny wasn't so sure. WHen they passed the same porthole three times in a row, he knew they were lost. 

"Hey, let's stop a minute," Benny said.

"Yeah, we're lost," Nereida replied, knowing what he meant. "Dang."

"Lemme try something. I haven't thought about it, but maybe my spooky Philosopher powers will do something."

Benny got out his phone and opened the notepad application. Then, he thought about the ship. It had to have a confusing layout on purpose, he decided. But deep down, it had to be something like Nereida's ship...

"Thanks!" Nereida exclaimed, snatching the phone from him. "Left, right, right, left, left, left, right, right, right, straight, down the funny corkscrew stairs, left. Let's go!"

She pulled Benjamin along, nearly tearing his arm out of his socket. 

[<3<><3<]

Roxy awoke to the feeling of enormous pain. She looked to her left, and saw a pile of limbs. Looking closer, she saw that they were all her arms. She wanted to throw up, but couldn't. There was too much pain.

A new limb joined the pile. Roxy decided that whoever had hacked Orly really wanted her dead, to keep ripping her arm off over and over. 

"It must run out sometime!" An infuriated voice hissed overhead. "There must be some limit!"

Roxy looked around, and found that she was in the same place that she'd become immortal in the first place. The giant computer screen before her, which she guessed originally held the SIU, now glowed red. A little man danced back and forth across the screen, hopping up and down with anger. 

"Ouch," Roxy said, as a machine clamped onto her arm. "Nuh, uh," She said, and grabbed onto the mechanical claw, ripping it off. She freed herself the same way, as the Glitch did his little dance back and forth across the screen. When she was done, she glanced at the pile of arms again. "Dang," She said. "I must be some kind of  starfish, or something."

"She's awake!" The Glitch yelled. "Sedate her!"

"You're annoying," Roxy said. "Are you supposed to be my planet boss?"

"Yes! No! Yes!" The Glitch yelled. "It's hard to explain. Technically, I am the boss. But technically, the whole planet is now me. So You are fighting every mecha on Android. Rip them all apart, then you can fight me."

Roxy stared up at him. Then, without another word, she turned and ran away, dashing down the hallway. She wished that she'd been brave enough to do something just then and there. She'd imagined situations like this, where she got to be the hero. But this was way different. He could regenerate, too (sort of). She'd just be killing the SIU.

What now? Asked a whiny little voice in her head. Are you going to run away? 

No, Roxy told it. I've got to figure out a plan. There has to be some way of killing this thing, without destroying every mecha on the planet. 

Let the Ravenium take over, another part of her piped up. It would handle everything, easy. 

I know that, Roxy thought. I kind of even want to... but it's too dangerous. Plus, what if I hurt Orly? He said every mecha on the planet, but he couldn't mean literally every mecha, right? 

Right?