The Exorcism [Kirahunter and Anastasia Job]

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Words:  884
Total: 1351 / 20,000

"I could have sworn I said we were done doing jobs at scary places, George," Anastasia stated while she stood in front of the command console of the SS Myrmidon.  The SS Myrmidon was the ship that Anastasia had built using parts of an old slaver vessel, repurposed to something more useful.  This ship is what she uses to transport her team 'Team Four Star' around from job-to-job, but this ship also moonlights as a pirate ship, stealing from corrupt corporations.  The things she stole were mainly for the good of her father's company, Isayev Heavy Industries.  Any extras she finds that her father's company couldn't use got sold off and the money given to charities; thankfully the charities have no idea where the money comes from.  The money was disguised as a philanthropic donation from the company, itself, and not dirty money made from piracy.

"Anastasia, you are aware that I do not have a personality program.  This means I cannot," George stated before being cut-off by the blonde.  "Yeah, yeah.  You can't feel emotions.  Now that I'm stuck being on this job, what am I supposed to do?"

"Currently, we are en-route to an infamous Haunted Castle," George stated before Anastasia shouted.  "Hell no!  Do you enjoy watching me in pain or something?" she asked hysterically remembering the 2 jobs she had taken revolving around werewolves and crazy humanoid science experiments.  Sweat began to gather upon her brow as the door to the bridge opened up.  Taliya, her guardian spirit arrived onto the bridge and walked up to Anastasia and slapped her on the back.  

"Don't worry about it, flat-chest.  I got your back," Taliya stated with a big grin upon her face.  Anastasia instantly followed up with a bone-crushing punch to the top of Taliya's head, forcing her to slam face-first into the floor of the Myrmidon.  Taliya quickly stood up and rubbed the top of her head with a bit of laughter.  "Anyway, I'll still get your back.  Besides, you're a lot stronger now, so you should be fine.  Since the job is such a high rank, at least you know you have a competent partner.  I mean, Nao-Nao is so~~~~ dreamy~~~," Taliya said in a girly manner.  Ana simply narrowed her eyes at Taliya.

"Nao is competent, too!" Ana said in Nao's defense.  "Oh, of course he is.  I just wanted an excuse to talk about him is all," she said as she winked at Ana and stuck her tongue out.  Ana grumbled a bit.  

"Anyway, what's the deal with the Haunted Castle?" Ana asked the Artificial Intelligence.  

"You have been summoned by the Rune Knights to gather pieces of an artifact.  I do not quite know what the artifact is, but the rendezvous point is at the Haunted Castle," George simply stated.  Another sigh came from Anastasia before Taliya piped up.  "They sure know how to pick the locations, huh?  Guess we'll see what needs to be done when we get there huh?" Taliya asked before nodding her head.

"Yeah, I guess.  I'm going to get ready," she stated before walking towards the exit.  "You have 15 minutes before we arrive at our destination," spoke the computer.  "Right, right..." Ana said as she left the bridge.  Anastasia, however, returned to the bridge after alarms rang.  

"There is a high velocity object upon the ground and it is emanating a strange noise," the computer stated.

"Alright, display the noise," Ana stated before the speakers queued up with the sound of cursing and foul expletives filling her eardrums.  A sweatdrop came over Anastasia's forehead before she waved a hand to stop the noise.  Just hearing this made her more annoyed.  "Ignore it," she said before turning back to leave the bridge once again.

Upon arriving to the Haunted Mansion, Anastasia stepped off of the ship with Taliya by her side and her weapon, the Fire Moth hovering around her.  The airship was within walking distance from the castle.  As soon as Ana and crew stepped off of the ship, it powered down so the noise of the engine running wouldn't devour everything around it, drowning out all competing sounds.  Up ahead were a group of Rune Knights and a single man dressed very differently than the others.  This would be her partner.  

"Sorry I'm late.  I was busy analyzing a strange noise I heard going across the ground on my way here," she said in reference to Kira's cursing.  Though, she didn't actually analyze it, it sounded like a better excuse than 'I don't want to be here' or 'Why so spooky'.  Ana waved to the Rune Knights and Kira.  "The name's Anastasia and the busty one is Taliya."

With this, Taliya's eyes locked upon Kira and there were hearts in her eyes.  "He's SOOOO CUTE!" Taliya said before Anastasia moved her left foot in front of Taliya to trip her up, causing her to fall flat on her face.  "Behave, Taliya," Ana demanded with Taliya merely puffing her cheeks and responding with a simple, "Alright."  She sat upon her heels with her arms straight down upon her knees, close enough to squeeze her breasts together for any of the Rune Knights and even Kira to just get a look at.  Yes, she is a slut and she knows it.

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Words:  965
Total:  2941 / 20,000

So this guy was the former guild master of Fairy Tail, huh?  A former Wizard Saint as well?  She knew his name was familiar the moment he introduced himself.  Anastasia raised an eyebrow at the man's introduction as simply Simon.  Anastasia simply nodded to Simon due to the fact that curtsying in a military uniform would look stupid.  "My name is Anastasia Isayev," she stated as she hooked a thumb to her sidekick.  "And the one with the breasts is Taliya," she stated before walking over to Taliya and grabbing her by the back of her shirt to hoist her back up onto her feet.  "It's a pleasure meeting you, Simon."  Now that introductions are out of the way, the Rune Knights chirped in with the details of the job.

The more they explained it, the better and worse Anastasia felt.  She felt better knowing that she wasn't going to enter the castle right now and have to deal with spooky ghosts or anything of that nature, but she's also a bit annoyed because she would have to take several stops to refuel during this journey across the world.  But then dread started to sink in when it was told that the blades had a form of death magic.  Ana began to turn around without a word, only to be stopped by Taliya with a simple grab of Ana's collar.  A tugging was made at her lips as she ended up staying for the moment.

Her demeanor quickly changed once she found out that these shards were affecting civilian populations.  While she didn't like the idea of death magic in the first place, the fact that innocent people are now being harmed by this magic at a much faster rate concerned her.  Ana shrugged her shoulders to signal to Taliya to remove her grip upon her.  Her eyes turned towards Kira and nodded.  "Yeah, let's split up.  We need to cover as much ground as we can.  I don't expect a lot of fighting just getting these shards," she simply stated.  When put up next to someone like Simon, Ana seemed to be relatively silent.

The Rune Knight mentioned that he had a spare map to which Anastasia reached over and received.  Opening the map up, there were clearly marked locations of where the shards were supposedly held.  After examining the map a little bit, Ana turned and looked towards Simon.  "I'll cover the shards on the eastern end of the country.  You go ahead and deal with the locations closer by.  We'll rendezvous back here, obviously," she said as she handed the rolled up map to Taliya and began to walk back towards her ship, the SS Myrmidon.  Before she finished walking towards the ship, she turned around and stated.  "Be safe, everyone," before walking back into the ship, quickly clearing her ship out of all of the civilian crew, dumping them outside for now.  They were all dressed in a similar uniforn as Anastasia.  Normally, they'd be dressed in something a bit more akin to the pirates they actually were.  

"What gives, Captain!?" one of the men shouted before Anastasia came over the loud speaker as the engines roared.  "We're going to collect something that emits death energy.  You dogs aren't equipped to handle the death energy and will just die for no reason.  Are you all okay with dying for no reason?" Ana asked over the loud speaker as the airship began to slowly lift off.  The men instantly jumped into action, unmooring the boat from the ground.  

"Do what you gotta do, Captain!" her men simply stated.  There was a difference of dying for something and just simply dying.  They would rather die for something rather than just dying by being in close proximity to a cursed object.  After the boat was finished being un-moored from the ground, the ship flew off with a final message.  "Don't act like idiots," she stated over the intercommunication system to them.  The men grumbled before looking towards the Rune Knights for a moment before murmuring amongst themselves.

"Awright, boys.  We need to speak like proper gentlemenz," one of the men stated before they all nodded. They didn't like how Anastasia was working with the Rune Knights, but acting like pirates won't help their captain's cause.  Clearing their throats, they all turned to look towards the Rune Knights.  "Hello there, fellow Knights," one of the men said in a rather plain accent.  

"I could have sworn you all were disbanded," one of the pirate said to one of the Rune Knights.  

"Nope, that was just a rumor.  We're still kicking," the Rune Knight said before muttering under his breath, "but not doing shit."

"Well, don't mind our company here, do you?  Our Captain kicked us off of the ship because of those shards."

"Guess it seems your Captain cares for you guys."

"Damn right!  She's a nice person and has a nice pair of," the crewman stated before the rest of them started to whallop on him in a comedic fashion.

Meanwhile, in the SS Myrmidon, Anastasia cleared her throat and uploaded a version of the map into the Artificial Intelligence.  "George, bring up the Shard Map," she said as a 3-dimensional rendering of the map appeared down below her with the shards marked on the map.  

"The furthest destination has a shard at the Royal Castle," George, the Artificial Intelligence stated.

"Of course.  I keep saving that damn city with no recognition.  Fine, plot a course to the Royal Castle.  I hope these ungrateful bastards recognize me this time."  With that said, the ship quickly changed it's bearings towards the Royal Castle and lurched forward towards the Castle of Fiore Royalty.  Hopefully Simon would get the nearby towns and cities.  And the hunt begins!

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Words:  1653
Total:  5178 / 20,000

The airship approached the Royal Castle's airspace.  A notification rang through Anastasia's ears throughout the entire bridge.  "Warning, warning.  The Castle Town is under siege," spoke the artificial intelligence, George.  This caught Anastasia's attention before stating, "Put it on screen," she said before seeing strange wraith-like creatures tormenting and killing people within the castle.  The images only flash on screen for a brief moment before wiping way.  

"Damnit.  How many do you count?" she asked the artificial intelligence.  It took the computer a brief moment before responding.  "Only two have been spotted," the computer said before Anastasia let out a little grumble.  "So early in the job," she said in annoyance as she squeezed the bridge of her nose.  Standing up, Anastasia cleared her throat and walked towards the cargo hold with Taliya following shortly behind.  

"Bring us just over the castle and start hovering, George," she commanded the ship before a beep was delivered in compliance to her orders.  Turning her head towards Taliya.  "We're going for an air-landing.  You ready for it?" Anastasia stated before Taliya slapped her fists together.  "Hell yeah!  Let's get this ship over with!" she stated before Ana simply replied with a quick nod.  

The two of them made their way towards the cargo hold.  Taliya, at this moment, had the Fire Moth in between her breasts, going to use that to break her fall.  She can't fly the same way Anastasia can.  "George, open up the cargo door," she stated before the doors opened, drawing air outside due to the pressure change.  Normal people would hold on for dear life to not get sucked in, but these two nutbars let the pressure suck them out of the ship and enter free-falling.  

"The shard is probably inside of the castle, Taliya.  This is an important place, so make sure you don't screw around and destroy the castle, alright?" Anastasia yelled as the two of them hurdled down towards the ground.  The only response given from Taliya was a simple thumbs up before Ana extended her arms and legs causing a bright white light to envelop her body before a green and white armor was donned, with a pair of dragon fangs upon the armor.  This was the first time she was able to fully utilize her new weapon and armor in a realistic combat situation.  Her free-fall was broken once the thrusters in her armor ignited.

With a firm grasp, Anastasia grabbed Taliya out of thin air, allowing Taliya to release The Fire Moth as it grew it proportion to the size of the massive armor that Anastasia was in.  The engines flared up and Anastasia flew down within the castle walls where everyone was running away from these wraiths.  "Oh god!  Save us!" people shouted out as Anastasia arrived.  Her feet hit the ground and she let Taliya go.  "I'll handle these bastards!  You go and get the shard. It's most likely in the castle.  If anyone gives you any resistance, tell them that it's the shard of the blade that's causing these monsters," she shouted before Taliya gave another thumbs up.

With a quick dash, Taliya ran into the castle leaving Ana with just the Blade Wraiths.  One of the Blade Wraiths noticed Taliya's movement and started moving towards Taliya only for Anastasia to get in the way, blocking their entrance into the castle.  "Hey there, big boys," she said in a teasing manner.  "I'm the one that you should be worried about now, alright?" The Wraiths hissed at Anastasia and raised their blades up and started to float eerily over towards Anastasia.

The Wraiths seemed to move in tandem with one another, as if communicating complex maneuvers with one another.  At first, the duo started together only to split apart at the very last second.  Anastasia took a quick jab at one of the Wraiths with her Dragon Fang only for it to recoil a bit, letting out a shrill scream. The scream reverberated through her ears, causing her to squint for a moment.  This, however, left her wide open.  "Crap!" she shouted before creating a bright green field around her, as both of the wraiths attempted to impale her armor with their swords.  However, the barrier of light protected her from both strikes, only to shatter.

Ana held out one of her Dragon Fang weapons and began to douse the already injured wraith in the face with pure plasma, causing it to roar out once more in his agonizing shriek before Anastasia used her other arm to extend outwards, smashing the final one between the fangs of her weapon.  The Wraith shouted out once more and withered away into darkness.  

Realizing the other Wraith was still behind her, she quickly turned around and instantly dashed back to create space between herself and the wraith.  Ana turned around and began to stare down the creature.  There was something strange with the weapon that it wielded.

"Analyze that blade," she stated before her heads-up-display began to analyze the weapon.  The Wraith was strangely cooperative as the on-board computer began to analyze the weapon.  "Weapon of unknown origin and unknown material.  However, the weapon is laced with a curse that makes your body weaker when hit.  The blade isn't capable of penetrating your armor, but it isn't suggested to test the waters," spoke the on-board computer.  As if, on queue, the Wraith shrieked again and started to make it's way towards Anastasia and her armor.  Ana pointed her dragon fangs at the creature before it jumped up into the air.  

Ana's Dragon Fang retracted and looked up to notice the Wraith.  That thing vanished extremely high into the air.  While the Wraith was in the air, Anastasia extended her Dragon Fangs, one at a time, towards the creature, jabbing it twice with extremely powerful blows.  The Wraith then opened it's body up, displaying dark and withering wings for a moment before returning to the earth, creating a massive explosion.  Anastasia cleared her throat and placed another barrier in front of her, causing the explosive landing to go completely around her.  As the Wraith attempted to recover, Anastasia swung the head of her Dragon Fang over the Wraith, causing it to shriek once more and fade into black smoke.  

With a sign, Anastasia simply waited.  Everything is on Taliya now.  

Inside of the castle...
Taliya walked in, noticing people growing sick and laying on the floor.  There wasn't a single act of violence evident in here, however, death and decay seemed to loom over everyone within the castle.  "What the hell?" Taliya asked before she was approached by a man.  He grabbed her arm, feeling extremely weak.  "It's you.  You and the blonde who saved us from that air raid.  Please, help us," spoke the man before he fell to the ground, dead.  Taliya sucked air through her teeth before she ran through the castle.  

"You should be able to find the shard in the treasury," came a call into her headset.  The voice was Anastasia's from outside.  "That makes sense.  Where would that be?" Taliya asked.  "Try downstairs.  You'll probably have to break through a bunch of locked doors," Ana stated before Taliya ran around the castle, easily mapping everything in her head until she found a door that lead to stairs going down.  Going down the stairs, Taliya was met by a wooden door that was locked.  Taliya charged at it a couple times with her shoulder, only for the door to remain unmoving.  

With a single punch, the large door slammed open before noticing the king taking refuge with his guards.  They seemed sick and dying.  "Your Majesty!  You must get away from that sword shard!" Taliya stated noticing the shard in a glass container.  "That shard is cursed!"

"Impossible~.  This shard has been part of my family for generations and is one of the imperial regalia.  "It's killing your people.  Move aside," Taliya replied.

"I understand that you and the blonde sky captain saved our lives during the air raid, but I cannot let you," the king said before becoming silenced as Taliya struck down the king's guards in a non-lethal manner.  "I'm sorry, Your Majesty.  Don't be angry with me," she said as she simply chopped him in the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious.  Punching her way into the glass case, Taliya reached in and grabbed the shard.  A feeling of evil came over her as pain started to fill her body.  

She cried out in agony before turning her back on the treasury and worked her way up the stairs and out of the castle.  Taliya found her way outside before Anastasia grabbed a hold of her and flew back into George.  However, she wasn't going to leave her armor, knowing that she needed this armor for later on.  Anastasia opened up the cockpit of her armor and walked out of it for a moment to grab the shard of the tainted weapon away from Taliya, feeling the same terrible feeling she did.  Pain started to rack her body before she jumped into the cockpit of her armor.  

"Ugh..  Get us out of here, George.  Ugh...  Raging... Volcano," she said as the pain felt by this sword shard became unbearable.  She opened the cockpit once more and held out the shard.  She commanded The Fire Moth to take the shard of the weapon for a moment and contain it.  Once the piece of the blade created distance between herself and the tainted artifact, relief washed over her.  

"The Raging Volcano, George.  Do it on the double," she stated.

"Compliance.  We will require a refuel soon."  

"Ugh.. Call for an aerial refuel from the Neutral Zone," she groaned.  "Make sure to notify them that an evil artifact is on-board and they need to keep their distance as it radiates death magic," she said as she began to breathe heavily.

"Compliance."

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Words:  1571
Total:  8398 / 20,000

As the SS Myrmidon quickly approached the Raging Volcano, the skies darkened and ash started to fly through the sky.  A low vibration could be felt throughout the entire ship, causing Anastasia to open up a communication channel between herself and the ship's artificial intelligence.  "What's going on, George?  Talk to me," she said normally as the pain of being near the shard had subsided, being separated from her electronic weapon.  She kept the shard as far as possible from herself and Taliya so it wouldn't hinder herself or Taliya from performing this part of the job.  This part of the job will be extremely dangerous, having to retrieve the shard from, what appears to be, inside of the mouth of the volcano.  Taliya could easily do this, being a creature of fire.

"The volcano is stirring up and is about to blow.  I estimate that you have approximately 10 minutes to get down into the volcano and find the shard before the volcano erupts," the computer stated in a matter-of-fact manner.  It didn't speak with emotions, but it's been known to give sarcastic remarks from time-to-time due to it's humanoid mimicking programming.  "You will experience extreme heat and even bubbling, so exercise extreme caution," the artificial intelligence stated once more.  

"Alright," Anastasia responded before chiming in once again.  "Once you see me and Taliya returning, have the cargo door open and ready for us.  You might also need to come get us if necessary."

"Compliance," spoke the computer before the cargo door opened with the aircraft now hovering directly over the mouth of the volcano.  Being this close to the bubbling magma already started making Anastasia sweat a bit.  This caused her to remove all of her clothes, all the way down to her underwear.  A groan came from Anastasia before she turned on her public address system to speak to Taliya.  "You ready, Taliya?" Ana asked as sweat continued to drip down her body.

"Holy crap, it's hot!" Taliya shouted out before giving Ana a thumbs up.  With a nod, Anastasia grabbed Taliya in the mobile suit's massive hands and quickly ran out of the cargo-hold and began a free-fall down into the mouth of the volcano.  The heat started to cause her electrical systems to go haywire.  Warning alarms started to ring out with 'overheat' alarms.  A little moan of pain could be heard from Anastasia as the heat started to burn at her body.  Sweat began to cover her entire body, soaking what little bit of underwear she wore for this job.  The very first job she had the chance to wear these new bras and they are going to be tainted by sweat and sulfur.  

The Mobile Suit continued to freely fall into the volcano, finally entering the mouth of the massive giant of fire.  Upon growing closer and closer towards the volcano's bottom, Ana ignited her suit's engine to begin hovering, making sure to not touch the floor of the volcano.  While Rhapsodium was a relatively strong metal alloy, it wasn't strong enough to withstand too much time being super-heated by the 'blood of the earth'.  Even her armor made of Rhapsodium would melt and eventually become part of the earth, itself.  That isn't something Anastasia would want to deal with.  However, Anastasia DOES have someone that could withstand the oppressive heat of the Volcano; Taliya.  

Her Guardian Spirit, Taliya, comes from a breed of creatures that were molded in fire and utilized fire as a tool.  So needless to say, her best alternative for retrieving this shard was Taliya.  However, before she was willing to throw Taliya into the fire, the two had to locate the shard in the first place.  They scanned their eyes along the volcano, not seeing anything.

"Where the hell is it?" Anastasia asked before a familiar howl could be heard.  Anastasia's concentration was distracted as another Blade Wraith appeared from somewhere.  Taliya, being the smart one that she was saw where the Blade Wraith came from and pointed it out towards Anastasia.  "There!  It's sinking!" Taliya shouted out towards Ana, causing her to focus on the object.  However, before Ana had gotten a bead on the shard, she had to move out of the way of the Wraith's blade.  "Crap, crap, crap," Ana shouted out as the two's movement made Ana lose her positioning and thus lose the location of the shard.

"Just throw me into the pool, I'll get it. You deal with that monster," Taliya shouted out before Ana nodded.  "Fine!  Get on the fang," Ana stated before she released her grip on Taliya, allowing her to climb onto the flattened Dragon Fang.  When Ana had an opportunity, she shot off one of her fangs towards the lava, causing it to stop mere meters from it.  With a quick thumbs up, Taliya dove off of the Dragon Fang and into the lava.  

Retrieving her fang, Anastasia quickly turned her shoulder to avoid the blade of the wraith, delivering a massive kick to the creature's back.  However, the attack did almost nothing to the creature.  Reacting to the strike, the Wraith shouted and struck Ana's armor's leg with a single strike.  The weapon simply grazed over Anastasia's armor before a quick strike was delivered from the dragon fang and the release of the Dragon's Vengeance spell from her Dragon Fang completely obliterated the only phantom standing guard in the volcano.  

As quickly as the wraith was defeated, Anastasia observed the damage dealt to her massive armor.  Just a relatively small wound on the outside of the armor.  If she had worn any normal armor, it would have made it to her skin, but thankfully, due to this being a mobile suit, all that was underneath were wires and hydraulics.  

Meanwhile, in the bubbling depths, Taliya started to swim through the lava as her flesh and clothing began to completely sear off.  Taliya swam towards the shard and reached for it before it sank down into the magma.  "Crap!" Taliya said before diving down into the magma and chased after it.  The Lava was not see-through in the slightest, however, Taliya guessed it's speed and took the proper angle to retrieve it. She had guessed correctly and grabbed a hold of the shard and began to resurface.  Just as Taliya broke through the surface, the Volcano began to shake violently.

"Holy crap, Taliya!  We need to get out of here, the Volcano is about to erupt!" Ana shouted before Taliya reached her hand out.  Extending one of her dragon fangs towards the lava, Ana made sure the fang didn't make contact with the lava.  Taliya grabbed a firm hold of the Dragon Fang and got reeled in.  However, as the Shard made it's way closer and closer to Anastasia, Ana felt a strong burning sensation run through her.  

"Ana?!  What's going on!" Taliya shouted.  She was completely naked due to the lava burning her clothing off.  With a quick shake of her body, the remaining bits of lava flung off of her body and away from the mobile suit.  "Ana?!" she shouted before hearing a blood curdling scream coming from the Public Address system on-board.  "Shut up!" she shouted out in absolute pain.  The movements of the Fafnir Sentry, the mobile suit that Ana piloted, began to become erratic and unpredictable, even to the point of the suit powering down for a moment.

"Wake the hell up!  Wake up or you're going to die!  Seriously!  Get your shit together!" Taliya shouted before the Sentry turned back on and flew up out of the Volcano.  

Moments later, inside of the SS Myrmidon.

"Ana, wake up.  Wake up, Ana," Taliya shouted before turning her head to look towards the ship, itself.  "Do an override of the armor's hatch."  

"I'm sorry, but the hatch has denied my input."

"It's alright, I'm fine," Ana said as she seemingly just woke up.  Her eyes looked at the screen ahead to see a naked Taliya.  "Don't worry about me.  I think the death magic in those shards screwed me up a bit.  But before we do that, you need to get some clothes on," Ana said before opening the hatch of the Mobile Suit and stepping out of it in just her underwear.  

A quick whistle was given by Taliya as Ana strutted around in just her underwear.  This caused Anastasia to cower back into her mobile suit.  "Leave me alone, geez," she said before speaking to George.  "George, what is the location of the next shard?" Ana asked before the ship remained quiet for a brief moment.  

"The Hunting Village.  This item is revered as a special and sacred weapon to the locals," the computer stated.  "Alright, head in that way then.  I need to take a shower and Taliya needs to put on some new clothes," she stated.

"Compliance.  Aerial Refueling is requesting to be done," George stated.  "Fine.  But they know the risks, right?"

"That is correct," stated George.  

"Alright, give them permission to approach," Ana stated.  Her and Taliya had collected 2 out of the 7 shards.  This means that she only has to collect 1-2 more before these shards can be combined to break this curse.  Ugh.  Anastasia stood up and began to descend her mobile suit once more only for Taliya to whistle in a cat-calling manner.  "Get some clothes on.  Geez, I don't want to see that."

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Words:  1738
Total:  12,636 / 20,000

"This is Sky Whale, are you there, SS Myrmidon?" came a voice over the aircraft's radio; which was patched through the Artificial Intelligence, George's, VHF short range radio.  Anastasia cleared her throat and nodded towards Taliya who quickly took the wheel.  Enough time had passed so the two were able to quickly take a shower and put fresh clothes on themselves.  As Taliya took the wheel, Anastasia moved to the Grabber Claw Controls.  She cleared her throat, placed the headsets over her head and spoke into the mic. "You are clear to deploy the refueling drogue," Anastasia responded.

"Roger, deploying the refuling drogue," the man inside of the Sky Whale stated.  The Sky Whale was an aerial refueling ship from her father's company used primarily to perform refuels in mid-flight to aircraft that needed it.  The aircraft would also often be contracted to do other jobs for other companies if the time was needed.  The drogue was deployed, releasing a long hose with a shuttle-cock attached to it.  The SS Myrmidon extended it's refueling probe to catch the drogue.  

Turbulent winds made the connection extremely difficult, forcing Anastasia to take up controls of the Grabber Arms.  She maneuvered the arms, in a way, to grab the drogue and shove the probe into it, cutting out precision flight from the equation.  

"I see connection.  Please maintain speed and heading.  Aerial refueling has commenced," the man in the Sky Whale mentioned.  "Miss Anastasia, this must be a long job for you to have called for us," the man stated before Ana took a sigh of relief.  Aerial refueling always made her nervous and to dock with the Sky Whale made her feel so much better.  "Yeah, we have to fly around the world to find these cursed shards.  You guys understood the risks, right, Barton?" she asked, addressing the man by his last name.

"Yes, Ma'am.  Actually, we have another one of the shards on-board with us," the man stated before Anastasia and Taliya paused for a moment as their jaws dropped to the ground.  

"What the hell are you doing with that?  Normal people can't even get close to a shard without dying," Anastasia shouted out.  There was a jolly laugh over the mic.  "That isn't a problem, Miss Anastasia.  We have a sealer who is constantly keeping watch over the shard.  So there is nothing for you to worry about!"  the man stated before loud screaming could be heard over the radio.

"What's going on!" she shouted out over the radio as there were terrified screams before there was silence.  A feeling of dread came over Anastasia as she spoke into the headset.  "Barton.  Barton, are you there?"  Ana asked.  As she said this, she noticed the Sky Whale begin to sink.  "Shit!  Break connection!  Break Connection!" she shouted out towards George before a series of blips and bloops could be heard from George.  "Compliance."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Anastasia said as she quickly removed the controls from her hands and started to run out towards the hangar.  "Stay here, Taliya," she said before slamming doors open until she found herself at the Cargo Hold (or the Mobile Weapon Dock, same thing) and jumped into the resting Sentry and powered it up once more.  

She began to flip switches causing lights to come on, noises to ring and the engine in her mobile suit to ignite on. "George!" she shouted out.  "Compliance," called out the Artificial Intelligence as the cargo door opened.  The door opened slowly, causing Anastasia to panic a bit and wait in anticipation.  "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" she said before the door opened just enough for her to squeeze her Sentry out of the door and jumping out into the sky.  She ignited the engines and began to fly towards the massive refueling vessel.

She flew her suit towards the refueling vessel.  She noticed fuel pouring out of the airship's drogue.  "Taliya, you need to back off.  It's still spitting out fuel," Ana stated over the radio in her suit.  

"Alright!  I'll pull up in case there's a spark," Taliya said as she pulled up on the elevation stick, causing the airship to climb up in elevation, away from the Sky Whale and the trail of fuel left behind.  Anastasia had to stay away from the fuel so that her engine's ignition would crawl up the trail of fuel and ignite the entire ship on fire.  As she backed off, something burst out the side of the airship.  It was a single, solitary wraith.  Anastasia grit her teeth in anger as she swung out her Dragon Fang in an attempt to crush the Wraith only for the creature to quickly dodge away.  Anastasia swiped with the other fang only for the weapon to, once again, miss it's target.  She retracted the claws, noticing the Wraith headed towards the airship.  

"Taliya, you got one coming your way," she stated.

"Alright!  Leave this one to me!  I'll take care of it!  These guys are cake.  You get that shard and we can get out of here," Taliya stated before Ana nodded her head.  Taliya simply cleared her throat and smirked a bit.  "Oiy, George.  You handle the controls.  If that thing comes too close to us, light it up with a machine gun," she stated.  The Airship responded with it's usual answer.

Taliya then, grabbed a hold of the Grabber Controls and flexed her fingers.  "I was never good at these games," she said as she took the controls and started to grab at it.  Normally, Taliya would assume control of The Fire Moth, but since it's being used as a container, using it in combat was pointless.  However, Taliya had a plan to take this thing out quickly and easily.  It just involved a little bit of insult.  Taliya took the grabbers and swung at it a couple times, attempting to grab the ghoul.  

"Airship taking damage," George stated.  "Yeah, yeah, I know.  Gimme a sec," she said as she stuck her tongue out and pressed it upon her upper lip.  She leaned with the direction she was moving the arms to and... Got it!  Taliya ended up grabbing the ghoul with the grabbers and chuckled maniacally.  

"What does below us look like, George?" Taliya asked.

"Unpopulated," was the response given by George.  Taliya's demonic laugh continued.  She moved the grabber hands to below the airship where the bomb doors were for 'The One'.  Her demonic laugh continued as she said, "Drop it," to George.

"Compliance."

The bomb door opened up before a large green dumpster began to fall from the bomb bay.  Taliya let the Ghoul go before it got hit on the head with a green dumpster before taking a trip towards the ground.  As the dumpster built up speed, the green dumpster began to glow a red hot color before breaking the sound barrier.  And with a sickening CRASH the dumpster dubbed 'The One' from the Priory of the Wyrm invasion of Magnolia smashed into the ground, leaving behind an explosion and a 50 x 50 foot crater.  

Clearing her throat, Taliya looked out to see the wreckage and laughed maniacally once again.  "He's DEFINITELY dead!  MWAHAHA!" she said.

"Now it is up to us to retrieve it," George mentioned before a sweat drop appeared on Taliya's forehead. "Worth it," she said.

Meanwhile, Anastasia broke into the side of the ship and as the cabin of the ship began to depressurize, all of the bodies of the crew began to spill out of the airship.  Ana tried the best she could to catch all of the bodies with her Sentry's hands, only to successfully catch only 2 of the 7 that were on-board.  "I'm sorry," she whispered out.  She turned back towards the job-at-hand before opening up the cockpit of her suit and started to walk into the descending airship.  After walking into the airship, she looked on, seeing a glass case with the sword shard stuck inside of it.

The same feeling of pain covered her body, causing her ears and nose to bleed simultaneously. She cried out in pain, howling louder as she approached closer to the shard.  "Oh, why?" she asked as she reached the glass case.  Without hesitation, she pushed her hand through the glass and grabbed the shard.  Upon touching the shard, her body began to open up as if she was cut by a sword a thousand times with small knicks.  

"Oh, fuck!" she shouted as a natural reaction to the pain she felt from the blade.  She began to struggle as the ship turned more vertical.  She used the shard of the weapon to stab into the ship so she wouldn't go rolling with the ship.  With a quick burst of strength, Anastasia pulled herself up and onto her Sentry before crawling into the weapon's cockpit and closing the hatch.  

"Terrain, Terrain!" she kept hearing in the cockpit.  She looked at the barometer to only see her at 3000 feet.  "Crap, I need to get out of here.  I'm sorry," she said as she pulled away from airship and began to fly back up to where she believed her airship would be.  However, holding onto the shard caused intense pain to cover her body.  Her brain wasn't strong enough to handle this much pain.  

"Catch... me," she simply stated before she lost consciousness, causing her mobile suit's hand to open up, dumping all of the corpses she had caught to fall to the ground and her suit to turn downwards towards the ground.  However, the last thing Ana saw was a large mechanical hand reaching for her.

Moments later..
"You really need to stop going unconscious when you touch these things," Taliya said as she was sitting on the lip of the cockpit, looking over Ana as she finally wakes up from the incredible pain of this weapon. "Don't worry about the shard," Taliya said as Ana looked at her palm. "Already taken care of," Taliya simply smiled.  Ana simply groaned.  

"Crap, what's the next destination.  This should be the last shard," she said already aggravated from this job.  "Still at the Hunter Village.  We're passing over the Forest right now, so just be patient.  You have enough time to clean up and fix your wounds."

Ana grumbled and started to help herself out of the cockpit once again. "Fuck, man.  These things are going to kill me."

Tag

Words:  3639
Total:  19,364 / 20,000

Now that Anastasia obtained the third of her four shards, she stepped out of the Sentry's cockpit and moved her way towards the bridge of the SS Myrmidon.  Her skin was pale and covered in sweat.  She plopped onto the captain's chair upon the bridge in a sloppy manner with a little groan.  "I would rather fight a horde of enemies instead of enduring that one more time," she stated plainly.  Taliya, who had followed her back simply shrugged her shoulders.  "Yeah, but that'd get a little boring, wouldn't you say?"

Anastasia grumbled and spoke up so that the on-board computer, the artificial intelligence on the airship named George could hear.  "George.  Plot a course to the Hunting Village.  We need to get out of this place already," she said with annoyance in her voice.

"Compliance," replied the computer before a course correction was made, propelling the ship and it's crew towards the Hunting Village, where the last shard was supposedly held.  The ship lurched forward as it made it's way towards the Hunting Village.  The ship was a mere 10 minutes away from the Hunting Village.  It was a blessing and a curse that the two ran across the aerial refueling vessel with the shard, otherwise the group would have been up the creek without a paddle when they found out that the shard was no longer where it should have been.

As Anastasia simply rested in the captain's chair, trying to recover from the fight at the refueling tanker not long ago, a prompt showed up directly in front of her from George.  "Attention -- We have sails flying away from the Hunting Village.  Their course is set to 182 from the village."  This got Anastasia to sit upright and tilt a head a bit.  "Any indicators on the flag?" Ana asked inquisitively.  "No flag detected.  It was unmarked.  However, it is a Bosco model Triton."

The model that was told wasn't a ship design she had ever heard of before, leading to even more questions.  "Well, let it go for now.  Our job is in the Hunting Village for that shard," she said with the computer responding with it's usual, "Compliance."  After the order was given, the ship quickly descended upon the village, parking itself just outside of the town.  As the ship descended, Anastasia and Taliya simply looked on to see mass devastation and corpses strewn about all over the place.  Ana's jaw dropped upon seeing all of this.  

"This is horrible," Taliya simply stated, covering her mouth with her hand.  Anastasia's look of amazement turned to anger as she closed her mouth and began to scowl.  Grunting, Anastasia turned her back towards the computer.  "Remain on high alert, George.  I think I know who did this," Anastasia said as she stormed out towards the cargo hold, slapped the door-open switch causing the cargo door to slowly draw open.  

Taliya made chase only for Anastasia to turn towards her with a look of anger.  "Stay on-board for now.  If this is what I think it is, then I need you to push out my Sentry and start pursuing those ships," Ana stated before quickly stomping outside.  Taliya gave a nod of her head before returning to the bridge.  Ana walked until she touched the ground and ran over towards a group of people piled up into a mound of corpses.  

"Hello!  Is anyone alive!?" Ana shouted out.  What she saw here was horrible and only one person could be responsible for such an atrocity.  "Yes!  Over here!" she heard from a distance.  An old man was left alive, bleeding out away from the pile of corpses.  Ana quickly ran over to the man and hesitated.  She looked over his injuries and began to apply pressure to the major points of bleeding.  The old man shook his head and placed his hands upon hers.  

"Please, don't bother.  This is a fatal wound," the man stated before coughing up blood.  "A man, Red Bart, came through and took everything.  Took our young women, took our valuables, took our food.  He even killed our people and stole our village treasure," the man said.  

"The shard?" Ana asked before the man nodded his head.  "Yes.  Please rescue our girls and bring the shard back.  Please, it's the pride of our village."

A smile came upon Ana's face; a forced one meant to soothe the pains and sorrows of a dying man.  "Alright, I'll do what I can," she responded.  The old man simply smiled as his eyes closed before his life faded away into nothingness.  His hand grew cold and lifeless as it slid down off of her hand and onto the ground.  A maniacal laugh came from Anastasia's lips as she stood up, leaving the old man upon the ground.

"Bart, huh?  It's been 5 years Bart and you are already a Captain of your own crew?  The clumsy, stupid Bart?" she asked rhetorically.  She knew this boy when she originally joined the sky pirates before becoming a mage, herself.  She continued to laugh hysterically at the thought of someone as stupid as Bart becoming a pirate captain; one that could become feared.

Flashback wrote:
7 Years Ago...  
Aboard the S.S. Penguin

A large man by the name of Chernoff walked on board the S.S. Penguin with a young 14 year old girl named Anastasia.  "Lookie here boys!  We have a run-away that wants to join our ranks!" shouted the captain of the S.S. Penguin.  The men on-board were performing their duties for sending off their ship only to turn towards the captain with a little blonde with long hair in tow.  They whistled and cat-called towards Anastasia, making remarks about her body and who would do what with her on the first night.

"Let me tell you this right now boys, she is to be treated just like you.  You wouldn't violate one of your brothers would you?  If any of you clumsy shits want to make an advance on our new mate, Anastasia, you will find yourself in a world of hurt.  Do you understand?" Captain Chernoff addressed in his extremely thick russian accent.  A resounding and collective groan could be heard from the men of the crew with an 'aye, captain' ringing through the air.  

There was an awkward silence in the air as Captain Chernoff scanned the ship.  He looked at every face in attendance before pointing out one in particular.  He pointed his large hand towards a scrawny, sickly looking boy about Ana's age.  "Bart!  Come here!" the captain demanded.  Finding this strange, Bart simply pointed at himself with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Yes, you scrub.  Get over here, right now!" the captain shouted.  This caused Anastasia to flinch a little bit from the loud yelling.  Bart quickly stumbled, tripping a couple times causing the rest of the crew to laugh at his expense, before making his way over to the Captain and Anastasia.  "I-I-I'm here, Captain."  The Captain looked unflinching and unwavering at Bart's clumsiness.

"I have already told the rest of the crew, but I'm going to tell you directly.  Keep your hands off of Anastasia, alright?  I'm going to task you with protecting her from the rest of the crew.  You are also tasked with showing her the ropes.  Do you understand?" the Captain said.  There was murmuring from the rest of the crew before Bart nodded his head and went for a salute only to accidentally poke himself in the eye.  This caused the rest of the crew to erupt in laughter.  

"Now, you two get acquainted," he said in a lowered voice before raising his voice to the rest of the crew. "Now the rest of you Sky Dogs, get back to work!"  Without ceremony, the rest of the crew returned to work leaving Bart and Anastasia alone together.  

Anastasia turned to look at Bart.  "Well, I hope I'm in good hands.  Please teach me well, alright?  My name is Anastasia."

Bart, with a chuckle, rubbed the back of his head.  "And I'm Bart.  I'll do my very best!  I won't let you down, Miss Anastasia!"

"Oh, just Anastasia would be fine."

6 Months Later...
The airship, the S.S. Penguin was caught in the middle of a massive storm.  The ship swayed from side to side as one of the main sails collapsed.  The First Mate pointed at both Anastasia and Bart.  "You two!  Go get that sail and rig it up!" he shouted through the storm.  Anastasia gave the First Mate a thumbs up and looked to Bart with a big grin on her face.  "C'mon, Bart!  This shouldn't be a problem!"

"I'm scared, Anastasia!  What if I fall?"

"You're not going to fall!  If you do, I'll catch you!" she shouted, shielding her eyes from the rain that was punishing her face.  Since there wasn't any time for hesitation, Anastasia grabbed Bart's hand and dragged him towards the mast.  The sail rested behind the sail.  The two of them retrieved some rope and lashed it to the cross-beam of the sail.  After lashing it on, Ana and Bart began to ascend up the mast to utilize the pully at the top to bring the mast back up.  The boat rocked to the side, causing Anastasia to hold on tight as well as hold onto Bart so he didn't fall.

"Thanks, Ana," Bart stated only for Ana to give him a smile.  She looked upwards and continued up the mast until the two reached the top.  "Alright.  Now hold onto the rope and help me pull up the mast, alright?" Ana asked with a nod.  Bart responded with a nod as well as the two then began to pull at the rope, slowly moving the mast up.  The two brought the mast up half-way, leaving enough rope at the bottom for the men to start pulling as well.  Once the mast was all the way up, it was up to the two of them to use another length of rope to secure it.  After securing it, Ana pat Bart on the back.  

"Good job, man!" she said as the two of them laughed.  However, a quick jolt of wind caused the main mast to shake violently, forcing Bart off of the boat.  Ana reached for his hand only to touch his fingertips.  She watched as the boy that she had began to like as a friend fell off into the abyss.  Anastasia cried out in agony upon seeing him fall to what should have been his doom.

After the storm subsided...
Ana could be seen sitting on the deck hugging her knees.  A look of sadness was written across her face.  "He wanted to be the captain of his own ship, you know?" she asked as the Captain approached her.  "He didn't want to be the captain of a pirate crew.  If anything, he wanted to captain a little tug operation," she said as her voice cracked a little as she spoke.

"Don't worry, Anastasia.  You'll see him again another time," the captain simply stated.  This caused Ana to turn her head up towards the captain with an inquisitive look.  "What do you mean?"

"There's a lot of work that needs to be done.  So get up and get to it," Captain Chernoff said before walking off.  Anastasia quickly rose to her feet.  "Right.  As you say, Captain."

Anastasia stormed back towards the Myrmidon with Taliya following shortly behind.  The Cargo Door quickly closed as Anastasia barked out orders to the on-board computer.  "George.  Begin pursuit of those ships we saw earlier.  They have the fragment," Ana said as she jumped into her Sentry and began pre-flight checks.  She kept the hatch of the armor open while she did these checks.  Taliya climbed her way up the mech and looked into the armor as the humming of it's engine could be heard.

"What's up?" Taliya asked.  

"I need you to stay on-board the ship and control the grappler arms.  There's only 1 ship and we need to get the cargo from there.  They also have the shard.  I'm going to go out and forcibly take over this ship.  They have hostages on-board, so be careful to not puncture the hull.  We can't down this ship," Ana simply relayed.

"Okay, it doesn't explain why you're so upset."

"I know the captain of the ship.  Someone from a long time ago," she said before shooing Taliya away and closed the hatch.  "Go man the grappler arms and stay close.  This ship probably isn't equipped with heavy artillery.  "I'm going to disable the mast," Ana stated before standing up in the Sentry and slapped the cargo door open.  Taliya quickly ran through the ship towards the Grappler Arm control, taking her seat.  

"Anastasia Isayev, Fafnir, Launching!" she said as she ignited the engines in her suit to propel her forward and out of the ship.  After launching herself out of the ship, she flew out and passed the Myrmidon in the direction of the other ship that she had once said to ignore.  Without hesitation, Anastasia approached the opposing ship and with a quick jab, Anastasia sent out her Dragon Fang to sever the large metal mast with a single closing of the Dragon Fangs.  After the fall of the mast, Anastasia shouted out over her short-wave radio, "Grab it!" to Taliya.  As if on queue, Taliya crept up in the Myrmidon, unleashed the grappler arms of the ship and grabbed Bart's ship, causing it to come to a jarring halt.  

This caught the attention of those down below in the opposing ship with everyone in the crew surfacing along with a large built man with long flowing red hair.  Strange horns protruded out of his head.  Even though the man looked different, Anastasia knew exactly who it was.  "BART!" she shouted out as she circled around the ship in her large mech.  A smirk came across Bart's face.  

"Ah!  Anastasia!  Long time no see!  I see you've given up on singing and decided to play with toys.  How are you, little lady?  Still with the pirate outfit, I see?"

"Bart.  What happened to you?  I thought you were dead.  And no, I'm not with the S.S. Penguin.  I killed the Captain.  He attempted to start up Operation Celestia with the rest of the Pirate Kings," Anastasia responded, this time over the intercom system, just so Bart could hear her speak.

"Yes, I know of Operation Celestia.  But it's a pity, the Captain was a strong part of the plan.  But it seems that you had other plans."

"Of course I do!  You slaughtered an entire village and took their women and children.  And you have something that no person should have in their possession.  Hand over the shard," Anastasia demanded with Bart digging through his pockets to pull out a shard of metal from his pocket.

"Oh?  You mean this little thing?  Actually, I planned on using this to cause even more havoc.  I guess now is the right time to do that, isn't it?" he asked before taking the shard and plunging it directly into his sternum.  "Bart!  You idiot!  That thing is cursed with Death Magic," she shouted out.  A laugh came from Bart's lips as blood forced it's way out from nearly every orifice.  "I know!  And I shall become one with death!  Fitting, wouldn't you say? One who cheated death now becomes one with it!"

"God damnit, Bart!" she muttered under her breath.  It was at this moment that three spirits had spawned from Bart's body.  One familiar spirit that she had been wailing on this entire time and 2 other, stronger spirits.  Before the spirits had the chance to coalesce, Anastasia opened up the mouth of one of her Dragon Fangs.  A strange blue light began to glow before a dragon made of pure energy shot forth, slamming into the weak and stronger spirits, completely vaporizing the weak spirit.  The strong spirits, however, appear to be unhindered as they went through the entire crew of Bart's ship, consuming their lives.

Screams could be heard throughout the ship before Anastasia lashed out with both of her Dragon Fangs, one at each of the spirits.  Each of the fangs crashed into a spirit before Anastasia reeled the dragon fangs back in.  With a quick flash step forward, Anastasia darted off towards the ship.  The Wraiths appeared to be waiting.  As Anastasia approached closer, the wraiths held their blades up as if to invite her into the strike.  With a quick boost, she stopped just outside of their blade's range.  

Two more slams of the Dragon Fangs were delivered towards the Wraiths.  One of the wraiths were completely smashed into the ship, causing it to instantly vaporize while the other quickly dodged, appearing directly behind Anastasia.  

"Oh shit!" she shouted out before the blade came crashing down only to be blocked by a field of Nanomachines.  The sword, however, instantly shattered the field after being deflected.  Anastasia reeled her Dragon Fangs back in before flying straight up, hoping the Wraith would follow her upwards and leave the women that were kidnapped alone.  Thankfully, her redirection worked as the Wraith followed her upwards only to vanish once more.  A blade was send into the gut of Anastasia's armor.  "Crap!" she said as alarms started to blare.  

"Sustained Moderate damage.  Sustained Moderate Damage," the on-board computer verbally stated while there was a prompt on her screen that flashed on-and-off as well as red lights blaring.  While the Wraith had it's blade inside of Anastasia's armor, she grabbed the wraith with her armor's hand and used the Dragon Fang and continued to smash the wraith on the head until it wisped away.  

"Shit.  That kinda hurt," she said before clearing her throat.  "Get the girls, Taliya," she said as she landed her mech upon Bart's ship.  Her mech was in some REALLY bad shape, however, it worked well enough to continue fighting so it can't be discarded.  She opened the hatch of her suit and climbed out to see Bart laying on the ground, bleeding everywhere.  A large pool of his blood began to seep into the ship, itself.  Anastasia took a knee next to her old friend and placed a hand upon his chest.  

"Oh, Bart.  Why?  You wanted to help people, but you resorted to becoming a murderer," she stated.

"It's not different than you, is it?  You and the other mages kill people for direct profit.  You mages don't care about the lives of others, but you do it to feel morally superior to everyone else.  Oh, I knew you were a mage when you first boarded our ship.  Nobody else had songs that could do what your songs could."

"But you resorted to being a Pirate King?  Why, Bart?" Ana asked as she was on the verge of tears.

"Don't be stupid, Anastasia.  I'm not a Pirate King.  I don't even work for the Pirate Kings," he said laughing out loud which lead to him coughing up more blood.  "Who I work for is even scarier than the Pirate Kings.  I work for.." Bart said before growing silent.  A look of dread came over his eyes as he looked straight up.  He reached for something in the sky and grasped for air.  

"Bart?  What's wrong?" she asked.  The fear in his eyes continued to grow more and more.  His grasping turned into him pointing at the sky.  

Anastasia turned her head to try to witness what Bart did, only to see a silhouette due to the sun being in her eyes.  What she did see, was fairly disturbing as the man upon a horse trotted across the sky before disappearing.  "What the hell is that, Bart?" she asked before turning back to look at the man.  The look of horror frozen on his face.  Ana took a moment to let this process before she began to sob into the man's bleeding chest.  "Why, Bart?  You had potential!  What about your dream of becoming a captain and helping others?  Why?"

It was then, that Taliya showed up and whistled.  "Anastasia!  All of the.. Oh," Taliya said as she just noticed Anastasia was sobbing over the body of a dead man.  "Ana," she said as if to interrupt her.  "We need to go.  We still have a job to complete," Taliya said.  Ana nodded her head, cleared her throat and pulled herself away.  She wiped both tears and blood away from her eyes before plunging her hand into Bart's chest and pulled the shard out.  This shard, unlike the rest, didn't hurt her.  

Ana stood up once again and looked over Bart once again and gave Bart the same salute she saw from him the first time they met.  She let out a little laugh and nodded.  "This time, may you sleep softly," she said.  She was wishfully thinking that the man would finally be able to die in peace.  Clearing her throat, she turned to look back towards Taliya.  "Alright.  We're going to drop these girls back off to their village and book it back to the rendezvous location," she commanded.

"Well, what about this ship?" Taliya responded.

"I'll take care of it," Ana replied.  Taliya nodded her head and returned to the Myrmidon. Ana, on the other hand, returned to her Sentry and closed the hatch.  As soon as the Myrmidon let go of the enemy ship, Ana deployed her Dragon Fangs to the ship's engines, causing them to catastrophically fail, causing the ship to sink to the ground in an explosive blaze of glory.  Thankfully, like with the tanker, where this ship landed was completely uninhabited.  With that burial, Ana returned with her suit back to the Myrmidon so that the job may be completed.

Tag

Words:  761
Total:  Over / 20,000

A little detour was made to drop off the remaining people of the Hunting Village.  Outside of her suit, Anastasia personally saw the villages to their home safely.  All she could offer was a saddened smile, in condolence to the friends and family they lost due to people she knew from her past.  They didn't have to know about the relationship she had with Bart.   After sending them off, the SS Myrmidon took to the skies.  As Anastasia walked onto the bridge, she had a very noticeable grimace on her face.  Everything she encountered today had worn at her.  

She had lost several of her friends in the refueler incident and she had to kill one of her childhood friends from when she was a sky pirate.  She also felt fatigued from the curse of these shards slowly draining at her life force.  "George.  Return us to that Haunted Castle.  And do it on the double.  This curse is starting to make me feel ill," she said as she ran out of the bridge to find the ship's latrine and goes to vomit.  Without hesitation, the ship turned and flared up the engines and propelled itself towards the Haunted Castle.  The stress of today finally caught up to Anastasia.  Loud sounds of sobbing could be heard echoing from the bathroom all the way around the ship.

Later...
The SS Myrmidon arrived at the Haunted Castle with Anastasia standing by inside of her armor.  The hatch was closed and the engines were sprawling to life.  "We have arrived," spoke the on-board computer.  "Alright.  You know what we have to do now, right Taliya?"

"Yeah, yeah.  I take the Fire Moth down and put it together with the rest of the shards," Taliya responded in an annoyed manner.  "Right.  Let's get this crap done, already," she said as the cargo door opened up.  As soon as it opened up, Taliya ran out of the ship with the Fire Moth in her arms.  She ran on ahead and walked to the folding table and slams the weapon down upon the table.  

"Got the shards!" she said before pressing a button, revealing the 4 shards.  "Oh, don't worry about Ana. She's not feeling very well.  She'll be out if necessary," Taliya said as she turned to look towards Simon with a nod.  "Hey there, good lookin'!" she said with a peace sign and a big toothy grin.  


As soon as the 4 shards were exposed, they began to resonate along with the rest of the shards that Simon collected.  They began resonating a strange tune.  Black smoke began to sprawl forth from the Fire Moth before it's light went out.  "Crap!  Anastasia!" Taliya shouted before the shards collected together to form a black sword.  The sword remade itself, causing a strange, swirling black energy to collect around the blade.  Out from the darkness to grab the sword.  A single wing appeared and with a single flap, the dark energy dissipated, showing the demon within the blade.  

Anastasia looked on at her heads up display to notice a strange wave forming on her display.  "Shit!  This signal is stronger than the signal being emitted by the Hymn," she said as she busted out to see the one-winged man with long flowing silver hair.  "It has been thousands of years.  Thank you," the man said with a deep and silky smooth voice.  The Rune Knights either ran away or started to attack the man in a panic.  With a swift swipe of his evil blade, the quickly dispatched the resisting Rune Knights.

"What the hell is this?" Taliya asked before jumping back towards Anastasia.  Ana gritted her teeth before taking a deep breath in.  Her armor began to glow a strange red color.  The nano-machines that surrounded her armor started to glow a deep crimson color.  Anastasia pressed a few buttons and the word "Trans-Am" appeared on her control console.  

With another deep breath, she turned to look towards Simon and let out a loud shout.  Three words were spoken into Simon's direction, granting him unlimited courage and extra strength ((Sigurd's Resolve)).  Gritting her teeth, Anastasia turned to look towards the demon of the blade and pointed at him with her armor.  "You were the one that is the cause of all of the grief and sorrow the people of this world had to endure.  You were the reason I lost so many of my friends today.  Yes, I choose you to become my slave."

A little smirk came over the man's lips.  "Do try, little girl."