Cat and her brother had just deposited their new acquisition aboard ship when one of the sailors approached them.
"Captain wants to see ya," the man said. "Said it's real important."
"What now?" Cat inquired, her voice rife with annoyance.
"Donno Ma'am, that's all he told me."
Ugha could see rage starting to build in his sister. He attempted to tamp it down before she ended up exploding.
"Maybe it's some good news," he said hopefully. "Maybe our investments have paid off."
Cat threw up her hands in exasperation, not buying what her brother was trying to sell.
"Good news. Right. This trip has been filled to the brim with good fucking news. No doubt the shit show continues. This island has to be cursed."
She turned on her heels and made a beeline for the upper decks where she had last sighted the captain. Ugha sighed and trailed behind, his heavy booted feet clomping along in the passageway behind her.
It was mid-afternoon now. Much of the deck crew seemed to be milling around doing busywork. The ship had been loaded with supplies, which didn't leave much for the sailors to do. They had expected to be back at sea by now. The captain stood near the bow of the ship, speaking to his officers as well what looked to be a town guard.
Cat stalked over to the group.
"What?" She said crossing her arms when she arrived. "What now?"
The Captain motioned to the town guard with a hand.
"This one has something to tell you," the Captain said.
Cat eyed the guard, looking him up and down. The man's nose seemed to have been smashed some time ago and had yet to be tended to. His upper lip was stained red with blood.
"We had one of your missing in custody. My partner and I were waiting at the storehouse we had told you about.."
"Get to the point," Cat said, making a circling motion with her hands.
"I think we were attacked, the girl that we had got away from me."
"YOU THINK YOU WERE ATTACKED?" Cat shouted. She lowered her voice now and brought her face close to the guard. "How in the hells do you THINK you were attacked? You either were attacked or you weren't."
"There was something in the storehouse with us. My partner went to investigate, and.... well he never came back. There was a scream, it was... horrible."
"So how did you lose the girl?" Ugha asked, trying to draw some information out of the man before his sister tore into him again.
"In the confusion... she got the drop on me - smashed my nose."
Cat was flipping out now. "A TEENAGE GIRL GOT THE DROP ON YOU?" She bellowed, pacing around the deck. "What kinda fucking joke is that? What kind of town guard do they have around here?"
Ugha stepped in between his sister and the guard, "Sister, we still need information," he cautioned.
The big man turned and stared down at the guard. "Take us to the storehouse," Ugha said.
***
The storehouse wasn't that far from the ship. In a short time, the guard led the brother and sister down a series of streets and alleyways, until they stood in front of a wooden door.
"This it?" Ugha asked.
The guard nodded.
Ugha looked to his sister. She had said nothing since they had left the deck of the ship, still seething with anger at the current fuckup to their plans. Part of him wanted to plead with her, to ask her to cut their losses and return home with the boy that they had acquired earlier that day. A lot of time had passed since the escapees had broken out of the ship, and with each hour that passed, it would become more and more unlikely that they would find any of them. He knew though that would be pointless. He had attempted to argue such points in the past, but she was always single minded, always marching towards her perceived goal.
Instead of starting an argument in the middle of the street, he brought his metal hand up, and used the fingers on his other hand to press down on a small panel on the prosthetic. The panel clicked open and he pulled out the reddish crystal inside, holding it up to the light.
"Half-charge," he thought to himself, noticing the opacity. He replaced the crystal and began to unscrew the prosthetic at the wrist, revealing a nasty looking drill that had been hidden inside.
Focusing on the crystal, he directed power a few times towards the drill. With each charge of energy he allowed to pulse, the device began to whirl and rotate. Satisfied, he placed the unscrewed portion of his prosthetic into a small bag at his side. The guard looked on with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
Cat stood with arms crossed, tapping her foot while he did this. When it appeared that he had finally finished his preparations, she motioned to the door.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get this over with."
The two approached the door with the guard following behind.
"You stay here," Cat ordered the guard. "The last thing we need is you bumbling this up again. Stay here and make sure that nobody bothers us."
The guard nodded dumbly at the order. He had enough of messing around with metalmancers for the day, heck for his entire life if he could help it.
Ugha and Cat stood on either side of the door. Cat withdrew her pistol and was the first one through the doorway, sweeping the weapon's barrel across the storehouse looking for targets as she entered. When no targets appeared, she stepped aside, letting her brother follow her inside.
Ugha blinked as he entered, letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer light inside of the storehouse.
Cat walked over to a section of the floor looking down.
"Dust has been kicked up here," she said.
Ugha nodded and looked around. His eyes narrowed as he saw the catwalk. He motioned for his sister to cover it.
No movement, no sounds, nothing.
The two began to sweep through the maze of crates, working in unison.
"If only we got along like this when our lives wasn't in danger," Ugha though glumly as they pushed through the darkness.
They turned a corner and saw a pile of what looked to be sacks or bags. At the foot of this pile was a dark lump that had a pool of thick, sticky looking liquid emanating from it.
"What the..." Ugha said as he stepped closer.
He saw a flash as his sister pushed passed him, moving right up to the lumpy pile of whatever it was. She squat down, resting her arms on her legs. Ugha saw her shoulders shaking. Was she laughing?
As he moved up beside his sister, he saw the pile of shredded meat with scraps of clothes scattered about. His sister giggled looking at the pile.
"Oh, why didn't I think of this," Cat said as she felt her brother's presence behind her. "How devious! I'll have to add this to my own bag of tricks."
Ugha looked at the pile once again, the color draining from his face once he realized what he was looking at.
He wasn't sure what disturbed him more, the lumpy remains before him, or his sister's cackling.
"Oh dear brother," Cat said standing to turn to him. A wicked cat like smile fell across her face, all the anger from before seeming to have drifted away. "We HAVE to find them now."