Blip.

A hard wind battered the side of the Constellation as it soared across the churning Atlantic waves. This was the furthest her little ship had ever traveled outside of Carmsborough, yet it was taking the turbulence in stride. She expected nothing less from the highest-quality small-crew ship Syndra had to offer, but was still relieved.

“Ready for this, Freckles?” she asked her mechanical company, wrapped firmly around her shoulders. In response, the constant mechanical hum that came from his chest whirred slightly louder.

The sun was rapidly setting, but in this August air, it wouldn’t be dark for another few hours. Plenty enough time to enact her latest scheme against the one and only Smackpants, brother of Dancypants, and not to be confused with Slaphand.

“Our first real airship battle. The one I had with Ike doesn’t really count, because they didn’t attack back. Plus, you weren’t there. Not to mention the ambush from Ace Arrow’s crew.”

“Meow.”

“I know. Not sure why I felt the need to say that. Anyway, he’ll probably be ready for us, which is why we’ll need to strike before he can reach Italy. By then, he’ll have enough forces to outnumber us. Plus, we don’t want a fiasco with the Italian government.”

“Meow.”

“I know you know all this. I’m excited, okay? This is it. If we can do this, we can do anything.”

“Still talking to that cat?” Alondra said, appearing from the lower levels of the ship. In her hands were two mugs, both with the phrase “Hot Punk” in bold pink letters on the side.

“Of course I am,” Luna said, eagerly receiving the cup of coffee. “There’s not a single thing I don’t talk to him about. And frankly, I don’t like the way you talk about him.”

“Meow.”

“I will never understand your love for Freckles, but I don’t hate it. At least the big bad “Blood Moon Pirate” cares about something other than revenge.”

“This isn’t about revenge. This is about getting rid of the scourge of Carmsborough.”

“Eh, but it’s a little about revenge, right? Let’s be real. You’re going through the list until you take out the head honcho.”

“Well, he is the worst of the bunch.”

Blip. Blip.

The conversation drops off with the noise of her radar picking up something directly north of the Constellation, about a mile away. Luna reveals a telescope from her coat pocket and looks ahead. More than one ship for sure, but the clear target is the much larger one in the midst of it all: the Conquistador.

“Something funny about an American man with a Spanish ship fleeing to Italy from Carmsborough.”

“Meow.”

“True. Man your battle stations, I guess.”

The two humans rushed back down the stairs into the lower level of the ship. Alondra ran for the helm, while Luna made her way to the front cannon.

After her last run-in with the Bijabers faction, she sought out to improve her battle situation with a more streamlined process. Now, instead of hauling cannonballs back and forth by herself, she borrowed some Syndra techies to have it auto-loading. Her attack speed was tripled, and her stockpile was a tad more abundant.

“Nearing firing range,” Alondra said into the connected comm system.

“Great,” Luna replied, pressing her finger on the microphone button. “Freckles, drop the flags.”

Freckles, still up top in the open air, pulled a rope on either side of the ship, revealing long, black banners with a crescent moon. They fought against the wind dramatically, begging for a chance to be seen. In response, the largest enemy ship lowered their flag, sporting a large letter “B” in a solid, light-blue font.

“Ready, Luna?” Alondra asked.

Without responding, Luna pulled the trigger on her cannon, sending the first shot of the battle hurling at the Conquistador. It reeled up slightly, overcompensating for the meager projectile headed its way. At the same time, three of its five accompanying cloudships peeled from formation and sank back, hoping to make quick work of the Blood Moon Pirate.

Freckles rejoined Luna down in the lowest level of the ship, much more relaxed at the beginning of the battle than she was. As the next cannonball loaded, she switched between aiming at the different enemies. Was it better to go for the one on the right, which was closest, or take out one of the two on the left? On one hand, all focus would go to one side, but on the other, the right ship may have a chance to strike early.

“Meow.”

“You’re right. Overthinking it.”

She swung for the one on the right, and as the cannonball locked into place, she pulled the trigger again, launching the metal sphere nearly a quarter of a mile into the rear of the ship. It began to lower in the sky, but not before they took a half-hearted shot back at the Constellation. Alondra reared heavily, narrowly dodging the attack, but leaving them open for the first on the left to take a chance.

“Coming from the left!” she said from the comms.

A cannonball tore through the hull of the Constellation somewhere behind Luna, but she didn’t have time to check. The next cannonball fed into place, and she launched it at her newest victim, which erupted in a fireball when the attack connected with its engine. The three watched debris scatter across the waves below, some still flaming while being engulfed by water.

“One-and-a-half down, the same to go,” Luna said.

The second ship on the left started to cruise in quickly, clearly hoping for a boarding party or ramming trip. Once they realized it, Luna and Freckles bolted up the stairs and onto the main deck, and Luna slipped on a pair of brass knuckles from either of her pockets. A pistol still remained tucked away in case she had to speed things up.

A small boarding party of three jumped down from the enemy cloudship, all with baseball bats. It was almost as if they wanted to make this fun for her.

She led the charge against the invaders, and Freckles followed closely behind. They didn’t spot her brass knuckles until she was in the air, ready to bring it down on one of them. He rolled away in the nick of time, and swung the bat uncomfortably close to her neck. She also rolled, but this time towards him, before connecting her embroidered fist with his thigh. He winced in pain, but still stood straight, hoping for another chance at the agile vigilante.

Freckles also lunged for an attack, but was hit midair with the goon’s bat. He connected loudly with the ground, but stood as if nothing had happened and pounced once again. This time, he landed on the man’s chest, compressing the air and forcing him stumbling backwards.

The untouched enemy approached Luna from behind, ready to take a cheap shot, when she suddenly ducked back from the other attacker’s swing. The bats clacked against each other loudly, jarring the men long enough to let her kick the first one off the edge.

Furious, the other man ran at her, but he, too, fell victim, when she tripped him and caused his plummet. All that was left was Freckles’ victim, who was lying unconscious on the deck.

“Get him tied up, Freckles.”

A loud noise sounded off, followed by the ship jarred upward, causing the two of them to lose balance for a moment. “Someone has got to teach her how to evade.”

“Meow.”

“Well, I’ve been trying.”

“Sorry!” Alondra yelled as they ran past.

With the ship now a skeleton crew, Luna sent a single cannonball into its side, forcing it to sink and drift away. All attention once again returned to the first ship, which almost wasn’t high enough to do anything but shoot an occasional cannon.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Let’s just leave it,” Luna said. “Forge ahead to Smackpants.”

Alondra did as told, shifting the ship forward. The Conquistador reappeared on the horizon. “We’re about one hundred miles away from the coast of Italy. Hopefully whatever’s going to happen wraps up quickly.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Luna replied, gearing up to attack one of the cloudships. The last two cloudships broke off from the mothership and rapidly approached.

“I think one’s trying to ram,” Alondra said.

“Which one?”

“Uh, left.”

Luna flipped the cannon to her left and took a blind shot. It didn’t make it anywhere near the enemy cloudship, but nevertheless, the ship slowed its ramming speed, giving more time for a better second shot. It popped the balloon up top, which quickly went up in flames.

The last ship went down with about as much ease, managing to fire two lame shots before Luna dismantled it. All that remained was the Conquistador, a much more equipped ship that would easily tear the Constellation in half if given the chance.

How to approach this? The enemy airship was the largest she’d encountered, and it would be almost impossible for her crew of two and a half to take it on. But, as long as she had the cannon, there was always—

Thump.

The Conquistador launched a missile from a hidden turret on its underside, targeted directly at Luna and the cannon. She didn’t have a lot of time to react before it collided with her ship’s shield, but once the smoke cleared, it was obvious the cannon was out of the question. Then, a second missile shot out, sparking against a different section of the hull.

“Get us out of that missile turret’s line of sight,” Luna yelled. The Constellation lurched, coming level with the larger ship’s upper deck and speeding to get closer.

“What now?” Alondra asked.

Luna reappeared and stood next to her in the cockpit. “Well, we could always—no, that wouldn’t work.”

“Meow.”

“Yes! You’re a genius, Freckles!”

“What? What’d he say?”

Luna disappeared into the storage room for a moment and came back with a grappling hook. “We’re grappling onto the ship.”

“We? I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well, of course. You have to stay here and make sure they don’t sink my ship.”

“You know how dangerous this is gonna be, right?”

“They don’t call me ‘Blood Moon Danger Pirate’ for nothing.”

“They don’t call you that at all.”

“What about ‘Blood Danger Moon Pirate?’”

“Nope.”

“I’ll work on it. Anyway, we have a ship to grapple.”

“How? You don’t have a way to get across.”

“Just you wait.”

Luna grabbed a radio in her free hand, and with Freckles by her side, stepped onto the windy deck of the Constellation. Her target was somewhere inside the ship next to her, and nothing would stop her.

With one clean shot, she fired and hooked the grapple to the Conquistador, and tied the handheld end to the side of her own.

“Ready for this?”

“Meow.”

“I know. If we pull this off, it’ll be sick.”

“Meow.”

“Right, yes, thank you. If we don’t, it will be the last thing we do. Thanks, Mr. Optimistic.”

With that, Freckles latched onto the grappling rope with his mouth, and Luna motioned for Alondra to raise the ship. As she did, Freckles started to slide down the rope towards the enemy airship. Luna leapt to join him, clinging tightly to his lower body.

“I don’t know what you’re feeling, but this is sick!” she yelled.

“Hey, Luna,” Alondra said through the radio, “we’ve got something showing on the radar and coming in really fast from Carmsborough.”

“From Carmsborough?”

As she and Freckles let go of the rope and landed on the Conquistador, so did Orion and the Clockwork, a good thirty feet away. “The Blood Moon Pirate.”

The radio fell to the wooden floor beneath her, and her face contorted. “What?”

“It’s about time we properly met,” Orion said, stepping forward.

“What? How?”

“You can’t just go for a prominent airship one hundred miles away from Italy without being noticed.”

“But… what?”

He continued to step forward, but Luna took two steps back. This… how? How had he arrived so quickly? She knew The Clockwork was fast, but it wasn’t fast enough to get here in half an hour from mainland Carmsborough… right?

“I’m sure this is one of your mob targets, but you know I can’t let you go through with your plans. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, vigilante.”

Luna instantly revealed a knife from one of her pockets, and at the same time, a group of five or six men arrived from the belly of the Conquistador. In response, Orion through his arms down at his sides, prompting a large, metal fist to appear around either hand, like heavy boxing gloves.

“Last chance, Pirate.”

“I’m not going down easy, pushover.”

Orion charged at her and led with an attack that was easy to dodge. The Clockwork also charged, but instead of going for Luna, went for Freckles, who seemed more than happy to throw down with the machine ten times larger than him.

“You know, you seem much bigger in your posters,” Luna said, as he took another swing at her. “And a lot more coordinated in your stories.”

“Testing out these new fists the Gearmaster made,” he replied, barely clipping her back with a third attack. “I’ll be honest, you seem to be just like what all the witnesses have said about you.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“A pain in the ass.”

“That’s about right.”

She swung out with her knife, which clanged against one of his large metal fists. The attack reverberated through her arm, but she still managed a low sweep to knock him off his feet.

“Consider this a warning. Leave me alone, Ori—”

Before she could finish, The Clockwork plowed right into her, trying to rip Freckles off of it. She stumbled and rolled, but got back on her feet quicker than Orion did. With a time advantage, she bolted for the group of Smackpants’ henchmen near the cockpit’s door and lashed out at them. Orion followed, chasing her first and defending with heavy punches second.

Luna entered the cockpit, where three men with guns stood pointing at her. Orion came in as well, confusing the men and forcing two to switch to him. With more of the focus on him, Luna took the chance to strike the one aimed at her, slashing the man’s arms and kicking the gun through the cockpit window. The other two opened fire at Orion, who blocked both bullets with the oversized metal fists and rocket-jumped over to them, knocking them both out with one pound each.

“You have rocket boots, too?”

“It’s time to give up, Pirate.”

“Please, that’s such an unflattering shortening of my title. Call me ‘The Blood Moon Pirate’ instead.”

“You know that’s so much harder.”

“How would you like it if I shortened ‘Orion and The Clockwork?’”

“What would you shorten it to?”

“Pawns.”

She jumped for him, knife ready, but he met her midair with a fist to the stomach, sending her reeling over him in a cartwheel. When she landed, stars clouded her vision.

“A little help!” she yelled.

“I sincerely doubt your cat can hear you from in here.”

Freckles, completely able to hear her in there, bounced through the already shattered window and connected with Orion’s back. The Clockwork chased just behind, looking to get back at the cat that kept taunting it. Luna used the confusion to get back up, albeit painfully, and descended a set of stairs to go further into the Conquistador.

With the Italian border and Orion closing in, she was quickly running out of time to finish the job, but she wasn’t about to let another target go. Especially the brother of the first target she let go. Granted, losing Dancypants was S6’s fault, and losing Smackpants would be Orion’s fault, but it would still mean that another man escaped justice.

So, instead of her usual method of pick everyone off and go for the main target last, she decided her next target was Smackpants. And anyone else that got directly in the way.

Including Orion.

She raced passed multiple open rooms on the current level of the ship and kicked down the door of the one at the very end. Inside, five armed men and Smackpants stood waiting.

“Right on time, I see,” she said.

“The Blood Moon Pirate. I expected you to show up today. You’ve bested my cloudships, and I’m sure you’ve systematically slaughtered every single—”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, this is the part where we talk and I inevitably kill you. Can we speed it up? We’ve got company.”

“What?”

The sound of Orion’s rocket boots filled the air as he shot down the hallway behind her. She rolled out of the way, sending Orion right into one of the five armed men, knocking them unconscious.

Once again, focus in the room split between the two vigilantes, with two men on each. Orion opted for the high ground with his opponents, using a mix of rocket boots and heavy metal fists to keep them on their toes.

Luna, however, opted for a pistol. She retrieved it from her other, non-knife pocket, and sent a bullet through each of her assailants’ chests. The room froze, and she twisted around to aim it at Smackpants.

“I’m done with the games, and I’m done with the back and forth,” she said. Freckles and The Clockwork appeared in the doorway, also cautious.

“Don’t do it, Pirate,” Orion said. “Be better than them.”

“I am better than them. I’m getting rid of them.”

“I think we both know that’s not true.”

“I think you don’t know what I think, then.”

Luna pulled the trigger a third time, which ran clean through Smackpants’ stomach. He toppled to the floor in pain, and the room erupted into chaos. Freckles jumped onto Luna’s shoulders, who stepped back to avoid one of The Clockwork’s heavy swings, while Orion finished off the two men who had attacked him. She replaced the pistol in her hand with her ship’s recall button, hopefully letting Alondra know the mission was over.

The Clockwork attacked again, crashing its massive fist through the wall behind her. There was no way she would be able to beat the behemoth, no matter how hard she tried, without getting equipment from her ship. She only hoped she could make it in time.

After a third swing, she saw her chance to escape underneath its arm and bolted down the hallway, running as fast as she could with Freckles clinging hastily to her shoulder. Its pounding footsteps followed suit, slowly but surely closing in on her as she ascended the set of stairs into the cockpit. She leapt through the broken glass of the cockpit and arrived on the upper deck of the Conquistador. The Clockwork gracelessly crashed through what remained of the window, standing firm against the harsh wind. Shortly after, Orion appeared in the cockpit as well.

“It’s over, vigilante,” he said.

“That’s really rich coming from you. What’s with talking like a short-phrase comic superhero?”

“There’s only one way this is going down. The Clockwork will make quick work of you out in the open like this. You can’t dodge it forever.”

To her left, Luna noticed something moving on board the Constellation. She did her best to suppress the smile threatening to take over.

“Yeah, maybe I can’t,” she said. “But can The Clockwork dodge this?”

The familiar blast sound of a cannonball being launched echoed through the air, as the cannonball soared and connected directly with The Clockwork. It launched the heavy metal golem all the way off the other side of the Conquistador and down into the ocean, leaving Orion dumbfounded.

“I imagine I’ll be seeing you again, Orion. Just don’t get in my way.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing, Luna.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing. Goodbye.”

The Constellation lowered, and the pair used the same grappling hook to slide back over before cutting it with the knife. With that, they put the Conquistador in the horizon, sailing quickly back to Carmsborough. All the while, the last thing Orion said echoed inside her head.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, Luna.”

Luna.

He knows her name.