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Technically Unsound - Ch. 11

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Chapter 11: The Reunited Rivals

-S-

Hannah glanced at her wings, before managing to roll so she was on her front, tail curled under her for propulsion, and she spread her glittering wings in preparation.

"I'll go look."

Before Ohm could stop her, she uncoiled and leapt into the air.

-A-

Ohm just lowered his binoculars and watched Hannah.

...She certainly is good at that for someone who got that way so recently.  Maybe she's had lessons, or something.

-S-

For what it looked like, Hannah was actually having significant difficulty flying with a tail.  The power it provided in jumping into the air was a perk, though.

But she couldn't hold it as stiff as she liked, and flopped in the air; balancing was precarious.

Finally though, she got overhead.

There was a familiar hyena in the driver's seat.

-A-

Nicholas adjusted his glasses.

"Hey, Dr. Pandion.  I haven't seen you since... well, since your friends threatened to kill me before knocking me out and leaving me back in the base to die.  What's up?"

-S-

"You attempted to kill all of them," she returned, "So you can hardly talk."

-A-

"Yes, well, nobody's perfect."

The relevance of that truism was questionable.

"My comrades managed to rescue me and bring me to the surface before I drowned.  Lucky thing this boat was just sitting here for them to drop me off at."

He gestured at the banner on the front.  "Just out of curiosity, whose birthday was it?"

-S-

"How should I know?"

Hannah didn't float any lower.

"Why are you coming to Technuloji, anyway?  We...STOP!"

Hannah braked, and hovered jerkily as he cut the engine.

"We don't have the octahedron!  Or the pad!  Androctonus does!"

All the colour fell from Nicholas' face, his eyes nearly doubling in size.

-A-

"...Fine.  I guess I'll deal with him after I've dealt with you."

Nicholas picked up a harpoon gun from behind his seat and primed it for use.

-S-

Hannah screeched, before making a split decision; and diving, to tackle him.

She landed, and the two struggled for a while before he laid a punch to her ribs, but she swiped her tail against his jaw, dazing him.

She then smashed on the controls, before jumping into the air again; and the harpoon gun fired.

Blood sprayed as it fell, not impaling, but stained with blood and feathers as she abruptly fell out of the air, landing with a red-tinted splash; Ohm watched helplessly through his binoculars.

-A-

Ohm's eyes widened.

"Go bring Hannah to safety, Tidal!  I'll call in support!"

He then ran off, while Tidal approached rapidly.

"I hated having to do that," Nicholas muttered, putting the harpoon gun down.

-S-

Hannah thrashed weakly in the water, but it was getting hard to breathe.

She began to sink.

---

Sherbie had officially never seen Ohm run so fast.

-A-

Tidal managed to reach Hannah and begin dragging her back to shore; Nicholas fired at them several times, but couldn't land one.

On the way to the war depot, Ohm contacted Franklin and demanded that he come to the scene ASAP.

-S-

Sherbie was bounding to the shore, ready to pull Hannah in; when a harpoon grazed his shoulder.

-A-

But from the angle that one had come from, it couldn't have been from Nicholas... so then... oh, crap.  He had reinforcements.

Four assorted mers popped out of the water near Nicholas, their own harpoon guns primed and ready to fire.  It did not look good.

-S-

Sherbie blocked one, dodged another, got slashed by another and ducked under another.

They primed and readied to fire again; Sherbie fired his cannon.

Now, for mers who had never seen such a powerful weapon before, that was quite a development; one they feared.

-A-

One of the mers was annihilated completely, its neighbor just barely managed to dodge in time, and none of the others were in the line of fire.

"I bet you've been waiting forever for a chance to do that again," Alt remarked.

Franklin had only just arrived on the scene, and quickly picked up Dr. Pandion for treatment... only to be nicked on the shoulder himself by another harpoon.

-S-

Sherbie pinned his ears and yelled.

"GO ON, GET OUT OF HERE!"

He fired again, multiple times, leaving the water sizzling, brought to boil where he fired instantly.

The harpoon was no contender; the mers fled.

-A-

There was a long silence.  Nicholas seemed very shaken.  Franklin began to lug Hannah back to the medical facility.  Ohm and his reinforcements came back just a little too late.

"...Aw, I missed it."

-S-

"Go tend to your crush, Ohm-igod."

Ohm sputtered.

Sherbie growled, and as the boat pulled in (Nicholas was out of harpoons) he grabbed it and dragged him off.

"Alright, you nearly killed Hannah!  You back off and we'll back off!"

-A-

Nicholas glared icily at Sherbie as Ohm dismissed the reinforcements.

"Oh, not this AGAIN.  Haven't you held me by the neck enough for one day?"

-S-

"I'm not planning on killing you, if that's what you mean."  Sherbie dropped him onto his back then planted his foot directly onto his chest, claws out and promising.

"Is there any way to reach agreement with you?  You leave us we leave you?"

-A-

"We can't agree to that, Sherbie," Alt cut in.  "There's one thing they still have that we need to get from them."

"Yoo-hoo!"

Alt turned her head towards the ocean.  Two mers had appeared in the water, holding a very familiar-looking mer-tigress by the arms.  A third was holding her tail still so she couldn't try the same trick Hannah had pulled earlier that day.  And a fourth was keeping the poor girl at harpoon-point, ready to skewer her at a second's notice.

"I'd say we're on even ground now," one guard remarked, "so to speak."

-S-

Tesla grunted as her head was pulled back.

Sherbie didn't move.

"Let her go and I'll toss you Nicholas."

-A-

"Better idea," one of the guards yelled back.  "Toss us Nick and we won't pollute the waters with this lady's blood."

"How about," Alt countered, "you let Tesla go free and we won't kill the hyena slowly and painfully."

Yet another deadlock.

-S-

Sherbie finally spoke.

"See, this isn't the behaviour of a nation trying to keep itself a secret.  This is a nation muscling in on new territory by destroying everything foreign."

-A-

"Are you talking about us," one of the mers called out, "or about yourselves?"

Alt froze.

-S-

"Hardly!" Sherbie snapped, "We came to the base by accident, you're the ones who destroyed it!  And we're not the threat here!  Go look for the scorpion, not us!"

-A-

Alt breathed out a small sigh.

The guards glanced at one another, then back at Sherbie.

"Bring Nick up to the pier.  We want to see what condition he's in."

-S-

"And Tesla," the jack returned flatly.

"Ohm, go to the med facility; Hannah needs you."

-A-

Ohm was about to offer a retort, but changed his mind and hurried off to the medical facility.

The guards brought Tesla as close to the shoreline as they could without beaching themselves.  Alt did nothing.
Chapter 1: [link]
Chapter 10: [link]
Chapter 12: [link]

Things get a bit tenser in this chapter. If it makes you feel any better, things will get a lot more peaceful pretty soon... doesn't exactly make me feel much better, though, since I can barely stand the suspense at times.

I want to get this all uploaded as fast as possible. Can you tell?

Tech series and all involved concepts © :iconxx-amaramis-xx: and me
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