Queen Melina walks down a quiet road of houses. She looks over her shoulder and tells herself, " Wow! By the sound of that, those two robots are having a helluva duel. Shame I can't be there! Haha!" A few eyes peek out the windows. The Queen yells out, "STAY INSIDE!" Melina taps an earpiece she's wearing. A hi-tech visor unveils over her eyes. She scans the ground with her visor.
Through the visor over her eyes, Melina can see footprints etched in the grass with an orange-highlighted glow.
She follows the trail for a few minutes which ends at a small duplex-type house that looks over an empty water reservoir. She screams to the house saying, "SHARON! Come out here now! I followed the trail your Camo tech leaves behind when you're in disguise!"
The pirate queen continues to say, "If you ever had any respect for me. You'd face me and not hide behind these innocent people! I'll still enter this house if you choose to hide!"
A few moments pass and the door opens. Out steps a middle-aged man with a concerned look on his face. Instantly the pirate queen knew this man was innocent and was not the person she was looking for in disguise. The man tells her, "My Queen! We have no idea what you're talking about. Everyone in here is my family. Ever since the emergency broadcast about the invading droids was announced, we've stayed in our house just like it was ordered."
Queen Melina replies to the man by telling him, "That's great you did that. But there's a chance an invader might be in your home. Where in the house is your family?" The man tells Melina, "They're right in the living room. Last time I checked! It's just through the entrance." The queen tells him, "That's good. Have them all come outside, please. I promise you I'll do my best to not damage anything inside. If I do, I'll make sure you and your family are top priority to repay you for your courtesy, in letting me search your home." The man hesitates for a moment then takes a big gulp. He says, "Okay but like I said. I didn't see anything fishy. And we're all in the living room. And I'd like to say. I was around when your father ruled. He kept us safe. I have a son currently serving for your brother and he's been safe as well. Not only that. He's been taught well by the teachings from him also. He's become a man under your brother and our family has benefited well from him serving. So you may enter my queen. It would be an honor."
The pirate queen humbly nods her head and the man heads inside his home to tell his family to come outside. He can hear the man say, "Oscar, Tia my dear, Luna my love we must all head outside. The queen is here conducting an investigation." She hears a woman she assumes is Luna say, "I see. Children the queen requires our cooperation. We have to leave our home for a moment." The pirate queen turns on the heat vision through her visor and sees 2 children running downstairs to meet their mother. She also sees the adult man and female waiting at the doorway. Then as the children meet the parents. She hears the man say, "Okay everyone's here. Now where's Dad?"
This instantly gets the queen's attention. She looks upstairs and no signs of any life form appear to be there. Then she hears the wife say, "He went downstairs in the basement to get the rack of ribs to defrost." She hears the man say, "That's strange he said he was eating the food we had ready on the stove. Why would he leave at a moment like this? Rarely do we see the queen of the northern half of the pirate nation in our lands."
Queen Melina looks below the house and sees two heat signatures. She instantly runs to the house. On her way there she nods to the family and approaches the man in the house. She tells him, "Sorry sir! How do you get to the basement? Hurry! Now!" The man points in the direction, and they both hurry.
Once they enter the basement what the man sees shocks him. It's two people that are both his father! He sees one version of his dad with his hands bound and mouth covered with tape. Muffled screams can be heard from underneath the tape. The other version of the old man's father is seen pointing a gun a the bounded version of the same man's head. The man screams, "PLEASE LET MY FATHER GO!" Then to the man's surprise, the pirate queen shoots at the bounded man with her hi-tech pistol.
The man screams, "NOOO! WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU SHOOT HIM!?" In a calm tone. Melina does not look away and tells the man, "Take a closer look. That is not your father." The man looks to what he thought was his father again. And to his surprise instead of seeing what you'd expect to see when a person is shot point blank. The man sees something different.
What looked like his father before, is instead Sharon with a broken headset. Around her neckline shows an indication that her disguise has been broken through, because of damage the tech suffered that was connected through her clothes and headset. The hologram flickers showing parts of her true form and parts of her disguise.
This shocks the old man. He looks around in anger and notices his father tied and bound at the feet of the intruder. There is a knocked-over fridge behind the intruder that's also glitching. Sharon's camo tech can extend beyond camouflage on herself. Small pods on her armored vest that detach allow her to also project and change the scenery. She calls them her "hollo pods".
As long as the main apparatus of the tech is safe, the pod that sticks to the surface you want to change won't be affected. This is what Melina remembers of her wife's camo tech. And this puts a smile on Sharon's face. She's heaving heavily from the kick she received from her wife earlier in the day. Sharon then says, "You remembered how to disable the camo tech for battle. heh, I just wish I remembered to wear something to protect my ribs."
Staring at Sharon with no emotion in her face. The pirate queen says, "Looks like you already were taking care of that. I see you helped yourself in these good people's home and used some of their supplies." Sharon smiles and lets out a little laugh then says, "Funny. The training you had with my tech and the skills you showed me on how to mend yourself after combat are both paying off in this current situation...So what now? Are you gonna end it?"
This annoys the queen but she answers her wife telling her, "No I have some questions you have to answer first." Sharon looks at Melina then dashes instantly toward a window directed outside. She breaks through. Melina runs and then looks back to the man telling him she'll pay to fix the damages, but before Melina can follow Sharon the man warns her. He says, "My Queen! Outside the window is the reservoir meant for the town's drinking water! Brace yourself if you have to follow her." The pirate Queen leaves the old man with a smile and says, "Appreciate the warning." Then she jumps out of the window and heads down the edge of the cliff the window peers over.
The Queen reaches the bottom of the reservoir safely. Melina begins to walk and reminisces about a small portion of the history of this part of the town's reservoir for drinking water. After the war, the water was evaporated from bombs dropped, that we're powerful enough to wipe out a civilization. The reservoir now rebuilt was intended to be refilled but required a machine that can make rain to provide the water. And the government that supplied such a machine keeps that heavily guarded.
Luckily for the pirate nation, their people eventually found a way to agree to separate for the betterment of each other. For months the portion of the nation ruled by the queen's brothers was sharing their drinking supply with the other half of the nation that had their supply evaporated. Melina would tell her people when her father's father established the modern pirate order, they were travelers at first. They scavenged whatever supplies and treasures they wanted and eventually made what these lands were. Melina believed they were beginning to lose those ways and thousands of members felt the same way. So thousands traveled the lands with Melina leading the way. scavenging and learning to fend for themselves. Melina raised a crop of suitable warriors she became proud of. While her brothers trained and protected their half of the nation they led.
Their former ruler's children proved to be competent leaders. So the people loved them all over. This is a trust all three siblings grew to cherish more than the trinkets they stack upon each other with every successful raid that they've done. And it seems that trust will be tested with the queen today.
As darkness creeps up around Melina she sees Sharon within her view. The queen draws her whip and swings it toward Sharon's ankles. To her surprise, her attack phases through what she thought was Sharon running away from her. It turns out to be a hologram in motion. Then, the holo image shuts off. Out of nowhere, the pirate queen is tackled by Sharon.
The wife of the pirate queen tells her, "You've turned off the heat signature device too early sweetheart!" Melina kicks Sharon off of her and then says, "Brilliant tactic dear."
She then takes a moment to look at her wife. A look of mean intentions to defend herself is on her face. This softens Melina's glare. And a look of hurt comes across her face. She tells Sharon, "Why...why did you lead them here?"
Sharon's look of anger is seen by Melina, but notices that it is also a look of hurt mixed in with anger. Her wife replies to her, "They're busy now. So I can say what I can say. They have my father Melina! With the help of Julius Edson, I was forced to help make that monstrous droid! Believe me when I say I didn't think the death toll would be this high!" As Sharon says this She tries to strike her wife initiating a fight. Sharon's glare of anger turns to concern.
The pirate queen tells Sharon, "Why?... Why didn't you tell me any of this!? You of all people know, since I lost both of my parents. How much I care about keeping the family dynamic in a household together!!" While still engaging in combat Sharon tells her, "They're always watching! I've been chipped and other agents disguised as townspeople would always lurk in the area where we've lived! They were always too weak to be on the radar. So them being registered as a threat never came up!"
The glare of anger on the queen's face is now mixed with compassion. She tells Sharon, "And they'd kill him right?" With pain visible as the light of day in her eyes. Sharon replies, "Yes! I don't even know where he is! Julius specializes in building explosives and would always threaten to drop a bomb on where we live! He joked about if it came to it. He could never decide on killing my father first or me. before wiping out our sector of the pirate nation. He said it would be too much fun to decide who gets to see the demise of our lives...The sick bastard."
The Queen's glare now completely gone she asks Sharon, "Why must we continue to fight? You said it yourself. Julius is busy sending the invading golden droids down." Sharon continues to say, "Those droids are tuned into my chips frequency. My heartbeat is sensed by the chip. It senses when I'm in combat. And their system asks if I need help! Which I'm currently refusing. They can also detect what's in front of me so traveling would be tough also. And the agents. Our pirates that want to defect and work for Julius. If they saw us together they'd tell him and we'd be done."
As the two trade blows, they simultaneously block, and parry various shots between each other. This ruckus draws attention to the townsfolk who live above the empty water reservoir. They leave their homes to get a better view of the commotion. Very few citizens who live on the queen's side of the pirate nation have seen their Queen fight.
Tales of her brutal and unforgiving duels were spread through her brother's sector of the nation. As the citizens peer over the reservoir to see their queen battle. Sharon pauses for a moment then tells Melina, "Darling, it also looks like you have people watching you too. I know the pirate nation's citizens not only respect your leadership. But there's also respect for your ruthlessness. The people you took in and cared for would say that ruthlessness is what kept the nation together all those years you led! What was it that was said about you before we came here? It would be a cold day in hell when the Queen forgives betrayal. "
The coldness of that line softens the look on Melina's face. Now from above the reservoir both Sharon and Melina are surrounded by the townspeople of the pirate nation. Sharon continues to say to her wife, "Looks like I have no choice but to accept the consequences, my love. I remember you telling me that if any of the citizens saw you ease up on the aggression while you're in command they'd be divided on who to serve under. So I understand what you must do to maintain trust with the nation your family has built! I am ready for whatever happens next!"