"I'm telling ya! It's real!" A the gruff voice of the captain insisted. "Why else would there be stories about it unless it's real?"
"Captain, people make up stories about things all the time. Hell, if half of the stories about us were to be true the half of our crew must be other dimensional beings!"
Rendrick explained. The captain barred his teeth at Rendrick then quickly turned in the direction of the fish tank.
"Viola! What do you think about this? You think the island's real, don't you?" Viola's body tilted to the side as though pondering. The fish then smiled at the captain and nodded in agreement.
"AHAH! That my partner! See, if even Viola agrees then it must be true!" Rendrick rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"Captain, you can't take that fish's word on everything. Just two moons ago ya asked it if we should dock at Weavon Island and it said yes."
"Exactly! And we plundered a great deal of gold and food and treasures. It was a great idea! Vindication!" The captain proudly proclaimed but Rendrick did not let his joy last for long.
"Sure, we did. That is until we found out that the island was the home of one of the one Deaton Jain. The strongest sea commander in Pesin's army and we literally had to run with our tails tucked between our legs while his soldiers hurtled cannonballs and magic spells at us like we were a bunch of squirrels that kids shot at for fun! Do you remember that?"
"...But we still got the gold, didn't we?" Rendrick gave up.
"Yes sir, we did still get the gold." He said dejectedly. Captain's face lit up in a big grin as Rendrick admitted to their success.
"Then what're we waitin' for?! Avast lads! We shall be the first pirates to loot the treasures of a primordial!!"
"YEAH!!!" The crew cheered together. The bumped their flagons together in a toast to Viola. Viola smiled brashly in the tank.
"What're you so happy about? Ya only said yes because I told ya that it was a fun idea." Viola turned to her tank companion with a feigned hurt expression.
"What do you mean? We're siblings! Your good ideas are my good ideas! Besides, who was the one that convinced you that jumping in that current to get here was a good idea?"
"Are ya never gonna stop bringin' that up?! It was one water current! Anyone could've said that we should go into it!" Viola held her fin up to her underbelly arrogantly.
"But I did it and rightfully so! We met the captain and the crew all thanks to me!" Her brother scoffed.
"That'll be the only thing that you're good for. After all, I'm better with magic than you!" Viola's eyes narrowed.
"Oh gro-w u--p M-o---- i-no-ing special" Viola's voice suddenly became . The became choppy and hard to understand. Her brother's eyes squinted in confusion.
"What? What did you call me?"
"D-id -ou-forget your own-amn-na- Mo-----da?"
Mo? Mo! That was his name! The world started to shake. Mo suddenly realized that something was wrong. Why was he on a ship? Wasn't he just with Francis? And Alix! Where was she?
Something was very wrong!
"BOOM!" Mo jumped as the world went extremely bright with the sound of thunder crashing somewhere very close. In the next instant he found himself no longer within his fish tank but instead flopping on the deck.
Large, heavy raindrops splattered against his scales as he frantically looked around for any sort of answer as to what had just happened. While looking around he saw several members of the crew racing across the ship. They all seemed like they were afraid of something.
But what could they-
"LOOK OUT!!" One of the crew members screamed. Mo felt the ship rock under him as a large, white mass came out of the water and smacked into the side of the ship. The ship began to shake even more than before. Some of the crewmembers tripped while others barely managed to stay up by grabbing random parts of the ship.
"Turn to port! Turn to port you idiots!!" Rendrick's voice cracked as he screamed at the top of his lungs. "We need to get out of here now!!" Mo felt his heart beating out of his body. He didn't know what was going on. Where was he right now? Was this a dream?
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!!" The captain's powerful voice echoed across the ship. The urgency in his order was reason enough for the entire crew to hit the deck. At that moment a powerful beam of a light shot through the air. It pierced through one of the ship's sails. A second later a loud boom resounded, shaking the air.
Mo stared at the sky with his eyes as round as his body. "V-Viola, wh-what was..."
Mo turned to Viola only to realize that she was nowhere to be found. "Viola? V! Where are you?!" Mo called for her but received no response. He didn't even know why he was so worried about her but she was apparently his sister. He felt like he had to worry about her safety.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Rendrick questioned. "Where did it come from? Is it some sort of curse from the primordial?!"
"Nay Rendrick! This ain't no curse!" The captain answered his first mate in a serious tone. "At the very least not one from some ancient elemental."
"Then what is it!? A leviathan? Because I ain't never seen one that looked like that before!" Mo listened intently as he too wanted know what that monster was.
"That thing..." The captain pointed his saber at out at the monster with rage in his eyes. "...is Mo-----da!"
What?
Mo's vision spun. He felt like the world was coming apart all of a sudden. Visions and flashes of memories that he couldn't piece together raced through his mind. He saw him and Viola swimming-no, drowning in some sort of glowing liquid.
He saw a face and...horns? No, just one horn and a pair of wings. There were also other monsters around. Monsters that looked nothing like Mo and Viola. These thing were tall and gangly. They had loose skin and no hair or tight skin and were covered in hair? He couldn't tell if they were natural or made by some sort of lunatic.
"SCRAW!!" Mo's eyes shot open as Nuka's cry echoed across the city. He looked around still disoriented by the visions that he just saw. He was on the dock surrounded by green flames. Their were charred bodies all around him and screams in the distance.
Mo still felt his heart beating out of control but couldn't tell if the dream did it or the adrenaline from the current situation. He tried to remember the last thing that happened
'Francis had me. She'd taken from the lighthouse and brought me here when she ran into Alisa and the others as well as the Djinns. Then all hell broke loose when the lighthouse exploded in flames and that huge monster came flying out. Francis was holding me while examining the fire when she had an interaction with Alisa that escalated into an argument that further escalated into a battle. It was around then that she threw me to the side and started fight Nasak and Denver.'
Mo's body bobbed up and down as he confirmed the events that led up to this moment. "That sounds right. But what's going on now?" Mo looked around again to see any sign of what the current proceedings may be. In the distance he saw the firebird seemingly in battle. He could also hear the clanging of weapons so someone must be fighting that thing.
"Serves that overgrown, wingbeaten, nobody right. I hope they slaughter that-" Mo paused as he remembered one of Francis's yap sessions from earlier in the day. "Oh right, that's Nuka. Damnit, that means that I gotta save her!" Mo cursed the circumstances. He really wanted to see one of those annoying avians fall from the sky that they think so fondly of.
"Oh well. What sort of first mate would I be if I couldn't put my own issues to the side to help my captain?" Mo begrudgingly accepted the situation. It was for Alix after all. Mo would do anything in his power if it made that girl even just the slightest bit more happy.
"There you are!" A voice growled. Mo turned to see a horrifically wounded Francis. "I've been looking everywhere for you, Po!" Mo sighed.
Her suit was was ripped to shreds revealing the clothes that she wore beneath it. Her mask was gone revealing scaring and cuts on her face. Her hair was a mess which obviously bothered Mo but he would let that slide. Both of her eyes were swollen and bruised. Francis looked like she had been through hell. Yet one thing still bothered Mo more...
"This woman still gets my name wrong even now!? Just one of the many reasons that I can't stand her. Besides the whole trying to torture my captain debacle." Francis limped over to Mo.
"The situation has gotten...problematic. That master of yours and the bird have evolved into some sort of symbiotic duo that wield strength far greater than my own. It seems that a swift escape is the best choice for me. But I couldn't go anywhere without at least one of my experiments!" Francis bent down to grab Mo.
"Not a chance." Mo scoffed as he summoned the Abyssal Sea. He'd recovered thanks to the nap he had taken. Francis watched afraid as the water shifted and spun into the shape of a large open hand.
"I learned this one from Lexi!"
Abyssal Sea: Surface Slap!
The hand smacked Francis on the side hard. She fell to the ground, rolling a small distance away before stopping. She lay on the ground completely still. She had already been running of fumes. Mo's slap just made her shut down process happen quicker. Mo smirked proud of his work when he remembered what she had been yapping about.
"Wait, did she just say that Lexi and Nuka had some sort of bonding thing?" Mo looked back over to where he saw Nuka fighting earlier. This time he saw a girl that he was certain had to be Alix flying in the air fighting back to back with the bird. Mo felt a slight pain in his heart while watching the two of them fight together.
"That used to be me and Lexi! Now she's replaced me with Nuka. Stupid wing freak. She's taking my master from me!"
"Mo!"
"Oh, now who's calling me?! Can't they see I'm moping?!" Mo's eyes swiftly moved to the person that calmed in a rage. They instantly softened, however, as he noticed that it was Alisa. "Oh, it's just you." Alisa rushed over to Mo breathing heavily, like she'd been running for a bit.
"Thank the gods, I found you! Now I just have to find..." Alisa started to speak when she saw Francis laying unconscious a few meters away. "Nevermind, I found you!" Alisa scooped Mo up into a tight hug. Mo tried to push free with his arms but he only had fins so that didn't really work.
"Oh right!" Alisa held Mo up to her face. "Mo! I need your help!" Alisa then proceeded to explain everything that had happened with the fighting, at least from how she understood it.
"You see, this really cooly dressed girl came out of nowhere and started beating the crap out of Francis. I think they had some sort of beef or something, I don't know I was too shaken up by the fact that Francis turned out to be a Devil so I didn't really have time to ask. Then, Vance and Rasque and Big sis Dandy showed up and some knights showed up too and they all started looking around at the damage. Then the flaming princess came crashing down from the sky and yell 'Look out' because I saw it first and everyone looked up and dove for cover but Mister Vance actually dove to protect me which was really nice of him." Alisa takes a deep breath in before continuing her rapid recollection of events.
"Then there was a lot of dust and all you could see the giant flaming bird monster hovering above the ground and her wings cleared out the dust and revealed the cool girl again but she was holding Francis in her hand. Then Vance and all the other grown ups all charged and started fighting with the cool lady and the big bird monster and it was all cool and stuff! I felt like a side character in a story which is when I noticed that my trauma was lessening so Francis must have disappeared. Then I realized that you'd disappeared a while ago and I didn't know where you'd gone either! So then I rushed over here from over there and I found you!"
She heaved exhaustedly. She'd made herself winded from simply speaking. That was quite the feat. Mo stared at the girl and silence as she couldn't understand anything that he said. He simply nodded to show the girl that he understood the situation. Alisa smiled.
"Good, now we have to find mom to make sure she's safe then we need to find more people to beat the monster and the cool lady th-what?" Alisa stopped as Mo shook his head. "What is it? What's wrong with the plan?" Mo pointed his fin out at Nuka.
"The bird? Is it something about the bird?" Mo shook his head and pointed again. Alisa looked and assumed that he was pointing at the fire princess. "Oh, the cool lady? What about her? Do you think she's cool too?!" Mo paused and stared the girl for a moment. She could tell from his eyes that he was thinking, 'This girl must be as dull as a bag of bricks.'
Mo gestured to himself then to the girl again. Alisa's brow raised. "You want to go to her?" Mo nodded vigorously. "Why?" Mo rolled his eyes and made an X with his fins then he gesture to himself and pointed over to the combat again.
"It doesn't matter just take me over there? Well, isn't that just rude! Fine! I'll take you to the dangerous area but you could be a little nicer!" Mo rolled his eyes again as Alisa started moving in the direction of the battlefield.
"And you could serve to be a bit less dense but we can't all get the things we want, now can we."