Brothers of Arms! The Black Knight's Challenge!

[Fox]

Traveling with Tiberius and Marina had been an experience. It definitely confirmed to Wight that his alternate mode was insufficient for long term travel. Marina had knocked Tiberius into the ocean multiple times during the night while the two slept. He did not know if it was normal to toss and turn as much as the two of them did, but he did not question it. He would simply research it at the next available opportunity. Either way, a larger ship was a must for continuing their journey. The stormy and tempestuous seas of the world were not something he could withstand with passengers and their safety was tantamount to him.

So, their destination was one with that in mind. Illusia, while the location of the West Blue’s Marine Base, was also renowned for its lumber and shipwright industry. They would likely be able to procure a ship with enough funds. They pulled into shore near the port town of Aria. His databanks suggested that there was a Marine outpost here, but this was the best place to find a ship. Wight slid onto the sandy shore, reaching out with an arm to nudge his passengers awake in the early morning.

“We have arrived, Marina. Tiberius.”

Tiberius stretched, curling his little cat toes and tail as he roused from his slumber. He sat up, his mane a salt crusted wild mess. He shook his head blearily and glanced around.

“Oh, we made it! Marina, we made it!”

Tiberius hopped off and onto the white sandy shore, shaking out the sea salt from his fur. The sound of wings flapping drew his attention to a bird that had landed on Wight, carrying a paper.

“Hey, look! It’s the news coo!”

Tibs dug around in his pockets, tossing the bird a coin. It caught it and placed it in a little satchel around its neck, taking out a paper and placing it on the deck before flying off into the sky once more.

“What is a news coo?” Wight asked. He did not have any such records in his databanks. Likely, it was not deemed relevant for his purpose within the Marines and World Government.

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Wight | #ffa500 | Post Count: 1
Tiberius | #0437f2

[SnowDog]

To say Marina was exhausted after Sundance was an understatement. So much had happened on their last day and with so much excitement that it both physically and mentally drained the piranha fishwoman. And to make matters worse, in their haste to escape from Gavins and his team of hunters, no one had managed to grab any food they had cooked up the night before. Throughout the night Marina apparently had been unknowingly knocking Tibs off of Wight's boat mode.

Marina rolled over as she felt Wight gently nudge her. His and Tibs' words sorta entered one ear and out the other, nothing either of them said retaining in her mind as her eyes slowly blinked open.

"Hurmmm... Murnin' guys.." Marina managed to gurgle as she rubbed her tired eyelids. "What's going on now? Where we at?" Popping off of Wight's chassis and into the sand, Marina took a moment to let out a big stretch as a news coo appeared and delivered a fresh newspaper to Tibs.

"Wait, what is that? Do they have birds that bring the paper around up here?" Marina brought her knuckle up to her lip as she pondered how they might've gotten the newspaper down in Fishman Island. Course she never really read it herself as she was growing up, but she knew others down there did. So how did they get it...? Didn't matter now. Stepping up behind Tiberius, Marina leaned down over his shoulder to take a closer look as he opened up the newspaper. "So what's new in the world today? Anything good in there?"

[Fox]

“Yeah!” Tiberious replied cheerily in response as he rifled through the paper. The front page was the usual stuff, but when Tiberious flipped the page, he paused and stared at the two pictures on the other side. He squinted, frowned, and was just generally confused by the sight of Marina and Wight’s faces staring back up at him from the paper. Then, it clicked.

“Wha?! Why do you guys have wanted posters?!”

Tiberious turned around and held up the paper to Marina and Wight. Wight leaned in to view the little paper more closely. Sure enough, his and Marina’s pictures were in the newspaper. Wanted posters… It seemed as though his encounter with the Cipher Pol agent had finally reaped its consequences. His bounty was not the highest recorded in his database, but it was a substantial enough amount for the Blues. And, now they knew his approximate location and would be looking for him again.

“Marina and I now have bounties,” Wight stated, thinking aloud, “It will become more dangerous now. I apologize, Marina.”

With bounties, things would become increasingly difficult. Tiberius did not have a bounty either. He may have been wanted on Sundance, but that had not been an official World Government issued bounty. And, while Marina had originally expressed to him to be happy to come along for his dream, Tiberius was still a child and merely grateful to them for helping him. It became increasingly evident that they needed to return Tiberius to his original life.

Wight’s singular optic glanced over to Marina to try and gauge her thoughts on the matter by interpreting her facial expressions. It was also good practice for understanding emotions even if he did not have a proper face.

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Wight | #ffa500 | Post Count: 2
Tiberius | #0437f2

[SnowDog]

Marina's eyes shot open as Tiberius mentioned the two of them both had bounties. Quickly pulling the current page of discussion from Tib's grip, the piranha girl brought the paper close to her face to get a "closer look" at. There was no way this was true, it had to be a jest on the tiny lion's part. Rapidly scanning across the text, her eyes eventually stumbled upon the unmistakable visages of both her and her giant robotic captain. The page slumped down as her grip on it loosened, the shock ever-present in her expression.

"We- We have bounties n-now?..." Her voice trailed for a moment as she gazed up at Wight and back to Tibs for confirmation. It was all so hard to believe... She knew setting out from home that she was eventually gonna wind up with a bounty anyhow, it was sort of on par for the course when you choose to become a pirate, but this felt so sudden and had completely caught her off guard.

"This. Is. AMAZING!!" The piranha girl cheered, her big toothy grin quickly taking over the look of shock across her face. She clutched the bounty page with a revitalized grip before she looked up at Wight practically with stars in her eyes. "We're pirates now! Like, actual, official pirates now!" Her smile nearly stretched from fin-ear to fin-ear as she flipped the paper back open to look upon her wanted poster with amusement and delight. "Oh man, I didn't expect them to come after us this quick! Look at how much they're asking for; nearly a whole eight mil'! I think you can get a house for that much... And check this out; For you, they're asking fo- oh wow, shit, that's a lot..."

Realizing she got lost in the excitement of the revelation, Marina turned her attention back up toward Wight, having just apologized and said things were about to get harder for the both of them. She didn't quite understand why he felt the need to apologize for this though. When she left Fishman Island and wound up meeting the giant metal man on Funkyard, she knew the kind of life she was signing up for.

"Don't feel sorry, Wight," she spoke trying to reaffirm him, "I wasn't expecting us to become great pirates the easy way, now. Hehehe~" She flashed Wight a smile bearing her razor-sharp teeth before thinking back to the group of Fishman pirates who she hung around with as they mentored her, "We're gonna get stronger together, that way we can handle whatever the government decides to throw at us!" Raising a clenched fist to the sky a bit too triumphantly, she spun around back towards the ocean as if to address the horizon itself, "I welcome the challenge! BRING IT ON! AHAHA!"

Riding the high of realizing the first step of the Ironsides' shared dream, the fishwoman flipped some loose hair out of her face and brought the photo of her wanted poster up beside her head, spinning to show the side-by-side comparison to the little lion man and her captain respectively.

"Oh, hey, check it: They even managed to snap my Good Side~"

[Fox]

At Marina’s excited cheer, Tibs could feel the confusion radiating off of their big robotic captain in waves. To say that he wasn’t also a little confused would be a lie, but it clicked into place for Tibs rather quickly. Oh! It was because they were officially pirates! Tibs smiled, happy for his pirate friends, which only increased the amount of confusion radiating from Wight’s general direction.

Wight, for his part, was practically overheating his processors, trying to understand why Marina was so excited. Excitement and happiness were definitely the emotions that he was registering from her at this moment. But why? Because now they were official pirates recognized by the World Government? Was recognition important? Being hunted would make their lives more complicated. But Marina didn’t seem to care. She was on board to continue journeying with him despite the hardship. That made him feel… something.

“Get stronger…” Wight echoed, closing his fist in the way that Marina had. Unlike her, he was incapable of physical growth. For him to get stronger, he would need to acquire necessary upgrades. Now that his systems had been marginally restored by Tiberious, most of his functions had returned to nominal levels. Perhaps that was all that would be required to protect them for a time? Probably not. The other W8 series models were out there, and they had similar specifications. He could not become complacent. Yes, they would get stronger. Together. That same feeling welled up within Wight, but he could not quite place it. It had a percentage of happiness, but that was not the emotion in its entirety.

It was then that Marina made a comment that Wight, once again, did not completely understand. He tilted his head as his optic zoomed in on Marina and her wanted poster.

“But you do not have a ‘bad side’, Marina,” he commented, earning a burst of giggles from Tiberius, which only served to confuse Wight further.

“Hehe! Well, since you guys are wanted now, I’ll go get us some food! Wait here! I’ll be right back!”

Tiberius bounced away before Wight could say anything to stop him. Once Tiberius was out of earshot, he looked down at Marina.

“Tiberius does not have a bounty, and he is still young. I do not want him to get hurt. Should we consider alternatives for him?”

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Wight | #ffa500 | Post Count: 3
Tiberius | #0437f2

[SnowDog]

Marina began to feel her cheeks begin to grow warm in response to Wight's compliment. She reactively looked away as her finger found its way into one of her long, dual-colored bangs and began to twirl the hair around her digit. There was a chance Wight didn't even understand the true meaning behind what he just said to the fishwoman, but it was something Marina was not used to hearing often.

After Tiberius had ran off to get food, Wight spoke up again snapping Marina back into reality. Pulling her finger out of her hair and bringing a quizzical knuckle to her lip, the piranha girl pondered a possible suggestion as she watched the lion boy run and gather something to eat.

"I'm worried about him too." She stated in a hushed manner, crossing her arms over her chest, "He showed he was willing to stand up to those bullies back on Sundance, but like, what would've happened if we hadn't tried to help? He burned himself out after that one move he pulled..." She paused a moment to think more on this. They had just met the kid and she certainly didn't want to just abandon him here. She had no knowledge of what this island was like, it could be even worse than Sundance was! This wasn't even including the fact that maybe that weird hunter guy with the mustache could just track them here and finally capture Tibs. "You think he'd understand that we'd be doing this for his own good? That we just wanna keep him safe?"

Marina took another pause as she let Wight process her questions, wondering about her own answers to them, "I dunno, Wight... What kind of alternatives did you have in mind?"

[Fox]

Marina’s worries confirmed to Wight that he had been correct in his analysis of the situation. Indeed, traveling with them would be a dangerous prospect for the young one, and not one to be taken on lightly. Wight’s solitary optic rolled over to Marina as he considered her questions. They were not something he had taken into consideration. To be truthful, Wight did not have enough data on young Tiberius to run an analysis, but he also did not think it necessary.

“If he does not understand, we can simply tell him those facts,” he answered finally in response to her questions. “As for alternatives, it would be dangerous to leave Tiberius by himself. We should seek his caretakers. While the hunter from Sundance is a concern…”

Wight paused to point at the bounty poster that Marina was still holding.

“I calculate that we have become the better prey. The longer Tiberius stays with us, the worse the danger will become. At the moment… we should have time before the hunter tracks us down. Let us look for ways to send him home in the meantime.”

“Guys! Guys!” Tiberius’s voice came over the trees. Wight turned his head to see the young man tripping over himself to run back to them. Wight scanned the trees behind him for threats, but did not detect any. “You gotta see this!”

Tiberius jogged right up to Marina with a bundle of food in his arms. He handed Marina a wrapped leg of mutton and stuffed his own mouth with a piece of bread. He grabbed her other hand and one of Wight’s digits and pulled them along. Wight went along, still uncertain if there was some sort of threat involved that required him to remain in his robot form.

“Tiberius, what is-”

“C’mon! You gotta see it! You won’t believe me if I tell you!”

“That is not true. I have no reason not to believe what you say.”

“I saw you in town!”

“...That is impossible, Tiberius.”

“See? You don’t believe me!”

Tiberius led the way, slipping through the trees and running out into a quaint looking village. Not many people were out and about on the outskirts of town, which gave Wight some assurance that he would not be spotted immediately. Tiberius bounced over to the side of a building and slapped a poster pasted onto the side.

“Look! See?”

The poster was of a robot that looked remarkably similar to Wight. Wight’s optics narrowed. It wasn’t a wanted poster either. It looked like some sort of advertisement for an attraction of some sort. The Black Knight? Wight did not understand.

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Wight | #ffa500 | Post Count: 4
Tiberius | #0437f2

[SnowDog]

Marina didn't quite like hearing how blunt Wight was willing to be given the circumstances. While she didn't have a better alternative in mind, maybe being upfront and honest with "the facts" was the right thing to do. What worried the piranha girl was the thought of passing Tiberius off to someone worse than those poachers. Whatever they did, it had to be a better spot than where they found him, no exceptions. Tiberius then ran back up to Wight and Marina, handing off a massive leg of mutton to her while something seemed to have excited him because he began begging the two new pirates to come with him to town.

"Okay, but look, Tibs we need to talk about somethi-" The olive green fishwoman tried interjecting after taking a quick bite of the meat leg before the excitable lion boy mentioned seeing Wight already in town. But that... That was impossible, he was standing right here! He hadn't left Marina's side this entire time.

Following Tiberius into the outskirts of the local town, a fuzzy hand-paw slapped the side of a poster with a very familiar visage plastered on it. The figure certainly *looked* like Wight, but almost appeared darker? It wasn't a wanted poster...

"Wight is that... You?" Marina inquired looking up at her robotic captain quizically. As she awaited a response, she took notice of some of the townsfolk nearby looking up at him, pointing and not appearing remotely as afraid as the people of Sundance seemed to be. If anything, there was a sense of recognition and admiration toward him.

"Could it be?"

"Is that really him?"

"All the way out here?"

Marina was perplexed by the sort of attention he was beginning to get here, a part of her wondering if Wight may have forgotten something about maybe visiting here before washing up on Funkyard. Either way, if everyone here thought Wight was this "Black Knight" character, it means they could use it as a front to avoid being recognized as pirates...

"Wait, Wight, I have an idea just play along..." Marina stepped around Wight's giant leg to face the townsfolk eyeing them up.

"That's right everyone! Behold; the BLACK KNIGHT!"

[Fox]

“It resembles me, certainly,” Wight replied in response to Marina’s question. He just wasn’t sure how or why his likeness was plastered on a poster aside from his wanted poster. He ran through the possibilities, but he just simply did not have sufficient data to form a likely hypothesis. His optic swiveled to the side once he reached that conclusion, noticing that he had been detected. Instead of fleeing or going to inform authorities, the denizens of the town stopped and lingered. Some approached very slowly. He did not understand this new behavior.

He looked down at Marina in the hopes that she would provide better insight into what exactly was going on, but she looked like she didn’t understand either. Her face changed - something that by now Wight recognized as Marina having an idea - and she asked him to ‘play along’ with her. He understood the literal meaning of that phrase, but Marina often spoke in… double meanings. He would just go by the literal definition since he did not have time to ask her the true meaning.

“Marina, I am…” Wight trailed off briefly. He was about to say that he was not the Black Knight, but he did not know that for certain. Perhaps lying was a form of play? To test that conclusion, Wight decided to lie. “...indeed the Black Knight. Greetings all.”

Wight would simply have to follow Marina’s example. He kneeled down as people ran over to see him, further encouraging their approach. Children beamed at him brightly. Even adults gave him looks that Wight could only interpret as positive. This was certainly not the reaction that Wight was expecting now that he was a wanted criminal, but for some reason, it filled him with that strange warmth. He quickly checked his internal temperature, but his systems were nominal. He lowered his hand to the ground and children immediately ran over and began to play on it. The positive warm feeling intensified.

As Wight played with the children - and some adults - a distinctly bestial figure made its way through the crowd. While they were cloaked so as to not attract attention, it was evident upon even the slightest actual examination that they were not human. They were a mink. Their eyes lit up when they saw the little lion boy hiding behind the giant robot.

“Tibs?”

At his name, Tiberius’s ears perked up. He snuck a peek out from behind Wight.

“Mom?”

Tiberius’s voice alerted Wight. His optic swiveled over to the scene. Having attracted everyone’s attention like he had, he could not easily intervene without drawing the crowd’s attention to Tiberius, which was not desirable. Instead, Wight nudged Marina in the direction of the cloaked Mink with a finger.

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Wight | #ffa500 | Post Count: 5
Tiberius | #0437f2