[OUTDATED] A Day at the Arcade, A Week of War

(Max) Chapter 9: We get Kidnapped by Somewhat Friendly Pirates

Did mention that I don't like Pirates? The fact is kinda ironic considering I was hired when the entire theme was about pirates. I can already imagine if me and Penny ever met when I was younger, we'd be constantly arguing "who's cooler? Superheroes or Pirates?".

Of course I never actually saw Penny outside of a match besides the several robberies they took part in. Which either succeeded, or I barely managed to catch one of them and the other two break him or her out the next day since I'm only one person, and this makes everyone start to hate me and make me binge on energy drinks for half a week, which really didn't do anything in the self-confidence department. Oh no! In fact, I couldn't go one day praying to god to please make another superhero on my first day, as this job is really hard and stressful and makes me really lonely and sometimes incredibly depressed and... uh.... I'm getting horribly off topic aren't I?

Phew! Okay, the energy boost still didn't wear off. So the point was I didn't like her, I didn't like her anymore now pointing the gun at my eye, the fact Tick was there with his face like "Yay! We're going to kill you now!" was actually kinda funny but I still didn't like her.

After the entire event my heart was pumping so fast it sounded like a violent hum, my mind was scrambled from nearly being spaghettified. My helmet and my suit was ruined, smudged and ripped from the black hole and the tarot cards, but I was alive, probably not for long though.

No injuries could ever stop my thoughts though. I let the thought train roll around in my head while me and Tara just waited there.

Tara... *smacks lips* I'll admit, I had to revise my version of Tara quite a bit. To a "meh" to a "I hate her bones" to a "I'm legitimately too terrified and freaked out by what the hell just happened so I can't form an opinion, please call for a paramedic". The third one is practically how I feel on a daily basis actually so I guess you ignore that.

At first, she seemed... just weird. When I first became a brawler, there was a big welcome party for Bea and me on Darryl's ship (Pin the tail on the Crow, musical power cubes, the whole shebang. Nearly fell overboard I drank the punch that Barley poisoned- I mean made). I briefly saw her sitting in the darkest corner of the ship but I didn't thought anything about it. She was just weird. I didn't have an opinion on her until last battle with Bibi.

I just didn't understand someone who could run away. I definitely didn't understand anyone who could run without feeling anything. I always ran, but it was always towards the enemy, and I'd feel like I was getting stabbed every time someone got hurt or injured or set on fire on my watch.

After what happened today though, it was just stupid. It seemed ridiculously obvious that our bickering, arguments, and now a fight, was just pointless but I couldn't see that until she literally had to strangle me by the throat. The first thing that Jessie and Pam said to me after the initial shock when Tara left was more or less "Hmm, you know what you should do Max? Apologize to Tara, apologize to Tara, apologize just a little more to Tara and I think I forgot one thing to tell you, it just slipped my mind... oh yeah, APOLOGIZE TO TARA!" (okay maybe that wasn't it, but it was close).

Also I'm deeply scared of her, did you see her during our fight? Her fake eye inverted colors; black with a green slit for a pupil like a snake and her real eye on her left didn't even have a pupil! It was like she was being freaking possessed. Her hijab ripped at some places and instead of her usual freakish mouth, it evolved to an even more freakish black blob with teeth. When she licked her lips her tongue showed, out a long pink slimy tentacle that slithered through her mouth. Her teeth were serrated, it... *sigh* it was a lot to take in.

She even managed to change the environment! The sky turned black, the sand shifted to red! There was just a general black void covering Tara like a greenscreen (hmm, maybe not the best analogy but what could describe it?). Everything was just going bananas!