Chapter twenty-seven: Raging Waves

A few hours later in the mist, Adam and the others was waiting for the contact but no one was there to greet them. Not a single soul was left in the watery land.

"Where is he?" Adam asked looking around at the empty mist.

"Don't worry, my contact will be arriving soon!" Morvok said.

"Commander, we got a boat coming out ahead!" Kam said as he looked from the Crow's Nest to see the boat, Sea Hawk's.

"Finally, it's about time!" Adam said as he and Morvok head to the plank with some soldiers behind them as the planks started to connect with each other.

"Morvok, my old friend!" Sea Hawk said.

"Save it Sea Hawk, did you got what we came for!" Morvok said.

"Don't worry I have completely got them!" Sea Hawk said, confidently as he pointed out that the group all tied up.

Adam looked at Sea Hawk with a slightly annoyed expression and sighed, then order the soldiers to take the group to their ship, then led Sea Hawk into the center of the ship.

Shiro and the others are taken to the prison cells, the walks were covered in grime as they covered their purple walls.

"Uh-huh" Keith mumbled as he was waking-up in one of the prison cells. "What, hello, Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Stats, Kiaion!"

With no other option, Keith trying to destroyed the door, but his dagger was gone.

"Uh...My weapon is gone!" he said.

"Uh...what happened!" Shiro said.

"Where are we!" Lance said.

"I think that we in a Galra ship!" Pidge said.

"Uh...why!" Hunk said.

"...Sea hawk, he did this to us!" Keith realizing

"But...I...I trusted him!" Lance said.

"We all trusted him! But then again he was bragging a lot!" Shiro said.

Back on the top of the ship, Sea Hawk, being his annoying self as Shiro said but fortunately for Morvok and Adam, all they can go with ew!

"Okay, you got what you came for!" Adam said.

"Uh-huh!" Sea Hawk said. "But I may-"

"No, you may not!" Morvok moaned. "Adam, can you please check on the prisoners?" He referred to the approaching of Adam and the others.

"Don't worry I will I have some personal reasons to see our prisoners!" Adam said.

"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about happened on Bolvangar!" It was like everything he said was emotionless and bored at the same time. "Everyone said it was a total disaster."

Ouch. No wonder he frowned at that.

That was a way to strike a soft spot on Adam's person. Of course the time on Bolvangar was a disaster, he didn't need a reminder of it! They they lost major resources and it was all thanks to Shiro and his friends.

A single constant pain that came back every single time it was mentioned.

"I didn't think it was possible, but you Galra make the sea less grimy." If words could make someone gag Adam would'e thrown up a dozen times by now as he listened to Sea Hawk's continued displays. Thankfully the guard at his side, was decent enough to elbow him away.

"Would you quit it? I'm trying to talk to my new ally Madam."

"Ok, he's officially my favorite person in this room!" Wakun chuckled, getting a reaction out of a blushing Adam.

"But you just met him!"

"Yeah, and he's already my favorite person, Madam..." He sneered. Adam couldn't help but feel a little irritated and jealous. After all the times he have worked on trying to get the lower moons to open up and think of them as comrades, Wakun instantly goes on to say how the random person he met not a minute ago was his new favorite person. And now he had a new nickname to look forward to, oh joy.

"I'm going to the brig!" Adam said.

Meanwhile, Lance was sliding on the wall for no apparent reason.

"What are you doing?" asked Hunk, in the other cell.

"I'm feeling for a secret passage." Lance told him.

"You're double sure, Lance! because I don't see any secret passage!" Keith said.

"Oh, really? Then how do you explain this?" Lance said as he kick the wall. "I meant, uh, this!" then he delivered a another kick to the other side of the wall and each time he crowds in pain.

"Lance, will you please shut up!" Shiro said as he looking through the small window. "There's only one guard patrolling out there, if we can get our doors open we can overpower him".

"What happened to Stats and Kiaion?" said Hunk.

"They must have managed to hide when we were captured." Shiro said "At least we have someone we could trust out there!"

"Are you saying our faith in Stats and Kiaion's hands or paws or whatever they have!" Pidge said.

"Yes!" Shiro said "Because Kiaion and Stats had always helped us!"

"He's got a point!" Hunk said. "If I know Kiaion, he help find a way to get us out of here!"

"Yeah, in the meantime I'll find that exit!" Lance said.

Elsewhere, stood in front of the ship was Kiaion and Stats, on a floating piece of rock, waiting to pounce on the ship.

"Stats!" Stats said, pointing to an area, away from Galra eyes!

Kiaion nodded in agreement as he shrink to his smaller size and pounce off from the rock and into an open window.

"I really hope you know what you're doing." Rose said.

"Uh...yeah, totally...I got this... let interrogate some prisoners!" Adam said, half-nervously.

"...Okay!" Rose said.

"Stats!" Stats said.

"This is going far better than I anticipated. We could actually capture the samurai! I could get transferred back to the hub. And they said I wasn't good enough to be in the hub. Maybe Zarkon will invite me to sit in his box at the gladiator matches! The ultimate honor!" Morvok said as in the same time as Shiro and the others were captured.

"Sir, my money!" Sea Hawk said as Morvok gave him a bag of money in annoyance.

"Now that you're done here!" Morvok said. "Will you please go you are so annoying!"

"But... where am I supposed to go?" For the first time since meeting him, his voice cracked a little with worry and sadness.

"Maybe go with the boat, okay, buddy?" Morvok suggested as politely as he could, directing the captain to the door as calmly as possible. "We'll take care of the rest!"

Back at the brig, Shiro and the others are finding a way to escape the ship and Lance kicking the walls wasn't helping anyone.

Just then, Galra soldiers along with Adam and Rose appeared in Shiro's cell as It wasn't a vision, it wasn't a hoax. It wasn't an illusion, a hallucination, it wasn't someone in disguise.

Shiro recognized the one friend he had in this world, he recognized the look of those eyes that nobody else could duplicate. This was him, the real thing, standing right in front of him, equipped with a large stun baton on his back and a sword on his hip.

This was Adam. The real thing. The person he hasn't seen since the incident of Aurs and right now, he was responsible for their capture

"It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Adam said.

"Yes, it was!" Shiro said.

Meanwhile, Stats and Kiaion were sneaking around trying to find a way to the brig, undetected, but how, just then, something caught, Stats's focus shifted to the plank where the ship previously landed.

To his surprise, having a great vantage point from atop the arm, he saw the legendary captain Sea Hawk, master of the oceans who braved the mighty seas, conqueror of monsters and capable of swooning woman with a single shanty, untying his boat from the dock post without hesitation.

"Stats!" Stats grumbling.

Kiaion nodded in agreement, with that assurance, Stats floated away from Kiaion to the bow of the captain's ship, catching him off guard.

"Eek-!" He shrieked.

"Stats!" He puffed with hands at his side.

"I'd really appreciate it if you stopped doing that!" he said as a total shift in his voice. Every word he just said sounded like it was in-between a cry, the screech behind it blending with his feelings of turmoil.

"Stats!" Stats asked.

"It's for the best," the one reasonable thing he said all day and right as he was about to leave, "I keep getting in the way of things. It's time for old Sea Hawk to be where he belongs, alone."

That was... actually sad to hear from the once chipper captain as he walked along the rails. It's like resigning himself to reality brought out his true emotions and standards. "I wasn't always like this. Where I'm from, I had friends, a crew. Every day an adventure more daring than the last. The fact that I kept setting my boats on fire was considered charming. But here, I can't get anyone to take me seriously. Huff, you have no idea what that's like."

"Stats!" Stats mellowed, leaning against the rails beside him as he understand how people never took him seriously.

"What? You? But you're a adorable creature that's only used for food." Sea Hawk said.

"Stats!" he said as trying to prove his point by a wave of his hands.

"States!"

"Stats!"

"We've just met, but I can tell you are a brave and powerful soul." He smiled as he finally found a person that he could understand, even if it's a small creature.

"Stats!" He returned with his own smile. "Stats!" he saluted as he showed that he still have friends and a crew and reporting for duty for his Captain!

Who was this creature? his was absolutely right! He was THE Sea Hawk! He was THE one and only true captain of the legendary seas! Where he went, adventure followed. Where he journeyed, thousands were in awe at his prowess. With a crew at his back and friends at his side, he knew there was nothing the illustrious adventurer that was he couldn't accomplish! For he was Sea Hawk, the greatest Captain in Altea has ever known!

"Adam..." There were not enough words in the dictionary to convey the number of emotions Shiro was feeling right now.

Ever since the attack on Aurs, what happened to Adam and could be happening right now to him was one of the few things constantly on his mind.

The one person in charge of the operation on their captured on the sea.

"Adam, how did you find us?" Shiro asked.

"Did you think it would be that easy to escape the Galra? I mean, I always knew you were kinda dumb, but...come on." Adam said as he pokes Shiro's forehead.

"What you want with us!" Shiro asked.

"It's not me that I want, it's Haggar, let's just say she holds up a bit of a grudge!" Adam said.

"is that the reason why you're here, holding up errands for that witch!" Shiro said.

"Hey, I can go whenever I want!" Adam said, "But there are someone that I want you to meet!"

"Oh, really!" Shiro said, in a mocking tone.

"Takashi, this is Rose, my teammate!" Adam said, introduction Rose and bragged about his new team.

"...Hi!" she said

"Hi...And Congratulations!" Shiro said with fake happiness and a lot more anger, causing Adam to frowned even further.

"Seems like only yesterday this was the thing you wanted most in the world." Adam said, circling around Shiro, "And you're still doing this-- ugh. Come on, Takashi, hasn't this all gone on long enough?"

"Why... so I can continue watching you attacking innocent people!" Shiro said. "I told you before, Adam... I'm not joining you!"

All of a sudden, Adam hit Shiro on the face and then turn behind him with his stun baton, stunning him from behind and then landed in front of me, processing to hit him hard in the stomach.

Shiro groaned and fell to his knees, just then, a explosion shakes the ship.

"What the heck was that?" Adam asked furious.

"System alert, System alert!" the announcer said, alerting Adam and Rose and causing them to leave the cell.

"What happened?" Morvok shouted.

"A ship on fire crash on our starboard side, we lost all our weapon functionality!" a galra soldier said.

"Fix it! Full attack! Fire with everything we've got!" Morvok shouted.

Meanwhile, In the ship's generator room, a lone Galra sentry was patrolling the aren, Stats, Kiaion, and Sea hawk then arriving on scene before they attacked the sentry, causing it to the crash into the wall.

After that, they went to the holding cell to get Shiro and the others.

Back at the cells, the group was preparing to jump the guard, just then, there was clanging and thudding and soon the guard fell down.

"huh!" All of them and to their surprised, it was Stats, lying on top of the guard.

"Hi Stats!" Shiro said.

"Stats!" he said.

"What! where is he?" Shiro answered.

"Where? what are he saying!" Hunk said.

"Sea hawk is trying to save us and Kiaion is helping him!"

"Sea hawk is, yes I knew it!" Lance said.

"let's try not to get our hopes up!" Keith said.

"No promises!" Lance told him.

Back on the ship itself, Adam and Morvok were trying to get the fire under control. In the meantime Sea Hawk and Kiaion were spreading chaos wherever they go.

"Ha Ha!" Sea hawk said in the most annoying way possible.

Even if, Kiaion known him for a few minutes here and he was already the most annoying person he ever met in this planet but despise that, he was willing to say the others from the Galra's grapes.

Looking off to the side, a massive Galra grabs Sea Hawk by the shirt collar.

"Oh. ...You're big." he said.

And soon, the big Galra tosses Sea Hawk off the ship in a whoosh. As Sea Hawk screams as he falls toward one of the Galra ship's engine blades; Kiaion swoops in his big form and saves him.

"Whoa, thanks for the save!" Sea Hawk said.

At the same time, Shiro and the others have already escape and getting their weapons from the guards.

"Our weapons!" Keith said.

"They have weapons and we don't, any suggestions?" Lance said.

Consecrating his energy, Keith summon his dagger and attack the guards.

"Come on, let's go find Kiaion!" Keith said.

Elsewhere at the helm of the ship was the glorious captain, giving his own smile of triumphant victory, one they haven't even achieved yet, while also holding a small fiery torch in his hand. Standing next to him was Kiaion, the mighty lion as he roar in victory.

"Adventure!" With a single shout, Sea Hawk set the rest of the ship on fire, together with Kiaion, no one expect that especially the dumbfounded Galra Commander and the remaining members of their crew. There wasn't any time to turn something this big and it was too low to the ground and close to fire with the canon itself.

All they could do was scream in terror as they jumped overboard, pushing away from the fire that spread across the ship and BOOM!

Safe to say, there was nothing left of the fiery wreckage as the Galra ship crumbled to pieces. All around the resurfacing soldiers and captain were wreckage and debris from their own ship, forcing them to grab on and find any floating pieces they could to use as a floatation device.

"Kiaion!" Hunk cried as he call out from the debris and soon the group managed to escape the sinking ship with Sea Hawk in tow.

Almost immediately after finding a piece for themselves, Morvok and Rokuro look over to see Adam swimming towards him, scooting over to the side a little to let the other commanders hang on to the floating pile of garbage.

"Hey Captain, did..." He was quiet. he didn't even look Rokuro or Morvok in the eye as he casually kicked along with his feet, swimming across the ocean.

"I don't want to talk about it." He stated. He didn't want to talk. He didn't want to remember. He didn't want anything else to do with this day. He can only look back on the failure that he committed but on the bright side he managed to get the quintessence Crystal shard from Shiro.

The victory was won after long last, the group is safe and sound on dry land.

"Sea Hawk, you saved us!" Lance said, reaching out for the man with his face full of gratitude. Then he petted Kiaion's fur. "Without you, we wouldn't been dead!"

"Yeah, specially since you got us stuck in there to the first place!" Keith said.

"Keith!" Lance said.

Sea Hawk stood up and shook his head. "No you're right, I should never have done that to you guys, I know I betrayed your trust but I want you to know why...I not all great...and that's okay... I've been in the seas longer than anybody here... but when I saw all of you and how you all work together as a team it made me wondered that I was even greater than you guys or should I say inferior to you... I mean I'm Seahawk the greatest captain in the world or least I was!"

"Stats!" Stats told Shiro "Stats!"

"Hey, you did come back for us even if we didn't know you but we're willing to forgive you just once!" Shiro said.

"Ahhhhhh!" There were no interpretable words coming from Sea Hawk's mouth, knowing full well that he's forgiven.

"Yeah, but next time do not try to brag a lot!" Shiro said.

"No promises!" Sea Hawk grinning, turned towards the water... and saw a row boat floating away.

"Oh, no!" Keith said, feigning worry. He ran to the shore and pretended to try to grab the boat, "Ooops. It slipped just out of my reach, what will we do now?" Not so secretly, Keith was thrilled the boat might get lost forever.

But the boat reversed and drifted back toward him. Shiro and the others laughed, then Sea Hawk walked over and grab the boat.

"You know I could use a ride and if you're looking for a place on land, Xadia is nearby!" Sea Hawk said.

Keith let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you!" he said. "And goodbye!"

"Bye!" Sea Hawk said as as he row his boat down to the Sea.

"Now that was an unusual day!" Hunk said.

"You said it!" Shiro said as he touch his chest and soon he discovers the crystal was gone. "the crystal, it's gone?"

"What!" Keith shouted.

Today was supposed to be a momentous day for all of them, defeating the Galra with just the few of them. But now, after everything they witnessed, victory felt like the farthest thing from what they had.

All they could feel now, was defeat.