012 || ☆ ⁺ « SHOOT UP TO A HUNDRED.
previous chapter || thirteen v1 || thirteen v2 || table of contents
pairing : vento aureo x gn reader
summary : with virtually nothing left in their credit account, a gang of space thieves turn to the richest man in the galaxy to give them a job worth millions. too bad those never come easy, even with stand abilities and pretty-faced crew
notes : sci-fi au, multi-chapter fic, sfw, doesn’t follow canon plot
word count : 3.5k+
★˚⋆ SALE! ZUCCHERO! WHERE THE FLACK are you? Not even gonna bother to say goodbye?”
The crew waited for a few minutes for the greasy pair of mechanics to come slinking out from the bowels of their shop. No one appeared.
Granted, it was hard to tell from the leaning piles of metal and dank lighting, and the smell of oil and coolant and whatever else that up-dog odor was. At least they’d been nice enough to take the Passione off of the lifts this time. Narancia had nearly ploughed the place to the ground the last time he’d tried to remove the ship from the shop.
“Where are they?” Trish murmured. She looked loath to step any further into the shop. “They always like to gloat when we pay them.”
“I paid them remotely through the account Zero set up for us,” Fugo said. “They probably didn’t feel the need to see us off.”
“Bastards,” Mista muttered.
Narancia wasted no time checking out the Passione. He hopped over the suspicious stains on the floor and narrowly missed running into a tower of barrels. “Sheesh! Just look at what they did to our ship!” he shouted. “You sure she’s ours, Cap? She looks amazing!”
You barely recognized the interior when you stepped into the ship. Everything was so bright and shiny you had to squint a little bit. The interior wasn’t sweltering for once and you didn’t have to block out the flickering lights. As you made your way past the rooms to the bridge, you marvelled at how high-class everything seemed. You’d forgotten what the Passione was like under all the peeling metal.
[ MY STARS. IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A SHIP NOW. ]
You side-eyed the turtle tucked under your arm. “I don’t remember turning you on.”
[ IT’S AN AUTOMATIC THING. I SYNCED TO YOUR SHIP’S COMPUTER SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO BOTHER WITH ALL THAT. ] To your horror, Coco Jumbo’s voice echoed through the ship-wide speakers. [HELLO ALL! WELCOME BACK TO YOUR HUMBLE ABODE! ALTHOUGH IT’S NOT SO HUMBLE NOW, IS IT? ]
“Run a scan on the ship’s systems and a full check on the engine room,” Fugo said. “Also make sure the security prints and idents are still updated. If the mechanics messed with anything, let me know.”
[ YOU BETCHA. ]
You shot a look at Fugo, who only shrugged. “Coco’s working for us now, right? Might as well use that computer for what it’s good for.”
“Stars, look at the kitchen!” Trish squealed. “It’s like night and day! There are actual working appliances in here! We can finally make hot drinks again!”
Mista called out from the back of the ship, “Yooo, the rooms look sick! There’s in-line lighting, and, wait, what does this—you’re kidding, you can adjust the temperature and speakers from your holopad?!”
“The med bay doors actually work!” Narancia shouted. “We don’t have to rip up shirts for bandages!”
Although you were just as giddy as the rest of the crew about the state of the ship, you were still wary. A cursory glance over all of the rooms didn’t show any signs of tampering, and Coco’s scan came back negative. The mechanics had just fixed your ship and dipped. Which would have been fine for anyone else, but Sale and Zucchero never finished a job with so little hassle.
“That’s what seven million credots does to a person,” Mista drawled, settling into his newly upholstered chair at the tactical station. “Makes everyone a lot nicer. Also, sweet flack these chairs are banger. It’s like melting into butter.”
“But how did they do it?” Trish said, eyeing the comms station. “We gave such short notice but they still managed to get everything done and then some. I don’t remember them having the kind of resources to completely overhaul a ship?”
“They had an assistant the last time I was here,” you offered.
Narancia pulled a face. “Poor flacker. What did they do to land that gig?” He pressed his thumb to his console to unlock it and his face went slack. “No way. They updated the entire interface! Look how clean this looks! And there’s new features too!”
For the next little while, there were only gasps of amazement as you all poked at your consoles. The mechanics had really gone above and beyond. Your captain’s interface had gotten a makeover and was now more streamlined and responsive to the ship. You’d say the tech here rivalled some of the latest Eva models that had just come out.
“The ship has twice the speed and maneuverability,” Narancia said reverently. “I could thread this thing through the eye of a needle.”
“You guys.” Everyone turned to look at Mista as he stood up suddenly. He looked from one person to the other, his face deadly serious.
“We have four torpedoes.”
“Awesome!” Narancia crowed.
“No, not awesome! How did this happen?! We’re not flying this ship with four flacking torpedoes. I’m unloading one right now.” Mista started for the bay doors.
“Sit down,” Trish groaned. “Isn’t that better for us? Weren’t you bitching about the lack of torpedoes last time?”
Mista turned to her, aghast. “Because we had two. Now we have four. The ship is going to explode with four torpedoes. I’m unloading one. I’d rather have three torpedoes than four.”
“No, you’re not.” You swiped across your console. “Captain override. We’re keeping those torpedoes. I’m not risking it.”
“Captain!”
“We’re going after a powerful Stand arrow. Who knows what’s going to happen? Torpedoes are damn expensive.”
“I think it’s sufficiently clear by now that the ship has been fixed,” Fugo said curtly. You noticed he had to make an effort to pry himself away from colourful charts and fluctuating numbers on the engineering console. “If we don’t have anything else, we should get going. I worked with Coco Jumbo and we found a lead on Jean Pierre Polnareff.”
“You did?” You glanced over at your engineer in interest. A rush of eagerness swept through you.
Fugo frowned, scratching the neck of his shirt absently. “Yes,” he said faintly. “I did.”
Mista still looked troubled but he sat down at his station. “Well, what’d you find?”
“Polnareff used to work for an organization. What it was has been redacted from all records. I did find the name of a man he exchanged correspondence with on a regular basis.”
[ WELL DON’T TAKE ALL THE CREDIT. ] Coco Jumbo whined suddenly. Fugo shot the turtle a dirty look from where it was lounging on the ship’s main console.
[ APPARENTLY, THESE TWO GO WAY BACK. THEY’RE NOT BOTH IN THE ORGANIZATION, BUT THEY’RE CHUMMY. POLNAREFF HAS ALWAYS SKIPPED AROUND THE GALAXY, EVEN BEFORE HE GOT THE STAND ARROW. I GUESS YOU COULD SAY HIS BUDDY WAS LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH HIM. IF POLNAREFF HAD TO TELL ANYONE WHERE HE TOOK THE ARROW, IT WOULD BE THIS GUY. ]
“And who is this guy?”Mista huffed.
In response, Coco projected a hologram into the air. A blurry shot of some old guy with a green cap. It had probably been pulled from nearby surveillance footage. Off to the side was his partial ident chip with his address and the name Pericolo.
“Do we know anything about Polnareff himself?” Trish asked. “Any info on him at all?”
“He’s completely offline,” Fugo said with a scowl. “That's why we have to go through the hassle of contacting his friend first.”
“If this guy knows about the Stand arrow, why hasn’t he tried to get it himself yet?” you said.
“He’s an old fart,” Mista said. “Probably doesn’t have the energy.”
“Or he’s not aware of Stand abilities,” Fugo said. “Polnareff probably didn’t divulge that part of the arrow to him.”
It only now occurred to you that Zero must have sent other thieving crews before yours to go after the Stand arrow. You had to wonder who Polnareff was to have guarded it so well. Actually, how come you’d never heard word of this mystical arrow before now? If it was as powerful as Zero claimed, there had to have been people who had sought it out before Zero. People who were actively searching now. But you’d never heard any mention of it; otherwise, your crew would have already gone after it. Not for world domination, but because something like that was bound to fetch good credit.
You felt a twinge in your chest as you wondered about the arrow. Focus, you told yourself. What does it matter about all that? Just focus on getting the Stand arrow to Zero. No need to get caught up in the details.
“Can we please get going?” Narancia burst out. He had been quiet all this time and was fairly shaking in the pilot seat. “I’m flacking dying to see how this baby does in the air. If Sale and Zucchero did half as good a job on the inside as the outside, then—” Narancia let out an amazed sound. You hid a smile at his excitement.
“Alright. All systems are green. Take us away, Narancia.”
“Take it easy, though,” Fugo warned. “I know you’re excited, but it’s best if you take the ship gradually. If you shoot up to a hundred, it’s going to—”
The warning fell on deaf ears. Everyone was thrown back in their seats and Narancia pushed the ship full throttle, hurtling out of the shop and zipping into the air in record time. Your stomach dropped to your feet as the Hub dropped out from under you. Narancia shrieked with glee, getting so excited that he bypassed the Hub’s exit completely, skipping the line to fly out into deep space without checking out or going through the GA’s.
“Asswipes is going to pin us for that,” Trish said, but it was lost under the roar of the engine and thruster. You had never heard the Passione sound like that. You’d gotten used to it sounding on the brink of death.
“Narancia, slow down!” Fugo shouted. “You’re going to kill us!”
Narancia whooped. “Worth it! Stars, I’ve never really lived before today! Passione could fly before but now she can fly!”
There was a meaty whomp and Mista let out a pained groan. Looking over, you saw that Coco Jumbo had gone flying off the console directly into Mista.
“Who’s in charge of strapping down the turtle? It weighs flacking ten pounds!”
You watched curiously as Narancia and Fugo hunched over Fugo’s console, talking in low tones. Occasionally, Narancia would stab his finger at the screen before Fugo shook his head and hissed at him to be quiet. You knew that sometimes, when Narancia was bored and Fugo had the patience, he would try to wrangle the pilot into some lesson about astrophysics or some other space science before the two inevitably got too irritated with each other to continue. Somehow, you had a feeling this was something different.
“Is everything alright?” you asked, coming over to the engineering station. “Looks pretty heated over here.”
“It’s nothing,” the two said immediately, and you raised your eyebrow. Fugo dismissed whatever they had been looking at and his console returned to his usual monitoring charts and stats.
“If there’s something I can help with …”
Narancia glanced at Fugo, but the engineer gave nothing away.
“Actually, I was wondering if you could give me temporary access to the captain console. There was something I wanted to look at.”
You went back to the console, unlocking it and changing the settings so Fugo could use it. You stepped aside as Fugo began tapping on the screen, conferring briefly with Narancia before performing a series of complicated keystrokes. A beat later, the consoles at every station glowed red. The humming in the bridge quieted down and you knew that meant the engine room had also stopped working at full capacity. Narancia let out a breath of relief.
“What did you do?” you asked suspiciously.
Fugo shrugged. “I just made sure our route to the Bend Gate was locked. The ship is going to continue to the gate no matter what we do unless you yourself go in to change it. I don’t want anyone accidentally messing with it. Plus with all of this stuff going on with Zero, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, of course not.” Your engineer didn’t sound any different than he usually did, but it still felt a little off, regardless.
“I think I’m going to go take a break. Running around the ship took all of my energy. Comm me if you need anything.” Fugo nodded at you. “Captain.”
You nodded back. As soon as he left the bridge you turned to Narancia. He had always been easier to read than Fugo. “Is everything okay?”
“Sure it is. We have a new ship that flies like a dream and we’ll be at the gate in a few hours. Everything is going how you planned, Cap.” Narancia grinned.
“You looked pretty worried at Fugo’s console earlier.”
Narancia waved his hand. “Just didn’t understand what the flack he was trying to show me. Too many numbers and not enough pictures. He always forgets we didn’t all go to his fancy institute.” Narancia took the opportunity to commandeer your console since the temporary access was still on. “Oi, feel like playing a fighter?”
You reluctantly pulled over one of the station seats as Narancia pulled up a hologame on the ship’s main display. You knew he was trying to distract you and you let him. It was a good idea to lock the ship’s flight route. You should’ve thought of it sooner.
At some point Mista wandered into the bridge and you had to suffer your ass getting kicked not only by your pilot, but your gunman as well. You tried to keep a dignified face as your character on screen was wiped out in a spray of blood and guts.
“Hacks,” you muttered under your breath instead.
“Excuse me, how?” Mista asked. “You’re just trash at this game, which is what we’ve been telling you since we downloaded it.”
“Okay, but the character combos aren’t even lined up,” you pointed out, trying not to sound butthurt and failing. “You’re way overpowered. How was I supposed to win?”
“I gotchu, Cap,” Narancia said. “I’ll get your pride back for you.”
You gave up your seat to Narancia with a scowl. Bend Gate XI was still a long way to go. Even with all of Passione’s fancy new upgrades, it would be a day and half until you reached it. And out here in deep space with no stars or sun to mark days passing, it honestly felt like years.
What most people didn’t realize about thieving crews was how much down time you had, particularly when travelling from one spot to another. When the stakes were high, they were high, and it was all stress and adrenaline and pure luck during the actual theft. But when all that was over and you were just drifting to find your next treasure, things got boring. Besides Sale and Zucchero, you had yet to show Zero’s exclusive pin to anyone. Maybe you should be keeping it under wraps, but you wanted people to know that your thieving crew was in the grace of the upper echelons again. Working for Zero himself.
You were starting to regret choosing to pass time with Mista and Narancia, though. Maybe you should’ve gone to watch holodramas with Trish. But you couldn’t remember the last time you’d had time to play a few hologames with the boys. Or had a chance to just hang out with them at all, really.
Rather than watching the fight unfold on screen between Mista’s character and Narancia’s, you focused on their hands at the digital display. Whereas Mista was all brute force and button-mashing, Narancia took to his character with the same finesse as he did flying a ship. Although Narancia’s character was weaker stats-wise, Narancia managed to pull through at the end and deliver a fatal combo to Mista.
“And that’s how it’s done,” Narancia said, brushing invisible lint off his shoulder.
“Now that’s hacks,” Mista cut in. “Your character literally has no stats. There’s no way you could win.”
“That’s what I said!” you burst out.
“You chose them! You can’t be mad at me for picking the weakest character!”
“Because you told me to, asshat!”
“Leave my hat out of this!”
Narancia raised his hands. “Mista’s a cheater. Captain sucks. And I’m the best. Okay? Okay.”
You and Mista unleashed a flurry of punches and curses down upon Narancia’s head. He tried to cover his head, refusing to apologize. Somehow, Mista managed to find the perfect angle to poke Narancia in the eye. Narancia recoiled, hissing out a swear and covering his eye.
“Oh shit, my bad.” Mista reached out to Narancia but he batted him away.
“Yeah, got me real good there. You guys go on without me. I’m just gonna take a minute.”
A hand still over his eye, Narancia made a quick exit from the bridge. You and Mista exchanged a worried look.
Mista frowned. “I know I didn’t get him that bad.”
“Is everything alright with him? I’ve noticed that he’s been treating his eye a lot more … carefully?” Like after Lady Legarde had sedated him. It seemed like his eye had really been bothering him.
“Yeah, I noticed that too,” Mista said. “If something’s wrong, he should tell us. He’s our pilot. It goes without saying that his eyes are important.”
You rose from your seat. “I’m gonna go check on him.”
“Do that. I’m heading to the kitchens to fix me and Pistols something to eat.”
“Make a plate for Fugo too. He’s probably still holed up in his room.”
“Of course, my esteemed Captain.”
It didn’t take long for you to find Narancia in his room. The door was still open and you knocked before going inside.
“Narancia? You alright?”
You spied the top of his messy hair over the side of his cot. You made your way over, not wanting to startle him. The sight of him holding his eyelid open with his fingers gave you pause. Narancia’s holopad was balanced on his lap, and he blinked rapidly a few times, leaning closer to the holopad to check his eye. You would’ve written it off as Narancia being overcautious if it weren’t for a flash of red. One of Narancia’s eyes looked briefly bloodshot and irritated before it flickered back to normal.
“Narancia?”
“Fine, Cap.” Narancia smoothly put his holopad away and threw a cheesy thumbs-up. The skin around his eye puckered before he smiled, violet irises bright.
“Are you sure?” You hated the doubt in your voice.
Narancia hopped to his feet. “Positive. Just wanted to make sure that flackbag didn’t gouge my eye out.”
“If something’s wrong, you can tell me. It’s my responsibility to keep my crew healthy.”
Narancia poked you in the side. “No, it’s our responsibility to stay healthy. All you have to do is look sexy, Captain.”
You were about to press the issue further when a loud rattle sounded from the walls. You and Narancia paused, turning towards it. It happened again, this time from out in the hallway.
“What the flack is that?” Narancia said. “I thought the mechanics fixed everything.”
You stepped out of Narancia’s room carefully, scanning the length of the hallway. Everyone else’s door was closed.
“Narancia, use your radar.”
Your pilot’s carbon dioxide radar appeared around his head. He swivelled his head left and right and walked forward a few steps. Looking over his shoulder, you could see that you and Narancia were the only ones in the hallway.
“Probably just the new equipment settling,” you said. You willed your heartbeat to settle. You’d heard worse sounds before from the Passione.
“Yeah, probably.” Narancia’s hand went to his left eye again.
“Narancia, if something is going on—”
An ear-piercing scream split the air. Your heart shot into your throat as you looked at Narancia and started sprinting down the hallway towards the sound. That was Trish. Where was she? What had—
You nearly missed her, but Trish, surprisingly, was frozen in the engine room. Her face had gone ghostly pale and her green eyes were so wide on her face that you could see her irises twitching. You snapped your gaze around, looking for the threat.
“Trish, what happened?”
Trish took a shaky step backwards. “I-I saw something. There was something—”
Before she could finish her sentence, your holopad vibrated in your pocket. While Narancia went over to Trish, you slipped it out, alarm racketing a notch higher when you saw it was Mista calling.
“Captain!” he yelled as soon as you answered. “You need to get down to the galley. Now!”
“What happened? Trish just—”
“FLACKING HELP ME, MISTA!” Fugo’s shout was loud enough to be heard through the call.
“Cap, please! I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s real bad!”
The call cut off. You stared at your holopad then at Narancia and Trish. Narancia was holding Trish’s arm gingerly, trying to figure out what had happened. Looking around the engine room, nothing seemed amiss. But Trish had screamed at something. She wasn’t some prissy Upper Space noble anymore. Some days she had bigger balls than anyone on the crew.
“You should go help them,” Narancia said, catching your gaze. “I can deal with things here with Trish. Sounded like Fugo was in trouble.”
A loud rattle sounded from somewhere in the engine room. Trish gasped, whirling towards the sound. “There it is again!”
You gritted your teeth. Where should you go? To the kitchens to help Fugo? Or should you stay here to figure out what was going on? The engine room was the heart of the ship. If something flacked up here, you’d be stuck in deep space for stars knew how long. You weren’t anywhere close to any planets or ship colonies, and Bend Gate XI was still hours out. But then again, Fugo was your engineer. If something happened to him, would you be able to manage? He had been working the closest with Coco Jumbo and had the most information at present about Zero and the Stand arrow.
“Go, Cap!” Narancia insisted. “We’ve got things covered. I can find out whatever this thing is with my radar.”
You hesitated at the threshold of the engine room, wishing you could split yourself down the middle. Who were you going to help?
Fugo or Trish?
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