"That's why I'm chosing to take you," Swollow replied simply. "He won't be expecting what you're carrying. It should give us an advantage. On the other hand we don't know what weapons they're carrying either so we're effectively going in blind. At least we'll have a plan which is better then nothing. Now, let's go and mee the good Captain."
Swollow gestured for Willow to follow her and made her way to the deck. The Mori was very close now, almost close enough for the enemy to board their ship or for them to board the Mori. Just a few more minutes.

Willow headed down to the deck where they had the airlock-type door. It wasn't a complete airlock, of course, but it worked to keep the pressure out. Strangely enough, she wasn't afraid. This was what she had been craving for a lifetime, aside from inventing amazing new works of art. Adventure.
She was not entirely used to this ship and crew yet but she knew that if she stayed here, she'd see plenty of it.

Swollow nodded to a crew member standing by the door.
"Get ready to open it," she instructed simply. He nodded his head grimly.
"The Mori is alongside us. You've got clearance to board," Lucario's voice came over a speaker system.
"Open the door," Swollow comanded and the crew member opened the door. As the door was opened Swollow stared out at the thin space connecting the two ships as their airlocked doors were right beside each other. All she and willow needed to do was step accross and they'd be in enemy teritory.
"Ready?" she asked her newest crew member.

"Sure am, Captain," said Willow. Sh'ed put on a loose fitting brown combat jacket which covered the gadgets attached to her sleeves. Whether she needed them or not, it probably wouldn't help things along if they knew she was armed from the start. She passed Swollow a small gas mask that was able to fit in her pocket.

Swollow quickly hid the gas mask in an inner pocket before glancing at Willow a final time and stepping accross into enemy teritory. The deck was empty when she arrived except for two people who had to be the Captain and the person that he wanted with him.
"Captain," she said smoothly.

Captain Drevin was a tall, striking man with black hair, a clipped black beard and a deep plum coat. He had what looked like a gold belt, a gentleman's walking cane and three rings on each hand. At first glance he was handsome, but when Willow looked more closely she saw his eyes were too close together, and he had a rash on his wrist (he'd attempted to hide it with the lace cuff of his coat) which showed he had some sort of skin disease. He was standingleaning on his cane casually, very at home, very comfortable. This was his territory, and he set the rules here.
"How lovely of you to join us," he said in his mild voice, sweeping eyes over first Swollow, then Willow. If he was surprised to see two very young women, he did not show it. The crew member with him, on the other hand, was half confused and half incredulous. He looked like he was about to say something but a glance from Drevin stopped him.

"I'm sure," Swollow answered, casting a bored glance at the Captain and his crew member. She had to play it safe here.
"Now, down to business. You intend to take my ship correct?" she kept her tone light and conversational. "Is there any way to convince you otherwise? The Mori is a far larger vessel then my own after all. What could you gain from capturing her? We have no goods on board and nothing worth selling."

"You underestimate your ship, captain," said Drevin. Was it Willow's imagination, or had he put a very slight emphasis on her title, as though mocking her? "Your ship is a very good design. Yes, it is smaller than mine, and I would never replace the dear Mori, but your ship is valuable, very valuable indeed. And these are hard times, a man has to eat."
Willow raised an eyebrow. She looked over his extravagant clothing. He hardly looked as though he was in danger of starving to death. One of those rings alone could probably feed a family for months.

Swollow picked up the tone of his voice but ignored it. She was used to it and she wouldn't let this overconfident idiot get to her.
"I see," she replied airily. "If you take over my ship then what is to become of my crew and myself?" Her eyes flicked to Willow for a fraction of a second and her head tilted slightly, telling Willow that she could deploy her weapons whenever she felt like it. It was clear there would be no reasoning here.

"Well, I would be quite happy to accept new crew members into my ranks," said Drevn. "It is hard to find good workers nowadays too. Regrettably, anyone unwilling to join me, yourself and your Officers included I'm afraid, would have to be jettisoned."
"You may as well surrender," said the Mori crew member smugly. "We have you out-matched in every way." He glanced over at Willow. He was a full head taller than her and seemed to think this gave him a right to feel superior to her.
She gritted her teeth. "And you are?"

"The name's Druitt," the Mori crew member told them confidently.
"I see," Swollow replied. "Then I supose our business here is concluded, wouldn't you say Willow?" Swollow discretely reached into the pocket of her own coat and gripped the gas mask.

"Captain," Willow nodded respectfully, rolled up her sleeve, and activated the gas. She instantly pulled on her own mask so that it wouldn't affect her. The instant she'd made a move, some men had jumped out of hiding places, clearly aiming to ambush them. Drevin had lied, of course, he had more than one crew member with him.
However, the men began to sway slightly. They were armed with pistols, and although they were still conscious, they were too woozy from the gas to aim properly and one ended up hitting Druitt in the shoulder.

Swollow's gas mask was out and on her as soon as Willow rolled up her sleeve. She smirked as crew members of the Mori appeared and fired but couldn't aim properly.
The door behind them was still open and Swollow quickly ran back to the opening and shouted through to the ship.
"I want half the crew over here now! We need to secure the lower decks now! These guys are knocked out but we don't know for how long and there's probably more on the upper decks!"
"Yes Ma'am!" members of the crew shouted and soon there were six crew members entering the Mori carrying suplies which they used to tie up the woozy Mori crew members.

"A hostage would be useful, Captain," said Willow, prodding an unconscious Drevin with her boot. "Although we don't know just how loyal his crew are.... it's worth a shot?"

"Good thinking," Swollow replied. She pointed to two crew members who were just finishing tying up some Mori members. "Restrain him and take him back to our ship. Like Willow said, he may be useful later."
The two crew members nodded their heads and quickly transported Drevin out of the Mori and aboard the Silver Sparrow.
"Alright," Swollow instructed the four remaining crew members plus Willow. "Start searching the lower decks. If you run into trouble shout. Look for anyting that we can use or that'll be of any value. Be quick for now. We can do a more thorough search and stick to this deck."

"Yes cap'n," said Willow and followed the other crew members. The moment they rounded the corner a crew member from the Mori appeared. He was young, confused and outnumbered. Wilow and the others glanced at each other, and then continued on their way, ignoring the enemy, who sighed with relief.

Swollow began to gather more members of the crew from the Silver Sparrow and instructed them to make sure that the area was secure while others went out on scouting parties like before. The Mori was a large ship and she wouldn't put it past the slippery captain to have set up some traps along the way for any intruders.
Before long some crew members began to return with some weapons. Swollow nodded and they began to transport the weapons to the Silver Swallow. There were some sharp knives, blades, slingshots, pistols, rifles and many other asorted things that would come in quite useful if the need arose.

The real treasure was what was in the captain's cabin. It was stuffed full fo luxuries, all valuable, but what caught Willow's eye was a map, lying on the desk. It looked old, really old, but as though the captain had been poring over it for some time. She had a good eye for value. Chances were it could prove interesting at the very least. So she grabbed the map, and a few baubles that were easy to carry, and made her way back to the Silver Sparrow.
"Captain, you may want to see this."

Swallow turned and raised an eyebrow at her new mechanic. She was back ealrier than expected but she nodded her head in acceptance and gave a few quick orders to her men before gesturing for Willow to follow her. She made her way back to her own ship and towards her chambers. There was an outer office which served as a good meeting place with her own private rooms behind. She led Willow inside before closing the door and walking around to sit in the large chair behind the desk. She gestured for Willow to take a seat.

"What have you found?" she asked curiously. She didn't appear to be carrying much but Swallow knew from experience that the most valuable objects could be the smallest.

"This map," Willow laid it out before her captain. "It was on Drevin's desk. Isn't this area where it was rumoured that the Cloudrunner went down?"
The Cloudrunner was practically a myth by now, and ancient airship - one of the first - which had been carrying an Emperor's treasures across Asia, but had never reached its destination. It had literally vanished. Many had tried searching for it, but none ahd ever been successful, and now few even believed in its existence.

Swallow frowned, studying the map carefully.
"It looks like the right area..." she murmured, carefully tracing a finger along the path that the air ship was rumored to have taken all those years ago. She stopped at a point just off the coast of the small island of Japan. It was really closer to China than Japan but details were scetchy. All taht anyone knew was that the ship had gone down somewhere between it's voyage in the sea between those two countries. "It is also quite an old map. That means it's one of the more acurate. More recent maps become hazey around this point." A frown pulled at the corners of her mout as she thought abotu what this could mean for her and her crew. An emporer's treasure...

"This line here," said Willow, tracing it with her finger, "looks like it's the Cloudrunner's course. But then this area is circled..." She straightened up. "Drevin may know more, ma'am. Might I suggest questioning him?"

Swallow nodded her head in agreement, standing from behidn her desk and coming around it to stand beside her mechanic. "It is a good suggestion," she stated. "But that will have to wait. We must first deal with the other crew members and ensure that there is nothing else aboard the Mori worth taking. We can tow the ship to the nearest port nad hand them over to the authorities. This crew is wanted by the Air Alliance for piracy and we should get a hefty pay for bringing them to justice. We, of course, don't need to say that it was us. That would turn their suspecion towards us. Did you find anything else of use during your short scout of the vessel?"

"Not much, ma'am," said Willow. She emptied her pockets of the baubles she'd picked up in Drevin's cabin. "These were in the captain's quarters. I believe he has more items of value." She hesitated. "If't please you, ma'am, could I look at their engine for spare parts?"
The engine of the Mori didn't seem to run as smoothly as the one Willow had built, but spare parts were always useful. You never knew what sort of things you could find, and then make with them.

Swallow examined the small items Willow emptied out onto her desk before nodding her head in approval.
"Go ahead," she said. "If the authorities ask we whll say that we found the ship stripped before we goarded her. After you've done taht collect a few men and have them attack a line to teh Mori so we can tow her to the nearest port. It will be an unscheduled stop but we can manage it."
She would head to the deck and find Lucario and ask him to chart a route to the narest port where they could dump the Mori. She'd make sure to question the other captain before though. No sense losing valuable information. And if he refused to answer...well would it really be so surprising if the supposed looters of the Mori dealt with it's captain before leaving at the sight of another ship?