Over My Head

10:55

The doors busted open, the feeling of shock and confusion overwhelmed them. Their eyes set on an image like no other as they simultaneously yelled.

-"HE DOESN’T HAVE A BEARD!"
-"HE’S WHITE!"

-Adding to the confusion, Maeve turned towards Max "YOU THOUGHT THE BLACK IN BLACKBEARD STOOD FOR HIS SKIN COLOR?"

-Max, still processing, shot back, "I MEAN, IT CLEARLY WASN'T FOR HIS BEARD SINCE HE PRACTICALLY DOESN’T HAVE ONE!"

Before them stood a small statured man—by many considered overweight, but not by himself. He sported a barely functioning goatee, hardly enough to be considered facial hair above it, two small eyes, enlarged by glasses the size of binoculars.

Strapped to a multi-layered contraption, which lifted him well off the ground. A metal suit rusted copper-color,wrapped around him like a web with six legs and a pair of claws, elevating him from being a mere nuisance to an unforeseen threat. Making him far more dangerous than his appearance suggested.

They were caught in the midst of things—Captain Rechard using the moment to put some distance between them. Bloody, his clothes torn, he spoke with great aptitude.

-Don’t be deceived by his physical deformities and dumbfound expression—he may look completely incompetent, yet surprisingly, he isn’t. A strange phenomenon from such a sluggish creature.

The silence was screaming in the room. 'I have three PhDs,

Maeve listened and started to think,

-Max burst into laughter before yelling, "AHAHAHHA THIS GUY, HE PROBABLY CAN'T EVEN GET UP THE STAIRS BY HIMSELF!"

-"Mockery won’t get you far, you insignificant whelp," lashing at him,

-"Whelp? What the hell does that mean?" Max asked, his confusion clear.

-"Illiterate scum," he muttered under his breath. "Honestly, I’d be surprised if you even know how to read."

-"Not to brag," Max replied, "but I do know most of the letters."
-"He does,"

-"You’re all a bunch of half-wits," He trundled toward them. "Might as well put you out of your misery,"

With a swift motion, his massive crab-like claw grabbed a large metal container the size of a fridge.Ripped it from the ground, sparks flew everywhere, before he sent it hurling at Max with extreme force.

A mere second before catastrophe, Maeve jumped at the two, pushing them out of the way.

-"DUD... not cool!" he yelled as he got up, realizing the knot holding Twinkle Toes to his back.

The man, enticing him with a smile, clutching his tool, his blue eyes burning with fire as he set off in a sprint.

Closing the distance quickly, he dashed under the oncoming swing.
Rechard, using this moment, plunged his sword at the foe. In an instant, the suit moved on its own, his left claw catching the blade leaving him stuck and completely open.

"Let's play nice, shall we?" his right claw swung toward Richard with overwhelming speed.

The captain braced himself.

Moments before the deadly hit, the sound of squeaking shoes echoed as the claw stopped in its place, lashed by Max, barely holding it back with his withered rope. He gritted his teeth, pulling with all his strength—just enough for the captain to back away.

"Who you calling a whelp now, asshole?" Max mocked, as the man quickly threw a jab at him with his claw.

Without hesitation, Max leaped on top of the claw as it smashed into the ground beneath him. He ran up the massive appendage, striking it at the joint with the multitool, which dug in like a hot knife through butter, locking into place with a satisfying crunch.

"Ha ha ha, well done, young man!" the captain cheered him on.

"Oh, shut up, will ya?" Max shot back, unamused by the captain’s reaction.

Just hold him there!, prepping his metal hook,he went in for the killing blow, movements swift and precise, he amid to end the fight with a final strike.

He leapt into action, aiming for his jugular—
Yet the man seemed calm, unfazed by his imminent demise.

The captain jumped, his hand plunging toward him, a sinister smile forming on the man's face.
The sound of the hook launching reassured everybody—
Yet in that fleeting moment, another was hurled.

The gargantuan claw hit the floor, steam releasing, it decoupled—freeing him in an instant.

The hook merely scraped the side of his neck.
-"My turn,",His claw slamming into him.

Within an instant, nauseating pain rushed through his body as he flew across the room with brutal force, crashing against the thick glass—cracking it in the process.

Unable to scream, he slid down the glass, breath shallow, the impact still reverberating through his bones.

-"Well, shit," Max spoke under his breath.

As it quickly turned, swinging toward him, he ducked just in time, but the following air pressure pushed him completely to the ground.

-"SWITCH!" Maeve yelled at Twinkle Toes, throwing him the shotgun, and grabbing the revolver.

She rushed forward, blasting every round she could into Blackbeard. His back legs quickly formed a shield around him.

-"You see that?" Maeve shouted.

-"THAT—WE'RE ABSOLUTELY FUCKED! I SEE IT!" Max replied, rolling over and trying to get up.

-"The legs—they're autonomous! They move on their own!" Maeve shouted.

-"And that helps us how?" Max replied, yanking the multitool out of the severed claw.

-"Well, it means it has a priority sequence-”protect the host” or something like that!"

-"Sounds good for him, no?" Max scoffed, gripping the multitool tighter.

-"Just watch," Maeve smirked back at him.

-"Your efforts are futile! A complex mind like my own can't be beaten by such insignificant beings as yourselves,".

Maeve quickly ducked past his swings, sliding below him, catching him from behind.

"NOW!" she yelled, opening fire.

His legs reacted instantly, twisting his body in an attempt to shield the host with its claw. Simultaneously, Twinkle Toes fired the shotgun, the recoil sending him flying.

The mechanical limbs faltered, struggling to process the sudden assault, their system scrambling to calculate a response to the overwhelming threat. However, before the task could be executed, Max threw his tool, jamming one of the legs in its place. This caused the system to enter override mode, protecting the host at all costs. It quickly turned on itself, closing all possible limbs in on each other, forming a cocoon-like shape, crashing it down onto the floor from its previously risen height.

-"Holy shit Maeve," Max said, speechless by what just happened.

Twinkle Toes gave a thumbs-up, still weighed down by the shotgun, half his size.

-"Now, quickly,where's the thing, before he gets up—wait, what the hell did he steal?"

They stared at each other, the thought never crossing their minds before this very moment.

-”Fuckk”Her eyes staring at Max, as if somehow he knew the answer.

-"The fuck do I know? A vase? Gold? His heart? Some ointment to help his beard grow?"

-"Ughhh, how the hell did we take a job without knowing what it is?"

-"Well, to be fair, we didn’t really take it as much as it was forced on us..."

Captain Richard grunted across the room slurring his words.

-"He stole...

-”WHAT” Flustered in unison, they screamed.

-THE NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES!" a deranged voice yelled, interrupting them, as the cocoon slowly opened, lifting him back to his previous height, revealing a golden thumb drive hanging from his neck.

Before he could finish, Maeve quickly fired a shot at him.

-"Will you stop that?!" he snapped.

Max rushed toward his multitool, yanking it free and causing as much damage as possible in the process.

-"Enough!" Blackbeard bellowed, his claw pointing toward the window.

A loud whine filled the air as a blast of energy shot out, shattering the cracked glass and depressurizing the cabin.

His legs digging into the floor, everything froze for a moment before getting yanked into the air.

Max quickly plunged his tool into the ground, caughting Twinkle Toes just as he was flung toward him.

Maeve slid across the floor clinging to everything in sight, the force sending her flying straight out the shattered window.

Her scream quickly disappearing.

A maniacal laugh filled the room.

-"What are you laughing about? There’s like a ton of severely uneducated pirates on your ship!"

-"AHAHAHA!" he continued."WHAT SHIP?"

His legs plunged him to the ceiling, gripping to the side of the wall as the floor started moving—so did the whole ship.

-"What the hell are you doing?"

-"Oh, you'll see. This is but one marvel of my own creation!"

-Max quickly put Twinkle Toes under his arm. "Hold on, think it's gonna be a doozy."

The carrier—it turned out—was a fully modular battle station. Drones, planes, and robots of all shapes and sizes launched from its decks, filling the sky like a swarm.

The bridge itself began shifting, transforming into a small vessel of its own, detaching from the main ship as it reconfigured mid-air.

Max clenched Twinkle Toes tightly as the heat blast roared past them, leaving nothing but dust in its wake. Above them, the detached bridge-turned-ship surged forward, rocketing toward the South Pole.

Falling apart before his very eyes, he had no time to think. He just ran.

Not a moment too soon, a loud yelling was heard "Captain Rechard?", through the main entrance, Fred and Bobby bursted in—exhausted and out of breath drenched in sweat, stood in complete confusion.

-"Long gone, buddy!" Max shouted as he rushed past them, Twinkle Toes in hand, sliding down the railing.

His voice echoed through the chaos—

-"IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

Without a moment to spare, the two sailors exchanged only a look of pure fear before stumbling down the stairs as fast as humanly possible.