Waking up

Tav opened her eyes as fire and chaos erupted around her. The pod was busted and she managed to shove it open falling to the Mind Flayers ship holding her splitting headache.

Her head was killing her and the brief memories of whatever life she had before the abduction was mystery. She knew she wanted to kill whoever put her here. The idea put a smile on her face.

She looked around and realized she was completely naked. "Damn it." She looked to the other pods. Some were empty and some had dead bodies in it but nothing to wear.

Luckily she didn't need a weapon to cast her magic as she followed the chaos outside the ship with the dragons and fire to the next room.

The side of the ship was on fire and the dragons moved in the sky. Suddenly a figure flipped over her sword in hand bit completely naked like her. She landed sword aimed at her.

"Abomination. This is your end." The Githyanki hissed.

Suddenly their minds interlocked as the tadpoles in their brains pulsed in a synchronized, agonizing rhythm. The Githyanki’s sword wavered, her fierce expression softening into one of profound confusion as she felt the sudden, psychic tether connecting her to the stranger. For a heartbeat, the battle ceased, replaced by a shared sensory rush of memories that weren't their own—images of alien cities and the cold void of space.

"My head." The Githyanki said. "You are no thrall. Vlaakith blesses me this day. Together we might survive."

"Blessings are for those who can afford to be patient," Tav replied, though the words felt heavy in her mouth. She shifted her weight, the cold metal of the ship's floor biting into her bare soles. She tried to maintain a posture of dignity, but it was difficult to feel like a formidable sorceress when the breeze from the breach in the hull was chilling her skin and she was standing entirely exposed.

"Clothing is irrelevant ife we die on this ship. We must move."

"What do I call you?" Tav asked.

"Lae'zel," the Githyanki replied, her voice regaining its edge though she didn't lower her blade. She glanced down at Tav, then at herself, her gaze lingering for a fraction of a second on the shared lack of attire. A flicker of something akin to discomfort crossed her sharp features—not modesty in the way a human might feel it, but a tactical frustration at the vulnerability of their exposed skin. "Now, move. The nautiloid is hemorrhaging stability, we must reach the helm."

They moved to the next room where imps flew at them attacking. Lae'zel moved with deadly force slicing through them as Tavs lightning blasts charred the air.

"Up the...slime net." Tav said looking that the 'ladder' that was to the next floor. Of course creatures that can fly dont bother with real ladders.

She knew she was giving Lae'zel an eye full of her bare ass but the ship was going down and they had to go up. Tav scrambled up the translucent, pulsating slime net, her skin sticking to the gelatinous fibers with a wet, sucking sound. Halfway up, she glanced down and saw Lae'zel following close behind, the Githyanki’s muscular, golden-hued form moving with a predatory grace despite the lack of armor. There was something absurd about the situation—two lethal warriors scaling a fleshy ladder in a rain of fire and psychic screams—but the adrenaline drowned out the modesty.

They moved to the next room to find more pods.

"How many have they taken?" Lae'zel gripped her sword tightly.

"Help!" Someone from the pod called out hitting the pod.

Tav moved and found a dark haired woman with a scar on her face banging on the inside of the pod.

"You! Let me out of here. Please!" The woman called.

"We have no time to waste on stragglers." Lae'zel said.

Tav ignored her as she looked for a way to open the pod but the image of the beautiful half elf in the pods death was in her mind. She pushed the image aside and found a ruin that appeared to fit into the machine.

"Do you wish to die for a stranger?"

"We cant leave her." Tav shoved the ruin into the device and felt the pull of the tadpole opening the pod.

The pod hissed, a cloud of cryogenic vapor venting into the room and momentarily obscuring the woman inside. As the glass slid upward with a mechanical groan, the woman stepped out, blinking rapidly against the harsh flickering lights of the nautiloid. She was a half-elf with striking features and a jagged scar cutting across her nose, her dark hair clinging to her damp forehead. She opened her mouth to thank Tav, but the words died as she took a full step forward and realized the sudden, sharp chill of the room was hitting every single inch of her skin

"Thanks." She said. Trying to cover herself with her shied that was by the pod but not her clothes.

"You're welcome," Tav said, though her voice lacked conviction as she shifted her weight, trying to find a way to stand that didn't feel like an invitation for a detailed anatomical study. "I think my names Tav."

"Shadowheart," the half-elf replied, her voice tight as she clutched the shield to her chest with a white-knuckled grip. She shifted her stance, trying to find a strategic angle that obscured her hips, but the oversized shield was an awkward substitute for trousers. "You keep dangerous company." She glared at Lae'zel.

"Dangerous company is exactly what you need on a Mind Flayers ship." Tav said.

"Fair point." Shadowheart conceded. "Let me come with you. Together we have a better chance getting off this ship."

"Then follow and keep pace," Lae'zel commanded, her voice echoing through the metallic corridors. She didn't look back, her golden skin glistening under the strobe of red emergency lights as she led the way toward the helm.

"One moment." Shadowheart pulled something from the pod and slipped it into the grip of her shield as a makeshift pocket.

"Whats that?" Tav asked.

"Its nothing. Lets move."

"Whatever it is, it better be useful," Lae'zel remarked, though she didn't slow her pace. She marched toward the helm with a rhythmic, barefoot slap against the cold floor, her muscles rippling under her golden skin. The sheer absurdity of their procession—three highly trained killers, stripped of every stitch of fabric, navigating a dying spaceship—wasn't lost on Tav. Every time she turned a corner, she felt the sudden, sharp awareness of the air hitting places it usually didn't, making her feel small and fragile despite the crackling energy of the lightning dancing between her fingers.

At the helm the found a devil and imps fighting a mind flayer.

The Flayer turned to her. "Thrall." He said in their minds pointing at the helm. "Connect the console. Now."

Tav didn't move, her eyes darting between the Mind Flayer and Devil as the fought.

"Do it." Lae'zel said. "Will deal with that creature once we're out of Avernus."

Imps flew at them. Shadowheart and Lae'zel thrust their weapons. Shadowhearts mace bashed a small demon’s head into the floor, while Lae'zel’s sword sang through the air. Tav focused her energy, sending a bolt of electricity that arced from one imp to another, smelling the ozone as they collapsed in twitching heaps. The battle was a blur of violence and skin, the trio fighting with a desperate, raw intensity. In the heat of the clash, modesty had vanished completely; there was no room to worry about the angle of a shield or the exposure of a hip when a claw was aiming for your throat.

Tav rushed past one imp and grabbed the nodes as a dragon flames erupted from a hole in the side at them.

The ship moved through planes as it fazed out of Aveurnus, the sudden shift in gravity slamming Tav forward. Her chest hit the cold metal of the console with a dull thud, the impact sending a shock of cold through her skin that made her gasp. Beside her, Lae’zel had braced herself against a bulkhead, her golden muscles locked tight, while Shadowheart had been thrown backward, her shield clattering loudly against the floor. For a moment, as the vessel shuddered violently, the three of them were frozen in an awkward, tangled heap of limbs and bare skin, the sheer physics of the crash momentarily overriding their survival instincts.

Then the ship began crashing into wherever they had fazed to. The devil and flayer died in the wreckage, and the trio was thrown from the helm as the nautiloid tore itself apart, plummeting toward a sun-drenched coastline. Tav felt the wind whip against her bare skin, a terrifying, roaring vacuum that stripped away any remaining thought of modesty. The fall was a blur of blue sky and screaming metal until the world exploded into white noise and salt spray.