Disclaimer: In no way do I, AlterGenesis-X own the Skies of Arcadia series. It is a franchise owned by Sega. In addition, in no way can this fan fiction be used for profit. Any characters not originally introduced in the Skies of Arcadia series, are copyrighted separately by myself.

Skies of Arcadia

Just Beyond the Horizon

Author's Notes: Ah, no need for reviews. I like Skies of Arcadia too much to stop because no one is reading. Woo, once I get to the Fourth or Fifth Chapter then I really start to like where I'm going with this. If you KNOW what I mean…uh…guess you don't. LOL.

Aerial TWO: Roll the Dice

Vyse and Aika sat in Dyne's office with all the clues they had gathered from the guild. From the information, they found that Dice had a heavily armored ship and he had about 3 or 4 crew members. Dice was known to steal from ships that were after him, he never stole from the unsuspecting. He normally went after the wealthier ships first.

"So, you think we can lure him out?"

Vyse smiled. "Oh, it'll be easy. He steals from people who are after him and we're after him. Plus, if we carry all the cargo we took from the Valuan Empire, he's bound to come get us."

Just as Vyse finished speaking, Fina walked through the door. Aika stood up and jumped towards her energetically.

"Oh! Fina! Fina! You're just in time! We're going to go in for a biggest haul ever!" Fina smiled at Aika. She was told about this when they returned from Sailor's Island. At first, Fina did not know why 5,000,000 gold was so important, but after they had explained it to her, she became just as excited as Vyse and Aika were.

"Do you think we should ask everyone else to help us?" Fina asked.

"I guess we could, we don't know want to risk it and lose our shot at 5,000,000." Vyse stepped out of Dyne's office and stood above the cliff. Everyone was working diligently when Vyse shouted.

"HEY! ARE ANY OF YOU INTERESTED IN HAULING IN 5,000,000 GOLD?"

When Vyse had shouted that, it seemed time had frozen. Everyone stopped and looked at Vyse with their jaws dropped to the ground. Did they hear him right? 5,000,000 gold? They all thought. In a mad scramble they all ran to Dyne's office in the prospect of scoring such a large amount of money. Vyse laughed.

"I guess you ARE all interested…"

Vyse explained the situation to all of them and they clasped their hands together in excitement. Dyne was extremely happy about it.

"Just think of what we could do with that much money!"

"Yeah, let's do it! Let's go capture Dice!"

"YEAH!"

They all raised their hands in the air in agreement.

So, that same day, they began their preparations to capture Dice. They would take two ships, one with a crew of three and the other with a crew of four. They'd select the best seven in battle and lure Dice out. The last ship that was a victim of Dice was in the Nasr region. They thought that was the best place to bring him out. The first ship, the Delphinus was led by Vyse, Aika and Fina accompanied him. The second ship, the Arcenia was led by Dyne and his select three.

As they prepared to depart, all of the villagers of Pirate Isle saw them off. Vyse was at the helm of his ship, while Aika stood beside him and Fina stood behind them watching the skies. Aika put her hand on Vyse's shoulder.

"Hey, do you really think we can do this?"

Vyse took his right hand off the wheel and put it on top of her hand.

"Of course we can." Fina watched them two closely and was a little envious of Aika. Their friendship had always been so close and no one was left out. But, this time, it seemed Vyse and Aika were in their own little world and Fina was left just to watch. Fina didn't really understand her emotions, but as long as they were happy, it shouldn't really matter to her, or so she thought.

The Delphinus and Arcenia were just about to arrive in the Nasr region. They brought out all their valuables on the dock, like they were giving some sort of offering. Adding insult to injury, they put out Dice's wanted poster all over the goods to show they really wanted a piece of him. He was sure to come. They didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, coming out of the dustiness of the Nasr regions a medium-sized ship came out.

"He's here!" Dyne motioned for Vyse to go in the other direction and they would sandwich him between their ships so they would have nowhere to run. Dice's ship stopped Vyse on the right of him and Dyne on the left of him. Everything was going as planned.

"Fire!"

They fired the cannons, as they did; Dice's ship began to quickly move dodging the cannonball assault.

"His ship is fast!"

Vyse's attack unfortunately backfired and hit Dyne's ship in the side, causing him to lose altitude. "Oh, Dad! I'm sorry!" Dyne replied. "I'm not Dad! I'm Captain Dyne! Don't worry about it! Just take home that reward for us! We have to repair the ship!" Dyne ship retreated leaving only the Delphinus to take on Dice's armored ship. Dice made a u-turn and headed for the Delphinus. Aika looked and pointed.

"HEY! He's heading straight for us!" Fina had her hand over her mouth, worrying at what could happen. Vyse spun the wheel and prepared. "Fire the cannons!" They fired. The cannon fire barely left a dent on Dice's ship.

"DAMMIT! Nothing can touch that thing!" Dice's ship continued forward.

"Hey, we're gonna crash!"

Dice smashed his ship into the front of the Delphinus. They all were pushed back and fell to the ground by the sudden impact. Vyse rubbed his head and helped Aika and Fina to their feet. When they looked out the window, they two caped figures. One was taller than the other and they were taking the goods that were on the deck.

"Shoot! We can let him get a way with this! Let's go out there!" Aika and Fina nodded in agreement. They quickly ran outside with their weapons. Seeing the two figures still busy in their looting, Aika shouted.

"Hey! You thieves! I think its best you stop before I slice and dice you!" They ignored her and continued to pack stuff onto their ship. Aika stomped her foot in frustration. "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" Aika was getting steamed, and she threw her boomerang at one of the caped figures, noticing, the taller one jumped into the air and knocked down Aika's attack with his fist.

"Hey, feisty girl we got here."

"Who you calling, Feisty?"

"It would pain me so much to have to fight a lady. Sakura, do you mind?"

The second caped figure shook her head. She removed her cape, revealing a small girl, with purple hair. She had it tied in a pony tail. A purple ninja suit covered the rest of her body. Aika looked at her strangely.

"Man, you guys are some weird pirates…"

The taller hooded figure removed his cape, it was young boy. He was hearing a headband that tied at the back of his head; he had white hair, similar to that of clouds. A jacket and a red shirt, with black pants covered his outfit. He had long rod on hooked onto his back. Vyse looked at him with his swords drawn.

"So, you're Dice?"

"You could call me that."

"Well then, today your days of thievery are over!"

"We'll see about that. Roll the Dice, my friend!"

End AerialTWO

Author's Note: I wrote this one, then checked back to see that someone had reviewed. Very nice. Now, I'll pump that 3rd one out right away.