#to keep it simple theyre a band of immortal space pirates who like to have violence!

[rangercorpses]

This is going to appeal to me and only me bc this is so fucking niche but, hear me out

Mechanisms/rangers apprentice crossover

Screenshot of my og idea:

And some more under the cut that was supposed to be a quick outline but turned into a bullet point fic:

There's these bandits that are just. Devastatingly destructive, and witnesses swear they're wielding some sort of magic sword that can shoot fire out the end???

Anyways Halt and Will and Gilan and Horace get recruited into catching them bc ofc they do <3

They find the bandits - it's not hard, they're not even bothering with being subtle about anything, so they just have to follow the trail of destruction.

They arrive and scope out the situation, and find..a group of four people, sitting in a(n empty, half aflame) bar just..laughing and.....playing music?

(in a bar that's burning to the ground. A bar. That's burning. To the ground. Horace can't quite get over that. Will is eyeing one of bandits, who's playing a mandolin. He looks suspiciously like he's assessing his chances of nicking it (it's a very nice mandolin after all).)

They can't reasonably go into a flaming building for four bandits, even bandits as dangerous as these four are, so they use the opportunity to scope it out

It's almost an hour later when the bandits finally leave the bar

(as if their presence had been the only thing holding it up, the bar collapsed in a wave of smoke and sparks behind them. One of them, dressed in grey and black with bright red hair blew a kiss back at the flaming wreckage)

Now that they're out of the bar, Gilan pursues them, staying carefully out of sight, the other three staying behind to wait for him to report back.

Several hours later, he returns, sheepishly in tow behind the four bandits. Halt had an arrow nocked and aimed at the redhead in moments, whom he'd deemed to be the leader. (Not that it seemed to have any effect on them, save amusement)

"So this is who's been following us," the one with the red hair said, looking each of them up and down judgmentally.

"They're Not Very Stylish," another said, pouting. It seemed to be..made of wood? Will tried not to think about it too hard, with little success. The wooden man, seeming to sense his confusion, somehow smiled wider.

Halt, still aimed at the redhead, very calmly said, "Let Gilan go."

"Oh please, he's not our prisoner, we're not barbaric," the third said, seemingly the only normal-looking one in the group.

The fourth nodded, the light glinting strangely off his skin, making it seem almost metallic. But metal skin is impossible, right? "It's wrong to hold someone against their will," he said pleasantly. "He's free to go back to you, if he wishes."

Both groups are silent for a moment, before Halt jerked his head, motioning for Gilan to come back over.

The moment he was over, the third beamed. "See, was that so hard? And really, you can lose the bow and arrows, those won't do much. Though you are welcome to try," he said with a wink.

Slowly, Halt lowers his bow, reasoning that now that Gilan had been returned, things were..not safe, but more stable. The bandits certainly weren't acting violent or destructive (at the moment, anyways).

It seemed almost like..they were humoring them

"You four are the bandits who have been looting and burning towns and villages, right?" Will asks. They're being so not murderous that he feels the need to be sure they've got the right people. In his gut, however, he knows they are.

The wooden man starts nodding immediately, its hat nearly falling off from the vigorous motion. The normal-ish man gives a sweeping bow. "The ones and only."

The metal(?) man shakes his head though. "I haven't committed any crimes though, I'm not on the right setting for that." The rangers and knight all unanimously decide to ignore that.

"In that case, you're all under arrest," Halt says, ready to fire of the bandits show any sign of fighting back.

However, they merely nod amicably. Again, the feeling of being humored lays heavily over the group as they quietly attach thumb cuffs and tie their wrists, searching for any weapons and tossing them aside.

Will handled the wooden man's mandolin with care, and it smiled at him for it. "That's Very Polite Of You," it says. "Much More Polite Than Jonny."

Will says nothing, merely continuing, and trying not to think of how the wood of it's fingers were warm.

Horace gives a shout of surprise when he discovers that the most normal looking if the bandits has an arm made out of metal. The man simply wiggles his eyebrows and detaches then reattaches one of his fingers, smirking mischievously

The metal man holds out his arms in front of him for Gilan, allowing him to put on the restraints without complaint, even going so far as to point out several hidden weapons, stating that "a lie of omission is still a lie." This is met with groans from the other bandits.

The redhead quirks an eyebrow as Halt approaches, to which Halt raises an eyebrow back. This goes on for a minute longer than Halt will admit to before he finally attaches the thumb cuffs and ties them up.

Once the bandits are all tied up, there's nothing left but to take them back to Castle Araluen.

The ride back is heavy with the tension of knowing, with complete and utter certainty, that the bandits could break out at any second with ease.

Instead, they are laughing and talking amongst themselves. As they talk, they refer to each other by name, and they learn that the redhead is named Ashes, the man with the metal hand is Marius, the metal man Brian, and the wooden man the Toy Soldier. They are rather disturbed to learn that there are at least three more like them- though where they are, none of the Araluens can say.

At one point, Halt whirls around at the sound of a violin. "Where did you get that violin?" he snaps, unknowingly echoing another's words, a millennia and several dimensions away. Marius startles, looks down at the violin in his hands, and for some reason, looks sad.

Will quietly sidles up next to Brian and asks why his skin is made of metal, and how it works. Brian laughs. "It's not just my skin," he says. "Everything but my heart is mechanical."

Will doesn't know whether to be horrified or curious. "Why?" he asks.

"I was shot into the sky in froze in space," Brian says easily, as if this is something he's commonly asked. 

Will, for once, doesn't ask any more questions.

They do finally arrive at Castle Araluen, and when the bandits are sentenced to death, neither Halt, Will, Gilan, nor Horace are even a little surprised when they get right back up after being killed.