Guilty Gear X2
The sounds of erupting flames and metallic clashes once again echoed through the Grove. Steel enforced twine and blue-and-shadow colored feathers hung in the air, as the adversaries continued their reckless clash, disrupting the once calm forest.
A dark form suddenly wrapped itself around one of the combatants. Two burning eyes flared crimson as the huge figure drew its bow, aiming for the individual in front of him.
Bridget's breath was shallow and rapid. In his hand lay the remains of his yo-yos. Glossy pieces of broken string lay scattered around him as he held his wounded arm. A long gash ran across his forehead, it too flowing with claret blood.
He raised his head to gaze at the beast in front of him. No longer did a sad smile rest upon his lips. Only a thin line of indifference remained. Slowly, the line tugged upward, and, to his own surprise, held a defiant grin.
"Go ahead..." he said, the smile growing wider as he threw off his actor's mask, "...shoot. You win..." he said as he little by little rose to his feet. "FINISH ME OFF AND SEND ME TO HELL!" He screamed as tears ran down his cheek, mixing with his blood.
Only one thought ran through Bridget's mind as he saw the arrow finally reaching its limit. 'Wouldn't matter anyway...' he thought as the figure finally released his arrow, the bolt of intensity and hatred hurtling towards him. "... I never lived life the way I wanted..." he whispered as the shot struck home.
As soon as the arrow reached it's target, whatever demon that possessed the figure disappeared. A young woman stood in its place, her azure hair blowing in the wind. As she opened her eyes, her gaze fell upon the wounded bounty hunter in front of her.
"Oh my God..." she whispered as the extent of what she had done finally dawned on her.
Bridget awoke to the soft whir of machinery that had gently roused him from his sleep. "Ah." He said as he opened his eyes to the bright sunlight. 'Where am I.' thought the young man as he tried to sit up.
An outpouring of pain in various parts of his body immediately attacked him. Unfamiliar bonds surged through his arm and his forehead. As he tried to turn his head, he noticed that his temple was heavily bandaged and his right arm was in a sling. His clothes were also gone, only a thin cotton shirt and a black pair of jeans covered his bandaged body. Bracing himself, he stood up shakily, using the bedrail as support.
His eyes had finally focused in the bright light, and he saw that he was in a cell of some sort. Peeling orange paint and pipes with numerous leaks tied together sloppily with rags made up most of the walls in his room. In front of him was a door, opened a crack to let the cool air-conditioned atmosphere in.
Leaning heavily against the wall, Bridget painfully made his way to the door. Upon reaching it, he used the knob as leverage. He soon found himself almost falling off the railing of an overhanging walkway. Underneath him what once was the soft drone of machinery increased to a monotonous pace of pistons, gears and rotors.
"Whoa..." said Bridget as he saw the height of the drop he nearly fell into. He slowly backed away from the ledge and entered a hallway at the other side of the walkway.
"Man, where am I?" He said to himself again as he wandered into the hall. He was about to lose his temper when he heard footsteps tapping on the steel floor. His bounty hunter instincts kicked in as the footsteps grew louder. Much to the protest of his aching muscles, he slowly began to unravel the bandages on his arm.
Bridget pressed his back against the wall and closed his eyes. He started to count backwards under his breath.
"Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One..."
"Hey, what are you doing here-Urk" a female voice started as Bridget sprang into action. Using the bandages, he gagged the girl and pulled her closer to him. Closing the distance, he drove a swift blow to her stomach, knocking her out cold.
"Sorry." He said to the unconscious girl.
"Yeah, you probably will be when I'm finished with you." Another, more angry voice said.
Bridget cursed whatever gods were listening as he recognized that particular pitch of sound. A whiz in the air alerted him and he ducked his head. An anchor flew above him, causing a huge dent in the metal wall where his head was only a few moments before.
"May?" He muttered as the dust cleared.
The pirate winked at the bounty hunter and she heaved her anchor to her shoulder. "Got that right, kid. And I'll show you what happens to guys that mess with the crew of the Mayship!" She replied, getting into stance. She swayed her body rhythmically to the rocking of the airship, making sure she was in perfect synch with the motions.
"Are you ready?" She said, grinning at her opponent.
"Let's rock..." Bridget countered, readying himself for the battle.
Bridget was at a marked disadvantage. Not only was he injured in unfamiliar territory, but also he was caught without any weapons except for some used bandages.
"Go, Mr. Dolphin!" The brunette-haired brigand cried, and out of nowhere a blue porpoise exploded into the battlefield.
Bridget quickly wrapped the bandages around his fingers, forming a hasty pentagram. The creature crashed headfirst on to the cloth star, only to be rebounded by some unknown force.
"Well, it looks as if you won't be going down after a single blow." May said haughtily as she saw her pet being deflected. "But it doesn't matter since I'm going to win anyway." She finished, once again swinging her anchor.
Bridget raised his pentagram, and May's anchor bounced off harmlessly. However, Bridget knew that he would lose eventually. His strength was being drained and the bandages were fraying slightly, making the pentagram weaker and weaker with each strike.
"Damn, got to think of a way to finish this." Bridget said as he tried to hold up his rapidly disappearing shield. Suddenly, a moment of inspiration flashed upon him as May drew back to prepare for another attack. May watched with vague curiosity as Bridget carefully unfurled his pentagram, and slowly took himself out of defensive position.
"Uh uh, you're not going to surrender; I'm only getting warmed up." May pouted as she leaned on the side of her anchor.
"I'm not surrendering." Bridget stated simply, as he started to unwind the bandages on his head also.
"Well, whatever. Here I come, kid!" May said impatiently, charging towards Bridget full speed.
What happened next flowed like a river. Bringing down the weight, May watched in amazement as Bridget sidestepped the anchor then held the handle for a second and simply let go, as if nothing happened at all. May overshot a bit and promptly turned to face Bridget, still standing in the same place where he had let go of the anchor, his sad smile still hanging on his lips.
"You missed..." he said teasingly.
"Why you little..." May began. She raised her anchor once more, and charged towards Bridget. Once again, Bridget only stood stone still as the orange-clad pirate careened towards him.
"Hah! I'm not falling for that again." May cried as she switched her overhead slash to a side-sweep.
"Yes, you are falling for something completely different." Bridget said, pulling at what seemed to be thin air.
A white stripe suddenly appeared in the air. May watched in horror as the stripe seemed to shoot out at her. However, the bar seemed to only pass by her head. "Looks like you missed this time!" She cried, bringing her anchor down once more.
"On the contrary..." Bridget replied.
He tugged at the air one more time. "What the..." May screamed as she saw that the stripe was actually a bandage that had tied itself around the eye of her anchor. "...I think I hit the bull's-eye." Bridget said as the anchor came sailing out of May's fingers and into his. "Uh oh." May squeaked as Bridget cracked the bandage like a whip, making the huge metal hook hurtle towards her.
The force of the impact sent May flying to the wall. A loud thud rang through the battle scarred hallway as May added a new dent to the wall close to the mark she made at the beginning.
"Enough!" A new voice thundered across the hall. Bridget quickly tried to recall the anchor, but a gold coin tearing through the fabric cut the bandage. Bridget raised his head to see a pair of glinting sunglasses, and a rather pissed-off looking Johnny underneath.
Once again Bridget found himself in the bed of the peeling orange brig, staring at the ceiling full of cracked pipes. Outside, his captors were talking over what to do with him. He found the hum of the machinery kind off soothing as the minutes dragged on. He was about to count the rags that tied the pipes to the wall and wondered why they looked so familiar when the door opened, ushering in May and Johnny. Johnny looked at ease, but May was silently fuming as Bridget only smiled and gave her a small wave.
"So, what are you going to do about me?" Bridget asked, with true curiosity as to what a couple of his former contracts would do to their subjugator.
Johnny took in a deep breath and started. "That would be easy. We're holding you for ransom." Johnny said, a little hesitantly.
"Oh? But I thought that you were a so-called 'gentleman' pirate, eh Mr. Johnny?" Bridget asked innocently, remembering the description given to him on numerous bounty lists.
'Man, I hate having to work with kids...' Johnny silently thought to himself as Bridget's doleful eyes awaited his answer.
"Cut the innocent act, you yo-yo swinging queer! Johnny has a perfectly good reason why we're holding a weak little kid like you!" May said testily, the damage of her defeat by nothing but a few bandages and a wounded boy still fresh in her mind.
"This coming from the girl who lost to the yo-yo-swinging queer..." Bridget countered, sticking his tongue out at May.
"Why you little..." May began as she started to pummel the young man in a cloud of dust.
'I really hate working with kids...' Johnny thought again as he broke-up the two squabbling teenagers. "All right, break it up, break it up! Be careful with those pants. I don't want you to stain them." Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs. The fight stopped abruptly and both teenagers looked at Johnny with surprised eyes. "These are your pants?" They both said; pointing to the black jeans Bridget wore. 'Yup. Really hate working with kids...'
"So, what do you need my father's money for?" Bridget said
"Oh no, I wish it were money this time, kid." Johnny replied darkly.
"Huh?" Escaped from Bridget's mouth. What would they want from his father if not money?
"From what I've heard, you're daddy's got a pretty good information network. I think I may be able to use it." Johnny stated, his gaze never leaving the floor.
Bridget was no fool. He could tell that there was another reason why Johnny needed his connections so badly. Johnny was fidgeting and adjusting his position, like a teenager asking his dad for the keys to the car.
"I don't believe you, Mr. Johnny. My dad may be well informed, but I doubt that he knows anything that you can't find out yourself." Bridget replied eying Johnny suspiciously.
"Humph. Looks like I can't pull the wool over your eyes, Bridget." Johnny ceded, addressing Bridget by his name.
"Do you remember that blue-haired girl that you were fighting with a couple of weeks ago..." Johnny began, pulling up a chair beside Bridget's bed. "Weeks?" Bridget blurted out. He knew he was probably knocked out for a couple of days, but weeks? "Yeah, you were pretty banged up." May added, taking the pleasure of adding a small smirk to the sentence.
"All right. Anyway, after she brought you up to the Mayship, she's gone missing for a while. Seems whatever happened there shook her up quite a lot. We know your dad's been looking for gears, so I think that he'd be the best non-government source we have." Johnny recounted, showing his true reasons as to why they were still holding Bridget.
"Oh, is that all? You don't need my dad for that. I could do it for you free." Bridget said cheerfully.
"You?" May and Johnny said incredulously.
"Hey, just because I'm inept doesn't mean I'm incompetent." Bridget said, trying in vain to defend his position.
"Well..." Johnny said, trying to decide what to do.
"Aw, come on. I haven't had a paying job for months. I need to prove to my town that I can do this." Bridget whined.
"I guess it would be okay to let you try for a while..." May said, still a little unsure whether she made a good decision. "Right. Bring back Dizzy in a week, and we'll see what happens from there." Johnny said, backing up May's statement.
"Great!" Bridget exclaimed happily. "Thanks, I really appreciate this..." he began, then suddenly thought about something. "Umm, you wouldn't happen to know where my stuff is, do you?" He asked unsteadily.
"Oh, you mean you're yo-yo? April fixed them up for you. I'll go get them." May said, walking out the door.
"Ok, thanks." Bridget called out to the girl. He then turned to Johnny. "Uh, do you know where my clothes are, Mr. Johnny?" Bridget said, feeling a bit out of place in Johnny's jeans.
"What do you mean by that?" Johnny said, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"I mean my dress, Mr. Johnny." Bridget said, getting impatient.
"Well..." Johnny said, pointing towards the ceiling.
Bridget gasped as he remembered where he had seen those rags before. It was his costume torn into little pieces!
"You used my dress to patch up your pipes?" Bridget said disbelievingly.
"Well, they were already torn beyond repair, and the ship needed a few quick fix ups..." Johnny said "... Besides, I think you look better in guy's clothes being a... um... guy." he finished hastily.
Before a Bridget could reply, a huge explosion rocked the side of the ship. "What the?" Johnny said as the metal echoed the shot.
"Johnny! Testament's on deck, and he's pissed!" May said, bursting into the room, carrying Bridget's weapons.
"Right, come on!" Johnny replied, readying his sword.
May and Johnny ran out of the room as fast as their legs could carry them, leaving Bridget behind. "Hey!" Bridget cried out, but another explosion rocked the airship and knocking Bridget back into his bed and making the door swing back, locking Bridget in the cell. "Oh great..." Bridget said sarcastically as the Mayship swayed in the clouds. "Do I really look better in pants?" he sighed.
"I hate humans." Testament said as he laid waste to another part of the Mayship, wielding his bloody scythe through iron and steel. "Too bad. I happen to like them." Johnny said as he climbed out of the hatch, holding his sword at the ready.
"Where's Dizzy!" Testament said, pointing his scythe at Johnny.
"Whoa, hold on there, big fella'." Johnny said, trying to avoid a bad situation.
"Just like a human. Always holding out for a few more miserable seconds of life." Testament sneered.
"Hey! You can't talk to Johnny like that!" May said as she too climbed out of the hatch.
"Impudent little Nippon. Don't meddle in things that don't concern you." Testament said, narrowing his eyes at the Japanese pirate.
"What did you say? Are you calling me names?" May retorted hotly.
"Not only impertinent, but ignorant too." Testament ended, turning his attention back to Johnny. "You! I entrusted her safety in your filthy hands. I should have known better."
"Look. It's not our fault. Dizzy ran away by herself." Johnny said, slowly drawing his sword.
"Ha. It looks as if Dizzy has finally reached her senses and left you vile creatures." Testament began, lifting his scythe to an attack stance. "That means I can finally get rid of you useless homo sapiens..."
"I don't think we're all that useless." a somewhat cheery voice said from behind Testament.
All three heads turned to see Bridget, holding a broken down door in one hand and leisurely spinning his yo-yo on the other. "Feh, it's only the cross-dressing yo-yo boy. Very well, if you wish to die, so be it." Testament said, throwing his blade at the young man.
Seeing the oncoming attack, Bridget threw the reinforced steel door at the scythe, only to have it be cut in half by the spinning razor. Bridget closed his eyes and braced himself for the blow, but was pleasantly surprised that his head wasn't cut off in the next few seconds. He cracked open an eye to see May holding her anchor against the scythe.
"Thanks." he said to May, still playing with his yo-yos.
"Don't mention it..." May replied, fighting under the strain of the spinning blade still trying to get through her defense.
"You know, you could help out a bit..." May groaned as the weight of the scythe seemed to double with every passing moment.
"Oh, right." Bridget said, almost as though the thought just struck him. Pulling up both yo-yos, Bridget let loose the larger of the two right through the anchor's eye, as he did previously at the hallway. The spinning disc hit the scythe with the exact opposite force the blade was rotating in, so the scythe was deflected back to Testament at twice the force.
"Wow. That was pretty good, Bridget." May complimented him.
The scythe flew towards Testament, only to stop mere inches away from his face. Testament waved his hand and the scythe instantly returned to his side
"You should know by now that such petty tactics will not stop me." Testament said, raising his weapon high.
"Yeah, but that thing behind you will..." Bridget said with a smile, pointing at Testament's back.
"Oh please, don't think I'll fall for that trick because-Urk" Testament said before a Rodger ran over him with his miniature bicycle.
"Told you it'd stop you." Bridget said, giving a knowing nod to Roger, who was shrinking back into a yo-yo.
"Geez, that smarts." Testament muttered as he pried himself off of the ground.
The Gear found himself crashing back down to the deck as Johnny's Italian leather shoes rather forcefully stomped on his head.
"I knew hiring a bounty hunter would anger the Pirate Gods." Johnny said as he shook his head. Turning to the two kids behind him, he flashed them one of his "God's Gift to Women" smiles. "Still, I guess it isn't too bad to have another fighter on board." Johnny smirked.
"I could have taken him on by myself, you know!" Bridget shouted, waving her anchor around. Bridget decided to let that one slide and continued on to the more pressing matter. "Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Johnny, but what are we going to do about him?" He said, pointing towards the slowly reviving Testament.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I almost forgot about him..." Johnny said, tipping his hat up to take a better look at the unconscious Gear. Shrugging, Johnny kicked Testament on the side, making the Gear fall off the deck of the Mayship and plummet to the Earth below.
Bridget sweat-dropped as Johnny put his hands in his coat pockets and whistled a tune, heading towards the control room. "Mr. Johnny, don't you think that will just make Testament angrier?" He dared to ask, not even caring what kind of explanation he would receive. "Ah, don't worry about him, Kid. Testament won't get any angrier just because I kicked him off the ship." Johnny laughed, turning to face the bounty hunter. "You, however, have a contract to live up to." he said, getting serious.
"What do you mean?" Bridget said, puzzled. "A week, kid. Bring Bridget back in a week or else we kidnap you again. Any of this ring a bell." Johnny said, tapping the side of his head. "Oh, right! I won't let you down, Mr. Johnny." Bridget said, giving the pirate captain a sloppy salute. "Sure. Just make sure you find her." Johnny nodded. Then turning to face May, he addressed the orange pirate as well.
"May, take Yo-yo boy to the flagship. We'll be landing soon, so make sure that he gets off safe, and head back as soon as you can." Johnny said. Tipping his hat once more, he bid them adieu and walked off towards the control room...
Author's Notes:
Cool. I made a fanfic for GGXX. Anyways, just to let you guys know, Bridget is not a queer. Everyone just assumes he is. Plus, after his battle with Dizzy, I think he's had enough of cross-dressing to last him a lifetime. Plus, since his costume was used up for rags, he'll be wearing dude clothes from here on out. Tell me what you think about it.
Yours Truly,
Lexmark