This chapter might be a little shorter than normal. The muse just doesn't feel like cooperating for some reason. I'll make it up to you with a longer one on Sunday.

On to the story!


Before the Marines had time to react to the sudden reinforcement, Bishop jumped out of Rook's shadow fully, exposing the rest of his body. His dress pants were a black that matched his vest, and there was nary a crease or wrinkle to be seen. His black shoes shined as if freshly polished.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he lunged to the side, pistols ready. He fired two shots in succession. The first landed in the hand of the man who had fired the Seastone cuffs at Rook. It would be bothersome if he tried firing another at Bishop. The second went clean through the shoulder of a nearby Marine.

That seemed to bring them back up to speed. Seeing two more of their men taken down enrage them into action. Two pirates had single-handedly incapacitated a quarter of their force. One man, his muscles made him seem more thuggish than the rest of them, charged at Bishop with an axe in his hands. With a battle cry, he lifted the weapon and brought it down right on top of his head. But before the metal could bite into his flesh, Rook jumped between them and parried him with his sword.

"Stay away from my brother!" He roared. Using his weight against him, Rook suddenly backed away. Without Rook's sword to push against his attack, the man fell forward, creating an opening for Rook to slash him across the back. He collapsed with a groan and Rook flicked his sword to get rid of some of the blood. He glared menacingly at the remaining men. "If any of you bastards want to go after my brother, you have to go through me first."

The aura he gave off reminded the Marines of a wolf staring at his prey. The men closes to Rook gulped and tried to hide their fear, but their faces had gone a little pale.

Behind Rook, Bishop gave a small smile and a chuckle at his brother's comment. "Tough talk for someone who is behind."

Rook blinked. Then he turned to Bishop. "Huh?" He asked in confusion. "Behind in what? Have I missed something?"

Bishop calmly reloaded his pistols as he explained, "Behind in score. I've beaten five men. You've only beaten two. That means I'm ahead of you." His guns loaded, he aimed at the remaining Marines and smiled. And it was at that time that they all realized something. Rook may have been a wolf, but Bishop was a demon. Whereas Rook fought for self-preservation, Bishop was about to hunt them down like it was some sort of game.

An evil aura fell from the brothers as Rook turned around. Their eyes practically gleamed with malice as they both readied their weapons. "So that's how it is." Rook said with a dark smile. "Then I bet tonight's dessert that I'll win."

Bishop matched his smile with one of his own. "You're on."

The walls echoed with the screams of desperate men.


As Rook and Bishop fought their own opponents, Doc had managed to weave his way through alleys and backroads until he managed to leave the city and flee towards his ship. Luckily for him, he was just a bit faster than the men chasing him. He was halfway there, able to see the ship, when he stopped and stared in horror. His ship was surrounded by Marines. But he was used to those kinds of scenarios. They were pirates after all, it wasn't that uncommon for Marines to ambush them at their ship. What scared him was the Marines were firing their guns. Though there weren't aiming at the ship. They were shooting into the water. And if Doc looked carefully, he could see someone swimming quickly around the ship, narrowly avoiding the gunfire.

That someone was Maya. Only a mermaid could swim that fast. As if to clear away any doubts of that, Maya jumped out of the water in an arc over the ship. She was wearing a red bikini top. She must have already been swimming or sunbathing when the Marines had shown up. The water glistened beautifully around her, her tail practically sparkling in the sunlight, a complete contrast to the ugly look she was giving the ones firing at her. Yet despite the anger and scorn on her features, there were more than one sounds of admiration. That wasn't surprising. Many men considered mermaids to the pinnacle of beauty.

But unfortunately for them, Maya didn't care if they found here beautiful. As she swam by the edge of the beach, she extended her arms apart. "Mermaid Combat, Slipstream!" She clapped her hands together and the water around her pulsed. The waves of the ocean suddenly grew and attacked the shore all along the beach. The men that had strayed too close to the water screamed as the waves pulled them in. But even from the moment they were submerged, they tried swimming to the surface.

Maya wasn't going to give them the chance. She swam in circles around them and dove underneath. Some of the more hotheaded men tried to fire at her, but found that to be pointless. The sudden dunk in the water had wetted their gunpowder. Their pistols and rifles were now useless.

Smirking at their helplessness, Maya slowly swam in a circle. Then she pulled her arm back in a throwing motion. "Mermaid Combat, Alluvial Fan!" The water beneath the men started to churn and bubble as Maya shot a current of water at them. They were suddenly rocketed into the air by a geyser. They scream while some tried waving and flapping their arms in an attempt to fly away from the ocean. They didn't want to fight a mermaid in her home turf. But they soon found that they couldn't go back underwater even if they wanted to. Every time they started to fall, they geyser propelled them back in the air over and over again, both harming them and ripping at their clothes.

One of the men that was still on shore, eyed the others as they thrown into the air. Then he turned to Maya, who now had her head above water. "Stop this senseless fighting." He said commandingly. "You have no reason to fight for these pirates. Come with us willingly to give testimony against them and we'll see to it that you are returned to Fishman Island."

Both Maya and Doc were shocked by that declaration. It must not have occurred to him that Maya herself was a pirate, not a captive. Maya sneered at him. "And why the hell should I believe you?" She seethed. "You humans are all the same. The moment I go with you, I'll end up with a collar around my neck to be sold to the highest bidder."

One of the younger Marines stepped forward with an angry look on his face. "How dare you say that to the Captain!?" He shouted. "Slavery isn't legal in-."

The man didn't get to say another word before his Captain cut him off by putting his arm in front of him. He never took his eyes off of Maya, who was now almost shaking with suppressed anger. "You have the gal to look me in the eye and say there's no slavery? Mermaids are hunted viciously by you humans. Most are too afraid to leave our home island because they are scared they will end up the property of some sleazy noble." Her anger blossomed as she sent another Slipstream to drag them into the water. But the Captain was more careful then his subordinates. He pushed his men back and jumped out of the way of the attack.

Looking down at the mermaid, he sighed wearily, disgust seeping into his voice. "I tried to show compassion and this is what I get. This is why you, who are less than human, will always be seen as nothing more than an animal." He raised a hand and said, "Open fire!"

As the men once again shot at Maya, Doc was about to dash towards them to help her. He wasn't sure what he could do, but he wouldn't let her get hurt. But just as he stepped forward, he felt someone put a gun to his head.

"Don't move and put 'em where I can see 'em."

Doc froze and slowly raised his hands in surrender. He glanced to the side to see a burly looking Marine smiling maliciously at him. In his hands was the rifle that was currently pressed against Doc's temple.

The man chuckled at having Doc under his power. But just as he was about to order him to do something else, the tables turned.

"Step away from our Captain."

With a sound of surprise, the Marine froze and glanced around him. And while he did that, Doc turned around to see what was happening. On the Marine's left and right stood Alec and Rook, their swords making an 'X' over the Marine's throat. And behind him, much to Doc's surprise, was Bishop, his gun locked and loaded and pressed against the back of his head.

"If you were to hurt our Captain, we might take that a little badly." Alec said threateningly. He pressed the edge of his blade against the Marine's throat. "If that happened, I don't really like your odds of coming out of this situation alive."

Doc bristled at that. "Alec, we've talked about this!"

The thief waved at him nonchalantly. "Yeah, yeah I know. But technically, I wouldn't be part of your crew anymore because you'd be dead. So I could kill this loser if I wanted to."

The Marine was thinking furiously on how to get away from them when Alec spoke. He opened his mouth to shout at him when Bishop cocked his gun. "Not one move." He said calmly. He said it with such authority that the man truly believed that if he so much as breathed wrong, he would have a bullet in his brain.

That brought Alec's attention over to Bishop. "Who the hell are you, anyway!?" He asked loudly.

Before he had a chance to answer, Rook flipped his katana around and brought the pummel down on top of the Marine's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Uh…we'll explain that later. For now, we should probably go help Maya."

Doc intervened on that line of thought. "Wait. How did you all get away from the Marines? I mean, there were a lot of them chasing you, Rook. And you took them head on, Alec."

The two men looked at each before scratching their necks and looking away from Doc awkwardly, remembering the piles of groaning and unconscious men they had left behind. "Oh…you know…sneakiness." Rook said, plainly lying.

"…How many?" Doc wanted to know. He was rubbing his head, feeling a headache coming on. He had to resist the urge to go and help those poor men.

They answered in unison.

"Seven."

"Five."

The two looked at each other again. Rook, seething in frustration and Alec gloating arrogantly.

"Only five? Man, you're starting to slip up." Alec taunted with a grin. "Do you even know how to use that sword?"

Rook ground his teeth together, biting back his more hurtful retorts. Instead, a smile spread across his face as he pointed at his brother. "Oh yeah? Well you still got beat by Bishop!" He said with relish.

Alec looked blankly at the marksman. "Nine." He confirmed with a nod. Then he gave Rook a small smile. "I hope we're having pudding tonight." He commented, referring to the bet they had made. Bishop had won, so he got Rook's dessert for dinner that night. And he did enjoy pudding.

Both Alec and Rook simmered with frustration…though both for different reasons.

"Who are you!?" Alec shouted again.

But before he could answer, the sounds of gunfire reached their ears. All of their attentions were directed once again to Maya, who was trying to avoid being shot by the Marines at the beach.

"Less talking, more fighting!" Rook said, running towards the commotion. "We've got a mermaid to help."


Like I said, sorry for the shorter chapter. Especially since it is a few days late as well. Hopefully the muse is feeling livelier come Sunday.

Let me know what you thought and I'll see you next time!