A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone! This one was a bit hard to write, due to several reasons, but I got it done in the end. I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter nine
Simon grumbled, half awake. It had been a long night of good food and drink, and even though the Captain had told the monks that he wouldn't be able to distribute the rest of Katsuyama's messages, they'd still thrown them a party he hadn't seen the likes of in years. He knew that the morning would be filled with a killer hangover, and he wanted nothing more than to stay in the warm embrace of dreamland a little while longer.
There had been a river of rum, and slender, brown-haired girls with a fetish for gunpowder... But a stingy sensation had rocked his dreams, and he felt himself drifting closer to conciousness every second. The stinging sensation returned with increased force, and he was woken as it spread out across his cheek with a burning sensation.
"Simon!" a voice screamed, "Wake up! I've been slapping you for three minutes already!"
Simon opened his eyes. Niklas stood before him, with an angry expression on his face.
"What the hell Niklas, why are you-"
"Stop your whining and get the fuck up!" his voice was shaky with emotion. "The captain's gone!"
Simon composed himself in a matter of seconds, and his hangover disappeared without a trace.
"What? Wha...how? Are you sure?"
"I've been looking all over the place, and he's nowhere to be found! None of the monks have seen or heard a thing, but they found several of the guards outside, it appears they've been knocked out since late last night! Lynx said she would-"
"Would the two of you get a fucking move on? "
"- she would try to find out where he's gone." Niklas finished meekly. They both ran out to meet up with Lynx. There are no excuses for keeping a lady waiting, and if that lady is in a foul mood and armed with swords, you'd better have a bit of extra spring in your step.
She stood in the courtyard, looking down on what at first seemed to be nothing more than a pool of dried clay or some spilled wine, but when they got closer, they saw it for what it really was: blood. And not a small amount either.
"They hurt him." she said, her mismatched eyes flashing with anger in the morning light. "The fucking bastards."
Simon looked at the pool of blood with a grim look on his face. "What do we do? How do we-"
"I can find them." Lynx said, with a determined look on her face. There was something feral and animalistic about her. Her eyes slowly changed shape, turning from their usual round shape into the watchful, deep eyes of a cat. Suddenly something black and orange sprang forth from her lower back with a sound like a whip. Simon and Niklas stared in amazement.
It was a tail. A thick, brightly orange tail with black spots and tip that went from the small of her back up to around the top of her neck. It whipped angrily in the air, reflecting her emotions. She looked at Simon and Niklas, anger flairing in her eyes. As she spoke, they noticed for the first time how sharp her teeth looked.
"I'll find them..." she said, her voice filled with a sudden rage. "...and when I do, there will be hell to pay."
Simon didn't have a clue as to how Lynx knew where she was going, but he knew he had a hard time keeping up. She was running incredibly fast, only stopping in short intervals to sniff the air every now and then. He didn't say anything about her odd behaviour, it was clear that she didn't want to be disturbed.
They ran for what seemed like an eternity, and came to a sudden halt in front of a large Marine fortress on the other side of the island. It was a large building, surrounded by fences and a wide moat. A sturdy, wooden bridge connected it to the rest of the island. Niklas was panting hard when they stopped, trying to catch his breath.
"He's inside, somewhere." Lynx said, gesturing towards the stronghold.
Simon's expression became furious. "Hang on a second." he said, his hands shaking. "Do you mean to tell me that the Marines have taken him?"
Lynx nodded. "He's inside."
"We could sneak inside and try to break him out." Niklas said. "It'd be no problem for me to-"
"The fucking Marines?" Simon's voice was full of anger. "Oh, hell no! They'll pay for this!"
"Listen to me," Niklas said, trying to catch his attention. "We could just-"
"I'm not gonna sneak!" Simon shouted. "They're going down!"
He stretched his arms out tightly in front of him, and a cannonball appeared in his hands. He aimed them at the large, wooden gate, narrowing his eyes with an angry expression. Gunpowder started to pour from his arms, collecting itself behind the cannonball in a large, brown line.
"Hand cannon!"
The gunpowder exploded, sending the cannonball hurling through the air. It connected with the gate, and the explosion was so intense it literally blew it to pieces. The guards who had been standing in front of it were thrown to the side by the shockwave, and it looked like one of them was suddenly missing an arm. An alarm rang out from the fortress, and they could hear the sound of hundreds of running feet from inside.
"Let's go." Simon said, his voice dangerously calm.
As they approached the gate, Lynx grabbed the guard who was missing an arm by the collar and held him up against her face.
"Where's the Captain?" she hissed.
The guard had been delerious from pain, but when he heard the question, he began to laugh at her with a satisfied grin on his face.
"They told us you'd be coming. You don't stand a chance." he wheezed, blood pouring from his shoulder. "Fucking pirate scum!"
"Where is he?" Lynx eyes flared, her orange one filled with burning fire.
The guard laughed again.
"He was taken down to the dungeons by Rear Admiral Maxwell. If he isn't already dead, he'll be begging for his life by now. You'll-"
He would have continued speaking, but Lynx slammed him into the ground, put one foot on his chest and with a ferocious growl, she ripped his head from his body.
"I'll kill them!" she shouted, drawing her whips. They were adorned with what looked like small blades, and when she cracked one of them through the air, it made an ominous, metallic sound.
"I'll kill them all!"
She clasped the hilts of her whips tightly and rushed inside with a speed that Simon hadn't believed her capable of. As she entered the courtyard, she was met by what must have been a hundred Marines, waiting with their swords and rifles at the ready.
She launched herself at them with a scream.
"Slicing Storm!"
Her whips lashed out in a flurry of deadly strokes. All around her, Marines were dropping to the ground like flies. Their throats were cut, they were missing hands and legs. Some of them had their stomaches sliced open, their intestens spilling out on the blood-soaked ground. She dodged bullets with such a graceful ease that it looked like she was dancing.
Simon and Niklas ran after her with amazed expressions.
"Wow." Simon said, grinning. "That's just...wow." He pressed his hat down on his head, and guns blazing, he threw himself into the fray.
Niklas fired his grappling hook straight into the face of one an unsuspecting Marine, using the momentum to draw himself into the middle of the action. He kicked the Marine in the stomach, making him gasp for air, and sent him unconcious to the ground with a swift blow to the head. He turned towards the mass of Marines, slipping swiftly into a fighting stance.
"Merman karate. Murane Tile Blazing fist!" he spun on his heels, and using the momentum, he delivered a punch powerful enough to throw four Marines to the ground at once. One of them tried to get back on his feet, but he put him back down with a well-placed headbutt.
They fought for a long time, dodging bullets and parrying swords, taking down one Marine after the other.
Lynx was a bloody blurr, slicing so fast and furiously that not even Simon's guns were able to keep up. By the time the last soldier fell to the ground by the hands of Niklas martial arts, she had easily taken down half of them all by herself, and she showed no sign of slowing down.
It all seemed to be running smoothly until a huge shape stood before them blocking out the sunlight. It was a giant wearing a Marine coat, wielding a huge morningstar in his hands. He slammed at Lynx, forcing her to dive for cover. Simon took aim at him, but the shockwave of the blow sent him flying sideways.
"You think you can just stomp in here without hesitation?" the giant rumbled. "I'll kill you and eat your bodies for lunch!"
They dodged again as another stroke of the morningstar came hurling towards them.
"What the hell do we do?" Simon screamed. "I can't kill him like this, he's too big!"
Niklas laughed and looked at the giant with a predatory grin. "You go on in and find the Captain!" he shouted. "Leave him to me! I'll show him what we're made of!"
Simon nodded and ran ahead. He looked around for Lynx, but he couldn't find her. After scanning the other side of the courtyard for a few seconds, he saw why. A door had been smashed in, and three mutilated corpses were lying inside the doorway, their blood pooling on the ground.
"Damn it, Lynx!" he shouted, even though he knew she probably wouldn't hear him. "Wait up!" he ran inside the doorway, following the bloody trails of carnage she left behind her.
The giant looked at Niklas and laughed. "Puny eel, I'll roast you and suck your brain out through your neck!"
He tried to stomp Niklas with his huge feet, but Niklas evaded them with ease,
He slammed the morningstar down, but Niklas was able to dodge in time, firing his grappling hook straight into the giant's eye. The giant howled in pain. Niklas grinned and was about to retract his grappling hook, but then the giant suddenly caught hold of the rope and yanked hard, making him lose his balance. The rifle flew from his hands and clattered to the ground several meters behind the giant.
Before Niklas had time to steady himself, the giant caught him with a swift blow. The morningstar hit him like a cannonball, making him gasp in pain. His bones cracked with a sickling noise, but somehow he still remained concious.
The giant laughed. "Stupid eel not so tough without his weapon. Now I will eat you. Raw, like sushi."
Niklas groaned on the ground. He noticed he had landed on top of a dead marine, and he rolled over in disgust. With a tremendous effort, he slowly got to his feet. Legs shaking from the impact, his body bleeding and bruised, he glared at the giant, spitting blood onto the ground. "You really don't pay attention, do you? You stupid, lumbering sack of flesh! I am not an eel!"
He darted forward, dodging the giant's morningstar, aiming for the gap between his feet. He stopped as he reached the back of the giant's left leg, and with a motion as swift and supple as water, he jumped into the air. He aimed with calm precision for the hollow of the giant's knee, and when he came close enough, he drew his arm back.
"Merman Karate. Three thousand tile crushing fist!"
The force of the punch sent an intense shockwave toward the giant, and with the sound of a mighty oak snapping in a hurricane, his leg broke.
"AAAAAAAARRGGHHH!" the giant's scream echoed across the courtyard, bouncing against the walls, but Niklas wasn't done. He landed on the ground, and quickly ran over to his grappling hook. He took aim at the giant's neck, and fired. Using all the power of the momentum, he drew his arm back once more.
"Merman Karate. Murane Tile Ten Thousand Pound Pressure Hammer!"
The punch hit the giant in the back of the head like a freight train. There was another cracking noise, his eyes rolled back into his head, and then he fell over forwards, faceplanting into the ground with the sound of a small earthquake.
Niklas jumped off the dead giant, stumbling from pain as he hit the ground. He glared at the corpse with angry eyes as he lit a cigarette. "I'm a Murane." he said, inhaling the smoke. He limped towards the broken door, muttering angrily to himself.
Simon caught up with Lynx after a few minutes of running inside the large corridors. She had just finished off a Marine by slicing through his lungs, and she was soaked in blood.
"This way." she growled at him, pointing to a door at the end of the current hallway. Simon was too stunned by her ferocity to do anything but nod and fall in behind her.
As she opened the door, a thick, cool fog billowed out into the hallway. The room inside was large and lit up by several candles and lanterns, but they still had a hard time seeing anything at all through the fog.
"Well, well, well..." a voice said from somewhere inside. "I'm impressed you made it past the guards. Perhaps the rumors are true, after all."
A young man wearing a Marine coat and a pair of dark sunglasses stepped out from the fog. Or rather, it seemed like the fog cleared as he stepped forward, making him visible.
"Out of my way!" Lynx growled, raising her whip to strike, but Simon laid a hand on her arm, stopping her.
"No, Lynx. I'll take care of him. You go find the Captain."
Lynx looked at him for a second, her eyes filled with so much rage that he flinched at the sight, but then she nodded and ran forwards into the fog.
"Now hold on just a second." The young Marine said, pulling a gun out from his belt. "Who told you you could pass?" he aimed at Lynx, apparently having no problem at all seeing through the fog, but as he was about to pull the trigger, a bullet pierced his hand, and the gun fell clattering to the floor, and the bullet lodged itself into the wall. Lynx disappeared through the door on the adjacent side of the room.
"I did." Simon said gravely, his gun still smoking from the bullet.
The man clutched his bleeding hand, but as he laid eyes on Simon, he smiled and let it fall to the side. Simon noticed that his hand seemed to regenerate on its own, the hole became swirling fog, and then turned itself back into flesh. "Damn." he thought. "He's a Logia. This won't be easy."
"Now this is something of a treat." the young man said, flexing his hand. " "Bullet" Simon, living and in the flesh. I've heard stories about what you can do, and by the look of things, it seems they weren't exaggerated."
He bowed. "My name is Anthony Firebrand, and I will be the one to kill you."
Simon snorted. "For being a shithead, you think rather high thoughts about yourself. And what's the deal with the sunglasses, did your mom think you were so hideous she made you wear them since birth?"
Anthony pursed his lips. The door slammed shut behind Simon's back, and the lights grew dimmer, to the point where it was almost too dark to see. "You will pay for your insolence."
Simon smiled into the gloom. "Bring it on, fog-boy."
He fired at Anthony without a moments hesitation. Anthony smiled at him. He didn't even move, as he knew the bullets would simply pass straight through his body and out the other side. When the first bullet pierced his shoulder, sending an explosion of pain through his body, he began to worry. When the second one pierced his left lung, he withdrew into the fog with an expression of panic on his face.
"How?" he asked, his voice echoing inside the room. "How can you hit me?"
Simon looked around the room, trying to find his opponent. He smiled. "You think you're invincible just because you can turn yourself into fog?" Simon laughed. "Think again, shithead. There's more than one way to skin a cat." he got an apologetic look on his face. "Shit, she might have heard that. SORRY, LYNX! It's just an expression!"
The room was silent. "Then..." Anthony's voice said. "I'll just have to make sure you can't shoot me."
"Fog Blast!"
Simon felt a blow hit him in the head, his hat falling to the ground. He tried to dodge as Anthony materialized beside him, but he didn't have enough time. Anthony punched him in the ribs, making him gasp for air. He gave him another blow to the head, and snatched the gun from his left hand. Simon shot him with his other gun, but the bullet only managed to graze him, as he faded back into the shadows.
Simon started to run and fired where he felt Anthony would be. His aim was good, and he managed to land a few hits, but never anything vital. And even though the fog grew smaller and smaller – a sure sign that Anthony's strength was slowly fading, Simon knew the fight was far from over. Anthony was moving fast, very fast, and he had, Simon acknowledged grudgingly, a very large element of surprise.
"Fog Stampede!"
Suddenly, Simon was showered with blows from all directions at the same time. He felt a punch hit him in the kidney, and a fraction of a second later, there came a kick flying towards his head combined with another punch, headed for his back. He staggered under the force of the blows, backing himself into a wall.
He defended himself as best he could, but the blows came down hard and mercilessly, filling his body with pain. His gun clattered to the floor, and a mere fraction of a second later, it was gone from sight.
A cocking noise could be heard from across the room, followed by the hollow clicking of an empty gun-barrel. The process was repeated one more time, with the same result.
"What the hell?" Anthony's voice was filled with surprise and confusion. "They're empty!"
Furious, he tried to punch Simon in the face, but he was surprised, as Simon blocked him with very little effort and punched him back right between the eyes.
Simon laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I disappoint you? Come now, you didn't really think I'd go down that easily, did you?"
"How..." Anthony's voice was still confused. "How on earth can you shoot these things if there aren't any bullets? And how can you hit me?"
Simon grinned into the fog.
"You made three mistakes. Firstly..." Simon shaped his hand like a gun and pointed it towards the now clearly visible shape of the young Marine. "Hand Gun!" A bullet flew from his hand, piercing Anthony's already severly damaged leg. "...you made the mistake of thinking I'd need my guns in order to shoot you. Secondly..."
"Fuck you!" Anthony screamed, and tried to turn back into fog, but his attempt was ruined halfway through, as Simon appeared behind him, slamming his fist into his cheek, drawing blood. "...you talk way too much, making it all too easy to find you. And thirdly..."
Simon clutched his face with his right hand, putting his left on top of it for support. Gunpowder started to pour from his hands, trailing down Anthony's face, into his mouth and nostrils. "...you made the mistake of thinking I need to use my guns at all."
Anthony's face became a mask of sheer, raw panic, but he was unable to move.
Simon clutched his face even tighter, his eyes filled with anger and triumph.
"Gunpowder Blast!"
Anthony screamed a muffled scream of horror. The gunpowder exploded, sending his head splattering all over the walls, and the fog disappeared completely, leaving the room dimly lit and quiet.
"FUCK!" Simon shouted, kicking the dead body of Anthony in the stomach. "Do you have any idea how much that hurts?" He stood shaking his hands vigorously. They were dripping with blood, pouring out from large, red wounds.
"Fucking brat." Simon said as he picked up his hat from the floor. "Now where the hell did he put my guns?"
Lynx mind was hazy. She was drawing closer to the Captain, she could feel his scent in the air. Her rage fuelled her, and she had long since lost count of the number of Marines she had slain. At long last she arrived at the stairs leading down to the dungeon. They had to be. She could feel the smell of tea, ashes and seawater that was unique to the Captain coming from behind the door. It was faint, almost overpowered by the strong, iron-filled scent of blood, but it was there.
She calmed herself enough to open the door without a sound, and noiselessly, she made her way inside. As she was making her way downstairs, a scream pierced the silence. It was an almost unnatural scream, animalistic and full of so much pain, she almost couldn't stand it.
"Now, now..." a voice said from below. "What did I tell you about screaming? If you scream, I'll have to do it one more time."
Another scream, followed by the unmistakeable sound of weeping.
Lynx faded into the shadows of the gloomy dungeon, slowly making her way down the stone stairs, toward the source of the screaming.
The voice came back with the same patronizing tone. "Now tell me, who is your master?"
Lynx heard a noise that sounded like someone spitting. Then, to her great relief, she heard the voice of the Captain, but it was rough, and full of pain. "Fuck you."
A slicing noise, and Johan screamed again. By now, Lynx had made it far enough to stand just outside the bars. The cell was dimly lit, so dim in fact, that a normal person wouldn't have been able to make out much of it at all, but that didn't bother her. What she saw made her want to scream, and the rage took her once again. She slid through the bars like a well-oiled lightning, and before the unknown man could react, she brought her whip down upon him with all the fury she could muster.
"Coiling snake!"
The whip wound itself tightly around the surprised man's neck, and in mere seconds, he was choking and gasping for air, his hands feebly trying to make the whip come loose.
"Constrict!" the whip's hold grew tighter, and the man collapsed on the floor, his face turned black from lack of oxygen. Lynx was about to stomp the dead man's head into a pulp, but when she saw the bloody, tormented body of her Captain hanging from the ceiling, all rage left her in the blink of an eye.. She quickly took him down, and cradled his head in her hands, gazing into his unfocused eyes.
"Captain." she said, her voice shaky with emotion. "Captain, it's me, Lynx."
Johan's eyes focused slightly, but when he tried to speak, he started coughing blood. It splattered all over his chest and onto the floor beneath them.
"Lynx..." he said at last, his voice broken to the point where it was barely a whisper. "So much...so much pain."
Lynx gave him a gentle hug. "It's all right, Captain, I'm here. It's all over now."
Johan looked at her, his eyes filled with more pain than Lynx had ever seen before, and then he began to weep.
Lynx rarely spoke about what she saw inside that dungeon, and when she did, it was always in broad terms. Johan never said much, either. He merely stated that if Lynx hadn't come through the door when she did, the man would probably have made him bite his own tongue off in order to escape from it all.
The first nights after the rescue, Lynx spent a lot of time inside the Captain's quarters. She wouldn't let anybody in, save for Yin who treated his wounds. No one ever said a word about it, but in the dead of night a crying noise could be heard, followed by a soothing voice, and what sounded like a soft, reassuring purr.