Surprises in Store

An earth shaking explosion filled the enclosed compound. At its center, the relentless L.U.C.Y. and unyielding Leon were both blown back by the tremendous, indiscriminate force, the scorching heat leaving its mark on both combatants but moreso on the area around them. As the already open space was cleared of even the tiniest bit of rubble at its center, the entire complex felt the powerful reverberations.

Once the dust had settled, Leon released a pained cough. He found himself buried beneath heavy concrete slabs, dislodged from the wall he'd been driven into. Every movement felt like a thousand suns exploding within him as all the pain he'd suffered hit him like a freight train. His body shook involuntarily and darkness clouded his vision with only splotches of light. But, Leon's spirit remained indomitable. Though he wanted nothing more than to give in to the immense temptation unconsciousness offered, he refused to do so so long as his opponent still stood - and she did still stand.

Removing the stones atop him and lifting his head, Leon saw, through a haze, L.U.C.Y. standing there. Her torso was shredded, the metallic skeleton of her right hand completely exposed, and showcasing a horrifying visage as half her face had been eroded by the blast, but still she stood, unwavering in the face of possible defeat as the nanites worked overtime to repair the immense internal damage and replace the synthetic skin. Leon's half lidded eyes, no longer empty pools, filled with a mix of apprehension and anticipation as he glared at the human weapon, ready to continue their death defying bout while he lay slumped beneath a collapsing wall.

His senses again his, Leon slowly made his way to his feet, using the demolished wall for a handhold as he staggered to an upright position. Gripping Akuma-รต no Kiba in his right hand and picking up its discarded scabbard in the left, Leon stalked forward, forcing his worn and tired body to continue despite his own extensive injuries. The battle hungry swordsman steeled himself, his expression hard and serious though his breathing was ragged. He ignored the internal threat posed by his two broken ribs as well as the handful more that were cracked to varying degrees, set aside the pain of the broken bone in his right forearm, and trudged on despite the numbness caused by the burnt and frayed nerve endings along his left arm. Reduced to seemingly little more than a walking corpse, Leon refused to give in even while his vision blinked in and out - coming in double when it came in - and fresh blood covered more of his body than it didn't.

More than being alive, it was a miracle he could still move. And, it seemed he'd require another miracle if he were to have any chance of winning against the seemingly unkillable foe. But, Leon didn't believe in miracles, the thought of losing not once crossing his mind even as he felt his knee shift out of place.

"Don't hold it against me, but it's time we end this." Leon's voice was coarse, his words deliberate. "Don't tell Bo I been holdin' back."

"Are you okay?"

"He doesn't look too good."

Haa haa. "No shit, Sherlock."

"Aah, man. I ran all the way over here and you're not dead? I probably missed the best part."

Everyone in the lab turned and scowled at the newly arrived Shaad. Ray and Mage were, of course, the first ones in, quickly dislodging Bo's leg and setting him on the ground. Alexander and Kei arrived a short while after, both breathing heavily. But, it was Shaad's intrusion that drew attention with the uncaring remark.

"What!? He's alive (if not well). Though, I know a little girl that could probably do wonders for that leg," Shaad declared, redirecting attention back to the far end of the room.

There, Bo released a barely muffled, pained grunt as Ray snapped the exposed tibia back into alignment with the rest of Bo's leg. It may not have been the best thing to do, but he couldn't simply stand by while the fractured shin bone protruded from his friend's leg. Mage assisted by gathering gauze wraps and some materials for a makeshift splint as well as alcohol and solvents to cleanse the wound, a process which prompted another surge of pain.

Once they were done, Bo's leg had been heavily padded with bandaging and made immobile. Ray hefted Bo into a standing position and gave his shoulder to lean on, careful to not let Bo put any weight on the leg. None of them knew much about medicine, but Mage had been trained in emergency first aid essential for a field medic and Ray had learned a bit over the years out of necessity.

Through it all, Alexander never turned away, his past as a military leader and Prince having ingrained certain stoic qualities in his composure. Kei, though, was quick to turn away from the gruesome sight, shielding his eyes from the gory spectacle, while Shaad merely looked around out of disinterest and to piece together what he could. It wasn't that he didn't care, but he'd been through far too much to react to a non-fatal injury with much excitement. More importantly, however, he knew better than anyone his strengths and what he could do; such as with events passed, there was nothing he could do at this point, so he wouldn't stress over things he couldn't control, change, or help. One thing about the whole thing did bug him, though.

"What exactly happened," Shaad questioned as Bo stood with Ray's help and a grimace. "I find it hard to believe he could cause all this."

Everyone else agreed as they looked from the overweight doctor lying face flat on the floor with a knife sticking from the base of his skull to the widespread destruction all around them.

Bo struggled to lift his head, more tired than anything as his body had already done its job, flooding his brain with endorphins to numb everything below the thigh of his right leg. He recounted the events slowly, his voice strained while Ray adjusted to try and ease the pressure on the captain's injured body.

[Minutes Earlier]

With his body tired and leg simultaneously crushed and bones shattered from the knee down, Bo was in a desperate situation. Having lost all his arrows save one as he dangled from a broken leg bent beyond all normal limits, the pirate captain aimed his final arrow - a special concoction made in joint effort with the enigmatic Mage - and fought to pull back the bowstring. Body screaming out in agony as pain flared from his fingertips, Bo just managed to fully nock the arrow as the monstrous Dr. Stein Mechoni charged at him like an enraged bull.

This would be his last chance. The thin line between life and death. But, with another jolt of pain shaking him to his core, Bo's shot misfired, skimming along, and burning, the doctor's arm before burrowing into the reinforced floor and out of sight. But, instead of Bo's sure death, having his upper body crushed by the immense weight of Stein's rapidly approaching, drug enhanced physique, a lucky turn of events occurred: Stein reached the time limit for his chemical cocktail and his body immediately shrunk back to its normal measurements.

Bo had no time to relax, though, even as Stein's normal form plowed into the solid wall with a full head of steam. Pulling himself from the damaged foundation, the mad scientist seethed with an even deeper anger (if that were possible) and balled his mechanical hand into a fist. Clinching that fist ever tighter, a blade a foot long and as wide as the back of his hand emerged from a slot that rose above the knuckles of the metal appendage.

Stein aimed to skewer Bo's skull and take the first step towards ending this whole intrusion ordeal with the pirate's head as a trophy and a warning. However, only a few short inches from its target, the blade stopped. It froze in the air for a few seconds before dropping unresponsively to its owner's side and ultimately following Dr. Mechoni in crashing lifelessly to the ground, the victim of an unseen knife being thrown from the once blocked off passage from his office and piercing through his spine from behind at the base of the neck.

Ray and Mage had to work together to free their captain, but given the extent of his injuries that was by far the easy part.

[Present Time]

"That answers one question," Alexander stated. "But, what about how we get out of here? This was supposed to be the control center, but it's just a big lab without one major computer."

"If I'm right," Shaad mused, strolling to the side of the room while drawing both swords, "that's right here."

He then struck both blades into an almost unnoticeable crease in the wall, cut down the line with one blade going up while the other sliced down, and pried open a previously unseen corridor.

But, instead of a computer, there were bars, the bars of a cell. However, Shaad ignored the three emaciated, barely alive bodies within as he released a sigh of frustration at his failure.

"Dammit, I was sure that was the one," Shaad complained, seemingly more upset at missing out on his 'cool' moment than not finding the computer.

In his frustration, Shaad threw his black bladed sword, the sharp edge whistling past the nape of Alexander's neck before piercing an electronic panel in the wall. As severed currents buzzed, another pair of metal doors slowly slid open, this time revealing a large wall terminal with screens, keyboards, switches, and buttons that most of them couldn't make heads or tails of. Shaad stormed past the surprised crew, a deep scowl on his face, muttering curses about not realizing there was a panel while damage to the tracks stopped the doors halfway. Prying his sword from the circuit board and returning it to the sheath on his back along with the silver bladed one, Shaad nearly ripped the two doors from the wall as he opened them completely to allow full view of the giant supercomputer.

Turning around, he spotted the crew's expressions and tiredly answered the unasked question as if it were obvious.

"Those two stretches of wall were far less damaged than the rest of the room's perimeter. You guys seriously didn't notice that?" Though, what he failed to mention was that he could actually hear the strange way air circulated at those two points as well, as if it were entering and exiting some unseen area.

The crew ignored Shaad's obvious implication and instead split themselves between the three prisoners and the control panel for presumably the entire laboratory complex. While Mage and Alexander joined Shaad in front of the giant wall terminal, Ray helped Bo over to the occupied cell where Kei already stood. On both sides, the crewmembers scanned among themselves before turning to the newly revealed presences, clearly trying to figure what their next step should be.

Bo separated himself from Ray, commanding the chef to stand back while he hobbled forward on one good leg. Each time he put weight on the decimated right leg, pain shot through Bo, but he gritted his teeth through it all and held his head high, refusing to look weak or vulnerable for what came next.

Gauging the three prisoners from left to right, Bo demanded, "Who are you and why did Stein lock you up instead of killing you," with all the authority he could muster. Unfortunately, it didn't have the desired effect. Far from it in fact as the slender young woman in the middle let a barely hidden chuckle bubble past her lips, growing in intensity before Bo called, "Shaad."

The woman, dressed in a tattered marine uniform and red bottomed heels, immediately stopped laughing. All humor she found in the situation vanished as she was overcome by shock. But, Shaad didn't share her rapt attention at Bo's command.

"I'm busy," came the gruff reply, his point punctuated by his black blade again whizzing through the air, this time piercing the back wall of the prisoners' cell.

The threat the blade carried was received by all parties. It was his way of helping Bo gain control, but it was all the help the upstart captain would be given in doing so. Meanwhile, the woman and the prisoner to her right - a frail looking, elderly man with a long white beard wearing a lab coat over loose fitting clothes - stared tentatively at the ominously black blade. Bo, for his part, smirked at the stunned prisoners, acting as if the whole thing were his plan all along.

The elderly man broke first, stammering out his explanation to Bo's earlier inquiry. "I'm a scientist. . . I design and develop technology."

"So, you're Stein's partner?"

"N-No. . . Yes. . . I mean I was. But, I disagreed with his goal and methods. I just want my work to help people; Stein, though, demanded machinations of evil."

"Stein's prosthetic; was that your doing?"

"Yes," the inventor confessed, his voice soft and unsure though a hint of pride peaked from behind the curtain of shame.

"Yes, I'm a genius," Shaad celebrated.

The outburst raised an eyebrow from Bo, but despite their proximity and connection to one another, the two sides largely focused on their own endeavors. Kei, however, spared a glance at Shaad, a crinkled and unnerved expression evident in his single visible brow while Alexander and Mage also looked on the distracted pirate, hunched over the massive keyboard hands flying, with similar feelings.

"And, you,"

Bo questioned, refocusing his attention on the cell in front of him. The young woman slyly hid the smirk that graced her gentle features as Bo's eyes again landed on her. And, in true theater style, it was replaced by a shaky confidence. "What's it matter? You're going to kill us anyway."

"I actually haven't decided yet. Now, answer the question."

"I was a member of one of the first Marine units sent in to capture and secure Dr. Mechoni. We weren't prepared for what awaited us, and ended up getting captured ourselves. He experimented on the others, but was keeping me alive until he could figure out a way to harvest my Devil Fruit."

"And, now?"

"Huh?"

"Do you still intend to complete that mission?"

"Be kinda hard to secure a dead man," she retorted.

Both her and Bo spared a moment to look at Stein's limp body, mouth agape and lying in a pool of his own blood while one of Mage's knives still stuck from the back of his neck, before turning back to one another. Bo ignored the sass and snark of the woman's reply to instead focus on the cell's final occupant. It appeared to be a man, but any more was hard to decipher because the person was wrapped head to toe in dingy, ragged bandages, only the deathly glow from a pair of impossibly red eyes emanated out of the isolated abyss that the figure exuded.

Bo stared down those deep, impenetrable orbs of intimidation and morbid promises without flinching. He demanded answers, but received none.

"I don't think you understand your situation," Bo declared sternly. "You're trapped in that cage, and I'm now in control of this facility. Your fate lies in my hands, that means you'll do as I say or-"

"Emergency Evacuation Procedure FVI6 activated. Self-Destruct in 10 minutes."

The cold, mechanical voice drew shocked stares from each of the lab's occupants. Some muttered curses or exclamations of fear, but all eyes easily found their way to Shaad and the countdown occurring on the large screen in front of him. Mage and Alexander immediately yanked him away from the console, but neither dared risk making the situation worse by acting in an arena where they held no expertise. Meanwhile, Bo looked like he wanted nothing more than to rush across the room and strangle the thoughtless freeloader.

But, Shaad remained perfectly calm, even offering what, for him, amounted to an apology. "My bad."

The two words did little to quell the growing animosity in the room, but even if they could manage to overpower the unassuming powerhouse, their situation wouldn't change. It didn't take long to figure out the best option by far was to run, escaping the massive complex as fast as possible. However, Shaad had an alternative.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of this," he attempted to placate the others, though his words were far from reassuring.

To make matters worse, a voice none expected called out offering assistance. "Ooh, I can help." All of Bo's crew recognized the excited voice as that of their resident jabbering idiot. And, wherever that motor mouth went, you could be assured he brought his more level headed muscle.

"Kaleb, Kayden, what are you doing here?"

Kayden acknowledged the question with a tired nod of his head towards his little brother while hunched over trying to catch his breath, but Kaleb seemed to ignore him altogether.

"Whoa! First, a dragon man at the door, and now a talking computer. Is this place gonna blow up? Cool; I wanna watch. It's not right to keep people locked up. Awesome!" Stars shone in the teenage boy's eyes as he knelt next to Stein's dead body, so enamored by the metal arm and the hidden compartments he found that he completely disregarded the dead body it was attached to as well as everything else that had briefly caught his attention in the whirlwind of stimuli. "Can I get one," he asked his brother with wide eyes.

"How 'bout you help me out first," Shaad offered.

"I could do it by myself, but I'll let you help," Kaleb proudly boasted, standing tall and striding over to the console where Shaad again stood.

"Everyone, out! Now," Bo commanded. No one initially complied, though.

"I'm not going anywhere without my brother," Kayden protested.

"Relax; I got him," Shaad assured him, never looking away from the expansive keyboard as he played dozens of solution scenarios in his head.

"Ignore them," Bo told the prisoners while others bickered behind him. "It's time you all make a decision: join me or stay here."

The elderly scientist immediately begged to join Bo, tears borne from his fear literally streaming down his wrinkled face. Bo, then turned to the woman in the middle. She met his intense stare for an extended period as seconds ticked away on the screen, but eventually she gave in and dropped her gaze.

"The Marines already abandoned me; may as well be a pirate."

As Bo turned to the cell's final occupant, the entire facility shook violently. All eyes turned to Shaad, but he was also looking around. "Don't look at me. . . But, I do think I've figured this thing out."

Kaleb coughed.

"We figured it out," Shaad reluctantly corrected. "Care to do the honors?"

Kaleb nodded and pressed the button to lock in Shaad's most recent command input. The room was silent. The countdown on the screen blinked out of view, and a collective sigh was released.

"Override Command accepted. Self-Destruct in 30 seconds."