16 — TO FIGHT ONCE MORE
Days after of an apparent peace.
Seiya and Xiaoling vie for the last piece of dessert delivered to the common room, as they began to call it. It was the place where the Saints gathered every night to talk about their days, their favorite injuries, their worst trials in training, the worst scolding they had ever taken, which Cloth was prettier.
The first day was difficult, as Seiya didn't liked being left out in the Urn rescue mission, but Alice explained that he and the others were still too weak. Xiaoling agreed with Seiya that he would have been great at digging the earth. Seiya was outraged.
The following days were better as Saori was a very smart kid. She started offering food in the hall as well. Until the food disputes began.
The television was on; Xiaoling loved watching cartoons.
"Hey!" she complained when Alice switched channels.
Alice was the oldest and most serious among them. She was also the only one who knew there was something serious going on with the Foundation.
The TV News was reporting recent local match scores when the afternoon's lead story came in: a series of attacks on cargo ships en route to the Caribbean. Alice turned up the volume to find out more about what was going on.
A group of environmentalists seemed to be surrendering many ships to protest the oil spill in the region killing the marine fauna.
Seiya and Xiaoling interrupted their discussion over the pudding when Saori entered the room. She was very serious.
"Miss?" Alice lifted.
"What happened, Saori?" Shun asked.
She finally started talking with those kids eyes on her.
"One of the Foundation ships has been hijacked."
An atmosphere of surprise spread in the hall, first because they didn't even imagine that the Foundation, owner of that Mansion and organizer of an incredible Tournament, even had a ship in the Caribbean.
"The responsibles for this kidnapping are demanding that the Gold Armor is to be taken in exchange for the ship." continued the girl, giving very serious news in her girlish voice.
"What about the crew?" Alice asked worriedly.
"Looks like they've all been released, with the exception of the Captain. That's how we got the message."
It was, in a sense, absolutely unbelievable; Seiya tried looking at the television again as the local news continued debating and running images of ships in a vast ocean. It was out of place.
"This ship, I was told, is equipped with a nuclear reactor. The hijackers threaten to blow up the reactor, which would cause the extinction of marine life in that region for thousands of years."
Seiya had no idea what a nuclear reactor was or what nuclear pollution meant in the life of an ocean. The words coming out of Saori didn't even seem to be hers, as if she had memorized it before entering the Hall. It was as if she were the face of the Foundation not only when it was necessary to speak to the televisions of the world, but also to them.
In any case, he saw in the girl's face an immense sadness and disappointment.
"I don't believe they would do that for the Gold Armor. Sacrifice an entire ocean." she said.
"Miss. Rest assured that Mii and I are going to kick those idiots in the butt!" said Xiaoling.
The little girl's apparent good mood didn't dissipate the tension in the room and Saori had to sit on a bench, to recover from it.
"It doesn't end there." she continued ruefully as she looked at Seiya and the others. "They also demanded the presence of all the Bronze Knights."
Those girls' eyes all fell on Seiya, as he was not yet fully recovered.
"Well, that was a given!" he said, getting up. "Let's kick these butts together, Xiaoling!"
She smiled, but Saori was still serious. Alice put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
"The Gold Armor is my fight." she said to them. "But it doesn't have to be your fight."
She silenced the room with her voice. She paused to choose her words better and stood up so they could see her.
"I regret everything that happened to you because of my grandfather, especially you, Shun. If I could change I would do everything differently, but I can't and I'll have to carry this pain forever." Her voice was decisive, but her eyes wavered a little. "I don't know what to do… it sucks to have to ask you to do this, but I feel like I have no other choice."
Shun went to Saori and took her hands.
"We can't change anything that's already been done either." He said to her and, impossible as it was, there was a huge serenity in his face. "My sister taught me to have a strong will to keep going forward."
"Your grandfather may have forced us when we were younger, but fighting the Black Saints was our choice." Seiya said.
"And as for me, I know my place is here. Next to the Gold Cloth. If that's your fight, then it's my fight too." Shiryu said, determined.
"I said you wouldn't get rid of us so easily." Seiya finally said with a smile on his face.
Saori was filled with hope when seeing those young people so dedicated.
"You are all crazy." she said.
They were.
"We'll fight together and we'll sort this out." Shun said confidently.
"You don't get it, Shun." said Alice. "You can't fight as you did with the Black Knights or Docrates. If something happens to the ship..."
"I have an idea." said Cygnus, joining them at last. "If I'm not mistaken, the powerful Nebula Chain have a unique skill."
He smiled confidently.
Saori was tense as she watched the young ones departing at night for the Caribbean seas on the Foundation helicopter. Alice carried the Urn of Gold Cloth on her back and Saori's worriness in her chest. There was no reason to put her life at risk and besides, as Seiya confirmed to all of them on the aircraft, they were after them, not her.
And off they went.
Upon arrival, they flew over an isolated ship in the Caribbean sea and were greeted by a metallic voice through a megaphone.
"Bronze Saints! Get down here with the Gold Cloth and send that helicopter back or we'll blow it up with this ship!" threatened the voice.
The Saints were wearing their Sacred Cloths and they all descended as the helicopter flew lower over the main deck. They were greeted by two warriors dressed in different and clearly improvised protections; one of them, taller, had a dark, purplish metallic garment, and his arm was secured with a fist that alluded to a horse's head. The other, smaller and thinner man, had a sickle-billed helmet and feather motifs on the arms. The Captain of the ship was now tied to the side of a wall.
The taller one spoke to them while the other warrior disappeared into a cabin:
"Here's what's going to happen: you will leave the Urn of Gold Cloth where I stand. You will all kneel down and bind yourselves with those fetters." he then tossed the Saints six reinforced shackles that the second warrior brought from inside the cabin.
"What if we decide to beat you up?" Seiya asked.
The guy laughed.
"So, in that case, our partner in the Engine Room listening to everything going on here will unleash a burst of energy so gigantic that it will destabilize the nuclear reactor and create an explosion that will destroy the life in this ocean."
Cygnus looked at Shun, who immediately understood the moment to put the plan into motion. He was the first to kneel.
"What for and for whom would you sacrifice yourselves in this way?" asked Shiryu making conversation.
"Do not fool yourself. We will all manage to escape, but nothing will be able to stop the chain reaction inside the ship. And if you're here, I imagine you don't want this to happen, am I right?"
"You didn't answer the question. Who do you fight for?" she tried again.
The warrior laughed in their faces and ordered.
"On your knees."
Xiaoling pulled Seiya to his knees. Alice walked halfway between them and the warriors and placed the Urn of Gold Cloth on the ground. She took the shackles and secured her colleagues, leaving Shun right next to the cabin door.
"Very well."
The bird-beak warrior took the Golden Urn and the one with the darkest protection pointed his index finger at the starry sky from where a white ray came out and ripped the clouds. A signal.
"I can't recognize that Cloth of yours." Seiya commented while they waited. "It doesn't shine as bright as ours."
"Don't worry. Soon you won't need yours anymore." replied the smaller warrior, before being scolded by the older one.
Seiya and Shiryu looked at each other. Their protections were very similar to those of Docrates, a second-rate metal, as if it were created or invented. Not far from the steel protection Saori had used against the Black Saints.
A short time passed when everyone began to hear a loud and metallic thuds inside the ship.
"What is that?" asked the slender warrior.
The noise began to increase as it seemed to get closer.
"Medusa, what's going on?" the dark warrior asked aloud in the air.
Shun nudged Xiaoling beside him and everyone could see in the Andromeda Saint's eyes that his plan was done. Seiya opened the biggest smile of it all and was soon rebuked by Cygnu's eyebrows. He upfront disapproved of what he would do next.
"Well, the talk has been great, but enough of this charade."
His cosmos ascended, so did their friends, and they broke the strong shackles that bound them.
"What are you doing? Will you doom this ocean forever?" asked the green warrior.
"Medusa!" shouted the other warrior, as if he were commanding him.
"Ah, so his name is Medusa?" Shun said collecting his two chains and bursting the door behind him bringing the body of a third warrior completely defeated.
Amazement seized the raptors' faces.
"The Nebula Chain can find its enemies wherever they are." said Cygnus.
"Bastard!"
Seiya moved forward to engage with one of them and Cygnus with the other. Xiaoling and Alice went straight to the captain to free him from his bonds.
"Go down and turn off the engine." asked Alice.
"Roger."
The man descended the stairs, while the brawl ate loose on the ship's deck with no chance for the kidnappers who were soon to be immobilized by the Saints.
"Tell us who you're fighting for!" Seiya asked.
But another ship's bass horn sounded in the ocean.
"You'll find out soon enough." smiled the dark warrior with derision.
Xiaoling went to the bow rail and, in the shadows of the night, managed to see what appeared to be another ship approaching
"Is it another one of the Foundation?" she asked, but Alice wasn't sure about that beside her.
The ship came very close to the hull they were on, and the light from the deck showed an ancient vessel, impossibly ancient; a war galleon and an extremely weathered hull. Flags swayed in the night with an incomprehensible insignia. It didn't look like it was from the Foundation.
When the first cannons sounded and exploded the parapet Xiaoling was watching, she was sure it wasn't Saori. She jumped to safety and soon they were in a panic.
Harpoons were hurled from the galleon onto the deck, and men and women dressed in leather, high boots and big hats began to descend from the heights of their sails. An unwary watcher would mistake them for eastern pirates and Shiryu was sure to see one or two with eye patches and scimitars on their hips.
The fight spread across the deck, but there was something impossible going on. They simply couldn't hit their opponents, as each fist fired simply went through the enemies; each kick pierced them as if they were made of air.
"What the hell is this?" Cygnus asked.
"It's an illusion!" said Alice.
"The cannon-balls are real!" Shun shouted as he ran away from another explosion caused by a cannonball.
"They're crazy, they're going to blow up the reactor like that!"
"Seiya, the Cloth!" Xiaoling shouted.
In their confusion, the slender warrior broke away from them, stole the Urn of Gold Cloth and leapt into the sea. As they ran after him while fleeing from the ghost pirates, the group got lost. Taking advantage of the Saints confusion, the other two warrios also jumped overboard, fleeing with their partner.
The attacks stopped. The pirates were gone, the fires caused by the explosions were also gone. It was all a big illusion. A big spotlight turned the deck light to the warriors fleeing into the sea and when Seiya leaned against the rail to look, he saw that the big galleon was just a fast schooner that was already lost in the dark horizon of that night.
He fell to his knees, bereft.
Adrift in the Caribbean seas, the swell of waves crashing on the ship's hull was cut off by the slamming of an approaching helicopter's propellers. Alice was watching the sunrise with apprehension. Seiya sitting against a crate with a defeated face next to Shun and Shiryu.
"I can't believe I fell for that trick." muttered Seiya.
"We all did." Shun tried.
"Marin even tried to warn me…"
"I bet you slept in that class."
"Shiryu!" Shun complained to her friend.
"Idiot." Seiya said with a smile on his face.
The helicopter landed and Saori got off from it.
"Are you all ok?"
"Yeah." said Alice.
"We lost the Gold Cloth Urn." Seiya said immediately with the biggest face of defeat.
"But are you all right?" Seiya looked at her in surprise and just nodded.
"Don't worry about the Urn." said Saori. "The most important thing is that nothing happened to the ship and none of you are hurt."
"But the Urn…" Seiya tried.
"You are more important than the Urn, Seiya." said Saori again. "And besides, I'm sure we can get it back."
"The tracker?" Alice asked.
"Yes," Saori agreed. "They took refuge on an island near here."
"So what are we waiting for?" Seiya said.
Saori looked hard at him, but couldn't disagree, because Seiya was right at that time. She agreed that it was really a case of leaving as soon as possible, if they wanted to stop the Cloth from going any further.
It took little time for the pilot to prepare the helicopter to fly again. They wore their Cloths and climbed into the aircraft. Saori gave Alice a compass with the Urn's proximity radar and wished them luck.
"If I had my Steel Protection, I would go with you." she said to Alice's disapproving look.
They took flight again.
The helicopter pilot has probably never had such a noisy and inconvenient crew. With the exception of Cygnus, they were all talking to each other about what strategy they should use inside the island should be.
"There are three warriors. We are six. We can finish them." Seiya said.
"We don't know what this island is like and they're going to use it that to their advantage." Alice mused.
"It's possible they didn't fight with all they had because of the reactor." Shiryu said.
"We can keep using my Chains to find our way around the island. And Mii uses the compass to see if we're close to the Urn."
"Then it is done." Xiaoling said. "Oh, I'm so hungry. Should have eaten on the ship."
"It's our first mission together." Shun smiled at them.
"Don't stand on our ways, because the last time everything worked out and we came back with the Urn." said Alice.
"Hey!" complained Seiya.
"Sit down!" asked the impatient pilot with them all.
They all sat down, but the silence did not last long.
"I was wondering about something." Shun began and everyone looked at him. "First the Black Saints, then Docrates. I get the feeling that they were all outcasts from the Sanctuary. One way or another. These warriors we're fighting now also wear protections afar from the stars."
"Do you think the ones behind these attacks and behind the Gold Cloth are those who were banned by the Sanctuary?" asked Shiryu.
"Yes. It's possible they've teamed up and are after the Cloth."
"And us." chimed Seiya. "With the Gold Cloth and the oath-traitors that we are, perhaps the Sanctuary could forgive them."
"Do you think they're after Sanctuary's pardon?" Shun asked.
"What else would it be?" Seiya asked.
Shun was silent as the pilot spoke.
"We are here!"
They looked out the window and noticed a small island in the ocean.
"Gee, it looks like a skull." Xiaoling said, climbing on Shiryu's lap to look out the window.
Before they descended, however, they heard the shriek of an eagle cross in the air that reverberated in the sky.
"Look at that! How can it be. That eagle is gigantic." Shiryu was stunned to see that the bird kept growing as it got closer to the helicopter.
It was a colossal bird and one impossible to exist. The pilot made an abrupt maneuver to avoid the huge claws of the animal; it was of no exaggeration to say that it could capture the tail of the helicopter if the bird wanted. The eagle's loud screech sounded and it returned to attack the aircraft for another sudden move that unfortunately turned out to be fatal.
The helicopter swerved hard and ended up losing altitude, crashing into the sea near the island.
Seiya emerged from the water with the pilot in his arms.
"Is everyone ok?"
"Yeah!" replied different voices at sea.
They started swimming to the beach near the island when Shun was attacked.
"Andromeda!" Cygnus despaired when he saw Shun being pulled by some unknown force.
He dove to find Shun's body being dragged to the bottom of the ocean quickly. Without thinking too much, Hyoga ripped the water with his fist. A fulminating blast of ice petrified the water around where it passed and hit whoever was dragging the Andromeda Saint. The Cygnus's cosmos created an ice crystal in the water that soon rose to the surface.
The Nebula Chain came from the bottom and Hyoga held it in the fist before returning to the surface. But just as he turned to swim to bring Shun up from the depths, he was startled by a speeding shadow at his side that hit him full in the stomach like a drill bolt. Cugnys was violently spat out of the water.
Shun ended up being pulled equally as hard out of the water by the Nebula Chains still tied to Cygnus hands.
Cygnus body dazed and crashed against the wall of water while, still in the air, Shun could clearly see a dark animal swimming at high speed towards him for a second attack. Shun fired his other chain forming a fishing net in the water, preventing the creature from moving for a moment.
"Cygnus!" Shun shouted, finally swimming beside him. "Trust me." he asked. "We need to get out of this sea."
Cygnus was too dizzy to disagree.
The boy's pinkish cosmos rose and lit up the sea that had turned to a turmoil. It didn't take long for a typhoon to form and hurl them both from there to the nearby beach where they tumbled through the sand and rolled near a wall of rocks.
Seiya and the others ran to the two, already sheltered on the beach, calling their names. Panting, Shun went to the care of Cygnus, who had a bleeding spleen wound.
"Cygnus is hurt. We were attacked by two creatures in the sea. He managed to save me, but…"
"What kind of animal was that?" Seiya asked.
"They weren't animals." Shun said. "It was them. The warriors from the ship."
"We must take care of ourselves." Alice said.
"That's nothing." said Swan, getting up.
He brought his right hand up to the wound and his cosmos appeared through his arm; he was freezing the wound, potentially freezing the clotted blood so it would stop bleeding. An unusual solution.
"You know that won't do you much time." Shun warned.
"It will be enough. Let's go."
They sheltered the helicopter pilot safely on the beach and left him with a fire to dry off. They would be back soon.
And off they went within the island.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Yes, I brought back the so hated Caribbean Saints from Anime. =) I like the dynamics of kidnapping, posing real and civil dangers for the protagonists to navigate. I like. Just as it starts to show the size of that Foundation.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE SKULL ISLAND
After the Gold Cloth, the heroes delve into that terrible island full of mysteries. What will they find?