Chapter Seventeen: Last Man Standing
Sky Captain silently slipped the knuckledusters over his fists and crept up behind Blackbeard. He was going to enjoy this. "Your mad little game's over now" Sky Captain sneered. Blackbeard turned and took the full brunt of Sky Captain's fist. His nose splintered and cracked under the pressure, spraying blood like a fountain. Blackbeard staggered back, observing the crimson smears on his hands with sadistic glee.
"Over? Damn you, it hasn't even started!" Blackbeard screamed, launching his boot into the side of Sky Captain's head. Joe flew through the air, falling over a broken console. He'd been hit with a sledgehammer; every hangover he'd ever had came roaring back with a vengeance. Blackbeard leaped into the air, ready to break open Joe's chest.
Sky Captain rolled off the console, wincing as the shredded metal sliced bloody ribbons into his side. Blackbeard roared and crashed down a second too late. Sky Captain used it to his advantage and kicked Blackbeard's legs out from under him with surgical precision, grabbing a handful of Blackbeard's hair before he could respond and jerking his head back. His right hand free, Sky Captain rained a storm of blows into the base of his skull. Blackbeard howled in pain and struggled to break free. His elbow snapped back and hammered Sky Captain in the mouth. Joe swallowed three teeth and a mouthful of blood. He quickly released his grip and Blackbeard and retreated across the room, hoping he wouldn't keel over and puke.
"Bai Ling was right about you, after all" Blackbeard growled, spitting a wad of bloody phlegm from the corner of his mouth. "Best god damned fight I've had all year. Too bad it has to end." Blackbeard clenched his fist and aimed it at Sky Captain like a gun. The sound of a cap gun firing came from within his sleeve, followed by a rapid blur of motion. Shit, Joe realized too late, knife launcher. The weighted blade plunged into Sky Captain's left shoulder and knocked him over. A wet pool expanded over the wound, bleeding through his bomber jacket.
And then things got bad. A deafening, barfing explosion came from deep below. Thin rivulets of blood streamed down their ears and their skin welted with heat blisters. And everywhere, everywhere, there was the sound of fire and death, growing in intensity like a chorus of the damned. Polly, Sky Captain realized. I hope they escaped in time.
"The game's begun, Blackbeard" Sky Captain said through split, swollen lips. "But you were never a player. You were Bai-Ling's pawn from the get go." The look in his venomous eyes suggested Blackbeard had already come to the same conclusion. "No!" Blackbeard hollered above the swelling cacophony of destruction around them. "My world! My pawns!" He drew his saber charged Sky Captain. Frantically, Joe searched for something to deflect the blade, noticing a jagged length of pipe at his feet.
Sky Captain positioned his right foot under the pipe and kicked it up into the air as Blackbeard's blade crashed down. Joe angled his left forearm to take the brunt of the attack. The sword cut deep, biting a splintered chunk of bone out of him, but it was better getting his neck sliced open. With his right hand, he grabbed the pipe and blindly thrust it forward. There was a wet pop as it pierced Blackbeard's stomach. Broken, the king stared at the spewing wound with childlike fear.
In that quiet moment of realization, neither man could anticipate what happened next. The great blocks of hewn stone that comprised the bridge floor quivered, cracked, and plummeted. Looking down, Sky Captain saw that a gaping hole was punched through the center of the galleon, a shaft of falling debris and soldiers leading straight down to the ocean. Like a man possessed Blackbeard pushed himself on the pipe, leaving a trail of stomach and ichor behind him, and wrapped an icy talon around Joe's throat. "Join me in death, Sky Captain!"
Stay Tuned for Chapter Eighteen: All Fall Down