Disclaimer: I own nothing and I have no clue what major key Kayura is playing. I can't play the piano either.
The Ronin Goonies
Chapter Eight
The Inferno
"It's disgusting." Mia said wrinkling her nose. In the far corner of the tunnel they were standing in was this huge harpsichord, made of human bones. A large black skeleton was standing over it with long, red, dreadlock like hair flowing around it. Organ pipes were sticking out everywhere.
"There's no way out. What do we do?" Kayura asked fearfully looking behind them to see if the Masho brothers were there. Fortunately they weren't. Rowen and Sage went up to the harpsichord and examined it.
"There's a passageway next to it, but it's blocked." Sage told them scanning the wall for a switch or something. Rowen fingered the bones slightly.
"I think we need to play this thing to trigger the passageway." He said thoughtfully. "Cye what does the map say?" Cye quickly pulled out the map and looked over it. He shook his head after looking it over.
"There's nothing here. I can't find anything about a harpsichord of bones." He said franticly. Ryo went over to him and noticed something written on the back.
"What's this on the back?" Ryo asked flipping the map over.
"That's it! They're notes!" Cye said excitedly setting the map on the harpsichord.
"Kayura you took piano lessons. Can you figure it out?" Mia asked as she pushed the reluctant girl up to the harpsichord.
"I was five! How am I supposed to remember how to play?" Kayura snapped at her.
"Well you better start remembering. The Masho brothers will be here any minute." Sage said worriedly. Kayura nodded, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.
"Okay, okay, uhm. I think its in major scale." She said reading the notes. She scanned the bones for middle C. "Okay first notes are C, E, and uhm G." She placed her fingers over the keys and pressed down.
Three pipes shot out dust as the notes played in the air. There was a creaking sound that followed and the stone gate blocking the passageway lowered a little. Everyone cheered.
"Great Kayura keep going." Rowen said encouragingly.
"Okay its all coming back to me." Kayura said scanning the next notes. "I think it's E…A flat…C?" She started to press the keys. Sage shook his head slightly.
"Kayura I don't think that's…" He started to say as Kayura pressed the keys. More pipes shot out dust only the tone was off and suddenly the ground beneath Sage broke through. Just as he started to fall Rowen and Cye grabbed his arms and pulled him up. Everyone looked down to see a large deep pit beneath them.
"I'm sorry Sage, Oh my god I can't do this!" Kayura started freaking out.
"Kayura, calm down, everyone makes mistakes." Cye said trying to make her feel better, even though he was freaking out too. "You can do this, just don't make anymore mistakes."
"Oh yeah that's comforting." Mia said sarcastically. Ryo went ran over to the tunnel entrance. He looked down and saw the Masho brothers crossing the log.
"Guys they're coming! They're almost here!" Ryo ran back to them he slipped and fell into them causing Kayura to accidentally hit a few keys. The pipes went off and another part of the ground fell through. Rowen and Sage grabbed Ryo before he could fall.
"You idiot, are you trying to kill us?" Rowen yelled at him. Kayura started on the next few notes.
"B flat…D…F" Kayura pressed the keys. The pipes sound and the gate lowered even more.
"One more should do it Kayura." Mia said.
"But one more mistake could kill us." Ryo said absently. Rowen smacked him in the head.
"I can't read these last notes." Kayura said panicky trying to read the map. "I'm going to guess it's an E flat."
"You're guessing!" Sage shrieked.
"I told you I couldn't do this!" Kayura screamed at him. "This isn't exactly my grandmother's piano you know!"
"I trust you Kayura. You can do this." Cye encouraged her. She looked at him and smiled.
"Okay…here goes nothing." She said placing her fingers over the keys. Ryo ran back to the tunnel entrance again and looked down.
"Hey where'd they go?" Ryo said when he didn't see them anywhere. He looked back at the others. "Guys they're gone, they must have fallen into the river." Just as he said that something grabbed his wrist. He looked up to see Kale glaring down at him.
"Gotcha you little twerp." Kale growled at him. Ryo screamed and kicked Kale in the crotch. Kale made a strange squeaking sound before falling backwards onto Dais and Sekhmet. The three fell back down the wall. Ryo ran back to the others.
"Hurry up! They're here!" He yelled. Kayura took a deep breath, closed her eyes and pressed done on the keys. The pipes sounds on more time and the gate fell open all the way. The grouped cheered and Rowen hugged Kayura.
"Great job, now let's get out of here." He said as they all ran into the passageway.
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Kale was curled up on the ground twitching as Dais and Sekhmet pulled themselves together. "Damn it, those little brats are so dead!" Dais swore checking himself for injuries.
"Nah Dais, death is too merciful. I'm gonna break every bone in their body. Then I'll think about killing them." Sekhmet growled cracking his neck and checking to make sure he hadn't lost his gun. Then he and Dais started climbing back up the wall. Sekhmet looked down at Kale who had resolved to rocking back and forth.
"I am in my happy place… I am in my happy place…" Kale babbled as he continued to rock back and forth.
"Kale will you pull yourself together! You're a Masho brother. Start acting like one!" Sekhmet yelled at him. "Be a man." Dais snickered.
"I think he lost that back on the log." Dais laughed. Sekhmet hit him on the head and climbed back down.
"Come on ya weenie." Sekhmet growled grabbing Kale by the collar of his shirt and together he and Dais dragged Kale up the wall. It was a little hard to climb and drag Kale up the wall, so it took them a while before they could reach the top.
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"It looks like a waterslide." Cye observed when the came to the end of the passageway. "I wonder where it leads?"
"Who cares it may be the only way out." Rowen said.
"Alright then Rowen, lead the way." Ryo said sarcastically. Rowen glared at him, then looked down at the dubbed "Waterslide", and frowned. He didn't like waterslides, giving him a hardcore roller coaster any day.
"Geronimo!" Cye shouted jumping headfirst onto the waterslide and disappearing around a curve.
"Cye you nut!" Rowen yelled jumping in after him. The others looked at each other. Ryo jumped in yelling at the top of his lungs. Mia went in next followed by Kayura. Sage looked a little sick.
"I'm gonna die." He said before jumping in after his friends.
"WHAAAAHOOOO!" Cye screamed having the time of his life. Rowen was screaming but for a different reason. Ryo kept sliding around in circles. Mia and Kayura were laughing their heads off while Sage looked like he swallowed a fish. Soon they got separated from each other when the waterslide divided into three different directions. Cye slid into the left one, while Rowen and Ryo slid into the right one. Mia and Kayura slid into the middle one and Sage reluctantly slid into the one Cye went through.
Cye went around a sharp turn and saw that the water stopped just ahead of him. "Heads up!" He yelled cheerfully as he fell fifteen feet into a pool of water. He resurfaced just in time to see Rowen fall out of a five-foot waterfall. When Rowen resurfaced however he was not happy.
"Cye you moron." Rowen snapped at him. Cye however ignored him and laughed. Rowen just shook his head. "I swear I'll never understand your thing about water."
"Look out below!" Ryo shouted as he fell out of the waterfall Rowen just came out of. He did a cannonball, splashing Rowen and Cye. He came up spitting water. "Man that was fun." Him and Cye started splashing each other with water. None of them really was looking around at their surroundings.
A short cry later and Mia came fall out of a small waterfall only about a foot or so high. Kayura came out next and the two resurfaced brushing their hair out of their faces.
"Wow, what a ride." Mia commented as she and Kayura swam over to them.
"Hey where's Sage?" Rowen asked them.
"OHHHHH SHIIIIITTTTTTTT!" Sage screamed as he fell out of the fifteen-foot waterfall and did a pathetic belly flop into the water. When he resurfaced everyone was laughing at him.
"Man Sage you look like a drown rat." Ryo said. Sage tried to glare at him through his wet hair.
"First my dad floods the house and now this. I'm really starting to hate water." He commented wiping the hair out of his face. When he did that his eyes widen in surprise when he got a good look at his surroundings. "Oh my god." Everyone turned to see what he was staring at.
"Oh wow!" Kayura gasped while the others shared similar reactions.
There in front of them was a huge pirate ship with white sails, gently bobbing up and down with the water. It was most amazing thing any of them had ever seen. Inferno was written on the side of the ship
"I can't believe it. We've found Talpa's ship." Cye whispered in awe.
"I can't believe its real. This thing is hundreds of years old. And it's still intact." Rowen said amazed.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get Talpa's treasure!" Ryo yelled then started swimming towards the ship. Cye quickly caught up with him as the two raced, the others not far behind.
Mia was swimming close to Sage when she felt something hit her between the legs. She gasped indignantly then slapped Sage in the back of the head.
"Ow. What was that for?" Sage asked rubbing his head looking at her crossly.
"You know very well what that was for Sage Date. You grabbed me!" Mia snapped at him.
"I did not!" Sage argued. Then he felt something brush against his thigh. He jerked back slightly and glared at Mia. "Now who's grabbing who?" He splashed her. Mia was about to retaliate when she felt something grab her leg and pulled her under.
"Mia!" Sage yelled swimming to where she disappeared. Rowen and Kayura stopped and went over to Sage.
"What happen?" Rowen asked. Just then Mia resurfaced choking on water.
"Something's got me!" She screamed. A large red tentacle came out of the water and slammed into Rowen. Kayura screamed and tried to get away, but something grabbed her leg and pulled her under.
Cye and Ryo stopped swimming when they heard Kayura scream. They turned to see their friends being attacked by a small octopus. Sage was trying to remove the tentacle from around Mia while Rowen was trying to do the same for himself. Kayura was screaming and kicking trying to get free.
"Holy cow Cye we gotta help them!" Ryo said and started swimming towards his friends.
"Wait Ryo you can't…" Cye knew even though it was a small octopus it would be too strong for even his friends to fight. He looked around trying to find some sort of weapon to use. He looked over at a pillar of rocks and saw a skeleton lying on it with a spear sticking out of its chest. Thinking quickly he swam over and climbed up on the rocks. He ran over to the skeleton and pulled out the spear.
"What the?" He noticed that it wasn't a spear at all. Instead it looked like some sort of trident with a ying yang symbol on it. Shaking his head slightly he ran back and dove into the water. He swam over to his friends and the octopus then held up the trident.
"Sorry I have to do this" Cye said to the octopus then threw the trident expertly into the octopus. It made some kind of shrill sound and let go of its captures before swimming away.
"Is everyone okay?" Rowen asked between breaths. He held Kayura as she shook in his arms. Sage was doing the same for Mia and Ryo was next to them trying to catch his breath as well.
"I think we're all okay." Ryo said then looked over at Cye who was staring at the octopus's retreat with a sad look on his face. "Hey Cye you okay?" Cye shook his head and look at him.
"I'm fine. I just wish I didn't have to hurt it." Cye said sadly.
"Man Squirt where'd you learn to throw a spear like that?" Sage asked amazed. Cye made a weird face before answering.
"I dunno…it just sort of felt natural to me." He said softly staring at the water strangely.
"Well what ever, let's get to the ship before it comes back." Rowen suggested, the others agreed and they all quickly swam over to the ship. They found a rope ladder on the side of the ship and they all climbed up. Once on the ship they sighed in relief.
"Thank you solid foundation." Sage was grateful to be out of the water. The group scattered around on the deck checking things out.
"Do you think the treasure's around here somewhere?" Kayura asked Cye as they walked over the starboard side.
"Kayura this whole ship's a treasure." Cye told her when they came upon another skeleton.
"Ewww Cye look." Kayura gasped. Cye shrugged.
"It's just a skeleton." Cye said turning it over, he jumped back and gasped when he saw two daggers lodged in the skeleton's eye sockets. Ryo was not far from them looking up at the sails.
"Gold's gotta be around here somewhere." He said to himself. Not really looking where he was walking he stepping onto some rotting wood and fell through. He cried out when he fell, landing on something soft. He shook his head and looked himself over.
"I'm okay, I'm fine." He said to himself, and then he saw that he had landed on a pile of skeletons. Ryo yelled incoherently scrambling away from the skeletons. Kayura and Cye looked down at him from the hole.
"Ryo are you okay?" Cye asked him.
"I'm freaking fine! But I'm sick and tired of falling! And I'm sick of skeletons!" Ryo ranted in a high-pitched voice. "This is driving me nuts!"
"Why didn't you use the stairs?" Rowen asked sarcastically as he and Sage climbed down a set of stairs not far from where Ryo had fallen.
"Oh sure use the stairs. Next time I'm falling Rowen I'll look for some freaking stairs first!" Ryo yelled at him. Mia, Cye, and Kayura climbed down the stairs as well and started looking around.
"Knock it off Ryo, come on. The treasure's bound to be in here somewhere." Rowen told him as he started looking. Cye found another skeleton with a sword stuck in its ribs. He pulled the sword out and looked at it.
"Cye quit playing with that. You might cut yourself." Rowen said sharply. Cye looked at him like he was crazy.
"I just fought an octopus and you're telling me not to play with a sword?" He asked incredulously.
"Don't get cocky bro. You're still just a kid." Rowen snapped at him grabbing the sword and laying it against the wall out of the way. Cye frowned at him but didn't say anything.
"Guys, there's nothing here!" Mia said getting frustrated. "Where's the gold?"
"Yeah where's the gold Cye?" Ryo asked. Cye pulled out the map and looked at it.
"I don't know. The map doesn't say where it is on the ship." He said rolling the map up and putting back in his pocket. "It's got to be around here. Where else would it be?"
While the others where looking for the gold, Kayura had found a cute little wooden doll on the floor. She grinned kneeling down and picking it up. She absently grabbed a rope sticking out of the ceiling to pull herself up.
CLICK
Kayura let go of the rope when she heard clicking sounds. "Uh oh guys I think I sprung another trap!" She yelled to the others. The others stopped talking and listened.
"Everybody get down!" Rowen shouted diving for the floor. Everyone ducked and waited for something bad to happen. However after the clicking had stopped two doors in the ceiling fell open, dropping about a pound of dust everywhere.
Ryo coughed and waved his hand around trying to get rid of the dust. "Was that it?" He asked no one in particular. Sage went over to the doors to see what was up there.
"There are some planks in the way, but the treasure maybe up there." Sage said sneezing a couple of times from the dust. Rowen came over and examined the planks.
"They look pretty worn. We could probably break through." Rowen said thinking it over.
"It's too high for either of us." Sage pointed out.
"Yeah I know. Hey Ryo come here." Rowen said.
"Aw crap,now what do you want me to do?" Ryo complained walking over to the two older boys.
"Sage and I will lift you up, and you break through the wood." Rowen explained. Ryo groaned, handing Cye his backpack, he did as he was told. Sage and Rowen lifted him up and he started banging on the wood with his fist.
"Hurry up Ryo, you're not exactly light you know." Rowen said strained to hold the younger boy up.
"I'm trying, it's harder then it looks Rowen." Ryo said taking the palm of his hand the thrusting it up as hard as he could. The wood finally broke apart and Ryo pulled himself up into the room.
"Is the treasure up there Ryo?" Cye asked. Ryo looked around but it was a little too dark to make out any details.
"I dunno…its dark up here. Let me look around." Ryo said squinting to see anything. He did saw a large table surrounded by even larger chairs in the far corner. Curious he walked over to the table and was shocked at what he saw. Gold and jewels where everywhere but that wasn't all. In every chair a skeleton sat in strange looking armor. One looked like a spider, another looked like a snake; one had a yellow and brown coat, while another had a black cape and claws. The one in the middle was by far the scariest one in the bunch. It made Ryo shudder in distaste. It's blood red mask staring at him evilly, strands of white hair sticking out on the sides of the helmet.
"You must be Captain Talpa." Ryo stated going up to it getting a better look at the armored skeleton. A strange sensation went through Ryo as he looked over the armor. "It's strange…I almost feel as if we've met before." He said an odd look on his face. "Like in another world…or another lifetime perhaps."
Ryo was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't the room started to light up until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He jumped and looked behind him to see Cye standing there with a candle in his hand.
"Creepy looking isn't he?" Cye commented smirking. Ryo chuckled that weird feeling not leaving.
"Yeah I guess…Defiantly evil looking. But I dunno, I don't feel like I should be afraid of him." Ryo said looking at Captain Talpa. "I feel as though if he were alive he'd hate my guts right now."
Cye laughed. "What? You two were enemies or something? Not likely." He joked then looked around. "But at least we found the treasure."
"You found it?" Sage asked climbing up into the room.
"Yeah it's here Sage, get everyone up here quick." Cye told him. He put the candle on a nearby candlestick holder and pulled out his jacket from Ryo's backpack and put it on. "Better start loading up what we can carry." Ryo nodded and started filling his backpack up with gold. The others had finally climbed up into the room and were looking around in awe.
"Look at all the jewels!" Kayura squeaked as she and Mia started putting on some jewelry. Sage and Rowen were putting what ever they could into their pockets.
"What do you think is in here?" Ryo asked pointed at a small treasure chest sitting in the middle of the table.
"I think I know." Cye said eagerly as he walked over to the chest and unlatched it. He opened it up and grinned when he saw what was in it. "I knew it. It's the Nine Orbs of Virtue." Everyone gathered around him to get a better look.
"They look like regular marbles to me." Rowen said frowning when he picked one up and looked at it. "I don't see any virtue inside of it."
"Maybe its too dark. Once we get outside maybe we'll be able to see them." Cye said pulling out his marble bag and taking out the marbles and placing them on the table and putting the nine orbs into the bag. He put them in his pocket on the inside of his jacket.
"Speaking out getting outside, we better start find a way out. Those Masho Brothers could be here any minute." Mia said suddenly remembering their previous dilemma.
"Hey I got an idea." Ryo said grabbing some gold and jewels. "I read this in a book once. We can lead a bunch of jewels into one cave, and hide in another. Then when the Masho brothers go to check it, we can make a break for it."
"Now that sounds like a great idea!" A dark booming voice said behind them. The teen jumped and turned to see Sekhmet and his brothers in a doorway glaring at them. Sekhmet pointed the gun at them, making sure they didn't run off.
"This is not good." Ryo said.