Chapter 10

Revy didn't watch a lot of movies. Occasionally she would, and if she did it was usually something that was at least semi entertaining. Still, the moment she saw not one, but three different tentacles come out from out of the water and grab onto their boat she knew the movie. She'd watched it because Rock had suggested it. Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest had been the movie, and the moment the Kraken dragged the Black Pearl and its captain down was a scene she had watched time and time again.

Personally, she would have shot that Elizabeth bitch, thrown her to the fuckin' thing, and escaped. Now, now there were similar tentacles, and they were grabbing onto the boat. She fired at the first one, watching as it recoiled, and then to her surprise it lashed out toward her. She moved, quickly, and found herself firing again. The copies were engaging, but she found that they truly were made of ice. The tentacles wrapped around one, cruising it into shards, another it broke in half, and despite the fact that they were firing, attacking, and doing all they could their mobility was limited.

She felt the boat shift, something had latched onto the bottom of it, and she saw more tentacles. The vision of that thing destroying the pirate ship, eating the captain, and of that stupid bitch getting away scott free came to her. She fired again, and again at the monster, doing her best to stop it, to attempt to destroy it. Her cutlasses were doing absolutely fuck all against it, and so she had to switch. The rifle she had grabbed from the bunker was doing a far better job. At least it was until something slithered around toward her. She moved, and noticed that it nearly caught her. Suddenly she heard a heavy thump and she saw it. It was in the shape of a man. It wasn't him, but suddenly she was taken back.

She was fifteen again, in a holding cell in New York, and Officer Daniels was there. He kept looking at her, leering at her, and then when the other officer left to go get lunch he walked toward her cell. She didn't really expect anything to happen. After all, her old man had been a cop. The police didn't fuck with their own, or family of their own. But apparently no one had told Officer Daniels that. No one told him that it was wrong to slap a fifteen year old girl so hard that she saw stars, wrong to cuff her to the bars of her holding cell, wrong to…

Her trance was broken and she screamed in rage at the ancient memory. Whoever the fuck this was, they were Officer Fucking Daniels right the fuck now! She unloaded the rifle at him, and she was rewarded with seeing it tear a chunk right out of one of the tentacles. He screamed in pain and she smiled.

"That's right you fucker," she growled, "You're never going to touch me again. I waited for this, and I'm going to take you apart nice and slow."

He growled at her, anger surging through him, and before he could react she fired again. There were no more copies up here with her, it was just him and her. She looked toward the right and saw Rock. Her eyes widened, he was up here, and that meant if she knew it then that fucker did too! He lunged at her, and she fired again, catching him, stopping his progression, and she moved toward Rock, determined to tell him to get inside.

The bastard noticed what she was doing, and his attention moved as well. Everything began to move at slow motion, it was almost as if she was watching everything that was pure and pure being targeted by those bastards again. She wanted to will herself to be faster, she needed to will herself to be faster, but it didn't seem to matter. No matter how much she willed it, no matter how much she wanted, there was no way for her to move any faster than she was. She couldn't stop moving, and she realized that if the worst happened, if he was killed here and now, she would make this thing's short damn life be in agonizing pain.

She shot, hitting it, causing it to come up short, and she watched as Rock moved like his life depended on it. She was glad to see him moving, until she realized that it wasn't away from that thing, but instead it was toward it. He had a small piece of the railing from the Lagoon in his hands, his face was twisted in anger, and he slammed the pipe hard against the thing's head.

"You're not gonna touch her!"

His words floored her. She kept moving, determined to step in, to save him, but knowing that he was determined to do the same was insane. She never expected it. She never believed that anyone would ever step in to help her. All of those times she cried and pleaded for help when she was younger, when she had to face the horrors of the world as a teenager, she believed that what she lived in was the world as it truly was. Instead, here was an example of something she'd heard of, but never believed in. She fired another shot, and she watched as the creature lost another chunk. It was obvious that she was hurting it, and then she watched as it grabbed Rock. It flipped him as easily as she could flip an empty bottle of booze, and it flung him toward her.

She had seconds to decide, and in that time she dropped the rifle, letting the strap hold it, and she caught him. The force knocked both of them back, and she looked at him. She could see the cut, something had sliced open his cheek, nearly through, and she moved him. She stood as the creature came toward her. She fired another shot, and watched as the clip she was using ran dry. She grabbed another from her belt, fed it in, cycled the bolt, and fired again. This time she caught it in the shoulder, and it screamed.

"FUCKING BITCH!" it yelled, "I'M GONNA FUCK YOU IN FRONT OF HIM!"

She growled, ready to fight again when something rose from the boat. She'd seen him, dressed in what could be considered ceremonial clothes, his long braided acted as another limb, and he attacked with the precise effectiveness that she'd only seen from Changlish. The man fought as another form came up. She saw the poster girl for over exaggerated spank off material as she lifted into the air, her wings unfurled, and she grew her nails again. The attack was quick, but it did little more than slow him down.

Whatever he was, he was of the sea, and she could see that. He was at home in the ocean around them, and driving him off of the boat wouldn't do a damned thing. Her rifle had taken out chunks, obviously it hurt him, but it wasn't killing him. It was like cutting a squid or an octopus' leg off. The chunks she'd blown off were regrowing, and it would just be a matter of time until they were healed. What she needed to do was obvious and going to be hard. She needed to get a headshot.

If she could paint the deck of the Lagoon with his brains she was certain that would be the end of it. After all, as far as she knew everything needed its brain to live. Sure, they'd met a few individuals that seemed like they didn't have a brain between them, but she knew different. She took aim, and fired, only for one of his tentacles to come up and take the blast. He looked at her, and in that instant the guy dressed in more ceremonial clothes got him in the side of the head with a well placed kick.

He stumbled, his attention effectively diverted again, and she took another shot, and once again another tentacle took its place. This was insane. He seemed to sense the danger, and she couldn't figure out how to deal with it. She couldn't until she saw Rock. In the confusion he'd went inside of the boat, away from the danger, and once again he was in the middle of it, but he had something. It was a wire, actually it looked like an extension cord, one that had its end cut off and the two wires exposed. The moment the squid man, the kraken, for lack of a better term, got near where he was Rock thrusted his hand forward touching the exposed wire to him.

The effect was instantaneous, and Revy felt proud, turned on, and especially homicidal against this piece of shit. The tentacles couldn't intercept while they were tense like they were, and the bullet hit right in that son of a bitch's temple. She watched as it entered, as his good eye popped out, blood exploded out of the other side of his head, and his body no longer confined by the electricity, jerked and stumbled back. It was similar to watching a chicken with its head cut off, and she watched as it stumbled to the side of the Lagoon. For a moment it jerked twice more, and then it fell back into the ocean that was moving so quickly.

An explosion of water told her that the bastard fell just right onto a mine. Of course the explosion nearly flipped the Lagoon. Still, Dutch managed to keep it straight, and she looked at the yacht as it began to lose ground. She knew that eventually it would be coming back for them. That they would be forced to fight again, and she didn't think that it would be that far off. Working for a courier company, specifically one that used a boat to deliver goods, meant picking up on ships and their abilities. That yacht was a rich man's toy, no way around it, but more to the fact it was a beast.

Just from the way it was being handled told her that it had power to spare, and that meant it could catch up to them. Memories of facing those Neo Nazi fucks on their own yacht rested in the back of her mind. The little scrimmage that they had aboard it had been more or less a shooting gallery. With things like that kraken, the mermaids, and that bird girl aboard the yacht she didn't think that it would be a simple shooting gallery.

It would be a hard fought battle. She knew that. Her cutlass was great, against other people, and apparently mermaids, but it fell short with that kraken. It had taken a high caliber bolt action rifle to put it down, and that had been with a headshot. A headshot, two of their clients keeping it busy, and Rock nailing it with electricity. If there would have been two of them they'd be fucked. They would have gotten them. She didn't think that it was a foolish decision to send that thing over on its own. Their boss likely knew that it was expendable, and on top of that he likely believed it would have been able to do the job. Maybe if it would have tried disable the engines, or put a hole in the Lagoon from underneath then it would have been different.

She realized that the reason it came on board was for her. She felt sick, that thing wanted her, it was just like Officer Fuckin' Daniels! She wanted to scream, and a moment later she felt two arms around her. The anger, the anguish, the shame, and the raging hate all slammed hard at once. She dropped the rifle and hugged Rock. She hugged him for all he was worth, and before he could get a word out she kissed him.

She needed his calm, his peace, his serene nature, and she needed it now. She needed it the way the fish needed the ocean. Their tongues danced, and she broke the kiss, leaned her head against his neck, and just resided to be held. Whatever was coming, whatever it was, it could wait until she was comforted. She wasn't weak, and she'd send the bastard that said so to a watery grave, but damn it if she didn't need some comfort.

"Revy," he said lowly, quietly, just between them, "Are you okay?"

She shook her head, "I've got something to tell you," she said, "Something that might change things between us, but I need to. I need to because I've been carrying it too long, and I'm tired of holding it."

"I'm here, and you know that I'll listen."