Desperate Struggles
"Well, Plan A's gone to shit," Shaad stated with a groan. "And, there's too much heat for Plan B. Raine, I assume you have an escape plan ready."
Raine finished taking a couple of deep breaths to reclaim the air that had been driven from her lungs, silently thankful that Vega recognized her faster than she did him. . . and that he hadn't been using his claw. "What happened," she was finally able to ask, pushing off the wall and sliding past Vega.
Shaad watched as Raine rolled her shoulders. Vega certainly hadn't been gentle with her, but the fit navigator could definitely take it. "Oh, you know," Shaad started with a pained groan as Vega helped him up. "Tried a new move, blasted through a coupla walls, surprisingly, actually dented the vault door pretty noticeably. In the end, though, only really managed to expend all my energy for no other reason than to piss off some assholes and hurt myself. Should give you two a chance at a good workout, though" he finished with a pained smile.
"Ha ha," Raine responded dryly. "We need to head for the aft. Vega, I'll take Shaad; you scout ahead."
The masked man turned to his exhausted captain who nodded slowly, adding "Pick your fights carefully. We're gonna need you tip-top to get out of here."
With that, Vega handed their captain off to Raine before dashing off, the three bladed 'claw' secure on his right hand.
"Every time," Raine complained once Vega had gone from their sight.
"What," Shaad questioned, genuinely confused.
"Every time I tell him to do something, he looks to you for confirmation first. Why?"
Shaad shrugged as best he could. "I'm probably the first person to treat him as a friend since before that mask got placed on his face - hell, maybe in his life. Just be nice; there's few people I'd trust with my life more than Vega."
Hmph. Raine gave an amused scoff. "That's easy to say. He could've killed you the first time you two met."
"Second."
"Excuse me?"
"The fight was our second meeting," Shaad grinned. "And, he's developed into quite the conversationist since then."
Raine rolled her eyes and groaned at his unnecessary statements. "Uh-huh. Point is, I'd say you owe him your life not the other way around."
"True. And, if we make it out of here, I'm sure I'll owe him my life many times more. Now, let's move, shall we?"
With each passing second, a modicum of Shaad's energy returned. But, it was slow going; he could still barely hold himself up and much of his arms and chest were sore to the touch. Still, he and Raine came upon Vega faster than either of them anticipated. The pair found the masked fighter, back pressed against a large tank with fresh bruises forming on his torso and fresher blood dripping from the claw weapon.
Captain and navigator rushed to join their crewmate, Raine moving to where the path intersected with another to survey the situation.
"What we lookin' at?"
"Five guards, four more dead. Taking their time; probably awaiting backup."
"Either way we don't have much time. We need a distraction. . . fast."
It had been a while since the opening fireworks tapered off, setting the stage for the rich prizes to be displayed at the ring's center while the announcer whipped the already frenzied crowd into a groundswell of Earth-shaking pandemonium. Even over the deafening roar of the crowd, the silver-tongued announcer's booming voice wrested control back, though only momentarily as a scream - desperate and panicked in its prolonged intensity - drew all eyes to a fast approaching object flying down from above the ring. With a velocity too great for most of the civilian onlookers, and even a few of the registered combatants, to clearly make out, the blurred object hurtling toward the arena and the announcer.
The arena, formerly awash in the picturesque colors of fireworks, was unceremoniously dimmed by a whirlwind of thick dust clouds amidst the falling wood and concrete that peppered to the far reaches of the expansive fighting field. Having entered like a twinkling star through the glaring overhead lights and the bright glow of the moon, confusion remained rampant even as people recovered from the widespread impact, the resultant shockwave resonating far and wide.
"What was that?"
"Our best chance at a distraction. Y'all wanna clear a path?"
"Oh, thank goodness," Raine exhaled, stumbling into open sight of the guards pursuing Vega. "Please help! My husband fell and broke his hip."
Judging by the hard glares she drew, the guards weren't buying Raine's damsel-in-distress routine. That was fine. She only needed to distract them. By the time the guards realized what had happened, Vega was behind them and two of their number had been taken out of the fight, one having had his throat ripped out before the other suffered a sharp elbow to the neck and a second downward elbow to the jaw ensuring his neck was snapped.
The surprise got the attention of the three guards left. Raine made them pay for ignoring her. A thunderous crack of her baton across one guard's jaw merely announced her presence before a series of low kicks and elbow strikes left her standing between the crumpled forms of two more, the sole remainder left standing between Vega and herself.
The time it took the two pirates to take down his four compatriots gave him enough time to regain his bearings. But, even blocking each of their initial strikes, a low kick from Raine buckled his knee and opened him up to a hard knee blasted across his jaw by Vega. The flashing silver of Raine's baton was the last thing he saw before joining his partners on the floor, his world naught but black.
Like two phantoms, a hazy pair appeared within the fading dust cloud, earning wary attention as the pair remained still.
"Ugh, that hurt. Are we dead?" Kneeling, Isaac rubbed his back, not wanting to immediately get up.
"Nngh. Nah, but this is Heaven. Look at all these people; they look strong," K'ron grinned, popping his neck and cracking his knuckles at the prospect of a good tussle. "This is my kind o' party."
"Gaa. Someone, get these imbeciles out of here." There was a lingering silence as the voice of the surprisingly durable announcer registered throughout those gathered at the vast arena. A silence that only further irritated the shapely young brunette. "Kill them so we can start the tournament."
That declaration reignited the crowd's fire, earning enthusiastic chants from those gathered. "Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Nope, this is definitely Hell," Isaac deadpanned, rising to stand alongside his partner.
"Hmph; I kind o' like this song," K'ron teased, a maniacal grin plastered on his face despite the blood-stained bandages wrapped around his torso as well as those over his face, forearms, and knuckles. "Bring it on."
While K'ron had only recently suffered a beatdown at the hands of Shin Tensan (from which he was still recovering), it was Isaac that was more trepidatious. Still, both showed defiance in their postures: K'ron readying for a fight and Isaac planning something more.
Dozens of fighters charged the two young men from every direction while many more stood back, some opting to conserve energy for the actual event with many more understanding that overwhelming a pair of brash youngsters wouldn't impress the Dragon Clan.
With the encroaching fighters rapidly drawing closer, K'ron wanted to rush their greater numbers headlong, but Isaac held him back, muscles tensing in preparation for a shock offensive.
"Destructive Wave Fist," Isaac called, unleashing a fierce punch at those straight ahead, easily clearing out those unfortunate enough to be in the straight path.
The sudden attack and power of it, caused a bit of trepidation from the fighters (and a great deal of intrigue from the audience), but K'ron, despite there being no way he should even have been able to move around, was ready to take advantage of the lapse and jump into action.
"Yea. Let's kick this party off right."
Holding some of the looser bandages like reins, though, Isaac restrained his more rambunctious counterpart. "No; now, we run."
K'ron grumbled, but as Isaac pulled him along, he had no choice but to follow.
"What are you doing? That'll just slow us down," Isaac declared in exasperated fashion as K'ron picked up the smallest treasure chest in the prize pile and brought it along.
"We're pirates. Fight and get money, it's what we do."
Isaac wanted to slap K'ron right there, but there was no time to argue, especially not with a hard-headed walking concussion, so he settled for an audible grumble as they ran through the cleared path, wild swings of the large claymore keeping most at bay while hard strikes took care of the rest.
Raine and Shaad stumbled forward from the sudden impact causing the ship to lurch. While the captain fell to the ground, though, Raine landed flush against something. . . Or, better yet, someone. Looking up in her disorientation, Raine found her hands pressed squarely against the broad, covered chest of a guard with a second nearby, both armed with modified rifles. Almost on instinct, Raine hooked a leg inside and around that of the man she found herself entwined with, pushing him to the ground in time with pulling her leg back and using the momentum to propel herself back into the heavily shadowed hideaway they'd emerged from.
"Damn it all," Raine grumbled under her breath, cursing their situation as a gun switched its sights from the downed Shaad to her position.
"Step out with your hands up."
"Can't do that," Raine stated, her head down, hands open and visible, to declare herself harmless from the shaded area.
Keeping the gun trained on Raine with his right, the approaching guard's left hand reached out to grab her wrist. Her eyes briefly glanced to her captain and the guard picking himself up, but his eyes remained focused and wary of her hands, never seeing the fresh tear in the skirt of her dress.
An abrupt, agonised yell pulled at the gunmen's attention before being cut off just as suddenly. Taking advantage of the scene Raine caused, Shaad had stabbed a skewer through the hand of the guard beside him. That skewer soon silencing the guard directly while Raine grasped the barrel of the gun pointed at her. The gunman recovered quickly, however, ready even as a solid kick to his shin locked his knee to the point of buckling, pulling Raine close by the strap of her dress and delivering a headbutt that stunned the pirate and forced her back to the wall.
Raine countered by thrusting her heel into his abdomen. A follow-up spin kick drew blood with a deep gash across the cheek from her stiletto heel, but the guard was trained well, fighting through the pain and immediately bringing his gun back up. But, bringing her leg back up, Raine kicked his arms higher. A few rounds fired off into the ceiling while Raine reached out and grabbed him in a chokehold with her left arm.
Raine wasn't strong enough to maintain the hold for long, especially with the gunman's uplifted left arm lessening the pressure she could apply. But, she didn't need long as with her right hand she drew the dagger strapped to her pale thigh, repeatedly stabbing her foe in the chest.
At least one of the stabbings found home in the gunman's heart as Raine felt the life and fight quickly drain from her significantly larger and stronger opponent. Even the elbow that separated them didn't have as much sting as she would've expected. And, as the guard turned towards his killer, he no longer possessed the strength to even lift his weapon.
"We have to move," Raine snapped. Unfortunately, her captain didn't seem to share her haste, lying motionless in his spot on the floor with his left hand still in the blood pool of the guard he silenced. "Just perfect. Of all times."
Raine and Vega breathed notably heavier, their captain unconscious between them. After a few scrapes each - showing in the smattering of blood dotting all three - they'd finally made it to the rear deck. And, here they were. Surrounded. By a mix of Marines and Rozzegg's guards. "Now would be a great time to wake up. . . Vega, I need you to take Shaad. . . Listen to me just this once. . . Please?"
"Quiet," a booming voice snapped, shaking the pirates and a few of the guards. It's bearer, the presumed leader, was a towering man at almost eight feet tall, a black fur pelt stretched across his broad shoulders mildly fluttering behind the white three-piece suit he wore. Stopping one of his own men in the midst of stepping forward to claim Shaad, Admiral Fenrir ordered, "Turn over the captain, and I will push for lighter sentences on you two."
Dipping low, Vega, in clear defiance, put Shaad's other arm around his shoulders while Raine uttered something imperceptible to him. The two, though, rose together as prompted while the Admiral regretfully shook his head, and walked to where a rope ladder hung over the ship's edge, a line of guns pressed to their backs.
"Go on. Move," a soldier prodded, pushing Raine forward to the ladder.
However, Raine surprised the soldiers by swinging an elbow out - not at any of them but at Vega - cracking the lithe fighter right across the mask. In the split second that the soldiers stood stunned at Raine brazenly knocking her two compatriots into the sea, she immediately swung back with a sweeping high hook kick, cutting a soldier across the face with her heel before catching another's collar on that same heel, pulling him along just as three shots flew towards her. Catching three in the back wasn't enough to kill him, but it did incapacitate him. Raine, stopping his slumping body from falling with an arm around the throat, used him for leverage, jumping and trapping a second soldier between her strong calves. With a twist of her body, Raine flipped the two men, slamming them head first into the deck and possibly snapping their necks.
Rolling over she pulled the soldier in her arms on top of her as more shots were fired, giving the man four in the chest to go with the three already in his back. Knocking two men to the ground with a leg sweep, Raine spun back to her feet, using the momentum to crack her baton across the skull of an approaching soldier. When she pulled his limp body toward her to use as a shield against another wave of shots, the Admiral wisely ordered the assembled squad to put their guns aside. But, with no guns to be wary of, Raine no longer needed to restrain herself, drawing her prized dagger from its sheath on her thigh.
Charging in with a running knee for the closest one, Raine stabbed him in the neck and used his shoulders to flip over him and hit the next in line with a booming leg drop. Teeth gritted from the impact, the large man caught her leg, but as the other locked around his neck and the dagger entered through the top of his skull, his lifeless body was used to obstruct his comrades.
"Enough," the Admiral commanded, his voice shaking the deck and sending a shiver down Raine's spine allowing the numbers to finally overwhelm her as someone got behind her, catching her arm as she recovered and readied to swing at another foe. Her counter was stopped as a second man took hold of her torso, catching an elbow for his troubles before a soldier wrestled control of that limb as well. Kicking and thrashing violently in her attempts to keep her legs from being similarly subdued after a solid jab of her heel had the man directly behind her on the ground clutching his pearls in a position of prayer, Raine gave the determined soldiers pause when the point of her heel further found its way into one poor soul's eye socket. Using that narrow break, Raine jumped up, forcing the men to release her arms as she backflipped beautifully over them.
The maneuver strained their backs but pulled at her own tendons as well. However, there was no time to spare. A swift hook from Fenrir nearly crushed her arm, the baton falling from her grip as she screamed in pain. The pained exclamation was cut short by a thick, hairy forearm being pressed into her slender throat, choking off her breath. Such close proximity didn't come without cost, though, as Raine's dagger was buried to the hilt in the soldier's beefy tricep. The pink-haired beauty had been able to keep a clear head, but her strength left far faster as the arm barely lagged at the desperate maneuver.
"I'd hoped this could be resolved peacably," Fenrir muttered to the restrained pirate. "Your fire reminds me of my daughter."
Raine heard none of what was said to her. As her body went limp and her vision black, Raine could only able to hope that Vega got them away somehow. However, that already desperate plea seemed even more foolish in the next instant. Through the lightheadedness and pooling blood that made her feel like she was underwater, Raine could still not escape the Admiral's booming voice as he barked out commands.
"All soldiers, ready your guns and fire on that boat." His eyes quickly glared daggers at the fading Raine before enunciating the final words. "Kill them both."