Desperate Struggles
"Save. . . her." The raspy, gravelly voice choked out the desperate plea before falling silent.
On board the ship, only those approaching the railing could see the small boat in which Vega and Shaad huddled, bobbing in the massive shadow of the luxury liner. Guns moved to their designated target. But, while their targets remained out of sight of the majority for the moment, all saw as a gleaming projectile flew over the deck. Whistling through the air, the visual grew rapidly clearer until all watched the sword sail. One man, though, saw that sword more closely, until he was the only one who could no longer see it.
Hearing the sound of steel piercing bone just above her, Raine reacted immediately as the pressure around her throat loosened. Even before air fully returned to her starved lungs, her immediate captor was already flying overhead, blood spray spilling from the wound set cleanly between his eyes.
An arm shielding her eyes, Raine ignored the burning sensation scalding her lungs with each exertion as she pushed herself. Further using the musclebound man's beefy frame for cover, she dived into the surrounding guards, rolling over to her feet with Shaad's Chiryoku in hand. Taking them by surprise, Raine created gap enough in the line of gunmen to dive into the waters below just behind the small boat holding her crewmates as it finally pulled away from the ship, Vega paddling as hard as he could fully cognizant of Raine gripping onto the far side of the boat trying to balance out his erratic strokes while simultaneously using the boat for cover from the onslaught of bullets.
"You're injured. Fall back and let me take the lead," Isaac called ahead to K'ron as the latter slammed the head of a fighter in their way as they ran off the arena floor. Isaac had cleared a straight path, but the effort left him breathing harder. With both he and K'ron slowed, others interested in doing so were able to occupy the emptied space while still more chased the pair down from behind. Isaac, slowing down enough to trip up a black-clad fighter trailing on his right (and drag the stranger's head in the ground a few extra feet for good measure) surveyed the developing scene with a frustrated but wary scowl. "Just drop the chest and we might actually make it out of here!"
"Are you kidding," K'ron yelled back incredulously. "And, miss out on all this fun," he added, ducking under a clothesline and landing a jaw shattering uppercut on the soldier waiting to receive him.
Already breathing heavily, K'ron's wounds had reopened and fresh blood painted his firmly wrapped bandages. Nonetheless, he charged forward, a wide smile plastered on his face as fighters and freshly arrived guards alike stood in their way, flowing in to keep the interlopers from escaping.
"The boat!"
"What!?"
"The boat," Isaac shouted over the commotion, shooting past K'ron and kicking two soldiers aside to give himself a bit more time to throw his friend ahead. Immediately ganged up on by a small collection of fighters and guards, Isaac took the chest from K'ron's hands and swung it at the heads of two fighters, knocking them out, before tossing it into the unsuspecting arms of a guard and driving his feet through the wood of the container, shattering the chest in the man's face. With the chest blasted apart, Isaac grabbed the only item within - a glass case housing a strange coconut like fruit that looked to be covered in swirling white feathers - before continuing on his way.
Tossed into the air by Isaac, K'ron cratered into the ground with far more force than should have been possible, peppering those around with heavy shrapnel of arena fragments. Despite the inordinate damage, K'ron emerged unfazed as Isaac caught up, smirking at the final row of guards between them and possible escape.
The island's forest green-robed guards, though, shared a similar confidence and assuredness, leering at K'ron like trapped prey from behind their high shields. Things changed when K'ron raised his fist. Suddenly, the elite martial artists could barely hold their shields in place, legs shaking as they struggled to hold their ground against the unseen force pulling them. Charging forward, the young pirate ripped his fist back and the guards tumbled forward allowing K'ron to easily jump over the rattled group, laughing as he landed behind them.
"You'll need more backbone than that to stand up to me," he proffered with a smirk. Angry and flustered, the guards quickly turned around ready to pursue the young man only to be cut down by Isaac and his unwieldy monstrosity of a sword.
No other threats stood in K'ron's way as he jumped onto the indicated boat, ignoring the sound of a heated argument from inside the small boat's cabin, his mind instead on swiftly dealing with the ropes docking the vessel.
Arriving a short minute later, Isaac shot a deadly glare at the two young men peeking from within the boat as it began to set off, the sheer intensity enough to get the two to back down without even offering up reactions as the boat was stolen with them still on it.
With more guards rapidly heading their way, it would take more than merely loosing the ropes to escape on the single sail boat. In the instant that thought registered with Isaac, like a god-send, a strong wind swept across the island, ferrying the group out into the contained waters with the wind at their backs and bullets flying toward their heads.
High up, in an enclave overlooking the Colosseum, an attractive woman of obvious refinement watched over the events unfolding below with only a passing fancy.
"Why get involved," she off-handedly questioned the distinguished gentleman beside her, his high cheekbones and sharp, narrow features a near perfect match of hers though his gold-accented, dark robes sharply contrasted her own soft colored, blue and white regalia.
"They interest me," he answered simply, brushing a stray golden hair away from his face.
His straightforward reasoning elicited a smirk from her. "So, will you help them?"
"What fun would that be?"
"So, what now?"
"Now, we get over that wall - "
" - Leave it to me. Just hang on."
"Oh. Sure. I don't suppose there's something I'm missing about an ability to fly you've been hiding."
K'ron turned from watching the guards congregate to the point of the wall they were fast approaching to look at Isaac. More specifically, his eyes dropped to Isaac's right fist. "How high could you launch me? . . I can't fly, but I got the next best thing," the rampageous young pirate flashed a wide smile at his questioning partner."
Raine's expression was serious as she stood in the rocking boat. Vega had found an off-beat, erratic rhythm that somehow worked to get them out of firing range, but rowing wasn't gonna get them past the outer wall. No, Raine needed something else from the silent enigma. "Keep those guns off of me," she commanded, a tinge of panic present in how her voice shook at the end. But, that was easily muffled by the sound of lapping waves as a current, as if in response to Raine's kata-like movements, propelled the boat forward. The navigator's machinations became more evident when a thrust of her arm summoned a powerful jet of water to rocket the small lifeboat over the fortified obstruction standing in their way.
Propelled by Isaac's punch and covered by a barrage of bullets, K'ron flew over the heads of the wall's security forces. Nearing the apex of his rise, the brawler bore a confident smirk, shooting his right fist above his head.
The guards below were thrown off guard. What started as straying aims quickly advanced to those very men and women being pulled forward themselves, throwing some into mild disarray while others reacted quickly enough to try and plant their positioning. Still, a few maintained their full wits, choosing to use the unexpected situation to shift to a more appropriate attack.
K'ron's confidence, though, did not falter. With his enemies momentum at its peak, K'ron brought himself hurtling to the ground and delivered an Earth-shaking punch to the ground below. Those that had found themselves being pulled towards the youth were suddenly thrown to the ground instead. Thehe solid stone, unforgiving in its ruthless impact, easily stole the consciousness of the dutiful, well-trained guards.
The last one left standing atop this section of wall, K'ron walked to the edge where the stolen boat bobbed below and extended his arms. This time, muscles flexing from strain, the rising bodies of guards were joined by his partners and the boat below as well as some waters of the sea. For the first time, K'ron's infamous smirk withered, replaced by a look of intense focus as sweet beaded on his brow before floating away.
Raine had dropped to a knee in the boat, the mental strain almost weighing on her more than the physical toll of her recent exertions. ". . . We're out," she exhaled with a heavy breath before letting herself splay backwards in an open space on the wood, her head landing on a bag of her clothes. "I guess I can't criticize your lack of dedication to skills anymore, eh," the exhausted navigator sighed to her captain laying beside her, a soft smile turning at her lips. "You're still gratingly lazy," she amended, the words punctuated by a light tap of a punch.
"Woo," K'ron cheered from his supine position, still sucking in deep breaths with a gleeful expression. "Now, that's what I call teamwork!"
"Except, we're not a team," a black haired, young gunman stated flatly. Everything about the young man was impeccably ordered. From the straight black hair brushing the tops of his ears but clipped short in the front down to the gun belt balanced perfectly between the pressed white shirt with its sleeves rolled up to a clean cuff and the straight leg jeans all the way to the polished military boots adorning his feet, the symbol of a proud, golden eagle hand stitched into the leather and matching the one stretched across the back of his shirt.
Isaac was about to respond but was struck by the gunman's sharp tan, golden eyes leaving the floor open for K'ron. "You kept those guards off me so I had time to land on the wall. Teamwork. Nice shooting by the way; glad to have you on the crew, Berret."
The gunman, Berret, stood slack-jawed with eyes narrowed in a combination of frustration and confusion, silently mouthing nothing while his brain caught up to the situation. ". . . Crew? Cover you," Berret questioned indignantly, his volume steady rising. "Thanks to you two trying to commandeer my boat, I had to protect myself!"
"Hey, we get it," Isaac tried to diffuse the situation. "We all found ourselves in situations we didn't ask for. Us. You," the former Marine motioned from K'ron and himself to Berret and the lanky, almost gaunt, man that had remained silent off to the side of them all. "Point is, we're together here now. Let's make the best of it."
Berret lowered his voice, but he still seethed, getting in the face of Isaac. "Make the best of it, huh? With you two? With him? . . I wanted to take in some interesting sights. Instead, I find him," Berret pointed to the fourth of their number and stressed the venom on the last word, "sleeping on my boat. You vagrants then try and abscond with my boat. Now, I find myself on the wrong side of the Dragon Clan because -"
Aaahahaha. Berret's tirade was cut off by boisterous laughter, K'ron's overflowing mirth quieting the others.
"Well, Fei, thanks in part to your interference they got away with a Devil's Fruit," the elegant and statuesque Long Bai commented from her seat in her family's private box, her statement one more of fact than any actual care.
"And, Sis? No harm done," Long Fei answered with a noncommittal shrug before turning to Bai with a playful grin. "I can go retrieve it if you like," he said in tone of faux subservience. "Who knows; maybe we'll see 'em down the line."