The Start: Pandemonium in the Cells

Sage shrugged off the sleep. She felt so groggy. Zesiro and Hiro-Shu were already up. They were both currently fighting signs of fatigue. Hiro-Shu was slumped over in a corner. He seemed to be far worse then Zesiro. Zesiro was up and looking around taking note of the surroundings.

It was definitely a bleak room. It was plain gray with no real decorations. Only thing that one would notice was one door and one window near the cage. They were in the cage. The iron bars spread up and around them. It was like prison.

Sage laid back. She was so sick. She couldn't focus. She glanced towards the nearby window. Light was blaring in. It gave her a headache just staring at the intense light. She looked away. Ridley was still nowhere to be seen. It was just her, Zesiro, and Hiro-Shu. Wait! Where was Mikoto?

"Where's Mikoto?" shouted Sage. She nearly collapsed, her own voice boomed in volume. She clutched her head. She wished the pain would just go away.

Zesiro responded, "calm down and quiet down. We were all drugged. I still don't know where we are. We need a few more minutes." He glanced towards the window. "Its apparent that we already lost half a day. Maybe even more. Its too sunny out for the morning."

Sage nodded. Her head pounded too much to respond right now. She guessed Zesiro and Hiro-Shu probably already noticed that Mikoto was gone and were taking their owns steps to take care of it.

The doors swung open. In came a tall man hauling behind him a large sack. He had one cigar in his mouth and it bobbed up and down on his pinkish lips. He glanced at the crew, his short blonde hair was modeled in that of a crew cut. He was dressed only in a khaki shorts. He seemed to enjoy looking at the group locked up and in torture.

He walked over to the doors and smiled. He timidly reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. Sage immediately feared the worst. She covered her eyes and looked away. Who was he going to shoot? She heard the gun go off and fell down. The noise it emitted tortured her. It was too loud! She clutched her head and wished the noise away. Another loud thud resounded next to her and then a loud moan. She heard the cage door slam shut, causing another wave of headache inducing pain.

She laid still for a few more moments. Was the blonde man with the gun still here? Was he done shooting? She dared not to look up and tried to attract no attention to herself. She felt something prodding at her side. She dared not move. It was probably the gun of the blonde man. She didn't want to look around. Just let him shoot and get it over with. The prodding continued. Finally after a few minutes she had had enough. She spun around and aimed one punch square for the prodder's eye. She froze for a second as she got a good look at the prodder.

He had black hair, his emerald eyes were barely noticeable as a black eye started to form. His black shirt had a huge red question mark on it. She gasped as she figured out what had happened. She just hit her captain! She picked him up and started fanning him, trying to desperately wake him up. Finally his head shook and he was shocked out of his daze.

He sat up abruptly. He looked around. He didn't quite understand where he was. He had just been dragged around the place in a big brown sack. He wasn't quite up for moving around, yet, either. He yawned and settled back into place. In a few minutes he napping quietly.

Sage was pissed at him. First time seeing her after they got separated and the first thing he does is prod at her until she punches him and then instead of a friendly hello or anything, he falls asleep! If she had the strength to she would punch him again.

The doors swung open again. Now who are they bringing in, maybe they found Ridley and decided to drop him off in here with them. Nope. It was a muscle bound man. He was pretty big. At least the size of her and a half. She would've liked it if he wore a shirt. What is the reason behind no one wearing a shirt, is it the dress code around here! He, too, sported a crew cut. A whole harem of women followed him in, each swooning in a different way. What an embarrassment to women everywhere!

The man spoke up. "I am very pleased to meet you all and would like to thank you for delivering my son to me." So this was Karasu. "I would like to stay around for introductions, but I notice that my son is missing." He snapped his fingers together.

Alfred came in. Two men hauling a box followed in suit. Sage's eyes lit up. She was so happy somehow Alfred had gotten out, but what was he doing. Surely, Karasu would notice him!

Karasu smiled. "I bet you all are wondering what Alfred here is doing out of the cage. Well, see the thing is two weeks ago I saw Ridley's wanted poster. I decided to take action. I want him back as any father wants their son back. So I paid Alfred here among others to go out and find him. Imagine my surprise when he called me not even a week ago that he found him. Not only that but he is bringing me pirates whose combined bounties are 85 million belies!"

Sage shrunk down. Yeah, not so happy to see Alfred out now. The traitor! Hiro-Shu and Zesiro were both up already and watching Karasu. They didn't trust him anymore then Sage did. She looked down to Mikoto, who was currently lying facedown on the floor snoring.

"Anyways," said Karasu, "in this box I have a surprise for you. A Lapahn. These are almighty beasts of the Drum Kingdom and other frosty regions. Around its neck is the key to the door. If you can kill it, you can unlock the door, and run away. Your ship is still in the same place as before. Feel free to leave."

"Thanks," muttered Zesiro. He knew it wasn't as good as it seemed. Only person who could really fight was Hiro-Shu. His sheaths were empty. Karasu was careful enough to steal his swords. Mikoto was on the ground, sleeping. It would pulverize them.

"But since I am a fair man," said Karasu, "I will show you exactly how gruesome a Laphan can be when enraged." He went over to the door and slid it open. He grabbed Alfred's head and tossed him in there. He quickly slid the door back up. The box shook and rattled. Screams could be heard from inside. Once the noise had quieted down. Karasu knocked on the box. "Alfred if you are alive, speak up!" No one responded.

Karasu smiled and waved people off. He opened the box and walked out of the room. The resounding sound of the door locking was heard. Slowly inch by inch. An immense beast crawled out. It was huge. It was big and furry. Its entire body was covered in pure white fur. Several spot of it appeared to be singed and blood covered. Despite its more bear-like body it had a head that resembled a bunny.

Zesiro's head sunk. If he had his swords on him this beast would be mince meat in a matter of seconds. But they took his swords somewhere. Getting killed by a bunny probably would make it on the 'Top five worst days of his life'.

The rabbit didn't share Zesiro's unwillingness to fight. It pounced and slammed straight into the cage shattering the bars and the top of it to pieces in an instant. It emitted a strange low growl-like sound. It was obviously already irritated and the people in front of it were going to help it relieve some of its anger.

The rubble fell straight on top of the crew burying them alive. The Lapahn walked over to the rubble and sniffed the mountain of stones carefully. A heavy iron fist shot out from the mound slamming the beast's nose directly. Hiro-Shu heaved a large chunk of rock off of him. Currently he was almost completely covered in his heavy iron. A few parts like the bottom of his jaw, knees, and elbows were uncovered to allow him better movement.

Zesiro shoved the heavy weight of the rocks off of him and Sage. He had moved over to her at the last second when he noticed the rocks were falling. Someone had to protect her. Hiro-Shu wasn't fast enough and Mikoto was still asleep. He turned to the pile of rocks behind him. Still asleep underneath all the rubble…

Hiro-Shu stared down the large beast. It apparently didn't appreciate getting socked in the nose. He didn't have the time to worry about the destructive beast's feelings however. He charged at the beast. The iron seeming to weigh less during this stage of his. He slammed his entire body into the beast sending it spiraling backwards. Hiro-Shu looked confident. A direct hit to the ribs from an iron covered gladiator. Its got to be hurting.

Zesiro was digging into the rocks trying to remove the stones that had buried Mikoto. He shoved one rock off at a time. He was achieving very little. He had no idea were Mikoto had been thrown in at. He continued to stress himself out as he threw rocks out of the way. Zesiro glanced at Hiro-Shu about to ask for help, but instead shouted, "Behind you!"

The Lapahn was fast and apparently recovered from Hiro-Shu's attack quick. It swatted the iron gladiator away with a single paw knocking him over and away by a few feet. It turned its entire body at Hiro-Shu. Its muscles were ripping away at themselves. The beast had been tortured to such an extent pain seemed nonexistent. It jumped up into the air and landed squarely onto Hiro-Shu. Its huge beastly claws clobbered into Hiro-Shu with immense force and power.

Zesiro wanted to intervene and aid his crewmate, but without his swords he'd be utterly useless. Not only that, but who knew how much time Mikoto had left. Hiro-Shu and Sage would have to take care of the beast.

Unbeknown to Zesiro however Sage had her own problems. While he may have protected her from much of the debris some of it caught her foot crushing it badly. She was stuck where she was unable to turn and face the Lapahn and save Hiro-Shu from the beast's vicious attack. Hiro-Shu was very much on his own against the colossal beast.

Hiro-Shu managed to bring his feet up and shove the beast off of him. The Lapahn jumped up again readying to clobber him. Hiro-Shu easily avoided the falling beast spinning out of the way. The Lapahn slammed into the wall. The wall exploded with force leaving a large crater in the wall. Hiro-Shu stood up and readied himself. It was him versus a beast that felt no pain.

The beast's attacks had very little effect on him. The attacks that demolished the wall had very little effect on the iron around his body. He had some dents in him and no doubt bruises, but the beast had suffered injuries too. Its paws had started bleeding from the impact with hardened iron.

Hiro-Shu didn't want to harm the beast. It wasn't an evil being, it was a being that had no better idea. It was blinded by rage, it was blinded from torture, it would obediently follow whoever inflicted that much pain onto him. Hiro-Shu wished he didn't have to kill the beast, but he was starting to doubt that was even an option.

He blew flames onto his fist. He clanked his fists together to get the fires to spread. "Forger's Fire! Shiba's Knuckle!" He fired one scorching and devastating punch into the creature's backside. The Lapahn twisted towards Hiro-Shu it seemed to be unaware that its back was in flames.

Hiro-Shu cursed himself. Now he had a giant flaming bear rabbit thing trying to tear him to shreds. The beast lunged swatting with its huge paws trying to bat Hiro-Shu around. The beast made contact. Its huge paw slammed into Hiro-Shu sending him flying backwards. His iron body collided with the wall. The room was getting more banged up as the fight continued.

The Lapahn was panting more heavily. The heat was dragging it down. It may have been immune to the pain, but the scorching flames had a different story. Hiro-Shu reclined himself and the beast to their faith. He fired one final punch into the beast's abdomen. The beast collapsed into the floor drained of energy. Hiro-Shu grabbed the key and headed towards the door.

"Rawwrrrrr!" shouted Mikoto bursting forth from the pile of rocks with renewed energy. "Show me Karasu! Let me at him! Let me at him!"

"You were asleep for this long and now you want to help out!" shouted Zesiro. Mikoto nodded meekly in response. "Fine, let's just get going! Let's find our ship and get out of here."

"Find our ship!" shouted Mikoto, "we still got to beat Karasu up!"

"You are kidding me!" shouted Zesiro, "we got ambushed! We were drugged! We got betrayed by Alfred! We fought a Lapahn! And you expect our ship to be sitting on the edge of the island completely untouched by Karasu and his gang!" Once again Zesiro felt like the only intelligent member of the crew.

"Yeah," said Mikoto, "Karasu wouldn't dare touch our ship! After all its all ship!"

Sage remained meekly in place. She wanted to go see this Karasu guy get beat up, but she also didn't want anyone to mess with her plants. Of course she feared for her ship. After all, they stole it from a gang of pirates whose to say that Karasu wouldn't do the same.

"He could be burning our ship as we speak!" shouted Zesiro.

Hiro-Shu was busying himself with the key. The key had gotten pretty banged up from the fight, but it fit into the lock with enough ease. The two people fighting behind him were of no concern. He'd rather get out and be on either way they decided on. While he fiddled with the lock hopefully the other two would figure out what was more important.

"Our ship is safe!" shouted Mikoto.

"Its burning!" shouted Zesiro. Why the heck won't idiots listen to reason?

"Safe!"

"Trouble!"

"Safe!"

"Trouble!"

"Where are your swords at?" asked Mikoto being distracted by Zesiro's 'swordless' body.

"Trou…" Zesiro's hands wandered down to his side. He forgot that somehow someone stole his swords. He gritted his teeth. His swords came first. "Our ship will be safe for another day. Let's take on Karasu!"

Deadly Surprises, the Lapahn's Heart and the Marine Ship