A Sweet Death?

Originally, Enma had sighed a breath of relief as both Maria and Zesiro came back to the ship, but their physical states quickly made him double-check. Neither Zesiro nor Maria really looked like the winners of their each individual fights. Zesiro was breathing heavily and undoubtedly he wouldn't have been capable of coming back to the ship if it wasn't for Nito and Ichi who were both supporting him. Maria actually managed to be in a much worse shape. Her arms were hanging lifelessly on her side as if the power had been drained from them. She was dragging her left leg behind it and it was obvious why. The machine itself seemed to be horribly pieced together. The wires had broken free from the machine and were cut up, sticking out of the machine. There were chips, scrapes, and dings all over her. It was obvious that they had both wasted the last of their energy simply climbing up the steps to this level.

Rosa remained silent as she watched the group climb onboard. No doubt that Enma and even her tiger, Lily sensed the ominous warning that hung in the air. It was starting to become obvious that not everyone would be making it out of here alive. Enma looked over towards the infirmary doors where without a doubt Hiro-Shu was having fits. His body was bruised and the muscles around his waist were undoubtedly torn from the high-speed changes in direction. Sage was suicidal enough as if…and he hadn't heard a thing from Ridley or Mikoto.

Ridley had been separated from Maria along with Mikoto and Melanie. Melanie went off to Lucifer-knows-where and Mikoto trekked off to beat up Trevor. Enma had no idea which one was in for more trouble. Melanie facing off against troves of unknown enemies, who were gathered here for one reason 'to fight' and were now all in a panic over the Buster Call. Or Mikoto who was going after the homicidal king of terror, the man who constructed this altar to all things bloody and demonic, Trevor!

Then again, thought Enma as another spastic cannonfire from Rosa went off. It may be them who were in for the most trouble. They were on the seas waiting for their captain, who Enma had just admitted may never arrive, while being shot at by a bunch of psychotic self-righteous maniacs. He looked out over the seas and sighed, he was being a fool. In times like this it wasn't necessary brains or brawn that survived in the end. It was grits! And when it came down to that no matter how many cannons the Marines had they…would win…

Enma looked out at the Marine ships once more. The cannon fire that they loved so much had ceased. Just moments ago it had been chaos, it had been so loud he could hardly think straight, but now it seemed like everything had quieted down. The ocean had come to deep lull…asides from Rosa's cannon fire and the screams of whatever pirates remained.

Enma paused and took a deep breath. He was perturbed about this turn of events. It seemed odd, that they would let up now. They were on the verge of winning the battle. The pirate forces were definitely being thinned down by them. Why would they stop? Were they accelerating things? Was this just the calm before the storm? But why would they do that? They were winning without stepping things up a notch! The acceleration seemed pointless. Why would the Marines indulge in a useless action?

(-With Ridley-)

Ridley fumbled around for a few seconds in pitch-blackness. He could barely see now, there was bits a pieces of light that broke to the fog, but for the most part he was blinded by Karasu's last hit. He walked around for little while longer in his fog. The only thing that helped him remember that he actual in the middle of a fight was Karasu's fist flying at him again.

Ridley dove to the ground and watched the fist fly over him. Ridley was still in bad shape, he couldn't see anything anymore. His head was swirling due to the heavy pain in his head. His fingers crept up to his head and he ran it through his Mohawk. He felt a steady bump in the midst of it. Ridley tried to put what happened together. His father's only arm was in the wall next to him, so what could've hit him? He looked up as his vision slowly came back. He saw what must've caused the damage. Karasu's temple has a few drops of blood, creeping down it. It was damn head butt that nearly caused Ridley to black out.

He couldn't believe he had actually thought that just because Karasu only had one arm meant that Karasu only had one means of attack. It was a ridiculous notion that ignored Karasu's shoulder, legs, and apparently head. Then again it was possible that that was a scheme of Karasu. It explained why he only used rapid-fire punches rather than mixing in kicks. He made Ridley only focus on that arm and ignore the other possibly lethal attacks Karasu possessed. The dizzying head butt was possibly Karasu's ultimate trump card. No, chances are Karasu still had a weapon hidden.

Ridley stepped forward uneasily. His damage hadn't disappeared, he couldn't stand now. The damage from the head butt crashed throughout his entire body including into his legs. Crap…without his ability to dodge and run…he couldn't avoid Karasu's killer punches. Ridley swung around just in time to see Karasu's punch flying towards him again. Ridley fell down and randomly flailed out and grabbed onto the staircase next to him. Since he couldn't run away, he had to find out somewhere to dodge it. His only option was to dive forward and try his best to avoid the crazy punch.

Ridley needed to by a little more time. Karasu's next punch would probably finish him off as it stood right now. He needed to buy enough time to escape from Karasu and recover. But how! It's not like they were in the arena, where Ridley could separate them and take his distance. They were in a small, contained, almost claustrophobic room. There was only place for him to run to.

"Come on!" shouted Karasu stepping forward. "You're not even capable of standing up now. You are flailing around like some pathetic fish. You are my son, stand up and take your defeat like a man." Ridley swung out, kicking Karasu's legs, catching slightly off-balance due to the fact that Karasu was walking forward. Karasu was thrust forward due to the sudden lost of balance. Ridley took this all important break in the fight to get away. He tried his best to put distance in between them, running up the stairs to avoid him.

Karasu muttered something as he got back up on his feet. He charged up the stairs after Ridley. He couldn't believe the little brat would do something as stupid as that. He just ticked him off, what was he hoping to find higher up? The outside world would still be just as kind to him as this little condensed area. Even if he got extra space, Karasu would still smash his little head in. He was fast enough to catch up to him, regardless of where he ran!

"Apollo's Allegro!" shouted Ridley strumming against his guitar. The sound hit the walls, bouncing off and echoing, filling the small staircase with the loud and irritating noise. Karasu powered through it continuing to chase Ridley up the steps. Ridley then turned around and leapt over the railing, jumping down to the railing below them and then again and again. Karasu stood there, slightly slack jawed at this. Surprised the coward had resorted to running away again and was actually brave enough to jump down the railings like that. Then he realized something even stupider…he was standing there letting his victim get away.

Karasu roared as leapt down, moving down the railings in a similar fashion. He heard Ridley escape through the door and knew immediately that Ridley had stepped out. He was in an uproar by now at Ridley's cowardice and even a little bit at his own stupidity. He moved down, escaping through and busting down the door. He charged through and right into a swinging guitar. The guitar blew Karasu back. The heavy guitar threw him back, throwing him as far back as possible.

Karasu stumbled to get his balance back. Ridley ducked down and charged in closer. Another swing with all of his power behind it came through. Karasu brought his two arms up to block it, he felt the solid guitar shudder into his body and soften up his muscles. Ridley moved back and quickly strummed again on his guitar sending another vicious sound wave forward and into Karasu's ear.

Karasu brought his massive body forward aiming to take off Ridley's head with another full-powered punch. Ridley ducked down, dodging beneath Karasu's thick arm. Ridley buried himself as close as could to Karasu's neck before…before getting hit in the chest by a knee lift. Ridley's body was blown back, that was the second hit he had received, ordinarily he would consider himself lucky to go this far while only receiving two hits, but he was too dizzy to think of anything. Even while missing an arm Karasu's strength in both his kicks and punches didn't falter. There was no hesitation behind his blows. "How the hell did he lose an arm?"

Ridley realized that he had accidentally said that aloud. His mind was so foggy, he couldn't even keep his thoughts to himself. And the impact it had on Karasu was obvious. The monstrous animal seemed more annoyed than ever. Karasu rushed at Ridley. Ridley tried to put up a guard, but it was blown away by the first of Karasu's heavy punches. The second punch rang true, smashing into Ridley's gut. The third also hit its mark, just above Ridley's liver. The fourth, fifth, and sixth punches all came in like a blur. The punches kept coming, however, Ridley was left unaware.

A stray elbow on Karasu's pullback had knocked into Ridley's chin, knocking him unconscious, and the nearly continuous blows had prevented Ridley from coming back to. He wasn't even fully aware of the damage he was receiving. His body was receiving pounding after pounding, he was steadily being pushed back and into the wall. Karasu's fists flew with increasing velocity and ferocity. Each punch run true to either a new place on Ridley's body, bringing another newly experienced wave of pain washing over him or even worse it would pummel into an already beaten location, kneading Ridley's body until it was almost a gelatin-like substance.

When Karasu's barrage finally let up Ridley was left standing, slumped against the wall. His only support was the wall behind him, his legs had given out on him and ready to let him drop on a moment's notice and they did. It happened in what seemed like slow motion. His entire body slumped forward for a second as if taking another step forward to meet and hash it out with Karasu for another few minutes. However, he couldn't stay standing. His legs gave out, causing him to collapse. His knees hit the hard cement first, then his chest dropped like a sack of bricks, and finally his head hit, bounced back up for a brief second, before coming to rest on the cold floor.

Karasu paused for a second eyeing up his latest victim. His earlier head butt to Ridley's head, seemed to open back up as there was a brief pooling of red liquid around Ridley's skull, dirtying his prideful Mohawk and turning it an ugly brownish tone. Karasu frowned as he looked over his defeated ex-son, another pathetic remaining shard of his former life.

Karasu knew already he was done. After all he has done, this last act didn't even taste bitter. As a matter of fact the death of his only son was the sweetest thing he has tasted in awhile.

We're In Hell

Bonus chapter as promised. Here it is, drool in the light of my false glory.

Like I said death is going to happen, live with it. And besides if you recall all the way back in one of the earlier chapters I did mention something about needing musicians despite having Ridley join the crew. Maybe this was all meant to be...or maybe this is belated April
Fool's day joke.