Gunning for the Hunter

Mikoto was racing forward, the small house was already in his sights, however that small victory didn't slow him down any. He kept racing forward, his entire attention being focused on what was ahead of him. That small hut of a house was what he kept his full attention on and perhaps that was where he made his mistake. His leg got snagged on something sending him tumbling forward. Mikoto caught himself, rolled back onto his feet and turned around to see what tripped him up. He saw Ridley their with a smile on his face, laugh uproariously at his own nakama. Mikoto grumbled something.

"What was that for?" asked Mikoto, jumping to his feet and jabbing his finger at Ridley. Ridley had a bewildered look on his face, probably just shocked that Mikoto didn't return the favor by chasing him around. Well, that and the fact that it didn't seem like Mikoto recognized him.

"Chill, man," spoke Ridley raising his hands almost signaling defeat. "I understand that you are a little annoyed, but come on! We haven't seen each other for awhile now." Mikoto looked questioningly at Ridley. Mikoto raised an eyebrow at him, trying to piece it together. His memory was still a little hazy, but it was slowly starting to come to him. This guy…was a member of his crew. Other than that Mikoto was drawing a blank. You'd think despite his loss of memory he would at least remember the guy's cool Mohawk.

"Yeah, sure…" Mikoto mumbled. No name was currently coming to mind so maybe he'd just have to settle for 'Hey, you' until he remembered. The man had a flash of concern on his face, but it quickly faded as Mikoto spoke up. "Well, what's going on? Why did you stop me from going down there and picking up the rest of my crew?" Ridley shook his head and laughed again, he rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure something out.

"Look, Mikoto," Ridley said with a wave of his hand, he gestured down to the house. "We don't know who's there and one thing I can tell you is he's not nice. He kidnapped at least two of our nakamas so far." Mikoto guessed this man must've been the one who Viola found and talked to. He must be the man who she sent after them. Mikoto didn't mind it, he guessed this must be a trust-worthy guy. "There's more upside to this as well! Awhile back I saw some of Zesiro's footprints and they seemed to be headed in this direction so it is entirely possible he's around here somewhere." Ridley didn't feel like mentioning that Zesiro's footprints had been covered up by what can only be called a wave of people apparently dragging their feet, ruining Ridley's only hint at an ally nearby. He supposed being with Mikoto was a benefit. There was strength in numbers and in all honesty, his body still hurt like hell. It would be helpful to defeat and more importantly survive whoever was in the house up ahead.

"Great!" shouted Mikoto lifting his arms up into the air. "First we beat the crap out of whoever is in that house and then we find Zesiro!" Ridley frowned, he would've rather it have been the other way around, but he suppose there was no stopping Mikoto. He was just along for the ride not really to help out anyways. Besides Mikoto beat Trevor by some miracle how hard can this man be? Ridley nodded, finally steeling his courage and deciding to go along with Mikoto's 'plan'. He turned around to give Mikoto the A-Okay sign, but instead found himself staring at a tree. Ridley paused for a moment as he tried to figure out what exactly had happened, before he realized he already knew what happened, no thought was necessary. He turned his head to the side and saw Mikoto rushing full-speed down the path with his hands in the air, pumping as he went down. Only thing he was missing was a battle cry… "It's the EYE OF THE COYOTE!" screeched Mikoto as he continued his headstrong, reckless charge on the house.

Ridley sighed, grabbed his guitar and went in after him. When they got to the house and Mikoto burst through the door without a care in the world, Ridley realized he was worried for no real reason. No one was inside. There were three poles sticking up in the ground that looked used and worn, not to mention the handcuffs laying down at the ground. "I guess that's something," Ridley said. He took his guitar off and prodded the handcuffs, "I miss my Saturday nights." Ridley laughed and looked over at Mikoto who was busying himself looking around elsewhere. His nose held high in the air. As much as Ridley didn't want to find this new opponent, he knew they needed to find their crew so he shrugged and bit his tongue, allowing Mikoto to go about his work.

In a moment there was a noticeable difference in Mikoto's demeanor. His ears piqued up, his eyes went wide as he caught a scent. His hair went on end as he felt the creeping feeling of someone watching him. He backed off from his spot and looked around. He looked towards the door and tightened his fist, stepping forward towards the door at a slow pace. Mikoto shot his fist out, punching directly in front of him at the door. Ridley flinched at the horrible sound of a door being broken with one punch. He opened his eyes and was greeted by a large dust cloud. He could make out Mikoto and another man in it, but something was wrong. The dust must've been playing tricks on his eyes.

Despite the fact that the dust limited Ridley's eyesight to nothing, but shadows it was fairly obvious to see Mikoto was winning and against a slightly taller foe. Mikoto dove beneath it, raising his fist back up, he pounded into it, getting a clean cut through on the man and knocking something loose. A shadowy blur flew backwards off of the old man as Mikoto took his distance. The second shadowy figure kind of slumped to the ground in a horrible fashion, piling up on the ground. Ridley waited a few more seconds for the dust to settle before really thinking about intervening, but when all was said and done. The fight was over.

And what was left was Mikoto standing over a disgruntled man…perhaps disgruntled wasn't a strong enough word…perhaps dismembered was more like it. The man's arm was reduced to a short stump where dust was pooling up, the same could be said for the head, except Ridley could see the head laying a few feet away. Even for Ridley that was sight he would rather never have to see. He turned his head away and looked out the only small window in the cabin. "Ah…we are royally screwed here," he muttered as he looked on. Mikoto walked back and joined Ridley in his window gazing. It didn't take a genius to recognize what Ridley meant. Apparently this house was nothing short of a trap and Mikoto and Ridley walked right into it. It was surrounded. That man Mikoto just took out was only the first. "Get ready!" shouted Ridley.

"HAH!" laughed a booming voice as it cut into the room, attracting their attention. Both Mikoto and Ridley flicked their heads up and looked around them, searching for the voice. "Ah, it is nice to have allies, but it is even nicer to have competent allies! I'm quite sorry I couldn't be there in person to defeat you, but you see my number one enemy exists on this island and I'm afraid he takes priority over someone like you." Mikoto raised his eyebrow, was he talking about the beast that the old man was talking about?

"You see when it is raining he goes into a slumber-like state. He falls asleep into a nearly impervious stone statue form. However, once the rain ends so does his slumber." Mikoto looked back out the window. The rain was letting it up, it should stop any second now. Mikoto didn't believe a word this man was talking about. He looked around again, quickly locating the source of the noise. He stopped, slammed his fist into the wall and pulled out…a Den-Den Mushi. He stopped as he looked at it, questioned its worth and tossed it aside. "I'm going to go defeat him. If you're still alive when I come back I'll enjoy ripping you to shreds myself."

Mikoto growled. He saw a figure in the distance move, turn its back towards them. "Hey…you!" shouted Mikoto catching Ridley's attention, he had a questioning look on his face as to why Mikoto didn't remember him. "Handle things here okay! I'm going to go wipe the floor with that guy's butt!" Mikoto leapt out of the window and charged forward. The slow zombie-like creatures shambled towards him, but at that pace even a normal human could outrun and Mikoto was much faster than that. He disappeared into a blur, blasting past them all and at the man he saw leave.

"Ah, the things I do because some idiot leaves me stranded amidst an army of undead soldiers," muttered Ridley as he took another look out of the window and at the approaching zombies, all of them shambling forward at an admittedly underwhelming pace. Ridley took his guitar off of his back and placed it in front of him. "50 Decibels!" He strummed hard on his guitar sending a painful screeching like sound all out and around him. The zombies froze for a second, apparently they were still capable of feeling some pain, but for the most part they didn't seem to mind as they 'quickly' resumed their march. "Well…that's all I got."

"Rapid Cuts!*" shouted Zesiro as he raced forward and into the middle of the shambling men. He quickly unsheathed his sword. He landed perfectly fine and brought his sword arcing across the scene. The blade dug into and destroyed multiple of the zombies, sending plenty of their arms and legs flying across the scene. "No use trying to take this slowly Ridley, just dish out as much direct damage as possible."

"Forger's Fire! Iguko's Flame!" shouted Hiro-Shu as he let loose a bellow of flames that he used to surround the house, except at the front door. "That should slow them down a little." The only thing Hiro-Shu really did was create a choke-point. The zombies would have to enter from one area, meaning a sudden stream of them was impossible. It bought them more time at the very least, but there was too many of them for them to beat back forever, eventually their stamina would run out.

The first wave approached, breaching the small opening in the flames and wandering in. They were met with a solid slap of a guitar, the clean cuts of a finely tuned blade, and the heavy hits of an iron gauntlet. They were thrown backwards, tipping and knocking into others as they went. However, the next wave didn't wait to see if their allies were okay they were already pressed up against the crew.

Zesiro's smooth and concise flow from one slice to the next managed to keep them at bay for awhile, but eventually he would tire. Another four stepped forward to take the place of the two he just made minced meat of. He stepped forward, bringing his sword around and into them, knocking them around with ease. He felt one of their hands clamp onto his shoulder, he wasn't fast enough with the drawback of his swords. He brought his arm swinging back, smashing his elbow into the zombie's gut and temporarily stunning him. The next instant he brought his sword all the way around and chopped the man's arm clean off.

Ridley's large, full-powered swings sent them skidding back to start. He quickly caught himself and strummed a brief note out, the sound caused the zombies to flinch, but only for a brief second. However, that second was just the amount of time Ridley needed to re-steady himself and swing his guitar back around, knocking one of their head's loose.

Hiro-Shu's heavy fisted displays of power, also allowed him to stay ahead of the game. Slamming his shoulder into them whenever they got too close and following it up with a scorching punch, he slowly managed to whittle down their numbers and push them back with this. However, every time he managed to send one of them flying back away from their small base another group rushed in eager to take their place. Hiro-Shu looked around, trying to keep tabs on the wall of flames. Luckily…or unluckily as it might be the zombies seemed to be smart enough to know to avoid the flaming walls. They walked around them all of them aiming to press through the small opening Hiro-Shu had left them. Of course, the rain wasn't helping any either, he noted that the drops, however few there were at this moment were still managing to slowly put out his fire. The masses would be on top of them in seconds.

One of the zombies fell down way back before them. A slice appearing on his body, stretching from the inside of his shoulder blade all the way down to his waist. Another zombie's mouth was wide-open as a clean and smooth sword pierced his chest, forcing him to stumble forward a few steps. Another quick rush through the group was Rosa, stepping through the masses as quickly as possible. A smooth slash here and there brought another group of zombies down as she slowly waded through the dusty bodies to the crew's base. She rushed up next to them, taking her place next to their side. "Another great chapter for a book is it not?" she said, holding her blade up and watching the masses of them approach. Zesiro smirked as he looked over at her, grateful that another ally joined their side.

Rosa didn't know how many were out in front of them, she would bet on the lower thousands, not too horrible given their circumstances…however, if she had to bet on the lower thousands or four….she would bet the mass of zombies, slowly shambling forward. Another one grew too close, Rosa struck out, bringing her sword up into his mouth and out through the other side. She grateful that these guys were already dead, so she didn't have to hold back against them. There was a temporary moment as she let out a sigh of relief for that fact, but the next moment when the zombie she had skewered with her sword moved forward another inch, letting out another groan she realized she didn't want to put up with the undead wave. She brought him forward and into the circle and then using the built-up momentum she spun him around and forced him back out into the circle to be with his people. Almost like bowling, the zombie stumbled forward, coming free from Rosa's blade and knocking down another two of them.

"Great," she thought, "one down, one thousand to go." The next zombie shambled forth, arms out-stretched as if threatening to hug Rosa to death. Rosa's blade shot forward as she moved in. It was a clean upwards cut, severing the arm from the body. She moved in, not wasting a moment. She dashed past the helpless zombie that was fumbling around without its arm and moved to the next. A clean side-ways sweep through its abdomen left it in pieces. Rosa cut through the crowd, quick slashes that temporarily rendered them helpless. In terms of skills and speed, the zombies didn't stand much of a chance compared to her.

Zesiro was cutting through the crowd just as cleanly. He didn't so the slightest intent to slow. He moved through the crowd with such precision that his heavy-handed sword slashes seem out of place at the end of his finesse movements. He moved in with such fine movements, like water through the crowd. At the end of his movements, his two swords blew through two separate targets, sending them both collapsing to the ground. He moved in and out, bringing his swords to a final halt at his side. Behind him a group of zombies collapsed all with massive sword wounds painted on their chests.

Hiro-Shu was having a bit of an easier time. With a roaring flame that burst forward from his mouth and coated his fist, he easily stepped through the crowd, landing several devastating punches while doing so. One punch for each zombie was all that necessary. He would step in, smash his fist into one of their guts, and then quickly moved on to the next. It was quick, painful, and efficient. The zombies were thrown around like ragdolls whenever one of his fists echoed into chests.

Crossed Lines

I forgot to post this one! I meant to post it earlier this week, I uploaded it and everything! I even did the author's note...but I forgot...

Still don't have a schedule. Expect sporadic updating. Maybe even no update for a week in awhile (got a job that's going to take up most of my time soon), but I don't know when that week will be it could be next week. Anyways, things are heating up, the fighting have been brought to a boiling point as the captain turns his attention to the hunter and the crew is stuck taking on waves of zombies. But it appears a group of the Infinity Pirates are still missing. Where are they and what has been done to them?