Disclaimer: I Do Not Own One Piece or Axe
(WARNING: Actually has some cussing this time)
Chapter 41: The Sand Labyrinth II
"Go right, Aro." Axe called from the back of the line.
"Got it." She took a sharp turn to the right, following the wall. "I can't believe this is working!"
"Me neither." Kit said, running between the two of them. "To think, just to master the movement of the blocks, some simple team work, and we're already a fourth of the way through!"
A vibration came through them all and they quickly came to a stop. "Here we go…" The ground started to slide to the right. "Left!" Aro gave the command, quickly dashing to her right. Kit followed and then Axe. As the side neared a forty-five degree angle, Aro grabbed the side of the block, and not long after, Axe mirrored her to her left. Aro looked down at Kit, who was slipping, slowing down greatly. "Kit?"
"I'm good." She answered, landing on the ground. Aro and Axe climbed up quickly, and continued along the path. Kit ran to the side of the path she fell down, and charged the wall. She kicked off with all her strength, landing on the side. Not stopping her momentum, she ran right up the wall and caught the edge. With quick kick off the wall, she flipped up and landed with grace. She glanced at Aro and Axe as they made another turn. She got up and ran after, quickly catching up. "Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think the walls are getting taller…"
"How could they be getting taller?" Aro asked, watching as they passed by another team down below them. One was in bandages from head to foot, while the other one was in a black cloak. Both were running at full speed, but couldn't keep up with the three of them.
"It was harder for me to get up this time…"
"Left." Axe commanded. The three turned left in a line still.
"I had to grab the ledge this time, instead of landing easily."
"Might be from us running up here." Axe offered.
"Let's try not to fall again, Eh?" Aro said with a small laugh and suddenly stopped, nearly falling as Axe ran into her back.
"What's wrong?" Axe said, picking himself up. Kit stopped a few feet from them, trying her best not to laugh.
"It stopped." Aro said.
"What stopped?" Axe sat down and crossed his legs. Kit knelt down next to Aro to help her sit up.
"The path. The blocks just stopped…" Aro sat up on her knees. Kit looked out to where they were heading, and her jaw dropped.
"There's nothing but a large open pit of sand! We seriously have to continue on foot. It would take too much time to go back now." Kit groaned.
"Well, guess the blocks want us to go down there." Axe stood, brushing himself off.
"The blocks?" Kit turned to him as Aro looked over her shoulder.
"Yeah, the other blocks moved away from us. We're stranded."
"Great…" Aro quickly stood up, and jumped down.
"Aro?" Kit followed her.
"Here we go…" Axe jumped down and stumbled on the landing from sinking in the sand. "Now it's going to take a while longer because of this blasted sand…"
"Do you feel that?" Aro looked around.
"Feel what?"
"That rumbling…" She brought the board in front of her, turning the handles slightly to the sides. Kit glanced back, and tapped Aro on the shoulder. Aro glanced back, and frowned. "Where did the block go?"
"Do you hear that?" Kit questioned, kneeling down to help dig out Axe's feet. "It sounds like rattling of something…"
Aro groaned, "Please… not a giant rattle snake… I'm sick of fang-face—" She let out a loud scream, dropping her board to cover her mouth. Kit jumped back as Axe jumped out of the sand.
"What?" Both asked, on guard.
"That poison…" Aro blushed slightly, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry." Axe and Kit frowned at her. "Come on, let's go…" She hurried off through the pit of sand, not stopping to look back. Axe hesitated while Kit ran after. He looked around at the walls, watching them slowly start to grow.
"That's odd…" He muttered, following the trail down the walls and to the sand where it shifted ever so slightly. He walked over, knelt down, and put a small mark on the wall. He waited a bit, and frowned. He wasn't seeing things; the walls were getting hire—or something that caused that affect. He dug a small hole about two feet from the wall and watched. He frowned; noticing the sand didn't fill the hole. "The sand is draining?" He mused, standing up. With a quick look around, it didn't take him long to notice a large black shining dome-like… thing. "What is that thing?"
"AXE! Lets go!" Aro called from half way through the pit.
"Aro! The sand is draining! Get out of the center!" Axe motioned to the wall as he talked.
"What do you mean?" Aro started to head over to him, Kit in tow.
"The sand! It's draining!" He pointed to the center where it was starting to dip down. Aro only glanced back before picking up the pace—only to be slowed down from digging in too much. "Stop trying to dig in…"
Kit easily ran to Axe. "How are you going to get out of here? You did in the sand by just standing on it."
Axe waved the comment aside, "We've got bigger problems." He pointed to the black thing in the sand. "What is that thing?" He glanced at Aro as she huffed her way to them, leaning on the wall.
"It looks like a tail…" Kit took a small step towards the slowly rising 'cylinder' in the sand.
"Alright, but what IS it?" Axe asked again.
All three fell silent as they watched a crooked heart shape tip on the tail. Aro's jaw dropped, Kit froze, and Axe gaped. "A SCORPION?!" Aro shouted.
"What the hell! We've had enough giant creatures!" Axe growled.
"If that's its tail, where's its head?" Kit asked, now walking back to the wall.
"Um, I'm not worried about its head. I'm worried about its pinchers." Aro muttered, crawling along the wall. "Come on, let's go before it finishes getting out of that sand pit…"
"Agreed." Kit and Axe answered, following her as quickly as the two could.
-FAST FORWARD- XD
"They're…" Axe moaned.
"They really did get taller…" Aro felt her shoulders drop.
Kit turned, and ran up one wall until she reached the peak of her height. She then kicked off as hard as she could across the walkway, gaining the last bit of height she could gain. She reached for the ledge over her head, but only succeeded reaching a near inch or two short of the top. With her knees at a light bend and her hands pushing her off the wall slightly, she slid down gracefully and landed in a sitting position silently. "Too high for me even…"
"Guess this means we have to go on foot…" Aro turned, shoved her hands in her pockets, and started off down the path. Axe held his hand out to Kit.
"Come on," was all he said to her. Kit took his hand and pulled her up.
"HOLY HELL OF CURSED DEMONS!" Aro's voice made them jump.
"Aro?" Axe and Kit ran over to where Aro was, then they both echoed their surprise.
"Didn't we just leave this place?!" Kit ran her hands through her hair, getting fistfuls and pulling slightly. They were back at the sandpit, but finding more of the scorpion uncovered. "This is unbelievable!"
"You know, I think that's the most you've said so far." Aro muttered, turning to run back through the path. "You two stay here I'm going to see where I come out."
Kit slowly sank to a sitting position, holding to her hair and staring at the slowly raising tail. "This place is so insane! I want to go home…" She felt the tears starting to come.
"Kit, come on, pull yourself together." Axe grabbed her arm, pulling her up. "Get up. We have to stay on our guard."
"No, no… just let me go, Mr. Axe… I give up! I want to go home…" She felt herself sliding back to her sitting position.
"What would your sister say?"
"She's gone.."
"You keep thinking like that, she really will be. Get up. NOW!" He gave her a hard pull, bringing her completely in the air with a small gasp from her. This time, she obeyed. "Get ready incase it attacks."
"… Yes sir…" She hung her head slightly, pulling her wire from it's case.
"The acid still good on that thing?"
"No. This one is a pure titanium razor-edged wire with clip tip and finger ring. Made more for disks and whip-like attacks that go through instead of painful armor killing assaults."
"Brains, grace, weapons, looks. Are you lacking an anything needed to be a pirate?"
"Yeah, courage."
Axe looked off to the side, "I know a pirate that didn't have very much courage and is a great pirate. His name is… Sogeking."
"What kind of name is Sogeking?" Kit thought.
"If you ever met or have met him, he's know as Usopp. He gets by nicely for a coward."
"Sure he does…" Kit muttered.
"AURG!" Aro's voice ran out over the pit, causing the two to look along the walls. Aro was hanging from the top edge of a block.
"How'd you get up there?"
"It rose from below me!" She whimpered, swinging her legs wildly. "Some thing called me over here, and so when I came to check it out, I was suddenly like this!" She let out a loud growl that made Kit shiver slightly. "If I ever get my hands on that… that thing's neck, I'm going to KILL HIM!"
"Save the ultimate anger for this fight. We can't continue until we're done here anyway." Axe got into a fighting position, fists up, watching the head of the scorpion rise in front of him and Kit. Kit swallowed, taking a step back. "Don't move yet, Kit…"
"Holy crap…" Aro muttered, trying to pull herself onto the block. "That thing is huge…" She glanced back and blinked. "Oh hell—AXE! KIT! THE PATH CLOSED! YOU'RE EXIT IS GONE!"
Axe and Kit turned around and found a wall behind them. "Ah hell…" Axe muttered, turning back to the tail. "Go! Kit, GO!" He dashed to the side while Kit turned around. The tail was coming down with lightning speed. She let out a small girlish 'eep' that could only come from a woman—and she hated that. She kicked off the sand just about a foot, landing on the head of the tail as if she just took a step. She quickly ran along the tail as the scorpion started to pull it's tail out.
"What's the plan?"
"Kill it." Axe and Aro answered together. Aro pulled herself all the way onto the block and took a small breather. "Got to figure it out… Got to figure it out… where the hell is my SB?" She looked around, franticly. "… Crap… I lost it in the sand…" She hung her head. "Just the scythe and my panther forms…" That I don't even know if I can risk the shift… she looked at her hands, It was so hard to shift back last time…
"Foolish little girl." Aro looked up as a foot crashed into her face, sending her into the pit. She caught sight of a man in a light brown suit, slicked back red hair and cold blue eyes. His skin was pale and seemed to have a greenish tent to it. The voice, it was so familiar to her. She watched as a cold smile crossed his face before he just disappeared. With out a chance to think again, she landed in the sand, quickly disappearing from view below the shifting waves. "Eat…" The voice filled the air, "Eat so master can have one less worry…"
Kit jumped down behind the scorpion, turning around quickly to be facing it. "Where did Aro go?"
"I lost sight of her after she fell behind this pain." Axe kept to the wall, walking in a wide circle around the scorpion that seemed to be ungodly large. "This thing's pinchers could get us both in just one! Keep moving!"
Kit didn't hear him. She was staring at something silver shifting in the sand. The sun gleamed off the silver just before a sharp set of jaws was in front of her. "Sand-Sharks too?!"
---
(Just because we all love them so much…)
"Ok… Ok, so left, then right, then straight, then left, then left again, then straight, then right, and then…" Kise nodded as he spoke, facing a large oak tree. Ezerial leaned on his sword, jaw clinched tightly. "Are you sure?" He asked, looking up at the tree's high branches. Jane was freshly cleaned and in her sheath on his hip. LeStine had one hand over his eyes, guns cleaned up, oiled to perfection, and fully loaded. Guzen stood off to the side, away from them all, watching Kise talk to the tree. "Ok, I got that… Anything else? No? Ok, thank you, Mr. Tree!"
"I can't believe that we're getting directions… from a tree…" LeStine moaned.
"Well, we COULD have done this Jane's way!" Kise turned to him, hands on his hips, face scrunched up in a pout. "But you had to hurt her feelings by saying she's not real so that she stopped talking to even me!"
"… IT'S A WRENCH!" LeStine shouted, grabbing Kise by the collar, shaking him. "IT'S A GOD DAMN BLOODY FUCKING WRENCH!"
"LANGUAGE!" Kise slapped his hands away, hugging the tree tightly, "This is just a sapling…"
LeStine lunged at him again, only to have Ezerial grab his collar to hold him back. "Cap said no killing Kise before we left sense he had to stay with the ship. So, no killing the pest."
"Ok, that's just mean." Kise frowned at Ezerial. "I'm not a pest… I'm very helpful."
"… So, which way, Kise?" Guzen asked as Ezerial let LeStine go.
"To the rocky thingy over there." Kise said, pointing with a wave of his hand towards the labyrinth's entrance.
"Then lets go." Ezerial pulled his sword out of the ground, braced it on one shoulder, and started off. LeStine shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and followed him. Kise looked at Jane and nodded. In a quick run, she caught up to them.
"I know the way, I should be leading!" Kise wined. Guzen looked over the gates at a high mountain where the rock and sand maze continued up about a fourth of the way.
"… You better not be the foretold death, Aro…" He pulled out two old, wooden, beat-up dice with small cat heads for the eyes. "I don't know what I would do if you died here because of your foolish honor…" He then followed the group to the entrance.