"C-Captain Kitsushi!" Torteau squeaked out.
The large fishman locked eyes with Torteau, his narrow, cold, piercing eyes. A low growl rumbled from his throat, "Torteau…" The crab seemed to shrink two sizes, "Explain…"
"Ah, well you see, I was just minding my own busi- I mean, doing my job and guarding the bay from intruders. Yes. And that man, that swordsman over there," Torteau tried to point at Takashi, realized how pointless of an endeavor that was, and nudged his head over at him a couple times, "Yes, him, over there, he comes up to me, and I say he can't enter the bay, and he just attacks me! Out of nowhere! Slices both my arms clean off! Don't worry though, I think I can get them reattached if I just find Mambo and get them on ice…"
"TORTEAU!" bellowed Kitsushi, silencing the crab as the water wall around them rippled from the force of his voice, "I. Don't. Care. What the hell happened to my ship and why are we breathing air at the bottom of my bay?"
"Oh…." Torteau looked around a bit nervously, "To tell the truth I have no idea about this air-dome or whatever it is or the ship. All I know is that it started sinking before this boat appeared," Kitsushi snarled, panicking Torteau into coming up with other details, "Ah, but if I had to guess it was probably Wendy's fault. You remember Wendy, right? That delectable little human girl we bade au revoir to a few days ago? She's back now! Isn't that naughty of her?" Kitsushi's eyes quickly darted to the prone Wendy, who, already paralyzed with fear, started hyperventilating as she found herself unable to break eye contact with the fierce gaze of Kitsushi.
"And Brody?" he growled out, still staring at the girl.
"O-oh yes, he is back too! Very rebellious of him, no? And to think he didn't even offer an apology…"
"WHERE IS HE?" Kitsushi's eyes finally darted back to Torteau, growing impatient.
"Er…" Torteau nervously began, "He was taken on board the ship, before the other humans snuck on board and-"
"HUMANS STEPPING FOOT ON THE WARSHIP OF OUR ANCESTORS?" Kitsushi roared as the water walls rippled with his voice again.
"Um… I'll just be going now," Torteau slowly edged away before a massive arm lunged out and grabbed him by the throat.
"Brody…" Kitsushi growled in between breaths, his bloodlust slowly growing, "He's responsible for this. Go get him," Kitsushi's face was suddenly only inches from Torteau's, "NOW!"
"Well, I would, but, heh, funny thing I've suddenly developed a physical handicap, so if I could just go get my arms and get them reattached, then we could-" Suddenly, Kitsushi's leg whipped around, seemingly straight through the quivering crab fishman. Kitsushi's leg touched the ground as quickly as it kicked up and he walked away as Torteau stood silent. Suddenly, Torteau's head and the top half of his armor shifted, slowly sliding off the rest of the body, falling lifelessly to the side. The now decapitated body fell backwards, and Takashi could tell it was a perfectly smooth, clean cut, straight through the same armor that Takashi could barely dent with his best swordplay. The two pieces steamed at the freshly cut edges.
"You, human…" Kitsushi spat in disgust as Takashi's grip only tightened on his swords even as his blood boiled and his thoughts raced. Unlike the cowardly crab, this could present a challenge, "I don't recognize you, so you probably came here with Brody. Go find the traitorous bastard and bring him here, and I might consider sparing your life."
"Forgive me, but I cannot," Takashi's grip on all three swords tightened even as his voice maintained a respectful tone, as such a true opponent would deserve
The larger fishman's eyes narrowed at the human, "Are you trying to die early?" asked an annoyed Kitsushi.
"The other fishman has nothing to do with me. The only reason I am here at all was to execute the heretic you just killed," he replied stoically.
"Well, I guess you suddenly have some free time in your day then. So go fetch Brody," the larger fishman commanded.
"As I said before, I cannot."
"And why not?"
Takashi slowly raised his swords to a defensive stance, "As I said before, we are unaffiliated. My only purpose now is to duel a strong opponent such as yourself."
Kitsushi muttered some unintelligible fishman curse and rubbed his temple in frustration, "Not another one of you punks. Listen, I don't have time to play Yojimbo with your kind. That's what Xiphias is for. I'll decide whether or not to kill you later. As for you…" Kitsushi turned to Wendy, "I only let you off easy as a favor for Brody, a favor that I will not grant again," He slowly approached Wendy, eyes filled with hatred, "And I'm assuming this…" he motioned to the giant air dome around them, "…is your handiwork. Or rather, Linda's," Finally, his low rumbling voice once again erupted into a thunderous roar, shaking the watery walls, "YOU INSOLENT, THIEVING, MURDERING LITTLE BRAT! YOU WILL FINALLY PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"
Kitsushi got ready to charge the helpless girl, but Takashi calmly stepped between them. "Get out of my way!" the fishman shouted.
"Consider this a retribution. You stole my rightful kill from me. I will prevent you from yours, whether it's rightful or not."
Kitsushi's rage softened into a disgruntled sigh, "Should've figured," he cracked his knuckles as well as his neck, "I gave you every chance in the world to back off, but that ship has sailed."
Takashi didn't smile, but his entire body stood on edge in excitement, "I'm ready."
Kitsushi slowly raised one of his legs in a perfect 180 degree angle above his head, reassuring Takashi that the fishman didn't just fight with blind rage and bestial instinct, he knew exactly what he was doing, "No. You're not."
Brody and Michael dashed as fast as they could through damaged, slightly mis-angled hallways and up nearly collapsed stairs, Michael cursing the whole way as he was somehow carrying a giant shell larger than he was that was about twice as heavy as it looked. He wanted to curse out Brody the entire way, but his ribcage was slowly being crushed as is and he could barely keep breathing.
"We're here," came Brody's voice up front as Michael silently thanked several of the obscure gods he was just naming in his swearing. Of course as soon as he stood still, the shell seemed twice as heavy as before.
Brody quickly approached the medical ward door, but before he could grab it, the door erupted outward as more water spilled outward, this time only refreshing their heels instead of submerging the hallway. Brody was momentarily stunned, confused, and soon bewildered as a giant, unfamiliar hand reached out the doorway and grasped the side pulling out a large, hulking muscular figure much larger than even Brody as it barely fit into the hallway. It took a few seconds to recognize the Doc, his lab coat now no more than a light jacket on him, his muscles expanded to ridiculous proportions. Despite Brody's surprise, Michael seemed unimpressed. "Hey Doc, is that you? We got a live one for ye, not for lack of tryin' though."
The Doc looked at the two and smiled, looking like someone had taken his head and placed it on some ogre's body, "Brody, good to see you're not dead, yet. I take this is Michael's handiwork?"
The fishman was still fixated on just how much weight the once skinny doctor had put on recently, "How…?"
Doc blinked before realizing what had Brody stunned, "Oh, this? This is just one of my personal cocktails, Hulk Out. Increases muscle mass, strength, etcetera. Now let's get her looked at," Despite his massive size and strength, Doc's tone was as relaxed as ever even as he looked over Natalie, "Geez, what did you do, Michael, give her an acid bath?"
Michael rolled his eyes, "Well, sorry, I thought we came here to kick some fishy arse, not give 'em a gentle finger-waggin'!"
"Normally this wouldn't be too difficult, but I don't know how regular medicine and bandages will hold up with that charred slime covering her body," Doc turned and shouted back inside the medical ward, "Hey, Mambo, what do you normally use to treat the snail woman?"
"Natalie's hurt? Ergh…" the jellyfishman tried to stand up but was still having trouble breathing, "There's a medicated sponge in that top left drawer. You can apply medicine to it and it should simultaneously soak up fluids and administer medication," Doc followed the instructions as he searched through the cabinets, "Over in that cabinet you'll find some burn cream and in the drawer below that you should find some anesthetic, antibiotic ointment, and epinephrine..."
"Allergy medication? What for?" Doc asked.
"Salt allergy. After medication has been applied, bandage the wounded area…" Mambo continued before being cut off.
"Yeah, yeah, I know the rest. I'm a doctor too you know," Doc set to work treating Wendy, slowly bandaging her up, while Michael finally let himself lean against a wall, no longer having to lug the giant shell around, "We really should get out of here though, with that kind of impact on a ship this old, the place might collapse in on itself any minute."
Brody nodded, "I'll go scour the ship anyone else and evacuate the place."
"Hello? Testing. Anyone there?" came a disembodied voice from a pipe in the wall.
"Who the hell is that?" Michael eyed the pipe suspisciously.
"It's Jude," Doc explained, but Michael silently shook his head in confusion.
"The actor…" Doc tried to elaborate.
"Who?" Michael stared.
"Hammie's brother?"
"He has a brother?" Michael looked shocked.
Doc sighed, "The fruitcake pansy."
"Well why didn't ye say so in the first place?" Michael finally beamed with understanding as he stepped forward and grabbed the pipe, yelling into it, "Hey there, ye yellow-livered, frill-wearin', boy-chasin' piece of rainbow-colored crap, how ye doin'? Need some help? The Doc and meself already took care of one fishman each!"
"Oh, were we counting?" the pipe calmly replied, "I wasn't aware. Let's see… By my count I got nine, including the first mate swordfishman."
"Bloody son of a mother-!" Michael stepped away from the pipe cursing as Brody took over.
"Hello, Jude?"
"Is that our fishy damsel in distress? Good show! You were my dear brother's main objective, you know," the pipe said happily.
"Er, thanks," Brody was unsure whether to be flattered that he was the 'main objective' or to be insulted to be called a 'damsel in distress', but either way, there were more important things to worry about, "Listen, not including me or your people there should be seventeen more on the ship. We need to get everyone off the ship before it collapses or worse."
The pipe responded thoughtfully, "I see, so we're playing the stalwart hero who saves his enemy's life even after their climactic duel. Okay, I think I can get my motivation for that. The only one still with me is the swordfishman, the others were swept out of the ship when we crashed."
"And we have two with us," Brody counted.
"Based on what I learned from the swordfishman, I think my dear brother managed to get five more off the ship before it sank, as well as himself," the pipe continued.
"That leaves one. By any chance was one of yours a creepy crab fishman with an annoying accent?" Brody asked.
"No, I'm fairly certain that sort of character would stand out more. Hold on, there's something going on outside," Jude interrupted his train of thought as he noticed movement from beyond one of the ship's portholes, "You said one was left, right?"
"Should be," Brody affirmed, going over the math in his head to make sure no one was left.
"Well, outside, besides the other strange phenomena, there seems to be four," Jude relayed, "One is our chef, another is the young lady. There's what looks like a giant dismembered crab on the ground and one more rather large fellow… Ah, that must be your friend Kitsushi, am I correct?"
Terror suddenly washed over Brody's face, "K-Kitsushi's back already?"
"Hey, for those of us without a glossary, what's a Kitsushi?" Michael asked, growing bored.
"He's the other… I mean now the only captain of the Tiburones Gemelos. I have to go! Wendy's in danger!" Brody immediately charged off before anyone could stop him.
"Oi, get back here and carry these arseholes ye lazy, good-for-nothing…" Michael yelled at the now vanished Brody. Sighing, Michael turned to the jellyfishman who was slowly hobbling out of the infirmary, "What's so special about this guy?"
Mambo grimly explained, "Before the incident, the Tiburones Gemelos were commanded by two captains who shared equal authority: Brody, a pure great white shark fishman, and Kitsushi, a mixed breed, half-bull shark and half-fox shark."
"Look, I skipped marine biology, as well as most o' schoolin', so what's that supposed to mean?" Michael scoffed at the benefits of higher education.
Mambo sighed, trying to find the best way to explain, "As you've probably noticed by now, every fishman takes on characteristics of a particular fish species. Swordfish, jellyfish, etc. The shark fishmen are on average stronger than the rest of fishmen. But Kitsushi is more than that even. Bull sharks are large, strong, and aggressive even by shark standards, and Kitsushi has all of that in the spades."
"Okay, so what's a fox shark?"
"Also called the long-tailed thresher shark, the fox shark has a sharp tail as long as the rest of its body that is uses to stun prey. There are stories about fox sharks decapitating fishermen's head in one blow. Now take the best traits of both species of shark, mix them together, add the natural boost from being a fishman, not to mention he's as proficient at fishman karate as Brody if not more so, and you might get some idea of what Kitsushi is capable of."
Michael slowly processed the information in his head, "So yer basically sayin' this Kitsushi fella is stronger in every aspect than Brody…"
"Yes," Mambo continued.
"And Brody just left to go fight the big, scary bastard…"
"Yes."
"And probably get his arse kicked?"
"I'm afraid so…" Mambo said grimly.
Michael practically exploded in excitement, grinning widely like a kid on the way to the circus, "Well what are we waitin' for? We'll miss the big show! Come on, Doc, help me move these sad sacks o' chum."
"There's a problem with that, Michael…" Doc said sheepishly.
"What?" Michael turned back to Doc to see him suddenly deflate like a balloon. Nearly instantly, all of his muscle mass was gone replaced by the skinny, lanky, slouching Doc of before, who suddenly collapsed backwards against the wall, utterly without energy.
"Heh, sorry, I had to mix some of my medications in order to get out of there," Doc apologized.
Michael punched Doc over the head, if for no other reason than because he could, "Why the bloody hell would ye do somethin' like that? Ye told me ye couldn't predict or handle the side effects of mixin' yer meds!"
"Yeah, I know… But what's done is done. I can't even really move," Doc tried to shrug, but even that took effort, "You're going to have to find a way to get all three of us out of here."
Michael cocked an eyebrow, "And what if I were to just leave ye here to rot?"
Doc weakly smiled, "Then we can't very well settle our bet now, can we?"
Michael twitched, wanting to call Doc's bluff or at least come up with a witty comeback, but could only curse loudly at his predicament, "… DAMNIT!"
Hammie made his way through the inland forests of Jaggerjaw Island, pushing aside brush, trying to follow a path that was currently indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. Nonetheless, he was certain he was retracing his steps from earlier. All right, if I remember the path Wendy took us earlier correctly, the bay should be right… Finally, the brush cleared to reveal…
…the ghost town of Amity Village. "DAMNIT!" Hammie shouted in frustration. Taking a few deep breaths, Hammie started thinking aloud, "Well, two choices, either I can try around the coastline, which will just take longer, or…" Hammie walked into town and started knocking on door after door. Even though most of the place looked abandoned, he was sure he could find someone in one of the buildings, "Excuse me!" "Hello?" "Anyone there?" A block later, he was starting to give up. Either all the buildings were abandoned, or he was being avoided.
"Over here!" Hammie looked in the direction of the sharp whisper to see a man, slightly younger than Hammie, with the very beginnings of a beard waving him from a building some ways down. Hammie quickly went over to ask for direction when the man yanked him inside, "Get out of the street! I don't know who you are, so you must not be from Jaggerjaw. How you got here, I'm not sure, but if the fishmen find you, then-"
Hammie interrupted, "Look, I'm kind of in a hurry, and I already got the crash course on 'Tragic Island History' so if you could just point me in the direction of Jaggerjaw Bay I'll be going."
The man's eyes widened in terror, "Are you insane? They'll kill you for going near their fortress!"
Hammie nodded, "That's the impression I got, yes. Hey, it's the middle of the day, shouldn't you be out working or something?"
"We can't, we're under quarantine ever since their boss Kitsushi ordered the town under martial law. We're only allowed to work during certain hours determined by them. Something about minimizing contact with humans. The rest of the time we're not allowed to leave our homes, so the only people are working are people like Daisy the innkeeper and Vaughn the bartender. Oh, sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm the mayor, Quint, by the way," While he spoke, Quint quietly pulled out two chairs and started pouring some tea for the two of them, which Hammie gladly accepted. The chairs were old and dented, but Hammie could tell they used to be of fine quality. The room was dark except for what little light leaked from between the boards on the windows. It felt more like a shelter than an actual home, but that was probably a more accurate description.
"Sounds dull. I don't know what I'd do if I had to spend all my time cooped up like that."
"I spend time building secret passages between the buildings so at least we'll be able to see each other," Quint calmly sipped his tea, "It's not all bad, once you get used to the constant terror."
Hammie agreed, it'd be a worthwhile project, "I'd probably do something like that too. It'd be very useful for a pirate headquarters, for example. Hiding from the navy, maybe doing some guerilla warfare…"
Once again, panic struck Quint, startling Hammie and making him spill some of his tea, "Are you kidding me? The last thing I want is for the Tiburones Gemelos to find out about the tunnels! They'd kick us out of our homes! What then?"
Annoyed, Hammie started wiping up the tea on his shirt, "You know, from what I hear, you guys used to be okay with each other. Why can't it go back to the way things used to be?"
The mayor relaxed again from panic into depression, and Hammie made a mental note to not get startled next time the guy flipped out, "The Tiburones Gemelos used to be okay with us. They didn't attack or pillage us or anything. But after the plague… they didn't want anything to do with us. At first it was just isolation. They still sunk any government or rival pirate ship that came close, but that was more to protect their turf than ours. We still had to supply them, but that involved dropping off packages in the middle of the street and leaving them for the fishmen to inspect. Then they would inspect the goods to make sure nothing was infected."
"But if the plague was taken care of, why bother?" Hammie asked.
Quint shook his head, "They didn't want to take a chance. They didn't know whether or not we could possibly infect them with anything. Frankly, while I haven't seen anyone with symptoms for a long while, I can't be sure the disease is completely gone either."
"I think a couple years without so much as a symptom might be a sign that it's safe to go outside. I mean, I'm no doctor, but-" Hammie started before Quint jumped up like he was stung by a bee, making Hammie spill his tea just as he was about to take another sip.
"SSHH! Don't use the D-word!" Quint's eyes darted around the room like the paranoid maniac Hammie was making him out to be, "It's taboo… Ever since a D-word came to our island and spread a plague with his magic voodoo medicine powers," Any doubts Hammie had about the guy's credibility were now confirmed.
Hammie rubbed his temples as he wiped up the second mess on his shirt, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it a doctor who treated the sick from that plague?"
"Well, yes, but…" Quint sheepishly admitted.
Hammie quickly continued, "And wasn't said doctor also one of the fishmen you're so afraid of?"
"Um…" This time Quint had no response planned.
"So pretty much all the village does is cower in their homes away from fishmen, doctors, ghosts, sunburn, and general boogeymen?"
Quint indignantly retorted, "I prefer to think of it as being cautious. There aren't as many of us left as you'd think. Being afraid makes you live longer."
Hammie's patience grew thin, "No, it makes you survive longer. You haven't lived since before all these disasters started happening. You're just waiting to die."
"You sound just like Wendy," Quint's voice morphed into anger, not violent, but into a weak, indignant anger, like a chihuahua demanding attention from a pack of wolves, "Always going on about how we can make things better by just working hard. Well, let me tell you something, working hard didn't save our parents from the plague! It didn't stop the fishmen from making us prisoners in our own town! And it won't let a bunch of scared villagers fight off a bunch of big, strong fishmen pirates!" Hammie put his tea down, giving up on finishing the drink. His massive figure caused Quint to go into panic mode again, "W-what are you going to do?"
"I'm off to the bay," Hammie apathetically replied as he walked to the door, "If you're not going to tell me where the bay is, I'll find it on my own. The island can't be that big. You're not going to fix anything by staying holed up in here."
"Wait!" Against his better judgment, Hammie stopped in Quint's doorway and turned, "The road forks just before entering the forest. Take the east path along the edge. That's the fastest way to the bay," Hammie nodded silently in response, "Are you going to kill them? That would fix our problem really quickly!"
"You don't fix something by breaking it some more."
"So what, you're just going to ask them nicely to apologize?" Quint asked sarcastically.
Hammie turned one last time, his annoyance replaced with the usual friendly look on his face, "I'm just going to go help a friend in need," With that, Hammie left the small building, and walked out of town, down the path that Quint had recommended, picking up the pace as he went, not sure how much time he had left. So Kitsushi's the guy in charge since Brody was deposed. Maybe it was that annoying talky-one who sank my ship, but he's responsible for all this, so he's the one who owes me a new ship.
At the bottom of Jaggerjaw Bay,
Metal shards flew everywhere, all three swords shattered into useless broken handles in one strike. But that wasn't all that was broken, as a blood spurted through a deep gash that ran through the entirety of Takashi's torso. The swordsman slowly fell, dumbfounded at the reality of the situation. I… I lost… in one move… He, and the fragments of three swords, fell to the ground and remained motionless.
"TAKASHI!" Wendy screamed, now all alone.
"I told you, you weren't ready. Don't you dare gripe at me. I gave you plenty of chances to back off," Kitsushi scoffed and wiped the blood off his leg, "Now then, where was I? Oh yeah."
"Please, Kitsushi, I-" Wendy begged.
"No," Kitsushi coldly stated, "You already used up your one freebie. Who knows, maybe whatever kind of spell you got on Brody will fade once you're dead," Kitsushi's cold stare heated into bestial anger as he raised his leg for the execution, "This time I finally get to avenge Linda!"
"HYDRO-KEN!" Suddenly, a blast of water slammed into Kitsushi, knocking him to the side. Kitsushi kept his ground, but it was enough to at least delay him, as he turned to see a beat-up Brody standing just outside the crashed pagoda.
Kitsushi's eyes narrowed to a cold stare again, "Well the prodigal captain returns, and you already managed to do all this damage to the Tiburones Gemelos. You truly have no remaining loyalty to us, do you?" he spat with disgust.
"Kitsushi," There was regret, but also determination in Brody's voice, "You want her, you'll have to go through me first." Brody purposefully stepped forward, never losing his fighting stance.
The larger fishman cracked his neck and approached Brody as well, "Fine by me. I got no problem executing one traitor before the other."
To be continued.